Dragon's Gold: The Magic of Mindset

Mission Over Millions: Greg Robeson on Turning Down $14M to Transform Senior Care

• Justin Mills • Season 1 • Episode 32

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What do you do when the mission is clear, but the path isn’t?

Greg Robeson was building furniture, road schooling five kids across North America, and running businesses out of an RV when a divine detour led him into senior living, and changed everything.

In this powerful episode, Greg shares how his journey through grief, faith, and fatherhood shaped his entrepreneurial path and gave rise to a movement centered on presence, people, and purpose.

Here’s what you’ll uncover in this week’s adventure:

  • Why character should be your hiring compass
  • How “showing up” became Greg’s greatest leadership asset
  • The real reason they turned down a $14M investor offer
  • What Harmony Homes is doing differently, and why it matters
  • How to build a legacy that actually feels like one

Tools & Weapons

  • The 12 Week Year – Crushing goals with focused momentum
  • Zero to One – Building what’s never been built
  • Good to Great – Lessons in leadership and culture
  • Dan Sullivan frameworks – Thinking like a visionary
  • The practice of presence – Show up, don’t just execute

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About Gold Dragon Investments:

At Gold Dragon Investments, our mission is to bring joy to others by helping them win the game of investing. Helping every client become the hero of their financial journey. We believe that wealth is a tool, but joy is the ultimate outcome.

Through meaningful partnerships, we strive to empower our investors to create freedom, and build lasting legacies of purpose, fulfillment, and wealth.

Join Us on the Adventure:

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome once again to another episode of Dragon's Gold, the magic of mindset. Today we have the pleasure of having Greg Robeson, CIO of Harmony Homes. Greg is owner and operator of multiple businesses Tailored to ease the transition of life in the golden years. Honoring dignity, fostering community. and delivering exceptional support. Ultimately, It's a mission-driven senior living company reimagining care through small faith-aligned homes. Greg, I wanna say thank you and welcome to the show, my friend. Thank you, Justin. It's a privilege to be here, brother. That's truly my pleasure and my honor to be able to share part of your story with the audience and hopefully to inspire. So as I like to do, let's dive into the origin story. Where did it all begin for Greg Robeson? Well, I've been in real estate since 12 and I got into the short-term rental market and bought some single-family homes and helped families who weren't qualifying for mortgages. That was kind of my entry point. Then I got into Airbnb and then a couple vacation rentals and just started to diversify and spread the wings and started a furniture company. Hired some people locally to to get into that it was more of an opportunity not an ambition or a vision It wasn't like a I saw a light and I must start a furniture company now. It was more just the principle of diversification and looking at our you know family's financial plan and it was opportunity and Was successful with that built that up and then ran that for six six years and then liquidated that and bought an RV and moved my family of seven into an RV and traveled the country, North America really, for four years. And that's kind of a crazy time. while we were doing that, we were road schooling our kids and I was looking at the national landscape of real estate. And frankly, I kind of had my eye on RV resorts because We lived in three different RVs during this four year time and we lived in RV, you know, if you have five year traveling with five kiddos, you gotta have a hub of operation while you're traveling. And that was for us was always a resort. So some people when they travel like this, they'll do Airbnb's. Some people do this out of harbors or a boat. You know, there different ways to do it. But there's quite a few people. surprising, you know, it was surprising to me to learn this is quite a few people living full time the RV lifestyle. And so when we set out, my wife took a travel nurse contract and we, we, we didn't have a time. had an in, but we didn't have an out. So I sold, I sold the home we were living in or rented it out. And, and we didn't, we didn't know how long this could have, it could have been just, you know, seven months in the East coast. And that's it. But it up being four years all over. the place. while we were traveling and adventuring, I had the mindset of studying and learning RV parks. I had read about it. I had done a lot of ROI analysis. you know, if you're you know how it is any sector you're in you want you want the best return for your time. And we're all gunning for passive income and setting up structures that work while we play. And so that was my mindset. And I had read a lot of good stories and analysis on the margins of RV parks and resorts. So this is what we were living in. So every chance I got, I met with the owner and listened to their story. What got you into this? What are the real numbers? What's the cost of construction? What's the timeline? All that. And as I was traveling and learning, there was a moment of providence. On a trip back to our hometown of St. Louis, where we had launched from, a friend introduced me to someone else in the real estate sector and mentioned them starting a new business in the St. Louis area. I remembered when I was studying ROI that the sector that had the highest margins on a 10-year return was senior living and I didn't really have a personal ambition toward this. I didn't have a really powerful story of someone who'd been like a family member who had received poor treatment and I was like, all right, I'm gonna change this. It wasn't anything like that. was just, I was gone in RV park and I think God had something else in mind and introduced me to this guy who... was pound in the pavement in St. Louis and looking for partners in residential assisted living. So as I was traveling, the door, the financials didn't line up on the RV park. And then when we landed back in St. Louis, I met up with this guy. It was chemistry and it was, that was the beginning of me getting into senior living, which is, it's kind of a funny circle moment because I spent. early in my career, spent 15 years building youth programs in a nonprofit sector, just giving kids things to do that aren't on the streets and constructive stuff. It could be spiritual things, it could have been float trips and camp outs, social stuff. But, and now I'm on the other end. So I did 15 years of youth work and now I'm working with people who are young at heart. But that's how it happened. It was really the margins that drew me to it that opened my eyes. And then I met the right person. So financials drew me to the sector. And then it was relationship. It's like anything else. You meet the right people and your eyes are opened. You're like, huh, OK, this looks interesting. then when I got my toes into it, I really fell in love. So it's one thing to approach a financial sector from margins or from analytics or certain benchmarks that you've created. You know, when you're, when you're doing a study and you're building a business, you're like, all right, I need to, it needs to be measurable and meet these benchmarks. That's one approach. And then the other is the human. you, you realize the depth of a problem in society and then you recognize how good and ethical business could respond to that problem. And that's what happened. So initially it was margins. It was like, hey, let's come off the road. Let's partner with these guys. This looks smart. This is a good use of time. This could really grow into something financially. But underneath it was, there's a problem that I can use my entrepreneurial, my personal, my ministry skills to solve. There's a really serious problem here in our country that I could, me, I could participate in helping. And that's when you're, you you hear stories about people that wake up in the morning and they love what they do. It's not a drudgery to get out of bed. There's this feeling of participating in something beyond yourself and it's... It's interesting to listen to the language people use to describe this moment. But this is one of those key markers. When you recognize that your skill set is aligned with easing the pain of a vulnerable population, it's not hard to get out of that. It's not hard to stay focused at a meeting or push through a task. You know, we just took down some ground and ran into some local political pushback. And it's not hard. You just got to stay prayerful, stay grounded, stay rooted in what the heck that spark is. And then all those little bumps, kind of a my yoke is easy, burden is light kind of a thing. It's not the burden that you thought it might be. So that's the story for me into where we're at building Harmony Homes now in St. Louis. That's awesome. Thanks, Greg, for sharing that. And I think so much in life, we will do something, a task, a job, we need money, right? And unfortunately, reality is, is the bills don't pay themselves and food doesn't put itself on the table. And so that as a resource, as a tool to be able to acquire those things is needed. But when you find something that you align with in your heart and you know that that mission itself really does more, not just for you, but for the people, the lives that you touch, suddenly the power that becomes evident, the ability to get out of bed with excitement and not dredging yourself like you say, right? And the idea that when you do hit a hurdle, you don't quit. Right. You now realize that that mission that you have is, bigger than just you or bigger than just the cost. you realize that your impact can make a difference. And knowing that you push through and, oftentimes if you don't quit, you don't lose, right. You, you will eventually overcome. so I, with the hurdles that you're experiencing in this political pushback, I hope everything works out wonderfully, not just for you and your company, but for the people that are going to be benefited from it. We talk about. hurdles, trials, tribulations, things in your life that that either personally or professionally have become difficult that you had to overcome? Are there any things that come to mind that you would share with our audience? Well, running the furniture company and connecting the dots to running Harmony Homes and the other verticals that we are operating is very much the same lesson. And that's that people are everything. They are the greatest asset. Like right now, everybody, I'm doing a lot of one on ones as the CIO raising money for Harmony Homes, right? Getting the word out where I'm tracking, I'm... Targeting market like a impact driven investors. We can certainly return a profile on this Investment with our build of a 15 to 20 percent IRR for investors So that's not hard to find people who want that kind of return on money But the thing I'm asking all my brothers and friends to pray for is impact driven investors because we want everybody at the table whether that's the employees we're hiring right now or the investors to share our mission mindset. You know, we recently turned down just about $14 million from an investor because when we dug in with them a little bit, our due diligence, it showed us that our values weren't aligned. And just in faith, we were like, you know, this could lead to problems, not because our investors have voting rights, but because when people dump that kind of time or money into something, they want who they are to guide operations. There's that sense. And we knew we weren't aligned and we walked away. So it's all about the people. Right now, I'm building my executive team. You cannot teach character. You cannot teach integrity. I, you know, like I need accountants, need office people, I need caregivers, I need a care manager. There's a lot, you know, if you're building, spending 200 million bucks and building these residential assisted living homes all over the city, you can imagine the staff that you're onboarding. So the hurdle that, I'm on the other end of it, I'm coming at your question backwards, but was building a small furniture company. It was take your eyes off of all the small things that become traps and put them on developing people, the people that are going to be the face of the company, whether we're going in for a liquidation, a corporate must move or selling to the public. The people that I bring on to represent my company are the face. And that's, that's what people will think. They're not going to see the partners. You know, maybe they catch a podcast like this, right? So somebody catches a podcast like this, they would do a little digging and they hook up with Justin or dragon and they're like, who is this great guy? Maybe. But for the most part, the public image of the company that you run is the people that you hire. It's the it's at the front front office. And so that is the lesson that is that's been the hurdle. So hiring the wrong people, hiring for the wrong reason. and not taking screening, onboarding, coaching, training seriously enough. My wife is an executive director at a big hospital system and she has hundreds of direct reports and directors under her and we have the same conversation. It's amazing how much time and money gets wasted hiring the wrong, not doing your, doing good work, bringing the right. people to the table and then coaching them up. That has been a hard lesson. You can teach accounting. You can teach nursing. I can send you to nursing school. You can teach how to play bingos with seniors or clip toenails, but you can't teach integrity of character. You cannot teach doing the right thing when no one's looking because you've lived enough to realize that that's your legacy. And that's all that matters. So that has been a long road, but now it's our central principle. it's my, even on this podcast, like this, that's my ask, know, like spread the word. I'm telling you the profile of the kind of person I want to hire. And I'm telling you that the kind of person that we want to invest, that the ways that we want to partner with people are gathered around this mission. And that's when the phrase, you know, field of dreams, if you build it, they will come in in business that can be misleading. But from a philosophical standpoint or a mission standpoint, like it's it's all there is. That's the building is the the people. Yeah, I've got to get my butt out there and pound the pavement and do the work. I've got to go do the work. if you'll build it is that community, it's the culture. And early on in business, you think it's about so many things that it's not, you know, the right software, the right indexes, the right website, the right marketing company and all these things. You think it's about all that. And in reality, it really doesn't matter what that much, what you pick there. What matters is the culture you build by the team that you. on board. So that hurdle, jumped it numerous times and now it's a governing principle of how we operate. I absolutely agree and I love that, right? You can teach someone a skill, but you can't teach someone to be a good person, right? And you want to find the right people and put the right people in the right positions. They have more joy in their employment and their life by virtue of that, but also so too then because they enjoy it more and because they care that people, the recipients of whatever that is, whether it's caregivers or whether it's just even coworkers, people working together, everybody enjoys the experience more. And as you mentioned, like that's the legacy, that's the idea. When you leave the room, like what do people feel, right? It's not just what they think, it's how do they feel. And I think that when you really lean in on that aspect of your character and the kindness and the love that you share, right? The grace that you give not just to yourself, but to others is so impactful. Greg, we've spoken about a few different people. You talk about fellowship. These are allies, these are mentors. These are people that have come along the journey with you and helped to teach you lessons or sometimes just to be a shoulder to cry on when you need it. Is there anyone that you would share or cite as inspirational or helpful for you on your journey? well with relationship to, Harmony Homes, it's our CEO, it's Bob DeClue. This is the guy that I was introduced to who already had the vision for senior assisted, living in St. Louis. He had already had his eye on this problem. and, that this has been quite the, the learning curve, like to be given the opportunity to run. own and operate to be the fund manager because I'm a relationship guy. Like I don't have a business degree, a finance degree, and here I am operating a fund, generating tens of millions of dollars to fund this. That's quite the privilege. the vision that this guy has before I hit the scene was inspirational. And he had his eye on this problem that I'm describing. And that has been a source of coaching and inspiration for me. Bob captured how senior living in the United States, for the most part, you know, this isn't like good guy, bad guy or us, they, you know, it's there, there is a problem and we got to be careful not to villainize because some of these big box companies like bookdale, they're, doing good work and there's a place. But the reason is a place for everybody and there's such a shortfall. Like right now, by the year 2030, we anticipate a 770,000 bed shortage to meet the silver tsunami and that's just the buildings, nothing to do with the care. That's insane. And Bob had his eye on this. This is what drives the margins. But he wasn't just looking at the margins, he was looking at the lack of care. Just think about it, anybody you know. who has been in or knows someone who's been in senior assisted living, when's the last time you heard someone say, we pay X dollars, depending on what part of the country you're in, and I would pay double that. I would pay triple that because the care is so good. No, those words are never spoken. It just doesn't get said. And Bob had his eye on this problem, this lack of care, this taking our patrimony, our ancestors, our... you know, our parents, our grandparents and putting them in these facilities and not hiring enough people are doing a good job with training and letting them rot. You know, like all the doctors and the medical staff that we've got on our board and our partners and so forth. Tell us the same thing that in senior living, the thing that's adding to the decline for the last 10 years of life isn't Alzheimer's or cancer or heart disease. It's isolation. It's alienation, it's feeling like you're in a place and it's, honey, go back to your room, I'll come get you when it's time for your medicine. You don't need to be out here in the hallway. Like these centers around the country that are pushing seniors into their room because the staff is overwhelmed, God love them, they're running care ratios 20 to one, it's ridiculous. It can be the same way in hospitals. you know, hospitals aren't always the safest place to be. It's insane. Bob had his eye on this and caught this vision for offering something different. And one of the ways Harmony is different is not instead of building a big giant hotel with 120 beds, hiring too few people, we're residential assisted living home, 16 bedroom homes, care ratios four to one. Bob had this vision like we can do something about this. and then gave me the opportunity to step into that vision, coached me through a lot of the financials and then set me free. So that's one guy that comes to mind. He's got a lot more experience in this sector than I do. then other mentors prior to that would have been, my brother, my older brother stepped into our family when my father died when I was 15. And he was one of these people that, you know, when crisis happens, you do one of two things. You either blame or you take responsibility. You either bug out or step in. And my brother stepped in and did a tremendous amount at a pretty important age in my life and showed me what it means to to take responsibility. And so. Later, now you fast forward and you run in companies or even as an employee, you know, that was a slow lesson for me. That concept of taking responsibility. And if you're in any kind of management or executive role, you know how everything rolls uphill. And so this is a key skill I learned from my brother very early on that even if it's not your fault, you can step in, take responsibility. and be a part of the solution. Because any conflict that you're near, you can find a way that you're involved or that you can be a part of making it better. And so therefore you can take responsibility. Wow, that's gold running a company. Because the whole blame game is cancer to culture. We just got done talking about how the culture of any company is so key. Well, what's the downside of that? It's this. finger pointing, you know, it's and so to have leaders who understand how to put their hand up and say, wait a minute, that's me. I got this. Sorry. I had a part in making this bad thing happen, but I've hey, let's jump on the solution. Wow. That's that is gold. And my brother was one of the first people to show me not by words. He didn't step in and go, OK, Greg, dad's dead. Now I'm going to take response. No, he just did it. He did it financially, leadership wise. He just stepped in. Huge, huge moment. I'm super grateful for you sharing that, Greg, and I'm sorry for your loss at such a young age. I recognize that. You don't always appreciate what you have until it's gone. And it's hard oftentimes to see the value or benefit of a dark time when you're in the moment. But when you can look back, right, hindsight, we talked about this earlier before the recording, but hindsight is 20-20. You can look back now and see the merit, the value, the benefit of the things that occurred in that time. And so thank you for sharing that perspective. I think one of the biggest points that I really loved what you said about how your brother didn't say it, he did it. Right. And anybody can open their mouth and say, hey, we should do or X, Y, Z, but physically getting into it, into the trenches, doing the hard work, right. Pushing through when you're tired and it's not easy and emotionally you're drained, right. Cause his father passed too. Right, so it was an impactful moment for him just as much. And instead of leaning into and finding that sorrow or that woe is me, which I don't think anybody would have faulted him for hurting in that regard. Instead, he channeled that energy then recognizing the responsibility, took the reins, right? And then it helped to lead your family into a better time, right? Despite the circumstance. I just think so much whether it's professional, whether it's personal, no matter what that is, whether you're a parent, whether you're a child, mean, one of both, my point is that whatever position you're in, seeing what you can do, like taking that responsibility, stepping into it, and then being solution oriented, right? You talked about problem solving. Like this is the issue, but here's what I present to how we can try and fix it. That may or not be the right answer, but at least you're taking initiative, you're moving forward, right? Yeah. when you're with a team, and this is, think, so much where masterminds come into play, or just having the right people surrounding yourself with the right people, the right culture, like we talked about, now we're all in this solution mindset together. We each share our ideas. And then suddenly something greater that any of us would have ever foreseen comes about because of it. We're able to take each of our pieces and grow it into something that none of us foresaw, uh but has such a magical impact at the end of it all. So I appreciate you sharing that. darkest hour, obviously you shared one that's fairly dark there, but I just, is there a moment in particular that jumps to mind where in business or professional, professional or personal, something that you just felt like it was time to throw in the towel, right? You put your head into the sand or under the pillow and just try and make it go away. How did you overcome that? What mindset did you need to? come out of that dark space. Sure. So before I got into business, I'm a late bloomer, I guess. I started my first company in my 40s. I had learned a lot of these lessons prior to that. So I've definitely had towel throwing moments. I can't say that in the last 15 years, I've had a moment where I'm like, that's it, I'm done. But I've definitely pivoted. Like right now I'm, you moving away from a certain Airbnb because it's just financial analytics. You know, it's like, okay, that money would be better, would better perform in another market. That's not throwing in the towel. That's just constant modification. But what I can speak to is absence and a key mindset, a key lesson I learned prior to starting these companies. So I ran a furniture company then I started a real estate company and now we're building this senior living Which is a much much bigger operation was the lesson of presence and And then I'll tell a story to illustrate this So I shared with you briefly that my dad died when I was when I was 15 I remember showing up at the emergency room and because we weren't sure he had passed. He had had a heart attack and I was the one who was helping the paramedics with them and all that. And then they put him in the ambulance and then I had to wait for my mom to get home. Well, I showed up at the hospital and I remember on March 13th at 5, 12 p.m., 1986, I remember that moment when they said that he did not make it. And I did not know how I felt. It was numbing. I didn't know who I was. Now I'm 15. Right. And I'm I'm a, I'm a full ride college athlete bound stud. I played basketball and, so I was lost, totally lost. I had no idea. I looked around on the youngest of four. I looked around and everybody else in the room and everyone was responding. They were there. My mom almost passed out. My sister starts weeping loudly and all this. Right. And I have looking at myself and I'm like, Who am I? I am, I'm not even here. I felt numb, you know, and I wasn't present. And what I recognized from that moment, hard work later, you know, you gotta get a little spiritual counsel, you gotta get a little help to deal with this kind of stuff. But later in life, what I realized is I learned the habit of being absent. My dad was kind of a drinker hard on the family and stuff like that. And that taught me to show up to mission, but not like, Like I could take on tasks like nobody's business smart good grades leader entrepreneur so I could show up to tasks Throughout college and then later later in life, you know as an employee and then a business owner I could show up and make outlines and crush deadlines, dude, but I wasn't there and it wasn't till I started having kids bro and Until I could be so busy running a company and in my own home working from home whether working from home or traveling, I remember several key moments where my kids looked at me. And it wasn't that they were afraid. Like I've never hit my kids or any of that kind of stuff. I didn't repeat some of the mistakes my dad did, right? So I remember some key moments when my kids, and this would hurt my wife too, they would look at me, not because I hurt them, but because I was emotionally absent. Because I wasn't there. I was more married to like mission than to the moment. know, like this happens even today, bros. I'm sure this happens to you too. Like I'm at home right now for this, right? Podcasting and my kids know, because I'm on a lot of podcasts, they know to kind of stay away. But they'll walk up sometimes and I'm like, look, I'm busy. You know, and how do you be present to the Barbie doll or the thing? while you're working from home and dude, this has been key. This balance and this learning how to show up and what that means, like who I am. So translating to the present, we recently ran into pressure. We bought some ground to build, okay? And we had NIMBYs. Now, if you don't know what a NIMBY is, it's not in my backyard. So we had the neighborhood came out, because we bought the ground so we can develop and do what we need to do. legally, as long as we apply for the right permits and the steps you got to do in a development like this, right? But we had a neighborhood city zoning. We had to ask for permission from the city and the neighborhood came out and they were like, hey, senior living sounds great. Just don't do it here. And we had like 50 of them, you know, and I'm speaking, it's a courtroom. So I'm speaking to the city, the mayor and the, you know, city council and. All the neighbors are behind me and I can't tell that they think I'm the devil But it was quite the tense that tense now then they got up and got to say why we're bad people and we don't know what we're doing and all this but it was It wasn't it wasn't super fun, but it wasn't heavy and I'm gonna tell you why Because at this point in my life, I've learned how to show up. I've learned how If I'm doing the right thing, I'm doing something important and critical that's solving a problem for a vulnerable population, that's on God's heart. Like I'm on the right side of this. I don't have to worry about all that small stuff. I was present, but when I was younger, I wouldn't have been. Bro, I'd have been a taskmaster. When I was younger, I'd have been like worried and afraid and anxious and And like trying to anticipate everything the NIMBYs would say to shut down our operation and like getting the attorney to at $750 an hour to control the situation. I'm just not broke. I'm here. I'm here. I show up this lesson of learning how to show up with who you are as opposed to being a case manager is gold and running companies. Cause if it's meant to be, you're just wasting anxiety. on things you can't control, you know, and just yesterday, today's June 26th, no, two days ago, June 24th, the city council voted and approved our special use permit, which was not a surprise. But if I were a different person, if I hadn't learned these lessons from earlier, I would not have been peaceful. I would not have been present. You know, I'd have been a mess, a bad CIO. a bad example for my employees who were present, my partners who were present, and for the community who might be able to see that I'm just a shell of a man who's a taskmaster and not really showing up. So I hope that story helps because it's critical for operations. It's been a huge lesson I've learned in my own development that I bring to business. And frankly, It's one of the reasons that so many companies fail because the people at the top aren't present. know, whether it's a kid come into the kitchen table with a Barbie or one of your executive directors coming into your office, the partners don't know how to show up. They don't know how to be present. They never learned. And it creates a culture of cancer that nobody wants to be a part of. the the company becomes a revolving door. Showing up is so key. It's so everything. Greg, when I hear you talk about that, makes me think about the idea of authenticity. When you show up and you're being authentic, true to yourself, really being present in the moment, I've heard it said that that's the highest of vibrations, that really, that when you're in it and you're in that moment and you are, you're present. in that moment. And actually, and I think about kids too, when you said that I was reflecting, you know, you get so in the moment, you do 18 different things, you're trying to go, go, go, you mean, well, you're trying to do the right thing for your family and whether to align with your mission, etc. But the people that we're doing it for the ones that I'm suffering, because we're not present, we're not there. mean, physically, we might be but emotionally, we're not distant. And it Totally. being able to come into the house, you your young one says, Hey, dad, play with these Barbies, right? Like no matter what you're doing, like unless, unless the world's going to end, like, and especially even then, because then that's when you need to enjoy that last moment. Right. But, know, get out on the floor, play, play the Barbie, play with the dolls. Right. And just be in that moment because it's funny, you know, it might only be 10 or 15 minutes, but you put in that 15 minutes, and it's a memory for a lifetime, right. For you and your child. And That's just an example, but it just, it's what I reflected on, made me think about, about being present, right? And whether that's your business, whether that's with your spouse, whether that's with your child, like, and it all boils back to the idea that you already mentioned before about relationship, right? The aspect, it's all about the people and it's about the people that we are with. And, and so be present, be in that moment. I appreciate that. Thank you for the, the, the lesson. Thanks for talking about that. Well, you know, you've mentioned it, and I'm a little biased, but you mentioned gold a few times. And I just want to, I want to ask, so we call this dragon's gold, things that over the journey in the experiences you've had, personal, professional, what are some of the things that you've taken as, as gold, whether it's mindset accolades, anything at all that you might share with the listeners that you've learned in your, on your journey. Well, I just shared a couple of them. And presence and showing up is everything. Let me put a punctuation mark on that. I've shared this story with a couple of people, but we were traveling across the country and my wife had flown ahead. She was taking her next travel nurse contract and we were traveling from from the East Coast to Colorado and She had to get there quicker. So I'm driving a fifth wheel Which is a 20,000 pound tow behind an f-350 and it's windy on highway 70 in Kansas and my awning on my fifth wheel malfunctioned and it it Extended on highway 70 while doing about 60 miles an hour Well, this turns into a sail and it pulls on the whole, I'm 63 feet long. And I've got five kids in my truck because my wife's the only one that flew ahead. And fortunately, the awning is on the, and I'm in the slow lane, the awning is on the shoulder side, not extending into traffic. By the time I was able to pull over, half of it is dragging to get ground and there are sparks flying from my fifth wheel because of the metal dragging the ground. Well, fortunately, I was able to turn on my generator and get power tools out to take off these factory installed metal support arms. But I'm doing this on the side of the highway with cars whipping by at 80 miles an hour with my own. The only help I have is my older kids, you know, and I had a couple of teenagers at the time, but you can imagine the tension and the the drama, but this was a moment where I realized that I was more focused on the task than the people. you know, being stranded on the side of the highway, you know, with a broken house that you live in is insecure for kids and it's not fun. And so I can do things like watch my tongue. I'm stressed, not curse. Speak quickly but politely. I could make eye contact. These are like robotic management movements, you know? I could keep everyone safe. Don't go on that side. You could get hit over there. But I could be absent. I just shared this with you, but this idea of showing up, this was one of the key moments where I learned it for me going deeper. because the people, the kids, my kids at this moment are also feeling the same thing that I'm feeling. know, are we going to be able to do this? You know, or it's just going to turn into a full day of camping on the side of the highway while we wait for help, the type of help that would be needed. And so, you know, you might have looked at me and thought I did a great job. You might have looked at me and thought, you know, you didn't lose your cool. Look at all the things you kept everybody alive. And you managed to get that awning off of there and get back on the road within, you know, 90 minutes during a windstorm. You know, it's not a storm, but that part of the country, it's like planes and it gets really. crazy windy and sometimes they even shut the highway down. But brother I was a wreck on the inside I wasn't present you know nobody died nobody got hurt we succeeded. But I would have given myself a D maybe a D minus on you know I didn't I did not have fun with it. I was very serious. I did not make it lighthearted. did not, I didn't show up. And because I was still learning how to do that. And these crisis moments, these little, these little disappointments and you know, when, when stuff happens that you would never plan, it's revelatory. It like opens up the parts of you. that scream out in management moments, you know? And it's like gold. I've been choosing that term on purpose, but it's like you're in the molten fire being formed. And the only question is, are you gonna address what matters most? Are you gonna give yourself an A because everyone lived, you fixed the awning and you didn't curse? Good dad. Good crisis manager. you did great. Well, then you miss the chance to be molten, become great, to become a great leader. Or you're to be honest and look at yourself and become a great leader, a champion, so that the next generation faces crises in a different way. They have a confidence then because they're leader. the one running the family or the company can face the worst with character, with something that's hard to find today. And they can imagine themselves becoming that person. That's real confidence. So that was a moment for me of a reckoning and going, I know that's kind of a restate of what we just said, but this lesson of showing up has been central. to my leadership, to my coaching, to my parenting. And right now it's at the hub of operations for the team that we're onboarding a lot of people. And we're seeking and we're doing that whole HR recruiting thing. That's a big job. But this is what we're looking for is the gift of presence. Because no matter what a senior needs, and regardless of what kind of company you run or that you're involved in. But for me, it's seniors. What a senior needs is someone to show up. Anybody can help someone remember their name or remember to take their medicine or give them a ride or pray with them. Anybody can do those tasks, but not everybody can show up. So there you go. Yeah, I think that's super powerful and absolutely relevant too. I think about being there with your kids, right? Being in the moment, you're trying to do damage control triage and fix this situation. Yeah, make sure everyone doesn't die. And I mean, to that you get an A, right? But being, how, what... How did you handle that? What kind of grace did you operate with? What kind of lessons did you teach your children? What example did you set? I've heard it said that when you are angry or frustrated, what comes out is a good measure of what you're really made of. And the nice thing is, that even in a moment, you may look back and not be proud of the person you were in that moment. But if you give yourself the opportunity to reflect on that and you can grow from it and you can change the next time something like that happens, you can go at it with a different mindset. You can be present. You can be thoughtful about what impact you're going to have. And I think that that, evolution, that growth is so paramount. It reaches for us as people, as business owners, as fathers, right. And mothers and, you everybody in their own right. Greg, we talk about passing the torch right now with five kids. big legacy to live, to leave. I call this the Hall of Heroes, a massive statue of Greg Robeson that has a plaque that can say anything that you want. What would you want it to say? Well, we're legacy leavers. And so I've got five kiddos, but I've got maybe a bigger audience of people who value what I say or how I act. it's not that we want to act like we're always on stage, like it's being recorded and scrutinized later. What we're doing is we're making memories. So leaders make memories and leave legacies. You are leaving a legacy and the only question is what is it? There's no way around it. So I like to reflect often on what would my wake sound like tomorrow? So I'm headed off to an appointment here shortly. You know, what if I get killed on the highway? What does what did the people who shows up because I made an impact at my wake and what gets said right now? because I have from today till my actual wake to make that difference, to be that legacy lever. So we like to talk about impact, but we don't like to do the work of making that impact. So that's what I focus on is what legacy are you leaving? With my kids it's with their friends. You don't know how long you're gonna be friends If you're on a team, it might just be for this year. What would your teammates say? Next year. you remember that Robeson kid? Yeah, he was really honest. She was really kind, you know, whatever whatever that might be. What is that? legacy and that type of dreaming and imagining gets you to think about Moments like that RV stranding. Hey, you know I get you to think about that when that real self comes out and You know, I I always tell people that they can you can put the cart before the horse if you're not a nice person Just do nice things You know if you do an exam and you know, you take a self-check and you're you're not very loving You're not I don't know. You're not fun to be around. How do you how do you change that? Well, go do fun things If you're not kind, how do you how do you become kind go? five do five kind things and It's the cart before the horse you do the kindness and then your heart becomes kind, you know like and so we can change the legacy that We're leaving right now It's if that's a today thing. So this appointment I've got how am I gonna speak to the people in the office and so forth and so on? so this this concept of at the end of time, what kind of impact will we have made? I've got to bring that vision into today to be a legacy lever. Thank you for that, my friend. Well, what's next? What's the next quest for Greg Robeson in Harmony Homes? Well, we are expanding. We're building and building homes. So we're in a marketing and communication phase right now, which is getting the word out. The next for us is becoming the brand. I don't know if you've ever read Zero to One by Peter Thiel, but it's the concept in business of don't compete. Don't try to... copy or do it a little better, do it in a way that nobody can imagine another brand. And that's what we're trying to do. We're watching our seniors, our patrimony be mistreated and we're developing multiple verticals, estate liquidation for seniors, asset liquidation, know, kind of like eBay for seniors and then actual care models. All of these things, this one hand to hold vision that we have where we're intuiting the transition for seniors. There's nobody in the country, we haven't found anybody doing it yet. So we're like, well, let's do it. You know, there's some, there's some senior care operators out there who care that they're trying to bring care back to senior care, but there's nobody offering the comprehensive level of, of service that we are. So I think for us, what's next is that zero to one where 10 years from now, their harmony is going to mean care in a way that it should have been since the words senior care were first spoken. So I think we're innovators in the space, we're care leaders, we're thought leaders. And I just look forward to that, that like building that team of people who are a part of that change. That's an exciting thing to think about. You think about what has been with senior care and what you know it should be. And now you're in the space with unique abilities, bringing people around that mission. That's exciting. Yes. And what an impact that you can have, right? as you said earlier, the idea about when... about being present and when you're there, leading that charge, leading by example, like doing the things you know need to be done, right? Putting the cart before the horse. You already, know what the vision is itself and you're gonna find the way to get there. so building this team to be able to, to be able to. And really, just to say it super simply, taking care of people at the end of their life, giving them something for value, something to reflect on and appreciate, an ear to listen, someone to listen to their stories, right? Letting them share and feel heard, right? Because that's oftentimes, that's the last they have is those memories. They're not going out and making all these new adventures and stories. What they're doing is living through the vision, the memory of what they did. And if they can share that and remember or feel the emotion that came along with hopefully the positive pieces, right? And if you can be present when listening to these stories, right? The wisdom that you can gain from someone else's knowledge, the ripples that come from that, that it's a benefit to both parties or to all involved, right? Talk about gold, bro. mean, gold is what these seniors have to share. It's not just sentiment. We've got to plug into that and sit at the feet of the master and listen. It's gold for sure. I love it. All right, my friend, two more questions I got. The first is tools and weapons, books, resources, things that you've read or that are part of things that have helped you on your journey and that might help some of the listeners. Sure. The 12 week year has helped from an organizational standpoint. That's good business practice to get kind of a year's worth of work down in a quarter. think procrastination is a huge problem. That has helped us. So like we read that as a the partners, the five partners I mentioned already zero to one was pretty epic. Good to great. Some of the Dan Sullivan stuff has been really fantastic. Let's see. podcast wise besides Dragon's Gold, the Magic Mindset. Well, obviously, look at the quality of the guest you've got. um to me, it's like now in the age of AI, you can listen to people, you know, tell you what books impacted them or podcasts or videos or there's this one movie, you know, and I think that's all good. That's all good testimony. But like the question is, what what is it that you need to learn? Like, where is it that you want to do targeted growing? So I know when I came to Harmony, like I mentioned, I didn't have a strong finance background. I went under the mentorship of our CEO, I went in the direction of accelerated business learning. How do you develop a fund? And so forth and so on. And so that's what guided what I was reading, studying, how I was networking. And now in the age of AI, my gosh, tell Chad, tell your bot where your skills are, what you're trying to accomplish. Tell me what podcast to listen to. Some people like to read, I love to read. Some people prefer audio in the car while they're driving, whatever. It's all good. But get a strategy that's tailored to you. Don't just listen to me tell you what books helped me, because there's a reason I read those. There's stuff that you probably should be reading or listening to right now based on the journey you're on and how you're growing today. I kind of, rather than giving you a list, because I am a voracious reader, I would say approach it that way. I love it, Greg. That's super helpful insight. And I think it's very relevant, right? Like, what are the books? Well, get into the space, start turning over those rocks, find what's there, and then find the ones that resonate with you, right? take the lessons that make sense to you from those and the ones that you don't align with, fine. That's okay. It doesn't have to be, you don't have to agree with everything, right? Take the best value that you can, learn and grow from that, apply the things that make sense. move on from the rest, right? All right, Greg, I got one more question. It's my favorite one to ask. If you could be any mythical creature, what would you be and why? that's easy. That would be a griffin, the head of an eagle, the body of a lion. It's like the vision, it's like the union of the vision of strength, heaven and earth. In medieval times, the griffin represented divine kingship and guardianship of treasure, like gold, but more than gold, the guardianship of virtue. Family and mission and those are things we've talked about on this podcast Griffin's they were said to build their nests high in the mountains and fiercely protect the young You know constantly calling fathering and coaching, you know to bring others under them to the high heights So I'm not the kind of person who chases power for powers sake I see myself as a steward. The griffin doesn't roam for sport. watches. There's a local high school here in St. Louis with this mascot that's very popular. The griffin protects and leads. that's, if I was a mythical creature, I think that's the one that fits me best. I love it, buddy. Thank you so much for sharing that and the insight as to the why, right? Again, that's such a big part of why I love that question so much is because not just what, because you could be anything. The question is, why would you want to be that, right? And so I think that you really elaborate on that well and I'm grateful for it. So thank you, my friend. My friends, thank you for joining us once again on our quest to inspire, educate, and empower you to turn your dreams into reality, one mindset shift at a time. We'll see you next time.

People on this episode

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Justin Mills

Host
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Aaron Iler

Producer
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Greg Robeson

Guest