Evan Le Clus 00:01

Hello, you are listening to the Dare to Scale Show with me Evan.

Warsha Joshi 00:03

And me Warsha. This show is about all things scaling, scaling your business, your journey and you.

Evan Le Clus 00:15

You’re here because you dare to dream dead to dream big. So, sit back and enjoy the conversation, or perhaps even join in.

Warsha Joshi 00:27

Hello, and welcome to this brand-new episode. It is a special episode where I am interviewing Evan. So hello, Evan, welcome to this episode.

Evan Le Clus 00:37

Hi, Warsha. Thank you so much for having me. Hi, everybody.

Warsha Joshi 00:41

This is a short, sharp episode. So, thank you for joining us because this is something that has been a topic of conversation at home ever since we recorded our last episode with our guests Elie Ghoussoub The conversation, especially that revolves around the hustle that an entrepreneur is known for the strength, the determination, the discipline, the resilience, the dedication, everything that goes into that hustle and ever since we talked about that hustle, Evan has been talking about something else and this is something that I have been watching, and always learning for a very long time now, because Evan says hustle is amazing and what happens on the other side? And I thought, oh, yeah, you’re right, let’s share this specific thing with our listeners. So, Evan, first question to you is, why is that other side important? What is that other side? Tell us a little bit more.

Evan Le Clus 01:45

The other side is important. I mean, for many reasons. When you look at an entrepreneur, as they hustling, doing their thing, it’s easy to forget that a there’s a) person there and that person, you know, has needs and wants like anybody else and they also need to have some balance in their life and it’s kind of interesting, it’s like in business, we talk about tug of war in opposing metrics, something’s got to give. For me, it goes back to that person and like, I Dare You book by Danforth. Here, it talks about balancing in there and this is something I know we talked about some time back, my father read this book many, many years back and in fact, his dad had read, the book that I have is gone through three generations and it really is something I’ve seen my dad do, and he lives his life with balance. Now, if you remember from one of the other episodes, we did, he’s a racing car driver and he always used to tell me about this sort of balance, the analogy he gave was a car, having everything tuned, working properly and what I liked about that, and it’s really relevant here is the faster you go, the more easy things can get out of balance. So, when you’re hustling and going full pelt, you know, achieving your dreams and your goals, and you’re working really hard towards them. There needs to be balanced around you. Otherwise, you really can get out of whack very quickly.

Warsha Joshi 03:06

Oh, you bet and have we seen some out of whack scenarios? Yeah, not only seen sometimes even felt in our own entrepreneurial life. So yeah, totally loving this. So, what is it? Evan? What do you do? What is that balance that you want to share with our listeners today?

Evan Le Clus 03:25

Look, it really is quite simple. There are many different ways of looking at this Mind, Body, Soul, that kind of thing. For me, it’s a very simple acronym and the acronym is FACE. So we always talk about all How do you show up? We like to say how does your face show up but it’s also like putting a smile on your face, because it’s about balance and without balance, you can’t really smile so much. You know, it’s really interesting, the F is faith. That’s not necessarily a religious faith and for me, it’s a belief in self. Some days, that’s challenging and other days, I get a completely down pat, you know, but it’s all about the universe and abundance, and just believing that there’s a bigger pie available and it’s the faith that what you’re doing matters. So, it doesn’t sort of boil down to that belief itself and I think that’s one of the really important pieces. Because without that, if you don’t have yourself in order, it’s very hard to help somebody else. So one of the key things I do along those lines is I will meditate and it ties in with other elements of FACE, but it really is about centering, and just calming down and breathing effectively. So that’s where the meditation really helps me and I’ll do that first thing in the morning just get really centered, and then approach my day. The A in face stands for Activity and most often than not, that’s physical activity. So, we talked about, there’s obviously faith and then there’s your physical fitness, to do and to have the energy to do what you need to do. It’s not all about thinking and doing what you know using your mind it’s also about being fit and for me, that is exercise. If it’s not a 15 minute walk first thing in the morning, maybe something a bit more strenuous, swimming, absolutely love swimming but it’s also about recovery, right? activity, or the lack thereof and resting is almost as important. So, breathing properly, to give yourself that energy and recovering. The C is creativity and this is your mind, man, you know, it’s Yes, it’s your mind, it’s how you think and it’s also what you put into your mind. See, for me, I know we shared this quote, once before Zig Ziglar, he talks very much about ‘Your input will determine your outlook and your outlook determines your output’. So, your creativity is both what you’re putting out there in your hustle but it’s also what you’re putting into your mind and who you’re listening to and taking that thinking time, just to calm down and work your way through what it is that’s bothering you, or what challenge you have, whether it’s in the business or anywhere else in your life, and taking that time to actually think. I mean, one of the ways I handle that, obviously, the thinking time is partly the meditation, of course but while I’m walking and exercising first thing in the morning, sometimes I listen to an audio book. So, I choose what actually goes into my mind and I good input, to help me with producing good output and the last piece is the environment. There’s a whole bunch of things in there, it’s your family, there’s distractions in, I don’t know, in your workplace at home, that sort of thing and also, even your support system, the environment, the people you surround yourself with and for me, the critical one is actually distractions, and particularly notifications. It’s one of my bugbears notifications, I mean, apps and software these days are so clever, so clever at getting your attention and that’s one of the key things, it helps to just monitor your notifications and eliminate that. So, you can in fact, be creative, be active, and obviously keep that faith in yourself.

Warsha Joshi 07:01

Wow, brilliant and throughout your conversation on the FACE, I was connecting this to an entrepreneurs life, a typical day in an entrepreneurs life. So, when you talk about faith, and especially the abundance for me, really said, how does an entrepreneur go through life? Or go through that typical day? Do they know? Or do they go through their day, knowing that there is abundance, that is enough for everybody? There is no such thing as competition when you know exactly what you want. So, it’s something that we often talk about, it’s that has the buck stop for you? Or is the buck flowing through you, I’m going to flowing through you. So it really is for me, that sort of became very clear for me. So this was quite useful, and about the activity and the creativity. So look after your body look after your mind isn’t give your body that break, do something different and give your mind a break, do something different. It’s something that I usually say, put aside that one hour of thinking time, get out of your firefighting mode, get out of your constant tackling challenges mode, and do something different to give your brain the time and the space to do what it does best, which is being creative. That’s essentially what the brain does find solutions for you. Because the solutions are all there already. We just rarely give a brain, that moment of peace to say, Okay, now that you’ve stopped talking to me, I’d let me talk and I can give you some solutions. So literally that and I know I’ve heard you say this. so often, when you’re out there walking, listening to a book, you come back and say, right, so I was listening to this book and this happened and this is probably what something we should be doing for yesterday and this is not rocket science. I know I’ve seen you do it, I do it. There are so many people who do it and yet very rarely do we do it as a matter of practice as a matter of discipline and that’s the purpose of talking about this today.

Evan Le Clus 09:07

Totally and inactivity remember, that includes things like experiences, yeah, I’m doing something different, which is what you were saying. One of the amazing things you do is at least once a week, you will spend a couple of hours at the stables and you’ve actually talked about this before and that stable time one is important and to go and connect with sort of with nature with the horses, but also it gives you that time in a different environment to allow yourself to think.

Warsha Joshi 09:34

Yeah, so it’s equally important. Totally.

Evan Le Clus 09:37

I mean, we also do that as well. We’re not recently obviously with COVID but prior to that, actually spending a couple of weeks elsewhere and elsewhere means Airbnb somewhere for a couple of weeks. Working from there. It’s living like a local and being able to just approach life differently.

Warsha Joshi 09:53

Yeah, it removing yourself from your natural or your regular environment doing something different. So, it’s not even yet, this is something that we used to do go away for two weeks, it can be as simple as going away for 10-minute walk around the block. Sometimes it really is as simple as that. When you’re stressed and hot and bothered in the office, all it needs is just get out, get some fresh air, stand in the sun, take a few deep breaths, and come back in. Yeah, of course, you’re coming back with a renewed and refreshed mind and the last thing that you talked about Evan, is that distraction. Oh, my God has that overtaken our lives today? Overall, globally, we are ruled by our mobile phones, we are ruled by notifications. We are ruled by social media how many times you the listeners, because I know I’m guilty of that more than I care to admit, wake up and the first thing I reach out for is my mobile phone, which is terrible and that’s one habit, I raise my hand and say that one habit, I am unable to break completely. I do my best sometimes, most times, not so much. That this is really important because and what I liked about this Evan, and what I know I have seen you do it, if you do this as a matter of practice, as a matter of routine, this has become part of your life now and that is the key over here is bringing discipline into whatever you do, bringing discipline even in your hustle. It’s about consistency. Reim, one of our guests in one of our previous episodes, talks a lot about consistency, do something when you start doing something, do it consistently and that’s the discipline that you bring into this. So that was brilliant. Any summarising thoughts from you, Evan,

Evan Le Clus 11:42

In terms of the wagon, it’s sometimes easier to fall off. I think sometimes it works, where we’re very careful with what we eat but every now and then we’ll be a little bit naughty and that naughtiness can go for a week kind of thing and oh my God and then we have to stop but getting back to that discipline on that routine but basically, it’s knowing where you want to be, knowing where you want to go. So, you can in fact, center yourself and keep going. So, it’s a very easy acronym FACE – Faith, Activity, Creativity and Environment.

Warsha Joshi 12:14

FACE indeed, It’s in your hands. FACE, the authenticity in how you show up, that’s what the the whole point of this episode is!

Evan Le Clus 12:22

Exactly so you present as a grounded person. So yeah, brilliant. Oh, it’s not all work

Warsha Joshi 12:29

Brilliant. Evan. Thank you very much

Evan Le Clus 12:32

Thank you for having me.

Warsha Joshi 12:34

This has been such a fun recording. Guys, thank you so much for joining us for this very quick, short, sharp episode. Continue listening as we continue bringing you some brilliant guests and great topics. We will see you next time.

Warsha Joshi 12:51

Thank you for joining us and for listening all the way through to get the show notes, the transcription and of course to subscribe, visit daretoscale.fm.

Evan Le Clus 13:02

The success of the show is thanks to you. So please keep the five-star reviews coming. Remember to share this with your network and keep the community expanding. We’ll catch you at our next episode and in the meantime, keep daring and keep growing.