Episode 35 - Building a Million-Dollar Mindset with Alex Duta

[00:00:00] Hey everybody, it's Libby again with Fearlessness. What is Fearlessness? Well, it's the underlying grit that we need as entrepreneurs to forge ahead. Even when hope seems distant, it's the courage to walk through those fires of hell knowing that we're going to come out not just better on the other side, but stronger. Stay tuned and learn how to get to fearlessness. I'm Libby DeLucien and I am your host and today we have a very special guest. Alex is very special because me and Alex know each other from

[00:00:30] a peer group, but Alex, introduce yourself. Tell everybody who you are, what you do. Go for it.

[00:00:40] Libby, that was by far one of the best podcast intros I've ever heard. Super cool, super on brand. Love that and I wanted to shout that out real quick. But thanks so much for having me. I'm super excited.

[00:00:52] I'm a young entrepreneur out of Chicago land, started out in the home service space, built a damage restoration company with my father, and then found a technological need for that space. As you know, the home service space is very unloved when it comes to technology.

[00:01:08] So I wanted to change that. So I built a software company for the damage restoration space called LBWR, currently the founder of that. Also do a bunch of other things just like you, from coaching to writing books to all that fun jazz. So that's me in a nutshell.

[00:01:22] Awesome. When he says he's a young entrepreneur, I could literally almost be his mom.

[00:01:31] That was very powerful.

[00:01:33] We were sitting, we were sitting at dinner one day.

[00:01:36] So I met Alex, me and Alex are both in SAS Academy, which was Dan Martell's SAS group.

[00:01:45] Sadly, Dan is still around, but he has exited SAS Academy.

[00:01:50] But we're sitting at dinner.

[00:01:52] And we tend to have very heated, not heated, but very debateful conversations.

[00:01:59] Meaningful, deep, like we don't want to talk about the weather.

[00:02:02] Like we're arguing.

[00:02:03] And then at the end, we're like, oh, I love you.

[00:02:07] I love you too, kind of thing.

[00:02:09] But I was like, how the hell old are you?

[00:02:12] I was like, and yeah, I could be Alex's mom, kind of almost close.

[00:02:19] But I mean, just the things that he's done with his restoration company and his SAS company

[00:02:26] and writing a book.

[00:02:28] I mean, I'm like, you know, you are crushing it at your age and super, I just love watching

[00:02:36] you and following you on social media.

[00:02:38] And I'm like, I don't know if I'm chasing Dan or if I'm chasing Alex, because you are,

[00:02:44] you're running like as fast as Dan.

[00:02:46] And I'm like trying to chase Dan.

[00:02:47] And I'm like, wait a minute, maybe I'm chasing Alex because he's like nipping at the heels

[00:02:52] of Dan right now.

[00:02:55] But I love that.

[00:02:57] And I want to learn more because a lot of our listeners are home service providers.

[00:03:01] We have a ton of listeners in the home service space, whether they're electricians, cleaning,

[00:03:06] commercial cleaning, restoration.

[00:03:09] We have a ton of listeners in that space.

[00:03:11] A lot of roofers, contractors.

[00:03:14] But I want to hear like you got into it.

[00:03:16] How long were you in home service?

[00:03:18] What'd you love about it?

[00:03:19] What'd you hate about it?

[00:03:20] What'd you learn from it?

[00:03:22] Yeah, absolutely.

[00:03:23] Well, I've been in home service since high school.

[00:03:26] Long story short, junior high school, I built a website for this person who had a snow removal

[00:03:32] business and he did commercial snow removal.

[00:03:34] And I made his phone start ringing with a bunch of residential leads, which was an oopsie on

[00:03:39] my part.

[00:03:40] And he was shooting these leads all down.

[00:03:42] I'm like, dude, that's like homeowners that need help.

[00:03:45] Like we can do something here.

[00:03:47] And long story short, he gifted.

[00:03:49] He let me borrow his truck and gave me a snowblower.

[00:03:52] And at night after high school, I banded together with a couple of high school friends

[00:03:56] and we started doing snow removal on driveways.

[00:03:58] Eventually that turned into a mini snow removal operation called West Suburban snow removal.

[00:04:02] Um, so that was like my first encounter with home services, selling to homeowners and such.

[00:04:07] And then my father and I, um, yeah, super awesome.

[00:04:13] Shout out to Matt Bando.

[00:04:14] He's, uh, he was a inspiration, uh, to me.

[00:04:18] Um, I was a very dumb and aggressive, uh, high schooler and he trusted me and, uh, definitely

[00:04:24] turned me, you know, influenced me a lot.

[00:04:25] So I'm going to say this cause I know you, you're not dumb anymore, but you're still super

[00:04:30] aggressive.

[00:04:33] Yep.

[00:04:33] Yep.

[00:04:34] Yep.

[00:04:34] Diplomacy isn't my strong suit.

[00:04:35] That's for sure.

[00:04:38] Um, but yeah, then my dad and I, uh, we were on a vacation in actually Florida, Key West,

[00:04:44] Florida.

[00:04:44] Uh, we were kind of talking about business ideas.

[00:04:47] He was previously a subcontractor for damage restoration, uh, companies.

[00:04:50] And I grew up basically watching him rebuild houses after fire damage as a subcontractor

[00:04:57] for these general contractors.

[00:04:59] And, um, he was interested in starting his own thing.

[00:05:02] And we were talking about opening up a restaurant, opening up different things.

[00:05:05] And I'm like, dad, why don't we just start a restoration company?

[00:05:08] You know how to put houses back together after the fires.

[00:05:11] Um, and so on and so forth.

[00:05:12] He's like, yeah, but I can't sell.

[00:05:14] I don't know how to sell and arrogant, cocky, abrasive.

[00:05:17] Alex at the time was like, I could sell ice to Eskimos.

[00:05:19] How hard could it be?

[00:05:20] So we got together.

[00:05:22] The whole goal was to sell two fire jobs every single year, rebuild two homes after a fire,

[00:05:27] make a hundred thousand dollars.

[00:05:28] And we went out.

[00:05:30] Um, so I started chasing fires, basically listening to fire scanners, figuring out where

[00:05:35] there's a fire, showing up to the fire, trying to sell the homeowner on the fire damage

[00:05:39] and sold exactly zero fires in my first six months.

[00:05:44] So yeah, that was kind of fun.

[00:05:46] But I realized that every single company that was winning against me, they were showing up

[00:05:51] as emergency service companies and they weren't offering, Hey, homeowner, I'm going to rebuild

[00:05:55] your house after the fire.

[00:05:58] They were offering, I'm going to help you right now.

[00:05:59] I'm going to give you victim assistance.

[00:06:00] I'm going to put you in a hotel.

[00:06:02] I'm going to board up your house.

[00:06:03] And that's when the aha moment clicked that we should start offering that.

[00:06:06] And we did and quickly grew that company.

[00:06:09] Uh, room X, Sarah still in Chicago land, eight figure company, nine years old employees.

[00:06:13] Um, and yeah, dad's kind of part-time running it.

[00:06:17] We have, uh, you know, department managers and such kind of running the, the company

[00:06:22] there.

[00:06:22] So I didn't realize you're, you're still involved with the restoration company, I guess.

[00:06:27] Cause.

[00:06:28] Barely.

[00:06:29] Well, not involved, but you still own it.

[00:06:31] Your family still owns it.

[00:06:32] Let's just put it.

[00:06:32] Correct.

[00:06:33] Yeah.

[00:06:33] Yeah.

[00:06:34] Yep.

[00:06:34] Uh, just cause I know Alex from the software side, I love what you just said.

[00:06:39] You only wanted to sell two a year.

[00:06:42] Two, two doesn't sound like that many.

[00:06:45] And quickly learned that like, um, I don't know what I'm doing like this.

[00:06:50] It, you didn't sell two at all.

[00:06:52] And I felt like, Oh, Tuesday when you were telling me that story, it's like, Oh, two's

[00:06:55] easy.

[00:06:56] Oh, you'll get two.

[00:06:57] I thought you were going to say you got 20.

[00:07:00] Yeah.

[00:07:00] No, it didn't work out.

[00:07:02] And that's the thing, like, I think now reflecting upon it, a lot of times people get into home

[00:07:08] service and they try to make it about themselves.

[00:07:12] Right.

[00:07:12] So in my case, Oh, arrogant Alex, I can sell the ice Eskimos.

[00:07:17] Right.

[00:07:17] Two easy.

[00:07:19] Right.

[00:07:20] And I made it about me, not about the customer.

[00:07:23] Right.

[00:07:24] The customer didn't need their house rebuilt and didn't need to make the decision about the

[00:07:27] house being rebuilt at the time when they're bawling their eyes out.

[00:07:32] Watching the firefighters storm through their home.

[00:07:35] Right.

[00:07:36] The customer needed empathy.

[00:07:37] They need a compassion.

[00:07:39] They needed somebody to help them with the short-term problems.

[00:07:41] And ultimately the person who could do that could win the long-term problems.

[00:07:45] Now, how does this relate to home service people?

[00:07:47] Well, I know for a fact that as a home service business, you will become a thousand times

[00:07:53] more successful if you stop making it about yourself and you make it about the customer

[00:07:57] and put the customer first.

[00:07:58] Right.

[00:07:59] And a lot of times we think about ourselves, our bottom line, us being able to feed our

[00:08:04] families.

[00:08:05] And that's all important.

[00:08:06] Don't get me wrong.

[00:08:06] We have to, we want to become successful.

[00:08:08] We want to make money.

[00:08:09] We want to feed our families, but that's just a by-product.

[00:08:12] The number one thing is what's the right thing for that customer?

[00:08:15] How can I become the best solution to that customer's problem?

[00:08:19] And even as Dan says, your net worth is a direct percentage of the value that you create

[00:08:24] in the world.

[00:08:24] So if you can create more value in the world for your customers, your net worth will just

[00:08:29] grow because it's a direct percentage of that.

[00:08:32] Yes.

[00:08:32] One of my very, very good friends, this house literally just burnt down to the ground like

[00:08:38] two weeks ago.

[00:08:39] I think she was about two weeks ago and she was supposed to be on a panel with me and

[00:08:43] she sent us, she sent me like a video and Facebook messenger.

[00:08:47] I don't think I'm going to make it.

[00:08:49] And it was a video of her house burning down.

[00:08:51] And I thought to myself, oh my God, I don't even know what I would do.

[00:08:55] Like, I don't even know.

[00:08:56] I don't even know how she's sending me this video right now.

[00:08:58] Why is she even thinking about me right now?

[00:09:00] Like, I was like, oh my God, why are you texting me?

[00:09:07] And you're so right.

[00:09:08] Cause she goes later, a week or two later, she texted me back.

[00:09:12] She goes, I was absolutely worthless in the moment.

[00:09:16] And a few days after she goes, I didn't even know how to unlock my phone to call 911 when

[00:09:22] it actually was happening.

[00:09:25] And she lost every, like literally everything.

[00:09:30] And I thought to myself, I don't even know how I'd react, but hearing you tell that story

[00:09:35] is so right.

[00:09:35] Cause they don't need there.

[00:09:37] She wasn't even thinking about how to repair her house.

[00:09:40] She just didn't even know where she was going to sleep that night.

[00:09:43] Yep.

[00:09:44] Granted restoration.

[00:09:45] Isn't going to fix that because she lost the whole house, but the emotions that go through

[00:09:51] someone like you're, you're right.

[00:09:53] Like when that happens, they don't need that.

[00:09:55] They need empathy and certain things.

[00:09:58] And I love what you said about don't make it about us.

[00:10:04] This is so true in the cleaning industry.

[00:10:07] Sometimes the business owners, we just know too much about cleaning.

[00:10:14] Yes.

[00:10:15] And that's dangerous.

[00:10:17] Like too much about cleaning.

[00:10:18] Like I can guarantee most of us, yes, we have quality issues, but are they quality?

[00:10:23] They're not typically quality issues.

[00:10:25] They're related to something else like perceived value or employee issues.

[00:10:30] But we're so focused on like the cleaning part, like the technical part.

[00:10:36] We keep hiding or retreating to that so that we don't have to like face a sales issue or

[00:10:42] we don't understand certain things or we don't know our numbers or we're having employee issues.

[00:10:46] And we just keep going back to like the cleaning technique when in reality, it doesn't matter.

[00:10:53] That's exactly what I was going to say.

[00:10:54] You want to compensate with the technical.

[00:10:56] A lot of times in home service, you'll hear the plumber that says, oh, well, they don't

[00:11:00] know that this other company didn't put in this quality of knick-knack or whatever.

[00:11:05] Yeah.

[00:11:06] But the other company had empathy and the other company cared about the homeowner's

[00:11:09] problem and, you know, hate to break it to you, but nobody really cares if it's five

[00:11:13] gallons per hour or 5.5 gallons per hour.

[00:11:16] Right.

[00:11:17] So like a lot of times we want to compensate with our strengths.

[00:11:20] We're nerds about the cleaning chemicals.

[00:11:22] So we're, we're going to say, hey, well, you know, yeah, it wasn't empathetic and I

[00:11:26] was rude to you and I didn't care about X, Y, Z, but I did the best job in the world

[00:11:31] and everything's sparkling clean.

[00:11:32] And I use these types of cleaners.

[00:11:34] Right.

[00:11:34] And we use that to compensate.

[00:11:36] I don't know if you see that.

[00:11:38] Oh yeah.

[00:11:38] At all.

[00:11:39] Like a great example is, you know, you can nerd out like on the pH balance and on chemicals

[00:11:44] or cleaning efficiency.

[00:11:45] But if you don't even acknowledge a customer's dog or pet or child, it looks super like insensitive.

[00:11:55] There's no connection.

[00:11:58] And so I think sometimes we think about that or we get, we go down that because we're avoiding

[00:12:04] something else.

[00:12:05] I know I used to do that all the time because I knew everything about every chemical and cleaning

[00:12:09] product and cleaning efficiency.

[00:12:12] But to like actually connect with a customer or teach our technicians to connect with a

[00:12:17] customer or even our office.

[00:12:19] I didn't know how to do that because I was like an introvert.

[00:12:22] I didn't even want to connect with somebody.

[00:12:23] So how do I teach someone else to do that?

[00:12:26] 100%.

[00:12:27] 100%.

[00:12:28] So it was super.

[00:12:30] Go ahead.

[00:12:30] When those things pop up in life, that's, that's where you have to dig in deeper.

[00:12:35] You know, if you're doing a deadlift, right?

[00:12:37] And you're using your arms and not using your legs as much, you should probably ask yourself

[00:12:41] why and go work on your legs a little bit more.

[00:12:44] The same metaphor here.

[00:12:46] If you're using, geeking out over the nerdy stuff and saying, oh, well, I'm really good

[00:12:50] with the nerdy stuff, but I suck at the people stuff.

[00:12:53] Well, there's your assignment.

[00:12:54] Go figure out the people stuff.

[00:12:56] Right?

[00:12:57] Well, so don't dive in deeper on the nerdy stuff.

[00:13:00] Cause that's not going to get you anywhere.

[00:13:01] You're already good there.

[00:13:02] Yeah, no.

[00:13:03] And it was, it had nothing to do with the people or the nerdy stuff had everything to do with

[00:13:07] me.

[00:13:09] Like me, like me, not even just being comfortable with me or knowing like anything, like what

[00:13:16] I want in this, cause I'm going to go so much deeper and I want to go into the next

[00:13:18] section of, um, you know, you have been working on yourself tremendously.

[00:13:25] I can see the Alex transformation in front of me.

[00:13:28] Like, um, and you know, I want to learn from you or here.

[00:13:35] I want our listeners to know, like we've all, we all know who Dan is.

[00:13:40] Like I, I, I, um, I've been in Saskia for like three years now.

[00:13:45] And I'm like, God darn it.

[00:13:47] I saw this guy grow and he's been working on it, but to see his growth in three years

[00:13:53] has been just like, Oh my God.

[00:13:55] Like if he can do it, I could do it kind of thing.

[00:13:59] But, um, it's been really interesting to see, but seeing your growth as well.

[00:14:03] I want to hear from you, like as an entrepreneur, what's your, what was your biggest challenge

[00:14:10] to grow yourself?

[00:14:15] Oof.

[00:14:18] And there's going to be a lot of Dan quotes in this, right?

[00:14:21] There's going to be a lot of Dan quotes.

[00:14:22] So I think the first thing I want to outline is like, yeah.

[00:14:25] Two biggest Dan fans.

[00:14:26] I actually have Dan on my screensaver of my computer because he's in my vivid vision.

[00:14:31] Um, uh, yeah.

[00:14:34] So me and Alex are probably like the two biggest Dan fans you might find around here.

[00:14:38] Uh, I asked my husband, are you okay if I put a picture of Dan and me on my vision board?

[00:14:44] Oh, wow.

[00:14:47] Does Dan know that?

[00:14:48] No, Dan does not know that.

[00:14:50] Yeah.

[00:14:51] Uh, but yeah, I want to hear what, what's, what is that struggle?

[00:14:54] Like, what was the hardest thing to grow you?

[00:14:56] Grow yourself?

[00:14:58] Well, there were two, I think two really, two really hard struggles.

[00:15:02] One of them was the fear of growth.

[00:15:09] And what I mean by that is not everybody runs at the same pace that I run at.

[00:15:16] Right.

[00:15:16] And I'll just be honest and upfront.

[00:15:18] So the fear of like losing loved ones, the fear of, you know, losing my wife, of, of my

[00:15:23] parents, of so on and so forth as your quote unquote bettering yourself and such.

[00:15:28] And then the quote of no one needs to change for you to win.

[00:15:32] Okay.

[00:15:32] Dan quote kind of, um, really struck me in an interesting way.

[00:15:36] And just, you know, allowing the space for your loved ones around you.

[00:15:40] But, uh, you going on the journey, you expressing yourself, you becoming the best version of yourself

[00:15:45] and, you know, coexisting with different people at different stages.

[00:15:51] Um, so that was, that was one.

[00:15:54] Um, the second unlock or like a huge unlock that I had was, I think the perception of the

[00:16:00] definition of success and the self-limiting belief of you can't have it all.

[00:16:04] So what I mean by that is, I think maybe probably stemming from like high school days, there's

[00:16:09] the whole thing of like, you can't have the hot girlfriend, the gym body, the straight

[00:16:12] A's.

[00:16:13] Um, people don't talk about money in high school, but like sleep six hours at night

[00:16:17] and, or eight hours a night or whatever.

[00:16:19] Right.

[00:16:19] So there's like this theory that you can't have it all.

[00:16:22] And, um, I always like focused in on wealth, like making money and, um, driving value and

[00:16:29] being an entrepreneur, doing all the work six, seven days was always number one.

[00:16:33] Um, but I let everything else slip to the side.

[00:16:36] So, um, didn't really focus on my health, ate crap, gained, you know, it was 240 pounds,

[00:16:43] drank a lot, so on and so forth.

[00:16:45] Didn't really focus on love.

[00:16:46] Didn't really have any relationships.

[00:16:47] Didn't have a relationship with my family.

[00:16:48] Um, had a lot of toxic ex, uh, ex-girlfriends and such.

[00:16:53] Didn't really focus on what's greater out there, spirituality or, or God.

[00:16:57] Um, it was all wealth.

[00:16:59] And there's a couple of like rock bottom moments.

[00:17:02] Um, when I was like 21, uh, went through a suicidal episode where I had overdosed because

[00:17:08] I had all the money, but didn't have anything else.

[00:17:10] And, um, yeah, it was pretty dark time.

[00:17:13] And then kind of bounced back up from that, started building up my love life, ended up,

[00:17:18] uh, marrying my wonderful wife right now.

[00:17:20] She was pregnant with, uh, our now two-year-old daughter.

[00:17:23] And because my health was out of shape, um, ended up getting COVID and really struggled

[00:17:28] fighting it.

[00:17:29] So three weeks in the hospital at that point, um, pretty bad.

[00:17:33] I mean, wasn't on a Venda later, but you know, 14 liters of oxygen, the high pressure

[00:17:36] mask kind of thing.

[00:17:37] Um, and you know, kind of uncertainty at the point, right?

[00:17:42] You didn't know if your daughter, if you're going to see your daughter or so on and so forth.

[00:17:45] And then at that point I realized, Hey, I got to get my health in shape.

[00:17:48] And I even said, no matter what I could lose all my wealth.

[00:17:52] I want to get my health in shape.

[00:17:53] And then in comes Dan who's saying, no, you could have it all.

[00:17:57] And it's all interlinked.

[00:17:58] And it was a huge unlock because I realized the healthier I had become, the better I had

[00:18:05] shown up in my personal life and the better I had shown up in my business life.

[00:18:11] Um, and then a couple of years later at a SAS Bordem event, met Stephanie Karlovitz, who

[00:18:16] you obviously know too, you were at that event as well.

[00:18:18] Yes.

[00:18:19] And in comes the spiritual.

[00:18:21] You know, I had this whole, you know, atheism.

[00:18:25] Oh man.

[00:18:26] Yeah.

[00:18:27] I had this whole like atheism, orthodoxy.

[00:18:30] Yeah.

[00:18:31] It was.

[00:18:32] Yeah.

[00:18:33] Super powerful.

[00:18:34] So it unlocked that.

[00:18:35] And then fast forward to today.

[00:18:37] I'm a firm believer that you can have it all.

[00:18:39] And for me, my four pillars of life are health, wealth, love, and spirituality.

[00:18:42] And my definition now of burnout is going all in into one and not going equally all in into

[00:18:48] another.

[00:18:48] So there's nothing wrong with giving it your all.

[00:18:51] What is wrong is going at a hundred miles an hour in wealth and becoming a multimillionaire.

[00:18:57] But going at zero in love and not respecting your body and not being there for something

[00:19:04] greater than yourself, whether that's, you know, God, the energy, the universe, Jesus,

[00:19:08] whatever it is.

[00:19:09] Right.

[00:19:10] But as long as you intentionally go all in into, into those in like an equal format, like

[00:19:17] you're the millionaire equivalent of a husband and the awesome husband equivalent of in shape

[00:19:22] and body and the, you know, equivalent of that in spirituality.

[00:19:26] That's, I think what Dan calls the integrative life.

[00:19:29] And like, I'm living that now.

[00:19:31] And it's just, it's mind blowing and incredible.

[00:19:35] Yeah.

[00:19:36] Absolutely amazing.

[00:19:37] I'm so grateful.

[00:19:38] With every penny of SaaS Academy and boardroom that we pay for.

[00:19:41] A thousand percent.

[00:19:42] A thousand percent.

[00:19:43] It absolutely amazing.

[00:19:45] Um, I couldn't agree more.

[00:19:48] I absolutely love what you said.

[00:19:50] Your first fear was, and that was my fear as well, was I'm going to outgrow my husband

[00:19:55] or my parents, or I won't have any friends left because I'm great in their eyes.

[00:20:00] I'm literally probably clinically crazy to them.

[00:20:05] Yeah.

[00:20:05] Um, and I, I have to say that like he, he did teach me or us, like you can have it all.

[00:20:14] And I absolutely love what you're doing with your wife as well.

[00:20:18] I've seen your videos in the morning with you running your wife's on the bike with your,

[00:20:21] with your daughter.

[00:20:23] Um, and I love, cause that was my biggest fear is my, my husband, like outgrowing my husband

[00:20:29] because my husband isn't an entrepreneur, like your wife as well.

[00:20:33] Right.

[00:20:34] She isn't an entrepreneur.

[00:20:37] Doesn't matter.

[00:20:38] It doesn't matter.

[00:20:39] So it's actually beautiful that way.

[00:20:42] It's beautiful to have that perspective.

[00:20:45] Right.

[00:20:45] Oh my God.

[00:20:46] It's beautiful.

[00:20:47] Yep.

[00:20:49] It's the thing that grounds me because if I wasn't my, my prior relationship, Alex,

[00:20:54] we were both entrepreneurs and it was not that every relationship,

[00:20:59] like that was, but at least with me, it was absolutely horrible having two Libby's in

[00:21:04] one relationship.

[00:21:07] And so.

[00:21:08] And the beautiful part, the beautiful part is the people around you do get inspired.

[00:21:13] And as you go through and fix stuff, it doesn't happen right away, but people see you as living

[00:21:21] proof.

[00:21:21] So what I also realized, even like, let's take the family aspect out of it in our peer

[00:21:25] group and boardroom and in SAS Academy, a lot of people will come to me and ask me how I did

[00:21:29] things.

[00:21:30] And I'll just say, I just copied Dan's playbook.

[00:21:32] I'm typically the first person to copy stuff.

[00:21:34] And then people ask me afterwards.

[00:21:35] So it's like, if you do things and you just implement them and you succeed with them,

[00:21:41] other people will then start like noticing that.

[00:21:44] And sometimes there's certain people that aren't early adopters, like entrepreneurs are,

[00:21:48] they're more like skeptics.

[00:21:50] But like once they see, oh, your body transformation happened, right?

[00:21:55] Like I went through 75 hard and stuff like that a year later and I didn't force her to, and

[00:21:59] I didn't tell her to do it.

[00:22:01] And she could have not done it, right?

[00:22:03] Nobody needs to change for me to win.

[00:22:05] But my wife is going through 75 hard.

[00:22:07] And now she's going into the gym and taking care of her health and building the best version

[00:22:11] of herself and so on and so forth.

[00:22:12] Things that like I never would have seen her do.

[00:22:14] And I never expected her to do, right?

[00:22:17] And now my parents are starting to notice and my brother is starting to notice and everybody

[00:22:20] else.

[00:22:20] And I'm not like, I love them for who they are.

[00:22:24] And that's like the beautiful thing.

[00:22:25] It's like, you don't have to do any of these things.

[00:22:27] I'll still love you for who you are.

[00:22:29] Great.

[00:22:30] If I can inspire you to do even more things, great.

[00:22:32] But like the concept of nobody needs to change for you to win.

[00:22:35] You can go win.

[00:22:37] You can go dominate it, get everything you want, and then inspire other people to do

[00:22:40] it.

[00:22:41] And they want to do it great.

[00:22:42] If they don't, great.

[00:22:43] It's not your problem.

[00:22:45] I love it.

[00:22:46] It is 100% true.

[00:22:48] 100.

[00:22:48] I have not asked anybody to come with me on my journey.

[00:22:54] And my health journey is pretty interesting.

[00:22:57] But Chris would have never, my husband would have never done some of the things that I'm doing.

[00:23:02] And I never once asked him to do any of them.

[00:23:05] He watches how I've changed, how it's changed me, like emotionally, physically, mentally.

[00:23:12] And he's right behind me.

[00:23:13] He's like, oh my gosh, because I'm practicing the carnivore diet now.

[00:23:18] Um, and he's like, would have never in a million years done it.

[00:23:22] Cause he was like, again, certain things.

[00:23:25] And then he's kind of like, this is interesting.

[00:23:26] I kind of want to try it.

[00:23:28] And he tries it.

[00:23:29] He's like, this is great.

[00:23:30] And Alex, you're so right.

[00:23:33] Cause we lead by example.

[00:23:36] And the same thing, even with our team in my software, so many people are like, oh, I'm

[00:23:42] going to the gym now.

[00:23:42] I'm working out every day cause I'm, they're following me on social media and I'm like,

[00:23:48] oh great.

[00:23:48] Like now I have our team watching us on social media and they're like, oh, I'm doing your

[00:23:52] same workout.

[00:23:53] Cause I would post the workout online.

[00:23:55] And they're like, oh, I'm doing your workout that you posted.

[00:23:58] You, no one needs to change.

[00:24:00] Just lead by example.

[00:24:02] Because I know a lot of us struggle with our spouses or their spouses don't understand.

[00:24:06] Um, I think if you just lead by example and you're, you're open, you're honest, um, they

[00:24:12] don't need to change.

[00:24:14] They will follow the parts of your journey that are applicable to them or the parts that

[00:24:20] will help them get to their next part of their journey.

[00:24:24] I love that.

[00:24:25] Just like we do.

[00:24:26] I mean, we follow other people and there's certain things that we try and we implement

[00:24:32] and other things we say now, but like imagine if Dan came to you and said, Libby, you have

[00:24:37] to do this.

[00:24:38] Would you do it?

[00:24:39] Yeah.

[00:24:41] Really?

[00:24:42] I mean, well, no, if he says it works, I would try it.

[00:24:46] Not if I have to.

[00:24:48] Actually, if he says the word have to, I'd resist on purpose because it's the entrepreneur

[00:24:51] inside of me saying, do I have to, or can I break the rules?

[00:24:55] I will say that Alex, you're a testament to like seeing something that works and

[00:25:02] just, and, and, and trying it and not trying to reinvent the wheel.

[00:25:10] I'm a huge copycat.

[00:25:12] Like why?

[00:25:13] Like just go see what works and just go fucking do it.

[00:25:17] Like, yeah.

[00:25:18] And if somebody else can do it, why can't you do it?

[00:25:20] You know?

[00:25:21] But in our defense, Dan gives us that permission for the group that we're in saying like,

[00:25:26] Hey, don't reinvent it.

[00:25:27] Copy me.

[00:25:28] Just copy me.

[00:25:32] And he says that he's like, do, do what I do.

[00:25:34] Like, don't reinvent the wheel.

[00:25:36] Take this, go make it your own.

[00:25:39] But I have to say, Alex is probably the one person I've seen being in that peer group

[00:25:43] that had really like took it to heart and is running with it.

[00:25:47] And I'm like, dang, I told my husband, I'm like all the time.

[00:25:50] Like, I I'm like, I'm over here trying to like reinvent it, change it.

[00:25:55] Let me study it.

[00:25:56] And meanwhile, Alex is like, okay, what's next?

[00:26:00] But you see the growth personally and professionally.

[00:26:04] So that being said, what keeps you motivated to keep going?

[00:26:11] Oh, that's a deep, deep question.

[00:26:18] I think it's the, the impact.

[00:26:20] Like, well, first of all, I think rewind.

[00:26:22] I think it's the reason we exist in this world.

[00:26:23] Like we all have to do something to contribute to the world around us.

[00:26:29] And like, I'm not political.

[00:26:30] I'm not super strong in the religious aspect.

[00:26:33] So like, to me, creation of value is my way of leaving a mark on this world and influencing

[00:26:41] the world into, into a better place.

[00:26:44] Right.

[00:26:44] So I'm not going to sit here and preach of, you know, follow this religion, or I'm not

[00:26:48] going to sit here and get involved in lobbying and politics.

[00:26:52] But what I will do is, is lead by example, create micro economies, i.e. businesses, go to

[00:26:59] industries like the restoration industry right now.

[00:27:02] And eventually it'll probably broaden up that I'm super passionate about.

[00:27:05] And then just lead by example.

[00:27:07] Here's what worked.

[00:27:09] Go take it, you know, do the coaching.

[00:27:11] Here's the software and just keep solving problems.

[00:27:14] And yeah, I just, that's what really makes me super excited.

[00:27:19] And yeah, at the end of the day, you're, you're building people like the amount of, you know,

[00:27:25] 60 some employees here, 90 some employees at the other restoration, at the restoration

[00:27:29] company, you know, a couple thousand users that get influenced every single day by, by a problem

[00:27:36] that you solve for them.

[00:27:37] So.

[00:27:37] Yeah.

[00:27:38] You said something, um, on the bus the other day, I think we were in Denver and I really

[00:27:46] had never, I mean, I, I, I kind of thought about it, but the way you said it made me think

[00:27:51] about it in a different way.

[00:27:52] And it was like, I want to do the same thing that Dan did for me and software for the restoration

[00:27:57] industry.

[00:27:58] Yes.

[00:27:59] Yes.

[00:28:01] And I thought, man, what a great way to reframe it.

[00:28:08] And so.

[00:28:09] That's huge.

[00:28:10] It's huge.

[00:28:11] It's huge.

[00:28:12] And I'm like, I'm going to copy Alex.

[00:28:15] I want to do the same thing.

[00:28:16] I want to do the same thing that Dan did for me in software, but I want to put that back

[00:28:20] into like cleaning the cleaning industry, whether you're in commercial or residential cleaning

[00:28:25] or even women in business.

[00:28:26] Cause believe me, we finally got some women in boardroom, but it was a very lonely place

[00:28:31] for a little bit.

[00:28:31] If you were a girl, um, but even women in business or software or even home service, I'm going to

[00:28:39] do the same thing.

[00:28:40] The way he changed our lives and marriages, businesses, you name it.

[00:28:45] But I think the difference is, is that we, we followed, like we followed his, we followed

[00:28:53] what we saw him doing because, um, just like with you, Alex, you're not just like talking

[00:28:59] the talk, you're walking that walk as well.

[00:29:02] Like working out, sharing it with everybody.

[00:29:05] One of the most impactful things that I learned was for me not to, and this was hard for me

[00:29:11] to overcome for me, not to share it online as being selfish.

[00:29:16] Yes.

[00:29:18] Because I have learned how to do this.

[00:29:21] I've learned, um, why not share that journey with the people who are behind me trying to

[00:29:28] figure that out?

[00:29:28] The people even beside me trying to figure it out.

[00:29:31] Cause I thought that sharing it online was kind of like, you know, a little conceited.

[00:29:38] It depends how, so that's the thing.

[00:29:41] It depends on the intent and the how, right?

[00:29:45] Again, goes back to who are you doing it for?

[00:29:49] Are you doing it for?

[00:29:50] And you could tell, you could tell online the people that are doing it for themselves.

[00:29:54] And you could tell online the people that are doing it for the audience.

[00:29:58] And even in the YouTube formula, Daryl Eves talks about it.

[00:30:01] It's like, look, stop trying to hack the YouTube algorithm and stuff like that.

[00:30:05] Just freaking build the content that's valuable for the people.

[00:30:08] And then guess what?

[00:30:08] The YouTube channels that pop are the ones that have dialed it in and made it for them.

[00:30:12] They didn't, you know, want the followers.

[00:30:14] The followers came.

[00:30:15] Right.

[00:30:15] And that's the thing.

[00:30:17] And if you really unpack what Dan did super well, it's just the authenticity.

[00:30:22] I think Hormozy does it even better.

[00:30:23] It's like the authenticity.

[00:30:25] It's the, here's who I am.

[00:30:27] And it's the, I'm not perfect.

[00:30:29] Here's actually my flaws.

[00:30:31] Yeah.

[00:30:32] Well, they're polarizing in a certain way to say, this is me.

[00:30:37] Take it.

[00:30:39] Or leave it.

[00:30:41] And they're creating those.

[00:30:42] And also I'm not perfect.

[00:30:45] Like you never hear Dan talk about, Hey, I'm really good.

[00:30:48] Like I'm perfect at this.

[00:30:49] It's like, he's a student of the art, even though he's 27 years ahead into this self-development

[00:30:55] journey.

[00:30:56] But like, he still like, isn't in the doghouse with Renee.

[00:31:00] He's still, you know, has times where he almost gets canceled and has to do damage control

[00:31:06] and stuff like that.

[00:31:07] And that's what I appreciate about it.

[00:31:08] It's like, I'm a student.

[00:31:09] Right.

[00:31:10] And same with me.

[00:31:11] Like I never post stuff.

[00:31:12] Yeah.

[00:31:12] From a, Hey, look at me.

[00:31:14] Here's who I am.

[00:31:15] I actually think that the most valuable things that I do is like, Hey, I fucked up here.

[00:31:20] Right.

[00:31:20] I'm willing to admit like, Hey, yeah.

[00:31:22] And like, Hey, like I still struggle with the snooze button and I will happily admit

[00:31:26] it.

[00:31:26] Right.

[00:31:27] Even though, you know, I got shit for it and I've been trying to overcome it and so on

[00:31:30] and so forth.

[00:31:31] I'm on day seven right now of not snoozing, but I'm just open about the imperfections

[00:31:36] and I'm open about all this.

[00:31:37] Right.

[00:31:37] Whereas most people, they just want to say, Hey, look at me, millionaire, car, blah, blah, blah.

[00:31:42] I want to be like, no, no, no.

[00:31:44] Yeah.

[00:31:44] I have accomplished everything that I have, but I'm still here and look at all these things.

[00:31:49] And here's how I'm going through them because that's where the relatability happens.

[00:31:53] Because a lot of times people are like, ah, so-and-so is like that.

[00:31:57] I don't relate to that person.

[00:31:59] That person can't struggle with this.

[00:32:01] It's like, no, they do.

[00:32:03] Yeah.

[00:32:04] I love that.

[00:32:04] Sorry.

[00:32:05] End of rant.

[00:32:06] End of rant.

[00:32:07] It's okay.

[00:32:07] Well, me and Alex could talk forever.

[00:32:11] It was so funny.

[00:32:12] We were sitting together at a restaurant and we both ordered the exact same thing.

[00:32:16] We were like, can we only have the protein with no seasoning, no carbs?

[00:32:22] End of day.

[00:32:26] But hopefully I get to see you in Chicago.

[00:32:28] But if, oh, you live in Chicago.

[00:32:30] What am I talking about?

[00:32:31] You'll be in Chicago.

[00:32:32] You're in Chicago.

[00:32:35] But we're going to wrap up.

[00:32:37] But do you, you do have some things going on.

[00:32:39] Do you want to tell our listeners about your book?

[00:32:41] I've heard some amazing things on it online with other people recommending it.

[00:32:46] So why don't you tell our listeners what you got going on?

[00:32:49] If they want to find information or find your book, we'll make sure to put it in our show notes.

[00:32:53] Yeah, absolutely.

[00:32:54] Recently wrote Restoration Millionaire.

[00:32:56] Basically documented my journey building the restoration company.

[00:32:58] But I think it's very applicable for any home service company.

[00:33:01] And who knows?

[00:33:01] Maybe you'd be interested in starting a restoration arm.

[00:33:04] So you can find the book on Amazon, Restoration Millionaire, or at restorationmillionaire.com.

[00:33:09] And then, yeah, if you guys want to follow my journey online, I'm very vocal and open.

[00:33:14] You can follow me pretty much on any social media channel at It's Alex Duta.

[00:33:19] So ITS Alex Duta.

[00:33:22] Awesome.

[00:33:23] And we'll make sure to put all those in the show notes.

[00:33:25] So I want to go ahead and wrap up, Alex.

[00:33:27] I want to thank you for being a guest on the Fearlessness Podcast.

[00:33:31] And for our listeners, if you want to find more episodes like these, just go to thefearlessness.com.

[00:33:36] And guys, that's a wrap into the heart of fearlessness.

[00:33:39] Remember, every step we take moves us towards our own strengths and courage.

[00:33:45] Keep walking through those fires because on the other side lies a version of ourselves.

[00:33:48] It's unstoppable.

[00:33:50] I'm Libby reminding you to embrace your fearlessness.

[00:33:53] Until next time, stay brave, stay bold, and keep pushing forward.