Welcome to Beyond Bathroom Blues Podcast, helping men understand irritable bowel syndrome, IBS, reducing symptoms, and take back control of their health and their life. Each episode focuses on clarity, not quick fixes, so you can stop guessing, make sense of what's actually going on in your gut and your mind, and move forward with confidence. I'm your host, Glencoe Quinchurch. Let's get into today's episode. After 23 years in the army, as some of you know, reaching the highest rank that a soldier can get to, regimental sergeant major, RSM, and then pivoted in 2019 to the path of entrepreneurship and starting an online consultancy business with my wife and business partner Charlie Jean, as both of us entrepreneurs. I want to share with you my top three books that are not business related, they changed my life. And when I say they changed my life, I'm going to give you examples, share stories with you, and actually how they changed my life because so many people out there, and I see loads of videos and have seen, as you probably have, as a as you're watching this, you're an entrepreneur, married like I am with kids, and you read all these self-development books on business and this and that, and people say, Oh, this changed my life, this book changed my life. It's a it's almost as though it's a throwaway comment. And hardly anyone you think you know how did it change your life? What you know, specifically go into detail so I can I can grasp how that book had an impact on you, what parts of it had an impact on you, and why. And I'm gonna share those with you and summarise some key findings and how they could help you as well. So if you're a an entrepreneurial man like I am suffering with IBS, I'm not suffering with IBS per se, but if you are suffering with IBS, not only will the books that I'm gonna share with you have a profound and amazing impact, or they could do, but like anything, you can't just read them, you've got to put things into practice, obviously. They will absolutely help you not just in your life, but they could help you with symptoms of your IBS as well. So don't go anywhere. I am going to share a bonus book with you, uh, which is I'm gonna separate them. So I'm gonna give you my top three, and then as a fourth one, you could argue it could be a business self-development type book, an amazing book, 30 odd pages, you can blast through it in a few hours. And I've read it, I'm on the third or fourth read at the moment, uh, as we speak, and I'm going through that again. And actually, reading it this time has made me realise. I said to my my wife CJ, I said, every man, every entrepreneurial man, high-performing man with IBS should read this book. I'll save that to the end and I'll share why. So, without further ado, why listen to me? My name is Lenco Quinchurch. I'm a former RSM after 23 years full service in the British Army, reaching the highest rank and getting shed loads of medals and whatever else and awards. I left the army in 2019 to follow my what at the time my wife's dream and purpose in helping men with IBS, high performing men, not just not women, not children, not just men, specifically because men are all shapes and sizes, obviously, but specifically high performance and entrepreneurial men. Why? Men are underserved, men, and I believe, and my wife believes as fellow entrepreneurs as well, that we are here to change the world and have a positive impact on the world. But as I've shared in previous videos, it all starts with you, it starts with us, and we've got to do work on the inside, physically and mentally, before we can do create positive work on the outside. My wife has been helping, dare I say, over 1,200. There's a specific number some ways, like 1,200 men with IBS uh over her past 10 years experience. So you're in the right uh place for the right help. If you that if that cap fits you and that description, then don't go anywhere. If you've read any of these books, hit me up in the comments. I've read that one and what you found helpful about it as well. I'd love to hear your comments because it's great chatting about, I feel, books that we've both read and we can share different perspectives as well, because there'd be something I'm sure that you got from it that could help me as well. Uh, and I'm all with that. It's like growth mindset, isn't it, that we can help each other uh with different opinions, different comments and different ideas. Uh, and that's how it was when I was in the military as well. It when we we used to discuss tactics on how to destroy you know an enemy position. I could think it's left flanking or right flanking, whereas somebody else in my team or my platoon could say actually straight down the middle, or have you thought about doing this and dropping off fire support? And they'd have all these ideas, and sometimes what they have said could add huge value and save lives. And I and I you just don't think of it because sometimes you don't know what you don't know, and we all think differently and see things differently as well, which is which is great. So the first book is Thanks. You can see that there by Robert Emmons, PhD. Silly little drawing on the front. I've read this twice, uh, and there's the stuff high as as with most books, there's stuff highlighted in here and notes taken and whatnot. I had a quick flick through it again the other day before you know when I was preparing this video content for you, and it's how practicing gratitude can make you happier. Now, when I first heard about this book, I thought, and I was I read this just as I was leaving the army in 2019, and I thought, how I'm already grateful. You probably are you're watching this. I'm grateful, I'm grateful for these the video content on YouTube because I watched loads of YouTube videos of entrepreneurs like Alex Hamoser, Myron Golden, Dan Henry, Dan Martell. They'd fall straight off the off the cuff. And you know, shout out to them, thanks for your content, it's amazing, and keep it going. And you know, I've read loads of their books as well. And I'm not going to talk about business stuff today, remember? Uh, for me, I was already grateful, I was already thankful, and took it to a new level. So he was talking about one of the things, the key things in there is to do a gratitude journal and not just write it down, you know, like half-heartedly, not in the moment, and just writing down. I mean, there's things like the five-minute journal that are a great start, and it is a starting point of just writing things down. Now, you think you watch this, you're thinking, I'm an entrepreneur, married, kids, I'm grateful. And I was. How is this gonna like take it to a new level? And I thought that as well. I was sceptical. I was thinking, what a load of gobbledygook, what a load of rubbish. But actually, practising gratitude at a deep level, and I'm gonna go into some hows in a second, makes you happier. The science behind this is proven, make you happier, calmer, you sleep better. Wow, hang on a minute. Are these things helpful for IBS? Of course they are. Look at what what what things can cause IBS symptoms, stress, poor sleep, as well as food. And maybe put the put the food to one side for a moment. And again, this is not health or wellness advice, because I'll leave that to my wife, she's the registered dietitian. But if we can make ourselves calmer and less stressful and happier and sleep better, not only is that gonna positively affect me as an individual, and it all starts with you. Remember that. And then we reflect outwards, it's gonna impact positively my family, employees, if you've got people, a team in your business, your businesses, and it's gonna make you a better operator, a better leader. So there's all these positive things that can happen. And I took it to a new level, and you don't need to go as crazy as well. I'm crazy, I'm like all or nothing attitude in life, all or nothing, and I'll come on to that all or nothing attitude how it set me up for success with this, but it didn't set me up for success with something else I'll talk about in a second. Uh, it was almost cost me everything. He said to do it uh twice a week, and and and twice a week's amazing to get down and get out of journal is write down things that you're grateful for in the morning or in a night time before you go to sleep. And I did both. I did first thing in the morning, last thing at night before I went to sleep. Why not? And I did it every day diligently. I think I missed like one or two days in years, two years plus, to the point where it was all just automatic. You don't need to go two years, you could do six months, you know, whatever. And I've paid it forward so many times and helped, I believe, helped friends out, colleagues with setting them tasks a challenge to do gratitude journaling, and it's not just about writing things down half-heartedly. Oh, I'm grateful for my wife, I'm grateful for my dogs, I've got, oh, I'm so happy I've got a house. Thank you, God, thank you for my ink, my income, money, food on the table. They're just like superficial, and they're a starting point. But you've got to take it to a whole different level because remember, being an entrepreneur, we've got, are we trying to create all this value for people and all this income, and then we're gonna once we've got this money coming in, we've got to decide what we're gonna do with it, whether we buy property, whether we buy stocks and shares, cryptocurrency, or we save some, or we do all this stuff, and whether we reinvest it for uh charity, then philanthropy. So we've got all this crazy craziness going on, but you've got to start with you. Everything starts with you mindset, heart set, and physic you need physical set as well if you want to take it further. There's the three things there, and you know, one of the things that he draws on there is that most of the time things to be grateful for are outside of us, whether you believe in like I do in God and you follow Jesus, or you know, whatever religion, things are outside of us. Nature. How many times have you just every day you walk outside, unless you live live in Dubai, and there might not be any trees, maybe some palm trees, how grateful you are for trees. It's like, what do trees do? Look at the amount of like I'm not into cutting trees down en masse, but wood. Look at throughout history and even today, what what wood does, and paper and all the things that trees provide oxygen, air, they're just the the list is endless when you go into it of how many things you can be grateful for. So taking it to a new level, yeah, and and it doesn't just you know talk about gratitude journaling, he talks about loads of different stuff, and he backs it up with science as well, he backs it up with evidence where they've studied people, they've studied what the effects are. I, as I said before, and before we move on, mentioned it to a friend of mine. Again, I'm not going to mention any names to sort of protect the identity there, and he lost his wife through suicide. Horrible, horrific time in his life, horrific time for his three that they had they've got three children, and he was working full time to be at work and to get a phone call to say you know you need to come home, the worst has happened. And I remember speaking to him, I went to the funeral and we were at the wake. Clearly, he wasn't, and I bought him. I said, Look, I've got your present, I'm gonna give it to your mum, it's wrapped up. Open it tomorrow or in a few days or even next week when you've you know just come back down to reality a bit. You're grieving at the moment, but it's it's a present, it's just a gift, and he was like, Best friend, brilliant, thank you. And that gift was yeah, I think it was leather-bound, Hugo Boss, like designer journal, like plain pages and a pen match it like a really good pen. Anyway, a few weeks passed, and he managed to get on a call and he's like, mate, this this this notebook and pen you've bought me is beautiful, you know, it's really great. Where like what's what's the crack? And I said, Listen, are you up for a challenge? Are you up for me setting you a challenge? Are you gonna commit to something? And I believe it's gonna help you through the phase of your life that you're going in at the moment with grieving, with all this negativity, and I just needed to not only commit to it, but commit to uh at least six weeks of sticking to it every day, and it's only for five, ten minutes, maybe more, and then let me know we'll check in after six weeks. But it's up to you, you don't have to, and he's like anything, anything at the moment to help would would be helpful. So I'd just said, look, grab that journal and pedabous. You don't need to buy anything, you've got the resources, and before you go to first thing in the morning, probably not because your kids are up and they're screaming, or if you get up slightly early before they do, or if that doesn't work, before when you hit your pillow, before you go to sleep, pull out this journal and just write things down that you're grateful for past, present, and maybe future. And he's like, How do you mean now? Obviously, we went into a bit of detail. You know, you could even be writing things down that things that you're grateful for about your wife, the relationship that you had, the three beautiful children that you've got, and then grateful that for your kids' education, for your job, the money, all this stuff, and then just and we we just carried on. And then as the weeks developed, we were talking about it, going deeper, and he was less than six weeks. He said to me, Glenn, this is amazing. This gratitude journaling is amazing. It's just absolutely, I mean, don't get me wrong, that he was still good, even big time. You know how you don't get over something like that in a short space of time, it takes years and years and years. Um, you know, the scars hit hit deep even today. But he said, Yeah, it's absolutely transforming the way I think, the way I see things, the finding gifts in stuff that I wouldn't have normally, you know, and he was then paying it forward to other people, mentioning it on Facebook posts, people he was uh coming into contact with. So the ripple effect of sharing that knowledge, and this is why I want to share it with you today, and I'm spending more time on this book and this thing, because it will have such an amazing impact on your life, and you could pass it on to your kids. I get my daughter, she's 10, and she's got a gratitude journal, and I get her to do it, why not? You know, set your kids up for success. My other son's 25 now, when he was, you know, I'm going back a handful of years, and he actually he was the one that bought me the five-minute journal, which is a bit odd. But again, I got him to do it. I said, listen, do the gratitude journaling every single day, like build the muscle, build the muscle, and it's changed his life, and it's just an amazing thing. If you're doing it already, let me know in the comments. Let me know what you think, how gratitude journaling has affected your life, and also how is it affected if any has it affected your IBS? Does it make it getting through IBS flare-ups any better, any worse? I'd love to hear your comments. Right, without further ado, and there's there's tons of other stuff in there, but that's the main thing. If I was to pull one thing out of that book to pay it forward, amazing book, life-changing. Again, I've got no affiliation to any of these books that I'm recommending today. I don't make any money from this. This is just genuinely me saying that book has 1000% changed my life. It's got me through so much many tough times, if I was to summarise. And I I'm gonna mention uh more about that in a second with the next book. Uh but yeah, wow, unbelievable. This amazing little book here, This Naked Mind by Annie Grace, control alcohol. You're now you're looking at that and you're thinking, oh my goodness, he's he's been to Alcoholics Anonymous, he's an ex-alcoholic, and all that. You you no, absolutely not. However, I read that book not even interested in reading about alcohol, and I'm gonna explain how I come on to it, and then I'm gonna explain how it changed my life again in ways I would never have seen coming. And one of the books he recommended, and I I guess that Annie Grace, I believe, is with ClickFunnels, or she's one of his mentees, I believe. So obviously he was giving her a shout-out as well. But he said, it's one of these books sold, shed loads of copies, give it a read, and there was a few others, so I bought it. Why not? And I couldn't, I'm always in the in the market about learning about different stuff. It's about alcohol, I don't mind learning about something that's health related, and I started reading that book, and at the time I was drinking, not heavy drinking, but on a weekend, like you probably do, or most guys, you know, come Friday, Friday, yeah, it's five o'clock somewhere, Friday lunchtime, glass of wine down the range. Saturday was wine at one o'clock, Sunday, Sunday, you know, cooking Sunday dinner, maybe a bottle or two of red wine. That that was me back then. And historically, I was in the military, as I've said, for 23 years, big drinking culture, huge drinking culture. So my upbringing in life, and I'm going to in a minute, has been drinking. Yours probably, isn't it? You, if you're from the UK or US, every it's it's everywhere. It's like culture drinking alcohol stems around everything, doesn't it? And that is what Annie explains in this book. This is this book is not a case of alcohol's a nightmare, you're a nightmare if you drink, stop drinking, and get to Alcoholics Anonymous if you've got a problem with it and this, that, the other. Not at all. It in fact, it's very much based off if you've read the book in another great book, if you're if you're a smoker or a vapor and you're trying to kick that habit or that addiction, is and I was gonna mention it as a life-changing book for me as well, is Alan Carr's Easy Way to Stop Smoking. Again, great book. I used to smoke 20 years ago. I read that book and I've not had a cigarette since. So there we are, without going on a deep dive about that book. Did it change my life? Well, you know how it changed it because it saved me my health in terms of I stopped smoking, and look at how much cigarettes are today and tobacco. Whew! So that's probably saved me in 20 years. That's probably paid my house off in terms of cigarette money. Anyway, I digress. So it's based off uh if you've read that book, it's very similar to that in terms of how it works, uh, the structure of it, uh, but it's a lot better, it's like 10x. Now, reading that for for me, uh again, the core concept in that is just is just to explain about alcohol. She uses stories about her own journey, she was an alcoholic or she was had a alcohol dependency. And what was scary for me reading that, and bearing in mind, I'm reading this to take notes for me to write my book, IBS Inversion, which is released, and sorry, our next book that we're about to release, IBS in Men, which is authored by uh Charlie Jean. So we we've got these books that are almost finished, but we want to make them impact more people. So we're reading all these books, both of us, to try and gauge what is and I'm reading this, and actually I'm thinking I don't I don't even feel like drinking anymore. I actually felt like felt sick at the thought of drinking alcohol. How mad is that? And what's brilliant, or what was I said brilliant, what was scary about this for me is that you're only one drink away and you don't know which drink that is, you're only one drink away from being dependent on alcohol. An alcohol dependencer, and then you're in a it's you're in a whole world of poo, aren't you? If you've got an alcohol dependency, you're in a whole world of poo, because that's you're addicted, and then you can't get rid of it, and it's absolutely destroying you. Alcohol is a carcinogenic. Carcinic, cancerous, it wrecks your DNA. Now that's not there's bits of it in the book, but again, when I started reading this, I said before I'm all or nothing. So when I started reading this, I'm then checking her out, checking obviously what she's saying is scientifically backed. And what's interesting is when you start then doing a deep dive into alcohol, the effects on the body, the brain with IBS, it's like a can of worms, it's awful. Just even and and and now there's no zero tolerance, isn't it? There's no such thing as one safe drink, I think. It's like crazy what what even just one glass of wine or a beer does does to your health, does to your body, your tissues, your DNA. Crazy. Again, I have I'm not this like against alcohol and people, my friends or family that drink. Crack on. But what's interesting is I went to a wedding, my cousin's wedding, is it last year or the year before in Scarborough? And we were there, big family get together. It was brilliant. Seeing all my you know, my aunties, my uncles, cousins, amazing family get together. I don't see them that often, only every like every few years. And my auntie Denise said to me, You're not, uh, can I get you a drink? I said, Yeah, I'll have a pint of coke, diet coke as well, because sugar and stuff. You're not drinking. Well, no, for a start I'm driving. I've got the car outside, I'm with my wife and daughter, so I'm definitely not drinking because I'm driving. Uh, but it yeah, I don't, I'm not, I'm not, you know, I'm not drinking, I don't drink. She says, What, you don't drink at all? As in you don't drink. No. Oh, are you alright? I was like, do you mean am I alright? I'm gleaming. And it's like the all of a sudden it was almost like I'd said something where I've I was an alcoholic and I didn't drink, and that's the mindset, it seems, in the UK, especially. If you tell someone you don't drink alcohol, wow, it's like you've sworn at them. Uh it's like you've had this massive drama with alcohol. But for me, I stopped drinking. I'll tell you the reason I stopped, and I've shared it before for my health. Obviously, when I had that knowledge, it's like when you've got the knowledge, and then if you don't do anything about it, then it's even more risky, isn't it? Because you've been given the knowledge, the with the wisdom of what alcohol does, the effects on the body, the brain, you the on your IBS. Again, do the research, read the books, and it's it's just a ticking time bomb. And especially now that I'm I'm 49 and I've got health screening coming up for prostate cancer, just a health check, MOT. I've had scares in the past. It's it doesn't look good for a guy, even if you're fit like I am and healthy, and you train all the time like I do, and you you're always working on yourself, you're still open to so many illnesses, especially cancer. And I'm not saying I'm gonna be like got this body armor on and I'm not gonna get anything. I would never say anything as stupid as that, because we're all we're all human, aren't we? We're all but none of us are indestructible. But I wouldn't want to get to the point, and for me personally, and it's uh the the reason, and get anything serious that I could have prevented, if that makes sense, and have to tell my wife and my children that I've been diagnosed with whatever, and I know deep down that even though the doctor's not directly gonna say. You've got this, and it's because you've been drinking alcohol or you've been not getting enough sleep and all the other rubbish. But knowing what I know now and having the knowledge that I've got is obviously that's not helped, and that could be the contributing factor. So just something to think about. Uh amazing book. That's how it changed my life. I don't drink anymore. I haven't drank a touch uh drop of alcohol in wow, when did I tell you when I had my last drink because it's specific European Cup final football, England versus Spain, when we got we got knocked down and come second? That was the last time that I got drunk and had it well, had an alcoholic drink. The next morning I woke up with a horrible hangover, felt really rough, ill, and I was like, grand finale. And that was at the time I was on like the last couple of chapters of this book, and then I finished these couple of the last couple of chapters, done. Uh, when was that two over two and a half years ago, whenever it was? Uh, and I know with certainty, with absolute certainty, I will never touch a drink drop of alcohol for the rest of my living days on this planet Earth. And if you, whether you drink or not, maybe just consider that book. Like I did. I was drinking at the time, I've recommended it to loads of people that drink. I've said, listen, keep drinking. The book even says keep drink, keep drinking, don't stop, just keep drinking. But reading, uh, and I think it's good as well if you're like you say, entrepreneurial man, businessman, and you've got wife, kids. You can educate your kids. This is the good thing, is it? It's that ripple effect. In like I said before, with the the gratitude, help yourself out, help your kids out. It all starts for you, help your kids out. Uh, my daughter now, she's 10. Well, if you think about it, she hasn't seen me drink a drop of alcohol since she was just over seven. She's just turned ten. So seven, and I never used to drink when she was around anyway, because she was in bed early. It was always on a night time when she was in bed. So she's never really seen me drink alcohol ever. Or her mum, because CJ doesn't drink either, we both stopped. How good is that? So her m her world, her the culture that we have as a as a family, and the environments that we place ourselves and our daughter in is zero or very little alcoholic environments. Think if you flick this, flick it round, and she mentions this in the book, and I just want to finish on it's not your fault, it's not our fault, is it? Look, I was brought up as a child, like you probably were. Uh, my granddad's and nan's house at Christmas, everyone was drinking and smoking in the house back then. You know, I'm talking uh early 80s, mid-80s, and just everything seems to revolve around, and it still does alcohol, weddings, birthdays, promotions at work, even funerals when there's the you know, there's the positive, there's the negative association. Uh, you go to a funeral, then you've got the wake afterwards, everyone's getting pissed, drowning your sorrows. You know, like saying, What's your poison? It is poison, it's carcinogenic, it's lethal, uh compound effect. But alcohol is just in everything, isn't it? And then when I joined the army in 1996, oh my goodness, you know, you've got the the warrant officers of the corporal's mess when you get promoted and you go into the corporal's mess, everything revolves around alcohol, promotions, funerals, weddings, uh, some, I don't know, regimental day, like Waterloo Day, celebrating the Battle of Waterloo and Battle of Alma and all these different battle honours, they get celebrated. Queen's Jubilee, Queen's birthday, King's birthday, it's just like crazy alcohol, and then there's mess functions as well, summer summer part air, Christmas function, maybe one at Easter, uh Robert Burns Night. If you know Robbie Burns is the Scottish poet. Burns Night is lethal. Whisker, and anyway, the list is endless. It's probably the same in the US and Canada, and we have just been indoctrinated, it seems, and we are putting our kids through that. It breaks my heart now, because knowing what I know now, is seeing families where they're just constantly drinking, going around to barbecues, getting smashed, and the kids are all then. It's just planting seeds, planting seeds. Oh, mum and dad are getting pissed. Mum and dad are drinking again, drinking again, drinking. And then guess what? When they turn 16, 17, they probably do it before then, like I did. They start drinking. And actually, as a dad, you see a lot of dads taking their sons, especially, turn 18. Yeah, you're 18 now. Let's go to the pub and get pissed. What? Let's go to the pub and absolutely get you drinking beer that's a carcinogenic. Just food for thought, guys. Food for thought. Right, moving on. Remember, I've got one more now, and then we'll uh but the bonus one at the end. This next one is it's weird how I came across this next one because I watched a YouTube video actually. I I love one of my favourite actors is Denzel Washington. Absolutely amazing. I don't think he's done a bad film. Training Day is one of my favourites. If you've seen that, I think he got an Oscar for that one. But anyway, so I'm watching this YouTube video, and then I thought, I wonder, he's really spiritual. He's always talking about his beliefs and positivity and self-development and all this mindset stuff as well. I wonder if anywhere online says like what his favourite books are. Because I love books, you love books. Leaders are readers, aren't they? And as an entrepreneur, and when I was in the military, you don't get to the highest rank without reading loads of books, so it's a habit, a good habit. And I seen someone, I don't know if this is accurate. So, Denzel, if you're watching this, don't quote me on this. Is this little book, and I can never pronounce it, Siddhartha or Siddhartha. There it is, I'll show you on the screen. There we are. Herman Hess. And apparently, this is one of Denzel's favourite books. He's top one, apparently. And I thought, well, if it's good enough for Denzel, it's good enough for me. I'm gonna buy it. It's little, it'll take me, I'll blast through that in ten minutes. Not really, but you know, and it says a beautiful, beautiful story about uh a boy on a a case of transformation, like a hero's journey as you will transform transformation journey with through spirituality, his own self-development through from rags to riches. He meets, for example, I don't want to spoil it too much, but he meets the Buddha in there, so it's back when Buddha was around. Um, Buddha offers to for him to follow him on his journey, almost like Jesus' disciples, and he turns him down because uh Siddhartha believes that wisdom can't be taught, it needs to be experienced. There's a lot of truth in that, isn't there? Uh, even though we can teach wisdom, we need to put that on knowledge, we need to put that into practice to have that wisdom ourselves. So there's some great messages in there, and uh, one thing that was like I think where entrepreneurs will really benefit from this. I know I was in a mastermind group going back a handful of years now, I won't mention the name to protect the again the identity and this, that, and the other. But I was in a big mastermind group in uh it was based in America, but we would it was all virtual through COVID, and there was about five of us, my wife included, inside this group. We had a business uh coach consultant in there, and it you know, we were we're having weekly meeting at week once, twice a week. And I remember in there there was uh two that come together, no names mentioned, two people come to mind. One was a a lady and a gentleman, both millionaires, and both got amazing offers, business helping people, and really nice people, but depressed, not feeling good about like the money, not feeling like they don't deserve the money that's coming in, and not being grounded. Well, first of all, they need to read that, don't they? One of them, as well, actually, in hindsight, was you know drinking quite heavily, he could do a reading that. But the point I'm trying to make is aside from the gratitude, that all this money that was coming in and all these people that they were helping and these offers that they were creating weren't uh fulfilling them inside, and again, everything starts in the inside. That's the pot, there's a there's a pattern, uh theme here. And in the in this little book, there he goes on that journey. As I say, he goes leaves his his dad and he takes his friend with him and he goes on this journey, he meets the Buddha, and he eventually finds a mentor, uh, a business mentor who teaches him and he becomes without again going into detail in this morning for you, but he makes all this money, he's got nice clothes, meets a beautiful woman, Kama or Kamala, whatever her name is, meets her, he's seeing her regularly, she's meant to be amazing, and he's got all this positive this this money, and he's he's got house, jewellery, possessions, and he doesn't feel fulfilled, he feels depressed, he feels like what's next. There's always something next for him. Do you see what I mean? He's always like chasing the what's next, what's next. There's no fulfilment, and that to me was a beautiful lesson within that book and and and story, where he left again, he leaves all that behind, so he starts on the different phases in his life, like we all do, we all go through phases through seasons, and he goes on to this next chapter and it and he meets up with the boatman and by this river, but it starts at the river and it ends at the river, so it's really like it's just amazingly how that book is written, and the you know, and at the end, he ends up being just on his own, he ain't got any money or very little money. He is he realizes he's had a son with the the lady that he was with, she was pregnant, and he he's got this son who doesn't like his dad, he hates his dad, he's rejected him because of whatever he's run away. And the lesson there is you can't help these your kids sometimes with their lessons, they have to fail themselves, they have to you know go through their own path in life. And you know, for me, I've got family members that I don't speak to anymore for for various reasons without going into a deep dive. And again, it's it's not your fault if that's the same with you, and it's that's portrayed in the book, and it's just everything's just wrapped up is like what's inside. It's uh you've got to have you know in your heart and your mind a beautiful little read, Denzel. I don't know if it is your favourite book or not, but I read it online. Grateful that that came along that pops it pops into my life. I would never have heard of that book otherwise, right? How has that transformed my life? Because you're like, Yeah, that's that's changed your life. It really has because it made me see, you don't know what you don't know, but it's made me like once you know something, you can't know it, and it's made me have more of a realisation and appreciation as I'm going through this journey as an entrepreneur with my wife, and we've got our goals in terms of financial goals, the amount of men we want to impact with the um uh the charities that we want to help, and later down the line, philanthropy. We've got all these big goals, these big dreams and visions, right? As you have watching this, and you can't do any of that, first and foremost, without having your health dialed in, which is all these books that I've mentioned, but specifically for this one, you've got to have everything dialed in inside your mindset and your heart set. So if your heart is not in it, purpose, if your mind's not in it, gratitude and being grounded spiritually, uh, not just financially. Everybody thinks financially money is like a byproduct of the the energy without going into like what money's about and the energy and all that jazz, right? It's what you've got to work on the inner workings consistently, and not just a little bit until you feel alright and then sack it. It's working on it consistently, otherwise you'll fall off the rails, and that's where that beautiful little read there, so especially getting to the end and you're going through the stuff that he goes through, and you know, like I say, rags to riches, riches to rags, and and and never feeling fulfilled, and then my own experience in mastermind groups seeing people that are that could do a reading that and putting it into practice. And the the key thing for me is no matter where you are on your journey as an entrepreneur, whether you're at the start as an entrepreneur, you know, you're starting out and you've got all these brash ideas and you're doing everything together with your team, with AI and everything else, is never lose focus on yourself in what's in there, what's in there, and at all, even when the money's coming in, so and I'm talking you can have thousands, hundreds of thousands of millions coming in. Don't just then sack it and just get focused on other stuff that are external. Because guess what? You might be happy and fulfilled for a little bit of time, but as that time goes on, it's negative things are gonna start happening. Right, done. They're my top three. If you've read them, especially that one, I'd love to hear in the comments if you've heard or read that one, because that's like I don't know, it just seems like a random little read for me. The final one is a book that I got, and I was recommended to me by Myron Golden. If you've heard of Myron Golden, if you haven't, as an entrepreneur, you want to check him out on YouTube. He's got uh some again some great content. Uh he's got books out as well from The Trash Man to the Cash Man, Boss Moves. I've read both of them. Uh again, I'm not going to do do any kind of recommendation dives on his work uh in this as because that's business stuff. But he reckons his favourite book is U Squared by Price Pritchett, PhD, who's recommended as I said before, Myron Golden. If it's good enough for Myron Golden, it's good enough for me as one of his best, if not his best book that he's read loads of times. Now it's a high velocity formula, it says on the front for multiplying your personal effectiveness in quantum leaps. Who doesn't want to have a quantum leap in anything? And it's probably reading the reviews before I bought it, a lot of business people, entrepreneurs that have read that and said, you know, they've applied it to their business and they've had amazing results and all this stuff. And I thought, well, that's great, and for for me, my business, but reading it, there's far more to it. Far you can take far more from a quantum leap than just your business. So my belief, without going on a deep dive, is again you've picked up on the the pattern that you should focus on yourself first. You are the priority. Because if you sort yourself out, then everything else falls into place: your family, your business, everything. So you're sorting out your mental health, your physical health, your well-being, your IBS. Your bowel syndrome needs sorting, guys, not just keep trying things that don't work, or keep trying things that might work, or you've you've got to be open to a new solution. That's where this book comes in. What's amazing about this? There's a story at the beginning about a fly. We all like stories, but it's just observing a fly, how they just fly, uh constantly try and get out of a window, and they just keep going and keep going. And they're committed, are they? They just keep going until they they get tired and then they die and they see them dead on the windowsill. But this fly in this specific story, what strikes it to Price Pritchett is if it just changed its its train of thought, as you will, and looked the other way, three you know, 180 degrees, there's a door wide open. And isn't that the case? Normally, if you sit at home and watch flies, they'd be zapping against the window. And we've had the patio door open, they could just fly out the patio door at the other side of the room. It's crazy, innit, to fly away to freedom and live the rest of their life outside, but they don't just keep going against the window until they die. And the point of the story for me, anyway, was that's we're like that in life, aren't we? Without knowing it sometimes, we're trying we're trying this stuff, and it's not through effort, it's not through lack of effort. Because in you probably the same, you're trying to sort your IBS out, and this is where I think the book lands beautifully for anybody wanting to sort out anything in terms of having a quantum leap quantum leap in their health and their well-being. Is we're trying really hard as men to sort out the thing, fix the IBS, try the supplements, keep maybe go to the doctors, the gastro, uh, this, that all these different people, these different stuff, try this different, read these different books, different podcasts, and we don't really get anywhere. We've still got the flare-ups, the uncertainty, um, feeling rubbish. And we it's we're like the fly banging against that window. We're trying our hardest to get through to the other side to have that to have that change. When really the solution is I wouldn't, it's not obvious at the moment, but it's it's there, isn't it? It's it's in plain sight, it's hiding in plain sight, and sometimes you can't see the woods through the trees, can you? And I think that was what landed for me about that story. Anyway, the book is like I said, it's very short, it's only it's like a little pamphlet. You read that in an hour, it's gonna be a bit longer if you you know. Uh, but as you're going through this, is and you want a quantum leap in anything, is to read u squared again for IBS specific. How did that change my life? Because I said it's about and I'm trying to make it about you first. I'm talking about the IBS, and how is it changed? It's changed my life in terms of the way I think. It's changed the way I think about people and see the world, you know, like we're all plugged into the matrix, we're all trying really difficult sometimes. The the ones that do try, obviously, there's people that don't try, or they don't want to try, it's fine, no judgment. But we're talking specifically about the men out there that are trying really hard at something to get a result and they're not getting it. It's just we need that, it's a different way. We need a different way of thinking sometimes. Maybe going against the status quo goes against what people maybe are telling us. You've got so much bullshit, you know, no put intended there, but there's so much shit online, isn't there? About IBS, about do it this way, do it that way, and it doesn't work, it's just that's the bottom line. Again, I'm not scaremongering or anything, but most of it, not all of it, clearly, there's some amazing stuff online and some amazing um information, but mostly it just seems it's all blurred, in it, like facts and fiction, and it doesn't really help us, it doesn't really work. That's not just the same with IBS, it's like that in anything, isn't it? In business, you can you know you pick up a sales book and half the the techniques in there are out of date, or they I don't know, somebody's written it and they haven't got any experience, you've got all this stuff going on. Whereas U Squared tells us we need to take a different approach, look at things differently, and it's the same with IBS. How is it the same with IBS? Well, you've got to ask yourself how how much have you tried so far, like the fly against the window, through trying hard, trying hard, and not getting the result that you're after. Then, and that's what happens, you know, with I say the clients, the uh consultations that Charlie Jean has with her clients when she works one-on-one with them. Most of them, if dare I say, if not all of them, have tried everything and they've been working hard at loads and loads of stuff. That's why they come to her, that's why they come to us to get the outcome uh that they can get. Because here's the thing: sorting out and having a quantum leap in your health and with your IBS is gonna make everything else fall into place, isn't it? If you think about it, what for most guys anyway, all our symptoms are different. You might have constipation or diarrhea, some might get severe bloating, mild bloating. We've all got different symptoms and different issues, triggers. Some people might respond to cutting out certain foods like I did, or then there's the mindset things. Some of you might get triggers or symptoms that can happen in your IBS through stress, through trauma, PTSD, like I had, and through not sleeping properly. So there's all this different stuff that's happening in the gut, in the brain, and we're trying that we're trying really hard. Whereas sometimes we need to think differently, take a completely different approach, and try something like bold, bold actions and to get the outcome. That's it, guys. In a nutshell, if you've read if you've read any of them books, if you've read U Squared, even if it's about business and it's helped you out, again, let me know, drop it in the comments because I'd love to know because you're probably uh helpful for me uh as an entrepreneur. So I'm I'm I'm looking at this in two ways. I'm looking at it for myself, uh, in my business, and my own mindset. It has helped shift it massively in just the way I think and the way I see things as well, uh, which has helped helps me to help you to help other people. Um, I believe, as Opera Winfrey said, and well, loads of famous people have said it, it's our duty as entrepreneurs to pay things forward to help others people. You're on your Sabra Subri said it best, Australian entrepreneur. That you know, you're on your way up in an elevator in life, in business, in anything, you're on your way up. You should press the button and send the elevator back down for other people. And that's all I'm trying to do. That's all we're all trying to do, and we're all at different levels. You probably watching this, and you've got tons more money than me, loads more clients. There'll be some people watching this that you're behind and you're you're lower down than me because we're all at different levels and different journey, whether that's in our net worth, on our fitness, our health, our well-being, every single area we can all help each other out. You can help me out, I can help you out, and that's what it's about. Share, share each other's wisdom and put things into practice, find what works for you. And as the saying goes, you could read these books, you could read any book, but they're they're not going to do you any good or any purpose whatsoever if you just read the knowledge and don't put things into practice. Now, I'm sure that's not you because you wouldn't be an entrepreneur, you'd be watching this and into self-development for yourself and your business if you weren't putting things into practice. But we're all guilty of it, aren't we? Reading the book and going, that was a really good book. What was good about it? I don't know, it was just really good. Or the the classic is it's just sat on the shelf as shelf development, as the saying goes. It's like, I've not read that book yet. And then we get around to reading it and we realise I should have read this two years ago, I should have read this three years ago. It's wow, why did I not read this sooner? Hey ho. Hope that helps. Send a link in the comments. If you like this video, let us know if any of these books dropped or if there's any other books that you feel should be added to the list. Let me know and I will check those books out. And I'll probably, more than likely, I'll buy them. Buy one off Amazon if you recommend it. Let me know why you're recommending it, obviously, and I'll buy it. If you've got an affiliate link to that book where you can make a little bit of money, I will use that link as well to buy the book if I want to buy the book rather than just an Amazon link. Uh, because again, I'm all into we all help each other out financially, spiritually, whatever else. So let me know in the comments. Don't uh guys, before you go as well, as well, check out this other video. I think this other video is gonna be really helpful for you. Uh if this was as well, more specifically, uh, about your IBS. Take care. Thanks for spending your time with me today. Don't take that lightly and our precious time it is. If you found this helpful, follow the podcast so you don't miss future episodes. Until next time, take care, be blessed by the best, and keep moving forward.