Show Information

Episode Number: 125

Date: December 29, 2025

Duration: 21:01

Host Contact Information

Host: Justin Deese

Website: JustinDeese.com

Contact: [email protected]

eBook: FreedomBlueprintPodcast.com/ebook

Upcoming LIVE Event: FreedomBlueprintLIVE.com

Virtual CFO for the trades: KristenDeese.com

Summary

In this special year-end solo episode of the Freedom Blueprint Podcast, Justin slows things down and gets real about the wins, losses, and lessons that shaped his year as a leader, husband, dad, and business owner. Instead of just talking highlights, he opens up about overcommitting, losing momentum in his routines, and walking through the grief of losing his mom—and how those moments reshaped his perspective on leadership and life.

Justin shares five powerful lessons he’s taking into 2026: how your past can shape you without limiting you, why people are more than their struggles, how presence beats productivity, why independence is good but connection is better, and how gratitude can anchor you even in the hardest seasons. He also talks about the shift from trying to “hang your crap at the door” as a leader to becoming a true servant leader who pays attention to the human being behind the performance.

On the win side, Justin celebrates his daughter’s move to college and the new empty-nester chapter with Kristen, a year packed with industry events and client visits, and the unexpected growth of the podcast from passion project to momentum engine. He shares the story behind hosting his own sold-out live event and previews Freedom Blueprint Live 2026 in Pensacola Beach—complete with Blue Angels energy. He also highlights the explosive growth of Kristen’s company, The Virtual CFO for the Trades, and how customer demand forced the business to grow in the best possible way.

Justin closes with a simple but powerful assignment: take 10 minutes to write down your wins, losses, and lessons from the year. It’s not just an exercise—it’s a clarity tool that can reset your focus and fuel your leadership momentum going into 2026 and beyond.

Takeaways

• Losses—like overcommitting, losing routines, and even losing a loved one—can become the most valuable part of your leadership journey if you let them shape you instead of define you.
• Your past can build your leadership “muscles”: independence, grit, determination, problem-solving, and adaptability often come from hard early experiences.
• People are more than their struggles; as leaders, empathy is a superpower and we need to see the whole person, not just their hardest chapter.
• Presence beats productivity—small, intentional moments with your team create more impact than another item checked off your to-do list.
• Scorecards and Momentum Meetings (one-to-ones) aren’t “corporate,” they’re tools to reveal patterns and open human conversations with your team.
• Independence is great, but connection is greater—you don’t win alone; leadership is built on relationships and shared energy (yes, even high-fives).
• Gratitude doesn’t erase the hard stuff, but it gives you a stronger place to stand when life hits you with big challenges.
• Hosting live events, building a podcast, or growing a new company all come down to consistent action, listening to feedback, and letting customers “demand” your growth.
• A simple year-end reflection—wins, losses, and lessons—can bring surprising clarity and momentum for the year ahead.

Chapters

• Opening: Why Reflection Creates Clarity and Momentum
• Owning the Losses: Overcommitment, Lost Routines, and Losing Mom
• Gifts from a Hard Childhood: Independence, Grit, and Problem-Solving
• Lesson 1: Your Past Can Shape You Without Limiting You
• Lesson 2: People Are More Than Their Struggles (Leading with Empathy)
• Lesson 3: Presence Beats Productivity—Small Moments, Big Impact
• Lesson 4: Independence vs. Connection and the Power of Shared Energy
• Lesson 5: Gratitude as an Anchor in a Hard Year
• Family Wins: Daughter’s College Transition and the Empty-Nest Chapter
• Travel, Events, and Reconnecting with Leaders Across the Country
• Shifting Focus: From Leap Service Partners to Serving More Contractors
• Podcast Momentum: From Vision Board to Real-World Impact
• Freedom Blueprint Live: Behind the Sold-Out Event and 2026 Preview
• Kristen’s Win: The Virtual CFO for the Trades Takes Off
• Your Assignment: Wins, Losses, and Lessons for Your Own Year-End Reset

Keywords

#FreedomBlueprintPodcast #HomeServiceBusiness #HVACBusiness #PlumbingBusiness #ElectricalContractor #TradesBusiness #GarageDoorBusiness #LeadershipLessons #YearEndReview #WinsAndLosses #ServantLeadership #EntrepreneurMindset #BusinessReflection #GratitudeInLeadership #MomentumMeetings #TeamScorecards #EmptyNestLife #VirtualCFOForTheTrades #FreedomBlueprintLive #PensacolaBeachEvent #PipeDreamsToPayday #SellMyContractingBusiness #HomeServiceLeadership #BusinessOwnerGrowth

Mentioned in this episode:

Homeservicehoorah.com

Welcome back to the freedom blueprint podcast. I'm your host Justin Deese. And today we're going to do some things a little different. We're going to slow down and we're going to look back at the, at the year. And we're going to talk about the wins, losses and lessons learned that have shaped my year as a leader. We move fast and sometimes too fast. so today is all about reflection because reflection creates clarity.

And clarity creates momentum. So let's jump in. Let's start by talking about losses. This is one of the things that most people don't like talking about. I'm included in that group. These moments typically don't show up on anybody's highlight reel and their Instagram stories or whatever their, whatever social media platform you use. But here's the deal. I believe that losses can be the most valuable part of your journey because

Losses can motivate you and they can shape your future decisions and they can push you to grow in ways that wins never do.

So here's the first loss of the year for me is over committing. this year I said yes to too many things, too many projects, too many trips, just too many commitments. And that was a loss of my capacity, my energy, and honestly, a little bit of peace. Number two is losing momentum of my routines.

With all the travel and all the momentum this year, lost consistency in a few areas of my life. My morning routine slipped my planning time slipped And my workouts weren't consistent. And honestly, I could feel it. I wasn't as grounded as I wanted to be.

And third, well, this is the big one and it's a tough one, but I lost my mom this year. And honestly, it's still really hard to believe that she's gone. My mom was pretty incredible. She faced some tough inner battles over the years, but those battles never defined who she was. My mom loved people. She had a big heart and my mom was the life of the party. Not to mention she was a pretty amazing Mimi to my, kids. When I was growing up, she was a waitress here in the beach town we lived in. So.

Summers were super busy, pretty wild, and as a waitress, that's really your money season.

Wintertime that was the shoulder season. So everybody was doing their best to scrape by with very few customers and money was tight. I know my HVAC guys know all too well about this roller coaster override.

As a kid growing up, obviously my mom worked different shifts. didn't, we weren't flush with cash. So a lot of times if I want to do something, I had to figure it out. And I mean, all of it, how to get there, how to pay for it, how to get home. And growing up in a beach community, there was a pretty good amount of money, you know, in the area that we, that we lived in kids and families, man, they seem to have like everything. ⁓

And I remember as a kid, I used to think that I was missing out. But now as an adult, I see all that so much differently. I see that the life I had as a kid was pretty awesome. And things I learned helped me immensely as an adult, as a leader, as a husband, and as a dad.

Here's the truth about all of that.

My mom gave me some pretty amazing gifts that neither one of us recognized at the time, but I definitely see them now.

She gave me independence, she gave me grit, she gave me determination, she taught me how to problem solve, and she taught me how to adapt. She wasn't perfect, but none of us are, but she was pretty amazing, and she will truly, truly be missed.

Sharing the real stuff is pretty difficult, at least for me, but I gotta tell you, it matters and it's important and it helps us grow and it helps us connect.

So with all of that,

Here are my five biggest lessons learned from the year. Lesson one, your past can shape you without limiting you. Those early childhood challenges or what I thought were challenges really became my leadership superpowers. Some of the hardest parts of my childhood became the exact strengths I use every day.

what I thought was a struggle was really building muscles. Second lesson,

People are more than their struggles. As leaders, we need to see the whole person, not just the hardest chapter. This year reminded me that everyone carries battles we never see. As leaders, empathy is our superpower.

Lesson three is small moments matter than big plans. Presence beats productivity.

It's the small moments that set the tone for everything else.

And this year proved that presence creates more impact than productivity ever will. So when I was, when I was thinking about that too, I just wanted to add this part. ⁓ this was really for me tied back to one-to-ones and it was about giving that presence and that stillness for your team to listen to them and see what it is that ⁓ you can do to help them. Man, early in my career, I can remember telling team members like hang their crap at the door. ⁓ when you come in here, I don't care.

which, ⁓ you know, is so inaccurate and so wrong in so many ways, but the truth is I didn't know any better. Like that's just what I thought leadership was. ⁓ but that, but that's not what it is. ⁓ from a, from a leadership perspective, if you're going to be a leader, ⁓ I highly recommend you be a servant leader and care about your people, not just from a financial standpoint, but from a, from a personality and personal issue.

Cause the truth is whatever they're struggling with outside your doors, they're struggling with inside your doors, whether you know it or not. And a lot of times just taking a few minutes and sitting down with somebody and going through,

I know we talk about scorecards and people are like, Ooh, scorecards corporate America. That's not what it is. Numbers don't lie and numbers do tell a story. So if you have a team member that you're having a little bit of trouble or a little bit of challenges with. They're a pattern will show up. I promise you, if you're looking.

If you're doing these one-to-ones and you're watching their scorecards, patterns will show up that you can connect with them on a human basis, not just a swing a hammer kind of kind of deal. But, I know I talk a lot about one-to-ones, ⁓ on the, on the podcast and I'll be doing some other stuff in the future, going a little bit deeper on it, but just for now, I just, that was, that was really, it just came to my, my mind when, when I was talking about that, but let's move on to lesson four.

Lesson four is independence is great, but connection is greater. You don't win alone and leadership is built on relationships. I spent years priding myself on being totally independent. I worked kind of like a badge of honor, but the truth is the best growth happens with people not alone. So I think about it like this. Think about giving a high five to somebody, right? And I'm going to give credit to Levi Torres.

Um, from a high five plumbing, he talks about, know, his business is called high five plumbing. And he talks about why they named it that and that the transfer of energy, basically you're given to another person. And I don't know. I think about like good vibes and man, given a high five to somebody is a lot different than giving yourself a high five. That's doesn't really quite do it. Uh, unfortunately I'm in a studio by myself, so don't have anybody to high five. So, uh, if you're watching on YouTube, give me a high five. And if you're listening in your.

truck or cutting the grass or driving. Give me a high five, unless you're driving actually 10 and two, 10 and two, man. know you all drive 10 and two. So,

All right. Lesson five. Let's, let's move on. Cause you know me, I will go down a rabbit hole. Lesson five is, is gratitude. It's. Gratitude changes everything. Even in loss, there's, there's gratitude. Gratitude brings perspective. brings growth. ⁓ gratitude anchored me this year. It didn't erase the hard stuff and the hard things, but it definitely gave me a better place to stand. And when I look at the five of these lessons together,

I can see how they shaped the direction of my year and the direction that I'm heading this next year and years beyond. They grounded me. They clarified things and they reminded me what actually matters.

Now, after talking about losses and reflection on lessons learned, I want to shift gears. I'm a, I'm a positive guy. And so I like to talk about wins more than, more than losses, but I think it's part of the journey. And, so I wanted to share, some of that stuff with you guys, but it's getting to the good stuff. So, cause really this year came with some incredible moments and moments worth celebrating moments that

But like living in the dorms and doing the whole experience thing. And, ⁓ it's been really cool to watch, her grow, and make that transition and she's excelling and it's, it's really fantastic to see. So, so that made Kristen, I officially empty nesters, which kind of seems weird to say, because I think empty nesters, I think old people.

I don't think I'm old. don't know. Maybe I am, but nevertheless made us empty nesters. And once that happened, man, we started traveling a lot.

Since July, we connected and reconnected with leaders all over the country and we attended six or seven industry events. We attended some workshops and we completed three on-site visits with different clients and it truly energized the second half of our year.

Another big win was shifting my focus. So Leap Service Partners was the company that we sold, the private equity group that we sold Paradise Home Services to a couple of years ago. And after working with them for a few years, I really felt called to focus my energy on really helping other contractors grow, right? I wanted to spend more time on the podcast. Like there's just other things that I wanted to work on. I'm still working with them a little bit.

helping them with some things, but ⁓ full time I'm not on the team anymore, which ⁓ is great. It's great for me. They're an amazing team. If anybody's looking to find somebody to partner with their business or sell their business to, I recommend them, man. And you're welcome to reach out to me and I can give you all the info I've got about it. But I do want to give this shout out for anybody looking to sell their business.

I did write an ebook last year and it's called pipe dreams to payday. And really it breaks down the six most common mistakes people make when selling their business. And if you want to download a free copy, go to freedom blueprint podcast.com forward slash ebook. And even if you're not ready to sell your business, it's still a good ebook. It's really the six common mistakes have to do a run in your business every day. anyways, download it, check it out. It's not heavy reading. It's.

I wrote the book, right? So there's lots of pictures and big words, not big words. mean, big words like big print. ⁓ so anyways, download it, check it out. If you got any questions, let me know. If you want to know more about Leap or you're interested in selling your business, obviously you can email me at any point. ⁓ super easy. Justin at Justin Deese.com. And I can, ⁓ I don't know, I can kind of go through it with you and what the process looks like.

All right. Shifting gears a little bit to a few other wins that I definitely want to share. And, ⁓ this is a big one. The podcast, the podcast is absolutely grown like crazy. has grown beyond my expectations. I mean, this whole thing started out as just like this passion project. I had it on my, my vision board and I just, was one of those things where I'm like, I got to pull the trigger.

I didn't have a long-term goal, a long-term strategy. I didn't even know how to do any of it. So it was more about giving good content and putting out good content consistently. And that was really the goal. That was it. Like be consistent, good content. And it's, it's honestly, it's humbling and exciting to get feedback from people that I've gotten feedback from, know, when I'm, when I'm recording in the studio,

It's different. It's me. It's a camera. It's lighting. It's, you know, it's a studio, but it's just me. So I can't get feedback. And even when I'm looking at, you know, things like downloads, analytics, and where these people are downloading from and all that kind of crazy stuff, then it, ⁓ it still is not a human interaction. What was cool this year is to be able to go out to all of the events that we went to and have so many people that I've never met that are like, my gosh, I listened to your podcast. love it. And they're showing me their screen and they're wanting to take a picture. It's just.

It's really cool. And, certainly I didn't know that the podcast was going to lead, lead me down this journey, but it has, and I'm certainly, certainly grateful for all of it. I am grateful for the ability to be able to do it. I'm an honestly for you, for you listening, if you were listening, thank you. If you're sharing this with, with people, thank you. If you're leaving a five star review, thank you. ⁓ it.

I mean, this stuff doesn't happen without, without you, the audience, ⁓ listening and downloading and giving good feedback and feedback can be good or bad. I'm, got thick skin. So if there's something I'm doing that you don't like, or you think that there's something I could do that's better, I'm always open to feedback. Doesn't mean I'm going to change it. ⁓ but it does mean I'm certainly open to feedback. I'm not an expert. ⁓ I am pretty good at running home service businesses. my, my hobby side hustle is this podcast. So, but anyways, just.

Again, I can't say it enough. Thank you. All of you listeners, for making this such a cool thing. another big one this year was we, we hosted our first live event. I say our first, it wasn't our first live event we've done. It's the first live event that has just been us, in our hometown anyways, it was really cool. And anytime you do that, you really don't know what to expect. You don't know the turnout and it was incredible. And the feedback we got was amazing.

the, this is the home of the blue angels. This is where the blue angels are based out of. So I will say there will be some blue angel activity happening at the show this year. So I'm really excited. I won't, I won't get into too much more detail, but if you want more information, go to freedom blueprint, live.com. You can check out more info or go ahead and grab a ticket before it sells out. it did sell out last year.

Again, you don't know when you, when you do the first event and it, and it did, it sold out. I'm, I'm anticipating this year we'll sell out faster. Uh, but yeah, so get your ticket and I can't wait to see you and hang out. And if I've never met you, can't wait to meet you. And if I haven't met you, it's going to be awesome to hang out again. So, one of the, one of the other big wins this year, and this is a, this is a favorite personal slash professional win has been watching Kristen's business grow. Um, ma'am.

The virtual CFO for the trades has absolutely taken off. And when she first started the business, was going to be just her. And then quickly she realized that, you know, customers demand you grow. Right. And there's a good story. think I've told it here on the podcast before of, ⁓ this has been a number of years ago. Chick-fil-A was in a boardroom and these investors were pushing Kathy Truitt, who's the founder. ⁓ unfortunately he's passed away now, but

was the founder of Chick-fil-A and he was still the CEO or director chairman of the board. don't, I don't know what his exact title was at this point, but he kept saying, ⁓ these investors are saying, we got to grow. got to grow. We got to grow. And Kathy Truitt, who's a pretty mild manner guy, like just slammed his hands on the desk and said, we will grow when our customers demand it. demand it and, they have. the point I'm getting to with that is, Kristen's business and the people that work with her.

have demanded her grow her business and it's been amazing to watch it. She has added additional team members. She's even started adding new services like bookkeeping. And it's, I don't know, it's just amazing to watch her build such an incredible team.

Take 10 minutes and write down your biggest wins, your biggest losses, and your most important lessons learned from the year. I got to tell you, I think you'll be shocked with the clarity that comes from, from doing this exercise. I certainly know I was and you know, it took me a few minutes to get started. Um, obviously, you know, the loss of my mom, that's top of mind, still top of mind. Um, so that was an easy one. Um,

which made it more difficult to even think about any other losses because that one was so big, ⁓ that nothing, none of the other losses even compared to that. So, ⁓ anyways, just take a few minutes and do this exercise. I promise you will be, you'll be grateful that you did it. and as always, if I can be any help, I'm, I'm pretty easy to find. So, don't hesitate to reach out to me. And, if you need some help with doing that exercise, but listen, thank you for joining me on today's episode. I know it's a little different, but.

Also make sure to subscribe so that anytime new episodes drop, you're notified. and share this with a fellow leader who could benefit from slowing down and reflecting on their year.

Until next time, keep setting those trust goals and watch your business and leadership transform. This is Justin Deese from the Freedom Blueprint podcast. Stay motivated, keep reflecting, and as always, keep crushing it.