1 00:00:00,020 --> 00:00:03,400 Hey, everybody, welcome back to The Parallel Entrepreneur. I'm your host, 2 00:00:03,500 --> 00:00:07,820 Mark Cleveland, and today I'm thrilled to introduce someone who's spent his 3 00:00:07,820 --> 00:00:13,260 entire career connecting people with innovators and inspiring entrepreneurial journeys. 4 00:00:13,760 --> 00:00:18,320 Francisco Gonzalez is the founder and CEO of Fearless Journeys, 5 00:00:18,600 --> 00:00:22,760 a dynamic community for aspiring and ascending entrepreneurs. 6 00:00:23,660 --> 00:00:28,420 He's also the host of the Agents of Innovation podcast, where he shared over 7 00:00:28,420 --> 00:00:35,340 130 captivating conversations with entrepreneurs, philanthropists, and artists since 2015. 8 00:00:35,780 --> 00:00:39,780 Francisco is also the author of The Heart of the American Dream, 9 00:00:40,080 --> 00:00:45,440 which is the sequel to his insightful book, The American Dream is a Terrible Thing to Waste. 10 00:00:45,900 --> 00:00:50,880 As executive director of the Economic Club of Miami and a visiting professor 11 00:00:50,880 --> 00:00:54,560 at Universidad Francisco Maraquin in Guatemala. 12 00:00:55,240 --> 00:00:58,940 Francisco teaches courses on entrepreneurship and innovation, 13 00:00:58,940 --> 00:01:03,020 while also mentoring the next generation of change makers. 14 00:01:03,680 --> 00:01:06,840 Francisco, I'm thrilled to have you here today. 15 00:01:07,620 --> 00:01:11,720 Mark, thank you for having me on your podcast. I really appreciate it. 16 00:01:11,760 --> 00:01:13,620 I remember when you were once on my podcast. 17 00:01:13,920 --> 00:01:19,780 I do too. It felt like yesterday and yet so long ago. So what episode number was that? 18 00:01:20,220 --> 00:01:24,620 I believe it was episode 31 of the Agents of Innovation podcast. 19 00:01:24,800 --> 00:01:28,380 So people can go back. Gosh, I think it was six, seven years ago now. 20 00:01:28,900 --> 00:01:34,640 But it's funny because we talked a lot about you being a parallel entrepreneur. 21 00:01:34,960 --> 00:01:39,080 And in fact, in my first book, you're also the subject of chapter 35. 22 00:01:39,300 --> 00:01:41,760 That is the book, The American Dream is a Terrible Thing to Waste. 23 00:01:41,760 --> 00:01:47,920 And I titled the chapter, Mark Cleveland, a parallel entrepreneur in unparalleled times. 24 00:01:48,120 --> 00:01:51,820 And all of a sudden, now you have a podcast called the parallel entrepreneur. 25 00:01:52,160 --> 00:01:55,600 So it's everything just fits so well. It is so true. 26 00:01:55,760 --> 00:01:59,620 The seeds that get planted in our lives and spring later into fruit, 27 00:01:59,920 --> 00:02:02,580 man, I'm grateful for that experience. 28 00:02:02,880 --> 00:02:06,080 I also have you as a featured innovator in my Fearless Journeys community now. 29 00:02:06,220 --> 00:02:09,180 I know you've come on some of the live sessions we've done and we've connected 30 00:02:09,180 --> 00:02:12,440 each other, both of us with a lot of different people. It's a relationship, 31 00:02:12,760 --> 00:02:17,120 lifelong relationship mindset that does not express itself in transactions. 32 00:02:17,160 --> 00:02:19,500 It expresses itself in love. 33 00:02:19,640 --> 00:02:24,360 I guess my first question for you is what's the very first entrepreneurial thing that you ever did? 34 00:02:25,660 --> 00:02:29,720 My high school best friend, Sean Gross, and I, we grew up in Broward County, 35 00:02:29,900 --> 00:02:33,620 Florida, and he had an idea for us to start an auto detailing business. 36 00:02:34,140 --> 00:02:37,220 Both of us were involved in sports. I played competitive junior tennis. 37 00:02:37,340 --> 00:02:38,340 He played competitive golf. 38 00:02:38,560 --> 00:02:42,600 I worked at a tennis pro shop on the weekends, taught tennis to little kids in the summer. 39 00:02:43,100 --> 00:02:46,560 He was working at Champ Sports in the mall. And on top of that, 40 00:02:46,640 --> 00:02:47,840 we said, let's start something else. 41 00:02:48,000 --> 00:02:52,460 This will pay for our concerts and baseball games that we wanted to go to and things like that. 42 00:02:52,560 --> 00:02:56,140 So it was fun. And yeah, we ended up having about 200 customers over about a 43 00:02:56,140 --> 00:02:58,540 year and a half, some repeat customers too. 44 00:02:58,620 --> 00:03:03,240 And it was very easy to go solicit people when you're 17 years old and ask them 45 00:03:03,240 --> 00:03:04,300 if they need a car detail. 46 00:03:04,760 --> 00:03:09,300 There is almost always an extremely early emergence of your entrepreneurial 47 00:03:09,300 --> 00:03:14,020 spirit. And in your case, you know, it's high school. And then that continues. 48 00:03:14,320 --> 00:03:19,920 Most recently, I'm wanting you to tell the story of what inspired you to start 49 00:03:19,920 --> 00:03:23,140 Fearless Journeys as a community and a business. 50 00:03:23,940 --> 00:03:28,100 Yeah, you know, Mark, from the time I graduated from with my master's degree 51 00:03:28,100 --> 00:03:32,280 in history at the University of Maryland, till for the next 16 years, 52 00:03:32,400 --> 00:03:35,620 I worked at three different organizations, all three were nonprofit organizations 53 00:03:35,620 --> 00:03:36,960 focused on public policy. 54 00:03:37,080 --> 00:03:41,160 And I primarily was in charge of doing the development fundraising operations 55 00:03:41,160 --> 00:03:45,620 for those organizations. And it's very much like business development in a for-profit 56 00:03:45,620 --> 00:03:48,200 organization that translates to a non-profit. 57 00:03:48,440 --> 00:03:50,920 And you're dealing with donors that could be considered customers, 58 00:03:50,920 --> 00:03:52,700 but you're building relationships. 59 00:03:53,080 --> 00:03:58,980 And I always feel like every relationship for me, even though I may be trying 60 00:03:58,980 --> 00:04:00,960 to solicit a donation from someone, 61 00:04:01,160 --> 00:04:04,360 I always just viewed it as a very authentic. We're on the same team. 62 00:04:05,240 --> 00:04:08,740 I'm just employed by the non-profit organization. The donor is just as much 63 00:04:08,740 --> 00:04:11,420 a part of the team because they're the one funding it. 64 00:04:11,600 --> 00:04:14,640 And they're coming to the activities and the events and things like that. 65 00:04:14,780 --> 00:04:15,720 So you get to know these people. 66 00:04:16,100 --> 00:04:19,240 And I have so many friends today from that first organization. 67 00:04:19,460 --> 00:04:23,740 And yet I went on to work for the next organization for nine years and then 68 00:04:23,740 --> 00:04:25,040 another one for four years. 69 00:04:25,200 --> 00:04:26,460 One of the things I started noticing 70 00:04:26,460 --> 00:04:29,360 is I visited with a lot of business owners, a lot of entrepreneurs. 71 00:04:29,580 --> 00:04:33,580 And I just would walk away from learning all these stories of people. 72 00:04:33,580 --> 00:04:36,320 Because first of all, if you're good at sales or fundraising, 73 00:04:36,380 --> 00:04:37,900 you want to get to know your customer, right? 74 00:04:38,280 --> 00:04:42,460 And so I would really ask a lot of questions. And I'm just, I have a very curious 75 00:04:42,460 --> 00:04:44,100 mindset when it comes to other people. 76 00:04:44,420 --> 00:04:48,180 Like, how did you get from here to there? And when I was meeting somebody who 77 00:04:48,180 --> 00:04:51,920 might be a potential donor or was already a supporter of the organization, 78 00:04:51,920 --> 00:04:55,600 I probably was meeting them at their point of success, right? 79 00:04:55,740 --> 00:04:58,400 Like they've already done something notable, right? 80 00:04:58,810 --> 00:05:01,890 And yet, when you meet with them and you start going back, what were they doing 81 00:05:01,890 --> 00:05:06,210 10 years ago, 20 years ago, 30 years ago, their trajectory was not as smooth 82 00:05:06,210 --> 00:05:07,950 and straight as you might imagine. 83 00:05:08,110 --> 00:05:10,750 The journey of a business owner, entrepreneur. 84 00:05:11,010 --> 00:05:14,290 So there was just so many ups and downs and even failures that they had. 85 00:05:14,470 --> 00:05:16,650 And every time I would walk away from one of these conversations, 86 00:05:16,650 --> 00:05:20,470 I would say, gosh, I wish more people could hear that person's story. 87 00:05:20,890 --> 00:05:24,910 And after I probably said that to myself 20 or 30 times after leaving a meeting, 88 00:05:25,050 --> 00:05:29,190 I was in the car and I was turning on a podcast. podcast and a little light bulb went off in my head. 89 00:05:29,290 --> 00:05:32,570 And I thought maybe I can have a podcast and allow these people to tell their 90 00:05:32,570 --> 00:05:35,170 stories. Well, I started that podcast in 2015. 91 00:05:36,290 --> 00:05:39,450 And nine years later, I've had 151 episodes. 92 00:05:39,930 --> 00:05:43,150 2020 happened. I was getting close to 100 episodes. I was thinking at the time, 93 00:05:43,370 --> 00:05:46,330 maybe I should do something to commemorate 100 episodes. 94 00:05:46,690 --> 00:05:49,830 And I had actually been putting blog posts up on every episode as well. 95 00:05:50,010 --> 00:05:52,610 So one of the first things that came to mind was maybe I could write a book. 96 00:05:53,130 --> 00:05:56,510 And that was one of the things that led me then to saying, wouldn't it be cool 97 00:05:56,510 --> 00:05:59,790 if I could connect all these entrepreneurs like Mark Cleveland? 98 00:05:59,950 --> 00:06:01,570 Like, wouldn't it be cool if he could meet? 99 00:06:01,930 --> 00:06:06,250 In fact, I've had a lot of musicians on too. And I introduced you actually in 100 00:06:06,250 --> 00:06:08,630 2020 to a few of the musicians in Nashville. 101 00:06:08,850 --> 00:06:12,570 It was, we all sat down together and talked about the entrepreneurial journey 102 00:06:12,570 --> 00:06:17,730 in Music City from the creative class. I was like the entrepreneur in the room 103 00:06:17,730 --> 00:06:21,690 who couldn't play piano well, and they were all super creative people. 104 00:06:21,830 --> 00:06:25,210 That was a lot of fun. That exercise we did was like the... 105 00:06:25,980 --> 00:06:29,400 Beginning of what Fearless Journeys became to say, what if I could connect these 106 00:06:29,400 --> 00:06:30,660 other entrepreneurs with each other? 107 00:06:30,880 --> 00:06:33,900 And in addition to that, people who are listeners to the podcast, 108 00:06:34,360 --> 00:06:35,880 in addition to just listening, 109 00:06:36,020 --> 00:06:39,580 I said, what if I started a community where the listeners or anybody else that 110 00:06:39,580 --> 00:06:42,580 just happens to come along and could connect with some of these great innovators 111 00:06:42,580 --> 00:06:45,240 I've had on the podcast, and they could all be connecting with each other and 112 00:06:45,240 --> 00:06:47,500 really learning from each other. So that's what we started. 113 00:06:47,640 --> 00:06:51,180 What we set out to do is say, okay, we're going to continue the podcast, 114 00:06:51,240 --> 00:06:55,260 but we'll have these online live leadership sessions every month where we'll 115 00:06:55,260 --> 00:06:59,900 have one of the innovators come on and lead a session on some area of expertise they already have. 116 00:07:00,160 --> 00:07:05,160 And I'm lucky that something like 55 of my previous podcast guests have elected 117 00:07:05,160 --> 00:07:07,440 to become a featured innovator in the Fearless Journeys community. 118 00:07:07,620 --> 00:07:09,660 So very thankful you're one of them as well. 119 00:07:10,140 --> 00:07:14,580 And then also we do a book club. Sometimes they're very focused on entrepreneurship. 120 00:07:14,880 --> 00:07:18,320 Sometimes it's just self-growth type books, mindset type things, 121 00:07:18,480 --> 00:07:20,980 things that really prepare you to be an entrepreneur. 122 00:07:21,300 --> 00:07:24,440 Oftentimes we'll bring the author on one of the live sessions. 123 00:07:24,440 --> 00:07:27,460 So the community has an opportunity to interact with the author. 124 00:07:27,620 --> 00:07:30,140 And if we don't get the author, we'll get somebody either close to the author 125 00:07:30,140 --> 00:07:33,500 or somebody very familiar with the book that we're studying to do it. 126 00:07:33,660 --> 00:07:38,000 In addition, the fun thing, maybe the number one fun thing we do in Fearless 127 00:07:38,000 --> 00:07:40,720 Journeys is we have these great group trips. 128 00:07:40,900 --> 00:07:44,160 And we do somewhere between three to five trips a year now. 129 00:07:44,300 --> 00:07:48,160 We've gone to places like Guatemala, Argentina, Uruguay, Colombia. 130 00:07:48,160 --> 00:07:52,520 We came to Nashville, and we're actually planning some great group trips back 131 00:07:52,520 --> 00:07:54,320 to Guatemala, Dominican Republic. 132 00:07:54,440 --> 00:07:59,420 I've got Norway, Morocco, and the Patagonia on our list for 2025. 133 00:07:59,520 --> 00:08:03,200 So it's going to be great, but we don't just travel together. 134 00:08:03,420 --> 00:08:06,020 I mean, yes, we're going to go visit some great landmarks, eat some great food, 135 00:08:06,140 --> 00:08:08,840 do all the fun things you want to do in Buenos Aires or wherever we go. 136 00:08:09,540 --> 00:08:13,000 But we're going to meet with local entrepreneurs that you could sit across the 137 00:08:13,000 --> 00:08:15,880 table, get inspired by, visit their places of business. 138 00:08:16,080 --> 00:08:19,840 Maybe that place of business is a factory. Maybe it's a coffee farm in Guatemala. 139 00:08:20,100 --> 00:08:24,260 We went to a free trade zone in Uruguay. I mean, just some cool things that 140 00:08:24,260 --> 00:08:29,220 most people would not be able to do on a travel experience, but for fearless journeys. 141 00:08:29,920 --> 00:08:35,060 Yeah. You know, I think the biggest thing to learn is to listen to your customers 142 00:08:35,060 --> 00:08:37,760 or even potential customers and get that feedback. You know, 143 00:08:37,920 --> 00:08:40,160 what is it about what you're offering that they want? 144 00:08:40,300 --> 00:08:43,940 Maybe there's something you're not offering that they want, but they think you can offer it. 145 00:08:44,080 --> 00:08:48,440 They believe you can offer it based on something else and how you might need to shift. 146 00:08:48,700 --> 00:08:54,660 You know, I think we become very wedded quickly to what we think works and what 147 00:08:54,660 --> 00:08:57,040 we think what we're offering is the thing to offer. 148 00:08:57,240 --> 00:09:01,900 But oftentimes, there's sometimes you got to let some things go and focus on 149 00:09:01,900 --> 00:09:06,040 what's actually working. What do you see the parallel entrepreneur doing differently 150 00:09:06,040 --> 00:09:08,100 than a typical entrepreneur? 151 00:09:08,460 --> 00:09:13,940 I think for me, maybe my greatest asset is I'm a great connector of people, 152 00:09:14,120 --> 00:09:16,000 but also I'm a great connector of the dots. 153 00:09:16,200 --> 00:09:21,720 So I think one of the ways a great connector of people could work is it's not 154 00:09:21,720 --> 00:09:27,200 just that, you know, I want Mark Cleveland to meet somebody of interest. 155 00:09:27,200 --> 00:09:31,300 But it's that, hey, Mark can bring this to that person. 156 00:09:31,440 --> 00:09:33,600 This person can bring this to Mark. 157 00:09:33,920 --> 00:09:38,900 Wow, there might be something that might just happen, some magic that might 158 00:09:38,900 --> 00:09:42,480 happen if I can connect those two people. I think that's my strong point. 159 00:09:42,600 --> 00:09:45,100 And that's whether it comes to fearless journeys. 160 00:09:45,560 --> 00:09:47,660 I'm really trying to connect people. 161 00:09:48,620 --> 00:09:53,960 Ideas and particularly with other innovators. And I do that on the sessions. I do that in the trips. 162 00:09:54,060 --> 00:09:58,020 I do that on the podcast. I do that through my books. I do that through teaching. 163 00:09:58,200 --> 00:10:03,800 So always connecting ideas and people. Yeah, your superpower is connecting. I've experienced that. 164 00:10:04,140 --> 00:10:08,000 Communicating, I've experienced that. And you're working with entrepreneurs 165 00:10:08,000 --> 00:10:11,420 who many of them have some of these similar superpowers. 166 00:10:11,620 --> 00:10:15,480 So Francisco, let's pivot for a moment and talk about role models and mentors, 167 00:10:15,840 --> 00:10:18,800 people who inspired your approach to running multiple businesses, 168 00:10:18,800 --> 00:10:21,560 your approach to business in general. 169 00:10:21,700 --> 00:10:26,260 It's a workshop that moves around the globe. I just think it's incredibly important 170 00:10:26,260 --> 00:10:32,540 to just point people to the Fearless Journeys community. I just can't help but endorse it fully. 171 00:10:32,800 --> 00:10:36,440 We'll put links to this podcast so people can find you easily. 172 00:10:36,660 --> 00:10:41,020 Yeah, people can come to fearlessjourneys.org and start getting a little taste 173 00:10:41,020 --> 00:10:43,120 of what it's like. You'll get some of the emails. 174 00:10:43,380 --> 00:10:46,600 For the book club, most people tell me I usually will read one or two of the 175 00:10:46,600 --> 00:10:49,620 books a year, but the rest of them, I'll just follow your weekly summaries. 176 00:10:49,720 --> 00:10:51,600 And that gets me caught up with the book. 177 00:10:51,960 --> 00:10:55,760 Yeah. It's like the cheat sheet, Francisco's cliff notes. I consume them. 178 00:10:55,920 --> 00:11:00,700 I'm wanting to dive into your experience with so many entrepreneurial conversations 179 00:11:00,700 --> 00:11:05,640 to just really highlight what is it that you think is working that's making 180 00:11:05,640 --> 00:11:07,500 parallel entrepreneurs tick. 181 00:11:07,860 --> 00:11:12,440 What are some of the pain points and conversations that you tend to have? 182 00:11:12,620 --> 00:11:16,780 Yeah. You know, it's hard to pick like one or even a couple of people because 183 00:11:16,780 --> 00:11:21,680 I would say kind of people that inspire me are the kind of people I've had on my podcast. 184 00:11:22,100 --> 00:11:26,080 Man, you do one podcast, you do five podcasts, you do 20, 30, 40. 185 00:11:26,480 --> 00:11:29,620 Every time you get off a podcast episode with one of these entrepreneurs, 186 00:11:29,900 --> 00:11:33,480 you're like so inspired. You're like, want to become an entrepreneur herself. 187 00:11:33,800 --> 00:11:36,120 What was cool is then I was getting like. 188 00:11:37,440 --> 00:11:42,420 All this advice from each of them about what to do, what they thought would 189 00:11:42,420 --> 00:11:45,060 be great, you know, strengths, weaknesses, all these sorts of things. 190 00:11:45,480 --> 00:11:49,580 And it's cool. And I'm still getting that advice. And I also feel like that's 191 00:11:49,580 --> 00:11:55,360 a real asset for me that I can, again, like you said, these are not really transactional relationships. 192 00:11:55,400 --> 00:11:57,560 These are, we all want to see each other grow. 193 00:11:57,740 --> 00:12:02,580 So the journey is about building and extending relationships and then creating organizations. 194 00:12:02,620 --> 00:12:06,260 And many of these entrepreneurs dream, they expect that they're going to have 195 00:12:06,260 --> 00:12:11,000 an exit someday. I'm curious, are they seeking advice? Are they giving advice? 196 00:12:11,260 --> 00:12:14,680 What have you heard from your entrepreneurial community that might be nuggets 197 00:12:14,680 --> 00:12:16,180 of wisdom for our listeners? 198 00:12:16,940 --> 00:12:21,400 Yeah, I've had a few. One of them was on one of our online sessions where people 199 00:12:21,400 --> 00:12:24,180 have said they should have exited sooner. 200 00:12:24,400 --> 00:12:26,600 These are people who are running very successful businesses. 201 00:12:26,880 --> 00:12:33,040 And I think the reason they probably didn't actually goes to the title of my new book. 202 00:12:33,200 --> 00:12:36,460 The title of the book is The Heart of the American Dream. And the reason I called 203 00:12:36,460 --> 00:12:41,680 it that is because of the love and the passion that is required to be an entrepreneur. 204 00:12:41,920 --> 00:12:47,300 But when they get to a point of success, they're still so wedded to what ultimately 205 00:12:47,300 --> 00:12:48,920 drove them to start the company. 206 00:12:49,040 --> 00:12:52,600 They can't imagine giving it up. It's like giving up one of your children, right? 207 00:12:52,980 --> 00:12:57,420 And so it's difficult to do. But I talked to so many entrepreneurs where they're 208 00:12:57,420 --> 00:13:02,780 like, man, you know, that one time I thought about exiting and I didn't and I should have. 209 00:13:02,780 --> 00:13:06,400 I find myself to be a committed optimist, 210 00:13:06,680 --> 00:13:11,520 and my friends and parallel entrepreneur companions, they are, 211 00:13:11,780 --> 00:13:18,020 at least in my experience, as you mentioned, wedded to this thing. 212 00:13:18,380 --> 00:13:22,600 And they either think it's worth more than it really is, or they're waiting 213 00:13:22,600 --> 00:13:25,460 for two more years to get it worth what they think it could be worth. 214 00:13:25,460 --> 00:13:30,680 I really find a serious dose of pragmatism is important and good advisors that 215 00:13:30,680 --> 00:13:34,220 can help you see how the market is valuing a company, 216 00:13:34,540 --> 00:13:38,800 whether you're a tuck-in right now or a platform or somebody that's going to 217 00:13:38,800 --> 00:13:43,680 go public, all these different methods of generating wealth for the founder. 218 00:13:43,900 --> 00:13:48,500 And they just don't ever pull the trigger. They're so involved in that identity 219 00:13:48,500 --> 00:13:50,980 of this business has my last name. 220 00:13:50,980 --> 00:13:54,560 In my own experience, we spend a lot of time talking about what's your life 221 00:13:54,560 --> 00:13:59,580 going to be looking like after you exit and trying to imagine what success looks 222 00:13:59,580 --> 00:14:06,180 like in both operating and continuing to control this enterprise and husband 223 00:14:06,180 --> 00:14:08,960 it to some form of a greater level of success. 224 00:14:09,000 --> 00:14:14,220 Or when it's time to hand it off to someone else and go to the bank and say, thanks. 225 00:14:14,220 --> 00:14:17,280 Um i'm but i do i hear 226 00:14:17,280 --> 00:14:21,960 people thinking about holding on for more money or holding on for more something 227 00:14:21,960 --> 00:14:25,980 how much is enough yeah for sure you know what i think there's also something 228 00:14:25,980 --> 00:14:30,840 else i think that's identity too i think they're a little scared to to lose 229 00:14:30,840 --> 00:14:36,080 that part of their identity they are the ceo of x right that they you. 230 00:14:36,720 --> 00:14:42,100 Can't imagine themselves out of. I like to look at a company as if it were your first child. 231 00:14:42,300 --> 00:14:44,940 You learn a lot with that first child. 232 00:14:45,440 --> 00:14:50,860 And then, you know, a couple of years later, it comes along your second. 233 00:14:50,960 --> 00:14:56,040 And if you're blessed, maybe you have a third, you go from playing two-on-one 234 00:14:56,040 --> 00:15:00,620 to playing one-on-one man defense. 235 00:15:00,940 --> 00:15:04,980 And then you go to playing zone and pretty quick, you get to the fourth child 236 00:15:04,980 --> 00:15:07,120 and you're like, all right, I surrender. 237 00:15:07,780 --> 00:15:12,720 Don't kill each other. And all these learning experiences, I think you become a better parent. 238 00:15:13,020 --> 00:15:17,840 Let's say, for example, those are four companies that you've started over that 239 00:15:17,840 --> 00:15:22,260 10-year period. And they're all maturing at different times and have different requirements. 240 00:15:22,800 --> 00:15:28,600 And you don't lose contact or lose the love for the first child when he or she 241 00:15:28,600 --> 00:15:30,860 goes off to college. But you do have to let go. 242 00:15:30,980 --> 00:15:35,180 I'm excited about the idea of saying, look, I love all four of my children and 243 00:15:35,180 --> 00:15:37,980 I love them each and find them each where they are. 244 00:15:38,200 --> 00:15:42,620 And then I give them the resources they need and watch them make mistakes and 245 00:15:42,620 --> 00:15:47,420 grow and then celebrate when it's time for them to move on to the next stage. 246 00:15:47,640 --> 00:15:53,900 And I think if an entrepreneur were to sort of adopt that idea about their company, 247 00:15:53,900 --> 00:15:58,680 as opposed to this is something I'm holding onto for dear life and it's all about me. 248 00:15:59,040 --> 00:16:02,580 I wonder if that can't be a healthy conversation. I think one of the things 249 00:16:02,580 --> 00:16:05,920 I've also found in a recent conversation with one entrepreneur who actually 250 00:16:05,920 --> 00:16:10,420 did exit the company, one concern that many have is what's going to happen, 251 00:16:10,600 --> 00:16:12,640 not just to the actual company. 252 00:16:12,880 --> 00:16:14,780 I mean, they're going to get their pay and they're going to walk away, 253 00:16:14,860 --> 00:16:17,620 but to the people that they left behind that are also still working there. 254 00:16:17,860 --> 00:16:21,200 And then, you know, you come to some agreements, maybe with the person or entity 255 00:16:21,200 --> 00:16:24,200 taking over your company that's buying it from you. 256 00:16:24,820 --> 00:16:28,720 And but you don't know for sure. And also, there's just a lot of pain in those 257 00:16:28,720 --> 00:16:32,440 moments of knowing they're going to let certain people go that you've been close 258 00:16:32,440 --> 00:16:35,940 to over the over the years, because they have some other vision of how they're 259 00:16:35,940 --> 00:16:37,240 going to do something with that company. 260 00:16:37,460 --> 00:16:40,600 So I think there's a lot of pain points. But those are those are good ways to look at it, Mark. 261 00:16:40,740 --> 00:16:43,840 I think I think you're right. You've got to at some point be able to let go 262 00:16:43,840 --> 00:16:46,040 and let that take its course. 263 00:16:46,260 --> 00:16:49,600 And then also where what could you be doing next? Right? Like, 264 00:16:49,760 --> 00:16:53,300 you can be starting a podcast while your kids are off in college. 265 00:16:55,280 --> 00:16:58,080 Sharing knowledge i just feel that like there's so 266 00:16:58,080 --> 00:17:01,260 much fear in these decisions in these discussions 267 00:17:01,260 --> 00:17:06,080 at the employee level the entrepreneur has a certain trepidation with knowing 268 00:17:06,080 --> 00:17:11,900 that that's a responsibility for them and post merger acquisition integration 269 00:17:11,900 --> 00:17:15,840 experiences can be really challenging because it's often not thought through 270 00:17:15,840 --> 00:17:20,500 you do have to address fear people just operate, 271 00:17:20,780 --> 00:17:22,560 I think, from a position of fear. 272 00:17:22,740 --> 00:17:26,820 Speaking for myself, I know that there's been decisions that I've made that 273 00:17:26,820 --> 00:17:31,280 I had the fear factor was just weighed in too heavily. 274 00:17:31,500 --> 00:17:35,940 And I know that's one of the things I love about your community, the fearless journeys. 275 00:17:36,160 --> 00:17:42,320 There's a nugget in there about unlocking potential, unleashing potential everywhere 276 00:17:42,320 --> 00:17:45,120 by eliminating fear. Talk about that. 277 00:17:45,840 --> 00:17:48,860 I think that's one of the biggest things people have. You hit it on the head. 278 00:17:48,980 --> 00:17:55,220 I I mean, and we really named it that because we wanted to embolden people on their own journey. 279 00:17:55,420 --> 00:17:58,480 You know, you've got to be willing to take risk. And one of the questions I've 280 00:17:58,480 --> 00:18:02,300 asked myself many times here is I just said, what's my obstacle? 281 00:18:02,600 --> 00:18:06,640 One. Two, what's the worst that can happen if I do this and it fails? 282 00:18:07,080 --> 00:18:09,420 And usually the worst thing that can happen is not that bad. 283 00:18:09,600 --> 00:18:11,680 You know, when we start to understand... 284 00:18:12,820 --> 00:18:18,220 Fear and what it is and why it's there. It's there because we human beings have 285 00:18:18,220 --> 00:18:20,600 evolved from hundreds of thousands of years of history, 286 00:18:20,720 --> 00:18:28,340 where 95, maybe 98% of the human experience was in survivor mode every day. 287 00:18:28,500 --> 00:18:32,880 We literally had to go out and hunt and kill what we wanted to eat, 288 00:18:33,120 --> 00:18:37,000 maybe defend ourselves from other people or other animals from the weather elements. 289 00:18:37,000 --> 00:18:43,400 So it's ingrained in us and the fear was put there to help us to survive. 290 00:18:44,340 --> 00:18:46,460 So therefore, we then now transition 291 00:18:46,460 --> 00:18:52,120 the concept of fear to things that really are not going to kill us. 292 00:18:52,720 --> 00:18:58,160 We're just afraid because it makes us uncomfortable to do something new, 293 00:18:58,360 --> 00:19:00,860 something that's not in our routines or in our habits. 294 00:19:00,860 --> 00:19:04,880 It's going to be disruptive, whatever you're going to do. So we have fear about 295 00:19:04,880 --> 00:19:09,200 disruption because we want to be, you know, in control. 296 00:19:09,540 --> 00:19:14,980 Yeah. I set a goal for myself at the beginning of 2024 that I would respect 297 00:19:14,980 --> 00:19:24,100 and appreciate the defenses, my wisdom, my little voice, my inner Mark Cleveland, my higher self. 298 00:19:24,280 --> 00:19:29,060 I wouldn't betray myself. I wouldn't live out of fear. And this, 299 00:19:29,180 --> 00:19:31,760 I think, is a conversation we have to have with ourselves all the time, 300 00:19:31,940 --> 00:19:33,520 not just in any one point in time. 301 00:19:33,660 --> 00:19:40,760 But I remember this point in time early this year when I decided I would fear less. 302 00:19:40,920 --> 00:19:44,400 I'm just going to fear less. I'm just going to go act and do the things that 303 00:19:44,400 --> 00:19:47,600 my heart is asking me to invest my passion in. 304 00:19:47,820 --> 00:19:51,320 And doing a podcast is one of those things. So first of all, 305 00:19:51,400 --> 00:19:53,960 I want to comment on two things. I think that's the best way to look at the 306 00:19:53,960 --> 00:19:55,420 word fearless is fearless. 307 00:19:56,360 --> 00:19:59,560 Fear is not going to go away. we're going to have fear. It's a natural instinct. 308 00:19:59,560 --> 00:20:03,660 We're going to have it. It's just how do we react to it? How do we work with it? 309 00:20:04,060 --> 00:20:08,700 Amy Gearhart did an online session about making fear your friend. 310 00:20:09,220 --> 00:20:12,140 And what I actually just told you, I kind of stole from Amy a little bit, 311 00:20:12,200 --> 00:20:14,440 because that's what she was talking about. 312 00:20:14,680 --> 00:20:19,000 But what she added to that was usually the thing you fear is the thing you need 313 00:20:19,000 --> 00:20:24,160 to do, because there's some reason why that feeling is there, 314 00:20:24,180 --> 00:20:27,400 because it's actually something that's telling you what you need to do. 315 00:20:27,600 --> 00:20:32,680 And you need to understand how to, like you said, fear less and kind of lean into that thing. 316 00:20:32,900 --> 00:20:37,140 The other thing I wanted to say is about the podcast, at least five or six years 317 00:20:37,140 --> 00:20:40,080 ago, I literally got rid of cable. I was just tired of the news. 318 00:20:40,420 --> 00:20:42,620 I just felt like there was so much noise in the world. 319 00:20:43,040 --> 00:20:47,480 And there's also so much negativity. But I will say I started listening to more podcasts. 320 00:20:48,460 --> 00:20:53,660 And I have a few that I'm like religiously listened to every day or every week 321 00:20:53,660 --> 00:20:56,640 that I've been listening to for years, because they give me like enough of my 322 00:20:56,640 --> 00:20:59,420 information. And it's like, you know, it's more positive. 323 00:20:59,520 --> 00:21:01,420 I think everything is about what you're adding to your diet, 324 00:21:01,540 --> 00:21:02,580 your intellectual diet. 325 00:21:02,840 --> 00:21:07,480 That's how you're going to see the world. If you're following things on social media or... 326 00:21:08,380 --> 00:21:10,560 On the news that have a lot of 327 00:21:10,560 --> 00:21:13,320 negative vibes, guess what? You're going to have a lot of negative vibes. 328 00:21:13,480 --> 00:21:17,080 So I'm not saying you have to live in fantasy land, like, you know, 329 00:21:17,160 --> 00:21:20,560 but you do need to have some sense of reality. But I think that you need to, 330 00:21:20,820 --> 00:21:25,260 you know, really kind of understand like what you put in is going to be what comes out. 331 00:21:25,800 --> 00:21:30,480 And time is one of the undeniable, most limited resources we have. 332 00:21:30,580 --> 00:21:36,380 So I appreciate books that I read and podcasts that I consume and entertainment. 333 00:21:36,980 --> 00:21:41,880 And the news, as you just mentioned, I've really sort of diminished the amount 334 00:21:41,880 --> 00:21:47,460 of attention I pay to the programming that is headed my way that does not add 335 00:21:47,460 --> 00:21:50,360 to my goals and objectives to be a better human. 336 00:21:50,640 --> 00:21:56,760 And it's pretty easy. You just tune out and instead tune in to wisdom. 337 00:21:57,060 --> 00:22:01,380 And I'm curious, do you have, in your own experience, Francisco, 338 00:22:01,660 --> 00:22:05,500 do you have a spiritual or a mindfulness practice? And how does it help you? 339 00:22:06,480 --> 00:22:09,800 Well, you know, I'm a person of Catholic faith. I go to, I go to mass every 340 00:22:09,800 --> 00:22:13,580 Sunday, but doing that for years and maybe, maybe some, some weeks more if I, if I got a chance. 341 00:22:13,720 --> 00:22:18,040 And I think just personal prayer as well. So I think that is the thing that 342 00:22:18,040 --> 00:22:20,460 grounds me the most is my faith. 343 00:22:20,880 --> 00:22:24,260 It also makes me more optimistic, I think, because no matter what's happening 344 00:22:24,260 --> 00:22:27,440 in the world or things around me, I think when you have, if when you're a person 345 00:22:27,440 --> 00:22:31,840 of faith, you're just, you're going to believe that there is a, there's a bigger story. 346 00:22:32,000 --> 00:22:37,440 There's a guidance that you can turn to that you don't have to have so much worry. 347 00:22:37,540 --> 00:22:42,160 I mean, I think, you know, Jesus said in the gospel somewhere like to his disciples 348 00:22:42,160 --> 00:22:45,560 who were worried all the time about everything, by the way, they're walking 349 00:22:45,560 --> 00:22:47,980 with somebody who they thought was the son of God, and they're still worried 350 00:22:47,980 --> 00:22:50,600 and anxious and have all these concerns, just like everybody else. 351 00:22:50,960 --> 00:22:54,320 And he said, why, why are you worrying so much? The father feeds the birds. 352 00:22:54,980 --> 00:22:57,980 You don't, you don't think he's going to take care of you. And so I think when 353 00:22:57,980 --> 00:23:02,560 you live with that, with that kind of mindset, you just kind of relax, 354 00:23:02,680 --> 00:23:03,940 like things will take care of themselves. 355 00:23:04,180 --> 00:23:09,460 And then I do think, you know, Mark, I think people, again, we are also so disconnected 356 00:23:09,460 --> 00:23:13,080 from nature these days, right? And so we do need to get outside more. 357 00:23:13,460 --> 00:23:19,080 I begin every day after I get up, I eat breakfast, and I take a 30 or 40 minute walk in the morning. 358 00:23:19,240 --> 00:23:22,180 I think getting in touch with nature is one of the things that will really keep 359 00:23:22,180 --> 00:23:24,760 us alive as humans and also grounded as well. 360 00:23:25,580 --> 00:23:29,980 So you do these book reviews as a part of the Fearless Journey community. 361 00:23:29,980 --> 00:23:32,360 I have benefited greatly from that. 362 00:23:32,540 --> 00:23:33,500 Let's talk about the best two 363 00:23:33,500 --> 00:23:37,020 books that you've reviewed and that you've consumed and shared recently. 364 00:23:37,440 --> 00:23:40,420 If I had to boil it down, it's probably this one, The Alchemist. 365 00:23:40,560 --> 00:23:43,580 It's, I think, been published in 80 different languages. 366 00:23:44,000 --> 00:23:48,700 Olo Coelho is the author, and he's a Brazilian author, and it's like 30, 367 00:23:48,800 --> 00:23:52,680 35 years old now, and his book is the most translated by any living author. 368 00:23:52,900 --> 00:23:56,120 I've read it at least five times now. Little did I know, I think it planted 369 00:23:56,120 --> 00:23:58,880 some seeds in my head because two years later, I started Fearless Journeys. 370 00:23:59,080 --> 00:24:02,200 And when I went back about a year later, I said, I want to use that book for 371 00:24:02,200 --> 00:24:05,240 the first book in the book club. And when I reread it, I said, 372 00:24:05,360 --> 00:24:06,720 oh my gosh, this is like me. 373 00:24:06,960 --> 00:24:10,340 This is like Fearless Journeys. Because the whole thing was Santiago, 374 00:24:10,840 --> 00:24:13,880 the boy in the story, he's actually, he's on a physical journey, 375 00:24:14,080 --> 00:24:18,220 but he's on an actual mental journey as well, spiritual journey. 376 00:24:18,880 --> 00:24:22,100 And I'm trying to find his treasure. And at the end of the day, 377 00:24:22,120 --> 00:24:24,380 I don't really want to give the book away, but I would just say like the biggest 378 00:24:24,380 --> 00:24:29,820 lesson is that the journey is what is oftentimes what it's about. 379 00:24:29,980 --> 00:24:32,760 It's not even just about like where we're going. It's about what we're learning 380 00:24:32,760 --> 00:24:37,080 along the journey and all the different people that come in and out of our life 381 00:24:37,080 --> 00:24:42,320 that are part of forming us and part of helping us on that journey. 382 00:24:42,440 --> 00:24:45,680 But there's a refrain in that book that goes something like this. 383 00:24:45,860 --> 00:24:51,480 When you really want something, all the universe will conspire to help you. 384 00:24:51,660 --> 00:24:55,800 And when I was on my journey starting Fearless Journeys, there could not have 385 00:24:55,800 --> 00:25:00,320 been a bigger mantra that came true like a thousand times. 386 00:25:00,380 --> 00:25:04,360 That's the one thing I try to get across with Fearless Journeys is helping people build the mindset. 387 00:25:04,380 --> 00:25:10,460 Because if you really put your mind to it, anything, I mean, it sounds so trite. 388 00:25:11,180 --> 00:25:15,960 Anything is possible. But when you really, I think if you do any kind of spiritual 389 00:25:15,960 --> 00:25:19,900 meditation, anything like that, and you focus and you visualize, 390 00:25:20,120 --> 00:25:22,480 any kind of visualization techniques. 391 00:25:22,700 --> 00:25:26,540 I mean, that will be part of that universe coming along to help you. 392 00:25:26,680 --> 00:25:30,360 So The Alchemist, I think, is an incredible book on so many levels. 393 00:25:30,800 --> 00:25:34,260 It's hard to say the next one, but the next one that I'd say I've read the most 394 00:25:34,260 --> 00:25:36,300 is Atomic Habits by James Clear. 395 00:25:36,540 --> 00:25:41,520 I've used it in some of my classes down in Guatemala to students on entrepreneurship and innovation. 396 00:25:41,820 --> 00:25:46,880 And it's just the process of building and or breaking a habit. 397 00:25:47,340 --> 00:25:51,660 It is truly a process. You're not going to become something different overnight 398 00:25:51,660 --> 00:25:56,340 but i think it comes back to something i said earlier too james clear says if you want, 399 00:25:57,020 --> 00:26:02,460 to build these habits, you first have to identify with the person you want to be. 400 00:26:02,920 --> 00:26:04,740 So if you're not yet a writer or 401 00:26:04,740 --> 00:26:09,880 you're not yet a runner, how can you do something small on a daily basis? 402 00:26:10,280 --> 00:26:13,700 And maybe it's just writing one page of a journal every day. 403 00:26:13,880 --> 00:26:17,380 And then you are now a writer if you do that enough days in a row. 404 00:26:17,540 --> 00:26:21,400 And that one page might become five pages or 10 pages. And now you have a book. 405 00:26:21,680 --> 00:26:26,840 He teaches you so well how to just craft your own identity, and then the habits will follow. 406 00:26:27,040 --> 00:26:32,060 You know, I've seen this question asked a million times, which is more important, 407 00:26:32,200 --> 00:26:34,600 the journey or the destination? 408 00:26:35,880 --> 00:26:38,900 And the answer is the company. 409 00:26:40,860 --> 00:26:47,260 I'm curious about your experience with the companionship and how you've observed 410 00:26:47,260 --> 00:26:49,220 that in your community of entrepreneurs. 411 00:26:50,200 --> 00:26:53,860 Well, what I often like to say is the mantra, So, you know, no one journeys 412 00:26:53,860 --> 00:26:58,840 alone, you know, like be bold, be courageous, go on that journey, 413 00:26:59,020 --> 00:27:00,360 go forward with what you're doing. 414 00:27:00,520 --> 00:27:03,940 But understand that no one, I mean, literally no one that I've ever met that's 415 00:27:03,940 --> 00:27:07,200 successful has ever done anything on their own. 416 00:27:07,480 --> 00:27:10,140 Whatever it is, there's a hundred different ways that people are helped. 417 00:27:10,280 --> 00:27:14,260 So you should look around and who can help you and who can you be helping? 418 00:27:14,580 --> 00:27:19,540 I think everybody should have mentors. Not only are they going to give you advice, 419 00:27:19,540 --> 00:27:23,540 they're going to probably connect you to other people and they're going to give 420 00:27:23,540 --> 00:27:27,340 you some wisdom, but also there are other people you could be helping with in different ways. 421 00:27:27,660 --> 00:27:30,080 And so, you know, everybody's at a different station at their life at different 422 00:27:30,080 --> 00:27:33,760 times, but at each point, you kind of got to look, who could help me? Who could I help? 423 00:27:33,960 --> 00:27:36,360 And by the way, would you help other people? Let me tell you, 424 00:27:36,460 --> 00:27:37,240 that's going to come back. 425 00:27:37,400 --> 00:27:40,460 I don't, I don't do this because I think it's going to come back, 426 00:27:40,480 --> 00:27:42,480 but I don't know how many times it has. 427 00:27:42,600 --> 00:27:45,800 Sometimes you could actually see this connection very directly come back, 428 00:27:45,860 --> 00:27:49,340 but really more than anything I think you see 429 00:27:49,340 --> 00:27:54,240 this person with some real talent with some you know whatever it is that they 430 00:27:54,240 --> 00:27:59,940 have to offer and you want to help them you know bloom it's a two-way relationship 431 00:27:59,940 --> 00:28:04,480 and the mentor mentee I think everybody kind of helps each other so if you could 432 00:28:04,480 --> 00:28:07,460 talk to your younger self what's the first thing you would say. 433 00:28:08,340 --> 00:28:12,800 Every high school person I meet, I usually tell them, Mark, don't go right to college. 434 00:28:13,360 --> 00:28:18,260 At least take a gap year. So many people are in a rush to do the thing they 435 00:28:18,260 --> 00:28:19,120 think they're going to do. 436 00:28:19,360 --> 00:28:22,580 And they should probably get a little bit more experience in the world. 437 00:28:22,840 --> 00:28:25,240 Maybe that means just working a job and saving some money. 438 00:28:25,660 --> 00:28:29,360 Maybe it means going and trying to do something entrepreneurial when you're 18, 19. 439 00:28:29,940 --> 00:28:34,440 Maybe it means traveling the world a little bit. I would actually also say, 440 00:28:34,660 --> 00:28:39,020 go to a place like Guatemala and learn another language. 441 00:28:39,180 --> 00:28:42,860 Spend three to six months away. Learning a second language, and by the way, 442 00:28:42,940 --> 00:28:47,180 a third, fourth, even better, is going to give you such a heads up in the business world. 443 00:28:47,660 --> 00:28:51,400 By going to another country or just traveling a little bit, you will learn a 444 00:28:51,400 --> 00:28:54,140 lot more about yourself and about the world. Those are the things I would tell 445 00:28:54,140 --> 00:28:55,640 myself. Don't go right to college. 446 00:28:55,860 --> 00:28:58,820 Travel more. Travel with a purpose. By the way, Mark, I know your story. 447 00:28:58,940 --> 00:29:01,900 You didn't finish college because you were doing something entrepreneurial. 448 00:29:02,160 --> 00:29:05,920 And, um, and so I think you ended up going back, I think, and getting a degree later. 449 00:29:06,200 --> 00:29:12,880 Yeah. Uh, my experience as a college student was, you know, I thought I was 450 00:29:12,880 --> 00:29:15,360 going to go get a red tie and a blue suit and join IBM. 451 00:29:15,520 --> 00:29:17,500 You know, this is in the Pacific Northwest. 452 00:29:18,200 --> 00:29:23,300 I was going to the university of Oregon and I started my own company just to 453 00:29:23,300 --> 00:29:24,940 try to pay my way through college. 454 00:29:25,160 --> 00:29:29,740 And it, it exploded in the best way. And I just never looked back and I kept 455 00:29:29,740 --> 00:29:35,660 on doing that, started a software company. And your comment about service really anchors me. 456 00:29:35,820 --> 00:29:40,180 I decided to go back to finish what I started and transferred my credits to 457 00:29:40,180 --> 00:29:43,260 Lipscomb University. It was a faith-based university. 458 00:29:43,880 --> 00:29:49,560 And I had this terrific experience of academically studying the Old Testament 459 00:29:49,560 --> 00:29:54,960 and looking at faith through a history or through a leadership lens. 460 00:29:55,220 --> 00:29:59,780 And I had a great time collaborating with the students and learning in that 461 00:29:59,780 --> 00:30:03,220 environment. And I think it anchors me in two things, like you said, 462 00:30:03,400 --> 00:30:05,180 service and lifelong learning. 463 00:30:06,540 --> 00:30:09,900 That is key. We have to be lifelong learners. 464 00:30:10,320 --> 00:30:13,820 Your education doesn't end when you get that degree. This is why business people 465 00:30:13,820 --> 00:30:14,920 go to conferences too, right? 466 00:30:15,380 --> 00:30:17,560 This is why people are joining mastermind communities. I mean, 467 00:30:17,620 --> 00:30:20,900 it's just constantly learning from other people. Yeah, and you can be on the 468 00:30:20,900 --> 00:30:23,500 other side of the world for less than a thousand bucks. 469 00:30:23,760 --> 00:30:29,440 You can, I mean, just the opportunity to, the idea that we can jump in an airplane 470 00:30:29,440 --> 00:30:32,220 and go somewhere and be in a completely different culture. 471 00:30:32,220 --> 00:30:35,280 I learned so much when I was interfacing with 472 00:30:35,280 --> 00:30:38,620 Chinese manufacturers and Taiwanese manufacturers and 473 00:30:38,620 --> 00:30:42,140 different businesses and European manufacturers and 474 00:30:42,140 --> 00:30:49,480 traveling and meeting the different business cultural influences that teach 475 00:30:49,480 --> 00:30:54,900 me how I can interact with people that are not like me and benefit from diversity 476 00:30:54,900 --> 00:31:01,600 of perspective and even learn how to approach relationships in a way that another culture does. 477 00:31:01,600 --> 00:31:05,000 There's a lot of value there you learn 478 00:31:05,000 --> 00:31:08,840 from a diversity of perspectives so that 479 00:31:08,840 --> 00:31:12,260 way you're learning how to interact with all different kinds of people in different 480 00:31:12,260 --> 00:31:16,640 cultures maybe different languages like you got to find out where to eat you 481 00:31:16,640 --> 00:31:19,700 know for the first time how to eat it maybe you don't want to drink the water 482 00:31:19,700 --> 00:31:24,380 because it's not clean how do i get clean water like you've every little problem 483 00:31:24,380 --> 00:31:30,020 solving your problem solving at scale problem solving all day long during your travel experiences. 484 00:31:30,220 --> 00:31:34,500 What are some of the most important skills or traits that you think a parallel 485 00:31:34,500 --> 00:31:35,720 entrepreneur should develop? 486 00:31:37,230 --> 00:31:40,530 Well, especially for parallel entrepreneurs, I don't think this is going to 487 00:31:40,530 --> 00:31:45,170 be a shocking answer. I think time management, more than anything else, blocking time. 488 00:31:45,370 --> 00:31:49,410 I try not to do any calls in the morning because one call distracts me and then 489 00:31:49,410 --> 00:31:52,470 I never get anything done. So I try to keep all my calls to the afternoon. 490 00:31:52,790 --> 00:31:57,470 By the way, the afternoon, your energy is down. At the beginning of the day, 491 00:31:57,590 --> 00:31:59,270 you can do a lot more focus. 492 00:32:00,230 --> 00:32:03,230 Phone calls are great because they bring up your energy and you're talking to people. 493 00:32:03,330 --> 00:32:06,870 But in the morning, they can send you down lots of rabbit holes. Right. 494 00:32:06,950 --> 00:32:09,550 And then it's good to build those habits, like James Clear says, 495 00:32:09,730 --> 00:32:13,230 but it's good to do something adventurous every week, something. 496 00:32:13,390 --> 00:32:15,070 Maybe it's going out with your friends one night. 497 00:32:15,430 --> 00:32:18,410 Maybe it's taking a hike on the weekend. Like just do something different to 498 00:32:18,410 --> 00:32:21,770 make that week a little bit more special so you're not totally caught in your routine. 499 00:32:22,670 --> 00:32:25,730 So what's your North Star, Francisco? 500 00:32:26,130 --> 00:32:31,490 Give me three words that define who you are and how does that relate to your North Star? 501 00:32:32,150 --> 00:32:36,290 Three words that define who I am. I would say, you know, I'm curious, 502 00:32:36,630 --> 00:32:39,170 I'm adventurous, and I'm faithful, consistent. 503 00:32:39,470 --> 00:32:42,950 And yeah, my North Star is Jesus. But I think serving others, 504 00:32:43,150 --> 00:32:46,850 putting, you know, I think that's the idea that probably grounds everything. 505 00:32:46,850 --> 00:32:50,910 By the way, that's the first characteristic I outline in my new book, 506 00:32:51,170 --> 00:32:54,050 The Heart of the American Dream, is that that's the first characteristic of 507 00:32:54,050 --> 00:32:57,230 entrepreneurs, the first characteristic of their heart. 508 00:32:57,390 --> 00:33:02,090 That one thing I've seen from entrepreneurs is how committed they are to serving others. 509 00:33:02,090 --> 00:33:05,630 It's not that they just want to make a buck they're bringing something to the 510 00:33:05,630 --> 00:33:10,290 world that they believe in so much that they want to help other people and in 511 00:33:10,290 --> 00:33:13,190 return people will pay them for it so for me. 512 00:33:14,100 --> 00:33:19,700 In serving others, it's more about connecting them with other innovators in 513 00:33:19,700 --> 00:33:25,440 different parts of the world and really just helping them connect the dots in their own life as well. 514 00:33:26,160 --> 00:33:32,380 I think that my life is a constant thrill-seeking, learning, adventure. 515 00:33:32,620 --> 00:33:36,460 And by nature, I'm pushing myself out of my comfort zone all the time. 516 00:33:36,620 --> 00:33:42,340 And it becomes something that doesn't cause me to be fearful and it becomes 517 00:33:42,340 --> 00:33:44,520 something that I can learn hacks and habits. 518 00:33:44,760 --> 00:33:48,980 So the atomic habits that come with being adventurous. I would just want to 519 00:33:48,980 --> 00:33:51,420 encourage everybody who's thinking about starting a business, 520 00:33:51,640 --> 00:33:56,060 anybody who has a business and is an entrepreneur and wants to press it to the next level, 521 00:33:56,800 --> 00:34:00,720 find the joy in that, find the excitement, get yourself out of your comfort 522 00:34:00,720 --> 00:34:03,040 zone, do something that scares you every day. 523 00:34:03,220 --> 00:34:06,240 And while you're doing that, you are adventurous. 524 00:34:06,740 --> 00:34:09,340 This is an exciting life we lead, right? 525 00:34:10,540 --> 00:34:14,980 By the way, Mark, adventurous is also one of the principles I outlined in the 526 00:34:14,980 --> 00:34:18,040 second book, you know, of the 10 that I identified, because that's what I looked at. 527 00:34:18,140 --> 00:34:20,500 The entrepreneur has an adventurous heart. 528 00:34:20,820 --> 00:34:23,460 Starting a business, let me tell you, is adventurous, right? 529 00:34:23,640 --> 00:34:26,240 But getting yourself out of your comfort zone is an adventure. 530 00:34:26,460 --> 00:34:31,960 Try to inspire your curiosity and try to really take on more adventures every 531 00:34:31,960 --> 00:34:35,140 day that you can. How can that not inspire your team? 532 00:34:35,340 --> 00:34:39,340 And then you got to, you got to accept the fact they're going to make mistakes 533 00:34:39,340 --> 00:34:43,240 along the way and deconstruct those mistakes and figure out what the little 534 00:34:43,240 --> 00:34:48,420 victory is and what you've learned and, and go address, go do it again. 535 00:34:48,700 --> 00:34:51,560 Pick another path when you run into a dead end. 536 00:34:51,660 --> 00:34:55,200 And I mean, how many times have you tried something that didn't work, 537 00:34:55,340 --> 00:34:58,240 but then you tried something later and it worked the second time you did it? 538 00:34:59,050 --> 00:35:01,910 Yeah, no. And sometimes the third, fourth, fifth, right? 539 00:35:02,110 --> 00:35:04,670 I mean, you know, the famous phrase by Thomas Edison, right? 540 00:35:04,810 --> 00:35:07,390 He said something like, you know, somebody said, we've tried this, 541 00:35:07,590 --> 00:35:11,790 sir, 6,000 times. And he said, no, we just, we just figured out 6,000 ways it 542 00:35:11,790 --> 00:35:13,610 doesn't work. Like, let's try something else. 543 00:35:13,830 --> 00:35:17,190 And I think that's the true, like entrepreneur mindset is saying, 544 00:35:17,370 --> 00:35:19,590 in the failure, we learned something. 545 00:35:19,770 --> 00:35:24,030 We learned how not to do something, or we're going to learn how to do something better next time. 546 00:35:24,170 --> 00:35:28,230 And that's what you do. you apply it and you you iterate and you try to do it 547 00:35:28,230 --> 00:35:31,910 again and look sometimes you can run out of money or you can run out of time 548 00:35:31,910 --> 00:35:34,470 like you can't keep doing the same things forever but i think. 549 00:35:35,230 --> 00:35:39,630 Look at everything not as a failure but as a learning experience and as an adventure 550 00:35:39,630 --> 00:35:42,690 you know that sounds like the way to do it well you know we've talked a lot 551 00:35:42,690 --> 00:35:46,790 of about the way it's done the way it gets done easier the way you have more 552 00:35:46,790 --> 00:35:51,170 fun doing it and entrepreneurs are i think not always having fun. 553 00:35:51,410 --> 00:35:55,510 I think there's a stage in your business where you're searching for, 554 00:35:55,650 --> 00:35:57,410 hey, what's fun about this? Where's the joy? 555 00:35:57,990 --> 00:36:02,570 Because it's not easy. And at the same time, you hear people say, 556 00:36:02,830 --> 00:36:07,050 if I find something I love to do and I find joy in it, then I never work a day in my life. 557 00:36:07,190 --> 00:36:11,470 And I find joy in building organizations. I find joy in advising, 558 00:36:11,470 --> 00:36:17,190 being a travel guide in the M&A experience or helping somebody start a company 559 00:36:17,190 --> 00:36:18,930 because I've done a number of times. 560 00:36:18,930 --> 00:36:22,730 And I also find joy in doing wildly different things. 561 00:36:22,930 --> 00:36:29,830 I find synergies from bicycle manufacturing to sock manufacturing to information 562 00:36:29,830 --> 00:36:35,010 services with transportation and logistics to starting a maritime company. 563 00:36:35,150 --> 00:36:37,030 They all made sense to me at the time. 564 00:36:37,290 --> 00:36:41,510 At the same time, I learned something in one industry that I could apply to another. 565 00:36:42,490 --> 00:36:45,850 Not just immediately adjacent lessons, 566 00:36:46,150 --> 00:36:51,890 but basic paradigm shifts that were only available to me because I went out 567 00:36:51,890 --> 00:36:57,610 and learned an entire new industry and didn't spend a career in any one thing. 568 00:36:57,790 --> 00:37:01,910 What is the thing that most entrepreneurs are trying today to do a little bit 569 00:37:01,910 --> 00:37:03,410 more of or a little bit less of? 570 00:37:03,490 --> 00:37:09,270 I think they're trying to delegate a lot more, including to AI. 571 00:37:09,810 --> 00:37:12,670 I think you're seeing so much attention right now and 572 00:37:12,670 --> 00:37:15,510 so much conversation is about what can ai 573 00:37:15,510 --> 00:37:18,290 do for me how can it 10x me 574 00:37:18,290 --> 00:37:21,030 100x me whatever delegating to 575 00:37:21,030 --> 00:37:27,270 either other employees other maybe contractors or uh or or actually ai and it's 576 00:37:27,270 --> 00:37:31,810 all about making your business more efficient more effective and so that's the 577 00:37:31,810 --> 00:37:37,550 number one conversation i see people having right now also hiring in other places 578 00:37:37,550 --> 00:37:39,090 where the labor is less as well. 579 00:37:39,510 --> 00:37:42,610 And that gives those people opportunities to have jobs as well. 580 00:37:42,750 --> 00:37:46,850 But the biggest thing is because if you're concerned about your business and 581 00:37:46,850 --> 00:37:49,970 what it's trying to do for people, you're trying to figure out how you can get 582 00:37:49,970 --> 00:37:53,550 the most out of your resources to make your business more successful, 583 00:37:53,710 --> 00:37:55,570 reach more people, build more customers. 584 00:37:55,830 --> 00:38:01,510 Francisco, what's the question that I should be asking you and I have not? I'm stumped, Mark. 585 00:38:02,310 --> 00:38:06,150 What should you be asking at me that you have not asked me. Well, 586 00:38:06,310 --> 00:38:08,270 you know, let me just put it this way. 587 00:38:08,510 --> 00:38:12,090 We talk a lot about entrepreneurs, even now parallel entrepreneurs. 588 00:38:12,850 --> 00:38:16,190 And so you're talking about people who have done something. 589 00:38:17,240 --> 00:38:21,720 That very few people are doing starting a business. And then the parallel entrepreneur 590 00:38:21,720 --> 00:38:25,100 is doing something that even fewer people are doing, not only starting multiple 591 00:38:25,100 --> 00:38:28,480 businesses, but running sometimes multiple businesses at the same time. 592 00:38:28,720 --> 00:38:30,980 This is the definition of insanity, right? 593 00:38:31,780 --> 00:38:35,020 Like doing all these things. I've heard that before. Yeah. 594 00:38:35,220 --> 00:38:40,320 And so a lot of times when I'm talking to people, and even when I was starting 595 00:38:40,320 --> 00:38:45,860 Fearless Journeys, the original approach was a community for aspiring and ascending entrepreneurs. 596 00:38:45,900 --> 00:38:48,300 I would say that that's not for most people. 597 00:38:48,440 --> 00:38:51,840 But what everybody can do is build an entrepreneur mindset. 598 00:38:52,360 --> 00:38:55,540 And an entrepreneur mindset, that's why I outline in these two books, 599 00:38:55,740 --> 00:38:58,600 these 10 principles of the mind and 10 principles of the heart. 600 00:38:58,920 --> 00:39:02,280 Because if you could model that in whatever you're doing now, 601 00:39:02,420 --> 00:39:06,580 you will be a more valuable person, a more valuable asset to your company, 602 00:39:06,580 --> 00:39:10,140 if you can model these characteristics of the entrepreneur. 603 00:39:10,760 --> 00:39:16,240 And maybe one day that will prepare you and that you'll actually be an entrepreneur 604 00:39:16,240 --> 00:39:18,480 in the sense of starting and running a business. 605 00:39:18,700 --> 00:39:22,500 They are sort of the superheroes in our society if they're able to succeed and 606 00:39:22,500 --> 00:39:24,860 they bring us so many great, they change our lives. 607 00:39:24,980 --> 00:39:28,300 I mean, if we look at the super entrepreneurs, the ones that are on another 608 00:39:28,300 --> 00:39:31,280 level, like the Steve Jobs and the Mark Zuckerbergs and the Elon Musk, 609 00:39:31,400 --> 00:39:34,700 I mean, just look at how those people change the world. Thomas Edison, I mentioned before. 610 00:39:34,900 --> 00:39:36,180 You're only going to work this 611 00:39:36,180 --> 00:39:39,740 hard if your heart is into it and this long and with this much passion. 612 00:39:39,920 --> 00:39:44,160 So even if you don't ever start a business, you could model these characteristics, 613 00:39:44,440 --> 00:39:47,840 make yourself more successful, more capable, more mentally strong. 614 00:39:48,420 --> 00:39:50,840 That's going to carry you through any challenge you have in life, 615 00:39:50,980 --> 00:39:53,860 whether it's in your life, your career, your marriage, like whatever it is. 616 00:39:53,940 --> 00:39:56,980 If you have these kinds of characteristics, you're going to make you a better person. 617 00:39:57,700 --> 00:40:02,080 Well, Francisco, it's a pleasure to have you on my journey. Thank you for being 618 00:40:02,080 --> 00:40:03,840 my companion and I love you. 619 00:40:04,400 --> 00:40:06,660 I love you too, Mark. Thank you. Thanks for joining us.