Moving 50+ Times by Age 23 & Homelessness Made Me Resilient & Adaptable

Summary

In this episode of the Off the Ladder podcast, Branden Sewell shares his personal journey from a tumultuous childhood filled with instability and challenges to becoming a successful business owner and leader. He emphasizes the importance of resilience, finding purpose, and defining success beyond financial metrics. Branden encourages listeners to embrace their unique stories and strive for personal growth, leadership, and integrity in both their personal and professional lives.

Takeaways

Your story plays a role in who you are.
Resilience is built through challenges and struggles.
Finding purpose can guide your decisions in life.
Success is not just about revenue, but integrity and humanity.
You can choose to be better than you were yesterday.
Leadership involves being present in your family's life.
Invest in yourself to create a better future.
Treat others the way you want to be treated.
Your experiences shape your ability to lead.
Building a business is about creating a positive impact.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Branden Sewell and His Mission
12:35 Struggles and Resilience: Overcoming Adversity
20:50 Finding Purpose: The Shift to Florida and New Beginnings
26:04 Pursuing Ministry: A New Direction in Life
34:01 Transitioning to Entrepreneurship
42:30 Defining Leadership and Success
50:12 Building a Legacy Beyond Revenue

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Transcript

Branden Sewell (00:01.774)
Hi everybody, I am Brandon Sewell. I am the owner of Seal Pro Painting located in central Florida and I'm also the host of the Off the Ladder podcast. And we exist to help home service business owners learn so that they can lead well and ultimately live life off of the ladder. I'm excited about today's episode. It's gonna be a solo episode with just me, your host, Brandon Sewell. And today I really want to dive into

a little bit more of my backstory and what made me who I am and call you out to be great. Your story, no matter what it is, plays a role in who you are called to be as a business owner, as a leader, maybe a father, mother. You know, you have a unique experience in life and that experience, you went through it for a purpose.

So I want to talk a little bit about my story today. But before we jump into that, I want to let the listeners know about Jobber Summit. So Jobber Summit is coming up. It is March 5th, 2025. It's online. It's 100 percent virtual. So you can join from your phone, a tablet, your computer and join from anywhere. Jobber Summit, I believe this is

I this is year five. But anyway, I have been a speaker at Jobber Summit and I've attended every year. It's a phenomenal experience. It's for home service business owners, business owners, leaders in general, people who want to start a business. This is a great free resource for you to join.

There's breakout sessions on different topics and you can join those. There will be two featured speakers and the two featured speakers this year are Gary Vee and Cody Sanchez. If you don't know who they are, just look them up. They're phenomenal entrepreneurs and leaders in the industry, or not in the industry, but entrepreneurs just in general. So definitely check them out.

Branden Sewell (02:29.494)
Check out the event. It's 100 % free. And if you would like, can go to... Actually, I think what I'll do is I'll put my link to join in the show notes. just go down, you'll see a link to do Jobber Summit. And you can use that to get signed up for free. And like I said, you won't want to miss it. They'll have two events.

One in the morning and one in the evening so it can be flexible for your schedule I'll do both that day. I'll just set that side of it set that day aside and I'll do both Events I'll do the morning and the evening I'll get in there and interact and do some networking and They have networking groups and things like that that are industry specific and things like that. So it's it's just a really cool event. So

I really look forward to it and I hope you'll be there because it's a great place to grow and connect. So with that said, we'll move on. like I said, I want to share a little bit of my story. So this is going to be a pretty personal episode, kind of giving you some insight into who I am and just what's, you know, how my life has made me who I am.

So I'll literally just go back to the beginning. So I'm originally from Carroll County, Maryland. I was born there. A lot of my family is from Maryland. That's where my mom is from. And my dad is from Baltimore. So the first few years of my life, I was raised in Maryland. My mom and dad divorced when I was

one, I believe. So then I was, grew up with my, with my mom. In the early years of my life, I saw my dad a lot. My dad's actually, he's a great guy. He was a musician. And, you know, I grew up with my mom and my mom, she was remarried to my little brother's dad.

Branden Sewell (04:50.766)
And around the age of, I think I was five or six, we moved away to South Carolina from Maryland. So that was one of the first big moves that I experienced in my life and moved away from my dad. I can still remember the day before I left. And that was an emotional experience. But I remember after that,

when you move that far away from a parent, obviously, it's hard for me to understand as a kid. And now as a father, it was hard to understand why I didn't see my dad very much, but I didn't. I'd see him maybe a couple times a year for like maybe Christmas or in the summer. And then...

So we lived in South Carolina. We ended up moving around because of my mom's work. So then we moved from South Carolina to North Carolina. And in North Carolina, my mom and my stepdad divorced. And then my mom was...

Or actually, sorry, let me go back. We moved to North Carolina and then from North Carolina, we moved to Alabama. And it was in Alabama where my, my mom and my stepdad divorced and split up. we were in North Carolina for maybe, from South Carolina to North Carolina. That was maybe like a year or two. And then we moved to North Carolina. We were there for, you know, maybe a year or two. We moved to Alabama.

stepdad and my mom divorced. Never saw him again after they split up. My little brother doesn't really have much contact with his dad either. while we were in Alabama, my mom was then a single mom raising her kids. And I had an older sister, my oldest sister is about eight years older than me. And I can remember from like, when we lived in South Carolina, my sister was maybe like 14 years old, 15 years old then.

Branden Sewell (07:14.03)
I remember my oldest sister, she started drinking, partying, started using drugs. And I can remember once we moved to, I remember she was the center of a lot of fights between my stepdad and my mom. When we lived in North Carolina, I can just remember those things happening. And then when we moved to Alabama,

I can remember just a lot of drama around my sister, you know, like, pawning my mom's stuff, stealing stuff, getting in car accidents because she was, you know, using drugs or whatever, just a lot of problems. And I remember all that as a little kid and definitely had an effect on me, had an effect on our family. So then we moved from Alabama.

back to North Carolina at some point. And when we moved back to North Carolina, I can remember like around 10 years old, there was really like a shift in our lives where I remember my mom just really starting to struggle. At that point, I think my sister, my oldest sister, the one with the drug problem and alcohol problem, she started having kids, you know, multiple different relationships, multiple different dads.

My nieces and nephews were all born, you know, while my sister was addicted to drugs. So there were obviously my sister couldn't take care of him. So my mom did that put obviously a financial strain on my mom. And so when we moved back to North Carolina, that kind of started a pattern of us moving a lot. I'm I'm 30. I'll be 33 this year. I'm 32.

And I've moved over 50 times in my life. can't even really count how many times at this point. But I just remember we would like run a place, have to move, run another place, have to move, run another place, have to move. Lived in hotels, which was a very embarrassing thing as a middle schooler and high schooler. We've lived with, you know, we lived with that. We would jump around kind of like to my mom's boyfriend's houses and live with them.

Branden Sewell (09:40.034)
we would live with friends. And kind of in my high school years, that's really when it was the worst. But it was also like, obviously such a like crazy time for me as a kid. So you know, I was my mom was, you know, had so much going on and so much she was trying to hold together. You know, I got I was a mischievous kid when I was, you know, I'd say like from the time I was

12 to like 16 or 17. So, you know, I was partying. was, you know, I got into, you know, drugs, not heavy drugs, but, you know, I was drinking at a really young age and partying and all the girls and all that, starting like when I was 12 years old. And, you know, I had no discipline.

no oversight from my mom. And I just kind of free to like do whatever I wanted to do. And I remember, you know, my friend, I grew up surfing. And so even like the culture of surfing was, you know, to be rebellious and wild and, you know, crazy. There's like, you know, the partying and the drinking and the girls and all that. That was a really big thing. Well,

you know, it was it was interesting because all while I was wrestling with that, having no, you know, just parental guidance or oversight. My mom was always there. I always knew she loved me, but I also knew she was overwhelmed. I knew that she had a lot on her plate and she was struggling. And obviously that trickled down to us kids. But I just remember it like me having to

Process everything that was going on, you know, with my sister my mom Obviously seeing the struggles we were going through as a family Not having my dad around it got to the point where like I really didn't see my dad at all It wasn't really a part of my life growing up And so I didn't really have a male figure in my life Just like my mom's boyfriends that were just in and out of her life

Branden Sewell (12:05.646)
And I remember wrestling with that. it was like I was I was struggling with not having to dad around. Obviously that and the divorce that played a really big toll on me. You know, wrestling with the fact of like all the financial struggles we were facing, the embarrassment I felt around like moving around all the time, living with friends, being homeless and things like that. And yeah, just all of that. was

kind of wrestling with it mentally. But, know, one of the things my mom would do, she wasn't perfect by any means, but she would take us to church. Now, church wasn't like a go every Sunday thing for us, but it was a, you know, go every once in a while. And I remember, you know, I think I was 14 years old and I did, I went to go visit my dad and I went to this church camp and

Anyway, I just really kind of introduced Jesus to me, gave me a source of hope. And in the midst of battling with all the things that were going on, that was like the hope that I cling to. So, but also with that, it helped me to see there was something like even in the midst of all the struggles that I was facing as a kid that

There was something different going on inside of me that like was calling me to be greater than my circumstances. It was like I knew I was called to be a leader. Even at a young age, would journal. And it was kind of like a coping mechanism for me. I would write poems, I'd write songs, and it was my way of like coping with everything that I was going through. But I just remember feeling like...

Even though I had gone through all these struggles that it was for purpose. And I remember at a young age feeling like I was called to be a leader. I remember at a young age feeling like I was called to help others, that I was meant to go through these challenges to help others who might face similar things and to make a positive impact on the world. so that's how I felt like at a young age.

Branden Sewell (14:33.326)
Even in the midst of making dumb decisions and being mischievous. I I got arrested multiple times when I was a teenager, running in with the cops and just being a mischievous kid, but nothing ever super crazy. So I'm wrestling with this, the pressure of being wild and crazy with my friends and that influence and feeling like...

man, I'm called to something greater than this and I'm different. I don't want this to like, I also had the influence of my sister. So I was like, I don't want to be like my sister. I mean, I watched her completely ruin her life and her health and all of those things. And I just, I knew I was like, man, I don't want to go down that path. And I saw friends that I hung out with and grew up with go down that path and saw what it did to their lives. And

I knew I didn't want that to be me. really where a shift took place for me is we were living in North Carolina. Like I said, we had moved back from Alabama. And I can remember there was a season where, you know, we were completely homeless. I was living actually in the back of a beach store. was sleeping on the stock shelves and

I would skateboard to my friend's house to catch the bus. I remember my sister was living with her friends and my brother was living with his friends and my mom was living with her boyfriend at the time with my niece and nephew. I was just like, I can't do this anymore. So I moved in with my dad in Maryland. That was rough because he wasn't in my life.

you know, a lot. So we really clashed. So after living with him for a few months, I moved in back in with my mom, back in North Carolina. And so this was my junior year of high school. I remember I went to three high schools my junior year. So I started in North Carolina, went to Maryland, moved back to North Carolina. And I remember we were struggling financially. My mom was like, Hey, we're going to take a vacation down in Florida. And so I was like 16 at the time.

Branden Sewell (16:56.782)
Maybe I was 16 at the time, a junior in high school. And she's like, yeah, we'll be back in two weeks. And so we went down to Florida. And I remember I was dating this girl at the time and I told her, I was like, yeah, I'll be back in a couple of weeks. I'll see you then after Christmas break. Well, Christmas break comes and goes. And I'm like, hey, mom, when are we heading back? And she's like, oh, we're not going back. And so we ended up being in Florida and

One of the great things that came out of that is it gave me an opportunity to find a new friend group, one that wasn't influencing me. It was an opportunity for me to change some things in my life. Now I was still a little bit mischievous, but not at the same extent. But I started going to youth group, started to really try to live right and change the way I was living. And that was a really great thing for me to

to get out of the place where I was and move to somewhere completely new as a junior in high school. And of course it had its challenges of like moving to a completely new area. moving all the time made me very, very... I was able to adapt, you know, in whatever situation I was in, I was able to really adapt.

Goodness, there's there's so many stories where like, even in all of those events moving, like I can, this is going to go kind of go back in time a little bit. But I recall this one time where we like moved and I just remember like, my mom had had this house and it was on this island and we like moved it off the island to like the mainland and we had this lot that we were supposed to put the house on and

I guess something happened where like contractors weren't paid or something. And I don't know all the details because I was too young to understand that that time all I know is we lost everything like everything. When I say I probably just had a bag of clothes. That's that's all I had. And that wasn't the first time that had happened in our life like similar stories like things like that were just normal to me growing up. And

Branden Sewell (19:23.436)
you know, so just literally just lost everything. But anyway, so when we moved to Florida, it was kind of a similar situation. Like, we had moved, we had gone to Florida with like this expectation, like, this is a vacation. So I might have had like a suitcase, and we literally never went back. So I don't even know what happens like, all of our stuff that we had in, in, in North Carolina.

But so now we're in Florida, have an opportunity to change my life and, you know, really step into that feeling of like feeling like I was different, like I was called to something more. And so that gave me the opportunity to really explore that feeling that I had when I was 14 of feeling like, OK, even though you've been through all these challenges, challenging things, you've got a greater purpose and.

You know, I always felt like when I was younger, I journal about like being a business owner or business ideas or, you know, different, you know, charities that I would want to start to like make a difference in the world. And, you know, there was just a lot of that that was going on in my brain. So. Like I said, I started going to youth group and things like that.

that really gave me a foundation of understanding who I was and like my identity. And I think that that really kind of set a foundation for me in who I wanted to be as a person. I felt called to be a pastor and when I was young, I mean, first time I really felt called to be a pastor was when I was 14. And, you know, when I

gave my life to Christ. you know, fast forward, I started to really press into like who I was in Christ and as a Christian and go into youth group, go into Bible studies, going to small groups at the church, attending church every single Sunday, attending church on Wednesdays, just really pressing into that. So from the time I was 16,

Branden Sewell (21:48.078)
the time I was 18, that was like, I would just I was all in, you know. And the kind of course that happened for me is graduated high school didn't really have a plan to like, go to college, but my mom had talked me into it. I grew up surfing. So she talked me into like, going to college, get on the surf team and make that the reason why I was in college was to be on the surf team. So that's what I did.

I started at Florida Tech and I was on the surf team there and I was studying business because I was kind of like, okay, well, I have an interest in business. So that's what I was going to school for, going to school for marketing. And I made it about a semester and a half in. And the story there is I was living with my mom. I was commuting to school, community classes.

And my, was living with my mom, my little brother and my niece and my nephew. And I remember we were renting this house and the, was using, didn't have my own car, so I was using my mom's car to commute to school. It was about an hour drive from where we lived in Merritt Island, Florida to Melbourne, where Florida Tech was. And

I remember my mom telling me it was like, I don't know, this is over like the course of a week. I my mom was like, hey, I'm going to Tennessee. I'm going to visit my boyfriend. I'll be back in a week. And I called my mom to see when she was going to come back. And she's like, I'm not coming back. So here I am. I was like 18 years old. My little brother was in high school. And I was like, well, what am I supposed to do? And, you know, so my mom just, you know, she was like,

hey, you you'll have to figure it out. so she was like, you could get some roommates, get some friends together, you know, cover the rent for the house or, you know, you'll just have to figure something out. So anyway, it started to get really hard to get down to Melbourne to go to school. It eventually got to the point where I had to drop out.

Branden Sewell (24:13.71)
And then I was faced with the decision, okay, what's next? And so I was living with a friend of mine. And he was really kind. He was older than me about, mean, he was he was like 18 years older than me, but he was like a big brother to me. And he let me come live with him. And about

It's hard for me to remember some of the timeframes, but I think that was a few months. And then that summer, after my second semester that I had dropped, the second semester of college, dropped out, moved in with Omar, lived with him until I think it was June or July. I was just, I think I was talking to my dad on the phone and my dad asked me, he was like, Brandon, what are you doing? You you dropped out of college.

do you want to do with life?" And I was like, well, at the time I was an ocean lifeguard and I was like, well, I'll just be an ocean lifeguard the rest of my life. he's like, well, you know, what else do you want to do? Like you're not going to be able to survive off of, you know, just being a lifeguard. And I was like, well, I don't really need much in life. You know, I just want to be able to enjoy life and, you know, make money and surf whenever I want to and, you know, live on.

work and live on the beach and be happy. And he goes, Well, do you ever do you want to get married or have kids or anything like that? And I was like, Yeah, I really would love to get married and have a wife and kids one day. And he's like, Well, how are you going to provide for them? And, you know, you can't just think about yourself. And so he kind of got me thinking, I was like, you know what, I'm going to pursue ministry, full time ministry, I was always like, obviously, like I said, it was a thought of mine. And so what I did is I

I went to Maryland where my dad lived and there was a Bible college there. And I went to the Bible college and interesting story there. It's kind of like this common theme of me leaving everything. I was living in Florida. I was supposed to go up for like orientation at the Bible college and then come back to Florida, get my stuff and come back for school.

Branden Sewell (26:33.716)
in August and I went for the orientation in July and I really just felt like God spoke to me to stay in Maryland and not to go back to go back to Florida yet. So I stayed there. literally went there with a bag. Another story of just like going with a bag. Went there with a bag and I never came back to Florida for I think it was six years.

And all my stuff that I had left got ended up getting put in one of my buddy's sheds. And anyway, so just move there and just moved in faith and, you know, accumulated things over the years, went to school, went into full time ministry, worked at a church, started as an intern. I worked as a graphics director for two years. I was the youth director.

I was the stage design director. I did a lot of things. I worked on the pastoral care team. And this was all from the time I was 18 till about 23 or 24. And, you know, just gave myself to that and dedicated my life to that for a while. Unfortunately, the church that I was a part of, just, there was some toxic leadership there. So I ended up leaving.

And, but anyway, in that time, I, I met my wife up in Maryland, got married and was on my own with my wife at 23. and then fast forward, I went to another church connected with an old pastor that I knew worked for him. well, actually let me talk about this really quick. So,

I had no college degree. The Bible college I went to was a certificate program, so didn't really hold any weight. It wasn't accredited. So it's not like I could just go to a church and just get a job anywhere. So I kind of felt like I was stuck. I started applying for jobs everywhere I possibly could. The first job that I could find, because I was newly married, this was about, let's see, five months into getting married.

Branden Sewell (28:58.746)
I found myself without a job. And so I literally took the first job that could come my way and it was for a roofing, siding, windows and doors company. And they had advertised the position as an entry level sales position. And I had a background in sales because while I was going to Bible college and in between positions working at the church, I had worked for Sprint in sales. So I had a sales background. And so

This roofing, siding windows and door company offered me a job as entry level sales. So I'm super excited. It's a big, big company. You know, at that time, I think they were like a 25 or $30 million company. And so I was super excited to go in and it turns out that the entry level sales position is door to door marketing. So for a few months I'm doing

door-to-door marketing for this company and I'm actually doing pretty good at it because I had a very professional presentation. You know, I will say that I did not fit the typical image of somebody who did this and I was pretty successful with it. I was making more doing that than I was working for the church.

It was a hundred percent commission and it was knocking on doors every day to make money. But like I said, I was newly married. We had bills to pay and so I took the first thing I could get. That position taught me so much about being resilient, overcoming objection. It taught me a lot about sales.

doing door to door marketing and being successful at it is it's definitely challenging. But if you can do that, there's you know, there's not much else you can't do. If you can do that successfully, you know, there you can you can definitely do a lot. And so that was a great learning experience, as challenging as it was now.

Branden Sewell (31:17.318)
a pastor that I used to work with at the other church, I got reconnected with him at my new church and he had a painting company and he recruited me to come work for him. And so I came to work for him. did, you know, at first it was an admin position. So I answered the phone, scheduled the leads. I was, you know, doing follow ups and any type of, was managing like the spreadsheets.

And doing and I was also working on all of the marketing because I had like I said, I was a graphics director at a background in that graphic design and things. So I, you know, like made his website. We redesigned all this print marketing and just pretty much an overhaul of all of this print and digital marketing. And.

help grow the business in the short time that I worked for him eventually moved into a sales position. In the time that I worked with Mike, I think his company grew from like a $1.2 million company to like a 3 point something million dollar company. And that was just in a matter of like 10 months. And in that 10 months, I

I was going to that church where we got reconnected and the campus pastors there announced that they were going to start a church in Orlando, Florida. I had moved from Florida. my wife and I, we decided to be a part of the team.

Branden Sewell (33:00.886)
Now, I'll backtrack and I'll say this. One of my stipulations to coming to work for Mike at that time was I was working for this other company and they were going to be, I grew up surfing and so they had a division in that they were going to be opening in New Jersey and it was going to be close to the coast. so they were, there had been talks about, there's going to be an opening for a marketing director there.

And, you know, I was interested in that position and potentially moving and being part of the team that would start that location in New Jersey. so when I, when Mike asked me to come work for him, said, Hey, you know, it's fine. I'll come work for you. But in the next five years, I want to have the opportunity to start a location wherever I want on the East coast. And so he agreed to that. And that was going to be the plan was to train me up.

And eventually one day, started a location somewhere on the East coast. So, 10 months after working for him, helping grow the company, I felt like my wife and I were called to be a part of the church plant in Orlando. So I go to Mike and I told him, said, Hey, you know, I'm planning on going to help start this church in Orlando. So I'm going to be leaving.

And to my surprise, he offered to let me go ahead and start a location. Now, I'm not going to go into like all the details of how that was set up, but essentially it was kind of like a partnership. I came down, a location with the name and we started a painting company. That I'll fast forward and say that didn't really work out.

And in 2020, I started my own company, is Seal Pro Painting. Now, kind of an overview and summary of all of that is when I started, I only had 10 months of experience in the industry, none of it painting. It was all just, I knew the admin side, the marketing side, the sales side.

Branden Sewell (35:28.334)
And I knew a little bit about how production worked. And so I had a little bit of training when we first came down to start and then it was like, hey, go after it. So literally started the business with 10 months of experience in the industry. And that was extremely hard. But our first year in business, did

about 500,000 in revenue. And so that first year, man, I can remember our first job. The crew that I hired didn't show up, hired another crew, they didn't show up. And finally, I think it was like the third crew finally showed up. But that was my first job. My first experience of a job was that experience. And I think it was great that

I got that negative experience out of the way on my first job ever sold. And I had to learn how to face the adversity. had to learn to deal with the problem and still keep moving forward. I really attribute my ability to do that with my childhood. I had such a crazy childhood and

I don't even think I really scratched the surface of like all the things that I experienced as a kid, but just the constant moving, the constant changing, the different states, the different cities, always, always changing. I think it just prepared me for like this mindset of like, you just adapt and overcome. You just adapt and you just move forward. Like it's as simple as that. Yeah, it sucks. There's nothing you can really do to change it, but you just...

you learn from it, makes you who you are. And that experience shapes you as a person. And you just you take that experience and you use it to make you better, not to tear you down. And. You know, I'm just thankful that I had that perspective, because even as a business owner, obviously, it's very challenging, but I know that I can.

Branden Sewell (37:48.15)
I can face anything. It's just a matter of perspective. If I can go through the challenge and learn from it and then get back up and keep moving forward, then I'll be fine. You know, the only thing that would be a problem is if I don't get up and I don't keep moving forward. you know, all of those experience made me who I am today and, you know, really helped me to

Be who I want to be and I'll add to this this whole you know topic that we're talking about is you can choose to let negative experiences define you and turn you into something negative or you can let those negative experiences push you to want to be different.

So because of my experiences as a young kid, the things that I wanted and wished for, dreamed of, I remember as a kid, I would have a friend and maybe I would go over to their house and I would say they lived in a nice neighborhood, a neighborhood with families.

moms and dads and they had nice houses and nice cars and nice things. And I would think to myself like, wow, these people are rich. And it would be like middle income families. but in my eyes, they were rich, like they were loaded. Because I experienced something so different than that. And but I just remember thinking to myself like, that's, that's what I want. That's what I want to strive to achieve. And

I kind of lost track of like what I was where I was going with that. But all of that to say is like those negative experiences that I went through really just wanted me to do better for myself. You know, I was like, man, I want to be, you know, a I want to be a father. I want to be a husband. Probably in the reverse order husband and then a father.

Branden Sewell (40:07.054)
And, you know, I want to have a nice house. I want to have stability. I want to, you know, not be moving all the time. I want to be a great husband and spouse. So I didn't want to move around all the time. I didn't want to experience relationships that my mom and my dad did. I wanted to be committed to one person.

and to have a healthy relationship, a healthy marriage. I wanted to be present in my kids' lives because I experienced what it was like to not have that presence in my life, to not have my dad around and have different men coming in and out of my life all the time. I experienced that. You know, I experienced, like I said, the moving around all the time. Sometimes

not having transportation. And so I just knew those were all things that I wanted in life. And my drive to accomplish that was I knew I needed to be a leader, I needed to do something different, I needed to, you know, do things in my life to break that those, like I would call them generational curses. And

to create a different future and a different legacy for my family. And you you might ask, well, Brandon, why are you sharing all of this? Why are you talking about this today on this episode? Why are you sharing your story? What does it matter? What does it have to do with business? And I think the simple answer to that is that we all have experiences, but we're all called to be leaders. And

You you lead in your own life you lead in your family you lead in your business and I think a direct result of leading in this way is going to result in success and achieving the things that you want to achieve in life and for your business. I think it also brings perspective you know I consider myself to be incredibly blessed and incredibly successful and I don't have.

Branden Sewell (42:30.028)
millions of dollars. don't, you know, I don't have the biggest painting company. I don't have, you know, I don't drive, you know, a suit, like a luxury vehicle. I drive a nice car. It's a Honda. It's nice. In my opinion, it's like a luxury car. And, you know, I have some like,

not just of my needs, but I have some of wants that I have in life. have my family. I live somewhere that I love. I get to surf. I get to fish. I get to have fun. I enjoy time with my kids. And all of those things are so much more important than other things that we could pursue in life. so I just feel super blessed. But I also take a holistic look at my life and what success looks like.

Being a leader to me is not just having a big business with a bunch of employees and a big fleet and doing a bunch of revenue and making a lot of profit. That's not what a leader is to me. A leader to me is somebody who has a relationship with Christ and does their absolute best to read the Word and live out what the Bible says.

And to be an example of that. To be a great husband or mother. To be a great parent to be present in your kids life to provide them with provision protection to raise them up, provide them with the disciplines and things that they need to be amazing.

adults one day that contribute to society to serve and care for others and your community. And yeah, those are all things that I believe are so important, you know, your physical health. And so being a leader is kind of holistic in that sense. And so for me, I feel like I have

Branden Sewell (44:56.812)
You know, I've not achieved like the mountain tops of business success, right? But what I can say is like, I've got a great marriage. Love my wife. Just we have an amazing relationship. I'm present in my kids lives and they will never question whether I care about them or love them. I'm very intentional with loving my

my wife and my kids, very intentional. You know, I'm very intentional about my faith and very intentional about serving and giving back and being generous. And so those things are really, think, what's important. But I think when you live that way, it's a it's a driver of success. It's like

When you take care of the things that are the highest priority, when you are a leader in every area of your life, the result of leading, I believe, is success. If you're doing all of those things, I think you attract people and you develop influence.

When you live a certain way, when you have integrity, when you're an honest person, when you work hard and you live this way, you, like I said, you attract people and you will develop influence. And when you're a business owner, obviously when you can bring more people and you can create influence, then you can have a successful business. Excuse me.

And then you take those attributes and you apply them to how you run your business. And if you run your business with integrity, with honesty, putting others before yourself, you can't really lose. mean, the, mean, it really comes down to like, you know, business success, I think could be summed up in one way. And it's like, treat others the way you want to be treated. It's the golden rule. And I think.

Branden Sewell (47:16.896)
as a business owner, if you do that, if you treat people well, and you do what you say you're going to do, you're going to be successful. And that's like, that's a huge piece of marketing in itself is what is that story that you're telling your community that obviously your buyers your customers live in, and your ideal client avatar, right? So

Anyway, I think that each one of you who are listening to this podcast today, you have a unique story. have a unique, you have unique abilities. Your experiences have shaped you and you just have to take that and apply it to your business. And there may be areas where you need to get better. You know, maybe your marriage isn't doing so well. Maybe you're not doing very well in the parenting area. Maybe you're not.

you know, investing in your relationship with Christ. Maybe you aren't, you know, focusing on your health and being healthy in all ways, mentally, physically and spiritually. Well, work on those areas, work on your personal life and be better, right? You don't have to be defined by who you were or your past or past experiences. You can choose to be better than you were yesterday. And

I don't think that there's any question of whether like there is a version of you that is not the best version of you. And I think you have to acknowledge that you have to acknowledge that, hey, I could be better. And if you can't acknowledge that you can be better, well, then you're not going to grow. So if you don't look at your life and say, well, how can I be better? What can I change? What could I do differently than

Unfortunately, you're not going to get better. Your life is going to suffer for it. People in your life will suffer for it and your business. So just want to be better. I'm basically calling you out to be great, calling you out to be all that God has ultimately called you to be. And I think each one of you have the ability to be great, to do something great, to build an amazing business. And again, not

Branden Sewell (49:44.598)
just a business that is about the revenue and the profits, but a business that is stable, a business that has a great reputation, a business that gives back to its employees and its community, a business that makes a positive impact and makes a difference. And what I can tell you is I truly believe that if you build that, it might take longer, it might be slower, but if you do it,

with ethics, do it with morals, then you'll grow something that can stand the test of time and not just be something that you grow really big and then falls apart. And so I encourage you to invest in yourself, you know, and be a better version of yourself and be better tomorrow than you are today. you know, don't let negative things in life define you.

And don't be afraid to fail. You might fail, you might move forward and try to be better and make mistakes. Don't be afraid of that. Just again, learn, pick yourself up, grow, move forward. And, you know, that's really what it takes to be off the ladder. Excuse me. You know, it's a I think part of being off the ladder is really seeing the greatness and other people, you know, you have to understand like,

you're not the only one who has abilities and skills. There are people out there who are called to work for your company, who are called to be a part of your business. that's what they're that's the value that they're going to bring. And when I look at my guys, I see so much potential, I see, wow, like, they're amazing. They're skilled.

they can do things that I can't and vice versa, but, each one of us has a unique ability and a unit calling and man, and there's so much more to like success than the money, right? So if I only define my guys by how much money they make, well, then that's I'm failing. I define them by, you know, what do they bring to the table?

Branden Sewell (52:13.526)
I want them to be the best painters in the world. want them to be the best of the best. I want them to be the best that they can be at their craft. And if they are that, if they give back, if they pour their heart into it, if they serve people well, if they give selflessly, then there's no amount of money that you can put on that satisfaction of just being the best that you can be. you just, if there's only a dollar amount on it.

then is that really success? I don't think so. I think that it's bigger than that. It's being content and satisfied with the product, the service that you're bringing to the table and that it's bigger than money. It's about integrity. It's about humanity. It's about treating people the way you want to be treated. It's about respect, mutual respect, kindness, generosity. And really, I think that

In the same way that I'm not going to define my success by like what top line revenue we do, I don't think my employees should ever define themselves by how much they make. Now I want them to make as much as they can possibly make, but that is not a signature of whether they've been successful or not. It's not a signature of whether I've been successful or not. And it shouldn't be the signature of whether you're successful or not. Will that come as a result? I believe it will.

but our main focus should be just being the best that we can be personally, and I think serving other people. I think those are some of the keys to really succeeding and creating what success really looks like. So anyway, I'm gonna bring this episode to a close. Sorry if I blabbed on too much. I hope that you found some value in what I shared today.

I'd love to connect with you offline. If you want to hear more about my story, ask specifics, or if you have questions, please just follow up with me. Connect. You can connect with me on Facebook, my Instagram, through my website, send a message on here through our fan mail, but just connect in any way you would like. And then lastly, I'll also leave you with this. If there's any resources that you need to run your business,

Branden Sewell (54:28.11)
You can check in the show notes below. I have links to jobber nice job gusto for payroll and call rail for managing your marketing campaigns Click on the links. I do get credit if you use any of my links to sign up which I greatly appreciate and As always if you're watching on YouTube, please subscribe to the channel Turn on the notifications

If you're watching this video, comment on it, share your feedback, share it with somebody else so that they can gain some value from this episode. If you're listening on Apple or Spotify, please rate and review the show. That'll help us reach more people. And I'll just throw this out there. This show, it's supported through my brand partnerships and affiliates and...

And also if you subscribe or you can also subscribe, you can do a paid subscription to the to the podcast and help support it financially so that we can make better content and help more people get off the ladder and create become business owners own a business and not just own a job. That's my ultimate goal is to help you get off the ladder. So anyway, thank you so much for listening to this episode of the off the letter podcast and I'll see you next time on the next episode.