How Presence, Not Hustle, Built a $25M Business with Josh Rathweg

0:01John Lee Dumas:Boom! Shake the room, Fire Nation. JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire, brought to you by High Level, the all-in-one sales and marketing platform. Today we'll be breaking down how Presence, not Hustle, built a$25 million business. And to drop these vibe bombs, I brought Josh Rathweg and EO Fire Studios. After building$25 million across 10 franchise units, Josh is now the president of Cloudbound and as co-founder of Presence on Purpose, he It teaches entrepreneurs to lead with intention, integrity, and impact. And today we talk about presence as a competitive advantage, the COVID crucible from broken to the top 10 % and oh, so much more.

0:40John Lee Dumas:And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Josh and our sponsors. If you are building a real business, you need real infrastructure. High Level gives you website hosting, funnels, email marketing, automation, calendar booking, payments, and course hosting all on one platform, plus award-winning 24-7 support. Get a 30-day free trial and my full bonus stack that includes a 50-minute private call with me and much more at highlevelfire.com. Highlevelfire.com. Fire Nation, 50 days will fly right on by. The only question is, will you have something to show for it? I created a free YouTube series called 50 Days to Something, a step-by-step path to build a real product, service, or offer in just 50 focused days.

1:23John Lee Dumas:Start today for free at eofire.com slash YouTube. Josh, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. I love it. Look, I tell my team all the time, strap in, we're gonna talk quick and we're here to win. So I think that's a great question to kind of lead off with. I have learned over the years and I think this is controversial and I tell my team, we're always going to be pushing the envelope a little bit. I think entrepreneurs find themselves hitting a ceiling and they think it's because of their strategy. And when we help them and we try to figure out what is holding their business back, what we actually find out is it's actually their business is struggling because they don't have the right leadership presence.

2:14And I hear gurus and, you know, people that sit on TikTok and all these places and try to, you know, help people become rich tomorrow, right? Do these five things and you'll be rich. And I actually think a couple of those gurus should be taken out back and kind of whipped with a little stick, right? So it's because at the end of the day, all they're doing is telling people, you just got to grind harder. You just need to show up earlier and stay later and grind harder and you're, you're going to be more successful. And I'll tell you, I reject that because I grind hard. I show up early. I stay late.

2:46That is an expectation as an entrepreneur or maybe somebody who's aspiring to be a successful entrepreneur. But that's not what makes a great leader. And that's not what builds a 25 million dollar business with tons of employees. I have found it is your presence showing up on a daily basis, shoulder to shoulder with people and not just reacting on instinct. And I think a lot of leaders, they've learned some bad habits, they've watched what their buddy did, or maybe they didn't have the best mentors, they were kind of coming up through the ranks. And what they do is they just react on instinct.

3:24And I think at the end of the day, it's about having the right presence, not the right strategy. And that makes the biggest difference for people.

3:33John Lee Dumas:This is a great start to the episode, Fire Nation, and just the imagery of taking somebody out back and whipping them with a little stick. You know, not a big stick, not a bat. We're talking about a little stick. I mean, that imagery, I just love it because it's going to stay with me forever. So you mentioned presence and I want to really dive into that now because you believe that presence is a competitive advantage and you've amassed over$25 million across 10 franchise units, not by outworking everyone, as you just mentioned, but by mastering your presence as a leader. What does that actually mean in practice, Josh?

4:08Well, I think I alluded to it a second ago, right? A lot of leaders, you know, I want to scale my business or I want to build a better culture or I'd like to have a business that when I'm not there, it just runs and it runs the right way. And I think people are always seeking out a way to that. What does it mean to have the right presence? It means that you still yourself for a second. It means that you do not react on instinct, whether it's to an employee or an obstacle that your business is facing or some real challenge that's like hitting your company in the face. We don't, in my team, my organization, like I said, we have about 800 people across my organization, five states, huge business.

4:50We do not react by instinct. We follow a framework. we start with a moment of reflection to say like let's really understand where we're at and that's our awakening phase of like what is really the challenge here what are we lacking on as a leader and i alluded to it earlier a lot of times the problem is us as a leadership group and that's where i always get my team to start with which is whether it's servant leadership showing up for your team shoulder to shoulder mentorship we can go through some of these in depth with my team These are the cornerstones of your presence as a leader. And I think a lot of times, especially aspiring leaders, it's really hard to accept the fact that the ceiling that your team is achieving is defined by your presence.

5:38Right. We're not talking a glass ceiling. We're not talking about some artificial, you know, thing put on you by the outside world. That's really easy to blame and put that off and say, well, that's not my fault. it's way more difficult to say that your presence as a leader is the ceiling and if we can't get to that place if we can't start awakening and understanding that we need to change our behavior first it's really difficult to move the next step with a framework you can't align your team now you can't activate with people you're never going to get to a place where you're really you know multiplying that across the phase so to me that that's really what it gets down to is that you are the ceiling and we need to start there first.

6:21That's your awakening phase.

6:22John Lee Dumas:Fire Nation, this is powerful to get into this awakening phase. And my listeners, Josh, they love stories. They've grown up on stories. We love telling stories here on Fire Nation. And you have a story about the COVID crucible. I mean, two weeks, literally two weeks after opening up a multi-million dollar location, COVID hit, and you faced a 16-month shutdown right in your face. So what mindset framework kept you grounded as well as moving forward during that time? There are things in life that you go through that you would never wish upon anyone. I don't want someone to go through that crucible.

7:01I don't need them to develop a framework through that. But I will tell you, going through that, looking backwards, and it's always interesting in life, When you look in the rear view mirror, you can kind of see the thread woven through when you make decisions that you're happy with and you feel are the right ones. You can start to see that framework develop. And I will tell you, I mean, just thinking through that COVID, right? By happenstance, I happen to own two franchise locations going into that. I had just not only had bought the second franchise location, right? So I'm all in. I've been successful with one.

7:35It was one of the top in the country. I feel really good about my presence and how I'm demonstrating that to my team. And let's, let's take the leap and now do number two, right? That's what you want to do as an entrepreneur is you want to grow. I was all in. I literally bought the business. I had about a million dollars available to me, whether it be, you know, savings, cash, you know, all my securities and stuff. And I put all of it in. I put the million dollars that I had into renovating that business. And I am not exaggerating. 17 days later, COVID hit. And I don't think people who are not entrepreneurs understand this.

8:12When your revenue stops, your bills don't. Right? Everything I had bought to prepare for the grand opening, it's all on 30 day net. All of the expenses, electricity, the vendors, the product, the food, all the marketing, everything was on 30 day net. So I lost all revenue. You want to talk about like the slip my wrist and let me slowly bleed out as an entrepreneur. And that's the moment where you have to rely on your presence and you have to be still for a moment because instinct would have led me right off the cliff. Instinct, I would have reacted harshly to my team. I just would have been angry at the world.

8:50By the way, I was angry for the war against the world. Make no mistake. But I had to figure out I can't allow everything about my character and how I teach my team and I mentor my people and we treat them the right way. I can't just react now instinctively, which is harshly. And so we were closed. You said it right. For 16 months with no revenue. I lost everything. I used every penny I had. Checking savings in the businesses were completely wiped out. I didn't use the credit cards because I knew I couldn't pay the credit cards because I had no revenue. So they had zero balance on their credit cards, but they were effectively useless to me as a business owner.

9:33And then I liquidated my personal, everything in my personal assets, my checking, my savings. I couldn't pay my mortgage. So I reached out to the bank and asked, can I get an exception to put this on the back end of my mortgage? And luckily they were nice about it. So they pushed my mortgage payments to the end of my mortgage, but I had nothing. In fact, for those that see success on the back end and they see the cars and they see the businesses and the money, go back in time. During that period, I had to sit on the couch, swallow my ego, look my wife in the eyes and say, I think we're at a point that we have to apply for unemployment to take care of our groceries next week.

10:14I am here doing everything I can, and I do not have a solution for the next seven days. And that to me is not something I want somebody to go to, but that's what helped me frame that the next 10, 15, 20 years of my life. I want this framework that I use. I want what carried me through that entire time to not just be an accident. We can bottle this. We can teach other leaders. And if they can go through challenges and issues, whether grand or small, and apply maybe some of those learnings that I did during that time, that I feel really good about what we're doing to help other leaders.

10:57John Lee Dumas:So Josh, you mentioned the framework and Fire Nation. We're going to be talking about that, about why entrepreneurs plateau, scaling culture the right way, and more. When we get back from thanking our sponsors. Fire Nation, if you are building a real business, you need real infrastructure. That is why High Level is Entrepreneur on Fire's featured partner. High Level gives you a website builder and hosting funnels and landing pages email marketing, appointment scheduling, payment processing, course and membership hosting, and so much more. Everything you need to succeed all under one roof. No duct tape, no juggling five platforms, just one clean system for your business.

11:33John Lee Dumas:And their award-winning 24-7 support has your back when you need it most. When you sign up at highlevelfire.com, you also get my exclusive bonus stack, a 30-day free trial, a private 15-minute call with me, JLD, access to my weekly live office hours, a digital copy of my book, The Common Path to Uncommon Success, my 50 Days to Something Execution Roadmap, and more. Visit highlevelfire.com and start building your something today. Fire Nation, if you've ever thought, I know I'm capable of more, but you're not sure where to start, I've created something for you. It's called 50 Days to Something. Not 50 Days to Perfection, not 50 Days to Overnight Millions, just 50 focused days to build something that matters.

12:19John Lee Dumas:Maybe a product, a service, a course, a coaching offer, something real, and something that will generate real revenue. 50 days to something is my passion project. Each video is short, is tactical, and it's designed for you to take one meaningful step forward each day. Picture this, in just 50 days, you will have built an asset. And the best part, it's completely free and it's on my YouTube channel right now. If you are ready to create something that matters, visit eofire.com slash YouTube. That's eofire.com slash YouTube and start your 50-day journey today. 50 days will pass in the blink of an eye.

12:57John Lee Dumas:The question is, will you have something to show for it? Josh, we're back and I want to talk about the presence leadership framework. I mean, you teach this framework, awaken, align, activate, amplify, assess. Can you break this down and how can our listeners, how can Fire Nation apply this framework, not tomorrow, but today? Yeah, I think that's a great point. Here's what I'll start with. You come to the table with servant leadership and your results earn you credibility, right? And so as a leader, we don't want to try to apply the framework unless we've got some results and credibility to go behind it.

13:33And I think that's really important. Once as a leader, you've got some results and some credibility, not a title, right? Let's be really clear about that, right? leadership is an earned privilege. But once you've got that, now you can go tell a story. And that's really where this presence framework comes into place. As you tell a story to your team, and as you're present with them and helping them, now you can apply this framework. And to me, it is about yourself as a leader before you worry about building the culture of the team. And so you mentioned the first one, which is awaken. And so at the end of the day, we have to pause, still our soul for a second, take a minute, and we become aware of how we are carrying ourself in that scenario.

14:15So let me give you an example of a situation that would apply to that, right? You're going into a meeting, you're doing a PowerPoint presentation, everybody's done a PowerPoint presentation before. Everybody preps for the slides. That's what a leader typically prepares themselves for. They memorize the slides, the bullet points, the transitions, and they get themselves really smooth. So they're going to walk in and execute. they put no time into understanding and awakening how they're going to carry themselves. What is their tone going to be? What's the energy level in the room? How are they going to frame the meeting before a single slide even comes up?

14:52See, the preparation that I have found that truly helps you move up within a firm, within your own organization, or even as an entrepreneur, is actually the ability of time that you invest into the awakening phase because that impacts how you execute now. Um, you mentioned we jump right from awakening into a line, right? So now you're in the phase that you understand how you want to walk into that meeting. If we use that simple example, and now I'm going to align my thoughts, my words, and my actions based on that. If I want this to be a direct meeting that I'm going to align the way that my agenda is run, the topics we cover, the amount of time I allow discussion back and forth, we're going to make sure it's a direct meeting with a purpose to get a great outcome.

15:37I also might align it that this is really a brainstorming session. And I'm going to make sure that everything we do allows that kind of culture to really come up inside that meeting. That to me, those two steps almost never get attention. We move always right into what I would consider activate, which is like, get me in the room, give me the stage, and then let me just dig into my PowerPoint presentation. And I think that's a mistake. And I don't think we set people up for that. I don't think we spend enough time talking about it. And I think we invest that's that whole grind harder, just do a better job presenting, practice it more next time, like get it under your belt.

16:18And I think we need to start on the first two phases of that. And I will tell you that I was tested during COVID with that, right? All I wanted to do was just go straight to activate. Well, I'm going to, I'm going to solve the problem that I don't have cash. I'm going to make sure my vendors don't cancel my contracts. I got, how am I going to keep employees from quitting when I can't really pay? I was, I was tested to live in the activate phase and I would have gone off the cliff. What I needed to do was step back. How am I going to carry myself through this? What's my team going to see from me?

16:51Like, how am I going to be awoken and understand what I need to look like to everybody else through this phase? And then my goals, my alignment goal was this. I knew this was going to end. I didn't know when I didn't know how long, but I knew it was going to end. And if I aligned my thoughts, my action feelings to make sure that when this ended, my franchises were more set up. So we were going to do all the repairs. We were going to get all the frameworks in place. We're going to get all the strategy in line so that when we opened and we got to the activate phase, I came out faster than everybody else.

17:28That was really, really important during that phase. By the way, we came out of COVID and we were the, because of this, by stopping and following this framework, my franchises that I was on California unemployment, I had lost everything. Every employee had quit. I had no vendors, had to start everything from scratch. When we came out, baby, we were the top, we actually won franchise partner of the year back to back across the entire country. And this is not just in one metric. This was in sales, customer experience, you know, re-over-year growth, membership, every member or every single metric you could think of, we excelled at, but it's because we had taken the time, I had taken the time during that COVID shutdown to awaken my mind to why I wanted to carry myself, align my actions to what the goal was, which was to be ready to open.

18:24So I could then go into the active phase, activate phase, and just crush it from that point. So I hope that helps answer and understand how I even apply that in my life.

18:32John Lee Dumas:It's powerful. And to me, it all comes back to culture. Like somehow you were able to go from where you were at the lowest of the low and build a culture that matters. And so that's where I want to move into scaling, like scaling culture the right way because you've been able to do this. So how can we, how can the listeners, how can Fire Nation build a leadership culture that is so strong that our team performs at a high level even when we're not in the room? Because Josh, let's be honest, we can't always be in the room. We shouldn't always be in the room. So how do we do that? let's start first with the hard truth which is you can't create a culture through emails spreadsheets and to-do lists you can set an expectation that way right you can visit your entre your business you can or you can visit even your organization you know a couple times here here and there come up with a great you know tips and things that you need them to do type up a great summary and you have 100 check the box that you have set the expectation for your team.

19:30That is not shoulder-to-shoulder leadership. You do not build a culture unless you can duplicate yourself to your team. And that is the scary part for a lot of young leaders. You might not want them to duplicate yourself because you react on instinct, because you don't take a second to center and really awaken yourself. You're not aligned with what your goals are. And by the way, it's not your fault. That is not your fault at all. That is probably what you're taught by gurus and people that you started your job with. So you simply duplicate that. Here's where I want you to take a step back and really let this sink in for a second.

20:05This is like your circle highlight underlying moment here. Servant leadership, shoulder to shoulder leadership is not a soft skill. That is your competitive advantage. And if you can't connect that dot and really understand that you will not build the culture that you want. So let's unpack that for a second. That means that if I'm going to expect somebody to do something inside my team, I need to know how to do it myself. I need to know how to do it in front of them. And I need to be able to do it as good or better than I expect them. And I share with my team all the time, the simple, simple litmus test, whatever you do really well, your team is going to do 50 % as you don't get frustrated.

20:49That's just how it goes. And whatever you do poorly, your team is going to do twice as bad as you. Lean into that. If you find that you're hitting a ceiling and your culture isn't where you want, do not go fix the team, fix your presence. It might mean that you need to become more active and engage with your team. You might need to be on the floor more. You need to step away from your computer and go do that activity with the team that you're frustrated that they're not selling enough memberships or that their customer experience scores aren't where they need to be. You might need to step out there and do that with them and show them.

21:25That does not mean baby them. That does not mean lower your standard of excellence. Okay. We expect the team to perform, but how you do that is shoulder, shoulder mentorship. That's where I would start with. If you're trying to build culture. Uh, the second thing I would say just personally is it's not top down leadership. Okay. If you're trying to build a culture, it It cannot be a yes, sir. Yes, ma 'am. We follow directions, you know, kind of an environment. The last step in our framework as we're going through and thinking through, which is assessment, means that you have to be able to allow the young leaders who are aspiring to be you one day to get a little voice in the darn room, to have a little bit of a pushback against you, to be able to raise their hand and say, I don't actually think this is the best strategy or approach to build our culture.

22:12and if you're not confident enough in yourself, and by the way, this is a managerial courage issue. If you can't be confident enough and engaged in enough time with your team to accept that feedback, then it's going to be really hard to build the culture that you want. And so I think those are some really simple but very difficult principles that when you take a long swallow, you let it sink in for a second, you go, you know what? I actually knew that was how to build culture. I just didn't really want to go the hard way. And I'm here to kind of say to you, it's not about grinding harder. It's about accepting to just do it the hard way.

22:51And that's how we build our team. And when somebody joins our organization, interview within the first two, three days, this is the culture that we expect from them. We say, your manager is going to be shoulder to shoulder with you. That's not micromanaging. That's how we mentor. You're going to get a chance to hear them, to listen to them, to be around them. That's a privilege. You're getting to be next to a rock star and your job is to become and act and talk and behave just like they do. And one day in the future, we want to put somebody under you who's going to view you as that great leader they want to kind of aspire to.

23:27And so when you build that culture of a meritocracy, people start going, that's, that's, that's the culture. That's where I want to be working. That's where I want to kind of, I don't want to quit. I'm not going to turn over because somebody offered me two extra bucks an hour. I love working here. And so it's been very rewarding to see that kind of thrive inside of our team.

23:46John Lee Dumas:Amazing principles here, Fire Nation. And I love that phrase, don't fix the team, fix the presence. So Josh, Fire Nation has gotten so much value from what you've shared here today. If they want to connect with you, if they want to learn more from you, from your company, what is your call to action for our listeners today? I'll just share from the heart. I, I don't believe in gurus. I don't think you get a five steps to go get rich. I give hard, authentic, direct love and coaching with my team. And that's really the basis of presence on purpose, which is the company and the organization that I've really developed to take the framework that I've used over the last couple years, growing this huge organization to really help other people copy and mirror and just bring that into their life.

24:35And here's what I think we talk about all the time with the team. It is not about making a lot more money and getting a greater title and all these things. It is about making a bigger impact. And when you understand the framework and you stop reacting by instinct and you follow these steps, you make a bigger impact on yourself first. And that is very different than what other people ask you to do. They usually tell you to go fix your team first and you'll get what you want as a leader. No, no, no. We're going to get greater impact by fixing ourself. We're going to grow as a leader. And then by having a great framework and a culture with your team and following those five steps that we help them through, we do that through presence on purpose.