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

There has to be transformation in us as business owners if we want to take our business to the next level. We cannot go further than our current self can take what we're doing. In order to go further, we've got to be different. We grew a business from seven figures to 100 million, and he would say, I'm not the CEO today that the business needs me to be 12 months from now. But by the time we get there, you can count on the fact that I will be. Brett Gilliland is the founder and CEO of Elite Entrepreneurs. where he helps business owners scale and grow their companies. With a background in leadership and business strategy, he is known for coaching entrepreneurs on building strong teams and sustainable growth. By 10 million, you have to have a full-on leadership team. You can have a lot of vision, but if you don't have these systems that help turn it into reality, it's not happening. If you create a great system that, with the right person, can replicate or near to replicate what you can do as that superpower entrepreneur founder, then that releases a bunch of worry from you that if I let go, it's all going to fall apart. If you're still doing something that you were doing 12 months ago, you might be holding on too long. What does a true CEO do that most business owners don't even think about? What is up, the Entrepreneur DNA family? This is a good one. And as always, these episodes are brought to you by the Entrepreneur DNA community. It's a community chock full of you, the entrepreneurs, the early stage entrepreneurs, the small businesses, the medium businesses. It is you that make the world go round. And my guests, such as the one we have today, are the advisors that help everyone in this group. So go to the entrepreneur dna.com right now. Get into this group. It's less than a gym membership and you get access to these brilliant advisors that I have access to. So we are going to jump right in because this gentleman has been for over 14 years helping, training, advising, coaching business owners, founders, to get the hustle out of their business and turn it into a real business by becoming a real CEO, getting them north of $10 million in revenue a year. Brett Gleeland is here. How are you? Very good, Justin. Happy to be here. Thank you. So I like the phrase. I've heard this phrase and I don't know where I got it, but take the hustler. The hustler's got to die for you to be able to start running a business. Does that resonate with you? Yes, absolutely. And I mean, it's sad, but it's also amazing, right? Because just like, you know, the caterpillars got to go into the cocoon and come out the butterfly. Like there has to be transformation in us as business owners if we want to take our business to the next level. Transformation in the business requires transformation in the business owner. It's just absolutely the truth. And so we're here to celebrate that instead of like, mourn it. Let's celebrate that we get to change. We get to level up, and so do our businesses. You know, I sit at some very awesome tables, and I'm sure you do as well. And now we get to sit at the same table since we're here on the Entrepreneur DNA. But one of the things one of my mentors years ago taught me is the guy who got you here needs to die to become the guy who gets you there. And a lot of times it's very cliche of what got you here won't get you there. That is a statement that we've probably all heard at some point in our lives. But I like the image that you just brought up of a butterfly, right? Because it reminded me immediately the moment my mentor told me this. I can tell you the conference room we're in at the hotel. It was like, Justin, the guy who got you to where you're sitting today right now in this seat has to die. Because you need to become a version of yourself that you are not yet. And you have to create that version. And you need to be able to do that to get to where you want to go. Well, we all have to hear that some way that connects with us, that resonates with us. I love the way that your mentor said it, like, that guy's got to die before you can become who you're trying to become. For some reason, I threw that butterfly thing out there. That's the first time literally in 14 years that I've ever used that particular analogy for this show. I bring it out of you. I'm sitting here thinking, I hope that somebody listening connects with that way of saying it, because however you need to hear it, you've got to hear that truth that Justin just said. We cannot go further than our current self can take what we're doing. In order to go further, we got to be different. We have to be different. Yeah. Letting go of control is a big one, right? I think we are all stuck in our identity to some extent, and especially your role, you take the business seller that's likely doing seven figures, low seven figures, maybe even high six figures, but you're trying to get them to north of 10 million, which is a totally different number and is challenging to get to. The person that started the business that is now making two, three, four, five million dollars to the person who needs to get it past the 10 million mark, a lot of times it's the control or the identity I think they cling on to. right like oh i you know my business doing five million in revenue and our kpis are this cost of acquisition and da da da da and they're so prideful and it's their identity and it's who they are well you gotta let go of that yeah even if they're not like so prideful around it you're right the identity is inseparable with that business it's it's almost like the siamese twin thing where the business owner and the business are inseparably connected and we got to do this delicate surgery to get them apart and not have either one of them die. It's that intertwined. And we've got to figure out how to breathe life into the business independent of the business owner and have the business owner's identity and self-worth not be tied in, like completely connected to that business. You're totally right. I had a friend that I, he was the founder and I was the right hand to the CEO, but we grew a business from seven figures to 100 million. And he would say, I'm not the CEO today that the business needs me to be 12 months from now. But by the time we get there, you can count on the fact that I will be. His constant push for learning and growing, like pushing himself to become that next level CEO was the right mindset and very admirable. But most of us hang on to what we know. And we get those little endorphin hits when we like get that sale or we solve that problem or, you know, we do the thing that got the business to where it is right now and it feels great. But if we live off of that, we're just going to get stuck. Yeah, you just used the word live off of, like it's kind of the Al Bundy. If you live off the memory of what you've done, like again, a lot of cliches coming out to you guys, like you're only as good as your last movie. right? But the next movie could be a totally different character and you need to learn in all that. And so I don't want to go down this movie analogy, but like, that's part of this, right? Well, in, in, um, you brought up your, your ex business partner and the CEO was a big student. How to be like, what did he do that you do? Yeah. Yeah. CEO to get to a hundred million. What was he doing? Was it coaching masterminds, psychologists, like all the above. Like what was he tactically doing to get himself from a, let's just say, I don't even know when you say seven figure, let's say $5 million a year to a hundred million. Yeah. So what, what he did? Yeah. So yes to all of that. He, he read books. This guy cranked out four books or six books a quarter. I almost said the wrong thing. Six books a quarter. He, so two a month, right? He was always learning. This was before podcasts, right? I mean, we have it so easy today. We could sit and listen to stuff now. But just constantly learning from the best minds, the latest thinking. He did join the mastermind groups back in the day. It was early in the strategic coach days, but he did strategic coach. He went to advisors, Michael Gerber, which is ancient history now, but back then he was one of the thought leaders in making these transformations, right? And so he was like, don't just be the technician. You have to learn how to be the entrepreneur. And anyway, so we spent time with Michael Gerber. We spent time, like we, we stroked checks and spent time with Jim Collins. We spent time with Vern Harnish, like all, all the people who knew what to do, we spent time with them. One time he and I got on a plane and went and visited Tony Hsieh at Zappos. Again, these are older names, but, but we went and learn from those who were doing it. And we just spent a lot of money doing it. The most expensive, or I shouldn't even think of it as expensive, the biggest investment that he made was $150,000 check a year at the time for a personal coach, a high-powered coach who was called the ultimate coach. He's since retired from that business, but it was Steve Hardison was his name. Anyway, high-powered coaches, all the greatest thought leaders, we invested heavily to make sure that our business was not going to be capped by our ignorance. I think there's always a path that someone has been there before. And everyone listening to this right now, if you are somewhere you aren't happy with yet, that is the shorter path. Cut a check, right? Whether it's Brett, who has been coaching for 14 years, these executives and founders to turn into CEOs or whoever it may be. The fastest path to get to where you want is the path already traveled that every Brett knows where the potholes are. He knows where the snake's coming out to bite you. He knows all that. You don't have to be bit by the snake to learn the lesson. So it's imperative, all of you. I stroke six figures a year, six figures a year to my own self-improvement. Now that is a combination of business coaches, masterminds, psychologists, right? I think I really believe in getting yourself right, right? In a big way to help, again, kill the guy who got you here because he can't get you to the next phase. And so I'm not telling everyone to go to psychologists, maybe it'd be a good idea. But, you know, even just the behavioral health stuff. Right. And so I think it's imperative that you guys reach out to Brett at a minimum just to have a conversation, what he does and how he does it, because. To get to where you need to be, you need to make investments. Right. You said it right in that all have to be one hundred fifty grand, but, you know, something is better than nothing. What's the biggest gap that you've seen doing what you do from a company that does one million to ten million? So I'll mention a couple of things. You already hit one of them. And you can call it control, or you can just call it being integral to the core machine of the business. The creation has consumed the creator. The creator's just completely intertwined in how that business works. And so because of that, it runs great, it works, but it's limited at how far the arms can stretch of that founder. It's like, I can't keep my arms around it anymore. Yeah, you tapped out what that system can produce. And so you got to extract that business owner from the way it happens to make sure that there ability to grow further The other thing that I call out and it related is that by 10 million you have to have a full on leadership team You can't be of the mindset that more people equals more headaches, right? More people, more problems. Like if you have that mindset, you're stuck in the past. You're going to be stuck in this hub and spoke model or the lone genius with a bunch of supporters. You're not going to get there. If your business requires more people to grow, you've got to develop typically functional leadership teams. By the time you're at 10 million, you've got a full-blown leadership team. And you are setting vision as the business owner, as the CEO. you're setting vision, you're building team, and you're getting the resources to make that vision a reality, right? Those are the hats we keep. We don't get to keep any other hats. You're setting vision, you're building team, you're getting resources to be able to fund or fuel that vision. And that's where you need to be. And if you're stuck doing other things, and you don't have capable leaders leading their pieces, then you're not going to get there. I think most founders think they always need to be the leader, right? And I think what you're saying right now and how I hear it and how I know it is the sooner the CEO can start to let go of needing to be the leader in all the different departments, marketing and sales and research and development and, you know, toilet cleaning and financial, whatever, the faster the business can grow, right? And so having that team is really critical, but what is the CEO's real role at scale? And I qualify $10 million business at a point of scale because you could potentially, depending upon the vertical and what you're doing, you could potentially get your nine figure payday, right? When you're at 10, there, there's a direct line that potentially you have to get to a hundred million. Yeah. What is the CEO's real role in your opinion at that size? Yeah. And I may have hit, I may have brushed over it lightly or quickly, but I literally see the CEO role being boiled down to those responsibilities that they cannot, they cannot and should not give to others entirely. But every leader in the company should be doing their version of setting vision, which to me, that means something very specific. So it's getting clear on the purpose, the values, the mission, the mission goals of that business. So purpose and values kind of happen one time, somewhere typically early in that seven-figure business. And it's like, who are we really as a business? Like we got off the ground, this thing's working, but what's our shared identity built around? And it's this reason, this purpose, this powerful, I would say, motivation and fuel that drives everything that we do, and then these core values that make up how we operate. So that core identity has to be totally etched in stone. We got to know who that is, and then we're going to hire lead and fire to it forevermore. And then the specific mission and mission goals, I don't mean like an open-ended mission statement. I mean, here's where we're going over the next three years. And the more you can co-create, you can bring in the right people to co-create that mission and mission goals, then you're going to have a lot of shared ownership, shared buy-in from that team. And you're going to be much more likely to make that happen. So the job becomes, keep waving this banner of the vision forevermore, right? And then get the right people in. Your job is to build the team and get the resources to make that vision a reality. That's what you should be doing as a CEO. So not selling, as fun as that is for many of you, right? It's not selling. It's not product development. It's not member or client success. It's building others and getting resources to make that future reality that you want to create together a possibility. That's how you contribute, is bringing the right people and the right resources to bear to make that happen. Yeah. And when you have people, the nice part is then there can be some implementation of systems. When you're the hustler, you are literally to your point, you're the sales guy, you're the accountant, you are the marketing chief officer, you're hustling. And I'm not totally sure where the hustler breaks and turns into the CEO because you can hustle your way to a million dollars a year. That is for sure. I've seen people hustle to like three and four million, like extraordinary hustlers. I've seen them do that. But yeah, you're right. Somewhere it breaks somewhere yeah and that's where you need to get into systems right i think that's where you can as a ceo i believe now you have a system you can say okay the marketing this is the system that we need to run the sales the system the research and development the system the you know all the different things um but it doesn't happen by just working harder it happens more from an actual structure of following a process right you're absolutely right and i and i thank you for bringing me back to that. I skipped that. I went from hustle to leadership team, right? But the in-between is the systems work that you're talking about. Yeah. And in fact, as part of our company building teaching, right, the way that our company building system is four systems, actually. We teach them a strategy execution system. We teach a goal tracking system to align everybody's effort and have everybody own stuff and be accountable, right? And we teach a people and culture system and a leadership system. These four systems help that one-page strategy plan become a reality. You can have a lot of vision, but if you don't have these systems that help turn it into reality, it's not happening. And then as soon as we can build these systems as fast as we can, we're handing them off to capable leaders, to capable people to help push them forward. How do business owners, founders who are not yet at the place of what we would believe define as a CEO, how do they start to remove the control issue? How do they start to get out of their own way to let the team run the actual system? Yeah. So it comes through confidence that it's not going to fall apart without you. And that's a big step. And it's part of what the system enables, right? If you create a great system that with the right person can replicate or near to replicate what you can do as that super-powered entrepreneur founder, then that releases a bunch of worry from you. That if I let go, it's all going to fall apart. Well, if you put the right system in place with the right person, that same outcome can happen. And so once you see that the system's there, and I've put a great person in there, now I can see with confidence that it's happening, and I can actually emotionally let go of that, right? And confidently go, okay, now I can focus on another part of the business, build another system. So that act of system plus paired with a capable human being, somebody other than you as the founder, that's what starts to let you release. Along with good coaching or psychological help, like you said it, whatever you have to do to mentally and emotionally disconnect from that, But it's not going to be a cross your fingers moment because you're going to have built the thing that is repeatable. And then you're going to find the right person to come in and make that happen without you. Is there a world where a CEO almost becomes a cultural leader? Like they just need to lean into building the best culture possible and allow the executive teams now just to run the play. but all they care about is here's what we're doing here's why we're doing it here's our purpose like you just become almost a cultural cheerleader to say is there a world that that would make sense yeah uh in fact you're giving me permission to dig deeper into one of those systems i quickly mentioned was the people in culture system like there's their strategy execution most people go i know what that is there's goal tracking system like okay i know people need to know what their job is and what the measurable results are and be accountable to that. But this people and culture system can be a little fuzzy. And I use the term hire, lead, and fire to the vision. And earlier I said the first thing that we're going to do as a seven-figure leader that wants to become a capable business-building CEO is to get clear on that shared identity of the company. And that's at the core of culture, the shared identity of purpose and values. Here's why we do this. Here's why it has meaning, impact, significance. Here's why other great people should want to be part of this. And here's our way of being, right? Our values. That shared identity of our core driver, our purpose, our meaning, our impact, and our shared way of being in the values. That makes up the core of our culture. And then everything we do to build this company builds on top of that. And we become, yeah, you've heard this again, more cliches, but the chief culture officer, you become the preserver of that shared identity in how we hire, in who we hire, in how we lead, and when we choose to fire somebody, right? When somebody goes against the grain of that core identity, they can't be there. So we either got to course correct them quickly, or they've got to be off the ship, right? They can't be part of this. So yeah, culture is so essential to the growth in the future, because every single person you add in the future is either going to strengthen or add to what you're doing or they're going to take away from or detract from what you're building. And if you get the wrong person or too many of the kind of wrong people, you start to put big cracks in your cultural foundations. Like taking a jackhammer and just saying this precious thing that we built, we don't need that anymore. And it's like the path to all of it crumbling. I want to jump into kind of this whole concept that I don't know how I feel about it after, you know, I run the community entrepreneur DNA. And so I talk a lot of entrepreneurs, vertical agnostic, everyone wants to scale. I want to scale. It's like, it's like a clickbait word, right? Like, Oh, that's the sexy word scale. I'm not totally sure everyone should, but I do know what they want and what they do don't line up most often. Why do founders, entrepreneurs, business owners, why do they somewhat sabotage their ability to scale a company? Why do they sabotage it? I think they sabotage it unknowingly, right? I think that's inferred in the question. They sabotage it unknowingly because they have to either give up too much control, like you said before. I can't be somebody I'm not, and so, well, I'm just this way. And they try to force it, and by forcing it, they sabotage it, right? It just kind of self-destructs a little. That's extreme. These people can build great businesses still. They might even push, they might push all the way close to 10 million or even further but at some point They hit the point where the force the push will not do it anymore And so they sabotage it by forcing it And they also sabotage it by not building something that is healthy and can sustain growth. So for me, culture is really at the heart of it. If you don't care about people, if you don't want to create a great company, you can create a financially successful company that isn't great, what I would call great. But it's more likely that you'll create a great sustainable company if you focus on building it from the start the right way, with a great culture, with the people that you want to help grow and have success. It's pretty magical when you get the pieces right, and it's really hard to make happen when you don't. So the sabotage comes, and thinking It's about sales and marketing. It's all about pushing that next revenue idea, which you do have to do. You do have to sell. You do have to market. But if you do it in the wrong ways, it's just transactional and you won't get the real lift that comes from having great people who are in pursuit of great outcomes together. So I don't know. I think you're saying it without saying it, but I think the breaking point is when they know when to let go of control. Yeah. You know, what's the moment we're holding on stops their ability to scale? How would you know? If someone's like, they're on a trajectory, but they're still controlling it, when can they look in the mirror and say, I'm at that precipice. I'm on that edge of like, if I keep control, my business isn't really going to achieve what it possibly could if I actually started to let go control. How can they recognize that? Well, we're back to where we started, right? So let's, I have one more story I want to share that I think answers this. I had a podcast for a few years. I love that you provide this service. And one of my guests said something I'll never forget. His name is Noah. Noah said, and they were growing super fast. And here's the way that he framed it. He said, every six months, I would look at what I was doing. And if I was still doing something that I had been doing six months ago, I knew I was hanging on to it too long. There you go. Let's flip to the other side of it. Instead of the holding on part of it, he was intentionally pushing things off his plate every six months. Otherwise, they couldn't scale as fast as they were moving. yeah so i guess the point of control is when you hang on to something you're still doing something that you've been doing you know pick your time frame maybe you don't want to grow so fast that you have to let go every six months but take that principle and apply it to your time frame if you're still doing something that you were doing 12 months ago you might be holding on too long right if you're still doing something you were doing 24 months ago you're definitely holding on too long. And again, I don't know where your timeframe is. Depends on the speed of your business and your opportunity to really grow. But there's some point in the past where you were doing something you're doing today. And if that's going for too long, then you're holding on too long. I like the six-month benchmark too. That really means a lot. As someone who started several company a lot of companies understanding that there should be some time expectation of when you can recognize like oh you're still washing the toilets okay you gotta you gotta move on right um i like that six among mark i think that's a fair fair number what is the real reason seven figure businesses never become ten figure businesses um they don't become ten million seven figure to eight figure but a million plus yeah they don't because because they because they don't let go oh it's as simple as that yeah they don't let go i mean we've been we've been swirling around that over and over again my my that same ceo friend that i told you was working to reinvent himself constantly he said entrepreneurship is an exercise in relinquishing control. Yeah. Buy yourself as frequently as you possibly can. Yeah. That's why they don't make it. Yes. There are market realities. Yes. There are product realities. Some businesses don't make it because they don't have the real market opportunity that can take them there. They're a nice local service business. In a smaller town, smaller market where there's just not more, right? They would have to go open another location, another market, which they could do, but some of them kind of settle into this place. They're like, you know what? I've got a great business, great team, great culture. We make great margins and I'm just not gonna do the work that is necessary to grow to 10 million plus. I can respect that. That's a choice, no problem. But if the opportunity's there and the desire's there and they're not getting there, yes, there's product. Yes, there's market. Yes, there's all the things that we still have to figure out. But most of them, it's because they can't reinvent themselves. they can't look what does a true ceo do that most business owners don't even think about what they do that most ceos don't even think about they take um they a personal off-site and um morning routines that are very very consistent so they they get clear over and over again clarity is the name of the game at that level. And they just keep getting clear for themselves and everyone around them. And that clarity breeds confidence in themselves first, and then everyone else around them. So clarity and confidence comes through personal clarity routines. I'm talking about personal off-sites, where not only am I not coming into the office that day, but I'm getting away so that I can think clearly and creatively. And it's a little bit like I'm going to go to the top of the mountain and come back with some answers. But instead of coming back with the answers, they come back with clarity and then they go into those same clarity routines with their team. And so every quarter, we're going to get off site and we're not going to talk about the day-to-day challenges. We're going to talk about where we said we were going together and we're going to assess where we're at right now. And so they do these clarity and confidence routines individually, and then they do that with their teams. And then they get specific plans, and then they shove everything else out of the way, and they just focus on that. You yourself have hired coaches for your entire career. You've paid a lot of money to these coaches. Mm-hmm. What do you see as a common thread for these coaches? that you can pinpoint? What would be a common thread for the handful of coaches that you said you mentioned earlier that has created their success? They have a way, right? They have systems. They have some way that they organize the world to make things work for their service. And they teach that way and they do it really well, right? And so, for example, I'm working with somebody right now who has a way. So we have a couple of coaches right now. So you said, you've done this before. We have a couple right now. One of them is teaching us how to be really great at establishing, nurturing JV partnerships, partnership approach, right? Like, I need to get better at that. I'm going to hire somebody who knows the way, who knows how to do that. And so they're helping us with that. Another one, we do these great events. We're about to host, I know podcasts don't always air in precise ways, right? But we're about to host our 44th consecutive quarterly event. Quarter after quarter after quarter, we host these events for seven-figure business owners who want to get together and learn stuff, right? And so we're about to do that. We're not super great at selling those events to people who don't know us. They started out as member fulfillment events, and so our members would come, but selling tickets. So we're working with a group right now that's coaching us on how to fill these types of events with people who should be there. Great. We need help with both of those things. So, I mean, pick a way that you want to get better in your business or your life and find somebody who has a proven path for doing that, that you jive with, right? You can't hire somebody that you're not a good fit with, but find somebody that you're like, I can respect this person. I can learn from this person. And then clear your world. Like change the way that you do stuff to map to what they're teaching you that that's that's how you get there faster how big has is i really lean into controlling yourself can control your business right and so this goes back to the word control it seems to be a very common theme here yeah call it self-mastery i don't care call it whatever yeah i mean that's a better word because i i really believe like my morning routine sets the day yes um you yourself for our coach. I am a coach. We have coached others at a great level. And then we invest in other coaches that are higher and beyond where we're at. What have you seen throughout all that? What is the importance in some of these really big coaches that you've hired, that I've hired? Where's their common thread in mastering themselves in this journey? There is definitely a daily discipline. If you as a growth-oriented founder, growth-oriented, seven-figure business owner don't have some sort of non-negotiable daily discipline things, you need to start doing that. And I'll give examples, and you can share lots of examples as well, Justin, but I almost don't care what the daily discipline is around as long as you establish the one that works for you. So for me, it involves the personal spiritual routines that every day without fail. That involves sources of truth, scripture, right? For me, that's scripture, prayer, without fail. These two things happen every day. It also involves a journaling thing that I do every day without fail, journaling. It also involves a set of I am statements. As I'm creating myself, right? We're creating businesses, but how many of you are creating yourself? And I I love that you're bringing this up, Justin. So every single day, I repeat 14 I am statements, and I've done this daily for over 10 years, Justin. Wow. This is not... When I say daily discipline, this is like, I'm serious, every day without fail, scripture, prayer, journaling, and my 14 I am statements. This is what grounds me. This is what centers me. This is what helps me see this is who I am, who I am creating. and that's how i you know by extension sharing a couple of these i am statements i don't want to get too personal but if if you don't mind i think no i don't mind i talk about this all the time people are tired of it i have this five minute journal you can get on amazon but there there three words uh three lines for affirmations and i take up five lines right And I literally go through these I am I am I am So I would love to hear yours I happy to share mine, but that's part of my morning as well. And I, and I've seen, and it doesn't surprise me at least, Justin, every, every, every time you open your mouth, I'm like, this guy's like injured brothers. Yeah. Yeah. We're, we're, we get it together, right? Like, or I get you anyway, whether I get it, you guys will all be the judge whether or not I know what I'm talking about. But I understand Justin, and I think he knows what he's talking about. So yeah, there's 14 I am statements. I'll tell you the first three, what the nature of them are. I won't share them personally, but the first one has to do with my relationship with a supreme being. So I believe there is a God, and the first one has to do with my relationship with Him. The second one has to do with my relationship with His Son, Jesus Christ. I'm Christian. The third one has to do with my wife. Okay? Those first three, that's where I start my grounding. Okay? Then it gets into, I am that I have a personal, meaningful relationship with each of my precious children, and they know that I love them unconditionally. Right? Mine are a little longer than many others. I've heard a lot of like, I am love. I am light. I am, right? And I'm not making fun of any of that. But I'm long-winded, as you all now know. And I got to be more descriptive. So that fourth one is about my precious children, and they know that I love them unconditionally. The next one is, I am confident. I am unafraid of what others think. That's what it is. The next one is, I am that I have... I say them so many times, and then you ask me. Okay. I am confident. I am unafraid of what others think. I am willing to share my extraordinary contributions and not taking away from others by contributing. It is a disservice to others when I withhold my thoughts. They're lengthier description, but I have 14 of these things and they shape who I am. I love that you actually, mine are a little shorter and they're kind of like quick affirmations that I can knock out. And, uh, but man, I love yours because a lot of us deal with imposter syndrome, feeling like we are worthy. Right. And this, for me, like, this is my own issue, right? That's why I talk about psychology. Like, Hey, maybe you need to invest in a psychologist or a psychiatrist, right? Like, because there's shit that we all grow up with as children and we were raised with that maybe not be the most healthy for our adult lives as parents and things of that nature. And, and so, you know, a lot of this stuff that you're talking about saying, you know, you're doing a disservice, not voicing your opinion because you're not leading from a place of real value and trying to help others. Like, I love that. Right. And, and I think it's a new way that I can even think, and I love this. Like if you couldn't tell, I was writing notes, by the way, Like I just love what I do. And I say that because I hope a lot of the listeners are listening to both of us talk about the power of words of affirmation and writing these things down daily. I do it in my five minute journal. You can literally get it on Amazon. Brett has his version of it too. If you want to get it again, circling all the way back to the very, like the, the man or woman that needs to get to the 10 million mark, the person that is at a million or two or three or four or five, they need to die. It just won't be the same human. So what are those incremental things that you can do? For me, my morning routine is very valuable. I have two very little kids, two years and five-year-old. I want to be there in the morning for them. So I don't get the like 6.30 to 8.30, like wake up, yawn, drink a cup of coffee. It's daddy. It's lunches. It's, you know, combing hairs and getting everyone. And I'm not unique in that. And my point to that is I'm not unique. Many of you resonate with that, but I prioritize myself still first. And I know that for a lot of you that seems selfish, but Brett, I'd love to understand your value. I put myself above everyone else in my family. Now, some of you might be like, whoa, selfish. All right. But I reframe that to myself. If I am not 100% for my family, because I've withered myself down by not putting myself first, by not having alone time, by not being able to journal, by not being able to make it to the gym, how can I give to them anymore? So if I'm the last on the totem pole and the dog is fed before me, the dog is walked before me, everyone's before me, how am I going to be of service to anyone, let alone my family? What are your thoughts on that? Justin, I spent the better part of my married life. This year, my wife, her name is Sharon, and she's the most lovely and wonderful person on the planet for me, right? But we celebrate 30 years of marriage this year. And for the bulk of that, we had a bunch of little kids. Justin, I hear you talking about that morning routine. I'm like, God bless you and good for you, right? Like, so our youngest, we have eight children and mastering self and mastering chaos has been a part of our journey a long time. And our youngest are about to graduate. We have twins that are seniors in high school. So they're about to graduate. Like we're moving to this next chapter in life. But when I look back on that, I did myself and my family a disservice by being so depleted, so others focused, that I couldn't be my best much of that time. Probably the first 20 plus years of that was just spent, okay, what needs to happen next? Who needs me? And it was just all others focused. And I don't think that's a horrible way to live, but I stopped being able to be my best. I stopped losing some of myself, some of my soul, if you will. I became a lot more mechanical, a lot more transactional in my relationship because it was just all business. It was like, okay, now I got to do this. Now I got to do this. And there was so much to do that that happened out of necessity. but later as a little more space creeped in my life I learned a little bit how to care for myself better and now I am a much better father like I mentioned and you didn't follow to your chair which I appreciate I mentioned we have eight children the first four kids and they were all together our oldest was 10 and a half when our baby twins were born so eight of them in 10 and a half years just imagine the the care and feeding of little ones for so many years like that's all it was and so it was just go go go try to make it all work but the first four kids got a different dad they did you know and the teenagers that are now kind of graduating out of our home they they got a much more present and and energy like you know I had I had more light lighter with four kids which by the way just so we're clear I didn't fall out of my chair because I have some friends in the Mormon space that have 10 children. Okay. So it's not unique to me to hear these numbers. Uh, but I'm always blown away. I, one of my closest friends on the planet has five kids. He just had his fifth kid, uh, two years ago and his oldest is 22. And so he spaced them out a little more than you, but, but listen, you're doing God's work to some extent, but I, I come from a different thread and it's a little bit i want to have my life too and to me if i can grace two great children i'm as happy as could be yeah and you know and so i respect and love that you have eight well it's not about the number but the but what you're calling out is essential and you you learned it sooner than i did way sooner than i did if but i was a late dad so i'm 44. I had my first daughter or my first kid, 39. But I had to do that. I didn't have an option. I wasn't mature. I like to go out too often. I was in my season that I couldn't do what you did. There was no way. Well, we all have our way, our path, right? That's right. But we both came to the same place, which is I have to take care of myself in order to be the best version of me for others. If I put everybody else first all the time, I get depleted, and I'm less than I could be. And so I know it sounds counterintuitive. You've got to take care of yourself. If you don't take care of yourself, you can't be great for others. You cannot. Not just those precious children, not just your amazing spouse or significant other, but your team, your partners, your clients, your customers, whoever it is you're trying to serve. Everybody else wins when you're the best you can be. Amen. Now, where do we want, listen, you and I are in the same thread, same vein, same river, same from the same sheet of music. I believe emphatically the hustler needs to die for the CEO to rise. I believe we hold onto control because of identity. I believe we don't create systems because if we create systems and we can pass that system off to someone, which releases our control and we don't want to do that. So we like self propel this whole thing. Keep me in control. Cause I, it's my kid. This business is mine, mine. You and I know people need a release from that. And there's actual way to do that. How can they find you? How can they talk to you about what they need to start doing? Yeah. So our, our website is grow with elite. dot com. So G-R-O-W with Elite, E-L-I-T-E dot com. Again, growth-oriented, seven-figure businesses, seven-figure business owners who want to go from gritty, scrappy founder to capable and confident company-building CEOs. That's who we're serving. You can find us there at growwithelite.com. On LinkedIn, I'm definitely on LinkedIn more than I am on other social platforms. but you can find me at, this'll be funny because you know Jim Collins enough but Built to Last Champ is my handle. The number two, Built to Last Champ. You can look up Brett Gilliland of course and there's another Brett Gilliland with a great podcast. We actually interviewed each other on each other's podcast. It was kind of funny. So the one that's elite entrepreneurs is my business and yeah, I'd love to meet all of you. Yeah, well Brett, I really appreciate you being here. And obviously we have this great community that hopefully you're able to share some wisdom with them personally. I'd love that. I know they would love that. This is always about the people and serving them. So the Entrepreneur DNA community is there. I am Justin Colby. This has been the Entrepreneur DNA. Brett, you've been awesome. We will see everyone on the next podcast. Peace.