How Quitting Alcohol Can Help High Achievers Unlock Millions in Earnings with James Swanwick

0:00Boom! Shake the room, Fire Nation! JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire brought to you by high level, the all-in-one sales and marketing platform. Today we'll be breaking down how quitting alcohol can help high achievers unlock millions in earnings. To drop these vibe bombs I brought to James Swanwick in the EU Fire Studios, James is an Australian American investor entrepreneur speaker and former sports center anchor on ESPN. He is creator of Alcohol, Free Lifestyle and creator of Project 90, which helps high achievers get lifetime power over alcohol, and creator of blue light blocking glasses swanys, which I have three of, by the way, by Swanwick Sleep, which improved your sleep. He is an interview celebrity including Brad Pitt, Inslee and Jolie, Kobe Bryant, David Beckham, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and JLD. In today's foundation we'll talk about the moment that James decided to quit drinking, the physical, mental and emotional benefits from giving up alcohol. How it led to better business opportunities, my set habits and identity shifts for those people that can give it up, and oh, so much more.

1:01And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to James and ours sponsors. Stop duct taping your business together. High level runs your website, your funnels, email, automation, scheduling, payments, and memberships all in one place. And when you sign up at highlevelfire.com, you get a 30 day free trial plus my exclusive bonus stack that includes weekly office hours with me and much more. Find highlevelfire.com, highlevelfire.com Fire Nation 50 days will fly right on by. The only question is will you have something to show for it? I created a free YouTube series called 50 days to something a step by step path to build a real product service or offer in just 50 focused days. Start today for free at eofire.com slash YouTube. James, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. What's up? Great to be here.

2:01You do not need alcohol in order to be successful. A lot of people mistakenly believe that you need alcohol to entertain clients, to create connection, to bond, to do deals, to network, nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, I've been alcohol free since 2010 and I have a steady flow of deals, business opportunities, financial growth and nobody would ever accuse me of being dull and boring. I love being alcohol free and doing business and supporting clients and doing deals. So, let's eliminate this idea that you need alcohol to create connection or to entertain people. Let's live in alcohol free lifestyle and our financial goals, our entrepreneurial goals can explode. Well, I love how we're starting this episode off because, as I mentioned earlier, our focus is how quitting alcohol can help high achievers unlock millions in earnings.

3:03And listen, I had James on back on October 13th, 2013, so we're talking more than 12 years ago. I had James on the show. He of course rocked the mic and now he is back again and he's been crushing it for the past 12 years. I can't say the same thing about all my past guests. Some of them, frankly, have not been crushing it for the past 12 years. Some of them like James have been and I want to talk a little bit more about some of the success that you've had in life, James, because you've had a lot of it. But at one point, even with that success, you started to question your relationship with alcohol. Tell us more about that. I was a socially acceptable drinker growing up in my native country of Australia. In that, I would have two or three drinks every night of the week, sometimes I would drink more on weekends. And I drank like that from age 16, right up until I finally quit in 2010 at age 35. And 20 years, almost, of drinking like that really took its toll.

4:04I was in Austin, Texas in 2010, I was 35 years old. I had two Bombay sapphire gin and tonics at a South by Southwest festival party. I went back to my hotel, went to sleep. And when I woke up in the morning, I looked in the mirror and I just looked and felt blah. I was 35 pounds overweight. My skin was weathered. I was irritable. I was envious of other people. I was frustrated. My relationships weren't great. I wasn't sleeping well. I was eating crap food. I wasn't rock bottom, waking up in a ditch or getting arrested or an alcoholic. But I identified that almost 20 years of seemingly innocent, modest drinking habits, just two or three drinks a night, had really caught up, caught up with me and led me down a path of mediocrity. And in that moment, I just decided, you know what, I'm going to take a 30-day break from alcohol, just to see what would happen. And in 30 days, I lost 13 pounds. I generated clarity, focus and energy.

5:07I auditioned to become a sports center anchor on ESPN and to my other bewilderment. They gave me the job and I ended up hosting that show for two years. And I really credit the clarity that I generated from being alcohol free to help me get that job. My relationships improved. I slept better. I looked better. Just a warning. You do get better looking when you stop drinking alcohol. And I started going to these Hollywood parties, alcohol free, dancing on tables with open bars and just drinking soda water, ice and lime, some mints and pineapple cranberry, whatever. And having a great time, if people kept asking me, how do you go to these hedonistic parties and not drink? And I said, I don't know. And then I started an organization in 2015 called Alcohol Free Lifestyle and it's grown to what it is today as a pretty much a mission to support entrepreneurs and executives and high achievers to finally break free from alcohol and generate health, wealth, love,

6:08happiness, clarity, focus, reconnection with their families. And it's a really big passion of mine and a mission to help people live in alcohol free lifestyle. Well, I love hearing all of this and you have definitely, not probably, definitely saved lives with the organization that you've created. So I definitely commend you for that. And you know, to me, the phrase that just comes up is you think you look better when you're drinking alcohol, but you actually look better when you don't. Because you know, a lot of people are like, I need it for the confidence for this and for that. And you think you're kind of like Rico Suave when you're drinking alcohol. The reality is now you're slurring, you're silly and you're bloated, you're overweight and all these other things. And I want to get dialed in on this, James. You were specifically the physical, the mental, the emotional benefits that you experienced after you gave about alcohol. I mean, you went through a few, but let's get detailed on a couple more. Well, the physical was, I lost those 13 pounds in 30 days and then I ended up losing 30, 35 pounds over the course of that year.

7:11And so that showed up with me feeling more confident and having more energy. I went and joined a GM. I joined the LA fitness gym up on Hollywood Boulevard because I was living in Los Angeles, California at the time, put on a little bit of muscle, not like six pack abs or anything like that, but just enough to make me feel good. That resulted in me sleeping better. And when you sleep better, you're less irritable the next day, you're less stressed. You have less anxiety. So that was really key. In terms of mindset and happiness, I just felt happier. It wasn't like I was skipping down the street singing, Zippity-Doodoo, Zippity Day, what a wonderful day. But I certainly wasn't walking down the street with my shoulders slumped forward, lamenting the previous night's drinking or feeling sorry for myself or thinking that life was dire and I was helpless. So stopping drinking suddenly had me feel more positive, had me feel more opportunistic.

8:12I also realized that I became a much more generous person. I actually joined Arnold Schwarzenegger's Charity, which is called Afterschool's All Stars. And I started helping children with their Afterschool programming and just became a much nice and more agreeable person. Financially I can tell you, my financial life exploded. Right when I quit drinking, as I said, I got that job at ESPN, they paid me very handsomely. And then in the years after that, I decided to become an entrepreneur. I created the Swanee's Blue Light Blocking Glasses company called Swanee Sleep. We did a million dollars in sales in the first 12 months. I now have this scaling multi-seven figure business that supports people around the world to stop drinking. I never would have become an entrepreneur or had the success that I have had if I was drinking alcohol and being foggy and distracted. And then finally, I would say my relationships improved dramatically. I remember as a drinker living in Los Angeles, California, I would get my phone call from

9:15my mother or father late in Los Angeles afternoon. And as a drinker, I would always say, oh, my parents are calling. They always call it the most inopportune times. And I would screen their calls. And then when I stopped drinking alcohol and I had clarity and focus and I was more calm, when I saw an incoming call from my mother or father from Australia, I would go, ah, my mother's calling. I'm going to go take this. Oh, my father's calling. Excuse me. I'm going to go and call this. And I actually enjoyed having that conversation with them. And so stopping drinking profoundly transformed my health, my wealth, my mindset, and most importantly, my relationships. Now could you convince your father to stop drinking? Well, you know what, he only drinks very, very modestly. I think he has a couple of drinks of wine per week. So that's never been a big issue for him. I've never tried to convince him to stop, but I'd know he's definitely reduced his drinking just by observing my behavior over the years.

10:15But you know, sadly, there are millions of people in the world, an estimated 400 million people who are currently experiencing an alcohol use disorder. And I would probably submit 350 million of them. Don't even know that they are drinking at levels that would be caught in having an alcohol use disorder. So I wasn't, I haven't really been able to convince him, but I didn't even try to convince my father, but he naturally has just scaled back his drinking. And certainly I've seen other family members and friends of mine also either reduce drastically or quit entirely as a result of witnessing my behavior and how I carry myself as an alcohol-free man. Fire Nation, I hope you're taking notes because we all know people in our life that could definitely use help in these areas. And there's so many benefits that we'll be talking about when we get back from thinking our sponsors. A simple website update shouldn't turn to a whole project, but somehow it always does

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13:23That is where high level comes in. High level allows you to build and run your entire business from one platform, website builder and hosting, funnel and landing pages, email marketing, automation and workflows, calendar booking payments and subscriptions, even course and membership hosting, everything works together seamlessly. Plus award winning 24, seven supports, so you are never stuck. And when you go through my link at highlevelfire.com, you will lock my full bonus stack, a 30 day free trial of high level with full access, a private 50 minute coaching call with me weekly live office hours with me, a digital copy of my book, the common path to uncommon success, my 50 days to something execution roadmap and more. Stop piecing tools together, start building momentum, visit high level fire.com and start building your something today. James, we're back and I want to talk mindsets. I want to talk habits. I want to talk identity shifts. What are the daily routines that you implemented that support success without alcohol?

14:27I have a daily gratitude practice, which I call the daily 20. And each morning when I wake up, I write down 20 things that I am grateful for. Not three, not five, six things is cute, 10 is cute, but 20, wow, you really have to think. You quote unquote, force yourself to think of things to be grateful for. Now just like if I went to a gym, John, and I would lift a weight and I would break down the muscle fibers in my bicep, if I was doing a bicep curl, when I would then rest, my muscle would grow stronger. Same thing with my mindset in the morning, when I'm forcing myself to think of 20 things to be grateful for, it results in me seeing so many more things to be grateful for. They've done a lot of studies which show that a daily gratitude practice can reduce cravings for any drug, including alcohol by up to 30%. So for me, first thing in the morning, before I put my hand on my phone, before I switch

15:31on the phone and start my day, I pull out my diary, I get a pen, and I write down 20 things I'm grateful for. And the result of that is I go through day, my day is seeing more evidence of things to be grateful for. I'm in a happier mode, I'm not as stressed and not as anxious, and I just feel joyous. And so that's been a really huge daily habit for me. In addition to before I go to sleep each night, I make sure that I put out tomorrow morning's exercise gym wear before I go to sleep. That way when I wake up in the morning, the first thing I see at the end of my bed is my shorts, my shirt, my water bottle, my shoes. And so if I ever have any doubt as to whether I'm going to go to the gym, maybe I feel like I don't want to go because I see those gym clothes, I put the gym clothes on, I end up going, I end up getting to the gym. So that's been a huge thing. And then one final thing I would say is wearing a pair of quality blue blockers at the end of the night with the orange lens. I obviously have my own company, Swanee Sleep, Swanee's blue blockers.

16:36That has helped me to fall asleep a lot quicker and sleep better throughout the night. Just by blocking that artificial light from cell phones and screens and microwave light and kitchen lights in the last hour or so before sleep. I just love the waterfall effects of stopping drinking. Like you stop drinking what happens. Well, you naturally start to feel a bit better because you're not putting toxins in your body. You naturally start to drop some weight because you're not bloating as much. You're not eating as much crap when you're drunk. And you naturally start to sleep better because alcohol is horrible for sleep. Like when people just say, oh, I need a glass to a wine before I go to bed, it helps me sleep. I'm like, no, it doesn't. It blocks your deep sleep and it is destroying your health and you don't even know it. And that's so sad. And so you sleep better when you stop drinking alcohol. And then you wake up earlier, more refreshed and what do you do? You probably exercise more. And then guess what? You look at the mirror and you probably feel better and you look better.

17:36And what does that make you want to do? All those other things we just talked about, eat healthier, exercise more, sleep better, get to bed earlier. All these things, it's just this waterfall effects all from the first step, which is what? Just stopping to drink alcohol on a consistent basis or at all. Now let's talk about some specific and really practical insights for professionals who are listening to this right now. They're like, you know what? I'm not going to give up alcohol forever. A person, I'm not willing to say that right now, but I'm considering taking a break. What are your insights for them, James? Well, specifically for an entrepreneur, I would submit this. Even one seemingly innocent drink per night could be costing you millions of dollars in lost revenue and income. Now that's a big claim, but let's do the math here. Let's say we have an entrepreneur who's drinking a glass of wine or two each night. That means that he's feeling a bit irritable the next morning, doesn't make an extra sales call, doesn't hire someone, doesn't hire someone, doesn't perform to the best of

18:40their ability. Now that person might feel like a six out of ten in that scenario and maybe they're making a million dollars revenue in their business. Now imagine if that person in this scenario stops drinking alcohol and now they feel like an eight or a nine out of ten, they've got clarity, focus and energy, they hire the right person, they fire the right person, they have strategic thinking, they make a couple of additional calls, they raise their prices, they've got more energy throughout the day, they're just performing better, they're creating greater impact in the world for their clients and customers, which results in more sales. That person might make a million and a half annual revenue in that state. Well, in that mathematical equation then, you can argue that that entrepreneur's drinking habits is costing him half a million dollars a year in lost revenue, in revenue they do not make. That's the difference between operating at a six out of ten and maybe an eight or a nine out of ten. Now I'm just pulling out my calculator here, John, $500,000 divided by 365 days of the year.

19:40Every day that that entrepreneur decides to drink is costing him $1,369 and 86 cents. If that entrepreneur drinks two drinks a day, just seemingly two innocent drinks a day, $684 per drink, that is costing that entrepreneur and that scenario. What I would suggest is the first practical thing is really be honest with yourself as to how your drinking habits could be affecting you. For most entrepreneurs who've convinced themselves that a couple of seemingly innocent drinks are fine and okay, it could be costing them half a million dollars a year or millions of dollars per year. James, I wasn't going to say you're actually being nice because the reality is that money that they could have been making otherwise if they had been generating more revenue if properly invested and compounded is an ungodly amount of money for generations to come. I mean, it's absolutely insane to think about what that could do if again invested properly

20:42in over a lot of period of time. So really a lot of food for thought there in James, you've given us a lot to think about. And I can't even count the number of times that I've had the swanies on my face when I fall asleep. So I want to thank you personally, James, for making my sleep better, my waterfall better, the example that you set for myself and others has been absolutely incredible. So thank you for that and give us the one final takeaway that you really want to make sure our listeners get from our conversation today. I've had a life with alcohol and a life without and without is far better. I've made more money. I've had closer relationships. I've got the body that I think nature intended me to have. I have joy and fulfillment in my life. I've stopped chasing pleasure and then having a crash and instead I just have this beautiful natural release of fulfillment and that has come from choosing, getting to have an alcohol free lifestyle. And James, if I nation wants to connect with you, wants to learn more from you, what would

21:45you call to action be for them? AlcoholFreeLifestyle.com, you can find all about me and our services. I have a book which is called Clear, which you can find at alcoholfreeLifestyle.com slash Clear or on Amazon. And my Instagram, which is at James Swannick, I have lots of tips and tricks there to help entrepreneurs and high achievers to have a better relationship with alcohol. Fire Nation, you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. You've been hanging out with J.S. and J.L.D. today, so keep up the heat. And for links to everything we talked about, visit eofire.com. Type James in the search bar and the show notes page will pop right up and James, thank you for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with Fire Nation. For that, we salute you and we'll catch you on the flip side. Hey, Fire Nation, a huge thank you to our sponsors and James for sponsoring today's episode and Fire Nation. You ready to rock your very own podcast? Check out our free podcast and course where I will teach you how to create and launch your podcast for free free podcast course.com. I'll catch you there or on the flip side.

22:47Stop duct taping your business together. High level runs your website, your funnels, email, automation, scheduling, payments and memberships all in one place. And when you sign up at highlevelfire.com, you get a 30 day free trial plus my exclusive bonus act that includes weekly office hours with me and much more. Visit highlevelfire.com, highlevelfire.com. Fire Nation, 50 days will fly right on by. The only question is, will you have something to show for it? I created a free YouTube series called 50 Days to Something, a step by step path to build a real product service or offer in just 50 focused days. Start today for free at eofire.com slash YouTube.