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

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

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

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

Welcome to Season 2, where we embark on authentic and unfiltered conversations about life, relationships, society, and more. Our opinions are solely our own and don't represent professional advice. It's just our perspective, so form your conclusions. Heads up, this podcast may contain adult content and explicit language. Let's dive in!
 
Buzzsprout refer a friend! 
Grab a $20 off when you sign up!

 With SiteGround's Click-and-Install WordPress, we're leaving manual setup in the past. Our podcast is powered by the seamless one-click installation and WordPress Starter wizard. Choose from pro designs, add contact forms, online stores, portfolios – all automated, no tech stress. Say goodbye to mundane setups and hello to a stunning podcast platform. Dive into impactful discussions without the technical hassle. Launch your podcast website effortlessly.

https://www.buzzsprout.com/2108585/subscribe 

Social Media:

https://www.instagram.com/toxic_workplace_pod/

Transcript

Nicola: 0:43

Good morning Brian.

Bryan: 0:45

How you doing.

Nicola: 0:46

Good thing you're in yourself.

Bryan: 0:48

Oh, I'm doing great Good to connect with you guys. How are y'all? We got one New Zealander and one Florida.

Nicola: 0:55

That is correct. That is 100% correct.

Bryan: 1:00

Right on. What time is it in New Zealander right now?

Nicola: 1:03

Oskracket clock.

Bryan: 1:07

Well, I appreciate you getting up early to make this happen 5.27.

Nicola: 1:14

Oh shoot.

Gina: 1:15

All right, so where you are currently in Chile.

Bryan: 1:21

Nashville, Tennessee. As we speak.

Gina: 1:24

Oh, what were all your Instagram posts about? From?

Bryan: 1:27

Yeah, I was down in Chile, are you a?

Gina: 1:28

recycler.

Bryan: 1:31

No, no, actually I got back to Tennessee about a week ago. I'm a New Zealander and I'm a New Zealander, and so it's nice to kind of be home and just relax and, before I get ready, go back out there again. I'm going to go to. I'm actually renewing my passport right now.

Nicola: 1:49

It's going to take about two months, so I'm going to be in Tennessee for about two months, and then I might go to Spain Two months to renew your passport? Yeah, it's crazy government is slow as hell. Brian, do you want to introduce yourself up to us Just a wee bit? So what are you calling us from today? What's your business? Tell us about you.

Bryan: 2:08

Yeah, yeah, so I'm out of Nashville, tennessee. I am the CEO and co-founder of GreenPowell, which is a mobile app that works like Uber, but for landscaping services. So if you live in the United States and you need to get a gardener, a landscaping service, you need your grass cut. Rather than calling around on Craigslist or Facebook, you just download GreenPowell and you get a little bit of information and somebody comes out and takes care of it for you.

Nicola: 2:34

So I think when we first read about this, I think our commentary was like Ken, is this how you would get like a John Deere like to the front of your house? You just like Uber and John Deere to your house.

Gina: 2:47

But like somebody who's on the John Deere it wouldn't just be like a John Deere like appearing on you.

Bryan: 2:56

The main thing is you get somebody who knows how to operate the John Deere. You just put somebody in your yard and makes the grass short for you, rather than having to mow yourself or dialing for dollars and leaving voicemails trying to hassle somebody to come take care of the chore. You just pop your address in GreenPowell and somebody comes and does it for you.

Nicola: 3:15

What if it's a weirdo, because America's full with interesting people? What if, like, the guy on the John Deere is actually coming to like, put me in a cellophane wrap and put me on the John Deere and then run me over in the John Deere?

Gina: 3:27

How do we? I guess your question, nicola, is are they vetted? Yeah, and I'm assuming yes.

Bryan: 3:33

How do you keep the interesting people out of the platform? As part of our job yeah, you want to know that you're getting a professional. You want to know that somebody who's been in the business, somebody that is going to do a good job for you and that's part of our platform's job is to make sure that good vendors, good long-care professionals, get promoted and the bad ones, the interesting ones, get demoted and expelled from the platform. So you get to sidestep that as a homeowner, rather than having to go through that.

Bryan: 4:01

You know, if you do it the old way, you kind of have to go through that through trial and error. You know, hiring a couple of bad providers and then finally get the guy that you want or gal that you want, and then they mow for two or three times and then they disappear and then you're left with a process all over again. Our platform's job is to make all that go away, make that easy.

Gina: 4:20

Okay, so how successful is your platform slash app.

Bryan: 4:27

Yeah, it still feels like day one, but it's a 10 year overnight success. My co-founders and I have been at this thing for a little over a decade, grown the business from zero in revenue. We ended our first year with, I think, around $2,000 in revenue and now we're doing over $30 million a year in revenue.

Gina: 4:46

And I think that's a good thing.

Bryan: 4:52

I'm going to go through the whole thing in a while.

Gina: 4:55

Are you looking for a wife? I'm married to the business, I'm married to Green Powell and I get that and I am faithful.

Nicola: 5:04

I get that. Well, okay, hold on. That's a toxic issue all in itself. There, brian, I think we need to maybe unpack that a little bit more, as to how you prioritize your.

Bryan: 5:15

You know I I've done this twice now. My first business was a was a traditional landscaping business, and then I grew to Over a hundred people and sold it. And then the second business I've grown it to around 40 people and so both businesses, growing them from scratch, you know getting them going, you know getting scale, growing and scaling on it. You know it was. It was basically like the GDP of myself. It was everything, everything I had. I was like I'm going to get it, I'm going to get it, I'm going to get it, I'm going to be like the GDP of myself. It was everything, everything I had.

Bryan: 5:45

You know, both times and I've been and looking back, you know, 22 years doing this personal relationships it did come at the cost and the expense of personal relationships, whether it be friends, even family, a girlfriend, wife. So I think you know if, if you're going to be married doing this kind of thing, your spouse or your girlfriends got to be bought in with you. They got to be on the bus with you, the bus with you, because it's really really, really challenging to try to get a business going from scratch when you've got a partner who's not on board with you. In fact, it's probably going to come at a price, and that's what I've experienced and a lot of people don't want to talk about that candidly, but that's the way I experienced it getting two businesses going from scratch that it came at the expense of personal relationship.

Nicola: 6:32

I think that's kind of something that kind of stuck out to us when we saw your pitch to join the podcast is that you were pretty candid because we kind of got hooked in with your story about the T-shirt guy. Yeah, the T-shirt guy At least that poor child's heart and we had some commentary about that. So if anyone's watching the YouTube video today, Gina has some amazing set changes here?

Gina: 7:05

Yes, I have a few planned.

Nicola: 7:08

And just for those that can't see the shirt because they're listening what does the shirt say?

Gina: 7:13

there it says stop having sex with broke men.

Bryan: 7:18

It's a good tip.

Gina: 7:19

It is a good tip.

Bryan: 7:21

It's a hot take.

Gina: 7:24

I am no longer doing that, so I guess my shirt worked Anyway. So tell us why I have crazy shirts on today.

Bryan: 7:37

Well, we were talking about toxic workplaces and how toxicity kind of grows and manifests itself in the workplace. And I've dealt with that several times building two companies. And one thing I have found is, as the founder, as the chief, as the CEO, as the manager, whatever hat you want to wear, you get exactly the culture you deserve. You get exactly the level of toxicity you deserve, because it really reflects you. It reflects you as the founder, it reflects you as the CEO, as the president, and I've had to reconcile that several times that there's been times where I've driven to the office and I'm sure every founder, every entrepreneur can relate to this driving to the office and you're just thinking to yourself God, how can I get through another day with this group of bastards? How can I get through another day with all of these assholes?

Nicola: 8:43

What have I done in my life where I'm surrounded by assholes, Right?

Bryan: 8:47

exactly Is this karma.

Gina: 8:49

Is it karma? What is?

Bryan: 8:50

it, and you just have to go through a self-reflection period and realize that you built this, this is a reflection of you, this is your creation. This is conversations I've had with myself, and that you realize that the toxicity in the workplace, the culture, whatever you want to call it sucks because you've let it get there, and so it's like death by a thousand cuts. And, as the founder, it's your job to protect, preserve and to create the level of the culture you want in your business and the level of toxicity that you're wanting to tolerate. And I've dealt with hundreds of examples of playing whack-a-mole and trying to protect culture in my business, one of which is attire, is dress code is what people wear around the office, and there's been several examples of that, but one that comes to mind.

Bryan: 9:57

I was walking into the office one day this is when the company had grown to over 20 people and one of our engineers was wearing a. I looked, I looked over and he was, you know, had his headphones on, he was working. And I looked over and he had a Gatorade shirt on. I'm like that's interesting, he's got a Gatorade shirt on. I was wondering why he's wearing a Gatorade shirt, but it didn't say. But I looked at it a second time and as they didn't say Gatorade, it said. It said get laid across the front of the shirt, get laid.

Gina: 10:29

And I like it. I honestly like if the design like. I like the play on words. I'm picturing the Gatorade logo and colors and font but like saying, get laid. I'm not mad at the shirt, but should it be worn in the office? Questionable.

Bryan: 10:46

Depends, it depends. So I've been down this road before. Doesn't offend me personally. I think it's kind of funny, but I've been down this. You know, having been down this road before of you know. You know, in my landscaping company we had a problem with a guy wearing a shirt with a Confederate flag across the back.

Nicola: 11:09

Okay, yikes. Right, and so I'm not even from your country, and I'm like, oh, that's problematic.

Gina: 11:15

Yeah. Yeah, I feel like most politics should stay out of, like lawn care or most businesses, like we don't need to bring politics into this.

Bryan: 11:26

People Right, yes, so or, or, or or or. I've had this happen where you know. Lady came. You know, this is my last company. We had 150 people there. She came in and she was wearing a shirt that said Jesus saves, across the back.

Nicola: 11:47

How far with sins ship, or everyone's had this happen?

Bryan: 11:52

Had this happened, you know? I don't have a problem with it, but, but, but others might be a limb shirt, you know yeah, so where do?

Bryan: 12:05

you draw the line and how do you, how do you deal with it as the chief, and how do you protect the culture? So? So, seeing the get laid shirt, I don't bother me personally, but I've been down this road before where, where these things can, can manifest themselves into toxicity and then now this person's offended and then you got to deal with that and and it's like toxic toxicity in your workplace will have plan on. It's your job as as the, as the leader, to get out in front of it, to to deal with it the moment you see it and to not have hope as a strategy to say, oh, I hope it goes away, so I don't have to deal with it, because that's how you get to a point where you're driving to the office and you're thinking, oh my God, if I can just get through one more day with all of these jerks. That's where you end up If you don't, if you don't deal with these things the moment you see them and and address them the moment you see them and, even better, lay out expectations and manage expectations beforehand.

Bryan: 13:17

So so in this example you know this is just one of dozens I've had to deal with over the years, but in this example, I was able to pull him aside and say, hey, listen, I think this shirt is hilarious. In fact, where did you get it? I would, I would, I'd like to have one of these. Funny and so. But but just so you know, like this is my fault, I didn't tell you the work, the workplace policy, we have around dress code, and I didn't set that up front. You know you haven't done anything wrong, but this is, this is something that would be a favor to me if you can take that shirt off and put on a different shirt. I've got a company shirt that I'll give you with the logo of the company and, and it would be a favor to me because this is my fault, I didn't manage to genuinely believe it was your fault, though, because I did that shit, just to kind of like gloss over a situation.

Bryan: 14:15

You gotta really believe that shit if you're, because people can smell, smell bullshit a mile away. Yeah, and it was my fault because I didn't lay down, lay out the groundwork ahead of time and say listen, we're, we're, we're more like a, less like a family and more like a protein here. And we have this goal, this mission. This is all we care about and we don't. We don't bring all this other stuff to the workplace and we have a level of the core and a level of professionalism here, that quality standard that we all hold ourselves by, and I'm setting that standard. I didn't do any of that. This was very much when I was building the company, you know, shooting from the hip, trying to get my first 510, 20 people together working on the mission, and so I didn't have those policies in place. So was my fault, was my shortcoming, and and he actually was cool about it was totally cool about it. At the times I've had to deal with this, people weren't very receptive.

Nicola: 15:11

I mean, what was the time when someone wasn't receptive to this?

Bryan: 15:15

Um, in my previous company we had a. We had a board meeting one day. Investors were coming in and we had important people coming through the office and this guy was wearing a shirt that looked like you might have gotten it out of the garbage. Can I mean it was. It was dirty, it had holes in it, I mean it was one of those like designer shirts.

Bryan: 15:45

I personally don't have the fashion acumen to know the difference, but but it looked like something that, like, a backyard mechanic might wear and not to say anything wrong with that, but on this particular day, and you know, we just didn't look good and I approached him and said, hey, listen, you know, I let everybody know that we've got important people come to the office today and you know, I would appreciate if you, if you, if you could change shirts, because this this, your shirt you're wearing is is not up to the quality standard that we have. And he said he said what he said well, I got this a good will, you don't like it? And I said well, you know, it's alright, so this is a nice shirt, but it looks like the guy that you had it before you also also liked it for a long time and he was offended by that. So that was an example where I didn't handle it very well and and screwed it up, and so and so you can, you got to.

Bryan: 16:52

You got to be really careful about these things. You got to. You got to, you got to think through what you're going to say. But, even better, you need to plan on these things happening and you need to put in place I hate to say it, but policies and expectations around what, what is what's acceptable and what's not, and you have to set the quality standard for the team, because if you don't, they will, and once they do, then you have to deal with these things. So it's so, really it is plan on it and and laid, laid, lay out ways that you're going to deal with these things. And then, the moment you see it and I'm not just talking about dress code and talking about anything the moment you see it as the leader, as the manager, you have to address it and nip it in the butt. If you don't, then you wake up one day and you hate driving to the office. I promise you that will happen.

Gina: 18:14

So what? So I think and we, when we were on our like vetting call, you know I mentioned that I think it is very rare to find someone in a leadership position like yourself who actually can have the emotional maturity to say like, to notice it and then be like okay this is?

Gina: 18:38

this is partially because it's like you became like responsible for 100%, responsible for your 50%, which most people don't want to deal with. That for whatever reasons, like that's a whole different podcast that we would need therapists on here for. So like what, what would? Why do you think? Are you just? Have you always been self reflective, like both myself and Nicola were, were very like I'll call myself out if I'm like, oh, that was really fucked up, that I did that. Or like I can't believe I said that to a client, like they're for sure never gonna work with us again, or whatever you know, like we're very open to calling ourselves out on our bullshit. So have you always been like that? Or was that something that you had to learn how to do?

Bryan: 19:24

being you know, entrepreneur.

Bryan: 19:27

Yeah, for me, nobody teaches us this stuff. You know we're not taught this stuff in school. We're not taught this stuff in business school. You know, maybe if you, if you go to some leadership workshops or leadership training, you know you might expose to these these types of ideas. But for me it was.

Bryan: 19:47

It was very much trial and error in the marketplace of trying to build a business and failing that I come to the epiphany that it was me and that's one of the best. You know, one of the best things you can do with your life is to try to start a business. Or even if you, if you're not an entrepreneur, you know managing a team in a, in a business, is one of the most, is one of the most rewarding things you can do with your life, because the marketplace is a relentless purveyor of feedback. So the marketplace is going to tell you everywhere you suck, all the time. So it's like okay, our customers are pissed off. Well, why are our customers pissed off? Well, because they're not getting the level of service we promise them. Why not? Well, because our employees are pissed off. Well, why are employees pissed off? Well, because of x, y and z, and, and you know the culture in the business sucks and they hate working here well why do they hate working here?

Bryan: 20:42

well, because you founder, have created this environment that's not fun to work at. And how did you?

Gina: 20:49

create that. So you keep saying it was like, like you didn't want to be there. You're like, if I could just get through this day, like what? How did it manifest itself to the point where you're like, if I could just get through one more day, maybe things will be okay?

Bryan: 21:04

Like, what, what, how did it get to?

Gina: 21:07

that point, and what were the specific things that you were dreading when you were driving into the office?

Bryan: 21:14

Yeah, it gets there by 1000 bad decisions and it kind of you kind of work your way out of it by doing a thousand things, 10,000 things, correctly. So you have to fix it, almost like pruning a rose, bush, to use landscaping as an analogy. You have to prune out the bad parts of the plant, and by that I mean it might be bad processes, bad systems, bad ways of doing business, bad people that you hired. So that's one piece of it. But also, on the other side of the spectrum, there's a quote that I like if you're gonna eat shit, don't nibble. And so a lot of times you know.

Gina: 21:55

Oh, I want to Just get it straight down, to get it over with. Yeah, yeah, you really Just go in and fuck it up and be done with it. Yeah, I get that.

Bryan: 22:05

Take it down to the studs and rebuild it the way it should be. But I mean, how do you even know? It's hard to know that and hard to know how to do it the right way, and so a lot of times you know, especially as an entrepreneur.

Gina: 22:20

Because, like you, like I was just talking to my mother about this and I was like, sometimes I'm the problem Like there are things that were outside of my control with what I'm going through right now with my business, but then that's like 50%.

Gina: 22:36

And then the other 50% I feel like were directly related to me not handling a situation properly, you know, not pausing and just telling people what I was, what I really think of them, which is never good. But I am sometimes like, when you know, when a client shits on me so much, it's like you can only take so much. So you know, I'm kind of in that same boat where it's like I did make some decisions that are costing us you know dearly right now, but then there's like 50% of the things that are outside of our control, right, that like COVID or you know banking mess ups or I don't know whatever, clients not paying on time Just a few things that come to my mind. So it's like what happens when you realize, like that your decisions like are single-handedly like fucking up your company that you started Like you know what I mean.

Bryan: 23:40

That's part of you know, for me, you know that was part of the growing process realize and not making those mistakes over again and growing from them. You know success is a lousy teacher. The only way we learn how to do these things the right way is by fucking them up first, but then not fucking them up over and over and over again. I mean that's step one. And for me, one thing that I've had to learn the hard way, you know. I mean there's been times in business where I hated our customers, I hated our vendors, I hated most of the people that worked for us and I realized that you know the level of enthusiasm that I'm bringing to the business. My people are gonna reflect that same level of enthusiasm, and so I have to genuinely be enthusiastic about what we're trying to do, what the mission is, what the goals are and what we're doing every day. I mean I really gotta be enthusiastic about that, because if I'm not, then my people certainly aren't. Why would they be any more enthusiastic about the mission than me, the founder? And the other thing too is, as the founder, as a leader, it's your job to almost like ingest a lot of the negative stuff and almost, in a way, bear that burden for the rest of your people and not reflect that back to them.

Bryan: 25:39

You know like sure a customer screwing you over. You know how did that happen. What processes did you have in place that is preventing that customer from paying you? Is it a payment process? Is it something that you laid the groundwork on? That's not working? That's not your people's fault, but it's got you pissed off because you're getting screwed over. So now you're pissed off and so you show up to the office. You're pissed off, and now everybody else is pissed off, and so it's like part of the art is ingesting that and almost, I hate to say, like putting on, like a happy face for everybody else. That's what the founder needs to be able to do, that's what the leader needs to be able to do and not wear all of these challenges on their sleeve, because that's gonna permeate into the rest of the culture and it's really really, really hard to do.

Bryan: 26:26

And that's might be one reason why this game you know being an entrepreneur is not for everybody, because not everybody wants to do that. I certainly don't, but it's one of the things that I've learned how to do over 22 years of running businesses is like. You have to be able to ingest that stuff and show to your team that everything is okay and that you're enthusiastic about the mission and they should be too.

Gina: 26:51

Yeah, I mean.

Nicola: 26:53

Before you became a business owner and someone that took responsibility for their kind of shit eating, were you ever an employee of somewhere?

Bryan: 27:09

You know it's weird. I've never had a job. I actually started mowing yards in high school as a way to make extra cash and I thought, man, this is cool, I'm making more money than my friends are making more money than I could if I did get a job. And I just stuck with that. And then I went to college and when I graduated college from business school, I made a little business plan, had a chip on my shoulder and thought I'm gonna build a big company in this industry and I ended up building like one of the largest landscaping businesses in the Southeast United States and then sold it.

Bryan: 27:45

And then after that I still had the chip on my shoulder. I thought, well, I see all these successful tech companies. Now I wanna try that and I just wanted to prove to myself that I could do it. So I never had a job working for anybody else and maybe that was good in some ways and bad in others. It would have been nice to work for a big company and see their systems and processes and take the good things and fix the bad things. So maybe that held me back. But I guess I'm lucky in that and I'm also lucky that I never did have a job and always worked for myself.

Nicola: 28:19

Because I was curious that was gonna be. My next question is I would be curious to know how that has impacted the way that you kind of define or develop that culture, If you haven't experienced a culture outside of what you've created.

Bryan: 28:35

Yeah, I've just experienced my bad cultures and I think a lot of times as running a business, you know it is, it's your life, you know you are your business, your business is you. And as a small business owner, that's really kind of the reality. Like a restaurant owner, you know, is when he or she wakes up in the shower they're thinking about. They're thinking about their restaurant, they're thinking about the chef just resigned and they need to hire a new chef. They're thinking about new recipes, you know, like seven days a week and I think any small business owner, any good one, is all in, and so I think a lot of your personal, like your personal wellbeing and your personal health is tied to how your business is doing. Lisa has been for me.

Gina: 29:27

It absolutely. I would agree with that 100%, like. So I have a business partner who we started the business when we were dating each other, like 12 years ago, and within the first three months of the business starting I realized there's no way I could be both a business partner and a girlfriend to this human being. So we chose the business and we grew the business, you know, to a point where we were doing really, really well and then COVID hit and my business partner basically just like checked out and he left me with the mess and he's still around but he really doesn't do anything. He just kind of, you know, he got married, he's you know, whatever he's doing, I don't know.

Gina: 30:20

And he I'm just like left with this mess and I have to like constantly think on my feet, make a hundred million decisions, you know, from the time my eyes pop open to the time I drug myself to go to sleep, so that cause, like my mind, will just keep going. And like even this morning I was working out with my husband and he I was like thinking about something and I was like I think we should sell your other house and he's like why I'm like, oh, we just got to generate more income. Like I'm like always thinking, like I'm always thinking of a way to make extra money, thinking about emails I sent. Like you're exactly right, like you just like get into that groove of like being resourceful, finding solutions, making decisions. You know, all the time and it is not.

Nicola: 31:17

I find as well, cause this is something that I really struggle with as well. On top of that, someone comes to you and they're like, hey, so I've got this idea. And it's like, oh my God, let's red string it, let's go, we can totally come up with all the plans. Does anyone else do that as well?

Gina: 31:34

Yes, hello, that's how this podcast started. You muck it, true shame.

Nicola: 31:41

What the hell? No, but I mean for like other people, for like people that are potentially maybe not in the same mind frame, and then they're like I can't do all of that. It's like why not?

Bryan: 31:54

That could be what separates people who are not entrepreneurs.

Bryan: 31:59

People who are are people who are willing to go all in and make it part of their soul the business that they're working on and and be one of the distinctions.

Bryan: 32:16

You know, and you know there's people that work for big companies who are entrepreneurial in nature, who are like that, who think only about their role in their big company and their team seven days a week, and maybe they have that entrepreneurial DNA. You know, I think it's part of the journey that if you're willing to be an entrepreneur, you gotta be willing to think about it when you're in the shower. And you know you talked about, you know you talked about all the challenges you're going through right now, you know, with cleaning up the mess from the fallout, from the partnership or whatever. You know I'm willing to bet that in five years you'll be glad you went through this, because every challenging part of growing a couple of businesses myself, like all of the hard parts and man, I've been on the ropes a few times I was glad they happened in a weird way, because that enabled these other three things that were really good to happen.

Gina: 33:17

You know, it caused me to work something Right and I'm a firm believer that things mainly do happen for a reason, like one thing will lead to the next thing will lead to the next thing. But you know, when you're and my business partner is still my business partner he just has absolutely zero willingness to help or be a part of the business. He just wants the profit. So jokes on him, because there's no profit sharing at the moment.

Bryan: 33:46

So so there's a weird thing that I read the other day. So you got two people. One is like a comfortable state in their business or in their relationship, life or whatever, and then the other person is in extreme pain in their relationship or in their business, and who is in the better position? The person that's in a comfortable kind of mediocre level.

Gina: 34:12

No, it's the person who's uncomfortable because they're the ones who are gonna change?

Bryan: 34:17

to get out of the pain, to get in a better position.

Gina: 34:20

Yeah, so and that is me and you know I came back to like things with a completely different mindset and you know it's still. For me it's still 50-50. 50% of it is outside of my control and 50% of it is me. Yeah, it's me hi I'm the problem.

Nicola: 34:41

If you're high, you're the problem, it's you.

Bryan: 34:44

But that's one of the best things about running your own thing is that personal growth. Most people don't get to go through that because they're not exposed to it. You know they work a job and everybody you know at their job kind of just tells them what they want to hear, just to get the output they need out of them. The marketplace doesn't do that. Marketplaces no. It's ridiculous.

Gina: 35:05

I was told yesterday by a client that they don't trust me anymore and I'm like, oh, okay, I'm sorry, we're making you headbands. How do you not trust? Because I'm fucking headband, we're not curing cancer, god damn it. But, okay, cool and like, even though they had a part to play in the non-trusting scenario, they will never admit it. So I have to, like you said, I have to eat that and be like you're absolutely right, Like I fucked up, blah, blah, blah, even though I'm like, you know, despite Full Italian in me is like I'm gonna find out where this bitch lives and I'm gonna do donuts in her front lawn, like I will, literally like you know.

Bryan: 35:49

I have felt that way, yeah, yeah. And as a business owner, everything is your fault, all the time.

Nicola: 35:57

There's just no way to do it. But then it makes us wonder, though right Then we reflect on the workplace that you and I came from, gina, and the owner in that instance was very involved in the organization but had created a toxic environment that there was very little adaptability to kind of gookaloo, have a look inside and go okay, maybe I need to adapt and grow. And they did. They had a great idea that they kind of monetized and that led to this business and but the maturity there to think through what impact that they were having on the organization is so non-existent. And then listening to the negative feedback coming out of the customers that are using products and changing essentially entire marketing plans because of one person's negative comment. And then, thanks to this podcast, also personally reached out to a total stranger on Facebook who shared our podcast and told them that they were going to be blacklisted as customers. Wow, how do you think so? Curious, let's unpack that for a second.

Gina: 37:17

What are your thoughts here? So I mean, I think it's exactly what Brian first said, like, or Brian and I were talking about, like not everyone has the ability to self-reflect. And like eat the negative shit about them and be like, yeah, I can be a dick. Like I have to work hard me myself, gina, to not be a dick to everyone that I meet. Like that is my personal plate, right Cause. Like I, just I'm, that's how I'm built. Like I don't know why. So she, in this particular situation, there was no self-reflection and she surrounded herself and I think this is to Brian's point with people who would co-sign her bullshit.

Bryan: 38:02

Yeah, yeah.

Gina: 38:04

Like like the team she created for herself, had very little experience and thought everything she did and said was just like the best thing since sliced bread like golden nuggets just raining down out of her mouth and her ass at all times.

Bryan: 38:22

Yeah Well the thing is it's when it comes to feedback from customers, from people, from teammates, from people you hired, from family members you can't you can't just take it all in and change forever. You have to take it, ingest it, internalize it, see the commonalities, be honest with yourself about opportunities for improvement that you have and then act on those. You can't just be willing to cause. I mean, not everybody's gonna give you good feedback. Some of it is going to be self-serving and some of it may not be true. So it's your job to be able to take it all in and then really look for the commonalities. Like you know what Everybody's kind of telling me I'm difficult to deal with. I don't think so. I think I'm pretty straight up, but I don't know. I've heard it 10 times this year that I'm a little. I'm a little gruff and maybe I need to work on that. You know Not, I heard it.

Gina: 39:20

Not, I heard it. That's. My biggest complaint is that I'm too like.

Nicola: 39:25

I'm disdending.

Gina: 39:26

Oh, yes, that I have a condescending tone to my emails. I did not realize an informational email could be condescending.

Bryan: 39:35

And you know I mean so you could do a couple of things. You know I kind of skewed towards that type of character myself and so I mean me personally. You know I mean I try to take myself out of a lot of the the personal people types of selling arrangements. I know I'm not good at that, but you say you know you're in the people business. You have to personally sell. So you have to make it a decision Are you gonna cultivate that part of your personality or rebuild your business to where it's completely self-serve and they interact with the screen and they pick out the headband they want, they upload their logo and they put it on there and they don't have to talk to a salesperson? You know you have to make that decision. You know if you're gonna be in the personal sales business.

Gina: 40:25

I think there's a third option to hire people who are better at it and more experienced at it than you and let them do it, which is where-.

Bryan: 40:36

I mean, I don't wanna run away from self-improvement, but also there is something to be said for realizing what you're good at, and doubling down on that.

Gina: 40:47

Yeah.

Bryan: 40:48

And not trying to be something you're not. So you know, ultimately that's all of our decision. I think in the early days of getting a business going from scratch, you have no customers, you have no employees, you have nothing. You're everything, your operation, you gotta be everything that all people You're everything.

Gina: 41:03

Yes, and honestly, I've been doing like I've been cultivating the majority of the accounts that do place contract orders with us and after 12 years, like I've eaten a lot of shit, I think I'm like kind of, you know, just I'm like I'll stick with my normal accounts but like I can't keep doing like trying to generate more business. It's just not where I wanna be right now. You know, I'm 43. I have a three-year-old and I just like, but it's hard. It's also really hard to find fucking good employees. Like it's really hard. So, nikola, that doesn't include you, cause she does marketing for my company. But it does not include you. But no, it is. It's very difficult. Like what tell us some employee horror stories?

Nicola: 42:09

Yeah, where I'm very curious about some of these horror stories too.

Gina: 42:13

Besides the Get Lay T-shirt.

Bryan: 42:15

Well, you know around what you're talking about about, okay, I suck at this, so I wanna put somebody else in this role to do it better than me. What I have found is is that it's really hard to delegate something that you aren't good at yourself. And every time I've tried to do that where there'd be engineering from my company, greenpowell, or sales, or content writing or SEO or for Facebook marketing, if I haven't done it and I haven't figured out what like the 80, 20 is and the right way to do it, to where I can lay it out into a process and then delegate that to somebody to do it better than me, then usually it blows up in my face and I don't get the result I want and I just keep repeating the same mistakes over and over again. But it's like I'm not good at this, here, you handle it Almost never works out.

Bryan: 43:14

It's like, okay, here's how we do this, here's why we do it this way, here's the process, here's the routine, here's what we expect. And you work this process from, you know, from soup to nuts. Then I can lay it, put it in somebody's hands and they can do it better than me. That's how I have found like hiring people to do things worked. So I but I understand what you're saying. It's like, you know, it's hard to find good people, and it is, but I think a lot of times it's hard for people to even do good work for us because we haven't codified it down to what we think they should be doing.

Gina: 43:49

You know, and and also like for me, it's like there's multiple ways to get a task done right, but I know so intimately every aspect of this company because I built it like single-handedly, that if it's not done as quickly as I could do it, or within like the in the way that I would have handled it, it like it's like an uncomfortable position for me. Like I feel like, ooh, I don't like the way that was done. But then again it's like who am I to say, like that worked for me, but it might not work for so-and-so. So there's so much to consider. And it's like, even if you do like write down the steps, it's like there's always gonna be, you know, the outlier that skirts the code or the steps that we've codified. And it's just like like to find someone who's willing to do the work and to do it consistently, knowing that, like especially sales, that return on investment will take a long time. Like, yeah, you're getting paid a shitty base salary, but you're gonna get all your money from commissions. So like that's something that I'm struggling with and I don't know why we went down that path. We were talking about giving it to someone to make better, but yeah, so that's where I'm at with that whole thing.

Gina: 45:20

Like I am, I always split between being like God I wish I could just clone myself and then like also being like, okay, I don't know everything. Let this person do you. Know what they do and see what happens. Maybe I can learn from them. So, like it's a hard. It's hard to reconcile, I think sometimes, cause like also to be an entrepreneur, you have to be a little crazy. Like you have to be like I'm gonna live off of like $300 a month in the beginning and like just figure it out as I go, you know, and work alone in like a shitty apartment, whatever, like that was how we started this business, you know. So it's like and you have to make the decision like you're not gonna live in the fear of am I gonna be able to pay my rent this month or whatever the case may be? So it's like there's nobody's going to care as much as you care at the end of the day.

Bryan: 46:20

Yeah, it's everything you're talking about is probably the hardest thing about business ownership, and it's like you have to get people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it, and that's easier said than done. And creating those incentives and creating those processes is what separates being self-employed from having an actual business Right, and most people conflate those two and there's a big gap between the two. Let's say you've got five employees and you have to come in and wrangle it every day and if you left for a week you'd come back and there would be a crater and smoke coming out of it. I've ran businesses like that for many, many, many years and the thing I had to realize like I'm not actually a business owner, I'm just self-employed with a few helpers- Right.

Bryan: 47:21

And crossing that chasm between being self-employed, where it's you hand-to-hand combat, wrangling some people to get some stuff done every day is not actually owning a business. It's just being self-employed on steroids and that's okay. You know, it's okay to be self-employed and to make a good profit and then take that profit and reinvest it in some other, more durable sources of income like real estate or something like that. That's okay. You don't have to build a big, huge business because it's really really, really hard.

Bryan: 47:55

But this is something that every small business owner goes through and one of my favorite books about it is the E-Mith, which is a simple, simple, simple book about a lady who used to make pies with her grandmother. She loved the smell of pies and she remembered making pies with her grandmother when she was a kid. She wanted to open a bakery. It was her lifelong dream to open a bakery and she opened the bakery and within like a month she hated the smell of freshly baked pies. And it's her story about going through the idea of like having a business idea in your head and actually executing and building a business and what goes into that and what the difference between being self-employed and having a business is, and it's a really good simple book about that. I read it probably once every couple of years.

Bryan: 48:45

Even at the stage I'm at, I still get lessons from that little simple book about what it means to run a business and build a business, and it's something that, you know, all of us, as founders, go through. So don't feel like you're alone in this, like we are all struggling with that same thing. You just you laid out. And how do you get people to care about the mission? How do you get them to do it? I wish I could clone myself. I can't tell you how many times I've said that.

Gina: 49:10

Even my business partner is like why can't we just clone you? You're so good at what you do? I'm like I am for the most part, but yeah, and it, you know it's. But also I'm not, you know. So I'm more of a realistic, I have more of a realistic view. I think of myself like I suck at sales but I'm good at all of the other stuff, so it's just, it's always such a weird position to be in and I like that.

Gina: 49:43

You said that there's a difference between being self employed and actually running a business, and I think for a while I was just self employed on steroids, and then I started getting smarter about it and I was like I don't have to do everything. I can let go of the reins, like I'm not great, I don't know what the fuck I'm doing with marketing, I don't know what. Like I can't make these beautiful renderings that our art department now handles fully, like I can't do that, you know, and I just was like this this is what we need to do to move forward and we're there and you know, it's just, it's, don't you feel like it's always just a lot of work. It's a lot of work, like all the time.

Bryan: 50:31

It's never ending in, and it really is. It's kind of like a video game and you know 10, 10 levels of Super Mario Brothers and at the end of every level is a new boss and a new dragon that you have to slay and it gets harder every level and like the skills that got you through three won't get you through four and so on.

Bryan: 50:53

And most people get stuck on level five or, what's even worse, that they're worried about Bowser but they're really just on level two and it's like don't worry about Bowser related problems when you're in Waterworld or Waterworld you know or you're.

Gina: 51:10

You know, how do you know so much about Super Mario Brothers?

Nicola: 51:13

I feel like I know equally as much about Super Mario Brothers.

Gina: 51:17

I don't know this much at all about Super Mario Brothers.

Nicola: 51:20

I've heard the name Bowser, I'd like to see you incorporate Princess Peach into this. Where does Princess Peach come in?

Bryan: 51:28

Well, I grew up. I grew up where Nintendo was on Channel three, and so, if you know what that means, you, you're, you're, you're, you're.

Gina: 51:38

I do know what that means, but I never, I never had a Nintendo. My parents were listening.

Bryan: 51:43

There's people listening to this that will not understand that Nintendo was on Channel three.

Gina: 51:48

Yeah, that was the channel you had to turn it to like, that's like essentially like the USB. That was what it was. Channel three was like the old school USB. I just I know my parents were very weird about screen time with.

Bryan: 52:04

They were smart. They were smart because now here I am, I'm 43 years old, and I see the. I see the world through the lens of Super Mario Kart and Super Mario Brothers and a couple other video games.

Gina: 52:15

But also girls. We're not going to be playing like video games too much, you know. Excuse us. I don't know, back in the 80s that wasn't our like jam. We weren't like, are you?

Nicola: 52:25

are you you want to back that truck up, sister, let's not be making assumptions here I had a safe Sega and I can remember with like intensity how you would be like, of course, everything from tapes to whatever the cartridge and then I can do.

Gina: 52:44

I could probably do this whole thing and, like Sonic, Okay, well, I just think it came down to the fact that my parents were religious fanatics and didn't allow screen time. I don't know if that's connected, I feel like it is anyway. Yes, well.

Bryan: 53:00

I don't know that it was a bad thing, because I was raised on television and now I see business through through the lens of a video game you thought you asked about yes, about Princess Peach.

Gina: 53:14

That's the ex-girlfriend and ex-wife and all the exes.

Bryan: 53:17

No, no, there's another corollary, that Super Mario Kart. You know, I don't know if you ever played that game, but you had five or six different drivers and Princess Peach was one of them, and every driver was really good at one thing. And Princess Peach was really good at accelerating off the line. She was really fast, but she didn't have a real high top in. And a lot of other drivers, like Toad was really good handling around the curves and Bowser was the fastest, but he was slow accelerating. And then and then you had Mario, who was kind of half-assed at everything. He wasn't the fastest, he wasn't the most perfect.

Gina: 53:56

Jack of all trades.

Bryan: 53:58

Yeah, yeah, he was half-assed at everything. And what I've learned? That that in business probably up till about 50 or even 100 people you should be Mario in the game of business. You really don't want to be just good at one thing, you really kind of want to be a generalist. You need to be pretty half-assed good at leadership, at marketing, at operations, at customer service, at R&D, at engineering. You need to be half-assed good at all of these things in order to get to 100 people, because you're going to be doing a lot of things. You're going to be doing a lot of it yourself and laying out the processes and then putting people in roles where they can do it. So you can be Princess and be good at one thing and then get people to kind of shore that up. But I think it's a lot harder. I think it's better to be Mario and to be half-assed at good at like a dozen different things which I think, as an entrepreneur, you have to be by nature when you're building your business.

Gina: 54:54

I figured out how to do things. Did I do them great? Probably not my area of expertise is production, all that kind of stuff like CPG production, knowing how to run a smooth production, run logistics, all of that. But I'm not a marketing person. I did the best that I could in the beginning, but now we have bigger and better employees, so it's like I think you do kind of end up becoming you wear all the hats at first. You have to, and you have to be willing to.

Bryan: 55:31

And the good news is is, these days you can learn the 80-20 of marketing, copywriting, product design, branding, whatever it is. You can learn these skills for free in YouTube University or podcasts like this one, or online courses, whatever you can learn this stuff. Back in the 90s, when I was starting my first business, I mean you had the library. I mean you might could buy some tapes, you know, maybe a Tony Robbins tape or something, but there was no way to learn this stuff and it was very I know, do we think Tony Robbins is part of a cult?

Gina: 56:12

I think he's the charismatic cult leader.

Nicola: 56:15

Oh my God, I think he's the charismatic cult leader.

Gina: 56:18

Like. So Joe, Joe's my partner. He does SWAT here in West Palm Beach and Tony Robbins comes down here and he has like big conferences and they always request him because he's like a sergeant and he's like got a whole SWAT team under him, whatever. I don't really understand what he does, because half the time he's like I'm sitting in my office watching a movie, but anyway, on the days that Tony Robbins there, he's like it's fucking crazy. You go to the convention center, there's thousands of people, it's like 60 degrees and like people are like dancing in this, like the aisles, like just it's like. And he sent me videos and people are doing like ridiculous things that I would never be caught dad doing at Tony Robbins like conferences.

Nicola: 57:09

Is he the charismatic cult leader?

Gina: 57:11

He is the charismatic cult leader.

Bryan: 57:14

I thought I thought Tony Robbins was bullshit for pretty much all of my life.

Gina: 57:22

What changed?

Bryan: 57:23

Until about four years ago. Oh, oh, my God, brian's joined the cult. No, I didn't get hooked up on the. I didn't get hooked up on the Kool-Aid, but I did go on a. I went on a. You went on a date with Tony Robbins. I went on a Tinder date with a girl who I'm so subscribed right now.

Nicola: 57:46

I'm so ready for the story.

Gina: 57:48

Let's talk about Tinder. Okay, well, I'm so here.

Bryan: 57:52

I went on a Tinder date with a girl and the date went okay, but something I got I took away from the date. She was telling me about guys she had dated before and they were all very wealthy and I was like I'm not gonna get hooked up on the Kool-Aid, I'm not gonna get hooked up on the Kool-Aid?

Gina: 58:15

Did she have a shirt that said this?

Bryan: 58:19

Tits McGee's Irish pub. That would not be allowed in my company.

Gina: 58:24

So you went on your Tinder date, and then what happened?

Bryan: 58:27

Yes, and this girl's telling me about the previous guy she dated and she was telling me Was it Tony Robbins?

Nicola: 58:35

Yeah, we was watching.

Bryan: 58:37

She was telling me that this guy spent $2 million a year chasing Tony Robbins around. What, yeah? And she was telling me this in a kind of a lamenting the fact that he was stupid enough to do this and that he was dumb enough to spend $2 million a year chasing Tony Robbins around, and I thought I heard it very differently. I heard it okay. First off, here's a guy who can piss away $2 million a year, so I'm interested.

Gina: 59:10

Wait can you let me a date with him? Yeah.

Bryan: 59:12

By okay.

Nicola: 59:13

I can't remember Clearly he's wanted that.

Gina: 59:18

I'm trying to marry Brian and date this other guy, just you know. Meanwhile, joe here is over here in the background. But it's okay, I'll figure that out.

Bryan: 59:29

Can you?

Gina: 59:30

update him.

Bryan: 59:31

You can't wear the don't date broke guy shirt, but he you know. So I'm interested in the story. He's got $2 million a year to burn on self-improvement just on Tony. And I thought, well, this guy might be on to something because he's gotten himself to a level of success where he can spend $2 million a year in personal development. I mean that would be kind of cool if I could do that. It may not be on Tony, but it might be on something else. So I got on eBay. I bought Tony Robbins' first book, awaken the Giant Within, for about a dollar 50. And book arrives and I read it. I'm like, yeah, it was pretty good book. I don't know that that it's gonna get me to the level where I can spend $2 million with Tony, but pretty good book. Then I started listening to some stuff on YouTube. Then I read his second book and I started listening to some more stuff and the next thing I know I'm missing the podcast. And then I went to an event that was for free.

Gina: 1:00:36

Were you dancing? Yeah, you got moving, you got it.

Bryan: 1:00:43

Yeah, his thing is connecting physical movement with your state and connecting your state to your overall mood and, like we talked about earlier, enthusiasm and shaking that up. I mean, we're only here on this planet for 40 good years, but we're young and then we're old.

Gina: 1:01:06

Speak for yourself. I don't look 43. And my body's currently banging and I have big boobs now that I didn't want.

Bryan: 1:01:15

Fair enough, I saw your body in Instagram. Let's just say our time is limited, our time is limited and you might as well spend it enthusiastically, and so a lot of these lessons really to hit home. Am I the kind of guy that's gonna go follow him around or pay for a private coaching or whatever? No, but I was exposed to a lot of really good ideas and a lot of really good ways of thinking and changing your perspective and the frame in which you look at things and deal with problems, because really it's all just our thoughts. It's really our decision to choose how we respond to these challenges. And help me see things differently, and that was at like 30.

Gina: 1:01:56

Did you spend $2?

Bryan: 1:01:59

million on no and in fact I've probably spent less than $2,000 on Tony Robbins stuff, but I've gotten way more than I have invested from the way he books it. So I am from the camp at Total Bullshit Colt to pretty good, not bad. My only thing is a little too broad. It's a little too broad, I think you know, gotta cast a wide net.

Gina: 1:02:27

Yeah you do To bring in that money?

Bryan: 1:02:29

If you're gonna. I think Tony Robbins is a billionaire now and I mean you're gonna get?

Gina: 1:02:33

Oh, he definitely is.

Bryan: 1:02:34

Yeah, You're gonna be a billionaire in self-help, you gotta appeal to a wide audience, but I think it's good to expose yourself to that kind of stuff and then drill down and get the same level of Tony Robbins style guidance at the exact thing you need. So you mentioned you were really good at CPG. Whoever the Tony Robbins is of CPG you should probably be spending time and money with to get really good at that. Whoever the person is that built Dollar Shave Club or the purple mattress or whatever all that shit is Like whoever's really good at that stuff the Tony Robbins of CPG you should probably spend all your time with. And so that's how I look at personal development and self-help. So not, I don't think it's a bullshit colt, I think it's worth looking at.

Gina: 1:03:26

Okay, well, okay, apparently.

Bryan: 1:03:30

Tony Robbins? No, apparently, tony.

Gina: 1:03:33

Robbins is very nice in person. Okay, so, brian, do you have any last thoughts besides telling us, maybe Tony Robbins isn't a colt?

Bryan: 1:03:48

Yeah, tony Robbins is not a colt, but my last party thought along the lines of Tony Robbins. If you're founding and running a business, you're doing three things at once at all times. And so you're working in the business, you're making sure it runs and making taking orders. You're making sure employees are showing up. You're making sure customers are getting taken care of. You're just making sure the damn thing runs. Second thing is the second thing you're doing is you're working on the business. You're developing the processes, you're developing the strategy, you're developing the systems, you're tuning those systems. Hopefully you get to a point where you're spending half your time working on the business and the other half in the business.

Bryan: 1:04:34

And the third thing is you're working on yourself. You're reading books, you're listening to audio books, you're listening to podcasts, you're watching YouTube. University, you're working on yourself, you're getting the skills you need to do the first two things, and so a lot of people. The e-myth is about working in the business and on the business, but few people talk about the third part, which is you need to lay out a day every week to where you can just immerse yourself in something that you're trying to.

Gina: 1:05:11

Can we lay out a day once a week, just so I can sleep.

Bryan: 1:05:14

Something you're trying to learn because you have to work on yourself to play this game. We're not born with the skills we need to take our business where we want to take it. So make time, even if it's just an hour a week, try to do. Start with an hour a week, Then you get the two, Then maybe get to where you can spend a half a day a week reading, listening to podcasts, watching stuff on YouTube. Maybe after the kid goes to bed you spend instead of an hour on Netflix, an hour on YouTube. Gotta work on yourself.

Gina: 1:05:42

You are. I don't know what kind of crack you're smoking. After she goes to bed, I'm like, let me shower really quick so I can go to bed. But yes, okay for people who don't Like, I'm also training for a lifting competition, so like it's a bikini competition, just a corner one. Yes, so I'm prioritizing sleep because it helps with muscles and Absolutely. You've got to get your sleep in now you have to, but sometimes I do go to sleep too early and then I.

Bryan: 1:06:17

But you're in the gym, right?

Gina: 1:06:18

Yeah.

Bryan: 1:06:19

What are you listening to while you're in the gym? Be honest.

Gina: 1:06:24

Okay, yeah, I would tell you it's a crime.

Nicola: 1:06:26

I don't even need to guess. I know exactly what she's listening to.

Bryan: 1:06:30

You're listening to Beyonce. Turn off, Beyonce. Put on a podcast.

Nicola: 1:06:36

She's not listening to Beyonce, she's listening to her crime, dick and murder.

Bryan: 1:06:39

Okay, all right, but one about CPG you know what I'm saying.

Gina: 1:06:48

Like, find your time, I'm not a huge Beyonce fan, you're more likely to have me listening to like I don't know, dmx, what Skrillex? No, like Pearl Jam or like Fog Hat, like some good shit from back in the day Guns.

Bryan: 1:07:05

N' Roses. Love it, but you have to substitute that with stuff that you're going to be learning passively and you have to find like your car needs to be a mobile classroom. Your car should run on two things gasoline and knowledge. Like every minute in the car needs to be, you need to be listening to some kind of audio book or something on YouTube. I do that. If you do that for five or 10 years, you become a different person.

Nicola: 1:07:32

Where were we? We were asking Brian just his last closing and final words. This is going to be a fun edit. I just want to let everybody know this is going to be a very interesting edit for Nicola to make.

Gina: 1:07:45

It will be. I'm here for it, though. My final words.

Bryan: 1:07:49

My final words If you're thinking about starting a business or you are starting a business, get in the game, stay in the game, cause only when you're in the game can you win. So many people think about starting a business and life happens and the you know the next thing you know, five or 10 years goes by. Get in the game, even if it's just nights and weekends, because your business can take you places in life that you wouldn't be able to do otherwise. So get in the game and stay in the game.

Gina: 1:08:20

Yeah, I agree with that. Even if it gets tough, like things will change. Like things will eventually change the you know. So I totally agree with that and I guess now I'm going to have to listen to Tony Robbins. Anyway, brian, thank you so much for your time. Tell people where they can find you all the socials. If you have your own website, whatever, let us. Let's hear about it.

Bryan: 1:08:47

Yeah, so anybody wants to reach me, you can hit me up on Instagram Brian M Clayton, just drop me a DM there. Anybody who doesn't want to waste time doing stuff like yard maintenance just go to greenpalcom. Get hooked up with a good long care service there. And yeah, if you have any questions about startups or tech startups or business, just hit me up.

Nicola: 1:09:10

All right we really appreciate your time today. It's been a really fun chat, so I think I really appreciate it and I think that's probably what stood out to us most about you and your pitch and the conversation that we had was we love that you are just so candid about the challenges that come with being a business owner.

Gina: 1:09:30

Well, anyway, everyone should have an amazing day. I am going to go listen or find a Tony Robbins book somewhere, because you're right.

Nicola: 1:09:41

Because Brian said so.

Bryan: 1:09:44

Well, you never know, just find out for yourself.

Gina: 1:09:46

Yeah right.

Nicola: 1:09:49

Next minute.

Gina: 1:09:49

we're all going to the conference Next minute prior to investigation, which is basically what I have right now is contempt prior to investigation. Oh my God.

Nicola: 1:09:58

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

Gina: 1:10:10

Super exciting, all right, well, give us. I don't know if you follow us on Instagram, but follow us on Instagram, tell everyone that you're on this podcast and, yeah, I'm sure you'll get an uptick in something.

Bryan: 1:10:27

Well sounds good. Yeah, let me know when it goes live, I'll help promote it.

Gina: 1:10:31

Oh, for sure, For sure. Well, that's Nicholas department.

Nicola: 1:10:34

That's my job.

Gina: 1:10:34

I don't know anything about anything, I'm too busy trying to sleep. Awesome, that's my job.

Nicola: 1:10:39

I don't sleep because I do this Definitely All right, well, I gotta run, I gotta run.

Bryan: 1:10:45

You guys have a good day.

Nicola: 1:10:46

You too, have a great one. Thank you so much.

Gina: 1:10:48

Thanks, shangri-la einen23,.