Epic Business

Justin Breen is the Founder and CEO of a public relations firm, BrEpic Communications. It was launched in 2017. They work with businesses and brands to craft click-worthy stories for local, regional and national outlets. Prior to this, he was a journalist writing for publications as The Times of Northwest Indiana. In 2021, Justin published his first book Epic Business, where he shares secrets from the world’s top entrepreneurs and how he applied this to his own company. We’re going to be talking about one of the things that he was so aggravated about when he was a journalist and how that was the impetus for him to create a completely different public relations firm and flip the script.

You’re a great entrepreneur, a high-level thinker and a fellow Illinois graduate from The College of Media Communications. I’m very excited to talk to you and I simplify everything. I love talking to people like you because it’s a perfect collaboration.

The other thing that we have in common is my passion is helping people clarify their stories. Let’s get the elevator pitch so concise and clear that it compels people to want to ask you more. Simplifying, clarifying or kissing cousins in my book is different but very much in that world of let’s do that. That leads us into the concept of sound bites, all kinds of good stuff and the importance of how to be a good guest that you are certainly the expert on. I love to hear people’s stories of origin. We gave away a little bit of it and that you’re from Illinois but that’s the tip of the iceberg there. You can go back to childhood and now that you’re a father, I’m always fascinated to see some of your own childhood memories and your own kids. Feel free to tell us your own little story of origin, how you got into journalism in the first place and that big pivot to start your PR firm.

I was born with a story. I was a journalist before I was even born. What does that mean? When I was born, my father was 61 and my mom was 27, so that’s a 34-year difference. How did that happen? My father was a World War II hero. He was shot down nine times in combat. He became an attorney in the Nuremberg Trials. He and his three brothers came from nothing in Elgin, close to Elk Grove. All of them serve actively. My father died when I was thirteen. My whole life is a wow that it happened. Everyone says, “Wow,” and I appreciate that but wow to me is only a wow if it happened.

When my father was fighting toward the end of World War II and the Battle of Hürtgen Forest, he kept a diary of his experiences fighting. I found the diary after he died. Besides my wife and children, it’s my most cherished possession. I don’t care a lot about material things. That’s meaningless to me. That diary is very important. I read it every now and then and I write exactly as he does. Inform and entertain, no fluff, no BS. His diary is one of the greatest things ever written. I’m a world-class writer but he’s a much better writer than I am. It’s the most important thing besides my wife and children because it’s this incredible connection I have to him that’s very powerful. It’s very important to me. One day I’ll get it to publish. That’s my dad.

My mom was 27. When my dad was in his late 50s, he was driving on the expressway near Chicago. A drunk driver went across the median. He hit him head-on. The drunk driver was killed instantly. My dad broke every bone in his body but he survived. My mom was his nurse. My mom nursed him back to health. Most of my day, I’m talking to people like you, the highest performing entrepreneurs, smartest minds, most successful people and I’ve never met anyone in my entire life with more hustle than my mom ever. She’s the ultimate survive and thrive with what she has overcome in her life. You combine the ultimate survive and thrive with a genius writing brain, military war hero and no excuses, you figure it out. Here I am. I’m a byproduct while it happened.

We were talking about Fran?oise Gilot being with Picasso. They’re having a huge age difference as well. That concept of those moments in life and then you’re able to give a frame of reference of how old your dad would be must impact your whole look on the legacy you’re leaving for your sons.

It’s everything. You’re a hot seat. I was looking forward to it because I do a lot of interviews but I knew talking to you was going to be more than that. You can figure things out very quickly. My sons are young. The older one started his first business when he was seven and the younger one wants to be a Navy SEAL. My father would have been so proud. He might have been the greatest dad ever. The best part of being an entrepreneur by far, there’s not even a close second is that there’s this book called Mastery. It’s my favorite book.

Robert Greene, if they were alive, interviewed all these masters. If they weren’t alive, he did anecdotal research. Almost without exception, masters came from fathers who were exceptionally high-performing entrepreneurs or owned businesses because at the time, only the men work. They learned all this and they rebelled. I’m excited to give my sons this foundation and I can’t wait for them to rebel against me. It’s going to be exciting when they do that and see what they do. You give them this foundation. It’s a shortcut to 99.9% of the world. Most of the world’s not living up here. They’re living wherever they’re living. To give them that foundation is the best part by far.

I think of it in terms of a tree that is planted in fertile soil and has the ideal mother to grow.

That’s all it is. You’re giving them roots. We’re giving them the right roots with the right soil mixture and then whatever they do with that. If they want to be an entrepreneur, I don’t care. They’re just getting that foundation. That’s the key.

There’s research that people who know about their heritage and feel connected to their family are much more successful and much happier than these people who don’t have a sense of identity from childhood. What a great gift you’re giving them and what a great gift your parents gave you to pass on.

I was a journalist for years. I interview people my whole life. I never come prepared with any question ever with the exception of two. One, I asked who your parents are or where because when you know where you came from, you can understand who you are and where you’re going. The people that understand where they came from, know who they are and where they’re going. When they think about where they came from, they think about who they are and then where they’re going. It all starts with where you came from. That’s the first question I ask and that you asked that first as well doesn’t surprise me. The only other thing I always ask is at the end of the interview, I ask, “Is there anything else you’d like to add, something that would be good for this story or I’m missing.” Many times, they’re saving something. They’re saving the nugget, they weren’t asked in the way that they could present it. Many times that’s the lead of the story, that last question.

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