Drasko Raicevic - Creative on Purpose Live

where we're supposed to land. And of course, let's see who's not cooperating today. Looks like, looks like LinkedIn doesn't want to play today. We got LinkedIn to play along finally. Welcome to Creative on Purpose Live, conversations with insightful difference makers to inspire a life of greater intention and impact. I'm your host, Scott Perry, Chief Difference Maker at Creative on Purpose. If you're ready to get clearer and closer to what you really want in life and business, visit creativeonpurpose.com today. So thrilled to have my friend Drasco here today. Drasco, welcome to the broadcast. Please tell our viewers who you are, what you're up to these days, and where can they go to learn more about you and the difference you're making? Absolutely.

So thank you very much. Yeah, so my name's Drasco. I run what was formerly Uplevel Mind. It's now turning into the Peacefully Ambitious CEO simply because it's more reflective of what I do. And high level, I guess I help the human, like, behind the entrepreneur evolve so they can be better business owners. And what that translates into in terms of, like, practically what I'm doing is really just helping overworked business owners, uh, master the delegation, their productivity, and their stress so they can scale to their next million and do so working under 40 hours per week. And my approach with that is to kind of do it from the inside out. So looking at the emotional, the mental, and the behavior patterns that really get them to lose a lot of profit and time in, in kind of like these leaks. That happen as a result of these patterns, recapture those and move them towards, you know, scaling and doing it with a lot less stress. So in a nutshell, that, that's essentially what I do and who I work with. Awesome.

Well, it sounds like fascinating work and I want to dive into that. But before we, we dive into more about how you do what you do, I would love to just get a sense of like, how did you come to be doing this thing that you're doing? Because my guess is 9-year-old Drasco didn't wake up and say, you know what, I want to be someday, I want to be a mindset coach for CEOs. So just what's the journey that got you into doing this work and now changing your brand?

Yeah, so I mean, I mentioned briefly like the whole like profit leaks and how these patterns evolve into us leaking profits. So I crashed my first business because I wasn't really aware or I wasn't aware to the degree that it was necessary of these like mental, especially emotional patterns, um, that fester within us as, as entrepreneurs. So for 10 years I owned a brick and mortar weight loss center. Um, we specialize in helping people that were like quote unquote like the hard cases, like the people that had a lifelong struggle with weight loss. And in those 10 years, like I had my own studio, uh, at the point that it all crumbled, it was like, okay, served over 200 clients. I had 4 staff, you know, that were working for me. We had all of the systems. Everything on paper about that business was supposed to work. And yet, literally 10 years to the month— so I started the business January 2010, January 2020 is when I closed it, um, it imploded on itself because I was making a lot of stupid decisions that were actually fueled by a lot of my own insecurities and a lot of my emotional blind spots. Like, I was trying to prove that I could be a successful business owner more than I actually wanted to own a gym, right? I was trying to be one funnel away, and like, I did it all through like local Facebook ads, and I was kept bringing people in, then totally ignoring like, you know, backend lifetime customer value, how like the churn rates, etc. And when I got really good, I was like promising people like this relief from this pain of like perpetual, you know, weight gain and suffering that they have there, but all of our processes internally were actually like lifestyle-based, like they were about like the, the long, slow, we're going to change who you are so that weight's not really an issue. And that's why for the people that did stick around, it worked really well and it was like a permanent solution. But the people coming in were expecting relief, and that was just like, that was a major blind spot. I just kept burning money because I was, you know, one funnel away and I was trying to prove that I could do something. And, you know, we can dive into like all of the other like worthiness and insecurities, things that were powering that. But long story short, like, that, that was the two major things, right? I was burning money, like, getting people in the door but not having the backend system to support the expectation, um, and then just making all these decisions thinking that I could, like, solve them by money. But it was actually my own blind spots that were driving these decisions, and it imploded in 2010. It ended up being a blessing in disguise. You know, it didn't feel that way because then the pandemic hit, and I think if I had gone and tried to like, you know, save the business with like more debt or whatever, it would've just been way worse. So when that imploded, I had to like switch and figure out what it is that I'm gonna do next. And that was a winding road of just like, well, I'm kind of unemployable at this point cause I've spent 10 years of my life like doing this thing. I didn't wanna do anything with fitness anymore. So I was like making funnels and like websites for like other coaches cause it's just kind of like that was the only thing like that I knew what to do outside of like fitness. And what I recognized slowly was like I was enjoying the process of helping the business owner like get out of their own way when we were trying to implement something, but like they had fears of like visibility or they had all this stuff. So it was in this weird mix where like I was spending a lot of time and effort like healing myself through like various different modalities and trying to figure out like how did this whole thing go wrong. And I was recognizing it in the business owners that I was working with. So that's what spurred me into like, okay, well, I don't want to make the same mistake twice. Like, I don't want an agency. That's not really what all this is about. I really want to be doing this inner work with, uh, business owners. So that's how I transitioned into what was like Uplevel Mind, and I started doing a podcast where I just coached business owners live on air. Um, that was the whole podcast. They just get on, we talk about these things, I help them identify, you know, what's the, the root issue, like beyond the surface level thing, and 200 episodes later, like that was kind of the main way I got clients. And now it's evolved into like really recognizing what I'm really helping people do is become what I call a peacefully ambitious CEO. So they're internally fulfilled, they're internally like emotionally in a more peaceful state, but we're not negating the fact that they want more, hence the ambitious part. And then the CEO one is they're acting less like that operator that got them to their initial success and more like the CEO that's leading, that's delegating, that's, you know, making sure that they're okay. And cumulatively moving forward to scale, but also like keep their own composure and fulfillment and all of the things that we essentially want as business owners. But so often we lose the clarity that, oh yeah, I'm doing all of these things because I want to feel a particular way, etc. So that's my long story short of how we got to here, you know.

Well, it's, you know, just to reflect a couple of things that I heard. I mean, number one, I think most of us that follow this path into coaching, consulting, healing, teaching, we're essentially helping people solve a problem that we had to first solve for ourselves and would like, love to be able to save them all the time suffering, uh, you know, wasted, uh, attention and energy and all that. So I definitely hear that part of it. Um, The other thing that I heard that I'd love to, to have you reflect a little bit more on is in part because it really resonates with my journey. Like I spent 30 years as a professional musician and guitar teacher, owned a studio, loved doing that, but was feeling called to do something else, but I didn't know what it was. And I literally just started a podcast back in the day when it was really hard to start a podcast, just so I could have conversations with other people and kind of sort out what the hell am I doing with my life? And you mentioned that the podcast and the 200 Conversations really turned into almost like this over-the-shoulder way of marketing what you're doing by coaching people live in real time on a broadcast, on a podcast. It sounds like you were able to not only kind of create your process for how you help people, but also let people see you getting real results in real time and use that as a way to, um, you, you know, to onboard new clients. So I'm just curious if I'm hearing that right, if you have any more to say on just that approach, because I think it's brilliant.

I mean, I think in hindsight, absolutely everything you're saying is 100% right, and it would be like really intelligent to be like, hey, I had all this planned out and this is exactly how it worked out. The reality is how it worked out was, you know, my girlfriend at the time, she was like, you really should start a podcast. I'm like, I don't— like, I'm a visual learner, I don't do that well audio, so like, I don't see why I should start a podcast. She's like, no, you start a podcast, you start a podcast. I'm like, okay, if I can't come up with like 100 topics to talk about right now on these things, then I don't think there's a point in me starting this. And I just sat down and I wrote out, and I'm being— 104 things that I would talk about. So I was like, okay, well, let me make the first 10 episodes. So I made the first 10 episodes, just kind of stream of consciousness, etc. And I was like, Okay, like I could keep doing this and that's fine, but like the main thing, like even in fitness and in the general sentiment of like coaches is like, well, everybody's a coach and then we all hear these complaints that coaches suck. So like how do you distinguish between like who's a good coach and not? So I'm like, okay, I'm doing okay in this kind of like making funnels things. Like I don't like it, but there's something there about like working with the, you know, like I said, human behind the, the entrepreneur. I'm like, all right, that whole idea, like the marketing premise of like deliver results ahead of time, the only way I can deliver that is like if I just coach the individual. I didn't even know like what it is that we're actually gonna coach on. So I was like, okay, well if I can't do that with a stranger who is just giving me a scenario and then I can dive into, like then I probably shouldn't be doing this. So half of it was just my own way of testing how, like, am I even gonna like, like I was confident in my coaching 'cause I've done it for so long, but I've done it in fitness and Even though we dealt with a lot of the like reasoning behind like why you don't, you know, eat the salad, and that goes into like more of the life coaching bit, I wanted to test it in the space of like, you know, entrepreneurs and, and business owners. And then that's ultimately how it happened. So it was more to like test it. And then through that I actually met my, um, assistant who was the one that like does all the bookings, does the reachouts now, does the production, et cetera. So really it was like her continuing that machine. Like, people just get booked on my calendar every week, and I just keep— and that's, I think, how I came to like 200 episodes. So as much as I would like to say it was this like big master plan, it was mostly due to me just being like, okay, let me test out if I can get results ahead of time. If I can't, I shouldn't be doing this. I have. And then, like I said, a percentage of those people ended up being like, yeah, I want more, and, you know, let's work together. So, you know, that's, I think, a more accurate answer than the master plan one. So that's what I got for you.

Yeah. Well, you know, I think my experience was exactly the same. Like, I don't know what the hell I'm doing, so I'm going to do some stuff. And then I trust myself enough to be able to figure out the patterns and the themes that are coming up. You know, just so I totally get it. I think hindsight is always 20/20. But, and we have to look in the rearview mirror at what we've done and what's working and what's not working to help us get a better, find a better point out the windshield to head for. Because I think it's really hard to, you know, just by way of one example, I began my career um, thinking about exiting my guitar studio by wanting to create online courses for guitar students. And again, back in the day when it was really hard to do that, I created a 50-lesson course for beginners that was, of course, absolutely bloody brilliant because I created it and sold it for, I think, $97. I sold one. I put almost a year into creating a course that one— so I earned, you know, whatever that is, 40 hours a day times 360 days, and I made $100. So, you know, you know, we learn from our mistakes, but we also, um, learn from looking in that rearview mirror. And I love that part of your story, and I love the way that it worked out. I'd love to, to get into a little bit of what you touched on earlier too, because A lot of the people that are watching this broadcast or will watch, listen to the replay are people that are probably more in the small business owner or even just freelancer, creative, coach, consultant. But they are experiencing the things that the CEOs that you're working with. And you touched on issues of worthiness and issues of blind spots and biases and so forth. So I'd love to just have you share, like, what are, what are you seeing as the primary sources of, you know, what, who are, or what are the ways that we become our own inner saboteurs and based on the evidence that you have from the people you work with?

Well, I mean, I'm so glad you asked me easy questions and then I can just answer in one soundbite, you know. Yeah, just go ahead.

The, the 5-minute overview. Go ahead, I know you can do it.

Yeah, so, okay, I think that there's a few different ways to, to, to answer that question. So the, the way that I view that question in general whenever I'm working with a business owner is I look at it through this lens of leadership limits. Okay, so each one of these patterns, whether they're patterns of behaviors like you mentioned, self-sabotage— so I know I should be doing this but I'm not— or like a mental pattern, like I overthink and I can't make a particular decision, or if it's like an emotional thing, I have anxiety whenever I have to confront an employee or, you know, call out an underperforming employee, like that— the anxiety, the overthinking, the self-sabotage, they're all patterns of either thought, emotion, or behavior. Okay, so each of those identifies a leadership limit. So I have a whole assessment that is basically like 64 of these that identified We go through an audit process and see how are they affecting you in terms of like, what's this actually costing you in terms of profit and time on a weekly, monthly, and yearly basis? So each of those leadership limits is gonna make its way into a business situation or a business problem. It's not gonna be something that is gonna show up as, you know, a profit item on like your P&L statement or on like on a bank transaction. It's going to generally show up in some sort of compensation. So like delegation is obviously a big thing with the people that I work with. So if every time that I have an underperforming employee, I avoid calling, like calling them out, I end up redoing their work. I end up giving them tasks that I technically like shouldn't be giving them, or like I'm doing the tasks and not like taking on smaller tasks instead of giving them like bigger tasks. I don't trust them as such. Like it doesn't matter what the actual situation is. But it's like the core of that is part of me does not want to confront an individual, right? Whatever the narrative is behind that— I think they're going to blow up, I need to be a good boss, I need to be liked— like, those individual differences will vary based off of, you know, what your history brings to the table. But ultimately, that kind of people-pleasing umbrella, like, that is a leadership limit. So it, it's limiting how you lead the company. It's limiting how you lead yourself. It's limiting how you lead the individuals in the organization. So that's like broad spectrum, how we would like identify, like reveal what patterns are holding you back. And then, you know, there's a whole other process for then healing and eliminating those patterns, which obviously go into my coaching and programs. But broad spectrum, that's the first place I look at. What are the leadership limits that you currently are aware of How are they creating profit and time leaks? Now we have a basis of, okay, well, if we eliminate this, this is how much you theoretically stand to gain back because you're already wasting that time compensating it in some sort of way. So that's the general process. I can go into more specifics. So you let me know where you want me to take that.

No, no, that's great. I mean, I think that's the premise of my coaching, and you and I collide in other coaching programs. And mentoring programs. And the bottom line is we are— none of us are living into our full potential. We are, you know, by virtue of biology and evolution, we are putting self-imposed limits on our thinking and on our personal development and so forth. In part because I think, you know, It's kind of what you were circling around before, this anxiety, like, we, about the unknown, right? If, like, we are creatures, it's the way that, that I see it. We are creatures that are by nature, we like to know where we stand and what's expected. So we love the status quo. That's why we stay in bad situations, even when they really impede our health and happiness. And at the same time, we do have this instinct and this aspirational aiming quality where we do want to seek the edges of our understanding and ability. And so I love that approach of, let's identify the limits and let's blast, you know, let's take care of that. Because I think ultimately, we, the fastest path to achievement comes in, let's, let's identify the next biggest limit to our progress. Because if we can get through that, then we'll come up against another limit, but we have made a little bit of progress. The other thing that you spoke to earlier is also something that I think is a really important piece, at least in with the people that I work. And that's with the issues of worthiness. And I'm just guessing that, you know, the clientele that you work with is a little bit different than the clientele I work with. You know, I don't think you become a CEO because you have, you know, because worthiness is, is holding you back as much as it might be for someone that's a freelancer doing their work kind of on their own. But I'm curious for your take on, on the worthiness part. And, um, and how you, how you address that if, if that's something that you come up against with your, your clientele.

Yeah, so with worthiness specifically, I, I think it's two sides of the same coin that you're mentioning because you mentioned, okay, I don't think this comes up with the people that I work with because— and again, I'm inferring with regards to what you're saying, that's if people feel like unworthy, they will like turtle, right? Like they will shrink. I'm not going to do the actions. I'm not going to put myself out there. Because I have to like get rid of this unworthiness thing. So the way that that plays out, it's like unworthiness can drive two different types of behaviors, but the core of it is still the same. Certain people will feel unworthy, consciously or not, and it will drive them like crazy to do everything that they possibly can to create a life and to create visuals that basically protect them from, let's just say, the shame triggers of that unworthiness. Like, if I can be so successful, so rich, so better looking, so whatever the thing is, like that kind of that whole, like, more of whatever, then ultimately that will buffer me from what I inherently, like, feel inside. And that's usually when you get the scenario of the empty success. I have the Ferrari, I have the house. But my inside, like, my fulfillment is completely gone. My family doesn't talk to me. My kids hate me. Like, you get that empty success thing, right? Because we were always trying to fill a hole in our soul that can't be filled with external things, right? On the flip side, so that's kind of like the fight version of how people tend to get out of this feeling of unworthiness, right? You go to the ends of it and you end up with empty success. On the flip side is the like flight or fawn version of it. So like I run away or I just kind of fawn and collapse. That's the turtling aspect. So usually that's where the individuals have problems starting. Like, I just can't get started to go through that, um, like the learning curve that's going to have to happen at the beginning where you're just facing a lot of like uncertainty, you're facing a lot of rejection, you're facing a lot of like you're just putting in the, the thing. So for you, that's a reflection that, well, I clearly suck, so I can't keep going. So they are essentially— the root of it is the exact same thing, it's just it manifests in a different way because the survival strategy the individual chooses, consciously or not, ends up with different consequences, right? One of lack, one of abundance. But internally, that there's like emptiness to begin with, right? Because unworthiness, there's a lot of shame, The way that I always look at shame, it's, it's a vacuum of love, right? So I don't have enough room to actually pour into the self-acceptance, etc., that is always going to be a part of pride. It's going to be a part of fulfillment and all these other things we're basically seeking with the external. So yeah, anything else you want me to add to that? I'm happy with it.

But that way, I, I, I, I think that's all spot on. I think, you know, at some level I mean, if you're not, you know, one of the things that I say to clients when, when we identify that there's, you know, some, some self-doubt, some worthiness things going on, it's like, oh, congratulations, you're not a psychopath or a sociopath. You're a normal human being experiencing a, you know, normal being, human being behavior. And I love that. And I'm totally on board too with You know, it's, it's the shame, the— and guilt and shame are the things that end up holding us all back on one level or not. Um, I think it's almost always, you know, we only live about 5% of our lives completely consciously. The rest is, is all repeating thoughts and behaviors that we did yesterday that we'll do again tomorrow. So, you know, there's a Nick Peterson, who we both know, has this interesting way of dealing with, you know, that root cause of our, you know, inability to remove limits and achieve our potential. At some point, some of us just get to the point where we've decided we've suffered enough and we're going to do something about it, which is when you hire a Durasko or, you know, decide to do something about the thing, you know, that you're suffering, the source of whatever it is that you're suffering from. We are approaching the end of our time together. One of the the things that I, um, love to get here at the end is just, you know, again, most of the people on this tuning into this program are going to be freelancers, coaches, consultants, teachers, healers, solopreneurs, uh, and, you know, they're, they're like the people that you work with, also dealing with the same issues, just, uh, in it on a different scale or at a different domain. If there was just like one final tip or practice exercise, or even a quote that you have for those tuning in that will help them just, you know, show up half a shade braver and take the next smallest step into eliminating their limits or stepping into their potential, what would you tell them?

Yeah, so you mentioned self-sabotage before, and the way that I define self-sabotage, because it happens to all of us, right? So to me, Self-sabotage is very real but doesn't actually exist. And when people hear that, they're like, okay, well, how does that actually make any sense? So the reason that it makes sense is like, self-sabotage is very real but doesn't exist. So the real part of it is the consequences of it. So self-sabotage will inherently have a lot of negative consequences to it. The reason it doesn't exist is because fundamentally, when you look deep enough, all of our behaviors are need-fulfilling. So while on the surface you are self-sabotaging, and that is what the behavior looks like in a very logical sense, emotionally, the emotional logic behind it makes a lot of sense when you can see it in its full regard. So if there is somebody who's out there who's like, man, why do I keep self-sabotaging? Why can't I get over this thing? Just know that subconsciously there is a very good reason why you are doing what you are doing. So if you procrastinate, there's some level of safety in that procrastination. There's some level of significance in that procrastination. Like, there, there is some benefit with regards to why you do that. You might not want to accept it, you might not see it, but fundamentally that is why, you know, you procrastinate. And it's the same thing for all. Like, why do I overwork? Well, because sometimes it's easier to overwork and drain yourself of energy because then you won't have any more energy to, like, feel all of the things, right? Why do I not, uh, say anything whenever I have an underperforming employee? Well, because fundamentally deep down inside, you know, if you had a tumultuous history with people yelling at you, you're thinking, okay, well, they're going to blow up at me and then that's going to mean something about me. So even on the surface, all of these are self-sabotaging things that we all struggle with every single day. When you can just pause and look, okay, what might be the benefit of this? What might be the good reason emotionally why I might be doing this? Usually it's going to be rooted in some type of safety or security. Not always, sometimes can be significant too, but generally you will, when you look deep enough, find that, yeah, it absolutely makes sense why I'm doing this behavior. If I can eliminate that reason, then the self-sabotage itself, it just stops. You don't need any discipline to it. So that's what I would leave people with.

That's fantastic. Really appreciate that. I want to thank all of you for tuning into this broadcast. Jurasco and I really appreciate the gift of your time and attention, and we hope that today's conversation motivates you to take a bolder step into possibility and your potential. To keep go-go going with the defining, developing, and delivering the difference only you can make, you can go to creativeonpurpose.com. And if you're watching on social media or on YouTube, please drop a question or a comment. It's always great to hear from you. And if you're listening as a podcast, please give us a 5-star rating and a review. It really helps more of the right people connect with this content and get the help that they need to fly higher in the endeavors that they seek to get better at. So with that, we want to thank you, Jurajsko, for the gift of your time and attention. We appreciate all the wisdom and experience that you shared with us today. And for all of you, we'll see you next time.