Eric Spofford - CEO of Spofford Enterprises | From Drug Addict to 9-Figure Exit

Welcome to success story. I'm your host, Scott Clary. The success story podcast is part of the HubSpot podcast network They have incredible podcasts, but they also have incredible tools for entrepreneurs One of my favorite tools that I've used and yes, I've used HubSpot Even though they're a sponsor way before they even sponsored the show is a HubSpot sales hub Because if you are an entrepreneur your sales software shouldn't be the bane of your existence When you step inside to your CRM, you should feel equipped to do your best work Like you're sitting in the pilot seat with easy to use and powerful controls And that is the magic of HubSpot sales hub They've redesigned their sales hub to help you win quarter after quarter year after year They have intuitive prospecting tools. They have AI power tools that reduce your workload Managing all your leads doesn't feel like endless manual labor. It makes closing deals easy So you want to get your day-to-day tasks under one platform that makes navigating contacts Calls emails Social marketing sales analytics very easy close more deals and get on track for your best Q1 yet Learned about HubSpot sales hub at HubSpot.com slash sales So I ask everyone the same question Uh, pick a point in your life That was very impactful So it could have been growing up. It could have been a business experience could have been a experience with your parents Whatever could have been something different But what's that one thing that you think to that sort of sets you on the path that you're on today? You know It's hard to To answer that question without immediately going to December 7th 2006 Which is my sobriety And that's the date where One chapter one version of Eric stopped ceased to exist and a new one started Um, although I had no idea that's what was happening at the time And so what that day looked like was It was messy, you know, I was at the tail end of desperation of about seven years of iv drug addiction arrow and cocaine amongst other things I had been homeless. I had gotten out of jail recently And the night before in a moment of desperation I robbed an eye for 82 bucks With with a kitchen knife and um, and I bought four 20 dollar bags of heroin And that night of the night before December 6th 2006 I hidden the closet as the entire police department from Portland, Maine Searched the neighborhood for me for that robbery And I injected my last god willing my last four bags of heroin and woke up the next morning and the gig was up And you know god uses what god uses god uses what god has available Sometimes get a sense of humor and I firmly believe that he used that situation He used the Portland Maine Police Department To separate me from drugs and alcohol and that was one and 16 years ago And so I've been consistently in recovery Uh, in a process of trying to be a better guy today than I was yesterday And abstaining from drugs and alcohol since that day So when I look when I looked at your story this is not something That was later on in life again. This is something that hit you hard drugs addiction like very very early Is this is 12 right? It's 12. How's 10 10 10 years old? I'll be at the picture for you. I am This is a badass little fifth grader. He the discman listening to gangster rap Packed a pellet gun thinking I'm of OG um and getting Getting big bags of weed fronted from older kids in the neighborhood and something weed at 10 years old And that's what I call my first pinch to talk about that a lot, you know kind of the entrepreneurial bug or selling weed as a 10 year old Yeah It's one hell of a fucking entrepreneur story and you know at the time I was drinking I was drinking beers I was drinking mad dog 2020 smoking joints And um, you know life I didn't realize it but it was probably not headed in the best direction and then I think I was 14 years old 14 almost 15 the first time I tried an oxy cotton Uh, and and then six months later. I was about 15 years old almost 16 I became a full blown heroin addict dropped out of school And my life consisted of Doing drugs selling drugs committing crime hangout criminals. Yeah on the street like I was So it was full time. So when you I mean like when you're like it's hard to you know, it was you know, I was all in Because the like how do you how do you function then how do you make money to support living which is crime and shit like that So drugs robberies. Yeah, because if you're if you're if you're robbing somebody for 80 bucks Hey, that's a fucking all-time low And then yeah What was funny about the good the robbing career was like the robberies started like really high dead Yeah, and then they just started getting like the war Yeah, I know I mean we used to rob drug dealers. I've never actually talked about it. It's not a smart Idea is a fucking great idea at the time Um, they don't call the cops. Oh, that is a smart idea. You know what I mean? Yeah, you've got a bunch of dope bunch coke You know weed whatever it is. Yeah, you know, they might try to figure it out on the street That might not end up too well. What are they gonna do? They're not gonna call the cops saying you're not gonna call the cops and say you know this guy kicked my door in With him and his friends and and gonson took my shit. Yeah, no police reports And so you know it went from big scores big deals making a lot of money you know Live in the high life and and as it went on it just gotten more and more desperate and pathetic And the last you know, I'd be lying to say that all of my time out there was miserable I had a great time. Yeah It was like a movie. No, I'm like crazy. What I was at the end then it was just incredibly painful So what I never understood is so you you're living this life and you have fun and you're partying and yeah you're you're getting fucked up all the time but At what point and I guess it's not one point. It's like death by a thousand cuts. There's never one point where you start to Degress to go down this shitty rabbit hole Because if you think about it you're partying you're like you're you're drinking you're doing whatever If you thought to your future self robbing a guy for 80 bucks, you'd be like that's fucking bullshit That's that's that's that's like that's ridiculous. This is not like a Movie life that I want So that's sort of like a that's sort of a really good commentary on addiction It's like how does it get to that point? I don't think people understand. It's just a slippery slope And I don't think if you haven't gone through it, you don't get it for sure or seen you know if you haven't gone through it yourself a lot of people love people that have or are no people that have been affected by it. Yeah, and then the one common theme about it is It's often too late before you know it You know like I remember I remember the first time I was sick from withdrawal from opiates from heroin And I didn't even know what it was. I think I had the flu And then one of my friends came over in an addiction game for for longer than I had and he was like How much you've been getting high? It was like every day. It's like for how long I'm like a long time You said once the last time you got high. I'm like, I don't know maybe yesterday the day before whatever was It was like brother you're and in my head the reason was I was like I gotta lay off this shit. I've been doing a lot Well, you know it. Let me cool it for a little bit Having no idea that I was about to get physically ill from withdrawals from coming off heroin And you know 15 years old you don't know too much about it then And then that's when he told me it's like brother you dope sick. I was like Let's dope sick and that that was another pivotal moment where that was a defeating blow where it's like oh I'm fucked. I'm in a lot of trouble Like I don't know if I can stop this and I got high shortly thereafter and felt great immediately And I was like oh, I'm I'm stuck like I'm in a bad spot so when you when you get arrested and and If you didn't get arrested like the all the cliches are probably true. You're either dead or in jail or yeah or you know some some My friends are everyone that was around at that time You know from 14 to almost 22 years old Every single person I ran around with is either a couple of them are sober and everyone else is dead or imprisoned So you got arrested for for one crime. So you didn't I got arrested for a lot of crimes But no, but like at that one point in your life that one point that when you were You brought the guy for 80 bucks. You can get arrested for that. Oh you didn't I woke up the next morning. I went on the run Oh shit. Yeah, yeah, I hid in the closet. Yeah, I hit my heroin and the next morning I woke up fled the state of Maine and spent the next year and a half In recovery sober get my life together also on the run And with a lot of legal stuff And then about a year and a half of sobriety I went up and and cleared up all my legal trouble and and because Your your sober you want to like change your life at this point. You're like this is like rock bottom So you didn't it wasn't like the system that forced you to get sober That point you you took it on yourself though. Yeah Okay, situationally I It was funny about that day December 7th of 2006 my sobriety day was I think that for the first time maybe ever or in a long time. I was able to see myself and my life and where was going For what it actually was so just clarity. I had I had I had 2020 vision clarity that day and I was like I need to get sober right now not tomorrow not next week not next month not next year Right now or I'm fucking dead Or I'm going to prison and so that's what I did so when you when you're sober for a year and a half How do you how do you clean up all this legal trouble? How do you how do you because that's weighing on you too? And I know that I mean Sometimes I don't think that the legal system really helps people that are are in the spot that you were in So you know if you are if you are addicted and you're trying to make your life better than What if they throw you in jail or what not that's not going to that's not going to support Anything good it usually increases rates of recidivism it increases addiction increases like small crime whatever So how did you navigate that because that was something that obviously was weighing on you for a year and a half so that you could actually go and build a business Have a normal life or whatever. Yeah Yeah, the system itself people don't get well there. No, I know they know as a design of the system What happened was was I got involved in in recovery in 12-step recovery and it was really my first introduction to anything that was personal development And I started going through this 12-step recovery process and part of that process in the stepwork is thing that they call making amends and You make a list of everyone you've ever heard ever And there are a couple of rules to it. You know, you don't make amends when it would hurt someone else or you know things like that but But despite personal consequences You you go and make these things right and so I started click away that list I stole from this person. I hurt this person. I assaulted that person. I broke this person's heart I cheated on this one. I lied to that one And I started going and having face-to-face direct conversations with all these people this look like Sitting down with ex-girlfriends and holding my side of the street and trying to make this right this look like my family this look like Walking into Walmart and explaining to them that I used to steal and rob from them all the time I mean, it is an extent that everyone I've ever heard Institution stores everything Hospitals I walked into and you know My school my teachers, you know, I mean it was a long list And so in that you know one of the very glaring Things that I need to clean up was all my court stuff was on robbery thing and god, you know I on a poly I'm not Particularly religious guy. I don't go to church, you know, etc things like that But but I firmly believe that god had everything to do with me change my life and the saddest hand of my journey the entire time and and it's funny as hell But I packed my letter a year and a half sober. I was like I gotta go. I gotta this thing's weighing on me Yeah, I know did I have like getting pulled over like in friends cars going AA meetings. Yeah getting out and running Like because I got a war I'm like I get pinched on this war and I'm fucked And so my jump in fences get chased by cops six months over like I'm like I gotta I gotta you can't live you can't live like that. Yeah, I can't move on with my life Yeah, and so I packed my life up and I I prepare to go turn myself in on this and I go up to back up to Portland, Maine and um And it's it's kind of a long story, but I walk into this courthouse thinking I'm going to prison like I've readied myself spiritually That if if this is what I'm supposed to do if I'm supposed to go do time And I have a message recovery. That's where God wants me That's where my purpose for however long they send me there. That's what I'm supposed to be doing I'm willing to accept these consequences. Let's go. I walk in I walk into this courthouse. I expect them to like tackle me, you know And I walk up and I talk to the clerk This little lady and I'm like I have some warrants and stuff. I need to clear up She's like oh you gotta go upstairs to this courtroom five or whatever it is And and see the prosecutor go talk to him Okay, so I go up there big wood doors. I had to say prior to deep breath You know this paperwork with me of letters that people wrote me of good things that I've done and in recovery All the service work and people have helped and you know testimony of I'm a changed guy today My papers open door and walk in I start walking right down the middle I see the the prosecutor up at the little desk that he sits at they're on break And I'm going to talk to him and this guy reaches out about halfway down the room and he was sitting down He grabs me by the arm and I look and it's just new Johnny Johnny I met at AA Get the fuck out and I'm looking at him and I'm like and he's like Eric and I'm like yeah The only reason I ever fucking talk to Johnny at AA is because he would give me cigarettes I'm like you gotta he'd be like hey, let me talk to you about getting sober. I'm like you got a cigarette That's the only like you know He was like this older cat. I didn't know anything about him except he was like a nice dude that it was always trying to help me and Always gave me a cigarette and and he like pushed down. He's like sit down And I'm like irritated. I'm like I'm trying to like get on with going to prison right now I don't really have time for this shit Johnny, you know, you've been bothering me for a long time with your bullshit, you know and He's like, what are you doing? And I tell him I'm like dude up in sober year and a half I get all the stuff going on. I got these letters. I gotta go talk to that dude. I gotta clean this up like good to see you Yeah, meanwhile I'm like Fuck you doing here. You know what I mean like why are you in court? Yeah, he's like Eric You might not know this, but I'm actually a criminal defense attorney 12 step rooms are anonymous. So you really don't know what everyone does Oh, you really know anyone's last name like you're there because we're all alcoholics and drug addicts We don't really talk about that stuff too much unless you really get to know somebody He says I've known that prosecutor a long time Why don't you let me go talk to him and it was right in that moment. I was like God, you're a funny dude. God is a funny dude. Yeah, and long story short He went and talked to the prosecutor for me and I had other legal stuff I had like gotten out of jail with pending cases that I bailed on court dates and get a lot of shit Yeah, and dude they went out and talked I ended long story short. I ended up walking out of there with like a hundred dollar fine It's a spending time and you know left a free guy and so I'm like driving back to New Hampshire Like calling people and they're like you're still out Like I'm coming home, baby. I'm coming home You know, but I left my poor dog with my dad. I'm like dad. Yeah, I don't know You set yourself up. You're like I'm going away. I'm going. I was set up to go away and um And yeah, God God was good. He's been good. I love that. Yeah, I was gonna love that um So after after this part of your life you drive him back Obviously like new lease on life. Yeah, you feel like all this weight's been lifted You built an amazing business. How did it start? It started by a passion for helping other people like me I was I was for free and for fun volunteering going into State fund and kind of run down facilities that were helping addicts And alcoholics and I would go in there and I would just help them with recovery because I like to do it I was passionate about it and it helped me to help them And while I was there was like these people don't have anywhere to go And and I was like, you know, I'd been all over the place the halfway houses Overhouses and the state of New Hampshire didn't have one and so that was the original thing was I bought with a little help from my dad My first property at 23 years old And it was a three-family that I bought and opened up in October 2008 And opened up the state of New Hampshire's first sober living house And so for the next two years I had 11 beds. I rented the beds by the week And I I lived with 11 guys lived right in the building with them for the next two years And taught them how to be in recovery taught them the 12-step process taught them life skills and You know and and help them change the life sounds insane that there was nothing before you in New Hampshire That doesn't make sense to me Different time back then you have to think like in 2008 addiction Isn't a mainstream issue it's still very taboo you would never see it in the news people would never talk about it If someone you loved was addicted it would be a family secret a lot has changed fentanyl 2012 2013 yeah the Affordable Care Act over those deaths skyrocketing all of a sudden This thing starts building and the 2016 campaign cycle so really 14 and then heavily into 15 2015 Yeah, it becomes this major front row issue addiction In that in you know in that election cycle and a lot of areas of the country was the number one issue of voters And so that's when it became mainstream. This is Eight years before you're right. You're everything you're saying is spot on. It just still blows my mind that even in 2008 There was so little support. It was yeah, it was great. It is so you build this yeah And so I had one sober house and then I always had a waiting list the guys trying to get in that I couldn't help and so I started a second one And then once I started a second one I was like, you know, I need some therapist like I'm doing everything that I can as a man in recovery would lived experience to help these people But they should have some therapy and they should have some case management all the shit that you needed 100% yeah I got I got sober on the street. I got sober walking at 12 step meetings Which you know grateful for but And so then I opened up an outpatient and then I opened up this and I opened up that and I just started to build the business and by And by 2015 we were the largest provider of addiction treatment services and the Northeast You didn't have business experience yet a lot of life experience not not a lot of business experience How did you navigate that how did you you know you were successful at it probably screwed up a lot of shit along the way trying to figure it out I wasn't I was not fearful of failure Or just fail and keep going like lesson and keep moving Um, I learned how to learn. I think that was the most important thing that I did was, you know, I'm up 15 year old dropout I still do not have a GED I've not been in any type of organized education since I was 15 years old But I learned how to want access information learn the information from books podcasts youtube mentors teachers coaches Anyone that you can find information I learned how to access it and learn it And then take it from a place of of holding the information to putting it into practical application And so I wanted to learn about How to interview people. Yeah, so I learned that And I want to learn how to manage people and I want to learn like all these little but you also did everything yourself They want all of it And like I'm just like I noticed threads and people that are successful and you know Even day one you're living in the house that you're building yeah totally and I think people I think people are a little bit lazy now They don't like And that's you know, I do a little bit of the the coaching stuff and coach entrepreneurs And I see a lot of that the the successful ones are the ones that are willing to do what other people aren't willing to do Yeah, but there is a lot of laziness. There's a lot of entitled. Yeah, and people don't understand like they look at me And they they see the headlines that You know, I sold my business for a huge number You know, I have all this nice stuff that I put on Instagram What they don't see what I wish I could post a fucking picture of Is 13 years of 14 16 hour days without a break? Yeah, let's You know, yeah, and it's like you can't get to I don't know another path to get to where I've gotten Then the path that I took and the path that I took took an immense amount of investment and sacrifice and hard work That's a common thread. I don't think like anybody who's built anything It's just a lot of shit for a long period of time and grinding it out and all the cliches are true Yeah, but you do anything for 10 12 13 14 15 years non-stop And you end up being successful at it You know, there's no fucking luck there. There's no luck at all Well, there's no there's no fast pass No, I don't think so there's no way to be a 10-year guy without being a 10-year guy Yeah, I just want to take a quick second and tell you about one more podcast You have to check out if you're a fan of success story It's sales evangelist hosted by Donald Kelly brought to you by the HubSpot podcast network each week Donald interviews to be world best sales experts successful sellers sales leaders and entrepreneurs who share their strategies To succeed in sales right now. He brings on Jeffrey Gittimer Jill Conrath Bob Burr, Guy Kawasaki. They share actionable insights and stories that will encourage Challenge and motivate you to hustle your way to more revenue for your business If you're somebody who's looking to take off in your sales career If you are an entrepreneur who's looking to sell more I think all of us are go listen to sales evangelist wherever you get your podcasts Even even you who hit an industry that you knew super well And you hit it at the right time. Yeah, so all like even the even the stars aligning on the business that you're building and even then It's still what it was 34 to whatever 15 plus years of the of the 14 to 16 hour days. Yeah, that's that is I mean You know, you have you have people you you go and learn from mentors coaches podcasts YouTube whatever the fuck it is But the point is like there's a very simple path to become successful And I think it's funny how people get so confused about what it takes to actually get from point A to point B And I don't find it. I don't find business to businesses a lot of work But it's it's not confusing. I don't find it confusing I find that when you start here You can look at the end result and reverse engineer all the steps that it took And you just got to be willing to put in the work to get there. That's right. I firmly believe that but when you built this out talk about Just talk about I guess a really big fuck up or something that you screwed up that was like a very Stuck in your head ingrained lesson that you wish you would would have done differently I'm not having a hard time finding. No, there's a million. Yeah, I'm like having a hard time picking one And and what I'm trying to do like like like let's be real like you you have this awesome business You see the headlines, but I mean this whole show is about unpacking all the bullshit that you dealt with on the way there Because that's what people have to realize One of the things that's true is that if you want to be good in business, you have to be good with people You know, what is the composition of a business people employees Yeah, right and so one of the one of the biggest mistakes that I made was How I may and one of the biggest learning lessons and one of the things that I'm doing much better today and in more recent times And I did use that I used to Is how to build teams on a managed teams, you know, I was like hiring my friends Highly people. I'm like, I like this guy. Let's get them an opportunity You know what I mean then get lots of giving people opportunities Which is great and that should be a part of the fabric of your business is, you know professional growth and opportunity, but I was like putting people in roles that they were qualified for Setting that very well attention, but I would set myself the business and them up for failure Because he was a good guy or she was a good guy that happens a lot Yeah, it's a lot and you don't have the you know the balls to be don't want to fire the person either Because you're the one who set them up eat it. Well You put them in the position to fail. I know now you like fuck like I get up. I got to take care of this and so You know, that was probably one of the larger You know, little learning moments was how to manage people professionally How to recruit talent interview higher On board professionally. Yeah, how to break professionals into my business and the light bulb of If I'm constantly taking people and asking them to do a job that's bigger than What they've ever done before giving them that opportunity and I have a full team of all of those Like that probably isn't gonna go well or the quality of what we're doing is not gonna be the best. Yeah, and so switching that to Trying to interview and and recruit The people that already have the experience in these roles it you know at a high level that are bringing a lot to the table Hiring people that have already done these things. Yeah to help us get to the next level that big switch was a enormous unlock for the business So a lot of hiring people that I mean, you know, you hire people that are smarter than you. Yeah, all the time all the time So you scale this up you you sell walk me through the exit like what what happened when you you know Your is an entrepreneur first this is the first business. You've ever sold at this point, right? Yeah, so it's a big moment You're thinking about exiting exiting it Why did you want to exit it then was it opportunity? Was it right buyer? Was it you're done with this shit? I want to do something else. What was it a little bit of all the above? Yeah, I I led six processes The first two blew up in my face learned a lot by looking for buyers you're saying I had two private equity buyers in 2019 neither one of those deals closed a crude millions of dollars and fees and and they did not happen. Yeah I then closed three minority deals Which were very successful and so I went to the same family office private equity family office And so they they took three bites of the business that a growing valuation as it was getting bigger And then in 2021 I sold a hundred percent of the business to a private equity back strategic The the the process of that you know when you look at the first phase of the business I did everything all of it. I was like the only guy. Yeah, right. Yeah, the first and only employee And then the second phase of the business is where a lot of entrepreneurs are and a lot gets stuck Which is I'm the CEO I'm the founder. I have a team. I have people I'm running the business But if I got hit by a bus today this business would be dandy tomorrow, right? Like it has no legacy to it I can't step away. I own a job and Everything in this business is tied to me. That's the most entrepreneur. Most entrepreneurs are there That those are most of the people that end up in my coaching ecosystem are these people And I love it because it's Working them to that next phase It was through mentorship and coaching and and having amazing teachers of my life that taught me that the That was in direct competition with which was the next phase Which was building systems processes leadership team Uh, SLPs all of these things put in place To make it so this business no longer needs me and and that's what we established Myself my partner after I close as minority deals was I built a leadership team I built systems processes. I professionalized the business from stem to stern And if it last almost full year that I owned it prior to the full sale That business didn't need me at all. I never went there I didn't walk through the front door of that building for at least 10 months before I sold it And that's a good sign that you don't have that key man problem anymore Yeah 100% yeah and it affects valuation and the facturability to to have a complete exit You know if they had key man risk with me They're like ah, you're not going anywhere. Yeah, you're coming with us Yeah, yeah, yeah, and so it's really moving that business through these three phases to an eventual exit And market conditions Did you did you but it sounded like you actually did this late? It sounds like you did late in the game Because Though I'll ask I'll ask what your advice is for entrepreneurs when do you start building up these SLPs? These systems these processes because you start to focus on that after you actually took on partners But before that point it was before and after it was okay They entered during this process So one easy people get stuck up is what I'm I'm trying to figure out 2017 yeah, I have an exploding business hiring growing in top line revenue growing in bottom line revenue and growing in headcount. I'm Moving you know the platforms growing bigger and it is just chaos Because I have I had at one point. I think it was 17 direct reports If you looked at an org chart it was me and everyone else And then everybody can they all came to me and I was like it's again I don't have an MBA. I don't have like I just was building and I was like all right We need it's a higher man. I'll be in a drum. Yeah, you know, it's just Just kind of happened and so your life is chaos Total chaos. I was like it's like I couldn't not be on my phone and be there. Yeah from early to late every single day Like if I didn't show up for a day god help everybody. Yeah, like it was gonna be a problem And and at that point that for me was when I was forced into Developing this business to a more professionalized organization developing in org chart Is that what most people should do probably not like you should probably as soon as you kind of awake to the information that Start to implement that as early on as you can and reduce chaos and I believe it will increase speed of growth as well And even risk the organization, but you see that like now when you coach entrepreneurs you see that as a one of the major issues They have yeah, yeah all of them That's just tends to be the people that end up really interesting digesting the content and coming into my you know coming into my world And making contacts somehow is most of them have Businesses that need to be professionalized. They've hit a bottleneck. They've hit a plateau They don't know what's next. They have an amazing business. They're living a great lifestyle. Yeah, they own a home They have you know nice cars for them in their family. They go on vacations. They have financial freedom But a lot of them just don't have freedom of their time and freedom from their business And they've become a slave to this job that they own and it's not like I don't know what the revenue numbers are for some of these guys I know some of the guys but not all them But I mean it's not small businesses. It's not like they're just pulling 200 a year 300 to 500 a year I'm talking about my million dollar a lot of these businesses are anywhere between Like five million top line would be the smaller Which is actually wild for a key man problem that five million bucks That's that's a lot of money for one person still running the show top line Yeah, but a lot of them are 20 30 40 million which is even nine all of it's fucking wild all of it's not It's like none of that should go down. It's it's I'd be stressed as hell if I was responsible fully and didn't have good support on a 30 40 50 million dollar business And some of them do and they have a lot of support, but it's still it's like it's like you're in the middle Yeah, you're getting support, but it's still all leaning on you. Yeah, and here's the problem if if Is it really all that supportive or is it if you pull you out of it and it'll collapse? So you think you have a system but you don't how do you build it upright so you could step away from it And it runs without you When you exited your business, I noticed how fast You were able to build an infrastructure after support coaching mentoring Yeah, which I thought was interesting because a lot of guys do this But a lot of guys have been doing it for like 10 15 plus years And I think I even saw one of your one of your Instagram videos about How when you start there's like a couple months ago It was not long ago Yeah, I know and and I know you have like a really good circle of other people like in your network And that's probably a good lesson as well that have done this before and whatnot probably learn some lessons from those guys as well But you spun this up so quick so No, but like in a good way not in like a not in like a not in like it hasn't worked out It's like it's worked out what it's worked out exceptionally because I follow this now and I follow what you're building and I saw the You know, we'll try and keep this evergreen as we can But like I saw he just did last week in Miami and like the caliber of people Because I know some of the guys that pay to go to these things and they're not they're not stupid people They're not that are coming out to this so I mean it's just impressive how quick you build this out So I'm trying to understand How you built this business so quickly Versus a lot of people that struggle starting something from scratch three months and what you've achieved in three months is not normal So there's a lot of lessons and experience there that allowed you to do this, but what do you think that was? Execution A lot of people spend a lot of time frozen yeah, and spend a lot of time thinking about it I get in there. I just started throwing punches like I'm gonna learn Kung Fu in the middle of this fight Like I'm gonna learn you don't I mean and so I got the idea this what happened I was talking to my my good friend West Watson And and he was driving me crazy for like two months He was like, bro, you got to do coaching you got to teach business you got to teach entrepreneurship. This is your So in a genius so many people benefit from this. I'm like, West shut the fuck up On my coach like what are you talking about you know And then I like like I would be laying there thinking about it. I'd be like, you know what maybe he's right Maybe it would be cool to build a community and then I start to get this vision of like My entire journey from day one By myself to Nine figure exit and I'm like, what if I built something That was tailored to everything that would have been beneficial to me Along this journey. Yeah And then I got excited about it and then I remember I called them back. I was like all right Teach me how to do this. Yeah, and he he told me what he does and then I spun it to So what I thought it would be And then I just got all my Instagram story and I was like, hey, I'm going to take on a couple people to coach them uh for Business and entrepreneurship and if you're interested and you followed me If you shoot me a DM. Yeah, and I had a guy that was helping me with sales in the next two days. We did like a hundred grand You know to feed and I that was the proof of concept. Yeah, it was that it was right then where I was like Okay, this could work. Yeah, we're building out your brand before that you're building it up Yeah, but no, no, there was nothing time. Oh, no, I wasn't trying to monetize it at all I was just building a personal brand and you know attention as a commodity. Yeah. Yeah, it's the reason I got this podcast You know, that's why we do it. Yeah And then as soon as that happened I was like all right all in and then we just set things up and just went went for it I think it's because you know when you say like you had a nine figure exit There's a lot of people to do this that don't build businesses to that size. Yeah, so there is a there's a there's a ceiling on the advice You can get from somebody that's only achieved certain things. Yeah, right. You've they've only dealt with so many problems They haven't dealt with a nine figure exit to a private equity or a family out like those are the things that Not a lot of people deal with because it's it's a rarity. It's it's a beautiful thing to do But not many people get to that level. So I think that's you know what I'm alluding to is more people that have done it before Those are the people that should be teaching There's a lot of bullshit too and in those moments of consideration yeah in the beginning of like should I do this should I not do this I of course went on and I was like well who else is doing it? There's a lot in but like but a lot of it's bullshit There's a lot of bullshit like I look at their stuff and I'm like what what have you actually done? Yeah And a lot of these coaches are just that their coaches like professional coaches You know what I mean? It's like the business teacher at the college who's never actually operated a business and makes 60 grand a year What the fuck am I gonna learn from you? Yeah, you know like you read it out of the book You heard it on a podcast and you you regurgitating a lot of information. You never lived it It's like the lived experience. You don't have the resume homeboy. Yeah, you know what I mean? You don't have the lived experience to qualify you to To be this and so for that reason. I was like, you know, it'll be a little fun to come in and yeah Disrupt the space a little bit. If you watch my content sometimes I get a little froggy on there Not specifically, but I'm like come on man. You know what I mean? Yeah, I know too many fakes There are a lot of fakes out there So yeah, and I think that's like when you okay, let's just talk to people that are listening to this that are trying to find people to learn from so You have a good group. How do you how do you as a professional who's operated at really high levels? How do you sort of gauge? Whether or not you want to learn for somebody take them on as as a mentor like how do you what's your litmus test for Your education in flow in my coaching program? No, and in your life like when you're looking to learn from somebody Oh, what I'm looking yeah, yeah, so like I go for results Yeah, I learned from people in specific niches on do you have what I want that's my question Have you achieved the result that I'm looking to achieve and do you have what I want like I'm a fitness guy, so I'm going to learn about fitness and I want to work out and like west Watson is jack Super jacked. Yeah, yeah, I don't like that's my guy You know what I mean? So when I look at business. Yeah, my business mentors today are Billion dollar dudes, you know what I mean? I have a small handful of them Did I sit with and spend all did not on Instagram and their older cats and nobody really knows those are the best kinds You know, and they're so out of touch. They don't know that they charge me huge money I get up a free, you know, but um At those they they've achieved the results. Yeah, and that's what I think that guidance I don't care if you sign up for my shit or not Um, but just please whatever it is that you're looking to get coach to mentor it on Make sure that the person that you're listening to or that you sign up with actually has had that experience Like you wouldn't go get a fucking fat personal trainer. No, you're not gonna do that You're like you're a fat piece of shit. Well, like why am I gonna listen to you? It's the same thing in business, you know, it's the same or any area of life, right? It's too I see I think that social socials great for a lot of things But it allows a lot of people who are full of shit, but just good marketers To sell shit the people that don't know any better. No, don't which is I think that's horrible, but that's that's the reality So I'm like I'm trying to you know part of this is hopefully I've interviewed a lot of people, but hopefully a lot of the people are genuine But I tried my best But the point is you find good people that have actually done it before and then you like pull out the ideas from them That's that's really I mean, that's how you learn and it doesn't have to be it could be a mastermind whatever could be a podcast But totally I think it is I love that it's like you find somebody has literally done the exact thing or as close as possible to what you're trying to accomplish um When you work with all these entrepreneurs, you said one of the main issues they have is basically removing themself as the linchpin and the key the key man in the business What are some other major things that that some of these people are running into some big problems The ones that you see repeat again and again and again And it doesn't have to be business. Let's think about other things. It could be raising money It could be uh Having a good relationship because they're putting too much effort or energy and like I'm sure that shit happens a lot too Yeah, we're all crazy. Yeah, I know that back to the coach thing like You don't want relationship advice from me. You know what I mean like I'll teach you how to blow your business up But like I haven't been married in a successful marriage for 10 years or something like that's the guy you want and so um You know the mistakes that we all make Uh Outside of key man I don't know you know ignoring the personal development side of this I think a lot of people are chasing Yeah, yeah, let's unpack it I think a lot of people are chasing success and wealth for the wrong reasons And they think that the right amount of money the right amount of material possessions the right amount of status attention Or whatever the achievement is is going to fix a problem that they have that in all reality. It won't You know, I think that a lot of people chase wealth and success to to fill uh a hole in their spirit whatever that means for them And the mistake that I see happen over and over again is sometimes people catch it in their lifetime And they get the money or they get the whatever it is that they thought would fix it and they're like fuck This isn't as cool as I thought it was This isn't everything I made it out to be And so a lot of people ignore The the the fundamental truth that our internal condition our happiness our satisfaction our serenity our peace our wholeness Is not tied like the money can make you happy, you know, I'd rather be fucking rich than poor. Yeah, one of those guys Like I've been porous yet homeless With my money for food and I've been fucking rich on my private jet flying to my yacht in the Bahamas I'm much rather fucking the yacht in the Bahamas but If it you can't buy your way out of your responsibility to do the internal work And a lot of people get lost in this game and get lost in this process and ignore and evade their Responsibility to do the internal work That's necessary for all of us. No one can escape that What does internal work look like is that in your opinion? Is it religion? Is it just is it is it Self-awareness reflection meditation. What does that personal work? I think it's a recipe people out of those things. Yeah for me the foundation of it is spirituality um, and then the things that that have built around it are discipline um A non-negotiable code conduct conviction to a moral code These are the things that that work for me the things that make me okay and and I keep a steady hand in any and all situations good at that Is a deep foundation in a relationship with a pager than myself god um prayer meditation reflection Uh, and then and then there's this rulebook of how I live my life. Yeah, I don't deviate for anything It's non-negotiable and then discipline around that I think that what what any person's version of god does like to your point it removes There moves the selfishness. Yeah, and I think that too much selfishness and lack of like you said like any sort of observance of somebody or an entity outside of who you are I think that's a Not the most positive way to live your life. It's selfishness is a great word and and it's actually the core symptom of addiction believe it or not This selfishness and self-centeredness like when you come in as an addict or an alcoholic in recovery The number one thing this recovery process is supposed to do at first is tackle your selfishness And try to turn that around that's why you see so many alcoholics or even the basis of alcoholics Anonymous is we must give it a way to keep it. I must help other alcoholics to maintain my own sobriety And so that that I think is a great example that on a broader spectrum affects so many people And when you're in this game if it's always about you me me me It really has to be about them, you know, and that's why That's why I like to help people. That's why I like that You know what I mean in all these different avenues of like making it about service work and making it about the impact That we're leaving and thinking about other people. Yeah, it's us out of our our Selfish nature. I also think that if you if you look at the average Personality of an entrepreneur just because they can be so hyper focused if you if you are selfish The addictions don't end at drugs or alcohol like you can be addicted to business cheating lying Everything all of it and I think that the person that can build a business is usually one step away from having a really hedonistic selfish vice Because it's too most do because it takes A not normal person to put that much energy or just thing Do you know what and I don't talk about this as much as maybe I should I think there's a dark side dog entrepreneurship Do you know how many people and like I'd say it's 50 50 in my inner circle program Half of them come to me and have these like scale problems bottle neck plateau You know tactical business stuff and that's like the main focus some of them have that but Do we've had a solid hand pillow people get sober here Yeah, like they came in I got one guy who just celebrated 60 days of sobriety I have and came in and was here for like three weeks and called me up and it was like dude. I gotta talk to you I was like, what's up? And he's like I fucking drink and do coke on the weekends And I was like All right cool, you know, let's talk about proud of shit of them And then you know, we have another woman who Send me a screenshot of her sobriety tracker app yesterday who's fucking 19 day sober from alcohol You know, I've been struggling with alcoholism for a long time and came into inner circle and and spilled guts and yeah You know I get drunk every night. I get drunk every weekend. It's holding me back a business. It's yeah me back in my life Got her hooked up with some resources and got her into spread. So it's like Yeah, because because dude you're going like a thousand miles an hour every day Every day like it's hard to shut off It's hard to shut off so you have the you have alcohol to shut off or you have anything to shut off anything that like forces you To to remove the the the focus from the business because you know, you got to do it But for a lot of people if you're sober, it's very it's it's almost impossible to do it So then you fall into all these different things. That's actually really interesting I've never thought about that, but that's a really really um So I end up start a business coach and end up a life coach Yeah, well, let's do this same. It's it's the same. It's that it's yes. They're they're married together And a lot of people don't realize that yeah um Okay, so before we wrap this up Just wanted to to give you the floors or anything else that I didn't ask you about Entrepreneurship business even addiction that you think would be a really good Lesson for the audience You know the my ethos is this is that as long as you're breathing They're still hoping and it's any man's game, you know like you can never count anyone out You can never count yourself out you can never fucking give up and we're never gonna tap If you had looked at me 16 years ago 135 pounds covered in track marks warrants I didn't have a single person that would answer my phone call. No way you think him Hey, this kid's gonna go out there and change lives of tens of thousands of people build a big business like all the stuff Then I've been able to accomplish and so it's You know if you listen to this thing and your life is going wonderful and you have no pain in your life And you're not up against it in any way and like congratulations. It's unbelievable And I couldn't be more happy for you But if this message reaches you and you're up against it and the days are dark And it just feels like you're never gonna get out of it. Just don't fucking give up Just keep going. I love that. Okay. Where's the people? Reach out to you social website Instagram is easiest at Eric's Crawford. Okay, cool And then the last question ask everyone You've had an incredible career. I've gone through many different seasons in your life At this point in your life what has success me Impact It's really you know this make the money get rich get wealthy But I I in as less of a morbid way as possible think about my own death and think about what I will leave here when I've gone Frequently daily and for now my definition of success is that I'll leave my family set up and and have created generational wealth and that's cool But they're really gonna remember me by the impact I made in other people's lives And so how can you take whatever it is you're good at whatever gift God gave you and use it to help other people You