Breakfast with Champions – 11 Nov 2022

The Role of Protein Intake and Muscle Strength in Improving Longevity – Yan Yu

Yan Yu, co-founder of Snowhill Science, outlines the importance of muscle mass and protein intake in improving functional longevity. We know that lifestyle choices and factors like fasting, cardio-respiratory capacity, balance stability, sleep quality, the brain, and obesity affect longevity. However, some interesting data is surfacing regarding how our protein intake and muscle synthesis can affect our longevity.

The term macro is mentioned a lot in the context of health, weight loss, and especially for calculating one’s energy requirements and calorie intake. Macronutrients are required by our bodies in large amounts for maintaining body functions and carrying out daily activities. These are carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. Macros offer energy, or calories. While carbohydrates and proteins provide 4 calories per gram, fat provides 9 calories per gram.

Protein is a macronutrient that is essential for building muscle and tissue. We need protein in our diet intake to enable the repair of old cells and to aid in the production of new cells in the body. The basic structure of proteins consists of branches or chains of amino acids. Essentially, amino acids are the building blocks of life.

The major sources of protein are meat, eggs, and milk. Protein can be obtained from plant sources as well, such as beans, lentils, some grains, nuts, soy, vegetables, and fruits.

How much protein do we need, and why might we be under-consuming protein?

The intake of macronutrients is determined in terms of the Recommended Dietary Allowance, or RDA. It’s important to note that RDA is determined based on short term studies, typically lasting only 7 days. These tests are conducted on college-aged students, and hence RDAs should serve only as a guideline, not a rule. Additionally, it’s very difficult to measure how protein is utilized by the body, which is why one should consider the RDA for protein as the minimum amount of protein they should consume, not the ideal amount of protein to be consumed. The RDA for protein intake is 0.8 gram per kg of body weight. 

What’s the quality of the protein we should consume, and how does it matter?

We need about twice the protein intake as compared to the RDA for protein intake. The rate of muscle creation declines with age, which is why we need more protein as we age. Muscle loss is easier as we grow older due to inactivity. While underestimated, this is a serious problem. Crammed schedules, less time for exercise, a lack of proper nutritional strategies, an inactive work-life environment, fat gain, and muscle loss – all these factors contribute to muscle wastage.

Some bed rest studies found that prolonged physical inactivity increases muscle loss by 6-8 times more than those who lead an active lifestyle.Thus, inactivity results in higher muscle loss than leading an active lifestyle. Furthermore, as we get older, it becomes more difficult to put on muscle mass, or muscular hypertrophy, which is only possible with resistance training.

Studies indicate that in addition to the quantity of protein we consume, the quality of protein and the specific amino acid composition of the protein also play a role in health management and longevity. Dietary protein, especially particular amino acids such as methionine, leucine, and glycine, regulate metabolic health, longevity, and aging. Thus, we need a lot more protein intake in terms of different constituent amino acids than the RDA. Scientists are advising the intake of specific amino acids in order to prevent disease and muscle decline.

Several practitioners are still stuck in RDA, failing to accommodate age, gender, and activity levels. Look for a practitioner who gauges your individual protein needs as per your current situation. It’s important for us to develop an awareness of moving away from a one-answer-fits-all RDA.

Why is  muscle strength important in the context of longevity?

Muscles serve two major functions in our body: controlling bodily functions such as heartbeat, digestion, and breathing, as well as our functional mobility. 

Lack of functional mobility can have serious implications, such as weak grip, falling, loss of balance, and loss of mobility. Muscle metabolism regulates insulin and blood sugar in the body. Thereby, loss of muscle strength can result in an increased risk of cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and metabolic syndrome. Low muscle strength is also associated with cognitive impairment and a higher risk of neurodegenerative conditions like Alzheimer’s, dementia, and Parkinson’s. 

Key Points/Highlights: 

• Dietary protein is an important macronutrient and plays a key role in health and longevity.
• RDA is the minimum amount to keep you away from sickness and maintenance, not the specific amount you need for healthy muscle function and functional longevity.
• Preventing muscle loss is easier than gaining muscle mass.
• The quality of protein you consume has a significant role in determining your muscle function and longevity.
• A diet high in high-quality protein containing specific amino acids such as methionine or branched-chain amino acids has been shown to contribute to healthy aging, improved metabolic function, and decreased muscle wastage.

True Wealth Is About Adding Value to The World – Glenn Lundy

God wants you to win. Just look for opportunities to serve by delivering value.

There can be 100 reasons not to do something, but if you believe there’s one way to create impact for hundreds of others, it’s worth doing that one thing. Know that your purpose has weight and that your goals can be achieved. Involve others from your community in your vision and watch it scale beyond your expectations. 

Several times in life, you may not know how to create an impact or how to achieve your goals. You simply do the right thing, regardless of the scale or obstacles you face along the way. Set a consistent morning routine; each day begun with a solid intention can eventually add up to important milestones. 

The more you create, the better your life and business tend to get. You need to have a plan and a strategy to win. If you keep putting forth consistent action and show up, wins are guaranteed. Live your life to be an example. The biggest compliment is when somebody is inspired by you and wants to be you. Be the best version of yourself that you can be.  

Find ways to contribute to the community. What are you sacrificing to impact the lives around you? We can all give back and contribute to making the world a better place. One little action can have a huge impact. Indulge in acts of kindness – it doesn’t have to cost much; a random gesture of empathy can mean a lot to someone. 

When you’re doing something you love, it doesn’t even feel like hard work. Passion makes it easier for us to put in consistent work. It’s important to avoid burnout. Strategize ways to differentiate between hard work, hard play, and hard rest. Balance work with life effectively. Have fun, put systems in place, hire people, and get stuff done.

Key Points/Highlights:

• Don’t look down on humble beginnings; they can lead to enormous impact.
• True wealth involves the giving of wealth.
• Your heart is bigger than your business. Give back to the community and look for opportunities to serve others.
• Don’t limit yourself to achieving it all. Inspire others to fulfill their purpose and serve others as well.

Be A H.E.R.O. and Scale Your Business – Kim Walsh Phillips

What’s the first word that comes to mind when you think of veterans: “HERO.” Veterans are true heroes – they are soldiers; they put others’ needs first, serve selflessly, and shoulder responsibility to impact others without complaining. How can we apply these values to ourselves and excel in our pursuits in life and in business? There is a lot we can learn from veterans. 

Kim goes on to describe the acronym H.E.R.O., demonstrating how we can apply these characteristics to scale our business: 

H: Having a common, shared vision is important for success. 

Veterans have a common vision which they share with others. They all chase the same vision which is to protect their countrymen. They spend considerable time discussing their vision, purpose, and mission with their peers. A noticeable trait amidst veterans is that they discuss ways to service their country and never fail to check on others serving with them. 

Consider how much time you spend enrolling others in your vision. How often does that come up? When you discuss your vision often, your team members feel included and enrolled in it. Your message gets conveyed effectively through them, and you’re able to spread your impact much more efficiently.

 It’s important to enroll your team members or other people in your vision. Tell others that their support makes a difference in the impact you create. Set a goal together and celebrate the wins. As a bonus, it creates a community of super-awesome people that you get to work with. 

E: Everyone matters. 

No one is left behind, despite their shortcomings or setbacks. Veterans pick up the weakest person and carry them along. Generate revenues by creating value for those who can afford your services. Then, create opportunities for underprivileged people whom you wish to serve through scholarships, grants, free coaching, etc. This way, you can ensure that no one is left behind and that there is an incredible impact created for everyone you wish to serve through your purpose and vision.                   

R: Ready to go at all times. 

Veterans eat their meals with one hand because they have been trained to protect and combat. How prepared are you? Do you live paycheck to paycheck or are you prepared for any contingency? Do your leads and sales just happen to come on their own, or are you collecting a list of emails and upselling to your customers by creating customized marketing funnels?

Do you have an alternate way to connect with your audience besides your social media channels? Would it be bad for you if a big social media site blocked you or shut down without warning, or have you already prepared for something like that to happen? 

O: Operate under the “No Excuses” approach.

The reality is that what you do and who you are are entirely dependent on you. You are responsible and in control of your thoughts. We decide what we ought to do and how we act – no one can tell us. Veterans operate under a “no excuses” approach. We have the opportunity and freedom to choose our path and set out to achieve it. What a shame that we sit still and fail to show up due to fear of uncertainty! 

Key Points/Highlights:

• People who don’t have it don’t get it.
• Enrolling people into your vision helps you catapult your impact.
• People who get value for free do not ever value it. Ask people to invest something before doing something for them.
• It’s okay to be scared of the unknown, but you’ve failed already if you’ve never tried.

3 Systems to Help You Drive Consistent Results for Your Business – Justin Konikow

If you care about making more money, enjoying more freedom in life, and wish to feel less overwhelmed, you need systems. Several new business owners focus a lot more on creating the perfect brand story, logo, marketing, etc. and fail to focus on getting their systems in place. 

If you’re in business, you need a system for growth and success. Here are 3 simple yet effective systems that will give you that ultimate freedom and allow you to do the things you want to do in life, while achieving the goals that you wish to achieve:

1. Project Management

A project management tool helps you organize everything that you’re trying to accomplish. It allows you to list all your plans and prioritize your tasks. Whether you are self-employed, a small business owner with no team, or the leader at a giant organization, you need to organize your goals, dreams, tasks, and everything you wish to achieve in a day, week, month, and year. 

Project management allows you to determine who you are, what your goals are, and how you’re going to achieve them. Then reverse engineer these goals, break them down into actionable tasks, and organize them in such a way that you can track them with ease.

 Project management tools also allow you to create checklists and templates that can be replicated for every new task, thus cutting down on the chances of inefficiency and improving your productivity. It allows collaboration at a high scale, reduces the need for constant organization, and allows you to focus on the imminent tasks that require immediate attention.

Some useful project management tools are Trello, Notion for CRM and lead capture, and Asana. 

2. Customer Relationship Management

CRM is an effective system to organize your pipeline and the people you’ll be doing business with. It centers around who you know and where they exist in your business or life. It helps to keep your CRM process simple by focusing only on four elements related to your customers or partners: name, phone number, email, and text. Keeping it simple lets you organize it well and make it easy to export your data.

 CRM doesn’t make you less human and more mechanical; it allows you to be more human and keep in touch with ease. CRM allows you to follow-up on the promises you make to your team members, collaboration partners, associates, friends, mentors, and most importantly, customers. 

Some useful tools for CRM are Salesforce, Keap, Zoho, etc.

3. Marketing plan

You need people in your pipeline. You need to have a strategy in place for how you plan to acquire your customers, and then use the first two systems to keep people in your business pipeline.

For building an organic reach, start by acquiring contacts through your social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. The more you interact with people who fit in your pipeline, the more the algorithms recommend people with similar interests to you.  

Learn how to target customers using Facebook ads and Google Ads to significantly expand your pipeline. Start cautiously with lower budgets and increase your marketing budgets when you get better at generating leads. Divide the allocated ad budget for a day effectively for lead generation, brand awareness, and retargeting. Observe the results and reiterate.

Key Points/Highlights:

• If you lack systems at your workplace, you lack the freedom to pursue the things you wish to pursue.
• If you don’t have the perfect systems for growth, you will fail to scale and wonder why it is so.
• If you don’t have a system in place to keep promises made to customers, you do have a system, which is to not have one and allow inefficiency and chaos to reign.
• If you spend 30 minutes every day learning something new and implementing it into your business using these 3 systems, you can outperform 99% of your competitors.
• Systems are not restrictive; following systems with discipline grants you immense freedom.

How to Monetize and Grow Your Social Media Toward Enormous Impact – Tom Challan

If you knew that you could make your ideal monthly revenue in 3 years from now by just posting video content regularly, would you continue to put in the work consistently and post every day to get yourself there? How much more commitment would you bring to the table? 

Your business’s social media presence can catapult your goals significantly. As a business owner, you may already be kicking yourself for not embracing social media sooner. The question remains: are you ready to act now and create useful content for your brand with the faith and belief that it will bring you the traction you desire.   

Here are some important strategies that can help you grow your social media presence faster and monetize it more effectively: 

Act as if it already is: Act in faith. Believe wholeheartedly that you’re creating something of value and behave as if your content has already gathered the attention of your customers as you intend it to. Your confidence and conviction can persuade people to consume more of your content and buy your goods or services. 

Channel “Ignorance on Fire”: Give yourself the permission to create by breaking free of inhibitions. Resist the temptation to overthink or to hold back. Tell yourself it’s okay to show vulnerability and weirdness. This will help you scale faster because of the lack of inhibitions and indecisiveness caused by overanalyzing. 

Have more fun: Experiment freely. Break free from preconceived notions about how serious businesses need to appear. Your ability to have fun while delivering value shows in your work and content, and people relate more to such content. 

Use your content to provoke an emotion: Assuming you want to work less and make more impact, design your content in a way that provokes an emotion or triggers a useful response. You don’t necessarily need to provoke fear or anger; it could also be anticipation, relatability, or laughter. 

Speed creates quantity: Quantity creates experiences, helps you analyze what’s working and what’s not, and enables you to create quality content at a faster pace. Watch, learn, and do it. Avoid the parts of the process that make you want to overthink and stop you from taking action. 

Innovate, even with a known trend: Bring your special touch to it so it sets you apart. Think about what you can do to ride the trend wave yet be more memorable and create a greater impact. 

Leverage your advantage: What makes you different? What is noticeable about you? Bring that to the forefront and light up the world with your story.  

Key Points/Highlights:

• You’re never guaranteed success in an expected manner. Success comes at unexpected junctures. All you can guarantee is your dedication and consistency.
• It’s not the best that necessarily wins, but the “best known” that gets you traction. 
• Being creative and innovative can expedite growth.
• Get comfortable with being uncomfortable.
• Trolls love to troll. Give them a flaw to make your content even more noticeable.

Write Off Your Life: Tips From A Tax Strategist – Scott Simons

This morning, Scott brought on tax strategist, accounting expert, and business coach Barbara Schreihans, who is the founder and CEO of Your Tax Coach, to talk tax strategies. 

Barbara shared tons of tips and strategies for entrepreneurs. She recommends anyone who is an LLC or a sole proprietor to consider switching to an S-Corp because how your business is structured dictates how you are going to be taxed. LLCs are taxed at the highest rate. If you are an LLC and you look at your tax return from last year, you will see an extra 15.3% listed as “other taxes,” which is really just self-employment tax. If you are an S-Corp, you will be able to avoid most of that additional 15.3%. 

She also says that you should “write off your life.” The tax code is written for business owners, so every time you swipe your card, ask yourself if it’s something you can use for business. If you’re traveling to Disney World, that doesn’t mean it’s a personal expense. If you are networking or taking pictures for posting content on social media, that’s a business expense. If you use your car for business, you can write off the cost of your car, not just the mileage. Barbara suggests looking through your subscriptions to see what you can link to your business. If you are watching Netflix or Hulu or listening to Spotify in the background while you are working, you can write off those subscriptions.

A lot of us try to find the cheapest way out of doing our taxes. But if your mom’s cousin is an accountant or does some accounting on the side, they’re probably not the best accountant out there for you, and more often than not, they’re actually going to cost you a ton of money. When looking for an accountant or an accounting firm, look for their tax strategy.

Key Points/Highlights:

• Follow or Contact Barbara here. 
• Don’t be afraid of having losses on your tax return. If you have a legitimate business expense, put it on your tax return because the losses can offset any other income you might have, and it also shows that you have started your business and are growing it.
• Keep business accounts separate from personal accounts. If you are mingling your funds, they can go back and say that none of your eligible expenses can be written off.
• If you’re not paying a lot for your tax returns, it’s probably costing you tens of thousands of dollars.
• If you work with a tax strategist, they can amend up to three years’ worth of returns and get you refunds. 

Bridging The Gap Between Your Head and Your Heart – Amilya Antonetti

They say the longest journey you will make in your life is from your head to your heart. Most of us have been programmed since childhood to live in fear. We’ve also been programmed to live in our heads. 

You see, the heart is where love lives. It’s where you naturally lived when you were a child, before the fear set in. In that place, we feel like everything is possible and that we can’t fail. But somewhere along the way, we get off track. We shift into our heads because we’re frightened and confused about our environment or the world around us, so we deem the world a not-safe place and come up with the idea that our heads are the safest place to be. 

This idea keeps us living in our heads in order to remain safe and apart from a difficult, dangerous, and unkind world. But doing this only makes us suffer more as we continue to use our heads to try and think our way out of the uncomfortable places we find ourselves in. 

But if you can hold still for a moment, then you can see if you can identify the feeling that you are experiencing. You cannot solve what you do not know. If you are feeling something and you haven’t identified it or given it a name, you can’t move forward to a solution. It’s important for you to know how you feel because, if you’re unaware of it, it dictates every action and thought that follows.

It’s not about denying your feelings and emotions; it’s about acknowledging them so that they can pass through. If you pay attention to them, feelings can be a data point, a point of reference as to whether or not you have a feeling of fulfillment or unhappiness, so that you can recognize where you currently are and how to move forward. 

Key Points/Highlights:

• It’s a fact that you are feeling, but your feelings are not facts.
• You are not your patterns; you are not your habits; you are not your thoughts. Those are just your default ways; they’re not who you are.
• You cannot solve it in your own head. Your mind is what created the problem in the first place. 
• How often does your default mode go right to your head? As you try to make sense of what has already transpired, your mind will be filled with a cacophony of conflicting, emotionally-charged thoughts.
• Identify your busyness so that you know what’s really going on. Busy does not always mean productive; busy means you are running from something.

Show Up No Matter What – David Meltzer

Always show up. When you give your word, always keep it. Show up for those you promised to show up. 

How do you expect things to show up if you’re not showing up? You need to be present and prioritize the outcomes that you want. Knowing what you want is important. You also need to know who can help you get what you want.

Make yourself discoverable. 

To get the discoverability template email;

david@dmeltzer.com

Some important insights to help you scale:

• We always have the ability to push through, no matter how broken we feel. We need to remind ourselves that we are only walking through the tunnel; we are not trapped in it. Time continues to move forward even when things seem to be completely destroyed. Don’t continue to feed the negative, instead seek and feed the positive. Adam Smith

• If you feel the need to reach out to someone, then do it. Find your frequency and put it out into the world. Shawn Walchef

• When you want something, take action toward what you want. You also need to maintain positive expectations while having no attachments to the outcome. Monica Ricci 

• Don’t attach your emotions to the outcome. Attach it to the process and the pursuit.

• Curate the people around you for how you serve them and what you get from them. 

Don’t expect people to give you something they can’t. Do not look for comfort where you receive counsel. Sigga Jagne

Bullet points:

• Show up for those you promised to show up. 
• Make yourself discoverable. 
• Discover your frequency and broadcast it to the world.
• Do not become emotionally invested in the outcome.
• Do not seek solace where you receive advice.
• The more people care for us, the more they are afraid for us.
• Be kind to your future self and do good deeds.

Monetizing Your Content – Dr. Fashion

Learning to monetize your content will help you improve your life and grow your business. 

Be clear about the content you put on your social media pages. Use Instagram filters for your posts because that will help you reach more people. You can also repost your old content so it can reach more people.

Sites like Canva and PicMonkey can help you improve your content for social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook.

You can use Google Trends to find content ideas. You can also use it to compare different topics. It gives you helpful engagement metrics.

AnswerThePublic is another search listening tool you can use to create relevant content. This tool lets you know what your target audience is asking for. Another useful platform that helps you write a thorough, research-based, and relevant article is Answer Socrates. 

You should investigate instructional content and podcasts, among other things, to look for relevant content ideas

Remember to build your email list. You don’t need a website to grow an email list. An email list gives your audience the chance to see something that they might have missed. 

You can use MailChimp for email marketing. 

Networking is extremely important. You need to tap into your community. 

Look into affiliate marketing. You can explore platforms like Amazon to get involved with affiliate marketing.

Bullet points

• Learning to monetize your content will elevate your life. 
• Repost your old content to increase its exposure and reach.
• You need to create relevant and click-worthy content to promote your product or service. 
• An email list gives your audience the chance to see something that they might have missed. 
• Networking is extremely important.