The Bamboo Lab Podcast
"Ordinary people doing extraordinary things!"
The Bamboo Lab Podcast
"Fail Your Way Forward" with the always inspiring Jim Bell
Discover how to break free from the cycle of stagnation and embrace the idea of "failing forward." Brian engages with Jim Bell, a seasoned mortgage industry veteran and mentor, discussing profound insights into personal growth and resilience.
- Introduction to Jim Bell and his unique journey
- Embracing failure as part of growth
- The role of mentorship in discovering pathways
- Continuous learning as a vital part of success
- Real-life struggles and the importance of resilience
- Defining success beyond personal achievements
- Encouragement to confront fears and embrace challenges
Continue to drive yourself toward the things you're passionate about and give it your very best. Life is short, and every second we tick away gives us one less second to chase the dream.
https://msource24.com/
https://bamboolab3.com/
Hello and welcome to the Bamboo Lab Podcast with your host, peak Performance Coach, brian Bosley. Are you stuck on the hamster wheel of life, spinning and spinning but not really moving forward? Are you ready to jump off and soar? Are you finally ready to sculpt your life? If so, you've landed in the right place. This podcast is created and broadcast just for you, all of you strivers, thrivers and survivors out there. If you'd like to learn more about Brian and the Bamboo Lab, feel free to reach out to explore your true peak level at wwwbamboolab3.com.
Speaker 2:Hey everybody, welcome to this week's episode of the Bamboo Lab Podcast. I am Brian Bosley, your host, and today we have a gentleman on this show, this episode, who I have known for over 30 years. We have Jim Bell. Jim is the president of M Source Training and Consulting. Jim has worked in just about every facet or probably every facet of the mortgage industry for almost 30 years now. This guy knows the ins and outs of the industry.
Speaker 2:But more than that, jim is just an incredible person in this sense. When I talked to him a few weeks ago, when I asked him what is your purpose in life and passion? First thing, didn't even question it to serve the world, to serve other people. And that just shows he's married to Julia of 24 years I believe I could be wrong on that. He's got a daughter, chelsea 21, and a son, brandon 19. And when he's not focusing on his children or his family and work, he loves to hunt, he loves to fish and he has a deep passion for cooking.
Speaker 2:But going back to what I said about serving others, jim really loves to mentor people. He loves to mentor other professionals in his industry, but he also likes to coach youth softball. So he's got this spirit about him of just wanting to give back to the world, to his family, to the community. And the other side of it is Jim knew me at and I knew him at probably our goofiest stages of life. Back in the 1990s we both played rugby football at Central Michigan University. So those stories will probably stay off this show. But in the meantime, jim Bell, my friend, welcome to the Bamboo Lab podcast.
Speaker 3:Thank you very, very much for having me. Yeah, I think it's best that we leave the rugby stories off, just to keep things on the up and up.
Speaker 2:You've got to keep some integrity in the show and everybody else I want to mention. We're experiencing a lot of high winds here today I'm in Wisconsin and a lot of snow and blowing. There might be some glitches in the audio. Just let it go. The service might be interrupted here and there. So, anyway, let's get back to Jim. Jim, tell us about yourself. I mean, obviously, I know a great deal about you, but tell the Bamboo Pack members out there a little bit about yourself your childhood, family, where you grew up, and Kevin, who or what inspired you to become the man you are today.
Speaker 3:Well, I grew up in Trenton, michigan, born and raised, I guess, south of Detroit. I've never really moved outside of about 10 miles from where it all started. In fact, my parents still live in our childhood home, so I get to go back and visit my old room and see that on a regular basis, although now it's an office, I believe.
Speaker 2:It never stays in our room.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I had two brothers, john and Mike, both older, so I was the baby of the family. Both mom and dad are still doing well and, living in the old house on Cleveland Street, grew up playing a lot of sports, did a lot of things within our neighborhood. I guess you know back then and maybe you'll attest or understand, those were days where we went out and played, right, I mean, we went out and we played all day. So it might have been baseball, basketball, football, depending on the season, or maybe it was just a hide-and-seek or whatever it might have been. So we spent lots and lots of time running around the neighborhood. They were kids of all ages, so our gang of merry folks running around the neighborhood ranged anywhere from six to 16. So it was a neat neighborhood to be a part of.
Speaker 3:I grew up, like I said, you know, small town but you know very, very loving family, very close to my family still. So somewhere in the career path, I mean I meandered a bit. Yes, I landed in the street, but I will tell you the same as anybody in the mortgage industry it was never a career goal. Mortgages is something that people sort of fall into, right, I mean, I don't know that, if you were to go around a room full of people and ask how many people said they wanted to be a loan officer when they grew up, that you're ever going to see an end raised. Why is that, jim? Why is?
Speaker 2:that you think You've said that before.
Speaker 3:I just don't know that people understand that it's out there, that it's a thing, right, I mean it's. You know we hear about doctors, we hear about firefighters and police officers and accountants, but I don't think people ever think that you know there's this guy whose whole job is to help you finance a home. You know we hear about the realtor, but you know it's just not a career that I think is in the forefront and there's not a lot of education directly for it, which I think is kind of a mistake in the industry, and it's something that we're trying to help solve at M Source is, you know, how do we provide some additional education on the loan origination and running a broker shop and being a business owner and things like that? But I think it's just a matter of people just don't realize that it's a career path and it can be an incredibly profitable and rewarding career path. Um, you know I I've spent the better part of these last 30 years in shape or form, whether it's a direct to consumer or helping other loan officers or other business owners.
Speaker 3:Um, you know, try to reach their goals right. So, as a consumer, it was how do I get you into the best financing we can to satisfy your home needs. Right, as a loan officer, it's how do I make you a better loan officer? How do I help you to sell more loans? How do you get in touch with more people? How do you build more referral networks? And then, as business owners, it's kind of taking it to that next step. Right, how do you manage all the hats you have to wear? Because you're still alone by heart and that's what you want to be doing, but you now have a lot of other responsibilities. How do you balance and juggle those things? So that's me, I guess, is I love to help people solve problems. Right Is get in there and see where they're at and what they need to be doing and what they want to be doing, and then how can I help them?
Speaker 2:Well, going back, I want to so that idea, and you had mentioned that to me when we talked three or four weeks ago. What, what was it that you? Who was it in your childhood? Or was it an experience or a teacher, or a book or a parent who inspired you, or what inspired you as a child to be this man who wants to help people solve problems?
Speaker 3:You know, I think it goes back to my parents, right? I mean I still look back at my parents and think how in the world did they do the things they did, right? I mean, between the fact that we weren't a wealthy family growing up but we never really wanted for anything, we always went on summer vacations. We always did things right. You know, I don't know how my dad, as many hours as he worked, never missed baseball games or basketball games or football games, never missed baseball games or basketball games or football games. So I think, you know, I grew up watching two people do everything for their kids and for their parents and for their friends, and just the joy that they got out of watching other people get what they wanted or succeed in what they were trying to do.
Speaker 3:To me it's. You know, I just look back on that and it's like how they did the things they did. I don't know like how we went on summer vacation every single year all over the country. I think by the time I was 17, I think I had already been in like 42 states, wow, and most of it was driving in a big old blue Econoline van.
Speaker 2:It wasn't flying around, were you buckled in.
Speaker 3:Oh no, we were sitting on the big hump. That was right between the front seats, right, I mean that's where we all sat. I mean that's where we all sat. So, but you know, it's when I look back, I mean that truly is where it is. I mean they've inspired me at so many different levels, you know, and even today, I mean they are still there anytime I need them for anything.
Speaker 3:You know, I still look back to a conversation that I believed changed the trajectory of where I am right now, and it was a conversation I had on my dad's porch and we sat there one day and I was still kind of new and green in the mortgage business and I think I was bellyaching a bit about the market and I don't know if this is the right career for me and maybe I'm doing this wrong and I, you know, hemming and hawing and second-guessing, and he sat there just very quietly listening and you know, I think when I was done with my pathway, he looked at me and he said is this what you want to do? Like, do you enjoy this? Is this, I mean, does this drive you, does it make you happy? And I said, yeah, it really does. I said I just don't know. And he's like stop, and he's like you have never had anything in your life that you put a time period on that you weren't able to do.
Speaker 2:And he's like what I need. Can you repeat that from what your dad? What you said, it's glitching in and out a little bit. Just use your dad quietly. Then he asked you, do you like this? And then you said yes, Okay.
Speaker 3:So you know, he, he listened to what I finally said and and he just quietly looked at me and said you know, there's never been anything you've wanted to do that you haven't been able to do. And what I think you need to do now is focus on what are your next steps? Right? Stop second guessing, stop questioning yourself, stop with all the negativity and just figure out how to do it. And you know, I think it was that conversation that led and I don't know exactly where I heard the quote the first time, but it's something that has driven my career ever since, which is, you know, fail your way forward. And you know, it was those words that he said that day on the porch that just kind of drove me to the idea of just keep moving forward, get up and keep working toward the things you want, stop questioning whether you can or can't and just do it. And for me, that changed everything. What are your mom and dad's names? My dad's name is John and my mom's name is Kathy.
Speaker 2:Kathy. So this is dedicated to John and Kathy Bell, because you have raised one hell of a great son and he's making a difference in the world and I love that. And you have said that. I think every time we've talked in the last few weeks, jim, you have said Fail your Way Forward and tell us what that means to you. There's an audience member out there right now who's probably thinking what does means to you. There's an audience member out there right now is probably thinking what does he mean by fail your way forward? Because we think of failure as we're regressing, but you're talking about failure as a progression.
Speaker 3:So failure way forward is and I share this with my kids all the time too, and anybody that I work with is that if I fail and I screw up more things than just about anybody I know, and that's because I will try things that most people won't try. And I guess my thing is I don't feel like I have to be the expert to get started at something, I just have to get moving. And to me it's I would rather try something and fail and then get up and try it again and fail again and keep failing at it until I've got it right. Because at the end of the day, I mean, we go back to all those stories we've ever heard about Thomas Edison and the light bulb and all the things that people just kept failing and failing and failing.
Speaker 3:You know, I think the other powerful one that you hear from the sports side is like Michael Jordan, right Cut from his high school basketball team and you know all the shots that he missed. But he just kept going and he kept failing and failing and failing until he wasn't failing anymore. And I still believe that I fail every day, but I want to think that I'm always failing ahead. I'm failing forward in my life that yeah, just because I fell down, I still got back up and I tried it again the next day and I keep achieving things because I failed forward. Okay.
Speaker 2:You know that reminds me. There was a time, Jim, when I was with American Express Financial Advisors. This is back in 95, maybe 94, probably a year or two before I left and started my consulting firm. We were in Monterey, california, for a leadership conference and my regional vice president's name was John Hance. You probably see Hance Financial around the Detroit area we do. Yeah Well, he was with Ameriprise and I think at the time and I don't really know the exact numbers, but I think there were 35 regions around the country that were Ameriprise financial advisors.
Speaker 2:You know each one had maybe 400 or 500 different employees, ameriprise financial advisor. Each one had maybe 400 or 500 different employees. At the time John's region was number one in the country but if I remember the numbers and I could be wrong we were doing a billion dollars a year where in second place was doing like 500 million. So it was a dramatic difference between first and second place. So all the other 34 people, all great human beings, weren't competing well with John and there was a lot of, I think, jealousy and animosity toward him and we were. But he was like you, he tried everything and we were at a conference in Monterey, California.
Speaker 2:Again, this was 30 years ago, so 31 years ago, but I remember the words.
Speaker 2:I think we were on a buffet table getting our food and John and I and a few other people from our region were in line and somebody yelled across the buffet line and said hey, mr Hance, a person who didn't really think highly of John, who was maybe a little envious or jealous. He said I see, you guys have crashed a lot of planes this year and the whole buffet or I think it was the buffet, or maybe we're on a big table. Everybody stopped and John paused and he said we have. He said but you know what? We've crashed planes, you don't have the balls to fly. And it just took the wind out of the room, out of the everybody there, like whoa. And that was, that was a learning for me at that moment of that and that stuck, those exact quotes stuck with me and it hit. That was his learning for me at that moment of that and that stuck, those exact quotes stuck with me. And that was his way of saying fail forward, just like you're saying now, 30-some years later.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think it's just we have to be willing. I think the other one that I go back to is along those lines, was something I remember, was something I I remember hearing you know less Brown um, who I always love listening to less Brown, just because I'm not sure you know it's if I'm being coached or going to church, right, a little bit of both, right, cause I always feel like I've when I listened to him. But you know, what I wanted to say was that you don't have to be great to get started, but you have to be started to be great, right, and I don't know if that was originally him who coined it, but it was something I remember him saying over and over and over and and I just it's. It's that same type of a premise of you know you got to get started somewhere and I'm willing to fail until I figure it out.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, I think so many people in the world and even myself and probably yourself included. Years ago I always thought motivation was the creation of action. And I've learned and I tell my children, I tell my clients motivation seldom creates action. But action creates motivation If you just get out there and start something. Think about working out. I can't sit on the couch on a day like today when it's stormy and snowy and windy, and motivate myself to go for a hike or a run. But if I just go out there and do it instantly, I'm motivated. Within the first three or four minutes I'm ready to go, and I think Mel Robbins does this really well. I'm a big Mel Robbins fan.
Speaker 2:I'm reading her third book right now. It's called Let them, but she has the five second rule. I think that's the title of her first book. She's like, whenever you're contemplating doing something you don't want to do, that you need to do, don't think about say five, four, three, two, one, go and just do it, because with after five minutes you're going to convince yourself, or five seconds you will convince yourself not to do that thing. You're talking about that on a much larger scale, of course, but that applies whether we're doing something. You know we're trying something new, that we might fail it, or if we just have to go for a run or put the phone down and start reading a book. So fail your way forward. I love that, hey. So in the last 12 months, one to two years, jim, what would you say is your greatest learning?
Speaker 3:Excuse me. You know I think about this a lot and for me, it's that we're never done learning. I think of the points in my life, in my career, where I have been stuck, and it's usually because I stopped feeding my brain. Feeding my brain, you know. I think I shared with you one of our previous conversations about the fact that, you know, I look at my career in mortgages and I consider myself a 30-year rookie, right that every day I'm going to learn something new, and I think one of the bigger things that I've learned over the last several years is that we always have to keep that mindset in our the forefront of what we do. Right, we're constantly opening to learning new things, whether it's from our peers, whether it's from a book, whether it's from a podcast like this, whether it's, you know, going to a seminar, wherever it might be, we have the ability to absorb more information in today's environment than we ever have before.
Speaker 3:So keep feeding your brain. Keep feeding your brain, cause that's you know, I don't know that ideas are, and we may have talked about this previously, but it's like I don't know that ideas are really truly created anymore. I think a lot of the things, but I think we spur new variations of ideas and how can we take something else and and modify it to help somewhere some some other way? How do we repurpose older ideas to new ideas? And and I just feel like learning for me has always been that outlet to continue the creativity, to continue to strive for something more than what I see in front of me, because I know that there's always more to learn. So I think the more we feed the brain, the better we get.
Speaker 2:I couldn't agree more. You're right. Right now in this era of our existence is an era we have so much information at the tip of our fingertips and we can use it. One of two ways we can scroll social media TikTok, snapchat, or. My weakness is YouTube. I can literally sit down and I can go a half an hour and wake up not wake up, but come to my senses and say I just watched 30 minutes of dumb stuff that I have that provides no value to me, you know and so we have that option of doing that or the option of look, you should listen to podcasts.
Speaker 2:You know, watching speakers that we would never have access to. You know, we can obviously read books online or actually pick up a damn physical book and read it there. I don't know if you and I talked about this, jim, but there's an interesting story that happened in 1899. At the time, this gentleman by the name of Charles Duell was I think his title was the Commissioner of the United States Patent Office. He ran the US Patent Office in 1899. So he's the guy running the patent office inventing of new things. And he sent a telegram or a telegraph to president US President William McKinley, and it said something to the effect of I, dear Mr President, I, as commissioner of the US Patent Office, request or recommend that we consider shutting down the US Patent Office. And in quotes, his reasoning was because everything that can be invented has already been invented. That was 1899. And he thought everything that can be invented has already been invented. That was 1899. And he thought everything that could ever be invented was already invented, has already been invented, and I think just about everything you or I or any of the podcast listeners right now have done since they woke up this morning. Probably 99% of the things they've used or experienced was something created, invented post-1899.
Speaker 2:And it seems so short-sighted and narrow-minded for Charles Duhal to say that and to think that way. But at the same time, I ask myself are we really any different? I mean, so many times we shut our own patent office down, so often we stop learning, we stop absorbing, we start clicking YouTube videos for 30 minutes at a time, or we scroll Facebook or TikTok, snapchat, instagram, when we have that opportunity, at those moments, to learn and absorb information that is right there at our fingertips. Any possible subject you ever want to learn is there, and there's a good book for anybody out there who wants to listen, called the War of Art, by Stevenven pressfield, and he talks about when you are in the moment of trying to learn, absorbing, uh, being free with your mind instead of being connected to social media you'll come up with ideas, and they're not even ideas you create, kind of what you said, jim, earlier.
Speaker 2:He calls it the muse. The muse will speak to you and you will come up with some grandiose thought or idea that could revolutionize your life or the lives of others. But we have to be available. We have to have that mind. Our patent office has to be open for that muse to enter the door. So I appreciate you bringing that up because I think that's an incredibly powerful lesson.
Speaker 3:And another thing about it is it can be empowering, not just for the person absorbing the information.
Speaker 3:You know, one of the things that I think we get our egos sometimes get in the way, right, we think we know more than we do, we think we know it all, we think we've arrived, we think we've achieved what we need to achieve. You know, achieved what we need to achieve. Um, and one of the things I enjoy about just being open to learning is is like even you know, with the people I work with, you know we'll talk about why we do certain things the way we do certain ways, and my point to them is we do it that way because that's the best idea I've had so far and I have no problem that if your idea is better than mine, we're going to make that a reality and we're going to change the way we do things. And it's your idea, let's run with it.
Speaker 3:So I think, being open to the idea of learning from everybody around you, whether it's up the chain, down the chain, laterally, wherever the information is coming from when you're willing to accept that you learn from other people, I think it becomes empowering for them as well, because now you're giving them the power to be able to make decisions and make suggestions and understand that there's value in their ideas, in their ability to learn more. And it just creates that cycle of freedom for all of us, right Like we're not trapped by our confines anymore, because it's not just what I can come up with, it's what you can come up with, it's what my neighbor can come up with, it's what anybody else can come up with.
Speaker 2:So when we're open to it, we just expand the array of possibilities 100% and there's nothing better than believing in someone else's idea to increase their sense of self-worth, to give them a voice, to empower them as a human being and really give their opinion, their thoughts, their ideas the respect that it deserves. And you know you're raising two kids, but I know they're still in college now and I have a son in college and I've raised a daughter and I've helped raise three other amazing adult men when they were little. We learn a lot from the people we think we're supposed to be teaching. If we just open our ears and eyes and listen, I mean I learn at least as probably as much from my clients over time as they learn from me.
Speaker 3:It's interesting. You say that because, you know, when you asked about inspirations, I find it ironic for me that my inspirations seem to be two very interesting ends of a spectrum, right. So, like my primary, you know, sense of inspiration early in my life and it still is my parents, but I find a tremendous amount of inspiration from my children. I mean Chelsea, and of inspiration from my children. I mean Chelsea and Brandon are just amazing people. I mean their general acceptance of others and their kindness and the way that they view things and their I mean the perseverance that I watch with the two of them. It's inspiring to me, you know, I think of you know. Chelsea, you know, was not probably the most gifted athlete there ever was but was arguably the best catcher I've ever had the pleasure of watching play softball Because she worked at it and she loved it and she just kept going and going and working and trying.
Speaker 3:And I see brandon, brandon has had some some, you know, whether it's some health issues here and there and physical issues, and he, he just has the best attitude and the best frame of mind about just continuing to, to charge forward and keep his mind and body focused on being positive. I mean it's just some of the things he's been dealt at his age of only 19. I mean, a lot of people would be like, oh, you know, the world's got it in for me, and instead he just keeps driving forward and figuring like, okay, well, there's a wall there, I guess I got to go either over it, around it, in for me, and instead he just keeps driving forward and figuring like, okay, well, there's a wall there, I guess I got to go either over it, around it, under it. I don't know, but I'm getting past it and you know I find them inspiring as well. And you know, like you mentioned about, we learn from the people we're supposed to be teaching.
Speaker 2:I think we can also be inspired by the people we hope to inspire 100% agree, like you said, as long as we keep that patent office door open, and we, you know, I know there's been times in my life where my door has been shut. You know, thankfully I've got enough people in my life that call me out on when I feel like I'm getting narrow. Because, look, you and I have been doing what we do for almost 30 years and that would be in the world of. In the real world, we'd be called experts. I've never considered myself an expert, but I've gotten very arrogant at times about my ability to coach others and understand human behavior, and it's embarrassing. Look at the podcast.
Speaker 2:Last year I've shared this on the air a couple of times I was so gross by my own behavior, my own thought patterns, because I was so worried not worried, I was so intrigued, or in in, uh, engage the numbers. You know we hit the top 10 of all podcasts in the world. I was looking at every day how many more countries did we get? How many more cities? Um, how many more subscribers do we have?
Speaker 2:And it got to the point where, after about maybe, I don't't know, I'm thinking six weeks of that, two months, I don't know what it was late last summer, I started feeling just disgusted with myself. The arrogance took over why I really started doing this, and so I shut it down for three months two and a half three months to open up my patent office because it was clearly closed. On doing why I the on doing, why I did this and I, you know that's the problem with becoming very experienced, I think, in life, like you are and I am in our chosen fields is we have to always be on guard against that ego. Um, at least I do, um and uh, I have to keep a really tight noose on that thing, or a rope tie around that thing, or it's going to get let, it's going to go. It's going to go crazy.
Speaker 3:I think we, we forget, we forget the, the, the mission and the purpose, right it, it. It's like the, the success or the experience or the, whatever it is we're doing, takes on a life of its own and we and we lose the original essence of where we were Right, like for me it's. You know, when I was writing Originating Loans, it was all about helping consumer. Right, it was like how do I help you get into the house of your dreams or take some cash out of the property so you can, you know, add on that new, you know wing of the house, or add, you know, put in a new kitchen or whatever it might be? How do I help you reach those dreams All through my career? I think you're right.
Speaker 3:We get stuck in the idea of okay, how many more loans can I write, how many more dollars can I make, how many more things can I do, and you start to lose the essence of no, it's, how many more people can I help? You know, and it's powerful when we go back to that really core essence of why we started doing what we're doing, and I think, the more that we stay open to the idea of you know, like you said, that you have a lot of people in your world that help you sort of correct yourself when you start veering. It's important that we surround ourselves with those people so that they can keep us focused on why we do what we do and not to get swallowed up by the I guess, the process.
Speaker 2:I agree, and I think, in addition to that, is putting ourselves in theenah, wisconsin, as well as there's one in Appleton, wisconsin. So Jackie's big into yoga. Her daughter owns it. She's been doing yoga for years and a couple of Sundays ago we were doing yoga in her living room and I've only done yoga like three times in my life and that was years ago and she was instructing me on these different poses and they hurt. I mean, I don't care how much you work out, yoga hurts. And she was kind of snapping at me a little bit. I'm like dude, relax man.
Speaker 2:And I realized no, no, no, you need to listen because you need to be an apprentice at this and act like an apprentice. Keep your mouth shut and your ears open, brian. And it was a good learning for me that I need to make sure that I'm in a role at least several, at least once a year, in something I've never done before and to be taught and trained by somebody who knows what they're doing and put myself in the role that my clients are in when I'm working with them. So I think you know listening, being open, as well as you know putting yourself in a position of being a newbie at something on occasion is really powerful for our development. I 100% agree, jim. What would you say would be one of the most difficult things you as an individual has gone through over your life, and what did you do to overcome that?
Speaker 3:Well, I think, you know, I've thought a long time about, you know, these types of questions over my lifetime, like what is the most difficult thing? And I think for me, life is the most challenging thing we all deal with, right, we all get thrown curveballs, we all get thrown to adversity. You know, I think about my wife, julie and I, you know, 24 years ago, here we were young kids, getting married, thinking about starting a family, successful careers, everything going, you know. And we find out, you know what, four or five months into our marriage, that you know we're expecting and we couldn't be happier. I mean, I never missed a doctor's appointment and I felt like that was my role. Right, I had to be there for all the doctor's appointments and all the stuff, right? Um, and, and apparently you know, good lord had a different plan, that we had to learn some things and we lost our son at 37 weeks. He was stillborn. It was devastating. But I think what when I look back and I think of that, I think of times when we went through the financial crisis with the mortgage industry. I think of physical health issues that I've had, physical health issues my wife has had, setbacks we've had with the kids.
Speaker 3:Life deals us a lot of challenging things, but if I were to tell you what, the one thing that I think has been most difficult is learning to get back up. You know, when something terrible happens, no matter what it is, and it's all. It's all in perspective, right? So what happens to me, you know, doesn't isn't better or worse or more significant or less significant than happens to somebody else. It's the most important thing and the most significant thing in their world. So I I think the the most difficult thing is is, when those things happen, is to to be able to figure out how to get back up and just start going again. And I think the answer for that is you sort of scale that wall by just getting up and you start one step at a time. You do one day at a time.
Speaker 3:And I go back to my mantra the failure way forward. When difficult things happen to all of us, it's important for us to have whatever it is within you to be able to just get back up and keep going. And like I said, for me, I mean, I could point to a whole host of different things that have happened. I don't know that any one is more significant than another. But I think it's really about getting back up. And how do we just keep moving forward? You know, and that that takes friends, it takes family, it takes, you know, support, it takes all the things that we all cherish. But we got to keep going and we got to keep getting back up.
Speaker 2:There's definitely a general theme to the message you're delivering to the audience today and it's very clear. And quite often when I'm in the middle of a of a talk like this with someone, I am thinking about what is the theme here? What is this individual trying to get across to the Bamboo Pack members out there? And this one has been very clear. It's probably the most clear one I've had in a long time. It is failure. Way forward, get back up one step at a time, one day at a time. Just get it back up off the ground. Have you ever read I mean, we might've talked about this and I'm sure, but I and I know I brought it up with the audience before the book, uh, the last lecture by Randy Posh.
Speaker 3:I, I think I've heard of it. Um, I don't know that, I've actually read it myself, but I think, if it's the same book that I'm thinking, I think I have heard of it. But I mean, please refresh me, because I don't know if it's the same thing I'm thinking of.
Speaker 2:Well, Brandy Posh was a Carnegie Mellon University computer science professor and I don't know the time I'm going to say this was 15 years ago. It might have been not quite that many years. It might have been not quite that many years, it might have been longer, but in that timeframe. And he was diagnosed. He was a young guy, I think it was in his early forties and he had I think I believe it was two young boys he and his wife did and he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and incurable, so he knew he was going to die. So, as a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, remember we used to remember we used to be in rugby tournaments and they'd see our CMU shirts and they thought we were Carnegie Mellon University. Is that right there? I think it's Carnegie.
Speaker 3:Mellon, I do remember that.
Speaker 2:You guys go to Carnegie Mellon, nah, cmu, central Michigan, anyway. So when you retire from that school you get to give a last lecture. So you fill the auditorium with anybody you want and they tape it. They videotape it. And he wrote this speech for his two boys. And the speech you can find it on YouTube. Just Randy Posh Last Lecture. It's the actual speech, a videotape, and in part of the speech he talks.
Speaker 2:As he's giving a talk. He's saying this is my legacy to my children because they are going to grow up without a father. The rest of their lives and he talks about life is all about brick walls. You know you're going to come across brick walls all your life. Some are going to be high, some are going to be short, some are going to be average.
Speaker 2:And he said the reason the brick walls are there are not for us to turn around and retreat. And his quote was the brick walls are put there for you to prove how badly you want what's on the other side. And that quote stuck with me and I read the. I saw the lecture I don't know when it ever aired on YouTube or wherever it was aired back then and then I read the book. So he it became so popular it was the number one I believe it was YouTube download of all times when it came out and then he wrote a book on the same subject before he passed away and left an amazing legacy to millions of people around the world who heard his vision. And that's exactly what you're saying is brick walls are there, but they're there for us to prove how badly we want what's on the other side.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean that's powerful, but it's true, it really is. It's just, you know, we have just such infinite potential and it's just a matter of of figuring out what, what ignites every person to go for that Right, and how to keep going when, when we, when we don't get what we want, like I see right now in the mortgage industry. You know loan officers are really struggling. This is a. You know, we've had a protracted 20 years of incredibly low interest rates. We've had plenty of housing available for sale and now we're seeing another one of these perfect storms in the financial markets with mortgages because rates have gone up rapidly. Markets with mortgages because rates have gone up rapidly. There are generations of buyers who've never heard of rates in the sixes and sevens, let alone eight. There are loan officers that have never heard of rates in the sixes and sevens and eights and I think they're all kind of finding that.
Speaker 3:You know, I call it the who moved my cheese moment. Right, like, for a long, long time things were very, very good and now the market has gotten really difficult. There's limited inventory, there's a lot of vying for competition on on every house that goes up on the market, and then a couple of that with interest rates and people not wanting to move. You know, and I get that question. You know I get questions about you know, what do I do Like how do I stay going in this business? And it's like, well, you just got to keep going. You have to find new avenues, right? You know? Do you manage the people's life events for them? You know, if I'm a 50 something and both my kids have moved out and I'm in a 3 000 square foot house, I'm probably thinking about downsizing. And at the same time, if I'm a loan officer and I see a family that are a young couple, that's find out they're pregnant with twins and they're in a one-bedroom apartment, guess what? They're probably going to need a bigger place and maybe a house.
Speaker 3:You know, go out there and figure out how do you tap into people's needs more effectively and how do you just keep moving forward? I mean, I think so many are just sitting back in the woes of, well, I'm waiting for rates to come down. It's like, well, you're not going to wait until gas prices go down to drive the car. That's a good metaphor, you know. So you just get up and get out there and go after it, and I think I go back to that conversation with my dad. Right, it's like you have a choice, right? You want this. Then go figure out how to make it happen. Stop second-guess guessing whether you can make it happen.
Speaker 2:Is that a book you recommend to people who Moved my Cheese?
Speaker 3:Oh, absolutely. I think who Moved my Cheese is a very, very short read, but for me I thought it was very powerful. I mean, the message is very, very clear that you know we constantly have to be looking around the corner for the next thing, right? I mean because we can't bank that everything we ever had will always be there.
Speaker 2:I agree, and for those who haven't heard of it, this is a book by Spencer Johnson called who Moved my Cheese and it's about two mice and two little men going through a maze and how they have different personalities and how, you know, one obviously continues to persevere and adapt to the changes in his or her situation and finally, you know, obviously gets the cheese, so to speak, because the cheese keeps moving in the maze. So I would recommend that book to anyone. In fact, as you were talking, I thought I haven't read. I haven't read that book in probably three or four years and I have it in my best.
Speaker 2:I have my books. Most of them are in storage in a storage unit, but I have a select group of books, maybe 150 at my house but then I have about 30 that are set right in front of my TV in the TV stand, but on the bottom, so that when I'm looking at the TV those books are drawing me and that's in that pile or in that row. I mean, and that's in that pile or in that row, but I have not read that in a while. So I'm going to reread it this year.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's a great read. Like I said, it's not a long read, but it's a very powerful message.
Speaker 2:It's very true, jim. At this stage in your life you've got two children, been married for 24 years. Was I right on that?
Speaker 3:Yes, 24 years at the well. What is today? At the end of this month, on the 31st, it'll be 24 years officially.
Speaker 2:Okay, don't forget that date. Nope, never do Good for you. You got two children in college, obviously doing very well. Career is doing well. You're coaching softball. What do you consider a win to be in your life? What's a victory for you? What do you consider a win to be in your life?
Speaker 3:What's a victory for you? I mean a win is watching somebody else succeed. It's just that simple for me. It's them getting what they wanted and me being able to help in any way I can to get them there. So I look at it as you know. I'll go back to softball. Right, I've been doing softball and or baseball when Brandon was playing, but you know, I coached a lot of softball for Chelsea as she was growing up and I continue to coach now and there's I don't know. There's just nothing to me like watching the effort and, you know, the years and hours of working in a gym or out on the field with with a kid that all of a sudden it clicks and they get it. And they get that, that hit, that home run, they make that play in the field, they make that throw. Whatever the circumstance may be, there's nothing more exciting to me than watching that moment. You know people have always asked like what did I love about sports? Why did I play sports? Why do I do the things that I do now? Right, Whether it's in the mortgage industry, whether it's in coaching, whether it's, you know, being a father, being a husband, I always say you play for the moments After it's all said and done.
Speaker 3:Every single one. We're not going to remember if we won the game. We're not going to remember if we lost the game. Some of those rugby games I don't even know if we remember the game, probably not even gonna. You know some of those rugby games. I don't even know if we remember the game. We get hit so hard.
Speaker 3:But what you will remember is the moments. Yeah, right, that moment that you hit the home run, the moment that you made the play that you never thought you could make, the moment you drove in the winning run, you scored the touchdown, you scored the try, you stopped the try from somebody else that was about to score. Those moments. No one can ever take away those moments from us. Those are just etched in our minds and I'm sure you, me and everyone on this call can think back to one of those moments in their life that, if you close your eyes, you can not only just see it, but you can smell it, you can feel it and it sends tingles around your body. Right, it's those moments that we do things for.
Speaker 2:I love the way you phrase that Literally. When you were talking, I was thinking back about moments and I got goosebumps, I guess the tingles. I don't remember what our record even was the years I played rugby. I have no idea. Yeah, I don't remember. Sometimes I don't know if we won or lost a game. I remember I've talked to a lot of guys who over the years have bragged about us winning the Michigan Cup and I'm like you know, guys, we never did win the Michigan Cup.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we never did win the Michigan Cup. Yeah, we did. I said, no, we didn't. We came in second place one year and I remember somebody running I won't say the name in case he's listening but running down the pitch, went to score, put the ball down what he thought was the try line, but he was still 10 yards back. We would have won the Michigan Cup but we never won that thing. But that's the point you're making is whether we won or lost is not the memory. Some of us remember having won. The rest of us don't say we didn't but we don't care. It was the moments in some of those games or those practices, or just even off the field that you make in life Sometimes it's in a boardroom. Sometimes it's with your family on a vacation. That's it.
Speaker 3:Sometimes it's in a boardroom, sometimes it's with your family on a vacation, that's it. And it's like I said, even even now, at this stage of my career, I I'm really I get to live those moments when I watch somebody that I'm coaching have their moment and I get to sort of relive my own set of moments watching them get theirs, and it doesn't matter to me if it's. You know, I think back to you know, in my current role with M Source. You know we work with mortgage brokers all over the country and I think of you know, like right now I have one thing of that I remember, you know, six and a half, seven years ago when they called up terrified and they were, they were breaking off on their own and it was just the husband and wife, right, that was it.
Speaker 3:I fast forward now and I consider them as much friends as clients. And to watch that they're now. They were licensed in one state. It was just the two of them and now they're licensed in about 27 states. They've probably got 75 plus loan officers. They're closing more loans than they could ever have imagined or dreamed of at that time. And and to just watch that and know that I got to be a part of that and watch that success, I mean, to me that's, it's exhilarating and it's it's again, it's it's. For me, those are the moments right Like every time, I get to see that it's it's that moment that that drives me it's like you, what you're.
Speaker 2:What I hear you saying is you love to be a part of someone else's journey, just be a part of helping. Yeah now, jim, can you say in a chair, in a nutshell with the audience, exactly what m source provides? I know, obviously, just so that people know, because there's there are mortgage lenders out there, brokers listening to this, I know know there are a lot of them, so share.
Speaker 3:So M-Source is what we're consulting for.
Speaker 3:We specialize with the mortgage lenders and brokers and loan officers of the country.
Speaker 3:I always say that our ideal client is that individual that decides they want to break off on their own and they want to carve out their own niche and start their own company.
Speaker 3:We will help them from the inception of that idea up to the point where they are still expanding and growing as they continue on. So it could be, you know, you could call me and say, hey, I want to become a mortgage broker and this is what I'm going to do, and we form your company, we help you get established, we help you with all the licensing and the paperwork that needs to happen to get there. And then we counsel and coach you on, you know, making sure that you're running a compliant company and you're doing the things that you need to do to stay, you know, compliant and successful company and you're doing the things that you need to do to stay, you know, compliant and successful. So you know, I guess I the way that I put it to people is you know we help you get up and running and licensed and then we help you keep it Perfect.
Speaker 2:So we're going to include on the show notes, if those who are interested, please, in the bottom of the show notes we're going to click. We're going to include a link to mSource. Click on that explore. They've got a really great website. You can see a picture of the team and please click on it. If you have any questions, feel free to email me and I'll connect you directly to Jim. Okay, this is my favorite question, jim. This is one that intrigues me the most with people, or at least one of the top two favorite questions is I'm here in Ne, in nina wisconsin, here on the south side of detroit south side, yeah, don't remember. Um, if I've come over today, log on a trailer, my time machine, you and I get in it. We go back to a predetermined whatever you decide. When you were a younger version of jim bell and you get to sit and give yourself some words of advice, some direction, some success ideas, what would you say to your younger self?
Speaker 3:Okay, so this is outside of the back to the future, where I know what to bet on, right, yeah, yeah, okay.
Speaker 2:We don't have a betting book.
Speaker 3:I was going to say because that's going to work out okay, for a part of it.
Speaker 3:I think I would just go back and say, look, you know what I mean. Be true to yourself, do the things that bring you joy and help you kind of get where you want to be. I think and you and I have talked about this before I think we all sort of build barriers around ourselves in anticipation of who we are, and I think oftentimes we get stuck within our own barriers that we've built up and we lose sight of who we truly are. And we lose sight of who we truly are Right, and it's it's finding those ways back to your true self and what your true purpose and your, your, your essence is. That is that is most valuable.
Speaker 3:And I think I think I know me personally I have veered from that path and sort of locked myself into time periods where I was convinced I was somebody. I wasn't and I just lost that time. And you know, time is one of the things we just can never get back. And I would say to myself look, don't lock yourself in a box ever. Be true to yourself, believe in the things that you believe in and go 100% toward them. I often tell my staff here at M Source. You do the right things and good things follow, and I think we lose sight of that sometimes because we get caught in the process, we're too consumed by other things and we lose sight of ourselves. And I think if I were to go back in time and look at myself in the mirror or look at myself face to face, I would just be like you have to be true to yourself. Be true to yourself.
Speaker 2:And I think that's a difficult one for a lot of people because, like you said, sometimes we have these barriers around us I call it layers of marble around us that we don't really know who our true selves are, and that's why I think it's so important to stop and listen to yourself, listen to others, get off social media, turn the TV off, journal Read Whatever you need to do to quiet your brain meditate, yoga, workout, go for a walk, spend time in nature, whatever it might be. When you do those types of things, you have a propensity to actually start to find out who you are. A mutual friend of ours, jim, that played ball with us in college. He and I used to go to the dams. Oh yeah, yeah. I don't remember where they were. I remember we could walk or we could pedal our bikes in the rugby house to the dams. I remember that, so they couldn't have been too far.
Speaker 2:We would go there on occasion and I remember one time he and I were sitting there and he said you know why we don't slow down, brian, in life, and of course that was a different level of speed back then.
Speaker 2:It was partying and playing rugby and maybe chasing women or whatever we were doing in our early 20s and I said, no, I don't, he goes, because if we slow down, the stench of our lives will catch up to us and I'm like, wow, and I think about that so often is when I'm going too fast or you're going too fast, anyone, and you stop and really start to reflect and think and feel who you.
Speaker 2:You realize that that's a lot of times why we don't really know our true selves, because when we stop so many things, we're afraid things are going to catch up to us the mistakes we've made, the regrets we have. In reality, that stuff's always going to be there, it's always going to chase us. When we stop and turn and fight it, it's when we really determine okay, now I know who I am. I at least have a better sense of who I am than if I just keep running and running and ignoring my true self, or what I call your true peak identity. So that's a powerful one. I like that answer. I haven't heard it worded the way you worded it, all right brother.
Speaker 3:What's next for Jim Bell? Just keep moving forward, right, keep sailing forward. You know I've got a lot of plans. I mean new things that you know in my career. Anyway, that it's. I think there's some exciting things on the horizon for mortgage brokers and some new ideas that I have to try to help them be better, right, like how do I help them, you know, manage their day better, manage, you know, have a little less stress, be able to focus on what they enjoy doing more. So I've got some ideas around that. Personally, you know I got the travel bug again last year. Kids and I flew down to the Galapagos Islands for eight days, which was just absolutely mind-blowing, amazing. So, you know, I know we've talked about Africa and possibly doing a safari or something else, but I guess I want to go out there and just continue to experience the world.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you told me about the Galapagos trip. I think the first time we actually spoke a month or so ago and I put it on my on my bucket list of somewhere I do definitely want to go at some point. I've never been there yeah, absolutely amazing.
Speaker 3:I mean you think back and I mean this is where charles darwin did a lot of his research.
Speaker 3:You know about evolution and you know how how things you know develop over time and you know you go down there like we spent probably half a day with the giant tortoises okay, tell people how big they are they are like the ones we were and they vary dramatically depending on what island that they they are originally from and where they are, but the the average that we were seeing was probably three, three and a half feet tall, some somewhere a little bit taller. Their heads stick up even further and they're probably seven feet long. I mean, in some of these, they said, were 175 to 200 years old.
Speaker 2:That's almost hard to comprehend.
Speaker 3:Isn't it? And then when we went back to the little breeding area, because they've got them in these preserves and they're like 30, 40 acres, so it's not like they're, they're confined in a pen, um, but they had the, the, the babies, and I mean they're the the size of a half dollar. And you think about that, you're like holy moly, that that seven foot long, four foot beast that we just saw moseying along out there came from that little half dollar.
Speaker 2:Well, when you have 200 years to grow man, you can grow something.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's amazing. Yeah, I'd be a little afraid of what I'd look like in 200 years. I'll be honest.
Speaker 2:If you keep growing, man, I don't know if I want to say that. How much do you think the bigger ones weigh?
Speaker 3:Oh, I don't even know they were. They were enormous. That that shell had to be several hundred pounds. Wow, I mean, it was just. You know, I have videos of them walking and it doesn't. They don't look I'm a, but I mean it was the same way with a lot of the animals in that area. There's just so many unique species of animals and because the whole area is protected, the animals are not afraid of humans. So you could be walking along and there could be a bird sitting on a branch that's two feet from you and you just look over and look at it, take a picture and it doesn't flinch, it doesn't move, it doesn't fly off. Um, because they're so well protected, I would go there just to see these turtles the turtles, I mean the sea lions, the the different iguanas.
Speaker 3:They have marine iguanas that jump into the water and swim Tropical penguins which, I'll be honest, before I went to Galapagos I don't even know that. I knew there were tropical penguins.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've never heard of them. All right, one final question, jim. Is there anything that I didn't ask, any question that you wish I would have? Or is there any one final message you want to leave with the audience members out there?
Speaker 3:You don't actually physically interact, but you're like right there with them.
Speaker 2:Jim, we lost you for a moment. Oh sorry, that's okay, I was actually. I thought you were done, so I asked the final question. Oh I'm sorry, no, you're good. So. Oh, I'm sorry, no, you're good. So I'll ask it again. Is there any question that I didn't ask that you wish I would have?
Speaker 3:Or is there any final message you want to leave with the Bamboo Pack audience? I don't think so. I think we've hit a lot of stuff. I mean we've gone over a lot of information. I mean, you know, I guess if it sums it all up is, you know, continue to drive yourself toward the things you're passionate about, right, do the things you love, um, and and do them a hundred. You know we only get a certain amount of time on this, uh, on this big rock, um, just try to to, to embrace every moment that you have to do the things you love.
Speaker 2:All right. So I'm going to rephrase that again, cause I think that's a great final message Continue to drive yourself toward the things you're passionate about and give it your very best, Give it your 100%. Life is short and every second we tick away it gives us one less second to chase the dream.
Speaker 3:That's it.
Speaker 2:Brother, I appreciate you so much.
Speaker 3:I appreciate you having me.
Speaker 2:I really do. You're a great man. John and Kathy have done an amazing job and now you're doing an amazing job. You and Julie are doing an amazing job with Chelsea and Brandon, and that's how we continue to make this world a better place. Good people breed good people who breed good people. I love it, amen. I love it. All right, can you stand for a minute after we're done, after we wrap up? Sure, all right. All right, my brother, I appreciate you, man. You were an amazing guest on the Bamboo Lab podcast.
Speaker 2:We're going to have you back on here again in the future if you'll take your time under your busy schedule to do so. But again, I appreciate you, thank you. Thank you, all right, everyone. Thank you for tuning in this week. We'll be back again next week with another episode and in the meantime, I want to Please get out there. I'm going to ask you to strive to be and give your best. Please show love and respect to others and for yourself, and please live consciously and intentionally and remember, fail your way forward by Jim Bell. All right, everyone. Thank you very much. Talk to you soon. I appreciate each and every one of you. Until next time.
