No BS. All Business. Top 10 Resolutions Ways to Crush 2025

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0:41Taking the BS out of business for over 6 years and over 400 episodes. You ready to start snapping necks and cashing checks? Well, it starts right about now. Special edition alert. What's up, guys? Welcome to Right About Now, two days after Christmas. It's Friday, December 27th for you. We're recording this a little bit earlier from our studios in Greenville and Miami. Just happy to be here. We've got Brianna in studio. What's up, Brianna? Hey, guys. We've got Chris Hansen down in Miami. What's up, Chris? What's up, y 'all? You know, we didn't want to just bring you news. We're going to bring you some motivation, I guess, lack of a better word.

1:26Mindset and motivation here. Hey, we're a business show. Those are two crucial things in business. And we want to get your head right for 2025. So we're going to talk a little bit about some things we've learned ourselves this year. Chris and I, and Brianna for that matter, we're all involved in a lot of different businesses and a lot of different things. So our perspective sort of is what comes out on this show all the time. But I think we wanted to share some tips, tricks, things we've learned ourselves the hard way. Even if I could part on anything, please learn from me. so you don't have to go through some of it.

2:05I've failed more than I can count, but hey, you keep coming back for more. It's all about the journey and growing through it. So pumped to be here. And I mean, before we get into it, you know, Chris, I mean, does anyone celebrate? I'm old, you know, like New Year's, New Year's Day anymore. Is that diminished? The party's still like gigantic, huge, and I'm just old and not in the circle anymore. I haven't been to a New Year's party in a long time, so ask Chris. I mean, there's definitely still parties. I don't go to big New Year's party events. Yeah. I had a friend text me, like, what are you doing for New Year's?

2:44I'm like, I don't know. I think I've been at home the last, like, four years. Yeah. We're headed on our trip, like, the day, day after. So we kind of are distracted even more than normal packing and otherwise. But even the last few years. When we lived on the West Coast, we would like watch the East Coast New Year's countdown. And so we would watch it at nine o 'clock and that was, you know, nice. But now we're here. So, I mean, I'm sure I'll pop a nice bottle of sparkling wine and just enjoy the cozy fire. Yeah. See, that sounds good. I mean, that sounds good. I kind of want to do that right now, you know.

3:24That's always better than being crowded in a restaurant or a nightclub. Yeah. And having or a shitty like hotel backroom lobby or whatever, wherever they have them now or to be. Oh, my God. I lived in New York when all the people crammed in like in Times Square. Oh, my God. I can't even imagine. Like I was there and a million miles away from it. at least it felt like it down the other end of Manhattan and you wouldn't see me within a thousand feet of that place. You don't want to go put on a diaper and stand there for eight hours like people do? Oh, God. The traffic. Crazy. I can't get anxiety when I see that.

4:08Yeah, exactly. Just to see that ball drop. No interest in being that close to that many people. Or Ryan Seacrest for that matter. anywhere on that block is too close to him. I don't dislike you, Ryan. Just a little. Since you have my name. Just kidding. Let me run for one. Ryan is right. Seacrest. Anyway, I will leave it there on the parties. Sounds like we're all in the same boat. That's how we're going to bring you the real party. Hey, you party when you make money and you make, hey, you make progress. Money is the outcome. Hey, we all need money. But like, it's more the progress. This is about making progress in 2025.

4:49growing yourself, growing your company and growing your opportunities. So that's what we're here for. How do we want to kick this off, Brianna? Well, I know you had a couple of questions for Chris and I, and then we'll get into our top 10, not resolutions, but ways to kick 2025's ass. Yeah. Well, that sounds great. I, I'm, I'm fueled today by my exponent. And so with that, I will kind of jump right in. So I want to talk about for our listeners, what is one thing, and we'll start with Chris. Chris, what is one thing that you learned in 2024 about business or something that went really well that relates to your businesses in 2024?

5:33Yeah. I mean, I've talked about it before. Main thing I say is social media, personal branding, whether it's a business, it's yourself. I mean, that's something with the encouragement from Ryan, really, and some other friends. I kind of leaned into the last two years. I think this year, obviously, we have the podcast, Vibe Science, you know, our other podcast. And then doing everything I do on Instagram, I can see the value it's brought in businesses and my personal life, professional life. So I think that's something, no matter what business you're into, what you're doing. I don't care if you're a lawyer or you're building houses.

6:11I think start to tip your toes in social media, get comfortable with it, try to really utilize it as a tool instead of a consumer. That would be the biggest thing that I think I've seen in my life. I can see going forward is going to be a big thing. And I think it'll give people a big advantage no matter what industry you're in. Just like Ryan always says, it pays to be known. If you were going to put like an ROI on social media and your personal brand, what do you think that would be for you for 2024? I don't know. I can't even put that. The way I look at it is it's just a snowball rolling down a hill.

6:47It's going to continue to grow and evolve and be a tool. Key word is brand. And brand is about leverage over time. it's it pays like i mean tris cash checks this year from personal branding but what he's done is he's setting up leverage and feeling that leverage be played out and paid off because i've done the same thing i mean there's stuff here and i had a meeting with our team yesterday and i said listen to the old man for a minute here like i mean they get on my soapbox like i've been doing this for seven years focused, you know, between the podcast and the personal brand. And some of the quote unquote checks that we're cashing now are seven years in the making.

7:33And so you're building brand and look, you got to do it the right way. It's not just posting Lambos and, you know, like looking like a fool. It's, it's about being purposeful and showing and giving people tips and motivation or whatever your thing is, whatever your specialization is, is sharing that gift or knowledge or insight with the world and building, you know, an audience that cares about that and that, you know, that then can be leveraged in different ways because you've curated someone that's interested in things. And then when you have businesses that might sell things in and around that specific niche, you have audience built.

8:20Because when you have audience built, that's the hardest part. You can leverage it a lot of different ways. And it's not always monetization. It might be because Chris gets DMed by someone that listened to him or knows him. And the next thing you know, like five levels down the line, he's cashing checks on a business deal or crypto deal or something that would have never happened if he wasn't out there. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think that social media has such a potential for a high return on time investment, I guess, kind of, you know, was where the question was coming from. I think that being known and being, you know, a voice in the space that you're in, depending on what industry you're in is always, you know, critical.

9:07And if you have a brand, being the face of your brand is always a great idea. Yep, it is. So I think that's a big one. And Ryan, your turn, something that went really well for you in 2024, business success or business lessons learned? I mean, I'm going to start with the lessons learned. I mean, I posted about this today, ironically, the day we're recording it. And it's just, you know, when you get comfortable, that's a dangerous spot. And I got comfortable in business and things and it, no one's going to run your business, but you and, you know, learning that you've got to be in it to win it with the company.

9:51And no matter who you hire, what you do, you've got to be in the center of it. And no matter, and it's just, that's just reality. Well, also I think I don't want people to think that it's like hustle culture like you can't be comfortable like oh great if Ryan's not comfortable then who the hell is going to be comfortable well I just mean settle it you start to settle for things you wouldn't normally settle for you allow things that you wouldn't typically allow because you don't want to rock when you get comfortable you don't want to get uncomfortable it's like and it uncomfortable doesn't mean unhappy there's a difference between comfort and happiness it's just you have to continue to challenge yourself to set goals to move forward because if you're not growing advancing or learning you can't stay in neutral life doesn't stay in neutral.

10:51And that's, that's the thing because the, the use it or lose it is, is really like key here. Yeah, absolutely. And I think that it's so important to, you know, just remember that, you know, there's all sorts of sayings, like if you like familiarity breeds contempt, right. Or like being comfortable, like the couch is comfortable, but you can't stay there forever because you'll never get anything done. And I think it, you know, it is a really good thing to reflect back on, especially end of the year, kind of motivating yourself for kicking off the new year on the right foot. I think that it's really important to remember that.

11:29Yeah. And I think, you know, the gym to me is always the best comparison. It's if you go to the gym, you can get on that treadmill and look like you're doing it, but you aren't, but you aren't doing it because you're just comfortable. You're just on it. You're walking, you're getting your steps in And hey, it's good to walk every day, but you're not going to get a six pack and bulging biceps on the treadmill. So it takes some discomfort and putting yourself through some trials and tribulations to see the results. Yeah. And I think in the beginning or if you're restarting, it is uncomfortable for more ways than one.

12:11It's not just like physically uncomfortable, but it's hard to put yourself out there. It might be hard to put yourself out there on social media. It's not easy, right? There's, if it was easy, everybody would be doing it. Yeah. And I had to be reminded that the joy is the journey. And it's not the process. Making money or having things is not happiness. It's the ability to seek out and create new ways with which to have those opportunities. It is like fundamentally back to the people say the journey is everything. I'm saying that, but I'm saying the journey is everything. But no, it's the person that you become during the journey and during the trials that is everything.

13:11There's a difference. And when you don't put yourself in that position or you're just soaking in one spot, like you're on the beach. And if you laid out the entire time with never turning, your whole body doesn't get tanned. You know what I mean? and so but you're comfortable you're there hey i'm getting some benefits here but you got to move around you've got to adapt and so again that was the biggest learning lesson and then you know at the end of the day i'm thankful i had a wife that had cancer this time last year and does it today um so blessed there and got four healthy kids that are great and i get to coach and i get to wake up every day.

14:00So, hey, we got to be thankful for that. Yep, exactly. Exactly. And there's so many different, you know, things to be grateful for and reflect on. I think it's really beneficial every year at this time of the year, last two weeks of the year to kind of audit your life over the last year, how you spent your time. When I was a business owner, every year I did a calendar audit. So I would audit the way that I spent my time. I would keep a log of, you know, everything that I worked on and I would highlight it in different colors and I would audit how I spent my time. And then I would set my intention for the upcoming year on how I would maximize my output by spending my time better.

14:42Perfect segue. My friend, one of the guys on our network, Matt Reynolds, Barbell Logic CEO, wrote a book just about that exact thing. Undoing urgency. Reclaim your time for the things that matter most. Hey, it's an Amazon bestseller right now. You need to go check it out. He's on our network. Build Your Business is his podcast. Barbell Logic is the company, but this is a great book. You'll even see yours truly. I think it's page two. I've got a review in here and I'm going to read you this review because I meant it because actually he sent me a pre-copy and it tells you, I think I did the best description of, hey, I'm a writer.

15:20He had his friend as a writer write a review, but I do think it describes what the book's about. I put, Matt has written a masterclass in short-term versus long-term thinking that could become the modern playbook for entrepreneurs, busy fathers, and even marketing executives. The principles he outlines in undoing urgency feel familiar, but entirely fresh as he weaves a tapestry of gripping personal experience with highly relatable scenarios that kept me page turning. I was ultimately left in total reflection, primarily with the man staring back at me in the mirror. And it was because it makes you realize where you should be spending your time and that we create these senses of urgency around things that really don't matter.

16:02And it gets in the way of the things that do. So can't give this a high enough recommendation, unpaid, just because, but it's that good. Yeah. And build your business. That podcast is, you know, it's really motivating and it's on our network, like Ryan said, definitely worth a listen. Yes. So, are we ready for our top 10 ways to kick 2025's ass? Yeah, no resolutions, just ways to crush 2025. There you go. All right. Number 10, inspect what you expect. All right. So, this is one of my favorite quotes. So, you get it for number 10. It might should be number one, but we're going to call it what it is.

16:41So, let me tell you what that means if you don't know what it means. It means if you expect something to happen, you've got to be a part of making it happen and reviewing and setting goals and having accountability to that. We all expect things. We all want goals to happen. We want this to happen, that to happen. And then sometimes we've got to sit back and go, why didn't that happen? You have to inspect what you expect. You have to grade it, set, hey, what gets measured gets graded. And so this is something I always know. I always preach, but I don't always practice myself. And, but I do, and this list is as much for me as it is anyone listening is for us all to kind of remember.

17:27If you expect something, you got to inspect it. Reflections on that? So I'm reading the book, Deep Work right now. I don't know if you've read it, but it kind of goes back to, you know, Matt Reynolds's book. And I think it's so important. I get caught up a lot in business, in task switching, task management, a bunch of balls in the air at the same time. And just really fundamentally doing deep work on each project and follow through on them. I think that's really important. It's so easy for you to get caught up in all the noise, especially with how fast our world moves. But I do think it's, I think that fundamentally you have to be more involved in your expectations.

18:16Yep. Be part of the solution that you seek. Chris, thoughts? I mean, I just think about some of our businesses and the little, the devils in the details, the little things that sometimes you can overlook. And that's exactly what comes to my mind is if I expect something to be done a certain way, then like you need to be involved in how you want it done. You can't just tell people, Hey, do this and expect them to manifest your vision. Right. Yep. Well, and I think that that's something that, you know, is well reflected on in certain situations that we've had here. You know, it takes time and patience a little bit and communication.

19:00Yeah, for sure. All right. Number nine is my favorite one on the list. Start a podcast.

19:11Yes, I agree. Look, I mean, Chris already nailed it. And when Chris says it, and he said multiple things, but he's, he talked about personal branding, you know, podcast. I mean, podcasting is kind of like the ultimate, like, I don't know, channel, I think for a personal brand. And look, we can, there's people right now that are hearing that word and rolling their eyes and all that. And there's people that I respect a lot that hate that word. I don't love it, but I haven't come up with a better word. It's really just expanding your reputation, sharing your reputation and it with more people, amplifying what you want the world to know you are known for or good at.

19:52And so podcasting is an amazing forum for that. And look, this genie is not going back in the bottle. More 18 to 34-year-olds listen to watch podcasts than they do watch television. The election was determined by podcasts and the candidates that went on them that didn't because of the influence that it has. And audio and video and social media, the combination of multi-platform and podcasting is tremendous democratization of media that allows anyone to have their voice heard and you should be leveraging it. And if you start a podcast, you should join the Radcast Network. Yes, you should. We're doing a growth network.

20:40We're helping shows of all sizes grow, monetize and have business outcomes. Because if it doesn't have a business outcome, it's like my good friend on Friday said, what you do with building a clubhouse? Is that a hobby? Yeah. No, it's not a hobby. It's a business. It can be. It can have business outcomes, but you got to join the Radcast Network to get there. Yes. All right. Number eight. This is a Chris one and a Ryan one, but Chris's favorite, invest in crypto. I'm going to let Chris start there. Do it. We've talked about it all year. If you would have invested a year ago right now, you would have been wealthier if you had followed my non-financial advice.

21:23So yeah. So, I mean, at this point you should just know it's an asset class you need to be investing in, right? If it's the largest banks in the world, the U S government is holding Bitcoin, that should give you enough security that this isn't like some fly by night scam. Right. And I always explain this to people. Why Bitcoin has no value. Yeah. Well, neither does the piece of paper that you hold in your pocket called the U.S. dollar. We just all collectively believe it has value. But that piece of paper actually intrinsically has no value. So you speak back old. Some people still think it is.

22:01It's not. It's not, right? But yeah, I mean, there's still room for the market to grow. We talked about this recently. I look at crypto, especially the big ones, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, like your blue chip stocks, Ford, Pepsi, download Coinbase or crypto.com. You can have an auto withdrawal from your bank account, however much you want a week or a month, set it and forget it. That's it. I'll have to say that. I think we're going to do some crypto challenges in 2025. We'll do some on-screen stuff. Maybe we'll do some like, we'll do the right about now crypto fund. And maybe Chris and I'll throw like a thousand bucks each in there.

22:41I don't know, something. And like, we'll watch what happens. as a standalone, like its own little account, you know, and whatever comes out of that, like all the profits will give to like Sawyer and Brianna. Like, oh, I like this plan. The spread them with the team, but just to show the love. That's a good idea. I like that. I like it too. It goes with our next way to crush 2025. Be right. Well, oh, I skipped one, but be radically different. Yeah. And serve others. Which one was first? Well, radically different was first on the list, but serve others was the one that went with the last thing we talked about.

23:21Yeah, we'll come back to that one. We'll come back to serve others. Be radically different. Own your different. One of the smartest people I know, Chris Lockhead, he's coined that phrase, you know, own your different. I'm the rad guy. So I always add, you know, be radically different, which is being different is important. But I think push it further than you think. Lean into it so that it becomes radically different. You stand out. Don't stay, you know, like got a lot of parodying going on. A lot of like copycat stuff. Like be yourself. Own it. You know, you're going to piss off people no matter what.

23:57I know. I can. Look, I piss off more people when I'm trying not to piss off people. So let me just tell you, just be you, baby. And, you know, lean into what you're good at. You follow your passion, but follow what you're good at. You know, but you'll become passionate about what you're good at. And you get good at things that differentiate you. Differentiation is the king of success, ultimately. And it doesn't, I'm not saying to just make up crazy, wacky shit. I'm saying like, just be unapologetically you. And see where the chips fall. Unless, you know, you're a serial killer or something. Then don't.

24:38Then don't be yourself. get some help you know uh luigi or whoever god geez but who knows fucking knows what's going on with that but like but seriously just be yourself you know i mean so it sounds cliche oh be yourself because everybody else is taken but it's true it's so true i think too when you aren't yourself especially in business it is really easy to lead yourself down this road where you end up getting burned out because you haven't been authentically yourself. Correct. Anything to add to that one, Chris? I totally agree with it. Own you. There's no one else like you. The world needs you in your most authentic form.

25:24That's when you'll bring the right people to you. Yep. Yeah. That's the thing. If you want to be happy, you got to be yourself and it will bring other people. It's like a magnet for the right things and the right people. Especially when you're stacking the wins and the right things. And none of us are perfect. None of us are saints. But assuming we're all trying, at least everybody in this room, we're all trying to be good human beings and make this world a better place. And so as long as that is at your core, then it's through your own lens and how you can make that impact with your gifts, your skills, your personality, your talents.

26:02but just barely works out trying to clone someone else. Totally. Serving others. So important. So important. This one has been on my heart a ton lately, so I'm glad that you have it on the list. See? You know? You do. Someone told me, I forget, we have so many wonderful guests now. I'm not going to give the attribution to the right place, but they'll know who they are. and is whenever you think like if you're having bad or you just can't get together, it's just bad week, bad day, bad month, shit's going wrong in your life, go serve others. And it's, you'll be, you'll be amazed at like how it centers you.

26:47I think it does a lot of different things. It might remind you that people, others might have it worse than you, or it just, it gets you out of serving yourself. And sometimes to serve yourself, you've got to serve others because it feeds you more than you realize. And it took me a long time to learn this one. It's not because I've always been good to friends. I was always generous. It was not like that, but there's a difference. And, you know, I have to remind myself of that sometimes because I am a provider and a driver. And so I think I serve others best because I do that. But there's a difference sometimes in providing versus serving.

27:34Yeah, definitely. I think that for me, I served a lot in California. I served a lot of families in early childhood education and in some different capacities. And it was something that I've been really missing. And so I'm super excited to start. I'm going to start serving in my church in January. Oh, good for you. That's great. Hey, feeds the soul, baby. That's so good for you. What's next? I want to hear about Chris. Chris, are you serving in any capacity? Thoughts on serving? Even as simple as, hold on, let me add one more thing. Sorry, before you answer, I always cut Chris off, you guys. But I also think it's like so important, like every different ways that you can serve.