Becoming a Morning Person with Skye Michiels

george grombacher 0:00
Hi this is George G and the time is right welcome today’s guest strong and powerful sky Michael sky. Are you ready to do this?

Unknown Speaker 0:22
I’m ready Georgia Scott.

george grombacher 0:23
All right, let’s go sky is an award winning real estate leader. He’s a speaker and author coach empowering others to unlock their full potential by leading with kindness. He’s also the founder and host of the popular motivation and accountability group. Six hammers sky excited to have you on tell us a little about your personal life’s more about your work, why you do what you do.

Unknown Speaker 0:44
Awesome. Well, on a personal level, I’m My name is Scott Michaels. I live in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, got two amazing kids. Tent, Mackenzie’s 12 and Hudson’s 10. And I’m happily divorced, I have a beautiful divorce situation, great co parent, Kristen. And, yeah, it got a little pug pickles. And for what I do my professional life during the day, I am the head of agent development for a real estate company called compass, which we’re a nationwide brokerage, number one brokerage and 2021, across the country. And basically, my job is to build, create and deliver content to help real estate agents all across the country, you know, live a better life, sell better real estate, you know, build a business in a way that really makes him feel empowered. And then in addition, sort of in conjunction with Compass, but off to the side, during the pandemic, we’ll get into probably a little more of the background, I also created and launched an achievement and accountability group called the six hammers. And that happens every Tuesday and Thursday morning, at 6am, we actually have to session 6am, East Coast 6am, West Coast. And that’s sort of a passion project of mine, because of the fact that I’m really, really passionate about making myself better. And in doing that, showing others how to make themselves better.

george grombacher 2:07
I love it. What was what was sort of the tipping point, you’re probably somebody who has always gotten up early, so but he’s always trying to consistently get better. And you said, what was? What was it that made you put it together?

Unknown Speaker 2:22
So So yes, he answered that first part, I was a paperboy at the age of 12. So if you know anyone on this has ever delivered papers or received papers, that does not happen automatically. There’s not like some machine that spits them out, that’s actually human being, how to get the papers, wrap them and put them in the bags, deliver them, et cetera. And I was 12 years old. And that was my my first job. So I was getting IV getting up early my entire life. In addition, I was on the crew team in high school and in college. And if anyone knows crew, we always row in the morning. So that’s when the waters come, there’s not boats out, etc. So I’ve been getting up early my entire life for the most part. And the origin of six hours actually begins with the origin of the five hammers. So back in 2017, and I was going through my divorce, and despite it being amicable, it still was a very major event in my life and major life change. And, you know, frankly, I was not in a good space. It was, it rocked me, and one of my really good friends. To this day, Jake Dreyfus, you know, helped me out and he woke up early. He’s like, Hey, I’m gonna wake you up every morning, let’s get up at 5am I’m just gonna send you a text message, make sure you get up. So you started doing that. And we, you know, everything slowly started turning around, I was working out again, eating right on top of my my work life, etc. And we both looked at each other. That was really cool. What if we expanded it to more people? So in essence, make long story short, for about a year and a half or so we ran the five hammers, and that’s was what we did. We woke up at 5pm we invited some people from our office. Yeah, we hopped on some zoom calls every Tuesday, Thursday morning, just to sort of keep each other accountable and keep everyone else accountable. And it was an awesome thing to move to Colorado, I moved to compass like you know, life happened and we sort of sunset of the group so to speak, life rolled on and then all of a sudden this little thing called the global pandemic happened. And March of 20 the world shuts down and when the world shut down, you know, you’re here at Compass and everywhere really, you’re sort of sitting at home you know, nothing to do but let’s support our local restaurants. Great, let’s get takeout food. Oh, let’s do a happy hour at four o’clock Great. Let’s drink a glass of wine which turns into a bottle which then at six o’clock you’re like well, I have nothing else to do my doesn’t open another bottle etc. You probably George the crater. So Actually the first two weeks. So I really was frustrated at the fact that I couldn’t control what was going on outside of my doors. But what I did recognize and realize is I could control what’s going on inside of my doors. And so what I did is I sent out an email to my office and said, Hang and start the six, Amber’s 6am. A is a pandemic. So you didn’t need to get up at 5am. But 6am is really an accessible hour for most people, right? It’s not so far out of range, or at least that sort of open the group up to more people. And it just started really within my office in Philadelphia. And then every month, I just kept on doing it and renewing it more people found out about it. And to make a long story short to where it stands. Today, we’ve had over 5000 conference agents participate in it. We have a group in the East Coast, and we have a group that’s in the west coast, the West Coast group, for the most part, it does incorporate mountain and central time zones. And so we sort of covered the entire nation. And it’s been an incredible experience just to be able to connect with people virtually now we’re starting to develop some in person connections as well, which is it’s been incredible.

george grombacher 6:17
I love it, I think that there’s so much power in, in in accountability. So your buddy, that arose named down, but that your buddy was just texting you and making sure that, you know, we needed a hand up or you needed a kick in the butt, that he was going to be there to help you. And that’s something that that we all need even the most discipline people out there and need that every so often.

Unknown Speaker 6:43
Yeah, well, I think too, there’s something that powerful just in the knowledge that there’s other people waking up at the same time with a similar mission as you so to speak. So similar drive, and just that knowledge alone is a level of accountability that most people don’t have in their life. And you know, you get on a call, and there’s three or 400 people on I mean, that we’re all sort of going through similar challenges and issues and and all you really are craving is connection, connection is a form of accountability. So because when you’re connected with someone, there is a sense that, hey, I’m going to show up for this person in a really powerful way. So that that really is where the group, the magic of the group lies in that ability to connect people and create accountability without hardcore, you know, it’s not like you have a drill sergeant, calling you at 545 and say, Hey, get up. It literally is that knowledge that, hey, I got three or 400 other people that are getting up, you know what, I’m gonna do the same right now, and show up for myself.

george grombacher 7:50
I love it. I think that that’s so powerful. And we’re in a time right now, where I think that some of us, myself included, have certainly feel felt like I was being coerced to doing things that I wasn’t necessarily interested in doing. What you’re describing is the opposite. It’s it’s it’s, it’s, it’s that pull towards, it’s the desire to be a part of something and not let others down that you’ve committed to doing.

Unknown Speaker 8:13
Yeah, that’s so true. And I think you know, a term, we actually have bracelets that say this term we call healthy, selfish. And it’s a term we’ve coined, because of the fact that I think the key to life is really embracing, being selfish towards yourself, in a healthy way, right? So it’s not about like, Alright, I’m gonna hoard all my money. And, you know, like, that’s not what we mean when we say the word selfish. But for most people, you know, after 6am 7am Fanon for the most part, the most of your day is other people’s taking care of other people, right, it’s other people’s priorities, you’re satisfying those priorities. And for the most part, very few of us take care of ourselves before we take care of others. And the reality is, that’s not going to change, like if you especially if you are a real estate agent, for example, that you are successful because you take care of other people. So given the fact that you can’t really change that as a component of your success, what you can change is waking up a little earlier, when the world is not awake, your kids, your spouse, your clients, whoever it might be, that really needs you. They’re not awake. So what it allows for you to do is really make a connection with yourself, and you start your day in a healthy selfish way, which means you’re doing working out or you’re reading or you’re meditating, or you’re doing yoga, or whatever it is, that fuels you and build you up with positivity and sort of drives you. You get to do that in the morning when no one else is awake. And then the rest of the day can be other people’s priorities, but you, in essence to put on the oxygen mask first, to take care of yourself first. So then when you show up to other people you’re showing As your best self, not your most depleted self. And a lot of us go around, we wake up. And the first thing we do wake up is pick up our cell phone. And we go to text, email, social media, and we’re in other people’s to us immediately, as opposed to waking up and connecting with ourselves, in our spirit, and our health, and our mind, and our body, right? All these things that we know we should do. But when you carve out that, that special time in the morning, hence, you know, six hours and for sometimes for me, it’s even before 6am, because at 6am, I’m delivering the content. So sometimes I’m waking up before that to make sure I take care of myself. So I show up as my best version.

george grombacher 10:44
I love it. I think that that’s really Wilson, I’m fond of saying that either you live by priority, or you live by pressure. And way too many of us fall into that trap that you talked about. It’s like you roll out of bed, you pick up your phone, and then you’re just running around with your hair on fire trying to put out everybody else’s fires, and you never recharge your own battery. So right, so much wisdom is this. Can I’m sure you hear this all the time? Well, I’m just not a morning person. What do you say to that is

Unknown Speaker 11:12
my so the you are what you decide you are? Right? He say, Well, I’m not an athlete. That’s a decision. He we’re all we’re all born. Yeah, with. Yes, we’re all born with a certain genes and certain attributes. And yes, we develop ways that we feel are successful. But you get to decide what you are. So most people that say I’m not a morning person, most of the time, they say that as a way to protect themselves, right? Our brain, our brain is still a caveman brain. Right? It’s still operating constantly in a state of protect. And if I say I’m not a morning person, what that says is I don’t need to be vulnerable, and put myself out there and risk failing at waking up in the morning. So I’m just gonna go stick to my routine, even if it’s not the healthiest of all things. And the reality is that every person gets to decide what they are. So if you decide you’re a morning person, well, then you’re a morning person. And the problem was a lot of people that say they’re not a morning person, they’ve never created structure, a routine, or habits that they enjoy in the morning. They say they’re not a morning person, because they’re waking up late. And once again, immediately entering a stress environment immediately, because they’re waking up at 730 or eight o’clock in the morning or whatever, maybe later, and the rest of the world is already running. So therefore they don’t like the mornings. Imagine a world now it’d be the peers person that says, I’m not a morning person, well, what do you enjoy for yourself, oh, I enjoy working out, I enjoy this, most of those people don’t do it. Because at the end of the day, you’re depleted, your energy is depleted. And the reality is your morning is a place where you get to fuel yourself and become your best version. The end of the day, typically is when you’ve been beat up all day. And typically when you’re watching TV, or you know scrolling through social media or answering emails, or maybe you’re reading or doing something, but most of us at the end of the day is when we’re mining this, right that we’re at our weakest point, the goal of the person that on this call is listening that says, hey, I’m not a morning person, challenge yourself to say I am who I decide to him. And you know, if you have a really late evening routine, and you want to become a morning person, or try to become you got to adjust your evening routine as well. Because you can’t, you can’t get to bed at one o’clock in the morning and wake up at 530 and be healthy. You know what I mean? So you have to have that adjustment on both the both hands. And the beautiful thing is we get to decide who we are knowing us. But your brain is protecting you or trying to protect you and say, Hey, don’t be vulnerable. Don’t put yourself out there, you may fail at this. So use the excuse that you’re not a morning person to not be put yourself beyond the quote unquote herd. Right? Don’t stick your neck out. Because of the fact that when you do that you’re you risk failing at it. And that’s okay. And I think part of it because it goes back into this mindset that we want to embrace failure. We want to embrace this idea that you know what, every time that I want to wake up early, and I don’t what did I learn? All right, I need to get to bed a little earlier. Or I need to adjust my morning routine or I need to not scroll on social media. I’ll never put my phone across the room. Oh, I tried that. Oh, that worked great. So failure is not a bad thing. Failure is lessons, right? We didn’t learn anything in our lives without failing at it, and then adjusting and moving forward. So a lot of people that say they’re not a morning person, they’re right, because they’re deciding they’re not a morning person. But so many people that have done the six hammers have said, I’m not a morning person, I’m going to try this. And then all of a sudden, three months later, they’re like, What did I do before this? You know, why? Why did it take me 50 years to realize the power of waking up early and taking care of myself. And it’s changed lives because of the fact that people have made the decision to be a morning person, or you make the decision not to be so. And once again, for some people, maybe you make a decision that you’re not a morning person. And that’s, that’s okay. There’s no right or wrong to it. It’s just you got to evaluate. Are you fully taking care of yourself in the evening? The way you should? So

george grombacher 15:53
I love it. I think everything you said really resonates with me a lot. And I’ve, I’ve experienced it personally, as well. It’s such a powerful thing, that you get to decide, you have the choice. Like that’s, that’s an amazing thing. I think I think it’s a superpower that we all the to too many of us really squander, because we just haven’t really sat down and thought, what do I want my life to look like? And when I decide that, that I can choose and I can do things to actually bring it to life.

Unknown Speaker 16:32
And often, it’s the thing that we are not good at is what the thing that we say we are not right? Once again, I’m not an athlete, so I shouldn’t work out. I’m not organized. So I can’t take care of my finances. I’m not a money person, or I’m not a whatever it is, you say you’re not typically that’s the area of your life that you’re struggling. And you’re putting that I am not this person as a way of protecting yourself and sort of protecting, you know, hugging yourself and saying it’s okay, you know that you’re out of shape, right? That’s your brain sort of operating in the way it was designed to operate. And the key to life is us understanding that. And then working with it. I don’t want to say working against your brain, but understanding it and then being more powerful than your animalistic instincts are and recognize, like, Hey, I got the Why am I I’m a human being. The reason I’m a human being is I have choice. And choice your words is a superpower. We get to choose our future.

george grombacher 17:40
Yeah. At some level, I think we are probably working against it right? You’re working against that momentum of that inertia. I’m doing what I’ve always been doing. And so that’s that’s how I arrived here. And I am by no means smart enough to talk about neuroplasticity and neural pathways. But I been told that we have these grooves that we just consistently follow. So in order to break free of that we need to recognize it, which is what you’ve just been talking about, and then actually work to create new ones and stop doing the old ones. I think that that’s an important thing for me. It’s not I’ve been waking up early for a long time. But that doesn’t mean it’s always super easy. It’s still sometimes a painful thing to hit the alarm and actually get my butt out of bed.

Unknown Speaker 18:23
Yeah. And I think to George, it’s like, one of the things we got to focus on it was what can I do when I wake up that is fun. Like, if I can switch my mindset around, I’m gonna wake up and like grind. No, like, I want people to understand, like, I want you to wake up, and we’re gonna have fun, we’re gonna laugh in the morning, we’re gonna, you know, do the things that actually make us feel good. And I think that is a little bit of a mindset switch that is not sort of talked about enough. The key to life is really having fun and feeling good. Because that is when your energy is focused on that positivity and that good vibes, that’s when you start to attract and you start to like, float through life, right where the mornings aren’t hard anymore, because you’re like, wake up, you’re like, Ooh, I’m going to go have fun with you know, 300 people on a zoom call, or I’m gonna go have fun doing yoga, or I’m gonna go have fun reading this book, or I’m gonna, whatever, right? Insert that word fun. And move to your point of creating new pathways in your brain. Your brain is saying, Oh, it’s hard. It’s hard. It’s hard. Therefore, like, don’t do it. You know, but when you say this is fun, when now you’re like, Ooh, let’s get more of this. Let’s do more of this. Let’s do more. And that’s I’ve been doing it now over two and a half years. And to this day, I wake up in the morning and I’m like, Well, I’m gonna have fun today. I don’t worry if I’m like not entirely sure the questions are going to ask the guest or I’m not worried if I messed up the email from last night and said the wrong thing or forgot to put something in all I worry about that wake up. I’m like, Man, I ain’t gonna have Fun this morning. And when you insert that, that level of energy into what you do, it unlocks magic.

george grombacher 20:08
And I love it. That makes a ton of sense. So I shouldn’t do the worst thing ever. Right after I wake up, it’s not going to be really an incentivizing thing. I’m waking up to go torture myself. I got it.

Unknown Speaker 20:25
Yeah. And once again, it’s like, hey, working out is not fun for you then don’t don’t do working out in the morning. Like, what is it in your life that like, it is that fun thing of that that high energy activity that makes you smile? Right? If everyone on this call is listening, and you’re like, Well, I don’t know what it is. I do that well, what is the you do though, you wake up and you smile at? You know, and for, like I said, I one personally agree about six out, she said folding laundry, was her morning routine. And the reason why is because it gave her a sense of control over her day that she was actually showing because she was also professional and a mom. And it gave her that sense that she was being a great mom. And she was in control of our home which allowed her then to go out into her personal life. And for her she didn’t like working out. So I was like, right, don’t work out. You don’t need to work out. If that’s not for me. I like working out like I look forward to that. That’s fun for me. But that’s just me. So for her folding laundry and making sure that house like she knew before the kids got up like she was a great mom. Right? And now once again, we go back into this choice, she was choosing to tell herself, I’m a great mom. The laundry is done. As opposed to saying well, I’m gonna wake up and start emailing and I woke up late and then yeah, home the laundry is not done. And the kids don’t have uniforms for sports. And now and horrible and right. So for her, it was all about inserting that level of control into her day and and that was what made her feel good and made her smile. So think about what makes you smile, and then do that first thing in the morning, you’ll start to crave waking up early.

george grombacher 22:08
I love it. Let’s go. Thank you so much for coming on. Where can people learn more about you? How can they engage with you with Compass and the six hammers?

Unknown Speaker 22:17
Yeah, so the best place is probably Instagram. That’s a great spot that you can get we put out daily content, around positivity, motivation, meditation, etc. So on Instagram, it’s at the number 6am ers. You can also go to our website, which is once again www dot the number 6am ers.com. And then my personal Instagram is just at sky sky e Michael’s M I C H I E L S. So that’s a great that’s where that’s a good spot where I put out a lot of content about myself and what I’m passionate about in encompass as well.

george grombacher 23:00
Awesome. Well if you enjoyed as much as I did just got your appreciation and share today show the friend who also appreciates good ideas. Find them on Instagram at the 6am errs. It’s at th e the number six a m e r s that’s for Instagram and then also at or rather the six amorous.com And then at Sky Michael’s sky E M IC H I E L S on Instagram as well list all those in the notes of the show. Thanks guys.

Unknown Speaker 23:31
Thank you so much George’s great, great morning.

george grombacher 23:33
And until next time, remember, do your part by doing your best

Transcribed by https://otter.ai