Freedom Blueprint Podcast Hosts: Justin Deese (with Kristen Deese & guest Levi Torres) Recorded: On top of Camelback Mountain, Scottsdale, AZ

This isn't a normal episode. It can't be.

Episode 150 marks a milestone Justin never put on a vision board: over one million downloads of the Freedom Blueprint Podcast. To put that in context — 90% of podcasts never make it past episode 3, and roughly 99% of those that do never reach episode 20. Episode 150 with a million listens isn't supposed to happen.

So to mark it, Justin did something stupid and meaningful: he carried his podcast equipment up Camelback Mountain in Scottsdale, Arizona — 1,200 feet of elevation gain in about a mile of scrambling over boulders — and recorded the back half of this episode from the summit alongside his wife Kristen and good friend Levi Torres.

The climb became the metaphor. The plan he had at the trailhead got punched in the face by mile one (as Mike Tyson would say), and what came out at the top was more raw and more useful than what he'd scripted on the way up.

What you'll hear in this episode:

• The honest truth about what 150 episodes of showing up actually feels like — and the weeks Justin almost quit
• Why the listener (yes, you) saved this podcast more times than anyone realizes
• The 80-year-old couple who passed them on the trail — twice — and the business lesson hiding in it
• Kristen on discipline: why the people who seem to "have it together" usually just have a different focus and a longer runway of reps
• Levi on the comparison trap: why pushing your pace to match someone else's costs you the joy of the work
• The "you're in a race against yourself" principle and why it applies to every home service business owner listening
• Why you can't just grind harder — you have to grind differently — to get a different result
• A live view from the top of Camelback (head to YouTube for the visuals)

This one is a love letter to every operator in the trenches, a thank-you to every listener who kept showing up, and a reminder that the climb is the point.

Key Takeaways

1. Show up before you know it's working. Justin hit publish for months wondering if anyone was listening. Every time he was ready to quit, a DM or a hallway conversation at a trade show pulled him back. Consistency compounds — but only if you're still there when it does.
2. You're in a race against yourself. The 80-year-old couple lapping you on the trail isn't your competition. The version of you from six months ago is.
3. Comparison steals the work. When you push your pace to match someone faster, you stop enjoying what you're doing — and you usually break before they do. Slow down enough to actually live the climb.
4. Discipline is invisible from the outside. When someone seems to be growing faster than you, you're not seeing their reps, their shoes, their elevation training, their 5 a.m. starts. Stop measuring yourself against a highlight reel.
5. Repetition teaches, but only if you adapt. Doing the same hike (or running the same playbook) the same way every time produces the same result. The improvement comes from what you change between attempts.
6. Mind over critter brain. Halfway up, your body will tell you to quit and go to Waffle House. The job is to override that voice with the part of you that already knows you can finish.
7. The plan changes at the top. Mike Tyson was right — everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face. The message Justin planned for the summit wasn't the message he delivered. Trust the moment.

Memorable Quotes

"You saved this podcast more times than you will ever know."

"Every time I think I have it figured out, the mountain humbles me."

"It stops being a hobby and starts becoming something else."

"You have to do things different. If you keep doing the same thing every day, it doesn't get better."

"The mountain is the metaphor — for this podcast, for your business, for anything in your life that's actually worth doing."

Show Notes & Timestamps

• (00:00) Cold open: when's the last time you did something genuinely uncomfortable?
• (01:00) Celebrating episode 150 — and crossing one million downloads
• (02:30) The brutal podcast stats (and why most shows die before episode 20)
• (04:00) "You saved this podcast more times than you'll ever know" — the listener thank-you
• (06:00) Why a mountain? Introducing Camelback and the metaphor
• (09:00) Carrying the podcast rig up the trail — and the message Justin planned vs. what actually came out
• (10:50) Recording from the summit with Kristen and Levi
• (11:40) The 80-year-old couple, the kid in Crocs, and the comparison trap
• (13:30) Justin on the "struggle bus" — sitting at a desk and eating wings doesn't make you hike-ready
• (14:47) Kristen on discipline: what you don't see behind the scenes
• (17:13) Mind over critter brain — and why "listen to your body" is sometimes a lie
• (17:47) You have to do things differently to get a different result
• (20:00) What repetition actually teaches you (and why you need a water backpack)
• (22:00) Levi's takeaway: slow down and enjoy the journey
• (22:30) Wrapping up at the summit — head down the mountain

Resources & Links

• Watch the full episode with summit footage on YouTube — the view at the top doesn't translate to audio
• Photos from the climb on Instagram and Facebook
• Camelback Mountain, Scottsdale, AZ — Echo Canyon trail
• Guest: Levi Torres (Colorado — and yes, the altitude training shows)

Call to Action

If episode 150 hit at the right moment, do the thing Justin built this show on:

• Send it to one other operator who needs to hear it this week
• Leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify — that's what keeps the show finding new operators
• DM Justin and tell him which episode hit hardest. He reads every one.

Here's to the next 150. See you Monday.

Mentioned in this episode:

Homeservicehoorah.com

when is the last time? You did something outside your comfort zone like really outside of it I'm not talking about I tried a new restaurant kind of ⁓ Outside your comfort zone. I mean like something that hurts a little bit

Maybe it hurts the body a little bit. Maybe it hurts the pride a little bit. And I did that this week and I gotta tell you, I would totally do it again.

I'm asking because yesterday I did exactly that. I climbed Camelback Mountain in Scottsdale, Arizona with my wife Kristen and one of our good friends Levi Torres. And I'm telling you right now, I am so sore like

Like I'm having a hard time sitting down or even standing up without grunting or making a noise and it's sore all over the place. And the truth is it was 100 % worth it.

I bet for some people that seems a little bit weird.

before we dive more into our adventures at Camelback, I wanna celebrate something pretty awesome with you. This is episode 150 of the

Say that again. 150. Which is crazy.

So from a podcast perspective, I wanna put this kinda in a little bit of a, I don't know, I guess share some data with you on Because some of it is pretty brutal. 90 % of podcasts never make it past the third episode. And the ones that do,

about 99 % of those stop before they reach the next major milestone,

Meaning roughly 99 % of podcasts die before episode 20 something. And here we are episode 150.

But here's the part that still honestly blows my mind. The podcast has crossed over one million downloads. A million, a million people have downloaded the podcast and listened to it. That's mind blowing to me. It's crazy that that is an actual number that has anything to do

with this podcast that we've done.

I still fully know what to do with that number because truthfully, when I started this thing, I never had that as a goal. I never had any of that as a goal.

I mean, honestly, I'd have been over the moon with a hundred, if I'm being honest. ⁓ Even 10,000 felt like this far out distant number, but

a million that that wasn't even on the vision board it wasn't even on the map because I just I didn't see that as being a possibility

and every single one of those downloads is you. Listening, sharing, sending the show to someone in your shop, throwing it in the truck when you're driving, kicking it along to somebody else, another business owner.

I guess my point is that number represents you, the listener, more than it does me. And it is incredible.

So before I get any further, let me say this,

Not because I'm special, not because I had some master plan, but honestly, because you kept showing up. and that honestly made me keep showing up.

And I want to be real with you for a second. There was a lot of weeks where I was not sure if anybody was listening. I would hit publish on Monday morning, look at the download numbers and wonder if the whole thing was a waste of time.

If I was talking to nobody.

But truth is I made a commitment. A new episode every Monday, every week.

and every single time I got close to throwing in the towel, every single time, somebody would reach out. I would get a DM, an email, a text message from somebody I had not talked to in six months saying, hey man, that episode you dropped last week, it hit at the right moment. It hit at the exact right moment, thank you.

or I would show up at a conference, a trade show, an industry event, and people that I have never met would walk up to me and say, I listen to your show, I love it, keep going. And every time that happened, it was exactly what I needed to hear, exactly what I needed to hear it. So when I say I kept showing up because you kept showing up, I mean it.

literally, I mean it.

You saved this podcast more times than you will ever know.

And here's the thing I want you to understand.

I didn't start this podcast for me. I started it to give back to this industry, to the home service operators who are out there in the trenches running trucks, leading teams, while keeping their marriages together and being decent human beings along the way.

I have been in your shoes.

how lonely it can feel, how heavy it can get.

And if even one episode of this show has made your week a little easier, your decision a little clearer, or your fire a little hotter, then it's all worth it.

So when I sat down to figure out how to celebrate this episode, episode 150, I knew it could not be a normal episode. It had to be different. It had to feel different.

which is why we ended up on the top of a mountain. Literally on the top of a mountain. So, thinking to yourself, why a mountain? Why a camelback?

If you've ever been to Scottsdale, Camelback is the mountain. You can see it from pretty much anywhere in the valley. It looks like a camel laying down, head down on one end, hump on the other. It's actually pretty cool. I'll put some pictures on our social media for you to see it. And it is not a leisurely walk in the woods. It is a little bit of a brutal hike. Anybody who's done it will tell you. It's...

1200 feet of elevation gain in about a mile. Doesn't sound like much on paper but this is not really just a hike. It's a damn climb. there's a section about two-thirds of the way up where the trail just kind of seems to disappear and you're scrambling up boulders using your hands looking for the next foothold.

praying your shoes have good grip.

And there's a moment on that mountain where you genuinely ask yourself, what am I doing up here? Kristen and I, honestly, we've hiked Camelback several times over the years and every single time that mountain teaches me something

Every time I think I haven't figured out,

The mountain humbles me and this time is definitely no different. every time I think it's gonna be easier than last time, I quickly realize it's not.

And every single time I get to the top, sweating, exhausted, legs are shaking, I'm glad I did it.

because that's exactly what 150 episodes of this podcast has felt like. The brutal climb, the moments of what am I even doing, the false summits where you think you've made it and then realize there's more mountain above you. The scramble sections where it stops being a hobby and starts becoming something else.

And every single time, the view at the top of that thing, it just can't be viewed any other way.

That's why we're recording this on a mountain.

Because the mountain is the metaphor

for this podcast,

for your business,

for anything in your life that is actually worth doing.

So here's something I have not told you yet. When I plan this episode,

I knew I wanted to record a milestone moment at the top of the mountain, which meant I had to carry my podcast equipment up this damn mountain.

But truthfully, I have a pretty compact podcast set up. So it doesn't weigh a ton, but I gotta be honest with you, every pound counts when you're climbing a mountain.

around the halfway point, sweating, lungs on fire, that bag feeling heavier, literally every step,

I started thinking about what I wanted to say at the top. And in my head, I had it all planned out. I was gonna talk about doing hard shit because, I mean, that's what I was doing. I was literally in the middle.

of doing the hard shit.

I was hauling a podcast rig up a mountain with my wife and my friend to record episode 150. It felt like the perfect topic.

But here's the thing about mountains. And honestly, not just mountains, but plans

Sometimes you might have a plan. Mike Tyson said it best. Everybody's got a plan till they get punched in the face. By the time we got to the top, caught our breath, looked at the view, the message had changed.

I'm not going to spoil it because I want you to listen to it from the top of the mountain. And by the way, it is a little bit windy. I tried to edit it out the best I could. It is still a little bit windy, but you're about to hear it.

But I'll tell you this, what we talked about at the top of the mountain was what was right at that moment,

And I think it's something every home service operator and leader listening to this right now needs to hear. It applies to your business.

It applies to your team. It applies to you.

Anyways, I'm not going to spoil it, but.

Whatever you're doing right now, driving, working out, riding in the truck, settle in. This is episode 150 of Freedom Blueprint Podcast.

Well, we're at the top of Campbellback Mountain and we left at 4.30. Now, like 5 we got on top of the trail.

Started at five, made it to the top at six.

So, Camelback

is one of our favorite hikes and you've done more difficult hikes. This is my Everest. Every time I hike it I get kind of in the middle and I wonder what the boof, like why am I doing it?

And then you got people that push you and drive you, then you see people that are ⁓ not what you would expect to get to the top of this mountain as quickly as they do. ⁓ Anyway, so.

Are you referring to the 80 year old couple that passed us? Well. Coming up and coming down.

Well,

that's one, right? Young, bendy, flexible, recovers fast. I think that's part of their amount. anytime I do stuff like this, I always want to compare it to business. Because that's how my brain works. I can't just do something and enjoy it. I have to compare it to business. And I always think about, you're really in a race against yourself.

What about the kid in Crocs?

and the hell with everybody else. And it reminds me, like coming up the mountain and you got an 80 year old couple that not only pass you on your way up, but then they come back down past you and you haven't made it to the top yet. And I got a sneaky suspicion they might pass us again if we're going down. but anyways, this is episode 150 and I thought how cool would it be to do this?

if they do it more than once.

at the top of Camelback Mountain. And for anybody who doesn't know what Camelback Mountain is, it is in Scottsdale, which is outside of Phoenix, Arizona. And like we're overlooking downtown and when we're done, I'll take the camera and pan it around and show you guys the view because it's pretty amazing. Like planes land below you, like they're coming below you to land at the airport. Levi, our friend Levi came with us. I don't know where he is. He's behind us somewhere. And

He did really good. I was on the struggle bus, I'm not gonna lie. I love hiking, even went and bought some sweet new shoes to help me run faster and jump higher. Didn't help.

Good. He did really good. ⁓

You did great. But that's okay. This is a hard hike. But I made it.

At the end of the

day, doesn't matter how long it took me, I made it. Even though y'all had to wait on me. It's okay. A lot. But that's okay. I was telling them, I don't think my, sitting in my desk for 13 hours a day and eating chicken wings and french fries, I don't think that diet is getting me hiking ready.

I'm not serving you right now.

It's hard to get any kind of elevation in Florida too, so there's that.

Yeah,

that's what Levi was saying. You know, he lives in the Denver area and he's like, he walks two or three miles a day, but they have elevation and he was like a little gazelle. I know. Pissed me off a little bit. Love you Levi.

That's okay, that's okay. ⁓

Anyways, there's a big rabbit hole I could go down on the comparison thing with businesses just because again, so many people do it and so many people just from the outside in do it and don't know all the details of it, right? I think, talking about Levi, that's a good comparison. Right, not knowing that he lives in an elevation where he gets that elevation change and that he goes and walks two and three miles a day, you know, that's information that normally you wouldn't ever know.

Again, for business owners, a lot of times we do that with, we see their wraps and we see their buildings and we see their trucks and we automatically assume they can or can't do something.

Well, I think too from the vein of comparison as you're coming up a mountain like this and you you as you know certain people pass you and then you pass other people and The people that pass you you're like golly how do they do this so fast? but you look at The tools that they're using they've got good shoes

I didn't pass anybody.

They've got, this is clearly not the first time that they've done something like this. So there's a fair amount of discipline that comes into doing a hike like this on a regular basis on any given Tuesday and it just be part of your morning workout. ⁓ You don't just get up and decide to do this hike. is... ⁓

Uhhh...

It is

a butt kicker, but it's a testament to discipline in other areas, I think. And going back to business, again, you know, it takes discipline. ⁓

And so if you see people who feel like they're excelling faster than you are, they're growing faster than you are, or seems like they got their crap together faster than you do, maybe it's just that their focus is different, and their level of discipline in certain areas is different. And you just get there. You'll get there. Get there at your own

And

do you know what they're doing behind the scenes? Do you know what the actual picture is behind the scenes? And usually the answer is no.

And then you get people who get come, they get halfway up this hike and they're like, what am I doing? And they turn around and go back down. don't even finish.

It's a story about the guy that was digging. I don't remember if it was for gold or oil, the story. He was digging, and was digging, and he was digging. And he gave up, a week later, he sold the property, and a week later somebody found either the gold or the oil. And the point of the story is just don't give up, keep going. Although here's what's interesting, is we're told to listen to our bodies, but yet we're hiking up this mountain, and my body's like, you need to go to Waffle House.

but yet you guys were like, you got it, you're almost there.

glad I listened to you guys about my body. Although, I think my body's gonna tell me the same thing on the way down. And ironically enough, there is one Waffle House in the Phoenix area.

There's, ⁓ a certain point, becomes mind over matter, right? Like you're, you can't let the critter brain, because the critter brain is gonna be the one that tells you, can't do this, you've gotten in too far over your head, you just need to turn around and go back to the car. And so you have to have the mental fortitude to be able to be like, you know what, no, we're gonna keep going, because it can do this, can finish it out. And again, it happens the same way in business too, like you get to a point where you're like,

I cannot do this for another day.

But you also have to do things different, right? So then if you keep doing the same thing every day, like if we kept hiking this and we came year after year and I had the same workout routine each year, it wouldn't get any better because I would be doing the same thing. So you have to shift what you're doing to get a different result. So you can't keep doing the same thing over and over again. And you know, there is something to say about repetition too, is you know, in business when you do things,

there is a certain level of experience that you get when you're like, I'm not going to do that this time because I what happens that way.

Even

just like this, like we've done this like, however, like five or six times or something. We now know that you got to get, you got to get here really earlier. You're not going to get a parking spot and you need to be down off the mountain. what are we, may it's going to get to like a and it feels fantastic up here right now, but in a couple of hours it's going to be miserable. going to shut it down. No, it's not. It's six 30.

It was 106 yesterday.

No, it's not seven.

Oh, I watched you catch up.

So anyway, point is, that we've learned, the other thing I learned about this particular hike is I need to wear a backpack with water in it. I can't carry a water bottle because I need two hands. There's a lot of rocks bramble here and you need two hands and I came up here one time trying to hold a water bottle and that was, that did not go well. I dropped it like four times. So there's a handful of things that you learn from repetition and you do it different, a little different each time and each time you get a little better and...

little faster. Hopefully this.

and it's windy up here so hopefully yeah hopefully

you can hear us if you can't just know it's good wisdom all right so i'm gonna take i'm gonna take the camera and go around the top of this mountain just to give everybody the view and i'm gonna say this you know when you see a sunset and you take a picture of it it never quite does it justice yeah this video is not going to do it justice so if you want to see it

You gotta get up here. ⁓

And

if you're coming anytime except probably January, you need to get here like five in the morning so you can get up here. So yeah, let's do a I'm gonna do a quick loop-de-loop and show you guys. Let's go give them the tour. Where's Levi? He didn't false down the mountain, did he?

Now

Hi Levi, first hike. I just bragging on you. Yeah? That you ran up the same as Gizel. Yeah. I give credit to the altitude of Colorado. When you work out in Colorado and then you come to Arizona, you look real good. So you're saying I was on the struggle bus because I live in Florida. Yeah, so you're on the wrong side of the altitude.

at these bees.

was great though. Great first thanks for the invite. It was awesome. So, it's beautiful view up here. If you haven't done it, I definitely suggest it. Well, that's why I was doing a picture of a round to give everybody and I told him, you know, you take a picture of the sunset, it doesn't do it justice. So, you really got to get up here and It's the truth. So, So, was talking about, you know, because anytime...

At least for me, I do stuff like this. There's always a business lesson that's kind of buried in it. And for me, it was, you're in a race against yourself, right? doesn't matter how fast everybody else goes and how often you see people that you're like, didn't expect them to lap me ⁓ three times on this giant trail at 80 years old. Yeah, here we are. So anyways, did anything that sticks with you that you can think about lessons from this? Yeah, very similar, you know, right? ⁓ You always want to compare yourself to other people.

Right? That's just what adults and humans tend to do. And when you're in business, you tend to do it even a little bit more sometimes. And so, yeah, when you're climbing up this hill and you see some people going faster and you tend to start to push yourself, but then you get uncomfortable and maybe not even enjoying it anymore. ⁓ And so you've got to slow down and go at your pace that you enjoy. Right? ⁓ The problem with business that a lot of people do is they're just in such a hurry that then they forget to enjoy the time and what they're doing. ⁓ I ran into that several times in my career, but man, you need to slow down.

and smell the roses right enjoy the journey and so I kept telling y'all when I was stopping I wouldn't stop it because I was tired because I wanted to make sure I got pictures so we're about to trek it down this mountain it's 630 now we'll probably get down in 45 minutes I bet yeah let's shoot for an hour

Okay.

Unless you roll down.

Anyways, we'll get some pictures at the bottom. If you're listening to this on any of the Apples or Spotify's, check out the YouTube because there be some videos on this as well. ⁓ Here we go, here's the hiking crew.

to start heading down. so the people that were just on the camera that had the yellow shirt, this is their second or third trip. morning. Second time up. They had a couple 20 plus years on us. Cool, alright, we'll see you guys at bottom

It's crazy.