We delve into the remarkable story of Justin Breen, an author and entrepreneur who has found success through his exclusive connectivity platform, BR Epic Network, and is the CEO of global PR firm BREpic Communications. His first book, Epic Business, was a bestseller in six countries and No. 1 for Entrepreneurship in the US.. After meeting at a mastermind group, I read his latest book, “Epic Life,” which reveals why he works exclusively with visionaries and that his true superpower is his wife, Dr. Sarah Breen, a pediatrician, who has also recently transitioned and collaborated on their new company. Throughout this conversation, we will explore his entrepreneurial achievements and gain insights into what it takes to become a successful global company.
Transcript
Dr. Mike Woo-Ming: [00:00:00] I had the pleasure of meeting my next guest and we really hit it off. We met at a high end mastermind and we had a discussion on the importance of entrepreneurs becoming visionaries of their company. He has a really interesting path for himself as he became an entrepreneur. I recently read his book called Epic Life and I really found it impactful and it was also very touching.
He comes from a journalism background so it was, obviously. This man is a very accomplished writer. Some of the chapters were really unique with titles such as Uncertainty Is An Opportunity To Collaborate, Conversation Becomes A Product. And one of my favorites, Mediocre People Don’t Like High Achievers and High Achievers Don’t Like Mediocre People.
I think if you’re an entrepreneur or someone who wants to aspire to become an entrepreneur, I think you will really enjoy my next interview. [00:01:00] My talk with Justin Breen. I’m The Author Of Epic Life on this episode of BootstrapMD.
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Hey guys, this is Dr. Mike Woo-Ming. Welcome to another edition of BootstrapMD. This is the podcast for healthcare and physician entrepreneurs. I met this next gentleman at a mastermind group that I’m in. As I mentioned before, I belong to a couple of high end masterminds and we really connected. I didn’t think so at first, but it seems that we really connected. And once you hear his story, you’ll learn why.
And once I got to know him, and actually I had the privilege. He actually gifted me his book, Epic Life, which was tremendous, and we’re going to talk all about it. [00:03:00] He is the founder and CEO of the exclusive connectivity platform, BrEpic Network and Global PR Communications. His book features a fellow as they did a bestsellers list.
We really connected once I found out that his wife is a Pediatrician, Dr. Sarah Breen, and she is actually I want. But she’s actually transitioning to working on a new company. We talk all about it. He’s got his children, Jake and Chase, his dogs. He doesn’t heard it a 3rd dog. I want to bring that to the table someone I’ve learned a lot about really quickly. Justin Breen. Justin, how are you doing today?
Justin Breen: Well, it’s a wonderful day and very grateful to talk to you. I think your story is it’s a wonderful entrepreneurial journey. That’s just beginning, really. And then before you hit record, I wanted to ask you what you would learn from your son, Ryan, who’s now [00:04:00] 24.
And I don’t know if you wanted to tell the audience that, but he was diagnosed with autism when he was four, correct? So 20 years.
Dr. Mike Woo-Ming: Yeah, actually didn’t at that back then, they didn’t really give him a diagnosis and because that it’s the way that the system works. If you diagnose them too early or too late, you have certain you get certain.
You want to be labeled in particularly. So they called it the ICD Code Disorder. ICD Disorder was pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified. But then later, yes, he was diagnosed autism. Thanks for asking. And just to share with the audience, and I’ve said this to too many of my colleagues and friends that I probably wouldn’t be where I am running a number of different businesses. Starting my own practice if it wasn’t without Ryan. I was, or I was working for a company. I was the low man on the totem [00:05:00] pole in this position group, made a nice salary, but I was working what we call The Golden Handcuffs, just working and just working in probably working there continuously. But it showed me that there was different, the importance of family, which is something that resonated in your book, Epic Life that I again and again, like, why are we all doing this? And the love that you have for your family. Yeah, exactly is really what should drive all of us to do what we want to do. So thanks for bringing that up.
But yeah, this I’d like to talk about you and spotlight you and what you’ve done. You started as a journalist and I don’t think entrepreneurship really came into your mind. From what I understand until you also had a kind of similar enlightenment in your life. Well, let’s speak to that.
Justin Breen: Tremendous use of enlightenment and why I had said your journey is like, it’s just an entrepreneur journey. So [00:06:00] what separates entrepreneurs from humans, there are only four things, only four. All I do all day is talk to top visionary entrepreneurs on planet and then simplify what they say into patterns. The four things are bankruptcy or potential bankruptcy; (2) depression; (3) highest level of anxiety; and (4) likely and or possible traumatic experiences as a child or young adult.
So for humans, business owners, consultants, those four things are excuses. And then people like us, you turn those into multiple companies. You turn those into spending more time with family. That’s what an entrepreneur is. They’re the most damaged person with the best coping skills.
So the highest IQ, highest EQ, most hustle, most guts, most ability to understand enlightenment or, hey, this very difficult situation is going to lead to enlightenment. So I started first company in 2017 with zero business background. I was a journalist for 20 years [00:07:00] and created an entire first company based on how PR firms annoyed me for 20 years.
I don’t know what PR firms do. They just annoyed me and then started it. Job salary was cut in half, couldn’t find a job. Incorporated six days after turning 40. And then with zero business background, while I was working full time at half salary. Reached out to 5, 000 people to find first five clients. So that’s not most people aren’t born with the wiring to do that.
I didn’t even know what an entrepreneur was. I just, I was just born like this. So, now have two global companies that partner and connect people like us. So it’s a, I think it’s a somewhat similar journey years in mind. We were both faced with very difficult challenges, but turn those challenges into really finding what the true meaning of life is, and then creating companies based on that purpose to help others. So I think there’s a lot of commonalities there.
Dr. Mike Woo-Ming: Why did you [00:08:00] write the book Epic Life? Why did you feel you need to tell that story?
Justin Breen: Well, I think in a way, I think it’s similar to why you’re doing what you’re doing because you’re a litmus test for people you serve. And then you see physicians and health care folks struggle with overworking and they’re doing all this stuff and then they never see their family or they torch their family or never have one.
So you created companies so you could see your family and have all this time. And if you’re not a litmus test for people, you serve that’s hypocrisy. So purpose of my life is to be, to connect visionaries to serve humanity. So connecting visionaries, not humans, not business owners, not cause it’s just pure visionaries and to serve humanity, pure global thinking.
And then formula for creating a successful global company is simple, is you see a problem, create solution, problem solved, successful global company, so you saw a problem with physicians being overworked, no passive income. Okay, create companies to help them do that, [00:09:00] create them, successful global company.
The book, Epic Life, which I’m very grateful Dr. Peter Diamandis, who very rarely does it, but he did it for me, I’m very grateful, he wrote the foreword. He’s one of the top entrepreneurs on the planet. It’s how to build collaborative global companies while putting your loved ones first. So it’s the same formula.
I talked to one to two people like us every single week that have let entrepreneur life destroy their family life or preventing them from having a family. So I’m like, okay, create solution. How to build collaborative global companies while putting your loved ones first, write about it, solve it. Successful global company. So to me, the book is just a successful global company.
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Dr. Mike Woo-Ming: Why is it important for visionaries to connect? We talk about entrepreneurs. We talked about how lonely it can be, but why do we, why? So I should be in, in charge of everything. Why should I need to connect with other visionaries? Why did you feel that was important?
Justin Breen: Yeah. So thank you for asking that for your audience. I know the answer to that one, cause you’re involved in multiple high level masterminds, but two, you’re a visionary. So a business owner would not ask that question, but a visionary entrepreneur [00:11:00] would. And then again, all I do is talk to people like us and simplify it. So there are two fundamental things that will never change. Never, that will never change.
And I’m also in top level masterminds and then created own, which is high price point invite only connectivity platform for visionaries. So not only in the rooms, but created own room. And then in top tech masterminds, where we talk about people living 400, 500 years old, AI, all that stuff, blockchain.
So there are two things that will fundamentally never change. One, power of storytelling. We’re a world of storytellers, so viable hieroglyphics, smoke signals, I don’t know, the constitution, whatever that is. We’re world of storytelling. And then two, never will, never, will never change. Power of real human relationships.
Power of real human relationships. So AI and all this stuff, I’m a simplifier, so all this tech will just make power of [00:12:00] storytelling better and then power of real human relationships better. Because no matter how big of aliens that visionaries are, they still want to connect to other aliens because they want that sense of belonging.
They want that sense of belonging so they don’t feel lonely and people like us are usually alien, not always, but usually aliens within our own family community and verticals. The only people that understand us are top entrepreneurs on the planet. So it’s a very lonely world at first, very lonely. And it took most of my life to find people who actually understood what I was talking about.
And now that I found them, 2 becomes 4, 4 becomes 10, 10 becomes 20, 20 becomes 100. It never stops because people like us want to hang out with people like us.
Dr. Mike Woo-Ming: Now, when we first met, one of the first things you told me, which I probably have never, met someone like you is you told me how you scored on a personality testing. Can you elaborate that for the audience on [00:13:00] what exactly that’s all about?
Justin Breen: Oh, okay. Sure. If you think the opposite of me, that would be my wife, who’s a pediatrician, kind, loving, 100 percent gray, rules, order, and then I’m like, I see the world in numbers and keywords, 100 percent black and white, very direct.
And then she’s you have to stop identifying people as numbers. I’m like, that’s how I see the world in numbers, like IQ and then the test that you’re talking about, which actually is not your personality, which is that’s why I like it. But it’s called the KOLBE test, K. O. L. B. E. kolbe.com, a index.
It takes 20 minutes. I think it’s 55 U. S. Dollars and it measures how your brain takes action, how folks take action, and I don’t really care what someone’s personality is. It’s, I don’t really care what someone does. I don’t care where they live or how many employees. I just want to know if they’re visionaries or not, or if they’re going to do something.
And Kolbe, I have found, I’m not affiliated with it at all, but for me, it’s [00:14:00] been the easiest way to identify who a visionary is and who is not. And Kolbe, the Overwhelm, there’s four numbers, there are four numbers. Most of the people I talk to, not all, but most of them are very high quick start, that’s idea, shiny, object, shiny, and then they have little to no follow through. So that’s like ADD, ADHD, diagnosed or undiagnosed, it’s not a disorder, it’s a sign of genius, mislabeled by humans, and then I’m the very, very rare visionary that has high quick start, boom, boom, and then high follow through as well.
So it’s hit the gas, pump the brakes, hit the gas, pump the brakes. It’s ultra focused. And then the typical human or doctor or pediatrician, like my wife, is lower quick start, higher follow through. So analyze, then make a decision. But then once that decision is made, never stop following through. So that’s why my wife is such a great COO integrator for second company.
It took her 19 years of hanging [00:15:00] out with me and people like me to realize, ah, I want to become someone like that. And then now she’ll never stop following through. She’s an onboarding machine.
Dr. Mike Woo-Ming: Yeah. So tell me about your wife. When I read your book, I could definitely see when you spotlighted your family. You could tell that the word you really lit up because that was like, the biggest take home that I got. That’s your world. So tell me about Dr. Sarah Breen and then maybe her journey and then her decision to start up and work in your company.
Justin Breen: So it’s a wonderful journey and wonderful story. I am not a very emotional person, but when I think about my wife and our children, who, by the way, our children are both nine quickstart to follow through maniacs, that’s a maniac as a compliment, they’re pure visionaries. They’re ten and nine years old. And then [00:16:00] actually our 10 year olds about to turn 11.
So probably when this. He’ll be 11. So which is very interesting. But so usually I don’t say this, but I think your audience will appreciate this. My wife and I our first date was the day before she started medical school. Literally the day before she moved into the dorms to start medical school. I’m five and a half years older than her.
And so if there’s anything comparable to entrepreneur life journey, it’s going through medical school. You’ve done both. So that’s a really interesting and we never really dated for we never dated until we met in 2004 we never really started dating until 2018 and that was after we had our two children, our two sons.
So it was like 14 years of [00:17:00] whatever dating a doctor is, I’ve experienced it okay, and then I’ve been an entrepreneur for Since 2017, six days after turning 40. And my wife, just after turning 40, we were at, in one of the entrepreneur groups we’re in, it’s called Strategic Coach. Very grateful to be in that.
Dan Sullivan and Bab Smith, our husband and wife, and their co founders are Strategic Coach. I’m sure a lot of folks in that. And they have a thing called Couples Connection, where the entrepreneur and her, his spouse or partner, boyfriend, girlfriend, they go to and a weekend long event with other entrepreneurs and their partners.
And then they just talk about entrepreneurial couples. So we went to San Diego area earlier this year, and this is the third time we had done this event. And we’ve almost been together 20 years now. So my wife, again, low quick start, high follow through, high fact finder, she just [00:18:00] absorbed this for year after year, and then met all these couples where the spouse had transitioned out of whatever line of work they were in. And then decided to become an entrepreneurial couple, literally working together or completely just becoming an entrepreneur themselves.
And at the end of this most recent couples connection, my wife is Sarah, Dr. Sarah, she goes, I have an idea. What if I transitioned out of Pediatrics and became COO of your second company? I’m like, okay, great. Here’s the microphone. Tell everyone, cause I don’t overthink anything. I’m just like, okay, great. And that was a couple months ago. And she’s been COO for about two and a half months. And just to land the plane, which I don’t usually do, but for her, I will.
She’s on boarded almost 300, 000 US dollars into new company and new members. She’s an onboarding machine, right? Yeah. Cause she’s high, low, quick start, high follow through. She’ll never start. She’s [00:19:00] planned our first big in person event, which will be May 15th and 16th in Phoenix, I believe.
She does all the backstage stuff. She helps run the meetings with my partner who’s in San Francisco. He does eight, nine figure deals all day. That is not my world. I just like to connect people, I guess. And then she’s down to two days a week PD, she’s lower quick start, so she won’t admit it, but I’m higher quick start. I already see it. I’m guessing she’ll be out of Pediatrics completely within 12 months.
The kids and I have a bet on that. Our 10 year old said 6 months, 9 or the 9 year old or the 11 year old said 6 months and the 9 year old said 9 months that my, my wife will be completely out. We were trying to plant the seed with her on that, so that’s a long answer, but for me, with her, it’s really important to do that because one, of how much I love her, but two, her story is, I think, the template, not only for your [00:20:00] audience, but anyone who’s not necessarily a visionary, like us, like you and I were born to be this person. My wife and people like that, they’re not born like this.
So they, but they can hang around people like us and then become like this. And that’s a beautiful thing to me.
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Dr. Mike Woo-Ming: But are you saying that’s what a visionary needs is an executor is an operator. I think I watched a video where you had mentioned your partner in a BREpic Network and you had this event and they saw the video of the event. I believe you had met him for the first time ever. You want to share that story. I think it’s funny.
Justin Breen: It’s funny and amazing and again, another wonderful thing that, this is another reason why I wrote book because I do think that the way my partner’s name is Mark Fujiwara. Great. He’s a great, just a great guy. He’s in San Francisco. I’m in Chicago. We’ve met 2 times in person now.
One was at the launch party, which was in 2021. So before we even had the [00:22:00] platform for the company, we had a launch, we had a launch party. And then by the way, you saw the video, my wife’s in that. Which is really interesting and that was well before she was COO, but it almost had planted a seed wound up becoming what it is now.
And that’s how you learn in real time is by doing something and then you see what happens. But Mark and I had met virtually also in strategic coach. And one of the chapters in Epic Life was find your Babs or have your Babs find you. Again, Babs is the wife and business partner for Dan Sullivan, and I was talking to Dan virtually right at the start of COVID in another mastermind called Abundance 360, which is led by Peter, Dr. Peter Diamandis, who wrote the Ford for Epic Life. Again, if you see the connections here, And I was telling Dan, Hey, I need to find my Babs for second company, because I can’t build a tech platform. I don’t, I would blow myself up doing that. I can barely hold a [00:23:00] pen right. As you saw earlier. But so I’m like, Hey, I need to find my Babs.
And then Dan’s, Oh, no, the trick is have your Babs find you. So I’m like, Oh, that’s a good idea. I’ll do that. So strategic coach has a thing called an Impact Filter, which like you have to fill out 7 to 10 things that need to work out for this to be a good match. And I filled it out and I started sending it to people and then Mark was one of them and he’s, Oh, that’s a good idea. Let’s do that. I’m like, okay, great. Let’s here we go. So, that was 2021.
And then we had the launch party and then Epic Life came out in 2022 where we talked about the formation and then my wife, Dr. Sarah became COO earlier this year, and now it’s taking off like a rocket ship. So planting seed after seed after seed, then it grows into a beautiful garden and then it keeps growing. It never stops.
Dr. Mike Woo-Ming: And certainly in this case, you married your Babs. [00:24:00] What other ways can they find us? Is it going to events? Is it putting in? What is it?
Justin Breen: The answer is yes. The answer is yes to all, the, okay. So this, to simplify everything you’re saying, the answer is doing something. It’s taking action and I appreciate you reading Epic Life book. I appreciate it. Chapter one is the cream rises to the top. That’s something my dad said every day that he was alive. And he was 61 when I was born. He was born in 1916. So he’d be 107 now. And he died when I was 13. And then he was a World War II hero. World War II hero who was shot down multiple times in combat many times without a parachute and got back into a plane.
So that’s my litmus test for you’re either someone who can do that or you’re someone who makes an excuses. So the reason why the answer to anything you was you were going to ask is yes, is because everything you’re asking is doing something. It’s putting [00:25:00] yourself out there to attract something.
So whether that’s a social media post, it’s whether it’s going out in actual public, whether it’s doing an impact filter and sending out to your friends, whether it’s, Hey, you know what? This is the day before my wife’s starting medical school, but I love her anyway. I’m going to date her, which I told her, I loved her after one week. I would have told her the first day, but I didn’t want to scare her the day before medical school. So I waited a week to tell her, but no, it’s by taking action.
It’s by doing something. And then again, what my dad said, the cream rises to the top. The cream rises to the top because of those are the ones that take action and make investments. They don’t make excuses. No excuses. Figure it out.
Dr. Mike Woo-Ming: I love it. I love it. I know your time is short. I know connecting visionaries give us a 1 or 2 advisor. There’s physicians who are on this call right now. I know some physicians are visionaries. I know some may be more operators. What’s the next step for someone who’s got an [00:26:00] idea? They can change the world, but they’re not sure what the next step could be. What would you, what advice would you give that person?
Justin Breen: Okay. One, that’s tremendous. Normally, I don’t like landing the plane questions, but that’s a really good one because you are being a litmus test for people you serve, and then they will do it if they just have an answer because they’re all intelligent. They’ll put in the work.
If you get through medical school, you can, rotations, residency, you can do anything. So you’re asking something for a group of people that will do it. They will do what it takes. Okay, so I’ll give you a step. If it’s helpful, a step by step. If it’s helpful. Okay, and if it’s helpful as background, because almost all these people are probably high fact finders, because I don’t think you can get through medical school without being a high fact finder.
Chapter two of Epic Life book is the Perfection of Patterns. So it’s a deep dive into pattern, answer, pattern, answer, pattern, answer. [00:27:00] Okay. So one, I would take the Kolbe, K O L B E. com. Again, if you’re a visionary, that means probably not always, but probably ADD, ADHD, all over the place. That’s high, quick, start, lower, follow through.
And if you don’t hire humans. Really smart ones to help you total, total disaster. So those type of people are the ones they’re usually they’re running the healthcare practice. They’re a visionary who’s happens to be a doctor. They’re a visionary who happens to be a dentist running a giant dental practice. They’re a visionary who happens to be running a massive hospital thing.
And there’s 50 people under them. Okay. So that’s one. And then regardless of what the Kolbe is, find someone who’s the opposite of you, because for me, anything that’s a weakness, if you want to look at it that way, is a find, is a chance to find collaborative strengths.
So, my partner has, and I’m a [00:28:00] visionary, but he’s an even bigger visionary than I am. And then I have slightly more follow through than him. My wife, who again is a Pediatrician, is a stabilizing human, but we’re both Achiever Three in Strength Finders. She just does it with harmony and relationships. I do it with activate, maximize, so go.
And then in Strength Finders, Gallup Clifton Strength Finders. I am dead last in empathy, there’s 34 of them. For top visionaries on planet, I have endless empathy, endless. My partner, Mark, is competition one, maximizer two, empathy three. He’s third in empathy, so collaborative empathy. I am 31 out of 34 in harmony.
My wife is harmony one. She is collaborative harmony, collaborative follow through. But we have this. She and I have both have very high IQ and we’re both achievers three. So again, find out who you are and then find the right collaborators who can [00:29:00] really help with the things that you’re just not great at.
So I hope that’s helpful. And then a deep dive into maybe how a healthcare person thinks brainwise, strategy wise.
Dr. Mike Woo-Ming: I love it. Finding somebody who’s opposite. I have my executor. Her name is Michelle’s amazing. That’s the only way that we were able to run different products.
Justin Breen: Yeah, it would be. Imagine and then I’m guessing in your family, your wife’s a stabilizing. I would think.
Dr. Mike Woo-Ming: Just that you think and present for sure. Justin, this was amazing. I love just getting access to your wisdom and knowledge. Work in the good if they want to find out more information, we got your book Epic Life, but you also have your network. What’s the best place to find out more information?
Justin Breen: One, this was tremendous. Just a tremendous interview. You’re a great simplifier. And then your companies are great multipliers. I’m a hundred percent simplifier and companies are a hundred percent multipliers, so I can understand. And [00:30:00] then BREpic Network, the website is BREpic, B R E P I C network.org. And then you can read about how awesome my wife is on the site.
Dr. Mike Woo-Ming: I love it, Justin. Again, tremendous, go check out his book, Epic Life. He also has another book called. So you are in your entrepreneurial journey. Feel free to reach out. Justin, thank you again for your time. Again, amazing interview. We’ll need to have you back at some future point as well.
Justin Breen: Oh, get my wife on. You got to get her on. She’s more, she’ll be a bigger, that’s what I’m really like when the new company is really taking off. Now we’re about to be named one of the top five masterminds on the planet, which is, I’m very excited about that.
I don’t know the timeline of that, but I know the articles coming out soon. It’s in one of those major travel magazines. And then like my wife will be like, cause she’s relatable to anyone and she can communicate with anyone. So she would love to talk to you if [00:31:00] you want to, I can introduce you to her from here.
Dr. Mike Woo-Ming: Yeah. Yeah. If you have her people call my people, we’d be happy to have her. Thanks again, Justin, and thank you for listening. Remember, entrepreneurship has its ups and downs, but do something as he says. Take action, do whatever you can to help meet your goals and keep moving forward.
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