Can that

happen? Yeah, absolutely.

Generally speaking, I think of it like if you're trying to do a high jump and you can stand still and jump as high as you can go and you'll get you'll get to whatever distance you get to.

Right.

But everybody knows if you take a single step back, you'll jump higher.

planting your feet, taking a step back and then moving forward and jumping.

And I know that's a weird visual, but that's how I really like to give the visual to business owners when they're starting to make that transition is you're in the lateral or the backward step right now.

So what else is required to turn a business owner into a CEO? Yeah.

Yeah.

And if they don't take the time, I think everybody starts out with some sort of vision.

I think that's hard not to believe that.

Even if it is around monetary gain, I think that still counts a little bit.

Like, hey, I want to do this.

And I would say that vision is really the compass or the goal.

And look, if you want to make a ton of money and that's your whole purpose of running your business, that's fine.

If somebody's sitting here watching and, you know, they're just starting in business, what are some of the key things that you would recommend for somebody that, you know, to start on their leadership journey?

But your early career, some of the choices that you made and maybe some of the maybe serendipitous situations that led you to where you are today and running the successful Bellawood Coaching LLC.

Yeah.

It probably did start in the Marines at some place when I transferred into corporate America, but we can definitely start with corporate America.

I fell into financial planning.

I had just gotten out of the Marine Corps and I'd gone to college.

I didn't take any time off and just working full-time going to college full-time i started my first class 10 days out when i got out of the out of the military and just went full force and i started with a couple different degrees and then landed in business management and the end of the day one of my friends from high school i i had run into accidentally and he was uh a couple years into his financial planning career um I was raving about it and said, Hey man, we know you're in school.

We have actually a terrific internship program.

What are you seeing, but also what sort of guidance, counsel, conversations are you having in relation to, I guess, the integration of all the technology and some of the macroeconomic challenges that we're seeing around the world?

How do they have a lift in that area?

Yeah, I think it's a great point.

I think even being in the military, it gives you a base, but every challenge is different in life.

I've stumbled just as many as any other person has.

I think the frameworks, and this is what I would say to answer your question, is a lot of the initial work I personally even do with clients is developing these frameworks to make decisions.

And most people, that's where the gap is.

When I start breaking down, what did the... military, the Marine Corps specifically, really teach me how to do well, and that's make tough decisions when it matters.

Yeah, yeah, I appreciate

... leadership role?

Uh, I think it's re- it really did actually did start though in boot camp.

Um, I was what's called, uh, the guide of our boot camp platoon, and that, that came with, with s- with a lot of responsibility.

You know, at least back then, it felt like a lot of responsibility.

I don't know how much you actually had looking back at it.

But, uh, and then, and really this desire to perform as a team, and I think that's the...

I just mentioned it before, you know, the, the Marine Corps is very, very competitive.

Yeah, yeah

Yeah.

Um, you know, the financial planning piece of it was definitely entrepreneurial.

Uh, you had to start by really cold calling, uh, realistically, uh, people and asking them to set meetings with you.

I think that was the first piece.

So really getting... cutting your teeth in sales, I think that's probably...

I think that's probably been the biggest lesson I learned about entrepreneurship in general, um, is networking and sales.

I mean, there's so many ways to, to build a business nowadays, but at the very end of the day, every entrepreneur in some way, shape, and form is a salesperson.

Mm-hmm.

And, and I would imagine it's a little bit the same, but, but inside of, inside of business and even outside, uh, what does it encompass for you?

Yeah, I think the first thing that I focus in on actually is the personal piece of it.

I think that's really important.

It's something that a lot of people miss oftentimes.

Like when we start talking about leadership or business coaching, you know, you get this thought process around numbers, metrics.

et cetera, teams, all that's very valid and true and usually down the pipeline.

But generally speaking, you have to start with yourself.

things?

The Okay, so I mean, first off yeah like i said thank you for your service dude like you you are you were literally in it you know there's some some people there's so many like opportunities now in the military not to like under plan you in the military but like you know when you say thank you for your service like you think of vietnam vets like they were in the freaking like tormented in war um because they were in it and it's just like mad respect for even putting yourself in that situation to really like help your country and like what you you believed was the best thing to do so um like that just takes so much guts uh and free but then there's other people who just live in like cush jobs it's like thank you for your service for like typing on a computer and not really doing much you know not to underplay anyone but you were like in the trenches so first off like tell me i'm just curious man like what was it like being in the iraq war you know leading teams being an infantry squad leader like you know share as much as you want man but like what was that experience even like

Ooh, uh, stressful, I guess is probably the first word that comes to mind.

Um, really rewarding.

Uh, I think lifelong is another word that, that comes to mind as well.

I mean, I joined when I was 17 and then I ended up going to bootcamp when I was 18.

Um, you know, for anybody listening to this, like I, I, I literally saw the, um, my dad and I were, I'll never forget this.

We were watching the news and the battle of Fallujah, which was in 2004 had just transpired.

Cause I'm doing a lot of stuff and I'm fatigued at the end of the day mentally, but like you can work fewer hours by prioritizing the real things that actually move the needle, which your point is like making a piece of content, that actually creates an opportunity reaching out to people you know do you want to sit down on a coffee that is an offer you know do you want this but people are just like creating those things but they never make them to people promote them and like that's this if you just do that like i think you'll get to six figures you know make better offers create better offers and make more of them that's the secret that's what i've learned