The Long Burn

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Host: Joel Malin, LPC / LMHC (Solo Episode) 

Topic: Success as a Coping Mechanism: ACEs, Overcompensation, and Entrepreneurial Drive 

Executive Overview

In this solo episode, host Joel Malin explores the psychological underpinnings of high achievement, leadership, and business drive. He introduces the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) study to examine how childhood trauma, instability, and hyper-functional coping mechanisms can manifest as executive strengths—such as hyper-vigilance, fierce independence, and perfectionism—while simultaneously creating hidden risks like burnout, micromanagement, and emotional isolation. 

Key Discussion Points

1. Wins, Challenges, and Personal Updates

• House Closing: Joel shares a personal win of closing on his family's new home, making it a safe space for his son, Gideon, and building stability despite lingering moving delays. 
• Sleep & Stress: He reflects on the challenge of staying asleep when his mind is running quickly, noting how life transitions impact physical recovery. 
• Community Connection: Attended the Harvest Day Festival and tractor parade in Nashville, Georgia. 

2. The Science of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)

• Background: Developed in the mid-1990s by Dr. Vincent Felitti (Kaiser Permanente) and Dr. Robert Anda (CDC), surveying 17,000 adults across 10 categories (Abuse, Neglect, Household Dysfunction). 
• Prevalence: Approximately 60%–64% of adults have experienced at least 1 ACE. About 1 in 6 adults (16%–17%) score a "high" score of 4 or more. 
• Health & Behavioral Risks: A score of 4+ correlates with a 4.6\times increased risk of clinical depression, 12\times risk of attempted suicide, 7\times risk of alcoholism, 4-10\times risk of illegal drug use, and double-to-triple the risk for heart disease, COPD, and autoimmune issues. 

3. Trauma Traits Masked as Business Superpowers

Joel maps childhood adaptive behaviors to executive leadership patterns: 

• Hyper-vigilance or Market Foresight: An overactive amygdala scanning for danger can look like high risk-management skills, but can devolve into paranoia. 
• Fierce Independence or Work Ethic: The belief that "no one is coming to save me" builds extreme self-reliance, but prevents delegation and creates single-point-of-failure bottlenecks. 
• Control as Safety: Controlling behavior isn't always about dominating others; it is often a deeply rooted quest for predictable safety. 
• Entrepreneurship as a Hiding Place: Business ownership offers full environment control, but can reinforce trauma by keeping the individual in a constant high-pressure, high-stress cycle. 

4. Leadership Blind Spots & The "Firefighting" Trap

• Crisis Addiction: Leaders with trauma backgrounds often struggle with quiet stability, unconsciously triggering chaos, new projects, or unnecessary pivots just to feel the familiar rush of surviving a crisis. 
• The Goalpost Dilemma: Hitting major business milestones brings only fleeting satisfaction before immediately hunting for the next goal, treating self-worth as a moving target. 
• Projecting Standards: Expecting employees to maintain an unsustainable, survival-driven pace leads to team burnout because healthy employees haven't built trauma-response endurance. 

5. Shifting from Survival-Driven to Values-Driven Leadership

• Motivation Audits: Ask if you are building a business to create true value/legacy or as a defense mechanism to prove your worth. 
• Decoupling Identity from Output: Recognize that revenue, productivity, and business events do not define your core value as a human. 
• Transitioning to Presence: Moving from fear of scarcity (financial, time, or resources) to intentional vision and purpose. 
• Practical Checks: Use Somatic regulation (breathwork, exercise, sleep), honest conversations with peers, and therapy to integrate past experiences. 

The 10 ACE Test Screening Questions

Joel reads through the 10 diagnostic categories (events occurring before age 18): 

1. Verbal abuse / humiliation by an adult in the home 
2. Physical abuse / severe physical punishment 
3. Sexual abuse 
4. Emotional neglect / feeling unloved or unsupported 
5. Physical neglect / lack of basic food, clean clothes, or medical care 
6. Parental separation or divorce 
7. Domestic violence against a mother/stepmother 
8. Household substance abuse (alcoholism or drug use) 
9. Household mental illness or suicide attempt 
10. Incarcerated household member 

Practical Takeaways

• The Suitcase Analogy: Everyone brings a "suitcase" of past stresses and experiences to work; understanding your ACE score helps audit what is inside your suitcase. 
• Audit Your Motives: Evaluate whether your business goals are filling a bottomless pit of past insecurity or driving genuine personal fulfillment. 

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Hosts: Dr. Jonathan Wade & Joel Malin 

Topic: The "Both/And" Mindset, Confronting Brutal Truths, and Overcoming Binary Thinking 

Executive Overview

In this episode, Dr. Jonathan Wade and Joel Malin record together in person after a brief hiatus due to Joel’s relocation and joining Orchard Health as a counselor. They explore the concept of "Both/And" thinking (dialectical thinking) versus rigid "Either/Or" perspectives. Grounding their discussion in the Stockdale Paradox, they examine how accepting competing truths can help entrepreneurs and individuals navigate life's setbacks, manage expectations, and maintain sustainable long-term success. 

Key Discussion Points

1. Life Updates & Transition

• Co-Location: Joel has relocated from Jacksonville, Florida, to join Dr. Wade directly at Orchard Health in Georgia as a therapist. 
• Multifaceted Roles: Beyond providing clinical counseling, Joel is involved in building out their studio space and assisting with various practice initiatives. 

2. The Stockdale Paradox & "Both/And" Thinking

• The Stockdale Paradox: Inspired by Admiral James Stockdale's experience as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, Jonathan shares how Stockdale survived by confronting the brutal reality of his situation while maintaining total faith that he would ultimately prevail—without attaching false timelines. 
• The Danger of Deferred Hope: Joel highlights how setting rigid expectations (e.g., "we'll be out by Christmas") leads to repeated disappointment, causing psychological helplessness. 
• Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT): Joel connects this concept to DBT, a therapeutic modality that helps individuals tolerate competing truths simultaneously rather than falling into black-and-white or dualistic thinking. 

3. Reframing Business and Personal Setbacks

• Diversification at Orchard Health: Rather than treating Orchard Health as just a traditional medical clinic, Jonathan expanded it into a comprehensive wellness practice offering counseling, aesthetics, IV wellness, and an in-house pharmacy. 
• Handling Business Losses: Jonathan reflects on receiving news that Orchard Health's largest employer client would not renew in 2027 following a corporate buyout. Unlike past setbacks that caused months of self-blame, embracing a resilient mindset allowed him to process the hit quickly and focus on solutions with his team. 
• Fear and Courage: The hosts note that courage is not the absence of fear, but taking action alongside fear. Entrepreneurs must accept both the possibility of difficulty and the commitment to persevere. 

4. Vocabulary Reframing & Balance

• Replacing "But" with "And": Joel emphasizes how substituting "and" for "but" preserves the validity of both sides of a statement. For example, instead of "I want to set a boundary, but I don't want to hurt her feelings," reframe to "I want to set a boundary, AND I plan to be gentle with her feelings." 
• Rest is Productive: Taking a rest day is not "being lazy"—it is an intentional investment in long-term health and personal relationships. 
• Marathon vs. Sprint: Building a sustainable business and family life requires pacing over a marathon rather than running endless short sprints to burnout. 

Key Takeaways

• Avoid "Ricky Bobby" thinking ("If you ain't first, you're last"). Life and business rarely fit into absolute binaries. 
• You can experience extreme stress or uncertainty in one area of life and still maintain health, purpose, and progress overall. 
• True long-term success means showing up on "boring Tuesdays" and balancing ambitious career goals with intentional family presence. 

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The Long Burn - Episode 23: Part 2

Guest Speaker - Corey Golding - Greenville, SC

1. The Accidental Partnership & International Context

• The Greenville Connection: Jonathan bought a short-term rental in Greenville, SC, without realizing Corey was the former owner. When Jonathan needed local landscaping, he unknowingly reached out to Corey, launching both their project and their friendship. 
• Business Environments (Australia vs. US): Having lived in Australia and South Africa before moving to the US, Corey compares the regulatory landscapes. He notes that while Australia features heavy government oversight and multi-year licensing barriers, the US offers unmatched speed, market opportunity, and scalability for energetic entrepreneurs. 

2. Faith, Pivot, and the Weight of Loss

• From Youth Ministry to Landscaping: Struggling to support a growing family on a $29,000 youth ministry salary, Corey pivoted during the 2020 pandemic. He landed an initial $8,000 mulch job that served as the launchpad for Koala Care Services, which eventually grew into a multi-million dollar residential builder. 
• Grief as a Catalyst for Courage: Corey and his wife, Morgan, experienced the devastating loss of their full-term daughter, Emmy, during childbirth. Grounded in their Christian faith, walking through that level of grief dismantled Corey's fear of failure, giving him the internal freedom and clarity to make bold, decisive business moves. 

3. Scaling Pains, Health, and Delegation

• The Cost of Rapid Growth: Scaling revenue from $300,000 to over $1M+ within two years while managing up to five development properties simultaneously came at a heavy price. Physical and emotional burnout forced Corey to rethink his lifestyle, address chronic stress, and realign his work with long-term health and family. 
• Shifting from Operator to Visionary: Corey realized that sustaining momentum meant abandoning the belief that "no one else can do it right." By hiring for character, empowering experts to lead specific operational areas, and focusing on long-term strategy, he shifted from working in a job to building an actual company. 

Notable Takeaways & Core Lessons

• Grief Resets Risk Perception: Deep personal trial can strip away the trivial fear of operational or financial risk, enabling a leader to act with greater decisiveness and conviction. 
• Unchecked Growth is Toxic: Revenue velocity without operational capacity and healthy boundaries leads directly to physical burnout and personal strain. 
• Character-First Hiring Enabler: True delegation requires releasing control to high-character individuals who possess skills the founder lacks. 

If you are in the Greenville area looking for a reputable company to help you with your property, please visit Corey's website at www.koalakareservices.com

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The Long Burn - Episode 22: Part 1

Guest Speaker - Corey Golding - Greenville, SC

1. The Accidental Partnership & International Context

• The Greenville Connection: Jonathan bought a short-term rental in Greenville, SC, without realizing Corey was the former owner. When Jonathan needed local landscaping, he unknowingly reached out to Corey, launching both their project and their friendship. 
• Business Environments (Australia vs. US): Having lived in Australia and South Africa before moving to the US, Corey compares the regulatory landscapes. He notes that while Australia features heavy government oversight and multi-year licensing barriers, the US offers unmatched speed, market opportunity, and scalability for energetic entrepreneurs. 

2. Faith, Pivot, and the Weight of Loss

• From Youth Ministry to Landscaping: Struggling to support a growing family on a $29,000 youth ministry salary, Corey pivoted during the 2020 pandemic. He landed an initial $8,000 mulch job that served as the launchpad for Koala Care Services, which eventually grew into a multi-million dollar residential builder. 
• Grief as a Catalyst for Courage: Corey and his wife, Morgan, experienced the devastating loss of their full-term daughter, Emmy, during childbirth. Grounded in their Christian faith, walking through that level of grief dismantled Corey's fear of failure, giving him the internal freedom and clarity to make bold, decisive business moves. 

3. Scaling Pains, Health, and Delegation

• The Cost of Rapid Growth: Scaling revenue from $300,000 to over $1M+ within two years while managing up to five development properties simultaneously came at a heavy price. Physical and emotional burnout forced Corey to rethink his lifestyle, address chronic stress, and realign his work with long-term health and family. 
• Shifting from Operator to Visionary: Corey realized that sustaining momentum meant abandoning the belief that "no one else can do it right." By hiring for character, empowering experts to lead specific operational areas, and focusing on long-term strategy, he shifted from working in a job to building an actual company. 

Notable Takeaways & Core Lessons

• Grief Resets Risk Perception: Deep personal trial can strip away the trivial fear of operational or financial risk, enabling a leader to act with greater decisiveness and conviction. 
• Unchecked Growth is Toxic: Revenue velocity without operational capacity and healthy boundaries leads directly to physical burnout and personal strain. 
• Character-First Hiring Enabler: True delegation requires releasing control to high-character individuals who possess skills the founder lacks. 

If you are in the Greenville area looking for a reputable company to help you with your property, please visit Corey's website at www.koalakareservices.com

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People Management: Generalists, Specialists, and Avoiding Employee Burnout

Episode Overview

In this episode of The Long Burn, co-hosts Dr. Jonathan Wade and Joel Malin examine team dynamics and people management from both employee and employer perspectives. The discussion centers on the tension between "generalist" roles and "specialist" roles, how rigid corporate structures stifle employee creativity, and how business owners can leverage high-skill strengths ("force multipliers") to drive growth and prevent workforce burnout. 

👥 Hosts

• Joel Malin: Co-host; bringing the employee, team lead, and clinician perspective. 
• Dr. Jonathan Wade: Co-host and practice owner (Orchard Health); bringing the employer and founder perspective. 

🧠 Core Themes & Key Takeaways

1. Generalists vs. Specialists in the Workplace

• The Generalist/Cog Mindset: Generalist positions establish a necessary operational foundation for any business. However, forcing innovative employees into indefinite generalist tasks creates a "cog in a wheel" dynamic that limits self-expression and leads to burnout. 
• The Specialist as a Force Multiplier: Innovative employees thrive on specialization, new challenges, and applying unique skill sets (e.g., training, marketing, or event coordination). Empowering employees to specialize amplifies their overall productivity and business impact far beyond standard job descriptions. 
• The "T-Shaped" Employee Model: Ideal team members maintain a broad operational base across essential generalist tasks (the horizontal bar) while diving deep into specific domains where they excel (the vertical bar). 

2. People Management & Culture Building

• Retention and Friction: Dragging staff through tasks they dislike or lack interest in developing builds friction, which leads to frustration, burnout, and high turnover. Employees often leave organizations when they feel they have hit a ceiling on growth or specialization. 
• Ownership over Process: Effective managers set clear goals and timeframes while granting employees the autonomy to figure out the execution process, driving buy-in and superior outcomes. 
• Hiring for Cultural Fit: Founders must prioritize hiring candidates who fit the company's core culture and values, as technical processes and electronic medical record (EMR) systems can easily be taught later. 

🛠️ Practical Frameworks & Actionable Advice

1. Perform an Energy & Strengths Audit: Categorize employee tasks into four quadrants to align roles with intrinsic motivation: 
   • High Skill / High Energy (Superpower): Focus on and expand this area. 
   • High Skill / Low Energy: Delegate or reassign these draining tasks. 
   • Low Skill / High Energy: Invest in training to develop this growth opportunity. 
   • Low Skill / Low Energy (Burnout Zone): Eliminate, automate, or reassign immediately. 
2. Form Cross-Functional Pods: Group employees based on complementary strengths identified in energy audits to create supportive work units rather than isolated generalists. 
3. Bring Solutions, Not Just Problems: Encourage a team culture where employees actively propose solutions when identifying operational flaws. 

📢 Promotional Plug

• Fire Health Launch: Dr. Wade highlights the launch of Fire Health, a direct primary care membership practice combining medical access with life coaching to help entrepreneurs maintain physical and mental health while building wealth. The practice is offering a "Founding 50" membership with lifetime locked-in pricing for early adopters at firehealth.co.

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Building Business and Legacy: A Pharmacist’s Journey to Entrepreneurship

Episode Overview

In this episode of The Long Burn, co-hosts Joel Malin and Dr. Jonathan Wade host Adam Moore, owner of Hogan's Pharmacy in Valdosta, Georgia. The group explores Adam's journey from growing up around independent pharmacy to taking over Hogan's Pharmacy, navigating industry challenges like PBMs and corporate structures, overcoming early business loss, delegating to prevent burnout, and building long-term family legacy through real estate. 

👥 Hosts & Guest

• Joel Malin: Co-host, Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) in Jacksonville, Florida. 
• Dr. Jonathan Wade: Co-host, medical doctor. 
• Adam Moore: Guest, PharmD, owner and operator of Hogan's Pharmacy in Valdosta, Georgia. 

🧠 Core Themes & Key Takeaways

1. The Path to Ownership & Leaving Corporate Healthcare

• Family History: Adam grew up in Adel, Georgia, where his father owned an independent pharmacy. After his father passed away during Adam's application to pharmacy school, his family sold the business. 
• Frustration with Corporate Models: After working in retail chains and a local hospital, Adam grew tired of corporate mandates and restructuring. This discomfort served as the catalyst to pursue business ownership. 
• Acquisition: In October 2014, Adam purchased Hogan's Pharmacy via an SBA-backed loan, with previous owner Ronald Hogan staying on as a mentor. 

2. Navigating Industry Roadblocks & Efficiency

• PBM Squeeze: Independent pharmacies regularly deal with Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) that reimburse below drug acquisition costs on popular medications like GLP-1s, forcing owners to have transparent conversations with long-term customers. 
• Turning Loss into Opportunity: Six months after taking over, Adam lost an assisted living contract accounting for 8% of his total revenue. He responded by implementing perpetual inventory tracking and MedSync. This optimization dropped inventory from $450,000 to $280,000 while growing annual revenue from $5M to $11M. 

3. Sustainable Operations & Building Legacy

• Delegation to Avoid Burnout: Adam broke his father’s pattern of working non-stop by hiring additional pharmacists. This allowed him to delegate tasks and prioritize being present for his family. 
• Workplace Culture: Adam extends flexibility to his staff, encouraging them never to miss their children's family or school events. 
• Long-Term Wealth Building: To build passive income streams beyond the pharmacy, Adam expanded into real estate, acquiring rental properties to secure financial stability for the future. 

🛠️ Practical Frameworks & Actionable Advice

1. Implement Perpetual Inventory & MedSync: Optimize cash flow by setting strict par levels for reordering and synchronizing patient medications so high-dollar inventory isn't sitting on shelves. 
2. Choose Your Headaches: Entrepreneurship comes with challenges, but choosing your own hurdles provides autonomy and agency that corporate structures lack. 
3. Delegate to Prevent Burnout: Release the belief that "if it's going to be done right, I have to do it myself" by training staff to handle key operational roles. 

🔥 Firing Line Questions Summary

• A Failure That Taught a Lesson: Losing an 8% revenue facility contract forced the pharmacy to adopt tighter inventory management, ultimately resulting in doubling revenue while cutting overhead in half. 
• Unlearning a Belief: Unlearning the need to control every task and learning to delegate responsibilities to trusted staff. 
• Definition of Success: Operating a business that runs seamlessly whether he is present or not, alongside expanding a rental real estate portfolio for long-term family security. 

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Consistency Over Intensity: Why Showing Up Matters More Than Going All-In

Episode Overview

In this episode of The Long Burn, co-hosts Dr. Jonathan Wade and Joel Malin build upon their discussion of strategic patience by diving into consistency over intensity. The hosts explore why small, steady steps over time produce far greater long-term success, character development, and personal trust than short, unsustainable bursts of extreme effort. They discuss how intensity acts as a trap that creates burnout and anxiety, whereas showing up consistently serves as the "compound interest" of business, relationships, and health. 

👥 Hosts

• Dr. Jonathan Wade: Co-host, medical doctor and founder of Orchard Health based in South Georgia. 
• Joel Malin: Co-host, Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) in Georgia and Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC) in Florida. 

🧠 Core Themes & Key Takeaways

1. The Trap of Short-Term Intensity

• The "January 1st" Phenomenon: Intensity looks impressive, is highly "Instagrammable," and feels productive initially. However, going "full bore" without conditioning leads to burnout, injury, and quitting the moment a minor holiday or roadblock occurs. 
• Procrastination & Panic: Joel highlighted that waiting until the last second to exert high intensity creates unnecessary anxiety. A panicked or pushed mind operates impulsively, whereas a rested mind operates efficiently. 
• Tool, Not an Operating Model: While short spurts of intensity can supercharge a specific goal or sprint, it fails as a long-term strategy. 

2. The Power of Small, Daily Progress

• Eating the Elephant: Dr. Wade recalled a childhood baseball coach asking how to eat an elephant—answering, "One bite at a time." Major challenges and long-term goals must be broken into manageable daily pieces. 
• Building the Bones: Joel shared how breaking down large 40-page graduate research papers into small daily research, outline, and citation tasks eliminated trepidation and rendered massive projects manageable. 
• Character & Trust: Consistency is the ultimate indicator of character. Showing up regularly builds deep trust in business, counseling, and personal relationships. 

3. Lowering the Floor to Build Habits

• Showing Up vs. Peak Performance: To overcome friction and build consistency, "lower the floor" instead of the ceiling. 
• The 10-Minute Rule: Dr. Wade cited a patient who committed to getting on a gym treadmill for just 10 minutes every day at 4:00 PM. Lowering the entry barrier made showing up simple, and once at the gym, the patient frequently chose to do more. 
• Accepting a New Normal: Incremental, steady shifts (such as gradually reducing sugar in sweet tea) allow the mind and body to acclimate to sustainable lifestyle changes without feeling deprived. 

🛠️ Practical Frameworks & Actionable Advice

1. Lower the Barrier to Entry: Commit to a small, non-intimidating version of your target habit (e.g., 10 minutes on a treadmill or reading one article) to overcome the mental hurdle of starting. 
2. Test the 50% Reduction Challenge: Try cutting the intensity of a personal or professional goal in half while maintaining daily/weekly connection to it. Evaluate if steady progress feels more balanced and productive over time. 
3. Shift Out of the "All-or-Nothing" Mindset: Treat vacations, minor weight gains, or missed hours as simple breaks or "strategic pauses," not full-scale failures that require quitting. 

🔥 Key Quotes & Insights

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Pushing vs. Pausing: Harnessing Strategic Patience in Business, Real Estate, and Life

Episode Overview
In this episode of The Long Burn, co-hosts Joel Malin and Dr. Jonathan Wade explore the concept of strategic patience—the disciplined practice of taking a deliberate pause to evaluate timing, conditions, and motives rather than making reactive, haphazard decisions. Moving away from the hustle-culture mantra of "move fast and break things," the hosts share personal anecdotes on financial negotiation, real estate acquisitions, marriage dynamics, and hiring practices to illustrate how pausing can lead to true progress rather than mere activity. 

👥 Hosts

• Joel Malin: Co-host, licensed LPC in Georgia and LMHC in Florida. 
• Dr. Jonathan Wade: Co-host, medical doctor and clinic founder based in South Georgia. 

🔄 Weekly Wins & Losses

Dr. Jonathan Wade

• Win: Closing on their fourth short-term rental property (the third in Greenville, SC). Jonathan highlighted that his wife, Candace, actively took the lead on interior design and wallpaper selection. 
• Loss: Taking their eldest child back to college for his sophomore year, bringing an emotional transition for the family. 

Joel Malin

• Win: Making significant progress on purchasing a new home, securing clean inspection reports, and getting an over-asking offer accepted on their current home. Joel shared his hope that this move brings more fun and stability back into his marriage with Christie. 
• Loss: The stress of managing a home move while feeling stretched thin across multiple ongoing obligations. 

🧠 Core Themes & Key Takeaways

1. Motion vs. Progress

• Active Waiting: Strategic patience is not passive avoidance; it is an intentional, disciplined restraint to await optimal conditions while still doing background work. 
• Avoid Motion for Motion's Sake: Joel admitted his tendency to push for constant action just to feel like something is moving. However, high activity without clear direction is like rowing with a broken paddle—it creates motion without actual forward progress. 

2. Genuine vs. Imposed Urgency

• External Deadlines: Genuine urgency is driven by hard external timelines with real consequences. 
• Manufactured Pressure: Imposed urgency is self-created emotional pressure or high-pressure sales tactics. Reacting to imposed urgency often leads to overpaying, rush decisions, or fixing problems out of emotional discomfort. 
• Joel's Rent-to-Own Story: Joel shared a throwback story from his military days in New York, where he visited a rent-to-own shop five days in a row, consistently offering $250 for a $500 couch set. His strategic, persistent waiting wore the store manager down until he secured the set for ~$273. 

3. Overcoming Decision Distortions

• Confirmation & Analysis Paralysis: Modern consumers and business owners often suffer from infinite options. Confirmation bias leads people to ignore warning signs (two-star reviews) and only focus on positive feedback to validate emotional desires. 
• Parenting & Fixing: Parents often rush in to "fix" struggles for their children to soothe their own emotional discomfort. Allowing children to struggle builds necessary coping skills and resilience. 
• Complementarity in Partnerships: Joel tends to move too fast, while Christie helps him slow down. Balancing contrasting strengths between spouses or business partners prevents both impulsive mistakes and complete inaction. 

🛠️ Actionable Frameworks for Strategic Patience

1. Build the Pause into the Process: Schedule a mandatory 24- to 48-hour deliberation window for major choices. 
2. Establish Clear "Buy-Box" Criteria: Pre-determine criteria for deals, purchases, or hires before opportunities arise so you can say "yes" or "no" objectively without emotional influence. 
3. Refine Hiring Protocols: Shift away from quick phone hires to multi-stage interview processes that prioritize cultural fit, empathy, and shared vision over basic resumes. 

🔥 Key Quotes & Insights

• Sign-off: "Focus on patience... focusing on delayed gratification."

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The Long Burn Podcast — Episode Summary

🏷️ Decoding Mindsets: Core Beliefs, Emotional Reasoning, and the "Lemon Tree" Analogy for Business & Life

Episode Overview

In this psychological deep-dive, co-host Joel Malin (mental health therapist) takes the lead to explore how our internal thoughts, core assumptions, and emotional reactions shape observable behavior. Joined by co-host Dr. Jonathan Wade, the duo unpacks Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) principles, the trap of "emotional reasoning," and how business owners, parents, and leaders can avoid destructive miscommunications by slowing down and understanding the true motivations behind actions. 

👥 Hosts

• Joel Malin: Co-host, mental health therapist based in Jacksonville, Florida. 
• Dr. Jonathan Wade: Co-host, clinic owner/provider based in Nashville, Georgia. 

🧠 Core Themes & Key Takeaways

1. The Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) Tree Model

Joel breaks down CBT as "thinking about how you think" and uses the analogy of a tree to explain how human behavior works: 

• 🪵 Roots (Core Beliefs): Deeply held assumptions about ourselves, others, and the world derived from family, faith, culture, or past experiences. 
• 🪵 Trunk (Thoughts): The immediate interpretations generated by our core beliefs when reacting to events. 
• 🌿 Branches (Emotions): The emotional reactions branching out from specific thoughts. 
• 🍎 Leaves/Fruit (Behaviors): The observable actions that the outside world sees. 

2. The "Lemon Tree" Paradox & Emotional Reasoning

• Judging Ourselves vs. Others: We judge ourselves by our intentions and motivations (our internal thoughts/roots), but we judge others strictly by their observable behavior (their fruit). 
• The Lemon Analogy: People easily describe a lemon (the fruit/action) but rarely know what a lemon leaf looks like. Similarly, we fixate on someone's outward behavior without taking the time to understand their underlying roots or reasoning. 
• Emotional Reasoning: The dangerous cognitive distortion of treating a feeling or assumption as an absolute fact. Incomplete or vague communication leads people to invent malicious intent where none existed. 

3. Leadership, Communication, and Sunk Cost Bias

• Creating Buy-In: Business owners and parents don't owe everyone an explanation for every decision, but taking time to share the "why" and align goals creates trust, alignment, and long-term commitment. 
• Maturity & Insecurity: Younger leaders often get defensive when criticized. True entrepreneurial maturity comes from knowing your value, focusing on what works, and not letting outside opinions shake your foundational "why". 
• Overcoming Sunk Cost Bias: It is okay to put a venture down, cut losses, or pivot—even after investing time or money—rather than continuing down an unfulfilling path out of sheer stubbornness. 

🔥 Key Quotes & Insights

📢 Announcement & Next Steps

• Fire Health Expansion: Jonathan previews an upcoming launch specializing in virtual direct primary care (telehealth), as well as dedicated life and business coaching tailored for listeners wanting to protect their health while building wealth. 

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🎙️ The Long Burn Podcast — Episode Summary

🏷️ From Car Audio to Covert Success: 25 Years of Pivoting, Delegation, and "Burning the Boats"

Episode Overview

In this guest episode of The Long Burn Podcast, co-hosts Dr. Jonathan Wade and Joel Malin sit down with longtime friend Brian Harrell, founder and owner of Soga Graphics (South Georgia Graphics) in Adel, Georgia. Celebrating 25 years in business, Brian reflects on his high-stakes entrepreneurial journey—from starting out in car stereos and window tinting to navigating a failed early partnership, surviving the 2008 recession, shifting entirely to commercial vinyl graphics, and learning the hard lesson of delegating tasks to stop being the "single point of failure" in his own business. 

👥 Meet the Guest

• Brian Harrell: Founder and owner of Soga Graphics. What began as a small 800-square-foot storefront in 2001 has grown under his leadership into a 13,000-square-foot operation with a 9-person team, servicing fleets, patrol vehicles, and commercial accounts across Georgia. 

🧠 Core Themes & Key Takeaways

1. Navigating Pivots & "Burning the Boats"

• The Failed Partnership: Brian’s business initially began as a joint venture with a close friend. Just three months in, realizing they worked better as friends than partners, they split, leaving Brian to buy out his partner and inherit all early business debt. 
• Following the Revenue Writing on the Wall: Brian’s passion was car audio and truck accessories. However, after buying a small 24-inch vinyl plotter for $2,500 in the early 2000s to make in-house shop graphics, demand snowballed. By 2007, that single machine was generating more revenue than the entire audio and tint side of the business. 
• Liquidating the Past: Seeing that factory vehicles were increasingly coming pre-equipped with built-in entertainment systems, Brian made the hard call in 2007–2008 to completely liquidate his audio inventory. He "burned the boats" to go full-time into vinyl graphics right at the onset of the 2008 economic recession. 

2. Moving from a "High-Paying Job" to a True Business

• The Trap of Being the Hero: For nearly a decade, Brian worked 15+ hour days (6:00 AM to 10:00 PM) as the sole skilled laborer. Around 2021, he realized that despite having multiple employees and growing revenue, he was still personally responsible for driving the vast majority of income—meaning he hadn't built a self-sustaining business, but rather a grueling high-paying job. 
• Learning to Delegate: Brian notes that his biggest operational mistake was trying to hire skilled labor to do what he already knew how to do, rather than hiring for the roles he disliked or struggled with, such as administration and sales. 
• The 95% Standard: A major bottleneck for hands-on entrepreneurs is perfectionism. Brian had to learn to step back from answering every phone call, doing every quote, or running every install, accepting that a team executing at 95% quality is necessary to scale and gain personal time back. 

3. Word-of-Mouth, Relationships, and Cultural Legacy

• The High School Lesson: Brian attributes his core business philosophy to a single piece of advice from his high school homeroom teacher, Ms. Susan Keene: To be successful, meet and stay in contact with as many people as possible. 
• Small-Town Accountability: Operating in South Georgia means relationships and reputation are everything. Over 25 years, consistent word-of-mouth networking and local trust built a far stronger pipeline than aggressive digital advertising campaigns. 
• Passing the Torch: Brian’s 19-year-old son voluntarily chose to join Soga Graphics after graduating high school. Working alongside his son has given Brian a new perspective on mentorship and the long-term value of the family business. 

🔥 The Firing Line (3 Core Questions)

1. What is a failure that cost you more than money, and what did it change about how you operate today?
   • Answer: Thinking he had to do everything on his own. The true cost was missing precious time with his young children while working 80-hour weeks. It taught him that delegation, building systems, and stepping back from being the "hero" are essential for real growth. 
2. What belief did you have to unlearn to keep growing without burning out?
   • Answer: Unlearning the belief that he was the center of the business. He shifted his mindset from making himself important to making his team important—ensuring they have great working conditions, flexibility, and a supportive culture. 
3. What does success look like in this season of your life?
   • Answer: Five years ago, success was defined by revenue numbers. Today, success is defined purely by time and freedom—having a business and a trusted team that allows him to step away and enjoy life. 

📢 Exclusive Announcement

• Paint is Dead Network Expansion: Soga Graphics has officially been invited to join the exclusive, invitation-only Paint is Dead network as only the second location in the entire state of Georgia (alongside industry pioneer Miller Decals). 

• Website: sogagraphics.com
•  
• Location: Adel, Georgia 
• Sign-off: "That's a wrap!"