Building a Business: The Importance of Vision and Planning - Richard Walsh

Join us as we uncover the secrets to scaling your business and living a balanced life with Richard Walsh, a master tactician and bestselling author. So welcome to Mindset Mavericks where we explore the minds of extraordinary individuals who push boundaries and defy the odds. I'm your host, John Coogan. And today we've got a remarkable guest whose journey is awe inspiring. Our guest today is Richard Walsh, CEO of Sharpen Spear Coaching. He's not just a 30 year seasoned entrepreneur and a bestselling author of Escape the Owner Prison.

Sorry, that'll be gone. But that's just scratching the surface. Richard's a man of many talents. He's a dedicated husband and father of six, a US Marine, a champion boxer, a black belt in taekwondo, and an internationally recognized steel sculptor. So his expertise lies in blending strategic foresight and tactical execution, delivering both immediate problem solving results and long -term scalability.

With over three decades of business experience, Richard has mastered the art of time compression, sharing secrets and strategies that drive rapid and lasting success. Today, we'll delve into his incredible journey, his insights on business and on life, and the philosophies that propelled him to the top. So with that, let's get started. Welcome very much and thank you for being with us.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (01:47.423)
Well thank you Jon, I'm excited to be here.

Jon Coogan (01:49.377)
Thank you. And just kind of touched on it when you've got such a diverse and accomplished background. I wanted to share with the audience a little bit about your early life and what drove you to pursue such varied interests from military to boxing and entrepreneurship. So can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (02:06.623)
Sure.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (02:09.951)
Yeah, let's go. go back. So childhood was interesting. OK, that's my term. Interesting. We moved a lot. There's a lot of relocating a lot. a lot is a lot. And I probably 30 times before I get out of high school. So that was what I tell people is I don't have attachment issues. I have like no attachment.

Jon Coogan (02:22.991)
Yeah.

Wow.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (02:34.267)
issues like I don't attach to anything you know so it's kind of a challenge but you learn to kind of really adapt every time you go so it's like every school I went to I'd get one friend I would find the one guy who kind of clicked with me and that's it I never really had like the group of friends I was never the super popular kid not that I was kind of a clown really I got in trouble

Jon Coogan (02:34.682)
Hmm.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (02:56.667)
a sufficient amount of times, throwing out of classes, things like that, you know, so I had done that to adapt. But that was just kind of who I was. I really didn't like school.

Like I wanted to be there because I didn't want to be at home. So I never missed today. So it's some weird thing that like work with my punctuality obsession now and being on time and wearing a watch because I value time and it's a whole thing. So I look back like, well, it kind of worked in my favor. But got through it all, you know, went to three different high schools, almost four.

Jon Coogan (03:09.806)
Night.

Jon Coogan (03:15.29)
Hmm.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (03:27.559)
again, didn't do super well. And it's kind of funny with what I did the rest of my life. When people ask me like, you know, we really smart to go I didn't go to college and I went in the Marine Corps. did try I was kind of in line to go to college, like the literal line, you know, with my check and my little schedule. And I'm moving up towards the little check in thing. And I'm looking around, John, I'm like, yeah, this isn't happening. And I tore it up. I tore it in the garbage. Like I went to join the Marine Corps. I'm like, I'm not a school guy.

It's just I couldn't learn that way. And I graduated literally, I told people I had a 1 .7 grade point average coming out of high school. So I'm no genius. But I took the ASVAB, which is the basic aptitude test for the Marine Corps. I scored super high, super high. do anything I wanted. was like, well, that's weird because I'm not really a good test taker. Anyways, but that kind of started the journey. I got out of the Marine Corps, started working.

Jon Coogan (03:57.476)
Hmm.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (04:21.759)
I actually threw a pickaxe digging trench in Tucson Arizona for five dollars an hour. know just all day I threw a trip. I was like a chain gang. You know it was it was a strange job but we weren't allowed to use machines. We dug dug dug. So that wasn't very you know didn't see a lot of future in that. But a guy gave me a side gig once. He said hey can you help me with this? He's got granite. It's like crushed granite. Three -quarter inch granite and there they use that sort of grass.

Jon Coogan (04:24.569)
Okay.

Jon Coogan (04:27.994)
Hmm.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (04:46.463)
in Arizona. So I had to move it from the street to the backyard. had about 35 tons worth. I said I can do that. So I showed up. I used my last $85 before payday to buy a wheelbarrow and a shovel. Showed up, shoveled all this up, took about 10 hours. He got it done. It's like 100 degrees out. It's perfect. But here's the best part, John. The guy came out and he put $1 ,000 in my hand. Okay, now I'm working for five bucks an hour. The day before, I made less than $50 for the day.

Jon Coogan (05:10.85)
Mm.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (05:14.633)
Okay, so I looked at that when I think I've discovered my future. I am going to work for myself, right? I could do this all day, every day. But it was really eye opening for me, John, because I realized like, wait a minute, you can be on, you can, as the saying goes, you can sign the back of the check or you can sign the front of the check. If you sign the front of the check, you're gonna make a lot more money.

Jon Coogan (05:15.087)
Wow.

Jon Coogan (05:22.372)
That's a good incentive.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (05:40.615)
OK, so I decided I'm going to be that guy and started landscape business, custom water future business, started building that up, scaling that became. Really good what I did kind of number one won a lot of awards, publications, committees. I did a lot of stuff with that, scaled it up, and then at that same time I'm like, well, I'm going to I kind of like this steel sculpture thing. I just saw something like well, I want to do that, so I taught myself.

Jon Coogan (05:41.072)
Mmm.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (06:07.965)
you know, so getting the equipment I need and start doing that. And next thing you know, I'm doing like commissions for the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. I'm doing world -class exhibits and doing this stuff for people, you know, so I tell people why I am very blessed because I never went through the starving artist phase. People paid for everything I made. So that was really good. Yeah. So go ahead.

Jon Coogan (06:25.008)
Yeah.

Jon Coogan (06:29.038)
Yeah, no, I was just going to say, it's quite interesting. You've clearly got a lot of drive to push yourself and do things which are a little bit different or might take a lot of confidence. And I can see where you'd get that with moving around so much and not really having those ties. is that where that drive has come from? Has it come from parents as well? Where do you think that desire to just force yourself to push your boundaries has come from?

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (06:57.373)
You know, it's it's I just I don't I don't want to say I get bored easy because I don't. But that that need for new I like to innovate. I like to do new things. And and it was really strange. I said it kept it always correlated with what my main thing was. Like I just sculpture because I could do sculptors in my water feature. So I made them all functional.

Jon Coogan (07:03.002)
Hmm.

Jon Coogan (07:20.133)
Hmm.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (07:21.169)
giant walk under waterfalls, know, to steal cantilevered stuff. And I did just these beautiful things are coming out all natural and trees. And, and I was like, well, and then I sold them. I'm like, I kept innovating, but it was things that were related. So for me, it worked out really well. Again, that's why I wasn't just a guy painting and making neat pictures and keeping them in the attic, you know, so but the drive, I think what I learned, not that I didn't know this, but I learned this recently actually on a podcast.

and talking about drives me and it's not money. So again, money doesn't drive me. That's like never interested me. I mean, I make lots of it, right? But it never was my driving force. Some people are driven by that, right? That's just, and probably to my detriment. Well, it definitely was to my detriment. It wasn't a, I didn't care. I just made a lot, spend a lot. I just, it was just a tool. You know, it was like buying another shovel to me. I just made more money. But

Jon Coogan (07:58.64)
Hmm.

Jon Coogan (08:09.561)
Hmm.

Hmm.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (08:18.303)
I'll say what it was was I really just wanted to be told I'm awesome. I did great work. I do beautiful work. And that's what drove me. Because the interesting thing, John, was every customer I built over a thousand water features, right? Big, little, all different sizes. No one ever came out and felt or said they overpaid. Everyone said you don't charge enough.

on all of them. And I was like, wow, and I and I was charging some money. I was under charge, but just delivering huge value. But it really was those words of affirmation, if you will. That's what really drove me to the next cool thing, you know. And so I think that's that's really where it's at.

Jon Coogan (08:52.111)
Yeah.

Jon Coogan (09:00.794)
Hmm.

Jon Coogan (09:04.64)
Yeah, so as you say, fascinating to look back and I've done it with my own life. You look back at certain things happen, whether it's in childhood or as teenage years and you realize later on in life what it is that's driven you to look for something else or given you the traits that you've got. And it makes me wonder just, because you said about really it's getting validation from people. Yeah. Do you know why you wanted to get that? Is it something that you didn't get necessarily growing up, do you think?

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (09:34.015)
Yeah, you know, so I'm a middle child. got an older and younger brother. So, know, middle children kind of get ignored, if you will. I'm air quoting ignored. You know, and here's the worst part. My older, younger brother were born on the same day, three years apart. So they got all kinds of attention, right? They got the birthday parties, got all the cool stuff. So luckily I had a grandmother who never forgot my birthday and would send me that card and $5. She was the one who never forgot.

Jon Coogan (09:48.142)
Right, yeah, wow. Yeah.

Jon Coogan (09:57.39)
Hmm. Yeah.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (10:02.963)
But I really think it was that my father had a really great work ethic. I love what he did. We're in the golf business and stuff. So he built and ran golf courses and things. And I really got to work out there from him. And I started working very early. I'd go with him. We lived on the golf course at one point. We'd just I'd be up at four in the morning. I go work and work with these guys. And these guys all worked hard. And it was it was a really a great influence for me. But I think even young, if you're working for older people, so I was never around kids my age.

Jon Coogan (10:08.88)
Hmm. Okay.

Jon Coogan (10:32.186)
Yeah.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (10:32.927)
Which is really right. it's you're looking for everything from them. Like I have to do good with these guys. Like I need to do as good a work as they do. So they taught me right. So I think that that might have been part of it too, just to think about it. And I think I think we all want to be validated in some way, right? In what we do. I talk about that in my book is about even employees and people on your team. They need recognition. If you don't give them recognition, they're not staying.

Jon Coogan (10:37.2)
Hmm.

Jon Coogan (10:45.156)
Yeah.

Jon Coogan (10:50.872)
Yeah.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (11:02.867)
They need quality feedback. They need recognition, right? You've got to, and I wasn't super good at that early on. I had the Marine Corps. So remember the Marine Corps, it's based on negative reinforcement, right? Which a very small percentage of us, meaning me, I thrive on that. The more you tell me like, I'm not this, not that, you can't, it's like the more I, like harder I go, right? So that inspires me. Other people, it breaks them down. They're worthless, right?

Jon Coogan (11:03.152)
Hmm.

Jon Coogan (11:19.994)
Hmm.

Jon Coogan (11:32.964)
Yeah. Yeah. Now that's really interesting. was going to ask obviously about your marine background and how that's influenced your journey in business really and being an entrepreneur. Is there a thing that you've taken away from your experience in a marine that's influenced how you approach things?

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (11:50.867)
Yeah, quite a bit actually. again, another good thing about the Marine Corps, it doesn't turn you into something. It brings out what you have, what's inside you. You know, so it really is, it's not like this magic thing. They spend three months and all of you're a completely different person. It really enhances what's already inside you, but they're able to pull that out, right? Cause a of guys don't make it.

A lot of guys don't make it, but once you do, it's because of what's inside them, right? So if they actually change you, everyone would make it. Everyone would get through. So that's a little different, but it also became about...

Jon Coogan (12:22.48)
Yep.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (12:28.347)
really mission accomplishment, like we achieve the objective no matter what. Right. So you always had to adapt. You always had to figure it out. It was never the way you thought it was going to be. As I, as I say, no battle plan ever survives the first shot. Right. So you know that going in and I think that ability to accomplish it kind of all costs or whatever it takes. I definitely brought that into business.

Jon Coogan (12:31.12)
Hmm.

Jon Coogan (12:36.453)
Hmm.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (12:54.589)
which was good and bad. There was a couple different facets to that attitude.

Jon Coogan (12:57.144)
Hmm. Yeah, I think one of the things I'm very keen on talking about is about resilience and it is that ability to, as you say, things never go to plan. There's always hiccups or getting knocked down and it's that ability to have those setbacks and pivot and just know you're going to get to your goal. So yeah, I think that's definitely a really good lesson you've taken away from the Marines. One of the things you did to just, sorry, go on.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (13:19.849)
Yeah.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (13:23.135)
No, no, I'm saying you're absolutely right. I resilience is huge. that's and I didn't understand that then. You don't think I'm a resilient guy. mean, no one knows categorizing themselves as Mr. Resilience, right? When you're 17 years old, 18 year olds, you just you look back and go, wow, I put up with a lot, you know, and achieve stuff.

Jon Coogan (13:31.023)
Hmm.

Jon Coogan (13:37.508)
Yeah.

Jon Coogan (13:43.504)
Yeah. And you just touched on your book as well then. So you've obviously got your best -seller book, Escape the Owners Prison. Can you tell me a little bit about what that is and what inspired you to write the book?

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (13:54.943)
Yeah, so back in 2019, so I, you know, in 08 everything collapsed, right? I lost everything. We could talk about that too, but that was a big deal. 20 years in business and I lost everything. I had my six kids, my wife lost my home. I had to start over again and I did. And again, that's a long story, but skills for new businesses and everything else kind of, but fixed everything, fixed all the mistakes I made in the beginning that first 20 years so I could have a life. I started working with other businesses who were asking me how I did it.

Jon Coogan (14:03.664)
Hmm.

Jon Coogan (14:18.927)
Yeah.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (14:25.161)
I'm like, well, I just do this. And what are you doing? What's your problem? we'll do this. And I started really getting good at coaching. So I mentor first and I started coaching. So I'm like, well, I think I'll write a book because I'm seeing all these patterns. They're all suffering from the same thing. You know, and so I started writing this book site and I knocked it out pretty fast because it's kind of in me. I wrote it. The hardest thing I did was come up with the title. OK, if you if you ever written. I had twenty seven. I had twenty seven working titles.

Jon Coogan (14:45.328)
Hmm.

Yep.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (14:54.399)
And escape the owner prison is number 28. So I came up with that one day and I asked a friend we're going to track me. Our kids were in. He's a business owner. I said, what do you think about escape the owner person? He just looks me goes that resonates. That's good. said done. That's what it is. know, then. But I wanted to do I wanted to write it so that people understand where they're at in business and why they're stuck.

Jon Coogan (14:57.508)
Wow.

Jon Coogan (15:12.741)
Hmm.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (15:21.983)
you know why they can't leave their business for any real amount of time. They can go for a week or two maybe on vacation, but they're going to call in every other day. Make sure the place doesn't burn down right because they haven't built a. I started going through basics foundational stuff levels zero to a million million to five five to 10. What that looks like what you need to do on that and it is really a. It is an inspired book. Like I said, I did it very quickly. I had a great editor who did good stuff.

Jon Coogan (15:29.05)
Hmm.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (15:51.611)
and rolled it out became a best seller. I'm like, wow, I built an academy around that. So I the ETOB Academy. I started coaching people. They come with that. And we graduated into sharpen the spear and some other stuff. But the book itself is really a guidebook for business, whether you're just starting or you're five years in. It doesn't matter wherever you're at. You can really get a lot of takeaways from this.

this book and I love it. I'm working on a second one now but that one was was really foundational. You know how it is 82 % of all people want to write a book? 2 % actually do. So I'm a doer. I'm a doer John. I get these done so I wanted to check that off the list.

Jon Coogan (16:28.334)
Yeah. Yeah. I kind of test that. I've been one of those people who's talked about it for a number of years and I started writing my book this year. So it's due to be released in December. So yeah, can definitely, that resonates a whole concept of what's the right title on it. There's so much that goes into writing. It's not just getting your thoughts down on paper, the organization, the structure. Is there a key kind of principle you can share from your book that you'd be able to share with the audience today?

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (16:38.441)
for you.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (16:58.495)
There's a lot. There's a lot from that. I think to go back to the resilience standpoint, right, there's a book called Grit. Angela Duckworth, have you ever read it? So, right, so I'm a 97 % on the grit scale. Okay, you take these tests and so I'm coming out there. pardon me. So the thing is, that's what you need to succeed in business.

Jon Coogan (16:59.855)
Mmm.

Jon Coogan (17:08.644)
Yeah, I know, yeah.

Jon Coogan (17:15.365)
Hmm.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (17:24.147)
And she shows that through research and everything else. Like it's not smart. It's not money. It's not, it's, the ability to stay in the fight. It's so important. You're always, we talked about this a little earlier, right? You're always going to run into hurdles. You're going to run into setbacks, all this. I mean, you just keep going, right? You just have to push through and believe in yourself, but you got to stay in the fight. I was hoping if you can take a breath, you're in the fight.

Like you have to understand that. think the book kind of shows that because I weave my whole story inside that too. So you kind of see where I was, how I went through it, how all this, you know, culminated into collapse, total failure, how you turn it around, what I did wrong. But it's all I and I didn't do the same thing that I collapse, right, that I lost. I wouldn't do any of that. I sold everything. I'm like 100 percent out. I'll never do that again because of what it it became my identity. Right.

Jon Coogan (18:01.04)
Hmm.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (18:19.677)
And I didn't want to live as my business. So that was a big part of what I changed. so that's what the interesting thing about the book. It's like basically going from you have experience, but now you have to do something completely different, which I guess ties into all the other weird stuff I do. It's just something I can do, right?

Jon Coogan (18:21.178)
Hmm.

Jon Coogan (18:37.284)
Hmm.

Yeah, I think one of the challenges, well, we're talking about in business is definitely getting a balance or is it even a balance with home life and business life and being able to switch off and leave your business behind. I'd imagine particularly with six children as well, that's even more difficult than it is for most. How do you manage to balance life and work?

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (19:02.956)
So here's what I figured out and here's what I help people with now too. So everyone come up and tell you you need work life balance. And I always joke, I go the great cliche and they trot off, know, they tell you that they trot off and they can't give you a clue one to begin to get that. They have no idea. They just think it sounds cool. You know, it's like, you

Jon Coogan (19:14.277)
Hmm.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (19:23.327)
I don't date night with your wife like, you can need to have date night. Yeah, that fixes it. Okay. Like I just, I, you know, I'm, I'm about doing right. I'm about a results guy. So like telling me like a catchy little thing doesn't do anything. So what I, what I realized was, yeah, I wanted the balance because I was ever business was first for me. It was everything. Right. And I realized in 09 as things are kind of collapsing around me, I had these six small children, four and under, go, you know what? They don't.

Jon Coogan (19:26.416)
Mm

Jon Coogan (19:33.262)
Yeah.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (19:53.075)
They don't care what I do for a business. They don't care what I drive. They don't care what kind of house we live in. They don't care how many trucks I have. know, that did all they cared was I came home and they love to see me and they would my one someone chased me down the driveway crying as I'm pulling away in my truck. And of course, I just kept going because I had to go to work. Right. So I realized, like, you know, if I stay on this course, John, I'm going to ruin my children's future. They're going to have broken marriages, failed relationships. They might do well in business.

Because the actuality is more is caught than taught with kids. I could tell them all the right things. They're only going to do what they see me do. All the wisdom I can spout doesn't mean anything if I don't apply it in my own life. Going through, I need to live that example. So I walked into office that day and closed everything down.

We were going to collapse anyways. I'm going to do this right now. I'm not doing this anymore. That was a big epiphany for me. So now we talk about work -life balance. So now I got to rebuild the business into something new and keep that. Now, if you're in business and it's owning you and you're five years in, you're not getting that time. You start to have kids now and things like that. Here's what I have to tell people because everyone talks about work -life balance and it's called the five F's, right?

It's faith, family, finances, fitness and friendships. That's how you're going to create balance. You got to get all those things dialed in. But here's the problem when you're a business owner, you can't do any of that until your business is squared away. If your business is a hot mess, forget about those five, they're not going to happen. All you're to do is fail because you can't have this thing that obsesses you because it's broken.

Right. It needs you every day. It's not systemized. It's not running out of its own. You don't have the right people in place. You know, you can't leave for a month, come back and everybody's happy. You can't do that. So first thing you have to do is fix your business because you also got to make income. Right. You don't abandon the business to go get work life balance. You're not going to go work for someone because if you are truly an entrepreneur, you're kind of unemployable. You really going to work for yourself. So I want to fix that first. So understand you got it. Once you get that fix.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (22:05.403)
Now we go to the five F's, right? Now we can talk about faith. We can talk about family. We can talk about your finances. We can talk about fitness and health, right? You've got to be healthy. You have to be fit. You're leading people. We have a saying called, you're not fit, you're not fit to lead. Okay. We just, we just, we want you to, and I don't mean you got to be Mr. Universe. I'm just talking like you're, you're health minded, right? And then, and then of course, friendships, you know, now friendships for me, it's a pretty small circle.

like really tight. My joke with my kids are because they always make fun. don't have a lot of money. go, listen, I could lose three fingers on this hand. just my friends could still fit on the same hand. OK, and that's OK. I'm OK with that. I have other circles. I know people in acquaintances and networks and all that. So it's good. But trench buddies, the guys have my six all the time. Those those guys are are far and few between. Right. And to me, that works because again, it's kind of how I grew up and stuff anyway. So.

Jon Coogan (22:43.812)
Hmm.

Yeah.

Jon Coogan (22:53.092)
Hmm.

Jon Coogan (23:01.87)
Yeah.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (23:02.547)
that works for me. So I think that's where the work life balance comes in, John, really.

Jon Coogan (23:06.756)
Yeah, we did touch on your business collapsing then. Is that really where you started to change your mindset around work and life balance? Is that what triggered that in you?

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (23:18.975)
Yeah, I really thought again, we know that I'm Mr. Affirmation, right? I needed that, right? So success and you never saw me without the work shirt on the hat. The truck is all wrapped, everything, everything it was is who I am. So it was a complete identity. Like if I was if Rick Rock does in my business, if that wasn't there, I don't exist. You know, so I got into that in 20 years of building that and I'm the award. It's all about me.

Jon Coogan (23:29.392)
Hmm.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (23:47.389)
It was all about me, my awards, my publications, my exhibits, all this stuff that I built was all about me. It was just constant chasing after that affirmation. And yeah, so when the collapse came, now, yeah, the economy's crashed around the world, right? But that wasn't why I, that's not why I lost my business. I'm very straight, honest, transparent about this, is because of the things I didn't do in my business.

I mean, because if a financial collapse ruined everyone's businesses, there'd be no businesses, right? Plenty of people weathered those storms. didn't, I ignored the things that need to be done from a business standpoint. I mean, I was playing the artist. I'm up building great things. I'm making great money. I'm doing whatever I want. I'm on stage. I'm doing all this stuff, but I wasn't taking care of the house, right?

Jon Coogan (24:20.079)
you

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (24:36.775)
Same with my family. My wife has six kids. She's raised and at that time they're still little, but we were planning on homeschooling them the whole time. We always great plans and we want to do all this. She's just unbelievable. She's not afraid to take all six kids, four and it's like the Botanic Garden and pull them around in wagons and do this whole thing and just out and travel. And I'm like, whoa, I'm just trying to run a business. You know, that's way harder than what I'm doing. You know, so so that but but that collapse, like I said, when I had that epiphany, I woke up and realized that

Jon Coogan (24:49.444)
you

Jon Coogan (24:59.866)
Hmm.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (25:06.239)
That was the turning point. That's what changed my entire attitude on what business is. I I sold everything. I burned all my uniforms. I video like burning them in bonfire. I'm like, never going back. This is never going to own me ever again. I'm never getting trapped like this again. So whatever I do, I had no idea what I was going to do. I just knew I was going to do that. And I sold every piece of equipment, every welder. like, I haven't touched it since. It's been 15 years now and I haven't, I don't make any, I don't.

Jon Coogan (25:32.622)
Wow.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (25:36.179)
do any sculpture. don't do any water feature. I don't do any of that stuff. I'm on to completely different things. Now I open a gym. I had a contracting business from guy. Now I coach and I do all that. But people like, why don't you go back to that? go because I did it. I did. I know what it was like Mike Tyson. Right. He says, you know, boxing made me kind of angry. It's like when I get into it, it really changed me as a person. He goes, he's kind of like, I don't really want to do that anymore because of what I was. Right. So you can see the similarities. Not that I'm like Tyson, but.

Jon Coogan (25:58.437)
Hmm.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (26:06.152)
I do hit pretty hard.

Jon Coogan (26:08.08)
You just touched on some of the obstacles and things you faced. What was it that you did differently? When you did start again, you said you had your business collapse. You essentially started from scratch, readjust your life and work balance. What things did you do differently to make sure it was a success and that it was more positive going forward?

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (26:28.167)
Yeah. I first, you first need to figure out what you want to do. Like that's how you don't just snap your fingers and the business appears, you know, so I'm like, you know, I really love training people. I love working out, right? Boxing, I'll go back to, I'm going to go to training. So I started this Anytime Fitness, you know, it's a big national thing. And I started being a trainer. I said, that's what I'm going to do right now. So I started training people and I built a whole kind of personal training business there. Right. So next thing you know, I'm trainer of the year.

Okay. went like trainer of the year. I'm like, well, you know what that means to an entrepreneur, right? Time to open the gym. Okay. I got to do my own thing. So I did that bootcamp style training. got all that going, but my key in that, John was to go, okay, here we go. I'm back in the business where I'm the guy. I'm the trainer of the year. I said, but I caught myself right then I said, okay, where are my trainers?

Jon Coogan (26:58.554)
Yep.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (27:18.291)
Who am I going to get? look, another Marine. Come on, this is going to be fun. So I started bringing Marines on, okay, to train our bootcamp style training. I had programs, I built all this stuff out. It was really great. And like, they're going to train. I'll be here, but they're going to train. I'm going to build a business and...

That helped because I could go home when I wanted to. wasn't teaching seven classes a day. You know, I go there at 5 a I love the early stuff. Get started, you know, pop back in and out. But let these guys really take the reins and run with this business, right? Take care of the customers. Why I built the business side. That was the beginning of that was like my test market, right? That's like, OK, this is the new way. How is this going to work? So.

With that, you got marketing, got a lot of other little things that you have to do. And that was really good. I really enjoyed it. It going well. And I'm like, you know, I really like contracting and building. Maybe I'm going to do like a roofing siding window business because there's actually more money in that. So I am looking, I got to generate good income and everything. I did well with the gym. It wasn't bad. But so I took that on. I started that up.

Right. And started building that out. And that was great. I gave me a lot of experience, a lot of, cause I didn't have to be on the roof. I didn't have to do the roughing. wasn't, I, don't want me building stuff on your house. Okay. Unless I'm welding something together, mean, wood don't get along. Right. So, so it forced me to like, let's focus on business.

Let's make this work. Let's get subcontractors. Let's see how we can build this business. that was another level of challenge, but did really well. And that's when the book started coming out and started helping other people. I'm like, wow, this is kind of a really great niche. And I kept seeing the patterns talking to other business owners, all doing the same wrong things. All of them. It's just it's like it's it's like a template, like start a business and then be trapped in two years because they work really hard the first two years to get it off the ground.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (29:08.607)
There's no way of getting around that. So they work, work, work, they wear nine hats, they get all this work done. But then, next you know 10 years has gone by, you've repeated the first two years five times. And you're stuck. And that's why you're not scaling. That's why you're not free. You're making some money. You got some money, you're kind of okay, but you're really not killing it and you don't have any freedom. You're not making any real impact with your business either. You're just kind of doing it.

Once I recognize that pattern, I'm like, I have a new mission. Now I'm gonna help these people create freedom, profit and impact in their business. So my goal, my movement is help 10 ,000 business owners create freedom, profit and impact in their business. I'm gonna show them the exact way to do this. Take them where they're at right today and I'm change that. And to me, John, that's gonna...

not just affect them, it's going to be huge for them, but also the people on their teams. I show them how to make them better as people, not just competent workers. And all of them take this home to their families. Their families are in the communities. Right. So that 10 ,000 can turn into millions of people that can be affected by doing this. So that became the big, the big motivation for me to do it that way. So it's kind of a cool journey, you know, but I'm really set on what I'm called to do right now. And I love it.

Jon Coogan (30:22.032)
Hmm.

Jon Coogan (30:30.476)
Yeah, just listen to your story and all the things you're coming out with. It does sound like you've got a unique ability to evolve and pivot and change and just see gaps and places to improve. Is there specific things that you are seeing people are doing wrong on a regular basis? I know you mentioned about doing the same thing for the two years and just repeating that process, but is there any particular errors that you see in frequently in people you're coaching?

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (30:58.139)
yeah. They don't have a plan. Their plan is to make money. Okay, that's not a plan. Because the easiest thing to do in business is make money. I mean, that's the easiest thing you can do, honestly. Like people think it like, I don't think they think that way. like, selling something, making money is easy. It's everything else that's difficult. So what they do is they don't have a plan. They don't have any vision for their business. Well, where are you actually going with this?

What's the outcome? Or to make it even simpler, what's your exit strategy? Have you thought about when this is over? Do you have a plan for it to be over? Do you actually think you're going to hand it down to your children because they probably want nothing to do with it because it's a hot mess. They don't want to come in. They're watching you work all the time. Never. They're always on the phone going. You think they want that? Your kids don't want that.

OK, so the only way you're ever going to have your kids do a succession is going to be if that thing is dialed in and you have freedom, you spend time with them and they love that, then they'll go into the business. But so so that's that's what I see. No exit strategy, which is huge because you really want to begin with that. That's where you want to you want to you want to exit strategy before you launch.

Jon Coogan (32:10.808)
Yeah, we've talked a lot about strategies and things. I know very much you're definitely a doing type of person, crack on, let's get this accomplished. And that sounds very much like a strategic thing you're thinking of and doing your policies and having your strategies. So how do you work on that? Or do you get people into help with that side of it? Because it seems like they're kind of at odds with each other being strategic and operationally minded.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (32:40.625)
So what we begin with, so if they're in my coaching program, we begin with what's called strategic vision. We have to write the story. And the story is, it's basically the customer journey from the first call all the way through delivered product, service, whatever that is and beyond. But it's internal. So it's every step inside the business on how that works. It's not a marketing piece. You're not showing off people how you do things. But for the people on the team,

Anyone who comes on this and this is six, 10 pages, mine's 14 pages for sharpen the spear. It's 14 pages of stories, people, it's woven in story form and then the details and all that stuff. So anyone who wants to come on the team has to read that first. Then I ask them, well, where do see yourself fitting? I'm the warehouse manager. I love that they go in this whole thing. So we want to write this out so it's really attractive to bring in the right people.

Because people all say, yeah, I'm not working there. They'll tell you, thanks, I read it. I'm not that. That's not what I'm looking for. OK, excellent. You take care. And that's awesome. So it's a really good filter. Or if they don't read it at all and you jump on the phone and say, OK, did you read it? No, I didn't get a chance to. All right, you have a great day. And I hang up the You already can't follow directions. You're not coming out of the same. So but the vision is it's a future cast document, which means is what you're going to accomplish in the next 18 to 24 months. It's not what you're doing now.

Jon Coogan (33:52.848)
Hmm.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (34:05.619)
Because if it's what you're doing now, well, we got a problem, right? So we need to change that. But what we want to do, John, is get everyone on the team working towards a vision, fulfilling it so they see exactly what they're supposed to be doing. And we create the hows and the whys and all that great stuff. So everyone is a hero and they're part of the journey. That's what you show them in this, why they matter and why this doesn't work if you're not in that position. Right. However significant or insignificant it may seem.

It all matters. And once you build that, now you have direction. Now you understand, OK, well, to do that, I got to have systems. I have to have a process. I have to earn this much money. I have to do this. I got to hire this person, you know, tie that in with an exit strategy, which is how long, how much do I want to get out? How many years do I want to do this? What does that look like in my building passive income to replace my active business income so I don't lose a million dollars a year when I sell the business?

because that's I'm taking home. How do I keep that coming out by acquiring assets and everything else? So that's where we really begin, because once they understand their vision and their team does, everything falls into place. I mean, there's a lot of work to do still, right? But everyone knows where they're going. And that's critical, because if I'm in New York and I want to go to California in my car, all I know is to go west. OK, now the good news is I'm to probably see all of America. OK.

Jon Coogan (35:33.519)
Hmm.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (35:33.555)
driving around, but I'm also going to probably end up at the Gulf of Mexico and think I'm at the Pacific, right? Cause I don't know. So got to head the plane.

Jon Coogan (35:40.492)
Yeah, but that's a really good insight. And I think exactly as you said, every single person is really important to what you're trying to achieve. And it's just making people understand that whatever role it is, is without them, you couldn't achieve what you're wanting to achieve. I think it can be a bit too siloed and people not really understanding that mission, not being communicated well in businesses. It's really good to hear what you're doing in that respect.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (36:06.397)
Yeah, the critical thing to you. Remember the old school is like mission statement. They put it on the wall. We want satisfied customer. We want to be the best. Like what garbage is that that serves one person only actually serves one ego only. That's the owners. It's wallpaper. No one sees that. No one reads that. It means nothing. That's not going to inspire anyone under your employment or anything. Nothing. Take that off the wall. Throw it away. But you keep coming back to the vision. It's not a one time. It's every week. Every two weeks you're saying

Jon Coogan (36:10.542)
Yeah.

Hmm.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (36:35.647)
Are we fulfilling the strategic vision? How is it going in this department? How's it going in this department? What do we need to do over here? Right. So everyone is always focused on that drive forward. And when you reach that point, you rewrite it, right? New vision. All right. 24 months we did it. What's next? Now we know because stuff's in place. We've got results like, OK, now we can now we can do this. So then you rewrite another one. So it's a great tool.

Jon Coogan (37:01.636)
Yeah, it sounds like very much it's story focused within what you're doing and your business. How important do you think that storytelling is to get a buy -in from people?

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (37:12.607)
They love it because it's people. It's like, John used to work here for this sales company and he had to do this many calls a day. And this, this, now it's a remote position. He does this, this is easy. He's given the leads or they're warm leads. He easiest produce and, and, and clothes and he's making six figures. You don't all this stuff now right out of the chute and, and they go, but you hear his story and you hear the COO story and how they came there. You know, the, the CMO, how they like.

What's the difference where they were and where they're at? So you see that then what they're doing, right? When they read that, you're like, wow, like I want that. Go from this horrible job I have to a place that, you know, loves to have me on. They respect me. They give me the feedback. They give me a real purpose because that's the number one thing people want is purpose. Money is like third. Everyone wants to make money, but it's purpose. And then it's the feedback and the recognition.

Jon Coogan (38:00.634)
Hmm.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (38:09.981)
Then you can talk about money. know, people will take pay cuts to work at a place they love. And I'm not saying that's the strategy. I'm just saying sometimes it's I've seen it happen with my with my clients. People come there. They'll take a dollar or two dollars an hour hit because they want to be in that environment. They want to work with those kind of people and be respected.

Jon Coogan (38:15.78)
Hmm.

Jon Coogan (38:27.344)
Yeah.

Jon Coogan (38:30.64)
assets, building those connections. And it's exactly what you said, purpose and meaning and just building those connections, get people by from people. yeah, no, think it's storytelling is absolutely essential now, especially with the rise of social media. So just touching on social media, obviously it's changed in the 30 years that you've been involved in business. How are you utilizing social media?

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (38:55.231)
So I kind of swung two ways. I kind of like was in it a lot, watching it a lot, probably watching more than doing, which is a problem. It's a pretty destructive tool. Okay. So I always tell my children, you know, we have a phone. I go, this could be a tool or a toy, you know, cause they get my phone again. You don't have any games on your phone. I said, because daddy don't play games. That's why I go and I don't, okay. So they're not going to be on my phone.

Jon Coogan (39:21.957)
Hmm.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (39:24.137)
You know, for anyone's use, right? I don't use it. It's a tool for me. But social media was like it's good exposure and there's there has to be strategy. There has to be method. can't be just random. When you do random, there's no consistency, right? It's just random. I post something. And so I was consistent and I was not consistent. Then I'm like, I'm just getting rid of this altogether. Why am I messing with this? I want to talk to people face to face. This is a I have five thousand phony friends.

Jon Coogan (39:48.932)
Yeah.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (39:52.083)
That's what I have. People, don't give a rip about me. They're not coming to my rescue ever. They don't care what's going on in my life. So I had to turn it back into that's a tool. And then if I do it right, I promote right, I load content, I do appearances and people see me. That's a long game. It's a very long game. There's not usually an instant ROI on that. So I had to swing back and forth, John.

to figure out how does this really work because my distaste for it. OK, so I. It can cloud your business mind. The personal like emotion about this thing is such a waste of time and who cares and whatever. If I want to see my brother's kids, I'll go see him. I don't need Facebook for that, however, but but you got to be smarter than that. You got to like put the emotions in check and say, OK, what can this do for my business?

Jon Coogan (40:23.728)
Hmm.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (40:48.765)
Like who's out there making a strategy for social media, whether it's content or whatever it is. I need to hire that person to do it because I don't want to be loading things. I don't want to be looking. I really don't want to be responding. I really don't. You know, I want to get them in a funnel where when they talk to me, it's deal time. Right. They understand it's time to it's time to play the game. OK, you took all the steps, you know, like and trust and we did all that neat stuff. But.

Jon Coogan (40:58.128)
Hmm.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (41:17.363)
when it comes time to access Richard, it's game time. Okay, and things get real serious real fast. So I had to kind of develop that method.

Jon Coogan (41:23.493)
Hmm.

Yeah, that's interesting and quite refreshing to hear a bit of a different take on it. So I think there's so much focus on social media now. It's nice to hear actually you're still getting those connections without that focus on social media. And you can still do business without that being checking all your resources out. It's quite refreshing to hear that.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (41:45.215)
Yeah, and it just again is focused right? You can make anything work if you focus on it. The problem is they treat that as a side thing. I'll throw something on social media. You everyone's going to see it, you know, it just the mind space it takes to understand. You post one thing well, that's at 730 in the morning and then.

Nine o 'clock, no one's seen that. You got to do it again. And then you're two in the afternoon. It's no time. you're in Australia and you want to see my stuff? That's a whole different time. You didn't see any. So like, my gosh, try to manage that. That's why you need to get a pro or some way to like, because you just need constant exposure. That's the battle against obscurity. People have to just know you. But I think why I posted it once. That's enough. I don't want to bore people. I don't want to inundate them, but you're not, you know, that and wrapping your head around all that.

Jon Coogan (42:14.586)
Hmm.

Jon Coogan (42:20.676)
Yeah.

Jon Coogan (42:25.765)
Mm.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (42:36.502)
man, it's like you need to take like a year of social media exposure or something. I don't know. It's a challenge.

Jon Coogan (42:42.498)
Yeah. And it is just focus your time where it's best spent. And if it's not best spent for you on social media, then do what you do best and yeah, delegate. So now that's great. What I did want to ask you about just, you've got a vast array of accomplishments. How do you personally continue to change yourself and grow both personally and professionally? What do you do to keep that learning and knowledge building?

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (43:05.561)
So I've got a thing I tell people, people I work with, people I mentor, young guys, older guys, whatever I say, it's called just do hard things. You have to do hard things. Like, and it doesn't mean you have to go, well, you could climb on Everest, that's all good too. But just, mean, in your daily life, there's a comfort level that we all get into regardless of our level of achievement.

It's always what we battle now. There's a place for comfort. There's nothing wrong with that. We don't need to suffer day in, day out every moment of the day. Right. But we need to understand that we need to go something that challenges us. So what does that look like? Is that run a marathon? Is that climb a mountain? Is it is it trained for obstacle course race? Right. A Tough Mudder or a Spartan race or something like that. Or I'm going to be an endurance runner. I'm to do a 50 mile. I'm going to do 100 mile. You know, try to do that in a day. I'm going to do the frozen otter.

We're in Wisconsin where you're, you know, it's 20 below and third weekend in January and you got to go 64 miles in 24 hours or else you don't, know, 2 % of the people finish that. You do that. That's doing hard things. Right. And the reason it's not a distraction, it fortifies you. It fortifies you for business because business is, well, it's war.

Jon Coogan (44:15.642)
Hmm.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (44:27.697)
It's an endless war. You're battling every day. There's always new, new, new stuff coming at you, being shot at you, right? Literally like the suffix, he's coming and coming and coming. And the stronger you are on the side like that, as you build doing hard things, business is just what you do. And it's easily because you've done way harder things than that. Right. And the other thing I do on top of that is I read books on people who have done incredibly difficult, difficult things. Ernest Shackleton.

the endurance stuck on the Arctic ice two years brings 28 every every every guy home alive. Right? Read that. Read touching the void read these these things where these people go through these and you're like, I'm crying about this. This comes like this is nothing. This is nothing. So you need to reinforce yourself. And I think that at staying out there doing the hard things is is where it happens.

Jon Coogan (45:10.692)
Yeah.

Jon Coogan (45:23.429)
Being quite a focused person, I can imagine you'll have an answer ready for this. But in terms of what legacy you hope to leave behind, you got anything in mind? I know you said about helping, you can help one individual and then that affects their family and their friends. But is there a particular legacy that you've got in mind you want to leave behind?

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (45:42.175)
Yeah, it's actually my children. So I have six children. That's my legacy. Business is great. I get it. I hope I can. I want to reach that 10 ,000 people and help them. That's all really great. But it's the children I've poured into for 20 years. Home school and bringing the character in my biblical worldview and everything else I've poured into them so that they can do great things with balance and character and all the right things. Their faith is super strong. want to. That's my legacy.

Jon Coogan (45:48.496)
Hmm.

Jon Coogan (45:59.184)
Hmm.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (46:12.113)
know, grandkids and on from there. That's, that's all that really matters to me. know, you know, know, business matters. But, you know, if I had to pick or choose, it's the family.

Jon Coogan (46:12.25)
Yeah.

Jon Coogan (46:20.804)
Yeah. Yeah. And I'm sure that's, that's kind of reinforced after losing your business. And like I say, it's, those things where you need that money to support your family, but ultimately it is, it is all about the family and about, yeah, having those people close to you. so just in terms of the business goals, so how'd you envisage a future of sharpness, spear coaching? Have you got long -term goals for your company?

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (46:48.031)
yes, I have a strategic vision. I wrote my own right. It's 14 pages long, John. It's 14 pages long. It actually took me and I know how to do this right because I teach everybody else. It took me 14 hours of work to write my strategic vision for a sharpened spirit. Yeah, so we want to reach that 10 ,000 goal and not in 30 years, but in less than 10. We want to reach those 10 ,000 business owners.

Jon Coogan (46:54.105)
Yeah.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (47:12.351)
I have a headquarters here. I've kind of laid out everything I want to do, but really is to build. So I'll probably have between 100 and 150 coaches working for us. I want to scale that. I do want to actually hand that over. I do have an exit strategy on that as well, because I'm not, as the saying goes, I'm not getting younger, right? I'm still have tons of life. I'm never retiring. I don't have any plan on retiring, but I've built my my own exit into this.

Right. As in I bring the people underneath me each position I move up and out of, whether it's CEO, CEO, CEO, founder, then I'm founder, then I'm poof, goodbye. OK, so it's like everything's running. But I do want it to continue and do great things and continue to help people. And there's always the beauty of today, especially with technology and everything else. You can't. It's hard to look past five years. Right, because so much changes.

Jon Coogan (47:52.464)
Hmm.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (48:05.501)
new tools, new restrictions, new regulations, new the world shifting before our eyes every day at a rate it never has before. So I stick to a max five year. I understand where I'd like to go.

Jon Coogan (48:08.506)
Hmm.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (48:20.413)
you know, but that's kind of in the fantasy category. You know, so I know where I want to go, but we're going to take it a few years at a time and we'll keep revamping the vision and we'll see where it actually goes. So I have the general idea, but I think that pretty much sums it up.

Jon Coogan (48:36.688)
Fantastic. I think there's just a couple of things I wanted to ask you about before we do come to a close. And one them is we do cater to a lot of aspiring entrepreneurs or people who are leading their own business, but particularly thinking about people who are starting their journey. Is there any key advice you'd give to aspiring entrepreneurs who just starting their journey?

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (48:57.021)
Yeah, if you're first, there's so many things. Again, when we talk about exit strategy briefly, okay, we're go into detail. Think about that before you launch. Make a plan. Okay, just make a plan. I actually have a full online business startup course. Okay, they go to sharpenerspiritcoaching .com. You can go on there, you can get that. It's intense. But if you complete it, you'll have...

exponential probability of success. There's so many elements to a business. Now ignorance on fire. I like that. Right. I'm like just starting. I'm going to sell something like a product. You need that too. But you also you really need and I don't mean the perfect plan. Like I teach one page business plan. I'm not I don't want a book. I don't want 37 paid. I don't need Harvard to review it. You know, I don't need that kind of stuff. Right. I need the generals on that where we're going. And then I want to start working.

Jon Coogan (49:33.744)
Hmm.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (49:54.791)
and I want to sell. So again, plan as much as you possibly can without getting paralyzed. You know, paralysis by analysis. Don't get stuck in that imperfect action is your key to success. Don't wait for anything because it's never going to be perfect. Imperfect action run with that mindset. Do it, fix it on the fly. Do it, fix it on the fly. Get feedback, fix it. Keep going. Keep pushing. Keep making gains. Keep making sales. Fuel that economic engine with the money.

right? That you're making from that and keep staying focused on fixing it and how you're the exit strategy is going to teach you how to exit your business. Even on the daily, right? How you're going to build, put people in place, build your systems so you can get that freedom. You don't get the freedom after you exit. That's like this bizarre retirement plan. Like you, want freedom while I'm doing all this, right? I want to make money and be free, right? I want to go where I want to go when I want to go. So I think

Jon Coogan (50:45.808)
Hmm.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (50:54.119)
I hope that was helpful. I can swerve a little bit.

Jon Coogan (50:55.67)
yeah, that's great. I think it's, but no, I think it is great advice. And I think if people wait for perfection before they start, they're just never, never going to get it off the ground. You're not, going to get started. So I think that's great advice. And one other thing I think might be very useful for everyone listening already is I know there's this concept of time compression. Can you explain time compression a little bit for us?

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (51:04.453)
you're doomed.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (51:20.895)
And so here it is, like my first 20 years in business, I did not accept help. I didn't look for help. was, I'm a jarhead, I'm a Marine. I'm going to do it myself. I took twice as long, twice as hard. I succeeded kind of, right? Then everything collapsed because of I didn't do and I had multi -billionaire clients. Okay. Like big hitters, big, big, big hitters telling me things. Hey, you should do this. Hey, okay. Well, what do you know?

Jon Coogan (51:37.348)
Hmm.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (51:50.335)
You don't build water features. know, I'm the guy. So time compression comes from asking for help. And what I do like you work with me for a year, I will save you 10 years of costly mistakes, bad decisions, wrong turns, all that kind of stuff. And you'll reach success much sooner and you'll be much happier because the plan is going to be like, this is how it should be. Right. I don't want to get stuck in those patterns we talked about that everybody else gets stuck in time compression. That's from

Get in a mastermind, get a mentor, get a coach, whatever that looks like. Do not wait on that. Sacrifice now to get that person in your life, focus on what you're doing, and it'll be the best money or whatever time you've ever spent because that's where it's at.

Jon Coogan (52:38.382)
And who doesn't want time compression. But yeah, sounds like a great concept. like I say, mentors, all those people, it's just soak up that knowledge, make the most of it. So yeah, I that's great. Well, I think we are going to come to the end in just a second. What I did want to leave you with really is just any final pieces of wisdom or anything you'd like to share. And what we want to do is know how we can connect with yourself and where to find you.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (52:41.759)
Yes.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (53:03.807)
Right, awesome. I have a quote that I learned like 25 years ago, maybe longer. And I memorized, I first read in the book, is in a book called Outdoor Athlete by a guy named Steve Ilg, ILG. And I think it's his quote because he had no, he didn't have anonymous, didn't, to anyone, but there it was. like, man, that's brilliant. I'm just gonna share it with you.

And it goes back to resilience and grit and all that stuff, right? It's called dedication to a goal that never wavers resolution. This is the basic principle in the life of every truly great character. He who resolves upon any great and good end has by that very resolution, clothe themselves in power and the scale to chief barrier to it. Like take that. I I stent that on my gym walls. Like it's on the wall. Like you, it's all about that was all about the commitment. Like you're starting your business. You commit.

Jon Coogan (53:48.41)
Yes.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (53:55.571)
Don't make it a hobby. You commit and you go until you succeed. So that's kind of a big thing I'll leave with you. Get a hold of me. sharpenthespiritcoaching .com would be the best way to do that. sharpenthespiritcoaching .com. And let me do this for your audience, John. Since they're here, they spent this time with us. You know, I got the book, Escape the Owned Prison. If they go to sharpenthespiritcoaching .com, go to the contact page, send me a one sentence email. Say, Hey, I saw you on John's show.

I'd love to get the free audio version of your book. Escape the Under Prison. And I will send it right to him. That's all I have to do. Okay.

Jon Coogan (54:34.168)
Fantastic offer. Yeah, thank you very much. And I think you definitely demonstrated all the things you've been talking to us about. Just the power of resilience, strategic thinking, and certainly I can see the pursuit of excellence in everything you're doing. So yeah, it's really good to have you on the show. Thank you very much for your time. And I really, really hope the audience has enjoyed it and taken away as much as I will from it. So thanks for being on with me.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (54:37.193)
You're welcome.

Richard Walsh | CEO & Author (55:01.425)
I loved it, I loved it. Thank you so much for having me.

Jon Coogan (55:04.272)
So thank you.