Maven Marketing with Brandon Welch

How to Find Freedom in Your Business

• Frank & Maven

Share episode

Send us a text

With Caleb out and Independence Day in the air, Brandon gets personal. 

In this solo episode, he shares a heartfelt encouragement to every entrepreneur who has felt the weight of leadership, the pressure of noise, or the slow drift away from joy in the business they once loved building.

Drawing from the wisdom of Viktor Frankl and Ray Dalio, and the quiet confidence of Jesus himself, this episode is a reminder that freedom is more than something we celebrate on a holiday. It’s something we are called to protect every day through intentional habits, mindset, and connection with our purpose.

In this episode, you’ll hear:

• Why solitude and silence are essential for clarity

• How joy and gratitude can shift your entire leadership posture

• What Revolutionary War soldiers, mastermind groups, and Frederick Buechner can teach us about unity and calling

• Five ways to recover your sense of peace and purpose in business

If you’ve ever felt like you’re spinning plates or stuck in something you once loved, this episode is for you.


Free Marketing Audit: MavenMarketingAudit.com

Maven Method Training: MavenMethodTraining.com


Our Website: https://frankandmaven.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/frankandmavenmarketing/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@frankandmaven
Twitter: https://twitter.com/frankandmaven
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/frank-and-maven/

Host: Brandon Welch
Co-Host: Caleb Agee
Executive Producer: Carter Breaux
Audio/Video Producer: Nate the Camera Guy

Do you have a marketing problem you'd like us to help solve? Send it to MavenMonday@FrankandMaven.com!

Get a copy of our Best-Selling Book, The Maven Marketer Here:
https://a.co/d/1clpm8a

Brandon Welch:

Welcome to the Maven Marketing Podcast. Today is Maven Monday. I'm your host, brandon Welch, and I am joined today by Caleb Couldn't Be here, agee. For the first time ever, we're going solo folks, so it's me and you and Nate the camera guy. Caleb had to be out very unexpectedly for a little emergency, and so it's just me and you, and we had an awesome episode planned for you that's going to be out next week, so stay tuned for that.

Brandon Welch:

But in the mode of freedom coming off of a holiday weekend, coming off of celebrating our independence, there's something that's been bouncing around for me for a while. It just so happened today I presented an awesome opportunity to share it with you, and so we're calling this one Finding Freedom from your Business. And I'm looking around and we have the really the true blessing and honor of just being with entrepreneurs in some of their most joyful moments and some of their most trying moments. And this unique little consulting company we've made here at Frank and Maven just gets the coolest front row seat for that, and sometimes it's not without heartache, but also other times it's with some of the coolest joys and experiences we get to celebrate, and this past season, or the season we're in is really no different than that. But what I am seeing and I wonder if you are seeing it too is just a general heaviness with our business. I think entrepreneurs are designed for unpredictability. I think we're designed for adaptability and finding opportunity, no matter the environment. So I know that we all carry around that just eternal heartbeat of like.

Brandon Welch:

We live in America, we figure this out, that is why we're here, that's why you're listening to this podcast, because we're not complainers, we're not victims, but the noise is just loud and if you look around some things that have just entered in my psyche and this may or may not be you nearing 60% of leaders in America are reporting burnout and that is like that is. If it's not you, it's somebody you probably just talked to experiencing burnout. They're experiencing overwhelm. There's some data that says C-level executives are 18% more likely to struggle than any other person on their team. Think, the lowest person, highest person on the team or C-level, the highest people are struggling and 75% of employees three out of four of your employees and, statistically, three out of four of mine are reporting low mood. And I'm just looking around and I'm going man, this is not what we were created for. This is not where we want to be. There are external factors that we don't even have to talk about. They're in your news feeds and mine, and I think it's contributing to that.

Brandon Welch:

But I am not immune to this worry. I'm not immune to all the things that we're all going through, and let me just say this my business is awesome. Your business may be going awesome in terms of all the things we typically look at KPIs and revenue growth and just all of those things. I'm very blessed to say it's not like this is not a pity party, okay, but I wonder, have you found yourself trapped by your business? There have been recent seasons for me where that was true. It's not because I'm better than or more wise. I just have had some recent coming out of this season and some transformation, and I boil this down to five things that have been extremely insightful and transformative for me, and I wonder if they might be for you too. So if this is for you, I'm glad to have you here.

Brandon Welch:

If you're like man, I don't know what you're talking about. Maybe there's something good for you in here, too, if you find yourself in this spot, and so I'm just going to jump right in and I wish Caleb was here, because he would have so much to add to this as well, because he's been the second party to this, but let's just go with it. So the first is that there is freedom and solitude and silence. If you were like me, you are waking up instantly, aware of all of the things that you could be doing besides laying in bed, and you are maybe even instantly excited about jumping in and making something happen in your business, and that is one of the great joys of being a leader is that we get to do it all. We can pull all the levers, and it's like getting a candy store, and that is the energy that gets most of us started. I would say it's the energy that's crucial to keep most of us going at some point. But sometimes, if we're talking about freedom, sometimes the biggest tyranny we face may not even be financial pressure or failure. It's just the noise around us. And so, even if you have a wonderful team, like I do, even if you have good role clarity and processes and structure and understanding with the people you work with and shared values, it's just noisy.

Brandon Welch:

There's always something demanding your attention, and I learned a few years ago how much that was holding me back, and I've been introduced to a couple of like, literally just life-changing things. One thing that just started tuning my mind to this early on was actually a book I read by Ray Dalio, one of the largest hedge fund managers in the world, and it's not like I'm in that world, but anytime somebody of that monumental success writes a book, you want to grab a hold of it, and so I did, and I was surprised to learn I was looking for just all sorts of things. That's an awesome book, you should read it. That's an awesome book, you should read it. But the thing that stuck out to me most out of like the 400 pages and just all the lessons he was talking about. Somebody asked him what is in their jets just the whole world is done for them and you think, well, why would that person put such a value on meditation? And he talks in the book about how he actually does that five or six times a day and how meditation has been the practice that brought him more return than any other one thing he did.

Brandon Welch:

And so, no secret, I'm a bit of a busy body. I think a lot of us entrepreneurs operate off that anxious energy, so I started trying it and it was like, okay, this is weird, it doesn't really do anything for me. And then, for whatever reason, I just kind of kept going there and kind of like forcing, to say, okay, there's got to be something here. And after a few weeks of doing that and just disconnecting the goal of being still with thoughts and all the things that you probably have seen fancy people do with meditation maybe you're one of them I started to find a peace from disconnecting, and so that freedom at that moment was just silence, right, just doing your very best to be at one with where you're at.

Brandon Welch:

And then I read a book called the Ruthless Elimination of Hurry. It was actually a gift from Caleb and it's probably one of the single most impactful books I've read in my life. And there's a lot of science and a lot of really just fascinating things that are happening in our world that we don't even realize is happening to us. Most of us were born into it and most of us don't even realize how unequipped we are to deal with the stimulus around us. So, not trying to be a downer, but that is a thing and you can study it and you will find that every behavioral psychologist and neuroscientist and all that. That is a thing that is plaguing humanity.

Brandon Welch:

But John Mark Comer, the author of that book, illustrates how, from a spiritual level, we were never designed to be in that heavy, in that hurried of a place. And we think, okay, we're high achievers. We're thinking, okay, I got stuff that's for average people, that's for weak people or people that aren't doing things that I'm doing right now, and so we tend to buy into the hustle culture of that, and I'm 100% guilty of that, probably am still guilty of that and so we just think more is more is more is more. And it turns out that that is not who we were created to be. We don't need solitude for just rest. We actually need it for clarity. And there's this quote I read somewhere around that it said everything works better, or sorry, everything will work again if you just unplug it for a few minutes, including you, and I'm like, okay, that makes a lot of sense. We've all unplugged the appliance to reset its circuitry and all of that stuff.

Brandon Welch:

But John Mark specifically said in his book meditation may help you detach from the world. But he elevated it to a higher level Prayer helps you attach to God, and so I'm going to do a fair amount of sharing from my own personal testimony and journey here. It is not my goal to make you feel uncomfortable or evangelize in any way. I'm just going to share from somebody who's been in a lot of complexity four kids, multiple businesses, team podcast author, all that stuff, just all the things that I know. You have your own things too. I'm going to share where I have found some great freedom, and that is meditation was step one and it did help and I highly highly recommend it. If all you do is meditation, you're going to have improvement, you're going to find some freedom. But prayer is like meditation times 100.

Brandon Welch:

And so I started incorporating this into my morning work, and so it's not just get up and go work, it's get up, and for me it's some sort of physical activity most mornings, and then reserving an hour for what I used to call meditation. Now I'm just blatant about it, dude, it's prayer, it is slow down and it is time to elevate to a higher spiritual level, and so it's like good, better, best, right, good is stopping and being silent and meditating. Better is, I guess. Best is what I found to be prayer with God. So doing both, and there's a lot of, if you want to use the life of Jesus as a figure of peace. If nothing else, there are a lot of examples and what we find what I have found and what John Mark and so many others since then have helped me just see is like some of the most impactful people in the world withdraw from the crowds we regularly. They regularly rise early to just be alone in prayer.

Brandon Welch:

And I just started saying, like man, if some of the wisest, most presence of peace type of people that I know, when I started seeing this in some of my friends, and it's like, sure enough, that was a common thread and so, if nothing else, so man, reserving a spot in your day, a lot of you are saying, well, I don't have time to do that, well, you're making time for something else, and just ask whatever that something else is. And for me it was probably scrolling, it was probably reading news, and it's like, is that bringing you more peace than possibly this could? And so the third thing I read that was really impactful was a book called Invitation to Solitude and Silence and that also talked about how we're starved for quiet and when we hear the sound of sheer silence, that is the presence of God himself making himself available. And so weird way to start a podcast. This is totally off of what we normally do with you guys. But number one are you looking for a little bit more peace in your work, in your day, in your complexity, with your family, in your schedules? And I think we just have to schedule peace. And so there is freedom and solitude and silence, and I highly recommend you embracing that. If you aren't already, here's a more fun one. Number two is freedom and joy and gratitude. We've all heard this idea that it's not I have to, I get to and we think, okay, well, that's a good mental shift that helps me, maybe even multiple times throughout the week.

Brandon Welch:

There are a lot of organizations I've consulted over the last couple of years that are just, you know, again, things aren't on fire. Maybe they're even growing. I can think of one in particular who's had a lot of growth. They're just in a slump. They're just in a slump from a joy level, and the problems that we face or the challenges, even if we may be technically winning by the scoreboard, rob us of the reality of how close we are to joy if we just choose it, and so I don't know if anybody needs to hear this I've needed to hear this before but I want to remind you that your business does good work. I really don't care if you're manufacturing something, I don't care if you're doing a blue collar service, I don't care if you're doing a legal or white collar service. Look, it is not very far where you have some moment of joy or making the world better here.

Brandon Welch:

It's easy for us to find it is so freaking fun to to grow businesses and to see entrepreneurs excited and to see their people growing and all of that. That's. That's an easy joy for us to attach to. Yet Sometimes weeks can go by where it's just the work, and so this may sound cliche, but I might ask you, what area have you stopped to appreciate lately in your business? We've had some recent team changes and we have some people out for various vacations and maternity leave and all that stuff, and we're a fairly small team, so when that happens it's especially if it's three or four people at a time there's a void. There's a real void because we are you know, we're very connected and active with our, with the people we serve, and recently it's just, I will say there was probably seeing this coming a month ago and like, oh man, I'm going to have to, I'm going to have to, I'm going to have to stay later, I'm going to have to work on that project or I'm going to have to show up in this meeting and I, just after a couple of times of getting to do that work, there was just this natural freedom and joy I found in getting to do it again. It's like a lot of the frontline things I don't get to do anymore. It's like a lot of the frontline things I don't get to do anymore.

Brandon Welch:

I'm wondering if you are either in a season where you're transitioning from maybe losing a salesperson, or maybe it's you've lost an admin person, or maybe somebody is out on sick leave and it's like you could delegate. That you could and it's probably wise in some way to maximize resources and cross-training. And I'm not saying any of that doesn't matter, but I am saying what joy could you find if you did a job in your company you haven't got to do in a while? What would happen if your people, your clients, your team, what would happen if they saw you having joy in that? What would happen if they saw you having joy in that, and what natural gratitude and what natural, just restorative energy would you get by doing that, by doing that job, learning something? Maybe you could improve something while you're doing it. But it takes us as entrepreneurs back to every little department. Every person, every task is a miniature version of our business and what we are wired to do. If we're true entrepreneurs or leaders, we're wired to make stuff better. And so look at that as like I get to go into a micro section of my business, or maybe it's even a whole different department of my business, and I get to look at that with fresh entrepreneurial energy, because I know for sure if it's not happening now, it will happen, or it already has happened to you that you're stuck in some sort of routine expectations, and so what would happen if you just jolted yourself out of that and you experienced some joy in a different department with fresh entrepreneurial energy?

Brandon Welch:

One last thing here if things are bad for you and for some of you it's pretty gray right there's some industries that are struggling At the worst of humanity. I would point you to a book called Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl. He's a full-blown, legit concentration camp survivor. Watched every one of his siblings, friends and family get killed right in front of him. And he was part of a very small group of people in his cohort of imprisonment that survived. And he was able to survive that and then later use his skills as a neuroscientist and psychologist to reflect on that, his skills as a neuroscientist and psychologist to reflect on that.

Brandon Welch:

And he reminds us that everything can be taken from a man except for the choice between one's attitude in any given set of circumstances. And so here you're going an unimaginable amount of trauma, unimaginable amount of turmoil and pain that I don't care what you're facing in your business, and pain that I don't care what you're facing in your business. It pales in comparison to what this man has been through, and I think just about anything we could experience would pale in comparison to that. And he says everything can be taken from you except for your choice to choose your attitude and a circumstance. And how powerful is that? He also said those who have a why to live can bear almost any how. So with that I'm going to transition to the why. This is the third freedom. There is freedom in your why, or what I call shared values On the topic of revolutionary and independence and all the things we just celebrated this past weekend, and independence and all the things we just celebrated this past weekend.

Brandon Welch:

Ben Franklin reminded us we must all hang together or most assuredly we shall all hang separately. And he was speaking of how valuable, how impactful and how really freeing it is that we get to endure hardships together and I would say also enduring joy together. And so what that means, I think, for us as leaders is what are you rallying people around? Because you had a bunch of ragtag farmers and untrained, the most untrained military in the world took down the largest, most trained, most rich military in the world, simply because they had shared values and purpose. And it's like, dude, that's the very essence of like American spirit and patriotism and all this stuff, and live in it every day.

Brandon Welch:

For sure, live in that gratitude and that appreciation of that, but also don't skip over the lesson, don't make it an inspiring story tale. It's like going. If they are doing that, if that's what allowed us to take over literally the greatest army in the world, what could happen with your little company or your company of even 500 people? Everything you do is small compared to that. And it's like are you taking down a big competitor? Are you trying to ride the waves of tariffs and disruption in your business? Are you trying to? What are you trying to do? Whatever it is, rallying around that common purpose with your people. And that is our job as leaders.

Brandon Welch:

The most treacherous, disgusting of conditions are what those revolutionary soldiers lived through, and they did it. And they somehow found perseverance because their leader, or their leaders from the top down, were reminding them of the prize. And so what is the prize? What is your? Why? What are the values of your organization? Talk about them regularly. On an average day, you can get through it without those. In good times, it's easy to feel like you don't need them, but I would say, at all seasons, and especially when you are in the trenches, like that is going to keep people from falling off we talked about a couple weeks ago, there's a tremendous increase I think it was 30% or 40% increase in employee for lack of better loyalty when you have shared values and you talk about them regularly. So, man, no matter what your business is going through, shared values will make it better. Talk about them, celebrate them, bring them alive. If you don't know how to say them, if you don't know how to articulate them, find somebody who does. That's something we do as a company, but also you can find somebody, an outside party, to help you solidify those in a memorable, meaningful way. Put them on your walls, talk about them weekly, put them on your website and your advertising materials and let the whole entire world know what you believe in and why.

Brandon Welch:

So what have we talked about so far? We've talked about freedom and solitude and silence. We've talked about freedom and getting back to original joy in your company, and we've talked about freedom and shared values and uniting around a common thing. Number four is freedom in counsel. You are smart. I'm certain you are way better now than you were a year ago, and you're like 10 times better than you were like two years ago. Right, we are wired to continually get better. Anybody who's not self-development minded to some level is not successful in business for long. So I know that's the case Still.

Brandon Welch:

Yet 55% of CEOs report chronic loneliness Loneliness, a powerful word there. Have you ever woken up lonely? Have you ever woken up going, man, I know there's a solution to this, but I don't even know how to process it, because all the people around me my friends, maybe even your spouse, definitely the people that in your organization that you're probably not allowed to talk about those sorts of things with. Maybe it's weakness, maybe it's just frustration. It equals loneliness. Us and so middle-aged men are at a record experience with mental health. And I know this applies to a deeper level when we're talking about leaders of businesses and organizations. And I would just remind you of this ancient bit of wisdom from Otto von Bismarck when he said a smart man learns from his mistakes, but a wise man learns from the mistakes of others. He said a smart man learns from his mistakes, but a wise man learns from the mistakes of others. And he's speaking of community, he's speaking of surrounding yourself with safety and the counsel of others. And I would just say if you're heavy, or when you're heavy and you're just feeling lonely, take inventory, take some time to write that down.

Brandon Welch:

You don't have to be a big, deep writer or thinker or something to do this, but just go like what is it? Go through the categories. Is it financial? Is it relational? Is it marriage? Is it as a dad? Is it as a communicator? Is it marketing? Is it leadership? Is it getting people bought in? Just name the category. Name the bucket, it fits in, okay, and then simply look around at your world and hopefully it's somebody you know, hopefully it's somebody you go to church with, or maybe you're just a colleague of some sort. But whoever it is somebody who's not struggling with that thing or, you know, has conquered that thing or at least has some familiarity with it, and then seek out to spend time with them. Plain and simple when are you struggling? Name it. Don't just walk around with ambiguous, heavy Name the heavy thing. Look around and say, who do I think knows more about that? And then spend time with them.

Brandon Welch:

Sometimes you're going to have to pay for that. Sometimes, to level yourself up, you're going to have to hire somebody who has advanced market wisdom. If you don't have a coach, you need one. Sometimes coaches can be casual. They can be free. They can be somebody who just believes in you and wants to spend time around you.

Brandon Welch:

And I'm not talking about your friends. It's probably not your friends Now. You can become coaches with these people and they can become like very, very deep, meaningful relationships. But it's not your peers. It is somebody who has depth, to a greater level than you do in this thing, and so sometimes you'll have to pay them, and that's a gift. To be able to pay them. Expensive or not expensive, the paying factor makes something magic happen with how serious you treat it. But even if you don't, you can join free mastermind groups. You can join paid mastermind groups. But I will venture to say if you are not creating some sort of community for yourself, it is not. It's not going to be very long before you are in a slump. Community for yourself, it's not going to be very long before you are in a slump. And so just find that counsel, seek it out, spend time around it and get that perspective.

Brandon Welch:

I'm reminded of the quote. If I've seen further than others, it's because I've stood on the shoulders of giants. Find your giants, and the secret is, the great secret is that the giants actually want to spend time with you. I've been so blessed in my life to have Bill and Randy and Chris and Janet and Steve just show up and it's like these guys that are literally giants. They probably don't see themselves as giants for one, so they're not as big of a deal as you're trying to make them, or they don't think that anyway, but they also big of a deal as you're trying to make them or they don't think that anyway. But they also. They get joy by passing that down and it is, I think, kind of at the point where I'm able to maybe start doing this for other people, but I think it's therapeutic for them as well. And so do that. Find your giants, find your community, spend time around them. So there's freedom in wise counsel. The last is that there's freedom in calling.

Brandon Welch:

I don't know who needs to hear this right now, but you are not your metrics. You are not your metrics. You are not the scoreboard. You are not the KPIs that some fancy talking head laid out in some book. You are not the scoreboard of your clients or even your bank or anybody else.

Brandon Welch:

Your business, I believe, is a vehicle for God's peace, goodness, transformation and things that are just way bigger than achievement. Frederick Buechner said the place God calls you to be is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet. There is a void that the marketplace and humanity is experiencing. There is a void that you, because of your unique bag of experience and passion and convictions and skill sets and talents and relationships and opportunities and geography. There is a void that you were designed to fill and if for no other reason than to bring the world around you peace and goodness like I'm not trying to go all spiritual or spiritual fairy dust for you here, but hallelujah man, like that is such a really, really cool thing and everything else in your business and I know there's a million things already today before you've listened to this podcast, that have tried to distract you from that. It happens to me.

Brandon Welch:

But if you are allowed to succeed by the standards of the world, it is because you have purpose, not because of some short-term or long-term number or KPI or some. I won't call it meaningless, but some empty scoreboard and you were called to a bigger thing. So step back if you haven't in a while, and maybe somebody you trust could help you clarify this. Just like, get real with your purpose. Why are you here? Why are you doing this?

Brandon Welch:

And one of the most powerful of quotes was offered to me by my coach recently, speaking of coaches, and he was quoting somebody else and I failed to grab who that was, but I'm just going to say Chris said this and he said what if our work was never intended to make us successful, but simply to make us faithful and generous? What if our work was never intended to make us successful, but simply to make us faithful and generous? What if our work was never intended to make us successful, but simply to make us faithful and generous? If you can find that in your work and what you're working for is not the prize, it's the journey and the impact in between man, without going too pie in the sky, for you, I promise there's something.

Brandon Welch:

There's some way bigger reason than what we usually focus on for your business. That is the thing, and there is freedom in that, there is peace in that, and I want that for you, not just as a podcast listener, but as a fellow entrepreneur and dreamer and, I think, somebody who's equally as called and, I guess, required, as you are, to bring goodness to the world. That is when things are whole. That is somehow a fulfillment of God's goodness on earth. And yeah, I'll make no apologies for saying that part because I think it's real. Hey, guys, we went deep. Sorry about that.

Brandon Welch:

I don't know if that was okay or not, but I do know that all of those things have led me to a place where I have a way, way different relationship with my business than I did even a year ago. And, guys, I have a great business, I have great people, there are so many awesome things I get to do and I wish to never complain about it, but there have been some seasons that have just been really, really heavy. And so I found freedom from the noise, through solitude and silence. Freedom through getting back to joy and just remembering to do that. Freedom through remembering my mission and rallying people around shared purpose. Freedom in community, with the people I'm actively seeking out to be more around. And then freedom remembering my calling and why I'm here Somehow, some way.

Brandon Welch:

That has something to do with marketing. It definitely has something to do with growing your business, because it has to do with leading yourself well, and you can't lead others if you can't lead yourself. So we'll be back to talking about marketing and answering your real-life marketing questions next week, because marketers who can't teach you why? Just a fancy lie from me, the camera guy. Thank you, thank you. I hope you find freedom in this last half of the year. We have important work to do and I can't wait to be here alongside you doing it. Have a great week.