2025: A Looking Back on the Hustle

Scott Schaper: Welcome to the Spirit Health and Hustle podcast listeners. It's our last week of the year, our last podcast this year. started a new season, I think next week, which will be exciting. So Brian and I thought we would look back at 25 because that's the most popular thing to do, do a wrap up and a look forward. look at business, ⁓ at health, look at spirit, look at the hustle and see what we want to do. So Brian, how's it going, man?

Brian McMaster: It's going good. Can you believe we only have a couple more days left in 2025?

Scott Schaper: What's on? you have anything scheduled? You taking taking any of this week off or what?

Brian McMaster: We are closed tomorrow no, not taking off. No, we're actually Amber's got things going on tomorrow, so I'll probably come into the office, but we're closed as an organization. So I'm just kind of everything to a close, looking at what happened last year and. And we'll talk about this, but we just hired a new CFO, so she's been digging in for the last week and a half, and that's been good too. So, really good, but you know, I'm an eternal optimist. So, no, it's been good. She comes from the industry, and it's just nice to have a new fresh set of eyes. So.

Scott Schaper: early impressions. So what went right and what fell short in 2025 for go spirit, health and hustle. mean, what would you like to, ⁓ can kind of cover all these many topics. ⁓

Brian McMaster: Well, this has been a long year, so this might be an hour 45 minute episode. What's gone good? What's gone good? You know, you know, first thing that comes to mind for me is it was a learning year. You know, I've been, as we've talked about in several of the episodes, we've been in business for 22 years. June of 26 will be 23 years. And... ⁓ But this year me has been a lot of reflection and think from the hustle standpoint it's been ⁓ a lot challenges this year a lot of people challenges a lot of ins and outs and changes and You ⁓ know ⁓ from health standpoint always been a solid anchor in my life So that keeps me going keeps headed in the right direction ⁓ and from a spirit You know, as you know, my faith leads me. So I think all those things have been strong this year, but there's been, man, there's been some times that, you know, as we've talked, where I've been like, man, I wish I was flipping burgers or not to say that that's not a bad thing, but, know, just something easier, you know, and if you're, if you, as an entrepreneur, as you know, if you're not thinking that every now and then, or trying to escape, you're, you're probably not normal. So.

Scott Schaper: Right. Also for new entrepreneurs out there with new companies, maybe ⁓ less than a couple million or just a couple of years old. you think, man, if I can just get to year four, if I can just get over a million, if I could just, whatever that is, if you think that ⁓ problems get easier or start drifting away, it's just you're fooling yourself. All the problems get more complex. They up quicker. You have to rely on your team to help solve them. And there's lot of...

Brian McMaster: think that's a good thing.

Scott Schaper: ⁓ I always say what got you here won't get you there. So you're constantly reinventing. had an old partner that would always say always arriving. And always thought that was keen insight. When you think about it, you can go pretty deep with that.

Brian McMaster: Let's face it, that's how we're built. You know, when you talk about entrepreneur business, running a business, owning a business, you obviously ⁓ running business has its challenges. Owning a business and running a business has multiple challenges, but you know, that's one thing I think was a big realization for me this year as I went through some of those challenges was, ⁓ you know, is who I am. This is what I do. ⁓ And ⁓ it went south tomorrow, I would still do the same thing. I would keep moving forward. would keep trying to find. you know, other options and other alternatives. But heard this somewhere one time that ⁓ ⁓ squander two fortunes if they think they can make another one. ⁓ ⁓ know, I kind of resonate with that. I don't want to squander a fortune by any stretch of imagination, but, you we take risks. ⁓ And, you like to think that those risks are calculated. And to degree they are.

Scott Schaper: You

Brian McMaster: but to a large degree they're not. And I think ⁓ part of being a pioneer, right? You ⁓ chop some trees down and see what's on the other side before ⁓ can ⁓ where the next direction is. ⁓ it's good stuff though. ⁓ wouldn't have it any other way.

Scott Schaper: Yeah, when I look back at 25, I'll just talk about spirit for a minute. I have done a pretty good job of outsourcing all of my work in the company to employees and new hires. And I found in 25 was the first year that I lost my doer identity in terms of getting my hands dirty with the work. And so that was disorienting for me for a good part of the year. And it wasn't until in the last maybe few weeks or maybe the last month in the holidays, ⁓ I started pulling out of it, that I realized I was in a bit of a depression. I think I had, and I don't experience depression, ⁓ thankfully. I wish that upon anybody. I know that's a rough topic for people. But I just didn't know how to identify it because I don't deal with it. So I look back and as I do a little research, I'm like, yeah, I kind of went through that a little bit. And that was just switching of identity. And I think that is a new frontier in entrepreneurialism for me, is figuring out how to adapt personally to, you even you would think that that's great progress, except I didn't see it that way. was having to let go.

Brian McMaster: Yeah.

Scott Schaper: of some of the operations to truly talented people, but it's no longer a reflection of me. And ⁓ that was hard to figure out.

Brian McMaster: Yeah, it's hard to let go. really ⁓ hard to let go. ⁓ you know the other thing too ⁓ resonates with me or reminds me, ⁓ you know I've been through a lot of Tony Robbins stuff. you lots of times these feelings that we have, do. ⁓ You do depressed. If you ever look at a depressed person, you know, heads down, shoulders down, ⁓ you I'm just depressed. ⁓ I that ⁓ I up and I walk.

Scott Schaper: It is.

Brian McMaster: or you know, just do something active and we'll talk more about active I'm sure during this as well. But I find myself, ⁓ you know, I'm in those states, it's like, ⁓ man, what I doing? ⁓ You know, does this to me. I'm doing it to myself. I can be happy and I can fulfilled, ⁓ you know, so, I feel for you, man, because ⁓ I ⁓ have been those states, especially this year.

Scott Schaper: Mm-hmm.

Brian McMaster: It's like, man, where's the next punch coming from? You know, where's the next kick coming from? You know, to use my takwondo analogies. ⁓ know, and when's the other shoe gonna fall? know, I just, it's the struggle's And the other I that is good for our listeners too is ⁓ you get into those it's not uncommon for those things to last for a couple of days, ⁓ you know, and waking and ⁓ just like. What am I feeling? What am I doing? this is a great time to reflect on it because we're about to switch over the calendar ⁓ fresh start. ⁓ I the other thing too, I've heard this, I'm going to start January 1st. When's now a good time? It's like start before first. Start a new day. The sun came up and everything's good to go. ⁓

Scott Schaper: Yeah, ⁓ my depression was low level. wasn't, I think I would have noticed if it was more acute than it was. And so I tended to shake it off and ignore it a little bit ⁓ just stayed kind of at 60 % fuel for quite some time, for months, and me just kind of myself. But at the same time, how I pulled out of that was realizing a couple things. I would find myself pulling some tasks down from our system or getting a request from a client that I was asked directly from them and then just doing it. and realizing why didn't I give this to my staff? very talented people. They signed up for this. That's what they love to do. They're better at it than I am, ⁓ I had to admit. And can turn it into a teachable moment, an advisory moment, a coaching moment, instead of me ripping that, their, you know, livelihood away from them.

Brian McMaster: Yeah.

Scott Schaper: I could support that and I started becoming looking at myself more as an advisor to the company. And, you know, in Vistage, you know, the three jobs of a CEO, how do you make your money and who are our customers? What's the long-term vision and culture? And some people would say, especially if you're a Sandler person, culture may be your only job is making sure that people are people are fulfilled. ⁓ working for this endeavor. And so that's, started, I really started looking at myself, my new role like that. I'm getting, I'm back to feeling excited and planning that and trust, man, trusting. ⁓ can take trust in any area of life and be like, that's hard because trust requires belief in your decisions.

Brian McMaster: Yeah, once. ⁓ Yeah, and how often do we go back to that? If I need something done, I gotta do it myself. can't do it yourself. ⁓ can't do it all yourself. can't scale and grow a business yourself. ⁓ you gotta rely on your team. ⁓ ⁓ absolutely. ⁓ no, ⁓ I was just gonna say, when we start out, ⁓ ⁓ solo.

Scott Schaper: It's a default answer for entrepreneurs. Yeah, for sure. On the health front, I on the health. ⁓ sorry, go ahead.

Brian McMaster: So you learn that activity early, right? then ⁓ becomes, ⁓ know, ingrained in you and part of your life. I mean, that's, you know, we've talked about it over the last couple, you episodes and some of the, some of the things that we've done is, Hey, you know what? we. We do start out solo, but the only way you scale is if you start to let go. I think I also said that in one of our episodes too. If you want to grow, you got to let go. And that was a very, very big piece of advice. how about health?

Scott Schaper: Yes. ⁓ Yeah. Well, I started this year. Here's some of my numbers. I started off at 225. I remember on January 5th last year and I shaved off 30 pounds over four months and have maintained that. ⁓ I, yeah, did. I'm only one leg now. ⁓ Jumping, yeah. jumping is good for your health.

Brian McMaster: What'd you do, cut a leg off? I hobble, but I lost weight. Yeah, of course.

Scott Schaper: So that, so that I kind of, I've kind of put on a little bit of some holiday weight, which is fine with me. I expected that. I let myself go a little bit just to give myself permission to enjoy the times. We're hosting a poker party here tomorrow night. So I have, I'm in charge of the menu, which is good. I'll kind of keep things delicious and a little bit healthy, but I'm looking forward to next year. And you know, you mentioned something about the exercise keeping you going.

Brian McMaster: Nice.

Scott Schaper: That was absolutely a non-negotiable all year. And I never allowed myself to cancel on myself for the gym. And so 5.30 AM, we wake up, brush our teeth, have a cup of coffee, get out the door, by six, 6.10. ⁓ it's been consistent all year. can't remember. I think ⁓ I a sickness and a surgery. And those a couple of things that I gave myself permission to hang back. But other than that, there's no reason to cancel and we'll go today. We went today. We'll go tomorrow. He went over these holidays, but I'm pretty excited to tackle another plateau or tackle another step in my health journey. But is cool. ⁓ Going to one of our, the toxicity episode of the toxic ⁓ things our own home, cooking, HVAC, wood, mold, ⁓ all things. I use that to put a couple stainless steel pans on my Christmas list and get rid of all my Teflon and nonstick. So I tried an ⁓ inch made in stainless steel pan, performed beautifully ⁓ without And Strata a great, I'll put these links in the ⁓ show notes. Strata cast, no not iron, carbon steel.

Brian McMaster: Nice.

Scott Schaper: I made scrambled eggs in the carbon steel pan this morning and it performed beautifully. I just couldn't believe how just releases perfectly. So I was pretty ecstatic about eliminating one little toxin from our And I don't those ⁓ Teflon pans anymore. So journey is continuing and it is a bit of a rock. It's a reminder that you can get up today, do things and you like a champ afterwards. No doubt about it.

Brian McMaster: Yeah, I Yeah, the technology that they're getting into cookware and this stuff now. ⁓ again, I think this will be a topic for 2026 too, is ⁓ just it simple, going back to real. you know, where you're necessarily where you're cooking over a fire in your backyard but maybe, you know, who knows? So trying do, Amber and I are trying to do that as well, is just go back to simple. It's like we look in our garage, we look in our closets and it's like we got so much stuff. ⁓ Just keep simple, ⁓ you know? So that'll a good topic. ⁓ Yeah. ⁓

Scott Schaper: Yeah, yeah, we're lightening up a little bit. I always say ⁓ you don't own those things, they own you. You have to protect them, dust them off, clean them, insure them, store them, loan them, retrieve them, protect them, all these things. And so they just keep you busy. we're in purge mode right now.

Brian McMaster: Yeah, we're doing the same. And, you know, speaking of toxins and mold and that kind of stuff, I've just finished the project in my basement getting rid of ⁓ mold. ⁓ ⁓ there's still some things in there, still some things I gotta do, but... ⁓

Scott Schaper: Wow. Has the rebuild started?

Brian McMaster: We didn't pull the walls out. just we yeah, we did a they came in with a hepa back and cleaned everything with an inch and then treated it with antimicrobial and you know, whatever stuff so all it had a little bit of an odor to it but that you know, ⁓ we concerned that that might be an issue but ⁓ the at frontier did a super job and ⁓ did yeah your recommendation yeah ⁓

Scott Schaper: Okay. ⁓ use Frontier Restoration. They just signed as a client for us starting December 1.

Brian McMaster: nice. Fantastic. ⁓ they did a great job. They, you know, put the plastic up, kept the things out of the rest of the house and actually everything for me, put everything in boxes. ⁓ But now, I can go back in and start to declutter, get rid of some things. you know, ⁓ the first the year or just before is a great time to get rid of clutter. But ⁓ somebody I we talked about this before, too, but somebody was telling me like overseas the average count ⁓ ⁓ in people's homes is like 50 or 60 things in a room. The count in the United States is 300 to 350 things in a room. So ⁓ ⁓ mind. like, ⁓ I started think that's not possible. And then I go into my bedroom and I start counting things. And you only get half the room done and you're like, wow, there's definitely more than 300 things in here. It's crazy. So we don't need that much stuff.

Scott Schaper: Chair like chairs, jewelry, clocks, pens, all that stuff.

Brian McMaster: Yeah, ⁓ under the bed. know, ⁓ of I have my biohacking gadgets and that stuff by the bed and those kinds of things. That's one thing. ⁓ But just the other stuff, you know, things. I always used to say if you build a shelf and you put it in your bathroom, you're going to put something on it. So, ⁓ you ⁓ if if can keep the lines clean and ⁓ and type of stuff, that's that's the best way to do it. But we're really trying to simplify because it's just. just gets cluttered so fast. A perfect example, dishes. How many sets of silverware do we have? How many dishes do we have? You know, just crazy. And you really, mean, Amber and I live alone. We only need two bowls, two plates. You know what mean? If we didn't have all this stuff, it's not like we're doing entertainment and, you know, all those kinds of things at our house. It's like, what do we really need? You know, and I get it, mixers and blenders and those kinds of things, but... When you talk about silverware and plates, like, man, look at our closets. We could have little section ⁓ our stuff and we'd be fine. But ⁓ we don't have that. ⁓ what if we ever have 18 people over? ⁓ never gonna have 18 people over. So ⁓ crazy. ⁓

Scott Schaper: Yeah. We, it's interesting. We have a lot of Christmas, we have a full set of Christmas cups, dishes, but Suzanne hosts an ornament party every year and every other year we got, we got a poker party here and then ⁓ in between. We don't host that much, but it is nice to pull those out. But if they, if we didn't do that Christmas thing every year, I don't think we'd have those. We kind of went through our basement and purged a lot of things.

Brian McMaster: Yeah, what we need to do. ⁓ are the stakes in the poker game?

Scott Schaper: Everybody puts in $5, usually 10, because people buy in a second set of chips if they get out early. You can buy in at halftime for the last time if you feel like doubling up. most people, there'll be 10, 12 people here, all family. It'll be 10 to 15 bucks per person. When it's all said and done and then we have a side pot for the highest hand of the night We get the you know, four aces or something like that So it's a lot of fun. We stop and eat we have two poker tables going when we get down to eight We join them into one table It's a lot of fun. We've done it every year. I mean for 18 years and Then as as you get out as you as you start getting out of the game you start being eliminated there's another game of Scatagories or

Brian McMaster: Nice. Yeah. Beautiful. Yeah, we're gonna...

Scott Schaper: win, lose or draw that happens in the living room. they're having fun too.

Brian McMaster: Yeah. You know, we just, speaking of games, we just picked up a game called Dumbass. And it's nothing like it sounds. ⁓ literally four different categories. And have ⁓ a on the card. And you know what it is, you read these things off, but it's like seven clues. And the clue might be, I'm a... ⁓ Middle Eastern country, you know, and then everybody can guess on that first one and then the set keeps giving clues the whole way down until it gives until it gives ⁓ the initials and man I'm telling you I I ⁓ stuff, ⁓ I'd get 13th century Eastern countries or you know something something along those lines So was really it was good time though. So ⁓ I think another thing that's happening

Scott Schaper: Yeah.

Brian McMaster: You know, Ben Greenfield, my coach, you know, he they have game night. They play games almost every night with their family and and You know Amber and I've started doing that as well. We're like playing cards or just doing something ⁓ that not watching TV, you know, so ⁓

Scott Schaper: Yeah. Right. Me and Sam, or me and Josh and Suzanne, have a running Domino's scorecard. we just keep it going usually after 10, 12 games, which could take us a month or two to get through. Yeah, but yeah, we're game players. have a lot of games that we play, board games, cards, marbles, Domino's, yeah. Puzzles, we a going usually.

Brian McMaster: That's awesome. That's awesome.

Scott Schaper: Yeah, play ⁓ is important to let your brain kind of wander around, do something else.

Brian McMaster: Yeah. Yeah, instead of just mind-numbing TV, which is terrible these days anyway. So how about your spirit-wise, what's happened there for you this year?

Scott Schaper: Well, I you about, to me, that's where I kind of talked about my cats trying to get into the podcast. Yeah, ⁓ she is somewhere. That's Scout, Scout and Scott.

Brian McMaster: him in. ⁓ ⁓ Aw yeah. Scout. Scott. I love it. ⁓ remember that.

Scott Schaper: Scout is from To Kill a Mockingbird. That's where her name comes from. And we have a Lego replica of this cat. We call her Gem, or the little brother in To Kill a Mockingbird. So yeah, I think my spirit took a little bit of a hit, a lot of learning in 2025 with the depression. that's kind of the...

Brian McMaster: Love it.

Scott Schaper: That's kind of where I was, was figuring out how to guide myself back. I admittedly probably could have used a few therapy sessions. But at same time, I was networking this year ⁓ fair amount. I met ⁓ someone from, ⁓ think I you, from Joey Klein's program called Inner Matrix.

Brian McMaster: ⁓ yeah.

Scott Schaper: And that is emotional awareness training. And I'm like, I was just kind of drawn to her pitch for it. It's a year long commitment on Wednesday nights and then with group session. So it was a little bit out of my comfort zone ⁓ and But I slowly began to start looking inward and figuring out why I feel this way. That's what led to some of those answers about what I was feeling and why. ⁓ And been ⁓ eye-opening. mean, closing look inward and out.

Brian McMaster: Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Scott Schaper: Brian, remember when we were in San Antonio and we talked about curating what goes in our eyes the news, just like we curate what goes in our mouth with the way we eat? I out that if you don't care for your nervous system with the you protect, ⁓ the way you the way you respond to your emotions, it's nervous system training has been key principle to the inner matrix. ⁓

Brian McMaster: Yeah.

Scott Schaper: And it's it's remarkable the differences that's made in the last six months and I'll give you a couple examples. You know. You know ⁓ Mel Robbins, book, let them. Have you heard of this?

Brian McMaster: I've heard of it. I don't know the book, but I've heard of it.

Scott Schaper: I've read a long summary of it with a bunch of ⁓ examples from the book, but let them ⁓ it does go to the political environment. Have someone says something you don't agree with. It's just to accept that person where they are in their life. It doesn't. They're not inviting you to a debate. They're simply saying, I wish this person would act like this. OK. Fair enough.

Brian McMaster: Yeah. ⁓

Scott Schaper: And so being ultra accepting of people around you and honoring ⁓ they've been for the last 30 years, how they were raised and it's fine. And so it's like, ⁓ someone feels this way. Great, let them. Someone cut me off in traffic. That's okay. Let them. Maybe they're in a hurry and they didn't see you. Maybe a careless driver. Maybe they're on their phone. I I do that all the time. And so it's like just giving the world permission to exist in their space.

Brian McMaster: Yeah, sure.

Scott Schaper: ⁓ basically creates a peaceful bubble around you that is you to ⁓ you don't allow that to be shattered by reacting stepping on the gas flipping somebody off throwing a verbal dart out just I've done that with my team I I've there was time when ⁓ my business said something and I'm like man a year ago that would have set me off and I'm like no that's okay let him have his thought Right? He's not punching me in the face. He just had, he just has a thought. And then a day later, so I, I let it go. I'm like, ⁓ that's fine thought. And that day later he goes, Hey, yesterday, when I kind of mentioned that thing about pricing, you know, that was just an idea. You know, I'm like just throwing stuff out there. So he kind of just, he came back around on his own accord and I didn't have, we didn't have to blow up into a thing. And that was a directly a result of the inner matrix. ⁓

Brian McMaster: Yeah. Yep.

Scott Schaper: emotional training that allows me to just say, hey, bring it on. I welcome all those ⁓ from people.

Brian McMaster: Yeah, did you? Did you sign up for the program? you the weekly program with? Okay, just FYI, so did I. Yeah, so ⁓ I I told you this, Joey's in my happy hospital group. ⁓ So super, nice guy.

Scott Schaper: ⁓ good. Yeah. So who's your, do you have a weekly person you're meeting with? ⁓ lady, okay. Mine is Britt. Over here on this side of town.

Brian McMaster: it Laney? ⁓ ⁓ ⁓ ⁓ so, ⁓ I actually, haven't, I haven't ⁓ really ⁓ fully yet. I just got signed up and onboarded. ⁓ But I'm, I'm super psyched about where that's going because a lot of the guys that are in my group that are doing it, ⁓ they very highly of it. One in has his wife.

Scott Schaper: ⁓ good.

Brian McMaster: doing it and she's coming to him and saying, Hey, I didn't realize that you thought this way about a certain thing. And you know, kind of stuff. I'm hoping Amber gets into it as well. Cause you know, it's nice to do those things together, but yeah, Joey's Joey's super good, man. He he's, um, I think a lot of Tony Robbins principles, um, and, I've been, uh, exposed to Tony for, you know, since I was 17 or 18 years old. So it's, it's, really resonates with me, but Yeah, it's good stuff. I'll have to check that book out, let them, because, I get, especially you we drove to Indiana and back, yeah, I get elevated because, like, man, what are these people thinking? ⁓ You what are they doing? ⁓ And like said, they're not. They're doing their own thing, you know, and has nothing to do with us. ⁓

Scott Schaper: Yeah, if there was a meditation of somebody went through one time and imagine that someone cut you off in traffic. goes, just realize they're exactly like you. They're late to get the groceries. They're late to pick up their kid. ⁓ on the phone. ⁓ having a teary conversation about health with their nephew. You never know what they're going through. Or they're just a slow driver. So just, just back off and let them live their life for a minute. It's 99.9 % of the time, it's not about you. Just let them be them for a minute. And we all have these heated tempers, especially I think today. It's just that environment we live in. And we just don't need to pay attention to that sort of stuff or give it that amount of emotional weight.

Brian McMaster: Yeah. But I will say disclaimer, if you are a slow driver, stay out of the fast lane.

Scott Schaper: for driving. ⁓

Brian McMaster: You know, this is a weird phenomenon too. We were driving to my in-laws for over to Indiana on 70 and back. And it's like all the truck drivers, every single one of them we passed were hugging or off the side of the line. Every single one of them. was like a weird and Amber kept going, is it windy? And I'm like, no, it's not windy. I don't know if they were trying to stay away from the cars, but it was almost like some universal truck driver meeting. said, hey, you need to stay on the shoulder. It was really, really strange. don't know. Maybe it was just us. I mean, we didn't have any influential drugs or anything in our body at the time. We were driving safe. it was just weird. It was like, man, what are these guys doing? Look at this truck driver. Crazy. ⁓ 70's dangerous road anyway. So.

Scott Schaper: Hmm. So I am going to, for 2026, looking forward with ⁓ spirit, I want to begin giving wisdom and building more community around me. And so one... way I've been exploring that for the last four months is one external to the company and several internal. The external one is building a community of agency owners, marketing agency owners. Marketing agencies are typically territorial. don't like to share clients. We don't like to talk about our pricing, our methods. Everything's a secret. And so we, marketing agencies tend to isolate it's unnecessary because in the age of AI and all the market forces right now, I think it's time that we have ⁓ I wouldn't say Vistage-like, but a community of agency owners. And so I'm starting a group called the Marketing C-suite, MCS group. I've talked eight different agency owners, they're all in. I'm going to make a group of 15. have a once a month meeting and a one-on-one coaching session with them begin letting just talk about their businesses and ⁓ impart some to them. So advisory is my word for 2025 and that less doing clickety clack of the keyboard equating busyness with productivity busyness with fulfillment. So the opposite of that is my work ⁓ getting better at Vistage and Vistage community. I reached out to everybody in our Vistage group that I did not personally meet one-on-one and them. So January, I'm going to start meeting with ⁓ several Vistage members, just like this, maybe not a podcast, but just keeping, ⁓ Vistage. Vistage is of therapy for me from a business level. ⁓ yeah, taking on more, more Vistage and, starting that group, I think is going to be ⁓ community member, Dan Miller community. I'm taking some lessons from 20, 25 podcasts and trying to apply them.

Brian McMaster: That's fantastic, In Vistage, I can't say enough about Vistage either. That for me is gonna be a focus in 2026 as well. ⁓ like Vistage breakfast. Not a lot of people come, but every now and then, we just to utilize the group more. And I think Jeff even said that too. He's like, ⁓ we need focus on getting people together more.

Scott Schaper: Yeah.

Brian McMaster: one-on-ones and he did two to ones at one point too. I don't know if he's still doing that but I thought that was fantastic. You know, where he could talk to two of us and kind of talk about challenges and that type of stuff so he resumes doing that in the future as well.

Scott Schaper: Hmm. Yeah, let's see. So hustle, we'll talk about the hustle 2025. This is all business stuff. What went right? We grew in what I'll call internal growth. We grew in two ways. If you looked at our, if you look at our P &L and just our top line, it looks even, but we did away with a lot of pass-through revenue. So we'd collect $10,000 a month. and then immediately chop off 9,000 of it, send it over to Google. So we used our net revenue after cost of goods sold as our growth measurement. So that internal growth happened and our profit skyrocketed to where we needed it to be. Our net operating income is great. Just over 25%, 28 % in months. So that is very gratifying. We flipped our net operating income close to $800,000 in one year. A swing. So there was a loss last year and gain this year. So that's really good. What I need to do in 2026 for growth, and I'll just say it here, I need to grow 35%. Top line. which means 36 new accounts net new. So if we lose one, need to gain one to replace it. So 36 to 40 would be our goal in new accounts. Last year to compare last year, we brought on 31. So it's absolutely, it's not even a stretch goal to say we can't bring up, to say let's bring on three a month. Not a big deal. Our retention is very good. So I'm very excited about 2026 doing that again.

Brian McMaster: Wow. Yeah, that's fantastic. Good deal. Yeah, that's fantastic. You know, from our standpoint, know, one of the changes that we made, you know, obviously we started marketing a little bit more and we made some changes with our logo and that type of stuff. But ⁓ were, ⁓ cycled through some people ⁓ our listeners know and as you know. And from our sales standpoint, and our sales process has now been developed and we didn't really have that before. It was very fragmented. the challenge for us was that we were picking up these good clients, but small, very small clients. And it took like just as much, it takes just as much time to launch a $10,000 a year revenue client. in logistics as it does to launch a $2 million a year client. what we've ⁓ or the shift that we made is we've ⁓ ⁓ that we won't do business with those clients, ⁓ we've made it ⁓ ⁓ ⁓ on board. We have some minimums and ⁓ types of things. ⁓ what we're finding is now we're generating a higher. higher volume, higher value client as opposed to what we were doing in the past. And that shift has been incredible because now you spend, you know, let's just say you spend a quarter working on four significant clients and you you land one of them, it makes your year. you know, that's been a big shift for us. 2025 was really a reshaping, rebuilding type of building our processes and those types of things so that we can take on some of these new clients. So, for ⁓ from hustle standpoint, not so much personally, but from a business standpoint, it's just really been, let's focus on 10X is better ⁓ 2X. that's ⁓ the, ⁓ paying dividends. starting pay dividends. So ⁓ we're excited about that. ⁓

Scott Schaper: What ⁓ was 2025 your first year of US or second?

Brian McMaster: It's actually a year and a half. yeah, so second year. Yep, yep.

Scott Schaper: Okay, so you're knee deep in year two. yeah. And just for our listeners, EOS is Entrepreneurial Operating System. Go back, there's a previous episode dedicated to the entire ⁓ how has that been for team, ⁓ the Obviously, you're sold on it because you're going into year two. ⁓

Brian McMaster: the yeah, and so good that we have it. Because the change in leadership. We've so many changes in leadership in our leadership team. There's been really hard to keep the momentum going with us. But the one thing that EOS did was keep everything together. So whenever we would cycle someone else in that was and someone off of the leadership team, we were able to continue to move forward with the plan. So we had all the things laid out, you know, and there are small tweaks here and there, but the bottom line was the plan still stayed the same. And think that's one of the biggest ⁓ points or biggest value in. EOS is you have everything out there in front of the leadership team. So even though you're making those changes in personnel, you're still able to pick up where you left off and not lose momentum. Whereas in the past, when we didn't have that, it was like chaos, know, just just no plan, no rails to go back onto. So I think that's the biggest thing for me with EOS is I got I got the rails to go back. We get knocked off. We go back onto the rails. We're on the same direction. So it's helped out tremendously. It's been a It's been a godsend, really.

Scott Schaper: We should have an implementer on as a guest. Lisa comes to mind.

Brian McMaster: ⁓ yeah, would absolutely do that. She'd do that in heartbeat. Yep, I'm writing it right now.

Scott Schaper: Write a note, have Rhonda schedule her in. That'd be a fun one. think people will learn from Lisa's experience. She's got a long, long corporate experience too.

Brian McMaster: Yeah, and she's got her Yeah, she's got a great, great operations background. you ⁓ it's kind of, you know, because I'm not as we've about before, I'm not an operator by any stretch of the imagination, but she's got this visionary mind, but also has the ⁓ she learned to be a good operator. And I think that, I mean, ⁓ would be amazing ⁓ integrator ⁓ for anyone, but loves what she's doing with the implementation. So Yeah, that's good stuff. So I got that note. We'll make sure we get Rhonda on that. ⁓

Scott Schaper: Awesome. Hey, we kind of got pretty far into the, into this podcast, but, any wisdom drops we want, you want to pick one from the year or picking you something new you're doing, ⁓ that you're doing.

Brian McMaster: Actually, I got something new. So one of the things I'm trying to do is more analog stuff and less digital stuff. this ⁓ is a ⁓ planter by Burchardt. It's called the High Performance Planner. So basically what it does is, ⁓ and ⁓ you really this, but it's ⁓ a today's...

Scott Schaper: Mm-hmm.

Brian McMaster: Morning mindset so it asks you 10 questions in the morning to kind of get your mind thinking. And these are questions like one thing I can get excited about today you know just really get your mind kind of gone. And then there's a top three. These are the top three goals for today. And then there's at the end there's a like an evening journal. so so one of the guys in my happy hustle group suggested this planner so I'm I'm.

Scott Schaper: Hmm.

Brian McMaster: I have not used it yet. I just got it. ⁓ of the things from a hustle standpoint for me is I've been doing ⁓ many things. I've been trying to do many things. I've been trying to do too many groups. ⁓ So really not only simplifying in my household, but I'm also simplifying in my ⁓ my at work. So, ⁓ know, going to take three things every day and say these are the three things I got to get done. And if I get those three things done, success. I can go home, I can start something else or whatever. those three things, I think for me, 2026 is going to be a simple year. You know, let's keep it simple and get so. So that would be my recommendation. Boo card, Brandon Boo card. And I'll spell it for you. It's a bee or I'm sorry, Burr card.

Scott Schaper: Yeah. What was his name? Brandon?

Brian McMaster: B-U-R-C-H-A-R-D. Brendan. Yep. Yep.

Scott Schaper: ⁓ that's what I wrote down. Brendan Bukhardt. That would be cool to reach out to him and have him as a guest. I bet he would. Yeah. I'll reach out to him on LinkedIn and see what he says. If you work on Lisa, I'll work on Brendan. Anyway, there's some podcast administration coming through here. So I do also look at where I'm disorganized, what pieces of paper I have laying around that's causing me grief.

Brian McMaster: ⁓ yeah, absolutely. Let's try. Why not? I bet he would too. Cool, sounds good. Absolutely.

Scott Schaper: and I try to figure out a new organization method for 2020 for the next year. And I've been looking at apps. So I'm going to go a little bit more electronic this year, see how that works. And Craft is what I'm going to go with. It exists on Mac, the app stores, iPad, Mac, iPhone, watch, all the things. So the Craft app, I'm going to give a try. I have not tried it yet. I've just downloaded it. ⁓ but it has, tasks, emails, AI, all of stuff to keep you focused. And so, ⁓ a lot of times I have a ⁓ task in and I have nowhere to put it for the moment. And, ⁓ I get on my email, you know, so, I'm looking to try that out. That's one. The second one is, ⁓ continuing to consume fiction. So I, you know, I love legal thrillers. ⁓ I'm in, I'm reading, the racketeer. by John Grisham right now, halfway through that. Pretty interesting. So ⁓ you guys are Grisham fans, I'll put ⁓ link into the show notes. And then more hustle, would say I'm going to recommend Riverside.com. This the platform that we've been recording our podcasts. I have been completely happy with them. And it's been great. have six or eight. new podcast to publish in the next couple of weeks. And then the website, spirithealthhustle.com is live ⁓ your comments. So ⁓ out there. And that is a function of the product pod page.com, which has been great. So, ⁓ yeah, looking forward to doing a, getting more and more serious and in depth with podcasts for the, for the hustle for 2026. So that's a lot of content.

Brian McMaster: Awesome. Yeah.

Scott Schaper: And I'll be starting another podcast in the first quarter.

Brian McMaster: Yeah, that's beautiful. Do you have an idea of what you're gonna do as far as your new podcast?

Scott Schaper: Yeah, I have it. I have it ideated and the first few guests I'm starting to reach out to and it's called I bought a company and this is by side ⁓ &A. So it's people that have somehow acquired like I acquired a company which was it's a twistier path. I think with my management buyout ⁓ two ago, there's you know, Toby ⁓ in in Vistage.

Brian McMaster: Vistage. Yep.

Scott Schaper: You know, he they acquired a company from their parents. So these they come. It's not just go out to the market. You know, you're not going out to Craigslist buying this thing. It's a complicated transaction or complicated scenarios. I want to hear those and give people. I want people to leave the podcast thinking, you know, maybe I can buy a company. Here's somebody that, you know, owner financed it over over eight years with profits.

Brian McMaster: Yeah.

Scott Schaper: and $30,000. I can do that. I don't need millions to buy this working company. there's a lot of, there's just a lot of content out there. And so my partner on that will be Ben Olson from Tarsus Group. And helped me through my two transactions. So yeah, I bought a company.

Brian McMaster: That's great. There's a lot of ways to skin a cat. mean, that's good. And in 2026, I plan on making an acquisition. So once we do that, ⁓ be on the podcast.

Scott Schaper: Ooh, love it. So what are our challenges as we get for let's go challenges for January? How do you start off January looking at your goals, looking at what's done? We can do what you plan to do, but just ⁓ do some challenge challenges right now to wrap up this podcast.

Brian McMaster: Yeah, I think for me, the number one thing is keep it simple. think a lot of people ⁓ ⁓ know, don't hit their resolutions, don't hit their goals, because they try to do too much. People ⁓ what they do ⁓ in, ⁓ know, a longer period of time as a part or shorter period of time as opposed to a longer period of time. You know, it's ⁓ just keep it ⁓ Just pick one two things ⁓ and then stack habits. I think that is...

Scott Schaper: I just wrote down the word habits. love that you just said that.

Brian McMaster: Yeah, keep, you know, it's, we've all been overwhelmed. And I think we do it to ourselves. And I'm guilty of it as well. But I think for me, it's just keep it simple. It's like if I can be good at just one thing, you know, throughout 2026, what would that be? And how would that impact? And then stick to that. And you'll find that the rest is like a magnet. It'll get the rest of those things will find you. So I think my big thing

Scott Schaper: Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Brian McMaster: Pardon me, whether it's spirit, health, or hustle, keep it simple.

Scott Schaper: Love that. I think simplicity creates consistency automatically and consistency ⁓ usually trump content. So if in the health arena, if you're going to go to the gym, man, if you went to the gym, you know, 10 minutes or did something for 10 minutes every day. It's not about just, it's not about building muscle. It's about building habits and the habits will take care of, will take care of the goals. so habits and very small steps ⁓ will trump goals. So what is the tiniest step you can take today to get you toward your goal and just do one tiny thing. It could be 10 minutes of journal writing, like Brian mentioned. It could from your spirit perspective, create more community. It be.

Brian McMaster: Yeah.

Scott Schaper: Sending a text to somebody you haven't texted in the last year and doing that once a month and creating a new connection. These are very small things that if you stack those habits together, referencing James Clear Atomic Habits will yield more and more results than just saying, I'm going to lose 50 pounds. Because you really can't lose 50 pounds, but you can walk. ⁓ You can walk 4,000 steps, which only takes a half hour. ⁓

Brian McMaster: Yeah. and do it one pound at a time. One pound at a time. Yep, absolutely. Keep it simple. I love it. Cool.

Scott Schaper: One pile at a time. Alright man, that's 50 minutes of podcasting. I think that was a great, great wrap up and look forward.

Brian McMaster: Love it. Yeah, absolutely. Look forward to, well, happy new year, my friend. ⁓ I wish you and your family and your business ⁓ a and happy new year. And look forward to seeing you in the new year.

Scott Schaper: Happy New Year. Yeah. New season of the podcast starts next year and ⁓ lots of new things. We are building a listenership and it's just going to get better in 2026. More guests in 26, more topics in 26. ⁓ forward to it. Looking forward to it all. ⁓ we're building on what I think this we started this year. We didn't even mention. you know, having almost 25 episodes, half of which are, published and online. So it's been a fun learning year with the podcast. appreciate all the time and effort and cancellations and reschedules and bringing down all the guests. It's been, ⁓ it's been a lot of fun, Brian.

Brian McMaster: Yeah. Yeah. And I think that it goes back to what we just said, you know, at Snowballs, we just, ⁓ one of the Vistage meetings, we sat down, it's like, let's just do this. Let's just do it. ⁓

Scott Schaper: Yeah, I do. thank you for that. You're like, how about Tuesday? Let's just pick one up. we'll, I came to your office with a, with a microphone and we just struggled through it for 20 minutes. And, then over the next 10 episodes, we figured out the audio and, our, our own limitations.

Brian McMaster: Yeah. Yep. Yeah, yeah, those are... Those early episodes will look back and laugh at some point. But, ⁓ And maybe we redo them. You know, we'll see what happens. But, awesome, man.

Scott Schaper: I hope so. Cool, thanks everybody. Appreciate your listeners. Welcome to 2026, coming up pretty soon and happy new year. Brian, stick around, see you in a minute.

Brian McMaster: Alright, sounds good. Thanks, man.