How to stay focused as an entrepreneur comes down to protecting a small number of minutes from a huge number of interruptions. Startup mentor Terence Mauri puts it simply: an 8-hour workday is only 480 minutes, and if you get interrupted (or interrupt yourself) every five minutes, that’s 96 interruptions a day. Get clear on why you’re building, plan backwards from the result, stop waiting for perfect and guard your attention like it’s the scarcest thing in the business, because it is.

Terence is a coach and startup mentor who works with ambitious leaders around the world. He spent his first career in advertising with major brands, did an MBA at a crossroads, then moved into coaching and mentoring. When I asked him what the problem area is for most startup entrepreneurs when he first meets them, he didn’t say money or marketing. He said focus.

“I think there’s an unprecedented level of distraction, which makes it very difficult to stay focused on what really matters,” he told me. He calls focus “a hidden driver of entrepreneurial success.” I’ve thought about that line a lot since.

The 96 interruptions you don’t notice

Terence’s math is the kind that makes you put your phone face down. In those 480 minutes you have to prioritize, deal with emails, phone calls, meetings and interruptions. One interruption every five minutes works out to 96 a day. “You can see very easily that it would be very difficult to really focus and get things done if you’re constantly being distracted,” he said.

When he explained that to me, I was going through my head like, what did I do today? And when I really sat back and thought about it, I was distracted by emails coming in, messages coming up on my phone, Facebook. I’d go into Facebook to look for one thing, maybe a picture I needed, and the next thing I’d got a notification or a message. It’s so distracting, right?

That’s the honest version for most of us. Nobody plans to lose the morning. You just open one app for one reason and come out 20 minutes later with nothing done.

The fix starts with seeing it. For one day, keep a tally every time you switch away from the thing you meant to be doing, including the times you interrupt yourself. The number is usually higher than you think. You can’t protect your focus until you know where it’s leaking.

Too much information, not enough attention

Terence pointed to the economist and cognitive scientist Herbert Simon, who won the Nobel prize and famously wrote that “a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.” Terence’s version was “too much information leads to a poverty of attention,” and his point was that there’s a battle for our attention going on. I told him that quote was going to stick with me, and it has.

His bigger point was about ideas. “It’s good to come up with ideas, but it’s about really then implementing the idea and sustaining the idea,” he said. That’s where distraction does the real damage. It doesn’t stop you having ideas. It stops you finishing them.

I’ve written before about being addicted to information instead of execution, and this is the same trap from another angle. Every new podcast, post and notification feels like progress. Most of it is just more input competing for the attention you need to execute.

Start with your why, because you only get about 960 months

When I asked Terence what he’d tell someone stepping into personal development, he gave me a three-point plan. Number one was purpose: be very clear about who you are, what your values are, what your mission is and what excites you. That clarity, he said, gives you the energy and the fuel to spark all sorts of opportunities.

Then he hit me with the numbers. “I’m a numbers man,” he said, “and I’ve worked out that if we’re lucky, we have 960 months to live.” That’s 80 years. By his estimate we sleep for about 300 of those months. “I can see everybody now just like quitting their jobs and going traveling around the world,” he joked, but the point was serious. Time is limited, and you can use that to force clarity on what you want from your months.

This is basically memento mori for founders. When you genuinely remember the clock is running, it gets a lot easier to say no to the stuff that doesn’t matter. Focus isn’t only about blocking distractions. It’s about knowing what you’re saying yes to.

Plan backwards, then beat your inner perfectionist

Terence’s second point was to think backwards. Begin with the end in mind, then plan back from it and work out what success specifically looks like along a timeline. “Break it down, break it down, simplify it, and create a plan,” he said.

His third point was the one he called most important: overcome your inner perfectionist. “Everyone has this inner perfectionist which will keep stopping you from doing what you should have done yesterday and the day before,” he said. “The world will never be perfect, so you’ve almost got to get started.”

My reaction was pretty blunt. Get your butt in gear. Start getting addicted to success. Perfectionism looks like high standards, but most of the time it’s just a polished reason to not start. And when you’re not working on the real thing, you’re far easier to distract.

Clarity of focus: one thing, done well

When I asked Terence what takes a startup from good to great, he said speed, and he tied it straight back to focus. He pointed to companies like Airbnb, Uber and WhatsApp as examples of speed to market, fast execution and clarity of focus. “They all say they only want to do one thing and do it well,” he said.

He told me Airbnb’s Brian Chesky kept his strategy on half a page of A4 paper. I can’t confirm that detail, but the principle is strong. If your strategy doesn’t fit on half a page, you probably have too many priorities, and too many priorities is just distraction with a business plan.

He also told the story of how Uber’s founders were frustrated waiting for a taxi in Paris and decided it wasn’t good enough. A problem, turned into a solution, then executed fast. I said those companies all seem to disrupt their industry. So look at what you’re doing and ask how much impact you’re really going to have in the industry you’re playing in.

Learn faster, fail smarter, risk braver

When I asked what separates a losing entrepreneur from a successful one, Terence named two things. The first was passionate curiosity: having a point of view on trends that are exciting and trends that are threatening, and taking intelligent risks.

“One of the pieces of advice I give to entrepreneurs is really we’ve got to learn faster and fail smarter,” he said. “I’d add to that we need to risk braver.” Paired with that is the discipline to execute ruthlessly. Curiosity without focus is just browsing. Curiosity with focus becomes a product.

Sisu: the grit to face the angry bear

The second thing Terence named was the ability to deal with setbacks. He came across a Finnish word while working in Finland: sisu. It means resilience and grit. He described it as “the ability to face that angry bear outside your door,” whether that bear is your competition, your own fears, self-doubt or failure.

I loved that. Sisu. “We need more sisu in our lives,” Terence said, “so that we grow through that adversity rather than let it defeat us.”

When I asked how entrepreneurs build that kind of courage, he pointed to Jan Koum, the co-founder of WhatsApp. Koum left Ukraine as a teenager with his mother, and the family relied on food stamps. His mother later died of cancer. He went on to co-found WhatsApp, and when Facebook bought it for about $19 billion, he signed the papers outside the social services office where he used to collect food stamps. Terence said Koum’s story is about taking productive pauses, reflecting and remembering you can take strength from hard times.

Terence also told me about his late grandfather from Italy, who’d been through two world wars and sustained injuries but still got back up, stayed in the moment and stayed generous and kind. “In life we all have to face our own Everest,” Terence said. Another mentor of his had a favorite saying: “We’ve got to eat problems for breakfast.” I asked if he told him that in Italian. He did, Terence said, and then they ate croissants and sipped cappuccino.

Why does this belong in a piece about focus? Because setbacks are the biggest distraction of all. A bad week can pull your attention for a month if you let it. Sisu is what gets you back to the work.

Keep thinking like a startup as you grow

When I asked what startups waste their time on, Terence talked about processes that go stale. Going from a hundred people to a thousand means refreshing your processes, systems and policies, getting rid of some and replacing them. Most companies don’t. “What defines their success at the beginning can become a very damaging Achilles heel later on,” he said.

I once heard Tony Hsieh, the late Zappos CEO, put it as the bigger the ship, the harder it is to steer. I’d rather have a jet ski or a small speedboat I can turn quickly. Big isn’t always best. You want to move quick and adapt to the changes around you.

Terence pointed to Blockbuster and Kodak as lessons in not listening to the market and not changing enough. “If you put your head in the sand, this is what happens,” he said. I threw MySpace in there too. Every outdated process is one more thing pulling attention away from the work that actually matters now.

Grow your posse so you’re not carrying it alone

Terence credits his networking for some of his best work, including time spent inside McLaren, the Formula 1 company, where he said even the building was designed to promote focus and collaboration. He calls it growing your posse, and he says everybody needs three kinds:

• A personal posse: friends and family who give you emotional support.
• An operational posse: the people you work with day to day.
• A big ideas crowd: people you may not know personally but who should be on your radar, because they bring new information, knowledge and opportunity.

I said it’s like strength in numbers. Link with people, collaborate, and you become more powerful. When we’re kids in the playground, we go up and introduce ourselves to random kids with no shame at all. As we get older, it almost feels weird to do it. Terence called that the inner critic at work. Your posse helps you focus too, because the right people pull you back to the important stuff when you drift.

Think 10x, not 10%

Terence talked about moonshot or 10x thinking, which he associated with Google. Most people chase a 10% or 15% improvement, he said, and that kind of thinking is status quo driven and consensus driven. It’s imitating, not disrupting. 10x thinking asks what you could do to make something dramatically better. I’d had Grant Cardone on the show not long before, and his book The 10X Rule is all about this.

Here’s how that connects to focus. You can’t think 10x while answering 96 interruptions. Big thinking needs uninterrupted time.

Read for strategy, not just inspiration

When I asked for his cornerstone books, Terence said anyone who wants to keep growing has to be a fast learner and go for breadth and depth. His first pick was Good Strategy, Bad Strategy by Richard Rumelt, which he said is about being more strategic and focusing on prevention, “not just being on the back foot every day.” He also recommended Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg for networking and growing your posse, and All In by Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton for staying energized and delivering on your promises.

That first one is the focus book in disguise. Reacting all day is the opposite of focus. Strategy is deciding in advance what you’ll ignore.

How to stay focused as an entrepreneur: a checklist

1. Track one day of interruptions, including the ones you cause yourself.
2. Write your purpose and values in a few lines you can actually remember.
3. Count the months, then decide what you want them to represent.
4. Plan backwards from the result and break it into steps.
5. Fit your strategy on half a page and cut what doesn’t belong.
6. Ship before it’s perfect, then improve it.
7. Expect the angry bear and decide in advance how you’ll get back to work.
8. Refresh processes as you grow so old systems don’t eat your attention.

FAQ

How do you stay focused as an entrepreneur?

Protect your time from interruptions, get clear on your purpose, plan backwards from the result and start before things are perfect. Terence Mauri calls focus a hidden driver of entrepreneurial success.

How many interruptions does the average workday have?

It varies by person. Terence Mauri’s illustration is that an 8-hour day is 480 minutes, so an interruption every five minutes adds up to 96 a day, which makes deep work almost impossible.

What does sisu mean?

Sisu is a Finnish word for resilience, grit and determination. Terence Mauri describes it as the ability to face the angry bear outside your door, whether that’s competition, fear, self-doubt or failure.

Why is perfectionism bad for entrepreneurs?

It stops you from starting and finishing the work that matters. As Terence Mauri puts it, the world will never be perfect, so you have to get started and keep executing.

What is 10x thinking?

10x thinking means aiming for an improvement many times better instead of 10 or 15% better. It pushes you past imitation and status quo thinking toward ideas that can actually disrupt an industry.

When your to-do list keeps growing, taking a break can feel like the last thing you should do. There’s always another email to answer, deadline to meet, or problem that needs your attention. But working longer doesn’t necessarily mean getting more done. Your ability to concentrate, think creatively, and make good decisions matters just as much as the hours you put in.

Spending more time outdoors could help. Research suggests that natural environments can support attention, psychological well-being, and certain aspects of creative thinking. For entrepreneurs, professionals, and anyone pursuing ambitious goals, making time for nature may be a practical way to work more effectively.

1. Spending Time in Nature Can Help Restore Your Focus

Have you ever spent hours staring at your computer, only to realize you’ve barely made progress? Mental fatigue can make even straightforward tasks feel difficult. One explanation comes from attention restoration theory, which suggests that natural environments can help replenish our capacity for directed attention. Unlike busy workplaces and crowded streets, nature often captures our attention without demanding intense concentration.

Berman et al. (2008) investigated this concept through two experiments comparing natural and urban environments. Their findings showed improvements in directed-attention performance after participants walked through nature or viewed photographs of natural scenes. These results suggest that natural settings may help people recover from mentally demanding activities.

You don’t need to plan an elaborate outdoor adventure to give yourself a change of scenery, either. Try spending part of your lunch break in a nearby park or taking your afternoon coffee outside. If you enjoy longer outdoor breaks, practical equipment from brands such as Ozzi Gear can make it easier to sit comfortably during camping trips, picnics, or quiet afternoons outdoors. The important thing is creating opportunities to step away from demanding tasks and give your attention a different kind of environment.

2. Outdoor Breaks Could Help You Think More Creatively

Creativity isn’t limited to artists and writers. Entrepreneurs need it to identify opportunities, managers use it to solve problems, and professionals rely on it to develop new ideas. Yet creative thinking can become difficult when you’re constantly switching between emails, meetings, and urgent tasks.

Sometimes, walking away from a problem is more useful than forcing yourself to find an answer. Research by Oppezzo and Schwartz (2014) provides an interesting explanation. Across four experiments, researchers examined how walking influenced creative thinking. In one experiment, 81% of participants showed improved performance on a divergent-thinking task while walking compared with sitting. The researchers also found that walking outdoors could support creative idea generation.

Importantly, the study showed that walking itself played a significant role. The findings don’t mean that simply being outdoors will automatically produce better ideas. Still, they offer a useful strategy for overcoming creative blocks. When you’re struggling with a difficult decision or brainstorming session, try taking a short walk instead of continuing to stare at your screen. You might return with a different perspective, even if you haven’t found the perfect solution.

3. Time Outdoors May Help Reduce Mental Stress

Stress is sometimes unavoidable when you’re pursuing meaningful goals. Tight deadlines, financial responsibilities, and challenging decisions can all place demands on your mental well-being. The problem arises when stress becomes persistent and you struggle to switch off.

Time in nature may offer an opportunity to interrupt unhelpful patterns of thinking. Bratman et al. (2015) investigated whether walking through natural environments could influence rumination, a pattern of repetitive thinking focused on negative experiences or concerns.

The study involved 38 participants who were assigned to walk for 90 minutes in either a natural or an urban setting. Participants who walked through nature reported reduced rumination and showed changes in brain activity associated with this pattern of thinking. Those who walked through the urban environment didn’t demonstrate the same effects. Although the study was relatively small, its findings suggest that natural environments may offer psychological benefits beyond simply providing a change of scenery.

For someone managing a demanding career, this matters. Taking time outside can create a useful boundary between work-related concerns and personal time. You may find it easier to approach challenges constructively after giving yourself space away from them. Of course, outdoor time isn’t a replacement for professional support when stress becomes overwhelming.

4. Better Well-Being Can Support Sustainable Productivity

Productivity is often measured by how much you accomplish in a day. However, maintaining consistent performance over months and years requires looking after your well-being. Working through exhaustion might help you meet an occasional deadline, but it’s a difficult approach to sustain.

Nature could play a useful role in developing a healthier routine. White et al. (2019) examined data from 19,806 adults in England to investigate the relationship between time spent in nature and self-reported health and well-being. The researchers found that people who spent at least 120 minutes per week in natural environments were more likely to report good health and high well-being than those who reported no nature contact.

Interestingly, the association was observed regardless of whether participants accumulated that time through one longer visit or several shorter outings. However, this was an observational study. It identified an association rather than proving that spending two hours outdoors directly improves health or productivity. Nevertheless, the findings provide a useful starting point for people wanting to spend more time outside.

Two hours per week could mean a weekend walk, several visits to a local park, or a combination of shorter outdoor activities. Rather than treating relaxation as something you earn after completing every task, consider making it a regular part of your schedule.

5. How to Make Outdoor Time Part of Your Productivity Routine

Understanding the benefits of outdoor time is one thing. Finding space for it in a busy week is another. Fortunately, you don’t have to completely reorganize your lifestyle. The most effective approach is to start with manageable habits that fit your existing commitments.

Take Your Breaks Outside

Instead of spending every break scrolling through your phone, head outside for ten or fifteen minutes. Find somewhere comfortable, put your phone away, and give yourself permission to disconnect from work.

Turn Some Meetings Into Walks

Not every meeting requires a conference room. If you’re discussing ideas with a colleague or having an informal catch-up, consider walking together.

Save meetings involving confidential documents, detailed presentations, or extensive note-taking for a more suitable setting.

Schedule Outdoor Time Like Any Other Commitment

It’s easy to postpone outdoor activities when other responsibilities appear more urgent. Choose a regular time for a weekly walk, picnic, or weekend outing, and add it to your calendar. Treating it as a planned commitment makes it less likely to disappear from your schedule.

Match the Activity to Your Needs

Different activities serve different purposes. A brisk walk might suit someone who wants movement after sitting all morning. Quietly sitting in a garden could appeal to someone looking for a mental break.

If you’re feeling exhausted, there’s no need to turn your outdoor time into another performance challenge. The objective is to create a routine that helps you feel better prepared for the rest of your day.

Pay Attention to What Changes

After spending a few weeks incorporating outdoor breaks into your routine, reflect on the results. Are you finding it easier to concentrate? Do you feel less mentally drained? Are you approaching difficult tasks with more patience?

Keep expectations realistic. The benefits will vary depending on your circumstances, workload, environment, and the activities you choose.

Conclusion: Sometimes, Doing Less Helps You Accomplish More

Success isn’t simply about filling every available hour with work. It’s about using your time and energy effectively. Research suggests that interacting with nature can support attention, creative thinking, and psychological well-being, all of which are relevant to maintaining a productive lifestyle.

That doesn’t mean an afternoon outdoors will solve every workplace challenge. However, regularly stepping away from demanding environments may help you return with greater focus and a fresher perspective.

Start with something manageable. Take a short walk after lunch, spend part of your weekend at a park, or enjoy a quiet moment outside before beginning your next task. Sometimes, one of the most productive decisions you can make is to give yourself permission to stop working for a while.

References

Berman, M. G., Jonides, J., & Kaplan, S. (2008). The cognitive benefits of interacting with nature. Psychological Science, 19(12), 1207–1212. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02225.x

Bratman, G. N., Hamilton, J. P., Hahn, K. S., Daily, G. C., & Gross, J. J. (2015). Nature experience reduces rumination and subgenual prefrontal cortex activation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(28), 8567–8572. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1510459112

Oppezzo, M., & Schwartz, D. L. (2014). Give your ideas some legs: The positive effect of walking on creative thinking. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 40(4), 1142–1152. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0036577

White, M. P., Alcock, I., Grellier, J., Wheeler, B. W., Hartig, T., Warber, S. L., Bone, A., Depledge, M. H., & Fleming, L. E. (2019). Spending at least 120 minutes a week in nature is associated with good health and wellbeing. Scientific Reports, 9, Article 7730. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-44097-3

Here’s how to get guests on your podcast when your show is still small: give them a clear return on their time. Land one recognizable name, even if it costs you something, then use that name in every invite after it. Track what you send their way and show them the numbers. Then keep showing up every week, because guests check whether anyone’s actually listening.

Mike Dillard is an online marketer and the host of the Self Made Man podcast, which has passed 2.5 million plays and downloads. Crazy stuff. He had me on his show as one of his very first episodes, so it was good to return the favor and bring him onto the Addicted2Success podcast.

We covered a lot: his automated hydroponic garden, webinars, skill sets and what self-made really means. But the part I keep coming back to is how he books people like Tony Robbins and Gene Simmons. Mike warned me his answer might be “a little disappointing.” It wasn’t. It was just honest.

Why big guests say no to small shows

Mike put it simply. For a big guest, “it’s simply a matter of ROI for them. Is coming on your show and spending an hour with you worth their time?”

Then he gave the math. “If you’ve got an audience of 3,000 people, probably not. But if it’s 300,000, the answer is yeah.”

That’s the chicken-or-the-egg problem every new host runs into. The bigger the show, the easier it is to get bigger guests. But how do you build a big show without big guests? Everything below is about breaking that loop.

I like that he didn’t sugarcoat it. A lot of advice on this topic tells you numbers don’t matter. To the people you really want, they do. An hour of their time is expensive, and you have to make it worth it.

Know why your show exists before you pitch anyone

Mike’s first point surprised me. Before you think about guests, he said, “you have to know what your actual objective for the show is.”

He didn’t start Self Made Man to build a giant podcast. He was deep in building a hardware product and couldn’t disappear on his audience for two years. A podcast let him “deliver value and to stay in front of my audience on a regular basis” without eating his time, because the guests deliver most of the content. “I just have to show up for an hour a week and that’s it,” he said.

He also had an advantage most people don’t. The day he launched, he says he had an email list of about 300,000 people. He’s never advertised the show, he doesn’t monetize it, and he doesn’t even ask guests to share it.

That matters for you. If you already have an email list or a customer base that wants to hear from you, a podcast is, in Mike’s words, “a fantastic way to continue to communicate with your audience.” If you’re starting from zero, your plan has to be different, and the rest of this article is that plan.

One more thing he does that’s easy to copy: prep. Mike says he does 30 to 60 minutes of prep before each episode, and more for a big name. Right before we spoke, he’d spent about an hour and a half researching Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian for his own show. Guests notice. If you want the on-air side, this guide covers the essential elements you need to deliver a spectacular podcast interview once they say yes.

Land one VIP, then use them in every invite

This is the strongest idea in the whole conversation. Mike calls it “a credibility game.”

Get one recognizable guest, he said, then put that name in your invitations to the next guests. “Hey, by the way, Damon John and Tony Robbins and Gene Simmons have been on the show previously.” Suddenly you’re “a much safer bet” for the next person. They think, “Oh, okay. This is a real show. Sure, I’ll be on.”

He was open about what it took to get those first names:

• Persistence. Mike says he reached out to Tony Robbins “about nine or 10 times until he said yes.”
• Paying for access. He says his team paid Gene Simmons’ PR firm “a couple of grand” to get Gene on, because a guest at that level would “take the show’s credibility to a new level.”
• Help with booking. He says he pays two people a per-episode fee to book guests. They know exactly who he’s looking for.

His advice on the first VIPs: “even if you have to go out and pay a PR firm or whatever… to get those first VIPs, then do it.” Each big name makes the next one easier. He called it an “upward spiral of credibility.”

Put some skin in the game

I liked that Mike was transparent about paying for it to happen. Some people won’t say it out loud, but in a sense, you may have to put some money down and make that investment.

It’s how I got Gary Vaynerchuk. He was a fan of Addicted2Success and knew about us, but that still wasn’t enough. His book was coming out soon. So I said, cool, I’ll buy 50 copies. I think I got a special price, and it came to about a thousand bucks.

Then I flew to New York for it, because I was like, all right, I’ve got this interview with him. I filmed the conversation and pulled the audio from that for the podcast. The video now has 120,000-something views organically on YouTube, and the podcast episode got maybe 40,000 to 50,000 plays.

Here’s the part that matters. I still have people who come to my events and buy my products who tell me, “I first saw you on that Gary Vee interview.” I’ve already made the return on that investment. That’s what a long tail looks like when the guest is the right one.

Mike said he’d done the same thing with Gary and gone even deeper, buying a much bigger batch of books, though he couldn’t remember the exact figure. And he made a point I agree with completely. “I don’t deserve Gary’s time,” he said. “I can go and earn it and support him.” You’ve got to earn whatever you want.

He told a story about a stranger who saw his ad and messaged him on Facebook asking how to build an e-commerce store. Mike said that was like asking Elon Musk how to build a rocket ship. When the guy accused him of only being in it for the money, Mike’s answer was: “If you want my time, become a customer because they’re the ones who deserve it.” Big guests think the same way about their hour on your show.

Keep it legitimate. Buying a guest’s books or paying their team’s fee is fine. Being shady about it isn’t. Be upfront with your audience if a booking involved money.

Show guests what’s in it for them, then track it

If you’re going the podcast route and you’re ready to commit for a two-year minimum, start tracking what you send your guests. Find a way to track link clicks or people going to a page for someone’s book.

Here’s what I do. I promote an article with the episode’s embedded player in it and a link to the guest’s book on Amazon. You can set up an affiliate link or a link shortener and track the clicks.

When Daniel DiPiazza launched his Rich20Something book, I set up a link for it. I sent about 1,500 people to his Amazon page, and we sold about 120 books. Daniel’s like, this is dope, man, I want to do more things with you to see if we can move more books.

And because I measured it, I can now show other authors how we track it and what kind of numbers we get. That makes them more inclined to say yes. Everyone’s favorite radio station is WIIFM: what’s in it for me? You’ve got to find how you can exchange that value.

The social proof guests check before they say yes

Mike says guests look you up before they agree, and he does it himself. When people invite him onto their podcast, he checks their past episodes. “If… they don’t have any activity there, I’m just like, I can’t do it, man,” he said.

He boosts every episode on Facebook to keep that page looking alive. He says he spends $300 to $500 a week, and his episodes typically show 10,000-plus shares. A potential guest who lands on that page gets “a very different impression” than one who sees 50 shares.

He was also honest that the likes don’t always turn into listens. Some episodes got 30,000-plus likes and maybe 20,000 downloads. For him, the boost is about staying in front of his audience every week and showing proof, not a growth hack. Those are his numbers and his budget. Spend what you can afford and watch whether it’s doing anything for you.

I’m the same on the other side. I stopped saying yes to every new show. When someone just starting out asks to have me on, I ask them straight away, “What’s your numbers?” Or I’ll ask, are you willing to push this? Because I’m giving you an hour of my time, and if it gets zero plays, or one play, it’s not worth it. I want to reach more people.

Mike has a filter for this too. When very young entrepreneurs ask him onto a brand-new show, he tells them to get their Facebook fan page to 5,000 fans first, then call him. One of them did it about a year later, and Mike said, “Awesome, brother. Let’s do it.”

That’s not gatekeeping. It’s a test of whether you’ll actually go out and do the work.

Commit for two years or don’t start

When Mike was planning his show, he asked Lewis Howes for the secret. According to Mike, Lewis told him that unless you’re willing to stick with it for at least one to two years consistently, don’t even bother starting. At least once a week, for two years, or don’t bother.

Mike says that turned out to be true, partly because podcasts have a very long tail. Episodes from his first couple of months are still being downloaded dozens of times a day, he says. “It’s not like an email where within 3 days it’s gone forever.” Get to 100 episodes and those downloads add up.

He also says about 90% of new podcasts won’t last a year, so if you make it to three years, “just on that alone, you’re going to be in the top 10% of your niche.” That’s his estimate, not a study.

Friends used to come to me asking how to create a website like Addicted2Success. I’d help them, and three months later they’d give up and say, “This is crap. This isn’t working. I’m not making money from my ads.” I’m like, are you serious? I didn’t make any money for at least the first 15 months. You’ve got to be patient. Mike loved that. The waiting keeps the crap out, and it’s a good filter.

Mike’s warning: don’t start just another interview show

This was the most honest thing he said. “If I was starting a podcast from scratch, I don’t think I would,” Mike told me. The market is crowded, and he says an interview format alone gets lost: “it’s being done a thousand times every single day right now and you’re just going to fall into the noise.”

His advice is to make sure there’s “an aspect of it that’s incredibly unique,” based on experiences or value you already have. If you don’t have that, he wouldn’t put time into a podcast as your main platform. If you have an existing audience or customer base, it’s a great idea.

It’s blunt, but that’s why it’s useful. Mike says it’s not the beginning of any of these platforms anymore, so you’re going to have to be creative and dogged for the next couple of years. Make sure there’s a reason people would pick your show over the thousand others.

How to get guests on your podcast: a step-by-step plan

1. Decide what the show is for. Serving an existing audience or building a new one changes everything about how you pitch.
2. Find the unique angle. Give guests and listeners a reason your show isn’t just another interview format.
3. Book one name people recognize. Ask more than once. Mike asked Tony Robbins nine or 10 times. Budget for it if you have to, whether that’s books or a fee.
4. Use that name in every invite. Past guests are your credibility ladder.
5. Track and report results. Clicks, book sales, downloads. Show guests what they got, and show the next guest what they’ll get.
6. Make your episode page look alive. Guests check. Promote every episode so the proof is there.
7. Prep for every guest. Mike does 30 to 60 minutes at least.
8. Show up weekly for two years. Most shows quit. Outlasting them is an advantage on its own.

FAQ

How do you get guests on your podcast when you’re small?

Give them a return on their time. Land one recognizable guest, mention them in every invite after that, track the clicks or sales you send each guest, and keep publishing weekly so your episode page shows real activity.

Should you pay to get a big guest on your podcast?

Sometimes it’s worth it. Mike Dillard says he paid Gene Simmons’ PR firm a couple of grand, and I bought 50 copies of Gary Vaynerchuk’s book. Be upfront with your audience about it, and only spend what you can afford.

Do podcast guests care about your download numbers?

The big ones do. Mike Dillard says it’s simply a matter of ROI for them: is an hour with you worth their time? Many guests check your past episodes and engagement before they say yes.

How long does it take to grow a podcast?

Plan on at least one to two years of weekly episodes. That’s the advice Mike Dillard says he got from Lewis Howes. Episodes have a long tail, so downloads keep adding up as your back catalog grows.

Is it worth starting an interview podcast?

Mike Dillard says only if something about it is unique, or if you already have an audience to serve. A plain interview format is being done a thousand times a day, so you need a clear angle to stand out.

You can program your subconscious to solve problems with a handwritten question and a long walk. Steven Kotler’s method is to handwrite the question at the end of a work session, go do something low-grade and physical, skip the TV, then come back and write “The answer to my question is…” and keep the pen moving.

Steven is a multiple New York Times bestselling author. He wrote Abundance and Bold with Peter Diamandis, The Rise of Superman, and Stealing Fire with Jamie Wheal. He came back on the Addicted2Success podcast after our first conversation about flow, and this time I wanted to go deeper into brain chemistry and all sorts of crazy stuff.

To be honest, I’d only skimmed Stealing Fire before we sat down. What grabbed me was the practical side. Steven works with Navy SEALs and extreme athletes who get results the rest of us call luck, and I wanted to know what the entrepreneurs listening could actually start implementing.

The method above is the part I’ve thought about most since. It makes more sense once you see what he thinks is going wrong first.

Why you’re training skills when you should be training states

Steven calls our default setting “21st century normal”: tired, wired and chronically stressed. He says it has a biological signature. The prefrontal cortex, right behind your forehead, is hyperactive, brain waves sit in the fast beta range, and there’s a steady drip of stress hormones like cortisol.

Then he said the line I’d underline:

“A lot of the critical skills we need, we’re lousy at because we’re trying to train up skills, and what we need to be doing is training up states of mind.”

That hit me. Most of us respond to a hard problem by grinding harder at the same skill. More hours, more coffee. Steven’s point is that the state you’re in decides how much of your brain you even get to use.

What changes in your brain when you get out of your own way

Stealing Fire looks at what Steven calls non-ordinary states, like flow, meditation and awe. His research claim is that they share roughly the same pattern. The prefrontal cortex quiets down, brain waves drop into slower alpha and theta, and the stress chemistry gets replaced by feel-good chemicals like dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin and endorphins.

He says you feel four things when that happens:

• Selflessness. Your sense of self goes quiet, and the inner critic shuts up with it.
• Timelessness. You drop into what researchers call “the deep now.” He pointed out that most of our fears aren’t present tense. They’re about the future or the past.
• Effortlessness. Motivation goes through the roof.
• Richness. Short for information richness. You trade conscious processing for what he calls the adaptive unconscious.

That last one is why the method works. He put the conscious mind at roughly 120 bits of information at once, “depending on whose calculation you like,” and the subconscious at around 400 billion bits a second. Treat those as his figures, not lab measurements. The point is that the part of you that isn’t “trying” has far more horsepower.

The 200 pages Kotler still can’t explain

Steven told me his favorite “what the hell happened” story. His third book, A Small Furry Prayer, came back from his editors with a note: they liked the first 100 pages and he needed to rewrite everything after that.

He’d never had writer’s block in his life. He reached about page 110 and stopped dead. By July he was in a panic. At the end of August he still hadn’t written a word past page 110, and the book was due in October.

Then a friend invited him downhill mountain biking. He bought used hockey pads at a thrift store, and by the third run he was so deep in flow he was ready to drop $10,000 he didn’t have on new gear.

He went home and thought, maybe I’ll try writing. He wrote 200 pages in two weeks with no time to edit. When the editor’s notes came back, the first 110 pages, the part he’d worked over again and again, were full of corrections. From page 110 to the end there wasn’t a single note.

“I don’t know who wrote it. I don’t have a clue. Couldn’t do it again.”

I know a small version of that feeling. The first speech I ever gave was in front of about 360 people and I hated every second of it. I’d practiced it probably 80 times word for word and listened to a recording of it at the gym for weeks. Then I got up and used my slides as a crutch. I walked off thinking I didn’t know if I’d ever do that again.

Now I speak 10, 12, 15 times a year and I love it. I hate prep structure. I hate slides. I get up with nothing memorized, and some nights I’m thinking, where the hell did you get that from? I want more of that. Steven’s method is the closest thing I’ve heard to a way of asking for it on purpose.

How to program your subconscious to solve problems

Steven called the subconscious “a giant pattern recognition system” and said you can absolutely program it. He does this at the end of every morning writing session. Here’s the method the way he laid it out.

1. Write the question by hand. Don’t type it. He believes there’s a link between writing longhand and the brain, and there’s some research pointing the same way. A 2024 EEG study in Frontiers in Psychology of 36 university students found handwriting produced far more widespread brain connectivity than typing on a keyboard.
2. Make it as vague as it needs to be and as specific as possible. His example: “I want to start chapter two, I want it to be exciting and sexy, and maybe it involves elephants and jugglers and mathematicians.” You’re not writing the answer. You’re giving the problem a shape.
3. Go do something low-grade and physical. A long walk works, longer than 20 or 25 minutes, so the voice in your head goes quiet. He mentioned gardening and building models. Working out works too, as long as you don’t exhaust yourself.
4. Stay away from the TV. He was clear that television is the one thing that wrecks this break.
5. Sleep on it while you’re learning. In the beginning, give it a nap or a full night. As you get better, you can shrink the gap.
6. Come back and write “The answer to my question is…” Then keep writing no matter what. He says more often than not, the answers start showing up.

What an amazing exercise. Steven said most people don’t believe it until they try it. Knowing it is worth nothing. You have to run the experiment.

He also pointed to Josh Waitzkin, author of The Art of Learning. Steven said Josh has high-end Wall Street finance clients do a version of this at every break: write a question, go to the gym, come back and answer. As you get better, the cycles get shorter and it becomes a rhythm for the whole day.

Is the subconscious always right?

I asked him straight: there’s more power in the unconscious mind, so practicing habits that tap into it is better for entrepreneurs, am I correct in saying that? His answer was “yes and no.”

He sent me to Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking, Fast and Slow. The fast system is powerful, but it also houses your danger detector and loves shortcuts that don’t always work. What I like about the handwritten question is that it uses both. You think hard first, then you hand the problem off.

Take state breaks instead of going hard the whole time

When I was writing my own book, I noticed I had to get up and take breaks. The flow slows down, you get up, and you let it oscillate like that. Instead of just trying to go hard the whole time.

Steven takes that further. He writes from 4 a.m. to 8 a.m. on his small farm, then walks across his fields to the house, where his wife runs their animal sanctuary. If he’s totally burnt out when he walks in, he says he’s awful.

So now, before he goes up to the house, he finishes the session, writes his question, and does something state-changing. A 15-minute meditation. Five minutes of box breathing. Breath of fire. Yoga if he can’t get there any other way.

“I no longer try to inflict myself on the world really at any level if I don’t have my states of consciousness managed properly.”

Box breathing is his quickest tool: a 5-second inhale, hold, exhale and hold. He said that as you stretch the hold after the exhale, around 7 seconds is where most people start to panic. By focusing through it, he says, you’re turning down the fight-or-flight response and making yourself less reactive over time. That’s his claim, not medical advice, so if you have a heart or breathing condition, check with your doctor before you play with breath holds.

I’ve seen this up close. We were filming for a movie in Denver, and before Tony Robbins went out to speak at an event, he was in the bathroom doing breath of fire. If he still manages his state before he walks out, the rest of us don’t get to skip it.

If sitting still for 15 minutes sounds impossible, this guide to meditation for beginners is a decent place to start.

Every peak sends you a bill

I once watched Rajon Rondo highlight clips before I went and played basketball. I scored something like 36 points. I was shooting from behind the three-point line and it was still going in. The ring looked massive. Boom, boom, boom, the whole game.

That night I had the biggest crash. My body had been pushed so far that I woke up the next day feeling like I had a hangover.

Steven said that’s what the science predicts. The neurochemicals behind these states are expensive for the brain to produce, and big peaks drain the supply. His line was simple: you can have these big states, but they’re expensive and they need to be followed by a recovery period.

At the Flow Genome Project, he said, one of the first things they do with organizations is put people on sleep monitors to make sure they get eight hours a night. Most founders do the opposite. We have one great day and try to repeat it the next morning on four hours of sleep.

Why I’m not chasing the shortcut

Stealing Fire describes what Steven calls a $4 trillion underground revolution of people trying to change their state of consciousness, from Navy SEALs and Wall Street traders to biohackers and Burning Man. Some of those people use psychedelics.

That side of the book gets the headlines. It’s not something I’m interested in taking myself. I don’t want to judge anything I haven’t tried, but everything comes at a cost. You’ve got to weigh it up and go, is it worth it or not? Steven’s own point was that different doors into these states differ mostly in time and risk. Nothing here is a recommendation to try any substance.

What I found more useful was his own path. He’s tried just about every door. The ones that work for him are action sports and writing. He’s done yoga for 25 years and meditated for 15. It calms him down and makes him happier. It just doesn’t make him talk to Norse gods. I love that honesty. Find your door. It doesn’t have to be dramatic.

The daily reset: exercise, breathing and gratitude

For every day, Steven named a combination he says the positive psychology data backs: robust exercise, a daily mindfulness practice, a breathing practice and gratitude lists. Positive psychologists usually say three things you’re grateful for. He likes to do 10.

His reasoning: information hits the amygdala, your danger detector, first. He said we pick up about nine negative things for every positive one, and it takes around six positives to offset one negative. Those are his numbers. A gratitude list tips the balance by training you to notice what’s already there.

I practice gratitude every day. People hear it and roll their eyes because it seems so overplayed. There’s a reason it’s overplayed. It actually works. Instead of your brain going to the default, the negative, you’re training it to go to the positive.

Don’t die wondering

I asked Steven for his last 30-second speech to the world. He said it’s a bit of a Flow Genome cliche because they say it a lot, but he meant it: “Don’t die wondering.” You get one shot at this life, you spend a third of it asleep, so the only question that matters is what you’re going to do with the rest of it.

So here’s what I’d do tonight. Pick the problem you’ve been stuck on. Write the question by hand before you finish work. Go for a walk. Don’t turn on the TV. Tomorrow morning, before email, write “The answer to my question is…” and don’t stop. Then tell me it didn’t give you something.

FAQ

Can you really program your subconscious to solve problems?

Steven Kotler says yes. Handwrite a specific question, step away for something low-grade and physical, then write “The answer to my question is…” He calls the subconscious a giant pattern recognition system that keeps working while you rest.

Why write the question by hand instead of typing it?

Kotler believes there’s a link between handwriting and the brain. A 2024 EEG study in Frontiers in Psychology found writing by hand produced far more widespread brain connectivity than typing, which supports doing this step with a pen.

What should you do while your subconscious works on a problem?

Something low-grade and physical. Kotler suggests a walk longer than 20 to 25 minutes, gardening, building models or a workout that doesn’t exhaust you. The one thing he says ruins the process is television.

What is box breathing?

Box breathing is a 5-second inhale, 5-second hold, 5-second exhale and 5-second hold, repeated. Kotler says focusing through the hold helps turn down your fight-or-flight response over time. Check with a doctor if you have a heart or breathing condition.

Why do you crash after a flow state?

Kotler says the feel-good chemicals behind flow are expensive for the brain to produce, so big peaks drain your supply. He says these states need a recovery period afterward, including proper sleep, or you pay for it the next day.