Building a Thriving Tribe with Jason Skeesick: Tips for Entrepreneural Success

An entrepreneurial shepherd and coach, Jason Skeesick, sets out to empower entrepreneurs by teaching them the lessons of dynasty organizations, only to discover the power of his own story and mission, leading to a life-changing epiphany.

Armed with an innate passion for helping others and an undying entrepreneurial spirit, Jason Skeesick forged ahead to launch his own business - Clover - and help entrepreneurs build their dreams from the ground up. Little did he know his story was just beginning, with an unexpected twist that would transform the lives of countless entrepreneurs.

In this episode, you will be able to:

• Cultivate a robust entrepreneurial tribe to propel success and strengthen support networks.
• Lay the groundwork for a firm organizational foundation by establishing essential core values.
• Achieve crystal-clear comprehension of your business vision and mission for unwavering focus.
• Master the delicate balance between work, family, and personal life for a well-rounded existence.
• Harness the power of positivity, gratitude, and groundedness to energize and enrich your entrepreneurial journey.

My special guest is Jason Skeesick

Jason Skeesick, an entrepreneurial evangelist with a passion for helping businesses establish strong foundations, will be joining Tracy Wilson on the unlocked show. With a background in finance, experience as a commercial banker, and over twelve years of owning his own large CrossFit Gym, Jason brings a wealth of knowledge to the table. He's also served in the army and is a dedicated father. As the host of the Spear and Clover podcast, Jason highlights renegade entrepreneurs who have beaten the odds to follow their passions. Join Tracy and Jason as they discuss the importance of establishing core values and a strong organizational foundation for lasting success.

"Don't turn the volume up until you have undeniable clarity of what the lyrics are"

The resources mentioned in this episode are:

• Listen to the Spear and Clover podcast to gain insights from renegade entrepreneurs who have beaten the odds and followed their passions.
• Engage with a mentor or coach to help you navigate the challenges of entrepreneurship and gain wisdom from multiple perspectives.
• Evaluate your passions and interests to determine if there's an entrepreneurial opportunity that aligns with your skills and values.
• Utilize podcasts and audiobooks as a way to gain knowledge and wisdom in various areas of life, including business and personal development.
• Practice juggling work, family, and life by building a strong tribe and community around you.
• Reflect on your own experiences and how they can be used to help others achieve success in their own lives.
• Embrace the concept of sweeping the shed as demonstrated by the All Blacks, learning to take responsibility and show up as a unit in your own entrepreneurial journey.

Building Your Tribe
In order to achieve long-term success and fulfillment, entrepreneurs must surround themselves with like-minded individuals who support and believe in their vision. By carefully curating a tribe of people who share similar values, goals, and aspirations, entrepreneurs create a positive and nurturing environment that encourages growth and development. Developing and maintaining these relationships requires dedication and effort, but the benefits can be immense when a tribe shares in the challenges and successes together. During the conversation with Jason Skeesick, he emphasized the importance of building a tribe that shares in the entrepreneur's vision and supports their mission. He suggested being selective and deliberate when choosing people to be part of this inner circle, ensuring they share the same guiding values. 

Take the Leadership Style Quiz!
https://freedomseekhersway.com/leadership-type-quiz/

Transcript

 00:01:04

 Well, hey, welcome everybody. Welcome to the unlocked show. I'm your host, Tracy Wilson. It's fantastic to be here with you guys. Been away for a couple of weeks.

 00:01:12

 I have had a bit of a breakaway, went back to my home country of New Island and also been off grid camping, which was absolutely amazing, just to switch absolutely everything off. No technology, no nothing, and just be with the wilderness and family and friends for the beautiful Easter weekend. And I hope you guys had an amazing Easter too. Now, today we are joined by an entrepreneur, a coach, and an amazing podcast host who's actually dedicated his entire life to helping other entrepreneurs build the foundations that they need to make a massive impact on this world. He's an amazing dad too.

 00:01:48

 Just before we jumped on Today, he was like, I'm just going to put the little one to bed. Little Lucy has just gone to sleep and she's normally sitting right by his side doing all things entrepreneurial with her amazing father. He's an entrepreneurial evangelist. His name is Jason. I was going to say seasick, but it's not seasick.

 00:02:04

 He's not skisick. So I'll make sure that I get that absolutely right. Jason brings a contagious energy, experience and curiosity to everything that he does. And today he's here to talk to us about the value of bringing your tribe or bringing life to your tribe whilst juggling work, family and life. We all know how important that is and we know that all of those things kind of melt into one.

 00:02:28

 You cannot separate them and it's important that we understand that so that we can do we're able to juggle them all equally as well. With a degree in finance, experience as a commercial banker, and over twelve years of owning his own large CrossFit Gym, Jason knows a thing or two about building and leading tribal communities. He's also been in the army, so he was telling me all about that before we jumped on Today, Too. He also hosts the Spear and Clover podcast, where he highlights renegade entrepreneurs that have actually beat all the odds to just go hard on their passions. So I want you to join us today, hang around, because we're going to dive into this world of entrepreneurship, coaching, and the importance of actually building a tribe.

 00:03:09

 And I want to say a huge big welcome to you, Jace. Welcome to the unlock show. Oh, Tracy, you honor me. I can't even believe that. Wonderful.

 00:03:16

 Welcome. Thank you so much for having me on your show. Go ahead. I was going to say I totally had to do that for somebody whom being a Kiwi or a New Zealander, the All Blacks are kind of like so for you looking on your website, as I mentioned to you, for you to talk about the All Blacks, you had to have a really good introduction. Well, thank you so much.

 00:03:37

 And it's funny you say that, because I didn't say this before, but if it were up to me, it would only be the All Blacks. I actually think they're the best expression of what I try to do for entrepreneurs in sports. I use this term dynasty organizations, and when I think of a dynasty, it's not necessary. I always talk about the New England Patriots, or I talk about the Yankees. But the truth is, those guys aren't sweeping sheds, right?

 00:04:00

 And if you know anything about the history of the All Blacks, those guys are out there. Even the stars of that team are doing the work that they need to do. They're sweeping the shed. They're showing up together as a unit. And I just think there's so much beauty in that, and there's also a humongous tactical advantage when you get people on that type of a page.

 00:04:16

 I'm really pleased that we've kind of started right here, because this gives us an opportunity to kind of use that All Blacks scenario and weave that through our conversation today. Because the first thing I want to know is how did you get into doing what you're doing now? So, obviously, there's been a progression of your career over time, the fact that you've done multiple different things being in the army, owning your own gym, and then you've sort of landed in this coaching and mentoring space. How did that all come about? Well, it's really two things at the same time.

 00:04:51

 For starters, I never knew that I was an entrepreneur when I was young. But looking back, it should have been obvious to me I never started a business. But what I would do is I would get really passionate and interested in a hobby, let's say like snowboarding. And then I would work at the snowboarding Hill. I wanted to do for a living.

 00:05:06

 The thing that I loved to do. I got into clothes. I worked at the mall. I got into cars. I worked at the shop.

 00:05:11

 And my whole life, I've done that. And looking back on it, it seems like it should have been obvious. But the reason that I got into coaching is very much the reason why people get into personal training or owning a gym is fitness changed my life. Shout out to Doug Larson, who passed this on to me many years ago. Fitness changed my life.

 00:05:30

 So I opened my garage, and five people showed up, and I changed their lives. And then that became infectious. And then maybe 100 people showed up, and we built this gym, and we built a tribe where there were babies that were walking around because their parents met in our tribe, and that became infectious. And then when COVID-19 hit right before that, I had been tapped on the shoulder by a mentor of mine who has since become wildly successful, and he asked me to become a coach for him of other entrepreneurs. And, Tracy, I have never looked back from that very first call where I had more energy leaving that call than I ever had before, and I've never stopped since.

 00:06:05

 And so it started by coaching as an employee. Obviously, I knew at this point I was nobody's employee, so I didn't accept a full time position. Then it became I had a partner and we worked with Brick and Mortar gyms, and I realized that over and over again, I was teaching things and concepts and skills that had nothing to do with fitness and in fact, were much more about entrepreneurship. And so after a brief retirement, I spent a year, when my baby was born, just doing jujitsu and being a dad and launching a podcast. That's what I did for one year.

 00:06:33

 Then I launched my business here at Clover, which serves entrepreneurs of all types, primarily coaches and consultants. And I just have never not gotten more energy from talking to somebody like you than before the call. Isn't that really I mean, I love that you've kind of had this journey. You've shared your own experience here, because I think I'm hoping that what people are going to hear out of that short segment is that we start to understand if we're doing things because we're passionate about it. And you're like you did, oh, I became passionate about clothing, so I went and worked in a store.

 00:07:07

 I became passionate about cars, so I went and did that. And that then sort of gave you this glimpse into this world of entrepreneurship. You understanding that, hey, I can actually take my passion, the things that I'm really good at, that I enjoy, and actually turn that into a living. And then over time, realizing that now I can actually help other people do exactly the same. And I totally agree with you when you get to that point where you're able to share your knowledge or experience with others and see them start to thrive and start to see them have wins and you're able to celebrate that with them, I mean, there's such a high that comes from that.

 00:07:49

 And I couldn't agree with you more in terms of being a coach and a mentor myself, that it's a real adrenaline rush, isn't it, when you get to see that with your own eyes that somebody else is putting into practice what you've coached them, led them to do, and they're having this amazing level of success. Yeah, I couldn't agree more. I mean, what I will say, for starters, is that I will let myself down ten times before I'll ever let you down. And I found that out really to be true. When I retired for a year, I found that it's easier for me to stay on the couch.

 00:08:22

 I had no constituents, I didn't have employees, I didn't have clients, I didn't have any leads to sell to or anything. And so because of that, I found myself finding other things. I was endearing myself to my training partner at the Jujitsu gym and shout out to Mo, who now is my only employee other than my wife. And at the time, that was it. I have to show up to Jujitsu for him.

 00:08:39

 I got to show up to Jujitsu for him. I got to take Lucy to the beach. I got to take Lucy to the beach. Because to me, I don't know if it's the military, a culture of sports that I played growing up, but just always have loved taking responsibility for helping people along their journeys. I think of myself in some ways like a shepherd, but selfishly.

 00:08:58

 Tracy what I also found and I knew this before is I found that for me to know a thing from one angle is knowledge. And I'm good at learning knowledge. I'm pretty good at that. I read a book, I learn it. I watch a show, I learn it.

 00:09:10

 But what I found was when I started to teach things, even in the beginning with CrossFit or whatever it was, when I started to teach something, I had to look at it from so many different angles. And I think that knowledge from all these different angles very quickly turns into wisdom. And so what I've done by being a coach of other entrepreneurs is I get to see many times more scenarios arise in my life day to day as I'm helping others, which hits fast forward on my own progress. Does that make sense? Absolutely.

 00:09:39

 And that concept of being able to look at things from many different perspectives enables you then to be able to coach and mentor other people because you're then able to see things from many other different perspectives and in most cases, their perspective. And when you can get to the point where they understand that you understand and you get them and you see things from their perspective, then they're more likely to buy into and become part of your tribe, so to speak. Right. And I'm kind of getting the sense now that that's kind of where this whole thing begins, with building your tribe because you get to understand them. They feel as if you understand them at a very deep level.

 00:10:19

 I want to ask you this question, Jay.

 00:10:25

 I think what I'm also hearing is that there's a sense of for those people that are out there that I would put my hand up and say this and being a people pleaser, we like to please other people. We like to serve other people. We like to be responsible for others. That has been the thing that's enabled you to drive you, has provided you with some momentum and fuel to keep you going because, again, that's filling you up because it's filling that sense of I'm able to please others. I'm able to be responsible for someone.

 00:11:02

 And it got you off the couch because you're now responsible for someone else. Just like little Lucy. You can't leave her on her own. You're responsible for somebody else, and that gives you the impetus and the motivation to keep going. The question I've got from you now is in terms of you also mentioned that early on in this piece when you had Lucy, you sort of took a bit of a hiatus.

 00:11:25

 You took some time off to just settle into family life and then you went, you know what, I probably need to get off of my couch and do something a little bit different. Why did you go down the path of podcast? Why was that the thing you did? I was born to podcast, Tracy. I believe this in my soul.

 00:11:42

 So when I was a kid, first of all, I was taken out of regular school in first grade and I was put into a behavior disorder school, which probably saved the trajectory of my life. Different part of the story. But because of that, I had a 45 minutes commute in and I had a 45 commute out. And every single morning my bus driver would listen to talk radio. Sometimes sports, sometimes politics.

 00:12:04

 It didn't matter. So from first grade through 7th grade, I was listening to talk radio, not by choice, but almost no music. And then I developed this love of the spoken word. And so I found myself listening to Loveline and Art Bell late at night. And my mom would like come into the room and I'd be hiding with my little headphones.

 00:12:22

 And believe it or not, in the military, all I did was listen to audiobooks and spoken word in those ways. My mother used to take me to spoken word poetry slams. The origin of the poetry slam is here in Chicago. And so we would go there. And then when podcasting came out, it was like a nuclear explosion went off in my brain.

 00:12:40

 And so you'll ask my wife, she literally told me last night that I've used my headphones more than anybody ever has in their lives because every single night I sleep with headphones on. And I listened to according to Awake, I listened to probably 20 hours a week of podcasts. So when it came time to do it, it wasn't a matter of if I would have a podcast, but more when. And so previously, running a brick and mortar fitness facility, if anybody knows, is one of the most challenging tactical day to day operations that you can run as an entrepreneur. And so when I finally sort of let go of that, when we moved, I finally had the time to start a podcast and to start jujitsu, which is I did both at the same time.

 00:13:20

 Awesome. And I'm with you there. Podcasting is, I'm going to say, changed my life in the sense that you're able to get up here. You talk about wisdom and the fact that when we're podcasting, speaking to lots of different people, interviewing really successful entrepreneurs all over the world, and being able to see things or hear things from a very different perspective. Everybody's got a different story or a different way of looking at things.

 00:13:49

 And being able to take that on board and add that to your wisdom bank is amazing. So from there, this whole concept of the podcast, and then you developing that out, and then what was the moment where you went, do you know what? I now need to go down this path of actually coaching people. When did that happen and why did that happen? Well, candidly, it happened before I started the podcast.

 00:14:13

 I knew that that was my path. It was 2019 when I joined a very early company. Somebody asked me to join him, shout out to Joey Huber. He's crushing it with FitBiz University. And we decided to work together.

 00:14:29

 And I knew then that I wanted to focus on fulfillment, on coaching, on helping entrepreneurs to see their way through, to help them see the bigger picture, and to help them put together little pieces in between. And so I knew then that that was what I was going to do. I also knew that I had sold two businesses in two years, and I was only going to have a baby the first time for the first year once. And so I decided to not worry about building the business until I had learned how to become a dad and support my wife through a very difficult time and be a better fighter as well. I was doing a lot of training at that time, and so now it's a no brainer.

 00:15:06

 And I will tell you, I have never in my life I've sold things, I've fulfilled things. I coached CrossFit, I coached entrepreneurs, I've had partners, I've worked for people. I've been a banker, I've been a soldier. I've never felt so good about selling something, evangelizing something and coaching something that was purely a piece of me that I created from the ground up. And so it's just been so much easier now that I've found this undeniable clarity of what my vision was.

 00:15:34

 And it only took me a year and some change to figure that out. Tracy and so I want to ask you about this, because you've kind of also landed on this, I suppose, branding of yourself as being an entrepreneurial evangelist. That's a pretty strong word. Why did you land there? Yeah, great question.

 00:15:54

 So it's not religious, although I did grow up religious, and it's certainly if you'd like to take it that way, you can. But I'm very evangelical. If you've ever read Tipping Point, malcolm Gladwell talks about mavens. I am a textbook maven. When I got an Apple Watch, ten of my friends got an Apple Watch because all I would do is tell them how great it was about the features, about the benefits, all of these things.

 00:16:14

 And I never have had an affiliate deal, really, that's been lucrative with anything. I don't even plan on running ads on my podcast. But the point is that when I find something that has changed my life for the better, I cannot help but tell everybody that I care about, and even some folks that I don't care about, that they've got to try it, too. And so that's where CrossFit comes from. That's where Jiujitsu comes from.

 00:16:33

 That's where podcasting comes from. Or snowboarding or hammock camping or whatever it has been in my life. I always have had this invisible force that drives me towards sharing those things that have improved my life, to improve the lives of so many people, as many people as I possibly can, to the extent where probably my fatal flaws that sometimes I just push, especially on the people that I really like. I push and I push and I push, and then it's like, well, shit. I'll just do it just to shut you up, all right?

 00:17:04

 And then they jump in. Right. And I know that through that kind of really passion that you have for whatever it is that you get involved in over time, you have come up with this concept of the Dynasty organization. Can you tell us a little bit about that and where did that come from? Yeah, so I should back up just a little bit.

 00:17:29

 Every week I try to go on what I call a solo mission. And a solo mission can be anything you want it to be, but for me, it's usually either a ruck, a long walk through the dunes with my two Australian shepherds, or about once a month, although it's been a little bit less lately, I'll go into a sensory deprivation float tank. And so one day, as I'm thinking about what I want to sell and the thing that I entered a float tank with, the question I had on my mind was, what would I stand on a mountain and beat my chest and happily sell? And the answer came back so clear but not sexy at all. Tracy the answer that came back was core values, was mission, was how to set and achieve goals, was how to have employees that love to work for you and go out and hunt for you and bring back what they kill to share with the tribe and building community.

 00:18:20

 And these things, believe it or not, are not as sexy. They're not getting you more leads. They're not getting you more sales. They're not doubling revenue or any of those things immediately, or at least at the time. I thought that I would maybe feel a little differently with what the product is today.

 00:18:34

 But I went into that float saying, okay, how do I make something that's boring but completely necessary for the foundations of a good business? How do I make that sexy? And I can only think of one place in popular culture where we are ingrained to really believe in and support and cheer for and buy the merchandise of Dynasty organizations that are built on rock solid foundations. And that's where you get the All Blacks, that's where you get the Yankees, that's where you get the Boston Red Sox or the Cubs or whoever. These are organizations that are not reliant on a coach or a certain player or even a certain playbook.

 00:19:11

 They're reliant on a shared ethic that then builds from there using frameworks. Does that make sense? Absolutely. And that is obviously led when you've done that research, because then you talk about I'm going to say we call them the three F's. You talk about foundations, framework, flow.

 00:19:29

 So let's talk a little bit about when you look at a Dynasty organization in comparison to any other kind of organization, what are some of the key things that you notice about them that makes the difference between a Dynasty organization and any other? You know, it's so funny you ask that question, because today I feel like I'm better capable of describing it to you than I ever have been in the past. And that answer is simple. Most people that own businesses have a great idea, and they build that great idea, and then they try to scale it as quickly as they can. Essentially, they turn the volume up, whether that's in the form of social media or writing a book or going on a speaking tour or a podcasting tour or it could be paid ads.

 00:20:15

 But they turn the volume up on music that's not yet clear. And so the biggest problem that I hear from other entrepreneurs is everybody I talk to says I'm great, says I sound like I know what I'm talking about. They'd love to work with me, but not right now. And if they see anybody who needs my help, they'll send them my way. And the reality is, Tracy, that's because we're confusing these people, we're going to them with our vision, and we're unable to describe it.

 00:20:40

 And so what we do in the very beginning of whenever I work with anybody, or even if you don't work with me, this is what I recommend you do. Don't turn the volume up until you have undeniable clarity of what the lyrics are. And when you have undeniable clarity of what the lyrics are. Now when you turn it up, people are going to dance to that tune. I think so often people like me come on to shows like this and they tell you, we're going to sell you ads, we're going to sell you websites, we're going to sell you CRM or AI or any of these other very amazing technologies.

 00:21:11

 But those technologies can only amplify the signal that you give them. And if you don't understand how to tell the story in such a way where everybody gets it, then you're not ready to turn off the volume. I mean, that's such a piece of wisdom that it's being shared in just that, because you're right. A lot of people do go into whatever business they're in and they're not really clear. If we talk about, clear about the lyrics, the things that they're going to be shouting from the rooftops, singing about, then their audience is going to be very confused.

 00:21:48

 So let's go down the path then, of how does somebody become really clear? Because lots of people have a lot of different skills, they have a lot of experience, but they're trying to kind of narrow that down and be very concise and clear about what it is that they do and how they make a difference to somebody else can often be muddied water. The lyrics sound a little bit gobbledy gook. So how does somebody actually get very clear on that? What are some of the steps that they can take?

 00:22:21

 There's two steps. The first step is you find one person who has one massive problem that has the money to pay for it, that you can solve. Right. And then step number two is understanding. I'm sorry.

 00:22:36

 Step number two is stop thinking from you to them. This is what we do. All entrepreneurs spend their whole lives developing features. I can deliver coaching, I can deliver a course, I can deliver a Mastermind, I can do group coaching, I can come to your house and cook your food for you, whatever it is. These are features.

 00:22:53

 This is something that I can do for you. It's a self centric way, what I Call, like, a feature rich offer. It's a fro it's a feature rich offer. What we have to do is we have to understand who that person is, what their problem is and how we can help them. And then we put that down and we start to start think from where their side of the fence is.

 00:23:12

 What are the benefits that they're going to get from us? There's something that your ideal client is walking around right now, begging for the universe to provide them a solution to a problem or delivery to some desired outcome. Either way, that person is walking around right now saying, I wish someone would give me this. And if you can say, I give you this, they will buy every single time. Well, let's answer this question now.

 00:23:39

 So when we are trying to understand the massive problem, how does one know that they are actually dealing with a massive problem and just not a run of the mill problem? Well, the best massive problems are what we call bleeding neck problems. Tracy and so when your neck is bleeding, you know, and so if you're losing money or if your health is degrading or your relationships are falling apart or whatever, the thing we seek to solve, it depends on the business and the avatar, right? But what you're looking for is, it's a nice thing to take people on vacations to give them a dream outcome. That's very nice, but people will pay way more to get out of hell than they will to get into heaven.

 00:24:18

 And so that's not to say that we only do that certainly when possible, we want to do both of those things. But the thing that inspires the most action from a human being is getting away from an incredibly painful and I call it a bleeding neck wound, which is a shout out to Cole Gordon, who I heard that from. But a bleeding neck wound is one of those things where it's not whether or not you buy from us or purchase this solution or whatever it is, it's whether or not you choose to bleed out on the floor. Because you're losing money or you're losing health or you're losing your relationships or your prestige or whatever it is that we're offering every single day that you don't take action and solve this problem. So let's stop playing around and start talking about how we're going to solve this problem.

 00:24:59

 And that problem has become very obvious to the person, right? They realize that, oh, my gosh, I'm bleeding out here, and if I don't do something about it, I'm in some serious trouble. The lifeline of my business and my life is at risk here, so I need to make a decision and get some help. It's like I'm having a heart attack. I'm going to bring the hospital.

 00:25:21

 I'm not going to go to my local GP. I'm going to go to the place that I'm going to get the fastest amount of help. And so out of hell, we want to get out of that as quickly as possible. And then once you can identify who it is, what it is, and how you're going to solve that for them as far as the benefits are concerned, you then have the ticket out of hell for that particular person. And like you're saying they're going to give you, they're going to be like, Where do I sign up?

 00:25:47

 Get me out of this hellhole as fast as possible. Yeah, I mean, listen, if you're listening to this and you're an entrepreneur, there's only really one requirement. You have to be good at what you do. If you're good at what you do and you can provide excess value to your clients, then you can charge a lot of money. But facts fight for themselves, Tracy.

 00:26:04

 And what I mean by that is you have to be able to demonstrate that when you find yourself in a sales appointment and you feel like you have to become emotional or try to convince anyone of anything, then the facts have not yet been presented that would fight for themselves. And so, at the end of the day, you really only have two outcomes if you're struggling with sales. You either are not doing an effective job of communicating yourself clearly and you are who you say you are and they need you. And this is the worst thing in the world, Tracy. And you don't.

 00:26:33

 Connect. That's the worst thing in the world. I hate that with my whole heart. Or the second thing is your solution is, in fact, not valuable. And in which case, the sooner you figure that out, the sooner you can make it more valuable and start to sell your offer.

 00:26:46

 Let's talk about so I'm going to go back to the three F's that we speak about. So when we're at that foundational level, and I think this is where a lot of entrepreneurs or business owners go wrong and they're not necessarily looking at what they need to do at the foundational level before they can build something else on top of it. And you alluded to this a little bit earlier. You said you're not being really clear about what it is that you do that's obviously at the foundational level because you turn up the volume or you build some more stuff on top of an unstable foundation, you're building on shaky ground. So what other things that an entrepreneur should be looking at at that very base foundational level?

 00:27:32

 Yeah, I mean, it really comes down to like, four things. You really have to understand your business and why it exists. So that's what are your goals long term? What's the hall of Fame look like for you ten years from now? You're at cruising altitude.

 00:27:43

 It's the best possible outcome. What does your business look like? How did you get there? Who do you serve? When do you wake up in the morning?

 00:27:50

 How many employees do you have? Everything. The more clearly you can describe the mountaintop that you want to sit on, the much more easy somebody like me or anybody that does this well can help you get to the top of that mountain. So that's number one. Number two is you need to understand yourself.

 00:28:02

 You need to understand what it is about you that got you to the dance so that you can go out and find people that are going to relate to you as employees or as clients. And so that's core values. You have to understand your core values. Not what you wish they were, not what Steve Jobs made his, but what yours really are. These are the embers that burn inside you, that make you who you are and get you where you've got.

 00:28:23

 Okay? And they're going to be the thing that ultimately will get you where you go. And then finally, you need to understand your offer. You need to understand who your avatar is, who that person, the market you're trying to help, what the problem is that they're trying to do. And then we need to compile an undeniable all star offer that anybody would say yes to if they fit that avatar.

 00:28:41

 And if you get into that situation, you're going to win a whole heck of a lot more games than you lose. And all of a sudden, you're going to have a whole lot of different problems. Like hiring and scaling as opposed to finding this market match or my ads don't work or the algorithm changed or I can't, whatever else. What's interesting about that is you said the words if they fit your avatar. So that comes back to you speaking earlier about who it is that you're going to be working with.

 00:29:09

 What is it that you're going to be doing? How will you do that? What is the massive problem that they have? And once you understand that and then you've got the lyrics right for what it is that you're creating or you're solving for them to get them out of hell, then you can be very clear. And you know that person is exactly the kind of person that I can work with.

 00:29:32

 And I think that works from two points of view, because then you're not only helping them, but you're also helping yourself, because you know that you can win with that client and that client can win with you. It becomes a win win kind of a situation, which is what you want when you're moving down the path of bringing on any kind of client, right? Absolutely. I would also add that swimming is a whole heck of a lot easier than drowning, Tracy. And what that means is so often we try to please everybody.

 00:30:00

 We become the variable between our clients and reality, and then all of a sudden, we're giving our life force to convince people that don't want our help to do a solution that's not built for them. That's not how we want to do things. I should have said that better, but it's true. It's just not how we want to do things. When you find that one person, imagine you needed that heart surgery you were talking about earlier, and as you're walking into the operating room, he's wrapping up some dental work that he was doing right before.

 00:30:28

 He could be the best surgeon in the world or she. And I'm not going to lay down on that operating table if I just saw you pull something out of somebody's mouth. Absolutely. You want to get the right person for the right job, right? You wouldn't go to the dentist to have heart surgery.

 00:30:43

 Heck no. You'd be out of there in a flash. So in terms of you, you've obviously gone down this path, too, and you have really taken some time to understand what your core values are and why they're important to you. How did you come up? How did you kind of filter through?

 00:31:00

 Because, I mean, there's a myriad of things you could come up with that are valuable to you, but how did you come up with your core values? How did you know they were the ones? Yeah, so shout out to the book Traction, and shout out to my very close friend and mentor, Martin. He recommended to me that I do my core values, and I told him what everybody now tells me, oh, no, I got my mission. I got my core values.

 00:31:21

 I got my core tenants. The day we filed our LLC, I went on McDonald's, I went on Nike, and I went on Halliburton or whatever, and I pulled down their core values, and I put them on a piece of paper and I slid them into a desk. And that's where they've lived since then. And what I would say is and he explained this to me, he's like, Listen, man, we brought in a consultant. They asked us a series of questions.

 00:31:40

 There were multiple realms of ideation and copywriting and really dialing into the core elements that made us us and made our best employees them, and made our best clients them. And our worst employees didn't fit it. And our best employees I'm sorry, our best clients did fit it. And so that started in that very same float tank, same company, different tank, because we've since moved. But as I went in and I said, okay, who am I?

 00:32:04

 Not who I want to be, not who I wish I was. But I just wrote down a series of words and phrases that I knew to be me. And then without any prompting, I took that same blank whiteboard to my wife, and I asked her to do the same thing, tried not to color her opinion, asked her to do the same thing. I repeated that step with my team, and we had a very close team, and so we're getting a lot of the same stuff, but occasionally we're getting these new things that are nuanced and interesting. And then once we had this big series of 50, maybe more phrases and words that were me and also were reflected in this very centrally driven tribal business, it was clear.

 00:32:44

 And then I took four or five different colored markers, and I circled, like, items. Red was like, happy and high energy and loves to meet new people and try new things and default positive and brings tons of energy. And that was all in red. And that ultimately became the spirit of the puppy, right? I've always been a little puppy at heart.

 00:33:04

 Some people call that add, but whatever. And then there was like this green one, and the green ones were, like, disciplined and hardworking and never leaves anybody behind and shows up early and takes responsibility when there's an opportunity. And that turned into military mindset. And so those two things are kind of the two that describe me as who I am. And then through a series of the same process, I came up with the other three, which describe how I work, how I communicate with others and what motivates me to get out of bed in the morning and do the things that I do.

 00:33:34

 And ultimately, now I have this five sided puzzle piece, Tracy, that at first I tested. I held it up to the past. I said, that guy was great. He should have been a great employee, but we could never see eye to eye. We were button heads.

 00:33:46

 We were this, we were that. Oh, he was military mindset. But I didn't like hanging out with that guy because he was not spirit of the puppy. And then this client, man, he came in, and it was never struggle. He always showed up on time.

 00:33:59

 My words would come out of his mouth. One day, he tapped me on the shoulder to become a coach. He still coaches for that company I sold three years ago, and that guy is a perfect core value fit. So when I had done that enough in the past, now, Tracy, I can do that same exercise, but to the future. When I'm going to hire somebody, when I'm thinking about maybe not taking on a client or if I'm thinking about a new opportunity, does this align with my core values, and does it take me closer to the top of that mountain I described earlier?

 00:34:30

 And if it doesn't, it's a no. What's interesting about that is and I want to take this back to you talk about the All Blacks earlier and the culture and the way in which that organization has been created based around some real core values. I think you mentioned on your website something like, it doesn't matter. You could have the best coach or the best leader in an organization if it is not set around some solid core values and the organization doesn't know where it's going and it doesn't hire and build to meet that five sided diagram that you've created, then you won't have a problem. So let's talk a little bit about because I think the All Blacks are a great example of this in action.

 00:35:22

 And it's not just I mean, we're talking decades and decades of this has. To be that culture, but go ahead. It doesn't work otherwise, but go ahead. Well, this is what you're talking about, right? It's like you're setting these core foundations or setting the core values that are innately you so you can't go wrong because they are you.

 00:35:45

 And then you've started to build out upon that, and then you've looked at that and said, okay, how do I project that into the future? How do I look at the future and actually start building everything to get me to where I want to go? And that's essentially what the All Blacks have done, too, right? As they started with that and they looked into the future, how do we become the best rugby team in the world? Not just a one time wonder for decades and decades, forever.

 00:36:17

 Yeah, it's that kind of mentality. And a lot of people would think, oh, that's just crazy. Forever. You can't possibly be that. But, I mean, you go back in history, and that's what they have created.

 00:36:28

 Let's talk a little bit about unpackaged some of the things that these great teams and great organizations have done that have actually enabled them to become the forever. Yeah, it's a good question. I mean, without getting specific because I'll just be honest with you that I don't know how to rattle off the All Blacks core values or their mission. But I will say that there are these and I do have looked at those things, but there are these rallying ideas, especially when you talk about young men and women that are very much in their developing stage, when they have a coach or they have an authority figure that shows them that models the right behavior. And when they have elder statesmen and women on the team that have been there, that have won the championships, that pass on that lineage, but it only can happen if the torch is the idea, not the torch is Tom Brady or something, if that makes sense.

 00:37:25

 And so we rally around these ideas that never go anywhere. And so the same stuff that worked for John Wooden in the 70s or 80s would still work today because there's this lineage of passing down ideas and ethics and behaviors to the next generation and so on. And so that's where you really see things from a cultural perspective and a tribal perspective start to catch fire. And so this can only happen when the idea, the core value, the message or the mission is scalable. And scalable is really just code for clear, right?

 00:38:02

 Clear and appealing. If I can give you a clear and appealing message, you're going to pass it on. This is pop music. This is pop fiction. If you read books, this is podcasts, right?

 00:38:14

 If it's clear and it's appealing, I'm going to tell people about it and I'm going to come back for more. Yeah. You create that ripple effect. You create the evangelism amongst your tribe. You've created a whole lot of other evangelists who are excited, who have brought into the concepts and the ideas and the values of what it is that you are trying to achieve.

 00:38:38

 And now you've created a whole lot more people that are going to go out and continue to spread the word. What do you think are some of the common mistakes that a lot of entrepreneurs make, particularly when they're starting out and how can they go about avoiding those? It's just rushing. It's rushing. The hardest thing that an entrepreneur ever has to do is explain their vision to somebody that doesn't get it.

 00:39:02

 And anybody that has felt this, I will tell you right now and my wife is wonderful. I could not be in this chair talking to you right now if it weren't for my wife, Donna. She has supported me since before we ever found success in entrepreneurialism and has supported me every step of the way through all of the things that we've done since. But I still have the hair stand up on the back of my neck and get goosebumps and chills when I try to explain. And I pause constantly, like, I think about it, and I come back again because it's so important to people like me that our idea that we believe to be great is understood as well as possible.

 00:39:40

 And I don't know why, but the first time you say it out loud, it's even more difficult. And so if you ask what the common problems are, it's that we skip past that. We push past it. Oh, don't worry. I'll explain it as we go.

 00:39:51

 And the truth is, we really need to step outside of our ego. We need to set that to the side and we need to listen to those people that we are sharing our vision with, because they will tell us, either with their words or just their face, whether it's exciting and easy to understand and has potential to catch fire and take over the world, or if we're just not quite there yet. And so I'll be very candid with you. In the last three months, as I've been developing this business, I have gone from highs to very, very lows. I've been in that same float tank, and I remember I was chanting to myself out loud, which is super weird, and I'm happy to share weird stuff.

 00:40:30

 It wasn't until I found and then I would just wait, thinking that maybe I would say the thing that would allow me to convey my mission more clearly. And I didn't find it that day, Tracy, but I think we're getting close. I think we're pretty close today. And what I'll tell you is, I was in that moment where I go, oh, this is what they mean in biographies and autobiographies, where they say, that was the hardest thing I ever had to do. And I don't mean physically

 00:40:57

 We could talk for days about that type of stuff, but I had heard enough of how those stories end up to keep going. And so if you're listening to this and you just have been banging your head against a wall, just know skip two chapters ahead, because those guys got rich, okay? And so that when you if you can become undeniable, if you can just find a way to be bigger than you currently are and become the person who easily deserves your wildest dreams, genuinely, like, if we never speak again, that's how it works. You have to go through that. You have to face those things that are challenging you to be bigger than you are.

 00:41:32

 You have to grow into the new vessel that you want to live in. Absolutely. Like we say, like a lobster, right? To grow, you have to break out of that shell to create a new one. What's interesting about this, too, and I think this is one of the common mistakes and you alluded to this and that sometimes we just got to slow down rather than speed up.

 00:41:53

 And one of the mistakes we make is that we want to try and go really fast, and so therefore we end up most entrepreneurs pick up their phone, they're on Instagram, they're on Facebook, they're on TikTok and whatever, trying to absorb as much information as we can, and then they get this thing called Shiny Object Syndrome. And what you're actually saying is you actually got away from all of that. You went away and actually found peace and quiet because you realized that the answer actually lays within getting to that point where you're in a float tank and you're asking yourself that question. You are now able to draw upon the many, many years of wisdom that you have gathered through looking at things from completely different perspectives. Right?

 00:42:42

 I want to jump in on that because I wish it was that. I wish I could tell you, Tracy, that my experience has led me to some unique nuggets of diamond wisdom, but I swear to God it was putting what I thought I knew down and opening up my ears and listening to what everybody I was talking to was trying desperately to tell me. That is the thing that has given me the most success in my whole life, whether it was at the gym, whether it was at other businesses, or even now, I swear to you, it is the increased ability to put down my opinion and listen to the truth from my constituents. Whoever that is, has been interesting by a factor of ten, I guess what an ad is going to be that does well, and it's never the one. Does that make sense?

 00:43:28

 It's the one. Absolutely. I wish you did that plus that, and I go, that's stupid, and then I go, Wait, and I try it. I'll give it a go. Yeah.

 00:43:38

 But I suppose what I'm saying here is that often if we're struggling with something, it's not always going to try and find a quick win. What you're saying is that there are trusted advisors that you have in life. There will be people that you know, you trust that have been there, done that, have got the wisdom that you're looking for, that are sharing that with you. And then in that moment, you are putting your ego aside, opening up the ears, allowing that information to come in, and then, of course, you then process it yourself and go, well, that's the course of action I'm going to take and that's where I'm going today. But it's really fascinating that you're taking these moments to just talk about going to the float tank and just have quiet time, try and reduce the amount of noise and information on all of your senses to allow you to relax, recharge, recalibrate, and then be able to come out of that with maybe an idea or a concept or maybe not.

 00:44:44

 Maybe it's like, I've got to go back there a few times. I've got to actually go down a different path and ask a few different people, and they can help me. You also talked about your lovely wife, Donna. So let's talk about how can because this show obviously is about business, family, and life and being able to juggle it all. What advice would you give to other entrepreneurs that are either working with their husband or wife or significant other or those that don't?

 00:45:14

 Those that have got their husband, wife, significant other are doing something completely different and don't necessarily buy into what they're the mission that they are on. So let's look at this from those two points of views. What are your advice or your pearls of wisdom there? I love it. I don't know how much a lot of this I've learned from others.

 00:45:34

 What I would say is, for starters, to address those two people you're talking about. Good friend and former mentor Alex Harmosi once told me you have two types of spouses that essentially can support an entrepreneur. One is the full back, and that is the person who's in the trenches with you, and they're day to day working with you as hard as they can. You're aligned. You're shoulder to shoulder, ride or die.

 00:45:57

 And my wife Donna, for many years has been that although she's been playing more of a caretaker role, more of a caretaker role more lately with Lucy. The second type is the cheerleader, somebody who believes in you and inspires you and gives you the space to go out and fail as much as you can, because ultimately, successful entrepreneurs are just better at failing fast, right? And that takes support and confidence. And half of my strength of my spine comes directly from the support of that woman upstairs right now. And so that, to me, are the two different types of people.

 00:46:28

 And then as far as the actual advice, this is simple. When I decided to take my wife at her will to become a full time employee and to be a part of the business the very first time, it occurred to me that the timeline with which I view our relationship is infinite. In other words, I want to die married to my wife in good standing, right? And so on a long enough timeline, any problem that we encounter in our business is a very small pebble in the road, and we can easily step over it. And so with that in mind, I viewed our interactions day to day in a very different way than I did with my other employees.

 00:47:06

 Side benefit was it went so well, all of a sudden, I was like, wait a second. Why am I treating everybody else like these things are a big deal? And so I started to treat all of my employees as if it was on an infinite timeline. And certainly we shot forward progressively from that for the second folks, those folks that don't work together, those folks where the wife maybe or husband, whatever shout out to me. Screwing up there where the spouse doesn't do entrepreneurship.

 00:47:34

 They don't understand your tolerance for risk. Well, with those folks, the advice I would give is whatever language that person does understand, it is your job to find it out and translate it for them. And so I'll give you an example. I worked with a couple that was fantastic. The husband was an entrepreneur, the wife was an accountant.

 00:47:51

 She had gotten a master's degree. She was a CPA. Very, very successful, but very structured. And so what I explained to him, and then to her at the same time, in a different call, was basically that she needs to have the rules and the structures and the foundations in place in such a way that she could tie her adherence to, let's say, gap or what she had learned in college to her success as an accountant. She needed to be able to tie the work that we were doing together, the work that he was doing to build assets and systems in his business towards the success of the business.

 00:48:27

 And as soon as we were able to speak her language, because it's incumbent upon us to meet the people we reach out to on their terms and on their ground, they don't owe us anything. They don't owe us anything. And so if we understand that, then it becomes our job to be the bridge builder. Does that make sense? Yeah, if I want.

 00:48:48

 Totally. I'd better be able to build a quick bridge, right? Absolutely. Now, I know you've got a bunch of things on the go at the moment. You've got Masterminds, you've got coaching programs.

 00:49:00

 This might be a great time for us to talk about a few of the things that you've got going on, because I know that our audience, like, if they've been listening today, they will have picked up a heap of gold nuggets and they will be dying to know more. We've talked about a little bit about the three F's. We've talked about building a dynasty organization, but there's a whole lot more to this, right? And this is all covered in your coaching programs. So let's talk a little bit about those.

 00:49:27

 What do they involve? What sort of person do you want to work with? Yeah. So I'm very selective. And so what I typically do is I invite people to come to my Dynasty Builders group.

 00:49:41

 I have a free group on Facebook called Dynasty Builders. All entrepreneurs are welcome, and the purpose of that group is to help you go from zero to $25,000 a month, every single month as a coach, consultant or solopreneur, like a subject matter expert without paying me a dollar. And so I'm in that group live every single day. I'm sharing trainings. I got my little whiteboard out with me.

 00:50:05

 I'm doing live trainings every single day. And I love developing this tribe of people who are only there because they're getting some value and going out and building their dreams. The selfishness in that is, once you've gone through those things and you have grown your business, well, certainly you would be willing to be a private client. I've already made you $25,000 a month, and so that's my challenge is to come to our group, Dynasty Builders. Check it out.

 00:50:29

 Certainly we do have a podcast, spear and Clover podcast. We also have a private podcast called Dynasty defined that's in the group only. And we have a myriad of other private client options for folks that are qualified. But the people we like to work with are typically coaches, consultants, and solopreneurs, so folks can find us in the Dynasty Builders group. Absolutely love it.

 00:50:50

 So that sounds like an amazing group. Maybe I have to go and join you, too, and see what you're up to in the Dynasty Builders group. And for those of you that are listening, so Spareandclover.com Spearandclover.com is the website that you need to go to, and you'll also be able to find a link to the Facebook group there and jump into with Jason's very generous offer of having everybody there. I mean, a lot of people would charge for that, Jace. So to offer that out to people and say, come, I'm going to do my best to get you to $25,000 a month, if you follow my process for free is absolutely amazing.

 00:51:35

 I love it. Yeah. If your free stuff is better than their paid stuff, you're going to win every single time. And so I don't want to serve people that are making $100,000 a year. I want to serve people that want to make $100,000 a month.

 00:51:46

 Yeah. Beautiful. Well, hey, guys. I hope you have absolutely enjoyed today's session with Jason. He has been an absolute world of wisdom.

 00:51:56

 He's got a heap of stuff that he can share with you. As you know, he's had experience across many different industries and is an avid learner of all things. So I want to make sure that you guys have the opportunity to continue to connect with him. It's pretty likely that we'll have Jace back on the show at some other point, and we'll talk a lot more about entrepreneurship, some of the things that he's doing, Dynasty Builders, and have some more detail about how you actually start to build a Dynasty company. So if you've enjoyed today's session, the very best thing that you can do is to share this with somebody else.

 00:52:30

 If you got just one thing out of today's conversation with Jason, then I would highly suggest that you should share this with your bestie. Even Jay said sometimes he shares it with people he doesn't even like. So you do the same. Go and share it with your friends, your family, anybody else that's in business or is thinking about going into business. And maybe some of those people that you know, that have that desire that maybe you don't even.

 00:52:53

 Like, because they, too, will get something out of today's show, I'm sure. Jason, an opportunity to kind of wind us up today. Is there anything further that you want to add to today's conversation before we kind of finish up? You're a total rock star, Tracy. I totally love you.

 00:53:09

 I think you're awesome, and I think these people are amazing. Very lucky to have somebody like you. You've been present and, like, whip crack sharp on every single part of this conversation. And so if you're still listening to this, please, please, like, subscribe and share this episode. Thank you very much.

 00:53:24

 All right, guys. Well, I hope you've had a fantastic, like I said, easter here in Australia. We've got a few other long weekends coming up, so probably, like, jace, I'll be out and about, probably camping. Those of you that have been following for a while know that I really love to just kick off my shoes and get out and get a bit grubby and dirty and not worry too much about the luxuries of life and just go and enjoy life and the outdoors. So I'm hoping that you guys get to do the same and enjoy your family over the next few weeks.

 00:53:54

And as we always say, go and live your life unlocked, because there's just no other way. See you next Wednesday. Bye for now.