Pulling Back the Curtain on Kaizen Solutions: How to Unlock Yourself to Unlock Your Business

The 10-Minute Habit That Builds Unbreakable Discipline

Most people think they're failing because they're weak. They're not. They just don't understand how willpower actually works. In this episode of Freedom by Design, Josh and Paula break down willpower as a mental muscle — one that's exhausted in the short term but built stronger over time. They unpack why "starting Monday" sets you up to fail, why one slip-up doesn't have to blow your whole week, and why the real enemy of taking action isn't willpower at all — it's fear. You'll learn why your mornings hold your best decision-making fuel, how controlling your environment beats relying on discipline, and why most of us reward ourselves with the very things that hold us back. From the candle-staring exercise that builds focus to the truth about making your bed, this conversation reframes how you think about discipline, habits, and the small daily wins that compound into a life by design. If you've ever felt like you "just don't have enough willpower," this one will change how you see the whole game. Key Takeaways 1. Willpower is a muscle — exhausted daily, strengthened over time.You get one tank per day. Sleep refills it. That's why your morning, when reserves are full, is your best shot at doing what you said you'd do. Leave a new habit until after supper and you'll fail. 2. Don't direct willpower at the result — leverage it.You can force yourself to do almost anything once or twice, then it's gone. The skill is using willpower to control your thoughts and your environment, not to muscle through the same decision over and over. 3. "Starting Monday" comes from a broken view of time.There's only one moment. You don't get a fresh week or a fresh year — you get the next decision. Slip up on the milkshake? The day isn't blown. Just make the next choice the best one you can. 4. If you want to quit — quit tomorrow.Don't take quitting off the table. Just keep putting it off one more day. Same goal, completely different mental frame. 5. Taking the first step isn't a willpower problem — it's fear.Targeting willpower when you're afraid to start is aiming at the wrong thing. Fear is doubt that it'll go wrong. The fix: use willpower to focus on what could go right. Faith over fear. 6. Build the muscle with something almost stupidly small.Stare at a candle (or a dot on the wall) for 10 minutes a day. It won't feel like work, and that's the point. Willpower is just your ability to focus your attention — meditation trains exactly that. 7. Control your environment so you don't have to spend willpower at all.Getting sugar out of the house cut intake ~97% with zero willpower used. Same with a minimal wardrobe and planning tomorrow the night before — every decision you remove leaves more fuel for the ones that matter. 8. Stop rewarding yourself with things that hurt you.We celebrate with sugar and booze and "punish" with vegetables and chores. That wiring is backwards. Reward yourself with what's actually good for you. 9. Make your bed — but know why.It's not about a crisp bed. It's about banking an early win and keeping your word to yourself. No bed to make? Do 100 jumping jacks. Find the win somewhere. 10. Don't load 400 pounds on day one.Most people try to "go big" on willpower and get crushed. Start small. Commit to one thing you know you can do every day, and let it compound.

Jump Off the Cliff and Learn How to Fly — with Crockett Crothers, The Wealthy Cowboy

Crockett Crothers, host of The Wealthy Cowboy, joins Josh for the very first guest episode of Freedom by Design. From day-working cowboy to building one of the most recognizable brands in Western entrepreneurship, Crockett pulls back the curtain on how it actually happened — the mindset shifts, the rejection, the rewiring of his beliefs around money, and the moment the pain of staying the same became greater than the fear of the unknown. This is a grounded, no-fluff conversation about wealth, faith, family, freedom, and what it really takes to step out of your comfort zone and build a life on your own terms. Key Takeaways 1. Commit to the date, then figure it out.Crockett didn't wait for the logo, the studio, or the perfect setup. He picked a launch date, jumped off the cliff, and grew wings on the way down. Most people stay stuck because they keep climbing back down the cliff instead of jumping. 2. Information is cheap — execution and accountability are the bottleneck.You're not stuck because you don't know enough. You're stuck because no one is holding you accountable to take the next step. Coaching isn't about new information; it's about pressure, structure, and forward motion. 3. Wealth ≠ a dollar amount. It's an abundance of assets.Faith, family, freedom, time, relationships, health, and money — all of it. You don't have to sacrifice one to build the other. You can have both. 4. Your beliefs about money will either attract it or repel it.If somewhere deep down you believe money is bad or that wealthy people are bad, no amount of hustle will fix it. The paradigm has to shift before the bank account does. 5. The fastest way to make more money is to solve bigger problems for more people.Stop chasing the money. Chase the value. The money is the byproduct. 6. Rock bottom isn't required, but pain is.You won't move until the pain of staying the same is greater than the pain of the unknown. The sooner you create that pressure on yourself, the sooner you move. 7. There's almost no real risk in betting on yourself.If you try and it doesn't work, you're back where you started. If it works, it changes your life. That's not risk — that's asymmetric upside. 8. Successful people aren't that special. They just stayed hooked longer.The biggest mindset unlock from being around high performers is realizing they're regular people who didn't quit. That's it. That's the difference. 9. It sucks for everybody.There is no shortcut around the sucky period. Broke, scared, doubting, wanting to quit — that's the price of admission. Different flavor for everyone, but no one skips it. 10. Get rewarded for discomfort once, and you start chasing it.Comfort zones aren't broken — they're expanded. Each rep makes the next leap easier, until you're actively looking for the next uncomfortable thing because you know that's where the growth lives. 11. Regret lives in what you didn't do.Almost no one looks back and regrets the chances they took. They regret the conversations, investments, and leaps they avoided. Live in a way that makes for a good story. 12. Freedom is the prize.Not money. Not status. Freedom to choose your day, your people, your purpose. Build the business and the life that protects that — don't sacrifice it in the chase.

Pulling Back the Curtain on Kaizen Solutions: How to Unlock Yourself to Unlock Your Business

A lot of people in our world have told us they love what we're doing — they just don't really know what it is. Fair enough. So in this episode, Paula and I pull back the curtain on Kaizen Solutions, the 100X Breakthrough program, and EmpowerHer. This isn't a sales pitch. It's a clarity episode. We get into how all of this was born out of the farm, what the "entrepreneurial trap" actually is, and why I originally thought I could package up our business systems like a pill people could just swallow — and why that doesn't work. The real unlock isn't strategy. It's mindset. It's identity. It's understanding how you actually work so you can stop fighting yourself and start producing the results you want. We talk about what an "unconscious competent" is, why your outside world is just a mirror of your inside world, why information alone never changes anyone's life, and how the 100X Breakthrough program is built to actually move people — not just inspire them for a weekend. You'll also hear about Paula's EmpowerHer community for women and mothers, how the mastermind side works, why we run it virtually (for now), and who this is — and isn't — the right fit for. If you've been doing all the right things and still feel stuck, this one is for you. Key Takeaways 1. The entrepreneurial trap is real. You build something great, it grows past your capacity, you're suddenly running a team you weren't trained to lead, and people depend on you — so you can't step out. The way out isn't more grinding. It's becoming the kind of operator your business can run without. 2. Strategy alone is a d You can hand someone every system, SOP, and framework in the world. If their thinking doesn't change, the results won't either. Mindset is the foundation underneath every system. 3. Most high performers are "unconscious competents." They get results without knowing how. That works — until it doesn't. Once you understand how your mind actually works, you stop being controlled by it and start using it on purpose. 4. Your outside world reflects your inside world. The state of your business, your team, your relationships, even your truck — they all mirror what's happening inside you. Want to unlock the business? Unlock yourself. 5. Knowledge without internal change produces nothing. You can listen to every podcast, read every book, attend every seminar — and stay exactly where you are if your self-image doesn't shift. 6. You don't need a new you. You need version 1.1. The work isn't about becoming someone else. It's about becoming the next version of who you already are — the one capable of the next level of life and business. 7. Real change runs about 66 days deep. The 100X Breakthrough is built around installing new thinking through consistent, structured work — not motivation that fades by Wednesday. 8. The breakthrough is usually outside your industry. If a cow-calf producer only consults other cow-calf producers, they'll keep recycling the same answers. The real solution often comes from someone outside your paradigm, asking why you do what you do. 9. Consistency beats intensity. An 80% effort done weekly beats 105% three times a year. That's why we run this virtually — 10. EmpowerHer fills a real gap. Paula built it for women and mothers who are trying to reclaim identity, ambition, and a worthy ideal of their own — without guilt, and without losing themselves in the process. 11. The work is yours. The path is ours. Our commitment is to get you the results you want. Doing the work is on you. That's the deal — and it's why it works.

The 10th Rep: Why Failure Is the Only Thing That Builds You

Perfectionism is keeping you stuck. Most people quit at rep 9 and call it a workout — but it's the 10th rep, the one you can't finish, that actually builds the muscle. In this episode, Josh and Paula break down why high achievers, type-A operators, and growth-minded business owners get paralyzed waiting for "perfect" — and the mindset shift that gets you moving again. We talk about the Gap and the Gain, why failure is feedback, what baseball teaches us about resilience, and the truth most people miss: you are already undefeated. If you've ever held back on a goal, an offer, a podcast, a launch, or a hard conversation because it "wasn't ready yet" — this one's for you.Key Takeaways 1. Perfect doesn't exist where you live. It's a moving horizon. The closer you get, the further it moves. Stop pretending it's a finish line. 2. Perfectionism is a stall tactic in disguise. It looks like high standards. It's often fear wearing a nice outfit. 3. Failure is feedback — not identity. It tells you what you don't know yet, not who you are. 4. The 10th Rep Principle: Reps 1–9 maintain. Rep 10 — the one that breaks form, the one that fails — is the one that builds you. Seek that rep in business, in fitness, in conversations, in offers. 5. Look at the Gain, not just the Gap. Always measuring forward = burnout and discouragement. Measuring backward from where you started = fuel. 6. Hall of Famers fail 70% of the time. If your personal standard is 100%, you're not chasing greatness — you're avoiding the game. 7. MVP beats perfect. Get it out. Get feedback. Iterate. The market teaches you faster than your own head ever will. 8. Reframe the moment: "That's good." Or at minimum, "That's interesting." Your interpretation of the event determines whether it builds you or buries you. 9. You're undefeated. Every setback you've survived is data — not damage. You've won every battle that's tried to take you out so far. Act like it. 10. Your kids won't do what you say. They'll do what you do. Modeling imperfect action is one of the most powerful gifts you can give your family.

Stop Apologizing for the Life You Want - How to Silence the Guilt and Start Living on Your Own Terms

The guilt you carry isn't even yours — it comes from expectations you never set. In this episode, we break down why guilt is really just a gap between your performance and someone else's standards, how tying your identity to one role keeps you stuck, and why comparison only makes it worse. The fix is simpler than you think: get clear on what you want, take one step toward it every day, and stop measuring yourself against everyone else's highlight reel.Key Takeaways: * Guilt comes from not meeting expectations you didn't set — most of it isn't even yours * Without a clear goal, everything pulls at you, and guilt fills the gap * When your identity is tied to one role, you lose yourself — and set your kids up to carry your baggage * Life moves in acts — at some point, you have to consciously choose what's next instead of gripping tighter * Lack of focus is the real problem — scattered effort leads to scattered guilt * Comparison to someone's highlight reel only makes it worse * Gratitude is the reset, but you have to feel it, not just list it * The fix: pick a goal, take one step daily, measure against where you started, repeat * Stop worrying about everyone else — you can't control them * It's super simple. People just overcomplicate it.