I want to tell you about my buddy Sunny.

Not about his beautiful hair. Nor his bulging biceps. Or even about his biz success (he has ten thousand tutors under him at TutorBright).

No – I want to tell you about how Sunny makes me feel…

I ran into him about a month ago on Queen Street (small world, Alex Ikonn too). And I left feeling awesome.

I saw him at Jayson + Kandis’ BBQ a few weekends ago. Again, felt like a boss afterward.

I had him at my dinner a few nights ago, and again he made me feel terrific.

Hell, after seeing him on Queen Street, I remember coming home and telling my lady “man, Sunny makes me feel so good about myself.”

Because here’s the thing – every time I see Sunny, he’s incredibly complimentary.

On Queen Street, he gave me so much love about my cookie off.

At the BBQ a few weekends ago, he complimented my guns (coming from him!)

And then two days ago he commented on how good my shirt looked.

And Sunny doesn’t just compliment, he does it enthusiastically. It’s not some task he’s doing to check off in his brain; it’s not some glib networking tip he read somewhere and is dutifully doing.

I asked him about it, and he had this to say:

“Critiques are free and everywhere.
Compliments are free but rare.”

So be like Sunny. See something compliment-worthy and note it. After all, rare things are far more memorable.

Do it. Don’t do it.

No on cares. Do it for yourself, because you’re the only one that really cares anyway.

A while ago Cory Huff asked “if you are well known for one thing, how do you approach telling your audience about another random thing?”

I was tagged in it, and my answer:

1. Anything can be connected to anything else. It’s almost a story in narration/storytelling to hook the two together.For example, I used my love of food and how you can salt chocolate chip cookies to enhance flavor to how in entrepreneurship but doing something a bit atypical can make you stand out.
2. At the same time, I’m not trying to build a following around a niche/area of expertise like most people. I’m not trying to become an expert in X nor write a book or anything else around the arena of expertise. I’m chasing what I like, and if you want to join me on that ride, awesome. If not – nbd!

There’s also a separate discussion on what social responsibility one has when you have a bully pulpit and what kind of impact you want to make

So here’s the truth – my businesses and my personal brand are not the same. It’s only when you marry the two that it becomes an issue. Keep them separate, and you can do whatever the hell you want.

Just wanted to publicly give kudos to my buddy Phil Caravaggio for being recognized as Canada’s Top 40 under 40.

Phil helped co-found Precision Nutrition with John Berardi (who advises no-name companies like Equinox, Nike, and Apple… nbd).

I’ve known Phil for a long time, and it’s great to see someone so thoughtful *and* successful get recognized for the badass work he’s done.

The real honor was that yesterday after our ice cream crawl, my buddies UJ and Jayson were invited to a surprise party for Phil. It was an honour to be invited to this intimate gathering of his friends and family.

Phil doesn’t have a lick of eFame, but he’s one of the most reflective people I have ever come across. If I can implore you on anything, it’s to seek out people who are doing and building interesting things, notoriety be damned.

(If you remember, a few months ago I posted about Phil was a big part of why Ray Dalio’s Principles came into being). You surround yourself with people like that and you’ll never have a dull moment in life.

There was a major Google update a few days ago.

The YMYL (your money your life – which includes a lot of sites in health/nutrition) niche and got hammered. We’re talking about as bad as 80%.

Incidentally, Examine.com went up.

Just a reminder – focus on the basics and NOT what works at the moment.

Google is a black box, don’t overthink it.

EDIT: I wrote an article on step-by-step directions on how to establish EAT.