45. The Transformative Power of the Forge Class

Speaker A: Welcome back to the Driven Leadership Podcast, everybody. Today's a, uh, special little episode because we are buzzing with anticipation around the Driven office, both virtually and in person, because we are launching our Forge class again. Uh, which you said this a little bit ago. When was the last time we actually did a Forge class? Was it Covid?

Speaker B: It was prior to Covid, yeah. Because the, uh, facility we're holding it at class closed down in the middle of COVID so.

Speaker A: Gotcha.

Speaker B: Okay.

Speaker A: Yeah, so we're going on, like, true.

Speaker B: We ran one post. We ran one post, but the facility wasn't what we wanted.

Speaker A: That's right.

Speaker B: I forgot about that. Yeah.

Speaker A: So we're talking about, like, four or five years at least before, since we ran one of these. And, like, we've done in the past with our, you know, athletics episode, our Bold episode. I don't think we have one on Summit, but Lord knows we've talked about it enough, because almost every topic that we do talk about translates to some, uh, of our Summit classes in one way or the other. Um, so this is a dedicated episode to Forge. Uh, just kind of an educational thing to let people know what it is. People who have been in and around Driven, uh, whether you've gone to Bold or done Summit for a while, Forge is a big question mark, because why we don't talk about it when we're not running it, but now we're running it. So I've got Eric with me today. Uh, I am in a unique position here where I truly don't know anything about Forge. I myself have not been through Forge. Uh, so I am fully in the seat of an audience member listening to this. Um, and so I'm going to fully leave it up to you. Where should we, uh, you know, get started with this Forge episode?

Speaker B: I actually. I want to kick this off with. I want to do what we typically do at the end, but I want to. I want to hit. Like, why would somebody take this? And it's. It may feel even promotional coming out of it, but I'm like, why should you even listen to this episode? I want to hit that. And then we can go into kind of the backstory and where it came from and all those things, but I like it. Um, to me. To me, this is the best class we offer. Okay. And that, to me, okay. And here's. And it's not, because, um, all the other classes I don't love, our classes are amazing. Um, Bold got people that have been through Bold, and a lot of. A lot of people watching this will have Been through bold. You know how good that thing is. It's a different class. Forge is absolutely not like bold in almost any way. Um, and it was deliberately done completely different, because the style in bold only works for one class. You know, you come out, It's a level set in the beginning, kind of how it's delivered, what goes on. And even that's really only the first night where we're coming at you and we're doing what we're doing in Bold. In Forge, we're starting kind of where we are from a facilitation style. More like where we are on day two or, uh, three in bold, where what that means is already a little

Speaker A: bit of momentum and there's a little bit of kind of rhythm.

Speaker B: Yeah, well, it's also. It's. It's. It's designed where the process does the heavy lifting versus the facilitator. I mean, the processes actually are pretty darn challenging, and 50% of the processes are outside. So we're involving different things. There's. There's. But it's team. So when you. When you're looking at team and why somebody should take this is because if your team is not crushing it, if you think there's stuff left on the table at the end of the day, then that juice in between is sitting in forge. Okay, so it's that connective tissue, that camaraderie. Yes. But it's also the. Literally the ingredients that go into building a great culture, building a great team. How do you lead through that? What do you need to change to get there? So it gets into your personal leadership ability, and then it gets into your team, especially if you go with your team. But if you don't go with your team, we're having to bring different data on your team assessments, things like that, and then you're there. If you're there with your team or not with your team, you're working on you as a leader and then getting the ingredients as to. When you go back. Here's where we focus. This is what we work on to radically shift our culture. So we're out producing where we were.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: So the reason I love it so much is because you go back and there's direct roi. And my biggest pushback, uh, on classes that have even the word team in them drives me crazy, because I feel like a lot of times it's like this squishy thing that we went and we had a cool experience, but it doesn't last long or, you know, if a team member changes out or you know?

Speaker A: Yeah, that's what I was going to say. Or it's only applicable to the people who were there physically in the class.

Speaker B: Yeah, it's more like, if you think about those, I don't know, great experiences you had over your life that you learned something from, you changed something. You know, you became something more because of it. You probably don't even work with those team members anymore. And if it was work related or if it's family related, you know, you're not around your family typically the same way as you were 20, 30 years ago, especially if it was your parents and things like that. But those moments shape us and how we work with others and what we do, and we apply those lessons over and over again. So the individual growth part is just like, bold. You're coming out of here and you're like, okay, I got this. I'm shifting this. I'm doing something with it. And you can apply it forever. The team specific to your team there, you're just getting greater performance out of that group that is dependent on that team and how long you work together. Get that? But the system underneath it, somebody new comes in, you just apply the system, and then you go rock it with that new team.

Speaker A: So you're actually learning, like, when somebody comes to Ford, because bold is. And I know you said they're really different, but bold is really. These, like is at the root of it, it's this personal development thing. You translate that to your leadership. Crazy things have happened for people that have come through Bold. But in Forge, you're saying, like, you're learning the components of, like, actually how to. How to lead a team, and then that it doesn't matter who or what is on that team, but you, coming out of Forge, have the ability to, you know what to do. Yeah. Moving forward.

Speaker B: It's a model. It's a roadmap. We cover the model, you do the model, you break the model, meaning you get in there and you got to do it wrong, because that's what people do. Um, and the reality is, the more challenge we put in front of you and the class has, it's different challenge than bulb. Bulb. We're challenging with a lot of everything from speeches to what I call forced family fun. You're kind of stuck in these processes that are really challenging with other people. So we do have some of the forged family fun in Forge, but the, uh, that's really helps you also identify how you show up on a team. What are your strengths, what are your weaknesses? And anyway, that's that's the promo side of this. So that. That's what we're doing. Uh, I'd love to encounter. You're kind of saying, I'm a passenger on this ride, so I get to steer. But the, uh, what I want to do is kind of give people the background why this class came about. We launched Driven Leadership on this class. Okay.

Speaker A: So I did not know that. I thought Bold was, like, the premier legacy from the beginning. We'll always do it. That's crazy.

Speaker B: So, um, back in the day, it was called Leadership foundation because the mindset

Speaker A: was

Speaker B: we have to know where we're going culturally, what is the roadmap, how do we build a team? And then we advanced our leadership skills within that. And what we found pretty early on is that's not always true. So there are people that, if we don't advance our leadership skills to a certain point, you can throw all the team stuff at them you want, they're not going to perform well. So the leader often comes before the team. But if we have somebody that's a stronger leader and we put them in Forge and then we put them in Bold, then that completely works. Yeah, it's, uh, in stronger leaders. Probably the wrong way to say that. Just somebody who gets the concepts that are taught in Bold from empathy, emotional intelligence, understanding others, speaking with confidence, knowing yourself, all these type of things. If they don't work in there, then they step into Forge and they just accelerate. Yeah, they haven't. If we have lower emotional intelligence, lower empathy, don't understand the value of working with and through others, strengths and weaknesses exist. People are different, you know, some kind of core. Core things in there and get it really well. Then they go into Forge and there's. There's a prerequisite of having those to excel within Forge.

Speaker A: Right.

Speaker B: And that's not taking time to teach us.

Speaker A: Yeah, Because I know that there's a, uh. And I don't actually know if it's a required prerequisite or it's heavily suggested, but, uh, you have to go through Bold or know somebody who's been through Bold to come to Forge. And you're saying that's the reason? Because it just wasn't. The things weren't clicking as well. Whenever somebody comes to Forge and they're lacking those, like, foundational pieces.

Speaker B: Yeah. So we ran Forge, and like I said, it was called Leadership, uh, Foundation back then. Actually, I still have the. I still have the coin. This is the original coin that we give out at the end of class.

Speaker A: Yeah, that's awesome.

Speaker B: See, it's got the Spartan Warrior. I didn't know what to put on the back, so I just put a star because, you know, you're a star. I don't know. But, um, uh, but we were modeling after the Spartan Warrior and. And so the whole theme has you're, you're going on the path of the warrior. That's your individual leadership skills and abilities. And then there's the path of the tribe. You actually form this kind of cohort that you're really tight. And we put it at more than a team because the goal is to get to authentic and vulnerable leadership. You know, trust at a higher level. It doesn't mean you're divulging all these things that, you know. Why my arm fell off when I was 10. That's not what we're doing. We're just having real conversations.

Speaker A: Why my arm fell off.

Speaker B: I always say that. So. So we all have stuff when we're growing up.

Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker B: Our training's not about your stuff. Okay. Sometimes you got to get into it. Forge is very much not about your stuff. You're not running around. Yeah. And so I go, you know, your arm fell off when you were 10. That was traumatic. Not what we're talking about in this. Okay.

Speaker A: I'm gonna have a hard time not asking somebody who's missing an arm. And I knew it fell off for some reason. Not asking like, how did that fall off?

Speaker B: Okay. Probably a really bad analogy for someone who's missing an arm. I apologize if I offended anyone.

Speaker A: I' saying so funny.

Speaker B: It's really about where are you, how do you move forward and how do you build those? Those. Because being a great team, there. There's something amazing about a group of people that can fail together.

Speaker A: Mhm.

Speaker B: And so when you talk about most failure within teams disrupts a team, it tears a team apart. Really great teams. Failure draws them closer.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: And it's not really failures. I would call it more mistakes and things don't land where they're supposed to or whatever you want to call it.

Speaker A: But kind of a Hallmar bold.

Speaker B: Yeah. For real. Right. It's in there. So there's obviously there is failure that takes place within this. You have the opportunity as a team to perform in a number of different size teams, different ways to work with teams. But we're taking this model, we're taking the aspects of culture, we're taking you as a leader and we're putting those together and we're challenging it. We're going to put you in, uh, Processes that challenge, the way your group functions, the way you function within it. And you're going to get to see, wow, we did really well at that. Here's why. And you debrief it, right? Or, man, that was a train wreck. And here's why. And not only was it train wreck, here's how we responded, and here's why. And then you get to watch as you go through this and the trust builds and the authenticity builds, and we. We drop the walls different than bold, but we drop them within a team format. And you get to see what that looks like and what real high performance looks like when we've got. We just got each other's back at a different level. And how to build that. How do you build that chemistry, that camaraderie, how do you do it? And then how do you sustain it? So, anyway, I feel like the promotional part, uh, hopefully you got the point. If that's something you're interested, listen to the rest of it. But the, um. Yeah, so we. We started actually the Way Driven started. Uh, we had a contract with our previous company that we worked at, where Mary and I met, and we had a contract with them. So we were doing what was called custom training. So I guess specifically didn't launch on this class. We spent, um, over a year doing training where we created training for organizations, went in, delivered that customized version of that. We were doing it. We had this exclusive contract. And then we're. Gosh, I want to say it was a year. Mary might say it's two years. I don't remember where in there, but we were in there. We had a great first year. We're like, man, we're killing it. But we have one client, and the one client got a new CEO who brought our skill set into. They could do custom training and do all that. And they said. They said, hey, appreciate what you're doing. Um, however, we don't need you, so thanks. And, um, a little bit of a terrified moment for Mary and I because we were like, oh, maybe we should have gotten more clients. But anyway, so, um. So we're like, okay, well, we've had this. We've been working on this class, actually for years, and different ideas and concepts and bringing them in. And we're like, okay, it's time to typical Mary mode. She. She's like, all right, this is where we're at, and let's shift and we're moving. And that's just how Mary works. And I love that about her because I'm sitting me. I'm like, what's happening? Um. And, um. Man. So we put this together. We launched our first class. We invited just all of our tight. They were clients but relationships and brought them in. We got feedback, and these were people we knew would give feedback to us and gave us great feedback. And we changed a few processes and we started working on it and. And then we started networking. We were in Southern Cal at the time, and we started having people come out to this thing and the shifts that were happening weren't. We were like sitting there going, you got that out of this class. Like. Like, it was un. Um, we're like, going, that's so cool. And they're coming out and they're making things happen in their teams, and businesses are growing and all this stuff's going on, and we're going, holy. Like, it worked.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: And not. I hate to be so surprised, but if. If you imagine. It's kind of. It's not that we didn't think we could do it. It was that, uh. It was how impactful it was for people coming out of it. And what. And. And for me, I'm always. Yeah, Mary. Mary loves the, uh. I walked away and I got great things out of it. And it impact the person. For me, I'm like, what's the ROI on the business? Because I'm not. If I'm a business owner, I'm not sending people unless I'm getting an roi.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: And people are coming out and they're closing. Yes. They're closing sales. And there's that side of it. But the big one was it was a more efficient business. So leadership started running differently, started looking at teams differently, started building connection, rapport, all. It kind of spawned everything that driven became about over the next forever. So we were running, um, uh, classes with 15 to 20 people, give or take one to two a month for a number of years. Just this class.

Speaker A: Wow.

Speaker B: And so in that time, we started dialing it down. We had, uh, gosh, we should get Frank Harrison to talk about this thing. He did this testimonial. I love this guy. If you know Frank, he's amazing. But he was just like. He's like, this is literally the best team execution class and I have taken. And the guy does all types of training, and it was just because. And they walk out. Good leader working with the team execution. And you just watched his business and it just soared coming out of it. And he would send everybody through it. They do one private, I think is what they did per year where he'd take 10 or 15 people, 20 people through it at a time.

Speaker A: Wow. Were those new employees for him or.

Speaker B: They were, they were growing new employees. Obviously you have some turnover where you're growing that fast. But it was just a um, it was pretty cool what he was doing and what was going on and then the companies around him. But the uh. Anyway, so when we started this thing we didn't know it was going to be what it became and it kind of launched us digging into, looking at. And we were building on the back of a team model that wasn't ours but uh, was. I was absolutely a great team model. And I give you an example of a team model is like five dysfunctions of a team has a team model in there. If you know like your pyramid that starts with uh, it's like trust, conflict, um, uh, accountability, not accountability. I always get the middle one. Commitment, accountability and then results. So that's, that's ah, a kind of execution as a team model. So we started working on a team model and really over the years we have morphed and changed and I never like to use perfected but God, we've gotten it so much better. And you start digging in and you start using studies like what Google's done and what um, uh, just, just all these different people that evaluate teams and dive into it, we've pulled from them and we kind of loop them together and then we wanted to create an experience and so that's why we went with Spartan Warrior. Because now if you know anything about Spartan warriors, they got some really cool history and they got some really ugly dirty history. We're focused on the cool side of this.

Speaker A: We'll have another episode dedicated to the dirty history of this.

Speaker B: They like tortured their children and sent them out to surv all these type of things. The reality was what we, what we really looked into was they were the ones that came up with the term phalanx which was a military execution move. It's where they had their shields together and they just used as a unit. If you ever seen the movie 300. Yeah, I um, love that movie. But it's not going to be for everybody but the uh, just how they worked in unison. Their whole thing, the, the Spartan Warrior, their whole thing was how well they executed together to outperform everybody else.

Speaker A: Right, Right.

Speaker B: And they did it because they drilled down to high level execution, high level trust, high level uh, just understanding not only the role but what do I, what am I in this situation? What role am I in comparison to everybody else? Where's my shield? Go and kind of how do we show up? Use that as a backdrop. Um, and so you'll see the Spartan warrior on the shield and all the things and on the current logo, which maybe you can pop that up on the podcast or whatever. But it's, um. So, uh, as you go through this thing, so you got two paths. You got the path of the warrior, which is individual learning and leadership growth, and you got the path of the. The tribe or the. The group that are working together. And so we put you in group situations throughout this thing. There is a competition that happens all the way through this. You're actually in a group, um, depends how many are in the class. But a group of three to five people that are on your team, and you guys have to execute together. So it's incredible what happens from the, you know, first night and you're with these people and you're paired up to where the execution shows up on the last day in the final. So there's a. There's a kind of a final how we execute together and work through it. Um, and that. It's crazy. I've. Other than when the team's dysfunctional, there's never a time where it's not even. Even in there when we're not performing at our best. It's like, really amazing how the team starts to function together. You know, you start to see, wow, we suck too. Wow, that was awesome. In each of the teams that goes on, whether or not they win the overall thing or not, and there is a. We actually do have winners in the thing and, you know, all that. So, um, so it gets a little competitive.

Speaker A: I can imagine the people that come through that are. That means a lot to them. Yeah. By the end.

Speaker B: Well, I mean, they. They do. They get. They get a little something. You know, we do our thing, but the, uh. And then on the other side, we have the. The individual kind of path that you go on and what you're doing to push yourself. And we're dealing with kind of where are we mentally and how are we branded with others? Like, what is. What is our brand as a leader? How are we living that brand? How do we show up as a leader? And you're evaluating that and working on that as you go through and then obviously implementing it in the team exercises. And when you get to the end, sometimes in our promotional material, you'll see this go out. But we have, um, this is the only course we do high ropes challenge course with. And some people get super excited about that, and other people are absolutely terrified and the reality is it is complete challenge by choice. So it meets you where you're at. The reason we do it is because no matter where you are at, as you start this thing, you get to the last day, I guarantee you're going to be doing stuff. You're like, I can do that.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: And it's. We've had some that come in and like, hey, I saw we're doing a challenge course at the end of this. And I'm like, yeah, we are. Uh, yeah, cool. I don't make it past the second rung on a ladder. And they're dead serious. Like, they're, they're like, wow. That's where I'm at. I get up any, any type of height, anything. For those who don't know what a challenge course is, by all means, Google it, look it up. But it's, it's where you're doing exercises and you're, you know, 20ft up in the air, all the way up to. And why we love this course. So, uh, this particular one, it's one of the big reasons we come back to it, is. Has the. The tallest natural process in North America. Um, so it's like a hundred at the time. The tree's probably grown by now, but it was like 104, 105ft. And, um, yeah, you're harnessed in. You know, you're, you're.

Speaker A: It's.

Speaker B: What, what is amazing is that when you're doing something like that, you are literally in a full safety harness. You're, you're, you are safer. I always, always tell people this. I'm like, you're actually safer in this than walking on the ground. Because you're walking on the ground, you could trip and fall. You can step in front of a car. You can do all these things. Okay. When you're up there, you trip and fall. They got you.

Speaker A: Yeah. The harness safer than being on the second rung of a ladder. For sure.

Speaker B: For sure. So, so what we're doing, what we're really battling is our trust, our belief and our self talk. So trust being in there for. Do I trust that this harness and all these things have me. They can pick up cars with these harnesses. They can handle you. Okay. They can. Um, and we've had some generally big people that have done this. It can handle you. Okay. Um, so anyway, so we've got that side of it. Then we've got, uh, then we got. Do I trust myself to keep moving and keep pushing when it gets hard? Especially as your brain is going to tell you something different. You're going to get to something in there and your brain's going to go, you're in danger. This is bad. Something along those lines. Probably if it's my brain, it's a lot worse than that. And you're going to have a physical response that goes with it. And why it's so powerful is because a lot of times when we're working on our self talk and we're working on how the confidence and how I show up in difficult moments, there usually isn't the physical side of the repercussion that's happening at the same time. Meaning let's. Let's say you have to give a speech and the physical side of that is like your mouth dries up and, you know, your armpits start sweating and you're like, ah, I don't know, you know. Yeah, but you can still get up there on. Well, most people can still get up there on stage and do that. If we get to where physical things are falling apart, then it's a different angle. But yeah, my, my point being you're gonna feel it getting up there. Even, even if heights don't get you, this, this has an impact on you. And there's even some of them, you have to work with other people. Ah, as you're going and working on these. But the bottom line is we're battling this right here, what's going on between your heads, and it is going to show up physically in the process. And so, for example, you might be. There's one where you literally walk a type rope. Okay. It is a cable. There's nothing to hold on to. Well, uh, there's one that has a thing to hold on to. There's, uh, a. There's. Sometimes you have to stretch. You have to do things. You're like, I don't even know how I'm going to do this. And the reality is, when you're doing it, you will figure it out, but you're not going to do it standing on the ground saying, I'm never going to do it.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: Okay. So you got to get up there, you got to get in the game. You got to take the first step. You got to feel the wobble, you got to feel the everything that goes on. You got to feel the fear and do it anyway, which is courage.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: And so we put you. If you're, uh. Let's go back to our second rung person. We're starting class. Second rung. They get out there. It's challenged by choice. Okay, I'm going. All I ask for is permission to push you past. Comfortable.

Speaker A: Okay. Mhm.

Speaker B: And so this person gets to the second rung. I can tell you still to date, somebody tells me I'm a second rung person. Nobody stops the second rung by that last day.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: On their own, no push, no nothing. Now, uh, maybe third rung, but I mean, they're going to push past it. Okay. So in most cases, that type of person gets to kind of the top of the ladder where it moves to staples on the tree, where you got to navigate these things sticking out of the side of a tree. And then usually, uh, with that person. My whole thing, the whole exercise is to push them to the first staple. Not physically push them, but just kind of mentally talk them through and help them get there. And I'm. It's the most incredible thing that, that for them, for them, that was the right breakthrough. Then you got other people that are going up there, they're doing Damn somersaults off 105 foot. It's not about, it's not about the height, but it becomes about the meaning behind what's going on. Why are you doing.

Speaker A: I think that that's my big question here because again, I don't, I know some of the psychology behind Bold. Um, the biggest question for me thinking about that whole thing is like, how the hell does that relate to what I'm doing as a leader in um, in my business? So like, what, what is the psychology? Like what, how does that translate to? Okay, now go back to your H Vac business and sell more units. Yeah.

Speaker B: You know, you know what's crazy? I'm glad you asked that question because in my head, like the connection is so obvious, but I've seen it a million times. Get it. I appreciate you asking it. Um, here's the reality. The reason you don't sell more, the reason you don't lead better, the reason your company is not performing the way you want it to, has everything to do with all your fears, the things that hold you back, and why you're not taking action where you need to, why you're not saying it the way you need to, why you're not stepping into the challenge in a different way. So it's not that people don't, uh, everybody out there wants better results already. So why aren't you. Because of what your thoughts are. It's what going, it's going on between your head. So if we're going to address, you're going to be a better leader, we're going to address what you're thinking about. We're going to address, when you go to talk to your team, why you're arrogant, um, or why you're scared and hesitant. It's going to show up. You know, why you don't connect with people at a deeper level, why you're always too busy for everybody. Why. Why are. Why is your team gossiping and talking crap instead of performing? Like, why are those things showing up? Has to do with your leadership. It has to do with how you're thinking and what's going on. I don't. I'm not attacking the people that are taking this. The people, the audience that will get this, gets what I'm saying. Because the reality is that's me, too. Every single one of us. There's more. There's different levels to our thought process and what's taking place. How do I handle stress, pressure? How do I handle the unknown? How do I step into it and lead better? This class puts you in that environment, and you physically have to push through it. You're going to be stuck. You're going to not want to move forward at times, however you will. And when you do, you're going to figure out, what did it take to do this? So put you on that ladder, uh, and you're sitting there going, I can't take another step. That is the same thing as that salesperson that steps into the client, and they don't say the things that they need to say. They're hesitant on pushing past. You know, they don't go. The person says, hey, I'm not interested right now. And instead of, they go, okay, and they walk out the door instead of going, you okay? If I challenge that, I just have a different thought. And that little tiny bit, that little piece of confidence, that little. How do I talk to myself? And what do I do in the tough moments? And how do I show up? Can I stay calm? More deeper, the harder it is, the better I perform. What am I going to get from it? And so that's why when people come out, they're like, holy shit, I can't believe. Because the limitations drop.

Speaker A: Yeah, that's what it sounds like. That's kind of the whole momentum driver coming out of, like, the successes that you guys have seen. Because, I mean, you're talking about, like, you know, taking the governor off your engine and, like, you're free to kind of open it up, and it's like you go a lot faster whenever that thing's off.

Speaker B: But. But to me, that's the common thread between Bold and Forge is that Bold does that, uh, more on the individual and that team you're with. Forge gives you the ability to do that and also do it with other team members you work with. So you can go by yourself. And it is amazing. It's impact. It works.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: You can also go with people you work around. People go with their spouses. Uh, our last class, the one we did hold that was after Covid in that different place. I think four of the four of the class. I think that's the right number. Were business owners married with their spouse.

Speaker A: Oh really?

Speaker B: That's. That was kind of unique. That doesn't always happen. But they went through together and I mean really. And we can get to the testimonials and stuff. It's just so cool when people step out of there and they're on the same page. And if you've ever run a business with your spouse, that can be challenging.

Speaker A: Um, say I feel like we need to run a forage that is specifically for.

Speaker B: Dude, that might actually be a really. I'm not. I'm not down on that. That might be amazing. We just don't. We just can't let them like talk to each other afterwards. No, I'm just kidding.

Speaker A: I'm just thinking, uh. I've met a lot and worked for a few marital business partners and they'll. They will pay anything that pizza better.

Speaker B: What I was saying is you can't let them. So. So they go to class, they have these team execution things, especially in the beginning where they're not working well together. And then they go back to the cabin to sleep. We gotta. We gotta watch that. Like the back of the cabin part might derail it. So probably gotta have the spouses sleep in different quarters. And then on the last day they get down.

Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah, that's so.

Speaker B: No, it. You know, so I don't know. To me, I'm. I'm a. I like to have fun when I'm learning. And um. Bold. Bold, man. Bold is fun. There's fun stuff in there. But it's a sledgehammer. Because we get the reason it's got to go there is because most of us have built up so many walls that it makes it almost impossible to connect with others and lead through vulnerability, authenticity and trust.

Speaker A: Mhm.

Speaker B: So what Bold judge, it takes a sledgehammer through that and helps you start to discover who am I really and how to go crush it. And then you go to Forge. Forge doesn't have that sledgehammer. You Know, I'm not coming in there, just coming at. None of that's going on. It is, uh, uh, forge the process and your realizations and the lack of results. When working with a team becomes a sledgehammer, it's like, why did it land here? You know, and you're kind of like, why, why isn't it performing? This is the same thing that happens back in my business. And you start drawing the parallels and the same stuff that shows up in your business is going to show up in forge.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: And then you're going to be like, well, why isn't it working? You get to work through that and figure it out.

Speaker A: And I think that, I mean, again, not having gone through it, but going through bold. And there's. What I've always kind of told people, especially about the bold, uh, experience, is that you just have an opportunity. Normally whenever you're in your business or in, you know, with a family or in any relationships, and you mess up. You don't have the ability to sit down and be like, okay, let me debrief that with people that I trust and really walk through how I could have done that better. And then go do it again. And then, okay, great, I passed this time. So, like the, the ability to sit down and like actually dissect what happened. Um, and in this case, like as a team and then do it again and do it again and do it again and get better every time is so unique. And it's even that short time because, I mean, even with bold, the whole, uh, psychology behind it is that you, you have emotion behind it. So emotion's driving that learning. And so you walk away with it. And these are already reflexes that have built over three days somehow. So I can imagine that, uh, on the team aspect is kind of like unparalleled. And the effect that it can have in your businesses has to be wild.

Speaker B: It, It's. God, the hardest thing about these classes, especially the immersive classes, is they're built on not knowing the processes so that you have to think on your feet, right. You gotta be in there and you get real response. And it's always so hard to talk about em. Um, and it's like, basically I feel like we go, hey, trust me, it's really good.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: You know, and that's, that's kinda how people go into bold. It's like somebody refers them, they're like, man, this is an amazing class. Just trust me and go. And then we start talking to them. Hey, we're gonna. It's like you know, we're gonna come at you. Like all these things, they're like, what am I doing? You know, I'm paying what to do? What? Like, I don't understand. And then they come out and they're like, oh, my God. And I'm like, yeah, I told you, I feel that way. We give a little bit more on Forge. Um, but, man, I'm telling you, trust me, this thing is that good. It's that fun. And it's not, it's not, um, it's not bold. It's not those things. And you talked about prerequisites before we changed. So there's, there's really three ways to get in. You can be a bold graduate and you can take it. So that's straight prerequisite. If you're traveling like you're in the same company with someone who's a bold graduate, you can go to it. The third way is if you really want to take this thing and you haven't been through bold, we'll do. We kind of have an interview process. We'll go through it with you and just make sure that we feel like, you know, those things we were talking about, the, the growth mindset, the, uh, empathy, the understanding, the ability to connect, the willingness to get real and vulnerable in there. All those things are there.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: Um, and if they are, then, yeah, we'll let you in. We kind of build an asterisk around it. But it's, um.

Speaker A: Quite frankly, we gotta. We got a class for both.

Speaker B: Yeah, we do. You know, it's. The, the thing is, if you, it's always with these classes, if you get one person in there that doesn't want to be there, you know, they don't want to learn and grow, they don't want to be pushed. That's. That's where we work hard to keep them out of class. And it's not. If that's you, that's great. That's. That's awesome. Do you. But it's. It's like these classes are for people who want to push, and so you drop one in there. And they're small classes, and we want them small so that the growth and development happens and the more one on one time is happening. Yeah, but you take 1, 1 to 20 is, uh, you have a major influence and you'll learn that in the class. I mean, you will shift the entire culture. And so then we got to either kick you out or we got like all these things going. So that's, that's not how we like to Run them crazy.

Speaker A: Well, I mean, look, I. We almost. We almost did one when I started, and then it didn't work out. Something with the facility happened. I think there was fires, like how it always is in Southern California.

Speaker B: We gotta find another one. This thing's just so good. This facility is so good. Uh, it's beautiful. It's just relaxing at points in there.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: Um, when we're not terrorizing it. I'm just kidding. No. So, uh, I'm excited.

Speaker A: I'm excited to do it. Uh, hopefully I'll be able to do it this. In. In this October.

Speaker B: Yeah. No fires. No fires.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: Fingers crossed for no fires.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: Um. Well, cool. Anything else? I think you really nailed it. I mean, you got me excited about it. Anything else you think we need to leave off on or people need to know about. About the. This Forge class?

Speaker B: Yeah, just, uh, get ready for a ride, man. It's.

Speaker A: It's.

Speaker B: It's. It is. It's that freaking good. I'm gonna stop talking. I'm not even saying anything about you. It's. I just. I'm excited, too. I'm like, I love this class. I love it. Even getting up there. Final part. Maybe edit this out. You're driving up to this place. Okay. And you're in California, and you have to drive this road that is overhanging this cliff.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: Like, all the way up. Half the people are like, okay, I'm done. Training's over. I've learned to push past just from driving up to the damn place. So, uh, anyway,

Speaker A: um, well, as always, you can learn more. Uh, I mean, for this one, we have the class coming up in October. We're looking at doing more, uh, in 2026. That's the year that is after this one. Um, seems like a long way away, but it's. That's why I was gonna say 27, but I was like, no, we're still. Still in 25. Um, but, man, we'd love for you to take this class. And, uh, you can check out all our socials for other testing testimonials and things of people who have gone through it. Don't just take our word for it. And, yeah, we hope to see you in one of these. And if not forged and bold, and if not bold and summit, I mean, hey, we got a lot of options. Well, thanks. Thanks for walking us through it, Eric. That's cool. Yeah. That's fun.

Speaker B: Can't wait.

Speaker A: All right, see you in the next episode, everybody. Thanks for listening.