Greg Smith is the Founder and CEO of Thinkific, an all-in-one platform that makes it easy to create, market and sell online courses and membership sites. Greg was working as a corporate lawyer for one of the largest law firms in the country when he launched an online course as a side project. Greg was able to share his passion and expertise with thousands around the world and revenues from his course soon surpassed his salary as a lawyer. Greg and his team at Thinkific power the courses for over 27,000 businesses, that have educated over 12 million students, and sold over one hundred million dollars in courses. I’ll be talking to Greg today about how mindfulness has been part of his love of teaching and how he helps others share their expertise and passion to grow their audience through online education.
Contact Info
Company: Thinkific
Website: www.Thinkific.com
Most Influential Person
Dr. Doug Brackmann - Meditation For Entrepreneurs //www.drdougbrackmann.com/
Colin Powell, Mindfulness Trainer: https://www.watershedtraining.ca/
Effect on Emotions
When I'm able to be mindful, I'm happier, less stressed and just nothing but positive. And so if I'm able to be more mindful, and I certainly am not able all the time, but when I am it just makes the whole day that much better, especially from an emotional perspective.
Thoughts on Breathing
It is the one thing actually that Colin Powell taught us. It is four squared breathing. So you you're breathing in, you're holding, you're breathing out and you're holding after you breathe out and so there's a count on each of those and you can go four seconds on each or five or more.
So I do a lot of that. I did actually this morning on the drive to work.
And then the other thing I do, and I've been doing this as I've been doing any kind of meditation, is I kind of visualize moving my hands of the breath coming in from below me and up and then out and down the bottom and I just kind of visualize that flow of air in and up and then down and out. That's just kind of something I've been doing and that seems to work really well too.
Suggested Resources
Book: Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as if Your Life Depended on It by Chris Voss
Book: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
App: Muse
Bullying Story
I was bullied definitely in school and when I played hockey and when I played soccer and I certainly didn't react well to it. I didn't have any kind of mindfulness practice or any way of dealing with that as a teenager or younger.
I had a couple of times when I reacted really poorly. I think there was one on the soccer field where someone was picking on me a lot and doing some pretty sketchy things on the soccer field and at one point I stopped and sort of kicked him and yelled at him. I think at the break he poured a bucket of oranges over my head.
He just walked across the field from his team to my team and dumped a bucket oranges. So then the next time I saw him on the field I kind of attacked him and yelled at him. So I definitely could have been a lot more mindful there.
I had a few events, one or two in hockey, one or two in soccer and one or two on the playground that really stuck with me. But the interesting thing is what stuck with me, and I tend to be self critical, is how I reacted and how I reacted poorly in the circumstances. It wasn't anything horrible. Nobody got hurt or anything, but I certainly reacted poorly.
And I think it was that poor reaction of mine that caused me to really think about how I could do a better job in the future and be more calm. I'm certainly not perfect if I get into a bad situation on the road or interpersonal. I still can react, but my reactions are a lot more dialed down now. I am always thinking about what's the right way to react?
So someone say, cuts you off on the road and your gut reaction is to flip the bird, but you don't, you smile and you wave. And you sort of say thank you or you know, no big deal, and then they drive off and you feel calm for the re