Welcome to the Corvus Effect, where we take you behind the scenes to explore integrated self leadership and help ambitious family men build lasting legacies for themselves, their tribe, and their community. I'm Scott Raven, and together we'll discover how successful leaders master delicate balance of career advancement, personal health, financial growth, and meaningful relationships.

Get ready to soar.

 And hello, everybody. Thank you so much for joining us on the Corpus Effect. And I am very, very pleased to have Alex Kuhn here with me today. Leader of Born to Lead and a man who's transformed the lives of over 300 entrepreneurs, including my own. He founded Born to lead back in 2020 with a simple mission to make sure the good people win in business.

And in three years, he has built one of the fastest growing coaching companies in the world that's been featured in publications, such as Forbes and entrepreneur has coached more than a hundred. The entrepreneurs in every industry that you can think of. So some of his highlights. He went from nothing to seven figures in six months.

He had another client who bought a private island and rented it out for retreats and another one who was a six month overworked pregnant mom that in eight weeks was able to leave the business for six months. Profitably. And it's not just him leading others to success. He's also an advisor and investor for more than a dozen humanity first businesses.

He takes time to train and challenge himself on one big human feet every year. And he lives a family first lifestyle, which I guess a lot of that comes from your upbringing and your non traditional path to get there, which we'll discuss. But way back when. You were a small college swim coach of all things.

So Alex, welcome and you know, happy to have you here. And thank you so much, man.

Scott, you know how much of a fan I am of you and I know you've been wanting to put this podcast together for so long. Um, I'm really just honored to be here and honored to be in your presence in your world.

I appreciate it. I'm honored to be in your world as well. And we'll get into my success story in terms of how you've guided me to launch this podcast, but I'd like to actually start. Way back when, when at the raw age of seven, was your first inclination that you were born to be a leader.

Talk to us about that.

Yeah. My, my father and I, who I will actually see tonight. Um, we are, you know, I know Scott and I have talked about. Being a diehard football fans. And so tonight, uh, the Steelers are playing the Giants and hopefully it means the Steelers beat the Giants, but not Nostradamus.

But my dad and I have a very great relationship and just like maybe a lot of sons and fathers, my. Dad and I kind of like to rib each other, right? Tease each other. Uh, of course, as a five and six year old, it means he got the better of me and I try to punch him or something, but I can remember one day coming out of swim practice and I remember telling my dad that today was a day you weren't going to get me mad or you weren't going to get under my skin.

And my dad said to me, are you sure Alex? Cause I'm pretty sure I can say, One thing that's going to get you angry and little cocky seven year old Alex said, no, no, no, no way. Nothing. You can't get under my skin. Great practice. Great day. You can't do it. And he's like, he asked me one more time. I said, absolutely.

And then he said these faithful words and those words were Alex, you are a follower. Now, little seven year old Alex went, I rate mad angry. No, I'm not a follower. I do what I want to do on my own and how I want to do it. And Between you and me, I don't even know what that meant probably at the time, but there was something truly that just was ingrained in me to not follow the path that everybody else was doing.

You know, as a, as a little kid, I remember when everybody was goofing off in swim practice, I'd be focusing on the swim coach when everybody said like, Oh, we're supposed to take it easy. I'd want to go harder. Quite frankly, there was the other times where it's like, listen, everybody's trying to do all the right things.

I said, I don't want to do this. I think this is a stupid homework assignment at the same time. So it wasn't all doing the good things, also doing the bad things. And I do think that at some point there is some aspect of everybody that's in my world. They know that when everybody's saying, go right, they're willing to challenge why, and they're willing to go left because I think it's going to be better, not just to be selfishly better.

But to truly say this is better for other people. And to me, that's, what's a core being somebody that's a born leader, somebody who says, you know what, I'm not doing the thing that's popular. I'm doing the thing that's right. That's who I love working with. And that's, what's been instilled in me since as long as I can remember.

And you certainly have practiced what you preach all throughout your life and a very big moment of this was you pursued Olympic swimming and had the opportunity to transition from that into a high paying job. And instead you become an assistant swim coach at a small college. I want to better understand as you're bringing this home to your dad and to those who care about you and you're like, I have made this choice. I'm curious what that conversation sounded like.

thankfully, my, my parents have known from a very early age that I, I say this, I was a good son, but I was also a driven person to the point where I actually left my house at the age of 12 to pursue my swimming career. I Very rarely was home. I was at swim practice basically during the year. And of course I basically during school year, I was at home, but anytime the summer came, I was gone.

I was trying to work with the best coaches. I was traveling all over the country. Um, I really didn't get to see my parents all that much. And I think at that point, my parents really. You know, they were already kind of ingrained in it. They were like, well, he's kind of doing his own thing. And obviously with a lot of support from my parents there, you know, that gave me the space to grow and to kind of figure myself out.

And even going through college, because a lot of the college I was able to thankfully get some scholarships and some grants that definitely afforded me the ability to do it . I did have loans for sure, but to a place where I got to kind of choose what I wanted to do. And I remember talking to.

My business advisor. This is the person actually probably was the most angry at me. So he knew I had an opportunities with, uh, the government. He was opportunities with some major fortune 500 companies. And all of a sudden he's like, what are you going to do, Alex? It's April. You're about to graduate.

You're going to buy the graduate, uh, magna cum laude. I think it was the exact, um, degree. And he said, what are you going to do? And I said, I'm taking the 15, 000 a year assistance from coaching position in And I can remember. His anger, so mad at me because I know there was some piece of him in that business department where it's like, we want to say this person went and started working for that company.

And I could just feel it, but I'll tell you something, Scott, every time. I try to say, I'm going to do this thing that everybody said they do. And almost every time, even to this day, the things I say, and we all have done it, Oh, I'm supposed to do this. And that's supposed to do things kind of supposes us into a situation that we don't want to be in.

It allowed me to actually go get my MBA in a way that I would have never had to. It gave me opportunity to have leadership concepts that I would have never had probably before the age of 30. I had a chance, opportunity to become a head coach at the ripe age of 24, 23 years old, which is one of the youngest coaches ever .

Um, it gave me a way to actually look at what I think the most important piece of any business, any brand building, I think you and I can both agree with it. It's simply people, you got to be able to interact with people, lead with people. And it doesn't mean I just don't have my lessons day, but it definitely gave me a headstart.

It definitely did. And it certainly taught you the importance of betting on yourself, which certainly that turned you into obviously a head swim coach, and you were very successful at that. And then you decided that I'm going to bet on myself again. And I'm going to switch to being an entrepreneur and outside of my MBA, I haven't done any of this and talk us through that journey of learning and introspection, particularly as it took you a long while.

And a lot of investment, particularly financial investment to find success in this new arena.

Well, every one of us, I know, I think we've all heard this. And I think it's really true that, you know, at some core level, any entrepreneur will say this, that at some point a job and its salary is basically buying your dream. I think there's no person on this planet that simply just wants to have a job to have a job.

Like I hope everybody that does have a job, you have a job that you love and it's surrounded by people you enjoy. But if you are somebody who always really wanted to build a business or wanted to go the entrepreneur route, we all know at some point that salary was an indicator of like, I'd rather take this, take what's the, the hand in the, what's in the hand, as opposed to figuring out what's in the bush.

I can't remember exactly the state and how it goes. But, but one of the reasons why I bring this up is that, you know, when I was 30 years old, right, I wasn't making great money as a college swim coach. I was making like 60, 000 a year in California, Los Angeles. And for any of you that know how that, how, what, how the far that goes, you know, it goes nowhere quite frankly, but love my life, loved what it was.

Um, but. I still have that itch, right? I still have this, this vibe of like, I wanted to try something on my own and I was starting to get some, uh, publicity and some opportunities from a coaching perspective that were going to pay me way more like it was going to double my salary. And for me, wow, like double my salary.

That would like, I didn't even know what I was going to be willing to do with that, but I knew if I did it, I was gonna be a swim coach forever. I knew it. The person I was dating at the time I was, I was truly madly in love with. And that's a whole story in itself. Um, you know, she was deciding to go to school and it was really felt like this perfect time to be like, you know what, I can get a job back home and a much.

Easier, cheaper environment here in Pittsburgh. Um, I can support her. I can start kind of getting just a small job because any job is going to quite frankly pay more than what I was making at this, a swim coach. I thought it was going to be great. I thought it was gonna be a very easy transition and a lot of things happened during that time.

, the person, she truly was the person who I thought I was going to marry. Um, she ended up breaking up with me once we actually moved out there. The company I was working with, Um, I got into a major, major argument with the CEO about some practices I didn't agree with and ultimately got fired as a result for that.

So I was literally in this very small apartment, not having figured out what to do with this entrepreneurial thing with. 14, 000 in my savings after nine years of saving and really no business and no idea what to do. So to tell everybody here that like, you gotta, you gotta jump before you do, like sometimes you just get pushed into the thing.

So, and that probably was a little bit of me. It was like, I was kind of slowly doing it, but that was literally like, all right, time to get off the diving board. I can tell you to this day that I probably came up with 75 business ideas. In the first 60 days and try them all. And really the only thing I tell people is that I, thankfully for my days in my twenties, I learned how to live very cheaply.

I learned how to live off of 2000, 2, 500 a month, which for a lot of us sounds insane. Some of us, that's our mortgage every single month, but I knew how to do it. I knew how to eat. I knew how to live. , I didn't have high taste and they still don't really even have high taste to this day.

But. But it did allow me to keep surviving and finding little pieces here. Um, some things where I kind of started to work with like younger student athletes, helping them get to college or managing, um, you know, their, their friends, you know, parents really enjoy that kind of student life coach attitude.

Uh, I go to BNI and network and I get up there every single week. And I explain what I do, even though it was the. It's totally different every single week. And nobody knew what I was doing at that point. So I tell people that very simply the first year, year and a half, which is simply survival, it was just literally survival as my mom, my dad, my friends kept shoving resumes and job applications in front of me, I just literally.

Through tears, through crying, through stubbornness, just said, I gotta figure this out. So at that point, I can tell everybody there, like most entrepreneurs, it was all about literally not listening to anybody, but just the tiniest little voice that was in me. And that's literally the only reason why I was able to make it through.

And I do want to culminate it in terms of how that eventually created Born to Lead in 2020 and some of the key lessons. But if I understand it correctly, it was really A moment in 2014 that you said, this is it. This is where all of my resilience and my perseverance has paid off. So tell us about that a little bit.

So around 2014, I, I did everything. I did. I listened, I read every single book. I read every single business guru. I, I, I tried to get advice. I, I joined a sales program. I, I, I literally have those most. I probably have 10 or 20 of them around this house. Still of writing different ideas and writing concepts and funnels and internet marketing.

Um, one time, for those of you that know Jeff Walker, I did Jeff Walker's free training and built these three 45 minute free videos and, you know, put it out there and hopefully I've sold 97. By the way, that was like one of my favorite 97 I've ever made in my entire life. I still love that to this day. Um, but I tell everybody I tried everything and then.

One day striving a client. I was on a three hour sales call and I got the client agreed to a 25 one time coaching and I said, I will take it. Mind everybody there. This was an hour away, which probably meant I spent more on gas getting there and back than literally I was being paid. But I was like, I'm going to take it.

I am going to run with it. I'm going to go up there and I'm going to give him the best coaching session. And went up there and it was driving and literally right before, right before I was about to get off of the exit, everyone knows that text and it blings and you just know it's bad news. You just know it's the bad news.

And I looked down. Of course, she said, I can't do this. Maybe some other time because she hadn't paid me yet. She was going to pay me when I got there. Scott, I was the best way to describe it is. I literally lost consciousness now, obviously driving. It's not always the best thing in the world, but I just kept driving because I was like embarrassed to go home, embarrassed to even talk to people because I talked to my dad.

I got a client and tell him how big I just got a client. So it's proven something. And literally, I finally kind of woke up from this days, like four hours later in Buffalo. Like it was a Buffalo of all places there. And I, I just basically camped out because I couldn't go back home. Yeah. I just literally was like thinking, man, like how the F did I freaking get myself into this situation?

Like, what am I going to do? I was truly a success. I was a successful swim coach. I was a successful individual. Like literally from day one, after I graduated, I was becoming a big name and I left all of that for this. Like what was I doing? But something also magically came from that. And this is kind of the impetus of Born to Lead, and quite frankly, anything I've done, both successfully and poorly, as I will talk about, I'm sure, more.

The question kept coming up, I was like, I was a swim coach, I was so successful, I was so successful, I was so successful. Next thing you know, I'm like, wait a second. What did I do to build these swim programs? I didn't know nothing. I didn't know anything from, you know, Jane or Joe, like, but I built these huge swim programs.

I recruited some of the best athletes. I took programs. I had never had a winning season in two years. They were winning the conferences. Like what was I doing differently? And that was the moment Scott, where I said, I'm giving myself six months, I'm giving myself six months. And in the next six months, I am going to just basically do the things I did.

I don't know if it's right. It seems like it's the exact opposite of what everybody's telling me to do. I'm going to go on recruiting paths. I'm going to go on a very specific program build. I'm going to try to do things. I'm going to take some of my education and try to put together assessments. I'm going to put together programs.

I'm going to put together these cultures. I'm going to be talking about leadership. I'm going to be talking, doing all these things that we're not internet marketing. We're not. guru advice. We're not the three video stages , and hopefully those stuff work for you. It didn't work for me, but that immediate change over the next six months, I was able to build a couple of programs.

Um, one program is called the athlete system. The other was called overcoming obstacles and they took off. They took off with student athletes. They took off with people that were struggling with their health and weight and their mindset there. Um, Um, to the point where a couple of years like those programs really gave me a bigger name in terms of supporting those clients.

You know, I've worked with like hundreds of clients at that point through those programs. But in the end, what I tell people to this day , even with the stuff I work with people like Scott, I say there was , three things that really came down. Number one, I said, I'm a really damn good motivator.

I'm just going to be a motivator. I'm going to be a motivator to the core. I'm gonna try to motivate every single person I work with. Okay. Number two, I built programs. I didn't try to sell a service. I didn't try to sell something like five sessions or 10 sessions. I sold.

This is what we do. This is how we do it. And this is the expectation of where we can get you. I basically recruited them. Like I would talk to a swimmer that was trying to get into a college. And then the third thing was. I truly in the enrollment process, truly tried to make win win scenarios. Like I was never going to get the best athlete or the best student athlete.

If we didn't have some sort of grant module, or if it didn't fit with the right program. So to me, , I was like, you know what, why don't I just find a way to work with them financially time, all the pieces and really find a way to make them win. That's all I cared about was trying to find a way to win.

And it literally dramatically shifted my. Rate. If you want to call that like from that 25 to somebody paying me 5, 000, which was insane in my brain, that somebody would actually literally give me that amount of money. Um, and it's just really changed my world. And it's literally kind of the cornerstones of how I believe any business should grow.

You know, it's fantastic. And, you know, to get, you know, to, uh, my experience with born to lead as we move into that and some of its key tenants, particularly in terms of how much not just the time in the sessions, but individual attention that you've brought to my life to help bring things like the Corvus effect and very much grounded.

It. And self leadership, and I think one of the big things in why is born to lead successful. It's something that you call the inside out strategic approach.

So I want to delve a little bit deeper into that and have you explain that for my audience so that we understand there's a new way to look at the world.

I'm really glad you brought that up, Scott, because I've, and I'm going to say this a little vulnerable for everybody here, when you go through different levels of success and failures and having kids and getting married and, going through the ups and downs, I think that there's three things I think you find out.

So number one, there is no amount of success. That literally is going to be, I made it. And I think that's something that is a very big fool's goal. I think that there's a reason why that there are a lot of people out there that put on how much money they make and they're still working. And the question is why is because there's something truly they're trying to still grow into.

And I say that to myself, I'm still trying to grow as simply a person. I think that's the first thing. The second thing that I will say also vulnerably is that it's very easy as you move and grow. That you get more opportunities. I'm just going to tell everybody that the hardest part, when you get more and more success and believe me, there's people that have way more success than me too.

So I don't want to act like I've made it all, but I've done pretty well, um, in my life and in business. And most people would consider me a very successful person. But I will tell you that the hardest challenge is to say , which opportunities you're not going to take. And so when I talk about this,

I agree.

and when we talk about this inside out approach, I tell everybody that there's a lot of pieces to , this concept of business building that I think are just foolish and obnoxious, and they just don't make any sense.

And it's why I don't think that you can just simply work on mindset, on emotional nervous regulation, and you can't just work on strategy. We can't just work on tactics. They have to marry together. And I know all of us have heard this, but I've never really found something out there that actually combined the both.

That actually truly integrated the growth. And about like five or six months ago, I was just sitting with people like Scott and somebody said that, and I wish I could actually give the name. I apologize, Scott. You may not remember who said it, but they said there's is such a beautiful blend where I feel like I see myself in the business as much as I see my growth. And that literally gave me this light bulb of why did he say that? And why did I keep hearing other clients and other people say that? And it was because I realized, Oh my gosh, there is this beautiful blend. of we don't just focus on what your strengths are.

We don't just focus on what your talents are. We combine that in the way that it represents itself as the opportunity in the marketplace in the way you want to show up in your business. The best way for you to provide experiences for prospects and clients. And in the end of the day, I'll say this. It doesn't matter if you want to go to six figures, seven figures, eight figures, nine figures.

I believe the idea Yeah. Of maintaining as little friction as possible is the most important thing. And knowing what your true, true, true yeses and very simply the rest become those are. And that's why I believe in it so much. Once you have that figured out, once you know how to keep looking at it, weekend, week out, month in month out, year in year out, you'll find that ultimately your brand will grow faster.

Your business will grow faster. And also most important, maybe most important of all, you will still feel aligned with yourself. And that's what I think is at the end of the

And that's so critical. So many out there have successes looking like gold, but a ability to not be able to look at themselves as a friend or an ally in the mirror. And that's what we mean when we talk here on the Corpus effect of the integrated self, the belief that across career, health, wealth, and connection that we truly can be.

One being with multiple roles that blend beautifully to achieve that for yourself and for those closest to you. And I think as we talk about connection and the importance of connection in this age of A. I. And automation and many different ways where we're trying to have technology replace those things, which were human activities that you've said intimacy is getting lost.

And that is not a good thing. Uh, I'd love for you to elaborate on that.

Anyway, listen to this, let me actually say it this way, as everyone, I believe technology is the same thing that's been for the past 30 years, which with chat, GPT and AI, everyone's like, that's not true. That's not true. I assure you, everybody's talking the same way today as we were talking about the Internet back in the 2000s.

It's still the same concept, I believe, as an accelerator. My biggest concern for most people that are really, truly good people. When we talk about losing the intimacy of our business is you're losing the relationship that you have with people and you're outsourcing your ability to be human to a machine, don't be wrong.

There is so much power in these chat GPDs. There's so much power in AI. There's so much power and there's going to continue to be power. And I'm very grateful for it from, the technology that all of us are going to probably benefit from. I know as I get older, um, you know, I have heart disease in my family and they're going to be able to basically copy and print all I'll heart someday and be potentially maybe even put in my heart.

So I'm grateful for a lot of the technology, so I don't want to bash it. But I also know that for all of us there that continue to create technology in a way that actually serves our humanity requires us to make sure that we are spending time and energy truly connecting and bonding with other people, both like minded and those that challenge us.

I think three things that are very important. Number one, business is still about people. It is still about people to this day. And the best business I know always will serve people, cultures, communities, tribes, whatever word you want to call it.

The second thing is if you don't have that intimacy, I believe one of the saddest things I know is that loneliness is skyrocketing. You're going to be lonelier and lonelier and lonelier. And I can tell you this and I've experienced it myself. It is a horrible, awful place, no matter how successful you are.

And then the third thing, which kind of maybe goes with this second thing, but I think it's important is that you don't get to work on very simply your why and your purpose of living. You know, business is business, family's family. Your kids are your kids, all the things that we love and dear, please understand those are great things, but you better have a reason.

You simply, you better have a reason for waking up every single day. That's why I think it's crucial.

That is a massive truth bomb, particularly one of the reason why I created Corvus was I read this study that one in six adult men, family men, uh, believe that they have no true friends in this life. Which is mind boggling that you could walk down the street and there is that level of despair that nobody would see, but that exists in this world.

And I'd love for you to help my audience with any tips that you would have to be able to enhance their human connections, particularly as it relates to the professional arena.

Yeah, I'm going to start off with something very simple. And I think this is actually something that's going to help everyone's business and brand. But I know at the beginning, Scott mentioned something that I like to do something that's kind of , a weird, random human feet. And I wasn't going to laugh at this, but I really got into golf.

I used to hate golf. I used to hate everything about it. I despise it there, but I really thought, you know what, it's a great way for me to be social with other people. It's a great way for me to test some of my athletic skills. And so that's something I've been doing there. In the past, I've done obstacle course races and different things.

One of the things I will tell you right now I'm actually getting into is I want to get back to, um, for those who know the career. Crossfit totals. I want to get back above 1200, like with the bench press and shoulder press and squats and deadlifts and all those wonderful things to go into it.

But I bring this up because I believe , it's sometimes hard to just say, I'm going to go meet new people. I think you have to have. Interests that you explore, they don't have to be the highest motivations, but I think it brings you a new person into where I think it brings new people to your world.

I think it actually activates different aspects of your mind and allows you to look at different things. I think that's the first thing. I think the second thing is for every one of you that are actually readers, I know leaders are readers. We hear it all the time. I want to challenge you not to read all the business and personal development books in the world.

Understand that I say this with love, that it is still written by an author who has biases and opinions, and it's great to learn. It's great to grow, but I think there's a lot of importance on reading fiction, on reading books that simply are just to read. I'm telling you, I've not read a business book in about a year and a half, and I've learned as much if not more about business by just reading a lot of random different books, listening to some different documentaries that have given me a different space and honestly has allowed me to ask something else and then maybe of all the things leaders are givers.

I do know that. I do know that to my core. I'm not asking you to go give money all the time, although that can help. I'm asking you to go give some time, volunteer for your son's baseball team. Go get, go to a food shelter, go do something that's going to actually bring something back to you.

I, this is just my own personal opinion, but every time I've ever been stuck in my life, every time I've ever been depressed, the only way I've ever found to get out of it is simply trying to go find ways to help other people. And it doesn't have to be with my business. It can just simply be with my time, energy, supporting people that are more need than me.

know, it's in heart. It's heartening to hear you say that knowing that your core is at home, your wife, your son, being able to go ahead and not only have all the success professionally, but then also being able to come home. It's heartening. To a home front that warms you at the soul, and I'd like to get your wisdom in terms of how you achieve that work life integration.

In your light and how concepts like the inside out approach help you achieve that and may be helpful to others.

Yeah, I'm going to, I'm going to also say this to start to Scott, because I think it's important because we see so many people that have now husbands and wives who do relationship podcasts and they, they talk about the different inner workings. Um, you know, I, I'll say this. I am not a relationship expert.

I'm not a relationship guru. I am definitely a man of Mistakes and still continuing to

Join the club, join the

That's right. So, um, so I always say this to everyone to start as of 2015 . I didn't think I was already married. I thought I was going to be a single entrepreneur because how am I going to be able to fit?

My business and entrepreneurial dreams with a family and kids. And this is coming from somebody who values family. So please understand that for me to be here, I didn't believe it. And in fact, for any of you that are in that stage and you're struggling with that, please understand there is a, no, a mindset and a paradigm shift that you have to go through that has to say.

I can have it all. And I know that seems like a no way. You can't have it all. But you have to get to a paradigm shift to ask yourself what actually all is, is all simply mean that it's going to take 24 7 to grow your brand or grow your business or that simply, Hey, 24 7 is going to require me to be the best dad, to be the best mom, to be the best parent, to be the best husband, to be the best spouse.

Understand to me, I think the most important thing is that yes, we understand time. Time is our, our asset, but time is not created equal. One great 15 minute conversation with your spouse is worth two hours of just sitting around and watching a television show.

30 minutes of actually reaching out and engaging with your idea, prospect and engaging with your idea. People is better than spending two hours right in the post. Every one of us in here. We have the time because we don't value the quality of that time. That would be my challenge for you. You can have as many kids as you want.

You can have any business or any brand. I am assuring you I can assure you and Scott knows this because I probably challenged him and he hears it all the time in my community. You have to not look at your time is the most valuable thing. You have to look the quality of use of that time as the most valuable thing.

That's how you make everything happen.

Agreed. It is not the quantity of time. It is the energy and the presence that is associated with that time. And I'd love for you to elaborate a little bit, you know, as. The people that are listening to this. They're ambitious. They're family oriented men. They're hearing your story and they don't get to see behind the scenes, whether it be Lincoln or Vivian, right?

How you are directing that into action to make it so that you are. A present father in both of their lives. I'd love for you to go deeper on that.

My, my kids are man, every, every dad I'm sure is going to say this. I am the luckiest dad with my kids. They are bright, smart, happy, go lucky. They're young, but I, you know, you can just feel a fire and soul and something that I think there's two things that allow me to show up for them, um, in the way that I would want to show up for them, um, obviously like I tell everyone, I do my best.

Some days are not as good as others, but there's two things I find that are really important. . So the first one, I know we've all heard boundaries, but I think they're actually what, where those batteries start to take place. And to me, there's some stable things in our life that is very much family time.

Um, and I give my wife a lot of credit for, especially the dinner time, you know, dinner time is literally my, our family time. We sit down, we eat, um, And that's time together. We put some music on, we have that interaction. So I think it's having those stable times that basically become non negotiables.

I would say that that's the first thing. The second thing is, I think you have to find your own unique relationship with your kids. So for me, my son and I are very much into rough housing, wrestling, um, doing very much boy things right now. Um, My daughter and I are very much into seeing who can make the funniest noises with their tongues, like whatever we can read.

Um, I, I think you have to, I think the hard thing, the biggest thing I think with kids, at least for me, and again, no parent expert, um, but just like having a different relationship with Scott versus my wife versus another client, I think you have to look at that as like, you have to have the type of relationship you need to have with your kids.

But most of all, and maybe this is the most important thing, don't. When you look at your work as sacrificing your kids, it's going to be impossible. You will always pick your kids. So you have to understand your work is a lesson in itself for helping your kids grow into who they want to be.

That's actually a beautiful segue. I always close episodes of the Corpus effect, referencing a fellow Pittsburgh person, Randy Posh, who was Carnegie Mellon university professor book, the last lecture, uh, he is book, uh, talked about the head fake in terms of this book was written for my kids.

Lincoln and Vivian are listening to this when they're a little bit older, when they can understand it a little bit better. What are the key lessons or wisdoms that you want them to take away? I

My son and I, and eventually my daughter and I, um, we write books. We were writing a book. Um, we're not far ahead, but we're, we're moving there. And I think this is the lesson that the story actually, and I'm writing with Lincoln right now, I think is the lesson that I want my kids. And honestly, this is just me speaking some truth to everybody in there.

I hope you can keep it. The book is titled the square tire and it's the keep it short and sweet. The square tire saves the day when it gets very windy at the tire shop.

like it.

point is, is that every one of you and my kids, they are not going to have the same talents as everybody else. And I assure you that through all the different peoples and walks of life, the hardest thing is to stay true to yourself.

Especially when you make mistakes, especially when everybody wants you to conform, especially when people tell you there's no value in it. And honestly, and this is the hardest part when those that are closest to you, try to convince you and protect you. So I hope when my kids hear this is that there's going to be a day when dad and mom say, please don't do that.

And we're saying, because we want to protect them. If in their hearts, they say, I can't listen to you, mom and dad. I got to do the thing. Cause it's the right thing for me. And I hope you love them. I hope what they hear is that we will always support you. We will always love you. Even if we are deathly afraid that something bad is going to happen to you.

That's what I hope they hear.

is both at your age, uh, in terms of where your kids are, or when I went off to take the drive to create Corvus with My father saying, be careful. They love it because they want you to be safe. They want you to be protected. They don't want you to have to do things the hard way, but sometimes the hard way is the right way.

And I think that plays beautifully into the free guide. That you are mentioning here, 27 steps to a financially freeing personal brand. I'd love you to, uh, talk to the listeners about it.

Yeah. Um, I I've had people that made six, seven, eight figures, everybody. And so I'm going to tell you something it used to be called the 27 steps to building a million dollar personal brand. And, um, I I've changed that title about a month ago to financially freeing because I don't know what your number is.

I don't know what that looks like, but the biggest thing for me, for every one of you here is that I want you to understand that The fastest path to creating intimacy in the marketplace, the fastest path to be engaging with more and more people that you want to serve the fastest path to actually trying to grow an actual business that serves.

If you're having a family, your family and yourself and your dreams and your, and I say this in the best way your selfish desires is to basically build a personal brand that thrives. I am not a BS guy. I can only truly tell you that a lot of it, I believe as BS out there. So to me, I wanted to write something that said very simply, it is 20 some pages, it is a Google doc.

It is literally written to the point where I asked people, I said, was this what I did to help grow your brand? So it is, it's raw. It's real. It's exactly what I would do personally with you, um, with depending on what your situation is, um, But it's something I want you to have because if we're here to simply make an impact, we have to understand that not everybody's going to give us a dime.

And that's what this is for you. For those of you that join my world, I can assure you people like Scott, you will get access to me. You will get my brain, you will get what I think. And I'm, at a point in my life where I don't have time to try to convince you. I will try to motivate you and I give you reasons why, but I always leave it up to you.

But this guy will help give you that start. It's at bornleaders. com backslash 27 steps. Please know that when you do download it, you will get a message from me.

You will personally get a message from me and I will be the one that reaches out to you. Again, bornleaders. com backslash 27 steps, my gift to everyone in your world there, Scott. So thank you for giving me that

appreciate it. And I can certainly personally attest that I have gotten more than my fair share of, uh, Video messages from Alex since I joined his world and went through my own paradigm shift and iteration process to eventually bring Corvus and the Corvus effect to life and just a lot of the things that you guys have heard today in terms of taking those calculated risks on yourself, being able to be present with With your time and your energy, not just for yourself and for your work.

But for those in your life, those closest to you, having true intimacy in the connections that you have, particularly in business, so that you don't feel like you are creating something that has no soul, and being able to overcome points of adversity. Or points of uncomfortableness to find greater success like Alex has throughout his career.

I hope you take those lessons away, guys. Alex, again, thank you so much for all the wisdom that you've provided here. There will be a link to the URL that Alex gave on the podcast episode page, so you'll see it right there and can click into it. And I encourage all of you listening to get to know Alex more.

He's a phenomenal human being, and he certainly brought a lot of light to my life. So Alec, thank you so much.

Appreciate you, Scott.

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