Gino Wickman (00:00):
Welcome to the Shed and Shine podcast. I am Gino Wickman. This is where Rob Dube and I help driven entrepreneurs shed their shit, free their True Selves, unlock true entrepreneurial freedom and shine. We truly appreciate you taking the time to spend with us and we hope to make a huge impact on you.
Rob Dube (00:21):
Hey everyone, I'm Rob Dube and I'm here with Gino Wickman for a special Shed and Shine episode. Gino, how are you?
Gino Wickman (00:30):
I am fantastic, Rob.
Rob Dube (00:33):
I've had this one circled on my calendar for a month I think since you came up with it. What are we doing here?
Gino Wickman (00:40):
All right, so here's what we're going to do. A little disclaimer context for this episode, okay? Because we're experimenting with something on this episode and one of three things are going to happen with this episode.
(00:57):
You out there are going to love it, you're going to hate it, or it will never see the light of day. So one of those three things. Where this came from, it's just an idea that I had where I reached out to Rob and I said, "Hey Rob, what if we did an episode where we had no expectation, no topic, no agenda, and we just jump on the podcast and we start talking just like we've done for almost 20 years in a coffee shop?" That's why we call this episode The Coffee Shop Conversation, or potentially calling it that, because we would sit there for two to four hours and have the most amazing conversations.
(01:46):
And so with that, that's what led to this. But then we decided not 10 minutes ago, let's do this. Let's both take two quiet minutes and just make a quick list of topics we might share or talk about. Now, I don't know your topics, you don't know my topics. You're going to pick your topic first, but that's kind of how it always happened in the coffee shop, as I'd show up with things I wanted to talk about, you'd show up with things you want to talk about. So we're just going to see how this goes. And if you never see this episode, it's because it was horrible.
Rob Dube (02:22):
And if you're listening, guess what? It made it.
Gino Wickman (02:25):
So here we go.
Rob Dube (02:27):
All right. I'm going first
Gino Wickman (02:28):
Yeah.
Rob Dube (02:29):
My first topic, I call it, hug a tree. Just a little backstory on this. I saw an interview that Joe Polish did with a gentleman whose name I can't recall at this moment. And he was going through a very challenging time in his life and he was looking for different ... it was a health challenge. He was looking for different things to do to help him stay in the right frame of mind. And he came up with a list of 90 things. One of the 90 things was to hug a tree.
(03:05):
I was intrigued by that. As you know, I like to hike and I run pretty much every day. So I try to get off onto the trails. And I thought, "I've never hugged a tree. I'm going to try this." And so I hugged a tree. And I had my arms around it and I did what he said, and I felt energy. I actually felt energy coming from the tree, this living thing that's rooted into this earth. And I'm getting chills just telling you this. I've started to make it a thing where as often as I can, I just pull off and try to find a tree and hug it. I'm sharing that with you, and I wonder if what comes to mind for you on that.
Gino Wickman (03:57):
Well get ready, because there is no coincidence you brought that up. So two weeks ago I was on a podcast and the podcast shifts to this conversation where the host starts talking about how he's getting joy out of sitting in his backyard and watching squirrels. And I share how about a year ago I started getting joy about watching trees. I am so into trees right now. I've never hugged one, so I'm going to hug one in the next day or two or three. But there's something about trees.
(04:38):
And the simplest way I can say it is, think about it, they give us life and we give them life. Oxygen, carbon monoxide, oxygen. And then I also realized, this was just yesterday or the day before, they're the biggest living things on the planet, I think. But think, they're bigger than every animal, right? Anyway, there's something going on with trees.
Rob Dube (05:09):
Yeah, I look at them and I think the age. They've seen so much. I think about my little life and what's going on and all I'm caught up with, and I think about this tree I'm hugging and I'm thinking to myself, this tree has seen generations of these little lives go by. Just watching it go. That life came and went. This life came and went. And I don't know, there's something that brings perspective to me about just my regular everyday stuff when I think about it.
Gino Wickman (05:52):
And the last thing I would say on this is I'm thinking about if I were listening to this conversation on a podcast three years ago, I would've turned it off five minutes ago.
Rob Dube (06:03):
How many did we lose?
Gino Wickman (06:05):
This might be the one that they hate that might fall into that category. And I even remember this woman, they were going to cut this tree down and she was fighting for it because she believed it was alive, and you don't kill that tree. And I'm like, "The fuck is that?" So it's like three years ago, I'd think that you and I were fricking cuckoo beans right now. Something happened where I'm fascinated with trees. Oh, boy. But it's so incredible that you brought that up. That's amazing.
Rob Dube (06:33):
I love it. Okay, let's hear yours.
Gino Wickman (06:35):
My turn. Here's what came to me. Here's what I want to talk about. I want to talk about our fight last week.
Rob Dube (06:44):
Oh, we get to bring that up?
Gino Wickman (06:46):
Yes.
Rob Dube (06:46):
Well, that's funny because I was thinking about that.
Gino Wickman (06:49):
Well, there are no coincidences. I was thinking about trees.
Rob Dube (06:50):
Okay. Let's go.
Gino Wickman (06:54):
But here's why. Anyway, so it just came to me. The reason is I think there's a lesson in that. Number two, there are lots of partnerships out there that fight. And we're a partnership. We own this company, 50/50. Building a business is fucking hard. And with that, for some reason, since I built EOS Worldwide and all the work I do with driven entrepreneurs and business owners, they think it's easier for me somehow. And even when people partner with me, they think, "Oh shit, man, I'm hitching my wagon to Gino. This business is going to be easy to build because he's got the Midas touch." Well, that's not the case.
(07:42):
I have never, never seen a business that was easy. And then again, I have this beautiful purview where I've worked with 135 or 136 entrepreneurs here in Southeast Michigan. And what I love is when one of them says about another company, "Oh, I wish I had that business. That business is so easy." And that business happens to be a client of mine. And I sit there and go, "Oh, if you only knew." The reason I bring it up is it is hard to build a business for all in any of us.
(08:16):
Now, I love it. It's heaven. It's what I do as a driven entrepreneur, same for you. It's hard. But the reason I want to bring up our fight, it's like the perfect example of how fucking hard this is, because I was so frustrated with you. It's a beautiful partnership conversation, because as an organization ... and there's almost like this bearing of my soul about this because this is real. And anybody out there that's looking at a business saying, "Wow, I wish I had that business. And that's easy." Or, "Oh my god, Gino and Rob's business is so easy." It ain't. It ain't.
(08:55):
And so we're stuck right now as a business, but we're at this such an interesting, beautiful crux. This is just my humble two-cents. But you move a little slower than I do when making decisions and I tend to move pretty fast. And so our stuck ... just so the audience is following the stuck. It's like we're hitting the ceiling right now and ready for our next level of growth. And we're looking at bringing on a marketing firm and we're now trying to find our integrator so we feel it's time to go find our integrator to help take this company to the next level. And then the next step is going to be finding our salesperson. And then the quick version to cut to the chase now, is I thought I found the perfect podcast company to manage our podcast. And if the marketing stuff happened, that'd be great.
(09:50):
And so we did our quarterly, I think two weeks ago now, and I came guns a blazing. So fired up to join forces with this company. And you and your methodical, so that everybody knows out there, we have this joking thing where Rob's the tortoise and I'm the hare. He jokingly calls himself the turtle. You so methodically do your thing, and I'm wanting to move a little faster. And so we got in a fight and then we fought again the next week about it. And I thought you were being a dick. But you're incapable of being a dick. But I thought you were. But the beauty of it, the beauty, the reason I wanted to bring it up, is it was so hard for me. I actually felt guilty. I felt bad. But we got to the other side of it. And so beautifully, we have now engaged with this marketing firm that I think they're going to be a great fit for us. We'll see.
(10:45):
But all I had to do was slow myself down a little bit. I made our fight more amped up than it needed to be, but I just want the world to know Rob and Gino fight. So give me your perspective on all of that. I just would love ... because you have such a Zen way of seeing these things when I don't.
Rob Dube (11:12):
Yeah. What I was going through, and what I often go through in working with you ... and first actually I want to take a step back just so the audience knows. I never felt that getting in partnership with you was the easy train.
Gino Wickman (11:29):
Thank you.
Rob Dube (11:30):
My perspective on whatever it was we were going to embark on, it was going to be hard. And it has been. That all said, working with you, you do go fast and you've had great success. And sometimes it shakes me up a little, because I think I did it one way at my company, you do it a little differently, and I'm kind of used to the way I do it, and nobody really gave me too much gruff about it. So here we come and it's a little friction. Sometimes I think to myself, "Hey, maybe you ought to speed it up." And it's a mental exercise for me to really say like, "Okay, wait. Are you going too slow? Or is Gino pushing too hard? Or is that your ego in the way?" And I'm going through all this stuff and just try to mentally go through it, notice what's going on.
(12:30):
And then as you know, then I just try to get into my body and just understand what's up. And you didn't share the part of the story where I called you at the end, I guess you could call it, and just to say like, "Hey, here's my part in this. I felt like I had something to do with this whole thing. I was in my own way and I started to recognize where my ego was showing up." So that's my part of it.
(13:05):
I also felt like at that time I wanted to share a little bit of how I was feeling. I remember specifically sharing ... you say I wasn't listening, and I just said, "There's not a person on this earth that doesn't tell me I'm the greatest listener ever." That's a trigger for me. We've talked about the trigger in some other episodes. Just point in all this outside of all the details is partnerships are about being self-aware and going through this together. And I hear your self-awareness in it too. And just trying to find where's the right spot so the two partners can move forward, obviously, in a healthy way. And what's funny from my perspective is it was ... and actually you said it, I think it was you that said it. We kissed and made up for lack of a better way of saying it, and the next day or something, the skies opened up.
Gino Wickman (14:16):
And that's what I want to speak to because that's coming to me as you're sharing that. It's funny the way that Rob and I have to communicate everybody, because we're so busy and scheduled that sometimes we have to communicate through voice texts. And so a lot of this communication is going on in voice text.
Rob Dube (14:31):
Yeah, that's a good point.
Gino Wickman (14:32):
But you sent the most beautiful voice text at the end when you shared your self-awareness and your part of it and all that. And what it makes me think of is the stages. Because it started in our quarterly in front of our team, and then it continued on a Zoom call the following, it was like, four days later. So this went on seven days, and it was really hard. I can remember talking to my wife about it, and I was so frustrated and bummed and feeling guilty, but also frustrated.
(14:59):
But that was the point I was going to make. So then when we kissed and made up and it was all better, you're right, these two incredible opportunities presented themselves. We believe we found our perfect marketing company and our podcast hosting company. And we think we found the entity that's going to find us our integrator. It makes me wonder if I would've just shut my fucking mouth seven days ago, was this all going to just happen? Was it worth all the anguish? But I don't know. But I also wonder too, diamonds are created out of pressure. Was it the pressure that moved things at the perfect speed for that magic to happen? But anyway, I am so glad we're talking about the topic [inaudible 00:15:46]
Rob Dube (15:46):
Yeah, I choose to believe that it all unfolds exactly the way it should. So as this quarter, Q2 was unfolding, I'm going through my methodical thing and just having high awareness of looking for the right solution. And then there comes a point where you're seeing it super clearly and you're like, "Let's go, let's go." And I'm kind of like, "Wait, I'm in my methodical process." But wait, maybe Gino's got something here and et cetera, et cetera. And then to the end.
Gino Wickman (16:20):
That's interesting. And so maybe that, where I wanted to move twice as fast as we moved, and maybe you wanted to move twice as slow ... that's not fair, but maybe we found the perfect happy medium that made that magic happen.
Rob Dube (16:31):
And that's why you might not remember, but I said to you, "I don't want you to change a thing about you. Just keep doing you. Keep being you." I got to deal with my as it relates to-
Gino Wickman (16:44):
And remember, I shared with you the seven things I need you to change to be my partner. No, I'm kidding. I'm totally kidding. I'm totally kidding. I'm totally kidding. Anyway, what an awesome experience.
Rob Dube (16:57):
There you go. There you go. Okay. Well, who knows if this makes this to air. We're just at about 20 minutes, and that's as long as we want to take it. So any last words from you on this?
Gino Wickman (17:11):
No, it's fun and I look forward to hearing the feedback. If it makes it. Kristen will be the deciding factor on that. But hopefully it makes it to light, and I love to hear the feedback. And if this is productive and healthy for people, maybe every whatever episode we'll do it here or there, now and again.
Rob Dube (17:31):
All right. I hope we do. I hope it is valuable and it's certainly fun. And Gino, I love you, my man. I love you.
Gino Wickman (17:31):
Love you too, my brother. Love you too.
Rob Dube (17:40):
See you soon.
Gino Wickman (17:42):
Thank you for listening in today. We truly appreciate you taking the time to spend with us, and please tune in for the next episode. Until then, if you'd like to see where you are on your True Self journey, go to shedandshinepodcast.com to take the True Self-assessment and receive personalized guidance. If you're all ready to begin your inner world journey with Rob and myself, please join us for the next round of the 10 Disciplines group coaching program. We wish you all the best in freeing your True Self. Stay focused and much love.
