Sponsor And Show Setup

Announcer 0:00

The following programming is sponsored by Marc J. Bernstein. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of this station, its management, or Beasly Media Group. Entrepreneur, founder, author and financial advisor, Marc Bernstein helps high-performing business owners turn their visions into reality. At March Forward, Marc and his partners and associates think out of the box to partner with their clients in regards to their visions for their lives, their businesses and their legacies. And through his innovative work with the Forward Focus Forums, Marc connects entrepreneurs to resources that help to fuel their success. Founders’ Forum is a radio show and podcast where entrepreneurs share their journeys, revealing the stories behind their successes, and the lessons they’ve learned. Join Marc and his guests for a mix of inspiration, valuable insights, and a bit of fun! Now, let’s dive in...

Meet The Babcock Ranch Guests

Marc Bernstein 0:54

Good morning, America. How are you? We're here on Founders Forum this morning. It's another bright sunny day in Babcock Ranch, Florida. And I tell you Babcock Ranch because this is part of the Babcock Ranch series. And I have two entrepreneurs from Babcock Ranch today, Phillip and Susan. Susan is my co-host for the show, so thank you for doing this. Absolutely. And Susan is CEO and founder of Babcock Mortgage, which we'll talk about in our next show. And Phillip Gonzalez is founder and CEO of Adriel Partners Growth Agency. And he is a professional communicator, and you will know that very shortly, whose passion is to help people unlock their next level of success in their business, family, and faith. He's the founder of Adriel Partners Growth Agency, I should have said before, helping leaders grow their business faster, healthier, and more profitably through coaching, consulting, and creative services. He's also an ordained minister, musician, and I've heard him sing, and he's pretty good, and so is his wife, and author, and lives with his wife and three children in Babcock Ranch, Florida, the first solar pound, solar-powered town in America. And uh we also, as you know, part of the series. You may have already heard, it may already be out. Sid Kitsen, the founder, was here with us a couple weeks ago. And I should mention we are in Florida Podcast Studio. Uh Steve Lang is owner entrepreneur there. And uh, so this is we were in this very very place with Sid two weeks ago, I think. And uh or last week, it might have even been last week. Time's flying. So, anyway, um we're gonna be you're gonna be hearing a lot more about Kyle Ranch as we go on.

Philip’s Move From Texas To Florida

Marc Bernstein 2:41

So, Phillip, tell us your story. You're not originally from here. Tell us where you're from, how you got here, um, and how you got here where professionally and business wise.

Phillip Gonzales 2:51

Oh goodness. Well, I was born in Texas in the beginning of the 80s, and I lived there until I was about eight years old. And then my family came here uh in 1990 because my father is a pastor, and he was actually called to serve at a church here uh in Fort Myers, uh a little church down there. And so we moved here as a family, myself, uh my two younger brothers, and had to leave our dog behind, which was very sad. His name was Jacques. Uh he was a poodle. We called him Jacques Le Dog Wee Wee because he used to pee all over the house. So we showed up here in uh August of 1990, which also is the exact month and year when my wife was born. So she liked to say that I was sent here for her. And of course, being a good husband, I say yes, dear. I was. So I grew up uh really most of my growing up was in Florida. And uh it's been interesting to see the whole community change, the whole region. I grew up in Gateway, a similar kind of master plan community, but we really loved being able to be a part of Babcock Ranch close to the founding. Uh, along with Susan, we were in one of the first couple hundred houses here in the ranch. And just seeing everything grow up around us. Yeah, you two were both pioneers here. Well, they they had us, you know, we had to dig our own lots and build our own houses and you know, churn butter. And that's that's how it did in the old days. Trudge through the mud.

Susan Egan 4:06

It felt like we churned butter when we had to drive to the grocery store and it wasn't in our neighborhood.

Phillip Gonzales 4:13

Leave the bubble, go south and finally show up. So it's been really fun to see the community around grow uh throughout the several years that I've I've been here.

Marc Bernstein 4:23

And we should also say, besides being the first solar-powered town, it's it's um weather resilient, um, somewhat hurricane proof, and all about preservation, which is really becoming a model around the country. We're also having Amy and Jennifer, who are two of the engineers who did a lot of the work on the show. Amy was already recorded, and it's you know, it's fascinating that they're being called on to projects all over Florida and starting to be nationally to do similar work. So it's really, and and if and when he asked Sid his vision, it's to do nothing but continue to work on Babcock Ranch but influence others, they're very open. They want to give the planning and all the secrets away to everybody who wants to do it because he'd he'd love to see this happen all over the country and ultimately the world. So it's pretty cool. So, anyway, you came to Babcock Ranch. Tell us professionally, because I know you started pretty early as an entrepreneur.

Phillip Gonzales 5:18

Goodness, that is quite a journey. So

Learning Systems Through Early Ventures

Phillip Gonzales 5:20

I was um I was born, and my mother tells me that I started speaking full sentences by the age of one, and I've never stopped. And so I like to call myself a professional communicator because everything from uh in college, my degree was communication studies. Uh, I worked at the News Press, our local uh Gannett Own newspaper for several years. Um I started in entrepreneurship really in about 2003 when one of the friends that my dad had from our church, uh he asked if I wanted to run a cart in our local shopping mall that sold personalized veggie tails children's music CDs. Very niche. But what I discovered was very niche. Very niche. Right. And personalized music CDs. At carts in malls. Right. What I found out, his name was Virgil. Well, pretty much. Um, if you know Veggie Tales, you know they're faith-based children's media, and it's a lot of fun. Virgil was a millionaire at the time, multiple times over, and he had made his money in systems, designing systems for people to start their own small business opportunities. The sales scripts, the employee training manuals, how to negotiate them all leased. He was building these things out. And so he asked me to be one of his operators, and after a couple years, asked if I would come and be a part of his corporate team. And so we traveled the country teaching other small business owners how to actually set up and run these business in-a-box concepts. Like a franchise, but without the fee, except you kind of do pay a fee to us. So it was a fascinating learning experience to learn from Virgil all about the power of systems and how to repeat a good thing multiple times. And that's what makes it a great thing.

Marc Bernstein 6:53

Also sounds like the start of, in a sense, of your consulting career. Yes.

Phillip Gonzales 6:57

And I and I'd actually been designing websites since the late 90s. And so providing business services as a service provider, that's something I've done for, you know, decades. But then working with Virgil was really the first time that I saw how the power of sharing wisdom and sharing a template for how to do something could be even more powerful than just providing a service. And so I did that for several years along the way, parallel. I've always had parallel tracks. I was also ordained as a minister, and I was the worship pastor at my church. Then we planted a church as well.

Ministry Seasons And Business Parallels

Marc Bernstein 7:27

Was becoming a minister something you always wanted to do because your dad did it, or is it something that came to you later as a thought?

Phillip Gonzales 7:33

It's such a great question. People would ask that growing up, you know, do you want to be like your dad? And I always had the same answer. To be a pastor is a heavy thing in a good way. Don't just step into it. So I said, if God wants me to do it, I will, but I'm not just signing up. So I really did feel called uh really in 2006 that it was time to step into that role. And everything has a season, kind of like we talked about earlier with cycles. Uh and so I was called into that for a long season. And we planned a church, ran that for eight years, got to see a lot of people's lives changed. Uh, and then at the end of that season, it was time to refocus on helping a more narrow audience, and that's business owners. And I really enjoyed jumping into that and taking a lot of the lessons I learned from Virgil about sales and systems, a lot of the lessons I learned from counseling couples and helping people on their spiritual journey. Well, guess what? The business journey has a lot of parallels too. You're facing the unknown, you're achieving obstacles or trying to overcome obstacles, and you're looking for the core principles that will guide you there along the way. And so that was really about uh 2019, is when I jumped wholeheartedly into the business side of consulting and coaching, and also still doing websites and marketing.

Marc Bernstein 8:41

And so wholeheartedly into entrepreneurialism as well. And so, as an entrepreneur, so you started and then it's just been a smooth ride ever since, right? Oh, absolutely. I've never had any challenges, and I'll just continue. So, so okay, since you mentioned it, since I was wrong, so since there were some challenges, tell me about uh tell me about that. What kind of things did you face? Um, what are some of the you know, I'm sure they're they're almost innumerable as they are for most people. Absolutely. But but what what strikes you as some of the things that you that happened to you that you were able to learn from later on?

Phillip Gonzales 9:17

I

Partnership Warnings And Imposter Syndrome

Phillip Gonzales 9:18

tell you what, that's a great question, Marc. Um, one of the first things that I really learned from was watching the company that I was a part of with Virgil, they had a content partner. I watched that partnership totally implode. Lawsuits, front page news headlines in Nashville, contract negotiations, litigation. I I discovered that you need to be very careful who you're partnering with. And you need to be very careful how you structure the terms of that partnership. And so in my own business, that was one of the early lessons I learned really as a what not to do, because I got to watch him. And because of that, um I've I've learned to structure my business in a certain way, and it's been helpful for me. But one of the biggest things that I have really struggled with.

Marc Bernstein 9:58

I had interesting partnership lessons as well earlier. Really? And today I have a very healthy partnership, but it took a lot of years to be able to do that properly.

Phillip Gonzales 10:06

Definitely something to be said for learning the lessons and then applying them on the other side. Yep. So it turns out that one of the biggest things, though, for me personally was that imposter syndrome, that feeling that, yes, I know I'm good at this, yes, I know I could do that, but am I really good enough? And that's one of the things that I've found. I don't think it ever goes away. And in the many, many conversations I've had with other entrepreneurs and other business owners, for most of them, it's not that it goes away, but you learn how to act in spite of it. You learn how to take that, put it in a box, push it to the side, and say, Yes, I feel that, but I'm not gonna let my feelings determine my future. I'm gonna let my focus determine my future instead.

Marc Bernstein 10:50

But which is different than if you want to be successful, act successful. It's not you're not putting on an act, but you're taking those other feelings and putting them in a box. I see a distinction there.

Phillip Gonzales 11:01

100%. It's not acting like someone you're not, it's choosing to act as the version of you that you know you can be. And in the doing, we find the being. That's where the becoming starts to happen.

Marc Bernstein 11:14

Right. I like that. And um I just had another thought that just escaped me. But um, so and so what have you learned from that and how do you apply that with your clients today? Sure.

Phillip Gonzales 11:25

I've learned that if you wait for the perfect feeling to take action, you'll never actually take action at all. The better option is to make a wise choice with the information you have and choose to move forward and discover at the end of the day, you're never really failing as long as you're learning along the way. Gotcha.

Marc Bernstein 11:45

Uh, we we don't have that much more time before our break. Uh so I would like to just ask you um in terms of what uh is there any other challenge that you can mention that besides that one?

Phillip Gonzales 11:57

Certainly the challenge of focus has been a big one. It's easy to say yes to many things. It's hard to say no. But I heard a wise man say once, you're more defined by what you say no to than by what you say yes to. So that's really a challenge even to this day, but by faith, I'm overcoming it.

Marc Bernstein 12:12

Makes a lot of sense. And and how do you what what is your solution to that? How do you because that's a hard one. I I have the same issue. How do you how what what what occurs when something comes at you that you know you should be saying no to? Or that you think you might and you're not sure if it should say no to it or not?

Phillip Gonzales 12:28

That's a great question. Maybe we want listeners to stick around until after the break to hear the answer. That's perfect.

Marc Bernstein 12:34

We'll be

Break And Sponsor Message

Marc Bernstein 12:35

right back on Founders Forum.

Announcer 12:36

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How To Say No With Vision

Marc Bernstein 14:01

So back to that question, Phillip. When someone comes to you and you have a decision point, yes or no, to do something, what goes through your mind and what's the process that you use, if any, to make that decision?

Phillip Gonzales 14:14

Well, the first thing that goes to my mind usually is, of course I can. I can help everyone with everything. I've discovered that's not the voice to listen to. The second thing that goes through my head is this does this direction correspond with the direction for my vision? Because at the end of the day, if you don't know where you're going, you won't know how you're getting there. And I have had to learn the discipline of having a clear vision for this is where I want to go with my business and my life. And anything that's not contributing to that, I simply have to say no to. I heard somebody say it this way: that it's never the bad that's the enemy of the best. It's the good that's the enemy of the best. So I simply have to ask the question yes, I could do this, but is it wise considering the direction that I want to take this in the future? It also goes a couple other things.

Susan Egan 15:03

Yeah, I was just gonna ask you about you know the culture of your company and how you feel that that plays into that.

Phillip Gonzales 15:08

Absolutely.

Remote Team Culture And Delegation

Phillip Gonzales 15:09

I I know for me, I have uh a great blessing. I have several uh remote team members that help me with different uh executing things. Uh I used to do the design of websites myself. I don't do that anymore because I have people way better. Uh I try to focus on my uniqueness. And um, I found that the direction I want to take things with my business really is where there's more power in the hands of my team. I'm not having to make all the decisions. I want to be able to delegate more effectively. But in order for that to happen, two things must take place. Number one, they need to know that I trust them and value them. And number two, they need to know the level at which we do things here. And that's where you get culture. And so, even for a team that's remote, I find um, I remember when it's their birthdays and I contact them and I just wish them a happy birthday. I try to always find the good in the work they've done before I offer the criticism for what they could do better. I try to always address them respectfully. Uh, one that always calls me sir, I call them sir right back. Because it's that level of respect when they feel valued as people, they know that I really do believe in them. I want good for them. I'm not here to use them as a consumable resource and toss them aside when someone cheaper comes along. What I'm trying to do is create a culture where they know they're valued, they know they're empowered, and they have the knowledge to do what must be done.

Marc Bernstein 16:26

Does that reflect back to you? Do you see that and how they come back to you? Do they absorb that culture and be respectful and uh uh you know try to be thoughtful on the other end as well with clients and with you? Does it come does it come back to you that way?

Phillip Gonzales 16:42

Absolutely, Marc. And it's one of the things I've loved to see the most is really you reap what you sow. Right. And it's nowhere does that come across more effectively than in relationships to people. And so, yeah, they're a great team and they do wonderful work and we're building it together.

Marc Bernstein 16:55

By the way, we were we were you mentioned uniqueness, that you focus on your uniqueness. So we talked about unique ability. Talk about that a lot on the show, and with the three of us were talking about it before. I think when when you're doing something that isn't your unique ability, you're drawing energy away from yourself and you're drawing it away from other things that you should be doing. So in my case, if I say if I take clients that are outside the scope, example, of the people that we focus on, you know, I'm I'm I'm probably not doing as good a job for my other clients, right? Or I may not be doing my partners any favors, or I may not be doing my family any favors by doing that. So to me, all that goes into it now. And the more I can focus on what energizes me, because I'm better for everybody else, and what uh you know, and what's gonna benefit everyone who's who's involved in that action more, you know, I'm an alignment and everything's flowing the way it should be flowing, if that makes sense. Um so did you have any more questions about culture in terms of maintaining it?

Susan Egan 18:02

Um not specifically. I mean, I think that you know the way that you presented it was you know kind of what I was thinking about.

Marc Bernstein 18:10

Okay, good. I I I I I know both of you have some situations where you're working remotely with people, and I'm always interested in how you maintain it remotely, but you kind of address that because you'll make a call and you make sure you have video meetings and things like that.

Three Year Vision And Staying The Course

Marc Bernstein 18:25

Uh I do want to ask you, let's talk about your future vision because I know we've had some talk about it already. Uh so we were talking, if it's three years from now, it's the year 2029, and we're looking back, Phillip, and discussing what happened over the last three years. What would have to happen in your life? That could be professionally, personally, or anything else, for you to feel that that was a successful three-year period in your life?

Phillip Gonzales 18:51

That's a great question. Well, I'd clone myself into a robot and let that do all the work for me with AI. No, I think for me, if I look three years out and I say, what does success look like for me? It involves me on a stage inspiring people to level up in their business or their family or their faith. You know, you look at the things that I've really had the privilege of doing over the years, and so many of them kind of lead to that point of creating and presenting ideas that help people level up and live better lives. And so for that to happen, there's three things in particular. Number one, I need to be consistent in letting people know. Outreach, if you're looking for a speaker, contact PhillipGonzalez.com. Like, I need to let people know about that. And I've found that's where you get into the imposter syndrome sometimes, and you have to just overcome that. So, number one, let people know. Number two, I need to continue to invest in my team so they can continue running the kind of daily operations of our call it the bread and butter business. Because if you're gonna go out and do speaking gigs, certainly there's a point when that becomes very helpful for your family and very lucrative, but you don't usually start there. So I want to make sure that I'm a wise steward of the company I have and the team I have so they're operating well without me. And the third thing I think that needs to happen is really for me to continue to practice what I preach, to set that vision for my life, to pursue that vision for my life, to say no to the things that don't contribute to my life uh vision and really stay the course. And when I get the chance to chat with business owners, that's the biggest thing I always want to encourage them, have that vision and stay the course. Because there's a thousand distractions that will come up. And and that's for me, I'm a very, very, very creative person. So I love new things. I love changing things. Just this morning I was chatting with ChatGPT saying, Hey, what if I switched from using WordPress to build our client websites into switching to something else? That's a terrible idea for the vision of having things run without you. Right. Stay the course, and good things will come your way if you've set your vision appropriately.

Marc Bernstein 20:49

By the way, I loved how you got the little plug in there for Phillip Gonzalez.com. That was great. But you by the way, you are the entertainer. I first met Phillip, he was actually on stage at Open Mike Night here in Babcock Ranch, and he is quite the entertainer. And Susan, I just found out, also was a singer and did uh musical theater, right? Yes. And uh so so you're more an extrovert that you than you appear to be as well, I think.

Susan Egan 21:17

Yes, although I will say, as I'm getting older, just just a little older, um, I I'm becoming more private. You know, I'm noticing, you know, back when we started, you know, we've been cruising a lot, we would go on cruises and I'd get up and sing, and it was fun, and then people would follow me around the on the whole ship for the whole entire week and be like, you're amazing. Right. And then at some point I was like, you know what, that's nice, but I don't need all the attention. So I started backing out a little bit. So I don't know if my personality is changing, but um, I love theater and I love being on stage, um and making people happy.

Phillip Gonzales 21:49

Well, and Marc, you're a great, you're a musician as well. You're an entertainer too. That's true.

Marc Bernstein 21:54

I am I I I I feel like I'm an introvert who behaves like an extrovert. Like I I feel like basically I started out like you, very private, very quiet. But if I get around people in the right setting, I'm my wife says I'm a total extrovert.

Susan Egan 22:10

I think it comes from where your energy comes from, right? You know, and so I might not automatically have that anymore, but once I get into it, you can't pull me back. Now I'm I'm into it, now I'm energized, and I want to keep doing something more stuff.

Marc Bernstein 22:22

You have to have some of those tendencies. Anyway, that's not really what the show is about. It was a little aside that I made. So, what

AI Distractions Plus Pivoting With Purpose

Marc Bernstein 22:29

challenges do you see, Phillip, ahead in terms of staying on course and in terms of accomplishing your three-year vision?

Phillip Gonzales 22:35

Well, that's a great question, too. Uh, you're so good at this. Every day there is a new opportunity to find a different direction I could go. And with the advent of AI, for someone like me who's hyper-creative and I've never been diagnosed with ADHD, so I don't claim it. But if I was, every day there's a new thing that could be fresh and shiny. It's simply the discipline. It's making the daily choice. It's just like growing a marriage or growing any sort of relationship. You make a choice every day to say no to the distractions and say yes to the vision for where you're going forward. And there's no other trick I've found, there's no magic bullet, there's no special formula. It's the daily choice to do the right thing. And that's what's going to take you where you need to go. Same thing for me.

Marc Bernstein 23:19

And I I'm sure that that's the the advice you give to your clients as well. Focus, stay on track. Now there are times, let me ask you this though, there are times that things change and you need to pivot. How do you know when it's time to pivot if you're if you're trying to stay the course all the time? Absolutely.

Phillip Gonzales 23:36

I use a magic eight ball and I shake it and it tells me the answer. Ouija boarding. Exactly. No, I think that's such a great question too. The idea of pivoting is why do you pivot? You pivot because there's now a better way to get you to your goal. If you don't have a clear goal and a clear vision, you won't know when it's time to pivot because any direction could work as well as any other. But if you have a clear vision for where you want to go, a new opportunity arises and you can say, okay, let's pivot because this path is now a better path to the same destination we've always had. Or you discover actually that destination is not where we need to go at all.

Marc Bernstein 24:12

That's what I was going what I want to get to. Sometimes the goal can change. It can. Because along the journey you might find that, you know what, that wasn't the right goal after all. 100%.

Phillip Gonzales 24:21

I like to say it this way: that everyone at some point wants to chase success, but not everyone has really understood and defined what true success is. From my background and from my perspective, true success is finding and being the best version of the person you were made to be for the good of all people, and I would say the glory of God.

Marc Bernstein 24:40

And and we know that that's a journey. That's not actually a destination. You don't end up there. That's something that you're all of that, all of this is something that you're constantly constantly work doing the work. The joys and the journey. The joys in the journey, exactly.

Books That Shape Leadership Thinking

Marc Bernstein 24:55

So I know you're a reader. And uh what what um what are you what are your favorite books? What books have you have most influenced you?

Phillip Gonzales 25:03

I've got a whole wall full of books that I love, but the top three for me are certainly the Bible. It's been very foundational for my life and for my business. A lot of wisdom there. Number two, psychocybernetics by Dr. Maxwell Maltz, the power of our subconscious and how we can use that to achieve greater things. Uh third one is what I'd call um a personal one. It's the practice by Seth Godin. Seth is a marketing guru, and the practice are short musings on how to do creative work well. And anyone in business as an entrepreneur, you are doing creative work. You're creating something. So The Practice by Seth Godin, another one of my favorites.

Marc Bernstein 25:39

Great. And I want to ask you another question because I know you're an introspective person. If you could speak to your younger self, Phillip, what what advice would you give you?

Phillip Gonzales 25:50

Oh man. Forgive yourself for the missteps along the way. Because there will be many. And choose to see them as learning opportunities, not failures. And if you can learn to take every failure and instead reframe it as a learning opportunity and forgive yourself for not getting it right every time, you'll have much more boldness to keep moving forward as long as it takes to get to that success.

Marc Bernstein 26:11

Well,

Advice To Younger Self And Closing

Marc Bernstein 26:12

that's a perfect ending to our show today. Thanks so much for being here. Thank you, Susan, for co-hosting. Thank you, Phillip. Thank you, all of you, for listening, and we will see you next week on Founders Forum.

Announcer 26:22

Founders’ Forum was brought to you in part, by March Forward, LLC. We partner with entrepreneurs like you to assist in accomplishing your future vision. Your life. Your business. Your legacy. Comprehensive wealth planning that starts with you -- not a product. We hope you enjoyed your time with Founders’ Forum and that you found something of value to take with you throughout your day. Join us again next week for another episode of Founders’ Forum on WWDB 860 AM Philadelphia, or on your favorite podcast streaming service. Securities offered through DFPG Investments, LLC (“DFPG”) Investment Advisory Services offered through Diversify Advisory Services, LLC (“Diversify”). DAS and DFPG are affiliated entities. March is unaffiliated with DAS and DFPG. Member FINRA/SIPC The information provided in this podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be interpreted as investment advice. The views expressed are those of the host and guests and do not necessarily reflect the views of Diversify or DFPG.