Having a Winning Mindset with Your MSP, with Shawn Harper

[00:00:00] Hey guys, today's episode is sponsored by Survosity. I created a Survosity because I was an MSP that lost data. Then I had to go in front of my client and tell them I can't recover.

[00:00:14] If you've ever been there or worried that you would be there then you may want to take a look at Survosity. We do two things that nobody else is crazy enough to do. We test your backups, monotically. Do that daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly for you.

[00:00:30] Then we manage the backups for you so you can focus on growing your MSP instead of babysitting backups. If you're interested in our unlimited storage or immutable storage or any of things that I'm talking about, visit Survosity.com.

[00:00:47] When you want to win, when you want to make it to the pros, when you want to be that entrepreneur of the year and you experience pain, you think that you are a anomaly because you don't know us apart of the process.

[00:01:08] Hey guys, Damien Stevens, host of MSP Mindset. Today I got the privileged interview Shawn Harper who played in the NFL and has gone on to do so many amazing things. Now what does an NFL player have to do with running my MSP? A lot.

[00:01:24] We're going to talk about winning and probably more importantly, we're going to talk about struggling, how you overcome those struggles, how you identify them, and how you use those with his book, the Winologist, to grow and scale your MSP? There is a lot to cover.

[00:01:45] I feel like in your book. I love your challenging permission to get raw. I've got some of the specifics but I wanted to see if you would give everybody a sense for some of your struggles, especially early on struggles. I'm growing up as a kid.

[00:02:10] The moment you said that, it just gave me a flashback and I'm going to share something and that I have never shared. Before, I don't know why I just saw this flash for some reason. My mom made me play football.

[00:02:29] I didn't like football but she made me play. I would have to walk like a mound of two miles every day to practice. Sometimes by myself my neighbor played and I would walk home every day with my uniform one.

[00:02:49] Sometimes it was night, it was dark and they came out for the selection, for the starters, the 18 in the B team. I remember me being, they went to the 18, they congratulated everyone and they came over to me like eight of us.

[00:03:07] You know, guys, I'm sorry you're the B team. I cried. I just cried, I don't know what, I just broke down and tears because it was another layer or another level of rejection. Having to have to repeat the first grade, having physically abused by my father, I think

[00:03:32] that's in the book on several occasions, hitting that type of rejection is just another level and we didn't have words like triggers back then but that's probably what it was. Then going through that, every aspect of life hitting challenge, of the challenge and

[00:03:54] rejection, after rejection, I think what has helped me is that I made a decision to fight through it. To fight through, repeating the first grade, not being a great football player, told I shouldn't play football at all, being kicked out of a couple of schools for disciplinary

[00:04:13] issues, graduating last in my class, like a 1.62, voted most likely to fail and I just say that because honestly, that's the edited version because there's another dark side that I don't even go into.

[00:04:30] Being hit by that over and over and over again and I was actually talking yesterday to a group of kids and I just mentioned something that I haven't mentioned much before and that was that sometimes the shell or the exterior is tough because it is asking you,

[00:04:50] it is daring you to push against it and some of the greatest world changers are people who basically made a decision to push persever until something happens, push against the hard shell of rejection, push against the hard shell of abandonment, push against the hard shell of

[00:05:13] trauma and abuse. I'm kind of blessed to have grown up in an error to where they taught you fight through that stuff and that's the only reason why I'm here today.

[00:05:33] The only reason why I'm speaking to you now is that I was blessed to have a different perspective of adversity, adversity can break you but it also can make you a record breaker. I just made a decision to fight to it and fight through it.

[00:05:48] How much was so you didn't take what a lot of people would say is it in the traditional path right because you didn't go to like the big schools that everybody knows is a great place for

[00:05:58] football and one of the top football teams. How much did that affect your trajectory? Did that enable you to not cap yourself? I took the course of a junior college and that is for the lack of a better term

[00:06:27] a black hole for a lot of athletes who go off to a junior college they don't compete, they don't complete, they don't graduate, they never make it about it. But as far as a major university I attended in the inner universities so that's you know

[00:06:47] back then it was a pretty reputable school. I think the football program has since declined but when I played we're pretty good. We're extremely, extremely competitive but I started the same process all over again

[00:07:03] see and then I went there and they originally never shared this thing. They actually originally wanted me to play a defensive line and I was horrible in defense of that was a horrible

[00:07:15] defense of tackle and I go as horrible and then they tried me at this spot and I was horrible finally the coach brought me and said we're going to redshirt you and that means that you're on

[00:07:27] the team but you're not going to play and then so I had to start the process all over again I had to carry the water and you know be on the scout team and there's Sean, he's a has been

[00:07:41] and I had to start that process all over again all the way up to the top to be eventually drafted. I halted some of the challenges in a university you faced when you were young,

[00:07:56] prepared for that because a lot of people could have just said you know I'm on the team that's good I'm going to yeah I'll show up for a whatever I got a show up for and that's it. Right.

[00:08:09] Good and bad. The good is as I live for a challenge. I live you know if I can put in my mind that this is a challenge, I probably would almost die until it's done and that's just the way

[00:08:30] that my mind is. The bad part about it is that I have to have a challenge to move to another level and I'm trying to get into my mind even at this age that you know what you don't need to challenge

[00:08:43] just ascend to the next level. But I am extremely competitive with that so once I was placed in the situation that I was at the bottom then they just activated them that I will

[00:08:57] that you know I will ascend to be the lacrimmed lacrim. So I want to go back a little bit there's a lot of this they're just I don't understand this directly. I have a complaint you know

[00:09:13] football with friends that I've had that was it like I never played, I was never very good the never in danger playing and so there's a lot of things like I think if you said like what do

[00:09:23] you I mean common with somebody that makes it to NFL my answer usually would be probably little to nothing but then I'm reading your book and I realize there's just so many stories in there

[00:09:38] that unfortunately some of the bad ones I could relate to. So you said you asked the tough questions to ask those I wanted to ask you one that just you just struck me. There's a part of

[00:09:53] the book where you talk about your father not being able to show what you were looking for and what just hit me like a train was he would throw you down the stairs repeatedly.

[00:10:10] And then at some point you said something to the fact that you know that's our voice of I love you and you were looking for something what were you looking for because I just hit

[00:10:23] me and I was like there's too much there I can relate to. You know it's funny I was just watching a video of a pastor talk about his father and how you know at the very end his father was I mean

[00:10:40] this is like a you know this is a pretty six from what I was able to gather a very pretty well pretty much you know successful in the world since a pastor and for him to say it was he did a good

[00:10:56] job I'm proud of you I loved you and I'm seeing this senior pastor on this video breakdown in tears. In three days ago I'm in church another you know influential man talk about his father

[00:11:11] this man at 65 years old before he died he should have what he's to how his father before he died acknowledged you know and and I'm seeing my senior pastor cry and and it kind of

[00:11:25] affirmed everything that I always knew but it's like every every every boy every girl longs for daddy's stamp of approval. It is built in us I don't care what they say in often times oftentimes it's crazy oftentimes when that is missing we will subconsciously look for validation

[00:11:50] in so many other ways. The thing about the story of my father in which something that I think I'm gonna put in this next book is how he left but around 1998 1999 he came back to the

[00:12:06] security company it was an actual it was another company at that time called Global One Security he came back and he was the client liaison when the best I've ever seen and when I transitioned

[00:12:19] in 2004 to American services he was there and he worked with me every single day for 20 years 22 years I think he may have missed five days and I watched him and basically he raised me all over again

[00:12:42] it was amazing I didn't really appreciate I can standing for the first half but but as the years went on I realized that this man was doing this for me he wasn't doing it for the company

[00:12:55] he was doing it for me he was he was this was his way of correcting a wrong he said I'm going to read raise my son all over again and I was able to retire him and he and

[00:13:10] bury him he died I think 2017 2018 and we had a last conversation with no words we just looked him we had a little game that we used to play right and you know he always teach me like when

[00:13:28] you shake a man's hands was to be straight up like this and don't let him turn your hand this way or that way and then at the last moment this last act is he turned his hand down he put

[00:13:40] my hand on top and then that conversation in that moment still it still gives me chills he's like you're ready and I affirm you what been four hours he was dead thank you for sharing that

[00:13:58] sorry for your loss but that's amazing story yeah I get I get chills this is father's day this past week and so just I feel like we were meant to talk about this from what I gather you know

[00:14:13] you had a little different than I did but you had a you had a situation where your parents divorced yeah probably didn't have your mom said she wanted to be around me and so thank

[00:14:27] for mom yeah and for my dad understand she's raising six kids and a single mom blessed bless her and but just talking about struggles yeah and what you said she attempted suicide

[00:14:43] yes she did she tried to kill herself and that you know you know because you know she married the men of her dreams you know and and and the one thing I've learned in relationships and

[00:15:01] this is gonna get me a trouble but you need a little bit of trouble in your life you know men have men have drive women have dreams right and it's like her dream was to

[00:15:19] you know be married and great guy and live this life that was alive one day he just left and it's just it just broke her but it was one of the greatest it was it was for me it was

[00:15:38] it was amazing I didn't realize it yet but it was amazing because at my father stayed in the house I don't know if I would ever play football I don't know if he would allow me to play football in fact I'm pretty sure that he would not have

[00:15:53] allowed me to continue to play football sometimes we look at life and we see things that are hard and things have happened and you know we have to we have to complete the story

[00:16:09] so my father left he was abusive of physically abusive you know and I you know and I didn't get with my other older brothers and sisters got like they got it worsted me but

[00:16:22] but how do you find gratitude in that? How do you complete the circle? And that's the problem with trauma a lot of times is that we don't complete the circle and so when I see you know at a

[00:16:36] verse he impain in my life you know I've somehow I gotta find gratitude in that you know because not because if not I'm stuck in that moment now I got trauma now I got triggers I gotta complete the circle like where's the gratitude in that?

[00:16:55] Yeah you know so it's like Lord thank you because this is what I now I can look at that situation differently like Jesus on the cross like like if you had a focus on the cross and

[00:17:07] nothing I was a pretty tragic death there buddy like all your friends left you you're close to the allies left you you down across that is a horrible story

[00:17:18] you left you and so yeah too. Yes you left you so you out and just played you like when you died alone bro right you gotta complete the story all right and that's what you focus on we

[00:17:31] don't focus on the death we focus on the resurrection yeah so people who are out there oh the huddle huddle huddle people people people who are out there who are who are dealing with the pain

[00:17:46] you know look through that and find the one or two nuggets in there and shift your energy to gratitude. That's what I'm working on right now I thought I'm dealing with right now

[00:18:05] yeah if you don't get that what I've learned about my own life is there's this there's a note that trauma the scars and I what I've realized is I'm still we all got a life is uphill

[00:18:17] you know it's not easy and what I've learned though is I'm just carrying a bunch of rocks in my backpack and if I don't examine them I'll never take them out then just all that does is slow me down

[00:18:28] make life really hard because I'm I'm hiking around a bunch of heavy rocks holding me back even worse because then now is even worse because you got people like oh look at your rocks

[00:18:43] you like yeah yeah yeah so I wanted to get to that one of the things that struck me because I remember when this changed in my mindset where you went from being a victim to a victor

[00:19:01] yeah yeah uh how did that happen well because I had to I had to redefine who I am that's very you never get you will never maintain what you want you will only maintain and have what you are okay so somewhere deep within your heart and reading

[00:19:39] this book I'm doing a lot of research on the heart and what it can do for your life somewhere deep deep in my heart there was a victim and I had to make a switch and I'm still making that switch

[00:19:54] just like levels to this game right you know and I made the switch that no I'm not a victim of a victor for now I'm changing my energy so now that the energy is being changed it's exuding

[00:20:08] a different thing so it reflects and now it attracts at the same time and so I had to switch that power plant of me being a victim to me being a victor because if I don't make the switch

[00:20:20] I will always be victimized I will set myself up to be victimized you know but now I have to change that no I'm a victor now that comes from me and exudes from me now I'm pulling in victories

[00:20:33] I'm attracted to other winners I'm attracted to victories in my life in a manifesting that okay so that's that's what I'm in the the ever process of converting and changing that from victim to

[00:20:50] victor and so I get to a certain level and you know and then I'll stay stuck there for like six months and I go to them at level so now I have to change that little bit deeper a little bit

[00:21:03] deeper a little bit is a little bit deeper of a victor you got to convert that and then I change now I go to another level and then I go to another level and I never stop you I never stop

[00:21:16] I grew up in a family and culture and friends and school and everything where it was about being a victim and you could display those rocks and say look at this and they could

[00:21:27] they could feel bad for you and you know I got good at showing you all the reasons that I couldn't right and I shouldn't and I wouldn't you know I'm too poor yeah I'm too dumb

[00:21:41] my GPA's too low I'm not connected I don't know anybody I don't have any belief and I believe in God I don't have to believe myself one of the things that my mom did was

[00:21:51] that was one of the main things that you did that was amazing is that she would only allow social groups to help that did not stigmatize us as victims one of the downfalls of a lot of social

[00:22:09] programs with the non-for-profit world is that it traps you in victimization mode it keeps you right there it doesn't encourage you to push past it you know it just says hey we have services for you but

[00:22:25] they're victimizing you at the same time and I'm saying let get up off your butt let's go let's do this thing man come on let's get to the next level let's fight yes I understand you have stepping

[00:22:36] your life and your traumatized and you got pain let's go turn the pain into purpose and the purpose and the profit let's go yes yeah don't do that because there's money in that just money

[00:22:48] in victimization so you gotta push past the pain you gotta fight past the pain that you gotta keep moving you know that's why the mother bird doesn't help the little chitlets open the shell they

[00:23:03] said that is what you all day you let the city or what you just pushed out because if mom jumps in man god it's a so deep if mom jumps in the dad jumps in and tries to open up that shell

[00:23:14] when that shells open it that bird won't walk that bird won't fly it's in the pain and it's in the struggle that produces monsters hmm I think somebody listening to you to hear that

[00:23:27] and yeah that's that struggle right there sets you up yeah when um we must have killed it was five years old right I got I got so much trouble for this but you know okay

[00:23:41] I really don't care uh he was playing soccer no he's playing baseball and at the end of the game they lost but yet they want to have this victory tunnel yeah that's a fun run to the tunnel

[00:23:56] and then like yes it smashed that boy up that's nice tip up the parents was like oh my god I know I know that's nice just say duh I said boy you lost yeah what did you do to lose

[00:24:10] hmm and what can you do to win next time yeah I and I took him and we went outside and we practiced he hated it and I made him practice every day with me we practiced every day

[00:24:28] before baseball practice every he hated me for that he just dad no I'm gonna be a kid I don't you want to play baseball you can be the best you can be we practiced every day

[00:24:39] I didn't want to practice made him practice in other year he was MVP of the uh baseball team and he was MVP of the All-Star game I said you will not be complacent I said you will win

[00:24:56] and I want to get into a lot of this you know your book we're gonna get into waiting yeah book is the win all of this but I wanted to mention I wanted to cover another thing which

[00:25:04] he's talk about poverty so how do you go from poverty in all senses not just economic or mindset to the mindset you have now I'm winning well you you have to redefine as I mentioned earlier

[00:25:25] and you know this was just brought out in the early to mid 90s your heart and most people think that they think from their brain but they think from your heart your heart and they discovered in the mid 90s over 40,000 neurons and these neurons have the ability to

[00:25:48] think on their own and he's neurons have the ability to store memory in fact they've had countless case studies where they've given a heart transplant to maybe someone who was a racist

[00:25:59] and that person in the head is getting the heart of a black man and now this guy loves black people instantly like I love black people or now I'm a music I'm a musical genius with a

[00:26:11] person who's horrible you know it because the heart has memory they've used testimonies to where this person was being murdered and they had in a person had a heart transplant and the person gave a vivid description of what happened and it's crazy yeah because the heart can store

[00:26:32] the heart can store emotions and this is why people can die of a broken heart I mean it it is absolutely real okay so now I was able to dig deep into change my heart and the Bible talks about the

[00:26:48] heart over and over and over again but no one really pays attention to it right so I was able to change my heart and I'm working on changing my heart getting the pain out getting the

[00:26:58] fear out getting the anger out getting the trauma out and then the move from there so my my actual focus is not in my actions as much anymore my focus is my heart changing my heart

[00:27:11] and seeing myself not as you know a victim of Victor but as a winner and you know it's not cliche it's this is who I am I am a winner so yesterday I was reading to some kids right and I didn't

[00:27:30] think I was gonna like it right I just I loved it right I just like my guys is I just felt them pull so much out of me and there were two kids in the back you know one wants to be a

[00:27:41] construction worker the other ones to play a professional soccer and and out of all the kids when I looked at those kids in the eye I saw it I saw that winner it was placed in them at a

[00:27:53] young age and then I saw some kids who didn't have it and I'm like my God my God so now my job is to put it in me and put it in people around me this is who you are all actions stem from thoughts

[00:28:08] all thoughts are from your belief system and it goes one step further you know belief system is yourself concept who are you who are you and in my case who's in my love that that is glad

[00:28:21] that is so so good Sean I firmly believe we were meant to talk today in so many ways but you just brought up the heart and how it has memory and there's all these neurons and I I want to make this

[00:28:36] about you but I was leap just reading this book and are you serious just reading this where just just right now just today the really that's what they're talking about the talking about that

[00:28:48] part where those neurons are in the book is fighting for heart and and so I have the blessing of getting in interview the individual tomorrow of all the time of all the time so I want to speak

[00:29:01] to him if you give him my contact I'm like I can like I can tour with you bro we can speak of because you know what it needs it needs to be talked about your heart the actual electromagnetic

[00:29:17] frequency or vibration of your heart okay is 5,000 times stronger than the vibration of your brain your heart emits a signal this is where the law of attraction comes from right your heart emits a frequency in a signal that you will attract the same situation the same circumstances

[00:29:40] same relationships the same everything over and over again why because it's actually admitting a frequency from your heart and you will not change your life until you change that frequency comes and that's where that's the core of your life you got to change your heart tell me about

[00:30:03] what does it mean your book is the windologist right from the locker room to the board room what do I need to be doing to apply what your teaching there not what you're doing is what

[00:30:15] you're seeing okay what is that you need to be seeing you need to be seeing yourself who you are or who's you are you need to be seen yourself as that dominator as the world change you need to be You see in yourself as the winner.

[00:30:31] Once you see yourself as a winner, you're introduced to your greatest competitor. The greatest competitor is you. You got a fight against you. You got to fight against, I'm fighting against myself to be the best version of myself. And you have to realize a sobering thought

[00:30:52] that every time you step on this game feel the life that you can lose. Yeah. Every competitor realizes even LeBron James, if he was playing a college team, he knows I can lose. Mm-hmm. I'm not gonna lose. All right. I'm stepping on this playing field

[00:31:12] and I'm playing two wins. I'm gonna be the best version of myself. And what happens is that you develop what I call the inside game. And most champions have the inside game. The inside game is a game that they play all by themselves.

[00:31:30] Did I, am I the best that I can be? That's why when you see really high level competitors and they play their kids or they play at a charity game, they wanna smoke you. Yeah. They're gonna smoke you. Why because it's the inside game.

[00:31:48] And that's where champions are made. It's what is your inside game? I was playing with the coach. And we had one. And we were excited, but this one receiver he's arms refoded and he was upset. And I'm like, man why did he say man?

[00:32:07] I dropped passes and this and this and that. You know, in the back of my mind, like this dude is a narcissist. He is selfish. Right. But no, you know, years later I realized that that was his inside game, this inside game said you can be better.

[00:32:24] And so when everyone else left, I remember he stayed back and he started lifting again. You know, he's our lifting, he's our training as if he, you know, I'm like wow, like he didn't let the outside victory determine his inside victory at the same time.

[00:32:40] I mean, I'm not in his head, but I don't think that he would allow outside failure, failures to determine his inside, failures as well. Hmm. So do what you can do if you could do the best that you can do and you laid it out there

[00:32:53] and let the chips fly where they may. Right, leave it all in the field. But I want to feel, oh yeah. I just can relate to this struggle for the mental. But everything you talk about is like, I'm my biggest enemy in every time.

[00:33:08] At least, it's like when I was a victim and then decided to not be a victim, now I see things differently and it isn't, it's not 100% it's not, I'm still working on myself. But when I started to frame things that way, I started to ask better questions

[00:33:22] and that's what, you know, usually when I'm asking for advice, I'm asking for help. It's like, I know I'm holding myself, my business, my family, whatever it is, back. So what do I need to do to change? How do I? Yeah, it comes the best version of myself.

[00:33:40] Yeah, yeah. Who was that? Oh man, it was a famous pastor who's now, John Maxwell used to be a pastor. He used to be a pastor and Lancaster Ohio and he's now a world famous. He had this book about the laws of, I forgot the so many laws.

[00:34:07] But one of these principles was called the Law of the Lit, which is what I'm being convicted with right now and the law of the lit is that your organization can't grow past you. And so you have to always expand your lit to create the capacity for growth.

[00:34:26] Mm-hmm, yeah. I love that. Yeah, yeah, I've seen that and I see that all the time, all right, I'm the limiting factor. Yeah, if you're leading, you're leading your team, your company. Yeah. How did you speak in the limiting factors? How did you go from NFL,

[00:34:48] and I don't know the statistic off hand, but it seems like this statistic is almost everybody plays in NFL this broke. Bankrupted, shortly after not playing, shortly after leaving. How'd you end up playing the NFL in a flip Europe?

[00:35:05] And now, you know, you're the CEO of American Services and Protection, your author of Winology, your motivational speaker and author, Foundation founder of Bridge Builders in International. I break rules, but I never break laws, right? In this world there are laws,

[00:35:28] and if you break the laws, the laws will break you. Mm-hmm, it could look and peer inside of my world, you'd be like, how's he doing this? Because most people, when people get behind the curtain, they're like, I don't understand. Get right, right?

[00:35:48] You know, they don't understand how, right? And one of my secrets is that I live, I give and I forgive. It's always trying to keep my heart clean. And it's, and giving credit in grace to God. And he is able to use me to

[00:36:16] can found a lot of people who are doing things the world right way. And there, and in some reason, I'm ahead of him. They're like, China figured out, like, you know, there's like, look, the heck is going on? Like, how are you even in business?

[00:36:31] Like, how are you even speaking? I'm like this because I submit my life to God and I know the laws. And I live, and I don't break laws, you know. My mom taught me that when I was a kid, and she cried out to God,

[00:36:51] she's like, God, how are we gonna make it? I'm raising six kids by myself scrubbing floors and bexley. Mm-hmm. I'd say, if you give to the poor, I will always take care of you. And bro, they hated us on the side. They call welfare on his twice.

[00:37:13] They're like, how is it that this man gives you a brand new car? And how is it that you're still, like, you have a man living in the house somewhere, like, how is it that you, we had the biggest house in our neighborhood.

[00:37:29] There was a single mom scrubbing floors and bexley down the street from white cows and the druxial theater. We jumped her off every day, but we had the best Christmas, it's the best Thanksgiving, we had the best, we had the best, every, I don't know how it happened,

[00:37:43] but I do know how it happened is that the spiritual law says, if you give, it shall be given. Back to you, press down, shake in the gavre, run it over, and I live my life, sewing and giving, not only in money,

[00:37:58] but in myself, the people and God as a blessed man in return, because it's not me. I guarantee trust me, it's not me. That's me. That's me, it's not me. So, if everybody's seeing their running a business, thinking about this, how do I, because I think it's,

[00:38:20] like, I'll speak about myself, it's easy to sit there and go, well, I have this role as a husband and as a father and as a business owner, and you know, how do I give more? How do I get out of my,

[00:38:34] because what I've found is it's fear. You know, I'm getting on my comfort zone and it actually go where I'm called and give. So, there's levels to that. Right? Yeah, I mean, he will always call you deeper into it. You know, so what I mean by that is,

[00:39:02] you know, if you're at the beach in the water, it's four feet deep. It's great, but God is like, well, I need you to come a little deeper now. I need you to give a little more of yourself. I need you to become less selfish and then,

[00:39:19] they'll pull you deeper. And then, you know, you're doing well at the eight feet level, your tread and water and it's like, well, I need to come a little bit deeper. It has your waves and, you know, there's a couple of rib currents, but I'm calling you deeper

[00:39:33] and I'm calling you deeper. And it's like, you give more. You see yourself less. You think of yourself as less. You're worried about yourself less than I'm calling you a little deeper. And the next thing you know, you're in the middle of the diagonal and ocean,

[00:39:50] if you choose to go into the deep, the more you go into the deep, the less of yourself you worry about and the more of a give or you become. And if you're like me, I know that nothing surprising God, it's God's plan.

[00:40:11] And yeah, but if you're like me, I'm like man. In the middle of this storm, like God, you should trust me this much. Like this, this might be too tough for me. Yeah, yeah, it is tough. It's, it's, you know, I'm,

[00:40:27] I'm dealing with that in a weird way right now. Just, you know, this is what I make as far as my speaking engagements and gigs and this and this and that and to let go of that. And then you're gonna do these little small things

[00:40:45] and here and here, I mean, there's a transition there. You know, it's tough because, you know, this is what you're used to, but the same time I realized that, you know, he's pulling you deeper. So I'm treading water at the 7.8 feet, knowing the 20 30 feet's coming, you know?

[00:41:07] But I got to learn how to try a water in the 8 feet before I get to the 20 feet, but I choose to go into the 20 feet. So tell me a little bit about your journey, building American services, growing American services and protection. You know, struggles, challenges there.

[00:41:28] Oh, okay, let me tell you. So it started out as my brother's company. He went into some challenges and he turned it over to me and my brother-in-law, like 98, 99, I was to a plant football. 2004, my brother-in-law says, I'm leaving.

[00:41:53] I'm just leaving and I think you should just close it down. Wow. And then I had three separate audits that I'm dealing with with the company. Three different agencies are like, we're coming for the Kyo-Shot right now. Wow. Yeah, and he leaves. And from 2003 to 2004,

[00:42:13] I'm like every day, I'm like this could be the last day of the security company. Every day. Three audits? That's, I'm not gonna do that too. Yeah, no, it's crazy. One audit sounds painful. Oh, no. And it was, I think it was July 2004.

[00:42:34] My license came because I was cut aside. I'm gonna change the name of the company, change the brand and then I'm moving forward. July 2004, I applied for license for American services. The license came two days later, a letter said close the other security company now. Wow. 48 hours notice.

[00:43:02] I was out of the move every day over. And we had a handful of contracts. I worked six hours, I worked 12 hours a day, seven days a week. My father worked six hours a day, five days a week, and we started from that,

[00:43:18] and we built it all the way up. And so, and what does that look like today? It's doing pretty good. It's doing pretty good. We're probably at around 100 officers. Wow. And we're situated in the state of Ohio. We should be at around 500 officers,

[00:43:39] so I'm making some changes now. We're making some really drastic rebranding rescanning because there's a lot of crime out there happening and my phone's not ringing, so I'm like something's wrong. So, yeah, I need to. I love that growth mindset. We should be at 500.

[00:43:58] The point I wanted to back to is you if it weren't for you and your father. Yeah. Two people working their butts off, right? Yeah. There's a lot of people that wouldn't be in the spot that they are now, that you've changed their lives in some way.

[00:44:15] I remember I, I would have to get up every night for seven days a week, and this is, I don't suggest this. You get up every night to drive downtown Columbus and check on one site for 15 minutes, every night at three o'clock in the morning

[00:44:32] for like four years straight, seven days a week. One day I was all the way in Illinois and had to drive all the way back here to check on that site for 15 minutes just to make sure, yeah. It was really interesting.

[00:44:47] It was a very, very, very interesting time. Yeah. That's the stuff people skip over, right? It's easy to talk about the accolades. People skip that part. That's what I hate about our culture. I mean, I'm a hate to strong word, but I hate it.

[00:45:06] I hate it because our culture today, they don't show the struggle. They don't show the pain. So all social media is geared with people smelly faces. People are happy. People are living the best life. And I don't think a lot of people

[00:45:25] are living the best life, because I get phone calls. And I'm like, people like help me man, you know, I met my wits in, like, I'm about to do something stupid. I'm like, I just like at your Facebook page and you're living your best life, 24 hours ago. Yeah.

[00:45:40] Dude, I'm so, I am so aside all right now. Like you cheating me? I mean, I've had this happen five times within the last month. Like me. And so nobody shares the pain. Nobody shares the depression. No one shares the rejection, the cries,

[00:46:03] the two, three, clock in the morning, you're sitting up crying. No one shares that. So now when you see everybody in the business world or at church or at the fair and everyone is smelling, you're like, what the heck is wrong with me? Mm-hmm.

[00:46:21] So many said recently, you know, even just having people over to your house for a party. They said, you know, if you think about it, you come over to a house that's cleaner than we ever had it and eat food better than we had ever eaten.

[00:46:37] So that we can put it on a show or I understand good hospitality but we're put, you know, to a certain degree, it's like we've got to put, it's just like you're sunbat best or you're best version. It's just like, you know, we're all struggling. Yeah.

[00:46:53] We want to please. One place that you've never eaten off of. Like when I was going up, we had to steal from where I was. I was like, yeah. We got China. I mean, what was that, right? We had China.

[00:47:07] We had China and my mom had this case, right? And it was real, I don't know how she got this, right? She had, like it was either silver or silver painted but it was like it was, and God help you. God help you and your descendants.

[00:47:22] If you touch something in our broker piece of time, I have that, I have one plate left, I have that entire collection and I have the last plate and I have it at my house right now. And just just symbolic. But yeah, you know, we, I mean,

[00:47:41] we performed so much and it gives that false delusion of, what's wrong with me? I tell you read on social media and it always starts out like, it's with great sadness and heavy heart that I'm here to inform you like what? See that. This person is good. What?

[00:48:05] Yeah. Then we never saw that coming. Yeah. Yeah. So that way. Right. So now when you try, when you want to win, when you wanna make it to the pros, when you wanna be that entrepreneur of the year and you experience pain,

[00:48:29] you think that you are a anomaly because you don't know us apart of the process. I was just having a, I would just have a discussion with an individual about husbands in men. And I said, I said, what are the reasons why you're having problems with men

[00:48:56] is that you never had a father? And I said, you never had a father to show you the pain of marriage. Mm. I said, oh, you have this an idea of what you think a man is. You don't have a,

[00:49:14] so because whenever this person would see a man fall, it was so devastating to her. I'm like we fall every day. You just don't know about it. Yeah. When my kids were younger, you know, of course they thought I created the, you know when they're really young,

[00:49:30] you think you could grow older. Right. Oh yeah, oh yeah. And now, you know, I try to be grateful that I get to model being human. I get to model messing up. Yeah. Yeah. You know, we're in something with my boys at a older one's, called Trail Life,

[00:49:50] just think of it like boy scalps, but Christian, Berkest and, I didn't grow up with a dad around. I didn't grow up with any camping. I didn't none of this stuff. So like I'm way else, I'm a comfort zone.

[00:50:03] They're like, well, what is this kind of not like? I have no idea what we're doing here. So it's been good to see like, no, oh, you can admit, you don't know at all. And you can struggle. And the thing is like, you know,

[00:50:18] when you're a good bit older, you usually smoke them in every competition. Right. But then you go into something new. And that's not always a case. That's going to lose sometimes. That's going to not learn that skill as well as you did.

[00:50:32] So it's been interesting to model that for my kids and just be a real person. Yeah, I remember first, first got married, we take the house. It was a corner lot. And I mean, I knew how to cut the grass. I didn't even know where to go.

[00:50:55] We had shrubs. We had plants and plants. It's plants called a perennial, right? So it comes back every year. I learned that. Right. Yeah, shrubs. We had a deck. We had so much. It was a big lot, man.

[00:51:14] It was the corner lots of the pressures on you got to keep your lawn. The corner lot. That's very weird. I didn't know what this unread rule back then, right? And I was just like, oh, I like the neighbors aren't speaking to me no more right.

[00:51:29] I just like it's so a craft history was this man. And I would watch him in the morning. It is like six, 30 in the morning. He's cutting grass and he's edging. And he got this cigar in his mouth. And he's doing all the edging. And he's trimming.

[00:51:50] And not just, I just watched him. And also, you know what? I'm going to go buy what he buys. So he has steel. Right? That's what I learned about steel. I just steel. I did orange, just orange, garden stuff. Right.

[00:52:02] And I would look at it and I would write it down and go to home people. And everything he did I did. Everything he did I did. I was excited. I'm cutting and finally got all these weeds and then this man said, well, in the

[00:52:14] spring, you got to cut it low. You got to cut it off. And get it. Not. You're going to have weeds. Right. I just cut it round up on some stuff. And I messed up and I didn't know a non-selective homicide would have worth it. What?

[00:52:27] They took everything right. I didn't know I just cut it. But listen to this. Listen to this. The testimony in that is that I didn't give up. That is what my son saw. He's the daddy didn't give up. And that to me was most important. I felt.

[00:52:51] A lot. A lot. Yeah. Yeah, that's exactly what I can relate to. Get out there. Do things. It's great. Look who doesn't like when you. I want to go in. I'm going to do some good at it and win.

[00:53:04] But for my kids, I think probably more valuable to go out and do things and watch them watch me fail time and time again and keep getting back up. Mm-hmm. I see it. So is it? I want to make sure to talk about this.

[00:53:20] Tell me about bridge builders in an national. You know, Bridgeblades in a national is it used to be my speaking business and it still is to an extent. But I'm in a sort of a flux of evolution in this, right? Because I'm speaking which I love to speak.

[00:53:46] I love to do corporate speaking. And this is a shameless plug in a younger listening ice peak, right? But I'm moving away into more of ministry, more of different types of speaking. And it's really hard.

[00:54:06] It's getting easier for me to let go of that because I've been doing it for since 1995. So you got 30 years of something that you put me on the stage. I'm like Michael Jackson, I'm not that good like Michael Jackson but what I'm saying is

[00:54:25] that I know I can perform. I can go on the stage and I know how to move and I can navigate. But moving you into the deeper water. Now it's different. It's really different.

[00:54:40] But I'm sensing another level of income and the other level of income is the reward. Right now, I'm hard to still back and speak into those 9 or 10 little six and seven year old kids.

[00:54:56] I'm like man, you know, I remember half their names and all of them, you know, there's something there. I might not have a paycheck, might get a thank you in a thermos, but so I'm making that

[00:55:09] transition and I'm moving into a different area of just pouring out myself and allowing God to pour in people through me and getting out the way and letting him do that. Getting out of the way, man, that's the heck of a relate to that one so much.

[00:55:34] Sometimes you don't even know you're in the way. That's the very part. You don't even know you're in the way. And one day you're like, oh, God. Yeah, I was in the way. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I got the way. You know, yeah.

[00:55:46] If you're like me later, it's really, really. Yeah. But very easily. No, it's always like, yeah, no idea. You're doing the best work in like, you're in the way. Yeah. And and the score is different.

[00:56:04] So what I mean by that is that the score isn't counted the same. So you know, I'm speaking to, you know, six or seven eight kids to me or I'm like, yeah, that was great.

[00:56:22] But the God is like, no, you were speaking to the future president of the United States. No, you're speaking to the future CEO or the future world changer. And you're speaking to the soul versus me speaking in front of 15, 20,000 people is not calculated the same.

[00:56:40] So I'm just like, you know, and learning learning how learning how to get my reward and satisfaction in obedience versus prizes and prestige. It's just well done. And that's all the rewards you need. It's tough. Yes, a tough transition. Yeah.

[00:57:08] And it's a constant and consistent transition that you never really arrive. Yeah. It's an entirely different scoreboard. It's a talent. I mean, trust me, like John the Baptist was in the desert, eating locus and honey. I don't think he was pretty successful in the world standard, right?

[00:57:27] But God, when Jesus said that there was no greater profit than John, it was just like hold on now. He got behind it and present it and locus him while honey brought. Yeah. Like, it's not measured. That's right. Yeah.

[00:57:43] There's a lot of people that are wealthy in money. And nobody will talk about them in 2000 years. Nobody very reading about them. I know. It's a different, different input there. Yeah. Well, Sean, tell folks that are listening how they feel like they want more, they want

[00:58:07] to connect one more and more about you. Definitely guys, you're listening. Pick up a copy of the oneologist by full name, Erin, Sean Harper. I make sure you get a copy of this book. It's an amazing read and just happens to be a quick one.

[00:58:26] And I would say it's a really, really good read. You want to, I want to do it. I want to read it again. Oh, cool. Tell folks how to get connected with you. Besides the book. Really simple. It's real simple.

[00:58:38] You just go to shanharpard.org or I'm sorry, shanharpardwinds.com as my website. Or you can go to, or you can go to any search engine type in shanwetawshw. As you can go there, you can get in contact with me there.

[00:58:56] My Instagram is a shanharpard speaker, SHAWNHRPER speaker, shanharpard speaker. You can go there. So there's plenty of ways. His phone numbers on there. I'm not really hard to find. I love that. I love that gift.

[00:59:12] So guys, if you're listening and you got anything out of this, should I note over? I suspect shan is just like me. Any little bit of in nugget you hear, I'm sure you'd love to hear and make sure to

[00:59:25] take advantage of whether it's a book or connect with them or follow or whatever the right step is for you. Awesome. Thank you for being here today, shan. This was just an amazing gift. Thank you. Thank you.

[00:59:39] And I speak covering and blessings over your audience and that someone will take this and run and win with it. Thank you Lord. I love that. Thank you, shan.