Conation Over Clarity: Chuck Blakeman’s Guide to Entrepreneurial Success - Innovation in Dentistry

We’re thrilled to announce the release of our latest episode on The Shawn Zajas Show featuring the incredible Chuck Blakeman!

Ready to transform your entrepreneurial journey? In this must-listen episode, Chuck dives deep into:

-Embracing risks and learning from failures

-Building resilience from challenging experiences

-The importance of having a clear vision and purpose

-Taking small steps for big breakthroughs

-The power of conation – the will to succeed!

Connect with Chuck Blakeman

Twitter: http://twitter.com/chuckblakeman

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/chuckblakeman

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/chuckblakeman

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/cfblakeman

Transcript

iiD_Chuck Blakeman_mixdown

Mon, Apr 22, 2024 8:38PM • 59:02

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

people, chuck, years, feel, learn, bled, talk, business, worked, dentistry, influencers, word, life, kid, bad, live, grew, wrote, coronation, book

is basically the will to succeed that manifests itself in single minded pursuit of a goal.

My slang definition is I want something so bad. I'm already doing it.

That's coronation.

The future of dentistry belongs to the innovators.

Welcome to innovation in dentistry. I'm your host, Shawn Zajas. And I believe that the future of dentistry is going to be unbelievably great over the next decade in two decades. But the question isn't that the question is, are you going to be part of what makes dentistry great

so today I could not be more excited to be with Chuck Blakeman. And wow, Chuck has a an amazing bio. But beyond that, he is just an amazing person and he has some amazing gems for you guys today. So stay tuned. Okay, so Chuck, before I share a little bit about your bio, just thank you so much for joining me today on the Shawn Zajas show. I'm excited about me with you Sean this is gonna be fun, but you seatbelts on.

So Chuck literally has done like, everything in the world of business from like massively successful entrepreneur, Best Selling Author, multiple books, TEDx speaker,

you know, magazine contributor Success Magazine entrepreneur Inc, New York Times CNN like

you are like the who's who of business

influencers and yet, right now, in this place, you are actually also serving dentistry.

think is crazy. I mean, you met at Vanessa Emerson's expansion this past January, right? And let me say your story and your speech moved me

in such an amazing way and ever since then, now we are friends. But Chuck, tell me how, I don't know where do you want to dive off on this persona speak to that bios, if you don't BIOS actually, are there obituaries

that tell you all the good stuff people did in the past? And they never tell you the reality you know, hey, this person is actually a human being they have flaws and so yeah, I was getting uncomfortable when people read might read my obituary because it feels like I'm dead.

Weight No, don't don't read that. So yeah, we can start anywhere you want. I like having back back porch, barbecue talk and, and just being with a friend and going from where you feel like it needs to go to where it needs to go.

Chuck, I think one of the things that fascinates me

so the reason why I even rebranded away from innovation in dentistry into the Shawn Zajas show, is a to open up beyond dentistry, but be I love innovation. And what what got me so excited about innovation truck was never the actual innovation itself. It was always the innovator. It was always well what led to that breakthrough.

03:12 - SZ

What was it about the individual where they were crazy enough to say, why not me? Why not get on myself? You You have run 13 successful businesses? I would say you bet on yourself. Why is that?

-CB - Yeah, well, you know, Shawn, maybe in my early 20s, I read a book. And the guy made a statement and that became mine. Really my life statements I'm gonna life vision, my life vision is to live well, by doing good just to live out that in my life everyday, how can I go out today and do good and live well, by doing good and my life statement? Is? Why do when what others can and will do when there's so much to be done that others can't? or won't do?

03:59 –CB

Why would I put my hand to suddenly that the world seems to have a good handle on this, we're cranking. But over here, there's something that there's a hole in that or it's not working the way? So that's the entrepreneurs mindset, which is very different than a business owner mindset, I'd make a real distinction. Bill Gates was a business owner, Steve Jobs as an entrepreneur, business owner is find something they're really good at. They do usually for somebody else first, not always. And then they start their own. And they do that the rest of our lives, they just get better and better and better at that one thing. That's business. That's my vision. But entrepreneurs are crazy enough to say, well, there's a hole, I don't understand the hole. I don't understand how to fix the hole. I'm guessing there might be somebody that can help me do that. Let's go fix the hole.

04:44c - CB

And so they jump into stuff they know very little about and I'd say if my 13 businesses that we built in 10 different industries that I probably knew one or two of them well enough to actually start a business the rest of them I had no clue what I was doing, but I knew that something was wrong.

There are something was right there that nobody had discovered either way, there was a hole. So why do what others can? Well? Well, there's so much work to be done that others can do wrong.

05:11 - SZ

I am shocked, Chuck at the the actual substance of humility that you walk in, given the accomplishments given the accolades. And yet, it almost seems like

05:26 –SZ

the destinations you've reached and the way that you've been so weaponized to be able to bring impact, it almost just seems like it encourages you to serve even more. Yeah. And to get even more, instead of be expected to be given to or to be served because you're mighty Chuck Blakeman.

-CB - Yeah, no, it's never worked that way. For me, although I will say that most of us will find our strengths, you know, we kind of go around a circle, and we start with this thing that is a weakness that becomes over time, a strength. And so for one, there's two of them. I'll talk to yours in a minute. The one you're talking about there that that I come across as humble. But I also, for the first 20 years of my life, I was a quitter. I was known as the quitter. My mom called me a quitter. My friends called me a quitter, I quit everything.

And there's a lot of reasons for that basically abandoned as a kid in some ways. And I lived in the house with my parents, but that was about it. And I haven't raised myself and so anytime you if you don't get support, you'll go as far as you can. And when you're seven years old and nine years old, if you don't know what else to do, you just quit. And you find something else in doing so my life became a quitters life. By the time I was when I was 45 or 50 years old ahead of neighbor at a neighbor parties. And you know, Chuck, when I think of you, I get the image of a bulldog, you just don't quit.

Well, your greatest weakness becomes your greatest strength if you keep punching at it. And I was really proud. Once I had my first success, I really believed that I could hang the world. And that nothing was impossible. And so I've gotten beat up and I bled over this stuff. I my first book I said, this isn't a book I wrote, This is a life I lived I bled over this stuff. And so, you know, again, I'm really proud on the inside. And eventually over time I got the the edges chipped off of some of that, and then I'm still working on it, then I'll work on it the rest of my life. Because there's really no reason to be proud of what you've done. It's about the journey. It's not about the acquisition or about the arrival. So great. I did something that helped me or help somebody else and somebody liked it. I wrote a great book and people like it. Okay, great. Now what?

Now what that's done, that's been now what's the next thing I can do? And that's living well, by doing good getting up every morning saying, Well, what can I do today? That would make the world a better place that could leave it better than what I found it.

07:57 – SZ

You know, I feel like there's something there about your story of struggle

08:06 – SZ

about the fact that it wasn't like you were Eric leaf. And if someone doesn't know the reference, it's like the quarterback coming out of college that was hailed to be the greatest ever golden boy. Right? And, and ultimately, the end of the story is he didn't do anything in the NFL. And contrast that with Tom Brady. And it was as interesting as I was thinking about this interview. I was thinking, wow, the only difference between Tom Brady and you in the metaphorical way is that I don't even think you're a sixth round draft pick. I think you were a walk on. Yeah, barely. I had to bang that I had to climb over the wall to get on the walk.

08:44 – SZ

So it's like his rise to stardom to fame was always tethered and anchored to this. People don't know what it took for me to get here. And I'm never going to lose sight of of that gold almost. That allows me to walk in gratitude. But yet also that chip on my shoulder. And, Chuck, you alluded to it, that you pretty much grew up on your own. Yep. Can you share just any story however big or small that might color that in a little bit for us?

CB - Yeah, sure. I just My whole life I've been home alone movie has nothing on me. I got I got left behind so many times. It's not funny. And what wasn't funny then. But I didn't know any better. I was so alone, Sean in this family of six people. I was so long that I did not recognize aloneness. Until I was probably my 40s or 50s. I have a very little bit of understanding of why people don't talk about trauma for years to come. I didn't know I was traumatized. I truly thought my sister would talk about her horrible childhood I would look at and say What's wrong with you? I had a great childhood. I could leave the house at seven in the morning and have to come back to night all night. Nobody had any problem where I

Was it? I had this great childhood. I just did whatever I wanted to do well, no, actually I didn't. I was in denial. But yeah, so it was just

in fifth grade, I asked my mom, I was crying because my brother, my older, two brothers, and my dad had gone on vacation, an epic vacation, we never went on vacation. They went on an epic two week vacation from Ohio to the west, to see the Grand Canyon and Yosemite and all these incredible places. And I got left behind because I was two years younger than my other brother, and it would have just been a bother.

And so the boys went, but the boy didn't. I was sitting in my room crying, and my mom comes up says, What are you crying about? And I just blurted out, you know, your body, these things come from your body. And my body just, I just fumbled and said, I just want you to love me.

And she put her hand on her shoulder. She was a nice woman. She put her hand on her shoulder and said, Well, honey, that's not how you ask.

Well, that's just a small cap. And you have to look at other people's journey to appreciate the, the anger that I could have now that I've learned to work through, I didn't have any anger for the 50 plus years, but also the compassion for where they're coming from. I mean, she grew up in the Depression, she had one dress a year, Santa Claus never came, she was driving a tractor when she was eight years old, and raising four other kids. She got no nurturing whatsoever. She didn't know how to do it. So you have to put those two things together. It's not my responsibility that it happened to me. It's my responsibility to say what do I do with that? And how can I turn that into eliminate? That's our responsibility as people, we're not victims. We can be victimized. We absolutely can. But we don't we don't live as victims. It's like, okay, why did that happen? What good can come from that? That's, that's really my story. Over the years was, I remember hitching hitchhiking on my way to to college. The first week, I graduated the bottom my class it made me go to even though I had a full scholarship and music. They made me go to summer school. And I was hitchhiking the 30 miles to the next town to go to to class, because it wasn't even a question as to whether my parents would drive me or give me a car to. And I remember in the first day in the car there, I said, I looked around, I said, Well, I don't know. I guess it's on me now.

And that was the beginning of me taking responsibility for my life, instead of always quitting and always being, in a sense, that victim.

Okay, I was actually just gonna ask, where did it come from? Because

one of my favorite quotes, and it's this by a real, I don't know, he's a semi famous, semi famous intellectual name, oz Guinness. And he says, contrast is the mother of clarity. And growing up, you only show up in your own skin, seeing life through your own eyes. So you don't know any different. There isn't there isn't contrast, right? It's not until all of a sudden you hear other people's stories, other people's experiences, and you're like, that was your normal. Normal is so far off from from that?

CB- Well, to give you an example of that show, when when I finally decided maybe probably 15 years ago, that therapy sounds interesting. And I didn't even see it as that I call her call her my rent a friend, and coach, she had me fill out an application and one of the questions was named the adult that was most supportive as, as a child. And you talked about being far from my reality. It was so far, I literally remember looking around my office, this office right here. You know, nobody in here. I'm just looking around and saying that's a thing. Adults are supposed to be supportive of children. Are you kidding me? Wow. Isn't that interesting, which is, which is fascinating. Because I was totally supportive of my kids. I've asked them here. So I did it with them. But my reality is a kid was, I was so far from being supported that I didn't know it was a thing. My sister, she got support from my aunt, and she got support from a neighbor woman who saw that she was really in a deficit. So she tasted nurturing. And that made her angry. And she grew up angry and frustrated and hurt. By her childhood I didn't even have I wasn't even that close to it to get it. I needed to get angry, hurt and bitter later and then get over 30 years later. So yeah, everybody's reality is different. And mine story is no better, no worse than anybody else's.

We're all traumatized. Every single one of us lives in a level four traumatized environment. And level four is basically you can't escape. When you're five years old, in the line takes you back to the dentist for other lines, and he's gonna eat you. That's trauma four. And level four is while you're you're seven years old, and you live in this house and doing things very suddenly for 30 for 20 years, or very, not so subtly here and there that you can't escape from. So we've all got it. And that was one of the things that I had

To come to peace with was, yeah, I was traumatized.

And so are you, it's all mine. So, so. But Chuck like I don't know, I'm just saying like,

I know people with significantly less trauma. And yet their story, their own narrative that they dance under and they hang out under is Woe is me. Yes, my life could have been different if only that didn't happen, or why did they think they can mistreat me, they should have known better, and they lose all the power to do anything in their life. Because someone else's fault that they're not getting to live the dream. And so this is part of my

benefit, or my gift that I was given. I was given the gift of being so far removed from nurturing, that I couldn't look around and say, Well, gee, I wish I had some of that.

And other people who, who didn't get it and could look around and see they didn't have it. Well, that might make them angry and bitter. I didn't have that when I was young. I grew up literally with two questions in my head.

While one was the question, what was the statement, and life is built on these two quote leads to these two sentences? One is, I can't do that.

Well, then you're done. It's over. Of course, you can't Henry Ford, whether you think you can't if you think you can't, you're right.

And I couldn't afford to. And to have that question or that statement. The only thing I could afford you because I would have died, I would have just, you know, fall apart here emotionally, mentally, spiritually, physically, I would have just so the only question that formed in my head was how do I do that?

How do I do that I made my own birthday cakes. I, I bought my own bicycle and learned how to write it myself for $5. And spray painted it. And I mean, I put out the Christmas decorations. How do you? How do you do that? I don't know. Let's find out. Well, fast forward. Why am I built 13 businesses in 10 industries on four continents is because that was the question that I was gifted with, I'd say the only thing I could take as a child as a quote, as a, as a way of survival was I gotta figure this out, because nobody else can help me figure it out. And then of course, that's where quitter came from, because I get to the end of my seven year old, a nine year old and 11 year old rope and just not have any resource to get any farther. And so I I go find something else to distract me.

So it was a gift not having nurturing, you know, and a curse.

And with your gift, you share it so generously. Which reminds me to mention even to our listeners that you have shared like a world class training with anyone that wants to get it just a contact me, it's for people in the inner circle that literally is about how dentists can unlock more time to have that dream life, because so many of them are held hostage by by their business. But there's something you said I remember Brian Regan this comedian has this skit about

what it must have been like for Neil Armstrong that he's at a dinner party and you know, there's always the people that are trying to be like, No, I this like those me monsters and how he can just say, I landed on the moon and it Trump's everybody.

In some ways. I feel like you could say, I baked my own birthday cake. Like how old were you when you learn how to bake your own birthday cake was third grade was when I first started doing it.

Like so, Chuck. I'm sure by now you understand how crazy that is? Since you've had kids to think that a third grader could have the emotional maturity, even the ability to go, Oh, it's my birthday. No one's celebrating me. It's my birthday. So how do I make it? How do I do I get to have a cake today. I wonder how I do that.

That's a mic drop moment. In third grade. I had to not I did. I had to bake my own birthday cake. And I was invisible as a kid. So it to the point where I shared this in other venues that I show a picture of myself in fifth grade which is a great school, mandatory you know one of those, one of those lineup shots at fifth grade. That's the first known photo of me, is a fifth grade high school or fifth grade school photo. That's the only one that's the first non photo of me so you just assumed that everybody's invisible. That's how I treat we had six people in our family and they were all invisible to each other. We just kind of figured out how to be the the what my my renter friend came to call the hyper rugged individualists

not just rugged hyper

but

I'm just thinking like

I'm

With all of the circumstances in your life, you still have all those decision points of why did this happen to me? Why was I without, and at every decision point, somehow you ended up make seeing it in a way that made you better that that drew you toward service that allowed you to not feel ashamed of sharing your gift with the world. And so between the lines, Chuck, my biggest goal with this podcast and with everything I'm recording, is that I want every listener that's hearing about the success stories of the influencers that I interview, to think like, what is their what desire right now is in my spirit, or on my heart, or welling up, that I just haven't pursued? Because I'm scared that I'm not ready, or I'm not prepared, or what could happen if, and my whole thesis is that,

to the left and the right of me,

there's these amazing individuals like you, we met at an event because you were in the game leading, I got in the game leading. So we meet, and now all of a sudden, I'm taking one of your courses, it's blown up my world in the best way possible. I'm getting transformed, because there can be synergy when two people connect. And yet, if I was playing it safe, if I was talking about how I'm not really ready yet, I could still be on the sidelines, thinking about, you know, why, why I'm not liberated. And yet I know, to the left and right, me, Chuck, they're still people. They're still vacancies where people aren't rising. They're not stepping up. So my message to them is, why not now? Like.

So when it comes to, there's no guarantee when it comes to you might fail? When it comes to

the messiness of business. Could you speak to that because 13 businesses,

clearly you have a very healthy relationship with risk with failure,

and the lack of certainty that comes with entrepreneurial ventures. Yeah, and I think, again, my childhood benefited me in that way. Because I couldn't take any risk as a child that might actually end up in me dying, because there was no one there to catch me. And I probably learned that when I was probably 18 months old, and fell down some stairs.

And okay, I got it figured this out. And so what, what, what embedded in me was the concept of of managed risk,

that, that life should be risky I want every day the only way we grow the neurologists tell us the only way we grow is to be making errors constantly. If we're doing something we're good at, there's no growth. So being in your zone, or being in your, your, any of those other things, that's when you produce, it's not when you learn anything. So I had to learn that that idea of managed risk. And as a result, I, I only had one business that failed. And it failed utterly. And it was in today's money worth

seven plus figures. And I did something foolish and threw a lot of money at something in Africa, which was a goodness play, I wanted to solve poverty in Africa by creating small businesses in Central African and long story short, is that there was presidents of countries who wanted to shoot me.

And other things like that, that I hadn't planned on. But measured risk is managed and measured risk is okay. If this fails, what's the worst that could happen?

Well, I could lose my house. Okay. Is that something I'm up for? That's something that I could I could I take it to that point?

If my answer is no, then I probably shouldn't take that risk.

But if the answer is something less than that, then it whatever it is, and I feel like yeah, okay, that would be really painful. That would suck, but somehow it gets through it. So yeah, in one of our businesses, we gotten, we had, we had so many measured risks that we're working with all the time that we got in the habit of saying, well, doesn't look like any diplomats died in the making of this decision today. So that's a good thing.

We just kept going. So yeah, I think we have to see clearly what we want. It's number one, what do you want? Most of us don't go into business that way? Well, we do but we have a very short term want, I need to make my mortgage, I want to make my mortgage. That's what I want. I want to pay for next month's bills. And and I would suggest to most business owners. My experience when I started helping business owners is they didn't know what they wanted, personally 10 years from now 20 years now. And that has always driven me. Even when I was in high school I've seen Well, I think I'll be I want to be a Beethoven be the next best composer and I just always had this idea of leaving so

anything behind that was meaningful. And I found out later, that's very weird.

That's not normal. But I also think that it's really helpful. And the people who catch that, we call it the big why, what's the big why that's already in you, you don't have to go find it. It's already in there. You just have to give yourself permission to let it out. Go ask some other people, hey, what impact do you think I have in your life? Why do you hang around me? You know, things like that. And you'll find your big why. And once we have our big, why, then that creates the ability to take measured risks, because you're always looking at the long game, and never asked, How do I how do I make my mortgage, it's like, well, of course, I have to make my mortgage. Now, now that I have this long game, that just becomes a thing that it's no longer a big issue. It's like, I gotta get away past that. So some guy has talked about 10x in your business, which has some issues with itself. But I like the idea of thinking big, because then today's decisions and tomorrow's opportunities, and a month long of stuff just doesn't seem to have as much scariness to it.

I love that. So I can't keep can't get this out of my head where I keep thinking. I remember there was some entrepreneur that was giving advice about hiring. And you'll see how this, this ties in. And on the resume, it'll say, like 10 years of experience doing this. And one of the questions he said you need to ask is, do this individual really have 10 years of experience? Or do they experienced the same year 10 times?

I mean, the irony is, you could say Did they experience the same month, 120 times.

And yet you have so much experience based off of the continent based off of the 13 businesses based off of the author, speaker, entrepreneur, the even in your life crammed in there that I feel like you are like the innovator and influencers mentor,

like you are positioned perfectly to be the one that comes alongside supports and elevates the biggest influencers in the industry, because you've already done it, Chuck, you've already done it like, like, I don't know, maybe your three to five is the community where you're doing that. But if not, I would say get a community, I will start waving the flag and say, Hey, if you want to impact dentistry in a big way, this is who you need to sit under, because you have such wisdom, such expertise. But then you also have the heart to be able to deliver it

in such a way where you genuinely care about your students learning it because it's real to you. You struggled, you fell down, you bled in the trenches.

CB - Yeah, the greatest coaches are not the greatest players generally. Generally great players don't coach well. And you have to ask why. And the simple, maybe not the whole answer, but the simple answer is because they came by it too easily.

They were so gifted, that they really in some ways, don't know what they're doing. And even if they know what they're doing, they don't know how to teach it. Because they never had to learn it in the trenches and bleed over every step. And I think that's what makes me a good coach and a good mentor of other people because I am not Richard Branson, and I know he bled as well. So I don't want to demean his thing as well. But there, you know, the Steve Jobs in the in these all these superstars that either were in the right place at the right time, or they were just so talented, that they could pull these things off and hardly even look back. And I've bled over every inch of it to get where I am. And so yeah, when you when you when you learn from experience, it's a whole different thing. There's two kinds of knowledge, there's Gnosis, which is knowledge of the head, and there's epi Gnosis, which is knowledge of the life.

And I couldn't read books for years, I was ADHD and dyslexic, and I had some medical therapy that actually turned me back on. But I couldn't read even though I was writing, I would read one like one book a year, but head knowledge I just couldn't it never worked for me. So I had to go with, well, what what feels good, what feels right in my body? What intuition am I working from today? And let's go with that. That's the best I've got.

So Chuck, like I think this is so helpful. Typically, I don't like interviewing people that I already know, even a little bit about because then I don't have beginner's brain when I'm in the interview, as well. A I heard you speak be I've now worked under you with your course. And one of the things I just have to say is that I am obsessed, like intellectually with filing everything

in the most appropriate way. So if I read a book, and I feel like it's all over the place, it doesn't have good structure, or even their concepts. They're just kind of like thrown out at a whim but they're not really tested.

It drives me crazy, like I'm arguing with the author in my head. I can't handle it. In here with you, you've already even shared frameworks with me that if anything, unlock what I've been looking for, but they finally put organization to what I was unable to organize on my own. And I'm not like, there's no hyperbole here, like, this is serious, like 100%, it is so rare for me to find somebody that has that ability that I can just 100% honor and say like, Thank you for your contribution. Thank you for your books. Thank you for the way that you lead. Thank you for not giving up when it got hard. And that's actually where I want to go right now. Tell me

bring me to a place when darkness was dark in your professional life, where it was either a season and you weren't really sure you're gonna get through it. I just want to know, did you ever experience something like that? Can you think of a time?

Yeah, there's multiple of those.

There's Fortunately, there's not dozens of them. There's a few.

And they stand out very clearly. For me, I remember being at a place where I'd spent

a lot of money on three or four different people to, to scale one of my businesses.

And they had failed miserably at it. And I had not taken my own advice, advice and Peter Drucker's advice to hire slowly and fire fast. Because I love these people and wanted the best for them and basically got used for four or five years.

In very slow, slow, steady burn, like the frog in the frying pan, you don't know that it's happening until it happens.

And then yeah, we finally had to put these people out on the market and have them get where they needed to be worked, which worked out for them. But I remember sitting with my wife standing with my wife in the, in the kitchen, and I was just crying. And she said what, you know, it was like a moment with my mom or with a better response. And she said, What are you grab? I said, you know, for the first time in my life, I don't know if we're gonna make

I don't I don't, I don't have any confidence at what I'm doing. makes any sense at all.

I am lost today.

And that was a real tough thing to come to for a rugged individualist, hyper rugged individualists? I don't have an answer for this. And I'm not sure there is one. That's the scary part. Because I'm always finding if there is an answer out there, I'll find it. How do I do that? But that was the lowest probably the lowest moment in my professional life was coming to that place where? Oh, no, I'm in deep trouble.

So what did you get liberated from that you didn't know maybe was still holding you back in that moment, or in the moments that followed that?

So you have to you have to take the long view again, and ask yourself, Okay, so right now, it doesn't feel like there's an answer to this. Is there? Is there any one thing? What can I do? Is there any one thing that I can do? And today, is there one thing I can do to to continue to move forward in some small way? And literally in the days that followed that it was Mike like, Well, I think the first thing I probably should do is get up.

Okay, I'll do that. I will get that victory.

And then well, you know, I need to talk to so and so and maybe I can email this guy, and should I call that person and maybe this person can ask some advice for me. And, and so it was really, how do you eat the elephant? Well, I was being stomped by an elephant. Hen. And while I'm being stopped, I have to pick off little pieces the often needed.

And so that's the simple, almost snarky, but real real answers. I just had to figure out what is the next one thing I could do. And ever since then, when I do courses and seminars and workshops, that kind of stuff. My handout at the end, it always says the end of it is the next one thing.

What's the next one thing that you can do to move yourself forward? Because it's not about a giant leaps. It never is. It's always about the little things that happen wanted to time.

I took a URL out for a book I have never written but the book is called gradually. Then suddenly it's from a

I think it's Ernest Hemingway who wrote the book The Sun Also Rises might have the author I don't. But I was reading that book a little bit and there was these two guys business guys talking and one guy says so tell me John, how do you go bankrupt? Any

hang his heads as well, two ways, gradually,

then suddenly.

And I thought about that in the positive, because I always want to look at well, how can I learn from this? Well, how do people really truly honestly, and with the rare exceptions of winning the lottery freak shows, how do people become successful two ways.

Gradually,

then suddenly, and nobody sees the gradual, The Beatles played in a German dive, like seven hours a day, six, six or seven days a week, for three years, before anybody found out who they were, and on and on and on, and almost all of the overnight successes, if you look back, you realize, you know, they got the crap beat out of them. And they got up and they did it again. And so what's the next one thing, like Churchill, I think, Said, a leader is somebody who gets up one more time than they get knocked down. And that's really what I had to do. And then you don't try. And in some cases, you still know that you want to live well, by doing good. And you know what the long game looks like that way. But you don't know what the next three months, six months or 12 months looks like to get there. But you do know, well, I can get up today.

I can get out of bed, and I can go cause I can talk to somebody, what's the next one thing. And from that it grows into other things. I have a motto I use all the time, as a result of all these things. I've bled over this one is

planning doesn't create movement. Movement creates the plan.

And I found that to be true throughout life. That, you know, how did Lewis and Clark When did Lewis and Clark get their maps when they were done? Every day after they moved? They could draw a map of it before that they had almost nothing and welcome the business.

Okay, so So first of all, you said

in that dark moment when you're coming out?

SZ - It's funny because that takeaway that you learn from it was different from even the takeaway I heard, as you were saying it, you said something like, I got up. And I was like, well, that's a win. The fact that you said, Well, that's a win. Later on. You heard the gradual, then suddenly, and you said, you asked your You said yourself, what can I find that's positive from that? Yeah, it's like, Chuck, that's this inner wiring, that again, call it a gift from your your struggles. How do I do that? The fact that you even though talk positively to yourself, yeah, you don't know how many times and seasons, I would be in front of the mirror, looking into my own eyes. And all I would be doing would be re reflecting on the ways in which I felt I failed myself. The ways in which I wasn't enough, the ways in which I wasn't perfect. And I would be so ready to almost beat myself down. Like, come on, Shawn, you're better than that. And I wouldn't tell myself the story of where there was those budding virtues where there was the little bits of fruit that I can look at and celebrate. Instead, it's like, well, you're not Zuckerberg, yet. What the heck's wrong with you?

And the crazy thing is, that wasn't my childhood, right? Like I didn't hear. So here, I was given support, I was given love. I was given belief. But I still had to figure out how to love and believe in myself.

You know, it's one of those beautiful things about life. I said this early on, I'm not responsible for what happened to me. I am responsible for how I respond to it. So one of those other little nuggets I have 15 or 20 of these things I live my life by one is circumstances don't make me who I am. How I respond to them, dies. That's what makes me who I am. So I could wallow in well, the world outside made me into something. My parents, my brother, you know, whatever it was all these things that happened to me as a kid, and ever since then the economy COVID All these things happen to me. No, they happen for me.

And okay, yeah, I wouldn't trade I wouldn't want it again. And I wouldn't want it then. And I don't want it again. Okay, but why did it happen? Well, there was something in there that allowed me to become stronger. We only if we work out, we only get stronger if we hurt.

And we should look at the hurt and say that hurts Oh, I don't want to do that. No, recognize that hurt, embrace it and, and lean into it. Because it's the hurt that's going to get you there. So we're not made to struggle. But we are made for the struggle. And when people unpack that and think about it deeply enough. That's going to be a lot of fun. Otherwise, I'm not made to struggle. I am made for the struggle.

I think so many times people look around

And they start seeing ashes from their past or in their present circumstances. And somehow they identify, well, that means there's something dead in me or, or about me, instead of realizing like the Phoenix, it's an opportunity for you to arise out of the ashes, in the most brilliant of ways, because I always feel like that place of ash, almost like

the valley sets you up to be able to climb the mountain, you can't just go from peak to peak to peak. Now you can get off the treadmill and stop going from peak to valley peak to valley, that's a message of yours. But just this idea, that like if there's someone listening right now, and they're surrounded by what what seemed like devastation, or there's pain or there's hurt, I challenge them to find where there's that beauty, where there's that goal that can allow them to shift the narrative so they can emerge from those ashes, and shine. And I really believe everyone has meant to shine, Chuck. And one of the most liberating things that you believe in that I feel like you empower other people, is what you just said about Lewis and clerk. They got the map. After Yeah. So right now you have maybe dental professionals, and imagine a successful dentist. And they already have a practice, they don't know how like dentistry, I feel like there's such a

demand for it, because all of us have teeth. And we don't always know how to take care of them, that sometimes dentists can rise to success simply because the market allows for it. And I don't mean to be dismissive about them. But what I'm trying to say is that, if then all of a sudden another desire emerges. That's in them. They're almost scared. Why already have fame I already have respect, I already have visible success. What if I look foolish stepping out into this new thing? What if I don't have the certainty and all the pieces around? And just like you're saying, and just like my hat, Pioneer positive disruption, the essence of pioneering is you go somewhere where there's not a there's not a path, there's not a revenue before? Like, you don't figure out the map ahead of time. It only comes into view when you look back. Yes, it's so true. The Greeks, you would say things like we act, we think our net or we think our way to a new way of acting. They're very cognitive, very headstrong. And the Romans were born. No, no, that's not accurate. We act our way to a new way of thinking. They are more about moving and getting things out. And both of them Heather. But I really believe that nothing in life supports the idea that we think our way to a new way of acting, that is a educational

lie, if I can be so strong, that when we fill our heads with all kinds of stuff we get AIDS will actually be something will change. You How do you read learn to ride a bike? Reading books will not help you get there?

Yeah, the only way to learn how to ride a bike, yeah, learn some some basic cognitive things about a bike. But the only way you're going to learn how to ride a bike is to get on it and start riding. And we think we act our way to a new way of not just thinking but in being and when you get off the bike, every one of us was changed and neurologically different people. Because we went ahead and acted on something, it's countered, people say that I'm counter intuitive. I'm not. I'm counter logical. Because so much of what I do is doesn't make sense in the brain. But it makes total sense in the body and in life. And that's a very intuitive thing to understand that we're not going to know what it means to ride a bike until we wrote one. And by the way, we can't tell somebody else what it means when we're done because it's in our body. The words, the words won't quite describe it. It's the same thing. I just wanted to write a build a

bumper sticker off of the Jeep bumper sticker that says it's a Jeep thing you wouldn't understand. But it's kind of like, well, this is a business owner thing you wouldn't understand. Because business owners you just you're viscerally, cognitively brain wise, everything needs somatically you're different. Your nervous system is different. And everybody's is based on your experience. We're all snowflakes, not flakes. I love that you were you're almost thinking that saying that they sold us a lie and saying almost that was heavy. I would go like 10 times further than that.

SZ- They sold us a fantasy. Somehow we can stay in the land of theory. Yeah, we can stay in the academic realm of preparation and business plans and research to make sure everything's going to be this perfectly linear, executed well oiled, and it's just a bunch of crap. I stayed in the I stayed in the business room for five years chuck in the in the land of theory, and you know what I got

I pretty much

Have the regret of missing out on five years of my life. The Marketplace could have told me some of those business ideas that could have been great. But you know what I never found out because I never let the market say, just change this. It's pretty good. But just the market tells you what's good and what's bad. That's where true learning happens when you actually launch. Yeah, that, Oh, I made this offer to kind of universally on a podcast maybe 10 years ago, and somebody asked me took up took me up on I said, if you're planning on spending $120,000, get for two years to get an MBA, just I'll do it for at just come live near me are 60. And you can use the other 60 live on and you can spend two years with me and or with somebody who just with our business. And you'll learn way more than you would from an MBA because MBAs are good if you want to be president of some giant corporation. Other than that, they're actually a really bad idea. So yeah, don't get me started on the education system. It's fraud at a higher at a higher level. So Chuck, you need to teach us two words that are not well known. Now, no, seriously, I, I'm the guy that if I somehow had an affiliate relationship with Costco over the last 20 years, I wouldn't probably be rich. Because I really do tell people what I believe in. And most people that start a family, and they're trying to do it in a savvy economical way. I'm like, Hey, Costco is the best place to go. Like, it makes sense, you know.

And yet in conversation over the last two months, you don't know how many people I've introduced these two new words to. And that's the way I tell them about my new friend, Chuck Blakeman, and just the all that I have, so just just take it away and share share these words.

CB - Yeah, it was probably 1520 years ago, I was reading a book called Self Made in America by John McCormack. It's not even in print anymore. And it's not a motivational book. But it's the only motivational book I recommend. Because it wasn't written by a motivational guru. It was written by a guy who was trying to put hair salons in Texas malls in the 1970s. And putting a service organization in a mall in the 70s was suicide. Like, you're not selling anything, you're gonna give people haircuts.

He went to 163 banks 263 banks, and and called his wife, who was still running the hair salon in New York and said, Honey, every one of these banks wants me to open a Tex Mex restaurant, which was all the rage in the 70s. And he said, You know, I think I'll just open a Tex Mex restaurant, they'll throw money at me. And he said, Okay, whatever you want to do, but I just read the story of Walt Disney. And Walt Disney went to 303. Banks, to, to put his idea in front of them of this stupid idea of having an amusement park in downtown Anaheim, California. And this third, and fourth bank finally funded it. And he said, Okay, I'll go to 304.

And the next day, he went to his turn, and 64th are turning 65th Bank, and that bank funded his dream. And he ended up having 15 or 20 different hair salons in 15, or 20 Different malls. That all netted him $300,000 each, every year.

And the point of that rant is this, I found in that book, this funny word, co nation, it's the most important business word I had never heard. And he has a whole chapter on to coordinate on what it means to coordinate, couldn't even pronounce it. And his definition is basically the will to succeed that manifests itself in single minded pursuit of a goal.

My slang definition is I want something so bad, I'm already doing it.

That's coordination. And you see that, that that the number one indicator of early success, early stage success is speed of execution. In a business that's data has shown that get moving. Don't try and draw the map, draw the map as you go. It's uncomfortable, but you'll actually run into less stuff if you draw the map as you go. And then if you try and draw beforehand, and follow your map that was drawn beforehand. So I found that were there. And then a couple years later I was I don't know how I even got this little book is like a book of obscure words in the English language.

And I was leafing through it and sure enough, there's carnation because it's really obscure. And I just kind of fan to the back and I saw the word coordination in the back as I was fanning took me like five or 10 minutes to find that word again in the back of the book because what's what's a word? What see doing in the Wiis, basically I knew is in the movies. And I found this. I found carnation and it was with this other word and I couldn't pronounce it at the time its validity to be fallacious. Couldn't one the ones that well, most dictionaries never tell you the antonym you have to figure it out. It doesn't say it but in the dictionary definition of go the antonyms go a stop doesn't say that. We have to be that up here in this one. It said validity the antonym to coronation.

They're beating me over

in the head with it. Okay, I'm interested I'm in and the dictionary definition of the laity. I'll give you a quotation again, so you can contrast the two and see why those are. That's the second most powerful word you've never heard. So coronation is I want something so bad. I'm already doing it. The lady, the dictionary definition is the true desire, with no intention of doing anything.

Wouldn't it be great if someday I'm going to, I sure hope that it's all the lady.

Get moving, you know, vision or mission. Dreamers, talk, visionaries, walk dreamers are fallacious. And and visionaries are cognitive.

You know, and I feel like there's something so as you were saying that I was I was getting this.

Because for so long, I feel like I've been fallacious. And just to defend anyone out there that might feel guilty of that. I think there's something there, where

it's like, if we look at an exponential curve, I feel like the, the first 30 to 50, maybe even 60%, of clarity on an idea comes to me fairly quickly. Yeah, I can kind of get some idea of what it is. But the last 15 to 20% is this crazy curve, that takes 510 15 times as long to get 30 on. And I feel like a lot of people that might be cautious, or have a cautious disposition, think that the right thing to do the wise thing to do the respectable and whatever principal thing to do would be to wait until you have that 90 95%

CB - Certainty before doing something, because, you know, therefore, my wife won't feel so bad because I have a plan. And maybe vivaciousness sometimes, is just because we don't know we have the permission to actually move when we have 50%. When we have 70% You're right trying to even with 20 or 80%, my my parents did model to me that you shouldn't take risks, and the school system model that and life models that and our COVID experience model that in everything we do. And there's it's understandable that we don't want to take stupid risks. But the NBA, the SBA, and all the other A's, they all tell you to don't do anything till you have it figured out. There's a scientific principle called the precautionary principle, get up on Google. And the precautionary principle based on my picture attached to it.

But it says basically, is unless you have a contingency for every bad thing you could think could happen, don't move.

Now, that may be good for putting somebody on the moon, although the moon shots were off by not, you know, 99.9% of the time even with that. But it certainly is not a good way to live a business. And it's a terrible way to live a life. Because people who live safe, don't have a story to tell.

And nobody ever lived a great life in balance, they lived it in integration. Sometimes I was completely out of balance by I refused to do this incredible opportunity. 25 years ago, because my kids were in a place where it wouldn't made sense to move them, I was totally out of balance with them. And then other times, we need to figure out how to live that, that that life that allows us to be integrated in that way.

I absolutely love that. Like I feel like I just got so set free. Even though I've known about these two words. For some reason, I was feeling slightly condemned thinking, Man, I'm really good at fillet tea. I'm really bad at coronation, when the reality is I think I was ready to coordinate. But I never gave myself permission to actually just start moving. And the crazy thing is like you're saying, the second I start moving with the 30% to 50% to 70%. It's amazing how

everything seems to open up. Everything seems to align. And I know what to do. Like, even if it's just the next best step like you're saying, but it becomes interview. And it never would have come into view. It's almost like I'm in the harbor and there's a fog. But the fog is only like a quarter of a mile thick. And I wonder why I can't see the open seas. So I just keep waiting. But it's almost like life is going to keep the fog there to test you. If you want it bad enough, you'll set sail without having perfect visibility. Yeah. And I feel like that's a perfect message to our listeners today. It's like you don't need perfect clarity. You don't need perfect visibility and stop telling yourself well I must not just be entrepreneurial, or I must not like be or be like everyone else because I you know, maybe I'm scared and that's why I'm not starting you're probably not scared you just think because you believe that the fantasy that you need to have 100% Certainty

Before you move, and that's just not true

to any theoretical to actually being successful at life and doing anything. Again, it goes back to what neurology teaches us. We learn by mistakes. We do not learn by having things figured out. You want to learn how to figure out something, do it. And then ask yourself, well, that was fascinating how that happened. And what do I need to change? What worked? And how do I hold on to that? What didn't work? And how do I replace that? So there's no mistakes, there's no victories, there's no defeats, there's just seminars.

Just life is a summer. That's fascinating. I don't I don't like that. But I'm fascinated. But how do I make sure that doesn't happen? Again, it's just a seminar. And there's two rules of seminars, we can maybe you want to close it up with us. But there's two rules to seminars. Rule number one is go to the cheapest shortest seminar you possibly can. My my Africa seminar was like four years long and cost me a lot of money.

Rule number two is try not to repeat a seminar.

Learn Enough by going to the first seminar that you don't have to repeat the seminar. So life is just fascinating. Okay, so I do have one question. My closing question is this. So chocolate today is walking down the street and in the distance you see

a younger version of Chuck, you can say 10 years old, you can say 18 years old, maybe 20. Right? When you went to you Hi, not hijacked you

with a with a cold where you got to college, I found my way to college.

So you, you're seeing him off in the distance. And you have only one moment to communicate a brief sentiment to him? What do you share?

Chuck, I am so proud of you. I cannot believe what you've done to get where you are, and the survival strategies that you've put in place. And the what you've done with your life to this place. It's amazing. I can't wait to see what you do with yourself.

Wow. And I wish every kid who is five years old would hear that no matter what circumstance they find themselves in, man, because all of it's just a survival strategy. Everything I put in place from baking cakes to just survival strategies like good for you, man. All that stuff that they gave you all the other crazy dumb things that you do today. Well, they were survival mechanisms that you had as a kid and learn from them, embrace them, don't throw them out. Learn from them, embrace them, bring them in close and learn how to use them to get where you need to be. Okay, so someone's listening right now and they're like, I need to meet this guy. I need to talk to him. I need to hire him. I want him to speak for me, whatever. How do they get in touch with you? Well then go to Chuck blakeman.com. Try and make that easy or I have an email Chuck blakeman@gmail.com Or no, I'm sorry, Chuck Blakeman at crankset group. Thank you for that. Or just remember, Craig said group CRA en que se te like a bicycle crankset group.com They can get hold of his or thing. Try grow at cranks, Ed group.com, any one of those three methods. And feel free to reach out and reach out and let's let's see what the journey looks like. Chuck, it has been an honor. And it has been so easy. Just getting to honor you as an innovator as an influencer as someone that's using your gifts as someone that's using your light to make massive impact not just in dentistry. But thank you so much. And thank you for letting me interview you today. My privilege. Thanks so much for having me on. I'm honored to be part of what you're doing. I look forward to seeing how you continue to impact people's lives with this podcast. Keep going.

Thanks for listening, and be sure to follow so you never miss an episode. To learn more about what's going on in dentistry. Check out innovation in dentistry.com

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