Creating a Miracle Morning Every Morning with Josh Greco

35. Creating a Miracle Morning Every Morning with Josh Greco

“My success has compounded because the things that are most important to me are reinforced every morning.”

—Josh Greco

Podcast Transcription

Hello. I’m Michael Kurland, CEO and Co-Founder of Branded Group, an award-winning facility maintenance and construction management company. Welcome to the #BeBetter Podcast. To me, our company’s mantra to “Be Better” is more than a tagline; it’s a culture that permeates our organization, propelling our team to Be Better to each other, our customers and our communities as well as to ourselves. Each week on the #BeBetter podcast, I interview leaders who authentically exemplify how they are being better in their professional and personal lives.

Today’s podcast is dedicated to the #BeBetter team at Branded Group. For more than six years, this amazing group of industry professionals has worked together to transform a small business into an award-winning organization that has been certified as a Great Place to Work™ and been listed on the Inc. 5000 for four consecutive years. Learn more about Branded Group and our maintenance and construction management services at branded-group.com.

Michael Kurland (00:01):

Welcome to another episode of the #BeBetter podcast. I’m your host, Michael Kurland. Joining us today is Josh Greco, a business coach at ProAdvisor Coach. Josh, welcome to the show. Why don’t you tell the audience a little but more about who you are and what you do?

Josh Greco (00:22):

Michael, I am so excited to be here. Thank you for having me. Let’s have some fun today.

Michael Kurland (00:25):

Yes, sir.

Josh Greco (00:26):

I am a business coach. I’ve been doing it for a couple of years. I feel like it’s a calling for me. I had a conversation with a couple of coaches before I even knew that coaching was a practice; that people could do it and sustain themselves in a career. What intrigues me the most about it is that it’s all about creating success or creating a space for people to talk about success and all that they want to achieve in their lives. I think that so much of conversations and our actions are just played on the surface every day. When we get to have these really in-depth conversations about what we truly want, we realize that sometimes it’s our own self-limiting beliefs that’s preventing us from achieving. What we actually want in our lives. Being able to have those discussions, to elevate people, to create a space for where it’s okay to have these discussions about really identifying what would be great to have, and then helping them to basically just hold up the mirror. This is what I’m hearing you say? Is this true? Is this who you want to be? This belief system may be preventing you from achieving what you’re actually wanting to achieve here. How can we go about that a little bit better?

I got into coaching after 10 years of business development experience. I think my sales experience has prepared me for this. So much of success, entrepreneurship, or business ownership has a level of sales involved. You’ve got to be able to grow your business, so that’s prepared me. I feel like I’ve been coaching for a decade myself but, technically on the resume, it’s only for a couple of years. I am absolutely loving it. I very much enjoy it.

Michael Kurland (01:57):

Great. I’m excited to have you here and talk about some gratitude and life coaching. You got your start in the same industry that Branded Group is in. You were telling me you were working for a competitor of Branded Group’s and you were doing some business development for them. Is that correct?

Josh Greco (02:18):

That is correct. Yes.

Michael Kurland (02:19):

You didn’t particularly like the facilities management world long-term, right? You left working for the competitor for Branded Group and you went to go start the business coaching profession. As we talked in the show notes, gratitude is something that is synonymous with business coaching. What have you found synonymous with that? Why don’t you talk a little bit about that?

Josh Greco (03:46):

I think this is may be apropos to our times right now, with what we’ve gone through in the past year. There’s been so much suffering, so much negativity, and so much limit to what we can do. What’s the opposite of that? That’s a coaching principle. When you get what you don’t want, it really helps to define what you do want. What did you not have? You didn’t have freedom. You didn’t have choice. You didn’t have ability to go out and do what you wanted. What did you have? You had things that you’ve taken for granted for probably years. What were those things? It’s just getting back to the simple things that we’re thankful for. I have my health. If now more than ever, I’m thankful for my health. I’m thankful for the choices that I do have. I don’t have choice to go out and not wear a mask or to go to facilities that are closed. I couldn’t play sports for a while, but I did have choice with starting a workout program in my house or connecting with people more virtually, reaching out to friends, making sure they’re okay. It got me back to a base level of what I did have, what was important to me, and just showing gratitude for that. I’m just thankful for very simple things that I’ve taken for granted for years.

Michael Kurland (04:56):

I think that’s something that we’ve had brought up time and time again on this season is thankful for the little things. A year ago, if you were going to go have dinner with a friend at the local Applebee’s, you probably would have been like, “Alright. I’m going to go have dinner with Steve, and I’ll be home by six. Love you,” and come home by six. Now, it’s, “I’m going Applebee’s! It’s open and I’m going to go see Steve!” Everyone’s so excited for the stuff we took for granted. You make a really good point about that. We talked in the show notes about your personal daily gratitude practice, and I think this is really important for the audience to hear. Let’s share that right now. Tell me about your miracle morning and what that entails.

Josh Greco (05:45):

Gratitude is a big part of my miracle morning. Miracle morning comes from a podcast that I listen to. I’ll give shout out to a guy named Hal Elrod, who had this concept. This is a principle that a lot of successful people know about and embody themselves. Get up super early. Do the things that are most important in your life the first thing in your day. Obviously, that comes with a commitment of going to bed a little bit early, and the discipline that comes along with that. I get up very early at 4 a.m. By 7 a.m., I will have done yoga, workout every other day, recite gratitudes, affirmations. I write, and I also read. I read 10 pages of a book. Think of everything that I get done before most of the world has even gotten up. I had this concern when I first started that I’d be low energy. I’d be burnt out by the time 5 p.m. hits. What I found was it actually lifted me up throughout the rest of my day. It gave me more energy because, first of all, I didn’t feel like I had to get to anything. I didn’t feel like I was sacrificing anything at my work or with other activities because I’d rather be doing other things. I’ve already done them in my day. It’s this commitment to getting up early, consistently every single day, and accomplishing these things. My success has just compounded because the things that are most important to me are reinforced every day, first thing.

Michael Kurland (07:07):

I think that these are all great points, and I really like the idea. I think there’s another thing out there called the ‘5 a.m. Club,’ and I think it has similar principles, right? Where you get up early and you take care of the stuff that’s most important to you. I am a huge proponent of that as well. I am not up at 4 a.m. I’m a 5:45 a.m. guy every morning. It’s actually 5:50 a.m. I get my workout in, and I get my meditation in. I’m able to then, like you said, focus. The first day or two that you do it, you’re probably a little tired because you’re just changing your sleep schedule. I think there’s something to be said about that no matter what you do. Once you are going to bed a little earlier and you’re able to get up at the same time every morning, and you get those things done. I totally agree with you. Audience, I think it’s something, if you are a morning person, you should certainly look into. Getting those things done. Because you make even a better point that later on in the day, you’re looking to go to the gym or you’re looking to go do these other things, and you’re rushing around. You’re not focused on your job. Now you can take that time, and you can really focus on being the business coach. You’re going to grow exponentially, like you said. I’m a hundred percent for all that stuff. That’s great. Talk a little bit about these daily affirmations though and this journaling. When did you start doing that and what do you do with these daily affirmations? Do you have anything specifically you recite or does it change on a daily basis?

Josh Greco (08:40):

It’s consistent and I’m constantly tweaking it or adding or subtracting things here and there. I like to write. I would say officially journaling for about seven years. It’s really cool to go back and look at what I was writing seven years ago. I found that it just clears the space for other things to pop in my mind. It’s kind of like meditation. Meditation gives you the ability and the time to just scan over things throughout your day. Let your mind catch up. Get your mental inbox to zero. As far as the affirmations part is concerned, this is something that I learned long before coaching, maybe the first time I watched a documentary called The Secret that our subconscious mind is like a program. It’s programmable. What do these affirmations do? I say things every single day to myself. I am strong. I am powerful. I am so lucky. I am so blessed. Today is the best day of my life. Something extraordinary is going to happen to me today. Saying these things every single day and programming my subconscious mind to believe these things, I start to embody what it feels like for these things to be true. I hate the “fake it until you make it” type of deal, but it’s kind of like what it is. Your body and your physical brain have to follow your subconscious mind. If you’ve been programming these things every single day, you have to follow.

Michael Kurland (10:05):

I totally agree with you. I don’t think it’s a fake it until you make it. I think a lot of people get hung up in outside thought. If I am telling myself these affirmations, but they probably are the same people that have never tried it. They’re also probably the same people that have grown up with limiting thoughts, which you, you made mention of earlier in what you do in your business, if you’re having these limiting thoughts. I’ll just talk about me. When I went to start Branded Group, my mom said, “Don’t do that. It’s not safe. You’re going to have problems. What if you go bankrupt? What if you lose all your money? What if you move to California and a bear eats you and you get caught in an earthquake?” Literally, this was my mom’s freak out session before I opened this business because I didn’t have a steady job. She had these limiting thoughts around entrepreneurship and starting your own company. If I had bought into those limiting thoughts, I would have never started this company. We wouldn’t be here talking today. I think to take that to the next step further is the affirmations. When I first moved out here, I was just getting into meditation. I did the same thing. I sat down, and I started giving affirmations when I would do my meditation. I would tell myself I’m awesome and I’m worthy of success because you get worried that why do you deserve this? Why do you deserve to be successful? I would have to tell myself this over and over and then you believe it. Once you start believing it, this whole new window open. Audience, I think it’s very important to share with you that there’s nothing wrong with some affirmations every day. You don’t have to share them with anybody else, but it’s your time. Nobody needs to know about what you say or how you do it. If you’re going to do a positive affirmation, just start and stick with it every day. I think the same thing over and over, like you said, Josh. It makes the most sense because you are actually reprogramming your brain. Great information.

We talked a little bit about how you’ve seen the gratitude from your perspective, but in your profession, how does it fit? How does it fit with your clients? Talk about that a little bit.

Josh Greco (12:33):

I talk a lot about being in a resourceful state of mind. I want you to think about resourcefulness. Usually, I get a gauge of where their mind is. A scale of one to ten one. One is I can’t do anything. I’m lying on the floor. I’m curled up into a fetal position. Ten is no matter what comes across my desk, I’m going to solve the problem, even if it’s crisis mode. I like to get a gauge at first of where these people are. If they show up to a coaching call and are not in a good state of mind, we got to do the little mini reprogramming. Let’s get back to basics. Of course, there’s negative things every everywhere around us. What do we want to focus on? Let’s focus on something good. What’s something we can be thankful for? That’s what I start every coaching call off with. What’s going really well right now? What I’ve found to have happened is the first couple I get this: “Let me think about that.” It takes a couple of seconds. I ask this for four coaching calls in a row. They show up to the fifth one and say, “I’m thankful for the weather today.” They have it ready for me. It could be something as simple as that, or I made a sale today. It has nothing to do with the sale because they may have made a sale the first time that they couldn’t even come up with it, but they’re more focused on these good things. We get more of what we focus on. Another coaching principle.

Michael Kurland (13:48):

Nice. Let’s do that little test right now. What are you thankful for today?

Josh Greco (13:52):

Let me think about this. That’s a great question. I’m thankful that I get to do what I love every day. I write that down in my gratitudes every morning. You see how easily that popped up to me is because my brain has been programmed to think that, but I also embody what it’s like to do that. I love it. I love showing up to coaching calls, making a difference in people’s lives. I get to do what I love every day, and I get to do it in a virtual setting, which is COVID proof. I’m thankful for that as well.

Michael Kurland (14:22):

That’s great. I’m going to assume that COVID hasn’t affected your business too much or has it better or worse? What have you seen out there?

Josh Greco 14:34):

I’d say, if anything, it’s been better. I remember when COVID first started to happen, a lot of the value I was providing for people is teaching them how to use virtual tools. I used Zoom even before it started happening. Value comes in many different forms, so that was the first form of value that people needed in their business. Now, beyond that, it was the doers that really benefited or found a way to benefit from all that was going on. How can you pivot? How can you make changes in your business? There’s still value for people. People still need to buy things, groceries, whatever it was. How can you pivot your business to be more accessible in this virtual environment? The ones who sat back got crushed, just waiting for that stimulus check. Maybe it came at some point. The ones who took the action and made the changes are the ones who really reap the biggest rewards.

Michael Kurland (15:28):

I spoke with someone earlier while recording another podcast earlier today, and that was the same thing that came up. We were talking about how in California, they just reopened indoor dining, or at least in Southern California where I’m from. They just reopened indoor dining. It’s been a nightmare. The food’s coming out wrong. The waiters are going to the wrong table. The reason is because they can’t get the place staffed up again because the waiters are staying home because the unemployment is more than what they were making on a regular basis. They’d rather just stay home and not work then go back. I’m not saying all waiters. There’s just a shortage of waiters in Southern California now. I’m sure they’ll right side it in the next month or two. They’re just figuring out reopening, which I’m sure everyone’s going to have that across the board. Crazy stuff. Let’s talk about mind scan. Let’s get into what you do, Josh, more on a daily basis. Talk to me about MindScan.

Josh Greco (16:43):

MindScan is an assessment that I use in my coaching practice. ProAdvisor Coach actually owns the right to this assessment. I believe you can find it and take it online, but it costs $500.00 to take. We usually offer it to people for free who are thinking about coaching or want to become aware. That’s the segue. It’s an awareness tool to understand the things that we value in our thinking. A little bit of background. I need to give a little context here. Dr. Robert Hartman is the person who created it. He grew up in the time of Nazi Germany. He saw some real atrocities in the world and just wanted to be able to improve thinking. He moved to the States. He fled when Hitler came to power. Got his doctorate in what’s called formal axiology, which is the study of what is good or the study of value systems. All throughout our lives, we’re making decisions in everything that we do. He wanted to be able to find a way to measure it. In all of his studies, what he came up with is that much like there are three primary colors that all other color is derived from, the same can be true of our thinking.  What he categorized our thinking into is what he called relater-doer-thinker. Think of that of people, actions, and process. In business, there’s nothing else. You can’t categorize any useful activity into anything else, but people, actions, process. People. Business is about people. Think about sales or growing. Even if it’s a virtual business. It’s about satisfying or solving a problem for somebody or making their lives more convenient. People pay for that, and that’s the value. Action. You’ve got to be able to innovate. You have to be able to solve problems, and then structure. If you grow, you’ve got to be able to scale the business. You’ve got to be able to make sure your employees know what’s expected of them. What are their roles? What are their duties? What is everybody trying to accomplish? In this people, actions, process, this assessment is such that it takes maybe 10 minutes to complete. You find what your biases are, meaning what do you lead with in your thinking? Are you a business owner? You probably lead with one of the three. We look for certain patterns in different positions. For a salesperson, we want action oriented. We want that doer off the charts high. We actually want them low on the structure. We want them breaking rules. Think of like operations department. We need clients like this, this and this, and the sales rep brings in something else. That’s how the business grows, right? You need people going into the woods and hunting and coming out with an animal. The relater-doer-thinker is segmented into the internal and external world. Think of a two by three matrix. There’s six categories. There’s intuitive information on what this means about what you’re thinking in your conscious and subconscious thoughts and how you can leverage that information to become aware when you default to these things and how you can become better.

Michael Kurland (19:34):

Interesting stuff. You basically just described Branded Group’s hierarchy. I am the sales guy that is not process-oriented and breaks a lot of rules. Jon Thomas is the operations guy that there’s a system for everything and stop bringing in these clients that don’t fit the system. That definitely made me laugh. I like the people-doer-thinker. I like the MindScan. I like everything that we just talked about right now. What happens then? Don’t give away your secret sauce. I’m assuming you do the MindScan with a client and then you just start working from there? What’s the next quick steps there?

Josh Greco (20:23):

I kind of alluded to this earlier by saying, it creates a space to have these conversations. I think people get really curious about their profile and what it means about them. It’s not a personality assessment. There’s other great personality assessments on the market, but this is about what you’re valuing and your thinking. I think that’s so important in achievement and what you want to go after. We find somebody, for example, that’s maybe high in people. Just off the charts. People first. Huge strength, right? There’s some risks involved with that. Are you trusting too many people? Do you shy away from those tough conversations? Do you hate your job when you have to fire somebody? It opens the space for these conversations. “That is me.” What does that mean? How can I use that? We have these conversations. The lens through which you see the world is because of what you’ve been through in your past. I’m not a psychologist. I’m not a doctor or anything like that, but we talk about some serious things that come up along the way that influence the way we see the world and then just be reflective on what that means. How we can use it moving forward to achieve all that we want to achieve.

Michael Kurland (21:31):

It’s funny you mentioned that because the first couple of years I was wearing many hats. I still recall, and the people that are still with me recall, the first time we had to fire someone. I had to do it. If you want to talk about the most botched firing on the face of the earth, that’s what happened. I was meditating on my floor getting ready to fire because it’s not my thing. The accounting guy may have cut her final check over. They sent her a message saying, “You just got paid,” and it was like all of her vacation time. She said, “Why would this happen?” Long story short, it was embarrassing, but those are the growing pains in the stories that we can laugh about seven years later. Let’s talk about this. You are real happy where you are, and you’ve been great to talk to. Tell me, what’s your favorite part about coaching? Why do you love this so much?

Josh Greco (22:36):

There’s so many things to choose from. I’m going to say something that might come off selfish, but it’s my own self development. In order for me to be more for people and to have to constantly show up to Zoom calls, meet people where they are, understand where they’re coming from, I’ll do 10 to 12 Zooms in a day sometimes. Back-to-back-to-back. Five and six in a row. I have to be in a state of mind that is my peak. How do I do that? I’m surrounded by other coaches at this company that we help lift each other up. The culture is such that we help each other in our successes. If I ever feel like I’m not in that peak state or what I mentioned earlier, that resourceful state, I seek out some guidance and it goes both ways. It’s this level of humility to recognize, “Hey, I’m not where I need to be. I’d like to be more. Let’s talk about how we can do that.” It just becomes, ‘what else can I incorporate into my daily routine?’ or how can I learn from negative situations that I’m experiencing to become more? It’s this ever progressing, rewarding thing because the more that I take care of myself, the more I can take care of my clients. The more I take care of my clients, the more they take care of me. The better I get, too, in my practice. It’s this beautiful cycle that I’m addicted to.

Michael Kurland (23:53):

The one thing that stands out to me that you just said is twelve Zoom calls a day. How do you do it? The Zoom burnout is real, for me at least. I was doing it when we first started so often. I know that it’s your life bread, but does it ever get exhausting to be on the Zoom all day long?

Josh Greco (24:19):

I’m being perfectly honest. I’m not sure what day or what time of the day this will be released, but it’s five o’clock here on the east coast. This is my ninth Zoom call today. Do I seem like I’m out of energy? I’m certainly not faking it. I enjoy these conversations. I get to have conversations every day about the things I like talking about. It gives me energy. I actually find I have to wind down a little bit before I go cook dinner or something. I have to get away from the computer. I never thought that would be the case, but I think that’s something I’ve hacked into. Now that I know that’s possible for me, I want to help other people do that, too. Not that I would encourage having nine or ten Zoom calls a day. If that’s your business and you get joy out of it, and you’re having conversations about the things you love talking about, do more of that. Figure out a way to make that your life.

Michael Kurland (25:09):

Great. I love it. I love everything you’re saying. You’re so upbeat. You are making me want to sign up for ProAdvisor coaching right now. We’ve talked about a lot of stuff about COVID and gratitude and coaching. You are certainly an expert on business coaching. I like to ask all of my guests the same question: What’s a tip that you have for anyone out there that’s looking to get into business coaching or as a business coach, what’s a tip for the audience that, as an expert, you’d like to share?

Josh Greco (25:48):

Somebody considering getting into business coaching or somebody in business coaching, how do they become better?

Michael Kurland 25:54):

Sure. Let’s go with that tip.

Josh Greco (25:57):

Was that the question? I was just reframing it.

Michael Kurland (25:59):

What is a tip that you have as being an expert business coach? What is the tip that you have for the audience, either if they want to get into business coaching, or if they are starting their own business and you want to give them some advice?

Josh Greco (26:13):

I’ve got a great answer because this is what I embodied and had to learn myself. Figure out what it is that you truly want. I think you touched upon this when you talked about your story of moving to California. I think a lot of people, and people that we love can doubt us. Not doubt us, but they’re trying to protect us. “You’re doing that? Why would you do that? Have you thought about that? What could go wrong?” I think when staying true to ourselves, we’ve already made up our mind. We already know what we want. Are we going to let other people influence that decision for us? If business coaching is something that you’ve been thinking about, talk to a few coaches. If it feels right to you, you’ll know. Stay true to yourself, even when your loved one, even when people you really care about might influence you in the other way. I would say that’s maybe even more of a sign that you should do it.

Michael Kurland (27:08):

I think that that was the perfect answer right there. You were right. That’s exactly how I felt when I told my mom I was moving out here and starting my own business. I think it was her fears that she was projecting on me. Some people can get caught up in that because you’re supposed to trust your mom and believe she knows better.

Josh Greco (27:29):

What does she think of it now? What does she say to you now?

Michael Kurland (27:32):

My mom is very proud of me. She thinks that the business is great. When I first moved down here, I opened the business, and I had a 67 Mustang. I sold my car. I said,” I’m moving to California, and I’m going to drive my Mustang every day.” She said, “It’s not a reliable car. What are you going to do?” Unfortunately, on that one, she was right. It broke down a bunch of times. She’s always got something that she’s worried about because she’s mom. She said, “That house doesn’t have enough square footage. The yard is not big enough. You’re too close to the ocean.” All these “mom” things, but she’s very happy and proud and glad that I started Branded Group seven years ago and took the leap of faith. She’s been with me all throughout the ups and downs. Thanks for asking. Josh, it’s been great talking to you. I really appreciate having you on the show. If the audience wants to get ahold of you, how can they do so?

Josh Greco (28:35):

I’d say email or text message is the best way to reach me. Email is joshua@proadvisorcoach.com. The phone number is (716) 523-9742. If anybody is intrigued by the MindScan, I’m absolutely open to engaging anybody with that. Anybody who’s curious about self-development or achieving all that they want in their lives. Who am I to stop them from exploring that? If I can help in any way, I would absolutely welcome that opportunity.

Michael Kurland (29:08):

Josh, thank you so much for being on the show. Audience, until next time.

I’d like to take a minute to thank you, our valued listeners. My intention is for this podcast to inspire you, in some way to be better. Change starts from within and radiates outward. Therefore, start with being better to yourself and only then will you recognize how to be better others and your community. To learn more Branded Group’s “Be Better” experience and how we provide industry-leading on-demand facility maintenance, construction management, and special project implementation, visit us at www.branded-group.com. Be sure to follow us on social media and you can also reach out to me directly on LinkedIn. Until next time, Be Better.