352 Aaron Marcum

Jeffrey Feldberg: [00:00:00] Aaron Marcum holds a Master of Applied Positive Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied under Dr. Martin Seligman, father of positive psychology. For 20 years, Aaron has scaled businesses and received top industry awards recognizing his leadership, vision, and service. He's been a sought after national speaker since 2006 and enjoys empowering to make positive changes in their personal and professional lives.

His latest book is Entre Thrive, The Entrepreneur's 8 Laws to Accelerate Financial Freedom While Creating the Good Life.

And before we start this episode, a quick word from our sponsor, Deep Wealth and the 90 Day Deep Wealth Mastery Program. Here's Jane, a graduate who says, and I quote, the Deep Wealth Mastery Program prevented me from making what would have been one of the biggest mistakes of my career. I almost signed on the dotted line with an unsolicited offer that I now realized would have shortchanged my hard work and my future had I accepted that offer. Deep Wealth Mastery has tilted the playing field to my advantage.

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Welcome to the Deep Wealth Podcast. Well, Deep Wealth Nation, you heard it in the official introduction. We have another entrepreneur in the house, but not just [00:04:00] any entrepreneur, a successful entrepreneur, a best selling author, overall smart individual. I'm going to put a plug in it right there. Aaron, welcome to the Deep Wealth Podcast.

An absolute pleasure to have you with us. And I'm curious because there's always a story behind the story. So Aaron, what's your story? What brought you from where you were to where you are today?

Aaron Marcum: Well, such a pleasure to be here. Thank you for having me. And my story I'd like to say it's unique and I think it is there's certain, we all have unique stories and I think the stories are powerful. And so I've been an entrepreneur since 2002 is when I really launched my first business was a home care agency.

And didn't have any background in the home care space, but as I was moving forward in, in starting that business at the time I had, I have six kids. So that's part of, that's obviously a part of

Jeffrey Feldberg: Oh my goodness.

Aaron Marcum: boys, three girls. And at the time I was three years into my business because of the timing and I'm, I was just grinding it out.

We were [00:05:00] having some success. And, but I was burning out. I was coming home. I would play with my kids and then I would go back to work to two or three in the morning. And it was just this grind, and so I had to figure some things out even back then. And over the years I've been.

Become fascinated with the world of positive psychology. And why does some people thrive? And why do some people don't? And I came into that well, about 2017, I really identified with that field, but in 2015, so I sold my home care agency, started another business. I've sold it and exit and, a few companies and that company was, One of my greatest success stories, it was think of J.

D. Powers for Home Care. We had created an entire benchmarking platform for an entire industry, and so pretty exciting opportunity, but I hadn't learned my lesson. So, 2015, I was back. Burning out. Again, obsessively passionate about what I was doing, which causes [00:06:00] burnout when you become obsessed too obsessive about it.

And I was not taking care of myself. I was 25 pounds overweight. I was wasn't, again not doing what I should be doing. And. Decided to make some changes. I had been living what I call, and I write about this in the book, the lie of the either, or I felt like either I had to thrive personally or could thrive professionally, but I couldn't do both at the same time.

So I decided, well, If I just focus on my professional side in building this business, then my personal flourishing will catch up. And that's a lie. That usually never happens that way. 2016, decided to take the time, invest in myself. And if you look at the growth of the company in 2016, it's like this hockey stick growth.

We had valued, I remember 2015, we got a valuation of the company because I was starting to burn out. I'm like, how much will, can we sell to this company for? And I think it came in for like. [00:07:00] realized for some of this might be a lot, but it was like a million, it was less than a million.

And we were so disappointed, like you always think your company is going to be far more valuable than that. Well, coming to 2016, making those changes, and my team will tell you, is when Aaron took the time, I got into biking 2016, I finished a 200 mile bike race longest one in America from Logan, Utah to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, just did all those things.

And they'll tell you, that's when we really grew as a company, Aaron started letting go and our valuation just skyrocketed after that. And That's really the point of the book is that you can create the good life for yourself While still creating financial freedom.

Like you can have both. You don't have to live the lie of the either or. Yeah. And I exited that company in 2020. I've had a couple companies since I'm involved in, some businesses right now, mostly in the healthcare, home care space. 2022, I actually went back [00:08:00] and got my master's degree in positive psychology from UPenn.

Which for me personally was transformational as a father, as a husband, as an employer as an entrepreneur. And that's when I felt called to write the book. I really truly felt called that this book needed to get in the hands of entrepreneurs. It's called Entrethrive. I wrote it after graduated from that program at the age of 50 graduating from that.

And really transformational start. I studied under Martin Seligman, who's the father of positive psychology. I don't know how familiar maybe it's, I'm sure some of your audience is familiar with him, wrote the book flourish wonderful man and was able to rub shoulders with some amazing people And so I now leaning into helping other entrepreneurs with their wellbeing, specifically in home care.

We have a wonderful program called the Breakaway Accelerator for home care founders and their COOs, where it's kind of a cohort executive education style program to help [00:09:00] them thrive personally and professionally. So

Jeffrey Feldberg: Well, Aaron, quite the story. Yeah, no, I love that. And first and foremost, congratulations on six children. That's the biggest accomplishment and achievement.

Aaron Marcum: Yeah,

Jeffrey Feldberg: Not easy growing up, I'm sure, but it's a gift that keeps on giving as they

Aaron Marcum: Yeah, that's right. That's right. That's

Jeffrey Feldberg: independent. So huge congratulations

Aaron Marcum: years married. 

Jeffrey Feldberg: That's another huge congratulations to you.

Yeah, you're hitting it out of the park in all the right areas. So Aaron, let me ask you, because as you're going through your journey, I was reflecting on my own journey and I'll put myself under the microscope. After my liquidity event, which was, it wasn't a single, it wasn't a double, it wasn't even a home run, if I do say so myself at the risk of self proclamation, it was a grand slam.

Aaron Marcum: Oh yeah.

Jeffrey Feldberg: but despite that, like yourself, I went right back at it, like I had something to prove and I thought I had the Midas touch and I was just blown away. Burnt out and miserable when it should have been the complete opposite. So from one entrepreneur to another, and it's just the two of us listening in, no one else, just the two of us talking here.[00:10:00]

What is it about us entrepreneurs that we can be so smart? And if I can say so stupid at the same time of just completely missing it and really dropping the ball, what's going on with that? And now with your psychology background, What's going on here? do you think?

Aaron Marcum: Yeah. I mentioned it before. There's a two different types of passion. There's harmonious passion and there's obsessive passion. This is a positive psychology. Both of them terms we use quite often. Entrepreneurs tend to be more obsessively passionate about what they're doing because there's also levels of grit.

There's five levels of grit, and I write about this in my book. It starts with curiosity, then interest. So interests are starting to do the research about our idea, what we wanna do as an entrepreneur. Then there's the practice part, which a lot of younger entrepreneurs tend to skip that part. They think they just need to be passionate and not even practice it First.

I wasn't passionate about home care out of the gate. I had [00:11:00] to practice that. And and then the fourth is passion. And that's where you can start becoming obsessive, with what you're doing. And the fifth, which is the highest level of grit is a calling. Like you can really truly feel called, but people don't realize that a called entrepreneur can still burn out because they are obsessive about what they're doing or the impact that they want to make.

I love entrepreneurs. They're mostly overall, they're givers and they want to give back. They want to make a difference. And that can also swing to the side of being unhappy. Like they've got to prove that, that what their idea is going to work. And I have been stuck in that. Like you just mentioned with the financial freedom, living what people would from the outside would say, Aaron's living his best life.

And internally, I'm like, I feel like crap, you know, it's, it's not going the way I [00:12:00] want. that's what happens. And so since going through that program, I've learned a few things that have allowed me to just say, what? We're all human. Case in point, just yesterday, I had a hundred registrants for this masterclass I was putting on, super excited about it.

Tested all the technology the day before, all the codes worked, launched the class yesterday, 10 minutes before, no attendees, got to the time we're supposed to start, no attendees. Well, all the codes weren't working. We started getting all these emails. And 10 years ago, or even five years ago, frankly, I would have panicked too, and it would have stressed me out, it would have just thrown me for days probably.

And it took me about two hours to process it and think about all the value I could create now because of what happened for these people who had blocked that time out. It was a four hour masterclass [00:13:00] that we couldn't do. And I think resilience is really at the center of that, that yes, I feel called to provide this, but harmonious passion is all about, the resilience, all these kinds of character strengths you can pull in to say, you know what?

At the end of the day, they're all forgave me that, you know, I can create a win win for everybody. And we can move on. And I don't know if that answers your question, but that to me is the difference. And the difference, I feel like it's not perfect. There are some days, I, the whole day, I feel like this is not.

Where I wanted to be or what I wanted to be doing. But I think overall I've, that resilience just kicks in so quickly these days, which I'm super grateful for.

Jeffrey Feldberg: That's amazing. And by the way, for our listeners in the show notes, it doesn't get any easier. It's a point and click. Please go get the book. Entre Thrive, The Entrepreneur's Eight Laws to Accelerate Financial Freedom. But here's [00:14:00] the kicker while creating the good life, because there's so many stories of people chasing the financial freedom and they have a miserable life.

Forget the good life. It's miserable. And so. Aaron, let me ask you this and you would be perfectly in your right to say, Jeffrey, you've asked such a general question because everyone's journey is incredibly unique and different. It's hard to answer, but that disclaimer out of the way, I'm going to ask it anyways, with what you're doing from your own experience, with what you're now doing in The Accelerator, to the entrepreneurs that you're working with or that you've worked with.

Generally speaking, as entrepreneurs, as I mentioned earlier, we can be so smart in so many ways. But in other ways where it really counts, we just miss it. We drop the ball. What's going on with that? Any thoughts, any thesis on that?

Aaron Marcum: Yes. Taking my own we mentioned Colby before this. Call, right? And then I'm what's called in the Colby. And some of your listeners are probably familiar with the Colby assessment. I'm a quick start. I'm part of a group called [00:15:00] Strategic Coach. Jeffrey, I don't know if you're familiar with Dan Sullivan's group.

Yeah. And so when I get in a room and we all have our Colby scores, 95% Of those in that room are high quick starts. Very few of them aren't. And I think generally speaking, we are like that. And so we can act spontaneously without maybe owning our data or owning the information and like you said, act stupidly and do things that are not in our best interest react, like I think some entrepreneurs can be reactionary.

Many can because they want it a certain way. And when it doesn't go that way, like yesterday, I wanted it a certain way. It didn't go the way I wanted it. And so we can be reactionary and act, and then that reactionary kind of forces us to, or does those unforced errors where we're making two or three mistakes following that reaction and in the entrepreneurial world, [00:16:00] nothing goes perfectly, usually.

And so building that kind of resilience muscle and that, just taking that step back, I think is really important. And then having a team who can pull you back. So I have a strategic assistant who's really good about, Hey, Aaron, have you thought about this? I also have an integrator, COO who does the same thing that has a low quick start. He says, let's let's think about this in one of my the venture I mentioned earlier Homecare Pulse, the J. D. Powers for Homecare type company. I don't know how J. D. Powers feels about me using their name that way, but it's, it's, it's really the, we were a benchmarking, performance benchmarking company.

They still are, they're an amazing company still, but I had a COO who Was not afraid to call me out when I did act stupidly.

And I think that's really important is surround yourself with people that are not the yes, people who say, who [00:17:00] think every idea you have is a good idea, I think entrepreneurs have to have 20 ideas to get to two really good ideas.

And they have to have someone who can say, that's a bad idea. and here's why. And I had Eric was that person for me and Tricia now is the person for me to do that. And so it's important that you, you know, I don't know. I think that it's part of our it's kind of, we're wired to do that, I guess, and to as visionaries to generate a bunch of ideas and some are just not really good ideas.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And for listeners, if you're not familiar with the Colby model, you can go and look that up. But Aaron and I could almost be brothers because his Colby numbers is a 5393 and mine is a 6382. So they're almost identical. And the nine for Aaron and the eight for me, that's the quick start. So it's almost a ready, aim, fire is how it should be, but we're ready, fire, aim.

We'll just go help there and do it and then not follow through and not really implement. And [00:18:00] Think about it afterwards. So it's probably a typical trait of a lot of entrepreneurs out there. And so, Aaron, with that said, I love what you did in the book, because you took these eight laws, which regardless of where you are in your entrepreneurial journey or the industry that you're in, they really do apply.

And I want to start with the first law for clarity. So the law of entrepreneurial clarity or entre clarity as you're calling it. So what would you want our listener to know about clarity? Because it's such. An important area that I feel so many entrepreneurs, it doesn't matter if they're getting going or they're three decades into a career, oftentimes we just lose that clarity or we maybe never had it in the first place.

So what do you want them to know about that? What's going on there? 

Aaron Marcum: In the book, I lay out each chapter, each law with a crawl, walk, run, it comes from Martin Luther King. And he says, if you can't fly, then run, if you can't run, then walk, if you can't walk, then crawl, but whatever you do, keep moving forward. One of my favorite quotes. [00:19:00] And the crawl part of entreclarity, entrepreneurial clarity, is you first have to decide what you want.

Out of your life. And I call them your guiding truths. I've had my guiding truths for 15 years. And so case in point, several years ago, I was putting together the first ever home care industry benchmarking study. And I'd only been, I'd started my company a year prior and the trade association partnered with me.

I don't think at the time they realized I was a one man show, with my company, but as entrepreneurs, that's, at the time I was like, yeah, I'll do this. And they knew I had some data experience. Anyway, I was in over my head a little bit and I was putting in crazy amount of hours and the deadline was coming up.

I literally had Grabbed a sleeping bag in the office, was sleeping under my desk to get some shut eye, and again, burning the kennel on both ends, [00:20:00] and broke down in tears wondering what was I doing, ready to send an email off to the President of the Trade Association to say, I'm done, I can't do this.

And I remember looking, I had my guiding truths back then. I called them my declarations and I re coined them because it resonated more with me as my guiding truths, but I had them on a canvas on my wall. Even back then, I've added one guiding truth since then. This was 2010 when I had this experience and call it a God experience, whatever you want to call it, just, This overwhelming feeling.

As I looked at my guiding truths and looked at my family receives my time. My mind is at peace. There was one, I have nine of them. My life is filled with abundance and I realized I was not, I had lost my way.

From those guiding truths. I'd had them up until that point. I believe I had, I've had those since 2006, so almost 20 [00:21:00] years.

And, but also at that time, I realized what I wanted and I tied that study to it was going to be a wonderful branding opportunity for my company. And then in order for me to live a life of abundance, I had to focus and get this done, got up, got it done. And it turned out that studies. The longest standing study in the industry.

It was an amazing tool for us. And and so anyway, that's, I think, guiding truths, getting clear on what you want, I think is really important. Entre clarity or entrepreneurial clarity is what I call the cornerstone of all those laws is you first have to get clear. And then also clear on what we call your breakaways.

That's a cycling term, but a breakaway is when you're breaking away from the pack. And who are the people you want around you? Like we mentioned earlier, those people who can [00:22:00] hold, who can tell you where, when to break away, if it's a good idea to do this. How to move forward, support you in that breakaway, I call them also your drafting partners, but all, we have a breakaway guide that we give our clients, but getting clear on what you want in your guiding truths, and then what are your breakaways.

To break away from the pack, quit doing what everything, everyone else is doing. Similar kind of the blue ocean concept, pre zone is another, is a strategic coach term, but it's, what is it that you're going to really stand out? What is it that you want to do to break away from the pack? So,

Jeffrey Feldberg: Yeah, no, it makes a lot of sense of having that clarity really from the outset. Again, I think our challenges, since we're so really similar on the Colby side of that ready fire aim, it's okay before I do that, well, what's the big picture here? And I love how you position my words now for the clarity, the entre clarity, it's really like your North Star.[00:23:00]

So from the smallest of decisions to the biggest of decisions, you have that clarity, you have the North Star to guide you. And I'm jumping all over the place here, I promise you, 

Aaron Marcum: Yeah, please do. 

Jeffrey Feldberg: What I want to ask you, so if I go to, it's going to be the I want to say the third law here for grit, entregrit.

So you're talking about the law of entregrit, and I had the question for you because I know in the book you go through this and you also mentioned earlier, you have the five levels, curiosity, interest, practice, passion, calling. And when I look back, my most successful times have been when it was actually a calling and I was doing the preaching and I was out there and preaching to the world about that.

And there's other times where I failed miserably because it wasn't a calling. It was, if I can be open, greed, ego, all the wrong reasons. And it took me a while to figure that out before I said, okay, enough's enough. I've always been challenged though, because I do have that grit and you have all the social programming and I'm probably going [00:24:00] to botch it.

I think it was Vince Lombardi who said something along the lines of winners never quit and quitters always lose or something along those lines. There is a time where we should be quitting and where winners do quit doing the right thing at the right time. And so I was wondering what's your take on that when despite the grit, despite the calling that we know, you know what, it's just either not the time or it's just not gonna happen.

I'm better off stopping this and going in a different direction. 

Aaron Marcum: Yeah. Yeah. I think that, if you combine this a little bit, it's such a great question, but if you combine this with the hedgehog concept with good to great to say, okay, I might feel called, but financially, is it economically viable? Can I be the best in the world at it? And am I passionate about it?

And that's the call. Obviously you're passionate about it. So it's the other two that you really need to answer, I believe. But I think most people though, [00:25:00] when they feel called and those, and they answer those three questions.

Then your staying power is so much stronger and your ability to make revenue and to grow that company is exponential, especially if you're creating the good life alongside it, right?

When you're in that practice phase and you're in there for too long, and you never really are fully passionate about That then I think that's when you have to decide, is this really for me, do I need to quit? The other thing, if you're in the passion phase and you're realizing that your passion is more internally focused, like you mentioned the financial, because we can be fat passionate about money.

And we can say, okay, this I'm passionate about this because this is, I'm going to, my life is going to be amazing. And that's where passion is and nothing against passion,

Passion is typically more about us and what we want. And I think that's [00:26:00] important. That's about the entreclarity. I think that's actually critical in order to get to your calling, but when you feel called, then it becomes about.

The people around you, your customers, your employees, your team members about the impact when you feel called. And that's the difference between passion and calling is that it's outward facing. Calling is outward facing and The staying power of a, of someone who's called. I think there's a fairly big gap between passion and calling because of that.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Yeah, that's interesting. And while you're talking about that, we've mentioned the term, the good life a number of times, and to me, the good life really, it's going to transcend the grit and the clarity. And I'm wondering, because you're really in a privileged position. It's not just yourself. You have the privilege of working with other entrepreneurs and the accelerator.

And from what you're doing with your talks and your coaching and your support, broadly speaking, what would you [00:27:00] say the good life is for you or at least in your community?

Aaron Marcum: Yeah. For me, the first and foremost is the ability to spend time. Like I would like to spend time if that makes sense. Dan Sullivan, my coach at Strategic Coach, and I work directly with Dan with a group of the FreeZone, and he calls it the four freedoms, freedom of time, money, relationships, and purpose.

And time for me, before I stepped down as CEO. I stepped down as CEO at Homecare Pulse at 2018, two years after we started this accelerating journey. And still was the owner of that company for a few years after that. But before I did, I took a seven week sabbatical, left my laptop.

At the office, never checked in, not once, and the company was fine, it grew, and to me, the good life is first and foremost about my [00:28:00] ability to spend time the way I would like to spend time. Sometimes that's time I want to spend in the business. For me, it's having creative space. if my calendar's full for a day.

That's not the good life for me. I need space in my calendar to do, to have that flexibility but that might be different for somebody else. So you have to decide what that good life is. It's an Aristotle term. He used that term two thousand years plus ago about, and he called it The Complete Life. It's eudaimonia.

Is another term that Aristotle used. And so, the virtuous life, again, another Aristotle term. And so deciding what that good life looks like for you, but it usually includes one of those four freedoms that Dan often talks about, which are, a lot of us want freedom, freedom with, I mean, money, we have to be honest.

With ourselves too, is that money does provide levels of freedom. [00:29:00] It allows me to travel with my family, to step back from Mexico with my family. It allows me to have that flexibility and purpose, like doing the things that I love to do. I love to bike. I love to train for these rides. I have to have time to do that.

So. It's all in relationships. Number one, contributor to our wellbeing is our relationships. And there's really not anything that close to the impact our relationship have on our wellbeing. And so,

Jeffrey Feldberg: Yeah. And as you're talking through that, it sounds as though for you, anyways, for the good life, it's really having different seasons in your life. And by seasons, it doesn't have to be months and months. It could be one season today and another season tomorrow, but you have that freedom.

You have that flexibility. Hey, yesterday was packed. Today, you know what? I'm just going to take off. I'm not even going to go to the office. I'm not even going to look at emails or take calls because I want to. I don't have to justify [00:30:00] this to anybody. That's part of my good life code. That's part of my seasons of what it is today.

And tomorrow I may go back to the office and figure out how I'm going to move the dial on the business and be really involved and working on the business and the strategies. How am I doing with that? Would that be more or less on base in terms of the good life for you? 

Aaron Marcum: right on. I mean, that's exactly right. And again, the good life for another person, they might be the happiest when they're in their business and they're really working through problems. You just have to decide how it makes you feel. And if it's something that creates energy. And also decide out those things that, pull that energy and get really keen on what those things are and what relationships are pulling our energy and what relationships are creating more energy in our lives.

So I don't know for me, time. Flexibility with time is a huge component of my good life and living those eight laws, having the habits and doing the little things in my life that make such a [00:31:00] big difference. Influence with my team in a positive way. I mentioned, what happened yesterday is that part of my good life is then mentoring all of them to get through it because a lot of them were, some of them were beating themselves up over it.

And I feel called as a leader to rather than react to actually show them how to respond in these kinds of situations. So, again, the good life is, it's never ending we don't arrive at the good life, that's, I think, an important note as well.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And I suppose it would be, I'm just thinking out loud here, Aaron, as you're talking through this, for the good life, that the journey, the right kind of journey with the right mindset is every part of the good life as anything else. It's interesting, short while back, we had a special round table here, and it was all about the post exit life, something that you can relate to, I can relate to.

If you haven't lived it though, it's [00:32:00] hard to relate to, and there's the other entrepreneurs that were there, and they did really well. Nine figure exits, some of them multiple exits, and the zeros in the bank were just tremendous. But they also, the same thing, and I've experienced this, I don't know if you've experienced this, and they said, Jeffrey, money is great.

And money can help remove some of the friction from life, but it's not going to buy the happiness. I woke up the same day after my deal closed with all these zeros in the bank. And I wasn't happy. I had the same fears and the same challenges, the same unresolved issues that were bringing me down when I didn't have that money

Aaron Marcum: Same relationships. Maybe even that were not worse than they were before.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Well, it gets worse and more complicated because now you have that line up out the door of, With their hands stretched out, family, friends, advisors, hey, can you help me? And it just, goes on and on. And for me, that's one of the areas I really failed very badly in. The post exit life, I didn't find the happily ever after.

It took quite some time. I [00:33:00] made a lot of mistakes along the way. Some of the biggest mistakes I made were post exit, not during the journey. And that's why now in our Deep Wealth Mastery Program, our 90 day program, We take the post exit life is actually the very first thing that we do, because at Deep Wealth, our, it's not a thesis, our factum is that even if your exit is 22 years away or two years away, You can plan your post exit life because it takes time to create that momentum, to find out those rituals.

You can start dabbling in little activities when you have all this white space. You can do that today so that when it does happen, it's not the guesswork and you actually have some kind of a rhythm or a framework to rely on.

Aaron Marcum: Yeah. Oh, I love that, Jeffrey. That's powerful because it is an issue. I mean, so I sold, I had a big exit in February of 2020.

So what happened then? COVID.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Yeah, the

Aaron Marcum: And and so everything shut down and talk about [00:34:00] feeling lost. For a while there I just, I was like, okay, now I don't, what am I doing?

And it was a quick exit too. It was not, it was just a few months and I was out. from the day I exited, thankfully I had built a team that picked up and they didn't need me after that. And so when you exit like that. You don't feel needed as much anymore, and it can be a real downer and you're not in that leadership seat.

You're not calling the shots. And I, a lot of entrepreneurs that I've worked with struggle immensely with that. Depression, all kinds of challenges can come in once you exit. cause money doesn't solve it, and it further complicates it if you don't have that plan. So what you're doing is amazing.

Yeah.

Jeffrey Feldberg: and I know some of them are mocking us, Aaron, they're saying, Aaron, Jeffrey, come on, get off of it. Money doesn't solve the problems. Let me tell you about my problems, how money would solve it. And for those listeners out there, it really doesn't. I've been on both sides [00:35:00] and believe me, yes, money is better.

No two ways about that. But the happiness, it sounds so corny, but it's true. The happiness has to come from within. Money cannot fill that emptiness from within. It's got to come from something other than the material side of things. And speaking of that, it's actually a good segue because for the fifth law, Entrepreneurial faith, Aaron, for some people, even the mention of the word faith has them just stop and take a step back and say, what are you talking about here?

And they don't feel comfortable about that. And so I would love to know really the story behind the story about the faith and you put that in there. It's really one of the foundational laws that you're talking about. So what's going on with the faith? What do you want the Deep Wealth Nation to know about this fifth law?

Aaron Marcum: Yeah. Of all the laws, that was the one I struggled with the most to include.

It was a battle between what I felt was right. And what some of the pressure, even people close to me like, Aaron, are you sure you want to, maybe you should replace that [00:36:00] with trust. Cause you don't know, that's an important one.

And then you can spin it that way. But when I really thought about it, and especially, and this is the interesting, and I talk about this in that law is the evidence The research of the power of a faith, whether that's, I'm not talking religion here. Okay. We've got to separate spirituality from religion.

I am religious. tell people that I'm a Christian, it's really the faith I'm talking about is faith in a higher power. And when you have faith or belief in a higher power, it actually research shows it does enhance your wellbeing.

Ignore the research and felt like it was important, but the faith that I also talk about, so there's three, when we go to the crawl, walk, run, the crawl part is faith in ourselves.

In positive psychology, we call it self efficacy. It's hard to put faith in a higher power when we don't even believe in, in, in ourselves and in our abilities. And as entrepreneurs, That self efficacy, that [00:37:00] belief that we can figure things out is imperative. Like you can't even get, past go if you don't believe that you can figure things out as an entrepreneur because you are constantly hit with things and challenges that require that self efficacy.

Problem solving and require that ability or that confidence. It even goes beyond self advocacy goes beyond confidence. And so that faith to figure it out is really important. Then the second is faith in others. I had a mentor. He's since passed. He had passed of cancer in 2022. one of my best friends very successful entrepreneur and he invested in one of my companies early on.

And I remember when he handed me that check. he didn't know a whole lot about my business and he's like, Aaron, don't need to see a profit and loss statement every month. You can fill me in, but he goes, I'm giving you this because I believe in you and I have faith in you. I'm [00:38:00] investing in you. And I'll tell you, guess what that did to me? That was huge. This guy believes in me. I look up to him. He's super successful. And that was a game changer for me. Dale was, such an impact on my life. And so that's faith in others. And I've done that for others many times in trying to build them up.

And then the third is the faith in a higher power. That's the run is we can't do everything. And there are things that just go beyond our abilities. And so believing in miracles, believing in that, that there's a higher power out there to help us figure out whether you're Jewish, Christian, Muslim, whatever your faith is, that does add to your belief or your ability to be successful and live the good life.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Yeah. Firstly, my condolences on the passing of Dale. It sounds like just a wonderful mentor and friend that you had along [00:39:00] the way and gave you that boost early on when it sounds like you could really have used that, and it made all the difference. And Aaron, full disclosure, I am a person of faith and I'm going to use the word God for me,

Aaron Marcum: Yeah, 

Jeffrey Feldberg: people.

It might 

Aaron Marcum: I use the word God in the book.

Jeffrey Feldberg: something else exactly. And, And I can tell you when God has been on my side on the business, that's when things have worked out and I will be the first one to attribute the dumb mistakes. That's all Jeffrey. The achievements, the wins. And I look back on things.

There's no way I could have just done that. And it wasn't just luck or serendipity. There's a higher power. And I give the praise and all the glory to God 

Aaron Marcum: I love 

Jeffrey Feldberg: doing those things. And I may have just lost the two listeners for the podcast that

Aaron Marcum: And that's okay.

Jeffrey Feldberg: we're listening in on that when they're hearing this.

Aaron Marcum: be able to not be shy about sharing those things. And it's not like we're forcing faith on others, but I, but to be authentic. And thank you for sharing that with me and letting me know [00:40:00] that because God is real for me and has been a key element. And I love how you put that is that all your mistakes are you, right?

And then all the things, the achievements, there was God behind that. And I believe a hundred percent the same way is that I didn't do any of these things, any of these great things myself, even my positive psychology program, that was the God thing that came, that fell in my lap and because of him. So that's I'm right there with you.

Jeffrey Feldberg: my business partner, Steve Wells, who was with me from Embanet all the way through now with our other ventures, we were talking and we're having a Bible study and we're talking together and we're just saying, look outside, look at a flower, as it's spring, as we record this in some parts of the world, look at the blossoming of a flower or the trees.

And tell me that there isn't some kind of a higher power or somehow miraculously, a windstorm swept through and all these [00:41:00] different bacteria got together to do that. There's an order and what's interesting is, we're going off topic here a little bit, but we'll go back on, science now, quantum physics, are showing that what the faith side, What the faith world has been saying for eons, science is now really backing that up and saying one and the same thing.

And it also goes to what we spoke about earlier, your mindset, our inner thoughts, whatever that is. And more importantly, our feelings, that's what manifests our outer world. And so there's a big role, and I'm glad you did include that in the book and to get that out there. And so, Let me ask you this because the other thing that was really interesting and I couldn't agree more, you're talking about the connections, it's the fourth law and I'm sure you learned about this in some of your peer groups and I'm often reminded of Jim Rohn's quote, we are the average of the five people that we spend the most amount of time with.

That could be putting some labels on it, positive or negative but going back to, getting some [00:42:00] clarity and being able to create. And then for the sixth law, your habits and your vigor and your agency. I mean, to me, a lot of that will come from, well, who's our peer group, who are we speaking to?

Who are we really engaging with? Spending time with. And so for the Deep Wealth Nation, for the listeners out there, when it does come to connections, the fourth law, and I know I'm jumping all over here and thank you for your patience with that. What would you tell them about the importance of the connections in the fourth law?

Aaron Marcum: Yeah. I, it first starts with you what you attract and that and what you're going after. When I got in the world of cycling, it was amazing. These people are pushing themselves. Some of the friends I got in, that I became good friends with, most of them, ironically, I don't think it's happenstance, are entrepreneurs who are really trying to make a difference in the world.

My, one of my best friends has now become, who I bike with. Is a great entrepreneur. And so I don't think that's at all a coincidence. And so I think you attract the people in your lives by the [00:43:00] actions you're taking in your life. And so, with some of these connections, I go over three different areas in that law. The first one is about congruency. It's something I don't think we talk enough about

That who you are in private is also who you are in public. You're congruent with the two different ways you show up in the world.

so that congruency is important when you're incongruent. How can you foster any kind of relationships when you're incongruent? The science supports that you can't, there's just, you can't foster deep relationships when you are not the same person. In private and in public. So that congruency, I think is really important to foster deeper relationships.

And then presence is the second is learning to really truly be present with the people that matter most. And those people who give you energy. I talk about this in the book

Is that be very mindful of the people you're around. And sometimes family [00:44:00] members can drain your energy. Now here's the caveat to this.

Is that if you aren't present with people in your life, they might drain your energy because you're not present.

And that you're not actually giving them the time that they need of, especially if it's a family member

And that when you do, and when you are present, then they, and you're truly sincere and concerned about them.

And that's genuine. They'll feel that. And that energy just cycles. Between the two of you.

The third is the high quality connections because of that energy. And that's a Jane Dutton, a famous organizational psychologist. She coined that term, I believe, but high quality connections is those daily connections that feed our soul.

Meaningful one on one connections. Whether it's with your Uber driver or with other people, but again, whatever gives you energy in those connections and be mindful again of of those that [00:45:00] no matter what you do or say or how present you are, they're going to bring a negative energy into your life.

And you may have to either eliminate that those connections or minimize them to where you're not around them as much. and that's hard. That's really hard for a lot of people to do. It's hard for me to do

Jeffrey Feldberg: I suppose, though, if you go back to the first law, your law of clarity, and you've got that, and then you've got the, you know, on the passion side, it's your calling. And when you put that first and you realize, you know what? Maybe it's a family member, maybe it's a early childhood friend, who knows what it is, but this person really gets in the way of my mindset, and they're just an energy vampire, and after I meet with them, it takes me three days just to detox and cleanse, and the business is suffering, and these areas are suffering, that then it becomes clear, okay, I don't have to be a jerk about it, but I can slowly over time [00:46:00] begin to withdraw, back off, and over time, just not have to That association.

And I don't know about you, Aaron. I find though, when we change our mindset towards that, it's almost as though we're operating at a different frequency and the other party almost magically on their own just drops off and it's unbelievable

Aaron Marcum: a hundred percent of the time.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Yeah.

Aaron Marcum: They do. And family, I think, is, can be the exception in proximity, because of the proximity, if they're in your same household. And that's when having open and honest conversations, understanding what it is. But I always, I tell people that first ask, is it I? Am I the one causing the friction here?

Because I'm not present, or I'm not congruent, or I'm not, what am I contributing to this? I had a unique situation with a family member a few years ago, and it was me. It was me. I was like, I would tell people, man, I'm around him, my energy's [00:47:00] drained. It's because I wasn't present with him.

And And so, it's it wasn't any of my kids, in case any of them are listening, so, or my wife, but but anyway, it, and it was me, and when I changed that about myself, the relationship changed,

Jeffrey Feldberg: Yeah, it's

Aaron Marcum: and

Jeffrey Feldberg: accountability on that and you owned it and hey, maybe it's me as the old saying goes, when you point a finger, you have four pointing back at you. Something to think about. And let me ask you, before we go into wrap up mode, we've been talking a lot about the different laws and what's going on in the Entre Thrive book.

I love that with the eight laws. I know those are embedded into your whole accelerator and you're doing some wonderful things with that. So what would be the secret sauce with the accelerator? So if I were to show up today and say, okay, Aaron, here I am. I want to be part of the accelerator, maybe even the masterclass that you're doing, timing wise, how long does this take?

And what would I be doing? What kind of results would I expect with the accelerator system?

Aaron Marcum: Yeah. Thank [00:48:00] you. So the Breakaway Accelerator is specifically right now for home care founders, CEOs, and COOs. Although we have some big goals for it in 2025 to expand into other healthcare segments. And then even beyond that, because it's so agnostic in its approach. Although there are some customized They are the three biggest parts of the program specific for home care providers.

But it's an it starts with a three day immersive where we bring 12 companies, their CEOs, and their CLOs together. We want that person who's going to implement some of the strategies and best practices. We bring them together for three days. And what it is all about and I think this is the powerful part of the program to help them break away, is that we're not giving them these out of the box one size fits all strategies in their sales or marketing, all of that.

What it is all about thinking tools and Asking the right [00:49:00] questions so that they can build those for themselves. And so we start in five different areas that we focus on. The first one is think that's the clarity. That's the mindset, like if they don't like their business is not going to grow beyond their thinking. And so that's a, I heard Ed Milet say that a few months ago. And I've been saying that for a while, is that you're thinking, well, your business will never grow beyond your thinking. And so we try to expand their thinking through. All these really cool type of interventions that we've created.

And then the second is keep, that's more company related, that's helping them build a positive culture, a keeping culture, to keep their top talent. And then the third, once we can get those two first ones, those, we call them breakaway mindsets, in order, then the third breakaway mindset is accelerate.

Now we can work on the strategies and help them create the strategies that work for their company. [00:50:00] Accelerate, fourth is transform. Now we're talking about transformation, transforming, creating again Blue Ocean type concept, but creating that unique space for them to transform their business. And then the last is the abundance.

That's the good life. That's helping them transform themselves personally and live the abundant life. that's the Breakaway Accelerator program. Again, right now we're keeping it focused on a certain type of entrepreneur where I played for the last 22 years, but but then we'll be expanding that.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Yeah, I love that. And you're really operating on the art side of business, the art side of life. This is not going to show up in a complicated formula in a spreadsheet. In my books anyways, this is where the magic happens. This is where the success comes from that we don't hear about. You're not taught that in business school.

You don't read that in most of the business books, but this is where it's at. And I just love how you're doing that.

Aaron Marcum: Yeah, and it's an annual program. I don't know if I mentioned that [00:51:00] they start with the three day immersive and then they go into this in the full 12 month accountability, all of that as part of the program.

Jeffrey Feldberg: it sounds like you've taken really the best of everything of your journey and put it into this 12 month program to really make a difference. And my next question before we're going to wrap them out, it's really not a fair question. I'll be the first to say that. It's almost like asking, hey, pick your favorite of your six children.

Which one's your favorite? Let me ask you this though, on the eight laws, is there one that really stands out more for you than the others?

Aaron Marcum: Oh yeah, that's, and I've had that question before, and I probably have not always been consistent with my answer, I call it the Keystone Law, not the Cornerstone Law, the Keystone Law, which is the eighth law, and agency.

Martin Seligman talks about agency quite a bit and he talks about the three pillars of agency, self efficacy, which is belief in ourself, imagination, and optimism.

And in order to create Great things in your company. I think the agency is important. You [00:52:00] avoid avoid choosing to go into what we call thinking traps. I think agency is paramount for entrepreneur to continue their journey.

You can get stuck in that journey and quit. Too early if you're always looking outward for blame and for and you're choosing to think a certain way and so forth.

So agency, I would say is pretty, pretty darn important. I think also the create law, the second one,

I mean, obviously clarity, critical, really important. But as entrepreneurs, if we are not creating and having that space to cause most of us are creators, then we're not happy. We're typically not living the life we want.

And so that's really important to rather than being in your business all the time, creativity using your creative flow is working on your business.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Well said. And as you're saying that, I'm just reflecting. And I'm seeing really your secret sauce here, your method to the madness of really how, [00:53:00] yes, okay, agency, the eighth law is what you had selected, but they really all build one on top of the other. And so to have one, you really need the others and it creates a, just a terrific safety net, if you will, to allow you to go out there and achieve.

 It's like an arc, I see it as an arc and agency is the keystone because everything kind of is wrapped underneath it or around it, but yeah.

Jeffrey Feldberg: exactly. Let me ask you this, before we go into wrap up mode, is there a question I happened to ask or is there a topic we haven't covered or even a message you'd like to get out to the community?

Aaron Marcum: I think that the biggest message is that, for me, as an entrepreneur, you impact so many people, typically, unless you're a solo entrepreneur, but even then, I'd argue, you still impact a lot of people, your family, customers, and so when you're not taking care of yourself, you And you're again, living the lie of the either or, where you're just focused on your professional wellbeing, your financial side, your personal wellbeing will suffer.

And not only will it suffer for you, [00:54:00] everyone around you will suffer and be impacted by that. When you're not showing up with your best self, like I wasn't until 2016, then your business, We'll plateau. It will struggle until you really decide to invest at least most of the time. I realize there are exceptions out there, but for the most part, that's a lie.

So

Jeffrey Feldberg: It's so interesting because as entrepreneurs, we hear so many things out there and social programming and everything else. What we don't hear enough of. It's our family. It's our close friends. They're as much a part of the journey as we are. And so if we can't get it right ourselves on the journey, that goes back to faith and some of the other things that we spoke about.

And we're showing up tired and burnt out and not giving the attention or the presence to our family members. Not a great situation, not a wonderful environment to be in. And really, it's all from our side. We can't point the finger at anybody else. So I'm with you on that.

Aaron Marcum: Yeah. Thank you.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And so that said, we're going to go into wrap up mode, as [00:55:00] a tradition here on the Deep Wealth Podcast, I have, really, it's a privilege and an honor to ask the same question to all of the guests.

So let me set this up for you. It's a fun question, Aaron. When you think of the movie Back to the Future, you have that magical DeLorean car that will take you to any point in time. So Aaron, imagine now it's tomorrow morning, and here's the fun part. You look outside your window, not only is the DeLorean car there, but it's curbside, the door is open, so you hop on in.

You're now going to go back to Any point in time, Aaron, as a young child, a teenager, whatever point in time that would be, what are you telling your younger self in terms of life lessons or life wisdom, or hey, Aaron, do this, but don't do that. What would that sound like?

Aaron Marcum: Yeah. Ooh, I love this question. Uh, there's so many things I would tell myself, but if I had to pinpoint one thing I would say when it comes to the stress side of things is I would try to give my younger self perspective on what's truly important. that you're going to build some great things, but keep [00:56:00] this in perspective.

And frankly, I would tell my younger self too, that spend more time with your kids and with your family. Again, when you're in that grind mode as a young father, the way I was, is I was so laser focused on grinding it out and proving to people That was my, sadly, my biggest motivator was proving.

And I would want, if I had to go back in time, I'd go back in time to 2003. a year after I started my first business, and I would tell that young Aaron to say, Hey, success will follow you, but you are missing the point. You're spending way too much time at work. you know, You don't like to have regrets, but and I don't even wouldn't call them regrets.

I learned from those experiences, but certainly would have wanted to change that perspective for myself back then.

Jeffrey Feldberg: That's great advice. And I've been there with you and building the business and missing precious time with my eldest daughter, who was a newborn at the time. And I hear you on that. It's [00:57:00] actually one of the common themes here. When I asked that question, very successful people have said the same thing.

For all the success that I have, all the accolades, all the zeros in the bank, I can't go back and rebuild or be part of those family experiences that I missed. And some of those people aren't even here anymore, they've passed on, and I just missed that window, and they share that as one of the regrets, one of the only regrets that they have because of that.

So, a lot to think about, Deep Wealth Nation, as you head out from this podcast. And Aaron, before we wrap this up, If a listener has a question or they even want to become part of the master class or the accelerator, where would be the best place online to reach you?

Aaron Marcum: So the accelerator can be found@breakawayaccelerator.com, so that's breakaway accelerator.com. The book, we actually have a website for the book called Entre Thrive, E-N-T-R-E-T-H-R-I-V e.com. They can actually, if they click on resources, they can download our Entrepr [00:58:00] Clarity guide, which actually has a whole tool on building out their guiding truce.

So, that's a powerful tool that they can tap into. So,

Jeffrey Feldberg: Terrific. And Deep Wealth Nation, this is all in the show notes. It's a point and click. It doesn't get any easier. Well, Aaron, congratulations. It's official. It's a wrap. And as we love to say here at Deep Wealth, may you continue to thrive and prosper while you remain healthy and safe. Thank you so much.

Aaron Marcum: Thank you. It's been an honor. 

Jeffrey Feldberg: So there you have it, Deep Wealth Nation. What did you think? So with all that said and as we wrap it up, I have another question for you.

Actually, it's more of a personal favor. Did you find this episode helpful? Have you found other episodes of the Deep Wealth Podcast empowering and a game changer for your journey? And if you said yes, and I really hope you did, I have a small but really meaningful way that you can actually help us out and keep these episodes coming to you.

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