In this empowering episode, Dennis McCurdy, Principal Owner of McCurdy & Andrew Investments, shares why going it alone as a solopreneur leads to the Valley of Dead Dreams and how accountability changes everything. If you’re grinding alone and watching your best ideas collect dust, you won’t want to miss it.

You will discover:

- Why you need a selective “gang” that will tell you the truth and push you forward

- How to choose accountability partners who show up and call you on your stuff

- What makes peer accountability more powerful than family or friends for growth

This episode is ideal for for Founders, Owners, and CEOs in stage 2 of The Founder's Evolution. Not sure which stage you're in? Find out for free in less than 10 minutes at https://www.scalearchitects.com/founders/quiz

Dennis McCurdy transformed his life from graduating near the bottom of his high school class and sleeping on an office couch to achieving a seven-figure net worth. Following his military service, he built eight businesses, managed 29 properties, authored four books, and led mastermind groups for over a decade. He teaches that mindset, accountability, and strong relationships drive true achievement. He is the author of the book Unleash the Power of Connection. He actively runs personal development workshops to help others reframe their failures into fuel for growth. He consistently proves that strong network connections and daily discipline directly accelerate personal transformation.

Want to learn more about Dennis McCurdy's work at McCurdy & Andrew Investments? Check out his website at https://www.mccurdyinvestments.com/

Connect with Dennis through his LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/dennis-mccurdy-cfp-465a1bb/

Check out Dennis McCurdy's personal website at https://dennismccurdy.com/

Get a copy of Dennis McCurdy's book Unleash the Power of Connection at https://www.amazon.com/Unleash-Power-Connection-accountability-procrastinating/dp/097988635X

Hello, hello, and welcome, welcome once again

to the Start, Scale, and Succeed podcast-the only podcast that

grows with you through all seven levels of your journey as a

founder. I'm your host Scott Ritzheimer, and too many

founders think that grinding alone is a necessary part of

building a business or a nonprofit, especially those of

you in the startup entrepreneur stage, trying to succeed as a

solopreneur, the challenge though is without anyone

watching, very few of us does our very best, especially over

the long haul, which leaves so many of our best ideas to gather

dust in what my guest calls the Valley of Dead Dreams. Doesn't

that sound wonderful? We'll talk about what that is and how to

avoid it here in just a bit. But my guest has built a system for

himself and spent over a decade teaching others to do the same.

With us here today is Dennis McCurdy, who transformed his

life from graduating near the bottom of his high school class

and sleeping on an office couch to achieving seven-figure net

worth. Following his military service, he built eight

businesses, managed 29 properties, authored four books,

and led mastermind groups for over a decade. He teaches that

mindset, accountability, and strong relationships drive true

achievement. He's the author of the book "Unleash the Power of

Connection, and he actively runs personal development workshops

to help others reframe their failures into fuel for growth.

He consistently proves that strong network connections and

daily discipline directly accelerate personal

transformation. Andy's here with us today, Dennis. Welcome to the

show. Glad you're here. I love I love me a Harvard Business

Review stat, and and you you give us one about a study. I'll

let you set this up for us. But what is it that that we can

learn from this study, and how does it apply to that founder

that's that's trying to succeed in that solopreneur stage?

We're talking about the we all do better when someone's

watching. We are yes, which is true. I mean, I just was telling

somebody the other day that it doesn't even have to be

somebody. Sometimes just a picture of somebody can, you

know, can cause us to to focus more, to be more accountable.

You know, the whole thing is, and I think that's the big

is we're not meant to do this alone. And we say that I

say that in the book. You need to really reach out to people,

be connected. Again, accountability is one of the

most important things that we can have. I always tell people,

I don't like to be pushed, but I love the results, and and we you

know we need that kind of thing. I mean, unfortunately, probably

we all need a drill instructor in our life, but we don't have

one. And and I was raised by a drill instructor, so I know how

that can go. But

so it's a fascinating dynamic because the

folks who go out and start their own thing tend to be more

comfortable with doing their own thing than a lot of people, and

and the the flip side of that, maybe the negative for or for

better or worse, I guess, is a tendency to do our own thing,

our own way, at our own time, on our own terms, all by ourselves.

How do how do you help folks? Because there's a tension there

of having that accountability, having folks that are in your

corner and care about you, but how do we keep at bay that that

resistance to push back, that that that rebel spirit that may

serve us in other ways, but doesn't necessarily serve us

well here?

I think that we have to understand that you know

basically it's accepting it's for your own good. You know, I

mean, because you're right, we're very independent. I always

tell people the best thing about being self-employed is being

self-employed. The worst thing about being self-employed is

being self-employed, because there's just nobody to to push

you. You know, except when you're fire a customer fires you

or something, which is the worst thing you want to have happen.

So, you know, having you know, I've had a lot of mentors in my

life. I've had accountability partners, and and coaches and

consultants I've hired. I'm actually part of a national

mastermind group now with about 50 other insurance agency

owners, and it's good to be able to have that and hear other

people's stories to be able to get out, get out of your own

way. That's our biggest our biggest problem for most people

in the world. Just getting out of our own way, and and we can

be stubborn. Plus, it's nice, you know, being the boss

sometimes.

Yeah, yeah. So the way that we're not going to

go solve for this problem is to go get a boss somewhere else,

right? That's that's that's out of the equation, at least for

these folks. Might be right for some folks, but let's let's just

rule that out for the the sake of the conversation. So we're

not going to go get a boss from somebody somewhere else. Even if

you hire an employee or two, you're their boss, and so having

someone there might help a little bit. But it's not quite

the same. We're not necessarily talking about going and getting

a business partner and giving up equity in your business. These

are all like real complicated, can work in some situations, but

that's that's not the solution that that you've proposed here

in the book. What

Having your own gang? We talked about that earlier. I

mean, I'm a big believer in mastermind groups. Again, I

think as an entrepreneur, solopreneur, you have to

understand and be open to these things if you really want to

grow and accelerate. I mean, just everybody. We're not all

one thing. We can't do all. Everybody has our quirks and

their quirks. Everybody has their strengths and their

weaknesses. So I remember once when I was talking to one of my

buddies in a group, we were saying he was saying, write all

the things down on the left side of a piece of paper that you're

good at. Write all the things on the right side that you're not

good at. You don't like. You should tear it in half and put

an ad in the paper for that part, because again, we're not

perfect. So having someone who you know again, why I like the

gang concept, having which means goal achieving nudging group.

It's having people around you that are not afraid to call you

on your stuff, because we all have stuff. I mean, if you think

you don't have stuff, you're in denial, right? And so, being

vulnerable enough to accept that and and accept the. I want to

say I don't want to say criticism, but accept the pushes

because, in fact, it was James Allen said in his book *As a Man

Thinketh* a person who doesn't shrink from self-criticism can

always achieve their goals, and so having people that will give

you that loving kick in the butt when you need it is really

important because

yeah, this is this is this is at least the

first and may end up being the last. I don't know. We'll see.

But episode where we talk about this question, I don't know that

I'll ever ask this of anyone else. What's the difference

between a good and a bad gang member.

A good and a bad gang. Well, a a good gang member shows

up for you, and you show up for them. A good gang member will

tell you the truth. You know whether you want to hear it or

not. You know to say, hey, wait a second, you know, let's get

off this. You've been on this too long. You're making these

excuses. You're not. You're you're lying to yourself. That's

what you want. I mean, you don't want to punt to people who just

say yes, yes, you're great, you're wonderful. That that

doesn't get you anywhere. I mean, nobody's perfect, and so

we're all trying to improve, you know, a little bit every day.

And so, and it's easy to deny, you know, hey, I'm, I'm, I'm,

this, I'm okay, I'm doing this, it's right, and somebody else

will go, wait a second here, you know, you're a little off track,

or you're, or you're letting some of your maybe negative

patterns, you know, filter in your sabotaging behaviors, which

we all have. I always liked that cartoon way back in the day by

this little guy called Pogo, and he said, "We've met the enemy,

and it's us. And so we have to realize and be open enough to

accept that.

What is your take on who to invite into your

gang? Is it family members? Is it friends? Is it other business

owners? What are some of the mistakes you see folks make

there? I guess I would set up and say I think most people have

a gang, whether they want to or not. Right, it's more that they

haven't been selective in who that gang is. Would you agree?

I agree. I totally agree, and that's really

important. I mean, sometimes it just happens through osmosis.

They just, you know, and people just in our our natural life.

But having people in your family can create a whole. It's a whole

nother dynamic there. So in fact, I remember talking to a

woman who it was a husband, two daughters, and the wife in a

very successful restaurant. But there were always there was

always this stuff going on. In fact, one of them said, "Well, I

want to leave here and I want to go to New York City, and I want

to get a good job and I want to make this kind of money. And I

said, "Wait a second! You get six weeks off at this job. You

drive two miles to work, and you're the boss. What are you

talking about? So I had said to them, "You know, hire a coach

for the family. Hire a psychologist if you have

whatever you have to do, because this is a gold mine and you're

going to kill it. And they actually did, so they ended up

selling it and being miserable.

Oh, that's awesome. So

yeah, having that's important. Go ahead.

What are some of the best places to find your gang?

That's a tough one. It you have to just be very. I

mean, sometimes you can find them online through things like

LinkedIn. Sometimes through business groups, people you

know, even maybe even through customers who might know people.

It's there are some online mastermind groups now, which can

be helpful because you have facilitators who actually pay

and they facilitate the meetings and things, so that can be

helpful. It's it's a process, and and some and sometimes I

know in the book I talk about my friend Margot Chevers, and she

and I had decided to have a mastermind group, and so we

started meeting once a month, and other people said, "Well, I

want to come. I want to join party, be part of your group.

And they would come, and they would they would they would show

up. Maybe they come twice, and then they say, "Oh, I'm just too

busy on this. I said, "Well, we're busy, but we show up every

month. We commit to our goals, and we get them done. So you're

too busy to do that. And Margot and I met every month for seven

years.

Wow!

And so we used to. I know. I know if you read it in

the book, but we used to write a check to each other after each

meeting for 500 bucks, post dated 30 days, and if you didn't

do your goals, the other person got to cash the check.

Yes. Yes. I love that. I love that, and and

I I think what that taps into is how you're saying ahead of time

is like these are people who are advocating for you, and and when

when you look to some of the more common places, a a spouse,

a parent, a friend of yours, they either like a friend cares

but doesn't necessarily understand. A family member is

probably afraid and understands, right? But when you can find

other people that you can, to some extent, go shoulder to

shoulder with, like the two of you did, I think that goes back

to what you opened with of the power of peer groups. Where did

you find that? How did you discover that?

Where did I find the power-the power of a group? You

mean, or yeah, many, many, many years ago, I was invited to a

men's group that was more of a not a business group, but it was

just basically men building intimacy with men,

communicating, and I discovered all of the different opinions

and variety you can get from that, and that's when I decided

to start my own mastermind group. And then also, I when I

was teaching my workshops back in the day, I was concerned that

they would they would leave the workshop, and that would be it.

So I said to them, anybody who attends the workshop can come to

a free mastermind group. We meet every month. We had here's the

location. This is what we're going to do. And you know, of

the hundreds of people that came, only maybe about a half a

dozen actually did it consistently, and eventually we

disbanded. But you know, it was like you need to have that

constant accountability. Every human being needs that;

otherwise, we'd all be perfect, right?

For sure, for sure. Dennis, there's there's so

many different questions I could ask, and in so many ways that

you could go with this. But there, I want to make time for a

question that I ask all my guests. I'm interested to see

what you have to say, and the the question is this: What would

you say is the biggest secret that you wish wasn't a secret at

all? What's that one thing you wish every founder watching or

listening today knew?

You don't have to do it alone. It's it's that simple.

You can, and if you're, if you don't want to involve, like say,

a gang kind of person, get yourself a coach or consultant,

someone that you trust enough and you have enough, like

enough, where you're willing to open yourself up to take that

advice again, because nobody's good at everything, nobody's

perfect at everything, and so we need to really recognize that.

Because if you if you can capitalize and move past your

weaknesses, almost anything's impossible. Impossible. It's

just a matter of doing that and being humble enough. I think.

Sometimes, which is harder when, as you get more successful,

sometimes.

Yeah, yeah, it really is. It can become more

and more isolating. There's some folks listening that they're

they're ready to start a gang, or or they're they're just

interested in learning more and how they can not do this alone.

Tell us a little bit about the book. Remind us of the name and

where we can get a copy of it, and then how folks can connect

with you and learn more.

Sure. So the name of the book is "Unleash the Power

of Connection, and it can be bought on Amazon or Barnes and

Noble or Digital Chalk or any of those any of those platforms,

and they can reach me at just. McCurdy.com. If they want to

reach out, be happy to chat with them, give them some ideas. I've

been involved in a lot of mastermind groups and a lot of

coaching and consulting from from both sides, both giving and

receiving. So I'm very open to. Yeah, I think you have to be

open to learning and being. You know, realize you're not

perfect.

Yeah, yeah. So true. So true. Recommend it,

especially those of you who have that feeling of being alone,

because you're the only one in your business. That's a very

real thing, but it doesn't have to be that way. And Dennis, I

love the idea, love the approach. Really enjoyed the

book, and really enjoyed this conversation. Thanks for being

on. It was really a privilege having you here, and for those

of you watching and listening, you know your time and attention

mean the world to us. I hope you got as much out of this

conversation as I know I did, and I cannot wait to see you

next time. Take care.

Thanks, Scott.

Hey, everyone. Scott Ritzheimer here. Thank you

so much for listening to the Start Scale and Succeed podcast.

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