I’ll just say they are blessed to have ’em as their consultant, as their coach. I lean on him a lot, know, with information that, with his experience, I reach out and be like, Hey, R Dub man, I’m thinking this. He’s like, I’ll do this. And I’m like, he’s never wrong. So if you have a business or you’re working within a business or you wanna climb that ladder.

Or if you own the business, you want to take it to the next level. Build that culture super strong, [00:01:00] then tune in. Okay? Break out your notebooks. Get ready to like legit level up. Okay? If you like it, smash the like button, the subscribe button, please. Or share it with somebody that , that might hear, hear it, or need to know this information.

My sponsors and affiliates absolutely love that. So without further ado, here’s a 2.0 interview with my good friend. Great friend. Fellow jar head. Well, I’m not a jar head, but he is a Jar head. I love you Richard. Richard Walsh. Let’s level up.

Hey, time to Shine today. Podcast Varsity Squad. Welcome back to another powerful edition of Time to Shine Today podcast with Coach Fergie. I’m your host, Scott Ferguson. Blessed to be your gap coach, specializing in performance, mental conditioning, working with professional and amateur athletes, business leaders, entrepreneurs, entertainers, C-suite, and students to help them bridge their success gap and to live a life of options and not obligations on this platform.

We are stoked to bring you high performers, or not just chasing and attaining success, but redefining it. Through providing above and beyond service and squad buckle up. ’cause today we’re going [00:02:00] back into the octagon with my guy, our 2.0 interview with a powerhouse who just doesn’t talk about impact. He lives it.

My guy, Richard Walsh’s, the CEO of Sharp, the spear coach in a 30 year battle tested entrepreneur and the bestselling author of Escape The Owner Prison, the Con, the Contractor’s Blueprint to break free Scale fast and live fully. My guy is a US Marine champion Boxer black belt, and a father of I believe six.

He can correct me later, but he doesn’t just build businesses. He forges legacies. He’s a sought after speaker podcast host and get this, and he internationally recognized steel sculptor. Yep. The man bends metal with the same intens. He brings the business. This round two with Richard, and we are about to go even deeper into how to lead with grit, scale and strategy, and sharpen your entrepreneurial edge like never before.

So let’s grab the Notebook squad because we’re gonna go deep into his programs and, and how, what he has to offer. I lean on him a lot to help me grow. Time to shine today. And he’s also not gonna lie to you. He’s, he’s kind of become kind of a [00:03:00] bestie of mine in the business world. So Richard, thank you so much for coming on man.

Introduce yourself again please to the time to Shine Today. Podcast Varsity Squad. Let’s get this rolling.

Richard Walsh: Scott, thanks so much for having me back, man. Always look forward to talking to you, whether it’s on the podcast or otherwise, man. Right. I just, I love it. You’re the best. So, yeah. Mia, you, you said most of it, , I’m all that.

I’m all that US Marine champion, boxer, black Belt, bestselling author, husband, and father of six kids. You were right. I have six. Okay. All right. One one of the Marine Corps. Now, he’s killing it. He’s often yeah. We were talking off Mike about how you have all

L. Scott Ferguson: this time now because the way you raised them, which I’m just gonna brag on the way you raised your kids.

They’re not coming back, , hat in hand all the time. They’re out there getting after it because , stuff they learn from you. I mean, squat, he was a champion boxer. He sent me this video a couple weeks ago of hitting the bag and I know this guy’s gotta be pushing 60, but dude, I, I feel sorry for the bag, bro.

Like, how old are you? ’cause I’m 53. How old are you?

Richard Walsh: 59. That

L. Scott Ferguson: dude, we’re, we’re getting, that’ll be 60

Richard Walsh: this year. Yeah,

L. Scott Ferguson: it’s, I don’t feel it. I don’t know if West, [00:04:00] if you’re looking on Vimeo or YouTube, you don’t look it bro. Thank you. So thank I really appreciate. Thank I still rock

Richard Walsh: that bot. I, I I have to stay dangerous, Scott.

That’s what we gotta do, right? That’s, I’m a dangerous gentleman. Yes. That’s my, that’s my thing. And yeah. And what’s the new

L. Scott Ferguson: thing? Ffo. Fuck around and find out.

Richard Walsh: Bring it on. Yes. How many people in the room have been punched in the face? Right.

L. Scott Ferguson: Wannabe, right? , Seriously, if you think about that, there’s a lot of people out there that have never really gone through what you’ve been through.

And the resiliency that you have, , and we didn’t really cover it too much in the last podcast, but , I remember the landscaping stuff and all that, that kind of stuff that we kind of talked about, and you had lost your ass a couple times, what I’m saying? Mm-hmm. What was the resiliency that made you kind of come back into the ring and just keep pushing?

What was that, what was that drive?

Richard Walsh: , I, I just have this like, I understand failure, like I started to. Accept it in the sense that it’s a necessary part of [00:05:00] the process. Right, right. So I’m like, well, and I have to do it again. I can’t, I can’t just stop. I’m not gonna give up because it’s like, it’s quitting.

Failure is one thing. Quitting is disgraceful. Yeah. I’ll just say it, bill forward, right? No, for me, like I, I, I, I gotta keep going till I, and I don’t, I don’t know what the end is. Right. I think death is, is when I stop improving and doing things like Right. I don’t, I don’t have another, I don’t have another metric.

Right. Okay. That’s, that’s my metric when I’m done. It’s just, , dirt app.

L. Scott Ferguson: Right. Yeah. We’ll probably still be punching after that. Either you, ? Yeah. Right.

Richard Walsh: So I just, so really it was, it was pushing through because I, I, I have this inner sense, like you talk about the video I sent you with me boxing.

Yeah. Like, now this is kind of my comment. I look at that and go, man, I’m just still kind of dropping. I can. Should thrown a little more and I’m, I can throw some punches, right? I’m a busy heavyweight. Right? Yeah. Very, very busy. It was part of the reason why I won and stuff, but Sure. But I still look at it like with this [00:06:00] analytical dude, you just not going hard enough.

L. Scott Ferguson: Yeah.

Richard Walsh: Yeah. , And I’m, , one minute’s more than guy’s doing five rounds.

L. Scott Ferguson: Sure.

Richard Walsh: You know what I’m saying? Yeah. But that’s where I’m at. So I think that’s what it is, Scott. It’s just that, that drive forward to be better, to do it a little better, to be sure. More successful, whatever that might mean.

Sure. Right. Everyone’s got their own definition of that. Yeah. Yeah. But mine is, what is your

L. Scott Ferguson: definition of success?

Richard Walsh: Man? It’s hard because I’ve, I, I don’t believe in ceilings and limits. Yeah. Yeah. I don’t like that at all. So I can’t, I, you can have an end game like, Hey, I’m gonna do this for a certain amount of time.

Sure. And I want this much money for it, exit kind of thing. But success to me is that I’m doing the things I want to do. I’m 100% energized by what I do, like business. Like you and I could sit here and talk for four hours all day. Yeah. And then we’re just warmed up and then we’ll come back after lunch and do it again.

Right. Like, well, we could do that. Right. So that’s, that’s what I am, if I’m able to work in that zone all the time and grow, I wanna grow and [00:07:00] scale. I want to build more things and help more people. Sure. That’s like the reward. Yeah. Me helping businesses go from. The owner prison, gotta open the door every day, chained by the business, can’t see their kids’ games, blah, blah, the whole thing that most are in, and they freed them from that, where now they’re in control.

Their business serves them instead of them serving it. Right. That’s the joy I get. I mean, joy, not happy. Yeah. It made me happy. It gives me joy, like I save families. , Because a lot of businesses destroy families. Yeah. And if I can fix that and turn that around, why would I ever stop doing that kind of thing?

Yeah. I may do it in a different vein, a different way in a different position, but my overall goal is that that’s how I truly help people. And

L. Scott Ferguson: it, and it’s beautiful and it shows through. And then understanding that, , I, it is funny. I, I love to listen to like parable audio books, like hero stories, right?

Not big on like listening to a biography. I like to read that stuff, but I like to listen to like the Go Giver or whatnot. There’s different stories and I was [00:08:00] listening to go For No, right? It was the name of it and it was about like, you don’t really reach any peak. Without failing. It’s like, you want to fail.

Yeah. Like I, I, I still to this day try to get rejected, , every day. It’s like I try to, I consciously do something my mentor instilled in me. He’s like, dude, , ’cause he, he made me sell cars for like three months and I crushed it. And, but he would, I’d have to go back to him. This is 1999, and he’s like, okay, so why didn’t you upsell this?

Why didn’t you upsell that? Because I didn’t ask. Know what I’m saying? It’s like get your asking gear and that’s one thing just going for no and this, and if you don’t get it, you fail forward. Like I know that you’re from Wisconsin and I’m from Detroit. Barry Sanders to me, is like the best running back that ever played the game.

Right? But he lost more yards than any other running back. But he always failed forward. Right? That’s the one thing that he would, he would say. So lemme ask you something. So. Like you, I know that kind of one of your mission statements is you help companies recover lost [00:09:00] profits they didn’t even know they were missing.

Tell, tell me about that. What, what is, like, what is kind of the origins of that, right? Yeah. Is it a personal story where you had some before and now you wanna help people? Or like, what, what is it, Richard?

Richard Walsh: If I only had the money I lost. Okay. I’m

L. Scott Ferguson: upset.

Richard Walsh: Okay. So, yeah. I’m a, , I don’t do anything low level.

Right. So if I’m gonna lose money, I’m gonna lose a lot of money. Right. Okay. I’m, but I, I, I don’t have that mindset anymore. Yeah. It didn’t work out 20 years of making a ton of money, then losing it all.

L. Scott Ferguson: Sure. Yeah. Wasn’t

Richard Walsh: a good thing. So what I. Realize, Scott, as I started working with the businesses, is you start seeing the patterns.

Yeah. They all have the same patterns. They’re all doing the wrong things.

L. Scott Ferguson: Sure.

Richard Walsh: It’s like common. So I come in, I can see ’em in a heartbeat. They can’t.

L. Scott Ferguson: Right.

Richard Walsh: But I can come in and go, well, it’s this, this, this, so let’s fix that. But I also realized, I looked at my business and go, man, I left so much money on the table.

Sure. Okay. And people will be, you gotta spend [00:10:00] it to make it. They go, no, no, no, no. I’m not talking about like, let me go advertise more and make more money. I’m, I’m talking profit. Sure. Forget the revenue. Right. I, I coulda had double the profits. Right. Yeah. Okay. I was working at a really high profit margin.

Okay. Okay. So when I’m talking double, I mean like I could have really had some money without that additional outlay. Right? Right. I just wasn’t paying attention to how to do it. Right. I didn’t know. I didn’t have, whatever I had, the, the right software, the right knowledge. Again, most of us start as a, a skilled worker, a trades guy.

I can do a thing. Yeah. So I’m gonna start a business, so I get to keep all the money. Yeah. Right, right. So I did the same thing. Right. I just. I can train people, I can box. Yeah. Yeah. I can, I can, I can make people pay me to punch ’em. Right. There you go. This is better than that. This is a great gig. Yeah. So, so, but, but then, but then that’s all , and you get going and you can sell yourself and you can [00:11:00] make money, but you don’t know anything about business.

Right. Okay. Right. So eventually it’s like tax time and it’s this time and payables, and you’re not even collecting your money Well. You literally get where like your receivables are sitting there, this pile of money sitting there, you’re not even going after it and you’re wondering why you’re not making payroll.

Right? And you got 10 clients that owe you about 80 grand. , It’s that kind of stuff. You get, it’s a, it’s an odd and, but you think you’re out doing stuff. Yeah. I’m building great things and I’m getting in magazines and I’m on TV and I’m doing all this stuff, but I can’t even manage the house.

Right. You know what I mean?

L. Scott Ferguson: Yeah.

Richard Walsh: I’m all good at the, at the front stuff. Right. And that’s, and that’s not all entrepreneurs by any means, but a lot of ’em are.

L. Scott Ferguson: Yeah. They’re

Richard Walsh: producing. ’cause that’s what they got in business for.

L. Scott Ferguson: Right.

Richard Walsh: Let me do, let me make this. I’m great at this. Let me, , so that is where we, they’re not looking at what they’re leaving on the table.

Right. They don’t understand how like Well, what they’re charging. Yeah. Why they’re charging what they charge. They don’t get [00:12:00] it, , what they’re charging, what everybody else charges. Sure. Yeah. Because that must be the thing, right. That has nothing to do with anything. Okay. That has nothing to do with, with anything, , like what you charge, what him charge is there, there’s no, no, we don’t operate that way.

This is the mindset thing.

L. Scott Ferguson: Yeah.

Richard Walsh: , It’s, it’s what value are you delivering? Right. We teach ’em that and then, then you attach money to the value. Simplest example I can give you, and I tell all my clients, we never email an estimate if I ever. Find you emailing an estimate to a client, like you went, you looked, whatever, and you put it together and you email it to ’em.

I said, I’m gonna, we’re getting in the ring. Yeah. Okay. Like, because when someone gets that estimate, what are they looking at? The bottom number? They go to the last page, right to Yeah. They, they can at, it might be, it could be $500. It could be 500,000.

L. Scott Ferguson: Yeah. Yeah.

Richard Walsh: They can’t attach that to any value, right?

They’re just looking at a number and so they get the other guy’s estimate and they go, oh, he’s [00:13:00] four 50. Yeah, you’re 500, I’ll go with him. Sure. Because it’s strictly a number decision. Right. Okay. That’s how you lose in business.

L. Scott Ferguson: Yeah. And I love that you said about this, about like a lot of people love what they do, but then it becomes a business and they, they’re not kind of on that level of farming out doing what they don’t like, which I know that at sharpen the spear you do help ’em with that.

Yeah. , So. What, what are you kinda doing when you’re meeting the entrepreneur? Really to kinda set them up to shine a light on their, on their blind spot. The first one that you really kind of tackle. What are you doing?

Richard Walsh: Yeah, so we come in and like who, , how is the business run? Mm. Okay. Or in other words, by whom?

Right. And every o every owner will raise their hand. Well, I run the business. Oh, that’s interesting. Why do you do that? That’s the next question. Then they go, well, because I know how to do everything I do. Oh, [00:14:00] okay. Okay. How to do everything good. Okay. And you do it all better than anybody else.

L. Scott Ferguson: Sure. Yeah.

Richard Walsh: And they’re, well, maybe not. I go, okay. Do you think there’s other people out there that can do it better than you?

L. Scott Ferguson: Sure. Yeah.

Richard Walsh: Absolutely. Okay. So what if we started getting those people in here to do that better than you? So you didn’t have to, right? Because then lemme ask you, what would you do at that time?

’cause how many hours a week is that? Right. 40. Right. Okay. You’re working 65 hours a week right now, right? Running your business ’cause you’re in charge,

L. Scott Ferguson: right?

Richard Walsh: Yeah. What if all of a sudden we got it down to 20?

L. Scott Ferguson: Right? And how many profits would float to the top because of that? You put the right person in there, right?

Yeah.

Richard Walsh: Yeah. And then, and then the next thing is, who do you serve? The second thing after that is like, who’s your client? Okay. And it’s like, let’s, let me take a kitchen remodeler. Okay. Okay. You’re a kitchen remodeler. Like who do you serve? Well, people who need a remodeled kitchen. Oh, that sounds kind of vast, [00:15:00] right?

I said, what’s your average kitchen price? And I’ll give you a real world example. Well, $43,000, I go, right, right. Okay. Would you be, and you’re doing like 12 jobs at a time. I’m like, wow, that, that’s a lot of management. Right? But you’re doing, you’re in charge. You’re doing all this. Yeah. You’re keeping 12 plates spending all the time.

I said, what if. You did four jobs at a time and made like double the money, would you be okay with that

L. Scott Ferguson: instead of five?

Richard Walsh: Yeah. Instead of doing 12 jobs at a time. Oh, instead

L. Scott Ferguson: of five. Okay, so you cut it instead of doing 12. Yeah.

Richard Walsh: Yeah. We’re gonna I, we’re gonna do four and you’re gonna make more money. Love it.

Yeah. Eight months later, average kitchen price, $93,000. Substantial four jobs at a time is substantial. Yeah. That’s the average, right? Right. Doing $170,000 kitchens, $200,000 kitchens. Yeah. Right. Like that’s a good thing. And now you’re not working as much. You totally manage ’cause you changed your client, your ideal client.

Sure. [00:16:00] Yeah. You understand who you’re truly serving. Now, you don’t serve a $43,000 kitchen person that’s for another contractor. You learn to say no.

L. Scott Ferguson: Love this and to put the right people in place. One of the best stories I’ve heard was Henry Ford, ? Mm-hmm. The karma guy, , they’re, he said he’s probably the smartest man of business.

So all these intellectuals back him into a corner in court that was recorded. Yes. Yep. And I live in, I’m from Detroit, so I actually saw the transcript and they’re like, they started asking him questions right about like this, this, and this. He’s like, dude, I’m the smartest because I can push a button on my desk and in five minutes I’ll have the answer.

Right. I mean, that’s, that’s it. That’s what it’s about is delegation. I, I’m hearing a lot of delegation and how you help the, the owners structure their companies to make ’em strong where they’re weak. Right. Am I hearing it right? Exactly. Yeah, exactly.

Richard Walsh: It’s, it’s, everyone thinks that, and I give this, I give this to the owner, I give ’em this credit.

You are the best at what you do. Absolutely. I’m not taking that away from you. Right. But again, if someone’s 95% as good as you, they’re [00:17:00] on your team. 97. Yeah. Two things. First, your customers won’t know the difference, right? I guarantee you. Secondly, if you’re really concerned, skill ’em up that last, , five to 3%, right?

Do that and turn ’em loose, right? ’cause he can go out and do it, and you can go do what? Bigger and better things grow, grow, it, hunt you. You gotta you gotta steer the ship. You’re about vision. You’re about growth. Yeah. You’re about reeling in the big clients love

L. Scott Ferguson: that you say this.

Richard Walsh: Yeah. That, that’s what you need to be doing.

And this, this accounting and payables and, and this and , SOPs for the trucks and like, what, what are you doing that for?

L. Scott Ferguson: Right? There’s, that is like people that it’s a $12 an hour job. Yeah. There’s SOPs for the SOPs, right? Like it’s all out there, man. So many people. Our dub are so afraid to train people.

What? I had to get through my thick skull with my coach, ? She’s like, listen, we’re gonna train people so that they can leave right at any time, but we’re gonna treat them like they’ll never want [00:18:00] to. , I’m blessed to have my eight employees that I have. , I tell ’em, listen man, I’m gonna pay for this education for you.

I’m gonna give you every reason to go bail on me. Right. And I don’t say that to ’em. I’m sure they listen. They’re gonna laugh at me next time they see me. But I treat them with a point fer. Yeah. I have my Fergi times, right. I get a little intense, but , they know it’s okay. He’s just being Fergie, .

He is in full cent Fergie mode, which is not all that great. I always, , make sure that they are, they’re known, right, right. That, hey, you are valuable and that I, I need you here. Right. Do you kind of preach that into, not preach, but kinda like , consult that into companies as well?

Richard Walsh: Yeah, I tell ’em real quick, it’s like what you wanna do.

Anyone who comes on your team, again, if you’re in the trade service business, whatever the business is, your goal is to skill them up, to make them an unbelievable. Competent, well-balanced, , productive member of your team that they could compete against

L. Scott Ferguson: you if they

Richard Walsh: could, if they wanted to. And that, that’s exactly it.

But when, when, and you say listen, and you come in and you [00:19:00] have this wall and it’s pictures of all kinds of people with little plates underneath it and it says, yeah, this guy, see, that was GME worked for him for about six years now. He’s running the community college and he handles all the hvac. He’s the manager of the whole place.

Right, right. He started here and he went there and we threw him a party. When he left, it was great. Right? This is my wall of fame. See all these people, they started here and they went somewhere else.

L. Scott Ferguson: I made that.

Richard Walsh: Yeah. So you, you can stay forever.

L. Scott Ferguson: Yeah,

Richard Walsh: you can stay 25, 30 years. Some people do. Absolutely. I said, but, but also, when you go to that next place, when you do leave here, you work here two, three years.

What that boss is gonna ask you? Who taught you this? Yeah. This is, man, you can, dude, you’re good. Yeah, that’s what I want. I, I wanna come here. ’cause that guy who’s at the community college now with some young buck, talks to him like, man, how do I get in this? He goes, you gotta go work for Richard.

Yeah. That’s the place you wanna start because he will teach you everything you need to know. ’cause remember this, everybody’s not an entrepreneur. Matter of fact, most are not. Yeah. That’s [00:20:00] the reality. That’s the one thing you gotta plant in your head. Go. Some are gonna leave and some aren’t. Yeah. Okay. So.

How long are the ones who come? How long are they gonna stay? What’s my ROI on a new hire, right? Is it eight months? 12 months? Two years? Yeah. Five years. When am I, , this effort I’m putting in them, , what’s my return,

L. Scott Ferguson: right? But if

Richard Walsh: I create all my, I want, what I want them to do, Scott, is create every person on the team to become an asset to the company.

Love it. Which means they work for free. Become an

L. Scott Ferguson: entrepreneur within the company, like that’s it. Have their own business within your business. That’s my goal with everybody.

Richard Walsh: Teaching ’em how to lead. Yeah. How to take ownership, right? Yeah. How to really love this job being a performant, give ’em the recognition of the good work they’re doing.

Correct them in the right way when they’re doing the wrong stuff. Sure. Keep ’em on track. Show ’em what it, what it means to succeed on the day, the week. Yeah, the month, the year, everything. Yeah. Like they need to know how to win every day. Yeah. If you could come, you and I both, we can come to work and win every day.

I think we’re gonna come to work every day.

L. Scott Ferguson: Yeah. We’re gonna stack the dubs and keep [00:21:00] moving. We

Richard Walsh: can, we, we get to be winners every day. I love that. How cool is that

L. Scott Ferguson: in forging the cultures? ’cause cultures, everything within companies. I, I, I, I wasn’t a believer in that, right? Mm-hmm. But I, I, and I. I drive people hard that, that work for, , time to shine today.

And Patrick bet David, he’s a big podcaster, whatever. So I’m, I’m blessed to know him and, and he’s like, and I was, , we were in Miami and I just was rapping with him and he’s like, Fergie, , he has that like Iranian, Fergie, , he is like, listen, if you’re gonna drive him hard, make sure that they are, feel a part of something that they’re cared for and supported.

Let me see. They are making a difference. Having fun and celebrating their successes and then also recognizing them and making them feel needed. He goes, you do that, your culture will be so fricking strong. Right. Right. That I’m like, and it’s true. And he told me that before he was Patrick by David.

Richard Walsh: Yeah. You know,

L. Scott Ferguson: that’s respect, ,

Richard Walsh: people wanna be pushed. Mm-hmm. The world is telling us that we’re trying to make everybody soft.

L. Scott Ferguson: [00:22:00] Yeah.

Richard Walsh: People thrive when they’re challenged.

L. Scott Ferguson: Yes.

Richard Walsh: Okay. But like you, but the, the key thing that you said, Scott, was. Give ’em the recognition. There’s a whole thing that goes around that.

L. Scott Ferguson: Yeah. Yeah.

Richard Walsh: You just don’t go, you just can’t go be a task master and think you’re challenging people. Yeah. Okay. That’s, that’s the wrong way to do it. Right? Right. There’s all the other elements that have to go with it. Celebrate it, baby. Yeah. Yeah. When, when they wanna be recognized, man, they wanna have purpose, they want recognition.

Right. They want quality pay. Those are the three driving factors. Right. How do you, how do you deliver that in a full package?

L. Scott Ferguson: How about this, what is at sharpen the spear that you, you, you pour into the companies that you consult and coach, like what’s the one non-negotiable daily habit or ritual that, that keeps them like razor sharp right?

, Within, within the company? Like what daily habits do you kind of like, kind of coach them into in a sense, if what I’m saying?

Richard Walsh: Yeah. I’m, I’m a big encourager. Morning [00:23:00] routines. Yeah. My man. Okay. Like they need to be, and I, I really, I’ll coach ’em through whatever works for them. I don’t have the one way Right.

, But you need a routine. Mine literally is four hours long.

L. Scott Ferguson: Okay. I now that, now that I have you on the mic in recording, what is your morning routine? So now I can save this.

Richard Walsh: Okay. So it’s 4:00 AM Rise. Love it. No, never hit a snooze button in my life. Love it. Been getting up this time since I was a kid.

Love it. Four, aim rise. Okay. Yeah, so it’s, it’s obviously hit the head. 32 ounces of water goes right down. Boom. Do I slam 32 ounces of water? I, I. I get the French press going with my functional mushroom coffee. There you go. That’s going with a, with extra performance mushrooms in it. So, because, , one’s not enough.

So I, I have 24 ounces of that, so I do two cups Right. While I do my bible study. So I start my Bible study right then Absolutely. I do an hour of that. Boom. Okay. Get up. And I, and I, part of my trick with those two cups of coffee is I make no decisions until the second cup of coffee is done. That’s so if I [00:24:00] came home beat at the end of the day, the night before.

I’m going to bed. They’re going, ain’t no way I’m going to the gym. Mm-hmm. I am toast. Right. I don’t allow myself to say that. Right, right. I had to stop, like second cup goes, I go, I’m going to the gym.

L. Scott Ferguson: Yeah, yeah.

Richard Walsh: Okay. Like I’m going, like, I’m gonna go and I’m only committed to the warmup.

L. Scott Ferguson: Right.

Richard Walsh: I get it.

Because if I can do the warmup, dude, I’m in. Sure. One drop of sweat on my forehead. I’m, I’m killing

L. Scott Ferguson: you. You feel? Yeah. You just don’t stop. Right. I get

Richard Walsh: you. So, so I go and I do that and I do, I do like eight rounds on the bag, three by ones, right? Three minute by one. I do rope work, I’ll do core work. I’ll do all that stuff off days like today I did.

24 sets of battle ropes. , 30 seconds on, 30 off with 310 watts by way squats in between there, right? Sets you all, all time night, knocked it out, do core work, get home, shower, get cleaned up, make my food. I prepare my food every day. There you go. Do all that. Get ready to go out the door before eight o’clock and head to my office.

That’s

L. Scott Ferguson: four hours. It’s all richer. [00:25:00] Yeah, right. It’s like people don’t realize that a lot of people wanna work late and catch up. I’m like, bro, get the sleep that you can. Then you still and just wake up earlier. That’s a, I absolutely sucked at that until I had a another entrepreneur. If I would’ve known you, you probably would’ve been that entrepreneur that held me accountable.

And this was back when I was 29. I’m 53 now, so it’s been a while ago. But now I’m like that. I’m a 4 45 guy. , I get up, I take two ounces of water, apple sliced vinegar, pink kimel, and sea salt, and lemon juice. I slam that. It resets my pH balance. Yep. Brush my teeth, , do the daily constitutional in the bathroom.

Right. And I’m dive into Proverbs ’cause there’s 31 chapters in Proverbs. Yeah. But chapter, and so it’s one chapter a month, day, right. Chapter a day. And then I’m on a rebounder. I really got into like, , busting out my lymph system. ’cause you’re, if you’re like this much off the rebounder, you’re at zero gravity, hit it here four times.

So I get that. And if it’s juujitsu, I’m on, on the, I’m on the max, , 20 minutes later, if it’s a lift day, I go get that done and then I come back. It’s still. [00:26:00] Only probably, I don’t really rock my day until nine, where you’re eight. Mm-hmm. So, but it, like, again, it’s just, it’s so in, ingrained in me now and, and sometimes I look forward to my Sundays where it’s not, , I go to church and kind of do my thing with, with the, the youth group and stuff like that, .

But when we get into the businesses, kind of like closing that loop and going into the businesses that you consult and we all know that, , change is always. Hard at first. Messy in the middle, but beautiful at the end, right? Mm-hmm. That, that’s is how it goes. So what are you kind of, , saying them, because you, you give away a lot free.

Okay. Like in which I a hundred percent respect and so do I. Right. And the more you mentor, the more and mortal you become. Right. Because like you said, that that guy, oh, Richard’s the one that taught me. That’s like keeps paying it forward. Right? But what is your kind of protocol with companies. To get ’em launched up first.

’cause everyone knows that you get that plane off the ground. It’s hard. Right. But it’s smooth sailing. Once you, [00:27:00] like you said, that drop of sweat. Yeah. But what is it that you help them that would be perseverance, that doesn’t recognize failure? Like as, as an end game to quit. Like what do you, what is your secret sauce dude?

Richard Walsh: It’s called Strategic vision. Okay. So I create Hence the name of

L. Scott Ferguson: your company.

Richard Walsh: Yeah. I, I, I, I help them create a strategic vision for their company. Okay. Okay. And what that is real quick, it’s a, it’s a future cast vision. It’s a vision, right. Vision’s our of the future. Yeah. So it’s what we’re going to achieve as a company in the next 18 to 24 months.

Okay. It’s what we’re doing now is what we’re going to do. And then this is a eight to 12 page document. Okay. Okay, it’s in story, form and reality. You’re mixing both what you’re going to have, who you’re gonna have, what you’re going to have, along with what’s already. Real quick, Richard,

L. Scott Ferguson: we’ve been squad, he actually has this stuff formatted for you in within his coaching.

Okay? So I just wanna let he doesn’t say here, , get all, he actually has it. It’s fricking sweet. But anyways, back to it, Richard. So,

Richard Walsh: yeah, [00:28:00] so, so we get that and because we wanted what you want to do. Again, it’s an internal piece. It’s not for marketing. You’re not using this for advertising.

Yeah. This is for your team. Everyone inside. It’s the entire customer journey, if you will, on the inside. Right, right. And how every single person on your team is the hero in that part of the journey. So it’s, it’s built on purpose, right? So after we build this out, it tell, and it talks about how much I make, what he makes, what we do, how we do this.

It’s very transparent. Yeah. Right? And where are we going with this and why we’re doing it? How we’re gonna elevate our people to be better people and the whole, and who, what we give to charity, right? What do we have chosen? We get 5% of our profits to this or that, or whatever. Everything we do is a full package.

It’s very intense. And then we read it to the entire staff. We get it out, we give ’em all a copy and they read it to ’em. So we have the owner read it to ’em. They all have a highlighter and they highlight their, their position. Okay. Now

L. Scott Ferguson: you hand have ’em, hand it out to each employee. Yep, exactly. Everyones got it.

I just wanna make sure they got, got the

Richard Walsh: highlighter. [00:29:00] And you wouldn’t believe it unless you saw it. People are tearing up. Yeah, they’re, they’re like, because it’s so purposeful. They feel inclusive. Include them. Yeah. Total meaning they have like per, and they want all, this is a culture shift, right? Follow right.

This is part of the culture shift, right? Yeah. So you’ve got that and it’s, it’s really, really powerful and we come back to it every month.

L. Scott Ferguson: Yeah.

Richard Walsh: And you’re not let go because you’re incompetent. Right. You’re let go because you’re not fulfilling the strategic vision. Oh, it’s a diff It’s just a mindset. Yes.

They’re probably incompetent.

L. Scott Ferguson: Yeah.

Richard Walsh: Okay. But the the reason is, okay, you’re not fulfilling this strategic vision. Yeah. Because no one can drop the ball. Right. Right. They all now know exactly why they’re there, what it’s for. And when we go to hire someone, the first thing we give them is a strategic vision to say, read this, then we’re gonna do a five minute phone call, , whatever.

On Monday, whatever, four o’clock. Sure. They get on that five minute call, the first thing he asks, did you read the Strategic Vision? Well, no, I didn’t get to it yet. Alright, well you have a great day and you hang up and you never speak to that person again. Right? Right. [00:30:00] They already can’t follow instructions.

Yeah, yeah. Okay. You don’t need to know anything else. Right. Trust me, on percent. Just let ’em go. Put ’em outta your mind. So

L. Scott Ferguson: within that strategic vision you have. Roles of employees that are in there, and they’re, they feel included. They, that they have something to work for, almost, like we said earlier, intrapreneur, it’s like their own business within the business, right?

Yeah. So as you add to that, do you. Add to the strategic vision. Let’s say you bring on somebody else, do you have ’em add to that and then represent that strategic vision throughout the company, or how do you have that done?

Richard Walsh: No. So the role, when you see a role, it’s in story form. Like I’ve got Janet as , accounts payable.

Right? Okay. Janet came from this other company. At that company, she was treated like this and this and this, and then she came here and then she begins to be recognized in this and this. And so you put this in a story like here’s their story. They’ve worked somewhere else. Sure. Now they’re here. This is why they say this is what they’re doing.

That’s the buy-in [00:31:00] part. Sure. Carlos was a salesman. They, , may had to make, , eight, , 125 calls a day. Cold call. This is at STS. We have this method, we have this. And he does it this way and this way. And he’s able to make over six figures every year. And still work just a 40 hour work week.

Right. , And whatever, and the whole thing. And then here, then we go on retreats and we do this, and we do this, and we do all that. So like it’s a story like why they’re here and why they’re staying here, and what they’re looking forward to in the future. Gotcha. Right. So really important People know that.

And that’s why we always come back to and review it. If someone new comes on, like say they’re, they’re you, you’re hiring for whatever position, but you’re growing. Because you’re growing and someone reads it. And, and when I ask ’em if they say they read it, I go, well, where do you see yourself fitting? Now we might be advertising for a sales position, right?

But I have a warehouse and everything else, let’s say. And they go, you know, after I, I, I know you’re hiring for a sales, but like, dude, I have warehouse position. That’s me, right? Dude, I love him, man. Forklifts, love organizing stuff. And, and they just get in because what they read [00:32:00] about that position, like that’s where I really wanna be.

I’ll take a sales job so I can make money and whatever, but they don’t know. So sometimes all of a sudden they’re like, I came here for this, but I see you have this. Yeah. Any chance I can get that? Or do I come into sales and look forward to when there’s an opening to move up in the warehouse? You know what I mean?

So they’re really, you know, they really read it for one. Yeah. Okay. So yeah, so it said test, but they, they, they, they buy into the culture from the very get go.

L. Scott Ferguson: That’s strong dude. Right? They, they see all these hero stories that are broken down that helps this whole company run. There’s separate hero stories within Yep.

With that.

Richard Walsh: Yeah. Okay. They really get it. So it’s like, you’re like, man, I wanna be part of that. I wanna do something like that. Yeah. I want that story. Okay. How many crappy places I’ve worked at? Yeah. Like, I want to be a completely, that’s May, maybe they’ll write a story about me in the next vision.

, They literally think this way. ’cause I have one, one client down in Texas. I mean, he fulfilled it. We had to write another one. Right? We’re on number two. Wow. How cool is that? Because you got all this stuff, but they have total direction. Now they know [00:33:00] where everything is going. Right. , Everything is there.

, And it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s hard. I help ’em, but we have a full form, right? You fill this out, answers going and then you write it, you craft it together. And now with Chad GPT, you can make it amazing. A hundred percent. Yeah, I, I was really good. Mine for STS is 14 pages. ’cause I had pictures too because , I’m that guy.

I’m that guy. , When I say we’re going, when we’re doing room clearing. It ain’t with a broom. Right. Okay. We, we, you got a picture of us. We were doing airsoft, we’re doing all kinds of other stuff. Right. We get together, we shoot. Like that’s part the, that’s part of the culture. That’s part of the culture.

Yeah. , Like, and I talk about how some of the women like, didn’t think they’d like it. Now they’re deadly. They’re awesome because they come, they got into it, , so you just, you just paint that picture like, man, this is because, and I make, , make a declaration in the beginning. Read this, here’s what we believe.

Right, right. , For me it’s like, man, we, we love Jesus live this, this, this, this. So right there in the beginning, you can say, I’m. Right. I’m not going to that place. I love that. And I’m I’m [00:34:00] okay with that. Right. Gotcha. So we, we, we know who we are.

L. Scott Ferguson: Yeah.

Richard Walsh: Right. And when they come on the team, they know who they’re, they know how they’re gonna be valued and everything else, so.

Gotcha. It’s incredibly powerful.

L. Scott Ferguson: It is huge. I love that. It, the Strategic Vision Squad is, is something that you, if you’re entrepreneur, own a company, build it. If you don’t know how, let me put you in touch with Richard. Here is we kinda wind things down a little bit, Richard, like, so. If your six kids, right mm-hmm.

Could learn only one lesson from watching you live, not what you say. Okay. What do you hope that that lesson would be?

Richard Walsh: I, I really would say probably embrace doing hard things.

L. Scott Ferguson: Okay.

Richard Walsh: Because they’d see me like doing something that like someone’s got, why are you doing that? Right, like, you have this, or you’ve already done these things, why another thing?

Right? I don’t mean I’m not chasing things. I mean, like, I, I really have to push myself into an uncomfortable position, right? [00:35:00] And it’s, and that’s, that’s harder than you think, right? I mean, that’s why there’s coach, that’s why we’re all coaches, right? Yeah. Because we, we do it for others. Yeah. That’s a hundred percent.

So, but like you and I, both, we have our own coaches right. Because someone’s gotta push us. Right. Right. We know, right? Right. We have to be, we have to be shoved off the ledge a bit.

L. Scott Ferguson: Sure.

Richard Walsh: And, and, and if I know they’ve seen that, they understand that. Sure. So they’re able to go to work every day. , Whether it’s their favorite thing to do right now or not.

But they start to understand that that doing those hard things is what builds foundations Okay. That they can build the rest of their life on.

L. Scott Ferguson: That’s, that’s beautiful. So, kinda last question and before we kind of dig in a little bit more into the programs you offer, but like, if you were not doing what you do right.

What do you feel like you might end up be doing if the, if the, if the route route changed a little bit on the way to where you’re at, like what do you think you might have ended up doing?

Richard Walsh: Well, it’s this big toss up [00:36:00] between that and I, I love to train people physically. Yeah, yeah. Okay. I’ve been a coach from runners to my son to, , military.

I have trained just hundreds of people. I would do that. Okay. But more like. We’re going to the woods, we’re going up the mountain for a week or two, we’re gonna, there you go. We’re gonna disappear for a while and I’m gonna run you through that stuff. Yeah, yeah. I’d be that duty, , so yeah, that, that would be like, , if I didn’t do this, I’d do that.

L. Scott Ferguson: I love it. Beautiful. So let’s dig into the programs a a little bit with kind of, kind of abbreviated, kinda like what you’re offering to companies and like who would be like, if I’m pressing flash at a networking event or something, what key words are, am I listening? Four, that would make them a great, , referral or a prospect for sharpen the spear.

Richard Walsh: Yeah. So I, like we talked about in near the beginning, it’s really about unlocking hidden profits in your business. Exactly. That’s what I do. And it’s like doubling and beyond. Right. That’s what I do and I show you how to do it. I can show you [00:37:00] in less than three minutes how you can double your existing profits.

L. Scott Ferguson: Yeah, you can dude, with your, with your whole onboarding, bro. You a hundred percent can. Yeah. So squad, I’m just telling you, go to this site that’s gonna be in the show notes and he has kind of like a, a, a freebie, if you will, to kind of analyze where you’re at. And then I believe you also kind of give them like a little, like half hour of power or something like that where discussion, right.

Richard Walsh: Yep. Exactly. So the simulator is going in three minutes. What? You can plug in just three number. Yeah, it’s okay. You, you plug in three numbers, your revenue, your gross profit percentage, and your net, right. And then you use the slide bar and you go, dang. That’s a, that’s amazing. Right. , At little percentage changes.

We do that then yeah. Then I can do assessments. I have multiple levels of assessments for your business to give you detailed roadmap. I give you a detailed roadmap and full assessment. It’s like 17 pages, videos, everything else to really show you how to do this. Sure. And a like, you can always say, you can do it yourself.

Right. Or I’d be happy to help you. [00:38:00] Right. You get to make that decision. That’s, that’s the simplest thing I’ll ask you. Right. Wanna do it by yourself or you want a little help. Okay. And if you get

L. Scott Ferguson: stuck, I’m still here. That’s right. I’m always here. I’m always here. Right. Yes. No

Richard Walsh: shame.

L. Scott Ferguson: I love it, man. So as always, leave us with some wisdom, man.

Like leave us with one last kind of knowledge nugget that the listeners out there and myself can take with us and internalize and take action on.

Richard Walsh: I’ll tell you what in business, one thing I find working with owners, and this was me the first 20 years of my business, okay? I’ve come up with a new thing, Scott, I haven’t told you, but my new clients get, I have this really cool like kind of handmade box with a hinge lid.

It goes down with little latch on it, okay? And it’s got a little brash plate on the front and it says, my ego. Okay. Because I tell ’em when I started, I’m like, I need you to put your ego in this box and lock the sucker. Yeah. There may be a time you let it out briefly. Yeah. But there’s no [00:39:00] place for the ego in business here.

L. Scott Ferguson: Yeah. Just like in martial arts, we know that I show up as a white belt every day. You know what I’m saying? Just because, right. We’re consistent learning on Kaizen, isn’t that what it’s called? Kaizen? Yep. Yep. Consistent, proven. And I just

Richard Walsh: wanted to put that on the shelf and look at it.

L. Scott Ferguson: That’s beautiful. And understand

Richard Walsh: that’s where it belongs.

Because your ego will make you make horrible decisions.

L. Scott Ferguson: Hundred

Richard Walsh: percent. Dude, your business will ’cause the reality is. Most owners, me included, we the we’re the problem in the business.

L. Scott Ferguson: A hundred percent. Yeah. We are getting our own way, bro. We’re, we’re problem. That’s, we have a coach. That’s why I have a coach.

Richard Walsh: Yep. So it’s, it’s that, so that, that box, just think of that, you gotta lock the ego up, man. It will, it destroyed me. It took 20 years, but it destroyed everything. I lost everything Right. It start over all that stuff because of that. And I can nail it down to that.

L. Scott Ferguson: Yeah. Yeah. You’re my, like brother from another mother where I like would print money in, in, in real estate.

Just printing it bro, and then thinking it’s never gonna drop. Now listen to my advisors. ’cause I knew everything [00:40:00] EGO edging got out. It was like I was edging out the wisdom from who people are trying to teach me. It’s actually written on my wall over here. Ego edging, got out. Right. And, and I had to eat some of that humble pie too, dude.

It was like, okay. And, but when I came back and I still fall on my face all the time. Oh yeah. But when you come back without the ego. Without the but just really learning not to listen to yourself. To talk to yourself and, and then move forward. That, that’s huge, man. ? Yeah. In squad again, I know I kept you a little bit longer today, but I want to urge you to check the show notes out what, what he has in there.

That’s even the start that’s free and, and be able to have that simulator to know where you’re at. A free conversation with Richard. He’s very hard to get ahold of, man, so it’s like this is something he’s offering the listeners here, , he reminded us that. Failure is a necessary part of the progress as long as you’re always progressing and you fail forward.

, Someone like Richard, he, he does what he loves [00:41:00] in the service of people that loves what he does. And what I mean by that is he loves leveling people up, but the people that he’s leveling up see that he loves it. And that’s, , it is fantastic what he told us about. The strategic vision and making it a hero’s journey.

So you see where your employees fit in a future cast vision is what he says. , Every person on that team is their own hero, an entrepreneur within the company. I, he’s still doing things for the intention, not the attention, right? Which is people that us. We wanna surround ourself with squat and he’s always planting trees that he is never gonna sit in the shade of.

And Richard, thank you so much for coming on again, brother. I can’t wait to collaborate again and again and again and just, , keep going out there leveling up those lives. You earned your second varsity letter here at Time to Shine Today. Absolutely. Love your guts, brother.

Richard Walsh: I love it. Thanks Scott, man.

Always a pleasure. I’ll be back whenever you ring the bell. Alright,

L. Scott Ferguson: chat.