- CEO Story: He received a camera as a gift and started shooting just for fun and as a stress reliever. After sharing the photos, people like them and want to buy them. He honored his gift and he cultivated it. Now, he is not just an award-winning photographer but a famous book author as well.
- Business Service: His book Buddy’s Magic Window wants to share positivity in life. It talks about believing in yourself, in your dream, and in your passion.
- Secret Sauce: Believe and achieve. Believe in yourself, in your dreams, and in your spirituality.
- CEO Hack: Get a mentor in your field of business. Learn daily, learn your business.
- CEO Nugget: When you realize your gift early, go for it. Surround yourself with people who believe in your dream as much as you do.
- CEO Defined: The freedom to create, travel, to work as hard as we want. Freedom to grow professionally, personally, and financially.
Facebook: dennisglennonphotography
Instagram: @dennisglennon
Twitter: denglennon
Books available at dennisglennon.com
Buddys-Magic-Window-Little-Adventure
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Transcription
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00:12 – Intro
Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkness values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO podcast.
00:40 – Gresham Harkless
Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast. I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Dennis Glennon of dennisglennon.com. Dennis, it's great to have you on the show.
00:48 – Dennis Glennon
Hey, how are you doing?
00:50 – Gresham Harkless
I'm super excited to have you on, doing well. I hope you aren't as well. And what I want to do again is read a little bit more about Dennis so you can hear about all the awesome things that he's doing. And Dennis is an award-winning wildlife landscape and dog photographer. He is also the author of the two-time Benjamin Franklin Award winner for his best children's picture book, Buddy's Magic Window. Mr Glennon can be and craft show and author in America. Dennis super excited and hear about all the gre you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?
[restrict paid=”true”]
01:23 – Dennis Glennon
Absolutely, absolutely. Very excited, thank you. And thanks for having me on. It's always fun, right? It's always a good time.
01:28 – Gresham Harkless
It's always fun to kind of talk about the awesome things that you're doing, But before we get into those awesome things, I wanted to rewind the clock a little bit here a little bit more on how you got started, what I call your CEO story.
01:37 – Dennis Glennon
Yeah, yeah, the kind of the short version of a long story is I went to school for economics. And I found out quickly. I didn't like stress. I didn't like stress. And right before the girl I was dating at the time, she's like, then you gotta fit your attitude. You gotta go, 'cause you're miserable. I'm like, oh my God, really? I didn't even realize it was on Medica. So she got me a camera as a gift. She got me a camera and I saw her photographing because I need a stress release mechanism, right? Then what happened was I started sharing the photos with people and they wanted to buy them.
And I'm like, oh my God, are you kidding me? I'm like, they're like, oh man, these are awesome, this and that and that. And I'm like, okay, you know, so I'm just like, you know, like fake it till you make it. And I'm like, all right, if you think they're good, you know, So they're like, what are you talking about? I don't know, I made up a price. And then they're like, OK, cool. And so I just started selling them. And I'm like, the light bulb went off. I'm like, man, if I could do this, this is fun. I don't have a good time. So that's basically how it started. That started with the photography, kind of an accident, so to speak. I don't believe there are really accidents, I think it was meant to be, but I realized it and I ran with it. I never looked back, ever.
02:59 – Gresham Harkless
Nice, I love that. And so many times, you know, I always sometimes say the phrase, you know, it's always darkest before dawn. And it sounds like, you know, you have that conversation where you're stressed out. Like you said, you didn't even know you were stressed out and all those things are happening. And then that gift, that opportunity kind of came right after that. And sometimes we don't even realize how, you know, life happens. And like you said, I'm a big believer in things happening, you know, as they should and for a reason.
03:20 – Dennis Glennon
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, that's, I think that, and I think that's the important thing. Like I realized it, right? And I acted on it. You just wanna like, right? You honor that gift. You realize you got this gift. I didn't know I had it. I was 30 years old. I'm like, I have no idea. You know, no idea. I could take pictures. I have no idea. It was like, it's a funny thing. They're like, Oh, you're so creative. I respond I don't even know what that means.
03:43 – Gresham Harkless
Yeah, it's very interesting. And I appreciate you so much in sharing that because I love the phrase that you said honoring your gifts because I think like you said, you know, we all have certain, you know, gifts and talents and skills that sometimes come easier or come in. Some people say flow or come naturally like you don't have to work out. It often comes so easily.
I'm sure this is what I hear when you're speaking as well too as talented as you are and as creative as you are I use that word as well too sometimes we don't even know that we can do something or know that it is a gift we assume it's something that everybody knows how to do But when you start to realize it and you start to do it, it isn't something everybody can do. And that's when you really have to drill down and you really have to honor that and cultivate those skills.
04:24 – Dennis Glennon
Yeah, I totally agree. Yeah. It's like I was born with it. Right. So it's almost too easy. I didn't really have to work at it. It was just there. You know what's interesting? When we tell our stories, not only do we remind and influence other people, we remind ourselves, right? We remind ourselves because sometimes we forget. Sometimes I got to sit back purposely. When you get that feedback, you're like, wow, I did it. I did it. And that's, I'm still doing it. I'm not gonna get the beginning, right? But I'm like, wow, I got there. I got there. That's a cool feeling. That's really cool. You think about these things for a long time And all of a sudden you're like, bam, it's happening. Oh, it's happening. It's pretty cool.
05:06 – Gresham Harkless
It's pretty cool. Yeah. Absolutely. When you get to see those things that you, last times dreamed about thought about, and had intentionality with it starts to come to fruition. It's a really exciting thing. So I wanted to drill down a little bit more. I know you touched a little bit upon your book. I want to hear a little bit more about that. Can you take us through how and who it's for and what exactly it's talking about there?
05:25 – Dennis Glennon
Well, I wrote the book. I'll show it to you too. It's a children's picture book. It features a golden retriever, really cute, and he gets lost in the woods and he has all these cool interactions with the forest animals. But in the end, this is the coolest part, I think. It's the thing I believe in the most. Yeah, but his magic window, is a really cute puppy. So in the end, he has to believe in himself at home. That's us. We have to believe in ourselves more than…
Sometimes, I think we talked about this, you got to believe in yourself even more than you think you need to believe in yourself, right? Because it's tough, right? Any sole proprietorship, any business you start, any creative project, right? Nobody gives it to you. A lot of times we're learning on the fly, right? We're learning every day. I'm learning. So I created the book. I just wanted the idea was I wanted to put out something positive, not only for kids, I mean, it's marketed as a kid's book, right? Because it really is. But even adults have something to take away, right?
Their whole belief in themselves because of that can start at any age, right? Better as a kid. And that was the point get kids, to believe in themselves, believe in their dreams, want to pursue their passion, and pursue their dreams. And despite what anybody says, just go do it, right? Go do it. But yeah, so that the idea was to create a book, right, they say create a book that you want to read. And I wanted to create a fun, fun book that my driving force behind it was no matter who reads it, in any age, any country, any language, that it's going to make you smile. If I hadn't done that, to me, that's a success. Nice.
07:12 – Gresham Harkless
I love that. I love the book and everything it represents beyond that. A lot of times we have lost as, you know, as we grow up and, you know, start to adult and whatever that might be. And that looks like, but I think those people that are able to tap into that really start to see that there are no limits like you said, the only limits are a lot of times ourselves and whatever we can, you know, think about it, we can believe we can achieve. And I think that's something that I love that you've written and of course, you're echoing today. So would you consider that to be what I like to call your secret sauce? The thing you feel kind of sets you the book or your business apart and makes it unique. Is it that ability to kind of, I think not just, you know, it sounds like believe it, but also be able to kind of showcase that in the talent, the way that you have been?
07:55 – Dennis Glennon
Yeah, I think that's the key to me. It's like you said, you said it, belief in achievement, right? Believe in achievement. That's the key because without truly believing it, I mean, down deep believing it, right? It's so much more difficult. We have all these doubts and fears, which we do, we do, right? We have doubts and fears, but When you have this burning passion that I don't care what obstacle comes my way, I'm going to overcome it. And I'm not going around it. I'm sick of going around it. I plow right through it.
That's how I'm wired, right? I'm not built for speed, I'm built for power. I go right through it. So I don't have to get there fast, but I got to get there. So yeah, to believe in, believe in yourself, believe in in your core being, believe in spirituality, believe in dreams, believe in your passion, having and having a clear idea of what message you want to put out there. Everything I do, it's all about positivity.
08:51 – Gresham Harkless
Yeah, especially that from a positivity standpoint, because I feel like there's not as much positivity as we ultimately would love to have. So I think when you're able to break through that noise and when somebody is having a lesson idea, they get to see one of your photos and listen to your book and do all the awesome things. I think that is a phenomenal thing to kind of be able to tap into. And so I wanted to switch gears a little bit and I want to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?
09:20 – Dennis Glennon
My biggest advice to there's a couple of throw kind of bullet point, get a mentor, get a mentor, whatever you want to do, get a mentor. And if you can't find one, go down a list until you get a good one. Get a mentor. I've had several. Find somebody in your field, and express your passion to them. I've had a priceless mentor. One of my top tips is to make a habit of learning something new every single day. Learn your business. It's difficult to keep up with all the changes happening at the moment, so it's important to adapt and learn about your business.
Know your business. I'm in the book business. I'm in the photography business. I got to know everything I could. And there's so much to learn. I know a little. I have 2 organizations I'm working with. One is a one-on-one. One is a little bit more with the coaching calls every day though. So every day I'm in there learning, learning, learning because you could grow your business so quickly. The targeting is so easy when you know what to do. Somebody to help you because they can and will fast-track your business and the people who aren't doing it, right? They're gonna get left in the dust. Those are pretty big hacks.
10:33 – Gresham Harkless
Those are huge hacks. Those are definitely, you know, they're doing a lot of hacking there and they're phenomenal hacking because yeah, you get that opportunity to really stand on the shoulders of giants, learn from people that, you know, I've had that success and kind of lean in on them. So I wanted to ask you, Dow, if you might have already touched on this. This is more of a CEO nugget, which is kind of a word of wisdom or piece of advice. And it might be something if you were to hop into a time machine, you would tell your younger business self.
10:58 – Dennis Glennon
All right, hindsight's 20-20. I wish I would have started earlier. I wish I had had the knowledge direction or confidence. Going back to that girl, 17-year-old girl, she's doing fantastic things. I could imagine where I would have been, where I'd be if I would have started at 17. Now we can't look back, We can't change it. But there's no reason nowadays. There's no reason you can't start early. Like teenage early. I mean, we see right this year. I watch I love like I love America Got Town. Love that show. I get inspired by that.
I mean, you see these little kids, right? 6 years old, 7 years old, doing unbelievable things. Unbelievable. Like, man, right? They realized their gift early. It took me till I was 30 when I did this. And I'm like, wow. So I would say, man, if you realize you'd gift early, go. And this is like, surrounding yourself with people who believe in your dream as much as you do if you can find them, or at least encourage you or don't discourage you. And if they do run from them, run.
12:06 – Gresham Harkless
Nice. No, I love those nuggets and just understanding that you know, especially when you have that opportunity to fill or even if you're trying to explore it, The earlier you start, the more runway you have, the more time you have to get better, the more time you have to become an expert at your craft, you get to that 99% as we kind of talked about. So I truly appreciate those nuggets. And I wanted to ask you now my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. We're hoping to have different quote-unquote CEOs on the show. So Dennis, what does being a CEO mean to you?
12:36 – Dennis Glennon
Being a CEO means 100% freedom. That's what it means to me. That's what I wanted. I wanted the freedom to create. I want the freedom to travel or the freedom to do whatever I want, whenever I wanna do it, the freedom to work as hard as I want, and sometimes the freedom to take a nap when I need one. And being a CEO, right? Like being your own person, you don't have to answer to anybody. We have to answer to ourselves and our family, so to speak. But we're not a boss, right? So anything we do, it's on us. No good or bad, it's on us. We can't blame anybody.
So we have to hustle because we want success. I mean, I don't know what CEO, what self-possessed owner doesn't want success. That's why we do it, right? So yeah, the freedom to not only professionally grow and personally grow and financially grow, but would have that freedom to not have to answer anybody. We could be our own person. We could say anything we want when we want. We can do anything we want. We can work as hard or as not as hard as we want. It's the freedom to me. It's all about the freedom.
And then throw a little extra in. We'll go back to the honor and the gift and put good stuff out there. Right? You know, that's what I, on a personal level, that's what I like to do. So I could take my books, my photos, whatever I want, my message, I could bring it to people and put something positive, hopefully, influence people to want to live a better life or something business and do their own thing in some way. And to me, that's that. That's the definition.
14:14 – Gresham Harkless
Yeah, it's awesome. I love that, Dennis, and especially, as you said, the freedom and the ability to write your own script or maybe even to use Photoshop to create a photograph, whatever you want. You really get to dictate that when you're talking about your life and the impact that you can have. Understanding how important and impactful that can be, and realizing that we all have the ability to do it in our own unique ways. Embracing those gifts and the things that make us unique and special is one of the best ways to convey our message and express our alignment in so many different ways.
So I truly appreciate that definition and I appreciate your time even more. What I want to do now is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know. And of course, how best people can get a hold of you get a copy of the book, and find out about all the awesome things that you're working on.
15:10 – Dennis Glennon
Yeah, yeah. So I have some cool stuff, got a lot of cool stuff going on. It's a little chaotic, which is good because we're growing, right? We're growing. So the book, Buddy's Magic Window, you can get on Amazon, but I prefer DennisPlennan.com. I personally sign them, which is awesome. It's really cute. Like I said, it's getting awesome reviews, really making people smile. That's a really cool thing. And the website should be up shortly. Actually, by the time this airs, it'll be up. We just came out with that we found a great company to work with. So now we're doing prints, the wildlife and landscape prints are metal. Metal, they look stunning. They look stunning. So we're gonna get those out and up on the website hopefully by the end of the week.
15:58 – Gresham Harkless
Nice, well, I definitely appreciate that. And we will have the links and information in the show notes. So truly appreciate that again, Dennis, my friend, and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.
16:08 – Dennis Glennon
Yeah, have an awesome, you know, have a great day, have a great year, right? We're going through the holiday season, so let's spend some time with friends and family and we'll be in touch, right? We'll be in touch and best wishes to everybody. Peace and love.
16:23 – Outro
Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.
00:12 - Intro
Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkness values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO podcast.
00:40 - Gresham Harkless
Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast. I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Dennis Glennon of dennisglennon.com. Dennis, it's great to have you on the show.
00:48 - Dennis Glennon
Hey, how are you doing?
00:50 - Gresham Harkless
Super excited to have you on, doing well. I hope you aren't as well. And what I want to do again is read a little bit more about Dennis so you can hear about all the awesome things that he's doing. And Dennis is an award-winning wildlife landscape and dog photographer. He is also the author of the two-time Benjamin Franklin Award winner for his best children's picture book, Buddy's Magic Window. Mr Glennon can be and craft show and author in America. Dennis super excited and hear about all the gre you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?
01:23 - Dennis Glennon
Absolutely, absolutely. Very excited, thank you. And thanks for having me on. It's always fun, right? It's always a good time.
01:28 - Gresham Harkless
It's always fun to kind of talk about the awesome things that you're doing, But before we get into those awesome things, I wanted to rewind the clock a little bit here a little bit more on how you got started, what I call your CEO story.
01:37 - Dennis Glennon
Yeah, yeah, the kind of the short version of a long story is I went to school for economics. And I found out quickly. I didn't like stress. I didn't like stress. And right before the girl I was dating at the time, she's like, then you gotta fit your attitude. You gotta go, 'cause you're miserable. I'm like, oh my God, really? I didn't even realize it was on Medica. So she got me a camera as a gift. She got me a camera and I saw her photographing because I need a stress release mechanism, right? Then what happened was I started sharing the photos with people and they wanted to buy them.
And I'm like, oh my God, are you kidding me? I'm like, they're like, oh man, these are awesome, this and that and that. And I'm like, okay, you know, so I'm just like, you know, like fake it till you make it. And I'm like, all right, if you think they're good, you know, So they're like, what are you talking about? I don't know, I made up a price. And then they're like, OK, cool. And so I just started selling them. And I'm like, the light bulb went off. I'm like, man, if I could do this, this is fun. I don't have a good time. So that's basically how it started. That started with the photography, kind of an accident, so to speak. I don't believe there are really accidents, I think it was meant to be, but I realized it and I ran with it. I never looked back, ever.
02:59 - Gresham Harkless
Nice, I love that. And so many times, you know, I always sometimes say the phrase, you know, it's always darkest before dawn. And it sounds like, you know, you have that conversation where you're stressed out. Like you said, you didn't even know you were stressed out and all those things are happening. And then that gift, that opportunity kind of came right after that. And sometimes we don't even realize how, you know, life happens. And like you said, I'm a big believer in things happening, you know, as they should and for a reason.
03:20 - Dennis Glennon
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, that's, I think that, and I think that's the important thing. Like I realized it, right? And I acted on it. You just wanna like, right? You honor that gift. You realize you got this gift. I didn't know I had it. I was 30 years old. I'm like, I have no idea. You know, no idea. I could take pictures. I have no idea. It was like, it's a funny thing. They're like, Oh, you're so creative. I respond I don't even know what that means.
03:43 - Gresham Harkless
Yeah, it's very interesting. And I appreciate you so much in sharing that because I love the phrase that you said honoring your gifts because I think like you said, you know, we all have certain, you know, gifts and talents and skills that sometimes come easier or come in. Some people say flow or come naturally like you don't have to work out. It often comes so easily.
I'm sure this is what I hear when you're speaking as well too as talented as you are and as creative as you are I use that word as well too sometimes we don't even know that we can do something or know that it is a gift we assume it's something that everybody knows how to do But when you start to realize it and you start to do it, it isn't something everybody can do. And that's when you really have to drill down and you really have to honor that and cultivate those skills.
04:24 - Dennis Glennon
Yeah, I totally agree. Yeah. It's like I was born with it. Right. So it's almost too easy. I didn't really have to work at it. It was just there. You know what's interesting? When we tell our stories, not only do we remind and influence other people, we remind ourselves, right? We remind ourselves because sometimes we forget. Sometimes I got to sit back purposely. When you get that feedback, you're like, wow, I did it. I did it. And that's, I'm still doing it. I'm not gonna get the beginning, right? But I'm like, wow, I got there. I got there. That's a cool feeling. That's really cool. You think about these things for a long time And all of a sudden you're like, bam, it's happening. Oh, it's happening. It's pretty cool.
05:06 - Gresham Harkless
It's pretty cool. Yeah. Absolutely. When you get to see those things that you, last times dreamed about thought about, and had intentionality with it starts to come to fruition. It's a really exciting thing. So I wanted to drill down a little bit more. I know you touched a little bit upon your book. I want to hear a little bit more about that. Can you take us through how and who it's for and what exactly it's talking about there?
05:25 - Dennis Glennon
Well, I wrote the book. I'll show it to you too. It's a children's picture book. It features a golden retriever, really cute, and he gets lost in the woods and he has all these cool interactions with the forest animals. But in the end, this is the coolest part, I think. It's the thing I believe in the most. Yeah, but his magic window, is a really cute puppy. So in the end, he has to believe in himself at home. That's us. We have to believe in ourselves more than...
Sometimes, I think we talked about this, you got to believe in yourself even more than you think you need to believe in yourself, right? Because it's tough, right? Any sole proprietorship, any business you start, any creative project, right? Nobody gives it to you. A lot of times we're learning on the fly, right? We're learning every day. I'm learning. So I created the book. I just wanted the idea was I wanted to put out something positive, not only for kids, I mean, it's marketed as a kid's book, right? Because it really is. But even adults have something to take away, right?
Their whole belief in themselves because of that can start at any age, right? Better as a kid. And that was the point get kids, to believe in themselves, believe in their dreams, want to pursue their passion, and pursue their dreams. And despite what anybody says, just go do it, right? Go do it. But yeah, so that the idea was to create a book, right, they say create a book that you want to read. And I wanted to create a fun, fun book that my driving force behind it was no matter who reads it, in any age, any country, any language, that it's going to make you smile. If I hadn't done that, to me, that's a success. Nice.
07:12 - Gresham Harkless
I love that. I love the book and everything it represents beyond that. A lot of times we have lost as, you know, as we grow up and, you know, start to adult and whatever that might be. And that looks like, but I think those people that are able to tap into that really start to see that there are no limits like you said, the only limits are a lot of times ourselves and whatever we can, you know, think about it, we can believe we can achieve. And I think that's something that I love that you've written and of course, you're echoing today. So would you consider that to be what I like to call your secret sauce? The thing you feel kind of sets you the book or your business apart and makes it unique. Is it that ability to kind of, I think not just, you know, it sounds like believe it, but also be able to kind of showcase that in the talent, the way that you have been?
07:55 - Dennis Glennon
Yeah, I think that's the key to me. It's like you said, you said it, belief in achievement, right? Believe in achievement. That's the key because without truly believing it, I mean, down deep believing it, right? It's so much more difficult. We have all these doubts and fears, which we do, we do, right? We have doubts and fears, but When you have this burning passion that I don't care what obstacle comes my way, I'm going to overcome it. And I'm not going around it. I'm sick of going around it. I plow right through it.
That's how I'm wired, right? I'm not built for speed, I'm built for power. I go right through it. So I don't have to get there fast, but I got to get there. So yeah, to believe in, believe in yourself, believe in in your core being, believe in spirituality, believe in dreams, believe in your passion, having and having a clear idea of what message you want to put out there. Everything I do, it's all about positivity.
08:51 - Gresham Harkless
Yeah, especially that from a positivity standpoint, because I feel like there's not as much positivity as we ultimately would love to have. So I think when you're able to break through that noise and when somebody is having a lesson idea, they get to see one of your photos and listen to your book and do all the awesome things. I think that is a phenomenal thing to kind of be able to tap into. And so I wanted to switch gears a little bit and I want to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?
09:20 - Dennis Glennon
My biggest advice to there's a couple of throw kind of bullet point, get a mentor, get a mentor, whatever you want to do, get a mentor. And if you can't find one, go down a list until you get a good one. Get a mentor. I've had several. Find somebody in your field, and express your passion to them. I've had a priceless mentor. One of my top tips is to make a habit of learning something new every single day. Learn your business. It's difficult to keep up with all the changes happening at the moment, so it's important to adapt and learn about your business.
Know your business. I'm in the book business. I'm in the photography business. I got to know everything I could. And there's so much to learn. I know a little. I have 2 organizations I'm working with. One is a one-on-one. One is a little bit more with the coaching calls every day though. So every day I'm in there learning, learning, learning because you could grow your business so quickly. The targeting is so easy when you know what to do. Somebody to help you because they can and will fast-track your business and the people who aren't doing it, right? They're gonna get left in the dust. Those are pretty big hacks.
10:33 - Gresham Harkless
Those are huge hacks. Those are definitely, you know, they're doing a lot of hacking there and they're phenomenal hacking because yeah, you get that opportunity to really stand on the shoulders of giants, learn from people that, you know, I've had that success and kind of lean in on them. So I wanted to ask you, Dow, if you might have already touched on this. This is more of a CEO nugget, which is kind of a word of wisdom or piece of advice. And it might be something if you were to hop into a time machine, you would tell your younger business self.
10:58 - Dennis Glennon
All right, hindsight's 20-20. I wish I would have started earlier. I wish I had had the knowledge direction or confidence. Going back to that girl, 17-year-old girl, she's doing fantastic things. I could imagine where I would have been, where I'd be if I would have started at 17. Now we can't look back, We can't change it. But there's no reason nowadays. There's no reason you can't start early. Like teenage early. I mean, we see right this year. I watch I love like I love America Got Town. Love that show. I get inspired by that.
I mean, you see these little kids, right? 6 years old, 7 years old, doing unbelievable things. Unbelievable. Like, man, right? They realized their gift early. It took me till I was 30 when I did this. And I'm like, wow. So I would say, man, if you realize you'd gift early, go. And this is like, surrounding yourself with people who believe in your dream as much as you do if you can find them, or at least encourage you or don't discourage you. And if they do run from them, run.
12:06 - Gresham Harkless
Nice. No, I love those nuggets and just understanding that you know, especially when you have that opportunity to fill or even if you're trying to explore it, The earlier you start, the more runway you have, the more time you have to get better, the more time you have to become an expert at your craft, you get to that 99% as we kind of talked about. So I truly appreciate those nuggets. And I wanted to ask you now my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. We're hoping to have different quote-unquote CEOs on the show. So Dennis, what does being a CEO mean to you?
12:36 - Dennis Glennon
Being a CEO means 100% freedom. That's what it means to me. That's what I wanted. I wanted the freedom to create. I want the freedom to travel or the freedom to do whatever I want, whenever I wanna do it, the freedom to work as hard as I want, and sometimes the freedom to take a nap when I need one. And being a CEO, right? Like being your own person, you don't have to answer to anybody. We have to answer to ourselves and our family, so to speak. But we're not a boss, right? So anything we do, it's on us. No good or bad, it's on us. We can't blame anybody.
So we have to hustle because we want success. I mean, I don't know what CEO, what self-possessed owner doesn't want success. That's why we do it, right? So yeah, the freedom to not only professionally grow and personally grow and financially grow, but would have that freedom to not have to answer anybody. We could be our own person. We could say anything we want when we want. We can do anything we want. We can work as hard or as not as hard as we want. It's the freedom to me. It's all about the freedom.
And then throw a little extra in. We'll go back to the honor and the gift and put good stuff out there. Right? You know, that's what I, on a personal level, that's what I like to do. So I could take my books, my photos, whatever I want, my message, I could bring it to people and put something positive, hopefully, influence people to want to live a better life or something business and do their own thing in some way. And to me, that's that. That's the definition.
14:14 - Gresham Harkless
Yeah, it's awesome. I love that, Dennis, and especially, as you said, the freedom and the ability to write your own script or maybe even to use Photoshop to create a photograph, whatever you want. You really get to dictate that when you're talking about your life and the impact that you can have. Understanding how important and impactful that can be, and realizing that we all have the ability to do it in our own unique ways. Embracing those gifts and the things that make us unique and special is one of the best ways to convey our message and express our alignment in so many different ways.
So I truly appreciate that definition and I appreciate your time even more. What I want to do now is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know. And of course, how best people can get a hold of you get a copy of the book, and find out about all the awesome things that you're working on.
15:10 - Dennis Glennon
Yeah, yeah. So I have some cool stuff, got a lot of cool stuff going on. It's a little chaotic, which is good because we're growing, right? We're growing. So the book, Buddy's Magic Window, you can get on Amazon, but I prefer DennisPlennan.com. I personally sign them, which is awesome. It's really cute. Like I said, it's getting awesome reviews, really making people smile. That's a really cool thing. And the website should be up shortly. Actually, by the time this airs, it'll be up. We just came out with that we found a great company to work with. So now we're doing prints, the wildlife and landscape prints are metal. Metal, they look stunning. They look stunning. So we're gonna get those out and up on the website hopefully by the end of the week.
15:58 - Gresham Harkless
Nice, well, I definitely appreciate that. And we will have the links and information in the show notes. So truly appreciate that again, Dennis, my friend, and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.
16:08 - Dennis Glennon
Yeah, have an awesome, you know, have a great day, have a great year, right? We're going through the holiday season, so let's spend some time with friends and family and we'll be in touch, right? We'll be in touch and best wishes to everybody. Peace and love.
16:23 - Outro
Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.
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