Cut The Tie | Success on Your Terms

“I Thought About Ending It”—Joe’s Battle With PTSD and What Saved Him

• Thomas Helfrich • Episode 274

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Cut The Tie Podcast

Episode 274

What happens when a former police officer turns mental health advocate and entrepreneur? In this episode of Cut The Tie, host Thomas Helfrich speaks with Joe Smarro—CEO and Owner of Solution Point+—about the urgent need for emotional intelligence, leadership reform, and how the power of presence can change everything.

Joe shares his transformation from a decorated crisis negotiator to an advocate for change within public safety and corporate culture. Together, they explore how real transformation begins with inner work, vulnerability, and cutting ties to outdated systems of authority and success.


About Joe Smarro

Joe Smarro is the Owner and CEO of Solution Point+, a training and consulting company focused on mental health, leadership, and emotional intelligence. A former Marine and decorated member of the San Antonio Police Department's Mental Health Unit, Joe rose to national attention through the Emmy-nominated HBO documentary Ernie & Joe: Crisis Cops. Today, he travels globally, helping teams create cultures rooted in humanity and courage.


In this episode, Thomas and Joe discuss:

  • The evolution from cop to consultant
    Joe explains how his experience on the front lines of mental health crises inspired him to co-found a company dedicated to systemic change.
  • Cutting ties with emotional suppression
    From the military to law enforcement, Joe reflects on how emotional armor becomes a trap—and why vulnerability is the real strength.
  • The power of emotional intelligence in leadership
    Joe unpacks why the best leaders are present, emotionally aware, and willing to have hard conversations with grace.
  • Why police and corporate cultures need the same thing
    Joe draws a powerful parallel between dysfunction in law enforcement and burnout in business—both demand new tools, not just new rules.
  • Challenging the "tough guy" mindset
    Through storytelling and self-awareness, Joe offers a blueprint for how men can lead with heart, not just hardness.

Key Takeaways:

  • Emotional armor can become your cage
    Suppressing emotion might help you survive—but it keeps you from truly living.
  • Leadership is presence
    Being fully present is one of the most underrated leadership tools in high-stress environments.
  • Inner work creates outer impact
    True change in systems starts with personal responsibility and deep self-reflection.
  • Mental health is operational readiness
    Teams that prioritize wellness aren't soft—they're strategic.
  • Transformation starts with courage
    Whether it’s law enforcement or leadership, courage today means being real, not just resilient.


Connect with Joe Smarro:
🌐 Website: solutionpointplus.com
💼 LinkedIn: Joe Smarro 

🎥 Featured in: Ernie & Joe: Crisis Cops (HBO)

Connect with Thomas Helfrich:

🐦 Twitter: @thelfrich
📘 Facebook Group: Cut the Tie
💼 LinkedIn: Thomas Helfrich
🌐 Website: cutthetie.com
📧 Email: t@instantlyrelevant.com
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Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Cut the Ties podcast. I am your host, thomas Helfrich, and I'm on a mission to help people in this world escrowed Americans cut ties to whatever's holding them back in life so they can achieve success and the success they've defined on their own terms. Today I'm joined by Joe Smarrow. Joe, how are you?

Speaker 2:

I'm doing real good man. Thank you, I'm excited to be here.

Speaker 1:

I like your chair. It's almost like you're in a fluffy cloud. Good man, thank you, I'm excited to be here.

Speaker 2:

I like your chair. It's almost like you're in a fluffy cloud. I am floating right now, thomas, and yeah, this chair is very comfortable and I don't know what it is to recommend, but it is nice.

Speaker 1:

Well, nice to meet you. Take a moment, introduce yourself to the audience and what it is you do, yeah, man.

Speaker 2:

So Joe Smaro, I'm the CEO and co-founder of Solution Point Plus. We are a well, I guess we say international now because we crossed the border into Canada, but we are a training and consulting firm that operates at the intersection of public safety and behavioral healthcare, and I'm also a combat decorated Marine and a proud veteran and husband and father. And, yeah, as far as the business goes, we provide training, mental health, de-escalation, wellness, resiliency, and we have about seven deliverables that we offer. All I guess 95% is in person. Right now. We are looking at expanding our virtual options, but we have a one day, a two day, a three day and a five day offering based on the training that's requested.

Speaker 1:

That's great. You do have competition or space for this, so tell me about why people pick you.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so the competition? I think one. There's a pretty large chasm between our competitor and who we are. So we're I guess you would call a small boutique firm, in that we were about 11 people within the business. Right now, our largest competitor probably has a few thousand and they've been around for five decades has a few thousand and they've been around for five decades. The reason people choose us is because we are nimble, we're very fast to from like contract to deployment and also we are the true essence of been there, done that.

Speaker 2:

While we do have evidence-based and we have degrees, that is nothing in which we lead our trainings. That's all background stuff. We live by a philosophy of facts tell and story sell, and so we're very story ridden. I personally have a lot of resilience, a lot of childhood trauma from sexual abuse, physical abuse, leaving home at 15, being a father, my senior of high school joining the Marine Corps because of that, and then two combat deployments, getting out of the Marine Corps, joining a police department in San Antonio, having an in-custody death my first year on, and then about eight or nine years of immense suffering, using women and pornography as my vice to just survive.

Speaker 2:

I hated myself so much and was an incredibly insecure man that would use women to feel anything, but I would also be married, and so that doesn't tend to go hand in hand. And so, by the time I was 31, I had multiple divorces, four kids from three women, paying three grand a month in child support on a cop salary. And now, like I live my life truly from this mantra that everything is my fault, I've taken complete ownership. I'm very proud of the relationship I have now with all my children, the youngest one being 13. And 13 years ago is when I really pivoted and stepped into my own truth. And now, through all the work I've done for myself, I use that to fuse all of our training curriculum and to connect with the audiences that we touch, and I do a lot of keynote speaking as well. I'm also an author. My first book came out last year called Unarmed, and a lot of those stories and tenets are in that book as well.

Speaker 1:

I thought you were describing Trump there for a minute. Like five divorces, four different kids. Yeah, usually, I would like is the Trump you know here today? Yeah, I, it's not a political statement, that's just alignment of data, in fact, just throwing it up there. Yeah, I think for sharing all that. I mean really like I always try to get people to cry on the show besides me. So if I can pull that off today, I want you to know. But it's not your way past that now and you're not crying more.

Speaker 1:

I've done a lot of crying in my life. Yes, true, it's like you have. Yes, you know, what's amazing and beautiful in your story is that a lot of people put a bullet in the head. After all that And'm done I and you. You said the other way. I'm going to go make something in my life and you're still young. I mean, like you know you're, you haven't. You know, probably, look at me with early forties, maybe, I don't know, like 40 years or eight. You're young relative to like you know, it wasn't that far ago. So you tell me plenty of your journey in the tie you needed to cut was all that how? Just go to that. I will actually back up first. Tell me, was there an actual moment? Was it the birth of your son, or is there an actual moment? You're like that's it. I've truly hit the lowest of rocks and bottoms that I could possibly go with now.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so, and two things. First is I'm definitely not immune to the suicidality. I've been suicidal since I was 15 and it's been something that has truly, like, plagued my life. Thank God I have not made that decision, but the thing that really woke me up I remember it was my second wife was leaving me and I had cheated. I got caught and she was like I hate you for what you've done and like something's legitimately wrong with you. Like, like, truly like something is wrong with you. And I remember, as she was like taking the kid and leaving, I was sitting there and I was like okay, I, like I have this is very binary for me Like I'm sitting in my I can picture in my townhouse and I'm staring at my gun belt and I'm still a police officer at the time and I'm like, okay, I either need to a commit to what she's saying is true and something is wrong with me and go to the VA and ask for help, even though in my mind, like all the stigma of being a Marine and being a man and being a cop and all this of like you know, I have all my limbs, I'm not burnt, like I have no physical ailments, like just suck it up Right, like quit quit being a week. Suck it up Right Like quit, quit being a week. Yeah, and so it was. It was like I either need to kill myself and just be done with this or I need to walk into the VA and just say like, yeah, I don't know what, but something is wrong.

Speaker 2:

Now, luckily, I chose that and I went to the VA 13 years ago, cause that was, that was my fourth child. So it wasn't like I had a kid and it changed my life Like. No, I was. I was to be honest with you and I love my children. They know I love them and I tell them, but like I was tired of having kids because none of them were planned. And when you are living like an idiot and you just are out there, you know, living the bachelor life, shit's going to happen. And so, yeah, I, I love my children, but none of them were planning. So they all came with a lot of like heartache and pain and like not being born into the relationship that I'm actually in, and so it took a long time to get there.

Speaker 2:

But I walked into the VA. I said, hey, I don't know what's up. I guess something's wrong with me, according to my ex-wife, uh, I need help. And so they were like, well, let's get into it. And they just started talking to me about my story and my childhood and they were like Jesus man, like did you know that with your childhood trauma, with any combat exposure, you were 300 times more likely to develop PTSD? And I was like, well then, why did they even let me join? And they're like, oh, because we don't actually screen for that. Like, yeah, we don't care about your childhood trauma, we just want to know that you can do some pushups, pull ups and hold the gun. And so I was like, oh, that's interesting. And so then you quickly realize that, because they don't screen for a lot of people that come into the military, we're only compounding and exacerbating the trauma they come in with. It's the same in first responders, and so it exacerbates a lot of these symptoms of trauma unprocessed, ultimately leading up to where, if people can't get to the place where they're going to A accept look, you did everything you had to do as a child to survive.

Speaker 2:

You survived it, but now those structures you created to survive childhood no longer serve you. So now you have to unlearn a lot of things. You have to create the identity you want to be true in your life, and then you have to violently execute until that becomes a reality. Anything short of that is just an excuse. And you're wanting to project and blame someone else for why you are the way you are, and you can do that. That's your right, but it's never going to serve you and it's never going to fulfill you. It's going to be miserable, and I was that for many years.

Speaker 2:

Now that I'm on the other side of ownership, I have incredible freedom in my life, because when my life is going awesome and I grow a seven figure business out of nothing, with no MBA, no, no background, and I don't, I don't know what the hell I'm doing and yet was able to grow a multimillion dollar business, all from being passionate about people believing in the things I say, learning and actually not having an ego to say like yeah, I'm not, like no, no, this is my baby.

Speaker 2:

Tell me how amazing my baby is. No, I pay people to tell me how ugly my baby is. I've paid people like Alex Hormozy and Tom Bilyeu to poke holes in my business and say, like dude, you're an idiot, why would you do it this way I'm like I have no idea because I truly don't know what the hell I'm doing. So I pay to get feedback to help me level up, and that was a big difference to take me from being a one entrepreneur to an entrepreneur and now understanding that, oh, this is just a game and there's layers to this game and there's a lot of pay to play in this game and your proximity is your power and so it's all these things of like. Surround yourself with the right people, don't be afraid to ask for introductions and don't be afraid to ask questions, like if you're the smartest person in the room, as they say, then you're in the wrong rooms.

Speaker 1:

Well, and always be in the room too, right? That's the other kind of piece of that.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, you know we need to make decisions, you gotta be sure. So I got to ask who's better, tom or Alex? Uh, two very different styles. Uh, I, I truly respect both, but I, tom Tom is my number one. Alex makes no mistake about it. He's an absolute savage when it comes to like he wants to be a multi-billionaire. That's his focus. It's all about EBITDA, it's all about margins. It's all about making money over everything else. Tom, while he's already a billionaire and had his exit from Quest, I actually got to go to his house and do like a mastermind and sit with him for eight hours at his table with seven other business owners, and I see more compassion on his side. Again, I don't think Alex is wrong for this, but I just think he's very focused because he's still on the climb. I think Tom has reached his goals and now he's like reverse engineering and I also love to me like. Alex is the business savant.

Speaker 1:

Tom is the mindset a savant, and that happens to be really, really good at business and understanding first principles thinking you know, it's interesting and I always wonder like the guy has billions and why he would still be in the weeds doing stuff.

Speaker 1:

And I'm like, like to me it's like, you know, that mindset is obviously like there's a passion and drive there that's way beyond. When you hear that in that world and I love that you've gone, do that, I will tell you. I asked that selfishly because I've I've really struggled to find mentors I could trust, and not that I'm always the smartest one in the room, but I often can see that the person who's claiming to be, who wants to be a coach or mentor, is not Right and so, yeah, so I've really struggled with this. I'm 49 and I'm like man, I know I need one still, I just can. So that's why I ask, because I'm like all right, but then the Alex personality would probably drive me crazy, but like all right, but then the alex personality would probably drive me crazy, but at the same time it's probably the one I would have to be near because it's the one that's like just drive, drive, drive, drive.

Speaker 2:

But anyway, I was grateful to have both. But yes, it's, they're very different. Just energy aura, um, they're like tom is way more relaxed and just you know, matter of fact, and alex is just I like. I asked him personally, like what do you do when you're not working, like for fun, like where do you and lay? Personally, like what do you do when you're not working, like for fun, like where do you and Layla go on vacation? What do you do for fun? He was like no, like even if we take a vacation, we're still working, like that's what we enjoy. To me, this is fun. We're never off.

Speaker 2:

And I'm like, yeah, that's not appealing to me. I don't want to be a billionaire, right, like I want to be sneaky wealthy, I want to not worry about money, but I don't want to be a billionaire and I really I like a chill life. I want to golf five days a week, I want to spend time with people I love and I want to keep speaking, write the next book and do do a podcast and like just chill out. That's the life I want and so that's the thing I'm striving for. It's very different than like world domination yeah, absolutely so.

Speaker 1:

There's some of my clients are like hell, I took a week off last year and it ruined like my quarter. I'm like, yeah, I do not want your business. Uh, oh here, all right, I'm happy you like it, I don't want it. I'm one who's like, um, I'll even say I just don't want to work my money. So, like you know, I golf five days a week. Even I get bored of that. I love golf, but I mean I'll throw fishing in there maybe occasionally, or just sit at home watch Netflix, but I all right. Thank you for all that. By the way, today you've covered so much. I don't think I have to ask a ton of questions, so I appreciate just the openness and sharing. I feel like you've done this before. Maybe it was part of writing a book. What are you most grateful for today, though?

Speaker 2:

The fact that I have not had to go back to a nine to five when I left the police department. So I left at 15 years, I resigned, I didn't retire, I didn't have a pension and I had a lot of people other cops, people in my circle telling me what an idiot I was, that I wasted 15 years, why would I not just do five more years? And I was like, yeah, but I'm just not happy. And they're like, yeah, none of us are, but we don't leave. And I'm like, well, that's a horrible way to live your life. And but I won't lie, like I was terrified that what if this doesn't work? Like what if I don't have what it takes? What if this fails and I have to eat crow and go back to that agency or another one? Because that's, I can easily just go back to a police department and like fall back in rank. And my goal was to not have to do that. And it was a two-year goal, because you're only allowed to leave for up to two years and then after that you're basically gone, you're obsolete, you have to go back to the academy and now I've aged out. So now it's like this is all or nothing. And if, because I can't go back to policing, then it's like, well, what would I even do? So that's always been in the back of my mind.

Speaker 2:

I truly am most grateful that I get to wake up every day and do the thing that I love. What I tell people is if anyone asked me not that they do, but if anyone asked me like Joe, in your opinion, like what's the secret to life? I would say find a hobby, like something you actually enjoy, turn it into a skill, like try really hard to be in the top 1% and then learn to monetize it. If you do those things like that to me is freedom, that to me is like a beautiful life. That to me is immense gratitude. Now, that's high level, macro, and then, honestly, on the micro side of it, it really like not to be cliche, but I'm grateful every day that I just that I get to like wake up and be housed, employed again, pay myself a salary doing the work that I love doing and that, like I can put food on my table, like it's really simple. And because I think we live in a world where people are so distracted and overwhelmed and I see so much like collective suffering, I think we've lost perspective and we've become inundated with things that don't actually matter, and we're consuming so much of other people's lives and experiences that we overwhelm ourselves and, I think, take for granted everything that is right in front of us. And so my gratitude is like one of my foundations of life, and so I just live truly gratefully.

Speaker 2:

When I wake up, it's like it's part of my morning routine. I wear this compass Thomas on my wrist. It's my like true North reminder. It never comes off, and every day I wake up I start with three things like reflection when am I? Why am I here? Who contributed to this? Especially cause I'm on the road about 20, 25 days a month. And then I go into my gratitude three things in the last 24 hours that can never repeat, and it forces me to find three good moments in every 24 hour period, and so I'm trained in my brain to find good in everything, no matter how stressful the business is like oh, we just had our worst quarter.

Speaker 2:

Uh, in fact, real story, my business is eight years old. This is the first year 2025 that we're going to have. As of right now, halfway in, we're going to have a down revenue year. It's the first time we were at 100, 120% every year, every year, every year. Now we're actually losing revenue because we lost a big client in the state of Iowa and this is the first time where we're down and it excites me, it actually is exciting me, because I'm like, okay, cool, we get to now reset, we can reset and reorient and then look at like, how do? What do we want to do next? What skill do I need to learn to develop? What client do we want to penetrate next? How can we go about this? And I don't see it as a problem, I see it as a blessing. So even in something like that, I just uh, gratitude is a huge part of my life.

Speaker 1:

Well, when something like you know lose a big client, you definitely feels like it's happening to you as quickly as you can pivot. Okay, it happened for me. What am I going to do from it? And what I typically found is and this is a big thing because this happens to everybody you're going to lose a client at some point. It makes you go look at where you've been complacent, where you could have done better to retain that client, or you can expand the other way, and those are usually the opportunities to kind of get you off your ass, to go look at it slightly different and say what was the value we did? Or what do we? How do we know? How do we go leverage that? To go trade with paperclip, is that? That's where I find the excitement, in that it's like all right, I gotta, I gotta hustle, because if it comes easy and everyone's coming to you all the time, then it's like it just feels transactional.

Speaker 2:

Um, whereas the I like the idea of starting something new or building a new curriculum, or having a new idea that we can learn to monetize that doesn't exist yet and that's what we've done. And to your point, like, yeah, right away I was like, oh, this sucks, this is happening to us. This isn't fair. Then I look at cause. It was actually like a political, bureaucratic decision as a state of Iowa and they redistrict and so all 12 of our actual CEO clients we've worked with they all lose their jobs July 1st of this year. So I'm like, well, I can sit here and feel bad for myself. I actually have a ton of empathy for what they're actually going through and so I really feel bad for all of our clients in Iowa that are having to endure this change. And simultaneously it's like all right, this gives us a unique opportunity to leverage the eight years of traction we built with them, and now we can go and see what we can build and do it somewhere else.

Speaker 1:

And listen, I get. I look at 12 people going out in industry. It could be 12 new clients that same size potentially.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and exactly that Cause they're not going to like, while they might be losing their jobs, they're not going to stay unemployed forever. And some of them are talking about going to other States and I'm like, yeah, that's a great idea. You sure, If all people are in different States right now, yeah, and and and truly like we have a great relationship with. I mean, we've worked with all of them, but we're really close with like four of them and yeah, if any four of those land on their feet somewhere and have clout, like for sure they would advocate for us and bring us in.

Speaker 1:

So it's kind of like uh it's, it's a tree that bared fruit that has been split into four or five and like now, you got to wait for it to kind of grow up and get the more fruit and now you should have a lot more. But like. But this is where I also like, sometimes go with. I find when people go those, those individuals are going through some tough times. Right now they're in a, they're in a low and they're in a, they're in a state of dis disorientation.

Speaker 1:

I just try to be there with for them as a friend, even if it's been like our business acquaintance, like hey, what can I do to help right now? Is there anything I can do? Because that's what's going to actually carry more than the work that you did have an authentic be there for someone. Because someone was there for you, you're going to be there for somebody else. Um, I know I said and I think anybody listening right, that's when a client's going through something like that, take off the business piece and ask them how you actually help them as a person, because sometimes I mean some people, I need food for my family or like, and that can happen. You're like all right, well, can I send over groceries for the week or something like you don't know, like where people might be check.

Speaker 2:

To check in in one week you have to work is a big deal, and so anyway it's huge and I just to piggyback real quick to us, I think, because I've seen this in my short time where, especially in the government contract space, um, we've worked with a client where we were like the the secondary, or the the subcontractor on it and the prime was very buttoned up, very proper, and I'm like I'm high relational and so I'm like like this is one of my philosophies and we teach it in de-escalation. I read about in the book, but it's always like focus on the person, not the problem, and so I'm like, yeah, yeah, I know for sure, like the only reason we're having this conversation is because you have a need and we have a solution. Now we're going to get to that. But like, who are you? How long you been doing this? What do you care about? What matters to you? What would you like to see happen?

Speaker 2:

When you focus on the personal side and this is where we thrive been as successful as it has been with no marketing. We do no marketing spend. It's just truly been all word of mouth to grow from $9,000 in 2017 to two and a half million last year, and it was just from people advocating for us and then being relational, so that you don't feel like this is a transaction. In fact, you want us to win because of how much we want you to win. And we've had clients like, oh, it's the end of the budget season, we've got this money left, like, hey, is there something you can just like throw at us so we can just throw you this money? And I'm like, in what world does this happen? But because they're again truly they understand that we value them, not as a transaction partner and just as a business relationship, but like the humanity side of this really does matter to us as our company.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, we have a couple of our biggest customers are in the government space like same chasing three letter agencies. Like it's long, long sales cycles. One thing I will tell you anybody else listening is you should always invest in the longterm play on the brand side of the marketing, because when you need to be known for an rfp, it's too late and so it's like you know specifically you want to be the one helping write the rfp right, as you know already. But it's like that. Anybody out there. Make that investment if you're going to be in that government space, because, like the ones we work with, even for two, three years and it's paying. The trees were planted and they watered it and they paid for it and now it's got lots of fruit because everyone knows that's where you know, so we can take that one offline.

Speaker 1:

I, I get that space yeah some, at some point your your uh generals and colonels you knew go away yeah yeah they, uh, they start retiring out. They're like, oh shit, who's the new guy? He's got his own guys, all right. So rapid fire question for you. I've been asking this in the reverse today what's the worst business advice you've ever gotten?

Speaker 2:

oh, the worst business advice is, ah, I would say, fake it till you make it. I don't like that at all. I think authenticity matters. And, yeah, if you're out there faking it because, again, I think it's like, it's almost like your credit score and your weight, I get it takes a long time to establish, but you can ruin it very quickly. And, and so you know, one or two small mistakes can truly tarnish a brand and reputation. Uh, and so the idea of fake it like I, I will tell people, like no, I don't know how to do that. Or this is a new space to me. Or like no, I'm not sure what you mean by that. Instead of pretending trying to impress someone, I'll own that. Like yeah, I don't know that space, but I'm happy to like learn um. But. So I think faking until you make it is probably the worst advice let's do that on teams for For the military.

Speaker 1:

You're on teams Like, yeah, I'm good, my pay call will be we're good For fun. Exactly, yeah, I'll be back. Do you know what that means? Anyway, that wouldn't go well If you had to start over today and you can go back to any point in your timeline which you have some juicy timeline points I'm curious how you're gonna answer this one.

Speaker 2:

When would you go back? What? What do you do differently? Yeah, that's, that is tough for me because, again, I like I not because it's convenient to my life, but I really believe this to be a true statement, which is I've learned to become grateful for the things I wish never happened and like it's like everything in like this. I have this tattoo right here, thomas, that says Amor Fati, and it's the Latin of love, of fate, and I really believe if something's happening in your life, it's supposed to happen because it's it's a, it's a lesson, and everything that happens to you is either a coffin or a classroom type thing.

Speaker 2:

And so to go back and like undo a mistake would mean that maybe I would be in a different place. I'm in now and I'm not trying to skirt the question, but if I had to answer gun to head, then I would say probably 2017, when I started my business. I don't know that I would have waited three years, because the truth is in 2020, uh, when we left, we grew, uh like about 900% the first year we went full time, and so then it's like why would I, why would I wait? If I did this three years earlier. Where would I be now three years later? And so that probably would be as like I would. I would really think, um, I would probably start much different in the business. I would have started higher, I wouldn't have played so small.

Speaker 2:

One of the biggest lessons I've learned in my own business is learning the value of what you offer. Just for context, to give you an apples to apples, one of the trainings we offer right now, for example, it's a five-day training. Right, we used to do that. Five-day training, two facilitators plus our travel, five-day training. We would do it for three thousand dollars, all in that's cost and everything. We now will charge thirty thousand for the same thing, and I have a lot of mentors telling me that it's offensive, how low that is and that's a horrible rate and that I should be charging twenty five thousand a day. But because we work in public safety, they're oftentimes very, very we'll just say, broke, and so they don't have the money. But even then, though, like to go from a $3,000 product to a $30,000 product, nothing changed except for my ask, and they just kept saying yes, so like. That's just one example of like no-transcript and being able to like easily justify why we charge what we charge for our services.

Speaker 1:

Yeah Well, you know I love that. You have to uh, uh, throw out there what you're worth, and sometimes you just throw the turd on the table and we'll see if anybody cleans it up, and that's what you do and I know, yeah Good, I'm glad you did. The other piece is when it's not, you know, when you do that to an entrepreneur, it's the same suit, different pocket. When it's someone else's budget, they don't care. This guy just don't get me fired. And so knowing that determines price quite a bit. So last question, if there's a question I should have asked you and I didn't what was that?

Speaker 2:

question. How do you answer it? Man? This is good, Thomas. I feel underprepared, which is on me, because I have a feeling that's something you ask everyone and I wish I thought about this. So you do a good episode we're just seeing there.

Speaker 2:

Here's my, here's my, like scouts, honor, word of mouth, honor to you is cause when you said, when you said YouTube as well, when we were chatting before, like that I go there a lot for things and I'm a visual more than just audio, I am gonna, cause I'm just fascinated with you, your work, your other guests, and so I will be listening to your episodes, although I didn't do it beforehand. So a question that you should have asked me, but different, yeah. So I guess, what is one, the counter of, maybe not even to the worst business advice, but like, what is one piece of advice that you think could help all people? And my answer to that would be and I'm I and I'm going to quote Tom Bilyeu here, because again, this really resonated with me and I would say, like was one of those one degree shifts in my life but he says the only thing in life that matters is how you feel about yourself when you're by yourself, and again, it's about minimizing distractions and, as an entrepreneur, to make it about business, if that's much of your audience, then the truth is is that every day, you wake up into a room of a hundred doors and your job is to close 99 of them. I think too many of us think it's about adding, we think it's an addition If I just added more, if I just got more, if I just had more, if I just did more. But the reality is it's about minimizing, it's about reducing, it's about subtracting and if you would just close all those doors.

Speaker 2:

It ties into this idea because I think again, someone that works in the mental health space there's so much suffering that is evident all around, and I imagine when those people because the second part to this, which is not his, it's mine, but the scariest place in the world for man to be is alone in their thoughts, and so how do you feel about yourself when you're by yourself?

Speaker 2:

And I hate being by myself alone in my head, that's a recipe for suicidality, for what I call the four plagues of the entrepreneur, which is uh, and forgive me I'll explain, but just chips, tits, Netflix and sprints, and that's food or alcohol. Boobs meaning sex, extramarital affairs, pornography, uh, Netflixream Time, doom scrolling YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and then even the sprints going to the gym, working out excessively to avoid your family or doing the thing you're supposed to be doing for your business. To me, in my experience of hospitalizing a lot of people, those four plagues create a lot of problems, and it's all in an attempt to avoid having to sit with yourself. And until you can learn to love the company you're in when you're alone, your life is going to be incredibly more difficult than it needs to be. So that would be my advice.

Speaker 1:

I could have done a whole like podcast on just a whole like series. Like we get it, we'll break that, um, but once you've been here, joe, you get to come back. So I do look forward to, uh, interviewing you again in six months. Take a touch base. That's kind of the thing we do is, once you're on, and you don't suck which you didn't, which is great. Thank you, man. Thank you Tell me and everybody else how to get ahold of you first and who should get ahold of you.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so two websites joesmarrowcom is personal website, business website, solutionpointpluscom. And then, as far as socials go, instagram, joe Smarrow, linkedin, joe Smarrow, facebook, joe Smarrow. It's all on Joe Smarrow. And then we also have a company socials as well. But I would love, if you connected with me, send me a DM that you heard me on the cut the tie podcast. I'd love to send you a book. If you do that, I'll sign it and do it for free. And in that order, just because of what we're growing right now, I would say Instagram, then LinkedIn, but yeah, joesmarrowcom and solutionpointpluscom are the best ways to get ahold of me or the business.

Speaker 1:

Awesome, Thank you. Thanks for coming on today. I appreciate it.

Speaker 2:

Thank you brother Appreciate you.

Speaker 1:

Everybody's been here before. Thanks for coming back. If this is the second time or more, you know you've been here, keep coming back. And if this is the first, I hope we hooked you, because you made it to this point you're definitely coming back. So, thanks, get out there, go cut a tie to something holding you back To find that success in your own terms. You know it's how you're chasing. Thanks for listening.

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Thomas Helfrich

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