Graham (00:11.014)
Today I have something special for you, something that can transform your new year in ways you never imagined. Bold claim, I get it, but this gift that I want to give you has the power to elevate your business, enhance your life, and fill you with joy like never before. It's a rare treasure, even the most successful among us often overlook. I've been fortunate enough to receive it myself, and now,
I'm passing it on to you.
Graham (00:48.71)
Happy New Year, friends. This episode is dropping on New Year's Eve, but even if you're catching this long after the new year, whenever you are sitting down to ingest this and receive this gift, this can be a moment of newness and new life for you. This will be a shorter episode. I'm gonna get right to the point. And I wanna start by telling you about something that really blew my mind. In 2024, I invited five incredibly successful entrepreneurs to Tampa.
to stay with me and have an incredible mastermind weekend. My wife and I bought this incredible property downtown, luxury Airbnb, and I just booked it out for myself and for these gentlemen. We had a private chef. We did hot seats. We went around town to some of my favorite restaurants and took them to our favorite speakeasy. We did some deep work, but then we really got up in front of each other and I had each of these guys with a whiteboard, know, markers.
And it's like, tell us where you are in your business, tell us where you're stuck, how can we speak into it? For context, all of these guys are multi six and seven figure entrepreneurs, so they've all figured it out. They know how to have a successful business, but they wanted to grow. And they were each bumping up against some kind of plateau. And everyone's business was different, everyone's business situation was different. But what's fascinating when you get to coach, let's say five people together in the same day is you notice patterns.
because they're one after the other. So if one gentleman gets up and gives a 60 minute hot seat where they present for 10.15 and then we speak into it for 45.50 and then we see the breakthrough and the aha for them and then we do another one and then another one, then we break for lunch and do a couple more. In that condensed period of time, I noticed a pattern.
Every single one of these successful entrepreneurs However, they phrased it in the end all they were looking for whether they knew it or not And it's the gift. want to give you today Was permission
Graham (02:59.644)
They wanted permission. And I was seeing this pattern and I waited till the end of the weekend when we did a final wrap up on Sunday. I said, guys, do you understand that the common theme among this entire weekend, Friday night, all day Saturday, Sunday morning, is that each one of you came here from all over the world. We have people from the UK, from Canada, from all over the US coming here.
And yes, we talked strategy. Yes, we swapped ideas. Yes, we pointed out some things, made some recommendations. But at the end of the day, the thing you're leaving with that you needed, whether you knew it or not, was permission to do the thing that was in your heart. Think about this for a second. Stay with me. These guys, and I'm assuming you're a lot like them, are incredibly successful, intuitive, hardworking people.
They have to be, you have to be to build a successful business. They know what they want to do. They have a gut feeling, they have an intuition, they have a draw to a certain decision. It could be a certain type of offer they wanted to launch. It could be a certain type of price point they wanted to launch it at. It could be a certain way they wanted to blow up their business model and rebuild it in a way that's more sustainable and scalable for them. Whatever it was, they were drawn to something and in a sheepish way it would come out.
You give someone an hour to break down their business and they talk about what they think the problem is. You eventually get to the real problem underneath it and you would ask good questions. You would get good answers and finally understand that what this person needs, they actually know what they want to do, but they don't have permission to do it. Now, why do I say permission? Well, because these gentlemen all knew what they wanted to do. If you press them, like, well, yeah, I I would probably do this if I could, what do you mean if you can? Well, I can't do.
I that, I can't charge that for coaching, I can't launch that product, I can't blow up that product line, I can't make this pivot in my business, why not? Well, because if I do, this and this and this this will happen, and I actually don't really know those things are gonna happen, if you press them, they don't actually know those things are gonna happen, but they're afraid that they might happen, so fear, number one, is holding them back.
Graham (05:19.622)
projecting possible scenarios that may or may not even happen, number two. So you're fearing something that may not happen. Maybe there's something that will for sure happen. If you shut down, like I shut down my mastermind and I shut down my membership, I was afraid I would lose money. Guess what? I lost a lot of money. It was facts. You shut down those offers and you lose, you know, 30, 40K a month recurring. Bye bye. Yes, that was a real fear, not unfounded, but.
Fearing it nonetheless, so fear is holding them back. Insecurity, well, I don't know anyone else who's doing this. I don't have a model of someone else who's done this. Okay? So that's just another form of fear. You want to alleviate that fear by seeing someone who's done it, done it well so you can point to it and say, okay, I know it's possible, therefore I'm gonna do it. But what about them? The people that went first? Someone had to go first. Not everyone had a model to build their life or business around.
This is the theme of being a rebel, my book Rebel. You find yourself by not following the crowd. The problem is we all want different things, but we're scared out of our mind to get out of the flow of what everyone else is doing. Because if you have a vision for how you want to run your life or business, but you don't see anybody else doing it, doesn't mean it's not being done, but you can't see anybody else doing it. That's scary. These guys needed permission. Because I kept asking questions, well, what would stop you from doing that? If you did do that,
How would you feel? I would feel a lot better. that's what I want to do. Okay, so you actually know what you want to do. You have pretty good intuition or hunch that it will work. You're not sure and it may blow up in your face, but you want to try it. Not doing it's causing you all these pains. It sounds like you know what you need to do. You just need to do it. Well, yeah, but I just don't. I who does that? I'm like, you do. As of today, I'm going to hand you a gift that will transform your life, my friend, and that is the gift of permission.
Sometimes, for whatever reason, as human beings, we are looking for someone that we respect to give us permission. We don't say it explicitly, but we're functioning this way. Implicitly, we want it. Subconsciously, we're looking for it. Please just tell me I can do this. And this was what's crazy. That weekend was a spotlight for me on these guys. I've been working with gentlemen like this privately all year long.
Graham (07:41.254)
people that are paying me over $50,000 to coach them in their businesses. And if I were to analyze all of our calls and all of our voice messages and texts back and forth in between calls, I would realize that the number one way I've helped them at the end of the day is give them permission to do the thing that they're stirring up in their heart. Because they're scared out of their minds and they'll tell me all the reasons why they shouldn't do it and it won't work, but then I'll ask them, what about all the reasons why you should do it and why it could work?
and what would life look like on the other side of this decision? And it sounds great, but they need a catalyst, someone to say, you can do this. Even if it doesn't work, you should try this. There's something here, there's something on the other side of it. So let me take it right back to you. It's New Year's Eve as I've dropped this episode.
2024 is come and gone. 2025 is here. Or whenever you're watching or listening to this. The past is gone. Tomorrow and today are here.
If you get quiet enough with yourself, which I know is hard and rare to do in today's society,
Graham (08:54.969)
you probably know what you really want out of life.
What you want your marriage to look like, your parenting to look like, your finances to look like.
Your business owner, if you're checking out the show probably, or a leader, what you want your organization to look like, what you want your brand to look like, how you want to show up in the world, what kind of contribution you want to make, what kind of feeling you want to feel every day, what kind of goals you want to accomplish, you probably, if you're honest and quiet, know exactly what you want.
Graham (09:32.912)
there are two things that will get in the way of you pursuing what you want. One is shame and guilt that you shouldn't be able to want the thing you want. Now, some things that we want aren't good for us. Some things that we want would destroy our lives and the people around us that we love. Probably want someone in your corner who can give you the counsel to say, I know you say you want that, I know you think you want that, but you don't want that. I'm not talking about those things.
I'm talking about the good things, the noble things, the pure things, the things that you know you were made for that you haven't done. There's a lot of guilt and shame that holds us back. I shouldn't want that, I shouldn't have that, not everybody gets that, I should be happy, I should, I should, I should, we should all over ourselves, But the second reason why we don't pursue those things that are deep in our heart, in our business, in our life, in our finances,
is because we are waiting around for someone to tell us it's okay, go for it. That's a great idea, you should do it.
And I'm not trying to minimize it. I think permission is the most valuable thing I could give you in this moment. So, let's do an exercise. Right now, without overthinking it, tell me the number one thing that's coming up for you in your heart that's been welling up these last 10 minutes, the thing that you want so desperately to be true about your business in the next 12 months, but you're afraid to take action on. What is it?
Graham (11:07.279)
Here's a template. I so desperately want this.
But I'm afraid to pursue it because of this.
Graham (11:21.148)
Okay, you can even pause this episode, fill in that statement. I so desperately want this in my business, but I'm so afraid to pursue it because of this.
This is called confession. Confession just means truth telling. We lie to ourselves all the time. You got to tell yourself the truth of the thing you really want and the reason why you're not pursuing it. You got it in your mind? The thing you want to pursue and the reason why you convince yourself you can't pursue it, shouldn't pursue it, fear, whatever. Here we go. Friend, fill in your name.
I'm not God. I'm not the president. I'm not a billionaire. I'm not even the smartest guy I know.
But I've made a lot of money. I've made a lot of mistakes. I've been in business for 15 years. I coach incredibly successful entrepreneurs and leaders. I have multiple bestselling books.
I have a top ranked podcast. I've got like 65 million views on YouTube. I don't know what other stat you need. I'm a multimillionaire. I have a healthy marriage and wonderful kids. I don't know what credibility you need, but I'm going to say I have it. I've got something of credibility at least.
Graham (12:56.026)
And I want to give you permission to do the thing that God put in your heart to do. To pursue that dream, big or small, to take that step, to make that shift, to talk to that person, to blow that thing up, to launch that new thing, whatever it is, I'm giving you permission to do it this year.
Graham (13:21.839)
And I trust you.
Graham (13:25.958)
You know what blows my mind is sometimes my clients just need me to tell them, dude, I believe in you. I trust that you can do this. It's gonna be great. So I trust you. I believe in you. This is not mumbo jumbo to quote Han Solo. This is me telling you you have something welling up inside of you that you know you need to pursue. And I know it's scary.
and I know there's no guarantee it's gonna work out, I know there could be some ripple effects, negative consequences, blah, blah, blah, and I you don't feel like you're worthy of it, and you don't feel like you're the right person or it's not the right time or you don't have enough information or blah, blah, blah, enough experience, I get it. I get it. I have pivoted three times in my business. I have jumped from a nobody to being an online content creator around music and recording when I shouldn't have been.
I was just a normal audio engineer like anybody else and why did I have the largest YouTube channel and brand around audio production and recording? Why did Grammy nominating producers and Grammy award winning producers wanna work with me and come on my YouTube channel and build courses with me? I had no business being in that space and yet I did it. Made my first million dollars in this hobby niche with the recording revolution. I had no business pivoting to becoming a business coach. I talked myself out of it for two and a half years.
Then I raised my hand one day and said, I'm a business coach. Now I've coached some of the most successful business owners in the world. People that are doing really great work. I had no business pivoting to becoming an author and trying to get a book deal, let alone a second book deal. No business giving a TED Talk, no business being a keynote speaker, no business connecting with the John Gordons and the John Maxwells of the world. No business doing any of this stuff. Scared out of my mind. To this day, scared out of my mind.
I've got new stuff coming for 2025. It blows my mind that I'm even doing this and I can't wait slash scared out of my mind to share it with you. No business doing it. But you know I do have now that I didn't have all those years before? I have permission.
Graham (15:42.245)
I've received it from others. I've received it from God. I'm a person of faith, so I talk to him a lot. And I've given it to myself. I have permission to pursue the things in my heart to build the life and the business that I want. Not that everyone else has. Not that everyone else says you should have. Even the things that people say, that's impossible to do, bro. If I really want to do it, I'm gonna do it. Even things that my coaches are saying, no, that's not how you do it. I'm like, well, that's how I'm gonna do it. I've given myself permission to do it. There's so much more joy. There's exponential growth.
and freedom when you pursue those things. So I'm giving you permission. If I could give you anything for 2025 or whatever year it is when you do listen to this or watch this, it is permission. It will unlock every door for you.
Graham (16:36.805)
So, if you're watching on YouTube, I want you to do something very strange but simple. If you received this gift from me today, if this connected with you, you're like, I actually received permission from you, Graham. If we had a moment we connected, would you just comment the word received below? That's it. That's how I'll know you watched to the end, and it's how I'll know that I connected with you. Just so I can see. I'm gonna look at all these comments, just say received. Feel free to share any more details if you want, but just that one word, received.
And if you're listening to this Apple podcast, Spotify, wherever you crush this audio podcast, would you message me on Instagram at TheGrahamCochran and tell me you listened to this episode and that you received permission to do the thing? You don't have to tell me what the thing is. None of my business unless you want to share. But if you don't have a coach in your corner or a mentor in your corner like me giving you permission to do the thing God's put in your heart, then let this episode today be that moment for you.
Cannot wait to see what you do in your life and business after having received permission to move forward in faith and not fear. Happy New Year. Thanks for being a part of this community all year long. 2025 is gonna be your best year yet, and I can't wait to be a small part of that. Talk soon.
