Rekindling Enduring Values: Kevin Korhorn's Lifelong Journey of Triumph and Wisdom

When old friends reunite, the air crackles with stories of triumph and whispers of wisdom. That's precisely the atmosphere you'll step into as Kevin Korhorn, a virtuoso of finance and life, rejoins me, Brian Bosley, to peel back the curtain on the strides he's made since his last visit. We'll traverse the contours of Kevin's world—from the pride of a father watching his kids conquer milestones to the integrity of a man whose life's work is a testament to his enduring values and strong Faith. It's a session replete with the kind of warmth and reverence that can only be kindled by a friendship spanning over three decades.

Venture into the realms of passion and purpose as Kevin unfurls the fabric of his life, revealing how the raucous zest of his rugby days has transmuted into the steadfast fervor for family, business, and giving back. I'll share my musings on how Kevin's ebullience for the morning dew and his daybreak routine are infectious, daring us all to elevate our own daily rituals. Our exchange will not shy away from the prickly aspects of life; we'll confront the beast of type 2 diabetes with Kevin's personal testament to the transformative power of lifestyle choices, punctuated by stories of icy plunges and the sobering realities of financial foresight in a capricious world.

As our conversation unspools, we'll navigate the concept of living in your 'zone of genius' and how Kevin's firm, Korhorn Financial Group, is navigating their North Star using the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS). Our dialogue will meander through the significance of small acts with mighty echoes, the undying importance of Faith and service, and the meticulous balancing act of personal and professional life. So, as the embers of this discussion glow, prepare to be kindled by the resonance of Kevin's experiences and the invaluable insights that have the power to reshape the way we see our own journeys.

Please click the links below for further information on Kevin and his amazing work:

https://www.korhorn.com/
https://www.youtube.com/c/WiseMoneyShow

Transcript

Intro: 0:00

Hello and welcome to the Bamboo Lab podcast with your host, Pete Performance Coach, Brian Bosley. Are you stuck on the hamster wheel of life, spinning and spinning but not really moving forward? Are you ready to jump off and soar? Are you finally ready to sculpt your life? If so, you've landed in the right place. This podcast is created and broadcast just for you, All of you strivers, thrivers and survivors out there. If you'd like to learn more about Brian and the Bamboo Lab, feel free to reach out to explore your true peak level at wwwBambooLab3.com.

Brian: 0:44

Hey buddy, how are you today?

Kevin: 0:46

I am well my friend. How are you?

Brian: 0:47

I'm doing pretty well. Hey everybody, we have a gentleman on. We have a person on today. I used the gentleman could be a little bit of a stretch, but we have Kevin Korhorn on here today and Kevin was on an episode back in season one, episode 37 from, yeah, episode 37. We're already in episode 118 now and it was I think it was October 10th of 2022. It was called Kevin Korhorn BIG Begin in Gratitude and that episode took off.

Brian: 1:19

I checked the statistics yesterday. That thing has been heard on three continents South America, Europe and Africa and Kevin is one of my dearest friends. Kevin and I met back in college at Central Michigan University. We played rugby together, we rumored together. I was able to stand up in his wedding when he married one of the most amazing women, Laurie, that I've ever met in my life. I've seen the maturation of his three children, and I mean just one of the most amazing men. He is the president and founder of Korhorn Financial Group of multiple cities down in South deep Southwest Michigan, in Indiana, and right now they are employed 97 amazing individuals that make up their organization and in today's his 56th birthday. So I just want to start it off with a little. Anyway, buddy. Welcome to the bamboo lab podcast.

Kevin: 2:32

Thank you, buddy.

Brian: 2:38

Oh my God, you're 56 years young Dude we've known each other for 35 years.

Brian: 2:44

It's amazing. Yeah, that's a long time. It's maybe 36 years, I don't know. It's a long time ago anyway. So, anyway, everybody, I asked Kevin to come back on. I texted him what last week, let's do a show. He goes yeah, let's do one.

Brian: 2:58

So I just I have been able to follow Kevin's personal and professional life now for 30 some years and honestly, I've, I've, I don't know that I've met a person who I respected, admire, more. I would never say that to him, but I'll say it to you in the audience. I've watched Kevin build an amazing family. I've watched him build this incredibly successful enterprise at Korhorn Financial Group, along with an amazingly successful podcast called The Wise Money Show, and I'm going to include a link to that at the bottom of the show notes today. So please get down to that. We've got 37,000 followers around the country that listen to it on a consistent basis.

Brian: 3:40

But the way I really respect Kevin and this is what I told him I wanted to talk about is the way he's done these things in his life, both professionally and personally.

Brian: 3:50

Is he's he stayed as true as a human possibly can from my perspective, to some very core values in his life, his family, his faith and the way he's developed both of his family and his organization, has been anything. It's been nothing short of awe inspiring, and I was able to spend a few days with Kevin and his family down at their home during near Niles, Michigan during deer season this year and in November, and just it's. You walk into their home and it is a very peaceful place and it's a very loving environment. And you walk into any one of his offices that I've ever ventured into and it's the same environment, it's fun, it's professional, it's business all the way, but done in a very family oriented way and I love that about him. So, Kevin, you know I love you, but I probably have never shared that a level of respect that I have for you in my life. But you have my respect, brother.

Kevin: 4:44

Well, thank you, brian, that is very kind of you to say and I appreciate your kind words, and it is amazing to think of how long we've been friends, and it's interesting to me when I think about what is it that makes an enduring friendship. And because it's not everyone I mean I've met lots of people in my life in different contexts, but not everyone you connect to the same, and so it's been a great ride. It's been fun watching you as well in your various business enterprises and the things that you do and the way that you've grown, just as as a man and spiritually and other ways, and so it's really cool.

Brian: 5:32

Appreciate that, buddy. So the last time we talked again, that was back in. Well, it was actually 11 of 22, I think it was. I think it was November 10. I don't know, it was either October or November of 2022. Can you tell us, give us some updates on how things have going both in your personal life and in your profession? What's changed in the last year and a half?

Kevin: 5:51

So, personally, the most fun for me to talk about is my kids and my son. My oldest, joshua, is a junior at Notre Dame and he hopes to join me someday in the business, which I love the idea that that might actually happen. Every summer, when he goes back to school, I have about two weeks of morning where I just I just miss him. And I had a special treat this past summer. Caleb, my middle son, graduated from the University of Michigan and he worked with me for from May until October, and on October he went to Quantico, virginia, and he's a second lieutenant in the Marines and so he'll be in the Marines for five or so years.

Kevin: 6:40

My sweet daughter, grace, has done lots of amazing things. In addition to working at the camp that Laurie and I met at, last summer, she spent a month in Hungary and almost a month between, like, puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, and she is an adventurous girl, a world traveler and massage therapist, and so a little bit of a Renaissance woman and a very, very fun, very free spirit. She was always our happy girl when she was in her happy place doing her happy things. So yeah, it's it, and my wife right now is an overseeing. A little bit.

Kevin: 7:22

We're doing a little bit of a home improvement on our house, which has been fun, and then I my life is mainly focused on work, work. I love what I do. I just I absolutely love what I do at Co-Herm Financial Group. You get a birthday off and on my birthday you couldn't keep me away from work. I love it. And, lauren, I've been busy with a church plant that we've been working on with a number of families in a town close to us called Edwardsburg, and that's been an amazing journey in and of itself as well, and so I am having a great adventure.

Brian: 8:11

Kevin, do you think 35 years ago, when you and I were living together and playing rugby, anybody thought would have thought that today in 2024, I would be talking to you about your success on my podcast? No at least my kids have succeeded.

Kevin: 8:31

No, it's, it is kind of funny. You know, something happened, though, and it was after, like I graduated in May of 1993. And I was 25 years old and something happened to me. This like almost like this male hormonal change and I've studied this because it a lot of times young men, their brain doesn't stop cooking until they're about 25. But up until 25, my philosophy was you can always retake a class, but you can never relive a party. So I was like, okay, let's, if there is fun, like let's go find it and and and have and participate. And then, when I hit 25, something changed and I became the guy that I really didn't have a ton of respect for, and that's the guy that that really just liked to work. And I have found ever since, something happened. I think there's this maturation process.

Kevin: 9:42

So if you have young kids at home, or young teenagers or young 20 somethings, I would say there's, there's still hope, because I just I graduated in May, got married in October, and all I wanted to do was work and support my family, and and I have enjoyed it Like I I've not that you know, sometimes it work is long and there are some long days, but this is what I do is not hard work. I've done, actually I've done hard work in my life and my past. This is not hard, and so as I talked to my army buddies about life, they would all concur Like we saw what hard work was like when we're in the infantry in the US Army. This is, this is every is a cakewalk. And you know, we live basically in Disneyland, waking up on third base thinking we hit a triple and the picture box and we walk home. I mean, it's just, it's so amazing and in the history of the world, what the lives that we get to live because of modern conveniences and other things. It's, it's truly, truly incredible.

Brian: 10:57

Well, I think the one thing I've always know, I think everybody has always noticed about you, is, whatever you do, you throw in a lot of passion to it. You know whether it was rug me back in the day or it was parties. You know your business, your family raising chickens, hunting. You know your, your, your mission, work around the world, your yours and Lori's. It's always just thrown in with everything you have. You don't do anything half ass. It's all put in 100% of Kevin.

Brian: 11:25

You get All the time and I think that's, and I'm sure that can be wearing on people around you and it can be wearing on you at the same time. But I think the way you look at life is I wish so many more people could see it that way is it's not hard work? You know, you love what you do. You, when you get up in the morning, you're excited. I mean I saw you get up in the morning. We were drinking coffee at your counter at five in the morning and you're, you're raring to go.

Brian: 11:49

I don't remember that guy in college getting up at five in the morning. I remember him being around at five in the morning but we weren't getting out of bed at that time and I think that that's something that you have, this youthful spirit, and that's really what I want the audience to hear today is that you know, but when you stay true to who you are, you can carry yourself a long way in life without, without it being a burden, without wearing yourself down spiritually, emotionally, physically, you know, etc. Not that it doesn't at times, but over the course of time you can get younger as you get older, and maybe the fact that you're practicing the Wim Hof method right now is going to help you do that. But you know, kevin, when we talked a year and a half ago because I think a lot of the audience will go back and listen to that episode from episode 37. What would you say has been a great learning for you in that past? What has it been? 17 months or so?

Kevin: 12:47

I think there are a couple of things that just are recently interesting to me. When I was 29 years old, I went to the strategic coach and that's a coaching program for entrepreneurs, and I would drive into Chicago one day a quarter and they would coach me and there were a lot of different concepts that they instilled into me the entrepreneurial time system, the largest check, the 10 times mind expander all of these concepts that I'd never been exposed to in my life and, as a matter of fact, as I was getting some things around, so I would have them at my fingertips to talk to you, brian. I grabbed a folder and it was my son Caleb's notes in some various workshops that he's been to, and I mentioned to my wife if I'd been exposed to the things that he's been exposed to, I can't imagine how different my life would be even now, but I've been the recipient of some of the best coaching in the world and, in my humble opinion and I am very biased I think everyone needs a coach. I am for lack of a better term, I'm a financial coach, and so I coach people in the six areas of financial planning. Our industry hasn't done a great job of explaining what is a financial advisor. So I mean that could be someone at the credit union that's taking a CD and putting it into an annuity or mutual funds. That could be someone who works for a large national life insurance company. That is a hammer and everyone looks like a nail and a whole life life insurance solution is the solution to work.

Kevin: 14:48

We do financial planning in the six areas of financial planning. So in doing that, we coach our clients and we dispense financial wisdom, because people say, well, is AI going to replace you or not? And I would posture that no, if you can dispense financial wisdom, we're going to have an opportunity to serve people for a long, long time. But going back to the coaching program, I remember, at 29, dan Sullivan, the founder of a strategic coach, saying, hey, you guys need to be careful, because what you don't want to do is you don't want to work real hard and not take care of yourselves, take care of your bodies and then, in your mid-50s, have health problems that are going to prevent you from enjoying the fruits of the things that you've worked on and the things that you've done. And so now, here I am, 56. And so this is so. It's March 7th of 2024.

Kevin: 15:55

March 7th of 2017, I went to Martin's, which is a local grocery store around here, with one of the guys at work and for my 49th birthday, we bought 49 donuts and we brought him to the break room and we didn't have 49 people on the team. But I always figure, if something's good, a bunch more is even better, and I probably only ate six donuts at the time, and it was basically two weeks after that that I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. So that is once you have that, that doesn't leave. That stays with you, and so you have to.

Kevin: 16:40

You have a choice. You can take medicine and not change anything, and take progressively stronger medicine and leave this world one toe, one foot, one finger, one eye at a time, or you can come to. You know, when you think about grief, there's the different stages of grief and you want to get to acceptance. A lot of my friends who have type 2 diabetes are still in denial. I am occasionally, but if you can be at acceptance, then you say, well, then I have to change the cause that got me here, and there is one drug that cures type 2 diabetes and it's called food, and if you can do it right, for most people, they can either put their type 2 diabetes on hold or reverse it all together based on the types of food that they eat and also the when they eat them. So you think, intermittent fasting, my fasting window, my feeding window, whatever else.

Kevin: 17:59

So here I am, at 56. I'm that guy that Dan Sullivan was warning me about to not become, and so I am. I am focused on my health a lot. If you said what's changed recently, we put a sauna in the house and we're working on heat exposure, and then I also got a cold tub. I was watching Joe Rogan talk to Andrew Heberman kind of like you and I are right now and Joe Rogan, the first three minutes of the day he gets up and does a cold punch and if you've ever seen him do a cold punch, he's giving into water that's got ice in it, so it's cold, and mine is just on. I just put on my back porch and so the water was in the 40s and I say you have a video of me getting in this morning and you get in and just submerge yourself and what that does with the video on Wednesday, but you were just in the background.

Kevin: 19:04

Well, my wife would rather take a video of Winston. He's our fourth and favorite child, most obedient by far. He's our only child. He has hair. Yes, I know that, yeah, that's for sure, and so, but yeah, I mean that is, that's been a game changer with what's happening there and I actually, you know, it's three o'clock in the afternoon and I still can just vaguely feel the effects of spending three minutes in a cold punch this morning.

Brian: 19:38

I was surprised you did three minutes. That I thought. When you sent me that video I thought he must have been doing this for a few weeks. That's a long time.

Kevin: 19:48

It is and I don't. You know, for me there's nothing magical, so I've been. I love. So if there was a theme like what's happened in the sense In the last year and a half, I'd say there's a, there's a technology theme, and so you're hitting on it, which is YouTube, and then you can go and research.

Kevin: 20:08

You know Andrew Huberman, cold exposure and you can hear him talk. This guy's a Really super smart guy from Stanford and he talks about all kinds of different health things and I think it's super helpful. But also when, when off you can see all kind, you can see really cool interviews from whom off? They call him the ice man and he's a guy that Shows that you can get into this really cold water. I mean, he gets into a while he's. He swam in water under ice the length of a football field. So he's a guy and and the I think the reason, I mean I think there are a few reasons. One is, once, the health benefits, brian.

Kevin: 20:54

But the other is, when you get to where we are in life, you, you, I am I'll just speak for myself I'm tempted to just really, really seek comfort and and really there's, you're at a I'm at a point where there's really no one that says, well, no, you, you can't have that comfort. So I, you could name the comfort and so I've tried to organize my life so that I built in intentional areas of discomfort, whether it's heat exposure or cold exposure, or Working out with the trainer or the various things that I do like. If I, if I build these things in, it creates a certain level of discomfort and I say why, I don't have to, I don't have to put up with that. I'm not tolerate that, but I I've seen what happens to people if they don't, and I just I Don't want to be that guy.

Brian: 21:58

Well, that is. I mean, I think that's what Rogan has talked about before. I've seen a lot of you know he would been in. Rogan talk about this is we do live in a world now, in a society where we do seek comfort. We all do. We go into an air-conditioned home in the summer, air-conditioned car in the summer, heated car he didn't office heated home, he did stores in the winter time. We don't want to have any discomfort in our lives and we cringe when we do, and I, for everybody out there. You might not have a cold plunge available to you, but you all have a shower and I can tell you one of the biggest health benefits to me and Kevin, you know, you probably know this, obviously what me, I, whenever there's a body of water that's cold, I'm in it. I mean I did four plunges in your Algonquin Lake in Hastings, michigan, on the week of New Year's this year and one it one I did.

Brian: 22:50

I promise I would do one at midnight and I did. I walked out there in the dark and that was there. That was actually scary because when you're in the water and it's freezing, isis starting to form on it and you're underwater and you can't see anything. It's milk, it's an ink black. It was scary, but I think you know I've done the polar plunges.

Brian: 23:07

But every day when I'm not near a place, a body of water that's cold, I take an ice cold shower and I know it sounds crazy. I start off with a normal shower and then I turn it to ice cold and I stand there for two to three minutes and I just let it. My head first, my face first, and that acclimates my body and I get my entire body and it's cold, it's it's not comfortable, but when you get done you have a level of Euphoria and clarity in your mind and euphoria Chemicals are just, they're just dancing around your mind and your body feels refreshed. It's a two to three minutes of discomfort for an entire day, of feeling some level of euphoria, but also some level of I did something that is very painful and uncomfortable, that 99% of people don't have the courage to do. I did that today and that's there's a there's a sense of confidence that you build when you do Something uncomfortable every single day of your life.

Kevin: 24:03

Yeah, it's good and there's a there's a discipline that comes along with that. I like the cold, so my cold plunge. It was like a hundred fifty bucks on Amazon and it's basically just a round plastic container that you fill with water and you just submerge yourself in it.

Brian: 24:19

I think you're gonna fit in that thing. When I saw in the back when you started walking through like that they don't look that big, but when you get in there's a lot of room in that thing.

Kevin: 24:26

Yeah, there there is a lot of room, and the thing that I like is that, unlike a shower like you are fully, fully immersed. And you know one of the guys I was watching. He said why do you think that Michael Phelps could eat 12,000 calories a day? It's not because you, the swimming was that hard, it's because of the heat loss from being in a pool, and he wasn't in a freezing pool, but the difference between the temperature of the pool and his body temperature was enough that the calories that he was burning that were, it was off the charts and so he had the 12,000 calories a day. Because it's, if you look at that cold, like what. What couldn't you say? Well, couldn't you just achieve the same thing if you walked outside with your t-shirt on in the middle of the winter? And you could? But? But water Takes the heat out of your body, like four to one what the air would take heat out of your body, right?

Brian: 25:24

Yeah, it's nothing like it. And even a break in a shower is nothing like. It's not even it doesn't compare to a cold plunge, because it's it's better than the air. But it's somewhere between going on cold air naked versus, or in your in a swimsuit Versus in the cold plunge, the pool or those showers, somewhere between the two of them. But it has a benefit for those who don't have a cold plunge. You know, kevin, I want to tell you a funny story about cold plunge. I'll tell you too, real quickly.

Brian: 25:48

Well, when Dawson graduated high school, I threw I threw a graduation party for him at a little local, I'll shout out to big Bob's Pizzeria in East Grand Rapids, michigan. We catered it there and they threw a nice party for us and afterward people were scattering in. One of my friends hey, let's go back to my place and bring some people back there. He lived in my neighborhood and they're from Finland and Sonnas in cold plunges are their thing, that's, that's what they do. And Well, when I got there, I hadn't seen. I wasn't living in the neighborhood anymore, I was living outside the neighborhood, in different neighborhood in East Grand Rapids. I hadn't seen.

Brian: 26:20

I'd seen them, but I haven't been their house in probably six months and he goes hey, come to my garage and I go to his garage and he had a. He bought a chest freezer Like the chest freezer that you put meat in, and he filled it with water and he kept it at 33 degrees and he popped it open. He goes that's my cold plunge and I'm like what? He goes hey, jump in. I'm like Sami, I do cold plunges all the time. This isn't gonna bother me. He goes One minute, you can't do one minute and I'm like I can do five minutes in this thing.

Brian: 26:50

And so I got down and you know, down down to nothing, and that wasn't prepared to have a swim suit with me, so I got naked. Night he goes in Finland first time in cold, plunged. You do one minute, you are a god. And so, like I'll do, I got in there and it shocked my system like I. I'm like and he's talking me through it. You know I'm sitting hyperventilate a little bit. He's talking me through. I got to like one minute three seconds, I'm out and he jumped. He jumped in, sat there for four or five minutes and then it was. It was like he was sitting in his living room smoking a cigar. His body was so acclimated to that, you know, and I thought but one time this was back in. Oh my gosh. I don't even know what year it was. I think it was like in 2016.

Brian: 27:32

We're up at my dear camp and we had a kids weekend, usually in February, so it's February of 16 and I took a picture of the thermometer during the middle of the day. It was a negative 19 degrees Fahrenheit and, of course, our camp was right on the Whitefish River and there was a little cut that was all ice, but there was a sliver, maybe, maybe 30 feet by 12 feet. You know there's still open water in the middle of the river. And so at 11 o'clock, what do you think me and two my buddies do? Let's go jump in the river, right, it's a pretty fast flowing river too. You could walk right out on the ice and jump in the hole. They just hadn't frozen fully over yet, but it was a negative 19. So it's probably a negative 25 degrees.

Brian: 28:09

We jumped in that water and it was like the devil was spearing us and every, every Poor of our body. Well, two of us jumped out right away. We jumped in and jumped back out. Well, the third guy he couldn't get out and he's like help me, help me, help me. And he's trying to grab it and the ice is cracking and we're like okay, we, this is probably not good, because if you get swept under Right, you know you're not gonna be found. And we got them out. But it was one of those moments. I look back on it and think I'm glad I did it, but it was one of the dumbest things I've ever done. So now I stick to cold plunges or water with no ice in it, just a cold lake or river.

Kevin: 28:48

But yeah.

Brian: 28:51

You know you're what you're doing, you're saying is one of the things you've learned is that you're taking better care of your health, which is also taking better care of your mind and your and everything. So what's another learning you've had in the last couple years that I did? I get to a money.

Kevin: 29:05

Well, another thing. So, so, one of the the technologies that I really enjoy is YouTube. I mean that that ties in. We've been doing. We started with a local radio station in a September of 2015 and myself and my two business partners, joshua Gregory and Mike Bernard, we said, hey, we want to live in the most financially literate community in the world and and we don't see that happening with what we're currently doing. So let's do let's. Let's get on a radio and talk for one hour a week. Let's do it Saturday morning at 9. That's when people are listening. You know they got a cup of coffee in their hand, they're doing something around the farm or read the newspaper, whatever, and so let's do that thing. And we started that. And then, in when COVID happened, we said we've got to have a better way to communicate with our clients, because three weeks could go by by noon on Wednesday, and if you're not communicating with people, they feel like the connectivity is not there. And so my partner, mike Bernard, started doing a daily video An 8 to 12 minute video about something related to finances. And again, when people think financial advisor, they think that's someone who sells investments. It's a component of what we do. We manage almost a billion dollars for our clients, but it's not the only thing that we do. We do Financial planning. Again, it's very different than just managing investments, um, and so by doing that, we've initially, when we started then, just video recording the show, just Just turning a video camera on and letting it run for the entirety of the show and then just putting that on youtube.

Kevin: 30:59

Um, I thought we would have at least two subscribers. I knew Lee ampernard, whose mike's mom would subscribe, and I was thinking I was hoping ken kore warren, who's my dad, would subscribe. And, like I know, we'll have two subscribers, um, and as the last time I checked he had 43 000 subscribers. So the the access to information today is Unbelievable, and it's very, very, very different today how things work. Because really, what, how things work today as you put out content for free and you try to. You know, one of my favorite radio guys was jim rom and he used to have this, the sports talk radio show, and he used to say have a take and don't suck, and so that's kind of our, that's kind of our big idea and the nice thing with having three guys that are all chomping at the bit to talk, um, hopefully someone's got a take and it's it's, it's awesome. Um, that's, that's what you want. And so we've been putting out content in the six areas of financial planning, um for the last nine years and it's grown to quite a following where we actually end up and Occasionally, what will happen is people listen to the show and say that's what I'm looking for and I can't find it anywhere.

Kevin: 32:22

And they reach out to us and they say, hey, will you guys do, will you guys take care of me? Because you know, people are seeking clarity and confidence and really, if they have clarity and confidence, they have financial peace. And most people don't want to spend their lives thinking about their finances. They want to think about their kids, their other relationships that need to improve the work that they're excited about and they're creating or what have you. They don't. And for the most part, the folks we work with are really good at making money, but they're not enamored with the money itself and they're not enamored with the process of taking care of it, but they want to take care of it really as well as they would if that's what they did. So that's what we put out there. So I would say, if we're looking back, one of the big revelations to me, because I think when we talked a year and a half ago, we might have had 10,000 subscribers. It is really, really grown, and I mean I would attribute that to Mike Bernard and his hard work. Lindsay behind the scenes does an amazing job, but it's really amazing. Or even right now right now I have been amazed at watching the proceedings down in Georgia with Fannie Willis and Nathan Wade and everything that's going on there. It's very interesting and where else could you get that long form content? Think Joe Rogan. Think Joe Rogan is probably three hours right.

Kevin: 34:10

I call Caleb, I call my son Caleb. On Saturday afternoon I said, caleb, you got to listen to Lex Friedman. He interviewed Tucker Carlson, and so he did that, and so I said you got to listen to things like that. I already did so. He did that on Saturday morning and I did that on Saturday morning. My favorite, one of my favorite things on a Saturday morning is to put my headphones on and putzer on the farm and do chores and just listen to something that is unique and interesting and inspiring to me and our ability to access that now because of YouTube is. It's just. It's unbelievable how technology has changed the world.

Brian: 35:06

I was just looking through the Wise Money show. I was on your show one time.

Kevin: 35:12

Yeah, you were. That was back early on, before we got really good and it was. That was a little joke, everybody. So no, I don't know, that's like our first or second season and we and it was interesting because we didn't know really what we're doing. I not that we do now, but we had less of an idea of what we're doing and it was. It was great because you talked about goals and goal setting and goal achievement and these are the. You know, these are the core building blocks. That's the, the DNA. I talk to my team all the time and I say, hey, what makes you successful? And there's just one word your habits. That's it. Watch James Clear. I want to get one percent better every day and at the end of one year I'm 37% better 37 times.

Kevin: 36:07

That's it.

Kevin: 36:09

Huh, 37 times 37 times or percent times. Eight figures lying on my finger, I don't know. Well, it's 30. I can say this you get one percent better every day and you'll be 37 something better, and you won't care whether it's 37% or 37 times, because it's amazing. If you stay curious, you know what's the. There's a certain beer. Their motto is stay curious, my friend. And but if you can stay curious throughout your lifetime and then and go after stuff, like you said earlier, with a little bit of passion, man, it's amazing what can be accomplished. And the other amazing thing to me is is the incredible people that are willing to enter your orb or your sphere.

Brian: 37:04

Well, yeah, I don't. I can't agree with you more on that. You know I'm doing a lot of work right now through Gay Hendricks material. He wrote a book called the Big Leap and now he's got a new book out this year called your Big Leap Year. And Gay was on a podcast I don't know, maybe two years ago, and I found his, his, his mind one of the most inspiring people I've ever met in my life.

Brian: 37:25

But he has this concept and I believe it fully that we can live in one of four zones the zone of incompetence, where things we don't like to do and we suck at them. Then there's a zone of competence things that we're good at. We're okay, we're pretty good at it. We don't really like it and somebody else can do it better than those those that's. Then there's a zone of excellence, where we're really good at something, but we definitely don't make a major impact in the world on it and we like it a lot. We really do really enjoy doing it, but there is somebody out there who could do it better.

Brian: 37:59

But then you live in your zone of genius. Your zone of genius is something that you love to do. You have a passion for it. It's a purpose and a calling for you in life that really nobody can do it the way you do it in the world and you make. Of all the things you do, that's the thing you do that makes the greatest impact on the world. Very few people live in their zone of incompetence. They don't. You'd quit your job, or you or you know you'd quit it if you didn't, couldn't get better and you hated it. Or you just eventually get better at it. But very few people also live in their zone of genius. Most people live in their zone of competence, where they're pretty good at their job. They don't necessarily like it. Or they live in their zone of genius or excellence, where they're really good at their job and they do really like it, but it's not their true passion and purpose in life. And those two middle grounds are jobs that you just you live. You've worked 25, 30, 40 years and you're done. But when you can get to that level of zone of genius where, man, it's your calling, it's your purpose, you have a passion for it, you're excited to get up in the morning to do it and it makes an incredible impact on the community, your family, your friends, the world, that's a gift right there. That's a blessing.

Brian: 39:10

I had a client text me two days ago and he said what can I ask you a question? What got you up in this morning? And I said Interesting question. I said, well, every day God gets me up in the morning. I said that's what gets me up to live my purpose.

Brian: 39:26

But this morning I wanted to prove to myself that I could outdo myself. Yesterday, because I do planks five days a week. That's the first thing I do and I go on the floor and I do planks and I've been doing it for like three years now four years and I always want to do one second better than the day before. And I fell hiking rocking two weeks ago and I busted up my ribs pretty bad, and every day I've been getting up going. I don't care, I'm going to still increase my planks. It hasn't really bothered me to do planks as much as I thought and I'm like I want to get up so I can prove myself.

Brian: 39:56

That was Tuesday morning. I can do planks more than I can do one second, or at least one second more than I did yesterday. I did three seconds more. And then he texts me back and he said Do you find, are you? Do you find it weird that you get excited to go to bed so you can get up super early to start your day? Because I feel that way too and I said it is weird. I said, but don't let anybody think, make you think you're weird for doing it. I said, because that's a blessing that you have, that you were, you were granted that blessing that you are so excited to get up in the morning, whatever time that is, because you want to start your day to make a difference in the world. This morning I woke up at 345, kevin, and I looked at the clock. I'm like there's no way I can get up at 340. No, I can't do this, but I laid in bed.

Brian: 40:38

I think I fell like to sleep for four or five minutes. Finally I looked at the clock it was 415. I said, okay, I can get up now and I knew I shouldn't. I should have tried to go back to sleep. I got up, did my planks, I did my prayers, I did my routine that takes about an hour and a half to two hours every morning to do, had my coffee and like 930, I hit a wall, like you wouldn't believe, but that was like an hour before I should. I like to get up around 5 530. That's about good time for me.

Brian: 41:06

But it's the fact that when you have that passion for something and you feel like there's a purpose of calling it's fun, life is just fun. It isn't fun at seven o'clock at night when you're dead tired. But I don't know. I feel that when you and I talk and there's a kinship there and I think you and I had that when we were in our early 20s. It was just misguided passion, misguided purpose, but we had it and we just directed it in things that were really maybe at the time felt important rugby and things like that but in retrospect they were minor things that probably did create them in we are today or helped to create them in we are becoming today. But anyway, I think that that that, that that purpose, that passion, is so key and I just wish everybody listener now could find. If I could have one prayer right now, it'd be that you find that passion, whatever it is, and you listen to it, you follow it and you live your life based on that and you become maniacally focused on becoming better 1% better at whatever that passion is every single day. And don't let anybody tell you what your passion should be, because we're all granted different passions.

Brian: 42:19

So, kevin, let's go back to the core of why I wanted you on here. So you've built this amazing business with all of your people, you know, with Mike and Joshua and all of the other 90 some people you have on your team, with your family support and help. You've done that on some core values and I think core values are incredibly important for all of us to have, whether you have a company, whether you live alone, whether you have. You know we have a standard nine to five job, it doesn't matter. Living by some sort of core values, personally and or professionally, is incredibly important. Can you talk about your core values and how that has steered the direction and the success of Corcoran Financial Group.

Kevin: 43:00

Sure, when we 2017, we started implementing EOS, which stands for entrepreneurial operating system, and when you look at any organized human effort, they all have an operating system, whether it's an operating system that's written down and codified or it's just the way you do things, but there's, there are ways that everyone does things. So, as you look at that, we were at that time we're about 35 employees and it that we're bumping up against the ceiling of complexity and I didn't really see how we were going to be able to grow. I think growth is not hard. I think growth while maintaining excellence is actually pretty difficult. So we hired an implementer.

Kevin: 43:55

Our implementer was Justin Moss and he helped us implement EOS in the business, and one of the exercises in doing that is to identify the core values of your business and as we did that the exercise that he took us through to do that it was just incredible. And by the time we were done, we looked at the core values and we said that's us, that is totally, totally us. So we have we have five different core values that we hire, train, grow, fire, all that Like. These are the. These, these help us make all of the decisions related to who gets on the bus and who gets off the bus. And we, we really revisit these as an organization once a quarter. So one is Ninja. Do you have any go into them?

Brian: 44:57

Yeah, yeah, kind of so, if you said, Ninja is one of our core values.

Kevin: 45:02

That might not make a ton of sense to somebody like someone with a semi sword and in a black robe or what have you, but we said, okay, this is what we want some of them to be, want some to be the best, we kind of be the go to person or a subject matter expert, someone who's always prepared no matter what the situation. And there this, this, this lethal blend of speed, precision and expertise, and a Ninja is. You know. When they ask the Supreme Court what pornography was, they said, well, we don't know what it is, but you know it when you see it. And I would say it's kind of the same with a Ninja. Like I can't say exactly what a Ninja is, but you know, you know a Ninja when you see one. And we pointed out some examples of who on our team is a Ninja and and who do we want to be like, so that that is one of them.

Kevin: 46:04

The second one, and I would say, if we've achieved any success at all and I think you know there are different ways that you might measure that, but the only, I would say, the only hope any kind of enduring success would ever be true is is to have these next, this next core value, which is humble, hungry and wise. It's one of my favorite writers, speakers, patrick Lensioni. He would say humble, hungry and smart, but I think humble. When you think of humble, that to me is like the key ingredient of any enterprise, and if you don't have it, you're not going to be. You're not going to be, you will lack joy, because you know what it's like to be around someone who is arrogant. But that is the confident, but maintain the posture of the humble learner. So when somebody will approach me a certain way, I'll say hey, are you? Are you maintaining the posture of a humble learner? And it's just a quick check right, relentlessly pursuing goals and improvement, and it's the highest level of character and competence. Both of those are super important.

Brian: 47:25

I love that. Hey, by the way, lensioni, have you read his new book, the Motive? Yes, Is it good? Yeah, thank you yeah you're welcome.

Kevin: 47:35

All of his books are just incredible. Oh they're amazing.

Kevin: 47:38

You're not, yeah, if you haven't read them, he is he will write a fable. So you have a story for, let's say, two thirds of the book and then, once the story is done being told and you're kind of bummed out that the story's over because they're also good. Then, when the story is done being told, then he goes into like application and how would you do it? As a matter of fact, today for my birthday lunch I brought down one of my favorite books, the Five Dysfunctions of a Team. That's a good book, man, I know.

Kevin: 48:11

So we had our, and so on page 198, my version, you go into this personal histories exercise and the folks sit around the table. For the most part we know each other, but there were two new people and then there were some other new ERR people on the team and so we had a smaller group of eight folks and we just need to answer these questions Number of siblings, hometown, unique challenges of childhood, favorite hobbies, first job, worst job. And it's amazing what you can get to know about someone and really get how you can get to know someone, because most people, when they're in an organization, it's not uncommon for people to feel unseen and unknown, and so I don't want to know about people. I want to know people on my team, because what we do is not easy, and so if there is not a culture of trust and other things and that's what the Five Dysfunctions goes into but just asking those simple questions can give you a window into someone's soul. And one of the guys on our team we learned speaks Russian. And who wouldn't know that? You wouldn't know that until you go around the table and everyone answers the question. So, yeah, love me some, patrick Lincione.

Kevin: 49:52

The next one is when to the power of four, and this one is awesome because if a team member comes and they're in any way, shape or form being selfish, I can ask them hey, which core value do you think you might be kind of bumping up against here, and they'll think about it and they'll realize it's when to the power of four, because really, anything that we do, there's four constituency groups that need to win, and they all start with C. So your clients, your colleagues, your company and your community. So the client has to win. We serve the clients. If they don't win, we have no one to serve. We have no one to serve. We're all going home.

Kevin: 50:39

Colleagues are team members. They have to win as well. If they're not winning, they're not going to stay on the team. And if they don't stay on the team, you don't have a team. The company has to win. If the company doesn't stay in business, if there's not profit, it allows the company to. You know, profit is a gauge of sustainability. In some circles it gets a bad rap. I think it's an excellent thing because it's kind of like fire Fire can heat your food and it can also bring your house down. So, but I I'm a big fan of profit because it lets the company be there.

Kevin: 51:18

And the fourth C is community. And our community has to win. And our community is winning if we are, if we're consistent and there's congruency between our behavior and our core goals, our core values. So someone comes to me and says hey, you know. And they give me a scenario. I can just ask them hey, do you think any alarm bells going off with the, with our core values there? And they're like oh, yeah, that's, that's really when to the power of one. So shall they know it? You know, and so, um, so that's, that's something that it and again, that's, that's something that it and again, these are filters that make it really super easy to figure out and that and quickly diagnose a problem.

Kevin: 52:11

The fourth one is growth to the power of three, so it's a personal, professional and organizational growth. So you know, your personal growth is important, professional growth that facilitates organizational growth. And the fifth one, and one of my favorite ones, because you you can see this or not which is service with passion. So loving KFG's mission and striving to deliver white love concierge service to clients and team members. And I was doing a joint meeting yesterday with one of our advisors and some brand new clients and they said, oh, hey, we really liked your mission. And I said, wow, thanks we.

Kevin: 52:50

You know we were tired on it, but you can go to anyone in our organization and they can tell you what our mission is.

Kevin: 52:58

And they said, really, like that, I don't think they, I think they kind of believe me, but we're not sure you know.

Kevin: 53:06

And is that, is that accurate? And I said, brandon, what's our mission? And he, he killed it and we rattled it off. And they said, okay, we get it, so we serve. And I I've told my children this I'm like, hey, if you want to be satisfied, if you want to have joy in your life, find a way to serve someone, get focused on something other than yourself, outside of yourself, bigger than yourself. And so the the wonderful thing that our team gets to do is we get to serve people in in in area of of complexly, and most you know most of our clients because of the resources they have. They have complex financial lives, and this, and once you have a complex financial life, you have to spend a ton of time figuring it out or you have to hire someone to help you do it, and so it's it is awesome that we get to show up every day and serve people, and it's it's very, very soulful work.

Brian: 54:18

You know, and I think I can speak to that on a personal level from you and I don't remember I don't know if you remember this, I think I brought this up a couple of times and it might have been 25 years ago, I don't know you were just well, it must have been more than that I was doing. I started doing what I'm doing 27 years ago, so maybe 25, 26 years ago. You and Lori had just bought, I believe it was a little Whitehouse I don't know if it was white but not a very big house, and I don't know if it was in South Bend or where you were living. And Missa Waka, yeah, and I came down from I must have been I don't know where I was living Detroit, maybe in Arbor, grand Rapids and I came down to visit you guys for a night or two. I think I had to bring beer cans back to get the gas money to put my car, and it was right after I started my coaching and you were just kind of, you guys were, you weren't struggling, but you were not the fuselage or the rocket hadn't been really lifted yet on your practice and your business.

Brian: 55:19

And I remember we had dinner. I think we went out to dinner, I don't know, and I went to bed and there was a knock at the door and I'm like what? I'm laying in bed and you came in, you sat at the edge of my bed and you read to me Dr Seuss's oh, the places you will go. Do you remember that? I do? Yes, I do. I signed it and wrote a nice little letter into it and you gave me a copy of the book and I remember that moment the rest of my life. I still have that book and I still read it. Every couple of years I'll read them. I read it. I just read another version of it. I bought a copy from my grandson. I read it to him a few weeks ago.

Brian: 55:54

But that's what that's, that service with passion. Even that little gesture that you did to me gave my little rock, my rocket, a little bit of fuel. That you know. It's to the point where now I still remember that as something that somebody at one time when I wasn't even sure if I believed in myself and what I was trying to do with my coaching practice, somebody out there that I love and respect believes in me, and I know my family did too. But you know somebody that I knew very well, who knew me very, very well for many years, believed in me and I'm like. That gave me a little boost. And it's amazing what little gestures like that, that little service I know you serve clients on a much more complex level but even a small random act of kindness, a random act of service with one human being to another, it can make a person's day, it can change their life, like yours did with me.

Kevin: 56:49

So I think about that and I think about this idea of being a turtle tipper. And so as you go through life you'll see turtles that are on their back and they're kind of their forelegs are moving and they're just kind of stuck. And the energy that it takes to reach down and flip that turtle over and get them going on their way, it's nothing. It's nothing, you don't even feel it, but the benefit to the turtle is can sometimes be immeasurable. Who knows, it could be the difference between life and death. And I agree with you, it's the little life-giving words.

Kevin: 57:29

I had a situation where these guys were having some meaningful troubles and they saw the only solution was for me to get involved with them financially. And I talked to my very good friend down here and I said, hey, I'm going to go meet with these guys. They've diagnosed their problem. They think the solution is an infusion of cash to make things work. My sense is I'm probably not going to do that and I said and I was telling my buddy about this, but I really want to help them. And she said, heaven, they need what you have and it's not money. And that is his, his encouraging words to me, man, it made me feel, you know, ten foot tall and bulletproof and like, all right, I am going to go and help and I have no idea how I could help. So I prayed well before the meeting. These guys are both Christians, so I prayed with them in the meeting and we just asked for wisdom and says and James one, you have not, because you asked that. So we prayed, not for wisdom, and the solution came out in the meeting and it's and part of it is because I've I've been doing what I do for a long time, so I just I've seen a lot of things and I have some ideas and some financial wisdom. And I actually got the the a text from one of these guys just the other day and he, he wrote to me because I told him I am like, look, I want to help you guys, but it's just a quick little flip you, that's, that's all you guys need. And he said the turtle just got tipped back over, smiley face and thumbs up, and so, but without, without my friends, encouragement to me, I wouldn't, I might not have had the courage or I don't know the strength, I don't know what it was to go into that meeting because I was, for some reason I was doubting myself and you.

Kevin: 59:53

And here's the confusing thing. You can't look at someone and say, okay, that dude is doubting himself and that dude is overconfident so he needs to be taken down a few notches. You never know. You never know what someone's going through. So I think you know one of the other. You know we have an acronym around here which is shape. That's probably a different podcast, but S stands for spirit.

Kevin: 1:00:16

And the question is am I an energy giver or an energy taker? And you can close your eyes and think, well, who is it in my life that's an energy giver and who is it in my life that's an energy taker? And the reality is, it doesn't really matter who's energy giver and energy taker I, because what I have control over is what I am right. So, so I want to be an energy giver in every direction, in every interaction. And I am oh my word, I am so flawed, brian, I don't have to tell you that, and certainly my family in love gently reminds me when I get that one wrong, because, man, it's, it was way easier to get wrong than it's to get right. But but if you, if you're striving, I mean that's the thing, because at the end of the day, some day we're all, you know, my.

Kevin: 1:01:10

My favorite parable from the Bible is the, the. It's the parable of the talents. And one guy had one talent, one guy had two and one guy had five. And the master went away and he came back and the guy that had five tournament 10 and the guy that had two turn him into four. And the guy that had one buried it in the ground. And the master had not great things to say to the guy that buried it in the ground. He took it from the one and gave it to the guy that had the most.

Kevin: 1:01:39

And I don't know if I'm a, I'm a one, a two, five, whatever talent guy. But I know this someday we're all gonna stand before God and he's gonna say what did you do with what I gave you? Most importantly, what did you do with my son Jesus? But when he asked, what did you do with what I gave you, I want to hear well done, good and faithful servant. That's what I'm, that's what I'm striving for, and and not because that earns me anything, it doesn't like. My salvation was was done on the cross. All my sins past, present, future were wiped out on the cross. So there's nothing I can be to add to my salvation. So so any, any work that I'm doing, it's just me living out a thank-you note to my Lord and Savior. Not me adding to my salvation, not me earning my salvation, none of it. I was dead. I was dead in in a dead man floating in the river of Adam sin, and Jesus called into the grave and called me from death to life.

Brian: 1:02:47

I think I can't, I couldn't, expand on that more powerfully. You know, dave Dick, with who you know, or I think we've introduced you and Dave, I know you're listening, we love you. He said something to me about a year ago that really resurrected, resurrected, resonated, resonated. You got me thinking. Resurrected, he said when I die, I want to shake hands with the man I could have become, and it's me. I'm like, I don't want to shake hands with the man I could have become and it's not myself and I'm like, wow, that's so powerful.

Brian: 1:03:22

And how many people out there can truly say that's their mission in life, to be able to say I've, I've, I've given everything I can. And even if you're, even if you're not a Christian, if you're not faith-based, you're, you're given your, you have something out there. I'm a Christian, I'm faith-based. Kevin is as well, a lot of the listeners are as well, but it does it if you aren't.

Brian: 1:03:42

The point is you, you are given some talents and some skills, some ability out there. Are you using it to the best of your ability, so that when you do die and you're on your deathbed and you look in the mirror to see and you, you, you see the man you could have become. Is it going to be you or is it gonna be a man? Are you gonna look back and say that's I didn't become, that I failed in some way? I failed myself, I failed my family, I failed my community, my world, whatever it might be? And I just think that you know, if we could all just kind of take a portion of that and absorb it into our souls and into our day-to-day living, in the way we look and going back to just that little random act of kindness. Well, go back to turtles. Tip the turtle over, but make sure when you do tip it it's pointing in the direction it was going, because I heard if you turn around messes them up, they just keep going forever in the wrong direction.

Kevin: 1:04:34

Yeah, don't don't tip the turtle over and have it pointed back towards the middle of the road no, no, I heard that.

Brian: 1:04:41

I heard that if you do fix a turtle, if you move it like if it's on the road, you move it, don't point it in the wrong direction, it'll just keep going. It knew. It knew it was supposed to go to begin with, and it just forgot, and it just goes on and on and on. It goes for eternity in the wrong direction. I mean, how many of us do that, though? But yeah, going back to those like those random acts of kindness, those acts of service, I think we, as a species, the for the majority, and I know, for the majority of my life, I did this. I felt I was living life on cruise control, and I thought, when I, when I went out in the world, even if I stay home all day and only have minimal contact with another human that I'm just okay if I'm not out there trying to help someone or serve someone else, I'm not really hurting anybody else, I'm neutral.

Brian: 1:05:28

Well, what I learned through the research I've read, but also through my own experimentation, is that you are always, always giving off either positive energy or negative energy, because every interaction between two human beings is simply the exchange of energy, and energy never dies. It's never neutral, whether it's the energy in a light bulb or the energy you know, in your, in your soul, and the energy between the connection and communication between two human beings. It's never neutral. It's either negative or positive. And if you're not out there purposely trying to make the majority, at least, of your interactions with other human beings positive, it's becoming negative. It's not neutral, whether it's when you're getting gas or buying something at a grocery store or whatever, getting your tires, you know, rotated, and you're in your senior talk and having an interaction with somebody. It's positive, it's negative and if you're not focusing on the positive, there's a good chance that perception, that person perceives it as negative, and then they, they leave a little less of a human being than when you approach them, leave people a little better off for having interacted with you.

Brian: 1:06:34

It's that simple. It could be a smile, calling them by name, complimenting them, thanking them, number of things. Have a great day, have a great weekend, how's your morning going? It? Just little things like that. They're positive interactions. They cost nothing. They cost no time, right, no energy. It's just. And if everybody did that, the world's a better place absolutely.

Brian: 1:06:56

Kevin, what would you say if you had to say there was a mantra or a theme that you live by in your life. What would you say?

Kevin: 1:07:03

that is hmm, love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, so mine and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself that's say that again at a mock level that I can hear okay.

Kevin: 1:07:18

So love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. When Jesus was asked what are the two you know greatest commandments and I think it was when he asked what's the greatest command, or what are the two greatest commandments, he said love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. And so that's that's what I'm trying to do. And you know, if you look at people, you know, like you're talking about, brian, you and I are Christians. We're faith based.

Kevin: 1:08:02

Not everyone listening to this is. I believe everyone listening to this is an image bearer of the most I got. So that's where their value comes from. So we are all on an equal playing field as far as what our value is. Our value comes from who created us. Just like our rights, like our rights come from God. That's what. That's what the founding fathers said like look, these, these rights come from your, your creator. So I think that the the important thing is to figure out how can you be that guy that people say, man, it's good to be around that guy. I am, I am a better version of myself when I am around that guy, or when I'm with that guy, or I like the way I feel about myself when I'm with that guy.

Kevin: 1:09:00

People remember that oh, they do and so that I think it's very important and and the problem is, if you are, if you are a faker or your plastic. Did you see Dana White walk off Howie Mandel's podcast? No oh, it's incredible how I'm and I'll set up all this syrupy plastic stuff and then why it said you know that I'm done, and he took his headphones off and got up and left. I know I was thinking about doing that today, but I don't know about that funny.

Brian: 1:09:34

Wait, I stopped recording like 20 minutes ago because you a fan, but that's, I mean that's the thing like people, even from the time they're little.

Kevin: 1:09:48

My son, joshua, and time he was three, he could tell me the difference between a genuine and not genuine person, and he was right. And so it's like, yeah, you can't hide it. You can't hide it if you are. You can't hide it if you aren't.

Brian: 1:10:02

I agree Dogs and dogs and children can pick up on phony people and evil man. I don't. I don't hope cats can't, because Melissa's cat hates me. You know it does it. If I just go by to touch it, it guys, it hisses and starts to clot me. I'm like I'm out. So I think it's just dogs and kids, because kids and dogs tend to like me cats don't necessarily.

Brian: 1:10:26

So, kevin, can I ask you a question? Let's just go back. Another question. If you go back to the last time you and I spoke On the podcast, what would you say has been one of your greatest challenges you faced in that time frame?

Kevin: 1:10:43

Oh, I think Probably just prioritizing I there are a lot of things that I'm trying to do, whether it's so your biggest challenge in a year and a half was prioritization.

Kevin: 1:10:55

Yeah, because well, brian, I love everything that I do and so I have to figure, I have to make sure I'm prioritizing and giving. And well, if you said prioritization slash resource allocation, so like at work it I mean it's that's in the macro, but there it's also in the micro. So at work we actually wrestled today with resource Allocation. And if there are resources, I mean Joshua Gregory's favorite saying when I say hey, I think we should spend some money on this, as he says it's already spent, like he's, he's always you know, and and he's probably the only reason why we're still in business.

Brian: 1:11:42

I remember when you hired him. I do too. He's come a long way.

Kevin: 1:11:48

He's as old as Caleb. Caleb will be 23 in May and Joshua will have been here 23 years in May and he has you.

Brian: 1:11:58

Well, you coached him At the very beginning, yeah you coached him yeah, and and actually, josh, you're what you're welcome Joshua.

Kevin: 1:12:09

I mean the funny thing is Joshua, even when he first started, probably could have coached you and I. He, he is a guy that has wisdom beyond his years and and I don't deserve to work with a guy that that that's that great. He, just he is. We joke because he, he's the spokesman for our organization and a lot of times people People think, you know, when we have company meetings and other things and he's the one that speaks and leads those things and like Well, why don't you do that, kevin? Like well, because when I do it, there are three people that come up to HR and complain after I'm done and no one does that when Joshua talks.

Kevin: 1:12:52

And Joshua, we've all agreed that if we're ever gonna get told that we have cancer or that, like our family, our whole family died in a car crash or something like that, something like the worst news possible we want Joshua to tell us because she's, he can say things in the most incredible ways that you can't even imagine and you can hear some tough things from Joshua in a way that you don't, you know, feel bad. I.

Brian: 1:13:24

Don't have that ability.

Kevin: 1:13:26

I don't either. It is a special ability. Well, in the town is Brian. When someone's good at like Josh was great, I look at my, I could do that and then I get up and jumble it and and screw it up and and Interrupt myself and lose focus and I'm like, oh my, where's Joshua when you need him. So in the funny thing, there are two guys. So Joshua is incredible at it, but Mike Bernard, my other business partner, is Equally as good. So these two guys are both that great and it makes me feel inadequate. But you know I I think you once told me you said be yourself, everyone else is already taken. Yeah, and I think that's one of the best pieces of advice that anyone could ever receive. Like, hey, I need to be myself and I Not as good at as Joshua at certain things, and if I spend my life comparing myself to him, I'm just gonna be miserable. And is that what I want to be? My whole life is miserable. I know I don't want to be miserable my entire life.

Brian: 1:14:29

I think the advice I actually gave you is when you were trying to copy me in life. I said be yourself.

Brian: 1:14:41

Which goes back to it up. We're gonna wrap up here in a minute. I want to ask you a question. Let's go back, kevin, to the days of you and I living together in college and we'd go to the dams and we, I think we we set those rocks and we would talk and, for those who don't know, the dams were kind of a they were dams, I guess, but I remember just being rocks and river Near our campus and we would sit there and talk. And if you and I could go back to that moment right now and you could give your 23 year old, 24 year old self some advice, some words of wisdom, but what you say to yourself, I Would say don't, don't worry and just trust God, because at every turn and I've not, I mean I God has been very pleasant places for my feet to land.

Kevin: 1:15:33

So I, I'm, I'm one of the last most blessed men I've ever met. But I have had some challenges and you know, my mom died of cancer when I was 29, my brother died the year I turned 40. He's 41 and and, and you know just other other things. I mean it's it's easy and fun to talk about the things that are that that go well, and not everything always goes well. So I think I would, I Was just telling myself don't worry, enjoy the the process, because I have. And this restless heart where I'm always part of this curiosity thing is also this kind of chronic restlessness when like there's more, like there's more to do, and so get after it. And I think I would just tell myself, nope, just rock steady and be patient and let it come to you. If you have the right habits and you are doing those things on a consistent basis, time, truth is a time-released capsule. So time and truth go hand in hand and over time, if you're doing the right things, eventually the right results will come.

Brian: 1:17:09

Truth is a time-release capsule. So I'm gonna just capture what Kevin just said there, because I we talked before the recording today and this is something I haven't shared with the, with the audience much. But I have felt my entire life that I have been taking, I've been just trying to control life so much my professional life primarily and you know, things haven't always worked out the way I've wanted. I'm very, I've been very happy, but I've always known that I Never reached my full potential, and it was not very long ago. I finally said, you know, and I said this to God for those who are faith-based and for those who are not, you can Say this to the universe if you'd like. I just said take the wheel, because I've been struggling all my life to control what I do, when it happens, when I reach these levels of success, the time frame and all that. And once I started literally saying take the wheel, I just I'll practice these really good habits that you've given me, that are my foundation in life. I'm gonna master those habits, but you take the wheel, guy. When I did that number one, the stress went down, the pressure that I put on myself went down. But the weird thing is and Kevin I you and I talked this before the, prior to recording is that those things started happening in my life. You know, these, these little monumental lifts started occurring and I could feel that internally and I could also feel externally, and it really has opened my eyes to to just this magical land. So what Kevin said here is Don't worry, trust God, I'm just gonna enjoy the process, have the proper habits and and then be patient with it, rock, steady during that and, let you know, don't put time constraints on everything you know. Time is a truth, is a time-release capsule. It'll happen. What you need, what you truly Will, are destined and designed to do in this world, will occur.

Brian: 1:19:18

If you trust the process, trust God. If you don't believe in God at this point, if you, if you're questioning God, trust, say, trust the universe, because maybe the, maybe God is the universe you know. So you're whatever you pray to. Trust it. Trust that and Be patient. But get better, one percent better every day at your passion, whatever it is man, just be better at it. And during the, during that time, practice servitude with others. If you feel depression, go help someone else. If you feel lethargic, go help someone else. I tell you it is the greatest.

Kevin: 1:19:57

Before you do that, spend three minutes in 40 degree water, hey, but then go do it.

Brian: 1:20:04

I'm gonna send everybody the video of Kevin Don't wear those shorts. Where's something more flattering?

Kevin: 1:20:10

I have no sense of style or taste.

Brian: 1:20:16

Well, you know, one of the funny things is I was thinking about our spring break, kevin, in Key West For those who don't know 15 rugby players drove a motorhome from, from Mount Pleasant, michigan, to Key West, florida, and, for lack of better word, it was a shit show, it was fun. And then I compare my son, dawson right now he knows his lovely girlfriend Audrey, are in Oahu, oahu, oahu. Yeah, they're in Hawaii right now and their their spring break has been a little different. They have done no drinking by the pools, they've gone to the beach every day for a little bit, but they've seen the Japanese temples, they've hiked the mountains, they've been to Pearl Harbor, they statin World War two bunkers. And as we're doing this podcast right now, they're three miles off the coast and a boat free swimming with sharks.

Brian: 1:21:09

And I just got a phone call from her and I thought I had it on podcast mode, I think my family can get through and it put me through panic mode. So I texted and it was Dawson saying we're done, everything's good, but his phone is dead. But tell me, when your kids three miles out in the ocean, in the Pacific Ocean, and you get a phone call From his girlfriend's phone number. It throws you through a loop, but I just think it was a comparison of our children versus us. Back in the day we were the best we could be at the time. They're the best they can be, but they're better than we were, and that's progress in life.

Kevin: 1:21:44

That's American dream baby.

Brian: 1:21:46

It is Anything else you want to say, brother.

Kevin: 1:21:51

I May have gotten my ten thousand words out for the day.

Brian: 1:21:55

You get that out by noon every day. Hey, well, anyway, I would stay on the line after we wrap up here, please for a few minutes. You know, give you my love over the, without everybody listening. Um, thank you. You know I love you. You are the dearest of people in my life. You are one of my most nourishing human beings I've known. I've been blessed to know for over 30 years, 35 years or whatever it's been now, and I Love you and your family immensely and I god has blessed you and because of that, because of you, I am blessed to know you and god has blessed me through you.

Brian: 1:22:29

And you are the one person who, in college, we would argue as I was an atheist in college and you were craith based, and you and I would battle. I remember sitting on your bed and on your, on your, um, your, uh, water bed. That tells you what, how, how long ago, that was One of. Water beds were cool and we would debate till two or three in the morning about baptism and how. I thought it was stupid and unnecessary, but, but, but, anyway, you splanted the seed in me. Um, as an adult I was, you know, catholic growing up, but I never paid attention to any of that I I was really an atheist agnostic at best in college, and you planted the seed that took years for me to grow, and because of that I will always be indebted to you.

Kevin: 1:23:13

Well, my friend, you're very kind and, um, I am your very flawed friend who loves you dearly and, um, this is it's. It's with great joy that I I'm able to do this with you and and and think about things, and reflect with you and just continue to grow.

Brian: 1:23:35

Amen, brother, well, I love you and I want to thank you for being one of my favorite of all time guests on the bamboo that podcast.

Kevin: 1:23:42

All right, thanks friend, thanks brother.

Brian: 1:23:44

All right, everybody. Thank you again for tuning in and we'll be back next week, same time, same place. And in the meantime, please get up and take some of what kevin shared today, some of the Talks of passion and purpose and in acts of service to others, to talk. Think about how you can make your life a little more uncomfortable In a day-to-day basis, that you can grow that 1% every day so you can be 37 times not 37 37 times better at the end of the year. Great stuff.

Brian: 1:24:13

Please hit and smash that like button, share this episode with three to five people you love and please give us a rating and review. And, Uh, right in. I want to hear your texts, your emails. I want to, I want to, I want you. I want to hear what this episode did for you in your life. I love you all and I appreciate you all. See you next week. In the meantime, get out there and strive to be and give the best that you have to offer. Show your love and respect to other people, but also show it internally to yourself and, by all means, get out there, live intentionally. See you all later you.