Thriving In The Digital Age: Giuseppe Quarata and boundaries in business

In this episode of 'Thriving in the Digital Age', Joe Crist interviews GQ, a marketing business coach and agency owner. They discuss the importance of a holistic approach to business, focusing on time management, self-awareness, and the need for boundaries in both personal and professional life. GQ shares insights on delegation, hiring challenges, and the vital role small businesses play in the economy. The conversation emphasizes the significance of community support for entrepreneurs and offers practical advice for maintaining balance and awareness in business.

Transcript

Joe Crist (00:02.954)
Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Thriving in the Digital Age. I'm your host, Joe Crist. Joining me today is GQ. He's not only a owner of a marketing agency, but is also a marketing business coach. GQ, thank you so much for joining us today. Could you please tell the audience a little bit about yourself?

Giuseppe Quarata (00:26.828)
Yes. Thank you very much, Joe. It's a pleasure to be on your podcast. And yeah, as you say, I am a founder of a digital marketing agency, but before that I'm a business coach and marketing coach. I consulted different company on, for example, problem with software. like stack of a lot of company, they stack their software, like they start with something and then they keep

adding software and then they find themselves with hundreds of different piece of software. They don't know what they do anymore. There's that part of consulting. is a part that I love. It's how to unify the five pillar of your life that it's like fate, wealth, fate, of finances, business, family and health.

I really love to speak about that with my clients and to put that together in one sphere instead of like how we always tend to think that everything is separated, but I like to put everything in one sphere. That's all I like to do. I've been doing that for quite a while and have people and the more satisfactory story are the one that they tell me like, you know, my business is doing better, but even more my marriage is doing better.

I took finally a vacation with my wife after like two years. And it's something that people, don't think that everyone does it, but actually there are so many people in the business that don't do it. They always think about business, business, business. And that's what charmed me. That's what pushed me to help people even more.

Joe Crist (02:08.916)
You you brought up an interesting point and one of the things that's never really discussed in business, it's you either own the business or it owns you.

Giuseppe Quarata (02:19.68)
Yep, that's a great point, exactly.

Joe Crist (02:22.328)
Yeah, that's really amazing that you're actually taking such a holistic approach to really helping these people out. So just out of curiosity, I obviously, I'm sure you've seen a lot. What are the major challenges you're seeing with a lot of these businesses and your clients?

Giuseppe Quarata (02:36.812)
Well, one of the biggest challenges that I get people asking me multiple times is actually time management. And it's one of the oldest challenge. I feel like time management has been a challenge forever. It's like historical challenge. It's a challenge today would be a challenge tomorrow for people. There are some challenges that they come new, like for example, AI with the AI now we have like different challenge about data privacy.

data leaking and all these things, but like things like time management, it's like something has been always there and it's really destroyed business, destroy a relationship, destroy your heart. I, people that don't know how to manage the time, they fa they think they don't have time and ends up that they don't take care of their body. And then the business striving and your body is dying. Like that's probably one of the biggest challenge that I've been noticing.

That's still there and it's so strong.

Joe Crist (03:39.006)
Yeah, that's a really good point too. What I've seen a lot too with my clients, where they're so focused on getting the work done that they put their health and their family and everything else second.

Giuseppe Quarata (03:48.529)
Mm

Giuseppe Quarata (03:53.654)
Yeah. It's, it's, I, one thing that I think it's really, interesting is that people are not present. Right. They are their mind. It's just rolling all the time on business. And I'm again, I tell my client, I'm not, I'm not better. I mean that in that place too, I'm learning. And that's the reason why I saw that this happened to me. And I think I thought like, I should help other people too. I should tell other people, Hey, this exists.

These are real things. You think you're listening to your wife, but in reality, you're not present. Like you are just physically there, but your mind is rolling for something else. And then you have to start ask question about like, am I here? Like, am I listening? Am I pay attention to my wife or to my kids? These are questions you need to ask to be able to stay there. And people think that you can get to a place where you can learn and you are done.

But it's not true. Like day management is, you have to, it's a management thing. So like you have, it's forever. Like you have to keep reminding yourself like, Hey, am I doing this right? Am I managed myself right? And you meet millionaires, billionaires, they have, they still struggle with that. They do better than us. Yes. Because they have longer time. They've spent like now 10, 15 years doing that. And that the reason also why they're billionaires, but, still they are not

perfect, then don't have everything figured out.

Joe Crist (05:24.97)
Yeah, no, you're absolutely right. I've seen that too, where it's there's a saying it's what I like to tell people where your focus goes, your energy flows, right? If you're focused strictly on your business and that's it and 100 % of your focus goes on your business, then everything you have will go there. But everything else like your family, your health goes, it just falls apart, right? And that's

Giuseppe Quarata (05:36.301)
Mm -hmm.

Joe Crist (05:53.448)
And it's not really necessarily a thing about like, you need to have like perfect balance, but you also need to be able to have shifting priorities. Now there'll be days where yes, need to handle business emergencies. And I get that. I fully understand that. mean, everybody who's built a business knows this things go wrong, but there's also times you put your family as a priority, right? Because it's really about saying, Hey, this needs this now. So I'm, really curious to, because obviously you're, do a lot of coaching and try to help these people out. What indicators.

Giuseppe Quarata (06:00.354)
Mm -hmm.

Giuseppe Quarata (06:12.472)
Thank

Joe Crist (06:23.166)
should people looking for like, how do you know there's signs of trouble?

Giuseppe Quarata (06:27.245)
Let me think. I think like one thing I would start is maybe you have to ask yourself regularly, am I neglecting one area for another? Like for example, am I neglecting family for business? Am I neglecting health for business or for family? And what do I need to adjust? These are two questions that I ask my client to ask themselves daily.

and it's like, it's literally like training and losing weight. It's not something that you can ask once a week or like one a month and think like, that's enough for me to change. Like if you are really serious on change yourself and learn how to balance everything as something that you have to ask yourself daily. And one way to do it is by journaling. I invite all my clients to start writing down what was their day and add this question inside their journaling. And that's helped them.

figure out if maybe that day they didn't give anything to their family. And don't get me wrong, there is season for everything. I'm Christian and Ecclesiastes 3 .1 say there is a time for everything and a season for every activity under the heavens. That what means that there is a season where work demands more of us, but then like we have to know that it's a season. If this season become like

two years, it's not a season anymore. And that's really important. I ask my clients, it's like write down, like check every day and fine. And also communicate with your family, communicate with your spouse. Like if you know you are in a season where you have to focus more on the business, tell them. Tell your wife like, I need to focus more on the business right now.

this should be lasting like maybe two months maximum, three months, not like three years.

Joe Crist (08:28.564)
Yeah, and I guess that's an important thing too to really remember. It's, you have to time box this stuff. Much like in business, we want to really be successful is find times to do the work, right? But even in your personal life, you have to find time to do the work. But you also have to communicate it, right? And creating that alignment. I that's something I start with myself, right? Where I get so fixated on like, hey, I got to get this done. And my passion's really in there.

Giuseppe Quarata (08:39.543)
Mm -hmm.

Giuseppe Quarata (08:52.888)
Thank you.

Joe Crist (08:53.3)
But because of that, I started ignoring things. Right. And I think it's a big challenge for a lot of people too, where it's, you know, they're, they're so motivated and dedicated to getting something taken care of that. They forget, like there's other things in the world that matter, not just to them, but that you as a business owner, you as an entrepreneur, you as a leader, you still matter to other people outside of work. like you're, you're not just, you're going to be your friends as well. Right. I'm sure.

Giuseppe Quarata (09:08.344)
Mm -hmm. Yep.

Joe Crist (09:23.258)
A lot of other entrepreneurs out there have alienated themselves from their friends at one point or another because they lose track and just stop talking.

Giuseppe Quarata (09:33.11)
Yeah. And I mean, everything not start with self -awareness. Like if you are not self -aware of what's going on, you cannot make a change. know, it's like everything starts on at the end of the day, asking you the question like what, what is going on, what I'm doing, how my calendar works. And, for a long time for myself, I, I was not aware of what's going on. Mostly like when we had our, our kid,

I don't know, I went on work mode. I went like, I have a kid, more responsibility, I need more money, I'm just going to work, work, 70 hours a week, giving everything because I had to scale my business as much as possible, you know, because I wanted to make sure. And my idea was like, I'm doing now like this. Later on, I will have the money, I can spend time with my kids. And then after one week, I came back home and my son was not recognizing me.

like he didn't want to stay on my arm because like I spent so much time away from him and it was only two, three months. Normally two, three months they recognize you by your smell. But like if you're not close to them and good enough, like they don't, they forget about your smell. They see you as a like a stranger. And I was like,

Yeah. And I was like, okay, was like, whoa, whoa, okay, okay. This is going out the end. And that's where my eyes opened and I was like, okay, I need to look at my calendar. And then I became self -aware of like, this is what's going on in my life. And I had to change. was like, okay, I need to hire a COO. I was like, I don't care. It's more expenses, it's fine, but less money that I can...

keep my business, but at the end of the day, it's time that I can take back to be able to spend with my children, with my son.

Joe Crist (11:29.558)
That reminds me of something I tell a lot of my mentees and people I work with, or my team too, and also clients. You can always make more money, but you can never make more time. The time you spend on something, you will never get back. So you have to really invest it wisely. And that's a great example. And that's hard. I don't have kids myself, but I imagine that's a pretty difficult experience when your own child doesn't even recognize you.

Giuseppe Quarata (11:44.299)
Yep.

Joe Crist (11:57.236)
though you had a great intention, it's like, I'm trying to provide for my family and I'm trying to do all these things, they're missing really important moments of their life and how they're developing and growing.

Giuseppe Quarata (12:07.608)
Yeah. And recognize that people, see the time where my son is five months old, six months old, it's one in all my lifetime. Like he will not be five months old again. He will not be six months old again. He will not be, he will not say the first word again, you know? And if I'm spending all my time in business and losing that moment,

You know, as you said before, you can always make more money. There is always another client for you, but there is not another first word for my son. You know, like another time that he's going to say, dad for the first time or like mom for the first time and stuff like that. No, that's not there. That's one time for the rest of my life and you lose that. And that's the reason why sometimes people become self -aware more on the...

40s, 45. That's because like in the beginning they are just like going like trains and then once they get 45, 50 their kids they are maybe like 20s and they're like wait I don't remember when he said the first word or like I don't remember when and now they're trying to take the time back.

Joe Crist (13:24.318)
You brought up a lot of really good points, right? mean, from journaling, to actually trying to have that self -awareness. So obviously a lot of people talk about this, especially entrepreneurs, because obviously we are so connected to our businesses and we really want to thrive, right? Because we have our vision and we're very passionate people. We look at risk differently. We are wired a little bit differently, right? But because of that, it makes it really hard for us to see these things and actually reflect.

Giuseppe Quarata (13:29.047)
Yeah.

Joe Crist (13:51.198)
What could people start doing today? what could, you know, a business owner who just got started and has their first client and super excited and they're growing, they're killing it. Like what could, like what practices should they really sort of or develop, or I'm not, sorry, not developing, but what should they take on like today? Like, I mean, obviously journaling is a great idea, self -reflection, but is there anything else?

Giuseppe Quarata (14:13.848)
Yeah, one thing that I like to use in business is called time blocking. And what you can do, you just can block your specific time for meetings, for your focus work, or even for the checking your email. Instead of waking up and the first thing you do is checking your email, actually why you don't go for a walk for 20 minutes, make that daily and block a time in your...

in your calendar for checking the emails. And then like this, you can group the similar tasks together. And then this will help. Like I've seen this helping also reduce like mental fatigue and increase productivity. And then finally, like one real thing is that real business owner are people that they know how to delegate. You know, don't be afraid, like don't try to keep all the money inside the business and be like, I need to have

I know there is a lot of this mentality of you can listen to some of these gurus, financial gurus that they tell you like you need to have a three months saved in front of you. But when you start a business, it's really hard to have three months worth of income saved in your business. Plus, again, if you're trying to do that, you might be losing another side of your life. And that can be...

your family or your house because now you're working so hard to keep putting the money you have and you are wearing so many hats. are like, you are the marketing team and you are the production team and you are the financing team and you are the bookkeeper and then you are the sales manager and you are the business owner and you're like, and that's not what business meant to be like. Business is meant to be like a place where you delegate.

where you create a team, you create a family and you bring other people in that help you. And I mean, AI is a bit disrupting this type of mentality because now small business like I'm saving money. I have AI, AI gonna do everything for me. Yes and no, AI still need person behind it. It's not that AI just wake ups and things. And even when I hear people say like, AI has so much creativity, even better than people. like, okay, then you have found less.

Giuseppe Quarata (16:32.79)
not the right people because AI is programmed by people. AI use information that people has made. It's not that create something from nothing. Then people are still the most creative type of being in this world. We have a mind and an everything. But there is so many things going on actually right now that it's breaking this mentality of like, you need the team. You need

the people to delegate some of the tasks and you should not be the one. I mean, the best owners, I don't remember the quote 100%, but like someone was saying that to recognize a greater owner, a greater owner is the person that is able to work for the future while delegate the things of the present.

Giuseppe Quarata (17:26.467)
And yeah, that's what I believe.

Joe Crist (17:31.434)
So you brought up the whole thing of time. Obviously, you want to be able to save up some money, have a runway, which makes sense. It's way to really manage risk in a company. But also, you can't do everything by yourself. And one of the things IHE, I've been doing more recently, is really outsourcing overseas. Having a VA in the Philippines or somewhere like that, you're not paying somebody in the US. You're not going to be burning up your cash.

Giuseppe Quarata (17:54.178)
Mm

Joe Crist (17:58.974)
nearly as fast, but you still get that help. And I think that's a great thing, right? It allows you to really just scale. You know, obviously the others like technology, like things like AI, better processes and talent at a better price for you right now. Right. And think that's a really important thing that a lot of people miss. Right. And I mean, tell me if I'm wrong, but I'm sure you've seen a lot of, you know, business leaders take so much pride in their business. They don't want other people to touch it.

Giuseppe Quarata (18:14.264)
Mm

Joe Crist (18:28.574)
because it's their system, have their own particular way of doing it.

Giuseppe Quarata (18:29.4)
Mm -hmm.

Giuseppe Quarata (18:33.152)
Yep. Yep. That's the big problem. it's their, they call it their kid. Like it's my children, like it's mine. And they use this word, mine, mine, mine. But in the reality, if you're a believer, first of all, it's God's business. It's not your business. Like it's God gave it to you. You are steward of that business, but it's not yours. You don't own it. Because also like once you die, like

If you try to own all the rest of your life, once you die, where it goes, you you can take with you in the tomb. Like, like my oldest, my parents always said me with, from bond is like, once you die, you cannot take money with you. And after life, like then why you are so attached to it, you know, like you need to keep attached to things that you can take and legacy and, creating a business where not just you, but your family can drive after you died. That's like something that.

it's, it's worth it to have. And that's the reason why you need to delegate because like you need to create a culture where everyone can live inside and trust people. We are not meant to be by ourself on, on the earth. That's why there are so many people around us. because we are meant to do things together. We are meant to build things together and business is not different than that. Like women, even family, like people that they have,

like say I'm married, people that they have other married couple around there in their circle, they are more successful. is a higher chance they're not going to divorce. If the people around there, they have a really strong marriage. Where like it's obviously like, there's proven like if a marriage couple, the old people around there, they're single, all of them, are just single people, there is high chance they're going to divorce.

and everything, because like the life of a single person is different than life of marriage. need to have the specific people around you. Same things with business. Obviously it's hard. think one of the biggest challenges, one of the other biggest challenge in business is find the right people to hire. There aren't people to, and that's, there is like, and that's part of marketing. People, don't know that, but I think marketing is only for sell your products, sell your services, but actually there is a

Giuseppe Quarata (20:54.954)
all a marketing area dedicated just for hiring people. How to write the right hiring, like the job description, what is the right title, find the right name for the person that you are trying to hire. You find so many times this nonsense job description on Lingardine where they say like, entry level and then while you read they say like,

Joe Crist (21:05.684)
Thanks

Giuseppe Quarata (21:23.864)
I need 10 years of experience and I'm like, that's not really entry level if you want 10 years of experience and master degree.

Joe Crist (21:34.046)
Yeah, I've seen a lot of job postings like that. Like entry level must have a master's degree, eight years experience, these certifications and had previous management experience. Like, is not realistic. Yeah. Like I see there's a really big disconnect too in that world between like HR and the people actually doing the work. Right. And I think it really also comes down to like communication issues. When you have the team saying, okay, I need this, this, and this, and then the person who's actually writing it, I don't know what any of that means.

Giuseppe Quarata (21:45.952)
Exactly.

Giuseppe Quarata (21:53.111)
Mm -hmm.

Giuseppe Quarata (22:03.765)
Exactly.

Joe Crist (22:04.082)
And one of the things I actually probably match, I imagine people are doing is they're going to like chat GPT, be like, write a job description for this role. And then they post it. then, you know, what I've seen a lot of companies is to get somebody who is like not actually that qualified for the work. Yeah. You brought up a really interesting point too, about like, you know, when it comes to bringing in staff, think a big challenge on imagine policy in this as well, where you hire the wrong staff. It's.

Giuseppe Quarata (22:32.194)
Mm

Joe Crist (22:33.214)
Just, it's a thing, it happens, right?

As business leaders, as business owners, as operators, we are limited in what we know. We always do the best we can every day, right? And we may not understand what we're actually trying to do fully. And I find what a lot of people do when they're trying to their team is...

They think they need a solution somewhere where it's not, where they don't even understand the problem enough to give it and they hire the wrong person and then they run this project for a while and nothing really happens. mean, have you seen that?

Giuseppe Quarata (23:11.732)
Mm -hmm. Yeah, and I tell everyone just like I make them comfort from the beginnings like Like don't feel like you have to you're gonna hire someone perfect at the beginning But like just learn to fire and it's not that like you want to fire everyone I'm telling people I don't try and this was for me because no one told me that and then like I hired a different person everything and

And I was like, I kept giving like month after month, second chance, another chance. And I'm like, I'm like, this is just burning my money. Like I have literally like clients leaving because they got tired of this situation and I'm like, why am I not firing this person? And all of this, because no one told me like the first thing that I need to learn, it's not how to hire, but it's how to fire.

Joe Crist (24:06.393)
man.

Giuseppe Quarata (24:06.904)
And it's like, and you don't want to fire. Like it's not my nature. yeah, I'm like, people think I'm like business horror. are bad people and they want to fire all the time. no, it's not that. Maybe there are some, but like the reality is like, we are in this business, money, it's tight. Like most of when you're starting and everything. And we are really looking for a person that could understand our culture, understand what we are, what the message we are trying to.

bring through our product, our services. And then we find these people that they look awesome. They speak with you, you might know their dad or their mom because they're best friends with you and you're like, okay, I'm going to give you a chance. And then like the next things you know it, you're losing clients because of them. And you don't want to fire because you know this person and you're like, and you are in this like loop that's just taking you down.

Joe Crist (25:06.644)
exact situation a couple of times already. It's a hard thing, right? Because you put a lot of, you invest a lot of time and energy and regardless of how much money you've even spent and definitely do spend money on a lot of these people, they're just not a good fit and that's okay, right? And that's one of the biggest challenges I found for myself as a business owner where it's, you you bring on somebody you think is going to be great and you want it to work.

Right. Because it's a, feels like a huge failure on your part when you have to fire somebody. Right. Where you're trying to be like, you're giving them second chance after second chance, after second chance, after second chance. Right. It's, and you're burning so much capital as you're doing this and you guys are all getting done. And what it's also doing is hurting the company. It's hurting your teams, hurting the culture, having that person around and you, you, I.

Giuseppe Quarata (25:40.542)
Mm -hmm. Yep.

Giuseppe Quarata (26:00.148)
Mm

Joe Crist (26:05.418)
I don't know if you were, well, sure. Probably have fired somebody at one point or another, but it's for me, it was one of those things I was thinking about it for days before I had to do it. I was stressing over it. Like, how do I do this? How do I don't want to, you know, what are they going to do if they start freaking out? What do I do if they freak out? Like, what do I do? Like, I'm going to see you or start making crazy threats. What do I, how do I do it so they can't retaliate? And it's like all these things has ran through my head.

Giuseppe Quarata (26:31.404)
Mm -hmm.

Joe Crist (26:31.518)
before I actually had that conversation. And the conversation is when we do have it, it's not that bad. It sucks, for sure. But it's one of those things where you're you kind of explain, it's like, look, this is not a good fit. It's not really working out. Thank you for everything you've done so far, but we do need to go a different direction with this, or whatever you may have.

Giuseppe Quarata (26:34.167)
you

Giuseppe Quarata (26:37.63)
No.

Giuseppe Quarata (26:44.057)
Mm

Giuseppe Quarata (26:52.62)
Yep. No.

Joe Crist (26:53.512)
A lot of the things you can imagine don't actually happen.

Giuseppe Quarata (26:57.976)
Yeah, I know. It's a good point. I feel like the same. I think in my case, it was a bit easier because I had my wife, it's kind of she knows everything about what happened in business. Then I was telling before, like actually spend time with your family can actually enrich your success instead of like people think they take you down because like you can speak with her. I was able to speak with her and be like, Hey, this is what's going on right now.

And then when I was telling her, she was literally looking at me and me like, if you think it's not so bad, does you think, you know, like you have the reason. it's not that you never gave her another chance. You did three times. Then it's like, at this point, like why you're beating yourself up, like just be honest. Just, and she helped me writing down what I should tell that person. And same things was like with my coach, like I.

I'm a coach, I'm a business coach, a marketing coach, but doesn't because of that, I believe in coaching that I have my own coach. Like I have a person that speak on my life. I have a mentor. have someone that I, when I have a problem, I a text and be like, Hey, this is what's going on. Can you help me? Cause like a coach, like if someone called you and say like, Hey, I'm a business coach, but himself has not a coach or herself has not a coach or mentor. Then like it's preaching like something that is not.

observing what I'm doing and make sense. But going back, yes, that's what helped me a lot. again, yeah, I was going the same like you. was in the beginning, I was like, I was going to stress to the idea like I need to fire this person. I most wanted to give that person another chance just to not have to do the speak about firing. Yes.

Joe Crist (28:48.839)
It's hard. It's a lot harder people realize like a lot of I know people feel pretty like upset when it happens because it is life -changing it's absolutely life -changing but it is not easy for anybody going through it nobody wants to go to that situation on either side. So obviously you know a lot of experience in this right like a lot of the good a lot of the bad so you know looking forward into the future right like where do you see like

not just business coaching, but like the needs of business. Like how are they really evolving? Like especially in today's age.

Giuseppe Quarata (29:21.088)
In business? mean, business, we are in the United States and the United States, even more than other countries, is built on small businesses. The idea of why people come to the United States is because we know that there is this freedom of, I can start a business any moment. I come from Italy. I'm originally from Italy and everything. When I was growing up, I never heard much about

business. I never heard much about starting a business. There is not so much about this, lot of small business, even if my mom, herself, she run a small business, like even her running a small business, she was pushing me towards corporation, towards master degree and everything. She was like, that's even a better idea because it's not so easy, not so standard. mean, where when I came in US, like I felt like everyone I was meeting was small business.

There is this things like, let's go first, let's start a business. And that's, think, a big power in the United States. I think the United States honestly run on small business, run on business. many times we don't, the country itself doesn't spend time to value this. When I go around and everything, feel like they value so many other stuff for the country. And then it's awesome. Like you value the military, you value...

There is value on education, 100%, but I always tell people, my praise God for all of that. But without business, without all these people running small business, pay taxes, donating and everything, there would be no military, there would be no police, there would be no education. Like who is paying for this? It's not the government paying for this. Like we are paying for it. We are the small business paying for this. We are the worker paying for this.

And I think they're trying to cut these things down. They're trying to belittle us, belittle the small business. And I'm really inviting people to fight against that and be like, to raise their voice and be like, Hey, I'm proud to be a small business. I'm proud of what I'm doing.

Joe Crist (31:37.866)
Absolutely. And the thing about small business too, I small businesses, some state small forever and that's fine because that's really up to the owner. Right. And they just don't want to scale. And I think that's great. Like, especially like, know, coffee shops, like little small, like locally and she's it can handle jobs. Right. And then there are ones that grow. Right. But the thing that I find common with all these businesses is there, they're because it is so competitive, right. Because those who actually do it, like

Giuseppe Quarata (31:49.24)
Mm

Joe Crist (32:04.522)
they really do enhance the market and make the market more competitive. We're innovating lightning fast as a country. We are building things so quickly. are usually the leaders or near the leaders of the world when it comes to a lot of these new technologies. Look how much investment capital has gone into AI alone. And all these companies trying things out and really helping not just our country but the entire world. Really start leveraging

Giuseppe Quarata (32:13.037)
Mm -hmm.

Joe Crist (32:32.682)
new tech, new ideas, and all these different solutions that really do make a difference. So yeah, I 100 million percent agree where it's small businesses is what this country is built on.

Giuseppe Quarata (32:46.53)
Yeah, exactly.

Joe Crist (32:47.536)
And that's what keeps this country growing and thriving. It's creating the opportunity for people to really say, hey, I can make a difference in the world and here's how I'm going to do it. And sure as you've as well, the entrepreneur community in the US is amazing. Entrepreneurs love other entrepreneurs. We love hearing the stories. We love sharing the struggles.

We love sharing our victories and really helping each other out. And I think a lot of people get scared because they never feel like they're good enough. Like, I don't know this. I don't know that. But really, if you've talked to your entrepreneur friends, they go through a lot of the same experiences.

Giuseppe Quarata (33:24.146)
mm -hmm yep totally true

Yeah, that's, and there are so many, mean, I cannot speak for all the States, but here in Colorado, Colorado Springs, there are so many networking. There are so many places to go. So many places, like if you're ready to start, go there. mean, even with my CEO, we decided to start a group coaching and it starts like the, like we have a free version for it. And it's specifically for people that are looking to start. Cause like there is some, there is some fear.

And everyone goes to that fear. you are not the first one going to that fear. You're not the first one going through that stress. You're not the first one going through that anxiety. We all went through that. And because of that, we decided with my CO, we're like, Hey, let's have like a group coaching where people that they're thinking about starting, can join and they can see that it's not so bad. You know, like you were saying before about firing. It's like,

The hardest part was like the day before the firing, like just how your mind create the worst case scenario for everything. Instead, like once, once I spoke with the person, it went pretty well and they finished fast. Like it didn't, didn't take much long, but I created like a movie, like a three hours movie on how could have gone. Same things with business. We, we like, before we start a business, sometimes at three hours, I know people that have been years.

They have like years long movies creating their mind how the business could go and how Bronc could go like, and they never start. And this is the reason why you have to join community. There are so many community around the United States.

Joe Crist (35:14.394)
important is talk to your peers and really understand what it's like. And that's the thing too. I could always talk to another business owner. And I have a lot of friends out where I live in Arizona that run businesses. Some of them even use their services. But it's one of those things where you can actually just go get coffee and talk to them. That brings up a really good question.

Right. And a question I love to ask. So obviously you've been you've been doing this for a minute and you're very insightful guy. So I want to ask if you could give the audience any piece of advice, no matter what, anything at all, what it could be. What would you tell the audience that would really help them out? know, as not just business owners, but people.

Giuseppe Quarata (36:12.94)
I think the word comes to my mind is boundaries. Speaking all of what we spoke today, think one word that takes all of this together is boundaries. Be able to create boundaries. Boundaries in business, boundaries in your family, in your life, boundaries even for your own feelings. Because feelings, if we don't create boundaries, they just start to rot.

run crazy and then we get in this spiral of depression. Then be able to recognize again, well say before, be aware of what's going on and not just like, what blind, like that's what we do with we, even more, we're trying to run blind when we don't, we run a business or in life, then trying to be aware of what's going on around you and create boundaries from the beginning. know, if you're a believer like me, sit down,

pray and ask God. God can give you the idea of what are the boundaries you should have. Because He knows who you are, your personality, tells you, hey, this is where you should be more careful, or don't do too much of this. Sometimes can be, for example, a boundary of time I have created for myself. It's like at 6 PM, my phone, and you can't...

That's the beauty of technology, goes automatically in focus mode and no message or email or text comes through me or call comes to me. Then like anyone that call after that, they're going to receive automatic message about I'm not available. Call me tomorrow or they're going to go to the voice. That's a way for me to, to auto stop myself and be like, you have to stop, you know, and my, I might still do some work, but it's not.

related, I'm not calling with clients. I might finish just a few sentences, but then like I'm free and I spend time with my family. Same things with your health or with just when you wake up, give you your alarm instead of be a normal alarm, can be an alarm with a text like, hey, good morning. Let's go for a 20 minutes work. Remind you that

Giuseppe Quarata (38:31.32)
The first thing you should do this morning is going for a 20 -minute walk. Not open your laptop, not reading your email, not open Instagram, but go for a walk. Enjoy the outside, breathe this beautiful air and enjoy what is around. That will help you start your day different. We always think about boundaries and relationships.

with other person, but there's boundaries for ourselves, you know, like if we know that, for example, we are trying to lose weight and create boundaries to the size of like, I'm not buying more chocolate or other stuff in my house. Cause like, I know I cannot go against it. I'm not strong enough to say, no, if I see a piece of chocolate on my, on my kitchen, then like, don't buy it, you know, like create a boundaries that's build boundaries. I think that's.

And also we have against people because like we are not the serve. We are not slave or business. We are not the slave or our clients. We serve them. We don't, we are not slave and like create boundaries for your clients to.

Joe Crist (39:45.642)
think that's definitely a challenge for lot of people too. But yeah, that's amazing advice. But hey, we are at the end the conclusion of our show. Everybody who's been out there listening, thank you so much for joining us. Again, this is GQ. Man, dude, I really appreciate this conversation. Very enlightening for me. I definitely have some stuff I definitely need to work on with myself. And I really do appreciate the advice you gave. I'm sure the audience does as well.

So everybody once again, thanks for coming out and look forward to the next episode of Thriving in the Digital Age.

Giuseppe Quarata (40:22.882)
Thank you.

Joe Crist (40:25.066)
you