Digital Social Hour - This Hiring Mistake Is RUINING Your Business – Fix It NOW! | Justin Brock DSH #534

Starting point is 00:00:00 And there's this common thing you hear is like, you know, nobody wants to work these days. Young people don't want to work or millennials this or, you know, people do want to work. They just might not want to work for you. And I don't mean you. I just mean generally the people that are saying that if you create an opportunity and an ecosystem that kind of flourish in, they'll work really hard to earn that kind of environment. Wherever you guys are watching this show, I would truly appreciate it if you follow or subscribe. It helps a lot with the algorithm. It helps us get bigger and better guests, and it helps us grow the team. Truly means a lot. Thank you guys for supporting, and here's the episode. All right, guys, we got Justin Brock here all the way from

Starting point is 00:00:42 Memphis. Thanks for flying in today, man. Yeah, absolutely. Clean flight this week. Yeah? How long was that one? I've never had a guest from there. I actually connect through Phoenix. In the past, I've done some directs, but they're all Spirit. Oh, I don't trust Spirit, man. So, yeah, I did American over to Phoenix.

Starting point is 00:00:59 It wasn't that bad. I got some work done. Yeah, I don't trust Spirit. And now I don't trust certain Boeings. Yeah. that's that's like airline all across the airlines yeah and the second guy just ended up dead yet two days ago did you see that i think i saw you i saw something on your your show about talking about the the boeing yeah was first whistleblower ended up dead like a month ago now there's another one two days ago wow yeah so Yeah. So something's. Well, I'm on my conspiracy theory. Here's my belief on all conspiracy theories right here. They can't all be conspiracy theories. Some

Starting point is 00:01:32 of them are real. For sure. And when there's that much money flowing through stuff, there's definitely crazy shit that can happen. Yeah. I try not to go too deep because you can really get sucked into it. Oh, yeah. And then it affects your everyday life. But I think it's important to be aware of some of them. Absolutely. i've had some experiences with my you know well once i've had experiences with people uh close to us they got really sucked into certain conspiracy theory lanes and then um i've had a couple of them you know end up killing themselves holy crap so it was on the both on the female side unfortunately But prior to that, they were really sucked into things. And I'm like, okay, it is good to be aware and cognizant that there are things that are going on.

Starting point is 00:02:10 But if I can keep, you know, bottom line, I got to keep myself and my family in a positive headspace. It's like a balance, like making sure that you're not out of touch with the things that are going on in the world. But then that you don't let them like ruin your life or drag your life. Absolutely. Would you say you've been good at controlling your mindset? Cause I know you were in the military for eight years. I have like the, the book atomic habits,

Starting point is 00:02:34 you know, it talks about like work life balance. Right. And so I'm, I'm always leaning into family or work. It's the same thing on that side. Like sometimes I feel myself getting sucked into like, you know,

Starting point is 00:02:44 watching the news and, and I have my, you know, political persuasions and some of the crazy thing on that side. Like sometimes I feel myself getting sucked into like, you know, watching the news. And I have my, you know, political persuasions and some of the crazy shit that's going on. You're like, you feel like you're supposed to be an activist or do something about like or speak your mind. But then you're worried that, you know, that is going to detract from your own mindset as well as maybe alienate some of my audience, which is a difficult balance to walk. Yeah, it's the game we play as creators. Speaking about certain topics could lose you a lot of audience. I like that you're able to take people of different arenas

Starting point is 00:03:18 and then highlight their things that they're bringing to the table, and you might have one day somebody that completely disagrees with another. And I think more of that needs to happen where we just entertain all theories because I find that probably 90% of people fall between, you know, the two polarized 5% of crazies on each side. And somehow we end up, you know, having to choose between this crazy or that crazy when the rest of us are, like, trapped in it. Yeah, absolutely.

Starting point is 00:03:45 Well, the way I see it is if you're an expert in whatever field you're in, there's something to learn. So even though I have on polarizing figures and people that disagree with each other, I learn something from every guest I have on the show. Yeah, I've noticed that. I've watched your stuff, and you listen to everyone and talk to everyone like they're a normal human, and I'm sure that you don't absolutely digest everything they're saying as like, that's 100% fact, but you never like sit there and, you know, get,

Starting point is 00:04:12 get like crazy critical. You just kind of ask more questions to kind of figure out what's the philosophy behind, I think what they're saying. For sure. You got to do your own research. And there's a lot of learning you did previously that influences how you think. So you got to keep that in mind that you could be biased in certain areas yep cognitive bias is a hell of a drug yeah dude i've got to do a lot of unlearning the past two years not oh that's just holding me back because i grew up watching it yeah i thought it was normal i've done some of that honestly early on when i was in the marine corps back in the day i was super politically motivated i would like rant online and do stuff.

Starting point is 00:04:45 You're that guy on Reddit. Yeah. And then like, cause I get out and I started, you know, my initial, you know, trajectory into the private sector was, uh, was selling insurance. And I was building my network, my core network in a local fashion early on. And, uh, I remember this guy comes up to me in, uh, in, I was sitting in a, sitting in a sandwich restaurant having lunch with another guy. And he comes up and he says, Hey, Justin, I tried to refer someone to you the other day, but he said that guy online that's always ranting about politics,

Starting point is 00:05:14 he says, I don't know, I think I'm going to go somewhere else. And I was like, well, that's not the effect I want. It was kind of at that moment that I tried to start publicly staying slightly apolitical. Occasionally, I'll still pop off on something, but not as much. Yeah, it can hurt or make your business. Some brands lean into it. Yeah, actually, I totally agree.

Starting point is 00:05:37 If I would have leaned into it at that moment and just said, you know what, screw it, I've seen even in our industry, I've seen people that have leaned completely into like the conservative, there's one called like America First Health Insurance or something. It's kind of in the industry and they've developed quite a following. And I think the leads they're probably getting from that are probably strong because it's,

Starting point is 00:06:00 people like to buy where they're persuaded, politically or emotionally in different ways. Absolutely. So I know you're a phenomenal business leader, and we'll get into that. In the military, were you a leader there as well? Yeah, so I did eight years. I got out as a sergeant. I was on the enlisted side.

Starting point is 00:06:15 I was an operator, so I was in operational planning for F-18 units. I was managing training and different things that way. I had several people under me. I think I did pretty well at it. I was never the kind of, a lot of people meet me and they're like, you don't seem like the typical Marine. But I would, you know, I feel like I would lead in a way that just took maybe the worst Marine

Starting point is 00:06:41 I'd have to deal with and the best and try to, you know, put them in the same ship and then navigate them in the same direction. Because you're dealing with a lot of young people. I think that's helped me coming through because I hire a lot of young people as well. And it turns out there's a lot of talent out there. They're just always given the right opportunities. And the young generation is getting some hate from people hiring them right yeah i i'm a you know a big believer that uh it's unfortunate that in in there's this common

Starting point is 00:07:13 thing you hear it's like you know nobody wants to work these days young people don't want to work or millennials this or you know uh whatever and i've written some articles about it but um what i find is that uh you, are you interested in coming on the digital social hour podcast as a guest, we'll click the application link below in the description of this video. We are always looking for cool stories, cool entrepreneurs to talk to about business and life. Click the application link below. And here's the episode guys. People do want to work. They just might not want to work for you. And I don't mean you, I just mean generally the people that are saying that. And I think if you create an opportunity and an ecosystem

Starting point is 00:07:51 that kind of, you know, that they can really flourish in, not only will they work, but they'll work really hard to earn that kind of environment, right? So I feel like, and it's not that I knew that in the beginning, it's like you would learn it over time, just being patient with people and managing personalities, but seeing it on the other side with a thriving culture of these people, you know, I see it day in and day out. They want to buy into their work almost like it's their family. Whereas, you know, back in the day, I They want to buy into their work almost like it's their family. Whereas back in the day, I think people had a different mindset about work. It was like, hey, you've got to work just what you've got to do.

Starting point is 00:08:35 And so they'd show up under harsh conditions and work their fingers to the bone. We're just in an environment where I think people have options. They have media that they can see. They know there's other opportunities, and they're not going to get excited about anything. It's not necessarily money. There's a quote in the social network from the guy in there who's the president of Harvard, and he says, Harvard students think it's better to invent a job than to get one. And so I think that we're in that generation where it's like, well, I want to create something. But if you give them something that's fresh and give them that environment

Starting point is 00:09:08 and go and find those people and plug and play them, and then pay them well as well, you'll get way more out of that person than I think you could have ever gotten out of somebody by just saying, well, it's a job. You've got to take it. Absolutely. And people are changing jobs often these days, right? The turnover is pretty high, very, very high, you know, and what we see is it's, it's not because of that environment, right? You know, I see other businesses that I think are,

Starting point is 00:09:34 you know, it just, it's an expectation that they're going to lose X percentage. And I see some influencers say things like, and it's not that I disagree with them, but they'll say things like hire fast, fire faster, promote fastest. I think that's a Gary Vee one. I don't disagree with them necessarily because when someone is not a cultural fit for us, we will fire them. But I also think sometimes given a little grace, especially in certain job markets, like if you're in a – like I'm in a rural area. In that job market, sometimes these people are not necessarily coming from a professional background or being trained well before you get them. But if you get them and you give them a little bit of grace and point them in the right direction, there's a lot of diamonds in the rough out there.

Starting point is 00:10:20 They just haven't had professional training. They haven't had the right job opportunities. But it doesn't mean they're not very capable, intelligent people. Some of the people that work for me that I found making $10 or $12 an hour that are now making $80,000, $100,000, $200,000 working in an environment like we've created, they're working very hard, very happy, and they're extremely intelligent. They just never had the, I feel like, the environment to showcase that. They didn't know that it existed. That's interesting because a lot of people will look at the resume and just write someone off

Starting point is 00:10:55 before they even meet them, right? But you're willing to take that chance. We try to create an opportunity zone in our business where we call it like the revolving door positions where you bring people in that you are paying them less in the beginning because, but it gives them an opportunity to cut their teeth, to see what the opportunity is, be around other people that have made it and made more money. And it's not all, like we have, this is not all sales. Like we have, you know, a great portion of our employees and 1099 contractors are in the sales field but even our marketing employees client retention administrative employees um over to it we have like what we call agent support contracting just different

Starting point is 00:11:36 administrative realms even those people will come in see that environment and think okay i really want to work here um you know one i feel like people do get, um, you know, appreciated and rewarded more than they do other places, but also people like being here. And I just want to be around people that like where they're at. Yeah. Energy is important, right? Yeah. Environment. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I've, I've had to fire top sales guys cause their energy was off and everyone, the team. Oh yeah. You, you can have, I've actually, a lot of times the people that are dragging the business down the most are the top alpha salespeople. Right.

Starting point is 00:12:11 And I don't say that to demean that. I would say I've had some that have been coachable, and even though they're that really motivated salesperson, they're coachable and can operate within a business. But early on when I was recruiting, because mostly it was agents in the beginning, I was recruiting insurance agents and I was trying to train them to sell. And early on I read the book by Chet Holmes,

Starting point is 00:12:34 The Ultimate Sales Machine. And he says you got to hire people with an ego so big that they're hard to keep in check. And I did that, hired a few people like that. And they did run through some walls and like that. Um, and they, they did run through some walls and they made some money, but they were always trying to steer the ship into what's best for them. You know, in the ship analogy, we call them anchors. You know, they're, they're, they're always holding you back because they're trying to like manipulate. And

Starting point is 00:12:57 sometimes they're good at manipulating the scenario to where they, you think they're doing things best for the organization, but they're, they're still trying to aim everything in what's best for them. They can even bend ethics in favor of that. And then I read a book by Patrick Lencioni, which is The Ultimate Team Player. It's funny they both use the word ultimate. But Patrick Lencioni says you've got to hire smart, hungry, and humble people. It's a great book, too.

Starting point is 00:13:22 It starts narratively, so it's a real easy read. But in that smart, hungry, humble fashion, it's like, hey, I don't have to hire these super ego-driven people. It's just people that are intelligent. They want a little bit more out of life, but they have manageable expectations. Whereas that ultimate high ego person, very unmanageable expectations. Do you think it's often due to narcissism? I do think there's some. And the thing is, I think that most of these people, I think narcissism is developed. It's not like you're just born, you know, babies aren't narcissistic, right?

Starting point is 00:13:58 It's a developed trait. And so I think that you can, I think that narcissism is when someone who is one of the most highly capable potential founders or CEOs or operators, integrators out there loses sight of the fact that it takes a village, so to speak. It takes a lot of people to really do something great. They lose sight of that, and the narcissism actually holds them back. But at that point point often they're too far gone you know they get into that sociopathic you know world where i've seen it where you know people will get a job and they immediately i can do this job better than my supervisor yeah but this job shouldn't be your ultimate goal like this should be like i'm gonna do really well

Starting point is 00:14:40 i'm gonna be a team player you might might can do that, perform that individual task. I think that's often the thing with a narcissist is they can perform an individual task better than most people. But they're not getting the big picture that it's not about your ability to perform that individual task. It's the ability to perform that task while adding value to the overall ecosystem within that business. Absolutely. And then you can climb and earn that respect. And then ultimately, the guy that was over you one day, you might be over him, but you were so good in that world that, you know, he's okay, or she's okay with that, that progression.

Starting point is 00:15:16 Yeah, absolutely. So you are able to increase your employee work output by 300%. How are you able to do that without being too overbearing? Yeah, so my, you know, my, my estimate of 300%, how are you able to do that without being too overbearing? Yeah. So my estimate of 300%, because it's a difficult thing to really quantify, it's just it's basically, you know, first I think you have to start with the fact that you have to care about the people that are coming on. So, you know, maybe somebody can fake that, you know, to a point. But I think I was on somebody's podcast, and they said if you fake something long enough, like you just continue to fake it, eventually you'll start buying into it. So in the beginning, like it's genuinely care about the people that you're bringing on.

Starting point is 00:15:57 Early on, and this kind of came from the Marine Corps, there's the mantra that they – one of the mantras they use is a spirit of corps, and it's about caring about the man to your left and right. So a lot of people think you go into a Marine, you go to combat, you don't, you're not concerned about, you're not necessarily as concerned about the mission that you're there for as you are getting you and your people, your tribe, your friends, the other Marines home alive, right? That becomes the thing. And so early on, you're getting into business and people would say things like, know your why.

Starting point is 00:16:31 Nobody knows what their damn why is in the beginning. The why is, you know, don't be broke, get off the ground, do something. So early on, I'm selling Medicare. I'm helping, you know, Medicare beneficiaries get the coverage they need, educate them. And that was the why at the time. But then as I started developing these team members, the why became seeing them succeed, you know? And that's actually been very rewarding for me. Like now, even when we, like, you know, like I flew commercial here, I'll fly private, but not unless I can bring my whole family or my team with me. Wow. Because the cost only makes sense to me as an experience for other people.

Starting point is 00:17:12 Right. And that's just one example. But everything that I've done in life to this point, I tell my employees all the time, all material things that you think you want end up being a letdown. You're putting them on a pedestal, then you get them, whether it's a car, whether it's flying private, big houses, you know, vacation homes. I've done a lot of those things. And it's not that they're terrible, but they're always seem more awesome than they are. But the experience of sharing those, you know or those experience those times with people being able to uh you know get that car you want and then ride with the people that are uh that are

Starting point is 00:17:51 you know like i bought it when i sold my 51 of my company i went and bought a lamborghini uh i'd said i was going to do it forever and i actually once i got there i was like i don't know if i really want it but i decided i'd go ahead and do. It is cool. But the most fun thing is it's never fun riding around alone. It's only fun when I get to put the guys that helped me build the business or my kids in the passenger seat and ride around. And I think that philosophy early on and adapting to that helps you build that culture internally. Now, in the beginning, it's difficult because, you know,

Starting point is 00:18:26 when somebody goes to work for you and you're just one guy, that doesn't feel like a business. But eventually, if you just keep, you know, running through walls and you get that group together and you keep showing them that you care, taking care of them, paying them more than what the market would normally pay that person at that skill level, eventually you can develop this chemistry in your workforce that's just kind of euphoric.

Starting point is 00:18:51 Absolutely. And so it's something that I've become really passionate about trying to tell people. And I hope one day I can put it into an exact science. But really, it's just if you believe that it's there, I hope people will believe it so that they can really, you know, go after it. And I hope that I can lead people to it because I think it's a great thing for the entire, not just our industry, you know, in the health and Medicare insurance industry, but like when you, you get into any industry, knowing that, that, that gratification of building something and then seeing multiple people, not just the end user,

Starting point is 00:19:25 the consumer on the other side of the product, but the employees, the salespeople, the tech people, the marketing people get to participate in those wins. Both the gratification and the financial side of it is really cool. Absolutely. Is the culture side something you put a lot of time and effort into? Because I know with big companies, nepotism's somewhat common, right? Yeah. Well, early on, we had family members in our business, and I've had to get rid of all of them. Oh, yeah. So we've gotten rid of all of them. And even my brother's in the industry, but he's now doing his own business. Got you personal. Yeah. And he's somebody that I love to death, but he's a super alpha salesperson, and he needed to do his own thing.

Starting point is 00:20:07 It's going to be good for him. I think he's been able to witness what we've built internally, and I'm hoping that he'll be one of these people that goes and builds it again. But I do think that favoritism and all that, every day I'll say something and then later on figure out like okay I can see how the wrong person hearing that might take it out of context so you're always learning about you know psychologically how to communicate with you know your employees in a way that puts them in a better space and makes them feel appreciated and then you're also always stretching the dollar

Starting point is 00:20:40 to try to you know pay them more so that they feel financially appreciated. And it's always a juggling act, but it's worth doing. And it's worth being honest with them about where you're at because ultimately I think that's just a big deal. When they know that, okay, if I work hard, I get this good environment. And I think some people will sacrifice certain amounts of money for a good environment, especially in the generation that, I'll call it under 40 right now.

Starting point is 00:21:12 They're environment-driven. Everybody's money-driven to some degree. People need money like they need oxygen. You have to have it to take care of your family. But it's not the only motivator anymore. For sure. Do you see a lot of jealousy within the workplace if certain people are making more than them?

Starting point is 00:21:30 Yes. So that is a big non-negotiable that we have been pushing is that you don't communicate what you're making. And it's not because I want to pay one person way more for the same work. That's never it. If somebody's doing well, but there's times when you promote someone and pay them more, and then it takes them time to maybe get to the point where

Starting point is 00:21:50 they actually earning that level of income. And so if someone else knows what they're making and feels like they're doing more, and then there's this effect where everyone from their own eyes sees a hundred percent of the work that they're doing, right? Like, I know 100% of what I'm doing. I don't necessarily know 100% of what John is doing or what, you know, Sarah is doing. And so I might think, gosh, I'm doing five times the work they're doing because they only see 20% of what they're doing. And it might be that they're doing twice as much, but they're not seeing the true, like, you know, difference, right? And so if they know what someone's making and they think I'm only making 10,000 more, but I'm doing this much more than them.

Starting point is 00:22:29 It's just easier if people don't share that in a workforce. I wish I would have figured out a way to keep that more private early on. Yeah. Again, I don't think I would have paid anyone any differently. I just, you know, you wouldn't have had any of that animosity. But normally, if it happens, I say address it head-on. Just go to those people. As you rise up, especially as a founder or a CEO,

Starting point is 00:22:56 eventually people quit telling you. Now I'm at the level where it's not like our business is Coca-Cola. We're not that big. But there's a lot of things that are going to that mid-level, and only some of it's making its way to me. And sometimes you want that, and then other times, after a while, it doesn't get to you. You're like, man, I wish I'd have known about that sentiment

Starting point is 00:23:15 in that person's head earlier so I could have addressed it in a different way. Yeah, that's interesting. I think if I had as many employees as you, I would do the same thing. I think it's tough, dude, just mentally. It is. I will say, and sometimes I'll have people say,

Starting point is 00:23:31 I want to start a business, but I don't want any employees. I will say that even though it's tough, it's very gratifying to see people win. Everything is tough to something. What you're doing right now, you're putting out so much. I would probably put you as probably one of the top content volume producers out there. You've got to be number one in terms of podcasts at least. It's insane like what you're doing. So there's always a hard element to what somebody is doing,

Starting point is 00:23:57 maybe multiple hard elements to what they're doing. So I think when someone thinks juggling personalities is difficult, it is, you know, but it's also a different level of gratification, you know. And, again, with more people, you can make more money, too. So even if you're money-driven, like, if you can find a way to get more people. And, you know, Steve Jobs back in the day, the way he was, like, really hard on people, I just, you know, I respect the hell out of what he did. But, like, I don't think that works in the 30 year old market right now or the 25 year old market. No, we're way too soft to handle that. Yeah. That was a, that generation, you know, was just different, you know? And, uh, and, and like, yeah, the people that I'm dealing with at

Starting point is 00:24:38 25 or 30, um, they're very capable. They just are led in a different way yeah no there'd be so many lawsuits if that happened yeah actually after just selling the uh the 51 of our company the new parent like pe group it's called amerilife and they've made us all do uh harassment training and my cmo was doing it um he's he's kind of like my number my number two you know biggest employee highest paid employee and he um he was taking it. He's like, well, if they didn't know what harassment is before they took this, now they know what it is because it's like teaching them what harassment is and how to turn it in.

Starting point is 00:25:13 But that's the big corporate side of things. I can see it. Yeah, they don't want to risk a lawsuit. I can see it. No, they got to check or dot all the I's and cross the T's. Talking about selling, though, two months ago, big exit. What was that like? Any big lessons you learned?

Starting point is 00:25:26 Yeah, so I learned a ton. The mergers and acquisitions part of the business, I felt like was the final rung in the ladder to understand from inception. Because I started in 10 years ago. At the time, didn't even know about selling a business. I didn't know what mergers and acquisitions was.

Starting point is 00:25:43 I was a dumb 26-year-old Marine with two little kids and just trying to make money to survive. But as you would learn more and more about, you learned about marketing, and then you learned about creating a controlled distribution sales force, and you learned about a 1099 independent sales force, and then you would learn about the operational element, and then getting the marketing off solely me and having a marketing team. And I would learn how these businesses are built. And then as I was learning about it and talking to people, some of the people that were teaching me started selling. And so then I was like, okay. So I started listening to them and taking notes on the M&A space. What does that look like? And I'm 36 and we're still really rapidly growing. So I didn't want to sell

Starting point is 00:26:26 the entire business. But I did want to accomplish a couple of things. Number one, primarily, anybody that sells their business and it says it's not about money at all, that's crazy. I wanted to lock in a little bit of that success of what we had built, you know, based on whatever market conditions might be for my family. You know, you got to take care of your family, right? Me and my family. But I did the 5149 deal so I could retain as much equity as they would allow because I believe the business is going to grow. And in doing that, you know, I learned a lot about EBITDA multiples, specifically for our industry, but other industries. You learned a lot about, man, there's just so many things. I mean, you've done it before.

Starting point is 00:27:09 I learned about compound annual growth rates and different types of earn-out structures and how you can get in your contracts, your new operating agreement, your employment agreement with your parent company if you may own. Some people sell and they're selling out 100% walking away and others are selling and then growing with potential additional exits. So you learned about bonus EBITDA multiples based on certain compound annual growth rates. There's just so much in that arena. But it's kind of exciting because now when I'm teaching

Starting point is 00:27:45 other agencies that are building, because that's what I look for is we both look for young independent agents or young people entering the workforce to join agencies or join us to go out and sell and we can train them. But then ultimately, we're looking for those mid-level agencies that are growing. What are they growing to? Are they going to work until the day they die? Or are they going to sell their business? Or are they going to grow themselves out of the business where the business operates without them? But having the M&A side, selling 51% of our business, and learning all that gives us that final rung in the ladder to be able to take them from inception all the way to that sale so i don't think there's a lot of groups in our space at

Starting point is 00:28:31 least that can consult someone from you know literally you know doing like i did you know getting out as a veteran you know and entering as an independent salesperson first year making you 70 80 000 and then starting to grow past that into a business that gets a $70 million valuation and sales, you know, 10 years later. Um, and I can consult all the way through on the contract side of it. Even the things they'll try to put in the contracts that you, you pay lawyers a lot to find, you know, all the ins and outs, you could save people millions of what, you know, and that was, that was the goal. Yeah. you know all the ins and outs. You could save people millions with what you know. And that was the goal. Yeah. Any change in mindset after that exit, knowing you could retire whenever you want now? I've lost 26 pounds since then. So I think a lot of stress

Starting point is 00:29:17 and cortisol levels have changed. So on this side of it, I would still say people that build a business and work hard never really want to stop. It's just kind of on to the next thing or the next variation or level of that business. If you're still in that business, if you sell your business and get out, you're probably going to go do something else. So I've learned that it's not gratifying in a way where you're just going to go sit on a beach somewhere. People that build businesses don't want to sit on the beach too many days in a row. Definitely not.

Starting point is 00:29:52 By the third day, I'm trying to go home, honestly. Me too, man. And so I just think when you're doing it, do it for the right reasons. Don't think you're going to. I've had friends that sold because it seemed like the right thing to do for their family and then they you know thought that they were young you know and i say young most of them under under 40 or maybe early 40s and you know sold with enough money to never have to work again and live a great lifestyle um all of

Starting point is 00:30:21 them end up working again yeah you know whether as an employee or high level because some of them end up working again. Yeah. You know, whether as an employee or high level, because some of them going into like the C-suite of organizations, you know, some of them start entirely different businesses. Some of them wait out their non-compete and get back into the same industry. So I just say don't do it for that. Now, if you're 74, which I don't think is probably the majority of the audience listening to this. Probably not. But if you're 74, yeah, maybe do it for retirement. But if you're 25 to 50, you're probably going to go do something else. So just understand that you're locking in some

Starting point is 00:30:56 of that success. Now you're playing, like if you're at the casino, we're here in Vegas, you're at the casino. At some point, I always go in with 500 bucks. If I lose 500 bucks at the blackjack table, then I walk away. I have very low tolerance for losing money. But if I get up 1,000, I take 500 and put it back in my pocket, and now I'm playing with house money, right? And so in business, if you sell out and you lock in enough liquidity to know that you can take care of yourself and your family, you know,

Starting point is 00:31:26 without what you're doing, well now business is house money. Yeah. And so I can go start other businesses or I can invest in a business without actually having to take any income off of it for a long time, which gives us a lot of power because most people when they're starting a business are having to live off of, you know, the early, you know, revenue as well. Yeah. And now we don't have to. So those are just some lessons that come to mind. I love it.

Starting point is 00:31:50 You mentioned non-competes. Did you see they just removed those? I saw that FTC. I think there's gonna be a lot of lawsuits coming over that one. Really? Yeah, I've heard a lot of Supreme Court cases. So one, and I don't wanna sound ignorant on it,

Starting point is 00:32:03 but there was an old Supreme Court case that allowed government branch department heads to act unilaterally. So FTC, CMS, DHS, whatever, could act unilaterally and create regulation without it going through Congress. And so I've heard it's on the docket to be that case is supposed to be reheard, which if they say that now department heads appoint, because these are all appointed by an administration, right? If they can't make rules without it going through Congress, then a lot of these rules over the last like 20, 30 years that have kind of just, we've said, oh, we're stuck with them because that department head at that time did this, you know, could be up in the air. They can go back. Yeah. That's going to be a lot of legal problems. It would be. And right now we do have a very

Starting point is 00:32:53 conservative Supreme Court. So that would be interesting. Very interesting. It would be impactful for our industry, but all of our industries are, you know, the FTC is, you know. They're everywhere, yeah. So. I always felt like non-competes were just so hard to prove, too. Yeah, it's, so, it was always a difficult litigation process, and some states were already, you know, very difficult, like California, I don't think that, I'm pretty sure non-competes are like, I don't, again, don't want to speak completely ignorant on it, but like, I think

Starting point is 00:33:24 in California, non-competes are not a huge thing. In our employee contracts, the way we, what we really value over the non-compete, we do have some non-compete language in there. But what we really value is the non-solicitation aspect of it. So I'm glad that's not really doing it. Because I think that what they're trying to do is that you can't develop a skill set and then be barred from feeding your family off of that skill set. So I get the intent of it. But there's a flip side of it where someone comes in like the narcissist type of employee that will come in under the guise of, I want to be a long-term employee. And then he comes six months,

Starting point is 00:34:03 year, he's learned everything. And then he sets up shop right across the street. So it makes it increasingly difficult for the small business owner to even want to hire someone. And I think they're looking at it from like big corporations using non-competes. And I'm sure that's where a lot of the issues are, but now the small business is the one that it's really easy to go and replicate their business and then divide their competition into, right? So I think you got to look at it from both of those angles. And I'm not sure that there's a right or wrong answer. For sure. Justin, it's been fun, man. Anything you want to promote or close off with?

Starting point is 00:34:35 Well, if you're watching, love people to follow us on Instagram at the Justin Brock. And, you know, just check us out. We have a big leg in the insurance, health insurance and Medicare world. We help a lot of people, especially veterans and young people get into a space where they can earn a great income off their own work ethics. So check us out at the Justin Brock on Instagram.

Starting point is 00:34:56 Cool, we'll link below. Thanks for coming on, Justin. That was fun. Thank you. Yeah, thanks for watching, guys. See you tomorrow.

Digital Social Hour - This Hiring Mistake Is RUINING Your Business – Fix It NOW! | Justin Brock DSH #534

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