We had the pleasure to interview Dr. Dave Braun and Dr. Troy Amdahl, co-authors of the International Best Selling book, Oola: Find Balance in an Unbalanced World. Dr. Dave (the Oola Seeker) and Dr. Troy (the Oola Guru) are renowned experts in a proper work/life balance. They travel the world, helping people find balance and growth in the “Seven Key Areas of Life,” better known as the “Seven F’s of Oola”: Fitness, Finance, Family, Field, Faith, Friends, and Fun. A better “you” makes a better family, a better community, and ultimately a better world.

Below are some highlights from their conversation. To listen to the complete podcast, click here.

What does it mean to live an Oola Life?

An Oola life means you’re living not only a balanced life but also a growing one. The growth is what distinguishes a successful person from a balanced person. Perhaps your business is doing really well, but your health is poor. Or perhaps you haven’t seen your family in months or there’s simply no fun in your day-to-day life.

The main point of Oola is to not let fear stand in the way of pursuing your ideas, purpose, and greatness. Every person has their own definition of happiness (or a happy life) and how to achieve it. When you’re burdened with a life without Oola — in debt, bad relationships, family issues, poor health — you’re going to lose your purpose. A person living an Oola life will be able to focus on achieving goals without neglecting the other aspects of their life.

How Can an Entrepreneur Have a Balanced Life?

Entrepreneurs may question how they can focus on building their business — a grueling, time-consuming task — while not allowing the other aspects of their lives to suffer. The answer: go ahead and focus on your Field, but make sure to still address the other six areas of Oola. Make sure you’re taking care of yourself, you’re working out regularly. Make sure you’re spending time with your family. Think of a circus performer spinning 7 plates. The focus can be on the one plate of business but those other 6 plates holding your family, your health, your fun, etc. better be seen in the corner of your eyes. If they’re not, they’ll fall, and the act is over. Money doesn’t matter if your life is a mess.

What are the dangers of lacking focus?

Lack of focus is the most common “Oola blocker” that prevents movement forward and achieving goals. A common misstep is when people focus their energy on where their interest lies, and not necessarily where the business opportunity is. The opportunity is what will create success — allow that to reveal the path rather than forcing the path to be something you want it to be. Write your goals down. Look at the plan and the goal objectively and remain flexible in our ever-changing market.

Strategically Collaborate

If you’re successful, you will have many requests to collaborate. Look at your potential collaborator: Do they have similar clientele? Do your products complement each other? Oola Life started with a focus on publishing and selling a book. A phone call from Young Living Essential Oils turned into an incredibly profitable and meaningful collaboration. Without flexibility, that call may never have even taken place.

What to do when competition mimics your product or service?

There was a question about what one should do about similar businesses popping up and mimicking your products. First, you’re doing something right if businesses are mimicking you, so congrats! Continue doing what you’re doing and then bring it up a notch. Don’t focus on the competitors but keep an eye on them. Are they marketing better than you? Then you need to start marketing better. Are they more prevalent on social media?

Avoid Becoming a Commodity

Don’t change your prices to remain competitive or to reach a different audience. Instead, the answer is to offer a new service. Make sure you have something for everyone. Offer a blog for free. Post on social media. Create events people can pay to attend. Change the structure of your fee — take a percentage of your client’s revenue growth instead of charging a flat fee.

Listen to the whole podcast here.

Learn more about Oola Life on the website or on social media.

Brian Califano