Josh Porter | What If Business Success Is The Easy Part?

Josh Porter, PA-C, scaled from two clinic locations to five, nearly tripled revenue, and grew his team fast but the most important growth happened where nobody posts screenshots: in his marriage, his faith, and the story he tells himself when pressure hits. We talk with Josh, the founder of Optimize You, about what it really takes to lead through discomfort and why “more business tactics” is rarely the missing piece for a healthcare entrepreneur. 

Josh walks us through the key moments that shaped the last year and a half: showing up to Create as a clinician in scrubs, taking a $50K leap into a mastermind community, and discovering how the right room can shift your vision and your courage. Then we get into the Atlanta breakthrough that hits every leader with imposter syndrome right in the chest: naming “I’m not enough,” tracing it back to childhood loss, and realizing his son carries the same belief. That moment leads to a daily practice of rewriting identity, not just refining strategy. 

We also unpack the practical outcomes: revenue growing from about $1.7M to $3.9M, expanding from two locations to five, going from around 10 employees to 21, and building a culture rooted in service even while operating in a competitive healthcare space like hormone clinics. Along the way, Josh shares why vulnerability and safety create better leadership, how brotherhood showed up during a hard marriage season in Sundance, and why bringing your spouse and your team into the vision changes everything. 

If you care about faith-based entrepreneurship, clinic growth, leadership development, and real work-life balance, press play now. After you listen, subscribe, share this with a founder who feels alone, and leave a review with the biggest belief you’re rewriting this year.

Transcript

Why Growth Is More Than Numbers

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Thanks for having me, bro. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Good to be here.

SPEAKER_01 0:02

Just I just wanted to, it's not anything formal. I just, it's literally, I want us to walk through kind of your journey with us over the past year and a half and just walk through some of the moments from Create to Puerto Rico to Atlanta to Sundance back to Create and then where we've got forward and just kind of the the business growth. But really one the one thing I was I was sharing this morning with oh my gosh, it was out there uh Ricky and Omar was the call we did a couple weeks ago where I just say, hey Josh, you might have I share about our one-on-one. Yeah. Because for you, it has everybody looks at the business growth.

unknown 0:38

Right.

SPEAKER_01 0:38

It goes, oh, I want to go from two to five locations, 10 employees at 21, and revenue double my revenue in a year, but they don't see all this stuff in the background that you have to do that really aren't what we would think, what we would think as tied to business and revenue. Right. Yeah. So just walk us through create, yeah. How you got to create, yeah, and then what that experience was like and you taking

Clinician To Leader Growing Pains

SPEAKER_01 1:00

that step.

SPEAKER_00 1:00

Well, I mean, I think I've told you this before, the people who haven't heard my story, you know, by nature, I'm a clinician, I'm a provider, right? I I didn't start a clinic to become an entrepreneur, right? I started it because I wanted to impact people in the healthcare system. And so that part was easy for me. Uh, you know, understanding how to treat people, understanding how to listen to people, help people, that that's second nature to me. What I didn't realize was what I needed from the business standpoint. And, you know, when you first start out, I mean, it was it's pretty basic. And, you know, you got a few expenses, you got some revenue coming in. And then as it started to grow and I started to realize like I need to bring more people into my team, then the challenge really became like, how do you lead people? I didn't I just had never really thought about it. It's it's kind of like I created something and now I've got to figure out like I got to react to it. And so I'd brought somebody on my team, Mandy Livingston, who at the time she was serving in the role as general manager. So she was my first kind of non-clinical employee. And uh, she had some business training in the past, and so, you know, we were talking back and forth, and she was kind of helping me develop some protocols and systems. And she sent me a screenshot of this guy named Ken Jocelyn from a Facebook ad that she'd gotten because she'd gone to a course somewhere else. Uh and uh so she was getting some of your ads, and she's like, hey, I think this is the guy you've been looking for, because she knew I was I was kind of hungry for it. And so so I look on there and I'm like, I mean, again, all the qualities, right? Everything I was looking for. I wanted to, I wanted to grow her company, I wanted to be successful, I wanted to impact people, but I also wanted to do it from a faith-based standpoint of like, how do I not lose my marriage of 20 years, right? How do I stay as a dad of five kids and and and stay committed to all the things that really matter? And so I wanted to surround myself not with just successful business people, but like people who love Jesus and who want to make an impact. And it's okay to make money because you can make a greater impact. And honestly, I think when I heard, you know, even your mission, your heart of like, you know, to serve people in business, to serve the entrepreneurs so that they can grow a business to then fund the kingdom to make a greater impact. Like to me, that resonates, right? It's not about the dollars in our bank accounts. And so so I got that and I thought, I'm gonna go, I'm gonna see what happened. I actually went uh the uh uh so the first day in create, I show up like a late Thursday night, Wednesday night, whatever it was, and I'd worked all day. So I'm still I'm in my scrub sitting in the back. I I didn't have one of the elite CEO tickets, and so I just sat in the back, I set a little round table, and I just sat there, you know, and I didn't really engage. I I thought to a couple people at the conference, but I didn't I never went to a speaker, I never, I never introduced myself to you. And at the end of the conference, and and I will say so many people there, right? But probably the one guy that as far as in that audience or in in the list of speakers who probably had the the greatest impact that day or that week and was Vic Keller. And I'll never forget it because you know, as you become more successful, you realize like, how do you want to use those resources? And he puts this picture, you know, he photoshops this picture of his fat head on sitting on the on the wing of an airplane. And and he's like, you know, a lot of people are driven by this. This is their desire, this is their goals. And and then his next slide was a group of like 250 employees in a factory that he owns. And he's it's like where's Waldo? He's somewhere in there, but he's like, This is what motivates me. And it was just something that resonated, man. I was like, I need to be around people like this. This is the kind of group that I want to be a part of. And so I think at that time, you at the very end of the conference was when you kind of made a call for action, if you want to say, and say, hey, here's how you can be involved. And, you know, but we called it the mastermind at that point. And so you gave this offer of like, hey, here's what it would look like. Here's here's what you get out of this, here's my involvement, here's the you know, the mastermind, you know, events that's gonna take place this next year, and here's the price. And I just I just made a decision in in that moment because I knew if I went back and tried to rationalize it, I was it probably was not gonna, I was not gonna make that decision. It's a big ask, right? From a startup company. But it was for me, I think for me, it was an opportunity for me to bet on myself and to say, like, A, I know my weaknesses, I know where I need to grow, and B, I know that I want to be around these kind of people. And so I just I I I I wrote a check. I think I broke it up into monthly payments for a while. And then I met you after I, you know, was already committed to it. I think you and I got on a phone call like the next week. So that was just the start for me, was coming out of the the first create was was hugely monumental and just just saying, I'm gonna take a

The Create Leap And Puerto Rico Trust

SPEAKER_00 5:50

chance. And then the next the first mastermind was actually Puerto Rico. So Puerto Rico was in the springtime. I took my wife. My wife had not gone to create, and so she and I went down to Puerto Rico, and I don't know what the 15, 20 people in the room. I mean, it was pretty small. 25. Yeah, it was it was a smaller group, pretty intimate. And so for the first time, you know, you're in a bigger conference and you, you know, you're just sitting at a table and you don't always get to interact, and then all of a sudden it's like, man, you're just throwing out ideas, and you know, you're getting in a relationship with these people, and you're doing life, you're having breakfast and working out with you know, you and so all of a sudden it like it starts to become more of a friendship and you know, less formal. And and again, you're bringing in people, right? Uh Troy Hoffman spoke into my life at that conference or at that mastermind in a way that, you know, like it just allowed me to be in a safe place where I could say something that no I hadn't even, I mean, we talked about my wife didn't even know, right? I I mean I was able to say, you know, hey, this is where I'm at. These are these are kind of the sticking points of of my business. And I've got this dream inside of me, but I've just kind of kept kept it there.

SPEAKER_01 7:03

At that time you were fairly successful. I mean, you guys were doing, you guys were doing well.

SPEAKER_00 7:07

Yeah, I think I think the year I came to I think the first year we had we we were 1.7 million in annual revenue. So yeah, I mean we were we were moving, right? We had just opened up our second location. So we yeah, we we'd gotten some momentum. And you know, and so we're sitting there and you know, Troy Hoffman, you know, like says something and starts to ask me questions. And I think you're the one who's like the the the the temperature in the room changed, right? It was like when I you could feel it.

SPEAKER_01 7:38

Yeah. Troy, Troy literally stood up and he goes, Did y'all feel the energy just shift in this room? And I'm like, I did.

SPEAKER_00 7:45

So when you felt that, right? When I felt that, of like, man, there's it just again, it revealed and encouraged and empowered me of like, man, there's something deep in me to do something, you know, that's going to impact a lot of people.

SPEAKER_01 7:56

How important is it to be in a room like that, Josh, where you can say what you said and it be normal?

SPEAKER_00 8:04

Yeah, I mean, hugely important. And I think the hard part is majority of the rooms, I'm a small fish in a big pond, right? I mean, I'm sitting with guys who, you know, they've got more zeros in their bank account than I'll perhaps ever see. You know what I mean? So there's intimidation, potentially there could be perceived as intimidation, like, like what do I have to say to a guy like Troy Hoffman or Vic Killer or, you know, but then the the ability to be in that room and realize like they're just normal people who just have a they've got a mission, they've got a vision, they've got a desire, they want to follow Jesus, they want to impact people, and they want to serve. And so naturally you feel that, right? You're just like, I feel like I can I could call Troy right now and just talk to him about life, you know. And so I think that's the important part of it is is getting into a room where it's it you've got this commonality of bond. Yeah, we're all entrepreneurs, we're all on different paths there. But I think the one thing that that GSD offers is from the faith component of like, that's where the the unity of the group is. And that's what brings this level of comfort of like, man, we like we're just here to help each other.

SPEAKER_01 9:11

Yeah, two things stand out to me that I remember about you guys specifically. One was you were sharing about your daughter's night tears. Yeah. And I got up and God was like, go pray for, yeah, go pray for. I remember that. And so I got up and walked over there and laid hands on you and Laura and prayed for your daughter. That was one moment I'd love for you to speak about. And then because again, it's just not all about business and finances. There's so many intricate things that help us grow to become the person we need to become in order for our business to experience the growth that you've experienced. That was one second thing was when that whole moment was going down with Troy, I I mentioned at the end how important it was for Laura to be there with you. Because had you have gone home to Chattanooga and went, oh, hey, here's what I'm gonna do. Yeah, how tell me about how important it was to have your wife there and what it how more difficult it would have been had you went home and her not been in that room and you having to share this new vision with her.

SPEAKER_00 10:12

Well, I mean, I think I I don't even know that I could really verbalize the importance of that from the standpoint of truly there's there's nothing that I want to work harder at than making sure that that relationship is at the center of what we do, right? Our marriage has to be cohesive, it has to be in unity, and and as an entrepreneur who's growing, who's distracted, who wakes up at two o'clock in the morning and thinks, how am I going to do that? Right. When she's on the sideline, so to speak, and not in the business, it's easy for that to create tension and for her not to understand. And and then I get bitter and I get frustrated, and I'm like, like, I feel like I'm at it alone. And so for, yeah, quite possibly, I mean, I would say that's probably one of the first moments for us as a couple from a business standpoint where it was like, man, like she sees what's in me. And so it allowed her, it wasn't just about me and say, hey, this is, but it allowed her to almost flip her role a little bit and and kind of capture the vision to where she says, like she can see from her standpoint of like, listen, like her role's hugely important, right? I mean, Optimize You and my involvement in it is nothing without her because she's she holds everything else together, right? I mean, the the the demands on my schedule and the travel and all those things, and and for her to s to be a part of that is hugely important.

SPEAKER_01 11:45

Yeah, for you to have that voice into your life. So we will we go from create to Puerto Rico. So as we do these live events once a quarter, next quarter would have

Atlanta Breakthrough On Not Enough

SPEAKER_01 11:55

been Atlanta. Yep. The mastermind that we did in Atlanta walk us through a little bit about your experience. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:01

I'm gonna try to say this one without getting emotional. Good luck. So in in Atlanta, I took my son and he's 17 now. He just graduated high school. He he did he he's not going to college. He won, he he's like, Dad, I want to I want to own a business, right? I'm like, I got a great idea. Why don't you go with me? I got an extra ticket, you know. Had a great time, right? And and what's interesting is I don't know that I've ever gone into a mastermind with with a certain expectation. Like, when am I gonna get out of this? Am I gonna have a master business plan? Or like you just it's just kind of an openness, right? And so in Atlanta, I met a guy named Jake Hamilton, and Jake's become a dear friend, I mean, super close, and he was there to kind of lead worship, and then he, you know, he has this ministry where he, you know, helps people with trauma and just kind of deal in with marriages and and men in particular. So we're in a breakout session with him, and I don't, there's probably 80 guys, 100 guys in that room, you know, it's a much bigger room. And so he's walking through, you know, like, hey, we're we're write down three I don't remember exactly how you said it, but write down three things that you that you know, like that you believe about yourself that like is is the worst things about it, right? And and I don't think this is unique to me, but I I just remember number one, and I've known this forever, is the thing that I have to fight against is that I am not enough, right? The imposter syndrome, whatever it is, but just that I am not enough.

SPEAKER_01 13:38

And so J Let me say this again, I don't think it's unique to you. Again, you put yourself in a room, right, where you could say, This is where I'm really at, and you can really be transparent and vulnerable.

SPEAKER_00 13:52

Yeah, and so so so we write those things down, and then he says, I want I want two guys to share. And again, I'm I'm pretty outgoing, but standing up or talking in front, you know, about my vulnerabilities is probably not my greatest strength, right? And but there it just the Holy Spirit was like, dude, you gotta you gotta share something. And so, you know, I said, I'll go. And uh he's like, All right, tell me what it is. And so I I say I'm not enough. And he starts to proceed of like, when was the first time you felt that way? So I go through this, right? My dad died when I was 12 years old. My last experience with my father was a negative experience, and I had I had disappointed him, right? And he let me know it. And so from that point on, and I never got to reconcile, right? Right. The next, the next time I heard of, you know, anything about my dad was he was killed in a car accident. So I had taken that on and built you know borders and walls and protection around that. And you know, I'll show you that I'm enough, right? And I can tell you a list of things that I've tried to do to prevent uh, you know, to do that. And guess what? It doesn't work. There's always that insecurity. And so what was really what really hit home that day was when so we go through that, you know, he he you know kind of just creates this vulnerability for me. And then he asked my son, he said, What's on your list? And he said the same thing. And I think the hard part for me in that moment was it at that time he was 16, so for 16 years, right? I've dealt with this since I was 12 years old. But for 16 years as his dad. The one thing that I wanted my kids to know was that they were enough. And so subconsciously, right, I had put something on them that they didn't deserve. That I mean, they have a completely different life than I do then, right? They their dad's always been present, their dad's never been distant, their dad's never divorced their mother. You know what I mean? Like like they've grown up in a home where it's like we're you we're together and we they and so it was just it was so revealing to me in a way where it's like, man, like when you are not willing to deal with some hard things, there will be consequences, right? And and so it was it was a moment for me where it's like I'm gonna work on that, right? And so one of my affirmations out of that of in Atlanta was, I am enough. I write it every day. I am enough, and I will use my past experiences to impact other people for their success, right? I write that every single day because out of that conference, it told me I have to retrain how I I can no longer say that I'm not enough, right? I I can I'm gonna believe what I what I say or what I think. So I just constantly am telling myself, like I am enough and I'm gonna use what has happened to me for other people's success. And so that was revolutionary for me because it had, I don't know that it impacted my business at all. Yeah. I mean, maybe, but it it's not a transactional, which I can tell you that, you know. But it was for for me as an individual and as a dad and as a husband and as a leader, quite possibly the biggest transformation that's happened since I've been a part of GSD, to be honest with you.

SPEAKER_01 17:23

And so in this, in this time, you're we're talking about create in the beginning of 2024. And now we're in August of 2024, just almost a year ago. And now your business, you're in the process of growing. Yeah. So in in the last year, you went from kind of run through your growth and your numbers over the past year.

SPEAKER_00 17:45

Yeah. So we 1.7 after year, that was year two, technically, and then year three, we were at 3.9. So we essentially doubled. Yeah. Two locations. Two locations. At that time, we were still two locations. We were starting a third satellite uh location. Now we're at five. But it was, yeah, it was it's substantial growth, right?

SPEAKER_01 18:05

I mean how important, Josh, was because all these these moments you're talking about don't have anything to do with business. Right. This is you really working on, like in our core five framework faith, health, relationship, business, and finances. You know, I always talk about how faith, health, and relationships is the when you get those in alignment, it gives God a foundation for him to then build business and help you accumulate wealth and finances. Walk through that kind of process as you're now your vision's big and now God's doing some internal work on you. You just said it, as a husband, as a father, as a leader. How important was that in what you saw happen in your business?

SPEAKER_00 18:49

I mean, I don't think we would I we wouldn't have five locations, right? We wouldn't I wouldn't continually put myself in in spots where it's like, man, this I could I could have a pretty comfortable life. But I think in in the involvement, the guys in GSD and the the community itself, I've just seen I've seen when God puts a vision on people's lives, right? And they and they're willing to do the work, not business stuff, but they're just willing to do the work on their relationships and their health and their faith. That vision just expands, right? It it's like I why would I not want five clinics if that means that I can impact more people, I can have more people on staff who actually love showing up and coming to work. It creates more gener more it generates more revenue, and that revenue can then turn around and impact, you know, the kingdom in a way that like I mean, why wouldn't you want that, right? And it's not all it's not like I've I've got it nailed down, right? I mean, uh, there's plenty of mistakes along the way, but but I think that for me is just doing the work on myself has allowed me to invite moments of being uncomfortable, right? I could be comfortable, but I don't want to be comfortable.

SPEAKER_01 20:06

How important is it in those environments to feel safe being on being uncomfortable and being vulnerable?

SPEAKER_00 20:14

Well, I just don't think I'd be vulnerable if I were weren't comfortable. You know, if I didn't, you know, if you don't hear the guys, I you know, I think about in November with Sundance, right?

Sundance Brotherhood In A Hard Season

SPEAKER_00 20:26

The music mastermind. And that connected me with Eric Weir, and you and I went to Eric Weir's uh mastermind kind of independently. Again, it's just more of those relationships, but you realize you're not in isolation, right? You hear Eric Weir's story of like where he came from and you know some of the big ass that he's made in his business, and you're like, dude, that's the craziest thing I've ever heard in my life. Like, what are you doing? And then it worked, right? And so I think you also get to, I'm a big believer of standing on the shoulders of other people, right? My my one of my my first clinic here in Chattanooga stands on the shoulders of a guy who gave me an opportunity. He gave me six months of free rent, right? And his credibility. He had built a business for 40 years and I had not. And because I I linked arms with him, I didn't, I I was able to link into his credibility, right? And so for me, it's that same kind of process where it's like, man, I just I I feel like in many ways I get to stand on your shoulders. I get to stand on the the Troy Hoffman's shoulders and just say, hey, like I'm a product of all that these guys are pouring into. And I want to do the same. I want somebody to be able to stand on my shoulders sometime.

SPEAKER_01 21:32

Which is what you're doing with your team, which is why your team is growing and you have such an amazing team. So Atlanta, Sundance. So we show up in Sundance, there's 27, 28 people there. Pretty interesting. We're in the cabin together for three days. Totally different experience for you there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:47

Yeah. Walk us through that. Yeah. I think with at that point, again, a lot of relationship stuff, but that was a great moment. I met guys like Nate, Ricky, Todd Siree. We'd stay up till three o'clock in the morning, which is not normal for me. And just talk about life. And so you start I started to build some really, you know, deep relationships that I still have now. And we, you know, we had a lot going on at home. We were remodeling house. We were trying to open clinics, a lot of pressure. You know, you're trying to balance the books and make it all work. And even though my wife is there in, you know, Puerto Rico in April, just like me, I mean, sometimes it's easy, right? I mean, you get you get kind of stuck and you're like, dude, like we need to have a recalibrate here. And so our marriage was, you know, I wouldn't say it's on the rocks, but I mean, we were, you know, we were doing counseling, which we've been doing for a while in a way to be proactive, but we were just we were just in a season where it's like, man, we're disconnected. There's something that's off, you know. And and I think for for me in that in Sundance, it was more about being in surrounded by some guys who I knew were gonna be in my corner. And, you know, I've had those moments. I've I I remember calling one of those guys in particular, you know, 11 o'clock at night on like a Thursday night, just like, dude, I don't know. Like, I mean, we've been married for 20 years, and I I don't know that I can we're gonna make it another six days, you know? And just broken. And what was what was really fascinating is this guy didn't give me any wisdom. All he did was cry. And so I thought, like, who who does that, right? Who's who actually has such a heart for you that they're gonna walk through something that you don't see, like it felt like it was like I don't see a light at the end of this tunnel. Like we are not connecting here. And I I'm calling this, you know, this guy to be like, hey man, here's where I'm at. And other than just saying, saying the fight, right? I mean, like, as he's praying for me through the phone, you he's he's worse than I am. He can't hardly get words out, he's so broken. And I'm like, he doesn't even really know me all that well, but he has this heart to just be in the battle. And so I think that was a huge part. And then, you know, that's where I really got connected with Eric. That was awesome. I mean, we went down there and again just had a fantastic time shooting some guns.

SPEAKER_01 24:11

Yeah, yeah. Was fun. So we we go from there December.

Scaling To Five Clinics With Culture

SPEAKER_01 24:15

Um, you open uh your was Roswell your fifth or fourth? Uh Roswell was four. Okay. Knoxville was five. Okay, so you're opened two more clinics to last. We opened them in three weeks apart.

SPEAKER_00 24:24

You're shaking your hand. You're like, what was I thinking? I'm still regretting that. We're still we're still trying to figure it out. That was, you know, I know I like I said, I'm not always the smartest. Yeah. Yeah, we opened those two clinics again, those are both an hour and a half of the other directions from where I live. And so, you know, yeah, I mean, we had to implement a team approach. So yeah, that was that was all going on at Create.

SPEAKER_01 24:47

So we show up to Create and we give you the first ever GSD assassinator. That's right. Yeah. Walk me through that experience. I couldn't even read you. I'm trying to read the letter. Yeah. And I then all you guys were there, yeah. I'm trying to read the letter. I'm sobbing like a baby. I mean, Nate's up there sobbing like a baby. Yes. We've got this big badass samurai sword that we gave you just to really bring attention to not just the, and this is what I love about what you're doing, because it's not just, oh, I came in, I learned the three top ways I can triple my business and get my sales here and fix my culture on my team, which we've done that. Yeah, I did that with your team before Create. Yeah. It was, it was Josh's journey of becoming a the best version of yourself. Right. So talk to me about Create this year. How many people did you bring? 22. Yeah. 20. You went from one person to bringing 22 people.

SPEAKER_00 25:41

Yeah, by myself in the back the year before. And yeah, again, it's the idea is like, I mean, and I don't know, there was, I don't know, four or five of those people on my staff, right? But majority of them were just local community people that I know need to be in community with other people, you know, who again have the faith as their their rooted cause. And so I just wanted to be an encouragement to them. And so it's it's more about like, why would I not want to give that away? So we yeah, we just came up with an idea and thought, let's let's do this, and it was fantastic. But yeah, the same the uh assassin award, almost called the samurai award, the assassin award. I mean, I I think it just shows you're gonna get what you put in, you know, and I am on a journey to become the best version of myself. I'm not there. I mean, I can just tell you, like, you know, I mean, there is a lot of things where I'm like, I need to be better about confrontation and about being a hard ass. And like, you know, I mean, I know some limitations where it's like, man, I could I need to grow in those things, right? And so, you know, I don't also, I'm not so, I guess, not naive to think like, oh, I got everything I needed. Yeah, you know, in those three or four masterminds. I mean, it's just a journey, it's a process of like, how do I tweak this? How do I tweak that? I think the Assassin Award was more of just a not even a recognition as much as a confirmation of like you're putting in the effort, man. You're and and people see it.

SPEAKER_01 27:09

I've had two or three people talk to me already since then that said, I'm winning that award next year. And what what did what is that? You know, yeah, you know a couple of them. Yeah. What is that when you hear that, yeah, when somebody goes, I'm winning that next year.

SPEAKER_00 27:23

Well, the first part is like you got to get it out of my hands first, right? I do, I am a little competitive. I love it. I love it. No. No, I mean, I think that to me, knowing for it, I can only say it about me, right? Yeah. Knowing what it took to then have that recognition of saying, hey, this we saw this in you over these four masterminds over this year. I hope somebody else gets it because that that means somebody else has really done some work on their lives and they're a better person, a better husband, a better wife, a better spouse, a better business owner, better leader, better servant because of that. And it's just a recognition. So I actually, yeah, I don't I don't need to help hold on to it for two years in a row because I think it's one of those things where it it's a it truly is a joy and a recognition of saying, man, like job well done. Like, way to go for, you know, you've you put put the work in for a year and people saw it and you're making a difference.

SPEAKER_01 28:23

You know, I guess I guess what we'll do this year, we'll kind of do like what Miss America does. You'll have to hand the sword to somebody else next year. Yeah. What would you say, Josh, to entrepreneurs that are watching this? What would you say to entrepreneurs who are because I mean it's a $50,000 investment for you that first year. I mean, that's not a small investment. That's a that's a that's a big investment for somebody who's growing their company. Not only did you invest the finances, the finance in, but you showed up. Dude, you were there. Yeah. Like and and you're busy. Yeah. You're going in in all of that, going from two locations to five, 10 employees to 21, over doubling your revenue, you showed up once a quarter. Yeah. And then even more than that to some of the things that we did. What would you say to an entrepreneur who's out there, faith-based, and they're trying to find their tribe? Yeah. What would you say to them on, man, can I really spend this? Can I afford this finances? Can I afford this time away from my business? What would you say to them?

SPEAKER_00 29:21

Yeah, I mean, I think for me, the cost was a big hurdle, right? I mean, when you don't see on the front end of like, what am I going to get out of this? I mean, it's all it's all about ROI, right? But that's what I would say is if somebody's not looking to change, it's probably not worth the investment, is my opinion, right? But if you are and you're willing to put in the work and you're willing to have other people speak into your life and and listen and try to adjust and and you know, and not not look at it. I've never looked at that investment, truthfully. I've never looked at that investment from a financial standpoint of like, did my business grow? You know, for me, I just did not want my life to fall apart. I just did not want to be another statistic that said, hey, look at this super successful dude who, by the way, has absolutely destroyed everything else in his life that really mattered. And I didn't want to, I was, I was willing to make an investment on something that I thought, man, if I could just get around people who would encourage me, hold me accountable, challenge me when life is hard and I want to give up on something, like that's the return, right? Is the fact that, you know, we're 22 years married, you know, we've we've got five kids and they're thriving. You know, my daughter's in the Middle East right now, serving on a mission trip. Like, those are the investments. It's it's not about, hey, we've scaled our company into five locations and I don't even know how many employees we have, 20 some odd employees. Like that, that's great, but that's not my it doesn't motivate me as much.

SPEAKER_01 30:53

One of the things you, one of the goals you set, I don't remember which mastermind it was at. It may have been Puerto Rico, where you said, I'm gonna take a kid. I'm gonna try to do a one kid per month. Yeah. But walk me through how you set that goal, like what was that going, and then tell me some of the the fruit that's come out of that decision that you made.

SPEAKER_00 31:12

Yeah. Yeah, I think I think it's once a quarter. I try to do something once a month, like on a small scale, but once a quarter we just try to do something fun. And you know, I think as at my most of my kids are a little older, and as you know, as a dad of older kids, it's it's kind of hard to get their time, right? And it's hard to get my time. I mean, they would probably tell you the same thing. Well, dad, you're you've got three evenings every week that you've got something going on. And so I just knew that I needed to be intentional. So, I mean, probably the the the biggest one is my the same son that I took to Atlanta. We he and I went to Jackson Hole and we went fishing. We it I mean, no cell service. We're eating, you know, ham sandwiches for lunch. We're on a drift boat boat for hours, and just you know, and he is in heaven. And the the conversations and you know, like the the just the and not or maybe not even say anything, right? Just being a part of like him catching a huge rainbow trout and and dogging me because I'm sitting in the back of the boat and I can't catch a single fish all day, you know? And it was just the experience of like, man, like, you know, I I don't want to miss those opportunities, right? And I mean now the kid's like an avid fly fisherman as a result of that trip. My another son, he and I went to, he he loves soccer. And so I took him to University of Kentucky Soccer Camp and you know, he's there you know, six hours out of the day, and then we just kind of tooled around and hung out and and just had great conversations. And so I think it's just it it has allowed me to have a little bit of a a plumb line, right? And and you know, success is fun. I mean, you know, I can be a just to be honest with you, I could be a shitty dad and a shitty husband and everybody in Chattanooga think that I'm the best thing that's ever happened because I've I've done something for you, right? And and that's just not what I want. I want to be successful, I want to have an impact, and I want people to think highly of me. But if if the people that matter the most inside my house are like, you're actually a pretty crappy husband and a pretty crappy dad, then I think I've lost my mystery you don't you don't win that way.

SPEAKER_01 33:21

No, you know, you're not gonna stand on judgment day, you're not gonna stand before God and Jesus fiss mump you because your business was great. Right. He's gonna want to know how did you take care of your wife? How did you take care of the kids that I that I blessed you? Did you steward those relationships? Well last question. What would you say to business owners and entrepreneurs about create specifically about bringing their team and the importance of bringing their team in that environment this year? We had close to 500 people. What's the what's what would you say to them?

SPEAKER_00 33:55

You know, I think again, for me, one of the uh challenges is as you lead a company, right? That's I mean, we're not a Christian organization, but we have guiding principles, you know. I mean, one of our first, you know, core values that you helped us develop, by the way, is that we will serve other people, right? And if I can't demonstrate from a faith standpoint of like this is who I am, this is my DNA, that is culture, right? The culture of optimize you that I am a part of is going to have to look, it should look different than any other hormone clinic that I'm not a part of. And that doesn't mean they can't be successful, but there's a lot of people that can prescribe testosterone and hormones and all that stuff. But what I what I wanted us to do is set us apart. And so for me, bringing my team into an environment like that was if nothing else, I wanted them to see what matters to me so that when I have to make a hard decision, or when I, you know, go away that maybe everybody on my executive team disagrees with me, it's okay for them to disagree. But I think it lets them know like this is where he's coming from. This is this is who he is, this is something that's important to him. And and it's not, you know, the thing I love about creating is I mean, it's not church, right? It's not you're you're not trying to be the church. You're just you're you're you're trying to foster an environment where people can be authentic, they can be real, they can be vulnerable, they can grow a business, they can surround themselves with a community of people who have similar desires. And I think the more, especially if you're leading a team, the more people on your high level executive and leadership team that can be exposed to that, the more in unison and more focused you're going to be as a business. I love that, man. Thanks. Yeah. Appreciate it, bro. Anytime, man.