The Entrepreneur DNA - The Hustler Has to Die: How to Finally Become a Real CEO | Brett Gilliland

Starting point is 00:00:00 There has to be transformation in us as business owners if we want to take our business to the next level. We cannot go further than our current self can take what we're doing. In order to go further, we've got to be different. We grew a business from seven figures to a hundred million, and he would say, I'm not the CEO today that the business needs me to be 12 months from now. But by the time we get there, you can count on the fact that I will be. Brett Gilliland is the founder and CEO of elite entrepreneurs, where he helps business owners scale and grow their companies.

Starting point is 00:00:30 the background in leadership and business strategy. He is known for coaching entrepreneurs on building strong teams and sustainable growth. By 10 million, you have to have a full on leadership team. You can have a lot of vision, but if you don't have these systems that help turn it into reality, it's not happening. If you create a great system that with the right person

Starting point is 00:00:48 can replicate or near to replicate what you can do as that superpower entrepreneur founder, then that releases a bunch of worry from you. That if I let go, it's all gonna fall apart. If you're still doing something that you were doing 12 months ago, you might be holding on too long. What is a true CEO do that most business owners don't even think about? What is up?

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Starting point is 00:01:35 Get into this group. It's less than a gym membership. And you get access to these brilliant advisors that I have access to. So we are going to jump right in because this gentleman has been for over 14 years, helping training, advising, coaching business owners, founders to get the hustle out of their business and turn it into a real business by becoming a real CEO, getting them north of 10,000. million dollars in revenue a year. Brett Gleeland is here. How are you? Very good, Justin. Happy to be here. Thank you. So I like the phrase. I've heard this phrase and I don't know where I got it,

Starting point is 00:02:09 but, you know, take the hustler. The hustler's got to die for you to be able to start running a business. Does that resonate with you? Yes, absolutely. And I mean, it's sad, but it's also amazing, right? Because just like, you know, the caterpillar's got to go into the cocoon. come out the butterfly. There has to be transformation in us as business owners if we want to take our business to the next level. Transformation in the business requires transformation in the business owner. It's just absolutely the truth. And so we're here to celebrate that instead of like mourn it, let's celebrate that we get to change. We get to level up and so do our businesses. You know, I sit at some very awesome tables and I'm sure you do as well. And now we get to sit at the same

Starting point is 00:02:56 table since we're here on the entrepreneur DNA. But, you know, I sit at some very awesome tables. And I'm sure you do as well. And now we get to sit at the same table since we're here on the entrepreneur DNA. But one of the things one of my mentors years ago taught me is the guy who got you here needs to die to become the guy who gets you there. And a lot of times it's very cliche of what got you here won't get you there. That is a statement that we've probably all heard at some point in our lives. But I like the image that you just brought up of a butterfly, right? because it reminded me immediately the moment my mentor told me this,

Starting point is 00:03:29 I can tell you the conference room we're in at the hotel. It was like, Justin, the guy who got you to where you're sitting today right now in this seat has to die because you need to become a version of yourself that you are not yet and you have to create that version and you need to be able to do that to get to where you want to go. Well, we all have to hear that some way that connects with us, that resonates with us. I love the way that your mentor said it. Like, that guy's got to die before you can become who you're trying to become.

Starting point is 00:03:56 For some reason, I threw that butterfly thing out there. That's the first time, literally, in 14 years that I've ever used that particular analogy. I bring it out of you. I'm sitting here thinking, I hope that somebody listening connects with that way of saying it, because however you need to hear it, you've got to hear that truth that Justin just said. We cannot go further than our current self can take what we're doing. in order to go further, we got to be different. We have to be different. Yeah, you know, letting go of control is a big one, right? I think we are all stuck in our identity to some extent,

Starting point is 00:04:31 you know, and especially your role, you take the business owner that's likely doing seven figures, low seven figures, maybe even high six figures, but you're trying to get them to north of 10 million, you know, which is a totally different number and it's challenging to get to, right? And so the person that started the business that is now making two, three, four, five million dollars to the person who needs to get it past the 10 million mark, a lot of times is to control or the identity I think they cling on to, right? Like, oh, I, you know, my business is doing five million in revenue and our KPIs or this cost of acquisition and da-da-da-da-da, and they're so prideful and it's their identity and it's who they are. Well, we're going to let go with that. Yeah, even if they're not like

Starting point is 00:05:17 so prideful around it. You're right. identity is inseparable with that business. It's almost like the Siamese twin thing where the business owner and the business are inseparably connected. And we got to do this delicate surgery to get them apart and not have either one of them die. Right. Like it's that intertwined. And we've got to figure out how to breathe life into the business independent of the business owner and have the business owner's identity and self-worth not be tied, like completely connected to that business. You're totally right. I had a friend that I, he was the founder and I was, I was the right hand to the CEO, but we grew a business from seven figures to a hundred million.

Starting point is 00:06:01 And he would say, I'm not the CEO today that the business needs me to be 12 months from now. But by the time we get there, you can count on the fact that I will be. His constant push for learning and growing, like pushing himself to become that next level CEO was, was, the right mindset and very admirable, but most of us hang on to what we know. And we get those little endorphin hits when we like get that sale or we solve that problem or, you know, we do the thing that got the business to where it is right now and it feels great. But if we, if we live off of that, we're just going to get stuck. Yeah, you just use the word live off of, like, it's kind of the Al Bundy. If you live off the memory of what you've done, like, again, a lot of

Starting point is 00:06:49 cliche is coming out to you guys like you're only as good as your laugh movie right but the next movie could be a totally different character and you need to learn in all that and so i don't want to go down this movie analogy but like that's part of this right well in in um you brought up your your ex-business partner and the CEO was a big student how to be like what did he do that you watch do yeah yeah yeah happy to share so you know to get to a hundred million what was he Was it coaching, masterminds, psychologists, like all the above? Like, what was he tactically doing to get himself from a, let's just say, I don't even know when you say seven figure, let's say $5 million a year to $100 million.

Starting point is 00:07:33 Yeah. So what he did, yes, so yes to all of that. He read books. This guy cranked out four books or six books a quarter. I almost said the wrong thing. Six books a quarter. So two a month, right? He was always learning.

Starting point is 00:07:48 this was before podcast right i mean we are we have it so easy today we could sit and listen to stuff now yeah but just just constantly learning from the best minds the the latest thinking he did join the the mastermind groups um back in the day it was it was early in the strategic coach days but like you know he did strategic coach he went to advisors michael gerber which is sure ancient history now but back then he was he was one of the thought leaders in making these transformations, right? And so he was like, don't just be the technician. You have to learn how to be the entrepreneur. And anyway, so we spent time with Michael Gerber. We spent time, like, we stroke checks and spent time with Jim Collins. We spent time with

Starting point is 00:08:34 Vern Harnish. Like all the people who knew what to do, we spent time with them. One time he and I got on a plane and went and visited Tony Shea at Zappos. Again, these are older names, but we went and learn from those who were doing it. And we just spent a lot of money to do it. The most expensive, or I shouldn't even think of it as expensive. The biggest investment that he made was a $150,000 check a year at the time for a personal coach, a high-powered coach, who was called the ultimate coach. He's since retired from that business, but it was Steve Hardison was his name. Anyway, high-powered coaches, all the greatest dot leaders, like we invested. heavily to make sure that our business was not going to be capped by our ignorance.

Starting point is 00:09:23 I think it's, there's always a path that someone has been there before. And everyone listening to this right now, if you are somewhere you aren't happy with yet, that is the shorter path. Cut a check, right? Whether it's Brett, who has been coaching for 14 years, these executives and founders to turn into CEOs or whoever may be. Um, The fastest path to get to where you want is the path already traveled that every Brett knows where the potholes are. He knows where the snake's coming out to bite you. He knows all that. You don't have to be bit by the snake to learn the lesson.

Starting point is 00:10:02 So it's imperative, all of you. I stroke six figures a year, six figures a year to my own self-improvement. Now, that is a combination of business coaches, masterminds, psychologists, right? I really believe in getting yourself right. right um in a big way to help again kill the guy who got you here because he can't get you to the next phase um and so i'm not telling everyone to go to psychologists maybe it'd be a good idea but you know um even just the the behavioral health stuff right and so i think it's imperative that you guys reach out to bread at a minimum uh just to have a conversation what he does and how he does it because

Starting point is 00:10:40 to get to where you need to be you need to make investments right you said it right in uh then all have to be 150 grand, but, you know, something is better than nothing. What's the biggest gap that you've seen doing what you do from a company that does $1 million to $10 million? So I'll mention a couple of things. You already hit one of them. It's, and you can call it control or you can just call it being integral to the core machine of the business. Like the business, the creation has, has consumed the creator, right? The creator's just completely intertwined in how that business works. And so because of that, it runs great, right? It works, but it's limited at how how far the arms can stretch of that founders. Like, I can't keep my arms around anymore. Yeah,

Starting point is 00:11:26 you tapped out what that system can produce. And so you've got to extract that business owner from the way it happens to make sure that there's ability to grow further. The other thing that I'll call out, it's related, is that by 10 million, you have to have, a full-on leadership team. You can't be of the mindset that more people equals more headaches, right? More people, more problems. Like, if you have that mindset, you're stuck in the past. You're going to be stuck in this like hub and spoke model or the lone genius with a bunch of supporters. You're not going to get there. If your business requires more people to grow, you've got to develop functional, typically functional leadership teams that, you know,

Starting point is 00:12:11 by the time you're at 10 million, you've got a full-blown leadership. team and you are setting vision as the business owner, as the CEO, you're setting vision, you're building team, and you're getting the resources to make that vision in reality, right? Like those are the hats we keep. We don't get to keep any other hats. You're setting vision, you're building team, you're getting resources to be able to fund or fuel that vision. And that's where you need to be. And if you're stuck doing other things and you don't have capable leaders leading their pieces, then you're not going to get there. I think most founders think they always need to be the leader, right? And I think what you're saying

Starting point is 00:12:55 right now, and how I hear it and how I know it, is the sooner the CEO can start to let go of needing to be the leader in all the different departments, marketing and sales and research and development and, you know, toilet cleaning and financial, whatever, the faster the business can grow, right? And so having that team is really critical. But what is the CEO's real role at scale? And I qualify $10 million business at a point of scale because you could potentially, depending upon the vertical and what you're doing, you could potentially get your nine figure payday. Right. When you're at 10, there's a direct line that potentially you have to get to 100 million. Yeah. What is the CEO's real role in your opinion at that size? Yeah. And I may have

Starting point is 00:13:41 hit, I made a brushed over it lightly or quickly, but I literally see the CEO role being boiled down to those responsibilities that they cannot, they cannot and should not give to others entirely, but every leader in the company should be doing their version of setting vision, which to me, that means something very specific. So it's getting clear on the purpose, the values, the mission, the mission goals of that business. So purpose and values kind of happen one time somewhere, typically early in that seven-figure business, and it's like, who are we, really, as a business? Like, we got off the ground. This thing's working, but what's our shared identity built around? And it's this reason, you know, this purpose, this powerful, I would say, motivation and fuel that

Starting point is 00:14:30 drives everything that we do, and then these core values that make up how we operate. So that core identity has to be, like, totally etched in stone, right? We got to know who that. We got to know who that is, and then we're going to hire lead and fire to it forevermore, right? And then the specific mission and mission goals, I don't mean like an open-ended mission statement. I mean, here's where we're going over the next three years. And the more you can co-create, you can bring in the right people to co-create that mission and mission goals, then you're going to have a lot of shared ownership, shared buy-in from that team, and you're going to be much more likely to make that happen. So the job becomes keep waving this banner of the vision forevermore, right? And then get the right

Starting point is 00:15:17 people in. Your job is to build the team and get the resources to make that vision of reality. That's what you should be doing as a CEO. So not selling, as fun as that is for many of you, right? It's not selling. It's not product development. It's not member or client success. it's it's building others and getting resources to make those that that future reality that you want to create together a possibility like that's how that's how you contribute is bringing the right people and the right resources to bear to make that happen yeah and when you have people the nice part is then there can be some implementation of systems when you're the hustler you are literally to your point you're the sales guy you're the accountant you are the marketing chief officer you are you're

Starting point is 00:16:04 hustling. And I'm not totally sure where the hustler breaks and turns into the CEO, because you can hustle your way to a million dollars a year. That is for sure. I've seen people hustled to like three and four million, like extraordinary hustlers. I've seen them do that. Yeah, you're right. Somewhere it breaks. Somewhere it breaks. Yeah, and that's where you need to get into systems, right? I think that's where you can, as a CEO, I believe, now you have a system. You can say, okay, the marketing, this is the system that we need to run. The sales, the system, the research and development, the system, the, you know, all the different things.

Starting point is 00:16:39 But it doesn't happen by just working harder. It happens more from an actual structure of following a process, right? You're absolutely right. And thank you for bringing me back to that. I skipped that. I went from hustle to leadership team, right? But the in-between is the system's work that you're talking about. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:16:56 And in fact, as part of our company building teaching, right, the way that our company building system is four systems, actually. We teach them a strategy execution system. We teach a goal tracking system to align everybody's effort and have everybody own stuff and be accountable, right? We teach a people and culture system and a leadership system. These four systems help that one-page strategy plan become a reality. You can have a lot of vision, but if you don't have these systems that help turn it into reality, it's not happening. And then as soon as we can build these systems, as fast as we can, we're handing them off to.

Starting point is 00:17:31 the capable leaders, the capable people to help push them forward. How do business owners, founders, who are not yet at the place of what we would believe define as a CEO, how do they start to remove the control issue? How do they start to get out of their own way to let the team run the actual system? Yeah, so it comes through confidence that it's not going to fall apart without you. And that's a big step. And it's part of what the system enables, right? If you create a great system that with the right person can replicate or near to replicate

Starting point is 00:18:11 what you can do as that superpowered, you know, entrepreneur founder, then that releases a bunch of worry from you. That if I let go, it's all going to fall apart. Well, if you put the right system in place, with the right person, that same outcome can happen. And so once you see that the system's there and I put a great person in there, now I can see with confidence that it's happening. And I can actually emotionally let go of that, right, and confidently go, okay, now I can focus on another part of the business, build another system. So that act of system plus paired with a capable human being, somebody other than you as the founder, that's what starts to let you release, along with good coaching or psychological help like you said it, whatever you have to do

Starting point is 00:19:03 to mentally and emotionally disconnect from that. But it's not going to be across your fingers moment because you're going to have built the thing that is repeatable and then you're going to find the right person to come in and make that happen without you. Is there a world where a CEO almost becomes a cultural leader? Like they just need to lead to lean into building the best culture possible and allow the executive teams now just to run the play. But all they care about is here's what we're doing. Here's why we're doing it. Here's our purpose. Like you just become almost a cultural cheerleader to say. Is there a world that that would make sense? Yeah. In fact, you're giving me permission to dig deeper into one of those systems I quickly mentioned was the people in culture system.

Starting point is 00:19:53 Like there's their strategy execution. Most people go, oh, I know what that is. There's gold. tracking system. Like, okay, I know. People need to know what their job is and what the measurable results are and be accountable to that. But this people and culture system can be a little fuzzy. And I use the term higher lead and fire to the vision. And earlier I said, the first thing that we're going to do is as a seven-figure leader that wants to become a capable business building CEO is to get clear on that shared identity of the company. And that's at the core of culture. The shared identity of purpose and values. Here's why we do this. Here's why it has meaning. impact, significance. Here's why other great people should want to be part of this,

Starting point is 00:20:32 and here's our way of being, right, our values. That shared identity of our core driver, our purpose, our meaning, our impact, and our shared way of being in the values. That makes up the core of our culture. And then everything we do to build this company builds on top of that. And we become, yeah, you've heard this again, more cliches, but the chief culture officer, you become the preserver of that shared identity in how we hire, in who we hire, in how we lead and when we choose to fire somebody, right? When somebody goes against the grain of that core identity, they can't be there. So we either got to course correct them quickly or they've got to be off the ship, right? They can't be part of this. So yeah, culture is so essential to the growth in the

Starting point is 00:21:21 future because every single person you add in the future is either going to strengthen or add to what you're doing or they're going to take away from or detract from what you're building. And if you get the wrong person or too many of the kind of wrong people, you start to put big cracks in your cultural foundations, like taking a jackhammer and just saying this precious thing that we built, we don't need that anymore. And it's it's like the path to all of it crumbling. I want to jump into kind of this whole concept that I don't know how I feel about it after you know I run the community entrepreneur DNA and so I talk a lot of entrepreneurs a vertical agnostic everyone wants to scale I want to scale it's like it's like a clickbait word right like oh that's the sexy words scale

Starting point is 00:22:12 I'm not totally sure everyone should but I do know what they want and what they do don't line up most often. Why do founders, entrepreneurs, business owners, why do they somewhat sabotage their ability to scale a company? Why do they sabotage it? I think they sabotage it unknowingly, right? I think that's inferred in the question. They sabotage it unknowingly because they have to either give up too much control,

Starting point is 00:22:44 like you said before. Like I can't be somebody I'm not. And so, well, I'm just this way. and they try to force it and by forcing it, they sabotage it, right? It just kind of self-destructs a little. That's extreme. These people can build great businesses still. They might even push. They might push all the way close to 10 million or even further. But at some point, they hit the point where the force, the push will not do it anymore. And so they sabotage it by forcing it. And they also sabotage it by not building something that is healthy and can sustain growth. So culture's, for me, culture is really

Starting point is 00:23:27 at the heart of it. If you don't care about people, if you don't want to create a great company, you can create a financially successful company that isn't great, what I would call great, but it's more likely that you'll create a great sustainable company if you focus on building it from the start the right way with a great culture, with the people, with the people, that you want to help grow and have success. It's pretty magical when you get the pieces right, and it's really hard to make happen when you don't. So the sabotage comes and thinking it's about sales and marketing.

Starting point is 00:24:03 It's all about pushing that next revenue idea, which you do have to do. Like, you do have to sell. You do have to market. But if you do it in the wrong ways, it's just transactional, and you won't get the real lift that comes from having great people, who are in pursuit of great outcomes together.

Starting point is 00:24:23 So it's, I don't know. I think you're saying it without saying it, but I think the breaking point is when they know when to let go of control. Yeah. You know, what's the moment we're holding on stops their ability to scale? How would you know?

Starting point is 00:24:46 If someone's like, they're on a trajectory, but they're still controlling it, when can they look in the mirror and say, I'm at that precipice. I'm on that edge of like, if I keep control, my business isn't really going to achieve what it possibly could if I actually started to let go control. How can they recognize that? Well, we're back to where we started, right? So I have one more story I want to share that I think answers this.

Starting point is 00:25:16 I had a podcast for a few years. I love that you provide this service. and one of my guests said something I'll never forget. His name is Noah. Noah said, and they were growing super fast. And here's the way that he framed it. He said, every six months, I would look at what I was doing. And if I was still doing something that I had been doing six months ago,

Starting point is 00:25:38 I knew I was hanging on to it too long. There you go. Right? Let's flip to the other side of it. Instead of like the holding on part of it, like he was intentionally pushing things off his plate every six months. otherwise they couldn't scale as fast as they were moving. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:25:53 So I guess the point of control is when you hang on to something, you're still doing something that you've been doing, you know, pick your timeframe. Maybe you don't want to grow so fast that you have to let go every six months. But take that principle and apply it to your time frame. If you're still doing something that you were doing 12 months ago, you might be holding on too long, right? If you're still doing something you were doing 24 months ago, you're definitely holding on long. And again, I don't know where your time frame is. Depends on the speed of your business and your

Starting point is 00:26:24 opportunity to really grow. But there's some point in the past where you were doing something you're doing today. And if that's going for too long, then you're holding on too long. That's the I like the six-month benchmark too. That really means a lot. Like as someone who started several companies, a lot of companies, understanding that there should be some time expectation of when you can recognize like oh you're still washing the toilets okay you gotta you gotta move on right um i like that six month mark i think that's a fair fair number what is the real reason seven-figure businesses never become 10-figure businesses they don't become 10 million dollars seven figure to eight figure but

Starting point is 00:27:13 eight million plus yeah they don't become because they because they don't let go Oh, is as simple as that? Yeah, they don't let go. I mean, we've been swirl around that over and over again. That same CEO friend that I told you was working to reinvent himself constantly. He said entrepreneurship is an exercise and relinquishing control. Yeah, that's the way yourself is frequently as you possibly can. Yeah, that's why they don't make it. Yeah, yes, there are market realities. Yes, there are product realities. Like some businesses don't make it because they don't have. have the real market opportunity that can take them there. They're a nice local service business. In a smaller town, smaller market where there's just not more, right? They would have to go open

Starting point is 00:27:59 another location, another market, which they could do. But some of them kind of settle into this place. We're like, you know what, I've got a great business, great team, great culture. We make great margins. And I'm just not going to do the work that is necessary to grow to 10 million plus. I can respect that. That's a choice. No problem. But if the if the opportunity, there and the desire's there and they're not getting there. Yes, there's product. Yes, there's market. Yes, there's all the things that we still have to figure out. But most of them, it's because they can't, they can't reinvent themselves. They can't let it. What is a true CEO do that most business owners don't even think about? What they do that most CEOs don't even think

Starting point is 00:28:45 about. They take a personal off-site and morning routines that are very, very consistent. So they get clear over and over again. Clarity is the name of the game at that level, and they just keep getting clear for themselves and everyone around them. And that clarity breeds confidence in themselves first, and then everyone else around them. So clarity and confidence comes through, personal clarity routines. I'm talking about like personal off-sites where not only am I not coming into the office that day, but I'm getting away so that I can think clearly and creatively. And it's a little bit like I'm going to go to the top of the mountain and come back with some answers. But instead of coming back with V answers, they come back with clarity and then they go

Starting point is 00:29:38 into those same clarity routines with their team. And so every quarter, we're going to get off-site. not going to talk about the day-to-day challenges. We're going to talk about where we said we were going together, and we're going to assess where we're at right now. And so they do these clarity and confidence routines individually, and then they do that with their teams. And then they get specific plans, and then they shove everything else out of the way, and they just focus on that. you yourself have hired coaches for your entire career. You've paid a lot of money of these coaches. What do you see as a common thread for these coaches that you can pinpoint?

Starting point is 00:30:21 What would be a common thread for the handful of coaches that you said you mentioned earlier that has created their success? They have a way, right? They have systems. They have some way that they organize the world to make things work for their and they teach that way and they do it really well right and so for example i'm working with somebody right now who has a way i have so we have a couple coaches right now so you said you've done this before like we have we have a couple right now one of them is teaching us how to be really great at establishing

Starting point is 00:30:57 nurturing jv partnerships partnership approach right like i need to get better at that i'm going to hire somebody who knows the way who knows how to do that yeah and so they're helping us with that and Another one, we do these great events. We're about to host, I know podcast don't always air in precise ways, right, but we're about to host our 44th consecutive quarterly event. Quarter after quarter after quarter, we host these events for seven-figure business owners who want to get together and learn stuff, right? And so we're about to do that. We're not super great at like selling those events to people who don't know us. They started out as like member fulfillment events and so our members would come, but selling tickets.

Starting point is 00:31:38 So we're working with a group right now that's coaching us on how to fill these types of events with people who should be there. Great. We need help with both of those things. So, I mean, pick a way that you want to get better in your business or your life and find somebody who has a proven path for doing that that you jive with, right? You can't hire somebody that you're not a good fit with. But find somebody that you're like, I can respect this person, I can learn from this person. And then clear your world. Like change the way that you do stuff to map to what they're teaching you. That's how you get there faster.

Starting point is 00:32:14 How big is I really lean into controlling yourself can control your business, right? And so this goes back to the word control. It seems to be a very common theme here. Yeah. Call it self-mastery. I don't care. Call it whatever you want. I mean, that's a better word because I really believe like my morning routine sets the day. Yes.

Starting point is 00:32:36 you yourself are a coach I am a coach we have coached others at a great level and then we invest in other coaches that are higher and beyond where we're at what have you seen throughout all that what is the importance in some of these really big coaches that you've hired that I've hired where's their common thread in mastering themselves in this journey there is definitely a daily discipline if you if you as a growth oriented founder growth oriented seven figure business owner don't have some sort of non-negotiable daily discipline things. You need to start doing that. And I'll give examples, and you can share lots of examples as well, Justin.

Starting point is 00:33:19 I almost don't care what the daily discipline is around as long as you establish the one that works for you. So for me, there's some personal spiritual routines that every day without fail. That involves sources of truth, scripture, right for me that that's scripture prayer without fail these two things happen every day it also involves a a journaling thing that I do every day without fail journaling it also involves a set of IAM statements as I'm creating myself right we're creating businesses but how many of you are creating yourself and I love that you're bringing this up Justin so every single day I repeat four I am statement for 14 I am

Starting point is 00:34:05 statements and I've done this daily for over 10 years Justin this is not this is not when I when I say daily discipline this is like I'm serious every day without fail scripture prayer journaling and my 14 I am statements this is what grounds me this is what centers me this is what helps me see this is who I am who I am creating and that's how I am by extension do you mind sharing a couple of these I am statements I don't want to get too personal but if if you don't mind. I think I have a journal. I talk about this all the time. People are tired of it. I have this five minute journal. You can get on Amazon, but there's, there's three words, three lines for affirmations. And I take up five lines, right? And I literally go through these

Starting point is 00:34:51 I am, I am, I am. So I would love to hear yours. I'm happy to share mine. But yeah, that's part of my morning as well. And I, and it doesn't surprise me at least, Justin. Every, every time you open your mouth, I'm like, this guy's like, injured brothers. Indrid. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. we get it together right like or i get you anyway uh whether i get it you guys will all be the judge whether or not i know what i'm talking about but i understand justin and i think he knows what he's talking about so yeah there's 14 i am statements uh the first i'll tell you the first three what the nature of them are i i won't share them personally but the first one has to do with my my relationship with a supreme being okay so i i believe there is a god and the first one

Starting point is 00:35:34 has to do with my relationship with him. Segwin has to do with my relationship with his son Jesus Christ. I'm Christian. The third one has to do with my wife. Okay? Those first three, that's where I start my grounding. Then it gets into,

Starting point is 00:35:50 I am, that I have a personal, meaningful relationship with each of my precious children and they know that I love them unconditionally. Mine are a little longer than many others. I've heard a lot of like, I am love, I am light, I am, right? And I'm not making fun of any that. But I'm long-winded, as you all now know, and I got to be more descriptive. So that fourth one is about my precious children, and they know that I love them unconditionally. The next one is,

Starting point is 00:36:16 I am confident, I am unafraid of what others think. That's what is. The next one is, I am, that I have, I am that, I say them so many times, and then you're asking, okay, I am confident, I'm unafraid of what others think. I am willing to share my extraordinary, contributions and not taking away from others by contributing, it is a disservice to others when I withhold my thoughts. They're lengthier description, but I have 14 of these things, and they shape who I am. I love that you actually, mine are a little shorter, and they're kind of like quick affirmations that I can knock out. But man, I love yours because a lot of us deal with imposter syndrome feeling like we are worthy right and this for me like this is my own issue right that's

Starting point is 00:37:12 why i talk about psychology like hey maybe you need to invest in a psychologist or a psychiatrist right like because there's shit that we all grow up with as children and we were raised with that maybe not be the most healthy for our adult lives as parents and in things of that nature and and so you know a lot of the stuff that you're talking about saying you know you're doing a disservice not voicing your opinion. Yeah. Because you're not leading from a place of real value

Starting point is 00:37:39 and trying to help other. Like, I love that, right? And I think it's a new way that I can even think, and I love this, like, if you couldn't tell, I was writing notes, by the way.

Starting point is 00:37:49 Like, I just love what I do. And I say that because I hope a lot of the listeners are listening to both of us talk about the power of words of affirmation in writing these things down daily. I do it in my five-minute journal. You can literally get her on the Amazon. Brett has his version of it too.

Starting point is 00:38:04 Um, if you want to get, again, circling all the way back to the very, like the, the, the man or woman that needs to get to the 10 million mark, the person that is at a million or two or three or four or five, they need to die. It just won't be the same human. So what are those incremental things that you can do? For me, my morning routine is, is very valuable. I have two very little kids, two years and five year old. I want to be there in the morning for them. So I don't get the like 6.30 to 8.30, like wake up, yon, drink a cup of coffee. It's daddy. It's lunches. It's, you know, combing hairs and getting everyone. And I'm not unique in that. And my point to that is, I'm not unique. Many of you resonate with that. But I prioritize myself still first. And I know

Starting point is 00:38:53 for a lot of you that seems selfish. But Brett, I'd love to understand your value. I put myself above everyone else in my family. Now, some of you may be like, whoa, selfish, all right. But I reframe that to myself. If I am not 100% for my family, because I've withered myself down by not putting myself first, by not having alone time, by not being able to journal, by not being able to make it to the gym, how can I give to them anymore? So if I'm the last on the totem pole and the dog is fed before, me the dog is walked before me everyone's before me how am i going to be of service to anyone let alone my family yeah what are your thoughts on that justin i i spent um the better part of my married life this year my wife her her name is sharon and she's she's the most lovely and wonderful person on the planet for me

Starting point is 00:39:52 right um but we celebrate 30 years of marriage uh this year and and for for the bulk of that we had We had a bunch of little kids, Justin, I hear you talking about that morning routine. I'm like, God bless you and good for you, right? So our youngest, we have eight children, and mastering self and mastering chaos has been a part of our journey a long time. And our youngest are about to graduate. We have twins that are seniors in high school. So they're about to graduate. Like, we're moving to this next chapter in life.

Starting point is 00:40:29 but when I look back on that, I did myself and my family a disservice by being so depleted, so others focused that I couldn't be my best much of that time. Probably the first 20 plus years of that was just spent, okay, what needs to happen next? Who needs me? And it was just all others focused. And I'm not, I don't think that's a horrible way to live, but I wasn't, I was, I was, I, I, I, I stopped being able to be my best. I stopped losing some of myself, some of my soul, if you will. I became a lot more mechanical, a lot more transactional in my relationship because it was just all

Starting point is 00:41:12 business. It was like, okay, now I got to do this. Now I got to do this. And there was so much to do that that happened out of necessity. But later, as a little more space creeped in my life, I learned a little bit how to care for myself better. And now I am a much better father. Like I mentioned, and you didn't follow out your chair, which I appreciate. I mentioned we have eight children. The first four kids, and they were all together. Our oldest was 10 and a half when our baby twins were born. So eight of them in 10 and a half years.

Starting point is 00:41:42 Just imagine the care and feeding of little ones for so many years. Like, that's all it was. And so it was just go, go, go, try to make it all work. But the first four kids got a different dad. They did. Yeah. You know, and the teenagers that are now kind of graduating out of our home, they got a much more present and energy. You know, I had more life.

Starting point is 00:42:09 You were lighter with four kids, which by the way, just so we're clear. I didn't fall out of my chair because I have some friends in the Mormon space that have 10 children. Okay. So it's not unique to me to hear these numbers. But I'm always blown away. One of my closest friends on the plane has five kids. He just had his fifth kid two years ago, and his oldest is 22. And so he spaced him out a little more than you.

Starting point is 00:42:35 But listen, you're doing God's work to some extent, but I come from a different thread. And a little bit, I want to have my life too. And to me, if I can raise two great children, I'm as happy as could be. Yeah. And, you know, and so I respect and love that you have eight. Well, it's not about the number, but the, but what you're calling out is essential. And you, you learned it sooner than I did, way sooner than I did. But I was late dad. So I'm 44. I was, I had my first daughter or my first kid, 39, right? So I was, but I had to do that. I didn't have an option. I wasn't mature. I like to go out too often. Like I just, I was in my season that I couldn't.

Starting point is 00:43:23 do what you did. There was no way. Well, we all have our way, our path, right? But we both came to the same place, which is, I have to take care of myself in order to be the best version of me for others. If I put everybody else first all the time, I get depleted, and I'm less than I could be. And so I know it sounds counterintuitive. You've got to take care of yourself. If you don't take care of yourself, you can't be great for others. You cannot. Not just those precious children, not just your amazing spouse or, you know, significant other, other, but, and not, but, but your team, your partners, your, your clients, your customers, whoever it is you're trying to serve. Everybody else wins when you're the best you can be.

Starting point is 00:44:13 Amen. Now, where do we want, listen, you and I are in the same thread, same vein, same river, same from the same sheet of music. I believe emphatically the hustler needs to die for the CEO to rise I believe we hold on to control because of identity I believe we don't create systems

Starting point is 00:44:36 because if we create systems then we can pass that system off to someone which releases our control and we don't want to do that so we like self-propelled this whole thing keep me in control because I it's my kid this business is mine

Starting point is 00:44:49 mine you and I know people need a release from that. And there's an actual way to do that. How can they find you? How can they talk to you about what they need to start doing? Yeah. So our website is grow withelite.com. So G-R-O-W with elite, E-L-I-T-E.com. Again, growth-oriented seven-figure businesses, seven-figure business owners who want to go from gritty, scrappy founder to capable and confident company-building CEOs. That's who we're serving. You can find us there at grow withelite.com on LinkedIn. I'm definitely on LinkedIn more than I am on other

Starting point is 00:45:28 social platforms. You can find me at, this will be funny because you know Jim Collins enough, but built to last champ is my handle. The number two, built to last champ. You can look up Brett Gilliland, of course, and there's another Brett Gilliland with a great podcast. We actually interviewed each other on each other's podcast. It was kind of funny. So the one that's elite entrepreneurs is my business and yeah i'd love i'd love to meet all of you yeah well brett i really appreciate you being here uh and obviously we have this great community that uh hopefully you're able to share some wisdom with them personally i'd love that i know they would love that um this is always about the people and serving them so the entrepreneur dna community is there uh i am justin colby

Starting point is 00:46:16 this has been the entrepreneur dna brett you've been awesome we will see everyone on the next podcast Peace.

The Entrepreneur DNA - The Hustler Has to Die: How to Finally Become a Real CEO | Brett Gilliland

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