Steve Napolitan • ZEN Hustlers Featured Profile [interview video]

Name: Steve Napolitan

Company: Stevenapolitan.com - Choose Gratitude Create Freedom’

Roles: Father, Author, Speaker, Coach, Consultant

HQ City: Nicasio, CA

Website: stevenapolitan.com

Social: @steve_nap

Fav tag: #choosegratitudecreatefreedom

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Here at Zen Hustlers we rarely get the chance to video interview our featured ZEN Hustlers in person, and so we’re truly excited to share Steve Napolitan’s with you today! He is a fantastic example of how an overworked, stressed entrepreneur turned it all around to live the balanced healthy lifestyle most of us are all seeking!

Stay tuned for more videos starring Steve as he drops real wisdom, experience and insights on his daily practices, business philosophies and even more. Thanks for watching and below is the full interview also.

~ Jared Brick

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Where is your favorite place to visit in the world and why?

So my favorite place in the world right now, if I'm not here at my house. I love to go to Sydney. And what makes Sydney so special to me is it's got the beaches of Southern California with the culture of Northern California. And it's all lumped into one which excites me. I'm a California boy.

Who do you want to meet?

There's a lot of people that I want to meet. But one person right now that I haven't met yet I've been to his temple, he teaches meditation is Mickey Singer. Michael Singer, as he wrote The Surrender Experiment. It’s probably actually in the last five years, one of the biggest impacts of books in my life. So I would love to meditate with him.

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Who did you want to meet?

I haven't given much thought of who is no longer living that I would want to meet. But I want to say Napoleon Hill because that book is what actually taught me that change is possible.

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How does your work fulfill your purpose in life?

My purpose is to be a father. That's the first thing and if I can raise my children in the way become the man I want to, or the person that I want my kids to be, my daughters and my son, and then do that in my work. So it's the same thing like teaching entrepreneurs and C-Suite level execs.

So my purpose is to share who I am. Let you see me, because I think people are going to watch us more than listen to us.

What are you reading now?

So right now the book I'm reading is How to Change Your Mind, by Michael Pollan. And it's talking about, you know how psychedelics play a difference in not only like people that are going through ailments or medical issues and how it actually helps enlightened people that are that are healthy.

Check out this groundbreaking book >

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What do you do for fun?

You know, and so it's just, it's an exploration. For me, people ask me, like, what am I doing, watching for fun? Why I'm always reading a fiction book. And a lot of times, I'll keep up with my kids, whatever they're reading, so we're, we're in there, and it helps me be a better storyteller. So during the day, I read non-fiction to work on myself and my business, and then at night, I read fiction and get into those stories and then fall asleep.

When are you most relaxed?

I would say what I'm most relaxed when I'm meditating, just like really connecting, like I'll come out here, sit on a rock up on the hill or whatever and just meditate. I meditate in the mornings. I typically do anything you want to do every day, get the day started because then as you know, the day goes on.

When are you most in flow?

I'm most in flow and I'm laser focused, the one thing to win the day. I know the one thing I need to do, and I'm on it, and then it's just, it's just flowing.


Who taught you to to hustle?

My father was a huge influence, when I went to bed at night, he was still working. And when I woke up in the morning, he was off to the next day and he did it for so many years. I still don't know how he did he did it much longer than me. And so that commitment came into my life in a big way, but I'm also glad that I've made changes and I can have that hard work ethic in a moment and then have the rest of my life, instead of letting it consume my whole life.

What communities inspire you?

My family is my community, kind of the tribe around me where we have the Freedom Council we call it. We're all seeking freedom and and working together to help ourselves work less make more income or abundance, whatever we want and take more holidays!

What keeps you up at night?

Any moments that I'm up at night is either two reasons. One, something's up with my family and I need to take care of it. Or two, I have too many ideas. So I always keep a journal beside my bed, so I try to write the ideas down. So then I can release them there and then rest. The things that are going on in the world, I choose not to put my energy towards because I believe that if we put our energy towards darkness, even if we're resisting it, or we're objecting to it, (and I'm not saying that there aren't bad things happening), but if I choose to put my energy there, then I'm actually letting them have more energy. Actually lifting them up more, versus putting my energy towards the light.

How you exercise?

I do movement or exercise in my life, every morning no matter what like whether I'm going on a hike up the hill, like this morning, I did a bit of strength training, worked out chest and back and I did a little run on the property here, and then like 20 minutes, a couple miles. But I make sure that I work out at least 20 minutes every day without stopping my more to hustle.

Are you more zen or hustle lately?

I'm definitely more Zen and it keeps growing but I used to resist that because I thought it was getting less done, but actually I get more done because my battery's on full power so if I need to do something it's like pow and then it's done, and then I can go back to Zen.

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What else would you do if did not do this business?

You know, one thing that's been attracting me if I wasn't speaking and teaching again probably would get a big into my food. Getting and looking more and more at farming and you know the bio-regeneration into the land, and and then the food we eat because I'm really love good organic foods. The taste in your mouth is amazing and I'm just tired of all the crap that shows up in our stores. Eat organic!

How do define good work life balance? How has family shifted it for you? Does family ground you?

Work life balance doesn't exist, you’re always somewhere between where you're gonna be working a bit more like one week, you might work more and then one week you might work less. The idea is design. So what I do is I plan my life first window, I want to go on vacation, how many long weekends I want, when am I going to go out on dates with my wife, When am I going to play with my kids? I plan fun days with my kids. And then I put all that on my calendar, then I book all my business around that.

I'm such an idea person, I would like think of it as a balloon with helium, if you let go of it's going to go up into the sky, that would be me, I'd be up in the sky all day. So my family is my rock to keep me here, and not open to the space every day. But I do get to go up there. But then, you know, the family lets the line go a little bit more, some days and others but I cherish those moments and keeps me here and these earthly things.

What advice would you give to new or struggling entrepreneurs/hustlers currently out of balance?

If you're struggling or and you're hustling, you're not getting what you want. Or maybe you're like, just tired of the whole thing and you're not seeing the end. You know, you've got to stop you got to take a break. You got to do that. And then you got to seek what help you need. You know, like whatever is bugging you the most and find find someone to help you!

What advice would you tell your younger self?

I would tell my 19 year old self two words: Get Mentors. I wish I got mentors sooner. And but you know, I don't regret it. Because I actually needed that, so I can be so adamant about people getting mentors now. Once I got mentors it dramatically changed my life, it collapses timeframes. You no longer have to figure it out by yourself.

What s one issue are you out to change in our world?

The biggest thing I want to change the world is work and life. Like, you know, our goal right now is to help 1,000 companies over the next three years work less than 40 hours a week, for the whole company have more revenue, break revenue goals, proving that we can grow business with less hours and giving everyone higher income.

So paying everyone in the company more money, and everyone in the company is taking more vacations, we think travel is a big part of it. So you're gonna have more days off and you're going to go abroad or you're going to travel, you're going to see new things.

What’s your mantra or quote to live by?

Choose Gratitude, Create Freedom. Creating your freedom comes from finding the gratitude in everything that you do. And when I say gratitude, in all results, even the ones I don't want, I have to find gratitude, and as soon as I did that it propelled things forward.

Any final thoughts?

So I just want to thank you so much for watching with tremendous gratitude. And the reason for that is that if you're watching (or reading) this, you're looking for new ways to do things, how not to grind so much and have more in your life.

And that that actually makes me super excited because in order to make this change in the world, we need more of us. So I hope you got value from this. And I invite you to connect with me on social media, any which way my team and myself are active on there. And we're here to help because we truly want to change the way we live in work forever!

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Gratitude from Jared Brick

I want to thank my friend Steve, I saw Steve speak at a C-Suite enterprise event and he inspired me so much that I thought he is living the Zen Hustlers life, this guy embodies it. He embodies the business side of being hyper-productive and efficient, and also the mindfulness of a Zen lifestyle. So if you want to seek out Steve, I've put a link to his website. This guys really is my new mentor. And I just want to thank you for being on the Zen hustlers platform. And feel free to reach out to Steve and find out more about his business!

Thank you Steve!

Transcription services provided by otter.ai
On-location interview by Jared Brick, bhmedia.co

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