Welcome to Action Solves Everything, the show for those who want to stop overthinking and start producing. I'm your host, Alex Montagano, broker, leader, and founder of Lockstep Realty. Around here, we believe movement creates momentum, clarity comes from doing, and the agents who take action are the ones who win. Every episode is built to help you grow your skills, your confidence, and your career. Now, let's get to work. Welcome to another episode of Action Solves Everything. I got a special guest today, Dr. Greg Pursley. He is the author of Fix Your BS. What an awesome name for a book. But it is a book that focuses on your belief systems and then also your business systems within small business. So Greg focuses on the service side of the business with regards to particularly small business under$3 million in revenue. Greg, awesome to connect today. What's Hey, nice to connect as well. I appreciate you having me on. I'm excited to be Yeah, definitely. Well, tell us a little bit about what you're working on and how you got to where you did with the book title Fix Your BS. When I saw and started learning more about you, I was enamored by that. It jumps off the page of me. So I'd love to learn a little bit how you got to that and Yeah, absolutely. So the phrase fixture BS was a long time developing, but really it comes from the fact that my wife and I have two kids. Our second kid was born with special needs. He had a lot of lung issues, had to have a trach and event. And in having that trach and event, we had to focus on keeping our family together and just like getting through the day. Like we didn't know if he was going to make it day to day. And that affected our daughter growing up. It affected our relationship, our business, our money. So you can imagine all the thoughts going around. in our own head. And so we had to deal with figuring that out. Once he started to get better, we had to fix our own beliefs about what we were capable of. And I had to also fix our business systems because I found out that I owned a job instead of an actual business. I wanted to take a vacation and my wife's like, I don't know, are you able to do that? Because we have to shut the business down. Well, that's when I decided back in 2019, I've got to figure out a way to build a business so I can provide the life that I wanted to provide for my family that I always had in mind, but I had a decade of delay. So the first step was fix my own beliefs. And then the Man, there is so much good there. I think one of the things that I wrote down, it's like you owned a job versus actually own a business. And look, I have a ton of friends that work in the real estate space or work in small business. And so much of it goes back to those life things that don't allow them to do what they say the reason they actually started what they're doing is. And, you know, I had twins three and a half years ago. You know, they're they turned four in June. So it's actually they're closer to four. It's crazy. But I remember when we got home from the hospital, there's two little babies sitting there. Somebody from my team called me and they were like, hey, I need you to jump on a phone with so-and-so and help with this client deal. And as somebody that had done so much boots on the ground work for 12, 13 years as a realtor before that, I knew in that very moment that things had to change. So I would just love for you to talk a little more about what that transition looked like for you and how you went from somebody owning a job to somebody actually owning a Well, really it all started when my wife wanted to go on a vacation. So I'll back up. Our son was born with dwarfism, which is a form of, it's called achondroplasia. So your bones don't grow as long as they should. And so therefore your short stature and the bones are kind of soft. And so it causes other issues sometimes as well. Every year we go to something called Little People of America. It's a conference for anybody that has dwarfism. And we thought that was very important because dwarfism is one in 50,000 births. It's very, very rare in that we live in a town of about 100,000 people, about 30 to 40,000 births a year. So that means every other year, basically, there's one little person born. Okay. So there's not anybody like him around here. So we thought every year we need to go to this thing. Well, even when he was really, really in critical condition, we would drive because it was important for him to be near other people like him, but also important for us to have resources that we could work together on, on, on helping him and helping our family. And so, um, Over the years, we wanted to stay the entire week, but we weren't able to stay a lot of times because I had to take off on a Wednesday or Thursday, come back on a Monday or Tuesday because I couldn't be gone that much. Otherwise, the thing was shut down. And so that was the biggest issue. I hated looking at my wife in the face and saying, well, I really can't take all that time off. And as he got older and got better, he wanted to stay longer to hang out with his friends. Because imagine you only get to hang out with people like you one week a year, right? You want to be there. And so it was years of that culmination that turned into, I got to figure out how to run a business. I got to figure out how to recruit people. I got to figure out how to implement systems. I got to figure out how to do the marketing so I can delegate that to someone and actually have it be effective. That's how it developed. But what I found in the process is that most business owners that are small business owners, they know how to do a thing and they think, I'm going to do this thing and I'm going to own my own business, but they don't. They own a job and it's actually harder and you get paid the same or worse than working for someone else. So what I specialize in now, I took my chiropractic clinic, turned it into a regenerative medicine clinic, hired great talent. We took it from a few hundred thousand a year to three million per year. But the best part was, is I was able to pull myself out of the day to day moment to moment so I could do stuff like this. And when I started to do that, friends of mine took note and said, can you teach us how to do that? So it turned into a consulting coaching process to help other people define their business and implement systems to build So I want to go back a little bit when you were like feeling the greatest pain behind this. How big was your operation that Oh, when I felt the worst, it was when it was me and I mean, it was, you know, we're doing 300,000 a year. I'm making about 75, you know, it's like working 75 hours a week. Yeah. I'm treating 150 people a week. I can't, I don't want to treat more people. You know, I can't make more money than I, because I, otherwise I'd have to treat more people to do that. Anyway, it was a long process of a lot of mistakes, let me tell you. But in the end, in learning those mistakes, now I can teach other people about what to look out for and how to avoid those. And it compresses time and Yeah, definitely. So talk a little bit about what that transition looked like for you. Are you tearing everything down? Are you closing shop? What does that transition look like for you in this process, in this overhaul to get where you are today? And then what does today look like for you around some In that transition of the company from what it was to where it needed to be, I kept the mission the same. The mission was improve outcomes without using meds, steroids, or surgery, but I knew there was more that we needed to do for patients. So I looked and figured out there was another company, there was other companies, but one of them that I really liked, and I modeled what they were already doing, and we implemented medical services that surrounded that same mission. So, I didn't have to tear it down. What I ended up doing was transferring the current patient base into this new product and service that was able to get better results with less risk. So, what I came up with in that process was what I call the five A's. The first A is aim. You have to have a target. You have to have a very specific aim. The second step is you have to accept where you currently are. So A, second A is accept, means it's data. It's look at the reality and accept it. Don't think about or feel it or emotionally think you're somewhere. No, know it. What does the data tell you? And then accept what the data says. Third is you want to accentuate the things that are already working. So we double down on things that were working. Fourth, we had to abandon the things that were not working. And sometimes that means people. Sometimes that means habits. Sometimes that means thoughts. Sometimes that means beliefs. Sometimes that means location or offerings or whatever. But if it's not working, get rid of it. And then the fifth thing is we have to apply new actions. We have to apply new actions. So we need new information and new actions. And that's how you apply new actions. You get new information. And so that's where the modeling came from. So when I created the five A's, it was basically like, okay, what's a system, a framework that we could use to change my own personal life, which then I found out could also change a department, which could also change the entire unit. And it's a very simple framework. So if somebody comes to me and they're like, hey, you know, what's my goal? I'm like, you need to find out what your what's your target, what's your aim? And then we can put all the A's in order. But most of the time, people have very vague targets. I want to make more money. OK, that's not a very good target. You have to have an actual something to aim at and very specific, by the way, to do that. So then everything else falls This is. Man, this is like a universe aligning timing of conversation because at Lockstep at the real estate brokerage I run, we have shifted what our goals are and a bit of what our aim is because we realized the aim that we had in place was something that was no longer attainable. It was not something that we wanted. Big for the sake of big is not good all the time. About six weeks ago, I asked our staff, I was like, how do we feel about those targets that we had? And I saw the room feel this like sense of like, man, I was hoping you would ask this, but I never saw you doing this. And so it's like it's really interesting around that. And when you talk about like what works and doubling down and then what doesn't in abandoning, I've taken, you know, I'm somebody that's built my systems and my business and my success on like, hey, I'll go buy a lead generation system. I'll take the leads, I'll turn the leads into transactions, and then I'll turn those into referrals and scale and grow through that. What I've noticed internally, we have a bunch of tech that people on our staff and our team don't care about. And so I was like, hey, for the sake of an exercise, let's start ridding of stuff. Let's start abandoning these things. And so we've cut I think I just saw it's like six system tech things. And I've said, hey, look, like, what do we do really well? And it's like we care about people and caring is like it. The cost of caring is like time and attention. And it's something that we do really, really well. So when you say like accentuate what you do, it's like we've doubled down on the fact of like, hey, I want to spending more time with our agents asking higher quality, more directed actual questions. And then. Oh, by the way, all this tech stack that we've asked you guys to learn that you don't really care about, it's gone. So you don't have to worry about it anymore. And what we've seen is a shift from our staff, like our leadership community of like, hey, like here are the three things you just need to hone in and do all the time. And the people that are put in that seat to do it, it's like when you say Accentuate, it's like this is what they crush. This other tech stuff, it's like they look at me and they're like, why do you keep buying this stuff? Nobody wants it. And it's like, well, I would want it. And it's like, well, you don't do that job anymore. And I think the other side, this has been a piece of heartburn that I'm experiencing now is it's like this aim you talk about being so specific. A lot of us operate in generalities, and it's like, I feel good, and I think we do, and I'm pretty sure we're on track. And it's like actually drilling down with fact to accept is something as business owners, I think everybody needs to do a better job of. And look, those are the realities. A friend of mine says this, do not bring your feelings to a fact fight. And so when you're analyzing this data, like you said, it is fact-based, it tells the story, and it is what matters so much in all of this. So, man, I just love the timing of this. It's so fascinating. But why don't you go further beyond that and continue down the path of what that framework has done for you, and then continue from Yeah, sure. Well, something you just mentioned there. If somebody says, I feel like the first thing that comes to my mind is what does the data tell me? So if somebody says, well, I feel like he's doing really well. Well, what was the actual target of the goal? Something you highlighted there as far as in business as well. One of the reasons why owners become the bottleneck is because the team comes back to the owner to get direction instead of the owner developing the team to direct themselves. Okay. And that is a, when you talk about the belief system side, you have to change your, it has to be intentional and you have to change who you believe you are. So if I'm acting as a CEO, my goal as a CEO is different than if I'm working in the company. If I'm the CEO, I'm making sure that everything is being executed effectively, and the data tells me whether that is or not. So if someone comes to me and they say, hey, I'm thinking about doing this thing, I'm like, what is the outcome that you're looking for in your position? And what is the target that that outcome is related to? And if they know those two things, then it's pretty easy to go, well, does that thing make sense that you're talking about bringing in? So when you're talking about, hey, I would want this data or this analytic tool to come into your position. The question I would have as the CEO is, I would say, what are the limitations or the resistances that you are having in your position? Where's the bottleneck for you? Where do you feel like you're spending a lot of time with a very little outcome? that's not moving you towards your KPI, your result, the outcome, the target, right? And so when they answer that, then I do the 1-3-1 method. Have you ever heard of the 1-3-1? Oh, Dan Martell. Oh, he highlighted it. He became very famous, but I've been using this for years and he didn't come up with it. It's been around for a long time. But okay, so if you know what your target is, you know where your aim is, If you know, you look at where the limitation is, then you say, OK, we'll create that limitation in the form of a question, come up with three solutions and then come up with the one that you think will work best and then bring that one to me. Like, hey, here's the problem I found. I put it into a question. Here's some solutions that I believe would work. Here's the one I want to do. And then as a manager, I've taught that person or I'm sorry, the owner, I've taught that person how to How much are you, are you allowing in like that instance specifically? Um, how much do you lean into the concept of like, go, just go ahead and dent the car decision-making autonomy for, for staff that you manage. Um, and what does that look like in They're going to earn, the staff are going to earn the respect and the trust based on the decisions that they made over time, and you know which staff members are functioning properly at the highest peak. And you know when they have other things that are affecting them. If you're the owner and your corporation is big enough, then the managers should know in their department, their sections, who's operating effectively or not. And what's really funny to me is People get this idea that the way it is is the way it should be, and the way it's always been done is the way it's gonna be done. And that's not really, with AI and all the apps and all the programs and all these things that you could connect, it's moving really, really quickly. So you have to be able to adapt based on something, not feelings. You can't adapt based on feelings. You have to adapt based on data. really great example of that. So really great example, one of my employees one time goes, I'm really very, very director type of person, very, you know, in a disk profile would be like a driver, okay? So somebody that's like, I gotta hit goals, right? They started freaking out. Now we have multiple departments that drive in revenue. And so her department was down in revenue compared to where they currently were, right? And so she's freaking out. Oh my God, we're not gonna hit our bonus. The bonus for her is based on all the revenue because she's a high-level employee. But her department was down and she was trying to figure out this thing. And I said, what does the data show you? And she said, the data shows that this person's outperforming the other people, number one. And number two, if I look at the data across the entire company, we're actually up as far as revenue goes. So she was thinking, I'm not going to get a bonus because our numbers are down and our numbers have always been the strongest. So therefore the rest of the company is not going to produce enough to give us the bonus. And I'm like, what? That was a feeling. What does the data show you? All of a sudden our emotional states flipped. She got excited. OK, this person is underperforming. I need to figure out what the person that's overperforming is doing so I can bring them up to that level. And look, I'm going to get a bonus because the rest of the company is performing and my bonus would be even bigger once this person comes up to the level of that person. And all of a sudden there's excitement. But if she had gone off the feeling. The It's incredible to have this conversation just because it's like. So many of us especially because access to information, distractions that exist, whether it's like through your phone or any social channel of information. And we're like programmed to feel what we consume, right? So like you're constantly consuming whatever's on your Instagram reels or your Facebook or whatever it is that you get your I'm going to play off of that real quick. Yeah, absolutely. I think focus is the most limited commodity there is today. I think focus is the hardest thing to do. And when you say to your team or to other individuals, I'm not doing that, I am focusing on this. Today, it's like almost an expectation that, wait, what do you mean you're going to focus on that? You didn't respond to my email or my text or my call. There must be something wrong. Do you not like me? Oh, my gosh, dude, if you can control your focus and control your environment around that focus. That's why Alex Hormoza, he's like, you know, put on headphones, put a timer and freaking just dive in and focus on solving this one problem without any distractions, shuts the windows or doesn't have any windows like just Focus, because focus today is so, everybody's just so distracted. It is diluted. Focus is so diluted with things and tones and emails and other distractions. So the best advice I have for anyone out there, is to learn and develop the habit, the muscle of focus. So you can get more done with less time, which is what leverage is. How do I do less work and get more output? Well, focus is how you do a lot A superpower of today, right? I mean, I'd be curious, like you share a little bit about Hermoses and I love his like, forget your, what did you say? Forget your morning routine, like get up and just work as hard as you can for as long as you can. And like, look, everybody. When you do what he's done or you do what some of the other most successful people do, they earn the right to create their own workflow that works for them. And look, I think that's incredible and something he's accomplished to do. I'd be curious to learn what is a way that you have strengthened your ability to focus and what is your routine around that Well, first it comes with the first A, the aim. If you know your target, then you know the things that need to get done to move you towards that target. And then you tell everyone around you, I don't, you know, don't distract me or I'm not going to respond or whatever, anyone in your life. You set those expectations and people don't realize you are actually training people how to treat you. Yeah. So if somebody comes in and barges in and distracts you and you're like, hey, do me a favor. Let's not. I'm focused on this thing. If we could in the future set up a time where you could talk to me about that or whatever. And what happens typically is they go figure it out. And the thing that they brought to you, they go figure out. But when you start setting up those boundaries, they stop coming to you to figure those things out for the most part. And it's just such a, it's a freeing thing, but it's also scary because you get used to the reactive mode all the time and people stop coming to you. And then you start thinking, oh my gosh, is everything okay? You know, it's, it's, you know, honestly, it's like all those pings and all those texts and all those pop ins and stuff. We, we selfishly, we use that as validation and a metric, like a, like a feeling metric of success, opposed to like you said, like, what does the data actually show you? Um, and like you said, it is a scary feeling because when your phone's not buzzing, it's like, Is the ship still sailing? Like, is our thing still happening? So it's a fascinating thing and something that we experience every day here. But why don't you dive more into how you've, like, evolved and learned about this, especially on the mental side, to make the transformations that you've made and then, like, really train your mind and your attitude Well, one of the things I teach is there's only four things you can actually control. You can control your thoughts. You control your beliefs, which your belief is nothing more than a thought that you've repeated enough times with enough emotion that you believe it becomes part of you. So your thoughts, your beliefs, your emotions, your emotions are the reactions from the beliefs that you have. The beliefs are kind of like a filter that you look at the world through. So the emotions you can control and then the actual actions. So those are the only four things you can control. So let's say I'm and you get overwhelmed sometimes, like I've been overwhelmed. I was last week. It was a Wednesday. But if I understand those are the four things I control. Well, where does emotion come from? It comes from belief and it comes from your thoughts, your thought processes. So I ask, what am I thinking about? And what do I believe about that thing that I'm thinking about? I'm thinking about this thing and I believe that if this doesn't work out, everything's going to crumble underneath me. Well, that's going to make me feel pretty scared, uncertain, overwhelmed, fearful. So in that state, I won't take actions. because in that state of emotion, I know the actions will not get me the result I'm after. So what do I do? I go and get in a new state. Now, how do you do that? Take a walk, go get something to eat, sit down, take a nap, cry it out, scream, I don't know, whatever you need to do. But I've learned this through years and years of training from different gurus that I've worked with, either in person or through different programs. And I'm talking 15 plus years, because my son is 18, almost 18, in another week, he'll be 18. But anyway, 18 years of in the beginning when he was born, it was like this new thing. We actually wrote a book called A New Kind of Normal because we thought we were headed in this direction and this is what normal was. We got a daughter, we've got a son, we own a business, we're going to live the American dream. And then he was born and it was like, oh, wait, what? This is unexpected. Now what? And A New Kind of Normal was kind of born with that. So this is 18 years of trying to figure me out and figure out things around me. But if you break it all down, it really becomes very, very simple. Go take action on things that you have an inclination to take action on. If you feel like, I don't know, I feel like doing this thing, there's a reason, do it. Pay attention whether it is enjoyable, if you like it, or if you don't like it. Like, was it something that lit you up and got you excited and you were like, oh, this is cool, I can see a future here and I'm excited about it. Or were you like, man, that really sucked. Not was it hard, but did it not align with you? Big difference. If you're about to do something and you feel that pit in your stomach, that means you're not in alignment. That's an emotion, that's fear, that's, you know, you feel this doubt creep up. So go out, experience life, figure out what works for you, figure out what lights you up in alignment and it gets you excited, and then do more of those things. Do less of the things that you don't like. If you feel guilty, bad, upset, sad, whatever, about the thing that you do afterwards, after you've done it, then don't do it anymore. And if you do more of that, your Because you're finding joy in what you do and you're doing things that you love. That are Because you're learning about why you're actually here on this earth and There's the two best days of your life, the day you were born, the day you find out why. The only way to find out why is by experiencing life. And so many people are afraid to take steps into what they feel like they should do. Man, I really feel like I've never been on a cruise. I really want to go on a cruise. Oh, you should try to, you know, start looking into it. Maybe book one. Oh, I can't. What do you mean you can't? Oh, because I'd have to go alone. Well, that doesn't mean you can't. That's a thought. You see how that like, OK, is it possible that there are other potential options? Could anybody go with you? What if you did go alone? Are there other people that go alone? See, the moment you say I can't, which is just a thought, a statement, you're saying I can't do it. Well, your brain shuts off. Your brain goes, OK, I guess we're not going on a cruise. So that happens day in, day out, moment to moment, every day. And if you pay attention and figure out your own thoughts, and then you question those thoughts, you're like, well, is that real? Is that actually true? And then you start to develop this muscle, this habit, because your thoughts aren't you. Your thoughts are your brain trying to protect you. Have you Well, yeah, you can push back and If you're not in a position where you need to push back. you may respond a little differently than if your back's against the wall and you don't have a choice, because the opportunity for negative thoughts, there is no time for that, or there is no open space to have that. So it's kind of the concept of like, if you give yourself an hour to complete a task, you'll complete it in an hour. If you give yourself a month to complete a task, you'll take a month. And so if you don't give yourself the out, or you don't have a choice but to accept a thought, but change your belief, you won't be Well, what I mean by that, so that goes back to focus, what you're talking about. If you give yourself 15 minutes to complete the task, you'll complete it in 15 minutes, and that's just focus. If you allow yourself to be distracted with your thoughts or other noises, yeah, you'll get distracted. But when I talk about beliefs, it's who you believe you are, and what you're capable of, and what's right for you, and what your... what you're able to achieve in your life. Because if you believe you're only able to achieve a certain amount, that's all you're going to ever be able to achieve. That's why people say, well, your net worth is your network. Well, your network is who you hang around with, hang around with the most. If you hang around with those people and they're high net worth individuals, then you will automatically over time become high net worth just by being next to those people. The phrase proximity is power. That's where that comes from. The closer you are to something, the more power you have over it, the more power it has over you. So the point with that is is if I know by exposure of life that I'm like, man, I really have this inkling that I want to own a Porsche. Why? Don't know. It just feels like I want to. OK, well, then what's the next step? Well, the next step is to join some Porsche groups. It's to go and hang out at the dealership. It's to go test drive some. It's to go talk about them. It's to go hang out with other people and whatever. And then all of a sudden you start to figure out, how to own one. And guess what? Other people that own Porsches probably are able to afford them. So they're going to talk about how they afforded them and what they do and how they make money. And therefore you become somebody that is more likely to own a Porsche. And when it becomes the most logical next step in your life is when it actually happens. But when it becomes the most logical next step in your life, you will already feel the excitement of owning one. Then guess what? That's when it becomes a reality. But when you say, man, I'd really like to own a Porsche, and you don't take any action toward it, then you're just putting a want out into the universe, a desire that you're like, I wish I had one, but I'm not worthy. Well, no, you're not worthy because you haven't experienced it enough to actually feel like it's the logical next step. And that happens for every single thing in your life, every single thing. If you feel like you want something, there's a reason why you want it. So then the question is, great, I have to expose myself to that thing enough to where it becomes more Man, that is incredibly powerful. My mind's going like 100 miles an hour about stuff, but I want to continue to give you the floor to share more about like, what is important in a passion of yours. So what else would you like to touch on for the listeners about just all of this stuff about the mind and the belief systems and things like Well, I mean, I've shared a lot and there's a When I say a lot of times when I say about emotions, people think, well, you don't have control of your emotions. I'm like, yes, you do. You do have control because you agree with that. Yeah, because I can take you back to the worst and saddest day of your entire life and you will feel sad. It's not actually happening. But because you're thinking about it, and because you have an emotion about it, you feel sad, or because you have a belief about it, or you were in the moment at the time, you have an emotion surrounding that thought. Sure. If you drive past a cemetery and you see a funeral and you don't know who the person is in the funeral, you're not going to be as emotionally connected or attached. It might feel kind of sad. Now, if you know the person in the funeral, all of a sudden you have a higher emotional state. So you can control your emotions with your thoughts. The understanding is when you have an emotion, it's a guidance system. It is not happening to you, it's happening through you. It's a guidance system. It's how aligned are you with your spirit. Did you know the word inspired comes from the phrase in spirit? Your spirit, why you're here on earth, the more aligned you are with it, the more inspired you become. The more excited you get, the more you can flow information and ideas and excitement and joy and all these things. That's why I love doing these. And it flows out of me because I Well, you can feel the passion through the mic and through the conversation here. My goodness. I ask a question. There's two questions. One, where can people find you on social? And like, what's a good way to learn more about this and learn from you on some social channels? So, Instagram's the best one. Okay. DrGregPersley, it's just my name, DrGregPersley. I post about this stuff, but I post a lot about business stuff as well, business systems, because the belief systems and business systems actually interact. There's a, you know, interacting circle, whatever, a loop. feel free to direct message me, ask me questions. I'd be happy to help. The point of the reason why I talk a lot about business is simply because I came from a business where I was stuck in and I was able to implement systems to pull myself out. But in order to be able to do that, I had to change my thought process, my identity about where I belonged in that business and where the business was headed. And so I teach people how to start to shift that and create a projection into the future of that business. Businesses, this is a great, dude, this is great. You're going to love this. Businesses, so I'm a doctor, I'm a chiropractor. I want to relate the business to another human being, okay? A business is called an entity, right? Well, you as a human being are your own entity. So the business has its own soul, which is its mission, its vision, and its values. That's the soul of the company. Why are you doing what you're doing? Who are you serving? What are you all about? When a person acts out of character, it's because they are out of character from their vision, their mission, their values. Does that make sense? So when you create a business, you have to identify the soul of that business. What's the purpose? Why are we here? Mission, vision, values. Who are we serving? Why are we serving them? That sort of thing, right? That's the soul. When you look at the body, the organs are the people within the company. They all do different things, but they're interactive together. The blood flow is the cash flow through the company. The cash flow stops, the people can't survive. If there's a person in your company that doesn't match the mission, vision, and values, that's a cancer within the company and it will spread to the other organs. I know. So that I talk about that a lot, especially with providers that I work with, because that makes sense to them. They're like, oh, interesting, which is why when I talk about abandoned, there are times you have to get rid of people as you start to grow. You're like, look where we're headed. You're not on the same boat. We got to cut you out, you know, and it is what it is. They talk about business being business. Well, that's part of the decisions you have to make. And you have to change your identity in order to say, I'm willing to do those things. Because if my identity is I'm a nice guy that works with the business and everybody's singing Kumbaya, well, then the business doesn't have its own identity. The Yeah. behind some of that, like, I'm a nice guy and I care about people. That's fine. And that's great. And that can all be true. But every yes to one is a no to another. So, you know, is that type of environment is tolerated or accepted in that excuse is used for an unwillingness to make the decisions or like you said, like, cut the cancer out, like, you What we always say, we always say, we are going to help you find a job that suits your character that is outside of this company. Pretty good. I'm going to move you on to somewhere else that matches your mission and vision and values that doesn't match our mission and vision and values. We're going to help you out. And really, if you think about it, if you take the nuance out and, oh, you're firing somebody or whatever, if you really think about it, It's not doing a service for them, and it's not doing a service for you to stay in a business and a job that is not in alignment. It is only going to cause drama and chaos and pain and frustration and all these negative emotions. And that will spread. The more you have everyone on your team focusing on the target of the company and doing the things that are aligned with that target, the more likely it is the company will My gosh, I cannot wait to get this recording and put it in front of my staff because this is just so like, the timing of this is just so electric and your mission and the words and everything that comes behind this is like so strong associated with this. It's so good. I ask one question at the end of all this, and it's like a really good way to wrap the podcast is called Action Solves Everything. So we always ask our guests, like, what is taking action mean to you as in that you can steer that any which way you want, but in a given day, Taking action means that you are moving toward a target in some way, shape, or form. You're moving towards a goal. Nothing happens until you take action. In fact, most people have it backwards. They say, I need to get motivated to take action. Wrong. Action creates motivation. I know everybody says that. They've heard it now. But it is the truth. And everyone has fallen for that backwards thinking. I'm just not motivated. You're not motivated because you're not doing anything. You get motivated by doing because the doing creates actual results and results create motivation and that creates the building blocks. And then you develop the system to keep that habit in place because most people When they're doing something that's new, it's going to be a little difficult and it's gonna be a little hard. But if you start to get results, then you will create that motivation, or that movement, that motivation, and then that momentum will occur. But then you need the system. So, like, one of the things I always do is, once I figure out something that works for me, I put it on the calendar. I'm like, oh, this is just something I do now. Just who I am. then it becomes out of character for everyone else. Hey, did you go for your run today? You normally run on Wednesdays. Going to, not yet, or already did, or whatever. You teach people about you, but you can't serve anyone if you're trying to serve everyone. You have to serve you first, and that sounds selfish, but it's not. Once you build yourself up, then you can start That was incredible. I, I want to tag behind that. I, I started cold plunging 500 days ago. Um, and it's, I think it's exactly 500 days, maybe yesterday or something, but everybody asks what started out as like, the trend that you would see on social media. And then there became like reason behind it. And then it's just become something that I do every single day. When I connect with somebody or bump into someone in the office, it's like, do you plunge today? And it's like, I plunge every day. Not yet. I will later, but it's become something that I do. And funny enough, I was just in Florida for eight days at my mother-in-law's and Look, like to cold plunge in a jacuzzi tub in a Florida condo, there's not enough ice to cool the water. And because the ground temperature is so high, like the water just isn't cold enough. And so every day I buy ice or every day I fill up these like portable ice blocks. And my mother-in-law is just like, just store the stuff in the freezer and figure it out. And, you know, my wife's like, do you need to go get ice? And my kids now are old enough to be like, dad, are you going to plunge? And there's me in the jacuzzi tub wrapped in ice bags and doing the exercise because it's just what I do. And I've thought about this for a long time. Like when you talk about it being part of your identity, I've thought about like, what will have to happen for me to miss? And Every single time I've been like, hey, if I just can't get to this today because it doesn't support it, I'm not going to inconvenience a large group of people and disrupt everything else that's involved here. Something has pulled me as a gravitational force to go, I have to go do this. And I have executed on what that is because this is just part of what I do. And so not doing it, would I change? Would I feel different? I don't know. But what I do know is that there's no reason not to do it. And it's just something that I do every day, like brushing my teeth or eating breakfast or coming to the office or whatever that may be. So, But you're exactly right. It becomes your identity. It becomes who you believe you are, which is really what your identity is. And the problem for most people is they live somebody else's idea of who they are. You know, they're doing things other people say they should. I don't cold plunge personally. You know, you have done it for so many years. I tried it. Don't get me wrong. There's lots of things I've tried. I tried Tony Robbins routine. I tried working out at 5 a.m. I tried it. But there's certain things that I really enjoyed and worked well for me. And there's certain things that really didn't work well for me for whatever reason. And so I've built my own routine around what lights me up and gets me excited and who I am. Now, David Goggins would say, get up and do something that is hard every single day. So then you get used to doing things that are hard. That's 100% true. And if that lights you up and gets you excited and you feel like that's going to get you somewhere and it benefits you in some way, shape, or form, please do. But what you should do is try stuff. That's the deal. Try stuff, figure out what you like, what moves you forward that gets you going. And it doesn't mean it's going to be easy. People mistake that. What you like is like, ooh, I feel like this is helping me become better. Okay. It doesn't mean it's easy. It just means that Work lifting out and lifting and working out isn't like lifting weights and working out is not something that is easy. But I know that in my routine, the way I do it, I really enjoy it. I won't miss everyone around me knows that's what I do. I'm not trying to be jacked, but I'm trying to make sure I'm strong and fit and, you know, can not be afraid to take my shirt off in the summer, you know, like. But that was my, it's my thing. Figure out your own thing and be okay with that. Don't try to fit in with other people just because they're doing a thing. Try it. And you're like, yeah, that's, that's I think there's so much truth in the comment that you said of living someone else's life, or living someone else's dream or goal, and convincing yourself that if you don't do it a particular way, you're doing it wrong. I think there's so much truth in understanding what brings you joy, what things you're trying, and what's helping you. do the things that you love to do, not what somebody else tells you is the right way Awesome. Well, doctor, this was unbelievable. I will. Listen to this one back. I can't wait for this one. This was I learned so much from you and really look forward to continuing to build a relationship with you moving forward. And I believe the listeners are left here with so many great nuggets and so many great takeaways. So thank you so much. I really appreciate your time today and we'll catch on the next episode. Thanks for listening to Action Solves Everything. If today's episode pushed you, challenged you, or helped you even take one step forward, send it to someone else who needs that same nudge. We all get better when we grow together. And if you're looking for a partnership that actually believes in coaching, collaboration, accountability, and actually becoming the best version of yourself, shoot me a message. at all social handles, at Alex Montagano. That's A-L-E-X-M-O-N-T-A-G-A-N-O. Remember, success rewards the ones who move. Take action,