Just a few years ago, I was a journalist making about US$80,000 year while working long, weird hours and trying to see my family as much as possible.

After my job salary was cut on February 10, 2017, I had to quickly figure out a solution for success. Despite having zero business background, I started my first company on April 16, 2017. It’s been seven years, and I now run two global companies that partner exclusively with the world’s top visionaries, or those willing to do whatever it takes to become one.

Our partners are all visionaries. Most run extremely successful businesses in the high-six-figure to ten-figure range that are extensions of their purpose.

Here are four patterns I’ve noticed that visionaries exhibit:

1. Master Your Mindset

In 47 years of living and seven as an entrepreneur, I’ve learned the greatest lesson of life is recognizing patterns, and then — more importantly — developing your own. My two favorite patterns are:

• The right mindset attracts the right network, and creates the right opportunities.
• Keep making bigger investments into smaller rooms, where the people in those rooms are making bigger impacts. That allows me to make the biggest investment in the smallest room – my family – where I can make the most impact.

Let’s unpack those patterns a bit. For the first pattern, it’s important to realize that mindset creates 100 percent of a network or company’s success. Not 90, not 50, not 99, but 100 percent. We partner only with those who have three attributes in their mindset:

• They are a “visionary.” That means they see things before others do. They must also have both a genius brain (high IQ) and genius heart (high EQ).
• They live in full abundance. No scarcity, no excuses, not ever. At the highest level, there are no excuses, only action.
• They look at opportunities only as “investments” and never, ever as “costs.” Anyone who lives in the mindset of “what do you cost/what do you charge” cannot be a true visionary because they are their own limiters due to their cost/charge/scarcity/excuse mentality.

I have found, as mindset evolves, so does one’s network, which leads to ever-increasing, awesome opportunities. The two highest-level mindset visionaries I’ve met in person are Sir Richard Branson – my wife, Sarah, and I were fortunate to be invited to Branson’s home on Necker Island for several days – and Deepak Chopra, whom I briefly met when I was asked to help ring the closing bell at Nasdaq earlier this year.

The second pattern is all about making the biggest and best investments to place yourself in the room with the right visionaries. Groups like Entrepreneurs’ Organization, YPO, Strategic Coach and Abundance 360 is where I find numerous great visionaries. I created my own room, BrEpic Network, which is collaborative with all others — because at the highest level, there is no competition, only collaboration.

2. Name your years

In 2019, a great friend, Joe Martin, shared his wonderful ritual of naming his years. He designates each year with a specific theme title, helping him become ultra-focused on that year’s theme.

I started the same practice in 2020, and it was beyond impactful, manifesting big results:

• My 2020 theme was Global Growth. I joined groups like EO and started to attract partners and clients around the world.
• 2021 was No Limits. When you have no limits, there are no limits. And there are also no excuses.
• 2022 was Epic Life, which became the name of my most recent book, which included a foreword from pure visionary, Dr. Peter Diamandis.
• 2023 was Net Works. I focused on building my moonshot company, BrEpic Network, which scaled quickly and also led to my wife phasing out of her role as a pediatrician to become my COO.
• 2024 is Century Club. I’m growing BrEpic Network to 100 members, but also I plan to live until 2100, so BrEpic Network will be my “club” for the rest of my living life in this “century.”

3. Give to give to the people who get it

Life and business are a journey. I’ve seen that journey through four steps or stages:

• Get to get. In my first company, I reached out to 5,000 people to find my first five clients. It’s totally fine when you start to begin there.
• Get to give. In this stage, you’re mostly taking but starting to give a little. Think, providing two introductions to get eight.
• Give to get. You’re giving more but still trying to get a little. This is where I’ve noticed that most of the world stops. They’re still trying to “get” a little in return.
• Give to give to the people who get it. This is the true visionary level. Endlessly giving to those who understand, regardless whether I get anything back. The visionary wants to give back to those who get it because they’re not competing with them; they are growing together for the world’s gain.

4. Ask two critical questions every day

I lead a very simple life and ask myself only two questions that matter every day:

1. Did I have a good experience that day with my family?
2. Did my network grow on a global level?

I’ve never met anyone with a good family life who hasn’t also had a good overall life, visionary or not. If you know someone who has a wonderful family and hasn’t had a great life, I’d like to meet them (no kidding).

I’ve learned that building the right network continually leads to even better and better opportunities, like going to Necker Island or ringing the Nasdaq bell. More importantly, focusing on network creates an ever-expanding growth mindset, and the “business owner” stuff takes care of itself with others in place who like to focus on those aspects.

Contributed to EO by Justin Breen, a former EO Chicago member and recent guest on the EO Wonder podcast. Breen is the founder and CEO of BrEpic, a public relations company that leverages a brand’s unique story to grow, and BrEpic Network, an SAAS platform and mastermind for visionaries who are serving humanity. His latest book, Epic Life, which made the Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestseller lists. We asked Justin how he builds collaborative global companies, while putting his family – wife, Sarah, and young sons, Jake and Chase – first.

For more insights and inspiration from today’s leading entrepreneurs, check out EO on Inc. and more articles from the EO blog.