50 Episodes Later: How The Business Fix Started and Where We’re Headed

We hear from so many business owners who are struggling with high turnover, low morale, and teams that just aren't clicking.

And so often the real problem isn't the product, the service, or the people. It's the culture.

And that's why we would love to bring The Business Fix to your next event or webinar to help transform your team and to push your business forward.

Ready to fix your culture and unlock your team's potential? Visit us at businessfixpodcast.com and click Connect with Us to learn more.

We've now reached 50 episodes. Um, I didn't think it was possible for someone to be locked in a room with me for that long.

I'm not a quitter.

This, this is a testament to how you are. You're reluctantly resilient.

Absolutely. Yeah, I model what I mandate.

Yeah, no, you do. Um, so yeah, uh, well Chrissy loses her shit. Well, stay tuned. She's the CEO.

He's the marketing and operations guy.

If it's broken, you need The Business Fix. We've made it 50 episodes.

We have.

We're a week early of it being a year since we started this. How in the hell did that happen?

We're not quitters. I said it. We're just— no, we like doing things and doing things well.

Yeah, I agree. Um, the funny thing is, is I still love telling the story about how we came up with this, because really, it's funny. We would— you've got your podcast, uh, the Better Business Podcast, and we would talk for like 10, 15 minutes after your podcasts were done. Your guest would leave or whatever, when we'd be hanging out talking, and we realized we had some alignment with stuff. I had no idea what we were going to do, and I don't think you really did either.

No.

I said, do you want to do a podcast together? Because I've been thinking about it for a week or so. You answered with possibly the most aggressive yes. Yes. I was like halfway done with the sentence. I'm like, do you want to do a podcast? Yes. I was like, oh God. I mean, I don't want to say I was scared, but I was like, oh yeah, I think that that's a yes. Um, okay, because I wasn't sure what your thoughts were on it. What— and here we are, basically 50 episodes later. Um, we recorded— what was it? We recorded 2 or 3, I think. And we recorded the first one, and then the second one came out. Um, after the second one came out, and I approached you and said we should do this weekly, because initially We were gonna go every other week.

Every other week.

We're like, hey, yeah, people don't want to listen to us more than weekly.

No.

And— or more than every—

more than every other week.

And, uh, son of a gun, thank you to you guys. Uh, we— you, like, right off the bat, yeah, like, yeah, we, we need people to talk about terrible bosses. Um, so yeah, we ended— to me, that the origin of this and how this all happened was— it's kind of funny because it was— it's tremendously organic. And I think that's one of the things that makes it work. We realized that we had alignment and we get along. But once again, we come to this from very, very different ways. Yeah.

You—

my, my perception of this, and please correct me if I'm off.

Okay.

You came up through your family's business. I mean, you told stories about like Playing in the closet. Closet.

Yeah, I had a closet.

Which sounds so traumatic to say.

Now when you're a family business, you're like, oh, where was your closet? Like, it's not— it's normal. Other family business, did they put you in the closet or they sit you next to the bathroom or where were you? I was in the lunchroom by the trash can. I mean, like, there's— trust me, other family business people, we get it. Were you in a closet too? Yeah, we get it. Sorry, yeah, the closet.

I— so yeah, to me, but you came up through your family business like that, and you have done a ton of professional development.

Yes.

And the thing that this kind of dawned on me the other day is I have had a bunch of terrible bosses. Um, my career path looks like someone was drunk. There's— I went from automotive to— or I went from performance automotive to just standard automotive repair, to then I went to agriculture And then I went to trucking and now I own a podcast company.

Yeah.

How do you connect those dots?

Yeah, that's just, yeah.

Right.

It's like someone spit on a map.

Right, right. So, but I had a string of terrible bosses and what's so interesting is I have the, like, I have the perception of the person looking up, whereas you have the perception of someone that's looking down.

Yeah.

But you've got the empathy that I think so many others are missing. Oh, that is the— yeah, I mean, so many others are just unaware of how their actions affect other people.

Yeah, that's fair.

Um, and you've been very mindful about that, but that is why you've been able to go see top-down. And I think too, that's why we have our, our— like, once again, we see, like, I mean, we see how to take care of people. We take care of people in a similar manner. We don't always do it the exact same way because we come at it from different directions.

Yes.

Um, there are multiple ways to get Columbus. Yes, there are multiple ways to get to Cleveland. Um, there's multiple ways to get to the same point, and that's one of the things that, uh, that truly to me, I think we get to the same point but from very different directions. And I think that's why it's interesting too.

I think so too. And I think it's also recognizing that you can collaborate and work with other people and lean into their strengths. So that's— I think sometimes as entrepreneurs we want to do it all ourselves. So when you're like, do you want to do this together? It's like, yes. Yeah, let's build it together, especially because you're the expert in a lot of these things. And I mean, when an expert asks you to do something, you usually don't say no. Hey, do you want to do a podcast together? I don't know if it's going to work well. I don't know if it's going to sound right. Duh.

I thank you. I, I appreciate it. It's, it's funny because to me too, it's the, the experience and the professional development, the time that you have put in.

Yeah.

Is I feel like we've put in similar amounts of time, just once again from the different perspectives, which I think is kind of interesting. With that, I decided to do an experiment.

Okay.

Because we both love AI. We both use AI a ton in our business.

We are early adopters.

Yes, yes. And I mean, I've got full custody.

Yes.

I've adopted that hard.

And we are working on slowly rolling things out responsibly within the organization. Don't freak your people out. Don't do it.

'Cause once again, as a person that has had stuff like that rolled out, we freak out. We freak the hell out. Yes. I went in and I dumped all of our transcripts into NotebookLM and said, go ahead.

All 49 of them?

Yes. And said, go ahead and do this. And so I said, what is our podcast about? And to me, I loved this 'cause it said the podcast is about empowering leaders to stop winging it by demanding by demanding clarity, consistency, and care. It even used alliteration for you.

Oh, the 3 C's of leadership.

The hosts guide listeners on how to properly document expectations, confront business fears logically, and build resilient operations that thrive even though economic storms are in, or thrive even through economic storms, or internal failures. When I hear that from Notebook LM, I'm like, we're doing it.

Do you feel seen?

I do. I, I really— and to me, what, like, the thing that I love about it is, is really, for me, it's, it's to make it so people have better businesses. And this is describing that fully. Um, it's, to me, it's the Yeah, I, I, when I, when I first read that, I didn't weep, um, but I, I leaned back in my chair and looked at it for a second, and I was like, oh wow, this— we're doing— we're actually doing what we set out to do. Because I see, and I see this from twofold, from the podcasting side, I see so many people that get off target in their podcast. They're like, we do a podcast about X, and 15 episodes later, you're— it's like, right, we're somewhere around Q.

You're like, what?

What happened?

It's not it.

No, we're still on X. We're still headed towards, towards point X. The other thing about that was, though, too, is as business owners, we often get distracted.

Yes.

From an operational side, I guess I am more like, here's exactly where we're going. And I don't look at the bigger picture enough. From the visionary side, it's easy. I realize the next shiny object.

Yes.

But we're still on track. We haven't shiny object, we haven't stagnated, we're covering the things. I saw this and it made my day. It's a good reason for people to listen.

Oh, absolutely. I totally agree. And I think for me, it's also a reminder that I listen to our episodes as they come out and then I'm reminded of how I need to do the things and do the things better. And I feel like I need to always say, "Thank you, past Chrissy. Future Chrissy says thank you for all all of the things that you are teaching her to do again.

There's so many times during the podcast where I make a note, I'm like, oh damn it, I need to do that next week.

Yeah.

Um, the thing that I think is funny is we're gonna bring him up, is Bill Snow.

Yes.

Um, has said about some of the episodes, he goes, dude, he goes like, past couple of episodes were like right on something I was dealing with that week.

Like, you're welcome, me too. We don't just do it for you.

No, no, no. Bill, why do you think I was talking about that? Because yeah, I I literally am just dealing with this myself. We aren't getting our ideas from this oracle.

No, it's because we did it wrong or we're trying to figure it out.

So you're essentially— some of our podcasts are a therapy session where Chrissy and I are walking through things like, hey, they absolutely are. I also asked NotebookLM for 6 core themes. The first one, I, I have to, I have to cover this.

Yeah.

Um, culture is action, not shitty wall art. Yes, it said crappy, but I gotta say, no, it's the right word. It really is. And it's funny, we just, the last episode again talked about, and I mean, we've talked about like these things that once again you need to have these things in line. Yes. In order to make sure you've got something to build off of rather than just a tent in the wind because like, like we've said, it's, it's getting windy out there. The next one is, is all you, Chrissy. I'm going to let you— this is the one that you— it's your saying that you brought up.

It's the sweaty 10-minute conversation you don't want to have. The necessity of leaning into uncomfortable dialogue. Yes. And all day long.

When you say that, I, I have— you know what I have to go to?

Yeah.

Is we have done 50 episodes.

You have obviously shown that you are willing to lean into the sweaty 10 minutes.

Except in most cases we're shooting for like 35 to 45-minute conversation. It's that sweaty, uncomfortable conversation. Damn it, I gotta go in the studio. The one that to me has hit home for me in so many cases, and this is the one that I think we're going to probably look at here coming up again, yeah, is the working on, not in your business. I've been, I've been terrible about this recently, and I know I have, where I'm like, I'll just take care of this, I'll just take care of this, I'll just take care of this, I'll just take care of this. They're busy, I'll go ahead and take care of this.

Yeah.

Let's be honest, you did not start your business so you could spend your days buried in HR paperwork or Googling how to handle employee drama.

That's why I started Clarity HR. We're your fractional HR team, giving you real people, real support, and real solutions, whether it's compliance headaches, hiring struggles, or just needing someone to take the people stuff off your plate, we've got your back.

So if you're ready to stop using duct tape and hope as your HR strategy and finally get some peace of mind, head over to clarityhr.com.

That's clarityhr.com. Simple, clear, and here to help.

I'll give you a few seconds to go to the website while we get ready to get back to the show.

I've been really tired lately and I'm realizing a lot of it has to do because I'm doing so much work on as opposed to in. And that on, that on stuff is hard. It's so hard.

Yeah. And for me, it's just too easy to go to the in.

Yeah. And it's avoidance. So it's like, why are you avoiding? Why are you avoiding the hard, Josh?

Yeah. No, it's, it's 100%. And where it really dawned on me the other day, was I'm like, I'll just take care of this because I know my editing team has been busy. Yeah, I did that Sunday morning.

I'll just do it when I'm supposed to be doing other things that are not work-related.

Sunday morning, I'm like, I should just take care of this for them. What the hell am I doing?

Why?

Right, right, right. Um, the other one I, I'm gonna let you speak to on the, the tactical piece.

Yeah, tactical HR and team management. We talk a lot about the human side of business, how to make sure that you take care of the humans in your business that help drive it forward.

Most businesses, even with as much AI as we use, yes, there's still people there.

There are. And if you don't treat them well, they're going to leave.

Correct.

And then you're going to really have a problem. Or the other thing that is always interesting is those business owners that just think, oh, it's no big deal. They're just people. Like, no, it's a big deal because there's millions of them out there. We'll just find another one. And I'm like, well, maybe, but You might want to keep some people that have institutional knowledge. I mean, let's try to keep you from getting sued. Let's try to keep you from getting sued. Do you want to? I mean, some lessons are expensive and we're just trying to make sure that you don't have to pay them with interest. So it's good.

The only thing that we ask is that you support the podcast. Yes. Support the podcast. It's a whole hell of a lot cheaper.

It is. Just listen for 5 minutes.

Than the lawsuits. Yeah, don't set your hand on an anvil and start passing out sledgehammers, people.

Yes, I like the next one, um, because I've learned a lot from you on this.

Oh, thank you. Uh, the, the operational and marketing return on investment— it's so many people have this dreamy vision of things like, I'm gonna spend $300 on marketing this month and I'm gonna get $700 back. No. Um, I talk about it all the time with podcasters about like, they're like, I, I want to be—

well, I don't have a million followers yet, right? We don't have a million followers yet either, but we're working on it, right?

One of my favorites to talk about is the SmartLess podcast. Oh, have you ever listened to that?

Yes.

Um, I hear the groan in it. It's Sean Hayes, Will Arnett, and Jason Bateman. Um, it's not good. It's, it's not good to listen. Like, I've listened to it twice I've actually listened to like 3 times to be like, okay, it's a very popular podcast.

It is extremely popular. And there's times where I'm just like, why don't I like this podcast? Yeah, like I keep listening to it thinking I'm going to start liking it.

I haven't. It's not good.

No, but I know there's a low bar.

So the reason why people listen to it is because they want to listen to Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, and Will Arnett. Yes, that's why it's popular. And they brought their celebrity to podcasting. Podcasting is not making them celebrities.

No, not the expertise. There's no expertise there.

No, no, no. I mean, these are actors. These are not inter— no one's going to mistake any one of them for Larry King.

No.

Will's got a phenomenal voice. I could listen to his voice all day, but I'm not going to mistake any one of them for a great interviewer.

No. But the episode I did learn a lot about was Millie Bobby Brown. So if you want to listen to a decent episode, it was really interesting.

I don't even know who that is.

I— oh, she's in Stranger Things. And a lot of other stuff. But Millie Bobby Brown, she's like young child actress and then she grew up and so like she talks about like her journey was really cool to listen to.

Interesting.

Yeah.

Okay.

So that's like if you need an episode that you're like, oh, maybe I'll like that.

But once again, it was probably because the guest—

it was the guest. Yeah. That's why I listened to it.

Yeah. Yeah. That's so— yeah, all these people. So once again, it's bringing back to that return on investment.

Yeah.

What the expectations of what you can look at for this, because the operational side is too— it is a heavy investment to invest in your operations.

Yes.

The problem with that is when problems go away, you don't necessarily think of, why is it much cheaper to operate my company now?

Yeah.

It's because you have fewer problems.

Yeah.

Most people don't connect those two.

No.

And I want to make sure that I do that. For the last one, once again, this has you all over it.

Yeah. So emotional intelligence and resiliency. So tackling challenges, not dealing with isolation, like navigating. We talk about the psychological toll of leadership, how to navigate things and not feel completely alone, building psychological safety within your team.

Yeah. I mean, when you talked about the psychological, I truly did like the episode about making it psychologically safe for your team members.

Yeah, to innovate. Yeah, because it's like people are like, well, what is that important for? Well, it's important when you have somebody that's on a line and they realize that there is a critical issue. And they can bring it up.

Yes.

As opposed to like, oh, that broke. Yeah, yeah, I could have told you like 6 months ago, but I'm afraid to tell you things.

The other piece that I like, the other thing that I like about the duality, I guess, of what we have is you have the— like, the— we look at people differently. Um, you look at them as a— like, from an emotional intelligence aspect. All my emotional intelligence I believe comes from why did they do that? That is the question that I always ask is why did they do that? I'm curious as to like your view on like I ask what's their motivation for doing this? And if I, if I can't put a finger on it, I go back and I'm like, okay, that's over here and I got to ask them and I got to figure this out in order to say how do I get them to do the thing for me?

Yeah.

You look at it from a different angle.

Usually. So it's the same.

Usually was like, oh my God, I hope I don't do that.

No, no, no, no, no, no, I do. There are times I do. Why did they do that? I think for me, it's a little bit more forward in how do I shape the path to get them to where they do the thing that I need them to do? So I'm not asking the why did they, I'm asking the how do I get them? So.

Interesting. Yeah, I guess I'm asking it as like, yeah, you ask it as the how do I do this?

How do I get them there? How do I shape the path so that they do what I need them to do? Now, if they do, if I'm dissecting and it's like, how did they get there? I'm usually thinking about what environment is around them or what is causing them to make that decision.

Okay, interesting. Yeah. Now you talk about the deer man, get fast stuff all the time.

Yeah. Dialectical behavioral therapy, how to get your needs met by having a good conversation. Yes.

That sounded so, so like an ad.

Uh-huh. Because it works. It absolutely works. I know that there are times where people are like, I don't believe that there's any way this could— I'm like, family business transition, this is what saved our relationship, my mom and I, was me learning how to do this and how to have this type of conversation.

So if you don't mind, can we talk about that some?

Sure.

So as you came into that, yeah, once again, there's, there's a totally different power dynamic and transition.

Yeah.

From a child taking over a business than from someone buying it from, or from a child that then is told they have to buy it.

That's a different—

yeah, right, right. Or from the other piece to that is too, is someone coming up through management.

Yeah.

Um, we had the— and we got to celebrate the viral post on Instagram. Oh Are you talking about like, hey, if you don't— if you promote someone without training them, what is it?

Promoting someone without leadership training is irresponsible.

There we go. So yeah, like there's that. But once again, it's a very different dynamic when you take over from your mother.

Yeah. After your late father passes and then you arm wrestle for a business. Yeah, it's fun.

After you arm wrestle for a business, there's, there's got to be a story into this.

I think some of it— well, I wrote about it in my book Reluctantly Resilient, but there's We were both grieving. And so like the Affordable Care Act happened in 2013. My dad passed in '16. Um, well, actually happened in 2010. From 2010 to 2016, I was running the organization. Okay. Had taken it. My mom was there, but she was there part-time. She was, I mean, she was also like, she took time off and watched my kids like 2 days a week. So it was like she was there, but not running the business the same way I was. And my dad, because of health issues, had started to step back and I'd taken steps forward. So I am in this organization. 40 hours a week plus running it, doing the things. And then he passes and then all of a sudden she is back in and she wants to do all of the things. And I'm like, you haven't been here consistently for over a decade. There are still things that you do. Yes, you have an office. Yes, there's like a few things that you do. But I also do those things because I had to learn how to do them because you weren't here and I had to fill in for you for long periods of time because of different types of issues that were going on.

Sure.

So then it became this contentious space of like, well, I'm going to do it this way. I'm like, you don't even know what we do anymore. Not in a mean way, but like, it's totally different.

Like I was going to say, that's not an easy— it's not an easy conversation to have with your boss, let alone your mother.

I was about to say, let alone the woman who—

and it doesn't matter whose mother it is.

No, absolutely responsible for your paycheck, who could fire me at any moment. So that was the other part. Like we weren't just talking about like This is a job. Like, this is actually my career. I have well over a decade in, and now I've established myself in a space. And now you're going to come over here and you're going to take it away from me, or you're now going to tell me that because it has grown exponentially, because you allowed me to make the decisions that helped it grow, now I got to pay double for it. Like, that was a lot to digest. That's a lot of therapy. Like, and that's where people are like, what are the things that you would do the same, I would send us both to therapy. I probably would have, like, not had the screaming match in the driveway where you're going to sell me the business or I'm going to frickin' quit. I didn't say frickin'. Like, it was not— it was not pretty. Oh, by the way, give me my kids. I know you've been watching them all day. I mean, like, we— it was not fun.

No, it was not. That sounds horrific.

It was horrific. And the fact that we emerged from that and we have a relationship now where we can talk to each other, I think is— it's not a miracle because it took a lot of work to get there. But I think that if you would have looked at us in 2017 and said, there is no way, there's no way that she lets that go and there's no way that she winds up buying it. And we had— I had employees that like kept looking at me going like, we will go with you if you leave, we will go with you. And I'm like, I want to start something from scratch. You know how hard it is to build this again?

Yeah.

And because out of all of the— out of all of the employees, I didn't have an employment agreement. I'm the family member who doesn't have the employment agreement.

That's why. Because you're the family member.

Who doesn't have the non-compete, who could literally have picked up everything and said, look, we're moving. And I didn't because I knew that, I mean, number one, it wasn't the right thing to do. Number two, I mean, I don't say I'm lazy, but like there's some things where I'm like, I won't build that again.

So I did this once.

Yes. And so, I mean, I, and I had this crisis of conscience, Josh. I went to career counseling and talked to somebody about like, I don't know what I want to do. I wanna sell seashells on the beach? Do I wanna just like go do something else? And so we like did this giant long career mapping. If anybody ever needs her number, I will share because she was fantastic. And she said, you know, Chrissy, you have everything that you need in an organization. You just have to realize if you have the stomach to stay. She said, oh, by the way, you might wanna go to therapy. And I was like, I don't wanna go to therapy. I've already been there. I bought the t-shirt. I don't ever wanna go back again. She's like, I think you should try it. So I did. And then it worked. And that's where that session, that, that launch into therapy for the second time was where I learned Dear Man, Get Fast, because I found a skills-based therapist who could help me learn how to do the things that I needed to do, which have moved me so much further in my life. But my gosh, it was like—

that's interesting—

Thunderdome for, for years. Wow. And people see things now, but they don't realize what 20, like what 2013 Chrissy looked like when she lost her husband. They don't know what 2016 Chrissy looked like when she lost her dad. And we dealt with like founder— I mean, it was second generation at that point in time. But like, I mean, in essence, my dad was very much like had that founder mentality to 2019 when we transitioned. I bought the business and started Clarity. I mean, and that's the other part is people think like, oh, this is a business that you were just handed. No, I have paid millions of dollars for it. It is mine.

Yeah, no, I don't.

Don't even go there with your other family members who have sometimes said that too. I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, I write checks.

Yeah. Wow. It's interesting too because like the— I, I've seen so many difficult things in family businesses.

Yes.

Um, same.

Not just mine.

No. And most of my horror stories come from family businesses.

They should. That sounds terrible, but they— I mean, I don't think there's anything Finally, there's nothing better and there's nothing worse in the great American story than what family business does. They have the most impact for change and also have the most impact for disaster. If you're a small business owner navigating the world of marketing or looking to establish yourself as an industry expert, you already know the power of a great podcast.

But getting it all right from the sound of the strategy can be a headache. And that's where Pedal Stopper Productions comes in. We're the team behind The Business Fix and Chrissy Myers' Better Business for Small Business Leaders podcast.

One of the things I love about what you do, Josh, is that you're always willing to help out. And part of that is with your free 30-minute no-pitch podcast consultation.

That's right. 30 minutes of our best tips, tricks, and podcasting basics. Absolutely. No strings attached, just podcasting insights to help you crush your goals. Visit pedalstopperproductions.com to book your no-pitch call today. That is pedalstopperproductions.com.

And now back to the show.

Yeah, because I mean, in some cases they trust family too much.

They do.

I worked for one where their sister was in charge of human resources.

Nice.

She worked from home.

Oh, that's the best part. Family human resources.

Right. She had never actually had a job before this.

Uh-huh.

And then came in and told me my hiring practices were wrong.

Nice.

Same company. I had some oversight over the warehouse.

Okay.

I still remember this as plain as day. I had to call them and ask for access to the warehouse, and they would turn on my ID badge for a little bit so I could go back there. So they weren't in their office, so I called the cell phone, and the one owner was like, um, he goes, are the kids in the playroom? I'm like, um, I don't— I think so, they're, they're kids in the playroom. Um, he's like, go ask, go ask the one son. He goes, have him let you in. So as the operations manager, I had to ask his 7-year-old son to let you in, to let me in the warehouse. No. And then they wonder why there's employee morale issues.

Yeah, they put the fun in dysfunctional.

Yeah, no, yeah, no, it was as I— like, I, I, I— it was what I remembered as plain as day. I sat there looking at my phone like, really?

Yeah. But I think because of some of those things and because of like how we come at things from a family business perspective, it has given me that space of like, you know, when we talk about clarity, consistency, and care, how you need to be as a leader, it's because some of the things that— I mean, coming up in a family business, you see it. Some things work well, some things don't. You go, oh, I need some additional skills. So you work on building them. I think that's one of the reasons why I've been such a proponent of professional development is because you have to continue to grow.

Sure.

Because if you stay locked in the family business and this is what we do, this is what we've always done, we're never gonna change, then your business is either going, I mean, it's gonna stay exactly the same that it, it is all the time, or it's gonna, it's gonna die a slow, painful death.

And the other thing that's interesting for you is you got a, a behind the curtain look.

Yeah.

Um, that many people don't get. Um, and it's, there's good and bad to that. Yeah. Because once again, you see, oh, this is how it's done. That doesn't mean it's done right.

No, it doesn't mean it's done right. And then there's some things that you just like, there are certain circumstances that have occurred. I think just in any business you have these that you are just, you're never gonna be able to talk about. You just look at it and go, I wish people really knew how this came together. Or I wish they, when people are like, oh, you did such an amazing job. And you're like, I really wish that they would've known some of the things that were going on behind the scenes. And we're like, yeah, everything's great. Yeah. It's fantastic.

Yeah, no, I— it's funny because I see some of that too. When, when, when things happen, you're like, oh yeah, no, that was totally, totally— yeah, it worked out really well. And you're like, I got lucky.

Yeah. But I think because we're willing to share our stories too, people are more willing to talk about it because, like, for sure, I know that for a long time you have everything figured out. I'm like, oh no, I don't. I wrote a book about how I don't have it figured out. Like, here. I just took it and stamped it when not qualified. Here you go. But I think it makes it easier for people then to have a conversation. I think that's one of the reasons why the podcast works is because we come at it from a space of like, we are still trying to figure all of this out. And oh, by the way, it's been a fun ride.

It has. And to me, it is one of the things too that I truly love about our conversations because we look at them once again from those very different perspectives. And I I think in most cases, somewhere between the way you get there and the way I get there, people find the solution. Yeah, they find something that fits their business.

We're good guardrails.

Um, we're good guardrails because in many cases we are on opposite sides of the road, but we're in—

there's a good middle.

There is a good middle. Maybe some potholes in there and some of the other pieces to it, but yeah, no, to me that's it. It's interesting to talk about that intersection. And like I said, so I asked, if you were to summarize how Chrissy and Josh lead in one sentence, what would it be? Okay. What Notebook LM came up with was, once again, this is a moment where I sat back and I was like, oh, it said They balance each other by uniting under the shared philosophy that leaders must model the behavior that they expect, and to be clear is to be kind.

Oh, that's nice.

See? And I mean, obviously, you say that repeatedly.

Yes.

Clear is kind. I say just to say the words, just be direct. I say it 10 different ways, but we say the same thing.

Yes.

The top 5 moments that we had were embracing the sweaty 10-minute conversation.

Please do it.

The 3 C's of leadership, which once again, what I find so funny about that is the 3 C's of leadership really tie in with the sweaty 10-minute conversation. They do, because like in the sweaty 10-minute conversation, you are going to have the 3 C's.

Yes.

Escaping the busyness trap.

Yeah, that's a good one.

We just talked about that.

Yeah.

Avoiding the rock star trap.

Oh, people. Oh, people. Damn it, people.

Damn it, people.

Oh, the doers. Yeah.

Um, and then identifying and eliminating the culture killers. Um, to me it's funny because once again, all of these are very closely tied, if you ask me. Yeah, there they are very closely tied in with each other. One leads to the next, which leads to the next, which leads to the next, which to me was like that proud papa moment. Like, oh, it's growing up and it's doing the things that I taught it to.

Oh yeah. And it's how to build a business that doesn't, I mean, like doesn't break you and that you like being in. I think that's more of, I mean, anything that we want to do, what are we working towards? We're working towards building businesses that we always want to stay in.

And that to me is, if, if you're willing to have those sweaty 10-minute conversations, the uncomfortable conversations, you have built something that once again, you may, you may dread that 10 minutes, but you're not going to dread that week.

No.

And we see a lot of people that dread that week.

Exactly.

Because they've got to go in and deal with Carolyn Accounting, who is— that's who we brought up last episode.

Yeah, Carolyn Accounting, who doesn't like your wall art. Correct.

Correct. And she's going to make everyone's life miserable. She's a great performer, but everyone's miserable in there because she complains about absolutely everything. And is the path— yeah, no. So to me, that was the, that was the big thing. Um, as we start to wrap up here, because this has been a good trip down memory lane, it's been informative. What are some of the things that you want to see next from the podcast?

Besides more podcasts. Keep going. More podcasts.

To the next 50.

We want to get to 100.

Yes. Yeah, no, wholeheartedly. I'm looking forward to that.

Yeah, maybe we start doing some more writing, sharing things, different forms of media.

I think so. And I am gracious to everyone that has listened or watched or just engaged with us. Um, I truly appreciate any feedback that we get, and we can find other ways to get out and reach and help people. To me, um, I've always felt like a smart man learns from his mistakes, a wise man learns from the mistakes of others. Um, I have made mistakes.

Yeah, we're both smart.

We're very smart.

We want to help people be wise.

Correct. People be wise. Well, but yeah, that's— I mean, to me, so if we can find other ways to do that.

Yeah.

Um, one thing that we were talking about, then I feel now is the, the really the big time to announce it, is we are starting to, to work on speaking engagements.

Yes.

Um, I'm excited for that. Um, if you think we're entertaining in the studio, live I think is gonna be a whole nother story.

And we'll give you usable tools We're not just going to come entertain you.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

You actually get stuff.

Yeah, to me, I, I'm super excited about that because the two things that I see in that is, one, first off, I know we both enjoy the public speaking because I, I truly enjoy the podcast because I know we're able to get out. You and I are able to have great conversations. Um, on the flip side of that, we are able to actually engage with people. Um, we're able to talk to them. We are able to hear, like, what their problems are on the spot and to work with them and talk through those with them from our perspectives, which I think in many ways are unique, especially the fact that we've got, like I said, that duality of how we come at it, that something— somewhere we have found something that may be able to work for them, and we can help people apply that directly rather than just the general knowledge. So to me, the, the speaking engagements I am super excited about. Um, we're already working on that, we're drawing some stuff up. Um, I feel it's, like I said, useful.

Yeah.

And delightfully entertaining.

Uh, why not?

I, I think the two of us standing up in front of a number of people, um, talking about stuff is because there's bound to be something that goes wrong.

Yeah.

Um, and that is going to be part of the entertainment.

Yeah. And the audience anticipation questions. That's what excites me.

It really does me too, because once again, it— like, the, the people that we've connected with on the podcast here has been awesome. Someone that was a, um, former, like, boss of mine, yeah, like a decade and a half ago, listens to the podcast. He watches the clips on Facebook. Um, the fact that he's watching that and, yeah, he goes, man, he goes, I'm loving this. And I'm like, holy cow, Um, yeah, to get that type of feedback is just truly awesome, and it motivates me to, to want to do more.

Yeah.

Any parting thoughts for episode 50?

Other than let's do it, I'm excited.

I am too.

Keep going.

Um, this has been—

it's been fun.

Uh, fun. It's a pleasure. It's an honor.

Thank you for asking.

Yeah, no, and thank you for aggressively saying— you're welcome. So went home a little scared that night. But, uh, yeah, it was good. Um, so all of you, thank you for coming along on this 50-episode ride. We are looking forward to the next 50. Would love to get your feedback on what you want to hear or what problems you are facing in the next 50. As I always like to say, do me a favor, take care of yourself, take care of someone else if you can, and we will see you very, very soon.