Why Trust Is the Ultimate Business Advantage with Justin Wilhelms

In this episode of Success Leaves Clues Podcast, our guest is Justin Wilhelms, leadership coach, business strategist, speaker, and organizational development expert who is passionate about helping leaders build stronger teams, healthier workplace cultures, and sustainable business growth. Drawing on his experience working with organizations and professionals across a variety of industries, Justin shares practical insights on leadership effectiveness, trust-building, communication, accountability, team performance, and creating environments where people can thrive. We explore the challenges leaders face as they grow their businesses, the importance of authentic relationships in driving long-term success, and actionable strategies for developing resilient teams that deliver meaningful results. Whether you're an entrepreneur, executive, manager, coach, or aspiring leader, this conversation provides valuable lessons on leading with purpose and creating lasting impact.

You can find him on:
https://jwicfreedom.com/
https://www.youtube.com/@BUILT_ON_PURPOSE
https://www.linkedin.com/in/justinawilhelms/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/built-on-purpose-with-justin-wilhelms/
Phone number: 8472759758
Email: justin@jwicfreedom.com

Transcript

Justin Whilhelms 0:00

And honestly, between you and me, Pedro, I think there's way too many coaches out there who are one of two things. They got sick at corporate and so they bought a toolkit, or they were a killer sales guy that bought a toolkit. There's not a lot of guys that I run into who actually owned, ran, and sold a business that became a coach and lived all of the lanes, right?

Davis Nguyen 0:22

Welcome to Success Leaves Clues, the podcast where we interview business owners on how they built their businesses and the hard lessons they learned along the way. My name is David Swain, and I'm a business coach and a founder of Purple Circle, where we help business owners achieve their first six-figure, seven-figure, and eight-figure year, all without sacrificing their quality of life. Before becoming a business coach and before founding Purple Circle, I started and scaled several seven and eight-figure coaching businesses and have been a consultant at several businesses doing over $100 million each, including some that are publicly listed and doing over a billion dollars each. In every episode of the podcast, you're going to learn lessons that took our guests years to learn, and you'll be able to learn that in minutes. No matter if you're a new business owner or an established business owner, every episode is going to give you the clues in order to elevate your business.

Pedro Stein 1:07

Welcome to Success Leaves Clues Podcast. I'm Pedro, and today I'm joined by Justin Wilhelms, who sold his business at 40 debt free with complete freedom, and discovered that most owners he meets have never experienced any of that despite working incredibly hard. Justin's journey from building and selling a multimillion dollar company to founding Joe JW Innovative Coaching was sparked by hearing the same story everywhere. Exhausted owners who are overstretched, running hard, but not getting ahead. Justin positions himself as an equity partner who doesn't take equity, getting into the trenches to treat businesses like his own while fixing the core issues that keep owners trapped in their day-to-day operations. His direct black and white approach focuses on moving teams into the right seats, building systems that scale without adding bodies and creating culture that lives beyond the owner's head, staying until problems are actually solved. Welcome to the show, Justin.

Justin Whilhelms 2:17

Thank you, Pedro. Appreciate it, man.

Pedro Stein 2:19

Yeah, it's great to have you. You know, from the day we met, uh, and we were talking this before uh the podcast, right? About commitment and all of that. But I really, really am a comic book nerd, okay, Justin. And I really like the first issue, the first edition, you know. So the origin story, I'll put it simply like that. So let's rewind a bit, you know, because Justin, every coach has that moment where they look at their life and say, yeah, I guess this is what I'm doing now, right? So when was that for you?

Justin Whilhelms 2:50

Well, so uh uh throughout my journey, I've been given a lot of opportunities, but really where that pivot point was was several almost five years ago now, I got introduced to the idea of franchising. I was financially positioned to potentially open a franchise, investigated several, uh, and one of the ones introduced to me was a coaching franchise. And that's when it became obvious that that was a lane people do for a living. And I was already doing that kind of work for 10 years before that. And so I thought that that would be a fun gig, but at the time I had no plans on leaving the business that I was running. I planned on retiring there. So it was kind of one of those where I threw it on the shelf and said, Yeah, maybe someday for somebody else. And then private equity stepped in, we sold and got open the lane and said, Well, guess what, kid? This is what you're doing now. And so that's how we started.

Pedro Stein 3:40

Okay, so you waited uh a business at 40, right? Which already gives you a lot of skin in the game to help uh other business owners, right? So I want to understand one thing. It's like I usually call it the shift, right? The shift from I'm helping people in coaching or testing waters, is this really a thing, you know, to I'm building a real business around this. I'm I'm curious if it uh immediately started like this is serious, I'm hands-on of this, or was in the early days you were like, yeah, maybe the maybe yes, maybe no. You know what I mean?

Justin Whilhelms 4:11

Uh from the beginning, I was all in, but it was one of those where I had the imposter syndrome, which was pretty heavy early on. Part of that was because I I knew this was my lane because I'd been doing it for so long. And so it was the right next step. I already knew what I was doing. I had the toolkit. I built out, or I didn't build out, I looked at three different franchises before I officially launched. All of them had nothing special to offer. I already knew all the things they were trying to teach me. I already had the tools that they were trying to sell me. So there was no reason to buy a franchise, which is what made it easy to say, I've already got what I need to make this a business. So I started. A few months in, imposter syndrome was pretty heavy. I actually got an opportunity to work at Edward Jones, went through the vetting process and was given an offer to take over a fully built-out firm. Something that is usually the 10-year mark of most FAs. So pretty well established. I took the position and then it God made me very convicted on it, realizing that it was not where I belonged. And I had to go through a lot of prayer, sitting with my pastor, talking to my brothers in Christ, uh, realized that what I started was what I was built for. And so I ended up withdrawing from the uh position I had accepted at Edward Jones and got a phone call the next day from somebody who wanted to sign up as a client. Then the day after that, and it was pretty obvious God affirmed, you are doing what I've called you to do, and I've never looked back. So it's been a business since the beginning. It just got really real about two and a half, three months in.

Pedro Stein 5:40

I wonder if you felt an identity shift. You know, when you're at those birthday parties and uh you're like you exited your business, you're like starting this thing, and I felt that uh so that's the reason I ask, right? I'm a coach too. I ended up I was in corporate, was a consultant, I worked at banking, and then you're you're caught off guard, you're not in the setup you're used to. And Brittany or Jennifer or Jack or Bob, whatever, they're like, hey, what do you do for a living? And you're used to say, hey, I own X, Y, and Z business, right? I own that company, I do this, and then you're you're getting into an identity transition, which is like, oh, I'm a coach now. You know what I mean? Did you felt like that? That that hat that was removed, right?

Justin Whilhelms 6:25

Well, and when I started, I was I I didn't know what to call myself. So I just said business coach. And then I got crossed eyes looking at me, like, okay, what does that mean? And so it took me after several engagements and really getting into a multitude of businesses. My style is very much a CEO. Like that's how I operate. I touch all the lanes, I dig in, I ask the hard questions, I push back. So that's where it became obvious. Since I wasn't full-time with anybody, I was very part-time, but I wasn't in I wasn't designed as an interim role. Fractional CEO became the obvious lever of what to put on the business card, we'll call it. And now, ever since then, for the last year, when I start the conversation with fractional CEO, it limits the questions. People have a much better idea of what I do when I plug in, and we're able to understand each other in about 30 seconds. Versus when I said business coach, good lord, the it's huge, right? Like there's so many versions of business coach, and half of them don't even align. So the fractional CEO became the obvious like, that's my pillar, that's my lighthouse, this is where I live. And now when I start engagements, it's like people get it right away. I'm plugged in and we're immediately seeing momentum, uh, which is pretty cool.

Pedro Stein 7:41

It's funny how positioning works, right, Justin. Um, it's the same stuff. Uh, it's just like people are like sometimes I uh I say coach and they're like, oh, so we're gonna light up some candles, we're gonna dance the kumbaya. You know what I mean? It's like they're trying to wrap their heads around it because the the it's at the end of the day a misconception. And uh and you're like, oh, fractional CEO. So I like that. It's more practical, more tactical towards your demographic, right?

Justin Whilhelms 8:09

Yeah, well, what's really funny is so I I'd say business coach in the early days, but people would not hear for some reason the word business because I'm in such good physical shape. So they'd immediately think physical fitness, that I'm like a fitness coach. And I'm like, no, no, no, I I love working out. Don't get me wrong, like I hit the gym every day, but it I'm in business, right? And so that's when fractional CEO, the fitness stuff doesn't even come up. Uh like it's a whole different ballgame.

Pedro Stein 8:34

Oh my god. And you're in the US, right? I'm in Brazil. You can't imagine that that is such a big stretch using the word coaching here in Brazil. And there are a lot of people that add a bad name to it. I'll put it simple like that. But I'm curious about one thing, Justin, you know, because after you got rolling, and you kind of browse through it already, right? Who are the people that kept showing up? You know, the ones you you understood, okay, the the this is my tribe. This is the type of who I can serve best. You know what I mean?

Justin Whilhelms 9:03

Yeah, it's the business owner who's been building something pretty awesome. They're proud of it. It's actually doing decent, but it's stuck because the the growth limiting factors are they're still connected to too many aspects of the business. Most questions go through them. They didn't build the documented forms of the foundation that created role clarity, that put operating procedures on paper, right? So anytime they have a new person come in, it's a gauntlet to get them up to speed because it's all done verbally. And so, like, but the business has built has built out so big that there's not time to do those things in their mind. And the reality of it is they're using their time the wrong way. Uh, I talk a lot about budgeting, and yes, that's money for most people when they first hear the word budget, but I really quickly reframe it to your time. Like, budgeting your time is very much like budgeting your finances. It's intentionality on what you're gonna do with the time that you have in front of you and the time that you have on your plate. And if you don't do it well, all of those important foundational pieces never happen because you're just chasing the next sale, right? And you're answering the fire questions. And so that's where the people live that I resonate with is they've got passion, they've got purpose that they think they fully understand, but they're too connected to all the things.

Pedro Stein 10:22

I love the topic. I'll put it simply like that, because I'm thinking about it, right? Trying to get into trying not to get into a rabbit hole here. But um, some business owners, they sometimes it's ego, right? And sometimes they're clueless, but they create an ecosystem that relies on them and wonder why they cannot step out for a day, right? So it's like it's it's kind of pretty obvious. It's like when I'm with my kid, and if I'm doing everything for him, I have two boys. If I'm doing everything it's from seatbelt to helping him to eat, like he's gonna need me, right? I mean, what are they thinking? It's like is that it comes like a big surprise, or do you do you feel like it? It's like they're unaware of it.

Justin Whilhelms 11:03

They're almost unaware of it because they're moving so fast that they feel like they're working on important things, except they're very in front of them important things. Um, the analogy I like to use with people is if you go to a sporting event, right? And so basketball and hockey are the best examples. If you're on row one, sitting at the side of the ice or on the court, it's awesome. You're living in it, there's so much energy, you're enjoying the game, but everything happens so fast, and everything happens after you realize what just occurred. Now, zoom out, go up to the penthouse suite, the top row of the stadium in a hockey game. You're literally watching the development of the play before it ever happens and then seeing the final execution. Most business owners are on the glass, they need to get out of that and get up to the top where they need to look at how the play needs to start in order to hit the execution that they're looking for, versus just seeing when they're at the goal. And that's the biggest difference, right? And so they're not zoomed out ever, and they don't need to live zoomed out 100% either, but they've got to do it sometimes. You know, every few weeks or you know, once a month at a minimum, get away from the all the day-to-day chaos and look at the business as a whole and figure out what your bottlenecks are and pick one. Start working on it systematically, right? And the hard part is having the ability and the stomach to do that when they're so passionate about the world that they started to build. Somebody's got to be that sound of reason that goes, all right, John, we got to get over here for a second and talk about some big things, right? And so that's where most of the time my biggest value add is the accountability piece and the things that I force them to dive into that they're kind of avoiding.

Pedro Stein 12:51

Yeah, it's like baseball game, right? It's like you don't go to a baseball game to play it alone, right? You're you there's a left fielder, the pitcher, and all the positions, right? And it's like, hey, play it alone, man. And they're like, it doesn't work like that. Yeah, but you're doing that in your business, right? That's funny. Okay. Um, now I want to do a quick exercise with you, Justin, if you don't mind. Okay, I want to pretend I am uh a your ICP, right? Your ideal client profile. I'm building something that is pretty awesome. Uh, I hit a ceiling, okay. I'm doing fairly well. Let's put it like that. Okay, so first of all, how would I be able to find you, you know, marketing-wise?

Justin Whilhelms 13:31

So I have a ton of content on LinkedIn. Uh, so my LinkedIn is under Justin Wilhelms. Um, I just launched a podcast called Built on Purpose with Justin Wilhelms, which is on YouTube, it's on Spotify, it's on uh I blast about it on LinkedIn all the time. I've got a website, jwicfreedom.com. So jwicfreedom.com. Um, or call myself if you're local to the Rochelle area, anywhere in northern Illinois, southern Wisconsin, my cell phone's always on 847-275-9758. I try to answer as much as I can. I try to keep my client list to a point where I can be available for them, which keeps me available to answer the phone.

Pedro Stein 14:11

Okay. Now let's pretend continuing our exercise. Okay. Let's say I watch your content. Uh, I LinkedIn, podcast, you know, listened to one of the episodes, went through your website. Let's speed up the sales process, okay? Let's simply put, there's alignment there, and I want to work with you. We went through the process. I understand you may have different offers, but if you are multiple offers, let's keep it with the main one. Okay. So walk me through how does it look like to work with you, Justin? And what are the potential outcomes I can expect out of it?

Justin Whilhelms 14:44

First step is we usually jump on a brief phone call just to confirm your understanding of where we align is accurate. Like if you think we're a good fit, let's at least confirm it in a few minutes on the phone. And then I come in. I literally come into your office, sit down across the table. I've got a couple of sheets that have about 15 questions on it. That really gets me to know your world through your lens. Like I need to see what your world looks like the way you do. Once we get a chance to unpack that personally, professionally, I get to meet some of the people in your business. I'll know by the end of that meeting if I am what you're looking for and how I can help, and I'll have it all laid out. It's very tailored to the needs of the owner. It is combined with the size of the business, the bandwidth the owner has available, how big the team is, and what problems we're trying to solve. And then we craft a playbook that allows us to determine how often I'm gonna come into the office and meet with you, how long those meetings are gonna look like, and where I'm gonna plug in. And then we put an agreement together. But I just charge a flat flat rate per month based on scope. So I keep it clean, I keep it easy, and it's pretty simple for the the owner to be able to understand what we're getting and what that's gonna look like, and then we hit go. I don't do long engagements. I think that's the biggest difference with me versus most coaches. I don't lock them in for 12 months or get, you know, have you guarantee a time frame? It's a month-to-month because I know I'm gonna earn my keep if it's a good fit. So as we get started, we're gonna go until you're independent enough to kick me out, and that's the whole idea. I'm trying to work myself out of a job.

Pedro Stein 16:15

Okay. And is there like mainly a one-on-one component, it sounds like, or is there one to many too? I'm just curious about many owners.

Justin Whilhelms 16:23

I do have time dedicated to one-on-one with them, but most of my clients, I do also get really involved with the team. So depending on the size of the organization, I may have multiple teams that I meet with individually at different times. I get real that's where a fractional CEO comes in. I'm not like a traditional business coach where I come in, hand the owner a bunch of tools and say go. I come in and do it with them. I put it on my back, I shoulder the business with them, which is why their core values, their mission, I've got to be aligned with it. They've got to have a sense of humility, and I'm gonna partner with them without taking equity off the table.

Pedro Stein 16:58

So we're talking about an in-person engagement, it sounds like. Okay, interesting. In the digital world, we're looking at people doing an in-person too. That's great to know, you know.

Justin Whilhelms 17:09

And I find that a lot of people resonate with that. Like a lot of people are surprised when I say that because it's so prevalent in using Zoom for Zoom uh for coaching work that when I say that, they're like, wait, you come into my office, maybe we should talk, right? And I think people are missing that human-to-human connection. Plus, there's a different level of in improvement, accountability, and buy-in from the team underneath them when I'm physically standing in the building, helping them understand what we're trying to do and how we're gonna get there, versus a worksheet over Zoom. They're like, great, thanks, and then they're back to their work and nothing gets done, right? So that's why I think God's really put it on my heart be in person, live in their space, because that human touch is totally different.

Pedro Stein 17:55

Okay, interesting. Now I'm gonna throw you a curveball if you don't mind, Justin. I like curve balls. Okay. I mean, your work seems pretty hands-on, right? Uh, you do have a customized approach, it sounds like we're talking about also a in-person engagement, like you mentioned. So I see a lot of coaches out there, they're advocating against burnout, right? And sometimes they're burning out themselves, right? Because they're doing everything, they're wearing all the hats and all of that, that what that entails business development, marketing, sales, uh, and operations. So, how do you think about capacity so you don't stretch yourself too thin?

Justin Whilhelms 18:32

I don't need to worry about capacity because I'm not chasing the dollar sign. So I'm not trying to build this million-dollar enterprise. I'm gonna help the number of people that I've got the time to help. And when I have enough people to fill my band with, I'm not gonna add more clients, no matter who shows up. Until somebody falls off, then a seat opens and I'll backfill it with another one. I do have a number of teams in my corner that I actually use to do a lot of the social media side of my world because, like for my podcast, I have an entire editing team. I have a guy that I work out of his studio, I don't do any of the back end work. I show up, it's already set up, I record with my client, I record with my guest, and I leave, and the assets show up about two weeks later, right? So, but but yeah, so when it comes to bandwidth, um, it's one of those where I leverage tools in the background very intentionally, much like I do with clients, right? Like I'm looking at ways to maximize efficiency, maximize operations, streamline what you're doing so that the time that I'm dedicated is literally focused on things that are client specific. I'm with clients, or I'm doing things like this, where I'm getting to talk about what this world looks like and put more of that vocal voice out there so people can learn something from it. And hey, maybe somebody might show up and want to be a client, but hopefully somebody gets some value from it, right? Like that's what it's all about. And so I don't get stuck in the weeds. I don't get stuck with the busy work that I think a lot of coaches get stuck on by nature of they didn't know how to do the right operational stuff in the first place. And honestly, between you and me, Pedro, I think there's way too many coaches out there who are one of two things. They got sick at corporate and so they bought a toolkit, or they were a killer sales guy that bought a toolkit. There's not a lot of guys that I run into who actually owned, ran, and sold a business that became a coach and lived all of the lanes, right? They were awesome in a lane, and now they want to do a bunch of other things. Like I see guys in the accounting world that see that business owners need help on the foundation. So they offer coaching in addition, and they're not great at it because they don't really understand it. They're good accountants. Like live in your lane, know what you do, do really well. And so, because of that, I think a lot of coaches give a bad name because they come in with the expertise. They don't actually have it, they've never lived it, they don't understand it. They bought a bunch of resources that hopefully can be deliverables that they don't even know what they fully say. So I try to be intentional on doing what I preach, and it keeps me focused and it gives me the bandwidth to still play with my kids and go camping on the weekend and have life, right? Like that's what it's all about. So, yeah.

Pedro Stein 21:10

I mean, I love that you're setting up boundaries, you know, and capping your time. Plus, you're having support, right? That's I think that's a key one. It's like you have people editing your podcast, you have people taking care of admin stuff once in a while. So uh that is like a combo, you know, a combination of two things that I feel like are mandatory. I wouldn't say if it's an optional, right? So you're or else you're gonna burn yourself up. Now I I want to shift gears for a second, Justin. Um, talking about future, right? I'm curious why we're taking all this, man. Looking ahead, where do you see the business going? You know?

Justin Whilhelms 21:44

So I'm excited to see what this podcast does because it's all like it literally episode one launched yesterday. Uh, and so it's already had a decent number of views. I've got subscribers adding pretty consistently. So, like, I'm just some dude. Out in Rochelle, like nobody knows who I am. And it's it's kind of cool to see like what that journey does. I've been invited out of the blue at a few things to do different keynotes and stuff like that. Like it's just live in the marketplace and let God lead, and it opens up doors you wouldn't expect. One of the things that I got invited to do that I'm not gonna pursue is join a group that does forum style coaching. I don't see that as the right lane for me exclusively, which is what would be required if I did that. Now, I do see the value in group settings for certain people because there are those owners who aren't really ready for the one-on-one engagement or maybe aren't big enough. There may be more solopreneur or a couple of people, but they need some help. And so I'm in the process of creating my own curriculum to be able to do a forum style uh cadence that would allow people more of a group setting. So I anticipate within the next year that I'll open up that door because I think it'll allow me to serve a larger group of people without as much bandwidth off the table. And those who aren't ready for me to dig into their business at the same level. So it'll allow me a little bit more of a flexible position. Because right now, if they're not, if they're dipping their toe in the water, they're not ready for me, and that's okay. Um, and so I kind of have to turn them down until they are. This would open up a lane where I could still give them the level of help they're looking for, and then the other clients that need me fully die dove in, I can do too.

Pedro Stein 23:26

So I really like the group setting, man. I'm gonna put it simply like that. I like I I'm not sure if I told you this, but uh people on the show already know this. I was uh already uh our our audience, right? I was a high-ticket sales closer for a landscape business coach and almost three years, and I had access to the the to the clients, right? And they we had a group setting for sure, but people often visited each other, right, to get best practices. They you can see the bonding, you know, and it's so cool what that dynamic can create. I what I feel like it sometimes coaches they have this tendency to compare the one-on-ones to the the group setting, which is a different beast, right? It's like comparing apples to bananas, right?

Justin Whilhelms 24:12

It is, it is. Well, and what I've learned is the one-on-one, I don't really do deliverables that are like pre-packaged because it's as individual needs come up, like we dig into the specific thing and tackle it on its own merit. With the group setting, I feel like in order to serve people well, I've got to bring something to the meeting that's more of a pre-packaged deliverable to have a foundational component to talk on, right? And so there's a little bit more front-end creation that I'm working on now to make that group setting actually valuable to the people that would participate. Because in one-on-one, I mean it's not winging it, but it is, right? Like you're literally showing up and like, where are we at right now? Let's keep pace on this. And your your cadence is very specific to them. The group needs something more dynamic that's got a little bit more breadth and more of a take home to go with it. So I see the value, I see what it takes to do it right, and I know I don't have that ready today, and I'm not gonna buy somebody else's toolkit. I'm gonna do my own thing, I'm gonna create my own content because I not to sound egotistical, I know what I'm doing. I know what needs to be done, and I know how it should be delivered to resonate properly. So I want to do that well and I want to take my time on it because I'm not the kind of guy that rushes something.

Pedro Stein 25:30

The thing is, I see most coaches do, and I'm sure if you agree with this, it's like um they're just pushing through it, right? And they're don't have, for example, no wait list for a mastermind. Let's call it group setting master slash mastermind, whatever you want to call it. So they start like pushing so hard, and eventually you don't get a good mix of people, right? And you need it's not just about being the ICP, it's like sometimes there's a stretch there and people don't resonate. It's like, oh, you got a guy that's in the is a business over in the range of 500k, and you've got a guy that's in the 10 million mark. It's hard to navigate that type of group setting. You know what I mean? I'm not sure if you agree with that. I'm just thinking out loud right now.

Justin Whilhelms 26:11

I agree 100% because it's the different levels of plateau. It's also a guy who has a $500,000 business, a couple of virtual assistants, and one sales guy has a whole different subset of problems than a guy who's got, you know, 60 employees sitting at 30 million and stuck there, right? Like different sticking points, man. Like your conversation doesn't align that you cannot find. Let me let me rephrase, it's gonna be hard to find a good long list of running cadence that both will connect with. The occasional topic will hit them both, but you're not gonna hit them both regularly. So I'm with you. You want to try to keep that pool very parallel in their what they're doing. And a lot of people use revenue, right? I'm not as much of a revenue guy. I'm a profitability guy because if you've got a business that's 85% profit margin and another business that's 20% profit margin, if their revenues are the same, they've got different problems, right? It's it's very different. So there is something to be considered about the space they're in, the clients they serve. You want some parallel, but you don't want overlapping industries, right? Like you don't want two guys doing the same thing that are competing against each other in their backyard in the same mastermind because they're not going to be open. But you do want people who are at the same business maturity level to be able to speak breath into each other.

Pedro Stein 27:33

That makes sense. Okay. Now, you know, we're talking about future, what's exciting? You mentioned the podcast and all that, uh, potentially a group setting. So whenever we're talking about a next chapter, always something we're refining in the present, right? Looking in uh in the present. So, what are you currently trying to improve or tighten up in your business right now, Justin?

Justin Whilhelms 27:54

Uh, right now, it's really being uh intentional on making each episode of this podcast well served to the client I bring on. And so I want to make sure that I deliver the best me that I can deliver to lift them up and lift up their brand and really make that space, that hour, hour and a half, entirely focused on them and not me. Um, and so I've done three episodes so far, I've still got more to go. And so I'm I want to make that my really big focus on what I grow and that it follows the intention it was meant to have from the beginning and it's never about me. I just get to help facilitate the process, right? Um, because I've got a good base of clients now, I've I've got room for a few more, so it's not that I'm maxed out, but financially I'm not chasing the money, so I I kind of let the own and then allow that to manifest in a way that that really is is a good future for for me, for my family, for the clients that I serve.

Pedro Stein 29:00

Okay. Interesting. Now I want to tap into our experience for a second, okay, Justin, because people listening can really benefit from this. I mean, you've been in the game long enough to hear all kinds of business advice, you know. Uh you sold your business, and uh I mean, business advice are all over. There's so much noise out there. Some are good, some are bad, you know. So I'm I'm curious, like, what's one piece of business advice you hear all the time that you think, ah, this is overrated or misunderstood, you know?

Justin Whilhelms 29:33

Ooh, that you that's overrated.

Pedro Stein 29:36

Yeah.

Justin Whilhelms 29:36

Oh, the the use of the word clarity. Cause good lord, what are you talking about? Like, could we actually put some real words than then this buzzword we keep on talking about? What does clarity actually mean? It doesn't mean anything. It's actually probably the most unclear word of all of them because it's so vague, it's so ambiguous. It's really like it's there's a process that you have to follow for clarity to exist. And so when I hear a lot of coaches talking about clarity, they talk about it like it's the heading, it's what you're aimed at. It's not a thing, it's an it's an experience, right? And so you can't you can't accomplish clarity. Clarity becomes the outpouring or the result of a good foundation when you have a mission and vision that makes sense, that people know why it exists and a set of core values that under us support that, create the foundation and and lens that tells you that you've successfully accomplished your mission vision. Then they've gotten clarity as a result of that, but it's not a tangible thing. And I we keep talking about clarity like it's something you can hold on to. You can't. So what like could we not just throw the word away because it's confusing to people? Because what are you talking about? Like, read look clarity on LinkedIn and read the posts and actually take a step back. And 90% of them are what the hell did you just say?

Pedro Stein 31:07

I hit a nerve, it sounds like it, Justin.

Speaker 1 31:09

Oh good thing.

Pedro Stein 31:13

Now, on the flip side, right? What's a piece of advice you wish more people actually took seriously?

Justin Whilhelms 31:20

Uh, intentionality, and that applies to everything. If you if you say to yourself, I'm gonna be fully intentional in all things, when you take the next step, you're gonna actually really think about why you're trying to do it, how long it's gonna take, the steps that it goes into the process to be able to do that. I use a a uh tool called the working genius, where you get to better identify what lanes of work people get energy from. And when an owner has that at their fingertips or managers look at that as it relates to their team, they're a lot more intentional on who they pull into which conversation, who they delegate information to. And like when you think about the marketing strategy of creating your mission, vision, core values. If you do it with intentionality towards what you're trying to build, you're gonna develop something that's pretty important. If you're doing it with the intentionality towards having a marketing presence that people think is colorful, it's not gonna do anything for you because it's gonna be ambiguous, it's gonna be too broad, and you're it like you you mentioned ICP. I think a lot of people pitch their services in a way that says, I can do everything for everybody. And it's like, well, then nobody resonates. There's no intentionality to it. Like, who's your perfect person? Who's the the the Bob that was like the best client you've ever had in your entire life? Your marketing aims at him. That's a singular subset. Now, the other people that are near that or shoulder in a in a way where they would also be applicable will resonate because you've been specific. That's intentionality, right? So if you get intentional on all things, you narrow it down, you simplify the process, and you actually create a lot more power. It reminds me of the magnifying glass principle, right? If you want to start a fire, you've got to take your magnifying glass and put it on one point for a period of time to actually get the spark to go. If you're constantly moving it around, you're never gonna light a fire, right? That's the way this works. So it's being very intentional until you've reached the outcome and then moving on to the next thing. And every step that you take, bringing all the information that's critical to make the right decision into the fold before you move forward.

Pedro Stein 33:29

I love that's funny. I I go back to my kids eventually, right? It's like you mentioning the niching down, it's like having 10 best friends. You can only have one best friend, man. You know, I know you cannot align them because if everyone's special, nobody is a special. That's the the principle, right? Exactly. I love that, man. And if someone listening wants to connect with your follow your work, and we're gonna have all the links in the description, okay? But what's the best way for people to find you and connect with you, Justin?

Justin Whilhelms 34:01

Best place is LinkedIn. I'm the most active on that platform. I'm constantly putting stuff out pretty much every day. My contact information is on there. So my email, my uh phone number, everything's there. Everything else is basically supporting what I've got really building in the LinkedIn platform.

Pedro Stein 34:18

Okay. You know, Justin, there were a few things you shared today that really stayed with me. I'll put it like that. The first one was when you mentioned you're you sold your business at 40, right? And I see a lot of coaches out there and business coaches or fraction fractional CEOs. I got that from you today. Um, and they're like, Yeah, uh, you gotta implement systems uh to do X, Y, and Z. So you're ready to sell your business, which actually makes sense, right? You already know that. But doing the thing, it's a completely different game, right? You went through that, you had skin in the game, been done, been there, done that, you know. So that's kudos to you. So that's pretty cool, okay, to talk to someone who actually did, you know, sold his business successfully, right? So that's one thing. The second, I would say the clarity rent, you know. Um, I really like that. And the reason I like it, man, and I see a lot of coaches uh struggling with it, it's like sometimes their outcome is so abstract that I wonder if the ICP is reading it, you know, and they're like, okay, but what does that even mean? You know, I'm gonna be more confident, but he doesn't even know me, or I'm gonna get clarity, but he doesn't know my business, you know. What does that even mean? So I usually put myself in the shoes of a fifth grader, you know, and I try to read it and I'm like, dude, this is so vague, you know. What I I I and I I just don't get it sometimes. So that's uh one important reminder, okay? And then last but not least, you know, you mentioned purpose, you mentioned uh being fully intentional, you know. Um, and I noted uh that you you mentioned your faith, okay. I just want to point out that that is very, very important part of your story, okay? Part of who you are, it sounds like so, man, being open about that and uh not being afraid to show who you really are and where you're coming from, you know, what drives you, man. That is so inspiring. You know, I so that is just my long-winded way of saying, you know, Justin, that I appreciate what you do, man. And I appreciate being here and sharing so openly today. You know, it was great having you on.

Justin Whilhelms 36:40

It was great to be on. I really appreciate it, man.

Davis Nguyen 36:42

That's it for this episode. This episode, as well as this podcast, was brought to you by Purple Circle, where we help business owners elevate their business to six, seven, and eight figure years all without burning out. If you're looking to grow your business as well as get the time freedom that you are looking for, visit us at join purplecircle.com and see what we can do to help you and your business.