Podcasts about when brian

Welcome to Amazin' Avenue Audio (The Show), the new/old favorite from Amazin' Avenue editors Chris McShane and Brian Salvatore. When Brian and Chris last podcasted, things looked incredibly different for the Mets than they did when they recorded on Wednesday night. After a four-game winning streak (three if you're being pedantic and don't consider the suspended game victory as part of the win streak), the Mets looked poised to capitalize on a big win. The ‘thumbs' scandal was behind them, and despite a rainout, things looked sunnier than they have in weeks. And then, Interim General Manager Zack Scott was arrested for a DUI early on Wednesday morning, and the reality of the Mets' management situation came back into clear display. Chris and Brian attempt to make sense of all of this, how it will affect this season and who, if any, of these folks will be around in 2022. Chris's Music Pick: Steve Gunn - Other You Brian's Music Pick: The Kinks - Muswell Hillbillies You can listen or subscribe to all of our wonderful Amazin' Avenue Audio podcasts through Apple Podcasts, where we encourage you to leave a review if you enjoy the show. It really helps! And you can find us on the Stitcher app, Spotify, or listen wherever you get podcasts. If you've got questions that you'd like us to discuss on the air, email the show at aaaudiopodcast@gmail.com. Make sure to follow the site on Twitter (@AmazinAvenue), as Brian (@BrianNeedsaNap). and Chris (@ChrisMcShane). And, until next time, Let's Go Mets. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Brian is a super nice guy who I met in Boulder a few months ago. When Brian was a snowboarder growing up and even went to a ski/snowboarding focused high school. He's now a member of the Boulder Underground and has run a 2:30:14 marathon. He ran his first marathon in 3:18 just four years ago and improved remarkably fast from there. He is now working with way towards his goal of an OTQ for 2024. Follow Brian on Instagram at www.instagram.com/schroy. You can hear Brian's episode with Chris Chavez on the Citius Mag podcast here: https://citiusmag.com/podcast/citius-mag-podcast-brian-schroy. Follow Matt: Instagram - @rambling_runner Twitter - @rambling_runner Rambling Runner Podcast Community Corner private Facebook group - www.facebook.com/groups/125544686229661 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How to Grow a Trucking Company with Brian Fielkow Brian Fielkow and Joe Lynch discuss how to grow a trucking company. Brian is the CEO of Houston-based Jetco Delivery and EVP of Montreal- based The GTI Group. About Brian Fielkow In his dual role as CEO of Houston-based Jetco Delivery and EVP of Montreal- based The GTI Group, Brian leverages his 25+ years' experience of leading, growing and transforming multimillion dollar organizations organically and via mergers and acquisitions.  The companies' operations include intermodal, flatbed/heavy haul, van, and freight brokerage. As Jetco CEO over the past 14 years, Brian developed the company into one of the Gulf Coast's premier trucking and logistics providers. Under his leadership, Jetco built a premium service model that differentiated the company in a price-driven industry.  Brian has maintained focus on people, fleet, technology and innovation to provide an excellent client experience.  About Jetco Delivery Since 1976, Jetco has partnered with sophisticated shippers and intermediaries to meet their trucking and freight brokerage needs throughout the Gulf Coast. Through its family of companies, Jetco provides intermodal, open deck, heavy haul, dry van, asset-backed freight brokerage, and warehousing services. Headquartered in Houston, Jetco maintains an office in Dallas and terminals in La Porte, Freeport, San Antonio and Dallas. Jetco is a part of The GTI Group, a Canadian-based specialized transport company providing integrated logistics and transportation services, including asset-based trucking, freight brokerage, air and ocean services, and warehousing and storage. Key Takeaways: How to Grow a Trucking Company with Brian Fielkow Brian Fielkow is the CEO of Houston-based Jetco Delivery and EVP of Montreal- based The GTI Group. Brian bought Jetco and grew the company ten-fold before selling it to The GTI Group. In the podcast interview, Brian explained that there are many challenges in the trucking business including: the boom and bust cycle which makes investment difficult, hiring and retaining the wrong people, safety problems, high insurance costs, working with the wrong shippers and carriers, and over-reliance on transactional business. When Brian took over at Jetco, he worked hard to win the respect of the employees. From the beginning Brian wanted to build a winning culture and business processes that ensured success. To grow the company, Brian focuses on 1.) People 2.) Fleet and 3.) Technology. Jetco / GTI operates a fleet of 100+ trucks and 250+ trailers. Headquartered in Houston, Jetco maintains an office in Dallas and terminals in La Porte, Freeport, San Antonio and Dallas. Jetco is a part of The GTI Group, a Canadian-based company providing over-the-road transportation, freight brokerage, ocean and air logistics, and warehousing services throughout North America and across the globe. Learn More About How to Grow a Trucking Company Brian Fielkow LinkedIn Brian Fielkow website Jetco Delivery The GTI Group The Logistics of Logistics Podcast If you enjoy the podcast, please leave a positive review, subscribe, and share it with your friends and colleagues. The Logistics of Logistics Podcast: Google, Apple, Castbox, Spotify, Stitcher, PlayerFM, Tunein, Podbean, Owltail, Libsyn, Overcast Check out The Logistics of Logistics on Youtube

It's not every day that you can hear a great conversation with the Head of Product of Excel. Brian Jones sits down with us and talks about the past, present, and very promising future of Excel. Rob and Brian go way back, and the stories and laughs abound!   Check out this cool World Orca Day Excel template for kids!   Episode Timeline: 4:00 - Brian's lofty title is Head of Product at Excel, The importance and magic of Excel, and people's a-ha moments with Excel 20:25 - The difficulty of not seeing your projects' impact on the world and how the heck does Bluetooth fit into the story?!, Rob and Brian reminisce with some funny conference stories 32:00 - The XML file format and some very neat XML tricks that everyone should know about 51:25 - The birth of the Excel Web App and Rob can't believe some of the things that Brian's team has done with Excel 1:05:00 - How to onboard the Excel, VLOOKUP, and Pivot crowd into data modeling and Power BI, and the future of Excel most certainly includes the Lambda function (maybe!) Episode Transcript: Rob Collie (00:00:00): Hello, friends. Today's guest, Brian Jones, head of product for this thing you might've heard of called Microsoft Excel. Brian and I go back a long way. We were both youngsters at Microsoft at the same time, and we both worked on some early features of Office apps, and we're friends. Really, really have sincerely warm feelings about this guy, as you often do with people that you essentially grew up with. And that's what we did. When Brian and I first worked together, he was working on Word and I was working on Excel. But even though Brian was on Word at the time, he was already working on what we would today call citizen developer type of functionality in the Word application. So even though we were essentially on different sides of the aisle within the Office organization, we were already finding ourselves able to connect over this affinity for the citizen developer. Rob Collie (00:00:55): Now we have some laughs during this conversation about how in hindsight, the things he and I were working on at the time didn't turn out to be as significant as we thought they were in the moment. But those experiences were very valuable in shaping both of us for the initiatives that came later. Rob Collie (00:01:11): Like almost everyone at Microsoft, Brian has moved around a bit. He's worked on file formats for the entire Office suite, which ended up enabling Power Pivot version one to actually function the way that it should. He's worked on Office-wide extensibility and programmability, back to that citizen developer thing again. And in that light, it's only natural that Excel's gravity reeled him in. And in that light, it's only natural that someone like that, someone like Brian, found his way to Excel, and it really is a match made in heaven. And if you permit me the Excel joke, that turned out to be a great match. Rob Collie (00:01:50): We took the obligatory and entertaining, I hope, walk down memory lane. We spent a lot more time than I expected talking about file format. And the reason why is that file formats are actually a fascinating topic when you really get into it. Lot of history there, a lot of very interesting history and challenges we walked through. And of course, we do get around to talking about Excel, its current state, where it's headed, and also the amazing revelation for me that monthly releases actually mean a longer attention span for a product and how we ended up getting functionality now as a result of the monthly release cycle that would have never fit into the old multi-year release cycle. We were super grateful to have him on the show. And as usual, we learned things. I learned things. I have a different view of the world after having this conversation than I did before it, which is a huge gift. And I hope that you get the same sort of thing out of it. So let's get into it. Announcer (00:02:56): Ladies and gentlemen, may I have your attention please? Announcer (00:03:03): This is the Raw Data by P3 Adaptive podcast, with your host Rob Collie and your cohost Thomas Larock. Find out what the experts at P3 Adaptive can do for your business. Just go to p3adaptive.com. Raw Data by P3 Adaptive is data with the human element. Rob Collie (00:03:26): Welcome to the show. Brian Jones, how are you, sir? Brian Jones (00:03:30): I am fantastic. Thank you for having me, Rob. I'm excited. Rob Collie (00:03:33): So let's start here today. Well, you and I go way back, but today, what's your job title and what are your responsibilities? Brian Jones (00:03:42): So today, my job is I'm the head of product for the Excel team. So I lead the team of product managers that are tasked with or given the honor of deciding the future of Excel, where we go with Excel, what are the set of things that we go and build Rob Collie (00:03:59): Head of product. That's a title that we didn't have back when I was still at Microsoft. We did at one point have something called a product unit manager. Is it similar to that? How does that relate? Brian Jones (00:04:11): That's a good question. So we're continuing to evolve the way that we use titles internally. So internally, we have titles that still for most folks externally don't make any sense, like program manager, group program manager, program manager manager, director of program manager. And so for externally, whenever I'm on LinkedIn or if I do PR interviews, things like that, I use the term head of product. Internally, we don't have the term head of product. Rob Collie (00:04:37): Okay. All right. So that's a translation for us. Brian Jones (00:04:40): Yes, exactly. Trying to translate the Microsoft internal org chart to something that makes more sense to folks. Rob Collie (00:04:49): Yeah. So things like, if we use the word orthogonal, what we're really saying is that's not relevant. Brian Jones (00:04:53): Exactly. Rob Collie (00:04:54): That kind of decoder ring. Brian Jones (00:04:57): I didn't realize orthogonal [inaudible 00:04:59] until you said it and I'm like, " Oh yeah, no. Of course, that is completely a ridiculous term to use." Rob Collie (00:05:03): Or I don't know if they still do this, but an old joke that Dave [Gayner 00:05:07] and I used to have, it was all his joke at the time. It was big bet. Do we still talk about big bet? We're going to place a big bet. Brian Jones (00:05:14): Yep. Big bet or big rocks. Big rocks. You know the- Rob Collie (00:05:17): Big rocks. Whoa. Brian Jones (00:05:18): Yeah. It's kind of an analogy. You've got a jar and you want to fill it with the big rocks first, and then you let the sand fill in the rest of the space. So what are the big rocks? Rob Collie (00:05:26): Okay. Yeah. But big bet was one that we used to always make fun of. Brian Jones (00:05:31): Especially when there'd be, "Here are the big bets," and there's 20 of them. Rob Collie (00:05:34): Yeah. The joke I think we used to make was we would call something a big bet when we really didn't have any good reason for doing what we were doing. Anyway, all right. So you're head of product for Excel. That is a pretty heady job. That's pretty awesome. Brian Jones (00:05:52): It's a pretty fun job. Absolutely. Rob Collie (00:05:54): I mean, you're not lacking for eyeballs in that business, are you? We're all friends here. We're all on the same side of this story. I mean, it is the lingua franca of business, Excel. It is the business programming tool. People don't necessarily think of it as programming, but formulas are a programming language. To be head of product for the platform, you could call it an application, but really it's probably more accurate to call it a platform that is, I think, is the single most critical platform to business in the world. That's pretty amazing. Brian Jones (00:06:30): Absolutely. And that's usually the way that we talk about it internally. It depends on who your audience is externally when you're talking about it. But yeah, Excel is a programming language. I remember even before, back when I was on the Word team, but I would go and meet with PJ, who ran program manager for Office all up. And he'd always referred to Excel more as an IDE. And that didn't totally resonate with me at the time because to me, Excel was just a list app, an app for just tracking things. I didn't totally understand what he meant by that, but I'd nod cause he was super important and smart. And it wasn't really until I started working on the team that I was like, "Oh, I totally understand all these things that PJ used to reference." Rob Collie (00:07:06): This one of the things I had been dying to ask you is when you and I first met, I was working on the Excel team, but still had... Gosh, this was year 2000 maybe, maybe 2001. And even though I was nominally part of the Excel team at that point, I still didn't really know Excel, and you were working on Word. So the thing we both had in common at that point is that we didn't know Excel. So I wanted to get your perspective. I know that you've done some things other than Word, but we were already sort of teasing this. So let's just get into it. What's it like to come from "outside" Excel and how's that transition? How do you view Excel differently today versus what you did before? We already started talking about that. The list keeper. That's very common way for people to view it. Brian Jones (00:07:53): When I first started, yeah, I was on Word, although I was working on more kind of end user developer type of pieces of Word. That's how you and I first interacted because we were talking about XML. The first feature I owned was a feature called easy data binding to Excel. And the whole idea was when you could easily bring content from Excel into Word, but then create a link back so that the content in Word would stay live. And a lot of this stuff that I did while I was on Word was all about trying to make Word a little bit more of a structured tool so that people could actually program against it because Word is completely unstructured. It's just free-flowing text. So trying to write a solution against that is almost impossible because you can't predict anything. So we did a lot of work to add structure, whereas Excel out of the gate has all that structure. So it's just much easier to go and program. Brian Jones (00:08:39): If I had gone straight from Word to Excel, it would have been a little bit more of a shock, but I actually had about eight years in between where I was running our extensibility team. So a lot of the work we would do was revving the add-in model and extensibility for Excel. So I got some exposure there. When we did all of the file format stuff and the whole file format campaign, That was a couple of years where I was working really closely with a bunch of folks in Excel, like Dan [Badigan 00:09:06] and folks like that. So I had a bit of exposure, but I'll tell you when I first joined, I had a similar job, but it was for the Access team and we were building up some new tech. Brian Jones (00:09:17): Some of it still is there today. Office Forms came out of some of the investments that we were doing in Access. But when I showed up into Excel, I was very much in that mode of, "Why don't the Excel folks, get it? Everything should be a table with column headings." And like, "That's the model. And why do they stick with this grid? Clearly word of it is eventually going to go away from the printed page as the key medium. Excel's got to go away from the grid. And they've got to understand that this should just be all tables that can be related." And thankfully, I was responsible when I joined and didn't try and act like I knew everything. So I took some time to go and learn. Brian Jones (00:09:52): And it didn't take me long. We have some crazy financial modeling experts on the team and stuff like that, where I'd say it was maybe six months in that it clicked for me where I understood those two key pieces. The grid and formulas are really the soul and the IP of Excel. The fact that you can lay out information really easily on a grid, you have formulas that are your logic, and you can do this step-by-step set of processes where each cell is almost like another little debug point for you. [Cal captain sub 00:10:20] second, and it's the easiest way to go and learn logic and how to build logic. Brian Jones (00:10:25): I didn't get any of that at that time, but you pick it up pretty quickly when you start to look at all the solutions that people are building. And now, obviously, I've been on the team now for five years, so I'm super sold around it. But I'd say it took me a little while and I'm still learning. It takes a while to learn the whole thing. Rob Collie (00:10:41): Yeah. It's funny. Like you said, Word's completely unstructured. You're looking in from the outside and you're like, "Well, Excel is completely structured." Then you get close to it. You're like, "Oh no. And it's not, really." Brian Jones (00:10:52): No. Not at all. Rob Collie (00:10:53): I mean, it's got the cells. Rows and columns. You can't avoid those. But within that landscape, is it kind of deliberately wild west? You can do whatever you need to. You're right. Okay. So tables, yes. Tables are still very important. But you've got these parameters and assumptions and inputs. And what do you do with those? I mean, they're not make a table for those. Brian Jones (00:11:19): Yep. Absolutely. I think that the thing that I started to get really quickly was the beauty of that. Like you said, it's unstructured. You have nice reference points. So if you're trying to build logic, formulas, you can reference things. But there's no rule about whether or not things go horizontally, vertically, diagonally, whatever. You can take whatever's in your mind that you're trying to make a decision around and use that flexible grid to lay it out. It's like a mind map. If you think about the beauty, the flexibility of a mind map, that's what the grid is. You can go and lay out all the information however it makes the most sense to you. Brian Jones (00:11:53): Really, that's what makes Excel still so relevant today. If you think about the way business is evolving, people are getting more and more data, change is just more constant, business processes are changing all the time. So there are certain processes where people can say, "This thing is always going to work the same way." And so you can go and get a vertical railed solution. That's why we use the term rail. That's kind of like if I always know I'm going to take this cargo from LA to San Francisco, I can go and build some rails, and I got a train, it'll always go there and do the same thing. But if business is constantly changing, those rails are quickly going to break and you're going to have to go off the rails. Excel is more like a car than a train. You can go anywhere with it. And so as the business processes change, the people who are using Excel are the same people who are the ones changing those business processes. Those are the business folks. And so they can go and evolve and adapt it and they don't have to go and find another ISV to go and build them another solution based on that new process that's probably going to change again in six months. Thomas Larock (00:12:52): So Brian's been in charge for five years of Excel, and he's sitting there telling us how there's still more to learn. And two weeks ago, we all got renewed as MVPs. And so I was on the MVP website, and I'm going through all the DLs I can join because that's all a manual process these days. I'm like, "Oh, there's the Excel MVP DL. I don't know why I haven't joined this yet." So I click. I'm immediately flooded with 100 emails a day. 100 emails a day. Now, I don't believe I am a novice when it comes to Excel. I don't. I know I'm not on you all's level at all when it comes to it. You build and work and live the product. But I know my way around enough that I can explain things to others when they say, "I'm trying to do this thing." "Oh, I think it's possible." Thomas Larock (00:13:40): But I read these passionate MVPs that you have and the stuff that they highlight, and it's not complex stuff. It's like, "Hey, this title bar seems to be wider in this." And I'm like, I might not even notice this stuff. And I see these features that aren't a complex feature, but I'm like, "I didn't even know that was there. I didn't even know you could do that. Oh, you can do that too." There's so much. And like you said, it's a programming language. It's an IDE. It's all these things. As [Sinopski 00:14:10] said, "It's the killer app for Windows." To have the head of product say that, there's just so much. He really means it. There is a lot to it. And it is something that is malleable and usable by hundreds of millions of people a day. Brian Jones (00:14:25): Yeah. Rob Collie (00:14:26): My old joke is, if you want to know how good someone is at Excel, just ask them, "How good are you at Excel?" And then take their answer and invert it. Brian Jones (00:14:37): That's absolutely true. Rob Collie (00:14:38): If someone says, "Yeah, I'm really good at it," You know they don't have any clue because they haven't glimpsed the depth of that particular mine shaft. And once someone has been to the show, they know better than to oversell their knowledge because they know they can't know everything. Rob Collie (00:14:54): You say you're good at Excel. And then the very next question is one that you're not going to be able to answer. So you got to be careful. [inaudible 00:15:00] person views Excel as Word with a grid. And that's not obviously what it is, but that's the oversimplification for... I don't know... maybe 80% of humanity. Brian Jones (00:15:10): Yeah. And the thing is, there's a lot more that we're doing in the app now to try and make it, one, more approachable, because there's a set of folks that just find it really intimidating, for sure. You open it up and it's this huge, dense grid. Like, "Hey, where do I start? What should I go and do? I've never even heard of this thing before." In the past, a lot of stuff that we would do, we never really thought about those first steps of using the app because we were always like, "Well, everybody knows our app. We're going to go and do the things for everybody that knows our app." And I think we're doing a better job now trying to think, "Well, there's a bunch of people who don't know about our app. Let's go and figure out what the experience should be like for them." Brian Jones (00:15:43): But we've done a lot with AI where we're trying to get a little bit better about... We look at your data. Recommend things to you. So we'll say, "If you've got a table of data, hey, here's a pivot table." You may not have even heard of the pivot table before. So really more like, "Hey, here's a summary of your data." You want to go and insert that. Brian Jones (00:16:00): In fact, those tests are always fun because then we get to work with people who've really haven't ever used a pivot table. So it's always fun to hear the words that they use to describe what a pivot table is. It's like, "Oh wow, you grouped my data for me." Or stuff like that like, "Wow. That's a nice name for it too." So we're trying to do more of that to expose people to really those higher-end things. But those things where for those of us that use it, once you discover that stuff, you're even more hooked on the product. You're like, man, that first experience of somebody built a pivot table for you and you realize, "Oh my God, I didn't know I could do this with my data. Look how much easier it is for me to see what's going on," and trying to get more people to experience that kind of magical moment. Thomas Larock (00:16:39): Now imagine being me and only knowing pivot through T-SQL and that magical day when you meet Rob and he's like, "You just pivot table [inaudible 00:16:49]." And you're like, "How many hours have I wasted? Why didn't someone tell me?" Brian Jones (00:16:56): Yeah. We get that a lot when we'll go and show stuff. Oftentimes, the reaction is more frustration. "I can't believe I didn't know about this for the past five years." Rob Collie (00:17:05): We get that all the time now with Power Pivot and Power Query and Power BI in general. The target audience for that stuff hasn't been really effectively addressed by Microsoft marketing. But even back, just regular pivot tables, such a powerful tool, and so poorly named. You weren't around on the Excel team, Brian, when I waged a six-month campaign to try to rename pivot table to summary table. Brian Jones (00:17:31): Oh really? Rob Collie (00:17:31): Yeah. Brian Jones (00:17:31): How long ago was that? Rob Collie (00:17:33): Oh, well, it was a long time ago. I mean [crosstalk 00:17:35]- Brian Jones (00:17:36): Pivot tables had already been out for quite a while. Rob Collie (00:17:37): Oh God. Yeah. I mean, they were long established. They were in the product. I didn't even know what they did. Believe it or not, I worked on the Excel team for probably about a year before I actually figured what pivot tables could do. People would just throw it around all the time on the team like, "Well, once you have the data, then you can chart it. You can pivot it," blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And so I would fit in- Brian Jones (00:17:58): You would nod? Rob Collie (00:17:59): I would fit in... I would also author sentences like that, that had the word pivot in it. It was a pretty safe thing to do. There was no downside to it. But believe it or not, the time that I discovered what pivot tables are for... you'll love this... I was trying to figure out how to skill balance the four different fantasy football leagues that I had organized within the Excel and Access team. I wanted to spread it out. Levels of experience. I've got this table of data with the person's name and their level of experience and my tentative league assignment. And just this light bulb went on. I'm like, "Oh my God, I bet this is what pivot tables are for." Total expertise by league. Like, "Oh, look at that. It's totally it." That was a big change for me. That was during the release, Brian, where you and I were working together. Brian Jones (00:18:54): I think I played on one of those fantasy football leagues. Rob Collie (00:18:56): You might have. Brian Jones (00:18:57): I was one of the people with zero experience. I remember going into the draft not knowing... I knew football, but I didn't know anything about fantasy football. Rob Collie (00:19:03): That's right. We did loop you in. So let's do that way back machine for a moment. That release when you and I met was the first release on Excel. I was the lead at that point. It was my first time being a lead. It was the first time I was in charge of a feature set, and it was really my baby, this XML thing we were doing. And the reason for that was because no one was paying any attention. That was this weird release. For a whole release, Office went and tried to do cloud services without having any idea what that really was going to mean. And so we stripped all of the applications down to skeleton crews. And this is really the only reason why on the Excel side, some youngster like me was allowed to be a lead and come up with a feature, because no one cared. No one was paying any attention. There was no one minding the store. Rob Collie (00:19:48): I remember being so wild-eyed enthusiastic about how much this was going to change the world, this XML import export future. And I mean, you might as well just take it out. I can't imagine it's being used hardly at all today. I bet Power View is used more often than the XML import export feature. You all have done a pretty good job of hiding it. So kudos. But it was a good thing to cut my teeth on. I learned a lot of valuable lessons on that release. Rob Collie (00:20:24): How do you feel about the XML structure document work that you were doing in Word at the time? Do you kind of have the same feeling looking back at it that I do? Brian Jones (00:20:33): It was a similar thing. In fact, we did rip it out a couple of years later. I think that when you and I would talk about it, we would talk about these scenarios that were super righteous and great. And then we just start geeking out on tech. And then we would get way too excited about the tech and we kind of forget about those initial scenarios. We wouldn't stop and think, "Wait a minute. These users we're talking about, are they actually going to go and create XML files?" Because you need one of those to start with before any of this stuff makes sense. And no, of course, they're not. But for me, a lot of it started from that. Like I said, one of my first features was that easy data binding to Excel feature. And we thought, "Hey, maybe XML would be a good tech for us to use as a way of having Word and Excel talk to each other," because clearly they have different views on what formatting is and how to present information, but the underlying semantic information, that could be shared. Brian Jones (00:21:20): And so I could have a set of products show up in Excel as a table. And when they come into Word, they look more like a catalog of products. That totally makes sense. And we just did a lot of assumptions that people would make, do all the glue that was really necessary. And of course, they didn't. So I had the exact same experience. The other big thing that was different back then for us was we would plan something, meet with customers for six months, but then it'd take three years to go and build it. We had no way of validating that stuff with customers because we couldn't get them any of the builds. And then even after we shipped it, they weren't actually going to deploy it for another three-plus years. And so the reality is from when you had the idea to where you actually can see that it's actually not working and people aren't using it is probably about six years. So you've probably moved on to something else by then. Brian Jones (00:22:04): The only way you really as a PM got validation that your feature was great was whether or not leadership and maybe press got excited about your thing, but you didn't get a whole lot of signal from actual customers whether or not the thing was working, which is obviously completely different now, thank goodness. Rob Collie (00:22:18): Yeah. That Is true. It took some of the fun out of being done too, now looking back at it, like the day of the ship party, when we were done with the three-year release. "Okay, fine." We'd dunk each other in fountains and there'd be hijinks and stuff. But the world did not experience us being done. That was purely just us feeling done. And then it was like you take a week off maybe, and then the next week, you're right back to the grind at the very beginning. You never got the payoff. Even if you built something really good, by the time the world discovered it and it was actually really helping people at any significant scale, you're no longer even working on that product. Brian Jones (00:22:57): Yeah. You're doing something completely different. Rob Collie (00:22:59): You might be in a different division, both finding out the things in real time that Rob Collie (00:23:03): [inaudible 00:23:00] Both finding out the things, sort of in real time, that aren't working. That's the obvious advantage, right? But there's also this other emotional thing. Like you never got the satisfaction when you actually did succeed. Brian Jones (00:23:11): Right. You didn't see it actually get picked up, adopted. Millions and millions of people using it, which is what the team gets now. We no longer pick a project and say, "Okay, how many people and how long is this going to take?" You really just try and figure out what's critical mass for that project. And then you just let them run. And you'd be really clear around what are the goals and outcomes they're trying to drive. And they just keep going until they actually achieve that. Or we realized that we were wrong, right? And we say, "Hey, we thought people are going to be excited about this. It's not even an implementation thing. We were just wrong. We misread what people really were trying to do. Let's stop. Let's kind of figure out a way of moving off of that and go and figure out what the next thing is we should go and do." Rob Collie (00:23:50): That era that we're talking about right now. The 2003 release of Office. I was still very much a computer science graduate and amateur human. That's exactly backwards, it turns out, if you're trying to design a tool that's going to be used by humanity. Brian Jones (00:24:08): Well, it's what leads you to get really Excited about XML? Rob Collie (00:24:12): That's right. Yeah. That's right. Tech used to have such a power in my life. I'm exactly the opposite now. Every time I hear about some new tech, I'm like, "Yeah, prove it." I am not going to believe in this new radical thing until it actually changes the world around me. I'm not going to be trying to catch that wave. But XML did that to me. It was almost a threat. If we don't take this seriously, we're going to get outflanked. It got really egregious. Rob Collie (00:24:42): I had a coworker one time in that same release in the middle of one of my presentations asked me. This guy wasn't particularly, in the final analysis, looking back, not one of the stronger members of the team, but he had a lot of sibling rivalry essentially in his DNA. And he'd asked me in front of his crowded room, "Well, what are you going to do about Bluetooth?" And, we didn't know what Bluetooth was yet, right? It was like, unless I had an answer for what we were going to do about Bluetooth and Excel, right? Then I was not up on things. You know, the thing that we use to connect our headphones. At the time, Bluetooth was one of those things that might just disrupt everything. Brian Jones (00:25:29): It was funny. It was at that same time, I was asked to give a presentation to the Word team about Bluetooth. We were all assigned things to go and research as part of planning and that was one of the ones I was asked. And I gave a presentation that was just very factual. Here's what it is. And I was given really bad feedback that like, "Hey, I wasn't actually talking about it strategically and how it was going to affect Word. I was just being very factual." And I was like, "I don't understand. I don't understand what success looks like in this task." Right. Rob Collie (00:25:59): I remember going, a couple of years later, going into an offsite, those offsite big, I don't know if you all still do those things, big offsite, blue sky brainstorming sessions. There was this really senior development lead that was there with me. And he and I were kind of buddies. At one point, halfway through the day, he just leans over to me and says, "Hey, I'm going to the restroom and I'm not coming back." And I looked at him in horror, almost like "Thou dost dishonor the offsite!?" And he's like, "Yeah, you know, I've never really believed that much in this particular phase of the product cycle. It's never really meant anything to me. It's all just BS." It was just devastating. I just knew it was right. He was... Brian Jones (00:26:46): But you didn't want to, you didn't want to believe that. Rob Collie (00:26:52): I mean, I felt so special. I was invited to the offsite, the big wigs and everything. Brian Jones (00:26:57): They have nice catering too, Rob Collie (00:26:59): Yeah and he was totally right to leave. Brian Jones (00:27:04): I always remember getting super nervous to present stuff for those. Once it was actually, it was one of our XML ones where I was trying to convince, it was my attempt to get us to create an XML file format, which actually ended up, obviously, happening. But I got an engineer to go to work with and we had Word through an add-in, start to write to XML. And it was just a basic XML format. And then I built all of these... it was like asp.net tools that would go and then create an HTML version of the Word doc that was editable. And it also even created, I think it was called WHAP, I don't remember, like a tech for phones. It was back when you didn't have the rich feature phones, but these basic ones. Brian Jones (00:27:41): And so I created this thing that was almost like a SharePoint site. So you could take all your Word docs, go through this add-in, and then you could actually get an HTML view of them to edit it and a phone view of them to go and edit it. Brian Jones (00:27:51): I think it was probably 2002 or 2001, but I was so excited to go and show that at the offsite because I was like, "Okay, this is where I make it, man. Everybody's going to be so excited about me." But I don't know. I think everybody was excited about Bluetooth at that point or something. Yeah. Rob Collie (00:28:05): Oh yeah Bluetooth, WHAP was so 15 minutes ago. So there's a few, irresistibly funny or interesting things I want to zero in on from that era before we come back to present, and we're definitely going to come back to present, for sure. Rob Collie (00:28:21): First of all, we went to a conference like some W3C sponsor. I don't think it was necessarily W3C affiliated, but it was the XML conference. Brian Jones (00:28:31): The one in Baltimore? Rob Collie (00:28:32): Yes. Rob Collie (00:28:33): Okay. Now two very, very, very memorable things happened at that conference. I bet you already know one of them. But the other one was, and we're just going to make this all this anonymous person's fault. Okay. We're not going to abdicate any responsibility. And we're just going to talk about our one coworker from Eastern Europe who brought his wife and they had vodka in their hotel fridge, or freezer, or something like that. And every day I would wake up and say, "I am not going to get suckered into that again." Rob Collie (00:29:12): And then the next day I would wake up and say the same thing. That was a tough trip. Brian Jones (00:29:16): I definitely remember that. Rob Collie (00:29:18): Even on my young, relatively young, body at the time that... Trying to keep up with that, that was difficult. But the single most outstanding memory from that conference, and we will also leave this person anonymous. But there was an executive at Microsoft who was hotter on XML than either you or I, which is hard to believe, right. And we ended up with the sponsored after hours session at this conference. You remember this? You see... Brian Jones (00:29:45): I do. Rob Collie (00:29:46): You know where we're going. Okay. So this was a 30 minute sponsored by Dell or something. Right. It was a 30 minute session, at 5:00 PM, at the end of a conference day where everyone's trying to go back and get to the bars or whatever, right.? But, it's a Microsoft executive, it's Dell sponsored, we'll show up. And the plan was at the end of this 30 minute talk given by this executive, he was going to bring all of us up on the stage to show everyone the team that had done all of this, right? Great plan. Except it was the worst presentation in history. I remember it running for two hours. It was so bad that we started off with 200 people in the room and at the end of it, and I'm just like an agony the whole time cause like I'm associated with this, right? Rob Collie (00:30:31): At the end of these two hours, or what felt like two hours anyway, it was easily 90 minutes. There's five people left in this room of 200 and it's not like the presentation is adapted to the fact that it's a smaller audience. It's just continued to drone on exactly as if everyone was there, right? And I'm sitting here thinking, "Okay, he's not going to call us all up on this stage. There's been more people on the stage than in the audience. If he does this, he's clearly not going to do that." And then he did and we all had to parade up there and stand there like the biggest dodos. I've never been more professionally embarrassed I don't think, than that moment. Rob Collie (00:31:14): And we're all looking at each other as we get up out of our seats like, "Oh my god." Brian Jones (00:31:19): I definitely remember this. Rob Collie (00:31:22): I don't see how you could have forgotten. Brian Jones (00:31:23): Well, yeah. And the person that we're talking about is actually one of my favorite people on the planet. I totally... I love this guy. I view him as like a mentor and everything, but... Which makes me remember it even more. Brian Jones (00:31:34): I think it was just, there was so much excitement. There'd been so much build up to this and this was like a kind of crescendo right? Of bringing this stuff. We probably should have had it a little bit shorter. Rob Collie (00:31:46): I mean when it reaches the point where clueless, mid twenties, Rob Collie is going, "Oh no, this is not the emotional, this not the move." You don't do it. Brian Jones (00:31:58): I'm no longer excited about being called up. Rob Collie (00:32:04): So from my perspective, you kind of parlayed that experience of the XML and all that kind of stuff. I think you did a really fantastic job of everything you guys did on that product. Again, it was the relevance that ultimately fell flat for both of us right. I guess in the end, the excitement with XML wasn't really all that appreciably different from the excitement about Bluetooth. I mean, it's everywhere, right? XML is everywhere. Bluetooth is everywhere and neither one of them really changed things in terms of what Excel or Word should be doing. It seemed like you played that into this file format second act. And I think very, very, very effectively, actually there was a little bit of controversy. Rob Collie (00:32:43): Let's set the stage for people. This was the 2007 release of Office where all the file formats got radically overhauled. This is when the extra X appeared on the end of all the file names, right? Brian Jones (00:32:58): Yeah. Rob Collie (00:32:58): There was a controversy internally. Kind of starting with Bill actually. That we shouldn't make well-documented transparent file format specs, right. There was this belief that the opaque file formats of the previous decades was in some sense, some big moat against competition. And of course, a lot of our competitors agreed. Tailor out in the public saying, "Yes, this is a barrier to competition. It's a monopolistic, blah, blah, blah." We, Microsoft had just gotten its ass kicked in the Anna Truss case. So it was really interesting. I credit Brian, your crew, with really advocating this very effectively. That's a difficult ship to turn. First of all, you got all these teams to buy into all this extra work, which no one wants to do. But when it's not even clear whether you have top level executive support, in fact, you might actually have C-suite antagonism towards an idea. To get it done. That's a career making achievement. I'm sure you remember all of that. Right. But what are your reactions to that controversy? Do you remember being in the midst of that? Brian Jones (00:34:12): I do. It was definitely a long running project. It evolved over quite a number of years. The beginning of it was, in that previous release, the XML stuff you and I were talking about was more about what we called "Custom XML". Right? So people would go and create for themselves. But in that same release, we had Word, we outputted an XML format that was our definition, which we called "Word ML" and Excel did a similar thing. Words' we try to make full fidelity. So you could save any word document in the XML format. Excel's was kind of a tailored down, it was less about formatting, it was more, "Hey, here's like..." It's almost like, "Here's a better version of CSV, right. But we're going to do it as XML." And so we already had a little bit of that. Brian Jones (00:34:53): And the whole reason we were looking at that was, on the Word side, for instance, a lot of the customer issues that we'd get where people would have corrupt files, they were corrupt because they there'd be some add-in that they had running or some third party app that was reading and writing word files. The files were fairly brittle and complex. The binary format... The binary format was written back in the days of floppy disks, right? So the top priority was how quickly can you write to a floppy disk and read from a floppy disc, right? It wasn't about, how easy is this for other people to go and read and write? Not because it was on purpose, make it hard. It was just the primary bid is let's get this thing so it's really easy to read and write from floppy, right? Brian Jones (00:35:31): And so in Word, we were like, "Wow, I think that there's a bigger opportunity here for an ecosystem around Word if we make it easy for people to read and write Word docs and build solutions around them." And so then the next release, the Excel team was looking at doing some big changes around a lot of the limitations, like how many rows you could have in columns, right. Lengths of like formulas and things like that. Right. And so there was this thing where the Excel team was like, "We are going to need to create a new file format." And on the word side, we thought this XML thing was great. We want to move to that as our new format. Brian Jones (00:36:01): And so everything kind of came together and it was clear. Hey, this is going to be the release that we are going to go and rev our file format, which we hadn't done in a while. This is also the release of the ribbon. So there were two really big major changes in that product, right? It was the new file format and the ribbon. It's funny. I still refer to it as the new file format, even though it's 15 years old. Rob Collie (00:36:23): Yeah. It's the new file format it's still new, yeah. Brian Jones (00:36:25): I still call it that, which is kind of nuts. But I think that the controversies you were talking about was really more of a... Boy, this is a really big deal for the product. We had changed file formats before in the past and not necessarily gotten it right. And there were a lot of challenges around compatibility and stuff. And so there was just a lot of worry of let's make sure you all have your stuff together here, right? Like let's make sure that this doesn't in any way break, stop people from wanting to upgrade to the new version. But it went really well. The whole goal of it was let's get something that we think third parties can go and read and write, and this is going to help build an ecosystem. And a new ecosystem run Office. Office already had big ecosystem with VBA and COMM add-ons and stuff like that, right.? But we won't have this new ecosystem around our file formats as a thing. That's why we chose... There's a packaging layer, which is all zip based. So if people haven't played around with it that XLSX, you can just put a .zip at the end and double click it. And it's just a zip file. And you can see a whole bunch of stuff inside of it. Right? Rob Collie (00:37:23): Yeah. If you're listening, you haven't done that go right now, run don't walk, grab an Excel file or a Word file, whatever. Go and rename the XLSX or BPTX, go ahead and rename it so that it ends in .zip and then open it up and you'll be blown away. Thomas Larock (00:37:38): PowerPoint is my favorite when I have to find some unknown setting that I need and I can just search through the whole thing. Yep. Rob Collie (00:37:45): Or all the images. You want to get all the images out of the PowerPoint file. It's just a zip file that has a bunch of images in it. Right. Brian Jones (00:37:50): So I also did this for backpack. It's the same thing. You can crack open the backpack by renaming a zip file... Thomas Larock (00:37:58): An actual physical backpack? What are we... what are we talking about here? Brian Jones (00:38:03): Ah yeah. Rob Collie (00:38:03): This is the digital acetate that is over the top of the entire physical world that you aren't aware of. Thomas Larock (00:38:08): Digital acetate, that's it? That's it. That's where the podcast peaks. Right? Those two words. We're all going home now. Brian Jones (00:38:19): Yeah. No. A SQL server, there's DAC pack, which is just the, say database schema. Then there's a backpack which has the data and the schema combined. But you can, if you rename them . zip, you can crack them open to see the XML that makes up those forms. So it's not just office products. Rob Collie (00:38:37): We ended up standardizing the entire thing, but that packaging format, it was called OPC, Open Packaging Convention, or something like that. It was something that we did in partnership with a Windows team. It's part of the final ISO standard for our file format. And then there were a lot of other folks that went and used that exact same standard. Because it's a really easy way of you have a zip package. You can have a whole bunch of pieces inside of it, which are XML. And then there's this convention for how you can do relationships between the different pieces. So I can have a slide. That's an XML and it can declare relationships to all the images that it uses. And that way it's really quick, easy to know, okay, here's all the content I need to grab if I want to move pieces of it outside of the file. Rob Collie (00:39:16): So the single coolest thing I've ever done with, we'll just call it your file format Brian. We'll just pretend that it was only you working on that. Brian Jones (00:39:23): Just me yeah, I was pretty busy, but yeah. Rob Collie (00:39:27): So the very, very first version of Power Pivot, first of all, your file format, the new file format made Power Pivot possible. We needed to go and add this gigantic binary stream of compressed data and everything, everything about Power Pivot needed to be saved in the file. At the beginning of the project, everyone was saying, "Oh, no, we're going to save it as two separate files." And I'm like, "Are you guys kidding?" The Pivot cache, for instance, is saved in the same file. You can't throw a multi file solution at people and expect it to... This was actually like Manhattan project, just to get that stream saved into the same file. It was pretty crazy. However, when it was done, there was something really awesome I wasn't aware of until the very end, which was, first of all, you could open up a zip file and just tunnel down and you would find a file in there called item one.data. Rob Collie (00:40:21): Okay. That was the Power Pivot blob. That was everything about the Power Pivot thing. And it was by far the biggest thing in the file, like it was like 99% of the file size was what was there. However, as this backup, someone had decided, I had nothing to do with this, to save all of the instructions. I think it's called XML for analysis XMLA. All of the instructions that would be required to rebuild exactly that file, but without any of the actual binary data in it. So it was a very, very small amount of XML. Okay. So here's what we would do because there were no good automation, no interfaces, no APIs. If we needed to add like 500 formulas to a Power Pivot file, you could go through the UI and write those 500 formulas, type, click, type, click, type, click. Rob Collie (00:41:08): Okay. So what we would do, and my first job outside of Microsoft, is we would go in there and we would edit that XML backup and add all the formulas we wanted in it. And by the way, I would use Excel to write these formulas. I would use string concatenation and all of that kind of stuff to write these things. It was very, very, very sensitive, one character out of place in the whole thing fails. So you make those changes. You save the file, reopen it, nothing happens because it's just the backup. Okay. So then you've got to go and you've got to create a zero byte item one.data file on your desktop and you copy it into the zip file and overwrite the real item one.data, therefore deliberately corrupting the primary copy. So when you reopen the file it triggers the backup process and it rehydrates with all of your stuff, it was awesome. Rob Collie (00:41:57): And then a couple of releases of Power Pivot later, suddenly that didn't work anymore and I was really pissed. But it just really shows you, it opens up so many opportunities that you never would have expected. And even a hack like that, that's not the kind that you'd be really looking for, but the fact that something like that even happens as a result of this is really indicative of what a success it was. Brian Jones (00:42:19): Yeah. I mean, there's a lot of those things where, I love building platforms, like that's my favorite part of the job. It's all those things that you see people do that you never would have predicted. Right? That's just so exciting. PowerPoint had this huge group of folks that would go and build things like doc assembly stuff, right. Where they go and automatically build PowerPoint decks on demand, right? Based on who you're going to go and present to cause they've just shredded the thing. In fact, when we did the ISO standardization, it was a 6,000 page doc that we had to go. And we built and reviewed with a standards body and we did it over about a year. Which sounds nuts, a 6,000 page doc in about a year. And the way that we were able to do that is there was never really a 6,000 page doc. There's a database where there's a row for every single element and attribute in this, in the whole schema, that would then have the column which is the description, which would just be the word XML. Brian Jones (00:43:09): And so we could, on demand, at any point, generate whatever view or part of the doc we wanted. So we'd say, "Hey, we're going to go in now, review everything that has to do with formatting across Word, Excel and PowerPoint." And so we just click a couple buttons and the database would spit out a Word doc that was just that part. Everybody could go and edit it cause we were using the structured elements we'd added to Word, which is called content controls, which was the next version of that XML stuff that we had to deprecate. And then the process, as soon as you'd finish editing that Word doc, we just submit it back. The process would go back and shred that Word doc again and put it all back in the database. And so we really used the file format to bootstrap documenting the file format. Rob Collie (00:43:48): And then when you dump a 6,000 page document on someone, they have no choice. But to just say, yep, it looks good to us. Brian Jones (00:43:55): Well, there was a pretty, incredibly thorough review still. It was just pretty impressive. The final vote that we had in Geneva, the process leading up to that, the amount of feedback that we got. Cause basically the ISO, you can kind of think of it like the UN, you go and show up and every country has a seat, right? I mean, not everybody participates, but anybody that wants to can. And so yeah, we had to respond to thousands of comments around different pieces, things that people wanted to see changed. Rob Collie (00:44:22): Yeah. I can imagine, right. Think about it. You just said at the final vote in Geneva. That's a heavy moment man. Thomas Larock (00:44:29): Yeah. That threw me off for a second. I thought, for sure, you were talking Switzerland, but now thinking that was just a code name. Rob Collie (00:44:38): No, I think, I think he was actually in Switzerland. Brian Jones (00:44:40): In Switzerland. Rob Collie (00:44:41): Have you seen the chamber where they do these votes? It looks just like the Senate from episode one of Star Wars. It's just like that. It's pretty heavy. Brian Jones (00:44:51): The little levitating... Rob Collie (00:44:53): The floating lift. Yeah. I think they call that digital acetate. I think that's what they call that. By the way on the Excel team, the way I came to look at the new file format and the open architecture of it, again, this this will show you how quickly I had turned into the more cynic side of things. Well, okay. We're going to be changing file formats. And we're doing that for our benefit because we didn't have enough bits allocated in the 1980s version of the file format that was saved to floppy disc, as you pointed out, right. Who could ever imagine having more than 64,000 rows, it's just inconceivable or 250 columns or whatever, right.? Because we hadn't allocated that. We'd made an engineering mistake, essentially, we hadn't future-proofed. So we need to make a file format change for our benefit, right. To undo one of our mistakes. And the way I looked at it was, "Ooh, all this open file format stuff, that'll be like the 'Look, squirrel!'" To distract people and to sort of justify, while we went and did this other thing, which, ultimately it actually went pretty well. The transition for the customers actually wasn't nearly as bad, because we actually Took it seriously. Rob Collie (00:46:03): The transition for the customers actually wasn't nearly as bad because we actually took it seriously. We didn't cut any corners. We did all the right things. Brian Jones (00:46:07): Well, there were several benefits too. We were talking about all the kind of ecosystem development benefits, but the fact that the file was zipped and compressed right, it meant that the thing was smaller. And that was all of a sudden, it was no longer about floppy discs. People are sharing files on networks. And so actually being able to go and have a file that's easier to share, send over network because it's smaller was a thing. Brian Jones (00:46:26): There were a couple of things that we were able to go and highlight. There's also a pretty nice thing where it was actually more robust because it was XML, and we split it into multiple pieces of XML. It meant that even if you had bit rot, you would only lose one little piece of the file, whereas with old the binary format, you had some bit rot and the whole thing is impossible to open up.There are a couple of things that were in user benefits too, which helped. Rob Collie (00:46:50): And ultimately, on the Excel side, the user got a million row spreadsheet format and the ability to use a hell of a lot more than like 14 colors that could be used in a single spreadsheet or something. It was .like a power of two minus two, so many bizarre things. Like Excel had more colors than that, but you couldn't use more than a certain subset in a- Brian Jones (00:47:10): At a time, yeah. Rob Collie (00:47:10): -In a single file. So yeah, there were a lot of benefits. They just weren't- Brian Jones (00:47:15): It's not like it's an explicit choice. It's just that at the time somebody is implementing something, you're right in a way, assuming, "Oh, this is fine. This is enough. I'll never have to worry with this issue." Rob Collie (00:47:25): Why waste the whole byte on that? When you can cram four different settings into a single byte. If you read the old stories about Gates and Allen programming up at Harvard, they had these vicious head-to-head competitions to see who could write the compiler or the section of basic in the fewest bytes possible. This was still very much hanging over Microsoft, even the vestiges of it were still kind of hanging over us even when I arrived. But certainly in the '80s when the Excel file format was being designed for that rev, it was still very much like, "Why waste all those bits in a byte?" "Let's cap it at four bits". Thomas Larock (00:48:05): In that blog series from Sinofsky, he talks a lot about that at the early start. And I'm at a point now where he's talking a lot about the code reuse because the Excel team, the Word team, I guess PowerPoint, but all these other teams, were all dealing with, say, text. And they were all doing their own code for how that text would be displayed and shown. And Bill would be the one being like, " This is ridiculous". "We should be able to reuse the code between these products". And to me, that would just be common sense. But these groups, Microsoft just grew so rapidly so quickly, they were off on their own, and they have to ship. I ain't got time to wait around for this, for somebody to build an API, things like that. I'll just write it myself. Brian Jones (00:48:50): It's a general thing that you get as you get larger where the person in charge that can oversee everything is like, "Well, these are all my resources", and, "Wow, I don't want three groups all building the same thing". But then when you get down, there's also a reality of we're just going to have a very different view on text and text layout than Excel. And Excel is not going to say, "I want all of that code that Word uses to lay out all of their content to be running for every single cell". Right? That's just suboptimal. And so it's always this fun conversation back and forth around where do you have shared code and reuse and where do you say it's okay for this specific app to have this more optimized thing that might look the same, but in reality, it's not really the same. Rob Collie (00:49:33): Brian, do you remember the ... I'm sure you do, but I don't remember what company they were from. But at one point in this file format effort, these really high priced consultants showed up and went around and interviewed us a couple of times. Do you remember that phase? It was like- Brian Jones (00:49:51): Was that towards the end? There was a couple summary stories that were pulled together just to talk about the overall processes. It was actually after the standardization. Rob Collie (00:49:58): I remember this being at the point in time where it was still kind of a question. whether we should do it. Brian Jones (00:50:02): I don't remember that. Rob Collie (00:50:04): The thing I remember really vividly is a statement that Chris Pratley would make over and over again, this encapsulated it for me. I came around to seeing it his way, which was the file format isn't the thing. That's not the moat. The thing that makes Office unique is the behaviors of the application. It's not the noun of the file format. It's the verb of what happens in the app. It's instructed to think that even if you took exactly the Excel team today, every single person that's already worked on it, and said, "Hey, you have to go rebuild Excel exactly". There's no way that version of Excel would be compatible with the one we have now. It would drift so much. Rob Collie (00:50:43): You could even have access to all the same specs. We would even cheat and say, "Look, you can have access to every single spec ever written". So? It was clearly someone had thought it was time to bring in like a McKinsey. They were all well dressed. They were all attractive. They were all a little too young to be the ones sort of making these decisions. It was just really weird to have them show up, three people in your office. Like, "Okay, I'll tell you what's going on". Brian Jones (00:51:11): I can totally imagine. It's funny I don't remember that. There were several rounds of analysis on how we were doing it, what we're doing and making sure we were doing it the right way. But yeah, Chris is spot on. I mean, your point about rebuilding it, that's essentially what we've been going through for the past five plus years around our web app. It's a lot of work. Unfortunately, we can't let it drift. The expectation from everybody is, "Hey, I learned the Wind 32 version. When I go to the web, I want it to feel the same. I don't want to feel like I'm now using some different app." Rob Collie (00:51:44): What an amazing, again, like a Manhattan project type of thing, this notion of rewriting Excel to run on the web and be compatible. Brian Jones (00:51:55): Yeah, with 30 years of innovation. Rob Collie (00:51:56): Yeah. That started in the 2007 release. Excel services, the first release of Excel services was 2007. And this whole thing about shared code, like what features, what functions of Excel, what pieces of it were going to be rewritten to be quote unquote "shared code"? And shared code meant it was actually server safe, which none of regular desktop Excel written in the early '80s, still carrying around assembly in certain places, assembly code of all things, right? Excel was not server safe. It was about as far from server safe as you could get. And so to rewrite this so ambitious without breaking anything. Oh my God. What a massive ... This dates back, gosh, more than 15 years. Brian Jones (00:52:45): Yeah. I'd say like the first goals around it were a bit different, right? It wasn't a web version of Excel. It was like BI scenarios and how can we have dashboards and Excel playing a role in dashboards. But yeah, I'd say since I joined, it was probably maybe a half a year or a year into when I joined, we just made the decision to shift a huge chunk of our funding to the web app. It was just clear that we need to make even more rapid progress. If you go, we have a site where you can go and see all the features that are rolling out there. It's incredible. And it's just because of the depth of the product. "Wow that's so many features you've done. You must be almost done". But then you look at everything else that's still isn't done yet. Brian Jones (00:53:23): Now thankfully, we're getting to the point where we can look at telemetry and say, "Hey, we've got most people covered." Most users, when we look at what they do in Windows, they could use the web app and shouldn't notice a difference. But there still is a set of things that we're going to keep churning through. So that'll continue to be a huge, huge investment for us. But yeah, the shared code strategy, we have an iPhone version, an iPad version an Android version. We've got Excel across all platforms. And because of the shared code, when we add new features, the feature crew that's working on that, they need to have a plan for how they're going to roll out across all those platforms, clearly levered shared code. But they also need to think through user experience and stuff like that too. Clearly a feature on a phone is going to behave differently than it's going to behave on a desktop. Rob Collie (00:54:05): Part of me, just like, kind of wants to just say, "I don't even believe that you've pulled that off, there's no way". It's kind of like, I've never looked at the Android version, and until I look at the Android version, I'm just going to assume it's not real. This is why it's one of the hardest things imaginable to have a single code base with all these different user experience, just fundamental paradigms of difference between these platforms. Like really? Come on. Brian Jones (00:54:34): It was a massively ambitious project. Mac shifted over maybe three years ago. And that's when, all of a sudden, in addition to a bunch of just features that people have been asking for that we'd never been able to get to, the massive one there was we were able to roll out the co-authoring multiplayer mode for Excel. Rob Collie (00:54:50): Multiplayer. Brian Jones (00:54:52): That's the term I like for co-authoring. It's more fun. Rob Collie (00:54:55): Yeah. It's like MMO for spreadsheets. Brian Jones (00:54:57): Yes. We were able to get that for the Mac. I mean, all of our platforms. One of us can be on an iPad, an iPhone, the web app, and we'll all see what we're doing in real time, making edits and all of that stuff. That alone, if you want to talk about massive projects, 30 years of features and innovation, basically that means we had to go and teach Excel how to communicate to another version of Excel and be very specific about, "This is what I did." "Here's the action I took." And that is massive. There are thousands and thousands of things you can do in the product. So getting it so that all of those versions are in sync the entire time, and so we're all seeing the exact same results of calc and all of that. That itself was a huge, massive project. Rob Collie (00:55:37): Take this as the highest form of praise when I say I don't buy it. I can't believe it. Brian Jones (00:55:44): I hope everybody's okay that we just talked for like an hour on just like listening to somebody at a high school reunion, I think, or something. Is this like me talking about how great I played in that one game? And you're like, "Yeah, that was a great basket". Rob Collie (00:55:54): Yeah. "Man, my jumper was on". the thing that's hard to appreciate, I think, is that you got to come back to the fact that we're talking about the tools that everyone in the world uses every day, that we rely on. And I think being gone from Microsoft for the last 12 years, I'm able to better appreciate that sense of wonder. This isn't just you and I catching up, I don't think. People enjoy, for good reason I think, hearing the stories of how these things came to be. People don't know by default how hard it was to get to a million rows in the file format. If you're like a robot, you're like, "I don't care how I got here. I just care what it is", then you're not listening to this show. We call it data with a human element. Robots can exit stage left. I think you should feel zero guilt. This isn't just self-indulgence. Brian Jones (00:56:55): Well, on the off chance everybody else ... I've listened to a lot of Rob's other podcasts, and they're awesome. So if you're bored with this one, it's okay. Go check out some of the other ones. They'r

Brian Basilico is an award-winning, internationally recognized author and speaker (and a self-professed geek). He's the founder and president of B2B Interactive Marketing Inc., a marketing consulting and production company. B2B was founded in 2001 and helps companies and nonprofits market their products and services through the effective use of online tools including websites, blogs, email, social networking, Google, S.E.O., YouTube, and more. Brian shares why he's known as the “bacon man,” what made him dare to leap, and how he was able to help his clients during the pandemic!   Key takeaways: How did Brian get into bacon? When Brian found himself in the hospital, he was so thankful he had his business running on autopilot. Brian has had a very extensive career and has been his own boss for at least the last 20 years. What has helped Brian throughout his career? Brian shares how he helps his clients save money. SEO is critical for any business, but it has its caveats that you have to be aware of. Brian recognizes he's good at some things, but he needs Kathy's awareness and sharp business expertise to help him see the bigger picture. Brian has been running his caption contest for over 10 years. The other day, he posted one and got no engagement. What happened? Facebook's algorithm has gotten harder. Business does not happen over social media. What's the difference between B2C and B2B? What's the difference between the marketing and sales arms of your business? Have a B2B business that needs a bit of optimizing? Reach out to Brian!   Resources: Brianbasilico.com Brian on LinkedIn It's Not About You, It's About Bacon: Relationship Marketing in a Social Media World, by Brian Basilico   Quotes:   “I started the year saying, don't panic, pivot. And everybody hated the word pivot by the third month.”   “I wear it like a badge of honor. I make mistakes. It's okay.”   “Progress, not perfection.”

Tune in to Part 1 of Fresh Energy's "Intersection of Energy and Community" webinar series!The transition to an equitable, carbon-neutral economy will bring big changes to our communities. State and federal policies, utility programs, and the overall evolution from a world powered by oil and gas to a clean electricity-powered future, play out in our neighborhoods, workplaces, and homes. But it's not just communities adapting to change. Cities, counties, and local institutions are often leading through model projects and Climate Action Plans to shape a new reality.In summer 2021, Fresh Energy hosted a webinar series to raise the question: How can we dramatically reduce carbon emissions in a way that improves our communities and benefits everyone?PanelistsBrian Larson, Co-Founder and CEO of Darcy SolutionsBrian found a love of the land as a child, while spending time on his grandmother's farm near Willmar, MN. His studies in Economics at the University of Minnesota led him to pursue his MBA at Indiana University. In the early part of his career he was employed by various large oil and gas companies on the west coast and southern gulf coast, regularly working closely with geologists and geophysicists. Brian's passion for innovation and problem-solving brought him to work at the consulting firm McKinsey – gaining invaluable knowledge on how to build great companies and design growth strategies. His desire to use innovation to make the world a better place led him to a 14-year career at Cargill. Brian is always looking for an opportunity to do something impactful and use his 30+ years of business experience to elevate brilliant entrepreneurs. When Brian and Jimmy Randolph met, it became clear that the duo's shared a desire to protect the planet for future generations inspires their partnership at Darcy Solution.Tony Poole, Business Manager, Steamfitters/Pipefitters Local 455Tony Poole is a 23-year member of the St. Paul Steamfitters Pipefitters Local 455 and is currently serving as Business Manager for the Union. Upon completion of his apprenticeship in 2004, Tony spent the better part of his career working at industrial sites welding on critical piping systems. He also has experience working on many commercial projects, including hospitals and schools. Tony was elected Business Agent for the Union in 2013 and Business Manager in 2018 and in this capacity is closely involved in contract negotiations, public relations, and more.Margaret Cherne-Hendrick, Lead Director, Energy Transition at Fresh EnergyMargaret Cherne-Hendrick steers Fresh Energy's work to decarbonize our economy through the transition of end-uses currently served by fossil fuels to efficient, equitable, carbon-free electricity. She leads a team of staff shaping and driving solutions that use beneficial electrification, efficiency, and other carbon-reduction strategies to dramatically reduce emissions from the building and transportation sectors. She also leads Fresh Energy's work on carbon sequestration and low-carbon fuel standards as well as actively evaluating other opportunities to move Minnesota toward an equitable carbon-neutral economy by 2050.  In addition to Minnesota policy work at the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission, State Legislature, and administrative channels, Margaret leads Fresh Energy's involvement in multiple key partnerships and is a primary architect of the Midwest Building Decarbonization Coalition.

My guest this week is my friend and all round good guy True Geordie, otherwise known as Brian Davis. Brian is from Newcastle upon Tyne, England. He was born on a council estate, raised mostly by his mother as he describes his father being in and out of prison and not really being the father figure he desperately needed. When Brian left home he went to work on the oil rigs, scuba diving to work on them underwater. He describes how this would put him into life or death situations on a daily basis. The colleges he gained on the oil rigs became his father figures. After leaving the oil rigs he started YouTube under the name footballfan533, and first rose to prominence when his first video (titled A True Geordie's view on Nile Ranger) went viral. Brian quickly gained a following due to his expletive and passionate opinions, and therefore changed his channel name to True Geordie, uploading more regularly. He was originally known for uploading rants about his football, but has since become best-known for the eponymous True Geordie Podcast, hosted by himself and his best friend Laurence McKenna. Geordie was chosen the host and commentator for the KSI V Joe Weller fight in February 2018. He had previously been a commentator for some of the charity football matches.  I met Brian back in 2017 to record his podcast, we recorded it in a tiny abandoned bomb shelter that he paid £50 a day to rent out. Brian has come a long way since then, running a rapidly growing Youtube channel thats accumulating millions upon millions of views per week, he's commentated on one of the largest Youtube events in history and he's also created some of the best content I've ever seen. All of this was quickly ripped away from him last year after one of the hardest weeks of his life, something we talk a lot about today. He's gone through it all, been to the darkest of places, anxiety, depression and suicidal ideation. However this didn't stop him getting back on his feet and rebuilding himself from the ground up, coming back bigger and better than before.  Topics: Your early years  The rise of True Geordie  The fall of True Geordie You Mother Your Dad Your experiences with anxiety  Your depression You never relax Attaching your happiness to a future goal What the cost of being ambitious?  Whats the big ambition? Do you get the credit you deserve?  Do you think you're happy? Reaching my goals or at least trying to How has fitness been for your mental health? You stopped podcasting & turned off comments? Brian: https://www.youtube.com/c/TrueGeordie/ https://twitter.com/TrueGeordieTG https://instagram.com/TrueGeordieOffi... Sponsors: https://uk.huel.com/ https://fiverr.com/ceo

Marty Balkema, co-founder of Augusto, shares his theory behind building a client roster and positive reputation by banking on trust and hiring great people. In this episode of the Augusto Digital Insights podcast, Brian Anderson interviews Marty Balkema—a 20-year software development veteran and the COO and co-founder of Augusto. As a leader on the executive team, Marty has been instrumental in helping to shape the company's operations and culture. This is one part of a series focused on the people and relationships that guide Augusto's vision for the future. Marty and Brian first met when Marty was in Grand Rapids, Michigan, working for a company called Rapidparts—a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Caterpillar Forklift Association (MCFA). Marty was responsible for the development of their Lift Truck Solutions platform, and he hired Brian's team at the time to help. Because of the way Brian handled the unintentional budget overage on that original project, the two men maintained a long relationship—and, eventually, friendship. Marty shares about his unique educational experience at what was then called GMI Engineering and Management Institute (now Kettering University). As a fully cooperative school, the pattern of education was that students worked for 12 weeks in the field then attended school for 12 weeks. He quickly began to love solving problems around technology. When Brian was considering starting a consulting business, Marty's family was looking for an opportunity that would allow them the freedom to live wherever they wanted. That paired with the opportunity to consult on software development led Marty to jump on board. Marty shares how they built a client roster and positive reputation by banking on trust and by performing solid jobs. He also talks about the importance of hiring great people who want to pursue client wins—then setting them free to do their jobs. As part of his job, Marty creates a culture and environment at Augusto that sets talented people up to thrive. We thank Marty for his time on the Augusto Digital Podcast and for the way he creates a team of amazing workers!

Jon talks with Brian Bogert, President of The Brian Bogert Companies. When Brian was seven years old, his left arm was torn off in a vehicle accident. But instead of succumbing to suffering because of the injury, Brian fully recovered and flourished with a reattached arm, thanks to his persistent and proactive focus. Brian Bogert is a human behavior and performance coach, speaker, business strategist and philanthropic leader who helps people make their best even better. His revolutionary strategy—embrace pain to avoid suffering—has helped individuals and companies break beyond their normal to achieve the success in life and business that they've always wanted.   Connect with Jon Dwoskin: Twitter: @jdwoskin Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jonathan.dwoskin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thejondwoskinexperience/ Website: https://jondwoskin.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jondwoskin/ Email: jon@jondwoskin.com Get Jon's Book: The Think Big Movement: Grow your business big. Very Big!   Connect with Brian Bogert: Website: https://brianbogert.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianbogert/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/3364759633555061 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bogertbrian/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/BogertBrian YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmhaMgY8q-tMMCj0rpGg7iw?view_as=subscriber

Brian was born in New York and moved to Florida at age five and spent most of his life there. He attended Florida State University, and then at the age of thirty, he moved to Chicago. Brian has been there for seventeen years now and has a wonderful wife, Katie, who he's been married to for ten years. They have a nine-year-old son named Will. They love spending time together and taking family vacations, just the three of them. In his spare time, Brian likes to play golf, read and play sports with his son. BKW Property Solutions was started to provide flexible real estate solutions for both buyers and sellers. They serve the Greater Chicagoland area and help buyers realize their dream of owning a home. When Brian and Katie experienced many of the common challenges of selling their own home many years ago, they knew there had to be a better way. That is the foundation of BKW Property Solutions and we look forward to serving your needs. There is a better way! Brian is also the Strategy Expert for Smart Real Estate Coach. After spending 25+ years in the corporate world, Brian finally decided to get out of his own way and pursue his dream of running his own business. In this role, Brian helps other aspiring entrepreneurs carve out their path for financial freedom using creative financing strategies in real estate. Curtis and Brian discuss and review his business of helping buyers and sellers with creating financing and how he helps other people achieve their goal of scaling a business. Curtis's motto is that what you learn today and how you position yourself will determine your future financial well-being 5, 10, 20 years from today. To learn more about how to manage your wealth in a practical way, visit www.practicalwealthadvisors.com  Links and Resources from this Episode www.practicalwealthadvisors.com Email Curtis for a free report - curtmay@gmail.com Call his office - 610-622-3121 Connect with Brian O'Neill brian@bkwpropertysolutions.com http://bkwpropertysolutions.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bkwpropertysolutions/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bkwpropertysolutions/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-o-neill-5069216/  Special Listener Gift Schedule a 15-Minute Call with Curtis Free Ebook Financial Planning Has Failed Show Notes A mindset that has to happen - 3:21 Going to college and getting a new job - 4:13 Being sick and tired - 5:32 The real estate business space - 6:03 Finding individuals that are the “ideal buyer” - 13:50 We're looking to help and solve problems - 15:16 About scaling - 18:28 Figuring out what do you want for your life - 25:54 Review, Subscribe and Share If you like what you hear please leave a review by clicking here Make sure you're subscribed to the podcast so you get the latest episodes. Click here to subscribe with Apple Podcasts Click here to subscribe with Spotify Click here to subscribe with Stitcher Click here to subscribe with RSS

When Brian was diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2010, his friend Alison Hitchcock offered to write letters to cheer him up. Over the next two years, as Brian's cancer moved from stage III to IV, Alison's letters kept on coming. The letters became part of Brian's recovery process, while Alison discovered a passion for writing she never knew existed. Four years on, Brian is now cancer-free, Alison is an author, and the two have a relationship that only the term ‘best friends' can describe. Alison and Brian are now dedicated to getting us all writing letters and they discuss their journey today with Passions.

Tune in and buckle up - this will be a ride! Meet Brian Mayne - the creator of the Goal Mapping, Life Mapping, and Self Mapping personal development systems, and the Seven Magic Keys development program for children. Brian Mayne's Goal Mapping, a world-leading achievement system, is a unique whole-brain approach to setting goals that powerfully helps people achieve their desires. When Brian's family business failed during the UK recession of the late 1980s, he lost what seemed like everything: his income, his home, and his marriage. He was 29 years old, £1 million in debt, and still relatively unable to read or write. It was at this seemingly low point that Brian discovered the keys to success: that you can change your life by changing your thoughts and feelings about it. Using simple but powerful techniques, Brian learned to hold positive thoughts by setting goals, and through those goals, he gradually transformed both himself and his life. Brian is now an international speaker on human potential and has empowered hundreds of thousands of people with his unique systems for success. As well as helping individuals to achieve their aims, Brian helps leading organisations such as Siemens, Microsoft and BT. He has also worked with renowned speakers such as Brendon Buchard, Anthony Robbins, Christopher Howard and T Harv Ecker. Get inspired, motivated and truly energized, and, most importantly, set your goals and take bold action! With Brian's tips, you are bound to succeed! Tune in!

When Brian and Cousin Pumkin got together for this episode, they quickly realized that there was only one week out of the year it should be released; the week of 4/20. On the surface, Mac and Devin go to High School is a stoner comedy functioning as an extended music video for Wiz Khalifa and Snoop Dogg's hip hop album of the same name and don't worry, that's pretty much what it is. So what? That's what it's supposed to be; living young, and wild and free. 

The Households of FI series continues! In this episode, we touch base with Kristi, the single mom from Minnesota who. New to FI, Kristi is working to get on the path but has questions about her company’s Price-to-Earnings (P/E) Ratio and the Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP). How to evaluate what a company’s stock is worth is not something many of us index fund investors know a lot about, but it’s good to be familiar with it. Individual stock selection is something that Brian Feroldi gets excited about, making him the perfect mentor for Kristi and her ESPP questions. The only individual stock Kristi owns is her company’s stock. She is able to buy her company’s stock for a 15% discount with up to 10% of her income. She has been buying this stock since beginning her career six years ago and has accumulated a lot of it. Because she didn’t know anything about investing prior to finding the FI community, she nows calls this her biggest financial mistake and has finally started selling a bit of it. She originally thought that sell the stock with the lowest cost basis to realize the largest gain would be the best strategy, but now questions if that is the best move. Brian says a lot of publicly-traded companies offer ESPP, like Kristi’s. Company plans vary somewhat, and it sounds like her company purchases lots of the stock on a monthly basis at the end of the month. As long as Kristi holds the stock for two years, the 15% discount is taxed as ordinary income, and capital gains are taxed as long-term capital gains. Discounted stock sounds like a great deal, but Kristi has a lot of risk tied to her company. Her salary, bonus, retirement plan, benefits, and career capital all rely on the company. Purchasing employee stock increases the risk even more. When Brian started his career, his company offered an ESPP, and although he was bullish on the company, he chose not to participate as a risk management strategy. He already had too much riding on the companies success to risk adding to it. Although the company did well and he would have increased his wealth, he is happy with the choices he made because he was maximizing his potential net worth, while assuming as little risk as possible. Although her company is a blue-chip business and low-risk company. Kristi will need to ask herself how much risk she wants to be tied to it. Brian says ESPPs are great, but you’ll want to make sure you are taking care of everything else first, such as an emergency fund, 401K, debt, and IRAs. Although her company is the only individual stock she owns, she is somewhat interested in owning other individual stocks. She can add that in over the top of the bulk of investments in index funds, while remaining diversified, and still feel good about her long-term compounding chances. Kristi would like to know how to evaluate an individual company’s stock for investing in the short-term and long-term. She knows the P/E ratio is something to look at and her company’s P/E ratio is 18.66. Brian says a P/E ratio is a tool you can use to evaluate stocks, but it’s important to know when it is appropriate to use and when it is not. First, Brian says he never invests in a company short-term, or less than three years because it’s impossible to know what a stock is going to do in the short-term. Long-term stock prices are driven by earnings power and earnings growth which is the company’s profitability. In P/E ratio, the P stands for price or the price of one share. E stands for earnings, the net income or profits per share. The difference between those two numbers is the price investors are willing to pay for $1 profit in the company. With Kristi’s company, for every $1 in earnings power generated, the market is willing to pay 18.66 times that number. Brian says it’s helpful to flip that number around and think about it as an interest rate. Take 100 and divide it by 18.66, to get 5.35% on the company’s earnings power. But is that good or bad? Context is key. When looking at over the last decade, Kristi’s very stable company’s P/E ratio varied from 30 to 12. Since the current P/E ratio of 18.66 is on the lower half of that range, Brian says the stock is more likely to be in bargain territory than it is to be overly expensive. Next, Brian pulls up the company’s net income over the last decade, which has been mostly stable with a few spikes and other periods when it has fallen. This needs to be compared to the P/E ratio as the highs and lows may be artificial. Another metric Brain says to look at is the price-to-sales ratio, which is the price of the business divided by the sales, or revenue per share. This ratio eliminates the one-time swings and tends to be much more stable. Over the last decade, her company’s ratio varied from 5 to 2 and is currently at 3, again leading Brian to believe the stock is in buy territory. If you have an ESPP, you want to look at the minimum holding period, know when you are outside the short-term capital gains, and the other details of your company plans. Consider rolling it over to an investment outside your company once the plan requirements have been met and it meets long-term capital gains requirements. Long-term capital gains have preferential tax rates. The line of delineation between short and long is one year. Investment gains are not subject to tax until they are realized. If selling an investment held less than a year, the gain will be taxed as if it was ordinary income, or whatever your top marginal tax rate is, which for most is 20-24%. Gains from investments held longer than one year are as taxed as long-term gains, which for most people is 15%. For those who have access to an ESPP, it is part of your compensation but will require a bit of research because there is some risk in tying up so much of your wealth into one company. Resources Mentioned In Today’s Conversation ChooseFI Episode 224 Introducing Our Households of FI!! Part 2 ChooseFI Episode 259 Kristi and Big ERN YCharts Stockrow Is an Employee Stock Purchase Plan Worth the Risk? ChooseFI Episode 024R The Friday Roundup | How to Hack Your ESPP ChooseFI Episode 200 Stock Fundamentals With Brian Feroldi Get started on your own path to financial independence and take the 5-day challenge! If You Want To Support ChooseFI: Earn $1,000 in cashback with ChooseFI’s 3-card credit card strategy.  Share FI by sending a friend ChooseFI: Your Blueprint to Financial Independence.      

When Brian was on with us last year, we started talking about identifying sponsors, working with potential sponsors, and how to get and treat sponsors to assist with the expenses related to racing.  Since then, Brian has given several talks on this topic, as well as appearances on several podcasts.  As always, our goal was to provide a complete summary of the area of sponsorship and allow you to be able to identify potential sponsors and find a way to help their business and your racing.  If you use the strategies Brian covers and understand that it is not all about you, your speed, and your race wins, you should be able to start or grow your current driver/team/car sponsorship program.  So technically, our podcast is not only free to you but may actually make or save you some money.   There is no Dominating with Dawson on this episode, but we will double up next Monday.    You can subscribe to our podcast on the podcast provider of your choice, including the Apple podcast app, Google music, Amazon, and YouTube etc.  Also, if you could give our podcast a (5-star?) rating or even better, a podcast review, we would greatly appreciate it and it would help us to grow the passion and sport of high performance driving. For instance, leaving an Apple Podcast rating is very easy.  If you go to your podcast library, under shows and click on the podcast you can leave a (5?) star rating and enter your review.    We hope you enjoy this episode!   PS  Please don’t forget that if you are looking to add an Apex Pro to your driving telemetry system, don’t forget to use our discount code for all Apex Pro systems you will receive a free Windshield Suction Cup Mount for the system, a savings of $40.  Just enter the code “ghitlikesapex!” when you order.  We have two systems for our team and Bill is looking to add a third for this season, pending CFO approval from Vicki.  They are a great system and truly invaluable in safely increasing your speed on track and/or autocross etc.   Best regards,   Vicki, Jennifer, Alan, and Bill Hosts of the Garage Heroes In Training Podcast and Garage Heroes In Training racing team drivers   Highlights from this episode include: 1)  Bill establishes his wish list for a dream sponsor and Brian quickly dashes it against the rocks and we move to the reality of the current sponsorship and business climate. 2)  Brian defines exactly what should be considered to be sponsorship and provides several examples of how these relationships start and develop. 3)  Sponsorships are sometimes monetary but can also be discounted goods or services. 4)  When approaching a sponsor, the key is to try to determine what the sponsor is looking for and how you can help them grow their business.  Try to look at it from their perspective before thinking of what you can give or what you want from them. 5)  Advertising and media exposure should not be the focus of your pitch. 6)  What are the three components that make the strongest proposal to a potential sponsor. 7)  What is a potential sponsorship program, how to prepare one, and how to increase your likelihood of success.  We also go into the importance of having an internal champion is getting the traction needed to start the relationship even before you have a sponsorship program. 8)  We even go into an area that is often overlooked by our racing friends:  what does the business want in return from the sponsorship. 9)  We even go through a scenario using an example business and product with an amateur endurance racing team as a worked example.  Just for instance.  Hey, it’s our podcast, lol. 10)  Tips and guidance on how to approach your first sponsor that you probably already know within your personal social network. 11)  Getting, maintaining, and growing a sponsorship relationship is a significant investment of time and effort by your team or at least one team member and can really be a near full time job. 12) Brian also goes into several examples of sponsorship deals that he has witnessed during his professional life. 13)  How to present you and your team to the sponsor and what you should do before even sending them any information. 14)  As many would have guessed, Bill tries to get Brian’s help with his dream Slurpee sponsorship.  And then we walkthrough a potential path to Vicki’s dream sponsor of Flyin’ Miata for her baby.  The thought behind these would be to show a worked example and what factors and approaches that may be helpful with trying to prepare for and start the conversation. 15)  How and where to start your first steps towards working with a sponsor. 16)  UPOD – Under Promise and Over Deliver.  Words to live by in racing and in the real world.  (Meat Space).  Its right up there with “If it’s worth doing, it’s worth overdoing” 17)  Brian was also kind enough to offer several additional potential models that can be pursued instead of, or in addition to, seeking sponsorship. 18)  Vicki goes off program and starts talking racing EV’s in endurance racing from out of nowhere.  It is kind of like the line from the Talking Heads “Well, How Did I Get Here”

It started as an innocent business trip to one of the most haunted cities in the world, New Orleans. Shortly after checking into his room Brian Dietz began feeling “watched.” After searching his room, Brian soon found himself the recipient of a life-changing paranormal experience that would put him on a path searching for answers. What answers has he found on this journey as he realized that as much as he may be searching for spirits, spirits may be targeting him? PART 2 - AVAILABLE TO GRAVE KEEPERS ONLY - LISTEN HERE (http://www.patreon.com/thegravetalks) In part two of our interview, available only to Grave Keepers (http://www.patreon.com/thegravetalks) , we discuss: What does Brian believe happens to him when he experiences sleep paralysis? When Brian says, “When ghosts target you, pay attention,” what does he mean? Brian is involved in the evolving world of spirit communication technology; how is communication improving, and where does he see it going in the future? Does spirit communication technology work the same, regardless of who’s hands they are in? As a Grave Keeper, for $5 per month you will get: Access to every episode (http://www.thegravetalks.com/category/podcast-episodes/) of our show, AD-FREE – MONTHS BEFORE THEY GO PUBLIC. Access to every EXCLUSIVE PART 2 episode of our show for Grave Keeper Only! Access to submit questions to upcoming guests of our show. The “good feeling” knowing that you are keeping this show alive (It really does feel good!) Listen to part two of this interview and get exclusive access to HUNDREDS of bonus episodes at http://www.patreon.com/thegravetalks

It started as an innocent business trip to one of the most haunted cities in the world, New Orleans. Shortly after checking into his room Brian Dietz began feeling “watched.” After searching his room, Brian soon found himself the recipient of a life-changing paranormal experience that would put him on a path searching for answers. What answers has he found on this journey as he realized that as much as he may be searching for spirits, spirits may be targeting him? PART 2 - AVAILABLE TO GRAVE KEEPERS ONLY - LISTEN HERE (http://www.patreon.com/thegravetalks) In part two of our interview, available only to Grave Keepers (http://www.patreon.com/thegravetalks) , we discuss: What does Brian believe happens to him when he experiences sleep paralysis? When Brian says, “When ghosts target you, pay attention,” what does he mean? Brian is involved in the evolving world of spirit communication technology; how is communication improving, and where does he see it going in the future? Does spirit communication technology work the same, regardless of who’s hands they are in? As a Grave Keeper, for $5 per month you will get: Access to every episode (http://www.thegravetalks.com/category/podcast-episodes/) of our show, AD-FREE – MONTHS BEFORE THEY GO PUBLIC. Access to every EXCLUSIVE PART 2 episode of our show for Grave Keeper Only! Access to submit questions to upcoming guests of our show. The “good feeling” knowing that you are keeping this show alive (It really does feel good!) Listen to part two of this interview and get exclusive access to HUNDREDS of bonus episodes at http://www.patreon.com/thegravetalks

It started as an innocent business trip to one of the most haunted cities in the world, New Orleans. Shortly after checking into his room Brian Dietz began feeling “watched.” After searching his room, Brian soon found himself the recipient of a life-changing paranormal experience that would put him on a path searching for answers. What answers has he found on this journey as he realized that as much as he may be searching for spirits, spirits may be targeting him? PART 2 - AVAILABLE TO GRAVE KEEPERS ONLY - LISTEN HERE (http://www.patreon.com/thegravetalks) In part two of our interview, available only to Grave Keepers (http://www.patreon.com/thegravetalks) , we discuss: What does Brian believe happens to him when he experiences sleep paralysis? When Brian says, “When ghosts target you, pay attention,” what does he mean? Brian is involved in the evolving world of spirit communication technology; how is communication improving, and where does he see it going in the future? Does spirit communication technology work the same, regardless of who’s hands they are in? As a Grave Keeper, for $5 per month you will get: Access to every episode (http://www.thegravetalks.com/category/podcast-episodes/) of our show, AD-FREE – MONTHS BEFORE THEY GO PUBLIC. Access to every EXCLUSIVE PART 2 episode of our show for Grave Keeper Only! Access to submit questions to upcoming guests of our show. The “good feeling” knowing that you are keeping this show alive (It really does feel good!) Listen to part two of this interview and get exclusive access to HUNDREDS of bonus episodes at http://www.patreon.com/thegravetalks

I’m sure you know Brian’s work, but this episode explores everything Brian has been up to. This episode originally aired on the WrestleHorror Podcast, and if you want the full interview grab it from their feed. When Brian started out, there were far fewer resources for haunters. Brian first started his blog Scary Visions. Then he met Darryl and started HaunTopic Radio to both learn and teach other haunters. And now, he's developed the membership site Haunter's Toolbox.

Rev. Celeste's guest is Rev. Brian Akers. Rev. Brian has been involved in the New Thought Movement since 1992. Born and raised in California, Rev. Brian was raised by his single father. Growing up socio-economically near the bottom of the scale, and being a white male, he found the benefit of using his confrontational nature to approach things he cares about.When Brian moved to Baltimore, it was around the time of the murder of Freddie Gray. This radicalized Brian to get involved with racial equity issues. He got involved with BUILD (Baltimoreans United In Leadership Development)(buildiaf.org) and crashed a Finance Committee meeting to get to meet with the City Council and the Sheriff Department around this issue. Realizing that he was raised in a hotbed of White supremacy, Brian began to look at the advantages he had and became aware of his remorse of his Whiteness. He referenced prideful White folks who don't want to feel guilt or shame for racism. Brian took the time to become anti-racist (Being Antiracist | National Museum of African American History and Culture (si.edu)) and consciously remorseful, realizing the privilege he enjoys in his life. He invites others to discover their Whiteness but not to be thrust into a shame-filled guilt-ridden experience, but to be consciously remorseful. It's irrational not to explore the natural remorse.Rev. Brian works with PATH (PATH IAF – People Acting Together in Howard), to cultivate power and drive policy. He works with Community Resources and Services in Howard County to do coat drives and count the number of homeless people. He also works Columbia Community Care (columbiacare.live) who helps to feed children at the schools. He likes to work with people who are directly addressing the community. He lobbies to organize things like affordable housing, and to get tax breaks for people on leased land. He seeks to drive policy to address a local need.Rev. Brian has created a denomination called Oneness New Thought (onenessnt.org)). He loves the theology of Religious Science, but he wanted to create a religion of choice - not to be the only religion or the best religion or the right religion, but to have a specific religious approach to Religious Science principles. It's both a religion and a system for spiritual living. This denomination has four pillars: core principles, divine virtues, concepts of creation and immortality and specific spiritual practices . It has a supportive structure with accountability. He wanted and needed a place that was a community for himself that is built with both accessible articulation of what they believe and allows people to practice the faith in their own way. Their spiritual practices are prayer, reflection, meditation, envisioning, study, community and generosity. He seeks conscious collaboration has studied conscious capitalism (2020 Home - Conscious Capitalism), built on generosity and having a higher purpose. He also works with the Howard County Association of Realtors (HCAR.org) and the Laurel Multiservice Center. They also discuss capitalism and socialism. We are being taken care of my our Creator. We see tangible evidence of this through humanity.Find out more about the purveyor of badassery - a cannabis positive, sex positive, martial artist, at itsreallyreal.com and Facebook.Oneness New Thought has online services on Sundays at 12 pm ET.Listen to Rev. Celeste's poem, Oneness.Support the show (http://paypal.me/rev107)

Obedience is tied to favor!  Do you feel like you can never catch a break? Learn today how to hear the Lord and how He can speak to you.  Ministry site: www.kingdomencounters.us Evangelist Caleb Wampler continues his conversation with Brian Buckley on this episode of ‘Awaken The Wonder.’ When you have time with the Lord in the morning, He will lead you in the right direction throughout the day. When you move in the steps directed by the Lord, He has rewards waiting for you. When Brian started the Better Man event, 40 men came. Now years later, thousands come every year. Last year 1,200 men gave their lives to Jesus, and they got plugged into churches and ministries. Get in the Word of God and let the Lord speak to you every day. As a man of God in marriage, learn in this episode how to walk with your spouse for the Lord. There are things God wants to teach you in the midst of Covid, how to be a better dad, husband, and friend. With extra time in the day, make sure your family is number one in your life after God.  For more on the Better Man event check out their website: https://bettermanevent.com/ Stay connected through Evangelist Caleb’s social media: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CalebWampler/  YouTube: https://youtube.com/evangelistcalebwampler

In this episode of the Til You Collapse Podcast Brian talks about the importance of building a personal brand along with your business. When Brian first started his business account it was his personal account as well. This gave customers a chance to see the face behind the brand and truly buy into more than just the product. 

Larry Benz, PT, DPT, OCS, MBA, MAPP, the CEO of Confluent Health, is joined on this episode of Called to Care - Practice Leadership podcast by Brian Gallagher, PT, Founder & President of MEG Business Management. Larry and Brian discuss how to use positive interactions and soft skills like validation and capitalization to be a successful clinician. They also dive into managing your clinicians and support staff by giving tips and tools for recruiting and retaining your employees. Links: Brian Gallagher's LinkedIn MEG Business Management @PhysicalTherapy @EIMTeam Called to Care Brian Gallagher's Bio: In 1997, Brian founded what became one of Maryland’s largest therapy staffing companies, while at the same time launching a multi-site private practice which resulted in a sale in 2006. Brian re-acquired the practice in 2008 and doubled it before winning “Practice of the Year” in 2011. MEG Business Management began in 2006 as an educational coaching company training owners and their key employees on innovative practice management strategies. Today, MEG has taken another major leap forward by developing a Virtual Training platform for practice owners to now have the tools and training resources to professionally enhance, track and manage employee performance & compliance. When Brian is not coaching or working on the virtual training platform, he can be found giving lectures at the APTA, PPS and CSM Annual Conferences, as well as APTA State Chapters and DPT Schools.

The last podcast episode of 2020! And what a year...because I am a nosey parker who likes to know everything about everyone I thought you might appreciate it if Brian and I opened up and shared with you what 2020 has been like for us. A husband and wife living with two teenagers down here in New Zealand. The Big Take-Aways From 2020 How a normal family of four adapted to lockdown in New Zealand. The pros and cons Dealing with the plummeting mental health of our teenage daughter Realising that more is not best. How (and why) Brian left his $$$ job to plough on with our online venture The ways in which we dealt (and always seem to deal) with family unrest Creating online businesses, changing your life and being brave enough to take a different direction when you're 57 (and quite honestly feel knackered).  Why moving forwards or even sideways is far better than sitting still or going backwards Links Mentioned in This Weeks Episode Visiting New Zealand from America  (Mark, Brian's cousin from New York tells us what his initial impression of New Zealand are).  Staying positive in lockdown (Our family discussion on things we were trying to put into place to get through lockdown) Homeschooling and working. How to juggle both Unplugging. 7 Simple ways to snatch back time Glamping in New Zealand  (When Brian and I desperately needed some time alone) Christmas in New Zealand. Wonderfull or weird? The Free 5 Day Video Guide To Life in New Zealand  (the free version of the video guide we talk about)  Listen to the podcast: How to work from home (and still) get stuff done. Subscribe on Apple Subscribe on Android Did you enjoy this week's podcast about life through 2020?   Thank you so very much for listening! We'd love to know what you think about this week's show and if there is anything you would like to know further so that we can include it in our next podcast. Please rate, review and subscribe on whichever platform you are listening to this podcast - it helps us reach more people! Thank you for your support and don't forget— If you enjoy our podcasts then you can subscribe to us on iTunes or Spotify (that way you will never miss an episode!) If you know of anyone who would love this podcast, then PLEASE, share this episode with them!   Follow me on: YouTube Pinterest Facebook  

When Brian is out it takes 2 people to fill his shoes. @Scott_Sidlo and @RunDFF jump into the co-host chair with @dynastyouthouse and have a grand old time! We go over pending free agents and what we think will happen to them and their current teams. listener questions. trade addicts trades. and maybe my favorite new player nickname from Scott!

When Brian is out it takes 2 people to fill his shoes. @Scott_Sidlo and @RunDFF jump into the co-host chair with @dynastyouthouse and have a grand old time! We go over pending free agents and what we think will happen to them and their current teams. listener questions. trade addicts trades. and maybe my favorite new player nickname from Scott!

When Brian is out it takes 2 people to fill his shoes. @Scott_Sidlo and @RunDFF jump into the co-host chair with @dynastyouthouse and have a grand old time!We go over pending free agents and what we think will happen to them and their current teams. listener questions. trade addicts trades. and maybe my favorite new player nickname from Scott! 

Episode Summary Are you willing to experience anything? In this episode, the Founder and CEO of MEG Business Management, Brian Gallagher, talks about the power of the intrapreneur and entrepreneur in private practice. Brian graduated with a BSc in Physical Therapy from Daemen College in 1992. Soon after, he founded Gateway Health Services, which quickly became one of the largest staffing companies in Maryland. In 1999, he founded Cypress Creek Therapy, which was awarded the Anne Arundel County’s “Most Family Friendly Business” for several consecutive years, and in 2011, Advance Magazine awarded CCT as the “National Practice of the Year”. In 2006, Brian founded MEG Business Management and has grown to become among the top 10% of private practices across the US. Today, we learn about the difference between an intrapreneur and an entrepreneur, the four types of PT owners, and Brian gives practice owners some advice on the interview process. He tells us why he sold his practice with a contingency, and how the current environment is ideal for entrepreneurs. We get to hear about the 4 C’s, how we can become a successful Go-Getter Owner, and Brian gives his younger self some advice, all on today’s episode of The Healthy, Wealthy & Smart Podcast. Key Takeaways   •       “Typically, an intrapreneur is a manager within a company who assumes no financial risk, but they’re willing to promote and execute on the development and implementation of innovative products or services.” “An entrepreneur is similar, but it’s one who will find the needs out there within the business community, and simply fill them by developing their own ideas into actualities, by assuming the full financial risk and development of that idea through a business model of their choice.” •       “Your practice is a reflection of you as an owner. Figure out which type of owner you are first.” •       “The secret to successful hiring so that you can be correct 85% of the time is that you have to get the entire team involved in the hiring process.” •       There are 4 types of PT owners: The Innocent Owner, The Caregiver Owner, The Know-It-All Owner, and The Go-Getter Owner. The innocent owner – the person that falls into ownership, and is managing based on census. They never really thought about being an owner; they just had an opportunity.   The caregiver owner – they assume the perspective of a clinician first and owner second. They tend to run their clinics like it’s a democracy. The know-it-all owner – through their life’s experiences, they’re not open to new ideas. The go-getter owner – they have an entrepreneurial spirit, they like to manage based on performance, and they’re in a continuous pursuit of knowledge. •       “This is an entrepreneur heaven right now.” •       “If we’re going to sit here and go through our profession, and continue to colour inside the lines and make our picture like everybody else’s, you’re only going to get that.” •       “When you ask what the common denominator is to all success, the highest thing would be confidence.” •       “Transparency breeds trust.” •       “The secret to success is giving.” “I hate a win-win relationship. A win-win relationship implies that I’m going to allow you to win as long as you help me win.” •       “Don’t react; respond.” Book Mention The Go-Giver, by Bob Burg and John David Mann Suggested Keywords Intrapreneur, Entrepreneur, Owner, Courage, Capability, Commitment, Confidence, Success, Listen, Introspection, To learn more, follow Brian at: Email: info@megbusiness.com Website Facebook Instagram                         Twitter     LinkedIn YouTube More about Brian:  In 1997, Brian founded what became one of Maryland’s largest therapy staffing companies, while at the same time launching a multi-site private practice that resulted in a sale in 2006. Brian re-acquired the practice in 2008, thus doubling it, before winning “Practice of the Year” in 2011. MEG Business Management began in 2006 as an educational coaching company training owners and their key employees on innovative practice management strategies. Today MEG has taken another major leap forward by developing a Virtual Training platform that practice owners can now have the tools and training resources to professionally enhance, track and manage employee performance, and hold in compliance with every employee in the company. This platform is available 24/7, 365 days per year. When Brian is not coaching, or working on the VT training platform, he can be found giving lectures at the APTA, PPS and CSM Annual Conferences, as well as APTA State Chapters and DPT Schools across the country. Brian believes strongly in giving back to the profession of physical therapy and does so by supporting the APTA through lecturing, writing articles, and performing webinars. Subscribe to Healthy, Wealthy & Smart: Website:                      https://podcast.healthywealthysmart.com Apple Podcasts:          https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/healthy-wealthy- smart/id532717264 Spotify:                        https://open.spotify.com/show/6ELmKwE4mSZXBB8TiQvp73 SoundCloud:                                    https://soundcloud.com/healthywealthysmart Stitcher:                       https://www.stitcher.com/show/healthy-wealthy-smart iHeart Radio:               https://www.iheart.com/podcast/263-healthy-wealthy-smart-27628927   Read the transcript:  Speaker 1 (00:01): Hey, Brian, welcome to the podcast. I'm happy to have you on, Speaker 2 (00:05): Oh, thank you so much, Karen. Thanks for taking the time and hooking up with me and doing the show. Speaker 1 (00:10): Yeah, well, I'm actually really looking forward to the topic today because it's something that I've spoken about a lot and that I have friends of mine who are business owners and, and love to empower their employees. So today we're talking about the power of the intrepreneur and the entrepreneur in private practice. So before we get into it, can you define the difference between those two terms? Speaker 2 (00:39): Yeah. And there's lots of definitions out there. I think if we Google it or YouTube, it you're all gonna, you know, find various forms of definitions for this. But for me, and I've always operated under this basic definition that typically an intrepreneur is a manager within the company who assumes no financial risk, but they're willing to promote and execute on the development and implementation of innovative products or services. In our case, it would be services and they do that via marketing branding, or other various forms of public relations, but they're innovating within somebody else's company. And that's my definition, that's my operating definition of an entrepreneur. Speaker 1 (01:19): And so when you're, when you're thinking about an injury, an intrepreneur and it can be a person who takes the initiative to maybe start a new program and within a physical therapy practice or right, something like that, Speaker 2 (01:41): Something like that, it could be as basic. And as simple as that, where they've taken an idea, they've worked it through to a concept and then they've developed that concept into an actuality. So that's what I really see with an entrepreneur. I have certain characteristics that we look for, and I think we'll talk about a little bit later that will really give you the identifying markers of an entrepreneur and what you should seek in an entrepreneur within your clinic, because an entrepreneur is similar, but it's one who will find the needs out there within the business community, whatever the market is that they're in and simply fill them by developing their own ideas into actualities by assuming the full financial risk and development of that idea through a business model of their choice, through the development of their business operations. So innovating within your own company is more of that, of an entrepreneur, assuming that financial risk. And that's really the defining factors between the entrepreneur and entrepreneur. Speaker 1 (02:37): And so what does, what does it take for one to stand out as an entrepreneur? So if I'm the entrepreneur, I own the business. What am I looking for for this? For a standout entrepreneur? Okay. Speaker 2 (02:52): All right. Well, I have a good story for that. And just to give you an example of a, of an entrepreneur, you know, it was several years ago. I, my clinics are in Maryland and I live in Florida and so I had six offices in Maryland and I was running them from Florida and I had a team that I had built. And so I had a chief operating officer working for me. Her name is Denise, she's now the CEO of Meg. And she runs our whole billing division. But at the time she was running the clinics and our largest clinic, it's a, you know, a 8,000 square foot office. And I got to talking to her on one Monday morning and I was asking her about, you know actually I didn't do my normal, that, that's how it actually came up. I was talking to her Monday morning, I got right into business, which is unusual for me. Speaker 2 (03:33): I'm usually like, how was your weekend? And how's the kids what's going on, you know, fill me in and all right, let's get start. But I was in a rush and I just got right into it. And she just started spouting off the things I wanted to know and just hitting it. And then I caught myself and I said, you know what, Denise, I'm so sorry. I apologize. I didn't even mean to ask you about your weekend. You know, how's your weekend go. And to my surprise, she says, well, you know, the air conditioning unit kind of backed up and it flooded the whole place I had to bring in a fan system. And my husband, I lifted the carpets and we dried them all out and got them down. We didn't miss a beat. We were ready Monday morning when the, when the patients got in here. Speaker 2 (04:05): So we're all, you know, find a good, I'm like, Oh my gosh, I had no idea. Like she never called me. She never made that problem. My problem. And I remember getting off the phone and saying to myself, what a level of responsibility, you know, what a level of responsibility. And that's one of the key factors that I look for in an entrepreneur. Now, in this case, I'm not giving you that shining, you know, example of somebody who started a women's health program or a pediatric program. I mean, she's obviously had done that through her time with me, but just this personality characteristic of I'm going to own the responsibility of this situation or this individual or this environmental breakdown, because it is my level of responsibility. And that's somebody who is thinking beyond themselves. And that always stuck with me that she just took that being this on, if you will, of an entrepreneur, when in fact this isn't even her clinic and that's really the sign of a true entrepreneur. Speaker 1 (05:00): Yeah. So someone who's really willing to take the initiative and to kind of really think of the, it sounds like someone who's really going to think of that clinic as, as their own, and really have a stake in it. You know, a true sort of emotional stake in the clinic and a sense of pride in, in where they work and what they're doing Speaker 2 (05:21): Exactly. And they typically come to the table, you know, if you're hiring well, and you're building that management team around you, you're looking for the foundation, right? I mean, every bridge is only as good as the foundation. And the foundation that I'm always looking for is does this individual have the personality, characteristics of confront, right? Are they willing to say what needs to be said to whomever? They need to say it to now, of course you communicate in manners. You never go out manners, but you can't shy away. And we live in a culture. Now we're in an environment where nobody really wants to offend anybody. Nobody literally wants to tell anybody anything they don't want to hear. But in fact, if you're raising children and many of your listeners probably have children, you can't raise your kids and say yes to everything for a month. Speaker 2 (06:02): Yes. Chocolate cake for dinner. Yes. You can go to bed when you want. Yes. You can have candy in the grocery store line, I'll visit your house a month later. It'll be chaos. It'll be a nightmare. Right? So when we run our clinic, we have to have that level of discipline. And that means you have to have that quality of confront. I need to be willing to confront my staff, say what needs to be said, always within good manners. And that's when it comes down to the, the, the equation of communication, you know, how can I communicate in a manner that I can bring about understanding, right? Because after understanding comes agreement, and we're always striving for agreement, but you know, that's the final as the final marker. And then the, the last two building blocks of foundation, I think that really make an intrepreneur entrepreneur is accountability and responsibility. Speaker 2 (06:43): And the difference between those two in my mind is accountability is one who's who owns the obligation and willingness to be accountable for their own actions. But responsibility is like the example I gave of Denise, where she took full responsibility for the whole wellbeing of the clinic and everybody inside it. So just to summarize, I'm always looking for who has a high level of confront who can communicate and bring about duplication and understanding and the art of their communication and who can be accountable to their own actions as well as responsible to that of others as well as situations. So I'm always looking for that and if I don't have them, how can I grow me? Speaker 1 (07:19): And, you know, I love the fact that you're always looking for that. So what advice do you have for a practice owner who is interviewing people, you know, to come and work in their clinic? Cause it's, I think it's hard, let's say in one or two interviews to kind of get those for confrontation communication, you'll get countability responsibility. So what advice do you have for business owners in those first couple of interviews to hire someone to kind of get this, this type of intrepreneur, if that's what you're looking for in your clinic. Speaker 2 (08:00): Yeah. And if you're looking to get distance from your practice, if you're looking to get freedom and flexibility, that's typically what we're trying to hire. Right. So that's a great question. You're asking a fantastic question. I think my answer is going to surprise you. I don't think it's going to be the path that you may be expecting. I think what my advice would be based on my experience now, I've been in and out of 400 offices. I've been in every state in the United States, helping practice owners throughout the whole United States, except for four States. And in doing that, I've come to the conclusion that it has to start with you. It really has to start with us looking at ourselves in the mirror and asking ourselves, what kind of owner are we right. I mean, to some extent you're, you're you're and I like to use family analogies a lot. Speaker 2 (08:38): I don't know, maybe because I had a pediatric clinic and adult clinic. And so I always saw the dynamics there, but I think your family you know, performance, your children are somewhat of a reflection of you as parents, right? I think your practice is a reflection of you as an owner. So I think you really need to look at yourself. So my first bit of advice is look at yourself and kind of know what your own strengths and weaknesses are. You know, there are four kinds of owners out there, and I think we'll talk about that. So figure out which type of owner you are first, second, when it comes to the interviewing, which is kind of what you were leading to. It's a, it's a five stage hiring process, and I've been, I've been pushing this and teaching on this for, well over a decade. Speaker 2 (09:17): Now it's a five phase hiring process and the secret to successful hiring so that you can be correct. 85% of the time with every single candidate you're trying to hire is that you have to get the entire team involved in the hiring process. Your entire team know selectively, right? There's some key individuals, some individuals where you're like, Nope, that's not going to be a fit, right? But for the most part, you need to include everyone in your clinic, in that process. And let me just quickly summarize. So first and foremost, it starts off with phase one, the ad for the ad, you know, you're advertising for somebody you're trying to recruit somebody. Let's say you're looking for a therapist. Let's just pick what everyone's thinking about. Well, here's, here's, here's a tip. Always open your ad with a question, always open your, a question. When you start the ad with a question, it prompts the person to think and reflect on themselves and raises their curiosity. Speaker 2 (10:06): You know, here's an example. Let's say you were to say, you know, are you GM's next? You know, senior financial analyst. And then before you even get the next sentence, the person who read that for sense of like, I don't know, maybe I am, maybe I am qualified. Are you the next senior manual therapist who can work in an autonomous work environment? The therapist's coming? I don't know. Maybe I am. So it gets their interest in. So the ad really has to stimulate their interest and then step two, they have to reach in for a phone call, phone screen. Now the phone screen, here's the, here's the death to any interview process. Don't talk about you. Don't talk about the clinic. Don't get into that. Don't sell your clinic. Don't sell yourself. Look, you have to, this is dating one Oh one. You have to be more interested than interesting. Speaker 2 (10:47): Now what happens here is once you're demonstrating your higher level of interest, their comfort level goes way up when their comfort level goes way up, their natural persona, their natural personality is going to be there. And that's what you're really striving for in the interview process. You know, phase three, they come into the clinic, they meet the front desk. They, they introduce themselves, give them the application, they fill it out, then let some other member of your team, give them a tour of the clinic. It shows that you're so confident in your staff. You're so confident what you built, that you can leave that potential applicant alone with another staff therapist who can just give up five minutes who are, and now that candidates going to ask, you know, the popular questions you know, how, how do you like the way they run the schedule here, right? Speaker 2 (11:28): That's always a difficult question in, in, in hiring or what do you think of the EMR system, right? Encourage that, encourage that outflow and encourage that dialogue with another individual. And then of course you bring them into the interview process. And then finally, you're going to wrap it up and potentially offer them a position, but you have to ask the questions that are getting them to reflect on themselves. And I'll, I'll end with this in the interview and this one of my favorite questions, you know tell me about a time when you last help someone. You know, it's really interesting when people go blank and they pause, you know, I don't want to hear about work. I want to hear about like, when you genuinely tried to help someone, it tells me a lot about the person and how they live their life, because I think striving to serve others and adding more value to other people around us is what's fulfilling. And so I'm really looking for that when I'm hiring. I know I can make somebody a better therapist. I can't always make them a better person. Speaker 1 (12:19): Very true. Very true. And thank you so much for outlining that interview process. And hopefully that gives a lot of the entrepreneurs listening, a better idea of maybe how they can do that on their own and kind of make it their own. Now, before we went into that, you said there are four types of PT owners. So let's go back to that. And I want you to let, let, let, let us know what are those four types of PT owners. Speaker 2 (12:43): Okay, good. Now this is just based on experience, you know, for the thousands of engagements I've had going all the way back to, you know, I started the business in 2006, but I've been a physical therapist since 92. And so what I see out there and what I've been able to categorize is four types of owners. The first one is the innocent owner. All right. And I think we've all met that person. This is the person who falls into ownership and, you know, they're, they're, they're managing based on census, right? They're like a poll taker, you know? But they're always open to help. They're always willing to get help. They're always willing to seek some advice and some help, but they're the type of person like, yeah, I was in this clinic and the owner just decided to retire and they didn't really want to move on with it. Speaker 2 (13:25): They didn't want to get out on the market. You know, they told me a hundred thousand, I could just buy it out. And so, you know, it's less than a Tesla. So I bought the clinic. Right. So, you know, that kind of owner who never really thought about being an owner or whatnot, but they just had an opportunity and they just jumped out and they did it. They didn't give it much thought and then they quickly find out, wow, there's a lot more to this than just treating patients and being great therapist. Right. similar to that owner, you, you run into the caregiver owner and I, I run into this a lot, especially out in the Pacific, on the, on the West coast. You know, Karen you're on the East coast, I'm on the East coast. The average collections per visit in the U S is like 83 to $85 a visit. Speaker 2 (13:58): But if you get up in that New Jersey, New York area, you know, it's not happened. And I have clients and stereotypes. Yeah, exactly. It's such a, Oh my gosh, $68 a visit $73 a visit. But if I'm over in Portland, Oregon, 125, $127 a visit. So you get some of these owners that are in these very high reimbursed environments predominantly. And they're what I call the caregiver owner right there, that caregiver. And they go into practice. And they're the one who assumes the perspective of a clinician first, an owner second. And they can be a bit of a martyr. Right. And they tend to run their clinics like, like a democracy, like it's a vote like everybody has equal say, right? And so these are the people that, that call me and, you know, come to find out, they're paying themselves, you know, 45, 55,000. And they've got, you know, therapists two, three years out of school making 85,000, you know? Speaker 2 (14:52): And so, but they're always, they're always justifying well, will we put our patients first? And it's all about the patients. And I'm like, so is that to assume that the other 30,000 private practices in the us are not doing that? I mean, really let's, let's just keep this in balance, right? So you really have to, you know, my success with them is I really have to coach them that the minute you open up your clinic, your senior responsibilities to your, your flock, you know, to all the people coming into your clinic, you own that responsibility. You have to be an owner first and clinician second. And then one of the most frustrating owners, number three is the, know it all owner, right? This is the owner has been around a while. They've had some wins, they've had some losses and through their life's experience, they're not really open to a lot of ideas. Speaker 2 (15:34): They're not really very open-minded. They got off fixed ideas. They're a little resistant to change. And here they are like, you know, reaching out to us, Hey, Brian, how do you do your social media marketing? Or how do you do your hiring process or what's your, you know pay for performance model and you start going into it and they start, boy, I know that, or I do that, or I don't do that. Or that, you know, this, this know it all kind of thing. Well, you're only going to be as good as you're willing to open up and willing to look at new thoughts and ideas. If you're not willing to look, you're not gonna learn anything. So that's a real shutdown right there. And that's really hard to, to get past that the suite owner, the one that I go for every day, I'm striving for. Speaker 2 (16:10): I love it's usually my startups that I've run into that are the go getter owners. These are the ones that, you know, they have an entrepreneurial spirit. They like to manage based on performance. And they're in a continuous pursuit of knowledge. You know, they're just continuing to pursue their knowledge. You know, I always tell people I'm 52. I want to be a better 53 year old. And I was a 52 year old. The only way I know how to do that is listen to podcasts like yours, read books, do audible. I mean, there are so many great people that are adding value to people's lives. You just have to go and get it. You have to take it in. So that go getter that go get her owner. That's the one, that's what we're trying to move everybody into that bucket. Speaker 1 (16:47): Okay. So how do we do that? So we're ending 2020. It's been a hell of a year. A lot of unpredictability moving into 2021. I think it's safe to say we're still there still a lot of predictability. So how do we, how do we become that go getter? How do we become successful as that go getter? Speaker 2 (17:11): All right. So I was listening to Gary V earlier today, I was watching one of his interviews and he was talking about this exact moment in time. And he said something that I just could not agree with. More, just could not be more in agreement. And I know it's probably going to shock everybody when I say it, but this is an entrepreneur heaven right now. This moment in time, this period in our life and our society in our profession is an entrepreneur. Have it? I mean, this is a 89 degree swimming pool. This is perfect time for you to jump in. And I see it in my business. I mean, we're having our record year. This is our most, most expansive year, yet on record going all the way back to 2006. And I think it's because if you really think about the true essence of an entrepreneur, an entrepreneur like you, Karen like myself, and so many others that we meet, I mean, look, you and I were talking earlier about your practice. Speaker 2 (18:06): You have a mobile PT practice. You're doing tele-health, you're willing to color outside the lines. You've always been willing to color outside the lines. If we're going to sit here and go through our profession and continue to call her inside the lines and make every picture like everybody, else's, you're only going to get that. That's all you have available to you, but if you're an entrepreneur and you're a willing to experience anything, and that you got to think about those words, I have to be willing to experience anything. When I sold my practice the first time. So my practice, the first time, two years later, it's tanked the people. I sold it to tanked it. They stopped making their note payment to me. I had a clause in my agreement that if you stop making the no payment, I come back and I buy the clinic back for a dollar. Speaker 2 (18:48): I bought the clinic back for a dollar. I bought this product for a dollar. Yup. I was 30 years old, two years later, they tanked it, bought the clinic back for a dollar. I got rid of all of the offices. I kept two. I lost half of the staff. And my wife says, you know what, honey, you can go up there and rescue that clinic. But I am not going to live here in this house in Florida with these two little girls all by myself. That is not what I bargained for. So you can go away for two weeks at a time, but you have to come home for at least three to four days. And then you can go back. And I said, I promise that's what I'll do. I ended up doing that back and forth, back and forth. I turned that clinic around two years after I took that back. Speaker 2 (19:24): It became practice of the year practice a year. Why? Because I was willing to experience anything. It had vendors that I owed $150,000 to, it had taxes that hadn't been paid for a year. It was in a middle of a Medicare audit where the patient was seen 141 times a Medicare patient, 141 times. And when Medicare audited them, they failed the audit a hundred percent. I'm like, you didn't even sign your name. Right? And so then I come in and I take it over. And I, I said, I sat on the phone for four hours to finally get to the person whose desk that was running. The Medicare audit, who advanced the R we are an advanced documentation, right? Who are notes were being mailed to mailed to this person in Alabama who was reviewing the notes. Right? And so we found who person was. Speaker 2 (20:18): And I said, I'm going to talk to you every single week. I'm getting off this ADR as quick as possible. She says to me, and this really funny Southern accent, and she's like, I've never seen anybody get off an ADR in six months or less. It's going to be at least that, you know, they only pay you one third of your Medicare dollars. I got off that advanced documentation review that Medicare I got off in three months, I was a hundred percent success in three months. And she, she caught us off, but that was me being willing to experience anything in pursuing the knowledge that leads to greater. And that's all that was Karen was, I didn't know anything about that. I didn't know how, what it took to get off an advanced documentation review. I didn't know how I was going to pay those vendors back or rebuild a whole operation with half the staff, but I did what needed to be done. Speaker 2 (21:00): And that is what I think really makes an effective leader. Who's really going to be that go getter owner. And the last two P the last three things about that is I'll say I was listening to a audible book by Dean Graziosi. You know, he was mentored by Tony Robbins and he talks about the four CS courage commitment capabilities that naturally grow confidence. I think every successful person who's in this space, who's, who's in this entrepreneurial space business space. When you ask, what is the, what is the one ingredient that is the common denominator to all success? I think they'll all say if you took a tally, the highest thing off the chart would be confidence. It takes confidence, but you're not going to competence. If you don't have courage, like I had to go back and rescue that clinic. If you're not going to be committed to it, like I was going to go the distance, no matter what, if you're not going to have the ability to go to podcasts, read books, go to courses, go to seminars, invest in yourself and get the capabilities to actually do it. I ended up you know, took that clinic back, made it practice the year, two years after I took it back, I took it back in 2009 and it was practiced a year in 2011. So I like to pull from those natural experience. I like to pull from those and share them with everybody. I mean, that's, that's wild. It was a rollercoaster. Speaker 1 (22:19): And now, so when you, I have to, I have so many questions. So now when you sold this practice, so you sold it with the contingencies. So you didn't just sell it and be like, okay, I'm selling this and I'm outta here. So why did you not do it that way? Because I think that's an interesting question to ask for people who may be, might be in similar situations. Speaker 2 (22:40): Absolutely. I do a lot of mergers and acquisitions and sales. I have three owners right now that I'm working with helping get them, getting them connected to selling their practice and connecting the right people. So at that time, I had spent $115,000 between three different consulting firms and training firms to really train up my management team, train up myself. And that's what I did. And so I invested that money 115,000 to hook a home equity line out of my house. Now you're going to find like, I'm not your typical speaker. You know, when I do my podcast and I'm on other people's podcasts, I believe this Karen, I, and I hope you don't mind. I believe a hundred percent of my DNA that transparency, breeds trust transplants. So I'm willing to just like wear it on my sleeve no matter where it goes. So what happened? Speaker 2 (23:26): I manned up this management team. I invested 115,000 into this group. I got back to 2005, 2006, I'm working 15 hours a week. I'm making like $45,000 a month. I'm a thousand miles away living in Florida. I'm living the dream. I'm living the dream. I'm like, okay, I'm going to devote the rest of my life to showing other pet owners how you could be a remote owner and make this happen. A year of that goes by. I get a phone call my management team, the leader up there says, Hey, we want to buy your practice. So I said, all right, let me talk to my wife, Lisa, and I'll get back to you. So I tell my wife, I was like, absolutely not. Why in the world, I am not, we we've worked our whole lives to get to this point. This is, I am not. I said, Lisa, let's think this through. If I call them back and say, we're not interested. What's their next action. Speaker 1 (24:15): Find someone else to buy it. They're going to leave. Oh, Speaker 2 (24:19): Because they're thinking, well, wait a minute, I'm running this, this $4 million operation, $6 million operation at, why would I stay here? If I don't get a piece that I'm, I'm going to go. So I literally flew up. I wrote on a napkin at dinner, I wrote $6 million. They said, we can buy that. We're going to give you a third up front and we're going to give you no payments on the rest. And I'm like, well, I love these guys. Right? I built them. I groomed them. I put them in a position. I want to see them win. Right. Done deal. Now the nice thing about doing it that way is I already have the skills and knowledge to know how to run the business. So what's my risk. My risk is exactly what happened. They tanked and they crashed it, but I have the skills and knowledge and ability to go back and rescue it. Speaker 2 (25:00): Right? So that was the, that was the risk that I had to be willing to accept. What's the upside. Well, two thirds and a note I'm making, you know, fi was a 6% interest on that money. So I'm getting well over my asking price over the course of the time that I'm making, making the payments. It also gives me this guaranteed income, which I made for the two years. And I could go do other things with it. Right. So it was a really good win-win, but the nightmare happened. They defaulted. I had to step in, I had to do. And that goes back to my, you know, my four CS courage commitment capabilities. I had the ability to, I knew myself well enough to go do that. So of course that's what ended up happening. But in 2017 I sold it all again. So it's kind of like in the big scheme of things, it really worked out. But in 2017 I won and done, you know, here's the keys. Thank you. Here's the check. I love it. One and done. So it was a different, it was a different, so I've, I've lived through both experiences. I've lived through both of those opportunities. And that's how it went. Speaker 1 (25:57): Yeah. Wow. So I think it's great for people to hear that there are different ways to even sell a practice and, and that it really behooves someone who is in that position to find someone, to help them guide, guide them through that. Speaker 2 (26:13): Right. Absolutely. You know, even tiger woods has a coach, right. And he's the best golfer at the time. You know, Tom Brady has a quarterback coach. I think every practice owner needs a coach when you're running the practice. And especially when it comes time to sell your practice. You know, I paid somebody $5,000 just to be a sounding board for me when I sold my practice. Like, because it's an emotional rollercoaster. I said, I don't really need you to do anything. I just need you to pick up the phone when I call, I just need to bounce ideas off of you. And just tell me I'm crazy or tell me I'm being too emotional or tell me. And I just needed somebody to consult with. You know, I just needed a little counselor to help keep me on track. And, and that, that was well worth the $5,000 for me to, to move it on through, you know, I kind of despise the idea of people brokering these deals and taking 6% of somebody's livelihood that they built their whole business for 15 years for like a four month transition. Speaker 2 (27:01): I like to just coach people through the sale. I like to help coach them through it, just pay for the time don't pay a percentage of business, but that's me, that's just my opinion on it. You know? I mean, how many of us have sold a house in real estate? And the realtor, you know, blows in and sells a house in 60 days, blows out and walks away with 50 grand. I'm like, I don't care how many website things you did. There's no way I can justify that 50,000, but that's the market. Right. That's how that industry works. Speaker 1 (27:24): Right, right. Wow. That's a great story. Thanks for sharing that. And now, before we start to wrap things up what would you like the listeners to take away from what we just spoke about? What are your key discussion points? Well, Speaker 2 (27:44): I'll start with what is one of my most favorite books, and if you're going to start there, I think you, if you, if you get this book and you'll listen to it on audible, or you read it, it's, it's the Go-Giver by Bob Burg and John David Mann, that book completely changed my life. And what I got from that book was I got this, that the secret to success is actually giving the secret to success is giving all successful. People will keep their focus on what they're giving and that's what actually gives them their success. You know, I grew up on welfare, you know, my mom raised three boys on her own, you know, government, cheese, bread, butter, food stamps, the whole nine yards, no car. And, you know, I was always of this mentality. Like once I get successful, I'm going to give back. Once I get all my, you know, shelter and security and this and that, I'm going to give back. Speaker 2 (28:37): And along this journey, I realized that was completely false. That was completely false, like right here on my computer. I'm talking to you right now on zoom. And I'll just rip off this post-it note and just put it right in front of your camera. I mean, that is what I look at every single day. And it says strive to serve, strive, to serve. And I realized the more I embrace that philosophy of it's about giving more in value than you ever expect in return. I hate a win-win relationship, a win-win relationship implies. I'm going to allow you to win as long as you help me win. I want to see you win in spite of whether I'm winning or not. And I think once I really grasp that, and for those of you with are listening, the more you can focus on surrounding yourself in improving the lives, both personally and professionally of the people you work with. I think that gift of giving is going to pay off tenfold to your community, to your patients, to your employees, to your family and to yourself. That's what I, that's my message on that. That, that's what I've learned. It's been a long haul. It's been a lot of ups and downs, but I'm, I'm convinced that that is what has led to my success and the success of so many other people I've worked with. I've been blessed to work with over my lifetime. Speaker 1 (29:49): That's awesome. And now I feel like I'm going to ask you the question I ask everyone, and, but maybe you just answered it. I don't know, but looking at where you are in your life and in your career, what advice would you give to your younger self? Let's say right out of, you know, right out of college. Speaker 2 (30:07): Oh my gosh. Right out of college. Well, I think the advice I would give my younger self is to be more introspective, you know, be, be a better listener, you know? Don't, don't be so full of your own fixed ideas, you know, be willing to be willing to step down off of that and, and embrace the ideas of others, no matter how foreign they may be to you. So I've looked at it like that. I think that's really changed my perspective over the, over this, especially this last decade, but I've learned to not think of my thoughts. First. I've learned to focus on what's being said to me first and literally take it in, duplicate it to its fullest. Meaning before I communicate back and I'll leave this one phrase and this rattles through my head all the time, whenever I'm in a situation, I'm always reminding myself, don't react, respond, don't react, respond. And so many wild things are happening in our society today. And I think a lot of people respond, respond, respond, and I tend to sit back and take it in a little bit more. And I like to give an approach. I mean, react, react, react. I like to give an appropriate response rather than just be so reactive. So I think that's really changed a lot about me. And that's, that's about all I can say about that. Speaker 1 (31:38): Yeah. That's great advice. I mean, great advice. I love the respond, not react and guilty, guilty here of, of reacting maybe too much when I need to just sit back and respond. So it's something I'm going to remember now, where can people find you? If they have questions they want to get in touch with you, they want to learn more about you, the business, all that stuff. Speaker 2 (32:00): Oh, great. Well, they can reach out to us. You know, we're on Facebook at Meg business management, you know, that's our handle there and you can follow us on Twitter at Meg business or Instagram at Meg business management as well. Our website is www.megbusiness.com. One of the things we really like to do is we like to, like I said, give and without, so we give free practice assessments. We give free practice stress tests. So if they want to reach in, you know, they can email us@infoatmegbusiness.com, for sure. And for your listeners, you know, special for your listeners for this year, you know, until we hit 20, 21, any service they want to do with us any training they want to do with us, they get a 10% discount. We'll just take 10% off anything they want to do. And that's just for your listeners. Karen, all they have to do is reach into us and say, they heard us on this podcast and my team will just go ahead and honor that anything we can do to add value, I'm happy to do it. Speaker 1 (32:51): Awesome. And just so everyone out there listening, of course, we will have all of the links to this one, click away at the podcast website at podcast at healthy, wealthy, smart.com. So if you didn't take everything down, don't worry about it. It's will all be in the resources section under this episode. So Brian, thank you so much for coming on. This was this was wonderful. A lot of great advice, especially as we're winding up the year and kind of moving into 2021. I think this is the perfect info for all of those physical therapy, business owners and entrepreneurs, and intrepreneurs out there. So thank you so much. You're welcome. Speaker 2 (33:30): You're welcome. You know, I think we should look into next year and everybody should have a handle on the bottom of their email. I know when my email signature goes out, it always says, expect to do well. And that's one of the things I like to get people just wake out of bed, wake up out of bed, start every day, expecting to do well. Speaker 1 (33:46): Awesome. I love it. I may, I may add that as a little sticky note on my refrigerator in the morning. I'll frame it. I love it. Thank you so much for coming on and everyone. Thanks so much for listening. Have a great couple of days and stay healthy, wealthy and smart.    

Brian Buffington and Bucky Bush talk with me about EdTech, GIFS, Gifts for Non-Techies, and Gifts for Techies. This is episode 330 of Teaching Learning Leading K12, an audio podcast. Brian Buffington is an EDU pioneer, always sniffing out better ways to increase student engagement and learning through technology. He inspires thousands of teachers, admins, and students in regards to instructional technology strategies, professional media production, and digital living education. Brian has presented at national, state, and regional conferences, highlighting EdTech and science education. His background includes teaching middle schoolers about science, owning music venues and vintage clothing shops, and writing songs about cheese and “8th Grade Mustaches”. His most recent endeavors include: creating professional development specifically for teaching during a pandemic entitled, “Into The Unknown”, releasing new music with the songs “Rufio”, “Stretchy Pants”, and “Poo on my Shoe”, and cranking up the #buffmagic to make virtual learning fun and engaging.  Since 2017, he has broadcasted an annual cyber safety event on Facebook LIVE, “A Parent’s Guide to Raising Digital Natives”. In 2019, Brian directed and produced “Vape News”, a PSA video series aimed to combat student vaping. When Brian is not playing with tech, he’s playing House Concerts and singing #happymusicforthemasses. Along with his wife Brooke, he owns a Creative Arts Company, Studio Blue. The Buffingtons reside in Northeast Georgia, where they raise 2 crazy kids and look for adventure. Bucky Bush has a passion for technology tools and services that help make people’s lives easier and more enjoyable. In his work world, Bucky provides technical support services and training to school staff in addition to data analytics services for schools and districts. He is in his 12th year at Northwest RESA where he serves as their Director of Technology Services.   This talk was lots of fun!   Lots to learn today. Please share and subscribe! Thanks for listening. Enjoy!   Connect and Learn More: BrianKBuffington.com BuckyBush.com   Length - 57:43

#84 Brian Ahearn, CMCT, is the Chief Influence Officer at Influence PEOPLE. He is also the Director of Learning with State Auto Insurance. Brian's areas of expertise include sales, customer service, leadership, and business coaching with an emphasis on applying the science of influence in everyday situations. He is one of only 20 individuals in the world who currently hold the CMCT designation. This specialization in the psychology of persuasion was earned directly from Dr. Robert B. Cialdini – the recognized authority on the science of ethical persuasion. Brian's blog, Influence PEOPLE, is followed by readers in more than 200 countries and made the Online Psychology Degree Guide Top 30 Psychology Blogs of 2012. He was named one of The Top 100 Influencers of 2016 by Science of Digital Marketing. When Brian's not influencing and selling he enjoys physical activity.  In his younger days he was a competitive bodybuilder. When he decided to leave competitive weightlifting he took up running where he qualified for and ran the historic Boston Marathon twice. An avid martial artist, Brian is a 2nd degree black belt in Taekwondo. Please join Shawn and Jen as they sit down with Brian to discuss the art of ethical persuasion in life and business. You can connect with Brian at www.influencepeople.biz

My coaching client Brian Blanders hopped on a call to talk to me about his new virtual market. After realizing that his own market in Utah was just too high to make any sense, he turned to his hometown market in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and had to create a partnership with local folks to make his wholesaling business viable.Your goal is to find motivated sellers, but your seller’s particular motivations are going to affect the kind of deal they agree to. Listen to how one of the four pillars of a seller’s motivations dramatically affected the negotiations for Brian’s latest property, and how he changes his approach to make the deal happen. In terms of negotiations, you follow down a path that makes sense, until it doesn’t. And figuring out your seller’s motivation is key in finding the right path.When is it worth doing a flip versus doing a wholetail deal? Brian had to ask himself that question when he realized that he couldn’t simply paint the house he’d just purchased. As you know, I’m a huge fan of virtual wholesaling, but deals aren’t the only thing that can be managed remotely. When Brian had to change his plans, he had to learn how to manage his team and their fix and flip from several states away.Flexibility, creative financing, and a huge growth mindset really helped Brian navigate his first deal. We’re going to work more closely together to put better systems in place so that no matter where his next deal is, he’ll be able to provide at least one option that a seller can’t resist.What's Inside:What to look for in your boots-on-the-ground person.What’s the difference between flipping and wholesaling?How Brian chose his virtual wholesaling market, and why he didn’t stay local.

Mira Simone is a writer, mother, and grieving wife. Her husband Brian died of cancer in the winter of 2019, just seven weeks after a diagnosis of stage IV melanoma. When Brian died, their daughter Davida was about to turn three. Brian's death created a huge crater in their lives - leaving Mira to figure out how to live without Brian, who was the biggest love she'd ever known, while also supporting Davida in her grief. Writing has been a constant for Mira, both throughout Brian's illness and in the months since he died. You can find her published writings here. She posts regularly about grief on her Instagram (@newmoonmira).

This week there are two episiodes of the podcast going up, both of them longer than normal. This one, episode ninety-nine, is on "Surfin' Safari" by the Beach Boys, and the group's roots in LA, and is fifty minutes long. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode.   Patreon backers also have a ten-minute bonus episode available, on "Misirlou" by Dick Dale and the Deltones. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt's irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ ----more---- Resources No Mixclouds this week, as both episodes have far too many songs by one artist. The mixclouds will be back with episode 101. I used many resources for this episode, most of which will be used in future Beach Boys episodes too. It's difficult to enumerate everything here, because I have been an active member of the Beach Boys fan community for twenty-three years, and have at times just used my accumulated knowledge for this. But the resources I list here are ones I've checked for specific things. Becoming the Beach Boys by James B. Murphy is an in-depth look at the group's early years. Stephen McParland has published many, many books on the California surf and hot-rod music scenes, including several on both the Beach Boys and Gary Usher. The Beach Boys: Inception and Creation is the one I used most here, but I referred to several. His books can be found at https://payhip.com/CMusicBooks Andrew Doe's Bellagio 10452 site is an invaluable resource. Jon Stebbins' The Beach Boys FAQ is a good balance between accuracy and readability. And Philip Lambert's Inside the Music of Brian Wilson is an excellent, though sadly out of print, musicological analysis of Wilson's music from 1962 through 67. The Beach Boys' Morgan recordings and all the outtakes from them can be found on this 2-CD set. The Surfin' Safari album is now in the public domain, and so can be found cheaply, but the best version to get is still the twofer CD with the Surfin' USA album. *But*, those two albums are fairly weak, the Beach Boys in their early years were not really an album band, and you will want to investigate them further. I would recommend, rather than the two albums linked above, starting with this budget-priced three-CD set, which has a surprisingly good selection of their material on it.   Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript Today, there are going to be two podcast episodes. This one, episode ninety-nine, will be a normal-length episode, or maybe slightly longer than normal, and episode one hundred, which will follow straight after it, will be a super-length one that's at least three times the normal length of one of these podcasts. I'm releasing them together, because the two episodes really do go together. We've talked recently about how we're getting into the sixties of the popular imagination, and those 1960s began, specifically, in October 1962. That was the month of the Cuban Missile Crisis, which saw the world almost end. It was the month that James Brown released Live at the Apollo -- an album we'll talk about in a few weeks' time. And if you want one specific date that the 1960s started, it was October the fifth, 1962. On that date, a film came out that we mentioned last week -- Doctor No, the first ever James Bond film. It was also the date that two records were released on EMI in Britain. One was a new release by a British band, the other a record originally released a few months earlier in the USA, by an American band. Both bands had previously released records on much smaller labels, to no success other than very locally, but this was their first to be released on a major label, and had a slightly different lineup from those earlier releases. Both bands would influence each other, and go on to be the most successful band from their respective country in the next decade. Both bands would revolutionise popular music. And the two bands would even be filed next to each other alphabetically, both starting "the Bea". In episode one hundred, we're going to look at "Love Me Do" by the Beatles, but right now, in episode ninety-nine, we're going to look at "Surfin' Safari" by the Beach Boys: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "Surfin' Safari"] Before I start this story properly, I just want to say something -- there are a lot of different accounts of the formation of the Beach Boys, and those accounts are all different. What I've tried to do here is take one plausible account of how the group formed and tell it in a reasonable length of time. If you read the books I link in the show notes, you might find some disagreements about the precise order of some of these events, or some details I've glossed over. This episode is already running long, and I didn't want to get into that stuff, but it's important that I stress that this is just as accurate as I can get in the length of an episode. The Beach Boys really were boys when they made their first records. David Marks, their youngest member, was only thirteen when "Surfin' Safari" came out, and Mike Love, the group's oldest member, was twenty-one.  So, as you might imagine when we're talking about children, the story really starts with the older generation. In particular, we want to start with Hite and Dorinda Morgan. The Morgans were part-time music business people in Los Angeles in the fifties. Hite Morgan owned an industrial flooring company, and that was his main source of income -- putting in floors at warehouses and factories that could withstand the particular stresses that such industrial sites faced. But while that work was hard, it was well-paying and didn't take too much time. The company would take on two or three expensive jobs a year, and for the rest of the year Hite would have the money and time to help his wife with her work as a songwriter. She'd collaborated with Spade Cooley, one of the most famous Western Swing musicians of the forties, and she'd also co-written "Don't Put All Your Dreams in One Basket" for Ray Charles in 1948: [Excerpt: Ray Charles, "Don't Put All Your Dreams in One Basket"] Hite and Dorinda's son, Bruce, was also a songwriter, though I've seen some claims that often the songs credited to him were actually written by his mother, who gave him credits in order to encourage him. One of Bruce Morgan's earliest songs was a piece called "Proverb Boogie", which was actually credited under his father's name, and which Louis Jordan retitled to "Heed My Warning" and took a co-writing credit on: [Excerpt: Louis Jordan, "Heed My Warning"] Eventually the Morgans also started their own publishing company, and built their own small demo studio, which they used to use to record cheap demos for many other songwriters and performers. The Morgans were only very minor players in the music industry, but they were friendly with many of the big names on the LA R&B scene, and knew people like John Dolphin, Bumps Blackwell, Sam Cooke, and the Hollywood Flames. Bruce Morgan would talk in interviews about Bumps Blackwell calling round to see his father and telling him about this new song "You Send Me" he was going to record with Cooke. But although nobody could have realised it at the time, or for many years later, the Morgans' place in music history would be cemented in 1952, when Hite Morgan, working at his day job, met a man named Murry Wilson, who ran a machine-tool company based in Hawthorne, a small town in southwestern Los Angeles County. It turned out that Wilson, like Dorinda Morgan, was an aspiring songwriter, and Hite Morgan signed him up to their publishing company, Guild Music. Wilson's tastes in music were already becoming old-fashioned even in the very early 1950s, but given the style of music he was working in he was a moderately talented writer. His proudest moment was writing a song called "Two Step Side Step" for the Morgans, which was performed on TV by Lawrence Welk -- Murry gathered the whole family round the television to watch his song being performed.  That song was a moderate success – it was never a hit for anyone, but it was recorded by several country artists, including the rockabilly singer Bonnie Lou, and most interestingly for our purposes by Johnny Lee Wills, Bob Wills' brother: [Excerpt: Johnny Lee Wills, "Two Step Side Step"] Wilson wrote a few other songs for the Morgans, of which the most successful was "Tabarin", which was recorded by the Tangiers -- one of the several names under which the Hollywood Flames performed. Gaynel Hodge would later speak fondly of Murry Wilson, and how he was always bragging about his talented kids: [Excerpt: The Tangiers, "Tabarin"] But as the fifties progressed, the Morgans published fewer and fewer of Wilson's songs, and none of them were hits. But the Morgans and Wilson stayed in touch, and around 1958 he heard from them about an opportunity for one of those talented kids. Dorinda Morgan had written a song called "Chapel of Love" -- not the same song as the famous one by the Dixie Cups -- and Art Laboe had decided that that song would be perfect as the first record for his new label, Original Sound. Laboe was putting together a new group to sing it, called the Hitmakers, which was based around Val Poliuto. Poliuto had been the tenor singer of an integrated vocal group -- two Black members, one white, and one Hispanic -- which had gone by the names The Shadows and The Miracles before dismissing both names as being unlikely to lead to any success and taking the name The Jaguars at the suggestion of, of all people, Stan Freberg, the comedian and voice actor. The Jaguars had never had much commercial success, but they'd recorded a version of "The Way You Look Tonight" which became a classic when Laboe included it on the massively successful "Oldies But Goodies", the first doo-wop nostalgia album: [Excerpt: The Jaguars, "The Way You Look Tonight"] The Jaguars continued for many years, and at one point had Richard Berry guest as an extra vocalist on some of their tracks, but as with so many of the LA vocal groups we've looked at from the fifties, they all had their fingers in multiple pies, and so Poliuto was to be in this new group, along with Bobby Adams of the Calvanes, who had been taught to sing R&B by Cornell Gunter and who had recorded for Dootsie Williams: [Excerpt: The Calvanes, "Crazy Over You"] Those two were to be joined by two other singers, who nobody involved can remember much about except that their first names were Don and Duke, but Art Laboe also wanted a new young singer to sing the lead, and was auditioning singers. Murry Wilson suggested to the Morgans that his young son Brian might be suitable for the role, and he auditioned, but Laboe thought he was too young, and the role went to a singer called Rodney Goodens instead: [Excerpt: The Hitmakers, "Chapel of Love"] So the audition was a failure, but it was a first contact between Brian Wilson and the Morgans, and also introduced Brian to Val Poliuto, from whom he would learn a lot about music for the next few years. Brian was a very sensitive kid, the oldest of three brothers, and someone who seemed to have some difficulty dealing with other people -- possibly because his father was abusive towards him and his brothers, leaving him frightened of many aspects of life. He did, though, share with his father a love of music, and he had a remarkable ear -- singular, as he's deaf in one ear. He had perfect pitch, a great recollection for melodies -- play him something once and it would stay in his brain -- and from a very young age he gravitated towards sweet-sounding music. He particularly loved Glenn Miller's version of "Rhapsody in Blue" as a child: [Excerpt: The Glenn Miller Orchestra, "Rhapsody in Blue"] But his big musical love was a modern harmony group called the Four Freshmen -- a group made up of two brothers, their cousin, and a college friend. Modern harmony is an outdated term, but it basically meant that they were singing chords that went beyond the normal simple triads of most pop music. While there were four, obviously, of the Four Freshmen, they often achieved an effect that would normally be five-part harmony, by having the group members sing all the parts of the chord *except* the root note -- they'd leave the root note to a bass instrument. So while Brian was listening to four singers, he was learning five-part harmonies. The group would also sing their harmonies in unusual inversions -- they'd take one of the notes from the middle of the chord and sing it an octave lower. There was another trick that the Four Freshmen used -- they varied their vocals from equal temperament.  To explain this a little bit -- musical notes are based on frequencies, and the ratio between them matters. If you double the frequency of a note, you get the same note an octave up -- so if you take an A at 440hz, and double the frequency to 880, you get another A, an octave up. If you go down to 220hz, you get the A an octave below. You get all the different notes by multiplying or dividing a note, so A# is A multiplied by a tiny bit more than one, and A flat is A multiplied by a tiny bit less than one. But in the middle ages, this hit a snag -- A#. which is A multiplied by one and a bit, is very very slightly different from B flat, which is B multiplied by 0.9 something. And if you double those, so you go to the A# and B flat the next octave up, the difference between A# and B flat gets bigger. And this means that if you play a melody in the key of C, but then decide you want to play it in the key of B flat, you need to retune your instrument -- or have instruments with separate notes for A# and B flat -- or everything will sound out of tune. It's very very hard to retune some instruments, especially ones like the piano, and also sometimes you want to play in different keys in the same piece. If you're playing a song in C, but it goes into C# in the last chorus to give it a bit of extra momentum, you lose that extra momentum if you stop the song to retune the piano. So a different system was invented, and popularised in the Baroque era, called "equal temperament". In that system, every note is very very slightly out of tune, but those tiny errors cancel out rather than multiply like they do in the old system. You're sort of taking the average of A# and B flat, and calling them the same note. And to most people's ears that sounds good enough, and it means you can have a piano without a thousand keys.  But the Four Freshmen didn't stick to that -- because you don't need to retune your throat to hit different notes (unless you're as bad a singer as me, anyway). They would sing B flat slightly differently than they would sing A#, and so they would get a purer vocal blend, with stronger harmonic overtones than singers who were singing the notes as placed on a piano: [Excerpt: the Four Freshmen, "It's a Blue World"] Please note by the way that I'm taking the fact that they used those non-equal temperaments somewhat on trust -- Ross Barbour of the group said they did in interviews, and he would know, but I have relatively poor pitch so if you listened to that and thought "Hang on, they're all singing dead-on equal tempered concert pitch, what's he talking about?", then that's on him. When Brian heard them singing, he instantly fell for them, and became a major, major fan of their work, especially their falsetto singer Bob Flanigan, whose voice he decided to emulate. He decided that he was going to learn how they got that sound. Every day when he got home from school, he would go to the family's music room, where he had a piano and a record player. He would then play just a second or so of one of their records, and figure out on the piano what notes they were singing in that one second, and duplicating them himself. Then he would learn the next second of the song. He would spend hours every day on this, learning every vocal part, until he had the Four Freshmen's entire repertoire burned into his brain, and could sing all four vocal parts to every song. Indeed, at one point when he was about sixteen -- around the same time as the Art Laboe audition -- Brian decided to go and visit the Four Freshmen's manager, to find out how to form a successful vocal group of his own, and to find out more about the group themselves. After telling the manager that he could sing every part of every one of their songs, the manager challenged him with "The Day Isn't Long Enough", a song that they apparently had trouble with: [Excerpt: The Four Freshmen, "The Day Isn't Long Enough"] And Brian demonstrated every harmony part perfectly. He had a couple of tape recorders at home, and he would experiment with overdubbing his own voice -- recording on one tape recorder, playing it back and singing along while recording on the other. Doing this he could do his own imitations of the Four Freshmen, and even as a teenager he could sound spookily like them: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys [Brian Wilson solo recording released on a Beach Boys CD], "Happy Birthday Four Freshmen"] While Brian shared his love for this kind of sweet music with his father, he also liked the rock and roll music that was making its way onto the radio during his teen years -- though again, he would gravitate towards the sweet vocal harmonies of the Everly Brothers rather than to more raucous music. He shared his love of the Everlys with his cousin Mike Love, whose tastes otherwise went more in the direction of R&B and doo-wop. Unlike Brian and his brothers, Mike attended Dorsey High School, a predominantly Black school, and his tastes were shaped by that -- other graduates of the school include Billy Preston, Eric Dolphy, and Arthur Lee, to give some idea of the kind of atmosphere that Dorsey High had. He loved the Robins, and later the Coasters, and he's been quoted as saying he "worshipped" Johnny Otis -- as did every R&B lover in LA at the time. He would listen to Otis' show on KFOX, and to Huggy Boy on KRKD. His favourite records were things like "Smokey Joe's Cafe" by the Robins, which combined an R&B groove with witty lyrics: [Excerpt: The Robins, "Smokey Joe's Cafe"] He also loved the music of Chuck Berry, a passion he shared with Brian's youngest brother Carl, who also listened to Otis' show and got Brian listening to it. While Mike was most attracted to Berry's witty lyrics, Carl loved the guitar part -- he'd loved string instruments since he was a tiny child, and he and a neighbour, David Marks, started taking guitar lessons from another neighbour, John Maus. Maus had been friends with Ritchie Valens, and had been a pallbearer at Valens' funeral. John was recording at the time with his sister Judy, as the imaginatively-named duo "John & Judy": [Excerpt: John & Judy, "Why This Feeling?"] John and Judy later took on a bass player called Scott Engel, and a few years after that John and Scott changed their surnames to Walker and became two thirds of The Walker Brothers. But at this time, John was still just a local guitar player, and teaching two enthusiastic kids to play guitar. Carl and David learned how to play Chuck Berry licks, and also started to learn some of the guitar instrumentals that were becoming popular at the time. At the same time, Mike would sing with Brian to pass the time, Mike singing in a bass voice while Brian took a high tenor lead. Other times, Brian would test his vocal arranging out by teaching Carl and his mother Audree vocal parts -- Carl got so he could learn parts very quickly, so his big brother wouldn't keep him around all day and he could go out and play. And sometimes their middle brother Dennis would join in -- though he was more interested in going out and having fun at the beach than he was in making music. Brian was interested in nothing *but* making music -- at least once he'd quit the school football team (American football, for those of you like me who parse the word to mean what it does in Britain), after he'd got hurt for the first time. But before he did that, he had managed to hurt someone else -- a much smaller teammate named Alan Jardine, whose leg Brian broke in a game. Despite that, the two became friends, and would occasionally sing together -- like Brian, Alan loved to sing harmonies, and they found that they had an extraordinarily good vocal blend. While Brian mostly sang with his brothers and his cousin, all of whom had a family vocal resemblance, Jardine could sound spookily similar to that family, and especially to Brian. Jardine's voice was a little stronger and more resonant, Brian's a little sweeter, with a fuller falsetto, but they had the kind of vocal similarity one normally only gets in family singers. However,  they didn't start performing together properly, because they had different tastes in music -- while Brian was most interested in the modern jazz harmonies of the Four Freshman, Jardine was a fan of the new folk revival groups, especially the Kingston Trio. Alan had a group called the Tikis when he was at high school, which would play Kingston Trio style material like "The Wreck of the John B", a song that like much of the Kingston Trio's material had been popularised by the Weavers, but which the Trio had recorded for their first album: [Excerpt: The Kingston Trio, "The Wreck of the John B"] Jardine was inspired by that to write his own song, "The Wreck of the Hesperus", putting Longfellow's poem to music. One of the other Tikis had a tape recorder, and they made a few stabs at recording it. They thought that they sounded pretty good, and they decided to go round to Brian Wilson's house to see if he could help them -- depending on who you ask, they either wanted him to join the band, or knew that his dad had some connection with the music business and wanted to pick his brains. When they turned up, Brian was actually out, but Audree Wilson basically had an open-door policy for local teenagers, and she told the boys about Hite and Dorinda Morgan. The Tikis took their tape to the Morgans, and the Morgans responded politely, saying that they did sound good -- but they sounded like the Kingston Trio, and there were a million groups that sounded like the Kingston Trio. They needed to get an original sound. The Tikis broke up, as Alan went off to Michigan to college. But then a year later, he came back to Hawthorne and enrolled in the same community college that Brian was enrolled in. Meanwhile, the Morgans had got in touch with Gary Winfrey, Alan's Tikis bandmate, and asked him if the Tikis would record a demo of one of Bruce Morgan's songs. As the Tikis no longer existed, Alan and Gary formed a new group along the same lines, and invited Brian to be part of one of these sessions. That group, The Islanders made a couple of attempts at Morgan's song, but nothing worked out. But this brought Brian back to the Morgans' attention -- at this point they'd not seen him in three years. Alan still wanted to record folk music with Brian, and at some point Brian suggested that they get his brother Carl and cousin Mike involved -- and then Brian's mother made him let his other brother Dennis join in.  The group went to see the Morgans, who once again told them that they needed some original material. Dennis piped up that the group had been fooling around with a song about surfing, and while the Morgans had never heard of the sport, they said it would be worth the group's while finishing off the song and coming back to them. At this point, the idea of a song about surfing was something that was only in Dennis' head, though he may have mentioned the idea to Mike at some point. Mike and the Wilsons went home and started working out the song, without Al being involved at this time -- some of the rehearsal recordings we have seem to suggest that they thought Al was a little overbearing and thought of himself as a bit more professional than the others, and they didn't want him in the group at first. While surf music was definitely already a thing, there were very few vocal surf records. Brian and Mike wrote the song together, with Mike writing most of the lyrics and coming up with his own bass vocal line, while Brian wrote the rest of the music: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "Surfin' (Rehearsal)"] None of the group other than Dennis surfed -- though Mike would later start surfing a little -- and so Dennis provided Mike with some surfing terms that they could add into the song. This led to what would be the first of many, many arguments about songwriting credit among the group, as Dennis claimed that he should get some credit for his contribution, while Mike disagreed: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, “Surfin' (Rehearsal)”] The credit was eventually assigned to Brian Wilson and Mike Love. Eventually, they finished the song, and decided that they *would* get Al Jardine back into the group after all. When Murry and Audree Wilson went away for a long weekend and left their boys some money for emergencies, the group saw their chance. They took that money, along with some more they borrowed from Al's mother, and rented some instruments -- a drum kit and a stand-up bass. They had a party at the Wilsons' house where they played their new song and a few others, in front of their friends, before going back to the Morgans with their new song completed. For their recording session, they used that stand-up bass, which Al played, along with Carl on an acoustic guitar, giving it that Kingston Trio sound that Al liked. Dennis was the group's drummer, but he wasn't yet very good and instead of drums the record has Brian thumping a dustbin lid as its percussion. As well as being the lead vocalist, Mike Love was meant to be the group's saxophone player, but he never progressed more than honking out a couple of notes, and he doesn't play on the session. The song they came up with was oddly structured -- it had a nine-bar verse and a fourteen-bar chorus, the latter of which was based around a twelve-bar blues, but extended to allow the "surf, surf with me" hook. But other than the unusual bar counts it followed the structure that the group would set up most of their early singles. The song seems at least in part to have been inspired by the song "Bermuda Shorts" by the Delroys, which is a song the group have often cited and would play in their earliest live shows: [Excerpt: The Delroys, "Bermuda Shorts"] They messed around with the structure in various ways in rehearsal, and those can be heard on the rehearsal recordings, but by the time they came into the studio they'd settled on starting with a brief statement of the chorus hook: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "Surfin'"] It then goes into a verse with Mike singing a tenor lead, with the rest of the group doing block harmonies and then joining him on the last line of the verse: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "Surfin'"] And then we have Mike switching down into the bass register to sing wordless doo-wop bass during the blues-based chorus, while the rest of the group again sing in block harmony: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "Surfin'"] That formula would be the one that the Beach Boys would stick with for several singles to follow -- the major change that would be made would be that Brian would soon start singing an independent falsetto line over the top of the choruses, rather than being in the block harmonies.  The single was licensed to Candix Records, along with a B-side written by Bruce Morgan, and it became a minor hit record, reaching number seventy-five on the national charts. But what surprised the group about the record was the name on it. They'd been calling themselves the Pendletones, because there was a brand of thick woollen shirt called Pendletons which was popular among surfers, and which the group wore.  It might also have been intended as a pun on Dick Dale's Deltones, the preeminent surf music group of the time. But Hite Morgan had thought the name didn't work, and they needed something that was more descriptive of the music they were doing. He'd suggested The Surfers, but Russ Regan, a record promoter, had told him there was already a group called the Surfers, and suggested another name. So the first time the Wilsons realised they were now in the Beach Boys was when they saw the record label for the first time. The group started working on follow-ups -- and as they were now performing live shows to promote their records, they switched to using electric guitars when they went into the studio to record some demos in February 1962. By now, Al was playing rhythm guitar, while Brian took over on bass, now playing a bass guitar rather than the double bass Al had played. For that session, as Dennis was still not that great a drummer, Brian decided to bring in a session player, and Dennis stormed out of the studio. However, the session player was apparently flashy and overplayed, and got paid off. Brian persuaded Dennis to come back and take over on drums again, and the session resumed. Val Poliuto was also at the session, in case they needed some keyboards, but he's not audible on any of the tracks they recorded, at least to my ears. The most likely song for a follow-up was another one by Brian and Mike. This one was very much a rewrite of "Surfin'", but this time the verses were a more normal eight bars, and the choruses were a compromise between the standard twelve-bar blues and "Surfin'"s fourteen, landing on an unusual thirteen bars. With the electric guitars the group decided to bring in a Chuck Berry influence, and you can hear a certain similarity to songs like "Brown-Eyed Handsome Man" in the rhythm and phrasing: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "Surfin' Safari [early version]"] Around this time, Brian also wrote another song -- the song he generally describes as being the first song he ever wrote. Presumably, given that he'd already co-written "Surfin'", he means that it was the first song he wrote on his own, words and music. The song was inspired, melodically, by the song "When You Wish Upon A Star" from the Disney film Pinocchio: [Excerpt: Cliff Edwards "When You Wish Upon a Star"] The song came to Brian in the car, and he challenged himself to write the whole thing in his head without going to the piano until he'd finished it. The result was a doo-wop ballad with Four Freshmen-like block harmonies, with lyrics inspired by Brian's then girlfriend Judy Bowles, which they recorded at the same session as that version of “Surfin' Safari”: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "Surfer Girl [early version]"] At the same session, they also recorded two more songs -- a song by Brian called Judy, and a surf instrumental written by Carl called "Karate". However, shortly after that session, Al left the group. As the group had started playing electric instruments, they'd also started performing songs that were more suitable for those instruments, like "What'd I Say" and "The Twist". Al wasn't a fan of that kind of music, and he wanted to be singing "Tom Dooley" and "Wreck of the John B", not "Come on baby, let's do the Twist". He was also quite keen on completing his university studies -- he was planning on becoming a dentist -- and didn't want to spend time playing tons of small gigs when he could be working towards his degree. This was especially the case since Murry Wilson, who had by this point installed himself as the group's manager, was booking them on all sorts of cheap dates to get them exposure. As far as Al could see, being a Beach Boy was never going to make anyone any real money, and it wasn't worth disrupting his studies to keep playing music that he didn't even particularly like. His place was taken by David Marks, Carl's young friend who lived nearby. Marks was only thirteen when he joined, and apparently it caused raised eyebrows among some of the other musicians who knew the group, because he was so much younger and less experienced than the rest. Unlike Al, he was never much of a singer -- he can hold a tune, and has a pleasant enough voice, but he wasn't the exceptional harmony singer that Al was -- but he was a competent rhythm player, and he and Carl had been jamming together since they'd both got guitars, and knew each other's playing style. However, while Al was gone from the group, he wasn't totally out of the picture, and he remained close enough that he was a part of the first ever Beach Boys spin-off side project a couple of months later. Dorinda Morgan had written a song inspired by the new children's doll, Barbie, that had come out a couple of years before and which, like the Beach Boys, was from Hawthorne. She wanted to put together a studio group to record it, under the name Kenny and the Cadets, and Brian rounded up Carl, Al, Val Poliuto, and his mother Audree, to sing on the record for Mrs Morgan: [Excerpt: Kenny and the Cadets, "Barbie"] But after that, Al Jardine was out of the group for the moment -- though he would be back sooner than anyone expected. Shortly after Al left, the new lineup went into a different studio, Western Studios, to record a new demo. Ostensibly produced by Murry Wilson, the session was actually produced by Brian and his new friend Gary Usher, who took charge in the studio and spent most of his time trying to stop Murry interfering. Gary Usher is someone about whom several books have been written, and who would have a huge influence on West Coast music in the sixties. But at this point he was an aspiring singer, songwriter, and record producer, who had been making records for a few months longer than Brian and was therefore a veteran. He'd put out his first single, "Driven Insane", in March 1961: [Excerpt: Gary Usher, "Driven Insane"] Usher was still far from a success, but he was very good at networking, and had all sorts of minor connections within the music business. As one example, his girlfriend, Sandra Glanz, who performed under the name Ginger Blake, had just written "You Are My Answer" for Carol Connors, who had been the lead singer of the Teddy Bears but was now going solo: [Excerpt: Carol Connors, "You Are My Answer"] Connors, too, would soon become important in vocal surf music, while Ginger would play a significant part in Brian's life. Brian had started writing songs with Gary, and they were in the studio to record some demos by Gary, and some demos by the Beach Boys of songs that Brian and Gary had written together, along with a new version of "Surfin' Safari". Of the two Wilson/Usher songs recorded in the session, one was a slow doo-wop styled ballad called "The Lonely Sea", which would later become an album track, but the song that they were most interested in recording was one called "409", which had been inspired by a new, larger, engine that Chevrolet had introduced for top-of-the-line vehicles. Musically, "409" was another song that followed the "Surfin' Safari" formula, but it was regularised even more, lopping off the extra bar from "Surfin' Safari"'s chorus, and making the verses as well as the choruses into twelve-bar blues. But it still started with the hook, still had Mike sing his tenor lead in the verses, and still had him move to sing a boogie-ish bassline in the chorus while the rest of the group chanted in block harmonies over the top. But it introduced a new lyrical theme to the group -- now, as well as singing about surfing and the beach, they could also sing about cars and car racing -- Love credits this as being one of the main reasons for the group's success in landlocked areas, because while there were many places in the US where you couldn't surf, there was nowhere where people didn't have cars. It's also the earliest Beach Boys song over which there is an ongoing question of credit. For the first thirty years of the song's existence, it was credited solely to Wilson and Usher, but in the early nineties Love won a share of the songwriting credit in a lawsuit in which he won credit on many, many songs he'd not been credited for. Love claims that he came up with the "She's real fine, my 409" hook, and the "giddy up" bass vocal he sang. Usher always claimed that Love had nothing to do with the song, and that Love was always trying to take credit for things he didn't do. It's difficult to tell who was telling the truth, because both obviously had a financial stake in the credit (though Usher was dead by the time of the lawsuit). Usher was always very dismissive of all of the Beach Boys with the exception of Brian, and wouldn't credit them for making any real contributions, Love's name was definitely missed off the credits of a large number of songs to which he did make substantial contributions, including some where he wrote the whole lyric, and the bits of the song Love claims *do* sound like the kind of thing he contributed to other songs which have no credit disputes. On the other hand, Love also overreached in his claims of credit in that lawsuit, claiming to have co-written songs that were written when he wasn't even in the same country as the writers. Where you stand on the question of whether Love deserves that credit usually depends on your views of Wilson, Love and Usher as people, and it's not a question I'm going to get into, but I thought I should acknowledge that the question is there. While "409" was still following the same pattern as the other songs, it's head and shoulders ahead of the Hite Morgan productions both in terms of performance and in terms of the sound. A great deal of that clearly owes to Usher, who was experimenting with things like sound effects, and so "409" starts with a recording that Brian and Usher made of Usher's car driving up and down the street: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "409"] Meanwhile the new version of "Surfin' Safari" was vastly superior to the recording from a couple of months earlier, with changed lyrics and a tighter performance: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "Surfin' Safari (second version)"] So at the end of the session, the group had a tape of three new songs, and Murry WIlson wanted them to take it somewhere better than Candix Records. He had a contact somewhere much better -- at Capitol Records. He was going to phone Ken Nelson. Or at least, Murry *thought* he had a contact at Capitol. He phoned Ken Nelson and told him "Years ago, you did me a favour, and now I'm doing one for you. My sons have formed a group and you have the chance to sign them!" Now, setting aside the question of whether that would actually count as Murry doing Nelson a favour, there was another problem with this -- Nelson had absolutely no idea who Murry Wilson was, and no recollection of ever doing him a favour. It turned out that the favour he'd done, in Murry's eyes, was recording one of Murry's songs -- except that there's no record of Nelson ever having been involved in a recording of a Murry Wilson song. By this time, Capitol had three A&R people, in charge of different areas. There was Voyle Gilmore, who recorded soft pop -- people like Nat "King" Cole. There was Nelson, who as we've seen in past episodes had some rockabilly experience but was mostly country -- he'd produced Gene Vincent and Wanda Jackson, but he was mostly working at this point with people like Buck Owens and the Louvin Brothers, producing some of the best country music ever recorded, but not really doing the kind of thing that the Beach Boys were doing. But the third, and youngest, A&R man was doing precisely the kind of thing the Beach Boys did. That was Nik Venet, who we met back in the episode on "LSD-25", and who was one of the people who had been involved with the very first surf music recordings. Nelson suggested that Murry go and see Venet, and Venet was immediately impressed with the tape Murry played him -- so impressed that he decided to offer the group a contract, and to release "Surfin' Safari" backed with "409", buying the masters from Murry rather than rerecording them. Venet also tried to get the publishing rights for the songs for Beechwood Music, a publishing company owned by Capitol's parent company EMI (and known in the UK as Ardmore & Beechwood) but Gary Usher, who knew a bit about the business, said that he and Brian were going to set up their own publishing companies -- a decision which Murry Wilson screamed at him for, but which made millions of dollars for Brian over the next few years. The single came out, and was a big hit, making number fourteen on the hot one hundred, and "409" as the B-side also scraped the lower reaches of the charts. Venet soon got the group into the studio to record an album to go with the single, with Usher adding extra backing vocals to fill out the harmonies in the absence of Al Jardine. While the Beach Boys were a self-contained group, Venet seems to have brought in his old friend Derry Weaver to add extra guitar, notably on Weaver's song "Moon Dawg": [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "Moon Dawg"] It's perhaps unsurprising that the Beach Boys recorded that, because not only was it written by Venet's friend, but Venet owned the publishing on the song. The group also recorded "Summertime Blues", which was co-written by Jerry Capehart, a friend of Venet and Weaver's who also may have appeared on the album in some capacity. Both those songs fit the group, but their choice was clearly influenced by factors other than the purely musical, and very soon Brian Wilson would get sick of having his music interfered with by Venet.  The album came out on October 1, and a few days later the single was released in the UK, several months after its release in the US. And on the same day, a British group who *had* signed to have their single published by Ardmore & Beechwood put out their own single on another EMI label. And we're going to look at that in the next episode...

This week there are two episiodes of the podcast going up, both of them longer than normal. This one, episode ninety-nine, is on “Surfin’ Safari” by the Beach Boys, and the group’s roots in LA, and is fifty minutes long. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode.   Patreon backers also have a ten-minute bonus episode available, on “Misirlou” by Dick Dale and the Deltones. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt’s irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ —-more—- Resources No Mixclouds this week, as both episodes have far too many songs by one artist. The mixclouds will be back with episode 101. I used many resources for this episode, most of which will be used in future Beach Boys episodes too. It’s difficult to enumerate everything here, because I have been an active member of the Beach Boys fan community for twenty-three years, and have at times just used my accumulated knowledge for this. But the resources I list here are ones I’ve checked for specific things. Becoming the Beach Boys by James B. Murphy is an in-depth look at the group’s early years. Stephen McParland has published many, many books on the California surf and hot-rod music scenes, including several on both the Beach Boys and Gary Usher. The Beach Boys: Inception and Creation is the one I used most here, but I referred to several. His books can be found at https://payhip.com/CMusicBooks Andrew Doe’s Bellagio 10452 site is an invaluable resource. Jon Stebbins’ The Beach Boys FAQ is a good balance between accuracy and readability. And Philip Lambert’s Inside the Music of Brian Wilson is an excellent, though sadly out of print, musicological analysis of Wilson’s music from 1962 through 67. The Beach Boys’ Morgan recordings and all the outtakes from them can be found on this 2-CD set. The Surfin’ Safari album is now in the public domain, and so can be found cheaply, but the best version to get is still the twofer CD with the Surfin’ USA album. *But*, those two albums are fairly weak, the Beach Boys in their early years were not really an album band, and you will want to investigate them further. I would recommend, rather than the two albums linked above, starting with this budget-priced three-CD set, which has a surprisingly good selection of their material on it.   Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript Today, there are going to be two podcast episodes. This one, episode ninety-nine, will be a normal-length episode, or maybe slightly longer than normal, and episode one hundred, which will follow straight after it, will be a super-length one that’s at least three times the normal length of one of these podcasts. I’m releasing them together, because the two episodes really do go together. We’ve talked recently about how we’re getting into the sixties of the popular imagination, and those 1960s began, specifically, in October 1962. That was the month of the Cuban Missile Crisis, which saw the world almost end. It was the month that James Brown released Live at the Apollo — an album we’ll talk about in a few weeks’ time. And if you want one specific date that the 1960s started, it was October the fifth, 1962. On that date, a film came out that we mentioned last week — Doctor No, the first ever James Bond film. It was also the date that two records were released on EMI in Britain. One was a new release by a British band, the other a record originally released a few months earlier in the USA, by an American band. Both bands had previously released records on much smaller labels, to no success other than very locally, but this was their first to be released on a major label, and had a slightly different lineup from those earlier releases. Both bands would influence each other, and go on to be the most successful band from their respective country in the next decade. Both bands would revolutionise popular music. And the two bands would even be filed next to each other alphabetically, both starting “the Bea”. In episode one hundred, we’re going to look at “Love Me Do” by the Beatles, but right now, in episode ninety-nine, we’re going to look at “Surfin’ Safari” by the Beach Boys: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, “Surfin’ Safari”] Before I start this story properly, I just want to say something — there are a lot of different accounts of the formation of the Beach Boys, and those accounts are all different. What I’ve tried to do here is take one plausible account of how the group formed and tell it in a reasonable length of time. If you read the books I link in the show notes, you might find some disagreements about the precise order of some of these events, or some details I’ve glossed over. This episode is already running long, and I didn’t want to get into that stuff, but it’s important that I stress that this is just as accurate as I can get in the length of an episode. The Beach Boys really were boys when they made their first records. David Marks, their youngest member, was only thirteen when “Surfin’ Safari” came out, and Mike Love, the group’s oldest member, was twenty-one.  So, as you might imagine when we’re talking about children, the story really starts with the older generation. In particular, we want to start with Hite and Dorinda Morgan. The Morgans were part-time music business people in Los Angeles in the fifties. Hite Morgan owned an industrial flooring company, and that was his main source of income — putting in floors at warehouses and factories that could withstand the particular stresses that such industrial sites faced. But while that work was hard, it was well-paying and didn’t take too much time. The company would take on two or three expensive jobs a year, and for the rest of the year Hite would have the money and time to help his wife with her work as a songwriter. She’d collaborated with Spade Cooley, one of the most famous Western Swing musicians of the forties, and she’d also co-written “Don’t Put All Your Dreams in One Basket” for Ray Charles in 1948: [Excerpt: Ray Charles, “Don’t Put All Your Dreams in One Basket”] Hite and Dorinda’s son, Bruce, was also a songwriter, though I’ve seen some claims that often the songs credited to him were actually written by his mother, who gave him credits in order to encourage him. One of Bruce Morgan’s earliest songs was a piece called “Proverb Boogie”, which was actually credited under his father’s name, and which Louis Jordan retitled to “Heed My Warning” and took a co-writing credit on: [Excerpt: Louis Jordan, “Heed My Warning”] Eventually the Morgans also started their own publishing company, and built their own small demo studio, which they used to use to record cheap demos for many other songwriters and performers. The Morgans were only very minor players in the music industry, but they were friendly with many of the big names on the LA R&B scene, and knew people like John Dolphin, Bumps Blackwell, Sam Cooke, and the Hollywood Flames. Bruce Morgan would talk in interviews about Bumps Blackwell calling round to see his father and telling him about this new song “You Send Me” he was going to record with Cooke. But although nobody could have realised it at the time, or for many years later, the Morgans’ place in music history would be cemented in 1952, when Hite Morgan, working at his day job, met a man named Murry Wilson, who ran a machine-tool company based in Hawthorne, a small town in southwestern Los Angeles County. It turned out that Wilson, like Dorinda Morgan, was an aspiring songwriter, and Hite Morgan signed him up to their publishing company, Guild Music. Wilson’s tastes in music were already becoming old-fashioned even in the very early 1950s, but given the style of music he was working in he was a moderately talented writer. His proudest moment was writing a song called “Two Step Side Step” for the Morgans, which was performed on TV by Lawrence Welk — Murry gathered the whole family round the television to watch his song being performed.  That song was a moderate success – it was never a hit for anyone, but it was recorded by several country artists, including the rockabilly singer Bonnie Lou, and most interestingly for our purposes by Johnny Lee Wills, Bob Wills’ brother: [Excerpt: Johnny Lee Wills, “Two Step Side Step”] Wilson wrote a few other songs for the Morgans, of which the most successful was “Tabarin”, which was recorded by the Tangiers — one of the several names under which the Hollywood Flames performed. Gaynel Hodge would later speak fondly of Murry Wilson, and how he was always bragging about his talented kids: [Excerpt: The Tangiers, “Tabarin”] But as the fifties progressed, the Morgans published fewer and fewer of Wilson’s songs, and none of them were hits. But the Morgans and Wilson stayed in touch, and around 1958 he heard from them about an opportunity for one of those talented kids. Dorinda Morgan had written a song called “Chapel of Love” — not the same song as the famous one by the Dixie Cups — and Art Laboe had decided that that song would be perfect as the first record for his new label, Original Sound. Laboe was putting together a new group to sing it, called the Hitmakers, which was based around Val Poliuto. Poliuto had been the tenor singer of an integrated vocal group — two Black members, one white, and one Hispanic — which had gone by the names The Shadows and The Miracles before dismissing both names as being unlikely to lead to any success and taking the name The Jaguars at the suggestion of, of all people, Stan Freberg, the comedian and voice actor. The Jaguars had never had much commercial success, but they’d recorded a version of “The Way You Look Tonight” which became a classic when Laboe included it on the massively successful “Oldies But Goodies”, the first doo-wop nostalgia album: [Excerpt: The Jaguars, “The Way You Look Tonight”] The Jaguars continued for many years, and at one point had Richard Berry guest as an extra vocalist on some of their tracks, but as with so many of the LA vocal groups we’ve looked at from the fifties, they all had their fingers in multiple pies, and so Poliuto was to be in this new group, along with Bobby Adams of the Calvanes, who had been taught to sing R&B by Cornell Gunter and who had recorded for Dootsie Williams: [Excerpt: The Calvanes, “Crazy Over You”] Those two were to be joined by two other singers, who nobody involved can remember much about except that their first names were Don and Duke, but Art Laboe also wanted a new young singer to sing the lead, and was auditioning singers. Murry Wilson suggested to the Morgans that his young son Brian might be suitable for the role, and he auditioned, but Laboe thought he was too young, and the role went to a singer called Rodney Goodens instead: [Excerpt: The Hitmakers, “Chapel of Love”] So the audition was a failure, but it was a first contact between Brian Wilson and the Morgans, and also introduced Brian to Val Poliuto, from whom he would learn a lot about music for the next few years. Brian was a very sensitive kid, the oldest of three brothers, and someone who seemed to have some difficulty dealing with other people — possibly because his father was abusive towards him and his brothers, leaving him frightened of many aspects of life. He did, though, share with his father a love of music, and he had a remarkable ear — singular, as he’s deaf in one ear. He had perfect pitch, a great recollection for melodies — play him something once and it would stay in his brain — and from a very young age he gravitated towards sweet-sounding music. He particularly loved Glenn Miller’s version of “Rhapsody in Blue” as a child: [Excerpt: The Glenn Miller Orchestra, “Rhapsody in Blue”] But his big musical love was a modern harmony group called the Four Freshmen — a group made up of two brothers, their cousin, and a college friend. Modern harmony is an outdated term, but it basically meant that they were singing chords that went beyond the normal simple triads of most pop music. While there were four, obviously, of the Four Freshmen, they often achieved an effect that would normally be five-part harmony, by having the group members sing all the parts of the chord *except* the root note — they’d leave the root note to a bass instrument. So while Brian was listening to four singers, he was learning five-part harmonies. The group would also sing their harmonies in unusual inversions — they’d take one of the notes from the middle of the chord and sing it an octave lower. There was another trick that the Four Freshmen used — they varied their vocals from equal temperament.  To explain this a little bit — musical notes are based on frequencies, and the ratio between them matters. If you double the frequency of a note, you get the same note an octave up — so if you take an A at 440hz, and double the frequency to 880, you get another A, an octave up. If you go down to 220hz, you get the A an octave below. You get all the different notes by multiplying or dividing a note, so A# is A multiplied by a tiny bit more than one, and A flat is A multiplied by a tiny bit less than one. But in the middle ages, this hit a snag — A#. which is A multiplied by one and a bit, is very very slightly different from B flat, which is B multiplied by 0.9 something. And if you double those, so you go to the A# and B flat the next octave up, the difference between A# and B flat gets bigger. And this means that if you play a melody in the key of C, but then decide you want to play it in the key of B flat, you need to retune your instrument — or have instruments with separate notes for A# and B flat — or everything will sound out of tune. It’s very very hard to retune some instruments, especially ones like the piano, and also sometimes you want to play in different keys in the same piece. If you’re playing a song in C, but it goes into C# in the last chorus to give it a bit of extra momentum, you lose that extra momentum if you stop the song to retune the piano. So a different system was invented, and popularised in the Baroque era, called “equal temperament”. In that system, every note is very very slightly out of tune, but those tiny errors cancel out rather than multiply like they do in the old system. You’re sort of taking the average of A# and B flat, and calling them the same note. And to most people’s ears that sounds good enough, and it means you can have a piano without a thousand keys.  But the Four Freshmen didn’t stick to that — because you don’t need to retune your throat to hit different notes (unless you’re as bad a singer as me, anyway). They would sing B flat slightly differently than they would sing A#, and so they would get a purer vocal blend, with stronger harmonic overtones than singers who were singing the notes as placed on a piano: [Excerpt: the Four Freshmen, “It’s a Blue World”] Please note by the way that I’m taking the fact that they used those non-equal temperaments somewhat on trust — Ross Barbour of the group said they did in interviews, and he would know, but I have relatively poor pitch so if you listened to that and thought “Hang on, they’re all singing dead-on equal tempered concert pitch, what’s he talking about?”, then that’s on him. When Brian heard them singing, he instantly fell for them, and became a major, major fan of their work, especially their falsetto singer Bob Flanigan, whose voice he decided to emulate. He decided that he was going to learn how they got that sound. Every day when he got home from school, he would go to the family’s music room, where he had a piano and a record player. He would then play just a second or so of one of their records, and figure out on the piano what notes they were singing in that one second, and duplicating them himself. Then he would learn the next second of the song. He would spend hours every day on this, learning every vocal part, until he had the Four Freshmen’s entire repertoire burned into his brain, and could sing all four vocal parts to every song. Indeed, at one point when he was about sixteen — around the same time as the Art Laboe audition — Brian decided to go and visit the Four Freshmen’s manager, to find out how to form a successful vocal group of his own, and to find out more about the group themselves. After telling the manager that he could sing every part of every one of their songs, the manager challenged him with “The Day Isn’t Long Enough”, a song that they apparently had trouble with: [Excerpt: The Four Freshmen, “The Day Isn’t Long Enough”] And Brian demonstrated every harmony part perfectly. He had a couple of tape recorders at home, and he would experiment with overdubbing his own voice — recording on one tape recorder, playing it back and singing along while recording on the other. Doing this he could do his own imitations of the Four Freshmen, and even as a teenager he could sound spookily like them: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys [Brian Wilson solo recording released on a Beach Boys CD], “Happy Birthday Four Freshmen”] While Brian shared his love for this kind of sweet music with his father, he also liked the rock and roll music that was making its way onto the radio during his teen years — though again, he would gravitate towards the sweet vocal harmonies of the Everly Brothers rather than to more raucous music. He shared his love of the Everlys with his cousin Mike Love, whose tastes otherwise went more in the direction of R&B and doo-wop. Unlike Brian and his brothers, Mike attended Dorsey High School, a predominantly Black school, and his tastes were shaped by that — other graduates of the school include Billy Preston, Eric Dolphy, and Arthur Lee, to give some idea of the kind of atmosphere that Dorsey High had. He loved the Robins, and later the Coasters, and he’s been quoted as saying he “worshipped” Johnny Otis — as did every R&B lover in LA at the time. He would listen to Otis’ show on KFOX, and to Huggy Boy on KRKD. His favourite records were things like “Smokey Joe’s Cafe” by the Robins, which combined an R&B groove with witty lyrics: [Excerpt: The Robins, “Smokey Joe’s Cafe”] He also loved the music of Chuck Berry, a passion he shared with Brian’s youngest brother Carl, who also listened to Otis’ show and got Brian listening to it. While Mike was most attracted to Berry’s witty lyrics, Carl loved the guitar part — he’d loved string instruments since he was a tiny child, and he and a neighbour, David Marks, started taking guitar lessons from another neighbour, John Maus. Maus had been friends with Ritchie Valens, and had been a pallbearer at Valens’ funeral. John was recording at the time with his sister Judy, as the imaginatively-named duo “John & Judy”: [Excerpt: John & Judy, “Why This Feeling?”] John and Judy later took on a bass player called Scott Engel, and a few years after that John and Scott changed their surnames to Walker and became two thirds of The Walker Brothers. But at this time, John was still just a local guitar player, and teaching two enthusiastic kids to play guitar. Carl and David learned how to play Chuck Berry licks, and also started to learn some of the guitar instrumentals that were becoming popular at the time. At the same time, Mike would sing with Brian to pass the time, Mike singing in a bass voice while Brian took a high tenor lead. Other times, Brian would test his vocal arranging out by teaching Carl and his mother Audree vocal parts — Carl got so he could learn parts very quickly, so his big brother wouldn’t keep him around all day and he could go out and play. And sometimes their middle brother Dennis would join in — though he was more interested in going out and having fun at the beach than he was in making music. Brian was interested in nothing *but* making music — at least once he’d quit the school football team (American football, for those of you like me who parse the word to mean what it does in Britain), after he’d got hurt for the first time. But before he did that, he had managed to hurt someone else — a much smaller teammate named Alan Jardine, whose leg Brian broke in a game. Despite that, the two became friends, and would occasionally sing together — like Brian, Alan loved to sing harmonies, and they found that they had an extraordinarily good vocal blend. While Brian mostly sang with his brothers and his cousin, all of whom had a family vocal resemblance, Jardine could sound spookily similar to that family, and especially to Brian. Jardine’s voice was a little stronger and more resonant, Brian’s a little sweeter, with a fuller falsetto, but they had the kind of vocal similarity one normally only gets in family singers. However,  they didn’t start performing together properly, because they had different tastes in music — while Brian was most interested in the modern jazz harmonies of the Four Freshman, Jardine was a fan of the new folk revival groups, especially the Kingston Trio. Alan had a group called the Tikis when he was at high school, which would play Kingston Trio style material like “The Wreck of the John B”, a song that like much of the Kingston Trio’s material had been popularised by the Weavers, but which the Trio had recorded for their first album: [Excerpt: The Kingston Trio, “The Wreck of the John B”] Jardine was inspired by that to write his own song, “The Wreck of the Hesperus”, putting Longfellow’s poem to music. One of the other Tikis had a tape recorder, and they made a few stabs at recording it. They thought that they sounded pretty good, and they decided to go round to Brian Wilson’s house to see if he could help them — depending on who you ask, they either wanted him to join the band, or knew that his dad had some connection with the music business and wanted to pick his brains. When they turned up, Brian was actually out, but Audree Wilson basically had an open-door policy for local teenagers, and she told the boys about Hite and Dorinda Morgan. The Tikis took their tape to the Morgans, and the Morgans responded politely, saying that they did sound good — but they sounded like the Kingston Trio, and there were a million groups that sounded like the Kingston Trio. They needed to get an original sound. The Tikis broke up, as Alan went off to Michigan to college. But then a year later, he came back to Hawthorne and enrolled in the same community college that Brian was enrolled in. Meanwhile, the Morgans had got in touch with Gary Winfrey, Alan’s Tikis bandmate, and asked him if the Tikis would record a demo of one of Bruce Morgan’s songs. As the Tikis no longer existed, Alan and Gary formed a new group along the same lines, and invited Brian to be part of one of these sessions. That group, The Islanders made a couple of attempts at Morgan’s song, but nothing worked out. But this brought Brian back to the Morgans’ attention — at this point they’d not seen him in three years. Alan still wanted to record folk music with Brian, and at some point Brian suggested that they get his brother Carl and cousin Mike involved — and then Brian’s mother made him let his other brother Dennis join in.  The group went to see the Morgans, who once again told them that they needed some original material. Dennis piped up that the group had been fooling around with a song about surfing, and while the Morgans had never heard of the sport, they said it would be worth the group’s while finishing off the song and coming back to them. At this point, the idea of a song about surfing was something that was only in Dennis’ head, though he may have mentioned the idea to Mike at some point. Mike and the Wilsons went home and started working out the song, without Al being involved at this time — some of the rehearsal recordings we have seem to suggest that they thought Al was a little overbearing and thought of himself as a bit more professional than the others, and they didn’t want him in the group at first. While surf music was definitely already a thing, there were very few vocal surf records. Brian and Mike wrote the song together, with Mike writing most of the lyrics and coming up with his own bass vocal line, while Brian wrote the rest of the music: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, “Surfin’ (Rehearsal)”] None of the group other than Dennis surfed — though Mike would later start surfing a little — and so Dennis provided Mike with some surfing terms that they could add into the song. This led to what would be the first of many, many arguments about songwriting credit among the group, as Dennis claimed that he should get some credit for his contribution, while Mike disagreed: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, “Surfin’ (Rehearsal)”] The credit was eventually assigned to Brian Wilson and Mike Love. Eventually, they finished the song, and decided that they *would* get Al Jardine back into the group after all. When Murry and Audree Wilson went away for a long weekend and left their boys some money for emergencies, the group saw their chance. They took that money, along with some more they borrowed from Al’s mother, and rented some instruments — a drum kit and a stand-up bass. They had a party at the Wilsons’ house where they played their new song and a few others, in front of their friends, before going back to the Morgans with their new song completed. For their recording session, they used that stand-up bass, which Al played, along with Carl on an acoustic guitar, giving it that Kingston Trio sound that Al liked. Dennis was the group’s drummer, but he wasn’t yet very good and instead of drums the record has Brian thumping a dustbin lid as its percussion. As well as being the lead vocalist, Mike Love was meant to be the group’s saxophone player, but he never progressed more than honking out a couple of notes, and he doesn’t play on the session. The song they came up with was oddly structured — it had a nine-bar verse and a fourteen-bar chorus, the latter of which was based around a twelve-bar blues, but extended to allow the “surf, surf with me” hook. But other than the unusual bar counts it followed the structure that the group would set up most of their early singles. The song seems at least in part to have been inspired by the song “Bermuda Shorts” by the Delroys, which is a song the group have often cited and would play in their earliest live shows: [Excerpt: The Delroys, “Bermuda Shorts”] They messed around with the structure in various ways in rehearsal, and those can be heard on the rehearsal recordings, but by the time they came into the studio they’d settled on starting with a brief statement of the chorus hook: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, “Surfin'”] It then goes into a verse with Mike singing a tenor lead, with the rest of the group doing block harmonies and then joining him on the last line of the verse: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, “Surfin'”] And then we have Mike switching down into the bass register to sing wordless doo-wop bass during the blues-based chorus, while the rest of the group again sing in block harmony: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, “Surfin'”] That formula would be the one that the Beach Boys would stick with for several singles to follow — the major change that would be made would be that Brian would soon start singing an independent falsetto line over the top of the choruses, rather than being in the block harmonies.  The single was licensed to Candix Records, along with a B-side written by Bruce Morgan, and it became a minor hit record, reaching number seventy-five on the national charts. But what surprised the group about the record was the name on it. They’d been calling themselves the Pendletones, because there was a brand of thick woollen shirt called Pendletons which was popular among surfers, and which the group wore.  It might also have been intended as a pun on Dick Dale’s Deltones, the preeminent surf music group of the time. But Hite Morgan had thought the name didn’t work, and they needed something that was more descriptive of the music they were doing. He’d suggested The Surfers, but Russ Regan, a record promoter, had told him there was already a group called the Surfers, and suggested another name. So the first time the Wilsons realised they were now in the Beach Boys was when they saw the record label for the first time. The group started working on follow-ups — and as they were now performing live shows to promote their records, they switched to using electric guitars when they went into the studio to record some demos in February 1962. By now, Al was playing rhythm guitar, while Brian took over on bass, now playing a bass guitar rather than the double bass Al had played. For that session, as Dennis was still not that great a drummer, Brian decided to bring in a session player, and Dennis stormed out of the studio. However, the session player was apparently flashy and overplayed, and got paid off. Brian persuaded Dennis to come back and take over on drums again, and the session resumed. Val Poliuto was also at the session, in case they needed some keyboards, but he’s not audible on any of the tracks they recorded, at least to my ears. The most likely song for a follow-up was another one by Brian and Mike. This one was very much a rewrite of “Surfin'”, but this time the verses were a more normal eight bars, and the choruses were a compromise between the standard twelve-bar blues and “Surfin'”s fourteen, landing on an unusual thirteen bars. With the electric guitars the group decided to bring in a Chuck Berry influence, and you can hear a certain similarity to songs like “Brown-Eyed Handsome Man” in the rhythm and phrasing: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, “Surfin’ Safari [early version]”] Around this time, Brian also wrote another song — the song he generally describes as being the first song he ever wrote. Presumably, given that he’d already co-written “Surfin'”, he means that it was the first song he wrote on his own, words and music. The song was inspired, melodically, by the song “When You Wish Upon A Star” from the Disney film Pinocchio: [Excerpt: Cliff Edwards “When You Wish Upon a Star”] The song came to Brian in the car, and he challenged himself to write the whole thing in his head without going to the piano until he’d finished it. The result was a doo-wop ballad with Four Freshmen-like block harmonies, with lyrics inspired by Brian’s then girlfriend Judy Bowles, which they recorded at the same session as that version of “Surfin’ Safari”: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, “Surfer Girl [early version]”] At the same session, they also recorded two more songs — a song by Brian called Judy, and a surf instrumental written by Carl called “Karate”. However, shortly after that session, Al left the group. As the group had started playing electric instruments, they’d also started performing songs that were more suitable for those instruments, like “What’d I Say” and “The Twist”. Al wasn’t a fan of that kind of music, and he wanted to be singing “Tom Dooley” and “Wreck of the John B”, not “Come on baby, let’s do the Twist”. He was also quite keen on completing his university studies — he was planning on becoming a dentist — and didn’t want to spend time playing tons of small gigs when he could be working towards his degree. This was especially the case since Murry Wilson, who had by this point installed himself as the group’s manager, was booking them on all sorts of cheap dates to get them exposure. As far as Al could see, being a Beach Boy was never going to make anyone any real money, and it wasn’t worth disrupting his studies to keep playing music that he didn’t even particularly like. His place was taken by David Marks, Carl’s young friend who lived nearby. Marks was only thirteen when he joined, and apparently it caused raised eyebrows among some of the other musicians who knew the group, because he was so much younger and less experienced than the rest. Unlike Al, he was never much of a singer — he can hold a tune, and has a pleasant enough voice, but he wasn’t the exceptional harmony singer that Al was — but he was a competent rhythm player, and he and Carl had been jamming together since they’d both got guitars, and knew each other’s playing style. However, while Al was gone from the group, he wasn’t totally out of the picture, and he remained close enough that he was a part of the first ever Beach Boys spin-off side project a couple of months later. Dorinda Morgan had written a song inspired by the new children’s doll, Barbie, that had come out a couple of years before and which, like the Beach Boys, was from Hawthorne. She wanted to put together a studio group to record it, under the name Kenny and the Cadets, and Brian rounded up Carl, Al, Val Poliuto, and his mother Audree, to sing on the record for Mrs Morgan: [Excerpt: Kenny and the Cadets, “Barbie”] But after that, Al Jardine was out of the group for the moment — though he would be back sooner than anyone expected. Shortly after Al left, the new lineup went into a different studio, Western Studios, to record a new demo. Ostensibly produced by Murry Wilson, the session was actually produced by Brian and his new friend Gary Usher, who took charge in the studio and spent most of his time trying to stop Murry interfering. Gary Usher is someone about whom several books have been written, and who would have a huge influence on West Coast music in the sixties. But at this point he was an aspiring singer, songwriter, and record producer, who had been making records for a few months longer than Brian and was therefore a veteran. He’d put out his first single, “Driven Insane”, in March 1961: [Excerpt: Gary Usher, “Driven Insane”] Usher was still far from a success, but he was very good at networking, and had all sorts of minor connections within the music business. As one example, his girlfriend, Sandra Glanz, who performed under the name Ginger Blake, had just written “You Are My Answer” for Carol Connors, who had been the lead singer of the Teddy Bears but was now going solo: [Excerpt: Carol Connors, “You Are My Answer”] Connors, too, would soon become important in vocal surf music, while Ginger would play a significant part in Brian’s life. Brian had started writing songs with Gary, and they were in the studio to record some demos by Gary, and some demos by the Beach Boys of songs that Brian and Gary had written together, along with a new version of “Surfin’ Safari”. Of the two Wilson/Usher songs recorded in the session, one was a slow doo-wop styled ballad called “The Lonely Sea”, which would later become an album track, but the song that they were most interested in recording was one called “409”, which had been inspired by a new, larger, engine that Chevrolet had introduced for top-of-the-line vehicles. Musically, “409” was another song that followed the “Surfin’ Safari” formula, but it was regularised even more, lopping off the extra bar from “Surfin’ Safari”‘s chorus, and making the verses as well as the choruses into twelve-bar blues. But it still started with the hook, still had Mike sing his tenor lead in the verses, and still had him move to sing a boogie-ish bassline in the chorus while the rest of the group chanted in block harmonies over the top. But it introduced a new lyrical theme to the group — now, as well as singing about surfing and the beach, they could also sing about cars and car racing — Love credits this as being one of the main reasons for the group’s success in landlocked areas, because while there were many places in the US where you couldn’t surf, there was nowhere where people didn’t have cars. It’s also the earliest Beach Boys song over which there is an ongoing question of credit. For the first thirty years of the song’s existence, it was credited solely to Wilson and Usher, but in the early nineties Love won a share of the songwriting credit in a lawsuit in which he won credit on many, many songs he’d not been credited for. Love claims that he came up with the “She’s real fine, my 409” hook, and the “giddy up” bass vocal he sang. Usher always claimed that Love had nothing to do with the song, and that Love was always trying to take credit for things he didn’t do. It’s difficult to tell who was telling the truth, because both obviously had a financial stake in the credit (though Usher was dead by the time of the lawsuit). Usher was always very dismissive of all of the Beach Boys with the exception of Brian, and wouldn’t credit them for making any real contributions, Love’s name was definitely missed off the credits of a large number of songs to which he did make substantial contributions, including some where he wrote the whole lyric, and the bits of the song Love claims *do* sound like the kind of thing he contributed to other songs which have no credit disputes. On the other hand, Love also overreached in his claims of credit in that lawsuit, claiming to have co-written songs that were written when he wasn’t even in the same country as the writers. Where you stand on the question of whether Love deserves that credit usually depends on your views of Wilson, Love and Usher as people, and it’s not a question I’m going to get into, but I thought I should acknowledge that the question is there. While “409” was still following the same pattern as the other songs, it’s head and shoulders ahead of the Hite Morgan productions both in terms of performance and in terms of the sound. A great deal of that clearly owes to Usher, who was experimenting with things like sound effects, and so “409” starts with a recording that Brian and Usher made of Usher’s car driving up and down the street: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, “409”] Meanwhile the new version of “Surfin’ Safari” was vastly superior to the recording from a couple of months earlier, with changed lyrics and a tighter performance: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, “Surfin’ Safari (second version)”] So at the end of the session, the group had a tape of three new songs, and Murry WIlson wanted them to take it somewhere better than Candix Records. He had a contact somewhere much better — at Capitol Records. He was going to phone Ken Nelson. Or at least, Murry *thought* he had a contact at Capitol. He phoned Ken Nelson and told him “Years ago, you did me a favour, and now I’m doing one for you. My sons have formed a group and you have the chance to sign them!” Now, setting aside the question of whether that would actually count as Murry doing Nelson a favour, there was another problem with this — Nelson had absolutely no idea who Murry Wilson was, and no recollection of ever doing him a favour. It turned out that the favour he’d done, in Murry’s eyes, was recording one of Murry’s songs — except that there’s no record of Nelson ever having been involved in a recording of a Murry Wilson song. By this time, Capitol had three A&R people, in charge of different areas. There was Voyle Gilmore, who recorded soft pop — people like Nat “King” Cole. There was Nelson, who as we’ve seen in past episodes had some rockabilly experience but was mostly country — he’d produced Gene Vincent and Wanda Jackson, but he was mostly working at this point with people like Buck Owens and the Louvin Brothers, producing some of the best country music ever recorded, but not really doing the kind of thing that the Beach Boys were doing. But the third, and youngest, A&R man was doing precisely the kind of thing the Beach Boys did. That was Nik Venet, who we met back in the episode on “LSD-25”, and who was one of the people who had been involved with the very first surf music recordings. Nelson suggested that Murry go and see Venet, and Venet was immediately impressed with the tape Murry played him — so impressed that he decided to offer the group a contract, and to release “Surfin’ Safari” backed with “409”, buying the masters from Murry rather than rerecording them. Venet also tried to get the publishing rights for the songs for Beechwood Music, a publishing company owned by Capitol’s parent company EMI (and known in the UK as Ardmore & Beechwood) but Gary Usher, who knew a bit about the business, said that he and Brian were going to set up their own publishing companies — a decision which Murry Wilson screamed at him for, but which made millions of dollars for Brian over the next few years. The single came out, and was a big hit, making number fourteen on the hot one hundred, and “409” as the B-side also scraped the lower reaches of the charts. Venet soon got the group into the studio to record an album to go with the single, with Usher adding extra backing vocals to fill out the harmonies in the absence of Al Jardine. While the Beach Boys were a self-contained group, Venet seems to have brought in his old friend Derry Weaver to add extra guitar, notably on Weaver’s song “Moon Dawg”: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, “Moon Dawg”] It’s perhaps unsurprising that the Beach Boys recorded that, because not only was it written by Venet’s friend, but Venet owned the publishing on the song. The group also recorded “Summertime Blues”, which was co-written by Jerry Capehart, a friend of Venet and Weaver’s who also may have appeared on the album in some capacity. Both those songs fit the group, but their choice was clearly influenced by factors other than the purely musical, and very soon Brian Wilson would get sick of having his music interfered with by Venet.  The album came out on October 1, and a few days later the single was released in the UK, several months after its release in the US. And on the same day, a British group who *had* signed to have their single published by Ardmore & Beechwood put out their own single on another EMI label. And we’re going to look at that in the next episode…

Welcome to inside the Greenroom, today we talk to the founder of iSocialFans, digital futurist and keynote speaker, Brian Fanzo! During this fascinating conversation, we talk about what it means to be a “Digital Futurist” and how Brian became successful without committing to a niche. Brian also has the key insights on the importance of a virtual MC, building trust, and how you can upgrade your event with some tips and tricks with the technology you use!   Speakers you will be getting key info on how often to update and change your speeches, speaking the language of the audience, and the questions Brian asks BEFORE getting on stage.  For meeting planners, you’ll get some insight into how you can build trust for both virtual and live events, interactive presentations, and how you can hold attention for your speakers.    This episode is for any who wants to learn more about: Why you should have a good MC especially for multiple-day virtual events We are missing the “The Co-Consumption of content”  The Host/MC is the connective tissue, and how they can leverage the virtual stage Finding the synergy between humanity & technology  Future generations and how to connect with them Understanding new innovations and when to use them How to build trust both virtual and live events Tips and tricks for technology tools  How to enhance the platform you are speaking on WITHOUT increasing the costs of the event    And much more!     LINKS:   Connect with Brian: Website: brianfanzo.com Facebook www.facebook.com/BrianFanzoSpeaker LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/brianfanzo Insta: @brianfanzospeaker Twitter:  www.twitter.com/isocialfanz YouTube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCdxEsx0uVxn8-EGDUNwNmsw/ Podcast: brianfanzo.com/interview/   Connect with Blair: blair@advanceyourreach.com    Connect with us: Facebook: ​​www.facebook.com/advanceyourreach Website:​​ advanceyourreach.com Email​: ​info@insidethegreenroompodcast.com   Learn More About our Stage Agency:  www.advanceyourreach.com/stage-agency stageagency@advancyourreach.com   Episode Minute By Minute: 0:28 Meet Brian 1:37 How Brian got into the event world 3:36 Why no stage will scare Brian again 8:27 What being a digital futurist means 17:18 The one thing that most successful speakers do 23:57 When Brian missed the mark 27:07 Brians tips of online presentations 39:27 Why the roll of an MC is so important 47:46 The speakers that have impacted Brian the most   More About Brian: Brian Fanzo is a digital futurist keynote speaker who translates the trends of tomorrow to inspire change today. His customized and personalized programs showcase real-world stories and examples of forward-thinking people and businesses. He teaches companies of all sizes how to leverage technology in real-time in order to engage their customers at the right time. Brian has a gift for bringing people together online and offline. He has worked in 76 countries, highlighting his passion for change, collaboration, and technology. At age 14, Brian won a speed typing contest, and his love for computers and technology was born. After years of playing The Oregon Trail, creating in Adobe Pagemaker, and using Napster, Brian earned a Computer Science degree. Prior to speaking, he worked for nine years at the Department of Defense where he managed a global team that deployed collaboration and cybersecurity solutions across all branches of the military – which required him to maintain the highest civilian security clearance. He then pursued his dream job as a technology evangelist for a booming cloud-computing startup, helping companies embrace the rate of change and new ways to innovate. Brian is currently the Founder of iSocialFanz, which has helped launch digital and influencer strategies with the world’s most iconic brands like Dell, EMC, Adobe, IBM, UFC, Applebee’s, and SAP. Brian has been recognized as a Top 20 Digital Transformation Influencer; a Top 50 Most-Mentioned User by CMOs on Twitter, and a Top 25 Social Business Leader of the Future by The Economist. His followers on social media and podcast downloads rank in the hundreds of thousands, resulting in Brian being an influencer for 19 of the Fortune 100 companies.

This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur is Brian Levenson. Brian is a leading mental performance coach and author of Shift Your Mind – 9 mental shifts to thrive in preparation and performance. Brian is the go to performance coach for top athletes and organizations around the world. He’s worked with everyone from the NBA to the top universities and the PGA. He is a consultant for the NBA and MLS combines where they use his processes for interviewing athletes to make sure they are the best fit and to determine their mental strengths and weaknesses. Brian has a very special talent for helping athletes, entrepreneurs, and executives prepare themselves to perform at their highest levels and I wanted to have him on to teach you how to be your best. Twitter: @BrianLevenson www.StrongSkills.co When Brian graduated from college, he was a “lost puppy.” He was never one of those that knew what he wanted to do. He explored and went into sales for a couple years. One day, he had happened to have lunch a woman named Julie who worked with top athletes and organizations helping them to breakthrough in their performance. This really appealed to Brian as a big sports fan and loved helping others. He went back to grad school for sports psychology and when he finished, he moved to DC to work alongside Julie and be mentored by her. This helped him get his business going. Brian has become obsessed with increasing performance or as leaders learning how to open up possibilities and see the world in new and different ways. ​ Brian’s dad was an entrepreneur and entrepreneurship was in his blood, so he is pretty fearless about trying new things and constantly tests new ideas and concepts. What does it mean to “prepare to perform?” There are distinctions between preparation, practice, and performance. Preparation is about readiness and building competence. Great practice blends preparation and performance. Performance is executing and the things you’ve done to prepare and in your practice. You have to look at all 3 like their own disciplines in which you need to hone your skill. What are the differences between the performance and preparation mindset? It takes 9 mental shifts that have to happen – backed science and evidence. Here are a few… Humble in preparation and arrogant in performance Perfectionistic in preparation and adaptable in performance Work in preparation and play in performance. The shifts provide a framework for how to show up. To apply this is takes awareness and intention. You have to be aware and focused in which mindset you are in and at what times. Once you realize this, you then practice, practice, practice… Can you share more of the mental shifts and what do people need to be “aware of” to maximize their preparation and maximize their performance? Future focused in preparation and present focused in performance. Using analysis in preparation and relying on instinct in performance. Experimenting in preparation and trusting process in performance. Being uncomfortable in preparation and stepping into comfort when performing. Leveraging fear in preparation and being fearless in performance. Being selfish in preparation and selfless in performance. Even though these seem counter-intuitive, they are what help people consistently perform at the highest levels and they are reality. You need to get clear on what you need to do to be your best and shift your mind. At the 12 min mark, Brian gives examples. “It is way easier to be mediocre, than to do the hard work on yourself and confront who you are and decide who you want to be.” How do people truly breakthrough when it comes to maximizing their performance? What does it take? Useful self-talk is more important than positive self-talk. Accept reality. Positivity is a loaded term, like balance. Balance is a myth. Don’t put pressure on yourself to be “positive” in your self-talk, but to make sure it is “useful” instead. Learn to love the phrase, “Up until now…” because you can change what happens next. You have a choice to move forward from now into what you want for the future, the way you want. At the 18 min mark, we discuss this in more detail… Tell us about the Strong Skills Model… Strong Skills are 12 Competencies that can help people and organizations thrive Mission Vision Philosophy Diversity, equity, inclusion Ethics Emotional Intelligence Positive Psychology Decision Making Mindshifts Teamwork Leadership Believe in the power of “And” What are some of the biggest challenges you are seeing and helping to solve with Strong Skills? Right now, it is diversity, equity, and inclusion with what is happening in our world. In the past, it was just checking a box for most organizations to say they did it, and that is not the case any longer. Teaching people to work from the inside out and have the hard conversations. It’s time to run toward things than away from them. From an entrepreneur standpoint, what have you found in your work about self-awareness? It’s amazing at how the body actually impacts our behavior. It’s called Somatics. By creating awareness and understand of your body’s actions or reactions to emotions or ways of feeling, you can recognize it and manage it better. This is where emotional intelligence links with self-awareness. We can prime our thoughts and feelings to happen a certain way, but we cannot always control them. This is why Self-awareness and Somatics come in to help us recognize and redirect them. Pick 1 or 2 mental shifts that you think are most important for entrepreneurs and explain in more detail… There is a distinction between reacting and responding. Experimenting in preparation. As an entrepreneur, you need to experiment – but there is also a time to trust the process and move forward. Good entrepreneurs walk this line well. Trust and belief in your process and ability to succeed is another important piece for entrepreneurs. Give yourself space to experiment, but also trust your process. What are the 3 C’s? Consistency Control Confidence Anything else? Forget balance – focus on integrating things and being integrated throughout your life and work. We also need to learn to be where our feet are. It is also important to focus on the performance mindset and learn what that means for you.   Best Quote: “It is way easier to be mediocre, than to do the hard work on yourself and confront who you are and decide who you want to be."   Brian's Misfit 3: Take care of your marriage first and your kids second. Selfish first, then selfless. Self-determination theory: Autonomy. Confidence. Relatedness. Have conviction but be passionately curious.   Show Sponsors: Assistagram:  www.MisfitEntrepreneur.com/Assistagram 5 Minute Journal: www.MisfitEntrepreneur.com/Journal  

A military brat, Brian St. Ours went to hospital corpsman school in the chilly part of the year on the lakes around Illinois. Very cold. But he survived and wound up working with both Navy and Marines. He took his medical background and got a degree in advertising. Sounds odd, but as a corpsman he put together a health awareness monthly aware area. And learning how to get people's attention really interested him, leading to the advertising degree. He got a job with a New York agency after college and then went on to a graduate program. He ended up in Florida where his girlfriend got a job. At a trade show, someone asked if a certain company was Veteran owned. When Brian asked why, he learned about the government support of Veterans. Then he put the thinking cap on, and Veteran Owned Business dot com was born. Now in their 12th year, started on Veteran's Day of course, and they are helping 34,000 plus members already. Veteran Founder Podcast with your host Josh Carter We record the Felony Inc Podcast inside NedSpace in the Bigfoot Podcast Studio in beautiful downtown Portland. Audio engineer, mixer and podcast editor is Allon Beausoleil Show logo was designed by Carolyn Main Website was designed by Cameron Grimes Production assistant is Chelsea Lancaster Theme music: Artist: Tipsy Track: Kadonka Album: Buzzz Courtesy of Ipecac Records 10% of gross revenue at Startup Radio Network goes to support women entrepreneurs in developing countries thru kiva.org/lender/markgrimes Listen to the Veteran Founder Podcast live on-air every Friday at 1:00pm pacific time on Startup Radio Network at startupradionetwork.com

S11E5: Tim Howard Tim Howard and Brian Day were best friends with drug habits to match. Brian did some deals to support his habit, ending up in debt to some nasty characters. When Brian and Shannon Day are murdered, and their 7 month old boy, Trevor, is left for dead in a duffel bag, authorities get a case of tunnel vision for the Day’s only black friend. Learn more and get involved at: http://www.proclaimjustice.org https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flom is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co No1 and PRX.

A true visionary and entrepreneur, Brian has over 13 years of experience in the property management and vacation rental industry. Passionate about the budding potential of investing in the Finger Lakes region, and fueled by his love for the area and the outdoors, Brian was inspired to buy 80+ acres of local farmland. Dreaming of the possibilities this land could offer to the public, he formed Lincoln Hill Farms LCC and hired a team of various individuals with the necessary skills and talents to transform this beautiful farmland into an all-inclusive venue and agricultural attraction. When Brian is not busy working and managing his ventures, he enjoys relaxing with his wife and three children. He also enjoys supporting ROC City Values, a non-profit organization that he founded which sponsors a 5k Walk/Run each June in support of the Rochester City School District. In this episode of Destination on the Left, we are joined by Brian Mastrosimone, owner of Lincoln Hill Farms on Canandaigua Lake in the Finger Lakes Region of New York state. In our discussion, Brian talks about the challenges of launching his dream business. He also discusses his use of creativity in the development project, which has yielded numerous different types of uses for visiting guests to enjoy. What You Will Learn in This Episode: How the idea for Lincoln Hill Farms was conceived The different expansions and developments Brian spearheaded to make Lincoln Hill Farms what it is today Different types of events and facilities that you will find at the Lincoln Hill Farms compound What Brian has done to help Lincoln Hill Farms stand out from the crowd Brian’s vision for Lincoln Hill Farms this year and in the future How Brian is navigating the challenges posed by the global pandemic Successful partnerships and relationships Brian has formed to collaborate and expand Lincoln Hill Farms Advice for people who are looking to become entrepreneurs in the travel and tourism space Lincoln Hill Farms Brian Mastrosimone is the owner of Lincoln Hill Farms, an agricultural attraction and entertainment venue in the Finger Lakes region of New York state. Brian’s background in real estate enabled him to realize his vision for developing over seventy acres on Canandaigua Lake into a multipurpose agricultural destination. This project has spanned the last six years and it is finally coming to fruition, but by no means was it an easy ride. In this episode of Destination on the Left, Brian talks about the challenges of launching his dream business. He also discusses his use of creativity in the development project, which has yielded numerous different types of uses for visiting guests to enjoy. A Unique Agricultural Destination Today, Lincoln Hill Farms has expanded to ninety-five acres with three houses, a centralized barn, an event pavilion, and repurposed silos. They do anything from music concerts and family outings to corporate events and weddings. Despite all of the unique attractions that Lincoln Hill Farms has to offer, it is a working farm too. They have animals, an acre garden on which they plan to build a kitchen, and this year they are growing an acre of CBD plants as well. These elements of the farm are not their primary source of revenue, but it adds an extra layer of authenticity to amplify the experience. It takes a creative touch to achieve this type of balance and truly stand out from the crowd. Driven by a Creative Vision One of the main drivers of Brian’s creativity is his decision to embrace the farm feel. It is a farm-based more on the space itself and how it is used rather than what the farm produces, and the concept has been unbelievably well received by tourists and locals alike. Everything they do is focused on catering to the visitor’s experience and what those transitions will look like. While Brian navigates the challenges posed by the current global pandemic, he and his team continue to find new ways to realize their vision for Lincoln Hill Farms. Website: https://lincolnhillfarms.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-mastrosimone-b8306a198/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lincolnhillfarms

Brian noticed that his closest friend, the guy he spent the majority of his time with in four years of college, had been distant the last few weeks of their final year. When he asked about it, his friend said: "I just don't want to hang out with you anymore. You're kind of an asshole." Ouch. He didn't change overnight, of course. At first he was committed to being defensive, angry, hurt. But after a couple of years of self-reflection, Brian Miller realized he had some work to do. He wasn't always an asshole. As a matter of fact, he was so shy no one could possibly have called him that. No one knew him well enough to insult him in that way. But due to his shyness and severe social anxiety, his peers had plenty of other words to use to insult, demean, and bully him. Brian told me that magic saved his life. His father and grandfather had always been obsessed with magic and magic tricks. They took Brian to shows, learned their own tricks, and spent time enjoying everything about that form of entertainment. When Brian turned 13, he also picked up a few magic tricks. One day as he sat eating lunch at the same table as some other non-popular kids (not with them, really, just sitting at the same table), he asked a few if they wanted to see a magic trick. They did. That was it. That was the beginning of Brian's journey toward asshole behavior. Within weeks, he became "that kid who does cool magic tricks", and was suddenly someone his peers found interesting enough to spend time with. He was invited to parties, and even went out with some girls. But none of his relationships lasted very long. He started to believe his own hype. Brian said that happens, especially with younger people who suddenly find themselves shifting from invisible to famous. They fall into the trap of ego, and any criticism becomes "he's just jealous", and "she just doesn't understand." It can take decades, if it happens at all, for people like that to start to see their own role in their unhappiness and dissatisfaction in life. They don't lean into self-reflection until they've already damaged almost every relationship - if they ever lean into it. But Brian did. A couple of years out of college, he had started his own business as an entertaining magician, and slowly morphed that business into his current speaking, writing, and coaching business. He's a natural when it comes to marketing and entrepreneurial enterprise. What I found especially inspiring in our conversation was the simple acknowledgement Brian had to make in order to move forward toward healthy, satisfying relationships: I have a role in my dissatisfaction. I can change. I can find happiness. --- Brian Miller is a globetrotting magician-turned speaker who works with organizations who want to create an environment where everyone feels heard, understood, and valued. He is the author of Three New People: Make the Most of Your Daily Interactions and Stop Missing Amazing Opportunities, a personal success guide to connecting with anyone. Brian’s TEDx talk, “How to Magically Connect with Anyone,” has been viewed over 3 million times worldwide and included on many “Best of TED” lists including “Top 5 TED Talks to Watch Before an Interview” by Kaplan Test Prep.

This is The Do It For Yourself Podcast.  Each week I sit down with someone who is doing it for themselves and chasing a dream they just couldn’t suppress.  This is often speakers, entrepreneurs, or athletes.  They all share one thing in common, they are overcoming challenges and never giving up.  Someone who is Doing It For Themselves is not selfish in their pursuit, they are simply chasing a dream or working towards a goal because it is something THEY want to do.  They are not forging down a path because society or someone is telling them it’s what they should be doing. This week I have a chance to sit down with Brian Smuda, the man behind Season Pass Sales and The Haircut Book.  Brian was a sufferer of Tourette's Syndrome.  When Brian was getting ready to graduate college and head into the real world he realized that he did not want to be in the workforce and have these ticks anymore so he began medication that would hopefully help with them.  Unfortunately, these medications did not help and they only made matters worse for him.  This sent Brian on a dark path which eventually led to him being admitted to a psych ward.  Brian tried just about everything he could to get back to normal and he eventually found a medication that worked wonders for him.  Until that medication was pulled off of the market and he was not allowed to use it anymore.   Brian was always a fighter though and determined to figure out a solution to his situation.  Brian learned of a surgery that would potentially help him.  This included having a battery pack implanted in his chest that would be connected to electrodes implanted in his brain.  Brian knew, even given the risk, that this was his only choice.   Brian went through with the surgery and has now regained his life.  He is back on the mountain ski and enjoying the freedom that he was once longing for. I hope you enjoy this conversation with Brian!   Season Pass Sales Season Pass Sales Insta The Haircut Book Insta Brian's Website Do It For Yourself Instagram

If you’ve ever signed up for a frequent flyer program, chances are good that you were awarded a certain number of bonus points to start. Those bonus points feel like a nice little gift, but they also serve another purpose: to increase your motivation to participate in the program.In this episode of Choiceology with Katy Milkman, we explore how your proximity to a goal can affect the way you behave.You’ll hear the fascinating story of Brian Zinn and his decade-spanning quest to unravel an elaborate riddle. When Brian was a college student, he stumbled upon a book called The Secret: A Treasure Hunt. In it were 12 cryptic puzzles—arcane verses and mysterious images that, when paired and solved, would point readers to 12 treasures buried in undisclosed locations around the United States.The treasure hunt was a harmless pastime during Brian’s college days, but when he rediscovered the book years later, it became something of an obsession. You’ll learn about his escalating adventures attempting to locate one of the book’s hidden treasures. Since the publication of The Secret nearly 40 years ago, only three of the 12 treasures have ever been found.Next, Oleg Urminsky joins Katy to reveal the behavioral mechanisms that drive us to increase our efforts as we approach a goal, or perceive that we’re approaching a goal. Urminsky’s research led him to demonstrate surprising shifts in behavior using a simple coffee card loyalty program. Oleg Urminsky is a professor of marketing at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. You can read more about his research in the 2006 paper “The Goal-Gradient Hypothesis Resurrected.” Choiceology is an original podcast from Charles Schwab. For more on the series, visit schwab.com/podcast.If you enjoy the show, please leave a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating or review on Apple Podcasts.Important Disclosures:All expressions of opinion are subject to change without notice in reaction to shifting market conditions.The comments, views, and opinions expressed in the presentation are those of the speakers and do not necessarily represent the views of Charles Schwab.Data contained herein from third-party providers is obtained from what are considered reliable sources. However, its accuracy, completeness or reliability cannot be guaranteed.(0420-08H4)

Mike and Brian Mountan are a father and son duo who together host the Bri The Sports Guy podcast. They both love watching, playing, and talking about sports. Brian has an unusual gift for being able to remember and recall stats and history about sports that most of us often forget. They also have a very close father and son relationship and planned starting their podcast together to coincide with Brian graduating from high school and Mike retiring from his finance career.   Mike is a native of Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin. He received his BA and an MBA from Northwest University in Evanston, Illinois. He spent 13 years with Procter & Gamble and 18 years with Johnson & Johnson in a variety of finance roles including VP of Finance for Johnson & Johnson's Consumer Division Asia Pacific based in Singapore and Global CFO of Johnson & Johnson's diabetes care business. Mike also serves on the board for the Jacksonville School for Autism and is chairman of the finance committee of St Joseph Academy. Brian is a 20 year old who was diagnosed at age 3 with autism. He was born in Cincinnati, Ohio and has lived in Jacksonville, Florida twice. He’s also lived in Singapore and San Ramon, California. Brian graduated from high school in May of 2019 and has been working on the podcast ever since. In addition to sports broadcasting and blogging, Brian also works at the Brooks YMCA. You are going to love this conversation as we dive into their sports podcast and the wonderful father and son dynamic that flows throughout the show.  Show Notes: [04:04] Growing up, Mike watched a lot of sports and played a lot of sports. [04:16] When Brian and his brother were born, his family tried to get them involved in as many sports as possible. [04:41] Brian is six feet and six inches tall. He's a great basketball player and a great golfer. [05:03] Mike grew up watching sports on TV. He was fortunate to grow up in Wisconsin, a state that had all of the pro teams. [06:02] Brian's mom thought the podcast would be a good idea after Brian graduated from high school. They've done over a hundred and thirty two episodes now. [07:21] Mike and his family knew that Brian had a gift. Mike shares a story about Brian talking about a game, and a nearby restaurant patron being amazed at everything he could remember. [09:50] Students are really being impacted by the shutdown. [10:23] The baseball and basketball seasons have been put on hold, so the NFL is one of the main things they have to talk about right now. [11:50] They are doing a free agency review by division. Then they'll do an NFC and AFC draft preview. Then they'll talk about what they think about the upcoming teams. They're hopeful that by late May, they will see some broadcasts. [15:22] They subscribe to many sports resources in order to go deep in their podcast. [16:22] They would rather have too much content as opposed to too little content. They plan out in advance which sports they will talk about during the week. [18:07] They do three podcasts a week, and they have a sponsor.  [19:22] Brian talks about some of the awesome guests that they have had on the show. [20:19] They would love to get the manager of the Milwaukee Brewers on the show. His name is Craig Counsell. They are also trying to make some connections with local golfers and the Jaguars. [23:03] Mike timed his retirement to Brian's graduation, so they could both start the podcast together. [24:53] Mike has always been a workaholic, so the podcast gives him a lot to work on with so many different sports to cover. [25:32] They came up with the idea around Christmas of 2018. [26:40] Sports podcasting is a very crowded space. They did the show for their friends and to show the autism community that there's a lot of practical things they can do. [27:44] They define success by having a lot of great content and having fun.  [30:29] People in Florida are really interested in hearing them talk about football. [31:33] They use a lot of different magazines to help keep things straight when covering college football. [32:41] The NBA is the easiest to cover because of the stability. [33:06] They take notes and get their research the old-fashioned way. [34:39] Brian has learned planning and not procrastinating from his parents.  [36:12] Mike learned social skills from his dad and work ethic from his grandparents.  [37:06] Mike would like to expand their audience.  [39:26] They would also like to cover the Milwaukee Bucks NBA game live.  [42:48] Darrell's takeaways: The way Mike and Brian interact shows how special their relationship is. The subject of their content has been significantly reduced because they are covering sports. They've adapted, and they're focusing deeper on the draft. They're making the most of the situation they have. They have reduced their schedule to two episodes per week instead of three. Think about your contingency plan in case of a dry spell. Look for inspiration for content. Cover what's most important and build your schedule around that. Links and Resources: Pro Podcast Solutions Bri The Sports Guy Mike Mountan on Facebook E132: Our interview with NY Post columnist and 2020 NY state baseball hall of fame inductee Kevin Kernan MountanMike@Yahoo.com

When Brian and I started this show it was to give our community....the Geek Community a voice.In honor of Brian, and in service to you, with an inability to gather in groups, we will have a Live, Call-In Show this Sunday at 7 pm CST and every Sunday at 7 till everyone has had a chance to share their stories of Brian. I will create an event page with the call in number.I know it's not the same as being with each other laughing and crying, but this is what I can do. I don't have answers, I don't know what the future of the show will be. I do know that everyone needs to share, laugh, and cry, and this a way for us all to come together at one time and “space” and celebrate a man who whose voice, laugh, and horrible taste in music, touched us all.Here is the Brian Held memorial Show with the TWIG Family and YOU the listeners.D2 #RIP #LCBH

When Brian and I started this show it was to give our community....the Geek Community a voice.In honor of Brian, and in service to you, with an inability to gather in groups, we will have a Live, Call-In Show this Sunday at 7 pm CST and every Sunday at 7 till everyone has had a chance to share their stories of Brian. I will create an event page with the call in number.I know it's not the same as being with each other laughing and crying, but this is what I can do. I don't have answers, I don't know what the future of the show will be. I do know that everyone needs to share, laugh, and cry, and this a way for us all to come together at one time and “space” and celebrate a man who whose voice, laugh, and horrible taste in music, touched us all.Here is the Brian Held memorial Show with the TWIG Family and YOU the listeners.D2 #RIP #LCBH

Find Your Purpose You might be reading this title thinking, "Find your Purpose?" Pretty big question there buddy. This week on the Dearing Acting Studio Podcast we have a special guest Brad Sweeney. Brad is a store director in his 40th year with Bashas Supermarkets (https://www.bashas.com/). He is also Brian and Joey's dad. In this episode, we talk about the positives and the negatives of being on the frontlines during this crisis, Review the growth of the studio from Brad's perspective, and the importance of a positive outlook.  Growth We start off talking about Brad's memories and outside perspective of the studio. The first thing he said was, "mcdowell road." He's referring to our second studio location, which was in a bad neighborhood, right between two freeways. Matt then talks about how the studio was started in 2007 during the recession but we succeeded because we learned how to grind and didn't know any better. Brad then shares the story of Brian being in the hospital long term in 2018. He remembers Brian's strong purpose to keep pushing Dearing further from the hospital and his refusal to let the studio die. Brian explains his reason why, which was he's never seen a facility focused on love and pushing the person.   Giving is Powerful As a store director, Matt brings attention to the fact that Brad is on the frontlines. Brad talks about how there are good moments and bad moments and shares an incredible story. He practices what we preach when he describes the bad moments because he gives those people the benefit of the doubt. He says that the people who come in the store stressed are the ones who are struggling, and they have big hearts even if they aren't showing it. The good is still present. He shares about two customers who came in and chose to GIVE. They bought $1,000 worth of gift cards from small businesses and gave them to his employees. This helped the small businesses, and acknowledged the hard work from the employees.  On the Next Podcast As we wrap up with Brad, we called Shea into the podcast to talk about her latest blogs & our upcoming episode of the podcast. Shea has been grinding from home writing these amazing blogs trying to make a difference. Check out her blog on non-essentials (https://www.dearingstudio.com/non-essential) and what that means for us as an acting school.  A Message From Joey Having our Dad on the podcast today was so much fun. He raised all three of us to live by the golden rule, "treat others how you want to be treated." My dad has faced a ton of hardships in his life. One of which was helping Brian and I fight through living positively with our blood disorder, ALPS Gene (https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/condition/autoimmune-lymphoproliferative-syndrome). When Brian was in his coma, my dad always kept hope and was a rock for our family. I will never forget being quarantined on my birthday when I was younger with low blood numbers. My dad invited two of my closes friends over and had us decorate face-masks & play video games. He is an inspiration for me to be selfless and always care for others, and I hope his story inspires you all to do the same! 

When Brian and I started this show it was to give our community....the Geek Community a voice.In honor of Brian, and in service to you, with an inability to gather in groups, we will have a Live, Call-In Show this Sunday at 7 pm CST and every Sunday at 7 till everyone has had a chance to share their stories of Brian. I will create an event page with the call in number.I know it's not the same as being with each other laughing and crying, but this is what I can do. I don't have answers, I don't know what the future of the show will be. I do know that everyone needs to share, laugh, and cry, and this a way for us all to come together at one time and “space” and celebrate a man who whose voice, laugh, and horrible taste in music, touched us all.Here is the Brian Held memorial Show with the TWIG Family and YOU the listeners.D2 #RIP #LCBH

Brian was born in Sacramento California and was educated in the Bay Area, receiving his bachelors degree in Humanistic, Existential, and Transpersonal Psychology from Sonoma State and his Masters degree in Spiritually Oriented Psychotherapy from The Institute of Transpersonal Psychology (now Sofia) in Palo Alto. Brian is a trained Hatha and Vinyassa yoga instructor and was educated as a Kundalini yoga teacher. He co-developed and launched a Montessori middle school program in Holly Springs where he taught original science, history and humanities curriculums for adolescents. Brian plays in the post folk band Brother Brian and The One Man Band and has a private psychological and spiritual consultation practice where he helps people rapidly develop personal sovereignty and inner freedom. When Brian is not teaching young people, making music, or providing psycho-spiritual support, he enjoys interviewing and writing about local artists in North Carolina. His artist portraits have been well received by both artists and community members and is known for his deep dives into finding the meaning in creative process. Brian is super excited to interview artists and in this podcast, he shares his excitement with us, as well as shares theories on reality. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/rachel6014/message

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Please ignore any speech-to-text errors) [00:00:04] Well, hello, everyone. We're so glad you joined us again today. My name is Kenny Thomas. For those of you who haven't heard my voice yet. And welcome to this next session. I was calling you Beatty Carmichael. Beatty is the CEO of Master Grabber, the creator of Agent Dominator and one of the top marketing experts in the real estate field. Beatty, I'm excited. What are we going to be discussing today? [00:00:29] Well, today we're going to talk about how to increase referrals. That sounds like a interesting topic for real estate agents. [00:00:37] Yes, I would say a very important one also. [00:00:40] Absolutely, very important. In fact, I was at a convention. It was a a weekend convention, hundreds of real estate agents. And they had a bunch of breakout sessions on the Saturday event that agents could go and choose what topic they want to learn. And one breakout session, Drew, I think it was like two thirds or three fourths of all of the attendees and all the other breakout sessions. Some of them actually had no one attending because this other one drama. Can you. Can you think what that one topic might have been when they get referral? [00:01:24] That's right. How to increase referrals. Exactly. I was talking to another client of ours, and he's a top producer down in Florida. He's been coaching with a coach for a number of years. And the coach got all of his coaching clients together. It's like 18 or 20 different, really strong top producing agents. And they went around the room actually as a conference call. So they went around the call and they were asking every single one last year, where did most of your business come from? Would you like to guess where all but one, my client, all the others who are the bulk of their business came from? [00:02:09] Any idea? [00:02:12] Referral, referrals and repeat from past clients. So this, if you do it right, can really sustain a business. And especially think about this, Penny, the real estate world is going into through some pretty dramatic shifts right now. Are you aware of some of those shifts taking place? [00:02:36] I've been hearing a little bit, but I'd love for you to expand on that if you can. [00:02:40] Well, there are shifts with what's called a buyer's Zillow's moving more into an aggressive competitor. Amazon's looking to get in. [00:02:49] There's this large class-action court case dealing with buyer commissions. And the bottom line is all these things are putting immense pressure on what's going to happen in the real estate world as a profession. What do you think would be one the best thing someone could do to protect to get all these market shifts that could eat away at their business? Any idea? [00:03:17] Obviously, increase increased their amount of sales to increase sales, but increase referrals and repeat sales from past clients. And so this is a huge topic because it really can help someone take their business and solidify it and be less susceptible to a range of market forces that they have no control over. And this is one thing that's real interesting is I've worked with our clients. Penny, you have complete control over getting referrals and getting people to do business with you again. You don't have much control over what the market does. So this is one area that you can really start to control your business. So let me ask you a question as we get into this. [00:03:59] Let's assume that you're a home owner and a friend comes to you and says, hey, Penny, I'm thinking about selling a house or thinking about buying a house. Do you have anyone that you would recommend I talk to? So you're going to make a referral, refer a friend to an agent. Here's the question I have for you. Which agent are you most likely to refer? One, that you would choose yourself or one that you would not choose yourself? [00:04:34] One that I would choose myself for sure. [00:04:37] So then the question if we move into this topic. Why would you choose one agent over someone else? Okay, so now let me turn the tables just a little bit. Imagine for a moment that your real estate agent, what causes someone to choose you over another agent? If you were to try to figure that out, do you have any idea of what that might be? [00:05:04] Well, off the top of my head, I would have to say my level of service and commitment to my client, how available I am and how relational I am. There needs first. [00:05:17] Okay. Now, let me ask you a question. That person who has never done business with you before. How do you articulate these things that you're talking about? How do you express to them what you just mentioned? [00:05:36] Customer service being available for the client. Just getting to know them. Engaging with them. Phone calls, meetings, that kind of thing. [00:05:48] Okay, so here's the problem I want to pose. I, um, I actually sat down with three agents when we're thinking about selling our home. And from top producing agents like the number two sales agent in our suburban city all the way down to good producers. And I asked him the question, why should I choose you over one of these other agents that's really qualified? You know what they said? [00:06:14] What? I don't know. [00:06:18] They could not give me a reason why I should choose them over someone else. So think about that. Now think about your answer to because what you shared with me is what most agents would say. Customer service, I'm available. I'm engaging with them. But how do you really quantify or measure that? But more importantly, how do you. What do you do to get someone to choose you? I'd like to suggest there's a different reason people choose you than what you just gave. And here's the point. Here's the thing. What you gave is the reason all agents think people choose them. [00:06:55] But when you really boil it down, the reason a homeowner chooses an agent either personally or to refer them is for something completely different. It ties in to what you mentioned, but it's completely different. Until you know why they choose you. Does it make sense? It's hard to get them to choose you. [00:07:15] Yes. [00:07:16] So if you want them to choose you, we got to go a little bit deeper. Peel back the onion a little bit more and say what the fundamental reasons they choose an agent. And once we know what that is. Then you've got a competitive advantage, because now you can start doing things that cause them to charge you more. So this is what working with clients. One of the things that has happened over the years is I'll follow up I follow up with our clients and they just get started with us with Agent Dominator. Once they've been with us for a month or two and they're starting to get their feet on the ground with us. And I cover this very same topic because this is the most important thing. My goal when I call them, is to ensure their success with us. And success is simple because success is a pattern. If you fail to do the pattern, you will fail the success. So here's what I tell them. People two for three reasons. And all three of these reasons have to be present. It's like a stool with three legs. If you take one leg off that stool. What happens to the stool? Okay. So unbeknownst to most agents, these are actually the three reasons people do business with you. [00:08:38] And once you can clarify and quantify these, then you can start to act on improving them in the experience. Number one is they like you, right? Do you know a person that would choose you as an agent if they did not like you? [00:08:54] Absolutely not. [00:08:55] Okay. The more they like you. Is it likely the more they're going to choose you? Yes. Okay. So liking you. By the way, I just want to. Does that have anything to do with customer service being available that been engaging? Or does it? Are all those different than simply disliking you? [00:09:17] I think it all. I think they all tied together. [00:09:19] They all tied together. But as a person, as a friend, I want to suggest that those qualities of what you do as a professional are separate from the qualities of why someone chooses to like you as a friend. [00:09:38] Does that make sense? Yeah. This liking you starts initially at the very top level. Most powerful is that they really like you as a friend. If you have five real estate agents that you know and one of them is your best friend. Which of those five agents are you most likely to choose? [00:09:57] My best friend. There you go. Relationship trumps everything else. So that's number one. Number two, the third. First, they like you. Second, they trust your expertise. As a real estate agent, this is where your customer service. This is where you're always available. This is where you are constantly staying on top of things. This is where you understand the contracts. You understand the process and negotiation. You understand what buyers want. You understand what sellers want. It is this professional level of expertise within your craft. [00:10:37] The third reason they choose you is you happen to be top of mind at the time that they're thinking about choosing an agent. If you're not top of mind, then you're never going to be chosen, right? [00:10:54] Okay, so all of these kind of tie into each other to put them like circles on a page. They all kind of overlap to a degree, but they all have different functions. And I want to walk through. How do you do that? So let me ask you if I were to ask you, Penny. How do you get someone to like you? [00:11:16] What would you tell me? [00:11:22] Oh, gosh, that's a really that's a broad question. I think it depends on the person. I would have to get to know their needs and the things that make them feel white. Some people feel white when you buy them a gift. Some people feel liked when you spend time with them. [00:11:41] Some people feel like when you do a service for them, some sort of act of service. You have to get to know the person first and kind of figure out what it is that makes them feel like, okay. I would probably from a business standpoint, I'd probably try to like them in that way. [00:11:58] Okay, good, good, good. Now you're married to Brian, right? Yes. When Brian was dating you, how did you. [00:12:11] Grow to like him. Spending time with him. Lots of time. [00:12:18] That's just the simple answer, you just spend time with people, right? Yeah. Okay. If you wanted to get someone to trust your expertise. [00:12:30] How do you do that? [00:12:34] Let's hear yes. Yes. No, no. Okay. Simple answer. But I think integrity has a lot to do with it. [00:12:44] Okay. All right. How do you get someone to always remember you? Keep well, you top of mind with them. [00:12:56] I would need to stay in contact with them in multiple ways, whether it's a phone call or text message, email, planning to take them to coffee or something like that. I'm always on their mind. [00:13:09] So here's where I'm going with all of these simple questions. For someone to want to choose you or refer you, they have to like you, trust your expertise and you have to be top of mind. [00:13:21] All you have to really do is ask your ask yourself this question is how do I get someone to like me? How do I get someone to trust me, not trust me as an individual? That's important, but trust me as a professional in my trade of selling real estate, how do I get someone to always remember me? I'd like to go through just a real short synopsis of how to do all these things, because this is the key to getting referrals. If they like you a lot, if they trust your expertise a lot. And if you happen to be top of mind, does it does it make. Does it make sense that you're absolutely going to be getting that referral? When when someone asked them, who should I use as a real estate agent? [00:14:06] So it's really not a mystery. It's just stopping slowing down and saying. What's really at play and how do we do it? So let me talk about liking you first. Okay. Okay. So ultimately everything you said about liking is absolutely correct. But I like to try to simplify a little bit more. Ultimately a relationship. Is all about. Do you truly value me as a person when you are spending time with Brian, did it. Was it clear that he valued you as a person? And the more he valued you, did that kind of make you value him more? [00:14:48] Yes. [00:14:51] So the question then is how do you go about just making people know that you value them? Let me let me suggest if I call you up, I'm a I'm a real estate agent, your friend. Hey, Penny, how's it going? What do you say? All right. Oh, we're doing fine. It's a beautiful day. The kids are great. Are your kids home from college or high school? [00:15:16] Yeah, I'm from high school, from high school. [00:15:19] I know how that works. Hey, by the way, do you know anyone who's thinking about buying or selling a home anytime soon? [00:15:27] I do, actually, my neighbor. [00:15:29] Okay. Pull out. Do I value you as an individual or as a sales prospect from that call? [00:15:38] Both. [00:15:41] Which way do you. When I finished hanging up the call and you were to ask yourself what was Betty's motivation in calling me? What comes top of mind of my motivation? Personal or business? Business. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Here's here's the interesting thing about relationships. Relationships are fragile. All it takes is one inclusion. That is not an authentic relationship. And it turns the table on the entire experience. And takes away. From the authentic portion of that relationship, does that make sense to use the wording? [00:16:23] No. Yeah, that makes perfect sense. [00:16:25] So what happens in a relationship? It's a sensitive situation. And if you want to get people to like you, your contact with them needs to be purely relational. Not business. Business will come if they like you. But if you ask for a business immediately, that engagement you had with them is perceived as entirely self-centered, self-motivated simply to get business. And it really had nothing to do with you as a person. Let's role play that scenario one more time. Hey, Penny, it's Brady. How's it going? [00:17:09] Hey, great. How are you guys? [00:17:11] Oh, we're doing super. [00:17:12] The kids home from high school now they are getting ready for the holidays. [00:17:17] Oh, I know. That's wonderful. Tell me about them. You don't have to go any further. But now the whole conversation is just about you, the kids. Husband, how life is. We share something. And then I say, hey, hey, I've got to run. I've got an appointment coming up. But I just want to give you a quick call. Hensala hadn't spoken with you in awhile. Have a great day. Talk soon. Click hang up now a moment. You ask yourself, what was his motivation of that phone call? What comes to mind? [00:17:46] Just checking on me, just saying hi and friendly. [00:17:49] Does that make you feel good? [00:17:51] Yes, absolutely. [00:17:53] Does that make you feel that I value you as a person and as a friend? [00:17:58] Yes. Is that tough to do? [00:18:03] No, no, it's not. Do most agents do that? No, no. So here is the key. The easiest thing you can do in the world. Most agents don't do because they get too busy. Right. I feel led to ask this question. If your husband gets too busy. To value you as his wife. What does that do to your marriage? [00:18:38] Not good things. [00:18:39] Not good thing. You could actually lose a marriage by being too busy, by not focusing on the little things that are most important, because you get. See, that is the big things that are really the important things in life. [00:18:52] And we lose out on the relationship. And I would like to suggest that what you do in building your real estate business is very much the same. It's the little things you do. Just touching people. That's the most important thing. So now let's go a step further. Let's take that same scenario. I call you up. We just have a little fun chat. It doesn't last long, but I leave the phone call and you're thinking, I really like Baity. He saw me. Now imagine the next day or two you get a note from me, Penny. It was so good talking and catching up with you. So excited about the kids. Hope you guys have a wonderful holiday season. And I sign it. What does that do to you, your feeling of my value to you at that point? Does it increase it? [00:19:50] Do you start to start to want to reciprocate that relationship? Does it make you like me more? [00:20:04] And the more you like me, more likely you're going to choose me as an agent. More likely you're going to refer me. Okay. So what I would like to suggest is to get someone to like you and to keep them like you even more. It's just a periodic reach out. You could even do it by text. Hey, Penny, how's it going? Just thinking about you. What's up? Now a text is bad. The default to a phone call. But it's a nice little touch. It has no ulterior motive behind it. But the phone call is the best because now you can interact, you can ask questions, you can share about you. They get to know you more. They get to you get to know them more is just catching up. And then if you'll follow up with that with a handwritten note, I suggest that handwritten notice on your real estate stationery. In fact, if I were a real estate agent, I'd get a bunch of note cards printed with my name and my real estate brand and my real estate information. And I would hand write you a note on my real estate card if my note if my personal note comes to you on my real estate card. Does that detract, in your opinion, from the authentic ness of my note? In other words, plenty of so great talking with you. Love catching hope. You guys have a great holiday and I sign it. Does it detract at all if it's coming from my personal stationery versus my business stationery? [00:21:41] Actually, I would feel like it was more heartfelt if you actually read it, right. [00:21:47] Okay. So I handwrite it, but I handwrite write it and it just happens to be on my work stationery. Does that cause any consternation on your end? If you were to get that. [00:21:56] No, it doesn't. Okay. [00:21:59] Okay. Okay. So it may be imperceptible. It may be more. But here's what I found when talking with one of our one of my friends who has been selling real estate for, gosh, 30 years now. He may actually made it, he said. I've never advertised for business. I've never spent any money to get business. I've always had as much business as I want, in fact, so much that I actually turned business down. And, you know, his number one thing that he does. [00:22:35] Call people. [00:22:36] That's right. He just makes these simple phone calls and he writes them a short note on his business stationery. That's it. Wow. [00:22:44] And here's what happens. They like him. And they remember that he is a real estate agent. [00:22:54] Top of mind, they like him. Bye bye. Curiously, the fact that he's in business so long, they trust that he probably has expertise. Unless he's actually done business with them and then they know that he has expertise. So this is really, really, really powerful. And by putting that little thank you note on a personal on your business, stationery, real estate, it might have a slight detrimental effect. Slightly degrade the touch, the value that touch. I don't think you'd be much, but what it does is it reinforces two things. I like you as a friend, but then you see me as a real estate agent as well. So that keeps that top of mind. Something else you can do. You mentioned this. Some people love gifts. If I were to drop by your house, even if you're not there and I leave some cookies and brownies, hey, I was in the area. Normally night out this way. I was in the area. Drop by. I got some brownies for you guys. Hope you enjoy it. [00:23:59] Does that make you feel good? [00:24:01] Oh, gosh, yes. [00:24:03] Does that increase my no pun intended? Does that increase my brownie points in your mind in terms of our relationship? Sure. Okay. Okay. So this is something else you can do, just a little drop by and just say even if you don't have a gift. Hey, I was in the area showing a house over here to another client. I remember you were here. I just want to drop by and say hello. Does that make you feel good? Yeah. So these are the little things that go a long way. Now, let's talk about being a little bit more strategic. Okay. So we got the relationship thing. Make sure people like you. They like you because you value their relationship and you demonstrate it because you reach out to them. And when you reach out to them, you mentioned nothing about real estate. Okay. Now it's okay if you ask me. Hey, Beatty, how's the house real estate going? Oh, man, it's going really great. I share a little bit. That's okay, because I did not volunteer it until you asked it. So it's still a personal call, but it's something you can do is take your list of friends, past clients, people you know, and identify those people who are a what I'll call a connector role. Do you have any idea what a connector role might be? [00:25:28] I guess I'm assuming it's just people that like if I'm my neighbor, I have a connection with her and then she knows somebody else. That chain. [00:25:39] Yep. So people who know other people. So let me give you an idea. Let me let me see if I can kind of lead this discussion just a little bit. You've got two people on your list. One person is a local Little League coach. And another person. Is a computer programmer who works from home. Which of those two people do you think would probably be more likely to be a connector to other people for you? [00:26:14] The first one. Why is that? [00:26:18] Outside the home, outside the home, I'd like to. There's one more element. Can you figure out what that element is? Why is the first one the little the Little League coach more likely to become a good connector for you than to work at home? Programmer. [00:26:35] He knows so many other people. [00:26:38] That's it. That's exactly it. So if you go through your list and ask yourself who is likely to know a lot more people, a lot of times simply by nature of their job, you can determine that a hairdresser, a bank teller, a little league coach, the choir director, a pastor, a youth minister. I mean, I could kind of go down the list, but they all have one thing in common. Their job, their occupation involves working with a lot of people on an ongoing basis. Repeat people in the local area. Does that make sense? Yes. If you were to be friend. The programmer and friend, the literary coach. Which one do you think you would likely get more referrals from? Yeah, for sure. So that's what I call a connector. And I suggest that you go through your list of people and you start to mark. Okay. First off, let's make sure you have a list, right. You create a written list. Okay. And then you identify those people who are connectors by virtue of the fact of how many people they probably know locally. Okay. So this would be those people who would just lie for the party. They love people and they know everyone. They may not have a job that is a or type job, but that's their personality. That's who they are. My brother, by the way, is that one. He knows everyone in town. And then you, those who have the other jobs that constantly have a flow of people coming through, those people who are connectors, you want to be a lot more strategic with this relationship building. [00:28:30] You want to pop by. You want to actually put it on sort of a schedule maybe every four to six weeks. Drop by. So let's say that you work at the bank. You're a bank teller. Okay. I'm going to swing by. Hey, Penny, I was in the area again, brought you some doughnuts. How are things now? I looked at all the tellers. Now y'all can eat any of these doughnuts without Penny's permission. These are hers. Okay. All right. Okay. So you feel special, right? Well, now I've made you feel really special. The more I do that, when you hear someone coming through, they're a little old lady or that or that someone coming through the tell tale teller slot and you're engaging with them because they're one of your normal clients types things and they're starting to talk about they're thinking about selling their home. Who's the first person you're likely going to think of referring them to you? Yeah. And when I swing by that date, bring you doughnuts, are you likely going to remember to say, oh, what did so-and-so call you? Because I was talking to so-and-so and they're thinking about selling their house. You think you might actually. Yeah. So the connectors are going to have their ear to the ground. Because they were involved with all kinds of people all the time. And the stronger the relationship, the more you pursue that relationship, the more likely two things are going to happen. They're going to refer you. [00:30:02] And when you happen to pop by, then they're going to bring back to remember it. Oh, you know what? You're the real estate agent. This person was saying just a week ago they're thinking about selling. And it's going to remind you to tell me because I'm actually there. I can't. In fact, I can't tell you how many people have told me. So when they start using our services, we guarantee results. But one of the things that we require is one that we guarantee it is that you have to at least call your prospects. Couple of times a year. I can't tell you how many times people have told me when I'm just on the phone and I'm talking to them, I'll pick up a deal because I've been getting the postcards, they're getting the emails, they're being reminded of me. And now when I call them, it's like, oh, you know what? A friend of mine is thinking about selling. You ought to call them engagement, interaction that prompts them to remember about the referral. So really, really powerful. So that's getting them to like you. Back to the question, how do you get someone to like you? You like them back? That's the easy answer. You do those things that let them know that you liked them. Second thing. So we go back to the store. Three reasons people choose you. They like you. They trust your expertise. And you happen to be top of mind when they're thinking. So let's talk about trusting your expertise. Here is the challenge in marketing, there's a concept known as outside perception versus inside reality. [00:31:39] Here's what it means in real estate. Let's say, Penny, that you are a real estate agent. And you want to market to a group of homeowners. That group could be people that, you know, there's your personal list or that group could be people that are just in a neighborhood. By the way, let me ask you a question. Is there fundamentally any real difference between someone, you know, who lives in a home and someone you don't know who lives in a home? In other words, no, there's no difference, only differences. You have a relationship with one, but not with the other, but they generally have the same like same desires, same feelings. And what we find is this the typical homeowner believes that all real estate agents are the same, that all they do is take a sign in the yard, list a home in the MLS and wait for someone else to bring a buyer. Would you agree that that's probably what most home owners believe to be true? So let's say that you are a top notch. Dedicated real estate agent, you serve your clients better, far better than the typical real estate agent. But as long as those homeowners believe that you're just like anyone else, are they more likely to choose you over someone else? They believe you're just like everyone else. Are they going to choose you or are they going to choose someone else just as easily, just as easily they would pick someone else for sure. [00:33:16] Yeah. [00:33:17] So the implication, real simple, if all agents are the same, it doesn't matter who I choose to sell my house, I won't get the same result. Same price and the same amount of time with one agent over another. But let me ask a different question. Let's assume that those people on that list, your personal list or that neighborhood, if they understood your skill and your expertise. And they understood it to the same degree that you understand it about yourself. Would they realistically choose any other agent besides you? No. [00:33:50] Okay, so that's what we call your inside reality there. Outside perception is you're like everyone else. So there's no reason to you, but you're inside. Reality is there's lots of reasons to choose you. If you could transfer your inside reality to them so they know as much about you as you know about yourself. Would that drive a lot more business? Do you think? [00:34:18] Yes, absolutely. And fundamentally, why? [00:34:27] Because there is a connection established. [00:34:30] There's a kind of a connection. They know more about you. Right. Let me go back to reason number two. If they understood you're inside reality, then does that mean that now they are trusting your expertise? [00:34:47] Yes. [00:34:48] Because you're inside, reality is your expertise. And if they don't know your expertise, they can't trust it, and therefore, on that stool with three legs, you're missing one leg. So what do you think would be a simple way to help them trust your expertise? [00:35:12] Guys, tell me. [00:35:15] Guys say anything most. Most real estate agents say, oh, gosh, I have no idea. Okay. Because I've never thought about this. Let me tell you the easiest thing. Okay. So let me pose it as a question to you. You're thinking five real estate agents. You're going to be selling your home, you know, five real estate agents. And one of them you see all the time making another sale, listing another house, closing another sale all the time. Boom, boom, boom. Sold again and sold again and sold again. Just listed. Just listed. Sold again. Sold again. And the other four agents don't say anything about them all. [00:35:57] They're real estate agents out of those five agents. Which one are you going to choose? [00:36:01] The one that's always selling for? [00:36:05] Do you think you trust that they probably have greater expertise than the other four? [00:36:11] Yes. [00:36:13] And what was your reasoning behind that? [00:36:20] The proof is in the pudding. All those things sold, sold, sold by the same person that I know, they're actually selling houses. [00:36:28] There you go. It isn't that easy, isn't it? That's the first step. Is simply showing off your successes all the time. [00:36:38] The way you transfer expertise as you get them to start to trust you more than someone else. And the first level of trust is, are you actually doing what you're supposed to be doing? Are you selling homes? That's the first level. But then there's some things you can do to increase that level of trust. And they're really simple. Any idea what you might be able to do to increase the trust? Just beyond showing off yourself. [00:37:02] Probably you would need to offer something, some sort of guarantee. [00:37:06] Maybe you could. That definitely helps. But before we get to that more complicated thing, let me ask you a question. You have you have those five real estate agents. Two of them you see are constantly selling. Three of them you don't see anything. So now it's a choice between those two. One of them, you see. So the other one you see sold for full price, sold in three days, sold for two thousand over asking price. Now, which one do you choose? [00:37:38] That one. Because I'm getting more thinks about not only are they selling that, they're selling for more and they're selling faster. [00:37:47] Bingo. Okay. So now we add a little bit more information that causes them to trust you more because you're now telling a little bit more about why they should I sell this home in three days. That's impressive. I sell this home for full price. That's impressive. So the more you get to share the inside reality of that sale, the more they start to trust you that maybe you can do the same for them. Makes sense. Yes. OK. Now let's take it a step further. What do you think? Before we get to a guarantee before you. What do you think? There's something else I could do. To get someone to trust me even more than simply saying sold in three days or so for full price or something like that. Tell me I can share what I did to cause it to sell that fast. For example, before I put this home on the market. We pre marketed it for an entire week. Mailing to the neighborhood door-knocking, letting people know the home is about to come on the market, and if they have any friends that want to be in this area, let them know. [00:39:12] We started to we went through the house and we made sure everything was absolutely perfect in order. No, no does. No, no burned-out light bulbs. If there is a room, there was a room that was kind of an awkward color. We had the owner change it back to a neutral color, took away everything that could have been a detriment that would cause someone to go. That's just not quite a good feel. In other words, the level of preparation and the level of pre marketing I did. So this home faster. Now, if I were to tell you that, does that give you greater confidence in my expertise? [00:39:47] Absolutely. [00:39:48] Okay. Yes. And then I could even guarantee to sell it in next days or I pay you or I could do all kinds of things. But trusting your expertise starts with just showing them that you're always selling. Then showing them what's going on with those sales. Explaining some more information behind that shows what you did. What you did may be what every agent does, but the homeowner doesn't know that because no way to tell them. So that's the second leg. Okay, so back to why did someone why does someone chooses an agent? They like you, they trust you, your expertise. And then you happen to be top of mind. So on top of mind. [00:40:34] Have you ever heard in selling the ABC of selling? Always be closing. Okay. Well, there's an ABC in real estate. It's always been contacting. Right. If you want to stay top of mind, you're just always there. And this is where the automated remote touch systems are in place come into play. So if you think about this. [00:41:02] Only you individually can get someone to like you. Your touches need to be personal. Hey, how's it going? Just thinking about you. Hey, I was thinking about you last week. Hadn't spoken with you in a while. Just want to call and say, hey. Only you can do those. Your assistant can't do but everything else in terms of trusting your expertise and staying top of mind. You can now automate that. You can send those out in postcards. You can do an email campaign. You can do social media and constantly be posting, posting just lists at another home to Facebook. And so all your friends are seeing that they're seeing that activity. You can share write a little explanation of what you did to sell this home in five days. All that can be done in an automated fashion, but you need to be consistent in doing that. But part of that is going to be your personal touches, because that's another contact part of that's going to be writing those will hand written notes or doing a pop by. But it's more on top of mind is more than that. It's doing all these other things. So now with that as a backdrop, I want to talk the last couple steps about how this realistically put this together. But before I go there, do you have any questions on any of this or how to do it or anything that's cropped up as we've been talking on it? [00:42:29] I don't actually I'm interested here. Just this last little part and this thing top of mind and strategies for because I can I can see a lot of agents and I think the best way to stay of mind. [00:42:44] Let me ask you a question before we get there. What do you think is the number one reason people agents aren't consistently touching their personal contacts? [00:42:54] I think for sure they're too busy. [00:42:58] Too busy, we don't have time for that. [00:43:03] They're too busy. Don't have time. And they're not prepared. Are you? Are you a busy mom? Busy employee? [00:43:12] Yes. [00:43:13] Busy wife? Yes. Have you gotten more accomplished in all your roles by bringing structure and knowing what you need to do and having things prepared to do it? Absolutely. [00:43:27] So here's a simple thing. If most agents would just create a little bit of structure, then they can easily fit this in their day. The reason they don't do it is they don't have the structure in place and it doesn't take that much effort. Let's go through the action. [00:43:48] So let's put a little bit of structure in place that takes very little time. Number one, make a list. The easiest way to start making a list of who all your friends are. [00:44:02] Just going through your phone contact, go through your phone contacts and go through your Facebook friends. [00:44:09] Yeah, I mean, there's a list right there. So write it down in one spot and then you go through it strategically, add contact in their phone number and what's their mailing address. Okay. And if you don't know their phone number or their mailing address or an email address, you probably don't want Facebook to send a quick message updating my records. Can you give me your mailing address? You know, how many people would give you your mailing address? Their mailing address, if you ask for it? All of them ask for it. Okay. So you put your list together and then this is real important to you. Want to categorize your list by A, B and C.. Okay, everyone, you know. Okay, A, B and C, here's a simple way of what I understand for this to be most effective as a real estate agent. Aides are going to be those people that you have the closest relationship with. The easy way to understand if you have a close relationship is if you know their spouses name and you know their children's names and they know your spouse and your children's name. In other words, the more you know about them, it's going to be an A. [00:45:26] Then the bees are going to be the people that you have a relationship with with them individually, but it doesn't go much further. So this would be like your work relationships. You know, John, down down on the second floor, you see him a lot, but you really you've never met his wife. You don't really know much about the kids. That's a relationship. A C relationship would be someone that is you. No pun intended. You see them only once in a blue moon. Okay. But you don't know much about them. So they bfc. Okay. So you start with your A's and B's and you then go through and list everyone that is going to be a connector. And if I have a, B or C, that is a connector, I want to move them to an A because that is the priority. And I want to build a relationship with them strategically because I I want that relationship now. So you're gonna make the A's B's. And then depending on how big the list is, you narrowed only to the A's or the B's or you include some C's. [00:46:34] But generally speaking, like if we're targeting when we work with real estate agents to help them market to their clients for 500 people is fine because so much of the marketing can be automated. But those that maybe they're personally touching may only be like two hundred. Okay. So it depends on what you're doing. But then the next step is once you make the list be strategic. An easy way to be strategic. If you don't have a fancy system, you put it all on an Excel spreadsheet and you just get loaded to Google Docs. On Google Docs, you can access it from your phone and you can access it from your computer. Does that make sense? [00:47:14] It does. [00:47:15] Okay. And then all you do is you put a column on and Google Docs says Date last touched and you scroll through your list. I've got five minutes before an appointment. I'm out on the roads. I'm gonna pull up my phone. Go to Google Docs and find the next person on my list that I haven't touched recently. Their phone number is going to be there and I want to reach out. Hey, pettiest Beatty. How you doing? Hadn't thought spoken to you in a while. Just wanted to visit a couple minutes. Oh, my appointments here. Gotta run. Okay. So it's a natural end of the conversation. But you like it. I've touched you. I'm gonna write you a handwritten note. Now I've got a system in place and it doesn't really take much time. So structure that approach and working from the list means that now you can go through that list and touch everyone. So let's go back. And I just want to review a couple of key things. Okay. That, too. Why did people choose you? They like you. They trust your expertise. You happen to be top of mind. [00:48:16] Your personal touch 100 percent needs to be authentic. Relationship only mentioned nothing about your business unless they ask you don't ask for a sale. Don't ask for a referral unless they volunteer it or the conversation just naturally goes that way, but may give them no reason to believe that the motivation of that call was for business purposes. Okay. Now, let me put this back in perspective. So I'm reaching out. I'm touching you. We say hello and checking on the kids. I'll write you a handwritten note. Couple of weeks later, I may say say hello again. A couple weeks later, I may call. Hey. Question Do you know anyone who's thinking of buying or selling a home? Does that spoil the relationship that you and I built simply by asking that as a friend? [00:49:13] Oh, God. That's a great question. [00:49:16] I don't think it was shit. It shouldn't be a trick question. You and I are friends. And I've demonstrated that over time and then I ask and say, hey, you know, anyone who's thinking of buying or selling home the relationship? [00:49:32] No. As long as you like. He said you have made that connection and stayed in contact with me on a regular basis. And it's not like you're just calling me out of the blue. That's right. [00:49:44] That's right. So here's the here's the key. It's okay to ask for business. But make sure you've established and nurture the friendship first and make sure you do it on a call that is strictly business related. Don't try to make it a personal call and then throw business into it. So keep the personal calls completely separate. And then as a separate event, you can ask for business on another call. And it's not going to spoil the relationship as long as the momentum of what you're touches or as long as your touches are really focused. Generally speaking, on the relationship. But that's your personal touch. Then your automated touches are rarely personal. This is where you get post-card set up. And by the way, as we're putting the structure in place. Okay, so let's talk about automation. Let me ask let me ask you, what do you think is more important content or technology? [00:50:52] Content. [00:50:53] Content. Exactly. Content is what you say, technology is how you deliver what you say. So don't get caught up with, oh, I've got this real fancy super duper e-mail auto responder system with artificial intelligence in it. That doesn't. That's great. But it's the content that's most important. Don't get caught up with. Well, I've got this automated postcard marketing system already. I just buy it off the shelf from this company. It's the content, not the technology. So make sure you focus on the content. On the content. Couple things you really think you really want focus on the core message. You want them to always remember about you. What is that? That makes it unique, that makes you special. That gives them a reason to want to choose you. And you want to make sure that that content is always there. You also want to be on the receiving end of that content. Make sure. Is this something they really want to get for me? Like an email? [00:51:59] Okay, if your if your email campaign is sending out an e-mail during springtime that says it's springtime, it's time to plant flowers. And that's the whole focus of the e-mail that's going to take your people off, because that's just wasting my time to tell me the obvious. Okay. So make sure that what you're putting out is good. And then the last thing and this is for a lot of agents, also fail. Years back when we started working with real estate agents and we were asking why are you doing business with us? And a lot of these are top producing agents that are doing business with us. And they gave me two answers. One is I need help. In making this happen, because I don't know what to do the other in about 50 50. The other half says, I know what to do, but I keep starting it. And then something comes up and I stop it. And it's a year or two before I remembered that I stopped it. Now I need to get back into it. And I'm just not consistent. Okay. So the way that you build that consistency is you create everything up front and then you have what I call lock and load and then you do put on autopilot. So you don't have to do it if you have to touch it every single week to get another e-mail out, every single month to get another postcard out, you will fail because you will get busy. You're going to it's like a diet. You break the diet, you cheat on your diet one meal and it's three or four months before you realize I'm off my diet because you just totally lost it. Does that make sense? [00:53:38] Yes, it does. You got to create everything up front and lock and load and then put it on autopilot so you don't have to touch it again. If you don't do that, then you're most likely going to be the yo yo person, you start it. You stop that, you start it. You stop in and it's never really worked for you. [00:54:00] So that can I put an unabashed plug for what we do with Agent Dominator? Absolutely. Okay. I know you would say that since your paycheck. Right. So everything we're talking about here is what we built in to Agent Dominator. The reason it works is not because Agent Dominators Fest is a fabulous system. It is the reason it works is not because Agent Dominator does what most agents don't do. It does. The reason it works is not because we have some fancy technology that no one else has. We do. But the reason it works is because it's right down the middle of the best practices of what you ought to be doing anyway. If you can constantly personally touch, constantly educate them on what creates your true why they should trust you and constantly say top of mind, you don't need any other system out there. Just like my friend I was sharing about earlier has more business and he can than he can handle. He turns it away and he's never spent a dime in marketing because he stays on top of it. But most people don't stay on top of it. Most people don't really know how to do it. And what we do with Agent Dominator is we do it all for you. [00:55:19] Okay. And as long as you're willing to pick up the phone and call or write a handwritten note to your personal contacts, we actually guarantee your results. So I would just encourage you to check that out. Here's something also were real cool because a lot of agents don't know if you realize this, but especially the long term producers sell both residential and commercial. So if that's actually one of you guys listening to this call, we do agent dominated with commercial as well on the investment properties because the folks who own investment properties are very similar to those who own houses. Right. If I own a little apartment building or a gas station also in my home, I'm not in an institutional investor. I just happen to have some real estate investment. And so finding listings there, getting them to choose you in the investment world is very similar to what you do in the residential world. So anyway, that's our plug before we wrap this call completely up. Is there anything that comes to mind that you'd like to ask or comments that you'd like to share? [00:56:38] I think I would just. And this is probably just me speaking from a personal standpoint, but I would encourage agents to offer above and beyond what other agents around them are offering. And I think that would be a great way for them to capitalize on referrals. It goes back to the trust buying and getting their name out there and really attracting business. I feel like they need to make themselves stand apart. That's something that help us choose our agent offering something that other agents we're not in addition to the fact that we always saw sold. So, you know, makes a difference. [00:57:19] You bring up one thing. I I'm a myth because I totally forgot it. So let me add it now at the end. This is this is bonus material. Great. If you're if you're one material. If you're one of my friends and you refer me a client and I send you a really special gift as a thank you note. What does that do to you? How do you respond? Does that make you feel special? Yes. Are you are you more likely to refer me again? Yes. Yes. So don't go cheap on that referral gift and don't give it only if that person that has been referred actually does business with you. The simple fact that, Penny, you referred someone to me, I'm going to woo you because I want more of that. Okay. That's a bonus for today's call. [00:58:14] Great. All right. This is a great call. Thank you so much for your time and expertise today. [00:58:21] Before we close out, do you have any last minute things that you want to share with our listeners? [00:58:26] I really don't. Unless you want more information about Agent Dominator, you can go to Agent Dominator dot com. There is a little forum there you can fill out. And if you love this type of teaching. Visit our website. Get sellers calling you dot com and you can find all kinds of other content there as well. [00:58:45] Yes, absolutely. I wish everyone a great week and a successful time in their business, whatever they're doing. Thanks for joining us, everybody. And we'll see you guys on the next one. Thank you, Beatty. [00:58:58] Thanks. Have a blessed day. All alrighty. p058 [/fusion_text][/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]

I’m thrilled today to welcome Brian Scudamore to this week’s episode of Franchise Secrets, where we seek out the secrets and the knowledge you need in order to find the right franchise for you! Brian is a franchising legend. After realizing that he learned more from working that he did from studying, he dropped out of college to attack his junk removal business full-time. That business became 1-800-GOT-JUNK, a top-flight low cost to entry franchise that has swept both the US and Canada and annually grosses over a half billion dollars in revenue. He then branched out with his business partners to open two more rapidly growing franchise companies: Wow One Day Painting and Shack Shine, both of which are on pace to dominate their respective markets and gross over a half billion in revenue themselves.    By focusing on franchises based around home services, Brian found a perfect niche, become one of the most successful franchise entrepreneurs in the entire world, and has learned how to turn a small business into a well-oiled machine. He joins us today to share his wealth of knowledge with anyone who is in the franchise game or looking to get into it.    (5:23) The importance of a good company culture, and how to create it.   (14:07) Building the right team with complementary skills   (16:08) How Brian empowers his franchisors   (31:46) The dividends you receive from treating your team like a big family    (42:50) Being driven to make an impact on people’s lives    Our Credentials Come From the Streets    Entrepreneurs are not doctors. No one cares where Brian went to school, or more accurately: what school he dropped out of. As an entrepreneur, your resume is your failings, your real life experience, your go-getter attitude that has no quit. You either got it or you don’t, and if you got it, you don’t need a fancy school name, or realistically any school at all.    Brian busted his chops working his way through college, only to drop out and build his business to astronomical proportions. He tells us the story of two of his franchisees, who started with nothing and now dominate entire regions running 1-800-GOT-JUNK franchises. If you’ve got that relentless attitude, we can show you the recipe to build a winning business and build the lifestyle you dream of.    The Beer and BBQ Test    When Brian hit his first major hurdle as a business owner he was blindsided. He realized that his employees were unhappy, they didn’t like him, and he needed to make a drastic change. Instead of blaming the employees, Brian realized the only useful person to blame it was himself. He took responsibility for the situation, and developed what would become known as The Beer and BBQ Test. When looking to hire a new employee, instead of rattling questions off at them, he gets to know them personally and thinks about whether they’d fit into his organization.    Do they have drive? Are they passionate? Fun? Can he see himself and his whole team hanging out, grilling and kicking back with a beer with them? If they can’t pass that test, they’re not a good fit. Employing this method has created an award winning culture among his staff and franchisees, and is the backbone of his empires.   Connect With Brian Scudamore Brian's LinkedIn Website Facebook Connect With Erik Facebook LinkedIn Medium Franchise Secrets Website

This week's episode was recorded LIVE in Atlanta Georgia at the Variety Playhouse in 2019. First up, "Clothing Arguments." Brian files suit against his wife Kelly. When Brian is folding laundry, he places the folded clothes in piles around the house. Kelly likes to knock the piles of laundry over onto the floor. Brian would like this to stop, but Kelly insists that it’s all in good fun. Then, the judge and bailiff are joined by special guest Amber Nash, voice of Pam on the hit FX show Archer! Together they'll dispense justice on cases having to do with chocolates in trail mix, favorite colors, and more during Swift Justice. Thank you to Jon Combs for naming this week's case! To suggest a title for a future episode, follow Judge John Hodgman on Facebook. We regularly put out a call for submissions.

I created Post Status in January 2013 and started the Club in January 2015. January 2020 marks another huge milestone for this community and business.I’m very excited to share that Cory Miller is now an equal partner of Post Status. Cory purchased half the business and will be working with me in the day-to-day management, writing, community engagement, and everything else we do with Post Status.Many should know Cory from his ten years running iThemes. After they sold the business to Liquid Web and he spent some time there, he decided to step away and continue his entrepreneurial journey. He’s working on a few projects, and Post Status is a significant part of where he’s dedicating his time and energy.Cory is a long-time friend, and iThemes has been a Post Status sponsorship partner since 2015. Cory understands the community, the role Post Status plays in the space, and he brings so much to the table, from established community relationships to product and business experience.We’ve known one another going back to 2010 or so. I got to watch as he navigated the WordPress space as the CEO of a theme company turned plugin company, from inception to exit.Cory has so many qualities I admire. Most of all, I admire his honesty, his compassion, his passion for people, and his vision for what’s possible. I look forward to working with a true partner on Post Status after so many years of managing the primary responsibilities with much help from many friends and contractors along the way.In addition to Cory and myself, David Bisset and Dan Knauss continue to be integral parts of the Post Status effort. Cory and I are thankful for their energy, consistency, and talents.We are working together in Oklahoma City this week to finalize our plans for the 2020 year. We already have a lot planned and are looking to get these new initiatives and processes off to a rocking start.Potential in the WordPress communityThere is so much potential in the WordPress community, and Post Status plays an important role through news, community, and professional development. We are going to continue to do that, and we are also going to make changes that we think will benefit the community as a whole and Post Status Club Members in particular.If you’ve ever thought about joining the Post Status Club, it’s a great time to do so. At a minimum, anyone in the WordPress community should subscribe to the newsletter. If you’ve been a member before, we thank you, and we hope we are able to continue to serve you for years to come — better than ever, better together.Cory's thoughtsI asked Cory to share a couple of his own thoughts on why he’s investing in Post Status, both with his money and energy.I’ve been a fan and supporter of Post Status since the beginning. At iThemes we were one of Brian’s first sponsors. Over the years I leaned on Brian’s insights and counsel — personally as well as through Post Status — to inform and grow iThemes.When Brian approached me about becoming a partner my first reaction was, “Heck yes!” Over our weeks and months of conversations, my excitement grew and grew as our goals and aspirations for Post Status were revealed to be so well aligned.I truly believe in what Brian has built. And I only want to be a value add and look forward to coming alongside Brian, the Post Status team and this great community.We're so excited to finally be able to make this official. We look forward to continuing to serve you our readers, our Club members, our partners, and the broader community.

Mary Payne sits down with her friend Doug Budin to discuss the blockbuster podcast called S-Town, which dives into the life of the enigmatic John B. McLemore.  A Groundbreaking Podcast Released in 2017, S-Town has become one of the most popular and critically acclaimed true crime podcasts over the past two years due to its brilliant storytelling, fascinating characters, and hauntingly beautiful music. S-Town was created by the producers of Serial and This American Life and is hosted by Brian Reed.  The podcast has not been without controversy. Soon after the podcast aired, McLemore’s Estate sued the producers of S-Town for revealing details of the now-deceased McLermore’s personal life without his permission. Despite the ongoing legal battle, S-Town continues to receive praise by listeners who are enthralled by the life of John. The Unusual Friendship of Brian Reed and John B. McLemore Mary Payne and Doug take us through the seven episodes of S-Town. Several years ago, Brian Reed began receiving messages from a stranger named John B. McLemore about a murder that occurred in his hometown of Bibb County, Alabama (which is not-so-affectionately called “Shittown” by John). When Brian traveled to Bibb County to look into John’s allegations, he quickly found that the real story was not with the now-debunked murder story, but rather with John himself. The first few episodes follow the budding friendship between Brian and John. S-Town takes a shocking turn when John committed suicide in 2015. The remainder of the series unravels John’s life, as seen through his friends and acquaintances. It also follows the legal battles for John’s Estate between his close friend Tyler and his relatives, Reta and Charlie. Mary Payne and Doug are more sympathetic toward Tyler, who, despite his own legal troubles and shady history, had a close and loving relationship with John. A Portrait of a Suffering Genius  Mary Payne and Doug find John to be a complex and intriguing character. A profane and ranting “redneck” from rural Alabama, John was also a mechanical genius, horologist, and self-educated expert on issues like climate change. He developed a number of close friendships and romantic relationships throughout his life, only to cut himself off once others came into the picture. John and his friends also discussed his struggles as a gay man in his rural South community.  John’s penchant for retreating from relationships and diving into rant-fueled depressions could be linked to his dangerous habit of fire gilding while working on clocks. This revelation provides us with a more complete understanding of S-Town’s protagonist.  Overall, Mary Payne and Doug recommend that everyone listen (at least twice) to this emotional and compelling podcast series.  Catch up on all of the Payne in the Pod episodes, here. And don’t forget, Payne in the Pod is on Patreon – become a Patron!  Podcast Recommendations:  Mob Queens Find Doug at: Instagram - @dougbudin Jeff Lewis Live on Radio Andy (Sirius Channel 102) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brian is an experienced and skilled runner. He is also a coach and an important mentor to the Chill Track Friday coaches. When Brian applied to be a Featured Athlete we were delighted, yet surprised. We wondered what more we could offer him than what he already has. That’s one of Brian’s defining characteristics, though: he maintains a beginner’s mindset and is willing to learn from whomever he can. This quality defines the spirit of Chill Track Friday and the goals of our Featured Athlete series so we were honored to accept him. In his application, Brian highlighted that his desire to be a Featured Athlete was to have accountability for his own goals. Because he was coaching many runners and pacing many races, his training was suffering. Brian’s journey is one of expansion, heart, and dedication to a higher purpose. This is a beautiful story of how running can be a tool of service and love for others. It was truly a privilege to have the opportunity to help someone who has helped us so much. Thank you, Brian.

When Brian's sister dies, he is forced to ask the question: do we have more to fear from the living or the dead?Written by: R.E.M. VerbergRead by: Diana MooreAll rights reserved 2020.Website: https://www.remverberg.comTwitter: @RemVerbergFacebook: https://facebook.com/REMVerberg

Brian Buffington talks with me about Goosechase, A. I., using Google Tools, and new Happy Music. This is episode 266 of Teaching Learning Leading K12, an audio podcast for educators. Brian Buffington is an EDU pioneer, always sniffing out better ways to increase student engagement and learning through technology. He inspires thousands of teachers, admins, and students in regards to instructional technology strategies, professional media production, and digital living education. Brian has presented at national, state, and regional conferences, highlighting EdTech and science education. His background includes teaching middle schoolers about science, owning music venues and vintage clothing shops, and writing songs about cheese and “8th Grade Mustaches”. His most recent endeavors include: “The EdTech Showcase”, a multiple-day event where educator rock stars showcase student-centered creative uses of technology. These showcases are professionally videoed, published, and organized by state standards. Since 2017, he also broadcasted a cyber safety event on Facebook LIVE, “A Parent’s Guide to Raising Digital Natives”. In 2019, Brian directed and produced “Vape News”, a PSA video series aimed to combat student vaping. When Brian is not playing with tech, he’s playing House Concerts and singing #happymusicforthemasses. Along with his wife Brooke, he owns a Creative Arts Company, Studio Blue. The Buffingtons reside in Northeast Georgia, where they raise 2 crazy kids and look for adventure. Thanks for listening! Please share and subscribe. Enjoy! Connect with Brian: https://briankbuffington.com/ https://twitter.com/brianbuffington https://www.instagram.com/brianbuffington/ https://www.youtube.com/user/pioneerRESAtech/featured     Length - 51:33

Today Pastor Brian Headrick is a passionate minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but for 24 years of his life he was a severe criminal and drug addict who estimates he may have committed over a million felonies in his lifetime.   Brian started life in a tough situation. He was the son of a single mom and was molested as a kid. He poured everything into sports but after a motorcycle accident ended his sports career at 17, he quickly fell into drugs. This, in turn, led to a life of crime in order to support his habit.   Throughout the 24 years of this sordid life, he was in and out of prison for over 50 felony convictions and arrests for hundreds more. He estimates that it was common to commit hundreds of felonies in one night as he struggled to support an incredibly expensive habit. At one point, Brian and his wife’s habit cost $700/day.   After meeting his wife, the two settled down together, started a legitimate business and had kids, but after a period of time, the habit came back and this landed them both back in jail. This particular go-around was hard on Brian, as now his kids were fatherless just as he had been growing up.   This was the tilled soil God decided to use to pursue Brian. One day, not long before he was busted and sent back to jail, he heard God speak to him audibly and tell him the two paths that laid before him. When Brian found himself back in jail, God, once again, audibly spoke to Brian saying, “And this is going to be about faith.” God did more than just speak to him in that moment, though, Brian felt his heart heal supernaturally. He testifies that he didn’t even know how sick his heart was until God graciously reached down and healed it and he knew in that moment that all the drugs he’d ever done were to cover up the wound God just healed. He also knew, now that God had healed him, he would never get high again.   This began a seven-month journey where Brian went searching for God in every type of religion. He read the Koran, the Book of Mormon, and the Jehova’s Witness writings. He attended Jewish services and Buddhist meditation hours. He didn’t know anything about Jesus or Christianity. Brian just knew God spoke to him and he wanted God, Whoever He was.   During this time, God kept gently leading Brian back to the Bible–in spite of there being no Christian ministry in his jail. Finally, Brian had a supernatural encounter with the Book of James in the Bible where, through a series of circumstances, God led Brian to read this passage of scripture and then pray with faith, as it instructs. Very quickly Brian saw a miraculous answer to his prayer and knew from that time forward that the Bible was set apart as more than a mere religious text.   Eventually Brian served some of his time in the Pierce County Jail, where he began to be discipled by ministers of the Gospel. After Brian’s sentence was up, he began attending a small church whose pastor recognized Brian’s fire for the Lord and encouraged him to attend seminary. Brian didn’t know what seminary was and had no plans to become a pastor, but was excited to spend much of his week reading the Bible, praying and worshipping. Two years into seminary, God used certain circumstances to open Brian’s heart towards the idea of being a pastor and eventually led him to pastor the church he currently leads.   HIGHLIGHTS Brian describes the voice of God as thundering, loud and simultaneous outside and inside him. The math Brian used to calculate the amount of felonies he may have committed is thus: It only takes 10 nights of committing hundreds of felonies a night to reach 1000 felonies. Over the period of 24 years of doing this night after night, this could easily add up to a million. Brian is the pastor of a Calvary Chapel in Tacoma, WA. During the same exact prison stint, God reached Brian's wife and she also became a believer. This, in spite of neither of them knowing about the other's transformation. 

At the age of 18, Brian Hart Hoffman began his career in the airline industry where he traveled the world, discovering exotic foods and baked goods. Yearning for these delicious discoveries back in Birmingham, he would spend hours in the kitchen making them himself, unknowingly igniting his passion for baking. When Brian joined the family business, Hoffman Media which prints 11 Southern-focused publications, he quickly realized an opportunity to publish a magazine solely dedicated to baking. Four years and four cookbooks later, Brian is now President of Hoffman Media and his brain child Bake from Scratch is thriving at a time when most magazines are struggling to stay afloat. Anyone with a sweet tooth will salivate at Brian’s scrumptious descriptions of scones, brownies and raisin bread. Tune in to learn what white barbecue sauce is, get in the spirit for holiday baking and find out why you need to book trips to Bermuda and Birmingham stat.   Produced by Dear Media.   

Kirk and Brian are inventing partners who recently licensed an innovative wrench that makes it easier to get into tight spaces such as behind sinks and toilets and approach the valve from the back. Kirk is a renovation contractor who renovates houses and commercial spaces and he actually met Ryan when he renovated his house for about 6 to 8 months. Once they worked on the wrench more they realized it had many applications relevant to the automotive, aerospace, industrial, and home improvement industries. He made his first prototype by baking clay in the oven. “One Simple Idea” provided the road map of where to go and how to license his product. Brian downloaded the audio version and has now listened to the book 9 times! Kirk and Brian are very happy now that they have licensed a product. After one company reviewed it for more than a year and gave him a “no,” Kirk felt deflated and set it down for a while working on other projects. When Brian came on as a partner they were able to divide the roles and have a successful team. Brian's sales experience was an asset for making the list of companies and cold calling companies. Kirk focused on innovating and PPAs. They have a great team! Kirk said it felt “fabulous” to sign the contract and it was a long time coming. Kirk and Brian are working on another product for the BBQ industry which they hope to license very soon. Their advice: “One Simple Idea” is the roadmap that anybody can use and needs. You have to apply the principles. Find a partner. Hang in there. It's a long journey. Believe in your dreams. You might be the only one thinking it's a great idea. You've got to preserve and work extra hours to get it done. Bringing an invention to market? Let inventRight, the world's leading experts on product licensing, show you how. Co-founded by Stephen Key and Andrew Krauss in 1999, inventRight has since helped people from more than 60 countries license their ideas. Visit http://www.inventright.com for more information and to become their student. Call #1-800-701-7993 to set up an appointment with Andrew or another member of the inventRight team to discuss how we can help you license your ideas. New to licensing? Read inventRight cofounder Stephen Key's bestselling book “One Simple Idea: Turn Your Dreams Into a Licensing Goldmine While Letting Others Do the Work.” Find it here: http://amzn.to/1LGotjB. Want to learn how to license your product ideas without a patent? Stephen's book “Sell Your Ideas With or Without a Patent” explains exactly how. Find it here: http://amzn.to/1T1dOU2. inventRight, LLC. is not a law firm and does not provide legal, patent, trademark, or copyright advice. Please exercise caution when evaluating any information, including but not limited to business opportunities; links to news stories; links to services, products, or other websites. No endorsements are issued by inventRight, LLC., expressed or implied. Depiction of any trademarks/logos does not represent endorsement of inventRight, LLC, its services, or products by the trademark owner. All trademarks are registered trademarks of their respective companies.

From a vacation in Thailand to the Killing Fields of Cambodia, Brian McConaghy’s story is nothing short of unpredictable and remarkable! Join us this week on Truth and Life Today with Dr. John Neufeld as he sits down to talk with Brian McConaghy – Founding Director of Ratanak International. After travelling to Thailand for what he thought would be a long-awaited vacation, Brian somehow found himself in Cambodia and was confronted with the merciless reality of what is often considered the worst genocide in the 20th century. Roughly 3.2 million of the 7 million people living Cambodia at the time were brutally slaughtered in what became known as The Killing Fields. When Brian learned of this, his life dramatically changed. Out of some changed vacation plans, an international charity was born. God is doing some extremely remarkable things all over the world – so join us and watch as we find out how! Brian was also featured on 2 episodes of the indoubt podcast. You can listen to those episodes here: Part 1: Finding Joy in the Scars Part 2: You’re ‘To Die For’ You can also watch more Truth and Life Today featuring Brian here: Ep. 107: Sex Slavery in Canada Watch this episode and more, weekly on VisionTV. Check your local listings for times and availability!

When Brian and I first discussed what this podcast would be, Christo Johnson was on my mind. The vision was to interview different adventure nomads we knew and share tricks of the trade. I hadn’t seen Christo for more than 20 years but had caught wind of his paragliding life through Facebook. So here we are a year later and I finally got the interview done. My instincts to get him on the podcast were right.Christo’s nomad resume is off-the-hook. He’s spent the last 21 years as a river guide, launching from Honduras, Alaska, Grand Canyon, Salmon, Idaho. California, Colorado, and West Virginia. His love affair for the past eight years is paragliding, an activity which rises far above sport for him, but he does compete internationally. Some of the highlights include: In the Rat Race, in Applegate Valley, OR, he was the Sprint class winner in 2016, the Sport class winner in 2017, and the overall Sport 2017 US National Champion. In 2017 in Pemberton, British Columbia, he placed 6th in the Canadian Nationals. He’s paraglided in Nepal two different years, Thailand, Columbia, Canada, and Mexico. His 2019 Fall plans take him to India, where he intends to Vol Biv Fly his way over the mountain range where the Dalai Lama lives. Vol Biv is the current frontier of paragliding, where pilots work their way cross-country, flying from peak to peak, camping along the way.I hooked up with Christo in Glenwood Springs, CO, where he’s working as a raft guide and commercial paragliding tandem pilot. We kicked it for a few days, VanLife Style, in the Roaring Fork Valley - he in his built out Ram Promaster 3500, me in my Tacoma. He took me flying one morning and rafting that afternoon - he had me at hello. In return, I cooked him my famous Italian beef in a pressure cooker.We sat down for the interview in Christo’s van at Sopris Park in Carbondale, CO. I’m not gonna lie, I’m jealous of his home. We talked about his nomad journey over the past 20+ years, touching on his time at Avon Old Farms Prep School, Western Colorado State University, and recounting his memories of Russell Kelly - a Darien, CT native, and Telluride adventure legend. The latter half of the conversation focuses on his religion - paragliding.Despite not being close buds growing up, the camaraderie between us was instant. There was no facade to our conversation, no mock-up to describing how life’s been going. But I think that’s what nomads are - if nothing else, authentic.Follow and connect with Christo Johnson: Facebook | Instagram (@whitewaterchristo) | YouTubeChristo welcomes sponsorship and partnership inquiries. Paragliding wings have quite the real estate for brand recognition.Get to know your podcast hosts:Craig Coleman - Website | YouTube | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | LinkedInBrian Galyon - Website | YouTube | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn

In this episode, you'll hear Steve Farrell, Worldwide Director of Humanity's Team (interviewed by Brian Christopher Hamilton), tell the story of how he and Neale Donald Walsch, author of the Conversations with God series, co-founded Humanity’s Team with the purpose of spreading the message of Oneness, connection, peace and Unity to a global audience. Humanity’s Team continues to spread this message in several forms, including the creation of the Oneness Declaration (which is available for all to sign on the Humanity’s Team website), hosting the annual Global Oneness Day Summit, and offering transformative educational programs and free events throughout the year.  In this heartfelt and lively discussion, Steve and Brian talk about the different ways we can deeply connect with the spiritual truth of Oneness in both an intensely personal and also collective way, and then tap into that connection as we move the mission of Oneness forward, so that each and every one of us may be of increasing benefit to ourselves, to humanity, and to the Earth itself. When Brian talks about his own spiritual transformation and asks Steve about "planting seeds," Steve answers with a bold statement about connection to Oneness not only being about self-realizing but also about saving ourselves. Saving ourselves from what and toward what end? Listen in to find out more!  You can learn more about Humanity’s Team and the timeless truth that We Are All One here. For instant access to Neale Donald Walsch’s free online video series The Secret To Living Your Best Possible Life, go here.   For instant access to Accelerating Your Evolution Through Science, a free online video series with Gregg Braden, Dr. Bruce Lipton, and HeartMath leaders Dr. Deborah Rozman and Howard Martin, go here.   

Join us as we interview FLW bass fishing tournament champion Brian Latimer. Brian has been fishing tournaments since he was a child and is one of the most passionate anglers in the sport. He gives us a breakdown of how he prepares for tournaments, and the exact lures he uses to consistently catch fish. He also dives into the science behind how bass see under water and how to select what lure colors to fish. Show Notes: 1:23 - When Brian started tournament fishing 3:00 - Brevyn - Brian’s oldest son 3:58 - Brian’s gratitude for the ability to do what he does 4:16 - Brian’s amazing wife 5:40 - Setting expectations, mindset, visualizing and being aware 6:55 - FLW championship that Brian won! 7:22 - The amount of hours a tournament fisherman is on the water practicing each day before a tournament 8:02 - The amount of tournament anglers in the tourney 8:26 - Qualifying events 9:17 - The significant costs associated with tournament fishing and how someone makes a living being a professional bass angler 10:48 - What Brian was thinking the morning of the FLW Championship 12:10 - The ONLY baits Brian used the entire tournament 14:42 - Z-man Tickler bait for the Ned Rig [Brian’s favorite bait for the Ned Rig] 16:30 - The reasons why Brian loves Z-man 17:17 - Brian’s favorite swim bait 17:24 - Other baits Brian loves using 17:39 - The lure Brian’s caught more fish on than anything else 18:00 - How Brian rigs Z-man’s FattyZ 19:15 - How often Brian fishes 21:30 - Going fishing and “figuring it out” 23:20 - How Brian finds fish on a new body of water 24:35 - Confidence in fishing 26:00 - How Brian prepares for a tournament 26:30 - How light penetration impacts what lure colors Brian chooses 29:00 - “What Bass See” YouTube Video on Brian’s channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCbB1VodVud_cpX9QPlU1_g 30:28 - One of Brian’s favorite colors to throw (this one will surprise you) 31:58 - The ONE Lure Brian would choose to fish for the rest of his life if he could only pick one 32:35 - The saltwater fish Brian likes to target 33:24 - Brian’s bucket list fish 34:58 - Crankbaits, jigs, worms, spinnerbaits 36:56 - ONE thing people might find surprising about Brian 37:50 - The passionate vibes Brian brings to the sport 38:50 - How you can find Brian on social media and on the interwebs 40:00 - Brian’s new apparel line called “Vibes” at www.shopblat.com 41:00 - Fishing kits and where you can find the stuff Brian fishes with in his boat right now Contact Info: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brianlatimerfishing/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brian_latimer/?hl=en YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCbB1VodVud_cpX9QPlU1_g Website: https://shopblat.com/   Visit http://www.FishMastery.com for more info Instagram: @Fish_Mastery Facebook: Fish Mastery YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/c/fishmastery  

3 Invaluable Lessons from Brian Polkinghorn Conflict prevention should be the first line of defense, then conflict resolution. When you’re emotionally drawn into something you’re more personally invested in its success. Know the conflict resolution process: perspective, language, translate, moderator, referee.   This week, host Sue Dyer speaks with Brian Polkinghorn about conflict resolution both domestically and overseas. Brian elaborates on high-stakes conflict resolution in some of the most conflict-driven nations in the world.   About Guest Brian Polkinghorn (1:35) Brian Polkinghorn is a Distinguished Professor, Program Director and Department Head of Conflict Analysis and Dispute Resolution at Salisbury University, and also the Executive Director of the Bosserman Center for Conflict Resolution at Salisbury University. Brian is accomplished at all different types of conflict resolution and works domestically and internationally. Brian works in the areas of the world that have the highest conflict and is still able to create agreements. Brian is involved in state and federal conflict and has done a lot of research in conflict resolution.   How the Center at Salisbury Came About and What a Distinguished Professor Is (3:38) A Distinguished Professor is a designation stating you’ve distinguished yourself in contributions to the advancement of skills and knowledge in your field. The Bosserman Center for Conflict Resolution has both a practice and a research side to it. The Center is broken into three teams: workshops, research, and academic. At the Center, people put into practice what they learn and research - it’s a career launcher.   Brian’s Greatest Strength as a Leader (13:45)   Brian would rather know the person rather than the project. Brian often puts the students first. It doesn’t matter who takes the credit as long as you do good work and get the job done. Some Examples of Projects Brian Has Worked on in Conflict Zones (14:98) South Africa:  The transition from apartheid to democracy has not been smooth and simple things are difficult. The humanity of conflict zones is the most important thing. Middle East: The world’s leading people on water and desert research are in the middle east, but they can’t look like they’re collaborating because of the politics. When you’re emotionally drawn into something you will take ownership.     How Water Agreements Come to Fruition (23:00) People come from around the world to make water available in the desert. Because water is so essential it’s possible to use it to bring people together.   What Brian Has Done in Nepal (26:07) Brian has worked on the peace process in Nepal. Things looked good on paper, but people had different interpretations about what they were supposed to do. It’s taken over eight years for the process to get underway. When you’re working with international organizations, some are state actors and they have to follow the law, some are not, and they can change their mind. You want adversaries to have about the same amount of.   Advice to Construction Leaders Who Must Deal with Conflict in Their Teams (33:45) People speak different languages, so collaboration has multiple meanings depending on where you use it. You need to know how to deal with the angry public. You sometimes have to translate from one language to another and people need to think about being a moderator in language and demeanor. When things are really rough make people consider the best-case scenario. Perspective, Language, Translate, Moderator, Referee.   How to Better Implement Partnering on Projects (38:19) You need to know that there is a framework for partnering. Be educated in the process. Take what you know works well and then line it up in a formula and make it your own.   The Worst Moment Brian Has Ever Faced (40:30) When Brian has worked on a project and someone who should have been at the table and wasn’t, or vice versa. Or, when an agreement was signed prematurely, and he realized quickly a mistake was made.   The Best Advice Brian Has Ever Gotten (44:00) Do what makes you happy. When you enjoy it it’s not a job. When you do something you love and are good at, you are legitimately helping people.     Brian’s Favorite Piece of Tech Geographical Information Systems (GIS)   Contact Brian Visit Conflict-resolution.org   Brian’s Parting Advice (47:29) Do no harm, do something non-contractual to make things easier for others. Be the change you wish to see in the world. Be the person your colleagues want to grow old with.   Resources for Listeners   Recommended Website: Bosserman Center for Conflict Resolution Recommended Book: The Gift of Anger: And Other Lessons from My Grandfather Mahatma Gandhi by Arun Gandhi   We are beta-testing our Project Scorecard between now and September 17th.  Any project team who wants to be a part of the beta-test the Scorecard contact Sue@ConstructionDreamTeam.com.   Construction Nation! Dream Teams don’t just happen they are built one step at a time. Why not send out this episode to your team, so they can help you. Remember…Construction Dream Team drops every Monday morning at 4 am PST. Please join us next week when Sue will interview another industry leader or expert so you can learn how to create your Construction Dream Team!   Please head on over to ConstructionDreamTeam.com to sign up for our newsletter and don’t forget to subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, or Spotify!

When Brian was growing up, his dream was simple — move to New York City and be a broadcaster for NBC Sports. He wanted to be Bob Costas.That didn't happen. But this week Brian gets to interview his boyhood idol, as Bob joins him to discuss writing, broadcasting and sports media.Bob and Brian talk about Bob's memories of Syracuse University, and his mentor Stan Alten (1:35); the uneasy relationship between sports television and the leagues they cover, and how that has gotten harder to navigate over the past decade (5:45); how writing plays a role in his job, his process for writing commentaries, and how Bryant Gumbel was a master at writing to a specific time (11:00); the sports writers he looks up to (16:34); the newspapers he read growing up (all 5 of them) (21:05); Bob's legendary story about Goldie Goldthorpe, the inspiration for Ogie Oglethorpe in Slapshot (22:15); and the best thing Bob's read lately (27:02).I Wanted to be Bob CostasK: A History of Baseball in Ten Pitches by Tyler KepnerYou Gotta Play Hurt by Dan JenkinsSubscribe:Apple PodcastsOvercastGoogle PlayRSS

Brian Fretwell is a consultant, speaker, and coach. He has traveled the world teaching people how to get the most out of their unique talents, strengths, and opportunities. Brian uses our knowledge about neuroscience and how the brain works to help people understand why they do the things they do. He has written the book Experts Of Our Potential which is a story about a coach and his challenging client. I recently discover Brian through Facebook. I saw a clip from his book, which really spoke to me. I immediately downloaded the book and read it from cover to cover. Brian and I talk about why he wrote the book, why we struggle to value ourselves and how to survive in a changing world. Can you talk a bit about the story behind the book? This is actually the fourth book Brian has written. Only one other has the potential to see the light of day. Several people suggested he write a how-to and so he tried but found it didn’t click. A friend and editor suggested he write it as a story and that was when everything clicked. It is fascinating to see both the clients struggle to find his direction and values and your struggle to help him get there. If you want to change someone else, you can only do that to the level you’ve changed yourself. Brian wanted to show that it’s not just the clients who change as part of the coaching process, the coaches change to. He wanted to dispel the superhero idea we have of coached and leaders. We’re all changing, we’re all fallible and we all have this potential. As a coach sometimes I feel this pressure to solve a short term problem. But typically it’s a symptom of a much bigger challenge. In the book, Chris has this challenge in his work but he hasn’t yet defined the bigger picture of what’s really important to him. He’s trying to grasp at these quick fixes without understanding the bigger picture. Brian points out that Chris is trying to solve a non-linear problem in a linear fashion. What I want to do, who I can be, where I can go – it’s a non-linear problem which doesn’t have a direct answer. If a coach tries to give a linear answer, they are actually doing the client a disservice. Brian believes that a coach’s job is not to give a client the answer – they can google that- it’s to help people identify that they have the capacity to find their own answers. Sometimes we want other people to solve our problems. Our brains are built on efficiency. It thinks that if we get the answer from someone else then we can be done. But the growth part of our brain, the part we have to push, thinks ‘well how do we do it’. We don’t just need the answer we need to figure out how to reach the answer on our own. We all have the answers to our problems and we often know what to do but sometimes we just can’t make that link. When Brian worked in juvenile corrections, he learned that the hard way. Kids would ask him what they should do to turn their life around and he would tell them, only to find that when they left they got back into drugs, or even worse, died. He asked himself if he had given them any more tools than before they had entered the system. When someone comes to you with a challenge, the real consequence of giving them an answer, is not giving them the capacity to operate on their own. I like to ask questions and I find it challenging when I come up against defensiveness when I ask a question. You have mentioned that right behind the defense, is the potential. How do you manage defenses craftfully? Our brains have a 5 to 1 ration of a threat to reward. Your eyes are scanning the environment for threat 5 times a second. We don’t acknowledge that. We’ve been taught to ask questions which are challenging, which are direct. And while those are needed, if you don’t get the brain in the right space they aren't going to be beneficial. Our brains need to be in the right space and to do that we need to change the way we lead into to these questions. Start with asking people what they’ve done well, how they’ve been successful and how they have solved a problem like this before. So essentially getting into a place of more confidence rather than a place of fear and threat. About 15 years ago Brian's core business was talking to couples about money. They’d talk about what they wanted at a deeper level. Then individually, Brian would ask them about a time when they felt really good about the way they spent their money. Finances are one of those areas we say ‘I’m screwing this all up, tell me what I’m doing wrong so I can start doing something else.’ From that standpoint, we don’t get any behavioral change. If we really tap into a memory of doing something really well it’s much easier on the brain to consider a change. So if someone is listening to this and having a challenge in their life, they should first acknowledge the strength they have in that area? They should honestly acknowledge it. Sometimes when someone has been through something really hard, they have a level of endurance and tolerance that other people don’t have. What do you have that nobody else has? And actually being honest about that is pretty hard work. And super helpful to take some of those challenges we are having and reframe them into recognizing that we have had some success. When you find that success when you find that part that you’re good at, throw gasoline on that fire. Put everything you can on it. From a neurobiological standpoint, it’s going you all the neurochemicals to actually follow through. It is impossible to focus too on what someone does well. Before we started recording I was sharing with you that I’m looking to expand my business and I’ve been doing a lot of work. I mentioned that I haven’t been successful in a lot of things. And you asked me about where I have been successful. I really love this question of where have you been successful and how can you use your strengths to grow rather than trying to fix what’s wrong with you. Coaches are in the business of trying to make people feel more proud of themselves. What do you do well? What are you proud about? What really engages you? Those are the questions you should ask yourself every day. Brian says that he struggles with this as well. His brain wants to go to ‘well you’ve screwed this up before’. He had a business that went $70000 into debt. So when he started a new business he had that at the back of his mind every day. He has to focus his effort on being clear about where he is going to shine the best. Where am I going to bring my highest potential? This is a question that we spend a lifetime trying to figure out. But it’s a much better question than ‘What’s wrong with me?’ Can you speak a little bit about priming your brain? Your brain is water and fat. It’s not a muscle but Brian loves the muscle analogy. There are different levels of focusing on our success. We can get really deep, but to begin with, it can be ‘well I didn’t screw that up’. But we build this muscle and we can get stronger in recognizing our strengths. I want to get into the social contracts we have. Especially with regards to our career. Can you talk about some of the old templates we have and how we change them in the face of changing technology? Brian’s father was a union miner in the late 70s/ early 80’s. There was this idea that if he shows up to the job, is loyal, puts up with a bunch of crap, it will pay out and he will receive the benefits and be able to retire. We no longer have that safety net. What does still exist is our approach to the economy. We rely on a job to provide us with security but the numbers show that there is no security in jobs anymore. What’s changed is that we have to create that security on our own. We have to create that validation on our own too. We used to rely on I've got this degree; I’ve got this job. We now have to rely on I’ve got his skill, I've got this ability and apply it in 5 or 6 different areas. One of the reasons I started my own business is because I got fired from a couple of jobs and felt that I didn’t want to put my security in somebody else's hands. I wanted to have ownership over that. What you have identified is why we should be excited about this. And there will always be a part of you which is scared of hell about this. But imagine how it would feel if you knew you understood your value enough to weather any storm. If somebody doesn’t know what they like and what they’re good at, then what? You get to go and fall down a few times. Brian doesn’t have an easier answer than that. When he hears ‘I don’t know’, he also hears ‘I’m really worried about screwing it up.’ That feeling is very real but also short-sighted. You can go screw up really big and be okay. Because we don’t have these jobs that don’t last for 40 years, we also don’t have this inherent obligation to never screw up like we used to. Screwing up is part of the process now. My experience has been that when I hold myself back, in terms of keeping myself safe, I actually experience more discomfort than taking the risks, trying and ‘failing.’ Brian’s wife is a counselor and her background is in transpersonal psychology, so comes from a Buddhist school. They have this philosophy about pain. You can either wait for pain, in which case it’s out of your control, or you can seek pain, in which case it’s in your control. If you are in a job hoping that the job will provide you safety, you are inviting pain that will be out of your control. If you are doing your own thing, you are inviting pain that is within your control. I want to get back to this idea of valuing ourselves. So many people have difficulty seeing themselves as the person that can define their own values versus outside validation. When Brian was in juvenile corrections he was a smoker. A kid challenged him in on it. He had a week where he quit smoking, met his wife and signed up for his first marathon. Over the course of 2 years, he ran 15 races. Every time he did a race, he got a medal. One day his wife laid them all out on the table and said ‘what do these say about you?’ He stared at those medals and started crying. He looked at them wondered if maybe they said that he was worthless. That’s a question that is plaguing people. We spend our time at school and at our job trying to get somebody to tell us we did well at a task. While that is needed and is valuable, when we tell ourselves we have value, it has the most power. What do you think is the question we need to be asking ourselves? There are levels to this. The question can be ‘do you believe in yourself?’ But for some people, that’s too big a question. The powerful questions are – ‘where do you believe in yourself?’ and ‘in what instances do you trust yourself?’ For some people who have been through traumatic experiences, they have to start at ‘I trust myself to turn the coffee pot on.’ Then those other questions of ‘where do you feel you add value?’ and ‘Where do you feel you matter?’ Can you explain a little bit about the reticular activating system? Of all the data coming into your brain, you are only processing about 1 % of it. Your RAS (reticular activating system) is just a little instrument in your brain that filters your inputs. It says we are only going to pay attention to these things. And it’s generally anything that’s going to generate a higher emotional reaction. Because there's this limited ability to focus and because our brains are designed for safety, we generally look for things that are going to make us look stupid or dumb. If we can take control of the RAS, we can change the filters and literally change our reality. Why do you think we overlook our talents? Because we’re running away from bears. We feel social pain and physical pain the same way. We’re much more concerned if we’re going to look stupid or be embarrassed. Physical pain we have nerves for. Social pain we have emotions for. We’re so dialed in to not looking dumb that we avoid beauty. Avoiding fear is much more natural than finding beauty. Do you think our value is in our hardships? Our value is the whole picture. So our hardships are apart of that. There are things Brian has been through that he would not sign up to go through again, but they’ve allowed him to do things he wouldn’t have done otherwise. What gives you so much meaning in your work? When he sees somebody who has read his book, is in a workshop or he is coaching and they have that moment when they realize that they are actually worth something. What’s the best advice you’ve ever been given? It’s not about you. Tell us how we can get in touch with you and how we can get your book? Book: https://www.amazon.com/Experts-Our-Potential-Change-Deliver/dp/197425299X/ Website: https://brianfretwell.com/ Email: brian@brianfretwell.com Ted Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiN67V5q3C

Brian is a comedian, producer and a live event sound engineer. When Brian is in front of the mic, you may have seen him on NBC’s Last Comic Standing, Comedy Central or performing live at The Comedy Store, Laugh Factory and at other various comedy clubs and festivals in the US. When he is behind the mic, he is operating a TriCaster live broadcast system for Live TV shows like MTV Music Awards and Americas Got Talent. Brian talk about his journey starting out in comedian in New Jersey, which lead him travel to the showrooms of Las Vegas and all the way to The Comedy Store in Los Angeles. He also discusses how he found himself with a second unexpected career, which has paid off for him. @BrianSheil1

Most observers of the ecosystem will probably agree that 2015-2017 were the years of the enterprise blockchain. It was during that time that many startups catering to enterprise were founded and funded, including Monax and Stratumn (where Brian and Sebastien previously worked). For the permissioned blockchain camp, adoption would come in the form of enterprise use cases, arguing that public networks carried too much risk, and lacked needed features like privacy. While much of the hype has subsided, large companies in every sector are forming consortia and leveraging blockchain to provide better process traceability and transparency, and reduce their reliance on third parties. We’re joined by Brian Behlendorf, Executive Director of Hyperledger. When Brian was last on the show, he had recently started his role at the Linux Foundation. Now, two years later, Hyperledger has gone from a nascent project to a mature ecosystem of technologies with hundreds of members. With dozens of networks in production, and backed by companies like IBM, Hyperleger is the most widely used blockchain technology for permissioned networks. Topics covered in this episode: The most important developments in Hyperledger in the last two years Hyperledger’s family of technologies Production networks on Hyperledger How Hyperledger Fabric differs from Tendermint and Ethereum The evolution of the enterprise blockchain ecosystem The separation between the permissioned and public blockchain ecosystems Industry use cases for Hyperledger Fabric Brian’s skepticism about ICOs and tokens The growing Hyperledger community and upcoming Global Forum in Basel this December Episode links: Hyperledger website Hyperledger Global Forum http://sdxcentral.com Unbounded - To Network with Networks Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad - Wikipedia Thank you to our sponsors for their support: Simplify your hiring process & access the best blockchain talent . Get a $1,000 credit on your first hire at toptal.com/epicenter. This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Sébastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/262

DESCRIPTION   Today we are going through all the essential stages of creating a successful brand in a really interesting discussion with Kiri Masters and Brian Smith, the founder of UGG. Although Brian sold UGG a little while ago, he has some really amazing stories to share about growing the company into an internationally recognized brand, what he went through along the way and how he dealt with retailers or copycats. Brian is also the author of the book “The Birth of a Brand” and he was kind enough to share with us several insights that he included in his book. Tune in and learn more about Brian’s experience with growing UGG.   Though Brian spent several years studying accounting, he wasn’t very passionate about this field and decided to explore his entrepreneurial side by going to California to find something innovative and bring it back to Australia. After following his dream of surfing in Malibu for a couple of months, one day, while sitting on the beach, Brian realized that the water started getting cold and chilly winds began to blow. Pulling on the sheepskin boots he'd brought with him from Australia, Brian had a breakthrough. He realized there were no UGG boots in America! Though everyone knows the popular UGG brand now, it took quite a long time for Brian to tap into the consumer mind and understand how to sell the products he produced. In this interview Brian explains what he did to grow his company into the iconic brand that it has become today. We hope you enjoy his insightful journey.       KEY TAKEAWAYS Brain tells the story of how his brand was born. The first year's sales were only twenty-eight pairs of boots. How he managed to break into the consciousness of the public. Brian noticed a theme years later while writing a book when the brand had grown into the millions. The theme of Brian's book was that you can't give birth to adults. Brian explains his analogy of giving birth to adults. The stage where most entrepreneurs give up. Every business goes through a stage of infancy before the orders start coming in. If you start out with a really unique product or service, the business is bound to pass through the infancy stage and move into the teenage years. The potential danger of getting into national distribution too quickly. Brian explains the life cycle of every business. Brian's book, “The Birth of a Brand”, highlights all the stages that a business goes through. The UGG brand has gone on to gross a billion dollar per year for the last six years in a row. The different stages and turning points that Brian experienced as his brand become more and more popular. Brian broke through when he started taking pictures of pros surfing at iconic surf locations to create really powerful images for his ads. Advertising and marketing became a passion for Brian. The importance of advertising the emotional side of the benefits of your product. Brian's reaction to the copycats who started coming in. When Brian sold the company it wasn't about the product, it was all about the brand. Brian taught his staff not to obsess about their competitors, but rather to "get out first and run faster". The strategy of going for the lowest price is not always the best way to go. Staying ahead of the competitors. There is a value implication to being more expensive. How the UGG brand got into the back door of retail through the surf market. The methodology of marketing has really changed with the internet age, so you have to think and react much faster. A product that Brian sees as the new UGG brand is the Sash Bag. The power of utilizing an existing market to sell products. The importance of building personal connections. On the 30th of October, Brian has a big ad coming out in Ink Magazine to launch the audio version of his book. Brian's book is still as relevant as when it was first published. Go to Amazon on October the 30th and look for The Birth Of A Brand - it's a roadmap for every entrepreneur.   MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE   “The Birth of a Brand” by Brian Smith. The Sash Bag, another UGG style product. Leveraging Storytelling & User Generated Content with Lexi Cross.

The moment Brian first really understood the term Narcissistic Personality Disorder, a light bulb went off in his brain. He spent most of his life thinking he was crazy, lazy, and stupid – three words his father often said about him to other family members and friends. His father also severely and harshly disciplined him, set-up unnecessary competitions in which his dad was the winner, never apologized, showed no empathy even when Brian was hurt, and treated everyone like they were inferior. For years, Brian struggle with insecurity, anxiety, depression, and feelings of inadequacy. After his business failed, Brain decided it was time to rethink his life, so he began therapy. It didn’t take too long before the therapist identified narcissistic characteristics in his father. Suddenly, everything became clear that the very issues he struggled to overcome were a direct result of having a narcissistic parent. But knowing this information and healing from it are two different matters. The lack of self-esteem, obsessive thinking, minimization of abuse, excessive anxiety, fear-based reactions, and heightened survival instincts are common among adult children of narcissists. The distorted perception of reality a narcissistic parent imposes on a child has damaging consequences on the adult at work and home. By addressing the impact of narcissism, a person finds relief. Here are the seven steps: Recognize. The first step in the healing process is to admit that there is something wrong with a parent’s behavior. A person can’t recover from something they refuse to acknowledge. Most narcissistic parents pick a favorite child, the “golden child,” who is treated as if they walk on water, this was Brian’s older brother. In comparison, Brian was treated as inferior through belittlement, comparing, ignoring and even neglect. Occasionally, his father switched his favoritism depending on the performance of a child. When Brian received a football scholarship, his dad treated him like the golden child; but when he lost it due to an injury, he was inferior again. The key to remember is that narcissistic parents see the child as an extension of them so they take credit for the successes and reject the child who fails. Study. Once the narcissism is identified, it is essential to gain an education about the disorder and how it affects the entire family system. Narcissism is part biology (other family members likely have the disorder as well), part environment (trauma, abuse, shame, and neglect can draw narcissism out), and part choice (as a teen, a person chooses their identity and what is acceptable behavior). Since there might be other narcissists or personality disorders in a family, it is easy to trace the pattern. The environment and choice factors can further draw out the narcissism in a child which is cemented by age eighteen. Recount. This next step is comfortable in the beginning but becomes more difficult as the impact of the narcissism is realized. For each sign and symptom of narcissism, recall several examples in childhood and adulthood when the behavior is evident. It helps to write these down for reference later. The more time that is spent doing the step, the more significant the impact of the healing. Each of these memories needs rewriting with a new dialogue of, “My parent is narcissistic, and they are treating me this way because of that.” This is very different from the old internal dialogue of “I’m not good enough.” Identify. During the previous step, it is highly likely that some abusive, traumatic, and neglectful behavior on the part of the narcissistic parent becomes evident. Abuse for a child can be physical (restraint, aggression), mental (gaslighting, silent treatment), verbal (raging, interrogating), emotional (nitpicking, guilt-tripping), financial (neglect, excessive gifting), spiritual (dichotomous thinking, legalism), and sexual (molestation, humiliation). Not every event requires trauma therapy but some of them might, depending on the frequency and severity. Grieve. There are five stages to the grieving process: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and finally acceptance. Brian struggled to believe at first that his father’s narcissism impacted him – this is denial. Anger is a natural response after the dots have been connected and the abuse has been identified. It is hard to believe that a parent who should be loving and kind would do the things they have done – this is part of the bargaining process. Whatever glorified image a person had of their narcissistic parent is now wholly shattered – this is depression. Sometimes anger is projected on the other parent for not adequately protecting their child from the trauma. Or it is internalized for not realizing or confronting sooner. It is crucial to go through all of the stages of grief to reach acceptance. Grow. This is an excellent place to step back for a while to gain a better perspective. Begin by reflecting on how the narcissistic parent’s distorted image of the world and people shaped current beliefs. Then drill downwards towards the vows or promises that were made internally as a result. Counteract the distorted images, vows, or promises with a newly gained perspective of reality. Continue this process until a new perspective is fully formed and now is part of the inner dialogue going forward. This essential step frees a person from the narcissistic lies and false truths. Forgive. The past cannot be changed, only understood. When forgiveness is genuine, it has a powerful transformational effect. Remember, forgiveness is for the forgiver, not the offender. It is better to honestly forgive in small chunks at a time, rather than granting blanket forgiveness. This allows room for other future or past offenses to be realized and worked through thoroughly. Don’t force this step, do it a comfortable pace so the benefits will be life lasting. After completing these steps, Brian found it easier to identify other narcissists at work, home, or in the community. No longer did the narcissistic behavior trigger Brian and escalate his anxiety, frustration, or depression unnecessarily. Instead, Brian was able to remain calm and as a result, the other narcissistic person was disarmed because their behavior no longer had an intimidating effect. www.growwithchristine.com

The moment Brian first really understood the term Narcissistic Personality Disorder, a light bulb went off in his brain. He spent most of his life thinking he was crazy, lazy, and stupid – three words his father often said about him to other family members and friends. His father also severely and harshly disciplined him, set-up unnecessary competitions in which his dad was the winner, never apologized, showed no empathy even when Brian was hurt, and treated everyone like they were inferior. For years, Brian struggle with insecurity, anxiety, depression, and feelings of inadequacy. After his business failed, Brain decided it was time to rethink his life, so he began therapy. It didn’t take too long before the therapist identified narcissistic characteristics in his father. Suddenly, everything became clear that the very issues he struggled to overcome were a direct result of having a narcissistic parent. But knowing this information and healing from it are two different matters. The lack of self-esteem, obsessive thinking, minimization of abuse, excessive anxiety, fear-based reactions, and heightened survival instincts are common among adult children of narcissists. The distorted perception of reality a narcissistic parent imposes on a child has damaging consequences on the adult at work and home. By addressing the impact of narcissism, a person finds relief. Here are the seven steps: Recognize. The first step in the healing process is to admit that there is something wrong with a parent’s behavior. A person can’t recover from something they refuse to acknowledge. Most narcissistic parents pick a favorite child, the “golden child,” who is treated as if they walk on water, this was Brian’s older brother. In comparison, Brian was treated as inferior through belittlement, comparing, ignoring and even neglect. Occasionally, his father switched his favoritism depending on the performance of a child. When Brian received a football scholarship, his dad treated him like the golden child; but when he lost it due to an injury, he was inferior again. The key to remember is that narcissistic parents see the child as an extension of them so they take credit for the successes and reject the child who fails. Study. Once the narcissism is identified, it is essential to gain an education about the disorder and how it affects the entire family system. Narcissism is part biology (other family members likely have the disorder as well), part environment (trauma, abuse, shame, and neglect can draw narcissism out), and part choice (as a teen, a person chooses their identity and what is acceptable behavior). Since there might be other narcissists or personality disorders in a family, it is easy to trace the pattern. The environment and choice factors can further draw out the narcissism in a child which is cemented by age eighteen. Recount. This next step is comfortable in the beginning but becomes more difficult as the impact of the narcissism is realized. For each sign and symptom of narcissism, recall several examples in childhood and adulthood when the behavior is evident. It helps to write these down for reference later. The more time that is spent doing the step, the more significant the impact of the healing. Each of these memories needs rewriting with a new dialogue of, “My parent is narcissistic, and they are treating me this way because of that.” This is very different from the old internal dialogue of “I’m not good enough.” Identify. During the previous step, it is highly likely that some abusive, traumatic, and neglectful behavior on the part of the narcissistic parent becomes evident. Abuse for a child can be physical (restraint, aggression), mental (gaslighting, silent treatment), verbal (raging, interrogating), emotional (nitpicking, guilt-tripping), financial (neglect, excessive gifting), spiritual (dichotomous thinking, legalism), and sexual (molestation, humiliation). Not every event requires trauma therapy but some of them might, depending on the frequency and severity. Grieve. There are five stages to the grieving process: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and finally acceptance. Brian struggled to believe at first that his father’s narcissism impacted him – this is denial. Anger is a natural response after the dots have been connected and the abuse has been identified. It is hard to believe that a parent who should be loving and kind would do the things they have done – this is part of the bargaining process. Whatever glorified image a person had of their narcissistic parent is now wholly shattered – this is depression. Sometimes anger is projected on the other parent for not adequately protecting their child from the trauma. Or it is internalized for not realizing or confronting sooner. It is crucial to go through all of the stages of grief to reach acceptance. Grow. This is an excellent place to step back for a while to gain a better perspective. Begin by reflecting on how the narcissistic parent’s distorted image of the world and people shaped current beliefs. Then drill downwards towards the vows or promises that were made internally as a result. Counteract the distorted images, vows, or promises with a newly gained perspective of reality. Continue this process until a new perspective is fully formed and now is part of the inner dialogue going forward. This essential step frees a person from the narcissistic lies and false truths. Forgive. The past cannot be changed, only understood. When forgiveness is genuine, it has a powerful transformational effect. Remember, forgiveness is for the forgiver, not the offender. It is better to honestly forgive in small chunks at a time, rather than granting blanket forgiveness. This allows room for other future or past offenses to be realized and worked through thoroughly. Don’t force this step, do it a comfortable pace so the benefits will be life lasting. After completing these steps, Brian found it easier to identify other narcissists at work, home, or in the community. No longer did the narcissistic behavior trigger Brian and escalate his anxiety, frustration, or depression unnecessarily. Instead, Brian was able to remain calm and as a result, the other narcissistic person was disarmed because their behavior no longer had an intimidating effect. www.growwithchristine.com

067 | Brian Smith Shares How Pamela Anderson Gave UGGs Their BIG Start! Brian Smith, is the founder of the world famous UGG Australia Brand, a furry warm boot, that I’m sure many of you are familiar.  While studying at the UCLA Graduate School of Management he observed that there was no sheepskin footwear in the US. With only $500 in capital, he imported boot samples and over the next seventeen years built the UGG Australia brand into a multi-million dollar international enterprise. He sold in 1995 and the brand has continued to grow to exceed a BILLION dollars in annual sales for the past three years. Brian has authored the book “The Birth of a Brand – Launching Your Entrepreneurial Passion and Soul.” Have you ever spent hours, maybe even days, working on the perfect presentation? Only, to find out that you won’t have the opportunity to actually share everything that you’ve spent time creating? This week’s guest, Brian Smith, has experienced this exact situation and it actually changed the trajectory of his business for the positive! The UGG brand wasn’t successful from the start. In fact, Brian faced a ton of adversity and ended up having to get crafty when it came to selling the boots he had acquired. Brian shares how a photo of Pamela Anderson, on the set of Baywatch, wearing UGGs, changed his whole business. In this episode, Brian shares how planning the perfect presentation doesn’t always end up like it’s supposed to, BUT how it often ends up even better. If you want to know why, as an entrepreneur, you should always plan for the best, but expect the worst, then this episode of Success Unfiltered is a MUST LISTEN! Enjoy, and thank you for listening and tuning into Success Unfiltered! To share your thoughts: Email The Pitch Queen @ hello@thepitchqueen.com Ask a question over at www.ThePitchQueen.com Share Success Unfiltered on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, & LinkedIn To help the show out: Please leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings and reviews really help and I read each one. Subscribe to the show on iTunes. Special thanks goes out to Brian Smith for taking the time to chat with Michelle. Be sure to join us next week for our next new episode! P.S. Celebrate Your Rejections In Business! Why? Because the more you get told NO, the closer you are to a YES. True story. Rejection doesn’t mean failure. It means that you’re taking the steps that will ensure your success! Don’t let NO stop you. Let me show you how to keep going! Grab your copy of my FREE Checklist “5 Ways To Come Back From Sales Rejection” and turn that NO into a WIN! Here are a few key secrets we talked about in this episode: Michelle introduces Brian Smith. Brian shares who he is and what he’s most famous (UGG Australia Brand) for, plus what he’s been up to lately. Every business is conceived by someone, it’s important to remember that it starts as an infant, just laying there - don’t give up at this point. Some wisdom from Brian! Brian’s first major NO came his very first year in business. He purchased 500 sheepskin boots and only sold 28 TOTAL. He shares the full story in this episode! Every surf shop shut Brian and his boots down, so he started taking them to street fairs and swap meets. The enthusiasm of the people purchasing the boots is what kept him motivated to sell. The Pitch Queen shares her idea to keep an acknowledgement folder of the kind things people say, so that you can look through it when you feel down. When Brian first started advertising his boots, he used models to model the boots and all of the surfers who he was selling to thought UGGs were so fake. Brian realized he had been marketing to the wrong people, in the wrong way using the wrong models. When Brian shifted his advertising to attract his ideal client, his revenue went from $20K to $200K. Brian tried to get into all of the big box stores, Montgomery Ward, Nordstroms, etc. - but, no one wanted to bring him in. He explains why they wouldn’t take him and what he did to eventually get there, in this episode. “Most people in the world really want to help out a young entrepreneur getting started.” ~ Brian Smith Brian was trying to get onto the cover of USA Today and was able to set-up a meeting with their fashion editor. However, his 45 minute presentation was cut down to 5 minutes. Wonder why? Listen to this episode for the FULL story! The 5 minutes with the fashion editor helped change the entire trajectory of the UGG Australia Brand. Brian advises that if you hit a wall in your business, you must find another way around it. “Once you start out on a path, the evidence of what you want will hit you.” ~ Brian Smith Brian shares what he would tell his younger self. Brian believes that passion for what you’re doing only comes after working hard on it for a long period of time - he shares what he means by this, in this episode! Connect with Brian Smith: Brian’s Website Brian’s Book Facebook Twitter Instagram P.S. Celebrate Your Rejections In Business! Why? Because the more you get told NO, the closer you are to a YES. True story. Rejection doesn’t mean failure. It means that you’re taking the steps that will ensure your success! Don’t let NO stop you. Let me show you how to keep going! Grab your copy of my FREE Checklist “5 Ways To Come Back From Sales Rejection” and turn that NO into a WIN! Music produced by Deejay-O  www.iamdeejayo.com  

In this episode, Huffington Post founding editor Roy Sekoff is on to talk about his memoir, "Lacks Self-Control," which is out now. In the book, Roy talks about his career, which twists and turns as he navigates his career, family, and helping to launch one of the most disruptive news sites of all time. Also on today's show is multi-hyphenate Brian Mazza. Brian is the President of Paige Hospitality Group, where he oversees the Ainsworth restaurant empire. When Brian is not overseeing the creation of the over-the-top golden wings, he is making gains at the gym. This week's Latest Launch recommendations are Entertainment Weekly's cover for the 10-year anniversary of Breaking Bad, Oprah's Smithsonian exhibit at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and Facebook's long-overdue Snooze feature.

Before becoming a mom to twins, I had a corporate career as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and Behavioral Analyst and considered myself a very social person. Once the twins arrived, my world changed. For various reasons, my husband and I decided I would stay home with the kids. This decision excited and terrified me at the same time. How did I keep my sense of "me" and still be a good mom to these beautiful babies? For the first few months we really didn't go anywhere for fear of germs for our preemie babies. After a few months of that, my husband and I started taking them out and realized we had to lug a lot with us to feel comfortable. When Brian went back to work it was me, by myself. I realized through my sleepy new-mom stupor that I really wanted to have lunch with my friends. Just get out of the house with the kids and do SOMETHING. So, when I was chatting about my fears of restaurant floors, my awesome husband threw out some ideas. I started with a prototype using stuff we had in the basement. I tried it out and ta-da! It worked! I ran with the idea and The Drop Stopper was born. I felt my confidence grow as the problem of dirty restaurant floors and running after rolling bottles disappeared. I started going out with the babies weekly and found it got easier for me, and my kids were noticeably better at "being out" than some of my other friends' kids. We received comments from parents on The Drop Stopper everywhere we went, questioning where they could buy one. So here I am, helping to bring back some sanity and increase the confidence of new parents everywhere! www.thedropstoppers.com Jared and Karina Rabin share how they got the Hang-O-Matic into over 11,000 retail locations across North America and Worldwide.  Through out their journey Jared and Karina have appeared on Bravo’s Quit Your Day Job, Steve Harvey’s Funderdome on ABC, Entrepreneur Magazine’s Elevator Pitch & MSNBC Your Business. In addition to Reality TV Jared has appeared on QVC 4 times in the UK and US. Four short years ago they started their retail journey at the International Housewares Trade Show. Today 500,000 units have been sold since exhibiting in the Inventors Corner. Now they dedicate their time to coaching inventors/entrepreneurs how to market and sell their products to All Retailers! www.thepitchtogetrich.com This Podcast is brought to you by the Inventors Launchpad Network. www.inventorslaunchpad.com

Pull out your HDCP stripper, organize your locally-administered FTP server, and get all shook up for another five minutes of Cocktail! When Brian's fling with Coral marks the start of a relationship, threatening a veritable bro paradise, it's up to the Earful Gang to analyze the gender-fluid spaces that emerge–and the results can only be described as "extratentacular"! Best listened to from the perch of a hot tub in front of your fireplace.

On this episode of the Leadership Vision Podcast, Nathan talks with our President and CEO, Brian Schubring, about how our Learning Community further embeds the language of Strengths within an organization. The Learning Community, part of our core process of professional services, is a culminating Team experience that integrates Strengths learning, 1 to 1 conversations, and reflective observations shared through a visual narrative. Nathan has a 4.5-year-old son and recently they tried to build a far too complex LEGO set by using the image on the box. It was not easy. Actually, they couldn't figure it out at all! Desperate to finish the project, he Googled the number of the set and actually found a PDF of the original instructions. Not only were they able to complete the castle, but was reminded just how complex LEGO sets can be. There are a lot of little pieces, some of them critical to making the whole thing come together. When Brian and Nathan sat down to record this podcast episode, they start with this metaphor of building LEGOs with Nathan's son. It's like when you get your StrengthsFinder results back - You see five words on a page, and like looking at the lego box in the toy store, you understand only a fraction of what's really going on. Your StrengthsFinder results represent quite a bit, but, at least initially, they are pretty static. You read your results or the results of a team member, but those definitions don't tell the whole story. It can be helpful in understanding how a person is built, for sure, but like trying to construct an entire LEGO set by only looking at the picture on the box, you'll only get so far before you need to dig a little deeper. On this episode of the Leadership Vision Podcast, you'll learn: About our Learning Community How images extend the Strengths conversation How to create your own images Our approach to creating a visual representation of a person's Strengths Resources Mentioned in the Episode Learning Community Description Learning Community Images Blog Posts Contact Page

Mike Jensen has Brian's dream job. When Brian was a young reporter covering St. Bonaventure basketball, his career goal was to write about college basketball in Philadelphia. That's what Mike has been doing since the 1990s. The two covered some of the Atlantic 10's most memorable games in the early 2000s, which always somehow involved St. Bonaventure and Temple. Today, they swap John Chaney stories (spoiler, he wasn't calling about an adverb) and discuss what made the Temple coach so unique and so awesome to deal with. Mike talks about whether or not Chaney would be successful in this media environment. Mike also discusses his year-long look series at the Philadelphia Inquirer about Philly Hoops. He talks about how Philadelphia basketball is a neighborhood of its own, how he picks his stories, why he's not writing nostalgia stories in this series and defines what Philadelphia basketball is in 2017. The only thing missing is Ray Cella.

Brian McNarry is the Pastor of Grand Valley Community Church in Brandon Manitoba. He also serves on the editorial team at Bold Cup Of Coffee. He is married to Nikki and they have one daughter named Olivia. When Brian isn't working on a sermon at a Starbucks or at home with his family, you can usually find him fly fishing or building model air planes.

This week on Inspired Edinburgh we have Brian Morrison. Brian is the Founder and Managing Director of BizSocial Enterprises, an organisation that aims to encourage local businesses and social enterprises to build relationships and trade with one other using the buy local model. They run networking events, expos and training events across the country with some of the UK's leading speakers and workshop facilitators and donates 25% of their profits to local community projects. We discuss Brian’s early life, growing up in care, his battles with alcohol and how his experiences have led him to finding a deeper purpose in life. A no holds barred conversation with an incredibly inspirational human being.   01.30 Brian’s background and early life 06.00 Brian’s initial experience of living in care 08.00 How long was Brian living in children’s homes? 12.20 How Brian found out about his father 16.00 When Brian began using alcohol? 18.00 What was the reason for using alcohol? 22.00 How long was Brian drinking daily? 22.50 What impact did alcohol have on Brian’s life? 27.30 How did Brian overcome his addiction? 41.15 What advice would Brian give to someone battling an alcohol addiction? 42.15 Does Brian think Brian alcohol should be legal? 44.30 What has Brian’s life been like since he became sober? 50.30 Getting involved in networking 52.20 What is it about networking Brian enjoys? 53.30 When did Brian decide to setup BizSocial? 55.15 What does a day in Brian’s life look like now? 1.00.30 Does Brian think the events in his life had to happen for him to find his purpose? 1.05.30 What is Brian’s purpose? 1.08.20 What would Brian like his legacy to be? 1.11.50 How does Brian define success? 1.12.40 What is the best piece of advice Brian ever received? 1.14.15 What would Brian say to his 20 year old self?   **************************************   You can find Brian at: https://www.bizsocial.biz https://www.facebook.com/BizSocialNetworking https://twitter.com/BizSocNetwork   Find Inspired Edinburgh here: http://www.inspiredinburgh.com https://www.facebook.com/INSPIREDINBURGH https://www.twitter.com/INSPIREDINBURGH https://www.instagram.com/INSPIREDINBURGH

Brian Rotsztein is an Internet marketer, professional photographer, entrepreneur, in-demand conference speaker, and author of the 5-star rated book “Content Marketing Ideas”. He has founded several startups, including WP Phone Support which offers security-based SEO and WordPress maintenance plans. Years ago, Brian switched 180° from his promising, stable career in psychology to website creation and SEO, as the web was still a very uncertain avenue for most. Not only did he manage to make a living out of his passion, but he succeeded tremendously at it. But throwing yourself into a new field, particularly in a fast-evolving environment like tech, isn’t always easy… When Brian officially decided to pursue a career in SEO, all he had in the world were his belongings that could fit in his little Volkswagen Golf and a few dollars in bank.

Brian Trippe is based out of Birmingham, Alabama. When Brian was 28 years old, he was still living in his dad's basement and was lazy! All he did was play video games, but shortly after, he got married, and knew he had to get a ‘real' job. Brian stumbled into real estate, but he worked his butt off, and on his first deal he earned $10,000 net. Since then, he's been hooked! If you want to take real estate seriously, you have to get off that couch!   Key Takeaways: How did Brian end up getting into real estate? Brian took a very, very expensive real estate course and ended up making $10,000 on his first deal. What advice would Brian have for those who are struggling to take action? Book smarts is a plus, but you learn the most from actually taking action. Brian spends a lot of money on real estate education, BUT he takes that info into practice. When you go into real estate investing, really focus on your end-game. You want to generate enough capital so you can go out and purchase your own assets. Brian talks about his real estate portfolio. He's currently doing $10,000 net on his properties. Brian is closing 2-3 deals a month right now. What does his office look like? Surround yourself with great people you can trust. It'll help you with a ton of headaches. How does Brian get ‘free' lists? What advice would Brian give his 20-year-old self? So many people know the kind of work they have to put in, but they're just not willing to do it. People do not change. The only way they do, though, is to go through tragedy or an awakening of some sort. Make today the day where you're going to change, where you're going to put in the work.   Mentioned in This Episode: FlipEmpire.com Flip Empire Private Facebook GroupAlareia.com Brian's AlaREIA podcast Email Brian: Info@Alareia.com     Ask Alex A Question: Have a question you want featured on an upcoming Flip Empire Show? Head over to the Ask Alex page, and record your question. We've made it super easy for you, so let us know what challenges you are having, and Alex will answer it personally!   Did you get your FREE Online Course? Text the word EMPIRE to 67076, and we'll send you a link to get instant access to the “5 Ways To Scale Your Real Estate Wholesaling Business To Six Figures (In 6 Months Or Less)” video module training course.   Subscribe To The Flip Empire Show, and Leave a Rating & Review!

"I think I might be depressed," he told me.  I wasn't convinced. When Brian was talking, it seemed he was searching more than he was lost. Depression, unhappiness, and a midlife crisis can look very similar. But they are very different.  And the way through each is different. Brian felt depressed.  But in reality, he was trying to figure it all out.  He was in a crisis.  He didn't need to be treated for depression.  He needed to get through his midlife crisis. Sometimes, people hit midlife, and it IS depression.  If you (or someone you know) is at midlife and not sure if it is a midlife crisis, depression, or just unhappiness, let's talk about the differences.  Each has a different path. MID LIFE TRANSITION SERIES 4 Myths of a Mid Life Crisis The Heart Of A Midlife Crisis A Healthy Midlife Transition  

In this episode I talk to Brian Lohr the owner of All Day Ruckoff and Charity Challanges. When Brian was looking to do his first ruck event he wasn't able to find out what the event consisted of, how to prepare or even know if he was ready to do it. So he createdAll Day Ruckoff that helps you prepare to do a ruck event. He shares with us what a ruck event is, how you know if you are ready for one, and why should take the plunge into rucking.  After some time with All Day Ruckoff he set out with his buddy to start Charity Challanges. It started from a pull-up challenge and grew to a business that's donated almost $50,000 to Team RWB and The Green Beret Foundation.  This episode is sponsored by Lucky 13 Coaching with Nickademus Hollon. You can get your Overcome and Run race jersey made by MudGear in our Gear Shop. Make sure you are following everything we are doing by taking a look at our Instagram,  Facebook and joining our mailing list!

In this episode, Dave interviews Brian Kurtz, founder of Titans Marketing, author of The Advertising Solution, and one of the masterminds behind Boardroom Inc. Brian is a serial direct marketer and over the past 20 years, he estimates he has been responsible for $1.3B pieces of 3rd class mail. Tune in as Brian shares how he built a massive 9M name list, what the 40-40-20 rule is, and why segmentation is extremely important in your lists.  Time Stamped Show Notes:  00:33 – Introducing Brian  00:38 – Brian met Dave in Fort Myer  00:53 – Dave talks about American Dream U   01:04 – Brian has just republished a blog post, Masterminding at the Pentagon  01:10 – His blog is about their experience in Pentagon and how the troops can re-career out the military  01:39 – Brian’s biography   03:49 – Is Brian the good guy or the villain in marketing?  03:58 – Marketing being used for good vs evil  04:03 – Brian discusses speaking to a group of entrepreneurs in Hungary  04:33 – His presentation was entitled, Marketing isn’t Everything, It’s the Only Thing  04:43 – The first thing he talked about was the idea that Marketing is NOT evil  05:32 – The difference between selling and marketing  05:48 – Selling is not a chore, it is an obligation  06:22 – Brian has gone from offline marketing to online marketing  06:58 – Email is cheaper than direct mail  07:42 – Brian does NOT use his list to promote affiliates  09:04 – Email has so much ‘junk’  10:21 – The least crowded inbox is the one you grew up with  10:40 – “Everybody’s mailbox is empty with online bill paying”  11:20 – Brian looks at how people are getting his attention through the mail  11:38 – Email marketers always ask Brian if he can help them do a marketing campaign  12:02 – “Direct mail is the new secret weapon”  12:21 – Brian is always referred to in Facebook when someone asks about direct mail  13:00 – “This isn’t about direct mail replacing online”  14:02 – How Brian knows when a mailing is directed to him  16:07 – In direct mail, messages are personalized and addressed individually to people BUT online, you send 1 email message to your entire list  16:24 – Dave shares how he used to work with associations  16:40 – “You can’t just build great stuff or host great content or have a great product – you actually have to market it”  17:21 – Segment your list to know which emails you should send them  17:41 – Brian talks about his experience in segmentation  18:40 – 40-40-20 rule = 40% list, 40% offer, and 20% creative  19:52 – There’s no one-size-fits-all creative  20:01 – Your lists are many lists – there are no unique names, just unique lists  20:18 – Segment as narrow as you can and expand out from there  20:40 – Dave shares about the mail he just received  21:51 – Handwritten letters are awesome  22:34 – Direct mail is still “direct mail”  22:49 – Brian talks about his blog, Christmas Cards in July  24:47 – Put something of significance in the mail  26:27 – “Human beings have not changed because of the internet”  27:22 – Dave shares 3 examples of sending snail mail  27:34 – 1st Dave’s friend, David Hauser who sold Grasshopper  29:02 – 2nd Dave’s salesman, Ryan, used to send out hand-written notes to people  31:05 – Dave is calling out a challenge to all listeners to automate a process and send out hand-written notes  31:20 – Check out Bond.co / Thankbot.com / Maillift.com / FeltApp.com / TheHandWrittenCard.com for hand-written note automations  32:50 – 3rd is the online spam factor—the Nigerian Prince scam  33:48 – SPAM is NOT a good direct marketing strategy  34:40 – Brian explains his new post, How You Sell is How They Will Respond  38:49 – If you sell crappy, stupidly, and with no heart, you will get customers who are exactly like that  39:53 – Getting an email with the “Re:” in the subject line is deceitful  40:31 – “Sometimes, the end can justify the means IF a lot of things are in place”  41:44 – Having something that can help a business grow attracts readers  42:07 – There are things worth doing  42:35 – More about Christmas Cards in July  42:59 – Everybody wants to be thought of and be relevant  43:30 – The value of regifting  45:10 – Taking regifting a step further  45:47 – The key is that they know you are thinking about them  48:27 – Brian’s book, The Advertising Solution is a profile of 6 advertising legends  49:27 – Brian wants to deliver more than a book  49:29 – Direct Marketing’s Rule of Thumb: You always over deliver to the customer  49:59 – Buy the book, send an email with your receipt, and you will get to download the greatest ads written by 6 legends and so much more  51:51 – Buying the book also puts you in Brian’s list which means you’ll have access to all of his free content in BrianKurtz.me  52:36 – Brian encourages you to go to TheLegendsBook.com and take advantage of the resources  53:56 – Dave shares a little secret about the podcast  55:50 – How Brian built his 9M name list  56:03 – Segment, test offers, and write incredible copy  56:40 – Start with expertly segmented list  57:08 – Online and offline efforts are almost the same  57:19 – Believe in your product 100%  58:40 – Find out where your market is  59:19 – Make deals with people who have the lists you need  59:48 – Research on every level  1:00:40 – Brian started with 0 after he left Boardroom  1:01:12 – His list right now is 7,000 which has been built organically  1:01:48 – Brian chooses to build a high-quality list rather than a high-quantity list  1:02:25 – Principles are the same for building a high-quality or high-quantity list  1:05:02 – Dave asks Brian how to become a baseball umpire  1:05:35 – Brian was a good catcher when he was younger  1:06:02 – He was a fat slow kid  1:06:39 – At 13, he couldn’t play but he knew the game well  1:06:50 – He stayed in the game by being the umpire  1:07:57 – When Brian is in a game, he sets everything aside to focus  1:08:15 – He loves the idea of bringing order from chaos  1:08:38 – “It’s a total ego play without ego”  1:09:50 – Check out Brian’s blog post, When Baseball Imitates Direct Marketing  1:10:16 – Dave closes the podcast  1:11:01 – For feedback and recommendations, email Dave at dave@davidrwill.com   3 Key Points:  Direct marketing is not dead – it’s the new “secret weapon.”  People want to be thought of and relevant – show this when mailing them!  Remember to segment your lists – you don’t have unique names but unique lists.  Resources Mentioned:  Entrepreneur's Organization – The EO Network  BrianKurtz.me – Brian’s website  The Advertising Solution – Brian’s book  Credits:  Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Global Food Sources are now being used to create healthy and in-demand products and Brian Oaks, founder of Global Goods uses the demand to generate a supply in struggling areas where the economic boost is most needed. Global Goods is a company that sources and manufactures Agave Nectar, Coconut Oil, and mexican Vanilla products. The company also produces its own Natural Skincare line Cocave. Global Goods sells all over the world and do this by also providing local jobs to struggling areas in Africa , Asia, the Dominican Republic and many other nations.   Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: [1:05] Jeremy’s introduction of Brian Oaks, CEO of Global Goods. [2:00] When Brian first went to Africa to source possible products. [13:01] The first problems Brian had building the business globally. [21:07] The way Brian’s parents taught him to fight his own battles. [29:02] The things Brian wanted to do in high school and college. [36:15] Brian’s first experiences trying to import products from Mexico vanilla. [44:51] Getting a call from Trader Joe’s. [48:00] Getting the test results on the purity and benefits of agave for diabetics. [51:20] The main differences between Global Goods agave and other brands. [59:34] How the Oprah / Dr. Oz connection made an impact on sales. [1:05:12] The struggles Brian’s wife has experienced with health, etc. and how a focus on healthier diet has made a huge difference. [1:09:00] The unique packaging and presentation of Brian’s products. [1:14:55] Customer suggestions for product ingredients and selling on 65,000 websites. [1:23:53] The possibility of selling on Amazon. [1:26:05] How you can connect with Brian. [1:26:40] Brian’s lowest business moments. [1:29:47] The proudest moments so far: the Agave line of products. [1:35:29] What’s next for Brian and Global Goods? In this episode… Global food sources are becoming more and more popular these days in health and wellness communities and for people with particular dietary restrictions and needs. Global Goods is a leader in providing incredible products such as agave nectar, coconut oils, essential oils, and much more. This conversation with Brian Oaks, CEO of Global Goods reveals how the company sources and supplies their products - and sells them successfully only from their online storefront. What would it be like to build an extremely popular and successful business and help some of the most disadvantaged communities in the world at the same time? Brian Oaks and the team at Global Goods have figured out how to do exactly that, sourcing raw materials from places like the Dominican Republic and Mexico and creating products western consumers pay high prices for. The Global Goods team is concerned about the quality and purity of the global food sources they use but that’s not all they care about. The team is also concerned that their work in disadvantaged countries also boosts the economy and way of life for the local workers in those countries. You can hear how Brian Oaks and the Global Goods team keep that careful balance, on this episode of Inspired Insider. The difference the right kind of ingredients makes for people with serious health conditions like diabetes is incalculable. Brian Oaks knows from first-hand experience the difference healthy foods and good sources make. His wife has struggled with health issues for many years and only recently has turned a corner toward better health through dietary changes. That knowledge and experience encourages Brian all the more to ensure that the global food sources used in his products are the best possible. What difference would it make to your business if Oprah and Dr. Oz featured your product on national television? Brian Oaks can tell you. In a random segment of the Dr. Oz portion of Oprah’s show he held up a bottle of Global Goods Agave Nectar, sourced in Mexico and said it was what he used as a sweetener in place of sugar. The sales started rushing in. You can hear the whole story on this edition of Inspired Insider. Resources Mentioned on this episode www.GlobalGoods.com www.GlobalGoods.com/products - scroll down to see the coconut oil drums Trader Joe’s Google Analytics www.IWantASpa.com Sponsor for this episode Our sponsor today is www.Rise25.com where entrepreneurs of 6,7, and 8 figure businesses come together live and in person every few months to solve their biggest business challenges through this high-level Mastermind group. Each member leaves each week with lifelong friendships and actionable steps to take their business to the next level. Check out Rise25.com - a group run by myself and cofounder John Corcoran. Rise 25 is application only.

On this week’s episode, we’re joined by Brian and Jennifer Bourn of Bourn Creative. They are a vibrant, creative studio that delivers purpose-driven design and engaging experiences for businesses who want to stand out and step into the spotlight. Rainmaker.FM is Brought to You By Discover why 201,344 website owners trust StudioPress, the industry standard for premium WordPress themes and plugins. Launch your new site today! Brian and Jennifer love challenges and deadlines, and are brand building, WordPress wielding, Lego playing nerds dedicated to creating beautiful, flexible, and powerful platforms for rapidly growing businesses. In this 38-minute episode Brian Gardner, Jennifer Bourn, and Brian Bourn discuss: The founding of Bourn Creative Using Genesis within a Creative Agency Choosing a business size that fits your lifestyle Tips for maintaining a consistent workflow from home Creating a work/life balance that revolves around family The importance of scheduling and client communication Building a profit margin into your client services Creating partnerships to create recurring revenue streams Evaluating expenses on a consistent basis Listen to StudioPress FM below ... Download MP3Subscribe by RSSSubscribe in iTunes The Show Notes This episode is brought to you by Digital Commerce Summit Follow Bourn Creative on Twitter Follow Brian on Twitter Follow Jennifer on Twitter Visit Bourn Creative on Facebook Inspired Imperfection Visit Inspired Imperfection on Facebook The Transcript How to Sustain a Profitable Creative Agency Jerod Morris: Hey, Jerod Morris here. If you know anything about Rainmaker Digital and Copyblogger, you may know that we produce incredible live events. Some would say that we produce incredible live events as an excuse to throw great parties, but that’s another story. We’ve got another one coming up this October in Denver. It’s called Digital Commerce Summit, and it is entirely focused on giving you the smartest ways to create and sell digital products and services. You can find out more at Rainmaker.FM/Summit. That’s Rainmaker.FM/Summit. We’ll be talking about Digital Commerce Summit in more detail as it gets closer, but for now I’d like to let a few attendees from our past events speak for us. Attendee 1: For me, it’s hearing from the experts. This is my first industry event, so it’s awesome to learn new stuff and also get confirmation that we’re not doing it completely wrong where I work. Attendee 2: The best part of the conference, for me, is being able to mingle with people and realize that you have connections with everyone here. It feels like LinkedIn live. I also love the parties after each day, being able to talk to the speakers, talk to other people who are here for the first time, people who have been here before. Attendee 3: I think the best part of the conference, for me, is understanding how I can service my customers a little more easily. Seeing all the different facets and components of various enterprises then helps me pick the best tools. Jerod Morris: Hey, we agree. One of the biggest reasons we host a conference every year is so that we can learn how to service our customers — people like you — more easily. Here are a few more words from folks who have come to our past live events. Attendee 4: It’s really fun. I think it’s a great mix of beginner information and advanced information. I’m learning a lot and having a lot of fun. Attendee 5: The conference is great, especially because it’s a single-track conference where you don’t get distracted by, “Which session should I go to? Am I missing something?” Attendee 6: The training and everything — the speakers have been awesome, but I think the coolest aspect for me has been connected with both people who are putting it on and then the other attendees. Jerod Morris: That’s it for now. There’s a lot more to come on Digital Commerce Summit. I really hope to see you there in October. Again, to get all the details and the very best deal on tickets, head over to Rainmaker.FM/summit. That’s Rainmaker.FM/summit. Voicevoer : StudioPress FM is designed to help creative entrepreneurs build the foundation of a powerful digital business. Tune in weekly as StudioPress founder Brian Gardner and VP of StudioPress Lauren Mancke share their expertise on web design, strategy and building an online platform. Lauren Mancke: On this week’s episode, Brian talks with Jennifer and Brian Bourn of Bourn Creative on how to sustain a profitable creative agency. Brian Gardner: Hey, everyone, welcome to StudioPress FM. I am your host, Brian Gardner. Unfortunately, I’m on my own today because Lauren is out. It worked out well because today we have two guests: husband and wife, Brian and Jennifer Bourn. Very excited to talk to them as we continue the series with the members of our Genesis community. Today we’re joined by Brian and Jennifer Bourn of Bourn Creative. They are a vibrant creative studio that delivers purpose-driven design and engaging experiences for businesses who want to stand out and step into the spotlight. Brian and Jennifer love challenges and deadlines, and are brand-building, WordPress-wielding, Lego-playing nerds dedicated to creating beautiful, flexible, powerful platforms for rapidly growing businesses. They are also very good with words, because that was a mouthful and well said. There you go. It’s a huge pleasure to have you guys on the show. Welcome and thank you for being here. Brian Bourn: Thanks for inviting us. Jennifer Bourn: Thanks for having us. Brian Gardner: This will be a fun challenge because I’ve got two of you. Hopefully what I’ll do is address questions to either/or and then we’ll have things open. There’s no process here, so we’ll just do our thing. Brian Bourn: Sounds great. Jennifer Bourn: Sounds great. Using Genesis Within a Creative Agency Brian Gardner: There we go. Let’s talk about WordPress and Genesis, in that very order. Brian, why don’t you talk about how you guys got involved with WordPress? Then, Jen, maybe you can talk about the Genesis side. Brian Bourn: Perfect. Yeah, they’re all intermingled. We’ve been in business now for 11 years. In July we passed our 11th year. Just think, 11 years ago when we first were into web — when Jen was on her own, which she’ll talk about later, the roots of some of our agency — everything was done in static HTML. Then we transferred over to a private label content management system and designed and built custom templates for that. We quickly reached the limitations and then were looking for something more, something better, something more capability-focused. We then made that switch to WordPress. I don’t know the exact year of that, but I do know it was around version 2.7, 2.8, somewhere right in there. It was the upper 2-point-whatever version. Jennifer Bourn: It was the end of 2008, the beginning of 2009. Brian Bourn: Yeah, and as far as WordPress, we started out designing and building completely one-offs, custom themes. I know for a fact that Jennifer bought some [revolution themes inaudible 00:05:16], some of your very early origins, and then migrated. She also bought some themes from StudioPress before Genesis was ever a thing, when the themes used to be standalone. Then when Genesis came out, and the whole child theming concept, and WordPress sites were getting more complex, we were looking for a good starting point that would aid our development and make our product better for our clients. Once we tried Genesis a few times we haven’t looked back and we’ve built every single site on Genesis since. Jennifer Bourn: That pretty much covers that. Brian Gardner: Okay. In that case then, Jen, you get the next question. How about that? Jennifer Bourn: Sure. Brian Gardner: You guys are obviously a husband and wife team. You have your own agency. You’ve managed to do very well for yourselves and probably could grow way bigger than you are now. I’m pretty sure I know the answer to this question, but why the decision to I know you work with a few people outside of yourselves, but why the decision to keep it smaller scale than growing into a huge agency? Choosing a Business Size That Fits Your Lifestyle Jennifer Bourn: We’ve gone back and forth about growth. Do we grow? Do we not grow? I think it’s something that a lot of people wrestle with. We grew and expanded for a while and found that the structure of our business at the time didn’t support that and our freedom at the same time. Our kids are now 10 and 13 and they’re not going to be at home for much longer. Natalie is in eighth grade now. In five years she’s going to be gone. Carter not that much longer after her. We really looked at what we wanted for our life, and we want to do really great work for great clients that we enjoy working with, but at the same time we want to really live life and enjoy the kids while they want to hang out with us, while they want to spend time with us — and they’re fun. We want to be able to have the flexibility and the freedom in our schedule to be able to structure our client work around travel and vacations and family adventures and all of those things. Also, looking at the way that we’ve structured our business, duplicating ourselves is really difficult. The market is highly competitive, and finding the right people to fill in the gaps that you need is tough. We have some subcontractors that we work with who are amazing. They allow us to keep the train moving when we’re traveling and help fill in some of the holes of where we might not be the strongest. For right now, we’re really happy with the size that we’re at, the projects that we’re doing, the clients that we’ve got, and the flexibility to be able to do tons of fun things with the kids all the time. I don’t think I know anybody that takes more vacations than we do. Brian Gardner: I was going to bring that up later. We’ll get to that later, because it’s true. Jennifer Bourn: That’s not to say that we aren’t taking away conversations in the background about growth and looking at what that looks like for us. Brian Gardner: It’s refreshing. We recently spoke with Bill Ericson and he also talked about work-life balance and how important that is for him. I see in my little community and ecosystem — which includes people like you and Bill, and even Rafal and Jason Shuler, who is another one we talked about — people who have probably the chops and the capability of growing bigger than they are, but they refuse to because they want to put so much emphasis on family and spending time. As I mentioned on Bill’s show, it’s so refreshing to be around people who share that sentiment. It is huge, I know. My son is 12 and in seventh grade, and we also have only a few years left. There’s time to go crazy and work harder and grow and get bigger when they’re gone. As they say, the days go by slow, the years go by fast. I don’t want to look back and be like, “I built a great business, but not a great relationship with him or with Shelly” or whatever. It’s so great to hear that from you guys. Jennifer Bourn: That’s the thing. You’re never going to look back and be like, “I’m glad I took that extra meeting,” but you’re going to say, “I’m glad we took that trip.” Brian Gardner: Yeah. Jennifer Bourn: You’re never going to look back and wish that you answered more email or you sat in front of your desk any longer that you did. I think one of the things that’s unique about the WordPress ecosystem is that so many people share what’s going on in their business — challenges and struggles — and you get these sneak peeks into other people’s businesses. From some of the people that we’re friends with we’ve been able to see what happens behind the scenes at some of these larger agencies. Brian and I have both said, “I don’t want that life.” Unless we can do it the way that will fulfill our personal life just as much as our professional life, then we don’t need to go there. I think it’s different for everybody, and I think, too, personal experiences and personal stories drive that too. Brian had gallbladder cancer a few years ago, and facing the mortality of somebody that you love or yourself really puts things in perspective. We didn’t always do this much fun stuff. We worked a lot more and did a lot less fun things. Life experiences put things in perspective for us too. The Founding of Bourn Creative Brian Gardner: Yeah, they always seem to do that. In some fashion we all, I think, have that to some degree. Brian, walk us through the process you guys went through when you started the agency years ago. I know a lot of things have changed on the web — tools, software, trends, that kind of thing. What are some of the early challenges you guys faced when making the decision to go out on your own and to start this as your thing? Brian Bourn: In the early days in the very beginning, Jennifer was on her own. She was an in-house designer at a PR agency and we had our daughter, which was two-years-old. Jennifer found out she was pregnant with my son — I had a different career at the time. It was one of those It was not working for us family-wise. We made the scariest choice that we’ve ever done, but at the same time one of the best decisions we’ve ever made looking back. At the time it was terrifying to do that. We knew that for our own sanity and raising a family that it was the best thing to do for us, and Jen went out on her own. That early challenge was: how do you pay the bills that come due in 30 days the day after your last day? Jennifer Bourn: We had just bought a ridiculously ginormous house and I was pregnant. Brian Bourn: Based on the salary of two full-time employees with benefit packages and all that sort of thing. Then one them decides to We decide to start the company. Jennifer Bourn: Yeah, when I started my business it was, “If you’re not working you’re not getting paid.” I worked all the way up until the day that I had Carter and then was back at work two weeks later. Those first years were tough. Brian Bourn: That was an extreme challenge, having a newborn and a toddler in the very early years of the business. In the very early days, all I did with Jennifer was the admin side of the business. None of the client-facing work that was being output, just the admin while I had my day job. Until I left that job and joined her full-time, the first few years of the company Jennifer was on her own. That was very difficult too, when one person is a freelancer and then the other person has a salaried position with paid vacation and sick leave. It creates very different demands and dynamics in our personal relationships and professional relationships. It was navigating not just that, but navigating us on a personal level. Figuring out, “How do we make this work around raising kids? Around getting client work done? Around trying to take vacations and do things? The human side of it was very challenging in the early days. Brian Gardner: Yeah, I bet. Jennifer Bourn: 2008, 2009, and in 2010 we took almost no vacations and did almost If you look at our stock of all the digital photos by year, there’s the tiniest amount because I worked from 4:00 in the morning to 1:00 at night, seven days a week. It was ridiculous. Now I’m reaping the rewards of that. Brian Gardner: I was going to say, it’s a far cry from what you guys are doing now. Jennifer Bourn: It was tough, but it was one of those things that we looked at as short-term sacrifice, long-term gain. “It’s only going to be a few years to build a brand, build a reputation in the market, and get a solid base of clients. The kids are going to get older.” When we first started the business it was, “Let’s hang on until the kids hit kindergarten. Then we can start looking at growth. Then we can start looking at where do we want to take the business. Then we can really start looking at more than ‘let’s do enough client work to pay all our bills and make sure everything’s good and get the kids to kindergarten.'” Then it was, “Once Carter’s in first grade and they’re both in school full-time, then let’s look at what can we do with the business and where we can go.” Then it was, “When Brian’s parents are both retired and we have tons of babysitting then we can travel and go to WordCamps and we can do stuff together. That’s the next phase.” Now we’ve gone through phases of life, our business has mirrored the phases of life as we’ve grown. Tips for Managing a Consistent Workflow from Home Brian Gardner: It’s definitely something I can see from the outside. Good stuff. Brian, you manage the business. We talked about the team, day-to-day operations, and so forth. What’s a typical day look like for you now that you’re at home and working as part of the business? Brian Bourn: This is something that I definitely have room for improvement, my own personal time management. I found the best thing for me to manage my day, to keep a typical day, is to keep a very regimented regular schedule. I keep certain rules, no calls on Mondays. I never schedule calls on Mondays. If I do have calls, I only ever do no more than two in a single day. Things that interrupt that work flow, I’ve found — especially anyone who does design or development work or anything like that — you can’t get anything done in 30-minute blocks, you need good solid hours of uninterrupted time. I have switched my day-to-day schedule around to where I am ruthless with my schedule and maintain some very large chunks of time, especially in the morning, those early hours from when I This time of year, when I drop the kids off at school until I take my lunch break I don’t open my email, I stay off social media, and I use those key hours in the day to get my work done. Then, as the after lunch time, you start getting distracted. I’ll use that time to do email or work on short tasks. Things like — maybe I’m working on a proposal or clearing out my inbox, back and forth with sales leads, looking at GitHub, seeing what’s going on with the partners that we work with, looking at commits, and reviewing code. Using those small tasks that it’s okay to get interrupted and saving those for the afternoon. Because I am managing the primary sales funnel and a lot of this other business aspects, I’ll go days at a time where I don’t write a single line of code because I’m doing business operations. By keeping a regimented schedule of “these certain days of the week are reserved for these certain things,” it allows those chunks of time which keeps me overall within a semi-normal working schedule, day to day. Brian Gardner: Semi-normal, is that a thing? Brian Bourn: Normal is as defined by the person. Brian Gardner: Yes, for sure. Jen, what about you? You consult on brand, website, and digital strategy. You lead all the design projects — specifically within WordPress, that’s your specialty. Same question I have for you here, what does your typical day look like? I’m sure it’s somewhat similar but also somewhat different than Brian’s. Jennifer Bourn: My typical day is so much better now that Brian does all the business admin. Brian came in and now does all the things I don’t like doing, and it’s amazing. Typically I am the same, I keep email closed, keep social media closed, keep all the distractions — mainly because we want our evenings and weekends free. The more we can cram in that 9:00 to 5:00, the better everything is. We stay highly focused there. I, right now, am lead organizer for WordCamp Sacramento, which is happening in October. I’m really busy with that. We’ve got regular client work and then I’ve got my new blog that I started, Inspired Imperfection, where I’m sharing recipes and our family adventures and things like that. I’m juggling all of it right now. The great thing is we’ve shifted our agency over the last probably 2 years to 18 months from being very heavy in design work to being very heavy in development work. If I get to my desk before 9:00, it’s my own personal stuff. At 9:00 I start client work and I look at, “What’s the big project I have to get done during the day?” I try to only have one big time suck, energy suck comprehensive project per day. A theme design, something that’s going to take a bunch of time. I do that first to get it done and get it out of the way and get that client deadline met. Then I’ll knock out any other small client projects we’ve got, then I’ll pop over and I’ll work on WordCamp stuff or I’ll work on stuff for Inspired Imperfection, things like that. Brian Gardner: Man, you guys have a lot going on. All good stuff, because you’re doing it well. You’re profiting, you’re living the dream with your kids and all that. We talked about the question I was going to ask next which is, aside from running the business you guys are parents and love to travel, that’s very obvious. Anyone who follows you on Facebook or social media clearly can see the things that are important to you. It’s funny how social media works. I love watching you guys go on vacations. You talk about it ahead of time and then I get to follow along day after day. “They’re going here now. Now they’ve gone here.” Whether it’s Instagram or Facebook, it’s fun to watch — not just you guys, but others in the community when they go on vacations. It’s that, “Vicariously live through them and get to experience other places.” Aside from when you guys travel to conferences, your trips are generally what seem to be, a) outdoors, and always with the kids, minus a Grateful Dead concert here or there. I swear, just recently you took them to a concert too, didn’t you? Jennifer Bourn: We took them to three in a row. We did a road trip. We did Portland, then one in Washington at the Gorge, and then the shoreline on the way to San Diego. Creating a Work-Life Balance That Revolves Around Family Brian Gardner: I got you. This all leads to a bigger question I have, which is what we talked about a little bit earlier about work-life balance. How do you guys manage to do it all? Not just do it all, you do it well. Do you work a lot while you travel, or do you not and shut it off and then work a lot before and after you travel? It seems like that would be a slippery slope in some fashion. Jennifer Bourn: Most people don’t believe me when I tell them this. When we first started traveling together there would be this big ramp up before we left of tons of work that had to get done. We’d work like maniacs. We’d go and be exhausted when we’d go on vacation, and then we’d come home to this massive amount of work that was waiting for us. We slowly learned how to manage that to the point now that we don’t have a big ramp up before we go on a trip, we usually can take the day before we go on a trip off so we can pack and we’re not stressed out. When we come home there isn’t a giant stack of work waiting for us, there’s a normal workload waiting for us. We don’t have that stress anymore. The biggest thing that allows us to manage work and travel and balance all of this is a ginormous three-foot by four-foot wall calendar that hangs in my office. A lot of people talk about wanting to do fun things but they never end up doing the fun things because family obligations and life and errands and all of these other things get in the way. It was true for us too for a long time. Brian Bourn: A very long time. Jennifer Bourn: When we started putting this giant wall calendar in my office, what it allowed us to do — part of it was Brian’s previous career where he had to pick every vacation day and holiday in December for the following year. Every day that he got off was picked a year in advance. When he left that career we kept the same tradition going. This year in December we’ll print out our 2017 calendar and at the beginning of December we’ll line out all the days that the kids have no school and then we’ll look at, “Okay, spring break is here, where do we want to go?” We put it on the calendar in a sharpie. It doesn’t come off, and it’s marked on the calendar. Then we’ll look at what business conferences or WordCamps do we already know the dates for that we want to go to and we can work into our schedule. We can say, “Put it all on the calendar,” because then it’s a commitment to get it done. When a concert comes we do the same thing. When a concert pops up on Facebook — this weekend there’s a Saints of Circumstance, they’re a local band that we love, there’s a concert in Mountain Ranch. We said, “We want to go to that.” We put it on the calendar in sharpie, and it’s a commitment and we go. What that allows us to do is when other things come up — even family stuff — we can say, “We’ve already committed that day.” Brian Gardner: Yeah, that sounds a lot like our baseball schedule where we know in advance which weekends we have tournaments. We put them all out on the calendar and when other people or family or travel comes up and they want to “Hey, can we hang out and do something this weekend?” We’ll say, “Nope, that weekend in July we have planned. We’re going to a tournament and we’re playing.” Those types of things take precedence. I think it’s good to keep track of that type of thing, especially when it comes to travel, because you guys travel a lot. Jennifer Bourn: You can’t feel bad about telling people, “Nope, I’m busy.” Even if it’s for fun stuff. At the beginning of the summer we looked at our schedule and we laughed and said, “My god, we’re booked every weekend until October with fun stuff and no obligatory crap stuff. This is amazing.” Then family is like, “Can you do this?” Nope, we’re gone. Can you do this? Nope, we’re gone. You have to be okay with not feeling guilty about that. The Importance of Scheduling and Client Communication Jennifer Bourn: The other thing that that big calendar allows us to do is communicate clearly with clients about our schedule. People are also like, “How are your clients okay with this?” We’ve never ever had an issue with a client that’s not been okay with our travel schedule. A lot of clients we are in Basecamp with, so we put our travel schedule, when we’re going to be out of the office, in the Basecamp calendar, in a shared calendar. We communicate with them up front in advance, “Here’s when we’re going to be gone. Here’s when we’re going to be back. Here’s the status of your projects. Here’s where we’re going to get the project to before we go.” We usually start planning a few weeks before we’re going to be gone to get their project to a point where it’s pushed onto their plate. If we’re in design, we give them the design drafts right before we’re going to go on a trip. If we’re doing copywriting, we’re going to get them the drafts before they go on the trip. If it’s a big development push So that it’s on their plate and it’s their work while we’re gone. They’re moving the project forward while we’re gone. We communicate with them that a subcontractor is going to be working on certain parts of the project so they know exactly where the project’s at, exactly what’s going to be happening while we’re gone, and what we’re going to be tackling when we get back. The other thing too, is when I’m gone, I’m gone. I don’t work at all. I barely check email. Brian checks email every morning and checks in with Basecamp every morning, mainly because it allows him to be more relaxed when he can check all of those things. And he does manage all the sales funnels. The big calendar and communicating with clients far in advance and that active project management so that they know exactly where it’s at allows us to do it with very little impact to our work and our deadlines. Brian Gardner: Okay, you guys take a lot of trips with the family and you also take a lot of trips for business, whether it be WordCamps or conferences like the one that we put on at Authority, which is where we had a chance to meet and sit down and talk. How do you guys stay — this is the question I have with you guys. There’s a couple of other people — like for Jeff and Marla Sarris of SPYR, I have the same question, because it seems like they’re always traveling somewhere. My question is more about how do you guys stay profitable with that much expense? Travel expenses, hotels, flights, driving and stuff like that. How do you get the work done when you’re traveling so much? To deliver that on time and to make sure the clients are satisfied. It seems like every other weekend you guys are going somewhere. How do they afford that? How does that work in their budget? I’m not trying to ask a personal question, more from the business standpoint. How do you justify that? Is there ROI when you go to these conferences such as WordCamps and so forth? Brian Bourn: Sure. The one thing is, if you were to look at a map on Follow our Instagram feed. We are very fortunate to live in northern California, which is an amazing spot in the world and we do tons of — we call them Super Saturdays, where we leave at 7:00 in the morning and we don’t get home until late at night. We ice chest a bunch of food and there are national parks, national forests — literally a lifetime of adventure possibilities all within a two-hour radius of our house. Jennifer Bourn: That are cheap. Building a Profit Margin Into Your Client Services Brian Bourn: That are free. You park and you hike and you go do outdoors. That’s one part of that. As far as conference goes — it talks about what the focus of the whole interview is about: running a profitable agency. Oftentimes when we talk to other freelancers or other small agency owners like ourselves, is the failure to build in a profit margin to your projects. Not only when we estimate a project do we cover all of our time and our cost, but we also build in a margin. Every business has margins. Cars, they don’t sell cars at cost, there’s always a profit margin. The same should be done with client services. We take all of our costs — ongoing software to the hard business costs — add in our salaries that we pay ourselves, and then we add in a profit margin and then divide It’s a little bit of a math worksheet that I did. I know exactly on a regular basis how much we need to charge to cover all of our time expenses and then have that profit margin. That profit margin we use for reinvestment. Things like traveling to Authority or traveling to a WordCamp. It’s paid for out of that margin that we build into the business. We don’t believe there is an immediate ROI to this, but there’s definitely a long-term return that we have focused in on. Some of our greatest personal friends now are ones that we’ve met through the WordCamp community events. People that have influenced the way that I have run our company and the decisions I’ve made because we’ve met at WordCamps or Pressnomics, or some of these other non-WordPress focused events and have become friends have been there to ask questions and have some mentorship roles with me as far as, “Hey, what should I do, I’m in this weird situation?” That has been critical. Through a very long-term way, it has eventually led to referrals for clients and even new clients. But it’s definitely a long game, where the ROI is there but it’s going to be into the future, not immediate. Jennifer Bourn: Let’s also look at the strategic management of travel. The business pays for all of our business travel, but then all of those points and things — it’s leveraging some of those opportunities to make family travel even more affordable and more doable. You can do more of those things if your hotel stays are free or your flights are free. Brian Gardner: Okay, a little bit personal question here, and this is more specifically regarding the efficiency and the profitability of the company and stuff like that. What is, at this point — not everything’s perfect, we don’t run everything 100% the way it should be run — what is the Achilles heel of your company, Brian? What do you feel like there are areas where you can improve on, whether it’s time or delegation or any of that stuff that gets in the way of that profitability or the ability to scale where you want to go and do the things that you guys want to do? Brian Bourn: Sure. Some of that is what I consider our Scaling ourselves and the intrinsic skills that me and Jennifer both bring to the table. As a partnership, we complement each other very well in our skill set. The ability to scale that beyond the amount of hours that we have in a week is our biggest issue to getting bigger. At the same time, we choose not to do that by choice in order to create the personal life that we want right now while the kids are young. Down the road we know that if we do want to expand and bring on more team members, that it will be a very difficult task to find people to replace some of the things that we do internally for the company. We need to be able to turn those specific tasks over to them, whether it’s print design or front-end development, or whatever it may be — or project management. To find that key person that we can say, “All right, this is your thing now. Go forth and do well.” I find, for me, that’s the hardest issue that I see moving forward. Jennifer Bourn: I think that one of the things we’ve gotten way better at — and part of it is time — but I think there’s still room for improvement, is core project management. For a while in the early days when things were hairy and we were doing a ridiculous number of projects a year — at one point in time we were doing a custom Genesis site, one per week — our project management was terrible. It was not active, it was passive. We’ve gotten, over the years, a lot better at being active, borderline aggressive, with our project management. Partly for our own time management and partly so clients are really clear about where we’re at. I always think that, in terms of managing those projects and managing scope change, there’s always room for improvement. I don’t care where you’re at, I think it always could be done better. Brian Gardner: All right, I’m going to go even deeper, because this is fun. We have never had a husband and wife on the show. I’m going to ask Brian first — this is almost like one of those things you see on The Bachelor or something like that. Brian, tell me what is the one thing about Jennifer — this is not about profitability and all that, but I think it helps in the bigger context to understand how these dynamics work — what is the one thing about Jennifer you wish would change about what she brings to the business? I’m going to give her the shot to then do the same thing. This is not throwing each other under the bus, this is more about room for improvement, let’s say. Brian Bourn: As you know — I’m not BS’ing here — Jennifer is an extremely talented person, more so than probably anyone I’ve ever met. The one area, as far as related to an agency, is not telling her boss to screw off so often. No, it’s one of those things I’ve never even thought about it. We’ve been firing on all cylinders now for a while. I definitely would say Jen has a habit of When we go on a trip or something like that she loves to clear her plate and dish everything off, which then tends to mean that half the time it’s kicking onto my plate before we go somewhere. I wish that it would not wait until Not do that. That is the one area I wish would improve, is to manage not just her timeline as good as she does, but to look at it as the company as a whole timeline and what that does to everyone. Brian Gardner: That’s the answer I was trying to get to. Perfectly answered for what I was going for. This would have been a fun question five years ago to ask when things weren’t quite running on all the cylinders that it’s running on now. Jen, your turn to throw Brian under the bus. Jennifer Bourn: I would say where Brian … Brian Bourn: There’s not enough time in the show for all this. Brian Gardner: It’s another episode, a follow-up episode. Jennifer Bourn: No, I would say where Brian could improve is he drastically underestimates his own skills and abilities and talents. Projects will come in that he will turn down and shoo away because he thinks, “I don’t know if we can do that,” or maybe, “that isn’t something I’ve necessarily tackled before.” There are things that I know that he could do with his hands tied behind his back, but sometimes I think we all doubt ourselves. I think that he tends to do that and doesn’t take some projects because of that. Then the other — he would totally agree — is Brian has a hard time shutting down at 5:00. Part of it is because he has to do all the development and all the business stuff too, so his work plate is much fuller than mine. But he has a little bit of a harder time shutting off. Brian Gardner: You guys are brilliant because you ad-libbed answers that were building each other up in the context of talking about … That’s wonderful. I see you guys as totally a type A and B relationship. Shelly and I are the same way. She’s very type A, admin focused, very process-based, and I’m more of the creative. I think you guys are probably a flip flop of that. Do you guys have any final tips and tricks? Things that you would Nuggets of wisdom to pass along. Creating Partnerships to Create Recurring Revenue Streams Brian Bourn: Yeah, the thing that has led to the most growth on effective hourly rate and as far as profitability as a company — which then leads to personal freedoms and the things that we talked about a lot on this call — is, from a client services perspective, looking at your clients not on a per project basis but as a partnership with them. It’s not just thinking, “Okay, I’m going to design and build a WordPress theme and launch it. Here you go, great.” And then going from project to project. Every client we take on now — they are more of a partnership model where, yes, we are going to build a site for you, but we are going to continue working with you at bare minimum ongoing support and maintenance to create recurring revenue stream in the agency. Most of our clients stick with us either on a monthly basis for a retainer for ongoing consulting support, strategy, additional development, and design work. That means being very selective with your clients. This took us a long time to get here, where we work with fewer clients per year than we ever have, but we work with them not just on one project that’s siloed off and then it’s done. We work with them to create and launch the project and then continue working with them on an ongoing basis. As anyone will tell you, it’s easier to sell to an existing customer than a new customer by tenfold. When there is none of that discovery and they already trust you and they’ve already paid you, it’s a simple matter of, “Well, let’s get this done.” “No problem, it will be this much.” You do the work and you get paid. By creating that ongoing partnership with your clients and being a critical role in their business success online, it has led to where we are at today. Brian Gardner: Good stuff. Jen? Evaluating Expenses on a Consistent Basis Jennifer Bourn: I think the other thing to note is that a lot of people talk about wanting to make more money or have more income that they can have available to do whatever it is that they might want to do. The focus on that a lot of times is always, “I need to make more money, which means I need to do more work,” or “I need more clients,” or “I need bigger projects.” One of the things that we have really focused on is not just looking at profits coming from more clients or more projects, but looking at how we’re spending, how we’re using, and how we’re putting the money we’re already making to work for us. It’s looking at regular expenses. For example, we had for years a subscription to Shutterstock, which we used the heck out of because we had certain retainer clients where we were doing print work every single week and we needed access to stock imagery every week. When we were building full custom Genesis sites every week, we used a ridiculous amount of stock photography. Our business has shifted so much that we’re using so much less. It’s looking at where are the expenses that you can trim and what expenses can you scale back? We were able to get rid of that subscription, so we saved $250 a month. We switched from Infusionsoft after we were with them for so many years. We switched from Infusionsoft to Agile CRM and we saved $300 a month. Evaluating where is your money going, where are you spending it, and do you need to spend it there or is there a better solution? You look at those two things — we cut our monthly expenses down by almost $600. That could be less client work that you are under pressure to sell. Brian Gardner: That’s a great set of guidelines for us, even outside of the business world, even in our homes. As you were talking, all I could think of was Joshua Becker talking about that type of thing within our own personal lives. The message that he talks over at Becoming Minimalist. It’s not about making more, it’s about saving and spending and having less, and so on. Jennifer Bourn: Yeah. Brian Gardner: That’s a great segue into the last thing I want to talk about, which is work and life balance. As you say, they aren’t separated into neat little boxes, they are mixed together, integrated, and part of each other. Jennifer, your new personal blog, Inspired Imperfection, which you talked about and we’ll link to in the show notes, encourages everyone to live an inspired life, embracing imperfection and creating the life that nourishes our soul with our kids in tow. I love that. For those listening, if you want to follow them you can follow Brian and Jennifer — their business perspective — at Bourn Creative, also in the show notes. To see how they balance their work life with their kids and go on vacations and all that stuff, you can check out Jen’s personal blog at InspiredImperfection.com. If you like what you heard on today’s show here at Studio Press FM, you can find more episodes of it at, you guessed it, Studiopress.FM. You can also help Lauren and I hit the main stage by subscribing to the show in iTunes, that would be helpful, very much appreciated. It is also a great way to never miss an episode. Brian, Jen, on behalf of Lauren and I and everyone in our company and the podcast network, we’re very thankful to have you guys on the show. Brian Bourn: Thanks for having us, it was fun. Jennifer Bourn: Thanks for having us. Brian Gardner: All right, we’ll talk soon I’m sure. Everyone who’s listening, we’ll see you next week.

Brain is a self-proclaimed geek who spent most of his early years at Radio Shack. He was very interested in electronics and building model rockets. Never did he imagine that he would be programming machines to port heads for some of the fastest cars out there. When Brian turned 18, he joined the Navy and bought a Z28 Camaro. This sent him down the path of performance cars. In 1993, he started Total Engine Airflow and started porting heads. He then began working for Holley Performance doing product development. He didn’t last long at this job due to disagreements with the management. So he left the job and restarted Total Engine Airflow in 1996. He really stepped things up in 2001 when he bought a 5-axis CNC machine building heads for some really big name shops. He was approached by Trikflow who ended up buying his business in 2004 to join the Summit team. All of this leads to him starting Brian Tooley Racing around 2010. His business only sells what it has in stock and even has a real-time quantity tracker right on the website. His business continues to grow and he is nearing completion of a much larger fulfilment center to meet the growing demands. Brian is a self-taught businessman and has spent many hours absorbing as much knowledge as possible to improve his situation.

In this inaugural episode of StudioPress FM, we focus on the story of the founder of StudioPress, Brian Gardner. Lauren Mancke and Brian discuss how he started the premium WordPress theme industry, StudioPress, and the Genesis Framework. In this 29-minute episode Brian Gardner and Lauren Mancke discuss: How Brian’s career began His start with blogging, WordPress, and freelance development When Brian and Lauren began working together almost ten years ago The one client that changed everything The birth of the premium WordPress theme industry The launch of StudioPress and the Genesis Framework The biggest business decision Brian ever had to make His favorite parts of the journey and lessons he learned along the way Listen to StudioPress FM below ... Download MP3Subscribe by RSSSubscribe in iTunes The Show Notes StudioPress.com Revolution Theme Find out more about Brian on BrianGardner.com Find out more about Lauren on laurenmancke.com Follow Brian on Twitter at @bgardner Follow Lauren on Twitter at @laurenmancke The Transcript The Story of StudioPress Founder Brian Gardner Jerod Morris: Hey, Jerod Morris here. If you know anything about Rainmaker Digital and Copyblogger, you may know that we produce incredible live events. Some would say that we produce incredible live events as an excuse to throw great parties, but that’s another story. We’ve got another one coming up this October in Denver. It’s called Digital Commerce Summit, and it is entirely focused on giving you the smartest ways to create and sell digital products and services. You can find out more at Rainmaker.FM/Summit. We’ll be talking about Digital Commerce Summit in more detail as it gets closer, but for now, I’d like to let a few attendees from our past events speak for us. Attendee 1: For me, it’s just hearing from the experts. This is my first industry event, so it’s awesome to learn new stuff and also get confirmation that we’re not doing it completely wrong where I work. Attendee 2: The best part of the conference for me is the being able to mingle with people and realize that you have connections with everyone here. It feels like LinkedIn Live. I also love the parties after each day, being able to talk to the speakers, talk to other people who are here for the first time, people who have been here before. Attendee 3: I think the best part of the conference for me is understanding how I can service my customers a little more easily. Seeing all the different facets and components of various enterprises then helps me pick the best tools. Jerod Morris: Hey, we agree — one of the biggest reasons we host a conference every year is so that we can learn how to service our customers, people like you, more easily. Here are just a few more words from folks who have come to our past live events. Attendee 4: It’s really fun. I think it’s a great mix of beginner information and advanced information. I’m really learning a lot and having a lot of fun. Attendee 5: The conference is great, especially because it’s a single-track conference where you don’t get distracted by, “Which session should I go to?” and, “Am I missing something?” Attendee 6: The training and everything, the speakers have been awesome, but I think the coolest aspect for me has been connecting with both people who are putting it on and then other attendees. Jerod Morris: That’s it for now. There’s a lot more to come on Digital Commerce Summit, and I really hope to see you there in October. Again, to get all the details and the very best deal on tickets, head over to Rainmaker.FM/Summit. Voiceover: : StudioPress FM is designed to help creative entrepreneurs build the foundation of a powerful digital business. Tune in weekly as StudioPress founder Brian Gardner and VP of StudioPress Lauren Mancke share their expertise on web design, strategy, and building an online platform. Lauren Mancke: On this week’s episode, we’ll focus on the founder of StudioPress, Brian Gardner, and his story. We will share how he started the premium WordPress theme industry, his company StudioPress, and the Genesis Framework. Brian Gardner: Hey, everyone. This is founder of StudioPress, Brian Gardner, and today I’m joined with my co-host, who happens to be vice president of StudioPress, a killer photographer, a mom, the best designer on the planet, Lauren Mancke. Lauren, how are you doing today? Lauren Mancke: I’m doing good. That’s quite an introduction. Brian Gardner: You know, you’re not following the script. You’re supposed to say, “I’m good. Really excited about this, Brian. How are you?” Lauren Mancke: I’m going to go off script. Brian Gardner: All right. Hey, listen up, everybody [paper crumpling] — that is us throwing the script out of the window. Welcome to the show. Lauren and I have been excited to finally record our first episode. It seems like we’ve been talking about this forever now. Although as creatives, we want everything to be perfect. What I learned last year when I did the No Sidebar podcast is that scripted shows sound like scripted shows. As two creatives, we are going to just fly by the seat of our pants. We are thankful you are listening. We have a lot to cover, just today, in the series, and just on the whole podcast as a whole. How do you want to kick this off? Lauren Mancke: I was thinking I could ask you a couple of questions. This first episode, we want to talk about you, Brian, and maybe I could do a little interview style. Brian Gardner: This is my show because next week will be your show. I guess what we thought was that we would just introduce the StudioPress FM podcast with a little bit about my story, a little bit about your story. Then I think we’re going to go into the redesign of StudioPress. From there, we were going to, after that foundation was set, just go through and cover all kinds of topics — from design and branding and strategy, bringing in members of the community, from Genesis as a whole also. Let’s get this started. Lauren Mancke: Let’s start at the beginning. Even before you became an entrepreneur, how did you get started in the working world? How Brian’s Career Began Brian Gardner: Let’s go back to my job history. I think that’s a little bit of foundation for all of the things that ultimately brought me to where I’m at. Back in high school, I was a cashier and stock boy at a local convenience store. Unlike other people — my friends, they were into sports, and they did their thing — I actually had to work. I spent three or four nights a week, one day or two over the weekend, working at a local convenience store, doing all kinds of things. That was just kind of a get-me-started job. Then I went to college, and believe it or not, one of my jobs was being a janitor of the dorms. When you are paying your way through, you’ve got to pretty much take any job. For me, that was just something I needed to do. It was actually kind of fun because our dorm was one of them. That was an interesting experience. I’ll get to later why certain things like that kind of built into who I am now. Most importantly, after college, I went back to the same convenience store I worked at. This time I was hired on as a manager. I was working 50 hours a week there, pretty much living there and getting to know all of the customers. There was this one experience while I was there that really started the formation of who I am now. That was, somebody had brought they were bringing coffees out to their car. They dropped the tray and spilled coffee all over the sidewalk. She came back in, and she told us, “Hey, I’m sorry. I have to go get more coffee.” My boss at the time said, “Don’t worry about it. Fill your cups up and head out.” I looked at her. I’m like, “Aren’t we going to charge her again?” She said, “No. No, of course not. Benefit of the doubt, it’s a loyal customer. We take care of them.” That was my first experience or the introduction to the idea of customer service and how you take care of people because that type of thing goes a long way. I worked at this convenience store for a couple years as the manager, got to know these customers. We were in a neighborhood, so it was the same people that came through all the time. One of the older gentlemen who came in and got a coffee and donut every morning, one Saturday slipped me his business card. I got to know him pretty well, and we talked when he would come into the store and whatnot. He slipped me his business card, and he just says, “Call me.” I was confused, kind of had an idea of what he was thinking, so I called him. In short, he basically offered me a job at his company, which was an architectural design company and was a five-day work week, eight to four type of thing, holidays off, that type of stuff, which was so different from when I was working at the time. I was like, “I don’t even care what you do, but I’m going to say yes because I just want to get out of this.” I became a project manager at this architectural firm. I was probably the youngest by probably 10 years there. I was kind of seen as the kid, the computer guy who taught himself a lot of stuff on the computer, which will ultimately get to where we’re at now. That’s my work history in a nutshell. Just things there I learned that are much more applicable to what I do now. Lauren Mancke: At that architectural firm, isn’t that when you started writing on your blog? Brian’s Start with Blogging, WordPress, and Freelance Development Brian Gardner: Yeah, let’s go back, I think 2006, 2007 is where it was. I was very confident with what I was doing, but I was also bored. It was a desk job. I was crunching numbers and estimating projects. As even a creative back then, I wanted to start writing. This was back in the day when Google’s Blogger was the big thing and WordPress was very, very new. I started blogging on Blogger. It just didn’t do anything for me. A friend of mine said, “You should check out this WordPress thing because it’s a much better, more sophisticated thing,” which is funny because compared to where it’s at now, back then it was archaic. I installed WordPress and figured out through Googling around how to set up WordPress install and what was web hosting and all of that. I started blogging on the side just as a fun thing to do. Yes, I did a little bit on the clock to kill time. I started blogging, and that was the start of the entrepreneurial journey. Lauren Mancke: Right, because that’s when you started to do freelance jobs, right? Brian Gardner: Yeah, what happened was, I didn’t like the theme I was using. Back then, there was a free theme repository. I had pulled down a theme, and as a neat freak and organizational type of person, I opened up these files that made up this theme. Of course, I didn’t even know what a theme was, or PHP files or CSS, back in the day. I was flying blind and just trying to see what would work and what wouldn’t work. Ultimately, I cleaned up the theme I was using. I renamed it. I thought I was like this real programmer kind of guy and, at one point, decided to make themes available on my site. I would take themes and customize them, got my feet wet with design, and did what I felt was right, and started making these themes available for download for free in hopes that people would use them. The links in the footer would go back to my site, and they could read all about my journal and stuff that I was going through, which I figured people might be interested in. Who knows? I did that, and some of those people who would download the themes would ultimately contact me and say, “Hey, I’m using your free theme. I want to know if you can help me change a few colors or whatnot.” These little freelance jobs that I took, $25, $50, to kind of tweak a few things grew into more of a thing where people would ask for full custom sites types of things, $250, $500 back in the day is what I charged. It was vacation money back at the time. Lauren Mancke: That’s about when we met, right? That’s when our paths crossed? When Brian and Lauren Began Working Together Almost 10 Years Ago Brian Gardner: Yeah, I can’t remember what year it was, but I think it was Wes who reached out at one point, your old boss. Lauren Mancke: It was 2007. Brian Gardner: 2007, yeah, so he reached out and asked if I could do a couple of themes for I don’t know if they were your client sites or even his own site. He contracted me to do a couple of these sites and obviously connected me to you because you were the one who had done the designs for him. I was going to just do the development part. You and I back then, even though, fast forward nine years, we had no idea that we would be really working this closely together. That was the start of our relationship, just kind of on a casual, you were a client of mine type of thing — and look, here we are. Lauren Mancke: Those were some pretty basic sites. I’m glad they are not on the Internet anymore. Besides us being your client, did you have any other clients at that time? The One Client That Changed Everything Brian Gardner: Yeah, there were a couple other people who, believe or not, were regulars that they had more than one project for me to do. It was nice to kind of have a few people who would continually send me work. Moonlighting was pretty much my gig, and I was doing these sites late at night, on the weekends, and a little bit during the day at work, but I don’t ever like to admit that. That’s how those types of things happen. Maybe a year or so into that part of my life, I had this client, a Boston real estate guy, and he was pretty much the guy that changed everything. Lauren Mancke: How did he do that? Brian Gardner: This is a story I tell all the time. To this day, I do not mention his name. I prefer to keep him in anonymity. I think that, at some point, and I’m 95 percent kidding when I say this, but I still think he’s going to come back and ask for royalties because he really was the guy that changed my life, my family’s life, really a lot of the things that transpired since then. I was doing a freelance custom design for him. He wanted a real estate blog. I whipped up this design, and I was like, “I’m going to above and beyond,” and created this template that would work as a front page, so it would look more like a website than a blog. Then I sent him a link to the demo, and I said, “What do you think of this?” He wrote back, and he says, “This is great, but it’s not what I need. I need just a blog, and it’s got to be very basic.” I was crushed. I thought to myself, “This is the greatest thing I’ve ever created. It’s way better than anything else that’s out there,” but he rejected it. He said that it wasn’t that I wasn’t good enough, it was just better than what he needed. It didn’t suit what he was looking for. At that point, I was left with this design, and I wasn’t sure what to do with it. The Birth of the Premium WordPress Theme Industry Brian Gardner: Thankfully, I had built an audience, and I did what felt right. I followed my gut and just wrote up a blog post and said, “Hey, this is something I created. Would anybody buy it?” That risk, that blog post was the catalyst to what would then transpire over the next year or two of my life, which was the formulation of Revolution because people wrote back on the blog and comments and said, “Heck yeah, that’s great. I would love to buy that.” I followed up that blog post with another one. Basically saying, “How much would you pay for a premium WordPress theme?” To this day, it’s arguable that, that is actually how the premium WordPress theme industry was named. Lots of people gave feedback, ranged anywhere between $50 and $100. Even then, I had no business training, no schooling, and any of that stuff, but I knew that was an opportunity. I knew that there was probably hundreds of people who actually wrote on that and said, “I would buy that.” I knew it was an opportunity to create something in a way that could be packaged and resold. That was the Revolution WordPress theme. Lauren Mancke: I’ve definitely heard that you coined the phrase ‘premium WordPress theme.’ I think it’s pretty amazing that you were able to just start an entire industry like that. Brian Gardner: Most of these types of stories, especially startups nowadays, they usually come back to, at the core of that story, some sort of passion projects, something somebody created to solve their own problem. It’s never well, it’s not never, but most success stories come out of the accidental entrepreneur concept, which is people who don’t set out to go do something. It just happens, and then they roll with it. For me, that was totally the case. At the time, I think Shelly was either pregnant or we were trying to get pregnant. I had no interest in leaving my day job because it was stable. I had income. I had vacation, benefits, insurance, and all that stuff. Never in a million years after I started selling Revolution did I think four months later I would be quitting my secure, stable job to do this ‘Internet thing’ — but that’s how it played out. Lauren Mancke: How did Revolution then turn into StudioPress? A lot of our listeners might not know how that transitioned. I know I know because I was there, but give us a little rundown of how that transition went down. The Launch of StudioPress and the Genesis Framework Brian Gardner: The short story is, back in the day, even though WordPress itself was an open-source project, Revolution, I was selling it as a proprietary thing where and I’ll link to a couple of articles around this in the show notes. In short, I decided to take Revolution, which at the time we were selling, and make it open source. In other words, apply the GPL license to it. Part of that process was difficult because I was making a big change and risking potentially a lot of money. I called up Matt Mullenweg, the founder of WordPress, and asked if he would be willing to have a conversation with me about this. At the time, there were few other people who started selling themes. They were also doing a proprietary license deal, which was, in a sense, against the ideology of WordPress and open source. I didn’t want to be seen as a black sheep. I called Matt, and he said, “Yep.” I flew out to California and met with him. At the point, CEO of Automattic, which is the company behind WordPress, and the three of us sat alongside Jason Schuller, my friend from Press75 at the time. We sat in a room and talked about Revolution going open source. Out of that conversation, it became Revolution 2, which was sort of a, as I look back, hokey transition. It was just my way of saying, “This is Revolution done a different way.” Not too long into that, I was served a cease and desist letter from a company in the United Kingdom that claimed some sort of confusion with their Revolution software, and again, like I said, I had no business knowledge whatsoever, no legal nothing. I was just doing what I thought was right. I brought that to an intellectual property attorney, and he said, “You can probably fight this and maybe win. It would cost a lot of money, so it might just make sense to rebrand.” At that point, I thought it was suicide, brand suicide. I thought it was going to be the end of the world. I went ahead and looked up some domain names, and StudioPress was one that was available for purchase. I think it was BuyDomains.com or something like that, but I was like, “Eh, it’s got the press studio, kind of insinuates design.” Yes, I did Google StudioPress and make sure that there was no other conflict because the last thing I wanted to do was end up in the same boat. We rebranded as StudioPress, and there was a blog post announcing it, sort of alluding to the fact that it was a necessary change. One thing I learned is when you build a loyal audience, they’ll follow you no matter what. My concern that sales would tank and that the community wouldn’t understand quickly subsided once I rebranded, and StudioPress set itself off at that point. Lauren Mancke: I think at that time, right around then, is when I actually was starting to go full-time freelancing. What year was that? Brian Gardner: 2010-ish, 2009, ’10, ’11, ’12? Something around there. Lauren Mancke: I think maybe 2009. You were one of my clients. I had some steady clients. That was kind of the impetus for me to go out on my own and quit my full-time job. One of those first big jobs I had was with you, doing a few theme designs. Brian Gardner: I don’t know which of the times you are talking about because I think back then I tried to hire you three or four different times, but you were a prima donna. You were charging too much money, and I couldn’t afford you at the time. I think I at least three times you and I tried to figure out a way to work together on a full-time basis. I knew back then that you were a great designer and you still are. I knew that, as an opportunistic person who wants to take my business to the next level, you had to play a part. So yes, we went back and forth a number of times to figure out how you can get involved. It probably wasn’t until the merge with Copyblogger that we were in a position to finally make that happen. Lauren Mancke: You did ask me a few times. Brian Gardner: You know what, I kept feeling rejected — like I was asking the pretty girl to the dance, and she kept saying no for some reason or like that she had someone better. I’m like, “One of these times I’m just going to stop asking,” but here we are. Lauren Mancke: It worked out. The stars aligned, and the timing worked out. Brian Gardner: For sure. Lauren Mancke: A couple of those first projects we worked on, I remember helping with the brand of Genesis. Brian Gardner: Before the Copyblogger merge, I had this idea. I think at the time Thesis by Chris Pearson was sort of becoming the thorn in my side, competitor, impacting sales type of thing. I knew at that point I needed to do something that was a little bit different from where I was doing. StudioPress, we had a number of individual themes that we were producing. I think a couple maybe you designed or I outsourced. The problem became once we had a number of themes that shared some code base. This kind of gets into the history of Genesis itself, which was every time that we would need to update a function, I’d update every single theme. Around that time, Nathan Rice, who is currently lead developer at Rainmaker Digital, our company. He was working at iThemes with our friend Cory Miller. I think I told him at one point — I was outsourcing some kind of code work for him as well — I told him, I said, “Hey, look, if things ever don’t work out between you and iThemes, give me a call,” because I knew that there was this thing I wanted to build. I didn’t know really if it was possible or what it would be called or anything like that, but I had this idea. A few months later, he called back and said, “Hey, it looks like I’m going to no longer be working with iThemes, so here I am.” I pitched him the idea. I said, “Look, all of our themes share code base. Can we build something?” I don’t know even if I knew what a framework was or if it was called that back in the day, but I said, “Can we build something that basically shares the same code base, and then the design is just laid over the top?” I always like to use the idea of an iPhone, or even a car for that matter, where the paint job is the design, and the engine is always the same. You can change the way the car looks without having to change the engine. So I pitched him the idea. I said, “Let’s build something like that.” That was the initial conversation we had with Genesis. Once we built Genesis and introduced that idea and concept to the WordPress community, people bought into it. Obviously, we had a pretty good following through StudioPress and me personally. That sort of transitioned from standalone themes to what’s now Genesis the framework and the child theme system that comes along with it. Lauren Mancke: Then, taking that further, how was StudioPress then affected by the merger with the Copyblogger? The Biggest Business Decision Brian Ever Had to Make Brian Gardner: That’s a fun story. Chris Pearson and Brian Clark dissolved their relationship over at DIYThemes, and Brian reached out to me and said, “Hey, look. I’m looking to do something. I wanted to know if you want to partner together.” Of course I knew who Brian was from just Copyblogger and just the prominence he had in the blogging and marketing world. I knew that that was a huge opportunity to ultimately take StudioPress to the next level. There were lots of elements around StudioPress that I didn’t want to be doing — i.e., support, account management, and things like that. I knew that there was just a next step and that merging into Copyblogger would do it. Him and I and three of our other partners flew out to Denver and formed the company in practically 35, 40 minutes. We sat down and just knocked it all out and said, “This is what we want to do. This is what we want to build.” From there, we merged StudioPress into Copyblogger, formed that company, which ultimately meant that I was giving up full control of what I called my baby back in the day. A lot has happened over the last six years, much for the good, and StudioPress is still going strong. Finally got a chance to hire you. You’ve worked your way up through everything, and now you’re vice president of StudioPress. I like to call you my right-hand man, or if anything, you call me your right-hand man. You’re pretty much running the show now. Lauren Mancke: Over those six years, a lot’s happened. Have you any favorite parts on that whole journey? Brian’s Favorite Parts of the Journey and Lessons He Learned Along the Way Brian Gardner: Yeah, I think what it comes down to is, I’ve always been kind of a gathering type. I love the idea of community and building something that appeals to a lot of people and where people can come together. The company itself has become that for us, where we started out as five partners and a handful of employees. Over the last six years, we’ve grown and evolved and have built new lines of business, and that’s necessitated hiring. Tony Clark, our COO, he’s a really smart guy, and he’s like a company builder. He sets up the infrastructure of the company and the processes. He really helped form the company into something special. Even just in April, we were all out in Denver together. Probably 50 to 60 of us, a lot of people coming from overseas, from south America. It’s crazy to then come together in one room. It feels like a true family. The standing joke kind of within our company is that we’re The Goonies and that we’re misfits creating meaningful work. That’s one part of the last years that I’ve really gotten to enjoy is just working with different people, caring for other people, and so on. The community itself that we’ve built around Genesis is just as awesome. The people who are building their own businesses around Genesis and selling services and products around that has been phenomenal to watch. I’ve met a lot of good people, many of which we’ve been able to meet in person. Some I call brothers and sisters. We’re that close. That to me is, and always has been, the most important part of all of it. It’s really what helps me get up in the morning and why I want to do work and talk to people and help identify where we can promote their work. We’ve done some things lately, like add third-party themes to StudioPress in our Pro Plus package, as well as even sharing their work on our Facebook page. We recently created a newsletter called StudioPress Notes where we talk about the latest things. It’s been just really fun to watch the community, from developers to designers to everybody in between, gather around this product. They kind of serve as what I call brand ambassadors. They are making money and putting food on their table because of something that we started, that they are building upon. Those two parts of all of this is really been my favorite part of it all. Lauren Mancke: I think also having a couple people on the show, too, will be a great idea about where we can take this podcast. Plans for the Future Brian Gardner: StudioPress FM, for me, is really going to be about that same sort of thing. We’re going to extend our platform in the spirit of trying to help other people’s platforms. In other words, yes, you and I are going to talk and riff about things that are happening and things we go through, work in our workday, and identifying design trends and what we should build and all of that. The other part of it, and what I think will be fascinating for our listeners, is to bring in people from the community so we can hear their story, so we can hear what they’re up to and what they think about what we’re doing, but also just what the industry as a whole is doing. There’s all kinds of people that I’ve already got in mind that I want to have on the show. We’ll go through a series probably, a four-part series where we’ll bring in maybe some designers, and then another series would be developers and so on. Industry people that can help bring some wisdom to the show. It’s going to be a fun deal. I’m really excited that we finally did this. I think it all hinged upon the fact that we landed on a great design for the podcast album cover. I think that was something we struggled with a little bit. Lauren Mancke: That did take a few drafts. Brian Gardner: The one thing we learned is that, in some sort of fashion, you and I are a little bit oil and water when it comes to taste. Typically, we resonate a lot, but there are some things and the podcast music itself was another instance where we just had to say, “We love each other, and we’re are going to have to find a way to meet in the middle.” Lauren Mancke: We had to compromise. Brian Gardner: Yeah, and that’s what the whole show is going to be about, where you can do your thing for a while, I’ll do my thing for a while. As long we are relatively on the same page, then things should work out. With that said and on that note, I think we’ll end the show. We’re going to keep our shows typically around 30 minutes, just in the spirit of giving enough information, but not too much to where it takes away from your day. We love you guys. We appreciate your listening. Next week, we’re going to hear Lauren’s story because it differs much from mine. It’ll be fun to hear her talk more and to hear what she went through, how she got here, and all of that. That’s a wrap. Lauren Mancke: So tune in. Brian Gardner: Next week, StudioPress FM.

The Rob Report Welcome to another week of Wheelz-Up Radio. Your #1 Choice for Sportsman Drag Racing. This week on Wheelz-Up Radio presented by Sassy Race Engines we join host Chris Barnes, Tri-State Stock/SS President Mike Carr, Mid Atlantic .90 Association President Rob Keister & Bob "The Sheriff" Bender. On this week's show the gang will talk with Brian Bell who is the driver of the Bob Aldinger Chevy Cobalt in Top Sportsman competition and his own Dan Page built Dragster that he runs in Super Comp. The gang will also wrap up the National Event at Englishtown and look forward to the National at Bristol this upcoming weekend. This week guest comes from the state of Massachusetts and is a multi-time winner on the NHRA D-1 tour. So who are we talking about? None other than Brian Bell, who is well known on the Northeast in his Super Comp Dragster but, Bell is now starting to dabble into the ranks of Top Sportsman in the Bob Aldinger Chevy Cobalt. Bell, wheeled that Cobalt to a semi-final finish at the recent New England Nationals a few weeks ago. When Brian is not racing you can see him putting together some of the best looking racecars on the Eastcoast at Dan Page Race Cars. We will talk to Brian about how his season is going so far and what the rest of his plans are for 2016. Wheelz-Up Radio presented by Sassy Race Engines turns the wheels beginning at 7:30pm on Wednesday Night. To call in and chat with the hosts or our special guests please call 1-347-826-7505. Also, remember to listen in for the newest segment of WUR on Monday Night with the weekend wrap-up show presented by Silfies Automotive and Race Engines & Hudson Performance with host Kelli Barbato at 8pm.

**Summary:** In Episode #198 Ari interviews [Brian Scudamore](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Scudamore), a Canadian/American-born serial entrepreneur, best known as the Founder and CEO of international junk removal franchise [1-800-GOT-JUNK?](https://request.1800gotjunk.com/webclient/forms/wfBook10.aspx?r=na_en&c=us&gclid=Cj0KEQiA-4i0BRCaudDcrrnDi6kBEiQAZSh5fz4ixgHud20HykeOPHAm9s_EbIE1XsNkj1FP7Yqr00QaAqJI8P8HAQ) Listen as Ari and Brian discuss the three fundamental practices for a strong business. **Special Announcements:** ## [Leave Us a Review!](https://geo.itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/ari-meisel-less-doing/id605938952?mt=2&uo=6) Hey Less Doing Podcast Listeners, we want to hear from YOU! Visit us on iTunes and leave a review or subscribe to the podcast if you're not already a dedicated follower. **Time Stamped Show Notes:** - 02:47 – Daily meditation podcast episode 318. - 19:31 – Brian Scudamore joins the show. - 20:06 – 1-800-GOT-JUNK started when Brian was looking for a way to pay for college. - 21:24 – Brian's always been inspired by franchising as a model and knew early on that it would be a path he chose for his company. - 3:03 – When Brian was first starting out, what set him apart from other junk haulers was customer service; he went above and beyond. - 23:42 – He eventually had a vision that he wanted to create a FedEx of junk removal with clean trucks, friendly uniformed drivers, and upfront rates. - 24:14 – “The way you do anything is the way you do everything.” - 26:00 – 61.3% of the things 1-800-GOT-JUNK hauls away gets reused, recycled, or donated. - 26:46 – Brian describes some of the strange things 1-800-GOT-JUNK has found or hauled away. - 28:09 – The company outsources the recycling and reusing of what they haul away. They focus on what they do well already. - 28:32 – Brian talks about his two-in-the-box model of leadership. - 29:46 – Brian's role is to look for new opportunities and maintain the vision of the company's customer experience. His role is culture, his co-leader is execution. - 30:23 – The company has about 300 employees between two offices. - 31:02 – Brian attributes his company's growth through strong leadership. - 33:15 – Brian's _Top 3 Tips to be More Effective_ - 33:24 – Have a strong vision or a ‘painted picture' so you know where you're going. - 34:38 – Make sure you have good people in the right positions working for you—compensate for your weaknesses by hiring people with the right strengths. - 35:02 – Have documented processes in your business on how to do certain things such _as how to price jobs_ or _how to answer phone calls_ in the call center. - 36:08 – Brian discusses an example of how a system has been implemented in his moving business. - 37:27 – Brian's employees are trained through a combination of methods. - 38:35 – [O2Ebrands.com](http://www.o2ebrands.com/) 4 **Key Points:** 1. If you don't have a highly unique product, use unbeatable customer service to help you establish leverage over your competition. 2. Seek out new opportunities that are already in-line with your existing business vision. 3. Ensure you have the right people working for you – compensate for weaknesses by hiring people with strengths in areas that aren't your forte. 4. It's important to know your destination and how to get there. Have a strong vision for your goals. **Resources Mentioned:** - [1-800-GOT-JUNK](https://request.1800gotjunk.com/webclient/forms/wfBook10.aspx?r=na_en&c=us&gclid=Cj0KEQiA-4i0BRCaudDcrrnDi6kBEiQAZSh5fz4ixgHud20HykeOPHAm9s_EbIE1XsNkj1FP7Yqr00QaAqJI8P8HAQ) – Brian Scudamore's junk removal company. - Call 1-844-i-do-less – Toll-Free number, Press “0” to speak with a Less Doing Certified Coach - Text DOLESS – Text DOLESS to 33733 **Credits:** - Audio Engineering provided by [Chris Mottram](https://www.linkedin.com/pub/christopher-mottram/96/b12/708) - Original Music provided by [Felix Bird](http://2014.felixbird.com/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/lessdoing/message

Brian Tuck is a yoga and meditation teacher in Montreal. When Brian was first diagnosed with Goodpasture’s Syndrome, he was told that he'd lead a normal, healthy life, but most likely would never be able to run. He is now training for his second triathlon!

The genre-bending, multi-instrumentalist songwriting duo Frances Luke Accord (Brian Powers and Nicholas Gunty)   are changing the dynamic of Chicago's folk scene one DIY venture at a time. From their debut project, the non-profit benefit record Kandote, to their house-concert/video series Fluke Takes, FLA have grounded themselves beyond any ordinary indie-folk band. Brian Powers and Nicholas Gunty came to Chicago in 2013 from another burgeoning midwest music hub, South Bend, Indiana. They currently operate the production wing of the band from their northwest-side Chicago apartment, where they've recorded and produced all their present material, as well as a growing collection of work by fellow Chicago DIYers.When Brian and Nicholas came in to record this show I became a Fan immediately. Their lyrics and harmonies are soaring and beautiful. It is impossible not to compare them to Simon and Garfunkel. They have honed their voices into this beautiful music machine. I was a 10 on the goosebump scale the entire show. We brought them in to the CAU Singing For Your Supper showcase at the Act One Pub as headliners and they absolutely killed it. Check all the videos from their Podcast

This week we are very lucky to have a interview with the very inspirational Brian Freeman.Brian is a disabled vet with a T4 spinal cord injury with Brown-Sequard syndrome. He is from Rockingham, North Carolina. Brian enjoys training Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, his 8 year old daughter convenced him to get on the mat. He started by taking private lessons first then transitiond into the regular BJJ class.Brian shares with us how BJJ has changed his life. BJJ has caused Brian to be more active then he was and also helped him with his lack of appatite. Jiu-jitsu has also given him more confidence.we also talk about Brian's:-First UFC experence-Favorite techniques-Unique challanges-Goals-Rwards that BJJ givesWe thought it would be ineresting to talk to Brian's coach BJJ Black Belt Roy Marsh (Team R.O.C.). Roy is co-owner of the Martial Arts Academy of Southern pines and he is the head instrctor of the BJJ program. Roy was kind enough to talk to us about training with Brian. Roy is a firm beliver that BJJ is for everyone. When Brian showed interest in learing BJJ Roy was happy to help. Quote of the week "Pratice does not make perfect, prartice makes myelin, and myelin makes perfect" Daniel Coyle. This quote make not make since at first but we break it down. As you pratice it actually makes small changes in your brain that makes things easier for you to perform. Article of the week: Freakoutandshutdown.blogspot.com "Getting Tough" LinksDaniel Coyle's websiteTeamrock.netSandhillsjiujitsu.comBrian on twitter @wheelchairjitsu

Lukas Ruebbelke and Brian Ford, both speaking at Philly Emerging Tech this April, are co-authors of the forthcoming Manning book, AngularJS in Action. They are currently preparing for their first Manning Early Access release, or MEAP. When Brian was working at Google as an intern, he was exposed to the Angular framework and learned quite ... Read More The post TechCast #76 – AngularJS with authors Lukas Ruebbelke and Brian Ford appeared first on Chariot Solutions.

Join Freda as she hosts her talk show dedicated to introducing listeners to hot new talent seeking to enter the entertainment business or newly signed artists who would like to showcase and promote their work. Each week Freda will feature new guests, showcase their work, keep you informed and entertained by dishing you the latest "Honey" and take calls from listeners. Gather your friends, family, co-workers and tell them to check out Freda's New Talent New Talk Radio... the Hottest New Talk Show hitting the internet air waves! This week's guests will be... Brian Keith! Brian Keith is a Multi-Instrumentalist, Artist, Song Writer and Producer out of Cincinnati, OH by way of Memphis, TN. He started singing, playing piano and organ in the church at the tender age of 7 years old. When Brian was 15 his family moved to Ohio where his talents were noticed by Bo Watson, the legendary lead singer for the R&B group Midnight Starr.

Join Freda as she hosts her talk show dedicated to introducing listeners to hot new talent seeking to enter the entertainment business or newly signed artists who would like to showcase and promote their work. Each week Freda will feature new guests, showcase their work, keep you informed and entertained by dishing you the latest "Honey" and take calls from listeners. Gather your friends, family, co-workers and tell them to check out Freda's New Talent New Talk Radio... the Hottest New Talk Show hitting the internet air waves! This week's guests will be... Brian Keith! Brian Keith is a Multi-Instrumentalist, Artist, Song Writer and Producer out of Cincinnati, OH by way of Memphis, TN. He started singing, playing piano and organ in the church at the tender age of 7 years old. When Brian was 15 his family moved to Ohio where his talents were noticed by Bo Watson, the legendary lead singer for the R&B group Midnight Starr.