The BOP with Rob Greene (Business of Photography)
The BOP is a podcast for photographers who believe deep down in their soul that your business is made for MORE. Each episode, photographer and educator Rob Greene sits down for candid conversations with business owners inside and outside the photography industry, with 3 main objectives:(1) To ANCHOR you in WHY you do what you do.(2) To INSPIRE you with a vision for what COULD BE in your business.(3) To ACTIVATE you INSIDE your business with tangible action steps you can implement TODAY.Known for his unwavering sense of hope and contagious positivity, Rob leverages the power of WE over ME with each episode, all with the goal of helping photographers build your business, wow, your clients, and make photo magic!
The BOP with Rob Greene (Business of Photography)
Mindset Shifts, Dream Islands & Butt-Puckering Goals | Brad Bizjack
Are you ready to dream so big it makes your butt pucker? Unlock the secrets to building a thriving, people-focused photography business in our Season 2 finale of The Bop podcast. This episode is packed with inspiration and actionable insights, starting with the announcement of my brand-new Instagram account – @robgreene.tv – where I'm giving a way a free coaching session for every 100 followers til we hit 1000!
Prepare to be inspired as we introduce Brad Bizjack, a transformational Success Coach who has mastered the art of breaking down mental barriers and guiding people toward their true potential. Initially skeptical about mindset coaching? So was I—until Brad's profound insights shattered my doubts. Learn how Brad's journey from being $90,000 in debt to now living the life of his dreams and empowering business owners can offer invaluable lessons for photographers eager to grow not just their businesses, but also your personal and professional mindsets.
We'll dig deep into the transformative power of belief systems, sharing personal stories of overcoming limiting beliefs. Discover how a compelling vision can reshape your reality, and why setting ambitious, moonshot goals can propel you toward unprecedented success. You'll gain the tools to challenge your limiting beliefs and embrace a journey of abundance and fulfillment. Don't miss this rich exploration into mindset mastery and its pivotal role in achieving lasting success in your photography business.
Also, get ready to laugh as we bust out a new segment, "8 for 8" where I give Brad 45 seconds to provide 8 one-word answers to 8 questions ranging from Movie Quotes to Donald Trump's hair!
ROB'S QUICK LINKS
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/robgreene.tv
17 Ways to Generate Revenue: https://www.square8studio.com/17ways
BRAD'S QUICK LINKS:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bradbizjack
Website: bradbizjack.com
Discover Your Archetype: https://quiz.bradbizjack.com
You're listening to the Bop the business of photography podcast with Rob Green, a photographer to contagiously positive clients and fierce believer in building people-focused businesses that leave a lasting impact. If you're an entrepreneur with dreams in your head, ideas in your heart and passions burning deep down in your soul, this is the perfect place to be, because this is where dreams come to thrive. So are you ready to build your business, wow your clients and make photo magic? Here's your host, rob Green.
Speaker 2:Ah, coming at you from DFW Texas, you are listening to the Bop. So great to be back with you for this season two finale, friends. Today's episode was actually recorded back in February and there's a reason you're just now hearing it in June. I'll tell you about that in just a moment, but let me just tell you guys, out of all the interviews we've done, this one and you know we have had some incredible guests that have had people scrambling for their pen and pad this one is going to give you more pages full of notes than you're going to know what to do with. There is so much wisdom here. You will laugh, you will cry, you will have so many aha moments and so many things you want to dive into with your business when you're done with this interview. But first a couple of updates for you.
Speaker 2:Since we last hung out, I've launched an Instagram account just for photographers like you. It's at robgreentv. Those of you who have been following me for a while you know I photograph about 10 to 15% of the senior girls at TCU each year, which means most of my Instagram followers are college students expecting college content, and it always just left me feeling like I was skimping on education and behind the scenes resources for you as photographers on the gram. So that all changed last week with the launch of atrobgreentv and we've already had some really cool stuff. We did a behind the scenes from a killer flash session. We used four flashes, even busted out some color gels and we did it all on TCU's campus. This was an on-location shoot with four flashes and then we did, we showed behind the scenes, we showed the end product, did Q&A with photographers all in there. You can find it all in my story highlights really the end product. Did Q&A with photographers all in there. You can find it all in my story highlights really incredible stuff. So check that out.
Speaker 2:Number two to celebrate the launch of atrobgreentv, we're giving away a free one hour coaching session with me, which I normally charge $400 for these one hour coaching sessions. You can get one for free because we're giving one away every hundred followers till we get to a thousand. So be sure to give me a follow and maybe you'll be the next person to win that one hour coaching session where we can deep dive your business. We can help you work through any pain points you've been struggling with. Whatever you need for your business, we will use that hour to help make it come alive. And then, finally, this past week I got to do something I've been dreaming about for years, y'all I hosted my first mastermind retreat. Since last August, I've been meeting with a group of college and sorority photographers from all over the country and we had a retreat at my house this past week. They all came in from Florida, from Georgia, from Alabama, from Texas, from Ohio all over the place to meet and really just get down into the nitty gritty and inspire one another, dig deep on our numbers and our dreams and our goals and walk away with a clearer picture of what we want for our businesses in the year ahead. It was absolutely phenomenal. I will be sharing some highlights from that in the days and weeks ahead on at robgreentv, so be sure to check that out as well.
Speaker 2:Each episode we like to start out with what I call a bop bite. Bop bites are just these little, bite-sized nuggets of goodness that, even if you've only got a few minutes in your car on your way to work or school or dropping off the kids at summer camp, whatever you may be doing, you can grab something, some little nugget to take away that will help you in your business this week and today's Bop Bite is this you can make progress or you can make excuses. You cannot do both at the same time. I'll say that again you can make progress or you can make excuses, but you cannot do both at the same time. Think about this in your business for a minute. Anytime you are, things aren't working the way you want them to go.
Speaker 2:The easy thing, the default position for a lot of us to take, is to make excuses, to look for reasons why the things that we want to see in our business aren't happening the way we want them to happen. And as long as my problems are external to me, there's nothing I can do to fix the problem. There's nothing I can do to create change in my business. But take a moment and think about the last time you were really seeing progress in your business. Were you focused on those excuses? Or were you so focused on the dream, the vision, the goal out in front of you that it was getting you excited, getting you fired up, getting you laser focused on what needed to be done?
Speaker 2:Next, when I choose to make progress instead of excuses, what happens is I take ownership of my results, I take ownership of the future that's out in front of me and say I am not going to blame external circumstances for why I'm not where I am or why I'm not where I want to be, circumstances for why I'm not where I am or why I'm not where I want to be. I'm going to look internally and say what can I change to move the ball forward in my business, to take the ground? I want to take what's within my control and I'm going to focus on that and I'm going to focus on taking the ground that will help me move the ball forward. I'm not going to wait around for external circumstances to change. I'm going to focus on internal change and drive progress from that. Now I told you this interview was scheduled to come out in February and this was the bot bite that was always planned to go with it. Incredible interview, incredible concept to think about not focusing on external circumstances but focusing on progressing in my business. And what can I do and change within me.
Speaker 2:But then life happened, started to hit a pretty vicious cycle of mental confusion that led to trying to get out of the bed at the rehab center. That led to falls and trips to the ER and more surgeries. That led to more confusion and all of a sudden, it was an all hands on deck moment for our family to be there, for dad to be there for mom. And sadly, this story doesn't have a crazy happy ending where dad recovered and everything's good now. We lost my father on March 28th of this year, went in for a routine surgery Two months later, no longer with us, and that's when I realized as I'm walking through this and just trying to get my head above water in this moment and trying to be there for my mom, be there for my sister, process my own emotions as a son and a brother you can make progress or you can make excuses, but you can't do both at the same time.
Speaker 2:All that's true, but sometimes it's okay to choose the excuses. Sometimes it's okay to say, hey, you know what this moment calls for something different from me. I need to choose to not make progress in my business right now for the sake of being here for my family, being here with my family being present in this moment. And for you that might be like me Maybe you had a loss in the family. For you, it might be an exciting new arrival to the family or just an all hands on deck moment where it's okay to have an excuse to say, hey, you know what, my business isn't going forward right now, but there's some serious life stuff happening that I need. That needs my focus, that needs my attention, that needs my affection. Right now, I need to really center my heart and my mind on what's happening over in this area of life. So I'm going to choose to not make progress.
Speaker 2:So I just want to say, if that's you, if you're walking through something heavy, it's okay if your business is not taking all the ground you want to take right now, because you're going through something of just incredible magnitude in your life. But I also want to say, for those of you who are looking to excuses, like there's so many photographers in my area, my market's so saturated. My friend just created a website that looks an awful lot like mine. You know, there's people that are charging less than me and I can't compete. I'm afraid if I raise my prices, nobody will book me.
Speaker 2:If all these things are coming up in your mind as reasons why you can't move the ball forward in your business, dive deep, try setting them aside this week and go. What can I change within me to make progress. For me, as I begin moving forward, from this season that my family and I have been in, and knowing that there's gonna be a million little moments of grieving in the weeks and months and years ahead, but knowing that my dad loved to support my dreams. My dad loved to do whatever he could for my mom, my sister and I to see our dreams come to life. And so one of the things that's helping me in my life to begin to focus on the road ahead and begin to shift back from excuses to progress is to go. Man, what an incredible way to honor my dad, to honor his legacy, to honor all the ways he sacrificed for me, for our family, to see us live out our dreams, the ground that I take and the progress I make, and the way that, even in the midst of immense heartache and missing my dad, especially Father's Day this past weekend so much going on but I get the chance to honor my dad through the way that I continue to pursue this dream and continue to help others and serve others, the way my dad modeled for us growing up always serving, always sacrificing, always giving his life for the betterment of others. Now I get to live on that legacy through things like this podcast, through getting to serve you guys with fresh content and inspiration and education for your businesses.
Speaker 2:So I don't know who needed to hear this today, but if you're like me and coming through a season where you're just in it, I just want to say you can make progress or you can make excuses, but you can't do both at the same time. Sometimes it's okay to choose the excuses, but if you're in a season where you want to see progress, you're ready for it, you're hungry for it. Don't let those excuses grab your attention. Don't let them hold you back. Don't let them allow you and convince you to settle for less than what you were made for, because you have ground to take friend. You have progress to make in your business, you have an incredible future ahead of you, and all that noise, all those excuses they're just trying to hold you back from becoming the photographer, the business owner, the person you were created to be, and I'm so thrilled to tell you that when we come back, you're gonna to get to hear from one of the best people I can think of to talk to you about how to change that mindset that you're stuck in, how to break through those limiting beliefs that are holding you back and take ground, make progress and see the dreams you've been dreaming come alive. So when we return from this quick break, my friend Brad Bizjack is going to join the show and set your world on fire.
Speaker 2:You know what no photographer ever asks how can I make less money? As small business owners, we're always looking to make just a little bit more, and most of us just need someone to show us how. What if I told you college and sorority photography could give you not one, not two, but 17 different ways to make more money in the months ahead. To download my free guide, visit square8studiocom. Slash 17 ways today. Welcome back. Can I be real with y'all for a minute?
Speaker 2:I used to hate the word mindset. In fact, I would cringe when I heard people talking about things like limiting beliefs. We're talking total ick factor for me. Then I met today's guest and everything changed. You know I'm a big believer that it's always a good idea to decide who you're going to be before you decide what you're going to do, which is why I love introducing our guests not by what they've accomplished, but by who they are as people.
Speaker 2:Today's guest has an incredible ability to see people, to see through the outer defense lines that we put up around our minds and around our hearts. He has this unique gift for helping others get to the core of what's really going on and then gently guide you towards freedom and breakthrough. He's an incredible listener, a genuine encourager and someone who's never afraid to boldly speak life and potential into others, or even call you out on your crap when needed, or just give you an unexpected belly laugh out of absolutely nowhere. He's the kind of guy that 10 different people with 10 different backgrounds could all walk into a room and spend a weekend with, and each one would walk away feeling like they were his new best friend. How do I know? Because I witnessed it firsthand this past fall. So please join me in welcoming my friend, brad Bizjack, to the bop. Brad, how are you friend?
Speaker 3:Dude, I'm doing fantastic and now I'm blushing. So excited to be here, man, thank you so much for having me on the podcast.
Speaker 2:Yes, great to have you, and I love this because you're not a photographer. In fact, you're going to be a new name and a new face for a lot of our listeners, which I'm just thrilled about that, because they have no idea what's coming and no idea how much value you're about to add to their lives over this conversation. So, just to kick things off, give us a quick rundown on how you help business owners grow and how you even got into this line of work.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely, man. I'm so grateful for the opportunity and, like you mentioned, I don't know very much about photography at all. I learned on our retreat together the rule of thirds, so that's about the extent of photography that I know. Anyways, to put the story into just a tight little couple minutes here, I started my adult life with a lot of fears, a lot of doubts, I think, like everyone right, limiting beliefs, the words you love the most and I had a lot of fears around money. Money's hard to make. Once you have it, it disappears. If you don't have a lot of it, you can't be happy. I'll never be enough All that stuff that everyone goes through from time to time. And I started my adult life $92,000 in debt, and I remember at that stage I just wanted financial freedom, and so I got a job out of college trying to make a lot of money and I was miserable. I wanted to pay off debt and to be financially free, but if I'm being really honest, what I wanted at that stage of my life was to be the breaking point of mediocrity in my family history. I wanted something to sprint towards instead of like I was moving away from something, and I found online business. That was my thing, and for the listeners here it might be photography, right, but for me it was online business. And so I started and I was so excited about the possibilities, what could be the dreams, the you know, obviously the money, but, more importantly, the fulfillment. I wanted to be excited about what I did and there was just one problem Everything I tried didn't work. I would literally do everything. My mentors told me I worked hard, I did the right scripting, the marketing, all this stuff, and it didn't work for me, but it seemed to work for everyone else and I would see their success to mean it was my failure and I would start to get in my head Am I not destined to succeed? Is it on the cards for me? Is success really possible for me? And I'd find myself on the couch at 2 pm binge eating microwave nachos, feeling sorry for myself, watching Friends reruns and getting depressed. And I would see my laptop staring at me begging me to change my life. And even though I didn't care, I cared so much. And I remember talking to one of my mentors, jesse, at the time, and she said dude, you need a mindset coach, because what you're doing right now is not going to lead to success. I'm like Jesse I'm $92,000 in debt. There's no way I can afford a mindset coach. What the heck is a mindset coach? Why would I need a mindset? I need, I need to know the how. I need to know how to do this. And she's like dude if nothing changes, nothing changes. So I remember putting it on a credit card, hiring a coach, and on her very first call she said something that changed my life forever. She, I was telling her all the same things you just mentioned here. I'm doing the reading the books, listening to the podcast, taking the training. It's not working for me, it's working for everyone else, all that stuff. What's going on? You know? And her name was Audra. Her name still is Audra. And Audra said to me she goes Brad, you're so attached to success that you're missing the whole point.
Speaker 3:You're under the impression that you shouldn't be where you are right now. She said, brad, business, success and money is never going to make you happy. It's rewiring your mind for happiness that will lead you to success. You need to learn to find beauty in where you are right now and rewire that thinking, change those limiting beliefs. And I was resenting all of that stuff. I was resenting my bank balance, my business, all that stuff, and so I figured I get fully immersed in this environment and so I bought a ticket to a mindset conference, thinking you know what I'm doing is not working. So I'm all in and I got the plane ticket, the hotel conference ticket, and right after I got those tickets I got fired from my job. Now I'm $98,000 in debt because I put it on a credit card and and I have no income, no savings, and I remember in the right direction.
Speaker 2:This is really trending in the right direction.
Speaker 3:It's going in the right direction. And I remember I still have the ticket. So I remember landing in San Diego and I go to the grocery store to buy peanut butter and jelly because I couldn't afford eating out at the time and I go back to my hotel room check my bank balance like I did a hundred times a day at that point and I overdrafted my bank account on peanut butter and jelly and it was like digging that knife in a little bit deeper and I walk into that conference tail between my legs, and the topic that day was all about rewiring your mind for success. It was about shifting your belief systems and it changed everything for me.
Speaker 3:I went through a transformational experience of learning how to change what's going on up here so that my actions start changing, and that led to a beautiful career. We've helped 60,000 people all over the world, multiple millions of dollars per year in revenue for our business, retiring my wife and now I have a little girl and I'm never going to miss swim class, I'm never going to miss a dance recital, and I'm not sharing that to impress anybody, but to impress upon everybody here that rewiring your mind and shifting your mindset, it changes everything, because 80% of success is psychology and 20% is the mechanics, and that's now what I'm obsessed with. That's what I teach people every single day. It's what I've been doing for the last 10 years. So that's just a little bit of a backstory, sir, on how I got into this, this world.
Speaker 2:Wow. All while now enjoying all this time with your wife, denise, and your kiddos having a good old time. That's incredible. Now you dropped this phrase that you know I don't like several times in there this idea of limiting beliefs.
Speaker 2:You know I was not a big fan of mindset conversations before we met. It all just kind of felt a little frou-frou to me. But hearing you explain it over the course of our weekend together really opened my eyes not only to the value of these topics but really just how much they were already at play in my own life and business in ways I didn't even realize. So for the people that this is maybe a new idea to or maybe they're like me and they've heard it, but it all sounded a little frou-frou. What are we really talking about when it comes to these ideas of mindset and limiting beliefs, and why do these things matter?
Speaker 3:Sure, that's a great question. We're talking about the invisible forces that drive every single part of your life. Every single person's life is driven by invisible forces, right? If you think about gravity too much of it, you're crushed. Too little of it, you float away. If you think about love wars have been started because of love. You can't see love. It's an invisible force, right? Pain, pleasure, those are invisible forces.
Speaker 3:Beliefs an invisible force that drives your entire life. And what is a belief? A belief is nothing more than a feeling of certainty. That's all it is. But if you feel absolutely certain that money is hard to make, for example, or that you'll never get your business off the ground, no matter what strategy you have, you can have the world's best how to, but you won't apply it because you don't think that it's going to be possible for you. So, if you really think about these thoughts that play in our mind, everyone has crazy thoughts. I call it my inner roommate, I call him Mr Dickies, right, he's this guy that lives in there. He's nuts and he lives in my head.
Speaker 2:And he just says all this stuff that explains some of the conversations we had when we were hanging out.
Speaker 3:Yes, it does, but he just lives in my head and he says all this stuff. But if a thought continues over and over and over again, it becomes habitual. And if it becomes habitual it becomes a conviction. And if it becomes habitual it becomes a conviction. That's where a belief forms. And so if we think about why this is so important, like that might make sense from a conceptual perspective, that a belief is a feeling of certainty. And one example, by the way, is the sky blue. Most people would say, yeah, sky's blue, but what about when it's raining? What about during a sunset? What about during a sunrise? What about at night? What about the scientific answer that it's not any color? Right, like, there's all. It was a feeling of certainty that the sky is blue, but I introduced doubt to that feeling of certainty. And so, if you think about just speaking in generalities, the potential of human beings is virtually unlimited. You've seen people create incredible things. So the potential of human beings is virtually unlimited. And when we're not tapping into that potential, what we're told oftentimes is just take more action. Sure, do more of what's not. Is that the level of potential we tap into directly impacts the action that we take, the aligned, inspired action that we take. If I'm tapping into a two out of 10 potential, that's going to impact my action to be a one or a two out of 10. And if my action is not inspired and it's not aligned into one or two out of 10, what does that do to the results that I get? I get really poor results. So what's the foundation of all of this? What impacts the potential we tap into? Our belief systems, otherwise known as your BS, right, your belief systems. I see what you did there. Your belief systems directly impact the level of potential you tap into. The level of potential you tap into directly impacts the action you take or don't take. The action you take or don't take directly impacts the results that you get or don't get, and the results you get or don't get directly reinforces the belief you already had A couple examples.
Speaker 3:Let's say I have a belief that says business is so hard and money is hard to make, just as an example. Well, I'm not tapping into a high level of potential. I'm reinforcing my existing belief systems. I'm looking at why it's harder for me and the action I'm taking is likely just what I've always known. I'm not trying new, creative ideas. I'm not putting myself out there differently, and so my results are really poor. My bank account doesn't grow, my business doesn't change. And if my bank account doesn't grow, my business doesn't change. It reinforces the belief that money is hard to make and business is hard. But if I believe that my success is inevitable and success is my birthright, right or something like that, that's a 10 out of 10 potential, 10 out of 10 action way different results and it reinforces your belief that success is inevitable, right, and so this controls everything, and this is why the rich get richer and why the poor get poorer. It's your belief systems.
Speaker 3:And so what most people try to do when they're changing their life is they look for the how, and there's nothing wrong with the how, right? The how is a beautiful thing. You can't head east looking for a sunset. You're going to be very disappointed, right? You need to know the how. If you're baking a cake and you put the eggs in after the cake's done baking, it's not going to be a very good cake, right? But if you start with the how, all that happens is perfectionism. You lean into these feelings of well, I don't know how will this ever happen? You get overwhelmed very quickly. Your action is slow. You don't dive into the deep end of learning and you study, study, study, study, study all day long and rationalize that your consumption is actually leading to results. It's like reading a book about swimming. Right? You're not going to learn how to swim until you actually get in the pool. So what influences the strategy? The how? It's the belief systems. Because if your belief systems are empowering, you will either find or apply the strategy, and you'll actually do it, but if your belief systems are disempowering, you're not going to apply it. You could have the best strategy in the entire world and you won't take action on it.
Speaker 3:One last example with this Think about exercise and losing weight. In general, it's not complex. It's eat a vegetable, get some sleep, drink some water and move your body. There you go. That's not complex. It's eat a vegetable, get some sleep, drink some water, move your body. There you go. That's losing weight. Right, it's there. Yes, there are some outliers and challenges and things like that, of course, but in general, it's not very complex. So, and you have to look harder to not know how to do it than to know how to do it. There's a personal trainer on every street corner. There's 18 million ads in your Instagram feed. It's everywhere, right. There's the keto, there's the paleo, there's the portion control, there's everything.
Speaker 3:So if the strategy is all over the interwebs, why don't people apply it? I'm big boned. I don't follow through. It's not possible for me. I too busy, I have kids. All these things directly influence your ability to apply the strategy, so it impacts everything. It's the subconscious force going on behind the scenes that no one sees. And the crappy thing about limiting beliefs is that you believe them. And number two is you can't see them. So you need to be in a situation to call them out or to see where they come from, so you can can start to ask yourself is that serving me? Because your stories of your life it doesn't matter if they're true, it matters if your stories serve you. So does that make sense?
Speaker 2:That's good. Yeah, absolutely that's great, and I'm sure we'll be revisiting those concepts throughout this conversation. But just to give, because I'm sitting here, I'm thinking about something like man. The only problem with everything he's sharing right now is that we have a lot of people that listen on the way to work and they're going to have to say I got to pull off on the side of the road or come back and listen to this whole thing again because I got to start writing down notes on the stuff this guy is dropping in here. But I want and put it on me for a sec. I know when you and I first met, just a few moments into our conversations you barely know me. I've just finished pouring out my heart about all these plans and dreams that I have for my business in the years ahead. You challenged me with something that was so hard to hear and yet, at the same time, like really inspired me. You had this illustration about entrepreneurs, dreams and bridges, and so can you just unpack that illustration for listeners?
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely. You know, it's what's interesting about creative minds, especially in photography. The photographers that I've had the privilege of working with are the most creative people I have ever met, and it's a beautiful gift that I would never want to tone down, and it's an amazing skill. And business is also a skill that's a little bit different. Right, it's similar but different, and so if we bring a creative mind to business, then what typically ends up happening is an accidental lack of discipline on the things that will yield results, because the creator wants to create, right, I'm a creative, I love creating, it's so much fun.
Speaker 3:But along the way, I realized that if I just keep creating a bunch of different things, that I'm never actually going to finalize anything. And so I want you to just imagine for a second that you are on you Island, right, and you have. You know your life right now and you're here and it's it's a good life. There's nothing wrong with this life. It's great life, cool, awesome. But every single person here knows they're meant for so much more than what they're getting. They know they're meant to break through to the next level, and that's why there's another island, and that island is called Dream Island, and that's the one with the money and the houses and the palm trees and the whatever right and all the cool stuff, everything you'd want on Dream Island the time right.
Speaker 3:And so what we do as creatives is we're like, okay, I'm going to build a bridge from me island to dream island and I get really excited about building that bridge, so I'm going to go after it. I'm so creative, I've got all these cool ideas going after it and I start building this bridge and about halfway through building this bridge, I'm halfway over the water. I'm almost there. I can see the dream island. My creative brain goes wait a minute, I'm going to. There's this other really cool idea I have. I'm going to do that too. And so we go back to me Island and start building the second bridge. Like I can do both. Right, I'm going to build this second bridge, and this might be an online course and a coaching program, you know, and those are the two things I'm making this up. It can be anything, right.
Speaker 2:And wedding photography, family photography photography, high school, senior photography so many different things.
Speaker 3:Exactly. And so you start building this second bridge and you get halfway over the water. You're like, okay, I'm, I'm seeing some traction, but I'm not really getting where I want to go. John over here is doing this other methodology. I'm going to try that.
Speaker 3:So we go back to U Island and we start building a third bridge and next thing, you know, you look up and your creative brain has six half-built bridges, none of which are connecting to Dream Island. And then we get into what's called context switching, where we're switching from bridge one to bridge three, to bridge two, to bridge four, and we go back and forth, and back and forth, and back and forth, and context switching eliminates up to 80% of your productive output, and so we're switching tasks all the time, and it's ruining our dreams because we're not getting anywhere on any of these things, because we're not doubling down. And so what I share with you and you were one thing that was so cool about you, rob, is that you were you were so open to this feedback, even though it pissed you off. You were so open to it and coachable with it. And so the suggestion was there's nothing wrong with these other bridges they're beautiful bridges to build but you've been going after it from a creative's perspective. But if you want a business, you need to bring an entrepreneur perspective, which is systemize and streamline and prove one bridge Nail that bridge down, systemize it, automate it whatever it is. Get that bridge going and then build the second bridge. Get that bridge going, systemize, automate whatever it is. Get that bridge going and then build the second bridge. Get that bridge going, systemize, automate whatever it is and then build the third bridge. And this takes discipline and the creative brain doesn't like it initially. But here's what's so cool Instead of getting creative about projects and courses and different photography and going, you know how to just build your craft.
Speaker 3:You can get creative in how to build the business. You can try new things within that and use your creativity there. It's just an additional skill and so it's just an evolution of character from yes, I'm creative. So a metaphor for me would be I'm a coach. I love coaching people, but if I bring a coach hat to building a marketing plan, that's not going to work because I'm going to consistently try to give away everything before I ever make any money and then I'm not going to be able to sustain the message and so I need to put on my entrepreneur hat and use that hat to build my bridges and then, within that bridge, use my coach hat or, in this case, for your listeners. Use your photographer hat in the one bridge. Use your entrepreneur hat to build the bridge. Does that make sense?
Speaker 2:Yeah, love that man. Well, and for those listening that are going, I don't even know how I would start with that. I would just encourage you. It can be a process.
Speaker 2:Brad, you feel free to tell me I'm wrong because I'm still learning this for myself, but I know for me I was like there was so much to let go of that I said I got to let go of one thing first before I can let go of everything. I've got to wean off of some of this stuff. The first thing I chose to let go of was I said for the next year I'm not going to book any weddings, which was a major income source from my photography and was a real challenge for me to release. Because right now we're in the middle of engagement season. You know, christmas through Valentine's day, it's like the heart of wedding bookings and I'm just going. That's a lot of revenue coming out the door, flying out the door, that I'm not going to make this year.
Speaker 2:But for the things that I, ultimately that first bridge that I want to build, I know this is one of the key pieces that's got to come off. So I've worked on that one. Now I'm working on some more. So, as my trainer says at the gym. He says a little bit of something is better than a lot of nothing. So if you're going, I can't do it all at once. Start somewhere, take something off the plate and go from there.
Speaker 3:Can I add to that Rob real quick. Is that cool? So?
Speaker 3:there's this concept that will be very valuable for everyone listening that my mentor taught me, and it's the concept of park without guilt, right.
Speaker 3:And so, essentially, it's it's not saying I can't do these things. It's saying and this season of my life, right now, this doesn't serve the vision of where I'm going, so I'm going to put it in my cool idea notebook, right? And so in our business we had a bunch of different projects going on and we did a very similar thing we cut a major revenue stream so we could double down on solidifying a particular bridge. And so if you have 18 million ideas, just ask what is the most relevant, the most important right now to get you to Dream Island or a taste of Dream Island. Systemize that and then park the other ideas without guilt. It doesn't mean no, it just means not right now, and it kind of takes the pressure off of oh my gosh, I should be doing this and you might find later on that you want to take that project back on. You might find later on, I don't need to, I don't want to, and both are okay. So, anyways, just wanted to add that a little bit.
Speaker 2:No, I love that Well, past few months it's really caused me to reassess how I want to approach it, if I do pick it back up in the future. So that's a good word park without guilt. Now I want to pause here because one of the things I learned from watching you engage with everyone is just the power of the changing of pace and breaking up the tone of the combo. So I'm trying out something brand new today on this episode. It's a little segment. We're calling 8 for 8. I'm going to ask you eight rapid-fire questions and I want you to give me the first one word or one phrase answer that comes to mind. Eight words for eight questions, 8 for 8. Got it, let's do it, let's party.
Speaker 2:All right, here we go 45 seconds on the clock. Number one sushi is Sometimes good.
Speaker 3:The movie you quote the most Brooklyn 99 TV show, not a movie, brilliant, cool, cool cool, cool, cool cool.
Speaker 2:No doubt, no doubt. Which are you more jealous of? Donald Trump's hair or Donald Trump's tan? Ooh.
Speaker 3:I would say the hair.
Speaker 2:Awesome Me too, because I have none. One word to describe Usher's halftime performance at the Super Bowl.
Speaker 3:Legacy.
Speaker 2:I was going to say roller skates, your celebrity, but I like legacies a lot better. Your celebrity doppelganger is Bradley Cooper 100%. How many chickens would it take to kill an elephant? 497. What's your favorite gift your wife has ever given you?
Speaker 3:My daughter.
Speaker 2:And lastly, if your belly button was an actual button, what would happen if someone pressed it? I'd poop, amazing. There you go, folks.
Speaker 2:Our first 8 for 8 with Brad Bizjack. Let us know what you think of this new little segment if we need to bring it back next time. Appreciate that. One of the things we often just say here on the Bop is that it's always a good idea to decide who you're going to be before you decide what you're going to do. Now I know you like to take that concept one step further in a way that really blew my mind the first time I heard it. What is this sort of be have do principle that you talk about, and why does it matter to photographers and small business owners and, honestly, just people in general?
Speaker 3:That's a great question and, you know, let's use the photography space, for example, like one of the things that I see in a lot of the photographers that I I like how we went from like super laughter to like super serious, real quick.
Speaker 2:That's kind of you. Let's just roll with it, we'll just jump.
Speaker 3:I love it. Oh, that's amazing. So when I work with photographers, I noticed that there's a common trend, and it's I want to raise my rates, I want to work with dream clients, I want to do less sessions, make more money and have my weekends back Right. And there's more, but that's just kind of in general, the things that I that I noticed. And when people are trying to do that, they're trying to do it through the psychology that created their existing reality.
Speaker 3:And, just like you know, I think it was Einstein that said you can't solve a problem from the same level of consciousness that created it right. And so if you are doing all the same actions and just hustling more, you're actually going to start resenting success, right? Because if you think, okay, to create more success, I have to sacrifice more time from the people that I love the most, well, you're not going to want to do it, right. And so how do you actually shift gears? Well, 10 X is way easier than two X. Let me repeat that because it's very important 10 X is way easier than two X. Why? Because to get to 2x, you think I just need to grind more. To get to 10x, you have to have a completely different psychology. You have to be a very different person, and so I've noticed, after working with a lot of people, a couple of different paradigms of how they work, and the first is what I call the worried perfectionist. The worried perfectionist lives in what I call a have-do-be mindset, and this person says once I have more money, once I have more testimonials, once I have more bigger clients that I've shot for, then I'll raise my rates, Then I'll prospect bigger clients so I can be successful, fulfill whatever it is right, have do be. Once I have money, then I'll hire a coach so I can be a successful entrepreneur. Right, that would be another example, and that's where 98% of the world lives. They live in that place of thinking their circumstances need to change before they change, and it's not going to work. It's going to keep you in the exact same spot, and it's almost like saying success is a prerequisite to success. It doesn't make sense. It's like saying I need a six pack before I ever go to the gym. It's never going to happen, right?
Speaker 3:And so what I did when I was hiring my first coach, for example, is I looked around at all the people in my life that were operating from that psychology and they were saying once I have, once you have money, brad, once you're out of debt, once you pay off debt, then hire that coach so you can be successful. But then I looked at the few people in my life that were crushing it and they were saying something totally different. They were saying no, no, no, no, no. You want to have a multi, seven figure per year business. Well, what would you already be doing if you had that? Great. Who do you need to be now in order to make that happen? And I needed to invest, like the person I wanted to become.
Speaker 3:So when we start this process of personal change, we get to the next step, which is what I call the stressed achiever, and the stressed achiever operates from a do, have, be mindset. Now, this person is obsessed with taking action. Nothing wrong with taking action, action's great. But they're do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do all the freaking time and they feel like everything's held together by a tiny little thread. If they stop, it'll all fall apart and it's this walking ball of stress. And that's where a very small segment of the world lives. And these people are achieving, they're doing all this stuff so they can have a goal. Once I do all this action, then I'll have this goal and therefore I'll be worthy. Therefore I'll be successful. Therefore I'll be enough.
Speaker 3:And people get super stressed out and they start to resent the thing that made them successful in the first place. They start to resent the things that used to bring them joy, because they're always, always on. Now, if you take a look at these two paradigms the worried perfectionist and the stress achiever the B is at the end, meaning the emotions and the beliefs. I should say the beliefs and the emotions. B-e beliefs emotions are at the end instead of the beginning.
Speaker 3:They think that who they are on the inside is a reflection of what they've been doing and they live obsessed with the effect of life. See, all of life is cause and effect. And if you look around at your circumstances money in the bank, size of your business, clientele, whatever it is those are all effects. Most people think that those things are causes. They think, if, because those things are in my life, therefore I feel a certain way, therefore this is the way my mind operates because of these causes, and that's backwards. Those things are all effects of how you've been living and so all of life is cause and effect, and if you obsess over the effect, which is your circumstances, you forget the cause, and the cause is who you're being, your beliefs and your emotions. The cause is who you're being, and if you forget the cause, you can't influence the effect. It doesn't change.
Speaker 3:So high performers a very small segment of the world flips everything and they operate from what's called this, the high performance paradigm. They operate from what's called a, b, do have psychology and, just like Stephen Covey says, they begin with the end in mind. They say, okay, I want to have this goal right. I want to be working with dream clients. I want to be charging X amounts right In my for weddings or family, whatever it is I want. That's what I want to have. Great.
Speaker 3:What would I already be doing if I had that happening and you'll notice the actions that show up when you ask that question are the things that you've likely been avoiding the most up until now. What would you be doing if you had that in your life? Great. Well then, who do you need to be? What beliefs and emotions do you need to live in now so that you would automatically do those things and therefore create the life that you want.
Speaker 3:So if you want, let's say, a seven figure photography business, fantastic. What would you already be doing? Raising my rates? I'd be working with this clientele. Whatever it is Great.
Speaker 3:Who do I need to be now? I need to be abundant. I need to be successful. I need to be courageous, right? For example, I need to believe that money is abundant. I need to believe that success is my birthright and when you live in that state, therefore you automatically do and therefore you change what you have. And I can go into how to shift beliefs if we want to, but that's how successful people operate.
Speaker 3:It's backwards for most of society. What I've looked at. When I look at the world, I don't want average, I don't want what most people have. I look at what most people have and I sprint the opposite direction, because most people are broke, overwhelmed and overweight and I don't want that. Right. I want to live a very fulfilled life, a healthy life, a vital life, an abundant life, and so I look at the very few that have that and they seem like they're weird and crazy, because they are right. I'm weird and crazy and it's totally fine. You push my belly button and poop comes out. It's what happens, right, but you got to start looking at the people that have what you want and getting advice from them, instead of the influence of society, which is likely just trying to stay safe. Right, your comfort zone is perceived as a place to go to stay safe, but it's not true. Your comfort zone is just a place to be small. So, anyways, hope that helps.
Speaker 2:In case y'all let that last little bit fly by. There was a real solid nugget in there your comfort zone. We think it's where we go to feel safe, but it's really where you go to feel small. That's a word, wow, well. So let's start moving towards action here and let's talk about goals for a minute. So let's start moving towards action here and let's talk about goals for a minute. I'm big on setting goals and my mindset has always been, you know, let's go the smart route, let's go specific, measurable, achievable, repeatable, time-bound. But one of the most surprising things I heard you say when we met was that you fail to hit most of your goals and you're like proud of it. And I was like what is he talking? I was so fascinated by this. Why is that? Why are you proud to say that you failed to hit so many of your goals?
Speaker 3:Oh, it's a great question, rob. So you want the long answer or the short answer, oh my goodness. So the short answer is that no goal will ever make me more worthy than I already am. And if we take a look at why people tone down their goals, they tone down their goals and they make them more realistic because they're afraid they're going to fail. They're afraid they're going to fail because they think that somehow, achievement makes them more worthy. Right, they've failed in the past.
Speaker 3:I don't want to fail again. I want something that can guarantee my success, because if I'm successful, then I'll be enough. And that's total BS. You've been enough since the moment you were born, right, and so that's where most people set goals from. Like they say all the time well, I'm afraid of setting bigger goals. No, you're not. You're not afraid of your dreams, you're afraid of the past happening again. That's what you're afraid of. And so if you look at the past failures, if you look at what society conditioned you to do, if you look at what other people say or your parents, whoever, it is, all of it's outside of your heart. It's not what your heart actually wants.
Speaker 3:Like said earlier, 10x is easier than 2X, right, and I fully believe that I'll give a story in just a moment. But the reason I don't hit my goals is because I set goals not for the certainty of attainment. I set them to raise my energy. I set them to become a new person. I set them to make my butt pucker a little bit, and so I'll give an example of what I mean by that. This is getting interesting in this podcast. So about four years ago, our business was Can I share numbers? Is that cool?
Speaker 2:Yeah, go for it. We love numbers around here.
Speaker 3:Okay, so about four years ago, our business was doing about $25,000 a month in revenue, which is fantastic. Right, that's a great, awesome business. I was really proud of it and I was talking to my coach, john, and I was like John, let's chat about goals this next year. And he was like great idea, brad, let's chat about goals this next year. I was ambitious, I was hungry, I was driven. He was like what are your goals? And I was like if I really work hard, I think I can increase my business by 20% and get it to $30,000 a month this next year. And he started laughing at me and I was like what? Like, why are you laughing at me? He's like well, that's stupid. And I was like dude, what are you talking about? $30,000 a month is amazing. That's an incredible income Most people would kill for that. Why is that bad?
Speaker 3:Yeah, it'd be incredible. And he goes why would you ever set a goal you know you can hit, brad, why would you ever hurt yourself like that? And it just I was like Whoa, like I wasn't expecting that. He says the purpose of a goal is not to hit it. The purpose of a goal is to raise your energy and become a new person that's capable of hitting that goal. So what does your heart actually want? Not the BS you're telling me that's safe. Not the stuff that just makes you work a little bit harder and sacrifice more. What does your heart actually want?
Speaker 3:And my heart started beating faster, my butt started puckering a little bit and I said $100,000 a month. It came out of me right, a hundred thousand dollars a month. I was like, where'd that come from? I had no, like I didn't even know that was in there. And most people say I don't know what I want. Yes, you do know what you want. You're just afraid of what you're going to have to grow into to do it Right. And so I said this and my heart, I got the passion sweats, kind of like I do right now in my right armpit Not my left, because my left one doesn't sweat, my right one does, and so and it just came out of me and he's like that's a goal, because to do that you have to be a different man than you are today. That goal raised your energy and that's the purpose of a dream. So what I want you to do, brad, is I want you to live in the feelings of those wishes for the next couple of months. Visualize it, see it, be in it, live in the feelings of dream island. What would that be like?
Speaker 3:And at that time we had just had Lillian, and it was a traumatic childbirth. Both Janice and Lillian almost died. Janice was in the hospital for a couple weeks. You know the infectious disease specialist. All that stuff was crazy. And then throw a newborn life on top of it. It was absolutely bananas and um. And I just kept remembering what John said live in the feelings of my wishes. And one day, two months later, I was in the shower. All the greatest ideas come to you in the shower, and I didn't have anything to write with. And I got this crazy idea for a way to share our rewired program with thousands of people at a time, and that one idea led to $5 million in sales the following two and a half years, and I'm not sharing that to impress anybody, but that would have taken me what 15, 20 years?
Speaker 3:A lot of $30,000 months. A lot of $30,000 months. And because I set goals to become a new person. And here's what's interesting, though I set these massive dreams and I miss almost all of them, almost every single one. But would I rather be safe and sure that I can get to $30,000 a month? Would I rather live in uncertainty instead of go for $100,000 a month and make 80? What's actually more exciting, because, to the degree in which you can handle uncertainty is the degree in which you'll be successful in life, and so I set goals that are uncertain, that caused me to grow as a leader, as a person, as a man, that make me ask myself how did like this is my goal this year $10 million, while spending the majority of my work week with my family. How do I do that?
Speaker 3:How do I do that Right? It doesn't matter how. I'm going to figure out how, but I'm living in the feelings of my wishes and I'm picturing it as done, and I don't care if I hit it or not. One more point on this, and that's the idea of attachment. The reason why we tone down our goals to be more realistic and safe is we think that that gives us a certainty that we're enough. That's called attachment. It means I am, my results. No, you're not. You're so much more than your results. Right? People always say charge your worth. You can't charge infinity. You can't charge infinity. You can't charge infinity.
Speaker 3:You've been worthy since the moment you were born, and so no amount of success, no amount of money, no amount of achievement will ever make you more worthy than you already are. You have inherent worth. Someone thought enough of you to give you this gift of life. You have a heart that beats 100,000 times a day with you doing nothing of life. You have a heart that beats a hundred thousand times a day with you doing nothing. You have worth automatically, and once you accept that, you realize your results are no longer tied to your worth, that's when you start dreaming huge and you play in this feeling of energy and aliveness and what could be. And when you're in a state of energy and aliveness, just like a little kid my daughter wants to be Elsa and a unicorn and Buzz Lightyear at the same time and it's like all this creativity flows and you get these new ideas right and it honors the creative side of you.
Speaker 3:And so if you're in attachment, you'll tone down your goals. Or even if you achieve something and you're in attachment, you're all of a sudden then afraid of losing it. What if it disappears? Which causes you to play smaller. So you want to get to a state of detachment. Detachment is not that you should own nothing. It's that nothing should own you, and that's what detachment is. That's where life really starts to begin and you can have both fulfillment and achievement, instead of what most people think. Most people think success comes before fulfillment. Fulfillment and success happen at the same time. If you are allowing yourself to feel fulfilled, you're much more likely to have more success, because your energy is higher, your vibration is higher and your creativity is higher.
Speaker 3:Now, if it's cool, can I go a little woo, a little crazy, a little bit on the opposite side of things? Sure, in this personal development space. People say all the time, you got to manifest, right, what does that mean? Manifest Manifestation is the physical representation of your consistently dominant vibration. Right, that's manifestation. And so if you ask yourself attachment, what does that? What energy is that? It's a very low vibration, it's frustration, it's overwhelm, it's anxiety. Well, that's what you're going to attract into your life.
Speaker 3:But if you are in a place of aliveness, excitement, all of those things, and you're detached and you have your worth, has nothing to do with a goal and you're living with the feeling, within the feelings of your actual wishes, not what society tells you you should want, your vibration is higher. Now, what do most people do? Most people do a gratitude journal and they'll spend, you know, five minutes in gratitude in the morning. Nothing wrong with gratitude journals, by the way, but just from a conceptual perspective, if you spend five minutes in gratitude in the morning and then 23 hours and 55 minutes pissed off and frustrated, your life is pissed off and frustrated, right? So what's your consistently dominant energy? And so, anyways, all of that to say with your goals and dreams. I want to encourage everyone listening to this to live in moonshots, to live in this idea of what could be, and it has nothing to do with if you hit it or not. I proudly miss most of my goals because I'm setting goals that cause me to change instead of goals that reinforce who I am now.
Speaker 2:I love, as you're saying this. I'm thinking about how, even just going back to that whole idea of be do have the obsession of your pursuit is not the achievement of the goal, it's who you're becoming along the way in the pursuit of the goal. Yes, sir, and, and it's it's bring out. You know you described as raising the energy. Uh, it's bringing out, it's producing a different kind of character in you and making you more of who you were created to be, in the process, in a way that sitting comfortably would never demand of you. Exactly, that's exactly spot on. That's amazing and I know, like for me, because one of the things that really was hard for me, one of the things that was really hard for me in in talking with you about some of this stuff, was just this idea of like, I'm not motivated by money.
Speaker 2:Like, yeah, I want to be able to pay the bills. Of course, who doesn't want to be able to pay the bills? But I have enough and I don't. I'm not trying to be some crazy multimillionaire, I just want to do the things I love and serve people well.
Speaker 2:And you hit me square between the eyes when you said you're looking at money wrong. You're looking at money as this thing to have and get more of and achieve, instead of looking at money as influence and the opportunity to have impact on people's lives, and that just radically shaped things for me. I mean, you started challenging me to think about the guy that was my next door neighbor in my last neighborhood that wasn't able to keep his house the way he wanted that his grandparents had built, and what it would be like to go back and help resource that for him. Or what it would be like to help cover student loans for some of these TCU students we've been serving for almost a decade now.
Speaker 2:And, man, when you started challenging me in those ways, it reframed how I started thinking about money and the goals I was going after, because now it wasn't this just pursuit of more for more's sake, it was pursuit of more for the sake of being able to impact more lives and change more lives along the way. So if anybody's listening to this and going, yeah, like I just don't know if I'm driven by money or I don't, I've got enough, just know, like it does not have to be money sitting in your bank account just to pad your 401k or something, this is a great. I'm finding so much joy because that was part of who I've been all along is we love to give stuff away, we love to bless other people, and when you started showing me how this could lead to the opportunity to help more people and serve more people and do more just crazy over the top things to bless people, I was like yes, yes to that, like I want more of that. That's what I want to be a part of with my life.
Speaker 3:Yeah, dude, that's when you live in that place, right? If you think about the energy of abundance, abundance is unconditional love and deep appreciation that's abundance. Unconditional love is the energy of creation. Deep appreciation is the energy of receiving right. And so if I think about the impact that can be made with more dollars, like there's this quote that I absolutely love. I don't know who said it, it wasn't me and it's. They say money can't buy happiness, but anyone that says that hasn't given enough away yet. And it just stuck with me.
Speaker 2:I was like can you say that one more time for the folks listening? On their way to work.
Speaker 3:Money. Anyone that says money can't buy happiness hasn't given enough away yet. And it's when I started viewing money that way. All of my rationalizations of can like I'm good, I don't need more, they went away. Because I'm good, I don't need more is actually scarcity. It's pretending to be abundance, but it's actually scarcity because it's saying that if I'm going to make more than I'm somehow going to be worse. And that's not true, because the only way to become wealthy is to give right.
Speaker 3:The law of income States that your income is directly proportional to the number of lives you touch and how well you touch them. And when I realized that money and service, like money, was just the physical representation of service, everything changed for me. And all of a sudden I started serving more people, caring about them, and yeah, there's some cool luxuries that have happened in my life and all that stuff as a byproduct of it. But that's not the intent. The intent is to give and to love and to care, and so contentment is the enemy of abundance. It's just rationalized. Abundance is the energy of more, and more also means more impact and more love and more gratitude and more service. And so abundance is I'm so grateful and let's go, do this, let's go to the next level. Do this, let's go to the next level. And so one story that I don't really share very often it's yeah, I'm comfortable sharing this. This is something that when we give, we normally like to just do it anonymously and things like that just to bless someone's life, right, but just to show the listeners here what's possible when you view money from a place of impact, I trust that this will impact your life.
Speaker 3:And so my daughter's teacher is just such a beautiful soul like pours her heart and soul into making my daughter's life better and just incredible human. And she makes minimum wage at you know, a pre-K school and stuff like that, and you know. So money's a little bit tighter, and she was on her way to school one day and her car broke down Like basically would need the cost to repair it would be more than the car was worth. She was just in a tough spot. And so janice and I, my wife and I we went, uh, and that day we just bought her a car and we went to the school parking lot and we just handed her the keys and we said here you go. I mean, she's like I can't take. This is like of course you can. This is a like. This is you. You're an incredible human being. It's just a beautiful gift to you, and we just gave her the title of everything and it was hers, and so it changed her life. It changed her whole freaking life, and that's the power of what money can do.
Speaker 3:It allows you to make people's lives better, and I don't want praise or appreciation or kudos for that. That's not the goal of it. The goal is just to show a story of what you can, silently or publicly do with wealth. You can make someone's life improve dramatically, and so when that drives the impact in your business and that drives raising your prices, you show up completely different with the people that you serve. By the way, money in service, like when you're giving money away. It also goes the opposite way with what you charge, because if you are charging more, you show up energetically different for the client you are serving. You show up as the best version of you and you over deliver, and so it works both ways and it's just. Money is just such a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful thing that allows you to serve people in such a deep way, and I just really want everyone to take that home with them, that it's a tool for impact and amplification of your heart. It's a tool for impact and amplification of your heart.
Speaker 2:Amazing Tool for impact amplification of your heart. So, for the person who's listening today and is like man, this all sounds amazing. I want this, but, if I'm being honest, I feel stuck. I want to break out of my current mindset. I want to break out of my stuckness. I want to achieve this life that I'm dreaming of, this life that you're painting a picture of. It all sounds wonderful. I want it, but I don't know where to even start because of how stuck I feel. What's something practical, something tangible that anyone listening could begin to implement this week in their business, in their life, to begin to shift their mindset in a more healthy and abundant and fruitful direction?
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's a great, great question. So I'm going to normalize this feeling of stuck, because if you're feeling stuck, it just means that you are a human, because everyone feels that way sometimes. There's three things that I think would be a good starting point for you. The first is to play make-believe, because if you're going to go on a road trip with your buddies to any destination, you get to pick anywhere, and it's across the country. That destination better be compelling, or else you're not going to want to drive across the country to get there. So, without a compelling vision, you are forced to focus on the problems of the past and present, and this is why most people get stuck in their head.
Speaker 2:They're so obsessed with the past, and the past becomes the future when you live there, and so instead, what we want to do is actually drop these like really wise nuggets, just fly right by them and onto the next thing, like, oh, that's, that's just one of a million I got for you. We'll just keep going to the next thing. You want to say that thing about the past and being stuck again, cause somebody's going to want to hear that somebody's stuck in the past and they're good that's going to. It's going to be very freeing for them. You know, if they were to like really slow that one down real quick and drop it again for us that one down real quick and drop it again for us, oh, that's amazing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, of course. So. So most people like if, if? Without a compelling vision, you're forced to so good, without a compelling vision, you're forced to focus on the problems of the past and present. And this is why most people are stuck, because the past becomes the future when you live there. And so if you, whatever you focus on, you create more of think about it.
Speaker 3:If you're in the market for a car, right, you see, let's say the minute, the minute you decide you want to buy a honda crv, right, let's just say that's the car. You see it everywhere, every stoplight, every street corner, every parking lot, everywhere. Why? Because you're focusing on it, right? Well, the same is true with your dreams and goals. If you don't have a massive dream and goal, you're going to focus on what occupies the survival mind, which is your problems, and problems are just gifts wrapped in pains that you actually pay attention to them, right, and that's all. We can go that direction if we want to. I know we're coming up on time, but I can go all day on problems. But anyways, if you obsess over your problems, they become your future, because whenever you focus on, you create more of. So what I would do first is focus on an ideal world, your dream island, and the way that you know that it's what you actually want is if it makes your heartbeat a little bit faster, if it makes your butt pucker a little bit, if it makes your heartbeat a little bit faster, if it makes your butt pucker a little bit, if it makes your right armpit start to sweat. That's where you know If you notice holy cow. Yes, that's what I want. That's my dream. Don't worry about believing it yet. Just play make-believe like a little kid and get on the paper. What do I want my actual life to look like?
Speaker 3:Most people are so obsessed with confirmation, bias of their existing limitations or what went wrong in their life, and blame and complaining that that's all they focus on. That's what they create more of. But we want a vision that's so powerful, a destination or destiny that's so powerful that you want to go on the road trip to get there, because it's not going to be a straight shot. It's going to be up and down, there's going to be rainstorms and sunshine along the way. So you need to be ready for that trip and the only way you're going to go on that trip is if the destination is compelling enough.
Speaker 3:That's number one is what is the actual vision of your life? Not what society tells you should want, not what your parents tell you you should want, not what your boss tells you you should want. What does your heart actually want, without any bs, just the truth about what you actually want, and not from a place of getting out of pain either. Most people say, well, I just want to be debt free. Really, you want your bank balance to be zero. That's what you want. That's not what you want. You want to be able to take your family to disney without having to worry about checking the bank account. Right, you want to travel the amalfi coast and buy a yacht, whatever it is is. It doesn't matter what it is. You get to decide what it is. But most people are so obsessed with their pain.
Speaker 2:Make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:Make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
Speaker 3:Make a PB&J, so take it to a place of far beyond where you are right now. That will get the energy going and give you a reason to change. The second thing is start to bring doubt and pain to your existing limitations. Now, what do I mean by that? If a belief is a tabletop as a metaphor? Well, that table that you're eating dinner at every night and what you repeat to yourself every single day, that has table legs. Table legs are references of the past and confirmation bias with people that you exist with on an ongoing basis your peer group, whoever it is. And we want to chop those table legs off so that you can't eat dinner in there anymore. And the first step to that is identifying what are your limiting beliefs. Now, we can't get into that in just a couple of minutes here. That's a whole thing. But basically, a good way to start that process is ask yourself this question how would you complete this sentence? Business is money, is, marriage is success is people, are men, are women, are kids, are whatever it is. Whatever, your area of limitation is where you want to break through, but you're not ask yourself not the beliefs that you want to break through, but you're not Ask yourself, not the beliefs that you want to have. What do you believe when you're under stress, when you're in a state of stress, how do you complete the sentence money is. We've all had those dark nights of the soul where we're up at two in the morning wondering if we can make the mortgage right, like those. When you're in that state. How do you complete the sentence? Once you have that money is or business is, insert this next piece therefore, what? Therefore? I am blank, therefore, I am this, and you'll start to notice some really icky things start to show up. And once you have those icky things, you can ask yourself questions like well, is that actually true? Is that 100% true for everyone, 100% of the time? Are there people in my life that have a different experience of money? What's their life like? And up until this point in my life, what does this belief cost me? Who is this belief hurt? And if I keep this belief up, what will it cost me in the future?
Speaker 3:A great example of this is the movie A Christmas Carol. Right Scrooge. He's a total butthead and he thinks that because he's mean, that's why he's successful. And then one night, three neuro associative conditioning specialists showed up at his house, right, the ghost of Christmas, past, present and future. And what did they do? They linked up pain to the way he was living, pain to how he is living now and pain to what life will look like if he doesn't change. And when you're boxing from the left, from the right and behind, guess what you move. And that's what he did. He changed his belief system, and so if you can give yourself a healthy dose of pain by asking yourself what does this belief cost me, then you're going to move.
Speaker 3:So what have we done with this? We've introduced doubt. Is this belief actually true all the time? Are there other examples where this isn't true? Where is this belief false in my life? Where is it actually true that money consistently shows up? Oh, I get a paycheck every two weeks. Wow, money does show up, right, like you can prove. You can introduce doubt to these limitations, and that's chopping off a table leg, and then, once you get pain associated to this belief, it's like chopping all the stable legs at once and you want to change it right. So that's a step you can take.
Speaker 3:And then the third thing is and this is going to sound so cliche, but cliches are cliches for a reason, and that is to live in a state of appreciation as often as possible, because it's impossible to be fearful and grateful simultaneously Impossible, you can't.
Speaker 3:It's like standing in the mirror trying to be fearful and grateful simultaneously Impossible, you can't. It's like standing in the mirror trying to be sad and jumping up and down the mirror naked. You can't do both at the same time. So you want to make sure that you are not just grateful for oh, I'm grateful for this post-it note You're grateful for memories of your kids, memories of your partner, memories of your best friends, memories of your life that are meaningful. And when you live in those states of deep appreciation, the more you live there, the less fear shows up. And when fear doesn't drive your decisions and you're not living in the survival brain, then all of a sudden you get to create a life on your terms, a life that very few people ever get to experience. So I would start there from a very high level. And yeah, I could go on and on about that, but that's where I would start.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's great, and I had no idea where you're going with that, but it fits really hand in glove with something we were talking about right before you came on the show today, which was that my belief is you can make progress or you can make excuses, but you can't do both at the same time, and there's such a hand in glove fit there with what you're talking about about fear and gratitude. Those two things can't coexist. You got to pick a path and go down one or the other. So, man, that's so good. Brad, this has been unbelievable. I'm excited to go back and listen through again, take notes for myself, For people that want to stay in touch and want to hear more of this wisdom. You've been dropping these things. You've been so rapidly flying by, thinking we wouldn't pick up on it, but they were like I want more. I want more of the butt puckering goals. I want more of the armpit sweat. Where can people find you if they want to stay in touch?
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's a great question, Rob. There's two places. One is the interwebs on the gram right At Brad Bizjack on the gram. But if you really want to start applying this to your life and seeing what are your limiting beliefs, what are your current limitations, I've had the privilege of working with 60,000 people from all over the world and I've recognized some patterns.
Speaker 3:I could be an idiot at this stage and still recognize patterns, and I've noticed five core patterns of beliefs that are limiting people's lives and keeping them on their island now, preventing them from getting to where they want to go, and I call these five belief success archetypes different modalities or paradigms of the world, and so what I created a couple of years ago was a totally free quiz, and this quiz allows you to see what is your current archetype, what's your starting point on this journey, what are your existing limitations and limiting beliefs, what are the good things about where you're at right now, and so it's called what's your unique success archetype. You can find that at quizzesbradbizjakcom and I can get you the link if you want quizzesbradbizjakcom, and that's a great place to start the journey of trying to figure out how this thing, your brain, is wired right now and what needs to change to get to the next level.
Speaker 2:Amazing. Yeah, we'll make sure for those listening. The link is in the show notes. So if you've got this on your podcast app or whatever, go down there and you can check that out. Jump on that quiz, find out your archetype there.
Speaker 2:Brad, thank you so much. I appreciate your friendship. I appreciate the way you challenge me and make me laugh. Heart you back, man, thank you, thank you, thank you, and I cannot wait to continue this conversation in the months and years ahead. Thanks, brother, appreciate being here. Goodness gracious.
Speaker 2:Now you see why I have been dying to get this episode, this interview, into your hands, this interview into your hands. Brad is such a genius and so humble with all the things that he knows and is able to help people with. So I hope you got a lot of good notes or had, at the very least, if you were driving your car while you were listening, have a plan in place to go back and jot down some notes, because the things we just talked about you start putting those in motion and it is going to be transformative for your life and your business. That's it for season two of the Bop. I cannot believe we just finished our second season together. Hopefully this has been more than worth the wait for you, and we're going to take some time now, as summer continues on, to start lining up our next wave of interviews, because there will be a season three of the bop.
Speaker 2:Cannot wait to come back with more guests, more interviews, more insights for you guys. In the meantime, catch me on instagram, the new account at rob green dot tv all for photographers, all the time. You don't have to worry about any announcements for college students in there, it's just for you. So that's it for season two. Friends, until next time, keep learning, keep loving and keep chasing those dreams you were made for. Bye.