835. Q&AF: How To Have Direct Conversations, Reigniting Your Passion & Reshaping Business Culture
40:27 Share

What is up guys? It's Andy Purcell and this is the show for the realists. Say goodbye to the lies, the fakeness, and delusions of modern society and welcome to motherfucking reality. Guys, today we have Q and AF. All right.

That's where you send us the questions and we give you the answers. Now, you can submit your questions to be answered on the show a few different ways. The first way is, guys, email these questions in to askandy at andyfusella.com. Or you go on YouTube in the comments section of the Q&AF episodes, drop your question in the comments, and we'll choose some from there as well. Now, throughout the week, we have shows within the show. This is not just an entrepreneur show. It's an entrepreneur show. It's a culture show. And it's a comedy show.

All wrapped into one. So tomorrow we're going to have what we call CTI. That stands for Cruise the Internet. That's where we take headlines of the day, we break them down, we speculate on what's true, what's not true, we make fun of everybody, and we kind of bring you up to speed on current events. Then we talk about how we the people have to solve these problems going on in society. Other times throughout the week we have what's called Real Talk.

We don't do that all the time, but just once in a while, it's just five to 20 minutes of me giving you a message, usually around personal development or how to be better. And then we have what's called 75 Hard Versus. That's where people who have completed the 75 Hard Program come on the show, talk about how their life was before, how their life is now, and how they use the 75 Hard Program to transform their existence. Now,

If you're unfamiliar with 75 Hard, it is the world's most famous mental transformation program in history. And it's free. You can get it at episode 208. It also happens to be the initial phase of the Live Hard program, which is a program that is designed to be repeated year after year after year to keep your discipline, your grit, your fortitude, your mental game on point. Remember, livehard.com.

Our mental is a perishable skill. If we don't practice building it, it goes away. No different than a muscle. Okay. So you can get that whole program for free at episode 208. Now there is a book. It's called the book on mental toughness. It

It is a very, very, very popular book, so much so that we run out of it all the time. You can get that at andyfercella.com. It goes through the entire Live Hard program A to Z, and it also has a whole bunch of chapters on mental toughness, why it's important, case studies, and how you should use it to transform your lives. Again, you can get that at andyfercella.com, the book on mental toughness, all right?

We don't run ads on the show. We're the biggest show in the world that doesn't run ads. I'm an entrepreneur. I finance the show myself. And I ask very simply for one thing, that you help us grow the show by sharing it. All right? If the show makes you think, if it makes you laugh, it gives you a new perspective, if it entertains you,

teaches you something makes your life better in any way please do us a favor and share that episode when you listen to it all right we don't run ads for the show we don't run ads on the show i don't fill your ears full of 30 minutes of bullshit that i'm getting paid to say all right i keep it real this is called real af um so that's the fee uh don't be a hoe shut the shop all right what's going on man nothing dude what's up long week yeah been a long week yeah bro we uh

Just got done with the first form S2 annual awards dinner last night. It was fucking awesome. People always look good, man. Bro, it is good seeing everybody look good. It is. You know what I'm saying? I think we should mandate tuxedos in the office. Once a month. At least once a month. Yeah. But dude, you know, what's cool is like you can see on everybody's face how much

better they feel when they're dressed up nice man it's cool like that culture is going to make a comeback men dressing like men women dressing like ladies you know what i'm saying yeah well dude it is i mean i can already see it um but that was cool uh we just got back from austin that was cool austin's a great city i really enjoyed it uh down there see you know uh my ferrari dealer those guys were cool jp and the guys down there and then uh

And then we went to Jesse James. A legend. That was fucking awesome. Got to hang out with a legend. Yeah, that was cool, dude. Got to go see one of the most famous bike builders, welders, craftsmen, entrepreneurs of really our era. Yeah. And it was just really cool to see his shop and meet his friends and the guys and the girls in the shop. Oh, yeah, man. Meet his wife. It was fucking cool, dude. Yeah, it was cool. Yeah.

Jesse's got a lot of cool stuff coming up to you guys like we got to hear all about it He's got some new shows launching if you've never watched Jesse James's stuff. I'd highly recommend you go watch it I really you know like you could tell just being around him how much he cares about the art like he's really an artist betrayed Yeah, dude, and like we watched one of his shows on his new network That he's launching on his app and and we watched we got to watch the one where they went deep-sea welding and

Dude, seeing him teach those kids how to weld was just so fucking cool, man. You know what I mean? Like teaching the youth how to have actual trade and actual skill and take pride in their work. It was just cool. Dude, that dude's built some shit, man. He's built some shit.

You know what I'm saying? Like seeing like that trade being taught to those kids by a dude who's like taking that skill. Made a massive career out of it. Fuck, man. Yeah. Tremendous amounts of success out of something that most people think is like, you know, something that people do that can't do other things. Built this country, bro. It's just not true. Yeah. And I just really appreciate, you know, how dedicated he is to bringing...

The trip that trade and that craft to other people and then and then seeing like how he appreciates other people's crafts Yeah, you know it was fucking cool, and then he's got the awesome dogs Yeah, and then we went to eat where we go we went to the switch Some of the best barbecue apparently some of the guys down there listen to the show Shout out to the switch. Yes, I'm taking it so easy on people. That's right. Yeah, I was told I was too easy on people and

So we're going to have some savage shows this week. No mercy, baby. No mercy. Straight into the wood chipper. Let's do it. Fucking everybody. Well, I got three good ones for you. All right, let's get it going. All right, guys, I need a question. Number one, Andy, I grew up avoiding conflict and difficult conversations because they made me uncomfortable. Now, as a team leader, I realize this habit is holding me back from addressing problems directly.

How can I build the fortitude to tackle through conversations without fear or avoidance? What do we got on this? Well, first of all, you have to realize that unless you can have conversations direct, you're going to have tremendous limits on how far you can go with your career and your life. You know, a lot of people hide from the difficult conversations, which really aren't difficult. They're just conversations, um,

Because they label them as difficult up front. So it keeps them from wanting to have the conversation. It keeps them, you know, procrastinating. And then what ends up happening is they end up living in a situation that they are very unhappy with and unfulfilled with and frustrated with. All because, you know, for whatever reason, they've been conditioned to believe that these kind of conversations are difficult.

I don't know not worth having and the reality is is we all know the conversations that need to be had we all know Where we want to go and what we're trying to do and that takes being a clear communicator and direct and if you would stop labeling these things as quote-unquote hard or difficult conversations and just see them as Conversations that need to be had to progress where you are trying to take your life It removes a lot of the resistance that you would normally have to that now

How do you get good at that? First of all, you need to reframe like we're talking about here where you say instead of having I need to have a difficult conversation You see say hey man, I gotta have a conversation with you Okay, that's the first thing you have to recognize and there's a trade-off on the back end of having that conversation which may be

you know, the conversation does cause some anxiety or maybe it is a little bit uncomfortable, but there's a flip side to that that comes down the pipe where you get to be way more comfortable. So it's no different than any other hurdle in life. It's no different than, you know, working through any sort of obstacle or difficulty. Once you get past it, there is a better existence for

On the other side of that. So you have to understand that. And secondly. It's practice dude. You know. When you first do anything. It's not comfortable. You know. The first time I ever gave a talk in front of people. I was scared shitless. The first time I ever did anything. I wasn't very good at it. So if you've been avoiding having these conversations. Avoiding having these. You know. Discussions that need to be had. It's going to be uncomfortable in the beginning. But the more you do it.

the easier it gets. So you have to muster up that courage in the beginning to make sure that you actually follow through and have these conversations. And if you don't, dude, your relationship's going to suffer. You're going to be with someone that you really don't want to be with. You're not going to make as much money as you want to make. Your life may be okay, but it's never going to be great. And I think, honestly, this question and this difficulty is one of the things that...

you know, really holds people back the most. A lot of people have it. Yeah, for sure, dude. I think most people have it. You know, they don't want to hurt someone's feelings. They don't want to be seen a certain way. And at some point in time, you got to be a little selfish. You got to say, hey, man, this is my life. I have to say the things that are going to get me to where I want to go. And you have to quit putting them off for the sake of how other people are going to react. And you have to let them react the way they're going to react because

And you have to go and do what you think is right for you. And so these are these are difficult things to do when you haven't done them. And, you know, it just comes with practice. It comes with time. And, you know, I had struggled with this when I was younger, when I was

You know, early in my business life, early in my life, these things were very hard. And, you know, as you move through life and you have more situations that you have to address, it becomes easier and easier and easier. Yeah, for sure. I think a lot of it is, like you said, they put too much pressure on what the other person is going to think. And I've been in those situations. You bring it up, like, fuck, man. You bring it up, it's like, oh.

Wasn't that bad? Yeah, well and also dude a lot of times we're dealing with people that don't know how to react or are highly emotional or very selfish people who You know only care about themselves yet to remember that like most people are fucking selfish, dude So like they don't give a shit whether or not it's hurting you or as long as they're getting what they want and

You know, that's a whole different story. That's a story of not having that person in your vicinity, in your network, in your life. Because when you're surrounded by people who don't care how much you suffer for the sake of their, you know, homeostasis in their life, you know, that's a problem. I've also heard you two say this, and I mean, I don't know if it applies to this, but I've seen you do this in action where you focus on just the intent.

Right. Like, are we trying to fix the problem? Like, what's the what's the actual problem? Yeah. And that's what you put at the forefront. Anytime you have to have any. I've seen you do this thousands of times. Yeah. Is this is this pretty much. Yeah. I mean, that's a part of it. Right, dude. Like, you know, you're going to hurt less feelings when you are trying to get the proper outcome for everybody involved. Right. You know, yeah.

A lot of people, like I just said, are very selfish, dude. And they want what is best for them, no matter what it means to the people around them. And those people don't belong in your life. But if you have the right people in your life and you're able to deliver a message with the proper intent of delivering

you know creating a better circumstance for you and the other party now we're in a situation of just having an adult conversation it doesn't need to be painful it doesn't need to be emotional it doesn't need to be this big argument it's just hey look dude this isn't working or this needs to be changed and the outcome on the other side of that is going to be better for everybody 100 man i think the other cool like i mean we talk about reasons why people have problems with this this situation too and

You know, we got to put some onus on the person trying to have this conversation. If you ain't got your shit together, it's kind of hard to have a difficult conversation about somebody else that ain't got their shit together. Yeah. Right? Like, I think you said before, like, you got to hold yourself accountable to hold anybody else accountable. Yeah. And so, I mean, I think that, I feel like that might be another reason where, like, you know, the reason you don't want to have the conversation is because you know your shit ain't right. Well, it's definitely a reason in the, in the...

realm of leadership Okay, a lot of people suck at leading because they know that they're not even leading themselves and if you can't lead yourself You can't lead other people and if you try to lead other people when you're not leading yourselves They're gonna see right through it They're not gonna respect you and you're gonna have a very difficult time and that doesn't matter if it's a leadership situation on a team or in business or in your household and

You can't hold other people accountable to things that you're not holding yourself accountable to. So this is a big, you know, you're pointing out something that is a big problem for a lot of people. It causes them to hesitate to lead and it should, you know. So to be a good leader, you know, in all situations, you've got to have your shit together as much as you're asking other people to have theirs. 100%, man. Well, I hope that helps. Let's get to question number two. Andy, I'm a 45-year-old teacher who loves my work.

but after two decades, I'm realizing I've neglected my personal aspirations outside the classroom. I used to dream of writing a novel, but now it feels like too much time has passed and I don't know if I still have it in me. How do I reignite that passion and give myself permission to dream again? Start. The reason you still have this

vision and this dream in the back of your mind is because you never started it. You never went out and chased it.

What you're experiencing is what most people will experience at the end of their life about their entire life. All right. It's a sense of regret. It's a sense of missed opportunity. It's a sense of, oh, I should have or I could have, but I didn't. And there's going to be nothing worse than that at the end of your life. And I would say that you experiencing it now is a good thing rather than you figuring that out when you're 80. Now, to the point of not having enough time, we have 80 years left.

Basically on this earth, so you're not even barely halfway through your time so

What are you talking about? You don't have time. You don't have time to write a fucking novel, bro. Like, you could probably write 50 novels between now and the time that you're going to have, and you could be known as one of the greatest writers that ever lived. But you're too busy second-guessing yourself, thinking you don't have time, telling yourself all these bullshit excuses that aren't real. And because you're doing that, it's going to ultimately create a situation where you're frustrated, upset, and regretful about your entire existence.

So my advice to you would be to start. Most people can't do that. Most people can't start. So sit down, pull out your computer, open up fucking Microsoft Word and dance your fingers across the keyboard and get whatever it is in your heart and your head down on paper. And who knows what you're going to create? You might create the best, one of the best literary pieces of all time. You might, you

Like I said, you might be known. You might have a whole different career. But you're never going to know that unless you go. And that goes for anybody out there that has things they want to do. Most people don't go and they don't chase their dreams because the people around them tell them shit that just isn't true. Hey, be realistic. What do you think you're going to do? Become J.K. Rowling? Right.

You had a great career. You need to be thankful. Don't forget where you came from, right? We hear all this shit every day from a bunch of losers, and it gets in our heart and our mind, and it causes us to hesitate. So you're...

Goal here is to realize that we only have one existence. We only have one opportunity and you need to ask yourself, what are you going to value at the end of your life? Are you going to value the work that you did? Are you going to value the things that you created or are you going to value doing what everybody else expected of you?

Which isn't going to be that, okay? I'm just going to give you a cliff notes. It's not going to be the second thing. It's going to be the first thing. All of our value as human beings come from what we contribute and what we create, not just in the world, but also of ourselves, right? What do we build ourselves into? What do we fix in ourselves? What do we overcome? You see, we live in this victim society where everybody has a sad story about what they couldn't

do because of this circumstance, but that's not the shit that's going to fulfill us or make us proud or really make our lives matter at all. What's going to matter is what do we overcome? What dream do we accomplish? What dream do we chase and not accomplish? And what do we learn? These are the things that are going to be important as we go. Who do we help with that? Who do we teach from our failures? How do we help them avoid the same mistakes we've had? Like these things are the things that ultimately matter, dude.

And at the end of the day, you have to look yourself in the mirror and say, what am I proud of, dude? What am I thankful that I actually did? And you're a teacher, that's great. You're probably helping people. You're probably helping people overcome and do all these things. But what about you, dude?

You know what I'm saying? Like, what is it that... And there's no reason that you can't be a teacher and a writer. Some of the greatest writers that ever wrote anything were teachers. They were professors. You know, consequently, some of the worst, too. But, you know... You can make you be different. Yeah. Right, right. Yeah, bro. Yeah. I want to ask you this, man, and I don't know if you want to go into the story, but I'm going to say this, and you make the decision here, right? But, like, you...

You had an experience where you came to this realization, man, that you were swimming against the river. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. And like you said, I mean, most people don't get that ever. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? But like, you gotta like live in that purpose, right? So, so, uh,

So I ate a whole bunch of mushrooms. I didn't want to say that. Yeah, like an obscene amount, all right? And I'm not recommending that you young guys do that. I never did that until I was well into my 40s. But here's the story, okay? At the time, I was really struggling with some depression and some hard mental struggles. I was exhausted all the time. At the time, I was trying to...

Sort of fly under the radar like I had become pretty well known Especially in the speaking world and the entrepreneur world and I didn't like it. I didn't like people knowing everything about me I was very uncomfortable with it. I started to withdraw from people and Instead of feeling refreshed instead of feeling like oh this feels good. It was the opposite. I felt Exhausted I felt like I was drained all the time and

Some of my buddies who have gone through depression episodes or struggle with depression or PTSD,

Long story short, they sort of convinced me to try mushrooms because they had had good success with it in terms of helping with that situation. And I accidentally took way too many, way, way too many, because I didn't know how to dose it outright. And guys, I'm not saying go do drugs. I know there's a lot of young people that listen here.

And I'm not advocating for that. It's just something I was trying to see if it would help me. And I ended up having this like super crazy life altering reflective vision, actually like five or six of these visions. But the first one that I saw was me in a river. And when you're having these situations or these visions on psychedelics, like it's like

It's not like you have to be convinced. It's not like you have to... What you're seeing is sort of being downloaded into you. And so you understand what the vision means. It's not like when you're looking at a painting and you're like, what's that mean to you? What's that mean to you? It's like getting downloaded into you. Like this is what it is. Yes. I knew exactly what it was telling me. And so it showed me in a river and...

i was swimming upstream okay and and and like dude i'm like exhausted like i'm barely able to do it right and then it showed me swimming down the river and in the river there was all these rocks okay and when it showed me swimming up the river the the current was pushing me into the rocks all right but when i started swimming down the river it showed that i could swim around the rocks

And what it was telling me was, hey, bro, you're here for a reason. You're here to inspire people. You're here to help people. You can guide yourself around the parts that you don't like, but you need to embrace your role in this world as someone that other people learn from, you know,

Basically, I'm a teacher is what it was saying and like bro and i'm gonna be well known for it And I can't fight that aspect of it because it's inevitable And if I stop fighting it, I will feel better and dude I stopped fighting it. Guess what? I felt better so And and I say all that to say this dude, like we have a purpose here. We have a reason here I believe that And I believe that when we fight that

We feel bad and when we go with it, we feel good and that's what that vision was showing me And I know I want to say this again, dude, like if you're 20 years old or 25 years old or even 30 This is not something that you should fuck around with because you don't even have the right perspective to understand where you are in life to to develop

understanding of what you need to do so you have to have past perspective to understand these things right otherwise it's just going to be some hallucinating and you're going to be like holy shit and then you got to shit yeah right yeah no but but dude like i i just don't want to come across as like you know because i know there's so many young people like dude this is something that i was looking at as an alternative to you know antidepressants and things like that and um

And, you know, that's what it's all. Sometimes we got to fucking just go with what it is we're supposed to do. And I believe that we understand who we're supposed to be and we know who we're supposed to be. But most of us are afraid to let that out. Most of us are afraid to become that badass version of ourselves that lives in our heart that nobody knows about. And we're too afraid to express because we think we're going to get laughed at.

That version of ourselves is actually what we're here to do and everybody runs and hides and is afraid of it When in reality dude, once you go for that your everything changes your entire life changes the way you see yourself changes the way other people see you changes and Your success in all areas of life becomes more fulfilling You know and and you become proud of yourself in a completely different way so

Yeah. I mean, it's just, you know, sometimes, you know what you need to do. You're just afraid to do it and you got to fucking go. Yeah. I love it, man. I love it, guys. Andy, let's do our third and final question. Question number three. Happy New Year.

Happy New Year. Andy, I'm taking major action this year on changing the culture of our company as it is currently toxic. I have constant turnover in my CSR position. I know it's because of the culture. My questions are two parts. One, how do you transform the culture of a company when bad habits are in place?

I'm not tolerating the behavior I've been accepting for so long now by standing firm and putting action behind my words, by writing employees up, letting people go if they don't adopt new behaviors to work as a team. But is there anything specific that you would suggest? And then the second question, second part is what's the best advice you can give on how to replicate myself?

I am drowning in the weeds and can't seem to find the person with a work ethic to fit the standards I need for the job. I know the interview process is everything, so I've been developing my interviewing skills. But do you have any advice on that topic? This show has been on repeat as I've learned so much. Thank you. God bless. Well, look, man, I.

First off, teaching culture in your company, that's like something that you would hire me to consult on. Okay. And just so you guys know, the MFCEO project is launching. We're going to tackle that in depth on that show many different times. I could do a week long podcast, 24 hours a day on how to do this. So it's not something I can answer in a 10 minute answer. But I will tell you this.

You need to get rid of all the cancer. Okay? When you get cancer in your body, what do they do? They cut it the fuck out. Fucking nuke it. And I'm going to tell you this. Most of the people that you have that are...

expressing bad behavior, bad attitude. They're not going to change and they're not going to go anywhere because they don't have any options to go anywhere. They're really, they just don't have the skills. They don't have the attitude. They're going to stick with you as long as possible because it's going to be hard for them to go somewhere else. They don't have the options. Great employees have lots of options. Shitty, bad culture employees don't. So that's one thing you have to understand. They're not going to go away without you getting rid of them.

Secondly, those people are very likely not going to change no matter what. So you have to understand you're not going to take someone with a cancerous attitude, poor work ethic, low skill and transform them into a superstore. I know you think that that's what happens, but it very rarely happens. What most of the time happens is that these people go from place to place, to place, to place, to place, wrecking everybody's shit.

and then blaming the world for why they can't get anywhere. And they can't see that it's them. All right. And that's why the same situation or similar situation happens to them over and over and over and over again in every job and every relationship. And, you know, it's a victim entitlement mentality, right? It's not me. It's the world. Okay. So it's a hard thing to change. You can't change it. It's a character flaw in the human that very rarely changes.

So just understand that you will beat your head against the wall. And like, dude, the worst part is, is some of these people are highly likable. Some of these people are fun to be around, but when they get any sort of pressure or any sort of stress or any sort of, um,

they're assigned any sort of project or task or responsibility or duty that they don't like or they don't agree with the way it's done, they fuck your whole system up. Okay? So you have to get rid of these people 100%. There's no other option because I promise you, bro, you're not good enough to turn them around. So understand that. Secondly,

You have to stop accepting poor performance and poor behavior instantly. I would highly recommend you having an all-hands meeting where you lay down what's going to happen and what's not going to happen. And you have to mean it. And when people violate it, you have to fire them or remove them. Writing up one of these people isn't going to...

you know, change the situation. But what will change the situation is, is if you call everybody in, you say, hey, these are the rules. This is what we're doing. This is what we're going to stand by. Here's the value system we're going to operate on. And when one of your best people who sells the most shit for your company violates that, you fire them in front of everybody and everybody knows you ain't fucking around. Oh, shit. Yeah, that's right. They fired one of our top performers because they were a fucking cultural bad fit.

What's that tell everybody else? That tells everybody else that we better have our fucking, you know, our I's dotted and our T's crossed and we better come to work and, you know, contribute, have a good attitude, develop high skill, you know,

And be a contributing member of the company. I'm not gonna be here. All right, so that's a you got to set a standard and stand on it Which most people have a problem doing you're already having a problem doing I'm writing them up writing them up. I'm gonna do shit, bro Like do you stop saying high school man? Listen, man. Do you stop speeding cuz you got a fucking ticket, right? Nobody does all right, so I

We have to understand there's going to be some casualties in this cultural realignment. And then, you know, you have to be clear about what is expected and what is going to be tolerated and how it's going to be enforced. And, you know, what's going to happen when we do the things we're supposed to do. But, dude, ultimately, man, it's about consciously setting what your company stands for with a clear message, clear value system.

and holding that line. And that's what the culture is going to be. And after you do that for so many years, and by the way, it's going to take years, but after you do that for so many years, you're

the culture will start living and breathing on its own, meaning you won't have to enforce it because it will be enforced by the peers of these people, right? When your good employees, your good team members see what's going on with someone who's a bad cultural fit, they will just remove that person automatically. So,

But dude, it's a lifetime commitment. And, you know, the next thing is you got to live that system yourself. Like if you don't live it, it won't be absorbed. Right. People don't do what you tell them to do. They do what you do. And that's a hard concept for people to understand, because just like there's entitlement there.

And the employees, there's entitlement in the operators and the owners and the decision makers. A lot of guys who, you know, they start their own business, they get a couple employees, and they start thinking, well, fuck, I'm the owner. I can do this and I can do that and I can do this. And, you know, those things are things that you wouldn't allow your employees to do. And if that's something that you're doing, right?

you're going to halt the progress of your company right there. This is why so many companies, they make a little bit of progress, they get to a certain level, the owner's making a decent salary, everybody else is eating shit.

And then the company goes backwards and they can't understand, right? And the reason that it goes backwards is because nobody wants to fucking carry all the water while you're out fucking off, dude. Right. They want you to be there with them. They want you to build the team. And the truth of the matter is most operators of small businesses and most quote unquote CEOs, they won't do the work. Right.

You know, they want to hire people. And dude, you see this with these fucking idiots on the internet saying, oh, you're the owner. Like these guys coaching these other entrepreneurs who have never built a business. You can tell because of the way they say shit. Oh, you're the owner. You shouldn't do that. You should just hire people to do that. You know, you should let them do all the work. You don't have to do shit. And it's like, oh, well, I can see why you're a fake entrepreneur coach because you're a fucking idiot. Right.

I want to clarify this too. What you're saying is you can set all the standards you want. You can make them look nice in the lobby and all of that. And you can fire as many people that don't hold themselves to that. But none of that shit will matter if you as the owner operator are not holding this. Yeah. And eventually, yes, 100%. That's what I'm saying. Okay.

But eventually, you know, when you've done it for 20 years and you've, you know, like for me, I'm the chairman of our board. I'm not the fucking CEO anymore. Do I still come in here every day and bust ass? Yeah, I do. Because I want everybody to understand that we're all a part of the team. We all got a shovel and we all got a fucking dig. And that's what the,

The game is I like digging. I like building. I like creating. I love coming to work and doing things with awesome people. I'm very blessed and fortunate to go to war with some of the best motherfuckers on the planet. And I want to be a part of that, but I don't have to. And if I didn't show up here, I don't think they would fucking stop because they understand that I've put 26 years into this. And quite honestly, a lot of our people are like, bro, why don't you just fucking please go? Yeah. Like, why don't you just go do some shit, man? Like, but see, they don't understand that.

I like doing this. I love this because I love the people I do it with and I love the mission that we're on. And if you want to create an amazing culture, you have to love the people that you're doing it with and you have to take pride in their development and you have to want them to win and you have to want to accomplish a mission with them. And, you know...

Most people aren't willing to do that. They have the wrong intent about their business This is like when you ask these people like I can always tell when someone has the wrong intent because I ask them very simply What is the purpose of a business and they will say to make money? That's not the purpose of the business The purpose of a business is to solve problems and you get money for solving those problems And so when you understand that and you could operate inside that intent and that mentality

Here's what we exist for. These are the problems we're trying to solve. Here's our bigger mission. And then you can come in and do that with your team. The culture is going to follow you. But if you say, hey, we're going to change the world and we're going to do all this shit and then you fucking disappear and go on your bass boat,

You know like bro, you're not gonna do shit and not only that your company's gonna fail all the great people that have potential are gonna leave Okay, which brings me to the second question. How do you replicate yourself? Well, are you sure you even want to replicate yourself?

Are you what you want to replicate? That's right. Oh, shit. That's right. So first off, you got to build yourself into that. What happens if you replicated someone who, you know, gave good lip service but didn't do the real work? Who sounded good in front of people but actually didn't execute? Who says we're going to do these things but then, you know, hides in the corner and lets everybody else? Dude, you don't think that everybody fucking sees that? Everybody sees that. Right?

bro have you ever been doing a job outside and you got three or four people around and you could tell the that's you know kind of skating out of the work pretending to be busy carrying the trash away instead of digging the hole like you know we all see it dude and and they see it too and just because you're the owner of the business doesn't mean they're blind and stupid all right they see you coasting so are you sure that you want to replicate that

Because the truth of the matter is, is if you replicate that, your company is going to go out of business. Okay. So the first thing is you need to make sure that you're worth replicating. You're doing all the things like we just said for 10 minutes that you expect other people to do at a high level. And if you are that and you do want to replicate that, the best way to replicate that is to look around.

See who has the potential see who has the hunger see who has the drive who believes in the big vision and

And then spend as much time with them as possible. I'm talking about inside of work and outside of work. Okay. Because creating and replicating yourself is not a nine to four 30 job. All right. It's a total cultural immersion. And again, most owners don't want to do this. They want to clock out and go the fuck home. But dude, I can tell you this.

All of my best people in every single company I've ever owned, I've spent massive amounts of time with inside and outside the work. And I consider those people some of my best friends in the world, which creates a better bond, which creates a better culture anyway. So you have to convert yourself in the mind from I own this company to I'm responsible for these people's success. Okay. And it's not...

I'm here to make money for me. It's I'm here to make sure that these guys make a great living and that these guys can provide for their families and these guys can hit their goals because when you take your intent and you switch it on to them, guess what happens? They reciprocate and they help build your dreams as well. So it's about putting the other people in front of you and

And then making sure that you follow through on those promises. And they will follow through on their obligation as well. It's the law of reciprocity. But ultimately, dude...

You know, you got to become a coach. You can't just be a quote unquote boss at work. It's, and I would, I would highly recommend that you guys stop calling yourselves the boss and shit. Like, bro, you're just a member of the team and your, your, your responsibilities are no more important than, than these guys' responsibilities. It takes everybody row in the same direction and it takes humility, right? Like,

Yeah, you might be the CEO, but what's the CEO's role? The CEO's role is to make sure that we don't drive the ship into a fucking iceberg and we actually get where we're trying to go and that everybody else behind us is all rowing and they've got enough food and they've got enough water and they've got enough. They understand where they got to go. And by the way, when one of them gets sick and can't row the right way, guess who gets to row? You. Okay.

Okay, so like it's just a it's just a different kind of thinking that most people don't have because they're so engulfed in their own ego and their own importance that They can't understand like bro. You're just a part of the team You're you're the fucking you're the coach calling the play to the quarterback and everybody's got an equal Responsibility to execute. You know what I'm saying? Business is a team sport, bro it really is and just because you

happen to be, you know, the owner of the team doesn't mean that you don't have a responsibility to be a very important part of the team on a day by day basis. If you want a great team. I love it. Yeah. So it's, it's dude, it's, you know, to answer the second part of the question is very simple. Make sure that you're worth replicating, spend a lot of time with them, mentor them, teach them, be there, you know, their, their uncle, right. Or their big brother that helps them understand not just how to execute a

in the office, but also in life, right? And a lot of people just won't do that. I love it, man. Love it. Guys, that's a hell of a way to start a Monday, man. Yeah, guys. All right, look, we got a CTI tomorrow. I'll see you guys tomorrow.