ISI Brotherhood Podcast

121. From Chaos to Clarity: The Mental Reset Every Entrepreneur Needs

• Aaron Walker • Season 2 • Episode 6

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What if the key to business clarity isn't about doing more, but resetting your personal foundation? For entrepreneurs caught in the storm of endless decisions and overwhelming to-do lists, losing sight of yourself becomes all too common.

This transformative conversation dives deep into the personal pillar of transformation every business owner needs. We begin by examining the identity crisis at the heart of entrepreneurial burnout—the tendency to hide behind what we call "the mask of success." When we're constantly positioning ourselves to appear successful, we miss the freedom that comes from authenticity in our relationships and business decisions.

The journey continues with a critical mindset shift from scarcity to abundance. Even during challenging seasons, gratitude becomes the powerful practice that reorients our perspective, reminding us we're not holding the world together. This shift enables us to respond intentionally rather than chase desperately—a distinction that marks truly sustainable business success.

We explore how definitions of success naturally evolve throughout an entrepreneur's journey. What begins as a focus on financial metrics often transforms into valuing time freedom and legacy. For many, faith becomes inseparable from business, not as a separate component to integrate, but as the foundation that shapes both personal growth and impact on others.

The conversation culminates with practical implementation strategies, emphasizing that knowledge without action remains merely potential power. Creating space for deep thinking, establishing accountability with trusted peers, and developing consistent reflection habits form the structure needed for lasting transformation.

Ready to take your life and business from chaos to clarity? This episode provides the mental reset framework to rebuild from the inside out, aligning your actions with your truest values and rediscovering the authentic self that your business needs most.


Key Takeaways:

  • Learn about the entrepreneur's identity crisis.
  • How to move beyond the mask of success.
  • Shift from scarcity to an abundance-based mindset.
  • Redefine success beyond money.
  • Create an action plan for personal reset


Connect:

Forge the Brotherhood: A Live Mastermind Experience for Kingdom-Driven Men isn’t a webinar—it’s a seat at the table. This 60-minute live event, led by Aaron Walker, offers Christian business owners a taste of the Iron Sharpens Iron Brotherhood through bold conversations, structured vulnerability, and powerful connection.

5/28/25 @ 11:00 AM CST  

Save your seat here: https://www.isibrotherhood.com/live

Speaker 1:

Well, if you want to take your life from chaos to clarity, I want you to follow a few of the principles that we've set out in this episode today. First of all, there's an identity crisis You've got to rediscover who you are. And after that, there's a mindset shift that you've got to implement and go from scarcity to abundance. And then there's an action plan that we're going to help you with helping you implement the mental reset. Are you ready to go? Let's dive in. I'm really fired up about this episode today Chaos to Clarity, and it's the Mental Reset every entrepreneur needs. You know.

Speaker 1:

I would say that a lot of small business owners out there listening today feel like they're navigating a storm. There's these constant decisions, there's this endless to-do list, there's this pressure to succeed, and I mean that can be grueling oftentimes. 46 years now, I have felt that feeling, so I can identify with you. I know exactly how you feel. While you're in this chaos, though, it's easy to lose sight of yourself, and we don't want you to do that. We want you to know how important you are as an individual. But what if the key to clarity isn't about doing more, but it's about resetting your personal foundation? Well, in this episode we're going to dive into the personal pillar of transformation, exploring how to rebuild from the inside out. Hopefully, we're going to give you a few tips today that can transform your life and your business. Hey, let's welcome the co-host, Seth Buechle. Seth, how's it going, buddy?

Speaker 2:

Going well. Big A. This is going to be a fun topic, you know, as I was listening to you talk about the problem, I think this is more common and probably the kind of the standard for folks. You know, this is the normal default setting for many entrepreneurs and small business owners, because we're always in motion, we're always doing stuff, we have these obligations, we have these tasks, we have these responsibilities, we have these visions and we're relentlessly pursuing this thing called success, but sometimes we're losing touch with why we're doing it, pursuing this thing called success, but sometimes we're losing touch with why we're doing it in the first place. You know not just our why, but also just ourselves, and you know we've called this this internal drift. We naturally drift towards this state of activity, but sometimes it's disconnected from the thing that really matters most and you know something essential is missing. And you know today's episode we want to just dig, take a few steps back and dig deep and talk about identity and how that clarity leads to greater purpose and impact.

Speaker 1:

Seth, let's talk a little bit about individual feelings that we and you and I have both had in regards to getting busy and drifting and losing yourself. Can you think of a time, even recently, that that's happened to you?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean, it's normal to feel a sense of responsibility and for me, what happens? Like I had a business partner die in 2023. And I just put on my shoulders this sense that well, that was horrible. And I gave myself a whole 12 minutes to grieve and then I just said I'm going to grind and I'm just going to make it happen. And even though I don't believe it, my default pattern is if it is to be, it's up to me. If I'm not careful and you just step into it and carry it and before too long we realize, I realize I'm just not having fun. You know, as a Christian, we're also promised peace. Right, we want to have impact, we want to make a difference in purpose, but we're also promised peace, and so that's where I kind of find that disconnect is like am I really experiencing peace? Okay, what's going on here?

Speaker 1:

Who first calls you out on that? Is it your colleagues, your peers, your spouse, your children? Like when you get in that oftentimes it's a blind spot. You don't even realize it yourself. Who, would you say, notices first?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I don't think anybody externally notices first. Actually, I notice first and I don't know whether I'm abnormally self-aware, probably not I just find it the indicator. For me, the blinking light is a lack of joy. It's like I'm just not and also not looking forward to anything, like I'm just I'm just kind of grinding and you know it's easy to tell myself I'm just being responsible, yeah, but Even if you're making great money. I'm just being responsible.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, but even if you're making great money, that still resonates with you. Is that a variable? You're making money or not making money? How fast do you lose your joy when you're really making good money, or does that distract you? Is that not a variable for?

Speaker 2:

you? That is a great question, I think when we're making money, well, I would look at it this way To me, the real indicator is overwhelm. Personally, like am I feeling overwhelmed? And theoretically, if you're making good money, you should be able to hire the resources to solve the problems. And so what I find sometimes is when you're not making money or you don't have the resources, it's just taking on too much feeling like I've got to carry this and make it happen. And also the part that you know we talk about this mask of success right, that you want to pretend like you have it all going on. So for me, I tend to throw the flag on myself early and I talk to my wife about it, you know, and. But most people from the outside can't detect it, to be honest, you know it's funny.

Speaker 1:

You said that in 46 years I've been a small business owner and I usually talk to Robin kind of last, not first, because I don't want to burden her with the business side of our marriage. She probably wants to hear more than I'm willing to share, but oftentimes I use the excuse of you know, I'm trying to protect her and I don't really want to burden her with that, unless it's a major life decision that we both need to be involved in making. But you just said something and I don't want to gloss over it. You said the mask of success and I want to talk about that for a second because I think that's important, because I think we all deal with identity crisis and I think we've got to really discover who we are as an individual. So I think a lot of entrepreneurs out there today are wearing a mask of success. They're really hiding their true selves behind their business achievements. How do we allow ourselves to be true to ourselves?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I don't know that we're intentionally hiding. I think there is a little bit of that because of comparison and stories we tell ourselves about other people's success, that because of comparison and stories we tell ourselves about other people's success. I just think that we naturally aren't vulnerable, right? So I don't think we're intentionally hiding and putting on a facade, although that can happen. I just think that we're just carrying the load and we're not intentionally and I think that's the key word intentionally bringing other people into the reality, like, hey, I'm carrying the load and I'm feeling overwhelmed and I don't know how to figure this out, and there's a tremendous freedom that comes from that. Right, but until you take that mask off, right? Nobody can help, right, and I don't even think we can, I don't even think we feel real until we get to that level of sharing with other people.

Speaker 1:

Seth. Recently there was an event a private event that was going on here in Nashville at Donald Miller's house and a friend of mine was putting on the event, pete Vargas. Pete invited me to come to the event and I did and there were about 60 people there and a buddy of mine that lives here in Nashville was at the event and Pete asked him to pray before the event. And there was a lot of noted people there I could call their names and you would know who they are and my buddy bowed his head and he prayed. And he prayed, lord, let us not position tonight. And he just kind of paused. He said let us just really be real, let us not have any mask of success, let us not have any personal desires or ambitions, but let us be real and let us be genuine. It changed the entire theme of the night and John Acuff is who it was that prayed. And John Acuff is who it was that prayed and we sat across the table from some amazing people and there was no positioning, there was no mask of success, there was no identity crisis that were going on. He gave permission for everyone to relax. Wouldn't it be amazing today if we could all do that If we could be in relationship with our peers, our colleagues, our business partners at our churches, everywhere, to where there wasn't this mask that you've got to wear.

Speaker 1:

And I'll just be honest with you, I'm probably hypersensitive to it because I was guilty of it and some friends of mine called me out on that and said, like why do you have to name drop or why do you have to let us know? Like it's not necessary and it is so relaxing and I think it's because I've gotten older I don't do that near as much. I still catch myself. Now I'm not going to say I'm Lily White here, I still catch myself occasionally doing that, but now I'm a self-aware and I catch myself doing that. And I just want to share one other thought around that it's so much more relaxing now to live that way, rather than having this mask of success that I've got to portray that I'm successful at everything I do, and the conversations that I've had in the past decade have been much more meaningful as a result of relaxing that mask of success.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I love that. Well, that kind of brings us to our next point, which is, you know, the value of community. And you said something which was you know what, if everybody could have that kind of experience? And the truth is, everybody can have that kind of experience. They can, but you've got to be intentional about it. You have to put yourself in the room, you have to go.

Speaker 2:

And then that little prayer that John did before the session I don't know if I've shared this yet, but I was at a conference a couple weeks ago, maybe months now.

Speaker 2:

It all blurs together and I was anxious going to this networking event and as I was walking over there, I felt like this kind of Holy Spirit message in me which was you need to position like a missionary and not a mercenary. And because I was like I'm going to go hunt, I'm going to go make something happen, you know, and feeling some needs in the business, you know, and I was like no, no, you're a missionary, you're not a mercenary. And that's kind of resonates with what you said there. And you know, that's one of the reasons I love Iron Sharpens, iron Brotherhood, is I put myself in a room of people who know me, they have context, they know what I'm, my strengths, my weaknesses, my proclivities, my history, my desires to the extent that I shared them and walk with them for years. Whether I choose to pull that mask off and be real and just relax and not posture, that's really up to me, right. But the opportunity's there if we'll just jump into it.

Speaker 1:

It's fair to say that the majority of even the listeners to us currently feel in a sense of isolation, and we just want to tell you that it doesn't have to be that way. Obviously, we would love to have the small business owners or C-suite executives that are listening to this to join our organization. We have a remarkable organization. There's 150 guys in our community that are really sharing, that are no longer in isolation, so it's pretty cool. But how do we align, though, these actions with your values? True clarity really comes when actions align with your personal values. I don't mean to put you on the spot, seth, and I know you do have values in your business, but do you have personal core values written and stated?

Speaker 2:

I actually do. It probably makes me rare because I don't think that many people have taken the time to kind of document them, and I think what matters is that you find some that fit you, that are really interesting. Now, for me, you know, years ago I had a thought and it was that what all of us really want is we want to reach for our potential, we want to impact our world and we want to leave a legacy. And so over time, you know, I clarified, that's it, you know, and now I put the lens and I had. I said that to a guy once and he said something like well, if you know, don't forget God in the midst of that, and it kind of caught. It actually slightly offended me when he said that, because I was kind of like, well, duh, you know, but you know it's a good reminder that my potential is defined by God, not by me, not by others. Right, impacting my world reminds me to pay attention to the people that I'm with.

Speaker 2:

That's a really hard thing for me because my brain is I probably have ADHD and I have a gun on my plate, and it's very easy for me to be around people and just skip right over them because I'm thinking about a task or what I'm. You know, some ambition that I have and that last piece of leaving a legacy. And so I've literally codified those things and I know what that looks like in my life, if I'm reaching for my potential, if I'm impacting my world and if I'm leaving a legacy. And so here's the how. The how is, once you're clear on that, it's a great filter, you know, one of several filters that can be used to ask yourself should I be engaging in this thing? Should I take this opportunity? You know, should I make this investment? Should I form this partnership? Should I? Whatever? Right, you at least come back to what did I say I was trying to do in the first place, right, you're?

Speaker 1:

running through that filter Right, and it can give you the no pretty quick. If it doesn't align with your vision and your values. You're like, okay, this is not my original vision, this doesn't align with my values, and yeah, it's an easy no.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I wouldn't say it's an easy. No, because sometimes there's money attached to it.

Speaker 2:

You know, I just got just in the last couple of days I got invited into a board position that pays well, and I'm kind of like I'm not sure I want to do it, and part of it is it's a little bit intimidating and I'm like, okay, well, maybe I should have some courage. The other part of it is, maybe it's a distraction and I'm only doing it for the money, in which case that wouldn't make me feel very good about it, right, so I'm praying it through. What if it's an opportunity to network to help you with your greater vision?

Speaker 1:

and purpose Exactly. So they're not easy no's or yes's. I'm trying to give you permission to pursue it if it's of interest, so I don't know. Well, that takes me into really what we need to do, though, that there's got to be a mindset shift, and a lot of people have a scarcity mindset, and what we need is an abundance mindset, and I'll tell you who helped me with this.

Speaker 1:

We have a mutual friend in Dan Miller, and Dan Miller probably helped me more with going from a scarcity to an abundance mindset more than anybody, and embracing a growth mindset oftentimes is hard. Robin and I have made a conscious decision in our inner circle that we are only around people that embrace a growth mindset. If you have a scarcity mindset and you're negative and you're dragging around that wet blanket all the time, yeah, we're probably not going to dinner, and we're certainly not going on vacation, and we for sure are not going in business together, and we're certainly not going on vacation and we for sure are not going in business together. So how important is it to your family and even your business to embrace the people that you hire, the people that you do business with, your colleagues, your peers, in embracing a growth mindset?

Speaker 2:

Well, I think it's massive and I tend to think this is hardwiring. I do believe people can change and I think, as a Christian, I believe God changes hearts and temperament, but some people are kind of hardwired. There was an interesting book one time called I think it's called the Future and Its Enemies, and it speaks about people being hardwired as either dynamists or stasis. Dynamists are people that are trying to make progress and grow and get stuff done, and stasis are people that are trying to protect status quo and position within the stated rules. And it's a pretty hard dissection of people, right. But in a lot of ways you can step back right now and put people in one or other of those buckets and it is really important that we are around people that give us permission, especially as entrepreneurs. I mean, we don't mind being told not now, but if somebody just tells us no and no and no forever, you know we get. You know we get resentful of that, right.

Speaker 2:

And growth isn't just taking on more tasks. A lot of times, as you're intimating, it's personal growth, it's willingness to change, it's desiring to grow, and you kind of tied that to abundance. I'll kind of throw that back to you, like, how do you flip the switch from being scarcity-minded, especially when things aren't going well? Let's say you're in a season of struggle. That's when I get. Scarcity-minded is when I'm like, oh gosh, these four out of eight things aren't working. It puts me in a little bit of a panic mode. How do you stay abundance-minded in the midst of that?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's difficult, it's not easy, quite honestly, and we'll go back to not to over-spiritualize everything, but I think it is a state of spirituality. I think it's a place that where God wants us to live and trust in Him and oftentimes things don't work out like I want it and things go away and you're like, well, I thought you had an abundance mindset. Well, I did, but maybe that wasn't what was best for me at that time. Maybe that's not something that's going to help me achieve my goals and the things where God has me currently, and maybe there's a lesson to be learned and it's going to help me in the future with an abundance mindset, and so that's a possibility.

Speaker 1:

I think it goes back to our total dependency on Christ in our lives and he knows best. He loves us more. He knows exactly what we're trying to accomplish. He knows what's going to give Him glory. He knows exactly what's going to detract us from our spirituality towards Him. I don't know the future. I don't know what the future holds, but what I do know is I want to walk in obedience each and every day, day, serving God, and oftentimes the things that I think are abundance, that I would have more of, would take me further away from Him.

Speaker 1:

So, I think that kind of leads me into the next thing that I want to discuss is that's kind of redefining success for each person, and I didn't realize this until probably the past 20 years. Is my definition of success changed? And it changes over time, right, Depending on the stage of life that you're in. But currently for you, today, Seth like how do you even define success?

Speaker 2:

That's a great question. I feel like I'm a teenager and that'll sound weird because I'm 54 years old but as a teenager you're in this awkward transition between, you know, being a child and being an adult, you know, called adolescence. And in some ways, there's a great book I may have referenced it, maybe not David C Brooks.

Speaker 2:

It's called Strength to Strength and he talks about how you change as you get older, and you know, we've got to realize that it's happening to us and we have to get be on board with that. That's like that's natural process. We have a fluid intelligence when we're younger and it becomes a crystallized intelligence as we're older, and then we need to embrace the role of being a mentor. So the short answer is, you know, redefining success really is personal and it's how am I using my gifts to glorify God? Right, I didn't get all the gifts, I only got a few of the gifts.

Speaker 2:

I'm not going to be asked. I don't think about your gifts. I'm going to be asked about my gifts and my opportunities. Right, and you know. So that's a filter, but probably the biggest one for me personally is when I get in a funk, when I get overwhelmed. You know we want that clarity, but for me, one of the exercises that really helps me reestablish is gratitude, because gratitude reminds me I'm not holding the world together, that I'm the recipient of a lot of really good stuff, and if all of that is true, now I can respond instead of chase. I can respond right. And I think, if I were to put my finger on part of the issue for entrepreneurs is that we're just chasing, we're working hard, we're chasing and we drift away from all that matters, and then gratitude kind of reorients us to oh my gosh, I didn't pull all this together, somebody else did to oh my gosh, I didn't pull all this together, somebody else did.

Speaker 1:

It takes some time to pause to kind of reflect back on that and when I think about success early on I thought it was really thinking about solely financial gain. It was like man, I want two businesses and I want recurring revenue and a big real estate portfolio and it was all about that. As I've gotten older real estate portfolio and it was all about that. As I've gotten older, it's more about time freedom, it's about leaving. Legacy is more important to me now. So it kind of shifts as time goes on. So what I want to say is embrace the change in regards to your outlook on what success is, yeah, but really understand that we need to find fulfillment beyond monetary achievements. Whatever that is for you. That's what I would suggest that you take a look at.

Speaker 1:

I was asked recently on a podcast interview. This guy had me on and he said I know you talk about your faith a lot, and what if I don't allow that for this podcast interview? And I stopped for a second, I thought about it, I said I won't do the interview and he started laughing. He said well, I'm a believer also. I was just testing you.

Speaker 1:

I just wanted to see, if you were willing, what is the role of faith in your business today, seth, like, how do you look at it? And there again, not to over-spiritualize all of our topics, but it is vital, it is very important and I think, integrating our faith into business practices, it really provides a strong foundation and a guide for all of our decision-making. And so it's not. I think they're inseparable. Let me say that I don't think it's integrating faith into our business. I think they're inseparable.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, no, I think the way I look at it is, business gives us an opportunity to express right, it's an expression, it can be an expression of our faith. But to me that's going to be very inauthentic if it's not personal first, and to me it happens in the quiet moments, it happens in when I'm feeling overwhelmed, when I have things that are stressing me out. Will I surrender those things to the Lord personally and go to the Lord Because actually I think that the Lord will allow circumstances in our businesses, in our life, to push us to that point. You know, I think about that.

Speaker 1:

Crossroads. You got to make a decision right.

Speaker 2:

That's Psalm 32 that says I'll guide you and instruct you. Only do not be like the horse and mule, which must be controlled by bid and bridle Meaning. And we can do this the easy way or we can do this the hard way. I actually think God uses this is probably a better answer. God uses business to shape us just as much as he uses our faith and our business to impact others. Right, that's good. You know, I think, our business.

Speaker 2:

Often they are the crucibles that test us and you know we have to decide. Are we going to tell ourselves that we're going to gut it out and make it all happen, or are we going to surrender again our kingdom to his kingdom? And so to me, I think I'm a little bit more in that bucket. I tend to work with a lot of a mixture of people that are faith-oriented and people that aren't. I have clients that aren't. Frankly, sometimes it's hard to serve clients well when I'm just like, wow, all I'm doing is helping rich people get richer. That's not very motivating, but sometimes I have to remember no, my job is to be a light and to serve well, and outcomes are not my own right you know, let's talk about the action plan a little bit.

Speaker 1:

We've talked about these things, the mindset primarily, and what do we do? How do we implement kind of a mental reset? And I started thinking about all the things that guys read, the podcast that they listen to, the books that they read Like knowledge is useless, though, without implementation, and I tell people the only difference between people that can't read and the people that read that don't implement right, there's not much difference. And so what do we do with the knowledge that we have? How can we create intentional activities or routines or kind of set the tone for a productive day? What do you suggest that people do with these things that we're teaching?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I think the first is you have to create space to actually wrestle with them and think. One of the problems that I run into and I see with other entrepreneurs and business owners is we just go, you know we'll prioritize physical exercise right, and you know, routines over no, I just need some space.

Speaker 2:

Right, just some white space to think Just some space to think and to ask those bigger questions what are my gifts? How am I using them? What's my level of joy? How's my marriage? All you know all these things. You know, yeah, you're going to get to financial and you're going to get to business, but to me, the key here is is taking a taking a step back, asking yourself what's what's really important. So to me, you have to have a discipline of doing that. It doesn't have to be a quarterly retreat, but it should be or it could be right. It doesn't have to be an hour every morning, perhaps it should be, but you have to have some time where you're intentionally measuring reality against what you hope for.

Speaker 1:

You know, two years ago I took two months off. I completely unplugged from the business, social media, the phone. I went dark for two months and when I came back it changed the format of our entire business because I had time to think deeply. We don't realize how shallow we think until we have nothing else to think about. And it allows us to go deeper, to meditate, to pray, to read scripture, to just listen. Some of the most profound moments in my personal Christian walk is not when I'm praying, but when I'm being quiet, silent and still, and so for me that's paramount. But think about how you can implement these strategies in your personal life. One of the things I was sitting on the sofa night before last and I was kind of preparing some of these notes, kind of thinking through some of the things that we were going to talk about, and the thing that just popped up in my mind that we really need or I need, or maybe we don't that's what we're going to talk about today is accountability, and David Landreth, a pastor of mine, 20 years ago, really introduced me to accountability and we met weekly with six other guys and we did that for about seven years and then after that I enlisted three other guys and we meet weekly. We've done that over two decades now, every single week, and it's a topic that we talk about within the brotherhood. Now in Iron Sharpens, iron is having a trusted group or a mentor that can provide you guidance and kind of keep you on track.

Speaker 1:

But when Robin was in the den night before last and we were talking, I said I just want to ask you a question Do we all need accountability? And her answer really shocked me. I started once to bring her on the episode today and we could talk about it, but her answer was no. And it really shocked me because I've been so involved in accountability and she said well, first of all you've got to really define what accountability is. And so we talked through that and I looked up from Webster and thought through it, talked through it again with her, and it's the acceptance of responsibility for one's actions, decisions and behaviors and the willingness to be answerable to others for the outcome.

Speaker 1:

And when I started talking to Robin about that I said so you're telling me you've got all the answers and you don't need any accountability. She goes I didn't say that, I'm just saying that if you're disciplined in certain areas, I don't think we need accountability, but if there was an area I was struggling in, I would welcome the accountability because I want to get better, and so the key word there was need. We all need accountability. So what are your thoughts around accountability?

Speaker 2:

I agree with Robin.

Speaker 1:

I was afraid of that. I wanted you on my side in this conversation.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, well, I'm smart enough to agree with Robin. I think that there's an interesting thing here. So I would frame it this way High performers need accountability. I don't think you need accountability at a baseline Meaning, because I actually think there's kind of this tension between personal agency, which is, I know I'm going to be held accountable by God, right, ultimately, ultimately, right, yes, and I know I'm responsible for my actions and the results. So that's already a fact.

Speaker 2:

I don't need an external party to make those things true. They're already true, okay, but I think I'm invited into accountability, and accountability is actually a gift through the lens of performance, right. And I also think that there's maybe another side to this too, which is if you're struggling, if you're struggling with alcoholism you know, many men struggle with pornography Many men have all sorts of habits that they're like, hey man, I'm just not able to get this whipped on my own. Then yeah, you do what it takes, right. I think people are better with accountability, but it's a little bit unspoken. I think it has to do with the people. It's not a formula, because there's as much variation in what accountability looks like as there is variation in personalities, I think.

Speaker 1:

But that's my that's a great point. I like what you just said related to that. My position has become over the past we'll call it decade or maybe a dozen years. Is that I genuinely want to get better? Is that I genuinely want to get better? So I've dismissed the mask and I've dropped the veil and I want to be vulnerable and transparent because I want to get better in certain areas of my life, and so I welcome the accountability. I'm willing to subject myself to the scrutiny of others to help me see the blind spots that I can't see, so that I can get better. I don't want to stay in that constant state of the kryptonite and the blind spots, so I'm willing to take the accountability I offer myself up to be held accountable so that I get better.

Speaker 1:

When I thought about some of the elements of accountability, one is just responsibility, kind of taking ownership of your role, yeah. The next one is transparency. It's like being open about your progress, being open about your challenges and being open about your failures. And then answerability being willing to report back to someone, whether it be a mentor, a group or a team of people. It's like being willing to show up and say, hey, I'm here to show myself accountable, and then for me the element that's most important is kind of it's being growth oriented, like using that feedback and accountability not really as a punishment but as a tool for growth.

Speaker 2:

Well, and speaking of the punishment side, that's because you have trust with these people. You know they love you. Like one of the things I teach around mentoring is a mentor is going to love you and what that means is they're in it for your benefit. You're willing to be open and honest with them because you know that these peers right, they love you and so somebody having context to know you and then also having trust is a kind of a prerequisite for that kind of accountability. But you want it because you want to. You know you want to improve, you want to grow.

Speaker 1:

Hey, I want to do a little throw out real quick for one of our members, scott Beebe. Do a little throw out real quick for one of our members, scott Beebe. He's a mutual friend of yours and mine for a decade now. Scott teaches people how to get out of chaos and really get to a sense of clarity in his business and it's called my Business on Purpose, and he wrote a book that's amazing. It's called Let it Burn and I highly recommend it. Highly recommend Scott Beebe. He's a book that's amazing. It's called Let it Burn and I highly recommend it. Highly recommend Scott Beebe. He's a phenomenal guy and if you want to get your business out of chaos to clarity, highly recommend. We'll put his email address and his website in the show notes and you can go there and check out Scott. He doesn't even know I'm recommending him, but he's a phenomenal guy.

Speaker 1:

Listen, as we kind of close out today, I want you to really think through how you rediscover your identity. There's too many entrepreneurs out there today that are wearing a mask of success. They're performing for applause while holding their true self back, and I really don't want you to do that, because clarity begins by pulling back the mask first and engaging with authentic community and aligning your life with your personal values that you've established. Then you got to shift your mindset. You're like man. How do I do that?

Speaker 1:

Well, growth doesn't happen without intention, and when you redefine success through the lens of purpose and not performance, this happens. And if faith is central to your life, it should become central to your business as well. Then, finally, as we've just talked about, implement a personal reset. Knowledge is only potential power. Without these daily habits and accountability and regular reflection, even the best insights are wasted. Growth requires structure and follow through, and if you want to really get out of the chaos into clarity, these are the things that you have to do. Hey, thanks for being here with us today and we're excited to see you next week.