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apply. Hey, yap, fam.

1:42

What if the secret

1:44

to scaling your business

1:47

effectively was just two

1:49

words? Core. Values. As

1:51

your company grows, everything

1:53

gets more complicated. Hiring,

1:55

decision-making, keeping your culture

1:58

strong, but if you've

2:01

nailed your core values,

2:03

they become your North

2:06

Star. That's exactly

2:08

what Darius is all about.

2:19

originally recorded in 2022, Darius shares

2:21

the secrets behind his game-changing framework,

2:23

the core value equation. We dive

2:25

into what makes core values truly

2:27

work, how to spot the difference

2:29

between good and bad ones, and

2:31

how to make them so sticky

2:34

they go viral inside your company.

2:36

You'll also hear some wild stories

2:38

from Darius' entrepreneurial journey, including a

2:40

memorable stint interning at the White

2:42

House. If you're trying to grow

2:44

your team without losing your culture,

2:46

this one's a must listen. Let's

2:48

jump in. Superhived to be here.

2:50

You're my good friend. Always happy

2:52

to have my friends on the

2:54

show. You are a serious serial

2:56

entrepreneur. You have so much to

2:58

say about the peaks and pitfalls

3:00

of entrepreneurship. And I can't wait

3:02

to get your core value insights

3:05

and more information about your scale

3:07

map methodology. So from my research,

3:09

I found out that you've had

3:11

an entrepreneurial spirit from the very

3:13

beginning. Your dad was an immigrant

3:15

from Iran. Literally the epitome of

3:17

the American dream. He was an

3:19

entrepreneur, he had many gas stations,

3:21

real estate businesses. Did you always

3:23

know you were going to follow

3:25

in his footsteps and become an

3:27

entrepreneur? You know, like half of

3:29

me wanted to do that, and

3:31

the other half of me wanted

3:33

to become an actor and a

3:36

comedian on Saturday Live. Like if

3:38

you had asked me when I

3:40

was 18, I was like, actually

3:42

I wanted to be Howard Stern.

3:44

So like, which is not ironic

3:46

that now I love podcasting, but

3:48

yeah, no. I was like business

3:50

and like enjoying experiences with people

3:52

were like my two things. So

3:54

yeah, I know I always felt

3:56

like an affinity towards, I love

3:58

me. money and I love selling.

4:00

I was always like the kid

4:02

that would win the candy selling

4:04

competitions. I mean crush those competitions.

4:07

So for me like starting a

4:09

business or was not like this far

4:11

out idea that was kind of a natural

4:13

next step for sure. Yeah and I

4:15

think that's a lot different from a

4:17

lot of the immigrants that grew up

4:19

in America. A lot of their parents

4:21

you know had regular jobs or were

4:23

doctors or engineers or and kind of

4:25

were told to follow in that traditional

4:27

path. And so your father He taught

4:29

you that you don't make the money

4:31

selling the gas, you make the money selling

4:34

the gas station. So talk to us about

4:36

some of the entrepreneurial lessons that your father

4:38

taught you. So my dad was old school,

4:40

born 1939 in Esfahan, Iran. His father

4:42

was a business person, was a really

4:44

successful business person. He was kind of

4:46

like 80-D business guy. I mean, some

4:48

of it was a victim of circumstances.

4:50

There was a revolution in Iran. He

4:53

moved here. He had to support his

4:55

family. Didn't have a great speaking of

4:57

the language. Speaking of the language. Although

4:59

he did get his NBA in the

5:01

United States, he came here late in

5:03

life. So for him, like, that's how

5:05

he had to support his family. And

5:07

again, he grew up around entrepreneurs. So

5:09

for him to start gas stations and

5:11

do real estate and stuff like that

5:14

was not unusual. My mom was a social

5:16

worker, which is the other end of the

5:18

spectrum who worked for like the county. Smart

5:20

lady, social worker, father that's getting up and

5:23

building his own businesses every day. When you

5:25

see that, you're like, College, I mean both

5:27

my parents have their master's degrees, so going

5:29

to college was not, that was definitely an

5:32

expectation as well. But I remember my dad

5:34

would always say like, I'm building these for

5:36

you guys. And now I had to go

5:39

to work in the gas station at a

5:41

young age too. He was like, hey, you're

5:43

10? Great, you're going to work. So my

5:45

summer vacations, and I grew up in upper

5:48

middle class Southern California. So all my friends

5:50

were like going to summer camp and. you

5:52

know having fun and going to like the

5:54

water parks and the magic mountain and six

5:56

flags and stuff like that and I'm like

5:58

legitimately putting on a Xco T-shirt getting up

6:01

and going to work at a gas

6:03

station in the middle of nowhere, because

6:05

my dad's gas stations were kind of

6:07

outside of LA, and in 100 degree

6:09

heat, cleaning gas station bathrooms when I

6:11

was 10. So it wasn't a very

6:14

glamorous entrance in the world of business.

6:16

It was like, oh, this is what

6:18

running your own business is, but it

6:20

did teach us work ethic. And I

6:22

think that's such a big part of

6:24

being an entrepreneur as not being afraid

6:26

to go work your ass off, and

6:29

we weren't, and we didn't. Yeah, so

6:31

your dad clearly was a workaholic and

6:33

you say that it led to sort

6:35

of his early death, right? So when

6:37

you were 22, he ended up passing

6:39

away, he had cancer, and that must

6:41

have been super difficult for you at

6:44

such a young age, but it also

6:46

kind of guided and shaped the way

6:48

that you thought about the rest of

6:50

your life and your purpose. Can you

6:52

talk to us about that? My dad

6:54

was... like you know like my there

6:57

was a huge cultural difference between me

6:59

and I have a twin brother so

7:01

it was me and my twin brother

7:03

and my dad and I have a

7:05

younger sister as well but but in

7:07

Persian culture like it's very patriarchal and

7:09

although my mom was American like my

7:12

dad was straight up Persian so he's

7:14

like my mom was American like my

7:16

dad was straight up Persian so he

7:18

was like my dad was straight up

7:20

Persian so he was either working at

7:22

the gas I don't think I threw

7:24

one ball with my dad. It was

7:27

always business. But yeah, he did not

7:29

take care of himself. And when I

7:31

was 18, he got diagnosed with multiple

7:33

sclerosis. And by the time I was

7:35

20, his MS had got really bad.

7:37

It turned into dementia. He loved cigarettes.

7:39

My dad was like an avid smoker.

7:42

He ended up getting diagnosed with lung

7:44

cancer in my senior year of college.

7:46

And so I saw this person who

7:48

was a workaholic, who was all about

7:50

business. who basically by the time I

7:52

was old enough to maybe have a

7:54

relationship because in again in that old

7:57

school culture you start to have a

7:59

relationship. with your dad like when you're

8:01

a man. He was downward trending

8:03

really quickly then and it was my

8:05

22nd birthday. My dad got diagnosed with

8:07

stage four lung cancer and we didn't even

8:09

tell him he had it because he had

8:11

such bad dementia at that point and he

8:13

passed away in August of that same year.

8:15

So yeah it was hard you know and there

8:18

was mixed emotions. It was a pretty

8:20

complicated relationship with my dad because of

8:22

what how I was describing our background

8:24

together and some people were saying my

8:27

dad was my best friend. And I

8:29

was like, yeah, not me and my dad. I respected

8:31

him. He was a hard guy

8:33

and he was hardcore. And so to

8:35

lose your dad at that young of an

8:38

age is hard for anybody. But it just

8:40

gave me an insight into life short.

8:42

And I had lost my grandmother when I

8:44

was 14. She was 62. My dad was

8:47

60 when he passed away. My mom was

8:49

48 when my dad passed away. She got

8:51

diagnosed with cancer right after that. So

8:53

by the time I was 22, I

8:56

had lost my grandmother. My dad. And

8:58

so I had said a really different

9:00

perspective, which was, I don't want to live

9:02

a life that's that I just like go

9:04

work my ass off and then 20 years,

9:07

30, 40 years from now I'm done. And

9:09

it was, hey, how can I live a

9:11

much more engaged life? And I

9:13

didn't really understand that then. It

9:15

wasn't until much later that then.

9:17

It wasn't until much later that

9:20

I realized that that that's why

9:22

I kind of got into some of the

9:24

things that we're going to talk about.

9:26

you need to go and make it happen and

9:28

really make the most of your time because

9:30

you're going to blink and it's going to

9:32

be over with. Yeah, and we'll definitely get

9:34

more into your purpose and all of your

9:37

core values and things later on to learn

9:39

more about your philosophy on life,

9:41

basically. Your later years in college, you

9:43

ended up working at the White House.

9:45

You worked as an intern for the

9:47

Bill Clinton administration. And so you've got

9:49

some amazing stories with this internship. It

9:51

was right up your alley considering you

9:53

involved in student government. It should have

9:55

been your dream job, I think. I

9:57

could have imagined you taking that path.

10:00

all the way, but it turns out

10:02

it taught you that you weren't cut

10:04

out for typical employment and it's solidified

10:06

for you that you would never again

10:08

have a regular job. So I'd love

10:10

to hear more about that experience. Yeah,

10:13

so when I was in college, I

10:15

had to work a lot. I had

10:17

to work a lot. So again, I

10:19

had to work a lot. So again,

10:21

my dad being kind of a hard-ass

10:24

was like, yeah, I'm not paying for

10:26

your college, you got to pay for

10:28

your own college. And she ended up

10:30

her sophomore year working for the Clinton

10:32

administration. And I'm kind of like you,

10:34

I'm like a networker. So I'm like,

10:37

hey, I want to work at the

10:39

White House. I literally like, there was

10:41

a conversation she and I had. And

10:43

she said, well, all right, let's do

10:45

it. And she said, well, all right,

10:48

let's do it. Let's do it. Let's

10:50

do it. And she said, well, all

10:52

right, let's. And so this gentleman, I

10:54

don't want to name his name because

10:56

of what I'm about to say, but

10:58

he basically did that. And he comes

11:01

to LA and we go to this

11:03

place on the Sunset Strip, which I'm

11:05

blanking on the name right now, but

11:07

Dublin, which is this famous Irish bar

11:09

on the name right now, but Dublin,

11:12

which was this famous Irish bar on

11:14

the Sunset Strip, which is this famous

11:16

Irish bar on the Sunset Strip, which

11:18

I'm blanking on the name right now,

11:20

but I'm about what I'm about. And

11:23

so I said, I'm talking him up,

11:25

I say, I'll give Tim, give him

11:27

your card. And so anyway, he's like,

11:29

this guy's the best. And so the

11:31

end of the night I said, hey,

11:33

you got to get me a job

11:36

at the White House. And so he

11:38

said, listen, you get your application, send

11:40

it directly to me, and I'll get

11:42

you in. So I had good credentials

11:44

beyond that, but I worked every angle

11:47

I could get. I sent it directly

11:49

to him. I get the acceptance letter

11:51

from him. I get the acceptance letter

11:53

from him. in the office of presidential

11:55

scheduling at the White House, summer 2000.

11:57

So it was quite an honor. and

12:00

it was interesting to get to be

12:02

in the, you're in basically the

12:04

business of running the world. Now,

12:06

what I realized really quickly was,

12:08

as an intern, total hierarchy exists

12:11

in this thing. If your mom is

12:13

the head of the DNC for the state

12:15

of Washington, you get to work in the

12:17

West Wing. I never met so many

12:19

people from Arkansas in my whole life,

12:22

because... President Clinton's from Arkansas. So there's

12:24

all these people who are friends of

12:26

the family working there. I never, I

12:28

mean, it was insane. It was like

12:30

every one out of every two people.

12:32

So there's all these people from Arkansas,

12:35

their parents are connected in politics, and

12:37

then there's me who has none of

12:39

that. And I'm not getting any special treatment

12:41

and I got some really crappy job.

12:43

It's actually hilarious. Basically what people do

12:45

is they send letters to the President

12:48

of the United States to invite him

12:50

or her to all their events. Little

12:52

Methodist church in Podunk, nowhere is inviting

12:54

the president to come to their annual

12:56

barbecue. Every single one of those

12:59

requests gets a response. So I was

13:01

in the office of presidential scheduling, so we

13:03

had to respond to every single one of

13:05

those letters. So we had to respond to

13:07

every single one of those letters. So we

13:09

read them all, and then you got to

13:12

write them. And this is 22 years ago,

13:14

so we're in some doc-based system, like filling

13:16

out these fillable forms, and then triple proof

13:18

of the pen, and then, and then triple

13:20

proof reading it. And every now and again,

13:23

you'll get invites to like from

13:25

like a prince in Africa. So

13:27

and those get escalated. So I'm

13:29

in this department doing total

13:32

admin work. And I was like,

13:34

there's got to be a better way

13:36

than this. So my like business self's like,

13:38

all right, how do I get out of

13:41

this work? And I figured out that the

13:43

interns have a president of the

13:45

interns. This is so like me, like

13:47

I feel like we're so similar, but go

13:50

ahead. It's me versus, and by the way,

13:52

there's two groups of people in

13:54

the internship program, a ton of

13:56

kids from Ivy leagues, Harvard, Yale,

13:58

Princeton, and a. of people from

14:00

Arkansas and then me. And I go

14:02

to UC, and I go to UC,

14:05

and I'm like, I'm a smart guy,

14:07

I probably go to an Ivy League

14:09

if I applied myself, but I didn't.

14:11

I went to UC Santa Barbara, which

14:13

is like a party school. And I'm

14:15

there, and it's me versus this nerd.

14:17

And it's me versus this nerd, and

14:19

by the way, I'm graduating. And it's

14:21

me versus this nerd, this nerd, and

14:23

by the kid I'm running. And this

14:26

was something I had realized when I

14:28

was in high school, because when I

14:30

became president of my class and vice

14:32

president of my school, I got to

14:34

get out of everything, because I was

14:36

the liaison for the teachers. And I'm

14:38

like, oh, this is the way you

14:40

do it. You go become, it's like,

14:42

student leadership for the interns. And I

14:44

ended up spending the whole summer, putting

14:47

on throwing parties for interns and social

14:49

events and organizing them. And it was,

14:51

it made a really boring job, a

14:53

really fun job, a really fun job.

14:55

that I had had. And I called

14:57

my mom up and I go, mom,

14:59

I had a realization. So what's that?

15:01

I said, I am never going to

15:03

have a job as long as I

15:05

live. And I said, the only way

15:08

I will ever have a job where

15:10

I'm not the boss, and let's use

15:12

the White House, for example, the White

15:14

House, for example, is if I was

15:16

the White House, for example, is if

15:18

I was President of United States. So

15:20

it was this epiphany that I have

15:22

to be made for now if they

15:24

wanted me. But yeah it was it

15:26

was a really eye-opening experience to be

15:29

at this like top of the game

15:31

best internship that you could have in

15:33

the whole world and to say I

15:35

don't want to do this I want

15:37

to work for myself but yeah it

15:39

was a cool experience. But there was

15:41

something else that kind of triggered you

15:43

to want to work for yourself it

15:45

was something that you did you almost

15:48

got fired Darius so don't skip out

15:50

on that part of the story. All

15:52

right look while this is going on

15:54

my dad sick at home. My family

15:56

was not stoked that I was at

15:58

this thing. By the way... they don't pay,

16:00

but maybe they change now, but back then

16:02

they don't pay you. So I'm using like

16:04

my money I'd saved to go to Europe

16:07

for graduating college, and I'm using that to

16:09

go live in DC and work for free

16:11

for the White House. So I was already a

16:13

little pissed off about that. And the one

16:15

thing you get when you work for free

16:17

for the White House. So I was already

16:19

a little pissed off about that. And the

16:21

one thing you get when you work at the

16:23

White House, in front of the White House, well,

16:26

they had some sort of a staff

16:28

picnic, staff picnic. And they're like, yeah,

16:30

you're not doing the picture in front

16:32

of the White House. What most people

16:34

don't know is next to the White

16:36

House is a building called the

16:39

Old Executive Office Building, which is

16:41

actually where almost everyone that works

16:43

for the White House works inside

16:45

of this office building. So like, we're

16:47

going to do the picture in front

16:49

of the steps of the OEOB, the

16:51

Old Executive Office building. I was like,

16:53

fuck that. This is unfair. The White

16:56

House is lucky to have us, we're

16:58

not lucky to have them. I demand

17:00

that we either cancel the picture or

17:02

they reschedule us in front of the

17:04

White House. And I click send, I

17:06

send it across to all the interns

17:08

and it goes viral inside the White

17:11

House to all the interns and it

17:13

goes viral inside the White House to

17:15

all senior staff and everything. So I

17:17

get pulled aside and now they had heard

17:19

that my dad was sick and I think

17:21

he was head of my department actually. It

17:23

was the only time I ever met him.

17:26

So he's head of presidential scheduling for the president of the United

17:28

States scheduled for the whole world. He's like, listen man, you don't

17:30

know me. I heard what you did. Don't rock the boat. This

17:32

is a president of the United States. What are you doing? And I held

17:34

my ground for a second and then I was like, look, I'm sorry, I

17:36

apologize. And they basically let me off. And they did not fire me. And I

17:38

think, honestly, the only reason I didn't get fired, I didn't get fired, because

17:40

I didn't get fired, because I didn't get fired, because I didn't get

17:42

fired, because I didn't get fired, because I didn't get fired, because I

17:45

didn't get fired, because I didn't get fired, because I didn't get

17:47

fired, because I didn't get fired, because I didn't get fired, because I

17:49

didn't get fired, because I didn't get fired, because I didn't get fired,

17:51

because I didn't get fired And I ended up leaving

17:53

a few days later, but yeah, it was

17:55

really eye-opening. I was like, wow, this is

17:57

like weird that you would give this big thing

17:59

to... Go work for free and not get

18:01

the one thing you want and have

18:03

no control over it and do all this

18:05

admin work. And I was at this

18:07

great opportunity and yet all I saw that

18:09

it wasn't a good fit for me.

18:11

And at that moment I sat down and

18:13

I said, I am 100 % unemployable, like

18:15

I can never have a job. And

18:18

it was this thing where I was like,

18:20

if I ever take a job, it'll

18:22

be to figure out what they do to

18:24

go do it for myself. And I

18:26

was 100 % convinced of it and it

18:28

never changed after that ever. I love this

18:30

story so much. And I know I

18:32

keep saying I'm like relating so much to

18:34

your story because when I was 22,

18:36

I was also like president of the interns

18:38

at a radio station. And also, I

18:40

got fired, you didn't get fired, but I

18:42

got fired for putting like a text

18:44

message and sending a text message to my

18:46

co -worker that went viral across the station.

18:48

And I got fired, you didn't. But

18:50

we did the same thing when we were

18:52

22 because when you're 22 and you're

18:54

feeling unfair and you're ambitious and driven like

18:56

us, you kind of just go haywire

18:58

sometimes and make mistakes. But hey, it taught

19:00

you that you didn't belong in that

19:02

kind of environment and that you wanted to

19:04

actually work for yourself and not work

19:06

for free and be treated unfairly. So there

19:08

were some good lessons, I think, that

19:10

you got out of that. Yeah, you know,

19:12

also like this is 2000. So being

19:14

22 and being like, I'm going to go

19:16

be an entrepreneur in the year 2000

19:18

was not normal. That was really rare, right?

19:20

And so it was a great lesson

19:22

to learn, but it was very rare. And

19:25

it was a gift that led me

19:27

to be able to then go and build.

19:29

Yeah. And so speaking of that, you

19:31

built your first business with your twin brother

19:33

called Twin Capital Brokerage. And by the

19:35

time you're 25 years old, you built an

19:37

Inc 500 company and you were the

19:39

40th fastest growing company in the US. So

19:41

that's crazy. Tell us about how you

19:43

started that business with your brother. I moved

19:45

back home after my father passed away.

19:47

We had this event promotion business at Tanked.

19:49

It was the first business I ever

19:51

had that lost $100 ,000, which is like,

19:53

that's a lot of money to lose when

19:55

you're 22. But I lost that business.

19:57

My brother was in the mortgage business. I

19:59

have a twin brother. I was

20:01

always kind of like the student leader jock

20:03

and he was like the troublemaker, but

20:05

we're twins. And when we were here in

20:08

high school, he got a job at

20:10

a mortgage company and he realized he was

20:12

like a savant at sales. I mean, he

20:14

was like unbelievable. And so when I was

20:16

in college, he kind of was in college,

20:18

but he was really in sales and he

20:20

was selling mortgages. And by the time I

20:22

was graduating college at 22, my brother was

20:25

making six figures. He was like killing it.

20:27

And so I was like, well, could go

20:29

get a job. I have a degree in

20:31

economics and accounting and go do that. Why

20:33

figure out my business stuff, but I could

20:35

just go sell loans. And so I got

20:37

a job in mortgage, long story

20:39

short. That didn't work out. I

20:41

moved to San Francisco. He was

20:43

down in LA and I pivoted

20:45

a lot for 23 and 24. But

20:48

I got back into mortgage and I started

20:50

doing really, really well. And at

20:52

25, I decided to start my own company.

20:54

I don't know if you remember, there's a supplement company called Twin

20:56

Labs. Have you ever heard of that before? It

20:58

rings as a bell slightly. It's a

21:00

really popular like supplement company. And I

21:02

found out the guy named it after his twin children.

21:04

So I was like, oh, I'm going to name

21:07

my company after was being twins. So I named him

21:09

Twin Capital Mortgage. Now, funny enough, as I tried to

21:11

get my brother to come join me, but he was making

21:13

like three times as much money as I was. So he

21:15

said, why would I leave my job? I'm making like 30

21:17

grand a month and you're making 10. I said,

21:19

well, hey, listen, I hate your fiancee.

21:21

Number one. And number two, I'm going to

21:23

make more money than you are. So if I,

21:25

with a month, I make more money than

21:27

you do in a month, you have to break

21:29

up with your fiancee and move to San

21:32

Francisco and be my business partner. And he's

21:34

like, we're on. And that was

21:36

in July or June or July

21:38

of 2003. And by September, I made,

21:40

I had a month that was way bigger than

21:42

his. And so literally within one week, he broke

21:44

up with his fiancee. She hates you. She

21:47

knew I hated her. So I was transparent.

21:50

Within a week, he quit his job, broke

21:52

up with his fiancee, moved to San Francisco

21:54

and became my business partner. It was amazing

21:56

because my brother and I are kind of

21:58

yin and yang. And we're

22:00

both are good at sales, but

22:02

he's unbelievable at sales and

22:04

I'm good enough. I like to operate

22:06

and build and be a visionary.

22:09

But when he came, I mean, our

22:11

business that first year, he came in

22:13

November, it's when he got there,

22:15

that year, I think the business

22:18

grows $300,000. The next year we

22:20

grossed almost $2 million, the year

22:22

after that, $5, the year after

22:24

that almost $10. And so this

22:26

business grew 2,500 in 2007. So

22:28

it was an amazing run and I learned

22:30

a couple things. I learned like find a

22:33

partner that's going to complement your skills and

22:35

really go lean into scaling a business. And

22:37

for us, it was the business has its

22:39

own horror story because it was a subprime

22:41

mortgage lender and it blew up of seven.

22:44

So I joked that when I went to the

22:46

Inc 500 conference, it was in Chicago that

22:48

year, I'm wearing a black tie and I

22:50

joked that we were the status people in

22:52

that conference because I literally was. probably

22:54

the 40th fastest shrinking company in the

22:56

United States when I was at the

22:59

500 conference. Yeah, it sucked. The business

23:01

ended up imploding because of subprime

23:03

meltdown. We went from 150 employees. I

23:05

grew that thing for myself to 150

23:08

employees in three years. And then within

23:10

90 days, I was back to 10 employees.

23:12

Wow. And so that was a failure. How

23:14

did you overcome that failure because you went

23:16

on to start a couple more businesses after

23:19

that? Yeah. Honestly, I spent five years

23:21

and I caught an entrepreneurial purgatory.

23:23

So 07 was early, like the economy

23:25

didn't falter till 2008, but

23:27

my business, the mortgage business,

23:29

got crushed. The number of

23:31

people in the mortgage business

23:33

that worked in the mortgage

23:35

business in 06 was 400,000.

23:37

It shrunk to 100,000 by

23:40

2011. So three quarters of the

23:42

industry went away. I always said

23:44

it would be like if I said,

23:46

hey, Uber, Twitter, meta, Google, they all

23:48

got a business. That's what happened

23:51

to that industry. all at once.

23:53

So it was brutal. I pivoted, like

23:55

I pivoted for almost five years.

23:57

I literally showed up to work for

23:59

five. year straight, 07, 08,09, 010, 011, and

24:02

literally did not get a paycheck. I just

24:04

cut checks and went to work. Now, I'd

24:06

made a lot of money in the previous

24:08

year, so I just, we used that to

24:11

survive, but most of it, you know, we

24:13

spent a lot of it, and like, just

24:15

trying to rebuild. And it just took a

24:17

long time, and I was young, mind you,

24:20

I started the business in 03 when I

24:22

was 25. So by 07, I was 27,

24:24

28, 28. late 20s, early 30s, rebuilding, like

24:26

figuring out what was next. And I have

24:29

a friend, Ryan Lavec, who owns a company

24:31

called the Ask Method, he called me Tenacious

24:33

D. He said, you just don't have me

24:35

quitting you. And I was like, man, I

24:37

wish I did because it was probably the

24:40

most painful five years I've ever lived in

24:42

business. And I wouldn't do it over again.

24:44

If I had to do it, I wouldn't.

24:46

You're saying that you wish that you shut

24:49

down that you shut down that company earlier

24:51

that company earlier, that you shut down that

24:53

company earlier, that you shut down that you

24:55

shut down that company earlier, that you shut

24:58

down that you shut down that you shut

25:00

down that company earlier, that you shut down

25:02

that you shut down that company earlier, that

25:04

you shut down that you shut down that

25:07

company earlier, that you shut down that you

25:09

shut down that you shut down that company

25:11

earlier, that you shut down that you shut

25:13

down that you shut down that company earlier,

25:16

that you shut down that you shut down

25:18

So Naval Ravaravacant says you need to pick

25:20

the right space to be in and that

25:22

space was a dead space and it was

25:25

broken and I just couldn't win in it.

25:27

But I just didn't have any quit. So

25:29

I just kept fighting for it. I was

25:31

standing on a broken foundation. I was standing

25:34

on a broken foundation. So knowing what I

25:36

know now, it was there was a lot

25:38

of time and anguish spent and there was

25:40

opportunities all around me that I was living

25:43

in San Francisco. And I'm over here like

25:45

getting my teeth kicked in in this space

25:47

that has that's just demolished. And so was

25:49

it the right thing to do? I don't

25:52

know, hindsight's always 2020, but yeah, like the

25:54

pain sucked. Like it just wasn't worth it.

25:56

At some amazing things happened during that time.

25:58

I had my first child and I got

26:01

married and I did live in a great

26:03

city, but professionally I struggled so badly for

26:05

so long that it just, it wasn't fun.

26:07

And I think that there's an element of

26:10

grit to win. It doesn't always come easy

26:12

and you have to have some thick skin.

26:14

have to be willing to overcome obstacles, but

26:16

to a point. I was very depressed during

26:19

that time frame, and I just couldn't get

26:21

out of my own way. And I learned

26:23

a lot about how do you re-engage to

26:25

activate yourself if you get stuck. So I

26:28

learned a lot then about that. So I

26:30

learned a lot then about that. And the

26:32

big thing is you have to win a

26:34

little bit. You can't just lose constantly. And

26:37

for us, because the foundation of that industry

26:39

was broken, it was a ton of false

26:41

starts. It was like five. But eventually, you

26:43

know, Tenacious D worked. We had a really

26:46

big win in 2011, and then our biggest

26:48

win was after that in 2013, which was

26:50

the business I just exited a year and

26:52

a half ago. Yeah, so tell us about

26:55

the money source. I want to understand how

26:57

you ended up creating that business, how you

26:59

grew it to a thousand employees, how you

27:01

exited. I'd love to learn more about that.

27:04

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31:40

so because I didn't have enough capital and

31:43

mortgage, you need to have capital to build

31:45

your platforms because it's not like VC. VC

31:47

use capital to burn your runway to then

31:49

get to your next round of capital. To

31:51

mortgage, you need to capitalize the platform to

31:53

go lend against it. And so I

31:55

didn't have enough to really do it competitively, so

31:57

what I ended up doing was doing partnerships. So

32:00

I did a partnership with this

32:02

company called Pacific Union Financial

32:04

in 2011 and we grew it from

32:06

essentially nothing to about 75 million in

32:08

revenue overnight. We had a not a

32:10

perfect exit from it. We had a disagreement

32:13

with some of the our partner there and

32:15

we ended up basically getting bought out, had

32:17

a very short non-compete, took all that capital

32:19

and went out to go buy a

32:21

platform, raised 40 million bucks. And we

32:23

couldn't find the platform we wanted. One

32:26

of the platforms we were talking to

32:28

to buy was this company called the

32:30

Money Source, which was this really small

32:33

little company in Long Island, New York.

32:35

30 employees, a couple million dollars

32:37

in at worth. There was a small little

32:39

regional net worth. There was a small

32:41

little regional lender. And he said no

32:43

to selling to us. This guy named

32:46

Stavros, who ended up being my business

32:48

partner. But he said, well, what if

32:50

you want to do a partnership? The

32:52

40 million bucks we raise it, I

32:54

didn't call capital on it. I just

32:56

went and did a partnership, but I

32:58

made it this like bulletproof partnership agreement.

33:01

So that what had happened in

33:03

the previous deal wouldn't happen in

33:05

this deal. And it was off

33:08

to the races. This business grew

33:10

from, yeah, it was like a J

33:12

curve. Like we went 30 to 1,000

33:14

employees in three years. And it's a

33:16

complicated story, but essentially we crushed it. We

33:19

crushed it. it's a game changer in the

33:21

mortgage industry and we built that from

33:23

the ground up. I mean there was something

33:25

there when we got there, they had their

33:28

licensing and they were a small company,

33:30

but there was a company that had grown

33:32

from nothing to call it 30 employees in 17

33:34

years. And then in three years it went from

33:36

30 employees to 1,000. So that kind of shows

33:38

you the difference of what happened when we all

33:41

got together. Yeah, so question for you, you

33:43

know, you've had many different entrepreneurial

33:45

experiences. Would you say that you

33:47

would have been as successful at

33:49

the money source had you not

33:51

had those other failures previously? I

33:53

don't know, it's hard to say. I mean,

33:55

obviously, like, you failed till you win, right?

33:57

You learn in the process and winning is

33:59

a... failure mitigation game, right? It's how do I reduce the

34:01

failure to get to the win or reduce the speed or

34:03

speed from fail to win, right? Yeah, we learned a lot.

34:05

What I learned at the the win before that, I took

34:07

that blueprint from there and I brought it over to this

34:10

next place and there was a lot of pain to figure

34:12

that out there. So had I just gone straight there, I

34:14

wouldn't have known what I knew, but yeah, I mean look,

34:16

you either grow or die, right, right? there's no real middle,

34:18

you either give up or you keep fighting, and for us,

34:20

you know, I have no end of fighting me. For me,

34:22

it's like, I, if I'm not getting what I want, I

34:24

will obsess about it till I either figure it out or

34:26

I figure out I don't want or I figure it out

34:28

or I figure out I don't want it or I figure

34:30

out I don't want it, right? I'm like, I'm figure it

34:32

out, I have to go figure it out. But yeah we

34:34

figured it out and like I said like you don't build

34:36

a hundred billion dollar mortgage platform without literally from startup like

34:38

not startup but from very small and by the way we

34:40

did it bootstrapped we didn't raise capital so like we would

34:42

go like once we got it big I'd be on Wall

34:44

Street I'd be meeting with like JP Morgan and Bank of

34:46

America Merrill Lynch and all these investment bankers on Wall Street

34:48

and they're like so so tell us about how did you

34:50

know how did you guys you know raise the capital to

34:52

do this? I'm like we made money? And they're like, how

34:54

did you do that? I'm like, magic. I mean, what we

34:56

did is, I cannot give you one example of any mortgage

34:59

company in the whole country that did it the way we

35:01

did it. It was a cool ride. And one of the

35:03

biggest tools I used was building a whole country that did

35:05

it the way we did it. It was a cool ride.

35:07

And one of the biggest tools I used was building a

35:09

world-class culture. and do those these best practices that are maybe

35:11

in other industries are not in this industry. and

35:13

we brought them in and really

35:15

leveraged that. And this is

35:17

a great segue to get into

35:19

core values and scale map,

35:21

but before we do that, I

35:23

was pretty surprised to learn

35:25

that you stepped down as CEO

35:27

of this company, especially given

35:29

all of your leadership background and

35:31

student government and all these

35:33

other ventures that you had. It

35:35

really surprised me that you

35:37

decided to step down as CEO.

35:39

What happened? What kind of

35:41

impacted you to make that decision?

35:43

Well, I told my partners

35:45

once, I said, you'll never have

35:48

to fire me. I'll quit

35:50

way before. The minute I'm not

35:52

happy, I'll quit. And so,

35:54

we grew this business to this

35:56

massive business. I mean, the

35:58

business won all these Stevie Awards

36:00

or ABA Awards. I was

36:02

ranked the number nine highest -rated

36:04

CEO in America on Gloucester.com in

36:06

this business. So we had

36:08

a list of accolades. Business was

36:10

a private equity business. We

36:12

ended up buying a bunch of

36:14

companies. I had checked all

36:16

these boxes on my list of

36:18

things I wanted to accomplish

36:20

as an entrepreneur. My first was

36:22

I want to build a

36:24

$100 million company. And Hala, do

36:26

you want to know how

36:28

big my company was when I

36:30

made that goal? How big?

36:32

It was $2 million in revenue.

36:35

And I was like, I'm

36:37

to build a $100 million company.

36:39

And that was in 2010,

36:41

when I was like failing in

36:43

my previous company. And I'm

36:45

like, I'm going to build a

36:47

$100 million company. And it

36:49

took me five years until that

36:51

happened. So I checked all

36:53

these boxes that I thought were

36:55

these, like I climbed this

36:57

mountain that I was like, I'm

36:59

going to go build a

37:01

nine -figure company and I'm going

37:03

to win all these awards and

37:05

I'm going to get written

37:07

up an entrepreneur and all these

37:09

things I thought that mattered.

37:11

And then I did it all.

37:13

And I'm like, this doesn't

37:15

feel any different. And something happened

37:17

in that we ended up

37:19

selling one of the businesses, because

37:21

2017 and 2018 were really

37:24

hard years for the mortgage industry,

37:26

kind of like 2022. This

37:28

is a hard year for the

37:30

industry right now too. And

37:32

I ended up selling a business

37:34

and it was in December

37:36

of that year, I ended up

37:38

basically moving 300 employees to

37:40

a new company and laying off

37:42

another 150. And it was

37:44

the seventh time I had done

37:46

layoffs because that industry is

37:48

super cyclical. It's really cyclical. You

37:50

have interest rates will drop

37:52

2 % and that's why we

37:54

staffed up so much. And what

37:56

I didn't tell you is

37:58

I went to a thousand and

38:00

then in... 2017 when Donald Trump got elected rates

38:02

went up and we ended up laying off 400

38:04

of those people. And then I ended up

38:07

over three rounds of layoffs and I had

38:09

done some layoffs before that because the

38:11

industry is so volatile that we're always

38:13

having to layoff, grow layoffs, that's

38:15

totally normal on mortgage. And I

38:17

had this epiphany and I was like, I

38:19

don't think my core values are aligned

38:22

with this industry. I'm a person that pours

38:24

into people and pours into leaders and like goes

38:26

out of my weight. I'll recruit someone for three

38:28

years to get him to leave to come join

38:30

me. And here I am like two years later

38:32

saying, oh, sorry, it didn't work out. And I

38:34

was sitting in my car and I just done this

38:37

massive layoff sale thing. It was not like a

38:39

sale where you make a lot of money. It's

38:41

like you sell it because you're trying to get

38:43

people soft landing. And I'm sitting in my car,

38:45

it's January 9th. This just happened on January

38:47

8th. I ruined yet another Christmas dealing

38:50

with bullshit dealing with bullshit. And

38:52

my family is in some art

38:54

store, and I'm in my car,

38:56

and I'm just sitting there, and

38:58

all of a sudden, I'm telling

39:00

you, there was no cognitive

39:02

thing that happened. This came

39:05

from my body. I'm a

39:07

somatic intuitive, like my body, my

39:09

body talks to me, and I

39:11

literally threw up the words, I'm

39:13

going to quit. I literally threw

39:16

up the words, I'm going to quit.

39:18

And I was like, I think I

39:20

might quit. She's like, are you

39:22

serious? And I'm like, like,

39:24

I'm gonna give it a year.

39:26

You know, I'm like, I'm not

39:28

gonna be impulsive about this. Like,

39:30

I can't even believe I just

39:32

said this. I'm gonna give it

39:34

a year. And it was like,

39:36

God just grabbed me and threw

39:38

me off the cliff. God was

39:40

like, you know, get a year,

39:42

buddy. And by November, I

39:45

was like, I was a wreck. I

39:47

hated it every moment. I had nothing to

39:49

do with even the company at that point. It was

39:51

just like me being in the space, like, I don't

39:53

know, it was like out of body experience. And

39:55

I just went, flew to New York, middle of

39:57

my business partner, and I said, I called my

40:00

other business. partners, one of my brother, I

40:02

told him I'm done. I flew to

40:04

New York and told my business partner

40:06

and like, yeah, like my company had

40:08

like a funeral for me. Like I

40:10

did not stay, I left and I

40:12

was done. Wow. So I stayed on

40:14

the board. I mean, you know, this

40:16

is a big company. So I was

40:18

on the board, I was on the

40:20

board, I was board of directors for

40:22

70 months while I figured out your

40:24

own personal brand, start a podcast. launch

40:26

a book, all those things, what made

40:28

you decide to go that path? During

40:30

2019, like, my one respite from, like,

40:32

obsessing about whether I wanted to stay

40:34

or leave, was I wrote my book.

40:37

So I was writing the book for

40:39

fun. So I wrote my book, the

40:41

core value equation, which is all about

40:43

how do you build a core value-driven

40:45

organization. But I was like, pouring myself

40:47

into, kind of side project. It was

40:49

just for fun. I'd wanted to start

40:51

a podcast. These were all things that

40:53

like, I'm a super creative person. So

40:55

for me, like, but I was not

40:57

being able to be creative because I

40:59

was doing, I was running my companies.

41:01

There was no plan for any of

41:03

that stuff. November 13th, 2019, I resigned.

41:05

I went to Asia with a CEO

41:07

forum of mine for Christmas and New

41:09

Year's, and I was buzzed on Belgium

41:11

beers in Hochiman City, Saigon, Vietnam. And

41:13

I told my wife, I'm like, let's

41:15

go travel the world for a world

41:17

for a January 7th. 2020. And I

41:20

was like, let's go move to Spain.

41:22

Let's take it. Let's take a year

41:24

off. Like, we always wanted to do

41:26

that. I want it. My goal was

41:28

always, like, sell my first company by

41:30

30 and go travel the world. And

41:32

that clearly didn't happen because what happened

41:34

to my previous business. At that point,

41:36

it was like a six and a

41:38

ten year old. I'm like, yeah, it's

41:40

going to travel. And then COVID hit.

41:42

In the world's world's world ended. Yeah

41:44

that my take sabbatical trip around the

41:46

world trip blew up it went away

41:48

and so there I was kind of

41:50

stuck in my house like everybody else

41:52

kind of sheltering in place trying to

41:54

figure out what the hell I want

41:56

to do with myself and I was

41:58

like well I wrote this book my

42:00

book was done at this point I'm

42:03

like I wrote this book maybe I

42:05

should go do something with it you

42:07

know I just took that entrepreneur a

42:09

hustle and I poured it into the

42:11

book and it started the podcast and

42:13

that's where I spent all most of

42:15

2020 was doing that and the personal

42:17

brand was just kind of by accident

42:19

I love that. I love this story

42:21

and kind of the lead up to

42:23

everything. So let's talk about the core

42:25

value equation. You help companies determine their

42:27

core values. First of all, how did

42:29

you first get introduced to core values?

42:31

And what do they mean? Yeah, so

42:33

in 06, when I was running my

42:35

first company, I was getting my teeth

42:37

kicked in. I had about 40, 50

42:39

employees. I was really young. And back

42:41

then, by the way, if you're an

42:43

entrepreneur, like... there was way less resources

42:45

for entrepreneurs. Way way way way less.

42:48

Like now like everyone's an entrepreneur. You

42:50

know, people I mean, what do you

42:52

do? I'm an entrepreneur. I'm like, no,

42:54

okay. Do you make money? They're like,

42:56

oh, not yet. I'm like, okay. Sure.

42:58

So back then it was like, nobody

43:00

was an entrepreneur. There was no resources,

43:02

especially a young entrepreneur. There was very

43:04

minimal resources. I mean, this is like

43:06

pre-titter. I found this program called Birding

43:08

a Giants at MIT, which was put

43:10

on by a guy named Vern Harnish,

43:12

who has this business called Scaling Up.

43:14

And I got in the program and

43:16

I was introduced to Core Values. And

43:18

I don't know what it was, you

43:20

know, maybe going back to this thing

43:22

with my dad, but like, how do

43:24

you live and engage life? Values is

43:26

a big part of that. And it

43:28

just resonated with me. And year three

43:31

at graduation, we did this exercise. where

43:33

these two founders who had this really

43:35

successful company in Vancouver called Nurse Next

43:37

Door, they said, please stand up if

43:39

your company has core values. So with

43:41

graduation night of birthing and giants at

43:43

MIT, and everyone stands up, and they

43:45

say, please stay standing if you know

43:47

your company core values, you come save

43:49

off the top of your head. Everyone

43:51

sits down. Like, I'm sorry. Excuse me.

43:53

Half the room sits down. Then they

43:55

say, please stay standing if your employees

43:57

know your core values. Half the room

43:59

sits down. They say, please stay standing

44:01

if your customers know your core values.

44:03

Everyone sits down. And I'm looking in

44:05

this room of 60 entrepreneurs. I mean,

44:07

some of them, like, Kendra Scott graduated

44:09

from this program, I mean, some of

44:11

them, like, Kendra Scott graduated from this

44:14

program, I don't know, like, Kendra Scott

44:16

graduated from this program, I don't know

44:18

if she graduated, like, like, Kendra Scott

44:20

graduated, graduated, graduated, graduated, graduated, graduated, graduated,

44:22

graduated, graduated, graduated, graduated, graduated, graduated, graduated,

44:24

graduated, graduated, graduated, graduated, graduated, graduated, graduated,

44:26

graduated, graduated, graduated, graduated, graduated, graduated, graduated,

44:28

graduated, graduated, graduated, graduated, graduated, graduated, graduated,

44:30

graduated, graduated, graduated, graduated, graduated, graduated, graduated,

44:32

graduated, graduated, graduated, graduated, graduated, graduated, graduated,

44:34

graduated, graduated, graduated, And that was the

44:36

pivotal moment for me. I realize that,

44:38

like, they say you have to have

44:40

mission and values for your business, but

44:42

nobody really knows how to do that.

44:44

And I spent the next few years

44:46

kind of obsessing. And what I realized

44:48

was that building a core value, or

44:50

core purpose-driven organization, most people just think

44:52

it's like a box you check. Like

44:54

it's when you get your, like a

44:57

thing you do through your NBA program.

44:59

And my take is, yes, you have

45:01

to figure out in your organization. During

45:03

those five years of me getting my

45:05

ass kicked in business I spent a

45:07

lot of time experimenting and I figured

45:09

out how do you design values and

45:11

purpose and mission how you have to

45:13

design it so people can actually use

45:15

it And the book is really a

45:17

step-by-step manual on how do you build

45:19

a core value-driven organization because my belief

45:21

is that core values of the opportunity

45:23

to be the language of accountability for

45:25

your organization and when it does that

45:27

it starts to attract people of like

45:29

mine and like belief And again, values

45:31

are the fundamental beliefs of an organization,

45:33

the personality of the organization. So if

45:35

I could get a bunch of people

45:37

to show up, who believe what I

45:39

believe, who talk the way I talk

45:42

about these beliefs, I have a much

45:44

higher likeness of them doing things like

45:46

working the way I work and carrying

45:48

the way I care, all these soft

45:50

skills that are so meaningful to execute

45:52

properly, but people don't know how to

45:54

do it. So the book is really

45:56

a step-by-by-step process and how I learn

45:58

to do it and how I teach

46:00

people to do it. Yeah, I find

46:02

it super, super interesting. So for me,

46:04

when I had a company of 10

46:06

people, it was super easy to run.

46:08

You know everybody, you get to hand

46:10

train. them, but now we're a company

46:12

of 60 employees at Yep Media and

46:14

we need things like this designing a

46:16

mission, designing core values because I don't

46:18

even know everybody who works at my

46:20

company anymore and that's why you need

46:22

like that structure. So I find this

46:25

super valuable. So one of the quotes

46:27

in your book that you say is

46:29

that companies do not have core values,

46:31

people have core values. Can you explain

46:33

what you mean by that? So core

46:35

values of the opportunity again to become

46:37

the personality of accountability for the organization.

46:39

it's not like it's like this thing

46:41

like until it becomes a thing it's

46:43

not a thing right so what ends

46:45

up happening is a company like yap

46:47

media you have 60 people and they

46:49

all have their own individual values and

46:51

if you don't define what yap media

46:53

stands for and then hold people accountable

46:55

to it and create a system where

46:57

that can scale what ends up happening

46:59

as you end up getting kind of

47:01

this like hodgepodge of values and their

47:03

values will show up in their actions

47:05

consistently will show up in their actions

47:08

consistently. just by default because individuals have

47:10

their own values. My belief is, is

47:12

like, they still have them even if

47:14

you define what you are and screen

47:16

for them and make them come to

47:18

life. But what they do instead is

47:20

they attach their values to your values.

47:22

So in Core Value equation, we say,

47:24

in Core Value equation, we say core

47:26

values, we say core values, we say

47:28

core values, we say core values, we

47:30

say core values, we say, you need

47:32

to teach people what they are, to

47:34

be viral and sticky, and do that

47:36

consistently. So you need to do that

47:38

consistently. And so the process the book

47:40

really teaches how do you do that

47:42

so that when I get that individual

47:44

that shows up that has their individual

47:46

values, that they figure out how do

47:48

they leverage their individual values and we

47:51

do that as part of the rollout,

47:53

how do you leverage your individual values

47:55

to do that as part of the

47:57

rollout? How do you leverage your individual

47:59

values to make the company values become

48:01

more alive and well? And the answer

48:03

is this, it has to happen organically,

48:05

but you have to have a process

48:07

to create that organic, it's got it

48:09

takes time it's like again like you

48:11

don't learn a language overnight so it

48:13

takes time but you have to create

48:15

those opportunities and it has to be

48:17

easy. And so really, the book, Corvallie

48:19

equation, walks you through. How do you

48:21

do that step by step? We'll be

48:23

right back after a quick break from

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need. And so you have your own

52:43

core values. You have six of them.

52:45

Can you talk about what each of

52:47

them are and what they represent? I

52:49

ended up in 2019, I ended up

52:51

getting into this program called Stagan, which

52:53

is a conscious leadership program. They were

52:56

a program called Intergal Leadership, and like

52:58

in my class was the CEO of

53:00

Whole Foods, Jason, and I were in

53:02

the same class, and I were in

53:04

the same class, and I were in

53:06

the same class, and the CEO, Doug,

53:08

who was a former CEO of Creighton

53:10

Beryl, and so there's some, you know,

53:12

big shots, and there's only 20 of

53:14

us in the class, it's a one

53:16

year-long, one year long program, and we're

53:18

one year long program, and we're in,

53:20

and we're in, and we're in, and

53:22

we're in, and we're in, and we're

53:24

in, and we're in, and we're in,

53:26

and we're in this program, and we're

53:28

in, and we're in, And we're doing

53:30

our personal values. And I realized I'm

53:32

like the core value king, right? I'm

53:34

starting my, I'm literally that same month

53:36

writing my book on core values. And

53:39

I realized I had not done my

53:41

personal values, which is super weird. I

53:43

wrote them very quickly because I, it

53:45

was easy for me because I had

53:47

experience with it. But yeah, my values,

53:49

I have six values. I always tell

53:51

me when you get out of five.

53:53

I couldn't just land on five. I

53:55

gave myself six. And so, number one's

53:57

happiness. called heart. So I like to

53:59

like think of a sticky viral language

54:01

to describe a value, and there's a

54:03

description of what that looks like for

54:05

me and for my family. Love is

54:07

my second one, and that is Bessos,

54:09

which is kisses in Spanish. I had

54:11

the tiger, his passion, that's my passion.

54:13

That's my third one. My fourth one

54:15

is curiosity. I call it Cinco, which

54:17

stands for what, where, who, when, and

54:19

why. Creativity is number five. I always

54:22

measure myself against them. Again, like, you

54:24

know when you're going against your values

54:26

because that's when friction starts to get

54:28

created, whether in your organization or in

54:30

your life. And for me, I'm always,

54:32

I always have my eye out, like,

54:34

what am I not living right now

54:36

that I know I want to live

54:38

right now that I know I want

54:40

to live, and I always tell my

54:42

eye out, like, what am I not

54:44

living right now that I know I

54:46

want to live? And I fight to

54:48

be happy, I fight for balance, I

54:50

fight to be happy, I fight for

54:52

balance, I fight for balance, I fight

54:54

for balance, I fight for balance, I

54:56

fight for balance, I fight for balance,

54:58

I fight for balance, I fight for

55:00

balance, curiosity, again, natural creativity, natural, but

55:02

happiness and balance, I fight for those

55:04

a lot. Yeah, I like that you

55:07

kind of give everything a catchy secondary

55:09

name so that it's super memorable. And

55:11

I think this is super important for

55:13

organizations because when it comes to building

55:15

a community, having a common language and

55:17

things that you guys only know about,

55:19

is really important for bonding. So tell

55:21

us about why you say that you

55:23

need that like sticky version of the

55:25

core value as well. Again if you

55:27

believe that core values the language of

55:29

accountability then the language matters words matter

55:31

like literally like empires have grown and

55:33

fallen because of words I'm reading a

55:35

book with my son and we're reading

55:37

actually about the it's about the history

55:39

of the world and we're on the

55:41

chapter about Islam right now and you

55:43

realize that Muhammad basically built an entire

55:45

empire the Islamic Empire off of just

55:47

words like like he went on talked

55:50

about Allah right and that created this

55:52

entire empire that that got all the

55:54

different tribes to come together. So words

55:56

are so powerful. That's just one example.

55:58

There's been empires built on words. Like

56:00

you look at the United States of

56:02

America built on the words of our

56:04

founding fathers, right? So why would you

56:06

not pick viral sticky language that stands

56:08

for what you stand for? Or you

56:10

could be like everyone else and pick

56:13

boring words like integrity. It's like, well,

56:15

yeah, everyone has integrity in their core

56:17

values or driven or, you know,

56:19

excellence. It's like, well, what's the difference

56:22

between yaps excellence and the guy down

56:24

the street? And I'm like, how about to

56:26

say it a different way? There's a reason

56:28

people doing it in branding and there's a reason

56:30

that you should do it in core values, which

56:32

is like, if it's going to be

56:34

language of accountability, let's give them some language.

56:36

And I love viral sticky language. Yeah, I love

56:38

that tip. So talk to us about what

56:41

a core value-driven organization looks like versus one

56:43

that has no core values. Well, again, going

56:45

back to what your question before is, like,

56:47

people have core values companies companies don't unless

56:49

you create them in your company. So what

56:51

ends up happening. If you don't have a

56:53

core value-driven organization, all that is, is me

56:55

defining what I stand for and holding the

56:57

organization accountable to it consistently and making it

56:59

drip throughout the organization. So what does that

57:01

mean? Does that mean that you're always living

57:03

those values? No, it means you're always trying

57:05

to live those values, and when you fall

57:07

off, you fix. So you get back to

57:09

center, the core, right? A non-core value-driven

57:12

organization is someone that just shows up and does

57:14

what I call BOU, business as business as usual.

57:16

You get what you get. Oh, hey,

57:19

Johnny over there has shitty work

57:21

ethic, but Sally over here has

57:23

great work ethic. There's a value

57:25

misalignment, by the way. You think

57:27

that doesn't create friction? Your team

57:29

will manage themselves to the lowest

57:32

common denominator. So if you let

57:34

losers hang out in your company,

57:36

lose common denominator. So if you

57:38

let losers hang out in your

57:40

company, no offense, no offense, your

57:43

company denominator. So if you let

57:45

losers hang out. Well, do you think you're

57:47

going to really have excellence happen? The answer

57:49

is absolutely not. You're going to have mediocrity.

57:51

You have pockets of excellence that happen accidentally

57:53

or you could do it my way and

57:55

be super intentional and hold everyone accountable

57:58

and the organizational accountable. this

58:00

idea of excellence. And when someone shows up

58:02

and they can't measure up to that, they

58:04

get to leave. And what happens then is

58:06

you have accountability around those values. And the

58:09

people that love those values, they'll be like,

58:11

hell's yeah, I'm in the right place. And

58:13

the people that love those values, they'll be

58:15

like, hell's yeah, I'm in the right place.

58:17

And the people that don't, are in the

58:20

right environment for them. So that's how I

58:22

characterize it at least. So there's some mistakes

58:24

and some common mistakes that people make when

58:26

it comes to their core values. First of

58:28

all, they make them too wordy. They're not

58:30

simple enough. They're too complex. And sometimes they're

58:33

too nice. So I'd love to get your

58:35

feedback in terms of like what good core

58:37

values sound like versus bad ones. Your organization

58:39

has a way you guys speak. And there's

58:41

tough gritty organizations and there's really like buttoned

58:44

up pretty organizations. And then there's like middle

58:46

ground hippie organizations. Your values are the personality

58:48

of the organization, so there's different personalities, just

58:50

like there's different personalities with people. So a

58:52

bad value is one that's not authentic, i.e.

58:55

you say I value showing up for the

58:57

team and yet you don't and you're the

58:59

CEO. That's problem. And in my book I

59:01

say that the minute the CEO doesn't live

59:03

the values, you just put a bullet in

59:06

the head of the values. So bad values

59:08

are ones that aren't true. They're ones that

59:10

are not authentic. Because again, there's five steps

59:12

to creating core value-driven organization. Discover, design, rollout,

59:14

implement, measure for efficacy. If you discover and

59:16

you are trying to please imaginary people, clients,

59:19

team members, that probably aren't going to be

59:21

there in the future anyway, that probably aren't

59:23

going to be there in the future anyway,

59:25

because you're out of a line with your

59:27

values, then you may pick values that are

59:30

not authentic to who you are. So I

59:32

see people do all the time where they'll

59:34

pick warm and fuzzy values, The people like

59:36

Travis Kolanek. I'm what I just finished watching

59:38

the show super pumped. Dude that guy one

59:41

of their core values was called toe stepping

59:43

that was core value number seven for Uber

59:45

toe stepping. Does that connotation? Like niceness? Hell

59:47

no! That kind of tastes fucking people up

59:49

if they don't live your value. Toes stepping.

59:52

Stepping on someone's toes. Have you had someone's

59:54

step on your toes, Hala? Yeah. Yeah, it

59:56

hurts a lot. Toes stepping is their number

59:58

seven value. Well, he ended up creating a

1:00:00

toxic culture because of it. But he created

1:00:03

something amazing too. It's scaled till it didn't

1:00:05

there. So that's a bad value. From a

1:00:07

design standpoint, and that's actually a perfect example

1:00:09

that core values don't need to be nice.

1:00:11

Hey man, if you're a toe-stepping organization to

1:00:13

say what you are, here's what happens if

1:00:16

you don't. Sally, the flower loving hippie, shows

1:00:18

up and she sees Travis toe-stepping on Johnny

1:00:20

and she's like, whoa, where do I work?

1:00:22

And that's a misalignment. Whereas Bobby, who's a

1:00:24

bad-ass, likes to-up, he's like, oh, cool, we

1:00:27

toe-step here. No friction, and when I say

1:00:29

is, you know, you know, and I do

1:00:31

a lot of coaching, removal process. You want

1:00:33

to scale fast, remove friction from your business.

1:00:35

The way you move friction is by eliminating

1:00:38

problems before they become problems. And what we're

1:00:40

talking about right now, a value misalignment is

1:00:42

one of the worst problems you can have

1:00:44

in your business. That's where you get infighting

1:00:46

and politics and drama and all that bullshit.

1:00:49

And I don't want any of that stuff.

1:00:51

That's just slowing you down from winning. And

1:00:53

so scales of friction removal process and it

1:00:55

starts with values being aligned properly. Hmm. Okay,

1:00:57

so here is some advice that I'd love

1:00:59

you to give. So let's say your company

1:01:02

like mine, my company like blew up so

1:01:04

fast. What advice would you give in terms

1:01:06

of the executives at my organization or any

1:01:08

new startup to begin to develop their core

1:01:10

values? Like what are the first things that

1:01:13

we should do to kind of brainstorm and

1:01:15

hit the drawing board for our core values?

1:01:17

Well, I go step by step through my

1:01:19

book. So you need to do the discovery

1:01:21

process, which is... There's so many different values

1:01:24

you can stand for. So you need to

1:01:26

really pick what are the top, you know,

1:01:28

three to six, I say. Four is the

1:01:30

good, I like four or five is a

1:01:32

good sweet spot. And there's a book called

1:01:35

Built to Last by Jerry Porus and Jim

1:01:37

Collins. And in that book, they. They went

1:01:39

and studied visionary companies and they found out

1:01:41

one thing Visionary companies stand for no more

1:01:43

than seven and no less than three values

1:01:46

So and this is studying some of the

1:01:48

most iconic companies the last century So for

1:01:50

me, it's let's pick out of that hundred

1:01:52

and in my book We give a list

1:01:54

of 105 words that you can in the

1:01:56

book if you pick up the book, it's

1:01:59

in there and I highly recommend it and

1:02:01

we'll put it in the show notes Yeah,

1:02:03

so it's in there there's a guide for

1:02:05

this so we have a guide for this

1:02:07

we have a guide that we give when

1:02:10

you we give when you by the book

1:02:12

And so you just eliminate those 105 words

1:02:14

and you pick your top 15 and you

1:02:16

rank them in order because values have a

1:02:18

hierarchy. So you want to put them in

1:02:21

order that now you've discovered what are your

1:02:23

top five values what matters most to you

1:02:25

from there you have to go through a

1:02:27

design process which is making them viral sticky

1:02:29

and making them I have some tests I

1:02:32

put them through do they stand the test

1:02:34

of time is there any negativity in there

1:02:36

do you have product removed product so I

1:02:38

have a laundry list of like checks and

1:02:40

balances but they have to be designed. to

1:02:43

be able to scale as you scale. In

1:02:45

order to do that, they need to be

1:02:47

designed so that they can become viral and

1:02:49

sticky. So you go through that process, and

1:02:51

then you got to bring them to the

1:02:53

team and teach the team so that they

1:02:56

learn what they are and create systems for

1:02:58

that in the business. And in the book,

1:03:00

I talk through stuff by stuff. How do

1:03:02

you do all those things? Yeah, and I

1:03:04

can't wait to take my team through this

1:03:07

exercise. I'm super excited about it. So you're

1:03:09

known for two things. Core values, core values,

1:03:11

which we just covered in a lot of

1:03:13

a lot of detail. as well as scaling

1:03:15

businesses. So you have this methodology, the scale

1:03:18

map method, map stands for mission accountability and

1:03:20

performance. So could you go over map and

1:03:22

your scale map method and what each section

1:03:24

is? And I can kind of just ask

1:03:26

you a few questions about each area. Yeah,

1:03:29

there's a word in Japanese called Shibuui. Have

1:03:31

you heard of this word before? No. Okay,

1:03:33

so Shibuui. It means that there is complexity

1:03:35

in simplicity and simplicity. So. Even with the

1:03:37

core value equation, it's around creating something that's

1:03:39

simple. I'm a chronic person that makes things

1:03:42

complex, so I have to simplify it or

1:03:44

else I'll never do anything. And the core

1:03:46

value equation is all around how do you

1:03:48

simplify the process to make it work. When

1:03:50

I left my business and COVID hit, I

1:03:53

was sitting on the sidelines and did my

1:03:55

book launch and then when I came out

1:03:57

of that, I got asked to advise some

1:03:59

entrepreneurs on scale because I was always the

1:04:01

scale guy, like how do you grow your

1:04:04

company fast? And having grown a company that

1:04:06

quick from I grew up, the first leg

1:04:08

of that growth was 30 to 300 employees

1:04:10

in 18 months, the next, which is crazy,

1:04:12

which is crazy. off-the-chart record engagement scores and

1:04:15

like zero growing pains. And then we went

1:04:17

from 300 to 1000. And so this is

1:04:19

all around scale methodology. So the other thing

1:04:21

I learned and got to play with it

1:04:23

during this time was these different scale systems.

1:04:26

And I learned something really simple is that

1:04:28

you need to have scale systems to complement

1:04:30

your cultural systems. And I always tell people

1:04:32

scales about three things. You need to have

1:04:34

execution systems, strategic systems, and they need to

1:04:36

talk to be simple. And so scale map

1:04:39

was really born out of me starting to

1:04:41

help other CEOs grow their companies. And right

1:04:43

now we have scale map method, we coach

1:04:45

right now, gosh, almost 30 different companies. And

1:04:47

we teach them the process and really comes

1:04:50

down to three different companies and we teach

1:04:52

them the process and really comes down to

1:04:54

three things. And scale map itself is the

1:04:56

execution side of this. What is the execution

1:04:58

asset that I built in the business? And

1:05:01

there's three parts, which is where are you

1:05:03

trying to happen in the next 12 months,

1:05:05

month by month. What's going to happen in

1:05:07

the next three years? And then I just

1:05:09

want you to lean into the future and

1:05:12

have some faith. And where do you think

1:05:14

you take the thing in 10 years? For

1:05:16

some people say, so I want to sell

1:05:18

before them. I go fine, five years. Once

1:05:20

I define where I'm trying to go and

1:05:23

I want to look at that in a

1:05:25

few areas, revenue, income, staff size, ethics. Am

1:05:27

I building a business that's sustainable revenue and

1:05:29

income will tell me that? How many people

1:05:31

do I need to get them there and

1:05:33

I need to get them there? And I

1:05:36

need to get them there and I want

1:05:38

to lean into. 10, 10, 10, 10, 10,

1:05:40

10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10,

1:05:42

10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10,

1:05:44

10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10,

1:05:47

10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10,

1:05:49

10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, Subprime mortgage

1:05:51

lending I created future liabilities for myself my

1:05:53

first business so I learned you have to

1:05:55

like be cognizant of that then what we

1:05:58

do is we create accountability systems around that

1:06:00

and And that comes in meeting structure. So

1:06:02

we teach admission, we teach how do you

1:06:04

build quarterly plans. And so this is what

1:06:06

I teach CEOs. How do you have simple

1:06:09

systems to do this consistently? A is accountability.

1:06:11

If I build a quarterly plan and I

1:06:13

have my mission and where I'm trying to

1:06:15

build a quarterly plan and I have my

1:06:17

mission and where I'm trying to take the

1:06:19

business to and again, what do I do

1:06:22

with that? My team knows what they need

1:06:24

to work on. And so A stands for

1:06:26

accountability. And we do that in two different

1:06:28

ways. Number one is what we call rule

1:06:30

of one work chart, which is who owns

1:06:33

what, defining who owns what in the business.

1:06:35

I don't want overlapping responsibilities. I want people

1:06:37

to understand who owns what in the business.

1:06:39

I want to spell that out and document

1:06:41

it. And I want that to be a

1:06:44

strategic tool for growth. I, e. if I

1:06:46

map out your entire organization, what are the

1:06:48

top two hires you want to make in

1:06:50

the next 12 months? Strategic hires. What are

1:06:52

the top two hires you want to make

1:06:55

in the next three years you want to

1:06:57

make in the next three years? the people

1:06:59

you bring into your organization in the next

1:07:01

year and three years leadership wise are going

1:07:03

to define where you go in that time

1:07:06

period. But I want to map that up

1:07:08

so there's clarity. The next thing I want

1:07:10

to do is I want to build a

1:07:12

meeting cadence. And what I tell people is

1:07:14

accountability comes through cadence, cadence comes through cadence,

1:07:16

and it's the heartbeat of execution in your

1:07:19

company. And we do that through a meeting

1:07:21

structure we call 1590 meeting rule and 30

1:07:23

every 30, which is your team meetings and

1:07:25

your one on your one on your one

1:07:27

on ones. All right. What's going to happen

1:07:30

is how large you're going to start to

1:07:32

get performance metrics. Data is going to come

1:07:34

out of the business. Well, what do you

1:07:36

do with that data? And so peace stands

1:07:38

for performance, and that's looking at the data

1:07:41

that comes out of the business. And we

1:07:43

do that in three areas. One's a call

1:07:45

to a five-question pulse survey, which is me

1:07:47

understanding my customer experience and my team experience.

1:07:49

The second is we call three by three

1:07:52

KP. Which's breaking before it's going to break.

1:07:54

So we have a whole system around that.

1:07:56

And then last but not least, it's called

1:07:58

C3P&L, which is how do you look at

1:08:00

finance. so they tell the story of growth.

1:08:02

And so it's a really simplistic, going back

1:08:05

to this idea of Shabui, is there complexity

1:08:07

and simplicity? I want to really focus on

1:08:09

the 20% that's going to move the needle,

1:08:11

and I want to get everyone aligned around

1:08:13

that, and then sit that on top of

1:08:16

a cultural asset known as my values. And

1:08:18

when you do that, and you grow like

1:08:20

crazy. Yeah, I love some of these ideas.

1:08:22

I've never heard before and I love them

1:08:24

so much. Like rule of one org charts,

1:08:27

the fact that everybody knows exactly what they're

1:08:29

supposed to do, one person is assigned to

1:08:31

one specific task. There's no confusion. That is

1:08:33

so important. That's no confusion. That is so

1:08:35

important when you're trying to scale a team.

1:08:38

And I love building the org charts for

1:08:40

the feature because that really helps you understand

1:08:42

like how to budget, what hires you need

1:08:44

to make, who's going to come into your

1:08:46

company and really helps your company and really

1:08:49

help scale things. And then your your rules

1:08:51

around meetings are super cool. So I'd love

1:08:53

to kind of get a little bit more

1:08:55

detail about that. So you have the 1590

1:08:57

meeting rule and you also have 30 every

1:08:59

30 rule. So let's hear about those two

1:09:02

rules regarding meetings. First of all, most people

1:09:04

think meetings suck and they usually do. And

1:09:06

so if you have bad meetings, then that

1:09:08

means you have bad execution. So if you

1:09:10

have ineffective meetings in your business, and we

1:09:13

use a tool that we teach in Scumup

1:09:15

called the Meeting Autopsy, which is you just

1:09:17

like kind of doing an autopsy of what

1:09:19

your meetings look like and how good are

1:09:21

they, and usually people have one or two

1:09:24

issues, they have two meetings or not enough

1:09:26

meetings, they have two many meetings or not

1:09:28

enough meetings. And so for me, I'm like,

1:09:30

let's just keep it simple. Like the daily

1:09:32

huddle is the 15 minute meeting, is your

1:09:35

weekly execution of your quarterly plan. Like I

1:09:37

want to build a plan for the corner

1:09:39

and then I want to hold people accountable

1:09:41

to it week in and week out. And

1:09:43

what I do is I look at the

1:09:46

business in 13 week sprints. You have four

1:09:48

13 weeks sprints that come out to 52

1:09:50

weeks a year. I want every week, every

1:09:52

five business days, your team has to show

1:09:54

up and say that they're either on track

1:09:56

or off track on their goals. And if

1:09:59

they're off track, we're going to have a

1:10:01

discussion. removal process and what I want what

1:10:03

I teach CEOs and my entrepreneurs that I

1:10:05

work with I say hey look like we

1:10:07

want to get really clear on creating a

1:10:10

culture of accountability but you got to make

1:10:12

it simple or else your team is gonna

1:10:14

they'll vote with their feet they'll be like

1:10:16

oh Hala has us doing all these things

1:10:18

this sucks I hate us doing all these

1:10:21

things this sucks I hate it here this

1:10:23

sucks I hate it here and my perspective

1:10:25

is like no get ROI out of it

1:10:27

you will create an organization where nobody can

1:10:29

hide and when nobody can hide like there

1:10:32

will be people that like there will be

1:10:34

people that like And the people that don't,

1:10:36

but then there's the other side, which people

1:10:38

like accountability, and they'll be like, hell's yeah,

1:10:40

like, Hala's got a great business. I love

1:10:42

our meetings because we get so much stuff

1:10:45

done and everyone's always hitting their goals and

1:10:47

the business is growing and we're getting more

1:10:49

organized, not less organized. So that happens because

1:10:51

you have good meeting cadence around your quarterly

1:10:53

plans and around your daily accountability. The 30,

1:10:56

it's the 30 minutes you need to spend

1:10:58

with each team member every 30 days, with

1:11:00

each team member every 30 days. And so

1:11:02

I teach that in our boot camp, and

1:11:04

then also we have a mastermind, I teach

1:11:07

that to that, and I also teach them

1:11:09

to my one-on-one clients. But it's really focusing

1:11:11

on the one thing that matters most to

1:11:13

your team. And you know what that is?

1:11:15

Allah? What? Themselves. And that's the truth. You

1:11:18

got to make it about them. And you

1:11:20

got to pour into them. And you got

1:11:22

to, and if you do it the right

1:11:24

way, you can figure out what's slowing them

1:11:26

down. And then once you pour into them,

1:11:29

once you pour into them, through a really

1:11:31

nice framework. you can then hold them accountable

1:11:33

to what you want them to be held

1:11:35

accountable to. But what a lot of managers

1:11:37

do is the only time they meet with

1:11:39

their team is when it's bad news or

1:11:42

to give them a shit about not hitting

1:11:44

their numbers. And I'm like, yeah, like, you're

1:11:46

just the dad that's over critical. Like, nobody

1:11:48

wants to hear that, right? So my question

1:11:50

is, what are you doing to make them

1:11:53

successful? And are you creating an opportunity a

1:11:55

nice consistency around one-on-one? And I'm like, you're

1:11:57

telling me that two out of every three

1:11:59

people don't do one-on-one's in your business? You

1:12:01

can't tell me that's not affecting your ability

1:12:04

to win. I know. it is. So for

1:12:06

us, we created a nice system around that.

1:12:08

And then what's cool is if you do

1:12:10

it one way, then you can hold all

1:12:12

your managers accountable to that same way. So

1:12:15

you have what's called consistency. And with consistency,

1:12:17

you remove friction from the business and scale

1:12:19

was a friction from the business and scale

1:12:21

was a friction removal process. So that's what

1:12:23

you're doing. Amazing. Oh my God, Darius, all

1:12:26

this information was super valuable. I feel like

1:12:28

there's a lot of things that people can

1:12:30

take away. that is in your mastermind. So

1:12:32

tell us about how we can find out

1:12:34

about those resources. So you could go to

1:12:36

do Darius scale.com. So that's where you can

1:12:39

learn more about the boot camp and about

1:12:41

the coaching. That's kind of my give back

1:12:43

right now right now. That's kind of my

1:12:45

give back right now. I love pouring into

1:12:47

CEOs and entrepreneurs. So Darius scale.com is a

1:12:50

good place to do that. You can go

1:12:52

to the Real Darius for All Things Darius.

1:12:54

And that kind of has the book and

1:12:56

podcast and stuff. that have built these amazing

1:12:58

businesses and there's a lot of learning there

1:13:01

too. So those are the three places, but

1:13:03

all things, the real darias, that's all things

1:13:05

darias. Yeah, and I'll put all those links

1:13:07

in the show notes, but selfishly, I want

1:13:09

to understand what can people expect in the

1:13:12

boot camp? Like what is that like? Oh

1:13:14

yeah, that's like drinking from a fire host

1:13:16

for three days. So it's really three days

1:13:18

you come in, we do, we build your

1:13:20

rise targets, so we build your 10 three

1:13:22

and one year plan. We teach you how

1:13:25

to build quarterly plans, so you can start

1:13:27

to do quarterly is the right way in

1:13:29

your business. And I mean, so many entrepreneurs

1:13:31

do those wrong, and they build these crappy

1:13:33

plans that don't do anything. So for us,

1:13:36

it's how do you build like these rock

1:13:38

solid accountability plans? And then we really take

1:13:40

these rock solid accountability plans, and then we

1:13:42

really take you through teaching how to accountability

1:13:44

plans, and then we really take you through

1:13:47

through teaching you through accountability accountability plans, and

1:13:49

then we really bring it back into your

1:13:51

business. And is it typically like a CEO

1:13:53

and entrepreneur is that like you bring your

1:13:55

exact team when you do this? Is it

1:13:58

virtual? Is it with a group? Yeah, it's

1:14:00

a group. We do small group. I run

1:14:02

it. So you get to spend three days

1:14:04

with myself, which is always fun. And we

1:14:06

do a lot of open coaching. So I

1:14:09

mean, I'll do stuff where I just like,

1:14:11

you can bring me any problem. And mastermind,

1:14:13

we do that too. But yeah, like, it's

1:14:15

you and I let people bring their number

1:14:17

two. So it's you and your number two.

1:14:19

It's small group. It's a lot of one-on-on-on-on-on-on-on-on-on-on-on-one

1:14:22

time. I have. I have. I have. I

1:14:24

have I have I have. I have coaches

1:14:26

that I have coaches that will meet coaches

1:14:28

that will meet with coaches that will meet

1:14:30

with you, will meet with you, will meet

1:14:33

with you, will meet with you before, will

1:14:35

meet with you before, will meet with you

1:14:37

before, will meet with you before, will meet

1:14:39

with you before, will meet with you before

1:14:41

and after, before and we do a lot

1:14:44

of breakouts, it's a workshop, so it's interactive,

1:14:46

there's like, you're working, like, there's a lot

1:14:48

of interactivity, and the idea is that you're

1:14:50

building, you're really building these things for your

1:14:52

business that you need to get yourself organized

1:14:55

and learning the framework so that you can

1:14:57

then come, go back and apply it to

1:14:59

your business, because so many people are just

1:15:01

guessing, and the problem I find with a

1:15:03

lot of these other scale systems is, I'm

1:15:05

a creator, I'm like, this is a better

1:15:08

way of doing it. I'm going to do

1:15:10

it this way. And I kept like re-tweking

1:15:12

other systems and also creating my own stuff.

1:15:14

So this is all born on the back

1:15:16

of other systems that are, God bless them,

1:15:19

they're great systems, but this is a better

1:15:21

technology from my perspective. Yeah, well, I'm super

1:15:23

excited about it. I'm going to pitch it

1:15:25

to my team for us to do the

1:15:27

scale map boot camp with you, Darius, and

1:15:30

hopefully we get to Darius, and hopefully we

1:15:32

get to do that. So the way that

1:15:34

we close our episodes here on young and

1:15:36

profiting podcast is we ask the same questions

1:15:38

to every guest at the end of the

1:15:41

show. The first question is what is one

1:15:43

actionable thing our young and profitors can do

1:15:45

today to be more profiting tomorrow? So here's

1:15:47

something I tell everybody and I call my

1:15:49

fulfillment formula, which is, and if you do

1:15:52

these three things, I think that this is

1:15:54

at least what I've learned over my life.

1:15:56

I'm 44. So I'm young, but I'm also

1:15:58

old. I'm on the fence. You're medium. Yeah,

1:16:00

I'm medium. Well, yeah, I'm experienced, right? So

1:16:02

are you living in your values? So get

1:16:05

clear on what your values are. Because the

1:16:07

minute you ever feel icky or like friction

1:16:09

in your life, it's you're rubbing up against.

1:16:11

your values. So get clear on what your

1:16:13

values are and start to look at them

1:16:16

on a regular basis. And so I always

1:16:18

say, are you living in your values? Are

1:16:20

you working in your strains? Are you doing

1:16:22

work where you are working within your talents?

1:16:24

Are you doing work where you are working

1:16:27

within your talents? Are you working within your

1:16:29

talents? Are you doing work where you are

1:16:31

working within your talents? And I actually living

1:16:33

in these strains. Am I actually living in

1:16:35

these strains? Am I doing it with a

1:16:38

high level of awareness? And I have a

1:16:40

buddy who, as he was, Mark of Garjenta,

1:16:42

he's the CEO of a company called Plus

1:16:44

Plus. He says, fulfillment comes through, again, living

1:16:46

in my values, working in my strains and

1:16:49

doing it with a high level awareness, and

1:16:51

awareness comes through three, four areas. Number one,

1:16:53

am I being mindful? Do I have a

1:16:55

mindfulness practice? Am I exercising? Am I dieting

1:16:57

a good dieting a good diet? Am I

1:16:59

sleeping well? practicing mindfulness, are you treating your

1:17:02

body like a temple, right? Doing the right

1:17:04

things for my body, my working, my talents,

1:17:06

and living in my values. And so my

1:17:08

answer to your yap crowd is if you're

1:17:10

doing those things that start to pay attention

1:17:13

to those things, the good things just happened.

1:17:15

Okay. And our last question is, what is

1:17:17

your secret to profiting in life? I think

1:17:19

it's, it goes back to what I just

1:17:21

said. I really think it's, it's finding that

1:17:24

that cross section between what you love to

1:17:26

do. And so it's really finding that cross-section

1:17:28

between what you love to do and what

1:17:30

people will pay you for and really going

1:17:32

all in on that. And so for me,

1:17:35

it's like, how can I do more of

1:17:37

that? I love that. Thank you so much,

1:17:39

Darius, for sharing your wisdom and sharing your

1:17:41

story. It was super valuable. Thanks, Halah. I

1:17:43

love being here.