The Crooked Line to Success, with Elliot Kallen

Elliot Kallen has started businesses from scratch his entire life, and he is candid about the part nobody romanticizes: the cash crunches, the failures, the bloody nose, and the hardest loss a parent can carry.In this conversation, Elliot makes the case that the path to anything worth building is a crooked line, that vision is what carries you past failure, and that the real goal is to fall in love with the work itself. He shares the three voices that still drive him, the mentor question he asks every day, the spray paint fortune his father walked away from, and the story of A Brighter Day, the teen mental health charity he founded after the loss of his son Jake.Elliot is the author of the number one Amazon bestseller Driven, founder of Prosperity Financial Group, and President of A Brighter Day.What we cover:Why every founder's line is crooked, not straightThe mentor question: are you doing everything you can think of doing all the timeGut versus brain, and how to tell which to followVision as the thing that carries you past failureFalling in love with the game, not the moneyA Brighter Day, turning loss into a mission that reaches thousands of families a monthKeeping a team aligned with a vision that keeps changingA Brighter Day: abrighterday.info Need to talk? Text BRIGHTER to 741741. Connect with Elliot Kallen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elliotkallen/Follow Conversations That Count and never miss an episode. Grab the free communication playbook at ctcpodcast.media/free-playbook.Outside the mic: I also built RecoveryMRR, a tool that helps subscription businesses automatically recover failed Stripe payments. If that is your world, check it out at recoverymrr.comChapter markers (locked from the finished 38:16 master)00:00 Cold open 00:43 Welcome and intro 01:10 Meet Elliot Kallen, author of Driven 02:00 Why every entrepreneur's line is crooked 03:30 A conversation that counted, his parents' voices 08:24 Gut vs brain, the spray paint that got away 10:34 Elliot and the Untouchables 13:04 Vision is what overpowers failure 17:44 Fall in love with the game, not the money 20:25 A Brighter Day, turning loss into legacy 30:16 Keeping your team aligned, the chariot horses 33:30 Recap and close (00:00) - Cold open (00:43) - Welcome and intro (01:10) - Meet Elliot Kallen, author of Driven (02:00) - Why every entrepreneur's line is crooked (03:30) - A conversation that counted, his parents' voices (08:24) - Gut vs brain, the spray paint that got away (10:34) - Elliot and the Untouchables (13:04) - Vision is what overpowers failure (17:44) - Fall in love with the game, not the money (20:25) - A Brighter Day, turning loss into legacy (30:16) - Keeping your team aligned, the chariot horses (33:30) - Recap and close