Creating Influence Through Authentic Leadership and Strategy with Jerry Lujan

In this episode of Success Leaves Clues Podcast, our guest is Jerry Lujan, entrepreneur, business strategist, keynote speaker, marketing expert, and founder dedicated to helping business owners grow through purposeful leadership, authentic marketing, and customer-focused strategies. Drawing on years of experience building successful businesses and coaching entrepreneurs, Jerry shares valuable insights on creating a mission-driven company, developing a strong personal brand, attracting ideal clients, and building long-term success through trust, consistency, and meaningful relationships. We also explore the importance of leadership, resilience, innovation, and maintaining a growth mindset while navigating the challenges of entrepreneurship in an ever-changing marketplace. Whether you're an entrepreneur, coach, consultant, executive, or business owner looking to scale with greater clarity and purpose, this conversation is packed with practical strategies and actionable lessons to help you grow your business while making a lasting impact.

You can find him on:
https://elevation180.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jerrylujan/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/elevation180
https://www.instagram.com/elevation180/
https://www.facebook.com/Elevation180/
https://www.youtube.com/@ELEVATION180
https://x.com/ELEVATION180
https://www.tiktok.com/@elevation180
Email: Team@elevation180.com

Transcript

Jerry Lujan 0:00

I got some coaching. I figured out a better way how to do things, significantly grew my book of business, and I was honored to be named uh one of the 25 most innovative insurance agents in America as a result of the turnaround, going from 100 hours a week to about half that and quadrupling my business.

Davis Nguyen 0:21

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 gonna learn lessons that took RS 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 1:05

Welcome to Success Leaves Clues Podcast. I'm Pedro, and today I'm joined by Jerry Luhan, founder of Elevation 180, whose path to building a 1 million bookup business took 17 grueling years of 60 to 100 hour weeks before a devastating wake-up call changed everything. When his five-year-old daughter Callie asked him for an appointment to go to the park and then asked why he didn't love her, Jerry knew the way he was building his business had to fundamentally change. The pivotal moment led Jerry to create a better way, quadrupling his production in just four years at half the time. And now with Kelly as his business partner, Elevation 180 guides producers, agencies, and business leaders to results that speak for themselves. 26% average growth year after year and revenue growth in the tens and hundreds of millions. Welcome to the show, Jerry.

Jerry Lujan 2:11

Thanks, Pedro. Happy to be here.

Pedro Stein 2:14

Happy to have you, man. I am glad uh we're recording this episode, okay? And I am kind of a comic book nerd myself, Jerry. Sorry about that. You know, I love the first editions, you know, the origin story. So let's rewind a bit because 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, Jerry?

Jerry Lujan 2:40

Yeah, coaching kind of came as a uh guess you'd say unintended consequence. You were talking about the story of I was trying to grow my business and it got to where it was 70, 80, 100 hours a week. And as you said, my my five-year-old daughter at the time came to me one Friday night and said, Daddy, I need an appointment with you to take me to the park tomorrow. Um, when we got there, she asked me why I didn't love her. And so you talk about devastating. I was kind of my back against the wall, I didn't know what to do, was trying to grow my business, uh, was somewhat effective in one hand of growing it, but terrible at being able to manage my time. And uh so I was never home. I I pretty much was working all the time, and even when I wasn't home, uh I was not really present. I I was just working. And so I got some coaching, I figured out a better way how to do things, significantly grew my book of business, and I was honored to be named uh one of the 25 most innovative insurance agents in America as a result of the turnaround, going from 100 hours a week to about half that and quadrupling my business. And so when I said unintended consequence, people started calling me from all over the country saying, asking me how I did it. And uh took me quite a few reps to understand this must be a bigger issue than I thought. I thought I was kind of the only one in that boat. And so I started creating a whole entire process of what I did, how I did it, and uh started coaching people in our own organization to do it, and they started having similar types of success. And through that, this is the unintended consequence. People started telling me that they thought I had more fun and was more impactful when I was coaching other people to do it rather than just doing it myself. So I started doing that within our own practice and eventually realized that that's probably was my gift and that's what I wanted to do full time, and so I sold my interest in in my insurance agency practice and just started coaching uh full time.

Pedro Stein 5:04

Okay. Well, in a way, and it's so interesting because it sounds like you're serving past Jerry, right? Uh, when people reached out to you and asked, hey, how did you do it? You're thinking about okay, they they they're they're facing the same struggles, the same challenges I was facing. So it's so natural because you've been there, done that, right? So there's that. Now I'm curious about one thing because you're you eventually made a leap of faith. Let's call it like that. Because in the early days for coaching, it starts with sometimes, not saying it's your case, from I'm helping people, this sounds like a calling, some somewhat of as advice giving. And then you you left the industry you were at and you went to full-time coaching, as you just established to us. Now, that's in a way is a leap of faith. And I uh can you walk us through it's also kind of an identity shift, you know, because you're doing something, you're like moving towards another thing. So it's I this always brings me back, Jerry, to my own story. At corporate, you know, and I'm like in a birthday party, I'm saying the same stuff all over and over again of what I do for a living, and then now I'm a coach too. And then the first time someone asked me that, I was caught off guard because I was used to say something like, oh, I do this, I work at banking, blah, blah, blah. You know? And oh, wait a minute. I gotta explain myself to something I really don't know how to right now, you know. Uh, so can you walk us through that journey for you? Uh, when you you actually picked up the the coaching hat and how that felt for you.

Jerry Lujan 6:38

Yeah, that that um it was interesting. I I went from what I'd say was the top of my game in the insurance business when I really figured out how to grow, to basically starting over. And um it was a grind. And it was uh it was a it was a lot of work. It was a a a new venture. I had a lot of energy for it um because it was something I love to do. And as you say, it was kind of a calling of you know, when people are looking for a better way, and you have a better way to do it. Um I just started going and I I I was I was used to being around other people, had a team of people around me. And when I started over, I was by myself. So I was having to do quite a few things that I wasn't accustomed to doing. And uh the first five years was um it was a grind. We had some success, but I would say the biggest obstacle that I found was people would say, Well, Jerry, that's fine. I know you did it yourself, but I don't how do you can you prove that you can help us get the same kind of results? And so there was some resistance, and I think part of it was there hasn't been a whole lot of success when it comes to especially on the side of coaching insurance producers that showed the results that that I had personally. And so there was a lot of doubt uh around that. And and so what I had to do was I had to start just everyone I coached, get a baseline of where they were and keep track of the specific results that they got, and so that I could start proving as to what was the difference between what we were doing and what it what everybody else was doing. But it was um it was slower than I was hoping. It was more of a grind than I was hoping. But you know, I think for anybody who's in the in the coaching business is um it's getting to the essence of where people trust the results that you're bringing to the table and you can show them, it just it takes some time. And the what I find of people that I mentor that want to get in the coaching business is that are you really willing to put in the time and the effort in order to do this, and do you have the resolve to work through it when when time gets tough? Because we see all these coaches that are that are great, um, but they you know, you don't really know what it took in order to get there. And so I believe that if you can bring something to the table that you've done at a really high level and you're willing to work at it to show it, that the other side of it can be very good. But it takes some time.

Pedro Stein 9:35

Okay. Now I want to ask you about the evolution of something. Like you've been in the game long enough, right? But at the start, in a lot of coaching businesses, uh, we're still we're still sharpening the sword, you know, we're still trying to understand who we serve, who we don't serve, you know, but eventually we come down to people who we actually attract, right? And this is the niche I serve best, and but that's not always how it starts, right? So can you walk us through the evolution of I'm helping these people and who do you serve now?

Jerry Lujan 10:10

Yeah, the so the what I had to learn the hard way was is I thought I had a I knew I had solutions that could help people. Um, but people weren't really interested in the solutions that I had. They were interested in themselves. And so I had to learn how to ask a lot better questions. Instead of, here's what I can do to help you, um, which I felt that I could, but that didn't work because people don't really care about what I have or what I did. What they care about is themselves and how do how can they see themselves having the kind of success that they want. And so I had to get a lot better at asking a lot of questions about where they're going, how are they getting there, what are the obstacles that are keeping it from happening, and then have a discussion of is is are my tools and solutions uh a resource for them that's gonna fit what they're what they're looking for? Because they didn't really care about what I had or what I did, they cared about themselves.

Pedro Stein 11:20

Okay. And if you had to pinpoint the people you serve now, okay, your tribe, who would they be? You know, your ICP.

Jerry Lujan 11:32

Yeah, so it's it's evolved. It started with insurance producers who had gotten to a certain level and then get stuck, right? Like that's where I was. That was my biggest obstacle, is I kind of was stuck, and the only thing I had was but you know, to try to have more effort and more time, and I was out of it. And so that's a common thing. We we just keep working until we don't have any more capacity to work. Well, what I found was is if if insurance producers were in that situation and they were willing to do the work, I guaranteed them that they were going to be able to grow their business in in less time. But the key was are they willing to are they willing to put in the time and the and the and the effort to work? Well, that's that's proven itself. We've we've been able to uh average 26% growth year over year for the people that have done that, which is triple to quadruple the industry average. Well, what that's led to though is both just performance in general. So anyone who wants to perform at a high level, our tools work. It's not just in the insurance industry. And so it's now leaders that are getting to a level and they're getting they're getting stuck. It has a lot to do with self-awareness and what are they doing, and and typically, what I call the curse of knowledge, they can do a lot of things, so they do, but it doesn't mean that they should. And so what we help them to try to do is figure out where they're at, where they're going, who they're surrounded by, and who can do things that they don't necessarily do at the highest level, that the other people that are surrounding them do do it at the highest level. And what I find is that when people are doing what they do best and love the most, their capacity skyrockets. And so it's evolved, it's it's evolved for I I just call it high performers in general that really want to continue to grow but get to a point where they just don't have any more time.

Pedro Stein 13:44

Okay. So let's do a little bit of game of pretend here, Jerry. Um, let's pretend I'm one of those high performers, right? I'm a leader, I'm stuck, I'm your avatar, simply put. Um, first of all, how would I be able to find you, right, in your business, like marketing-wise?

Jerry Lujan 14:05

Yeah, I would say that's probably a gap of mine. Some somewhat is all most of our business is is come from referrals. Um, I I don't know why I've never been a big social media social media guy, probably should. But um there is ways if if if you're looking for somebody from a high performance standpoint, I I believe we're findable at at elevation 180 that goes through the two divisions that we have. Um and so like as I said, almost all of our business is somebody that we've helped that then tells somebody else that, hey, you need to you need to work with them, whether that's individuals, there's few individuals that we work with, it's mainly larger, like high-level C-suite people that are um that are getting stuck in their they're looking for resources and they're connecting with somebody else. So I don't have a great answer for that. I wish I was a marketing guru, but I'm not.

Pedro Stein 15:10

I don't, I don't wish I was a marketing guru. It's all right, it's all good. Okay. Um, so let's pretend like this. Um, I was referring to work with you, right? Uh, someone told me, hey, you gotta meet Jerry, he's amazing. And I reached out. I was like, let's let's see what's uh what's that all about? And uh let's say what you guys have resonated with me. I I hit a ceiling, I I am like spinning my wheels, right? And eventually, let's say there is an alignment, we can speed up the sales process a bit. Okay, let's say you guys see you can help me. I see you guys can help me too. So can you give me like a little peek behind the curtain of how does it look like to work with elevation uh 180 and uh outcomes I can expect, you know?

Jerry Lujan 15:58

Yeah, so the the very first thing that we do is I I believe that self-awareness of what are your gifts versus it versus what are some of your blind spots is then is the key to try to unwrap where's how far somebody could go. So here's how I liken it is there's if if you take like four levels of people, there's amateurs and there's different levels of amateurs, right? Some can be very, very good. Then the best amateurs turn pro. And some, so there's that's a fewer number of people. Well, the pros, some of the pros become all-stars or all pros. Fewer number of people. The key though to me is that I look at it and I've studied my whole life. Um, I don't know why I'm kind of obsessed about it, is what's the difference between an all-pro or an all-star and a hall of famer? And a hall of famer, they've been able to be an all-pro or an all-star over a long period of time. So it's sustainable. And so I believe that in studying Hall of Famers and people that are the best at their craft in the world, it's an energy game. And so, how much juice do I have in order to be able to continue to do something over a long period of time? And so the very first thing that we do is we dig into the essence of what are your your own gifts and how do you start identifying it? And there's this the science part of it is there's three parts of our mind. I'll try to make this brief, but there's three parts of our mind that guide us in everything that we do. First part is our motivation, so our belief system. And there's lots of assessments out there that that look at that. But are we motivated to do something? Do we believe in it? Do we have enough emotion to continue to do it? If we do, and that's it's subconscious in our mind when we make decisions about something, but that's the first step that we go through is do we believe in it? Once we, if we do, and we then we'll move forward and do it, then the second step is the action part of our mind is how are we going to do it? And for how long do we have the energy to do it? And then the third part of the mind is okay, well, now do we have the ability to do it? The the cog the cognitive part. And so what we do is we have assessments that we work with people on the first two parts of the mind, what motivates you. We call that the YOS to understand why you do what you do. And then the Colby is another assessment that we do on how do you naturally take action. And we combine them, and it's uncanny how predictable we believe performance, both performance and burnout is. If you're out of position in any of these three parts of the mind, I don't believe that you'll be able to perform at a high level over a long period of time. And if you are in alignment, then it will give you energy to be able to do it. So it think about things that you're doing if you're if if it if it sucks a lot of energy out of you, the impact that that has on what you do great is is disproportionate. It it pulls you down, right? To whereas if you can try to figure out what are the things that you love to do and are great at that are in alignment with what's natural to you, I believe you'll perform at a higher level over a long period of time. Most people don't know how to figure out what those things are, they just do everything. And when they do everything, then in my opinion, they kind of do nothing at a at a really, really high level. And that's when it starts getting too hard. That's when they bump up against the ceiling, and that's when they eventually either burn out or just quit. The other side of it is they can go. So when I've really learned this about myself, Pedro, it's been 13 years that I've kind of put all of this together. Is I don't run out of juice anymore. I do what I do the best. I've identified it, what's natural to me. I have filters now for what works and what doesn't work. When I start getting out of alignment, I have a way how to look at it to understand what that is and what's draining me and kind of get back in the lane in essence. So that's what I would do with with you is we would look at these things of what's natural to you. Um, and at the end of the day, what we do is then we try, we work at surrounding the really high performers with people that love and are great at doing things that we hate and in essence suck at.

Pedro Stein 21:08

Okay. Interesting. Well, I'm picking up some some clues there. You mentioned Hall of Famer, you mentioned Kobe. I I'm I'm I'm not sure that if it's a coincidence with sports there, but I I picked some. Now, I'm I'm kind of curious um about one thing, the structure, right? Uh, are we talking about one-on-ones? Are we talking one too many? Is there an online component? Just a little uh understanding of how do you apply your frameworks, you know?

Jerry Lujan 21:44

Yeah, that's a that's a great question. And um so when I first started, it was a lot of one on one, right? And and getting the reps of doing that to scale the business, we've had To do one to many. And so typically we'll get in a we'll get in a in a room with a team of leadership people and we'll go through this all together. What we're doing right now, though, to scale it is we've been able to uh build an app where we can put this information into the app and it can do kind of the the analysis for us. And so we're still in beta on that, but you know, my focus has been how do we continue to scale this business? Because this is a whole side note, but I believe there's an obligation because AI is going to have a big impact on a lot of people. And I believe that if if we can help people perform at a higher level, have more energy, have more impact on what they're doing, then they're not going to be disintermediated as quickly from AI as people that are just in a transaction business. To me, the key to that is do they really know themselves so they can perform at a higher level? Because just like the insurance producers, 26% year-over-year growth, what we're finding is in teams that take this on and play their own position at the highest level, do what they do best, that we're increasing capacity in some cases by 50, 60, 70 percent, because people are having more fun. And so they're they're they're more valuable in what they do because they're only doing what they do best. So how to scale that is uh is what we're really focused on. And the business has grown really by uh we'll do one-on-one occasionally. I typically will do one-on-one with a leader to show them so that to if if this is valid for them or not, but then it's usually one-to-many.

Pedro Stein 23:54

Okay, got a couple questions here. Let's first on the one-to-many, right? I'm I'm picturing this as a leader that brought you guys in on a B2B basis, something like this, and you're facilitating a team, something like that. Okay. So please go ahead.

Jerry Lujan 24:10

No, no, go just for clarity, say that again.

Pedro Stein 24:14

It's like I'm I'm trying to picture the one-to-many, right? I'm imagining imagining there is a the paying client is the the top, the leader, and you're facilitating a team uh that is under him of leaders, something like that.

Jerry Lujan 24:31

That's yes. In a lot of cases.

Pedro Stein 24:34

In a lot of cases, great. So Bad Pedro steps in, okay? Uh that's the guy we're gonna put I'm gonna play here right now. Um because here's the thing, right? Whenever someone has a leader and he has a team, the the person you're facilitating with, the team, didn't actually hire you, right? The leader did. Ben Pedro in this scenario is a bad apple. Okay? Ben Pedro is like, oh my god, I have a lot of things to do. I don't have time for this, man. What's up with this? Like, you're picking up on the energy, even if he's not saying that, you you're you're understanding there is some misalignment of true intention, of why his asking himself why he should be here in first place, you know. So, how do you navigate that in a in a in a team basis, right? To to get everyone on board and have everyone on the same page.

Jerry Lujan 25:35

Yeah, um, that's happened quite a few times, and and you were kind as to the way you said it. Because I mean, I've had some people like, are you kidding me? You think you can frickin' analyze that. I mean, it it's been I mean, unbelievable. So here's what I've that that happens more often than you think. It I call them cavemen, co-workers against virtually everything. And uh it's it's a culture thing, right? And and that's just part of the essence of what we do because the cavemen have they they have to be exposed. And so our role isn't to go shooting at people, but when we can identify, and in in a specific case where this one guy, it was in New York, he went after me hard in front of everybody, and I'm like, okay, this is gonna end fast, or we're going to really help this team. I just I simply just asked him, can you give me a chance to go through this? And at the end of it, if you don't believe it, it's not accurate at all, then call me out on it and you know, then we'll be done. This isn't gonna work if people don't believe in it. But if you give me a chance to go through it and it's accurate, then can we agree that we can continue to move forward? And the guy finally was like, Yeah, yeah, fine, let's get let's go. You're but you're wasting, just so you know, you're wasting my time. And as I was going through an asshole. Yeah, yeah. As I was going through the characteristics, um, he he finally looks at me and he goes, I don't know how the hell you would know this about me. And then everybody else in the room started laughing, and they said, He just went through exactly how you operate and the gifts that you have and the potential blind spots. And it just kind of opened the door to everybody having conversation of wanting to know more because they they truly wanted to perform at a high level. There was a there was a lot at stake for them. Um, and so that's kind of where we're the best is there's got to be something at stake. There's gotta be, you know, the the reason for high performance, or else uh one for one, I don't have much patience for if I mean you could prove me wrong, just don't do it. Um and and so that's how I deal with it is give me a chance, let's go through it if it's right and there's something to move forward with, let's go. If we're aligned, if we're not, we're gonna know within an hour, and we can I'll just I'll move on. And that seems to have worked for me.

Pedro Stein 28:14

Okay. Now I have a different question. Let's say I'm the leader, okay. This is not bad Pedro, terrible Pedro. It's just leader Pedro with blind spots, okay? And leader Pedro in this scenario is like, Jerry, I need your help. My team is not performing, you know, the usual talk. I need your help. You need to come up here and help me move this forward and all of that. Um, you get there, right? And you start talking with the team, and you come up to the realization that the team is not the problem. Problem is me. I'm leadership, and I'm like, and you you realize that during the the the facilitation of the team or whatever that looks like, and you're like, ah, I need to talk to Pedro, the leader, because this is maybe is a blind spot he has and he's not aware. But how to navigate that conversation with the paint client, right? How do how do you pinpoint, you know what, man, what you're doing here is wrong, and not necessarily your team is doing something wrong.

Jerry Lujan 29:17

Yeah, so you know, most leaders don't feel that they're doing something wrong. Um, but what what I find in the coaching that we do is it's a self-awareness thing of, and I talk about it in terms of all of your gifts and things, and then potential blind spots or obstacles that could be holding you and your team back. And we talk a lot about there's there's three things that have to happen in an organization, in our opinion, for them to really move forward faster and get everybody aligned to move. And and it is there has to be a shared vision, right? And so if people don't really believe in the vision and it's just somebody saying, just do this and do that, and they're not willing to have a conversation about how do we get everybody on the on the team aligned, that you know, there's only so much that a coach can do, I believe, if somebody's just at the one, if the person writing the check is the biggest obstacle and not willing to do anything about it, then I believe that we're kind of wasting our time. Um, I certainly wouldn't have that conversation in front of the rest of the team, but I'd have to have that with the with the leader of are we going to move forward. So shared vision is one, human connection is another, is uh do are we treating people like people or are we treating them like objects? Um and and and so we we see that in the room when we're we're in the room as to what it is, and so there could be some guidance around that. And then the term psychological safety is is are people able to share what their opinions are, or are they just like have to be mute and not be able to have a discussion about what's working or what's not working? And so we look at through though the lens of those three things of the uh and be able to have the conversation with the leader about are they or aren't they, or are they willing to or not. They're usually having to pay us quite a bit, and so there's uh gotta be some interest why we're in the room in the first place. Um but if they're adamant that they've already they've already got it all figured out, then you know I'm I'm not I'm not in the game to just fight them. It's their business. They can they can do it the way that they that they want to do it. If they want help, we're that we're gonna help them. But if they don't, I can't want them to want it more than they want it themselves.

Pedro Stein 31:54

Okay. I have another question. Sorry. I get curious about this stuff. Um one thing that I'm imagining is like your prospects. Sometimes they hit a ceiling, you are you're at uh actually serving past Jerry, right? So they have they're working like 60, 70 hours a week sometimes. They're like capped out, right? And you're talking about coaching. And I imagine one of the objections in the sales process is time, right? Yeah, Jerry, but I didn't have the time to do that. Man, I don't I cannot add like X, Y, and Z number of hours to solve it when I understand that's the entire purpose of it is to add time so you can save time. I get it. But let's say I wasn't boarded, I was like, I can see value, Jerry. Let's do it. But um I'm in the one-on-one scenario, okay? Um, but I like I'm starting to no-show, you know, the meetings. I'm starting to not show I'm very committed. You know, I was more into romanticizing the fact that I was doing something instead of putting the work, right? So, how to navigate that to talk with me and say, hey man, we gotta align uh why are we doing this? But how how do you navigate that conversation? Just to get me on track again.

Jerry Lujan 33:18

Yeah, um as I as I said a bit ago, uh you know, I I tell people um that you can prove this doesn't work. Just don't just don't do it. Um and so when somebody starts waning, it's then then what what is the reason that they're that they're no longer committed? Do they not have the are they not clear about what can come out of it? Do they feel that it's just causing them more time right now and can't see the upfront additional time, they can't see the back end potential results, right? And so having discussions about their dreams, where they're going, and helping them live into it is is a is a key. Because if we can't line up to what's important to them, then it it again it doesn't matter because that's all they care about is what's important to them. At the end of the day, though, Pedro, there's some people that have just they they they aren't really interested in doing the work. They want the easy button, they they want um you know just a snap of a finger, they want the magic pill, and I don't think there is one. And so if at the end of the day they're not willing to do the work, they're not willing to at least help me understand why or what's getting in the way and share what their what their vision is, then it's just it's it's not a good fit. And you know, I I realized when I was coaching Little League Baseball back a long, long time ago, that the the best kid on the team that wouldn't do any work, I wouldn't spend any time with them. But the worst kid on the team that was trying their butt off to do everything, that's where I'd spent all my time. And people would tell me, Why are you spending so much time with this kid? He's the worst kid on the team. You're not spending any time with this kid that's the best kid on the team. I said, Because this kid that's the worst kid on the team that's doing all the work to get better will by far outpace the best kid over time. And maybe that's a flaw, I don't know, but I just I don't have a whole lot of patience for people who aren't who who want to talk about talking about it instead of doing something about it.

Pedro Stein 35:46

Okay, interesting. Appreciate you sharing that insight with me. Now, left shift gears for a second, real quick here. I want to talk a little bit about future, right? You mentioned uh a couple of things. You mentioned an app, uh, but where do you see the the business going? You know, are you thinking about scaling, hiring, or is there something else you're excited about?

Jerry Lujan 36:06

Well, yeah, scaling one is what's what has me really excited now is um that five-year-old daughter, Kelly, that asked me for the appointment to the park. Um, she's my business partner now. And so it's you know, full circle. And so do building something that can far outlive me, um, and that she can carry on and have a family and and do things is is really exciting. So my my focus is really on scaling this thing. And so how do we take all the things that we've learned and be able to transfer it to other people to be able to do the same if they're looking for if they're looking for solutions or answers? And so we're right in the middle of of being able to transition this. Um we're working with uh on the insurance side of some of the work that we do, coaching a coach to do what what we do. This app, we believe we could literally get to potentially millions of people, where it doesn't take like me or Kelly or or somebody directly in the room that people can go through these scenarios of understanding themselves um without without us. And so it's a challenge for sure. Um, but that's kind of the next step of of where we're going because we're we're pretty much a capacity to be able to do what we do the way we're currently doing it.

Pedro Stein 37:43

Okay, you know, and whenever we're aiming towards something new, right, Jerry, always something we're refining in the present. So what are you currently trying to improve or tighten up in your business right now?

Jerry Lujan 37:56

Well, um we're constantly my why is find a better way and share it. So so improvement is kind of the that uh what I look at every day. Is that's what's keep gets me up in the morning is can we continue to make things better? Um but it's really just I guess the thing of improving is how do we how do we get something that is really, really valuable and can have an impact that can be automated to some to it to an extent. And it's easier said than done. I think we can automate almost anything, but if it doesn't really provide the value, then it doesn't really matter to me. And so the the the fine line of developing something, but then proving that it works is kind of the the focus of it of improvement that we're constantly doing. AI has helped a lot of that. Um, but there's there's still you can't take the person, the the you know, our gift, our our our value is connection. If it was just data and information, we're not gonna be very valuable for very long uh with AI. And so how do we how do we blend the two of bringing the value to the table without losing emotional connection that has a truly has an impact on people? And so that's if that's an obstacle, I'd say that's what we're in the middle of, you know, continually focusing on how to build.

Pedro Stein 39:36

Okay. Um now let's talk a little bit about something I I want to test here with you as a little bit of a sci-fi thing, okay? Science fiction. Um, let's pretend we do have a time machine in front of us. Okay. And you can step in and you can go back in time, and you can give yourself when you started your coaching business, you know, uh elevation 180, uh one piece of business advice. You wish you knew back then that you know now. Okay, what would that be?

Jerry Lujan 40:12

One piece of advice that I um I guess looking back, and this is maybe easier said than done, but I would have done whatever I could do to surround myself with people who do what I don't love to do or not great at. They are they love to do it and are great at. Anytime that I've been able to do that is we get some exponential growth. Because it I just am such a believer that if we're doing a lot of things that we don't really love to do or not very good at, that it slows down our progress significantly. And where I say easier said than done is when when when I first started, I I didn't necessarily have the funds to bring somebody on to do what I what I did. But I I would have probably looking back, I would have found a way to pull that trigger faster to surround myself with with people that and get myself in a position to where I did fewer things, but what I did, I did better.

Pedro Stein 41:25

Okay, surround yourself with people, okay, that are good and love what they do that you're not necessarily are, right? Okay, love the reminder. Now, second stop for our time machine. You can go back in time when you started your business, you can pick up the time, okay? That you realized or you had a such a joyful moment, a fulfilling moment that it was almost like, oh, this is why I I did this, this is why I started the business. You have one of those?

Jerry Lujan 41:56

Uh I'm really uh blessed in that it happens all the time to where um I mean, I had a guy call me about a month ago that I coached him in the insurance producer, and he couldn't see his way into his bigger future, and we kept working on it. And the thing I loved about this kid is he was he was willing to do the work. Well, he called me, he's he was sitting out on his back patio um at a lake house that he had dreamed of with his wife, had three young kids, he was uh had a glass of wine, and he's called me to thank me for helping him continue to drive where he's going. And so he's making significantly more money now and kind of living into the dream that he always that he always had. And so things like that, that's you know, that's when you look back and say, okay, there's a reason that I'm that I'm doing this. And I mean, I've this is gonna sound arrogant, but I have some producers that I've worked with that are making now they're more than a million dollars more a year than they were making when they started with me. And so their lives have completely changed, and so that's really what it's it's what I call it greater freedom, bigger future. How do we help people live in to have greater freedom and a bigger future? That's our entire mindset about everything that we do. It's our it's our main filter. Um and so it's it's pretty gratifying when people reach back out and say, Here's where I am, thank you for your help.

Pedro Stein 43:45

Interesting. I love that. Okay. Now, if someone listening wants to connect with you, Jerry, or follow your work or Elevation 180. And we're gonna have all the links in the description and all of that, but where can people find you? guys best and connect with you.

Jerry Lujan 44:02

Yeah elevation180.com is is I believe we have uh a pretty good self-explanatory website through there you can you can reach us or if some if somebody is interested in directly email and they can email team at elevation180.com and depending on what they're what they're asking for will determine you know who will reach back out to them.

Pedro Stein 44:30

Okay. No Jared there were some not a but some few f few moments that from this conversation I would love to highlight okay looking back um let's talk about the origin story right when your five year old kid Callie calls you out right and I love the fact that she started with a question that is so co coach coaching style from her she's like okay why don't you love me dad right and and I'm a father too and and sometimes I I I get myself on that same trip right I'm working too much and I'm like getting called out by my wife or my kids and I'm like yeah I gotta shift things for a while so that's very interesting that call out uh so thank Kelly right um yeah changed our lives exactly and um then we move to how natural uh you got into coaching right it's organic like people asking you hey how did you did it right how did you do it how how how would you yeah you step away how how does that look like and you start giving advice and then you realize okay people actually it's not just me people need help with this right you didn't just wake up a day and you're like hey I'm going to be a coach right and that didn't work like that okay so it's just the evolution of it that really caught my attention now one thing we were talking about too is like in the early days for when you were more into how can I help them with um and the way the things you had but you came to the realization people don't care how you can help them they were more interested in um helping themselves right they don't care about how you how how they're just like about the outcome right they don't they don't and and that is so true and I see a lot of coaches out there spinning their wheels on the offer and all that when they sometimes they all they have to do is listen and just uh actively listen right so they can understand what are the pain points what what are we talking about here so great reminder too um last but not least I would say there is no magic pill you mentioned right when I I gave you some bad Pedro scenarios there um and I love the quote you can prove uh it doesn't work just don't do it right that's funny quote um and that's the thing right I I mean I don't judge people like that sometimes I I saw myself doing stuff like that like for example donating money to the for for through a a gym membership like romanticizing the fact that I'm going there and actually not going but feeling better of oh at least I'm doing something I think that's very human thing to do right but eventually we hit a point we hit a a a ceiling or bottom and then we got to the realization we we gotta do something about you know or we're gonna get stuck and that doesn't really serve us well right now Jerry this is just my long-winded way of saying that I appreciate what you do man and I appreciate you being here and sharing so openly today you know it was great having you on thank you Pedro I've enjoyed it you're great at asking questions you've made you've made made my pea brain really think about some things so I appreciate it.

Davis Nguyen 47:51

Appreciate you man 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