The Bamboo Lab Podcast
"Ordinary people doing extraordinary things!"
The Bamboo Lab Podcast
EPISODE #150! Throw Your Hat Over The Wall: Overcoming Fear and Embracing Success#
In this landmark 150th episode, the roles reverse as Dave Dick interviews Brian Bosley about the evolution of the Bamboo Lab Podcast and the man behind the microphone. What unfolds is a captivating journey through triumph, struggle, and revelation.
Brian opens up about a surprising challenge that emerged when his podcast reached the top 10% globally—how success triggered impostor syndrome and led him to obsessively track metrics rather than impact. "I felt gross because the intent was to share wisdom around the world, and all of a sudden that took second row to the numbers," Brian confesses. This wake-up call prompted a two-month hiatus to recalibrate his purpose, offering listeners a masterclass in recognizing when achievement becomes a trap rather than a triumph.
The conversation delves into Brian's coaching philosophy, illuminating the crucial distinction between fear of failure and fear of success. Through personal anecdotes and professional insights gleaned from 29 years of coaching, Brian articulates why seeking help is a sign of strength, not weakness, and identifies the three pivotal moments when coaching becomes transformative: when starting something new, when stuck on the hamster wheel, or when successful but sensing untapped potential. His "hat over the wall" metaphor perfectly captures the courage required to commit to growth—creating a situation where you must act because there's no turning back.
Looking forward, Brian unveils exciting plans to bridge the gap between his one-on-one coaching and the podcast audience, including video content, a subscription-based "Mug Club" featuring live expert sessions, and mastermind groups. These innovations spring from Brian's mission to create meaningful connection at every level of personal development.
Ready to jump off the hamster wheel and soar? Email brian@bamboolab3.com to learn more about these upcoming opportunities or to suggest topics for future sessions. After all, as Brian's journey proves, sometimes throwing your hat over the wall is exactly what's needed to discover what awaits on the other side.
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:Welcome back Bamboo Lab listeners. This is Dave Dick, a blast from the past and I get the honor of interviewing our wonderful host, brian Bosley, for the 150th episode. So I'm pretty excited about today's episode One because, brian, I haven't scared you off in here letting me come back and do this with you. But the other reason is is you and I have been brainstorming on the proverbial next steps and we're going to talk a little bit about that today. But to just kind of get us started today, brian, I just want to get everybody up to date on you, what you've been up to, get a check-in, see how things are going. So, brian, welcome to the Bamboo Lab.
Speaker 3:Thanks, buddy, I have to give you an opportunity to come on here. I think this is your fourth time on.
Speaker 2:I don't know, buddy, I make guest appearances. I'm kind of in the shadows all the time.
Speaker 3:Well, like I always say, say you are the I appreciate you bringing me on you're the pod fodder of the blp, because this was all your brainchild almost four years ago.
Speaker 2:So I can't say I appreciate, I appreciate that, right, you're making me, you're making me blush a little bit. Uh well, hey, I, I wanted to. I want to get us kicked off today, really just kind of, you know of get caught up on Brian. I mean, it's been a while since you've been the focus of your own podcast. I know that you drop in and give thoughts here and there and you sprinkle a little bit of your leadership and mentorship throughout, but let me just make you the focus of Brian and what's been going on for you. So it sounds like you've gotten your format down quite a bit for the podcast. Just kind of get started with what have you found that's worked in your podcast?
Speaker 3:I mean the questions themselves. You know, a lot of those were yours and my brainchild, as you helped me, progress along and gave me some good questions to ask, and I think what's worked is just the sequence of the questions. I think that the questions themselves are, you know, some are lighthearted just to get to know the guest and some of them go deep so they can really get to know the guest, and I think we kind of just fell upon a good format. And you know, you know this, dave I've been wanting to change this format and tweak with it, and then I start thinking why it's working. I'll make improvements as we go, but the format has worked really well. I think the number one thing that has worked most is just the guests that I bring on. I'm just mesmerized by the generosity of people who will give their time for an hour and a half with with us and, uh, share their wisdom and experience.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've noticed, uh, just listening to you know, the various podcasts, I've noticed and an athlete, you have noticed just a professionalism, uh, in your podcast where you, you know, the early ones were, I say, primitive but you know, you're roughing it out and figuring out what worked. Uh, and then I've noticed this recently, that they're just crisp, the questions are crisp, the guests are very on point. So, um, kudos to you. I really noticed a big jump on that. And, um, you know, I noticed that you took a break for a period of time. Uh, I don't know, it was about a year ago it was last fall I think it was october, november, december.
Speaker 3:I think it was two and a half months, yeah what?
Speaker 2:what precipitated that? What was the reason?
Speaker 3:for it. You know that's. That was probably the biggest learning I've had in the past three and a half years of the show is when I got noticed last I'm gonna say july, maybe august, that the show is now. I got noticed last I'm going to say July, maybe August that the show was now the BLP was now in the top 10% of all podcasts downloads and subscribers in the world. That hit me and it was a really cool thing. Up front right I was like, oh, that's awesome.
Speaker 3:And I started to realize after that that I was checking out the. I was looking at the numbers far too much, you know, several times a day. Did we get a new city? Did we get a new country? You know how many more subscribers have we gotten?
Speaker 3:And I found, after a few weeks of doing that, that that become. That became gross to me, and that's the best way to describe it, dave, is. I felt gross because when we started this podcast three and a half years ago, the intent was to share wisdom to other people, wisdom and hope around the world, and all of a sudden that kind of took second row with me to the numbers and I just felt kind of disgusted with it and so I made an announcement that I was going to take some time off until I got my priorities straight with it. And so I made an announcement that I was going to take some time off until I got my priorities straight. And I took I think it was two and a half months. And then I had the privilege of interviewing Chuck Wackendorf for late December of last year and we aired that one the first week of January and I felt I got my mojo back. I got my head screwed back on straight.
Speaker 2:So what is that's so good? That you have enough, have enough awareness? I mean, what I hear you saying is that you had a focus which was altruistic, yet you know it was. It's designed and how do I make this a better place for myself and for other people? And then you got into that internet famous, so to speak, where now it's and I hear people talk about this on, you know Tik, toks or reels. Uh, I have this many followers and I have this many and you kind of got into that, like it sounds like you kind of got into that world of thinking that way and you kind of got disconnected from the purpose. So my question to you is many of us fall into that I, we, we start to what do they say, drink our own Kool-Aid. We start to believe our own BS, we start to see ourselves through this lens. How do we pull ourselves out of that and get back to our purpose? It seems like you lived it.
Speaker 3:I think the best thing to do is to have friends and family who will call your bullshit, and I had that, you know, a lot with you. You kept me grounded. My kids and my grandkids, my mom, keep me grounded. Just.
Speaker 3:I think that was it for me, that when I really looked at it, 99.9% of the planet doesn't give a shit. You know they, I don't know, probably 99% of the planet has never heard my show. You look at the numbers and there are still 180,000 podcasts in the world that were doing better than mine when mine was in the top 10%. And for me and it was also a time last summer where I kind of fell out of my own element personally too I was living in a town where I really didn't have a good connection. I was traveling a lot and I was drinking a lot you know I'm not a guy who drinks by himself and I found myself a lot during the course of that time frame.
Speaker 3:It wasn't a depressed, it wasn't a time where I would say I went black, but I went dark, I went gray and I was. You know I and I was sitting at home, I was looking at these numbers and messing around with the podcast while I'm drinking the gin and tonic or some beers, and the whole thing just made me feel kind of just gross and disgusted with myself, and so I decided I had to make some changes. So it wasn't just the change of the podcast. I just started making, overall, a lot of great personal adjustments and changes in my life, and I think that's what people notice now that the podcast is more crisp, it's more consistent, because I'm in a different state of mind, in a different place and space than I was a year ago.
Speaker 2:That's so good. You know you hit on a couple of points there that I'm just going to highlight. Brian, one, uh, one is one. You have call them truth sayers. You have people that are selling out, you know, buying into the bs, so to speak. You can step outside, you that you trust, and I remember that period of time because you and I had a lot of conversations and you were throwing out.
Speaker 2:I don't feel, I don't feel connected, I don't feel I'm losing my purpose. It doesn't make sense. You know I had a lot of conversations and I think it's it's true, it's not just me, and you have a world of people that are your truth truth tellers, right, that are willing to, you know, call it out and say, hey, what's going on here? Or keep you grounded, not in a bad way, but just more in a realistic way, and I, you know so, for your audience and for all of us out here in bamboo land. Uh, who in your world is holding you accountable? Or are you just, are you allowed to just buy your own BS and that's that's. That's number one, number two, number two and I I, as I go through my phases now and learn to readjust and be a better me.
Speaker 2:You connected physical, mental and emotional together. So you looked at your physical world you were in an emotional space and a physical space and you connected all of that and said, hey, if I'm going to be a better version of Brian, I'm going to feel better about what I'm doing. I have to physically be better, I have to mentally be better, I have to emotionally be better. Right, you challenge yourself that there's stuff there, but a lot of times I know for myself, I get grounded, you know, in working, yeah, but you're saying, hey, hold on, you can't just do that if, because if it's going to shift, because it's going down a spiral, it starts with the physical. Right, you, you got to put your the physical body that leads into the mental and emotional. So I think that's really good. You identified that and could articulate that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's very true, and I think one of the things that I have always had in my system is imposter syndrome, which is weird because so many of my clients that I speak with have it too. I've had that since I was a young person. So then when you get this level of the podcast itself becoming successful, that really reared its ugly head and I felt uncomfortable with it. I felt out of place, out of sync, like who the hell do I think I am with this podcast? How, you know, how dare I throw a podcast out there that's growing? And I had to really reel that because I've dealt with imposter syndrome all of my life but I've got it down to about 20% of where it was, you know, say, 10, 15, 20 years ago. But then it came back and I had to beat it back down again, but thankfully this time I was ready, I recognized it and so I think that was they all kind of coalesced together the success, my drinking, the imposter syndrome that all kind of coalesced at the same time. And by working, like you said, start with the physical. I agree with that every time. Just start with the physical, take care of your physical body. You know, and I was still doing.
Speaker 3:You know, I have a really weird morning routine. Dave and most people that I know know that I get up between 4.30 and 5. I spend about an hour and a half. I do the same ritual every single day and that really kept me grounded. So even when, during my darkest times, I still did that every day, so that kept me from falling too far behind. So I had that foundation there that was established and I never dropped that. Six days a week I did the same thing every day for an hour and a half when I first get out of bed, and so that was kind of a that that really saved me. That was my, that was my life jacket. It didn't, you know, I didn't. I wasn't swimming real fast, but I wasn't sinking either, I was. At least I was treading water, because I think that held me up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you have a, you have a friend. Uh, believe in Colorado, kevin, right, you know, you know, you know, youino, gino, gino, yeah, who is? It rings in my head that consistency over performance wins, right, like, so that's what you're leaning on is like I just had this habit so I can just expand on that. It's got to be tough for somebody who doesn't have that right To then just wake up tomorrow and do a two-mile run and 100 push-ups and 100 sit-ups. And you and I share something you, the eight, uh plank, I do eight seconds, you do it eight minutes. But what's, who's counting the difference between those? It's you know. It's about consistency.
Speaker 3:I've only done eight minutes one time. Don't trust me, that's. That was a one-off, that was three and a half years ago, uh, well, awesome.
Speaker 2:Oh well, awesome, because your podcasts now are great and it's so good to see you come into your own and you're doing phenomenally well with the podcast and I couldn't wish any more better stuff for you and I'm happy to see it. What's been, as you think about the podcast? You had any disappointments, that or challenges you can think of?
Speaker 3:I think just the one we just mentioned. I, I've thought about that question um a lot. I think it was the arrogance, I think there was some I, I I definitely felt arrogant. So, good, right, I did, and you know it was, it could, it could overtake you and I can't even imagine, like what a joe rogan goes through, or ed my let, or somebody who you know, theo von, who have presidents and vice presidents on their podcast. They have to really tap that down on a consistent basis. I mean, mine's a, you know, obviously it's a top 10, but it's still in that realm of top 10. It's a mid-level player, um, the podcast is, and so, but I still noticed that it was, it was creeping in, and so I'm glad the podcast has grown as it has. But I'm also glad that it didn't go from.
Speaker 3:It took three and a half years to. You know, at that time I guess two and a half three years to get there and now. So it's kind of grown over the course of three or four years, um, at a nice steady pace. If it went from zero to 60, I don't know how I would have handled it. So I had time to acclimate, but that was it. I think it was this kind of that gross feeling of arrogance and and then feeling, feeling like I'm not worthy of this and and but it was. It was a good test because you know, obviously I'm coaching my clients on that, on overcoming arrogance, overcoming imposter syndrome, how to deal with success and I was able to understand and put myself in their shoes and go, oh okay, I feel what they feel and I was able, I'm able to coach them at a higher level now.
Speaker 2:I think, brian, just me my two cents. I've suffered from imposter syndrome. I think I tend to believe that people who the obstacle is away theory right, you go through, you don't? You start from humble beginnings or you go through a difficulty and then you hit this different level and it's kind of because of that. I think a lot of people share that. Like you said, a lot of your, your clients, I think. A lot of people who get into success I don't want to say successful people, but people who get successful or get into some success look around and go. All these people are expecting me to do this and I'm really not that good, because they realize they're in the pattern of it and we just get disconnected. How hard it is to do what we did Right, and so your coaching helps people with that and it's good. You also took your own coaching and that's great and, by the way, I use it as a motivator because I don't want anybody to find out how bad I am, so I just keep accelerating.
Speaker 3:That's one way to do it. Honestly, I don't have the exact data on this, but I do believe this to be true because I tell this to every one of my clients who brings up the fact that they have imposter syndrome. Well, first of all, we go through a process and we dissect syndrome. Well, first of all, we go through a process and we dissect, and they usually say I have it. Then I say, well, let's dissect it to see whether or not you truly have imposter syndrome. And what I have found is about 70 to 75% of my client base over the past 29 years have it or had or did have it, um, when we started coaching. So it's very, very.
Speaker 2:Okay, so you said 79% 70 to 75%. Got it, got it, and you have a process for that. Yes, so if people wanted to learn more about it, you could help them with this right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, because you have to dissect. You know you have two fears. You have fear of failure or you're a fear of success. And everybody has fear of failure, every single human. Because fear of failure is simply one of three other fears either fear of being embarrassed, fear of being rejected, or fear of losing something that you currently have. We all have that. Nobody wants to be embarrassed, rejected or lose something, so we all have fear of failure. But fear of failure is so different because it's a simpler one to overcome. Because if you're afraid of failure, let's just get past it and become successful. Because if you're afraid of failure, let's just get past it and become successful.
Speaker 3:I'm afraid of bats in height, so I don't put myself in a situation where I'm around a bunch of bats or I'm on a high platform. But what if you're choosing that? You're trying to be successful in life, whatever that entails, but yet subconsciously you're afraid of success. So people immediately go to I have imposter syndrome. Well, there are nine other fears of success that you can have that aren't necessarily imposter syndrome. So we have to make sure that what's holding you back is not. It is, in fact, imposter syndrome, or it might be one of the other nine fears of success that are symptomatic.
Speaker 2:That's very good, because I always struggle personally with the fear of success versus fear of failure, trying to understand the difference between those two. So I know I struggle with that.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Yeah, I'm sure most of the people you coach probably get that a little confused too, they do, and the thing is, what I find is people who are technically the most successful, whether it's professionally or financially. Those are the people who almost always have fear of success, which is so strange, you know, and it holds you back.
Speaker 3:You can be successful and still have it, but I always tell people you got there despite your fear of success. Now we can eradicate that and minimize that anyway. Can you imagine how much faster and further you'll grow? You know?
Speaker 2:I hate to ask this, but do you actually have a process that does that?
Speaker 3:Yes, I do, it's called I call it a fear of success. Coaching, just a simple little process, yeah, and it's a matter of going through and dissecting and we do, uh, people do a self audit on those fears and then we go back and dissect the ones that I always tell people tell me that when I go through these with you and we teach, coach, the 10 fears of success, I want you to tell me which ones are definitely a fear you have, like you know it, and I rate them 1 to 10. Then I want you to tell me the one that you think is a joke, like who would ever have that fear of success? And I tell them, because that's probably subconsciously one of your fears, if you think it's stupid that you might have this particular fear, that means you probably have it and your comfort zone is trying to stop you from acknowledging it, you from acknowledging it. So we dissect kind of, but, like I said, when we do it all, roughly 70 to 75% of my people.
Speaker 2:one of their primary fears of success is, in fact, imposter syndrome. I believe that I believe that to be true, you feel like you're a fraud.
Speaker 3:The best way to explain it is you're in the success line of life, like at the grocery store, and you're always looking over your shoulder, thinking someone's going to tap you and say Mr Bosley, sorry, sorry, we made a mistake. We put you in the wrong line. You should be in the in the failure line over here. Can you come with me? That's what fear of success feels like all the time.
Speaker 2:You're just standing in the wrong line or you're, or you know that, like you're, you know you're speaking or you're doing something, you're leading a group or and, uh, just, you get this feeling like everybody else already knows that you're not good enough to be talking on this subject, subject or it. You know it's like you just have that impending doom. You do it anyways, you push through it, right, but it's, it's. Yeah, oh, I can completely relate to that. Since we're on the topic, brian, uh, most of what you've done for your professional career is coach people. I don't know. I think the Bamboo Lab club group shoots mugs, whatever we call them. I think they know that, maybe ancillary, but I don't think they really know. That's how you really, that's really your gift to people. So I wanted to ask you a little bit about coaching and to start off with when when should somebody decide to get a coach?
Speaker 3:Well, I always think of it this way. It's a good question. It's start stuck success. So I think when a person is starting out in their career or in a new endeavor, whether it's writing a book or wanting to do a marathon, or starting their career, starting a business, whatever it is they need simple coaching, they need a foundation, a basis of success and performance. Coaching, you know, typically something like that is a very. It coaching, you know, it's typically in something like that is a very. It's a short term, it's a coaching relationship for maybe six months, sometimes up to a year, and sometimes those clients stay with me for, you know, decades. So that's one time.
Speaker 3:But what also? When you already are on the path to in your journey and you're, you know, you're on that what I call the hero? Joseph Conrad called the hero's journey, and you're on that what I call the hero, joseph Conrad called the hero's journey, and you're doing something, you're being successful, but you're not right, quite at your peak yet and you feel stuck, like you're just stuck on the hamster wheel. You might have lost your motivation, you might have lost your discipline, you might have lost why you're doing this at whatever it is you're going after. You just kind of feel yuck. Now I have felt that three or four times in my 29 years of coaching. I've gotten to that stage where I feel stuck and when you just need that boost of somebody to say let's go back to the beginning of why you did this. What have you learned in the past three years, 10 years, however long you've been doing it? Now let's capitalize on, bring your why back up to the forefront with all this wisdom and experience you've extraculated, whatever you've gotten over the last decade or so.
Speaker 3:And then now let's go to the next level. So that's like that hamster wheel mentality You're just going but you don't really know why or where you're going. And then the last one is when you are successful. You feel really good, but you just know there's more in there. There is a blockage in your system, in your mind, in your behavior, in your processes that cause you to say I can't quite get to that next level, but I'm so close to it so you're not starting out. You're not stuck on the hamster wheel, you're moving, but you just know there's more in you. My job is to go in there and pull that out of you. You know, to help you do that shadow work. Get in the shadows, find out where, where the the blockage was, what trap are you stuck in right now? And let's release that so you can go to the next level. So that's higher level coaching when?
Speaker 2:what do you think prevents people? Uh, because what I know most of your listeners that they're like me, which I assume if you're listening to this podcast, you probably are. I believe in coaching. What prevents, in your opinion? What do you think prevents people from getting coaching or getting help like this?
Speaker 3:I think a lot of it is. I mean, some of it is I don't. People might not. They think if they ask for help, that they are weak. And the opposite is true If you don't ask for help, you become weaker. If you ask for help, you become stronger. So I think just that idea that why would I have to ask for someone? This seems like so many people are being successful. They're doing what I'm doing. They don't realize most of those people have asked for help, everybody's asked for help. So I think there's that, I think, as well as you know. There's the financial.
Speaker 3:People say, well, I can't afford it when they don't even know what a coach costs. And you know we have a system here where my goal is I just make it affordable for people. But I think the other side of it I think this is very true is people don't want to be sold. People want to be sold, people want to buy. And you know people think, well, if I get you know, my friend or somebody referred me to Brian I should give him a call or shoot him an email or shoot him a text to talk to him. They think they're going to be sold.
Speaker 3:And that's when I tell everybody. If somebody says, hey, I have a person who wants to talk to you, I tell them before they call me. Let them know I don't sell. I answer three questions. Number one would you benefit from coaching? Number two do I specialize and offer the exact type of coaching you need? And number three could we work together in a respectful, productive, synergistic relationship? If we answer the yes to all three of those questions, then we say okay, now we get into the semantics of how we do it, how I can help them, and I tell them take some time and think about it, get back with me in four days and that's it. It's pretty simple.
Speaker 2:You're very approachable Almost a critique to approachable Meaning. Once you decide you can help somebody I've seen you do this. You made this offer to me and I've helped other people through this offer Once you determine that, a they want coaching, b you can help them, you just say, okay, what can you afford? Like it's. It's it's crazy because I've worked with other coaches and it's a hard like this, is it right, you're in route and but you, you're very flexible.
Speaker 2:So I see that as good and bad sometimes, right, like I see that as cause. I know you, brian, and I've kicked your butt over this a lot of times. I'm like man, you've got to charge a ton more and, uh, you and I have talked about that, but I don't want to get. I don't want to get too hung up on that Cause. That's like don't feel like that's going to be the barrier To me. The barrier might be more of do I want to be held accountable? Do I? Actually? You can tell that story about the boys with the hat, right, like you know, you want to tell it real quick, brian. The wall, oh yeah.
Speaker 3:The Irish boys. Yeah, yeah, the Irish boys, yeah, yeah, I actually think this was. John F Kennedy actually shared this story when he was getting our country to support the moonshot and he said there's these two boys that live in this impoverished Irish village and every day, the one little boy, his prized possession was a hat that he wore like a derby, that his great-grandfather passed down to his grandpa, his dad, and now it's his. It's really the only thing he really owned.
Speaker 3:These kids were barefoot and every day they would skip across the Irish hillside and they would come across this massive stone wall, miles long and incredibly high, and they always knew intuitively that there was something much better for them on the other side of that wall. Better for them on the other side of that wall. But every day they'd look at the wall and they'd kind of kick the ground and bow their heads and walk away disappointed and a little bit disgusted that they knew there was something better. And finally, on one of these days they got to the wall. They skipped up there through the Irish grass and they got to the top of this mound and there's this massive wall and the one boy who is obviously a much more efficacious young man.
Speaker 3:He stared at the wall and right before they were going to turn on or walk back to the village, he ripped his own hat off the wall and he threw it over. And he looked at his buddy and he said now I don't have a choice, I must scale the wall. And that, right there is. My job with my clients is to help them throw their hat over the wall. And then let's scale the wall and get to the other side where we know something is better. And then you know it's. It's hard work, there's accountability there's.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of work you have to put into it, but it's uh yeah, but the point of the hat is hire a brian, take that job, interview uh, quit that job you hate, whatever, like, whatever, that's. That's what you're. That's the hat over the wall, right, that's the moment you just gotta like I'm just gonna do it.
Speaker 3:I don't, I don't know what it's gonna be on the other side, but I'm gonna do it yeah, and I think I look at it this way too, and I've had so many people just about everybody tell me you need to increase your hourly rate for coaching. You know I've been doing it for 29 years. But I also think of, like my children and my grandchildren. And I think of them and think, well, what if they needed help from someone? And they just needed somebody to help them start, or somebody to overcome the hump they're on or help them get off the hamster wheel, and they had to walk away because they just couldn't afford it? And I I think about that a lot and I think I don't want to turn people down. Obviously I'm not going to work for free, but, um, I I like to be flexible when I can, because there are people out there who deserve that flexibility not with everybody yeah, but but you, you are very generous.
Speaker 2:Well, okay, mentioned it, so I'm going to ask a little bit of a different question. Let's hear about your family. Give us a family update. You bring your family on. You've had your son on, I think you've either brought Ashley on, you're going to Mom's on deck. Just give me an update. How's Jack doing? How's the family doing?
Speaker 3:Oh, they're doing great. So I'll just kind of go down the list. I mean Ashley and Chris. Have you know Jack, my first grandchild? He'll be turning four here on the 26th of July. And now Ashley is pregnant with another son that will be born in October of this year. So that's fantastic news. We're all excited about that. Jack had his first tee ball game on Sunday and it was funny watching the videos. Actually, I'm going to be seeing them all tomorrow.
Speaker 3:I'm going to be seeing Ashley, Dawson and Jack tomorrow. We're going to my mother's tomorrow to spend a night with her. Then Dawson he's going to his senior year at Northern Michigan University. He'll graduate in the spring of 26. He and Audrey live in a cool little house right across from Lake Superior, right on the beach, so they're doing really well. He's got a summer job kicking ass construction, doing commercial construction for the summer. That's his career. His major is business construction with, I think, a management minor.
Speaker 3:Adam and Elaine have Mila, who turns three this month, and they're expecting another little boy coming in September. Evan and Sandy moved from Lake Tahoe back to Michigan this year. They have Ollie, who turned one yesterday, and they're happily back in Grand Haven, Michigan. And then, since I started the podcast, my youngest bonus son, Tyler, and Kylie. They got married a couple of years ago. So now all four out of five are married and three out of five have children. So we have I have three grandchildren and two coming.
Speaker 3:My mom is doing great. I'm looking forward to seeing her tomorrow. I'm leaving at five in the morning to go see her. She turns 90 here next weekend, so on the 18th or 16th, oh gosh, I feel bad. Anyway, next week and then, of course, a lot of people don't know I moved from Michigan to Wisconsin. I met an amazing lady, Jackie, who lights up my life, and I moved here. She's got two children, Zach, who lives out in Denver, and then she's got Kenzie, who's married to Matt, and they have a little boy named Parker, who is just a few months old right now. So we get to see them quite a bit because Kenzie and Matt live like 10 minutes from Jackie in Wisconsin.
Speaker 2:So it's been a lot of fun.
Speaker 3:My personal life is really doing well.
Speaker 2:What a full life man. What an absolute full life. A couple questions on that. First off, I've got to share with you Brian you definitely are one of the world's greatest salesmen, because I've seen Jackie and I've heard about her and realized that you outsold yourself on that. She probably doesn't realize it yet. So good job, and anybody that's looking for better sales skills get with Brian. He's got mad sales skills, based on just meeting Jackie for sure.
Speaker 3:Well, yeah, when you don't have looks, you have to be a really good salesman. True and funny how we met Dave we met on a dating app.
Speaker 2:Which is really bizarre.
Speaker 3:I know because I've never had success on dating apps. She's never had success on dating apps, but I usually when I oh yeah, Tell everybody how that happened.
Speaker 3:I think it's great, it's just you know, every time I would connect with somebody on a dating app, I'd say the same thing Love your profile, great to connect with you here. And I'd just go silent and I'd wait for them to respond. Good, so good. Well, when I saw jackie's because jackie's put on her profile page or whatever it was if you drive a motorcycle, have a long beard or smoke cigarettes, please don't, don't, don't, bother responding, or something like that so I just wrote out there, said hey, love your profile. I have an idea. Why don't I come over to wisconsin? I'll pick up a motorcycle and we can go for a long ride with my long beard flows in the wind and a cigarette hanging from my mouth, and. And so I started off with a joke and I'm not a naturally funny guy at all, I know that but I thought you know what? What do I have to lose? And then she she said she looked at it and thought then she got it. And then she responded and the rest is history.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. That's awesome. So you threw the hat over the wall. You just said forget it. I don't know what's going to happen, but I'm just going to go over here and take this shot at this.
Speaker 3:What I was doing before wasn't working, so I figured I just got to try something new.
Speaker 2:So yeah, I threw my hat over the wall. So the first principle you were using is basic sales tactic, just the numbers game, just put it out there, see what happens, which, by the way, if anybody's listening and using apps, probably not the best strategy. Second strategy worked really well. Something to learn there for everybody. So good job. And your mom is how old again?
Speaker 3:She'll be 90 in a few days.
Speaker 2:And we've discussed this previously. But she's doing, she's healthy doing well.
Speaker 3:She's doing great. Yeah, she still works. In the summer she works at a gift shop in my hometown. So she works four days a week, roughly a few hours a day, and then when that shop closes down in the winter, she volunteers at a little place called the Hope Chest in my hometown which is kind of a small version of like a goodwill for the local community. Opal still walk every day in the morning, I think at nine o'clock. They meet and walk around our block a couple of times. Yeah, she's doing great. I mean she, and she's a good, uh testament to just living a good, healthy, quality life. My mom isn't she. You know she has always likes to, has liked to read. Now she does more. She does a lot of word searches. Um, I buy her word searches for Christmas. She loves to crochet, I think, or knit, I don't know. I think it's called crocheting. But that plus, she says, stays physically. She stays physically active. I mean she's the prime example of how to live a good, long, quality life.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've got the profession I'm in, you know, financial services. They get a chance to sit across the table for people who are 30 and people who are 90. Right, and I get to see the differences of how people live a lifestyle that your mom embodies. Some of the principles, uh, that help get to 90 and still be active. You know some people think you wouldn't believe brian. Some people will go I don't want to live to 90, I don't live to 100.
Speaker 2:And I remind them how would you like to live to 100 if you felt like you did when you were 50, which is the embodiment of what your mom's doing, right, keeping a social life, keeping friends, keeping engaged, having purpose, so working, keeping it, you know. Being physically active, which you said earlier. Let's start with the body all the time, keep it mentally engaged, right. So there's a roadmap here, not easy to do, simple, not easy to do. So there's a roadmap here, not easy to do, simple, not easy to do, but if you do them you can live a healthy, long and fulfilling life. So kudos, kudos to you and your mom, and I'm glad you get a chance to see her and I think isn't she going to be an upcoming guest for you?
Speaker 3:Well, that's the thing. So one of the questions people have asked me before is what is my favorite podcast and I? I do think it was back in no january of 23, so two and a half years ago. Dawson came on and we did a podcast called anger is there to help you, not to hurt you, episode number 66, and it was so. It's so amazing to look at that.
Speaker 3:You know, four different people from four different continents have heard my son at the time he was 21, or maybe he was 20 to hear his, his wisdom on that show, and I and I was. When we were doing it together, we were literally in a bedroom at a house, because the in the one bedroom upstairs could had carpet on the floor, so it was better acoustics with a tray table set up and he and I were talking in the same microphone and uh, and I had tears in my eyes just being there. So, yeah, so the next step is I want to get my daughter on and I want to get my mom on, because those two have an immense amount of wisdom to share. But Ashley's busy, you know. She's got a full job, full-time profession, she's raising a soon-to-be four-year-old and pregnant with boy number two. So when the dust settles, I'm going to get her on it, but I also, like I said, get my mom on, cause she's got a lot of stuff to share.
Speaker 2:Oh, I'm sure that make sure to pump her for the for some of the dirty little secrets about you too.
Speaker 3:Yeah, those will be edited out.
Speaker 2:So well, um, that's awesome. Thanks for the update on everybody, brian. Sounds like everybody's doing incredibly well and, uh, that's that's awesome. Thanks for the update on everybody, brian. Sounds like everybody's doing incredibly well and, uh, that's, that's awesome. So you know, back to your podcast. Really, if you, if you're thinking about three years from now and your podcast, what would be, what would you, what would the conversation between you and I sound like three years from now regarding your podcast?
Speaker 3:Well, number one, I've changed my thought process, my desire to be the biggest podcast in the world Because to me that's a fleeting goal but what I would like to say, I would like this podcast to be the most impactful podcast in the world. To the people who are subscribed to the podcast, you know so it may not be the biggest, but for those who are subscribed and listen consistently, I want it to be the most impactful podcast they listen to. And that makes it that so it's. It keeps it in my heart, my mind. It makes it more of a boutique podcast versus this grant, and I don't care if there's, you know, a million subscribers or 50 million subscribers, that's I mean. Obviously, if I had a choice, I'd go with 50 million subscribers, but the idea is, for those who are subscribed, I want it to be their go-to show for hope and ideas and wisdom, and you know from the guests that come on so, with that in mind, uh, one of the things that I think that you try to remind people is to to do is to subscribe.
Speaker 2:That's yes, number one. Yes, for sure. Smash the like button right, smash the drive rate and review, make comments, send you emails, let you know, because that's what you're really driving towards. What an impact. I think you're up to 10,000 heart letters, not quite 10,000.
Speaker 3:That was the original goal. We're not quite there yet.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but you went to 100,000. You were like I'm going to just blow that. Yeah, I know?
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know we were getting them a lot because I was reminding people to send them. In the last year or so I, I and I was reading heart letters off at the beginning of the show. Here's what we got. And I just had a listener subscriber, I think last week or this week reach out to me and ask me why I haven't read any out in a while. I thought I just kind of forgot about it.
Speaker 2:To be honest with you, so I'm going to get back to that. It's working so well that, yeah, you stop doing it.
Speaker 3:Nothing fails like success. But you know, what we're going to do differently starting this year is I will be doing more. Um, the podcast will be uh, it'll be on youtube. So I mean, we have a small youtube following, but it's it's just audio. We're going to start doing these podcasts where myself and the guests are recorded, so it'll be a long format, a long form podcast on YouTube, so you can actually see me and see the guest.
Speaker 2:Nice. Yeah, that's going to be fun. You and I talked about that in the past. Well, let's, let's, let's, let's uncover. Uh, this is the best part of this podcast is what we're about to talk about next, in my opinion. Uh, I know you've covered some good stuff up to now, but, brian, I love this next question man, what are you doing to take this thing to the next level?
Speaker 2:The podcast itself or the whole no, your whole the the bamboo lab, Like if the podcast is one component. But we, you, you can I just share with your listeners what's happened over the last few weeks here? I hope so. I hope you can I just share with your listeners what's happened over the last, yeah, a few weeks here. I hope so. I hope you can tell me. Uh, I hope so you have me too you're gonna say so.
Speaker 2:You. You've shared with me, brian, that you just felt stuck. You didn't really know where everything was going, and you and I started brainstorming, and one of the things that you and I have discussed is how do we bring this to more people, how can you take your platform so this podcast being one element, but how do you take this and actually help more people? You had Robert Hall on last week or the week before really discussing the new world, how we engage, how we consume information, how we buy products, how we watch news, how we everything the world today is different. We know this from 10 or 20 years ago, but sometimes a lot of us are stuck and this is a message for listeners too we're stuck in using analog technology in a digital world, meaning we're doing things we did 10, 20 years ago and hoping that they're more successful or as successful, and the most dangerous thing or the hardest thing for somebody to do if you've been successful. Uh, and I was listening to somebody called a futurist I forget his name Futurist studies. They study 8 to 12-year-olds and how they consume, what they're purchasing, how they make decisions, because that tells them 10 to 20 years in the future, what products, how do companies survive, how do they change and adapt? And one of the things that he shared was I'm most being successful in the future.
Speaker 2:I we were at a uh a conference where it was the top one percent of the company was invited right, so the top one percent producers were there and he said I'm most afraid of for success for the people in this room. And he said I'm most afraid for success for the people in this room. And he said I'm most afraid for success because you've been successful. What you've done has given you success to get to here and you have to abandon that if you're going to be successful in the future and do something completely different. And it's really hard when you've been successful to abandon that to do something completely different, because you can sit back and go.
Speaker 2:Why would I do something different? This has gotten me to a level of success. It's worked, but it's really hard. We can go through stories, kodak and other companies, blockbuster or whatever and you can say, well, those are just follies, but the problem is they were successful. Why, you know, why would you rip up your business plan if it got you success? Because the future looks completely different. Then you get Amazon. You know Sears is no longer. Sears is the original Amazon.
Speaker 2:If you think about it right, they just didn't adapt and so anyways, apt, and so anyways. That's a long-winded way of saying we have. You have some things that you want to do to bring more, to make more of an impact in the world and to make it more accessible to people. So you want to brainstorm for a little bit with your audience and just see where this goes.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and yeah, thanks for asking that question, because really my whole purpose in the 29 years of doing this so far has been to impact and empower people, and so I have. If you look at the two things that we currently do, or I currently do, you have coaching, which has been obviously the mainstay in the foundation for 29 years, and then you have the podcast. The coaching, the private coaching, is very, very intimate. Like, I know my clients, they know me. We get into some really deep stuff at times and you know crying there's been, tears, shed there's been. You know there's been people yelling We've gotten, we get, we have. Sometimes we have to get down and dirty and really get them to that next level. So I get to know my clients in a very intimate level. Then you have the podcast, which is the other extreme where it's not intimate. You know, I don't know, obviously, the vast, vast majority of the listeners out there. I'm trying to get to know what they want and what they need from me so I can provide that, but it's not intimate. So there's a middle ground, but it's not intimate, so there's a middle ground, and that's the chasm right there of I don't have a middle ground way to impact and empower people around the world. So the thing we're working on you and I have obviously been talking about this is kind of going into a third chapter of the Bamboo Lab. You got the coaching, you got the podcast.
Speaker 3:Now, somewhere in the middle, where I'll start doing more short-term private videos for subscribers, like a short form, weekly potentially where you will subscribe and you'll actually get. You'll hear me talking directly to you in that subscription room. So it'll be small, it may be short I should say short form but it'll give you topics and give you more specific advice than we can give on the podcast. Not quite as intimate as the coaching, however, and then the other one that I'm really excited about is what, in my mind right now, I'm calling the Bamboo Mug Club. I don't know if that's the name we're going to stick with or not, but where I will bring on it'll be a private podcast that you will subscribe to and pay a nominal fee every month, where you will actually join live through Zoom or Microsoft Teams and you will see me on video live with a guest, and that guest will be somebody who's successful in a certain niche or has a certain specialty they're a subject matter expert somewhere and that person and I will go back and forth and discuss that issue, that topic, give those words and pearls of wisdom and advice and counsel to the subscribers on this mug club concept and it'll be live so people can actually text in and type in and ask questions.
Speaker 3:And so one of the things I'm doing now with that is I'm reaching out to people and I'm going to reach out to the audience right now is are there certain topics that would be important for you so I can find the right guests? This is something that's going to take a while to develop. I'd like to get something. I'm going to pilot it later this summer and then open it up to more subscribers later down the probably in mid-fall is my hope. And don't hold me to that because I don't know all that's going to take to get that going. But that's my ultimate, that's my goal right now.
Speaker 3:But are there topics that you'd like to see so I can formulate guests that could come on and deal with those topics because that's their specialty? Or do you know of a guest, or are you? Are you someone who? Hey, I'm an expert on this? Brian, I'd love.
Speaker 3:I think this is a great topic. Feel free to email me, brian, at bamboo lab, threecom, and say, hey, I think it's a great idea, I think it's a crappy idea. I have I hear some. Or here's some I think it's a great idea, here's some topics I think I would really be interested in. Or hey, I've got a person I think would be a great guest, or I would like to become a guest because this is my subject matter expertise. So those two are kind of. Those are kind of that's going to separate that intimate, high-end coaching private coaching and the not as intimate podcast. It's going to come somewhere in the middle for people who still so I can still impact and empower people, but on a more intimate level than the podcast, but not quite, as is is uh uh intimate and as uh deep as private coaching.
Speaker 2:Well, I, I'm excited, brian, because there is a lot of people who want coaching, and coaching, uh, on demand, let's just call it coaching on-demand, right, like that. They could access you and your pearls and the same thing you would lead an intimate coaching session with except without, maybe the feedback piece of it, right, which is, or the personal guided piece, and that's that short clip, you know, maybe it's a 15 to 20 minute. Hey, here's a topic, here's what, here's the concept, concept, here's what you can do, here's your end product, you know, and then be able to walk through pieces of the coaching that you've helped other people with and they could access that and be able to get their coaching to, to whatever they could get out of that. Yeah, and then the second piece that you talked about is really and I really liked this because I think most of your listeners are wanting to know one how to be better physically, how to be better emotionally, how to be better mentally, how to be better professionally, right, how to do more with what they, what they're currently working on, and they're taking that holistic approach and could come to one place where you have a myriad of guests that you can actually, and then they could interact with that. One of the things you and I talk about is for those groups, like having a live Q&A. So I'm here, I'm hosting, but you can send questions in and we'll all get those. We'll do the best of your ability, in the time period allotted, get to the questions that seem most pertinent or the ones that most people are asking, and be able to even have them in advance or live at that at that point in time. So I'm excited. Those two formats are a lot of work, not easy to do, but I think it's going to be very impactful and really take everything to the next level.
Speaker 2:And the other one that you and I've talked about and I didn't hear you mention is really starting and thinking about the groups of people that you have in the universe, kind of banding them together.
Speaker 2:It's what I'm excited about to have other people that you can host, so to speak, in a mastermind I'm just using the word mastermind, you're thinking of other terms for it but getting in a group of people who are committed to each other, where you're fostering that relationship and they're setting goals and they're being brutal, that brutal honesty that you had last fall, that group that you could reach out to you're fostering that for the people that I don't say you care the most about, but the people who care the most about themselves, to say look, I want a team of people that are the same playing field as me.
Speaker 2:Maybe I'm an entrepreneur or a solo practitioner of doing something. I'm kind of by myself and I don't really have a group of people to hold me accountable that I can go to. Yeah, and you're looking to foster that. I'm excited about that too, because I think you're going to get a lot of people that are listening to this one and say I want that. At least that's my instinct, and if it's not, I'll selfishly tell you I want to be in it.
Speaker 3:So suck me up, you're going to be a guest too. Well, that's the thing. I was talking to a client this morning from North Carolina, one of my favorite clients, and he's, just like many people, very successful I mean financially successful, professionally successful, personally becoming more successful and kind of finding out that he's outgrowing his current circle. And so the idea is, you don't outgrow a circle of people until you find your next group of people. And so he, this particular client, had asked me like two weeks ago, at the same time, what would you say? Brian is the number one impetus to success? And I said it's who you marry and who you associate with it every time. It's who you associate with it, every time. It's who you associate with your partner in life to your friends, to your you know, even your clients. And because you, that's who you get, that's who feeds you, and so and I can prove that quantifiably because I've tracked that in my own personal life um and yeah and so, but a lot of people don't have that. They don't have that, um, that circle within their, let's say, their geographical community.
Speaker 3:If you're in a small town or a big city but you have a group of friends and you don't want to get rid of your friends, but you do want to start putting other people in there who are at the level you want to go to. And what I share with him today is I said you can't necessarily do that in your town. You might be able to, but you don't have to. You can have a best friend who challenges you. You challenge him. You love and respect each other, who might live across the country, and I used you, dave, as an example. 18 years of this relationship and this friendship. We live thousands of miles apart from each other, but we talk every week, we text back and forth every day. We are there for each other, we challenge each other and you have been a major impetus to my growth. Despite we don't go out for beers, we don't bowl together or play softball together in the summertime, so it's like just a couple.
Speaker 2:Just a couple weeks ago, you and I went on a team speed. You said I forgot how ugly you were that's right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we just started doing team calls um. But and that's the thing I want to bring those people together and create a community for people who are like-minded, successful-minded, performance-minded, who want to take care of their body, their mind, their finances, their career, their soul, whatever it might be, who just want to improve, who want to throw their hat over the wall. That's really what it is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, two things I'd comment on that. The first one I'd say is the last thing you just said a second ago. If you've been successful and I'm speaking to people and this will resonate to the ones this impacts you get to a point where and I hate to say this, but it's true the group of friends and associates you have will outcast you or pull you back. There's no maliciousness about it. It's literally you're becoming something different than the group that you were with. That's just. If you're going to be successful, that's going to happen. It doesn't matter what level that you're at. When you get that next level, it'll happen again and again. That's just.
Speaker 2:That's just part of the process of being uberly successful. Who's in the sphere with people like I could name people. Some of them are political hot rods right now, but lightning rods right now, but you get to a smaller and smaller stratosphere. So part of your process is okay, let me build that. Let's use, let's get rid of geography, let's get rid of who you know. News, let's get rid of geography, let's get rid of who you know, and let's reshuffle the deck and let me put you in a group where you can get that challenge and get some like-mindedness.
Speaker 3:Well, you know, one of the things if I can say real quickly is there was a term called junto. I think it's J-U-N-T-O, the founding fathers At least it was Ben Franklin, I know he used to do this when they would get together and discuss the future of our nation, the forming of our nation, they would get together at a pub and they would drink beer and they would just discuss it. It was more informal, it wasn't a congressional meeting, it was just them getting down and talking about what might work, what won't work, what they're struggling with, what their challenges are, what opportunities and successes they were experiencing. And I just love that idea. And I did it on a short.
Speaker 3:I did it on a very small level, face-to-face, when I lived in Grand Rapids, maybe 20 years ago, 25, 22 years ago, with a small group of people. For a while it just kind of disbanded. I was going through a divorce and I was starting to raise my Dawson on my own and but we at least had the seeds of the idea back then and then you kind of propagated that seed again, rewatered it over the last few weeks, as we've been talking about this and it's got me excited to, I see it as the antidote for what a lot of people need out there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and. And they will run a life cycle. You're going to run a life cycle with that group too. Right? The secret wisdom is in the form that I think that you're trying to create is okay when you run this life cycle. This group has run this life cycle. Do I need to put you in another group, or have you fallen to the side? People are going to rise to the level of complexity, right, peter, principle is still at work, so maybe you don't go to the next level.
Speaker 2:But there's no, there's no shame in that. Ed Milet said you know, we had a guest on one time that said if you're happy with the way things are right now, you've achieved success. It's those people that are unhappy with the way things are that are still searching that darkness, that thing they're afraid of, that imposter syndrome for some, or the fear of failure, fear of success, or that darkness that keeps creeping up on them, that keeps driving them to the next level those people are going to. They're still hungry, they have that emptiness of I haven't achieved yet. But if you're happy and you like your life and you're content, high-five yourself, you've achieved what everybody else that's on the journey is searching for. Don't belittle that there's no shame in that. Acknowledge that and be happy with that.
Speaker 3:The only thing I'd add to that and I agree with you is that don't confuse happiness with contentment, because a lot of people are content in life, but are they really happy? That's true, because I really don't.
Speaker 3:You know, when you look at what makes people happy, there are three things. 50% of your happiness is genetic. It's determined by your parents and grandparents and you can't do anything about it. It's your DNA and you can't do anything about it. It's your DNA.
Speaker 3:10% of your happiness is all the stuff you have money, cars, home, good looks, popularity, income. All that together makes up 10% and you have influence over that. But you don't have control because it can all be taken away at any given time. But one thing that there's 40% left of your happiness, which is called intentional activities, and that's the one area you control. It's the only one of the three you can control, but it's a full 40% of your happiness, and that is intentionally doing things that challenge yourself of your comfort zone, meeting new people, trying new things. You know experimenting in life. When you do that with the intention that you want to become a better person for yourself and others. That's where your happiness comes from. You know it's like you go for it. You sit and watch Netflix and eat, drink beer and eat candy all night. You're content, but I'll guarantee you're not happy doing that. But if you got up and went for a two mile run or a five mile run or a walk around the block.
Speaker 2:You're not going to be content, but you'll be happy.
Speaker 3:But you'll be happy Exactly, and that happiness lasts forever. You know it hits you right away, you feel good, but there is a sense that the rest of your life, subconsciously, you use that timeframe of your life to do something positive and productive versus something that's, you know, just watching Netflix. I'm not saying you shouldn't watch Netflix and eat candy and drink beer. I'm just saying you know that's an example of contentment versus happiness.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, good, good separator there I give you, I give the listeners three things. Brian, I think you'll agree with this, because you hit on this a second ago. Some of the most important decisions is who you marry, who you hang out with, right? Yeah, I had somebody give me a piece of of insight one time to pass this along. Um, and I think it's the fifth time I pass it along, so I don't have to, I don't have to say who it was uh, scott lockney, but, um, I know scott.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, uh, I can tell you. I can tell you everything about you and I can tell you where you're going to be in five years. I get three pieces of information about you, the three pieces of information. I can tell you everything about you and where you're going to be five years from now. If you show me your checkbook, your check register, so what you spend your money on, if I can see your calendar, what you spend your money on, if I can see your calendar, what you spend your time on and I know the five people you spend the most time with, if I have those three pieces of information, I can tell you everything about you and I can tell you where you're going to be in five years.
Speaker 3:Scott's a wise man and that's a great piece of information.
Speaker 2:And I. So I'm challenging your listeners as you think about Brian, expanding, what's coming up and whether you want to participate. Take a look at what you spend your money on today. How are you investing it in you? More specifically, are you just spending it or is it an investment Number two? What's going on? What do you? How are you investing your time? Are you learning something? Are you challenging yourself? Are you you know?
Speaker 2:Did you look at your calendar? One of the first things you do, or you did with me, was you took a time audit and every 15 minutes, I had to tell you what I was doing and I turned that into you after two weeks and you just said, okay, here's, here's where you can improve and here's where you're doing really well. So what do you spend your time on? And then write down not just who you think your closest friend is or is who your closest friends are, but who do you spend the most time with? And that's why you know who you marry is important, because that person's in your ear every single day, or they should be right so that I think that's why that decision like you said a second is the most important, one of the most important ones, because that person has your ear. They're going to affect how you think and your day-to-day activity, your emotions. So that's a challenge.
Speaker 2:And then, if you're missing of the five friends that you want to spend time with, well, raise your hand with Brian, send an email and say, hey, how do I become part of this? Send an email to b at bamboo lab three, correct, brian? Yep, that's it. Yeah, the number three, not the word threecom. And Brian, traditional spelling. At bamboo lab three, the number threecom.
Speaker 2:Yeah, um, hey, I want to be part of this. I can be a speaker. I would love it If you could. Of this, I can be a speaker. I would love it if you could get this person on as a speaker. I've read their book, or I know other people like that, or I know this person in this industry. He has maybe hasn't been as famous as somebody else, but he's super knowledgeable. Send all that to Brian. I want to deluge Brian with enough information that he can start to get really good material and elevate this. And it's one of the times that we get to have our fingerprint on the future. We get to craft what we're a part of, and you're inviting people to do that.
Speaker 3:Yeah and that's the exciting thing about this new journey. You look at again. I've quoted the hero's journey from Joseph Conrad already today. But you get to a point in life, if you're traveling down the path of this, you're facing resistance and you're going on a call to adventure. You get to a point where there's a death and a rebirth and a lot of people are so afraid of that moment where they have to change Something completely changes in them and the way they do things and the way they think or feel or act, or the thing you know, their behavior. But it's also it's a very terrifying time. It's a very exciting time and for me to be in that place where I had to kind of kill my old thoughts to some degree of how I did this, to now reborn, be reborn again with a new concept, a new way of approaching and impacting and empowering people, and those first few people who come aboard are going to be they're helping create it, I mean.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we'll never be as smart as all the people we surround ourselves with.
Speaker 3:No no.
Speaker 2:So it's.
Speaker 3:And that's a cool thing because I do this thing called CLR. I've been doing it for years. It's a conscious living reminder. Dave and I track 33 things that I need to do every week, starting off with how many times I contact my mother seven times a week, my kids seven times a week, jackie seven times a week. 12, reach out to 12 friends every week good quality friends, how much protein, how much water, how many, how much times I lift and extra. You know all this stuff that I track, it's 33 different things and I then I borrow I'm sorry, I line chart it, bar chart it, bar chart it. Yeah, I bar chart it.
Speaker 3:And so I can look and say, okay, when did I have good months where I did most of these things? I never get 33. I think I've gotten it one time, but I get between 29 and 31 now. But I was looking at my past, I was doing 12 to 16, 18. On a good week I might get 20 out of 33.
Speaker 3:Literally, the month I met Jackie literally you can see it it went up February, march, april, may, june, now July are all my best months ever of getting these other things done, because when you surround yourself with positivity and you surround yourself with people who love, understand, respect and appreciate you and who will challenge you, who will celebrate with you, who will challenge you, who will support you. That is the impetus to everything else, and so I'm going to do this longer and put together a great sampling of data, but in my life anyway, I can literally quantify the differences, and that's just with your romantic partner. You could do the same thing when you meet new friends and say did that change my living style, or my improvements and enhancements, so to speak. So 100% true.
Speaker 2:Awesome, awesome, brian. Well, I have just a couple more questions for you, sir, and I think I already know the answer to the next one. What's the one thing that if you knew you couldn't fail, would you start today?
Speaker 3:Well, it's the thing I've already started.
Speaker 3:It's my, it's my book. Well, it's the thing I've already started. It's my book it is. I will say this it's the book and it's doing video podcasts and putting videos out in any form. I've always avoided, say, microsoft Teams or Zoom calls with clients. I just started doing that in the last month. I love it. Now we're going to be doing these videos for the podcast and doing live sessions. With this mug club concept. I'll be shooting private videos for subscriptions, for people to sign up and watch me. They'll be provided with a short form video on some success or performance topic. So those are there and those we're tackling now.
Speaker 3:But the book is it? I mean, I have been writing this book for 15 years and it's gone through phases. There's something about sitting down at my computer and creating more content and putting this all together that I just get lost in, and so that is it, and so that's. Another impetus for the next six months of this year is to really get tackling on the book. So when I get back to my mother's I'll have a. It'll be part of my daily routine that I sit down. I don't care if I just stare at my computer for a set amount of time, because I know that will bore me, but it's a there's a set time where all distractions will be off and the only thing will be that will be on my mind will be the book and I'll start creating and I'll start taking notes and I'll start coming up with ideas. So but that's it. It's finished the book, get it published.
Speaker 2:I know you've been working on the book and I know that you uh the my this shoot straight with you, brian, it'll never be perfect. So you just got to publish it, man, and I know you know that too. So that's been the one of the barriers. We kind of discussed that, um well, what's next for you, sir?
Speaker 3:It's a, it's, it's, it's the book and the and this next stage of connecting the podcast with the, with the coaching session, and kind of have a my uh, uh, um, uh. What am I trying to say, Arel, version of the two together, by doing the club, the private club, where we get a bunch of men and women together, as well as the private video, the subscription videos? Those are the two next, those are the three next big things for me, because I look at Go ahead?
Speaker 2:Can people sign up with a way to say hey, when you get this launched, I want to be, I want to be part of the first first peak is there? You have a tracking mechanism for that, or?
Speaker 3:I mean, just have to email me and I'll, I'll, I mean, I'll, I'll keep, I'll keep account of everybody and their contact information. So, yeah, so if you email me and let me know, uh, for either one of those, the or for both of those, the, you know the, we'll call it the mug club for now, until a better name comes up. If it does, where you are, together with a bunch of like-minded people, live once a month probably. We're thinking, if you're interested in that, and or hey, I want to subscribe to this deal where you're giving short-form videos out only for subscribers and it's a very condensed, very version of my coaching and podcast together, like just content.
Speaker 3:Like here's a thing I learned today, here's something that I I'm hearing from my, from my subscribers. They want to learn about this. Let's dig into it. So if you're interested in that, just let me know. I mean, and we'll, we'll put together a, a spreadsheet of potential people who are interested and then, when the time it goes to becoming launched, we'll let people know. Here we're going live in three weeks or whatever.
Speaker 2:Awesome. And what question, Brian, did I not ask that I should have asked today?
Speaker 3:I think the one thing that I because I get this question a lot is that what have I learned over these first 149 episodes? What have I learned that I didn't know prior to doing the podcast? And there's kind of I say the same things every time, I tell everybody the same thing how. One number one is how close we all are to other truly amazing people who want to connect, who want to share their story, want to share their wisdom. And we're right there.
Speaker 3:I'm shocked that when I watched Oprah, I would see this gentleman on Oprah eight or nine times as a subject matter expert, and he's also a counselor and coach to celebrities in hollywood. And yet I can text him and he will. He will text back with information or advice for me. That boggles my mind. That like that's one connection away, you know and we're all that. And also the second thing I learned was how amazing everybody truly is, not just the guests, because sometimes I've just kind of randomly asked for people to come on the podcast and I hate to admit that, but I'll go through Facebook sometimes and say, hey, that person looks interesting, come on the show and I'll vet them through a pre-interview. But the instinct is, it's not even instinct. It's just the fact that every person, every listener right now, has an amazing story. They have amazing wisdom to share. They're all on that journey of life that with that, they have just amazing gift to offer other people.
Speaker 3:And then the third thing I learned is what we already talked about is that you can't take success personally and because you know when things are you're doing something, you can't get too caught up in it. You have to surround yourself with people who will humble you, will keep you, you know, challenge you, will support you and celebrate with you, but will challenge you to stay true to who you are. And then you kind of separate yourself. The podcast is not Brian, the podcast is the podcast, and I'm deeply connected to it. I'm deeply imprinted on it and it's imprinted on me.
Speaker 3:But the success or failure, the one thing I've learned is don't read comments. So if somebody reaches out to me on social media, I don't read the comments, um, I if I'm sure I'm missing opportunities to coach people or speak in different for organizations, but I don't read comments, um, because and I don't you know, if you email me directly, I'm going to listen, I'm going to read it it, um, but because I don't want to take. I don't want to hear the great stuff, but I don't want to hear the negative either, because I don't want to. I don't want that to change my, my perception of you know, because there's a lot of, there's a lot of crackpots out there and there's a lot of bots out there and I'm not not interested in that well, I think other other people who do podcasts or other other people are in a space where they can get that live feedback.
Speaker 2:Uh, I've mentioned the same thing. Like there's 10 positives and you get the one negative and that's the one you're focused on. Yeah, like it's yeah. So what's the point in that? Right?
Speaker 3:if you come with a constructive criticism, say, hey, I love the show, I would, but I don't like that. I'm perfectly fine with that, that fact, I want that. But if somebody's and that's a person who's going to reach out to me directly Everybody has my email, so it's not like it's private information. But if somebody's just commenting on a post after the podcast is put up or something, I'm sorry but I'm not reading it.
Speaker 2:Well, and I'm going to wrap up with a lesson that you embody really and just to share, napoleon hill had a process of where he would read biographies or read about other famous people and then he would like pose a question to these, like abraham lincoln or george washington or socrates, and have dialogues in his mind with these people and solve problems with that with them. And, just as you know, it's fascinating to think about having the wisdom of. You know some of the greatest minds of history because you studied them, you read, you're a big, prolific reader, but you, you've also embodied that with your death. But you, you've also embodied that with your death and you, you, your dad, although left when you were a young man, has shaped your life, has still had a huge impact on you and if you wouldn't mind, as we wrap this up, just sharing that, uh, after college, you were embarking on your career and you stopped by your dad's grave and you made a promise to him. What was that promise, brian?
Speaker 3:Well, a couple of things. Number one yeah, I've had two people who've impacted my life and obviously, you know, not coincidentally they're both my parents my mother, who has shaped me and raised me for the past 58 years and is still raising and shaping me to this day, and my dad did it more in the. He did a lot in four and a half years with me and, yeah, you're correct, but it wasn't actually. It was actually two weeks before I was going to college. So I was 18 years old and I drove down with my pickup truck. I remember I had a blue F-150 pickup truck beat up and the passenger door didn't even shut, so I had to have a bungee shut, I had to have a bungee cord.
Speaker 2:Who didn't have that car? Who didn't have?
Speaker 3:that truck. The hubcaps were so rusty I just painted them white. But yeah, and I stopped down and I remember standing at his gravesite and it was a sunny day and my dad has a really nice plot where it looks over Lake Michigan or it looks over Lake Huron, I'm sorry and the Mackinac Bridge is right there, so it's a very scenic plot. And I was sitting and I was starting to cry. Now I know I was not crying because I missed my dad. It had been 14 years, 13 and a half years actually, or so, since he had passed away at this time, but I was crying.
Speaker 3:I was moving away for the first time, away from my mother, my family, my friends, my hometown, the only home I'd ever lived in. I was going to college and I remember verbatim what I said. I said between my tears I said, dad, I don't know what I'm going to do with my life, but I promise you I will change the world. And I said that. And I don't even know where that came from, dave, it just came and I just walked away, said that, and I don't even know where that came from, dave, it just came and I just walked away and that was it. I never really thought about it until after college, you know.
Speaker 3:And then I went on to become, went into management at American Express, and I remember walking down the hall one time, behind I think, I had 29 or 30 advisors financial advisors that I was in charge of in my office. I was 27, 26 years old, and there were two or three of them walking ahead of me. They didn't know I was behind them. And another advisor, who was not in my group, was an older senior advisor, was meeting, kind of met them in the hallway as they passed and he said what's going on?
Speaker 3:Folks? And they all sit in unison, changing the course of the world. And it hit me that I was actually teaching them, not even connecting that back to the commitment I made to my father, you know, 20 years prior, but I was or not 20 years, you know, seven, eight years, six years prior, whatever it was. I wasn't even connecting, but that was what I was teaching and we were using that slogan we're changing the course of the world. That was our motto for our group, and so that was a commitment that has stuck with me ever since.
Speaker 2:Once realized, you know, six years later, when I it actually was, I was telling people this I better go do it um, and so that's been a major focus of mine well, and you, you've transcended to it just part of your dna now, and so I can just, I can imagine that your dad in heaven is saying to him, to, to you, to everybody. One, he's very proud. And number two, you kept the promise, brian, and you're going to continue to keep that promise. So I thank you for everything you do in behalf of the bamboo uh club and a gang gaggle whatever they call it the bamboo stuff. Thank you for what you do, thank you for the hard work, thanks for taking the challenge of taking the podcast out and now taking this to the next level. You're changing the world, you're shaping lives, you make yourself available. You're a good human being. I just want to personally thank you for being awesome. So, with that behalf, everybody here, thank you, sir I appreciate that and you're more than welcome.
Speaker 3:It's been an honor and I want to thank you, dave. Obviously you've been. You're my pod father. This was your idea, and thank you for our friendship over the last 18, 19 years. You have no I. I know how much I know. You know how much I love you, because I say it all the time.
Speaker 2:Thanks, brother, love you too.
Speaker 3:I also want to thank my family. I want to thank my kids, my grands, my grandkids, my mom, my friends, my clients. I mean I have the best clients in the world. I really do. I love them dearly.
Speaker 3:I had an opportunity this week to actually look at a client during a Zoom call or Microsoft Teams call. I said look at me, look at a client during a zoom call or microsoft teams call. I said look at me, look at my eyes. And he looked at me and I said I love you. And he looked at me kind of for a second surprise, and he said I love you too. I said I wanted you to know that. Um, I really and I thank you to all the guests out there that have come on this show. My gosh, what a group, amazing people, I mean and all the listeners. I mean this. This is without you guys there, nothing. And I also want to give a. I'm going to thank people in advance for those who come on the next level of our show with the Mug Club and the videos, for those guests who come on there and the subscribers who join. Thank you in advance because this has been a fun ride over the past 29 years. I'm looking forward to the next 29 years.
Speaker 2:Awesome, Thanks everybody.
Speaker 3:Thanks, brother, and thank you everybody. See you all next week.
