Resilience and Adaptability: Navigating Challenges as an Entrepreneur Channeling Creativity in Business | Richard Walsh

PROFITABLE TALKS...

In this conversation, Christian Brim interviews Richard Walsh about his entrepreneurial journey and the lessons he learned along the way. Richard shares his experience of starting a landscape business and transitioning into creating custom water features and steel sculptures. He also discusses the financial collapse of 2008-2009 and how his business failed due to his own decisions. Richard reflects on the importance of understanding money and the impact it can have on a business. He shares how he realized the need to prioritize his family over his business and made the decision to close down his business. The conversation highlights the themes of entrepreneurship, creativity, financial management, and personal growth. In this conversation, Richard shares his journey as an artist turned entrepreneur and the importance of seeking help and guidance in business. He emphasizes the need for entrepreneurs to separate their identity from their business and to surround themselves with a supportive community. Richard also discusses the role of creativity in business and how it can be channeled to create unique experiences and value for customers. He shares his vision for the future and his goal of helping 10,000 business owners achieve freedom, profit, and impact.

PROFITABLE KEY TAKEAWAYS...

• Entrepreneurs are both builders and artists, driven by passion and creativity.
• Understanding money and having good financial management skills are crucial for business success.
• Prioritizing family and personal well-being is essential for long-term happiness and fulfillment.
• Learning from past mistakes and taking responsibility for one's actions is key to personal growth and success.
• Entrepreneurship requires resilience and the ability to adapt to changing circumstances. Entrepreneurs often see their business as their identity, but it's important to separate the two and not let the success or failure of the business define who you are.
• Seeking help and guidance from coaches, mentors, and entrepreneurial colleagues is crucial for personal and business growth.
• Surrounding yourself with a supportive community of like-minded individuals who understand the challenges of entrepreneurship can provide valuable feedback and support.
• Creativity can be channeled in business to create unique experiences and value for customers, without sacrificing profitability.
• Building a business that serves you and allows for freedom, profit, and impact is possible with the right mindset and support system.

Ready to turn your PASSION into PROFIT?!? Let's get CREATIVE ➡️
https://www.coregroupus.com/profit-first-for-creatives

Transcript

Christian Brim (00:02.297)
Welcome to another episode of the profitable creative Christian Brim, host. am with Richard Walsh with sharpen the spear coaching. Richard,

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (00:15.18)
Thanks, Christian. Great to be here. Excited.

Christian Brim (00:17.741)
Well, I'm excited to have you. So, I wanted to start with just this, this story, you know, in, your bio, you have a story about, you, you look experienced like I do maybe with less hair, but you know, still, still of a certain age. So, let's start with that. Tell me your, tell me your

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (00:39.234)
Yeah, so US Marine, okay, so was in that, got out. So that's kind of where life began after the Marine Corps. Had to get a job. So I got a job swinging a pickaxe, digging trench all day to lay cable. It's very exciting. Down in Tucson, Arizona, you have this stuff called caliche, which is like swinging a pick in the concrete. You go about two inches at a time. We had to go 18 inches deep. Exhilarating work, okay, quite a future I had, okay.

I didn't think it got worse than the Marine Corps, but it did. And that was $5 an hour I got for that Christian, okay? So I'm like, okay, well, this is, I mean, I like it. I mean, it's a good workout. I get to do it for eight hours and I make five bucks an hour. But a guy came up and asked me, hey, can you do a side gig? Can you help me out? And down there, they do granite instead of grass. So you spread like crushed granite or three quarter inch granite or whatever. he said, I've got some on the streets. It's got to go to my backyard and spread. Okay, and it was only 35 tons worth. I said, well,

Christian Brim (01:33.903)
A pittance.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (01:34.37)
I can do that. I'm like, I do this every day. I swing a pickaxe. So I did use my last 85 bucks before payday. I bought a wheelbarrow and a shovel, showed up and it about 10 hours. I knocked this thing out, right? Going, I can work. And got it all done. And here's the best part, Christian, the guy came out and he put $1 ,000 in my hand. And I'm looking at this $1 ,000 and I'm going, well, dang, I did this yesterday for 50 bucks.

Christian Brim (01:55.614)
Christian Brim (02:01.355)
Right, right.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (02:02.178)
I'm like, I know my future. I'm going to work for myself. Okay. Yes, this could be good. I get to this twice a month and I'm still making more money. You know, so that was my, that was the beginning of my entrepreneurial journey. Okay. So I said, okay, I'll start. I was at that time about 21, 22. So young, young and dumb. I got the dumb part really good too. I did that really well. But so I started going to landscape business. I turned it into custom water features.

Christian Brim (02:05.236)
We, I'd rather do this.

Christian Brim (02:16.045)
And what age were

Christian Brim (02:21.751)
Okay, all

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (02:32.544)
because I'm like, I really love, I started making artificial stone, then that went into real stone and waterfalls and they got bigger and bigger and more unique. you know, I'm an artist. kind of didn't know I was, but I was. So I'm an artist. So I started creating these water features, started to scale that, move that back to Chicago. Really takes off during when I'm winning awards and I'm doing huge shows. I taught myself how to be a steel sculptor. I'm like, well, I kind of like that. I'm going to teach myself how to weld. Well,

Christian Brim (02:32.679)
nice.

Christian Brim (02:45.814)
Ugh.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (03:00.682)
Next thing you know, I'm doing like world -class exhibits, know, the conservatories and stuff like that, you know. International recognized steel sculptor, got stuff on Michigan Avenue in Chicago in front of Tribune building for six months. And well, that's pretty neat, you know, so I'm doing all this. I'm an artist, right? I'm an artist and I'm running a business. And that's really cool. No berets, no beret. I was tempted. No, I wasn't. I was never tempted to wear a beret. So, but I was, I do not look like an artist. No one ever accused me being an artist.

Christian Brim (03:11.139)
Nice. Yeah.

Did you wear a beret at the time? Okay.

Christian Brim (03:29.677)
Right, right.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (03:30.242)
Okay, even young they said I had no talent whatsoever. So I had that going for me. And then just a sidebar for all the creatives out there. You know what the great thing is? Like one of these one commission. I made more on one commission than all those teachers and people told me I had no talent and they would probably make in 10 years or more. I made it one commission because I'm talentless according to them. So don't listen to the haters. That's all I got to say.

Christian Brim (03:50.499)
Yes. Yes. Yes.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (03:59.202)
just go with it. So I'm building this business, doing great, making great money, charging whatever I want to charge because I'm the only one who can do what I do. You know, I do it a certain way and everything else and I'm building this business and then 0809 comes, the big economic collapse, right? Things get restricted. People really didn't need a water feature at that time. Everyone was clutching onto whatever they had because they were terrified and rightly so. That caused the final demise of my business. Now it

Christian Brim (04:16.843)
Right. Right.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (04:27.604)
I do say this one caveat. wasn't the collapse that ruined my business. It was me, okay, who didn't do certain things in my business to be able to weather a storm like that. Because otherwise every business would have collapsed, right? If it was that. So I'm like, well, it was me. was my stuff I pushed to left of the desk and ignored. Okay, because I'm an artist. I'm all making things. I'm

Christian Brim (04:40.111)
Correct.

Christian Brim (04:48.943)
Okay, I gotta stop you because I've got these questions running through my head and I'm not gonna be able to keep track of them. Okay, so back to when you said that you realized you were an artist, but you didn't really identify as an artist. I talk about in my book the first time I was called an artist and I was at a mastermind group with Perry Marshall who wrote

80 20 sales and marketing. He's a famous marketing guru and he described entrepreneurs as a continuum of between builders and artists and builders see an opportunity in the marketplace and they figure a way to make money and they just do it. There's not a lot of emotion attached into it. And they said, but the artist is driven, their business is driven by passion.

And he looked at me and he said, Christian, you're an artist. And honestly, I took, I was a little taken aback, like I'm not an artist. But after I sat with it for a minute, I realized, yeah, I guess, because I'm not the other, right? I'm not like the opportunist where I see something and I want to do it just because I can make money. Right. So talk about your, your realizing that you're an artist.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (06:17.536)
Yes, I started. It's like, wow, I'm really creative, right? I'm doing it. People are like, I've never seen anything like this. Like so water feature, right? So you're talking boulders and waterfalls and fish. And when I got done with mine, it looked like it was there before the house. That's how natural it was. It wasn't this cookie cutter, bunch of round cobblestone with a box with water falling out of it all that. I didn't do any of that. It. Looked like it's has been there forever, right?

So I'm like, and I knew I had some talent. was a little bit of a writer, know, creative writer and stuff like that. with this, it just was natural for me. And I just got rid it. And then, but I am an innovator. I'm a builder innovator. OK, so I can build and scale things. also I love to innovate things. So come up with new ways to do things and bring them to the market. And innovation is very similar to being artistic. So you really are. It's a creative, right? You have to come up with this stuff.

Christian Brim (07:11.447)
Okay, yes, I would agree with that. I would agree that every entrepreneur is creative, right? No matter what their business, because they're creating something

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (07:14.474)
Right, so.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (07:24.982)
Yes, and or like you're saying some are in the opportunist category, which isn't a negative. Some people think that word opportunities and negative, but they just see it, they do it. Like they can already be in an established market and they grab it, they run with it. Yeah, I know they're gonna create things, but pretty much their business, because like real entrepreneurship is buying and selling businesses. You buy it, you grow it, you sell it for profit. You buy another one, you grow it, you sell it, right?

Christian Brim (07:31.491)
Yes. No?

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (07:54.454)
there's creativity there, but I think again, if we want to have a division, you know, where's, you know, from artistic to creative, right? So I was kind of going on the artistic side, especially when I started my sculpture work. So I started that sculpture work and that is

Christian Brim (08:09.711)
Okay. And what would that distinction be for you between an artist and a creative?

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (08:20.98)
I think from an artistic standpoint, you know, when you, how do know the difference between a Monet and a Van

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (08:29.462)
because it's a Monet and it's a Van Gogh. You can tell Monet, right, because he did this, and he had the blurs, and Van Gogh did the swirly and all that stuff, right? That's artist. You can see the hand of the artist. You can specifically say who made this. Okay, that's my definition. Okay, creative,

Christian Brim (08:29.485)
Well... Right.

Christian Brim (08:39.693)
Right. Okay.

Okay, I like that. I like that.

I guess the better question is, with that awareness, how did you ever become a Marine and you were digging ditches? Like, how did you start

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (09:01.472)
Yeah, so I grew up in the landscape construction and maintenance business. So I worked at a very young age. I'd love to go out at four in the morning, jump on the couch with the guys and change cups and teas and work with them. And in summers I'd work because my dad ran the golf course, you know, so I do that. So there's this thing about working, my dad had an incredible work ethic and just it was like joy in it because it was a sense of accomplishment for me. Every day you just like I did that. So I really like accomplishing things. I'm a big finisher.

I love the finish. And then I got into athletics, you know, and not the popular ones like cross country. Okay, I ran. I was with all six of us on the team, right? So what I found, what I found Christian was I'm drawn to things that include suffering. Okay, everything I did was like suffering. Running is just suffering, endless suffering. Okay, there's, you know, they talk about the runners. Yes, they talk about the runners high. I'm like never had that.

Christian Brim (09:54.807)
waiting for it to stop.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (09:59.882)
Okay, never experienced that. Now I became a boxer, right? So I go, I'm a champion boxer. did all that. I got parts and wires in my face and seven breaks in my nose, detached my face, suffering. Every day I got in the ring and got beat up, suffering. Okay. Got my first green black belt in Taekwondo every day getting kicked in the face or kicking someone else in the face. So, so for me was, that's why then went to Marine Corps like now this will test

I I need to be tested. So I'm gonna go into Marine Corps and I did that and went through all that. So suffering. So that's the theme. My theme I've decided is suffering. So from there, what I did from artistic standpoint was not easy either. It was very difficult work. I mean, I'm moving boulders and carrying two 300 pound boulders and rolling them and one ton, two ton, having to do this amazingly difficult work, which I obviously improved with machinery and everything else. Then the sculpture was

Christian Brim (10:34.895)
OK. All

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (10:58.016)
jigs and hand -bending heating metal one inch at a time and creating, I mean it's like no one would do it with people like you just out of your mind. know thousands of pieces cut and welded side by side and I did things that were just unusual so that's so the art still played into my strengths of suffering if you will right. So I think does that kind of explain

Christian Brim (11:17.956)
Yeah.

Yeah, no, no, it does. you, you mentioned also, you know, the financial collapse, but your business failed because of your decisions. Talk, talk a little more about

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (11:38.434)
Yeah, so you get going and you're making you you started a business and now we're already I'm already in 20 years, almost 20 years at the time. wait, right. So. Yeah, boy, what do you say that? OK, well, yeah, because now where I'm at, look where I'm at now. Yes, no, it's good. Yeah, I'm in my 40s. I have six small children like four years and younger, right, married, everything else. So what happened was I'm making money. I'm building great things.

Christian Brim (11:44.847)
Okay, so you're in your

Christian Brim (11:53.465)
Just trying to give some context

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (12:08.158)
And I think every artist wants to do their art. That's what matters. I didn't care about money. I'd be happy if I could just make my stuff, put it outside, shut the door, go back to work, someone else sell it. Now the beauty, Christian, is everything I made I sold. I never experienced the starving artist phase. So I made stuff and people paid lots of money for it. It was great. Okay. Cause I made them functional and whatever, all this stuff.

Christian Brim (12:25.998)
Yes.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (12:36.298)
Okay, make, make, make, build, build, build, making great money is coming in, but not caring about money, that's a problem. Okay, when you don't care about it because you know what they say about when you don't pay attention to something? It goes away. Try it with a wife, try it with a friend, try it with your money. Don't pay attention to them, they're all gonna go away. And then there's business things. Now I had an accountant, I had an office manager.

Christian Brim (12:43.257)
Mmm.

Christian Brim (12:49.561)
Mm -hmm.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (13:02.892)
but you really weren't addressing things. So I had tax debt mounting. I had some other things that were kind of creeping up on me. Vendor payouts. We got ahead of things. You're like, well, I can pay it because I could always make more money. So this was the young and dumb part. You're like, and I could like it was like an ATM machine. I mean, it was amazing what I could do, but never. Here's a here's a let me show you good example. So five or four websites are still kind of new, right?

Christian Brim (13:16.696)
Yeah.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (13:32.61)
They're the wild, what I want to do an e -commerce website to sell sculptures and stuff. You know, I these really cool benches and stuff like that. So this guy, I can do it. It cost me $41 ,000 to have this website made that we can do for free now. Okay. I built better websites. I don't know what I'm doing. Right. So I pay $41 ,000 and it comes up. Christian, I look at it I go, wait a minute. I don't build two of anything. I'm going to want to do this. I don't make another, I only do one of everything. I'm like, shut that thing down.

Christian Brim (13:46.253)
Right.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (14:01.666)
And I did like two weeks later, I shut it down. My wife lost her mind because like I just $41 ,000 gone. Then he charged me $8 ,000 on my water feature website, which is just pictures. Okay, that's the crazy time of websites, right? So I'm like, okay, I did that. So now I'm at $50 ,000 just on that. Hey, there's a cool skits here. I need that 50 ,000 paying cash.

Christian Brim (14:08.439)
I can imagine.

Christian Brim (14:12.302)
Yes.

Christian Brim (14:17.003)
Right. Okay.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (14:29.41)
Right. So I was doing things like, I'm being smart. I have no debt. I'm paying cash. OK, I paid $50 ,000 for a skits here. Great track, New Holland. OK, this is great. I could have rented that for like eight or nine hundred a month for the season. OK. And it would have cost me a few thousand dollars instead of 50. What could I have done with that other forty five thousand dollars in the same month? You know, it's.

Christian Brim (14:55.215)
So it's safe to say, okay, one of the things that I see with entrepreneurs is that whatever their personal money habits are, their mindset, they bring into the business. They're not separate. It's not like you become a business owner and all of a sudden you understand money differently, right? So what...

did you learn about money growing

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (15:29.634)
it was not much. I didn't learn much at all. It was not a good situation. We didn't have money. We didn't have money, right? I had two brothers, my mom, my dad. My dad worked all the time, you know, did okay, but my mother was a spender. Like, and I'm, you know, she passed away 15 years ago or whatever longer. She would literally be outside my dad's office on payday.

Christian Brim (15:32.068)
Mm -hmm.

Christian Brim (15:48.524)
Okay, okay.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (15:58.902)
to get the check.

Christian Brim (15:59.385)
Okay.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (16:01.708)
Okay, these are the memories. Okay, like, wow, like, and then it's gone. Right? So yeah, there was not, there's no good exposure to money, money handling, if you will, right? Money management.

Christian Brim (16:03.736)
Right, right.

Christian Brim (16:15.007)
Yeah. Money wasn't talked about at home. Yeah. Right. Right. Okay. Yeah. So, so how do you think, that what you learned about money, affected your business? Like, is, is there a connection

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (16:19.348)
No, except the lack of. That's all you talk about is the lack of.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (16:38.122)
I think there is, and it's interesting you say that, I may not have thought about this before, but now I am. I'm thinking about this right now. You're the best. I knew I came on here for a reason. So I thought, well, I can make a lot. We didn't have any. So you make a lot. Watch this. I'm going to go make a lot of money. And I did. But part

Christian Brim (16:44.322)
That's what I do. You're welcome.

Christian Brim (16:57.337)
Mm -hmm.

Christian Brim (17:01.421)
Right? Yes.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (17:06.754)
or B, that's A, get a lot, I still don't know what to do with it. Right? And, at that age, that first 20 years, I never accepted help from anybody. I was so prideful. My ego was so big. And I had clients who were multi billionaires, own professional sports teams, giving me advice that I did not

Christian Brim (17:34.808)
Yeah.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (17:35.298)
because that's how smart I was. Because what do they know? I I built water features.

Christian Brim (17:39.991)
Right. And you don't, you don't get conversations with those people normally.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (17:45.258)
No, and they love me because what I built for them. Like they loved what I did, like it was just awesome, right? And they just and I can be a little intimidating. OK, even to a billionaire. So they just offer the stuff. They're not going to push it. They're not going to demand. And I say no, and I keep going and I go make more money. But you know, know the same question. If I just had what I lost.

Christian Brim (18:01.475)
Right?

Christian Brim (18:11.499)
Well, so let me ask you a question. It sounded like maybe from your comment that your wife had a different mindset.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (18:19.862)
Yes, yes, yes, she should have been in charge.

Christian Brim (18:20.131)
about money.

Christian Brim (18:25.633)
So, you know, one of the things I've experienced, my wife and I have very different, I would say value systems. You know, it's like what you believe at your core, not that it's right or wrong, but just like what your life experiences has been. you know, my comment I'm known for is that money is just dirty paper, you

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (18:26.146)
Okay, I can.

Christian Brim (18:54.047)
And, and my attitude is very similar to yours for a long time because it's interesting because it was, it was a completely different situation growing up. had a lot of money, but we still didn't talk about it. And I had the very same mindset you did, which is I can always make more. Right. So I didn't really think about the other side of it because.

You know, and I think entrepreneurs being people that can see what's possible, that kind of goes along with them, right? Like, you know, it's like, well, you know, making money, that's that's easy. We I can do that. But it caused a lot of marital strife that that we had to work through to the point where we like, OK, kind of meeting towards more in the middle,

you know, making concessions around that, not, not giving up our belief system, but like understanding that, you know, my wife's idea of financial security is very different than mine. And at the end of the day, as her husband, I wanted to give her that financial security, what, what, what she wanted. And that's what motivated me to reevaluate my behavior to, to really

give her what she needed, not what I needed.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (20:24.822)
Yeah, that's so true because security is the number one human core need, right? And women tend to access on that. I mean, exactly, it's all about that and that is security and money is security. Whether you think it's good, bad, indifferent, it's security. It gives you security, gives you the ability to do things, be safe, all that stuff, right? So she was very, very much in tune to that as an entrepreneur, as

Christian Brim (20:30.435)
Yes.

Christian Brim (20:34.679)
Yes, especially if they have kids. Yeah.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (20:54.166)
male entrepreneur, especially it's make more. I'll do more. I'll come up with the next thing. I'll do stuff. Don't worry about it. How much you need? I'll go out and make it so. And I get the thing, money's replenishable. That's thing, like, well, look, you can always get more. So it's not what we worried about. So again, that's great when things are good. That works really well. But when things get bad, those are the giant gaping holes in the bucket.

Christian Brim (21:01.719)
Right.

Christian Brim (21:07.16)
Yes?

Christian Brim (21:23.095)
So fast forward this this happens. You lose your business.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (21:30.348)
My business lose my home, everything.

Christian Brim (21:34.223)
Okay, what was the second chapter?

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (21:38.466)
So we locate. So now I had to figure out what to do. Now I decided, so I had a little epiphany in early 09. I wake up and have six little kids and my wife, we're losing the house. The business is not going to make it. mean, November 5th, 2008, I lost a half a million dollars in one day. They have like, and it just, it just kept going off the cliff from there. So I'm like, yeah, this isn't going to work. But I'm like, but maybe, maybe I can limp through this. Maybe we can do something, right? But it wasn't going to happen.

Christian Brim (21:52.131)
Mm -hmm.

Christian Brim (21:55.99)
Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (22:07.702)
So I woke up one morning and I was thinking, Christian, I'm like, think about my kids. like, you know, I come home at night and they run and attack me or crawl at that time, whatever. just love to be with me. One day I'm leaving in my truck and one of my boys is chasing me, crying down the driveway and I keep going. OK, look in the rear view mirror like, well, you know, he's got to learn, you know, he's got to learn. And and I go and I'm laying there in bed thinking, you know what? My kids do not care what I drive.

Christian Brim (22:24.541)
Mmm. Mmm.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (22:36.514)
They don't care what kind of house you live in. They don't care what I do. They don't care how many trucks I have. All this stuff. I said all they want is me to be around and I can't do that. And if I continue on this path of business first, win the awards, be on the committee, do all this stuff that I was doing. said I'm going to destroy their futures. They're going to have broken marriages, failed relationships. They might do well in business. Every other aspect of their life will be trash. And that'll be my fault because they're watching me. It doesn't matter what I tell

Christian Brim (22:56.163)
Yes. Yes.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (23:07.202)
They're only going to do what I do. Or is caught and taught, right? So I went in the office, which was 40 feet behind my house. I went in my office there, my office manager, and I said, we're done. We're closing down today. I said, we're just going put an end to this right now. Went to the yard, told my guys, these guys have worked for me for over 10 years. Same guys, best crew ever. Just we're a family. I said, guys, we got to wrap this up. I can't do this

Christian Brim (23:07.705)
Correct.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (23:31.746)
So I'm leaving everything. I'm not gonna ever build another water feature. not gonna, I sold my welding equipment. I sold everything for, you know, 15 cents on a dollar. My $50 ,000 gets here.

Christian Brim (23:41.507)
Did that feel like, you

Did that feel like defeat in that moment?

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (23:51.412)
It felt like liberation. I have a video of me burning my uniforms. Like never again, I'm never gonna have my identity in my business. Because I realized my business was who I am. Totally wrong. I'm like I'll never do this again so I had to leave

Christian Brim (23:57.334)
Okay.

Christian Brim (24:03.63)
Yes.

Christian Brim (24:09.071)
So, so I, I have another podcast that I'm launching that is, is discussing, mental, mental health, self -awareness mindset around entrepreneurs. And there's a study that was done of male entrepreneurs where they put them in an MRI machine and they showed them pictures of their kids.

they showed them lots of different pictures, but they showed them pictures of their kids and then they showed them pictures of their business. And the same part of the brain that lit up when they saw their kids was the same, was the same one when they saw their business. And, so when you hear, entrepreneurs talk about their business as their baby, they're there. They literally mean it. Right. But I think, what you said that, that,

the business is their identity, right? And in some ways that happens with kids, right? Like, so if your kids misbehave or succeed or don't succeed to your expectations, that it feels like a reflection on you, right? So I think those feelings are hardwired into our brain and being able to see yourself

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (25:15.212)
Hmm? Hmm.

Christian Brim (25:36.203)
apart from your business is, is like a huge.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (25:43.778)
It's a gift, but you can also do it consciously, right? You have to understand, like, and again, as entrepreneurs, we're in what we do, right? We're in it. That's why as a coach, I'm very helpful because I have outside eyes. I see your business in a completely different view than you can. You are unable to see certain things. Like I was for 20 years and didn't take any help because I thought I saw everything. When these guys are just going, are you out of your mind?

Christian Brim (25:45.443)
Yes.

Christian Brim (25:57.997)
Mm -hmm.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (26:12.236)
You know, I remember one my friends like, maybe you should consider getting a bean counter. You know, that's exactly what said. He's like, you know, someone will tell you what to do with this money. Like, you ain't doing so well, buddy. And I'm like, nah, I'm good, man. I'm good. I got this. You know, I mean, they just these subtle little things that they could see clear as day. But you think you got it all mastered. Because again, it's who you

Christian Brim (26:35.407)
Right. And that's a great, it's an excellent point because whether it's, it's your business or your personal life or whatever, my experience is that when something is not the way you want it, we almost immediately look outside ourselves, right? We, we don't default to looking at ourselves and saying,

What am I doing to contribute to this situation? Right. and, I think having the awareness that you have that blind spot, right. And the need for coaches, professionals, even, even, you know, male, mean, not male entrepreneurial colleagues. Like I I'm in entrepreneurs organization.

which is a global organization of entrepreneurs. And I meet with a small group. we call it a forum. you know, the same people every month and, know, having a place to kind of unpack your stuff and say, you know, I'm dealing with this problem or this problem, or even I had this success and I don't really want to brag about it, but it felt really good. You know, just people

are your tribe that can understand and support and give you feedback that you can't see yourself.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (28:13.292)
Yeah, it's kind of a critical element because entrepreneurship, obviously, if you always hear it, can be lonely, right? Because we're a small, we're a minority. People are willing to take this risk. We get it, right? We're to do things that other people are not going to do so we can have things they don't have, right? And all that good stuff. But you've got to be able to get around people who you can commiserate with, who you can get the feedback

Christian Brim (28:20.408)
Yes.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (28:40.322)
right, who can give you, that's why masterminds are so important. When you go to, guys go for a two day or three day mastermind and they may drop 10 grand for it, right? But you'll be implementing things at the mastermind. You'll be being told things from others and it's that rising tide lifts all boats and you can't negate that. You have to search that out. That has become an anchor activity, if you will, on your schedule. Like you gotta do these things.

whether it's once a quarter, twice a year, you've got to get around the right

Christian Brim (29:14.031)
So do you personally have a coach?

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (29:18.004)
I do. I do. Yeah, because

Christian Brim (29:19.085)
Yes. And I would say that I would never hire you as a coach if you didn't. So there's your, there's your audience. There's your tidbit. Never hire a coach that doesn't have a coach.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (29:24.962)
Right, right.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (29:30.636)
Right. You know, it's the old saying, if you're the smartest guy in the room, you got to go another room. OK, because I don't want to be the smartest guy in the room. You know, I mean, there's a place I have an expertise. I'm really good at what I do. Glad to hear. But I'm always I want to be by the other guy. When I box, I fought guys way better than me. I got beat up every day, but I got really good, really fast, right, because I'm around other people. I don't want to be around. I don't get off like being above people.

I want to go learn from the next. I'm only looking forward, always looking forward.

Christian Brim (30:02.393)
So that's very interesting. is that an attitude? So I'm kind of pulling a couple of things together here where you said that you were around these billionaires and you didn't listen to their counsel. Was there a point where that switched? Where you started seeking out?

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (30:27.81)
Yeah, after I lost everything. When I had to look back and go, okay, I had to connect the dots, right? Okay, you went from doing all this, everything, world -class stuff, this, this, to having nothing. Like maybe it would take a few minutes and take look at what happened. Like I got to figure this out because like, first of all, I had that epiphany about my kids. Now, and you know, if you've been in the business 20 years, you are

Christian Brim (30:55.168)
yeah, yeah.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (30:55.286)
You aren't going to work for anybody. Right. So I only had one option was to do the next thing. You know, so what am I going do next? Maybe I can work temporarily for someone or whatever. And which I did. So I go and I became up. I started training people at Anytime Fitness. So I got in being a fitness trainer. I saw I'll do that. Well, you know what happens, right? A year later, I'm trainer of the year. Okay. I trainer of the year and stuff. So you know what that means? Well, I guess I got to open a gym. So I went to the gym.

Christian Brim (31:21.743)
Okay, all

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (31:23.25)
I'm an entrepreneur so I went open a gym and boot camps out training. It was a blast, scaled that, it was good. But the key to that though, Christian, was how do I do this and have it not become who I am or own me? How can it serve me? How can my wife call and says I need you at home because we homeschool all our kids all the way through, right? If she needs me, I can just leave. So I went out and hired trainers. I'm not going to be the trainer. I'm a great trainer, but I'm to get other trainers and I'm going to build.

Christian Brim (31:36.75)
Yes.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (31:51.36)
the systems and we'll put all this stuff in place so that this thing runs itself.

Christian Brim (31:55.627)
And I think that that's key and I want to come back to ask you this question. how did you get from like, I'm the artist, I make all original to I need the business to be sufficient without me. Like what was that bridge?

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (32:22.56)
I think what it was is I had to go, I had to say business. I had to leave the word art out of it. So I had to do something that didn't require me to be an artist. It wasn't, I go, I don't want it be dependent on me. Okay, so like sculpture work, no one can help me. I don't even know what I'm doing. I don't even know what it's gonna be till it's finished. So you're not getting help in that. So this was like, okay, let's look at a system. Let's look more, let's think more business this

Christian Brim (32:29.485)
Hmm, okay.

Christian Brim (32:41.165)
Right.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (32:52.29)
because that's what I failed at, right? So I can be an artist, I'm good at that. So what's the challenge in that? Now the new challenge is let's be a businessman. Let's run something that can scale.

Christian Brim (32:54.265)
Mm -hmm.

Christian Brim (33:06.201)
So how, how does either in the gym or what the future endeavors, how has your creativity, how have you found an outlet for that? let me, let me, put, give you another statement. So in my book, my, the, the core message of my book is that you don't have to give up your creativity for profitability that, that they are in fact,

complimentary, right? And it's a matter of redirecting your creativity, not eliminating it. So how does creativity show up for you

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (33:51.906)
So this is how it started. in, so I have my bootcamp style training. I, so I'm going to be creative. I developed a program that had phase test. I was like a belt system in martial arts. It all bodyweight training and stuff like that. So I created this whole thing and I make workouts. have multiple, I have two, two plus years of weekly workouts, right? You could do every day. And so I started doing that. I'm a writer. I always liked to write. So I'd write things about that. I get coaching in this stuff as well.

and then scaling the business. I'm like, well, this is kind of cool. And I'm making it so my creative standpoint is how we do the exercise, how we create squads and do this. So I put my effort into really being a unique experience so I could charge top dollar. This isn't planet fitness. You're paying $10 a month. Okay. You're going to pay $200 a month for this. Okay. And you're going to have 35 minute workouts. You're coming and go and five days a week and we're closed on weekends. And this is beautiful. You have seven things a day. So I had to create all that completely new.

Like, so that was my creative outlet, building all that, getting going. I mean, we were blouse boots, and black. it was, you came in and there wasn't any equipment, but you were terrified. Okay. Cause we are, you know, I got other Marines as instructors too.

Christian Brim (35:04.899)
Did you wear a DI hat or

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (35:08.394)
No, I did what we had black. had it was called AmbulWords. had A &W names on the back of it and stuff, you know, and we were dialed in with the shirts and the cargo pants that are bloused with the black boots. I mean, that's what we trained in. I mean, it's hardcore. It was a lot of fun. And we built four man squads. So you'd have your own team and you're competing against each other and other squads. was really cool. So we built this thing out and a lot of fun. So that was my creative first. And then, okay, that's really good. Now.

I started another contracting business doing roofing, siding windows. Same principle. How am going to do that? I want to do that differently because I saw these other guys how they're doing it. I'm like, you guys don't do this well. I mean, this is a hated industry. It's the fourth dangerous and fourth most dangerous in the world in the country, but everyone hates you. So I'm going to do it differently. I'll make people love me. I'm going to sell. I'm going to do what you guys can't

Christian Brim (35:52.249)
True.

Christian Brim (35:59.351)
Mm -hmm.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (36:05.314)
I'm going to sell retail. They're going to pay me the full boat out of their checking account. You need insurance to get yours done. You need you. You can't get them to give you a $500 in the deductible. You got to wave that. Let me show you how it's done. I was killing it. I'm like, I'll do it this way. So I create value. I did all that. I built all this stuff and that was a lot of fun. And I'm helping businesses at the same time. Now they're coming to ask me how I did this because I went from zero and I'm building this. So that became a mentor that then turned into

coaching because I'm an entrepreneur. Mentoring is free. Coaching is paid. Right. So I created that and I said, you know what? I need to write a book. So I'm going to write a book. I called it escape the owner prison. The contract is new way to scale regaining control and faster growth. I became a best seller. So I read my first book. Okay. It becomes a best seller. mean, 2019. Yeah. So it did that. So poof got best. that's cool. I'm going to create an Academy around that. A coaching Academy.

Christian Brim (36:47.715)
Yes.

Christian Brim (36:54.349)
How long ago was

Christian Brim (37:03.726)
Yes?

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (37:04.8)
the top Academy. I made a podcast called the top podcast. I just started building all that. So now I'm being creative, right? So I'm building academies. I'm shooting videos and that's where I channeled everything was into writing, making videos, doing that kind of stuff and grow in this coaching business. You know, so so that

Christian Brim (37:20.355)
Yes. Now, do you, do you have, do you have coaches in your employee or do you all the coaching yourself?

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (37:25.282)
Yes. My goal is to help 10 ,000 business owners create freedom, profit, and impact in their business. I don't do small things, Christian.

Christian Brim (37:36.331)
That's impressive. So one of the questions I was gonna ask you, but you may have already answered it, is where are you five years

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (37:48.45)
Well, I have all that written out actually. So we're in five years by now. By five years, we're going to be close to probably 6 ,000 clients we've helped in a five year period. I'm trying to get to 10 ,000 before the 10 year period. That's my goal. You be doing nine, nine figures, nine, nine, around nine figures in annual revenue. So we're looking at that growing the coaching staff, probably do a hundred, a hundred coaches at that point, you know, nationally and see where we take it from

Christian Brim (38:01.593)
Okay.

Christian Brim (38:16.847)
So if people want to learn more about sharpen the spear, how do they do

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (38:23.734)
sharpenthespiritcoaching .com

Christian Brim (38:27.403)
And your book?

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (38:27.902)
Easy. Escape the owner prison. You can find it on Amazon. And I'll tell you what, you know what I'll do for you, Christian, since this has been awesome and you taught me something, which I always like to learn something. If the people listening to your show, okay, and they go to sharpnessforcoaching .com, scroll down to the contact page and send me a one -sentence email. They say, Richard, I heard you on Christian's show. I'd love to

Christian Brim (38:36.198)
What would you do? Yes?

Christian Brim (38:53.113)
Okay.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (38:57.334)
your free audio escape you out of prison. And I'll send it to

Christian Brim (39:01.753)
Well, thank you very much. That's very kind of you. Very nice. Well, yeah, I mean,

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (39:05.889)
But you have to listen to me speak for two and a half hours, which is a joy.

Christian Brim (39:12.559)
I, yeah, we just finalized our audio book and I narrated it and I'm like, no one likes listening to their own voice. I don't know. You do? Well, I do, except when I hear it on recording. Then I'm like, that's not

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (39:22.752)
I do. I think I sound amazing. Yes.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (39:29.962)
I love it. You know what I do? every podcast, I've been on a lot of podcasts, right? Well over a hundred. And I do listen to every episode because that's how I learn. I actually like, you'll send me this recording. I'll listen to it. The whole thing. And I'll go, okay, well next time I'm not going to say that or whatever, or I can tweak it or whatever. They're not every, every, every episode is different. We don't, I don't do the same thing. This isn't by rote. So this is very different. This is awesome.

Christian Brim (39:38.627)
Really? OK. Yes.

Christian Brim (39:48.897)
Okay, all

Christian Brim (39:54.809)
Sure.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (39:59.786)
So I will listen to this

Christian Brim (40:02.639)
I would like to leave the listeners with a question that you answer for them. So what, what was the best business advice that you ever received?

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (40:24.94)
get help.

Christian Brim (40:26.829)
Yes. Who told you that?

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (40:27.456)
It really was. It's like, well, after after everything collapsed, the same guy who was telling me stuff before when I went to him and, you know, I said, well, listen, like, I know I'm out of business and all this stuff. He's one of my biggest clients. And he says, well, you really need to seek out help, like have people help you. There's so many people like he goes like me, like I'm not saying I want to be your mentor.

Christian Brim (40:54.671)
Right. I'm not offering,

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (40:54.858)
He ended up dying a couple years after that anyways, but he's like, no, well, but he would if I let him, but he was, I mean, he's a big hitter. You're talking big hitter, which was awesome. And he just, he loved me. He just loved the stuff I did, my art, my work. mean, just, he's one of my favorite guys. But he said, you just, got to get someone to help you. You got to be open to it. You got to listen to others.

Christian Brim (41:17.665)
Yeah. And, know, talking about, you know, boxing and martial arts, you know, the Chinese proverb of the teacher will appear when the student is ready. And, you know, it's so, so much, I think back about so many things that I heard, but I didn't really hear like, and, and I guess the simple answer is I

in a place to hear it. you know, I think you have to, like you said, be open to it. have to, admit that there's something missing. and that's what I, you know, I, I love about coaching in general is that, you know, I think so many coaches now are like,

technical coaches. like, you know, I'm going to, I'm going to teach you how to swing the golf club, right? Or I'm going to teach you how to do SEO marketing or whatever. real coaching to me is when they reveal to you something that's already inside you, like they pull it out and you that real, that self realization that it's there is so much more impactful than any knowledge.

someone could pass on to

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (42:48.886)
Yeah, there's the SMEs, right? Subject Matter Experts. They're good, there's a place for them, but like what I do, it's not, it is my clients, I mean, they stay with me for years. We go to next progression, we do more, but their families thank me. We become friends, right? Friends don't become clients, clients become friends. That's the nature of the thing, right? but, cause you're doing so much

Christian Brim (42:51.929)
Mm -hmm.

Christian Brim (43:08.695)
Right.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (43:14.218)
It's just not business. Like I said, like you want to balance your life, you got to fix your business first. Once that's running properly, you can balance your life. Don't think you're going to get work like life balance with a hot mess of a business. You're kidding yourself, but people tell you, you need work life balance and they walk away like, no, I need to fix my business because I can't have balance with a broken business. Like, so, so we start there. Let me fix this. Then I'll show you the five F's and we'll do all that cool stuff.

Christian Brim (43:27.127)
No!

Christian Brim (43:36.622)
No, you

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (43:44.032)
you'll get balanced. But right now, trust me, your family wants you to fix your business. Start

Christian Brim (43:49.515)
And, and I think, I think talking about coaches, mentors, colleagues, the, one of the, the biggest thing it's done for me is that it's shown me what's possible. Right. Because you, you get trapped in your own mind about the way things are. Right. And, and that that's just the way it is. and then you see somebody else and like, they're not struggling or, know, and it's

Huh, how, how, how, how is that possible? How are you doing?

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (44:25.674)
all got the limiting beliefs, right? We all have these ceilings that coaches take you past. I mean, you know, whether you're the top best NFL player, soccer player, baseball player, they all have coaches, multiple coaches, mindset, they have trainers, they have defensive, they have all this stuff. Why? They're great. I could never equal what they do. Yet they're still being trained. Right? Because you got to have those outside eyes, you know, and you have to be open to the suggestions because what I love the most Christian

Christian Brim (44:27.651)
Yes.

Christian Brim (44:46.381)
Right.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (44:56.296)
I love others success way more than mine to see them succeed, to fix that. And their family's like, I never thought it was going to be possible. I never thought we'd be at the beach for a week. Like I'm vacationing and he's not calling anybody. Like I never, I just, this is unbelievable. And we're making three times the money and we're doing this. And I'm like, that's, that's, that's what I want to hear. That's my reward. You know, like here and that is like that, that there's nothing better than that for

Christian Brim (45:19.171)
Yes. Yes.

Christian Brim (45:24.748)
love

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (45:24.758)
know because you change you change they're not just that guy's lives the family's life just like mine my children are not going to be messed up I mean they may be a little bit but you know this

Christian Brim (45:34.157)
Right. I made the joke. I didn't save for my college, my kids' college. I saved for their therapy.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (45:44.246)
That's right. That's good. It's probably better directed these days. But yeah, I just I just love people's exceedment. I like them to create that freedom in their life because we go into the business to get margin in their life. So we're not told what we're not owned by something, but they end up being owned by their business. You know, that business needs to serve you.

Christian Brim (45:58.285)
Yes. Yes. And I, I think if, if our listeners come away with anything from this episode is that it is a hundred percent possible to create the business that you want that serves you, not the other way around. It absolutely is possible. Well, Richard, I really appreciated this interview. I enjoyed talking to you. thank you very much.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (46:18.05)
Exactly. Yeah, yeah, for

Christian Brim (46:28.057)
for being on our show.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (46:29.728)
I love being here, this was awesome and I learned something. I'm excited.

Christian Brim (46:34.607)
Tell me what you learned. Now I'm curious.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (46:37.024)
Not to go back, well, when you said, when you said.

It was the, I have to articulate it now, that part about learning where kind of the creative part on the creative and the artists, the creative, when we went through that, we kind of broke that down. Because I never really broke that down before. And I think it's really good to understand the difference. And I think your audience too, if they're in these positions. That's a really good distinction. You really need to understand kind of what lane you're operating

Christian Brim (46:56.611)
Yes? Yes?

Perfect.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (47:11.36)
So that was a good takeaway for me,

Christian Brim (47:13.911)
Yeah. And my, my, my daughter, one of my daughters is, is a professional artist and she, she graduated, university and didn't study art. and she graduated and said, I think I'm going to go do art full time. And of course my brain goes into entrepreneurial mode and like asking her questions about like, well, who's going to buy it and what are you, what are you going to paint? And, you know, are you going to market

blah, blah. And she just threw up her hands and she said, I don't know, dad, I just want to paint whatever I want to paint. And like, that's the artist mentality, right? I'm going to create something and I don't really care if there's any outcome. It's just, I'm creating

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (48:02.142)
Yep, yep, that's how I started. But then people wanted it. I put it on a show and people wanted it they bought this and make me this. I mean, it's just, it's the right way to go. But you need that freedom as an artist. You can't like, real quick, I know we're getting done here, but I had a woman commission me for this big sign for her boutique on Armitage Avenue in Chicago. It was gonna be this tree and hung over the sidewalk and they had an oval with their, you know, Studio 910 on it. So okay, I can do that.

So then she calls me, she goes, well, I want to come out and see it when you're halfway done. I said, well, I'm not really into that. I'm not really into you doing that. goes, no, I really need to come out. Okay. So she came out to my big construction and I built everything else because it's big. And I had like a 14 inch steel pipe, about four feet long. And I welded like a 20 foot, one in solid round bar to it that was bent. I left it laying on the ground. You can come out and see it now. And she came out and I got this voicemail question. said, I am so disappointed.

What this blah, blah. She's just railing on me. I'm like, yeah, whatever. So I get it done like a week later and we install it on a Sunday. We got to crane this thing in and do all this stuff. You know what the next voicemail said? It went like this. You're the master. This is unbelievable. I've never seen anything so big. I'm like, okay, can I play back the other message about the disappointed? You know what I mean? So there's times when you're like, you don't peek under the canvas, right? When the big, wait till it's finished. Well, let me just do my

Christian Brim (49:24.587)
No,

Yes. Yes.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (49:29.154)
because I don't know what the outcome's truly gonna be. And I think any piece of art you look at and go, they didn't know. Just like your daughter, she didn't know. She just wants to do it. And it ends up amazing because of that, because it's constant exploration. You're creating as you go. One thing leads to the next and business is similar. But this idea of being an artist or being creative, that's what it is. Understand there's a process that can't really be

Christian Brim (49:58.893)
Yes, and you can't you

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (49:59.18)
You're not taking direction. You gotta just do

Christian Brim (50:02.657)
you don't always know what the outcome is going to be, right? I like that word, that word you said explore. It's, yeah. All right, Richard, this is awesome. Thank you very much for being on the show.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (50:05.814)
Yeah, I never did. Right. Yeah, so it's just take heart in that.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (50:18.742)
Love it. Thanks to you, Christian. Appreciate having me

Christian Brim (50:21.945)
You bet.