Ignite Your Prey Drive with Coach Michael Burt

In this episode of the Live Your Extraordinary Life podcast, I'm joined by Wall Street Journal best-selling author, motivational speaker, and the man known as "America's Coach,"  the legendary Coach Michael Burt. 

In our conversation, Coach Burt shares how anyone can reach a high level of success so long as they have  4 critical ingredients --  skills, knowledge, confidence and what he calls the "prey drive."  In his best-selling book "Flip The Switch: Activate Your Drive to Achieve a Freakish Level of Success,"  Coach Burt who's navigated the transition from a championship high school basketball coach to a powerhouse business and performance coach, explains that "prey drive" is our innate drive as humans for pursuing goals with unparalleled determination and fervor. His philosophy is that success is the result of identifying one's skill or talent and deploying it in service to others, a path he insists leads to an extraordinary life.

However, he cautions that in order to activate that prey drive, you must know your purpose.  Unfortunately,  according to Coach Burt, 87% of people live their entire lives without ever knowing their purpose.  So, he's made it his mission to help people identify their unique talents and skills and the problems they want to help solve, and then package it in a way that enables individuals to monetize their purpose.  This has lead to the rise of his highly successful program called "Package Your Purpose."

Coach Burt also shares an ambitious project currently underway—the creation of the Greatness Factory—a sanctuary for adults seeking to realize their full potential. His vision is the creation of a space that transcends the conventional, marrying the energy of co-working with the dynamism of personal development, podcast studios, and a speaking stage and auditorium. The first one is slated for Nashville, Tennessee. However, Coach Burt's plan is to bring more Greatness Factories to cities around the country.

This episode is more than just an exploration of high-performance principles; it's an invitation to join a movement, to step into an environment designed to ignite the extraordinary within us all. My hope is that you'll enjoy the episode as much as I did recording it. Without a doubt, Coach Burt is a dynamic and disciplined individual who is sure to inspire you to contemplate your own purpose and how to activate your own prey drive.

Connect with Coach Burt:
Website: https://www.coachburt.com/
IG: https://www.instagram.com/michealburt?igsh=cDRhOGZsZjQxenA2

Connect with Michelle Rios:
IG: https://www.instagram.com/michelle.rios.official/
FB: https://www.facebook.com/michelle.c.rios
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3ahwTlqiLU&list=PL-ltQ6Xzo-Ong4AXHstWTyHhvic536OuO
Website: https://michelleriosofficial.com

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

You don't find your purpose and then go do something big. Your purpose actually finds you when you are alert, curious, responsive. You are pursuing something.

Speaker 2: 0:16

Hi, I'm Michelle Rios, host of the Live your Extraordinary Life podcast. This podcast is built on the premise that life is meant to be joyful, but far too often we settle for less. So if you've ever thought that something is missing from your life, that you were meant for more, or you simply want to experience more joy in the everyday, then this podcast is for you. Each week, I'll bring you captivating personal stories, transformative life lessons and juicy conversations on living life to the fullest, with the hope to inspire you to create a life you love on your terms, with authenticity, purpose and connection. Together, we'll explore what it means to live an extraordinary life, the things that hold us back and the steps we all can take to start living our best lives. So come along for the journey. It's never too late to get started, and the world needs your light.

Speaker 3: 1:19

Hello everyone and welcome to this week's episode of the Live your Extraordinary Life podcast. I'm your host, michelle Rios, and I am so excited about this week's guest. My guest got his start in coaching high school basketball and leading a team to the championships in Tennessee, and he's gone on to become one of the top business and performance coaches in America, a motivational speaker and the leading authority on activating what he calls the prey drive in people and teams around the world. He is the author of the book Flip the Switch activate your drive to achieve a freakish level of success. He has helped tens of thousands of people fight through complacency, break down mental barriers and catapult themselves to the next level of health, wealth and happiness. Without further ado, it is my pleasure to welcome to the show the legendary coach, michael Burt. Thank you for that great introduction.

Speaker 3: 2:18

Well, I am so excited. We met a couple months ago through a mutual friend, craig Siegel, and I was so grateful for your time there. You really excited our team on that call and it made me just want to dig in a little bit deeper with you and spend some time today. So thank you for making the time. I am going to start where I start, with all my guests, which is asking you the question what does it mean to you, coach Burt, to live your extraordinary life?

Speaker 1: 2:48

You know that's a great question. I think I go back to a Henry David Thoreau quote. If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams and endeavors to live a life that only he can imagine, he will meet with success unexpected in common hours. To me, if you are using your talents which is something a lot of people don't know their gifts, talents and their primary skills, distributing those gifts and skills to the world to help other people with their ambition, to me that's a pretty extraordinary life. The stats tell us that 87% of people live their entire lives and never locate their purpose. I actually think that because they never locate their skill and they never find the problem they want to solve in the world, that brings them a sense of purpose through the exchange of their talents for that problem. So I think an extraordinary life is really using your gifts and talents at a very high level in the world, rewarding you in the form of love, appreciation, affirmation, reputation, referrals and even monetization, even money, which is just an exchange. So that's an extraordinary life to me.

Speaker 3: 3:51

I love it and you're doing it All right. Give us a little bit of the background, because you did not start off as a top business and performance coach. You were living in Tennessee and you were coaching high school basketball and you have really taken the experience on the court and I would venture to stay as an underdog at a time and then became a championship coach and you have really created this empire.

Speaker 1: 4:19

If you will Tell us a little bit about your journey, Well, from what turned me on to personal development was at 18 years old I went to a coaching clinic. There was a very successful division three basketball coach in Tennessee, don Meyer. Don Meyer had over a thousand wins and he would do these free coaching clinics where hundreds of coaches would come in. As a young 18-year-old basketball coach, I set up in the stands with my notebook and he said if you don't read another book this year, pick up a copy of the Seven Habits of Highly Effected People by Stephen Cubby. And he said, first things first, I had never read a self-help book. I had never been to a self-help seminar. I had come from a small rural school in Tennessee that probably the education was good in pockets but average in other pockets. And so I go, pick up this book and I read the Seven Habits and it changed my life.

Speaker 1: 5:07

The combination of seeing Don Meyer. Every kid had a notebook, every kid was learning life after basketball. He was using sports to teach life. And when I saw that I go, that's what I'm going to do. So I buy the book, I read the book, I become enamored with these seven habits.

Speaker 1: 5:22

I said I'm going to teach every player the seven habits of how I affected people, then principal center leadership, then first things first, then the five dysfunctions of teams, and what I really was learning was how to deconstruct concepts, package those concepts, codify those concepts and then deliver the concept in a way that activates something inside of a person to want a better life. I've since called that pre-drive and I've since given the whole process a name called competitive intelligence. But at that time a young basketball coach trying to connect with players and trying to win games. But people kept saying man, you're really good at the motivational side and you're really good at the psychology side and you're really good at this side. And I heard that over and over from 20 to 30. And that got me interested in taking it to a bigger arena.

Speaker 3: 6:08

Did you ever have to overcome your own limiting beliefs and, going from that experience to this stage, tell us a little bit about maybe some of the things that you yourself have had to eradicate or work through.

Speaker 1: 6:23

Well, I look at identity as a big piece of this, and early in my coaching career my self-talk was limiting I'll be a good coach, but I'll never be a championship coach because, after all, they've never won a championship here. When I started my coaching business at 31, my business coaching I'll be a good business coach, but maybe I'll never be one of the top business coaches in America like Tony Robbins or whoever else that's out there. Then, when I started writing books, my self-talk was I'll be a good author, but I'm not really an author, I'm more of a coach and I'm not a great writer, I'm more of a communicator. So I'll write books, but I'll never write Wall Street Journal of New York Times bestselling books. And see, that was the self-talk I had for a lot of my life.

Speaker 1: 7:04

At 25, I changed my mind and I said I'm going to be a championship coach. And I started thinking like a championship coach At 35, 36,. I'll not only be a millionaire or single-digit millionaire, I'll be a multi-millionaire or multi-digit millionaire. I'll not only write good books, I'm going to write Wall Street Journal bestselling books. And so there were these key decisions that I made along the way where I kind of drew a line in the sand between who I was and who I wanted to be, and I'm like I'm not going back to that.

Speaker 1: 7:32

I'm stepping into this and when I spoke at 10X in 2018, people asked me what that did for my career. Well, it did a lot for my career, but what it did for me personally was I figured out I could hold my own. I figured out that my pedigree and background at 30 years of coaching is that I could hold my own versus the best people in the world, and that gave me a lot of confidence. I walked off that stage and I go. I can do this at a very high level and I know I have a Southern accent and I'm a little dude and I'm bald-headed. I'm not as tall as Tony Robbins and I don't have Cardone's looks and I don't have Bradley's looks, but man.

Speaker 3: 8:08

The lot package and what is coach for? Undeniably, undeniably, you can have an amazing energy about you.

Speaker 1: 8:16

That's what I learned. So, for the listener, the word decide means to kill something. No, the word decision means to cut something away. But part of your identity is to quit emulating other people and make a decision. You're gonna become one of those people that other people emulate and I think that's some of the decisions I've made in the last two or three years. It really happened with the book flip the switch. I said I'm gonna become one of the top people in the world in my lane, doing what I do and what I do best, based on my Unique past and my unique experiences.

Speaker 3: 8:46

You say something in your book that really struck me. It's not about Searching for your purpose, is about having your purpose find. You talk to us a little bit about that concept.

Speaker 1: 8:57

If you would have told me when I started this business that a lot of my work would be helping people Locate their purpose, I would have just laughed. I would be like, no, I'm a coach. I help people get results. A lot of companies Hire me to come in and drive sales, but over the last 15 years I've really carved out an area where I help people find their Primary skill, and most people don't know that primary skill.

Speaker 1: 9:21

I started this when I wrote this ain't no practice, like many years ago. Then I wrote person of interest and then when I wrote flip the switch, it's like the drive is not activated if there's no steam in the engine. It's like what am I gonna do with this drive? I need to locate my primary skill. Well, when I locate my primary skill, I then need to locate a problem that I am deeply passionate about solving Right. And when I use my primary skill to solve a problem in the world, there's typically a feedback loop where somebody comes back and says thank you, that was incredible, that changed my life, that added to me, and that it and through that exchange is where I think your purpose finds you. So my argument is you don't find your purpose and then go do something big. Your purpose actually finds you when you are alert, curious, responsive, you are pursuing Something.

Speaker 1: 10:17

One of the things I like about Musk is he never gets into business for the money. He gets into business to solve a big problem in the world and he kind of backs into the money. And I think if we I didn't get into coaching people for the money I mean I was a high school basketball coach, I loved coaching kids and then I go, you know what, if I could do it at a bigger level, it wasn't cause I can make so much more money over here, although I could. The truth is I could have stayed in basketball and, about this point, probably been a major division one coach and I'd probably making over a million dollars a year coaching a college. But the point is I didn't do it for those reasons. I wake up and do it because I love helping people find, package, market and monetize. That is a formula that I use over and over and over, and in the process people Locate their purpose.

Speaker 3: 11:01

I've heard you talk about. One of the fundamental problems with a lot of people with their online Businesses is they may be very talented, they may be very articulate, they might actually know what problems they're solving for, but they're terrible at packaging what it is they have to offer. Talk to me a little bit about how you cut through that, because you've really Figured out a way to get it in there and understand how people are going to respond and package it in a way that is Enticing for an audience that they're selling to or that they're providing a service for. Tell us how you figured out that. That was your gift.

Speaker 1: 11:36

The concept is everything, and in the old days I would come up with a concept that I thought was really cool. Try to sell it to the market. Figure out there wasn't a lot of demand for it. And then I had the formula backward. I started going okay, money changes hands when problems are solved. How do I develop concepts that solve problems?

Speaker 1: 11:56

During the pandemic, when there was no speaking engagements, I started doing virtual events and the team was asking me what are we going to call it? What do we name it? And they said what do you really do for people? And I said man, it's some kind of crazy way. I help them locate their skills and their purpose and I teach them how to make money. And they said why don't we call it purpose to profit? And that program generated two and a half million dollars Virtually and it was like a home run. Then I said what's the evolution of purpose to profit? If I help Michelle locate our purpose, if I help her Monetize her purpose, what could I call it next? And I started calling it package your purpose. And I go okay, I'm gonna go on a ten city tour in 2024. Call package your purpose. The cost.

Speaker 1: 12:34

Packaging is anything that consumer can feel, touch, taste or see. So you look at a book like atomic habits, which is the number one best-selling book of the year last year. It's a great concept, the way it's packaged. Everybody has habits, everybody liked to bring those habits, for the most part, and Adam is a very small thing.

Speaker 1: 12:51

When I wrote person of interest, people started saying man, I want to become a person of interest because people of interest don't chase, they attract. When I wrote flip the swidge, it's like man, I need you to activate my prey drive. I trademark prey drive. Right now I'm working on competitive intelligence, which is a new concept, which is a combination of knowledge, skill, desire and confidence. It's a new way to talk about intelligence. So when I walk into something, it's like that's a concept that I could do books, programs, audio, virtual Retreats, licensing deals, and so I'm like a songwriter looking for a hook for a great concept. And then all of my buddies Tim Grover and Bradley and Andy Elliott and all these people started going man, you're so good at packaging, you're so good the way you package content. I kept hearing that over and over and over and one day I go man, maybe that is my skill, maybe that is my superpower and, lucky for me, there's a big need in the world with successful people who want to package their intellectual property for monetization or to help other people.

Speaker 3: 13:54

Yeah, I mean, it's one thing to have the self-awareness of knowing what your skills are and what your purpose is and how you might apply its problem solving. It's a whole other thing of knowing actually how to package that in a way that you can monetize, and I think that's where so many people get stuck. So like a great deal of self-awareness, lots of talent, but don't have the ability to market effectively. And so for you to both have the ability to stir something in people, for them to want to do better in their life, but also help them figure out how to do that, I think you're just way too gifted here, coach. It's unfair for the rest of us.

Speaker 1: 14:30

The long cycle of obedience.

Speaker 3: 14:32

It's discipline. I want to talk a little bit about that. Let's talk about your process, because you are a very disciplined man. Tell me a little bit about how you go about your day and your life in cultivating that obedience, and what does obedience mean to you? Because I have a feeling it really transcends multiple areas of your life.

Speaker 1: 14:53

Yeah, eugene Peterson wrote a book many years ago called Long Obedience, in the Same Direction and what that means to me is you find your gifts and you have a long cycle of refinement, and I like the title. Talent is already. Look at people that are really talented or we think are gifted and we go. Are they just born more gifted than us? I'm not as gifted as them. The book by Jeff Colvin makes the argument that the people you think are more talented than you actually aren't more talented than you. They just found their talents earlier in life and they had a long cycle of practice.

Speaker 1: 15:30

I was doing a webinar last night, a master class, and I actually started speaking at 15 years old. I had a speaking coach at 15 years old. I actually started coaching basketball at 15 years old. By the time I was 18, I'd already been in front of probably 20,000 to 30,000 people speaking. I was already a head basketball coach at 18 and 22 at the second largest high school. I made a lot of mistakes early, but the point that I was, I'd already found my talents. Now I'm 47 years old. So when you fast forward, you look at how many three decades of doing the same thing coaching, thinking, studying, reading, breaking concepts. They are coaching various types of people.

Speaker 1: 16:08

I spent four years in the prison system rehabilitating maximum security offenders. That taught me a lot about life and transition. See, you don't understand how these things make you so well rounded until you're coaching later in life and you go oh yeah, I've dealt with that and oh yeah, you don't want to do that. And oh yeah, this was a big mistake and man, I've really screwed that up. Spending time in the prison system forced me to study transition, the ending of something, disorientation, loss of confidence, new beginnings. So now, when people are going through divorce or they're going through hard times, I can go.

Speaker 1: 16:40

You know, I spent four years really studying transition and I can see you're in a disorientation period right now and the faster I can help you flip the switch on that then the faster I can get you back. Or I can say, oh yeah, I've worked with these people that were running a five billion dollar company and here's some big mistakes that I saw and we made. So I think that is where a lot of my discipline comes from, which is I'm alert, I'm curious and I'm responsive, and I study a lot, a lot more than people think. I read a lot, I study a lot, I break down, I codify, I create a lot and that gives me a number one. It's a passion of mine, but it's also a discipline that I've cultivated.

Speaker 3: 17:15

You're also one of the hardest working people I know. I think you were talking about being on the road no less than about 200 days a year. I'm assuming that that's between doing master classes on the road, doing your tours, book events actually on stages. How do you keep up that level of energy? That's a lot. I know that you have now some pretty nice transportation modes here, which is fantastic, but how do you keep that up? That's a lot.

Speaker 1: 17:45

About two or three years ago I really got a lot more seriously about my health. I started going to one of the top doctors in the world. They customize everything to my body my workout regimens. I hired a former MMA fighter to live with me for a year. That traveled with me and kept me in shape. Some of it is just the way I treat my body like an athlete, but some of it is. I have such a deep passion for coaching I can really turn it on Even if I'm tired.

Speaker 1: 18:09

Saturday was my last formal speaking engagement of the year and really, if you look at my schedule for the rest of the year, I have a rejuvenation cycle and I kind of see myself as an artist. I need to go on tour to meet new people, and so I did do over 200 dates this year on the road speaking. I loved it. And then I have periods where I rest, I practice and I perform, and so this week is a rejuvenation period, Next week's a rejuvenation period. That way I can regenerate and be ready to go in 2024 with excitement, with rejuvenation, with enthusiasm.

Speaker 1: 18:41

I like to build new things. I'm a creator, so I'm building a $7 million complex here where I'm at today at the 505 in downtown Nashville and I like just going and looking at it the theater and the podcast studios and office spaces and it gives me something to work toward, Because as soon as we get this one finished, I'll be thinking, okay, how do I put another one up, how do I get another one up? How do I do that? It's like that is prey. Drive for me is a pursuit of something in the future.

Speaker 3: 19:05

I love it. Okay, when you are not on the road, when you are able to be in this rejuvenation state, what is your favorite thing to do?

Speaker 1: 19:12

To be honest with you, just create it. I call it creative loafing. I like to be able to do whatever I want whenever I want Read a book, go on a bike ride, go work out for a couple of hours. See, to me, being off is nobody to coach, no schedule. I coach so many people. We're talking with the companies I coach. We're into the thousands of people a month. So for me, I may go from coaching to coaching to coaching to coaching, to speaking, back to coaching. You see where I'm going.

Speaker 1: 19:44

So for me, time off is no schedule. Like this week I'm going to Las Vegas to see Garth Brooks at the Caesars with my best friend and his wife. Me and my wife are going to go there. I have no schedule. I think I have to do one thing on Friday via Zoom, but for the most part I can be Now. That doesn't mean I take off and do nothing. A lot of times I'm creating, I'm thinking I'm figuring out a new way to promote something, but it's on my time schedule with no deadlines. No, it's more like okay, I've got a kind of concept for 18 to 25 year olds I'm tinkering with, or I'd like to figure out a way to incentivize my team to hit their numbers better, or I had an idea because I saw something. So to me that is fun. I don't do a lot of things A lot of people do. I don't have a hobby like that. My hobbies is literally just being able to do whatever I want to when I want to.

Speaker 3: 20:31

I find very similarly. For me it's travel, travel without a schedule, so they can explore beyond adventures, and that's usually. It's not that I stop thinking about the problems I want to solve, for In fact it's just having that space to let these creative downloads come in as you're exploring and maybe changing the environment around you from time to time, leaving everything behind for a little bit so that you can create space. That's fantastic. So talk to me about whether or not you believe ordinary people can have extraordinary results if they simply have determination and a drive to do it. If they figure out and can activate their prey drive, is that enough to build seven figure, eight figure businesses? Is that enough for them to get to the next level, or is there some other missing ingredient?

Speaker 1: 21:20

Well, they're going to need four things. They're going to need knowledge, they're going to need skill, they're going to need desire or prey drive and they're going to need confidence. And I see people who want to be great. I was talking to a young man this morning selling cars. He wants to do bigger things. He follows me on social media. He's been thinking about it and doing vision boards and at some point he's got to convert that. So I may say he don't know how to get to the next level. That would be knowledge. He doesn't have the skill to get to the next level. He may not have the desire or the prey drive to see it through to the conclusion or he may not have the confidence and courage to go for it.

Speaker 1: 21:59

So, yes, a lot of people start with average ordinary lives until something activates the prey drive and the switch is flipped. It could be embarrassment, it could be exposure to something, it could be competition, it could be fear. Something has to come along and activate the drive. This is why I say nothing happens until the prey drive is activated. Now, once the prey drive is activated, I want a better life. I want a nicer house. I want to drive a better car. I want to stay at a nice hotel. I want to not be broke. I want to not worry about money. There's something I want Health.

Speaker 1: 22:34

People go on about their lives, accepting what they have. Oh yeah, that's for him or her. They have something I don't have. I'll just suck it up here and do this.

Speaker 1: 22:46

I was downstairs with my construction manager who's building this building, and I heard him say the other day, because he's building some things in my office down there. He said man, if I had it my way, I'd just go back and just do this one thing, just carpentry and building things. And I said well, you do have it your own way, like you can do that. He said. I've been a superintendent for 22 years. I've been managing projects for 22 years. He doesn't really bring me a lot of joy babysitting all these people and I'm like go back to being a carpenter. Nothing's stopping you from doing that. Now he may go. Well, I'm making too much money managing the projects, okay. Well, that's why I do the exercise A to B. Either staying at A is greater than moving to B, or moving to B is greater than staying at A. But you can't have it both ways. You forfeit the right to complain about it if you're not going to do something about it.

Speaker 3: 23:28

That's what I say to people.

Speaker 1: 23:29

You can't complain about it if you're not going to do something. So I think a lot of average people can live extraordinary lives if they go to work on those four parts of their nature Knowledge, skill, desire and confidence.

Speaker 3: 23:38

And yet so many people have come to the end of life. One of the biggest overarching discoveries where they sort of hospice nurses was that at the end of life, a lot of people that are dying say I just didn't live the life that I thought I could have. I didn't allow myself to, I didn't allow myself to dream or take the next step. I wish I had the courage to do that. That probably goes back into your confidence arena for sure. A lot of people are people-blazers. They're free to rock the boat. They don't have what I would say the level of conviction to be authentic, to really be themselves. They show up the way they think other people want them to, and that is a huge disservice to the world to not only themselves but the world and denying the gifts. What tough people and I'm sure you run into this where you're super talented and you are not doing what you need to be doing or do you just say no, unless they know what they want, I can't help them.

Speaker 1: 24:37

I use these words a lot during the interview today because I'm really on this kick that I only work with people who are alert, curious and responsive. If I call a person and they don't respond to me, I tell my team, if they don't respond to me when I call, they're not that serious. Because if somebody calls you that you really respect and admire and you follow their work or you read their books, but you don't take their phone call, then you're not serious, that's not alert, and people do that, by the way. So I tell people I know within the first 15 seconds if they're those three things alert, curious, responsive, are they hungry, are they humble, are they teachable, Do they have a teachable spirit? Because I can tell typically in one conversation if someone has a teachable spirit, if they're interested, if they're curious and if they are, I'm open to working with them. If I detect that they're not hungry, humble, teachable, if they're not alert, if they're not curious, if they're not responsive, then I just move on to somebody else. I don't try to convince them. I may try a couple of times and say, hey, man, let's do something together or let's do this, but I only go where I feel appreciated, not tolerated. I don't partner with people that it seems too hard to partner with the. I may ask you know?

Speaker 1: 25:40

I remember asking a real estate coach, a popular guy I was coaching the kind of same people he was coaching. I'm a pretty open, friendly dude. We should do something together. I'm coaching a lot of the same people You're coaching and he messaged me back and said oh yeah, I'm busy until 2025. And I thought, okay, what you're busy is you're too busy being fabulous and I'm okay with that, but I'm not ever gonna call you back to do anything with you. You know, like I would never, ever in a million years, say that to a person. I may say you know what, I don't know if it's a good fit for us, or maybe we don't believe the same things, or I would never say I'm too busy until 2025 to even have a conversation with you. It's just a scenario against.

Speaker 3: 26:19

Well, you don't know what you don't know right From one conversation what might open up as a new opportunity or a new experience.

Speaker 1: 26:27

That's how I feel. But when I have that conversation with a person and they're closed, then I just move on. I don't get my feelings hurt, I just say thank you, I owe you. Let's move on to the next one.

Speaker 3: 26:36

Okay, you've mentioned that you're a studier, you read a lot, and you mentioned two books that started this, that really transformed your life early on, and those are the Stephen Covey books the First Things First and the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. What are you reading these days? What book recently have you read that has really just been like, yeah, this is a game changer. Beyond, of course and we will have links to this in the show notes your book.

Speaker 1: 27:03

Sure, a light, damn pink book on the power of regret. I was gonna mention that a minute ago when you talked about at the end of people's lives. Regret can be a good thing if it causes us to change our behavior. Man, he talks about if onlys and at least, at least I gave it a shot, at least I was in the game versus if only. I like that. I'm reading Ramsharan Know how. Today I read a lot of Sullivan, dan Sullivan that may not be his mainstream, some of his smaller books that he writes. I'm reading Billion Dollar Loser About we Work.

Speaker 1: 27:33

I read a lot on books about things I'm very interested in because I'm building greatness factories, so I'm studying what worked, what didn't work for buildings I'm doing. So I kind of take a concept about it and become immersed in it Videos, podcasts, interviews, book. I mean I would just extract as much as I can from that source because I believe it is the learner's responsibility to extract maximum value from the teacher. When I got certified in the seven habits of how they affected people, 25 years old, I had to borrow $2,500 for my mother because I didn't have the money. I was a high school basketball coach. I had read that book. I had watched every Covey video.

Speaker 1: 28:12

There were people who showed up at the certification who had never even read the book. It's like my company told me to come here. They didn't even know Covey, they didn't know what the book was. They just I'm like so amateur, like I'm a pro when it comes to learning, and amateurs say, well, I don't read, I don't like reading today's world. There's books you can read that take an hour. There's audio, there's video. There's so much available content there's no excuse. It's just a form of laziness.

Speaker 3: 28:40

At the end of the day, Do you have your own goals around reading and what you want to accomplish? Obviously, I know you have business goals and you are creating a lot and you are writing and you're constantly coaching. But do you have personal goals around your own? Like I want to read this much. I want to be able to, on a daily basis, get in this exercise. I know that you train and eat like an athlete, which I think is very impressive that you continue to think that way, because not everyone does. Let's be honest. But tell me a little bit about your own goals. I think a lot of people want to believe that they stay disciplined when they're helping other people, but often they talk the talk but don't walk the walk.

Speaker 1: 29:20

I think I don't have goals like I'm going to read 100 books this year although I will read 100 books most likely I am more of a way of life. Reading is a way of life. If I have any free time, I'm going to read. If I'm going to my daughter's cheerleading competition and she's going to cheer for three minutes and I'm going to be there for six hours, I'm going to be there. Has a backpack on, has three books, my iPad, because she's going to run around play with her friends and I'm going to be sitting there. Well, most people just sit there like this, you know, for six hours, nothing. I'm like no man. If I'm going to be over six hours, I'm listening to podcasts, like to me it's just a way of life.

Speaker 1: 29:58

I had a class when I was working on my doctorate in learning as a way of being and I think that's a book learning as a way of being. It's just a way of being. That's who you are. You're learning, you're growing. Ok, the minute you stop growing, you start dying, just like a plant does. So I think a lot of people have not learned anything in years.

Speaker 3: 30:18

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 30:19

They haven't even thought about it. It's foreign to them to even think about learning something. So I think, if you want to be at the top of your game, what adds breadth and depth to a speaker is who they study, who they study under, what they read. How much versatility, where can they go? Can they connect to every audience? It was interesting because I had, like on Saturday, like literally 18 to 25 year old kids, that was the audience and that was the whole audience.

Speaker 3: 30:44

I don't mean to interrupt you, but where were you?

Speaker 1: 30:47

I was in Nashville at the time of the state, but today I'm coaching carpet cleaning operation people and then I coach my students, and then I may be coaching mortgage bankers and I may be coaching, you know, all kinds of people today. So if you're not well read, it's very hard to connect the dots to all those people.

Speaker 3: 31:02

But the formula is similar, regardless of the industry right. The things that you're looking for in those individuals and what you're going to coach them on from a methodology standpoint are the same. It's the connecting, finding ways to connect with them, finding ways of relatability, that you're looking for. That keeps you going All right. Who do you admire? Who's out there right now or that's come before maybe no longer with us that you really admire? That really has transcended the way you look at the world.

Speaker 1: 31:34

Obviously.

Speaker 3: 31:34

Stephen.

Speaker 1: 31:34

Covey. Covey was so deep and methodical. He was so good at packaging concepts. That's probably where I learned that I didn't know I was learning it from 18 to 25. I thought I was learning his material. When I look back, I was actually learning how he took complicated things and made them simple, like finding your voice in life, which is the kind of concept of the eighth habit, which I think the eighth habit was his best work. How he packaged seven habits into that concept was fascinating to me. How do you help a person find their voice in life while inspiring other people to find their voice?

Speaker 1: 32:11

I was very deeply fascinated by Covey. Then I got into strategic coach with Dan Sullivan. I was fascinated by how he created structures and ideas and tools. There's a lot of influence from those two guys on me. Then, from 2015 to 2018, 2019, I had a lot of exposure to Cardone when I spoke at 10X, just from knowing him from what he was on the way up, and I got to see the different marketing techniques he used. That influenced me. Then, most recently, Dave Blanchard, who owns all the rights to Aguantino's work, coached me for about six months on connection, intrinsic validation gap, a love, much deeper connections to people that had a significant impact on me as well. I think you're the sum of all these people who you've studied under, you've coached under, and that gives you a competitive advantage. Who's coaching you really gives you a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

Speaker 3: 33:06

It's interesting you mentioned Og McNeanow, because that book the Greatest Salesman in the World probably was one of the most transformative books very early on in my life and it was a very subtle read. You had to really dig deep for the meaning, but it was a beautiful one. All right, Talk to us about, for those who might not know, the greatness factory. Tell us about what you're doing and what your plans are.

Speaker 1: 33:28

For years, moms and dads would bring their daughter to me at 14 years old as a basketball coach and say my daughter has a lot of talent, she has a lot of potential. She just needs confidence or direction or motivation. And I would say thank you for bringing your daughter to the greatness factory where we are going to manufacture her greatness. Okay, and I just kind of it's just something I said, I didn't think about it, it was just something I said. And then, many years later, about 2016, I started to have a vision that where do adults go when they want to become great? Right, there's no greatness center. There's no right Like it's like churches are not equipped to help people with their talents. Most people go to a conference and spend two or three days and then they go home. I started thinking man, where do I go in a city when I make a decision, like I want to be great? And I started playing around with the concept of a greatness factory, a place where you manufacture your greatness in all parts of your knowledge, skill, desire and confidence. And I started thinking well, I love real estate. How do I combine these things? And so I came up with a model that has coworking space and a really cool environment that would be inspiring to work at. I go to some of these coworking spaces and it's like going to the funeral home, you know. It's like there's no life, there's no energy, there's no. It's like I would want to work here Like it's okay, little office, but it's like I want to go to a place where great people are. I want to exchange, I want to meet new people, I want to be in a place that inspires me to be great.

Speaker 1: 34:58

Okay, level one is coworking. Every member at the greatness factory gets access to my coaching programs. They have monthly organic activation events where they can meet and greet each other. I plan on being there most Mondays, like I'm in Nashville today. I plan on going in and leading a sales rally for all the members. It's like, hey, let's get an auditorium, let me do 30 minutes on how to have a big week this week. So the members get access to all these cool things. So you can be a coworking member. Level one you can have a private office. There's 10 private offices on level two that are really cool glass, modern, they look beautiful. I mean it's really aesthetically a beautiful place. And then you go up to level three, which is a hundred nine person state of the art theater for events. I mean really set up for events, not like a hotel room or a country club that's not really set up. This place is set up, five cameras, incredible stage lighting. It's perfect for events.

Speaker 3: 35:53

It's like stepping into the arena.

Speaker 1: 35:55

Yeah, that's exactly what it is, and then it has podcasts studios. I've got a dream foundry which is a cool master mounting room.

Speaker 3: 36:02

I've got a room called the money lab, which is where you come up with cool ideas, and all right, I want to go, come visit you and spend a couple of days hanging out in the money lab, for sure, yeah.

Speaker 1: 36:13

And I got that from my buddy, judge Dramp. He had a room in his house he called the money lab, which is where he just went in there and brought people over and they talked about you know how to generate income and I thought we're going to have a room at the greatness factory, called that, and then a foundry is a place where they take material and they convert raw material to something beautiful and I go. You know we need a dream foundry. So those are two rooms on the third level, in addition to a beautiful podcast studio. You can rent theaters rentable and the members get access to a lot of these things.

Speaker 3: 36:45

Are you moving beyond Nashville? Do you have plans to expand?

Speaker 1: 36:48

I do. I'm very excited I'm working on the model every day about what does that look like? Is it owner operator? Is it more franchise? I don't like the franchise model for this. I like owner operator where they have skin in the game but there's somebody local who's really good that can pull people in and then we can simulcast everything and do events, and I probably start with surrounding cities to Nashville and then expand beyond that.

Speaker 3: 37:12

So Washington DC is not too far away.

Speaker 1: 37:15

Just noting for the right. I know I like the energy there too. I was there not long ago.

Speaker 3: 37:19

Excellent. So I want to wrap our conversation by asking you to give us a little bit of inspiration. What are things that you would say to yourself and to your students about making this week count?

Speaker 1: 37:35

When in doubt, take an action. I write about this in fluke the switch. So many people spend time thinking and opportunity follows movement. The word motivate means to move. When I'm here in downtown Nashville and I'm stuck, I move. I go exercise, I go for a walk, I walk down to the river. I want movement and that movement, even if it's just 10 minutes, I go downstairs and boxed in the gym. I need something to trigger, something to get me going. I listen to something and the changing of environments. People don't understand this, but I change environments. We have a house in Florida, we have a place in downtown Nashville, we have a lodge out in the country and I move to those environments.

Speaker 1: 38:17

The truth is, last week I was in Denver and I loved it. It was 70 degrees in Denver and it's beautiful and I'm like, okay, could this be a great place for a greatness factory? Because I would just get out of the wall for hours and I call people, I prospect, I follow up with people, I have ideas. People need to understand that movement creates energy and that energy creates action and good things will happen. When I don't want to do something like I don't want to call people this morning, I call them on the way into Nashville. It's like, all right, I'm calling these people and I had great conversations with people. So if you're out there and you're thinking, what do I need to be doing, I need to be moving, I need to take an action when in doubt. Do something, get up, move, go do something, get involved in something and good things will happen as a result of that.

Speaker 3: 39:04

I love. It All right. Where can people find you, coach Berk? Where do you want people to engage with you?

Speaker 1: 39:09

mostly, Well, people are really liking my reels on Instagram right now. That's grown significantly. About 15 million people have saw those. So I'm on Instagram to search Coach Michael Berk Make sure it's me. I'm on YouTube. I put out a lot of content on YouTube. I have a podcast called America's Coach, which is more me. Short burst 10 minutes, 12 minutes. A lot of people listen to those on the way in. I will do more formal podcasts when I have my studio at the Greatness Factory finished. I put YouTube, instagram, tiktok wherever you go, just search Coach Michael Berk and there's a lot of content and we're actually increasing the frequency that we push that out for people as well, so you'll get even more.

Speaker 3: 39:46

And the reality is, if you go to coachmichaelberkcom, you can find out more about the programs that he offers and how to work with him. If you are one of those individuals that really wants to get to the next level and you're curious about how you can work together with Coach Berk, I really encourage you to go check that out. We have all the links to Coach Berk's socials and how to reach him in the show notes, so please check those out as well. Coach Berk, thank you so much for your time, your knowledge, your willingness to just be vulnerable and tell us like how it is, and I love that. I'm really grateful and I'm grateful to call you a friend and I'm very curious about how we can get a Greatness Factory over here. So we'll be following up with you and seeing what we can do. Love to clap with you some more.

Speaker 1: 40:36

Thank you, thanks for being so delightful.

Speaker 3: 40:38

We'll do it again soon. Live your extraordinary life.

Speaker 2: 40:46

Thank you for listening to today's episode. If you enjoyed this podcast episode, please take a moment to rate and review. If you have recommendations for future topics, please reach out to me at michellereosofficialcom. Lastly, please consider supporting this podcast by sharing it. Together, we can reach, inspire and positively impact more people. Thank you.