Episode 309: Above The Business

What if you could step out of the day-to-day and see your business from a whole new perspective? Welcome to Above the Business, where we empower you to rise above the daily grind and embrace a higher way of business ownership. It's time to build your business by design. All right, everyone, welcome to the Above the Business podcast. Yes, you are in the right place. If you're accustomed to going and listening to the Club Capital Leadership Podcast, don't turn the channel. You are absolutely In the Right Place here with my partner and good friend Micah. Micah, how you doing, man?

I'm good, I'm good. I'm glad to join. You know I don't, and our listeners know I don't join every single one, but we've got some, some fun news to be able to share with everybody today.

Well, we do, and obviously today is the day that I've been hinting around to on some of the episodes the last few weeks. We've had the podcast for 4 years, and this is our fat pitch. I heard Ted Williams a long time ago, uh, one of the best, maybe arguably the best, uh, baseball hitter of all time, said that the way that he became such a good hitter is he waited for his fat pitch. And for 4 years, we have been known as the Club Capital Leadership Podcast, but today is officially a new day, and we could not be more excited. And so it is the official launch of the Above the Business Podcast. We're going to talk to you about what does the name mean, how did we come up with that name, We're going to give you some behind-the-scenes look into some of the conversations, how we arrived at not only the name change, but why we did it and what the future is going to hold. And, you know, what does the Above the Business brand actually look like? And really, at the end of the day, how does this all impact you, our loyal listeners over the years, and how are we going to be able to serve you more? So as we walk through all of that, I, I'll first start and tell— share with you Like, why are we doing this? At the end of the day, we could have just continued on doing what we were doing. Well, if you listen to podcasts, you know that you're a growth-oriented, growth mindset type person, and that's just who Micah and myself and the entire teams that we represent— we're not like that. We want to make sure that we don't rest on our laurels, that we are always growing, and we want to be able to find different ways to serve all of you. I think, Micah, if I look back, it It was— it's probably been about a year and a half, at least a year and a half since we started to have legitimate discussions in our Monday meetings around what are the things that we— how can we do more? We've built a great audience of loyal listeners, and we want to continue to serve them in ways. What would that look like? And we had so many 30-minute to hour-long discussions, throwing out different things and looking at other people in the marketplace, other podcasts that you and I obviously really enjoy. What are they doing? What's working about that? And how can we do more to be able to serve all of you, to help you to become better business owners? And so I'd love, Micah, for you just to kind of give your thoughts before we kind of get into the genesis of the, the name change and what that things are going to look like. Just maybe around your thoughts over the last, you know, again, year and a half, maybe, maybe even close to 2 years, where we've been having discussions around how can we do more, how can we serve more How can we give back more? How can we impact more people?

Yeah, I mean, first off, it's not just a— it's not just a great name, right? Which it is, and we know, but it's really the start of something different. It's— I mean, it's not fully different. We're going to be expanding on what we're doing today in more ways. But, you know, I think it's just this sense and we knew it about a year and a half ago, 2 years ago where in one of the things that we'll kind of talk about today and that, you know, a lot of I think the listeners following don't know is there's really 2 organizations that's kind of behind, you know, behind the podcast. And it was really a project for both of us. It wasn't necessarily a business. It was a project that started 4 years ago. And we, you know, it went better than we thought it would 4 years ago. We've had some, some of the episodes that we've talked about that, you know, in the past, which is kind of like how the podcast start type of thing. But it really was, we said, okay, this is going well and you know, we meet on it, we talk about the episodes, we look at the traction, I think. But ultimately it was a project for us. And, you know, it also certainly helps, you know, deliver kind of leads to, you know, our core businesses and stuff like that. But it was— we started realizing it was just way more than a project. I mean, yes, we we both enjoy it. We both enjoy podcasts. We both enjoy kind of putting something out there and having our, our own podcast to kind of add, you know, to the ethers. But we really started to realize, you know, a lot from, you know, just the traction and the feedback, you know, from a lot of the listeners was, we've really got something here and we've got something that we're really not fully looking at it appropriately as a business yet. And if we started to look at it as a business and not just a project, what would we do with it?

Yep.

And so as we started to think about what would we do and, you know, what do our listeners want or how could we contribute more, it kind of led to this, which has been fun, right? I mean, it's, it's I mean, not to be, you know, totally cliché with talking about it, but we had to, we had to kind of zoom out and we had to kind of— where some of the name came from, right, is we had to kind of get above the business, step out a little bit and say, what would we do here? What would we change? What should we, you know, we do differently? And so that's what we're excited to be able to share, you know, with everybody today. It's kind of what's the future look like once we started to say, okay, I think we can have, I think we can have a bigger reach if we actually look at it differently. I think we can have a bigger impact if we look at it a little bit differently.

Yeah, I totally agree. I think that when we started to have discussions around if we looked at this as an actual business and not just a project that we have, we started to kind of see, I mean, there's a whole team and we shared this on some other past episodes about like all the people behind the scenes that make this happen, you know, pull it together, that that puts out— put it out on email and on social. And there's a whole team around getting some of the guests on, and there's a process and there's structure and there's routine to the how we do certain things. And so we needed to approach it as a business. And so when we started to approach it that way, we started to set, well, what's the vision and what are we going to do? And then how are we going to make that happen? And the how is a lot of the ways that you and I started to kind of differ at times on, like, well, how are we going to pull that off and what is that going look like? And how does that benefit your brand? And how does that benefit my brand? And how do we come together? And how do all of these moving parts, uh, how do we make that work? And, you know, there were many times that we were aligned and we came up with an idea. And I'm sharing this all of— for all of you, not only to give you kind of the behind the scenes, but also to share some even some teaching moments in some of this, is that Mike and I did not agree. In fact, Mike and I agreed, disagreed in a lot of things. Ultimately, we very much came together because we definitely saw what the vision of this could be. And we started to work through, well, what would that look like? And I'd float an idea out and Micah would float an idea out. And Micah has strengths that I do not have. And one of the advantages I think about having a partner in something is you have somebody that can check you. And can say, hold on just a second, I'm not so sure that that would actually work. And that was very valuable both ways. He would share an idea and I would say, I don't think that that's going to work, and here's why I don't think that that's going to work. And then I would do the same thing. Well, for many of us, if you're a small business owner and you don't have a business partner or partners around you, you don't have anybody to check your idea. So all of your ideas are good, so to speak. You're certainly trying to advance the company, but you don't have anybody to be able to tell you, or very often you don't have somebody to say, I'm not so sure that's the right move to make. And furthermore, it may be the right move for you to make, but is now the right time for you to make that move? And so having someone to be able to give you honest feedback And, you know, Mike, you and I had some very passionate conversations around things, and I very much value that. I sent Mike a message last week and said, hey, I just want you to know I appreciate, I appreciate you pushing back. You know, I appreciate you pushing back on a lot of things. Um, that helps me to be better. That helps me to be better because I have to try to put myself in that situation. Because for your team, they're going to go along oftentimes with whatever it is that you say. But how can you have somebody in your life, not just personal life, but in your business that can hear that idea and give you honest feedback and hold you accountable to the things that you said that you were going to do? And a lot of times we don't necessarily always have that. Just your thoughts around that one particular thing, Micah.

That's one of the areas that we both see so much in, in kind of our businesses and working with small business owners is you know, for a lot of small business owners, they're, you know, sole owners. They're, you know, for a lot of them, just single member, you know, owners depending on their team size. But still, it's one owner. And there's just a— there can be, despite, you know, your family or some of the other people even within the business, there's kind of this lack of accountability. Yeah. On that sole, on that business owner, um, to, to that, you know, is, is really, you know, there to, to gut check you on a lot of decisions. Um, and so I think a lot of business owners kind of run into that on the accountability side. Um, and they'll say, you know, no, I'm ultimately accountable to, you know, my family and the take-home, and that's who I'm doing this for. And yeah, that's true, but not all the business decisions are, are running by by them, right? You know, you're not running everything, you know, by, by your spouse necessarily. Right. And, you know, even some of the people within the team, some of your top leaders, you know, not, not all of the business decisions are being run by them. You know, bank movements are not being run by them probably. Right. There's certain things that aren't happening. Right. That, you know, ultimate overall strategy at that, that at the end of the day really impacts you know, not only you but your entire team are really staying within, you know, just, just your own head. Yeah. And man, I hope this works out. So yeah, I think there's, there's, you know, we see a lot of that. And so I think you and I do a good job of doing that. I mean, our business is a partnership and what we have with the podcast is a partnership and You know, everything has its pluses and minuses, you know, and you disagree with partners. But ultimately, you know, it's, I think, just incredibly healthy for us to have dialogue that says, you know, where do we want to take this?

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Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right. You know, I— one of the, uh, one of the very— not the first, but one of the companies that I owned at a time was called Iron Sharp Principles. And it was this idea of like, iron sharpens iron. And I feel like that, that That's certainly our dynamic. And again, I said this before, but I have skills that I think Micah has, but maybe I'm a little stronger in. And Micah certainly has skills that I'm not as strong in, you know. And so even today, we were having a discussion with, you know, some of our vendors and our marketing partners. And I said, Micah, I think you need to take that. Like, that's better. That's in your alley. You line those things up better than I do. And that has taken me a long time, even myself, to get to a place of recognizing, hey, this is, this is the area that I need to stay. Let me swim in this area. I can dabble over here a little bit, but I'm just not as good at it as Micah is. It's just that he's so superior in those areas. And I think that that's a really nice, um, compliment. So get you some people.

Yeah. So let's dive in. Let's dive in. Let's tell them what we're doing.

All right, so about 6 months ago, we were having one of our Monday meetings, and you said, uh, you know, I've been thinking, I think we should maybe change the name of the podcast. And I said, you know what, I have too, and I already know what the name of it should be. And you said, really? Okay, well, what's the name? I said, you know the book E-Myth by Michael Gerber? Who we were trying to get on the podcast, actually. You know, the name of that book, or the essence of that book, is Work on the Business, Not in the Business. And a lot of people, a lot of our listeners will be familiar with that. He said, yeah. I said, I think there's actually a third. It's above the business. I think that there's working in the business, there's working on the business, but then there are also— there's a level that we can get to, which is to be able to get above the business. And I think therefore, I think the name should be called Above the Business. Mikey, your thoughts whenever you first heard me share that with you and kind of that vision that I had about the name change?

Yeah, I mean, I think you coupled it with, you know, talking about, you know, I think one of the Friday episodes that you were going to do on that too. And just kind of your— I think just your overall philosophy of it. And it just resonated with me. Yeah, resonated with me quite a bit. I mean, I think about that. I think about that quite a bit. I never use that term, but I've always, I've always used like the term like zoom out and you really got to look at things. I think I've said like you've got to look at things from above. I think that's how I've like thought about things before. And that for me, that always came to like You know, I think I, I don't know where it was. I think you really like thinking about like, you know, it was like history. Like this actually goes outside of business. We were like in school talking about history and stuff like that. And you think about sometimes all the conflict in the world. And then sometimes like it was this thought of like you zoom out and you're like from outer space looking down like at the earth and everything seems fine. Everything seems much easier to like think about.

Yep.

You know, when you're kind of that far away, right? And the closer you get, you know, it's kind of realizing like, oh wow, things can be quite, quite chaotic, right? But if you can get far enough away to actually think about things maybe a little bit differently, pull yourself out of the day-to-day, the conflict, the, um, the things that are coming at you, you know, it, it makes you think a little bit clearer. I think that's actually where I kind of thought, you know, first came up with that idea, or at least it was exposed to me. So yeah, when you said it, I was like, man, that not only makes sense, but it also sounds, sounds really good. And my brain was turning on, you know, just what that would look like in a logo. And man, that looked good on a t-shirt. And man, that just resonates. That'll look good on a podcast cover. I mean, I was just like, yeah. Well, I think we're set on that. I think I was looking up the domain name actually. We were talking about it to see if we could get it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I think that, you know, and for all of our listeners over the next, well, from this point forward, we're gonna find all kinds of different ways to share with you what does it actually mean to be able to get above the business, like specifically What is in, what is on, and what is above. And we'll share that with you throughout to help you to be able to get above the business. So not just philosophically, what does that look like, but also what is the journey that you can go through to help you to be able to get above the business, to get out of the day-to-day operations of the business and be able to see it from above, be able to make strategic decisions, be able to make some logical decisions in the business, be able to look at things look around the corner at things that other people wouldn't have that perspective on. And that's what we want to help you to do. In fact, our tagline is to help you to be able to build a business by design. We want you to help build the business by design and not by default. And I think that when you go out and you start to align all of these things, Micah said, hey, we wanted to approach this itself not as a project, but as a business. Furthermore, we wanted to— we were very much aligned, very much aligned on the mission of our companies is we wanted to— Micah would use language around building a better business owner. I would use language around helping somebody go from being the rainmaker of their business to becoming the architect of their business. At the end of the day, we were attempting to do, and still are for that matter, attempting to do the same things. And so we were so aligned in the way that we approached it. Language might have been a little bit different. We saw that as an opportunity to be able to pull that together into the podcast. And the branding above the business just kind of codified all of those things together. So again, we're going to share with you what does it actually look like, what's in, what's on, what's above. We'll be doing many different episodes for that. But let me share with you a couple of things that's not changing. The Monday interview episodes that we do, those are all going to be the exact same. I always start the interviews. In fact, I did a couple today. At the time of this recording where, you know, we start background origin story. And now I'm going to finish those interviews asking people, what is getting above the business look like for you? And so that's one of the new structural questions I'm going to put into the Monday interviews. And then our Friday solo, those short 5 to generally 15-minute episodes or so are going to be designed to be able to help you to build your business by design and help you to be able to get above the business. Look, you're all busy. This— there's many— there's the Jockos and there's the Joe Rogan podcast out there, the Huberman podcast out there that are, you know, the 2 and 3-hour podcast. But we know that if you're a podcast listener and you're listening to many different podcasts, and so we want you to know that the experience that you've had in listening to the podcast is going to be the exact— is going to be the same but it's going to be better. We really believe that this is going to help us to be able to even attract some much bigger names into the podcast. Now, look, I'm so grateful for the people that we've been— I've been able to connect with on here and all of the different guests. But there's also this opportunity we saw to be able to attract different big-name people to help you to be able to get above the business, to be able to see the business from a lot of different angles. In fact, that leads me to my next point, Micah. One of the things that we definitely agreed upon when we both, I think we kind of said it almost simultaneously, is we said, you know, this podcast is not a leadership podcast. At the end of the day, when we started the podcast, we said, well, what should we name it? Not just some, let's call it the Club Capital Leadership Podcast. I mean, it was just that. Well, the reality is this podcast is a business podcast. It's a small business and entrepreneurial podcast. And so we come at business from all different angles. We know the vast majority of our listening audience are insurance agency owners. Not everybody. Most, pretty much everybody's doing less than $10 million in top line revenue, have 50 or less employees. We, for the most part, like we know our audience and we want to comment that from so many different angles, not just leadership. Yes, leadership is incredibly important, but it's one aspect of business. There's self-leadership, there's marketing, there's decision-making, there's financial things, there's leading a team, developing a team, recruiting a team, uh, strategy, all of those different things. And so we think that this rebrand is also going to help us to be able to attract different people. So Micah, love to hear your thoughts just around, uh, that aspect of it and, and it being a small business entrepreneurial podcast and just your thoughts.

Yeah, I mean, I'll cover this quickly too because I want to, I want to also talk about you know, there's things that are not changing, right? It's a lot about what we're adding to it. So I definitely want to spend some time there. But in terms of being small business and just generally entrepreneurial, yeah, I mean, it was this realization of like this, you know, our podcast name doesn't encompass really like what we're doing. And it is, it's really almost limiting us to kind of who our audience is, right?

Yeah.

You know, just even from the first part of it is Club Capital Leadership Podcast. Like, I ultimately, you know, I think this could have better legs if it's not— if it's its own thing, right?

Yeah.

And so really taking Club Capital kind of out of the name, like this isn't just for the clients that we happen to be working with. Right now, right? Which is kind of how it seemed, right? It kind of seemed like very niche and hey, if you're one of our clients, you know, take a, take a listen to some of these episodes, right? And it definitely wasn't that. And we started to see that we were having traction certainly outside of our, out of our, you know, current client base. And we said, okay, well, you know, if other people do like this, if they happen to stumble upon it and, you know, listen to the Club Capital Leadership Podcast, which is also, you know, kind of a mouthful, you know, it'd be nice to almost take the filter off, right? Like, let's, let's kind of take that filter off of it. And then we said, okay, well, we're also not just a leadership podcast. It's kind of like one of the things we talk about, right? And so, yeah, it was that evolution of we got to change the name, right? We're, We're, we're definitely more than this. Let's talk about more than this and then let's, let's give it its own identity. Let's give it its own brand that allows it to be something else. And, you know, our businesses are changing and Club Capital, you know, too, you know, we don't only work with insurance agents anymore. I mean, we're, we're just expanding our other lines of business and taking some of the models that, you know, that we've excelled at within the insurance world and moving into other, other niches. Franchise organizations and, you know, new sports or some of the initial ones that we're working on. But, you know, we're going to have, you know, a lot of other clients that, that are listening to this that are just outside of our initial niche industries that, you know, we need to be able to cater to all of them. We certainly do cater to all of them. And that's one of the things we've loved about the podcast to date is that We actually like, even though, you know, on the Club Capital side, we've, we've, you know, focused on insurance agents as, you know, our initial target market. On the podcast side, we don't talk about business with the filter of insurance. I, you know, both you and I have always felt it's really healthy to, to not put blinders on. Yeah, right. And listen to what other people are doing. Yeah, right. Listen to other industries. Gosh, I mean, I get so much inspiration and ideas when I hear, you know, people from other industries talking about how they're solving a certain problem or how they implemented something in their company or a technology in their company or something where I'm like, oh wow, what a great idea, right? And it's not to say that people within one industry don't have, you know, you know, right ideas, but why put a filter on it? Listen to everybody and see what they're doing. So we've always kind of had that. And so now it was just this sense of, yeah, let's break outside of this. And one of the biggest ways to do that is to, is to change the name and, you know, allow, allow it to be a little bit more open, you know, to others that want to listen. But yeah, so let's talk about some of the things that, that we're adding.

So what is— you've heard the genesis. How did the name change happen? What are we trying to do? Why are we doing it? What's not changing the experience, but what are we adding? What do we actually— what does it actually look like? I hear what you're saying, Bradley. It sounds like an empty promise of provide more value, but like, what are you actually talking about? At the end of the day, right now, above the business is going to be the podcast, as you've all known, under the new name. It is going to be a monthly newsletter and is going to be events, events that we're going to do. In fact, we have 7 events scheduled for 2024, and our very first event is going to be in 2023. That is happening on December 12th and December 13th. It is what we call the Annual. Now, these are events that I was doing under my brand and have been for the last couple of years. We've taken these events and been able to put them under the Above the Business brand. Now, right now, all of those events are scheduled to be virtual. We do have a vision down the road that we can see, especially one of the events kind of coming together in person, and we're really excited about it. So we are really excited to announce that our very first event is the annual. We're going to help you to be able to build a business plan that actually works and one that you can get behind, one that you can believe in for 2024. I have created so many business plans over my career. Many of them I spent a day or a couple days on them, and then it just sat on a shelf or sat on some digital dust, and I never looked at it again. There is a way to do it to where you can actually have a business plan that truly works throughout the year, that you can get behind and your team can get behind. And we want to give you the mindset We want to give you the skill set and we want to give you a tool or tools, a tool set that you can have. And so if you go to abovethebusiness.co, above the business.co, above the business.co, you'll find your way there to be able to purchase a ticket to come to the event. And again, we'll be sharing with you more about what the 7 events are going to be, the event series, the small business series is going to be in 2024. So again, Above the Business is the podcast as you know it, is an event series, and it is also a monthly newsletter that we think we're going to pack in to where it's not just an email, it actually is going to be some tangible things that you can take away and implement right away into your business. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. We've got much bigger plans down the road. But Micah, your thoughts on what we're doing starting right away?

Yeah, I mean, I'm really excited. I think we're just adding to, you know, just adding more value to what we're doing already. I think, you know, what we've done really well in the past is, is, you know, really help, you know, our listeners kind of with ideas and just inspiration. From people within the industry, people from, from outside the industry. But one of the things that we talked about before that we've really seen with the, with, you know, small business clients is, is the accountability factor and kind of lack thereof. Yeah, I really feel like, like you're on an island and I get it and I see it. So we said, how can we How can we kind of be a part of that, right? How can we help with that and be a bit of an accountability partner in a way that's, that's not too hard to be a part of, right? It's not a, a massive commitment, right? It's still somewhat easy. To do, but we're able to hold you accountable. And the things that, that, you know, we've all kind of not liked with some experiences that we've had with, you know, kind of other, other tools or programs or things like that is the lack of like resources and actual tools that you're given, right? So like tangible things that you can have and print off and utilize and things like that. So So that's what we wanted to be able to do, especially with the event series, is this idea the events are there as really that accountability partner. Yeah, right. Let us help you be, you know, you know, kind of held accountable. Right. And let us help, you know, kind of set that framework for you for how should I like run the business, right? How can I think about the business? How can I get above the business? you know, 7 times a year, really pull back and really think and strategize about it. Right. And so especially like on the Club Capital side, I mean, you know, we offer, you know, the strategic accounting and CFO services and, you know, that's definitely a layer of this, but it's, you know, it's different, right? It's, you know, that's the specific financial side of kind of implementing it. And what's that going to look like, right? But, you know, you need to have the time to really just think about the business as well, strategize for, you know, what are the goals that you want to have happen, what are the things you want to do by certain timeframes. And it kind of sets the tone for how to do it, right? And what to focus on and how to plan the financials and you know, the hiring and, you know, etc., etc. And so, you know, just being able to build upon what we've done already, kind of combine the strengths of, you know, kind of our two backgrounds and really be able to deliver that in, you know, what should be a very, I think, you know, relatively easy, you know, low barrier kind of way for our clients is going to be is going to be great. I'm, I'm pumped about it. I mean, I'm, I'm excited not only from, you know, from us launching something new and kind of seeing how everybody reacts to it, but I think it's just a great way. You know, I've been a part of, you know, these and some of these that you've ran, you know, before, and they're great ways. So I'm excited to, you know, I'm going to be a, I'm going to be a fan and a participant too.

So I'm excited about You know, as entrepreneurs and business owners, we started our business because in a lot of ways we wanted freedom. We wanted to be able to do what we wanted to do. We didn't want other people telling us what to do. And by that nature, we can, without even a lot of times knowing it— this was part of my story— is push against very hard anything that was structure, process, and routine oriented. I heard for years systems and processes. I heard it for years. And I was so frustrated because nobody actually showed me what are you talking about? What is the right structure? What is the right processes? What is the right routine? And I tried to just begin to kind of cobble together what those are. And at the end of the day, One of them, as an example, with the annual coming up, is how do you, how do you plan a year? Like, what does that actually look like? I mean, I was winging it. I didn't have a toolset. I wasn't, I wasn't going through a guided experience for somebody to actually give and open up the space for me to take 5 minutes and think about, well, what were some of the good things that happened this past year? And why should I even do that? And how do I build upon that? Well, that's what we're going to do. And so the reality is, is everything we want, even though as entrepreneurs we will push hard against, we will resist structure, process, and routine, which is why we started our businesses in the first place, is because we didn't, we didn't want somebody telling us what to do. But the reality is, is everything we want is on the other side of that. And so if we can see that and we can put ourselves in the right environment, we can get ourselves around like-minded individuals. In a community of people that are trying to accomplish the same thing. And specifically, the outcome, the clear outcome that I have for the annual is that you walk out of that with 75% of your 2024 plan completely done. 75%. There's going to be some things that you've got to go in and actually fill in some of those gaps. But we want you to get the big rocks. In. And there's a certain structure and a process that you can go through to actually build a plan that works and one that you can, you can finally believe in. So we'd love to have you join us at our very first Above the Business virtual event series. Of course, it's going to be on Zoom. So go to abovethebusiness.co. Our podcast sponsors, David and Alex, and, and all of them are so excited. About what we're doing. They're behind us fully. They're great partners. We're appreciative to their support over the years that we've, we've had them. And look, at the end of the day, we could partner with a lot of different people. We could, we, we could go out and build a whole team for sales, but we want to work with the best, okay? We want to work with the best people that we have a long-term partnership with, and we've been able to do that with David and Alex. We, we're grateful for them and their companies, Autopilot Recruiting, and, and Dave is doing with Coach P. And so they're behind this fully. They're going to be a part of the annual. So make sure that you go and check them out, um, check out their businesses. Go to our website, check out our new logo. I'm really pumped about that. Uh, it's not often, by the way, that when you go to a marketing company— and I think, Mikey, we should give a shout out to the marketing company that we have been working with— that they gave us, when we pitched the, the vision and the idea to them, they said, we're going to come back with 3 We're gonna come back with 3, you know, basically logos and icons and kind of a branding around it. And we went through a really cool exercise with them. I thought that was great. Mike and I, Mike did his and then I did mine and we were very much aligned. Again, I think that that speaks to our, the conversations we've had and the vision of what we were trying to do. A couple of things we saw differently, but for the most part, we were more than directionally aligned. And they came back with 3. The first one, I was like, oh, it's pretty good. Yeah, it's not too bad. Second one was kind of nah. Third one, as soon as I saw it, I was like, that's it, that's it, that's it. And so Micah, we, I talked to him, hey, what do you think? He's like, number 3. I was like, done. And to have that, we went with it from the jump with almost no revisions is, is pretty awesome. So they have worked with a number of, of the big names, Dave Ramsey, Brendon Burchard. So I want to give our our marketing team a big shout out for what they have been able to do and helping kind of bring this brand to life and pull it together and take the vision that I have and Micah has of how to serve all of you in better ways. They've been exceptional to work with. And so, Micah, I'll throw it to you, and then I'll close this with the last word.

No, look, I think you've, you've said it well. I think we're just incredibly excited to kick this off, really. Ultimately want to hear from everybody here as well. Would love to hear your feedback on, you know, initial thoughts. Obviously, this is just the announcement. So, so more to come. But we do have in just what it'll be, be 10, 11 days from the release of the podcast, of this podcast, that our first event will be. So really excited to to, you know, get everybody's feedback, not only on the rebranding, but the design, the logo. What are your thoughts? What do you think about the first event? You know, are we directionally correct for, you know, who have been our loyal, you know, listeners for a number of years? So we'd love to hear from you. And just a reminder of the website, it is abovethebusiness.co, C-O. We were not able to land.com, but you know, those things happen. But you know, one day.

I just want to close. I say this often, but try not to belabor it too much. I'm so grateful for all of you. I'm grateful for the messages that you send to me, whether it's over email or text message about the episodes that that have impacted you, the feedback that you give to say, hey, this has been, this has been, this has made a meaningful impact to my business, helps me to keep going. Okay. And helps us to continue to find more ways to impact your business. And so while we want to impact more people, yes, I want to make sure that I express my gratitude for all of you that have listened to podcasts for years. I've been able to connect with several of you and you've shared with me that, hey, I've, I've been in your ear on runs, we've been in your ear on workouts, and when you're driving, uh, doing yard work, uh, hitting golf balls, whatever that may be, it means a lot. We take very seriously the time. Uh, it's your time and your attention is the most precious, um, asset for you, and it's most precious, precious, precious asset and most finite asset in the business. And so we try to make these episodes as punchy and as to the point as possible. I hope that this episode was enlightening to you and maybe even gave you some things to kind of pause and reflect on about how you go about making some big decisions in the business. And we're going to help you to be able to make the decisions from being above the business and build a business ultimately by design and not by default. Until next episode, Leave one.