Bennett Maxwell is a multifaceted entrepreneur renowned for his innovative approach to business and commitment to enhancing the entrepreneurial landscape. He is currently the driving force behind Dirty Dough Cookies, a fast-growing national cookie brand with over 80 stores open and dozens more set to launch this year.

Bennett’s career spans diverse industries, from real estate in Utah to co-founding and successfully selling Switch to Solar. In addition to his entrepreneurial ventures, he is a sought-after speaker who regularly shares insights with the media.

Bennett also hosts the Deeper Than Dough podcast, launched in 2023, where he explores finding joy and fulfillment in life through entrepreneurship and beyond.

Key Moments

[06:16] Opened San Diego franchise, learned, surrounded by experts.

[07:47] Testing product effectiveness across multiple locations.

[12:40] Money gained, but life’s stress increased.

[15:39] Prioritizing happiness over financial success and targets.

[16:36] Living best life despite financial concerns. Entrepreneurial freedom.

[22:18] Stop negative emotions by focusing on breath.

Find Bennett Online

Instagram: @bennettmaxwell35

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/bennett-maxwell-703717126/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bennett.maxwell.3/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@deeperthandough2123

Apple Podcasts: https://shorturl.at/bjozA

Spotify: https://shorturl.at/klE37

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Also, if you’re getting value from the show and want to buy me a coffee, go to the show notes to get the link to get me a coffee to keep me awake, while I work on bringing you more great episodes to your ears. →  https://gmwd.us/buy-me-a-coffee

Follow Seth Online:

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Transcript Provided By CastMagic.io

Seth Goldstein [00:00:00]:
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Intro Voice Guy [00:01:40]:
You’re listening to Entrepreneur’s Enigma, a podcast about the ups and downs of the entrepreneurial journey. Every week, your host, Seth Goldstein, interviews entrepreneurs from all walks of life about their entrepreneurial journeys. From store owners to fortune 500 CEOs, we all have stories to tell. So sit back and join us for the next 20 or so minutes while we explore the entrepreneurial world.

Seth Goldstein [00:02:15]:
Hey, everybody. Welcome to another edition of the Entrepreneur’s Enigma podcast. By now, you’re sick of me. You just wanna hear the guests. But I’m your host, Seth. And today we have Bennett Maxwell. He makes really yummy stuff. Let’s leave it at that.

Seth Goldstein [00:02:31]:
Have a nice day, everybody. Now, Bennett is a multifaceted entrepreneur renowned for his innovative approach to business and the commitment to enhancing the entrepreneurial landscape. He is currently the driving force behind dirty dough cookies. Now these are a 3 layer cookies. I mean, they look yummy, yummy, yummy. I have to go to there’s one down the street. I gotta go and pick one up. I haven’t, but I need to go.

Seth Goldstein [00:02:55]:
Full by the time this podcast comes out, I will have had one. And I’ll add it in the show notes. They’re really good. But I mean, they look oozing. Oh, oh, it looks so good. It’s a fast growing national cookie brand with over 80 stores open and it doesn’t work coming this year. And we’re getting into the year. So probably even more next year.

Seth Goldstein [00:03:15]:
Bennett is, has a career spanning the first industries from real estate in Utah to co founding and successfully selling switch to solar, which is very cool. In addition, he of his entrepreneurial journeys, he’s a sought after speaker, which we’ll get into because he doesn’t like to prepare decks. He said before the podcast. He has panels and podcasts and stuff like that, but he is sought after and he likes to share his insights with the media. I guess, I got, I guess I count as the media, I guess, I guess it works. Ben also hosts he is he’s also the media. If I’m the media, he’s the media. He also hosts the deeper than dope podcast, which was launched in 2023, where he explores finding joy and fulfillment in life through entrepreneurship and beyond.

Seth Goldstein [00:03:58]:
I love that. It’s always good to have it. So how’s it going, Ben? How are you doing, buddy?

Bennett Maxwell [00:04:01]:
Oh, I’m doing good. Seth, you have such a

Seth Goldstein [00:04:03]:
a

Bennett Maxwell [00:04:04]:
positive energetic personality. I got on here and you started making fun of me a little bit. And Oh, yeah.

Seth Goldstein [00:04:10]:
I have to. It’s fine. I’m doing great.

Bennett Maxwell [00:04:12]:
I’m doing great.

Seth Goldstein [00:04:13]:
Thank you. I love no. That’s how I am. You know? Then this is not this is not a real fast. This is not a facade. This is me. I’m just nuts. I’m certifiably nuts.

Seth Goldstein [00:04:23]:
My poor wife and my my 11 year old son is just like me. And my poor wife, oh, she deserves a medal. And you have 3 kids. Yep. God bless your wife. Yep. Or 4 if you count you. Right? So that kind of fun stuff.

Seth Goldstein [00:04:37]:
So, Bennett, how this whole thing get started? I mean, like, cookie company. I mean, cookies are everywhere.

Bennett Maxwell [00:04:43]:
Yeah.

Seth Goldstein [00:04:44]:
Like, why?

Bennett Maxwell [00:04:47]:
It it was early on when it just started blowing up as it kinda end of 2018. A lot of cookie companies out of Utah. Chip, Baked

Seth Goldstein [00:04:56]:
Why? What’s the problem with Utah? Is it is it the Great Salt Lake?

Bennett Maxwell [00:04:59]:
It’s it’s the religion, I think. It’s it’s the religion that’s

Seth Goldstein [00:05:02]:
Mormons like cookies. I know they like I know they like genealogy.

Bennett Maxwell [00:05:05]:
They like genealogy and cookies while they’re searching for their ancestors. No. I think it’s you’re limited on what you can do for gratification as far as consuming. Yeah. No no tobacco, no alcohol, no calf or no coffee, no tea. Those are the the rules that, you know, the practicing or faithful. I don’t know what you wanna call it. So it opens up the category.

Bennett Maxwell [00:05:31]:
Like, we have all the soda companies here in Utah too. Because it’s like, well, if I’m not gonna drink coffee, let me get a Doctor Pepper and throw some raspberry puree and some coconut cream. So it all started blowing up here. A buddy that I went to high school with moved to Arizona. He and he was just selling cookies out of his apartment. He wanna be the 1st gourmet cookie company in Arizona. So what do you do when you’re a college kid? You get your your crappy little oven. Yeah.

Bennett Maxwell [00:05:55]:
I mean You

Seth Goldstein [00:05:56]:
can do shit. You shit the oven. You can say it.

Bennett Maxwell [00:05:57]:
Shitty little oven, and you just sell cookies out of your apartment. Right? He posts on Facebook saying, hey. I’m selling out most nights. I want an investor to open up a storefront. So I invested. That store opened in March of 2020, COVID month. The end of that year, I was pushing to franchise it. I was running my solar company in San Diego.

Bennett Maxwell [00:06:16]:
I’m like, dude, I’ll let’s open one in San Diego. I’ll be the 1st franchisee. He wanted out. I knew nothing about cookies or franchise. I didn’t know the difference between a franchisee and a franchisor, which I guess is pretty much in the space. But I just thought, what the hell? I’m roll the dice and see if I can buy the buy the business, figure out franchising, surround myself with the the right people, and I think that’s that’s the key. It was kinda surrounding yourself with the right people. When you don’t know anything, go find people that do.

Bennett Maxwell [00:06:41]:
So I I ended up buying it from him beginning of 2021. So I’ve been in it for three and a half years now, and it’s been a wild ride. We’ve, yeah, we’ve done 80 stores in the last 2 years because it took us about a year to franchise.

Seth Goldstein [00:06:53]:
Do you have your own store, or is it all franchisees?

Bennett Maxwell [00:06:56]:
There’s 10 of them that are corporate stores. The rest are franchises.

Seth Goldstein [00:06:59]:
Oh, so you have 10 of your own that are kinda like, okay.

Bennett Maxwell [00:07:02]:
Yeah. So That’s I always wonder about

Seth Goldstein [00:07:04]:
the I know, like, McDonald’s has franchises, and they have some corporate ones. I mean, Starbucks is weird that way. Starbucks is generally not. That’s how we’re talking about

Bennett Maxwell [00:07:14]:
Starbucks is corporate. Starbucks is corporate unless they go into, like, a Target.

Seth Goldstein [00:07:19]:
Target or a Giant store. Yeah. Like, we have them here.

Bennett Maxwell [00:07:22]:
It’s a little bit of a different model. But when they stick with franchising, even if you’re a franchisor like we are

Seth Goldstein [00:07:28]:
Yeah.

Bennett Maxwell [00:07:28]:
You it’s still good to have your own corporate stores because we’re cons like, I told you about the soda. Now we we’re rolling out sodas in our stores. But how did we do that? Well, we tested our corporate stores across a few different Yeah.

Seth Goldstein [00:07:38]:
You don’t wanna mess up with someone else’s business necessarily. If it’s if it screws up, mess up your own stores

Bennett Maxwell [00:07:43]:
kind of thing. So it they surveys your test subjects. You know?

Seth Goldstein [00:07:47]:
And I know, but, like, because you’re also you’re also you’re, you know, cookie doughing. I wasn’t gonna say dog food in your own stuff, but you’re cookie doughing your own stuff. I mean, you’re trying your stuff, seeing if it works, it fails. And you also it’s not like you have one store. You have 10 stores. So you get a nice sampling of, like, okay, If it works across, like, 7 of the 10 stores, great. Most likely, it’ll work in the franchisees. Yep.

Seth Goldstein [00:08:10]:
French whatever the whatever the other stores that are not owned by you.

Bennett Maxwell [00:08:13]:
Yeah. And and it’s taken apart a little bit as well. I mean, we have Kentucky, Ohio, or Indianapolis, Colorado, and Utah is what we’ve had corporate stores in. So you have

Seth Goldstein [00:08:24]:
to kind of a different lease.

Bennett Maxwell [00:08:26]:
So market. What was that?

Seth Goldstein [00:08:28]:
You have to be in Utah. I mean, that’s what you know, is that the first store pretty much?

Bennett Maxwell [00:08:31]:
It it was in Arizona, and then the headquarters has been here in when I bought it, I moved everything to Utah. I moved back to Utah.

Seth Goldstein [00:08:38]:
This is

Bennett Maxwell [00:08:38]:
kind of where my network is. Now the headquarters has moved again to Chicago. We partnered with a it’s a management restaurant holdco, I guess, called Oh,

Seth Goldstein [00:08:47]:
that makes sense. Yeah. So Help you scale and grow it and all that stuff.

Bennett Maxwell [00:08:51]:
Yeah. I got in way over my head. We sold 400 franchises in the 1st 2 years, and it’s like, well, okay. I know how to sell, but do I know how to open all these tours? Well, no. I don’t have experience. So, Greg Majewski’s been our CEO since beginning of this year. He he’s the owner of Craveworthy Brands.

Seth Goldstein [00:09:07]:
You’re the chairman of the board.

Bennett Maxwell [00:09:09]:
Yeah. Kind of. Actually, I I’m director of franchise sales for Craveworthy brands. So I fully exited dirty dough, just last month.

Seth Goldstein [00:09:17]:
It’s a

Bennett Maxwell [00:09:17]:
Craveworthy box. Off. Thank you. They they acquired all of dirty dough, and then I’ve moved over to the franchise sales for Craigworthy has another 6 brands that are franchised.

Seth Goldstein [00:09:27]:
Another still you’re good at. You you could say I was good at schmoozing. Like, it’s like, well, let me go over here.

Bennett Maxwell [00:09:32]:
Yes. It’s staying in my lane. That’s what I like doing. That’s what I’m the best at. So I tried to do that as the business owner. I did do that. I brought it on as CEO right at the beginning. She was the founder of Maui, Huawei, Smoothies and Coffee.

Bennett Maxwell [00:09:45]:
Jill Summer Hayes, amazing. Grew her brand over 600 franchises before selling it. She was the operator. I was the salesperson. But we also outgrew her expertise. You know, we went from 5 employees to 200 employees pretty quick. So I was like, k. Greg was the CEO of Jimmy John’s during their rapid growth, which has been, like, one of the most, if not the most successful food franchises in the last

Seth Goldstein [00:10:09]:
2 years. They don’t know hoagies, though. I’ll be honest. Any franchise does not know hoagies. I’m sorry. They’re not subs. They’re not, you know, grinders. They’re hoagies.

Bennett Maxwell [00:10:20]:
Hoagies. Yeah.

Seth Goldstein [00:10:20]:
And if you’re in Philly, they’re very unique. And, like, Jersey Mike’s is out there and they’re like, oh, we do cheese steaks. I’m like, yeah. People like the cheese steaks. Like, no, you gotta go to a mom and pop place where you don’t wanna touch the floor kind of place. Like, you know, it’s like sticky floor, like, greasy, you know, that’s a cheese steak. Yeah.

Bennett Maxwell [00:10:38]:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. If it We can

Seth Goldstein [00:10:39]:
we can

Bennett Maxwell [00:10:40]:
It’s like yeah. If your feet aren’t sticking to the floor, then where you like, is it real? Yeah.

Seth Goldstein [00:10:45]:
You it has to be a questionable, department of health, passing grade.

Bennett Maxwell [00:10:50]:
I think that applies to tacos too. I mean, if if they need your tacos your tacos with gloves, get out of there. What?

Seth Goldstein [00:10:58]:
Now his sweat adds some salt to the hill. Gross. Oh, it’s not. Alright. We now got the disgusting tag on the podcast. There you go. So you also, you know, you also lost a lot of weight. So this guy started a cookie business and also lost a £150.

Seth Goldstein [00:11:17]:
So how’s that work out? I mean, I guess you don’t eat your own cookies.

Bennett Maxwell [00:11:20]:
Yeah. 100115, 15, but still a lot.

Seth Goldstein [00:11:23]:
Oh, I’m 5.

Bennett Maxwell [00:11:24]:
But it was about 3 years ago. So I I bought Doritio. I was still running my solar company. I was £310. I’m 5 foot 8. I thought I had a good marriage because we weren’t fighting. If you ask my wife, we were completely disconnected, and I was so disconnected. I don’t even know I was disconnected.

Bennett Maxwell [00:11:39]:
Oh, that’s bad. Yeah. So, anyways, I sell the solar company, and it was just head down. I mean, I did door to door for so many years, and I we’re on gross topic. So I peed in water bottles every summer for 8 years because I don’t wanna drive to the gas station because it’s like, well, I could go knock another door, probably make Oh, wow.

Seth Goldstein [00:11:59]:
We’re gonna take a quick break, hear from our sponsors, and get right back to the show.

Bennett Maxwell [00:12:03]:
$500 in the next 20 minutes. You know, just go get it or I can go to the back gas station, go pee. Nope. I’m just gonna pee in this bottle. So it was all about efficiency. Right? And I don’t think that’s the way to live life, but that’s how I’ve lived my life. All about efficiency until I reached my goal. I wanted to be a millionaire before I was 30 because millionaires don’t have problems.

Bennett Maxwell [00:12:23]:
So Quote, unquote. Yeah. So I achieved that when I sold my solar company, and I felt amazing. But what happens in the brain is your dopamine levels revert back to baseline very, very quickly. So Doesn’t that suck? Yes.

Seth Goldstein [00:12:37]:
That suck. Like, you buy something cool. You’re exhausted. Alright. I’m done with it.

Bennett Maxwell [00:12:40]:
Yep. And that’s just understanding that that’s it’s nothing wrong with your brain. It’s just how the brain works. So now it’s okay. How do I I just sacrificed the first 28 years of my life. I mean, not really. The the last 8 years of my life was 28 to sell, be efficient with my time, make more money. And what do I have to show for? Well, I have some money, but my life, like, the stress in my life has actually increased.

Bennett Maxwell [00:13:04]:
And the weight of of my body, my physique, you know

Seth Goldstein [00:13:08]:
No pun no pun intended. But, yeah, the weight and the weight. The weight

Bennett Maxwell [00:13:11]:
and the weight has increased. So what the hell do you do? Anyways, I started seeing a therapist. As soon as I realized, okay, I tell myself family and faith I mean, family and fitness, you know, are very important. But if you look at my calendar, it’s just all work.

Seth Goldstein [00:13:25]:
So Yeah. You’ve been paying for the other stuff.

Bennett Maxwell [00:13:27]:
Why do my actions not align with my beliefs? And I also got a business coach.

Seth Goldstein [00:13:33]:
So I

Bennett Maxwell [00:13:33]:
was very helpful to be like, okay. Well, I wasn’t after being a millionaire. I was after the security I thought it would give me or whatever that is. But it’s in a Did

Seth Goldstein [00:13:42]:
it did it give me the security?

Bennett Maxwell [00:13:43]:
No. I immediately said, this isn’t enough. I need 2,000,000. Yeah. Immediately, my next goal is 2,000,000. So and then I’m like, okay. I’m just gonna do this, and then it’s gonna be 4, and then it’s gonna be 10, and then it’s it’s just gonna be When

Seth Goldstein [00:13:53]:
does it stop? It stops when you Yes. Feel over that.

Bennett Maxwell [00:13:56]:
So I think it stops when you take your goal off of the material goal and realize that you don’t want anything material. You want an emotional state. Right? You wanna feel a certain way. That’s all that’s everything we ever do is just we wanna feel a certain way. So that’s all emotion based. And then you look at your goals. Are your goals have anything to do with how you wanna feel? And if they’re not, then I think you’re falling short. Right? I want a $1,000,000 just because.

Bennett Maxwell [00:14:23]:
Okay. No. I want a $1,000,000 because I wanna feel secure, because I wanna feel wanted, because I wanna feel important, whatever it is. Well, let me just make those my goals, and then I can probably achieve those without gaining a £115, without sacrificing my marriage. Right? So that’s kind of what started it. It was just a decision to be like, okay. I’m going to actually put my family and my health first. I started with a gastric sleeve surgery.

Bennett Maxwell [00:14:48]:
So they go in, they Wow. They cut your stomach and sew it 4 ounces. No carbs for 6 months. You’re on, like, 5 pounds.

Seth Goldstein [00:14:55]:
It’s harder than the surgery in my opinion. Jeez.

Bennett Maxwell [00:14:58]:
It’s, anyways. So that kind of started me off. And then it was, yeah, I own a cookie company, and I still need to taste the cookies. So you cut the cookies into 6. You take a bite. Close your eyes. Try to turn off your thoughts. Savor it as much as possible.

Bennett Maxwell [00:15:12]:
Throw it away. Right? And then you can still have the benefits and the the dopamine. Sure that it should’ve taste. The serotonin that you get. Yeah. When you eat it, but you’re not getting 500 calories. You’re getting 50.

Seth Goldstein [00:15:24]:
Oh, but you so you still eat that bite. You wouldn’t spit it wouldn’t be like a wine taste or spit the cookie out.

Bennett Maxwell [00:15:27]:
No. I I swallow it.

Seth Goldstein [00:15:28]:
Alright. That makes you feel a little bit better. You didn’t waste the whole food.

Bennett Maxwell [00:15:31]:
I digest it.

Seth Goldstein [00:15:32]:
And you’re banging your sleeves in a really mind 50 calories versus, like, if you have a whole cookie probably, like, nah.

Bennett Maxwell [00:15:39]:
Yeah. Yeah. So but, again, I I wanna focus a little bit more on just the decision to do it because I think that was the okay. I’m I’m no longer on the financial targets. Like, yeah, I have those as sub goals, but only if I think that they might help. And I honestly don’t I mean, if you ask anybody in the world, do you want the most successful business? Do you wanna be a billionaire, but you’re guaranteed to be depressed all day? Or do you wanna have nothing, but you’re guaranteed to be enthusiastic, happy, and, you know, energetic all day? Well, anybody’s gonna take that, and that’s evidence Yeah.

Seth Goldstein [00:16:14]:
For me to recycle.

Bennett Maxwell [00:16:15]:
It’s all emotions. So why are we setting goals outside of the emotion? So, anyways, kinda long hand. I love that.

Seth Goldstein [00:16:21]:
I love that. I mean, it’s so true. It it is a bit more about it’s less than the money. It’s what does money bring you? If I mean, is $1,000,000 enough for you to live on? Great. Then go now go have fun. Mhmm. That kind of thing. And I love seeing younger people.

Seth Goldstein [00:16:36]:
I mean, I’m not that old. I’m only 43, but, like, but younger people like my age, your age, that, you know, being able to live their best life and not have to worry about the money. Now I still have to worry about the money, but still I’m still living my best life. So I was kind of that kind of thing. So what is the best thing about being entrepreneur? Cause I mean, you’ve done it and you’ve you’ve done the sales. You’ve learned to stay in your lane. And but what’s the best thing? And now you’re kind of working corporate, kinda not, kind of, kinda not, kind of whatever you wanna do kind of thing. Yeah.

Seth Goldstein [00:17:04]:
What’s the best thing about being entrepreneur and working kinda in a brand as well?

Bennett Maxwell [00:17:09]:
Yeah. I mean, I had to take a flight last second trip to Houston for a franchise conference, and it was like, oh, $1,000 just for, like, a economy seat. And I don’t know if I should be sharing this, but I’m like, it’s not my money anymore. So that’s the good part of the corporate. You’re not worth

Seth Goldstein [00:17:26]:
That is good. You have your expenses. Yeah.

Bennett Maxwell [00:17:28]:
It’s an investment for them, and I’m worth their investment. You know? Damn straight. So that’s a little different. But what’s exciting about being I mean, entrepreneur, it’s just exciting. You to go create. You to go have fun. You to go pivot. Do what you want.

Bennett Maxwell [00:17:41]:
So even though I’m, like, running the franchise, I’m still set up as an independent contractor because I I like that. I don’t want the w two. I want the tax advantage, but I also want the freedom of, like, no. Just give me my metrics. Nobody’s I’m not clocking in. I’m not clocking out. I’m sure as hell not working 60 hours, let alone 40. Like, I’m just I’ll get the job done.

Seth Goldstein [00:18:00]:
Helping out. You’re still keeping busy. Your brain’s not turning the mush, that kind of thing. So That’s wild.

Bennett Maxwell [00:18:06]:
I’m I’m kinda going through it again like, oh, man. I’m super excited. So it’s just when you’re an entrepreneur, you just go do whatever. Right? There’s just not like an go do this. It’s like, go do whatever you wanna go do, whatever is fun, whatever is exciting, whatever you think is gonna work. And for me, that’s I love it.

Seth Goldstein [00:18:22]:
That’s what matters. Now on the flip side, what keeps you up at night with this with the you know? I mean, now you’re 1099.

Bennett Maxwell [00:18:27]:
Yeah.

Seth Goldstein [00:18:27]:
But before that, you’re, you know, you’re running this this huge franchise of Yummy Cookies. And before that, you’re doing solar. Like, what what what kept you up at night?

Bennett Maxwell [00:18:37]:
Up until, let’s call it, July. So December, we January of this year, we partnered with Craveworthy. They came in to fix all my messes, and they’re like, we’re not doing this. We’re not doing that. We’re not doing that. We’re not doing that. We’re not gonna pay bills. We’re not gonna sell franchises.

Bennett Maxwell [00:18:51]:
Like, that was 300,000 a month in revenue that they just turned off overnight when we were already not profitable. So for 6 months, it was like, I gotta trust this guy. He knows what he’s doing. You know? Yeah. He’s getting he’s revamping the system, revamping the training. But if he can’t make it work, the company’s going under. And if the company goes under, I go I have so many personal guarantees that I’m filing for personal bankruptcy as well. So probably the first 3 3 or 4 months of the year, it was just like, am I going bankrupt or not? It just scared me to death.

Seth Goldstein [00:19:24]:
Up down. Up down. Up down. Yeah.

Bennett Maxwell [00:19:26]:
Luckily, I am still seeing a therapist, And finally, I’m like she’s like, well, what, like, what about bankruptcy scares you? And I’m like, I don’t know. I don’t even know what it is. You know? Like

Seth Goldstein [00:19:35]:
The word bankruptcy is scary. It’s just the word. Realize that sometimes it’s actually helpful.

Bennett Maxwell [00:19:40]:
It I mean, it’s a safety net for society, for entrepreneurs like you or me or whoever to go take higher risks because you know that you’re not gonna pay a debt for the rest of your life. Right? You can file bankruptcy, and you can erase that and start over and go try again and create new jobs. So I think it’s really

Seth Goldstein [00:19:56]:
After a while, you’re gonna build your credit back.

Bennett Maxwell [00:19:58]:
Yep. Build your

Seth Goldstein [00:19:59]:
You kill your credit. But yeah.

Bennett Maxwell [00:20:01]:
I looked into it, though. Yeah. And it’s not that like, you keep your house.

Seth Goldstein [00:20:06]:
It’s not that bad. You keep

Bennett Maxwell [00:20:07]:
your retirement accounts. And I could know how to make money. Like, I don’t think I would even skip a beat, but that did paralyze me. Like, deathly paralyzed, like, can’t sleep, just, like, heaviness on my chest always until I researched it more. Like, I, for 3 or 4 months, I just let the unknown kinda paralyze me. But that’s what kept me up on night is we’ve we burnt through $200,000 more than what we spent probably every month in the last 2 years. I’ve I’ve no experience raising money. We’ve raised about 9,000,000 in the last, yeah, 2 years, just over 2 years.

Bennett Maxwell [00:20:38]:
And and if you don’t if you don’t raise money, then it’s like you’re going under. Right? So that whole stress was devastating, but I’m so glad that I went through it because now I felt like if I had to go through it again, I I think I approached it correctly, and it was not if I fix my business, my stress will go away because that’ll never happen. Your business will never be fixed. And I finally realized that. So I need to fix my relationship to these issues. Right? And and it’s

Seth Goldstein [00:21:07]:
I love it. It’s every problem.

Bennett Maxwell [00:21:09]:
Fix why you have the problems. So now I feel like I’m way more apt capable of going through the a similar experience again without having the, am I going to make it through, or am I gonna die in my sleep from all the stress?

Seth Goldstein [00:21:23]:
Yeah. Are you get are you getting the itch to do something else?

Bennett Maxwell [00:21:27]:
Oh, yeah. I I I have it. Every every day, I have at least 2 business ideas.

Seth Goldstein [00:21:34]:
Oh, yeah. I it’s it’s it’s chronic over here. I’m always up to something. My wife said, what are you doing now? She’s like, tell me when it’s starting to make money. That’s when I get here. She’s like, you know, like, I have all these ideas. There’s all these little sub brands into my company, and my wife’s like, god bless her. She’s like, that’s fine.

Seth Goldstein [00:21:49]:
Don’t lose the side of the main business. Go for it and see if it makes money. If this made money, shut it down.

Bennett Maxwell [00:21:55]:
Yeah. So she she’s keeping you keeping you in your lane. You

Seth Goldstein [00:21:58]:
Oh, I

Bennett Maxwell [00:21:59]:
love it. Amazing. Realistic people that, you know, have their feet on their head and their head in the clouds.

Seth Goldstein [00:22:06]:
Yeah. We’re in the we’re the kind of cloud kind people. So what is the most important thing to carry with you all the time?

Bennett Maxwell [00:22:12]:
What’s the most important thing to carry with me?

Seth Goldstein [00:22:14]:
Yeah. It can be metaphysical. It can be as woo as you wanna get or as physical as you wanna get.

Bennett Maxwell [00:22:18]:
Okay. Carrying with me. The biggest piece of it, advice that I followed that’s made the biggest impact has been you have any sort of negative emotion that you’re uncomfortable with, and then you think about it, and then your thoughts provoke the emotion to get stronger, and then the emotion promotes the thoughts to get stronger. And it’s just a never ending cycle. And then you try to talk yourself on how to see it differently, a paradigm shift, but it’s you’re still in your mind, and your mind is what part of the issue. So for me to carry with me is remembering any negative emotion I can stop. I usually try to close my eyes, which is a little weird in public, but who gives a damn? Close my eyes, take a few breaths, and I try to shut off all thoughts and focus on the the emotion, and then it goes away in, like, 60 seconds. You’re at, like, 5 breaths.

Seth Goldstein [00:23:04]:
Isn’t that amazing how it works?

Bennett Maxwell [00:23:05]:
It’s insane. And it’s the same debilitating like, you’re gonna go bankrupt and you’re gonna die. But it’s just, okay. If I’m gonna think about, no. You’re not gonna die. You gotta keep your house. You gotta keep retirement. That’s not as comforting as just, I’m not gonna think about it at all.

Bennett Maxwell [00:23:17]:
Shut off my mind. Focus on this until it goes away, and that’s it.

Seth Goldstein [00:23:21]:
Mhmm. And then when I want I want some panic attack. That way, I got a panic attack, and I told myself I I closed my eyes for 60 seconds. I said, not right now. I don’t have time for you right now. I’m in the I was in the car line to pick my kid up from school. I said, I can’t have you this now. If you wanna revisit me later, subconscious, you can, but not right now.

Seth Goldstein [00:23:41]:
And guess what? It listened. Yeah. And I didn’t get it later either. It didn’t come back. My my brain was sorry. You’re not having a panic attack. It just was like, alright.

Bennett Maxwell [00:23:48]:
It was probably because you already it it already went through. Like, an emotion is a physical you know, you thoughts provoke hormones and then the hormones and then like, it’s a physical thing. And once it’s there, it’ll go away hard. If you let it go away. Right? Like

Seth Goldstein [00:24:02]:
If you don’t let it if you dwell on it, it stays.

Bennett Maxwell [00:24:04]:
What caused it to show up was your thoughts. So if you keep thinking about it, it’s gonna stay there. But if you just shut off your mind and a lot of people think that’s ignoring it. I but the books I’m reading is like, no. It’s not. It’s letting it your your it’s letting you fully

Seth Goldstein [00:24:19]:
You’re acknowledging.

Bennett Maxwell [00:24:20]:
Right? It’s it’s going to. So that way, in 10 years, when you see something that reminds you of that event, it’s not gonna trigger an emotion, like, you know, like that happens to us at various times. So anyways. Exactly. Exactly.

Seth Goldstein [00:24:33]:
There you go. So, Bennett, where can people find you online? Where’s your biggest water home?

Bennett Maxwell [00:24:38]:
Yep. Bennettmaxwell.com has links to everything. So the podcast, which is all, you know, getting away from the material into the emotional goals for joint fulfillment, social medias, anything to do with franchising. It’s all there.

Seth Goldstein [00:24:51]:
It’s all there. And he’s and you’re very active, and you’re accessible, and I appreciate that. So guess what? We’ll see everyone next week. Thanks, Bennett.

Bennett Maxwell [00:24:58]:
Thanks, Seth.

Intro Voice Guy [00:25:06]:
That was a great show. If you’re enjoying Entrepreneur’s Enigma, please consider giving us a review in the podcast directory of your choice. Every review helps us reach new listeners. If you like Entrepreneur’s Enigma, consider the other shows on the Marketing Podcast Network at marketing podcast dot net.

Seth Goldstein [00:25:40]:
Goldstein Media hopes you have enjoyed this episode.