Welcome to the Adaptive Mindset. I'm Brett Gallant, cybersecurity thought leader and founder of Adaptive Office Solutions. Here, we don't just talk tech, we unlock the strategies, stories, and mindset shifts you need to stay secure, lead boldly, and thrive in a digital world. Let's get started. Welcome back to the Adaptive Mindset. I'm really, really thankful to be on this journey with you all and doing this podcast. I'm taking a step forward today and doing something that's a little uncomfortable for me, but I really believe that when you do hard things, everything becomes easy. I'm doing this podcast today with just me, yours truly, So low, so low that you can't hear me. I'm sure you can hear me because this mic is awesome. Anyhow, I want to just start with sharing a little bit of update on my own personal life, what's going on right now. And I want to dedicate this episode, especially to my mother. My mother has been on her own journey the last month and a half, significant health journey. She's had two major surgeries. She was in ICU three times. And as early as this week, we got news from the ICU team that there was nothing else they could do. And the prognosis was not good. But my mother, the teacher, teacher that she's always been strong, a fighter, hard worker is teaching us all right now by what she's doing right now. Because right now, my mother's getting stronger. She's eating and with the good help of the doctors and the nursing team, there's hope. I think the lesson here today in this episode is to recognize even when we're drowning and things don't look possible, recognize there's always hope, there's always opportunity, there's always a lesson. And I think that's the driving point of the message behind this episode today. But I really want to pay honor to my mother because she's taught me so much and she's been the source of my strength. So I started this podcast to help me grow, but then help people inspire by giving them the tools for their own mindset to grow and expand beyond what they even thought was capable. When I go back to my journey, for a little bit. I started my company Adaptive Alpha Solutions in 2010 after constantly thinking about doing it, and I finally took that leap of faith. What was really interesting about that journey was discovering a couple of years ago, something that I didn't know. I forgot that I did in 2007, I had listened to a Brian Tracy webinar with a client and I had paid attention. And I listened, listened to what Brian said, write down 10 of the goals that you want in your life. And I did that. And the fourth goal was to start my own successful IT company. And when I discovered that notepad last year, I was flabbergasted. I shouldn't really be surprised, because when you write down your goals, you activate something magical. And I'm so thankful that I've done that. I've been on that incredible journey. But along the way, I've had growth in my mindset, in what I thought it was possible. I had shifts, I had down days, I had up days, and all sorts of things in between. If we look back, I look back to where I was, especially in the early days, coming in, and even not so, even recent days, and as little as five years ago, Still coming into work at six in the morning, 6.30, sneaking a few hours in before the kids got up, working in the evening, taking all jobs, being the IT person for everybody. The biggest lesson I learned was to start saying no. I really believe the biggest yes you can say is what you say no to in life. And my life was a reflection of what I was allowing everything to happen. I thought that only I could do certain work for my clients. Only I could contact this person. I was responsible for doing the IT work for this entire community. But what I learned was Letting go and saying no was so important and investing in time management and belief systems of what I believed was possible. Hiring a coach. Coaching has changed my life tremendously. In April of 2020, I was 349 pounds. That was over 120 pounds ago. I made decisions along the way to try to transform that. I would get out for walks. I hired a gym trainer. Tried all kinds of different fads. Nothing stuck. I didn't believe that I could get there, even though I wanted to get there. And finally, Back in October 2023, I was talking to my coach, Dave, and I was so frustrated. I had made big leaps in my company. Revenue was growing. not completely the bottleneck anymore. It was getting there, starting to come along even further. This is 2023 in October. I said to Dave, Dave, I don't have time to go to the gym. And Dave said to me, hey, Brett, you mean to tell me you own your own company and you don't have time to go to the gym? I wish I could say the word I said to him right now, but it's a four-letter word that starts with F. Dave laughed at me. I knew he was right, and I made a decision. Right now, I'm wearing a shirt. Discipline is a decision. I made the decision to go all in on me and start prioritizing me. I built accountability on my check-ins with Dave. I added number five, personal. But also, I started sharing my journey online. I shared my walks. I have a mastermind group that I'm part of, and I started checking in with them. I said, hey guys, I need you to help me. I need to stay accountable. And I also shared this with my wife, who's been my biggest rock and biggest supporter. At first, I like to say I was perfect at first. I wasn't perfect, but I took action. I hired a fitness trainer, I got on a meal plan, and I stuck with it. I yo-yoed a bit, I'll be honest. When I started walking, and I always liked to walk, I loved to hike. But I made a decision that even if everything was going crazy, I would take a 10 minute walk, come back and do some work and then get out again. I'd be out of breath. I even remember going to a client's, traveling for a client visit where I had to ask for a seatbelt extender. So I started this journey taking one step at a time. And I really believe this quote that really resonates with me a lot is, how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. So if any of this is resonating with you, I want you to recognize you have to prioritize you. Your mindset is muscle. Discipline is a decision. I start flexing that mindset, that muscle, and I got up to walking around my neighborhood without losing my breath. The weight started coming off and the identity of who I am started to shine even brighter. I would avoid going to presentations just because of how I felt. Now I seek them out I seek them out so I can present and share what I know and get to meet incredible, great people. I really know that the more I flex that muscle, the more I can help. A gentleman that has come into my world, he shares this quote that I've heard him say, and I share it with everybody now, who is missing out because you're not showing up. So while I've been on this journey for my physical transformation, it was also a mindset transformation. And as I slowly, bit by bit stepped into that new version of me. This new aura, this new confidence, this whole new way of being started shining its light. The way I feel about myself, the way I feel about helping others. I genuinely want to help people. I genuinely want the words that I'm sharing today connect with somebody and I hope that if this episode particularly resonates with you, I would hope that you share it with somebody to inspire and help somebody just like people have helped me. Now, along the way, I've learned some other incredible shifts in just my own belief in how I manage and how I buy back my time. I've learned that Things that don't give me energy. I've written down a list of things that I don't like to do that I'm probably not the best at, and I delegate them. There have been times in the past where, yes, I could do a spreadsheet that calculates certain things for revenue for my clients, but I can't do it as well as my bookkeeper. and I don't like doing it. Something like that could take me two to three hours and my bookkeeper could do it in an hour and she gets excitement out of it. So ask yourself, have you made a stop doing list? Have you done a time and energy audit and say, Hey, is this the right choice for me to be doing right now? And then when I look back at my own journey of what I've done in my own business, We've made this tremendous leap in deciding to transform Adaptive Office Solutions to be a security first company, helping organizations manage their cyber risks. Some people that are listening to this are some people that know Adaptive, know me, may not know the past. We were the IT company for everybody. we would do residential, we would do debit machine replacements, we would drop everything at the beat of a dime. And I remember doing a subcontract job for a point of sale where I started the job early, early in the day, and I worked for 14 hours. for a small amount of pay for my company. I had three other team members that could have done it, but I needed to be the hero. I needed to do it. And what did it cost me? It cost me frustration. It cost me being away from my lovely children. I worked through the whole night. I didn't get to see them to put them to bed. I was exhausted and I wasn't even fully functional the next day. It was a job that I didn't really need to do. It was a job that Brett shouldn't have done. And arguably, it may not have even been a job at the time for our organization to do, but I am a recovering people pleaser, and I wanted to do this to help people. So what I've learned now is doing niches and things that that we excel at so we can focus on it focus on what we do best and Doing cyber security service plans first have been a great shift for not only for brat But for adaptive office solutions and our clients It's been difficult to say no for me I've have a number of clients that we're no longer doing work for, but it was a necessary shift. Like I said, the biggest yes is what you say no to. We handled these transitions fairly gracefully. What I'm thankful for is While right now our values don't align for the companies that were no longer working, some of them were residential, so it wasn't no longer a good fit for Adaptive. It gave another organization in my community a chance to grow and feed their family, which was a big win. And like I said, that was so hard for me to let go of it, but I'm thankful for it. And the old me, if the old me could hear me talking right now, they'd say, oh my goodness Brett, you can't let that go. But yes, you can. So ask yourself, is there something you're doing in your life or in your business right now that you know deep down that you shouldn't be doing? Ask yourself that question and give yourself permission to be really honest with yourself and make a decision. Make a decision at least to move the needle a little forward and see what happens because I really believe fear sometimes holds us back and fear, folks, what I've heard somebody share recently, false evidence appearing real. or face everything and rise. So we have to face our fear. And what I did when I faced my fear of not pleasing people by saying, Hey, we can no longer serve you. A lot of that was all in my head. It was just when I found out most of the time, it was an honest conversation. I said, Hey, we can't help you, but here's another company. And it was great. And they're thriving. Like I said, so I'm really reflective on this journey right now and what I know to be true and what I'm constantly looking back at, at the 349 pound version of me, who is now 227 as of today and still going. over 120 pounds released. I've released them because when you release you don't find. I think I know today is this journey of acknowledging my growth, remembering, giving honor to my mother, who has taught me how to work hard, taught me to appreciate the finer gifts in life. We didn't have it easy, but my mom knew that every hour, every minute that you spent was worth it, putting us through school, getting us to the sporting events. I want to pivot for a little bit and talk about just some mindset shifts I've made in my own journey about my team. really made a lot of transitions over the years. When you operate a company like I've had for over 15 years, the company evolves in what you do and what you believe and what you've learned. I really believe that we have so much opportunity with what's in front of us right now with the internet and AI. The company because the company is shifted and people grow i've had different people come into the organization and. What i've what i've discovered is leading people i've become a better leader i'm not perfect yet. But I really believe in the scouting model that I heard from a good friend of mine who leads a troop in Moncton. He shares this, train them, trust them, let them lead. And I'm working on that more and more every day. So train your team, give them a definition of done. and recognize like what Dan Martell says, 80% done by someone else is 100% freaking awesome. I used to be the bottleneck person that would make the decisions for everybody, but you cannot do that in your own journey, being an entrepreneur or growing a business, unless you're willing to grow and let things go and give people a playbook of an outcome and giving them the autonomy to make a decision. What I do now is I say, Hey, before you come back to me with, well, if you have a question, come to me with two or three possible solutions, and then you can pick that. That's how that's where growth happens. But specifically what I've also learned is as much as I've tried to do everything myself. I've also recognized I can hire people fractionally. I have a VA that helps me a lot with managing my email, helping with getting things to my bookkeeper. I've bought back my time considerably. We've made a playbook for Breckeland. so that I can get 10 to 20 hours of my time back. So I can be more present to work on my company, but most importantly, be more present to be with my children, my wife, my family. And also investing in a content VA that Susan, my content VA has helped me incredibly. It's so, amazing to have incredible people around me and including my team. I have an incredible team and that's the thing folks, you have to recognize that you can keep training your team and sometimes people will fall out and you have to unfortunately realize this, that the reality is the people that got you where you are today may not get you where you need to be tomorrow. Relationships change, unfortunately. And sometimes fortunately, because people have the opportunity to go somewhere else that they can thrive. But I really hope this episode is connecting with you just on all the mindset shifts that I've had And even my own shift in just what my wife and I have been doing at our own home. We have a busy home life. I have five wonderful children, four children at home still, and it's busy. Four kids on the bus every day. And my wife is a teacher. I'm an entrepreneur, passionate entrepreneur, and I love to help people. But to tell you that we were on top of our household chores and staying on top of things, I'd be lying to you. I'd be lying to myself. What I found when I finally, my wife and I made the decision that we were going to invest in somebody coming in once a week to help with our housework, changed everything in our lives. There was, Things were unbalanced before we made that investment in hiring a housekeeper to come in just three hours a week. Could we use more? Yes, I would argue we can. But even three hours has brought incredible balance and just that nice feeling of coming home knowing that things are done. So I want to challenge you right now, this week, Reflect on most of the things I've said today. And I want you to really think about taking a reset this week. Taking a reset and allowing yourself to be first. Because some of you that are listening that are entrepreneurs, you have to recognize and remember that you are your own best customer. Put the oxygen mask on, like they say in the airplane. And I want you to give yourself permission to have one hour for you every day this week. If you've done that, let me know. And if you can't do an hour, start with 20 minutes. Everybody has 20 minutes. You cannot tell me you don't have 20 minutes. If somebody comes and calls you and they need something urgently, just say, look, I'm busy right now. I will be free in 30 minutes. I'm serving another customer, another client, or I'm busy with another client for an hour. And that client is you. The most important client, you, yourself. Do that. Have that reset this week. Let me know how it goes for you. I would love to hear it. I would love to know that I've inspired you and I've helped you. And I'm so grateful to be here with you on this podcast. And this is a journey. We're all working on being the 10X versions of ourselves. Just keep working on thriving and being all in on you. Prioritize you this week. Share this episode with someone that you know that needs to hear it. love you all and i am so grateful to be doing this so grateful to be doing this incredible business so grateful for my family and most of all i'm thankful for my mom my beautiful mother and this episode like i said is in honor of her take care everyone get that reset in this week Thanks for tuning into the Adaptive Mindset. If you found value in today's episode, don't forget to subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who's ready to thrive in the digital age. Stay secure, stay adaptable, and I'll see you next time.

Brett Gallant