S2E5: Balancing Growth with Responsibility: Inside GreenPal's Success Story with Bryan

Ever thought of Super Mario Kart as a metaphor for entrepreneurship? Well, in our conversation with Bryan, the CEO and co-founder of GreenPal, we chat about this and more. GreenPal, for those who don't know, functions like Uber but for landscaping services. Bryan's journey from creating this platform to scaling it to a staggering $30 million in revenue is not just an entrepreneurial adventure but a tale of personal growth, and commitment.

The conversation takes a deeper turn as we tackle the challenges that come with growth. Bryan opens up about the pivotal role of a supportive spouse or partner on this tumultuous journey, the personal cost of scaling a business, and maintaining a healthy culture in the workplace. He shares an intriguing incident about handling a dress code violation, underscoring the importance of setting clear expectations, owning up to one's actions, and emotional maturity in conflict resolution.

As we navigate the entrepreneurial landscape, we touch upon the being a generalist in your field. We emphasize that entrepreneurs need to grasp the basics of various busi

Welcome to Season 2, where we embark on authentic and unfiltered conversations about life, relationships, society, and more. Our opinions are solely our own and don't represent professional advice. It's just our perspective, so form your conclusions. Heads up, this podcast may contain adult content and explicit language. Let's dive in!
 
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Episode Transcript

Nicola (00:01):
Good morning Brian.

Bryan (00:03):
How you doing.

Nicola (00:05):
Good thing you're in yourself.

Bryan (00:07):
Oh, I'm doing great Good to connect with you guys.
How are y'all?
We got one New Zealander andone Florida.

Nicola (00:13):
That is correct.
That is 100% correct.

Bryan (00:18):
Right on.
What time is it in NewZealander right now?

Nicola (00:21):
Oskracket clock.

Bryan (00:25):
Well, I appreciate you getting up early to make this
happen 5.27.

Nicola (00:32):
Oh shoot.

Gina (00:34):
All right, so where you are currently in Chile.

Bryan (00:40):
Nashville, Tennessee.
As we speak.

Gina (00:42):
Oh, what were all your Instagram posts about?
From?

Bryan (00:45):
Yeah, I was down in Chile , are you a?

Gina (00:46):
recycler.

Bryan (00:49):
No, no, actually I got back to Tennessee about a week
ago.
I'm a New Zealander and I'm aNew Zealander, and so it's nice
to kind of be home and justrelax and, before I get ready,
go back out there again.
I'm going to go to.
I'm actually renewing mypassport right now.

Nicola (01:07):
It's going to take about two months, so I'm going to be
in Tennessee for about twomonths, and then I might go to
Spain Two months to renew yourpassport?
Yeah, it's crazy government isslow as hell.
Brian, do you want to introduceyourself up to us Just a wee
bit?
So what are you calling us fromtoday?
What's your business?
Tell us about you.

Bryan (01:27):
Yeah, yeah, so I'm out of Nashville, tennessee.
I am the CEO and co-founder ofGreenPowell, which is a mobile
app that works like Uber, butfor landscaping services.
So if you live in the UnitedStates and you need to get a
gardener, a landscaping service,you need your grass cut.
Rather than calling around onCraigslist or Facebook, you just

(01:47):
download GreenPowell and youget a little bit of information
and somebody comes out and takescare of it for you.

Nicola (01:53):
So I think when we first read about this, I think our
commentary was like Ken, is thishow you would get like a John
Deere like to the front of yourhouse?
You just like Uber and JohnDeere to your house.

Gina (02:06):
But like somebody who's on the John Deere it wouldn't just
be like a John Deere likeappearing on you.

Bryan (02:14):
The main thing is you get somebody who knows how to
operate the John Deere.
You just put somebody in youryard and makes the grass short
for you, rather than having tomow yourself or dialing for
dollars and leaving voicemailstrying to hassle somebody to
come take care of the chore.
You just pop your address inGreenPowell and somebody comes
and does it for you.

Nicola (02:33):
What if it's a weirdo, because America's full with
interesting people?
What if, like, the guy on theJohn Deere is actually coming to
like, put me in a cellophanewrap and put me on the John
Deere and then run me over inthe John Deere?

Gina (02:46):
How do we?
I guess your question, nicola,is are they vetted?
Yeah, and I'm assuming yes.

Bryan (02:52):
How do you keep the interesting people out of the
platform?
As part of our job yeah, youwant to know that you're getting
a professional.
You want to know that somebodywho's been in the business,
somebody that is going to do agood job for you and that's part
of our platform's job is tomake sure that good vendors,
good long-care professionals,get promoted and the bad ones,

(03:12):
the interesting ones, getdemoted and expelled from the
platform.
So you get to sidestep that asa homeowner, rather than having
to go through that.
You know, if you do it the oldway, you kind of have to go
through that through trial anderror.
You know, hiring a couple ofbad providers and then finally
get the guy that you want or galthat you want, and then they
mow for two or three times andthen they disappear and then

(03:32):
you're left with a process allover again.
Our platform's job is to makeall that go away, make that easy
.

Gina (03:39):
Okay, so how successful is your platform slash app.

Bryan (03:46):
Yeah, it still feels like day one, but it's a 10 year
overnight success.
My co-founders and I have beenat this thing for a little over
a decade, grown the businessfrom zero in revenue.
We ended our first year with, Ithink, around $2,000 in revenue
and now we're doing over $30million a year in revenue.

Gina (04:05):
And I think that's a good thing.

Bryan (04:10):
I'm going to go through the whole thing in a while.

Gina (04:13):
Are you looking for a wife ?
I'm married to the business,I'm married to Green Powell and
I get that and I am faithful.

Nicola (04:22):
I get that.
Well, okay, hold on.
That's a toxic issue all initself.
There, brian, I think we needto maybe unpack that a little
bit more, as to how youprioritize your.

Bryan (04:34):
You know I I've done this twice now.
My first business was a was atraditional landscaping business
, and then I grew to Over ahundred people and sold it.
And then the second businessI've grown it to around 40
people and so both businesses,growing them from scratch, you
know getting them going, youknow getting scale, growing and
scaling on it.
You know it was.
It was basically like the GDPof myself.
It was everything, everything Ihad.

(04:56):
I was like I'm going to get it,I'm going to get it, I'm going
to get it, I'm going to be likethe GDP of myself.
It was everything, everything Ihad.
You know, both times and I'vebeen and looking back, you know,
22 years doing this personalrelationships it did come at the
cost and the expense ofpersonal relationships, whether
it be friends, even family, agirlfriend, wife.

(05:17):
So I think you know if, ifyou're going to be married doing
this kind of thing, your spouseor your girlfriends got to be
bought in with you.
They got to be on the bus withyou, the bus with you, because
it's really really, reallychallenging to try to get a
business going from scratch whenyou've got a partner who's not
on board with you.
In fact, it's probably going tocome at a price, and that's

(05:39):
what I've experienced and a lotof people don't want to talk
about that candidly, but that'sthe way I experienced it getting
two businesses going fromscratch that it came at the
expense of personal relationship.

Nicola (05:51):
I think that's kind of something that kind of stuck out
to us when we saw your pitch tojoin the podcast is that you
were pretty candid because wekind of got hooked in with your
story about the T-shirt guy.
Yeah, the T-shirt guy At leastthat poor child's heart and we

(06:15):
had some commentary about that.
So if anyone's watching theYouTube video today, Gina has
some amazing set changes here?

Gina (06:23):
Yes, I have a few planned.

Nicola (06:26):
And just for those that can't see the shirt because
they're listening what does theshirt say?

Gina (06:31):
there it says stop having sex with broke men.

Bryan (06:36):
It's a good tip.

Gina (06:38):
It is a good tip.

Bryan (06:39):
It's a hot take.

Gina (06:43):
I am no longer doing that, so I guess my shirt worked
Anyway.
So tell us why I have crazyshirts on today.

Bryan (06:55):
Well, we were talking about toxic workplaces and how
toxicity kind of grows andmanifests itself in the
workplace.
And I've dealt with thatseveral times building two
companies.
And one thing I have found is,as the founder, as the chief, as

(07:18):
the CEO, as the manager,whatever hat you want to wear,
you get exactly the culture youdeserve.
You get exactly the level oftoxicity you deserve, because it
really reflects you.
It reflects you as the founder,it reflects you as the CEO, as
the president, and I've had toreconcile that several times

(07:41):
that there's been times whereI've driven to the office and
I'm sure every founder, everyentrepreneur can relate to this
driving to the office and you'rejust thinking to yourself God,
how can I get through anotherday with this group of bastards?
How can I get through anotherday with all of these assholes?

Nicola (08:02):
What have I done in my life where I'm surrounded by
assholes, Right?

Bryan (08:06):
exactly Is this karma.

Gina (08:07):
Is it karma?
What is?

Bryan (08:09):
it, and you just have to go through a self-reflection
period and realize that youbuilt this, this is a reflection
of you, this is your creation.
This is conversations I've hadwith myself, and that you
realize that the toxicity in theworkplace, the culture,

(08:29):
whatever you want to call itsucks because you've let it get
there, and so it's like death bya thousand cuts.
And, as the founder, it's yourjob to protect, preserve and to
create the level of the cultureyou want in your business and
the level of toxicity thatyou're wanting to tolerate.
And I've dealt with hundreds ofexamples of playing

(08:54):
whack-a-mole and trying toprotect culture in my business,
one of which is attire, is dresscode is what people wear around
the office, and there's beenseveral examples of that, but
one that comes to mind.

(09:16):
I was walking into the officeone day this is when the company
had grown to over 20 people andone of our engineers was
wearing a.
I looked, I looked over and hewas, you know, had his
headphones on, he was working.
And I looked over and he had aGatorade shirt on.
I'm like that's interesting,he's got a Gatorade shirt on.
I was wondering why he'swearing a Gatorade shirt, but it

(09:37):
didn't say.
But I looked at it a secondtime and as they didn't say
Gatorade, it said.
It said get laid across thefront of the shirt, get laid.

Gina (09:47):
And I like it.
I honestly like if the designlike.
I like the play on words.
I'm picturing the Gatorade logoand colors and font but like
saying, get laid.
I'm not mad at the shirt, butshould it be worn in the office?
Questionable.

Bryan (10:04):
Depends, it depends.
So I've been down this roadbefore.
Doesn't offend me personally.
I think it's kind of funny, butI've been down this.
You know, having been down thisroad before of you know.
You know, in my landscapingcompany we had a problem with a
guy wearing a shirt with aConfederate flag across the back

(10:25):
.

Nicola (10:27):
Okay, yikes.
Right, and so I'm not even fromyour country, and I'm like, oh,
that's problematic.

Gina (10:34):
Yeah.
Yeah, I feel like most politicsshould stay out of, like lawn
care or most businesses, like wedon't need to bring politics
into this.

Bryan (10:44):
People Right, yes, so or, or, or or or.
I've had this happen where youknow.
Lady came.
You know, this is my lastcompany.
We had 150 people there.
She came in and she was wearinga shirt that said Jesus saves,
across the back.

Nicola (11:06):
How far with sins ship, or everyone's had this happen?

Bryan (11:10):
Had this happened, you know?
I don't have a problem with it,but, but, but others might be a
limb shirt, you know yeah, sowhere do?
you draw the line and how do you, how do you deal with it as the
chief, and how do you protectthe culture?
So?
So, seeing the get laid shirt,I don't bother me personally,

(11:34):
but I've been down this roadbefore where, where these things
can, can manifest themselvesinto toxicity and then now this
person's offended and then yougot to deal with that and and
it's like toxic toxicity in yourworkplace will have plan on.

(11:55):
It's your job as as the, as theleader, to get out in front of
it, to to deal with it themoment you see it and to not
have hope as a strategy to say,oh, I hope it goes away, so I
don't have to deal with it,because that's how you get to a
point where you're driving tothe office and you're thinking,

(12:16):
oh my God, if I can just getthrough one more day with all of
these jerks.
That's where you end up If youdon't, if you don't deal with
these things the moment you seethem and and address them the
moment you see them and, evenbetter, lay out expectations and
manage expectations beforehand.
So so in this example you knowthis is just one of dozens I've

(12:40):
had to deal with over the years,but in this example, I was able
to pull him aside and say, hey,listen, I think this shirt is
hilarious.
In fact, where did you get it?
I would, I would, I'd like tohave one of these.
Funny and so.
But but just so you know, likethis is my fault, I didn't tell
you the work, the workplacepolicy, we have around dress

(13:05):
code, and I didn't set that upfront.
You know you haven't doneanything wrong, but this is,
this is something that would bea favor to me if you can take
that shirt off and put on adifferent shirt.
I've got a company shirt thatI'll give you with the logo of
the company and, and it would bea favor to me because this is
my fault, I didn't manage togenuinely believe it was your

(13:27):
fault, though, because I didthat shit, just to kind of like
gloss over a situation.
You gotta really believe thatshit if you're, because people
can smell, smell bullshit a mileaway.
Yeah, and it was my faultbecause I didn't lay down, lay
out the groundwork ahead of timeand say listen, we're, we're,

(13:48):
we're more like a, less like afamily and more like a protein
here.
And we have this goal, thismission.
This is all we care about andwe don't.
We don't bring all this otherstuff to the workplace and we
have a level of the core and alevel of professionalism here,
that quality standard that weall hold ourselves by, and I'm
setting that standard.
I didn't do any of that.
This was very much when I wasbuilding the company, you know,

(14:10):
shooting from the hip, trying toget my first 510, 20 people
together working on the mission,and so I didn't have those
policies in place.
So was my fault, was myshortcoming, and and he actually
was cool about it was totallycool about it.
At the times I've had to dealwith this, people weren't very
receptive.

Nicola (14:29):
I mean, what was the time when someone wasn't
receptive to this?

Bryan (14:33):
Um, in my previous company we had a.
We had a board meeting one day.
Investors were coming in and wehad important people coming
through the office and this guywas wearing a shirt that looked
like you might have gotten itout of the garbage.

(14:53):
Can I mean it was.
It was dirty, it had holes init, I mean it was one of those
like designer shirts.
I personally don't have thefashion acumen to know the
difference, but but it lookedlike something that, like, a
backyard mechanic might wear andnot to say anything wrong with

(15:16):
that, but on this particular day, and you know, we just didn't
look good and I approached himand said, hey, listen, you know,
I let everybody know that we'vegot important people come to
the office today and you know, Iwould appreciate if you, if you

(15:38):
, if you could change shirts,because this this, your shirt
you're wearing is is not up tothe quality standard that we
have.
And he said he said what hesaid well, I got this a good
will, you don't like it?
And I said well, you know, it'salright, so this is a nice
shirt, but it looks like the guythat you had it before you also
also liked it for a long timeand he was offended by that.

(16:00):
So that was an example where Ididn't handle it very well and
and screwed it up, and so and soyou can, you got to.
You got to be really carefulabout these things.
You got to.
You got to, you got to thinkthrough what you're going to say
.
But, even better, you need toplan on these things happening

(16:20):
and you need to put in place Ihate to say it, but policies and
expectations around what, whatis what's acceptable and what's
not, and you have to set thequality standard for the team,
because if you don't, they will,and once they do, then you have
to deal with these things.
So it's so, really it is planon it and and laid, laid, lay

(16:42):
out ways that you're going todeal with these things.
And then, the moment you see itand I'm not just talking about
dress code and talking aboutanything the moment you see it
as the leader, as the manager,you have to address it and nip
it in the butt.
If you don't, then you wake upone day and you hate driving to
the office.
I promise you that will happen.

Gina (17:01):
So what?
So I think and we, when we wereon our like vetting call, you
know I mentioned that I think itis very rare to find someone in
a leadership position likeyourself who actually can have
the emotional maturity to saylike, to notice it and then be

(17:23):
like okay this is?
this is partially because it'slike you became like responsible
for 100%, responsible for your50%, which most people don't
want to deal with.
That for whatever reasons, likethat's a whole different
podcast that we would needtherapists on here for.
So like what, what would?

(17:44):
Why do you think?
Are you just?
Have you always been selfreflective, like both myself and
Nicola were, were very likeI'll call myself out if I'm like
, oh, that was really fucked up,that I did that.
Or like I can't believe I saidthat to a client, like they're
for sure never gonna work withus again, or whatever you know,
like we're very open to callingourselves out on our bullshit.

(18:07):
So have you always been likethat?
Or was that something that youhad to learn how to do?

Bryan (18:11):
being you know, entrepreneur.
Yeah, for me, nobody teaches usthis stuff.
You know we're not taught thisstuff in school.
We're not taught this stuff inbusiness school.
You know, maybe if you, if yougo to some leadership workshops
or leadership training, you knowyou might expose to these these
types of ideas.

(18:32):
But for me it was.
It was very much trial and errorin the marketplace of trying to
build a business and failingthat I come to the epiphany that
it was me and that's one of thebest.
You know, one of the bestthings you can do with your life
is to try to start a business.
Or even if you, if you're notan entrepreneur, you know

(18:55):
managing a team in a, in abusiness, is one of the most, is
one of the most rewardingthings you can do with your life
, because the marketplace is arelentless purveyor of feedback.
So the marketplace is going totell you everywhere you suck,
all the time.
So it's like okay, ourcustomers are pissed off.
Well, why are our customerspissed off?

(19:16):
Well, because they're notgetting the level of service we
promise them.
Why not?
Well, because our employees arepissed off.
Well, why are employees pissedoff?
Well, because of x, y and z,and, and you know the culture in
the business sucks and theyhate working here well why do
they hate working here?
well, because you founder, havecreated this environment that's
not fun to work at.
And how did you?

Gina (19:36):
create that.
So you keep saying it was like,like you didn't want to be
there.
You're like, if I could justget through this day, like what?
How did it manifest itself tothe point where you're like, if
I could just get through onemore day, maybe things will be
okay?

Bryan (19:52):
Like, what, what, how did it get to?

Gina (19:54):
that point, and what were the specific things that you
were dreading when you weredriving into the office?

Bryan (20:01):
Yeah, it gets there by 1000 bad decisions and it kind
of you kind of work your way outof it by doing a thousand
things, 10,000 things, correctly.
So you have to fix it, almostlike pruning a rose, bush, to
use landscaping as an analogy.
You have to prune out the badparts of the plant, and by that

(20:23):
I mean it might be bad processes, bad systems, bad ways of doing
business, bad people that youhired.
So that's one piece of it.
But also, on the other side ofthe spectrum, there's a quote
that I like if you're gonna eatshit, don't nibble.
And so a lot of times you know.

Gina (20:42):
Oh, I want to Just get it straight down, to get it over
with.
Yeah, yeah, you really Just goin and fuck it up and be done
with it.
Yeah, I get that.

Bryan (20:52):
Take it down to the studs and rebuild it the way it
should be.
But I mean, how do you evenknow?
It's hard to know that and hardto know how to do it the right
way, and so a lot of times youknow, especially as an
entrepreneur.

Gina (21:07):
Because, like you, like I was just talking to my mother
about this and I was like,sometimes I'm the problem Like
there are things that wereoutside of my control with what
I'm going through right now withmy business, but then that's
like 50%.
And then the other 50% I feellike were directly related to me

(21:28):
not handling a situationproperly, you know, not pausing
and just telling people what Iwas, what I really think of them
, which is never good.
But I am sometimes like, whenyou know, when a client shits on
me so much, it's like you canonly take so much.

(21:48):
So you know, I'm kind of inthat same boat where it's like I
did make some decisions thatare costing us you know dearly
right now, but then there's like50% of the things that are
outside of our control, right,that like COVID or you know

(22:09):
banking mess ups or I don't knowwhatever, clients not paying on
time Just a few things thatcome to my mind.
So it's like what happens whenyou realize, like that your
decisions like aresingle-handedly like fucking up
your company that you startedLike you know what I mean.

Bryan (22:27):
That's part of you know, for me, you know that was part
of the growing process realizeand not making those mistakes
over again and growing from them.
You know success is a lousyteacher.
The only way we learn how to dothese things the right way is
by fucking them up first, butthen not fucking them up over
and over and over again.
I mean that's step one.

(22:48):
And for me, one thing that I'vehad to learn the hard way, you
know.
I mean there's been times inbusiness where I hated our
customers, I hated our vendors,I hated most of the people that
worked for us and I realizedthat you know the level of
enthusiasm that I'm bringing tothe business.
My people are gonna reflectthat same level of enthusiasm,

(23:12):
and so I have to genuinely beenthusiastic about what we're
trying to do, what the missionis, what the goals are and what
we're doing every day.
I mean I really gotta beenthusiastic about that, because
if I'm not, then my peoplecertainly aren't.
Why would they be any moreenthusiastic about the mission

(23:32):
than me, the founder?
And the other thing too is, asthe founder, as a leader, it's
your job to almost like ingest alot of the negative stuff and
almost, in a way, bear thatburden for the rest of your
people and not reflect that backto them.
You know like sure a customerscrewing you over.
You know how did that happen.

(23:53):
What processes did you have inplace that is preventing that
customer from paying you?
Is it a payment process?
Is it something that you laidthe groundwork on?
That's not working?
That's not your people's fault,but it's got you pissed off
because you're getting screwedover.
So now you're pissed off and soyou show up to the office.
You're pissed off, and noweverybody else is pissed off,
and so it's like part of the artis ingesting that and almost, I

(24:16):
hate to say, like putting on,like a happy face for everybody
else.
That's what the founder needsto be able to do, that's what
the leader needs to be able todo and not wear all of these
challenges on their sleeve,because that's gonna permeate
into the rest of the culture andit's really really, really hard
to do.
And that's might be one reasonwhy this game you know being an

(24:39):
entrepreneur is not foreverybody, because not everybody
wants to do that.
I certainly don't, but it's oneof the things that I've learned
how to do over 22 years ofrunning businesses is like.
You have to be able to ingestthat stuff and show to your team
that everything is okay andthat you're enthusiastic about
the mission and they should betoo.

Gina (25:01):
Yeah, I mean.

Nicola (25:03):
Before you became a business owner and someone that
took responsibility for theirkind of shit eating, were you
ever an employee of somewhere?

Bryan (25:18):
You know it's weird.
I've never had a job.
I actually started mowing yardsin high school as a way to make
extra cash and I thought, man,this is cool, I'm making more
money than my friends are makingmore money than I could if I
did get a job.
And I just stuck with that.
And then I went to college andwhen I graduated college from

(25:39):
business school, I made a littlebusiness plan, had a chip on my
shoulder and thought I'm gonnabuild a big company in this
industry and I ended up buildinglike one of the largest
landscaping businesses in theSoutheast United States and then
sold it.
And then after that I still hadthe chip on my shoulder.
I thought, well, I see allthese successful tech companies.

(26:00):
Now I wanna try that and I justwanted to prove to myself that
I could do it.
So I never had a job workingfor anybody else and maybe that
was good in some ways and bad inothers.
It would have been nice to workfor a big company and see their
systems and processes and takethe good things and fix the bad
things.
So maybe that held me back.

(26:21):
But I guess I'm lucky in thatand I'm also lucky that I never
did have a job and always workedfor myself.

Nicola (26:29):
Because I was curious that was gonna be.
My next question is I would becurious to know how that has
impacted the way that you kindof define or develop that
culture, If you haven'texperienced a culture outside of
what you've created.

Bryan (26:44):
Yeah, I've just experienced my bad cultures and
I think a lot of times asrunning a business, you know it
is, it's your life, you know youare your business, your
business is you.
And as a small business owner,that's really kind of the
reality.
Like a restaurant owner, youknow, is when he or she wakes up

(27:07):
in the shower they're thinkingabout.
They're thinking about theirrestaurant, they're thinking
about the chef just resigned andthey need to hire a new chef.
They're thinking about newrecipes, you know, like seven
days a week and I think anysmall business owner, any good
one, is all in, and so I think alot of your personal, like your

(27:29):
personal wellbeing and yourpersonal health is tied to how
your business is doing.
Lisa has been for me.

Gina (27:37):
It absolutely.
I would agree with that 100%,like.
So I have a business partnerwho we started the business when
we were dating each other, like12 years ago, and within the
first three months of thebusiness starting I realized
there's no way I could be both abusiness partner and a

(27:58):
girlfriend to this human being.
So we chose the business and wegrew the business, you know, to
a point where we were doingreally, really well and then
COVID hit and my businesspartner basically just like
checked out and he left me withthe mess and he's still around

(28:21):
but he really doesn't doanything.
He just kind of, you know, hegot married, he's you know,
whatever he's doing, I don'tknow.
And he I'm just like left withthis mess and I have to like
constantly think on my feet,make a hundred million decisions
, you know, from the time myeyes pop open to the time I drug

(28:45):
myself to go to sleep, so thatcause, like my mind, will just
keep going.
And like even this morning Iwas working out with my husband
and he I was like thinking aboutsomething and I was like I
think we should sell your otherhouse and he's like why I'm like
, oh, we just got to generatemore income.

(29:05):
Like I'm like always thinking,like I'm always thinking of a
way to make extra money,thinking about emails I sent.
Like you're exactly right, likeyou just like get into that
groove of like being resourceful, finding solutions, making
decisions.
You know, all the time and itis not.

Nicola (29:27):
I find as well, cause this is something that I really
struggle with as well.
On top of that, someone comesto you and they're like, hey, so
I've got this idea.
And it's like, oh my God, let'sred string it, let's go, we can
totally come up with all theplans.
Does anyone else do that aswell?

Gina (29:44):
Yes, hello, that's how this podcast started.
You muck it, true shame.

Nicola (29:51):
What the hell?
No, but I mean for like otherpeople, for like people that are
potentially maybe not in thesame mind frame, and then
they're like I can't do all ofthat.
It's like why not?

Bryan (30:04):
That could be what separates people who are not
entrepreneurs.
People who are are people whoare willing to go all in and
make it part of their soul thebusiness that they're working on
and and be one of thedistinctions.

(30:26):
You know, and you know there'speople that work for big
companies who areentrepreneurial in nature, who
are like that, who think onlyabout their role in their big
company and their team sevendays a week, and maybe they have
that entrepreneurial DNA.
You know, I think it's part ofthe journey that if you're
willing to be an entrepreneur,you gotta be willing to think

(30:48):
about it when you're in theshower.
And you know you talked about,you know you talked about all
the challenges you're goingthrough right now, you know,
with cleaning up the mess fromthe fallout, from the
partnership or whatever.
You know I'm willing to betthat in five years you'll be
glad you went through this,because every challenging part

(31:10):
of growing a couple ofbusinesses myself, like all of
the hard parts and man, I'vebeen on the ropes a few times I
was glad they happened in aweird way, because that enabled
these other three things thatwere really good to happen.

Gina (31:27):
You know, it caused me to work something Right and I'm a
firm believer that things mainlydo happen for a reason, like
one thing will lead to the nextthing will lead to the next
thing.
But you know, when you're andmy business partner is still my
business partner he just hasabsolutely zero willingness to

(31:48):
help or be a part of thebusiness.
He just wants the profit.
So jokes on him, becausethere's no profit sharing at the
moment.

Bryan (31:56):
So so there's a weird thing that I read the other day.
So you got two people.
One is like a comfortable statein their business or in their
relationship, life or whatever,and then the other person is in
extreme pain in theirrelationship or in their

(32:17):
business, and who is in thebetter position?
The person that's in acomfortable kind of mediocre
level.

Gina (32:22):
No, it's the person who's uncomfortable because they're
the ones who are gonna change?

Bryan (32:27):
to get out of the pain, to get in a better position.

Gina (32:30):
Yeah, so and that is me and you know I came back to like
things with a completelydifferent mindset and you know
it's still.
For me it's still 50-50.
50% of it is outside of mycontrol and 50% of it is me.
Yeah, it's me hi I'm theproblem.

Nicola (32:51):
If you're high, you're the problem, it's you.

Bryan (32:54):
But that's one of the best things about running your
own thing is that personalgrowth.
Most people don't get to gothrough that because they're not
exposed to it.
You know they work a job andeverybody you know at their job
kind of just tells them whatthey want to hear, just to get
the output they need out of them.
The marketplace doesn't do that.
Marketplaces no.
It's ridiculous.

Gina (33:15):
I was told yesterday by a client that they don't trust me
anymore and I'm like, oh, okay,I'm sorry, we're making you
headbands.
How do you not trust?
Because I'm fucking headband,we're not curing cancer, god
damn it.
But, okay, cool and like, eventhough they had a part to play

(33:35):
in the non-trusting scenario,they will never admit it.
So I have to, like you said, Ihave to eat that and be like
you're absolutely right, Like Ifucked up, blah, blah, blah,
even though I'm like, you know,despite Full Italian in me is
like I'm gonna find out wherethis bitch lives and I'm gonna
do donuts in her front lawn,like I will, literally like you

(33:58):
know.

Bryan (33:59):
I have felt that way, yeah, yeah.
And as a business owner,everything is your fault, all
the time.

Nicola (34:07):
There's just no way to do it.
But then it makes us wonder,though right Then we reflect on
the workplace that you and Icame from, gina, and the owner
in that instance was veryinvolved in the organization but
had created a toxic environmentthat there was very little
adaptability to kind of gookaloo, have a look inside and go okay

(34:31):
, maybe I need to adapt and grow.
And they did.
They had a great idea that theykind of monetized and that led
to this business and but thematurity there to think through
what impact that they werehaving on the organization is so

(34:51):
non-existent.
And then listening to thenegative feedback coming out of
the customers that are usingproducts and changing
essentially entire marketingplans because of one person's
negative comment.
And then, thanks to thispodcast, also personally reached

(35:13):
out to a total stranger onFacebook who shared our podcast
and told them that they weregoing to be blacklisted as
customers.
Wow, how do you think so?
Curious, let's unpack that fora second.

Gina (35:27):
What are your thoughts here?
So I mean, I think it's exactlywhat Brian first said, like, or
Brian and I were talking about,like not everyone has the
ability to self-reflect.
And like eat the negative shitabout them and be like, yeah, I
can be a dick.
Like I have to work hard memyself, gina, to not be a dick

(35:50):
to everyone that I meet.
Like that is my personal plate,right Cause.
Like I, just I'm, that's howI'm built.
Like I don't know why.
So she, in this particularsituation, there was no
self-reflection and shesurrounded herself and I think
this is to Brian's point withpeople who would co-sign her

(36:11):
bullshit.

Bryan (36:12):
Yeah, yeah.

Gina (36:14):
Like like the team she created for herself, had very
little experience and thoughteverything she did and said was
just like the best thing sincesliced bread like golden nuggets
just raining down out of hermouth and her ass at all times.

Bryan (36:32):
Yeah Well the thing is it's when it comes to feedback
from customers, from people,from teammates, from people you
hired, from family members youcan't you can't just take it all
in and change forever.
You have to take it, ingest it,internalize it, see the

(36:53):
commonalities, be honest withyourself about opportunities for
improvement that you have andthen act on those.
You can't just be willing tocause.
I mean, not everybody's gonnagive you good feedback.
Some of it is going to beself-serving and some of it may
not be true.
So it's your job to be able totake it all in and then really
look for the commonalities.
Like you know what Everybody'skind of telling me I'm difficult

(37:16):
to deal with.
I don't think so.
I think I'm pretty straight up,but I don't know.
I've heard it 10 times thisyear that I'm a little.
I'm a little gruff and maybe Ineed to work on that.
You know Not, I heard it.

Gina (37:30):
Not, I heard it.
That's.
My biggest complaint is thatI'm too like.

Nicola (37:35):
I'm disdending.

Gina (37:36):
Oh, yes, that I have a condescending tone to my emails.
I did not realize aninformational email could be
condescending.

Bryan (37:45):
And you know I mean so you could do a couple of things.
You know I kind of skewedtowards that type of character
myself and so I mean mepersonally.
You know I mean I try to takemyself out of a lot of the the
personal people types of sellingarrangements.

(38:06):
I know I'm not good at that,but you say you know you're in
the people business.
You have to personally sell.
So you have to make it adecision Are you gonna cultivate
that part of your personalityor rebuild your business to
where it's completely self-serveand they interact with the
screen and they pick out theheadband they want, they upload

(38:27):
their logo and they put it onthere and they don't have to
talk to a salesperson?
You know you have to make thatdecision.
You know if you're gonna be inthe personal sales business.

Gina (38:35):
I think there's a third option to hire people who are
better at it and moreexperienced at it than you and
let them do it, which is where-.

Bryan (38:46):
I mean, I don't wanna run away from self-improvement, but
also there is something to besaid for realizing what you're
good at, and doubling down onthat.

Gina (38:57):
Yeah.

Bryan (38:58):
And not trying to be something you're not.
So you know, ultimately that'sall of our decision.
I think in the early days ofgetting a business going from
scratch, you have no customers,you have no employees, you have
nothing.
You're everything, youroperation, you gotta be
everything that all peopleYou're everything.

Gina (39:13):
Yes, and honestly, I've been doing like I've been
cultivating the majority of theaccounts that do place contract
orders with us and after 12years, like I've eaten a lot of
shit, I think I'm like kind of,you know, just I'm like I'll

(39:35):
stick with my normal accountsbut like I can't keep doing like
trying to generate morebusiness.
It's just not where I wanna beright now.
You know, I'm 43.
I have a three-year-old and Ijust like, but it's hard.
It's also really hard to findfucking good employees.

(39:57):
Like it's really hard.
So, nikola, that doesn'tinclude you, cause she does
marketing for my company.
But it does not include you.
But no, it is.
It's very difficult.
Like what tell us some employeehorror stories?

Nicola (40:19):
Yeah, where I'm very curious about some of these
horror stories too.

Gina (40:22):
Besides the Get Lay T-shirt.

Bryan (40:25):
Well, you know around what you're talking about about,
okay, I suck at this, so Iwanna put somebody else in this
role to do it better than me.
What I have found is is thatit's really hard to delegate
something that you aren't goodat yourself.

(40:45):
And every time I've tried to dothat where there'd be
engineering from my company,greenpowell, or sales, or
content writing or SEO or forFacebook marketing, if I haven't
done it and I haven't figuredout what like the 80, 20 is and
the right way to do it, to whereI can lay it out into a process

(41:06):
and then delegate that tosomebody to do it better than me
, then usually it blows up in myface and I don't get the result
I want and I just keeprepeating the same mistakes over
and over again.
But it's like I'm not good atthis, here, you handle it Almost
never works out.
It's like, okay, here's how wedo this, here's why we do it

(41:27):
this way, here's the process,here's the routine, here's what
we expect.
And you work this process from,you know, from soup to nuts.
Then I can lay it, put it insomebody's hands and they can do
it better than me.
That's how I have found likehiring people to do things
worked.
So I but I understand whatyou're saying.
It's like, you know, it's hardto find good people, and it is,

(41:50):
but I think a lot of times it'shard for people to even do good
work for us because we haven'tcodified it down to what we
think they should be doing.

Gina (41:59):
You know, and and also like for me, it's like there's
multiple ways to get a task doneright, but I know so intimately
every aspect of this companybecause I built it like
single-handedly, that if it'snot done as quickly as I could

(42:22):
do it, or within like the in theway that I would have handled
it, it like it's like anuncomfortable position for me.
Like I feel like, ooh, I don'tlike the way that was done.
But then again it's like who amI to say, like that worked for
me, but it might not work forso-and-so.
So there's so much to consider.

(42:44):
And it's like, even if you dolike write down the steps, it's
like there's always gonna be,you know, the outlier that
skirts the code or the stepsthat we've codified.
And it's just like like to findsomeone who's willing to do the
work and to do it consistently,knowing that, like especially

(43:05):
sales, that return on investmentwill take a long time.
Like, yeah, you're getting paida shitty base salary, but
you're gonna get all your moneyfrom commissions.
So like that's something thatI'm struggling with and I don't
know why we went down that path.
We were talking about giving itto someone to make better, but

(43:26):
yeah, so that's where I'm atwith that whole thing.
Like I am, I always splitbetween being like God I wish I
could just clone myself and thenlike also being like, okay, I
don't know everything.
Let this person do you.
Know what they do and see whathappens.
Maybe I can learn from them.
So, like it's a hard.

(43:47):
It's hard to reconcile, I thinksometimes, cause like also to
be an entrepreneur, you have tobe a little crazy.
Like you have to be like I'mgonna live off of like $300 a
month in the beginning and likejust figure it out as I go, you
know, and work alone in like ashitty apartment, whatever, like

(44:10):
that was how we started thisbusiness, you know.
So it's like and you have tomake the decision like you're
not gonna live in the fear of amI gonna be able to pay my rent
this month or whatever the casemay be?
So it's like there's nobody'sgoing to care as much as you
care at the end of the day.

Bryan (44:30):
Yeah, it's everything you're talking about is probably
the hardest thing aboutbusiness ownership, and it's
like you have to get people todo what you want them to do
because they want to do it, andthat's easier said than done.
And creating those incentivesand creating those processes is

(44:54):
what separates beingself-employed from having an
actual business Right, and mostpeople conflate those two and
there's a big gap between thetwo.
Let's say you've got fiveemployees and you have to come
in and wrangle it every day andif you left for a week you'd

(45:16):
come back and there would be acrater and smoke coming out of
it.
I've ran businesses like thatfor many, many, many years and
the thing I had to realize likeI'm not actually a business
owner, I'm just self-employedwith a few helpers- Right.
And crossing that chasm betweenbeing self-employed, where it's
you hand-to-hand combat,wrangling some people to get

(45:38):
some stuff done every day is notactually owning a business.
It's just being self-employedon steroids and that's okay.
You know, it's okay to beself-employed and to make a good
profit and then take thatprofit and reinvest it in some
other, more durable sources ofincome like real estate or
something like that.
That's okay.

(45:58):
You don't have to build a big,huge business because it's
really really, really hard.
But this is something that everysmall business owner goes
through and one of my favoritebooks about it is the E-Mith,
which is a simple, simple,simple book about a lady who
used to make pies with hergrandmother.

(46:19):
She loved the smell of pies andshe remembered making pies with
her grandmother when she was akid.
She wanted to open a bakery.
It was her lifelong dream toopen a bakery and she opened the
bakery and within like a monthshe hated the smell of freshly
baked pies.
And it's her story about goingthrough the idea of like having

(46:42):
a business idea in your head andactually executing and building
a business and what goes intothat and what the difference
between being self-employed andhaving a business is, and it's a
really good simple book aboutthat.
I read it probably once everycouple of years.
Even at the stage I'm at, Istill get lessons from that
little simple book about what itmeans to run a business and
build a business, and it'ssomething that, you know, all of

(47:07):
us, as founders, go through.
So don't feel like you're alonein this, like we are all
struggling with that same thing.
You just you laid out.
And how do you get people tocare about the mission?
How do you get them to do it?
I wish I could clone myself.
I can't tell you how many timesI've said that.

Gina (47:20):
Even my business partner is like why can't we just clone
you?
You're so good at what you do?
I'm like I am for the most part, but yeah, and it, you know
it's.
But also I'm not, you know.
So I'm more of a realistic, Ihave more of a realistic view.
I think of myself like I suckat sales but I'm good at all of

(47:43):
the other stuff, so it's just,it's always such a weird
position to be in and I likethat.
You said that there's adifference between being self
employed and actually running abusiness, and I think for a
while I was just self employedon steroids, and then I started

(48:04):
getting smarter about it and Iwas like I don't have to do
everything.
I can let go of the reins, likeI'm not great, I don't know
what the fuck I'm doing withmarketing, I don't know what.
Like I can't make thesebeautiful renderings that our
art department now handles fully, like I can't do that, you know
, and I just was like this thisis what we need to do to move

(48:28):
forward and we're there and youknow, it's just, it's, don't you
feel like it's always just alot of work.
It's a lot of work, like allthe time.

Bryan (48:41):
It's never ending in, and it really is.
It's kind of like a video gameand you know 10, 10 levels of
Super Mario Brothers and at theend of every level is a new boss
and a new dragon that you haveto slay and it gets harder every
level and like the skills thatgot you through three won't get
you through four and so on.

(49:03):
And most people get stuck onlevel five or, what's even worse
, that they're worried aboutBowser but they're really just
on level two and it's like don'tworry about Bowser related
problems when you're inWaterworld or Waterworld you
know or you're.

Gina (49:20):
You know, how do you know so much about Super Mario
Brothers?

Nicola (49:23):
I feel like I know equally as much about Super
Mario Brothers.

Gina (49:26):
I don't know this much at all about Super Mario Brothers.

Nicola (49:30):
I've heard the name Bowser, I'd like to see you
incorporate Princess Peach intothis.
Where does Princess Peach comein?

Bryan (49:38):
Well, I grew up.
I grew up where Nintendo was onChannel three, and so, if you
know what that means, you,you're, you're, you're, you're.

Gina (49:48):
I do know what that means, but I never, I never had a
Nintendo.
My parents were listening.

Bryan (49:53):
There's people listening to this that will not understand
that Nintendo was on Channelthree.

Gina (49:58):
Yeah, that was the channel you had to turn it to like,
that's like essentially like theUSB.
That was what it was.
Channel three was like the oldschool USB.
I just I know my parents werevery weird about screen time
with.

Bryan (50:13):
They were smart.
They were smart because nowhere I am, I'm 43 years old, and
I see the.
I see the world through thelens of Super Mario Kart and
Super Mario Brothers and acouple other video games.

Gina (50:24):
But also girls.
We're not going to be playinglike video games too much, you
know.
Excuse us.
I don't know, back in the 80sthat wasn't our like jam.
We weren't like, are you?

Nicola (50:35):
are you you want to back that truck up, sister, let's
not be making assumptions here Ihad a safe Sega and I can
remember with like intensity howyou would be like, of course,
everything from tapes towhatever the cartridge and then
I can do.

Gina (50:54):
I could probably do this whole thing and, like Sonic,
Okay, well, I just think it camedown to the fact that my
parents were religious fanaticsand didn't allow screen time.
I don't know if that'sconnected, I feel like it is
anyway.
Yes, well.

Bryan (51:09):
I don't know that it was a bad thing, because I was
raised on television and now Isee business through through the
lens of a video game youthought you asked about yes,
about Princess Peach.

Gina (51:24):
That's the ex-girlfriend and ex-wife and all the exes.

Bryan (51:27):
No, no, there's another corollary, that Super Mario Kart
.
You know, I don't know if youever played that game, but you
had five or six differentdrivers and Princess Peach was
one of them, and every driverwas really good at one thing.
And Princess Peach was reallygood at accelerating off the

(51:48):
line.
She was really fast, but shedidn't have a real high top in.
And a lot of other drivers,like Toad was really good
handling around the curves andBowser was the fastest, but he
was slow accelerating.
And then and then you had Mario, who was kind of half-assed at
everything.
He wasn't the fastest, hewasn't the most perfect.

Gina (52:06):
Jack of all trades.

Bryan (52:07):
Yeah, yeah, he was half-assed at everything.
And what I've learned?
That that in business probablyup till about 50 or even 100
people you should be Mario inthe game of business.
You really don't want to bejust good at one thing, you
really kind of want to be ageneralist.
You need to be prettyhalf-assed good at leadership,
at marketing, at operations, atcustomer service, at R&D, at

(52:31):
engineering.
You need to be half-assed goodat all of these things in order
to get to 100 people, becauseyou're going to be doing a lot
of things.
You're going to be doing a lotof it yourself and laying out
the processes and then puttingpeople in roles where they can
do it.
So you can be Princess and begood at one thing and then get
people to kind of shore that up.

(52:51):
But I think it's a lot harder.
I think it's better to be Marioand to be half-assed at good at
like a dozen different thingswhich I think, as an
entrepreneur, you have to be bynature when you're building your
business.

Gina (53:04):
I figured out how to do things.
Did I do them great?
Probably not my area ofexpertise is production, all
that kind of stuff like CPGproduction, knowing how to run a
smooth production, runlogistics, all of that.
But I'm not a marketing person.

(53:26):
I did the best that I could inthe beginning, but now we have
bigger and better employees, soit's like I think you do kind of
end up becoming you wear allthe hats at first.
You have to, and you have to bewilling to.

Bryan (53:41):
And the good news is is, these days you can learn the
80-20 of marketing, copywriting,product design, branding,
whatever it is.
You can learn these skills forfree in YouTube University or
podcasts like this one, oronline courses, whatever you can

(54:02):
learn this stuff.
Back in the 90s, when I wasstarting my first business, I
mean you had the library.
I mean you might could buy sometapes, you know, maybe a Tony
Robbins tape or something, butthere was no way to learn this
stuff and it was very I know, dowe think Tony Robbins is part
of a cult?

Gina (54:22):
I think he's the charismatic cult leader.

Nicola (54:25):
Oh my God, I think he's the charismatic cult leader.

Gina (54:27):
Like.
So Joe, Joe's my partner.
He does SWAT here in West PalmBeach and Tony Robbins comes
down here and he has like bigconferences and they always
request him because he's like asergeant and he's like got a
whole SWAT team under him,whatever.
I don't really understand whathe does, because half the time
he's like I'm sitting in myoffice watching a movie, but

(54:50):
anyway, on the days that TonyRobbins there, he's like it's
fucking crazy.
You go to the convention center, there's thousands of people,
it's like 60 degrees and likepeople are like dancing in this,
like the aisles, like just it'slike.
And he sent me videos andpeople are doing like ridiculous

(55:12):
things that I would never becaught dad doing at Tony Robbins
like conferences.

Nicola (55:19):
Is he the charismatic cult leader?

Gina (55:20):
He is the charismatic cult leader.

Bryan (55:24):
I thought I thought Tony Robbins was bullshit for pretty
much all of my life.

Gina (55:31):
What changed?

Bryan (55:33):
Until about four years ago.
Oh, oh, my God, brian's joinedthe cult.
No, I didn't get hooked up onthe.
I didn't get hooked up on theKool-Aid, but I did go on a.
I went on a.
You went on a date with TonyRobbins.
I went on a Tinder date with agirl who I'm so subscribed right

(55:55):
now.

Nicola (55:55):
I'm so ready for the story.

Gina (55:57):
Let's talk about Tinder.
Okay, well, I'm so here.

Bryan (56:02):
I went on a Tinder date with a girl and the date went
okay, but something I got I tookaway from the date.
She was telling me about guysshe had dated before and they
were all very wealthy and I waslike I'm not gonna get hooked up
on the Kool-Aid, I'm not gonnaget hooked up on the Kool-Aid?

Gina (56:24):
Did she have a shirt that said this?

Bryan (56:28):
Tits McGee's Irish pub.
That would not be allowed in mycompany.

Gina (56:34):
So you went on your Tinder date, and then what happened?

Bryan (56:37):
Yes, and this girl's telling me about the previous
guy she dated and she wastelling me Was it Tony Robbins?

Nicola (56:44):
Yeah, we was watching.

Bryan (56:47):
She was telling me that this guy spent $2 million a year
chasing Tony Robbins around.
What, yeah?
And she was telling me this ina kind of a lamenting the fact
that he was stupid enough to dothis and that he was dumb enough

(57:08):
to spend $2 million a yearchasing Tony Robbins around, and
I thought I heard it verydifferently.
I heard it okay.
First off, here's a guy who canpiss away $2 million a year, so
I'm interested.

Gina (57:20):
Wait can you let me a date with him?
Yeah.

Bryan (57:22):
By okay.

Nicola (57:23):
I can't remember Clearly he's wanted that.

Gina (57:28):
I'm trying to marry Brian and date this other guy, just
you know.
Meanwhile, joe here is overhere in the background.
But it's okay, I'll figure thatout.

Bryan (57:39):
Can you?

Gina (57:40):
update him.

Bryan (57:41):
You can't wear the don't date broke guy shirt, but he you
know.
So I'm interested in the story.
He's got $2 million a year toburn on self-improvement just on
Tony.
And I thought, well, this guymight be on to something because

(58:02):
he's gotten himself to a levelof success where he can spend $2
million a year in personaldevelopment.
I mean that would be kind ofcool if I could do that.
It may not be on Tony, but itmight be on something else.
So I got on eBay.
I bought Tony Robbins' firstbook, awaken the Giant Within,
for about a dollar 50.
And book arrives and I read it.

(58:24):
I'm like, yeah, it was prettygood book.
I don't know that that it'sgonna get me to the level where
I can spend $2 million with Tony, but pretty good book.
Then I started listening tosome stuff on YouTube.
Then I read his second book andI started listening to some
more stuff and the next thing Iknow I'm missing the podcast.
And then I went to an eventthat was for free.

Gina (58:46):
Were you dancing?
Yeah, you got moving, you gotit.

Bryan (58:53):
Yeah, his thing is connecting physical movement
with your state and connectingyour state to your overall mood
and, like we talked aboutearlier, enthusiasm and shaking
that up.
I mean, we're only here on thisplanet for 40 good years, but

(59:14):
we're young and then we're old.

Gina (59:16):
Speak for yourself.
I don't look 43.
And my body's currently bangingand I have big boobs now that I
didn't want.

Bryan (59:24):
Fair enough, I saw your body in Instagram.
Let's just say our time islimited, our time is limited and
you might as well spend itenthusiastically, and so a lot
of these lessons really to hithome.
Am I the kind of guy that'sgonna go follow him around or
pay for a private coaching orwhatever?
No, but I was exposed to a lotof really good ideas and a lot

(59:48):
of really good ways of thinkingand changing your perspective
and the frame in which you lookat things and deal with problems
, because really it's all justour thoughts.
It's really our decision tochoose how we respond to these
challenges.
And help me see thingsdifferently, and that was at
like 30.

Gina (01:00:06):
Did you spend $2?

Bryan (01:00:09):
million on no and in fact I've probably spent less than
$2,000 on Tony Robbins stuff,but I've gotten way more than I
have invested from the way hebooks it.
So I am from the camp at TotalBullshit Colt to pretty good,
not bad.
My only thing is a little toobroad.

(01:00:31):
It's a little too broad, Ithink you know, gotta cast a
wide net.

Gina (01:00:37):
Yeah you do To bring in that money?

Bryan (01:00:39):
If you're gonna.
I think Tony Robbins is abillionaire now and I mean
you're gonna get?

Gina (01:00:43):
Oh, he definitely is.

Bryan (01:00:43):
Yeah, You're gonna be a billionaire in self-help, you
gotta appeal to a wide audience,but I think it's good to expose
yourself to that kind of stuffand then drill down and get the
same level of Tony Robbins styleguidance at the exact thing you
need.
So you mentioned you werereally good at CPG.

(01:01:04):
Whoever the Tony Robbins is ofCPG you should probably be
spending time and money with toget really good at that.
Whoever the person is thatbuilt Dollar Shave Club or the
purple mattress or whatever allthat shit is Like whoever's
really good at that stuff theTony Robbins of CPG you should
probably spend all your timewith.

(01:01:25):
And so that's how I look atpersonal development and
self-help.
So not, I don't think it's abullshit colt, I think it's
worth looking at.

Gina (01:01:35):
Okay, well, okay, apparently.

Bryan (01:01:39):
Tony Robbins?
No, apparently, tony.

Gina (01:01:42):
Robbins is very nice in person.
Okay, so, brian, do you haveany last thoughts besides
telling us, maybe Tony Robbinsisn't a colt?

Bryan (01:01:58):
Yeah, tony Robbins is not a colt, but my last party
thought along the lines of TonyRobbins.
If you're founding and runninga business, you're doing three
things at once at all times.
And so you're working in thebusiness, you're making sure it

(01:02:18):
runs and making taking orders.
You're making sure employeesare showing up.
You're making sure customersare getting taken care of.
You're just making sure thedamn thing runs.
Second thing is the secondthing you're doing is you're
working on the business.
You're developing the processes, you're developing the strategy
, you're developing the systems,you're tuning those systems.
Hopefully you get to a pointwhere you're spending half your

(01:02:40):
time working on the business andthe other half in the business.
And the third thing is you'reworking on yourself.
You're reading books, you'relistening to audio books, you're
listening to podcasts, you'rewatching YouTube.
University, you're working onyourself, you're getting the
skills you need to do the firsttwo things, and so a lot of

(01:03:03):
people.
The e-myth is about working inthe business and on the business
, but few people talk about thethird part, which is you need to
lay out a day every week towhere you can just immerse
yourself in something thatyou're trying to.

Gina (01:03:21):
Can we lay out a day once a week, just so I can sleep.

Bryan (01:03:24):
Something you're trying to learn because you have to
work on yourself to play thisgame.
We're not born with the skillswe need to take our business
where we want to take it.
So make time, even if it's justan hour a week, try to do.
Start with an hour a week, Thenyou get the two, Then maybe get
to where you can spend a half aday a week reading, listening
to podcasts, watching stuff onYouTube.

(01:03:46):
Maybe after the kid goes to bedyou spend instead of an hour on
Netflix, an hour on YouTube.
Gotta work on yourself.

Gina (01:03:52):
You are.
I don't know what kind of crackyou're smoking.
After she goes to bed, I'm like, let me shower really quick so
I can go to bed.
But yes, okay for people whodon't Like, I'm also training
for a lifting competition, solike it's a bikini competition,
just a corner one.
Yes, so I'm prioritizing sleepbecause it helps with muscles

(01:04:17):
and Absolutely.
You've got to get your sleep innow you have to, but sometimes
I do go to sleep too early andthen I.

Bryan (01:04:26):
But you're in the gym, right?

Gina (01:04:28):
Yeah.

Bryan (01:04:29):
What are you listening to while you're in the gym?
Be honest.

Gina (01:04:33):
Okay, yeah, I would tell you it's a crime.

Nicola (01:04:36):
I don't even need to guess.
I know exactly what she'slistening to.

Bryan (01:04:40):
You're listening to Beyonce.
Turn off, Beyonce.
Put on a podcast.

Nicola (01:04:45):
She's not listening to Beyonce, she's listening to her
crime, dick and murder.

Bryan (01:04:49):
Okay, all right, but one about CPG you know what I'm
saying.

Gina (01:04:58):
Like, find your time, I'm not a huge Beyonce fan, you're
more likely to have me listeningto like I don't know, dmx, what
Skrillex?
No, like Pearl Jam or like FogHat, like some good shit from
back in the day Guns.

Bryan (01:05:15):
N' Roses.
Love it, but you have tosubstitute that with stuff that
you're going to be learningpassively and you have to find
like your car needs to be amobile classroom.
Your car should run on twothings gasoline and knowledge.
Like every minute in the carneeds to be, you need to be

(01:05:36):
listening to some kind of audiobook or something on YouTube.
I do that.
If you do that for five or 10years, you become a different
person.

Nicola (01:05:42):
Where were we?
We were asking Brian just hislast closing and final words.
This is going to be a fun edit.
I just want to let everybodyknow this is going to be a very
interesting edit for Nicola tomake.

Gina (01:05:55):
It will be.
I'm here for it, though.
My final words.

Bryan (01:05:59):
My final words If you're thinking about starting a
business or you are starting abusiness, get in the game, stay
in the game, cause only whenyou're in the game can you win.
So many people think aboutstarting a business and life
happens and the you know thenext thing you know, five or 10
years goes by.
Get in the game, even if it'sjust nights and weekends,

(01:06:23):
because your business can takeyou places in life that you
wouldn't be able to do otherwise.
So get in the game and stay inthe game.

Gina (01:06:30):
Yeah, I agree with that.
Even if it gets tough, likethings will change.
Like things will eventuallychange the you know.
So I totally agree with thatand I guess now I'm going to
have to listen to Tony Robbins.
Anyway, brian, thank you somuch for your time.
Tell people where they can findyou all the socials.

(01:06:53):
If you have your own website,whatever, let us.
Let's hear about it.

Bryan (01:06:57):
Yeah, so anybody wants to reach me, you can hit me up on
Instagram Brian M Clayton, justdrop me a DM there.
Anybody who doesn't want towaste time doing stuff like yard
maintenance just go togreenpalcom.
Get hooked up with a good longcare service there.
And yeah, if you have anyquestions about startups or tech
startups or business, just hitme up.

Nicola (01:07:20):
All right we really appreciate your time today.
It's been a really fun chat, soI think I really appreciate it
and I think that's probably whatstood out to us most about you
and your pitch and theconversation that we had was we
love that you are just so candidabout the challenges that come
with being a business owner.

Gina (01:07:40):
Well, anyway, everyone should have an amazing day.
I am going to go listen or finda Tony Robbins book somewhere,
because you're right.

Nicola (01:07:51):
Because Brian said so.

Bryan (01:07:54):
Well, you never know, just find out for yourself.

Gina (01:07:56):
Yeah right.

Nicola (01:07:59):
Next minute.

Gina (01:07:59):
we're all going to the conference Next minute prior to
investigation, which isbasically what I have right now
is contempt prior toinvestigation.
Oh my God.

Nicola (01:08:08):
Next minute all three of us were sharing a bunk bed room
and we're at the conference,Tony Robbins conference.
Yay guys, so excited.

Gina (01:08:20):
Super exciting, all right, well, give us.
I don't know if you follow uson Instagram, but follow us on
Instagram, tell everyone thatyou're on this podcast and, yeah
, I'm sure you'll get an uptickin something.

Bryan (01:08:37):
Well sounds good.
Yeah, let me know when it goeslive, I'll help promote it.

Gina (01:08:41):
Oh, for sure, For sure.
Well, that's Nicholasdepartment.

Nicola (01:08:44):
That's my job.

Gina (01:08:44):
I don't know anything about anything, I'm too busy
trying to sleep.
Awesome, that's my job.

Nicola (01:08:49):
I don't sleep because I do this Definitely All right,
well, I gotta run, I gotta run.

Bryan (01:08:54):
You guys have a good day.

Nicola (01:08:56):
You too, have a great one.
Thank you so much.

Gina (01:08:58):
Thanks, shangri-la einen23,.