What this episode is about:

The moment I realized growth wasn’t just about bigger projects…

It was about building a real team, real infrastructure, and learning how to lead people who aren’t owners.

When we first started, it was simple.

It was family.

It was me.

My brother Branden.

Eventually my brother Joe.

And when it’s family, the mindset is different.

You’re not clocking in.

You’re not doing a job.

You’re building something you own.

You care deeply because the business is your name, your future, your identity. If it wins, you win. If it fails, it’s personal.

That early season of JPG was pure hustle.

We were scrappy.

We were hungry.

We were figuring it out as we went.

But then the business started growing.

And growth forces a new question:

How do you build something real…

when it can’t just be family anymore?

The Hard Truth About Hiring

One of the biggest shifts for me was learning this:

Employees will never care as much as owners.

And they shouldn’t.

That doesn’t make them bad people.

It makes them employees.

At first, that was hard for me to accept.

I used to think:

Why don’t they treat this like it’s theirs?

But that expectation is unfair.

They have their own lives.

They’re not lying awake at night thinking about payroll, vendor timelines, client relationships, or whether the next big job is going to hit.

That’s on you as the owner.

The lesson was simple:

Hire people who take pride in their craft…

not people you expect to carry the business like an owner.

That shift alone made me a better leader.

Structure Isn’t Optional

When you’re just brothers grinding, structure feels unnecessary.

But when you start hiring outside the family, structure becomes everything.

You need:

Roles

Accountability

Systems

Benefits

Real infrastructure

We had to learn how to build a legitimate operation.

We started offering things like health insurance.

401(k)s.

Employee policies.

Real company processes.

Because at a certain point, you’re not just running a hustle.

You’re running a workplace.

And leadership is responsibility.

Not Every Hire Works

Another truth:

Not every hire is going to be the right one.

Some people are amazing.

Some people don’t fit.

And one hard lesson I learned is that avoiding hard decisions doesn’t make you kind…

…it makes you delayed.

There were moments where we held on too long.

Moments where accountability wasn’t clear.

And yes — we even went through a legal headache during COVID from someone outside the family.

That wasn’t fun.

But it was part of graduating into real leadership.

You learn fast:

You can love people…

and still protect the mission.

Sometimes the most respectful thing you can do is clarity.

Quick to hire.

Quick to fire.

Always fair.

Always direct.

The Moment It Clicked ⚡

And then there are moments in business where you look around and realize…

This is no longer small.

This is real.

For me, that moment came in 2014.

The Park Lane project at Ala Moana.

We wrapped an entire luxury condo barricade.

A quarter-mile long. (Piikoi & Ala Moana Blvd.)

We had street closures.

Police coordination.

Massive scale.

High-end expectations.

This wasn’t printing shirts in Hawaii Kai anymore.

This was big-league execution in the center of Honolulu.

I remember thinking:

Whoa… we’re doing this.

We weren’t pretending.

We weren’t playing business.

We were delivering at the highest level.

Forming JPG Hawaii 🐸

Around that time, I remember something funny in hindsight.

We registered the name JPG Hawaii Inc…

because we needed to cash a check.

That’s literally how real it was back then.

It wasn’t some grand corporate strategy.

It was:

We were still operating under our first company name. That was a clothing brand, IDEL LLC. dba JPG Studios.

But the client cut us a six-figure check to JPG Hawaii. (oops 😬)

I was a little embarrassed and didn't want to ask them to cut a new check…

We needed to deposit the payment.

So we became a corporation.

And just like that…

the operation became official.

That’s entrepreneurship.

Sometimes legitimacy comes after the leap.

The Shift From Hustler to Leader

What I realized is that scaling a business isn’t just about revenue.

It’s not just about bigger projects.

It’s about becoming a different person.

You go from:

Doing everything yourself

to

Leading people who do the work

You go from:

Family hustle

to

Real organization

And the hardest part…

is accepting that leadership is lonely sometimes.

Because no one else feels the weight the way you do.

That’s the job.

The Takeaway

Here’s what Episode 8 is really about:

Growth isn’t just external.

It’s internal.

Your business will only scale as far as you scale.

And the shift from “family hustle” to “legit operation” requires:

Systems

Standards

Accountability

Infrastructure

Leadership

Not everyone will care like an owner.

That’s okay.

Your job is to build something worth caring about…

…and lead with clarity and respect.

If you’ve read this far, you might enjoy my music too.

Check it out at ctzns.co

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