101: 5 Mindset Shifts You Need To Make To Succeed Next Year

In the last episode of the year, I'm sharing the five crucial mindset shifts needed to succeed in 2025, reflecting on personal experiences and lessons learned from a wild 2024. I'm emphasizing the importance of being results-driven, embracing change, insourcing more while outsourcing less, pursuing the process rather than the final product, and welcoming downtime. Chapters 00:00 Introduction and Episode Overview 00:38 Reflecting on a Wild Year 04:10 Call to Action for 2025 08:05 Mindset Shift 1 23:56 Mindset Shift 2 32:04 Mindset Shift 3 47:42 Mindset Shift 4 01:01:42 Mindset Shift 5 01:11:14 Final Thoughts and Encouragement Strength, endurance, and wellness supplements to fuel your performance. SAVE 10% at BPN Supps: https://bit.ly/nickbare10audio Follow: IG: instagram.com/nickbarefitness/ YT: youtube.com/@nickbarefitness

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:05Nick Bare?

  What's going on guys and welcome back to another episode of the podcast. Today's episode is titled, "The Five Mindset Shifts You Need to Succeed Next Year." There are five things to really just focus on, write them down, look at them daily, if you want to succeed next year. And to be honest, I came up with these five mindset shifts because these are things

• 0:36Nick Bare?

  that I'm going to personally focus on going into 2025.

• 0:43Nick Bare?

  2024 was a wild year and I feel like every year since starting my business in 2012, I have said that this past year was a crazy wild year. And I can say that because as I finish a year, looking back on that previous year, calendar year, it is crazy because every single year, I'm pushing the limits, I'm trying to do more, I'm evolving, I'm adapting, I'm embracing the natural evolutionary transitions in life that we go through.

• 1:23Nick Bare?

  Starting a business, graduating college, joining the military, getting married, having kids, scaling a business, all of these things.

• 1:34Nick Bare?

  When you're pushing really, really, really hard,

• 1:38Nick Bare?

  they're going to make for a crazy year. It's going to make for a very exciting adventurous life. 2024, as we're wrapping it up, I mean.

• 1:57Nick Bare?

  When I started 2024, I was in Nashville, Tennessee. And this was shortly after stepping down from the CEO role of BPN. I moved myself, my family, a small creative team to Nashville to expand and operate the business from a new strategic avenue or perspective.

• 2:24Nick Bare?

  And as we transitioned from 2023 to 2024, thought that was going to be the foreseeable future. It was not. Big change happened. Where after being in Nashville for four months, we decided that we were moving back to Texas. So we put our house up for sale that we purchased and moved into in Nashville. We started preparing for a move back to Texas. I had just PR'd my marathon at CIM with a time of 2 hours 39 minutes, coming off of a big high. We had a failed financial process to kick off the new year. So in 2023, we

• 3:05Nick Bare?

  were planning on selling a small portion of the business. We brought on an investment bank, ran a financial process to find a private equity partner, got that deal almost to the finish line. We got to the one yard line, ended up falling apart.

• 3:22Nick Bare?

  And simultaneously, we just found out we were pregnant with baby number two. Nico, my son, who was born in August of 2024. All of this was happening as we kicked off January of 2024, as we kicked off the new year, this current year that I'm in right now. And it was a crazy year. It was a crazy year. We made multiple moves, found out we were expanding our family. The future of how I was going to operate the business changed significantly.

• 4:03Nick Bare?

  And we started making our move back to Texas. We got back to Texas in late April, early May of 2024.

• 4:15Nick Bare?

  And my call to action to everyone listening to this podcast that I want you to take away is

• 4:25Nick Bare?

  life should be crazy. It should be spontaneous. It should be adventurous. It should be exciting. There should be a lot of emotions, highs and lows, happiness, sadness, frustration, joy, fulfillment, passion, like all these things I believe life should be filled with. We are blessed with the opportunity to experience those feelings. But you're only gonna feel that is if you continuously push the limits. So my call to action for everyone in 2025 is to plant the

• 5:07Nick Bare?

  seed. Like, what is that one thing you've been wanting to do for years now, but haven't yet started? You've been wanting to accomplish this one thing. You've wanted to start this one thing. You wanted to stop this one thing. You wanted to change this one thing. What is that one thing that you want to finally press go on and press go? Plant the seed. Let that seed start to grow right now. And maybe you have it in the past because of lack of fear, lack of resources, lack of time, lack of knowledge, lack of experience. All the things for which you didn't get started

• 5:52Nick Bare?

  are the same reasons you should get started right now. You don't have to finish the project. You don't have to cross the finish line. You don't have to see the whole thing through in 2025, but just get started. Because I guarantee you, when you finish 2025, when it's December 31st, 2025, and you're celebrating the holidays with your family or by yourself, and you reflect on the previous year, you should say, "That year was frickin' wild, man. That was crazy. That pushed me beyond anything I've ever experienced in my life before because at the beginning of the year, I planted the seed and I got started."

• 6:40Nick Bare?

  And that lack of fear, or that fear that I had in the beginning of the year is no longer a lack of fear. The lack of resources that I had in the beginning of the year is no longer a lack of resources. The lack of time, the lack of knowledge, the lack of experience that I had in the beginning of the year is no longer a thing. Cause you planted the seed. The call to action, right now, for everyone listening, is identify that one thing you've always wanted to do, and just start doing it right now. Cause you will not regret it. I am so glad that I started my business in 2012, or 2012, when I didn't have the experience,

• 7:25Nick Bare?

  I didn't have the knowledge, I didn't have the resources, I didn't have the money, I didn't have the support, I had nothing. But I planted the seed and I got started. And now, nearly 13 years later, I'm glad I planted the seed 13 years ago. Cause if I didn't, I didn't know, or I wouldn't know where I would be today, what I would be doing, and what I could have built if I wanted to plant the seed in that small college apartment in 2012, at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania, when I was in college.

• 8:10Nick Bare?

  So the first mindset shift to make, again, these are mindset shifts that I'm going to be consciously and consistently thinking of and remembering and reinforcing throughout my next 12 months. And I've come up with these five things because they're meaningful to me, and I hope they can be and will be meaningful to you too. So I'll go over the first, the five first, then we'll explore each one independently. The first mindset shift, commit to producing results. Be results driven. Number two, embrace change. Number three, in-source more, out-source less.

• 9:01Nick Bare?

  Number four, pursue the process, not the final product. Number five, welcome downtime. Those are the five mindset shifts. So go back to the first one, commit to producing results.

• 9:23Nick Bare?

  I wrote this down here.

• 9:26Nick Bare?

  That drives this point forward, be a decision maker. We have to make decisions to experience results. That's obvious, but more importantly, follow through and follow up.

• 9:43Nick Bare?

  When I think of the follow through. As I was writing this down, I could not help but think back to when I was younger, playing sports. I played baseball growing up, I played baseball. I played ice hockey in central Pennsylvania. I ran cross country and track for a few years.

• 10:03Nick Bare?

  Played football when I was very young, but not in high school.

• 10:08Nick Bare?

  But my main sport growing up was baseball. We were a baseball family, travel baseball. JV varsity, like baseball took me and my brother all over the country. My brother Preston was an excellent athlete growing up. I mean, he had.

• 10:30Nick Bare?

  He had offers to D1 schools for football and baseball. And he ended up going to college to play baseball, actually.

• 10:40Nick Bare?

  And this past weekend, he was just inducted into our high school sports hall of fame. Believe it or not, so congrats, baby brother Preston. I will not unfortunately ever be inducted into our high school sports hall of fame. That ain't happening, I can promise you that.

• 10:59Nick Bare?

  But growing up playing sports and playing baseball specifically, like I remember always hearing, follow through, follow through, follow through, the coaches, like when you go to bat, follow through with that swing, when you throw the ball, follow through.

• 11:14Nick Bare?

  Don't short arm it. Don't half cut it. Use all that power. Generate as much power as possible. Through your legs, through your arms, through your torso, through your core. Make contact. Follow through. Get the most out of that effort.

• 11:38Nick Bare?

  When we make decisions. It's not just the act of making a decision, saying yes or no, approving or disapproving. Deciding to get started or deciding to end. That is just the catalyst for what comes afterwards. What comes afterwards is the follow through and the follow up. That's where you make your money. That's where you ensure that after making contact.

• 12:11Nick Bare?

  You truly experience the momentum and power. Behind that initial contact. Follow through and follow up.

• 12:23Nick Bare?

  You know, a few weeks ago.

• 12:27Nick Bare?

  We had to let someone go at BPN. Which is never easy. Going separate ways with team members or employees. Is never a. Easy conversation. It's never an easy decision.

• 12:44Nick Bare?

  That responsibility. Weighs on me tremendously.

• 12:50Nick Bare?

  Cause I care about people. And I care about this business and I care about the success of people who decide to commit to. Join.

• 13:00Nick Bare?

  BPN. So separating. From team members and individuals, employees is never an easy decision. I'll just leave it at that.

• 13:09Nick Bare?

  But when we separated with this one employee, they provided me feedback, unsolicited feedback, on where I could improve and get better, which I gladly wanted to accept and hear and listen. And that feedback was that, as the founder and CEO of BPN, I changed my mind a lot.

• 13:33Nick Bare?

  And I course correct and changed directions frequently and often. And sometimes for the team, it is confusing. Sometimes for the team, employees, what they're focused on, it doesn't allow time to develop and grow and follow through,

• 13:55Nick Bare?

  follow up and follow through. And I sat with that for a while. I thought about it.

• 14:02Nick Bare?

  And I had some thoughts around that.

• 14:05Nick Bare?

  And that individual was extremely correct. I do that. I change my mind often, frequently and a lot. That is something I've done for years and I will continue to do in the future. I think it's a blessing. I think it's a curse. I think it's a curse because it can be disruptive. And it might feel like

• 14:35Nick Bare?

  I'm unfocused or pivoting too often, too frequently. But the reality is, from my perspective, is that it is a blessing and it can be viewed as, at least I view it as, a strength.

• 14:50Nick Bare?

  And I change directions a lot. I course correct a lot because I'm committed to producing and seeing through results. I am results driven. And if I commit to a decision, if I make a decision and it starts playing out and I'm realizing that it's going in

• 15:13Nick Bare?

  a direction that is not favorable, not necessarily a different direction, but a direction that isn't favorable, isn't productive, is not going to produce results, I will cut it off right there and then. I will reassess and I will course correct and pursue a new option.

• 15:39Nick Bare?

  So if I say, "We're moving to Nashville," and we get to Nashville and I realize this is not working, instead of just saying, "Well, let's let it play out for another couple of months or years and see what happens." That's one approach, and that might work for some people, and that that might work for a lot of people.

• 15:59Nick Bare?

  But for me, if something is not working, it's not producing results, I'm not going to sit with it and let it develop and get worse potentially. I'm going to cut it off right there. And we were in Nashville, and I realized that that was not where we were supposed to be. It was not working. It was not producing the results that I hoped for. We made the decision very quickly. We're leaving Nashville. We're coming back to Texas.

• 16:30Nick Bare?

  That is the follow-through and follow-up of making decisions.

• 16:36Nick Bare?

  Those are not easy decisions. The pros and cons, the benefits, the consequences have to be weighed and measured.

• 16:47Nick Bare?

  But the redirect, the course correct, the new direction you end up taking should be because you are trying to produce results. Again, one of my strengths is that I am not afraid to make changes. I'm not hesitant to make changes at all. Change does not scare me.

• 17:10Nick Bare?

  And when I realize I've made the wrong decision, and it's not going where I hoped for or wanted it to, I cut it right there. I make the change. I reassess. I go back to the drawing board. I make a new plan. I make sure that plan has strategy, intention.

• 17:32Nick Bare?

  I

• 17:34Nick Bare?

  receive guidance and advice and feedback from other people in my circle, and then I pursue a new path.

• 17:41Nick Bare?

  I think too many people make a decision and even take it a step further. A lot of people struggle to even make that decision in the first place. They sit with that decision for weeks and months and even years sometimes because they're afraid to plant the seed because they're weighing every single pro and con they could may end up being paralyzed by the analysis of all these decisions they have to make. They end up not making a decision at all.

• 18:17Nick Bare?

  So you never even commit to making the decision. You never have the opportunity or ability to even try and follow through or follow up. Make the decision.

• 18:33Nick Bare?

  Make the decision, plant the seed and then be ready to adapt, pivot and evolve.

• 18:40Nick Bare?

  If it doesn't work.

• 18:43Nick Bare?

  Because if you are afraid to pivot, you will never experience results. You will never experience results.

• 18:58Nick Bare?

  I talk about commitment a lot.

• 19:01Nick Bare?

  And

• 19:05Nick Bare?

  I want to sit with this for a little bit here because

• 19:11Nick Bare?

  I believe some people get commitment wrong.

• 19:15Nick Bare?

  And commitment can be viewed in so many different ways. So let me try to navigate this the most clear way possible.

• 19:24Nick Bare?

  If you make a decision

• 19:27Nick Bare?

  and you start executing on that decision, that decision is a commitment to endure something.

• 19:37Nick Bare?

  And there are certain decisions that you make and commit to that you can and should change or pivot or adapt more easily than others. Marriage, for example.

• 19:52Nick Bare?

  In my opinion, marriage is one of those things that when you make the decision to get married and you commit to that other person, which is a huge decision.

• 20:04Nick Bare?

  If 30 days after being married, it's not necessarily working out, well, you should put a lot of effort towards making that work. You've committed to that person. You've committed to that, that bond. You've committed to being married as a couple, as a partnership. There should be a lot of effort put into that commitment. There are other commitments you make, however, that if it's not working, you may not have to follow through or follow up with that much effort or intentionality or duration.

• 20:46Nick Bare?

  Be committed to being results-driven, outcome-focused. Not being committed to a decision just because you feel like you should be committed to be committed.

• 21:04Nick Bare?

  If, for example, you have a business

• 21:08Nick Bare?

  and you launch a new product and you think this product is going to be a game changer for your business.

• 21:15Nick Bare?

  You develop it, you produce it, you have a go-to-market strategy, you launch it, and it's not received well.

• 21:27Nick Bare?

  People don't want it. People don't need it. People don't like it. And as much as you want, need, and like it yourself, if the market doesn't feel that same way, it's not going to be productive. It's not going to produce results, not going to produce outcomes. They're not going to solve problems. But if you are so committed to making it work, you spend more time, energy, and money on that product because you believe in it so much, and it still is not producing results.

• 22:01Nick Bare?

  It would be stupid to keep pursuing that product when the market is telling you, "We don't want it, we don't need it, we don't like it."

• 22:14Nick Bare?

  So the best decision possible there is to end that product, discontinue that product, and move on to something that actually does produce results. Don't be committed to something just because you have an emotional attachment to being committed to that thing if it's not producing the results, the solutions, the outcomes that you want and desire.

• 22:43Nick Bare?

  Be committed to the right things, but not just being committed because you feel the obligation to be committed out of pride, out of ego.

• 22:59Nick Bare?

  Being committed to producing results

• 23:03Nick Bare?

  is sometimes leaning in harder, but also sometimes pulling back at the same time. It's identifying what is producing those results? Where should you spend more time? Where should you spend more money? Where should you spend more energy

• 23:24Nick Bare?

  to experience the outcomes that you are looking to achieve? Commit to producing results.

• 23:33Nick Bare?

  Follow through and follow up and commit to the things that are going to produce the results that you want and desire. Mindset shift number two: embrace change.

• 23:49Nick Bare?

  There's a really good book called "What Got You Here Won't Get You There" by Marshall Goldsmith. Highly recommend. It's on my recommended reading list.

• 24:06Nick Bare?

  And Marshall Goldsmith says that the first step to change is wanting to change. You have to want to change, truly. You can hope for change, you can pray for change, you can ask for change, but unless

• 24:24Nick Bare?

  you actually want to change, like truly you want to change, you want to experience change,

• 24:34Nick Bare?

  until you actually want that, nothing will change.

• 24:42Nick Bare?

  I've quoted James Clear before in the same context, but James Clear said, "You are more likely to unlock a big leap in performance by trying differently than by trying harder."

• 24:58Nick Bare?

  That different requires change. And sometimes we

• 25:07Nick Bare?

  we fear change because it disrupts

• 25:13Nick Bare?

  everything we know. It disrupts our comfortable routines and rhythms of life. It might require more work and work that is unpredictable because what is predictable is oftentimes very comfortable.

• 25:30Nick Bare?

  And people said they want change, but I truly believe they like the allure of change, but not what comes with it and what is required to implement change.

• 25:46Nick Bare?

  Like think of all the things that, right now, what are the things that you want in your life? Not necessarily materialistic.

• 25:57Nick Bare?

  But what are things you want in your life? That you're not experiencing or you don't have right now? And in order to get there, what do you have to do? And it's probably not trying harder, but it's probably trying differently. In order to try differently, you have to change something you're currently doing right now. And you don't want to change what you're doing right now, but you want these things that require change. So you'll never get them because you're not willing to do what is required to experience that unlock, that big leap in performance.

• 26:41Nick Bare?

  The only way you experience that unlock and that big leap in performance is by trying differently. By change. The first step in change is actually wanting to change. And you must be willing and able to change. I was talking about this the other day. And I love the term willing and able. Willing and able. Willing and able. You have to be willing and able. Able is something we are given by God.

• 27:20Nick Bare?

  My legs work, so I am able to walk. I am able to perform. I am able to work. I am able to make money. I am able to love my family. I'm able to do a lot of things. I'm very blessed to have been given the ability to do these things. But unless you are willing to do those things, it doesn't matter if you have the ability because, well, you actually won't do it. Like I am able to run. My legs work. They're strong. But if I'm not willing to go out and run,

• 28:05Nick Bare?

  if I'm not willing to go out and train, if I'm not willing to make...

• 28:13Nick Bare?

  Effort and put on my shoes and go out on the road and just start running. If I'm not willing to do that, it doesn't matter if I'm able in the first place. We have the ability to do a lot of different things. God has provided us the ability to do a lot, a lot in this world. But unless we are willing, we will never experience that. We have to be willing and able. So embrace change. Sometimes change is the people that we surround ourselves with in our life.

• 28:58Nick Bare?

  Sometimes change is mindset. I mean, in order to implement these five things that I'm talking about today, you have to be willing to make changes to actually implement those things. Sometimes routines have to change, strategy has to change, tactics, skills. All of these things might have to change in order to get what we want, experience life in the way that we want to experience it. Change is hard.

• 29:37Nick Bare?

  And one of my favorite quotes of this past year that I heard on an episode of Founders, which was my favorite podcast in 2023 and 2024, Founders. My favorite quote from one of those episodes, I cannot remember what episode it was, but he said, "Change breaks the brittle."

• 30:06Nick Bare?

  If you are not ready to invite and experience change,

• 30:13Nick Bare?

  sometimes change is a choice.

• 30:17Nick Bare?

  And that's the best change because you are in the driver's seat.

• 30:22Nick Bare?

  You get to choose what you do and what you don't do.

• 30:26Nick Bare?

  But on the flip side of that, sometimes change is not a choice. Sometimes change happens to us. And we then, we now have to adapt and pivot and make choices to respond to that change. And if you're not strong, if you're not ready to combat

• 30:49Nick Bare?

  adaptation, new routines, new strategy, trying differently. What happens is that when you experience change, not by choice, it breaks you.

• 31:02Nick Bare?

  Change breaks the brittle.

• 31:07Nick Bare?

  So embrace change. Because again, to quote James Clear, you are more likely to unlock a big leap in performance by trying differently than by trying harder.

• 31:21Nick Bare?

  In-source more, outsource less.

• 31:29Nick Bare?

  In businesses, I was growing up and trying to learn and figure out how to actually scale a business.

• 31:40Nick Bare?

  You consistently hear from people that outsourcing is the

• 31:46Nick Bare?

  the best course of action. Outsource as much as possible. Outsource everything. There are so many businesses in the world that are run by one person. And that person works from a coffee shop on their laptop and outsources every other part of the business. Which, I'm not throwing any shade at that model. That is, that is an approach, that is a strategy for some people. It is not the strategy for myself.

• 32:17Nick Bare?

  Because outsourcing

• 32:20Nick Bare?

  is cost-effective and it's scalable.

• 32:26Nick Bare?

  It's a cost-effective model, but at what cost?

• 32:32Nick Bare?

  The cost could be quality. When you outsource everything, you can scale, you can grow, you can do more potentially,

• 32:44Nick Bare?

  even at a more efficient rate.

• 32:50Nick Bare?

  However, the question is, will quality suffer? Are you trying to be the biggest? Are you trying to be the best? Me personally, I'm trying to be the best in everything that I do, not necessarily the biggest.

• 33:07Nick Bare?

  I want to be really proud of what I build and how I build it and who I build it with. Not necessarily that top line number that says, this is how much money you're worth. This is how much money you made. This is how much money you spent.

• 33:26Nick Bare?

  More so like, how did you make people feel? How are you perceived? How are you respected? Who wants to work alongside you and with you?

• 33:40Nick Bare?

  And when I'm thinking about insourcing more and outsourcing less, yeah, we can apply it to business.

• 33:47Nick Bare?

  Definitely can apply it to business. But I think of this more so in terms of our thoughts, our ideas, our perspectives.

• 33:59Nick Bare?

  We should be insourcing

• 34:02Nick Bare?

  our thoughts, ideas, and perspectives that come authentically and genuinely from us. Because we are unique and special in our own way, as opposed to outsourcing that.

• 34:16Nick Bare?

  A few months ago, maybe even years ago at this point, I had a conversation with Matt Boudreau.

• 34:24Nick Bare?

  Who he spent time in the public education system,

• 34:29Nick Bare?

  saw issues in the public education system and then went to the private education system. And he is now trying to make the private education system in the world a better place because of the downfalls that he personally experienced as a professor, as a teacher in the public education system. Not saying that the public education system is bad, but I think that there is definitely room for improvement in certain sectors or categories of the public education system.

• 35:02Nick Bare?

  And when I was having a conversation with Matt, I asked him the question,

• 35:06Nick Bare?

  what is the one thing that new parents do poorly or incorrectly that they could make a change to

• 35:17Nick Bare?

  to have a more positive impact on their children? And he said, the biggest problem he sees is that parents are too willing to outsource everything. Outsource what they value, outsource what their children should value, outsource raising their children, outsource what their kids are being taught, all these things. We, we, we feel the need to outsource everything

• 35:45Nick Bare?

  because there's more experts that exist. It's a more scalable option. It provides us more freedoms for ourselves. It's cost effective, however, at what cost? Quality.

• 36:03Nick Bare?

  So I'm trying to reinforce here is the mindset, mindset shift is

• 36:08Nick Bare?

  don't outsource your thoughts, your ideas, your perspectives

• 36:14Nick Bare?

  going into this next year. Don't let people tell you what you should believe or how you should do things, how you should raise your kids, how you should build your business, what you should be focused on, what you shouldn't be focused on.

• 36:28Nick Bare?

  Instead of outsourcing and looking for the answers,

• 36:33Nick Bare?

  turn back around and find those answers within yourself.

• 36:40Nick Bare?

  In-source more, outsource less. Outsourcing comes with higher output,

• 36:49Nick Bare?

  but lower quality depending on closeness to the visionary and the amount of management that is required.

• 36:59Nick Bare?

  I think we should outsource things that we aren't necessarily passionate about or good at, or maybe even to manage, we can't manage ourselves.

• 37:09Nick Bare?

  And then in-source the things that we love, that we're passionate about, that we care about, and that we are good at. Outsource lower priority, lower risk items. In-source, higher priority, higher risk items.

• 37:28Nick Bare?

  I mean, would I ever outsource raising my children? Would I ever outsource that to someone else? No, because that is high priority, it's high risk. And I want to be able to influence and control my children growing up and being raised. We are more capable than you, me, we may think. We are more capable to do more with what we have

• 38:00Nick Bare?

  than we think we are, because the experts that exist out there

• 38:06Nick Bare?

  aren't as expert as we actually want to believe they are.

• 38:14Nick Bare?

  Here's some areas in my life where in-sourcing has worked and hasn't worked.

• 38:22Nick Bare?

  So a few years ago,

• 38:25Nick Bare?

  we used to outsource all of our web development for VPN. We had an agency that we worked with. And there was a lot of management that came with working with that agency because they weren't in-house. They uh, they were working remotely from afar. So it was very high touch point, high management, but a high quality work. But we outsourced that and we decided that a few years ago, we were going to bring it in-house. So we're going to stop working with an agency. We're going to stop outsourcing that web dev work. And we're going to build a team internally. And that's what we did.

• 39:09Nick Bare?

  We let go of the agency. We built a three-person team in-house, web development, design,

• 39:21Nick Bare?

  management, directors. As we were building that team out, a few things that I've realized is, one,

• 39:31Nick Bare?

  we didn't have the ability. We didn't have the bandwidth. We didn't have the passion. We didn't have the care or the ability necessarily to manage that team internally. Insourcing for that didn't work.

• 39:55Nick Bare?

  So we actually ended up outsourcing that once again. There are certain things that you want to focus in sourcing. There are certain things you want to focus outsourcing. A few years ago as well, we we started asking ourselves the question, you know, we've always done fulfillment in-house. We receive orders, we pack orders here at BPN HQ, we ship them to the final consumer. And we started asking ourselves the question, is that scalable? And is it cost effective? Because a lot of companies we know, a lot of people I know who own e-comm businesses, outsourced their fulfillment to a 3PL fulfillment partner.

• 40:41Nick Bare?

  So we started exploring that and testing it. So we onboarded this, this 3PL micro fulfillment partner who would receive some of our orders. They would pack and fulfill those orders and then ship them out from their warehouse. They were storing some of our products at their warehouse. We were just doing a test with this to see if we wanted to go all in on using a 3PL partner to fulfill all of our orders. So if we did this, we would not ship anything out from BPN HQ.

• 41:19Nick Bare?

  As we started testing this, we realized it was cost effective. Yes, it was scalable. Yes, it allowed us to focus on other parts of the business that weren't as operational,

• 41:35Nick Bare?

  dependent, or heavy, but at what cost? Quality. Shipping times in transit decreased. Mistakes increased. Customer service from this 3PL partner was hard to manage. The experience for the consumer was not nearly as great as it was when they were ordering and, and receiving shipments from BPN HQ. So even though it was cost effective and it was scalable, and it allowed us to focus on other parts of the business, the cost was too high.

• 42:14Nick Bare?

  Because we want to be the best, not necessarily the biggest. So we stopped working with that 3PL partner. We went all in on in-house fulfillment.

• 42:27Nick Bare?

  That's from a business perspective.

• 42:31Nick Bare?

  From a more self-development perspective.

• 42:37Nick Bare?

  For years, I have been reading books, listening to audiobooks, listening to podcasts on my morning runs, on my commute to and from work. In any type of free time I have, I'm trying to consume some sort of content. And what I've really learned in this last year is that you have to be very careful with what content you're consuming and who it's coming from. Because when we listen to a book, we read a book, we listen to a podcast,

• 43:20Nick Bare?

  there's ideas that come up, there's perspectives that come up, there are opinions that come up, there's guidance that is shared, there's advice that is persuasive, there's influence from this content that we are consuming. And if that content is coming from someone who does not necessarily align with our values and our beliefs, then that information, that guidance, that advice can be very misaligned with what we are trying to achieve and accomplish ourselves.

• 44:01Nick Bare?

  I used to listen to all of these self-help entrepreneurial business books from these very popular and famous entrepreneurs, authors, athletes, coaches. But the things that mattered to them in life weren't necessarily the same things that mattered to me in life. To be very clear with that, you know, if there's someone who values money, just money, making as much money as possible, building a business to the greatest size it can, regardless of quality, to be able to put more money in their back pocket and sell for a huge chunk of cash one day,

• 44:46Nick Bare?

  if that's what truly matters to them, the advice that they are providing around business, around life, around family might be extremely misaligned with my values and my beliefs.

• 45:04Nick Bare?

  In that instance, I am outsourcing to someone else guidance and advice for what I should do to get to this next level when there's a misalignment in what we're trying to accomplish and how.

• 45:21Nick Bare?

  So the call to action, the key takeaways here is now, when I consume content, I actually do my due diligence to find out

• 45:33Nick Bare?

  more now than I was previously.

• 45:36Nick Bare?

  Who is generating this content? What are their values? What are their beliefs? What are they trying to build? Why are they trying to build it? What is the, the end goal with this person? And if I align with that message and that mission, then I will explore that content.

• 45:59Nick Bare?

  But if there's a misalignment, it doesn't make sense for me to consume that content because

• 46:05Nick Bare?

  the potential downfall

• 46:08Nick Bare?

  is now I'm outsourcing my next steps with a misaligned value and belief that could potentially set me off course.

• 46:21Nick Bare?

  I'd rather in-source my thoughts, my ideas, my perspectives from content that is aligned with what I believe in. So it keeps me on the path to achieve the things I want to in the way that I want to.

• 46:41Nick Bare?

  In-source more, outsource less. Pursue the process, not the final product.

• 46:52Nick Bare?

  I was thinking about this.

• 46:55Nick Bare?

  Because we just moved into our new house. In the last 15 months, we have made three moves. Which, this move we just completed this past weekend into our new home. I promise you, this is the long-term home. I'm done with moves, especially with two young kids. Brutal. I mean, that is, it was brutal, just, uh, me and my wife are running off like zero sleep because all the packing and unpacking has to pretty much be done when the kids are asleep. But we just moved into our new house.

• 47:40Nick Bare?

  And all of these moves the last 15 months, I mean, we moved to Nashville from Texas. And then from Nashville, back to Texas into a rental. And we were in our rental home for eight months while our house was being built. Our house just got done. We closed on it last week. We just moved in this past weekend. So three big moves in the last 15-ish months. Again, going back to the beginning of this podcast, crazy 2024. Crazy 2024. But I learned a lot and I grew a lot from it.

• 48:21Nick Bare?

  There's a lot of change that we embraced and leaned into. And in 2024, I will, I will tell you, I grew more personally and professionally than I have in any year before that. And I hope that with each additional year, I say that about the previous year. That is my goal. But we finally moved into our new house.

• 48:52Nick Bare?

  And one thing that I was thinking about as we were building this home, we had a really great builder and we had a really great designer and they worked together.

• 49:02Nick Bare?

  And this designer worked very closely with Steph. I was very hands off on this project, by the way. Steph was a very hands on.

• 49:13Nick Bare?

  Steph and this designer worked very closely together to bring the vision to life.

• 49:19Nick Bare?

  And then the builder worked alongside us and the designer. So it was a three person team essentially to bring this whole project together.

• 49:33Nick Bare?

  And working with this builder and working with this designer, you could tell they cared so much about their work. They cared so much about the results, the outcome, but also the process. They would make changes to the design and the build. And you would see them light up with these changes. You would see them light up where they would walk into the house and see progress being done. And there was so much attention to detail and care and commitment to the process. They truly cared so much about their work.

• 50:18Nick Bare?

  They were in love with the process.

• 50:23Nick Bare?

  And that's why as soon as they finished our house and this project, they were going to move on to new projects and new homes and new designs, new builds.

• 50:37Nick Bare?

  For them, it wasn't just about getting the job done. While it is important to get the job done, you could tell by the look in their eyes and the way that they worked, they truly cared about their work.

• 50:53Nick Bare?

  The reason so many people aren't where they want to be

• 50:58Nick Bare?

  is because they don't care enough about the things they are working on or towards.

• 51:04Nick Bare?

  If you don't care about what you're working on.

• 51:11Nick Bare?

  I can promise you it is not going to be good. I can promise you it's not going to be good. If you don't care,

• 51:22Nick Bare?

  it's going to be crap.

• 51:25Nick Bare?

  So I had this experience working with this builder and designer. They truly cared about their work. They were truly passionate about their work. And the skills they were acquiring with each additional project,

• 51:40Nick Bare?

  that they were pursuing the process, not necessarily the final product. The flip side of that, the opposite, is as the house was coming to an end,

• 51:52Nick Bare?

  I had to set up the utilities. And we had a lot of problem getting our internet set up. Because in the neighborhood that we built this new home in,

• 52:03Nick Bare?

  there was one internet provider that we were able to use. Just one. So I called this internet provider. And keep in mind, all of my neighbors have internet by the same internet provider.

• 52:19Nick Bare?

  So I called to set up internet, thinking that they'd be able to send someone out in the next couple of days to get it all hooked up.

• 52:27Nick Bare?

  And they looked into the system and the system said that this address was not serviceable. And that there was a cost to build associated with this home. So I was like, okay, I get that it's a new home.

• 52:43Nick Bare?

  What does that look like? What's the process to get internet pulled to my house? Because I know my neighbors, all of my neighbors have internet service from the same provider. And they said, sir, well, this is a new home from what I'm seeing in our system. So it's going to be nine to 12 months until we can get you service.

• 53:06Nick Bare?

  And I said, "Well, I'm moving to this house in three days, so what other options do we have?"

• 53:13Nick Bare?

  And I am never someone who's going to get mad at customer service when I call in or a sales team. Because I understand, most of the time, they are just the messenger. It is not their fault that the system says that I can't get service. It is not their fault that

• 53:35Nick Bare?

  something wasn't done or tagged properly in the backend. So what good is it gonna do if I get mad at this customer service rep or sales team? Because it's not their fault, most of the times.

• 53:56Nick Bare?

  I have thoughts around people who yell at customer service and are so angry and so mean

• 54:03Nick Bare?

  when oftentimes, there's nothing that they can do on the other side.

• 54:08Nick Bare?

  That's another point. But, the reason I say this is an opposite is because I explained the situation to the customer service team.

• 54:19Nick Bare?

  And I explained how there was actually a representative, a technician, from the internet provider at the house two days ago. And they showed me that there was actually

• 54:34Nick Bare?

  the cable for that internet service pulled to the house. They showed it to me. I knew it was there. So I explained to them on the other side, that situation. There was a tech there, they had internet pulled to the house,

• 54:48Nick Bare?

  but they might not have tagged it in system in the backend properly yet. Is there anything you can do to, you know, push this to a different department, or what can we do?

• 54:59Nick Bare?

  And I could tell the person on the other line just didn't care. And they said, "There's nothing we can do. Sorry."

• 55:07Nick Bare?

  I said, I understand there's nothing you can do, but again, I explained my situation. This is my only internet option. I know my neighbors have internet. I know internet was pulled to the house by a technician and I'm moving in in a couple of days. What can we do next steps wise to make this happen? And they said, there's nothing we can do. I could tell on the other side, they just didn't care enough about their job. They didn't care enough about helping the customer. They didn't care enough about helping me because someone that was willing to pursue the process,

• 55:51Nick Bare?

  someone who actually cared about their job would have gone the extra mile, would have put forth the extra effort, would have tried something differently to help solve this problem. They just didn't care enough. So the first step in pursuing the process is caring. You gotta care about the process. You have to care about the process, not just the final product.

• 56:26Nick Bare?

  People will judge your success based off of your journey in the process.

• 56:34Nick Bare?

  And that's okay.

• 56:37Nick Bare?

  For example, as we were building this house,

• 56:43Nick Bare?

  and you know, when we took over the house until it was completed, it was eight months, but the house was 70% done when we started working on it. So it was more than an eight month project, but from the time we started it, it was already, the bones were already there. A lot was already done.

• 57:09Nick Bare?

  And if you would have walked in six months ago from now into that house, and you're next to the builder and the builder says, "What do you think of my work? What do you think of, of what I do here?" And if you would have judged that home six months ago, based off of where it was at,

• 57:28Nick Bare?

  you might say, "This is a mess. There's materials everywhere, the walls aren't done, lights aren't in, landscaping is not completed, there's no grass. Ah, man, like, this is no good. This kind of sucks."

• 57:47Nick Bare?

  And the builder's trying to paint you this vision, "Well, like, the grass is going to be here, and there's going to be plants, and the wall's going to be wood, and we're going to have these accent pieces, and these are the fixtures we're installing, and this is what the backyard is going to feel and look like, and this is the environment we're trying to create." And as they're, they're painting this vision, as this builder's painting this vision, the person can't see it, they can't picture it, they can't visualize what it's going to look like.

• 58:18Nick Bare?

  So their perception of this project, of this home, is that it's no good.

• 58:26Nick Bare?

  So many times, when we're pursuing the process, and we haven't reached the final product, but we know what we're pursuing. We're pursuing improvement and betterment and progress over time, and we fall in love with that process. People along the way are going to judge the journey as it's in the process, and the process is muddy, it's dirty, it's a mess. People will view your process and your journey as exactly that. Dirty, messy, muddy, unfinished.

• 59:12Nick Bare?

  But you're not finished yet. You're in the process and people can't see, people can't visualize what you're building, what you're, you're working towards. So if you let people influence your passion and love for the process, when they're judging the process for something they can't see or visualize or hold because they're waiting for the final product, that influence can negatively impact your ability and willingness to fall in love and embrace the process.

• 59:53Nick Bare?

  The reason you aren't where you want to be because you're not willing to pursue the process and you just don't care enough about the things you're working on.

• 1:00:04Nick Bare?

  Work towards visions. Embrace the process. Don't allow the influence of others based off the perception of where you're at in that journey to redirect you or reshift you towards something new, different,

• 1:00:26Nick Bare?

  or completely off course of what you're trying to accomplish. Work towards visions and not finish lines. And number five is to welcome downtime.

• 1:00:40Nick Bare?

  You know, I used to hate the holidays and downtime made me so uncomfortable and I found a lot of actually pride in that.

• 1:00:51Nick Bare?

  Around Christmas time, around Thanksgiving,

• 1:00:55Nick Bare?

  I'd become angry. This is while like really in the thick of building BPN.

• 1:01:03Nick Bare?

  Resentful. Grumpy.

• 1:01:08Nick Bare?

  And I think a lot of this was because I felt the need to maintain this momentum of bootstrapping this business from zero.

• 1:01:19Nick Bare?

  And during the holidays, I witnessed and watched a lot of people relax, take their foot off the gas.

• 1:01:28Nick Bare?

  Welcome downtime, welcome vacation, welcome rest.

• 1:01:35Nick Bare?

  And I became resentful and angry at other people because they did this and I didn't think I had the ability to. I thought that if I welcomed downtime, that I would start losing and digress and decline.

• 1:01:54Nick Bare?

  So I hated the holidays for years and years and years. And even early on, when I was dating Steph and married to Steph, her, her family would make jokes about how I dislike the holidays. And as a young entrepreneur, I was very prideful of this. Yeah, I don't like the holidays because I don't like to rest. I just like to work. I was so prideful in this and it was so immature and naive and ignorant, if I'm being honest.

• 1:02:30Nick Bare?

  We should welcome downtime.

• 1:02:40Nick Bare?

  One of my favorite stories from one of my favorite authors and pastors is Erwin of Camanis.

• 1:02:49Nick Bare?

  He talks about how downtime is not wasted time, but it's an opportunity to sharpen our axe.

• 1:02:56Nick Bare?

  I've shared this story before. And it's really built off Ecclesiastes 10 that says, "If the axe is dull and its edge unsharpened, more strength is needed, but skill will bring success." If the axe is dull and its edge unsharpened, more strength is needed, but skill will bring success. That skill.

• 1:03:30Nick Bare?

  Potentially comes from downtime. And Erwin McManus, in one of his books, shares this story about a lumberjack. And early when he was, early in his career, when he was younger, he worked as a lumberjack. And with these other lumberjacks that he worked with, many were much older than him. And he assumed that just like showing up to work, that he was going to cut down so many more trees than these older gentlemen. These older gentlemen were old, weak, gray, not as fit, not as built, not as athletic.

• 1:04:15Nick Bare?

  So he just assumed that he would be more productive in cutting down trees than these older gentlemen. And he would go and chop down these trees and he would swing his axe over and over and over again all day. And by the end of the day, they'd find out who chopped down the most trees. And these older gentlemen had always chopped down more trees than him. And he investigated this and he finally realized, all these older gentlemen would go to work in the morning, they'd start chopping down trees and as soon as their axe became dull, they would drop it off to get sharpened and they would take a nap while the axes were

• 1:05:00Nick Bare?

  getting sharpened. So then when they came back and started chopping again, their axes were so much more effective because they were not dull. They were sharp. If the axe is dull and its edge unsharpened, more strength is needed. Erwin was applying more strength, but the older gentlemen were applying skill. And with skill, they experienced more success.

• 1:05:34Nick Bare?

  Downtime is not necessarily a negative. Downtime is where we sharpen our axe. It's where we prepare to come back to battle even stronger. Sharper physically, sharper mentally. And for much of my personal and professional life and career,

• 1:05:54Nick Bare?

  I thought that the only way to get from point A to point B was more strength. Apply more strength, apply more work. Even as I become dull, keep pushing harder, keep pushing further. Even as that, that work becomes less effective, less productive, I'd rather keep working and making progress as opposed to resting and coming back sharper, more refined, stronger.

• 1:06:29Nick Bare?

  Axe sharpening is where we, we rest. It's where we embrace downtime. It's that when we actually come back to work, the work that we're doing has monumental ability to make epic progress.

• 1:06:49Nick Bare?

  And if you have little failures under your belt, Irwin said, is that your edge is probably dull. The way that you sharpen your axe

• 1:07:03Nick Bare?

  is not just downtime. But it's when we're on the clock, when we're working, we're pushing the boundaries, we're failing in the process, we're learning from those failures and we're refining. We're growing, we're improving.

• 1:07:25Nick Bare?

  So much of sharpening your axe is building and refining skills.

• 1:07:31Nick Bare?

  And another one of my favorite authors is Cal Newport, and he has a book, it's called, "So Good, They Can't Ignore You." He has this really good section in that book, talking all about passion and skill that I felt obligated to share in this one.

• 1:07:49Nick Bare?

  Because so many people, I think myself included, at a young age,

• 1:07:55Nick Bare?

  stressed out, a little bit more than probably needed or necessary, about finding a passion and pursuing a passion. Where do we, where do we,

• 1:08:07Nick Bare?

  where, how do we spend our life, our work, our meaning?

• 1:08:12Nick Bare?

  How do we make sure that passion is truly a passion? And Cal Newport says, "Don't follow your passion. Follow the path to build and create quality and valuable skills." The real victory in pursuing skills

• 1:08:29Nick Bare?

  in letting your passion be a byproduct in skill acquisition.

• 1:08:36Nick Bare?

  So don't feel this obligation to find a passion, follow your passion, live your life out in this passion, but the real victory

• 1:08:51Nick Bare?

  is pursuing skills, learning skills, refining skills, and passion will become a byproduct in skill acquisition. You become a weapon

• 1:09:04Nick Bare?

  for so many other people, for yourself, industries, companies, brands. When you're highly skilled, you're highly valuable.

• 1:09:15Nick Bare?

  And then passion becomes a byproduct of learning those skills, acquiring those skills, and applying them to your work in something that matters to you.

• 1:09:25Nick Bare?

  That's the passion. The passion is skill acquisition. And we maximize skill acquisition by embracing and welcoming downtime.

• 1:09:39Nick Bare?

  We want to be sharp.

• 1:09:42Nick Bare?

  We want to be skillful. We want to avoid dullness. Where more strength is required.

• 1:09:52Nick Bare?

  Welcome downtime. Embrace that holiday. Embrace the rest because you know when you come back, you come back swinging. You're swinging to go to battle, not just survive.

• 1:10:07Nick Bare?

  So those are the mindset shifts that. I'm keeping at the forefront of my mind going to this next year. And I encourage you to invite as well.

• 1:10:20Nick Bare?

  So I hope you guys enjoyed this episode, something I'm truly passionate about. Really enjoy. Sitting with and just digesting. I hope you did too. So we'll see you in the next episode.