 Hi there, this is James Swannick and you're listening to the Alcohol Free Lifestyle podcast where you learn how to take back control over alcohol and live a life of health, wealth, love and happiness. This is James Swannick. The Alcohol Free Lifestyle podcast is proudly sponsored by my sleep and peak performance company, Swannick Sleep. If you suffer from average or poor sleep in the night or you're staring at screens all day on your computer or phone, then block as much of that harmful blue light as possible by wearing a pair of Swannies blue light blocking glasses. I designed Swannies back in 2015 and have now helped almost 200,000 people sleep and perform better. I like to wear my Swannies in the last hour before I go to sleep at night and while I'm using screens throughout the day. An independent study of people wearing Swannies found that people fell asleep faster, slept deeper and woke up feeling more refreshed. 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If you know you're drinking too much, if you know that your current drinking habits are compromising your sleep, relationships, health and your happiness and you feel ready to finally get your drinking under control by quitting for at least 90 consecutive days and possibly much, much longer, then Project 90 will help you. You'll join a group of other like-minded peak performers whose drinking is currently getting in the way of them performing at their peak. I generate the most success for over 40 entrepreneurs, business owners, top professionals, salespeople, retirees, people who are around that mid-life stage in their 40s, 50s or 60s and have a high-pressured life and want to feel better. If that's you, then you're invited to schedule a free 15-minute strategy session phone call with one of my top quit drinking coaches to see if Project 90 is for you. Now, there's nothing to buy on that free call. It's just an exploratory chat to see if or how we can help you. We'll identify the number one thing holding you back from quitting alcohol and creating the life you want and we'll build you an action plan to get ultimate power over alcohol so you can feel and perform better in all areas of your life. The call is free and your action plan will be free and you'll walk away from the call with the plan that you can implement on your own. If you want our help implementing the plan through accountability and coaching and support, then we can schedule another call to talk about how. If you'd like to go ahead and book that call, you can go to JamesSwanick.com. That's JamesSwanick.com. Or if you're on your phone in the US right now, you can text the word Project 90 to the number 44222. That's JamesSwanick.com. Or text the word Project 90 to the number 44222. Okay, let's get into today's episode. I am JamesSwanick and today we are talking to a business owner who has not drunk alcohol since the late 1990s. So what does that make it? Almost 12 years we're coming up now, I think. No, more than that. I was going to say your math sucks. My math is really atrocious. It's 22 years now since he's had a drink. It's a big welcome to Mick Halls. How are you, Mick? I'm fantastic. I am fantastic. I love it. Now, you're clearly a fellow Australian. We've got a lot of American viewers and listeners here, but you're in Tasmania, which is about the southernmost part of Australia. And you're a coach and a business owner and you gave up the booze back in the late 90s. So just tell us a little bit about why you did that and what's happened to your life subsequently in terms of performance and health and success. Yeah, sure. Funnily enough, it wasn't like one of those things where I need to stop this. I was actually at an old mate Tony Robbins event, Unleashed the Power Within, and I'm about to do the fire walk and so forth. And he took us through a process called the Dickens Patterns, just a visualization process. But before we started, he said, you know, what are some of the things you need to choose some things that you would like to change? And I chose a couple of things and then I thought, but I want to choose something that is going to be significant, not because I wanted to stop drinking, just because I wanted to test this process and see how well his thing worked. And fundamentally, 45 minutes later, going through this visualization process, I hadn't had a drink since. And prior to that, I drank fairly regularly, you know, and probably binged from time to time. But I sort of would have a glass of wine with dinner, which ended up being a bottle sometimes and all that sort of stuff. But sometimes I would go with a week or two weeks and not drink at all. But, you know, I always went back to it. And definitely when I was in the environment with it, with other people drinking, I definitely, you know, join in. But I can honestly say to you that accidental decision was probably the best decision I've made in a long, long time for very many reasons. Yeah. Well, first of all, before I ask you what those many reasons are, what was the impact that you identified your drinking was having on your life right up to that point where you chose to quit? I at that point, honestly, I don't think I had identified it. I didn't identify until down the track after I changed the behavior. When I was drinking, I didn't I didn't think that it was making any difference at all. That that's that was my experience because it was like as soon as I stopped shortly after I stopped, I really started to feel a lot better. And I thought, oh, well, that's good. But then, you know, really started to notice the difference in clarity, in thinking, in sleeping, in weight loss. And just general energy and things like that. And then that, I think, contributes significantly just to behavior and decisions. And it certainly was one of the best things I've ever done in retrospect for for business and business success, for sure. What business were you in back then? And then what businesses or business have you been in since then as well? And how have those businesses been impacted by your decision to be alcohol free all this time? It was kind of the same business. Although right now, you know, Builders Business Black Belt specializes in custom home building businesses. The owners of those businesses didn't only run by a husband and wife team. But back then when when I stopped, I was just a general small business coach. And I'm actually thinking about one of my first building clients back then. He was a client, became a friend, and we used to go out drinking together and all of that sort of stuff. And I found that the example that I can set, the energy that I can bring, the clarity I can bring to conversations has profoundly helped the people that I work with compared to back then. You know, I can I've just got more energy and I think that. And this is just my opinion. I think if you're going to be coaching people, it's it's pretty important to lead by example in in as many ways as you possibly can as well. And and if I'm helping someone to improve their business, I think I need to be implementing as many of the things that I think I can to lead from the front. Yeah, of course, when you remove what I refer to as attractively packaged poison from your life, because that's what an alcohol is, it's attractively packaged poison. You sleep better. You have more clarity, more focus, more energy. You have more peace, you're more you're more calm because you're sleeping better and you've got all those things. You're creating more energy. You're making better strategic choices in your business or in your job or in your life. You're less irritable. You're less likely to snap at your husband or your wife or your kids. How did the quality of your relationships shift from from before when you were drinking to after when you weren't? Well, I think, you know, I give my wife the shits now with certain things. But back then, I think that I might have been an absolute nightmare to to live with when I was drinking, just because. And I really realise that now, because I still hang around with all my mates who still drink and all of that sort of stuff. And we're having a great conversation and then they have a few beers and then they have a few more. And what they start to talk about and what they think is funny, just it changes before your eyes. And I remember thinking I was really funny back then, you know, doing stupid things, maybe saying things that you'd regret or were embarrassed about when you found out what you said. But, you know, I really enjoy now being clear and and I can really own my choices and what I say and how I treat people. And because there's nothing influencing me. And, you know, rightly or wrongly, I think it's it's it's a cop out when somebody says, you know, they've done something silly or something wrong and they blame, oh, but he was drunk. Well, it was like, but dude, no one held a gun to your head and made you lose your your ability to judge, you know, informatively and make better decisions. Like no one made you drink. I don't think it's a fair reason for poor behaviour or bad decisions because you were drunk. What when your friends today or whether it be clients or prospects or colleagues or whoever it is are drinking and you're not. Do they still encourage you to have a drink if they do? How do you respond? And if they don't, why aren't they encouraging you to have a drink? And what are some of the thoughts or comments that they might raise with you? Now and for a long time, no one has particularly friends. They they don't, you know, try and encourage me to drink because it's been so long. They've they've accepted it. Many of them really respect it. People have come to me and asked for, you know, help to to reduce or cut down or stop themselves. But the, you know, the comments that they make, particularly if I've only just met somebody and they say, you know, would you like a drink? And I say, oh, no, I don't drink. Sometimes they ask the question, why? And I just say, hey, I just decided to. I haven't I haven't had a drink for like 20 odd years, whatever it is. And I've got such a great unbroken run now to be ashamed to break it. You know, and it's kind of a lighthearted approach. And they go, that makes sense. End of story. But it's never really a big conversation thing anymore. Like it was right at the beginning with the guys that I used to hang around with. I stopped. They didn't. I was still in that environment. And yes, there was a little bit of, you know, come on, one won't hurt and all of that sort of stuff. But I stuck to my guns and it was pretty easy. It was, you know, going through that Tony Robbins thing. I found it quite, quite easy. And I think just by being consistent and and not getting into a big thing about it, just saying, hey, you know, I just chose not to do us no big deal. I do feel better and I want to keep it going. People go, OK, and off you go. So it's not really a big deal. Yeah. Just finally, have you seen a transformation in any of your your clients and maybe just take this opportunity to just tell us a little bit more about your business and how you help people and where people people listening or watching can get a hold of you. But I'm curious, sister, whether you've inspired any of your clients or friends or or anyone in your circle, quite frankly, to either reduce or quit alcohol and what has been the impact you've seen? Well, that was a very long question. Where do I start? So every single part of it right now, I will, I promise. So business is builders business black belt. And as I said, you know, we're we're business coaches for husband and wife run custom home building businesses. There have been a number of people in our coaching program who have really cut back and some have stopped. The most memorable one was actually my daughter, I guess. You've met her. She came to one of Taki's intensives. Now, she's a diet, health, weight loss coach. And I used to have conversations with her. You know, you're encouraging people about health and this, that and the other. Yet you'll go out and get on the gas on a Friday night with your friends and all of that sort of stuff. I'm confused. How does that work? And she had all of the rationalizations. You know, you've got to relax and you've got to let your hair down. And then she went and did a whole bunch of research about. There really are no redeeming factors. And, you know, we can talk about the poor decisions as we've already done, but from a health point of view also and for what it's worth, the explanation that really clarified it for me was somebody said, hey, remember when you used to go to the barber and I'm old enough to remember when I used to go to the barber and I had some of this stuff. So it was worthwhile back then. And they said they used to dip the combs in that blue jar, you know. And I go, yeah, yeah. And they said, well, that's kind of alcohol. And that they put the the combs and stuff in their scissors to sterilize them. And they basically said, when you're drinking. What that sort of that alcohol is going into your system and it's getting rid of a whole lot of necessary bacteria for good gut health, which is fundamentally the foundation of all of you where your health starts with immune system and all of that sort of stuff. And and you're you're you're reducing the efficiency of that because you're putting this stuff that they used to sterilize combs and scissors in the stomach. Now, it's not quite exactly like that. But just the whole story made sense to me. And I thought, well, yeah, another good reason. But, you know, my daughter, Madison, she hasn't had a drink for well over a year now. And if you ask her about it, it'd be great to get her and talk to her about it on on your on your podcast, because she's gone right into the nitty gritty of it. And in the 12 months, she has noticed massive changes just in how easy it is to keep the weight off, how much more energy she's got, how much better an example she is for her clients. There's there's a lot of good that she's experienced from it and, you know, not missing out on anything at all. I don't feel like I miss out on anything. No, me neither. Thanks, Mick. Where can our listener or viewer get in contact with you if they want to be interested about your coaching business or even if they wanted to maybe shoot you a message and ask you a question about being twenty two years alcohol free now? Absolutely. You can find me on Facebook, so it's just Mick Hawes on on Facebook. The business is called BuildersBusinessBlackBelt.com.au. And if you want to send me an email and ask me any questions about the drinking thing or anything like that, it's just Mick at BuildersBusinessBlackBelt.com.au, which is probably going on for the longest URL. Yeah, a business you could have. It's a real pain in the butt. You've also won the award for the most words on your t-shirt there because you've got business builders. Oh, there you go. You've got stuff on your back as well. If you're just listening to the audio version of this and not watching the video version on YouTube right now, then Mick and I are both wearing shirts with our names across the front because we're so vain that we just love to have our names everywhere. Mick Hawes, thank you so much, mate. Congratulations on your twenty two years alcohol free. I know you don't really think about it anymore, but congratulations anyway. And thanks for giving us some of your guidance on the call. Just on this interview, just a reminder, if you are listening and you do and you're a business owner or you're an entrepreneur or and you're really looking for a performance upgrade, quitting alcohol is certainly probably, in my opinion, the best performance upgrade tactic that you can use if you indeed you are drinking more than what you probably think you should. You can if you're not yet on my email list, you can go to JamesSwanick.com slash guide where I will send you my blueprint for quitting alcohol. But most importantly, staying quit from alcohol. And if you want to just have a free 15 minute exploratory core with one of my coaches, then you can go to JamesSwanick.com slash schedule. And by the way, all of my coaches are former clients of mine. So they're people who actually went into my one of my programs, got alcohol free and are now more than a year alcohol free and are now helping other entrepreneurs and business owners do the same. Mick, thanks again, mate. And I look forward to catching up with you soon. All right, it's been a pleasure. You're doing great stuff. Please keep it up. Thank you, sir. Thanks for listening to the Alcohol Free Lifestyle podcast. I want to load you up with some free stuff right now. So if you want to go to JamesSwanick.com slash guide, I will send you my quit alcohol guide, which has helped six figure entrepreneurs and top professionals produce or quit drinking. You can also text the word quit guide to the number 44222. If you're in the US, of course, it doesn't really work anywhere outside of the US. But if you're in the US on your mobile phone and you'd like that guide, text the word quit guide to the number 44222. Or you can go to JamesSwanick.com slash guide. If you'd like to schedule a free 15 minute call with one of my top coaches, just an exploratory call to see if or how we can help you, then you can go to JamesSwanick.com slash schedule, or you can text the word Project 90 to the number 44222 if you're listening in the US on a mobile phone. That's JamesSwanick.com slash schedule, or you can text the word Project 90. That's one word, Project 90 to the number 44222. Feel free to send me a direct message over on my Instagram account, which is at JamesSwanick. You can also watch video episodes of this podcast and a series of other educational videos on my YouTube channel, which is JamesSwanickOne, or you can direct message me on Facebook at JamesSwanickOfficial. And finally, a request, would you please now write a short review of the podcast inside of the Apple Podcast app on your phone or on iTunes on your desktop computer? Would you please give the show five stars and write a quick one or two sentence review? This will help the show get in front of even more listeners, potentially transforming someone's life. You can rate and review the show inside of your Apple Podcast app on your phone or over on iTunes on your desktop. Thank you so much and I'll catch you next time.