They Call Me Mista Yu / One On One with Mista Yu
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They Call Me Mista Yu / One On One with Mista Yu
One on One with Mista Yu: Escaping the Owner Prison with Richard Walsh
Have a question for Mista Yu? Text the show and he’ll answer it personally.
We unlock the journey from bankruptcy to sustainable success with business coach Richard Walsh, who shares raw insights about losing everything and rebuilding with purpose.
• Coming from a background of constant movement, Richard moved 30 times before finishing high school
• Joined the Marines at 17, then built a successful custom water features business over 20 years
• Lost everything in 2008 with six children under 4 years old
• Realized his identity had become completely wrapped up in his business
• Burned all his company uniforms in a symbolic break from his past identity
• Discovered "gross revenue feeds the ego, profit feeds the family"
• Created a system to help business owners escape the "Owner Prison"
• Emphasizes having an exit strategy from day one to filter opportunities
• Values deep friendships forged through shared challenges over casual connections
• Focuses on accountability and intentional scheduling to manage time effectively
Visit sharpenthespearcoaching.com and mention seeing Richard on Mr. U's program to receive a free audio copy of "Escape the Owner Prison."
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welcome back to one-on-one with mr you. Of course I I'm your host. Mr U. In studio with us today is a good buddy of mine from sharpinthespearcoachingcom, Richard Walsh, is in the house, Richard, how are you this morning, sir?
Speaker 2:Excellent, mr U, my man, we are here. I'm excited to be here. I am doing awesome.
Speaker 1:Same here, man. We had a fantastic pre-interview conversation. I think our listeners are going to get a bang out of this. Hopefully some folks are showing up for you, not only in the chat but even on replay as well when they play the episode back for them. But I'm excited about the conversation, man. Let's get into it man. So a lot of things we talked about. I'm going to kind of start from where we started from. What was life like for young Richard? Tell me about your life, man.
Speaker 2:Young Richard. Yeah, I grew up, my dad was in the golf course construction and maintenance business, so a lot of that. So we did that. We moved a lot, not because of his work, I don't know why we moved a lot, dude, I moved 30 times before I got out of high school, me too, like 30 times, dude, that's a lot Okay. So you know, I got pretty adaptable. Let's just say right, because it was always like into the next school, into the next down the block, whatever you know. And so that was pretty interesting. From there went into the Marine Corps at 17. Did that, that was great, that was a good experience.
Speaker 2:Came out of there and then started working, you know, and then kind of built, started swinging a pick digging trench for five bucks an hour, you know, in the 80s, Real work, huh, yeah, real work all day long, man, I could dig. But it also led to a great. A guy came out to ask me to do a side job for him. He said hey, man, can you help me out? He had like 35 tons of crushed granite on the street. He needed to be shoveled into a wheelbarrow and brought to the backyard and spread it's down to Tucson, arizona. I'm like well, I do that, I can work all day. So I did that and the great thing was I got done.
Speaker 2:10 hours on a Saturday. I knocked it out, you know, spent my last 85 bucks before payday on the wheelbarrow and the shovel, you know, got it done and the beautiful part was I got done and he put a thousand bucks in my hand oh sweet, okay, for doing that. Now think about the day before I did the same thing, basically for 40 bucks. Yeah, okay, five dollars an hour. You were hooked right. So I'm like I know my future. Right, I'm gonna, I'm gonna start a landscape business, I'm gonna do something, I'm gonna work for myself and right, that kind of launched the whole thing into my custom. I ended up doing the custom water features. That became my niche and then I started incorporating steel sculpture, became an internationally recognized steel sculptor and world-class exhibits and thousand water features and I did all that stuff and that was great for 20 years. That really really went well until 08, 09.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I want to get into that, oh yeah, oh yeah, I want to get into that, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:If you want to hit that now, I can do that. Yeah, so 0809,. I'm married. I have six small children four years and under.
Speaker 2:Wow and everything dried up right November 5th 2008,. I lost a half million dollars on that day. Kept going off the cliff. I'm like I think it's over. I think no one is spending money going off the cliff. I'm like I think it's over. I think no one is spending money. No one needs what I have right now. I'm a luxury item.
Speaker 2:And, sure enough, about a few months later, I tried a few things to keep it going. I lost everything Lost my business, my home, the whole deal. So I had to move, relocate, do the whole thing and start over. And that was a challenge. I didn't even know what I was going to do. I knew I wasn't going to do what I did. Okay, because what I realized? A couple of really cool things. First thing was so I'm trying to keep the business floating right, trying to keep this thing going, but it's just not going to happen. And I had this epiphany one morning. I woke up, I started thinking about my kids, my six kids. I'm like you know they don't care how many trucks I have, what kind of house I live in.
Speaker 2:They don't care. You know what I would actually do for work. They just wanted me around and I wasn't able to be around. Now, they're little, that's good man.
Speaker 2:So I got this window. God literally gave me this window to the future. Where I said you know, if I stay on this path of business is first, it's everything, it's win, be the award winner, be out front, do the next great thing. I said I'm going to ruin my children's futures. They're going to have broken marriages, failed relationships. They might be good at business, but everything else in their life is going to be trash.
Speaker 2:And that's going to be because of what they saw me do. So I got up, got out of bed, I went in the office and said we're done today and I shut it down. I said I'm not doing this anymore. I have no idea what I'm going to do. I'm not doing this. I drove to my construction yard with my guys, had my last cup of coffee with them, said guys, we got to wrap this up, man, we're finished. You know this isn't going to happen.
Speaker 2:I got to change what I'm doing because my identity had become what I do, Right? So without Rick Rock that was the name of my company I'm like I'm nobody. That was really how I operated. I was always in the uniform, I always had a hat, it was me, I was the award winner, I was this guy that and I really like I can't do that because if I don't have a business and I'm nobody and that's not a way to live either. So again, I didn't know what I was going to do, but I wasn't going to do that and I haven't built a water feature or made a sculpture in over 15 years. Wow.
Speaker 1:I got a couple of questions. I want to lob at you for real now. I love that story when you said that you were doing something that was a luxury. You know. That really hit me because in that time as a matter of fact, about five years ago we were in a similar situation where the whole world just changed and things that were luxuries were no longer viable anymore for the consumer. So I want to ask you are you afraid now to step into luxury areas because of what you experienced? Did that make you gun shy to do things that are considered luxury areas because of what you experienced? Did that make you gun shy to do things that are considered luxury, even if you love them? Or are you still kind of operating with a reckless abandon and you're not afraid to kind of be in those realms?
Speaker 2:Well, I'll tell you, I'm not afraid, because I understand more now.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Just because you're a luxury item, you're always going to have clients. Okay, money doesn't evaporate, okay, okay, just because you're a luxury item you're always going to have clients. Okay, money doesn't evaporate. Okay, okay, the money is there somewhere, right? So if you're a luxury item, you have to know who your ideal customer is.
Speaker 2:Okay, you have to serve that niche right, and when you understand that and you build the whole business for those clients, they're never going away. They may slow a little bit but you're never going to lose everything. I had a lot of things in the business side of my business I didn't do to keep things going. I served high-end clients and all that stuff too. But a lot of things I didn't do right and that's by ignoring it.
Speaker 2:I was too busy winning and making awards and building great stuff. Who needs that business stuff, man, I'm making tons of money, it'll be okay it wasn't going to be okay.
Speaker 1:It wasn't going to be okay. Here's my second question for you, richard. I love that, by the way. Why do you think we, as business owners, tend to put our own stuff first? Because the dynamic that we talked about in our pre-interview with you and your family and what I guess what diminished with your family and your relationship because of what you're doing in business? Why do you think we do that?
Speaker 2:I think I'm going to call it the sinful nature of man. Man, that's our heart. Ok, we're about ego, we're about pride, I mean those two things. So that's what ruined me. I wouldn't ask for help, right, I'm going to do it all by myself. And I had billionaire clients who wanted to help me. But I was that level of stupid where I'm like well, what do you know? You don't build water features. What?
Speaker 1:do you know?
Speaker 2:You just own professional sports teams and you have manufacturing plants and I build water features. I'm special, okay. And you have manufacturing plants and I build water features, I'm special, okay. So that's the level of stupid I operated at Okay and they just wanted to help me. They literally, like, really liked me and wanted to help me and saw the potential and I did all this great stuff. But so that's really what it was, and it's kind of one of those things where the ego and the pride, okay, there's a saying we use all the time. You know, we talk about revenue, right, and you're making money. Gross revenue feeds the ego, profit feeds the family okay, say that again, brother.
Speaker 1:That's good, say that again.
Speaker 2:It's good. Gross revenue feeds the ego, profit feeds the family. Okay, people have a scorecard of revenue. Hey, I did $1 million, I did $10 million at 30 million, but what are you actually keeping? What are you taking home? And that's where I got. I was looking at the top number. I wasn't looking at the important number, I'm looking at dumb numbers. Okay, I'm being led astray, you know, by things that didn't matter, you know. But because I felt good, hey, look, I won this award, I'm a four page spread in the magazine, I got this, I got this, I got all this stuff. Right, I'm making money, I'm charging whatever I want, you know. But again, that was filling my tank, if you will. Right, I just wanted the next great thing so people could tell me I'm great.
Speaker 1:That's ego. That's that's ego. That's the deep part, right there, man. I want to touch on it because many of our listeners I know that they are in the same game, that we're in the intermediate podcasting, content creating game, and we are prone and I talked about this a lot recently ask me why I'm doing that. It's because, looking at the analytics, the overall numbers how many downloads, how many likes it can become nauseating after a certain amount of time. I want you to speak to the people who are thinking that that is important and they feel like it's important to them getting to their goal. Speak to those people that might be listening and watching right now about that, Because we need some help. We can use help right now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's really important because you have to look at the right numbers. Like okay, I got a lot of downloads. What does that actually translate to? I'll give you a good example. A number of years back, you know, you got the rise of the influencer right. So you got these people out there with their purse and their gym bag and their fit and they're doing already. They're trying to make this money and they're all about how many people are looking. I got 700,000 followers. I got a million followers. Then you find it, but you don't find out until you really get inside. Is well, how much money are you making? I'm making like 2,500 a month. What? You got a million followers and you're making $2,500 a month. That's it. Meanwhile, I got another friend who has 15,000 followers. Only, okay, but he averages $2 per month from each follower. Who do you want to be, mr? Million followers?
Speaker 1:You know who we want to be. We want to be 30 G's a month. Right, we want to be Mr 30 G's a month.
Speaker 2:Okay, that's where we want to be, so. So that's my point. Like they're not, they're not converting their followers. They don't understand what they're actually pitching. If you will, right, they think they're in there. Now, I'm not saying that they all don't make money, but the reality is, if you're in podcasting, you know, if you're in the influence space, if you will, or this whole thing. You need to convert your listeners, your followers, into customers, into clients, into people who are willing to you know, rave about you and give you money. Everyone can say you're awesome, mr, willing to you know, rave about you and give you money. Everyone can say you're awesome, mr you, you're the best. I love you man. I've never seen one as good as you and I leave. Okay, can you go deposit that in your bank?
Speaker 1:I cannot, that's right.
Speaker 2:Okay. So you know likes don't. They can't deposit likes Okay.
Speaker 1:I cannot.
Speaker 2:We need to put just and it's not that you're doing the wrong thing, it's just how you're doing it. You have to understand the real conversion on this stuff. What does that really look like? Right? What am I really converting here? You know why am I doing this? You know I do want to help people. I do my podcast. I do my podcast so people can get great information. I bring awesome guests. You know I'm also lifting up my guests. I want my guests to succeed.
Speaker 1:Right my intent on them. They're the star.
Speaker 2:Okay, and I bring them on and it's great. Right, so we understand where we're at. But the big takeaway here is really understand how you're converting them into dollars. That's the numbers that matter.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. I was really impressed by some things in our conversation. We're going to go ahead and unveil those today during this one, but you've chosen areas and professions in life that require great discipline, time and training. Those I mean. I'm old school. I admit that it's not really a secret. If you watch this show at all, or any of our shows, you know that I lean towards that. However, it seems to me that those buzzwords like discipline and time and training seem to be a lost art nowadays. It's more of a microwave response to everything. Give it to me fast, give it to me quick, give it to me now. Tell me why you chose areas and professions that required those things from you. Why did you do that?
Speaker 2:Well, for one thing it fed my spirit, it's very odd. I noticed. Throughout my life I did a lot of individual sports.
Speaker 2:I was a cross-country runner yeah, you know that's popular. I'm into suffering. I did a lot of individual sports. Okay, I was a cross country runner yeah, you know that's popular. Okay, I'm into suffering. Okay, I'm a boxer. I'm a champion boxer. I got punched in the face every day. I got seven breaks. I'm a black belt. I go through all that, so so it's a lot of individual stuff and I learned that I grow through suffering and that's where my, that's where my, that's where my greatest achievements come from. So discipline is the aspect of it. You know, discipline is so many ways and the and the reality is, when you talk to anyone who is successful, you know, at a, at a, at a high degree, okay, nothing is overnight, nothing is microwave, nothing they've done. You know, they've persevered over, year after year after year, setback after setback after setback. You don't see it because you get on social media and those are all highlight reels. You don't see the work that they've all done, that you've done, that I've done.
Speaker 2:Right, done that. You've done that I've done right. So when I try to teach, when we do podcast, I want people to know, like, okay, whether it's five years, three years, 10 years, I mean there's time involved, right, and the discipline is building consistency. Right, it's discipline, diligence and determination. That's what you're doing. Right. You have to have like all three, but discipline is your key to success.
Speaker 1:In anything you do, you have to sacrifice now for what you want later yeah, that's the kind of thing that we in this world of content creation and podcasting, this community that we are part of, that needs to be preached a whole lot more, because we're looking for a quick advancements. We're like man, I got bills and we're trying to just get there to the finish line and we don't realize that, you know, the journey is so so much, it's so sweet, it's it, it makes us, it makes the story. But I want to ask you about something also, because we actually, you know, pre-interview conversation, but I want to kind of offer it again so that way our listeners can hear it. But you know, honestly, in life many don't always achieve great success. They have some wins and stuff, and we all do. We learn how to celebrate those a lot more, but that's a side note, different topic for a different day but many don't achieve great success.
Speaker 1:How did you handle losing everything? Because that's something that I feel as though a lot of people who are listening may not ever experienced that. So it may be kind of cold to the idea, like, oh, that's not ever going to happen to me, because I'm smarter than that, I got this advantage, I had this resource. But how did you handle losing? What was your mindset, how did you deal with your family and how did it look at you? You know all those things that I think I would think about if it was me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's, it's hard. I mean it's a hard thing to deal with, I think because of what I had done all through that time how I built the business work, another job building this thing from from nothing, from a wheelbarrow and a shovel. I've gone through all that stuff and, yeah, you get this attachment. But as I gained success, I'm really getting out there and I'm making a lot of money and not doing the business part. Once it, you got to a point where you're not going to continue. There's a point where the tank is empty. Sure, okay, there's nothing left, so you don't have an option. So what I did? So this is how I dealt with it.
Speaker 2:When I realized my identity was wrapped up in my business and I'm closing the doors, I had a. We had a big acre of property where I was, but I had a big bonfire in the back. I took all my uniforms, got to video camera. I burned everything. I said I'm not going back. I burned all my uniforms. I burned all my stuff. I'm like I'm not ever wearing this stuff again. I haven't worn it since. I'm like I have a. Remember, I said I move like 30 times Like you.
Speaker 2:Absolutely yeah, I have an ability to leave places, okay, without remorse.
Speaker 1:I have that too, and people don't understand. They think I'm cold and heartless.
Speaker 2:Yeah we don't do it anything. That's right. We're not this attachment person, uh-uh, okay, so.
Speaker 2:So that was like I'm all or nothing. My friends okay, my best friends are still bummed out that I'm not doing it. 15 years later, you can't stop doing like no one does, I go, I I'm not doing, you don't understand, and they couldn't, couldn't really grab it. You know like why all this time and all this? But there there's that point that you've just got to say this doesn't work Right, it's me, it's not, my identity is not in what I do. That's a normal thing. You meet someone hey, what do you do? Right, especially men, what do you do?
Speaker 1:And all of a sudden you got.
Speaker 2:That's the first question. What do you do? So what am I saying? Who are you? Oh, I'm an engineer, I'm a lawyer, I'm a, this I'm a, I'm a water feature builder, whatever you know so. So I don't ever want to be identified that way. You know, that's my thing, I don't ever want to be stuck with what I am.
Speaker 1:I love this, so because we kind of we kind of share that uh, that sickness, if you will, where we can just kind of move off from things quickly we're not married to anything besides our wives and we can kind of just move on quickly. Tell me how that's impacted you in relationships and in friendships, because I feel like this has been impactful for me to have to almost have to reintroduce myself to people and re-explain things to people about you know why I'm like this, even if I don't understand it fully myself. How's it impacted you in relationships and friendships? For the few folks out here maybe listening who have the same difference, if you will, that we have?
Speaker 2:I have this standing joke with my kids and I tell people I said, listen, if all my friends were on one hand and I lost three fingers, I'd still have all my friends, because I'm incredibly selective on who I give my time to from a friendship standpoint. Okay, friends to me are time in the game. Okay, it's like who is still there? I call them trench buddies, right, guys who got my sex. Guys I can go to war with. Right, who will always be there? Well, there's not a lot of those, okay, there just isn't a lot of those. So I know a lot of those. Okay, there just isn't a lot of those. So I'm very I know a lot of people, okay. But again, I'm not looking to like grab on, I need someone to talk to, I need this or that. Right, my best friend.
Speaker 2:We get together like twice a year, okay, for a day or two, three day. We hang, we just have conversations, we chat, we get caught up, we go. Okay, see you in a year. But we've also climbed mountains together, we've rowed together, we've worked out. We've had a period of time where we've suffered together. Right, suffering is the greatest bond. When you suffer with someone, there's no greater bond. So when you're in the Marine Corps, like me my son is in there now that brotherhood, that suffering, you know that's lifetime connections, right when you do those things.
Speaker 2:So if I can't get someone to engage with me at those levels of experience, they kind of don't reach the bar I need for them. I don't dislike them, but they don't. You know, they don't hold that place right Because I can detach easily, okay, but I also like a lot, of, a lot of guys can do this too, but I can have long periods of time without speaking to them and then we get together. It's like we were together yesterday. Okay, it's one of those weird things, but it's to me. That's my focus, right. I want to know people I like to. I'm not a great networker, okay, I'm not that guy out being a social butterfly. I'm in the gym working out. Trust me, no one talks to me. I am beating that heavy bag. I am working battle ropes. I am making nobody talks to me. Okay, because I am intense and I get done. I grab my bag and I leave.
Speaker 1:Okay, bag and I leave.
Speaker 2:I hear you. It's just like I'm not mean but I'm very intense at what I do and that causes people to be a little bit standoffish.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this is good man. I kind of want to hang out there just for a little bit, because we're in this world where we have to deal with social media. It's not my favorite thing just to be transparent with you guys, but we're dealing with likes and friends and followers, all these little terms that we use and stuff. But that challenge that you talked about, that you went through, where you know you find out who your friends are and you find out who your friends are in the struggle, in the low times, in the low moments and stuff. It's like man that goes over most folks' heads. Man, honestly, I'm the kind of person you can talk to at the gym. I'm good with that. I'm that kind of person. I don't know how I got to be that, coming from New York City. I don't know where that came from, but I have it. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:The whole friendship deal, what you're talking about now, I'm really just learning that In all these years of living I haven't even gotten that figured out. I'm still in elementary school when it pertains to, you know, having friends that I don't talk to. For a whole year I almost discarded them Like yo y'all ain't my friends, I ain't talk to you in 365 days, but that's so natural. What you said was spot on, man. They can still be your friend halfway across the country and you talk, pick up like you never last part of your conversation. You pick up right where you left off at. So I'm learning about how to value friendship differently. So thank you for sharing that, man. That was really awesome and that's helped me out big time. So I really appreciate that.
Speaker 1:Let's talk about your podcast, richard. Let me get into that and then we'll get into your business, and then we'll go ahead and close out. So, in regards to your podcast, man, there's so many things about this world, the podcasting world, that we're still learning and we're still figuring it out. We don't have it all down pat yet. But, man, what are you learning about you and your audience through this podcast journey, man? What kind of revelations, if you will have. You have you audience through this podcast journey, man what kind of a revelation that you will have.
Speaker 2:You have you received during this time? I'll tell you the first thing you learn, okay, as a podcast host Okay, I do both right, guess, obviously, as a host what the number one skill you're going to get is how to listen. Okay, now and I'll. I'll take the. The male perspective. Can't say I was really good at that? Okay, now and I'll. I'll take the male perspective. Can't say I was really good at that. Okay, I wasn't a good.
Speaker 2:When we talk remember ego and pride that tends to not be a listener. Okay, so podcasting, after hundreds of episodes, now I'm, I am really a good listener. You could ask my wife I'm way better at listening. I'm not perfect by any stretch, but I really understand. Because you have to listen, because you need to respond correctly, whether you're conducting an interview, directing a conversation or just trying to engage in a conversation properly, you become a listener, right. So that's the number one thing, right from that standpoint, that you learn From doing it as, let's call it a business.
Speaker 2:You know, and I will tell you, it never starts as a business. If you started as a business, you're going to be disappointed. Okay, because there's a lot to learn, you have to get in, you have to study and there's good stuff out there. But you understand that, again, this is a slow process to success. Okay, it truly is. There are things you can do to help speed it along, but it's a real slow process. But you can't don't do this to like make it a living. In the beginning. It can be, okay. I mean, joe Rogan, sean Ryan, these guys, these are your unicorns Okay, but they've also got 20 years in. Sean, right, it doesn't, but the guy like Joe Rogan Okay, I did my first podcast in 2013. Okay, that's a long, that's a long time ago. You know, now it didn't take off. I had a gym and everything else. We're doing fitness stuff, because it was difficult. Then you didn't have the technology, you don't have the ease of all this stuff, you don't have platforms. You had none of that stuff.
Speaker 2:So, it was really, really difficult to do. Now it's the easiest thing you can do. So all your bases are covered when it comes down to technology and this cheap, low barrier to entry. But just remember who are you serving. Create your niche. You don't have to speak to everybody. You don't need 10 million people listening. Again, remember back to the $15,000, $2 a month.
Speaker 1:I remember, I'll never forget it.
Speaker 2:Just keep that in your head, because focus on that, Don't focus on. I need a million people listening. You know again, if I don't have 100,000 downloads every episode, but I have 500 and they really like me and they're getting into my ecosystem, my business ecosystem. That's the win, Because I can grow them in my ecosystem. They can come up the value ladders. They call it right, Something simple, some achievement and they can then become my clients. Right, Because there's two things you do in business Get clients, keep clients. That's it.
Speaker 2:Those are the two things you do. So how do you do that right, so get them in, you get them and then you work on keeping them by more offerings, more content, more everything right. So that's what we want. So that's my biggest advice there Really understand that and don't get faked out by the wrong numbers.
Speaker 1:Analysts can fool you in podcasting and in baseball they can fool you. Are you helping people do this kind of stuff, man? Because you got some solid nuggets, man you've been throwing out during this interview. Man, do you help people do this kind of stuff?
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, I'm a business we'll call. Call a business advisor, right. So my whole thing is I help business owners recover lost profits. They didn't even know they were missing, right.
Speaker 2:So, everyone's in business, like we're talking about right there. So I got a podcast. I got you know, are you making money? Can I show you why you're not making money? Right, you got a business. I got a brick and mortar. I'm this, I'm a landscaper, I'm a. I'm this, I'm a landscaper, I'm a plumber, I'm. You're leaving tens of thousands of dollars on the table. You're not converting them properly. You think you're out here getting this. You're chasing the wrong number. You don't understand how to convert. You don't know how to grow a client base, right, you don't understand what you can serve them upsell, downsell, cross sells. What can you actually do with your business? Sell, cross sells. What can you actually do with your business? There's like 50 profit centers in a business 50,.
Speaker 1:Five zero, not two, Okay so there's You're blowing my mind, man.
Speaker 2:I'm talking profit, the money you get to keep. When it's all said and done, you're left with this pile on the table with nowhere to go. That's what I want, real net profit, you know so we that. That's what I help people do, that's what I help businesses do, and it doesn't matter what the business is. I focus in home services, you know so. Hvac, plumbing, landscaping, dog walking, whatever you got right, your hair, salon, stuff like that, like we do that kind of stuff. But really it applies to any business, because it's business.
Speaker 1:That's good.
Speaker 2:You know business is business. I know we all want to feel like we're special. You ain't special, okay, I'm not, you're not. I mean you are outside your business.
Speaker 1:They told me I was special.
Speaker 2:Yes, well, they have to. And then you had to give money, right. But just understand, it's an entrepreneurship. That is the even playing field. You want to even playing field. Get into business. You'll feel like everybody's against you. It's so hard. It's not because we all deal with that. It's a great equalizer. Business, the marketplace, is a great equalizer. We all have the opportunity to succeed. That's why I love it.
Speaker 1:That's why I help businesses.
Speaker 2:I get so much joy from watching others succeed in their business. Turning it around, I have a book called Escape the Owner Prison. We're going to get into that.
Speaker 1:We're going to get into that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it's. I just keep going yeah, right, we're going to get into that. Yeah, we're going to get into that. Yeah, so it's.
Speaker 1:Just keep going. Yeah, you're helping me. I mean it doesn't feel good, but you're helping me. I heard this stuff when I first started in 2020. I'm a reader, I'm an information gatherer. I don't just sit back and just wait for stuff to hit me in the head. So I heard all this stuff before, but I could never ever really apply it well, so this has helped me big time. I probably need to get more information from you, but this is really good. I want to get into escaping the owner prison. Talk to us about what that is. Where does that come from? Let's get into it a little bit. Why did you write that book?
Speaker 2:So I would say I was in business for 20 years and lost everything Right. So I was say I was in business for 20 years and lost everything Right. So I was a success and a failure all at the same time. So I do things big right. If I'm going to succeed, I succeed big. When I fail, I fail big. Okay, I lose everything.
Speaker 1:So, like I said, I'm all or nothing.
Speaker 2:So what happened was that I had to restart, right. So I started two new businesses. I got a gym. I'm training people, I'll boot camps out training. I had a construction business, started doing that, okay, really good. Then people started asking me well, how'd you go from all that to nothing, to this? How do people even do that? Like you're asking right. So I started talking about their business. They have a business, so I started helping them. Well, you're doing this and this. Start helping them. Well, you're doing this and this. And I use those failures right, they're cues that I learned. So I started mentoring people and I started seeing the same patterns in every business All doing the same wrong things. Oh, wow, okay, all of them. Like, this is unusual. I thought I was unique, remember. I thought I was special.
Speaker 1:I thought that too, you told me, I wasn't so yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So now I'm like okay, so this is so. I'm like you know what? I'm going to write a book. I'm going to use my story and the fundamentals of these guys doing all this wrong stuff, because here's what it looks like, here's the owner prison. Okay, you start a business and guess what you have to do when you start a business? You got to work your tail off. To work your tail off, there's no getting around it. There's no secret sauce. You're going to wear nine hats. You're going to do all this stuff. You're going to get this thing launched, you're going to sell, you're going to market. You can do everything, but here's the problem. So your first two years you're doing that, but next thing you know, 10 years goes by. You've repeated the first two years five times. You're on the hamster wheel.
Speaker 2:You're making a little more money, but if you don't open the door in the morning, the business doesn't happen. If you leave for a week, you got to call in every day to make sure no one burned the place down, right, it's all dependent on you. So that's the owner prison. You are trapped, you have no, you don't have profit, you don't have freedom, you don't have any impact, right. So you're just doing this. You have a glorified job, right? So what I want to do is show them how to get out of that.
Speaker 2:Where do you begin with that? And that's what my book does. So it walks them through all that. And then you'll go like. Some things will seem obvious. They go, yeah, but you're not doing it. It's like your free throw, right. If you play basketball, how many you got to shoot? Tens of thousands. It's gotta be perfect every time. You don't just decide to lift your elbow up and shoot it. It's not going in, right, it's just it's like, but. But we have to always stick with the fundamentals, whether that's sport or business. You have to understand that and then you can grow Right, cause the goal is to get the owner, the business owner, to what I call working on their 5%, that's the 5% of the business. Only they can do. That's vision, that's market share right. They reel in the big clients, that kind of stuff. Everything else can be delegated and automated and eliminated right. Those are the things we want to be able to do and we get to that. Now you make profit, now you have freedom.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there we go.
Speaker 2:Now you make impact. Now you can make a difference in the community. Right, because you're in a position of influence. You own a business, right, so we want to go down there. But now you can actually spend time with the family that you started the business so that you had freedom to be with your family, which you're never able to be with your family because you got a business. Business can be a mistress. It will consume you. It'll want your time. It'll pull you away from your family. Okay, you'll work the late hours, seven days. You'll do everything because it just keeps. It's the siren song, right? It's just calling you back because things are not organized. It's not self-reliant, right. And so who suffers? Your family.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:And we can't have that. We just we can't have that, we can't have that. That's not why we got in business. We need to fulfill the vision of why we actually got in the business in the first place.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I've been reading about the myths of entrepreneurship and, man, you nailed a lot of what I've been reading. Man, that's definitely it. You help a lot of folks, man, I don't know if they're're listening, but they should be talking to you right now because there's a lot of, a lot of gold in what you've been saying. Man, I I'm stuck on one thing that you said and I want to highlight that because I believe it's going to be valuable to our listeners. You talked about, you know, starting over. I feel like you, you glossed over that kind of quick. You you went through that real quick You're talking about.
Speaker 1:You can highlight how much money in terms I think that people need to hear terms. So if you're good with the actual dollar amounts, that would help people kind of get a visual, because people need visuals these days, just how today's generation learns. But you went from having X to losing X and then rebuilding and restart. You know how many people don't ever restart or ever restart with the same gumption they had the first time because they're gun shy about it now. So now they're going to try to minimize the losses and minimize the pain too. So they kind of just do a half restart. Just some advice to the listening, yeah, or who are in a place where they have to start over yeah.
Speaker 2:It's like, yeah, yeah, absolutely. So here's the thing. The starting over thing is like, if you've been an entrepreneur, you've been in business for really any amount of time maybe it's three years, five years you fail. I was 20 years, Okay, and then I failed. So I'll tell you what I'm not. I'm not employable, Okay. So 20 years working for yourself, you're not going to be able to work for someone, Though I one caveat. I will say, if I do, if I had to right, which I did briefly I'm the best employee you could ever want you don't tell me what to do, I get it right, but in 12 months I need to run your company, Otherwise I'm out.
Speaker 2:Right, I'll tell you what you're doing wrong, All right, so that's the thing. So one thing you have to understand that. So you don't really have an option, so you have to start now. Now I had to go well, what am I going to do if I'm not going to do these things that I was doing? Right? So that took some time to figure out. Now I went what do I love to do? I kept it really simple. Well, I love training people, I love working out. I love training people. I'm awesome at it. Well, let's do that. So I go to Anytime Fitness. They need a personal trainer. I can do that. I got certified in 1993. I could. So I go in and build this program. Okay, All of a sudden I go from zero to like 40, 40 clients right Every week. And guess what happens? A year later, I'm trainer of the year. So you know what that means to an entrepreneur.
Speaker 1:Time to open a gym. Okay, so I opened a gym and then there we go, Right.
Speaker 2:So you have to. There is going to be that transition time and I'll tell you one of the secrets to succeeding is to do something Meaning go make some money, get a job, be active. Don't sit and look out the window and dream about what you should do. Go make some money. I don't care if it's 15 bucks an hour. So you have to be active, because that's also going to motivate you, because you're going to realize there is a really low ceiling working for someone and I am if you're an entrepreneur, you are.
Speaker 2:If you're like me, I am not in the limits. Like people will brag. They work for the union. I can make $32 an hour. You know what? I tell them yeah, but you can't make 33. And they just look at it. They go. They won't let you. I go, hey, no one tell me how much I can make or not. I'm like I don't care. I know it sounds good, but that, just that's like that's a prison to me. You tell me this is all I can make here. It's not going to work.
Speaker 2:So, I just want people to understand that right as they move forward. You'll figure it out, but keep looking for the opportunity right that you can slide into and make that happen.
Speaker 1:All right. So we got we're almost up against it, and I still got some more questions to ask you. So we're going to try to squeeze these in, because I can't let some of this stuff go. Short answers, here they go. Yeah, I'm going to need that for me, mr Walsh. I need to get short. All right, buddy, that's what I need, all right, ok, so All right. So why do you think so many business owners struggle with scaling their businesses? I think that that speaks to whether we're in podcasting, whether we are authors of books, whether we're content creators whatever it is that we do in the corporate, whatever it is, especially small business owners. A lot of those are in our listenership as well. Why do they struggle with scaling their businesses, you think?
Speaker 2:Well, two things. They're not prepared to scale. All right. They don't have systems, they don't have processes, their business isn't self-running, it's not duplicatable. And I'll tell you this real quick Growth and scaling are two different things.
Speaker 1:It's like Bob's Burgers. That's what you're saying.
Speaker 2:Well, listen, growth to grow costs money. Scaling does not cost money. I'm air quoting, but I mean everything's duplicatable, it's rinse and repeat. Growing you're figuring stuff out. You're spending more money. You're trying to build all this stuff out. So just understand there's a difference between growth and scaling. Okay, but most people are not prepared to grow. They haven't mastered what they're doing and they're trying to duplicate it, and they can't, because people don't have an ability to follow a system or a process, because you haven't developed it as the owner. That's really the key.
Speaker 1:All right, I love this. I love this. Like I said, this is Trevor Moore. I'm lobbying at your man Rapid Fire. You mentioned about giving back being a powerful business building strategy. Break that down for us to the lowest common denominator, if you can. What does that mean?
Speaker 2:Really, it means building the people that are on your team who work for you. How do you make them better people? Yes, they're competent. We can make them more competent in our business. How do we make them better as people when you're able to elevate? And we don't have time to go into how, but I have all the hows.
Speaker 1:I'm not going to reach out to you to find all the hows.
Speaker 2:No worries If they become better people. Where does that go? They take that home right, they become a better person. They go home. Their families are influenced by that. And where are their families? They're in the community. Okay, so if I want to help 10,000 business owners right, do profit, freedom and impact and I make them all better people, they them all better people. They take that home. They're in the community. I'm not affecting 10,000 people, I'm affecting millions.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Because that all, it's all a cascade. It begins, but I treat my people that way elevate them. They take it home, their family gets elevated, they go into community, they elevate others. It's just, it's a circle, right, that's how it works. So that's where the impact is. As a business or you have influence.
Speaker 2:I don't care how much you're making, you've started the business you do, what the majority of people will never do. Okay, and that deserves respect and you'll have it. Okay, it's not about how much, and you can influence your community, those people around you, no matter where you're at. That's where it's really at.
Speaker 1:I love this man. Thank you, no matter where you're at, that's where it's really at. I love this man. Thank you, sir. All right, so you mentioned about you mentioned this several times and I know you do this in your business. You talk about having an exit strategy in your business and why it's important. Frame your answer for all those posts I said was in our listenership that are probably like okay, how does that impact me? Because and this is a personal story Many people who are my colleagues in this podcast and media game may be hearing it for the first time, but I'm always thinking, okay, what do I do to, I guess, work myself out of a job, so to speak?
Speaker 1:Because I'm like, okay, I'm doing this, I'm building this, but there has to be an end game and we'll come back to that question that we talked about in our pre-interview as well. It has to be an end game. You know what. We're going to go ahead and just do this open mic, hit record forever and ever. I tell people who I go into business with, people who I do shows with, who I collaborate with, I said I'm not doing this forever. There has to be some kind of build out. Perhaps what you said. I'm not doing it right so I can learn to do it better, but there has to be. There's always an end game, always a clock on this. Why is having an exit strategy wise for any kind of business?
Speaker 2:So, first thing, there's two times to do an exit strategy. The best time is before you start your business.
Speaker 2:Okay, the second best time is before you start your business. The second best time is right now. We want to go to the end because that becomes a business filter. If I know, I'm going to do this for 10 years and I want $10 million when I exit, all I do is reverse engineer. Well, what do I do today to get there in 10 years? What's that going to look like? You'll know when to hire the first person. You know what kind of market share you're looking for. Now you build, and when someone comes and dangles that little shiny object in front of you, called opportunity, you go. Well, hold on a second. Let me just run that through. That gets me closer and faster to my exit strategy, I'm in. If it doesn't, it's a hard no right.
Speaker 1:It keeps you focused on the main thing. That's good, man. That's like you know what repeat. This is one time you can repeat yourself. Repeat, repeat that, please.
Speaker 2:That's very good sir, repeat it so when you start with the end in mind, you have an exit strategy. Someone offers you an opportunity because that's going to happen. People are going to dangle a shiny object here. You can make money by doing this. Do my little multi-level marketing thing or whatever. Okay, let me look at it.
Speaker 2:Does it get me closer and faster to my exit strategy or does it detract from it? If it detracts from it, it's a hard no. If it's going to get me faster, let's go. I'm shooting for the exit. If you can throw some horsepower in my engine, in my economic engine, to get me faster to my exit strategy, I'm all about that. Come on, let's go. But if it doesn't and a lot of the most things don't, because it takes focus. So just remember that it's an incredible business filter.
Speaker 1:Absolutely Love it, man. That's so good. If you guys missed that, check out the 43 minute mark of this episode. Man, that was really good. I love this One thing that you that you did, uh, mention in your profile. We didn't get to discuss it too much, but I want to talk about it because it's impacting me on a personal level and I think many of my friends are watching and listening.
Speaker 1:Whether they admit it or not, they're in the same boat, and that's about the uh, the, the managing of that free time and what we do. We almost find that we almost get caught into that ego pride vortex that you were talking about earlier, where we have to do more episodes. We do, instead of two days a week, now we're doing seven days a week. We always I'm trying to out beat the algorithm. I'm like you can't even see the algorithm. How can you beat something you can't see? You know what I'm saying, so it's very. But how do you, because of the wisdom that you developed over the years and all you've been through, how do you make sure that free time is not lost? How do you? I'm not lacking in words, but you know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you have to have. It's called accountability. Everything has to be accounted for. I can't have a blank spot in my day. Oh, I'll just do something. For from 10 to noon there's nothing in my calendar. What? Why there's nothing? You, you have nothing to do? Okay, Well, I'll. I'll run home and hang out with my daughter for an hour and a half. Okay, that's in my schedule. This afternoon I'm taking her to the bank to get a better loan than what she has. That's from three to five. That's what we're doing. Okay, I'm taking her. We're going to do that because I've planned that.
Speaker 2:So it really is an accountability thing. You think, hey, I'm loose, I fly, I just make it up. You know things change in business. It's nonsense. Okay, you have to control that. You need certain anchor activities in your day. If I have a 7 am to 7.30 strategy time, I do this with my clients. You dedicate 30 minutes to work on what we're working on. I'm your coach. 30 minutes a day, that's two and a half hours a week. So now you've got Monday through Friday 30 minutes a day. Two and a half hours working on your business may not seem like a lot. It's a ton, and I make them set a timer. So if it's 7 to 7.30, 7.30, if it goes off, you stop doing it. You don't get to keep working on it. Okay, you think, well, I got time, no, stop, and you go do the next thing and then tomorrow you'll do it again. Right, Because that creates a discipline which we talked about earlier, right? How?
Speaker 1:important yeah absolutely.
Speaker 2:A discipline applies to every aspect of your life. Okay, so you've got to understand where that's at and that's how you're going to manage your time. When people say they're too busy, they don't have time, what's the first question I ask? I go tell me how many hours in a week. And they go oh, I got to do math. I go no, you don't have to do math. I'll tell you it's 168 hours and you don't know that. How can you tell me you don't have time when you don't know how much you have? Okay, you got to know what you're working with, right? You got to know what you're working with, right.
Speaker 2:This is good, right. Like any metric, how can I measure something if I don't know what I'm measuring?
Speaker 1:I love this man. This is really good man. All right, just a couple more questions and then we'll go ahead and direct everybody how to find your work, your website and your book, of course, escaping the owner prison. But what's your 10-year plan, man? We talked about it in a pre-interview.
Speaker 2:Got an interesting answer from you, man. What's your 10-year plan, man? Yeah, so I am again. I'm after 10 000 business owners help 10 000 business owners create property and impact in their business. That's what I want to do. I will exceed that in 10 years because that's just that's where my, where the target is for right now. Um, and it's, it's an amazing thing. So that's what I'm working on.
Speaker 2:What I want to do is I'm building a team of coaches. I'm bringing people on. It's a lucrative business. We're helping business owners. I want to be able to scale that right. So I have systems, I have processes, I have software, I have the whole package to bring people into programs and not just get them but keep them right. I work with my clients for years because of what they get from what I do. So that's really the goal is to become that. I'm not looking for any fame. I don't want any of that kind of stuff. What I want is I want to see 10,000 business owners create profit, get freedom in their life and make an impact with all that work and what they've done. It's a, you know, be vision driven. I want to help them be vision driven.
Speaker 2:That's really the mission here to teach people what what vision truly is. It's not a mission statement, it's vision. So that's really that's my 10 year end goal.
Speaker 1:Okay, I'm sure you got an exit strategy. Could you teach us about that? So I'm sure you have one, and all your coaches are local or remote or both.
Speaker 2:Remote. I got a little bit on both, but most of them are remote yeah.
Speaker 1:Copy that Copy, all right. So last question If you weren't an author, if you weren't a business owner, what would Richard be doing right now? And you can't say, working with steel sculptures either.
Speaker 2:Right, what would I be doing? I don't know man, I don't know. I'd be probably unhappy somewhere.
Speaker 1:Now you're the man. Clearly, if anybody heard the episode at all, they know that you are a man with a plan. You got stuff strategized. You can't sit here and tell me you don't have no plan now.
Speaker 2:My plan is exactly what I'm doing. Remember this Life is seasons, Everything is seasons. I have a 20-year-old, two 19-year-olds, two 18-year-olds and a 17-year-old now.
Speaker 1:Oh, you got twins.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, yeah, a couple steps there so, but 15 years ago I was in a different season. Right, I lost everything. Yeah, I had to restart a different season. Now I'm in a new season. Now they're all that, wife and I. Now my business is growing, I can focus more time, I can get more people working towards this new goal. It's a new season, so I use the you know retire, like people say, when are you going to retire? Well, I'm going to put four new tires on and get going back down the road. I'm going to retire. There's no stopping, so there's no end for me.
Speaker 1:There's no end.
Speaker 2:It's a season when I reach 10,000, I have other people who are going to take it. I'm going to become just the founder of Sharpen the Spirit Coaching. You know what founders do Nothing, okay, everything is running. I collect a check. Okay, that's the goal. Right, but I want it to live on. Right, I want the business to live on, but I'm not going to do this forever, because there'll be the next thing. You know, I'll hit my mark, I'll exit again into a founder position and then I'll have opportunity. There'll be another opportunity for me to get into and I'll begin with that. That's really the plan. I don't have to know the exact opportunity because I'm focused on building Sharpen the Spear right now. So that consumes me.
Speaker 1:you know I love this. I got more questions about Sharpen the Spear right now, so that consumes me.
Speaker 1:you know I love this. I got more questions about Sharpen the Spear, but I think we'll do that offline. We'll talk about those, but what I want to do is two things for us. One, in the comments section on our YouTube channel where the episode is. I'd love for you to drop all your information on your book where they can find your book. If it's on every retailer, you'll just make that known there. And, of course, your website, where they can potentially join or use the services of Sharpen the Spear but share with everybody here, while we're in the episode, where they can find your book and your website for us.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it's sharpenthespearcoachingcom. Sharpenthespearcoaching. Yeah, so it's sharpen the spear coachingcom. Sharpen the spear coachingcom. Go there. Tons of great videos, education, learn content. You can contact me via there. You can get my book on Amazon. It's the best selling book. Escape the owner, prison, the contractors, new way to scale, regain control and fast track growth while loving life. Richard Walsh, go on there, get that. But let's do something special. Okay, this has been great. I know we've kind of probably gone long.
Speaker 2:I'll be good brother, but here's what I want to do for everyone who's hung on. Okay, if you go to my website, sharpenthespiritcoachingcom, go to the contact page, send me a one-sentence email. It says Richard, I saw you on Mr U's program. I'd love the free copy of the audio version of Escape the Owner Prison and I will send it to you. I might do it myself, yeah, and I'll send it to you. You'll have it like same day. Okay, it costs you nothing. Get to listen to the whole read. Now you have to listen to me read it. So you got that. But other than that, you know and I do a pretty good job but just listen to that and get that book and get it going. I know audio books are real popular now. People want to listen to it. So let's do that for him, just because this has been awesome.
Speaker 1:Thank you, sir. I appreciate it. Man, if you guys haven't heard man Richard Walsh is probably. He may be the famous person. As you know, you've never heard of him before, but this man got a lot of wisdom, a lot of strategy. He knows what he's talking about.
Speaker 1:This has been one of my best episodes and you're a big reason why, brother. So thank you so much, man, for jumping on man. This has been insightful, to say the least. Hope this is not our last conversation. I'm sure we're going to talk offline because I have plenty more questions, especially more questions, especially in regards to the coaching. But thank you again for joining us, man. It's been a pleasure and an honor. And thank you guys for listening and for watching the show and please, if you haven't already done so, always access at the end of our shows. Go to our YouTube channel, youtubecom, at theycallmemisteryou. Please hit the white subscribe button. It's not going to hurt you to do so. It's going to help us put put out more quality content for you guys to consume. So we thank you again for subscribing and liking and sharing some videos. Keep us going, help us out with this and we thank you for your support and thanks for watching this show, have a fantastic day. Thank you guys. Thanks Richard Bye.
