976. The Ultimate Entrepreneur Hot Seat: 20 Questions, No Prep

Summary

Fullerton Unfiltered Podcast – Episode 976

“The Ultimate Entrepreneur Hot Seat: 20 Questions, No Prep”
Host: Brian Fullerton
Guest: Adam Fullerton
Date: June 10, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this playful and high-energy episode, Brian Fullerton puts Adam Fullerton (his brother) in the “Entrepreneur Hot Seat” for a spontaneous, fast-paced Q&A game—20 entrepreneurial questions with zero prep, split 10 for each. The premise: candid, unrehearsed insights into entrepreneurship, business growth, and personal philosophies, all shared with Fullerton’s trademark banter and “unfiltered” style. Perfect for business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs seeking real-talk (and real laughs) about risk, mindset, and how to “level up” both business and life.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Setting the Scene and Episode Format

• The episode kicks off with brotherly ribbing about grill types, work, and podcasting, quickly moving to the main event: a “20-question” challenge, split between the two Fullertons, with questions curated by ChatGPT for maximum unpredictability.
• Theme: Honest, quick-fire takes on big entrepreneurial “what ifs,” personal preferences, and industry realities.

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2. Adam in the Hot Seat: Brian’s 10 Questions for Adam (03:30–16:57)

“Would You Rather…” and Entrepreneurial Preferences

• Marketing Agency vs. Portfolio of Businesses (04:01):

  • Adam leans toward a $100M portfolio, citing scale, diversity, and “it’s a bigger number”—but acknowledges it depends on the portfolio’s makeup and returns.
  • “Depends what my percentage is.” (04:22, Adam)

• Best Marketer or Best Entrepreneur (04:34):

  • Adam chooses “Business Owner” but points out the overlap between the two.

• Lead Generation Pillars (05:00):

  • “Probably referrals. It’s the most trustworthy source.” (05:09, Adam)
  • Brian counters, preferring paid ads for faster growth.

• Loyal vs. Casual Followers (05:31):

  • Adam leans to loyal followers, but notes that overall conversions may come from larger “casual” numbers.

• Starting Over with $10,000 (06:02):

  • Adam jokingly resists starting over but would rebuild his current business.

• Fortune 500 vs. Local Business (06:17):

  • Adam contrasts the soul-sucking nature of Fortune 500s with the lack of benefits in small business. Ultimately, “depends on your values and tradeoffs.” (06:30)

• Broad Fame vs. Quiet Wealth (07:26):

  • Adam: “A company that quietly prints money.”
  • Discussion on privacy, fame’s costs, and the meaning of wealth.
  • “Rich is loud. Wealth is quiet.” (08:16, Brian)

Insights on Spending, Skills, and Business Philosophy

• Entrepreneurs Overspending (09:14):

  • Adam jokes: home gym, food, vitamins, and, with prodding, “probably Bitcoin right now.” (09:41)

• Skill Stealing – Entrepreneurial Heroes (10:46):

  • Adam: Gary Vee’s ability to reach audiences OR Musk’s organizational mastery.
  • Brian: “Elon for deploying capital, Steve Jobs for focus,” referencing Jobs’ legendary three-hour focus blocks. (11:23)

• Business Myths (13:22):

  • Brian challenges the belief that building a big business is complex.
  • “It’s actually really simple…not easy, but simple.” (14:08, Brian)
  • Discussion of systemization (referencing Mark Bradley and Darren Hardy’s “half a dozen fundamentals” principle).

• On Replaceability (16:06):

  • Adam: “If you got fired, they’re posting your job tomorrow and someone will fill it in six weeks.”
  • Both stress continuous value creation and humility.

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3. Brian in the Hot Seat: Adam’s 10 Questions for Brian (17:25–31:58)

Deep Dives on Business Strategy and Priorities

• Sell or Scale? (18:27):

  • Would Brian rather own Brian’s Lawn Maintenance at $20M revenue, or sell and start fresh?
  • Brian prefers scaling and extracting “mailbox money” over starting anew—provided great leaders are in place.
  • “If you sell, invest it…you’re going to get the same that you would if you just took the lump sum and put it in the market at 5%.” (19:33, Brian)

• Only One Company Survives (20:29):

  • Forced to choose among his businesses—BLM, Branded Bull, Entrepreneur Academy, Motivated Media—Brian sees the media business as most lucrative now, but emphasizes that only Brian’s Lawn Maintenance can truly be scaled and sold independently.
  • “One business can be sold…it’s Brian’s Lawn Maintenance. I can’t sell the media business. I am that guy.” (22:15, Brian)

• Biggest Risk Today (23:28):

  • Brian identifies himself as “key man risk” for all companies—a vulnerability he’s keenly aware of.
  • “I’m the biggest key man risk of all three companies.” (23:31, Brian)

• Largest Landscaper vs. Largest YouTube Channel (24:06):

  • Brian would choose having the largest landscaping company in Michigan over the biggest YouTube lawn channel—due to scale, impact, and saleable value, despite YouTube’s visibility and income.
  • “If I had a $50 million landscape company…that’s $7.5 million a year in cash flow.” (25:11, Brian)

• If YouTube Disappeared (25:46):

  • Brian would focus all resources on acquiring and rolling up smaller landscaping companies, aiming to scale via mergers and private equity support.

• Former Beliefs at 100k Revenue (26:23):

  • Previously believed “nobody can do it as good as me.” Realizes now that the real challenge is not the work, but scaling and running operations as the owner.
  • “You are the glass ceiling…the fleas in the jar.” (26:43, Brian)

• Get to $10M with No Marketing Budget (27:09):

  • Strategy: aggressive acquisition (“roll ups”) of competitors; absorb smaller local companies to reach the $10M goal.

• Buy vs. Build (27:47):

  • Tangential discussion on why the biggest companies grow via acquisition, not creation—speed to market and leverage.

• Legacy: Great Entrepreneur/Teacher/Father? (28:19):

  • Without hesitation, Brian chooses “great father”—prioritizing family above titles.
  • “That’s pretty obvious. You’re not good at the other two.” (28:27, Adam, joking)

• What Does Winning Look Like at 75? (28:35):

  • Brian:
    • “Not only did I change my family stars, but I helped and showed other people that they could, and I had a track record of folks that actually did.” (28:43)

Philosophical Takeaways

• True leadership is measured by others’ ability to replicate your results; that is, empowering and equipping the next generation.
• Exponential learning and results: The first grind is the hardest, but progress compounds year after year.
• Generational impact: Quoting “Americans think in one generation, Italians think three, and Japanese think a thousand years.” (31:40, Brian)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Wealth:
  “Rich is loud. Wealth is quiet.” — Brian (08:16)
• On Focus:
  “Steve Jobs…had three hours a day...no interruptions, no distractions of designing.” — Brian (11:23)
• On Scaling:
  “Building a big business is actually really simple...not easy, but simple.” — Brian (14:08)
• On Replaceability:
  “If you got fired, they’re posting your job tomorrow and someone will fill it in six weeks.” — Adam (16:06)
• On Legacy:
  “Not only did I change my family stars, but I helped and showed other people that they could, and I had a track record of folks that actually did.” — Brian (28:43)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• Brotherly Banter/Intro: 00:00–02:56
• Format Explained: 03:00
• Adam’s Hot Seat (Brian asks): 03:30–16:57
• Brian’s Hot Seat (Adam asks): 17:25–31:58
• On generational planning/legacy: 31:25–31:58
• Closing Thoughts: 32:00–32:35

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Podcast Tone & Style

• Fast-paced, witty, and packed with good-natured sibling ribbing.
• Realistic, sometimes self-deprecating, always actionable.
• Deep honesty about business struggles and wins.

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Summary for New Listeners

This episode is a rapid-fire, unscripted look at entrepreneurship through the lens of two successful, grounded business owners. Brian and Adam cut through the fluff with banter and insight, sharing lessons on scaling, risk, identity, and legacy. Whether you’re in lawn care, digital marketing, or any other business, their advice on working smarter (not just harder), leveraging acquisitions, thinking generationally, and staying humble is powerful. Expect to laugh, learn, and leave with actionable perspectives.

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Find Adam at: brandonbull.com | Branded Bull Podcast (Tuesdays, all platforms)

Connect with Brian and join the lawntrepreneur community: lawntrepreneuracademy.com

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Transcript

[Adam Fullerton]

Foreign. You're now listening to the Fullerton Unfiltered podcast. Straightforward, no nonsense business advice.

[Brian Fullerton]

Completely on unfiltered.

[Adam Fullerton]

Grow your business, grow your life.

[Brian Fullerton]

Now here's your host, Brian Fullerton. What's going on, gang? Welcome back to another episode of Fullerton Unfiltered Podcast. Let's see who can talk 300 words per minute Today, it's going to be your host with the most, Mr. Brian Fullerton. Here we've got a fun podcast we're going to try to do for you guys. The ribs are on the grill or they're on the smoker. The Traeger 800 series. One of the, you know, fancy schmancy ones, as Adam would probably freaking say. Adam Fullerton unfortunately joined back here with the podcast. I'm like, dude, I'm not talking business on whatever show that we do.

[Adam Fullerton]

You got a Traeger too?

[Brian Fullerton]

It is a. That's what I just said. I know.

[Adam Fullerton]

Must be nice.

[Brian Fullerton]

Oh, my God. It sure is. Sure is a grill. It's a smoker.

[Adam Fullerton]

I know. Do you have a grill as well?

[Brian Fullerton]

I have a Weber grill because I'm sometimes between Scott and Grillo.

[Adam Fullerton]

Listen, Traeger, do you have one of those ones you put over a fire and, like, a whole chicken can be roasted at the same time?

[Brian Fullerton]

What are you talking about?

[Adam Fullerton]

I like the rotisserie style.

[Brian Fullerton]

Don't go with Adam with Brandon Bull if he's this retarded on the show. Imagine what you're gonna get for a website. All right, let's do this. We're gonna do 10 questions that I'm gonna ask Adam, and then Adam's gonna ask me 10 questions. And we threw this one to chat. So we've not looked at these questions yet, but we're gonna do something fun. We're gonna break it up. Adam has been on the show too much. He doesn't pay me enough. I don't know if I actually get paid here. Would you say. Would you say you get paid here? So I'm like, look, I'm fried out talking marketing, branding, SEO. I know a lot of you guys have heard Adam's shows. He does a great job. Okay? He does a good job once in a while. I don't want to admit that out too loud. So if you want to hear more about marketing and branding and SEO and websites and everything that they do@ BrandonBull.com, check out one of the previous shows. But in today's episode, we're going to hopefully have some fun and do a little, little Q&A instead. So without further ado, Adam, why don't you introduce yourself? Whatever I'm going to left out or don't. Okay. That's Adam Fullerton, everybody.

[Adam Fullerton]

I can't believe you're like, let's go with these 10 questions. I don't even know the questions.

[Brian Fullerton]

We don't know them just yet.

[Adam Fullerton]

And I was asking you what this podcast is even about because I'm still struggling to understand what you do here.

[Brian Fullerton]

Most people would ask me, what would you say you do here? I made a new hire today. I hire people that do things. I don't know where you hire and why. I hired a new salesperson, a fractional salesperson that's going to be starting with us, and we're really excited about that.

[Adam Fullerton]

And what are you expecting from that role?

[Brian Fullerton]

Him to sell hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of maintenance and stone contracts?

[Adam Fullerton]

You have to. You have to have realistic expectations. Have you talked about this on the podcast yet?

[Brian Fullerton]

That's not the topic. I know it's a good topic to talk about. Okay.

[Adam Fullerton]

You do you boo.

[Brian Fullerton]

I'll do a different episode on more important things.

[Adam Fullerton]

Okay.

[Brian Fullerton]

Than to have you muddle in my affairs of Brian's office trying to give

[Adam Fullerton]

people value for this podcast.

[Brian Fullerton]

We're not doing that. This will probably be a Friday show. Maybe we'll do it on a Monday show. Because who likes Mondays? I'm more of like a Tuesday, Thursday, and maybe like a half a day Friday kind of guy.

[Adam Fullerton]

I can tell.

[Brian Fullerton]

I don't really dig Mondays, Wednesday, Wednesdays, I usually hate everything. I'm like, sell the trucks by Wednesday. But Friday, Thursday, the guys wrap up, and I'm like, you know what? Stick around this thing for another week. And then once I'm about 15 weeks into the season, I'm like, you know, freaking hate. You know that it's hot and we're all tired and whiny and fussy, and then it's like, oh, it's time for stone. Like, you know, I like snow halfway through snow season, I'm like, you know what? Snow freaking suc. And then I'm like, you know what? It's going to be green in about eight more weeks. So everybody just hold tight.

[Adam Fullerton]

Do that for how many years in a row?

[Brian Fullerton]

And 20 years. 20 years deep.

[Adam Fullerton]

Almost.

[Brian Fullerton]

Almost a career out of this thing. All right, here's 10 questions, folks. I haven't vetted these at all. We're going to do. I'm sure this is like a game or some kind of thing that somebody's done before, but 10 questions Adam asked Brian, and. No, no, no. I'm going to do 10 questions that Brian asks Adam. All right, so let's do this really quick. Adam Fullerton. We'll speed around this. Would you rather have a marketing agency doing 10 million a year or own a portfolio of businesses worth $100 million? Dude, I don't know. That's what I got.

[Adam Fullerton]

What are you talking.

[Brian Fullerton]

I can literally hear the people changing the track.

[Adam Fullerton]

Can you repeat the question for me? Are you.

[Brian Fullerton]

Are you really?

[Adam Fullerton]

It was a lot of numbers, a lot of money.

[Brian Fullerton]

It's not. It's like, would you have a marketing agency doing 10 million?

[Adam Fullerton]

Agency doing 10 million or own a

[Brian Fullerton]

portfolio of a businesses doing 100 million?

[Adam Fullerton]

I'm guessing the portfolio of business is doing 100 million.

[Brian Fullerton]

Why?

[Adam Fullerton]

I don't know. It's a bigger number. It depends on what my. What the portfolio is. Depends what the return is. I don't know. What's my percentage?

[Brian Fullerton]

At Brandon Bull, we do ads. I want to do more. Well, let's just do more ads.

[Adam Fullerton]

I don't know. I'm not.

[Brian Fullerton]

10 is bigger than one.

[Adam Fullerton]

I mean.

[Brian Fullerton]

All right, would you rather be the best marketer in America or the best entrepreneur in America?

[Adam Fullerton]

I feel like they're synonymous.

[Brian Fullerton]

They're kind of synonymous. Yeah.

[Adam Fullerton]

Yeah, I guess. Business owner.

[Brian Fullerton]

Business owner. Okay. You'd have to be the best business owner. Yeah. All right, well, all entrepreneurs are typically marketers, so you probably check the box with both.

[Adam Fullerton]

If you can only use one lead, the answer. That's the answer he gave you?

[Brian Fullerton]

Yeah, it says, ask him these questions. These are all basically rhetorical questions, but we're humoring you is what I typed into the chat. So. Okay, if you could use only one lead source for the next 10 years, would you pick SEO, YouTube referrals, or paid ads?

[Adam Fullerton]

Ooh, probably referrals. Just because you can. It's. It's the most trustworthy.

[Brian Fullerton]

I do paid. I do paid ads.

[Adam Fullerton]

There's no. No, no investment. There's no dollar investment.

[Brian Fullerton]

Yeah, but that's slow growth.

[Adam Fullerton]

Okay, well, I mean, if I waited

[Brian Fullerton]

for organic growth, if I waited for referrals to. To date, Brian doesn't have a single customer that's came from a referral.

[Adam Fullerton]

Cool.

[Brian Fullerton]

Like active.

[Adam Fullerton]

That's awesome. We should talk about that. Another episode.

[Brian Fullerton]

That'll be another show. Would you rather have a hundred thousand loyal followers or 1 million casual followers?

[Adam Fullerton]

I guess, probably. I mean, loyal followers, but, like, it depends. Depends what casual means.

[Brian Fullerton]

Why?

[Adam Fullerton]

Because if you have loyal followers, it depends what the Conversion rate is ultimately, if you have a million followers with a lower conversion rate, but that is a higher overall number than the conversion rate for a bunch of loyal customers, then yeah.

[Brian Fullerton]

Oh yeah, fair enough. That's easy one. If you had to start over tomorrow with $10,000, what business are you building first? You don't have $10,000, $10,000 now.

[Adam Fullerton]

I'm not starting over. I'm not going back.

[Brian Fullerton]

They can't take me.

[Adam Fullerton]

I'd, I'd start the same business I'm doing now.

[Brian Fullerton]

Okay, okay, let's see. No comment. Would you rather work for a Fortune 500 company or for a local business?

[Adam Fullerton]

Oh my gosh. Well, Fortune 500. Fortune 500. You're probably getting paid more, but my goodness, it's, it's at a cost because it is soul sucking. So local business has no benefits. Typically there's, you know, insurance costs a million dollars. You get three days of PTO, you

[Brian Fullerton]

know, like somebody that I know who gets 40, what is it, 40, 42 PTO in sick days, who's unlimited time off your freaking wife.

[Adam Fullerton]

So when I worked at Carhartt. Yeah, that's funny. I had, I had like 45 days of PTO by the time I left.

[Brian Fullerton]

That's a day a week. Yeah, well, I understand that's a four day work week.

[Adam Fullerton]

Don't, don't. It's just. Don't be jealous.

[Brian Fullerton]

I'm not jealous.

[Adam Fullerton]

That's what you can do when you have a big business.

[Brian Fullerton]

When do you people actually work? No wonder I can't get to the phone of any major corporation. You guys are all taking an extra vacation day outside of regular, you know, holidays, 40 fed, federal and state holidays, Juneteenth and everything in between. Would you rather build a company everyone knows or company that quietly prints money?

[Adam Fullerton]

A company that quietly prints money.

[Brian Fullerton]

Yeah, I heard it. I heard a real once. It was like you guys are building, you know, a business to like tell everybody how successful you are. I'm building one to quietly disappear so nobody knows who I am. Yeah, like I was like, I like that one.

[Adam Fullerton]

I've always, I've always heard like it's one of those things where it's amazing to have fame and fortune, but then also comes at the price of never being able to have privacy. And it's like, yeah, for what you ask for thing.

[Brian Fullerton]

And that's so true.

[Adam Fullerton]

I heard you especially. I mean you go out and everybody

[Brian Fullerton]

knows who you are in some elements, sure. But broadly speaking, I'm, I'm still a freaking nobody. Thank God.

[Adam Fullerton]

Yeah.

[Brian Fullerton]

But if I like, at a quip was like that everywhere. Like, let's say you're Brad Pitt or Tom Cruise.

[Adam Fullerton]

Imagine being Elon Musk or you can't anymore a. Anybody celebrity Trump. You can't go anywhere.

[Brian Fullerton]

Yeah.

[Adam Fullerton]

No security. And would you.

[Brian Fullerton]

I heard another one that said rich. Rich is loud. Wealth is quiet.

[Adam Fullerton]

I'll let you know when I get to.

[Brian Fullerton]

I also saw one. It's like if you're loud. I heard somebody say also, like, if you're taking a photo with the thing that you're doing, that means it's not like your regular lifestyle and like other people who that it is. No. So like if you're taking a photo at like a star, you know, five Star Steakhouse and posting it on Instagram, Sure.

[Adam Fullerton]

You're like, yeah, that makes sense.

[Brian Fullerton]

You know what I mean? It's a highlight.

[Adam Fullerton]

It's not the.

[Brian Fullerton]

Not like your regular.

[Adam Fullerton]

Yeah.

[Brian Fullerton]

So like if you're taking a photo in front of a, you know, private jet ride.

[Adam Fullerton]

Yeah.

[Brian Fullerton]

You're like, this is awesome. But it's like, clearly.

[Adam Fullerton]

So I don't post photos at all.

[Brian Fullerton]

I don't have any. That's why I stopped taking photos in front of my jet.

[Adam Fullerton]

Yeah. And at this takeout, you don't have any photos.

[Brian Fullerton]

I was like, I would still take a photo in front of a jet with like Mark Bradley. You get like the thumbs up, you know, the, the trade show thumbs up.

[Adam Fullerton]

That's funny.

[Brian Fullerton]

What's one thing that it says most entrepreneurs. Let's say you spend too much money on something.

[Adam Fullerton]

I spend too much money on, according to my wife, would be everything. The home gym, according to you. Food, vitamins. According to me.

[Brian Fullerton]

Yeah.

[Adam Fullerton]

I don't think I spend enough money on anything.

[Brian Fullerton]

What about your blue shoes? My what? Your, your, your Viagra.

[Adam Fullerton]

Oh, blue chews. I was like, bluetooth. What?

[Brian Fullerton]

Maybe that's another one for another time.

[Adam Fullerton]

Probably bitcoin right now. Holy smokes.

[Brian Fullerton]

What's that in the hole?

[Adam Fullerton]

Yeah, let's not talk about that. But next question.

[Brian Fullerton]

It was just real. I. Mike Bonnell, who does a lot of day trading, was like crypto SpaceX. And I don't know if it was like the S and P. And it was like three guys in like a, like a. All their heads are meeting where they were like doing a plank.

[Adam Fullerton]

Yeah.

[Brian Fullerton]

So they're on their hands like a push up. And so like one would smack the other guy's hand, the other guy would smack the other guy's hand. And it's like basically this like pyramid Ponzi scheme of like the trillions of

[Adam Fullerton]

dollars being transferred every day until like

[Brian Fullerton]

one guy would smack the other guy, but he had like stays there. I was like, this is funny, dude.

[Adam Fullerton]

I saw a good thing. I saw the other day that if you were one of the first 500 at SpaceX, I saw that worth $100 million.

[Brian Fullerton]

It was something ridiculous. I was like, it was like 50 grand invested.

[Adam Fullerton]

When I say I'm never going back, I'm like, can I come over there though? I never come back where I came from.

[Brian Fullerton]

But 50 grand into 100 million is nuts. Yeah, that's, that's, that's, that's crazy. If you could, if you could steal any one skill from an entrepreneur live today, whose skill would it be and why?

[Adam Fullerton]

Whose skill would it be and why?

[Brian Fullerton]

Yeah,

[Adam Fullerton]

I don't know. I want to be like Gary Vee and his ability to just like understand how to get in front of a million people. But I, I don't know. It's probably, I don't. There's a lot of names running through my head. But like, I would just want to steal the skill of better understanding how to plan, I guess in terms of like building an organization. Because we're going through that. I mean we're just a small business ourselves and like the trajectory has been great and we're growing, but there's still struggles and things that we go through and I don't, I don't, I know 1% of 1%. And so I think understanding from Elon Musk, like how to build, you know, a massive business, like that'd be amazing.

[Brian Fullerton]

That I think, I think that's who I'd pick. I'd pick Elon for organizing and deploying capital, both people and financial capital, but also like picking one skill. It would be Steve Jobs and his ability to focus on the one thing, his obsession for like product development. It was said that he, he had three hours a day, hardcore dedicated, no interruptions, no distractions of designing. Like kids.

[Adam Fullerton]

Did he have kids? Yeah.

[Brian Fullerton]

I don't know. Good question. Good ass chat.

[Adam Fullerton]

Three hours of no distraction.

[Brian Fullerton]

But that's all he could get too. But think about like everybody's like, oh, I work an eight hour day, a ten hour day. And, and I've said this. And Paul Akers, who came to leanscaper, Arizona, he was like the lean guy. He was phenomenal. He's fantastic. Go back to my show, like two months ago, I did an interview with him. But he said most people on average are literally seriously productive. Like 15 to 20, 30 minutes a day.

[Adam Fullerton]

Well, and I mean tr.

[Brian Fullerton]

Moving the needle forward.

[Adam Fullerton]

Yeah. And I think also busy work doesn't mean it's impactful work. So if you're working on something that's just like, let's call it a tier 2 project and let's say there's 10 levels. Like there's that 10 minutes on a tier 10 will do 10 times more than what you could do on a tier two, for sure. It's not about busy work. That was something that Dan Martell, I remember when he was on the podcast a while ago and his book, and I highly recommend his book, buy back your time. It's. It's life changing. He said, you know, good to see

[Brian Fullerton]

him in Chicago in like a week and a half.

[Adam Fullerton]

Is that leanscaper?

[Brian Fullerton]

Leanscaper one. Oh, that's right. You should come at least for one night.

[Adam Fullerton]

Yeah, talk to my wife about that.

[Brian Fullerton]

Bring her with you, take her to the hotel or put her in a knapsack. I don't care.

[Adam Fullerton]

Careful, careful. But he said like, you know, the get shit done mentality is like, you know, how you, how you start. But eventually you have to get away from that and think about impactful work, not just work harder.

[Brian Fullerton]

Yeah, yeah, no, that's good. If you could steal anyone skill from an entrepreneur today, I thought also it would be. Who was I gonna go with? Whatever. We'll come back to that one. Maybe number 10. What's a belief that you have about business that most people would disagree with?

[Adam Fullerton]

A belief I have about business that most people would disagree with.

[Brian Fullerton]

Mmm.

[Adam Fullerton]

I honestly can't think of anything I'm gonna go with.

[Brian Fullerton]

It's simple. It's actually really simple to grow a big business. It's ridiculously simple. And I say that from somebody who literally did not understand a single fricking thing two, three, four years ago, other than you just throw mud up at against the wall, sees what sticks. And as I continue to trend and track Bradley stuff, dude, he's got like the systems laid out like I could. And anybody on the leanscaper accelerator program would tell you it's ridiculous. Like the. The now not simple and easy are totally different. To be hyper clear. Well, why don't you do it yet? Because easy and simple are totally different conceptually. Right. Like what you're trying to do. It's actually remarkably simple.

[Adam Fullerton]

Yeah.

[Brian Fullerton]

And I heard Darren Hardy say that he's my guy about a decade ago. He goes, most anything and everything you're doing in life comes down to about A half a dozen fundamentals out of anything in life. And I'm like, yeah, that's that. I mean, as I like distill things down in life, I'm like, yeah, he's not wrong. But you know, most people would think that, oh, building, you know, SpaceX or Tesla or, you know, pick your brand and pick your business. It's just such a complicated, you know, deal. And Bradley actually showed a 200 person organization doing like 60 million ones. And you would just see it's basically like 50 crews of 1 million, 50 teams of 1 million. And then this was a pocket, and then this was a pocket of 10, and this was a pocket of 10. And obviously that rolls up and you're like, wait a minute, like it's not that complicated.

[Adam Fullerton]

Sure.

[Brian Fullerton]

And then he talked about building a future org chart, backfilling the people, backfilling the revenue. You're like, actually, yeah, like for whatever reason, I kind of have this belief now that I could go do that.

[Adam Fullerton]

Yeah.

[Brian Fullerton]

And that's the leanscaper accelerator, Sprints. That's the weekly Wednesday live stream that he does as your virtual CEO. He does like 52 weeks a year and there's a couple great casts and he does a Q A, I think on Thursday. But dude, it's, it's like, it's actually really, really that simple. Yeah. Like fundamentally, like to work out five days a week, an hour here, heart rate up, cardio this, macros that lift heavy. You know, it's like, it's, it kind of boils down to a half dozen fundamentals.

[Adam Fullerton]

Yeah.

[Brian Fullerton]

But if somebody was like, hey, how'd you lose £100 in, you know, a year? Like actually I just, you know, did a 300, you know, calorie deficit per, per day.

[Adam Fullerton]

Yeah.

[Brian Fullerton]

Worked out for 45 minutes. Heart rate up, this burn flat.

[Adam Fullerton]

Well, that's the compound effect to talk about. Darren Hardy, which is another phenomenal book. Right?

[Brian Fullerton]

Yeah.

[Adam Fullerton]

Yeah. Little things compounding over time that produce big results.

[Brian Fullerton]

Yeah.

[Adam Fullerton]

And just a little bit every single day. So. Yeah, I mean, I don't have an answer for that question. I guess, I guess I'm thinking like, I don't know. So the question is, what's something that you believe that a lot of others would, would disagree with? Probably the idea that like your, that how, how do I say this? Like you're not replaceable or you're, you're somehow. You think that you provide more value maybe than you do. Like in my, in my world, especially from corporate America, when I, when this is.

[Brian Fullerton]

Nobody does it like me?

[Adam Fullerton]

Yeah. Nobody does it like me. I'm the best. But realistically, if you were to to die gets, you know, fired, whatever, they're literally posting for your your job tomorrow

[Brian Fullerton]

and somebody going to fill in six weeks.

[Adam Fullerton]

Exactly. If so, to think that you are the thing holding everything together, it's probably not true whatsoever. Not even close. And it's, it's really about making sure you're providing nonstop value or at least trying to figure out how you can provide more value. And that's a never ending journey. Like it's just evolving over time that never ends. It is what it is. Either accept it or don't. But like to think that you have it figured out to think that you provide all the value in the world, you probably don't.

[Brian Fullerton]

Yeah, that's good. No, that's good. Nobody cuts grass or lays pavers as good as I do. Maybe. No, that's Good. That's our 10 questions. Let's do this real quick. Let's take a break. We'll hear from today's show sponsors announcements and then we' switch it up. I'm going to ask me 10 questions. These are all from chat. We'll see what we got. Uh, let's do this real quick. Let's hear from today's show sponsors and announcements and we will come right on back.

[Sponsor/Advertisement Voice]

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[Brian Fullerton]

We can't wait to see you in Louisville.

[Adam Fullerton]

This is the Fullerton Unfiltered Podcast. I am your host, Adam Fullerton. Oh boy. Studio is none other than Brian Fullerton. Brian, how are you?

[Brian Fullerton]

Good. Quick note, dude, you can actually carry a show, which is funny because you have a show. Brandon Bull podcast. So if folks don't know, go ahead.

[Adam Fullerton]

Yeah, Brandon Bull Podcast. It's every single Tuesday. Apple podcast everywhere you're listening to. But it's all about marketing, advertising and all the different topics within that. So we just give people practical tips on how to grow their business.

[Brian Fullerton]

Tip of the week.

[Adam Fullerton]

Exactly. Through marketing, through branding, SEO, websites, all the different things. So go check it out. And usually Those episodes are 10 minutes, 12 minutes or so despite size, to just teach the basics, teach you what you can actually do, and then it's about tactics. It's about actually going and doing something. Not just, like, philosophy.

[Brian Fullerton]

It's a little coffee, like, you know, morning show, five, ten minutes. Yep. All right, let's do it.

[Adam Fullerton]

All right. Ten questions. Adam asks Brian one. Where did you get all your money from? That's never the question.

[Brian Fullerton]

That's ridiculous. Number one, I beat the first question. Like, that's not the first question.

[Adam Fullerton]

Would you rather own Brian's lawn maintenance at $20 million revenue or sell it tomorrow and start something completely new?

[Brian Fullerton]

Oh, man, that's a good one. If it was a major, like, headache and it was just sucked the life out of me for whatever reason, and maybe I didn't know what I didn't know from, like, how to fix it kind of a standpoint, I was stuck. I could see myself getting unjammed and selling it today. I would say, like, I'm almost less bullish about selling the business and actually, like, putting great leaders in place and having mailbox money. You know, like, clog is looking to make his last leadership rung at his company. And at that point, you just get mailbox money, because if you sell it, invest it, you're going to get the same that you would is if you just took the lump sum up front and put it in the market at 5%. And there's a whole debate there. So unless you get, like, a ridiculous offer or you're just exhausted or tired or want to do in a completely different chapter of your life, I, you know, if I had a $20 million company, it's safe to say that I'm probably not in the operations. 3 to 5 million. I would probably lean towards selling it 20 million. It'd be really hard to get to that level without having a great leadership team in place.

[Adam Fullerton]

It'd be hard to. I guess it depends on, like, in my opinion. Yeah. And I'll let you know if I ever get there. But all the time and effort you put into building it to then sell it and then start new, I feel like there's a lot of lost time when you can take those same exact things you already know and just type it into that thing to your own business.

[Brian Fullerton]

Take it to 50 million.

[Adam Fullerton]

Yeah, exactly.

[Brian Fullerton]

That's probably what I would do. Like, to be honest with you, if

[Adam Fullerton]

it was like, hey, would you continue doing what you're doing, but then also purchase another business? Right. Like, then you can apply what you know into that business and you know, and if you're.

[Brian Fullerton]

And if you were burned out, why wouldn't you just not hire some, you know, CEO for 400 grand and let him make this his problem and give him an equity upside down? I'd say the only reason I would sell is if I wanted to, like, go do something different. But I do enough things. It's not like I would want to do anything different. I would just be like, hey, I'm taking that credibility. I'm gonna go, you know, coach, train, do conferences in the green industry for the rest of my life. Because I really do like cutting grass and snow and I don't really know too much outside of. That's all I know. It's all I've known for 20 years.

[Adam Fullerton]

That's fair.

[Brian Fullerton]

Interesting question.

[Adam Fullerton]

Yeah. If you could, this is a funny one. If you could only keep one company, blm, the Brian's Lawn Maintenance Branded Bull Entrepreneur Academy or Motivated Media. Which one survives? I know which I'm voting for. I tell you right now, I tell you right now, I've got a small

[Brian Fullerton]

equity stake in Brandon Bull. I own brands on maintenance 5050 with. No, I own exclusively brands on maintenance and 5050 with motivated media. Launchpreneur Academy is part of that. All of our media stuff is all under. All of our social media stuff is under Motivated. It's a tough question because they're symbiotic. You know, it, you know, like, which

[Adam Fullerton]

one do you think?

[Brian Fullerton]

Well, one's got. One makes more true net cash flow profit because there's no overhead. That's the media business. But in terms of like the upside long term, if I wanted to like tap something for a large equity stake or not equity stake, but a large cash out, it would be what I have the most chance for, an upside, which would be the business. The Brian's on maintenance. If I never did social, Brian's on maintenance would have to be $10 million yesterday to make the income to provide the gap of what I make from the other three businesses in totality. So like I was joking with my guys and you know, they all think I'm Richie Rich and they, they bust my chops and I'm like, look, I get the same salary that you guys do. I just get three or four of them from my couple different companies. So it's not like, you know, I'm just some multi millionaire over here. The difference is I don't make much more than my guy. Actually, Rob makes more than I do right now with Brian's, I probably need to do a salary Adjustment. I just have three or four salaries like that coming in for my companies. And Liz gets a salary from the company too. So like in terms of like, what business would I want to survive? The media business, because it makes me the most money. But if I never did this or that, then I would totally. To make, you know, $200,000 a year. Let's say I would absolutely blow up brands on maintenance to 5 million dollar company yesterday.

[Adam Fullerton]

Yeah.

[Brian Fullerton]

But one business can be sold. It's the Brian's on maintenance company. I can't sell the media business. I am that guy.

[Adam Fullerton]

Sure.

[Brian Fullerton]

And the guy is me. And I'm the company, the media and the media is me. So if I had to keep one business alive, although it would like, be catastrophic, you know, to like what I would think for like financial future cash flow projections and investment opportunities with the cash that the media company spits off. Brian's Law Maintenance, because that's the one I can eventually grow and scale and sell for 10, 20 million. Yeah, it'd be really, it's really hard. Like, dude, Dave Ramsey is barely doing it with Ramsey Solutions, it took him a decade to turn the aircraft carrier, to give it to George Camel, Rachel Cruz and whoever else. Because Dave Ramsey was like, it's like Dave Ramsey Revenue, or DRR, whatever they called it. He was like 85% up until just like five years ago. So if he gets croaked on a 300 million dollar company, the company's cooked.

[Adam Fullerton]

Yeah.

[Brian Fullerton]

So they said like for succession planning, they all had to come out with books, courses, programs, and this, you know, content in general that wasn't related to Dave. So. Good question. That's, it's like, it's like trying to say like, which, which are your favorite children you're gonna kill off. Yeah, that doesn't make any sense.

[Adam Fullerton]

Like, then you have a cousin there

[Brian Fullerton]

called Brandon Bull, that little redheaded stepchild. What I got. What's next? All right, Rapid fire. Yep.

[Adam Fullerton]

What's the biggest business risk you're considering right now?

[Brian Fullerton]

It's key man insurance. I'm the guy at all three companies or two of my companies. And the third company, you guys are pretty dependent on me for sales, as most of it comes from the green industry. Yeah. So I'm the, I'm the biggest key man risk of all three companies.

[Adam Fullerton]

I can't wait for you to not be the.

[Brian Fullerton]

Yeah, I mean, that's a fact. I, I'm sure you could do a SWOT analysis. And it's markets, it's finance, it's. It's it's that, it's, it's not, it's. I, I, I don't, I think the, the only other limiting factor would be me, like my mental limiting belief about what I can and can't do.

[Adam Fullerton]

Fair.

[Brian Fullerton]

Or what I, how I need to redeploy capital or talent.

[Adam Fullerton]

Yeah, fair.

[Brian Fullerton]

And that's all something I'm trying to get on my own way.

[Adam Fullerton]

Would you rather have the largest landscaping company in Michigan or the largest lawn care YouTube channel in the world?

[Brian Fullerton]

Largest landscape company in Michigan.

[Adam Fullerton]

Really?

[Brian Fullerton]

Dude, that'd be 50 world biggest YouTube

[Adam Fullerton]

channel in the world.

[Brian Fullerton]

Lawn care YouTube channel or YouTube channel?

[Adam Fullerton]

Lawn care YouTube channel in the world.

[Brian Fullerton]

I would have the biggest Lawn Care Contractor YouTube channel there' that have the motal grass guys. There's a couple guys.

[Adam Fullerton]

This question's just here to fluff you up.

[Brian Fullerton]

They have, listen, the motel grass guys have half a million and they make big money. Don't let them ever fool you. They, they. I couldn't pay the taxes on what some of these guys make for real. Real, real real real, real real. But they're super generous and give away ten grand on, you know, a video and everybody thinks they're awesome and nice and they are awesome and nice guys. But that being said, if I had a $50 million landscape company with a 15% true net and it's offsetting me 7.5 million a year in cash flow because the biggest companies are about 30 million on the west side of the state and a couple locally in the east side of the state. But if I had the biggest landscape company, you know, by and large 50 to 100 million and you're making 10, 15, 20% on that. Dude, the biggest YouTube channel. Lawn Care YouTube channel. Let's say it makes a literally a million dollars. It's, it's, it's peanuts in the world.

[Adam Fullerton]

And again, a billion people in China.

[Brian Fullerton]

Lawn care channel on the world. Yeah. There's nobody that's got a bigger lawn care channel. But again, think about this. If I exited $100 million company at a 12x multiple on my EBITDA.

[Adam Fullerton]

Yeah.

[Brian Fullerton]

If it was a 15%, you know, true net and I'm running a 15% EBITDA on a 12x multiple. 15 times 15 is what, like 125 or something like that? You're talking $125 million exit. Yeah, your YouTube channel is not worth. You are the YouTube channel.

[Adam Fullerton]

You could sling so many things though, if you had that, that big of an audience.

[Brian Fullerton]

Whatever. I take the, I take the base Landscape company. All right, cool.

[Adam Fullerton]

Let's see. If you woke up tomorrow and YouTube disappeared, what would be your next move?

[Brian Fullerton]

I take Brian's Lawmain instead. 10 million. I'd acquire every single 100 grand to $1 million local company. I leverage the shit out of it. I get private equity involved and I would do massive roll ups underneath me. I wouldn't, I wouldn't even mind buying a company that's three times the size of me, letting it cannibalize Brian's Law Maintenance, rolling me under it and then tapping somebody in private equity to do as many roll ups as I can locally. Fair. Wouldn't even be a question.

[Adam Fullerton]

You got a plan? What's one thing you believed at 100k revenue that you completely disagree with today?

[Brian Fullerton]

At 100k revenue that I completely disagree with today? Yep. That. You know, I'm gonna go back to what you said too. I think it's most of us out there that nobody's going to be able to do it as good as I, I can. And when you realize like doing the work is actually the, the one of the more simpler parts of the business, you realize like you are the glass ceiling, you know, the fleas in the jar.

[Adam Fullerton]

Yeah. I think, I mean again, every, so many people can cut grass. I'm not saying I'm an expert, but like it's, it's not, it's a commodity.

[Brian Fullerton]

Yeah.

[Adam Fullerton]

A lot of people can do it. And from there it's about operations, it's about scalability, it's about customer service, it's about what else can you do to grow the business. Above and beyond just cutting grass because there's a million people that cut the grass. What do you do differently above and beyond cutting grass?

[Brian Fullerton]

Dude. Compliance, financial literacy, branding, pipeline. Way harder. Yeah. Than, than, you know, doing the work.

[Adam Fullerton]

Love it. If you had to get, if you had to get Ryan's lawn maintenance to $10 million with no marketing budget, how

[Brian Fullerton]

would you do it? I just, like I just said, I, I leverage equity for the business to tap private equity and just buy out and cannibalize other businesses and do a roll up.

[Adam Fullerton]

Yeah. Or you could shift the money to a different budget and then still use it on marketing tactics. Yeah. I classified as a different budget.

[Brian Fullerton]

That's true, that's true. But I, I would just, if I couldn't spend money, I would do whatever it could to just acquire, which is honestly my game plan right now.

[Adam Fullerton]

Yeah, it's one of the biggest companies do, I mean if they, if they want something, they just Buy it and then they're good.

[Brian Fullerton]

Totally. My goal is to be a million plus dollar business and start absorbing, you know, quarter million dollars sub less guys.

[Adam Fullerton]

Gosh, could you imagine being Tesla, Apple, the biggest companies on the planet, Microsoft. And every single time something new comes up and they want it, you don't have to figure out how to do it. You just literally buy the company.

[Brian Fullerton]

In fact, that's what they say about. What they say about Zuckerberg. He's actually created nothing after Facebook. He bought Instagram. He bought like Snapchat or whatever. He bought like everything that he has.

[Adam Fullerton]

Yeah.

[Brian Fullerton]

He's never built anything success Facebook.

[Adam Fullerton]

And that's the difference. That's like when you talk about wealthy, like they just bolt on. Yeah, they just buy it and they're in their on it because it's about speed. Instead of having six months, they can have one month.

[Brian Fullerton]

Exactly.

[Adam Fullerton]

Get it to market that much quicker. So crazy. Y. Would you rather be remembered as a great entrepreneur, a great teacher, or a great father?

[Brian Fullerton]

Great father.

[Adam Fullerton]

That's pretty obvious. You're not good at the other two. So when you're 75 years old, looking back, what would you.

[Brian Fullerton]

That's good.

[Adam Fullerton]

When you're.

[Brian Fullerton]

That's good.

[Adam Fullerton]

When you're 75 years old, looking back, what would make you feel like you've won that?

[Brian Fullerton]

Not only did I change my family stars, but I helped and showed other people that they could and I had a track record of folks that actually did.

[Adam Fullerton]

That's awesome.

[Brian Fullerton]

Period. Like, I've thought that one through because you have to do it yourself first and show people proof of concept. And two, you have to show and teach other people how to do it. And then three, you have to have other people get the results. They say that's the. The actual definition of a leader. It's those who have taken what you've learned and taught and been able to replicate that success themselves and hopefully do it faster and better than you were able to do on your own.

[Adam Fullerton]

Yeah. Well, I can just say thank you for everything you've done because I wouldn't be here where I am if I didn't have you in my life doing what you're doing.

[Brian Fullerton]

Well, I appreciate that. That's cool. That's sincere. I appreciate that. And I hope many of you guys out there feel the same way. It's. And dude, I'm just downdrafting. You know, guys like Mark Bradley and every other great person around us that were learning all this stuff. Dude, we went on the Elementor was it last winter, two winners Ago. Two winners ago.

[Adam Fullerton]

I don't time flies.

[Brian Fullerton]

It was two winners ago.

[Adam Fullerton]

Time flies. Well, element was two years ago. Leanscaper was last year.

[Brian Fullerton]

That's right. That's right. We did five or six stops.

[Adam Fullerton]

Yeah.

[Brian Fullerton]

It's been insane. It's been absolutely insane. And like, dude, I didn't even talk like this 18 months ago. You know what I mean? It's ridiculous. And the stuff that's now exponential is what it is.

[Adam Fullerton]

It's exponential because you can go faster and faster and the more you learn and the more you go through, the quicker you can deploy new information, new ideas, whatever it might be. It's just again, it's just quicker and quicker and quicker.

[Brian Fullerton]

Dude, I literally in the one of our group chats, I said, I have so many. I've been on the road gamble for the last three or four days. I said, talking the private equity road, mapping game plan and talking about sales and sales people. I said it's all really cool. I said my brain is so fried in life. I'm a sponge. Life is so big, especially in the game of business.

[Adam Fullerton]

Yeah.

[Brian Fullerton]

And like there's just no way to like quantify how freaking excited you are. Pumped up that we are about all of this. We see the, the results, the progress. And I'm just thinking to myself, like, dude, look at our last 10 years. Dude, I didn't know Shikaka the last, you know, the first seven or eight of it. Yeah, it was just grind.

[Adam Fullerton]

Yeah.

[Brian Fullerton]

Now we can actually put some intentionality and strategy and blah blah, blah behind it. I don't think that many of us listening in wouldn't be able to. It'd be hard for me to not believe that many of us listening in couldn't take our businesses to 2, 5, 10 million or some of you guys that are just astronomical butt kickers. Take your personal net worth to 20, 50, 100 million in the next decade or two.

[Adam Fullerton]

Yeah.

[Brian Fullerton]

And I think too, I really do believe that.

[Adam Fullerton]

I think too if you think about how it's exponential that you're going through the grind in the beginning and we're going through this as well. We're going to find out and this is just my, my perspective right now and we'll see what happens. But you know, the first 10 years might get you only so far, but you know, then it goes to nine years, then eight, then seven, then six, and the next thing you know, everything is just compressed and so you're just doubling or whatever that number is. You're just going faster and faster and seeing a bigger and bigger return if you're doing it right.

[Brian Fullerton]

Yes. And like, think about this. It took me 20, 30, you know, years to get this far. Imagine if I can imbue half or most of this into my kids, pass the torch to them.

[Adam Fullerton]

Sure.

[Brian Fullerton]

They feel bulletproof and where could they go? And they're 20, 30 year rung.

[Adam Fullerton]

Yeah.

[Brian Fullerton]

And as they say, Americans think one generation, Italians think three generations, and Japanese think a thousand years later. So imagine like the torch you could pass if you're putting that into your family's lineage, about what they could do. Yeah. Like you're just stewarding this thing for the next 30 years. Make a go of it better. Do a good job. Right. I mean, think about that.

[Adam Fullerton]

Yeah. So that's how you build a legacy.

[Brian Fullerton]

It's awesome. It's awesome. It's good. All right, folks, we do have a hard stop over here because Adam's gonna bounce. And hey, we love you guys. Appreciate. Hope you guys enjoyed the show. Maybe a little bit of a lighter episode. Links for everything that we got going on in the description. New shows Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Adam, last stop working people. Find you brandonbull.com There you go. Check it out. Website, marketing, SEO and everything in between if you want some great shows here. So Adam dropping bombs. Go check out the other shows in Brandon Bull. Do a quick Google search or itunes search and those will come right on up. But hope you guys enjoyed the fun show and we look forward to catching up with all you guys here on the next one.

[Sponsor/Advertisement Voice]

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[Podcast Outro Voice]

Thanks for taking the time to listen to the Fullerton Unfiltered podcast with Bryan Fullerton. We hope you enjoyed this production. If so, please consider leaving us a five star review for the show. While the techniques and ideas presented here are designed to help you grow a more successful and profitable business. No one can guarantee these results for you. We want to emphasize that entrepreneurship is not easy and the ideas presented here are just the opinions of Brian Fullerton and his respective guests. No one can guarantee success for you. That being said, we hope the ideas presented here help you and motivate you to go on out there and crush it with your own business.

[Adam Fullerton]

Fullerton Unfiltered Podcast thanks for listening and

[Podcast Outro Voice]

we hope to see you on the next episode.

[Sponsor/Advertisement Voice]

This has been a Brian Fullerton and Mr. Producer Production.