Your Ego Will Help or Destroy You

Glenn Gardone: Because I think ego is probably one of the strongest movers of direction in success and in failure, you know, you gotta have a little bit of ego because you, you're doing something that not a lot of people do. But if you've got too much ego, nobody's gonna want to be on your journey with you, and it's gonna be you and it's gonna be one lonely road.

Sean Weisbrot: Welcome back to another episode of The Wheel, have To Build Podcast. This is episode 1 41 with Glen Garone. He is the president of Red Chocolate, a European C chocolatier, and he is tasked with managing everything across North America. So this is the first time that a guest sent me something to try, and I am, they're not sponsoring this episode, but holy crap, the chocolate was really good.

Glenn Gardone: You had me on pins and needles there, Sean? I wasn't sure. I, I assumed it would be 'cause that's what we hear, but you never know when it's live. I appreciate that. And the team works really hard on delivering the smile and the feeling you get every single day.

Sean Weisbrot: Why don't you tell everyone a little bit more about yourself and how you got involved in. Uh, working with red chocolate and then we'll get to our topic, which is ego.

Glenn Gardone: I've been in the food business, we call it consumer packaged goods. I've been in the food business for about 30 years. Spent the first half of my career with large consumer packaged goods companies from Kellogg, Pepsi, so on and so forth. And, you know, about, uh, 15 years ago. I moved into the area, for lack of a better phrase, private equity, uh, helping build teams and grow teams so they can be purchased by somebody else, and moved on to a bigger and better stratosphere than we could ever achieve. And, uh, fast forward about, uh, let's see, 12 years later as I started the journey on the private equity side and, uh, had sold the company and, uh, we've done it five times and, uh. Pretty exhaustive. It's a completely different lifestyle, you know, it's just, you're on the go and, you know, there's just, it's completely different than what we do today. Uh, and, um, I really wasn't sure what I wanted to do. You know, I'm not one of those guys, Sean, that, uh, founder, passionate 20 years old and ran with it. That was in me. Uh, I had no idea what I was gonna do till I was in my forties. Um, and then when I finally figured out, then I ran hard. But I didn't waste my time from, you know, 19 to 42. And, uh, about a little over th oh, it's going on four years, actually next month. Uh, I joined the red team. Now I knew Red chocolate. You know, I traveled the world. Uh, I've been fortunate enough to be on almost all the continents except for Antarctica. Uh, no sales there. Uh, but, um, so we, um, uh, you know, I knew who they were, didn't know the company. I knew the brand like yourself. You know what, I tried it. I tasted it. I wanted something a little healthier, and it worked out well. I was like, this is good, and I couldn't find anywhere, so I'd stock up and bring it home. And so sold the company. It was really about, probably three weeks after the, the, the ink finally dried on all the notes and, um. I got a phone call from the red team from their representative saying, Hey, your name's popped up a few times, would you mind talking to us? And I said, sure, no problem. So I actually drove to New York. It was a four hour meeting. I spent the first three and a half hours telling them not to come to the United States, that they had a, an amazing brand. And I've seen brands coming to the US. Ego driven and fail terribly. And because of that, they, the, the entire company would go under. And after about three and a half hours, the person who became my boss, uh, she said, are you done? I said, yeah, I'm done. I said what I wanted to say. And she said, so when do you wanna start? And I just looked at her. I said, you're either crazy or you know something. I don't. But you know what? Either way, this could be a lot of fun. 'cause this is a great brand. And that's how we started it, you know, and then it was all about just building the infrastructure so we could get a quote unquote American company. And that was, you know, four years ago, we launched, uh, let's see, it was three years this past October. And you know, now you'll find us in 15,000 store doors. You'll find us as the number one truck of owned home shopping network. You know, it's, it's been a nice ride. It's been a real nice ride.

Sean Weisbrot: I remember thinking to myself earlier today as I was getting ready for this interview, I was like, I'm interviewing a guy who runs a freaking chocolate factory,

Glenn Gardone: Willy Wonka baby.

Sean Weisbrot: Um, there's something I want to clarify. Uh, when we spoke last, you said that the company grossed 29, about 29 million last year. Is that global or is that just new? Uh, uh, north America,

Glenn Gardone: just the US globally. We're about, uh, four times that size. We're in about 28 countries now. When I joined, we were in about 18 countries.

Sean Weisbrot: So I'm sure they're very happy with your performance.

Glenn Gardone: We're all happy. You know, it's, uh, it's been a, it's been a wild ride. You know, we launched five months before the pandemic, Sean, you know, most companies, you know, would end up. You know, great timing, you know, that's my crystal ball. I'm hoping, you know, that we can get into a, uh, you know, who knows what next. So this way we can really test ourselves. But, um, you know, I, uh, you know, I lo we launched five months before and, you know, we had to take a knee, you know what I mean, for the first couple of weeks. But the team got together and said, no, no, this ain't putting us down. This ain't putting us down. And so we just rock and rolled and everybody got together and everybody worked their tails off. And, you know, we were, we continued to grow. And we came out the other side looking phenomenal

Sean Weisbrot: when we did our last call off air you about, we, we had about a 30 minute conversation and about 29 minutes into it you were like, you said the word ego and I was sold so. And you also mentioned, uh, companies going into America and failing and, and you thought it was based on ego. So there's a few angles that we can come at it from. Having lived in China, I got to see, uh, KFC and McDonald's and Starbucks and Burger King, uh, car for Tesla. A number of foreign brands come into China. Um, and really those are the only ones that succeeded. Um, although Louis Vuitton, apple, uh, a number of them, the, the luxury models, uh, the, the luxury brands survived because of the desire to be part of something unique. Companies that were like, you know, what Americans would consider. Low class food, fast food. They actually were forced to reinvent themselves in Southeast Asia to be a middle class or an upper class experience where the meals are more expensive, but it's a sit down environment that you're happy and proud to be there with your family or going on a date. I literally took a girl on a date to McDonald's in China, like she wanted me to take her to McDonald's. It was, it was weird for me as an American, but, but for Chinese it was aspirational. When I see companies try to cross borders,

Glenn Gardone: it's because they don't understand the culture. They just try to ram their brand, so to speak down people's throats. And people go, no, no, I'm not interested in that. And they'll throw, you know, good money after bad situations until there's no money left. And so I've seen it happen hundreds of times.

Sean Weisbrot: Let's start on the personal side of ego. And then we will explore the professional side of ego later. Um, what was it that made you say that word to me?

Glenn Gardone: Because I think ego is probably one of the strongest movers of direction in success and in failure, you know, you gotta have a little bit of ego because you, you're doing something that not a lot of people do, but if you've got too much ego. Nobody's gonna wanna be on your journey with you, and it's gonna be you, and it's gonna be one lonely road. So, you know, when I, when I think of ego and I think about my personal life throughout, I mean, you know, from, you know, early twenties to, to today, you know, I can see how my, my ego has really shaped my journey and how my ego has, you know, shaped my, not only on the personal side, but also the professional side. I mean, ego is one of the strongest factors

Sean Weisbrot: having been around the world and, and around the us. Dealing with different kinds of people. Would you say there's, uh, a cultural aspect or a regional aspect of ego? Like when I think of. New York, like I imagine New Yorkers have big egos, but I imagine people in Georgia don't really have big egos. Would you say there's, there's a cultural aspect to ego? No, I wouldn't,

Glenn Gardone: I would say that it's more, again, because, you know, there are people that could have really strong egos that, uh, you know, live in, you know, the mountains of Tennessee. You know, I, I think, uh, ego is really a, a personal choice in how you want to. Fulfill how you think you should fulfill. So, you know, you could have a person that has a big ego but is extremely insecure. And the reason they have a big ego is because they're. Trying to hide that insecurity. You could have people that have been successful but have no humility and because of that success they have a big ego. So I think what happens is, I think again, it's that personal, especially on the personal journey side. You know, the ego always seems to be, again, back to the driving piece. And you know, you'll find successful people at times can definitely have a larger eagle than they're supposed to, but the majority of time they understand. You know, and I find even today that my ego sometimes comes out when I'm talking about red chocolate, you know, because it's like one of my kids, I've always said, you can say whatever you want about me. I don't care. Talk about my wife, talk about my kids, talk about my family. We're gonna throw down, and that's my ego talking because I, I feel like I have to be the provider and the protector. Red is the same way, you know, I am the, the, the protector of red. I've gotta make sure that, that whatever red is involved in. That it's right for the brand, and it's up to me as the key decision maker to make those decisions. You know, we get, we get offered some, some pretty wild things on a, on a monthly basis from sponsorships and partnerships that, you know, sounds really wild, but you know what? Could turn upside down really quick and it's just not worth it. 'cause I don't want the negative press, I don't want the negative publicity. You know? And when I say that, it doesn't mean that we are a bland brand. It just means that I wanna make sure, just like I do for myself, who do I want to surround myself? You know, I, I don't want negative people surrounding me 'cause they're just gonna suck me dry. So, you know, I want positive people and you'll find, you know. Saying, I always say, I can teach you how to sell. I can teach you finance hell, I can teach you supply chain, I can teach you any computer program. I can't teach you passion. And you're gonna find sometimes passionate people have a strong ego. 'cause they have beliefs.

Sean Weisbrot: Yeah. Uh, and, and how could you not be egotistical or passionate? A positive way, passionate about chocolate? Like, who doesn't fricking love chocolate? Like I, I don't think I've ever met a person in the world who doesn't love chocolate. Um.

Glenn Gardone: You know what? I, uh, I've probably met two of them in my entire life and I stopped talking to 'em. I'm not friends with 'em anymore. No, I'm kidding. I'm kidding. Uh, you know, you're right. You know, when you, when you talk about chocolate, I'll go to a party and people ask me what I'll do, and I say, I run a chocolate company. They're like, what you run? How do you run a chocolate company? And it's like, well, yeah. And I tell 'em, you know, the, the brand and all. And they're like, that's gotta be the coolest job in the world. You know, are you, you're surrounded by chocolate all day long? I'm like, yeah, I'm surrounded by thousands and thousands of tons of chocolate, but I'm also surrounded by some pretty amazing people too, who, who help us deliver that chocolate and make the brand what it is today. But yeah, you know, I was, um, uh, uh, on an interview, uh, on uh, radio and, you know, the name came up, Willy Wonka. You're like, Willy Wonka Glenn. I'm like, yeah, I kind of am. And the great thing is, you know, gene Wilder, who was the very first Willy Wonka. Actually lived in the hometown I grew up in, so maybe there's that connection. Maybe, you know, subconsciously I wanted to be Gene Wilder and I wanted to be Willy Wonka.

Sean Weisbrot: I like to blame my mom for my ego. Because, you know, I, I'm a, I'm a good little Jewish boy, right? My, my mom didn't have a career. She chose to sacrifice that part of her life to stay at home and to raise my brother and I, and so I had ample opportunity to hear how beautiful I was or how handsome I was, or how smart I was or this and that. And, and that really like builds you up in a way that, um, can actually be detrimental in the future. 'cause I've met a lot of people that. I didn't have that same positive reinforcement and and loving background that I received. And so they don't naturally think so highly of themselves. And so sometimes I struggled with that because people look at me like, oh, you're arrogant. I'm like, I love myself. How is that arrogance? But when you say that, it sounds arrogant, but everybody says, if you don't love yourself, no one else can love you. So people want to love themselves and they want other people to love themselves too. But saying you love yourself is arrogant. Why?

Glenn Gardone: You know, it's interesting you say that. I think, um, saying you love yourself, uh, and you respect yourself, uh, I think as long as you say with little humility and humbleness, I don't think there's anything wrong with that, because I truly do think that you have to be able to look in the mirror and go, yeah, all right, it's good because we've all looked in the mirror at times and went, Hmm, I'm not sure today. I mean, we've all gone through that, you know, everybody. And those days that you do that, what do you do? You can't crawl back into bed, you gotta punch through the mud. You know, you gotta say, all right, you know what, maybe today ain't the, the akay day, but I started to get stuff done. So I think that, um, you know, it's, I think it's wonderful when a parent gives you the, uh, the ability and the desire to want to put yourself forward. I think that's important because. You know, there are a lot of people that like being employed 10,906. There's nothing wrong with it. And they want to be at that company for 26 years and they want to get the watch or the plate or whatever it is when they retire, or 46 years or whatever it is, and, and, and off they go. And there are others that say, that's not me, man. It's just not what I want. And it doesn't mean that you have to have a passion or anything like that, as we had talked about. And I think that all is driven by the way that you're brought up. You know? Will you take that risk? You know, I'll tell you right now, I'm not a major risk taker. I'm a calculated risk taker. Will I take a risk if there's more to risk than there is to reward? No. And I could, I've been doing it for so long that even in business or personal, and I, and I've tried to teach my boys that when, when you, when there's an opportunity, what is the risk associated with the outcome? And is the outcome better than the risk? Because even if it's 50 50, you gotta ask yourself. Is it worth it? And you know what? It's not a boring life, I don't think it's a boring life. I think it's a calculated risk life, and it's been successful for me. I'm not saying it'd be successful for everybody, but for myself and, and having the ego and trying to tamp down the ego, I, I'll give you a story, Sean. So I, you know, young guy, I was, um, with a, uh, large CPG company and, uh, I was chosen as one of the. Future leaders for whatever that meant. Young guy, uh, one of the youngest within, uh, where I was, you know, everybody was about 15 years older than me, and they gave me a mentor. A gentleman was probably, I'm gonna say he was early sixties. A guy had been around forever. He was a smart guy. He was one of those guys. He'd walk into a Roman. Everybody wanted to talk to him. So he was a welllike guy, but he was employee 10,906 and I wanted to be numero uno, and that was my ego talking. And he put his arm around me and he said, Glen, uh, how long have we been around before you showed up? And I said, huh? Been around about a hundred years. He said, that's right. And when you leave, if you happen to stay and retire here like myself, or leave and go somewhere else, how long do you think we'll be around after you leave? I said, probably another a hundred years. He said, that's right. Slow down. You're not that important. While we appreciate what you do and we want you to be a value to this organization, don't overdo it. Don't walk in the room. Have the humility when you walk in the room to appreciate the fact. That people want to talk to you when you walk into the room. Appreciate the fact that people wanna spend their time with you. And that was a different way of thinking for me. And you know, not something that I grew up with. 'cause I grew up in a very blue collar, rough and tumble and you know, you're gonna either make it or you're not, and you're gonna get swallowed up and spit out if you don't. So, you know, that was the attitude, the ego that I brought into business. And it was wrong because I didn't deserve to have that.

Sean Weisbrot: What I hear. From that story is that those people were lazy and didn't want you showing them up. They don't want you to make their job harder by setting an example to other people that this is what you should expect from your employees.

Glenn Gardone: If somebody came into red right now and was me, you know, uh, in their early twenties, I'd give 'em the biggest hug I possibly could and say, rock and roll, and let's do it. That's the culture we have. That's the culture within our organization. You know, the culture within organizations dictates how the people are. Uh, there were some, uh, uh, amazing people there that did great work. Uh, and yes, did I feel I was one of the better ones, and I thought I proved it because of how I had moved up the ranks. But the fact was, it was against the culture. So my desire to be who I wanted to be. Actually was a negative impact within the overall organization. You know, I had a, uh, a coach, uh, that I worked with, and, uh, she had told me, she said, Glen, you know, when you walk into a room you make people nervous. I was like, no, I don't, I I don't make people nervous. And she said, nevermind the fact that when you come into a room, you explode into the room. It's your title. Your title makes people nervous. 'cause they don't know. All of a sudden they stand up straight. I'm like, well that's ridiculous. They shouldn't do that 'cause I'm just Glen. And she said, no, that's you thinking about them. You need to think what they're doing. If you want to be a leader, you need to start checking your ego. And that's when I started hearing this, this discussion about, Hey, yeah, you're good, you're good. Okay, we get it. But calm down and take it down two notches. You know, think of it like, um. Like a NASCAR race. You know, if you're in a NASCAR and you put your, your, your foot on the pedal and you jam it, you gotta let up around the corners. You can't go all out because what happens? Engine's gonna blow. You're gonna run into a wall, you're not gonna be able to finish the race. And that, that's truly what I, what I thought about. I was like, all right, you know what? My journey is a NASCAR race and sometimes I'm going around the corner. I gotta take my foot off the gas. 10, 15%.

Sean Weisbrot: So I, uh, have done these like quarterly calls with my team 'cause we don't have a physical office. Right. And uh, some of them are from India, Pakistan, Philippines. Right. 'cause I was in living in Asia and the company's incorporated in Asia. So naturally we're more inclined to hire people living in Asian time zones 'cause it makes it easier to work with them and all that. And, um. When I would do these calls, I'd be like, I would send them a, a message on Slack, Hey, you know, it'd be great to have a catch up call. Here's my calendar. Set up a time and, and we can just have a chat. And, uh, one of the guys, for example, uh, from Pakistan, he was like shocked that I was willing to spend, you know, time with him to have a chat. He's like, in my previous companies, I didn't even know the name or the face of the CEO let alone the conversation. It's like, this is just really shocking for me. And I was like, I'm just another human being man. I wanna know you and I wanna know everybody 'cause you're part of the company, right? You're the lifeblood of it. Like I'm company is like, the company doesn't need me. The company needs you without you, like the company can't do anything. 'cause every, everything that I know and all of my plans are documented so anyone can step into my role and do it. But like your right. So, um, so I really appreciate. When they get excited about having a conversation with me, especially when my goal is nothing to do with the business. I don't care about performance. Deal with that with your manager. I wanna know you at a human level. You know, like, you know, are you married to someone or you know, do you have kids? Like, but normally I would find this stuff out before we hire them. Like, um, now I know. Side note. Uh. I know it's illegal in America to hire people based on these things. I was never hiring people based on those things. I was getting to know them as a human being by asking those questions. Um, so we had men and women and, you know, somewhere married somewhere engaged. Someone that didn't care about that that way. And besides Singapore doesn't have those laws. So, um,

Glenn Gardone: one thing that, uh, at Red very simply is everybody has a seat at the table, as I say. And what that means is your opinion matters. Okay? But understand, you may give an opinion at a meeting, and we may take 1% of the idea. We may take a hundred percent, we may take none of it. But your opinion matters. But please don't think that your opinion is overinflated and get upset at the fact that, well, I said we should do it, and now we're not doing it. Because the fact is, uh, we may not, you still have the right to have the conversation and be part of the conversation and be at the table. And I think by, by having that attitude, people feel free and comfortable to open up because again, I don't wanna be the smartest guy at the table. I don't wanna be the smartest guy at the table. And luckily at red I'm not because I want people that are smarter than me that can help me a attack a situation, whether it be a global pandemic or launching a new item or whatever it is. I want smart people around me that can help us build this business.

Sean Weisbrot: So when I was younger, I almost went into a room assuming I was the smartest person. Not because, uh, maybe, maybe not because of ego, but because I knew what my IQ number was. And I know that it's not common for people to have that number. Although as an adult I realize it doesn't matter. Um, but when I was younger, I did, and, and now I, I understand that it's like I, I'm in groups with other entrepreneurs at different, uh, lifecycle stages in their business or different stages of their. Lifecycle, whatever. Um, and you know, some of them are making less money. Some of them are making a lot more money, and some of them are 15 years old, making millions of dollars off of marketing services, whatever some of them are in their fifties, sixties. So, um, yeah, I, I agree. It, it, it doesn't matter who's the smartest person in the room or what the age is or what they're doing, what matters is, are they enjoying what they're doing and, and is there something that they can teach? And are they willing to learn,

Glenn Gardone: and how can they positively affect the business moving forward? I mean, that, you know, that's always the piece. You know, you, you think, again, we go back to ego. If you think of it on the business side, you know, I, I've been with entrepreneurs that, you know, they think they could do it all, and the only thing they're doing is holding back the organization, you know, but it was their baby and they know better than everybody and blah, blah, blah. You know, four times I walked into a situation like that and we, you know, quintuple the size of the company and, you know, one we did over a hundred times the size of the company because we didn't have that, um, that ego cloud. We, you know. Put them out to pasture, so to speak, and said, okay, you know, you'll get the check at the end, but you're not helping. You know, we couldn't keep good employees. We couldn't keep folks that were passionate about the business 'cause they didn't wanna deal with, they just didn't wanna deal with the person.

Sean Weisbrot: Let's talk about times when our ego was inflated and then we'll talk about times when our ego was deflated. Um, I think being in China, having been in China, when my Chinese was really good and when I was working with the government, I developed a larger ego because here I am, this random ass white guy in this massive country of a billion plus people speaking Mandarin, you know, with them. Doing business with them, making money with them, working with the government. I felt like I'm on top of the world for who I am, for my identity as a foreigner in China. Um, but then I got married. I'm kidding. Um. So, so yeah, that, that was one example for me of, um, an inflated ego. What do you have something where like, 'cause it seems like we have like a baseline for ego and then there's things that happen to us that either make us feel better about ourselves or worse about ourselves. So is there something that, that like, sticks out for you that inflated your ego at some point?

Glenn Gardone: Yeah, probably. Uh, the sale of the second organization, you know, the first one could have been a fluke. Yeah, the second one, when we were successful and able to sell that one, uh, we definitely had, uh, I personally had an inflated ego, uh, and then, uh, got a chance to talk to some folks that, uh, were way more successful than myself. And what I mean by successful is not only successful from a professional level, but successful from a personal level. And so, you know, you, you, it, it put everything in check that you know, Hey, you did a good job. But you did the job that was expected of you. You know, it's like, you know, I, I guess if I was a football player and, and I ran in the end zone, I don't think I'd, you know, dance around and, and spike the ball. That's what you're paid to do, man. Don't be so proud of it. One added catch. All right? Maybe you do a little bit of, you know, excitement, things like that, but just doing your job. I don't think so, but back then it was, Hey, I've done it twice. Look at how great I am, you know, getting the chance to do this and blah, blah, blah. And definitely, uh, slapped me back down to earth.

Sean Weisbrot: A similar thing happened to me where I didn't sell my business, but I had this business that grossed over $15 million in a, a slightly less than two year period. I had never seen money like that before. Uh, you know, I was 31, 32 and, um. A and, and I was able to take a large amount of profit from that business because the overhead was quite low. But granted, it, it was, um, like I was selling other people's services and getting commissioned, but also sometimes doing services internally with some employees. Um, so I, I had a large profit from that. And after that I started to see people differently. I started to see myself differently, and it wasn't in a positive way. I. I started to look down on other people who were working for others, or I looked down on people who maybe didn't have the mental flexibility or the financial freedom to make that decision to hop on a plane and go to do this place like the guy wanted to do. Um, so it wasn't, it, it wasn't good for growth. Um, and it took me a long time to kind of just get used to that and start to like, um. Being able to continue to relate to people again. Um, which is a shame because I never thought that I was that kind of a person. I never thought I was that shallow. And yet it happened.

Glenn Gardone: It may have happened, but being able to understand that it happened, you know, nobody's perfect. You know, it is just that simple. And we try to, you know, be respectful of others and those things. And sometimes, you know, we'll slip up. The whole idea though is if you do slip up, know that you slipped up. You know, apologize from make it heartfelt. Make it so that you know people understand you truly mean it, and then move forward. You know, the person that sits here and makes the same mistake over and over again and apologizes each and every time they're con artists, they're an absolute con artist. So, you know, we all mess up. That's going to happen. And when we do, you own up to it. I tell my team all the time, you know, I mess up maybe once a year if that, you know, and so I, no, I'm kidding. I, I'll stop that story.

Sean Weisbrot: Something else happened to me that caused my ego to deflate significantly. Um, one such example was when I ended up being almost 200 pounds. Um, I'm only five, six, you know. I, I have about 1.5% Roal, DNA, so I'm already predisposed to being slightly shorter and stockier, but I can tell you 200 pounds on a five, six frame is nothing sexy. Um, and I was married at the time and I still have a picture. Um, I've, I've since removed the half. Where she was, uh, 'cause we're not married anymore. Um, but I keep that picture as a reminder of my, uh, a reminder to myself of how I never wanna be that heavy again. Um, I actually, after the divorce, uh, went on a massive life change, uh, campaign and ended up losing the weight. I'm about 1 62 right now. Um, but I've got some muscle on that. But there was a point, uh, earlier last year that I was at 1 49, which was great because I arrived in China at the age of 22, being 1 42. Um, so I would like to get back to the one forties, although it's a little bit harder once you have that muscle. Um, but yeah, I, I looked at myself and I felt disgusted. You know, I, I remember always being thin. And, you know, being lean and having a little bit of muscle and generally being handsome. You know, I, I had a, a nice chiseled jaw and, and, uh, people liked my appearance and yeah, they considered me handsome. So to gain that weight, to do the thing that I said I was never going to allow myself to do, which was to gain weight. Like a lot of people I saw in the States, you know, 'cause living in, in Asia it's a very different lifestyle, but the way I was eating and, and exercising it, it. I enabled it to happen without realizing. Um, and so it was a wake up call for me. And so after my divorce, I decided I was gonna lose the weight because I, I literally, I went on a date with someone, I was like 34, 35, and I went on a date with someone who's like 25 and she fat shamed me on the date. Like she's sitting there right next to me. I'm like getting ready to pay for the meal. We're, we're having this nice meal next to the beach. I was in, uh, a, a, a seaside town on holiday and, you know, met someone on Tinder. And she's fat shaming me. I'm like, am I really that bad? Like, and then I was like, fuck, I guess I must be bad enough that I'm getting fat shamed. I really like if I ever wanna have a dating life again, like I really need to lose the weight. I. Um, but I had already felt bad about myself. So yeah, that was, um, really, really hard.

Glenn Gardone: Sometimes we get the results we're looking for, maybe not for the right reasons, but uh, you know, as long as we can get the results and the reasons behind it aren't, uh, hurtful to anybody, I. Then, uh, I think we could still call it a win from a professional standpoint. Uh, for my ego to be deflated was when, uh, again, when I was talking to the coach and, and I felt as though I was a positive influence and then hearing from her that that what I thought I was giving and doing. Was the exact opposite of how it was being taken. You know, like, I want to come in and, you know, I want to help people. Well, people looked at it and went, oh my God, you know, what's the ulterior motive kind of thing. Because again, I really didn't take 'em on the journey with me. I didn't explain what I wanted to do. So there was this fear from the type of person I was and the title and so on and so forth. So, you know, again, that was a good ego deflator because it, it kind of, you know. Righted me to say, okay, look, if you want to be able to be as successful as you want to be, and remember for me success, you know, I always say it started out I wanted to have enough money in my pocket so that I can go have dinner that night. That was success to me. You know, it's changed over the years, but the fact was that's what I wanted. And so as my desires for success and what I considered success to change, I had a change with it. And you know, whether, again. You know, over the last, like I said, two and a half, three decades, everything changes and it's supposed to change. It's supposed to grow, and you grow along with it. And you get better at what you do. I, I hope, I mean, that was always my goal. I try to get, I try to find something every day to make myself a little better on something. 'cause there are a lot of things there that I can continue to work on that'll allow me to just be better both professionally and personally. So I think, you know, uh, if I look back from that, from a personal, from an ego, deflator probably, um, would be. When I didn't think that I lived up to what my family's needs were. And you know, again, in my head being protector, provider, you know, being on the road as much as I was. Doing what I thought needed to be done, but again, not looking at that overall picture and saying, you know what, maybe I shouldn't have missed as many as I did. You know, it's, uh, one of the, uh, uh, you know, uh, hotel chains I stay at. Of course I've got the app on the phone and I pull it up and I've spent over 2,900 nights just at that hotel. Nevermind every other hotel I've ever been out of my entire life, but I've been there 2,900 nights. There's 365 days in a year. You could do the math. Uh, it it's crazy. It's crazy when you think about it.

Sean Weisbrot: So, is there anything that we haven't mentioned about ego that you wanna share or add?

Glenn Gardone: Ego is good. Uh, having it in check. You know, it's, think of it like, you know, the, the scales of justice, so to speak. You know, you, you can have ego, but have some humility because you do need to have the ego to be able to drive, to get to what you want to. If that's your desired journey, uh, if it's not, then you know, ego probably isn't necessary at all. But for those entrepreneurs, you, you gotta have a little ego because you gotta be a little, uh, you know, a little out there to be able to say, you know what, nah, I can do this. I know it's never been done before, or I know most people can't do it, but I think I can. Well, you need a legal, but with that, you gotta have a little humbleness and a little humility because. It's probably not gonna be just you that gets you to where your success is, whatever that success is. So you're going to need the help, and it's okay to need the help. Again, I go back, a lot of entrepreneurs, the res are so strong that they say, oh, I don't need any help, and then they fail and Rome is burning around them. But you know, I'm gonna keep with the path I have 'cause I'm great. Well, you're not that great.

Sean Weisbrot: The people who have the largest egos tend to get a massive benefit from going on a hallucinogenic trip. With psilocybin because it allows your brain to separate your ego from your consciousness in a way that allows you to understand the world from a different point of view. Now, I have not taken a hallucinogenic trip, but I do microdose mushrooms, so you, I don't get that ego split. Um, but I've heard many people say that for people who have overinflated egos, that it helps to basically, um, teach you that your ego isn't so important, especially when you take a heavy dose. Uh, you are able to then experience if you're lucky, something called ego death, where essentially you feel as if you're dying. But what's happening is your ego is melting away. Because of the ex, you know, because of the drug. And therefore you get to experience for a brief period of time what it would feel like if you had no ego. And, um, and then when you're, when you reconnect your ego, you start to feel like, eh, you know, this thing is not so important anymore. I've got more control over myself then, then my ego doesn't. Um, I think that's really fascinating.

Glenn Gardone: You, you could do that or you could just get a swift kick in the ass. That would certainly help too. I don't mean that in a literal sense, of course, but, uh, you know, I know many folks that have had large egos that had to have 'em in check and it took a, a situation that that shook them. And you'll find that, um, you know, for the average, yes, not everybody is the same, but for the average who has a larger ego, excuse me, at some point. There will be a situation that they will need to put their ego in check, or it will have a massive negative impact.

Sean Weisbrot: So how can people follow up?

Glenn Gardone: So, best way to find me, and I tell people all the time, if you go to our website@red-chocolate.com, you'll go onto the About Us page and it tells all about the team. You'll see my picture there. You can click on my picture. Emails come directly to me. You can reach out right there. We're always available. I answer all emails. If I can help a person, I'm happy to. If I can't, maybe I can give you some direction on it. So I tell people all the time, feel free to reach out anytime you want. You know, if you're a, uh, an entrepreneur or a budding entrepreneur or somebody who's, you know, been there and done that and wants to just have a conversation. Give me a call. I always like talking to folks and hearing about their journeys and their stories. 'cause you know, it just, it allows me to grow as a person. So, best way, red chocolate.com.

Sean Weisbrot: Thank you very much for your time and your energy. I appreciate it. This was a really interesting conversation. Unfortunately, not as long as I would like it to be due to time constraints, but, uh, maybe there's an opportunity to do another one in the future. So don't forget that entrepreneurship is a marathon, not a sprint. So take care of yourself every day. And if you wanna taste really good chocolate, I swear you need to go try this. Chocolate red red-chocolate.com. The link will be in the show notes. Thank you very much, Glen.