(0:00) Welcome to the BLTNT podcast. I’m your host, Matt Loria, serving up real stories of business, (0:05) life, technology, and transformations. You’ll hear from interesting people about big changes (0:09) from career shifts to life-altering decisions and the innovations that help make it all happen.

(0:14) It’s about sharing those lightbulb moments, pivot points, challenges overcome, and the journeys (0:19) that inspire us to think differently. If you’re on the lookout for insights to propel you forward, (0:23) stories that resonate, or just a bit of inspiration on your next BLTNT move,(0:27) you’re in the right place. Let’s dig in.

All right. Welcome to another episode of the BLTNT (0:40) podcast, where we’re talking about business, life, technology, and transformations. (0:45) Proudly sitting here with my buddy, John Glenn.

Happy to be here. (0:49) Great. Glad you’re here.

I feel like I’m going to be in the hot seat a little bit because you’re (0:53) a fellow podcaster. So I want to make sure that I put out a quality product like you do. So (0:58) I feel a little bit on my toes here.

Well, I’m also a customer of yours. (1:02) That’s true too. Yeah.

So I got to say nice things about you too. (1:08) Well, you’re also somebody that I really respect, not just because of what you built, (1:12) but kind of who you’ve become and the transformations that you’ve gone through. (1:18) I won’t spill the beans here right at the beginning, but you’ve really transformed (1:23) yourself personally in your business as well.

And I’m just very impressed. So glad that you’re here. (1:30) Glad that we get a chance to talk about this and let’s see what unfolds.

(1:35) Absolutely. Long time coming, man. Awesome.

Thanks for having me. (1:37) Awesome. So I’m going to give a little background too.

So John’s the CEO (1:40) of Great Lakes Essential Power. He’s also a Bloom Growth Coach and he’s the host of the (1:46) Roll Call podcast. So certainly have a lot of different hats that you’ve got going on here.

(1:53) All that have a very good through line though, that keeps it all together. (1:59) Also, you’ve kind of been through the fire, right? You’ve been through the ups and downs of business, (2:05) certainly have emerged as more of a peaceful character, I would say, than when we first met.(2:11) I was an asshole for sure.

(2:12) You were not an asshole by any means, but you were definitely running on some serious horsepower and (2:18) running on some serious adrenaline and making it all happen, but not at a sustainable pace, (2:24) I would probably have to guess. So let’s talk about, here you are, the CEO of a company (2:35) and you’re also doing these multiple things. So talk about what’s going on in life here with (2:41) regard to that and the transformations that you’re making.

(2:47) So Great Lakes Essential Power, I started that company a little over 11 years ago (2:51) and we’re a manufactured rep firm, sell heavy electrical equipment. (2:56) And that started out of not necessity, but an opportunity. It’s something that I came out of (3:05) college with GE.

And so I was doing that job for 10 years. It’s what I knew. I knew I didn’t want (3:12) to stay in the corporate world.

The further up I went, the more I realized I had to sell my soul a (3:18) bit or whatnot. And I just realized the corporate world wasn’t for me. And it was in my bones all (3:24) along to be an entrepreneur.

I just didn’t know it. I thought I had to make my splashes somewhere (3:30) else in the corporate world. And once I realized that, that it was just too much, I was traveling (3:35) so much.

I had two young kids at home and I joked that they didn’t know my name. It was time. It (3:42) was time to do something different.

And again, it was there and it was just a great opportunity. (3:48) I knew that at the time GE owned that part of the business and they just didn’t know how to go to (3:54) market with six different divisions calling in the same marketplace. And I thought, everyone calls (3:59) me anyway, so let’s just go do this.

And so do it a different way. And so I still had the same (4:03) mothership, right? There was still GE that I was just getting paid differently and I was just doing (4:07) things a little differently. So you kind of essentially went from a sales rep to a manufacturers (4:16) representative organization.

Is that true or just distribution group? Yeah, absolutely. So I was (4:22) a district manager, you know, from Wisconsin, calling on Wisconsin to Western New York and (4:28) Western PA. And again, so yeah, so ultimately in a sales organization, ultimately we’re just (4:34) manufacturers reps.

So we don’t buy and sell anything. We just, we represent those companies (4:38) and get paid a commission for it. So we just get paid differently.

And although we are still, (4:44) and you know, we have to answer to the mothership, we still get to make our own decisions. And that, (4:48) that, that was scratching my entrepreneurial itch. You know, fast forward through many, (4:55) you know, COVID hit and our, and the whole construction industry went nuts.

And you know, (5:01) there’s lots of storylines in there about some learnings that I had and that’s, that’s how I (5:06) learned, unfortunately, is by skinning my knees. And I would say I skinned my knees off during the (5:11) last few years, figuring that out. And, and, you know, so through that, and we’ll have plenty of, (5:19) plenty of stories to go through there, but through there, I’ve had many journeys of finding myself, (5:23) finding, again, making some mistakes on the business front, which then translates into (5:29) stress and affects the family and affects everything else.

So I went on a pretty, (5:32) pretty substantial journey over the past four years, five years of like,(5:37) what the hell do I want to do? Who am I, who am I showing up as? And, and, you know, really it’s (5:45) the people that have come into my life through these past years that have helped me realize (5:50) that I was really showing up as someone else. You talk about the horsepower, right? It was just, (5:57) I’m running, I’m gunning, I’m going to be successful no matter what, right? That’s what I, (6:01) I came out of the womb with that really. And, you know, realizing, well, I thought I did anyway.

(6:07) But what I realized was I’ve been, I was just chasing, trying to prove everyone wrong,(6:11) trying to prove my worth. And then once I stopped chasing that, I realized that (6:17) in that I leave awake, even though I do feel like I’m a, I’ve always been a good person. (6:22) And I’ve, I feel like I’ve showed up for most people in a good way, (6:27) enjoyable, likable, don’t burn bridges.

But, but at the same time, when you look back at my, (6:33) at the wake, you realize that, you know, they, again, I didn’t like hit anyone or (6:39) really tell anyone off or like, they didn’t leave hating me, but they’re always like, man, (6:43) what was that? There’s something, right. I didn’t feel totally whole. And I realized that that was (6:47) me with the focus moving forward.

And, and so it threw a lot of searching. And again, (6:53) we could sit here for hours about what I’ve, how I’ve gotten there, but you know, really it was, (6:58) I am, what it boils down to is looking at myself first, before I look at all the external factors, (7:04) I was blaming everything else. I was blaming my company.

I was blaming the representations, (7:08) blaming the market, blaming all these other things, blaming my people, blaming whatever it is (7:13) and, and realizing, and at home, right. Ultimately it just comes down to finding out who I am and, (7:20) and at my core. And, and again, there’s many, many things that go into that, but, you know, (7:27) ultimately what I found out through that from a professional standpoint is I love entrepreneurs.

(7:30) I love entrepreneurship. I love what, what it takes to be one. I love what, you know, again,(7:37) there’s all types of them.

And they’re not all lovable, but I love what, what they provide (7:42) to the economy, to people, to, again, it can be great success stories of money. It can be great (7:50) success stories of time because it allows them to do things that are enjoyable and be with their (7:55) family. It’s a great example of learning because on the go, like you, I have an MBA, but I didn’t, (8:03) I haven’t applied a single thing because I don’t know what the hell I learned in the MBA.

(8:05) I have a business degree, didn’t apply any of that because I don’t know what the hell I learned (8:09) there. I just did the, went through the motions. So what you learn as an entrepreneur, I think is (8:13) what really makes this world go round.

And so that’s what, and so through this, I realized (8:18) I want to help entrepreneurs. I love the aspect of entrepreneurs. I don’t love my company, (8:25) Great Lakes Essential Power.

I don’t love electrical equipment, right? I don’t have a, (8:29) a passion for that, but I have the passion for the business side of it. And so what I’ve really, (8:35) really what I, what I’ve come to is realizing that I want to spend more time with entrepreneurs (8:39) and I want to spend time helping entrepreneurs. And so that’s what I’ve been, you know, (8:43) when you mentioned, I’ve got a few things going right now, you know, as in with my company, I, (8:50) I want to spend my time doing the things I love inside that company.

It’s taken me a while to (8:55) figure that out. But I also want to transition that to employees who want to realize a dream (9:03) they probably didn’t know they had. Not many people are, can take the risk or the leap to be (9:08) an entrepreneur.

Sure. They might not have it in their DNA because it’s not all great. It’s not (9:11) all fun.

But that’s what I, that’s ultimately what I’ve wanted to do. And I found a way to, (9:17) to try to do that while also getting to do some things that I love, which is again, (9:21) sitting with leadership teams and, and executives and helping them, not that I have the answers, (9:28) but help them uncover the answers for themselves. And so I’m showing up as that, (9:32) as a Bloom Growth coach now.

And it really is, again, I don’t have all the answers. I’m not, (9:38) as a consultant, I don’t have the answers. I have a lot of experience, (9:41) mostly because of things I’ve done wrong.

But now with what I’ve seen other clients do, (9:47) I was doing this pro bono for a couple of years with some nonprofits or with friends getting (9:52) startup. And I just found a great way. Bloom Growth launched a coaching side of the business (9:59) and I was able to, to, to be a part of the, one of the early cohorts of that a year and a half ago.

(10:05) And so now I have a, a means by which that I have a, a structure and a backbone of again, (10:11) how to operate and run a company that I can share with clients. And then I have my own (10:15) gift that God has given me of facilitation and sitting with humans and reading humans (10:21) and their behavior and helping leadership teams come to the right decisions.(10:24) Sure.

I keep hearing the recurring word of help that keeps coming out. And so I, the, (10:29) the people who I really enjoy the most, I, I hear that they’re, they’re helpers, (10:33) they’re servants, right. And they’re servant leaders.

And so it’s, it’s, it’s a hard thing (10:38) to say out loud because it sounds, it can sometimes sound self-aggrandizing and, (10:43) and whatnot. But, but I mean, that’s really, if I was to strip away everything else that I heard, (10:48) I’m like, Oh, John really loves to serve. Who does he love to serve? He loves to serve (10:51) entrepreneurs, right? Who does he love to serve? He loves to serve others.

And it’s kind of (10:56) resonating with the fact that, look, you’re even acknowledging that the next level of leader (11:01) inside of your company might not be somebody who had that innate drive to be an entrepreneur, (11:07) right? Cause entrepreneur starts off in the dugout, not even at home plate, right? You’re (11:12) looking, you’re saying, Hey, you know what? I’ve created something. I’ve created something (11:15) of value here. I can start somebody off at, at second base, right.

With, with, with some good (11:21) steam behind them. So they’re the, they’re the people to, you know, to take it to where it goes (11:27) next. And so, you know, you’re serving them, you’re serving the leaders that you’re talking (11:32) to and helping facilitate.

Yeah. Yeah. No, and that’s, that’s, that’s very true on the help side.

(11:38) I think there’s, again, that’s the part that, that, that I truly did come out of the womb with.(11:44) Saw my dad as a figure growing up. You know, my parents were split when I was early, when I was, (11:51) when I was young, but my dad, you know, was always serving the community in what he was doing.

He (11:58) actually was driving a tow truck for my whole career, for my whole life. And, but he was (12:04) constantly, if someone was broken down, he was the one that would stop and help them. And they’d (12:08) try to pay him and be like, no, my dad, you’re running a business.

What are you doing? But (12:12) that, again, that was my dad always there. And in the community, he was always known as the, (12:16) the humble helping guy, right? He was the usher at church. He was, you know, all of those things.

(12:21) And, you know, the helping put a, a shopping cart away when it’s in the parking lot of a(12:28) grocery store. That’s what I saw growing up. And that’s how I show up in many of the cases.

(12:35) And, you know, another thing that I, another role that I play in the community is I’m the(12:39) dad’s club for my children’s school, which we run all the athletics and everything. (12:43) And I found out, you know, and I was president of my, my fraternity and in college. And I, (12:48) you know, there’s, there’s a lot of that that’s in there, me trying to think I need to go prove(12:52) myself and be up front, but I’ve always found myself like, you know, certainly in volunteer(12:55) situations.

I don’t know. You’ve been a part of these where someone’s like, Hey, we need someone (12:58) to do this. And you look around and it’s just crickets.

Shit. Okay. Right.

Because I know (13:04) something he’s getting. So that’s just always Catholic guilt, but yeah.(13:07) Yes.

Fair, fair. And I, but I’ve had to unlearn some of that. That’s right.

Everything I say yes (13:12) to, I say no to something else. Yeah. And so that’s, that is just something in me.

And I’ve (13:18) had some people challenge me a little bit that, you know, am I, you know, am I trying to prove (13:25) that I am smarter, gooder, gooder, better than others by showing up in that way. And I, I’ve (13:32) really had a lot of work on that. I’m like, wow, am I. You’re right.

What’s the, what’s the why (13:35) what’s the real, why is it just what I do this if no one’s looking or am I doing it? Cause I’m on (13:40) show because I have always wanted, I’ve always loved being in front. So there’s been, and my (13:44) wife’s challenged me on that one quite often. But, but no, even, even stripping that back, (13:49) there’s a lot of that.

There is a lot of that, right. That we all bring to the party (13:54) from our childhood, right. Whatever we’re trying to prove, but it does it.

And I’ve, (13:58) and I’ve tested it time and time again in many different ways. And I, and I look and I see, (14:03) you know, do I do it when no one’s looking and I do. And, and, you know, really a working genius, (14:10) which I know we talked about a little bit.

I’ve, you know, I got certified that along the way (14:14) because I found a real joy in that as well, because it’s about, oh my gosh, what happens (14:19) if you actually love what you’re doing? How good are you going to be at it? And if, what if we let (14:22) everybody else do that too? And, and my geniuses are wonder and enablement. Enablement is, (14:30) it’s like the hardest one to, to put your finger on because that’s the one in the work where it’s (14:34) enablement means first person that just says, someone says you need help and you raise your (14:38) hand. And so they’re not the one that created the idea.

They’re not the one that got everybody (14:43) excited to go do the idea. And they’re not the one that finished it. Cause by the way, (14:45) I don’t finish anything.

I never finished anything. So the enablement gets kind of lost (14:49) in the shuffle of all the work that gets done. But me being wonder and enablement, like I ask (14:55) questions, I just look around me and ask questions.

And then I wait for someone to, (14:58) that needs help. And then I, I respond. So I’m a responsive person.

I’m not a, (15:03) I’m not an active person in that. And, you know, it just, it just rings true. Again,(15:09) I do assessments and everything else.

I try to, to jip and assess or, you know, (15:13) change an assessment around by being something. It comes back to the same thing. And I just.

(15:17) It’s great. Yeah. So you’re, you’re just, I mean, overall you’re getting, (15:20) you’ve gotten to know yourself better than you’ve ever had before.

Yes. You know, (15:24) and I think some of that comes with age, but I think you also just have to really seek it out. (15:27) I mean, we’ve, we’ve, we’ve definitely heard that people cap out.

Typically people stop (15:32) growing at about 25 years old in the mental capacities and don’t really ever truly get (15:38) to that self-actualizing place. So it doesn’t just happen from, from aging. You know, (15:43) you’ve got to seek it out.

You have to seek it out. You have to, you have to learn. You have to (15:48) grow.

You have to be willing to be humble. You’ve got to be willing to be vulnerable and, (15:52) and do it. Yeah.

Yeah. I think, you know, you know, Bob Holland, right. Our renowned Vista’s (15:59) chair, you know, what did he say? The six stages of, of, of, of a leader of, or of life or that (16:05) humans go through.

Right. And most people stop at three or four. And then there’s, (16:11) there’s the give back part where people normally like getting to that in their fifties and sixties, (16:15) like, okay, well, wait, now, wait a minute.

What am I supposed to give back? Correct. Right. And (16:20) you know, finding that a little earlier you, again, most of the time it just happens through (16:26) experience or happens through a life experience of like I’m retiring or whatever.

I, you know, (16:31) something triggers it. Sure. Mine just got triggered a lot earlier, which I think is great.

(16:37) I mean, while you’ve got the runway to, to deal with it. Right. Yeah.

Yeah. And again, (16:40) again, most times it takes some, some bad shit. You know, it takes something to dig you, (16:45) to get you down to, oof, am I really happy or am I, what am I? And so what was, what was the, (16:53) I know you’ve given me a few examples, but, but what was the example that made you (16:58) really start to seek this out? Because what I recall is that a few years ago, (17:03) you were working with a fellow named coach, Bob, Bob, Bob, Bob Shana felt Shana felt.

Yep. And he (17:09) wrote a book and he runs a, runs a program for visionary leaders and you hooked up with him (17:16) and went on, went on some crazy trip and you came back, you came back floating. Yeah.

Yeah. (17:24) Explain that. And what drove you to do that too? Yeah, sure.

So this was in towards the end of (17:29) 2020 into 21, maybe 21. And again, this was the, some the COVID and I’m not necessarily about (17:38) COVID, but where I was with the company and you know, the, and how I’m showing up with my family, (17:45) my family was growing. I, you know, I have four, so I have, I should stop.

I have a beautiful wife, (17:49) Colleen. We’ve been, you should stop having kids. Is that what you’re saying? Yeah.

Well, (17:52) that’s just, you should stop. That’s number one. You’ve had a lot.

I’ve yes, yes, it is time. And (17:57) yeah, you should talk about, yeah. And you know, we’ve been together for 18 years.

We’ll be this (18:05) year. We have four kids, awesome kids. Son Brady will be 15 this month.

My daughter Avery will be (18:11) 13th and 13 in July. Uh, Murphy will be a seven in June and Henry will be, it just turned four (18:18) in April. Awesome.

And that timeframe with, with COVID and everything else, we’re all together. (18:24) And I was, what was happening at everything else in life, the stress finances and everything else (18:30) was showing up as me being a bad husband, a bad father. And that’s what, just like, (18:37) you know, that not quite depression, but that’s the kind of stuff that, that was really, (18:42) I was questioning my value, who I will, I got, I’m tearing my family down because financially like(18:48) this, this is my job is to make money and be successful and have a house and be on a country (18:53) club.

And that’s, was the defiant. That was my definition of success. Cause I didn’t have that (18:58) growing up.

And so that’s all I was charging for. And, uh, that’s when I started asking like, (19:03) what is success? And my EOS implementer and dear friend, Mike Kotsis, uh, he, he is, well, (19:14) he’s actually one of the shining reasons why, and coach Bob, why I wanted to go in that, uh, (19:19) growth coaching side of the business was because it wasn’t just, they weren’t coming in to coach my (19:25) business. Mike Kotsis would always know where I was as a human and sense in the room to help my (19:32) leadership team help uncover and cover up where I needed help.

Um, cause he knew me as a human. (19:38) Well, during that time, again, late 2020, early 21, I was like, I need something. And he knew it.

(19:45) And he connected me with coach Bob. He’s like, well, coach Bob does visionary coaching. And he (19:49) goes to his, this thing called go to the mountain that I’ve heard great things about.

So I said, (19:53) boom, I started watching all of Bob’s videos that he had on. I’m like, Holy shit. I gotta, (19:58) you know, you know, he has like six principles of being a great effing visionary and all these (20:01) things.

And I’m like, all right, I just got to call the guy. And he’s a local Michigan guy, (20:06) um, in Birmingham. So I called him and I was like, man, I, uh, I’ve heard about this, this mountain.

(20:12) Uh, I don’t know. I just got to talk to you. I’m, I’m in a rut.

We was talking to all these things (20:17) and he’s like, well, the next mountain isn’t for like four months. And I’m like, shit, (20:22) I was at a point where I was like, okay, what else you got? Right. And he’s like, well, I do (20:26) individual coaching and all these other things.

I need the adrenaline shot. I was sitting outside (20:31) my office, like in my car talking to him. And it was like, it was like this whole, I’m like, (20:38) I can’t step over this threshold right now.

Talk to me, man. And, um, and so we started doing, (20:45) uh, we just said, all right, I’m going to coach under him. Right.

As a, as a, as a personal coach, (20:50) he created a process called I matter. And it is just some curated methodology of daily check-ins (20:57) and weekly, weekly check-ins and things like that about how you get to and find yourself and help (21:03) you uncover your own North star. And, you know, a lot of that process is going through some child (21:08) trauma and, and uncovering a lot of that and did that for about a year and a half.

And again, (21:13) that was starting to uncover a lot of things for me. And then did you invest money in doing this (21:18) Oh, yes. By the way.

Yes. Okay. So this was at a time that, that didn’t have money.

Didn’t have (21:23) money. You’re investing money. You’re investing all this time in me, right.

I was, I was paying (21:28) money for, to coach me. And that’s always a fun conversation too, at home. And you’re like, well, (21:32) we can’t afford this, but I sure can let me go work on me.

Um, and God bless my wife for, for (21:38) dealing with me, um, through these years, because I’ve, I’ve invested a lot of time and a lot of (21:45) money. Um, and it’s not all about money, but it, it is real. So any, any, that’s another thing, (21:51) any entrepreneur, any leader, any corp, any company who’s not investing money in someone else (21:56) coaching them, um, is really missing the boat.

I mean, that’s why we’re in Vistage and things like (22:02) that. Um, cause we don’t have all the answers, but, um, so that was, that was step one, right. (22:09) Just doing the coaching and that again, not, not cheap.

Um, and then about a year and a half in, (22:16) it was like, all right, I’m finally ready to do the mountain. And we, uh, so we did it. It was (22:22) March of 22, 23.

Uh, and, um, that started my like real journey. I was, we were going deep, (22:32) but I went out to, and we go, it’s a three-day retreat out in Colorado, no drugs, (22:37) no mushrooms or anything like that. Closed, right.

Fully clothed. No, no. Okay.

We’re not naked, (22:43) but we’ll, we’ll get, you know, so there’s, there’s a sweat lodge that most people start (22:48) freaking out about, but it is, um, it’s about being in the mountains. It’s about, it’s just a (22:52) process by which, and again, we went with strangers. There was like six of us.

Um, and so it’s not (22:57) like you can do it with buddies, but it’s like, there’s an immense power and it’s an amazing, (23:01) does Bob know all these people though? So is that the only common thread or, or yeah. And he wasn’t, (23:06) it wasn’t like close friends. Like there was, um, I, of the group, I was probably the closest (23:12) with him because he was coaching with me.

Right. Okay. Or I was coaching with him, (23:15) but it was amazing.

There was some person that just happened to find out about it. And on a, (23:19) on a whim, same thing. She was at her breaking point, just sold her company.

Um, and was like (23:24) figuring out what’s next and hyper, hyper, I mean, hyper entrepreneurial or like she had a kid (23:30) child too. Again, there’s a lot like, uh, I’m so focused and successful and like, what’s next. (23:36) And how do I be a parent? And all the, like all those things, right.

All the things that we deal (23:40) with as, as humans, as entrepreneurs and parents and the whole thing. Um, she just came on a whim (23:47) and, and that’s not cheap, right? This is a whole nother, like another plop down. Um, that, uh, you (23:54) know, again, that was a hard sell.

That one’s gutsy too. I mean, it’s not just an investment of (23:59) money and of time. I mean, it’s like, there’s some discomfort, right? I mean, you’re going to a (24:04) high altitude place.

Yeah. You’re talking about going through a sweat lodge. I mean, you’re (24:08) hiking, you know? So this isn’t like, this isn’t like just, I’m investing, you know, X thousands (24:13) of dollars.

And then I come up with a certificate. It’s not, you’re investing the money and then you (24:18) got to do some serious work while you’re there. And if you know, you’re like, you don’t go just(24:23) to go, you know, so many people, you know, can just throw money at something like, Hey, I’m going (24:28) to go try this thing.

And it’s going to be like a gym membership. I’ve had, I’ve paid that tax (24:31) before. All right.

Um, you know, this is, you gotta be seriously know that you’re going to go (24:36) make some, some breakthroughs and you got to be committed to breakthroughs. And like I said, (24:40) like some people come in with a little bit of a barrier and then you realize it’s amazing, (24:43) complete strangers that you end up burying your soul more than you would to your wife or your(24:48) mom. Right.

Cause sometimes like, again, as an entrepreneur, sometimes we just, we don’t share (24:53) all the bad stuff because we don’t want them to get scared. Right. Their confidence is when(24:57) we’re confident, then life is good.

But when we start feeling, looking weak, they’re like, Oh, (25:02) now what? In many cases anyway. And so, you know, it’s just amazing that the process is just by, (25:09) Hey, what’s really ailing us. And then we spend time talking to each other.

(25:13) None of us have the answer. And it’s not about telling each other what they should go do. (25:16) It’s the uncovering of what, um, what’s inside you and then other perspectives.

And then, (25:24) we meet with a shaman, his name is leaf running rabbit, another phenomenal human being (25:28) who is just an incredibly centered, um, and present human. And you get just different (25:36) perspectives of how to look at life through gratitude and everything else. And again, (25:40) life is all about choices.

You can choose to take that experience and go back and do the same (25:44) things, or you can choose to like, this is a change for me. And it’s about how I am showing up. (25:52) And again, that didn’t solve anything, everything.

It did show me, I mean, you said you saw it, (25:57) you saw the difference in me. Yeah. I mean, you came back, I think you were, you were lighter.

(26:03) Yeah. You were talking about your new friend running rabbit and we all thought you were a (26:06) little crazy, but, um, but no, I mean, not, not to make light of it, but it was, I mean,(26:10) it was definitely like, Whoa, what, what happened here? You know? I mean, it was obviously (26:17) very pivotal, very, very impactful to you. Yeah.

So, um, so you came back, um, you know, (26:25) how did your, how did your wife react to, to kind of this, uh, next level of, well, I mean, (26:30) we’ll call it like self-actualizing or enlightenment of some way. I mean, cause (26:33) really that’s what you’re doing is you’re, you’re growing through this experience and you’re trying (26:39) to make sense of it. Right.

You know, it feels good. You don’t really know exactly what to do (26:42) with it at this point. Right.

Yeah. This episode of the BLTNT podcast is sponsored by (26:55) Oxium business IT and cybersecurity designed to outsmart chaos and powered by Juniper networks. (27:01) Automate your network with Juniper networks and the missed AI platform.

The world’s first AI (27:05) driven wired and wireless network. You know, I think she’s knows me enough to, uh, to know that (27:20) I’m, um, I’m a visionary in the mindset that my, I change all the time. Right.

I, I’m, (27:26) I get excited about this, but I don’t finish. I, you know, I get, um, I know when I do something (27:32) wrong and I come back and apologize or, you know, and, and so she’s accustomed to me or I jump on a (27:38) new fad and an idea and she’s like, okay, I’ll just wait till you stop getting excited about it. (27:42) Just like the people on our team do.

Right. Um, and, uh, you know, this one, she, she could see (27:48) a difference in how I was showing up. I was calmer, which again, um, which was helping everyone (27:54) else in the family.

But it admittedly, she was just like, well, well, I’m just waiting to see (27:59) John come back. Right. Like, is this just a show for a little bit? And, um, you know, again, (28:05) I have been changed ever since then and for the better, but it is a constant journey.

And I’d say (28:12) in the past two years, I’ve actually even exponentially changed. Right. Cause then I (28:17) realized I I’m at, I’m at, I’m at a different level of where I am in my understanding of myself.

(28:22) I need another. So Abiza Rashid is now my next level. And I will say an amazingly highest level (28:31) coach that I could ever suggest of someone from a, from a human, not necessarily just, you know, (28:34) many times as executives, we want an executive coach and things like that.

Um, he is a (28:42) transcending human being that is about presence and intention and the business stuff comes with (28:48) it. Right. It’s not, it’s not the, um, I’ve been, you know, I’ve started and sold three companies (28:55) and that’s my experience I bring to you.

It is not that at all. Um, what, you know, really just (29:04) showing me how we show up, how much it affects everyone else in a way that, you know, again, (29:10) I could be upset with how my team shows up, how my kids show up or, or again, my wife is nagging me (29:17) or, um, you know, one example was we’d have a, again, we, he doesn’t have a process, right. He’s (29:22) just an intensely inquisitive person.

And, um, and I’ve been doing it for a long time, but doing it (29:30) from, uh, uh, from a good heart versus trying to do it professionally. And he and I just sat and (29:36) had coffee one day cause we were just acquaintances of groups, right. Of, of coach Bob.

And so we just (29:41) met and he started at, you know, I started asking me questions and undressing me in a way that was, (29:47) so much out of love. And, um, but he was just calling me on my shit without saying it that way. (29:54) Right.

And I was like, and I, cause it comes up with again, maybe an argument we were, I was (30:00) having with my wife and he’s like, oh, you’re blaming her. Yeah. Cause she, how dare she,(30:06) I come in the door, have a great day.

And, and all the kids and all the things she’s doing. She’s (30:10) like, if you think about what she was thinking about, oh, you expect her to just be wow. And (30:16) cause you’re in a great mood, jump right up to your energy level and shit.

Um, and then we just (30:22) looked at him. I’m like, all right, man, when do we start? Right. So it kind of helped him launch (30:27) it as being, being, doing it professionally.

And, and I’ve been with him ever since. And, (30:33) um, I guess I can’t, I can’t talk highly enough of having someone else that can help you uncover (30:42) your blind spots in a way that’s loving. Um, and, um, and again, so what, what he’s done for me, (30:51) for my family, because again, how we show up, everyone else, right.

Our intention. Yeah. You’re (30:58) the conductor changes, right.

Yeah. And, um, you know, and, and how many times in business we try (31:05) to get a win, um, and that means someone has to lose, right. So certainly getting clients or (31:13) again, an intense negotiation, um, trying to sell something, try to buy something, right.

(31:19) There’s always someone, you know, people trying to negotiate and it’s like, what if we all went (31:24) in and like, and looked for harmony in it and everyone says, win, win, right. Well, there’s (31:28) no third, like win, win, win. Yep.

Right. Cause there’s you and I, but then does anyone else (31:32) or those around us? Right. And so if I’m like, oh gosh, like I said, I’m trying to sell my company (31:38) and, um, to an employee, well, I want this number.

Well, they think this number, (31:43) oh, that’s off. Right. How many times have we just like, well, no, wait, what’s the real (31:47) intentionality.

What are we really trying to get out of this? Sure. And how often do we really stop (31:52) and think about that in our transactions? I think if we look at, you know, the more I look at every(31:57) relationship as a marriage, right. That says, Hey, this, this really, we’re getting into this(32:03) with the intention of being into this for the longterm.

So if we start off in a negotiating (32:07) standpoint where it’s negative like that, we’re setting a negative tone, right. You and Colleen (32:12) didn’t negotiate. Will you marry me? No, maybe, but maybe if you make, you know, this much money, (32:17) then yeah, I’ll do it.

You know, like, like you’re not, you’re not going through those (32:21) levels of negotiation. You’re going, do we both think that we’re that, is this good for me? Is (32:26) this good for you? Is this going to be good for our future kids? Is this going to be good for our (32:29) future grandkids? I mean, that’s really, that’s how the win, win, win plus, you know, really comes(32:35) out of things. Excuse me.

We’re both coughing a little bit today. Yeah. Yeah.

So I did, I did (32:42) see the news was on yesterday morning and I saw that all the pollen levels were real high. So I (32:46) guess I didn’t realize I must have some pollen allergies or something. Let’s, let’s take a (32:52) little pivot here of, of kind of incorporating some of these different conversations.

So in, (32:58) in your business in the, in the great lakes essential power business, you experienced a (33:04) client loss a little while ago. And so it was very disruptive to the business. One, I’d like (33:12) you to talk about that so that other people obviously can understand that you can recover (33:17) from these things.

But two, and really kind of more importantly to me is your story of how does (33:23) the John of today handle that different? How did, how did you handle that different than you would (33:28) have, you know, pre 2021, you know, when you started doing all this self work, what would you,(33:35) what, what, what, and even talk every level of it that, that you can, that comes to mind.(33:40) Yeah. I mean, there were some things happening in the background at that time too, that, (33:44) that it wasn’t just about losing the, the, the client, right.

I mean, they were a partner of (33:51) ours forever. And you know, depending on the year, they were anywhere from 30 to 60% of our revenue. (33:58) And in a very specific part of our business, you know, it’s one of those, we, we saw it, (34:02) we knew something would be coming.

They were purchased by another larger company. So again, (34:06) something is always going to happen. And just to be clear, this wasn’t a client loss.

This was a (34:11) distribution channel, channel partner, they changed their business model. It wasn’t that (34:16) you did something wrong or anything like that. It was just, they changed the business model.

(34:20) Yeah. Yeah. We were collateral damage for some things they were doing nationally.

And you know, (34:24) the, the old me, when you’re asking is like, I mean, it was also when we were trying to recover (34:30) from things, we weren’t fully recovered from what we, you know, what’s happened in the last few (34:35) years. And so there is the, Oh shit. Like here’s another body blow, right? Here we go.

Like here, (34:42) what else actually bring it back to your business, right? Like a year prior is when we had the (34:47) cybersecurity incident that you guys helped us uncover, figure out what, what happened. (34:51) And we ended up having to settle that one at, you know, almost six figures. And I was like, (34:57) God, here’s another thing.

Like, we can’t just get over that. We started getting over that. We (35:00) just can’t do it.

We just can’t do it. And that’s been, most of my life is thinking that way. It’s (35:05) once I get this, then I’ll do that.

Once I get that, I’ll do that. Then I’ll be happy. (35:12) And one of the shifts with Bob is right.

It’s that’s if we be first, the rest, you know, (35:17) the rest will happen. So the old me would have been into a tailspin, probably some drinking, (35:23) probably lots of, lots of things jump into motion, start jumping into figuring the solution out, (35:30) or the old me maybe would have run. (35:33) Maybe said, Hey, I’m just going to close this up now.

It’s not worth it anymore. (35:36) Like just to hell with it. Right.

The debt we have or whatever, (35:40) I’ll just do the easy thing at hard, but easy in the moment. Cause I’ve, I’ve done that in the past. (35:50) And you know, with my previous business partner, I, in looking back, that was a run from, (35:54) didn’t want to deal with it.

So let me, I can take care of that. (35:56) Catherine here always says, are you running, running towards something that you really want? (36:03) Or are you running from something? Yeah. Cause running towards something is, is okay.

(36:09) Running from, you know, it’s always going to leave collateral damage behind and you know, (36:15) other things in your wake. Yeah. Yeah.

So, so yeah. So running from things you don’t, (36:20) you’re not making the right decisions generally. Not typically.

Yeah. Right. And you don’t find (36:24) that out till later.

And so the different for me was, and it literally, cause I, I was at golf (36:31) league, my golf, my phone was in my bag after league. I opened it up and they just texts, (36:38) just like, this is coming blah, blah, blah. Is it real? Is it true? Um, I was like, after just (36:44) a great round of golf, you know, like all that stuff.

And, and so I decided not to stick, stick (36:50) around for dinner that night. And I came home to my wife and I was like, I was like, Colleen, (36:54) Hey, got some really bad news. I’m not ignoring you to talk about it.

I just, right now, I don’t (37:00) want to go down that path today. I want to go to bed and I want to get up in the morning and I want (37:05) to start fresh. And I wasn’t doing it from a running.

I was like, I want to wake up and do a (37:11) list of what am I here to learn from this? Never would have done that before. Trust me. It’s like, (37:16) what do we have to go do? Allowed some marinating.

Yeah. And, um, and so then woke up in the morning (37:21) and said, what are we here to learn from this? And I still have the note card in my bag. (37:24) Um, and because now I’m, you know, now I, I, I, part of my journey was also (37:32) realizing God in my life.

I grew up Catholic. So I’ll go off on a tangent for a second. I’ll come (37:36) back, grew up Catholic, always questioned it, always questioned the story of the Bible.

How (37:41) can all these different religions be really praying to the same guy, but they have a different (37:44) story about how it gets there. Bullshit. Right.

I just show up as a good human. I think the 10 (37:50) commandments are a great way to live. So let me just do that.

Um, but then through this journey, (37:56) I really a Beezer has been a big piece of this is, um, and not even having to bring religion in it, (38:01) but there is a higher power. What is it? Right. Different people, I’d say different things.

(38:05) And so what is, instead of saying, God, what was me? Why God, why’d this happen to me? (38:10) What am I here to learn from it? Because God is doing this to set me up for something. And so, (38:16) uh, that’s what I did the next day. What am I here to learn from this? And then I realized what (38:21) a blessing it was because you get captured captive in doing this work.

This, this way, (38:28) this is the only way you know how to do it. But if you keep, how often do you poke your head out (38:31) and be like, I’ve wanted to fire them for years because culture fit, they treated our people (38:35) like shit. And, but never had the guts, never had the guts.

They’re a huge piece of the business. (38:41) And I told my team, I hope to be able to fire them someday because I hate that they treat you like (38:48) shit. And I got my wish, right? Be careful what you wish for depending.

Right. And so then we (38:53) came back and the more of the team came back and they realized, huh, this asshole is not going to (38:58) call me anymore. Wow.

That’s pretty cool. It frees up my day. Yeah.

Now granted, we had to (39:03) figure some stuff out. Um, and, and instead of just diving in to go figure some, like, (39:08) who are we going to go do? What are we going to go? We slowly did it. And I think, (39:13) yeah, granted, could we have moved faster? Absolutely.

Um, but we found again, just so (39:19) happened. We had a partner reach out to us. They had a situation that we never thought they would (39:24) part from their manufacturer and it, they were ready to make a change.

Like it just happened. (39:31) They called him like, Holy cow, like let’s talk. And they all are just good people.

(39:38) They’re now signed up. Like, so we’ve, we’ve come out of it much stronger, (39:42) much with wide open about what we want and how we can relook at things. And so it’s been,(39:48) it’s been great for us.

Don’t you have to wonder if that almost added a, I mean, (39:53) think about if you were to handle it the old way, even just the stress response on your body (39:57) that you didn’t allow to happen this time. Oh, yeah. Or, or, yeah.

And I know, but no, (40:04) and I know, obviously, you know, our issues, I know, you know, my health and I just had my, (40:11) uh, a quick checkup yesterday, right. My blood pressure was increasingly becoming a problem. (40:17) Like when I was 35, 36, you know, starting the company, right.

I’m running, I’m gunning, we’re, (40:24) uh, drinking strategizing and, you know, having a long lunch and do all these things, (40:28) just running myself ragged. And then the stress, I’m not sharing it with anyone, (40:32) not sharing with my wife, all those things. And yeah.

And so then my doctor was like, (40:38) all right, we can’t ignore this anymore. You’re going to go on medication. All right.

Or you (40:42) could also choose to be healthier, less stress and all those things. Um, so I decided to check (40:47) in yesterday and we’ll be, I’ll be off medication. Hopefully the next visit.

Um, because there’s, (40:52) yes, I am working out and I’m doing the physical things, but the way that I’m (40:57) comprehending things is not causing the stress. The same shit is happening. I’m just going.

(41:04) It’s all your reaction, right? Absolutely. I mean, that’s everything we’ve ever, (41:08) that we’ve ever been taught. I mean, whether it’s bill Crawford life from the top of the mind, (41:13) or it’s the, um, uh, there was just a gentleman, um, uh, Jay Riefenberry was, was talking about,(41:19) uh, some things that another group that I went to and it’s all of our reaction to the,(41:26) to the stimulus, right? It’s all the response and, um, pretty amazing.

So, so where, where, (41:32) where did all this journey gets you on, on the God, on the God piece? Did it bring you back to (41:36) where you started? Did it make you think things, think of things differently? How do you personally (41:41) think now at this point in time? So now God is, is in me, is in you all my, everything that we do (41:49) is through God. Um, I wholeheartedly believe that now. Um, I, what I, I, again, I still have (41:57) issue with the storyline, um, because I don’t need that.

I don’t need, you know, cause it’s, (42:04) it’s faith. Faith is belief without seeing, well, you know what I needed to see. (42:09) And now I recognize and see every action that’s happening as God’s action.

So when, and again, (42:18) this is the thing, my wife is, is an anxious person and a lot of it is, again, she’s worried, (42:22) always worried about the future or a regret about the past. And that’s what takes us down so many (42:27) different paths and realizing that, Hey, right now is where we are and God will show us the way (42:33) at some point, right? I don’t have to dream and stress. Yes, I need, I could put some time into (42:38) strategizing and thinking he’s going to, that’s going to happen through him.

I don’t have to put (42:42) stress on myself to fix this, um, right now. And that’s just a, a, a, a new belief. And I know now (42:54) again, before it was, I’m hearing a story, I’m hearing a Bible.

When I say Bill Crawford, (42:58) I’m hearing someone speak. Sure. That’s great.

Until I experience it and know it and feel it (43:04) now I’m there. Right. And so again, I just, I was just a sponsor for, uh, uh, um, a friend of (43:12) mine’s son, uh, who was, was confirmed on Tuesday.

And when he asked me, uh, I didn’t think I was (43:20) worthy in the past. I wouldn’t have been because I questioned, right. Again, I’ve been in the (43:23) Catholic church my whole life and my kids are in Catholic school.

And I, again, I believe it’s a (43:27) good way to live, but I always just like, someone tells me a Bible verse or tells me a story from (43:31) the Bible. I’m like, okay, I got, I didn’t, I don’t remember. I said, I’ve heard it, but, uh, (43:36) you know, um, and so when, when he asked now I was so actually excited because, and, and the way (43:44) the, the processes with the church he was a part of is it’s very involved from a sponsor perspective, (43:49) right.

Lots of questions. Um, and like when my own kids were, uh, are confirmed at ours, (43:55) it’s like, yep, because they’re in Catholic school. So like, yeah, okay.

We’re checking (43:59) the box. That’s already covered in this one. Right.

They’re asking me a lot of questions, (44:03) like five questions every two weeks that I had to respond to in a, in an interview format (44:07) about my view of God and all these things. And I was like, I, I can answer these, right? Like I, (44:12) it was in the past. It was like, I felt like an imposter if I was going to try to do that.

(44:18) Sure. You had to get there. I mean, but you had to get there through your journey.

(44:21) Absolutely. I experienced my book. Yeah.

I needed some evidence and the evidence is clear as day and (44:27) I see it constantly. That’s beautiful. Yeah.

So, um, you decided to start a podcast as well, (44:35) which, um, you know, I’ve told my story of, of the why and all that. And I, and I don’t think (44:40) it’s, I don’t believe it to be all that profound of what I, you know, why I’m doing it, but it, (44:44) but I think it, um, let me say it. Let me say that slightly differently.

Yeah. I don’t, (44:50) I don’t believe that I’m doing something dramatically different than, than other (44:53) people. Um, but I’m doing it with a purpose of, you know, kind of spreading the stories (44:57) of other people.

And, um, it’s something I truly enjoy is getting to know other people (45:03) and getting to know people on a, on a deep level. Um, you know, what, what made you want to do this (45:09) and what, what’s, what’s the why behind it? What’s the outcome been expand on all that for me?(45:14) Um, so a couple of things, one, this is a, a shout out to Leduc entertainment. Um, Armando Leduc and (45:20) Will Brooks, uh, happened to be a client of mine on the coaching side.

And that’s what they do is (45:25) produce podcasts. Right. And I never thought I had a story to tell.

I never thought I was like, (45:32) well, what am I going to do? Like, all right. All these guys are great. They have this great (45:38) podcast and they’re engaging and they get all these people on their podcasts.

I don’t, I don’t (45:42) belong in that world. Um, I just want to stay in the shadows and do my thing. And they, they’re (45:49) like, uh, you know, called bullshit on me.

And they’re like, just get in front of a camera. (45:54) Like, let’s just do this. And it, one, it was like, okay, it felt natural.

And they realized (46:02) they were like, when they break it down, like you’re a curious person and you’re just going to (46:06) ask questions and talk to people. You’re, you’re, you’re good at having conversations. So just do (46:10) that.

Okay. You’re, you’re interested versus worrying about being interesting. Yeah, absolutely.

(46:16) Yeah. Yeah. And, and so part of it was just, just getting all that stuff.

I don’t, I don’t (46:21) shit. I don’t do social media. I don’t know that kind of stuff.

Right. Cause it’s like, (46:25) you know, I don’t love when people take, say, Hey, I’m at the gym working out, uh, you know, (46:30) like that. And that’s mostly where I was, where I come from, or it was like, that was just the (46:35) generalization that I’ll social media.

I’m not, you know, no one’s interested in what I’m doing. (46:39) That was kind of the first part. The second thing was really, um, I’m just curious.

(46:45) And I love to get, you know, when I love entrepreneurship, as I said, but I love (46:51) everything else that comes from it. And I love everyone. I love people appreciating and (46:56) understanding that there is more to life than just what they do.

Um, you know, it’s tough to (47:01) me when someone, like when people come up in the first day and say, what do you do? It’s like, (47:05) well, thanks, but let’s get to know each other a little bit first. Right. (47:08) So what do you want them to say? Who are you? Yeah.

Right. Is that, would that be a better (47:12) thing? Yeah. Yeah.

Who’s John? You do. Yeah. Right.

Uh, I love it when people say, well, (47:17) why are you here? Uh, well, I’m here for, no, no. Why are you here? Oh, look out. (47:21) Right.

That’s a tough one. Our son asked my wife that when he was like six years old, (47:27) picked her out. Right.

Yeah. Why are we here? Like, why are we here at grandma’s? No. Like, (47:31) why are we here? That’s awesome.

You know? And I mean, so, so think about that, you know, from (47:36) that age on. So he’s always been a, quite a thinker, you know? And hopefully he keeps that (47:40) up. Cause that’s mostly, he’s 32 now.

That’s our oldest one. So it’s like, it’s, it’s amazing how (47:45) deep of a thinker he is. Oh, that’s great.

Um, because mostly we, we beat that out of our (47:50) children or school does, or I don’t like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. (47:52) Right. Yeah.

Math, learn, learn math. Ignore that. Um, uh, but you know, the, so that’s why (47:58) it’s called the role called R O L E is I want to everyone to emphasize what role we do play (48:03) in life as a parent, as a son, as a brother, as a sister, as a father, um, as a community leader, (48:12) um, potentially, or just again, just, just a helper and, um, and understand the role we play (48:19) within our company.

And, uh, and not just, Oh, I’m the CEO, but like, what role do you play as (48:25) the guy that comes in and bombs into a meeting and sprinkles your little shit dust and changes (48:30) the whole meeting. Um, and you know, they just don’t allow me in those that prevents the shit(48:36) dusting. Yeah.

And so that that’s, that’s where, where it started. And then now it’s just been, (48:43) uh, you know, just like this, it was just having a conversation and, and what I like about it too, (48:49) is, you know, I’m not trying to get a Joe Rogan or, uh, uh, you name it or, or, uh, (48:57) a CEO of a big fortune 500 company on there. I mean, that’s fun and great.

I want people that (49:03) it’s not what they do is like do the same. If I can offer the same thing that LeDuc did me, (49:07) which is like shedding the bullshit. Cause most people like, uh, be on a podcast.

Well, (49:12) uh, I’ve got a repair on camera. I’m not that interesting. I’ll have people say that.

I go, (49:18) you’re, you’re interesting. Yeah. I had a guy’s, uh, the other day say, (49:21) I don’t know if I’m going to be like, like, you know, what’s your average podcast is.

Well, (49:25) about an hour, you know, and he says an hour, he’s like, I don’t know if I’m that interesting. (49:30) I said, well, but if we went to lunch, we would talk for about an hour and it would kind of (49:35) naturally come to an end at about an hour. Right.

And this was, this was developed over lunch. (49:39) Right. So it just kind of takes that cadence and, and his last hour and 40 minutes.

So, (49:46) so we might even break that one into two. I don’t know by the time, I don’t know if yours (49:49) will get posted first or his or how that’ll work. But, um, you know, it’s just funny,(49:53) the stuff that we come, the baggage we come with, with these assumptions and these things that we (49:57) say, uh, like I said, you know, Hey, I don’t anticipate being the next Joe Rogan.

I don’t (50:02) even, I’m going to go into this anticipating that it generates no monetary value, but that (50:08) it generates value. It generates value to the, to the, to the person who’s in that seat and to (50:13) the people who are watching it. If it does that, then I’ve, I’ve done my work, right? Because good, (50:19) good stuff always comes back.

Good work, creating value always comes back. (50:23) Yeah. And that’s, well, that’s one thing that a credit to you, you are great at (50:29) helping people connect.

Right. I think, I don’t think, I don’t, I’m not sure if I’ve had an (50:35) immediate, an actual like meeting with you that it hasn’t been like, Hey, uh, I can connect you (50:39) guy that does that. Right.

So you helping raise the tide of entrepreneurs because your story is (50:46) bringing some business leaders on it. Someone’s going to learn or hear something really cool (50:50) about it. Or you’re helping them by providing some content for them.

Cause again, most people (50:55) don’t use this format to help share their story or get the right or their, or their content. (51:01) And so, yeah, that your role in that is, is sharing stories, which is cool. Well, thank you.

(51:08) Yeah. So, um, let’s talk about the, um, (51:16) the biggest myth in entrepreneurship that you’re trying to kind of bust. (51:20) Right.

And, and, and I asked that question because I feel like you’ve, you’ve busted the myth for(51:27) yourself because it was like, I’m trying to achieve, I’m trying to do this. How do you look(51:32) at entrepreneurship as, as, uh, busting the myth of what maybe people think that it is.(51:37) I’ve been hearing a lot lately about the knock when an employee knocks on your office door and (51:42) says, got a minute.

And you immediately know it’s some sort of it incident, but Oxium IT can help (51:48) whether you’re having a problem need consulting and upgrade or a managed IT approach. They focus(51:53) on preventing cyber attacks and proactive solutions that deliver results. My friend,(51:58) Matt Lauria and everyone at Oxium are ready to help before or after you get the knock,(52:04) visit Oxium.com and let Oxium IT help you outsmart chaos.

(52:09) It’s not a, it’s not a lonely game. It doesn’t have to be a lonely game. Now you look at(52:15) entrepreneurship.

I mean, how many one man bands are there they’re mowing lawns or, uh, or, or, (52:23) or again, or billions of dollars, you know, of companies or ones that are doing 20, 30 million (52:27) and there’s still one guy that’s a running and doing everything, right? There’s, there’s people,(52:33) but everyone has to go to that one person. And then what happens, right? Then, then,(52:37) then it’s, it’s lonely at the top. Cause no one can help you.

No one knows more than (52:42) entrepreneurship than you and your own company in most cases, right? You’re the one you don’t (52:45) have anyone to go to. This is when you look at the thousands and thousands of small to medium (52:50) businesses. That’s how it goes.

It’s true grit, some ingenuity, right. Uh, and some luck, just (52:59) hard work. Right.

And I call it also an unemployability, right? We’re not, we don’t, (53:03) we don’t, we don’t work well for others. Oh no. Right.

Right. So, so there’s, there’s that. (53:08) There’s no, absolutely.

Yes. And, um, but, but then again, what then it creates is, and that’s (53:14) the, the more success you have, the more you want to grow. And so everyone just dives deeper and (53:17) deeper and deeper into the business.

Yeah. Like, like a boat, two foot itis, right. Yeah.

It’s (53:22) never enough. Right. And then what happens to the family? And then, right.

All these things, (53:26) you might be accumulating more money, but you’re dying inside the business. And now you actually (53:32) do have a job. Most entrepreneurs actually have a job and it’s this business.

They can’t leave (53:37) and they’re not making nearly the worth, you know, the money that they’re worth, (53:41) but they can’t leave. They’re stuck to it. They can’t get on vacation, all those things.

(53:44) And so I think the myth is it’s doesn’t have to be a lonely game. And, um, and that, you know, (53:50) there isn’t a single pill that, that takes all that every business is different, but there are, (53:56) there’s, there are meth there’s methodology around taking care of that, right. It’s getting, (54:03) having a, like one, sharing your plan with other people.

Most, again, most entrepreneurs, it’s like (54:08) it’s all in my head. I know what I want to do. Well, does he know what you want to do? Does (54:12) anyone else know what you want to do? How are they going to help you get there? Right.

They (54:16) don’t know how to ask for help. And, um, so, and no, so, and actually this is just a going back to (54:23) our mutual friend, Matt Griffin, right. On my podcast, he was like, no, one’s going to come (54:27) save you.

That was, that was a great clip. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. And, and because we’re all, (54:33) I think we’re also, we’re all looking for the Messiah, right. In, in business.

It’s like, (54:37) oh, we meet that coach. Right. And so think about your own journey right there.

I mean, (54:41) like you’re, you’re pivoting, pivoting, adding, you know, you’re, you’re, you’re finding the magic (54:45) cocktail for yourself of what, of what works, but you’re never saying like, oh, my, you know, (54:51) this particular coach or this particular mentor is the one, right. This is my only shining star (54:56) that I’m going to follow. Right.

Um, because they’re always evolving, right. Absolutely. (55:00) But, but, but thinking that that person’s there, you know, people are, people are coming into (55:05) your life, you know, there’s the poem, a reason, a season, a lifetime, right.

Very few are the, (55:10) are the lifetime, right. And so you have to acknowledge that and understand, Hey, (55:14) we’re, we’re learning together. We’re stepping stoning together, uh, to, to kind of up level.

(55:19) Yeah. And there isn’t a magic pill, by the way, even if you have that lifer, (55:23) they’re not going to solve a problem or they’re not going to do it. Right.

Correct. Ultimately (55:26) you’ve got to, you’ve got to, you have to jump in and take action. And, you know, so you, you, (55:32) you gotta have a plan.

You gotta have people, um, that you trust that, um, that, you know, (55:39) if you’re good enough, you will realize that you hire someone that’s better than you at whatever (55:43) it is. Um, right. Then you’ve got to write, have a sales and market plan.

Now it’s time. Cause I (55:48) know, you know, this, we both, we become the top salesperson or the salesperson, and then that’s not (55:55) sustainable. That’s not scalable.

Correct. Um, and then, uh, and then we’re, then we end up not (56:01) doing it effectively. Right.

So yeah. Okay. What’s your sales and marketing plan, right? All, all (56:04) these processes in place that someone else can go tackle and do that.

What’s the, what’s the, (56:10) what are the numbers and the finance and the data that you can understand that someone else can (56:13) report about how to predict some things in the future, right? How’s your team doing? How, (56:18) what’s the team health? What are you doing with technology? There are all kinds of things that, (56:21) again, there’s no magic pill. All those things together are little bits and pieces that can help (56:26) on, help you have someone. So you’re not by yourself.

So you kind of broke this down into (56:30) multiple myths of, of what you think entrepreneurship, uh, uh, well, there’s, (56:36) there’s a thousand of yeah. Right. But the, the lonely part, there are many things to (56:41) ways to go around that.

Yeah. It doesn’t have to be, it’s certainly it’s lonely at the top (56:46) is an entrepreneurial myth. I think, I think that’s the net of what you, of what you just said.

(56:52) Right. And it’s surrounding yourself with the coaches, the mentors, the, the doers, the people, (56:59) the teammates, right. That are, that are augmenting and only focusing on, uh, focusing (57:06) on their strengths.

Yeah. Right. Um, I think we’ve learned a lot about that.

I mean, I can (57:10) certainly say that I’ve learned that to try to take my, my C and D skills and turn them into (57:17) a B or an A is damn near impossible. Yeah. And it’s a, it’s a waste of time.

Yeah. And it’s (57:22) just ridiculously frustrating. Yeah.

Yeah. You know, it is funny you bring that up because I, (57:28) you know, I, we all grew up in the schooling, right. I just talking to some teachers and I had (57:33) this kind of starting to have some tough, tougher conversations with my, uh, high schooler who’s (57:37) starting to get his own idea about what his efforts should be.

And, um, or got in the corporate (57:43) world or in reviews like, Hey, you’re, what are your strengths and weaknesses? Well, these are (57:46) my weaknesses. So what are you doing to work on those? And I just wish my older, like I am going (57:50) to just drop them off the face of the earth. I’m not going to work a thing.

No, you know what? (57:55) These are my strengths. So let’s find out how I can have used those and let’s find someone else (57:59) that can do those, those weaknesses. It is such a different mind shift.

I wish the world would (58:03) focus on that. How much better your company, Mel Robbins, you like Mel Robbins? Yeah. Let them (58:10) theory, you know, let them, let, let them fall off the face of the earth for those, for those, (58:18) uh, those weak, those weaknesses that we have.

Don’t, don’t try to strengthen those. Yeah. It’s (58:25) hard.

It’s, it’s, um, it’s easy for, for, for like you and I to say that as the, uh, as the (58:30) owner, like, I’ll just find someone to do that. But think about all the people doing the work (58:35) and how many times we’ve judged Susie over here doing her job. Cause she doesn’t do like, (58:41) I just asked her to come up with ideas and she never comes up with them.

She’s terrible. (58:46) No, she’s not. She’s awesome at what she does.

She’s not the right person to come up with a good (58:50) idea. Right. That’s beautiful.

She executes. Yeah. Right.

So just knowing where people are (58:55) and let’s celebrate what they do well. See, and I’ll argue that I don’t think that it’s easy (59:01) for the, for the leader or the entrepreneur or the visionary to, to just say that, to just say, (59:07) Hey, um, I’ll just hire somebody to do that. Cause there’s a cost to do that every single time.

And (59:14) then, and I, that, I think that really starts to rent space in my brain is like, well, do I really (59:20) need that? You know, then start second guessing, you know, do I need that? Can I afford that? (59:24) Should I do that? It’s not the right time, you know? So I think, I think we, we, and then I (59:28) think observers taken for granted that, well, you just, you just hired that part. You just hired. (59:33) Yeah.

But for three years, I knew that I needed that person, but I didn’t do it. Cause I was (59:37) afraid of the, the, the spend. Oh, yeah.

I wanted to make sure the investment would, (59:42) you know, thank you for actually thank you. Right. I, I definitely oversimplified, (59:45) um, in thinking of a, of a mindset or more people think that, Hey, you can just go do it.

Cause (59:50) you’re the owner versus. But I think that’s, but I think that’s a fair observation because, you (59:55) know, on the surface, we’re not necessarily divulging all the thoughts that go into it. (59:59) Yeah.

Right. They don’t know that that was three years in the making of, I’m going to bring on (1:00:03) this, this, uh, this person or an EOS world to bring on the integrator or whatever it is that(1:00:08) you’re, you’re, you’re hiring. Yeah.

Or again, or yeah, cause you have the skillset to do the (1:00:13) analysis. Like you have the experience and the wherewithal to think through all those things. (1:00:19) Right.

Because you already said, like, you didn’t just say, I’ll just go replace them. (1:00:22) And you’re like, well, no, I gotta, Oh, what’s the budget. What, what, what, you know, (1:00:25) what would they be doing? How do we cover that? What’s our full cashflow? Right.

That’s the (1:00:29) part of the entrepreneur that assured, uh, you know, everyone else who thinks, Oh, that guy’s (1:00:33) got a great car. He’s a, he owns his own business. Right.

Yeah. What’s all the other shit that goes (1:00:38) along with that? Right. One of the things that I really find interesting about your story is that (1:00:44) you’re still running the company, right.

While, while building up the successors inside the (1:00:51) company and then running your own coaching, uh, platform, uh, under, under the bloom umbrella. (1:00:57) Correct. Um, what’s the hardest part about transferring back and forth between the roles? (1:01:04) How are you keeping it all together while you’re, while you’re doing this and, uh, (1:01:09) and making everybody feel like that, you know, that you’re not distracted.

(1:01:13) Yeah. I would say one, I’m not doing it well. So I can’t say that we’ve got a great success story (1:01:18) here in doing it all.

Um, but I will say on the great lake central power side, um, I have people (1:01:25) right. That are trusted that, um, that I’ve actually had running the business for three (1:01:33) or four years. And that’s great to say and think and do right.

As a business owner, you’re like (1:01:38) everyone, you know, when we go golfing or we go see other entrepreneurs or with visage, yeah. (1:01:43) Um, I’m not working much this week. I’m doing this.

I’m doing that. Cause I got people running (1:01:46) the business, right. That’s the, you know, that’s the, that always felt like the Holy grail.

And my (1:01:51) wife threw that back in my face a couple of weeks ago. Um, but she, when, you know, me being a coach, (1:01:56) she’s like, well, you always said that you wanted to have other people make you money. (1:01:59) And now you’re going to be an individual coach doing that.

Like, ah shit, don’t call me on my (1:02:02) words. Um, but you know, that’s always the, that, that, that to me was always like, oh, (1:02:06) we’re in the owner’s box. But then someone asked me like, yeah, but are you growing like crickets? (1:02:15) It’s like shit, not that they’re not doing a good job.

They’re holding the dike together, (1:02:20) right. There wasn’t, you know, I looking back, like we didn’t have a, um, I wasn’t back involved (1:02:26) in the business. Cause again, I just turned my head and like, good, you guys got it.

I’m going (1:02:30) focus on this. I’m gonna go be a coach over here. Right.

And that was kind of the first, (1:02:34) first move. Yeah. How it happened.

Oh yeah. Yeah. So that was, you know, I told everyone, (1:02:38) Hey, I found out what I love doing essentially good luck.

Yeah. Right. Um, and they were all (1:02:43) for it.

They’re like, man, that’s great. We don’t want you to be miserable. Thanks.

(1:02:48) You trust us. And then the channel issue happened. And then, um, so then I was building (1:02:53) clients on the coaching side, halfway doing something over here.

But again, the company was, (1:02:58) they were doing running, running itself. And then our big issue happened with losing (1:03:02) channel partner. And I was like, okay, the one thing I did realize is I got to get back in.

(1:03:06) Cause that is your highest and best use over there. And that, that piece hasn’t been replaced (1:03:10) yet. Right.

Yeah. Well, yeah, not all of it. Okay.

Starting, starting, but not, not only there. (1:03:16) And part of it was again, also the act of understanding where we are financially, (1:03:24) understanding, is this a transferable business, right? If I’m trying to transition to employees, (1:03:28) do I hand over a turd or do I have it so that it can really excel and grow with them? So I realized (1:03:34) that I had to jump back in, not to do all the fire drills and all this stuff, but to like, (1:03:39) okay, let me get back in and help steer the ship. Get back to doing maybe some business (1:03:44) development thing again, doing the things where I see my team struggling to do something (1:03:47) where in the past I coached myself into like, no, I’m going to be the visionary.

And so I don’t (1:03:53) want to do, I’m not going to do this stuff anymore. Like, all right, let me go help the team. (1:03:57) So me jumping back into that, that’s been since July and August.

I put the coaching really on the (1:04:04) back burner. Okay. Not, not the work, not doing the work of coaching my clients, but business (1:04:08) development.

I wasn’t. And I have been re-energized by it. I’ve been, I’ve been having a ball because (1:04:14) I’m now actually jumping in and creating the tools that I’ve always wanted.

Some of the financial (1:04:19) projection things that I’ve always just like done spreadsheet wise and maniacally. I’m now (1:04:23) finding other help around the world that can help me with technology to do that. And, (1:04:31) and so I’ve been re-energized.

My team has been being re-energized because they’re seeing (1:04:36) me again. And back to the comment we were talking about before we got on the show here (1:04:41) about culture and people seeing us. And so, so that’s what I’ve been doing.

And then the (1:04:49) mostly has been focusing on that. And again, the results are actually,(1:04:53) they’re showing, right. We’re, we’re doing fantastically well.

And then on the coaching (1:04:58) side I’ve been keeping some flames, things going in the background. And that’s really what the (1:05:04) podcast, you know, it’s as far as me really sharing that side of the story on, on the coaching side. (1:05:10) So now getting back into that and now I’m creating some better boundaries time-wise because we’ve, (1:05:16) we’ve cleaned up most of the things we needed to clean up on the Gleb side.

But I don’t want to go (1:05:21) back to ignoring it. Sure. So you know, my hope is to get to a 50-50 and then a 75-25 split where (1:05:29) the coaching side where, you know, if I would ask this of my client over here, if this situation (1:05:35) happened and I was working with a client, what would I ask them? Yep.

Okay. Let me ask that (1:05:40) same question over here instead of being in the business and not asking that question. Let me act, (1:05:44) act as if I’m the, I’m the coach of the business.

Then what would I really ask? So, (1:05:49) um, you know, long-winded, I am, I am still shedding other things, right? So I’m the president (1:05:58) of the dad’s club. That’s, it’s a big mental space of mine, not, not time-wise. Um, but, uh, (1:06:04) I’ve been doing that for seven years and my, uh, in two weeks I’ll be, I’ve taken my name out of (1:06:11) the hat and there’ll be a new executive board.

So there’s things that I’m trying to shed back (1:06:16) and simplify my life so that I can, um, so I can get back to doing the right things. (1:06:21) One thing I’ll, I’ll, I’ll make note on though on the, on all, all of the undercurrent of (1:06:28) while you’ve been doing this coaching piece, the organization still had a great delivery (1:06:36) mechanism, right? So you were able to, your customers were never failing because you weren’t (1:06:41) Oh, right. (1:06:42) Um, so your point is, is it was almost just the self-infliction of if I’m not inside of the, (1:06:48) you know, the, the glut mothership, it’s just not growing.

It’s, it’s running. (1:06:51) Oh yeah. (1:06:52) Right.

It’s running. And so you needed that, that event to essentially re-inspire you to say, (1:06:57) Oh shoot, that person was right when they said, what are you doing to grow? Well, (1:07:00) if I would have been growing, then I, then that, that, that hit wouldn’t have hit as hard. Um, (1:07:05) and then here you are growing back, growing back stronger.

So I think that the, for me, (1:07:09) the lesson that I think others can learn is if you have other desires and other pensions that (1:07:16) you want to follow is make sure that what got you there isn’t, isn’t going to suffer. Meaning, (1:07:23) meaning you couldn’t risk your customers not being served appropriately while you, while you (1:07:29) explored other areas of your life, right? That would have been, that would have been the complete (1:07:34) demise. So if you were on the inside, you know, if you were the integrator, you were the operator (1:07:38) of the business, which you haven’t been for a very long time.

Yeah. I think this could have (1:07:42) been a lot worse. Oh, absolutely.

Right. This is working out, this is working out fine based on (1:07:47) that fact. So you can’t kill the golden goose while you’re, while you’re exploring yourself.

(1:07:52) Yeah. Right. Right.

Um, and, uh, and, and, uh, and it’s the, in, in, in almost like turning (1:07:59) the back. I mean, we talked about a little bit before of like when, when you finally hire someone (1:08:04) that you’ve been waiting on forever, again, like what do you call it? The integrator, the COO or, (1:08:08) or again, um, when as an entrepreneur, you’re wearing 15 different hats and you finally hire(1:08:13) another salesperson at, you know, you can’t just say, Oh, great. It’s off my plate and walk away.

(1:08:18) You still have to nurture that. You still have to help make sure that you’re mentoring that and (1:08:23) making sure it’s taking the proper steps or else it’ll take its own. Oh yeah.

Yeah. Um, (1:08:30) what do you think’s next for, um, for GLEP, for the coaching practice,(1:08:36) for roll call? What, what, what do you think we can expect to see in the next (1:08:41) X period of time future? Yeah. Well, I, I, starting with GLEP, you know, we’ve been in, (1:08:49) here’s another piece of, you know, uh, of business nugget is scarcity mode versus abundance.

Um, (1:08:59) scarcity mode is, is sometimes very appropriate, um, to, you know, cut costs and, and, and make (1:09:07) sure that we’re just a, we’ve just got to turn profit. We’ve got to do these things. Well, (1:09:12) it’s hard to think about the future when you’re in that mode.

And again, sometimes it’s man, (1:09:17) sometimes mandatory, there just isn’t money coming in, but shifting to abundance mode is (1:09:26) planning, thinking ahead and not just dreaming, but like, okay, if we do this, we can do that. (1:09:33) Like if we, we get this milestone, then let’s, let’s do that. Um, and just realizing that we (1:09:40) are in abundance mode now, not because money is flowing through the building, but because (1:09:46) we now can see what it looks like.

We had plans before, but we couldn’t, it was hard to predict (1:09:53) now we’re predicting well, and the abundance mindset, right? We’re, we’re hiring people. (1:09:59) Um, you know, I see, I see a doubling of the business in the next two years. I really feel (1:10:04) that there’s just that great momentum, great people.

We’re finding the right people. Uh, (1:10:09) so that it’s going to be, and we’re not, we’re doing the right things, not reacting. We’re being (1:10:14) proactive and talking to the right markets, et cetera.

Uh, on the coaching side, you know, (1:10:19) I really want to get to, I want to get to 12 to 15 clients, um, that want, I can’t want it (1:10:26) more than them. Um, you know, that are growth minded and not just saying it, but they really (1:10:32) are. Um, they have a solid team in place there in that, you know, five to 50 million revenue, (1:10:39) that target market, because again, right, what I do is not free.

So there’s gotta be a, there’s (1:10:44) gotta be a, uh, an ability to pay. Um, but they really either want to grow their profit, (1:10:50) grow the revenue or grow time as the owner. That’s, you know, and I want to do that selectively.

I (1:10:55) want to do it to where I can make an impact and that people that match me, I’m not interested in (1:11:01) taking on clients just to take on clients. Um, I have a value to offer and, um, but I want to (1:11:08) enjoy it when I do, I want to enjoy, I want them to enjoy what I’m bringing in that value. Um, (1:11:13) and, and the roll call is only going to grow more, uh, as far as the podcast goes, right.

(1:11:17) We’ve, we’ve, we’ve, you know, the drill, right. We recorded plenty and we’ve kind of(1:11:20) dripped them out over time. I want to, uh, do that more because it’s not now it’s just fitting (1:11:26) in the time.

And, um, as we move forward, there’s going to, I want to create the time for it (1:11:31) because this type of conversation, right. I mean, we’ve been on for over an hour or whatever it has(1:11:35) been. It’s, it’s, it’s effortless and fun and, uh, you know, I just want to do it more.

(1:11:41) That’s awesome. What’s who’s who’s who, or what, uh, does the dream guest of the podcast look (1:11:46) like for you? I mean, aside from me, I know, um, I know that you’ve been dreaming of that for a (1:11:50) while. Uh, well, someone with long hair, uh, um, you know, you know, really, I, I think it is, (1:12:03) I think everyone has something to share.

I think everyone has something to learn. (1:12:06) So anyone, uh, a business owner who’s vulnerable, because I like going there. I don’t, you know, (1:12:14) I don’t like dancing on the surface.

Yeah. Um, so, you know, uh, someone who doesn’t (1:12:20) have it all figured out and, you know, wants to have a conversation. Right.

So, (1:12:25) um, you know, not necessarily target market. I’d love it if my construction industry would, um, (1:12:31) would love to jump in on something like this. Right.

But, you know, when we’re dealing with (1:12:35) contractors, I, again, great. All electrical, mechanical, general contractors, right. They just, (1:12:42) they’re typecasting a situation where this fluffy stuff might not be something they, (1:12:46) you know, they want to do.

Right. They’re like, no, just cut the shit. Let me go build this stuff.

(1:12:50) I’d love to have more of them on to like, I’d love to just, again, break that, break that mold (1:12:57) of, uh, of what people think a podcast needs to be. All right. Well, I got an idea for you.

I’m (1:13:04) absolutely. So, well, um, look, this has been great. Um, I think there’s a big difference (1:13:11) between, you know, somebody who, who simply teaches and somebody who kind of embodies (1:13:17) what they teach and lives it out.

And you’re kind of using it in so many different ways here of, (1:13:23) you know, in therapeutic ways, in teaching ways, in fixing your own business ways. (1:13:28) Um, it’s, it’s pretty, pretty awesome, pretty remarkable stuff that you’re doing. So, um, (1:13:34) you know, anybody who’s, uh, looking to make some certain changes, I think, uh, certainly tune into (1:13:39) the roll call with John Glenn.

Um, certainly reach out to John. Um, and, uh, I’d be happy to make any (1:13:45) of those connections to you that, uh, you know, that anybody who calls me, I’ll be glad to put (1:13:50) them in touch with you. I know you always do.

Thank you. Thanks for being here. Appreciate it, man.