Public Safety Innovators

Why do we place so much emphasis on compromise? And why do we so often settle for a mediocre outcome when our potential is so much greater? From the moment we're able to comprehend human language, our parents and educators have been teaching us the importance of compromise. We've been taught to think that compromise is essential for successful relationships, careers, and even in our businesses. But, what if we've been misled all along? What if the secret to a fulfilled life is actually placing greater emphasis on NOT compromising? What if it were possible to achieve success without sacrifice? I believe it is possible - and in this first episode of the Uncompromised Podcast I'm going to introduce you to exactly how we'll journey through that together.

It's been awhile since you've heard new episodes of the COPreneur Path Podcast. In this episode I'm going to tell you why...

If technology is supposed to be making our lives easier, why does it seem like it only does the opposite? Pre-COVID, the average person was spending more than 12 hours a day in front of some kind of screen. Feeling stressed? Want to unplug? Looking for a way to be more productive while still having more time off and removing yourself from "the grind." There are no "hacks" here or trendy new shortcuts, just solid advice and easy to implement practices. Start your work week with Rob Krecak's episode.

COPreneurs should be well versed in the practice of thinking ahead. ...should. Do you know where you want to be in a year? Two? Five? Do you eventually want to exit your company? Are you putting the things in place NOW that you'll need in order to make that happen? Or are your SOPs, your strategies, and your company roles only pointed to the present? Worse, are they trying to catch up to where you currently are? Don't wait until it happens, start acting on what is to come. This episode pairs well with episode 105.

Do you feel like you have all the energy of a dead battery? Feel like you're missing out on all the fun things in life that you used to enjoy? Has your self identity been the same thing as your job description for so long that you don't even remember being anyone or anything else? Well stop that, it isn't healthy. As our guest today, Heather Hansen O'Neill, explains, diversity of thought is what leads to the exponential growth that uncovers the things we were supposed to know all along. Find your inner fire, renew passions, and be more than just a job description.

Ah, the government. There is nothing more steady than a government gig, and nothing more permanent than a temporary government program. Right? Steven Lentz had quite a different experience when he joined, re-joined, and later re-re-joined the fire department only to leave, again, shortly later and go full time with his marketing agency.

When Brenden didn't go out for sports in college, his "nerd club" was presented with the nail-biting choice between hoisting a rock onto a pedestal to be their leader... or choosing him. Brenden went on to become a great leader, great communicator, and started his own YouTube channel to help others. THEN, he founded MasterTalk and began getting handsomely paid to help executives and entrepreneurs overcome fears and faults concerning communication. Today, Brenden joins us and helps break down public speaking and uncomfortable communications by using mangos, toilet paper, and learning to juggle.

Businesses run into problems in three areas. Catastrophe, Ignorance, and Ineptitude. So can you really prevent what what you can't control, aren't aware of, and can't handle? Do the secrets learned in the bygone days of libraries and card catalogs and microfilm still apply today? It turns out they do indeed, and you've probably already been gaining experience in recognizing them throughout your LE career. It really comes down to recognizing patterns and being able to P.A.C.E. yourself when needed.

Hey. *pause for effect* How you doin'? Don't let the title fool you, this week's episode won't get you sent to HR. You not ACTUALLY dating your clients. But the parallels between business and dating are frequently heavily ignored. Pretty might get attention but it doesn't sell. The only way your business grows is when relationships grow.

All things considered, the reality of life as a fighter pilot isn't that much different than that of a cop. For every lap Luke Layman made around the desert at 40,000 feet, we made a lap or two around the city. There were moments of great excitement and hours of "meh", with a public perception that has plenty of Hollywood sprinkled in.  Did that crush a dream or two? Sorry. Luke also says you can't be your own boss, so he's likely to step on some feelings if you stick around.  That said, we HIGHLY encourage you to stick around for some of the purest words of wisdom and insight ever delivered on our show. 

One of the most important things any business can have is control of their online presence. No matter how rigid you want to be on your views of technology in general or the internet specifically, in order to run a business in the current year, you MUST have a website. Simply put, your business WILL ALWAYS HAVE an online presence. And if you're not the one controlling it, Google will take the liberty of filling out the details of your digital space with what it thinks is the best fit. Do you have the knowledge to run this efficiently yourself? Do you know if your site should be the foundation of all that you do online? Do you know how and why your website is like a crockpot? Which is better, less... or more? Less or more of what? Exactly. You NEED to listen to this episode.

You did it! You've finally reached the end! We promise this will be the last Best of Show marathon we ever do. Hopefully this has been helpful for new listeners wondering where to start or how to get caught up, as well as established listeners who might not have ever revisited some of this content since it first came out. Thank you again to all of our awesome guests and amazing fans!

With the end of memory lane in sight, we've had a hard time in the editing room. Our guests have been amazing, and creating a "Best of Show" has proven to be a little harder than we anticipated. As we head into the final months of the year, we hope revisiting the older episodes can be just as refreshing and motivating for you as it has been for us.

Don't mind us, we're just looking over our old photos and smiling like fools at the journey that brought us here. We're not quite ready to tell you to write a book again (But, have you considered it yet? We've done probably 6 episodes about it.) but we're not saying we're above that either. Instead, this episode is looking back at financial freedom, the entrepreneurial mindset, skill stacking, and how to optimize your website.

Starting this podcast, we never dreamed that it would take off the way it has. We've seen guests turn into repeat guests, or better yet, close friends. We've gained much more knowledge than we could ever hope to have imparted (though we do hope we pass it on!), and Seen opportunities arise at home and abroad. As a fun trip down memory lane, and to give some of our more memorable guests extra air time, we decided to revisit the entirety of the series over the course of the next few episodes as we finish gearing up for Season 3. Thank you guys, gals, and COPreneurs for making this possible.

When you've been doing the same thing over and over and over again for 21 years you get options. You can get really good at that thing. You can start to not like it anymore. You can analyze it in ways it has never been analyzed before and pick it apart. You can look for ways to make it better. Jason Louis may have done just that. After spending a significant amount of time training other officers, Jason took his gripe sheet and turned it into a to-do list. He started working on changing law enforcement training in a way that most haven't ever seen before, and founded The Briefing Room. Rather than the same cherry picked scenarios and 4,000 slide death-by-PowerPoint, The Briefing Room creates clear, concise videos that stay front of mind and encourage mental exercises and discussion. Did we mention that he did all this while still working nights at the S.O.?

Backlinks and schema and alt tags oh my! Do you know what things on your site are impacting your ranking on search engines? Do you know what things you can fix yourself? What things you should hire out? Did you know some of the most dramatic things you can do to rank better have nothing to do with having more people talking about your site? Brandon Leibowitz joins the conversation to help you make sense of all the tech talk.

Are there really only 5 principles that will drive your business and 5x it in 5 years? Quite possibly. Are they as simple to define as the Rule of 26? Unfortunately no. Rather than adding his two cents and giving you "another tool for the toolbox" Steve Preda breaks it down and makes it easy to understand. Without giving too much away, start with why. Always start with why.

Ryan works at a busy firehouse, runs a marketing company, runs an awesome charity for kids, AND still has time to be a husband and father. He swears this is due to his strict adherence to his calendar but we secretly suspect cloning.

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore— While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. “'Tis Mike Capuzzi,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door. Only this and nothing more.” Mis-quoth the Raven, "Just one more!" We're back, and we're talking about BOOKS! Short Books! #SHOOKS

When it comes time to make decisions that impact your business and how it functions, nobody will argue that knowledge is power. Knowing which pieces of information to focus on, and which ones to ignore, and why, is powerful knowledge in and of itself. When it comes time to worry about revenue growth, especially in uncertain times, the proper method is to resort to numbers rather than snake oil. So settle in and lend Michael Buzinski a listen as he explains how focusing on only 3 key metrics will double your revenue.

We make references to Jocko and Extreme Ownership fairly frequently and now we're joined by Jeff Cohen to talk about a very critical, but sometimes tense topic. Accountability. Is it a bastion of personal character? A quasi-confrontational conversation? An all out witch hunt? Maybe all of the above, situation dependent? How can we approach this in a positive light? And exactly what the heck does it mean to be "count-on-able?" Come find out.

A great many people undertake adventures in life that are highly interesting to others. It may even be possible that a great many more people have stories worth writing down, than those who actually put forth the effort to write them down. What adventures have you had, what knowledge do you possess, what worthwhile content could YOU fill a book with? And why have you not done so? Lack of time? Writer's block? The constant shifting of priorities? We're joined this week by Mike Ulmer whose book writing methods are distinctly different than any we've come across so far. How so? Well... we can't give it all away up front!

Just like we talked about in episode 56, the legalities of starting, growing, or scaling your business aren't the fun, creative, wonderful things we dreamed about for all those years when we were thinking about becoming a COPreneur. Don't put the cart before the horse, and don't hose yourself later on because of something you skipped when starting out!

If you've been to a Breacher booth at a show, there is a decent chance I threw cutlery at you and asked "Do you like to eat food sometimes?" Why? Some of our best connections have come from the engagement opportunities that were unexpected. Anders Boulanger is a PRO at driving engagement, and he joins us this week to share some of the secrets he uses to drive personal connections in person and online.

Hi [first name], we've been trying to reach you about your vehicle's extended warranty. Come sit down with Adam and another Adam this week and unlock the secrets to FINALLY understanding how to successfully manage cold email outreach campaigns without being tagged as canned lunch meat. ...spam. Talking about spam here.

"Come sit down with us this week as Nancy Jeutten shares her secrets to making friends with strangers on the internet and getting more awesome air time on other people's podcasts! As Nancy says, ""Get known, get paid!"

Slow is smooth, and smooth is indeed fast. However, don't think you can leave the car in park and let your inactivity pass for a super slow, and therefore super smooth ride. This week we unpack some ideas that might contribute to LE's general hesitation to work in our own best interests. After all, the only thing cops hate more than staying the same is changing!

If you've ever sat through any form of presentation, chances are great that you've been in one that just... sucked. If you've ever been tasked with giving a presentation, hopefully you've remembered those lackluster presentations and wanted to stay far away from hosting one of your own. But how? How do you manage to captivate an audience while still being informative? Dan Fraser of Fraser Training Solutions, and author of "Kickass Presentations" joins us this week to help break the topic down.

Is using your retirement savings as business capital a smart move, or a gamble against yourself? Daniel Blue gives his thoughts on the matter and explains that the applications that might not be as crazy as they seem at face value.

Summary? I'm not giving you a stinking summary! We're putting topics in a hat and relating ALL of them to business as they're drawn! Wandering drunkards, Target, murder mysteries, craft beer, spelling errors, Shakespeare, and sending pictures of yourself with random women to your wife are all permissible topics.

When Tim made the choice to skip college to avoid partying, he had no idea that would be the first step in his multi-million dollar business journey. Tim sat down this week to share how he has gained hundreds of thousands of members on his platform, and lost hundreds of thousands of dollars along the way.

"If we always choose comfort, we never learn the deepest capabilities of our mind or body" -Wim "The Iceman" Hof Just as you NEED failure and adversity in your personal life in order to grow and build character, your business NEEDS failures and adversity in order to survive and thrive. How can you find boundaries if they aren't pushed? How can you start, grow, or scale if you're planted in the same comfortable spot? Get out there and get after it. Even the sweetest cakes need a little salt.

It doesn't matter if you meant to or not, you brought more home with you than you should have while you were (or are) a cop. Perhaps one of the biggest reasons you started your own business is to escape some of that, and take command over your own schedule. However if you can't find a way to drop those workaholic tendencies, all you've done is redefine "Retired On Duty." Be happy. Be healthy. K.I.S.S.

All LEOs know that physical fitness can be the key to your survival on patrol. But is it really that big of a deal if you work an assignment that is mostly office hours? What if you're retired? Who could you ever need to fight for your very survival now that you're a COPreneur? Yourself. Despite everything you just read, my guest this week takes a very logical and guilt free approach to finding motivation and reason to carve time out in your schedule to make sure you're taking care of yourself. Can you push yourself while still remaining inside your comfort zone? Come listen and find out.

What could be more ironic than a motor cop who spent his entire career issuing citations starting a business that helps individuals with their personal finances? In this episode we get to look inside the process that Jason Hoschouer aka Motorcop, went through as he left his law enforcement career behind to help first responders get off the vicious cycle of overtime and create a personal spending plan that works.

If you have any desire to scale or sell your business you need to hear the knowledge Bharat Kanodia brings to this episode as he explains what investors are looking for in you - and what you need to be looking for in them. As it turns out, the willingness to write or cash a big check is not the only thing that needs to be considered. Tune in and learn why some startups get a multi-million dollar valuation right out of the gate, and why some can't; how to survive an episode of Shark Tank; and why you NEED monthly recurring revenue. Get all links, resources and show notes at https://leo2ceo.com/copreneur-path/078

Are you taking on too many things by yourself as you start, run, or grow your business? Are you STILL doing things the way you've always done it? It might be time to take a new approach and work in a way that creates confidence in uncertainty. In this episode Jerrod and Adam talk about several ways officers have been conditioned to get in our own way, as well as several ways to break these habits and win the day. Get all links, resources and show notes at https://leo2ceo.com/copreneur-path/077

Are you stuck in the concept or startup phase of your business? Does it seem like you're stalled out on accomplishing the things that are most important for moving the needle? You're not abnormal. As cops, we become accustomed to the adrenaline rush we get from shifting focus rapidly from one task to the next. But this isn't a good habit for your business. In this episode Austin and I will share some insight into how we shift our mindset to overcome this debilitating habit. Get all links, resources and show notes at https://leo2ceo.com/copreneur-path/076

Do you want my secret to success with my business? It's Mastermind groups. Mastermind groups are an incredible way to hyper-charge the growth of your business - regardless of what stage you're in. I believe the people you surround yourself with will have a profound effect on your life, your thinking, and your business. Mastermind groups are for business owners, and aspiring entrepreneurs, who want to improve their business and who are willing to put the effort in. A Mastermind group is not a networking group or a coffee club, it is for individuals who are serious about growing their business and who have the discipline to follow through. In this episode I'm going to share with you my top 10 reasons why you need to be in a Mastermind group, and I'll share with you how you can get started in one today. Get all links, resources and show notes at https://leo2ceo.com/copreneur-path/075

When thinking about your customer journey or the path a customer follows when they do business with you, there is a difference between providing customer service and a customer experience. Today Austin and I talk about how implementing a focus on improving your customer journey, including their onboarding process and their entire experience, will help you avoid customer service issues where you are often put in the place of trying to fix something that was not working for them. Enhancing your customer's experience and making it one they are blown away by, will grow your business. It will help you stand out from the crowd, generate referrals and positive reviews. And you will gain confidence, giving you more flexibility in your offer, allowing you to charge what you're worth. People tell stories about their experiences with businesses all the time, whether good or bad. Let your customers tell stories about the great encounter they had with you. Listen to this episode to learn how you can add value to your business with a better customer experience. Get all the links, resources and show notes at https://leo2ceo.com/copreneur-path/074

Most cops have a negative view of online learning. But as a COPreneur, you need to completely re-think your perspective. Online courses have the ability to create significant opportunities to grow your business's revenue and most importantly create recurring revenue that gives you the capital to scale. In this episode, co-host Austin Molcyk and I will share with you some ideas and strategies to tap into. Get all the links, resources and show notes at https://leo2ceo.com/copreneur-path/073

Are you happy with the life you've created for yourself? If not, it is time for a change. Studies show that two out of every three people are not happy with their current reality. If this resonates with you, listen to this conversation I had with Cary Jack. Cary's had a slew of jobs across an amazing array of industries. However, it wasn't until he fell victim to his ever-growing entrepreneurial burnout that he realized the importance of work-life balance. He now lives by the mantra, "Balance equals happiness." He's written a book about the "10 Alignments Framework" he uses to achieve this balance. His goal is to teach others how they too can transform their dreams into reality and stop sacrificing happiness. Are you ready to put happiness in your hustle? Listen today! Get all the links, resources and show notes at https://leo2ceo.com/copreneur-path/072

2020 and 2021 have been tough for law enforcement. But out of those challenges are coming some very exciting things in the world of law enforcement training in 2022. In this extended episode, I chat with the host of the Tactical Breakdown Podcast, Adam Kinakin. Adam and I talk about big things happening with the ILET Network, LEO2CEO and BreacherCRM for 2022. Grab some popcorn and check it out! Get all the links, resources and show notes at https://leo2ceo.com/copreneur-path/071

There are soooo many things to focus on in your business. Where do you put your greatest energy and attention in order to see the highest impact? Being someone who is very detail-oriented (perfectionist

If you've ever considered writing a book, then you owe it to yourself to listen to this episode! Authoring a book can do tremendous things for the growth of your business and personal brand, but the process of writing, publishing, and promoting a book is simply overwhelming. In this episode, Julie Broad, founder of Book Launchers, will share with you tips on how to get started writing your book, how to promote it, and even what to do if you have the ideas but no time to write the book yourself. Get all the links, resources and show notes at https://leo2ceo.com/copreneur-path/069

How do you think emotionally intelligent police officers handle themselves? How about emotionally intelligent entrepreneurs? Today on the podcast, I talk with Dr. Michael Goold, a COPreneur himself and a member of the LEO2CEO Community. Michael shares with us his thoughts on why understanding emotional intelligence is so important for the future of law enforcement and lifts the curtain a bit on his own COPreneurial journey. Get all the links, resources and show notes at https://leo2ceo.com/copreneur-path/068

There's nothing worse than finding yourself stuck IN your business when you know you need to be working ON it. Conversely, there's nothing better than automating all the mundane tasks that suck your time and energy, ultimately meaning you will make more money. Today I am joined for the first time by co-host Austin Molcyk to talk about the various ways that our new software, BreacherCRM can help you track and nurture leads, increase client retention, book more classes, and create recurring revenue for your law enforcement instructor business. Get all the links, resources and show notes at https://leo2ceo.com/copreneur-path/067

Many cops get so caught up in the idea that they need to establish a business connected to their law enforcement work that they miss out on some of the most lucrative possibilities right in front of them. Like me, my guest today has been growing a successful business that started off as a hobby. Paul Lewis unintentionally began his business when he started stitching together custom hunting, fishing and tactical gear for himself. Friends and co-workers began asking him to make stuff for them and FHF Gear was born. Fast-forward to today, when FHF Gear has blossomed into a huge success. It was acquired by Meat Eater Inc last year. Paul is still the company's CEO, and he tells us about his own COPreneurial path in this interview. Get all the links, resources and show notes at https://leo2ceo.com/copreneur-path/066

Being an COPreneur comes with lots of challenges. Chances are, you're going to suck at some things. But that's okay, because you can learn from your mistakes. In this episode, I'll share with you some blunders of my own and how I learned from them. If you are willing to admit that you're going to suck at some things, you're already on your way to becoming a successful entrepreneur. So listen in and learn how to overcome the suck factor. Get all links, resources and show notes at https://leo2ceo.com/copreneur-path/065

If you're thinking about becoming a COPreneur you don't always have to start a business from scratch. Today I'm chatting with Chad M. Bruckner, a fellow COPreneur who was able to fast-forward his journey from cop to business owner by purchasing an existing business. This can have many advantages, including having processes already in place and revenue flow, making it easier to work on your business and not in your business. Chad shares his story from a military career, to law enforcement, and now to owning Intercounty Investigations & Solutions, a private investigations company that specializes in pre-employment screenings and investigations. He explains how the opportunity to purchase the business came to be, and how he wrestled with his final decision to leave law enforcement for the private sector. Chad also has a deep passion to help those who struggle with mental health and works diligently to break the stigma surrounding it. Get all the links, resources and show notes at https://leo2ceo.com/copreneur-path/064