Speaker 1:
0:26
Welcome to the New Horizons podcast. I'm Brian Curie.
Speaker 2:
0:30
And I'm Shauna Curie, also known as Mr and Mrs Killer B, in virtual reality.
Speaker 1:
0:34
So this podcast is recorded live from the metaverse at the Killer B Studios.
Speaker 2:
0:39
Where real life stories and experiences are shared in a way only the metaverse can offer.
Speaker 1:
0:44
With that, let's go ahead and dive into today's episode. Hey everybody, welcome to the killer b studios. I'm trying to shoot some confetti here, mrs killer b, uh, I guess. First let me ask everybody here throw some confetti tonight if you love to win. If you love to win, throw some confetti like you love winning. Yes, okay, awesome. Yes, me too. Arcane does not like winning, smith kind of he.
Speaker 1:
1:09
There you go, now he's throwing some confetti good soldier does not like one either, so we know we have two out of here that does not like winning but mr soldier, I saw good soldier.
Speaker 2:
1:19
Okay, good, okay, all right. He's saying take it easy.
Speaker 1:
1:22
Mr killer b so, mrs killer b, I want to ask you are you a fan of losing?
Speaker 2:
1:31
oh okay? No, of course not. I don't think anybody is. I don't know anyone who is, but I'm trying to change my verbiage around this because of the book that we read, the gap in the game which we talked about before. He says you're either winning or you're learning. So like basically the idea is that there is no such thing as losing. So I'm trying to think of it kind of in terms like that. But yeah, I hate losing, I hate it okay, so let me.
Speaker 1:
2:00
Let me go back way back when we were dating. Oh, boy, and you came over to our place and we're all like my brothers and all of us were playing volleyball and we were losing. I think you had a part in that, um, so I would say you're probably not a fan of people that want to win all the time either, like we're very competitive, so, yeah, that's a good point, okay.
Speaker 2:
2:27
so what happened, y'all, is that we uh it was during a graduation party or something of the sort and he is one of four boys and we're playing volleyball I'm terrible at all sports, I mean, really, there's not a sport I'm good at, but volleyball I'm kind of especially bad at. And so they were so competitive that Brian didn't, or else I wouldn't be married to him.
Speaker 2:
2:53
but his brothers were so mean to me they were, you know, getting on me when I didn't hit the ball right and all sorts of things they were mean, and so I kind of went home and really seriously questioned whether I wanted to be a part of that family or not and you know, I ended up deciding to, I guess.
Speaker 1:
3:13
but yeah, that's true, I'm not a super big fan of people that are that competitive how many people who hear throw some confetti would say your family's pretty competitive when it comes to sports, or maybe you are, they're okay. I see yvonne, yeah, I know, okay, yeah, I know some of you super rumble people. So, yeah, totally good okay all right.
Speaker 1:
3:31
Well, that's, that's good to know, okay, well, our guest tonight, his name is richard walsh. Now richard is the ceo of sharpen the spear coaching. Let me tell you guys, you know we met, I met richard from pod match and you know I connected people on zoom to kind of see if the hey, let's talk about what, what, what we do here in the metaverse, and see if you're a good fit, richard, like I think we talked for. I mean, I think we were on lease on for probably an hour talking and I was like man, we could have recorded all this. This was a great discussion. This could have been a podcast in itself. But I have to tell you it was cool meeting with Richard because he's the first person that I've got on a Zoom meeting and he had actual spears behind him, like real spears behind him on the wall. So not only that, not only was that scary enough, right, like he's like time, I put the fear of Richard Walsh in you, the CEO of Sharpen the Spear Coaching, in you, the CEO of Sharpen the Spirit Coaching.
Speaker 1:
4:23
He's also the author of Escape the Owner Prison, but he's also a Marine, a boxer. I mean there's a lot behind this guy. So I'm excited to have him out here in a little bit. But he knows what it's like to lose everything. He knows what it's like to lose his business, his home, and even got to the point nearly where his sense of direction he was starting to lose.
Speaker 1:
4:43
So again, he's a Marine, he's a boxer, an entrepreneur that wasn't about to stay down. He hit a hard time but he didn't let that hold him back. He found his way back up and he didn't just rebuild his business there's so much that we're going to probably come out of this conversation but he didn't just rebuild his business. He, he redefined success based on five pillars. See, I can hold up five fingers in here. Wait a minute, there we go, if I don't drop my controller. He five pillars, which I know we'll dive into a little bit later. But uh, enough with that. I want you now. This is Richard's first time. He came in here yesterday, kind of testing the waters in the metaverse, but this is the first time he's ever he's ever experienced anything like that.
Speaker 3:
5:27
So if you guys will let's as we.
Speaker 1:
5:29
Yes, let's bring some. Let's throw some confetti when he comes out. Dina, can you hit the intro music and let's bring out our guest, richard Walsh, to the killer bee studios throw some confetti for Richard Richard Walsh.
Speaker 1:
5:46
I should have brought him some spears in here so he could have thrown them at people. That would have been pretty interesting. Richard, thank you so much for joining us. He's getting all situations. He's getting the controls under control here. Do you use your right joystick, you'll be able to turn and look at it. Just kind of push to your right.
Speaker 3:
6:00
That's fancy.
Speaker 1:
6:02
Yeah, there you go. Richard, thank you so much for joining us tonight.
Speaker 3:
6:07
Great to be here. Thank you guys. Great to see everybody. I really appreciate you guys showing up to listen yeah, we're excited have you ever?
Speaker 1:
6:17
did you ever think you would be doing a podcast as a cartoon character with people around the world?
Speaker 3:
6:24
No, I've been on over 200 podcasts as a guest. I've done 200 as a host. This is the first time. I don't play games. I don't play video games, so I don't do any of that stuff. I played 20 minutes with my son once. He killed me like 30 times in whatever game we were playing, and that was enough for me.
Speaker 4:
6:44
I get it yeah, I lost like 20 times in 20 minutes and yes, so I've learned that your pain a man's got no limits exactly
Speaker 1:
6:55
well, you know, he's actually like. I asked him. I was like are you plugged in? Make sure you're plugged in. He's like yes, and then we were trying to get him back out to the lawn to kind of hang out with you guys before the show and I always tell too much information. But his plug came on, his power cord came unplugged, so he's like hold on just a second. He's like I've got my assistant plugging me back in. So I'm like you've got an assistant plugging you back in. It's a son.
Speaker 1:
7:16
But everybody say hi to Richard's son because we know he could probably hear him right now. He's probably standing there.
Speaker 3:
7:22
So or he left, he could have left. For all I know, he said you're on your own.
Speaker 1:
7:27
You could have said you're on your own, yeah, you can do it, richard, we've had guests on here where, after they got off the headset, their family were showing pictures to them like they were holding like old sneakers in front of their nose and everything during. They can figure them, so you never know what they're doing.
Speaker 3:
7:42
So well, I know I'm facing a wall, so I don't know what can're doing. Yes, I don't.
Speaker 2:
7:47
I know I'm facing a wall, so no one can get in front of me. That's pretty smart. Good strategy there.
Speaker 3:
7:53
Are you?
Speaker 1:
7:54
sitting down or are you standing up?
Speaker 3:
7:55
No, I'm standing up looking at my spears on the wall.
Speaker 1:
7:58
You're standing up too. You're definitely brave.
Speaker 3:
8:04
More energy when you stand, uh more energy when you stand more energy.
Speaker 1:
8:06
Yeah, okay, that's true okay nice, nice well, hey, before we dig in richard, would you take about 30 seconds and just introduce yourself and give us a quick glance of who richard walsh is?
Speaker 3:
8:37
yeah, absolutely so. It's as mr killer b said, I am richard walsh, ceo of sharpen the spirit coaching. I'm a best-selling author of escape the owner prison. I'm a us marine champion boxer. I'm a Mr Killer B said. I am Richard Walsh, ceo of Sharpen the Spirit Coaching. I'm a bestselling author of Escape the Owner Prison. I'm a US Marine champion boxer. I'm a black belt. I'm a podcast host. I'm a speaker. I'm an internationally recognized steel sculptor yeah, I got to throw that in there. I'm a husband and father of six kids who are now in their teens. My oldest is now in the Marine Corps, which is awesome. He is, yeah, and well, yeah, I just I'm really. What I do is I help business owners recover profits they didn't even know were missing. That's kind of, in the grand scheme of things, that's what I do for people. I really turn their and we'll get into more of that, wow, that is so cool.
Speaker 2:
9:23
So I'm sorry, richard, you just haven't done a whole lot in your life have you, you're just a slacker, I'm a slacker, I am a slacker, I've climbed a lot of mountains too.
Speaker 3:
9:33
I forgot about all the mountains I climbed too, like the literal mountains. I've done a lot of those.
Speaker 2:
9:42
I was working my way through all the 14ers in Colorado, so all the 14,000 peaks.
Speaker 3:
9:43
So I've only done 28 of them. But I'm working on it. Oh my goodness.
Speaker 1:
9:45
There's 54. Couldn't find time for video games. Come on, man, kids.
Speaker 3:
9:51
I had six kids in like three and a half years, so if you can picture that too, Wow.
Speaker 2:
9:57
Do you have multiples or you're just kidding?
Speaker 3:
10:01
No, no, really I do so. Right, really I do so. I have like, right now I have a 20, two 19s, two 18s and a 17-year-old. Oh, my goodness gracious.
Speaker 1:
10:10
Wow, I'm an all-or-nothing guy.
Speaker 3:
10:11
I'm a, you know. So, Richard, what are you trying?
Speaker 1:
10:14
to do?
Speaker 4:
10:15
I'm starting to see that, yeah.
Speaker 1:
10:16
Were you trying to climb mountains to get away from it all?
Speaker 3:
10:20
No, I just, you know, mountain climbing was an interesting thing because, well, it's a mountain and they're high, and I have a best friend of mine. We go out each year and we try to bag five, seven mountains, you know, and we had our thing. We talk about now when to lose. Our goal was to always be the first to the top, so, no matter how early we had to get out there, we were not going to be beat by anybody. So we didn't take pictures. We're not looking at the scenery. It is an athletic endeavor and whether it's six hours, eight hours, whatever it took to get the top, we just up and then back down and back to the hotel or wherever we were staying and, uh, recover for a day and do it again, you know.
Speaker 1:
10:57
so, yeah, whoa, I'm a little intense and it's a lot of things I couldn't tell now you see I felt so much safer doing the podcast behind in the headsets yeah, or he would have made you climb a mountain yeah, yeah, like you want to interview me.
Speaker 2:
11:17
Fine, we're going to the top of him.
Speaker 1:
11:18
He talks about it like you said. You were just gonna go like like bag five of them. Is that what you said? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:
11:26
It's just yeah, that's it, we go. The rest of the day you climb. The rest of the day you climb.
Speaker 1:
11:37
See, it's like you talk about it like when I would go pick up leaves or something like that. I'm going to try to get three bags of leaves. Then you're like I'm going to wait until they go back and do it again when you don't live by them.
Speaker 3:
11:44
you know it's like you know, when you like live in a big tourist town, you never go see any of this stuff.
Speaker 4:
11:49
Because you live there.
Speaker 3:
11:50
You can go there anytime. You never go. Mountains are like that too.
Speaker 4:
11:54
If you have to go to the mountain you're going to climb some mountains.
Speaker 2:
12:05
You know if I live there.
Speaker 3:
12:06
Yeah, I get somewhere every weekend and go do one or something or whatever, but when you go there, you got to be, you got to be. You know, make the most of your time right.
Speaker 1:
12:09
That's right, very intentional. Tell us a little bit about your, your boxing and marine background, like what, what? What was first? Were you a marine first or marine first?
Speaker 3:
12:17
marine first and, uh, I another. This is how odd I am. Okay, I did try to enlist when I was 13 in the Marine Corps. I was like 6'180". So I was a big kid. I thought, man, I can go, I'm going in. And the recruiter was pretty cool. I'm sitting there like ready to go, and he looks at me. He says so how old are you? And I go well, I'm 13, but I'm ready to go. And he's like, he gave me some stickers and little books here, man, you take these when you graduate high school. Man, you will get you right in, you know. So yeah, I had to wait four more years I went in when I was 17, turned 17.
Speaker 3:
12:53
I went in the Corps and started that I was a what's called a stinger gunner.
Speaker 3:
12:56
It's a shoulder fire and cool little thing about that you have a three to five second life expectancy after firing. What so like? Yeah, so like. We shoot down, jets right and we're out front lines, we're in front of the troops, so we're the last line of defense before they come in and strafe and do their thing. But it leaves this big smoke trail when you fire at one, so they know right where you're at, so you take out. Then his buddy's gonna be a little angry and they're gonna come over and napalm me or whatever.
Speaker 3:
13:27
So, um yeah, so that was. It was kind of there wasn't a lot of us in the marine corps. Uh, it was something. Maybe there's 200 of us in the whole marine corps kind of elite in that sense but, you could die very fast so the elite elite status was, you know, short-lived, yeah.
Speaker 3:
13:44
So yeah, I did a Marine Corps. That was great. Got out, started boxing. I started boxing, I was working. You know I'm digging holes for a living. You know I'm putting in trench and cable and stuff and then just say I want to box.
Speaker 3:
13:55
You know, I had a friend who boxed big. His name was Dave. He was from England. His real name was Crazy Dave. I, his real name was Crazy Dave. I'm just trying to set the scene here.
Speaker 3:
14:07
Crazy Dave was like 6, about 6'3, 240 pounds, about 10% body fat, could just play with 350 on the bench, just play with it like it's a toy, okay, so I'm like he was a South London kickboxing champion, you know. So I'm with him and I'm like well, dude, I want to box, he goes. Well, come down to the gym. So I went down to the gym. You know I get wrapped up. We get in the ring. I say is this spa a little bit? So, okay, he's just moving, I can't lay a glove on him. Okay, I'm throwing punches, I'm chasing around the ring, can't lay a glove, and he just popped with a jab. He just throws a straight jab, left hand breaks my nose, right, my head pops back. I'm like whoa. And I'm like, so, I'm bleeding. I'm like, okay, I'm okay. So I go back after him still can't lay a glove on him, all right. So he does that stop again. He's kind of leaning back and he goes, pop, and he throws a left hook and now my mouthpiece out of my mouth, out of the ring and across the gym. Okay, and I'm just like whoa. So some little kid ran up with my mouthpiece, like hair on it and stuff, you know like give it back and put it in there. So I finished the round and we got out.
Speaker 3:
15:15
I got the broken nose and I go up to the trainer. I'm like man, I just got to like blow my nose. And he goes no, don't do that. And I blow my nose and you get the two black eyes you know, because you don't want to blow your nose and you break it. So I get to work. We worked at a bar. I was a manager at a bar at that time, right after we got out of the Corps and the general manager said what happened to you? I go, I was sparring with Dave. He goes you can't do that, you can't work here. I go oh, I'm going to get good at this, okay. And that started the whole thing. So I and I went and became a champion, won a bunch of championships all that kind of stuff was really great and and end up with well, just to wrap the story up, I had seven breaks in my nose detached from my face. I had plates and wires on my cheek and above my eye. Kind of put it into the career, okay.
Speaker 3:
16:03
So that was kind of after that happened, that was, you know, it was over time with the nose, but then finally the cheekbone broke, everything else so you know, nerve damage, everything else.
Speaker 2:
16:10
So that ended that and it was a really good thing, because then I got on with my life, because you can become a gym rat, so that sounds like also kind of an expensive hobby then, right?
Speaker 3:
16:26
Well, yeah, to get your face fixed, but you have insurance, we had insurance, you know, so you pay, you know. But uh, the good news was I. I luckily got the the best plastic surgeon in the state oh, wow thanks me, so you can't really tell I'm whether I'm ugly or pretty. But you know my nose is pretty whack. But he put it back on.
Speaker 1:
16:42
Real nice, he did a really good, and here you, here you like, are 20, man, I mean, I'm like, I mean yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, it's you know.
Speaker 3:
16:48
I used to have a perfect beak. It's not so perfect anymore, not so perfect anymore.
Speaker 1:
16:52
So what did you go to? Okay, so, after your your boxing championship career, what did you go into business?
Speaker 3:
16:58
Yeah, so I started the business and I'm doing landscaping right, I'm shoveling rock, I'm doing that kind of stuff. In Arizona we're doing all that kind of stuff. So I started like I was swinging a pick, a pickaxe when I first got out of the Marine Corps digging trench for cable. You had to hand dig everything. It was hard and it was hot out. Five bucks an hour. So if anyone's complaining about their $15 an hour, we were $ hour to do that all day.
Speaker 3:
17:21
And a guy came out from a house and said hey, I got a little side job for you at one of my other houses. Would you be interested? I said, well, yeah, let me take a look. And he had 35 tons of crushed granite on the street. He said I need to move this to the backyard and spread it so I could do that. I'd do that all day, no problem. So I just got my wheelbarrow and shovel. I spent my last 85 bucks before payday, got that Showed up on Saturday, took about 10 hours, got it all done, you know. But here's the beautiful part he comes out and he puts 1,000 bucks in my hand and I'm looking at this $1,000 going man, I did this yesterday for $40.
Speaker 3:
17:57
Okay, working all day. I'm like I know my future. I am going to work for myself. I'm going to get me some side jobs. I mean, one of these a week, one of these a month is about the same thing. I was making, you know, working the whole month. So that really started the journey that became.
Speaker 3:
18:12
I niched that into custom water features, so waterfall streams, ponds, became one of the best in the country and kind of the world. Doing that, scaled that up, began doing steel sculpture. I'm like, well, I think I'd like to add steel sculpture to this. So I don't know how to do it. So I just taught myself how to weld and I started welding and heating and bending and buying hydraulic benders and I created this incredible stuff and it was in Navy Pier in Chicago and all these shows and won an award and I got a commission from the John G Shedd Aquarium to do a big piece on Michigan Avenue and then I got a world-class exhibit at the Garfield Park Conservatory in Chicago. It was the most cutting-edge exhibit in the world on photosynthesis, which is odd. Right, so it's sunlight, it's water, it's sugar and it's air. Right, so you have these things.
Speaker 3:
18:59
So I made all these, you know, sculpture domes, 60-foot canopy trees, that kind of move, and water features and boulders, all under glass, right. So that was pretty cool. Kind of put me on a map, PBS to the documentary and all that Really cool stuff. So I'm doing, I built 1,000 water features. I'm doing all this and then take us up to 08, 09, the big crash kind of comes. Now I'm out making great money. I'm in magazines. I'm in four page spread in Practical Welding Today magazine, a guy who taught himself how to weld. I'm like you want to do an article on me? I just make cool stuff. So they did that. And so all this great stuff is happening and doing all that. But one thing I wasn't doing was paying attention to the business. I'm out winning awards. I'm not getting patted on the back, I'm doing the next great thing. That's what it's really about. It's like, hey, what can I do next to be told I'm great. Okay, and there's a point to why I'm saying this. Okay.
Speaker 3:
19:56
So, AO9 comes down, everybody stops spending money. November 5th 2008,. Day after the election of money. November 5th 2008,. Day after the election. I lost a half million dollars on that day. Okay, I mean, I hung up the phone at the end of the day and I looked at my office manager. I'm like I think this is over and that was the beginning of the cliff and we just kept losing. No one was spending money, no one needed a water feature, any of this kind of stuff, so it was really hard and I've got six kids under four at the time. Okay, so I'm looking like what am I going to do, you know? So I tried a few dumb things, you know, to keep things going because they were giving money away like it's candy right at the time.
Speaker 3:
20:33
So I took some free, free candy money, okay, and that didn't do anything. So I ended up losing the business. I lost my home. We had to relocate, so we moved from Illinois to Wisconsin and I had to start over. And here's the big takeaway for everyone.
Speaker 3:
20:52
I realized I had an epiphany one morning. Again, everything's collapsing around me. I know this is going to be over. We're trying to limp through and get this done.
Speaker 3:
21:00
And I woke up and I started thinking about my kids. You know I'm like okay, well, I really. You know, my kids don't really care what I do. They don't care what kind of house you live in. They don't care how many trucks I have, none of that stuff. All they wanted was me to be around and I couldn't be around, right?
Speaker 3:
21:20
One day my four-year-old is chasing my truck down the driveway, crying because I'm leaving, and I'm watching them in the rear view mirror and I just keep going because I got business to do. You know, I got to take care of things, I got to try to save this. And I said, you know, as I'm laying there in bed literally looking at her going, if I stay on this course, where business is first, it's everything right, my children are going to grow up and have failed marriages, broken relationships, right. They may be good at business, but everything else in their life will be trash right Because of what they saw me do, because more is caught than taught with kids. So it's something it doesn't matter what you tell them, they're only going to do what you do. It's a huge lesson and I'm like.
Speaker 3:
21:58
I got up, I got out of bed, went in the office and said we're done. Today, said, locked it, we're done, went to my construction yard, talked to my guys who had been with me for 10 years Same guys had our last cup of coffee together. Said guys, we're finished, I can't do this anymore, we're done. And that was it. And I literally haven't seen those guys in 15 years.
Speaker 3:
22:17
But I had to do that because my identity had become what I do. Like a lot of guys, especially men, right, we all kind of get into. What's the first question you ask a guy when you meet him? What do you do?
Speaker 2:
22:28
What do?
Speaker 3:
22:29
you do. That's the first thing, right, and I was. If I didn't have a hat or a shirt on that said Rick Rock, it's me, it's I, just I didn't exist. So I literally had a bonfire in my backyard and burned all those uniforms before I moved brand new stuff.
Speaker 1:
22:47
I'm like never. Yeah, richard, how hard was this for you? Because I mean, I mean, going from your background of being, you know, a marine, uh, you know, champion boxer and getting all that, you know recognition for all the steel statues and stuff that you were doing, there's, that's a lot of winning, and it had to be difficult for you to get to that point and say, hey, this needs to stop. Almost kind of like, did it feel like you were calling it quits? Or you were just like, hey, you got to the point where you're like, hey, like you're saying you noticed. I love what you said about the kids. The kids. More is caught than taught, more is caught than taught. Yes, that is so true. How hard was it for you to make that decision at that point?
Speaker 3:
23:27
Well, at that time it was kind of easy. The problem was I was driven for 20 years by my ego. Okay, when we talk about identity, that ego with ego goes with pride, right, those two things. I had that in spades. I mean, I wouldn't accept help from anyone, right. And I had billionaire clients who wanted to help me and give me advice and I wouldn't take it Because what do they know? Okay, they just own professional sports teams and manufacturing plants and you know all this stuff. They literally like some of the richest people in the country. And I'm a water feature builder. Well, you don't build water features. What do you know?
Speaker 3:
24:04
Okay, that's the level of stupid I operated at for 20 years, you know. So I don't operate it. I always tell my kids you have to be who I am, not who I was. Okay, it's a very different place now than where I was then and it's important for people to understand that identity thing is huge, you know. It controls you and it really really takes you in places you don't really want to go and it causes you to make bad decisions. So you got to kind of separate yourself from that. It's a challenge.
Speaker 3:
24:34
So, yes, it was difficult. Here's the thing. Now another you know I'm a little odd, you've heard a few things, but also I'm an all or nothing person. I don't go halfway. I didn't sell some of my equipment and keep the rest so I could do side work and stuff like that and maybe keep going in the transition. Because again I was kind of stupid, okay, but I just I sold everything, packed up, got out, didn't know what I was going to do. I just knew I wasn't going to do that Because the water feature had become who I was and I didn't want to get pulled back into that again. So for me, a lot of soul searching like what I want to do, what can I do, you know, and that kind of started the whole next journey all right.
Speaker 1:
25:16
Well, I'm excited to get into that discussion too. You guys remember you guys. If you guys have any questions or thoughts, to click the kiosk, let us know and we'll definitely bring you up. Mrs killer b, do you have any? Any questions for richard right now, before we go deeper in this conversation?
Speaker 2:
25:30
no, just that. As you were talking about that, it makes sense to me why you had to sell everything and not keep any of that around, because since you go all in, you know, if you had kept that around you probably would have just gone right back into it and then build it back up again to a place. So that makes sense to me and I never really thought about that before. But yeah, I mean, so far your story is just fascinating. I can't wait to hear you know some more.
Speaker 1:
26:11
I have a dear friend that I wish. I hope. Hopefully he'll tune in and listen to this, because I think what you shared about your kids like coming to that realization of looking back and seeing your kids, you know, crying and torn up because what they wanted was just for you to be home. We've got a friend that definitely is like he really feels like the best thing he can do as a father is to make as much money as possible for his family so they don't have to work a day in their life. And like, literally, we looked at his kids when he was there and said what do you want, what do you really want from your dad? And we're like we just want you to be here. And it's like for people to. Sometimes that's hard to get, but it's beautiful that you recognize that, but it's not easy to recognize that, um, it's not, and I, I really, guys, I take that losing everything.
Speaker 3:
26:44
You know you'll hear this from people. I mean I didn't think of this at the time, but looking back, I mean I haven't built a water feature or done a sculpture in 15 years. I haven't touched them. But that losing everything and starting on the whole thing is like the best thing that ever happened, An absolute gift from God, because at that time he gave me a window to see the future. Okay, so I'm looking 20 years down the road, what my kids would be doing or not doing. Right, my real influence. When you're driving for the money, you can do both. Okay, I know we'll be getting to that, you can do both. But when the obsession is, I'm going to make all this money, I'm going to work my tail off for my life so my kids don't have to work. Think about what you're saying. Just think about that concept and how messed up that is.
Speaker 3:
27:28
You literally don't want your children to work okay and I always I kind of take a little biblical approach to this I go god dropped adam in the garden of eden. The garden of eden was perfect, everything perfect. And what did he tell Adam to do? Get to work, okay. Prune these trees. Do this stuff. Like work is like what we're made to do, okay.
Speaker 3:
27:51
It's a good thing, right. Only a laboring man knows true rest. Okay, You've got to really understand that and to think that you don't want your children to ever work. And I get it can be this or that, but that thinking is wrong. You should be. How can I? I don't need to have them swinging a pickaxe their whole life, like I was doing for a long time right.
Speaker 3:
28:11
But I need them to understand the concept of work and productivity. You know how to be a fountain, not a drain, how to give that and do that kind of stuff. And that's what I wanted to teach them. I want to teach them discipline and diligence, right Determination. How do you get through this kind of stuff? You know that's what's going to make them a man and a woman.
Speaker 4:
28:29
That's going to develop their character.
Speaker 2:
28:32
So you got to be careful with that chasing money.
Speaker 3:
28:34
Money's great. It does a lot of things, a lot of good things. I help people keep more of what they make. I want them to be highly profitable because they can help more people, they can make more impact they can create freedom for themselves.
Speaker 3:
28:50
The problem is they chase the money and never get the freedom Right. Escape the owner. Prison is about the prison of work, right? You lock yourself in the cell every day. You know you're doing all this for your family, but you're never at your kids' games. You don't go to your daughter's recital. You're not taking your wife out on date night or your family, but you're never at your kids' games. You don't go to your daughter's recital. You're not taking your wife out on date night, or your husband, whatever that is and for what it's all for them, right, you're doing all this business for them, and they're getting nothing Right, exactly, yeah, so I just get a little passionate about it.
Speaker 3:
29:22
I see it a lot and I just want to free people from that. And it's not difficult. They just need the right tutelage. If you will.
Speaker 1:
29:27
Yes, and I love that you're passionate about that, because we're in a definitely even in today's world, it's something that's so needed is for people to realize that's not the only way. It really isn't, it's not the only and it's not the best way. We do have a question. Let's bring up good soldier. Good soldier, let's go and bring up the mic for good soldier before we go deeper in this conversation. Good soldier, welcome to the killer B studios I think he's getting himself out of a party and welcome to the studios, good soldier.
Speaker 5:
29:57
Well, hello, can you hear me? Yes we, yes, we got you, we hear you. Excellent, through a comedy of eras, I actually met one of the richest people on the East Coast and he invited me to his home. His home was gorgeous. He went upstairs and he showed me his bedroom. His bedroom actually is on a turntable, so when he goes to bed at night, he sees the sun set. When he wakes up in the morning, he sees the sun set.
Speaker 4:
30:26
When he wakes up in the morning he sees the sunrise um. The guy is mega wealthy.
Speaker 5:
30:29
So one day he invited me to his birthday party. So I show up at his birthday party and I got the crappiest car there and I go in. There's a chef carving a primal steak, you know with the filet mignon, and you know it's got all the accoutrements and servants. So I meet his kids and his kids are adults. They cursed to their father's face and told me flat out that they hated him. And I said well, wait a minute, I'm one of your father's friends. I think he's pretty cool. Why do you hate your father? They said go and ask him. The daughter said to me you want me to make up with my dad because he's your friend? And I said yes, I'd love it if you'd make up. Just go over and talk to him. Say happy birthday. She said I'll tell you what. You go over and ask him my birthday. He knows my birthday. I'll say happy birthday to him.
Speaker 2:
31:30
Oh no.
Speaker 5:
31:31
He doesn't know his daughter's birthday. They told me they didn't even know who their father was. They would cry when he would come to the house because he was a stranger. He worked three jobs. He was worth millions, but what good was it? And that was the last conversation we had. He moved to Florida now.
Speaker 5:
31:57
I called him a couple months ago and also he's in his 80s now and he said Alzheimer's taken him because he didn't even know who it was and but wow, I mean all that money and you lose your kids you know, yeah, that's sad yeah, it is so. Yes, when richard was talking about that, it brought that back to my memory. It's like I learned that lesson a long time ago. Money isn't the answer to everything. I think having the family and having the love of your wife and your kids. So if you ask me if I'm a success, Richard, I'll tell you yes, because I have Jesus Christ and my wife.
Speaker 3:
32:39
Love it. That's beautiful, good soldier.
Speaker 2:
32:41
Thanks for sharing. That's beautiful, good soldier. Thanks for sharing.
Speaker 3:
32:43
You know, when people see that right, they see that at that level, right, all the money, all this stuff and it is the children are very different Than the father. You know what do they see? Or they're turning away from that and they tend to really go the 180. They're going to be nothing like him. So they're going to go the opposite. And that's In our country, in the? U. They're going to be nothing like him, so they're going to go the opposite. And and that's in our country, in the U S alone.
Speaker 3:
33:07
I mean, you're talking, fatherlessness is a plague on our country. Okay, so it is the number one. The number one biggest problem we have in the country is and? And that man was those. Those kids were fatherless, with a wealthy man who owned the house, everything, who was there I'm air quoting there, right, but he wasn't there, right, no time, no interest, anything like that. So what I did, our big thing was and I knew this before we even lost everything but my intention was to homeschool our kids all the way through, like well, we're not going to do the public school thing and all that, kind, we're going to do all that. I'm like, well, we're not going to do the public school thing and all that kind of. We're going to do all that. So, part of this transformation, what I'm going to do, whatever I was going to do, I'm like I have to be available for that. Now my one caveat everybody, I teach gym and art. Okay, so I'm PE and art. My wife does all the hard subjects.
Speaker 2:
33:59
Okay so.
Speaker 3:
34:00
I'm just. I'm just saying but we're doing it at home and we brought our kids all the way through and stuff. But my goal was, if my wife called me at 11 am and said I need you home for whatever, can I be there in 15 minutes? That was like my litmus test. So whatever I'm going to do, I'm going to have to make it so I can do that. So I'm not owned by the business, I don't have to open it. I don't have to open it. I don't have to close it. Other people are doing the work. That was my general idea, right? Didn't know exactly how to do that, but knew that was the premise behind making it all happen. And I did that. So I started training. I'm a fitness guy and trainer and all that stuff. So I said, well, for now I'll just go work at Anytime Fitness, I'll go be a trainer. They need a trainer. So I went there. They didn't have a program. I built a program because I'm really good at it, created this.
Speaker 3:
34:48
Now, all of a sudden, I've got you know, I've got the well, I'm trainer of the year, I'm trainer of the year for Anytime Fitness. I'm like oh, so I'm an entrepreneur. So you know and did that, got trainers, did all that, scaled that up. It was really great, a lot of fun, created these unique programs, all body weight and stuff, and really good, did that for a number of years Again, having the availability, was able to be around my kids, help them do all this stuff. Then moved into a construction business right, doing roofing, sliding windows. Did that again all subcontractors, construction business right, doing roofing, sliding windows. Did that Again all subcontractors, other people right, I've maintained my freedom, scaled that as well.
Speaker 3:
35:29
And then from there people started asking me well, how did you go from all of that to nothing to this again? So I said, well, what are you doing? And I would help them and I would see. And the whole point was I started seeing these patterns. They're all doing the same wrong things. Every business I work with I go well, you don't want to do that, we want to do this. And I started helping them and I'm like you know I'm going to write a book. You know I think I'm going to weave my story in this book. I think I got this cool story and how to help these guys with some basics and everything else.
Speaker 3:
36:00
I did Escape the Owner, prison, everything else. I did Escape the Owner Prison. It became a bestseller. And then I'm like I'm a really good trainer, I'm a really good coach, I get results on everything, so that really more. I built an academy around my book, started coaching people. That took a couple iterations. We went through a few different things and we're at Sharpen the Spirit Coaching now and I've been helping. My goal is to help 10,000 business owners create profit, freedom and impact in their business. Because I started seeing it, I'm like, well, now I kind of laugh. I go oh look, you're doing all the right wrong things.
Speaker 2:
36:33
I know exactly how to help you.
Speaker 3:
36:34
This is easy, this is really cool, so yeah, so that was kind of the transformation going through that point, you know, and raising my kids, being there for them, watching them develop, you know, at all these different stages.
Speaker 1:
36:52
And it's just. It's an amazing thing. That's awesome it is. I know Mrs Kilder BME were able to like we made a decision. I think it was in 20,. Was it 2010 when we made that decision, or?
Speaker 4:
37:00
No, it wasn't 2010.
Speaker 1:
37:01
It was 2013, when you started homeschooling right I think it was 12, but yeah somewhere around there we started homeschooling. Now, I wasn't a gym teacher, or like.
Speaker 1:
37:11
I guess I was the principal yeah, and maybe a music teacher, a little bit maybe, but very little until later, like I'd say yeah, but uh, but yeah, it definitely has has been huge for us being an entrepreneur and running our own business. But even now, even some things that you said at the beginning, which I'm like I'm going to have to reach out to Richard later. I'm going to have to get this book too, because we're going through we've been in business since 2010. And that's why I loved having you on here too, because, as a business owner, I can relate to the things you're saying.
Speaker 1:
37:44
Even when you said at the very beginning you weren't paying attention to what was going on in the business, you were doing all these things, and me and Mrs Killer Bee have recently had conversations about even our own business. With the changes happening with all the things you know, with tariffs and all that stuff. Like we got clients that's in other countries that we work with and we're losing some of those clients, which is changing things. And I'm like when I started looking at profit margins, I'm like I don't like looking at that stuff because it's just not something that excites me. But now I'm learning, like I have been not been paying attention to things I need to be paying more attention to. So I'm getting into those things, learning like I have to be paying attention to those things, and there's changes happening. But to hear you you share that and hear what you're doing and what your passion is too, it's like that's another thing.
Speaker 1:
38:28
Even my son said I was like we gotta get the profit margins up to this, and he's like look, you've got to always remember that also. Yes, you're gonna do that, but god's gonna give you, god's gonna help you. Like you, you see it, and he's encouraging me too and I'm like that's great at a 20, you know, getting ready to turn 21, that he's got that kind of head on his shoulders to be thinking of that. But I want to kind of like, so I'm definitely gonna pick your brains more, richard, like I'll. I definitely believe this is a god connection here. But I want to rewind just a little bit back to your book for just a second, because I know some people came in a little bit later and I want to make sure we're clear here too. On the book escape the owner prison escape. Yeah, it's escape the owner prison, right, correct. So which I thought when I was reading that on your profile I. I guess where can we get that book? Is that on like Amazon, or?
Speaker 3:
39:19
Amazon. Go to Amazon, you can find it. So, dominate the book world. Where else would it be?
Speaker 1:
39:25
That's right when else? That phrase owner prison, I think is so powerful that I would like you to take a little bit more time just to kind of help explain that to us again, so we kind of can really let that sink in. What do you mean by owner prison?
Speaker 3:
39:44
Yeah, it's really interesting, you know, because when you write a book, okay, like, write my book is really easy, okay, the title okay, harder than the whole thing, I had 27 working titles okay for my book and I'm like, okay, and I guess editor and I'm writing and she's, you know, doing her thing and and I'm like, okay, and I guess editor and I'm writing and she's doing her thing and and I'm like I don't like any of them. So I'm at a track meet one day my kid, my couple, my kids were on track and with a friend of mine who's a big business owner, right manufacturing all this stuff. And I look at him, I go his name was triangle Troy. I got an, I got a new title. He goes give it to me and I go escape the owner prison. And he just looked at me and went that resonates Right. And I went, done, that's it, that's the name of the book. Then I had to come up with a subtitle which was harder than the title.
Speaker 2:
40:33
Yeah, subtitles are hard.
Speaker 3:
40:35
Oh, they're brutal. So I'm thinking of this I've got this, this and I got this editor. And if you have a really good editor, just give you a little inside baseball stuff. An editor doesn't write your book, they don't change things. What they literally do is like put the comma where it belongs, okay, they'll move one word from this part of the sentence to another part of the sentence. And it's amazing. They like do these little things like I never. And then so I had this subtitle. I'm trying, I'm like it's kind of theirs, and she goes well, just take those two words out. And I'm like, oh, the contractor's new way to scale, regain control and fast track growth while living life. I go, it's perfect, that was it. She removed like two words. I go you're a genius, you're worth every penny. That's good.
Speaker 2:
41:18
Okay.
Speaker 3:
41:19
So and this is again how weird I am so we get down with a book and we knock it out pretty fast and I printed up cause I'm just all her corrections. I printed up the entire manuscript with all her red marks. I go, I just want to see how many mistakes I made. And I'm like, oh, look, one comma on this page, one comma. That's all she had to do. So I'm like, going through my whole book like oh look, only two words.
Speaker 3:
41:42
You know I mean, that's kind of the oddity I am. You know that's good.
Speaker 3:
41:46
But they're so, they're just awesome, so they really help you make this book happen. So the whole reason I wanted to do it was, again, I see these patterns in every business I'm talking to. They're all doing the same wrong things. So, and they're very foundational, basic things that when you read them you go well, who doesn't do this? Oh, that'd be everybody. Okay, everybody doesn't do this stuff, so I like.
Speaker 3:
42:09
But when you see it in black and white and you see it applied it's all practical application inside the book, and I use client stories and past client stories and why it works, why it doesn't, you really grab a hold of it and now you can run with that, right. So it's kind of a habakkuk 2-2. Right? Write it down plain on tablets so you can pick it up and run. You want that vision on the tablets, right? So you want people to have something simple that they can see and do and then see a result.
Speaker 3:
42:37
Right, people get a little too esoteric. They talk too much. Everyone wants to talk about leadership and I'll go, I want to talk about doing'll go. I want to talk about doing things. I don't want to talk about doing things, I want to do things. So I became like the results coach right. So I really kind of get all this stuff done and I want to make things change. So the book was real pivotal in that. Being an author, of course, is credibility. It's a great thing. People are like, oh well, you're a person of authority and it's a bestseller status. I was a bestseller in like 10 categories on Amazon and all that stuff, so it was really great. But then it's what's the next thing?
Speaker 3:
43:13
Because I'm kind of big on that too.
Speaker 4:
43:14
I'm like you can't just sit on a book so yes, we've got a couple of books.
Speaker 3:
43:18
now we have academies. I'm coaching, we're doing amazing things. You know where you could kind of codify everything? Like put this down here and again if you think about writing a book, there's no better business card. I can hand you a business card. I can hand you my book. What do you think is going to make more impact?
Speaker 3:
43:43
Yeah, true, my picture's on it like okay, you know, I mean the business card is going to go through the washing machine. They're never going to see it again. Right, the book? Okay, it may just sit on the front seat of their car, but at least it's there, my name is staring at them.
Speaker 2:
43:56
It's a lot harder to throw away a book.
Speaker 1:
43:59
That's right. If that goes in the washing machine, you're going to know.
Speaker 3:
44:03
Exactly, the book is a gift. The business card is obnoxious. Okay, what, what do you want?
Speaker 1:
44:08
That's good. Well, I definitely want to talk about because I think it is in your book is that where you kind of cover your five pillars, because I was reading about your five pillars a little bit as well.
Speaker 3:
44:17
Yeah, so that was a little bit in there. Because it's important, it's called the five F's as in Frank. Okay, so it's faith, it's family, it's finances, it's fitness and it's friendships.
Speaker 3:
44:29
Those are the five pillars okay, and his friendships. Those are the five pillars okay, and they're in that order for a reason Faith, god is first, above all, above family, above wife, above everything. Right, god is first. Faith is really important to me now. Not, it wasn't. You know, when I was growing my first business and everything else, I was what you call a Sino. I was. You know what a Sino is? A Christian in name only, okay.
Speaker 1:
44:52
You go to church.
Speaker 3:
44:54
You go to church, do your thing, drop some money on the plate, whatever you maybe, do your tithing and you leave, and Monday you're back in the world doing the world things. Until next.
Speaker 4:
45:02
Sunday.
Speaker 3:
45:03
Or maybe you'll pop in Wednesday night for that service once in a while. Right, that's a Sino. You don't know the Lord, You're not truly saved, You're not going through the sanctification process, you don't spend time in the Word, you just Sunday's. Enough, that hour and a half on Sunday's, enough for you. You know, and you and God are good. You think, Okay, that's a CNO, that's what I was for a long time and then I realized that's not how it works.
Speaker 3:
45:26
But that whole process of really understanding, like, what's important who you're serving, that's the faith part. Right, so do all things as unto the Lord, right in Colossians. But once you get that, like again, that's a rudder for the ship right, that keeps really on track. So understand that. And then it goes family, Family's next right. And in the family there is an order as well. It's, in my case, my wife, then my children okay, it's not the children and then your spouse. And if it looks, if it works that way at your house, you might want to think about this. Okay, If I'm having a conversation with my wife and one of my kids runs up, dad, dad, dad, dad, dad, I'm like whoa, whoa, hold on, I'm talking with your mother. Okay, you can ask just wait a second, we finish this. We'll get to you, Because I'm not raising little tyrants, okay, who think they can just come up and get everyone's attention.
Speaker 3:
46:24
That was really important and what I'm really doing is teaching them how to respect their wives or husbands when they get older. How is this really going to work? You know where's the importance of this relationship and why does it matter. So that's a big thing. On the family thing, right, and that's why I did the things I did, I came just for a little quick backstory. I didn't come from a great we'll call it, not a great family. A lot of abuse, a lot of things, right, A lot of things that I knew I didn't want to do to my family. So I had to make a very, very deliberate 180 on everything I do. Okay, I mean my you know, my very abusive that kind of stuff. So and this isn't some contest or scorecard but we were able to raise all six of these kids homeschooling, everything else never had to lay a hand on them in discipline, Okay.
Speaker 4:
47:12
We have ways to discipline them, you know.
Speaker 3:
47:14
But I will give one caveat. I do tell them this one thing it's never off the table, okay, so you know, we've never had to do it, but I'm not afraid to do it. Okay, I got skills. Okay, and I'll take care of you. So, even at 18 and 19, they still know. Okay, so I train daily to stay dangerous. Okay, it's important, but those kind of things that we really, you know, we had to understand. So I had to make this very conscious effort to raise a family and try to get like quality children.
Speaker 4:
47:47
You know, like you know do they love the Lord?
Speaker 3:
47:49
Do they have a work ethic? You know what you know. Do they love the Lord? Do they have a work ethic? You know what is their character like. Do they have the discipline inside them? And so it's quite an effort, but it's very intentional, right.
Speaker 3:
47:59
So, from there we go to finances. That's your third F, finances. Here's the thing Again. I'm making all this money early on, 20 years. I mean, I'm a seven-figure guy, man, multiple seven-figure. I'm doing all this and then I lost it all, like in a day. Like how does that happen? Okay, you know how it happens. You don't pay attention to money. So I'll give you this little takeaway Anything you don't pay attention to tends to go away. Don't pay attention to your spouse she or he may go away. Don't pay attention to your friends They'll go away. Don't pay attention to your money, it will go away. It's actually called Parkinson's law. Okay, if your money doesn't have a plan, if it doesn't have an actual place to go 10% here, 5% there go, invest in this, buy whatever. It will evaporate, it'll just be gone. You won't know where it went.
Speaker 3:
48:52
You know, if I came up to you and said, hey, here's a hundred bucks. You're just a great guy, you put that in your pocket, you go out with your wife or your friend, you go have lunch and today. So you're like, didn't I have a hundred?
Speaker 2:
49:02
right, where'd that hundred go?
Speaker 3:
49:04
right, you don't know right, because who cares? Right? So, so finances is critical. Okay, this is. I mean, we know a, we know a lot of marriages end because of finances, because of money, and it's really because they're not paying attention to it.
Speaker 3:
49:17
And I break it down into two things. Down there there's quality of life and there's standard of living. Okay, so you got quality of living, you got standard of living. Standard of living is you make this much money and you spend that much money. You make more money and you spend more money. You get the next boat, you get the next four-wheeler, you buy the better car. Quality of life is you make more money and you don't spend it. You buy time. The more money you make, the more time you get. Now you don't have to keep up with those payments and everything else. You start to go oh great, I can start to invest, I can buy time. So pretty soon my passive income will replace my active business income. Now we get to the point where you don't work, so you're buying time. That's the difference. You know, we have that focus and that's paying attention to something, right? Okay, I want to have a quality life, not just a standard of living. Right. So that's finances kind of in a nutshell.
Speaker 3:
50:12
And then we go to fitness, and fitness is not just physical. This is where people get kind of messed up. It's important. You need to work out, you need to be healthy. Nutrition is important, what you put in your body very important, because if you're a business owner, especially, or you're the head of a family, like, forget the business part, just say you're the head of a family or you're in a family, you have to be fit. You have to be fit physically, you have to be fit mentally, right. You have to understand what this actually means to run the show right. You can't do that when you're sick and you're tired, you know, and you spend half your day on the couch or whatever. That is right. We have to really understand that this is an integral part of leading. We have a saying in the Marine Corps if you're not fit, you're not fit to lead. Okay.
Speaker 3:
50:57
And again fitness is multiple things, it's not just physical. Physical is important. Like I tell my kids, I say listen, you have to be able to train for two. What that means is, if there's a problem, if I have to carry my wife a half mile down the road, down three or four flights of stairs, or up them, can I do it? Can I do that with my kids In an emergency? Can I deliver? Can I save them? Or am I going to have a grabber halfway down the stairs, fall over and we're all done Right? So it's important and I get a little intense on this show because that's why I got spears in my wall Right. So it's important and I get a little intense on this.
Speaker 1:
51:34
That's why I got spears in my wall, but it's, it's. You want to think about that? I'm not arguing with you, man. I'm not arguing with you. You know what I mean.
Speaker 3:
51:38
You really have to understand like it's important. You're responsible, you're a provider, you're a protector, you're the priest, right in that family. You there's a lot of you know self-responsibility here, so that's your fitness aspect, right. Lastly, is friendships okay and these are really important, and again I'm giving a little insight into me. So I have a little standing joke with my kids. I said if all my friends were on one hand, okay and I lost three fingers, I'd still have all my friends.
Speaker 3:
52:12
Okay, I don't have a lot of friends. I'm talking trench buddy friends, guys who got my sex, going to go to war with me, never going to let me down. I don't need 50 of those, I need two, I need three guys I know I can count on. Okay, now, I have circles, I have acquaintances, I have people in different rungs of that who have different access to me, and I mean that. I don't mean that in a conceited way. I mean that you can only give time to people who are going to give stuff back to you, meaning that there's an exchange in a relationship. Right, there has to be a caring. You can't be with just a bunch of takers, right.
Speaker 3:
52:44
Okay, a lot of people want to take, especially as you get successful. So, doing things, they're seeing what's in it for them. Yeah, right, again, I mentioned earlier be a fountain, not a drain. We want to give, we want to do that. We want to be takers. Yes, I like the confetti. That's good, that's a big thing, that's good. So that's what you want to think about in the friendships, it's really who you choose. When I look at my kids knowing that was my thing growing up they too have that small handful who they're still tight friends with, but they don't have 30 of them, they have three.
Speaker 3:
53:20
They have two, they have four people and they lead those guys. They're in that position where these guys look up to them. My son, who's in the Marine Corps now his friends look up, they look up to him. One joined the Army, one joined this and they able to. These guys look up to him. My son, who's in the Marine Corps, now his friends look up, they look up to us. With one joint army, one joint this, and they're like they're doing what he. They get together, they connect with each other. Man, they're super tight and it's.
Speaker 1:
53:39
It's awesome to see you know I love that you shared that Richard Cause I just I literally just made a friend of ours on LinkedIn. His name is Mike and he posted about how he was just recently. Just he's like. I started counting. I was like, how many friends do I have?
Speaker 1:
53:55
And I guess at a certain time in his life not now, but a while ago he said he only had one finger that he could hold up and that friend was his wife. And he realized then he's like I've got to start connecting and trying to find some good men that I can really have, go deep with and have good friendships with, and it's so important. And I wrote back to him today and said you know, we just relocated and that's something that I really need to do as well, as I need to find a few really good friends that I can lean into, which we have some, but I'm like I need to lean into more, not just be, not keep it a surface level, really go deep with those guys and and build that, that friendship and that I can lean to, you know, lean on and stuff. Um, uh, I really love that. That's a beautiful. Those five pillars are so, so powerful and what you said.
Speaker 1:
54:46
I wrote this down and I hope everybody takes this with them and listens to this as well. There's so much here to take, but what you said about what you don't pay attention to will go away. That's right. And if we really just let I mean for myself, if I let that sink in, not just business but across everything in life like, what are the things that are important to you If you're not paying attention to it? Is it that important to you Because you could lose it?
Speaker 3:
55:13
Let me add this real quick. What does God say? Draw close to me, I'll draw close to you. It's not the other way around. You have to pay attention to the Lord. You want his assistance, you want his blessing, you want the strength? Okay, you have to draw close to him. You have to take the first steps. He'll guide your path, but not if you stand there.
Speaker 3:
55:37
Okay, you got to take the steps. You got to walk, you got to go forward with this stuff. It's, really it's. This is why I love the Bible, because I can tie everything to it. Okay, all the principles, everything is, it doesn't. It's not a, it's not a, it's not a. You know, oh, that's a cultural thing, that's, it's out of date. It's no, no, this is. This is. You know, then, now and forever, right, and when you can draw on that kind of stuff. You understand, when you're hearing things like we're discussing, you can tie that, you can connect the web, if you will, to that stuff and you go, man, he God really knew what he was doing. You know what I mean. And it's the work part. Right, it's the work part, though we have to do something. You don't get to have the. My kids never get to work. To me, I'd be cursing them if I did that, and I'm not.
Speaker 4:
56:26
I'm not kicking on your buddy or anything, I'm just.
Speaker 3:
56:29
I'm just saying like there has to be a different mindset about it, right?
Speaker 3:
56:32
Yeah, it makes total sense, everyone here has probably accomplished something right. You've done something and did it well. Or you finished it and like, wow, that was really great, it was hard, but I did it and I did something, it doesn't matter how small or big it was that feeling, that's the feeling, that little endorphin rush, that dopamine hit of accomplishment. Think about that. It doesn't again, doesn't matter if you're changing the world or changing the tire. Okay, like, when you get into it, you have to go. That's why we do it, that's the reaction we get. That's what makes us feel good. You know, and here's a little weird thing you talk about likes on social media. They say that a like for a woman, getting a like for something she posts, triggers the same endorphin level, the same dopamine level as they get on their wedding day Wow.
Speaker 3:
57:28
Think about that, wow so we're here in the metaverse, which is really cool, okay. But when people are doing this stuff, you got to understand they didn't do anything. They posted a picture with the little fish face, or whatever they do. You know what I mean.
Speaker 3:
57:42
They got a million selfies and they're getting a like and it's a hit that equals their wedding day. Okay, so that you know. Now you're getting that for doing nothing, right? So what does that teach people? And I don't mean just kids, I'm talking about anyone who's doing that stuff. Yeah, you know.
Speaker 1:
57:58
so it's just, and I don't know where that all came from, but it's just like that's very interesting to know that like yeah, I think that's interesting, and I love that you point that out too, because, like about about, you know what God told us to do when he put Adam. You know when he put Adam in the garden. What that kind of takes me back to is anything the Bible teaches us that that things that come from God are good.
Speaker 2:
58:24
Yeah.
Speaker 1:
58:24
So work is good. So we have to be careful not to take that away, but how we what you're teaching too, about where it can't become your identity and draw you away from, like. I think that's a beautiful piece to acknowledge that so I.
Speaker 1:
58:39
I think it's a really good balance to to to understand that and I do have. I know we got to be sensitive to your time. I'll be sensitive, your time, richard. I've got. I've got a. I've got a question in the audience. I'm gonna bring up up. Let's bring up Iris. Iris, if you want to come on up. Thanks for coming to the Killer Bee Studios. Thanks for being patient. I've kept you waiting for a while, iris, so sorry about that, but thank you.
Speaker 4:
59:01
No, that's okay, but I'm afraid my question kind of got answered in the time that I have been waiting. I was going to ask you about your dad. I had a great dad and he did teach me the value of work. He really, really did. But he was born in 1934, and he was a workaholic in the start, like most people his generation. He owned his own business, but I don't know, I got lucky. He was just eccentric enough that he liked to come home and play with the kids and the dogs and the cats and um spend his time with us.
Speaker 4:
59:32
So I, yeah, I got the best of both worlds. I was really lucky. But, yeah, he was a hard worker and he passed that on to his kids. Um, I don't think the comment I wanted to say. Mr killer, bees, really gotten some good people this season, right, yeah, and you're really going out with the bang. I I'm um, but you're the first one I've really really related to, I think, and in in. I'm a really intense person too and I started out my life on a fast track to success and I I did everything right and I was the golden child and all that stuff and I and I wouldn't give up that ego path until it was taken from me and it's kind of the same thing. It was kind of a downfall. I had a health emergency and best thing that ever happened to me.
Speaker 4:
1:00:26
So yeah kind of the same path, so I can kind of understand it.
Speaker 1:
1:00:28
That's great.
Speaker 4:
1:00:30
I'm kind of embarrassed, though, that it had to be taken from me for me to get off of that.
Speaker 3:
1:00:35
Well, you know what's a great saying? You know, when you're at the bottom, okay, it's a good place, it's a nice solid foundation to begin again. Right, you're at the very bottom, it's a good, hard, solid foundation, something great to build on. So you get to do it again. And my father, too, was an incredible worker, worked all the time. I mean, he gave me my work ethic. You know, if he did nothing else which he did other things, but if nothing else, that you know, I will never starve because he taught me how to work, you know, and that I outworked everybody. Okay, so we have shirts. We were, I coached a cross country team, our home school cross country team. My son was a very good runner. He wanted to go to the Junior Olympics. So, okay, I'll train you, we'll train you. When we got to the Junior Olympics, you know, for the half mile. But we had to create these shirts because we had a coach who was all about the talent. I'm like, look, I coach 80 kids, this Not everyone's talented.
Speaker 3:
1:01:31
They're here to work, they're here to learn a discipline and do this, so we created these shirts that said we outwork your talent every day. And I had them wear it all the time, you know, and then we had, for His Glory on our shirt here. You know we knew who we were running for and everything else but that shirt and they didn't get it. They go. Well, what is that? I go, you wouldn't understand, okay.
Speaker 2:
1:01:49
Cause, this is my work Right and you know it's that kind of thing.
Speaker 4:
1:01:52
So yeah, it's really. Oh, that's great yeah.
Speaker 3:
1:01:57
One thing on the five F's, let me just bring this together real quick, yeah.
Speaker 3:
1:01:59
So if you're a business owner again, I work with business owners. I help them. If their business is a hot mess, like You're trapped in that Guess what, you don't get to have the five F's. Okay, and I'm going to tell you why. Because a business and I'm going to use this term is like a mistress. It's a mistress.
Speaker 3:
1:02:20
You're going to think about it all the time. You're going to sneak off to it all the time. You're going to stay late, get there early. You're going to do everything you can to keep this thing going because it needs you. You think right? And if that's the case, you can't focus on fitness, you can't focus on friends, you can't focus on your family, you can't focus on your finances and you have a really hard time strengthening your faith because you're all consumed with that. So the first thing you have to do fix the business, fix it. Then you can start looking at the five Fs and also remember there's no equal balance of anything. You're not going to be, you know, 10% of everything, 15%, everything is going to have its percentage and its place in its season.
Speaker 3:
1:03:04
We're all in different seasons, you know. You can have a bunch of young little baby kids. You can have teenagers. You can be empty nester. You can have grandkids. Young little baby kids. You can have teenagers. You can be empty nester. You can have grandkids. All these are different seasons. Your business is going to go through seasons. Right, you're going to be hard work, a lot of growing. Then you're going to kind of, oh, I kind of got it, but then you might have to scale, you might have to do this, you might want to exit. So you have all those things seasons as well. Really important to understand that correlation between the five F's and owning a business. I love that. Thank you so much for sharing that.
Speaker 1:
1:03:36
Richard. Yeah, this has been great man. Thank you so much for joining us on here, richard. I mean really, like I said, I told Mrs Killer Bee. I was like I think I was like when is Richard coming on? And she's like who's Richard? I was like this guy is the guy of the spear in the background. I can't wait to get him on here. I'm so looking forward to it and I and you know what. This was actually the right time.
Speaker 1:
1:03:55
It was really the right time, mrs killer b knows the things that's going on for us personally and and it seems like it was the right time for everybody here if you guys have enjoyed richard and what he shared, throw some confetti. Can I get?
Speaker 3:
1:04:07
some ideas isn't that great. Yeah, it's cool. I wish you could do that in real life. I wish you could pick it up. Nothing on, you don't have to pick it up, because then I'd have to pick it all up. I'd have to pick it all up if it was real life.
Speaker 2:
1:04:19
You don't have to clean this up I love it. Yeah, we want exactly the same thing in real life, like disappearing this is killer bee.
Speaker 1:
1:04:27
We could take it on shark tank. Confetti that dissolves before it hits the ground right, the oxygen can make it dissolve. I'm probably giving someone like a billion dollar idea now.
Speaker 3:
1:04:39
But yeah, I really.
Speaker 5:
1:04:40
I definitely.
Speaker 1:
1:04:42
I appreciate you coming out, Richard. Thank you guys, Thank you so much. So I'm going to. I always ask our guests a closing question. I'm going to get to that with you as well, but first can you tell us, like, what's the best way to connect with you? And we know you can find your book on Amazon, so also, do you have a website that people can learn more about what you're doing as a coach as well?
Speaker 3:
1:05:02
Yes, go to sharpenthespearcoachingcom. Great website videos, training everything you could possibly want. You can connect with me there. Shar videos, training everything you could possibly want. You can connect with me there. Sharpenthespiritcoachingcom would be the place to go, and you know what I'm feeling extra generous. This is the first time I've ever done this metaverse thing. It's pretty cool. You guys are really cool. You've been an awesome audience. Let's do this. If you go to, I'm going to give you a gift. You go to sharpenthespiritcoachingcom. Just go to my contact page. Send me a one-sentence email Say Richard, I was in the Killer Bee studio. Can I get the free copy of the audio version of Escape the Honor Prison and?
Speaker 2:
1:05:46
I will send it to you.
Speaker 3:
1:05:47
I will send that to you.
Speaker 2:
1:05:48
That is so kind.
Speaker 3:
1:05:49
All right, that's awesome guys, that's awesome what you got to listen to me read it for like two and a half hours, okay.
Speaker 4:
1:05:56
Hey, no problem, you're going to get this voice longer Okay. That's great If you can bear with that you know you'll be okay.
Speaker 3:
1:06:13
And I just seriously, if you do for shipping, okay, you'll have it listened to and be done with it before whatever arrived from Amazon.
Speaker 2:
1:06:17
Not that I don't want book sales Okay, have your friends.
Speaker 1:
1:06:22
I'm so excited about is that open to the host and co-host too. Of course, it is All right, usually like we're disqualified from any kind of contest or giveaways, but we're used to that. I'm a giver, you know what I'm a giver, you know what? I love that, richard, because I actually was looking for the. I was like, does he have an audio version of the book? Because it takes me a long time to read a book, but I'm like I listen to audios and so that is huge and I don't mind listening to your voice. We're already an hour into it right now.
Speaker 2:
1:06:47
Yeah, I can't even believe that an hour has flown by.
Speaker 1:
1:06:51
It's already flown by man. Well, richard, we do again appreciate you coming out. After you guys, after we play the outro music, we'll have everybody come up. We're going to grab a selfie together, a group picture with Richard before he leaves. But, richard, before we wrap up, I want to ask you for the person that might be here tonight or tuning in to the podcast, that might be feeling like they're losing, like they're losing, they're not in a good place. What's your best advice for getting back up?
Speaker 3:
1:07:18
I'll make it really simple. Okay, every problem is an opportunity. That's how you have to think about it. When you, when you have a problem, when things are tough, when you can't figure something out, you have to understand that it's an opportunity. Problem when things are tough, when you can't figure something out, you have to understand it's an opportunity, it's a gift. A problem is a gift. Solve the problem, focus on it and solve it. Figure out a way. Ask someone else to help you. That's another big thing. Ask for help.
Speaker 3:
1:07:42
And my third thing in the whole is do hard things, do things that are difficult for you. I don't mean just physically, though that's good. I like to do really hard things, physical, so it doesn't count for me. I have to do things like on a computer. Okay, that's misery for me, all right. Maybe some accounting. Okay, that's misery, all right. So work it out, no problem, I'll do that all day long. So I just recommend those things. That's really. Problems are opportunities. Put that in your brain Every time you see it go good, this is good. I get to fix something, I get to solve this problem and you'll get really good at it and it'll change your life.
Speaker 2:
1:08:21
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