Billy Keels  0:00  

You don't have to choose between crushing your multinational tech goals and being a present parent. In this episode, Enterprise Software Senior Director Derek Schutz shares how he optimizes his executive execution to reclaim hours in the week for his family, perform in his role, and build a high-impact, health-focused venture on the side. Let's dive in and let's get you to optionality. Today's episode is sponsored by Billy Keels Advisory Services. If you want to learn more about how to make your 99 optional, just go to makeitoptional.com. Once again, that's makeitoptional.com.

Speaker 1  0:38  

Helping you build freedom without losing your edge, this is the Going Long podcast with Billy Keels.

Billy Keels  0:51  

Personal wake-up calls can be life-changing. Today's guest knows about them firsthand after investing years and a lot of his own money in trainers, nutritionists, and coaches to transform his health, mindset, and energy to now be able to help other busy professionals rebuild their habits, their health, and their self-image without-and this is what I love-without leaving their careers behind during the day. You know what? He's a senior director at a market-leading enterprise software brand that's pretty well known, and you know what? And he does where he's there. He leads a very large services team, as well as a multi-million-dollar portfolio of key accounts. And by night, he is the founder of the Level Up Method. It gives me great pleasure to welcome to today's conversation, mr. Derek Shutz. Derek, welcome to the show, man.

Speaker 1  1:45  

What's going on, Billy? Thank you for having me. I greatly appreciate

Billy Keels  1:48  

it. Oh man, I'm so excited about this conversation, and I'm really inspirational. The things that you are continuing to do, how you're helping others, and and a lot of it from the things that you've learned yourself. So, if it's okay with you, man, I really just want to jump right in and get it started.

Speaker 1  2:04  

Let's do it. All right,

Billy Keels  2:06  

fantastic. So, listen, there's this point in everyone's journey where you realize that you really enjoy what you're doing. You enjoy the place that you are are in. It gives you a great opportunity, and at the same time, your corporate experience. You come to a point where you maybe get to that moment, and you realize, you know what, this corporate life was really, really great. I want to continue to do what I'm doing well, and there's something else that's still out there for me.

Speaker 1  2:30  

All right, so yeah, great question, and I'll back up a little bit because growing up, I've always wanted to be an entrepreneur and do my own business or things like that. But I got into corporate. I loved it. Very successful. Moving up the corporate ladder, so everything's been great. But we're getting into a point in big tech where, as you know, there are constant layoffs. There's a lot of things changing, especially with AI. I've had to lay people off, and I've felt myself being at risk as well. So that was kind of like the trigger point for me, where okay, maybe it's time that I put myself in a position where corporate is not my only the straw in the hat, and I have other opportunities as well. And that's when I really thought, let's let's go out on my own and try something new here.

Billy Keels  3:18  

Yeah, and and so a lot of it has to do with as you talk about, like you you enjoy your corporate role, and there are a lot of things that are right now that are changing that are that go beyond your control. I mean, I'm very similar to you. Like I was in a very large enterprise software company. I was at SAP for many many years, 16 years, and you know when you're on both sides of the equation, it's you know it's really you have a unique perspective. You see what's happening around. You enjoy what you're doing, and at the same time, you you don't want to be on the wrong side of of a decision that can be made. But it's really interesting because one of the things that you said is that you'd always wanted to you had like this entrepreneurial flair, and you decided to work in a corporate role. What was kind of your decision-making process to start in corporate versus starting something that was on your own? If it was already something that was in your blood,

Speaker 1  4:10  

yeah, that's a really good question. My my family growing up all corporate, right? So it was a very classic: get good grades, get a good job, invest in your 401k and be safe. And so, like, I got into that natural. I call it a trap. It's not, you know, for some people that's great. And so that's just the path I went down. It's not the path I want to end on.

Billy Keels  4:37  

Yeah, and very similar, right? We'll go to school, get good grades. Once you get the good grades, you go out, you get the good job, and you continue to move and you go around and around. So, one of the things that you know, having also lived for many years in a in an enterprise software space, there's a lot of really positive things that happen when you are in the enterprise software space. I'm just curious if you could talk to us about some of those things that, in the corporate environment today that you're in, what are some of the the really big benefits that you see to going into your to your office every day and and being able to to work with customers and teams?

Speaker 1  5:16  

Yeah, well, working for so I work for Salesforce, so like you said, very well-known company, amazing benefits, great career progression that you can go through. So, all that's good. So, like, outside of the the risk of layoffs and things like that, it's a very safe, wonderful place. Yeah. And I'm a people leader now. I've done a lot of like consulting in the services group for clients as well, so helping people grow, get better, make impacts for clients, and then having great business outcomes for clients as well, where they're either saving millions of dollars or saving a bunch of time or releasing a product that gives them a bunch more income. All those are great things that are really rewarding, and I love. But it's corporate, right? So there's limits to that as well. There's limits to how much you can make, no matter how much time you put in. From a delivery standpoint, where I'm at, you're you're not going to make more money. As an example, so there's just limits. I've loved it. I'm going to keep doing it, but doing something on the side is going to give me something to be really passionate and excited about, and I help people in different ways.

Billy Keels  6:25  

Yeah, maybe talk to us about some of the. What are some of those ways that you see being able to help other people in a way, in a space, in an area that you are owning yourself? And some of it I talked about in the very beginning.

Speaker 1  6:38  

Absolutely, I mean, this is what I'm passionate about, so I could talk about this forever, but so I'm I'm a dad. I have four kids, right?

Billy Keels  6:46  

Congratulations, sir.

Speaker 1  6:47  

Yeah, thank you, thank you. My fourth was just born in March of this year, so it's been busy. It's fun. So with so you know, imagine what that looks like for somebody in my shoes, right? You wake up, you take care of the kids. You go work for eight, nine hours. Kids get home. You take care of them. You put it to bed. You might be still checking your phone, your email, getting some work done. You're just exhausted by the end of the day. So at that point, you just turn to a vegetable. You watch TV. You scroll on your phone. Wasted time, right? And so, health is the absolute last priority that you have at that point. Working out or eating healthy in those conditions is extremely hard because everything's about convenience. You're busy. You're with the kids. You grab McDonald's. You grab candy that's laying around. You eat the leftovers from the kids, whatever that is. So you have this like accumulated effect where one day you wake up and you're like, holy shit! I'm 25 pounds overweight. I have low energy. I'm irritated around my family. I have no time. I don't prioritize myself. So that's like, I was on a trip with my friends after my second kid was born, and there's a picture of me, and I'm holding a 24 ounce beer steel reserve with a big old beer billy, and my friends were-it was all in good fun, but they're making fun of me. Dad bod. None of them had kids yet. They don't really understand. But that was kind of like they're not wrong. Like I haven't been working out, haven't been eating healthy. All I've been doing is working and taking my care care of my kids, and that accumulated effect is is not good for you long run. Whether it's how you look, how you feel, getting sick later in life, diabetes, whatever that might be, all these things that can happen. So that was my wake up call, and that's why I went. I'm gonna, I'm gonna change this. I'm gonna, I'm gonna revamp my schedule. I'm gonna redo my priorities, and I'm going to focus on nutrition and health, and get back to being in shape. I played sports and stuff all growing up, so that was the first time that I was really out of shape. Then that kind of hit me, and that's where I went on this, you know, three four year journey, and got to where I felt like I'm happy. I have energy. I look good. I'm confident when I take my shirt off and go on swimming or whatever. I'm more intentional and present with my kids around the house, and I want to teach people what I just learned. I spent so much time and money in a coach and a personal trainer. I did CrossFit, all this stuff. I have a lot that all these people I see in corporate, they're in the same boat, right? Like I get it, and that's what I want to help people with, so that's what this business is about, and that's where I get that passion from because the the results are incredible.

Billy Keels  9:27  

Yeah, and you know, as I as I hear you, Derek, it makes me reflect a lot of the of the time in in my corporate right. And one of the things that you've talked about, and you know, I led with it. You're talking about it now. It is really about investing years of of your life as well as you know money, a lot of money, and so in in that part is it's different for different people, right? But the fact of the matter is that you were going through this. You had an image of yourself that you saw, but what was it for you that actually? Because I mean, you and I worked with a lot of people that are in very same boat. You're just you're talking about it right now, but they don't choose to take action. What do you believe it was for you, like inside, that said, now I've got to take action?

Speaker 1  10:14  

My kids are young; they deserve a father that they can look up to. That is a great example. They see me working out. They want to work out, right? So it's going to be instilling habits that my kids are going to carry on. That's going to set them up successfully. Plus, like when you come home from work and you're low energy, you're still checking emails, whatever. You're agitated. You say no to everything. Like, hey, Dad, you want to play catch? No, you know I'm in the middle of something. Can't you tell? Like that's not what you want to do. And this is what a part of what I teach and level up is like, okay, between five and 8o'clock, your phone's away. You're focused on family. You're pure dad mode. Give them the presence and attention you deserve, and it makes everything better around the house. The the energy, the feeling, the fun, all that. You know, whether you call it mom guilt, dad guilt, you go to bed, you're about to go to bed, and you're like, man, I, I was kind of rough on my kids there, or didn't give me any attention I wanted, they didn't deserve that. If you're more intentional about it, you can get you can get through those kinds of things, and it set yourself up a lot better.

Billy Keels  11:16  

Yeah, and and so there's also too there's that there's that person that's watching and they're listening to us today, and they're hearing exactly what you're saying. You know what, Derek? Every single day, I have the like the best of intentions because I hate going to bed to bed with dad guilt. And but but you know, as soon as I put my my phone down at five, it's my boss that's calling me two times at 515, and I I got to take the call. Like, what do I do? And so I guess there's also that because these are real life situations, right? And just to to help that help the person say, okay, well, how do you navigate these types of situations, which are real, that I know you're helping people with today, just so that they don't necessarily feel like they're the only ones. How do you how do you help them navigate through that?

Speaker 1  11:57  

Yeah, so like in that specific scenario, it's all about like managing up and setting expectations, right? Those things are going to happen no matter what, but it's you cannot set the expectation that you're available at your boss's beckoning call every single day, 24/7. So if it happens one off, great. But other than that, you should be setting the expectation, having one on ones with your boss, like, "Hey, I'm I'm fully here. I'm working my ass off between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. But then I need to prioritize my family and my kids after that. So if you need something urgently, let's let's think after that, or let's think the next morning first thing. And you'd be surprised when you say those things out loud to your boss and you have that conversation, they're going to think about it before they reach out to you at 515 now. So it's going to happen a lot less. Not going to never happen, but it'll happen a lot less.

Billy Keels  12:50  

And I appreciate you normalizing that because it's just the reality. Like there, especially when you are in that space. So and and we can talk very specifically to enterprise software, right? Because we both are are living that life or have lived that life previously, and it is amazing what happens when you have certain types of conversations and the the level of confidence that increases for you, and the level of awareness or consciousness that that happens for those who are not necessarily thinking about it, and and you can actually be better perceived because you're able to you know have your boundaries set, established, and agreed, and then it's up to you to really be able to to do that. You talked about something also too. Like, how's that been for your for your kids being able to to notice the difference? And keep in mind, I know you have one that's you know less than a year old right now, so it's a whole different thing. But what is that like for your kids to notice these differences and these your ability to be present versus the the dad with the beer and kind of hanging out and doing the other stuff. Yeah,

Speaker 1  13:47  

yeah. I mean the the two the two sides of it, right? Like the the the before is you get home from work and you're still checking Slack or email or whatever, and you know your son's like dad, dad. It's like, can you tell I'm I'm in the middle of something? Like, give me a minute, and you can just see them kind of deflate, right? Versus the opposite of that, you get into the house, you put your phone down, you run up, you give your kid a hug. What do you want to go do before dinner? Like, let's go get some ketch in. Let's go whatever. So, just like the the happiness, the spirit, the energy is is way better. So,

Billy Keels  14:23  

I love that. I want to piggyback on one thing that you just said because, and I hope that I hope that the going along family that you actually that you you heard the words that Derek just mentioned. He said before we have dinner. Talk to us about what your relationship is with time and and quality versus quantity.

Speaker 1  14:41  

Look, you with an hour of time with your kids, you you can get a lot out of it, right? Like, and that's all kids want is is time and attention. And so, like, it doesn't take a lot of time. Like, even like morning routines before you get your kids off to school. 15 minutes doing doing something fun or unique in the morning that they're not expecting, and that completely changes the mood and energy as well. So it doesn't take a lot of time as long as you're present and intentional about the time that you do give them. It goes a really long way. So

Billy Keels  15:15  

yeah, I love that. So being able to really focus on the quality moments versus just continuously doing certain things, I felt like you wanted to say something else. Do you want to add to something?

Speaker 1  15:25  

I was just from our conversation earlier talking about your time in corporate. I just want to acknowledge that everybody's in a different spot in their career, right? So, like when I was young, and what I recommend for people is like just like how you know compounding is just the eighth wonder of the world, right? With money or whatever. The same thing is with working your job, right? So when you when you start off early in your career, maybe you should be giving 5060, hours a week. You should be available at the beckoning call from your boss, so that you can get the promotions and move up, right? So if you do that, and you get a really high-paying salary. All of a sudden, the 3% raise is substantial. Versus, if you're not making a lot of money and get a 3% raise as well. So, this doing this is not right for everybody, depending on where they're in their career. But if you're a dad and you've got young kids, maybe that's the time where you need to reclaim your time at work and stop working 5060, hours a week and get it down to 40, so that you can focus on other things and prioritize yourself and your family. So,

Billy Keels  16:28  

yeah, what do you say to those dads? And I love that, and I am going to make this very specific to dads because what you said is so true. Depending on where you are in your journey, right? There are there are there's a season for everything,

Speaker 1  16:42  

yeah.

Billy Keels  16:44  

But what about that dad who really struggles because they really genuinely enjoy working and they enjoy working a lot, and there's also a narrative that says you have to be you know doing these things at home, presence, et cetera, et cetera. They want to believe it, but they still are really pulled towards work. How do you how do you help that person really understand what is the real priority for them, and and also to be okay with that?

Speaker 1  17:13  

Yeah, there's there's definitely balance, and everybody has a different set of balances. I've gone through phases where I freaking love work, and hey, I I see some light and I'm going all in to get it, whether it's a promotion or an impact for a client or things like that. There's times and seasons for everything, but your kids are only young one time, like and that time goes really fast. I mean, all my my kids are young. My my youngest one is seven, and it feels like it happened in an instant, right? So you're not going to get that time back. You you have time to work into the future. So I'm, um, I'm very much recommending that dads take a step back, just have some intentional time throughout the day to be with their kids and make that that impact. Doesn't have to be forever. Doesn't have to be always, but doing it intentionally sometimes I think goes a long way because it just it the time goes so fast. It's crazy.

Billy Keels  18:09  

Yeah, and and it gets even faster the older they get. By the way, what I what I really love about what you're saying, and I want to highlight that for the going along family, it's really about the fact that yes, there are seasons for everything, and there are moments when you are going to want or need to go all in for a finite period of time because you know maybe this is the season that the promotion is the thing, or maybe this is the season that you know you have to get certain types of accounts, whatever the case may be. But and and I guess where I'm also looking just for validation, Derek, because I love the fact that you're you're verbalizing that so that we don't feel like, hey, I'm I'm an oddball.

Speaker 1  18:48  

Yeah.

Billy Keels  18:49  

But but it's also it's about recognizing that that's a moment in time.

Speaker 1  18:53  

Yep. Yep.

Billy Keels  18:54  

Yep.

Speaker 1  18:55  

Absolutely.

Billy Keels  18:56  

And so so I love this. So you've so you've gotten now you have your and we've we talked about it a little bit. I talked about you being the founder of of the Level Up Method. We've talked about you investing your time, investing your your your financial resources to be able to better understand the the concept of energy and health and and self image. Maybe that's the genesis. Maybe it's not. But can you give us the story of the Level Up method.

Speaker 1  19:22  

Absolutely, absolutely. I'm trying to help people go through the same journey that I've gone through. So, if I had to summarize it right, I'm helping dads that work in big tech reclaim their time, rebuild their body, and be more present with their families. And it's a combination of for each individual person, we're identifying what are the key habits that they need to follow on a daily basis that are inevitably inevitably going to get them the outcome they want. So, if you ever heard of 40x or the four disciplines of execution, there's this concept of lead measures versus lag. So we focus on lead measures in this process, and to give an overview of what that might look like, a lag measure would be something like stepping on the scale and seeing your weight, or looking at a dashboard to see what your sales looks like so far in the quarter. Looking at that doesn't change anything. Lead measures are these are things you identify that if you do them that the outcome is inevitable. So we're talking about tracking sleep, protein, calories, water intake, things like that as a lead measure. That hey, let's agree on what these lead measures are based on what your goals are, and we have a tracking mechanism to do that daily, and if you do those, it is inevitable that you reach your outcome. So those are the kinds of things that I work with people on, and they go through a curriculum, just as an example, doing environment reset. So your environment could make eating very easy or very hard to be healthy. If you were to look in your fridge or your freezer or pantry right now, you might have food that's bad for you, high in fat, super high in sugar, sodas, candy land in our house, whatever. So we go through and do intentional resets of those types of things, so that when you're working and you get hungry or you're about to eat lunch, the convenience factor is grabbing something healthy versus unhealthy. Same with like a gym wardrobe. You want to you want to minimize as much friction as possible to do the things that you know you need to be doing. So if a goal of yours is to go to the gym in the morning, that'd be a hell lot of a lot easier if your gym wardrobe was set up, you had your gym bag ready to go, and you had your home gym, or you had a gym close by that's ready to go, right? Because anytime there's friction that pops into your mind, like oh, I want to work out, but oh, I haven't eaten, or oh, my gym clothes aren't clean, or oh, I don't want to drive 20 minutes to the gym, you remove all these friction points and make it easier. It's much more likely that you're actually going to fall through with it. And then we do like from an environment perspective, we talk about social and digital environments as well. So you pull out your phone. The first thing you see is notifications from Instagram, TikTok. Boom! You're stuck doom scrolling, and you just wasted an hour before you even knew it. You could have done a workout, or you could have hung out with your kids, or something like that. So cleaning up all that, even so much as like inside those apps, like who you follow on Instagram or who you follow on TikTok. So the content you're digesting is actually helpful and not hurtful because all those are accumulated over a very long period of time, right? You might be following people that you followed from high school or college or shortly after that no longer benefit you and are are getting you toward your goals, but if you follow Billy on one of those, maybe you start a side business, right? So those are the things that you really want to be intentional about.

Billy Keels  22:50  

Yeah, I love how you break that down as well, and it also reminds me a lot of the different practices that you have when you are in your corporate role, right? And you're in your corporate role, you want to excel, and basically, you are making sure that your presentation is done before you actually show up on the client site, and you're making sure that your team is prepped, and you're making sure that everybody has what they need. And rather than focusing only at your corporate environment, you take that exact same skill set, you point it towards helping others, as you talked about before, and as you're helping others, you're focusing on others, very similar to what you talked about yourself. You you focused thought about your kids, and that was the reason that you really decided. Hey, listen, you want to be there for them. You want to be present. You want to be strong. The the outcomes and the outputs that you continue to create are more consistent and more aligned with what it is that you want to be able to do. So I love you. I love the fact that you are breaking that down for us in that way, and really help us understand how that relates to both time, both body, as well as presence with family. I felt like there was one something else you wanted to add. Go ahead, please.

Speaker 1  23:51  

No, no, that's it.

Speaker 2  23:53  

No, that was it.

Billy Keels  23:54  

All right. So there's ultimately there's going to be, and we'll come back to a little bit more because I want I want you to talk about more about the the level up method, but you've given us a really good overview. But there's always this moment I feel like that there is like you have these best intentions that you want to do things and you want to be able to perform at work and you want to be present at home. And when you make that decision that you're going to be present in one place or the other. There's always this moment of uneasiness because you have to deal with those feelings because you're not in a place that you normally were in the past, and you're going through this change. Talk to us about how you how you suggest we deal with this uneasiness because I want everybody to understand it's as much as you are unique. This is happening all the time, and so I'd love for you to give us your insight, Derek.

Speaker 1  24:48  

Yeah, I'm. I like. I'm in the thick of it, like everybody else. I don't know where I heard this. I definitely won't claim it by myself. But I love. I love the concept of right. You know. Down pen and paper on your phone, whatever you want to do. Your top three goals for the quarter or the year or whatever. Don't write too many goals, or you know it's not going to happen. But what are the the top two or three priorities that you have in your life? And then as these decisions pop up of things that you need to do or places you need to be, look at your goals and say, if I do this, does that get me closer or farther away from those goals? And if it does, do it. And if it doesn't, definitely reconsider. Right? It's I try to teach people like to start saying no. You do not have to do everything. You don't do not have to go to every single birthday party, every every single thing that you get invited to on a weekend with friends, like you can start saying no, and you can start making better decisions. And you know, just I try to think about like if you give it everything you got for three months, and you you follow these habits, you lose 15 pounds of weight, you feel you have more energy, you've been more present with your family, and then you go do that thing. Like your friends want to go drinking and golfing. Like, how much more fun would that be to go drinking and golfing with your friends when you're in shape and you're you feel healthy and you feel confident? You just don't you just don't do it every weekend. You do it more sporadically, but you can enjoy it a lot more. And other people start to to notice what what do you what have you been doing? That you look good, like, and I notice you're not drinking 15 beers this time. You only drank five. What's going on? And they get curious and they start following along, which is pretty cool.

Billy Keels  26:30  

That's fantastic. When you have others that are following along, especially when it's something that you enjoy doing anyway, you're getting the right benefit out of it, and you're also being able to help shine a light on others. It kind of gives you more energy, or not kind of, but it gives you much more energy to continue to do more and more of the same, right? Oh,

Speaker 1  26:48  

try to build a bigger, bigger group doing the same thing. Yeah,

Billy Keels  26:51  

love that, love that. So yeah, I mean, I wanted to come back and and so you gave us the the high level of the of the of the focus really for the level up method, and it's really about those dads in tech focusing on being able to reclaim more time, focus on body, and focus on presence with family. Is there any one of those three areas that you particularly like to to go into, or where you're seeing, especially men in tech, that they struggle with the most of those.

Speaker 1  27:23  

All three is a struggle for a lot of us, for sure. Depending on who you talk to and who you're working with, they are definitely going to struggle in one area more than the others. One big thing I notice, though, is like the overworked, overstressed person in tech, right? They're working 60 hours a week. They're giving it everything they have, and again, depending on when you're in your career and where you're going, like a lot of people that have moved up the corporate ladder and they're in a leadership role, maybe it's time to rethink how much time you're given this, right? Like you, you especially leverage in AI. You can be successful with 40 hours a week. You can have nearly the same output, and you're not going to be bending over backwards for a company that might just turn around and lay you off anyways, right? So it goes on both sides. Where I really think you need to understand, like you do your part for the company, you do what you got to do, but you should not be putting 60 hours a week when you've got a family that you're sacrificing or your health that you're sacrificing. Those things should be a priority and not put to the wayside for a corporate role that might come around and lay off, anyways.

Billy Keels  28:42  

Which, and I appreciate you sharing that. And and one of the things, and you mentioned it before, but I think it's just such an important concept because it is one that is, and from what I've seen, it's, and I don't even want to say tested. It's just not, it's not done enough, and it really is that whole. It's this concept of I have to do it because when you are earning, you know, people. It's not uncommon for people in the enterprise software space to easily be in the 345, 100 and plus, and you feel like, and I'm talking USD, by the way, Where you then get to the point and you say, "But I have to do it because, because like my my paycheck, my being able to send my kids to private school, or having this car, or having this certain thing happens. And there's the big struggle about how do I actually how do I do that? How do I actually get to a point where I can go from working 70 hours a week to, and I won't even say 40, right? Because sometimes it's just 40's not even realistic. It's but if you go from 70 to 55, that's a huge element. Yeah, yeah, it's it's a it's a big thing. But just in case someone didn't hear it earlier, but how can you? How can you feel more comfortable being able to do that in the high stress, high well, could be high stress environment of of enterprise software?

Speaker 1  30:08  

Yeah, a few different strategies that you can think about. Number one, we talked about a little bit earlier, but it's around expectation setting with your boss or the people that you work with, and right there's you might have 20 goals in your corporate job, but your boss really cares about three or four or five of those. So make sure you get those done, and your boss knows that you're going to make them.

Billy Keels  30:33  

What Derek is sharing with you right now, everybody, is absolute platinum. He has said it. I don't want anybody to miss it, and this is one of the key platinum strategies in the world. And I am very sorry for interrupting you, Derek, but no one can miss what you're getting ready to say. Please get out your pen. Please get out your pencil and be ready to write. Please repeat that again.

Speaker 1  31:01  

You've got 20 goals that you're working on at your job. Your boss cares about 345, of them. That's what you need to focus on and work with your boss on, and make sure they know that you're working on those full steam ahead. At the same time, if you're in a spot where you're trying to figure out how can I trim down my time and my hours, have a conversation with your boss or the people that you're working for, and be very direct. Hey, I've been working 70 hours a week for the last four years straight. I've not prioritized myself, my health, my family. I'm fat. I'm grumpy around my kids and my wife. I want to change that. I need to trim down how much time I'm working on. Here's what I'm planning to do to do that. Are you good with it? There's not, there's some, but there's not many bosses that are gonna be like, no, you need it. Never prioritize yourself. You only need to focus on work. Like, just have have the dial in conversation. You wouldn't believe your boss is probably gonna ask you, Have you worked out this week? How how's it going? Are you feeling better? You know, what else can I do to help and support you? Like, we're all people. They care about you, so it's it's just worth having the conversation on, and then you can get into things where, like, just like I talked about your the social the digital environment and the social media and all that stuff. Same thing for your corporate calendar. Look at it, do a revamp. You've got a ton of one on ones. You've got a ton of all hands meetings for every different vertical within the company. Figure out what's important. Remove the other ones, or look at the AI notes afterwards, or whatever that is. Then you could trend out a lot of time doing that as well.

Billy Keels  32:32  

Yeah, I love that. And like I said, apologies for stopping, but it's such an important thing, and it is. I mean, it is critical. And the fact that you say it is fact. It's one of the main things I talk about with my clients. It is a matter of saying, "Hey, listen, there are priorities. Everyone has priorities, but make sure that you understand what your boss's priorities are, because when you're able to, because this isn't about working more hours. This is about achieving more outcomes. And if you are achieving the priority outcomes, then you are doing what the company is asking you to do, and specifically if you're if you're you know you're in plus one or what are your direct manager two levels above, if that's what they need to be done, then prioritize those things in the way that you can, and then it's also I would I would just build on top of what you said. It's really easy, and this even goes beyond corporate. This can even be in a relationship to fall into just going through the pattern just because. Well, sometimes it's a matter of saying, well, actually, let's have a conversation about why we just keep doing the same things, coming home, sitting on the couch, doing this, doing that. Like, it's no different at your home than it is at the office. It's just a matter of making sure you don't fall into the same routine, and so yeah, Derek, I really appreciate you hitting on that point because it is such a key point and is one of the things that we talk about constantly. And it's just many times it's just a small conversation to be able to to move forward with that. So listen, Derek, and I know you've given us more about the the level up method. I want to give you one more opportunity. If there's anything else that you you feel like you want to share or be able to to talk about before we kind of get ready to wrap things up, I can't believe these conversations. Yeah,

Speaker 1  34:10  

I know it flew by. No, I just in general, like there's there's kind of two things we're talking about today. You know, one is level up. So on that one, the the key principles anyone can execute on, right? The the problem that you get into when you're super busy and you're working corporate and you have a family is that you've got the the Monday restart habit, right? I'm gonna start being healthy on Monday. I'm start eating healthy on Monday. You do it Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. The weekend hits, and then and you just keep starting over, and you go through the cycle, like being healthy compounds over time, and it takes a long time to get it done. So when you're restarting whatever you're trying to do health-wise, don't be so rigorous about it that it's not easy to follow. Like you want to set yourself up in a way where it's sustainable for. Long haul, and that's going to have way better results. So try to lose a half pound or one pound a week instead of doing you know a three month boot camp where you're trying to lose 40 pounds. It's not sustainable. You're going to gain all the weight back. So that's that's the thing allowed there. And then starting a business on the side of corporate, it's been fun. I love what I do at Salesforce, I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing. I have a great team. I have great customers. It's amazing. But doing something that's like a passion project and I'm helping people on an individual basis in a different way is super rewarding. And I starting it, I thought it was going to be full of friction. I was scared to post on LinkedIn and what my friends would think of me and all that shit. Just and I made the first post I wanted to delete it. I'm like, oh my god, I'm so embarrassed. And then here I am posting two, three times a week, and I could care less what they think. So you just gotta hit those fears head on to be able to get over it and move on to something next. So that's just the two things I'll add.

Billy Keels  35:55  

No, and I appreciate you sharing that. And of course, I've got too many war stories, and maybe we'll talk about them afterwards. But yeah, look at the end of the day. What I learned, especially in that environment, enterprise software specifically, is when you are able to achieve the outcomes that are needed by your organization from your role and in line with your direct management, things tend to move in the right direction. Because at the same time when you were working 80 hours a week nobody cared because you were giving the results you were giving the outcomes when you're working 50 hours a week and you're producing the exact same or better results because you're more intentional you're more focused

Speaker 1  36:35  

right

Billy Keels  36:35  

guess what nobody cares either because you're giving the results you're not it's it's about the outcomes. It's not about the hours. So, well, listen. So, so I appreciate you you breaking that down once again. And like I said, man, I cannot literally these conversations fly by so fast. And Derek, before before we wrap up, there is one thing that I I really want to have you share with us. I ask all the guests at the at the end is, you know, for so many years in my life, everything went according to plan. It was up and to the right, up and to the right, up and to the right. And there was a certain moment in time where, and not long ago, where both on the personal side and on the professional side, things did not go according to plan. And that was the moment in my life when I recognized that there's two specific things that happen in the in in moments, or there's one thing that happens is everything is a moment. Where because when you're at the top of the crest and you're riding the wave, it's a moment, but you're not really thinking about it because you're at the top of the you're riding the wave. It's just kind of what's going on. But at the same time, when things are not going according to plan, and you are just down on what you perceive as your luck, or you just can't seem to get out of that trough. Those are the moments that yes, people pour into you, and and at that moment in time, people loved me, and people were sharing their thoughts and ideas, but nothing changed until I actually literally looked myself in the mirror and said, "Billy, and I said something right that I don't actually haven't shared here, but that was the thing that I needed to hear because no matter what everybody else was telling me, I had to hear myself say something. I want you to project three years from now, Derek, and I want you to realize that yes, a lot of things are going to go really, really well because you're at the you're riding the wave, but there are also going to be moments that are going to be really, really challenging, very, very challenging for you, and I want you to realize that you're three years in the future, but you're looking back and you're saying to yourself, "Well, Derek, you know what? You need to hear this, but I'm going to ask you to do something a little bit different because you're saying this to yourself. But I know that so many people in the go along family need to hear what it is that you're that you're going to say to yourself to help you get out of that trough and get you up into the right again. What's that one message that you know that you need to say to yourself to get you back on track?

Speaker 1  38:51  

I love the Alex Formosi. This will be the story you one day tell. That goes a long way for me. So thinking about that, when whenever you hit a rock bottom or a tough point, or you feel like you're not getting momentum, this will be the story you one day tell is is one thing that sticks me. But then also, it's like throughout my whole journey, whether it's corporate or what I'm doing now, it's like whenever I'm like feel like shit, this is going nowhere. Keep going. Right on the other side of that, that's when something flips, and you you get what you want. So just keep going. Don't stop. It'll be worth it. You don't know where you don't know where you're going, but this is going somewhere, and it's gonna be it's gonna be really special.

Billy Keels  39:34  

No, just keep going. This will be the story you will one day tell. So I appreciate you you sharing that, and you know, I think of like the conversations literally fly by. You're talking to us about the in the very beginning. There's the this specific trigger point that helps you realize that yes, you're enjoying what you're doing, but you've always had this entrepreneurial flair. But as you realize, like you're surrounded by corporate family members, and so even though you had this entrepreneurial. Flare, you fell into you fell into the into the pattern of what everybody else did, and so you've continued to excel. You've continued to achieve. You've gone above and beyond. You've got large service portfolio and the key accounts, and continue to lead people. And at the same time, you've recognized that hey, listen, there's this entrepreneurial flair. You can continue to recognize what's going on around you in the corporate environment that you've decided to be, which is the enterprise software space, one that's very close to my heart as well.

Speaker 1  40:26  

Yeah,

Billy Keels  40:27  

but you can't. You you've decided not to just turn away and realize that the the corporate organism has to continue to stay alive and has to do the things that keep it alive. And depending on where you are in the equation, well, sometimes it will work for you, and there are other times that will work against you, but you've decided, as a father of four, that it's also important to not only recognize yes, you have a leadership responsibility at home and at the office, but you want to continue to be the person that your children can look up to, that that your children can emulate, and know that you're providing intentional time with them, that you're also in a good self-image, and you're also at a point in time where you're very present with the family. You're you're focused on and intentional about the quality time, not just around the quantity of time. And at the same time, you have a very clear structure that you that you live by inside the office, outside of the office, and you give yourself the flexibility to realize, like, hey, listen, I'm going to continue to work and continue to overachieve in the office, and I'm going to not only level up myself, I'm going to put my own level up method and help other men that are in tech be able to do exactly the same. And so, at this point, Derek, everybody's going, Billy, yeah, we get it already, but we want to know how we can find out more about Derek. So, listen, Derek, help us understand how can the Go Along family find out more about you? How can we get in touch with you and learn more about the Level Up Method?

Speaker 1  41:45  

Absolutely, LevelUpForDads.com. Go there, you'll find everything you need. Get in touch, and everything's there. LevelUpForDads.com.

Billy Keels  41:54  

All right, fantastic. So don't worry if you're running out in the woods, or if you're swimming, or if you're on the treadmill. We'll have level uplevelupfordads.com. We'll include the link. All you're gonna have to do is click a link, and then you'll be hanging out with Derek and being able to understand more about the level up method. So, listen, Derek. On behalf of the entire Going Long family, I do want to say thank you very, very much for deciding to invest your time with us today, or this evening, or this morning, depending on when someone's watching or listening to us, but thank you very, very much. Really appreciate it.

Speaker 1  42:23  

Yeah, thank you for having me, Billy. Appreciate it.

Billy Keels  42:25  

All right, fantastic. Go along, family. Listen, thank you very much for joining Derek and I today. While he's getting ready to exit stage left, I'll be here preparing for the next conversation. So until then, thank you very much, and go out and make it a great day.

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