Epic Business With Justin Breen

Posted by John Livesay in podcast0 comments

Everyone wants to be successful, but not everyone can be epic. Being epic means being able to recognize opportunities and act on them. John Livesay sits down and talks with veteran journalist and CEO Justin Breen as he talks about the impact his parents had on his life, what he learned from his years in journalism and his formula for an epic business. Learn what you need to be epic!

—

Listen to the podcast here

Epic Business With Justin Breen

Our guest on the show is Justin Breen, the author of Epic Business. He said there’s no competition in his life. There’s only collaboration. He shares with us the three secrets to mindset, abundance, visionary and investment. Let’s see what he means by that. Enjoy the episode.

—

Welcome to the show. Our guest is Justin Breen. He’s the Founder and CEO of a public relations firm, BrEpic Communications. It was launched in 2017. They work with businesses and brands to craft click-worthy stories for local, regional and national outlets. Prior to this, he was a journalist writing for publications as The Times of Northwest Indiana. In 2021, Justin published his first book Epic Business, where he shares secrets from the world’s top entrepreneurs and how he applied this to his own company. We’re going to be talking about one of the things that he was so aggravated about when he was a journalist and how that was the impetus for him to create a completely different public relations firm and flip the script. Justin, welcome to my show.

You’re a great entrepreneur, a high-level thinker and a fellow Illinois graduate from The College of Media Communications. I’m very excited to talk to you and I simplify everything. I love talking to people like you because it’s a perfect collaboration.

The other thing that we have in common is my passion is helping people clarify their stories. Let’s get the elevator pitch so concise and clear that it compels people to want to ask you more. Simplifying, clarifying or kissing cousins in my book is different but very much in that world of let’s do that. That leads us into the concept of sound bites, all kinds of good stuff and the importance of how to be a good guest that you are certainly the expert on. I love to hear people’s stories of origin. We gave away a little bit of it and that you’re from Illinois but that’s the tip of the iceberg there. You can go back to childhood and now that you’re a father, I’m always fascinated to see some of your own childhood memories and your own kids. Feel free to tell us your own little story of origin, how you got into journalism in the first place and that big pivot to start your PR firm.

I was born with a story. I was a journalist before I was even born. What does that mean? When I was born, my father was 61 and my mom was 27, so that’s a 34-year difference. How did that happen? My father was a World War II hero. He was shot down nine times in combat. He became an attorney in the Nuremberg Trials. He and his three brothers came from nothing in Elgin, close to Elk Grove. All of them serve actively. My father died when I was thirteen. My whole life is a wow that it happened. Everyone says, “Wow,” and I appreciate that but wow to me is only a wow if it happened.

Epic Business: Arrogant people think they’re great at everything. Confident people know they’re exceptionally great at one, two, maybe three things.

When my father was fighting toward the end of World War II and the Battle of Hürtgen Forest, he kept a diary of his experiences fighting. I found the diary after he died. Besides my wife and children, it’s my most cherished possession. I don’t care a lot about material things. That’s meaningless to me. That diary is very important. I read it every now and then and I write exactly as he does. Inform and entertain, no fluff, no BS. His diary is one of the greatest things ever written. I’m a world-class writer but he’s a much better writer than I am. It’s the most important thing besides my wife and children because it’s this incredible connection I have to him that’s very powerful. It’s very important to me. One day I’ll get it to publish. That’s my dad.

My mom was 27. When my dad was in his late 50s, he was driving on the expressway near Chicago. A drunk driver went across the median. He hit him head-on. The drunk driver was killed instantly. My dad broke every bone in his body but he survived. My mom was his nurse. My mom nursed him back to health. Most of my day, I’m talking to people like you, the highest performing entrepreneurs, smartest minds, most successful people and I’ve never met anyone in my entire life with more hustle than my mom ever. She’s the ultimate survive and thrive with what she has overcome in her life. You combine the ultimate survive and thrive with a genius writing brain, military war hero and no excuses, you figure it out. Here I am. I’m a byproduct while it happened.

We were talking about Françoise Gilot being with Picasso. They’re having a huge age difference as well. That concept of those moments in life and then you’re able to give a frame of reference of how old your dad would be must impact your whole look on the legacy you’re leaving for your sons.

It’s everything. You’re a hot seat. I was looking forward to it because I do a lot of interviews but I knew talking to you was going to be more than that. You can figure things out very quickly. My sons are young. The older one started his first business when he was seven and the younger one wants to be a Navy SEAL. My father would have been so proud. He might have been the greatest dad ever. The best part of being an entrepreneur by far, there’s not even a close second is that there’s this book called Mastery. It’s my favorite book.

[bctt tweet=”Wow is only wow if it actually happened.” username=”John_Livesay”]

Robert Greene, if they were alive, interviewed all these masters. If they weren’t alive, he did anecdotal research. Almost without exception, masters came from fathers who were exceptionally high-performing entrepreneurs or owned businesses because at the time, only the men work. They learned all this and they rebelled. I’m excited to give my sons this foundation and I can’t wait for them to rebel against me. It’s going to be exciting when they do that and see what they do. You give them this foundation. It’s a shortcut to 99.9% of the world. Most of the world’s not living up here. They’re living wherever they’re living. To give them that foundation is the best part by far.

I think of it in terms of a tree that is planted in fertile soil and has the ideal mother to grow.

That’s all it is. You’re giving them roots. We’re giving them the right roots with the right soil mixture and then whatever they do with that. If they want to be an entrepreneur, I don’t care. They’re just getting that foundation. That’s the key.

There’s research that people who know about their heritage and feel connected to their family are much more successful and much happier than these people who don’t have a sense of identity from childhood. What a great gift you’re giving them and what a great gift your parents gave you to pass on.

Epic Business: The formula for building a successful global company is very simple. See a problem, create solution to problem, problem solved, successful global company.

I was a journalist for years. I interview people my whole life. I never come prepared with any question ever with the exception of two. One, I asked who your parents are or where because when you know where you came from, you can understand who you are and where you’re going. The people that understand where they came from, know who they are and where they’re going. When they think about where they came from, they think about who they are and then where they’re going. It all starts with where you came from. That’s the first question I ask and that you asked that first as well doesn’t surprise me. The only other thing I always ask is at the end of the interview, I ask, “Is there anything else you’d like to add, something that would be good for this story or I’m missing.” Many times, they’re saving something. They’re saving the nugget, they weren’t asked in the way that they could present it. Many times that’s the lead of the story, that last question.

We have hinted that there’s an ability to simplify things and how that makes you cut through the clutter. The entrepreneurs that are listening and they’re wondering, “I tend to be very verbose. What I do is so complicated. I can’t simplify it.” I wanted to give an example that I thought was intriguing, funny and a great example of a wonderful sound bite, which is something I would click on, which your PR firm is a master at is how PR agencies aggravated you for years. In one sentence, we know that you’ve been a journalist for years. We know that there’s something that PR agencies are doing that’s wrong because it’s aggravating you as a journalist. If you have any desire to get any kind of publicity, it would then compel you to say, “Maybe I should click on this and read.” We all don’t want to make the mistakes that other people are making. We know that risk aversion theory is going on there. My question for you is, what were these PR firms doing that were aggravating you as a journalist?

I’m a 100% simplifier. I think you might be like me. Your company is 100% multiplier but at your core, you’re a 100% simplifier. I could be wrong about that but that’s the vibe I get. I hear something and simplify. Less is more. The formula for building a successful global company is very simple. Here it is. This is the whole formula. “See a problem, create a solution to the problem, problem solved, execute it. Successful global company.” I was a journalist for years creating my entire business model based on how PR firms annoy me for years.

I’m giving you that background because a lot of people talk and there’s no meat behind it. I have no tolerance for that. I don’t like to talk unless there’s meat behind it. As a journalist, you received hundreds of useless press releases every single day from people you don’t know. One, they’re from people you don’t know. I don’t know who these people are. Two, they’re useless because they talk about what someone does and not who they are. Nobody cares about what you do. They care about who you are. If they care about who you are, they will care about what you do. All these press releases are talking about new person hired, company sold. Nobody cares.

[bctt tweet=”Less is more when you tell a story.” username=”John_Livesay”]

We’ve talked about the person behind that and what inspires them, where they came from or what they’ve overcome in their life then they will care and they’ll talk about what you do. I was annoyed. The company’s entire process is on my website. There are no tricks. This is the highest level. There’s no competition, only collaboration. I created a solution to that. Problem solved, successful global company. All I hear over and over is, “We’re tired of being the best secret. We want to be the news in media at a high level to create validity and credibility for our brand short-term and long-term.” It doesn’t matter where you’re located, what you do, if you’re a solopreneur or your company is as big as Allstate. That’s meaningless. My company solves that problem.

You give away a lot of your insights in your wonderful book Epic Business: 30 Secrets to Build Your Business. It’s written by a mutual friend. The foreword is written by Chris Voss, who is the expert, in my opinion, on negotiation from his FBI background. It doesn’t surprise me that you would be friends with someone like that. That’s another example of someone backing up what they’re writing about with their actual expertise. He is not someone who is very open to running a lot of forewords or giving his name to other books. That alone is a huge credibility factor that you’re putting your skillset into action for your own book and that wow factor. If Chris Voss thinks this book is worth writing a foreword to and not a blurb, there clearly is some meat to the bones there. That is another example of what is a negotiation expert talking about that relates to having an epic business. I’m going to make people read that to find that out.

One of the insights in your book is the difference between confidence and arrogance. Especially if people are going on TV, that can be intimidating for even the most confident executives or entrepreneurs. There’s nothing else quite like live TV. Those three minutes can go fast. The robotic cameras come zooming in and out of your face. Your mouth can get dry. Your heart can pound. I’m speaking from experience. You know that you have to have your sound bites ready to go and have short answers. TV is not about on and on and giving somebody something that’s valuable in a short amount of time. I want to ask you. You had my new favorite definition of confidence versus arrogance. Please share how you distinguish the two.

Arrogant people think they’re great at everything. Confident people know they’re exceptionally graded 1, 2 or maybe 3 things. The purpose of my life besides hanging out with my family is to be a connecting superhero for every visionary, abundance, investment, mindset, entrepreneur and share their stories with the world. That’s not 99% of my day when I’m not hanging out with my family. That’s 100% of my day. In terms of connecting people on a global level and getting people at the highest level, there are very few people in the world that are better at it than I am. Everything else is useless to society. Arrogant people think that statement comes off as arrogant. Confident people are attracted to that confidence. That’s all my company is. Confident people are attracted to that confidence. Those people are the ones running the most successful companies on earth. Why? It’s because they’re confident in what they do and they’re not arrogant. They replace their deficiencies by hiring people who are not doing it.

Epic Business: The right mindset attracts the right network and creates the right opportunities.

One of your expertise in addition to simplifying things is you are able to simplify mindset into three core things. For most people the content, the word mindset automatically pushes a lot of people into, “What does that mean? Does that mean I have to control all my thoughts all the time and I can’t do that? People tell me I should think this and then that’s going to happen. It’s not happening. I don’t know what my next steps are. The whole concept is overwhelming to me as an entrepreneur.” You’re like, “No surprise. I’ve simplified it into three things.” Let’s hear what the three things are if you don’t mind, Justin. I’m going to ask you to expound a little bit on what each one means to you. I’ve got them memorized because it’s my new roadmap.

Take it, please because all this other stuff is landing the plane. Let me start with this and then I’ll answer your question. If you have the right mindset, it attracts the right network and creates the right opportunities. I haven’t done outbound sales, funnels or any of that nonsense in years. It’s because I have the right mindset that attracts the right people and they create great opportunities for me. Companies pay my firm but I’m the buyer of only the people I want to hang out with. I don’t sell anything. I don’t even talk about what my company does unless someone asks me. There’s no selling anything. It’s just buying. That’s the background of that.

There are three attributes. When you have these three attributes, you can only be one of two types of people. All I do is hear things and simplify everything. I’ve talked to thousands and thousands of people and my brain simplifies everything. The three attributes are abundance, visionary and investment. Here is what you are if you have those three attributes. One, you’re running a high 6 figure to 10 figure business. You have a stellar business. You see your family or friends whenever you want to. You do what you like to do and what you’re good at or you’re going to be one of those people.

They do not have their revenue profit-wise but you will be because you have those three attributes in your mindset. There’s no, “What do you cost?” There’s no nickel and diming. There’s no scarcity nonsense. What does investment look like? It eliminates 99% of the population. I don’t care about that because the 0.1%, people are like, “That’s not a big number.” I go, “That’s a very big number because there are eight billion people on the planet, so 0.1% of eight billion is eight million.” The eight million are the ones that create the ideas, execute, invest in them, and employ everybody else. By working with those eight million, I’m helping eight billion.

[bctt tweet=”Mindset is abundance, vision and investment.” username=”John_Livesay”]

If you are one of two people kinds of mindsets, you either think the world is a safe place or a scary place. You either think you come from a place of scarcity or abundance. That’s the first curation there. The second part of it is visionary. For some people, that word they think about maybe Martin Luther King or so-and-so. Maybe those are visionaries. I don’t know that I’m a visionary. If you are running your own business and even if you’re working for someone else, it’s so crucial to have a vision for what you want your life and your family’s life to be about.

Without a vision, you’re wandering around. Once we’ve got a definition of who we are, what our attributes are, what our values are, and our characteristics. For me, when I was working on my first book, it was all about integrity, passion and joy. Those were my three things. Every decision I make is through that lens. I was like, “Are the people I’m working for have integrity? I know I do. Am I passionate about this, and are they? Does it bring me or somebody else joy?” If the answer is yes to all three, then that’s a fit. Without it, I don’t have a vision. That’s how I interpret what you’re talking about there.

It’s three different words, yet it’s the same thing. I know why you’re phrasing it like this because you’re a visionary. You’re asking me like this or maybe some people in your audience or the general public but I know you’re a total visionary. I have a future that I see that is my vision and all that does is you bring your present into your future. You can’t envision anything unless you have a vision. If you’re floating around in absentia, then there’s no goal and objective. When you have that clear-cut goal and then know who you are, I’m going to dovetail that with, “I know who I’m not first.” He’s like, “I know who I am but I know who I’m not.” My brain goes, “You wrote who you were not first, didn’t you?” He wrote it all out who he’s not. That led to him being who he is. All of that has to do with having a vision, having a bigger and better future. When you have that, then you create that with your present.

One of my favorite chapters in your book is, “Don’t try to do everything yourself. It’s a recipe for failure.” That is a classic example of, “I am not a tech person. I’m going to invest and hire someone to help me become a master at Ecamm so I can have special effects. I’ll be very frustrated if I try to do that myself because that’s not how my brain works.” Many people feel like, “I have to wear all the hats. I don’t want to spend money on hiring a professional.” They never launched the product. They get overwhelmed. They get to put a stop and there’s no time because they’re trying to do everything.

Epic Business: 30 Secrets to Build Your Business Exponentially and Give You the Freedom to Live the Life You Want!

I also love the use of your word because I know enough about you from reading your work and studying you that no word is casually chosen. When you say it’s a recipe for failure, that word recipe has been thought out for some reason. What’s great about a recipe? If you follow it, it works. Leave one ingredient out, it doesn’t work or the wrong amount of the ingredient. All of that nuance is in a recipe. I thought, “Look at his work and action. He simplified it.” If you look at what you wrote there, it’s a recipe for failure. All the implications that a recipe has, why would anybody ever think of trying to do something that is a complete bias?

It’s complete nonsense. My whole life is recipes and patterns. That’s it. Good recipes have the right ingredients. If it’s not the right ingredient, I don’t deal with that recipe or I outsource it.

I can’t believe our time is up already. It goes fast. I would be remiss if I did not ask your question that you’ve asked as a professional journalist for so many years. A good interviewer listens. Is there any question you wished I would have asked you or that you wish somebody else would ask you that nobody has that you could leave us with the last nugget?

My father died when I was thirteen. He lived long enough. He would tell me all the time, “The cream rises to the top.” It sunk in. I worked with the cream that’s risen to the top or the folks that will make the investment to be at the top. Other than that, it’s a waste of my time because they’re not going to do anything to benefit society.

Justin, what a treat. If someone wants to buy your book, they can go to Amazon. The book is called Epic Business. Your company is BrEpic Communications. If you’re not at the top of the 1%, don’t even bother reaching out.

Thank you for taking care of that for me. I appreciate that.

I’m curating for you because when you’re that clear on who you are and who you work with, I compare it to Disneyland, where they say you have to be this tall to ride the ride. You don’t have to be this tall. If you can’t afford Justin’s communications, you can get 30 of his amazing secrets from his book Epic Business. Thanks again, Justin.

What a real honor. This exceeded my expectations, which were very high. Your style is fantastic. I love it.

Thank you. That’s one of the best compliments ever.

Important Links

• Epic Business
• BrEpic Communications
• Mastery
• Epic Business – Amazon
• Better Selling Through Storytelling Method Online Course

Wanna Host Your Own Podcast?

Click here to see how my friends at Podetize can help

Purchase John’s new book

The Sale Is in the Tale

John Livesay, The Pitch Whisperer

Share The Show

Did you enjoy the show? I’d love it if you subscribed today and left us a 5-star review!

• Click this link
• Click on the ‘Subscribe’ button below the artwork
• Go to the ‘Ratings and Reviews’ section
• Click on ‘Write a Review’

Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share!

• Here’s How »

Join The Successful Pitch community today:

• JohnLivesay.com
• John Livesay Facebook
• John Livesay Twitter
• John Livesay LinkedIn
• John Livesay YouTube