Can Spirituality Enhance Your Business Success? | Calvin Correli

Never Been Promoted Podcast with Thomas Helfrich

Calvin Correli, a dynamic entrepreneur and spiritual teacher, explores the intersection of business and spirituality. As the founder and CEO of Simplero, Calvin shares his journey of self-discovery and business growth, emphasizing the importance of integrating personal development with entrepreneurial endeavors.

About Calvin Correli:

Calvin Correli is an accomplished entrepreneur, speaker, author, mentor, and spiritual teacher. He is the founder and CEO of Simplero, a software company that helps coaches run their businesses efficiently. With a mission to integrate spirituality and entrepreneurship, Calvin is dedicated to helping individuals achieve personal and professional success through self-awareness and mindful business practices.


In this episode, Thomas and Calvin discuss:

• Integrating Spirituality and Entrepreneurship: Calvin shares how his journey of self-discovery led to the creation of Simplero, highlighting the importance of aligning business with personal values and purpose.
• Overcoming Entrepreneurial Challenges: Insights into Calvin’s experiences with business failures, personal struggles, and the pivotal moments that shaped his path to success.
• Building a Supportive Business Environment: The significance of creating a business that supports coaches and entrepreneurs, and how Simplero simplifies the complexities of running a coaching business.

Key Takeaways:

• Self-Discovery and Purpose

The role of spirituality in understanding one’s purpose and aligning it with entrepreneurial goals.

• Resilience and Growth

Overcoming feelings of inadequacy and embracing vulnerability as a pathway to personal and professional growth.

• Effective Business Solutions

The importance of creating integrated solutions that address the multifaceted needs of entrepreneurs and coaches.

"Relating to your thoughts and emotions in a better way is key to achieving both personal fulfillment and business success." — Calvin Correli


CONNECT WITH CALVIN CORRELI:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/truecalvin/

Website: https://simplero.com/

CONNECT WITH THOMAS:

X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/thelfrich | https://twitter.com/nevbeenpromoted 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hovienko | https://www.facebook.com/neverbeenpromoted 

Website: https://www.neverbeenpromoted.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/neverbeenpromoted/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@neverbeenpromoted

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomashelfrich/

Email: t@instantlyrelevant.com

Transcript

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Welcome to the Never Been Promoted Podcast. Hi. I'm Thomas Helfrich, your host, and we are on a mission to help you get better at entrepreneurship, to help you unleash your entrepreneur, help you, you know, cut the tie to the things that hold you back, the anchors in your life, the excuses you make and all the fears you hold on to that you just don't need to to really be successful in entrepreneurship. And one way to get better at entrepreneurship is through mentoring and in particular, micro mentoring, where you're learning little things from others that could be useful. And we do that through the stories and journeys of other entrepreneurs that are from all over the place, from around the world, from different parts of their journey, you know, starting, thick of it, excited, you name it, but you can learn something from them. So today, from our guests, if you can learn just one thing, you'll have accomplished your goal to kinda get better. Now if this is your first time here, I hope it is, the first of many. And if you've been here before, you rock. Thank you for coming back. If you haven't done so already and you like the show, please 5 star this thing on Apple, Spotify, Amazon. It's super important for the community and for the guests because it brings more attention to kind of our movement as well. And give the youtube.com at never been promoted to follow. We got some fun content out there occasionally as well. Enough shameless promotions and entries. Let's talk to our guest. Calvin Corelli, he is the investor. He's an entrepreneur, a speaker, an author, a mentor, spiritual teacher. I love this one. The the future special adviser to POTUS. They're so I love that last one. Calvin, how are you? Thank you for joining. Dude, I'm fantastic. So so, fun to be here. The, before we get into the icebreaker, the future special adviser to POTUS. So tell me about this.

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Yeah. Well, it it was something that came to me in, when I was living in India in 2013, on my birthday. And my wife was asking me some questions. We were walking around a lake in in in Mysore in India, and she was asking, like, what if you do anything, what would you do? Something like that. And I was like, I'm gonna be a special adviser to the president United States. Unconscious nation building. And it was like like a shock to me to hear myself say that because that was not a thought that I've ever thought before, but that's what popped out of my head. And then I had this, like, picture in my head of what that would be like and the impact and the mission, and I was in in, like, in tears for 20 minutes, like, tears of awe. And so that moment stayed with me, and it is like it connected with something in my childhood where I was always thinking about, like, if I could design my own country, what would that look like? And that was, like a thought that stayed with me, and I was like, woah. Maybe I can, like, influence this country instead. And so, yeah, it's still it's still on my definitely on my on my vision board, on my on my bucket list.

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Nate, well, okay. So you live in India, and I've been India a few times, for for for a number of reasons. But I guess a good icebreaker question would be this. What's the weirdest smell you've ever smelled?

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Woah. Woah. Weirdest smell. Alright. My dog has surgery recently, and there are some smells that happen after that that were kind of

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weird. Nothing like almonds. Hopefully, it's not ganglios or anything like that. It's an odd smell because question. I I don't know how I would answer that. Right. Except that cleaning out let me say it differently. I had a roommate in college that I don't know what they did one day, but I they did some kind of prank. And to get them back, what I did is I cracked eggs between his mattress and his box spring, and I I broke a bunch of, like, just just raw eggs, and I left it there. And then we went home for the summer, and we came back. Let me tell you, his room smelled worse than mine. And I'm not sure that's the the weirdest smell, but he's like, man, what happened? I'm like, I don't know. Did you leave something in there? Did some die? Yikes. Hopefully, he's not listening right now. Okay. And I'm sure he'd be pissed because he it it he had to get a new mattress, to say the least. Why Why don't we get into your origin story a little bit, your backstory, and what what you're currently, kinda working on?

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Yeah. That's my cue to start. So

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You may begin.

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Alright. Thank you. Yeah. So origin story is is, like, I let me start with what I do now, and then we can talk origin stories. So what I do now is I have a software company called Zumplaro, which helps coaches run their business. It's basically if you're if you're trying to do a coaching business, you quickly find out that you need, like, 9 different softwares. Like, you need a website, email marketing, and a, like, a course hosting platform maybe, and a billing shopping platform, and videos, and affiliate man like, all of the things. And so, Simplero, we we make it simpler by doing it all in one platform. How I got to that was I was I was kind of always an entrepreneur. My parents were entrepreneurs. I was always into computers. My parents were programmers that taught me how to code from I was, like, 5, 6 years old. And I got into I started businesses, but it didn't really it didn't really take off. It didn't it was really hard for me, and and it I I got like a good start but then it would stall and I ended up feeling like a total failure, total loser. Like, I couldn't, I couldn't build a business. I couldn't make the the economy finances work. I was, like, out of money. I couldn't make my marriage work. I I felt like a failure on every single level. And that was a breaking point for me to start to get some help. And so I I started with therapy and coaching and body therapy and a spiritual teacher and different things. And I I realized that there was there was, like, a door that had been closed for me at some point. As a kid, I was very, quote, unquote, spiritually attuned, but I was attuned to other people and had a sense of what was actually going on inside of them that they weren't saying. And, I had that sort of a more open mind, but I shut that down at some point in my childhood because I it felt like I couldn't trust it, and so I became super left brain programmer. I believe all great programmers are really broken, emotionally broken people, and that's why we get good at it. Empirical data to support that statement for sure. Yeah. Right? That's why we get good at it because I was I was terrified of human beings. They would say things, and I would feel hurt. I'm like, ah, it's terrible. So that kinda opened that journey for me of of learning to feel again and and bringing back the spiritual side. And so that's what led me to start simpler because I was like, woah. Every single entrepreneur I know could benefit from relating to their thoughts better, right, to from relating to their emotions better, from having a sense of purpose with what they do. Like, feeling like their business is part of their purpose. Because before that, I would just do anything that I thought would make me money, but then when it didn't work out, I'd be like, oh, wait. This wasn't this is way harder than I thought. I don't really care about this. Like, so on to the next thing. Yeah. Well and and you're so Simplera, I mean, there's a lot of coaches out there. There's,

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and, you know, and I'll do coaching, but I don't formalize it probably as many as much as many. But I can definitely see a need for something like this because we got a market, you got to put places. There's a 1000000 different platforms to put videos, and it's like just communities. And, oh my gosh, it's it's overwhelming. And I think that's a very smart piece. How long have you guys been doing it? Like, how long is the company? And tell me about some of the success with

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it. 15 years is how long I've been doing it. We'll we'll have our 15th birthday coming up on May 11th

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this year. See? Not not a loser anymore. You're crushing it. Just kidding. Yeah. But, like, listen, I I wanna dive into that a little bit because, I mean, man, and I really applaud you for the vulnerability of just sharing that right out of the gate because that feeling is so prevalent in entrepreneurship of, man, I can't. How how can all these other people do it? I can't make it in corporate world. I don't want to be in corporate world. I can't even do it on my own. And then the reason relationships fall apart around you is because, you know, you can't even keep your shit together, let alone try to be there for somebody else. Right. And no matter how loving or supporting that person is, you're just like, man, I and you found this then in in spiritualism and some type of just reflectiveness, mindfulness, I would assume. Tell me about that a little bit. Can we peel that onion a little bit? Because I think that's that's the answer a lot of people run away from. They're like, that's not the answer. And and I I as one who's kind of on that journey a little bit, I'm telling you, it's it's the answer. So you you're way further along. Could you could you dive into that a little bit more of of how you got over that? Yes. Be can you be more specific? Like, how I got over what exactly, like, the feeling that feeling of it and and of being inadequate, of not being, like, you know, like, identity is wrapped up in lots of things you do with work and not you, but once. And, in in getting past that almost depression, that negative state. And like when you talk about the moment or maybe the moment or the calling that happened when you're like, I got it. I can see the path. Is that door that opened the light that shines? Like, tell me about that because because that's that's the part that you don't see what you can't see.

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Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I think I think a lot of us, become entrepreneurs because we feel that we're not good enough. And so we are like, oh shit, I have to achieve, I have to do more, and then like that, like a lot of entrepreneurs have that, right? It's never enough. And then it's like, well, okay. Now I have a $1,000,000 business. I still don't feel quite enough. Maybe if I make another million or 2,000,000 and then, like, you get to, like then it's 10,000,000 or 50,000,000 and then, like, maybe it's another Lamborghini I need or maybe another house or maybe I need to change out my spouse or something. Right? Like, because we're still have that, like, I'm not there yet. When am I gonna arrive? When am I gonna be there? When am I gonna be enough? I really think it's it's one of the core driving forces for most entrepreneurs. And for me it's been the the key moment was my first spiritual teacher who helped me, and let me define spirituality a little bit because it's it's a super loaded term. For me, what it means is just I think of it like spirituality done right is just reality. Like, it's just dealing with what is. Like, what we're what we all pretend is real is really the illusion. Right? Like, the the the it's kinda we pretend like energy or love or those things don't really exist when we go to work in our everyday life, and then, like, oh, there's, like then we acknowledge it in other contexts. So for me, it's, like, relating realizing that just because you think something doesn't mean it's true, and you are not your thoughts. Right? And just because you feel something, like, most people either suppress their feelings or vomit them out, but being able to be with your feelings and have space around them and then having a sense of purpose, like and then really learning to open our hearts and be in love. Those are kind of that's kinda what I mean with spirituality, so it's not Mhmm. Like a specific religion or anything. So for me, working with that my first spiritual teacher who taught me to just pay attention to my body. And when I was feeling something, what's the sensation in the body? Is it, like, oh, this thing that I call that I call, like, scared is really like a tingling over here somewhere. Right? It's just a sensation. The only way you can get away from the label and just be with the sensation, just be with what is, it's like, okay. Alright. I can deal with this. It's not that. It's not gonna kill me. And that was a huge thing for me because I had no idea about this. I was so suppressing my feelings. I was so terrified of my feelings. So learning that and starting to practice that was huge. And the body therapy as well is is we go through the body and you push in certain play places. There's a system over in in Copenhagen called body SDS that does this. They've been doing it for 4 generations. That was huge because that kinda bypasses the mind. Then you go to the feeling, and you're like, just feeling. I cried for 20 minutes the first time I had one of these. And I'll say it continues. The key is feel your feelings, notice your feelings, and then share with others. That shame that underlies everything, that I'll tell you, just this weekend, I had shame come up again at, like, a deeper level. I looked at one of my mentors, and I was like, oh my god. He's, like, so much further along in every area than I am and, like, just brought me back in touch with that shame. And where I am now is like, okay. I know that's not true. It's just this feeling in me. So I was like, okay, let me be with this, share it with my wife who thankfully knows not to say, oh, you're great. That's awesome, but just be with me as I'm in the state. And then as it as I move through that, like, I come into this week, like, open up a whole different person open up on a new layer. Right? And that's the opportunity here. Every time that we run into these triggers of some old feeling, whatever it is, a lot of it's connected to shame, but there are others. Like, just be with it and move past it. Like, let let it move through you so then it it leaves you.

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Yeah. And, listen, I'm the one who's kept people and emotions arm length or, you know, as far as I can keep it. Like, you know, and I and it's still very difficult to share emotions like that and, you know, and be with it. And, you know, and it strengthens the relationship with your wife and things like that when you can. Yeah. You know, and you have to do that. And I say that because part of the resilience of being an entrepreneur and part of the growth needed to see new opportunities, meet new people and kind of open your mind to how you'll need to evolve. You'll need some form of that. And I think the fact that you're active and it's real and you're in it. Awesome. And it and I, I cannot imagine it's not clearly correlated with success in life too. And whatever comes next. 100%.

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Every single breakthrough I've had in my business were related to, like, a key mindset shift. You know? And and even now, I don't know why it's, like, it's come now, but I think some of us have I think the best thing that we can do for ourselves is to have a lot of compassion. Right? Stop comparing to anybody else. We're all in the on a unique journey and is really your inner journey for freedom is what matters. The business is secondary. Right? So for me, I've I've like, just this week, I'll tell you, like, I was, like, I've been struggling I've grown my company to where it is. We're, like, $5,000,000 in revenue over 15 years, so it's not been a fast journey at all, but it's been consistent. But what we've never done is lead generation. We've never run ads. We don't do we don't really do anything to bring other people into it. Just, like, great product, great customer service, and then people talk about it, and that's how it operates. It is not for lack of wanting or lack of trying. I've wasted tons of money on consultants and ads and agencies and different things that and hires. Like, we're talking 1,000,000 of dollars and shit that didn't work for for Legion, and I realized this weekend with what came up, like, I've had this feeling that there's something wrong with me and that what I put out was gonna reveal to people that I was wrong, that it wasn't good enough, and that's been holding me away from putting something out there as a lead gen and really really getting real with it. And it's kinda like when you have those shifts, it's like the scales are removed. I'm like, this is not hard. It's it's very straightforward, but in my mind, there's been that, like, you it's all subconscious. Right? That, like, no. You can't do that. So I'm just like, no. It's not good enough. It's just like, go in other direction or do something else or, like, complicate it so people so the off your scales that people couldn't see how wrong I felt. Like, that's been going on for so long. It's insane.

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Well, you know, listen, like, I mean, it's as an agency owner of a lead gen company, we focus on LinkedIn. Right? It's not for everybody at the right start at the right time. The people who are successful from lead generation in any standpoint, their mindset is 100% around it's okay to not have it perfect. You're going to be out there more. You're going to like your and if your mind's not there, you're going to find reasons to shut it down. And and, like, you're gonna, you know, you're gonna look at any agency or marketing or higher spend as a Yeah. I knew I shouldn't have. But until you can accept kinda why you're doing what the reality of that situation is gonna be, of course, it's not it's not gonna it's not gonna go well. For sure. For me, it's been I've been putting out content. It's not like I haven't, but it hasn't been it's been, like,

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like, weird and, like, disconnected because there was that part of me that didn't want to be seen. Right? So I had to kinda make it a little bit confusing and messy and complicated. All unconscious.

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It's it's it's consciously unconscious. You're like, I know what I'm doing, but I don't care. I'm just gonna keep doing that. It's like, I'm a lot of that. Yeah. What what and what is like, so you you know, you grew up in an entrepreneurial environment and, you know, you're on your way and you're, you know, you're you're you're you're there and a 5,000,000 a year revenue business, you know, are you gonna be buying Lambos every week? No. Could you? Yeah. I could buy one. Right? Cool. But do you want the point is, is it just where you want it and it's good and you don't you ever need to do the ads? Can can you just be content with that level of I mean, it's a fantastic business. I mean, like, why why why do you go anywhere else than that? You know, does it Right. Does it make it less simpler if you go more complicated?

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Right. No. That's a great point. And I think part of part of what I've been in my shame have been, stuck in is is, like, oh, it's not good enough. Like, like, I've been embarrassed about that. Like, he's like, dude, like, creating $5,000,000 business, most people would kill it for that. Like, most people can't do that. Right? Like, I've done that and but I've been so obsessed with, like, no. But other people have a bigger business, and I need to build buying bigger. And, like, it's not good enough, and I'm even ashamed to kind of, like like, really own it and talk about it. So, again, like, this is where it's it's like these these filters that we see the world through that got installed in us when we were maybe a year old or or, like, really, really young before we really had cognition, maybe even before we had language that that just shapes how we see the world and we can't see it because it's just our filter. And that then impacts everything. So you're absolutely right. I could just be like, hey. It's a great business, and and I don't need to grow it. And, you know, just like you, I feel like there is a mission for me to to to reach many more entrepreneurs. Like, I want like my whole thing is is like combination of 2 things. It's there's so much out there, how can I make it simple and distill it down to these are the things that matter, these are the core frameworks, and yeah, you can go deep in every pile, but let's get really clear on what is the essence, right? I had that realization just this week about lead gen, it's like oh there's only 2 things. You make a thing, a lead magnet, and then you tell people about it. That's the only thing that you need to do. It's not, like, it's not that complicated. And there's only so many ways that you can tell people about it. Right? One to 1, one to many. Like, people you know, people you don't know. That's it. But a lot of people know what to do. Right? You wanna lose weight? Alright? Eat less. It's not that hard. Right? But we have a multibillion dollar dieting industry because, you know, people don't do the thing that they know they need to do. And that's the whole mindset piece or the spirituality piece of, like, really what it's about is, like, getting to those core filters and the way the reason I call it spirituality is because the best way to get past those filters is having the the awareness, just being able to see it transforms it alone but really understanding that it's all a lie because who you are is an eternal soul and you're not this isolated being in a bag of skin that walks around. That's kind of the the thing that makes them that dissolves them when you realize that. What does, what's entrepreneurship

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mean to you though? Can you can you define it, like, in your own personal terms?

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I would see say it is to make change with, limited resources.

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So your your idea behind this, you can affect change in the world or for yourself or those around you. Mhmm. But you're doing so in a more effective, efficient manner because you can't because it's not unlimited.

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Yeah. And there's I mean, there's always limited though. Right? Wow. Right. Yeah. I mean and and, you know, on planet Earth, resources are always limited. Right? But the but the whole idea of entrepreneurship is that we have to be mindful of the resources. If you're if you're a nonprofit. Right? Like, you all have the same constraints. Because the government, clearly, you don't have any fucking constraint constraints like that. Right? So that's what entrepreneurs do better than anyone is, like, they figure out what's the thing I the change I wanna affect, and they're they're conscious of resources.

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For for most entrepreneurs, like, maybe as a point of advice, what's the right mindset and supporting skills that are gonna be needed?

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First principle is thinking. Like like, really getting like, that was when it took a long time for me to realize that most people don't think that way and they don't present things that way. So, like, you have to kinda distill that out of it. Like, okay, what are what's the problem we're trying to solve here? And, like, what's do we even know what the problem is? Define that well. Right? And then what are the different options to solve it? Like think about it, in a first principles thinking way And then, like, keep doing that in our work because that's where the breakthroughs are gonna happen. Like, you can know all the things. It's like, alright, results come from actions. And if you do the thing, you're gonna get the result. If you eat less, you're gonna lose weight. If you lift more weights, you're gonna build muscle. It's not that complicated, but people don't. And the reason they don't is because of their thoughts and feelings, and their thoughts and feelings are really determined by their filters and their level, their energy state. Like, you we all know, like, we're in a low mood then we think low low thoughts. And then we have low feelings, then we do shit. Actually You attract low people. Right. Exactly. Right. And when you're in the elevator energy state, you think more positive, better thoughts, and you, you feel better feelings, you take better actions. So what is the if it was just as easy as, like, do this, get that, which it is, but people don't do the action. So what are the whole context that influences what actions you actually do? That's the key thing to figure out.

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What's your, you know, your bigger motivation, your, you know, your audaciously big idea, your your purpose? Like, what's you know, you are where you are. It makes money, and it's tied to something. But as an entrepreneur, most entrepreneurs have, I think, a bigger purpose in mind. Mhmm. Yeah. And given there weren't constraints and resources,

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what is that purpose for you? For me, it's about really freeing people to come home to themselves.

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I love that. Yeah.

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All of that all of that nonsense that we get that we build up through our childhood and through our lives, like, that's all clutter. I kinda visualize it as a as a, you know, burning fire. And then we throw all this junk on top and so now this like you know what was like a raging flame becomes this like tiny little thing that can barely find its way out, like it's all about like that life force energy that really flows from our it's like our sexual energy, our creative energy, that life force energy gets gets shut down by all the junk that we throw at it. So let's release that, get people back to the core of who they are. That's my mission.

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Yes. I'm aligned on that because I see this slide about you were put in this earth to do something and a 30 year adult life is spent working, right? And if you're not doing things that make you feel and happy is the wrong word fulfilled and free to be who you are, I believe you get to the end wanting and regretting. And I think entrepreneurship, it's not for everybody, that's fine, but it's for a lot of people it's a freeing aspect of a third of your life to be more who you are, to get more in line with bigger motivations and maybe better sense of purpose. So I agree with you on this. And maybe tying to that, so far in your career, in your life, do you have like a pivotal or shaping success story for your your path? For me, that moment when

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so in 2003, I had started my first software company for myself as an adult, and it went really well the first, year or 2. I did a an advisory board meeting with some really smart people after I'd won a startup of the year award. And we sat down, like, how do I grow this business? And one of the guys afterwards, he was like, dude, we've been here for 3 hours, and I still have no idea what you want. And he was like, what do you mean? I wanna build a big company. I'm like, wait. Are you allowed to want something in business? And then, like, I have no idea what I want. Like, that went through my mind, and I'm like, And it really opened that space for me of, like, oh, crap. Like, how do I find out what I want? I have no idea. And so that's what led me onto the path of of self discovery.

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Mhmm. And

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and then after doing that for 5 years, I still hadn't found out what I wanted. And one day, I was like, okay. Like, I was chasing I was doing freelance work. I kinda shut down my my consulting firm, just freelancing for myself, and and I had all these projects lined up and they all just, like, burned into the ground and I didn't materialize. We just bought a house that we couldn't afford. We just had our second child, and it was, like, disastrous. It was cold. There was a boiler with oil, and I had no idea how to how that worked because I'd always had central heating, and it ran out of oil. And so I was sitting there freezing while my wife and kids were off to some hot island while the workers were still building the house. Like, it was pretty miserable. And I've I've worked for Greenpeace International for 5 years, building their intranet, and they called and said, hey. We've outsourced your job to India. So that was great. So Thank you. Really initiated. Yeah. So I was like, okay. Is this the universe trying to tell me? Like, now is the time to actually figure out what the hell I wanna do. Alright let's go. So I I sat down, I pulled some some quotes from different books, I had some books on purpose and things like that and like like some questions they would ask. And so I asked myself all those questions and that was when it popped out like just kinda like falling from the sky or something I could download. Like oh, crap. Like, I'm here to integrate spirituality and entrepreneurship. Like, that if you take everything I've learned over the past 5 years at that point in this journey and apply it to entrepreneurship, things get really interesting. Like, that's, like, solved so many of the issues that I had and that I saw all my entrepreneur friends have. And that's what led me to Semplaro because I was like, okay, great, I need to teach this to others because people, entrepreneurs are suffering, they're in pain, they're struggling like I was. I need to teach this. And I was like how? I don't know anything about that, I'm just a geek, I'm just a nerd programmer who you know doing software and at this point just freelancing. Right? So, yeah, I started looking for at, like, seminars and workshops and online marketing, and that's when I discovered online courses. And I was like, oh, that's awesome. I can do courses. And that is what became Simpliaro. Right. And you right. You know? And it's fun times cause you, as you go through entrepreneur path, like, you know, like I said, I'm an agency owner.

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And I think what I do well with, you know, I do good to bring people together. So if you if you need somebody, I probably know some of my network. That's what I'm good at. And I'm like, well, that's handy and it's great for building networking. Can you build a business around that? I'm like, I don't know. So I've always kind of pushed it away. But, like, even where I'm at now, like, you know, I'm in the processes of looking to go compete head to head with Clutch or with these other because I think, you know, I I looked at my URLs I own. Sometimes I'll go through, look at these all these domains I've bought through the years. And I own Get Verified Marketing. And I'm like, well, there it is. How do I, you know, my background's consulting. I could look at someone's systems and be like, man, that's good. That's thought through. Why don't I just do some validation on marketing firms and then make a free service for someone who needs marketing so they don't get burnt? So they don't hire agencies that don't work as well, or at least they have more clarity of what it is. And I'm like, hey, that actually kind of ties into my strength of bringing people together. And, well, that might be a way to monetize it. Now you're, you know, like, you start seeing these things about yourself and then about your business and what you're end. And do I want to keep delivering services as a marketer and have to stay up with the latest and greatest? What's going on with LinkedIn? I don't know. That's not really me. Some people love that. That's not me. But you described there, it found you because you're like, who am I? And without knowing that, how do you go deliver the best you can with the scarce resources you have? So I think your purpose and mission around that is, it's still unfolding. It always will be, until you keep going. But maybe there's pivots there. So

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right now, though, what what kinda keeps you up at night? Right now, what keeps me up at night like, do you I I mean, team is always a a challenge. Right? Like, getting getting the right people on the bus, getting the right like, the wrong people off the bus, and you make changes and pivots. And, like, people always think of of the boss as being in that, like, power dynamic, like, power position. Right? Like, having that power over everybody else. And the reality is, like, I'm completely dependent on my team. If if they if, like, some key people leave or or, you know, stop doing the thing, like, who's gonna do it? Who's it gonna fall back to? Right? We have we have obligations to thousands of customers and I pass that obligation on to my team members, but at the end of the day it falls back to me. So it's thankfully something I've gotten a lot better at over the years, but recently we've had some some some changes that were that that are I've been a little bit rocky. But, man, like, learning learning team has been a taken me, like I think, yeah, I think it's fair to say 5 years because up until up until yeah. For the first 10 years of the business, it was basically me and a couple people. Maybe I'd had a have a developer. Maybe I'd had I had a couple people in support, but it was mainly just me. And so that process of of now we're 35, like and there's some actual some organization. I have a chief of staff who's, like,

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if she left, I wouldn't know. I would not know what to do. Like, you know? Yeah. You got you got a bad beer truck rule going on on that one. She gets hit by a beer truck. You're like, uh-oh. Right. Yeah. Let me ask you though. So you're focusing on teams, which is not often what they can when you're an entrepreneur just starting, You're on solopreneur, maybe a couple of contractors. Team though tells me that you're probably looking to scale or looking to change your role at some point where you own it and you're not in it. And that, is that the step where you're at now is how do I solve that? How do I like go of that control without ruining my, what I've spent 15 years? Like, tell me about that a bit. Yeah. No. That's not exactly where I'm at. I'm I'm really learning to

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to get into more of my zone with the team. So so delegate like, I've been over the past 6 months, I've really learned how to give the team make the team members the owners of specific project, you know, outcomes and then bring solutions to me. So it's nobody's allowed to ask me what I want. Hey. What do you wanna do with this thing? I'm like, not not the right question. You tell me, here's the thing. Here's the issue. Here's a problem. Here's 3 different options that we can do to solve it, and here's the one I think we should do and why. And that's what you present to me, and then I'll tell you which one I like, or I'll give you a 4th one. So that has worked so much better. So I've been able to to to, you know, buy back a lot of my time in that way by having those systems. So I've got a team that's operating really smoothly right now. No. My big thing right now is the lead gen. Again, I said we've never we've never freaking addressed that. So that's my that's my number one priority. We need to be able to generate leads consistently. We don't need to, but I

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I I would love to, and I'm really excited about that project of of getting to build that engine. We could certainly take that offline, but is there are different ways to do lead gen that doesn't always involve ads either. So we don't run any and I do a 120 to 160 appointments a month. And it's all based in giving other people attention on their content Right. And making sure you you're actually authentically doing it. So there are a lot of different ways to do it that fits certain personality types. So we could take that one offline, or I'll do a whole show on it. Yeah. No. For sure. Because because ads is great if you can create a capital machine. But, once once you don't have capital or something fails 1 month, you're you're you're gonna be it hurts. Yeah. As opposed to there's there's just different routes. And if you're more of a word-of-mouth company, I think there's a more superior method.

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Yeah. No. Totally. And I don't think ads are ads is not at the top of my list. I I'm not sure ads would I'm sure we could get ads to work, but we're in a super competitive market with with other players that have 100 of 1,000,000. So so it's it's a hard game to play as a bootstrapped company. Right?

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Yeah. No doubt. So so do this with me. So, fast forward a year and you're looking back at your year. What are you most proud of?

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It's a freaking great exercise. I I appreciate you bringing that up because it's one of the things that I've done many times in my life. I I sometimes do with my coaching clients. I forgot to mention that. That's the other piece of I still I do the coaching for entrepreneurs that, like, me like, it's one of my gifts is to get to those underlying subconscious beliefs that that unlock people. I love how every business problem is really a a personal problem or a spiritual problem that shows up in business, so I love that work. So sorry.

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Your question was that got me off this time. Forward a year and you're looking you're just doing a reflective forward. What did you what did you accomplish? What what are you proud? Looking back from a year,

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a year in the future to today, when you do that, oftentimes the problems you're facing are so easy when you look back. Oh, it's all solved. Oh, how do you solve it? Oh, like, it completely lights the energy. So I appreciate you sharing that. So a year from now, yeah, we've got, we've got the lead gen down and the whole the whole customer journey. That's really what I'm designing. Like, I'm designing a framework for the whole customer journey from the hear about me somewhere till they sign up for Zimpero, join our various coaching offers, and, and they make you know, have a thriving business in life. That's all sorted. Like, the team is sorted and, you know, yeah, things are beautiful and smooth and having having a lot of fun doing it. That's And, yeah, and my coaching business is also, like, outside of the Simplirol land. I I feel like I have a lot to contribute to entrepreneurs who are not coaches, who are not in that in on that platform. Again, like, identifying the specific mindset shifts and system shifts from, like, that nerdy programmer brain combined with the spiritual teacher brain. So that's what we'll be in a year.

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I love it. I'm not even sure I can ask that question, but I love asking other people stuff. You if you're, like, you know, the the aura the the oracle and someone comes up to you and they get one tip from you is not to be is an entrepreneur, what what's the one top tip you get? Really double, triple down on on the mindset stuff, the head trip stuff. That's where you're gonna find your biggest your biggest,

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yeah, breakthroughs, value, levers.

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I got 2 questions for you left, and one's gonna be how to get ahold of you. The the so don't waste the answer of this next one on this one. But, if there's one question I should have asked you but I didn't.

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I think we're good, yeah.

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You see that completeness? First time ever, ever. I have a question. Who did your sign work in the back? It's fantastic.

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Yeah. Right. Like, I just googled neon signs, and I I used 2 different companies. So one one was, like, shitty customer service. So I went went with another one. The other the other was great.

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Yeah. The, the the the interview today has been awesome for for just real vulnerability of we haven't I've had a lot of interactions like this in the podcast where someone's been very vulnerable and open about what's making me successful is discovering yourself and asking hard questions and sharing and being in the moments, not running from them. I have lots of work to do in that area, but certainly improving the fact that you come out with it and put a foundational cornerstone on that is fantastic. So thank you very much for just you know, sharing that. Who should get a hold of you and how do they do that?

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Yeah. Well, I mean, go go to my Instagram, Calvin Corelli on Instagram, just my name, and and DM me there. Follow me, DM me. Say that you saw me at the Never Be Promoted podcast. Who should follow me? Anyone who got who got touched by this or inspired by this. Like, DM me. Let me know you you came from here. Let me know how I can help. Yeah. And to your point, like, I felt as an entrepreneur, I felt very alone. I had this rule that unconsciously, again, that if I if I got help, I would have already admitted that that I was a failure. And so I wanna destigmatize the whole, like, inner journey and shame and feeling wrong and all that stuff. Like, we all have it on some level. So, like, you know, I don't want I want people to not feel alone and not feel, you know, shame about the shame. Just like, yeah, it's there. I'm that doesn't make me a bad person.

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I love that. And and one thing I don't say that enough, but, like, you know, one of the missions of of helping a 1000000 entrepreneurs is not just becoming better entrepreneurs, but also better at life. And you aren't alone. And that's the whole kind of point of this community is get help when you need it, give it when you can because you get better that way and you sharpen your abilities. But also, you know, really stay in touch with what's going on with you because that's when you'll quit. That's when you also have

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make bad decisions. But if you can realize it, it's when you can make some good ones. So I I I appreciate that, and, you aren't alone, and and I really I love this combo. Even though business obviously is is competitive, it's really at the end of the day not a competition. Right? Because nobody's gonna get a prize for leaving this planet with the most money or anything like that. Like, it's not it's not how that works. We're all humans. We're all in this together. Like, the the competition is just a game like soccer or like football or basketball. Like, yeah, it's competitive, but it's a game.

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Well, agreed. And and I'll I'll say, like, for the most of the businesses that, that we're all gonna form. Right? Even you have tons of competition. The truth is, if you worked with the top 10 companies, you all work together in a non monopolized illegal way. You'd all be better if a few of you got together and said, hey. What's the biggest problems we face? Agree on it and go solve it your own way. You you just you would you would blow away the rest of the so having a couple people who, like, you know, I work with lots of marketers who do similar stuff that I do. I love working with them because they have a slightly different take. And I'm like, well, let's get in the game and the people who buy from us buy from us for a certain reason, they'll buy from you. But it doesn't mean and, and I love that. So I'm a more of a, you know, all, all tides rise the ships kind of idea. Given I think there's a there's a river or something behind you. Thank you so much once again for coming on the show. I appreciate it very much. Thank you, Thomas. Thank you, everybody, who's listening. Appreciate you all. And if you've made it as part of the show, thank you so much for getting here. If this was your first time, please come back. And if you've been here before, I really appreciate you. I want you to get out there, unleash your entrepreneur, help somebody get better, get better yourself. It's super important if you can really do this, the 5 stars on Apple, Spotify, or Amazon. That really helps the community, the guests, and the shows to bring more attention to our movement. And follow the YouTube channel at, and never been promoted as well. Get out there, go unleash your entrepreneur. Until we meet next time, thanks for listening to the Never Been Promoted podcast.