Aaron Marcum | Thriving in Entrepreneurship - Insights from Aaron Marcum's Journey

Dallas Burnett: 00:00:00

Hey everybody.

Dallas Burnett: 00:00:00

We're talking to Aaron Markham today.

Dallas Burnett: 00:00:03

What an amazing guy.

Dallas Burnett: 00:00:04

He founded and scaled several multimillion dollar businesses in 2015.

Dallas Burnett: 00:00:10

He'd reached financial success, but was burnt out and he was struggling

Dallas Burnett: 00:00:14

to find sustainable happiness.

Dallas Burnett: 00:00:16

But.

Dallas Burnett: 00:00:17

From that point on, he decided to make some really big changes and

Dallas Burnett: 00:00:20

that's, what's propelled his success.

Dallas Burnett: 00:00:22

He's got some incredible stories about entrepreneurship, burnout, and

Dallas Burnett: 00:00:27

what it means to live the good life.

Dallas Burnett: 00:00:29

He's a great new friend of mine.

Dallas Burnett: 00:00:31

You don't want to miss.

Dallas Burnett: 00:00:32

This incredible conversation.

Dallas Burnett: 00:01:18

Welcome.

Dallas Burnett: 00:01:19

Welcome.

Dallas Burnett: 00:01:20

Welcome.

Dallas Burnett: 00:01:21

I am Dallas Burnett sitting in my 1905 Coke Brothers Barber chair in

Dallas Burnett: 00:01:28

Thrive Studios, but more importantly, today we have a great guest.

Dallas Burnett: 00:01:34

He's got a master's in applied positive psychology.

Dallas Burnett: 00:01:39

He's a bestselling author, speaker.

Dallas Burnett: 00:01:42

Entrepreneur extraordinaire.

Dallas Burnett: 00:01:44

Oh my goodness.

Dallas Burnett: 00:01:45

Welcome to the show, Aaron.

Aaron Marcum: 00:01:47

Oh, so good to be here, Dallas.

Aaron Marcum: 00:01:48

Thanks for having me on.

Aaron Marcum: 00:01:50

I'm excited to sit down with you.

Dallas Burnett: 00:01:53

yes.

Dallas Burnett: 00:01:53

this has been good.

Dallas Burnett: 00:01:54

we've been looking at this on the calendar and excited as well.

Dallas Burnett: 00:01:57

You've just had such a great wealth of experience in leadership, leading and

Dallas Burnett: 00:02:02

growing teams, which we're all about and entrepreneurship, which we're all about.

Dallas Burnett: 00:02:07

And so we just, we're really excited to have you on.

Dallas Burnett: 00:02:08

So you've got a background in the healthcare industry.

Dallas Burnett: 00:02:13

Tell us a little bit about what got you into healthcare and

Dallas Burnett: 00:02:16

about some of your journey.

Dallas Burnett: 00:02:17

Right.

Aaron Marcum: 00:02:18

Yeah.

Aaron Marcum: 00:02:18

when I graduated from college, I always knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur.

Aaron Marcum: 00:02:22

I wanted to do my own thing, but I knew I had to go work for the man

Aaron Marcum: 00:02:26

for a little bit, for a few years.

Aaron Marcum: 00:02:28

and I did, and, I think it was about five years after I graduated, I just

Aaron Marcum: 00:02:33

came across the field of home care.

Aaron Marcum: 00:02:36

the sector of health care and knew that, that the senior industry, baby

Aaron Marcum: 00:02:42

boomers knew what was going on there and how much they were going to need.

Aaron Marcum: 00:02:45

It had no background in, in home care.

Aaron Marcum: 00:02:48

Obviously I was doing telecom sales at the time and decided just on a whim.

Aaron Marcum: 00:02:53

Not, I wouldn't say a whim.

Aaron Marcum: 00:02:55

I knew I wanted to do my own thing, but organically opened

Aaron Marcum: 00:02:59

up my own home care company.

Aaron Marcum: 00:03:01

In Salt Lake and, it started from scratch, wasn't a franchise or anything

Aaron Marcum: 00:03:06

like that, started it from scratch.

Aaron Marcum: 00:03:09

And then over the course of about seven years, I grew it to be the

Aaron Marcum: 00:03:11

largest in the state in that area.

Aaron Marcum: 00:03:14

And so it was, it was, it was quite a journey, and, throughout that journey

Aaron Marcum: 00:03:18

ups and downs, but the first three years crazy, I, I was, I remember coming home.

Aaron Marcum: 00:03:24

I had four kids at the time.

Aaron Marcum: 00:03:25

I have six kids.

Aaron Marcum: 00:03:26

I don't, we didn't talk about that before the show, but I have three

Aaron Marcum: 00:03:30

boys, three girls at the time.

Aaron Marcum: 00:03:31

I had four and I was coming home eating dinner and then I

Aaron Marcum: 00:03:36

would go back to the office.

Aaron Marcum: 00:03:38

Almost every day to 2 a.

Aaron Marcum: 00:03:40

m.

Aaron Marcum: 00:03:41

And back then I was younger.

Aaron Marcum: 00:03:43

I started that when I was 28 years old.

Aaron Marcum: 00:03:45

And so I had maybe the energy to do that.

Aaron Marcum: 00:03:49

I know, I don't, there's no way I think I could do that now, but,

Dallas Burnett: 00:03:52

Yeah.

Aaron Marcum: 00:03:53

I don't think I would last.

Aaron Marcum: 00:03:55

And gratefully I've learned a ton where I would never have to do that.

Aaron Marcum: 00:03:59

Like I feel like I could start any company and get it to a million

Aaron Marcum: 00:04:03

dollars within a few months.

Aaron Marcum: 00:04:04

I really feel that confident and that, in, in all the things I've learned, but.

Aaron Marcum: 00:04:10

But it was back then that I was experiencing burnout, and

Aaron Marcum: 00:04:14

I knew I had to make changes.

Aaron Marcum: 00:04:15

So I did make changes back then.

Aaron Marcum: 00:04:17

it was slow, but over time within that seven year period before

Aaron Marcum: 00:04:20

I actually sold it to a public company, I got my life back.

Aaron Marcum: 00:04:25

And I became even back then fascinated with wellbeing and investing in

Aaron Marcum: 00:04:30

yourself and so forth and launched my second company, which really was

Aaron Marcum: 00:04:34

one of my most successful ventures.

Aaron Marcum: 00:04:37

Back in the home care space, data analytics, it was a, think of like J.

Aaron Marcum: 00:04:41

D.

Aaron Marcum: 00:04:41

Powers for home care.

Dallas Burnett: 00:04:42

Ah,

Aaron Marcum: 00:04:43

So home care pulse is the name of the company.

Aaron Marcum: 00:04:46

they're a wonderful brand in the home care space.

Aaron Marcum: 00:04:48

Very well known, but you think I'd learned my lesson.

Aaron Marcum: 00:04:52

So by the time that.

Aaron Marcum: 00:04:54

in positive psychology, we call it obsessive passion.

Aaron Marcum: 00:04:58

I became obsessively passionate about making an impact in the home care space

Aaron Marcum: 00:05:03

and changing the quality standards, which we were doing and which we ultimately did.

Aaron Marcum: 00:05:09

But I sacrificed my well being.

Aaron Marcum: 00:05:11

So by 2015, I was exhausted.

Aaron Marcum: 00:05:14

I was overweight.

Aaron Marcum: 00:05:16

I was not taking care of myself and I was living, I write about this in my book,

Aaron Marcum: 00:05:22

the lie of the either, or I thought, if I could just continue to grow my company

Aaron Marcum: 00:05:26

and invest in my company, eventually my personal wellbeing will catch up.

Aaron Marcum: 00:05:32

I was living that lie that, that I couldn't have both personal

Aaron Marcum: 00:05:35

and professional wellbeing synced at the same time.

Aaron Marcum: 00:05:39

Right.

Aaron Marcum: 00:05:40

a lot of us live that

Dallas Burnett: 00:05:41

And I think of the you've got this dream.

Dallas Burnett: 00:05:42

Like you'd say, okay, I'm going to create this thing and it's going to be

Dallas Burnett: 00:05:46

wildly successful on the front side.

Dallas Burnett: 00:05:48

At least you think that, this is, you've got all the, and then, as you're going

Dallas Burnett: 00:05:51

through it, you've still got this vision for this thing you create, but I think

Dallas Burnett: 00:05:54

a lot of entrepreneurs say, I know I'm not taking care of myself, but this

Dallas Burnett: 00:05:57

is what entrepreneurship is all about.

Dallas Burnett: 00:05:59

It's all about the grind and it's all about, pulling ridiculous

Dallas Burnett: 00:06:02

hours and taking ridiculous risks.

Dallas Burnett: 00:06:04

and my wellbeing is going to just, heck, care because whenever I either

Dallas Burnett: 00:06:09

sell out or meet that vision or whatever, then I cannot focus on that

Dallas Burnett: 00:06:14

because I've accomplished that out, then I'll be able to put myself first,

Dallas Burnett: 00:06:18

and I think It just doesn't work.

Dallas Burnett: 00:06:20

It doesn't work.

Aaron Marcum: 00:06:21

It doesn't work.

Aaron Marcum: 00:06:23

I was, 2015 financially was doing well, I, we were growing.

Aaron Marcum: 00:06:28

things were going well that way, but yeah, you just live this lie that eventually,

Aaron Marcum: 00:06:32

I will, it'll catch up with itself.

Aaron Marcum: 00:06:34

Yeah.

Aaron Marcum: 00:06:34

And I've worked with, and since coached many entrepreneurs and I've seen

Aaron Marcum: 00:06:40

some of the wealthiest, I remember sitting down with a guy probably worth

Aaron Marcum: 00:06:43

about a half a billion dollars and he was one of them, he's just unhappy.

Aaron Marcum: 00:06:48

He had burned a lot of his relationships along the way.

Aaron Marcum: 00:06:51

And, I remember him just being open and honest of all his

Aaron Marcum: 00:06:54

regrets that he had experienced.

Aaron Marcum: 00:06:57

Yeah.

Aaron Marcum: 00:06:57

And he had all the money in the world.

Aaron Marcum: 00:06:59

he didn't have a care in the world when it came to his financial wellbeing, but, But

Aaron Marcum: 00:07:03

he certainly did, with his relationships.

Aaron Marcum: 00:07:05

And so 2016, I got, I finally got it where I just invested in my wellbeing.

Aaron Marcum: 00:07:13

I, April of 2016, I got into cycling.

Aaron Marcum: 00:07:16

I signed up for 200 mile bike races.

Aaron Marcum: 00:07:18

My personality, by the way, Dallas is a lot of this blows people

Aaron Marcum: 00:07:22

away that I would do this, but.

Aaron Marcum: 00:07:24

I ordered my bike the same day I signed up for a 200 mile bike race.

Aaron Marcum: 00:07:28

I never sight like road biked in my

Aaron Marcum: 00:07:31

life

Dallas Burnett: 00:07:31

man.

Dallas Burnett: 00:07:32

You just needed some

Aaron Marcum: 00:07:33

Yeah, that's right.

Aaron Marcum: 00:07:34

I like if I'm going to do

Aaron Marcum: 00:07:35

this, I'm going all

Dallas Burnett: 00:07:36

I totally get it.

Dallas Burnett: 00:07:37

I

Dallas Burnett: 00:07:37

totally get

Dallas Burnett: 00:07:38

it.

Aaron Marcum: 00:07:38

I call it, now I have a program.

Aaron Marcum: 00:07:40

Now for home care providers called the breakaway accelerator.

Aaron Marcum: 00:07:43

And it's based upon that concept, is like the best growth is accelerated growth.

Aaron Marcum: 00:07:49

slow growth is to me, and there's a lot of science behind that too,

Aaron Marcum: 00:07:53

that, That, it's hard growth.

Aaron Marcum: 00:07:55

It's harder to grow slowly than it is to accelerate.

Aaron Marcum: 00:07:59

So I went through this accelerated journey in 2016.

Aaron Marcum: 00:08:02

And as I did.

Aaron Marcum: 00:08:04

what's amazing is if you look at the trajectory of my company at

Aaron Marcum: 00:08:07

the time, it also grew along with we're talking hockey stick growth.

Dallas Burnett: 00:08:13

wow.

Aaron Marcum: 00:08:14

if you talk to my leadership team back then, they'll tell you it

Aaron Marcum: 00:08:18

was when Aaron decided to invest in his own personal Journey and his own

Aaron Marcum: 00:08:24

personal well being that when he started letting go, of, not just letting go.

Aaron Marcum: 00:08:29

I still had control and I don't know if letting goes the right term.

Aaron Marcum: 00:08:32

It was more or less.

Aaron Marcum: 00:08:34

I put my, I delegated.

Aaron Marcum: 00:08:37

I created a more self managed company and I started trying to, I stopped

Aaron Marcum: 00:08:42

trying to do everything myself.

Aaron Marcum: 00:08:44

All the big things.

Aaron Marcum: 00:08:46

I had a wonderful team, that could handle that, fortunately, we had to

Aaron Marcum: 00:08:50

make some changes to make that happen.

Aaron Marcum: 00:08:51

But and then 2018, two years later, I stepped down as CEO of that company.

Dallas Burnett: 00:08:57

Wow.

Dallas Burnett: 00:08:58

Wow.

Aaron Marcum: 00:08:59

acceleration.

Aaron Marcum: 00:09:00

Like when you really start investing in yourself and in your

Aaron Marcum: 00:09:04

own wellbeing, you show up better.

Aaron Marcum: 00:09:07

You're a better person, you're a better boss, you think more clearly.

Aaron Marcum: 00:09:12

I started doing other investments and other businesses at the time.

Aaron Marcum: 00:09:17

I just, and I was doing less work.

Dallas Burnett: 00:09:21

right,

Aaron Marcum: 00:09:21

that's what's cool about it, is that my, my coach is Dan Sullivan.

Aaron Marcum: 00:09:26

I don't know if you're familiar with Dan, but he's a strategic coach wrote 10 X is

Aaron Marcum: 00:09:31

easier than two X with Benjamin Hardy.

Aaron Marcum: 00:09:33

And

Aaron Marcum: 00:09:34

he's a hero of mine.

Aaron Marcum: 00:09:35

I know Dan personally, and he has this term called his four freedoms.

Aaron Marcum: 00:09:39

Freedom of time, money, relationships, and purpose, which is also what

Aaron Marcum: 00:09:45

Aristotle calls the good life.

Aaron Marcum: 00:09:46

I see that as also the good life that they're synonymous of each other.

Aaron Marcum: 00:09:51

And so entrepreneurs, when they can create those freedoms in their lives,

Aaron Marcum: 00:09:55

I've added an additional one health, like health has been really important

Aaron Marcum: 00:10:00

to me, but, Anyway, that's my, that's the two thirds part of my story.

Aaron Marcum: 00:10:05

And then I got into positive psychology in 2017.

Aaron Marcum: 00:10:09

I ended up going to UPenn in 20, 2021 at the age of 49, 50, got accepted

Aaron Marcum: 00:10:16

to the top program in the world in positive psychology, studied

Aaron Marcum: 00:10:20

under Martin Seligman, who's like the father of positive psychology.

Aaron Marcum: 00:10:25

I wrote my thesis capstone, which was really the foundational

Aaron Marcum: 00:10:29

kind of the beginning of the

Aaron Marcum: 00:10:30

book.

Aaron Marcum: 00:10:31

then after I, I graduated from that, I wrote the book and, it's,

Aaron Marcum: 00:10:37

it was transformational for me as a father, frankly, not just as

Aaron Marcum: 00:10:41

a, not just as an entrepreneur, but my kids saw a difference.

Aaron Marcum: 00:10:46

I started using the, the science that I was learning into my own investment,

Aaron Marcum: 00:10:51

into my own personal wellbeing.

Aaron Marcum: 00:10:52

So I just elevated even more from 2016, forward.

Aaron Marcum: 00:10:57

but it's not perfect.

Aaron Marcum: 00:10:58

I just, I always tell people like I struggle all the time.

Aaron Marcum: 00:11:01

So it's not because I have this degree that I live in this like ideal life,

Aaron Marcum: 00:11:05

it's, I live a life like anyone else.

Aaron Marcum: 00:11:08

you have to continually check your mindset, continually

Aaron Marcum: 00:11:11

check your limited thinking,

Dallas Burnett: 00:11:13

yes, I would love to

Dallas Burnett: 00:11:14

know.

Aaron Marcum: 00:11:14

there.

Aaron Marcum: 00:11:14

That's

Aaron Marcum: 00:11:15

my journey though.

Aaron Marcum: 00:11:15

I wanted

Dallas Burnett: 00:11:16

Really great.

Dallas Burnett: 00:11:17

Really great.

Dallas Burnett: 00:11:17

I would love to ask you a question about your, you talked about starting

Dallas Burnett: 00:11:21

into that positive psychology, graduate work and how that was very influential

Dallas Burnett: 00:11:26

too, and it sounds like you had a lot of pieces in place because of your

Dallas Burnett: 00:11:31

entrepreneurial experience and growth.

Dallas Burnett: 00:11:33

And obviously if you're scaling businesses, it's pushing you to grow.

Dallas Burnett: 00:11:36

And change your limiting mindsets already, but you, it's almost like you were able

Dallas Burnett: 00:11:41

to codify some of these things as you go through your master's there was there one

Dallas Burnett: 00:11:45

or two things that were any, was there aha moments in your positive psychology, stint

Dallas Burnett: 00:11:50

in that graduate work or your thesis, or one or two things that stood out to

Dallas Burnett: 00:11:55

you as oh my gosh, I'm so glad I've, completed this program to learn this?

Dallas Burnett: 00:11:59

Mm-Hmm.

Aaron Marcum: 00:12:00

yeah, yeah.

Aaron Marcum: 00:12:01

There's so many.

Aaron Marcum: 00:12:02

And one that comes to my mind that you can find information on this theory, it's

Aaron Marcum: 00:12:06

called the self determination theory.

Aaron Marcum: 00:12:09

And it's based upon three components and one of them just, all of them resonated

Aaron Marcum: 00:12:14

with me, but the first one is autonomy.

Aaron Marcum: 00:12:16

I had realized that up until 2016, I hadn't created autonomy in my business.

Aaron Marcum: 00:12:25

I'm doing a startup right now, this breakaway accelerator, for example, and

Aaron Marcum: 00:12:29

I'm taking my family to Cancun flying out Saturday in the middle of a startup.

Aaron Marcum: 00:12:35

I do things differently now.

Dallas Burnett: 00:12:38

That's different than going back to work after it's dinner

Dallas Burnett: 00:12:40

at night till two in the morning.

Dallas Burnett: 00:12:41

that's a different approach.

Dallas Burnett: 00:12:42

Right?

Aaron Marcum: 00:12:43

exactly.

Aaron Marcum: 00:12:43

Completely different.

Aaron Marcum: 00:12:45

My mindset's different, you know, I realize how important it is early on.

Aaron Marcum: 00:12:49

And I get it when you are a new entrepreneur, aspiring entrepreneur,

Aaron Marcum: 00:12:53

and maybe you don't have the capital to invest in all the right people, because

Aaron Marcum: 00:12:56

I have, I've already created a team in, To surround myself with, but in the

Aaron Marcum: 00:13:02

book, I do talk about that, that there are still things, even if you don't

Aaron Marcum: 00:13:06

have capital to where you can create the space that you need to continually

Aaron Marcum: 00:13:12

thrive while you're starting that.

Aaron Marcum: 00:13:15

And so autonomy early on.

Aaron Marcum: 00:13:18

And my capstone was actually for the aspiring entrepreneur and

Aaron Marcum: 00:13:22

people can read that capstone.

Aaron Marcum: 00:13:23

It's, it's on the UPenn, website.

Aaron Marcum: 00:13:26

Masters of applied positive psychology sites really use a Google it, frankly,

Aaron Marcum: 00:13:30

it should pull up, but it was all about the aspiring entrepreneur,

Aaron Marcum: 00:13:34

not the experienced entrepreneur.

Aaron Marcum: 00:13:36

Like how can they

Aaron Marcum: 00:13:37

thrive

Dallas Burnett: 00:13:38

Hmm.

Aaron Marcum: 00:13:39

and when they're starting, because so many great ideas

Aaron Marcum: 00:13:42

die because they get burned out.

Aaron Marcum: 00:13:45

Early on and they give

Aaron Marcum: 00:13:46

up.

Dallas Burnett: 00:13:47

A hundred percent.

Aaron Marcum: 00:13:48

and so I want to help the entrepreneur, even on the early stages

Aaron Marcum: 00:13:52

to say, you know what, I'm not going to give up because I'm still investing

Aaron Marcum: 00:13:57

in me and I'm experiencing autonomy.

Aaron Marcum: 00:14:00

So that autonomy freedom, really important.

Aaron Marcum: 00:14:04

The other two pillars to that is relationships.

Aaron Marcum: 00:14:07

the book, the good life that came out last year on the longest

Aaron Marcum: 00:14:10

Harvard study on relationships.

Aaron Marcum: 00:14:12

It's the number one contributor to wellbeing.

Aaron Marcum: 00:14:15

You know, so really important.

Aaron Marcum: 00:14:17

And the 3rd pillar is competence.

Aaron Marcum: 00:14:20

we have to feel like we're capable and competent in what we're doing.

Aaron Marcum: 00:14:25

And I would go beyond competent to say, that we are in our superpower.

Aaron Marcum: 00:14:29

if a entrepreneur is.

Aaron Marcum: 00:14:32

Is doing what they're wired to do.

Aaron Marcum: 00:14:34

And I talk about this in the books.

Aaron Marcum: 00:14:35

So Dallas, I think you're going to love this concept.

Aaron Marcum: 00:14:38

So I talk about one of the third law in my book is called entre

Aaron Marcum: 00:14:41

grit, entrepreneurial grit.

Aaron Marcum: 00:14:44

And I go through these five levels of

Aaron Marcum: 00:14:46

grit.

Aaron Marcum: 00:14:48

And the first level is curiosity.

Aaron Marcum: 00:14:51

Like when you first start or when, before you even start, you're

Aaron Marcum: 00:14:54

curious about an idea or a concept.

Aaron Marcum: 00:14:56

Like I was curious about home care.

Aaron Marcum: 00:14:59

what is that about?

Aaron Marcum: 00:15:00

What, what's the, opportunity there.

Aaron Marcum: 00:15:02

Then interest goes into the research.

Aaron Marcum: 00:15:04

You get more interested.

Aaron Marcum: 00:15:05

That's second phase.

Aaron Marcum: 00:15:07

And the third phase is the practice phase.

Aaron Marcum: 00:15:11

To where's the further you go, the more grit you have in

Aaron Marcum: 00:15:14

an entrepreneurial venture.

Aaron Marcum: 00:15:17

And the problem I think, even with, especially with younger entrepreneurs is

Aaron Marcum: 00:15:21

that they want to skip the practice phase.

Aaron Marcum: 00:15:23

They think I'm just going to have the passion, the passion is just

Aaron Marcum: 00:15:25

going to come.

Aaron Marcum: 00:15:27

Cause that's the fourth one.

Aaron Marcum: 00:15:29

Like you have to practice

Aaron Marcum: 00:15:30

enough and test things, find out what's working, what doesn't work.

Aaron Marcum: 00:15:34

Like when I first started my home care business, I wouldn't say I

Aaron Marcum: 00:15:37

was passionate about home care right out of the gate to be fully.

Dallas Burnett: 00:15:41

Right.

Dallas Burnett: 00:15:41

Right.

Aaron Marcum: 00:15:42

It was only when I started taking care of others and

Aaron Marcum: 00:15:45

practicing that and leaning into it.

Aaron Marcum: 00:15:48

Did that.

Aaron Marcum: 00:15:49

passion come,

Dallas Burnett: 00:15:51

Yeah.

Dallas Burnett: 00:15:51

I think there's a, I think there's an interesting thing because I think it's

Dallas Burnett: 00:15:57

almost like the difference when you're.

Dallas Burnett: 00:15:58

When you're first dating someone and you're infatuated with that person

Dallas Burnett: 00:16:02

versus you, you talk to somebody who's been married for like 50 years.

Dallas Burnett: 00:16:06

Right.

Dallas Burnett: 00:16:07

And there, and it's like, there's just a difference, right?

Dallas Burnett: 00:16:09

Cause when you're an entrepreneur and you see something bright and shiny,

Dallas Burnett: 00:16:12

you're like, yeah, I'm going to be passionate about that, but is that really

Dallas Burnett: 00:16:16

a feeling or you just infatuated the, with the idea and, or is it a belief?

Dallas Burnett: 00:16:21

And I think what you're getting at is that passion was a deep seated belief

Dallas Burnett: 00:16:25

that was attached to something a lot.

Dallas Burnett: 00:16:27

Bigger and stronger than just a business.

Dallas Burnett: 00:16:29

Yes.

Dallas Burnett: 00:16:30

Yes.

Dallas Burnett: 00:16:31

Yes.

Aaron Marcum: 00:16:31

would say, you know, that last 10 percent

Aaron Marcum: 00:16:33

that you talk about is that.

Aaron Marcum: 00:16:36

Is that you don't really get to enjoy that last 10 percent until you're there

Aaron Marcum: 00:16:40

right until the passion phase perhaps

Dallas Burnett: 00:16:43

Yeah.

Aaron Marcum: 00:16:44

because what's going to get you from the 90 to the 100 percent is

Aaron Marcum: 00:16:49

passion and then I think once you get to 100 maybe it's between 90 and 100 percent

Aaron Marcum: 00:16:55

who knows, but the 5th one is the calling.

Dallas Burnett: 00:16:58

Hmm.

Dallas Burnett: 00:16:59

Hmm.

Aaron Marcum: 00:16:59

Like when we feel called, it's different from passion.

Aaron Marcum: 00:17:03

Passion's more internal and you have to have it.

Aaron Marcum: 00:17:06

It's what am I passionate about when calling is what's my contribution to

Aaron Marcum: 00:17:12

the greater whole, like who am I going to impact?

Aaron Marcum: 00:17:15

you feel called to make a difference as an entrepreneur.

Aaron Marcum: 00:17:18

And when you are called, man, you're not going anywhere,

Dallas Burnett: 00:17:22

Yeah.

Aaron Marcum: 00:17:23

right?

Aaron Marcum: 00:17:23

Is that you're perseverance.

Aaron Marcum: 00:17:25

Now you can become obsessive like I did.

Aaron Marcum: 00:17:27

So you got to check that right when you're called.

Aaron Marcum: 00:17:29

But, but I, it sure helps.

Dallas Burnett: 00:17:32

Let's talk about that for a second, because it was a great jump off.

Dallas Burnett: 00:17:35

you've written a new book.

Dallas Burnett: 00:17:36

It's called Entree Thrive.

Dallas Burnett: 00:17:38

It just came out in February.

Dallas Burnett: 00:17:40

Is that correct?

Dallas Burnett: 00:17:41

It's just out and just hit Amazon bestsellers.

Dallas Burnett: 00:17:44

You were featured in USA Today.

Dallas Burnett: 00:17:45

So that's huge, man.

Dallas Burnett: 00:17:47

That's

Dallas Burnett: 00:17:47

huge.

Dallas Burnett: 00:17:48

so,

Aaron Marcum: 00:17:48

yeah, yeah,

Dallas Burnett: 00:17:50

you talked about getting to a place of burnout in 20, 2015.

Dallas Burnett: 00:17:55

And so how would you recognize that you were burnout and what are some

Dallas Burnett: 00:18:01

of the things, especially things that you unpack in the book that you would

Dallas Burnett: 00:18:04

want to speak to maybe a leader or business owner or entrepreneur that

Dallas Burnett: 00:18:09

is feeling like they're in your 2015.

Dallas Burnett: 00:18:13

Burnout.

Aaron Marcum: 00:18:14

yeah, yeah, going back to that cycling term and I, try not to get

Aaron Marcum: 00:18:19

emotional when I talk about this because there was someone who had a significant

Aaron Marcum: 00:18:23

impact on my life back in 2015.

Aaron Marcum: 00:18:26

That's no longer with us.

Aaron Marcum: 00:18:27

Dale.

Aaron Marcum: 00:18:29

But, uh, uh, I think, In the cycling world, we have this concept

Aaron Marcum: 00:18:33

called drafting and drafting to get behind someone's tire.

Aaron Marcum: 00:18:37

It saves you literally 33 percent of your energy, and I

Aaron Marcum: 00:18:41

believe to really break away.

Aaron Marcum: 00:18:43

And again, I use that term a lot and I have a whole program want

Aaron Marcum: 00:18:46

to start up as the breakaway accelerator for home care providers.

Aaron Marcum: 00:18:51

Yeah, it's like.

Aaron Marcum: 00:18:53

If we stay in the pack where we're at and we just do what everyone else is

Aaron Marcum: 00:18:57

doing, really changes in our lives.

Aaron Marcum: 00:19:01

And I, in 2015, I was in the pack.

Aaron Marcum: 00:19:05

It wasn't like I was like, super unhappy falling back behind the pack.

Aaron Marcum: 00:19:11

I was just in the pack, but I knew I could do so much more and

Aaron Marcum: 00:19:15

I was capable of so much more.

Aaron Marcum: 00:19:16

And I had a buddy.

Aaron Marcum: 00:19:18

Dale Green who would remind me that I was still in the pack and I needed to

Aaron Marcum: 00:19:24

break free that he knew I could do more.

Aaron Marcum: 00:19:26

So it started out he was a 4:00 AM or meaning he was at the gym at 4:00

Aaron Marcum: 00:19:30

AM you know,

Dallas Burnett: 00:19:32

Oh,

Aaron Marcum: 00:19:33

and I don't know if I ever got that vision.

Aaron Marcum: 00:19:35

I was usually, I started 5:00 AM but he was still there.

Dallas Burnett: 00:19:38

Oh, my goodness.

Aaron Marcum: 00:19:39

know, of course,

Aaron Marcum: 00:19:40

and he became my, he got me going to the gym back then in 2015.

Aaron Marcum: 00:19:44

That's when it all started and became great friends.

Aaron Marcum: 00:19:48

He ended up investing in my company in 2016.

Aaron Marcum: 00:19:52

Very well, very, successful entrepreneur.

Aaron Marcum: 00:19:55

And the things he would just, he was just so brutally honest with

Aaron Marcum: 00:19:58

me, but in a very compassionate way.

Aaron Marcum: 00:20:00

It wasn't like he was rude about it.

Aaron Marcum: 00:20:02

He was just like, Aaron, you can do better.

Aaron Marcum: 00:20:04

You can do more.

Aaron Marcum: 00:20:05

And he was my drafting partner.

Aaron Marcum: 00:20:07

He was in front of me and allowing me to draft from him.

Aaron Marcum: 00:20:12

And.

Aaron Marcum: 00:20:13

Part of that was that he had put so much trust in me.

Aaron Marcum: 00:20:16

I mean, he invested a significant amount in my business in

Aaron Marcum: 00:20:20

2016, purely out of trust.

Aaron Marcum: 00:20:23

And I had this concept is it's better to give trust and

Aaron Marcum: 00:20:26

then allow people to earn it.

Aaron Marcum: 00:20:28

I don't really earned his trust necessarily.

Aaron Marcum: 00:20:30

He just gave it to me and that my confidence in myself just soared.

Aaron Marcum: 00:20:36

2022, April, 2022, he passed away of cancer Dale, uh, which was,

Aaron Marcum: 00:20:41

you know, he was as fit as, as, I mean, guy was, was a tank fit.

Aaron Marcum: 00:20:46

he had, he ended up, with bone cancer and, anyway.

Aaron Marcum: 00:20:50

We, the hardest point of the hardest losses I've ever had,

Aaron Marcum: 00:20:53

as far as a friend, even fan, he was like an older brother to me.

Aaron Marcum: 00:20:57

I have six brothers and he was like one of my other brothers.

Aaron Marcum: 00:21:00

And, anyway, that, the concept.

Aaron Marcum: 00:21:02

And Fast forward with the book, right?

Aaron Marcum: 00:21:05

Is that I talk a lot about people and relationships in our lives is

Aaron Marcum: 00:21:10

that if we really truly want to break away doing it by ourselves,

Aaron Marcum: 00:21:15

it's like the tour de France.

Aaron Marcum: 00:21:16

Anyone who wants a yellow Jersey isn't going to get that yellow Jersey by

Aaron Marcum: 00:21:20

themselves.

Dallas Burnett: 00:21:21

That's right.

Aaron Marcum: 00:21:22

they need a team, they need someone getting in front of them.

Aaron Marcum: 00:21:26

And, and that's what Dale was for me.

Aaron Marcum: 00:21:27

And that's what I want to, I try to be for other people is to say,

Aaron Marcum: 00:21:31

Hey, let's break away together.

Aaron Marcum: 00:21:33

And this is your breakaway.

Aaron Marcum: 00:21:34

I'm going to help you with your breakaway.

Aaron Marcum: 00:21:36

if I have to go back to where I'm at, that's fine.

Aaron Marcum: 00:21:38

I'm going to help you with your breakaway.

Aaron Marcum: 00:21:40

Yeah.

Aaron Marcum: 00:21:40

And that's a real key concept.

Aaron Marcum: 00:21:42

And so when I wrote the book, I thought about my 2015 self.

Aaron Marcum: 00:21:46

I was my own target market.

Aaron Marcum: 00:21:47

I was like, okay, I'm writing for that

Aaron Marcum: 00:21:49

person in

Aaron Marcum: 00:21:50

2015

Dallas Burnett: 00:21:50

Right.

Aaron Marcum: 00:21:51

and said, what did that guy need back then to help him break away?

Aaron Marcum: 00:21:56

And what did Dale do and others?

Aaron Marcum: 00:21:58

It wasn't just Dale.

Aaron Marcum: 00:21:59

I had a team, Eric, who was also, He helped me, he was my COO at the

Aaron Marcum: 00:22:03

time, helped me break away and he continues to play that role in my life.

Aaron Marcum: 00:22:08

there's just a lot of people like that, that, reach out to those mentors, those

Aaron Marcum: 00:22:12

people who have already been there.

Aaron Marcum: 00:22:14

One thing, a concept that I have always loved that I continue to remind myself

Aaron Marcum: 00:22:19

of is that if I'm going to take guidance from somebody, as far as a breakaway, I

Aaron Marcum: 00:22:25

want to take guidance from someone who, who lives on the path that I want to take.

Aaron Marcum: 00:22:30

who's been on it.

Aaron Marcum: 00:22:31

And that was Dale, that was, rather than someone who just

Aaron Marcum: 00:22:34

talks about it but has never done

Aaron Marcum: 00:22:35

it.

Aaron Marcum: 00:22:36

I think that's important is find those people that you

Aaron Marcum: 00:22:39

want, that's what you want.

Aaron Marcum: 00:22:41

And a lot of those people are givers, like they want to help.

Aaron Marcum: 00:22:45

They want other people to get on that path.

Aaron Marcum: 00:22:47

They're selfless people typically.

Aaron Marcum: 00:22:50

They're not, they don't want to just hold it to themselves.

Aaron Marcum: 00:22:53

I have found that time and time again in my life, you

Aaron Marcum: 00:22:57

know, so.

Dallas Burnett: 00:22:58

That's, awesome.

Aaron Marcum: 00:22:59

that, so yeah, I wrote for my 2015 self and that's where the

Aaron Marcum: 00:23:04

eight laws spurred from as well as positive psychology and my capstone

Aaron Marcum: 00:23:08

and all those things just culminated.

Dallas Burnett: 00:23:09

awesome.

Dallas Burnett: 00:23:10

So, so as that relates to burnout, what is some advice that you would

Dallas Burnett: 00:23:14

give to an aspiring entrepreneur who's suffering from burnout right

Dallas Burnett: 00:23:18

now, what would be the first thing in terms of breaking out of that burnout?

Dallas Burnett: 00:23:21

What would you say in your experience was something that helped you shift,

Dallas Burnett: 00:23:25

or maybe something were doing or not doing that helped you break

Dallas Burnett: 00:23:28

out of that that 2015 pattern.

Aaron Marcum: 00:23:33

Yeah.

Aaron Marcum: 00:23:34

I think the first law I talk about in the book is entrepreneurial

Aaron Marcum: 00:23:37

clarity or entre clarity.

Aaron Marcum: 00:23:40

And the first phase, I break up every law into three, three different, really four.

Aaron Marcum: 00:23:46

And it's based upon the quote by Martin Luther King.

Aaron Marcum: 00:23:49

He says, if you can't, if you can't, run, then walk, if you can't walk, then crawl.

Aaron Marcum: 00:23:54

But whatever you

Aaron Marcum: 00:23:55

do,

Aaron Marcum: 00:23:56

you know, keep moving forward.

Aaron Marcum: 00:23:58

And I love that quote.

Aaron Marcum: 00:23:59

And I broke that book out like that.

Aaron Marcum: 00:24:01

And so the first kind of crawl part of EntreClarity is,

Aaron Marcum: 00:24:06

what are your guiding truths?

Aaron Marcum: 00:24:08

These aren't your core values in your business.

Aaron Marcum: 00:24:10

These are your guiding truths, things you want to be true about yourself.

Aaron Marcum: 00:24:14

And I actually created my guiding truth several years ago.

Aaron Marcum: 00:24:17

And I have nine guiding truths.

Aaron Marcum: 00:24:19

I added a ninth one, last year.

Aaron Marcum: 00:24:22

And so I had the eight for several years.

Aaron Marcum: 00:24:24

But they go my mind is at peace.

Dallas Burnett: 00:24:26

Hmm.

Aaron Marcum: 00:24:27

My actions reflect character.

Aaron Marcum: 00:24:29

my, my family receives of my time, my ventures create freedom.

Aaron Marcum: 00:24:33

Those are my guiding truths.

Aaron Marcum: 00:24:35

And I think as an entrepreneur, you've got to decide what you want out of

Aaron Marcum: 00:24:39

your life and what those truths are.

Aaron Marcum: 00:24:41

And so I walked through the book and if you can get clear on that, that helps

Aaron Marcum: 00:24:46

you also guide you through decisions, things you should or shouldn't be doing.

Aaron Marcum: 00:24:52

It also helps you.

Aaron Marcum: 00:24:53

Your guiding truth should help you say no to.

Aaron Marcum: 00:24:57

even financial endeavors that might give you a nice return financially,

Aaron Marcum: 00:25:01

but burn you out completely

Dallas Burnett: 00:25:02

Right.

Aaron Marcum: 00:25:03

because what's the

Aaron Marcum: 00:25:04

point,

Aaron Marcum: 00:25:05

right?

Aaron Marcum: 00:25:05

If that's going to burn you

Aaron Marcum: 00:25:06

out,

Aaron Marcum: 00:25:07

you know, so really important.

Aaron Marcum: 00:25:09

So I'd say guiding truths.

Aaron Marcum: 00:25:11

and then again, on the clarity is to accept where you are today.

Aaron Marcum: 00:25:15

It's self acceptance.

Aaron Marcum: 00:25:16

We talk a lot about that in positive psychology, which.

Aaron Marcum: 00:25:21

Require self awareness.

Aaron Marcum: 00:25:22

They go hand in glove.

Aaron Marcum: 00:25:24

They're just, they match together.

Aaron Marcum: 00:25:27

and then, the run phase of the clarity is the breakaway.

Aaron Marcum: 00:25:30

what are you, where do you want to go?

Aaron Marcum: 00:25:33

What do you want out of life?

Aaron Marcum: 00:25:36

Dan Sullivan has taught me that it's okay to want what you want

Aaron Marcum: 00:25:40

and not make justifications for it.

Dallas Burnett: 00:25:43

Hmm.

Aaron Marcum: 00:25:44

not make excuses.

Aaron Marcum: 00:25:45

A lot of times I think as entrepreneurs that we, even financial wanting, we

Aaron Marcum: 00:25:51

try to make justifications for that.

Aaron Marcum: 00:25:53

Well, it's okay to want what you want, just as long as you know what that is.

Aaron Marcum: 00:25:57

And that as long as it's legal,

Aaron Marcum: 00:25:59

you know, as

Aaron Marcum: 00:26:00

long as it's like going to help the greater good, in my opinion, then

Aaron Marcum: 00:26:04

it's okay to want what you want.

Aaron Marcum: 00:26:06

And, and then, uh, And lean into that.

Aaron Marcum: 00:26:10

So I'd say it starts with that clarity, honestly, and getting clear on those

Aaron Marcum: 00:26:13

breakaways and where you want to

Aaron Marcum: 00:26:14

go with

Dallas Burnett: 00:26:15

I think it's so true.

Dallas Burnett: 00:26:17

I think that if you're struggling with burnout or you are in, you feel like

Dallas Burnett: 00:26:22

underwater, I think what those, that clarity, that entree clarity that you

Dallas Burnett: 00:26:27

talked about does with those values is it allows you to refocus and start

Dallas Burnett: 00:26:33

prioritizing What's the most important thing and what do I need to be focused on?

Dallas Burnett: 00:26:37

Because if you don't, you just, there's the tyranny of the urgent and

Dallas Burnett: 00:26:42

there's all these could have, should have, would have, and all this stuff.

Dallas Burnett: 00:26:45

and then you've got the shame and guilt and all this other stuff, the baggage

Dallas Burnett: 00:26:48

that you're carrying along and, you can worry about , am I being too greedy

Dallas Burnett: 00:26:51

to want this success or have I wasted my time and, or did I screw up that

Dallas Burnett: 00:26:55

last venture that failed and, what it just, there's So many things out there.

Dallas Burnett: 00:26:59

So I think that if you can.

Dallas Burnett: 00:27:01

Describe with great clarity, what you're all about, like what makes

Dallas Burnett: 00:27:04

you and you really want, then I think that it really helps you focus.

Dallas Burnett: 00:27:09

And that can take a lot off your plate and help do some recovery from burnout.

Dallas Burnett: 00:27:13

So I think that's really good.

Dallas Burnett: 00:27:14

I think that's really good advice.

Dallas Burnett: 00:27:16

Let's talk about, let's talk about the, we talked a little bit about

Dallas Burnett: 00:27:19

the either or myth for entrepreneurs.

Dallas Burnett: 00:27:23

But you mentioned, and we were talking about this before the show, the

Dallas Burnett: 00:27:25

good life, and I even said it in the opener is the good life, what does

Dallas Burnett: 00:27:29

it look like to you when you say, you like working with entrepreneurs and

Dallas Burnett: 00:27:36

helping them with their wellbeing and helping them understand the good life

Dallas Burnett: 00:27:40

concept, what does that mean to you?

Dallas Burnett: 00:27:42

and what would that look like for an entrepreneur?

Aaron Marcum: 00:27:46

Yeah.

Aaron Marcum: 00:27:47

Yeah.

Aaron Marcum: 00:27:47

Aristotle was the first one who came up with that, the good life, the concept.

Aaron Marcum: 00:27:52

And if you asked Aristotle what the good life was, I think he

Aaron Marcum: 00:27:57

would say the complete life.

Aaron Marcum: 00:27:59

It's the, but it's not, it's, I know this is a little bit

Aaron Marcum: 00:28:02

cliche, but it's a journey.

Aaron Marcum: 00:28:04

Right.

Aaron Marcum: 00:28:04

Is that the good life is there's not necessarily an

Aaron Marcum: 00:28:07

end to creating the good life.

Aaron Marcum: 00:28:09

And I love the term create rather than live the good life because it takes

Aaron Marcum: 00:28:14

some effort to create that for yourself.

Aaron Marcum: 00:28:18

And back to going, deciding what you want, like the good life for me.

Aaron Marcum: 00:28:25

Means more freedom of time

Dallas Burnett: 00:28:27

Yes.

Aaron Marcum: 00:28:28

like that to me as I protect my time, I'm not going to

Aaron Marcum: 00:28:32

create a new venture if it's going to rob me of my time for the long term.

Aaron Marcum: 00:28:37

I realize you have to dip a little bit when you create something to

Aaron Marcum: 00:28:41

put the time and energy into it.

Aaron Marcum: 00:28:43

But if 2 years from now, I'm still going to be doing that.

Aaron Marcum: 00:28:47

It's a no for me.

Aaron Marcum: 00:28:49

so it's, so the good life, again, you create it in your own mind,

Aaron Marcum: 00:28:54

what that is, and again, going back to Dan Sullivan's four freedoms.

Aaron Marcum: 00:28:58

And again, health is the fifth for me, but freedom of time, money, relationships,

Aaron Marcum: 00:29:03

purpose, and health is that.

Aaron Marcum: 00:29:06

To me, if you look at, there's really not a whole lot that fits outside of that

Aaron Marcum: 00:29:10

as far as what we want as entrepreneurs.

Aaron Marcum: 00:29:13

And so what does time look like for you as an entrepreneur?

Aaron Marcum: 00:29:17

Create that's part of the good life.

Aaron Marcum: 00:29:19

Is that, okay, I want my Fridays and weekends.

Dallas Burnett: 00:29:23

Mm.

Aaron Marcum: 00:29:24

Um, perhaps, where I'm not checking my

Aaron Marcum: 00:29:27

email on Saturdays and Sundays.

Dallas Burnett: 00:29:29

Mm.

Dallas Burnett: 00:29:30

Mm.

Aaron Marcum: 00:29:30

That's the good life, for me at least, and I think it is for many

Aaron Marcum: 00:29:34

people is that, what does that look like?

Aaron Marcum: 00:29:37

Money?

Aaron Marcum: 00:29:38

what does that look like for you?

Aaron Marcum: 00:29:41

But this is a dangerous one, I think, because we can always say, okay, if

Aaron Marcum: 00:29:45

once I get $5 million, I'll be happy.

Aaron Marcum: 00:29:50

And then you get to 5 million and what happens, you know,

Aaron Marcum: 00:29:54

well, once I get to 10 million,

Aaron Marcum: 00:29:56

I'll be happy, and that's a, that's a real trap, you know, for entrepreneurs

Aaron Marcum: 00:30:02

is that sometimes it's not an amount, sometimes it's a lifestyle.

Aaron Marcum: 00:30:07

Or sometimes it's just that you are, there's no debt and

Aaron Marcum: 00:30:11

you're financially secure.

Aaron Marcum: 00:30:13

you have to check yourself on that one, I think, to make sure that you're

Aaron Marcum: 00:30:16

not setting this arbitrary goal.

Aaron Marcum: 00:30:18

And then you're just going to keep moving that out because you'll never be happy.

Aaron Marcum: 00:30:22

Money isn't truly is, doesn't create happiness, on its own,

Aaron Marcum: 00:30:26

but I'd be a hypocrite if I

Aaron Marcum: 00:30:28

didn't say it

Dallas Burnett: 00:30:29

Yeah.

Dallas Burnett: 00:30:30

Right.

Aaron Marcum: 00:30:34

I mean it does create some freedoms that you

Aaron Marcum: 00:30:36

normally wouldn't maybe have.

Aaron Marcum: 00:30:38

And so that's important.

Aaron Marcum: 00:30:39

relationships, man, oh man, that's a huge

Aaron Marcum: 00:30:42

one when it comes to the good

Dallas Burnett: 00:30:45

I would love for you to talk a little bit about more

Dallas Burnett: 00:30:46

relationships as it relates, because we've got a lot of coaches and we

Dallas Burnett: 00:30:49

call them leader coaches on the show.

Dallas Burnett: 00:30:51

These are people that are leading in companies and organizations.

Dallas Burnett: 00:30:54

I think you talked about having a right hand man, a COO and, there's VPs and

Dallas Burnett: 00:30:58

directors and managers, these are people that have responsibilities and part of

Dallas Burnett: 00:31:03

their responsibilities is leading teams.

Dallas Burnett: 00:31:07

What would you say is.

Dallas Burnett: 00:31:09

Something that you've learned through your career that's been really helpful,

Dallas Burnett: 00:31:13

either in values that you instilled in your leadership team that's

Dallas Burnett: 00:31:17

leading others or things that's helped you as it relates to relationships

Dallas Burnett: 00:31:21

in business Lead Well Mm-Hmm.

Aaron Marcum: 00:31:26

Yeah.

Aaron Marcum: 00:31:26

And I've learned something.

Aaron Marcum: 00:31:27

A lot of what I've learned is from other people, right?

Aaron Marcum: 00:31:30

Is you watch some, the masters of relationships and I've had, I've been

Aaron Marcum: 00:31:35

surrounding myself some really, the people who are just masters at this.

Aaron Marcum: 00:31:39

I write about it.

Aaron Marcum: 00:31:40

So the fourth law is entre connections and entrepreneurial connections.

Aaron Marcum: 00:31:45

And the first, the crawl part of that is congruency.

Aaron Marcum: 00:31:50

Yeah.

Aaron Marcum: 00:31:52

So I think in order to foster and cultivate relationships is what

Aaron Marcum: 00:31:55

I think is undervalued is that to be congruent with who you are

Aaron Marcum: 00:32:01

in public as you are in private.

Aaron Marcum: 00:32:02

So with your team, if you're leading a team is that you are showing up congruent

Aaron Marcum: 00:32:10

with them, this is that what you're asking them to do is exactly what you would do.

Aaron Marcum: 00:32:15

and that's how you lead.

Aaron Marcum: 00:32:17

it's that congruence.

Aaron Marcum: 00:32:18

I think it's really imperative.

Aaron Marcum: 00:32:20

Second one is being present is that and we hear that a lot.

Aaron Marcum: 00:32:25

But when I say president, I'm talking in your in both your personal family

Aaron Marcum: 00:32:30

relationships, deep connections as well as your team members.

Aaron Marcum: 00:32:34

Is that you're really sincerely present.

Aaron Marcum: 00:32:37

I mentioned Eric's name previously, and I actually talk about him in

Aaron Marcum: 00:32:40

the book is that he would sit down.

Aaron Marcum: 00:32:43

We had a, I had a call center, one of my companies, we had a call

Aaron Marcum: 00:32:46

center of about 80, 80 college kids,

Dallas Burnett: 00:32:51

Wow.

Aaron Marcum: 00:32:51

and here's Eric in his mid forties.

Aaron Marcum: 00:32:55

Six, four, I think big guy, just as, very has a presence about him.

Aaron Marcum: 00:33:00

He could be a, maybe a little intimidating if you didn't know him.

Aaron Marcum: 00:33:03

Once you know him, he's not at all, but, and he would sit down with these,

Aaron Marcum: 00:33:08

call center research associates and have real meaningful conversations with them.

Aaron Marcum: 00:33:14

I'd sit there and

Aaron Marcum: 00:33:14

watch him do

Dallas Burnett: 00:33:15

that's so good, yeah, oh,

Aaron Marcum: 00:33:20

in positive psychology, which is the third phase is

Aaron Marcum: 00:33:23

the high quality connections.

Aaron Marcum: 00:33:26

if we could have those connections on a daily basis with our team members,

Aaron Marcum: 00:33:30

where we're just asking them about their lives and, or even if it's

Aaron Marcum: 00:33:36

work related, I remember Eric sitting down and he would go, or he would

Aaron Marcum: 00:33:39

ask him what their frustrations were.

Aaron Marcum: 00:33:40

And he'd learned so much about, like we use this proprietary software we

Aaron Marcum: 00:33:44

would build and he would get feedback from them because they, he just let

Aaron Marcum: 00:33:49

their guard down and they were open and honest with them with their

Aaron Marcum: 00:33:52

frustrations.

Dallas Burnett: 00:33:53

he had built that trust that that safe space, they had a safe

Dallas Burnett: 00:33:56

space, could share, I know the listeners, percent are gonna be like, duh, we did

Dallas Burnett: 00:34:01

not plan this, but we have a coaching system what do we know is that a lot

Dallas Burnett: 00:34:05

of companies can spend money on coaches for the CEO, COO, directors, VPs.

Dallas Burnett: 00:34:11

Everyone in the organization would benefit from coaching.

Dallas Burnett: 00:34:14

So we have a coaching scaffold that we've put in that companies can apply.

Dallas Burnett: 00:34:18

And it's fascinating that you would say that because really what it's all

Dallas Burnett: 00:34:22

about is facilitating high quality connections and conversations, just like

Dallas Burnett: 00:34:26

what you said in positive psychology, because like you said, it's just

Dallas Burnett: 00:34:29

sitting across from someone that's being present and asking questions.

Dallas Burnett: 00:34:34

Then just listening, just letting just hearing them out.

Dallas Burnett: 00:34:36

And you're not expecting necessarily anything.

Dallas Burnett: 00:34:39

And yet you, you, can receive so much just by

Aaron Marcum: 00:34:42

You, you receive so much.

Aaron Marcum: 00:34:44

You benefit.

Aaron Marcum: 00:34:46

That's the point of the high quality connections is that there's

Aaron Marcum: 00:34:48

two people who benefit in that.

Aaron Marcum: 00:34:51

So you and the other person is that you're receiving back from them.

Aaron Marcum: 00:34:56

things you often don't expect.

Aaron Marcum: 00:34:58

I share the example.

Aaron Marcum: 00:34:59

I, several years ago, I Flew into Boston and I got an Uber as late,

Aaron Marcum: 00:35:03

like 1130 flight was delayed.

Aaron Marcum: 00:35:05

I was tired.

Aaron Marcum: 00:35:06

I got in with my Uber driver.

Aaron Marcum: 00:35:08

He was from, Eastern, country.

Aaron Marcum: 00:35:11

Nice.

Aaron Marcum: 00:35:11

This guy, he started talking to me and I wasn't initially in the mood,

Aaron Marcum: 00:35:15

but he asked me about my spirituality.

Aaron Marcum: 00:35:17

He asked me about my family.

Aaron Marcum: 00:35:19

And we just got into this meaningful conversation for 45 minutes.

Aaron Marcum: 00:35:24

And he dropped me off at my hotel.

Aaron Marcum: 00:35:26

I came around.

Aaron Marcum: 00:35:27

And it's the only time I've ever gotten a hug from my Uber driver, you

Aaron Marcum: 00:35:31

know, and I'll tell you for the next several days, I was on cloud nine.

Aaron Marcum: 00:35:35

I was like, that was the coolest thing, so those connections in our, when we're

Aaron Marcum: 00:35:38

leaders, when, with our staff, as it's, it, it changes our, that's the good

Aaron Marcum: 00:35:45

life to me is like, when you're having those on a regular basis, we need those,

Aaron Marcum: 00:35:50

even if you, Are an introvert or you are label yourself as an introvert.

Aaron Marcum: 00:35:55

you still need those connections, those meaningful

Aaron Marcum: 00:35:58

connections.

Dallas Burnett: 00:35:59

that's so important.

Dallas Burnett: 00:36:00

It's not only that, what you can get as well, because here's the funny thing.

Dallas Burnett: 00:36:05

we'll hear people that go this program and they may be a new leader

Dallas Burnett: 00:36:08

or a technical manager, they're not used to, a times people, it just

Dallas Burnett: 00:36:12

naturally because of the business of life, I know I'm guilty of this, one

Dallas Burnett: 00:36:15

of the first things that goes is.

Dallas Burnett: 00:36:17

That presence with people when, it, everything's going nuts and haywire.

Dallas Burnett: 00:36:21

And there's all kinds of problems solving.

Dallas Burnett: 00:36:23

You get busy.

Dallas Burnett: 00:36:24

You sometimes neglect just stopping for a minute, man.

Dallas Burnett: 00:36:27

Hey, how's your kids?

Dallas Burnett: 00:36:28

How's your, where are you at?

Dallas Burnett: 00:36:29

where are you at checking in?

Dallas Burnett: 00:36:30

How's your role there?

Dallas Burnett: 00:36:31

Are you happy with doing what you're doing?

Dallas Burnett: 00:36:32

because we're so transactional at that point, we're just moving, And

Dallas Burnett: 00:36:36

so that for me, one of the cool things is that we've seen through

Dallas Burnett: 00:36:40

this system is that you get feedback.

Dallas Burnett: 00:36:43

Like you said, you were on cloud nine after talking to your Uber

Dallas Burnett: 00:36:46

driver and getting a hug from him.

Dallas Burnett: 00:36:48

And that's like this most random like it's hug from your Uber driver.

Dallas Burnett: 00:36:51

But then.

Dallas Burnett: 00:36:52

He blessed you like you're like, man, I'm blessed for getting this hug.

Dallas Burnett: 00:36:55

I'm feeling this for days.

Dallas Burnett: 00:36:56

And so I think a lot of the coaches that, and I would say business leaders

Dallas Burnett: 00:37:00

to, to, to your point to encourage them.

Dallas Burnett: 00:37:03

Yes.

Dallas Burnett: 00:37:03

We get information and feedback from them.

Dallas Burnett: 00:37:05

Yes.

Dallas Burnett: 00:37:06

We build trust.

Dallas Burnett: 00:37:06

Yes.

Dallas Burnett: 00:37:06

We build engagement and all those things.

Dallas Burnett: 00:37:09

But you can't overlook what you're actually getting out of it beyond

Dallas Burnett: 00:37:12

the transactional, I'm just going to listen to you so that you'll work

Dallas Burnett: 00:37:15

harder to, tell me what I need to know that you're missing the boat.

Dallas Burnett: 00:37:18

The point is connection.

Dallas Burnett: 00:37:20

And so if you listen, someone with intent to really get to know them

Dallas Burnett: 00:37:24

and really understand them, you end up being, especially if you're

Dallas Burnett: 00:37:28

curious, you end up being blessed just like you were with the Uber driver.

Dallas Burnett: 00:37:32

So I think that's

Aaron Marcum: 00:37:32

I like curiosity.

Dallas Burnett: 00:37:34

Yeah.

Aaron Marcum: 00:37:34

Huge.

Aaron Marcum: 00:37:35

and it's creating the space to do it.

Aaron Marcum: 00:37:38

if you over schedule your day and you are up against projects and up

Aaron Marcum: 00:37:42

against things, and I'm as guilty as anybody doing that, right?

Aaron Marcum: 00:37:46

Is that we can over schedule ourselves to where we don't make the time

Aaron Marcum: 00:37:50

for those high quality connections.

Aaron Marcum: 00:37:52

And so that white space in your schedule.

Aaron Marcum: 00:37:55

As a leader that builds culture, like culture should be your number one

Aaron Marcum: 00:37:59

priority when it comes to your business.

Dallas Burnett: 00:38:01

That's right.

Dallas Burnett: 00:38:02

I love it.

Dallas Burnett: 00:38:02

So now let's talk a little bit about Entree Thrive.

Dallas Burnett: 00:38:05

This is your book.

Dallas Burnett: 00:38:06

We've talked all about the different laws that you have in it and all

Dallas Burnett: 00:38:10

the great advice that you've shared.

Dallas Burnett: 00:38:12

What inspired you to write Entree Thrive?

Dallas Burnett: 00:38:14

you've done these businesses, been successful, and now you're

Dallas Burnett: 00:38:17

like, I'm writing a book.

Dallas Burnett: 00:38:19

So tell us a little bit about what inspired you to write Entree Thrive.

Aaron Marcum: 00:38:25

yeah.

Aaron Marcum: 00:38:25

I don't think I had a big goal of writing a book when I started my master's program

Aaron Marcum: 00:38:31

and it was in the process of doing all the research for my capstone at the end where

Aaron Marcum: 00:38:36

I'm like, you know what, this could be a.

Aaron Marcum: 00:38:38

This could be a book.

Aaron Marcum: 00:38:39

And I, I met, I met my publisher through a networking group or what was

Aaron Marcum: 00:38:45

strategic coach and we just hit it off.

Aaron Marcum: 00:38:48

I told him what my thoughts were and what I was thinking.

Aaron Marcum: 00:38:50

And he was like, that would be a

Aaron Marcum: 00:38:52

great book.

Aaron Marcum: 00:38:53

So it was not just a great book.

Aaron Marcum: 00:38:56

We talked about.

Aaron Marcum: 00:38:57

The target audience and I have to come back to my 2015 self and said,

Aaron Marcum: 00:39:03

okay, I'm out, that's my target.

Aaron Marcum: 00:39:04

And there's many out there that I felt needed these more science

Aaron Marcum: 00:39:09

backed approach to being is I'm a huge fan of the self help out there.

Aaron Marcum: 00:39:15

I, I've absorbed plenty of that over the years and a lot of it's helped me, Brian

Aaron Marcum: 00:39:19

Tracy wrote my introduction in the book.

Aaron Marcum: 00:39:21

I'm a huge fan of Brian.

Aaron Marcum: 00:39:23

he was a game changer for me early on in my entrepreneurial journey.

Aaron Marcum: 00:39:26

And he's turned out, I've gotten to know Brian.

Aaron Marcum: 00:39:28

He is one of the nicest, most generous people on the planet.

Aaron Marcum: 00:39:32

And so love all that.

Aaron Marcum: 00:39:33

But I also wanted to, lean into the research of wellbeing

Aaron Marcum: 00:39:37

and positive psychology.

Aaron Marcum: 00:39:39

I.

Aaron Marcum: 00:39:40

Really like to make this point.

Aaron Marcum: 00:39:42

it's not the science of happiness necessarily, like how to be happy.

Aaron Marcum: 00:39:46

It's really the science behind why do some people thrive

Aaron Marcum: 00:39:49

and why do some people don't.

Aaron Marcum: 00:39:50

And there's, you'd be blown away by the research that's

Aaron Marcum: 00:39:53

been done in that field on that.

Aaron Marcum: 00:39:56

it's really the proactive side of psychology

Aaron Marcum: 00:40:00

rather than the

Aaron Marcum: 00:40:00

reactive side.

Aaron Marcum: 00:40:02

where we're trying to get in front and allow everyone to thrive, regardless,

Aaron Marcum: 00:40:06

you don't have to be going through a crisis to use these principles, and so

Aaron Marcum: 00:40:12

that's why I wrote the book as I thought of my, like I said, I was in the pack.

Aaron Marcum: 00:40:16

I wasn't like behind in 2015 of most entrepreneurs.

Aaron Marcum: 00:40:20

I was just with everyone else.

Aaron Marcum: 00:40:22

And my goal again is to help people break away from that

Aaron Marcum: 00:40:26

and really lean into their best

Aaron Marcum: 00:40:28

selves.

Dallas Burnett: 00:40:29

I

Dallas Burnett: 00:40:29

I love it, man.

Dallas Burnett: 00:40:30

That is so good.

Dallas Burnett: 00:40:31

We're all about leaning in.

Dallas Burnett: 00:40:33

I love how you said that lean into your best self.

Dallas Burnett: 00:40:36

If there was a, if there was a slogan or catchphrase for the last

Dallas Burnett: 00:40:39

10%, man, that would be a, that would be a lean into your best self.

Dallas Burnett: 00:40:43

That's fantastic.

Dallas Burnett: 00:40:44

So, we're.

Dallas Burnett: 00:40:45

Yeah.

Dallas Burnett: 00:40:46

Yeah.

Dallas Burnett: 00:40:46

Let's do it.

Dallas Burnett: 00:40:47

Let's do it.

Dallas Burnett: 00:40:48

man.

Dallas Burnett: 00:40:48

Collaboration, man.

Dallas Burnett: 00:40:49

We're all about it.

Dallas Burnett: 00:40:50

So, yeah,

Aaron Marcum: 00:40:51

go, go.

Dallas Burnett: 00:40:52

it, where can they, if they want to find Aaron and the

Dallas Burnett: 00:40:56

entree thrive, where can can they connect with you and your book?

Aaron Marcum: 00:40:59

Yeah.

Aaron Marcum: 00:41:01

Yeah.

Aaron Marcum: 00:41:01

We'd love to offer your listeners.

Aaron Marcum: 00:41:03

We actually created a, a URL or a website and then just go to entrethrive.

Aaron Marcum: 00:41:08

com E N T R E T H R I V E.

Aaron Marcum: 00:41:12

com forward slash

Aaron Marcum: 00:41:13

last 10.

Dallas Burnett: 00:41:14

All right.

Dallas Burnett: 00:41:15

last 10.

Aaron Marcum: 00:41:16

And they can download.

Aaron Marcum: 00:41:18

Yeah, they can download the last 10 numerical 10, the

Aaron Marcum: 00:41:23

number 10

Aaron Marcum: 00:41:25

and they can download the entre clarity guide.

Aaron Marcum: 00:41:27

So I talked about those guiding truths.

Aaron Marcum: 00:41:29

there's questions in there to help them build out their guiding truths.

Aaron Marcum: 00:41:32

And so we just want to offer that to your listeners and, and then

Aaron Marcum: 00:41:36

for home care providers, you can go to our breakaway accelerator.

Aaron Marcum: 00:41:39

com.

Dallas Burnett: 00:41:40

Okay.

Aaron Marcum: 00:41:41

But, but entre thrive dot com will get you where you need

Aaron Marcum: 00:41:43

to go and order the book from there.

Aaron Marcum: 00:41:46

You can

Aaron Marcum: 00:41:47

link to it.

Dallas Burnett: 00:41:48

put all of that in the show notes.

Dallas Burnett: 00:41:49

So guys, please check that after you can absolutely go and download that.

Dallas Burnett: 00:41:53

We would encourage you, highly encourage you to go and download

Dallas Burnett: 00:41:56

and check out Aaron's website.

Dallas Burnett: 00:41:58

I will ask ask this to this question to all of our guests at the end of the show.

Dallas Burnett: 00:42:03

And that is who is someone and that you would like to hear as a guest,

Dallas Burnett: 00:42:09

On the last 10%, it may or may not be someone, but it would that you

Dallas Burnett: 00:42:12

would like to hear on the last 10%.

Aaron Marcum: 00:42:17

Chad Willardson, I don't know if Chad, Chad Willardson,

Aaron Marcum: 00:42:21

he's a four time bestselling author.

Aaron Marcum: 00:42:23

He's more in the financial side, but he's written some really epic books, Stress

Aaron Marcum: 00:42:28

free money's one of them, Chad's a friend, but, and I can connect you to Chad, but

Aaron Marcum: 00:42:34

he's, he'd be an exceptional host or

Aaron Marcum: 00:42:36

a guest.

Dallas Burnett: 00:42:36

Awesome.

Dallas Burnett: 00:42:37

Okay.

Dallas Burnett: 00:42:38

we'll we'll have to reach we'll get with you at the and see we can,

Dallas Burnett: 00:42:40

can connect and we'll have him as a guest, we'll tell him, we'll tell

Dallas Burnett: 00:42:43

him that Aaron, Aaron put him up.

Dallas Burnett: 00:42:44

to, to be a guest on the show, that'd great.

Dallas Burnett: 00:42:46

and this has a fantastic.

Dallas Burnett: 00:42:48

Fantastic episode.

Dallas Burnett: 00:42:49

I really appreciate all that you've shared with, I know the listeners

Dallas Burnett: 00:42:52

have been digging all the, you just dropped a lot truth on the show today

Dallas Burnett: 00:42:56

and a lot of great some tactical and mindset advice been really good.

Dallas Burnett: 00:43:00

I'd love to hear in your story and, man.

Dallas Burnett: 00:43:02

We, just have to, we'll have to talk, we'll have to talk soon about that book

Dallas Burnett: 00:43:05

project that we'll do a collaboration on, but listen, we'll have you, we'll

Dallas Burnett: 00:43:10

have you, back on the show sometime.

Dallas Burnett: 00:43:11

The last 10%.

Dallas Burnett: 00:43:12

Thanks for being a guest

Dallas Burnett: 00:43:13

today.

Aaron Marcum: 00:43:14

I would love it.

Aaron Marcum: 00:43:15

Thank you.

Aaron Marcum: 00:43:16

Appreciate it.