Bob Frady is the Co-founder and Vice President of Guidewire HazardHub, a game-changing provider of API-driven property risk insights that are revolutionizing the P&C industry.
As a kid, school was his safe haven. It was his sanctuary, where he found solace in the familiar routine and orderliness that surrounded him. Eventually, he made his way to Cornell University. His first job was a daunting one: working in a massive call center at Putnam Investments in Boston. He later relocated to California and his hard work ethic paid off when he launched his first startup, which experienced some success. His second venture, HazardHub, was even more successful.
Under Bob’s visionary leadership and following Guidewire’s acquisition in 2021, HazardHub has adopted a technology-driven approach and established itself as the insurance sector’s fastest-growing provider of geospatial risk data.
Routine | Focus On What You Can Control
Bob Frady is a true believer in the power of focusing on things that are within his control. This approach empowers him to take charge of each day with confidence and determination. By narrowing his focus to what truly matters, he has unlocked the door to greater success. Here are some of his routines:
- Wake up early and make his bed
- Dedicate 30-45 minutes to personal time, such as reading a paper, playing a game, or reading a book
- Live by three tenents
Success
Bob Frady believes that success is like a puzzle where each piece must fit perfectly together. It entails doing things you are exceptionally good at and taking pleasure in it. His unwavering focus , diligent hard work and trust in himself have led HazardHub to earn a coveted spot on the Inc. 5000 list, securing an impressive ranking of no. 272 in 2021.
Book Recommendations:
Breakfast with Seneca: A Stoic Guide to the Art of Living by by David Fideler
Connect With Bob Frady
Website: http://hazardhub.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hazardhub
Transcript
Hannah Mitrea 0:04
Hello, everyone, this is Hannah, your host, and you are listening to the Success is Routine podcast. Our show is on a mission to talk to leaders in life and business that have achieved success and to learn what their routine is, if you’re ready to create your routine to success, you’re in the right place. Now, let’s get started. Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Success is Routine podcast. I am super excited to have Bob Brady is the co founder and CEO of HazardHub before they were bought in 2021. And they were acquired by guidewire. And so now, Bob, you’re the Vice President of HazardHub with the acquisition. So welcome to the show.
Bob Frady 0:45
Thank you very much. It’s a pleasure to be here.
Hannah Mitrea 0:47
I’m excited to learn from you. I know we had our pre-call. And you know, we just kept talking. So I have no fears that we will have a lot to say, and a lot to share with any everyone. But before we get started into your routine and that success that you’ve had, and share this a little bit about you.
Bob Frady 1:04
I am the youngest of six children. So I know how to eat quickly. People are always amazed at how fast they go. They have five brothers and sisters, and they all are hungrier than me. Born and raised in Boston, I went to Cornell University. I moved to California about 25 years ago, HazardHub was my second startup. And the first one did pretty well for a while but the second one did much better. You know, got a couple kids, three kids and beautiful wife boop all living the dream.
Hannah Mitrea 1:31
Awesome. Yeah. And you’re Palindrome just like I am. So Bob. Yeah. palindromes, it’s my grandma’s boyfriend growing up was named Bob. And so if that’s what you tell me all the time, it’s how we were both palindromes. ago and
Bob Frady 1:46
it’s, it’s a shame how the name has kind of faded out in terms of popularity these days, but it’ll make a comeback and 34 years.
Hannah Mitrea 1:53
Yeah, it’ll everything makes a comeback. You’ll be back. Don’t worry, your grandchildren or great grandchildren will be named happy. I know we’re gonna be talking about routine and kind of the success that’s led for, but share with us like, growing up, did you have routine you life? Was it something that was, you know, around you?
Bob Frady 2:11
Well, when I was a kid is very chaotic. There were eight of us in a three bedroom apartment with family constantly coming in and going out extended family as well. So my sanctuary was school study, I’d go to school. I mean, I still play sports, I had conduct fun and all that stuff. But school was what gave me some level of old routine. You don’t get up, go to school, do your work, come home, finish your work. You know, do your chores. It sounds
Hannah Mitrea 2:41
like you like school, which is very untypical for most people creating their team. Well, I think
Bob Frady 2:48
that people gravitate towards things that they’re good at. And I was a tiny little kid with a big giant head. Luckily, school was the way that I got rewarded. You know, my brothers and sisters were good at different things. I was great at school. So when you get rewarded for things, you tend to gravitate towards the board. If you have things that make you feel real good, then you gravitate towards those. So yeah, for me, it was school. That was how I sort of got my reward set.
Hannah Mitrea 3:13
And then you went to college, and you still have that routine. So what was that routine shift, then whenever you go from a school academic sense, to this freedom and business sense where you’re kind of on your own? Well, it
Bob Frady 3:26
was it was interesting going to college because I lost my routine. My memo when I was a kid would just keep yourself really busy. So not only school, but athletics and just being outside all the time, I was constantly busy. And when I went to college, I lost some of that and struggled my first year in school finally filled my calendar up again, kept myself very busy. Everything took care of itself, you know, and ended up doing pretty well. But it was a loss of routine. And then when you graduate, back when I was graduating college, it’s a little bit different than it is now where you go into work at a call center, my first job big giant call center investments in Boston. And so you have the routine forced upon you a little bit and yeah, you have a lot of freedom. And that’s where you know, some of the lessons that I’ve learned and some of the bits I’ve gotten into now I sure wish I did them before because it would have helped more than hurt. I don’t regret anything I’ve done in my life. The value of the gray hair is sort of figuring things out. You don’t necessarily have time to use it the same way. But yeah, I didn’t have that great routine. In my in my 20s it was, to me the emphasis switched from from school to work. And I had to work really hard in school. I wasn’t the most gifted and students in college high school in college, I had to really work at getting passable grades. So I figured when I was in working like nobody’s gonna outwork me, so I just throw myself into work and I would work as much as I possibly could, you know, I’d had two or three jobs just to fill up. Again, draw up the calendar, and I filled it up at work and you know, have a real strong work ethic and, and it was just a way to keep out of trouble as much as anything else. You know, if you’re if your hands are busy doing something good, then they then started to do something that’s very
Hannah Mitrea 5:09
interesting. Just hearing like the routine kind of was harder to stick to whenever you weren’t as busy. So how do you make that shift then? Because, you know, I can’t imagine you’re working 24/7. Now I hope not overtaking and enjoying lunch? How did you make that switch and your routine to keep it even if your schedule was jam packed? Well, you
Bob Frady 5:31
know, life is a lot like high school or college, where when you were a freshman, you’re overwhelmed by everything. But by the time you’re seeing, you’re starting to figure out some of the shortcuts will you get the effect without necessarily all the work. It’s the same thing with that, you know, my brain never shuts off. It’s very aggravating for my wife, Stanley, but it’s always going, always churning, I let it you know, some of the busyness is just listening to myself, you know, so rather than occupy my time with something else, I just let my my brain go and listen to it, you know, what am I processed into? What am I thinking about? So that time that I would spend doing something else, I spend a little more introspectively in thinking about what I think about because it turns out, I think about pretty good things, things that have resulted in a fairly, fairly good
Hannah Mitrea 6:16
life, my husband pie feels the same way that I’m always there’s always an idea moving. And it’s unclear come as I am pretty good at creating idea, maybe over creating ideas I understand completely.
Speaker 2 6:26
Well, you know, it was it was interesting, when I was younger, I would think of ideas all the time. And then I’m like, I can’t, I can’t actually execute them, I can’t do that. I can’t do this, I can’t do that. Because I was raised in a culture where you don’t get too big for your britches. And so finally, I didn’t choose to start having as much as it was forced upon me. I was it was a side line business with a couple of friends of mine. And I got fired from my job, like, whoa, gotta make it work now. And luckily, as getting fired was investing never happened to me, it couldn’t see like, get up time. But it was one of the best things that ever happened to me. And it’s because, you know, I trusted myself in a way that I would when I was younger, I think young people in general are so concerned with what everybody else thinks that when you finally get to the point your life where you say what everybody else thinks is their problem, not mine. It’s such a, it’s like the lead gets listed on freedom, because as long as you’re not trying to do bad things or create harm for people, then trust yourself, it’s if you think you’re a good person, and you do good things, and who cares what anybody else thinks that’s their problem. It’s your own issues. And so that little last switch was the thing that brought me I think, the most amount of of freedom and success was because I finally learned to trust myself, I finally chose to trust myself, didn’t learn it, I just chose
Hannah Mitrea 7:44
no. And that’s very hard to do to learn to just trust yourself, especially when we are so surrounded by so many external voices and opinions, and things like that. So let’s talk about your team, then how did you build this really, to, you know, success, but also to learn to trust yourself? So what does that routine look like
Bob Frady 8:02
trial and error, life is just a big experiment. You can try things if they work great. And if they don’t, hopefully, don’t kill yourself or run off a cliff or anything like that. But just trial and error. Like I used to be a tremendous night owl when I was a kid. Now as a musician from when I was younger, I played Bard’s Tale, one or two o’clock in the morning. And what I finally figured out is that that’s not good, you know. So my number one piece of my routine is to wake up early, when the sun comes up. That’s how, and you know, maybe I’ll cheat for half an hour, but get
Hannah Mitrea 8:32
it to sleep, and in the winter, then
Bob Frady 8:36
a little more annoying. Yeah, it’s guilt, you know, lying in bed till 1112 o’clock, which a lot of young people like to do, you know, they’re not really mature yet. But as an adult, get up. And there’s a couple of reasons for that. The first for me, is I really like to have time for myself, where I don’t need to be responsible for anybody but myself in that first, maybe 3045 minutes of the day. And if you have little kids, or if you have responsibilities, then you know, that starts at a certain time and you got to get up before that, be ready for it. Just to have some time to read paper, play a game or read a bull or whatever you want to do. Just time for you. So number one, get up early. And now I’m at the point where if I don’t get up early, I’d like I’m like I wasted the day. It really ticks me off. And every once in a while is traveling a lot you need to sleep whatever. But more than once every blue moon wasting time for me. So the first thing I
Hannah Mitrea 9:35
say is what’s being a night owl to being a morning person.
Bob Frady 9:39
You know, my kids joke with me, where I say nothing good happens after 10 o’clock at night. And every year it gets like an hour less so now it’s like nothing good happens after seven at night. And you know when you’re younger you’re already in and all that stuff and you’re having a good time but most of the stuff that happens after say Midnight is the stuff that really gets you in trouble, my stepbrother of the cop. He said only people out after midnight are drunks beads, and garbage men. And like, Okay, I’m not gonna I’m not gonna take your advice. It was a gradual thing. You know, I went through I had a hell of a time in my 20s Oh, my God, I lived Manhattan was fun. But it also got to the point where it’s like, I gotta grow up. You were the trouble out at midnight. Yeah, I was in trouble. So when I got I eventually got buried and you know, that changes things that I had kids and that really key things. So it was more of a, you know, having more responsibilities as a parent that got me into the early morning routine, cuz you can’t stick nibbling, you can get the kids because they’re up early, but alert, get up early. But then the next most important thing, and sounds really stupid. I find it very helpful is to make your bed like get up early, and make your bed least you’ve accomplished something during the day. And now if I if I don’t I get I get agita. If I don’t, if I walk into the room, for some reason, in the beds not made 10 o’clock in the morning, I’m like this stupid, I make it right away. It’s like, there’s, there’s some like general YouTube thing. It’s like make bed, blah, blah, blah. But it’s true. Like at least you’ve accomplished something for that day. Number one you woke up, which is when you’re younger, you don’t really think about that. But when you get older, like gotta be thankful that you woke up. Because the alternative is really very unpleasant. them to make a bet least you’ve accomplished something to start that day. And it gets you started on a cycle of accomplishment. Those are the first two things I do every day. That’s part of my routine. And I think even in even in hotels,
Hannah Mitrea 11:51
oh yeah, don’t make I wouldn’t know to making a bed. It also, it’s like a long term effect in a way too, because then when you go to bed at night, your bed is made, you’re going into a place that’s already created. Like it’s nice. It’s nice, versus, you know, being tired, ready for bed and then having to make your bed just to get into the bed. making your bed first thing in the morning, I feel like there’s so many more benefits than we realize than just making the bed. Because it is that long term effect.
Bob Frady 12:19
I think if you did those two things, if you get up early and make your bed, when you get out, you’ll see changes in your life that you’ve never really anticipated. I don’t know, I can’t I can’t quantify it. I just don’t work for me.
Hannah Mitrea 12:34
And then I know on our pre Cali talks a lot about focus. So talk to the focus comes into your routine,
Bob Frady 12:40
excuse me, for all the noise in the background.
Hannah Mitrea 12:42
I don’t think it’s a you’re good, okay. Don’t yell at the dogs are fine.
Bob Frady 12:48
You know, people can have very busy mind. Like your mind can go in a million directions like, and I like to use the Kardashians, I don’t know which one is which I don’t know who’s doing what I can’t focus on any of that stuff. Because that doesn’t benefit me. If I thought like, if I were in the industry, and I needed to focus on that, then that’s what you want to focus on. Like you have a choice where there’s a, there’s a cup of your thoughts on Infinite is a certain amount of thought. So if you’re wasting it on stuff that doesn’t matter are stuff that you can’t control, then it’s just wasted thought and it’s fun, yada, yada. But it’s wasted thought. And so I focus on the things that I can control, I can’t control other people’s emotions, I can’t control, whether you’re in a good mood or a bad mood when we get on this call, now I can impact it, I can control it now. Or I can have an impact on it. Now I can even control it. Now. It’s and people are so worried about things they can’t control when they don’t even know what they’re having for lunch tomorrow. That it’s like, focus on what you can control. So take what you can control and focus on that impact that and that’s when that’s that’s my filtration system. It’s like, okay, here’s an issue. Can I control it? Yes or no? And if the answer is no, let it go. Or keep an eye out. It made me buy let it go. And if it’s yes, then I take action. And so that focus thought in that in that idea of here’s where I want to go. For example, like if you want to go to the beach, and it’s a straight road, 10 miles straight to the beach from your house. someone’s like, let’s go into town and you know, let’s do this. Let’s go there. I don’t know how I’m gonna order the beach, go to the beach. And it’s the same thing mentally, where depending upon what you want to accomplish, focus on it, think about it. Figure out how you can impact it and make that a habit. It’s like, like, there’s guitars in the background here. I can’t play guitar. I’m a drummer. I can’t play guitars but I like to keep so I keep them around. And as much as I want to play them. I can’t focus on it enough that I don’t like to focus on it and not to be good at it. So I just need to be there for show. And it’s the same thing with So many things in your life, it’s like, can you control it or not, you can’t ditch it. And B, if you can focus on it. And if you like focusing on it, then you’ll get better at it. And you’ll do more of it. But if you don’t like focusing on it, then pitch that to.
Hannah Mitrea 15:15
Yeah, and a lot of things are just like focusing on what you can control. And looking at that and focusing on the things that you actually enjoy doing. There’s kind of two pieces of it. And I think, like, so you’ve probably read the book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Yeah, that’s a big part of that is like focusing on what you can control. And that was the first book in self development I read in super impactful. I talked about it a million times on this podcast. Yeah, I have two copies. There, though.
Bob Frady 15:49
Had you read the book breakfast with Seneca? No, I have read that one. It is a wonderful book, you know, focusing on what you troll, it’s very stoic philosophy, and Stoics aren’t dour, stoics. And emotions. It’s just you don’t focus on what you can’t control. It’s out of your control. And it’s a wonderful book, it takes a while to get through it. And, and even at my age, I read that book a couple years ago, and I’m like, holy cow. This is really some heavy duty stuff. And a wonderful, wonderful book, especially for younger people who might be struggling with, you know, their place in the world, or what they want to do next, it’s like it, I would highly recommend that everyone read that book. It’s highly digestible. But it’s a very, very powerful book. And the whole stork line of thinking is more in tune with, with, with my line of thinking. And that’s hard, though. Because you have your parents and you have new friends, and you have this person younger, that person, you have your spouse, all telling you how you should live your life. But the fact of the matter is, is that the only person in your skin is you, you’re the one who has to deal with all that stuff. So wireless, like take care, you can take advice from people, but you don’t have to actually do what they say, get to do what you think is best for you.
Hannah Mitrea 17:05
And that’s super powerful. Like I did one quick episode, just talking about how, you know, everything we’re talking about in these episodes is for you to take with a grain of salt, and choose the pieces that work for you. But you know, anything I’m saying or you’re saying, you know, it’s what works for us. But it does not mean it’s going to work for the other person inside listening. What they need to do is find those things that listen, I will say listening to the control part, I think will work for everyone be like, but it’s always done what we can control. So I would advise that one. But
Bob Frady 17:41
people sometimes define themselves by, you know, how much advice they dispense to other people. And it’s like,
Hannah Mitrea 17:50
okay, you know,
Bob Frady 17:52
it’s like, I tell people all the time, it’s like, I can’t tell you what’s right, or what’s wrong, I can tell you what I’ve done, I can tell you what’s worked for me or hasn’t worked for me. But you have to filter that yourself and find what lives in you, and then do those things that live in you. And that’s a tough, and then But then you have the freedom to do those things. You don’t have to worry about everybody else making. And it’s it’s a tough day. And you know, part of its aging, you just get to the point in your life. It’s like, I’ve tried to live that life where I’m concerned about everybody else, and it does me no good. So why am I concerned about it. So stop being concerned about and focus on the things that mean something to you, like I have a very basic set of tenants, it’s like I have three tenants. It’s like good husband, good father, good person, those are my three. And if I’m living within those tenants, I feel really good. And if I’m living outside of those tenants, and I’m like, why am I doing that? So like, No, you get traffic and you get road rage or something, it’s like you’re not being a good person. If you do that, like just backup backup live your tenant, that’s the, that’s part of the focus is have a framework to help you focus. So those are Mike’s three, and every thought I have goes through those three. And if it doesn’t meet with those three, then I want to do it, because it’s outside of what I consider to be important to me. And a lot of times when you have a lot of trouble focusing, you got to decide, these are my tenants, these are the things these are to quote the Bible and not that I’m religious, but these are the rocks and Paul, what you build this church. What are your rocks, and those are my three. And and I I think it’s a really good thing to think about. And that’s what morning time is so important. Sometimes you just process through the stuff, it doesn’t come overnight. You kind of grind it, grind it and grind it and grind it until you’re these are the things that are important and live that life.
Hannah Mitrea 19:37
Now that’s really powerful that you were able to narrow down to these three things that you want to be a part of your life. And it’s really interesting. So we just had our intern who got hired on as a permanent employee did it and he goes, what do you expect of me? And I said our core values values, our culture and quality. I expect those two things from you. And that is it. Keep fitting into our culture and keep producing quality content. for our clients, I like I didn’t think of it in that way. When we said it, just, that’s who we are. But to get narrowed down, like these are the things that matter. And as long as you’re falling into these, and if you can do that on a self level, as a really powerful our
Bob Frady 20:15
employee handbook, you will have the repeat it three things in it. Number one is don’t be a jerk. Number two is do the right thing. And then number three was when in doubt, go back to number one and two, they find it very simple. Now, when you get bigger, and you get more relationships, you have to have more guide, run, whatever. But those are the three basic, frankly, I can’t remember a lot of complex stuff. I need to I need to break down as simple as possible, because I’m like, Nah, I’m not doing Euclidean geometry here. It’s like, just give me basic stuff. Give me bytes. Give me headlines. Don’t give me all the detail. I’m not just gonna hit one. So those are my three headlines.
Hannah Mitrea 20:54
On a personal level, did you kind of go these are the three How did you get to that? I didn’t you narrow it down. To say things that matter most.
Bob Frady 21:03
I had a very personal story. And I’ll I don’t tell many people, but I’ll tell you this, because I got divorced about 20 years ago, because I was always chasing the next thing. Like I was never happy with where I was. It’s like what’s next? What’s next. What’s next. There wasn’t in the moment, I was five years in the future. And it cost me my marriage. And so but I worked in the music business, I lived in Beverly Hills, it was very exciting, all that stuff. And then one day and I had two little kids, one day, I was in the pool, and my son wanted by my admin pool and my son was like, cool, cool down, it’s called the pool that I’m like, Girl in the pool. And then he comes running off the edge and jumps into the water with a look of joy on his face. And I was it just dawned on me, it’s like, my priorities are all screwed up. My priorities are wrong, I am so focused on the future. I’m not enjoying today, I’m not focused on things that matter. And I wasn’t focused on that. And it cost me the first time that became, really, I was always tried to be the person that was always there, the good husband, a good father part didn’t come right away. I figured if I just accomplish enough stuff, then everything will fall into line by how it works. You gotta there’s no such thing as quality time. And just time you spend time with people and the quality emerges. But if you don’t put in the time, it’s hard for the quality to come out. So that was the moment where I was like, oh shit, my life trajectory wrong. And I made a conscious choice because I was, gosh, this was 20, almost 20 years ago, 18 years ago, I made a conscious choice, um, shift my Boulder and put new ones in place. And rather than being well known, or being famous, or being anything, I’m just going to focus on these three things I found is that when I focused on those three things, all the rest of the stuff, he was the weird as soon as you let go of all these trappings, then the trappings sort of are like, hey, we need someplace to go, let’s go see, Bob, it’s bizarre. Just focus on the thing, quotes that matter the most, and everything else kind of dog take care
Hannah Mitrea 23:00
of itself. Well, thanks for sharing that story. And you know, it comes down to back to focus, you focus on your son in that moment and realize that that was something that you needed to be a part of you and make sure that you’re paying attention to that. And I think you know, especially with kids, we learned so much from them being around us having them all the things because reading one book, and he even talked about like in that moment, he wanted to jump on the ball. And he could have gotten mad that he splashed when he jumped in and got you all wet. Or you can do it from his perspective of he was having so much fun that moment that he just wanted to jump in, we get to take it and we get to control the narrative and how we respond to it. And so I think it’s amazing that you were said, Hey, I need to be in this moment with him shifted your mindset.
Bob Frady 23:42
It was I’ll remember that day forever, like clear the bell and I wish that I didn’t have to go through it. But I’m glad that I did because it made me a better person. And whenever people get divorced I’m like is there a three year old and Raul because three year old. It’s like just be be present, be focused, good husband is number one because I didn’t choose my children, you know, chose to have them but who they are. They just sort of came in enjoy with my wife. So when I got married the second time, always number one, I focus on my relationship first. And my kids back in the kid is don’t drive the relationship. Now. I love them. I’ll do anything for them. But the number one person is my spouse and the kids listen to kids are part of you. That’s just they just are but you didn’t make a choice to have them made a choice to have your spouse and respect that choice and honor that choice and live up to that choice every single day then you’ll do pretty good. I feel
Hannah Mitrea 24:38
like we are based in line our thoughts about why because I haven’t read recently that my husband I’m he’s my first house man. I’m his second wife too. And he has a daughter and we work on married we both agree that we would always come first in each other’s lives because she wouldn’t be able to see a healthy relationship with for one and two. We were once he turns 18 And she can do whatever she wants, she might not be here, she might go off and explore the world, which I hope she does. But we need to always be each other’s number one, so that she could see what a healthy relationship was. We were always focused on each other. And we told each other this whole times, I’m like, we’re very similar. And
Bob Frady 25:16
oh, well, here’s the other thing. Speaking of habits, somebody gave me this advice one time, and it stuck, is always treat your significant other like you were you were still dating them. And it’s like, if you wouldn’t say that someone early in your relationship, then why would you say it now? Or say it in that particular way? Like you can express yourself pretty clearly without being insulting or getting angry. But would you do that if you were three months in with somebody, it’s like, don’t you wouldn’t, you’d be charged with presto, that’s like, don’t do that. That’s a, it’s a self destruct anger at your significant other, whether it’s a spouse, or whatever it happens to be anger at that person is a self destruct. And you can push it if you want to. But you can’t be surprised when things blow up. And usually, it’s because you’re so concerned with things you can’t control, that all that anger comes through, and wipes out the person who should share with you the most. And it’s it’s I wish I hadn’t learned that lesson. But I’m glad that I did. Yeah, it’s a it’s a tough one.
Hannah Mitrea 26:18
Now, we’re gonna have to do a spinoff episode after this about marriage or relationship. For in everything we do, but let’s talk about the success and how your routine has had that success in your life.
Bob Frady 26:32
The success came from sort of all these pieces clicking together. And there’s one more thing that I do, like, I know what I like to do, and I know what I really don’t like to do. And so in business, I found somebody who liked to do the things that I didn’t like to do, he loves to do. And so together one on one is like 50, because I’m really good at this stuff. He’s really good at that stuff. There’s an overlap, or both good and stuff that made it so much easier on both of us, because the stuff that I like to do, he didn’t have to do. And the stuff that I hated to do he liked to do it. So worked out really, really well. All of this is just relationship management. Yeah. If if you’re, the person you’re with doesn’t like doing something or isn’t really good at it, don’t just tell them to get better at it, just figure out what they’re good at. And you have to do more of that stuff. And that’s how we decided to run the business. And so when you take that, and you focus, and you work really hard, and you get up early and you make your bed, then success isn’t guaranteed. But you give yourself like a 50 yard Head Start and 100 yard raise, want to take it
Hannah Mitrea 27:41
definitely it’s just you’re setting yourself up or that that can be created.
Bob Frady 27:46
Yeah, listen, you can set yourself up while you want, sometimes you still fail, and that hurts. And that stinks. And people are afraid of that hurt. And guess what, not only you can do to regret, like, just get out there. And if you have a bad idea. And for example, if I was going to enter, if my goal was to enter the NBA dunk contest, I’m going to tell you right now, as hard as I work, and as early as I wake up, it’s not gonna work. So make sure you focus on a thing that is theoretically achievable, and then work really hard at it, there’s no substitute for hard work. But the thing is, is that when you’re doing something that you enjoy, and you’re not stuck with all the stuff you don’t like, it’s not really that hard work. You know, we, especially once we got to the point where we could pay everybody and not have to worry about making payroll, it was fun. It was it was who we had a great time I worked constantly, but I never really thought about it his work, I thought of it more as fun,
Hannah Mitrea 28:40
really like all those pieces of it, you know, you can focus as much but if you’re focusing to be the next Mike Phillips probably isn’t gonna happen if you’ve never seen him day in your life, whereas you do focus on something that is achievable to create your success. So you know, the,
Bob Frady 28:55
the other thing is, like people say, do what you love. If you never work a day in your life. It’s like what a punch that person in the face. Actually, I don’t know, you could press that one button. Exactly. See, Ya see, it’s outside of my tenant. Number three, I was like, immediately I went back I like no, I really, I want to tell that person. That’s not necessarily advice that I would give to somebody, I would say for what you’re doing, find something to love about it, that it’s not so bad. Because listen, you I didn’t loved being in the music business. I was a musician growing up, I was in the music business. I loved it. And then I got fired from that job and broke my frickin heart. And so I decided I’m never doing that again. So now I as part of Hazzard hub we collect for fire hydrants are located and it’s fun, like them all over the all over all over the world. Really. I don’t care about it so much, that it’s a piece of me it’s become a piece of it wasn’t an intrinsic part of me, rather than focusing on things you love, because you may love you know, buying video games, but if you can’t make money at it, then you You gotta have struggle. Find something you love about what you do. And if you can’t find any status, you Lo and do something else, you got choices. You have choices. People
Hannah Mitrea 30:12
that buy. Well, I want to make sure I respect your time. So I have two questions for you with Warren Chico. One is what book would you really recommend and a recommended one and I don’t know if that’s the one Bossa one book that if somebody is on this journey of self discovery, creating their routine, learning how to focus with a book you’d recommend they read,
Bob Frady 30:31
that would be the I actually give that book to a lot of people. It’s called breakfast with Seneca. And I think I’m just out I didn’t look, you know, like bookshelf theater seats out of them. And bulk carriers. Like to get breakfast with Seneca, a stoic guide to the art of living is not that thick, though people have to be with short attention spans, you can break it down into pieces. It is by far, the best book I’ve ever read.
Hannah Mitrea 31:02
Right? And so definitely check it out. The next question is, if somebody is listening to this, that doesn’t have any routine in their life, and is trying to find that focus, you know, what is that one thing they need to start doing tomorrow? To start making the steps towards creating that routine to help them
Bob Frady 31:21
get up early and make your bed? It sounds stupid. But it’s it’s true. Those are the two things I would recommend. Attack the day CD isn’t the day. And yeah, you’re and then and I can’t I can’t do just one thing. Complicated. Get up early, make your bed and think about your tenants. Think about the building blocks for your life. What do you want those building blocks to be? And really think about it. Really think hard about it is not just something that somebody else thinks you should have. It’s something that resonates with you, and go do it. You know, one of the things that that we didn’t, that we didn’t talk about, but I wrote down and I want to go through it, when you have stuff to do. Just do it. My wife asked me to take out the trash. I don’t say I’m gonna do a couple of hours to get up, but I go do it. And the reason is, because I don’t want to have to remember it. I don’t want to have to think about it. I try not to lie, because I can’t remember my lines. Like get rid of all that get rid of all that nonsense that’s occupying your brain. But getting stuff done. Plus, it gives you a sense of accomplishment. The house is in a mess. No clue that in someone’s bite me to handle it right away. Just do it. Like Thank you, sir. Just do it. Don’t make any excuses. So yeah, okay, you know what? I take it all back. The one thing I would do? Well, of course, I’d still wake up early and make my bed. But I’d stop making excuses. And you are in a situation because of choices that you’ve made. They could be good, they could be bad. Don’t blame anybody else. Take responsibility for yourself and choose to be responsible for your own actions. Stop laying the blame on everybody else. Those are the three, that three thing it might be like, four or 5456. Wake up early, make your bed, stop blaming everybody else. Those are the three things I would do. And what you’ll find is, you know, listen, you might not go to Mars, but you might go to the Mars of your existence. And Mars is a wonderful thing.
Hannah Mitrea 33:12
You know, everything you said they’re actionable things, it’s not some crazy thing that they have to do even even if you just start with just making your bed. You’re like, like, I don’t know, if I can get up early on it, just start making that bed. Like if you really had to narrow down to one thing do the one
Bob Frady 33:27
is listen, mental health is a real thing. And it’s easy to fall into what I’ll call the gray or the pit. And I think we’ve all been there at one point or another watch. What I’ve come to recognize is that storms pass. But storms pass better if you swim away from the store to do something every day. That gives you some level of accomplishment and the storms don’t come frequently.
Hannah Mitrea 33:53
That’s all bad. Thank you so much for joining us and sharing with us your routine and these just different tips and ways to look at it. To be able to create our team that will create success in whatever way you look at success just on a personal level.
Bob Frady 34:11
Well, thank you, Hannah, my palindromic bow. I am happy I am happy to listen, I wish somebody had told me stuff like this. I probably wouldn’t believe them. But it’s true. Or chromate. Listen to my grandparents of Syrian immigrants. It’s like a you know it’s possible. Everything is possible.
Hannah Mitrea 34:30
Everything’s possible. And I Oh, thank you so much for being here. Like your head. Thank you for listening to Success is Routine podcast. If you found value in this episode, share it with a friend episodes go live weekly on Sunday at 8am During your week with the right routine, like follow and review the podcast on Apple podcast, Spotify, Amazon music or wherever you’re listening. Join the Success is Routine movement and get exclusive downloads and content from the guests go to www.success is routine.com and follow the conversation there or on social media. Until next time, remember, finally
Bob Frady 35:04
get to the point your life where you see what everybody else thinks is their problem. It’s such a, it’s like the lid gets lifted on freedom, because as long as you’re not trying to do bad things or create harm for people, then trust your kids. If you think you’re a good person, and you do good things, and who cares what anybody else thinks that’s their problem. It’s your own, that you have a choice where there’s a there’s a pup of your thoughts. On infant, there’s a certain amount of thought. So if you’re wasting it on stuff that doesn’t matter, or stuff that you can’t control, then it’s just wasted. It’s and people are so worried about things they can’t control when they don’t even know what they’re having for lunch to that. It’s like, focus on what you can control. So take what you can control and focus on that impact that.
