The Grit Factor Podcast w/ Karl Jacobi

She Built a Prison Instead of a Business. Here's What She's Doing About It.

Episode Summary
What happens when you escape the corporate grind only to build yourself a different kind of cage?
Cris Beam is a one-woman e-commerce powerhouse. North of $5 million in sales. Over a decade in the game. No team. No safety net. Just her. On paper, she is the success story. But behind the numbers? 3 AM wake-ups. A failed private label investment that will take years to recover from. Crypto losses. A business that runs on pure grit because discipline has never been her thing.
In this raw conversation, Cris drops the highlight reel and goes straight to the basement. She talks about trading corporate stress for a different kind of weight. One that never clocks out. She opens up about being the ultimate control freak who built a business that can't exist without her. And she shares the moment a book called "Buy Back Your Time" hit her like a ton of bricks and forced her to start making changes.
If you have ever felt stuck inside a business you built with your own hands, this one is for you.

In This Episode, You'll Discover:
  1. The real difference between corporate stress and entrepreneur stress, and why trading one for the other still comes with pain
  2. How Cris went from $0 to $38,000 in her third month on Amazon by being obsessively impulsive
  3. Why a failed private label investment and crypto losses nearly buried her in a six-month financial spiral
  4. The prison she built by keeping everything in her head and refusing to trust anyone else
  5. Why self-confidence is not arrogance, and how Cris refuses to give herself any option other than success
  6. How "Buy Back Your Time" cracked her open and got her to finally hire help after years of doing it solo
  7. Why shiny object syndrome has tanked more businesses than bad products ever will
  8. The power of treating life like a video game. Beat the level. Beat the game. Keep going.
Key Takeaways:
  1. Every Problem Is Your Problem: When you own the business, there is no CFO to bail you out. No marketing team. No boss to blame. Every single problem lands on your desk. That is the trade you make for freedom.
  2. Impulse Can Be a Superpower: Cris did not overthink her leap into e-commerce. She saw an opportunity on a Saturday morning and had an account open by the end of the day. Sometimes analysis paralysis is the real enemy.
  3. Overconfidence Meets Overtrust: Investing in nine private label products at once while trusting others to execute was a costly lesson. Confidence in yourself is powerful. Blind trust in others can be expensive.
  4. You Built a Prison, Not a Business: If everything lives in your head, no documentation, no systems, no team, you are not the CEO. You are the most overworked employee in a business that cannot survive without you.
  5. Discipline Is the Tax You Pay: Cris openly admits discipline is her biggest struggle. Inconsistent buying. Neglected bookkeeping. Shiny objects. The lack of discipline creates a financial rollercoaster that grit alone cannot smooth out.
  6. Protect Your Bread and Butter: Chasing Walmart, crypto, UGC, and every new thing nearly cost Cris her core Amazon business. New opportunities should be add-ons, not replacements.
  7. Everything Is Figureoutable: If you can Google it, you can solve it. Computer illiteracy in today's world is a choice. Click on everything. Break something. Fix it. That is the process.
  8. Isolation Will Eat You Alive: Solo entrepreneurs only hear one voice. Their own. And it is usually the most critical one in the room. Building a circle is not optional. It is survival.
Timestamps:
  • [00:00] Introduction
  • [01:30] Meet Cris Beam. E-com powerhouse, one-person army
  • [03:19] The 3 AM wake-ups and the weight of owning every problem
  • [08:00] Burning the boat. How Cris started her Amazon business the day after leaving corporate
  • [11:05] Baptism by fire. $6K to $38K in three months
  • [13:14] Self-confidence vs. arrogance. Why failure is not in her vocabulary
  • [16:00] The financial basement. Private label losses, crypto hits, and the six-month spiral
  • [21:04] The control freak trap. Why trusting others keeps backfiring
  • [25:08] Building a prison instead of a business. The wake-up call
  • [26:02] "Buy Back Your Time" and the decision to finally hire a VA
  • [28:29] Discipline is garbage. But it is also the answer
  • [35:14] The troubleshooting mindset. Click on everything
  • [42:41] Shiny object syndrome. How chasing new things killed the core business
  • [50:07] Talking to the Chris who is sweating at 3 AM right now
  • [52:30] What grit looks like in the season of rebuild. Dog with a bone
  • [55:56] The quote that keeps her going. "I always figured it out"
  • [59:33] The Iron Chain question and Cris's question for the next guest
  • [64:05] Closing thoughts. Why entrepreneurship is lonely and circles matter
Resources & Links:
  • Book: "Buy Back Your Time" by Dan Martell
  • Book: "Boundaries" by Dr. Henry Cloud (mentioned by Karl)
  • Tool: Tactical Arbitrage (Amazon sourcing software)
  • Book: "Essentialism" by Greg McKeown (referenced by Karl)
Connect with Cris Beam:
  • Website: https://fbahuddle.com/
  • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CrisLivesOnline
  • Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/CrisLivesOnline
  • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cris.beam
  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cris-beam-4a116438
Connect with Karl Jacobi:
  • Website: https://successwithkarl.com
  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karljacobi
  • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/karl.jacobi
  • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/successwithkarl
  • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@KarlJacobi
  • TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@veteran808

Creators and Guests

Host
Karl Jacobi
Host of The Grit Factor Podcast, Resilience & Performance Coach, Founder, Entrepreneur, Combat Veteran
Guest
Cris Beam
E-com business owner

What is The Grit Factor Podcast w/ Karl Jacobi?

The Grit Factor Podcast brings real conversations with founders, entrepreneurs, and builders. No fluff. Just honest stories, hard lessons, and practical takeaways you can apply right now. New interviews plus solo episodes on mindset, leadership, and execution.

[00:00] Average is the enemy of greatness.
[00:07] Comfort is the enemy of growth.
[00:11] Welcome to the great factor podcast where we strip away the highlight reel and get into
[00:15] the darkness beneath it.
[00:18] The real stories, the real battles and the battle plans used to conquer them.
[00:23] I'm your host, Carl Jakobi.
[00:26] Combat that, entrepreneur, resilience and performance coach, keynote speaker, husband and
[00:32] father.
[00:34] I built scaled an ex-adultable company stolen over 40 million in revenue.
[00:39] But here's what the highlight reel doesn't show you.
[00:44] Life has been smack him in a phase with a 2x4 since I was just 5 years old.
[00:50] Welcome home, constant chaos, no playbook, no safety net, just grit.
[00:58] And if you're anything like me, you know you've got another level in you.
[01:03] In your business, your career, your faith, your leadership.
[01:08] You're just not sure how to get there.
[01:11] That's exactly why right here.
[01:13] Be sure to follow me for more great content and check out my website, successwithcarl.com
[01:20] Now, that's Carl with a K.
[01:22] Now let's get to work.
[01:30] Chris, beam, welcome to this show.
[01:33] It is an honor to have you in the studio to hear today.
[01:36] Thank you, Carl.
[01:37] I appreciate the invite.
[01:38] It's always great hanging out with you.
[01:39] I want to dive right in because I have been following your store for a while, social.
[01:44] I've known you for a while.
[01:46] And just before we hit record, we talked a little bit about your journey.
[01:50] And most people see the title, e-com business owner.
[01:54] In assume you're living the laptop lifestyle on a beach.
[01:58] On paper, you're the success story, right?
[02:03] You've done with north of $5 million in sales.
[02:06] That's not a small number.
[02:08] That's more than what a lot of people would just dream of to build a accomplish.
[02:13] And you've been in a scheme for some time.
[02:16] Well over the 10 years now, right?
[02:19] But he's going to take, or split your spots.
[02:23] I'm all right.
[02:24] Cool.
[02:25] You're even better.
[02:27] But in your intake and your profile, you says something that I think every entrepreneur can
[02:34] resonate with to some degree.
[02:36] And I really hope that those are listening right now.
[02:39] Pay attention.
[02:40] Drops everything you're doing right now and listen to you because I love you.
[02:43] What you share here, because you're willing to be vulnerable.
[02:46] You're rolling to the layer by kind of sneaky in, right?
[02:49] So you admitted that you hate waking up at 3 am worrying about the math, right?
[02:55] And you said you're currently digging out out of a massive hole because you're tied
[03:00] your identity to success.
[03:02] You left a corporate job that you're running for a very long time to escape the grind.
[03:08] But you end up treating office politics through a financial weight that doesn't essentially
[03:16] clock out.
[03:19] So talk to us for a moment.
[03:21] Take us through to that 3 am moment when the lights are out and the numbers aren't
[03:26] working.
[03:27] What is the specific differences between the stress you left in a corporate life?
[03:32] Where it's a lot of people who would love to have that sense of security, safe, and
[03:37] so forth, right?
[03:40] And the reality of the business weight that you care in today.
[03:43] You kind of trade one thing for another, right?
[03:46] Like, I hear a lot of people saying that, oh, I want to do Amazon full time.
[03:51] I wanted to do this full time.
[03:52] My goal is to quit my job.
[03:55] And I just want to say to them, why?
[03:59] You think this is like you said.
[04:01] People think this is a laptop on a beach, sipping margaritas.
[04:06] And the phone going to change every five minutes, right?
[04:10] So it's not really like that.
[04:12] You trade a job provides a different type of security, right?
[04:16] It's every problem could be someone else's problem, right?
[04:21] When you are a business owner, your every problem is your problem.
[04:26] Every single problem is or becomes your problem.
[04:30] And it's just a different kind of a panic, right?
[04:34] You have that when you're at a job, it's, you know, I'm not going to get a trouble with
[04:39] the boss.
[04:40] My boss is pinging me.
[04:41] My boss is calling.
[04:42] I got a nasty grant from the boss on Saturday night at 10 p.m.
[04:45] Right?
[04:46] Yes.
[04:47] However, there is, you know, you can always take that and you know, make it someone else's
[04:52] problem, right?
[04:54] When you're the business owner, it's all yours.
[04:56] It's all you babe.
[04:57] No one else to turn to.
[04:59] No one else to dump it on, right?
[05:01] Well, when the numbers are not working, there's no CFO, there's no marketing team, there's
[05:07] no, there's no not to get you out of trouble.
[05:09] It's all you.
[05:10] So that is the kind of stuff, you know, in our business, my business is an inventory
[05:15] based business, right?
[05:17] If guess what, if something fails, suppliers still have to be paid, right?
[05:22] Like, American Express, like it or not, they're always going to want their money, right?
[05:28] When sales are down, when things get lost, when checking times are slow, everyone still
[05:34] needs to get paid and who's the one writing the checks, right?
[05:39] No, yes.
[05:41] So I think a job versus being self-employed is just a different kind of pain, but there's
[05:47] still pain to push through.
[05:50] It's not all, all roses.
[05:53] So my 3 AM wakeups are anything from, I thought, I've got this payment due and let's
[06:02] hope the money hits my account by that time.
[06:05] I have this intellectual property claim that they're not accepting, even though I gave
[06:12] them everything that they could possibly need and anything in between, right?
[06:18] So when you own everything, you own every problem that comes with it.
[06:23] I agree.
[06:24] I agree.
[06:25] And I think every entrepreneur, founder, business owner, builder, can definitely identify
[06:31] with this storm, right?
[06:33] Because there is no clockout time, right?
[06:37] In your corporate life, and I can resonate with this, this is a conversation my wife
[06:43] and I have had several times too.
[06:45] There is no clockout time for us.
[06:47] Sure, we may clock out out of our laptops, but we're lying a bit, run a throw these
[06:52] scenarios, man, to your point, pan AMX, paying this, paying that, you know, all these
[06:58] controllables versus uncontrollables, you know, things that are, you're at the mercy
[07:03] of.
[07:04] One thing that I forgot to mention that I really would add a lot to context of this, and
[07:09] I apologize, that you're one person banned, right?
[07:13] You've been doing this by yourself, right?
[07:17] So that should add a loop, right?
[07:19] Actually, a lot more context to this, because it's not like you've got a large team or a
[07:24] team at all.
[07:25] You're an army of one, you know, that built this business and built this job.
[07:30] And yeah, so I just want to ask some context to that.
[07:34] So walk us through, you left this corporate job, started, started you commerce business,
[07:41] and what really caught me was that you started the next day or started right after, you
[07:48] know, a lot of people I talked to, it is something they plan out for for weeks, months,
[07:55] or even years, if it may not even take action on that, right?
[08:00] So what made you burn that boat immediately?
[08:04] I was going to take some time off after, you know, grinding 800 hour per week at my corporate
[08:10] job, right, for four years, right?
[08:13] And then I was going to take some time off.
[08:15] I had a little bit of, you know, savings aside, that would have allowed me to be like
[08:20] off for like six months a year or not necessarily be off.
[08:23] I'm going to work a hall like off for me means taking a day off means like taking like
[08:31] I signed up for Harvard online courses.
[08:34] I used to like my Friday evenings used to be taking a statistics course for absolutely
[08:40] zero reason, right?
[08:41] That's just my kind of off, right?
[08:43] Or I will read.
[08:45] So off for me is not what, you know, off for other people, but, and, you know, I worked
[08:50] my, my two weeks a month, whatever at my job, my last day was on a Friday.
[08:58] And the next morning I was literally, I walked outside of my patio with my tablet and my
[09:03] coffee and my thought was, and I still remember, it's like, I heard it clearly, like,
[09:08] I heard my own voice in my head saying, what do unemployed people do?
[09:13] You know, and so I just sat there like sucking on my three pots of coffee and watching
[09:20] YouTube and I was really big into sales force at that time.
[09:24] You know, sales force this year, I was working with that in my previous job and I was
[09:31] thinking about doing like I was taking a sales force like admin course as a hobby, right?
[09:38] Because like don't have normal hobbies.
[09:41] No.
[09:42] What's normal in you ways, right?
[09:43] Right.
[09:44] Right.
[09:45] So I was watching some YouTube videos on that and that this piece, this something that I
[09:52] never seen before, so appeared in my suggested videos.
[09:55] And it was a video on tactical arbitrage from this channel called FBA every day of
[10:03] the day or something like that with Josh who, someone that I ended up meeting after.
[10:09] I was intrigued and long story short, I had had a clothing business like three, four
[10:15] years prior that was just dormant.
[10:19] I still had an LLC, long story short, I had an account open and signed up for courses
[10:25] and all that by the end of that day.
[10:27] So I hit the ground running.
[10:29] I'm an impulsive person when I decide to do something I just do it.
[10:37] I guess that helped me get a pretty fast start.
[10:41] I just became obsessive about, I had a new hobby, right?
[10:47] A new thing to do and I just became obsessive and I hit Amazon so hard.
[10:54] I did like 6,000 my first month.
[10:57] I did 18,000 my second month and I did 38,000 my third month.
[11:02] And it was pretty fast, right?
[11:05] So I am the poster child for baptism by fire or drinking from the fire host.
[11:13] That's my preferred method of learning anyway because it keeps my attention.
[11:18] So it was actually quite, it was exactly one I knew at the time.
[11:23] And it just, I don't know, I never took the flip off the pedal.
[11:27] Nice.
[11:28] And things were going so great to at one point when they stopped going so great.
[11:34] And then it goes up and down.
[11:37] Well, can't really say with this filter on up and down.
[11:42] Yeah, 100%.
[11:44] And I mean, that's just life period, right?
[11:47] We all have our ups and downs.
[11:48] This is part of the growth of that's just a journey of growth.
[11:52] We have our peaks.
[11:54] And we have our valleys in between is the journey we've got to take.
[11:59] So we can appreciate this peaks more.
[12:01] We've got to have the lows so can experience the peaks and appreciate them.
[12:05] One thing I heard is that you're in pulses.
[12:09] Like you didn't really take any time to do analysis process or, you know,
[12:16] where a lot of people would do would just like analyze the crap at us, right?
[12:21] So I'm of, you know, crank me from wrong, but why heard here is you leverage,
[12:26] you know, as a superpower.
[12:28] You know, like, hey, I would just go, oh man, I'm just going to freak go.
[12:31] And you did allow any time for what ifs or any of that, you just go.
[12:37] And that's one of the things I, you know, I'll say, like, as I admire about you, you just
[12:41] wet, you're just gone on with it and you became extremely obsessive with it.
[12:45] And I think that's one of the biggest things that tributus two success,
[12:51] coming from wrong, you know, is being obsessed with the process, being obsessed,
[12:57] with the jury in a not be willing to quit or to fail.
[13:03] Fail meaning, I made some mistakes crap, I'm done, right?
[13:07] Not feeling as, you know, making mistakes.
[13:10] I mean, make mistakes is part of life, right?
[13:12] You know, you just gotta keep moving forward.
[13:14] This is going to sound insane and is going to sound so cocky and so arrogant.
[13:21] And so who the hell does she think she is?
[13:25] But I do not doubt myself.
[13:28] I don't, I don't suck at anything that I do.
[13:32] If I do something, I'm going to do it extremely well.
[13:35] So, you know, failure is not, yes, I can fail temporarily.
[13:41] There's always a comeback.
[13:43] There's always a coming back stronger.
[13:45] There's always, you know, I will work myself to failure to make sure I don't fail.
[13:53] It's, um, it's not that's just not a word in my book.
[13:57] Like, if I, whatever I do, I'm going to excel at it just because I don't give myself any other option.
[14:03] You have to.
[14:04] Yeah, you, you actually have to.
[14:06] And one thing I want to clarify is that wasn't arrogance I heard.
[14:11] That was self-confidence, right?
[14:13] And I think that's part of the process.
[14:15] You have to be confident of your abilities.
[14:19] In, in, in, in the fact that, hey, if I mess up cool, I'll take the lessons learned and keep moving forward.
[14:26] Right?
[14:26] That's why I heard there.
[14:27] I have to hear arrogance in, in any of that.
[14:29] So I hope everybody listening in or watching.
[14:32] Hear it for what it truly is.
[14:33] It's, I heard you have the confidence in yourself to build to, to adapt, overcome and keep
[14:40] pushing forward.
[14:41] Yes, you're going to get hit, right?
[14:43] You're going to be in a boxing ring.
[14:45] You're going to get your hits, but you're also going to be doing hit too, right?
[14:48] You're going to be doing some uppercuts and a couple of jams and probably some,
[14:51] you know, who knows?
[14:52] What else comes?
[14:54] So that's what I heard.
[14:56] Good.
[14:57] That's what I was trying to say.
[15:00] I knew you were.
[15:01] I just wanted to put it out there to, you know, for, for the rest of us out there that,
[15:06] because I've been there, you know, I've been there on the side.
[15:10] Where I would look at somebody who is a high achiever.
[15:13] Some of who's, you know, wanting more in the life and, and yeah, there is the,
[15:18] the outside perception of arrogance, but that's not arrogance.
[15:21] That's just self-confident being, being confident in your abilities to overcome, being
[15:26] you confident in your abilities to keep adapting and moving forward.
[15:30] Now, there is your side of the, you know, coin of being arrogant, but that's not this, right?
[15:36] You know, so now you mentioned this.
[15:39] Specific wake-ups, you know, situation, you know, I was read order by on your profile.
[15:45] I'll be honest, or, you know, let's just be clear here.
[15:49] That sounds rather polite, right?
[15:51] So take us to that basement.
[15:53] How, how bad did it actually get financially for you in that wake-up situation that you're talking about here?
[16:00] I mean, I had, you know, when things are going so well,
[16:06] we want to make changes, or we want to add, or we can do more, or so, you know, those months that I was,
[16:17] so when I was rolling in dough, right?
[16:19] It's like, what else can I do with this money, or, you know, how else can we grow?
[16:24] What else can we do?
[16:25] And that is where sometimes you make the wrong choices, right?
[16:32] And maybe the idea, so I decided to invest in a private label.
[16:36] And unlike normal people that would start with like one product, right?
[16:41] No, I decided to, you know, contract the team and pay people and, you know, get like nine different
[16:47] products. And, you know, this is overconfidence and also putting too much confidence in others.
[16:56] Yeah, that, that ended up being a massive, massive financial hit for me that it's probably going to take
[17:05] me the next three, four years to dig myself out of. And then like that wasn't enough, then other things happen.
[17:12] You know, Amazon took some massive brands down that I was very, very deep into.
[17:20] And I went over the course of maybe like six months from top of the world to the pits of hell, right?
[17:29] And this was about a year and a half ago and I'm just still trying to dig my way out.
[17:36] And that's where if I could go back, you know, was it right to be done in Paul's events?
[17:43] Say, nope, I, let's go do it, let's do it all. Let's get in. Here's piles of money, right?
[17:51] That was a massive, miscalculation on my part. And I tend to be rather trusting.
[18:01] And unfortunately, I still am trusting and I keep getting, for a wrong, but, yeah, apparently it's
[18:12] who I am because the way I think of things is, you know, if someone gave me all this pile of money,
[18:18] like I would not sleep until, you know, that's recovered or that's done or this is right. It's just,
[18:27] it's just something that keeps happening to me. I trust others and their ability is a lot.
[18:34] And I always, and that's the reason why I work by myself, you know, like I do the same thing with V.A.
[18:42] I do the same thing with, you know, I'm a very trusting person and I am learning that I am wrong in that.
[18:49] Yeah, wow, thanks for sharing that because I think there's a lot of people can resonate with what you're saying.
[18:57] And once I run it too, you know, and not just doing as podcast, but work with so many people is,
[19:04] we often time think we're the only ones that have a key and call them a weakness.
[19:08] Have these qualities within us, right? Or we this have this ability that be more trusting or
[19:15] to be more vulnerable with people or whatever, you know, these superpowers are, but get also be our
[19:21] kryptonite, right? And that's that's the hardest and I've learned in my own, especially as recent
[19:28] in the last three or two, three years. And as I start to share more of my true personal story,
[19:35] true meaning, okay, you know, I share some of the surface stuff. Now I'm starting to get into
[19:40] a deeper thing, especially I have some legal things start to get clear and so forth, right? Because
[19:45] there is this perception that people go on social media and see these different things,
[19:49] they're like, well, that must be nice, but they don't see the struggles and the battles and things
[19:54] that we have to do under the surface, right? But one thing at, I will love that, you know, get your
[20:01] input and it's probably part of a little bit of clarity on some of these storms that you're
[20:05] navigating. Something that I was reminded of about one of my own coaches is every time that I go through
[20:13] an event or a season or what have you, I have to ask myself, you know, what can I learn from this?
[20:19] What are the, what is something that I could take away from this? Or what is the message that
[20:23] guys trying to teach me, you know, either it's any slow down or maybe I need to pivot or maybe
[20:29] I don't know, right? I mean, I'm always, I have to do some type of assessment of like, what is
[20:36] that I could learn from this situation? And I think you kind of look at it to it, you know, when you're
[20:40] talking about your, your private label investment and so forth, but looking back, whether some of
[20:46] this specific lessons that you learned that you know, like, hey, you know what, and going forward,
[20:51] I know I'm not going to do what I did back there, right? What would there be some of those lessons?
[20:58] One of the less, it's kind of a weird one because it's about my need for control. So I am the
[21:04] ultimate control freak, the ultimate control freak. The only way to let go of it is to give someone
[21:12] else almost full ownership. So I don't because otherwise I will end up micro managing them and I
[21:18] despise micro managing, I despise doing it and I despise the trip somewhat trying to micro manage
[21:24] me, right? So so it's, that's when I decided that I should probably just not work with anyone ever,
[21:31] again, because if I give someone else control, they will most likely, well, in my history,
[21:41] they will 100% end up, you know, taking, taking advantage or taking me down, right? So that's kind
[21:52] of how I feel about things now. So, and that is the reason why I actually just hired a VA a week ago,
[21:59] and I am just trying so hard, so hard to not hated. And I recently moved on my prep from prep centers,
[22:09] because that also ended up being a failure. I had a prep center that ended up, there's thousands,
[22:15] tens of thousands of dollars of misplaced, missing, items. Yeah, and I literally moved everything
[22:25] home at the beginning of Q4 and my husband is doing all the prep and... Okay. I hear you, I,
[22:33] well, I'm not doing it, so we'd see that that, or I have to hire someone else, and I am really trying
[22:39] not to hire someone else. And the only other option would be for me doing it myself, and I'm already
[22:47] stretched out enough, so I don't have the bandwidth at anything. So, I think what I am learning is,
[22:54] I'm going to have to figure out a little bit better on how to implement some systems to allow others
[23:01] to succeed, but still under my direct supervision, which is something I'm trying to do right now with
[23:06] this VA that I hired. And it's, I'm a, I'm a doer, right? I'm not a talker, I'm not a teacher, I would do
[23:13] a, right? Everything is in my head, all the knowledge about the business, everything is in my head.
[23:19] So, don't have any systems in place or any documentation, any walkthroughs for anything. So, that is
[23:27] like one of the things that I'm trying to to change to kind of build both systems and have my VA
[23:35] try to use those. Have I gone way too far from the question or to deep? No, so I love that you
[23:42] actually went into that, right? You started to pivot into the prison aspect of this, right?
[23:48] Everything is inside your head. Like, I can completely resonate with the fact that I built a prison
[23:56] because I felt, I didn't trust anybody else's ability to build a do it to my level, right?
[24:05] And it was in fact when I was talking with Jimmy who you and I both know Jimmy Smith,
[24:10] who I loved dearly. And he's like, Carl, man, dude, you realize monkeys can learn just as much as the
[24:16] stuff we've no already, right? So, you're saying that a monkey can't do this and I'm like,
[24:21] gosh dang it, dude, really. So, these were habits that I had to unlearn beliefs that I had to, you
[24:30] unbelief, if that's even a word, grammar, please go, you know, pal sand for a moment, right?
[24:37] So, I had, I had to come to a hard realization. I built myself a prison. I come for one
[24:44] workplace and I bought myself another one, right? And for me, it came down to health issues and
[24:51] they might, you know, at the time I showed 60 year old daughter told me that she felt abandoned
[24:56] because I spent all that time building businesses and providing lifestyle that I never had
[25:01] that they got to enjoy, right? So, log me through this moment, if you don't mind,
[25:08] that you know, where you realize that you aren't the CEO, right? When we leave these jobs, we aspire
[25:16] to be the CEO to be, you know, not in a play, or yourself in play, right? But, you know, again,
[25:23] you realize that you're an overworked employee inside a prison. How did you or how are you firing
[25:29] yourself? So, it's actually very interesting. So, about two, maybe three weeks ago or so,
[25:36] I had two things happen. One of my friends is doing a course and it's a wholesale course, it's just
[25:44] something that's, you know, very business-related. But, what I got out of it is the fact that he has
[25:50] other people doing a lot of the work for him, right? That was number one, they got me thinking.
[25:54] Number two, I joined a book club with Business Book Club with some other Amazon Business Friends,
[26:02] and the book that we read was, I then marked by back, by back your time. So, I'm like two chapters
[26:09] into, by back your time, and it just hit me like a ton of bricks. It's like, it was just such an
[26:20] incredible realization that I am nothing but an admin in my own business at this point. And I am
[26:27] working so hard, and I keep saying, you know, it's really, really hard to get past 1.5 mill a year
[26:36] when you were a one person, right? And even hard, I know this stuff is coming home and no longer
[26:43] a prep center, and it's difficult to grow when you're the whole business, like I cannot clone myself,
[26:50] right? And I put in more hours than I already do. So, that is what got me, and literally by the
[26:57] end of the week, that week I was, if I look for a VA, and found a VA, I am paying more than I have
[27:05] ever paid a VA before, but she is also fantastic. Now my challenge is to actually make the time
[27:13] to work with her and train and teach and all of that. So, that's the current challenge. But that is
[27:19] what got me thinking and what got me to change my ways and try to work with someone else again.
[27:27] Yeah, that's awesome. I got to applaud you for, for Roland, you know, give it another shot into
[27:34] because there's too many people out there and they said, ah, I tried it, it didn't work,
[27:39] that's not for me. You know, you know, how many things have we done in life? You know,
[27:44] outside that specific task where we're like, you know what, I'm going to do it again,
[27:49] and do it again, do it again. You're the type of person that it becomes obsessive, right? You have
[27:53] to be obsessive about, you know, getting through these barriers in smashing them. You know, in a lot of
[27:59] its programming, beliefs that we've always carried, habits that we've learned in disciplines or
[28:06] a lack thereof, right? So that means, you know, and I loved how you, you wrapped this around, you know,
[28:14] the discipline aspect or, you know, lack of, right? Yeah, you even, you even mentioned that,
[28:22] you know, the lack of discipline was the tax you paid, right? What was the specific moment you
[28:29] realized? Motivation was garbage and you needed a system, which I love by the way, but I want to hear
[28:34] this. Like, I've always known that discipline is my, if it's the one thing that I lack. I am not
[28:42] disciplined about anything. I have zero discipline. I don't believe in discipline. I don't think
[28:50] I think of myself as such a wild soul that for me, the word discipline triggers me, it makes
[28:57] me want to go the exact opposite, right? Like, how dare you try to discipline me, right?
[29:03] A dream. Yeah. And so discipline is not a thing, but at the same time, I recognize that that is my
[29:13] biggest problem, my biggest fault and the thing that I struggle with all the time. And so I
[29:21] overcome the lack of discipline with pure grit and spite and anything else I can throw at it, right?
[29:32] So I bully myself and doing things, but I don't call you discipline. I call it like, you don't have
[29:38] a choice. I love it. Now, I think a lot of people can resonate with that, what you with what you just said,
[29:48] especially in today's times, today's era, whatever you want to call it, discipline is view with
[29:56] a negative mindset. It is different view. And I'm the same way, right? I grew up most of my life.
[30:02] Just, you know, not caring a whole lot about anything, just going with a flow. And probably in
[30:07] the last five, the six years, I realized, you know, the results of what that produced, you know,
[30:14] and it wasn't until I was exposed to what discipline lifestyle could bring if you do the
[30:20] horror things, if you do the horror things now, you can have it easier life later. So I was told a lot,
[30:26] you know, and you know, having a discipline lifestyle where it's a business or it's in finances or
[30:31] health or whatever those things are, right? And I love your, I love what you share there, because I think
[30:39] so many people can resonate with, you know, be triggered, you know, when it would suit you
[30:45] say discipline, there's like this, you know, we from me, or I agree. Like for me, it's so I only do
[30:53] whatever I feel like whenever I feel like doing it. Like I cannot, I have a calendar. I said my own
[30:59] calendar. I get mad at my own calendar. But the hell is I thinking to go bookkeeping at 10 a.m.
[31:05] on a Thursday? No, I'm not doing it. I am so anti-discipline and I'm not a discipline person, but I
[31:12] have to get to a point where I work with that because the lack of discipline is a massive problem for
[31:21] me. It's, it makes me inconsistent and almost anything I have. So I have an inventory based
[31:29] business that includes purchasing right. I will go two weeks without buying a single thing just
[31:36] because I did not feel like it. And then I will spend two days maxing out every single credit card
[31:44] I own. What does that do to my cash flow, right? It's a disaster, right? Yes, yes, a good. And that
[31:51] is lack of discipline. And there's basically my whole, my whole life story is a story about lack of
[31:58] discipline just because I don't do what I don't feel like doing. And that is a problem. So
[32:05] this is where it would be very helpful for you to tell us how to become more discipline or how to,
[32:14] how to start implementing a little bit more. There is a phrase that I heard, I remember why I heard
[32:20] it actually. But one of the things that really kind of shook me was in a sense of, you know,
[32:28] let's just adopt the principle here of leadership. You can only lead others into the level of
[32:34] discipline in which you live. Right? When I heard that quote by Ben Newman, one of our first calls,
[32:41] I was one of the first opening things. You, you, whether you're a parent, you're an entrepreneur,
[32:47] you're you're leading everybody. You're, you're leading by a bad example or a good example.
[32:53] Right? And so, you know, if you want to lead others into a better version of themselves,
[32:59] you first have to attack that same, that same principle. Right? And so as a parent and as a spouse
[33:07] and or, you know, especially as an entrepreneur, I had to take a gut check. Like, man, I'm really
[33:14] being an example for my kids, for my wife, you know, for people with eyelid and my
[33:20] companies and so forth and the result was no, I wasn't. You know, I, I, I like you, I did a lot of
[33:28] stuff, you know, I like, I feel like working out my beds way too comfortable or I don't feel
[33:33] like a little warehouse today. It's too cold or I feel like dealing with a crap or whatever
[33:39] those feelings are. Right? And one thing I had to learn the hard way, it, it's still what kind of
[33:45] learning is, you know, feelings are fleeting. They come and go, right? And so if we stay disciplined
[33:53] and the things that we know we have to do to its standards, the results that we desire,
[33:59] whether it's financial freedom, it's health, it's relationships, quality of relationships.
[34:05] I, I had to discipline myself and tell myself, okay, if I want this, I have to go through
[34:12] this process, not let dopamine influence on how I show up discipline over dopamine. Right? And so
[34:20] that's a core principle that I've had to live by myself. Am I great at it? No, I mean,
[34:26] what they want to harp on is stop saying I'm not a disciplined person. You are working
[34:31] every day to be more disciplined in your life, right? Yes. Believe it or not, your brain does not
[34:39] have the ability to filter, Chris made a mistake. She didn't mean that she was joking, right?
[34:45] It's always further cementing your beliefs. If you, if your brain does not believe that you're
[34:52] not a disciplined person, cool, she just submitted that. We're not disciplined. We're going to
[34:56] relax, so they all, though, she's thinking we are now we're, we're going to show up differently
[35:01] today. Yeah, and this is proven by science. I mean, this is that like woo woo woo stuff. Yeah,
[35:07] what I thought for a long, sparnal life. On the note of this, or I love what you commented here
[35:14] in your profile, let's get tactical for a moment because you said, you know, people are
[35:19] erasing and refused to troubleshoot, which I fully agree. I'm having a software company and
[35:27] done another thing in my life. I agree. So, teach it for a moment when it comes to troubleshooting,
[35:35] whether it's, you know, you follow a checklist on something, like how do you
[35:41] troubleshoot things in your business and your life or whatever? So, I have never followed a checklist.
[35:48] I also have never read an instruction manual. I have never watched a podcast and full.
[35:53] I have never gone through a course and full. I have never watched a video and full. I just don't have
[35:59] the patience for any of that. I don't read instructions. So, for me, it's all about figuring out by
[36:06] clicking on a clicking around, like clicking on everything. For years, I used to tell people just
[36:12] click on everything. If you break it, I'll pay your 10 bucks. But it's like, it's everything can be figured
[36:19] out. You just need to be obsessive enough and insistent enough persistent enough. And that's my
[36:28] approach to basically everything. Like, it's not a note. It's not the click as the next click.
[36:34] Right? Just to say, it's like, say, all this, not a note. It's not right now.
[36:38] Yeah. So, that is my approach. When it comes to everything, it's just if you're persistent enough,
[36:47] it will happen. Yeah. And when it comes to software, it's all about Google and yet clicking on everything,
[36:55] trying and everything, trying to make a change, a change, right? Or unplug it and start over. So,
[37:01] that is a big part of grit for me. Like, the ability to to travel shoot. It's an
[37:08] absolute necessity these days. Everything we do is software-related. You need to have the ability
[37:16] to travel shoot or to try harder, really. agree. Let's, let's dig in that a little bit. Because I
[37:24] love what you just said there. Because I think that's where a lot of people get hung up on. It
[37:28] is they get hung up on a thing and they just don't have the grit of persistence to keep
[37:34] real and forward. In fact, I don't want to call you safe. You can't Google it. You're dead, right?
[37:41] So, let's elaborate on this. Why do you think entrepreneurs fail at this simple, this very simple
[37:47] step? Just go online and Google it. Or even nowadays, we got chat, you'd be to your AI or disposal.
[37:53] So, why do you think entrepreneurs fail at this? I'm not sure. Is that fear is it
[37:58] lack of self or is it maybe self doubt? Is it lack of their abilities? I'm not sure. Actually,
[38:06] read 20 years ago or so. I read somewhere that being computer illiterate is the new
[38:17] being illiterate. And I actually remember it showing it to my my boss at the time. I'm like,
[38:25] see? But yeah, it's like you have to click around. There's no other option. And there's
[38:35] only gotten more important as time passed. But you cannot, like, I don't know how anyone would live
[38:42] right now without a computer without software without programs without anything. So, I'm not sure
[38:50] why that happens. I hear a lot of two things. Oh, I'm too old to be comfortable with this, which
[38:56] come on. That's just the lazy person's, you know, I don't want to mess with it, right? Or I'm
[39:02] not good with computers. Like, what does that mean? Like, you weren't good with walking till you
[39:09] you, you know, stumbled around till you, right now you seem to be walking fine, right? So,
[39:15] to me, it's just like a cop out for now wanting to mess with it, being, I don't know if it's
[39:21] being lazy or if it's just being not wanting to bother with it, right? It's kind of kind of the
[39:27] same weaponized incompetence that men display when it comes to, I don't know, doing the dishes, right?
[39:35] Right? Like, I actually do dishes in our house, but they do have an airspace, you're saying.
[39:43] Yeah. And you better do them right. I, you know, it's like the same, oh, I don't know how to, you know,
[39:50] I, you leave this spot on the spot just because you're not good at washing pots. Well, then you're
[39:56] going to wash more of them until you get really good at it, right? That's how, yeah, that's how I operate.
[40:02] Like, there's no such thing if you're socket something, then you just need to do a lot more of it
[40:09] to get that right at the same thing with computers. Yeah, that's a great perspective. I'm glad you
[40:14] said that because I think that's where a lot of people do, you know, it's from the degree of lazyness.
[40:20] They're like, oh, I can't do this in a, in a hope of this person. Oh, I'll help you with that. I'll
[40:26] have to figure that out. Oh, let me be for you. Yeah, exactly. I'll take care of that for you, right?
[40:32] Yeah, that's, that's a great perspective. I agree. But in a, yeah, by the way, I do my own dishes or,
[40:39] I hope about it. I promise a lot in the house, but where I do it right or not, you know,
[40:44] I'm sure my wife has a different perspective on that. Have you given me a call? No, no, but yeah,
[40:56] one of the things I hope everybody took away from what you just said is everything is 100%
[41:02] figure outable. 100% especially in the era that we live with AI,
[41:07] Chatchy, BT, Claude, Gemini, whatever tool, Google, you know, every day is 100% figure outable.
[41:14] And if it's not, then you better have the money to pay someone else to figure it out from you,
[41:19] right? Like, you don't have, we're either, we're either poor and resourceful or we are rich,
[41:27] and we are letting someone else to deal with it. You cannot be both, right? Like you cannot be
[41:33] broke and lazy, right? Because that's when you end up putting on their bridge. So it's like,
[41:38] something's going to get from somewhere, right? So I think this is where I, you know, I love to hear
[41:44] your opinion on this, but I'm, I'm a note of that. I have found entrepreneurs who had to be resourceful,
[41:50] had to, they had nothing, right? They didn't have, you know, a solar spoon or a trust fund or
[41:58] whatever they had to be resourceful. They had to be creative. They had to think outside the box
[42:05] and use Google for everything or whatever. I have found in my experience for those entrepreneurs
[42:13] to be successful quicker and to be more resilient because they had to do trial and error.
[42:21] Right? Especially in the front, low versus just spitted money in, you know, I think there's a
[42:27] different set of resilience and grit that's built in that, in that entrepreneur versus some of
[42:31] who didn't have to work for that, you know? Right? You know? So one thing you share in your profile
[42:41] that I love for you to touch on because especially some of who's obsessive,
[42:46] especially if you're somebody who loves to grind and we oftentimes don't always grind on the same thing.
[42:54] Right? So let me, let me elaborate for a moment on this. You share on your bio that you,
[43:00] you lost money on crypto and other types of distractions, which, ha ha, guilty of charge here too.
[43:06] And I think every entrepreneur has to some degree. So talk to the entrepreneur out there who
[43:13] feels like they have to create wealth by chasing all of these different potential income streams
[43:19] out there. You know, what is your kill switch now? Either when I do tool pops up or, you know,
[43:26] anything in nature that can potentially take a distraction away. Do you have a kill switch or
[43:30] how do you tell yourself this? Chris, stay focused. I mean, at this point in, I had forgotten
[43:35] about the crypto situation. That was another thing that happened to me at the same time as the
[43:40] private lab. And it's like, I have these like gigantic losses and it's like six months period
[43:46] that just snowballed. And things that I could have, you know, handled if one by one, but when they
[43:55] all happen at the same time, that was a severe, severe like shovel upside the head. Right? That's what
[44:03] it felt like. So for in the few, you know, it's, I'm one of those people all about squirrels and
[44:10] shiny objects, right? Yeah. So I'm, I'm like, and software is a big thing for me. I pay or have paid
[44:19] for every single piece of software out there. I have my tools monthly bill at one point was $2500 a month.
[44:28] Just on tools. And even if, you know, sometimes I would just get something play with it and then,
[44:38] you know, either move on to something better, bigger, something different, you know, but it's a
[44:42] really big, big thing for me, you know, shiny objects. And I see this all the time. People will
[44:49] hear a podcast and, oh, I'm going to do what they do. Ooh, someone is successful with this one random thing.
[44:57] Oh, let me go get that. It's just a constant, constant thing. And I think it's the way people
[45:04] look at it and put it. I hear, oh, I'm going to start doing what this person is doing. I'm going to
[45:11] move to, I'm going to move to wholesale. The wording should be, I'm going to start adding this to my
[45:19] existing business. I see people taking something they're doing something that works perfectly fine,
[45:26] but shiny objects syndrome. They hear some random personal, some random podcasts talk about how
[45:33] they made money with, you know, crypto. So there's all these people taking all this money they have
[45:39] and putting it, they're going to start doing that now. So what I would do is add on to something that
[45:46] you're currently doing and working. It's lack of focus or switching focus has been such a mess
[45:52] of thing for me. So, you know, Walmart became a big thing. Well, guess who neglected their
[45:56] Amazon business to do, go all in on Walmart and spend two months on Walmart. Well, guess for that
[46:03] tank, my bread and butter business, right? Then started doing this and started doing that. It's like,
[46:08] you know, you have UGC, you have Amazon influencer, you have whatnot, you have all of these things.
[46:15] And these are constant distraction and that we're getting hit with so many. We consume so much
[46:21] information and there's so many shiny objects being dangled in front of us on a daily basis.
[46:30] So I think staying the course and I think I think sitting down and being honest with ourselves,
[46:37] what is my bread and butter? The bread and butter has to be covered. That is my number one priority
[46:43] in life, my bread and butter, right? Yes. From there, if I find something else a different
[46:51] prospect attractive at the moment, that needs to be as an add-on to what I'm currently doing. It needs to be,
[46:59] it requires the add-on effort, not the full blown, you know, bread and butter type effort.
[47:05] That is a very big thing for me and I see people writing all the time. Oh, I am going to
[47:11] start where I'm moving to. I'm switching to. This is this is great because, I mean, I believe
[47:19] this is one of the biggest areas of founders on Trinor's Builders in general.
[47:24] This is where they struggle. It is to your point. They hear, you know, some of the success
[47:30] store in Amazon or I'm sorry, on a podcast or in a community. And they abandoned what there
[47:36] are already doing that. That was working. They just need to put time and focus. And they abandoned
[47:42] that and then, you know, do something else. And before you know what, they've done 15 things and none
[47:47] of them worked. You know, I'm reminded of a quote, I think it was day-any Johnson light, 15 years ago.
[47:54] I may have also, I think it was her. I don't remember it was, but not relevant. But it was a phrase
[47:59] that was say, what you focus will flourish and whatever you do not, will die. Right? That's
[48:05] whole shoot, a relationship, the whole true to anything you apply focus to. If you apply,
[48:10] assess a focus, where's who the one thing you're doing it will flourish beyond, you know,
[48:16] imagination, you know, but you can't do that over 15. Now, even three things, you've got to be
[48:23] obsessive over the one thing, mash your craft, you know, and then, you know, as you bolt that down,
[48:31] then you can potentially add in other things as long as it compliments and doesn't take your focus.
[48:37] I was told in a, in a, in a jokingly way, it's like, Carl, you're focused these were focus.
[48:44] Because, you know, I'm like a lot of people, I see things and it's like, oh my gosh,
[48:51] that was amazing, you know, because you see the results you see what they have achieved.
[48:54] And I'll say, look, and you thought, that was easy, you know, but. Right. I mean, the only thing
[49:00] I see that is doable, if I were to do something else or to add something, I would, you know,
[49:07] ensure the base is solid. And then I someone in teaching, make sure you can hand off certain
[49:14] portions of it and replace that time with the new hobby, right, or the new thing. But like a one-person
[49:24] change in direction or like a massive addition of something else, it's, it's been a point of
[49:30] failure for me. So, talk to all the Chris's out there that are in your shoes or were in your shoes,
[49:39] right, and talk to that Chris out there that struggling were you struggled, you know, that they're,
[49:47] they're still in that three-in, they haven't quite had that wake up call or maybe they are,
[49:53] but they're afraid, right. So, talk to that Chris who's sitting there sitting there, sitting there,
[49:59] or standing there, sweating, anxiety, all this stuff. What do you say this person to cheer them on
[50:07] into to, you know, encourage them to take that next step or what do they do? Well, first of all,
[50:13] ladies don't sweat, but you're right. I'm sorry. That was corrected.
[50:21] But great thing for the bros out there for sure. You know, this Chris is
[50:29] up at three-in and in good times and bad times, right, to the good times is there's going to be bad times
[50:38] and creating a mode, right, to protect us during the bad times should be a priority during the
[50:46] bad, the good times, right. So, when the good times are happening instead of taking unnecessary risks,
[50:56] I mean, I'm all for risks, like I love taking risks. The risk, the risk, the risk,
[51:01] the risk, the risk, the risk, the risk, the risk, the risk, the risk, the risk, the risk,
[51:03] right. And but make sure you have a mode, you have, you have something to fall back on
[51:11] when, you know, if things happen and things will happen. During the bad times, for someone like me,
[51:18] like I know good times will come because there's no other option, right. I have, I don't give
[51:24] myself options. The only option is to succeed, right. Whatever is going to take to get there,
[51:30] I don't know. There might be some blood sweat and tears. It'll be a lot of complaining to my friends,
[51:37] right. They'll be like, one day, be like, oh my God, I just can't do this yet anymore. And then
[51:43] the next is like, yeah, let's do this. We got this, right. So it's a lot of,
[51:50] I think myself up some days, but it's when times are bad, I'm not going to say good times are coming,
[51:56] and you know, keep a positive attitude. I'm not one for positive attitude. I'm one four.
[52:02] We're going to just bitch about it and get it done. That's my approach, right? It works, though.
[52:08] All right. Yeah. Whatever it takes. So, so all about, you know, if something's not working,
[52:13] you just think about it's smarter, you need to work harder, you need to, to, I'm not sure
[52:19] one needs to get done. It just always seems to work out if you work hard enough at it.
[52:24] I agree. Thanks for sharing it. Sure. So as we start to ramp up this amazing conversation,
[52:30] been extremely fun. I hope everybody's not only just getting value, but also, you know,
[52:35] getting some laughs as well. Nice to short. We've got, you know, has some fun here and there.
[52:41] Because grit, you know, looks different in every season, in for every person. I love the
[52:48] here in this season of rebuild that you're in. What is grit looked like for you or what is your
[52:53] definition of grit? Dog with a bone. Dog with a bone. Collaborate on that. I love that but
[53:01] elaborate more on that. It's mine. You're not taking it. And let's take in it. I'm going to hold on to it.
[53:06] I will rip your head off if you try to take it. It's going to happen. It's mine. And that is the
[53:13] definition of grit for me. Yeah, being so determined. Yeah. Awesome. I love that you said,
[53:19] dog with a bone. Because for me, from my life, it was dog with a tire. I chased the tire. But
[53:25] once I got a hold of the tire, I'm like, not what? No, I didn't know what to do with it. Yeah. But so,
[53:32] especially with high achievers and being obsessive and always looking for more, more, more.
[53:39] Right. We always talk about adding habits and plans and processes and strategies and blah, blah, blah,
[53:45] but part of growth also requires subtraction. Right. So I will love to hear, you know, in this season of
[53:52] rebuild that you're in or anywhere in your life, what is one habit, belief or friction point you
[53:59] are actively working to either unlearn or unbelief or just to remove out of your life? We're going
[54:06] back to discipline on this one. Literally, that major, the biggest thing that I am lacking in life is
[54:13] discipline. You know, discipline gives us everything we don't have. Right. Discipline would make me
[54:20] more money. Discipline makes us hotter. Discipline makes us happier. Discipline makes us discipline
[54:26] gives us a lot of stuff. Right. Like if I had the discipline of getting my butt in the gym every day,
[54:32] you know, that would be one thing. If I had the discipline to eat steak and broccoli instead of
[54:37] cheese and chilladas, right? That's discipline. Yeah. If I had the discipline to do my bookkeeping and
[54:45] not have to, you know, push my taxes, you know, to the very last day of the extension. If I had the
[54:52] discipline to do, if I had the discipline, everything would be much better. So discipline is the
[55:00] word of the year from yet. And as much as I loath it, loath it. How dare I tell myself that I cannot
[55:10] do what I want. Right. But discipline is the one thing that would make everything in my life better.
[55:18] Agreed. This is a big area of, you know, basically unlearning, right? Unlearnier, old habits,
[55:25] unlearning, you know, what discipline it means and, right? Yeah. Awesome. You briefly had mentioned this,
[55:32] but, you know, if this, well, I, I'll just kind of dive into it. When the lights go out, you know,
[55:39] when you have those three and wake up, so are you in a trenches and you're finding yourself kind of
[55:42] like in panic mode, what is one quote or directive that you find yourself repeating to yourself
[55:49] to keep moving forward to self-motivator, just kind of like cheer yourself on to keep going.
[55:56] I always figured out, I'm gonna figure this one out too. I always figured it out. I mean, we're here,
[56:02] right? Yes. So that is my, my one thing. Like, I can't doubt myself. I mean, I, I know who I am.
[56:11] I always succeed. Why am I doubting myself? That's just so lame, right? It, yeah, we always make it.
[56:18] I mean, we always make it, right? Think of everything you've overcome in life.
[56:23] Like, you're there, you're look alive, you have a computer, right? You have life on, like,
[56:29] you've made it, right? I mean, you've made it, right? So whatever happens or whatever's happened in
[56:37] the past or when you thought we could have overcome, we always end up overcoming one way or another,
[56:41] right? So that's, that's what I think about, you know, just something else to, you know, get over.
[56:47] Yeah, no, that's perfect. You know, it's, it's merely just collecting evidence of what you've
[56:54] already overcome, right? I agree, well, early. It's ironic and how we, in that moment, we forget
[57:03] momentarily of all the other stuff we've had overcome. You know, it's business ever sees
[57:09] relationship, finance, whatever. Or am I going to remember this particular problem a year from now?
[57:15] Or three years or five years, like, no. A great. One of the other years that I feel, especially
[57:23] working with a lot of amazing people I've worked with, you know, high achievers are often times
[57:29] expert-crick for critics of themselves, right? Bring it on. So this will have this take, like,
[57:34] 60 seconds. We're roughly around there of grace. We're, what is like one mistake or failure or something
[57:43] that happened in, you, you're like, you know what, you know, that happened. I've got to forgive
[57:47] myself for it. So I can move on because oftentimes too many people get wrapped up. They carry this
[57:54] ball and chain of guilt shame that is preventing themselves to move forward. So is there anything
[58:01] to qualify as it, like, you had to finally forgive yourself to so that you can move forward? I don't think
[58:08] of things to that depth. If there's a mistake that I made at some point, it was, I am one of those people
[58:18] with, like, I only, I will always do the right thing and I have my spine as straight as they come,
[58:28] right? So if I made a mistake, it's either, it wasn't an mistake at the time. It's a mistake. It looks
[58:36] like a mistake from now, right? But yeah, you know, hindsight is always 2020, right? So this. Yeah. So
[58:44] if I made a mistake or if I did something, it was the right thing to do at the time. It was,
[58:50] you know, or there was a reason to do that at the time. So I never felt like I had to forgive myself
[58:57] for anything. If I did, it was a matter of survival and you know what, they suck it up and we move on.
[59:03] So I don't psychoanalyze myself to that level or my choices in life. If I did it, it'd be
[59:11] because it was right and then that's kind of how I think about it. You know, whatever it is, we own it.
[59:17] Yeah. No, I love it. Extreme ownership, you know, own it, own it in the process,
[59:23] own it in the results, whether it was good a batter or a different, right? Right, all of it.
[59:27] So before we had hit the record button, I'd ask you, you know, about this chain forward,
[59:33] a chain of iron, you know, going forward, right? So and as we wrap up, there's this final question.
[59:38] It comes into parts. One is, well, this two-part process is I always like to ask the previous
[59:47] case, hey, if you're in my seat, what would you love to know from the next guest? Right?
[59:53] A so far, the questions always fit perfectly. It really truly has. So, you know,
[60:01] my previous guest had this to ask of you. And this is completely anonymous, right? So it's not like
[60:07] they know who the guest, you know, lineup is. It's completely in the dark. You know,
[60:12] who's what, right? So this all revolves, this question revolves in line to lines of discipline.
[60:19] Oh my God. I told you, every single one of them is fit so far. Why are you asking me? I
[60:25] ain't got none. So I'll ask you this the way he asked it. So he, the way he had asked is, how do you
[60:35] get out of your own way to continue your personal growth, to continue your journey of growing?
[60:41] How do you get out of your own way? And or how do you avoid procrastination?
[60:47] I would love the answers to that question because procrastination is the name of my game.
[60:52] I am a master procrastinator. So I do not have the answer to how to avoid procrastination because
[61:00] it's what I do, how I live my life. And sounds like I'm not the only person. I think getting out of
[61:07] my own way for me, it's always about a challenge. So nothing will get me moving faster than a challenge.
[61:16] Or some sort of, you know, and that goes, I guess I think it goes back to grit, not to discipline
[61:22] or anything else. It's just, I want to overcome a challenge. I want to, it's like, I think of this,
[61:29] like a video game, right? That a beatless level, you've got a beat the game, right? So you need to beat
[61:34] the game. And for me, if I can make it about beating the game or beating the level or getting my
[61:41] score just a little bit higher than my previous score, to me, that is, that's all worth it.
[61:46] So if we can gameify the whole concepts somehow, I think that would make us all stop.
[61:55] I mean, if we can turn discipline into a game, I will become the most disciplined person you have ever met.
[62:02] Not a lot of people. I will create a game for this. That's awesome. Yeah. Awesome.
[62:11] Cool. I appreciate you answering that. So all right. So this part too. My next guest, and I can't
[62:18] tell you who it is, but what would you, what would be the question that you will love the
[62:24] next guest? Something that I would never conceive for myself. But have you ever given up on something?
[62:32] And if yes, what made you give up? And a lot of times, that is, you know, when walking away from
[62:42] something is a good choice. That's always interesting to me because I've never known how to walk away
[62:47] from anything like, for me, it's always about try harder, push harder. That's an excellent question.
[62:52] In fact, something similar was asked on the first or second episode. But part of that question was
[63:01] revealed through, or the part of the answer from that question was revealed through a book called
[63:05] Essentialism. And because there was another entrepreneur that will struggling through some
[63:12] you'll sit in a wall, you know, and the question or the question was for hand the same.
[63:18] You know, is this a time do I need to give up? Because in part of the answer was, do you see yourself
[63:25] five years now in this same capacity? You see yourself obtaining this in so forth. And for
[63:32] hand the answer was no. So he had a pivot in that. But anyways, so I kind of do all some of the
[63:37] answer that didn't I, but that was not intentional. But I'm still going to ask that question because
[63:41] it is a good question. Because this is I think we're another, you know, this is another hangout
[63:47] for a lot of people is you know, when do they pivot or give up or what have you, you know,
[63:55] because there's only so much money you could throw at. There's so much time and energy could throw
[63:58] at something before you're like, is this really for me? You know, as we wrap up, you know,
[64:05] is there anything else that we you want to share with the audience or you know, but anything that's
[64:09] on your heart you want to share that we have occurred? No, not necessarily just I'm glad we did this.
[64:15] This is a very been an entrepreneur is a very it can be a very lonely business. There's
[64:23] many other people that are in more networking positions like let's say realtors, right? Like
[64:29] and those people are all about networking. For those of us that there are introverts and whose
[64:36] businesses do not require networking, this is a really lonely business. When you are so lonely,
[64:43] all you hear is the thoughts in your head. And you are basically like, I find myself sometimes like,
[64:51] my brain is eating me alive just because I always hear my own voice, right? And my voice
[64:57] tend to be tends to be rather critical, right? It's like perfection or nothing, right? So I think having
[65:05] a circle and people to give you feedback and to talk to and to hear other voices, I think that is
[65:12] probably a very probably one of the most important things that we can do for ourselves and our
[65:16] businesses. A great, a great whole Harley especially if you're in an environment where you don't
[65:22] lead the house well. Right. And yeah, isolation is one of the biggest, you know, it could it could be
[65:29] as a biggest downfalls for for success because you to your point, you'll allow thoughts to get in
[65:34] your mind you start to hear voice season. We're not talking about the schizophrenia type of voice
[65:38] or just we're talking about other types of voices here. We want to clarify, you know,
[65:42] not that that's a great point and I appreciate you sharing it because oftentimes that can be missed,
[65:47] you know, they're thinking they're something wrong with them if they stay within the four
[65:50] walls of their house or room or whatever and so no, thank you for sharing it.
[65:55] I'm dressing up as you wrap up, I really want to honor you for something before we sign off.
[66:01] In an industry, especially until these times, you know, full of street shots and
[66:08] written landbows and I say, written landbows, I'm obviously seeing you this in a drinking way,
[66:13] but you know, I'm coming from, right? And even post seeing, you know, all these, you know,
[66:19] perceived successes but you came in here and admitted that you built a prison instead of a business,
[66:27] you put the financial hole lack of discipline and the three in panic right on the table for
[66:32] discussion. I truly hope that everybody is listening right now that could resonate,
[66:37] take action on some of the things that you're talking about that we've been talking about,
[66:41] sharing because this is the very definition of the Seenwork, right? It's behind behind the scenes,
[66:48] it's behind the shadows, it's the dark work that nobody sees. They see, you know, the material
[66:55] stuff, they see everything we talk about so far, they don't see, you know, underneath the table,
[67:01] you know, for Iowa saying it. So again, thank you for, you know, respecting their
[67:06] eye-ents and really given them what it really is, what it's really underneath, what's really underneath
[67:12] the covers essentially. So again, thank you for stepping in the arena today. Yeah, thank you.
[67:18] Thank you for having me. Yeah, my pleasure, my owner. Now, I do understand, you know, I'll
[67:23] think you really touched on this, but you're currently documenting this overhaul, right? You
[67:28] know, I don't know if you're doing this live or if you're doing this recorded for listeners,
[67:32] you're sitting right now, you know, the role through a moment right now, and he's a sea,
[67:37] so who actually is digging out wants to see the journey, wants to follow support you.
[67:42] Was the best place for them to follow you or to say thank you or just want to encourage you?
[67:49] Well, I recently started a YouTube channel. It's at Chris lives online. So it's Chris with a
[67:54] sea, but no age. So at CRS lives online because that's me and a same thing on Twitter. Yes,
[68:03] I'm aging myself. No. And it's just Chris being on Facebook. So either one of those should work.
[68:12] If anyone wants to reach out. Awesome. Cool. We'll leak all that in the show notes, all the
[68:18] socials and if you're listening, please go watch to rebuild these kinds of rebuilds, these kinds of
[68:24] authenticity is it's rare, right? So you know, follow the journey, you know, give the
[68:29] encourage and give the support. But don't just be a taker. Also pay that way forward, right? Share
[68:36] your journey, share your moment, your three-year moment because Chris can't be the only one. I can't
[68:43] be the only one to be sharing these. We know there are tons more people out there having their
[68:47] own three-year moments. So, you know, for those out there, you know, just don't be a taker.
[68:52] Be a giver as well. So, again, Chris, thank you so much for stepping in the arena today. It was
[68:58] absolute honor to have you. Thank you. I appreciate you.