893: This is hard. Really hard.

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Hey, what is up?

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Welcome to this episode of the Entrepreneur to Entrepreneur podcast.

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As always, I'm your host, brian Lofermento, and in this Solo Sunday episode, we are going to be talking about what I think is the hardest part of being an entrepreneur, and we, for sure, are going to put a little bit of fire under our booties today because we're gonna be asking a big question and we're gonna draw a huge line of accountability in what it is that we're doing on a daily, weekly, monthly, annual basis.

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We are really going to examine things here today.

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I'm excited about this one.

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Let's dive in.

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So I'll be honest with you here at the top of today's episode that I don't really have much planned for this solo Sunday episode.

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There's something that I'm just itching to talk with you about, but it is a very simple topic.

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It's a hugely important topic, but it is simple and, to be honest with you, I think most of the work and the valuable insights from today's episode, I think they're all going to happen in your mind.

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So I'm excited to raise this topic with you here in the solo Sunday episode.

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We're not going to be here for very long, but I promise you it's going to make you think and it's something I've been thinking about all week.

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You all know my love of quarters.

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I'm a big fan of operating in 30, 60, 90 day focus areas, and in a 90 day focus areas is, of course, one quarter of the year, and here we are with q3 upon us.

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We are, we're already half more than halfway done with july, and that's absolutely crazy to me, because it means that not only is more than half of the year already done, but even q3 the second half is already starting to feel like it's flying by, and so, for me, time is something that is incredibly important because, of course, it is the single most valuable resource on planet Earth.

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It is the one truly invaluable resource that we can never, ever, ever make more of, and that's why I know that one of the hardest things about being an entrepreneur is actually I'm going to argue it is.

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The hardest thing about being an entrepreneur is that it's so hard to hold ourselves accountable when it comes to time, and there are so many different challenges that we face as entrepreneurs.

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There's a lot of hard things about being an entrepreneur there's the mindset that goes into it, there's the strategy, there's the ideas, there's the responsibilities, there's the customer service, there's the execution of things.

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There's so much that goes into being an entrepreneur and I always think back and I'm not throwing any shade here, but I always think back to I worked in corporate for 10 months right after college and I remember it was so crazy to me because I had already started a business, I'd already grown it and I knew there was another business shortly coming on my time horizon and so, working in corporate for 10 months, I was like wait, I just go to work and I have productive days.

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I also have not so productive days.

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I have days where I talk to my coworkers a lot.

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I have all these ups and downs days and I'm really I take a lot of pride in the work that I did do in my corporate job as a business analyst within the world of healthcare.

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That was a long time ago.

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As a business analyst within the world of healthcare that was a long time ago.

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But what really struck me was whether I did work or not.

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I still got that same paycheck each and every single week and that's luxury and I'm really grateful for that.

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It was a really pivotal time in my very young life.

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I was 22 at the time and I was already eyeing my exit and setting myself up for success with my next business.

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And here we are, so many years later, gosh.

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We are 13 years after me talking about this.

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This is 13 years that all the foundation that I built back then set me up for what I get to do and what I'm so grateful to do today.

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But none of what I just said about that corporate world is true for us as entrepreneurs, because if we are not productive, if we are not doing the things, if we are not holding ourselves accountable, then we are never going to.

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First of all, we're never going to get paid.

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Second of all, we're never going to grow a business and, third of all, we're never going to be able to impact people.

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Now you might be thinking to yourself well, brian, it's not all butterflies and rainbows in the world of corporate.

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Yes, I agree with you.

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In fact, it kind of makes my point here today is that you have a boss, you have a team, you have coworkers, your boss has a boss.

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There are so many levels of accountability when you have a job If you just go to your job and you just slack off every single day for a week or two weeks or a month or God forbid, longer than that you're going to be held accountable.

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This or a month, or God forbid, longer than that you're going to be held accountable.

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This is an absolute fact.

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So I'm not saying you can just coast through a corporate job, but what I am saying, the big difference, is that you have built in accountability in a job, but guess what?

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When it comes to your business, there's no built in accountability, there are no layers of accountability, there's no chain of command.

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You are the sole creator of your outcomes.

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You are the sole person responsible for all the things, which includes holding yourself accountable.

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And accountability is a very big topic, and that, to me, is the single hardest thing about being an entrepreneur is not only is there no one else to hold us accountable, but we must hold ourselves accountable, and the thing is we all have complicated relationships with ourselves.

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There's so many different considerations.

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I am very fortunate that I'm very kind to myself.

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Now that comes with a lot of good things, but it also comes with an added importance of self-accountability, because I'm really nice to myself.

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Let's say I have a headache.

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Let's say I'm under the weather.

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Let's say I've got family obligations.

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I'm very nice to myself in that I give myself grace, I allow myself to tend to those things that are incredibly important to me, but at the same time, I also have to hold myself accountable.

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And on the flip side, let's say you're thinking to yourself well, brian, you're so lucky that you're nice to yourself.

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I'm not as nice to myself.

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Well, you also must hold yourself accountable in that domain.

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All of these things present with them their own challenges.

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There is no one easy path.

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The older I get, the wiser I get, the more mature I get, and, for sure, the more experienced that I get, the more I realize there is no such thing as an easy path.

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Whether you're nice to self, whether you're hard on yourself, it doesn't matter.

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Each of those presents their own unique difficulties.

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And when it comes to accountability, here's what I really want to put into focus in today's episode.

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I don't care what it is that you want out of your life.

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I don't care what it is that you want out of your business.

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I don't care what it is that you want in anything, because what we want no longer matters as entrepreneurs and as individuals with our own domain, to choose the things that we do.

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What we want doesn't matter as much as what we do and I'm going to really put this into context is that I have the great pleasure and privilege of talking to so many of you incredible entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs all over the world, and I love asking you about your dreams Us as entrepreneurs.

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We are dreamers, we have great ideas, we have great visions, and I'm going to argue, I'm going to defend us entrepreneurs until the very end is that we all have very noble desires and we all have very pure, awesome hearts, that we want to make a difference because we embark on this incredibly difficult journey that is a journey of self-obstacles and challenges and self-development and growth, as well as all of the business stuff that comes with it.

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We are fighting so many different battles at the same time and we do it to make a difference in this world, because we could all just go and get jobs and that's one path Again, not the easy path.

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There are no easy paths but when it comes to entrepreneurship, when I hear people talk about, oh, I really want this, I really want a 10K a month business, I really want these types of clients.

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I really want to be able to write my book.

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I really want to be able to do this, whatever it is, insert any and all of these desired outcomes.

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My next question to people always is what are you doing about it?

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What are you doing about it?

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Because the problem is is that way too often in life, our actions, our daily habits and actions are not aligned with the things that we're pretending we actually want.

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And my argument here is that if your actions are not aligned with the goals and the outcomes that you say that you desire, then you don't actually want those things, because if you actually wanted those things, you'd align those actions and those habits with those outcomes.

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Just think about it.

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I use fitness, I use health as an analogy a lot of times here on this show, because so many of those are directly applicable.

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Fitness and health those are two things you can't fake in life.

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If you have bad habits, then you're going to have bad health, you're going to have bad fitness and at the same time, even if you develop good habits today, those aren't gonna show up tomorrow when you look in the mirror.

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That's what makes health and fitness so hard.

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And everything in life is hard.

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Business is hard, fitness is hard, all of these things.

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Learning a new language is hard, getting better at chess or tennis, or insert anything worthwhile here, developing your relationship.

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That's not to happen overnight.

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All of these endeavors are hard, but what's true about all of these is that we must align our actions and our habits with the outcomes that we claim to desire.

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And so if you look at, if you tell me you want a 10K a month business, I know, and quite to create or lead us to the road of creating that desired outcome.

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And so if I look at your life and let's say you're side hustling to start out with, or whatever your situation may be, but I look at your life and you are watching Netflix all day, or maybe when you get home from work, and you are prioritizing social life and you're prioritizing all of these other things, I'm not saying that those things are bad, but what I'm saying is, if those things are what's coming above you, sitting down and doing the work nightly or daily, well then you want those other things more than you want, this desire that you're pretending to want.

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And so that's what's so difficult about accountability is we must align those habits and our actions.

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If I tell you that I want to be in the best shape of my life, but every single night I'm plopping down in front of the television and eating an entire bag of popcorn and a Snickers sounds like a pretty good combination.

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But if that's what I'm doing and I'm saying to you, yeah, but I do really want to be in the best shape of my life, well, quite frankly, maybe I do, but I do want this bag of popcorn and chips and Snickers more than I want that desired outcome.

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And so I think, ultimately, when we talk about accountability, we need to start being truly honest with ourselves and we need to start asking ourselves do I actually want that thing?

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And if I do actually want that thing, are my actions in my habits aligned with it?

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And if they're not, then the question becomes why?

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Why do I want these other things more?

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What is it that I'm prioritizing over?

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The things that I'm tricking myself into believing?

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I want more Because, again, I'm reiterating, I'm not saying that any priority order is right or wrong.

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There's no such thing.

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When we talk about priorities in life, we all literally every single one of us has a unique set of priorities and they're all equally good, they're all equally sound, they're all equally appropriate, if that's what we choose.

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But my biggest fear for myself and my biggest fear for's what we choose.

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But my biggest fear for myself and my biggest fear for every single one of you, and my biggest fear, not only in entrepreneurship but in life, is that we're not living our lives, we are not choosing our actions and our habits in accordance with the very things that we want the most.

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If you want a successful business, prioritize that.

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If that's the thing that is a priority in your life, make sure your habits and your actions are aligned.

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If you want an incredible relationship, well then you better be showing that through your actions.

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You better be investing in that.

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If you want to learn a new language or get better at chess or tennis whatever those things are, your actions and your habits have to align according to that priority that you're telling yourself you want.

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And so, to me, this is where we begin when we talk about accountability for ourselves and our business is.

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We need to get really serious about writing down here's what I want for the next 30, 60, 90 days.

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Here's what I want for the next six months of my life.

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Here's what I want for the next six months of my life.

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Here's what I want for the next 12 months of my life, because I'll tell you what any single objective that you have for the next 12 months of your life, you can make extraordinary, significant strides towards that.

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12 months of time is so much time and so many reps for us to get closer to where it is that we wanna be.

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So you need to write those things down, and this goes far beyond just business here today.

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You need to write these things down in priority order and then for each of those or if you're singular focused, that's okay too, but we need to write what are the actions in the habits that are actually going to get me there, and if your life is not reflecting those actions and habits, then you know exactly what you need to do.

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And I think that's part of the fun part about life and personal development is, I would argue, we always know what we need to do.

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We always know what we need to do.

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It's very rarely a case of us having no idea what it is that we need to do, and so I really, in today's Solo Sunday episode, I want to put it into focus for all of us, because this isn't me, you have to remember.

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These Solo Sunday episodes are not me preaching to you.

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This is just as much me preaching to myself.

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This is me really putting things into focus for myself and challenging myself.

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And so if you're thinking, brian, it's incredible, you know you get to have this podcast with 800 plus episodes.

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This is episode 893.

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And you're thinking how, how do you keep persisting?

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How are you building this consistency and this amount of reps to keep moving forward?

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It's no mistake that we have a top 1.5% show in the world, on planet Earth, across all categories.

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It's no mistake that we rank in the top 200 in business and marketing categories in most of the top podcasting charts.

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It's because I put myself under the microscope every single week, because these Solo Sunday episodes are as much for me as they are for you, and so it's a serious one.

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This week is a very serious episode because it's serious to put ourselves under this microscope and hold ourselves to this outrageously high standard of aligning our actions and our habits with the outcomes that we say that we want.

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But it's something that we must do.

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It's hard to do and we don't just get to do it once.

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We have to do it every single week, every single day.

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We have to hold ourselves accountable and hopefully this episode is the catalyst, it's the spark that makes you sit down and create these lists and say you know what?

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I'm gonna start holding myself accountable.

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I am so serious about accomplishing these things and it's about time that my choices, my actions and my habits start reflecting that.

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I hope it inspires you.

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It's certainly this chain of thoughts I've had this week.

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They've certainly inspired me to make this an amazing quarter, an amazing second half of the year, to really start making a difference, not only in my own life, but in the life of all the people that I aim to serve each and every day, through all the work that I do, through the way that I show up in the world.

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This is more than just business.

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So that's it for me today.

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Gosh, if you want to be held accountable and you want to see an example of what's possible, we have got some amazing guests for you this week.

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I'm really, personally, I'm very excited for all of our guests this week.

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You are in for a real treat with every single guest, including.

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You've got an extra guest this week as well, because Wednesday's episode, we're bringing two incredible guests to you.

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They are twin sisters, actually, who have started their own business, and they are just.

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They're making huge waves in a huge global industry of Korean entertainment and pop culture.

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Seriously, this week all three guests are incredible, so make sure you pound that subscribe button because we'll be coming at you, as always, every single week, with new episodes every Monday, wednesday, friday, saturday and Sunday here on the Wantrepreneur to Entrepreneur podcast.

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Hey, it's Brian here, and thanks for tuning in to yet another episode of the Wantrepreneur to Entrepreneur podcast.

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If you haven't checked us out online, there's so much good stuff there.

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Check out the show's website and all the show notes that we talked about in today's episode at thewantrepreneurshowcom.

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And I just want to give a shout out to our amazing guests.

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There's a reason why we are ad freefree and have produced so many incredible episodes five days a week for you, and it's because our guests step up to the plate.

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These are not sponsored episodes.

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These are not infomercials.

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Our guests help us cover the costs of our productions.

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They so deeply believe in the power of getting their message out in front of you, awesome entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs, that they contribute to help us make these productions possible.

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So thank you to not only today's guests, but all of our guests in general, and I just want to invite you check out our website, because you can send us a voicemail there.

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We also have live chat.

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If you want to interact directly with me, go to the wantrepreneurshowcom.

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Initiate a live chat.

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It's for real me, and I'm excited because I'll see you, as always every monday, wednesday, friday, saturday and sunday here on the entrepreneur to entrepreneur podcast.