Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode
of Vision Pros Live. I'm your host and coach,
Fletcher Ellingson. So glad you're here. I'm
so glad you're in this conversation because in
these conversations, we're unpacking inspiration,
we're unpacking motivation, we're unpacking vision.
And that's all the stuff we need to deliver on
what it is we're trying to accomplish in our
lives, right? We're up to big things. And so
today I wanna introduce you to Chuck. And Chuck
is an author and a multi -time entrepreneur,
but he has recently published his book, Ego Strength.
We're talking today about what that is and how
it's going to enrich your life. So welcome to
the show, Chuck. Thank you. Thanks for having
me. Yeah, you bet. And tell us again where you're
calling from. Kansas City, Missouri. Kansas City,
Missouri. All right. Excellent. Hey, before we
start off and dive into what it is we're going
to talk about, I always like to start off with
a win, something that's going well professionally
and or personally. Actually, I love the personal
wins because they're very relatable. But what's
going well in your life? We want to remind people
that amidst all the uncertainty and suffering,
that there is still good occurring in the world
and that we can be cause. in the matter of that
good so lay it on us what's going well for you
yeah what's going well for me is parenting actually
these four kids behind me i coach uh three little
league baseball teams so i get to spend a lot
of time with with my boys and uh last night i
had a big win with my daughter i took her we
got manicures and pedicures and well she got
manicures and pedicures i just got the pedicure
and uh And we got to eat dinner together. And
it's just a joy. So, you know, the kids are always
a win for me in getting to spend time and being
intentional about being a good father and role
model for them. Right on. I really appreciate
that. And the key word, intentional. You know,
parenting is, it takes intention. I mean, you
don't have to be. You can fly by the seat of
your pants. things might go okay they may not
but when we get intentional about anything when
we bring when we concentrate you know and that
that concept of concentrating i love this concept
of concentrating because we all know we've all
said that well hey you just need to concentrate
but what does it actually mean what are you concentrating
when we tell somebody to concentrate i'm asking
our listeners here when someone tells you to
concentrate or you tell someone to concentrate
What are you actually telling them to do? What
are you expecting them to do? What does it mean
to concentrate, right? Because to concentrate
means to distill down, right? What it means is
we're getting rid of distraction. What we're
doing is we're calling forth consciousness. We're
bringing all of our senses to this pinpoint like
a magnifying glass in the sun. Right. We're becoming
hyper aware of this. Very focused. So I love
that. I love that you said this. Yeah. I brought
intentionality to my to my parenting. I brought
intentionality to my date with my daughter. So
cool. I expect because of your level of success,
you've had to concentrate and bring a lot of
deliberate intentionality to your life. Is that
accurate? That is accurate. Yeah. Yeah. So just
before we get into it, just tell us a few of
the businesses that you have going on because
you've got a lot of stuff going on. Yeah, absolutely.
So, you know, I've got a commercial real estate
brokerage and development company. And that was
what I started doing right out of college. I've
been doing that since 2004. I didn't always have
my own firm, but I started that in about 2016.
I've got a hospice company, a home health company.
Family Social Club. I run a vertically integrated
cannabis company. That's my day -to -day operation
now. So I'm the CEO of Elevate and Key Cannabis.
And we're in three states. We're in Arizona,
Illinois, and Missouri. Vertical operators. We've
got the cultivation, the manufacturing, and retail.
And we currently operate 17 retail in the three
states. And we've got five cultivation facilities
in three states. And then due to our expansion,
into these other various businesses uh managing
the employees hr uh you know onboarding off boarding
benefits etc became quite a pain point and was
was taking quite a bit of time so then we started
a professional employers organization so we've
got opus company as well as a company that i
own and operate well i don't operate it but i
i own and and manage from afar so those are the
companies that i'm currently looking after right
now Okay, so you got a little bit on your plate,
right? Yeah. To say the least. And this is great.
I'm glad you shared all that because a lot of
us are practiced at saying, I don't have enough
time. So somebody listening to you rattle off
all these businesses that you're involved with,
they might be wondering, how does a guy have
enough time? Yeah. Because I don't have enough
time. How does Chuck have enough time? Right.
We have this many of us have this limiting belief
about we don't have enough time. But that's not
actually accurate. Chuck, give us give us give
us the what is it that's allowed you to find
and create the time needed to run multiple businesses?
Yes, you said something right there, that word
limiting. So that could be the mindset. That
could be that belief, that limiting mindset.
I've always had that growth mindset where it's
the abundance. You know, that's actually Opus
Commercial Real Estate, Opus Company. That is
the short Latin plural form of opulence. So you
come in abundance, use your resources, gain wealth.
So I've always tried to come from a position
of abundance. And I don't waste time doing. non
-productive activities. You know, I don't have
social media. I don't really watch TV. I don't
do these things that people, that a lot of people
do that take time away from things that could
be producing positive benefits, whether it be,
you know, to the kids with the sports, whether
it be to the companies with the growth, whether
it be to, you know, philanthropic benefits, you
know, with a charitable foundation. So I always
try to come from a position of value and utilize
the same 24 hours that we all have in a day to
be intentional about it and to put it forth to
income producing activities or relationship producing
activities whether it be personally or professionally
yeah really really cool um so my takeaway from
that and i always like to kind of highlight what
our guests say because i really want our viewers
to to to get these nuggets look There's nothing
wrong with watching TV. Chuck's not saying don't
watch TV. What he's saying is that he doesn't
watch a lot of TV. What he's saying is that he
is very deliberate with his time. And this is
a practice. You didn't accidentally create all
these businesses. We don't accidentally do anything.
We're practiced at how we manage our time. Right.
So if you and so I invite our listeners to really
hear this. Chuck didn't this. Chuck's success
and his his ability to run multiple companies
isn't accidental. He's practiced at it. It took
practice and he probably made a lot of mistakes
along the way. Did you make some mistakes along
the way? Absolutely. Still make them today. All
right. Yeah. Right. But you're practiced at managing
your time. You're practiced at. identifying the
mistake and making a quick turnabout on it and
not getting stuck in it. So the other thing you
said is you lead from a position of value. I
really want to take a moment on this because
I want our people to listen to hear this. When
we lead with value, there are several things
that always follow value. When we offer value,
The return is opportunity, compensation and or
relationships. So this is why leading with value
is so incredibly important, because the three
things that always follow value are opportunities,
relationships and compensation. OK, so I love
that you just said this, Chuck. You lead with
a position of from a position of value. And it's
no surprise. that you've been able to accomplish
all this because those three things always follow
when we deliver value is that is that in alignment
with some of your thinking oh absolutely cool
cool so you have a wealth of experience and you
got the bug to write a book not a small undertaking
right no it's very very time consuming Yeah,
there we go again. That's the whole thing about
time. It's like, I don't have time to write a
book. How do you manage your time? You're right.
Right. So, yeah, I've written a book, too. And
for me, it was one of the more humbling experiences
in my life. I don't know about you, but, you
know, we can talk all day long on this podcast.
We can talk and and talk about business and shoot
the breeze. But to but to get articulate. in
a way that other people can understand you, you
know, in the written form, that's a different
challenge, isn't it? It sure is. It sure is.
And then having the humility and like you said,
it's a very humbling experience. I mean, because
my life wasn't always rainbows and butterflies,
you know, and I did have, I've had to overcome
obstacles, adversity, challenges that many people
who see me today don't understand. Like, so to
put that out there and to be that vulnerable.
uh you know just give you an idea i the book
starts with me refusing to testify in a grand
jury investigation and going to jail so i went
to uh leavenworth cca which is a federal holding
facility for five months i could have been there
for 18. uh but but i got out after five they
they ended up indicting the targets in the case
it was a online gambling operation and i was
just a better But they sentenced me to 18 months
for refusing to testify civil contempt of court
to protect my friends and didn't want to rat
them out. Wow. So I had a successful career in
real estate at the time. I was probably in the
top 5 % of earners. And I had to evaluate, do
I roll on my friends for my gain or do I be loyal
to them and risk everything that I built to that
point? So I was five years into my career at
that point. I definitely took a step back and
then had to build from zero again. Wow. Dang,
what a story. And what a great beginning to a
book, too. Oh, geez. You mentioned the word vulnerable,
and this is when I love talking about vulnerability.
And again, for those of you listening, we use
this term a lot, vulnerable. uh i what i want
people to understand is vulnerable the definition
of vulnerable means to be you're open to injury
that's what vulnerable means when you're being
vulnerable it means you are opening yourself
up to injury it's why in times of war or times
of sporting events you look for where your opponent
is vulnerable where they're open to injury where
there's a a perceived weakness right or or and
not that vulnerability is weakness because it's
not but you're looking for where they are might
be open to um injury and what i love about uh
you and that story of yours is is it because
you because it is vulnerable people immediately
lean in when when a person is vulnerable People
lean into that vulnerability. They're like, ooh,
tell me more. I'm suddenly interested. And the
amazing thing is we trust people that display
vulnerability. Would you agree with that? I would
agree 100%. Yeah. Yeah. So talk to me about ego
strength. I'm curious about the name. Yeah. So
ego strength, you know, for me, ego strength
is taking the proverbial look in the mirror.
and changing the things that you need to change
to become the best version of yourself. So it's
having the strength to combat the mindset of,
oh, I'm great at this. I'm great at this. But
it's more combating that ego and saying, I need
to improve at this. I need to get better. Constant,
infinite growth mindset. Constantly evolving
because, you know, today you may think that you're
the best version of yourself, but you're not.
You need to get better today so that tomorrow
you're better than you were the day before and
so on and so on in perpetuity. Yeah, yeah. I
love that. Yeah, you're talking about that. Can
I write constant and never ending improvement
is so powerful. You know, again, I want to I
love what you're saying. And I want our listeners
to identify with this. So I'm that's why I'm
pausing and kind of recapturing some of the stuff
you've said. Look back, you know, five years.
Are you the same version? Is that you are today
or have you evolved, right? Yeah, we're constantly
evolving. And to bring it full circle, what you're
saying is have the strength to question yourself.
This is what I'm hearing. Have the strength to
have an honest conversation with yourself and
ask, you're like, where can I improve, right?
What's missing? Where can I improve? Where were
some of the things that you noticed in your own
life that you were like that were glaring like,
whoa, I need to really take that area of my life
on? Yeah. And I think, you know, the most important
thing is accountability. So many times people
could point the finger at other people and they
never they never make the change that they need
to make to become that better version. Right.
So they're always blaming someone else for me.
You know, I was pointing the finger at my friends.
I was pointing the finger at the judge. I was
pointing the finger at the prosecutors for bringing
forth an empty case, basically. And I never said,
wait a minute, I'm the one that made the bet
until, you know, I was sitting in there in jail
for three months. And I was like, wait a minute,
this is my fault. This isn't theirs. All the
actions started with me, right? So the only thing
you could control is yourself. You could control
how you react to a situation. You could control,
you know. What you do to put yourself, I tell
my kids all the time, don't put yourself in a
position to fail. The more times you put yourself
in positions to fail, you're going to fail. So
really that accountability and then making the
change, you know, don't point the finger at other
people. Make the change yourself and become that
best version. So tell me a little bit more about
this because this is a great topic, accountability.
And ultimately what you're talking about is taking
radical responsibility for your life. yeah um
you're so you're sitting in jail and you have
that epiphany moment of oh my god i have some
responsibility in this like i'm the one that
made the bet yeah um tell me i'd like to hear
about that moment like what was the emotion what
was the emotions you experienced what was the
thinking that that came afterward Yeah. So that
moment, you know, it's one that you'll never
forget. It was for me, it was it was Thanksgiving
2009. So I went my first day was October 5th
and I'd been there for six weeks, eight weeks,
whatever it was. But coming from an Italian American
family, holidays were very important to us. You
know, we would always get together with the families.
We would spend time together. That was the first
holiday that I was that I was gone that I ever
missed. And I was on 23 hour lockdown. And I'm
thinking, you know, because they needed to give
the correction officers a day off. So I'm sitting
there with a bag brown lunch with bologna sandwiches
on Thanksgiving. My family's all out enjoying
the holidays. And I spent the first six or eight
weeks pointing the finger at everybody else.
And that's when I had kind of like the aha moment.
It's I'm sitting here eating peanut butter and
jelly, not because or I mean bologna, bologna
sandwich, not because they gave the correction
officers the day off. That wasn't the root of
it. And then I'm like, why am I here? not because
of the judge, not because of my friends. It was
because of me, you know, and it was, it was that
moment where I just sat in the cell for 23 hours
and had plenty of time to think that, that, uh,
that made me realize that, that, you know, I
needed to make a change and change even for the,
for the better is hard. Any kind of change is
hard. People quitting smoking, that's changed
for the better. It's hard for them to do. You
know, they're addicted to certain things and
people have become creatures of habit and they're
so accustomed to doing things certain ways. But
change is important. It's imperative. You have
to change and evolve both as human beings, as
society. If there was never change, we'd be driving
horse and buggy to work, you know, instead of
motor vehicles. So, you know, it was that point
where I said, I've got to change. I've got to
do things differently. And I really started to
read books on mindset, you know, the growth versus
limited mindset, positivity. You know, there's
a book called The Positive Bus. I remember reading
that one and really just self -help books. uh
learning how to implement different strategies
you know and make the change necessary uh to
grow and expand wow one of the books i read was
dave ramsey you know and i don't believe all
of his beliefs by any means you know i think
debt when utilized to grow is is a viable tool
you know when you're growing your net worth and
whatnot uh but the gazelle intense portion of
that that book uh man when i got out i was so
so fueled with with fire and desire that that
i was working you know 110 115 hours a week just
being gazelle intense intense just to get back
you know and prove prove to people that that
that that moment that that five months that that
decision and those well decisions leading up
to that uh were not going to define who i was
yeah oh that's powerful Oh man, we got to bring
a spotlight to that too. Because so many of us
are caught up in this belief that our past does
define us, right? And if that was accurate, oh
my Lord, you wouldn't even want to know me, right?
I mean, I was, no, I mean, I was fine, but I
had no, I was breaking my word left and right.
I mean, I was a liar. I was just. a scared dude
trying to survive, right? No, your past does
not equal your future unless you focus on it
constantly and then you relive into it, right?
Then you put your past into your future and you
start to live into that. But yeah, what you said
is the good news. Your past does not define you.
It doesn't have to anyway, right? And you learned
from it. You took an honest look at it. And as
a result, you made some different decisions based
on different thinking. Powerful, powerful. So
it sounds like you dove headlong into mindset
and personal evolution. Is that accurate? Yeah,
yeah, absolutely. And, you know, the name of
your podcast here and the word you said earlier,
you know. Vision pros, vision, you said that
earlier. I put together a vision board when I
got out of things that I wanted to accomplish,
goals that I had in my life, you know, in the
future. And I put that on a poster board. I hung
it in my office and I said, this is what I need
to do. So once I put that vision board together,
then I was laying out the plan, what I needed
to do day by day to accomplish that and to get
to those. Those visions, you know, and then.
Yeah. Because, I mean, here you could you could
put together a vision board, but without the
plan, it's really just a wish anyway. Yeah. So,
you know, a lot of people say, oh, come on, Chuck.
Vision board. How passe. That doesn't work. No,
no, no. The reason we do vision boards is that
it keeps what's important in front of us. We
see it every day. It helps redirect our old stinking
thinking to what we actually want to do, right?
It's keeping it in front of us because what we
focus on, we feel. What we focus on, we move
toward. If you don't have that clarity, you're
not going to be able to move toward it as easily.
So those vision boards, while some people might
think they're, ah, who needs it? No, no, no.
It's a visual assistant. to help you continue
to move toward that direction. I think vision
boards are powerful. The whole process of cutting
things out, putting it up there, right? This
is all part of a neuroscience, right? We're moving
our body. We're getting our entire body involved
in the vision, preparing this vision and the
story up here as we're cutting, as we're pasting,
as we're placing. We're getting clear about the
story, about the vision. And that allows us to
take actions to bring that story, that clarified
vision into the real world, which is exactly
what you've done on on many accounts. Yeah, that's
right. That's right. And we focus on what you
focus on expands and then you have that vision.
You start giving yourself the affirmations and
then you almost manifest them into belief. Yes.
Okay. I love this. Yeah. Thank you for saying
that. So did you hear what he said? He's like,
then you have these affirmations. Oh, but Chuck,
come on. Affirmations. They don't effing work.
Really? No, no, no. They work so well. It's why
you're stuck where you're stuck. And I'm saying
this from personal experience. I don't have enough
time. I don't have the education. I don't have
enough experience. I don't have what it takes.
Those are all affirmations that we are practiced
at saying. They're a jerk. It's their fault.
Those are affirmations as well. How many times
have you said that? How many times have you cast
blame? I can't catch a break. I never win. Those
are all affirmations. The way the brain works,
it's not going to argue with you. It simply looks
for evidence to support the affirmations. That's
the job of the brain. So what Chuck is saying
is pay attention to your language. Pay attention
to your language. Become, again, intentional
about how you use language because it's through
language that we create our visions. Are we talking
the same language here, Chuck? We are, absolutely.
Thoughts, too. Not just what you say, what you
think. Pay attention to your thoughts. Absolutely.
Negative thought. I mean, negativity bias is
real. Yes, it is more on negative things than
you do positive things. Exactly. One of the things
I always ask my clients, are you are you paying
attention to are you paying more attention to
the misses or the wins? Hey, Chuck, this has
been such a great conversation. And I really
appreciate your time and inspiration, especially
because myself included, I'm an entrepreneur
and. Much of our audience are entrepreneurs,
solopreneurs, business managers, business owners.
So I love that you're sharing these stories of
triumph. I want people to connect with you. I
want people to find out more about your book.
Tell us how we can get in touch with you. Yeah,
so the book, you can buy the book on Amazon.
Just go to Amazon Ego Strength. It's on the Amazon
Marketplace. It's three different formats. I've
got a website. I do blogs, you know, kind of
outlining some of my wins, some of my losses
in life, in business, where I came from. Breakdown
by breakdown of the chapters is currently what
I'm doing. So I just did chapter two a couple
days ago. So I come up with a blog every couple
of weeks and then they can reach out via email
is the best way to contact me. If anybody has
any questions, you know, I'm always willing to
give back. That's one of the things that I want
to do now from a leadership perspective. you
know i see the next realm uh of my career maybe
five years from now in kind of a coaching mentorship
uh leadership perspective so you know i'm always
wanting to learn more about other people uh you
know forge relationships because really that's
what it's all about it's all about to your point
you mentioned that earlier uh if you value the
relationship you're going to get something something
back in return and if not you know it is what
it is Right on, right on. So you can visit him
at ChuckCuda .com. Grab his book on Amazon, Ego
Strength. And yeah, and take a good look at yourself
in the mirror. It's an opportunity to evolve,
to advance, to create the vision that you want
to create. And Chuck, you're a great example
of that. So again, thank you for being a source
of inspiration and contribution. Thank you. I
appreciate it. you bet all right now you all
know what it's time to do it's time to get out
there be a source of kindness be a source of
contribution you do have something to offer and
I believe in you. Thank you for being here today.
I'm really happy that you tuned in to Vision
Pros Live. I'm looking forward to seeing your
reactions as these episodes continue to move
forward. This is going to get more and more fun.
We'll have more and more engagement as well.
We'll invite people to participate in the show.
And thank you for giving us your time and attention.
Have an excellent time building out your vision
and becoming a vision pro yourself.