Join Zachary Green as he shares his unique perspective on leadership shaped by his experiences as a Marine veteran and entrepreneur. In this episode, discover how timeless leadership principles can be applied to today’s complex business landscape. Zach explores the lessons learned from historic battlefields and how they empower leaders to thrive under pressure, adapt to changes, and foster high-performance cultures. Learn practical strategies to elevate your leadership game, no matter your background.
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https://brainworkframework.podbean.com/
Connect with Zachary Green:
Personal Website: https://www.zacharylgreen.com
Company Website: https://www.warriorleader.us
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zacharylgreen/
Connect with Chris Troka:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopher-troka-3a093058/
Website: https://focused-biz.com/
Website: https://christroka.com/ #brainwork #framework #business #entrepreneur #marine #veteran #leaders #battlefields #warrior
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
One of the things I do is I havea three month program where I work
(00:02):
with people on a couple hours aweek, and we go through the building
blocks that I just talked about.
I've got real simpleforms, real simple charts.
I even have an online coursethat people can sign up for to
kind of go through that process.
But for me, find people to dothings really well and shamelessly
copy the hell out of them.
I want you to copy what I did.
I want you to copy everythingthat I did so you don't have
(00:24):
to necessarily go through thechallenges that I went through.
Think of it as like cheatcodes in a video game.
What are the business cheatcodes that are out there?
You are listening to Brainwork Framework,a Business and Marketing podcast,
brought to you by Focused-biz.com.
Welcome back to another episode.
(00:45):
With us today is ZacharyGreen, the founder and managing
partner of Warrior Enterprises.
Warrior Enterprises is a leadershipdevelopment company that transforms
historic battlefield lessons intoreal world leadership strategies for
business, military and first responders.
Zach, so excited to have you on today.
How you doing?
Chris, thank you.
It's a real honor to be on the show.
I'm a big fan of yours and justexcited to have a chance to spend
(01:07):
some time with you and your listeners.
Hey, thank you so much.
We appreciate it.
You have quite a inspiringand incredible journey.
Tell us more about your background,your journey, what you're doing
and how that kind of led youinto what you're doing today.
Sure.
So I grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio.
No one in my family hadbeen in the military.
Matter of fact, my family werepretty liberal and anti-gun.
I wasn't even allowed tohave squirt guns growing up.
(01:29):
And everyone in my family wereeither lawyers or musicians.
And at a very early age, Iwanted to join the Marine Corps.
I had pretty significant ADHD growing up.
Went to about seven different schools.
It's funny 'cause it's called multitaskingwhen you get out of school and all of
a sudden it's this great thing thatevery entrepreneur needs but when
you're trying to sit at the desk, it'scalled ADHD and they try to medicate
(01:49):
you and do all this other stuff.
What I ended up joining theMarines right out of high school,
was still in college at the time.
Did kind of the summertime thing.
Went through both enlisted and theofficer program and then just as I was
getting out, I'm like, you know what?
I've had enough of this.
I want to go pursue this civilian world.
And I finished up as a corporal.
Two years later, September 11th happenedand I felt really guilty that I'd gotten
(02:12):
out because a lot of my brothers didn'tcome back and I had a full-time job.
Then at Eli Lilly, I was in branddevelopment and marketing and one
of my favorite assignments was doingleadership development training.
I became a volunteer firefighterbecause I felt that was the new
forward line of the battle and ourhomeland needed to be protected just
like some far off distant lands.
(02:33):
And I got lost in a fire.
It was a really scary situation rightwhen I first started and I wanted
to figure out how can I not haveother firefighters go through this?
And Eli Lilly specificallyaround corporate branding.
We never sell features and ourmedicines, we talk about the problem,
diabetes, mental health, whatever.
And then we talk about thesolution around that brand.
(02:56):
The problem I had wasn't thatI just got lost in a fire.
I got disoriented.
I couldn't see my wayaround 'cause it was dark.
And I remembered as a grunt inthe Marines, the infantryman.
We had these glow in the dark taps onthe back of our helmet and I thought,
what if I could apply those sametechnology to firefighter technology?
Started working on a couple differentproducts and developed some prototypes.
(03:16):
Started selling it outtathe trunk of my car.
Made 5,000 bucks in six months andmy fire chief sat me down and says,
look, you've got something that'sgoing to change the fire service.
Stopped treating it as a hobby and Iremembered a quote from Teddy Roosevelt.
He said, you're faced witha monumental decision.
The best thing to do is the right thing.
The next best thing to do isthe wrong thing but the worst
(03:37):
thing to do is to do nothing.
So quit my job at Lilly, maxed out mycredit cards, went to this trade show.
In three days I booked a hundredthousand dollars in sales.
The problem is I had no money left.
I had no manufacturing.
I had no way to fill these orders.
But I'm a Marine and wealways accomplish our mission.
And I remember telling everybody thattold me, Hey, you gotta start returning
(03:57):
orders and you gotta close up shop.
And I'm like.
No.
This is how I work.
I always accomplish the mission.
And over the next 10 years, it wasbrutal but I grew it into about a $30
million company and it was throughthose things that I learned in the
Marine Corps and those warrior traitsreally helped me during those dark
times and then helped me really togrow it into to where it is today.
(04:19):
That is quite the journey,quite the experience.
You are just a testament ofwhat the American dream, the
entrepreneurship is all about.
Creating an idea, something thatsolves a problem here and kind
of the direction that it went to.
You demonstrated product validation firstbefore even saying, I'm gonna build this
huge product and create manufacturing.
Let me just see if Ican sell the idea yet.
(04:41):
And you did.
And now the second issue becamefulfillment but so grateful that you
actually saw it through 'cause that'swhere a lot of entrepreneurs can
fall apart is the fulfillment piece.
They hit that obstacle and theystruggle to follow through.
And I see a lot of veterans that arealso getting into business is that
the military teaches so many veteransabout how to be better leaders.
(05:01):
And that's a natural progression ordo you think leaders kind of naturally
gravitate towards the military?
I think it's a little bit of both.
You used to think I was made aMarine when I got down there.
I think we all kind of had a little bitof that warrior ethos in us before we got
down there but the job of our military isnot just to make great warriors to great
(05:21):
defenders, it's to make great Americans.
And I think at the heart of whatAmerica is, it's the right to pursue
the pursuit of happiness, the freedomto be able not because of the color
of your skin or your parents' name.
You can do anything ifyou put your mind to it.
You look at all the great success stories.
They usually start off in reallybad situations and they use
(05:42):
that challenge and that turmoil.
The iron sharpens iron to grow.
I think the easiest way to answeryour question on why you see a lot of
veterans, it's one word and there'sone word that is the difference
between successful entrepreneursand not successful entrepreneurs.
It's grit.
You just have to accept that nomatter what problem is out there,
there's a solution to the problem.
(06:04):
The challenge is most people aren'twilling to do what that solution is.
In my case, that was putting myhouse on as collateral for a loan.
In that case, it was not just firingone of my best friends but suing one
of my best friends because he reallymessed some things up within the company.
Those are things that most peoplewould never do that but they say an
entrepreneur lives the rest of theirlife, like most people never could
(06:27):
because they do those things earlyon, like most people never would.
For those short times where they're goingthrough those crucibles and challenges.
Yes, absolutely.
That grit and ability to overcomeobstacles in the face of adversity
is something that people need to haveespecially as entrepreneurs and now
you've created this lesson that focuseson what being a warrior is and this
brand as more of a leadership tool.
(06:49):
Can you tell me more about thisprogram, some of the key lessons or the
pillars that it's kind of built upon?
So as I started doing research formy book Warrior Entrepreneur Lessons
from the Battlefield of the Boardroom,I started to realize we always wanna
chase these new leadership trends.
It's John Maxwell, it's Tony Robbins,it's Simon Sinek and Malcolm Gladwell.
(07:09):
They're phenomenal.
Don't get me wrong.
But there's timeless leadership lessonsthat have not changed from all the way
back in the Spartan times of AncientRome or Greece and the Bible and Civil
War, these core leadership things.
And I started to find these commontraits with warriors and they were
the same common traits that I sawfrom Walt Disney, from Elon Musk,
(07:30):
from Mama Fuku and who invented theramen noodles, instant Ramen noodles.
And it was this concept ofgrit and inspiring others.
And so what I said is, okay, there'senough MBAs out there, there's enough
of what I call intellectual derelictsthat have unbelievable brilliance but
they can't communicate with people.
(07:50):
It's easy for someone that's smartto talk about complicated things.
The difficult thing is how canthey take something complicated
and break it down Super simple.
So we said in the Marine Corps, SesameStreet style or Barney style for those
that you're old enough to remember.
So that was one part is how canI teach these warrior lessons?
The second thing was a lot of mybrothers and sisters have committed
(08:10):
suicide since they've been outand it's an epidemic problem.
They say it's 22 a day.
It's not 22 day, it's like 40 or 50 a day.
And there's three mainreasons why they do that.
The first reason is they stop moving.
There's a real connection between justexercise and getting outdoors and moving.
The second one, I can'treally do much about that.
That's something that'sup to each individual.
(08:31):
Second one is they lose theirtribe, they lose that brother.
You mentioned yourbrother's in the Marines.
I'm sure if we met we would havea connection that is so deep even
though we'd never met each other'cause we have that shared heritage.
So you miss the tribe.
The people you can talk to,you can cry with, you can
drink with, you can party with.
They understand your bad jokes andthat stuff but the third one, that
really gets that veteran to makethat horrible ultimate decision.
(08:53):
Is they lose their sense of purpose.
And so what I'm doing throughWarrior Enterprises is taking those
veterans and giving them a chanceto show that they're not just great
veterans but they're great Americans.
And doing that by teaching our nextgeneration of leaders how to lead using
those long-term, really battle testedleadership tools have been forged in
(09:17):
fire and forged in the crucible ofdeath and destruction and civilization
and then apply that to business.
So here I'm helping my brotherand sister veterans out.
I'm giving them purpose.
I'm giving them a tribe.
And then the other thing is I'm helpingour next generation of leaders by
teaching them how to be great leaders.
That is absolutely fantastic.
When you consider just overall to today'sage where mental health is become an
(09:40):
issue not only for veterans but I thinkjust generally post covid or technology
is kind of shifting the way that we haveour typical family or friend structure
or a typical place of gathering.
What kind of changes are you seeinghappening and are there ways we
can kind of bring it back to someof the traditional ways that bring
us together, the culture, theself-worth that sense of belonging.
(10:03):
I think it really revolvesaround Simon Sinek.
He talks about the golden circle.
Most businesses focus on the whatand the how but the companies that
focus on the why, they're the onesthat really make a difference.
So that's the first thing I say is thatwhy the second one is there's a new way
that we communicate with each other.
My son, I tell 'em to go outsideand play with your friends.
Well, there's no friendsto play with outside.
(10:24):
All right?
He gets on his virtual realityand he has these unbelievable
meaningful relationships.
He's had two girlfriends thatthey never met and we were talking
to somebody making fun of you.
They said, no.
That is just as real of arelationship as what you had
when you were driving on a date.
My son doesn't drive a car becausenone of his friends drive cars
'cause they got VR headsets.
(10:44):
So where does this come together?
What we were trying to do is focusingon this experiential learning where
we take people to Gettysburg, toNormandy to teach 'em those timeless
lessons and what we found out is,yes, nothing beats going there.
But my son said, what ifwe put VR glasses on 'em?
So we don't take 'em to Normandybut we go to their office?
(11:05):
Because the challenge we were having isscalability and the ability to really
make it repeatable that's not scalable andrepeatable to take 15 people to Normandy
every three days but by using what myson has shown us with the virtual reality
and I can take you to the battlefieldbut the cool thing is I can give you
a connection to General Mc Arthur.
You could never get on the beach.
(11:27):
I can go up 5,000 feet in the air and seethe whole entire Nazi defenses along the
coast and where the different entrancesand exits where they came in the beach.
And then through the power ofAI, we've developed our own large
language model that's looking at allthese different leadership traits.
We can start to capture the experiencethat you're having in VR and give it back
(11:48):
to you and give you different analysisand show how you compare to other people.
So now we're communicate youin this multi-sensory domain,
experiential learning that's involvingstorytelling, virtual reality, AI,
extended reality, iPad discussions.
And at the end, we tied in with themost absolute best form of learning
(12:10):
and that is the three magic words.
Tell me a story.
Once upon a time I was in Eli Lilly andwe were behind budget on this thing and I
had to do this and this is what happened.
People will remember that story butif I teach them five PowerPoint slides
that have four points in each of thosePowerPoint slides about what I just, they
won't remember it but they'll remember thestory and they'll remember that lesson.
(12:31):
And that's what we'retrying to do is connect.
History with modern day experiencesthrough storytelling and
technology to get people to learnfaster and to reduce skill fade.
Wow that is so cool.
Just to think about that intersect betweenthe human connection, communication,
the feedback that we can get fromtechnology and AI and using virtual
reality to now create this new I guessI could call it a fourth dimension,
(12:54):
where you're getting real timefeedback about your leadership skills.
So I feel like people could go onthroughout their regular workday and get
live feedback on how their leadershipskills are performing and just how
they're interacting with in general.
That's so fascinating.
Are there any other ways that you planon using AI and technology or just
some cool ways that you've seen itincorporated into a lot of businesses?
(13:14):
So what we look at is, rather thanany one methodology of learning,
powerPoint is fine but if you justdo PowerPoint, it's not really great.
But when you can layer these ontop of each other, you start to
get this multiplicative effect.
It's not one plus oneplus one equals three.
It's one plus one plus one equals 30.
And by layering a VR with theAI and the background, it starts
(13:38):
with this intake assessment.
We're trying to figure out, okay,we've identified seven key timeless
leadership traits that have neverchanged since the beginning of time.
Through that intake survey, we'retrying to figure out which one of
those are the strings we're gonna pull.
Then we build out those scenarios andvirtual reality, which we have literally
only limited by your imagination andthen we go through these processes
(14:00):
from VR then we go into the iPads whereyou're filling out case studies and
asking questions and then flows intostorytelling and then ultimately ends
up with an analysis that you get becausewe're capturing those data points.
The other part of this ismy instructors are veterans.
So you've got a Command sergeant majorthat was in charge of 20,000 troops
(14:20):
and a billion dollars of equipmentand he's an assistant manager in a
warehouse now and he doesn't feelgood because his three guys at work
for him won't pay attention to him.
And he was used to leading literallyWarriors into the field of battle.
He's lost his sense of purpose, if I cangive him back to work with Chris and his
team and give him that chance to again bethat great American, pass that leadership
(14:43):
on from the time he takes his uniformoff to puts on his civilian clothes.
And then we can continue thatgrowth process and that learning and
mentorship and the people that areyour mentees today will eventually
become the mentors tomorrow.
Yes, absolutely.
That sort of impact from oneleader and mentor to another.
Those can be the next leaders, the leadersof tomorrow, which is really exciting.
(15:05):
With all your past experience here,what is the best way that either the
everyday person can support a veteran?
How can we help them?
You're doing a lot of great work.
I feel like there's a lot ofnonprofits, organizations that also
do the work but more could be done.
What can the everyday person do for them?
So one of my pet peeves and I hope thisdoesn't come across the wrong way and I
don't mean to offend anybody whatsoeverbut when you say thank you for your
(15:27):
service, for me, I feel like it's likewhen you say bless you, when someone
sneezes, are you really thanking youor are you just kind of repeating this?
I also feel like it's in some wayscondolence, like, oh, I feel bad that you
serve, so thank you for the sacrifice.
We don't want to feel like we're brokentoys and the reality is that the FBI
put veterans on the watch list aspotential dangers to society because
(15:50):
of mental health issues or PTSD if youwanna thank a veteran for their service.
Let them continue to serve andthrough whatever that is through
being in Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts.
If it's through leadershipprograms, hire them.
That is the best way youcan think a veteran is.
Let them show you because I will takea a 22-year-old kid that grew up in the
(16:11):
inner city that barely made it outta highschool but he literally was able to solve
problems like you wouldn't imagine in theinfantry or in logistics or whatever else.
And no matter what, he's never gonna quitversus this kid that got his MBA from a
Ivy League school whose parents complainedto the coach because they weren't
getting soccer time in seventh grade,who in 10th grade they got offended.
(16:34):
So the principal brought everyone togetherand says, oh, you can't use those.
Those are trigger words.
Then they get to college and assoon as they get somebody with a
counterpoint of view to what theyhave, they have to go to a safe space.
And then they finally get outin the real world and they fall.
They get crushed likea little paper tiger.
That is who we think is the good leaders.
They're not.
What handed to you every now and then.
(16:55):
Iron sharpens iron.
The only way you get your musclestrong is by ripping them apart through
eight training and then they grow.
And if you want to think a veteran, givethem the opportunity to continue to serve.
That is very well said.
And it's something that it's almosta compulsory reactionary to bless
you, to thank you for your service.
What else could we say?
Or unsure of how to respond.
So that's kind of the standardtemplate that people go to but it was
(17:19):
more about practical ways to reallyconnect and reach with veterans
and how to give them that purpose.
I feel like many other people with thingschanging, have lost that sense of purpose
and self-worth and that human connectionand maybe by trying to protect people,
we've comforted them too much and the reallife experiences really shape you as an
individual and teach you a lesson thatjust being told something won't change.
(17:44):
So something to keep in mind as wekind of reshape the leaders of tomorrow
and what we want our people to be.
Well, I'm sure I'm gonna mess this quoteup but it's something like weak men create
hard times, hard times, create strong men.
Strong men create weak times andthen weak times create weak men.
I'm sure I messed that up but somehowthat circle comes through is eventually
(18:05):
you're getting to the point where asthe helicopter parent, you're so worried
that our kid's gonna have a problem.
We've never given him a chance toreally grow and to do that next thing.
Yes, absolutely.
And I think it'll be something thatwill be studied for years to come.
But I think that quote, as you describedit, whether it's the correct process, yes.
It's kind of this circular systemthat creates this effect here.
Zach, for those who are interested inlearning more about you and your journey,
(18:28):
where can people connect with you online?
Yes, the best way is my website.
It's real simple.
It's my name Zachary l green.com.
Z-A-C-H-A-R-Y-L as in limagreen.com and then also LinkedIn.
I'm very active on LinkedIn.
So those are two of the best waysand you can get in touch with me
through my website, through LinkedIn.
We do offer one day of theseworkshops that I was telling you
(18:51):
about through experiential learning.
We do those both with corporate America.
I'm actually right now coming to you fromMarine Corps base camp and North Carolina,
where we're actually doing an engagementwith the military right now as we speak
with some of these similar workshops.
That is very exciting and we'll alsohave those links available down in
the description on the show notes.
Now, Zach, what are youmost excited for in 2025?
(19:13):
Are you kind of ramping up doingany new campaigns or anything
new and exciting coming out?
I feel like you always havesomething cooking or working.
It's funny you say that, the lastcouple years has been an interesting
journey because I think I reallyended up on a pretty high note when
I got to move down to Hilton Head.
I got to buy the dream car thatI had a poster of when I was
a little kid and everything.
And then over the last two orthree years, I'm like, okay,
(19:35):
I'm gonna start a new company.
And I forgot how hard it is becausethe last two years, it's not
worked out the way that I thought.
It's cost me a ton of money.
I'm not bringing inrevenue but you know what?
That's part of the journey.
So what am I so excitedabout for this year?
It's the last two to three yearsworth of work that I've done and now
finally starting to come through.
We're getting customers, we'rebuilding out our team and I think
(19:57):
what I'm most excited about is mybest friend since fourth grade.
We literally spent everyweekend together growing up.
He is now finishing 30 years in theUS Army as a lieutenant colonel at
the Pentagon and last week he startedwhat's called his skill bridge program,
which is this tremendous program thatthe military offers for people that
are in their last three to four monthsof their time and service where they
(20:18):
can go work for civilian company andstill get paid from the military.
So he started his skill bridge withme last week and now we get a chance
after 30 years of running apart toget the team back together and he's
now my president and my operationsofficer and helping me as we teach
this new leadership model to corporateand America and government entities.
(20:39):
Wow.
Congratulations.
That is really cool to kind ofrevisit that past experience,
relationship and bring that back in.
Now with this new business.
What changed that Suddenly it startedgaining more momentum because you had
so many successes in the past and thisone, it's kinda like, what was wrong?
It's the same thing that happenedwith my previous company.
We lost millions of dollars, I meanmillions of dollars and then all
(21:03):
of a sudden it just worked and wewere averaging $10 million a year
in revenue multiple years afterthat, where the year prior to that,
we kept losing 300,000, $500,000back to that whole thing with grit.
It's the right idea.
You're solving a problem,you've got a really good, unfair
competitive business advantage.
You've got really good sales,marketing distribution but sometimes
(21:24):
and the number one reason businessesfail is the founder just gives up.
Main reason they give upis they run outta money.
And if you can just push through andfind out, what I always tell people,
it's okay to give up sometimes.
There comes to a certain point whereyou're like, this just is not happening.
We don't wanna put goodmoney after bad money.
But if you can't get investorsand the bank is turning you down,
(21:45):
they're really smart people.
They're usually a lot smarterthan the entrepreneurs.
They're telling you that you probablydon't have a viable business model but
if you can like me, get those investorsand get the banks that are willing to
take the risk off of it, then they'resaying, Hey, there's something there
because they're really good at atpoking ideas and trying to crash dreams.
And eventually, if they can't crashyour dream, then you realize, maybe
(22:05):
there's something there but thenthat's where the hard work comes in and
that's the grit and that tenacity ofjust pushing through those challenges.
Yeah, absolutely.
It's that balance betweenthe sunken cost fall fallacy.
Do I want to keep investing this?
Or do I see this through?
And moments from the goal line hereand you just have to see it through.
It's very important.
If you had to restart a new businesstomorrow, what would be either the
(22:28):
problem that you solve or the way thatyou would approach this new business?
I think the simple answer to thatis the latter part, which is the
way I would approach it and I kindof shared with you before but it's
real three very simple things.
Number one.
Have you solved a problemin a unique and elegant way?
Most companies and most products,especially entrepreneurs,
focus on features and benefits.
They don't focus on what'sthe problem they're solving.
(22:50):
And when you focus too much onfeatures and benefits, you get really
nervous that someone's gonna copyyour features and benefits or you
do what I think is one of the worstthings an entrepreneur can do and get
a patent because that way it preventsother people from knowing about it.
Well, great.
No one's gonna steal your ideabut no one's gonna know about it.
And by the way, if someone steals youridea, that's called market validation.
That means you've got a goodidea, your job is stay on top.
(23:12):
It brings us number two, what is yourunfair competitive business advantage?
David beat Goliath for a couple reasonsbut one reason was is he figured out
what was David's or Goliath's weaknesses.
Goliath was big and strong.
That was his strength.
But his weaknesses was hewas slow, he had bad vision.
So what did David do?
He ran far away so he couldn't seehim and he used a weapon that gave
(23:32):
advantage to distance versus up close.
What is your unfairadvantage of a business?
Not illegal, not unethicalbut unfair advantage.
Okay.
And then the third one, which ishands down, the most important, you
gotta have kick ass sales, marketing,distribution 'cause if you've got
the greatest product in the world andnobody knows about it ain't gonna work.
There's one product out there thatright now is sitting at about seven,
(23:56):
$800 billion a year in revenueand soon to be it to a trillion
and 30 years ago was non-existent.
It's bottled water.
Bottle water has been around forever.
We drank it outta the hose for free.
You can go to the park and get itfor free but because Coca-Cola bought
Dasani and they said We can market thisthing and all of a sudden people start
(24:16):
showing up with these water bottlesat the soccer games and stuff and
people are like, oh, I can buy waterinstead of having to go to the hose.
It was all because of marketingdistribution 'cause at the end
of the day, water is water.
I don't care if you say, well thisis from the Alps in France and this
one here is from the tap bullshit.
It's all water.
All right, water is water.
It's a great take Zach.
(24:36):
I love it.
If I could just have your personalityand your business mentorship just as
a coworker or like a leader next to meall the time that would make my life
and my workday so much more enjoyable.
Well, Chris, I do offer coaching.
I usually have aboutsix clients at a time.
I'm down to four right now.
So one of the things I do is I havea three month program where I work
with people on a couple hours aweek and we go through the building
(24:58):
blocks that I just talked about.
I've got real simpleforms, real simple charts.
I even have an online course thatpeople can sign up for to kind of go
through that process but for me, findpeople that do things really well and
shamelessly copy the hell out of 'em.
I want you to copy what I did.
I want you to copy everythingthat I did so you don't have
to necessarily go through thechallenges that I went through.
(25:20):
Think of it as like cheatcodes in a video game.
What are the business cheatcodes that are out there?
I can't tell you all the time.
I'm looking up resources, cheat codesonline, whether for games or for business
'cause I feel like there's alwaysgonna be a path of least resistance.
It's not laziness, it's more Ijust want to be efficient with this
process and that way you can takemore time to invest it in elsewhere.
Do you wanna make that idea better?
(25:41):
Invest it into yourself, relationships.
So, I love that idea and the fact thatyou have an easy next step to the process.
One thing I tell people is just removefriction from the buyer's journey.
Make it so simple and easy and like,Hey, we're a professional organization.
We have things set up here.
It's like water always findsthe path of least resistance.
Your business processes shouldbe like the flow of water.
(26:01):
It just finds its way down there withoutany human involvement whatsoever.
I agree.
Absolutely.
And it's so exciting to see what advancesboth in technology and AI are kind of
bringing to businesses and what leadersare kind of bringing to businesses
and just relationships as a whole
'cause this blending of technologyand more human-centered relationships
we just need to find that balanceand get our bearings back to us.
(26:22):
I think since post Covid andjust in general, I feel like
people are feeling a bit lost.
Well the world has become muchsmaller because of Covid because
we can touch people a lot easier.
The second thing is AI is gonna besuch an incredible game changer.
Don't be worried about AI.
It's not robots taking outta the world.
It's basically Google on steroids.
But what can happen now is I can take mythoughts and put 'em into something like
(26:46):
a chat GPT or my own large language modeland it'll help organize my thoughts and
give us that speed to where you want.
And we're like, gosh, thatjust makes so much sense.
If you're not using AI right now, Ican guarantee you your competitors
are and you're not gonna be able tocompete against them if they're using
that machine learning and you're not.
Absolutely, definitely agree.
I feel like a lot of solopreneursand small businesses access to what
(27:09):
feels like a larger team that onlythese big box companies used to have.
So it allows them to do alot more with less time.
And I agree using chat GPT for a littleclarity and direction is always great.
I'll be speaking on AI and technologyat a virtual summit coming up for
nonprofits here April 16th but superexcited to share some of those lessons.
Everything I'm teaching and learningfrom AI, applying it to business and
(27:30):
nonprofits and kind of focusing around thehuman centered approach and relationship.
Don't be worried about the jobs.
It's just enhancing whatwe're doing currently.
Well, Chris, we talkedabout the beginning.
I wanna reiterate again and theimportance of being a great American.
You're a great American.
You are helping other peoplepursue their entrepreneurial dreams
to give them the freedom thatthey can do whatever they want.
And people like you thatmake this country what it is.
(27:52):
And I thank you for what you dofor the entrepreneurial community.
I appreciate that, Zachand likewise to you.
If it wasn't for all these great ideas,wow, you can actually make $30 million
with a business and that's just off ofan idea and then the execution and to
really see it through, that's inspiring.
It's all the previousentrepreneurs that led us to today.
So thank you for what you do aswell because we need more positive
leaders like you who can be rolemodels for the leaders of tomorrow.
(28:15):
And thank you for yourkind words as well, Zach.
I appreciate that.
All right, Chris, keep in touch my man.
Hey, thank you so much.
I appreciate it.
Thanks again for joiningus on the episode.
Make sure you check out all the linksavailable down in the description
and get connected with ZacharyGreen here to find out more about
his Warrior Leadership Program.
Thank you so much Zach.
One of the things I do is I havea three month program where I work
(00:02):
with people on a couple hours aweek, and we go through the building
blocks that I just talked about.
I've got real simpleforms, real simple charts.
I even have an online coursethat people can sign up for to
kind of go through that process.
But for me, find people to dothings really well and shamelessly
copy the hell out of them.
I want you to copy what I did.
I want you to copy everythingthat I did so you don't have
(00:24):
to necessarily go through thechallenges that I went through.
Think of it as like cheatcodes in a video game.
What are the business cheatcodes that are out there?
You are listening to Brainwork Framework,a Business and Marketing podcast,
brought to you by Focused-biz.com.
Welcome back to another episode.
(00:45):
With us today is ZacharyGreen, the founder and managing
partner of Warrior Enterprises.
Warrior Enterprises is a leadershipdevelopment company that transforms
historic battlefield lessons intoreal world leadership strategies for
business, military and first responders.
Zach, so excited to have you on today.
How you doing?
Chris, thank you.
It's a real honor to be on the show.
I'm a big fan of yours and justexcited to have a chance to spend
(01:07):
some time with you and your listeners.
Hey, thank you so much.
We appreciate it.
You have quite a inspiringand incredible journey.
Tell us more about your background,your journey, what you're doing
and how that kind of led youinto what you're doing today.
Sure.
So I grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio.
No one in my family hadbeen in the military.
Matter of fact, my family werepretty liberal and anti-gun.
I wasn't even allowed tohave squirt guns growing up.
(01:29):
And everyone in my family wereeither lawyers or musicians.
And at a very early age, Iwanted to join the Marine Corps.
I had pretty significant ADHD growing up.
Went to about seven different schools.
It's funny 'cause it's called multitaskingwhen you get out of school and all of
a sudden it's this great thing thatevery entrepreneur needs but when
you're trying to sit at the desk, it'scalled ADHD and they try to medicate
(01:49):
you and do all this other stuff.
What I ended up joining theMarines right out of high school,
was still in college at the time.
Did kind of the summertime thing.
Went through both enlisted and theofficer program and then just as I was
getting out, I'm like, you know what?
I've had enough of this.
I want to go pursue this civilian world.
And I finished up as a corporal.
Two years later, September 11th happenedand I felt really guilty that I'd gotten
(02:12):
out because a lot of my brothers didn'tcome back and I had a full-time job.
Then at Eli Lilly, I was in branddevelopment and marketing and one
of my favorite assignments was doingleadership development training.
I became a volunteer firefighterbecause I felt that was the new
forward line of the battle and ourhomeland needed to be protected just
like some far off distant lands.
(02:33):
And I got lost in a fire.
It was a really scary situation rightwhen I first started and I wanted
to figure out how can I not haveother firefighters go through this?
And Eli Lilly specificallyaround corporate branding.
We never sell features and ourmedicines, we talk about the problem,
diabetes, mental health, whatever.
And then we talk about thesolution around that brand.
(02:56):
The problem I had wasn't thatI just got lost in a fire.
I got disoriented.
I couldn't see my wayaround 'cause it was dark.
And I remembered as a grunt inthe Marines, the infantryman.
We had these glow in the dark taps onthe back of our helmet and I thought,
what if I could apply those sametechnology to firefighter technology?
Started working on a couple differentproducts and developed some prototypes.
(03:16):
Started selling it outtathe trunk of my car.
Made 5,000 bucks in six months andmy fire chief sat me down and says,
look, you've got something that'sgoing to change the fire service.
Stopped treating it as a hobby and Iremembered a quote from Teddy Roosevelt.
He said, you're faced witha monumental decision.
The best thing to do is the right thing.
The next best thing to do isthe wrong thing but the worst
(03:37):
thing to do is to do nothing.
So quit my job at Lilly, maxed out mycredit cards, went to this trade show.
In three days I booked a hundredthousand dollars in sales.
The problem is I had no money left.
I had no manufacturing.
I had no way to fill these orders.
But I'm a Marine and wealways accomplish our mission.
And I remember telling everybody thattold me, Hey, you gotta start returning
(03:57):
orders and you gotta close up shop.
And I'm like.
No.
This is how I work.
I always accomplish the mission.
And over the next 10 years, it wasbrutal but I grew it into about a $30
million company and it was throughthose things that I learned in the
Marine Corps and those warrior traitsreally helped me during those dark
times and then helped me really togrow it into to where it is today.
(04:19):
That is quite the journey,quite the experience.
You are just a testament ofwhat the American dream, the
entrepreneurship is all about.
Creating an idea, something thatsolves a problem here and kind
of the direction that it went to.
You demonstrated product validation firstbefore even saying, I'm gonna build this
huge product and create manufacturing.
Let me just see if Ican sell the idea yet.
(04:41):
And you did.
And now the second issue becamefulfillment but so grateful that you
actually saw it through 'cause that'swhere a lot of entrepreneurs can
fall apart is the fulfillment piece.
They hit that obstacle and theystruggle to follow through.
And I see a lot of veterans that arealso getting into business is that
the military teaches so many veteransabout how to be better leaders.
(05:01):
And that's a natural progression ordo you think leaders kind of naturally
gravitate towards the military?
I think it's a little bit of both.
You used to think I was made aMarine when I got down there.
I think we all kind of had a little bitof that warrior ethos in us before we got
down there but the job of our military isnot just to make great warriors to great
(05:21):
defenders, it's to make great Americans.
And I think at the heart of whatAmerica is, it's the right to pursue
the pursuit of happiness, the freedomto be able not because of the color
of your skin or your parents' name.
You can do anything ifyou put your mind to it.
You look at all the great success stories.
They usually start off in reallybad situations and they use
(05:42):
that challenge and that turmoil.
The iron sharpens iron to grow.
I think the easiest way to answeryour question on why you see a lot of
veterans, it's one word and there'sone word that is the difference
between successful entrepreneursand not successful entrepreneurs.
It's grit.
You just have to accept that nomatter what problem is out there,
there's a solution to the problem.
(06:04):
The challenge is most people aren'twilling to do what that solution is.
In my case, that was putting myhouse on as collateral for a loan.
In that case, it was not just firingone of my best friends but suing one
of my best friends because he reallymessed some things up within the company.
Those are things that most peoplewould never do that but they say an
entrepreneur lives the rest of theirlife, like most people never could
(06:27):
because they do those things earlyon, like most people never would.
For those short times where they're goingthrough those crucibles and challenges.
Yes, absolutely.
That grit and ability to overcomeobstacles in the face of adversity
is something that people need to haveespecially as entrepreneurs and now
you've created this lesson that focuseson what being a warrior is and this
brand as more of a leadership tool.
(06:49):
Can you tell me more about thisprogram, some of the key lessons or the
pillars that it's kind of built upon?
So as I started doing research formy book Warrior Entrepreneur Lessons
from the Battlefield of the Boardroom,I started to realize we always wanna
chase these new leadership trends.
It's John Maxwell, it's Tony Robbins,it's Simon Sinek and Malcolm Gladwell.
(07:09):
They're phenomenal.
Don't get me wrong.
But there's timeless leadership lessonsthat have not changed from all the way
back in the Spartan times of AncientRome or Greece and the Bible and Civil
War, these core leadership things.
And I started to find these commontraits with warriors and they were
the same common traits that I sawfrom Walt Disney, from Elon Musk,
(07:30):
from Mama Fuku and who invented theramen noodles, instant Ramen noodles.
And it was this concept ofgrit and inspiring others.
And so what I said is, okay, there'senough MBAs out there, there's enough
of what I call intellectual derelictsthat have unbelievable brilliance but
they can't communicate with people.
(07:50):
It's easy for someone that's smartto talk about complicated things.
The difficult thing is how canthey take something complicated
and break it down Super simple.
So we said in the Marine Corps, SesameStreet style or Barney style for those
that you're old enough to remember.
So that was one part is how canI teach these warrior lessons?
The second thing was a lot of mybrothers and sisters have committed
(08:10):
suicide since they've been outand it's an epidemic problem.
They say it's 22 a day.
It's not 22 day, it's like 40 or 50 a day.
And there's three mainreasons why they do that.
The first reason is they stop moving.
There's a real connection between justexercise and getting outdoors and moving.
The second one, I can'treally do much about that.
That's something that'sup to each individual.
(08:31):
Second one is they lose theirtribe, they lose that brother.
You mentioned yourbrother's in the Marines.
I'm sure if we met we would havea connection that is so deep even
though we'd never met each other'cause we have that shared heritage.
So you miss the tribe.
The people you can talk to,you can cry with, you can
drink with, you can party with.
They understand your bad jokes andthat stuff but the third one, that
really gets that veteran to makethat horrible ultimate decision.
(08:53):
Is they lose their sense of purpose.
And so what I'm doing throughWarrior Enterprises is taking those
veterans and giving them a chanceto show that they're not just great
veterans but they're great Americans.
And doing that by teaching our nextgeneration of leaders how to lead using
those long-term, really battle testedleadership tools have been forged in
(09:17):
fire and forged in the crucible ofdeath and destruction and civilization
and then apply that to business.
So here I'm helping my brotherand sister veterans out.
I'm giving them purpose.
I'm giving them a tribe.
And then the other thing is I'm helpingour next generation of leaders by
teaching them how to be great leaders.
That is absolutely fantastic.
When you consider just overall to today'sage where mental health is become an
(09:40):
issue not only for veterans but I thinkjust generally post covid or technology
is kind of shifting the way that we haveour typical family or friend structure
or a typical place of gathering.
What kind of changes are you seeinghappening and are there ways we
can kind of bring it back to someof the traditional ways that bring
us together, the culture, theself-worth that sense of belonging.
(10:03):
I think it really revolvesaround Simon Sinek.
He talks about the golden circle.
Most businesses focus on the whatand the how but the companies that
focus on the why, they're the onesthat really make a difference.
So that's the first thing I say is thatwhy the second one is there's a new way
that we communicate with each other.
My son, I tell 'em to go outsideand play with your friends.
Well, there's no friendsto play with outside.
(10:24):
All right?
He gets on his virtual realityand he has these unbelievable
meaningful relationships.
He's had two girlfriends thatthey never met and we were talking
to somebody making fun of you.
They said, no.
That is just as real of arelationship as what you had
when you were driving on a date.
My son doesn't drive a car becausenone of his friends drive cars
'cause they got VR headsets.
(10:44):
So where does this come together?
What we were trying to do is focusingon this experiential learning where
we take people to Gettysburg, toNormandy to teach 'em those timeless
lessons and what we found out is,yes, nothing beats going there.
But my son said, what ifwe put VR glasses on 'em?
So we don't take 'em to Normandybut we go to their office?
(11:05):
Because the challenge we were having isscalability and the ability to really
make it repeatable that's not scalable andrepeatable to take 15 people to Normandy
every three days but by using what myson has shown us with the virtual reality
and I can take you to the battlefieldbut the cool thing is I can give you
a connection to General Mc Arthur.
You could never get on the beach.
(11:27):
I can go up 5,000 feet in the air and seethe whole entire Nazi defenses along the
coast and where the different entrancesand exits where they came in the beach.
And then through the power ofAI, we've developed our own large
language model that's looking at allthese different leadership traits.
We can start to capture the experiencethat you're having in VR and give it back
(11:48):
to you and give you different analysisand show how you compare to other people.
So now we're communicate youin this multi-sensory domain,
experiential learning that's involvingstorytelling, virtual reality, AI,
extended reality, iPad discussions.
And at the end, we tied in with themost absolute best form of learning
(12:10):
and that is the three magic words.
Tell me a story.
Once upon a time I was in Eli Lilly andwe were behind budget on this thing and I
had to do this and this is what happened.
People will remember that story butif I teach them five PowerPoint slides
that have four points in each of thosePowerPoint slides about what I just, they
won't remember it but they'll remember thestory and they'll remember that lesson.
(12:31):
And that's what we'retrying to do is connect.
History with modern day experiencesthrough storytelling and
technology to get people to learnfaster and to reduce skill fade.
Wow that is so cool.
Just to think about that intersect betweenthe human connection, communication,
the feedback that we can get fromtechnology and AI and using virtual
reality to now create this new I guessI could call it a fourth dimension,
(12:54):
where you're getting real timefeedback about your leadership skills.
So I feel like people could go onthroughout their regular workday and get
live feedback on how their leadershipskills are performing and just how
they're interacting with in general.
That's so fascinating.
Are there any other ways that you planon using AI and technology or just
some cool ways that you've seen itincorporated into a lot of businesses?
(13:14):
So what we look at is, rather thanany one methodology of learning,
powerPoint is fine but if you justdo PowerPoint, it's not really great.
But when you can layer these ontop of each other, you start to
get this multiplicative effect.
It's not one plus oneplus one equals three.
It's one plus one plus one equals 30.
And by layering a VR with theAI and the background, it starts
(13:38):
with this intake assessment.
We're trying to figure out, okay,we've identified seven key timeless
leadership traits that have neverchanged since the beginning of time.
Through that intake survey, we'retrying to figure out which one of
those are the strings we're gonna pull.
Then we build out those scenarios andvirtual reality, which we have literally
only limited by your imagination andthen we go through these processes
(14:00):
from VR then we go into the iPads whereyou're filling out case studies and
asking questions and then flows intostorytelling and then ultimately ends
up with an analysis that you get becausewe're capturing those data points.
The other part of this ismy instructors are veterans.
So you've got a Command sergeant majorthat was in charge of 20,000 troops
(14:20):
and a billion dollars of equipmentand he's an assistant manager in a
warehouse now and he doesn't feelgood because his three guys at work
for him won't pay attention to him.
And he was used to leading literallyWarriors into the field of battle.
He's lost his sense of purpose, if I cangive him back to work with Chris and his
team and give him that chance to again bethat great American, pass that leadership
(14:43):
on from the time he takes his uniformoff to puts on his civilian clothes.
And then we can continue thatgrowth process and that learning and
mentorship and the people that areyour mentees today will eventually
become the mentors tomorrow.
Yes, absolutely.
That sort of impact from oneleader and mentor to another.
Those can be the next leaders, the leadersof tomorrow, which is really exciting.
(15:05):
With all your past experience here,what is the best way that either the
everyday person can support a veteran?
How can we help them?
You're doing a lot of great work.
I feel like there's a lot ofnonprofits, organizations that also
do the work but more could be done.
What can the everyday person do for them?
So one of my pet peeves and I hope thisdoesn't come across the wrong way and I
don't mean to offend anybody whatsoeverbut when you say thank you for your
(15:27):
service, for me, I feel like it's likewhen you say bless you, when someone
sneezes, are you really thanking youor are you just kind of repeating this?
I also feel like it's in some wayscondolence, like, oh, I feel bad that you
serve, so thank you for the sacrifice.
We don't want to feel like we're brokentoys and the reality is that the FBI
put veterans on the watch list aspotential dangers to society because
(15:50):
of mental health issues or PTSD if youwanna thank a veteran for their service.
Let them continue to serve andthrough whatever that is through
being in Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts.
If it's through leadershipprograms, hire them.
That is the best way youcan think a veteran is.
Let them show you because I will takea a 22-year-old kid that grew up in the
(16:11):
inner city that barely made it outta highschool but he literally was able to solve
problems like you wouldn't imagine in theinfantry or in logistics or whatever else.
And no matter what, he's never gonna quitversus this kid that got his MBA from a
Ivy League school whose parents complainedto the coach because they weren't
getting soccer time in seventh grade,who in 10th grade they got offended.
(16:34):
So the principal brought everyone togetherand says, oh, you can't use those.
Those are trigger words.
Then they get to college and assoon as they get somebody with a
counterpoint of view to what theyhave, they have to go to a safe space.
And then they finally get outin the real world and they fall.
They get crushed likea little paper tiger.
That is who we think is the good leaders.
They're not.
What handed to you every now and then.
(16:55):
Iron sharpens iron.
The only way you get your musclestrong is by ripping them apart through
eight training and then they grow.
And if you want to think a veteran, givethem the opportunity to continue to serve.
That is very well said.
And it's something that it's almosta compulsory reactionary to bless
you, to thank you for your service.
What else could we say?
Or unsure of how to respond.
So that's kind of the standardtemplate that people go to but it was
(17:19):
more about practical ways to reallyconnect and reach with veterans
and how to give them that purpose.
I feel like many other people with thingschanging, have lost that sense of purpose
and self-worth and that human connectionand maybe by trying to protect people,
we've comforted them too much and the reallife experiences really shape you as an
individual and teach you a lesson thatjust being told something won't change.
(17:44):
So something to keep in mind as wekind of reshape the leaders of tomorrow
and what we want our people to be.
Well, I'm sure I'm gonna mess this quoteup but it's something like weak men create
hard times, hard times, create strong men.
Strong men create weak times andthen weak times create weak men.
I'm sure I messed that up but somehowthat circle comes through is eventually
(18:05):
you're getting to the point where asthe helicopter parent, you're so worried
that our kid's gonna have a problem.
We've never given him a chance toreally grow and to do that next thing.
Yes, absolutely.
And I think it'll be something thatwill be studied for years to come.
But I think that quote, as you describedit, whether it's the correct process, yes.
It's kind of this circular systemthat creates this effect here.
Zach, for those who are interested inlearning more about you and your journey,
(18:28):
where can people connect with you online?
Yes, the best way is my website.
It's real simple.
It's my name Zachary l green.com.
Z-A-C-H-A-R-Y-L as in limagreen.com and then also LinkedIn.
I'm very active on LinkedIn.
So those are two of the best waysand you can get in touch with me
through my website, through LinkedIn.
We do offer one day of theseworkshops that I was telling you
(18:51):
about through experiential learning.
We do those both with corporate America.
I'm actually right now coming to you fromMarine Corps base camp and North Carolina,
where we're actually doing an engagementwith the military right now as we speak
with some of these similar workshops.
That is very exciting and we'll alsohave those links available down in
the description on the show notes.
Now, Zach, what are youmost excited for in 2025?
(19:13):
Are you kind of ramping up doingany new campaigns or anything
new and exciting coming out?
I feel like you always havesomething cooking or working.
It's funny you say that, the lastcouple years has been an interesting
journey because I think I reallyended up on a pretty high note when
I got to move down to Hilton Head.
I got to buy the dream car thatI had a poster of when I was
a little kid and everything.
And then over the last two orthree years, I'm like, okay,
(19:35):
I'm gonna start a new company.
And I forgot how hard it is becausethe last two years, it's not
worked out the way that I thought.
It's cost me a ton of money.
I'm not bringing inrevenue but you know what?
That's part of the journey.
So what am I so excitedabout for this year?
It's the last two to three yearsworth of work that I've done and now
finally starting to come through.
We're getting customers, we'rebuilding out our team and I think
(19:57):
what I'm most excited about is mybest friend since fourth grade.
We literally spent everyweekend together growing up.
He is now finishing 30 years in theUS Army as a lieutenant colonel at
the Pentagon and last week he startedwhat's called his skill bridge program,
which is this tremendous program thatthe military offers for people that
are in their last three to four monthsof their time and service where they
(20:18):
can go work for civilian company andstill get paid from the military.
So he started his skill bridge withme last week and now we get a chance
after 30 years of running apart toget the team back together and he's
now my president and my operationsofficer and helping me as we teach
this new leadership model to corporateand America and government entities.
(20:39):
Wow.
Congratulations.
That is really cool to kind ofrevisit that past experience,
relationship and bring that back in.
Now with this new business.
What changed that Suddenly it startedgaining more momentum because you had
so many successes in the past and thisone, it's kinda like, what was wrong?
It's the same thing that happenedwith my previous company.
We lost millions of dollars, I meanmillions of dollars and then all
(21:03):
of a sudden it just worked and wewere averaging $10 million a year
in revenue multiple years afterthat, where the year prior to that,
we kept losing 300,000, $500,000back to that whole thing with grit.
It's the right idea.
You're solving a problem,you've got a really good, unfair
competitive business advantage.
You've got really good sales,marketing distribution but sometimes
(21:24):
and the number one reason businessesfail is the founder just gives up.
Main reason they give upis they run outta money.
And if you can just push through andfind out, what I always tell people,
it's okay to give up sometimes.
There comes to a certain point whereyou're like, this just is not happening.
We don't wanna put goodmoney after bad money.
But if you can't get investorsand the bank is turning you down,
(21:45):
they're really smart people.
They're usually a lot smarterthan the entrepreneurs.
They're telling you that you probablydon't have a viable business model but
if you can like me, get those investorsand get the banks that are willing to
take the risk off of it, then they'resaying, Hey, there's something there
because they're really good at atpoking ideas and trying to crash dreams.
And eventually, if they can't crashyour dream, then you realize, maybe
(22:05):
there's something there but thenthat's where the hard work comes in and
that's the grit and that tenacity ofjust pushing through those challenges.
Yeah, absolutely.
It's that balance betweenthe sunken cost fall fallacy.
Do I want to keep investing this?
Or do I see this through?
And moments from the goal line hereand you just have to see it through.
It's very important.
If you had to restart a new businesstomorrow, what would be either the
(22:28):
problem that you solve or the way thatyou would approach this new business?
I think the simple answer to thatis the latter part, which is the
way I would approach it and I kindof shared with you before but it's
real three very simple things.
Number one.
Have you solved a problemin a unique and elegant way?
Most companies and most products,especially entrepreneurs,
focus on features and benefits.
They don't focus on what'sthe problem they're solving.
(22:50):
And when you focus too much onfeatures and benefits, you get really
nervous that someone's gonna copyyour features and benefits or you
do what I think is one of the worstthings an entrepreneur can do and get
a patent because that way it preventsother people from knowing about it.
Well, great.
No one's gonna steal your ideabut no one's gonna know about it.
And by the way, if someone steals youridea, that's called market validation.
That means you've got a goodidea, your job is stay on top.
(23:12):
It brings us number two, what is yourunfair competitive business advantage?
David beat Goliath for a couple reasonsbut one reason was is he figured out
what was David's or Goliath's weaknesses.
Goliath was big and strong.
That was his strength.
But his weaknesses was hewas slow, he had bad vision.
So what did David do?
He ran far away so he couldn't seehim and he used a weapon that gave
(23:32):
advantage to distance versus up close.
What is your unfairadvantage of a business?
Not illegal, not unethicalbut unfair advantage.
Okay.
And then the third one, which ishands down, the most important, you
gotta have kick ass sales, marketing,distribution 'cause if you've got
the greatest product in the world andnobody knows about it ain't gonna work.
There's one product out there thatright now is sitting at about seven,
(23:56):
$800 billion a year in revenueand soon to be it to a trillion
and 30 years ago was non-existent.
It's bottled water.
Bottle water has been around forever.
We drank it outta the hose for free.
You can go to the park and get itfor free but because Coca-Cola bought
Dasani and they said We can market thisthing and all of a sudden people start
(24:16):
showing up with these water bottlesat the soccer games and stuff and
people are like, oh, I can buy waterinstead of having to go to the hose.
It was all because of marketingdistribution 'cause at the end
of the day, water is water.
I don't care if you say, well thisis from the Alps in France and this
one here is from the tap bullshit.
It's all water.
All right, water is water.
It's a great take Zach.
(24:36):
I love it.
If I could just have your personalityand your business mentorship just as
a coworker or like a leader next to meall the time that would make my life
and my workday so much more enjoyable.
Well, Chris, I do offer coaching.
I usually have aboutsix clients at a time.
I'm down to four right now.
So one of the things I do is I havea three month program where I work
with people on a couple hours aweek and we go through the building
(24:58):
blocks that I just talked about.
I've got real simpleforms, real simple charts.
I even have an online course thatpeople can sign up for to kind of go
through that process but for me, findpeople that do things really well and
shamelessly copy the hell out of 'em.
I want you to copy what I did.
I want you to copy everythingthat I did so you don't have
to necessarily go through thechallenges that I went through.
(25:20):
Think of it as like cheatcodes in a video game.
What are the business cheatcodes that are out there?
I can't tell you all the time.
I'm looking up resources, cheat codesonline, whether for games or for business
'cause I feel like there's alwaysgonna be a path of least resistance.
It's not laziness, it's more Ijust want to be efficient with this
process and that way you can takemore time to invest it in elsewhere.
Do you wanna make that idea better?
(25:41):
Invest it into yourself, relationships.
So, I love that idea and the fact thatyou have an easy next step to the process.
One thing I tell people is just removefriction from the buyer's journey.
Make it so simple and easy and like,Hey, we're a professional organization.
We have things set up here.
It's like water always findsthe path of least resistance.
Your business processes shouldbe like the flow of water.
(26:01):
It just finds its way down there withoutany human involvement whatsoever.
I agree.
Absolutely.
And it's so exciting to see what advancesboth in technology and AI are kind of
bringing to businesses and what leadersare kind of bringing to businesses
and just relationships as a whole
'cause this blending of technologyand more human-centered relationships
we just need to find that balanceand get our bearings back to us.
(26:22):
I think since post Covid andjust in general, I feel like
people are feeling a bit lost.
Well the world has become muchsmaller because of Covid because
we can touch people a lot easier.
The second thing is AI is gonna besuch an incredible game changer.
Don't be worried about AI.
It's not robots taking outta the world.
It's basically Google on steroids.
But what can happen now is I can take mythoughts and put 'em into something like
(26:46):
a chat GPT or my own large language modeland it'll help organize my thoughts and
give us that speed to where you want.
And we're like, gosh, thatjust makes so much sense.
If you're not using AI right now, Ican guarantee you your competitors
are and you're not gonna be able tocompete against them if they're using
that machine learning and you're not.
Absolutely, definitely agree.
I feel like a lot of solopreneursand small businesses access to what
(27:09):
feels like a larger team that onlythese big box companies used to have.
So it allows them to do alot more with less time.
And I agree using chat GPT for a littleclarity and direction is always great.
I'll be speaking on AI and technologyat a virtual summit coming up for
nonprofits here April 16th but superexcited to share some of those lessons.
Everything I'm teaching and learningfrom AI, applying it to business and
(27:30):
nonprofits and kind of focusing around thehuman centered approach and relationship.
Don't be worried about the jobs.
It's just enhancing whatwe're doing currently.
Well, Chris, we talkedabout the beginning.
I wanna reiterate again and theimportance of being a great American.
You're a great American.
You are helping other peoplepursue their entrepreneurial dreams
to give them the freedom thatthey can do whatever they want.
And people like you thatmake this country what it is.
(27:52):
And I thank you for what you dofor the entrepreneurial community.
I appreciate that, Zachand likewise to you.
If it wasn't for all these great ideas,wow, you can actually make $30 million
with a business and that's just off ofan idea and then the execution and to
really see it through, that's inspiring.
It's all the previousentrepreneurs that led us to today.
So thank you for what you do aswell because we need more positive
leaders like you who can be rolemodels for the leaders of tomorrow.
(28:15):
And thank you for yourkind words as well, Zach.
I appreciate that.
All right, Chris, keep in touch my man.
Hey, thank you so much.
I appreciate it.
Thanks again for joiningus on the episode.
Make sure you check out all the linksavailable down in the description
and get connected with ZacharyGreen here to find out more about
his Warrior Leadership Program.
Thank you so much Zach.
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