The Tyson Popplestone Show

Jason Smith is the founder of the Back In Motion Health Group. At its peak, Jason led a team of more than 700 professionals in over 140 locations across Australia and New Zealand. Jason has successfully started, grown and sold numerous brands in healthcare including Actif (occupational health), Revita (aged care). and eventually merging Back In Motion with ASX-listed allied health parent Healthia, setting a record for one of the largest transactions recognised in the sector.

Jason’s first book, Get Yourself Back In Motion: a physiotherapist’s secrets to pain relief and optimal health (Global Publishing 2013), was an international best-seller. Empowering his readers to live at their physical best, the book stands in a class of its own as an essential medical resource in every home. His second book, Outside-In Downside-Up Leadership: 50 insights from a true story of remarkable organisational change (Major Press 2018), chronicles a story of courageous innovation and leadership revolution. It has been an instant success with CEOs, entrepreneurs, and the leadership base who want to achieve more with their people.

EPISODE OUTLINE:

00:00:00: Catching up 
00:00:08: Reconnecting with old friends
00:00:37: Reflecting on living in Perth
00:01:02: Conversations picking up where they left off
00:01:08: Overview of busy business years
00:01:33: Experience dealing with COVID
00:02:15: Running an online subscription membership
00:02:35: Effect of COVID on infant businesses
00:03:04: Describing experiences during COVID
00:04:25: Challenges and growth during Covid
00:05:36: Reflecting on weathering COVID on a business and personal level
00:06:02: Pondering on standing out in the health industry
00:06:20: Fascination on creating effective systems
00:07:20: Balancing emotions and logic
00:08:00: Navigating various systems in business
00:08:18: Discussing stress and anxiety in business
00:09:01: Love for systems and managing a scaled business
00:10:04: Combining systems with the human element
00:11:03: Understanding the balance between logic and emotion
00:11:12: Importance of relationship in business systems.
00:11:53: Systems, Logic and Emotion Balance
00:14:17: Dealing with Troubles and Conflicts
00:14:50: Enneagram and Personality Types Discussion
00:19:41: Handling Stress and Coping Mechanisms
00:22:10: Reflection Time and Spiritual Rejuvenation
00:23:33: Conversation with a friend
00:28:02: Learning from tragedy
00:28:25: Spending time with God
00:32:19: Nick and Jenna's resilience
00:32:44: Cognitive Behavior Therapy
00:33:39: Mindset and admiration of successful individuals
00:34:26: Reflecting on Elon Musk and his success
00:34:55: The important pursuit of peace
00:35:22: Building resilience
00:36:56: Mentorship and finding your own success
00:37:18: Early career and life choices
00:38:43: Defining success
00:39:22: Pattern of training
00:40:07: Striking a Balance in Life
00:41:04: Business growth and personal sacrifice
00:42:11: Reflecting on business progression
00:43:08: Balancing family and calling
00:44:03: The mustering to run a business
00:44:34: The struggle between work and family life
00:45:37: Work routine and personal sacrifice.
00:46:01: Discussing the importance of sleep and personal experience
00:49:32: Discussing balance and personal struggles
00:52:03: Sharing personal story and challenges in relationships
00:52:52: Discussing systems and daily structures
00:53:41: Major transition in personal role and its impact
00:54:43: Current interests and activities
00:55:50: Typical daily routine.
00:57:10: Mentoring and Personal Routine
05:00: Reengaging in Family Time
00:57:36: Time Management and Organizing
00:59:10: Balancing Spontaneity and Structure

TRANSCRIPT:
https://dashboard.transistor.fm/shows/popculture/episodes/123-creating-a-90-million-dollar-business-with-jason-smith/edit

EPISODE LINKS:

Jason Website: https://jasontsmith.com.au/my-story/


PODCAST INFO:
Podcast website: Coming Soon
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/pop-culture/id1584438354
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2gWvUUYFwFvzHUnMdlmTaI
RSS: https://feeds.transistor.fm/popculture

SOCIAL:
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- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@tysonpopplestone9467

What is The Tyson Popplestone Show?

Tyson Popplestone is a Comedian from Melbourne Australia. Join him for a brand new interview each week.

Tyson Popplestone (00:01.894)
And also I'll edit this part out, but um sometimes if we go through like a period of bad signal I might appear blurry to you But I know if the best thing about this platform is it records locally so even though I might be blurry to you or vice versa by the time The things finished processing it's crystal clear and so by the time I put it on YouTube or whatever it'll uh It'll look good so a couple of guests have stopped halfway gone. Oh, you've gone all blurry, so just in case there's a there's a heads up

Jason Smith (00:21.978)
Okay.

Jason Smith (00:31.633)
Just relax, go with it, hey?

Tyson Popplestone (00:32.798)
Yeah, for sure man, awesome. Jase, I feel like every single conversation that you and I have seems to start with, it's been a little while, and this one's no exception. I think the last time we caught up in person was at the old Waverly Park football ground. I reached out to you asking for a little bit of guidance. You paid for a breakfast and a coffee for me, and then I hadn't seen you for six years. So it's good to break the drought once again. How you traveling?

Jason Smith (00:58.947)
Yeah, it's a sign of good friendship, I think, if you can have long absences and not necessarily be involved in each other's world, but when you do reconnect, it feels like only yesterday. So I'll take that as a compliment, Tyson.

Tyson Popplestone (01:11.939)
For sure, it definitely does seem to be a case. I just got back from Perth actually, where I used to live. I lived there from sort of 2000, or till about 2001. And I made a couple of really good mates, and one of my best mates Chopper. I haven't seen since 2017, and when I got there, he picked me up from the airport, or I got dropped off at his house pretty soon after I got to the airport, and we're like, mate, isn't that ridiculous that I haven't seen you in six years?

and I feel like the conversation's kind of just picked up where it's left off, it's definitely true. It's been a wild couple of years since I've spoken to you since then. I can imagine as a man behind so many different businesses it's been a fun few years for you.

Jason Smith (01:46.011)
Yeah.

Jason Smith (01:52.783)
Yeah, look, it's been wild. And this is true for everyone, I think, when you consider the fast pace at which the world is changing and throw a little pesky virus in there called COVID, and it just turns us upside down. But in some ways, that feels like a long time ago. I mean, that's a year and a half or more ago now. But when we were in the middle of that, I'm sure. Yeah.

We were wondering how we would come out of it. It's good to be on the other side.

Tyson Popplestone (02:25.35)
Yeah, how was that for you? It was funny, I was saying to Jesse before I came in here about how I'm probably 25 years behind anything that you've set up, but I feel as though the journey that you're on in terms of business and in terms of challenges, whether that be sort of setting up a business, navigating it with family, looking after health, is relatively similar. And I mean, I've found, because I'm not even sure if you know what I'm doing outside of here, but I've got an online subscription membership. So it's a running-based membership model.

and it's aimed at running-based sports. And a majority of it's virtual, there's no in-person clinics, and even me in the relatively infant stages of my own business when COVID hit, I was a little bit like, oh, this is a little scary. And I mean, you only have to Google your name to realize how far into the journey you are, and how many, what do you say, centers, physios, you've got set up around the country to realize that's a fairly daunting.

Jason Smith (03:11.321)
Yeah.

Tyson Popplestone (03:23.714)
kind of headspace and if there's one thing that I've learned in business, it's like, you never get to a point where challenges disappear. Even if you've got the systems in place, you know, the world throws you COVID and says, hey, have a go at this and let me know how you go. What was the headspace for those few years, Jase?

Jason Smith (03:39.951)
Yeah, I think my favourite comment that I've heard somebody else say when they reference their experience in COVID is, it's like we were all in the same storm, but we were in different boats. Which is obviously a little bit of a play on that axiom that says, oh, you know, everyone's in the same boat. Actually, we weren't in the same boat. We were in different boats, but we were in the same storm.

And so for me personally, I mean, COVID was tough. There's no there's no diminishing that. And I'm in Melbourne and we had something like 270 days of lockdown in that 18 month period. We have a complex business. We have operations running right across Australia and into New Zealand. And so when you think of all the different jurisdictions and compliance measures that came to bear on us.

It was like overnight we went from one homogenous network of healthcare practices to becoming you know eight or nine different businesses because of all of the geographies and the different rules and obligations that were on us and in healthcare because it was such a critical field of service delivery during the sensitivities of COVID. The rigor that got applied to our business was

significantly higher. But, you know, don't feel too sorry for us because although we had challenges and there were hardships in it all and we had to get our heads wrapped around an entirely different approach to business, we grew 25% during COVID. I mean, we were still launching new practices. I think at our lowest Ebb,

Tyson Popplestone (05:24.59)
Ha ha!

Jason Smith (05:33.935)
In the first maybe three to four months of the COVID experience, we had to stand down about 200 staff of our 700 because we were all just in that days of, I have no idea where this is heading and our workflow did dry up. But within 30 days of standing them down, we not only recruited them all back,

but we were in market looking for as many other practitioners as we could get because of the slingshot effect and, you know, the recovery that we were seeing in different parts of our network. And so, you know, I just think God's very gracious to us, mate, not because of any intelligence on our part. We're all exposed and vulnerable to things outside our control. And we were fortunate. We grew during that period. Our business got stronger.

our systems got tested and therefore refined, which meant we emerged out of COVID with just a much better roadmap. I think in the industry, we probably stood out as one of the stronger performers and where others were folding, we were able to consolidate and I'm very grateful for that really.

Tyson Popplestone (06:53.862)
Yeah, it's such an interesting conversation. There's so many directions you can take that because I mean the systems is one that I'm fascinated by because I understand that behind the scenes of both a successful business and sometimes failing business there's, not with reference to you, but just with reference to business in general, there's systems that are working and they're effective and they alleviate stress and there's systems that are stressful and not working and they create stress. And I find that

balance of trying to figure out what an effective system is, especially for the season that you're in, to be one of the more challenging things. Like a lot of the time that trial factor of going into a season or going into a new idea with particular systems in place to try and solve particular challenges is really heartening when you're in it. But then you have to actually implement the system and see the result and navigate with logic and hopefully.

not too much emotion, whether or not it's an effective way to go forward. And the emotion factor is one that I personally struggle with a little bit because I listen to, I like listening to Ben Shapiro about a whole range of topics. And one thing that he definitely doesn't have too much in many of his conversations is a whole heap of emotion. I feel as though I'm on the opposite end of the spectrum where I go, okay, Tyce, like I know your emotions are screaming, that everything that you believe is right.

Jason Smith (08:12.719)
Mm.

Tyson Popplestone (08:19.542)
But unfortunately, the system that you have in place, the result says there's perhaps something that needs to be improved. And so, for yourself, I find it hard to fathom, like the idea that you had 700 staff, there's so many moving parts, there's probably a number of systems that could work and a number of systems that don't work. How do you go about even setting up a system that you think is effective for the environment that you're in without just going,

crazy with stress and fear and anxiety about whether or not it's actually gonna work.

Jason Smith (08:53.555)
Yeah, well, let me start by saying that there's no get out of jail free card for anxiety, stress and hard work. So anybody who's looking for the panacea for all of that emotional strain that's kind of part and parcel of the journey of leading scaled businesses, I think is diluted. I mean, there's a certain degree of

challenge inherent in that adventure. And it attracts a certain type of person. So you and I were up for it. Doesn't mean we enjoy every day, but we kind of match the challenge or match the strain with energy to overcome it. It's part of the thrill of the chase. But here's the thing about systems, and I'm a bit of a systems guy. I have to be because we have a distributed scale business. At our peak, we have 140 practices around the country.

We're services based, we're physiotherapy predominantly, which means every patient interaction, it's not a widget, it's not a predetermined algorithm where I can just know that I know every practitioner is going to do what I would do in the situation. They've got clinical sovereignty, they've got professional judgment.

And every patient, even if they've got the same blown knee or strained back, really has different biomechanical, anatomical, physiological anomalies. And so actually to systemize a business like healthcare and services is really difficult. So here's my basic approach to systems. I want to systemize the routine of our business, but you have to.

to create space to humanize the exceptions. So systemize the routine and humanize the exceptions, which means you want standard operating procedures, you want protocols, you want automated business practices to take decision and discretion out of the system if at all possible. But you've got to leave room for the human element. You've got to leave room for the unpredictable.

Jason Smith (11:15.939)
And so you need to train leadership attributes into every individual. You don't want monkeys running your system. You want highly intelligent and emotionally engaged people. You talk about the difference between logic and emotion. You need both. They're the wings of the plane to keep this thing balanced. Otherwise you end up with all intelligence and no emotional regulation, then you've kind of got a lopsided vehicle. So with systems,

I love it when people just follow what we create so that the business runs like clockwork. But I'm a realist. If 80% of my people follow 80% of my systems, 80% of the time, I'm thrilled because they're humanizing around the periphery, bringing their distinctive flavor, personality, engaging with the patient's uniqueness in front of them. And I think that's probably...

the sweet spot, getting that sort of proportionality in the way we approach business and life, because at the basis of it all is relationship, and there's no one relationship the same. So I am a systems guy, I believe in it. I just don't want to be overstating it as being a purest approach, if that makes sense.

Tyson Popplestone (12:39.73)
Yeah, you always hear the stereotype of the GP who's got all the brains and no ability to communicate what the actual problem is. And so it makes a whole heap of sense. But in terms of where you sit on the scale, like would you lean more to logic or more to emotion? You seem like a fairly passionate guy, so I'm gonna guess emotion, but I mean you've also got a crazily successful business. So it comes with either some really good leaders that are helping you out, or a whole heap of logic that sort of balances the equation a little more.

Jason Smith (12:56.707)
Yeah...

Jason Smith (13:05.316)
Yeah.

Jason Smith (13:09.759)
I think my default settings are logic. I think, you know, I'm a scientist by profession. I'm a physiotherapist, which means I've studied the physics of the human body and its objective and its best practice and its evidence driven. I sort of don't do that by touch and feel, that that's kind of like the empirical.

framework in which I view the world and I'm very task driven, which is not something I'm proud of by the way that gets me in a lot of trouble. But I am very, very task focused and I think the people who might be surprised at my answer, if they know me, if they've worked with me and they thought I might have said I'm actually more emotive than logical.

Tyson Popplestone (13:46.094)
Hehehehe

Jason Smith (14:06.743)
I think that's just because I have worked really, really hard. Like I'm not a young man, mate. Not as young as you. I have worked really hard for like 30 years, intentionally, trying to bring an emotive filter, like an appreciation for what people think and feel to the conversation or to the workplace.

relationships because my default is I can be just a little bit black and white.

Tyson Popplestone (14:37.602)
Yeah.

Jason Smith (14:39.815)
But you know, if I'm 50-50 of both, and of course I'm not, but if I was, it would be because I've worked harder on the emotional stuff. The logic does come a bit easier. Yeah. Oh yeah, mate. Oh, that gets me in trouble everywhere. That gets me in trouble everywhere. It gets me in trouble at home. It gets me in trouble at church. It gets me in trouble.

Tyson Popplestone (14:51.362)
Yeah, interesting. Who's it getting you in trouble with? Is that with your family or is that with the people that you're actually working with, the task-driven nature? Ha ha ha.

Tyson Popplestone (15:03.982)
Hehehehe.

Jason Smith (15:09.015)
at work, it gets me in trouble in the garden, mate. I can't weed the garden without something telling me that I'm just a little bit too pragmatic about things. So anyway, it's good to have feedback in life, right?

Tyson Popplestone (15:12.238)
Hehehehehehe

Tyson Popplestone (15:22.845)
Do you know, what are you in the Enneagram? Cause I'm an Enneagram type seven, which is like the adventure, the fun loving. I'm not even sure, I throw that at you like you're gonna know, but I forget that not everyone's completely interested. But I go to, so I'll just tell you this for anyone who might know what it is. It's essentially a system, it's a personality type that basically takes into consideration strengths, weaknesses, growth points. And.

Jason Smith (15:33.124)
Yeah!

Tyson Popplestone (15:46.85)
For me, I'm seven, which is fun loving. If not careful, can get caught up being very shallow, very surface level. All about fun, all about thrills, all about attention. But when I'm put under stress, a lot of sevens go across to a one, which is very black and white. And like you, I mean, I've got two young kids now, which is new since we lost caught up, a three year old, a one year old, both boys, high energy, little sleep, new stresses in the family.

Jason Smith (16:08.284)
Yeah.

Tyson Popplestone (16:12.734)
I tell you, there's a lot of days that I'm going to a one, a lot more than I like to admit. And so, I can definitely appreciate where you're coming from in terms of getting yourself in trouble with the black and white nature of how you approach or how you see particular tasks. But I mean, that's just a long-winded description of what it is, just to ask if you know what you are on the Enneagram.

Jason Smith (16:31.255)
Yeah, I'm not as familiar with the Enneagram. I don't use that profiling tool as often, but I use the disk a lot. So I use that with my teams. I use that even in church life, we've used that a fair bit. So in the disk, which is the DISC, oversimplification of personality profiles, I am Heidi, which is dominant personality. So it's a very objective, assertive,

uh, energetic, um, style of delivery and engagement. But, but I have as a very close second high I, which is the influencer. And so that's actually a little bit more like you and the way you're describing your seven in that it's, it's about relationship and, um, trying to, uh, bring maybe humor.

and some sensitivity, but a lot of energy to the relationship. And so I've got this really interesting mix. And of course, there's no bad personality. There's no good and there's no wrong. There's just who you are and exercising those attributes to your advantage and hopefully diminishing the double edged sword where they can work against you. And so that just means under stress and strain, I can just get very, very focused

very determined, almost to a detriment, not almost, to a detriment. And I just forget that people have beating hearts and that person lives in a family and there's more than whatever I'm concerned about at stake. So that's at my worst when I'm really under stress and strain. And I go into the man cave or into the figurative cave.

Tyson Popplestone (18:03.694)
Hehehe

Tyson Popplestone (18:24.874)
Yeah.

Jason Smith (18:25.943)
and become solo, not team driven. So they're really unappealing attributes. But when I use my personality attributes to my advantage, then I am engaging, inclusive. I can relate well to people, build rapport of all ages, get us to achieve tasks on purpose. And so there's lots to love about that. It's just making sure you get the ratios right on any given day.

Tyson Popplestone (18:54.046)
It's so true. Whenever I'm calm, relaxed, I've got a coffee in my hand usually. I've had a couple of days away from work or at least switched off from the things that usually cause stress. I can have an honest conversation with you, my friends, my wife, and I can tell you honestly and accurately what all of my faults are and how it is that I need to improve them. But when the moments of stress come back, my appreciation or care for the fact that these are issues that need serious attention

goes out of the window and I go, you know what, I'll start tomorrow or I'll start later today because right now I'm furious and I can't be bothered trying to improve any part of my personality or consider that this might be a healthier option for my marriage. And I often find, for sure, for sure, no, I definitely appreciate that. But one of the things that I laugh at, or I at least acknowledge, is that it's in the moment where you're probably set up for the most amount of growth.

Jason Smith (19:33.639)
Absolutely. It makes you human, Tyson. It makes you normal.

Tyson Popplestone (19:51.442)
and you can actually start to implement some change into, you know, I don't want to say the core failures, but the problems with your personality that you're aware of that it's hardest to do. And so I'm curious, like for yourself who, you know, if you're not cautious, can forget about that, that beaten heart in the person in front of you or the frustration that you might feel that forces you into that figurative man cave, how do you deal with that kind of stress? Do you have a go-to? I'm gonna go for a walk, I'm going for a run.

Cause for me, I find like just that physical exertion helps me come back and I'm a better bloke. Jessie often says to me, she goes, babe go for a run because I don't like you that much right now. Ha ha ha.

Jason Smith (20:28.235)
Yeah, yes, yeah, that's not her being gracious and letting you enjoy your hobby. That's survival. That's her saying the home needs to be quieter for a bit. Look, I think I think, yeah, I mean, that's my world, too. It might be most people's when we're under stress and strain. We're not at our best. I think of the analogy, actually, of a laptop. You know, I'm on a laptop all the time. I travel a lot.

Tyson Popplestone (20:36.006)
Yeah.

Jason Smith (20:54.395)
And of course I can plug my laptop into mains power and it can go all day. Like that's it running on default. It will do exactly what you want it to do. It's predictable. The moment I unplug my laptop and I'm on battery power, then obviously I've only got a limited amount of time before it shuts down.

And when I am functioning in my purest personality attributes, high D, high I, the world's working with me, I can go all day like I'm on mains power. But if I have to step out of my default settings and I have to be extraordinarily sensitive to people and I have to be caring in an unnatural way, if I have to carry the load of people's problems that are just unsustainable.

then I can only do it's like being on battery. I can do it, but I can only do it for a certain amount of time. And then I shut down. And so I, I think I've learned now what those signs of shutting down are, like I become very short with people. I feel immensely physically tired. It's amazing how draining physiologically it is. My adrenal glands are just working over time because I'm trying to

overcompensate for something that is not my natural disposition. I actually lose all my spiritual disciplines. And I start eating poorly. Like, actually, the whole the whole system really starts going in the wrong direction. And so when I pick up those signs, those signals, I know my batteries run out. I've got to charge up again. And actually, yeah, I'll go for a run. I don't mind that.

Whatever it is though that I do, I must be on my own. Even if there are other people in the room, I need to have some Jason space. So reflection is a really powerful tool for me. I do a lot of reflection. And you know, to just be really candid, that's between me and God. Like when I'm at that low point,

Jason Smith (23:15.999)
of having drained myself to the point of no battery life left. My only saving grace, my only recovery strategy. I mean, I can go for a run and I can watch a movie and take myself out for a coffee and whatever. But really, if God does not come in and refresh me in that moment, I'm cooked. It's a very long road back. It takes days to recover. So I just know my go to strategy is time of reflection, time of prayer.

Tyson Popplestone (23:36.131)
Yeah.

Jason Smith (23:45.815)
let God recover me because I've probably gone past the point of my own return. And that really is a habit that I rely on.

Tyson Popplestone (23:51.346)
Mm-hmm.

Tyson Popplestone (23:56.13)
Sure. When you're speaking about having that figurative battery pack recharged, especially with reference to God, like what does recharging with God actually look like to you? I had this conversation with a friend, I think I mentioned to you just before I started recording, that I was up at Mount Hotham this weekend, there was three couples from our church, there was eight kids, and for a little context, one of my relatively new friends, but quickly becoming one of my best friends,

a guy called Nick and his wife, they have three kids. They had four kids, they lost one in a tragic accident where their kid was hit by a car and killed just two and a half years ago. 18 month old girl, Haver was her name. And you look at these guys and honestly, for me, since we last spoke, I finished working at the church in 2015.

Jason Smith (24:32.916)
Wow.

Jason Smith (24:37.536)
Oh.

Tyson Popplestone (24:52.342)
And I had around five years where I went to church on a handful of weekends. I wasn't overly interested. I was, I mean, in the church world, this is fairly common for anyone not familiar. The system of church, I was over. I felt really tied by that. The message of Jesus, I was still into. I liked that, I liked what he was about. But for me, I found as though I had myself caught in more of a set of religious practices where I was going through the motion.

but my heart was pretty cold. You had asked me about church and God or whatever, and I'll give you all the routine answers without much conviction, I think. And then I met this guy, and this is probably one of the big events on the chain of events that really started to challenge me. I met him a year ago, so he lost his daughter a year and a half earlier. There's zero bitterness. He's the most, at least,

One of the most passionate guys I've ever met when it comes to his passion for church and passion for God He holds no Bidness or He doesn't blame God for what happened essentially in fact if anything you meet this guy And you don't have to I know some people get a little awkward when you talk about church and God but for context This is the kind of guy that you meet and you're like okay Whatever he believes I need that because there's no way you can survive

and thrive and love life after an event like that if there's not something greater holding you up. I mentioned this guy to a friend a while ago and she was like, if that happened to me, I'd probably just kill myself because, like, how do you, for context, it was the wife who reversed over their little daughter. It just keeps getting worse. It's hard not to cry when you talk about it, but yeah, Nick and Janet are their names and they both are in the same attitude. They both just, just.

Jason Smith (26:17.115)
Yeah.

Jason Smith (26:31.683)
Oh gee, this just gets more tragic doesn't it?

Jason Smith (26:38.262)
Mm.

Tyson Popplestone (26:42.646)
the most loving, beautiful people you ever meet. And I said to him, I go, man, like, how do you, because I get frustrated if I pray and something small's not collected. They sat and prayed with their daughter for 36 hours at their house after she was killed, like just praying that she'd be brought back to life, essentially, and obviously it didn't happen. But I said, dude, how are you so happy? Like, how are you with it? How are you not bitter, angry, jaded? You know what, nothing to do with church or people.

And he's like, man, like when you have an understanding that it wasn't God who caused the accident, you didn't plan the accident, for him, he's like, when I'm plugged into the source of who I believe created my life, there is no bitterness, there is no anxiety, there is no stress. He's like, I'm not worried about Hava. I'm not worried about like, is she sad? Is she missing me? She's up there with God right now, we'll meet again. But it was just the most powerful example of someone who's been through.

probably the most challenging thing I could ever imagine and come out the other side and said, oh, it's because of this. And I said, what does spending time with God look like for you? And he's like, dude, I don't know if it complicated. I'll get home from work, I've got a million things to do, I've got a million anxieties, and I'll just go, hey, all right, I'm gonna refocus, I'm gonna recenter, what's my number one priority in life? He goes, I'll get my attention on that, and once it's there, I'll walk inside. And I go, dude, perfect, because I'm a little systems man.

Jason Smith (28:00.742)
Yeah.

Tyson Popplestone (28:09.13)
And like I and I love systems and so does he but just in terms of breaking systems with something simple I like what he said and I Often go okay. It's got to be 20 minutes of Bible reading. It's got to be half an hour of prayer I have to go for a walk pray for the neighbors It's like a four-hour task Yeah, but I'm sorry Jay, so I'm giving you long-winded lead-ups to my questions, and that's an emotional one, but I

Jason Smith (28:26.819)
Yep, yep, you've got your checklist, yep. Oh, look.

Yeah.

Tyson Popplestone (28:35.578)
And feel free to talk to that, but I was curious to find out about what spending time with God or what actually reprioritizing your focus looks like to you, because that was a really inspiring fresh example that he just shared with me over the weekend.

Jason Smith (28:39.131)
Yeah.

Jason Smith (28:43.333)
Yeah.

Jason Smith (28:48.963)
Yeah, wow. So if I don't answer the question, ask me again, but I can't, well, no, but you wanna know what does walking or spending time with God look like for me? And I wanna give you at least my experience with that. But I mean, I can't ignore that story you just said though. I mean, that's not a sort of.

Tyson Popplestone (28:56.478)
I'm not convinced I asked a question just for clarity. Yeah.

Jason Smith (29:17.435)
That's not a bit of fiction. That's someone you know. That's a real couple who have other children they've still got to care for, who will never forget the one they lost. And the wife will have a journey so unique as she deals with all of the wrestle of emotions that no one will ever understand that she has to reconcile. And...

Tyson Popplestone (29:19.234)
Mm.

Jason Smith (29:47.471)
It's a powerful thing to meet people who have endured such unexplainable hardship. Like some of us, most of us, hopefully, will never face something that tragic in our lifetime, although clearly a lot of people face some terrible things. But what an incredible example of two lives, that husband and wife, Nick and Janet, I think you said her name was.

Tyson Popplestone (30:15.714)
Yep, yeah Jenna, yep.

Jason Smith (30:17.755)
Jenna, who model submission, and this is the key word for me, submission. They model submission to their God. And when I think about what's spending time with God for me, that's really the starting point. It's submission. Like for any of your listeners who just aren't into church and the whole Jesus thing is foreign, all of which...

is true for everyone at some point in their life, right? It was for me. I didn't meet Jesus till I was 10 years old. I didn't even grow up in a Christian family until that point. But this idea of submission is real. God says he loved me so much that he would give his son to die for me. And in the response I give is, thank you for a gift I could never have earned, but I'm now gonna submit to you.

You know, my life is not my own. It's now something I have freely given in return. And so when I spend time with God, it's like checking my own ambitions at the door. It's actually sitting in a posture, literally, physically in a posture of submission so that my heart renders itself vulnerable to the only force in this world who I know.

has a pure best interest for me, and that's God. And so I will pray, but you know, my prayers aren't necessarily verbal, and they're not rehearsed, and they don't even sound good, but I will sit, I will think, I will ponder. I'll sometimes have a bit of music in the background that I think just gets me into the right mindset. I will read the Bible.

But mostly I just sit there and I think and then I write. So that's how I spend time with God. I write and I write what I think he would want me to know in that moment, what he's saying to me. And I have had some amazing experiences in following that process. And it's gonna look different for everybody, but yeah, that's kind of my recharge, my recovery, my restoration.

Jason Smith (32:44.395)
And it shouldn't just be there for when I'm at a low point. It should be for when I'm at my best, my optimum. I just want more of God's influence in my life. So I have to submit. And Nick and Jenna, my gosh, they've learned that lesson and they live it every day if that's their attitude. Not one of bitterness and anger, but one of total submission that God is still God.

Tyson Popplestone (32:55.06)
Yeah.

Tyson Popplestone (33:13.331)
Mm.

Jason Smith (33:13.652)
even in the face of hard time.

Tyson Popplestone (33:15.518)
Yeah, that's a cool practice. I like that because even from a secular perspective, I've found cognitive behavior therapy really helpful in navigating little difficult times, whether it just be stuck on a negative thought pattern for a whole period of time. So for anyone listening who's not familiar, cognitive behavior therapy is essentially just recognizing a negative pattern of thinking or a negative thought that you're repeating and looking at that same situation from another perspective and maybe writing one or two

more effective ways of viewing a challenge that you've just got yourself buried down and negative about. But the idea that you'll sit down and write to yourself or from your perspective, writing down the thoughts of God on paper, what more powerful way, whether you believe in God or not, just imagining something bigger and greater, more powerful than you, actually offering helpful feedback into your situation, it takes you out of a relatively small mindset. I remember

Jason Smith (33:56.891)
Yeah.

Jason Smith (34:11.04)
Absolutely.

Tyson Popplestone (34:14.638)
There's been times in my life, I still do this sometimes, I should copy your pattern more closely, but whenever I'm in a negative mindset, I'll think about someone who I really admire, and I'll go, okay, what would such and such say if they were in this situation? Because you know some people, Elon Musk in his biography, his older one, I can't remember who wrote it, but apparently he's got some incredible ability to navigate his way through stress, and what would have people on the brink of a breakdown, he's just getting warmed up.

Jason Smith (34:42.139)
Mm-hmm.

Tyson Popplestone (34:43.574)
And I thought, okay, well, what's the self-talk going on in that man's head? I can't even, I feel this about you. I feel this about Elon. What's going on in a bloke's head with so many wheels spinning and so many potential stressful events that he can laugh his way through it? Who spends $46 billion on Twitter and then goes, we're losing money daily, and then gets asked a question about it and goes, yeah, I guess it is quite stressful. There's obviously some.

Jason Smith (35:10.232)
Yeah.

Tyson Popplestone (35:11.85)
mental framework in that man's head that is not the usual framework.

Jason Smith (35:17.495)
Yeah, well, you know, we're not all sane, Tyson. Remember that too. So I'm not sure it's necessarily the holy grail of how we live our lives, but, you know, peace is worth pursuing. Peace is worth pursuing. I don't think we can avoid stress. I don't think we wanna be fear driven.

Tyson Popplestone (35:22.062)
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah

Jason Smith (35:46.635)
And we want to keep our lives just so comfortable and just so orderly that we don't feel pain. Like I actually think that, you know, that's that anti-fragility stuff. We want to build resilience and the way you develop strength and stamina, as you know, in the natural is you train hard, you push your body to its limit, you cause micro fissuring of the of the musculature.

so that it then triggers an inflammatory response that can be controlled such that new fresh collagen gets laid down and at the end of it, you have reinforced tensile strength and rigor in the system. Like this is the biomechanical physiological repair and recovery process. And as in the natural, it's true relationally. And so we want measured

stress, measured strain, pushing just beyond your comfort zone, progressively enlarging your capacity. And, you know, Elon Musk, I mean, I've, I can only imagine, I mean, think about the, think about the capacity of that guy, but you know, I'm sure he's also neglecting other things in his world, um, that you and I might think is too high a cost for.

him to achieve success in certain channels. And so the matrix of life, what do you and what do I define a vibrant, successful life to be is a really important clarity. And I mentor guys in leadership all over and it's a trap to try and emulate.

somebody else's life because if we have differing ideas of what the end game looks like and what success really is then we're going to model ourselves potentially on a flawed strategy. I remember this is years ago like this is when I first graduated as a physio and I was working for another guy I was an associate in his practice and he was a really great therapist he had been published in research journals he spoke at national conferences

Jason Smith (38:09.763)
He had postgraduate qualifications. He was really well respected. But I just remember his wife basically didn't wanna know him and his adult children were estranged from him. And I could have really easily gone his pathway. Like I was academically driven, I was success-orientated. You know, you're now learning, I'm very tasked.

Tyson Popplestone (38:22.783)
Mm.

Jason Smith (38:38.331)
focus so I could just burrow in and I could go hard in a career down that path of becoming you know top of my field. But I remember being caught in my thinking and saying but you know what not at the risk of a vibrant fulfilling passionate marriage and not at the risk of what I now have which is four children growing up and feeling like I wasn't there.

And so I can't emulate a life or follow a model that's going to take me to a different definition of what I've decided for my world. This is what success looks like. So I want to excel in my work. I want to run an optimal business and I want to be a well-respected clinician. But, but I need all these other things in balance as well. And so it just means my approach, my rhythms, my habits.

are going to look different. But the thing we all have in common is we're going to have to enlarge our capacity with every year. If we want to achieve more, go further, go faster. And so that's that. Get out of your comfort zone. Progressive stretch is the underlying principle.

Tyson Popplestone (39:55.65)
For sure, for sure. That's the pattern of training I use with every running-based sport play, the progressive overload system. That makes so much sense. In terms of striking balance, I know there's perhaps no such things. We venture in and out of striking balance, and one of my favorite stories I've ever heard you speak about that's just stuck with me for probably 10 or 15 years since I first heard it was you, when you were first starting your business in the garage of your house, decided,

Jason Smith (40:01.795)
Yeah, absolutely. Yep.

Tyson Popplestone (40:24.878)
could be butchering the day, but I feel like it was Tuesday night. You decided that Tuesday night was the night that it was a no sleep night in the Smith family, and you were just gonna dedicate that night to making sure the wheels of the business were spinning. That sounds terrifying to me, especially when I know what I'm like with little sleep. But with reference to, speak to that, but also with reference, because I hold the values that I think you do really similar, faith, family, health.

Jason Smith (40:36.057)
Yeah?

Jason Smith (40:44.41)
Yeah.

Hahaha

Tyson Popplestone (40:55.014)
You know contribution There's there's a number of things that I can quickly lose sight of in the pursuit of whatever it is that sometimes I can't even name with growing my business and So at the moment like I've got a fairly unique set up in the sense that okay My my work hours are silly by a lot of people's standards and you know I don't always hold it but pretty much weekdays 10 till 3 I've got I've got five hours of just hard work, and that's kind of the way I like to structure just go

hard for five hours, get quality work done. I've got a few people helping with little admin things and editing, so that eliminates a whole heap of stress. Got a lot to learn from you about allocating, allocating more effective people to do tasks that you're terrible at. I'm venturing into that world now, but I often notice that, I mean, I could spend my whole life all day, every day, like an Elon Musk, at the cost of the things you just referenced, growing a business.

Jason Smith (41:52.008)
Mm.

Tyson Popplestone (41:54.326)
but I've got no interest in that. And so for me, I've decided to sacrifice the size of a business potentially, maybe not, to help out around the house, to help out with family, to look after my health, to hopefully maintain hobbies. Just things that I feel are very easy to let go in, especially in a culture that's just obsessed with financial growth. Like when people look at you, I imagine the one thing they're fascinated by is, oh, how much is he worth?

and they fail to recognize the depth of what it is you've actually created, because yeah, sure, how much you're worth, but also he's got four kids and a wife who loves him, and he's healthy, and he's passionate. He's got, I mean, I've seen you on the pulpit at church. You've got other things going on in your life, and I don't think there's too many people operating in business at the level that you are. Who can say that?

Jason Smith (42:42.375)
Mmm.

So was there a question in there? I'm just trying to. Ha ha ha.

Tyson Popplestone (42:46.922)
I'm not sure, Jase. If there was one, feel free to find it. It was definitely, at the very least, it was a compliment. Ha ha ha.

Jason Smith (42:51.265)
Um.

Yeah, okay. Well, I'll take the compliment because I don't get a lot of those. So I'm going to treasure that. It's funny, you started with that reference to my Tuesday nights. And it's funny how often that comes up. And I'm a little older and, or I'm a lot older and just a little wiser since that rhythm of my weekly pattern.

Tyson Popplestone (43:15.499)
Mm-hmm

Jason Smith (43:24.731)
happened. And so for a couple of years at a time in our business where it just demanded so much of me, but we had young children and Paulina often would describe it felt like she was a single mum because I was traveling so much. And please don't for a moment think I got this right as often as I should have.

Tyson Popplestone (43:48.821)
Mmm.

Jason Smith (43:49.963)
Okay, so, you know, the biggest tension in our marriage has been the tug of war between the calling I have felt to the marketplace to run a scale business for impact. And we can come back to that if you want. But like, that there's a tension around what it wasn't just a job, it wasn't it wasn't even a commercial undertaking. Like I, I say to people, I am an absolute accident.

I never wanted to run a business, like, sincerely. I'm not, it's not false modesty. I had no desire. In fact, the whole thing, it was abhorrent to me, which is so ironic as to where, as to where I ended up. But, but I actually felt genuinely called to do it. Not something I could do, but something I must do for a whole bunch of reasons. And we might unpack that, but, but the, but the other tension.

Tyson Popplestone (44:32.473)
Hahaha

Jason Smith (44:49.367)
is I'm the only person who can be Paulina's husband and I'm the only person who can be my kid's father. And of course if I neglect that they will go looking for poor substitutes and that will just bring me to my knees. So how do I do both? And Paulina was my wife, she's such a great tension in my world, but a tension nonetheless, because she would hold me to account.

Tyson Popplestone (45:02.517)
Yeah.

Tyson Popplestone (45:14.926)
Hehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehe

Jason Smith (45:18.595)
And she would say, well, you know, we talked about the fact that when we, when we had kids, you'd be home for dinner every night. You know, you said you wanted to be part of their world. And, and I said, I needed you here. And so between sort of five o'clock at night and 8pm, I'd be there for dinner. I'd do the baths, the bed routine. And, you know, right up until five, I was working like a slave. And then at 8pm, I would.

open the laptop and I'd work till two o'clock in the morning and then get up at 530 and do it all over again. And I did that for 10 or 15 years, Tyson. But in that real trough of where home was demanding more of me than I could give and work was taking a lot as well. I did negotiate with Paulina one night, one night in the week, Tuesday night.

your memory serves you well. And it was my eighth day in the week. And when everyone clocked off at 5 p.m., I stayed back and I would work literally right through the night at the office. I didn't go home for dinner, I didn't go home and see the kids. And I would just, you know, the phone wouldn't ring and I would just get all my paperwork done, I'd get all my contract work done, I'd get all of my visioneering and all of my strategic thinking and I'd solve all the hard problems.

And it was just such an important way for me to leapfrog. And I did it maybe for a year or two, right? And so let's not exaggerate this. I couldn't have done it forever. And it's interesting, I was writing a book and one of the chapters was on sleep. And I was preaching what I was not practicing because I was talking about all of the benefits of a good night's sleep. And here I was writing it at 3 o'clock in the morning. And I actually felt like God said to me,

Tyson Popplestone (47:04.299)
Sure.

Tyson Popplestone (47:08.558)
Hehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehe

Jason Smith (47:14.455)
I gave you a special superpower for a short period of time to enable you to fulfill those things that are important to you and to me. But I also heard him say, not long after that, but that's not gonna last forever. And pretty well, after I published that book, ironically, I started to recondition a more normal sleep pattern.

and not work into the night quite as long. And it's taken me probably another 10 years to recalibrate my physicality around it because I just abused the way our bodies are designed to run for so long, but there was a special superpower for it for a season. Anyway, I say all that, bro. I say all that mostly to make this point. And that is you can do extra ordinary things. You can...

stay up late and go without sleep, or you can work two jobs, or you can innovate a business and disrupt an industry and do some crazy travel schedules. You can do all those things, but only for a season. Only for a season. If you make it a lifestyle, if you make it something that becomes a intractable habit, your family will suffer.

Tyson Popplestone (48:41.059)
Hmm.

Jason Smith (48:41.539)
your health will suffer. And so I think that depending on your limits and your accountabilities and putting careful guardrails in your life, right, as long as you've got some of those measures, you can be extreme for a season. And most business people have had to do that at some point, because there's nothing easy about starting a business, let alone pushing it through the tough times like COVID. I think just before we did press record, I said to you,

Tyson Popplestone (49:02.175)
Yeah.

Jason Smith (49:10.899)
for three months during COVID. I hosted 650 meetings on Zoom in a three month period. Like I was going from six in the morning till nine o'clock at night in 20 minute intervals, all day, every day, Paulina would just throw sandwiches through the door, check for proof of life, fill up my water jug, and I just had to keep going, keep going, keep going, because there was just so much going on in our world.

Tyson Popplestone (49:31.285)
Wow!

Tyson Popplestone (49:35.799)
Yeah.

Jason Smith (49:41.155)
And look, it nearly killed me, but I could do it for six weeks. But it was an extraordinary effort for a short period of time. And then you have to recover. You need to recalibrate. You need to normalize. And the problem in this world is we don't know the off button. We don't know how to normalize. We don't know how to get back into a sink or a rhythm that is sustainable. And then we burn out.

Tyson Popplestone (49:57.07)
Mmm.

Tyson Popplestone (50:05.754)
Yeah, yeah, it's such an interesting, I feel like this is one area that you and I, amongst a whole heap of other people, but especially I felt like I related to you at the church when I was working there, whereas I felt like a lot of what I was passionate about when I was speaking from the stage was around that balance and was around just trying to figure out clearly in my own life and it was funny that you were writing a chapter on sleep at 3 a.m. in the morning, isn't it ironic that the things you most need to hear seem to be.

the things that you're most passionate about or speak most clearly about are probably the things that are the biggest issues in your own life.

Jason Smith (50:42.203)
Don't we want that though? Don't we want to hear from people who are talking from a lived experience or from a current and present danger, like a wrestle? Almost I would rather listen to people who are in the trench fighting the war that they're speaking on, not necessarily sharing someone else's story. And so we get our passion, we get our insights, we get our convictions around actually having to have tamed that tiger.

ourselves rather than you know speaking from some theoretical perspective. Yeah.

Tyson Popplestone (51:17.486)
Absolutely, it's tricky isn't it because you'll listen to someone on stage and you're like I finally if only I had their knowledge On this subject then I would be happy but forgetting the chaos that has led them to the knowledge that they now hold

Jason Smith (51:31.027)
Yeah, yeah, we all want the stories of going to Helenbach. We want to be able to say we went from rags to riches. We want to get to the summit of Everest. Sorry to bring up a sore point, but we want to get to the top of the mountain and say we arrived and plant our flag, but we forget that, oh my gosh, the training, you know, the hardships, the frostbite, the near-death experiences, the...

Tyson Popplestone (51:41.625)
Hahaha!

Tyson Popplestone (51:51.598)
Yeah.

Jason Smith (51:58.095)
fact that my brain's been starved from oxygen for too long. It's like, okay, so actually, nah, I don't really want it. I don't want it that bad. And so we just like hearing stories about it and living vicariously, but you know, it's that guy, the man who gets in the arena, gets the sweat, the blood, the dust on his face. Like, don't criticize that guy. Either get in the arena with him or enjoy the show, but just, you know.

Tyson Popplestone (52:05.902)
Hmm. Yeah.

Jason Smith (52:27.847)
Clap politely and move on.

Tyson Popplestone (52:31.074)
Jessie and I have been together for 15 years now and I remember in the early stages of our relationship, one thing she didn't understand was I'd get so angry. This was enlightening to me as well. I've got a memory of driving into Trollgerm where my family's from, hitting the big tennis courts. I'm watching just some gun tennis players hit the ball and Jessie goes, I wish I was good at tennis. And I was like, well, do it. Like, don't. Like, it's, it. Oh, for sure. That was a type one moment. That was me.

Jason Smith (52:54.85)
So you're as compassionate as I am.

Tyson Popplestone (52:59.81)
That was me being a D, both figuratively and literally, I think. But it's 100% true. Yeah, I've got very little compassion for things like that. It's a work in progress that I know I'll never nail, but no, I fully sympathise with what you're talking about there. Like there is a, there's definitely, there's a lot of opinions and very few people willing to step in the ring, at least for the amount of time that someone like yourself has been in there.

Jason Smith (53:05.616)
Uhhhhhh

Tyson Popplestone (53:27.542)
One of the things I wanted to ask you about, Jace, before I forget is, back onto the subject of systems, like I understand that with reference to your business, there's certain things that must be in place, and I know there's gonna be an overlap here, but with your daily and weekly structure, do you have a pretty dialed in system? So what is it? Today is Tuesday, it's about 10, 10.30. Like, this is obviously a time that you've got allocated to things.

either external to the business or media or whatever it is, how do you structure the week around what it is that Back in Motion needs to be focusing on?

Jason Smith (54:06.215)
Yeah, well, I mean, because it's been so long, bro, since we've caught up, and we're having this conversation with who knows how many listeners, let me just be really clear. We've actually transitioned, or I have transitioned in my role in a significant way in the last two years. So after COVID, just to catch you up really quickly so that I can answer that question in context. After COVID, we had a number of offers on our business.

We ended up running a structured sales process. I got 93 expressions of interest. There was a Dutch auction going crazy in the unseen world behind the curtain. We ended up dating 20 of those prospects for a year. I got it down to three and eventually did a backdoor listing onto the ASX through a divestment to a health aggregator called Health Fear in October 21.

Tyson Popplestone (54:40.979)
Oh, what?

Jason Smith (55:05.603)
So that was a really significant milestone for me in what you're asking, because you're now trying to get into, well, what does a typical day in my life look like and what sort of routines do I run? And everything changed in October 21, because I no longer had to be the CEO. I sat on the board for a little while. I've got such a diverse amount of interests now ranging from...

Tyson Popplestone (55:25.182)
Ah.

Jason Smith (55:32.751)
writing and speaking through to running our charitable trust and being involved in missional philanthropy to still operating businesses and sitting on and chairing boards that actually my week from one day to the next is really, really diverse. But there's still, but you know, like I said, I love routine. We just had two months in the US. One of my boys is living over there on a soccer scholarship. And

Tyson Popplestone (55:49.121)
Yeah.

Tyson Popplestone (55:58.498)
So that.

Jason Smith (56:01.695)
And so, you know, two months of just no routine because we're traveling, we're on holidays, I've got the family with me. And two months is a long time for me to be out of routine. I was actually finding myself looking forward to coming home and getting back on a clock because it's just how I'm wired. And so, you know, if I was to give you the general, I'm up at 6. I'll spend the first hour with God in all sorts of different ways.

I'll generally spend the second hour exercising. And again, that's pretty diverse too. That can be anything from a game of tennis to a walk or a run through to a, you know, a strength and conditioning session in the gym. So, you know, I just mix it up because I get bored easily. And I'm not competing, it's just lifestyle fitness. And then pretty well from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m.

I'm available to the family. So there's kids, school drop off, we've got four kids. There's maybe helping with lunches or cleaning up the kitchen or whatever, like eight to nine, it's just, I'm around. And then generally from nine to five, I am engaged in meaningful work. So this is meaningful, I'm getting to hang out with you.

you're teaching me a whole bunch of stuff and I think that's great. So I see this as really good use of my time, but from one day to the next, what happens between nine to five is like unpredictable. I'm running a seminar later this afternoon online as a guest speaker. I've just come back from Queensland where I spoke at a conference up there. Tomorrow I've got...

Tyson Popplestone (57:32.502)
Yeah.

Jason Smith (57:46.895)
three individuals who I'm just going to be meeting and mentoring with. So, you know, it just looks really diverse. But then five o'clock as a general rule, I shut down the meaningful work and I'm re-engaged in family. So, you know, my world is pretty vanilla in terms of, you know, like there's nothing unique about my system or my schedule, except that I follow it just about every day. And if you looked at my diary, if I shared my screen right now, you'd most people

have conniptions when they see my calendar, because every 15 minute increment is accounted for. Even if it's just to sit and do nothing, I will program it in, or I will retrospectively account for my time with what I did in that spontaneous hour that I didn't have a commitment, because I wanna know, what am I using my most precious resource on?

Tyson Popplestone (58:43.31)
That's cool.

Jason Smith (58:43.567)
So it's either a preview or a review and it's all color coded. It's, it's, it's all, you know, it's, it's pretty intense. I'm not necessarily recommending this as much as I'm confessing my obsession. But, but, but I'm just determined that time, you know, like I'm, I'm halfway through my life, mate. I've only got another half left and every day I live now, uh, it's, it's like I'm on the downhill.

Tyson Popplestone (58:52.366)
Hahaha!

Yes.

Jason Smith (59:13.507)
Now that doesn't, you know, I try not to get discouraged over that, but time, it doesn't go on forever. So I have to be a good steward of the most critical thing God's given me to make a difference in this world and to ensure when I pass from this world into the next, I'm in the best possible shape spiritually. I've got to use my time well. Anyway, I think I rambled there a bit.

Tyson Popplestone (59:37.822)
Yeah, yeah, that's, that's... Nah, you didn't, man. It was a really, really interesting answer. It's funny, because I often ebb and flow between trying to be a little spontaneous with my time, and like you, I feel as though I'm wired to, like maybe, I don't know if this is what it is, but I feel I'm a little type A. So the idea of knowing exactly where every 15 minutes of my day was spent gets me so excited. But, yeah.

Jason Smith (01:00:04.795)
Do it for an exercise. I actually get a lot of guys to do it, even if it's just a momentary insight. Do a bit of a time audit and do it over a week. And then you can forget that I ever said it and you don't have to be that anal about it. But it's amazing, it's amazing what I can learn about you when I see what you invest your time into and what you can learn about me.

Tyson Popplestone (01:00:22.862)
Hehehehehehe

Jason Smith (01:00:34.499)
And if you're open to then changing something about that, your productivity can go through the roof, but probably more importantly, the significance with which you live your life can matter a whole lot more, because it's all about impact. I wanna be somebody who has meaningful impact. It doesn't have to be global. It can be very personal and singular, but why would I even wanna talk with you for now on this podcast?

If nothing I say has any positive, meaningful influence for you. And why would I want to listen to you if nothing you say can shift the dial in my life? Like times too precious, mate.

Tyson Popplestone (01:01:21.102)
Yeah, Jase, man, honestly, like every conversation, it could go on for hours and hours, but I understand that you do have seven other things in no particular order to get done today. And so with that said, I'll let you go. Man, it's been a long time coming, so I'm so glad we got the opportunity to get this one done. I know the listeners are gonna absolutely love it. I didn't even get to touch on your book, but I'll link that in the show notes to this episode for anyone who's interested. I read this morning, just before you go, international bestseller, am I making that up?

Jason Smith (01:01:32.398)
Before 5 o'clock.

Jason Smith (01:01:51.323)
No, you're not, but I mean, like all these things, there's different definitions of what qualify for those things. So officially, yes, but yeah, I'll just let the mystery linger around that. But let's just say it's sold well in Australia and New Zealand. There's two books actually, one is Get Yourself Back in Motion. That's the secrets of a physiotherapist. But...

Tyson Popplestone (01:02:00.214)
Let's not clarify, international best seller Jason Smith. Ha ha ha.

Jason Smith (01:02:16.547)
There's another one called Outside in, Downside up leadership. So if you want to hear all my horror stories in business, that's the one, 50 lessons that I learned. So you can get that at jasonsmith.com.au.

Tyson Popplestone (01:02:22.115)
Oh, I do.

Tyson Popplestone (01:02:29.482)
Awesome, man. Will do. All right, Jace. Hey, thanks so much for coming on, as always. See you later. See everybody. Awesome, man. I'll cut that off there. Jace, you're a legend, man. Thank you so much, brother. That was such a good chat.

Jason Smith (01:02:32.112)
Great talking.

Ciao.