SPEAKER_00 0:00

Identity is a driver, okay, when you say identity driven. It is a driver for what you do and why you do it. You know, you just have to be careful that it's not the driver. You know what I mean? It belongs in the passenger seat, not the driver's seat. If your ambition, your identity is in the driver's seat, if you're in my car, I'm driving, do you tell me where to go? Do you get to tell me? Do you tell me when to turn? Me, for my wife, you would. But you're not. Okay. So I'm just saying, you, Asher, if you're in my car, you're along for the ride, right? You're going wherever I go. If I go off a cliff, you and I are going together. The ambition and that, you don't want to be that. You need to be in control of where we're going. So, ambition, you need ambition. Okay, you need identity. You need that, but you need that in the passenger seat. You know, it'll be there when you need it. It's going to help you go, but you have both hands on the wheel. You understand what the vision of whatever you're working on, especially if it's in business, where that's going to go and how it's going to get there. Ambition can't be that. It can be fuel, but it can't be the driver.

SPEAKER_01 1:07

Big guess is Richard Walsh, founder of Sharp in the Spear Coaching, and author of Escape the Owner Prison. Richard spent years building water features and steel sculptures, work that eventually made him internationally recognizing steel. And in November 2008, the day after the election, his phone started ringing. Contracts got cancelled one after another. He lost half a million dollars in a single day. A mentor did the match for him afterwards. Spend a year paying it back, you're also at zero. Richard paid it back anyway, out of pride. Then he lost it all again. He's a former Marine, a champion boxer, and a black belt. And a father of six. Somewhere in the middle of three buildings, he burned his whole work uniforms so they could not own him the way they used to. Today, he advises business owners on the exact thing he had to learn twice. How to start being identity proven and how to build a system that holds the business setup, a business that holds you. Welcome, Richard Ward, to the members of the main podcast. Richard, welcome to the podcast. Glad to see you.

SPEAKER_00 2:30

Great to be here, Asher. I I appreciate you having me. Looking forward to this.

SPEAKER_01 2:35

I know I gotta I gotta I gotta exercise my rights to uh to interrogate your brain.

SPEAKER_00 2:40

Do you have my permission? Like I'm good. I'm good, I'm ready.

SPEAKER_01 2:44

You ready? Mm-hmm. So, you know, I like to start with this question. And there's a question around like, if you gotta go back to say between age 10 and 12, right? Go all the way back to age 10 and 12. Where were you in the world? What was happening for you if you gotta take us back there?

SPEAKER_00 3:03

10 to 12, wow. Uh let me just I'll put it out this way. We moved a lot as a child. So the numbers in like 30 plus by the time I left high school. Wow. By the time I graduated, right? So we were kind of on the move. I could pack a moving truck better than anybody. I can tell you that much. I'm good at that. But uh, but yeah, so that time though, it was really kind of that point where you're even at 10, I'm kind of out there and I'm trying to do stuff on my own. I ran away a lot from home. Um, it never lasted long. I got caught or something. I don't know. I was just I'm an idiot. I don't know either one, but I just was I was uh what what do they call it? I was uh whatever, something something out, you know, and you're kind of like, I'm trying to say, please can I leave? I've always wanted to leave home, okay? For and I that started young. But anyways, it was kind of funny. But that time I was I was growing, I was getting big, that kind of stuff, just doing the basic school thing, not really thinking about much for at that time except leaving home. Okay. So you know, um, and just powering through stuff. I didn't like school a lot. Well, I mean, I went, I never missed a day, but I didn't really do well in school. Um, so you know, I kind of was there and just had maybe a friend or two and wasn't gonna write a book about it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:26

Interesting, interesting. On the go. You was on the move. You felt like that moving energy was going to you. Interesting.

SPEAKER_00 4:32

Yeah, I wanted to I wanted to go live in the woods. I just wanted to run away and live in a tree. There was this book, okay? It's called My Side of the Mountain. If you ever look it up, it was like my I read that book. I'm like, this dude lived in a tree, like inside of a hollowed-out, you know, dead tree. I'm like, that's what I want to do. I want to go live in a tree on the side of a mountain, and like me and like squirrels are gonna be buddies. Like that was that was my 10-year-old mind. How about that?

SPEAKER_01 4:59

Oh okay. Second question then. Um, what is the kindest, the kindest thing someone ever did for you over your life, or in the last few days if you want to go there either way?

SPEAKER_00 5:11

Well, my life. I you know, I remember one thing, and uh I think I might have been in that 10-year, 10 to 12 year range. Trying to think how old I was then, but we had Christmas, right? It's coming up, and we really had nothing, right? So my parents basically you're getting nothing for Christmas. Okay, we can't afford anything, it's gonna be nothing. And we're like, Oh, that's I have two brothers. So we're like, okay. So nothing's so you got the whole big expectation for Christmas, nothing. Okay, not not here we got you, made you something, nothing's coming. And uh Christmas Eve, it's dark. Obviously, I don't know, it's five, six o'clock at night or whatever. This car kind of rolled up, it's a lot of snow, a lot, a lot of snow then. Let me see, yeah. And uh, like Santa comes up to the door with a big old giant bag and knocks on the door, comes in ho ho hoeing, and he unloads. I mean, more presents I think I've ever gotten since. Okay, I mean, all the cool stuff, like oh my god, it was like we were like, this was nuts. To this day, my parents say they never knew who it was.

SPEAKER_01 6:12

They never know who he was?

SPEAKER_00 6:14

They never knew who it was, nothing, knew nothing, right? So we have no idea who it was. But someone showed up and like just that was like the coolest thing ever. You know what I mean? Never get credit, never said anything to this day, and I'm not 10 anymore. Okay, let's just say that. All right, but it was that was probably the coolest thing ever that I remember.

SPEAKER_01 6:32

All right. Well, I appreciate you hearing that sometimes it's hard to go back that far and like remember things, you know.

SPEAKER_00 6:38

Well, when it's one good thing, it's easy. I'm just playing.

SPEAKER_01 6:46

Okay, okay, all right. So let's let's go let's scare it. So my question now is what happened that made you so passionate about the thing that you do today? What happened in your past that made you so passionate about your profession, the thing that you specialize in today?

SPEAKER_00 6:59

Well, we're you know, it's been an entrepreneurial journey. So I think I think where it really began was, you know, that first like well when I was a kid and you're trying to sell like seeds door to door or whatever, you know, you get the thing, you're trying to make a little money, selling golf balls on the golf course they found in the pond, you know, 25 cents apiece on like selling, doing that kind of stuff. For whatever reason, that little stuff was like, well, that's I could sell and make money. I could sell something and make money. So, you know, I went to the Marine Corps at 17, got out, digging trench, swinging a pickaxe, ended up getting a side gig. This guy asked me, hey, you want to do some work on you know on the side? I said, Yeah, I'll work. I'm making five bucks an hour, you know, swinging a pickaxe all day, making whatever that is, 40 bucks a day. Yeah, I showed up to his house and he had thirty a 35-ton pile of gravel in the front on the street. He said, I need you to shovel this into the wheelbarrow and take it to the back and spread it. And we're in Tucson, Arizona, okay? It's like 100 degrees out. And I'm like, I got this, I got this. Okay, so shoveling 10 hours, I get the whole thing done, got it all spread, everything's done, cleaned up. And the guy comes out and Ashley puts a thousand bucks in my hand. Okay. And I'm looking at this thousand dollars going, dang, I did this yesterday for $40. I said, I I know my future. I will shovel rock every day, all day for a thousand dollars today. I don't care. You know, so that kind of started me on my real entrepreneurial journey. Like, I can do things for people and they'll pay me. I don't have to work for someone because I can charge what I want. I didn't, I wasn't Mr. Self-Worth, but I knew I was worth more than five bucks an hour. Okay. So I'm like, so I went down that road, and that really is a is a long journey, multiple businesses. Uh, had one that went about 20 years, you know, oh nine, all that collapsed. Uh started built more businesses after that, wrote books, everything else. And what I found was from the passion standpoint was business is the vehicle. Doesn't matter what it is. I don't care if I was making custom water features and steel sculpture, you know, down to owning the gym. Like it didn't matter what it was. It was that ability to create something, make it profitable, serve others, you know, and rinse and repeat. That was kind of what it was about, you know. Um, with a little caveat, learning a lot when you fail and lose everything, NO9, like my home and my business and everything else. I lost all that at one time. You learn a lot, you know. So those failures, okay, uh became a real, a real pivot point for me, and I embraced them. Instead of being all bitter and everything else, I would embrace them and then just move on to the next level, if that makes sense. Because it was it was the fail failures are just like I said, they're just bumps in the road. Failure takes out a lot of people. They never try again, they never they go back to working for someone or whatever that is. For me, I just I knew I couldn't do that. I couldn't go work for someone. I'm a good employee for about a year, then I want to run the place. So, you know, if they they asked me to leave, you know, so so I don't do that. So I just do my own thing.

SPEAKER_01 9:59

I I guess that thousand dollar actually woke you up and made me think about like when we first started off, it's something you need practice, but you also need to make a profit, but then you gotta figure out how do you balance between doing something that's not profitable, but it gives you practice, and then do something that you're like, damn for me to make it profitable. How do you dance to that that that system when you were starting off?

SPEAKER_00 10:20

Well, you're gonna make less. Here's my thing. So I do have one, you know, kind of hard rule. Like, you're gonna make money. Okay, you're not gonna not make money. I don't believe in that. Okay, and the people who go in the attitude, like, I'm not gonna make any money, or you listen to some accountant tells you you need to lose money your first three years, fire that joker. Okay. Anyone telling you you shouldn't make any money for the first three years is a fool, okay, who doesn't deserve the credentials you may have. Okay. We want to be profitable. So I'm gonna make less money, Asher, okay? I'm gonna make less. I get it. That's that's practice, but I'm providing, right? I'm providing the service or a product, whatever that is, okay. If you don't make money, you're gonna lose money, which means you're gonna lose your business. And I always put this out there too: the easiest thing to do in business is make money. It's the easiest thing to do. Everything else, not so easy. Okay, keeping your money, putting your money back to use, reinvesting, living, paying yourself, paying employee, all the other stuff is hard. Making money is not hard. Okay, you make some, hey, I go cut your grass, you pay me, right? I made money. You know it's hard paying for the lawnmower, getting there on time, making sure you do a good job, dealing with the customer, getting more work, okay? Like, but getting paid, not so hard.

SPEAKER_01 11:38

That's interesting. And with that, we're gonna jump into the maxim game. I want to see, I want to pull some pull some wisdom strength from you. And I think our our theme today is around identity driven. And I know that's uh that's a term that you have some wisdom on. And I would love to get your definition of when you think about identity driven. What does that mean for you?

SPEAKER_00 11:56

Identity driven, you know, I can tell you what it was and what it is. Okay, what it used to be. What it used to be is what I did. Okay, my identity was what I did. So, custom water feature builder, internationally recognized steel sculptor, doing this world-class stuff, exhibits and and you know, making great money and all that kind of stuff. That's who I was for 20 years. Okay, it became like no one can do what I do. No one can even come close to it. You know, I mean, I'm just wow, the awards, the TV, the everything. And then you lose everything. Okay, like in 09, lost everything. I lost my business, that collapsed. I lost my home. I got six little kids under four years old, a wife. I'm like, now what do I do? Because I have no business and no home. Okay, I gotta start over. One thing I realized at that point, Asher, was what I wasn't gonna do because my identity it drove me to do identity and ego. Okay, those two get wrapped up together, right? And your ego wants to maintain the identity. So your ego isn't gonna make it make really bad decisions to maintain your identity. Okay, and I did. Okay, and that's why I lost everything. Trying to trying to keep it alive because if I didn't have my business, who am I? Right. So I realized after that point, like I'm never gonna let a business own me. It's gonna be there to serve me, not me serve it. The next step was like, well, then where does your identity go? So we can go that route if you want, but identity is a driver, okay. When you say identity driven, it is a driver for what you do and why you do it. You know, you just have to be careful that it's not the driver. You know what I mean? It belongs in the passenger seat, not the driver's seat. If your ambition, your identity is in the driver's seat, if you're in my car and I'm driving, do you tell me where to go? Do you get to tell me? Do you tell me when to turn? I mean, if you're my wife, you would, but you're not. Okay. So so I'm just saying, you, Asher, if you're in my car, you're along for the ride, right? You're going wherever I go. If I go off a cliff, you and I are going together. Okay, we're going over the cliff. So the drivers, the ambition, and that you don't want to be that. You need to be in control of where we're going. So, ambition, you need ambition. Okay, you need identity. You need that, but you need that in the passenger seat. You know, it'll be there when you need it. It's going to help you go, but you have both hands on the wheel. You understand with the vision of whatever you're working on, especially if it's in business, where that's going to go and how it's going to get there. Ambition can't be that. Right? It can be fuel, but it can't be the driver.

SPEAKER_01 14:34

So I'm thinking the driver and a navigator. Like in the military, we got like the the TC and the guy is driving. So then he's saying, where would you put identity? Navigator seat or back seat? Like where would you put what seat what seat would you put in the vehicle?

SPEAKER_00 14:48

You know, I I go passenger seat, it'd be ambition is a navigator. It is. It is a navigator. You can think of it that way because it's it's giving you direction. Okay. Now, have you ever had a guy like give you the wrong direction? How about you turn the map up? How about you turn the map upside right? Okay, then we'll we'll start there and then we can continue to move, okay? Land navigation is not your thing, okay? So I you might be in the wrong seat. So I get that. Okay, but we have to have the wisdom and the uh you know the discernment to go, I this doesn't feel right. You know, double check the map, right? So we gotta say double check the map sometimes, you know. Just run that course again. Let's see where we're at. Okay, get the compass out.

SPEAKER_01 15:31

No, I like that. I like that. It's it gives direction, but that doesn't mean it's gonna give you the right direction. Sometimes it gives you the wrong direction because maybe it's like protecting its own identity, like, oh, we gotta stay this way. No, we gotta change. We gotta stay this way. And the direction is staying this way versus going to the new direction. So I like that.

SPEAKER_00 15:47

Yeah, when you when change, no one likes change, whether it's you or everybody else who's trying to change an organization, it's all difficult. But again, I think it goes back to the discernment. You really have to, you have to listen to what the navigator is saying. Then you have to think for yourself, is it or is it not? Okay, is this getting us closer to our goal? Are we gonna are we gonna we're gonna deviate? You know, even a littlest bit, it's gonna take you off, right? You're a half a degree off over 3,000 miles, you're gonna end up on another continent. Okay, this is how it is, right? So it's very important to have that discernment to balance the two and not listen blindly.

SPEAKER_01 16:23

I'm glad you're enjoying the podcast. Before we continue, I have a gift for you. Since 2016, I have read and listened to over 900 books so far. It's gonna be a thousand. And I organized them into a library and pick the top 100 books I recommend to my clients, my friends, and the people in my community. Books on storytelling, language, and personal growth, and building something from your own life. If you're watching this podcast and you're looking for your next great read, this library is your gift. It is free. Go to ashalbertwright.com and check out the 1000 book challenge. This is my gift to you. Now back to the conversation. First, Maxim. This one says you built it once to prove yourself. It started giving the orders instead. The inversion, take the orders back, and it goes back to being just a thing you built. When you hear those words, what story come to mind for you?

SPEAKER_00 17:19

Yeah, well, that first big business of 20 years, right? It was telling me what to do. So the custom water features. Custom water features. Okay. So I had a landscape business up, but this one really morphed into that. Uh so I'm building water features, right? So they look like natural, you know, waterfalls, ponds, streams, all that stuff. Started doing the sculpture with that too, incorporating into all organic steel sculpture. That kind of told me what to do, right? Because, like, well, let's let me use this. My wife would say, Hey, we seen the, you know, we we need money for this, okay? Whatever it is, five grand. I go, okay, I'll get it. And I'll go sell something for five grand and by third is Tuesday and by Thursday I got five thousand dollars, right? Because I could do that with my business, I could make money, right? So at the same time so I'm like, well, I'm kind of driven by that. It just tells me what to do. Someone tells me what to do there. The business says, Well, just keep making these, do more, be bigger. You know, like the head started getting bigger and bigger. So I'm like, I kept listening to the business or the people that say I'm amazing and all, you know, all the accolades, all that kind of stuff kind of goes to your head. When it all ended, you know, so quickly, all of a sudden, that's when you realize, wait a minute, I wasn't giving the orders. I wasn't leading. I wasn't leading in the business. Okay, the business was leading all of us, right? There's a big difference there, you know, because it's it's so I f well I failed at leadership. I mean, I would thought I was the man. My guys love me, my people love me. I did all this, you know, doing this work. I mean, I I thought I was leading, but I didn't know what leadership was. Even coming out of the Marine Corps. I know what leadership is, but when it comes to you know a business, a family, employees, everything else, leader leadership is is very different. So that switch when I began to lead the next businesses was a very different animal. Right? Whole different systemization. Everything everything was built completely different than the first one. The first one was on my back. If I didn't show up, nothing happened. So and I always showed up. So stuff always happened. But comes a day when the customers don't show up. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if I show up because there's no one to do any work for. So you know, that's kind of that if that did did I answer that?

SPEAKER_01 19:27

You went you went there. You went there. Okay. I like I like that. I got that that pullback. Okay, let's try another one. So you paid a debt once out of pride when peace would have paid it for less. In version of that, let let peace pay the next one and pride never gets the bill. What story comes to mind?

SPEAKER_00 19:46

Oh, pride, man. Whoa. The first 40 years of my life, pride. I mean, I was I was a pride-driven guy, man. Like it's it's big. Like now, if I work with clients or I help people with their business, I do have this little ceremony. I get a box and it's got, you know, pride and ego, they're basically the same thing, right? So I put a little metal inscripted thing on it says, you know, your ego, you know, it's got a little hinge and a little lock on it. I'm like, this is where your ego goes. You put it in this box and you shut and you lock it and you put it back on the shelf. There may be a time to bring that out, but the majority of your time that stays in a box. Because again, Beckett, that's the driver. If my ego, my pride is making all my decisions, you know, that's that's a different thing. Now, people can give different definitions, levels to pride. Like, hey, I'm proud of what I do. Okay, well, that's who isn't? Okay. I did something cool. Okay, your pride. That's not the pride we're talking about. Pride is a decision maker. Okay, your pride becomes a decision maker because this affects you. This is gonna make you look better. This is gonna enrich me over everybody else. You know, I'm no longer a servant. I'm I'm serving my own pride, my own identity, right? I'm trying to puff all that up. Trying to, I'm trying to elevate myself. I'm trying to be right all the time. That was a big thing for me. Just ask me. I'll t I was right all the time, always.

SPEAKER_01 21:16

Any any any specific story back in your history that you went through that and you felt the pain of the blind spot of that?

SPEAKER_00 21:23

I'll tell you, I I got convinced to change the name of my company in like 07, 06, and for whatever reasons, marketer of you know, and we we knew everything. She's like, well, that was Rick Rock, right? Ponds, waterfalls, streams, real simple architectural water environments. I was doing these really high-end custom swimming pools. Okay, they look like quarries, like you look at them, boulders on the walls, okay, brickpaper bottoms, salt water, you know. I mean, walking them down these stone steps. Amazing. It's like you're swimming in this, you know, Nashville quarry. Um, and I'm like, man, I'm gonna do these, these are amazing. Believe it, really high, big dough. Okay, and yeah, I did a few of them, but like, what's it my whole business? So I got convinced to change the name that I had for 20 years in my business, Rick Rock, to Extreme Pools by Rick Rock. Okay, I mean, well, that makes sense, right? Extreme pools by Rick Rock. So my brother, yeah, man, I'm doing pools, I'm doing all that. The thousand jobs, literally 1,000 jobs before that. What did I build? Ponds, waterfalls, and streams. Ponds, water really easy. People see pond, they get it, water gardens, all that. Now I'm pools. A pool is not a pond. Okay, a pool is a swimming pool. Okay, that's what they think. So I literally have the proof. I'm at a trade at this home show. Got the banner up. People walking by and they look and they they read and they go, Oh, that's pools. I'm I'm looking for a pond, and they keep walking. I'm like, but that I do ponds. Hey, uh, wait a minute. You know, but I'm noticing like people only read like the first two words, you know, they don't read everything. The bread and butter, everything I built my business on, and I went and flipped it overnight, changed the trucks, I mean re-decaled. I did the whole thing. I kind of call it my the final nail. You you don't you do not change the name of your company for 20 years overnight in some completely different everyone's like so the things just dried up, you know. I'm doing this big kind of world-class project and I had some stuff, but I'm like, the phone's not ringing for the and even if it says ponds, waterfall, streams after it, they don't read that part, right? So that's my pride. I'm gonna do these, you know, and I wasn't gonna do a thousand pools. Okay. You know what I mean? Come on, you know what I mean? Like, I let my own pride like take that, and like, hey, that's what you're gonna do when when I'm making incredible money building water gardens, right? Ponds, waterfalls, streams, come on to like, and uh just that was an example where it just, you know, you look back and just go, the I like to say it this way, Asher. The level of stupid I operated at is almost mind-boggling. Okay, and and I still kind of succeeded, but then eventually it that that stupidity catches up to you in a big way. But it was just, I look back, I'm like, you're just an idiot. And it was pride-driven, it was identity-driven, pride-driven, ego-driven. That's what it was. Cause you to make the worst decisions ever.

SPEAKER_01 24:18

So basically, what you're telling me right now, you say you don't have to be smart to be busy, it can be stupid and still being busy to make money.

SPEAKER_00 24:24

Absolutely. There's all kinds of dummies out there making money. I can tell you that. I was one of them. So, you know. I always, you know, I brag about my 1.7. You know what a 1.7 is?

unknown 24:38

No.

SPEAKER_00 24:39

That was my that was my grade point average in high school. Okay. Like, I'm a 1.7 guy. You know, beat that, you know. But you know, on the negative, on the negative. But yeah, it's it's it's it doesn't take like great intelligence, really. And I'm and and I mean on the flip side too. Like, I've made millions. Right? Like, so I'm I'm no genius, you know, education-wise, yeah. I I barely crawled out of high school. Okay, so like I'm, you know, I don't don't look up to me for that. I mean, I re-taught myself I did anything. I'm not I'm not an idiot by any means now. Uh, but but it's just, you know, you don't need that for an entrepreneurial drive. It's helpful, okay, but it's not critical. If you look at the best of the best, the biggest, that that was not the driving factor, their PhD or their master's or their bachelor's or their, you know, Mike 1.7. It reflects. It's no bearing. It has no bearing on that.

SPEAKER_01 25:36

All right, let's try let's try another one. You lost something once, and the story about it hurts worse than the loss did. Inversion. Change the story, and the same loss gets lighter to carry. What story pops in your head when you hear those words?

SPEAKER_00 25:53

Yeah, it's probably 09. I mean, losing the business, you know, with that that that small, that big, small family of mine, uh, you know, six little kids, four years and younger, and then all of a sudden there's nothing. You know, that's a loss. Okay. Yeah, so uh November 5th, 2008, it was the day after the election, um, my phone started ringing. And I lost a half million dollars in that day of both contracts. And that was the beginning of the cliff. It just kept getting worse. And we're going into 09. I'm like, I mean, I remember the end of November 5th, the end of the day. I just looked at my office manager, I'm like, um, I think it's over. I mean, no one will spend the money. Definitely not on a water feature or a sculpture. Okay, they didn't need one of those. You know, they're concerned on keeping their houses and everything else, right? I mean, it was wild. Just everything crashed, and that economic collapse of 09 was crazy. So that was a complete law. Like, I have nothing. You know, liquidate the last few things I have, had to move because I'll lose my home, uh, relocate, do I move to another state and all that stuff and start over. Looking back now, actually, here's the thing, you know, this is usually how it works out. Like, really hard during it. Like, no, I don't want anyone to go through what I went through. But I only could go through that. That's what I tell people. There was nothing else that would redirect me except total loss. Because here's the thing. So I'm I'm losing the home, losing the business. Uh, I wake up one morning, I have these six little kids, four and younger, my wife, and I start thinking about my kids. And I'm like, well, do they really care what kind of truck I drive? No. Do they care what kind of house you live in? No. Do they care what kind of business I do? They don't even know what kind of business I do. Okay, you know what they you know what they love? When I walk in the door. That's what they love. Run, crawl to me, do the whole thing, you know. And when I leave, one day I'm leaving, pulling out of the driveway. My four-year-old is running behind my truck crying because I'm leaving. And I had to just keep going because I had to go to work. I'm trying to save my business and all that stuff, right? And so I'm laying there that morning and I'm like, you know, if I continue on this path, because more is caught than taught with kids. You can tell kids all kinds of great things. Oh, pearls of wisdom all day long. They're only gonna do what they see you do. If you don't walk that talk, they're only gonna do what you do, not what you say. And I said, So they're watching me and they're young. I said, we're gonna get down the road and I'm gonna destroy their future. They're gonna have broken relationships, failed marriages, right? Because they have all these messed up priorities. You know, it's like it's and I'm like, I don't want to do that. That was just a window, kind of the future that God gave me, that that that epiphany that day. I got out of bed, walked in the office and said, We're done today. You know, I'm like, I can't. And we're like, oh, I can't do this anymore. Went to my construction yard, had a couple coffee, my last cup of coffee with my guys who've been with me over 10 years. Same guys, never missed a day, the best. Or like, you know, family. Um said, Can't do it anymore, guys. We're shutting down this week. You know, and I was like, What are you gonna do? I go, I have no idea, but I can't do this. This is part of the whole business owning me and everything else. I literally did like a bonfire and burned all my uniforms. I'm like, I'm never gonna be owned. It's the whole thing with never being owned by the business, you know. But but that realization at that point, that's what the big shift was. Didn't know what I was gonna do, but whatever it was, I wanted to be able to stay connected with my kids, you know, my family, be with my family, be close, still do business, didn't know what, didn't know how. But that whole thing had that, that's what it had to be from that point on, whatever it was gonna be. But I'm clueless, totally clueless, had no idea what to do. So yeah, that was that was a big thing.

SPEAKER_01 29:32

Yes. As I'm thinking about, because I guess we all go through our little calling the rock bottom, and then we gotta figure out to get that trampoline to bounce back. But I'm thinking like, when did you process the meaning for that experience? When what part of your life do you finally process the meaning of that?

SPEAKER_00 29:51

To you mean about what it was?

SPEAKER_01 29:53

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 29:55

Well, I had at the moment, but now as I as I grew and I did the next business and I figured out which direction I was gonna go, I did some other things, and then then I started looking back because I started talking to other business owners, and they were asking me, like, how'd you go from all that to nothing back to having something without like ending yourself? You know what I mean? Like people are like that that dude, and there's no way. And I'm like, Well, and I would just here's my sneaky little response. Well, what are you doing? You know, I ask them what's going on in your business. So they start telling me about their business and their struggles. I'm like, oh, okay, well, yeah, I understand that. Well, you got to do this, this, and this. And that would help them. And I'd talk to the next guy. And what are you doing? He got all the same things. And I talked to the next guy, and he's good doing, so I found out that everyone's doing all the same wrong things. You know, or as I like to say now, they do all the right, wrong things. So it's very easy for me to help them, right? So I started seeing, like, well, there's just patterns. I'm a kind of a pattern guy, you know. I saw this, so I said, Wow, this is I'm gonna write a book. Let me write a book about this and help them like get over the it's fundamentals. They're they're broken on. They're broken on the basics. I mean, take sports, right? It's always about the fundamentals. That's what you practice. Tiger Woods swings the club 10,000 times. Okay. The guy runs the same play over and over and over again. They shoot the free for free throw the same way every single time, thousands and thousands of times, right? Fundamentals. So I wove my story of the first 20 years, the you know, the rise, the lost, all this stuff with that, and then filled in all the pieces that I was missing to help them. I became a bestseller. It's called Escape the Owner Prison. And I started doing that and built an academy and started coaching people. So I started to be able to help these guys because the problem answer is the business tends to own you. Like I said, it becomes your identity, it owns you. And when something like that owns you, well, it tells you what to do and when to do it. Right? You know, your options, that thing with you've got a business so you can be with your family. Yeah, right. Okay. Most most business owners don't get that. What they get is 80 hours a week. You know, they they get they get told what to do by their business. I even use it as a metaphor, it's like a mistress. Okay, business is like a mistress. It's gonna want to be with you, it's gonna want to call you in the middle of the night, it's gonna want to sneak away with you, right? It wants all that. Come on, come on, come open the door. Let's say, hey, you can finish this project. You know, that's what it's it's it's thinking evil, okay, if you let it. Right?

SPEAKER_01 32:25

We sh we shack it up tonight. Yes, we are every night.

SPEAKER_00 32:28

Yeah, that's right. Every night, man. I'll see you in the morning. The do it again. Okay. So you're you're my girl, okay, my business, right? So, so they never get that with their kids. Then they wonder why their kids don't want to inherit the business. They're like, why would I want to not be around my kids? I actually want to be around my family. I actually kind of love my dad. And if I'm a dad, I want them to love me, but you were never around. You always had your business. There was always that. That always took precedent over everything else. Me, mom, all this. You we're second to everything to your business. So that's where guys get trapped, and it's really uh it sucks because they don't realize it because they're working so hard and their intentions are good, right? But I don't care about intentions. I care about outcomes. Okay, what's the outcome of your intentions? Never being with your family. That's an outcome. Okay, let me give you this. So money, oh yeah, we can make money. Okay, money's replenishable, right? What I say earlier, right? Easiest thing to do in business, make money. So I make money, spend money, and guess what? I can do tomorrow. Go make more money. But when my five-year-old is in his first soccer game and he's not playing, I'm not there because I'm, you know, making money or working on my business. Little Johnny runs, runs, runs, and boom, he kicks it. He gets that first score, right? His first score in his life. He gets that. The crowd goes wild, you know. You know, metaphorically speaking. Where does he turn to look? He looks in the bleachers, looking for me, not his mother, not his mother. He's looking for his father. Because you ran down there, man, he did that, boom, and you're never getting that back.

unknown 34:07

Ever.

SPEAKER_00 34:08

That's gone forever. Because you're at your with your mistress. You're at business, right? You had to work. You couldn't cut out an hour to go see your kid play. And that's the first time that's gonna be the habit. Okay. That's what your child is gonna remember every year. No matter he could be stinking, I don't know, soccer, whoever the really good person is. He could be that guy, right? Messi, is it messy or missy? Well, whatever his name is. Okay, I have no idea. Okay, I don't play. But he could be that guy, and he's still gonna have this bitterness to his father because he never showed up. And he's probably playing, he's that great, trying to get his father to earn his appreciation, his respect, right? Because of that. So, like it that's the deepness I want to talk about. Like, you don't understand the influence you have in your family, in your community, everything else is a business owner, okay, but not if the business owns you. You have to serve it, you have to be able to carve out the time, you have to build a business so you're able to do that, and that's probably a whole nother podcast. But just remember that's that's the big takeaway. That's me of you know, decades of doing this stuff, you know.

SPEAKER_01 35:20

So let's jump into another one. Says you kept building an identity long enough that you stopped knowing who was building whom an inversion, ask the question once out loud, and you already know the answer. So, what comes to mind for you?

SPEAKER_00 35:36

Yeah, it's gonna, you know, it's interesting because who I was becoming growing up, like we talked about 10 and 12 and 13 and you know, where I wanted to go. I want to get in the Marine Corps, I want to go, I want to go fight, I want to go, you know, I wanted to go do something that mattered, right? And I was always for the underdog, I always, you know, I I protect the guys from the bullies. I did all that kind of stuff, you know. I was bullied for a little while as a kid, and then one day all that changed, so that was cool. But that was like building an identity, and then I got into business. It's gonna go back to that and and really found this creative outlet that I was really, really good at, and that kept going, and pretty soon that's how I was identified. I mean, people called me Rock, Brick Rock, they're like, Hey Rock, what's going on? You know, like that's they they changed my name, right? Like, that's identity, okay. That's like the old ancient kings. Well, you're not uh we'll we'll use you know, you got Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego from the Bible, right? Like those weren't their names. Nebuchadnezzar named them that, okay. It might have been John, Mark, and Donald's Jim. I have no idea. Okay, whatever the Hebrew was at that time. But but you know what I mean. That that that that's when you have authority over someone. We name our children, right? I named all six of my kids because I'm their father. I have that authority, right? So when when when your business literally changes your name, you know, like, dude, you're you're it. You know, that's that you not easy to let go of that. You know, I still got people that call me that. I haven't touched the water feature or anything in 17 years.

SPEAKER_01 37:12

But at some level, there is pride in that, especially when you're like young.

SPEAKER_00 37:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:20

When when you can figure out, well, this is what I stand for at this period of my life. And I want to make sure that the world validates me. I'm credential, right? People see me as, hey, I'm good for this thing because I'm looking for some kind of self-worth. And at a certain period of life, that that is that is useful, but when do you switch that off?

SPEAKER_00 37:40

Well, remember this little takeaway, especially in the male brain. It is not fully developed to almost 25 years old. So remember all the stupid things we did at 18 and 19 and 20? Because nothing was happening upstairs. Okay, like we just we we all thought we were right, we all did the right things as far as we're concerned. But looking back, I look at my own six kids and go, You're a bunch of dummies. Okay. Well, maybe not all of them, but you know, but but I give them grace for that. I'm like, well, you still haven't outdone me. So you still have I got you, and I'm not even gonna tell you what I did because that's just gonna be a challenge. Okay, so I'm not even doing that, but but I look at my people, oh, you could it's okay. I did much worse. So I've I've done well, you know, I've tested them a little bit. Yeah, so it's it's good, but I did it did work. I did, you know, I'm preventing some things, but yeah, so I think that's that's where that's at, you know, when you're young and you again, it's why do you think they only recruit 18, 17, 18, 19 year olds for the military? They're not looking for 40-year-olds. Okay, we have a fully developed brain. We actually know we can die. Okay, they don't know they can die. Okay, and that's important. I want that. I like that trait. Okay, that's a fearlessness that kind of only comes with youth. You know, but it's in it's important in battle because you'll you'll st you'll win. You'll push back with a normal person would cower. Okay. So I'd like to think I wouldn't still, you know. I still think I you know I'm I'm I'm still a dangerous man. I can do things. Okay, I train daily. Uh, but you know, I'm not I'm not my son who's in the Marine Corps, who's super trained up, you know, and fearless. But that's all good. I'm just an old Marine now. You know, I just got dust on me, so it's it's okay. But yeah, I think I think that's I think that's where that lands.

SPEAKER_01 39:30

I think you know speaking of the military, and this is something I I noticed when I was in. It's like it is it is a system designed for folks with low self-esteem early. Because when you get there with the low self-esteem, you find a way to build it up. But it's a I'm noticed like a lot of my troopers are coming in very low self-esteem because they come from a lot of broken places and they show up. Right. And then this place you gotta mer merch build them into somebody that has some kind of strength, right? And I was like, huh, why is that? But you're right about the age. Because that at age, like some people have it, but some a lot of people don't, especially when you come from a broken place.

SPEAKER_00 40:07

Yep, that's right. That's right. And I think I think with the military, the great thing about it is, yeah, it's it's kind of the blank canvas philosophy. They know nothing. Okay, they definitely know anything about the military, right? Yeah, they watch some TV shows and play some video games these days, like, and that ain't it. You're gonna be disappointed when you get to basic, you know, and beyond, more so beyond. So I think that's that's that opportunity to mold those brains that aren't fully developed, but they're coachable. Yes, they're still coachable and trainable when you take them in, and that's who you want because what they're doing. I mean, I know just like you, I mean, we carry that forever. That experience isn't like I had a job. Oh, I remember working at Dairy Queen. You know, like that that's who I am now. You know, I'm a I'm a soft-served ice cream cone. You know, I'm like, I'm not that, okay. I'm a marine forever. Okay, I got two sons now that are marine.

SPEAKER_01 41:00

That's hard stuff.

SPEAKER_00 41:01

Yeah, right. Like we're we're out, we did that, and then that goes in theory. You do that's some of the hardest things you think you'll do. But man, when you get out, oh, do four years, do six, do 20, I don't care. Get out, do the next hard thing. You're ready, you're trained for it. You know what you can take, you know, so you can get out and push more. So that's a big thing. You know, I think that's the power of the kind of the military experience, you know, in general, right? I mean, everyone's following that system. You know, they understand they're they're able to work as one unit, okay? There's just you, we could we could spend a half hour plucking out benefits of of just a four-year tour, right? Because it's it's life-changing. You're not the same anymore.

SPEAKER_01 41:46

This episode is sponsored by Life Champions Marketplace, the home for artists who own their stories and their business, your book, your merch, your audience, one storefront, you keep 80%, you own your customer list, you build a relationship, real relationship with the readers. If that sounds like the way you want to run your business, visit lifechainwisdom.com. Let's try another one. You believe what you watch as a kid, not what you were told on the inverted side. Say the right thing to a kid enough time, they're still watching you instead. What comes to mind?

SPEAKER_00 42:26

Yeah, that's what we talked about before. More is caught than taught. I mean, if someone's got little kids or whatever-size kids, or they're gonna think about having kids, write that down. More is caught than taught. Understand your place in the family structure. You know, if you're a father or a mother, whatever that is, they are watching you all the time. The things they're gonna tell you when they're 18 and 20, 22, are gonna be things you never remembered. And you're gonna go, I did that. Yeah, you did this, this, and this. You're like, because they're watching you. You didn't tell them something. Remember, you had this big lecture with them. You did something. I'm not saying it's good or bad, I'm just saying it's something that made an impression on them more than you would ever remember, obviously. 20 years later, they're telling you about that. Tell me that doesn't matter. Right? How you walk, it matters, you know, how you hate how you operate under pressure. Someone screaming at you, someone hits your car, someone, whatever, lose your job, you know, what what do you like? I don't mean be some fraud, you know, and play I'm all tough. I'm just saying, like, those are the things that are gonna expose your character. Do you understand what your character is? Have you have you worked on building your character? Being the the man your your child thinks you are. Okay, because we all, hey man, when you're four or five, dad is it. Superhero, right? The greatest thing ever. I watched my granddaughter. I have a granddaughter. She's two and a half, almost three. And uh the way she looks at her father, my son, it's I mean, she's waiting, looking out the window for him. Okay, like that's a thing. Like, when's he coming? Like, when's he coming? Is that him? Did he come in the door? Is that, you know, is that like that you don't get it, like until you see that and you go, and they just want to see how you act. And you know what? When you're on the phone all the time and you're scrolling, and your daughter's trying to get your attention and you don't, you know what you're telling her? Yes, dear, you're second. You're second to my little handheld device. This means more to me than you. And you know what's gonna happen? That girl's gonna grow up, and you're not gonna stop scrolling. It's only gonna get worse. She's gonna go find someone who will pay attention to her. And it ain't gonna be the man you want. It's gonna be the wrong guy who gets that she starved for attention. She will become prey, okay, to some dude you'd never we'd want in the same neighborhood as you. Okay, that's what you're doing with your little phone and not making your daughter or your son and your wife first. That's what that is. Okay. They see more is caught than taught, man. They're learning by what you do.

SPEAKER_01 45:19

I think I'm up when I heard he says um something like you put culture into people and put people into the system. And I was thinking back to even the the military stuff, right? Because I remember when I was in the military and so more is caught than taught. And I remember when one of my leaders had a situation, and when I move up in rank and I was in the same situation, I ended up doing exactly what I saw them did.

unknown 45:44

That's true.

SPEAKER_01 45:45

Cause like, oh, that's like I'm in a situation, what would I do next? Oh, I've I remember seeing him do it. Oh, I'm gonna try this.

SPEAKER_00 45:51

Was it the right thing?

SPEAKER_01 45:52

It worked. It was the right thing. Yeah, yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 45:55

So you see, if you're doing the right thing, people are gonna catch the right thing, they're gonna do the right team. That's what you want, repetition. That's leading by example, right? That's what that is. You know, you know, whether it's lead from the front or what, I don't care, whatever you want to, whatever you want to call it, okay, that matters. And that's what people take away. You just did. You remember that guy, because the way he led, you led, it was effective. Now that's a tool you have for the rest of your life in those situations, right? Because someone demonstrated it to you.

SPEAKER_01 46:29

Demonstration. From demonstration to application, right?

SPEAKER_00 46:32

That's it. That's it.

SPEAKER_01 46:34

All right, one more. We got two more here. You followed a step once and forget the reason they mattered, the inversion. Remember the reason, and the step take care of themselves. What story pop are you having here, though?

SPEAKER_00 46:48

Wow, it's uh I'll go really I'm gonna go really simple, man. Take care of your gear, your gear will take care of you. Now, we may have heard that, right? A couple times in the in the in the military. It's really taking care of those around you, what you have, what you have to steward, what you're stewarding, like I'll I'll stick with the business, you know, uh example. Steward the business, take care of it, don't drain it, right? A lot of people are doing the business and they're spending as fast as they're making. That's a drain. Okay, they're not reinvesting, they're just taking them, oh, I'm gonna buy a boat, I'm gonna buy a four-wheeler. I'm I'm in Wisconsin, so we do those things. Okay, so they're they're their barns are nicer than their homes, okay, because they want to put their trucks in them and stuff. That's how we roll out here. But but they just keep getting the next thing and they're draining their business. So there's no real growth. There's kind of steady, steady build and holding, holding a position. But you have to really understand what you are stewarding. You know, we it's it's not yours. It's like this is a vehicle. Business is a vehicle to get me somewhere, right? There's an exit, there's an exit time. There's, hey, I want to provide for my family, I want to build uh trust for my kids, I want, I want to leave a legacy, I want to do all that stuff, right? So that's what you have to focus on, the stewardship of stewardship of that ability to make that stuff happen. It's just not self-fulfilling. You know, buying things to fill whatever voids in your life that you feel you got to have another motorized vehicle. It's just like, come on now, you know, or me another gun. I don't know, whatever it is. Okay, we've all got our thing. But I think I think it comes down to that. It really is understand, treat yourself as a steward. You know, for me, and I'll just say everything is God's. God has given me everything I have. I'm just a steward. He gives me money, he gives me things, all this, and I'm just they're his. It's like Ash, if you gave it to me, said, Hey, Richard, can you wash this for a while? I'll be back in about six months. I don't know, maybe it's a cat. Okay, don't get don't bring me a cat. But it could be something, it could be your car, it could be your ride, whatever it is. Like, and you want you you want me to like take care of it. And you need to do this with it, this was and this can do that while I'm gone. Yeah, Asher, I'll do that. And then you come back and you didn't. I did that once when I was a kid. Had a fish tank, right? Love my fish. Love my fish, man. The only pets I ever really liked. Okay, fish. Okay. Okay. So I had this kid across the street. We're going away in the winter, and we're going away for like four days. Okay. Like, so I tell the kids, watch the fish come in and feed them, do whatever. He never came in the house. The heater went out on it. It's the winter, the heat's out. All my fish are dead when I come back. Floating at the time. I'm like, I was heading across the street to kill him. Okay. I'm like, I'm I gotta go across the street. I gotta, what are you doing? He killed all my fish. I'm gonna kill him. Okay. I was in like fifth grade or something. I don't know. I just I just knew the boy killed my fish. Okay. So, you know, so whatever. I guess the I guess the story may have more impact if it was a puppy, but I had fish. That's all I have was fish. So, you know, but he was not a good steward, was he? Yeah, I don't want to come back to that. So I could go all biblical with that too, but I'm not gonna. But uh, but yeah, that's that that's that's where I'd put that for sure.

SPEAKER_01 50:04

I mean, the with with the theme here is identity driven, and I thought about two. He's mentioned a cat. They say it's like there's two motivations for a mouse, whiskers and cheese, right? So then you guys figure out if you go if you're gonna use the whiskers or you're gonna use the cheese. So which which one would you say was your motivation when you were starting off?

SPEAKER_00 50:23

Probably the whiskers. I I was never money driven. You know what I mean? That wasn't my that wasn't my purpose. I never thought like I'm gonna go make lots of money. Like that's I'm gonna go, I'm gonna make things. I'm gonna go make like look, I can do this stuff with rocks and make our artificial rock, like at the zoos, and I put water on them. I'm like, I'm making that. I didn't care about the money. I made money. You have to charge something. I never charged enough. Okay, and I mean that seriously, all the way through my career. I'm at like 300% profit. Okay, like crushing it. And you know what no one ever said to me? I charge too much. You know what they did say? You need to charge more. Okay. Like everyone, like, yeah, I just I mean, I just I build till it's finished. I'm the only one who knows when it's finished. When it's perfect. If it took an extra eight tons of stone, so be it. Now it's perfect. You know, but but it was just one of those things, you know. So it's so the it never drove me. What would what what drove me was hey, be successful, be known, build great things, be known for building great things, you know, be the best, you know, and that and that attitude did get me more work, greater work, more opportunity, and everything else for that. It wasn't because I made lots of money. You know, that was just the byproduct. So it really was that focus. And so I'll put that in the whisker category. You know?

SPEAKER_01 51:50

It's I think I guess it's kind of hard to tell. It's because everybody's different. Some people they definitely cheese, they're cheese-driven. Sure. Some people it's whiskers driven. You're right.

SPEAKER_00 52:00

But if you're cheese driven, just remember you always want to be the second mouse. First mouse doesn't do so well.

SPEAKER_01 52:08

Break that done. Break that done. Break that down.

SPEAKER_00 52:11

Second mouse gets the cheese. That's what I'm saying. Okay, so let's say, you know, you're you there's risk and then there's unwarranted risk. There's stupid things you can do. And the stupid things you people do end them, and their business ends them soon. We talked about it, overspending, misdirection of priorities, no real, no real exit strategy, no, no real vision. That second one can come along. And let's say you build this business for three years, four years, and then you fail because you did a lot of wrong things. I come along and I buy, I'm air quote, and buy your business for 10 cents on the dollar or what it's worth because you're a hot mess. You didn't build it, but now I got your list, I have your equipment, everything else. I come in and turn that thing into a gold mine. And you're like, well, what but he's doing the same thing I did. Yeah, but I'm doing it right. Okay, you you just enriched yourself and did all these dumb things, and you didn't ever put a plan, you never asked for help, you never did anything, but you gave me something I can buy for 10 cents on the dollar, all your assets, and expand my little kingdom. Right? So that's that's what I mean by the second mouse kiss of cheese. So you got snapped in the trap, and I came along and picked up that cheese and ran. Went and had me a little lunch. It's in your business.

SPEAKER_01 53:22

All right, Richard. This is this is fun. I love this. All right, we're gonna wrap up. I got five questions, and I'm gonna wrap a five question. Here we go. And the first one is a TV show or a film you'll find yourself returning to lately.

SPEAKER_00 53:36

I'm not watching any TV right now. I really love like Andy Griffith.

SPEAKER_01 53:40

Andy Griffith?

SPEAKER_00 53:42

Yeah, the great show. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 53:46

Yeah. Andy.

SPEAKER_00 53:48

That's one. That's one that's always worth watching again.

SPEAKER_01 53:51

Okay, next one is three books you would recommend to a friend right now.

SPEAKER_00 53:56

First one would be the Bible. Second one would be uh it's called The Endurance, and it's the kind of biography of Ernest Shackleton going to discover, you know, go to the South Pole, but they got frozen on the ice. Two years, him and 28 guys on the ice, dog sleds, eating the dogs, holding for two years. He brought them all back alive. And the reason why I say read them, you always want to read books about people who did incredibly difficult things. Like, there's no way this could have happened, kind of things. Because when you're whining about no internet, okay, or you got to work a couple extra hours, think about these guys wiping their butts with ice chips, okay, in Antarctic, all right? And you're crying about like the keyboard don't work. Like, save it, all right? Read books like that to give you a good perspective so you can have some grit and push through. Okay, third book, moving along. Third book's gonna be, well, I'll just say it, grit. Angela Duckworth, the book Grit. Read it, understand what it is, what makes the grates great. It's not intellect, it's not money, it's grit. And she has all the studies, great research book, but just awesome. Go, go read that and go and take her little grit test. I scored a 97% on the grit test, just saying. Okay. So I'm a little gritty. I'm a little, if you can't tell, I'm a little gritty. I can I can stay in it to win it, you know?

SPEAKER_01 55:25

All right, all right, next one. A product or tool you've been using that's been a game changer?

SPEAKER_00 55:31

Chat and Claude. Really? Like, I'm and I don't like write little love letters or something. Like, I'm doing real work. Like it's changed. It's it's unbelievable. It is, I'll tell you, it's it's been the best business partner I've ever had. Because I'm not a fan of partners. You know what they say, right? The only ship that doesn't sail is a partnership. Okay. So I don't bring on partners, I bring on employees, but that yeah, incredible tool when you know how to use it.

SPEAKER_01 56:00

I agree, I agree. A community you have been finding real value in lately.

SPEAKER_00 56:06

I have a men's Bible study. Incredible fellowship, man, sharing some deep, deep stuff that doesn't leave the room, kind of stuff, you know, and that's uh that's powerful for me. Thursday night, I host it here at my place, it's awesome. So that's where I get it.

SPEAKER_01 56:22

Perfect. All right. The last one. You're among Roshimore. Three to five people you've been most that have been most influential in your life, and they cannot be your family members.

SPEAKER_00 56:35

Let's see who would that be. I'm gonna put it currently. There's a guy named John Lovell, if you're not familiar with him, War Warrior Poet Society, that guy. Look up that guy a lot. A lot of respect. Say his name again. John Lovell, Warrior Poets Society. Big he's a he's an armor ranger, gunfighter, does the whole thing, but biblically he's got church, pastor, all the stuff, man. Just uh guy respectful lot. So I'd I I guess I put him up there. He's won um another one in my life. Let me think. You know, in high school I had a coach, so I had a I ran cross-country. Yeah, people look at me at you. I mean, yeah, I ran. I was pretty good, you know, smaller than uh, but and he was such a unique coach. Like he cared about every person, but drove us hard. But like, I mean he was complete, he's passed away now, but his name was uh Dave Pasquely. Really cool, really cool. He was uh influential at that time period, like sophomore and junior high school and stuff, you know. Um, so there's a guy right there, and I'm trying to think of last one, not a family member. Oh, I know there aren't people. I know there are people, and I'll remember as soon as we're done with this. It'll pop right in my head. I go to the third person, man.

unknown 57:51

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 57:52

I want to say my an old roommate, also my boxing coach, we're both in the Marines at the same time, and we didn't serve together, but we're in the same time. Got out, um, really took my become a boxer, then he really started training me. We became like really close friends, right? We're roommates and stuff, you know, but we're fighting together and everything else. Really cool. He was another one of those guys that like that experience becoming a boxer, a champion boxer, and all that stuff that train everything else that that really that's one thing that stuck with me. And I think he his his name is Doug Offerman. You know, I think he's still in Arizona. Can't talk to him in 25 years or something, 30 years. I don't know. He and I love him because he's like not on Facebook or anything still. Like I knew he'd never be that guy. He's that guy. I'm like, and then look at he's not there. I go, he's still that guy. I'm gonna have to go find him. Great guy. Man, we had a couple years just amazing. Just training, going through the stuff, you know. I mean, amateur athletics and stuff is brutal. Um, but man, we train six days a week, man. We push so hard all the time with jobs. He's going through college. I mean, we just suffered together. And that is the greatest bond builder there is suffering together. So yeah, I he's number three.

unknown 59:03

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 59:04

Sorry that took so long.

SPEAKER_01 59:06

Richards, this was uh this was powerful. And whatever it's if I didn't ask you, is there anything I didn't ask you that you want to share?

SPEAKER_00 59:12

No, man, this was great. I I couldn't, you know what I couldn't do? Come up with all that. Okay, that you did. So just that's the way I mean I've done a lot of podcasts as a host and a guest, and I I that's too much work. Okay. Like, man, you're a hard worker. That's that's that's a lot, my man. You're a better man than I.

SPEAKER_01 59:32

I appreciate it. I appreciate it. Well, I will ask the last question, then what is your biggest takeaway from this conversation? Our giveaway.

SPEAKER_00 59:39

Well, life's complicated. There's a lot of things, man. And if you don't if you don't know who you are, I mean, deep down, like who your identity is truly in, you know, you're gonna struggle. You know, it's it's a it's it's a compass, it's a compass bearing, you know, when you know who that is, you know, and I'll just I'll just leave with this because I people ask, well, okay, you didn't you're it's not your work. Well, where is your identity? And mine is in Jesus Christ. That's my identity. The one who will never leave me or forsake me. That's it. So if I know that, I'm good to go. I don't have to change again. I can operate from that standpoint and I'm good to go on my identity. It's not my work, it's not what I do, not what I write. I got three books, okay, cool. You know, who cares? Right? Like all that, it's good. It's there's nothing wrong with I do a lot of things. I'm doing the biggest thing in my life right now, ever. You know, so I'm pushing the biggest thing ever at this at this time in my life. And uh, but I know I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:34

If you don't mind sharing about that biggest thing you're pushing, you don't mind?

SPEAKER_00 1:00:37

So, yeah, I I just came with a book called The Invisible Layer. It's the hidden structural failure undermining manufacturing. So I've created what's called command infrastructure. I install into factories, industrial services, uh, so it's command. It's it's it works on command drift. So it systemizes command, frontline leadership, right? So it's no longer personality driven. So shift to shift, you know, plant to plant, things stay consistent. It's not based on a personality, it's based on the system, the human system, where guys can fill in. Just like just like in the military, right? Sergeant goes down, corporal steps up, corporal goes down, Lance Corporal steps up. As corporal goes down, PFC steps up, and so on, right? We build it like that. It's not a military thing, but it's it's kind of based on the the principles, right? I've kind of gone back. It's called, you know what it's called, Asher? Retrofuturism.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:31

Retrofuturism.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:33

Say that three times fast. Okay. Now, retrofuturism is what I've done, right? I've gone back to an old discipline that used to be holding standards, right? And I brought it to the future and I've re-organized it. Okay, I've rebuilt it to apply it in the workplace now. Where they how do you how do you everyone has a standard, but how do they keep it? How do they enforce it? And then who enforces the enforcers? I got all that. Full ecosystem on this stuff, and that's what I'm rolling out now.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:05

You know, you you was mentioning about the um the stewardship. I was uh I like that that term. I remember I was I was one of my brigade commanders way back in the day. It was it was at the motor pool and he was telling us about it was like you train him, you break them, you fix them. He was talking about equipment at the time. But then I started thinking about it deeply. It's the same thing with the person, right? You train him, you break him, you fix him. And if we if you're in the army and you get out and you need the VA, if you train him, you break him, and you can't fix them, you gotta pay him, right? But either way, right? But it's a win-win. I love the idea around just understanding how you steward the thing that was given to you and you work it, you put it to the you put it to the challenges, and if it breaks, you you you spend time fixing it. And if you can't fix it, then you gotta compensate it in some ways.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:52

But if it's a person kill don't kill another man's fish. That's it. That's the big takeaway. I'm scarred. I'm scarred for life. It's like 50 years ago. I'm scarred.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:08

Don't kill another man's fish.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:10

Yeah, there you go. That's that's the big takeaway today.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:14

All right, all right, Richard. Hey, I appreciate you coming on here and chatting it up. And um, this one's gonna be a winner, too. I I can feel it.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:21

Love it. Ashford, thank you for the time, man. Just I appreciate you. Thank you so much for the valid questions, awesome questions, and just the time to be in here.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:28

All right, with that, folks, make it an utterly, utterly fantastic day.