3. Success in Business Starts at Home

In this week’s episode, we’re talking with Brent Brewer from Essential Studios about ways to create sustainable growth in business. We dive deep into habits and routines, family life and more. I’m really looking forward to you hearing this episode! 

Tune in on Thursday wherever you get your podcasts (& as always, I love to hear your feedback!) 

I'm your host, Micaiah Gosman and The MGR Podcast is where I talk with Real people, about real money and real estate. To connect with me you can visit my Website or follow me on Instagram or Facebook

Transcript

hey everyone as I start my podcast I'm looking for other business owners and entrepreneurs looking to Market to a wider audience I started this podcast because I love to educate and bring value to people around me and this platform gives me the opportunity to share what I've learned about success in business and real estate if you'd like to sponsor an episode moving forward I'd love to connect with you contact me at gma.com podcast where we talk with real people about real money and real estate so today we got a super exciting episode we got a a special guest uh Brent Brewer on with us today super excited to have him on uh today and we're going to be talking about a little bit about uh his business his success you know his routine for Success how he defines you know success kind of where he came from where he wants to go and a little bit about his uh digital agency and we're going to kind of dive into that and you know a little bit about uh his process for like hiring overseas and a little bit of little bit of everything so we're going to Dive Right In and uh get started start so Brent good to have you man good to be here M good good so we're just going to we're just going to have fun today we're just going to chat a little bit about uh about everything and um just get to know you a little bit and uh just uh provide some people with some knowledge some some deep words of wisdom you know a little bit of everything so uh so let's get right into it Brent tell me a little bit about yourself kind of where uh um where you came from where you kind of grew up and uh maybe a little bit about your uh education and background there sure um I'm uh Frederick native born and raised I lived in the country when I was just a a lad and we moved into the city from there I guess I'll I'll dive into academics um I spent quite a bit of time in school uh it wasn't super clear to me what I wanted to do after high school but I was always good with technology always good at drawing uh audio uh Etc so actually my mother helped steer me toward a uh program at mbcc Marmi um and it initially it was a graphic design program from there I evolved they had um it was multimedia learning technology so e-learning MH and I later you'll find out have a bit of an educational mind as well so I gravitated toward that and completed that program in two years I actually what I loved about that program was set up by Frank Premier Frank McKenna is pretty entrepreneurially minded the whole program was built to be entrepreneurial um so and if you worked hard you could kind of finish up early so um I went to the hiring counselor and I said you know if I really go for this can you have some work help me find a good job yeah she's like yeah so I finished the program requirements I don't know I I'd have to say somewhere around a half year early and was employed and it was amazing I just love that that I could just you know bear down and get my work done and and get out there so um from there I worked briefly um in the graphic design sector and um decide I knew all along and my instructors at mbcc were like you need to go to university you need to go to university you get the mind for it so um I went went and studied uh multimedia Communications Bachelor of Arts and I have to admit when I was doing my um mbcc uh diploma I spent most of my nights buried in books reading philosophy uh learning about world religions just the way my brain works so once I get into that Bachelor of Arts atmosphere I discovered philosophy so I did my honors in philosophy as well couldn't get enough of that um and then from there really struggled um a lot of profs suggest I go to uh do a PhD in philosophy really considered going there in the end I went with what seemed like a more practical fit um I went into Bachelor of education completed some high school teachables there um when that degree wrapped up right about then uh I had an opportunity to work um with the uh indigenous sector and I had a great offer to pursue a master's Ed um with specialization in cultural education so I took that and uh so spent some years working at UMB all along

throughout the whole path um I think this is probably what you want to know too uh how essential Studios evolved well I had a a young child through all of this and um I I was entrepreneurially minded so um throughout all of this I was either working full-time on the side uh eventually started my own business um what what was it called originally Ascension Studios Ascension very different very different and uh at some point um just kept first it was just graphic design and then kept that going through University later added an e-learning e-learning company to the mix but um I came to a point where after working in a lot of traditional work environments that I think a lot of people like to go to to retire uh essential Studios just kept picking up clientele organically and then I reached a point where I was like I have to make it decision here yeah and so uh went into that and kind of haven't looked back really that's awesome that's awesome so when uh when Ascension Studios kind of started were you like the um the only owner was it just you and were you still did you still start that like while you were still doing other things or um did you kind of quit some other things and then just get into Ascension at the time no I was the sole proprietor Y and unfortunately I don't know un fortunately you're young it is good I do think it makes some sense to push yourself to your limits when you're younger to see kind of What You're Made Of and how much you can handle yeah what capable of you yeah um but back then I didn't have a great limiter so I did that on top of a lot of other endeavors so yeah at the time and this is not to like toot my own horn or whatever but I was maintaining like Deans List status and scholarships and bseries and working full-time gig and then have Ascension Studios and then also was quite involved with music as well so yeah and we're g yeah and we're going to dive into that a little bit more and then kind of your routine and stuff and how how you've shifted from back then kind of you know I mean we've used the word um you know workaholic almost and uh and then kind of shifted to kind of where you're at now and kind of how how you um kind of develop that that schedule that routine that balance and whatnot so um but yeah that's awesome and then and then you rebranded now did you ever have any Partners or anything like that like like with your business like when you switch to essential not with Ascension slash what became essential Studios I did with an e-learning okay yeah I had um so I've experienced both sides of that yeah yeah so yes yeah that's awesome that's awesome so uh so essential Studios is uh is is his digital agency and it's it's really taken off it's been it's been awesome I mean I'm sure you've learned you know a lot so what year did approximately did you start that so how long have you been doing it oh my word I think it's been officially like since so proprietor days I think it's been 15 or 16 years wow but we off like we incorporated in 2016 yeah now when was the uh you know everybody says that they have like a aha or like I made it moment I mean you know maybe you don't feel like you know like you feel like there's always there's always room for growth obviously but when was the time when you were just like like you know what this is this is serious you know let's go full-time you know I've made it per se you know in this when when did you kind of get that uh get that feeling I would say it was around 2016 when we like full-fledged Incorporated yeah um you know you reach a certain threshold where it makes sense to incorporate we had just landed like my e-learning company um had done some contracts with some fairly significant players and then and essential Studios started doing playing ball with some more significant players um so we landed this decent contract and I was like all right this is we're doing this is serious we're doing pretty good here so let's get Incorporated and so I'd say 2016 was kind of that moment yeah yeah yeah now has it been like a pretty gradual growth since then or has there been like you know

um big years that really kind of helped kind of exponentially grow things or yeah there were some there were some bigger years around that 2016 time um but I would say and it's not so easy to talk about but I'm I'm G to go there but um I didn't do a great job with work life balance I would say and um a predominant value at the time was you know kind of growth at whatever cost and some of those patterns that you pick up so like earlier I just said I think it's good for young people to kind of push their limits while they can yeah but that pattern has to end yeah right like it can't it's not sustainable so especially when you have a family in the mix and whatever so um yeah I not too long after that I think it was two-ish years or so you know a little bit of burnout set in and whatever so um I've had a number of years to kind of reset and I think get priorities straight now yeah yeah yeah yeah but uh yeah those hard lessons yeah yeah absolutely I appreciate the uh the vulnerability in chatting about that because I mean you know it's never easy I mean pointing out your own flaws and I mean I I'm the same way like um you know when I started this kind of real estate business you know a couple years back I was working you know 15 16 hour days and like not sleeping only ever thinking about you know work and I was you know you know robbing my wife she was like you know you're crazy obviously but and and then we just had just a young uh young kid at that point too yeah and like I was just going going going and like you know owning your own business being self-employed there is like a grind aspect to it but I think what people don't understand is you can have a BAL you can have a healthy balance you don't have to just you know commit 24 hours a day to it especially you know if you have a family and if you're trying to you know make that so so tell me a little bit about um like your balance now how you kind of created that you know what some of your I guess secrets to success are when it comes to you know maybe like Diet Fitness um daily routine scheduling time off um whatever it is what what do you kind of kind of what have you been doing and what what has worked for you I guess well I think it all comes down for me um to core values and what's what's kind of crazy is before I had my business core values mapped but I didn't have my personal core values mapped and without core values mapped we basically I would I would argue to a pretty large extent unconscious so we're kind of like zombies just going around doing whatever comes our way um keeping multiple irons in the fire not really sure like how big do we want this fire to be what kind of fire how sustainable of a burn do we want this to be Etc so um I've got a pretty I really like our family's core values and my wife Natalie is so amazing for um the way she's willing to sit down and plan with me and I guess kind of the difference of planning now for me is I'd like to say it's it's not always the case I am a long-term planner by Nature now I'm trying to be a heart centered planner so instead of like just pure like strategic like dollars and cents and objects like how do I build relationships and connection and prioritize those so our family's core values are Faith Family Fitness free time and ice cream so um man so that's the filter that I pass decisions through y That's yeah and of course maturity is being able to map our intentions to actual actions uh which is not always so easy to do but I think I'm starting to get a handle on how to translate those values into concrete actions and my wife Natalie's incredibly practical so she really helps keep me on track on the practical sense I'm more of the dreamer SL Visionary yeah so we we're good at balancing each other out yeah so your question was um to go back to that that's that's the ground for everything for me that's how I stay focused um what else can I answer for yeah I mean like what what like week to week kind of month to month like what are you setting yourself up for and like what is your schedule looking like you know to to make sure you know we we'll kind of go back later into you know

how you've um developed your company to kind of flow more seamlessly and you know maybe you can take more time off but like week to week kind of thing are you scheduling in time off are you like at the gym or like I know you work out from home a lot are you you know do you have that all scheduled or like how are you kind of organizing that and also like family time and making sure that you know you're you're still putting a ton of time into the business so that it grows and succeeds and that your so that your employees are you know feeling you know connected with you and feeling valued yes but also like you said you know faith family you know how are you you know really pushing uh pushing those things and making sure that those are at the top okay okay so I will get a bit granular and if it gets too granular you just stop me up but I think you want a little bit of the Practical nuts and bolts so I use a a framework to kind of guide my days from Michael hayatt I don't know if people have heard of him I use the full Focus framework um which includes building out a morning routine so for me um Faith being first means that my first items of the day are faith-based activities so uh well that's not entirely true um I I tend to like track so you're talking Fitness first thing I do is weigh myself and I track body fat percentage which I use the US Navy body fat uh measurement for that so I just do a couple measurements one around the waist one around the neck and I put it in my health app in iPhone and I track that I'd be afraid to do that right now I find that more for me that's more effective than tracking actual weight yeah yeah on so from there grab a coffee um and then I I read the I know some people are saying it's kind of p a to do that but I like I'm on a plan to try to read the Bible again in a year awesome um so I read that and after my Bible reading i' practice what some people would say is the original form of prayer practiced by early Christians um centering prayer which is almost more like a meditation so my assumption there is kind of like I definitely engage intellectually with the word but then that quiet almost meditative posture where it can kind of percolate and do some work on me so I do that for about 20 minutes um and then I Journal so the Assumption there is any takeaways that maybe emerge from the meditation there's a good chance to jot those down yeah so um and the final steps of the routine just include uh helping the family I I do I make the breakfast I make a lot of the meals awesome U and get everyone out the door and then process I do a half hour flush of email in the morning so there's some pretty nuts and bolts so by the time I'm there I think we're like8 or nine o'clock I was going to that was going to be my next question I was going to say go back like okay so like how much are you how much are you sleeping are you going to bed at you know 2: a.m. every night like myself or are you going to bed early waking up at 5: every day or like what's what's that kind of look like so right now Life's a bit hectic but when things are firing quite regularly I'm I'm usually a 10:00 okay bedtime guy and when things are busy um I wake up at 3:00 a.m. like clockwork my body does um but most days I'm awake kind of like I guess fiveish instinctively like I can have an alarm set for later but my body will wake me up at about 5 now we we've talked we we've talked before um about how sometimes like like when you're like you say when when it's busy you know when are going going you're up at 3: like that you'll go and then like maybe because you got a home office you'll go down to the office uh and like work for a bit and then like you'll come back to bed around the time that Natalie will wake up and then like you guys will kind of wake up together or something like that um you does that still kind of happen every once in a while I make a point to do that so no matter what time I wake up I try to be there when Natalie wakes up because that's really important to me that we connect and we've set that we've had talks about our Rel relationship routines and that's one of our startup routines

together and we like every night of course to have a shutdown routine where we kind of we kiss and we say we love you and good night and everything um so that's kind of on the more relationship front yeah um yeah that's awesome so now are you um okay so we we made it kind of past the um you know morning routine that's you know pretty structured pretty in the morning now are you like structuring do you have do you have like days off that you're like okay you know I'm not doing any work it's just family time do you have any like like throughout the week or like what what's that looking like okay so for the most part I work five day work weeks um so I'll give you more nuts and bolts I don't know how much people want to know hey you know please do I'm to a point now where I've got my meetings uh grouped into Tuesdays and Thursdays predominantly Fridays are work on the business day versus work in the business day um as for time off I'm pretty darn flexible and like I say my my filter is family first so like if Natalie needs something if if the family needs something if uh Natalie's my stepdaughter Magnolia is sick I will tend to offer to have her home with me and waking up so early in the morning gives me that little bit of an advantage and anyway because by the time people are really up and running like by noon I I can have almost a full day of work in so I've got a lot of flexibility that way that's awesome yeah and I think I think um I think that comes from one you know refining your routine but also kind of being self-employed and having that flexibility there and I think that's why a lot of like self-employed people value that so much like like myself obviously our our businesses are you know completely different but having that flexibility being your own boss as long as you structure it properly allows for that you know like allows that flexibility if somebody's sick or you got to pick them up from school you know you can be the one to do that and I think I think you definitely you probably value those times when you get to when you get to kind of set work aside and almost you know help out more like at home because I know I do um but uh but anyway so yeah keep going so what is that what's the rest of the week kind of looking like rest of the week weekends are just typic Bally it's about the kids going to activities we love to be active as a family so um cross country skiing hiking uh biking you name it like we're on the go and we value obviously our own family but they go for dinner at my moms get everyone together stuff like that so a lot of time spent with with family yeah yeah yeah that's awesome that's huge that's huge and church that's that's an important piece of the puzzle we we don't miss well we rarely Miss and honest I'm kind of the one with a more robust maybe um Church background but Natalie's like clockwork she's like time to get to church I love that about her my God that's awesome no I mean I think I think you know if you have a good church and a good church family that you're excited to go see you know and be a part of then that that definitely helps you know and so uh you know if anybody listening to this is like you know not feeling like man they just don't fit in at church you know just you know experiment go around you know try out some other churches and just find you know a church family because it will it will help you and I'm sure you've um you've experienced to like um in like life groups and stuff outside of church where you can kind of build a more personal connection with a lot of a lot of people you know for support and stuff I'm sure that's been a pretty you know beneficial um time for you as well I'm sure absolutely yeah yeah totally so um so let's just let's just dive in a little bit um to um essential Studios what you guys kind of offer um and then we're going to take a little break and then we're going to come back and then dive into a couple other things but uh so yeah tell me about essential Studios what what can you offer people what do you do I mean you've done a bunch of work uh for me and I've loved it it's been awesome but um basically if somebody's like what is

essential Studios what do you what do you say well essential Studios really really specializes in helping New Brunswick based organizations grow and we're excellent at taking the headaches out of generating measurable results on the internet and like a lot of people I think they think they know what measurable measurable results look like um but may not re realize all the moving Parts entail to get there and make it tangible and like digestible so we really ex excel at that and we really understand the needs of New Brunswick based organizations I think a lot of it comes from my uh work experience with major New Brunswick organizations I understand the funding challenges we understand the proposal side of things how to um how to write those proposal U to obtain the funds we understand um like again all the moving parts and one thing that I guess I bring and to an extent the company is a reflection of me I've always my whole life I don't know where I picked it up but I've always understood that no matter what you what you get into you're going to have maintenance that comes with it so um that's the biggest one of the biggest things things we offer our customers like we're going to take all this mess of Maintenance off of your hands like don't think you're just going to put a website up and it just sits there yeah there's a whole bunch of stuff so that's what we really excel at is um helping New Brunswick based organizations generate measurable results using the internet with minus the headaches um so in terms of like core offerings what that translates into into we do website design we offer website support ongoing support and maintenance which has actually become one of our most popular offerings uh once customers get in there and get a a taste of it they don't look back because they get to focus on what they're good at and I then they start to see oh my word there's a lot to this and what we've baked into those support packages now is quarterly strategy sessions so um basically people are getting U coaching or mentoring they get to go back to their kind of business master plan and then they see we're actually helping them plot their ongoing digital marketing objectives so they have kind of a road map from there so the other offerings beside uh web design and digital uh and support is digital marketing so that would include um SEO and paid advertising so SEO search engine optimization paid advertising would include things like Google AdWords Google display ads and Facebook advertising yeah yeah yeah that's awesome so I mean like so brand I've known you for a couple years now and like I didn't really know what you did obviously like when you first meet somebody you typically don't really just know what they do um but uh I started kind of hearing about you outside of you know Med meting you you know knowing you from church and and whatnot and then you know we just got chatting one day just talking about you know SEO and how I was looking for a new website and like how I needed you know support online he was like yo that's what my company does I was like what anyway so uh so we started chatting and then we sat down and um in the first like couple couple weeks or months or whatever of us kind of chatting you do this awesome um what's it what what do you call it like not is it onboarding or Discovery discovery yeah yeah yeah so we sat down we went through you went you you picked apart like every kind of piece of my brain and like you made notes you made suggestions you made this and that you didn't even make suggestions actually at that point you just listened to all everything me just spewing it and then you came up with this you know plan you know for for what I wanted what I needed you know um as a realtor you know how I can have an effective website how I can you know incorporate you know good lead generation stuff into my website and then like you said you offer that support and and the big thing that that I really value is the you know the analytics and being able to make everything measurable you know the past the first you know couple years

doing you know my business I was just you know scrambling you you know and and uh and Abby knows um I was trying a little bit of everything you know and uh you know there were puzzle pieces everywhere um but now you know we've gotten into a system we've got you know uh a system in place that you know the puzzles kind of together you know everything's L linked and it's just it's just so easy and and like the headache and the stress of it all is just off me completely you know so it so it's been huge and I I definitely you know support your business and and definitely want to promote it as as best I can because you know what you offer is you know huge for for business owners um and people that you know want to get uh like you said want measurable results and measurable um things I guess but yeah and I would have to say um I do I think that Discovery process really separates us from a lot of yeah people doing quote unquote web design and digital marketing because it looks at the big picture and that's a carry forward from the e-learning industry and I I have a master's in instructional design and we do what's called needs analysis so before you propose any instruction you really get to know the learner and what specifically the learning gaps are so the application here is like what problem are we actually trying to solve um and that's that's my philosophical mind as well and that's you know my wife can attest when we go on vacation I'm like what's the purpose of this vacation most people think they know what that is like what is the actual purpose is take in new sites is it to relax uh that might be more of a resort outcome right so um I apply those same principles to our customers like what problem are we trying to solve is this know we just need more people to know you exist you're trying to generate leads um you're trying to improve operational efficiency which one are we after here because we essential Studios can help you with all of them but let's just pick one and we can't do that until I can actually hear you and Echo you back to your and have you say you got me yeah exactly and that takes time yeah it does take time but but like you say it it really sets you apart and it surprised me because I wasn't expecting that at all and you were just like all right let's just you know keep meeting each week and let's just just just chat and I was like I was like okay Brent what's this cting me man like I just want to know the number like I just want to know what you're going to do and what the number is but then it wasn't until we finished that Discovery session and you presented me with this plan I was like oh my gosh man like I never would have gotten that if I just had a if you had to just spit out a you know a price and a website idea you know first day kind of thing so you know it really it really set us up for success is your New Brunswick based organization feeling stuck or looking to scale essential digital agency is here for you as New Brunswick's Premier solution for website design and digital marketing they resonate with your local challenges their proven systems and tools fuel your organization success they are dedicated to building strong new bronic organizations whether you're navigating growth ceilings or aiming for more profit their expertise is tailored for our local community get clear on the why behind the what with essential and elevate your new brunic organization visit essential agency.com strategy call [Music] today so we're going to be talking a little bit more about your business Brent and um how you've kind of made it successful where you've kind of sourced your employees from um you know know hiring overseas you know the uh the the head hunting or organization that you've used to you know find good employees that work for you um and then uh and then dive into kind of what your goals are for the future kind of thing so so let's chat a little bit about um hiring overseas you know because so it's a bit of a sour spot I was chatting with a guy last night and um he was part of this large company and um and they lay I'm not going to I'm not going to name the company I'm not going to say who it was

because uh you know obviously it could be a little tender but yeah but anyway they laid off about 105 110 employees just a couple weeks ago and um and the reason for it was because um they hired like hundreds of new employees from India Yeah so basically when the when they were laying off employees they told them they said basically for for one American person you can hire like two Canadian people you know cost-wise I think two Canadian people and then for two Canadian people you can hire six like Indian people or people from you know I don't know if Indian is the right word but people from India yeah um like cost-wise and um anyway and he said you know maybe it's maybe it's a little sketchy I don't know what's going on it's definitely I'm sure a controversial topic amongst some people um not me I don't care one way or the other but um anyway talk a little bit about that why you kind of have hired um outside North America or outside Canada um and your process behind that and you know the value you get from it yeah sure well you know something we can hold I think they say now 50 conflicting thoughts at a time so I have conflicting thoughts thoughts on the the whole thing and coming from a university background we talked a lot about neoliberalism and you know human labor being easily replaceable in the future and people wouldn't really have long-term careers the way they do now they' just be rotating I think every year and a half to two years on average yeah so I had some issues with that um but essential Studios has gone with a blend approach we do hire local where it makes sense and then we've also hired abroad I started the hiring abroad early in the game even before we incorporated um and where the Labor uh it seems at least in our sphere where people Source the labor from changes every so often like there'll be kind of hot spots um and there certainly are right now what I found in practice is that I guess I have a bit of a belief that in the big picture um it can be empowering to um folks in undeveloped or developing nations now I I only see it from a distance so I can't know I'm not not them but it seems that um they're getting exposure to a lot of training and new skills more opportunities some people might argue folks here are losing those opportunities um like I say we have some local contractors and they're amazing to deal with they're at the peak of their game the ones that we deal with locally and just like I I'm sure many small business owners can attest we've had some poor experiences with local contractors who really I don't know if they I guess we talk in central Studios we use the EOS uh business operating system it says you know if you got somebody in the right seat if they get it want it and have the capacity for it so what I found is with some local hires um I don't know if they really want it yeah yeah I think they have the capacity for it from what I can see they like to take you know a lot of vacation time and work life balance matters but um some of the Capac or some of the wanting it doesn't seem to be there yeah so I guess I'm I've always been a believer in life I have a bit of a philanthropic nature I like to help people who feel stuck and are trying their best to get unstuck y so if they're they in another country I'm going to help people get unstuck here I want to help people anywhere get unstuck so then it raises the question as a Christian who is my neighbor right anyway I could go into that quite quite deep and I spend a lot probably too much time thinking about this stuff but it is a conscious Endeavor I'm not just blindly going we don't just blindly go to like oh there's cheap labor go there exploit nothing like that and I'll often ask for a tour um of the office so I can ensure like there's some basic things going right there um you guys have probably heard about Apple's fox conon like they had to install my understanding I don't know if this is a fact but like essentially suicide Nets on the building because their employees were jumping out the windows to their own death this is so we're not dealing with anything like that but we we want to make sure that there's

some Ethics in place um so that's essential Studios perspective on hiring locally and abroad um there's I've got conflicting thoughts on it overall I think it's I don't know if we're going to reverse that Trend um so that's where we're going and what else would you like to know about that yeah no I mean so I mean you you do it it's been working for you you know you wouldn't say you regret it I wouldn't say I regret it I would say I think there's a lot of people increasing numbers of small businesses and probably established companies like the one you just cited starting to experiment with it yeah it at first it's a pain because what it's going to do is it exposes your basically training gaps a lot of the assumptions the things that you just understand well this is just the way it is kind of goes out the window you have to be very conscious and explicit about this is how things have to be done plus you're navigating cultural differences yeah which are real like real cultural understandings about time right like that sounds a bit philosophical but there are some different outlooks on time there's different outlooks on how much would a person work and how surrounding communication direct communication um In some cultures direct communication is avoided because it's perceived as rude um so there's some very real challenges there and without those cultural understandings um people will tend to I think throw their hands up in the air and and maybe quit and then I think eventually they're going to come back around and try it again um because I do think there are some significant Market forces at play um so what else do you want to yeah I mean and I'll just say like too like I've worked you know directly with you know the folks that you've hired um you know overseas and like they they've just been absolutely amazing you know and I know that you've you know taken time to kind of refine refine them and train them and and and whatever but and they've they've been absolutely awesome so tell me a little bit about you know how how you go through the process of finding somebody like um you know do you just Google person that wants to be assistant or like what do you what do you how are you finding people well we have um at this point some trusted Staffing Resources and I've spoken to you about some of them um but the biggest thing I would say is we have um not all the time but we try to go in with a clear uh position outlined expectations um what kind of metrics like a scorecard employ so that at performance reviews we can give them a meaningful review yeah um I guess the biggest thing there is the training piece and I I'm assuming that our experience is just talking to other entrepreneurs I think staff turnover is a big deal now so um this is where a bit of my e-learning background comes in handy is we try to have uh all team members generating uh training resources standard operating procedures and building up a library so that if that day comes and a team member leaves the time to uh recalibrate is diminished pretty significantly so um but that does take time that you know I say to my wife all the time I'm like I didn't even meet with the customer today and I'm exhausted because trying to make your internal processes clear to somebody else is not so easy no right yeah so um I don't know if I've gotten at what you're trying to capture is there anything else you want to know from my limited no no I mean that that's awesome that's awesome that's awesome and that that answer a lot of questions and I think that gives you know some some info to people that are kind of considering it and you know things to kind of look out for and just say you know you know as long as you're doing it in you know like you say like an ethical way and you know you're doing your research you're doing your training you know and you're you're kind of connecting with the people cuz I mean you do you do connect like with like your assistants and people that you're hiring you know you get to know them a little bit and so uh yeah so that's all valuable so so let's chat a little bit about um kind of the future of

you know Brent Brewer and Central Studios um where are we going after this like you know obviously um you know we've chatted a bit about how you know you're doing well you know you're enjoying it now are you hoping to scale up or you just going to kind of stay where we're at here now or are you you know what's the next step here well we are we want to scale up but um I don't know I got to be careful some people would say this is maybe a Christian outlook on business maybe it's not I got to be careful but um I I guess I just really believe in sustainable growth at this point um I've been in the days of like Grant Cardon 10x Rule and like grind culture and all that and like you know something I've discovered and I'm sure a lot of people can attest when I talk to some people who say they want to you know maybe do 5x next year first thing that comes to mind for me is would you even know what to do with the money when it hit you and I don't think a lot of people would have a plan for it um so that's a whole other problem yeah because when you land that money you need to know how do I keep this money growing and just not do stupid things with it just spend it yeah right so um I really believe in sustainable growth now what that number will mean for different people uh obviously will be different but for me I have a kind of number in mind I'm very very content with life right now um the biggest thing for me what's most important to Brent Brewer moving forward is connection Beyond like just human connection I want to be connected to Creation I want to be connected to my Creator and I want to be um the best father or sorry the best husband is my next priority under God and uh father possible so I have a baby on the way October 9th is yeah yeah yeah it's always is baby emit um and I just want to be in a position to I you know right now I know what I will do with the resources I've been entrusted with yeah I've got a plan for that and I know what what my priorities are yeah where we go from there I have to be a steward of this business for whatever reason like I've gone through some some difficult times in life the business held I have an assumption that God wants it there for a reason so I am going to Steward the business but I'm going to be try to be a sustainable Steward and keep relationship at the Forefront um so that's why I enjoy that Discovery process because I really get to know yeah the people yeah that we're working with so um that and retirement I have a semi-retirement goal um but I think as long as we're here we should be I mean staying at things to a reasonable extent yeah yeah um yeah I mean a lot of people I talk to you you know like they retire and then they go back to work yeah you know they so I mean you're always going to stay busy you're always going to do something right but uh but yeah I know what you mean but probably I would say in in essential Studios my plan right now is to um increasingly you know I have the label CEO on my LinkedIn profile but acting like a CEO is a totally different thing I think a lot of us like to slap that label on but like acting like a true Visionary there's a whole other side to it and like a person has to be out of some of the details to actually be acting in that capacity effectively so I'm learning how to be more of a Visionary um I I've got a good community that is helping me to get there but it's baby steps um but move into an increasing uh consultative role in the business and eventually transition to board of directors and build the business in such a way that it could be a sellable asset at any time so that's the current plan yeah uh it's not rocket science but that's the way I'm choosing to Steward this resource yeah yeah so I mean basically you know obviously you want to grow obviously you want to help more people obviously you know you want to uh you know increase increase your business but it's got to be a sustainable growth that that you're not sacrificing like you said your family core values and stuff like you have your business core values but above that you know I'd say is that faith family kind of core values and stuff so

sustainable growth that allows you to hold on to those things but you know if if you make some extra money along the way right on but yeah I mean it's it's funny like you a lot of you know people once they start spending or sorry start making more money and I'm not even excluding myself from this you know you spend it and if and like you said before that was a good point about oh you know I'm going to 5x you know 10x my business but yeah nobody ever thinks about that okay once I do actually 10x my business or 5x like okay I'm G to have this much extra money what am I going to do like am I just going to buy a bigger house buy more cars am I going to or am I going to keep living the way I'm living and then put it back into my business so then you can scale up even more or are you going to put it back into your business so you can hire more people so that you can take more time off and be more hands off like there's a lot to consider everybody's business is going to be a little bit different but uh but yeah I mean that's that's huge like i' I never really thought of it that way I was just like I'm just going to make more money so then I can increase my budget here and then you know help more people and but you know yeah what are you going to do with that money once you you got to have a plan for it and like what what is the problem we're aiming to solve here that's the question I always come back to is like what problem am I solving with more money and more money yes again got to be a steward and sitting on our Laurels isn't going to be good for anyone yeah we got to be productive and we can create more opportunities for people we care about yeah um but yeah what problem are we solving yeah yeah yeah y so um so I mean this can be a pretty vague question and um you know everybody's answer is going to be going to be different but how would you Bren Brewer um um kind of define success and what that means you know for for your for your life and just for business and stuff business and personal life you know yeah well for me I guess I would define success as being conscious so um it's so easy in this life to operate on autopilot m it is the easiest thing in the world to do that and to not think about what problem am I trying to solve or where am I going why am I going here what are my motivations at least examine them we can't always know but uh being conscious um being connected and I think the more conscious we are the more connected we can be with other people um and our relationships so Consciousness relationships um and just that being very intentional I I am going to go in this direction I know I think I know why I'm doing it and then from there it's kind there's this massive um for me Grace component of like just in case uh I'm not even correct about what I think my intentions are God some how um direct me the appropriate way so at the end of the day it's it's keeping that faith in the bigger picture and trying like staying open to the fact that I could be misdirected even though I've chosen to go in this direction so um yeah and I guess what that ultimately boils down to is listening yeah and and always listening so that's what I'm trying to practice trust me you're going to find me on days and you'll be like that guy's a hypocrite um yeah and I'm sure I am but that's what I'm aiming for anyway yeah yeah that's awesome and like I said you know everybody's definition of success is going to be different everybody's got different core values and whatnot but but that's yeah I like that I like that example you use of kind of being conscious because it is it is so easy you know before I got into real estate and before I started you know doing what I'm doing now and doing this you know I was working uh um you know for the Department of Transportation and it was every day was the exact same which you know for some people that's what they need like that structure but like for me it was like it was just like I was just a ghost you know going through the motions kind of thing you know show up get some work done 8:30 to 4:30 or 8: a.m. to 8:15 to 4:30 that's

what it was and um and that was it you know I I mean obviously there's there's folks that are doing that adding and adding Valu to other people's lives but I didn't feel like I was like adding any value to other people and helping other people in any way I mean I'm sure what I was doing you know there was some value out of course but um but I wasn't you know feeling fulfilled in it and and whatnot so I think you know if I'm trying to define success it's being conscious being um being present and just feeling like you're you know giving value to to others and stuff around you you know some people don't care about that and that's fine but but for me it's like it's just you know connecting with more people helping more people adding value and just yeah being conscious especially at home you know and uh um just really uh holding on to that uh that time that you know we have with with friends and family and loved ones and whatnot and and just you know being flexible you know just just living life flexibility is a huge one yeah that hasn't come easy for me but it's it's emerging yeah well I mean we we chatted too like a couple months back about how you get into it's easy to get into a routine especially as a business owner of just constantly you know seeing all these little flames and then just going putting out the fire putting out the fire putting out the fire and it's it's just it's constant right and so getting the systems in place to you know get those fires put out by somebody else and just manage all that is is is huge so you're not you're not always feeling like I can't relax cuz I got to put it on a fire or I got to wake up at you know 3:00 a.m. every morning because in order just to stay on top of emails and stuff like this but um but anyway anyway anyway so um yeah this is has been awesome I really appreciate having you on here Brent this has been this has been super cool I hope that all you guys had a had a great chance to uh get to know Brent a little bit learn about his business essential Studios if uh if they have any questions about essential Studios or they want to connect with you how can they uh how can they do that what's the best way hop on over to essential agency.com uh strategy call with me and in that 15 minutes we can get to like the core of your business issues pretty quick um so yeah just even if you're not sure what you want just grab a 15minute call you're going to get me that part's not going to be like delegated to anybody that's that's my sweet spot and I look forward to connecting with you so essential agency.com strategy call and I look forward to uh checking in yeah and that's going to be a super beneficial call and I know and like you said even if you don't know what you want give him a call he'll be able to tell you pretty quick whether or not he can help you and uh and that was me I didn't know what I needed didn't know what I wanted I kind of had an idea of you know I want to make more money I want to generate more leads and I want to be able to track it um but I had no idea how to do it and that you kind of led me in that direction which was super awesome um so yeah so thanks so much for tuning in to the MGR podcast this has been great we're super excited for uh um for you guys to hear this and learn a little bit um again if you have any questions from me you can reach me at Gosman doca the new website that you know essential Studios uh have developed for us um it's super awesome you can get in touch with me there um again that's gosman.ca this so thanks so much for tuning in see you