#103: From Counterintelligence Special Agent To Revolutionizing Business Using Blockchain with Justin Recla

Welcome to The Conscious Pivot Podcast with international speaker, business mentor, bestselling author of Pivot, and your host, Adam Markel. The Conscious Pivot shares the stories and wisdom of people who have successfully reinvented some area of their business and personal life. You'll gain powerful insights into how you can fully embrace new opportunities, increase your performance, and master the art and science of innovation and resilience. So please join Adam as he guides you on your conscious pivot.

Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of the Conscious Pivot Podcast. I'm your host, Adam Markel, and I am in a wonderful afternoon state of mind. I was just telling the great and amazing guest that I have to share with you today that I'm ready for a nap. This is the best part about being an entrepreneur, I think, and more than anything, it's constantly drawing more out of me. And I believe more often than not, what it's drawing out of me is more of the best in me because I'll take a nap later or I won't, but I'll make sure I take good care of myself tonight. So either way, I'm going to get a good night's sleep. But one of the things about being in your own business, and I think a lot of the people in this community, this Pivot community, are business owners and entrepreneurs, and we've got some executives and people who are Also considering making that transition into something else. Sometimes it's a side gig. Sometimes it's a change of occupation like I did when out of practicing law after 18 years into a completely different occupation, running a personal development training company. Those 2 things probably couldn't be any more 180 degrees apart, but there's no question that the world is changing quickly and the speed of that change seems to only get greater every day. So we've got to be resilient. We've got to be able to bounce back. We've got to be able to take great care of ourselves. And I love how being on my growth edge means that I must pay attention to those things. So the expert and the friend I have on the show today will speak to some of those things as somebody with a great pivot story, a pretty extreme pivot story. I don't know if it's— we'll let you guys determine whether it's as extreme a pivot story as my own, but certainly— We're going to have a lot to learn from this gentleman. His name is Justin Rechler. He has over 13 years of experience and advanced training as a counterintelligence special agent and Army soldier. He is a subject matter expert in tactical questioning, surveillance, counterespionage, threat and vulnerability assessments, and investigative techniques. He is a leader in cryptocurrency and due diligence and education and is the co-founder of Crypto Bit Verified. The very first cryptocurrency vetting provider, something that's going to be very important in the future, now and in the future. Justin brings his honed investigative skills from the military sector and delivers them to the boardroom to help business owners protect their 2 most valuable assets. I totally agree with this one, time and money. Justin, what a pleasure to have you on the show today. Thanks for being here.

Thanks for having me, Adam. I've been looking forward to this for some time. So this is— I'm glad that we're getting to connect here face-to-face as well.

Yes. We're going to have a ton of fun. This is very much a— I mean, I read a lot of bios. I get to speak to a lot of people. This is a pretty unique bio. This is not one that— I hear author and coach and lots and lots of things from folks, of course. Your bio is very different. It's very unique. What's not in this bio? What's not written in this bio that you'd like for people to know about you?

Well, I'm a husband. I'm a father and our family unit is a 24/7 family. Not only just a father, but I'm raising a young entrepreneur that you got to connect with this last summer during a team program at CEO Space. And that's when I fell absolutely in love with you because my daughter got to spend a week learning from you and I got to witness her own growth that she went through. And a lot of people see Counterintelligence, they see the bald head, they see the goatee, Exactly right.

You got the haircut for the business, I guess.

Yeah, you do. And the one thing I always get when people talk to me is, I didn't expect you to have those kind of conversations, or, where's your Harley-Davidson? Or, they've already fragmented me into a box just because of my background. And yeah, it's a very unique background, but I'm so much more than just that. And so that's That's what I love about what we do is I like connecting with people and, you know, it's just I'm a big people person and I just love the whole aspect of being an entrepreneur. That's— I love my life and I love helping others.

Resilience. It's the unsung hero in every success story that you will ever hear about. And in times of massive change and disruption, the kind of rapid change that we're all experiencing as leaders, as business owners, as entrepreneurs, we have to learn how to not only increase our own resilience but that of our teams. So right now we have a powerful opportunity for you to find out just how resilient you are. Some years ago, my team and I created the resilience assessment that more than 5,000 business leaders across the globe have taken. And all you have to do to get your own free resilience leader assessment is go to resiliencerank.com. It takes less than 3 minutes, and it's our gift to you for being the leader that you already are. Other free resources and tools will accompany your score instantly.

So, go to resiliencerank.com and find out just how resilient you are. Yeah. Beautiful. You and I know each other now probably a couple of years, and we're running into each other in professional circles. Both of us are faculty members for a company, an organization called CEO Space. We met there, but I think we had 2 really wonderful connections that weren't sort of direct. They weren't just you and I connecting. It was really first through Max, through our oldest— well, through our son, our only son, so by that, he's our oldest son. But he took such a shine to you, and I know he could feel your love as well. And then the blessing for me was last summer to be able to Spend time with the teens in that program. And your amazing daughter is something really special. I mean, it's very rare. She's not a teen, we know that, but I mean, let's get this right. Is she 8 or 9, Justin?

She just turned 9 last week.

Okay. So, look at that, right on the cusp. And she is a remarkable young woman. She's a public speaker. She's spoken to thousands of people at a single time and in many other venues and places around the world at this point. What does it feel like to be raising a kid and curating an environment for a kid that is that precocious? And I mean that in the absolute best way. Here's what I want to say, because we're not going to maybe spend the whole show talking about Neva, but here's a kid who is a combination of both bright and sensitive and sweet. Sometimes you get a bright kid and they're a little reticent, they're a little shy, and so you can't really connect with them on an emotional level. Sometimes you get kids that are very much emotionally available and fully expressed, maybe even too fully expressed, and you can't have sort of an intellectual conversation. She was just incredible as somebody who I really felt we could, in the course of the classroom that we were in together, we could go anywhere. We could have an emotional intelligence conversation. We could have a conversation about business strategy and structure. I just found that she's a very unique girl. How is it that you're curating that environment?

I know it's

a

big question. It is, but I'll sum it up and I'll bring it back to that entrepreneur mindset. When I first stepped out of government back in 2011, and I was already looking at pivoting back in 2010, I was told when she was born, and my wife and I were both told, that in order for her to do what she came here to do, I had to deal with my shit. That was kind of a wake-up call of like, wow. Really, she's really become my mirror. She reflects back so much to me. She's literally like my little barometer for not only what's going on in the environment, but what's going on for me internally. For me, raising her that way as an entrepreneur, first and foremost, can we By all means, we'll take full credit for being parents, but I will not take full credit for who she is because she is who she is because she gets to spend weeks at a time with people like you, going to business conferences, people like Bernie Dorman and all these people that have been my mentors along the way, Greg Reed. She just spoke at Secret Knock. People like that, that she has interfaced with who have looked at her as a person, And given her that room. And you had this as a dad, as a father, especially as a former counterintelligence agent, you know, there was some fear around, you know, how public she is and all those kinds of things. And so, yeah, you know, all the traditional dad stuff of, you know, protecting your children and whatnot. I had to not only deal with my own issues being in the limelight, but what is it like for her to be in the limelight? And I had to deconstruct all those things. So what is it like? It's work and it's worth every penny and every moment because I see the product that it is creating and how she shows up in the world. And at the end of the day, my own evolution is the most important because it's what's going to allow her to continue to evolve as well.

What a beautiful way that you just connected the dots there, Justin, because part of how we opened the show was to speak into We're not always feeling at our 100% best, and yet there are things that will draw the best out of us. Being a dad myself and Randy and I raising 4 kids and still have one that's in the house, 3 out and they're all— their wings are spread, they've left the nest and everybody's, knock on wood, they're contributing, they're doing great things and one's still to leave. I can say it's Being a parent draws the best out of you or it draws— I mean, it draws out of you. Mirror is a good way to describe it because sometimes what it draws out of you isn't the best. In fact, it can trigger and bring to the forefront really our own emotional trauma, our own trauma from childhood, our past stuff that repeats and comes up and the kids can trigger that. Either it can make you more of what you want to be or it can It can make you more of what you don't want to be. And you, my friend, have no easy time of it since Tonya, your wife, is, I imagine, quite a mirror for you as well, sir.

I married my guru. A lot of people just hire them and then they can fire them when they're done growing. No, I married mine. And that was one of the things that we committed to along the way was that we would constantly hold each other in our highest. And I give her full credit for the insight and holding me accountable and loving me through it and not ever letting me fall and always catching me when I slip up and mess up. And guess what? You're going to do that along the way. It's whether or not you're wanting to own it. I actually have had some interesting conversations with celebrities and friends that they come up to like, how do you do it? I'm like, how do I do both? How do you be married and work with your wife and do the 24/7 thing? How do you do that? Well, again, it comes down to my own evolution is more important than any other experience that I might want to have, because how I engage with the world, how I perceive the world, and how I'm able to contribute to others only comes from that place of my own consciousness, my own awareness. And to be able to do that in partnership with somebody that has been there along the entire way is, uh, to me, there's nothing more rewarding than that.

Yeah. So what I take away from that is that your own evolution is more important than your comfort level.

Oh, absolutely. And here's the thing, it's true of business, right? As in life, if you're not growing, you're dying. Same thing in business. If it's not growing, it's dying. And regardless of whatever you do in the world, even if you're an employee, there's nothing wrong with that. What does make the experience that you have of whatever it is that you're doing is your own perception and understanding of who you are and how the world works. And to me, because I mean, you can literally, you could reach enlightenment, shovel horse dung, and still be the happiest person on the planet, right?

Dr. King said, there's no such thing as menial labor, just menial pay. So yeah, to be happy or to be joyful in the process of cleaning up dung. I mean, we have 2 big dogs. So in addition to 4 kids, we have always had 2 big dogs around. And man, there's a lot to clean up after these suckers, but to be in a state of joy, even as you're doing that kind of thing, I think is one of those great Zen experiences. The idea that we're either growing or dying, it's just so funny because I was participating in a graffiti art experience a couple of weeks back and you tag. So we were doing this graffiti art and then we get to tag it with something. So a lot of people created these acronyms and it just came right up to me, that phrase, you're growing or dying. And I told our team that was doing this artwork project, I said, Listen, I want to tag it, or I propose that we tag it this way, Grow or Die, and the acronym is GOD. And they're like, what? You want to tag it with God? I said, yeah, man, Grow or Die. And not everybody was on board right away, but then people were like, you know what? A, we didn't come up with anything better, and B, how true is that? At all times in nature and in our personal experience, our business experience.

It's the cycle. And what I love about it is that Even if you've worked through something and you're like, okay, cool, I'm never going to see that again. No, you're going to see it again, but just at a whole nother level. It's all about continuing to uplevel. That's where entrepreneurs— one of the biggest downfalls entrepreneurs get is not really understanding how money works, recognizing that your $100 problem now becomes a $1,000 problem, which becomes a $10,000 problem. It doesn't matter. It just grows. And so if you don't handle it at the root, In your business and your mindset and who you are, it won't matter.

Indeed. Let's go back to the point where— so you and your beloved, you met in the intelligence space, right? Was it the military space or the intelligence space you guys met?

No, it was the counterintelligence space for the military. My wife had had her career. I had had my career. We both found ourselves teaching at the counterintelligence special agents course. She had been on very top secret teams. She's actually sat in done surveillance and been in a court case where she actually testified against an actual espionage case. I was over in Iraq and so forth. And so we met up there and immediately hit it off. We were teaching a class about critical thinking and whatnot that she and I developed, taught it for the next year and a half. And during the big drawdown in 2011, we saw the tidal wave of unemployment coming and decided that we were going to take essentially the mindset training that we were doing with our agents and the critical thinking stuff, and we were going to take that into corporate America. And when we got out, people found out what our backgrounds were and they said, no, you got to do for us what you did for the government. And that's what started our due diligence risk mitigation program. And my wife has built up her coaching platform since then and has an organization that helps train coaches. But we had no clue as to what being an entrepreneur is about. In the counterintelligence world, first off, the old saying, counterintelligence, people automatically equate that to spies. The old saying, old spies never die, they just fade away. It's true. I mean, people that have our experience, our type of experience, they end up staying in the military for a career and then transition into a very similar civilian job. And they just get lost in that corporate sector and you stay a counterintelligence agent. If you're not over the seas in the dirt box, you're You're teaching the skill set or supporting missions somehow using those counterintelligence skills. And so very rarely— first off, it's hard to find a job using those skill sets.

Mm-hmm.

And 2, once you're in, you typically don't get out because it's not designed for civilian jobs. It doesn't translate over specifically. And so most, most people get out and they'll go into Being the closest to it as possible, maybe law enforcement or—

Private security or something.

Private security or something like that, close to that. But the overall encompassing thing of everything that we did as an agent, there's nothing that encapsulates that in a job setting with the exception of corporate counterintelligence jobs, which are very, very elite type programs. And again, you only get those after you've typically done a full career in the military, a full career in a second job, and, you know, now it's— you're on to your, you know, halfway through your second career. Lots of jobs in those positions, but we didn't know what to do. So this corporate training that we were going to do was like, awesome, we can do that. Well, so we literally had to pivot out of the military mindset into a business mindset, not knowing anything about business. And that's where we found CEO Space. And we had to learn all of that.

So a couple of things I'd love to know. I want to have you share what you think is the biggest mistake that you made early on in that new budding entrepreneurial setting. And then what are the skill sets that you were able to really utilize well? So the pivot was sort of a smooth transition and pivot from the skills that you were using in the military to the ones that didn't translate so well, the skills in business that you weren't equipped for based on military and intelligence training.

Absolutely. So the biggest mistake we made was jumping right out of where we were at top of our game into not knowing anything about business. And we went completely out of sequence in developing our business when we first got started. And we had to pivot again after that. But that first mistake that we made is like, awesome, we've got a great idea, never sold a thing, don't have a product developed, don't even have a way for anybody to buy anything about me. I'm not too sure what a contractual agreement looks like, all those kinds of conversations, but yet we went out and spent $9,000 to form our corporation so we can go out and raise $3 million because we thought we were the greatest thing since sliced bread.

Yeah. So that's a really telling lesson right there for a lot of people to hear that because, first of all, we definitely want to know that the way the story ends is that it was an experience you had to have. It was required on some level, and it has led you to the point where you've had a great success thereafter. So, it shouldn't stop anybody to hear that that was the mistake, but a lot of people make that mistake. My guess is— well, not guess, based on a lot of people we interviewed for the book Pivot and others that we've just worked with, that can stop a lot of folks. There's no question that that could stop you dead in your tracks. Truthfully, it also is sort of perpetuated by the myth that you should, when you're making a transition, a change, or a pivot, that you should sort of jump ship. Burn the bridges kind of thing. Go all in. And it's a romantic notion and one that the media and movies and TV perpetuate that. But the people who succeed based on that are the outliers. And more within the bell curve are people like yourself who, great idea, great thought, great enthusiasm, all of it made sense to go forward, except like you said, didn't know anything about contracts, didn't know anything about sales, didn't have a product to sell, didn't have a platform to sell, didn't have a website. All that stuff, not really set up for success at that moment.

Yeah. Well, and what the beautiful thing is, is that we had, when we took that leap, we still had our top security clearances. So when we fell flat on our face, which we did, because we, we took the jump not knowing what it was going to look like, but when we didn't raise the capital and we didn't have anything to move forward on or live off of and so forth, I picked up the phone and 10 days later I was in Afghanistan. And so I was able to get a job real quick while Tonya learned everything possible there was that needed to be known in business so I could come home and we could take the leap again. And it wasn't for another 3 years that we took the full leap. And I mean, I was still doing background investigations for the government up until 2014. That's right, the end of 2013 and the beginning of 2014, I said, we're done. And we took the full leap at that point in time, but it took us 4 years to get to the point of being able to understand what business was, how it works, how to market, how to connect, how to network, and how to sell. A

little thing like that.

A little thing like that, right? And so at that point in time, that's when we took the full leap and we mailed everything back. My top secret security clearance has lapsed. Since I'm actually technically unemployable right now in the old sector that I used to be. And I tell you what, it feels good to be unemployable because from where we started and falling on our face, we've built up 2 very successful businesses. And now we're raising a 9-year-old who's on her own path.

And on fire. Yeah, for sure. I didn't realize actually that our paths were so similar. People say, Adam, it's amazing. Your own personal story is miserable lawyer to very different experience of living and all that kind of thing. How did that happen? And it very much was the way you described it. I didn't come home one day and say to Randy, we're done. I quit. I turn in my law degree and everything else. It took 2 and a half, almost 3 years, just like you. And it was through that process of both learning and making mistakes, but having something to fall back on. The mistakes didn't wipe us out and they didn't It didn't really put us in jeopardy of being wiped out. Maybe being a parent gives you that sense of, I needed more of a safety net. I mean, I'm sure I was playing it more cautiously than I needed to or could have, but I wouldn't do it any differently. I mean, time goes by so quickly anyway, and to plan what we call make your plan B or build that second bridge while still maintaining the first one that you can drive over and not put your family or other things in jeopardy, I think is a really effective way to pivot. It sounds like you guys did the same thing.

Yeah. I think it's probably the fastest track to moving forward. Where a lot of people fail in that pivot is they get to a point of comfort of maybe they're just— they're maybe going to bring in an extra $500 or $1,000 a month. And so it's like they go from, oh, the big dream, to, we're comfortable here. And the thing I always tell my clients that I work with is that, look, here's the thing. If it doesn't hurt, it doesn't scare you, You're not doing it big enough. But if you can do it to where you've got a bit of a safety net and you transition in and have the patience to learn what you need to learn, to identify what the pain points are for you, not only in the business, not only in money, but also in the personal development piece. There's relationships issues, there's mommy and daddy issues that are going to come up. There's All sorts of things are going to come up that are going to give you hard decisions to make in your life, and you're going to have to decide, what do you want more? Do you want this or do you want this? But doing it with that safety net is so, so important because you can't help anybody, because that's why people become entrepreneurs, is to help people and make money and so they can help more people. And you can't do that if your own coffers are empty.

Wow. The pace of change over the last couple of years has been rapid. And if you're a leader, a business owner, an entrepreneur, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Every day it's something different, something new. But the one thing that I've learned in performing at the height of all of those roles has been that we must be resilient. In fact, it's the unsung hero in every success story that you will ever hear about, and it's the reason why My team and I created the resilience assessment that more than 5,000 business leaders across the globe have taken, and all you have to do to get your own free resilient leader assessment is go to resiliencerank.com. It takes less than 3 minutes, and it's our gift to you for being the leader that you already are.

Other free resources and tools will accompany your score instantly, so go to resiliencerank.com. No, it's very difficult to serve from an empty cup, as my friend Lisa Nichols would say. Yes. Yeah, it's interesting because you also have to fund. I mean, a part of this is funding the pivot. It's funding the evolution. Those things, it's not— I don't mean just in money, but let's say there's quite a bit of money that's also expended. In learning enough to be able to move elegantly or gracefully, masterfully into something new and different. I mean, you wouldn't just think of— if you've never driven a semi, you've driven a moped, you don't just go get behind the seat of a semi or even a car and think you're going to drive an 18-wheeler. That would be insane. And so, yeah, there is a sense of you've got to learn, you've got to have that gradient to learn, And to eventually go from being unconsciously incompetent, which is probably the most dangerous thing, unaware of the fact that you don't know very much. You think you know more than you actually do. You are a danger to yourself and to others.

Oh, exactly. And the biggest thing that will keep people stuck, especially in the money place, is not truly knowing what they want. They'll give it lip service, but they don't have it really set down and decided What that is. You know, it's just like, I just don't want a job. Well, I'm not talking about what you don't want. What do you want? You know, and plan it from there. You know, what drives you? And it's, you know, Neva will tell you, find something you like to do and find a way to make money at it. You know, if, if feeding the homeless makes you happy, awesome. Go feed the homeless and find a way to make money at it. You know, you can do anything with the right mindset and If you're in this situation where you're pivoting, you're in a job, or if you're in the military, one, reach out to me. I'm happy to have a conversation with you. But 2, focus on where do you want to go? What does it look like so you can pivot, so you know what questions and what things you need to be looking for along the way? It's a lot easier if you do that and have the foresight to look ahead and plan. Otherwise, it can be a really, really rough road.

There's another thing that along the way that I've made. I look at some of the best things in my life were in the moment, the worst experiences, the biggest mistakes, so to speak. And it takes a while before a really big mistake transmutes into something that you'd look back on and go, oh, that was really great. I'm so glad that happened for me. So this is one of those things where, as a result of being in partnership with some people that I definitely didn't vet and didn't look into and didn't know, frankly, didn't know well enough and lost a bunch of money and Had some other agita as a result of it. I ended up putting a section in the book, Pivot, that was all about pivot people, the people that are on your team. So when you said earlier about that pivoting is— a lot of it is that mindset piece. It's knowing yourself. It's getting clear. And it's also getting clear that most of the success that I've seen in my own life and in the lives of a lot of other people didn't come as a solo act. I mean, even solo acts have a great support team behind them, with them all the way. Even getting a book done, man, we had a— it took a village to produce this book and to market it and to sell it and to continue to market it and sell it and all the rest of it. So it's a team effort and it's really important as part of the process of pivoting, whatever it is that you're pivoting into or out of, that you are focused on having support. And that means a team. And one of the things I love about the work you do is you have a company, I think it's called Clear Directory, but you can let me know what the right name is if I got that wrong. But we've used your services and I think it's one of those things that when you're starting a new business or even in the business you're currently in, it is a good idea to know who you are in bed with. Who are you in business with? And I didn't, having been a lawyer for 18 years, you'd think that I've would have thought that way, but it was like the shoemaker whose kids walk around with holes in their shoes. It wasn't something I was focused on until actually you and I met. So tell us a little bit about that, because that is one of the entrepreneurial pursuits that you created.

Yeah. That's one of the things that we assist people with is because, like you said, you wouldn't have thought about it. Most people in business don't because the term due diligence, when it's applied to business, people typically, yeah, I did my due diligence, meaning that They checked them out on their Facebook page. They had their lawyer review the agreement and they liked the conversation that they had. But they don't really take into consideration what the potential risk is when getting involved with certain people, depending on what level you're getting involved with them at. Partners, CFO for hire, anybody that you're outsourcing where it's going to cost you a lot of your resources, whether it be time or money, Most people don't think about due diligence beyond contract review and, I like the person. And so we bring that whole counterintelligence perspective of what due diligence is. And we look at not only the business or the opportunity itself, but we look at the people involved and understanding that the culmination of the business, the culmination of the person, the culmination of their history, culmination of what was said, what was promised, And a history of success and so forth all paint a picture of really who you're getting involved with. And oftentimes most people just get involved with somebody because they like them and they find out 3 weeks later that they can't do what they say they can do and they lose a ton of money, or they get involved with somebody because they've done the mechanical due diligence and yeah, sure enough, this person has done this, but you find out 3 weeks later that the person's a jerk and you can't communicate and it's not a good fit. We like to tell people that you have to do both. You have to build that relationship and make sure it works, and you have to make sure that they're not fraudsters, they're not scamsters, they're not gonna just take your money, and they can actually do what they say they can do. Because fraud and scam in the business world, it's not always actual fraud and scam, it's ineptitude. And it's

more ineptitude— Right, misfeasance or malfeasance as much as it's— Yeah, yeah.

But you won't know that unless you do the work, unless you do the due diligence, unless you dig in a bit. I mean, the cryptocurrency space, 375 frauds and scams in the last 18 months alone.

Yep.

Absolutely crazy. And so our whole take on it is, look, if it's going to cost you time or money, trust but verify, do some additional due diligence. And our firm exists because we're not attached to the outcome or the relationship. Our job is just to present with, you're looking for this, And we're assessing and analyzing this, and we're going to let you know if they match up. And if they don't match up, it's not a deal breaker. It just means you've got more questions to ask.

Yeah. To have somebody independently looking at— look, if I could go back, rarely do I allow myself in the headspace of thinking back as in regret, or I wish I could, I should have, could have that, because I think it's part of the personal development training, if we could call it anything. I'd say in my Becoming more self-aware and committing to that thereabouts 10 years ago, it's like page one. I mean, thou shalt own thy life. I mean, you've got to own your life and own your results. And so, there's no regret. Everything is actually perfect in the sense that it's what's required to move to the next level of thought, of experience, of everything. But I do look back and think sometimes, geez, how nice would it have been? And this is where, for me, in mentoring and guiding other people, I get to say, look, if I was going to do it again. What I would've done was had someone independent from myself look at things more critically, provide due diligence, provide counsel to me on, hey, maybe this is— you got a 50/50 shot here. I don't know that I would've given $500,000 of money or some other number to invest in something had I had a— if somebody had said, listen, There's a 50/50 shot here, and here's why. Oh, by the way, this person that you're about to partner up with in business, did you happen to know that they've had a few partners in the past and they didn't really get along with their partners too well and they ended up getting sued by their partners and that kind of thing? That's really valuable information to have going into a relationship because it is, in many ways, as important a relationship, a business partnership, just like a marriage. And a business divorce can be as ugly as a marital divorce. In fact, it can be uglier. I used to handle a number of those cases as a lawyer.

Yeah, a lot uglier sometimes. Sometimes the divorce, it looks like a walk in the park.

Yeah. So share a little bit more about, because that's a whole other topic, but the crypto space is confusing to a lot of people. As you say, in the last year, there've been, I don't even remember the number you gave, but let's say a lot of misrepresentation that's been a part of that as well. So, A, do you think there's a bona fide opportunity for people today? And if so, I mean, we're not in the end, the show really isn't intended to give that kind of advice, but if you've got a sense of where you see the opportunity in blockchain technology, and cryptocurrency is just an element of that, I'd love to get your thoughts on it. And do you think that there's been so much fraud in the space, that it's going to take a bit of time now to reestablish not just credibility, but the trust of the public in regard to it?

Well, I think the biggest thing is understanding that the blockchain technology is here for stay. Blockchain is revolutionizing all sorts of business. Amazon's talking about it, Apple's talking about it, everybody's talking about blockchain. Now, the opportunity in cryptocurrency, yes, there's a ton of fraud out there. Matter of fact, the resurgence of frauds and scams that we've seen in that industry It was big back in the boom into 2017 and carried over a little bit until the beginning of 2018. And it left a lot of bad taste in people's mouths because they got in on the hype. Grandma and grandpa decided to buy some Bitcoin, but they bought it when it was at $20,000. And there are the media manipulation, the bank manipulation of the markets, all those kinds of things. I truly believe, I mean, if you understand how money works, if you looked at the fiat system and understand central banking, understand the issues with the the global debt and so forth, you know, it's not a— it's just a matter of time before there's gotta be some sort of system reset.

And, you know, it's interesting, Justin, before when you said central banking, it almost came out as central breaking.

Yeah. Well, quantitative easing, right?

A little slip there, right?

Yeah. Is that, you know, crypto is definitely going to be a new way of doing business. And here's the thing. If you understand the markets, you understand that you're treating it as an investment and you're buying and selling or, You're playing the long-term hold because you believe in what the company's doing and you've done your due diligence on the opportunity, whether it be a security platform that you're buying into or just Bitcoin itself. Understanding the markets is what's key. And I think the opportunity is huge. Matter of fact, we're getting ready to put together a very elite mastermind around it that's going to be teaching people about crypto, some of the mindset, personal development training. Plus we've partnered with a professional trader That's going to help people learn and understand how to make money in the space. And so it's going to be a very unique opportunity, but yeah, there's a ton of money to be made in that space right now. And I'd like to tell people, you either learn about cryptocurrency now or you're going to learn about it 15 years from now because it's not going away. And it just depends on what does it look like? How do we use it? How do we engage it? How does the technology advance? And as more people come online and accepting it, It's going to create even more opportunity.

Yeah, it's not a whole lot different than how the world received the technology of electronic mail. Now we take it for granted, certainly, I mean, that it's been around forever, but it hasn't been around forever. And I didn't grow up with electronic mail. I didn't grow up with email. I didn't grow up with the internet. Neither did you. We didn't grow up with fax machines, for crying out loud. The beeper was something we were using when our first 2 kids were born. I was in law school and I had a beeper. I had to go find a payphone to find out if Randy was in labor. Technology is definitely one of those things that there's always early adoption, and sometimes the early adopters, they're like the pioneers. You can tell the pioneers because they had the arrows in their backs.

Exactly. They're the ones that took the risk to get to where they were.

Exactly. You can't get to any place without those pioneers. In any event, there's definitely a a great opportunity ahead of us. Folks are— I mean, I have people that are still saying in various places that I meet them, I don't know what blockchain technology is. Now, I know we won't get into this in great depth, but can you explain it for a person, a layperson who might be watching or listening to this? What is the blockchain for them?

Absolutely. So a blockchain is literally nothing more than an electronic public ledger system that provides full transparency of whatever data, whether it be Bitcoin or information on a public ledger. And so you've got literally, as far as Bitcoin is concerned, you've got millions of computers around the world that are keeping track of this ledger of every time Bitcoin is sold or bought and moved around from here to there. That public ledger doesn't allow for things like double entry. It allows for full transparency of whatever is being tracked, and you can follow it back as to where it originated from. And so that's why it's revolutionizing business. And so it's also revolutionizing the financial world because banks use double entry. They're allowed to lend out 10 times more than they actually have on hand, to whereas crypto, it's a one-for-one exchange, and you know exactly where it is at all times because it's verified. By those public ledger systems.

And it's updated in real time. Like the old example of having the second set of books, the proverbial books you cook, there's no possibility, there's no opportunity for that type of fraud to exist because you can't have a second set of books when it's being publicly verified across thousands and thousands of computers. There's just no way to enter something or erase something that was an entry without everybody knowing about it. Maybe an oversimplification.

That is the easiest way of explaining it, is just that, is understanding that that's why blockchain has been developed, because people were tired of people cooking the books. People were tired of— that's where Bitcoin came from, is like, let's create something that you can't make more of. The basic law of supply and demand, the more there is of something, the less value it has. Well, guess what? We've got I think the global debt is something like $98 trillion. There's only $38 trillion in existence. So where's the new money coming to pay that new debt, especially with interest? So that's where it came from because it literally is going to give us— I love the concept of cryptocurrency and where it's going, and I truly believe in its future because with Bitcoin, with cryptocurrency, there's a level of self-dominion that you have to have that gives you full responsibility over your own financial wellbeing because there are no banks, there's no insurance. It solely lies on you. When you understand that and recognize that, wow, you don't have to pay a merchant fee, you don't have to pay a fee at the ATM just to get your own money back. You don't have to— literally, you are your own bank. That self-dominion piece of, I have full control over every aspect of my life, the financial sector has been one of the last places in human development that we can attain that because of the standards that we've put in as a society saying that money is important so we can exchange for goods and services. Well, the bank system monetized that. They control all the money. They have all the powers. They put us in debt. That's a whole other conversation. But with cryptocurrency, I have my money on my phone. I have my money on my wallet. And if I lose it, my fault. It's not coming back because when I hit send, it's gone and you're not getting it back. But you got to know how it works and understand it. So there's a level of technical upleveling that you have to do in order to do it, but it's super easy.

I really hope you're enjoying this episode. Of the Change Proof podcast. If you've not yet gone out and gotten your own copy of Change Proof, it's not too late.

You can get your copy right now by going to changeproof.com and not only getting the book and all the bonuses there, but getting access to our proprietary resilience assessment tool.

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It's easy once you, once you figure it out. But when you can sit back and frame up the wild, like, wow, My fortune, I can manage in real time on my own terms, and I can build digital wealth using cryptocurrency. That's huge because a lot of people— what the fear is though, the government will step in. It exists on the internet.

What government?

What government? Exactly. It exists on the internet. If you have the code and you're tapped into the network, and you and I can send back and forth, There's nobody stopping us from doing transactions. Now, again, I like to stay on the right side of right of pay your taxes, do your Bitcoin accounting. If you don't know how, reach out. We've got solutions for that. But understanding the freedom that it brings to you as an individual and recognizing that you don't have to worry about a bank or limiting it or overdraft fees or anything like that, because when you're your own bank, there are no overdraft fees. You either have it or you don't. Right.

So that dominion comes at a price and that price is self-responsibility. Because like you said, it's on you. And so you're not paying the schmo fee for— the technical term, right? The idiot tax for having other people take responsibility for you. And I paid it and I continue to pay it as a lot of us do in various ways. We have money in banks and all kinds of things. But there's no question that the The institutions are not accountable. They're certainly not as accountable as we would like them to be. The money is fuzzy. The math is fuzzy. I'm not looking to get my Nobel Prize in economics or mathematics to try to figure it out. People much smarter than me haven't been able to figure it out. As you pointed out, the math don't add up.

With blockchain, that's what that solves. It solves that, and that's what drives the value of Bitcoin up. Other currencies that are actual true currencies up is the more people that use it, the more people that want it, the more influence it has within the markets. There's a lot of market manipulation going around right now because of the ETFs that are— are they going to get passed? Are they not going to get passed? That big money, institutional money is manipulating the market a bit still. But as more and more people come on board, I mean, imagine 5% of the world right now even knows and utilizes Bitcoin. Can you imagine? And right now the price is $6,500, I think, right? That's only with 5% of the world using it. What's the value of Bitcoin going to be when we're at 20% of the people or the world using it?

Yeah.

What's it going to be when there's 50% of the world that are using it? What's the value of it going to be then? So it's a good time to be alive. I, uh, it is. I enjoy the conversation of, uh, dominion and helping people with their, uh, where they're at in life.

I'm excited that you've got your mastermind getting started to help people learn more about this and educate them and have expert folks that are really on the forefront of that teaching. So in the show notes for this particular podcast, there'll be more information about Justin, about his company, about that opportunity as well, which is really exciting. Justin, before we started, I asked you if you personally believe in the power of rituals in order to be more resilient as a business owner, as an entrepreneur. Yeah. So I'd love to know what your thoughts are on that. Do you have a particular ritual that you that you use at a certain time of the day to help you to create that resilience?

For me, it's every morning. First hour and a half, 2 hours of my day is drinking coffee and mind mapping, discussing, exploring the previous day, that night's dreams, whatever, with my wife, and really exploring what's showing up for me in the projection, what's coming up and how I can move through it, how I can respond to it. And so for me, it's that connecting with her in that space or taking some time to myself to read something about where I'm at and what I'm dealing with and what's coming up for me and moving through that. And to me, that is the most important. And oftentimes throughout the day, something will come up and just, you got to step away and just examine it and don't let it fester. Don't let it build. So I like to take things head on as they come along, but I start my every day My morning ritual is to connect in that sacred space with my wife.

That's beautiful. Yeah, it's a special time in our house too. I love to sit and just have a cup of coffee with my wife and even just to be still. Don't even have to speak sometimes. It's sometimes, depending on how I've been behaving, maybe it's sometimes better I don't say anything. Yeah, this has been a very enjoyable talk and I know that, Justin, this is This is just the beginning, beginning of so many wonderful collaborations we get to have together. Yeah, absolutely. For those of you that would love to learn more about Justin Reckla and his team and Clear Directory and all the things that they're up to, definitely check out the show notes. We'd love to hear from you as well and find out what you learned and what you took out of this particular episode. So iTunes, please feel free to leave a review or leave a comment at adamarkel.com/podcast. Of course, our Facebook page welcomes you. If you want to be in a community of like-minded, like-hearted pivoters, then you can go to Start My Pivot Community on Facebook. And of course, as always, you can get our free downloadable kickstart guide, 6 questions to help you determine where you are in your pivot. Are you building that bridge, that Plan B right now, or has something already happened and you're making the change on the fly? Wherever you are in that process, the Kickstart Guide will meet you there and support you, and it's free, and it's yours as our gift by going to StartMyPivot.com. StartMyPivot.com. I want to leave everybody with a prayer, which you can look at it as an intention if prayer doesn't work for you, but I really feel the power of prayer is so important. It's so much more important in my life now than it ever was before, and I don't assign any religious meaning to that. For me, this is a place for me to connect with myself at my core and also to connect with my own understanding of creation and where I'm supported by my creator. And we all have different names for that. So whatever you call it and whatever it might look like for you, I want to share this thought and see if it's something that might also provide you with the same benefits. So the prayer is that we all get to wake up tomorrow. And I don't think I'm going to get much pushback from anybody about that. We got to wake up today, and that was not a guarantee. There was no contract that said we were going to get to wake up today, but we did, and that was a blessing. Tomorrow, I'm hoping and intending and even praying for that result for all of you, that we all get to wake up, and that in that moment of waking, that we also are waking up our consciousness. Yeah. By reason of the fact that we recognize it's not a given that we get to wake up, and therefore it's something we can be grateful for. So we wake up tomorrow, we're grateful in that moment for that waking, for that waking breath, knowing there will be people taking their last breath as we're taking our first. And lastly, as Justin said at the very beginning, and I've got written on my, on my t-shirt today again, is The words, I love my life. If you're willing to stand up, put your feet on the floor, even from your bed, just declare these words out loud. I love my life. I love my life. I love my life. Well, that would be an incredible intention for what you could experience that day. Let's put it that way. You get to try it on for size and see if it works. But have a wonderful rest of your day, your evening, wherever else it is that we're finding you. Justin, again, thank you so much for being on the show. Thank you. Thank you,

brother. Love you, man.

Yeah, love you too. Ciao for now, everybody.

Thanks for listening, everyone. We hope you now have the tools and greater insights to navigate your own pivot. Help us inspire others by sharing this episode and leaving your comments over at adammarkel.com/podcasts. For more tips, strategies, and support as you consciously pivot into a new business and lifestyle you love, join our Pivot Join our community on Facebook at pivotfb.com.