Thirty Minute Mentors Podcast Transcript: Jimmy John's Founder Jimmy John Liautaud

I recently interviewed Jimmy John Liautaud on my podcast, Thirty Minute Mentors. Here is a transcript of our interview:

Adam: Our guest today is the founder of one of America's largest and most successful sandwich chains. Jimmy John Liautaud is the founder of Jimmy John's, a multibillion-dollar business with more than 2,700 locations across the country. Jimmy, thank you for joining us.

Jimmy: You're welcome. Thanks for having me.

Adam: Jimmy, you grew up outside of Chicago and you didn't exactly have a storybook childhood. Your dad, also an entrepreneur, filed for bankruptcy twice, you finished second to the bottom of your high school class, and you were bullied and struggled with low self-esteem. How did those early challenges shape your worldview and ultimately shape the trajectory of your success?

Jimmy: That's a really great question. I'm going to start out with the bully stuff. So I was a fat kid, right? And so, when I was a kid, it was okay to bully other kids. And frankly, when they did it, at first, when it would happen, or I became aware that it would happen, you just take it, and eventually you just get used to it. And even though it stings, and it's there, it happens. So as far as the bullying goes, I think that in some way or another, my guess is everybody probably sometime in their life gets a little shit that they don't deserve to get. I mean, we're all human beings. So the bully stuff is human. It is what it is. You might be a little tougher at the end of your commodity, your 20s, your teens. And you've gotten poked and prodded and laughed at and it might make you tougher, but also, I think that it also can be damaging to one's self-esteem. But you know what? Welcome to life. So did I like it? No. Do I wish it on anybody? No. Does it happen? For sure. Is it human? Yeah. Let's talk about bankruptcies. Well, I was born in ‘64, and in ‘72 my dad had his first bankruptcy. And we moved from a duplex in Hoffman Estates to a house in Cary, Illinois. We moved in the house, where we stayed for like a month, and my dad said, “Hey, look, we're gonna have to move out of this house. I'm bankrupt and I've lost my money”. And we were gonna have to move out of this house when I was in second-grade summer. And my brother Greg was in third-grade summer. And my mother and my little brother Robbie, and my sister Laura, who was a baby. And we moved this house ourselves with a station wagon, we did 75 or 80 round trips, and I was carrying as heavy as a second grader could carry. It was like moving so much it was so much bigger than me. And when my dad said, we're going to lose everything, and that we're gonna go bankrupt, it was pretty freaky because I remember going from regular milk to powdered milk. And you know what? Powdered milk sucks. And I remember that anyway, long story short, he pulled it off, we didn't have to move. He got his feet on the ground again. And all I remembered was the pain of moving, holy shit, we're gonna lose it. I remember the powdered milk. And I remember that I never wanted powdered milk again. And then four years later, in ‘76, my dad went bankrupt again, this time, he had a design of a CB antenna that he had created. Antennas are made by winding a copper wire around a magnetic core. And they were hand wound and my dad figured out a way to insert a mold where the coil was an insert, and he molded plastic around it. So that to eliminate the labor of the hand wine of the coil. And it was an amazing product. And his top engineer, top salesman, and top accountants split stole the idea and went and opened up another company and competed with him with his own design. So anyway, my father ended up designing another antenna that was even better. And he did all that faster than the courts could act. And I remember that pretty clearly when that all went down. But I also remember at that point in time, after the ‘76 bankruptcy, my dad said I'm never going to have debt again. There's going to be no debt. And so my dad did what he had to do. He took on a venture capital partner front neck, invested in my dad's company, he got that new antenna up and running. My dad bought out front neck and he said never again will ever be in debt ever again. And so my dad was really, really aware of money after that. When I left home in ‘82 to start my Jimmy John's, my dad gave me a safeguard business system, which was a checkbook you opened up and then had a ledger on both sides of it and the check slid on top of the ledger. And when you wrote a check it was recorded in the ledger, the day to whom the check was, the description, and the check amount. And my father told me, he said, “Look”, he said, “One thing when you do that, so you go to visit, you pay for everything cod”. And he says, “When you pay for everything cod, you live in reality”. And so the interesting thing was, I did that, and my dad lent me $25,000 to start this business, and he owned 48%. And I own 52% with this loan. So I went down and opened up this sandwich shop in Charleston, Illinois, which was the location, my first store, and he told me to save 1000 bucks for my opening inventory. So my first store was $23,871, to open it, and the rest of the money was in my bank account.

Adam: A couple of really important lessons. Lesson number one is, no matter what obstacles you face early on, and it's evident that no matter where you're coming from, you're going to face obstacles, and you're going to face obstacles at all ages. And even if the obstacles you face aren't as transparent to everyone else's, they are to you. Everyone has some form of adversity in their life, the important part is being able to bounce back, not having that adversity be the final chapter in your life, rather, using that adversity as an opportunity to propel yourself to the next level. Number two, the lesson from your dad, in your case, you were bullied in the case of your dad. He filed for bankruptcy not once, but twice. But there were clear lessons and a big lesson for you was the importance of not going into debt, paying your bills. And when you were starting Jimmy John's that was a guiding principle for you.

Jimmy: Oh, yeah, big time. Not only was it the guiding principle, but once I learned how to balance that checkbook. I wrote checks against that account for about four months until I discovered the deposited column and the bank balance column. I knew what he told me, but I didn't know what it really meant until the students left and I saw the column of myself depositing bank balance, and my opening balance. I had all the ledgers, I wrote all the deposits into the ledgers, I had a calculator, and I entered the beginning balance and subtracted the check, added the deposits, and brought it from January to May. And I started with like 1200 bucks in January. And in May I had $18,000 in the bank. I'm like, I'm open to you there. It was so much money, $18,000. I imagine that was about as much as it took for me to start the first Jimmy John's store. And after that day, I did that all in one day. I just became a monster of numbers. Every single day I watched what made them go down and what made them go up and I was aware of every single penny in that joint. I really figured out that instead of buying a $100 case of toilet paper and putting it on the shelf, I buy $0.79 for a pack from Walgreens on my way back from the bank every other day for the bathroom. And then Jimmy John, I just became really, really keen to the bank show what came out of those bankruptcies and my dad being so hell-bent on paying for everything cod and knowing my numbers and fear of debt. That's what came out of that. And so we make $40,000 in profit the first year, and I split that with my dad. And then second year, we made $55,000 profit and I split it with my dad, and then I bought my dad out about four months into the third year. And then from that day forward, man, I just saved up my money and replaced myself at the sandwich shop. I'd buy a new safeguard checkbook, open up a new bank account in the city that I moved to, and would open a new store. I spent 10 years on the road and built 10 stores in 10 years all with my own cash. And after 10 years from ‘83 to ‘93. I remember my accountant said, “You made a million dollars this year”. And I said, “Yeah, it's in the bank”. He said, “Yeah, it's in the bank”. I'm like, wow, okay, so I'm a millionaire. He's like, “Yeah, you're a millionaire”. And I smell like salamis and olive oil and oregano and onions. And I've smelled this way for 10 years and great, I got a million bucks in the bank. I'm moving to West Lafayette to open another sandwich shop and that's really what it was, you know? So the benefits of the bankruptcies were fear of debt, just a fear of it. And you just imagine if I had a banker, I didn't fear it and I would have gotten these loans. I don't know if I would have moved to Macomb, Illinois or Bloomington, Illinois Lansing, Michigan or in Arbor, Michigan or Kalamazoo, Michigan or West Lafayette, Indiana, Carbondale, Illinois. I mean, if I got loans easily and it was easy to do, and I didn't have to physically move there and go do it. There's no way customers would have got the experience without me being there. Because it was my experience that I created in the Jimmy John's sandwich shops, right? So the beneficiaries were the customers, but then it took me 10 years to build 10 stores with that. Maybe I could have done it and seven, but I didn't know how to get that. So you can probably do things faster with leverage and people would save you don't leverage your nuts and probably some leverages, okay.

Adam: Another really important lesson that you share with listeners is the importance of being in the weeds of your business. And as you're describing the success that you were able to enjoy, really from day one with Jimmy John's, describing how you smelled like your business, understanding your numbers inside and out. You didn't have an MBA, you didn't have a college degree, but you knew your numbers better than anyone could possibly know their numbers. You smelled like your product, you knew your product better than anyone could possibly know their product.

Jimmy: And my customers. 

Adam: Your customers. 

Jimmy: Yeah, I knew them by name. I knew who they were. I knew what they wanted. I mean, I spent a year in every one of those towns, but I have a pretty good memory. I was the master of salami, that's for sure. You know, and then as far as success goes, define it, like what is success. So financially, I had success. But I had no team. I had no people. I had me, I had only me. So I might have had money in the bank. But I was still a prisoner, the meat slicer. If I stuck my key in the door, the shop wouldn't open. And I'll tell you what else was cool. I wanted the experience at the Jimmy John's sandwich shop to be exactly like it wasn't McDonald's. And when I started Jimmy John's, Ray Kroc was alive. And they fried those cheeseburgers on a flat top. And they cooked those french fries and beef tallow, which is beef fat. And they fried those apple pies in beef fat, and you'd go into McDonald's and they would have everything ready. And you would order and they would just pull it from the line, they just kept it going all the time. The menu was super simple, right? And the food was so good at McDonald's, I mean, those pies, and those beat fat fried french fries and those burgers with the real crisp from the flat top grill when it puts that crisp item and gives you that really good cheeseburger flavor, because it's the cause of the griddle right, as opposed to that gray pop that goes on the cheeseburger now at McDonald's still tastes good. But it was much better when it was fried on a flat-top grill. But I wanted all my stores to be the same. For the same reason, McDonald's when Ray Kroc was alive. And so I realized that I also had to live with somebody else handling my cash. I was a street kid, I grew up on the street. And so I knew that being straight up is the coolest way to be. And so I wanted my sandwiches made my way. And I wanted my money in the bank, and I wanted those mayonnaise jars scraped all the way out. And I wanted people taking care of waste. So I started giving my people 25% of the profit of the stores. And every month I'd sit down with each one of my managers and review the money in and the money out. Total Cost of goods, total labor, total profit. And then I would write him a check at the end of the month. And I gave him a piece of the action. And so my awareness of the money, my awareness of my customer, my awareness of my product, my awareness of the street, it allowed me to show my managers how to want to put all the money in the bank, and to show my managers how to want to scrape that managed container all the way down to the end. Does that make sense?

Adam: Jimmy it makes perfect sense. And a couple of important lessons for anyone listening, the importance of having a code of ethics. And that code of ethics can come from the street, that code of ethics can come from anywhere it can come from your parents, doesn't matter where it comes from, what matters is treating others with honor with respect, and dignity. In your case, you incentivized the people around you, you gave 25% of the profits to the members of your team, you're honorable with your staff, you're honorable with your customers, instead of trying to squeeze them. You treated them the way that you would want to be treated. You treated them as though you were on the other side of the table.

Jimmy: Yeah, well, I was on the other side of the table. It was them. And me. I mean, it was a real quid pro quo.

Adam: And that makes all the difference.

Jimmy: Yeah, it does make all the difference. And the people that we hire at a Jimmy John's restaurant, these other people between welfare and the lowest paying government job, right? Because the government always prices their labor right above the free market, if you excel in government, you have less and less responsibility. It's the opposite of business. In business when you excel, you have more and more responsibility. You're responsible for more accurate, effective throughput as you grow the ranks in an organization. Anytime any of my people have had a problem, or they had an obstacle and they couldn't solve the problem, I wanted him to bring me that problem right away. And the sooner they got me that problem, the sooner I could fix the problem and get them going on their way. And a lot of people would say, “Well, geez, they just bring you the tough stuff”. I'm like, “Yeah, I want them to bring me the tough stuff”. By bringing me the tough stuff and me resolving that issue for them, I'm going to be successful, faster. So if they don't bring me the tough stuff, they're delaying my success. And by saying, hey, bring me all the garbage anytime there's a tree across the road and even though you got your truck and four-wheeler, right? You can't climb over that tree, you call me. I'll be there in five minutes with a bulldozer and chainsaws, and you can get going on your journey. It didn't always start out that way. It started out where I thought that my people would have to do all that work for me. And then I was the man. And what happened is, I couldn't find anybody to work for me. Then I had to do it all myself. I learned how to do the work myself. Then I started enjoying doing the hard work, I started picking the toughest jobs for myself. And then pretty soon, people started following me, mab. People started wanting to work with me because they said, hey, no matter what, this guy will set you up for success. So you know, you hit an obstacle, bring it to Jimmy, and he'll fix it for you. And a lot of people will say, hey, baba, you run into any problems, you can always come to me, but they don't really mean it. Okay, so when you say it, you gotta mean it. You got to thank him for calling it two in the morning, the phone rings at two in the morning. Hey, man, what's up? You got it? What can I do for you? Thanks a lot for calling. We'll be there in 10 minutes, boom, you go there and say thanks for calling me to fix their problem, whatever it is they need and go home and go to bed. And as soon as that kind of leadership style is embraced, it just speeds up the journey. It just takes that learning curve man. And when you're willing to do that for your team, you get anybody to work for it. That's a rockstar. So that's what I said, we hire right between welfare and government, where the government might start at 23 bucks an hour and welfare might pay 10 bucks an hour. This is where we're hiring. So we're taking people that are at the bottom of the socio-economic chain, showing them how to run a Jimmy John's sandwich shop, showing them how to cut the portions, how to bake the bread, how to make the oil and vinegar, how to make the tuna salad, give them a schematic that shows the schedule where they have to fill in drivers and, and in shoppers for the week and making that chart but understanding how the staff are storing giving them the tools they need to do it, and then helping them do it. And then all of a sudden, you take these folks that are at the bottom of the socio-economic, they come from great families. These are wonderful human beings, but we're just we're there we're at all of a sudden do they start rocking, they start doing it, they start earning some bonus. They say all of a sudden, they get self-esteem, they start to get confidence, they get money, they buy a car, they buy a house, all of a sudden, you're changing people's lives, man, changing people's lives is the beauty of the free market. This is how America got blown by creating greatness from nothing. And man, it was a rocket ship of amazing people. But you teach people how to fish and take them to where they fished for life, man, you give somebody a fish, you ruin them. Anyway, it was really amazing to learn how to do that.

Adam: Jimmy, that rocket ship is really fueled by core leadership principles. Leading by example, leading with authenticity, focusing on empowering everyone around you, empowering every member of your team. Great leaders build other great leaders. And that was what you were focused on doing. That was what you were so successful at doing. You very early on in your journey were the guy, the guy doing everything. And as you described the listeners, that only gets you so far, you're never going to be able to scale your business when it's just you. And you can bring other people around you, you can hire people, but until you train, and grow and develop other great leaders, you're only going to get so far. And you can tell other people what to do. But it's really a matter of teaching other people how to be great leaders. That's what it's all about.

Jimmy: Something also so that you listeners don't beat yourself up. Because this is really profound. You could just tell an employee, hey, that you've never trained to clean the bathroom and you could go there and you could be disappointed by the way he cleaned the bathroom and say that's not the way to clean a bathroom. The other way to do it is say, hey, Adam, I'm gonna show you what my definition of a clean bathroom is. So you stand there and let me clean the bathroom and I'm going to show you what a clean bathroom is in my eyes and what a Jimmy John's bathroom is and how to clean the bathroom. There's no villain in the room. We all have a different definition of spicy. We all have a different definition of what a clean bathroom is. We all have a different definition of what a good sandwich is. So if you want your people to execute exactly what it is that you want, you have to be very specific and very deliberate about exactly what you want, and then incentivize them to want to do it that way. And get them to buy in and not only buy in with a nod, buy in with full body language and everything that goes along with it. And training and teaching people, especially in a brand that, you know, we're serving a million customers a day when I sold. And that's a lot of strokes on the meat slicer, that's a lot of loaves of bread. And that's a lot of room for error. So you really got to line your people up with your mission, and then incentivize them to help you get through and then watch out because they might just get you there.

Adam: Jimmy, I love it. And there's a lot to unpack there. You shared so many great tips around the topic of communication. But there was one thing you said it was a throwaway line, but you said there is no villain. And that's so important. The power of accountability, not blaming things on your employees, not blaming things on the people around you, someone makes a mistake. And your initial reaction, your instinct is to say, what did this person do wrong? But instead to look inside? And to say, what did I do wrong? Maybe I didn't communicate as best that I could. Maybe I didn't do as good a job as I could in training that person. Maybe I didn't set the right standards that allowed this person to understand how to do their job properly. And to your point, when you're serving a million customers a day, and you have this need to have an intense level of quality control, you can't do it without having systems in place. You can't do it without having procedures in place, you can't do it without having that level of accountability.

Jimmy: Sure, whenever you have a break or a problem in your business, or there's something that disappoints you, and you go back and you look at your systems that you have 80% of the time, you're gonna see it's the system failed, not the people, only 20% of the time that people fail. So whenever we have a failure in anything at all that we operate, we're in the restaurant business, we're in the wine business, we're in the hotel business, we're in the high-performance outdoor gear business. Today we're in the boating business, when something fails, was it a systemic failure? Or did the people fail? I got on my boat with my wife, Leslie, we got here three days ago. And I have these Bose portable speakers that you pre-charge, and you can put them outside and you connect your Bluetooth to them. And you can hear your music unless you are on the swim platform. And I want to and so I said, “Hey, grab me the Bose”. And I want to put them up. So let's unite the Neptunes. They weren't charged. And I said, “Hey, the Bose is on charge”. I sit on Bose’s pre-arrival checklist. Do we have a charged Bose? No, we didn't have it. So, great. Put it on the pre-arrival checklist. Next time before I write the Bose speakers or charge boom, done, the people didn't realize that my employees on the boat did not want to have the speakers charged. They just didn't have it on their checklist. So you just swipe to fix the system. So I fixed the system. I set my people up for success. But ultimately, I set myself up for success.

Adam: Jimmy, we've spoken about some of the most important qualities of a great leader. What can anyone do to become a better leader?

Jimmy: How do you be a more effective leader? Have clarity with what you want. Number two, understand the costs that go along with what it is that you want. And three, the most important thing is being willing to lead the troops there and to take the troops there. And knowing that 90% of the time, you're going to be the leader and you're going to be out working and outperforming the majority of the people but that's why you're the boss. And also give yourself a break. If you think that the target is way over there on the left. And once you get there and you realize that that's not the target. Be willing to pivot and move quickly and adapt quickly. And don't waste your time beating yourself up. Give yourself a pat on the back. Give yourself a break, drink some water, take some vitamins, take a shower, put on some fresh clothes, and get back out there on the battleground and go kick ass. And I'll tell you what, man with clarity and leadership and focusing on the positive and not on the negative. Give yourself a break. It's a small club of people that are able to make it. I had a big victim personality for a long time. I built this business in a liberal town. I did 100,000 hotel rooms a year and they tolerated me; they didn't celebrate me in that town. And I did so much charitable stuff in the town, gave millions of dollars away, and that town all anonymously. And I was always really pissed off because I was never celebrated. I moved to Nashville, Tennessee, and it's the greatest spot I've ever been in my life. And I realized if we have the capability to have this success, it comes from responsibility. So I kind of feel like civic responsibility is part of what goes with it. So this is a real pivot. If you've heard one of my podcasts before, I really bitched a lot about power. He treated us where we're from. But you know what? I'm done with the victim mentality. You know what, they did the best they could with what they had. There was no villain in the room. So anyway, that's what I would say, give yourself a break, give yourself a pat on the back and give other people a break, and just go do it. And when you can set your people up for success, you will be successful, faster. Ultimately, it's your fault anyway.

Adam: You built a household name brand, your name is a household name. What are your best tips on the topic of branding?

Jimmy: Branding? Oh, gosh, when you're branding, you want it to be crystal clear what it is. Jimmy John's wasn't a horrible name at the beginning because what the hell is Jimmy John's? It was really really hard to teach people what Jimmy John's was until I had a whole lot of Jimmy John's stores. So if your brand can stay exactly what you do, as well as be your brand. Like Dunkin Donuts is a much better brand name than Jimmy John's because Dunkin Donuts, you know it's a donut. When you go by Jimmy John’s, Davenport, Iowa, and you've never heard of it before. You will stop at Jimmy Doughnuts before you'll stop at Jimmy John's sandwiches. So the more you can incorporate what it is that you do into your brand, it's just going to shorten your learning curve. Make sure that whenever you are branding, that your branding really pops out, make sure that your logos are symmetric. Symmetrical makes people more comfortable. They don't know why. But it just makes people more comfortable when there's symmetry involved. Don't offset anything to try to be kitschy or cute. Try to have symmetry. It just flows better when you're marketing. Are you doing a billboard? Do your best to have the headline tell the story. Because you only get one look when you're doing a billboard show freaky fast. It was really really good for Jimmy John's. We did everything fast. We talked fast. We delivered fast. We made sandwiches fast. We were freaky fast. So be who you are, understand who you are, have your messaging, say who you are, and then go do it better than anybody else. So that your messaging and your branding says who you are, your performance. Your execution reinforces who you are, and then all of a sudden exponentially just explodes because Kevin Harvick, our racecar driver, was freaking fast. And Jimmy John's was freaking fast and climbing rocks in our Supercross driver was fast and our sandwiches were fast. And everything we did was super fast and all just really worked together. So when all those stars align like that, and your brand is crystal clear, and it's symmetrical and the colors are right. Those are some things that I can tell you about branding and marketing that are key and be who you are. Don't be the jack of all trades and a Master of None be who you are, and do it better than anybody else. If Jimmy John’s has six meats, one cheese, two breads, be who you are, and be it. We don't need salads, we don't need milkshakes, we don't need it. Be who you are, and do it better than anybody else.

Adam: Be who you are universally applicable whether you're talking about branding, marketing, whether you're talking about entrepreneurship, whether you're talking about anything. Be yourself, be you. The best way to become a great leader, the best way to become successful in anything, before you can successfully lead others, you need to be able to lead your own life and it all starts with understanding who you are, understanding you be you there's only one you out there, be yourself.

Jimmy: Absolutely everything opposite Instagram, 100%. Whatever on Instagram is popular, 180 degrees opposite. That's what's cool. So stay away from the masses. It's okay to be who you are and be the flawed, beautiful human being that you are.

Adam: How can anyone develop a winning mindset?

Jimmy: I struggled with my weight my whole entire life. I'm 58 and I weighed 275 pounds. I struggle with this right? And I'm worth a few billion bucks, right? So, you know, like, why can't I just starve and go to the gym two hours a day and not eat and go be successful in that arena? The best thing in the world. This came from Admiral McRaven doing a talk at UT Texas. It's on the internet. McRaven said, “When you get up in the morning, make your bed, clean your room, go out into the world. And no matter how difficult of a day you have out in the world fighting your battles, you can always come home to that perfect made bed”. And that was really impactful on me when I watched McRaven do that speech. It was at a graduation, I mean literally and figuratively. Get yourself organized. Get yourself some discipline. Drink more water and less sugar. Just get out there and do it and it doesn't stop at five o'clock and it doesn't stop on Saturday and Sunday. And life is a 24/7 business. And so if you can just embrace discomfort, embrace 24/7 and embrace weekends are a myth. I mean, we made 70% of our revenue Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. So weekends for me my whole life haven't been weekends. And just understand that if you're going to make it, that it's going to be painful, and it's going to be hard, but you can embrace that. And things don't happen to us, things happen for us. And that's a new thing that I've learned. And just understand that if it didn't go your way, and you don't like the way it went, or you had a great business and the landlord kicked your ass out, because you didn't have another option on the lease, write a better lease next time, make sure you get your option. And that happened to me right at this great business and running it. But all of a sudden, the lender says, “Okay, you're out of here”. I'm like, “What do you mean?”. He says, “Your lease has expired”. I said, “What are you gonna do with my space?”. He says, “I'm gonna open a sandwich shop”. I'm gonna write a better lease. Anyway, I don't know how to develop a winning mindset. But just understand that it's a special club. And if you do it, you're going to be uncomfortable, you're going to be deceived, you're going to be taken advantage of, you're going to be ripped off, a lot of those things are going to happen and just plow through it. But you gotta be willing to pay the price. And it's all out there for anybody who wants it. You just gotta want it. And you have to go do it and make it happen, it is going to be uncomfortable. Yeah, but you can do it if you want. It's up to you.

Adam: Jimmy, what's your single best tip for all entrepreneurs? 

Jimmy: Outwork them.

Adam: I love it. What can anyone listen to this conversation do to become more successful personally and professionally?

Jimmy: Just start with the basics man. Make your yard beautiful. Park your car in the center of your driveway, validate yourself, moderate yourself, and try to save a third of what you make no matter what to get rid of the credit card debt, that's a disease. Get your ducks in a row, get yourself organized, know where you stand, and just go do it. And then also, you know, what is a golden one, hang around with people that you aspire to be like, and get rid of all the people that you don't aspire to be like. I wish I had a silver bullet for you, Adam. But I think it's 1000 little things. It's not one big thing. It's baby steps. It's one little thing at a time. And all of a sudden when the baby steps start to become the norm and taking the toughest job for yourself starts to become the norm and work and nights and weekends starts to become the norm and that's just what you do, and you're happy with it. That's when all of a sudden the success you're looking at the bank account just starts blowing up. So when you really embrace the process, really, all of a sudden, it just kind of rolls on his back like a dog and wants you to rub her belly. But when you fight the process, that's when it's hard. So embrace it, man, just get focused on the process. And the byproduct is great success. I didn't give you one thing. I'm sorry, I'm all over the place.

Adam: Jimmy, you gave a ton. You were great. You gave more than I could have asked for. You get more done than anyone listening to this podcast could have asked for. Jimmy, thank you for everything. Thank you for all the great advice. And thank you for being a part of Thirty Minute Mentors. 

Jimmy: Absolutely. And then also just for anybody out there who is aspiring, and if you ever want to get a hold of me or send me an email, my email is jjout@stillwater.mgmt.com in the subject column just say ‘I listened to you on Adams podcast and I'd love to ask you a question’. And I'm happy for those of you that are real. You're welcome to send me an email. I respond to my emails. And you're welcome to and I know that with this might come with some riffraff but I don't care about that. It's worth it. If I can touch one person or help one of your listeners with something if I can help one then all the riff-raff I can handle that.

Adam: Jimmy, thanks again. Thank you for all of your great advice. And thanks again for being a part of Thirty Minute Mentors.

Jimmy: My pleasure, buddy.

Adam Mendler is the CEO of The Veloz Group, where he co-founded and oversees ventures across a wide variety of industries. Adam is also the creator and host of the business and leadership podcast Thirty Minute Mentors, where he goes one on one with America's most successful people - Fortune 500 CEOs, founders of household name companies, Hall of Fame and Olympic gold medal winning athletes, political and military leaders - for intimate half-hour conversations each week. Adam has written extensively on leadership, management, entrepreneurship, marketing and sales, having authored over 70 articles published in major media outlets including Forbes, Inc. and HuffPost, and has conducted more than 500 one on one interviews with America’s top leaders through his collective media projects. A top leadership speaker, Adam draws upon his insights building and leading businesses and interviewing hundreds of America's top leaders as a top keynote speaker to businesses, universities and non-profit organizations.

Follow Adam on Instagram and Twitter at @adammendler and listen and subscribe to Thirty Minute Mentors on your favorite podcasting app.