#180 - How an Australian Café Founder Is Scaling a U.S. Brand Without Losing Culture | Justin Giuffrida
In this episode of The Necessary Entrepreneur, host Mark Perkins sits down with Justin Giuffrida, founder and CEO of Citizens All Day, to explore what it really takes to scale a hospitality brand while staying true to culture, community, and purpose.
Justin shares his journey from Australia to the United States and how he built Citizens from a single New York City café into a multi-state, fast-growing lifestyle brand with ambitious national expansion plans. Along the way, he reveals the leadership challenges, capital decisions, and operational trade-offs that come with scaling a people-driven business in a competitive industry.
Mark and Justin dive into the concept of building a “community-first brand,” the realities of entrepreneurship versus the romanticized version founders often imagine, and the mindset required to grow while still feeling like you have not arrived yet. Justin also discusses the importance of mentorship, the role of advisory boards in navigating growth, how optimism must be balanced with realism, and why embracing the entrepreneurial journey matters more than chasing a destination.
This conversation is packed with practical insights for entrepreneurs, founders, and leaders looking to grow businesses without losing their culture, their people, or themselves in the process.
If you are building a brand, scaling a company, or leading a team through growth, this episode delivers valuable lessons on leadership, resilience, and long-term vision.
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📌 Find Out More About Justin Giuffrida & Citizens All Day:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-giuffrida-02187769/
https://citizensallday.com/
https://www.instagram.com/citizen.allday
https://wefunder.com/citizenscoffee
https://www.linkedin.com/company/citizens-cafe-holdings/
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Now we're in three states with multiple locations and all in all these different states.
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I'm way beyond anything of my wildest dreams, but somehow I haven't arrived yet.
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Today's guest, what a cool ass name, Justin Giuffrida It's G-I-U-F-F-R-I-D-A.
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What a mixture of cultures from around the world.
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We're going to hear all about that.
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But Justin's the founder and CEO of Citizens All Day.
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It's a specialty cafe and lifestyle brand that started in New York City, bringing
authentic Australian cafe culture to the U.S., which we love.
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Where we're born and bred.
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And you're going to hear today, he thinks he's one of us now.
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So we're going to find out.
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But under Justin's leadership, citizens has grown from a single location into a
multi-market business with ambitious national expansion plans, all while cultivating a
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community first brand and navigating capital growth, operational trade-offs all along the
way.
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So I'm excited to dive into the strategic decisions, resilience and constraints that
Justin's faced building his business.
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Justin, welcome to the necessary entrepreneur party, baby.
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Alright, glad to be here.
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Thanks so much for having me, man.
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I mean, 100%.
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So all the way from Australia, all the way to New York City and now in Texas, the brand
must be growing.
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And so we use these terms community first, a community first brand.
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um What's that mean to you?
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Not just from the greater world.
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Let's say you're writing the definition in the dictionary of it.
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What's community first brand mean to you?
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Yeah, for sure.
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Love the jumping off point here, right into the business.
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I think citizens, you know, at its core, if we think about what our core business is and
what we do, know, beyond the product, which for us is fruit and coffee and experience,
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it's a people business, you know, and we're in the people business in the sense of our
teams and our locals.
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And, you know, we're not just any kind of restaurant, the kind of restaurant we are.
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you know, what we call an Australian cafe is one of the most repetitive, sticky kind of
restaurants out there because, you know, what we really offer is healthy, better for you,
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excessively priced and great coffee, you know, and that's all, you know, in terms of the
food and the coffee we offer.
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So what ends up happening for us is ends up building a kind of guest experience and
hospitality that pairs with that very kind of sticky experience.
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We end up seeing our locals, you know, every morning for a croissant and coffee and we'll
see them back for uh lunch and a breakfast.
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So, and maybe what we found with Citizens is that we build this really tight community of
locals that our teams get to know, you know, our staff are called in our legends, there's
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some Australian heritage there that we'll touch on later.
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But our legends and our locals really get to know each other well because they see each
other so often.
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So we kind of double down on that DNA within citizens.
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And, you know, not only is it the product and the hospitality do that way, but we have
some really great initiatives where we kind of get involved in the communities that we do
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business in and, you know, get to know those communities, support those communities.
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You know, we have a really awesome program called Local Legends where we have rotating
non-for-profits in that local community where we kind of support.
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And so that's
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That's how we want to do business as we grow.
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You we want to get to know and impact the communities that we do business in because we
have an impact and we have a voice and a platform.
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We want to bring those, you know, we want to bring that experience in our restaurants, in
our front doors, but also go beyond our front doors and have a positive impact into those
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communities.
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So there's a few edges and directions there, but that's actually what it means for us.
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Having a positive impact of the community you do business with, having
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know, a kind of mission statement and, you know, a training and a culture that permeates
that we are nothing without a community that we exist in and do business with.
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Hmm.
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Does this, you know, you brought this Australian vibe and cafe here.
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is it, what is it like building it here in the U S you've been here for 13 years and you
started in New York city and you were getting ready.
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We're getting ready to talk about the amazing part of America.
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was like, stop, we're going to talk about this on the podcast, but what, um, you having
being born and brought up in a different culture, not just different culture, an entire
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world away.
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Um, what makes this special really do you, what you feel, not just because, you know, we
say all these cliche cliche things, but there's a special entrepreneurial vibe here in the
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U S and why do you love it though?
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Why do you, why do you love it that you built this here?
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Yeah, for sure.
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Look, think two things I want to talk about on that.
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The first is my personal experience with, you know, coming out of the U S and starting up
a business that's got this Australian roots.
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And what, has that been like for me as a entrepreneur?
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You know, and think that's probably one of the first things I'll talk to you.
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And then the second piece will be how does this Australian concept translated to the U S
on the, on the business front.
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I think something, and we'll talk about this earlier that I'm really passionate about is.
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When I got to US at 21, what I didn't know at that time is the nuances of American culture
versus the rest of the world.
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I'm not about to go on a tirade, trashing Australia or UK or Europe, but what I love about
America that's uniquely different.
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For someone who's born and raised in America, maybe they don't have this perspective in
full because they haven't had the contrast, the other side of it.
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But one thing America does well,
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is, you know, the American dream.
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You know, what is the American dream?
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The American dream is just damn fiery, know, audacious dreaming.
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And yes, you have dreamers all over the world.
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That's true.
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But America really, and the culture here, really champions having a go at it.
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And they'll champion you if you win, or they'll champion you even if you don't win.
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But they'll just champion you just simply having a damn go at things.
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And I love that because I don't think, you know, sometimes Australia can be a little more
kind of conservative and a bit more, you know, at times or in moments, pessimistic with
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that level of, you know, having a go and entrepreneurship.
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And, know, these are pretty broad comments out there, but, know, there's something that
I've heard, you know, about Americans, which is they want to champion you and they want
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you to succeed, you know, yeah, for the, for the passion of it, but,
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If you win, they want you to take them with them in some fashion, right?
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Whereas I think sometimes other parts of the world, people don't necessarily want you to
win because you're going to leave them behind.
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You know, and that's a mentality thing.
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It's a really cultural mentality thing.
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So what I found coming here at 21 was I was just completely drunk off that culture.
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And it was one of the perfect places to be in New York City for a 20 year old.
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Because when you're in your 20s,
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How do you get-
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blissfully naive, but you're circling it all up.
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I don't know if I would have become the same person or had the same success if I did this
back in Australia.
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Now at 34, I've spent the last decade plus in America building a business, getting to know
some absolutely phenomenal people, having great conversations like this to folks like you.
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It's informed who I am.
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You doesn't my passport say I'm American?
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No, it doesn't.
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You know, it's still got the Australian stamp and the accent.
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But I tell you what, my spirit, it's got a real American flavor to it these days.
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And I love it.
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And I'm really proud of that part of it.
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I, yeah, we're not allowed to, I think I didn't, I've never invoked this in the couple
hundred episodes we've had, but Arnold Schwarzenegger put out a documentary a few years
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ago, I don't know if watched that, but he talked about him growing up in Austria and you
talk about Australia and kind of the British, you talk about that more positive, but he
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said he never felt like himself until he came to America.
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And when he landed, he said, it's almost like I found myself.
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And I wonder if it's some of the same feeling because maybe when you put your boots on the
ground here, it feels like there's more options.
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There's more opportunity.
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Maybe you can go truly find yourself and try things.
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I think what we, what we talked about, what you said is, you know, we champion you when
you're winning, but what we do do is to him, we'll knock you down.
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You know that we will knock you down.
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But there's something in this DNA that it says, get back up.
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And I think if you have that, cause people are looking for assurance, so much assurance in
this world.
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I can't tell you the assurance of the outcome, but the assurances is that this culture
does not just allow you to, it asks you and creates an environment for you to get back up.
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And that assurance, when you're starting out on these entrepreneurial endeavors, that
probably gives you a little bit more, I don't know, thought that it's going to be okay.
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Yeah, I still did not.
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I feel that and as I was referring to earlier, that, you know, yeah, it's a hard-knock
culture, but it does champion you whether you succeed or fail and go again and go again
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until you succeed.
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You know, and there's so many great stories and quotes around that.
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And like, you you refer to it as well.
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thing about Austria or Australia is that they're a fraction of the size of the US, you
know, and so
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You come here with an idea and a dream and these aspirations and it's possible at a scale
that I think you could have never kind of dreamt of back in your home country as well.
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That size and scale brings so many success stories.
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I was reading this interesting stat recently, which is the UK has this main kind of top uh
10
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are elite universities versus the US.
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You know, they're even ranking on some of those elite, you know, kind of universities and
college systems.
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Cambridge and yeah
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But the US produces almost 10x the amount of successful top tier entrepreneurs compared to
the UK.
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So statistically, you're going to try to work out why is that?
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How does that come to you?
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You've got the same education system, you've got the same pipeline of these kind of really
talented, intelligent folks.
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But why is the US produced time and time again, outranking number of entrepreneurs?
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And it's got to come down to this DNA.
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The emotional and tangible part of it is the endeavor, the American endeavor for it.
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like, I think, you know, when I go back to Australia, a lot of my friends pointed out
pretty quickly that, you know, they call me the Yank now.
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And, know, I'll probably wear my Yankees hat because I love that part of me now.
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You know, I go back to Australia and I'm talking to every Joe below, you know, that we'll
have a conversation, you know, and yeah, maybe my voice is a little bit louder and my
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opinions are a bit stronger, but I think that's a good thing.
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I think it's a good thing and I think the world needs a...
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Yeah, a little bit more of a...
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So has that served you well?
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You have a very engaging personality.
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Has that served you well in one of the best characteristics as you reflect on what you've
achieved?
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How important has that been?
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Because as we try to develop more leaders inside our companies and we're trying to scale
these, we need good talent around us and develop people.
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So we're always trying to define these one or two, or we need grit and resilience and yes,
those things, but being able to engage with a human being is priceless.
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Have you reflected that that's probably served you very well?
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Because you said you'd go back and you're willing to have a conversation with anybody.
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I'm assuming you did the same thing from the moment you landed in New York City as well.
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Yeah, look, absolutely.
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think as a younger, much more green, pre-business personality, you know, and by the way,
my prior life was in accounting and finance where I wasn't really interacting with many
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people at all.
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You know, that was a huge transition for me.
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But to your point, you know, when I think about the growth of citizens and the company
going from one location to three, you know, five and six, multi-city, multi-state, you
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know, we're going to have plus two hundred people that
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that are employed by the company, by the NCR.
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You know, I think where I've lacked real experience and has been in gap to technical, you
know, or kind of, you know, top sophisticated levels of knowledge or experience, I've made
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up with yes grid, but it's the ability to kind of engage, inspire, drive people.
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You know, that's, that's been a huge driving force for citizens.
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And I didn't understand that in the earlier chapter of the company, you know, it's.
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sometimes driving and motivating people, it's not always comfortable as you know, Mark,
it's sometimes it's really uncomfortable and you have to be willing to, you know, there's
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certain kind of strategies and, and, know, kind of mental and emotional kind of, you know,
characteristics that you develop on how to drive people well and how to motivate people
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because.
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You as you know, when you lead a company, grow a company, your job and a lead is to drive
teams.
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You're not technical anymore.
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You are managing one department to the next and often than not, you're going with the
columns up.
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You're not going with it.
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You know, the company's doing well.
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You're actually, you have to spend a lot of time at the core of the departments that need
you the most.
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Ones that have been built, the ones that are lagging behind.
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And so a lot of, as you say, the charisma, the energy and the personality.
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has to come through when you're driving those things.
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So it's served me so, well.
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I've always been a pretty outgoing person, but I've learned to channel the outgoing
charisma into leadership.
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And sometimes leadership is knowing how to be critical with somebody, how to be really
direct and honest with somebody, but having them walk out of the room or the meeting
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engaged and inspired, not like a whipped puppy at the end of a conversation.
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And so that's where
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think some of the skill and the experience to come in in the last few years of my career
is now, how do I be in a lot of my time with leadership is fleeting?
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I don't have days with you.
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I've got a meeting with you a week or a day with you every month.
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So how do I really inspire and make an impact in a short amount of time with structure,
with directness and the strategies?
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One of the best strategies that I've learned.
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is really kind of balancing the kind of balancing the equation or the, what they call the
emotional piggy bank.
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I mean, a lot of my job is critical.
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You know, I have to be willing to leave, you know, call it out when things are not good
enough or call out realigning us on our direction when we're off path.
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And people really, you know, people are going to hear you more when they think you're able
to put positive chips in the piggy bank or when they're doing well.
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You know, like, hey,
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whatever that piece of work was or whatever this direction was or this move was, you know,
thank you so much.
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That's awesome.
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It's more of an app.
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That's what I want to see.
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It gives you the ability when it's time to, kind of dial in and be critical, which is all
the time, every day, every week as a coach.
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That gives you the ability to then, uh, you know, be indirect because they can, like, you
know, people will feel from you the direction when they're not doing well.
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and they're to feel from you when you are doing well.
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So it's more of those strategies of balancing, know, the positive and the negative ratio.
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If you think about a football coach, football coaches are not just on the sidelines
yelling all the time about what you're doing wrong.
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They're also telling you what, you know, what you're doing right and more of that.
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So you're learning on both ends.
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So yeah, the charisma, the personality, and the experience has really been a huge driving
factor in the last few years as we've gone national.
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What do you do to grow?
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Are you a guy?
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Are you reading books?
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Are you listening to podcasts?
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Are you watching YouTube?
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Is it a reflection at the end of an 18 hour day?
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Where are you finding this isn't as much as a teaching tool for someone else, but where
are you personally finding your big moments of growth now?
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13 years into this thing.
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Yeah, that's a great question.
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think one of the biggest game changers is early on in the career, the first few chapters,
the first half of this story, I was far too insular and scared to go out of myself and out
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of the company to seek help, you know, for the reason of, you know, maybe I should know
all of this and I don't want to be thought of or caught not knowing something, right?
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But I think in the last
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half of the growth journey, I've been much, much better at going out, external of the
company and seeking out mentors that have done this journey before.
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you know, and I'll be really quite intentional and thoughtful around who are those
mentors, you know, people in my industry or adjacent to my industry on brands that I
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admire and I can relate to.
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And I'll typically seek out those individuals, call, you know, call them, link to messages
and email.
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And to my absolute astoundment, some of those people that I knew their brands backwards
and forwards that I never would have dreamt of having a relationship with, I have like
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almost an incredibly close relationship with some of those mentors today.
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there's a few that come to mind, but they have changed my world, absolutely rocked my
world way beyond business too, which is another surprising factor.
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Because you become so close and you're so vulnerable and then you get this on a
relationship where I'm like, Mark, you know, I get to meet with you once a week, once
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every other week.
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But I, you build this level of trust with each other where you can tell them all the 101
things that are going wrong in your world, in your business.
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And sometimes it's a bit of personal stuff too.
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And then the way that they coach you through it, cause they've been through all those
layers before.
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That's been this, that's been more effective than any book.
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I've got us YouTube video and I do a lot of all the rest, but the mentors and developing a
kind of close relationship with a mentor where you can be so transparent and vulnerable
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has been the biggest game changer and it's shaped citizens in full.
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What you can get from me and what you hear from me on today's call or in a, you know,
from, if you're in a boardroom meeting or leadership meeting, so much of that comes from
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my mentor.
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If you knew my mentors, you'd be like, I can see that.
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talk or that language, you know?
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So the strategy, the way in I'm becoming, I think mentors, and I wish I knew that earlier
in my career, and I want to even double down that more now that I'm talking to you about
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it.
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Has that saying been true for you and your career?
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know, have you got a lot out of mentors in your journey as well?
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Absolutely.
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You know, that question that a lot of people ask, who's the one person that made the
biggest impact?
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I don't have one.
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I think what I've probably done properly and it's evolving the older, I get to your point
as well is, is that I'm stepping outside of the peripheral, I guess, or I'm getting
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outside of my own bubble.
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And that's what you spoke to.
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Right.
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And walking into those rooms, because everyone does look at us as having the answers and
so secure and we know what we're doing and being willing to go in a room and starting to
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listen.
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But what I found is that's what I'm learning the most.
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We read the books and it says, you know, where they're like, Hey, you need to go into
rooms where you're not the smartest.
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Well, that, doesn't feel right when you hear it.
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Right.
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And initially as an entrepreneur, that's what are you, what are you talking about?
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That doesn't, but then when you put yourself in the room and you're quiet and you're
listening.
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And if you can settle into that moment, they become the most impactful.
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and so I think, I don't think it's just from an individual, but yes, but it is from the
rooms that I'm putting myself into.
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And because if you put yourself into a room of six or eight or 10 people who have
accomplished significant things, their journey, their perspective, and currently what
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they're learning, I use this word priceless, but it's priceless.
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You couldn't pay an amount that that's worth to have access to.
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So.
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mentorship gets better, the deeper the relationship goes, because what you want to have to
do is not provide context, every conversation to your point.
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Yeah.
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Right.
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And, so in what you'll find is what I've found the best mentors.
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And I think I've tried to take away is zero judgment.
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There's zero judgment about decisions that were made about failures that happen about
maybe something that I got completely wrong because the people that have been there in the
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past.
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They know at the end of the day, whatever their hardest day in business was, they survived
it and they kept going.
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And so if they can approach us and we can do the same thing for people we're mentoring
with zero judgment, but just sitting in the thing, whatever happened, the experience, um
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you can have significant growth moments in there.
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I'm fine, but I'm not just finding it from the past.
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Everything's compounding for me now.
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So I don't know what that your experience.
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mean, I'm taking those things.
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I'm just so much better in every moment from all of the mentorship, from all of the rooms
that I've been in and the more valuable we come, the more value you receive in life.
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so it's, it's a long answer to your question, but it's a, it's a yes, but it's not any one
person.
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It's just putting myself in rooms of highly capable people that are taking serious action
in their life to do big things.
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I love that as well.
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think to your point, you know, maybe at the beginning of one or two mentors and over time,
you know, I've gotten better about asking who else should I speak to from some of the, you
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know, those great people had mentors networks of trees themselves.
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You know, and a lot of the time now, I mean, one of the better questions I'm asking at the
end of those great calls is Mark, who else should I speak to on this issue or this topic?
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And this, so, you know, the thing about great mentors is they, they know all the great
people too.
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And they're so quick to just connect you with, you know, go speak to X and Y.
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They've dealt with this situation before and I'll give you their angle on it.
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And so that's been huge.
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know, I don't know about you that the mentor relationship is so interesting because how
often do I get on the phone with a friend or, you know, like even a family member to some
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extent, and they say, Hey, how's it going?
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And I say, not good.
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Let me tell you all about the stuff that's gone wrong.
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You don't do that that often.
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You know, I think when you have this relationship that gets deeper with no context to your
point, you start to feel how close you become with the mentor.
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Like it's beyond a business PR or associate.
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You become, lean on each other.
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You share in the good times, but more importantly, you share the hard times together and
they help getting through.
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So you end up having this like, you know, really close.
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relationship, really close trusting relationship.
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You all those people, you know, will be, you know, some of the, some of the closest people
to me on, in on my wedding day, you know, and I never would have imagined that.
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So.
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You know, they're getting as much out of it as we are.
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That's what I figured out now because the further you go in this entrepreneurial journey,
see, we can say it's hard because it is.
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And what makes it hard is the new challenges that we're faced daily.
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Daily.
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And the reason why those mentors usually
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They have more experience than us.
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Usually they're not just a peer.
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The true mentors usually have more depth of experience in something.
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And what you find is they're living.
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vicariously through us because they've come across very few people in their life that have
been willing to make the sacrifice and go all in and go down the same path in the same
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journey.
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And what they do is they, step into this role of almost parenthood from someone else
running a business, because what do parents want to see their kids do?
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What do they want?
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Right.
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And they want to try to help them live, just level up another level in life from where
they were.
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And if they could transfer some of the knowledge they've learned to the person they care
the most about, it's really satisfying when they get to look back and say, was a part of
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that.
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That's what these business owners, and I think that's what us entrepreneurs should do.
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We shouldn't, shouldn't hesitate to ask, to send the email, to reach out on LinkedIn,
because we all re we've received a lot of nos getting here thus far a lot.
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And so don't be scared of them.
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Then they might not have even seen the email or seen the message, but they are so willing
to show up.
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and it is refreshing to them.
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I see it every day.
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So um yeah, don't be afraid to the person who wrote the book, the person that you saw
speak on stage.
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But a question I'd have for you, have you gotten the most value of people in your industry
or outside of it?
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question I think for me.
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I think definitely people inside my industry, but not always an art of fast roll though.
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So most of the people, most of those folks I'm referring to are restaurant growth CEOs
that have gone through it and understand the nuances.
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But then again, I've got other relationships that are adjacent.
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They could be in finance or they could be within
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kind of, know, a creative start world that helps see the problem from an angle that I
don't think we would be looking at from, you know, they help see around corners because
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they're thinking about the problem in a completely different way.
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so to your, you you, made this point just a touch earlier.
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If it's, if it's a really important problem or hurdle that I'm, I'm thinking about, I'll
bring that to not just one next wall, but to two or three.
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And it almost becomes like looking through a prison because you've got people looking at
it like, you might have someone like Justin or Mark looking at it from this one
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operational angle.
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And then you'll talk to somebody, you know, from finance or creative that come at it from
a real analytical or creative angle.
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so, you know, more of all these days when I'm doing something really poor and I go to like
two or three people and I forget two or three pretty different answers too.
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And it doesn't mean a bit of a lot worse, but it helps me think about things from just
multiple angles.
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yeah, mostly my industry, because I think a lot, know, 80 % of I deal with is really
focused.
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You know, I get up every day and I go to bed thinking about this growth pipeline and my
goal.
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You know, I've got a really sharp goal in my mind.
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And so I'm really focused on this roadmap and pathway that people in my industry have just
walked that path, know, hundred times before.
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One other thing I want to add to the, to the mental conversation, which I uh love this, I
love the balance of this is one thing I did more in more recent years that has really
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sharpened me up has been instituting like an advisory board.
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Now your company, your business doesn't have to be a publicly traded company.
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doesn't even have to be a mid-tier or a large company.
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know, even a lot of our small businesses, you know,
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a really great structured way of putting in guardrails to what you do and getting some
good advice.
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It's putting an advisory board in, in and around you.
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And, you know, pick four people that, you know, mentors that are in or outside of your
industry and have some kind of structure for them.
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Where once a quarter, twice a year, you bring them together and talk about the five things
that working and the five things that are not working.
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And they'll keep you really honest and you have this, you know, it's kind of really
board-like conversation about, and you hear from different perspectives, different
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industries.
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And I think that's been another Rennebii growth, you know, growth chapter for me is
putting in our first board.
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It keeps me honest to the goals that I'm working on.
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It allows me to have really vulnerable conversations in a controlled environment.
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So it's like bringing a super pack of mentors together.
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ah
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And that's been another really cool, cool journey is the advisory board.
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So I'd recommend to a small business, you know, the small enough to put those few things
together, can be casual and begin with, and then as you grow and find more structure,
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becomes, you know, more structured and powerful too.
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That's one of the, see, we shouldn't worry about just net worth and all that, but when you
have people that you're around that are billionaires, right?
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And if you have access to those people, if you could go to lunch with them, you're gonna
have to have some success before that person's gonna let you in their world.
353
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However, if you have access to it, that's from one particular person I'm thinking of,
that's the best advice he ever gave me, what you just talked about, right?
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He just said, hey, listen, man, you probably should put together a board.
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Doesn't matter that you don't have debt on the company if you don't.
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Doesn't matter that you have to do any public reporting.
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He said, the benefit that you will get, he said, whether you listen to him or not.
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He said, said, having that board of advisors served me very, very, very well.
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Yeah.
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Even if listen to you just talk then.
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How often in our business lives do you stop to have a meeting to talk about the key
decisions that are coming up that relate to your mid and long-term goals?
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And when you run the business and you're the owner, CEO, who checks?
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No one.
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No, no one, not one person.
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The board or the advisory team is the one team where you're giving them permission to say,
hey, pull this apart.
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Am I making the right decision or not?
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You know, your teams are not going to really do that for you, whether you think they know
or they don't.
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So, you know, often or not, when we make big decisions like, you know, expanding into
different markets in the US and how we got to that conclusion, they're pretty irreversible
369
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or can be pretty harmful if you get it wrong.
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I've had so many awesome board meetings where I thought I was making a right to see Ian,
but then you give permission people that are smarter and more curious than you to
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challenge you, you tear it up.
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And I've gone in a complete different direction.
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I've looked back, I look back down and think, geez, you know, really grateful that I had
that conversation because the whole company would have, could have, you know, gone
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differently from, from that little point on.
375
00:32:03,481 --> 00:32:12,890
You apply that to real estate, apply that to finance, you apply that to, you know, like
some key personality you're dealing with or key challenges you're dealing with.
376
00:32:12,991 --> 00:32:21,439
You know, they've saved me a lot of time, money, and possibly, you know, growing the
outlook of the company 10, 10 fold.
377
00:32:22,000 --> 00:32:23,492
It's another big miss.
378
00:32:23,492 --> 00:32:33,803
So the next part of entrepreneurship is to know when to listen, because if we've got to be
honest about this, about this entrepreneurial journey, there's so many people that fail
379
00:32:34,204 --> 00:32:38,859
and there's so many more people that haven't done it with you that are telling you,
shouldn't.
380
00:32:41,157 --> 00:32:41,557
All right.
381
00:32:41,557 --> 00:32:46,397
I mean, I guarantee you, if you thought about that, we don't spend us entrepreneurs were
eternally optimistic.
382
00:32:46,397 --> 00:32:48,217
And that is some of the problems, right?
383
00:32:48,217 --> 00:32:52,497
We think everything it's like, we'll create a pro forma that looks like gold.
384
00:32:53,157 --> 00:33:03,397
And the advisory board's like, well, from my experience, um, you might need to carve 20 %
out of that margin because I thought the same thing, but then also there might be people
385
00:33:03,397 --> 00:33:05,537
looking at you and saying, rip it up.
386
00:33:05,537 --> 00:33:08,397
You shouldn't even do it.
387
00:33:08,477 --> 00:33:10,397
So in this journey.
388
00:33:10,405 --> 00:33:16,317
How do we train our brain on who and how much to listen to them?
389
00:33:16,933 --> 00:33:18,273
Oh, 100%.
390
00:33:18,273 --> 00:33:20,073
And you, you touched on something.
391
00:33:20,073 --> 00:33:21,933
I think we don't talk about this enough.
392
00:33:21,933 --> 00:33:26,773
A big commonality in entrepreneurs is we are just radically optimistic.
393
00:33:26,833 --> 00:33:34,973
And if you are seeing my best friends or my family, you know, here or abroad, how to
describe me, I think that'll be one of first thing that comes up.
394
00:33:34,973 --> 00:33:44,373
And he's just incredibly spontaneous, optimistic to a fault to the point where, sometimes
I don't, you know, often I don't get things right.
395
00:33:44,393 --> 00:33:45,993
You know, I'm,
396
00:33:46,597 --> 00:33:50,417
Interestingly, I'll be optimistic with time, but it was going to make me late.
397
00:33:50,417 --> 00:33:59,069
So like these funny characteristics that you need to be your superpower, but they're also
your downsides and you need to protect them too.
398
00:33:59,141 --> 00:34:06,484
It's tough to balance these things because you know this word about balance so many times
if people, know, they want to be an employee, but they want to maximize, you know, their
399
00:34:06,484 --> 00:34:09,745
income and they want this balance of home life and personal life.
400
00:34:09,745 --> 00:34:14,487
And then when we sit down and have an honest conversation about the person that says, I'm
going to start my business.
401
00:34:14,487 --> 00:34:16,188
Tell me how I can find a balance in life.
402
00:34:16,188 --> 00:34:17,848
And a lot of us laugh.
403
00:34:18,289 --> 00:34:18,899
I mean, we do.
404
00:34:18,899 --> 00:34:21,590
like, what are you talking about?
405
00:34:21,590 --> 00:34:22,410
There's no balance.
406
00:34:22,410 --> 00:34:24,171
It's just all the time.
407
00:34:24,291 --> 00:34:28,823
But it's true too is because lose
408
00:34:28,823 --> 00:34:38,244
lose the wrong percentage of optimism, you probably won't take the necessary risks to
learn the lesson that then you can still survive the mistake to then do it right.
409
00:34:38,946 --> 00:34:45,053
Because too much pessimism will cause you not to do it and not to take action, which won't
lead you to the end to accomplish the thing you want.
410
00:34:45,053 --> 00:34:48,087
So boy, as we talk about it, this journey is tough.
411
00:34:49,997 --> 00:34:55,077
It's incredibly tough, you know, and if it wasn't tough, everybody'd be doing it.
412
00:34:55,077 --> 00:35:00,477
And that's what me and my business partners talk about sometimes too is, yeah, it is hard.
413
00:35:00,477 --> 00:35:02,457
And I think that's where the passion comes in.
414
00:35:02,457 --> 00:35:09,057
know, whatever you do, you know, whether it's iron door smelting, real estate,
restaurants.
415
00:35:09,337 --> 00:35:17,125
Yeah, there's got to be some level of passion or pride in what you do that powers you
through the hard times, you know, like
416
00:35:17,125 --> 00:35:24,025
When I was an accountant, worked half the amount of hours, you know, and I've got twice
the amount of sleep than I get today.
417
00:35:24,145 --> 00:35:32,145
Somehow I've got twice the amount of energy despite that, you know, and there's a lot of
excitement for what I do.
418
00:35:32,145 --> 00:35:40,265
And I think that just powers me through, you know, the excitement and the optimism for
what I do, powers me through the hard times.
419
00:35:40,265 --> 00:35:42,065
And we talk about balance too.
420
00:35:42,065 --> 00:35:44,719
mean, it's just to give your opinion on.
421
00:35:44,719 --> 00:35:49,734
How do you have balance when you've grown a business that doubles in size every 24 months?
422
00:35:49,734 --> 00:35:52,727
Some use even every year.
423
00:35:53,209 --> 00:35:58,763
I think the world's trying to force a word on us that doesn't apply to our situation.
424
00:35:59,524 --> 00:36:00,373
Yeah.
425
00:36:00,399 --> 00:36:03,264
Yeah, uh it's not the right word.
426
00:36:04,037 --> 00:36:13,337
It gets tough to talk about that with, you know, even some of my best friends who know me
well, we'll talk about balance and it's, they're really sometimes high conversation to
427
00:36:13,337 --> 00:36:22,717
have because it's, it's hard to describe why you don't have it in that exact moment where
you just haven't had it for a little while, but you want it at the same time.
428
00:36:22,717 --> 00:36:28,237
You know, it sounds so obvious to somebody's not, know, you can see the forest beyond the
trees.
429
00:36:29,669 --> 00:36:34,969
Yeah, I mean, there's got to be some sense of, you can have everything you want, you just
can't have it all the time.
430
00:36:34,969 --> 00:36:38,871
Yeah, but here's what I think the world is trying to tell us with balance.
431
00:36:38,871 --> 00:36:47,079
And even in the moments that we've had to go all in and we're exhausted and maybe, you
know, that word burnout starts to creep in and what am I doing?
432
00:36:47,079 --> 00:36:49,069
Do I still see the vision?
433
00:36:49,069 --> 00:36:53,184
Like we tamped those down, but they still arrived a little bit because we're human.
434
00:36:53,184 --> 00:36:56,446
But here's what the world is asking us with balance.
435
00:36:56,446 --> 00:36:59,588
They're saying, where's the switch?
436
00:37:00,970 --> 00:37:05,153
When you're running businesses until you've built a bohemoth.
437
00:37:05,569 --> 00:37:11,173
You don't get to have a switch at any time for any day, for any week, for any month.
438
00:37:11,173 --> 00:37:14,875
You don't get to turn the light switch off and go home.
439
00:37:15,356 --> 00:37:23,442
Because when you're the entrepreneur, when you turn the light switch off at one of your
cafes, there's the business still to run.
440
00:37:23,442 --> 00:37:27,525
There's the inventory, there's the HR, there's all the accounting, there's everything.
441
00:37:27,525 --> 00:37:33,839
And your brain, every moment that you're awake, even if you're out in an event and you can
be black tie.
442
00:37:33,839 --> 00:37:40,574
There is some text, there's some email, there's something on your brain that's critical
for that business that is there.
443
00:37:40,835 --> 00:37:51,244
And so the balance they're talking about is saying, well, what time can I switch that off,
that priority and that pressure off and flip on the part of life that I want to balance?
444
00:37:51,244 --> 00:37:53,585
And my message is never.
445
00:37:54,867 --> 00:37:55,387
Never.
446
00:37:55,387 --> 00:37:58,730
And so what you do have to find is that's why this passion creeps in.
447
00:37:58,730 --> 00:38:02,583
What we have to find, what is essential is to just say,
448
00:38:02,649 --> 00:38:06,687
You have to find a way to have it all flow at all times together.
449
00:38:06,957 --> 00:38:08,963
Hmm, I love that.
450
00:38:08,963 --> 00:38:12,614
When you're on the surfboard, you were in Australia a couple of weeks ago, right?
451
00:38:12,674 --> 00:38:17,725
I bet that when you were surfing, I don't know if it was for a couple hours.
452
00:38:17,725 --> 00:38:18,686
don't know how often you would do it.
453
00:38:18,686 --> 00:38:20,776
would assume a couple hours, two or three hours.
454
00:38:22,017 --> 00:38:27,118
I bet there were moments on the walk to the beach that you're in the ocean.
455
00:38:27,118 --> 00:38:30,599
You're on the wave, you're falling off or at the end of the day.
456
00:38:30,679 --> 00:38:33,820
I'm assuming that that entire time, and if so, you've conquered it.
457
00:38:33,820 --> 00:38:38,271
I'm assuming that entire time wasn't just there mentally.
458
00:38:38,975 --> 00:38:40,148
There's promise.
459
00:38:40,148 --> 00:38:41,892
See, that's what I'm talking about.
460
00:38:41,892 --> 00:38:49,579
And so what entrepreneurship gives us though, it does give us more freedom in life to do
more things altogether.
461
00:38:50,725 --> 00:38:52,025
Absolutely.
462
00:38:52,085 --> 00:38:52,765
Absolutely.
463
00:38:53,145 --> 00:38:55,225
And you, you just phrase it.
464
00:38:55,225 --> 00:38:57,145
This is such an interesting topic, right?
465
00:38:57,145 --> 00:39:05,805
I think these are the kind of conversations you have with mentors that completely calm you
down and can humanize the whole thing.
466
00:39:05,805 --> 00:39:08,585
Like, oh my God, you're going through this as well.
467
00:39:08,825 --> 00:39:10,565
You know, to a certain extent, awesome.
468
00:39:10,565 --> 00:39:12,725
There's something really relieving to know though.
469
00:39:12,725 --> 00:39:14,045
Yeah, that is the journey.
470
00:39:14,045 --> 00:39:17,265
It's up, down, it's sideways, it's all the time.
471
00:39:17,425 --> 00:39:20,591
And I think when you talk to mentors and they
472
00:39:20,591 --> 00:39:30,745
talk about having those hard phases or periods where balance is just completely out, you
know, and you can understand that and get comfortable with that.
473
00:39:30,785 --> 00:39:43,110
Then you start to just accept the journey, you know, and something really cool happens
where when you accept it, you stop thinking about how your life hasn't begun yet because
474
00:39:43,110 --> 00:39:50,013
there's this, I think there's a dangerous part of entrepreneurship that can get your minds
displaced.
475
00:39:50,175 --> 00:39:53,226
I will be happy when this thing happens.
476
00:39:53,306 --> 00:39:58,229
And for me, it was like, I'll be happy when I have one location up and running.
477
00:39:58,229 --> 00:39:59,669
I told myself that.
478
00:39:59,869 --> 00:40:04,291
And then it became, I'll be happy when I have two locations, when I'm in another state.
479
00:40:04,291 --> 00:40:09,233
Well, now we're in three states with multiple locations and all these different states.
480
00:40:09,233 --> 00:40:14,165
I'm way beyond anything of my wildest dreams, but somehow I haven't arrived yet.
481
00:40:14,165 --> 00:40:17,467
You know, somehow life hasn't started yet.
482
00:40:17,467 --> 00:40:18,467
And that
483
00:40:18,467 --> 00:40:31,008
That's the little mental, you know, hurdle that I'm now finally kind of learning to get
around of, know, your life has started, you have arrived, you know, enjoy it as much as
484
00:40:31,008 --> 00:40:31,542
you can.
485
00:40:31,542 --> 00:40:42,608
You're going to have days that are really hard, you know, weeks that are really hard, but
stop convincing yourself that you can be happy when this thing happens, you know, and, and
486
00:40:42,608 --> 00:40:46,277
start waking up every day and realizing
487
00:40:46,277 --> 00:40:52,097
that you you're in the journey you'll probably look back in 50 sitting.
488
00:40:52,097 --> 00:41:00,497
When I got to the destination I finally realized that it was the journey all along that
was the alchemy.
489
00:41:00,497 --> 00:41:11,337
He's telling me authors write about the kind of alchemy of a journey and it's even though
you would like have you ever heard about the Mexican fishermen parable?
490
00:41:11,337 --> 00:41:14,469
I love that story and it's like yeah it's not
491
00:41:14,469 --> 00:41:17,329
It's not where you start, where you end up with.
492
00:41:17,349 --> 00:41:19,169
It's kind of the journey.
493
00:41:19,169 --> 00:41:26,289
I'm now, only now in recent times, getting really happy and comfortable with going through
the journey.
494
00:41:26,289 --> 00:41:26,989
Like this is it.
495
00:41:26,989 --> 00:41:30,309
This isn't the magic, you know, it's the conversations like this.
496
00:41:30,309 --> 00:41:31,769
It's the pull something happens.
497
00:41:31,769 --> 00:41:35,569
It's you know, the Sunday trip to San Antonio to open a location.
498
00:41:35,569 --> 00:41:38,509
so it's, I have arrived.
499
00:41:38,509 --> 00:41:39,449
It has started.
500
00:41:39,449 --> 00:41:43,889
And finally I'm starting to enjoy it a little bit more than when I was younger.
501
00:41:44,203 --> 00:41:53,515
On our toughest days, what I find I'm doing for this company of, you know, how many ever,
lot of people now, all these different companies that I'm operating and running.
502
00:41:55,681 --> 00:41:58,453
I tend to fall back on this one statement to everyone.
503
00:41:58,453 --> 00:42:02,345
look at it I'm like, Hey y'all, this is why we get paid big bucks.
504
00:42:03,466 --> 00:42:13,233
This, this big problem that's in front of us right now, I would rather be in the position
to be the one that gets to solve this problem versus not.
505
00:42:13,934 --> 00:42:19,357
And when we're in entrepreneur, when we become entrepreneurs and we start something, this
is it.
506
00:42:20,138 --> 00:42:20,748
This is it.
507
00:42:20,748 --> 00:42:25,037
Like we are raising our hand and saying, I want to be at the forefront.
508
00:42:25,037 --> 00:42:28,318
I want to be the, the terminator of my destiny.
509
00:42:28,318 --> 00:42:33,201
want to make sure that I can have as much effect on my outcome as leaving it up to someone
else.
510
00:42:33,201 --> 00:42:38,382
Well, that journey is fraught with having new things every day that we previously didn't
know how to deal with.
511
00:42:38,483 --> 00:42:42,585
And what we have to do is accept that that's the journey.
512
00:42:42,585 --> 00:42:47,566
So daily, when three or four things show up that are really hard to deal with, say, this
is it.
513
00:42:47,987 --> 00:42:49,307
This, this is the thing.
514
00:42:49,307 --> 00:42:53,123
And once I do deal with it and overcome it, regardless of the outcome,
515
00:42:53,123 --> 00:42:57,757
I'm going to be better to deal with that same thing again and more prepared to deal with
the next level of hard.
516
00:42:57,757 --> 00:43:01,419
And so, yeah, I do think that we have to be careful.
517
00:43:01,613 --> 00:43:04,272
I always want to keep building and want to keep growing.
518
00:43:04,272 --> 00:43:06,713
want the journey to go further and longer.
519
00:43:06,713 --> 00:43:11,808
I want to be a part of something that has significant impact as no doubt you do today too.
520
00:43:11,808 --> 00:43:19,083
I want that, but we also have to understand that 10 years ago, I would have signed up from
where I'm at right now.
521
00:43:21,029 --> 00:43:24,010
100 % and so you wouldn't get it.
522
00:43:25,011 --> 00:43:25,592
That's it.
523
00:43:25,592 --> 00:43:26,092
That's it.
524
00:43:26,092 --> 00:43:29,524
Because there's so many people that it could have been that they quit.
525
00:43:29,524 --> 00:43:30,965
It could have been, they just didn't get lucky.
526
00:43:30,965 --> 00:43:31,795
There's a lot of things.
527
00:43:31,795 --> 00:43:35,918
There's a lot of people that didn't get here where you're at with these six locations.
528
00:43:35,918 --> 00:43:39,600
I'm sure that you probably have revenue per those six locations.
529
00:43:39,600 --> 00:43:42,061
You're probably the first and second store.
530
00:43:42,061 --> 00:43:46,804
You probably crushed the competition at your per customer spend.
531
00:43:46,804 --> 00:43:48,675
Your margin was probably great.
532
00:43:48,675 --> 00:43:56,059
Then when you open your second one went down for your first, then you're there, you're
probably just now getting back to your fifth and sixth location, your understanding margin
533
00:43:56,059 --> 00:43:56,728
of scale.
534
00:43:56,728 --> 00:44:05,304
And you're going to start to be able to compound some things, but you're probably still
beating the average person that's in your segment.
535
00:44:05,304 --> 00:44:06,815
You probably still are.
536
00:44:06,815 --> 00:44:08,756
How's that not winning and succeeding?
537
00:44:08,756 --> 00:44:11,967
I mean, you couldn't sell me on how it's not.
538
00:44:13,349 --> 00:44:15,069
Yeah, I love the way you put it.
539
00:44:15,069 --> 00:44:16,809
It's a full mentality shift though, isn't it?
540
00:44:16,809 --> 00:44:20,389
Like you have to remind yourself, yeah, this is why you're paying big bucks.
541
00:44:20,389 --> 00:44:22,949
There's a lot of different ways to say what you're saying.
542
00:44:22,949 --> 00:44:28,229
And really what you're saying is like, you know, hang on, how grateful I might have been
in this moment.
543
00:44:28,229 --> 00:44:37,129
I get to be in this, in this sea, you know, at times overwhelmed by this state, the level
of traction of success.
544
00:44:37,309 --> 00:44:39,449
You know, that yeah, the problems come with it.
545
00:44:39,449 --> 00:44:42,873
That's part of the journeys, but this is what I always dreamed of.
546
00:44:42,873 --> 00:44:49,675
You know, when I was an accountant sitting at that desk for, you know, those couple of
years, I'd be dreaming of being this scene and now I'm here.
547
00:44:49,675 --> 00:44:54,916
And that's another way of saying, you know, I have a right life started and it's, it's
never gonna be perfect.
548
00:44:54,916 --> 00:45:03,259
The more that you can realize that is the more that you can enjoy that when you're in
work, when you're out of work, you just, it's, it's a journey, man.
549
00:45:03,259 --> 00:45:05,489
And, uh, I think that's a huge difference.
550
00:45:05,489 --> 00:45:12,951
Like I can really relax a lot more now and roll with the punches and the good times
because I know that that's to be true.
551
00:45:13,061 --> 00:45:20,101
But yeah, to your point, Citizens, it's just had a really exciting place.
552
00:45:20,261 --> 00:45:24,721
The kind of problems I'm working on, kind of things on the horizon.
553
00:45:24,721 --> 00:45:27,161
And I always dreamt of being here.
554
00:45:27,881 --> 00:45:36,761
we're now going to be in, when we end this year, we'll be in New York, Austin, Houston,
and San Antonio.
555
00:45:36,761 --> 00:45:41,541
And we've got this really bright outlook for the next five years and a real shock.
556
00:45:41,541 --> 00:45:48,261
at kind of winning our segment and getting the company to 40 locations and over a hundred
million dollars of revenue.
557
00:45:48,541 --> 00:45:50,341
It's just, always dreamt for that.
558
00:45:51,081 --> 00:45:56,721
But you can only see how far in front of you that is realistic.
559
00:45:56,721 --> 00:45:59,981
When I was at one location, I was only ever focused on getting to two.
560
00:45:59,981 --> 00:46:03,441
One of the two locations, I only ever really focused on three or four.
561
00:46:03,441 --> 00:46:05,461
I never really tried to look.
562
00:46:05,801 --> 00:46:09,081
When I think about 40 locations, that's the top of the mountain.
563
00:46:09,081 --> 00:46:10,461
And I think about it,
564
00:46:10,469 --> 00:46:15,389
when I get up in the morning and I think about it I go to bed and I know where I'm going.
565
00:46:15,649 --> 00:46:24,489
We know how we want to get there as a team through what markets, how big are our
restaurants, what capital, what kind of capital does it take to get through certain
566
00:46:24,489 --> 00:46:25,429
segments?
567
00:46:25,429 --> 00:46:35,849
And I think that's a really, that's a really cool part of the journey now is when I was
younger in this role, in this brand, it was more just looking one foot in front of me to
568
00:46:35,849 --> 00:46:38,769
the next location, to the next step, to the next problem.
569
00:46:38,981 --> 00:46:49,121
think as you mature and the brand and the business settles, you have these really crystal
clear goals of where we want to get to.
570
00:46:49,121 --> 00:46:51,221
40 locations is our dream goal.
571
00:46:51,221 --> 00:46:54,421
And then you have these little sprees in front of you, you get to that.
572
00:46:54,421 --> 00:47:02,601
that's part of, that's the stage of business now where we're out with citizens and we feel
really good as a team.
573
00:47:02,601 --> 00:47:05,741
The brand works in multiple markets, multiple cities.
574
00:47:05,881 --> 00:47:08,701
And sometimes what's cool is I walk into one of our restaurants,
575
00:47:08,805 --> 00:47:10,265
And it's beyond you.
576
00:47:10,265 --> 00:47:12,025
The culture is taking flight.
577
00:47:12,025 --> 00:47:17,005
And to me, the culture is how we make decisions, how we treat our team, how we treat our
guests.
578
00:47:17,285 --> 00:47:23,105
And it's not necessarily around what Justin or Andrew do as the founders or what they
want.
579
00:47:23,105 --> 00:47:24,765
It's the culture speaks for itself.
580
00:47:24,765 --> 00:47:33,705
The leaders know how to deal with a situation or problem or something really positive
because of the culture it forms in.
581
00:47:33,893 --> 00:47:39,573
Sometimes I would walk into one of our restaurants opening or just a restaurant I hadn't
been to in a month or so.
582
00:47:39,573 --> 00:47:51,953
And it's really, really tremendous to see the living and breathing culture of the business
just doing its thing and succeeding by virtue of, you know, kind of what you've built at
583
00:47:51,953 --> 00:47:53,853
the core, if that makes sense.
584
00:47:54,425 --> 00:47:55,406
can't wait, man.
585
00:47:55,406 --> 00:47:58,628
If I, if we would have had this, were just back in Manhattan recently.
586
00:47:58,628 --> 00:47:59,689
We've been there twice.
587
00:47:59,689 --> 00:48:01,030
We need to come to Texas.
588
00:48:01,030 --> 00:48:02,691
I want to come and experience the culture.
589
00:48:02,691 --> 00:48:07,084
want to be boots on the ground and say, Hey, what, makes this citizens all day?
590
00:48:07,084 --> 00:48:09,865
It's not necessarily different, but what makes it go?
591
00:48:09,865 --> 00:48:12,407
Um, I'm pumped to step into one of them, man.
592
00:48:13,081 --> 00:48:14,564
Yeah, we'll keep you posted.
593
00:48:14,564 --> 00:48:21,379
I'd love to host you for a lunch and show you around some Australian hospitality and
culture and we'd love to do it.
594
00:48:21,379 --> 00:48:21,930
Awesome, man.
595
00:48:21,930 --> 00:48:23,083
Hey, we could talk for hours.
596
00:48:23,083 --> 00:48:29,569
We better jump off of here because we're going to bore them and we need to get them into
your stores and spend some of this American money.
597
00:48:30,674 --> 00:48:41,915
It oh was awesome talking to you and everything from the American endeavour and the
culture to starting business and trading some really awesome wisdom with you as well.
598
00:48:41,915 --> 00:48:43,107
It's been a pleasure.
599
00:48:43,107 --> 00:48:44,329
Hey, it's mutual, man.
600
00:48:44,329 --> 00:48:44,769
I'm pumped.
601
00:48:44,769 --> 00:48:45,720
I'm pumped to get down there.
602
00:48:45,720 --> 00:48:53,279
So if they find themselves in Houston, Austin, San Antonio, or New York city, come give
citizens some love.
603
00:48:54,425 --> 00:48:54,964
Yes, sir.
604
00:48:54,964 --> 00:48:56,033
Please do.
605
00:48:56,057 --> 00:48:57,148
Justin, you the man.
606
00:48:57,148 --> 00:48:58,302
Thanks, brother.







