How to Have a Competitors Mindset in Leadership

I'm excited to be here. We're flipping the script from when you were on our show, and everybody loved all the wisdom you share in your experience. So this is cool. Flip seats. Yeah,
I'm excited to talk with you today. Because you have just so much so much well, then your your content, your community, they're amazing. And whenever I show up in a community is supportive like that. I know that like I am talking and I get to interview like an amazing leader, like an amazing person who people look up to because you help so many people. So give us a little bit of your backstory.
Yeah. So I started with a sports one. And I love what you you kind of teed that up is I was the younger brother. My brother was five years older than me. So imagine being born into I was traveling his soccer games like no choice. So I'm showing up. He's playing sports, which is awesome. And soccer was my first love and still is my favorite sport. But it started from there is my dad helped coach to play in a church league. For those that keep up with soccer. If you know, Pele, you probably also know karl rove Jr, who was one of my first coaches. You don't know them go Google them. He was one of the first American footballers that actually made it to a high level paid with pay lay. So I'm out there, two years old, three years old, four years old, five years old. All of that chasing my brother and his older friends around, which actually later became what I continued to do to get better was trained with older, better player stronger and faster than me. But I think that's where I learned a lot is my mom and dad are both very active, my dad volunteered and coach. And so I did everything from soccer to basketball, and all these sports football a little bit ingrained in mindset that I take today. My dad, for those of you that you hear me talk a lot about mindset is he's a Christian psychologist. And so I grew up with very fortunate my dad taught me visualization techniques taught me mindset taught me how to overcome failure to get back in the game, like dealing with injury setbacks. I learned from an early age, and I never like perfected it. I still haven't. But what I say is I had a little bit of a head start in that I had somebody in my corner in my house. It was my dad that I could bounce ideas and things off of and then my mom was like, literally the hardest worker I've ever met. And so I learned some of that grit and determination from my mom. You don't see it today. But she worked for the city of Memphis for almost 30 years until she retired. So one job worked her way through. At the time, females really were not accepted as a leadership supervisor role. She broke that ceiling. And so I've always looked at as like, had to kill her parents that taught me a ton and made me who I am. And my older brother, you know, I got to chase around and I brag on him. Now he serves as a second command for a police force over in Germantown, Tennessee. So just super, super blessed family has a lot to do with where I'm at today.
It's so awesome. So I was born in Memphis, my dad worked with the CSS railroad, and was there when Elvis was still alive and did some stuff over there. And then my mom loves to tell everybody you were born in the hospital that Elvis Presley died in and then they blew it up. A few years ago to like build something else, but I mean, we moved to Nashville when I was, you know, kindergarten age, but I still have a lot of like Memphis ties, like my parents still became friends with, like their neighbors like things that some people don't do today. And yeah, they still keep ties with those people. And then when Facebook came out, they're like, we can connect with like all of our Memphis friends and the families. And, you know, I love that culture, because I grew up very, in a very similar environment as well. And I was the oldest though and then my sister and brother were like, hauled to all of these gymnastics meets and cheerleading heats and all these things, and my brother got into it. And and my sisters, like, I just want to play with my dolls. And I'll just be a good supporter here. Because it's not that we had to do it, you know, like, it's not like they pushed us into it. But we just naturally took to something. And then you perfect it and you focus, you know, you can get better and better and better at it. And, and it was fun. But what a gift like did you know growing up that everything that your dad was teaching you from a psychological angle, how useful and powerful that would be as an adult, like, did you realize when did you realize that?
I think I'm still realizing it, it will pop up you there's those moments we all have. And it's that moment of clarity, where you're like, wow, I'm reflecting back on this experience in my life. And I just believe God puts you in those situations to learn lessons to then you've got those to share, and to improve upon. So I remember back in high school, I'll never forget, my dad would come in our high school team was like one of the top in the country like one state three years at afford in Tennessee. And just amazing. I think four or five of us went on to play professionally, which is like, not normal. And I remember him speaking to the team, and then he'd even speak a little bit in college, he go around the city and speak. And I can think back to that now. But the moment like he's still just dad, right? Like, I'm just, I'm doing it partly because he's dad, partly because, like, what he's saying works. And I'm seeing it all play out. But I'm finding it more and more now. And one of my opportunities, I got to go play with the Olympic team and all this national team stuff. And I remember getting there. And I tell people this all the time, you get to a point where talent can only get you so far, whether it's business or sports. And the separator is absolutely mindset, right? Like even when I was playing professionally and even college, I saw this, the mindset of a true Pro is different than those that just compete. And it's different than those that don't even get in the game, right? Like, we don't even talk about average or below average. But I would say that something today, I'm still learning that mindset, right? Whether the market shifts or someone a deal goes south, you have something an investment you think's gonna work out one way, and it doesn't work out that way. You know, we all have those business dealings that don't work out. And I've just learned, we keep going, right? Like we show up and keep going. so thankful for that. But that's that's probably when I think back to memories where they were and then just interwoven throughout my life.
It's just It's so important. And it keeps coming up more and more. So last week, I was going through a two day workshop called Harbinger. Are you familiar with it at all? No. And I had never heard of it was like, and I'm like a psychology geek. You know, I mean, that's what I went to school for. I've done every psychology methodology. My whole team does it. Like I love this stuff. Not that it is a psychology methodology. But it teaches like inward outward mindset. And it's something that I really realized. So I'm in a room of 200 people, this is like our first in person event. And like, you know, since the whole pandemic thing, and we're all socially distanced, and all of that, but it was a lot of, if you handle a situation like this, stand up and go to this corner, and they like put us in four boxes, of trying to show us as we acted out our mindset and how we acted in various situations, and how to shift your inward mindset to your outward mindset. And then it changes everything. So what was so incredibly interesting to me, and this is a room of full of business owners, entrepreneurs, everyone into business in there. And there was one question that said, if you're, how many of you have teenagers, and I'm like, Well, I don't have real kids, but I have nieces and nephews that are very involved with and one of them's 18 and I homeschooled her and she lived with me for almost two years. So adding birth her but I kind of feel like I've around her a lot. And so he's like, well, you can still participate if you know you don't have teenagers. And he's like your child made a bad decision and they call you from jail. You need to go bail them out. And the entire community is there. And they know it's you going into jail to get your kid, how do you react? And you know, they put us in the boxes, four of us go to like, a specific box. And then everybody else like goes to these other boxes. And then, you know, the facilitator who was phenomenal comes over and ask us, and like, why and how we deal with it. And I was so shocked, because I was thinking this, but this is not how I would would act. Like most people said, you know, they would worry about what is the community thinking of me, I'm a failure, they're gonna judge that I'm a bad leader, I'm a bad parent, this is gonna affect my business reputation, you know, all about me, me, me, me, me. Again, not that it's like, as a parent, like, I've worked so hard to give you a good life, and I've worked so hard for my business to provide for you, and how could you do this? And how could you make this bad decision? And you know, what the facilitator was saying, and, and people were laughing at me, because they're like, well, it's not really your kid. So I'm like, Why don't give a show people think about me like, it is what it is no, family's perfect. Everybody has their stuff. people deal with things differently. And it's all in how you react to things. And I've learned that over the years in business, that if you just sit down and talk to the person, and your child needs you at that time, it's not about the community, it's not about the people, and what you think I don't care what people think, I know, we do a great job for our clients, but something's going on with the child. And it's about the child. It's not about you. And so he's like, most people don't see it like that. I'm like, why did he go to school to be a psychologist, he's like, that's why when you when you're surrounded by psychology, and you learn these things, but as business owners and leaders, unless you have someone, like you said in my corner or in your space, we are never taught these things, we don't know how to communicate, we're not being taught how to think correctly, like for the person that's in front of us, who actually is usually a cry for help, like they're going through something. So it was just fascinating to watch how many leaders internalize things and like, we make up a bunch of head trash, like in our head. And so having the psychology, it's just, I kind of I'm like, it should be a prerequisite for like, anyone who's gonna go into like leadership in business. I don't know why they don't make it like that. But anyway, it was just a great experience.
Well, I laugh with people that like, you know, colleges, and there's a lot of people out there, right, that will say, hey, college is not worth the investment not worth this and that. And I would kind of give a different version of that and say, maybe it's not for you to go to the four years and get this degree and that's going to actually like catapult your success. But there are life skills and things that you learn in there, you know, for me, like marketing and finance, but taking psychology courses as well, because obviously my Dad, look, you got to learn some of these things. And to your point, these are not learned like the young entrepreneurs I worry about because that emotional intelligence is not taught in high school. It's not taught in homeschooled most often like that. There's exceptions. But where are you going to learn that and I found for me, at least college was a space to learn, I'm playing obviously, at a high level, we got school, we got to balance all this stuff doesn't always work out, people are partying all the time you get into trouble, like life happens. And if you don't learn it, then you don't want to be learning that in your 30s, I can assure you that my friends that got in trouble in their 30s, because they didn't get in trouble sooner in life, it's a whole lot worse get in trouble then than before. So you almost I think you want to accelerate some of that. And I can relate to that story. Without going in too much of it. It my parents actually had to pick me up from getting into a little bit of trouble. And you know, you look back on that stuff. And the way they handled it was the way you would have handled it. It wasn't a reflection on them. And, you know, it was my choices. And it was my decisions and things I did wasn't them. And they handled it so well that it made me want to become a better person. And like was a pivotal moment, a breakthrough for me personally. So had they gone the other way and ridiculed me and you know, done all this stuff. And it made me feel even worse than I already felt because I already knew what I did was wrong and stupid. Imagine I could have gone down a different path. So for all the people listening out there like just know, like, I was not a perfect kid. But the way they handled it set me on a trajectory that I was like, I need to do better. They deserve better. So that's that's my two cents in that little psychology analysis.
And it's like it's so hard sometimes to remove the emotion from everything. But working in a mental hospital. That's one thing that I learned I had to learn don't take it personal Angel. It's not about you, you cannot fix these people. And I was so young at the time, and I didn't really understand. But like, as you're saying, I'm glad that I experienced those things at a very young age, so I could learn except it. And I mean, I felt like a failure. And then I'm like, I can't work in this field. I mean, it's so difficult to show up happy every day, and think you're gonna help someone who's sick. And you, you really can't. So you know, depending on what's, what's going on. So I'm glad that like, you know, these things like you say these bad things. I'm like, it was an opportunity to learn what I didn't want to do. And like, let's take those opportunities and learn from them. Which is something that I mean, you have done this, like, one thing when when I was reading, before I was on your podcast, like, we have a mutual friend, I was on his podcast, he's like, you've got to eat broccoli. He's amazing Mola. It's so and that's how we connected and you know, some reading in just all all about, like, how you have the mindset, and how you empower the the failures, which again, like, I don't like to say, Oh, we failed, we're quitters. It's like you get back up, you learn from it, and you move forward. And like having that mindset. And I do think a lot of that mindset comes from the psychology and your dad being there to like, teach you how to do that. So do you feel like that's one of your things that you mainly really, people resonate with you? And they're like, I learned so much RAM, because like, he teaches me and talks about this psychology in this mindset. Because no one teaches that. Do you? Do you think that people really look to you for that?
I think it is, if if you know yourself well, and I've spent that journey. And I know my superpowers like where I'm gifted. And I know also I'm very clear on where I'm not gifted, right. So let me just be clear, like, I know both. And there's a lot more that I'm not gifted in. But what I've learned about myself that came from sports, and my dad and my upbringing, also in business, is I have this dichotomy of persistence and patience, in it emulated in how I behave with other people. Because I have patience, I want to see the best in them. I'm willing to stick things out. I'm extremely loyal, that's from sports, of just learning from an early age, like you're all in, if we're gonna do it, we're all in, and so on patient there for things to happen and recognize, and it's a journey, but also have this persistence that you'll see if you're, there's an intensity that people that are around me enough, they pick up on it very quickly. I'm highly competitive, highly driven. I like to move fast. I like to get things done. I like people around me that like to get things done, and don't talk about things, they do things. And so I've recognized for me, that's like, that's my wheelhouse. And that will exude out with positivity, encouragement, motivation. But I make sure and people that see my posts and things like hey, you post about this, you post about that. I'm like, it's as much for you as it is. For me. There's accountability, I believe that I've turned social media, for example, into an accountability of I've got some my friends. And like, for example, I bought the whoop, before my surgery on my bicep. And I did it because I wanted to track things. I wanted something that I could compete in, because I couldn't do what I was doing before surgery. But I've recognized how I'm wired. And so that for me, exudes in leadership, and I recognize certain people will thrive under my leadership and team and with us, in certain people, I will absolutely piss off, I will run them away, they will get eaten up, they will not function well on our team. And I'm okay with that. I'm not for everybody. But the people that do get on our team, they will win at a high level and higher than they ever have. So I like to be surrounded by other people that think that way. And that's just kind of how I was ingrained. So that's, that's a little bit inside the mindset of Brian that I'm still learning and trying to cultivate into becoming a better version of myself. That's constant pursuit.
And it's so important to be that for some people and but to realize we're not for everybody, one of my best friends called me last night he never calls me like he usually text or like Marco Polo, and I'm like, something's wrong. But I was on a zoom. And so I texted him like, Hey, I'm on a zoom. You know, call you back. Are you okay? He's like, I'm okay. I just talked to you. And so he had heard a new salesperson, you know, he's grown his team. And he has multiple businesses. And so he thought, you know, a few months ago this girl was just a rock star was amazing. It was they had all these big plans do so excited. And so she quit yesterday. And he's like, I call you because you talk since back into me, where he's like I'm so mad at, but he was mad at himself. He's like, I made the wrong hire like she moved here for this, we had all these great plans, and we had a 90 day goal thing, and bla bla bla bla, and I'm like, stop, it wasn't a good fit. And if it wasn't a good fit, then she could have ended up holding you back from some of those things. And I'm like, how was she with all the other team members? And he's like, Why don't really know, he really didn't interact with with all of them like that. And I'm like, why don't you go back and ask them? Because clearly, if it wasn't a good fit from a cultural perspective, and she wasn't really fitting in with the team, it's better for her to go now than say, for two or three years? And Aren't you glad that it was within that 90 day period, like quit being so hard on yourself? And there could be something going on with her personally, that you don't know. But you're not going to ask because you don't know her that? Well, I'm assuming you know. And so I'm like, put being so hard on yourself, like you, I'm like, think of all the different people in 20 years, that that have worked with you. It always gets better, you always get stronger, it always gets better. So it's not like a bad thing. But we internalize things. And he's like, I knew that you would just talk soon. He's like, do you have any good resumes of salespeople? And so like, let me you know, go back through and look, but you have a sales team. And I mean, you have one of the largest mortgage companies around, not just in me, we're in Nashville, but in the world, like, how you have to know something about building those teams to have that type of company. How did you get into, like the home mortgage world? And then the second question is like, how do you qualify, those team members like to be on your sales team to help you get to where you want to go?
I love that. So I'll unpack some of it. Because it's a huge topic that I will say this is my 20th year. So I've learned a lot, I've done it wrong enough and made enough mistakes, calling your friend that he called and said, Hey, I hired this person, I've hired enough of the wrong people to realize who I don't work well with and who I'm not good for, as well. And so when you've done it wrong enough, you realize this is who I want. And I got very clear. A few years ago, I had actually one of the leaders I looked up to at a previous company and kind of just went really weird and kind of betrayed me on some stuff, some weird just interactions, that actually was a catalyst for growth, because they didn't think I was a fit for their organization or their team or the certain the other because I am pretty driven. I am one of those people like I like to continue to kind of push and push. And I realize, well, maybe I'm not a fit for them. And they're not a fit for me. And that's okay, so that experience was painful, but was a catalyst for where it made me make a move to where I fit, like very entrepreneurial spirit, were very innovative, all this stuff. So when I got here, this is probably the best team that in my career I've been able to build, because I had clarity on who I wanted, why I wanted them what I wanted to build, the timeframes I wanted to build it in. I took all those experiences that we all have, whether it's sports, or working organizations, volunteering, maybe it's at your church, maybe it's relationships in your life, like we all have experiences, the difference I found is I have learned how to apply those experiences and not negate them. I think there's there's two options, right? Like, some of us look back on that. And we overanalyze it, we overanalyze it, there is an outcome. The outcome I wanted was when I hire Person A who fits and I've identified, these are the characteristics and all the things I want, we when they stick around, we work well together, I enjoy getting their phone calls. The other option is when you look down at your phone, and you don't want to answer their call their high maintenance, they get there, and they end up being someone that maybe they didn't portray themselves to be or you didn't see that in them. That's all me. So I took ownership of I'm the person that gets to say, who joins the team or, yeah, why allow them to join the team that is 100% my fault. If I allow someone to join, that's not a fit, because it wasn't right for them. And it wasn't right for me. And I go back to the book, Extreme Ownership, you've probably read it right? Once I took responsibility for that, and then other things started to make sense. And so we started going down the whole decentralized command. And I envisioned a team that I could bring leaders along the journey that would bring other leaders that would bring other leaders so be generation right so we wouldn't just be a manager or leader of one person. And I wanted to find people that were as hungry as I was had goals and aspirations and dreams, which meant the scary part is, I had to build and have a big enough dream that was big enough to incorporate everybody else's. Because look, I got five people over here. And let's just say they want to build a billion dollar a year organization like in mortgage volume every year, which is pretty big. That means I've got to build, and I've got to have a dream. And I also have to get the skills required to support them today at 200 million to 2 billion. And so what I believe happens as a leader is you grow together. And so we're on this journey, and I'm very open and honest about that I don't have it all figured out. But what I do have is a constant pursuit and desire to be my best. And I'm going to put myself in situations both investing in myself investing in you investing our team, and we're going to grow this thing together, I'm looking for people that want to grow, and they want to reach their potential faster than they could on their own. If you're a great team member, you love to compete all that, you're probably going to love it here. That really clear. And I'll tell you since then we started with one manager, and a sales manager. So two, and we're now at 16. A little over three years later, we went from a little over 250 million a year in annual production, we'll do about three and a half billion this year. And I already wrote out my goal. And my plan I shared with the team is the road to 10 billion, which for us is like top 10. That's not even the whole company that I'm at. But our little group will be almost as big as a top 10 company. You don't dream that big, which is incredible. Yeah, you should be scared to say it. The first time I shared it, I was like, laugh at me. absolutely nuts. And I shared it with our CEO. And he's like, That's incredible. I was like, so yeah, I'm scared to death.
But when you have the team, and you're if you're listening, you have you can't do these things alone. And it's not just about having people work on your team, or having a bunch of employees. Or I mean, I did it all wrong in the first few years too hard. My friends, my family. And I mean, we were I was part of failing businesses. And it's not that my family would never let me down. In fact, like my brother and I still work together today in various capacities, but it's just different. And so but when you have team members that have different backgrounds, and different experiences, and they bring that to the table, I could always tell like, over the years, you know, people come and go, that when I would come back from a conference, and I had half the people that were like, Oh, god, what is she going to change now? Like, terrified, and like they were already pissed off, that they could see on my calendar that I was going to go somewhere? And then I had other people in the team that were like, what did you learn? What are we going to track? What are we gonna do? Like, you know, they're excited, those are the people that are going to help you get there. And you got to go through a lot of different people sometimes that I mean, it's even like a marriage, like, you can't you either grow together, or you grow apart. And it's it's kind of the same way in business. And I've even seen in business partners, like you grow together, you grow apart. And so finding those people, it's hard, it is hard to find good people that are the right people, because there's been people that work with us that it's not that they're bad people. They're just they don't want to serve people in the way we want to serve them. And that's okay. And it's sometimes it's a personality thing, where it's like, I want to work alone. And all these people and all this hype and all this excitement and your energy is just too much. Yeah. And that's okay. Like you said, That's okay. But it takes a little bit of time. And y'all notice, you said you've been doing this for 20 years, two decades. It's not like you rolled out of bed and said in the first year, we're gonna make it to $10 billion. Like, that takes experience and courage. And you can say it in your head all day long. But then to go out and say it to people, which when you say it out loud, that means accountability, which said, it's like, oh shit, we got to do this. Because sometimes some of us would feel like a failure if we don't do it and we set it. So are there certain tactics or things that you do to empower your team members or to set them up for success and accountability. So each of you meet your goals. So You don't have this weight on one person's shoulders, Brian shoulders of I am going to do this. It's not I it's we try? And do they each have very specific goals and initiatives and tactics that you all have collaborated. So it's a team effort, like how do you approach that?
100%. So one area, I would add a tactic of this is one of my coaches helped me with this attractive leadership model of we have learned how I using social by having conversations by listening to language. And I could get deeper on it. But it's one of those where we're very intentional about this attractive leadership model that you actually see our team, if you look at our posts, you'll see some congruency and you'll get a feel for the culture, which is intentional, because we want to repel some, and we want to attract some. And so what I found from there is when people join our team, they pretty much know what they're signing up for. Because most of them, Look, we go on social media, we do our reviews, we look at things, if you go follow any of our posts, especially my posts, you're gonna see I'm pretty high energy, I'm pretty intense. I like to share positive messages, I don't deal with the drama. And so you'll see that. And so if you're joining, you kind of know what you're signing up for. You also see that we recognize and praise, not just the scoreboard results, but we recognize team members for their contributions to the greater team. And so you'll see a lot of recognition, but a lot of performance based. We're not here to give out participation trophies, we said that from day one that everyone's going to join, everybody's got a role. And so our accountability, I'll tell you what we've done differently. I've learned to empower the team through collaboration. And this is something I did not do well earlier in my career that I'm learning and still kind of navigating. But what's working for us, like with 16, different leaders, they all have different hot buttons, they have different goals, they have different motivations. All these things vary. But what you learn is in every organization, if you've got a few that are going to lead the pack for you in a way that they're going to bring the rest of the group along with you that you can't do is the leader. And so I intentionally would pick a leader and invest in them for like 90 days is like a primary focus, maybe even six months, I'm still working with the rest of the team still investing in them. But I want to get so laser focused with them that I know how they think I know how they'll behave, I know how they'll interact. I know how they'll run the organization. If something were to happen to me and I hit the lottery where I would pass away, like I know what they would do, I wouldn't have to be there. Because a sign of a great leader isn't so much what you're doing right now. It's if you were removed from that, for a week, a month, a year, would the organization flow smoothly? Because in the past right, leader had to do it all? Yeah. Yeah, that that doesn't work. Doesn't work. So what I got very clear on was, what am I good at? What are my strengths? If you don't know, ask your team? Because guess what? Are you being vulnerable and asking them, hey, what's the value I bring to our team and our organization, they will tell you, and then when I got very clear on was, as you know, your team, I know what each of them bring. And guess what all 16 of them have a little bit of a uniqueness to them that I'm like, Okay, I'm going to call on this leader for this project. I'm going to empower this leader to sit on this committee over here, I'm going to let this leader speak on the next call, because I just think it come better from them. I asked for input before we make decisions, business decisions, strategy, decisions, all of that. And I bring them in to dream like we dream big, like our vision of the 10 billion was like guys, I'm a little nervous even tell you guys this. But here's what I'm thinking. What do you think? You know, it's amazing. When I sat down with all of them, do you think their number is I asked them their dream and their goals for the next few years was higher or lower than my 10 billion?
I'm hoping it was equal or Higher.
Higher, I had them go. Well, yeah, you know what I'd actually like to build a $2 billion organization. And by the way, they're like 500 million today, which is like quadruple your business, rock and roll. Let's do this. It's amazing when you create a culture of collaboration and empowerment, and we really find that, yes, I might be by title, their senior. But we solve problems together, like nobody's too big to roll up their sleeves, figure it out, collaborate through, and they always know, I want to hear your challenges and your struggles and your obstacles. And I want you to be honest about where I can help you. Because if we get honest about things, we can help each other. It's too often when organizations are leaders or employees, they hide what's real. And so I've gotten very clear, I just share stuff. And some people may say it's too transparent. You know what, that's the kind of team I want to lead is a team that is transparent and vulnerable and that want to win. Because look, my role right now is different than what it was last year. And I think my role next year, I'm already envisioning is going to look different as well. So I need to be that leader, what are the skills I need to get there. And I will tell you, if you surround yourself with awesome people, like I'm so fortunate, have people that push me every day, you know, that's what you want.
But what leader doesn't want to learn and doesn't want, I know some that are like, shut up, I don't want to be pushed, you know, but it's like, that's what makes us grow. Because if you get too comfortable, then it gets bored. Yeah, I get bored. And then it's like, okay, we need to either do something else or, you know, but it's it is it's all about helping more people. And so you wrote a book, and I would love for you to share with everyone listening or watching. What was the driver behind that? And because we're all about GSD. And around here, like, how did you get the book done? Yes. Yeah. Because it's a lot like to run a business and that many team members and find the time to like, do your book? How did you accomplish that goal, like, I know, you're very driven, and also know anybody that was ever in competitive store sports, if they start something, they're gonna freakin finish it. Like, that's just how our brain works. Even sometimes, like I've had to catch myself, or we'll get into something. And I'm like, this is a bad business decision financially, if we continue to finish the way that we were gonna finish. Because it's, it's not working. So I've learned to train potty train my brain, I like to be fun with it, that sometimes it's okay to walk away from a project that isn't going to go the right way. But I do know, like starting a podcast is a commitment. It's a commitment to your audience, saying, I'm going to do a book, start a book and then go out there speak about it. I mean, it takes so much time, but the impact and the payoff of how many people you can help by doing it, and showing up for yourself to get the book done, can go such a long way, and help millions of people. So what was the driving force behind the book,
the book and the podcasts are tied together. And the book was really birthed off of the podcast. And I took my favorite 10 guests, and also the ones that I shouldn't say my favorite because it was the audience engaged the most, I probably learned the most and applied the most from it. And it was just because I was in that season. And so we took if you were to go to a great, let's just say, workshop, right now, a mastermind and you had 10 of the best speakers. And they all had not only like business awareness and skills, and they've worked in that area, they had some motivation and inspiration from their story. And everybody has overcome some adversity. I think many times we look at successful people are like, they just were luckier than me. They just have something I don't have. They were born into something. They just got a lucky break. All that's bs that's all inside our head. That is not true. And what you will find is they continue to work through adversity, they continue to train themselves up, they continue to invest in themselves, they took risks that other people are not willing to take. And guess what, that's what I was willing to do. The podcast and book were twofold. The first one was I had kind of felt like it was placed on my heart to give back. I knew I had a really cool network. You mentioned that earlier. That's the one thing I've built up through sports and business at all, as I've met some really cool people. Wouldn't it be fun if I were to bring them on a show and like bring out their greatness and share their stories, and it's a byproduct, I'm learning too. That's really cool. We'll deliver that to the market. That'd be a great product. It's a service. Well, in 2020, we all know what happened, couldn't traveling more couldn't see people. It was birth at just the right time, it actually turned out to be one of the best calculated risks I've ever done. Because it turned out to be people on that mentors. And you know, what's crazy is you probably had this as usual, I had 80% of the people on my show. I've never met in person.
Yeah, me too.
But we're the same impact they have had in several of them the impact they've had on me. So Part one is I would say, I just felt like it was a calling and something placed in my heart that I wanted to give back. And I felt like I was learning. The other part was very selfish and very intentional of I wanted to surround myself take risks, put myself out there. Because I wanted to learn how to speak better. I wanted to get on bigger stages to speak. I wanted to learn how to write a book, I want to learn how to do a podcast, I want to learn all this stuff. So selfishly, I'm like, Well, if I go do all this, the work in it for me is it will parlay over into a better leader. I can speak better with my team, I can communicate better with referral partners. I can be out doing presentations representing our team at loan depot better. There's all these other areas I recognized. And too often we try to stay so much like, well, this is what I do in my industry and blah, blah, blah. Well guess what? I am all about, like I put creative disrupter in my title because I'm gonna disrupt the norm. We're gonna wear a T shirt. We're gonna have fun we're gonna have a podcast we're gonna do a book because guess what people are people And you've probably heard this from psychology is, if I'm more relatable, and I can connect with more people, we will win at the game of connection in this abundance mentality, if there's enough market share to go around, there's so much business out there, that the reality is we don't even have enough hours in the day to get to it. I want to give back and I wanted to learn that was in a nutshell, and exceeded my expectations in every
way. It's crazy to me, because in hospitality, there's a lot of successful people. And when I started speaking, and sharing and just kind of vomiting the way it is, like, I don't have anything to add. And like some of these women would come to me and say, Why are you telling people how to do all this? Why are you giving them giving, giving, not selling? Where are you giving them like all these templates like, and I'm like, here's the thing. They're just templates, if you don't have the knowledge and the experience and the relationships of the team, and the vendors and the people to help you get to build this amazing thing for someone, they're just templates. Like it to me, it's just organization, you have to learn the the method and the experience, you have to provide great customer service, you have to have internal processes, as well as external processes, set expectations, internally and externally. And it's like, they just weren't getting it. And I'm like, I mean, some of these women, they're old, they're old enough to be my mother. And I'm just like, what is so different about my mindset from In, I started to realize it was generational. And it was all about who I was surrounding myself with. And the people that I was around, they give, give, give, give, give, give, give, you can go do whatever you want with the information. And I mean, each human being is one of a kind. But when you bring a lot of awesome people together, you're so much more powerful in helping more people. Right? So I found myself like, the more I got into, like speaking and teaching that I shifted away from a lot of people in my industry, I don't even talk to them anymore. Because again, you either grow together, and I'm like trying to bring them with me, like, you have way more experience than I do. And it's almost like, people look down on the younger people. It's like, how many who were you to say you've only been in this industry? 10 years, I've been doing it for 35 years? And who are you to stand up on stage and talk about this. I'm like, you're not doing it. So somebody's got to help people. I mean, to me, it always goes back to mindset. And um, so you know, we say we're, we're blessed. And we say we're grateful. And like you said, some people say, Oh, you're so lucky, you're born into it. No, it's a choice. It's a choice of who you decide to listen to. Because I could have very well said, Oh, you're right, I shouldn't tell all this. And I'm like, why would I can't keep my mouth shut? Like why would I, you know, do these things. So just by all of these different experiences, being around all the different and different people, it doesn't mean they're bad people. And it doesn't mean there's anything wrong. They just don't want what I want. And I want people to hear the message. That's why we do podcasting. That's why we do videos. And you know, I hear it all the time. People are like, you just tell these things for free. And I'm like, change your minds like reframe, it's Yes, I want to create value. So that when you Whatever, whatever it is that you need in your business, you're going to value that and that builds trust. And if you need what what we offer, and we solve your problem, and we were experts at it, who are you going to come to me? You know, it's it is all out of like helping helping, and yes, the more money the more revenue you make. It's a tool. That's right. And people don't people who have the different mindsets. I don't know some people, some of my team members, they grew up in toxic, toxic environments. And they're like money's bad money's evil money's this and no, some of my even my interests are like thank you for helping us see it a little bit of a different way. Because it doesn't always work out that way when and I'm like look at all the people that we help. Look at all of the people that we're connecting with all over The world who live in poverty, but we're giving them opportunities to help them better their lives and their family's lives. So it's like making a difference. I mean, that's what, that's what it's all about, right?
There's always the fork in the road. And I look at as you're sharing that I'm thinking about, we talk about this a lot with our culture is we are very much a growth mindset culture, we are not a fixed mindset. And there's too many people that they're fixed. Because what they learned, what they were taught, what they've been exposed to in life, is very much that and they just, they've just said that this is it, this is the best it's gonna ever get in all this. And I would just encourage you like, who you surround yourself with, we've all heard the sayings and allergies, but it has such a direct impact on who you are, and who you're becoming. If you don't get out of that, you're never going to grow. And you know, Lately, I've been sharing the whole tore my bicep and had the surgery. And this is how the growth mindset comes into play there is immediately after my surgery, I'm asking, okay, what can I do? What can I do? I'm very clear on like, every week, what can I do? What can I do? What's the next thing, and I got really excited, because in week two, I could tie my own shoe again, I could get my shirt on, like putting one arm in and sliding it through and had all this. And then week three, it's like, okay, you can start walking more. And so I took it week by week. And I would encourage you as you're looking at how you can grow personally, is sometimes for many of us, just taking it day by day or week by week and going through this reminded me, I need to start breaking down some of my the big goal that I've got over the next five years to get to 10 billion. What am I doing today? What am I doing this week, what am I doing this month, and almost create little sprints. And I would encourage you if you're struggling with that today, that could be your route you go. Because like every week, I was able to do something new, but it built upon what I had done the week before and the week before. And so those stacking of blocks, you can almost think about building this incredible fortress, that's your foundation. That's what you're building so that you can do more, you're not going to go from zero to 100. Real quick, like Drake says, You are going to build this and you're going to go through the stages, like we all have. And guess what, on the other side of it, it'll be worth it. So last thing, you mentioned this, and I had a mentor sharing this, this is stuck with me and I shared it funny just earlier today. He talked about 10 years in the business or 20 years or whatever, at a mentor share. Well, Brian, were those 10 of the same years repeated over and over meaning did you do the same thing every year you didn't grow? You didn't learn didn't hire coach, you didn't invest in yourself, you really can't point to how you've absolutely improved and gotten smarter acquired skills? Or are you the opposite? Did you have 10 different years, they're all individually growth years this year, I learned this this year, I learned this this year, I learned this? Well clearly you want to be the ladder, right? Like you don't wanna be the first person that repeats it, and you wake up every day doing the same thing. 10 years is not 10 years, make sure every day and every month and every year, you're stacking upon what you've learned. And that stuck with me because it was something I go earlier in my career is like, wow, like I may not have as many years, my resume may not look as good as pretty as some people that have been doing this longer. But you know what I'm willing to learn and invest in myself every day. And I believe along the long run. I'm gonna be a better version of myself. So that's what I'm going after.
That's awesome. It's so inspirational, so inspirational. And I could just keep talking to you forever. But thank you so much for being here. If people want to connect with you. I always see you show up on Instagram and LinkedIn. But do you have like a favorite place where people could go and connect with you?
Yeah, so we just revamped our website so it's gonna be coming out and it's just gonna be www dot Brian COVID calm, like super simple. Instagram. Someone already had Brian COVID somebody had all these other names. So I had to go with the Brian COVID so it would be okay, like it. I went on there I remember that's it. So definitely Instagram, LinkedIn, very active there you can find me and then on Facebook, I've got a business page, you can follow that or my personal page as well. And I'd love to connect up with you. I do engage you'll see me on there. I am very much someone that if you send me a DM or you put something on the post, I will do my best to get back to you. And please connect up this has added value or meant something to you. I would love to help support your journey and make sure that we do this together.
Awesome. And where can they get the book? Oh, so
it's on Amazon. And I have the soft back. We just released the hardback version, which is super cool. I've got to get one of those so I can show up but it's been unbelievable. Check it out. Just go to Amazon and you got conversations with Kofi and you'll see it there.
Love it. Thank you so much for being here today. Ron, and everybody that's watching and listening. Tune in next week to another episode of business unveiled via That's it for this week's episode of business unveiled. Now that you have all the tools that you need to conquer the world and GSD get shit done. Would you share this with your friends and fellow business leaders? One thing that would really, really help us and help new listeners is for you to rate the show, and leave a comment and Apple podcast, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you tune in and listen to business unveiled. You can check out the show notes at Angela proffitt.com slash podcast and link up with us on social media so you can share your biggest insights. And I want to know your aha moments. Until next week, remember, the profitable shifts and structures you're creating in your business, help you be more present in your life. So get out there and GSD