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Hey, what is up? Welcome to this episode of the Entrepreneur to Entrepreneur podcast.
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As always, I'm your host, Brian Lofermento. And in today's solo Sunday episode, we are kicking
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it old school. We are going all the way back to days of me sitting in college classrooms
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and learning all about philosophy. And we are specifically going to talk about part
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of a manual Kant's categorical imperative imperative. And if you're thinking to yourself,
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Brian, what the heck are we doing today? I promise that this one has so much value
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for all of us as entrepreneurs. I'm excited about this one. Let's dive in.
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You know that something is valuable when it really sticks with you all these years later,
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because this is probably a lesson that I learned in either 2008 or 2009. So here we are
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many years later. Gosh, that is more than a decade later, almost a decade and a half later.
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And so with that and more than a decade and a half later, it's crazy. And so the fact that this
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has always stayed in my head means that there's something to it. And I'm so excited to talk about
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it today because very few classes in college caught my eyes and attention and my participation
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in my attendance. And so one of those classes though is always philosophy. It's funny. I obviously
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went to school with the aim of starting a business and being in business and being successful in
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business. And so when I look back at the courses that actually stuck with me, it's so funny that
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philosophy, a Gen Ed class, is one of those. But I'm going to share with you exactly why because
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I'll never forget that that professor taught us about Emanuel Kant. And I think that if you learn
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anything about philosophy, you end up learning about Aristotle, you end up learning about so many
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brilliant philosophers. And I imagine that Emanuel Kant is one of those universal ones. And so he's
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got something called the categorical imperative. And this is where he talks about what it means
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to be good, what it means to do good, what it means to behave ethically and virtuously,
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similarly to Aristotle's works. And part of that categorical imperative really emphasizes that
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we need to treat things and people as the ends in and of themselves rather than merely as means
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to an end. And I'll never forget that even as a teenager, I sat there and I thought to myself,
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such an interesting observation. What is it inside of life, inside of relationships, inside of
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business that we do treat as merely means to an end? And I remember back then, especially having an
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18-year-old, 19-year-old mind and wanting to get into business and always feeling like,
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I've got to get some more money in order to save up so I can buy a domain name. I need to buy
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web hosting. I need to do this. I need those resources. And so what I inevitably found myself doing
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was doing things merely as a means to an end. The end being, of course, money and the means being
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whatever it is that I was doing, whether it was an on-campus job, whether it was a gig that I would
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take. I was taking so many gigs back then on, I think it was called E-Lance or E-Lancer. It has
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since became Upwork, but it was really fun because I was treating everything as a means to an end.
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It took me a long time to start to recognize both in myself and in others what it looks like and
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how easy it is to tell when someone is doing something merely as the means to an end rather than
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end in itself. So what does that mean? Because I'm telling you, we've all got to look at our own
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behavior, our own choices, our own time investments, effort investments, energy investments. We have
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to look at it through this lens, which is why I'm excited to bring this concept. It's an age-old
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concept here into the realm of you and I, just hanging out on a beautiful Sunday talking about
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entrepreneurship. What does it mean to treat something as an end in and of itself? Well, for example,
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I love playing chess. I'll use that as an example. I know I've used it as an example a lot lately,
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but I love playing chess. And so when I sit down to play chess, I'm not playing chess because I want
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to get one over my opponent because when you play on chess.com, you have no idea who it is that you're
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playing. You're playing a complete stranger that you'll never play ever again. That chess.com
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just randomly pairs you up with via a username. And so when I sit down to play chess, I am playing
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chess. Why? Just to play chess. There's no other means to an end than I'm looking for. I'm not playing
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chess to gain some skills that I'm one day going to sell. I'm not playing chess because I really
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want to impress somebody else just playing chess because I really like playing chess. I play chess
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because it is an end in and of itself. That is the reason why I'm doing it. And so that might sound
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very simplistic. Well, let's transfer that into the world of business. And that is way easier
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said than done. That is way simpler than it actually is for people to behave that way. What do I mean?
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I'll call out some really tangible things. We all know what it feels like when somebody approaches
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us with their intent to be salesy. That is the means to an end. The end is they hope to get a sale
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versus when somebody shows up for a sales conversation or a networking conversation or just a
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virtual coffee with the motivation of that is the end in and of itself. There is no other ulterior
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mode of here. We all know how different that feels because we all call it gut, call it intuition,
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call it instinct. I don't care what you call it, but this is a human trait that we can all feel
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when someone is treating us or situation or an opportunity or our business or our podcast or
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our website or our blog or our coming event or our webinar or whatever it may be as merely the
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means to an end. And so we talk very frequently in pretty much every episode. You hear amazing,
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both strategy and tactics from our incredible guests that we have on every single day of the week
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for you. And when they talk about those strategies, for example, let's call out partnerships.
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When they talk about partnerships to be successful with partnerships, you have to embody and practice
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this part of the categorical imperative that we're talking about today all the way back from,
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I don't know, probably thousands of years. I have no idea when a manual count was,
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but dating all the way back to then, we have to treat those things as ends in and of themselves,
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not merely as the means to an end because we've all been in partnership conversations where
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we know exactly why that person set up a call with us because they want us to refer clients to
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them and guess what? If you do that, chances are it doesn't work and then it becomes really
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frustrating and then you wonder why it's not working and then you get desperate and then you
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treat things even more so as merely the means to an end. And so that's the funny catch 22 of this
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entire situation is that if you find yourself in sales calls and potential partnership calls and
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just general networking, acting like people and things in opportunity are merely the means to an end,
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then things don't work and the funny part is and I guess it's likely ironic is that when you show
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up as the end in and of itself, you literally don't care about the outcome, you're actually not even
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looking for an outcome because the outcome is merely you doing the thing and I feel that I'll
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use podcasting as an example. Obviously, it's a very easy example for me to give. We reach out to
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a lot of potential guests here on the show and our pre-production team shout out to both Laura and
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Charlotte because they manage so much outreach for our show to find the right guests and invite
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them on the air and bring them on the air for you and you hear how many guests show up just because
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they love talking about business and they're so open and transparent and vulnerable and sharing
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their own lessons and insights and life experiences and so much more. Why is it that way? Because we
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can tell so clearly as a podcast and spoiler alert, all of us podcasters, we can kind of tell this,
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we can tell when someone wants to show up merely as the means to an end is that if you want to come
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on the show because you want to promote your business, well then it's not going to work that way
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because I as the host, I'm not going to enjoy that episode, our listeners are not going to tune
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into an info commercial, none of it is going to work and so treating people as the means to an end,
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not only is going to make you not necessarily liked all that much, but even more importantly
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and relevant to your goals is it's actually not going to get you to your goals in any way at all and
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it sounds very counterintuitive and I am right now I'm in real time imagining what if somebody told
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me this when I was 19 when I was starting my first business that you have to treat everything as an
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end in and of itself and we've got a lot of quotes and life advice just colloquially we talk about
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you know enjoying the journey that the journey is the destination and things like that.
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Well if my 19 year old self heard this advice and I kind of did when I learned about the
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categorical imperative, I'm not sure I would know how to practice that and I think part of this comes
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with maturity in life and in business but I think it really does come down to advice that we hear
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quite frequently in the business world of detaching yourself from the result is just saying yes
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somebody inviting me on the show I'm going to go on the show because I want to go on the show
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and I'm just going to be my best me because if I show up as my best me that's the reward.
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I don't care what happens after that and we have had unbelievable incredible heartwarming emails
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from past guests some of my favorite guests that I've ever interviewed here on the air who have
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shared with us holy cow I close we had one guest who sent us an email I was so excited to receive
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this she was an incredible guest and trust me I know how many of you listeners absolutely adored
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her adored her and she shared so vulnerably all of her thoughts not just her thoughts but how she
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thinks she probably articulated that episode about how she thinks better than any guest I've seen
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in this shows history and we got an email from her and she said Brian I literally didn't believe it
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when you guys invited me on to the show I was super excited just because I wanted to come on the show
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I ended up closing six figures in business from coming on your show and that was unbelievable I
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quickly I frantically went back to her episode and I I went straight to the transcript and I said
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what was her CTA what was her call to action what did she tease listeners with how did she invite
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people to check out her business how did she talk about her business and spoiler alert she actually
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really didn't she was just so amazing in that episode that it's so clear to me that that was
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the end in and of itself for her she just wanted to be the best version of her and when she told me
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the story about how she closed more business in from that one appearance and someone listening to
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her or some people listening to her on this show she said that she was in competition with a lot
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of potential vendors and and when these people heard her on the show they said we just love the way
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you show up we love the way you think we love the way you talk about things and so it's so cool
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to hear that her literally just being her that made the difference and so I'm someone everyone
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always hits me up just go into my Instagram DMs my requests are wild which is funny because I don't
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even use Instagram and so everyone's in a while I pop into there and it's so clear to me the
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people who are reaching out because they want something they my show my platform my audience
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it's all just a means to an end to them and guess what I never reply to those people whereas the
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people who have approached me just because they want to hang out with me just because they want
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to get to know me just because they want to talk about business and I just quite frankly cannot
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help myself when it comes to talking about business because I love it because that also
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is an end in and of itself for me those people end up becoming the very ones that I consistently
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hang out with I consistently check in with I consistently think oh my gosh I really want to
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introduce that person to this person who I really enjoy their company and so I don't know if this
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episode is is more strategic or tactical but I guess at the end of the day the most important
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episodes are ones that are inward looking it really challenges our MO our true
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mode of operation and it makes us it reminds us that we have the opportunity to just start
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showing up as ends in and of themselves I'm going to do this podcast episode just because I
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really want to don't care what happens from there and when you make a habit out of that doesn't
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mean it's going to pay off from that one podcast episode well one yeah the payoff is the thing
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we talk about embracing the journey that is the payoff the fact that you come on a podcast
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but is it going to pay off immediately maybe not in monetary terms but when you make a habit of
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showing up on a podcast just as the end in and of itself and you're your best you and then that
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same attitude in in life MO happens to work its way into a LinkedIn post that you write you don't
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write that LinkedIn post because you want to generate leads you write it just because you want to
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write it then you show up to that partnership call just because you really want to hang out
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with a like-minded person who shares your values and is a fellow entrepreneur who's in the trenches
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who can relate to you and then it leaks into those emails that you write not check boxes not just
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because you have to follow up with somebody and you you just do a half effort email to them or maybe
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you just have chat GPT write up some sort of email check in template not talking about that
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approach i'm talking about writing those emails just because you want to just because you care
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that is the reward in and of itself when you make a habit of showing up this way it's inevitable
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that over time opportunities are going to find you things far bigger than you could have dreamed of
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are going to start finding you and so it's so funny how this age old advice this very simplistic
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advice this advice telling you hey just enjoy the things for what they are and don't look for any
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sort of outcomes or results that's the most powerful strategy and approach that any of us can use
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in our businesses and our relationships and in our lives and i know i use a bunch of random
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examples today about podcasting and blogging and social media posting and referrals and partnerships
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and all of that and sales calls of course but the real value from this episode comes when you
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remind yourself of a manual cons categorical imperative before your next thing before your next
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podcast interview before your next sales call before your next relationship call because if you
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take a deep breath and you remind yourself that i'm doing this because it is an end in and of
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itself i don't ever want to treat this as a means to an end you're going to show up and do that
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thing in an absolutely brilliant way and i'm excited to see what that looks like and sounds like
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for you so don't be shy in reaching out to me because if you're one of those listeners who has
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reached out to me you'll see that when i reply to your email it is with no CTAs it's not with me
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looking to drum up business or anything i literally just love hearing from you all so don't be shy
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my direct email address my only email address that goes straight to me it's not a team inbox
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it's not a podcasting inbox is hello at i met brion dot com now that you met me on the show hello
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at i met brion dot com gets you straight into my personal inbox and i would love to reply to you
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and chances are i'd love to hang out with you i talk about virtual coffees all the time here on
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the air let's get a virtual coffee so much fun for me so that's it for me in today's episode
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i hope it hits you where it needed to because it is a bit of a of course more philosophical episode
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than what we normally do here but i trust that it's going to resonate with each and every one of you
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in a very different way in a way that you probably need it because we all need this reminder from
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time to time so thanks for sticking with me through my best recollection of a college philosophy
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class and i'm super excited about this week's episode so make sure you pound that subscribe
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button because we'll be coming at you as always every single day right here on the watcher
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opener to entrepreneur podcast