How I’ve Built Multiple Businesses Despite Having A Chronic Illness...

so how is it that I've been able to build all these businesses and become so successful even though I have a chronic illness I've been very sick I've had many surgeries and there are many times I'm in bed great topic to talk about and I'll tell you what today is a really great day for me to talk about this because I ain't feeling so good so it's gonna be a real heart to heart welcome to the fighting entrepreneur by the way we're only a few episodes away that's right fighting entrepreneur goes bye-bye and it'll be the Onyx sing-al Show starting at the top of the Year top of 2023 okay same right here right this place if you're watching or listening to us wherever you are it's just gonna flip over and hopefully you will send us Tons of love and help us promote this and then of course onyxpodcast. com to binge listen to all of our past episodes I can't believe we'll be like four years or more than four years in all the episodes will remain the fighting entrepreneur will be archived and available to you forever okay now let's talk about being sick so before I start I love you all ahead of time and many of you are going to want to send me your

doodads and your medical Mysteries and your magic wands that I can wave over myself and magically become really good I would just ask I'm in a very good place right now I'm getting some really good care it's super holistic and so please don't message me with the one magical pill that'll get me better you know the only reason I would probably not talk about the fact that I have an illness or that I'm sick half the time is probably just because I am so loved by you and I really love that is that every time I do mention it oh my God I just get inundated with people that are like you gotta do this you got to do that I know somebody here you got to take this supplement you gotta take that supplement you gotta go see this doctor gotta go do this regimen you gotta do this and it's like ah just stop right it's like wow like maybe you are right maybe you are not but yeah there's a lot of things that go into whether I can do certain things or not or I do want to have a heart to heart today because people do ask me this a lot and people will pretend as if it's not difficult or that it's not hard at this very moment let me tell you what's going on okay so this moment right now as I'm filming it this is heart this is True Heart to Heart right now I'm just having a rough day and why I don't know this is something I ate have no clue could be you know I started the day strong came in had a great morning and then I could just tell my mood wasn't quite there and I was you know if you've been sick long enough with certain type of condition you can just feel all The Feelers and I was like hmm something's not right part of my strategy of being so successful with such a severe illness I backed off immediately I listened to the cues and so there was a couple of things I had to do today like I had to be on a two hour long interview on camera so immediately I asked someone from my team to conduct that interview had another thing that was scheduled it canceled that and I started to clear my schedule I didn't cancel this podcast shoot for a couple of reasons one this will be shorter two I actually felt let me film this podcast when I'm not feeling well I want to open up I want you to see it feel it I'm not going to give you a ton of energy I'm who I really am right now so what do I have a condition called Crohn's disease Celiac I have ulcerative colitis basically my gut is messed up I've had it for 20 plus years I've had over 10 surgeries I've had resections I've had a surgery that I got wheeled into where they said 50 if I would survive or not I've been in the ICU for as much as three months I've had many times where I have passed out from bleeding internal it's bad I've had it bad okay now some of you are thinking well on it you got to take better care of yourself well duh I know that right thank you for your mind-blowing Moment of clarity but when we're kids when I was younger I wanted to be successful Health be damned your body could take a lot more abuse too so you give the abuse not thinking about what it's going to do to you 10 20 years down the road now I'm very different right like I said and I'll go over I have a five part structure I'm using to run my companies even though I'm not always feeling great and honestly like you know today do I feel better than I did 10 years ago it kind of changes so in some ways yes and in some ways no as my body changes I'm kind of having to adapt and change in my medical regimens and the doctors I'm seeing and the natural stuff I'm doing it's all kind of changing and evolving alongside of it and the biggest thing is that I'm dealing with now is like am I actually actively flaring Crohn's disease no my last surgery I had was in 2020 so I probably am not going to need any surgery for a long time hopefully never but you know what happens is when you've had a certain medical illness for so long and the medications you've taken are so strong and the surgeries you've had have physically impacted your body's ability to intake certain nutrients and other things you start to have side effects all these other symptoms of other things that can sometimes even become more troubling than the disease itself and that's probably where I would say I am right now there are days where I'm just in a bad mood why I have no idea chemically something's going on right there are days where I'm just completely weak there are days where I am not I have zero appetite I don't want to eat anything there are days where I want to eat everything right it's just weird but this is kind of the side effects of all of the stuff that's happened so first and

foremost I just tell you I don't tell you any of this so that you feel bad for me please don't I don't look I am who I am today because of what I am so everything about me has created the person I am today and for the most part I love the person I am today I'm proud of the person I am today so this condition I have if I could go back and talk to myself 20 years ago would I have given myself some advice of things to do differently yes would I have listened to my own advice no I just know that's who I am that's what I would have done but yeah could I go back and do things a little differently health-wise probably in case you're wondering what I would do sleep better stress less take the natural stuff supplement the crap out of my body because I was missing on so much don't jump to the hard meds real quick do things like stop drinking like as a kid I mean not keep saying because College I didn't like I was never like a binge drinker but you could go to parties you drink like cut that out food allergies I lived with the gluten allergy for a lot longer than I should have cut that out but these are all things man I tell you go to a kid in college and say hey no more gluten no more Dairy no alcohol nothing spicy you know whatever dude go away so again no regrets but let's just address it a lot of you listening you may have health problems one thing I do not allow my health to do is become an excuse to dictate what I can and cannot do in my life I have traveled the world I have built very successful businesses I have a great personal life I am a good son a good husband a good father I like to think I'm a good boss I do goodbye everybody I do good by my word I like to think I'm a good teacher and so I've done everything and so that's very important to me I do not let something become a crutch of mine and it is through these five things that I've been able to do that number one very early on in my life I understood the Brilliance of building a team right as a very young kid getting diagnosed with crohn's disease you immediately realize you need the right team of doctors nutritionists you know what when I was in high school I had to keep dropping out because I get so sick so I needed to connect with my teachers at a different level I needed to make sure my friend friends were a different they were all part of my team so that they could help support what I need and I was never shamed never ashamed to ask for support or help so number one is team that has led me to where I am today and where I lean on my team I tell you this is a true story I don't have my phone here with me but this year 2022 one of the most fascinating Evolutions that I have had as an as a leader as an entrepreneur as a boss as a CEO as a businessman is that 95 of my business is now but I'm running it with my phone I don't need a laptop desktop I run it from my phone why am I able to do that because I have an amazing team I have a team that I can send instructions to and I can review things and just give them Loom videos and audio videos so Team without the team there's no chance I have learn I have any of the success I have and I have a team by the way that doesn't just professionally care about me but I have a team that loves me personally and I and that means a lot to me you know today when I message the team and I said hey can someone please step up for me and take this interview because I'm not feeling well I had three people instantly say I'll do it I had a fourth person message me saying hey hope you feel better I know you've always been there for me when I'm not well I'm here for you like I had love I had another member of the team message me immediately say hey I hope you feel better real fast that's a love so have a team that's there for you professionally and personally and a team that you can trust so that was number one okay team number two delegate I trust I have a team that I trust I delegate to them listen stress is my number one enemy and when I get stressed I get sick so am I gonna lie today I'll be a little stressed okay it's been a rough couple days when I take on everything and I make it my responsibility and I want to do everything I get stressed so now I'm at a place where I get the instructions I give my thoughts and then I give to a team member and I trust that it'll get done if you don't have that then you have either of two issues either a you have the wrong team or B you've never tried it that's it you gotta be able to delegate though that's the number one thing people say how do you run multiple companies right now at this very moment father husband son I run multiple companies I'm a coach to many people and I have a personal life and I'm not well and I do all that at one time well because I delegate about as much as I humanly can delegate number three prioritize I have said for the longest time that this seesaw culture of work-life balance is complete excuse my language and hopefully beep this out this is not life does not stay steady even Stevens this is a complete BS I don't know who the hell created this but it was a lazy bum who does not want you to understand the truth of success it doesn't stay like this look if you were here's what I

believe about work-life balance if you were to look at work-life balance across my entire life I would hope that you would see Even Stevens on the Seesaw however that would be an average of many days and times and months where I was up and down up and down up and down look today I'm not well so my Health gets prioritized I cleared the schedule canceled things that I thought would impact my health and I prioritize the Seesaw tipped in favor of my health but then there are other days where maybe my wife is not well or my daughter mom is not well and my seesaw tips in favor of supporting them and then there are times where I got a launch coming up something really important happening in the business and the Seesaw shifts yes I communicate to my wife and to my family and to my friends saying I will not be present for the next week or two yes Sonic yes I do and you know what they don't mind because they know that when they need me I shift the same seesaw in favor of them so the ability for me to prioritize makes it so you think I'm doing a lot of things at the same time but I'm actually not so if I've got five companies under my belt right now that does not mean that today within the same hour I'm managing five companies no today I've actually been very focused on one particular project and company that is taking my focus my priority while the others are functioning and my priorities keep focusing keep see-sawing back and forth but when you look at a macro level it looks like it's Even Stevens because that's the average so I prioritize so that I'm not thinking about 20 things at one time but relatively thinking about two or three things that's it you just don't see it but over a cross of a month course of a quarter course of a year sure I thought about 20 things all right number four listen I do listen to my body okay I'll tell you what I've had this condition now since instant Mountain 1999 or something most of my life for the first like 20 of it I thought I was at war with my body Mind Over Matter it was literally was my psyche against my physical so when I'd get sick I'd say the hell with you I'm gonna work hard I'm gonna do this I wasn't in partnership with my body you know right now it's like this my wife comes up to me says hey I'm not feeling well can you take the baby when I look at my wife and be like the hell with that it's your day you take the baby I'm not taking the baby you suck it up and make it happen no very few of us on this planet would ever do something as stupid and evil as that that's what I did to my body every day so you suck it up get up let's go my body's like please I'm not well I don't feel good shut up let's go so that's like a few years now it's like okay it's my partner like it's not like I'm not at odds or at war with my body it's not mind over matter it's mind with matter we're one right so like today my body said hey man just not feeling it and I said okay I listen to my body very important and a lot of us don't you're younger and you're listening to this I'm telling you right now my friend you come back and listen to this when you're 39 like me and be like dang it should I listen to him that's one thing I would tell myself if I could go back in time it's like listen just listen man all right last but not least P for passion I love my life

I love what I do I love the people in my life I love all that create problems for me even I love how my business kicks my ass sometimes I love the challenges I love the wins the losses I love everything I love the stress that's right I'm a masochist I do though it's growth I love it I'm passionate however the truth is earlier this year I had fundamentally lost my passion for a lot of things going on in the business I was starting to drag last year more than anything I started to feel it and that is when the stress and everything can compound but now today at this moment I'm probably under more professional stress than I've ever been in my life yet I am more optimistic happier and more encouraged than I ever because of the word passion I'm passionate about what I'm doing so if you're ill if you're sick and you're trying to achieve but you feel like you're dragging and you don't it's because you've lost your passion what are you passionate about I don't care what it is man passionate about the violin go absorb yourself into the violin if you're passionate about video games just go absorb yourself into it and fine you will find opportunity in there to be the best to do something that's effective and that's beneficial to the world in that passion and that's where you will Thrive truth is days are hard times are tough truth is I gotta listen you gotta listen to your body truth is sometimes you gotta step back and do less but the truth also is you can have everything you can be successful you can have an amazing life even if you're sick and even if you're in bed sometimes I am a lot of times you just don't see it I work around it and I've gotten better and better at it even as I've become to listen to my body I'm getting better at being successful than I was five or ten years ago and you can do it too all right love you guys all

right listen onyxpodcast. com to listen to the rest hit like hit subscribe thumbs up blah tell people about it subscribe to this podcast please Onyx singall Show starting very soon can't wait to have our amazing guest join us for that and as I always say when I life wishes you stand straight smile and push it the heck back talk to you soon bye thanks for listening to the fighting entrepreneur with your host onyxingal