My Secret to Get Off the Ladder & Thrive in Life & Business

summary

In this episode, Branden Sewell discusses the power of gratitude and the dangers of the comparison trap for business owners. He reflects on his personal journey from a challenging childhood to becoming a successful business owner, emphasizing the importance of defining one's 'why' and maintaining a focus on what truly matters in life and business. Through his experiences, he highlights the significance of resilience, adaptability, and gratitude in achieving personal and professional fulfillment. In this conversation, Branden Sewell shares his life journey, highlighting pivotal moments that shaped his path from being an ocean lifeguard to pursuing ministry and ultimately becoming a business owner. He emphasizes the importance of prioritizing faith, family, and personal values in both life and business. Branden discusses the challenges he faced, the lessons learned, and the significance of gratitude and reflection in achieving a balanced and fulfilling life.

takeaways

• Gratitude helps maintain peace and joy in business.
• Avoiding comparison is crucial for personal fulfillment.
• Defining your 'why' provides clarity in business decisions.
• Family and faith should be prioritized over financial success.
• Resilience from childhood experiences shapes adult perspectives.
• Practicing gratitude can transform your outlook on life.
• Success is subjective and unique to each individual.
• Business growth should not come at the expense of personal values.
• Reflecting on past struggles fosters appreciation for current blessings.
• True fulfillment comes from relationships, not material wealth. Branden's journey reflects the importance of adaptability in life.
• Transitioning from high school to adulthood can be challenging.
• Pursuing a career in ministry can lead to personal growth.
• Faith should be prioritized in business decisions.
• Family and health are crucial for a successful life.
• Gratitude plays a key role in personal fulfillment.
• Balancing work and personal life is essential for happiness.
• Financial stability allows for better decision-making in business.
• Delaying gratification can lead to more meaningful rewards.
• Building a business around core values fosters a positive work environment.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Gratitude and Comparison
10:11 Defining Your 'Why' as a Business Owner
14:56 Personal Journey: Overcoming Adversity
19:46 Resi

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Transcript

Branden Sewell (00:01.336)
Hi everybody, am Brandon Sula. I am the owner of Seal Pro Painting 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. Today's episode is gonna be just a solo episode. I'm also streaming this episode live to my social media. And...

What I want to talk about in this episode is two things. The power of gratitude, just as a business owner and avoiding the comparison trap. know, I was just there's been a couple of things that have inspired this episode, but you know, I think about my own journey and you know, speaking to a financial

advisor, I think it was like two weeks ago, just going over, you know, personal finances and business finances and things like that. And we were talking and I just explained to him, I said, you know, I'm 32. I don't really know if I'm, you know, where I am supposed to be if that's a right term, or in comparison to

other people my age or other business owners like what am I doing right? What am I doing wrong? Am I where I should be financially? And but I told him I said, you know, in reality, that doesn't really matter to me because I'm so thankful for what I have. And I told him, said, you know, when I was from the time I was in middle school to high school, you know,

me and my siblings and my single mom, experience being homeless quite often. I spent a lot of time from middle school to high school just moving a lot, living with friends, living in hotels, and just not really having a solid, steady, stable environment.

Branden Sewell (02:28.693)
And as I reflect on that and I look at where I am today, I was like, you know, I'm just, thankful that, you know, I'm married, I have two beautiful kids, I have a house somewhere where I can call home and it's stable. It's like,

I'm not moving all the time. I'm not all over the place. you know, just I've been really blessed in my opinion, you know, and as a business owner, you know, obviously I have ambitions, have goals, I have dreams, I have things that I want to accomplish, and I can look and I can see the success of others or what seems like

success and obviously on social media people are constantly flaunting their success and it's easy for me to look at that and say wow I wish I had you know that house or I wish I had that car or I wish I could go on that vacation I wish I could be where they are whatever the situation is but then when I go back

And I take a second and I just pause and say, you know what, where was I and where am I now? And I have so much to be grateful for. And, you know, I just, I was, I was on Facebook this morning and Jobber had posted something and they were talking about, you know, getting off the truck or getting off the ladder as they say. There's a lot of different terms for it and

You know, someone said, you know, I got off the ladder, but now I feel like I'm more burnout than ever before. And it just led me to thinking about, you know, we can get thrown off course so easily if we don't remain grateful and if we don't avoid comparison. And. You know, I think the reason that is, is because when we're not

Branden Sewell (04:52.759)
grateful and we don't practice gratitude, then we're going to be constantly striving and in a place of like restlessness trying to get the next thing, achieve the next thing, get the next thing, reach the next revenue mile marker, you know, whatever the case may be, have a X amount of trucks on the road for our home service company. And

that constant striving and not, you know, just stopping and being grateful can cause us to have no peace. You know, and if we're constantly comparing, that only fuels and feeds that lack of gratitude. It robs us of the joy of where we are now and what we've been able to accomplish. And it says,

you're not going to be able to have joy or have peace or fulfillment unless you get to that next place. And as a business owner, I've always, you know, just kind of thought to myself, my goal. Sure, I want to grow. I'm a person. I have a growth mindset. I constantly want to grow. I'm constantly looking at my business and thinking to myself, how can I go to the next level?

I'm constantly trying to educate myself to help me personally grow so that I can get to that next level but I've always been very intentional about saying okay Brennan what is your why and if I Sit down and I say okay my why is My family, you know, I want to have a successful business

because I want to be present as a husband. I want to be present as a father. And I want to be able to cultivate something that I didn't have as a kid. My parents were divorced. You know, my mom remarried a couple times, my dad remarried, like, dad lived in Maryland, I lived...

Branden Sewell (07:15.551)
all over the place really never really saw my dad much there were sometimes I'd see him once a year sometimes I wouldn't see him for a couple years and so anyway I was like okay well my why is I want to have the family that I didn't have and the stability that I didn't have as a kid so anything that is going to take away from that that is going to hinder that why

is not my priority. And so there's a lot of things in business that I could do. There's, you know, I could grow faster. I could make more money. I could do a lot of things. But if I feel like they could take away from the why, my priority, which is my family, then I'm not going to do that unless I can do it and keep what matters most intact, which is my family.

And you know, the other thing too is, and I should mention this first, because it's most important is my faith, you know. I always say this, I want to grow the business. I want to achieve success, but I want to do it without sacrificing my Christian values, my morals, and things like that.

And I'm not perfect by any means. I've made mistakes. There's been seasons in the business where I haven't done the best and I have to reflect and say, okay, well, how did I get to that place? And how did I make decisions that led to me not holding up that priority of like my faith, my integrity?

My example in Christ is like the number one focus. And I'm really hard on myself when if I feel like I'm not representing Christ well in my business, that's like super, that bothers me probably more than anything because I want so badly for people to be an example of Christ so that people look at me and they say, wow, know, Brandon is a man of God.

Branden Sewell (09:41.794)
He runs his business with integrity. He's a great example of his Christian faith. He doesn't just talk about his values. He lives them out. He walks them out. And I want that to be my example. So when I fall short of that, I'm very hard on myself. I'm like, okay, I've got to figure out how to like, you know, change something so that I'm being a great example of my faith. But, you know, just to go back is like,

When you get really clear on like, okay, this is who I am. This is what matters most to me. This is why I'm doing this business. Then you can create some protection in your life of things that are gonna try and steal your focus away and cause you to focus on something that is not going to support your why.

And so if you're in business and you feel burned out and run out, that's probably a pretty good indicator that you are not doing things and prioritizing things to support your why and your true identity of who you are. And the reality is, is you, your business, who you are is different than anybody else.

So how you do your business and why you do your business is going to be tailored to you. But the foundation of it is understanding this is who I am. This is why I'm doing this. And this is what I need to do in my business to support my why. And you know, like for example, if let's say we'll just take this as an example.

The focus of this podcast is getting off the ladder in your home service business. So why though? Why get off the ladder? The whole purpose of getting off the ladder is so that you can build a business that enables you to focus on what matters most. Now, let's say you get off the ladder, but you're doing things in such a way that it's not leading

Branden Sewell (12:10.231)
to the ultimate goal of supporting your why, then you're doing something wrong. You've got to change something. There's something that you have to work on and maybe that's your mindset. Maybe that's your leadership. Maybe that's the systems in your business. Maybe that's your personal finances. Maybe that's your marriage. Maybe that is your relationship with your kids. But there's something

that is putting stress on your business to cause you to not really fulfill your main purpose, which is to really like chase after your why and you know your passion. And so I just know for myself like you have to be very clear of what matters most in your business. So like for me I know that yeah we all

want to make more money, right? It helps to pay our bills and do all those things and do fun things and pursue things that we want to do in life. But you have to get really honest with yourself and say, Hey, if I had more money,

But I had to get it at the expense of maybe a marriage or your family, your relationship with your kids or your health. Is that money worth it? You know, we like to think to ourselves like, man, I just if I made more money than I could take my kids on that vacation to wherever and spend a ton of money.

and then I'll be fulfilled and my family will be happy. When really, you're going to be more fulfilled and happy, if you work a little bit less, make a little less money, live within your means, and spend time with your kids every night, and spend time with your spouse, and maybe you don't go on a lavish vacation, but maybe you take them to do something fun on the weekend in your local town or city, and

Branden Sewell (14:29.621)
you learn to appreciate again, this goes back to gratitude. It's like, appreciate the fact that you built a business and yet maybe that doesn't look like you're making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in personal income, but maybe you're making an honest and reasonable wage, but you've created a business that gives you freedom and you can spend time with your family.

I can guarantee you when you get to your deathbed or if you talk to somebody who's in there at the end of their life, they're in their 90s, maybe they're on their deathbed and you ask them, what do you wish you could go back and change in life? I don't think that somebody is going to say, hey, I wish I could have made more money, even if it meant my marriage failed or I didn't have a relationship with my kids. I think they're going to say, hey, you know what, I wish I would have

focus on what mattered more. I wish I would have focused on my faith and gotten closer to God and dedicated myself to service and of others. And I wish I would have spent more time with my family and my loved ones and been surrounded by people I love. I think those are the things that you're going to look back and wish, man, here I am. I'm at the end of my life. I wish I could just spend one more second with my loved ones.

And so I think when you get this bigger perspective, it helps you to eliminate those things, those, you know, forks in the road where it's like, hey, I could go this way, but it's going to completely take me away from what matters most to me. And I think, too, like, you don't realize, like, when you maybe you achieve what you think, and you think it's going to have this fulfillment.

But the reality is it could be more empty than where you are now. And so I think it goes back again to like that gratitude, that deep gratitude of just saying, hey, you know what, God, I'm thankful for where I am today. I'm fine. You may not be where you want to be. You may not be where I am.

Branden Sewell (16:54.923)
You may not be where somebody else is that you look up to, but where you are now is part of your journey and you can find something to be grateful for right where you're at. You know, maybe it's, hey, I'm grateful that I have somewhere to lay my head at night and call home. It may not be a mansion, it may not be fancy, but it's shelter.

Hey, I'm thankful that I have some money in my bank account and I can buy food and put food on the table and provide. I'm thankful that I was able to wake up today and that I just have another day to just give my best. Hey, I'm thankful for my spouse. I'm thankful for their commitment to you and to me. I'm thankful for their faithfulness and their love and their support.

I'm thankful for my kids that they bring me joy and fulfillment in life and purpose that drives me. I'm thankful for just the ability, my health, the ability to move, function. I'm thankful for the opportunity to even struggle and learn and grow. And, you know, so I think it's just like, try to find

what matters most and be thankful for that. Practice gratitude. When you practice that gratitude, it really helps you to like just slow down and enjoy the process and then just realize that your business, your process is not going to look like everybody else's. It's unique to you. It's unique to your goals. It's unique to your values, your principles.

It's unique to your passions, your ultimate purpose in life. And so don't compare, but get clear on who you are. And, you know, I kind of like talk so much about, you know, the gratitude and those principles in the beginning, but I want to share I've shared in another episode some of my story, but

Branden Sewell (19:17.419)
I'm going to get a little, I guess like a little bit more detailed on why I'm so grateful for where I am. And, you know, there's, there's a lot to it. But man, my past has made me so thankful for where I am today. And I think that's just a powerful thing. So, you know, in another episode, I think I'll

me look it up and you know if you want to go back and listen to that that some of this might be a little repetitive but I'm gonna try and share more details but so episode 60 I talked about how I've moved 50 times by the age of 23 and just how that kind of like helped me become resilient and adaptable but for

For this episode, I wanna try and just dive deeper into those struggles, those sacrifices as a kid and just how it made me who I am today and why I'm grateful. So my story is when I was a kid, my parents divorced. So my dad was a musician.

I don't actually know exactly what my mom did back then. I think she was like a paralegal and I think she had done she was in the Air Force for a little while. But you know, and then she went. I know ultimately she went into the mortgage industry. But anyway, so parents divorce when I was like probably one maybe even some like in my first year of life, give or take. I lived in Maryland. And

I grew up with my dad around a lot from like the time that I was one until I was about five. And so, you know, both lived in Maryland, you know, spent time with my dad a lot, saw him, spent time with my family on his side. And that was great. My mom remarried to my brother's dad, so I have a little brother. He's

Branden Sewell (21:39.374)
name's Dylan. He's like maybe, I think he's three years younger than me. So he's probably like 28 or 29, something like that. And my mom and my stepdad at that time decided that they were going to move from Maryland to South Carolina. So we moved to South Carolina and you know, at that point that really started the

the process of not seeing my dad much. So I would, you know, at that time, I'd maybe see him like once or twice a year. And it was usually going and spending some time with him in the summer. And if I didn't see him the summer, I would at least see him for the holidays. So, you know, going there for like, either Thanksgiving or Christmas, usually Christmas. And then so yeah.

Started that process at five of not seeing much. Now, my mom, when she was married to my stepdad, in the beginning we moved a lot because my mom was moving for different job opportunities. she was in the mortgage industry. she was, I remember when we moved to, think she was working for like Century 21 back in this time. And so she was working for a branch in South Carolina. And then,

And then we moved to North Carolina. Now it got a little bit harder to see my dad because now we're even, you know, we were further away from my dad. Wait, hold on. So we're South Carolina, North Carolina. Well, anyway, I ended up seeing him like maybe once a year. Usually it was Christmas. And then let's see, we moved from North Carolina to...

Alabama. And around the time we moved to Alabama, I think I was maybe eight years old. And my mom and my brother's dad, they separated. So now, my mom was a single mom, and she was raising me, my sister, my brother, my oldest sister, but my oldest sister was

Branden Sewell (24:10.421)
struggling with drugs, alcohol, abuse. And like, not just I mean, this was there's about an eight year age gap between us. So like, when I was eight or nine, she was, you know, in high school. But she she got into like heavy drugs. you know, crystal meth, heroin, you know, pills, drinking, just really bad.

And so that, my sisters, my oldest sister's decisions put a lot of stress on my mom and our family. Now, when my mom and my stepdad initially split, my mom would like, you know, she'd date different people, we'd, you know, see a lot of, you know, relationships with men coming in and out of our lives. So I didn't see my dad a lot.

I didn't have a solid father figure in my life anymore. And so really I struggled with that obviously as like a young boy growing up, didn't have a dad around, didn't have a solid father figure. The only example I saw were like these men coming in and out of our lives. So that was part of a struggle for me. Now we moved from Alabama back to North Carolina.

after the split. this point, I was probably like nine years old and we were back in North Carolina. And

I guess this would have been approaching like the the recession of like the 2008-2009 timeframe. So this is like, you know, late 90s, early 2000s and kind of approaching into that. So go from elementary school into middle school, everything's it's okay. It's a little rocky financially, we're moving around.

Branden Sewell (26:18.765)
a lot. We're living with like, you know, moving, we'd like move into a rental property, we'd get kicked out, we'd like move somewhere else. We'd maybe move in with my mom's boyfriend or move in with a friend. And anyway, it 50 times by the time I was 23, like I can't even when I go back and I think about that time in my life from like, the age of like nine or 10 to 23.

It's like, it's hard for me to think of all the different places I lived and where we moved and all of these things. It was just crazy. But, you know, obviously I had a lot of like instability just constantly moving. Now, one thing that I will say is

I, even in the midst of all of that stuff that was going on, in that moment, it was challenging, but for whatever reason, by God's grace, I was able to walk through it and not feel too bad about it. mean, yes, it was challenging, it was hard, it sucked, but I think I just became conditioned to it. It almost seemed normal to me. Until I looked at like,

what I would say is like a normal family. And I was like, wow, this isn't normal. But at the same time, I was like, you know what, you know, it is what it is. But, you know, I, I grew up in a little island in North Carolina called Emerald Isle, spent most of my childhood there from the time I was nine until I was 16. And, you know, I just grew up like surfing.

skateboarding and that was that was my outlet, you know, and So even though I went through really challenging times, I just enjoyed life I enjoyed spending time with my friends surfing skateboarding and living outdoors I was always outside always playing and I guess that kind of like helped me deal with the fact that you know

Branden Sewell (28:34.325)
I was constantly moving and things like that. The other side of like moving all the time is I can't tell you how many times I've lost everything. So like as a kid, you know, like, you know, I'd have like a bedroom and I'd have like a dresser and I'd have all my clothes and I have these belongings and you know, I just end up going through some move where like I all I can remember is like I didn't have everything anymore.

And that's a really interesting thing to go through as a kid. And there's details to that. I don't know if I should really go into it. But just having the understanding that we lost everything, like literally everything. The only thing that I was left with a few times from middle school to high school was like a bag of clothes.

You know we'd go through like these weird seasons of like it would seem like everything was getting better and then it was like back down and it seemed like things were getting better and that was back down and. You know I.

I just remember that it was there is no consistency. There was no stability. There's there was no normal. It was just constant like change and chaos. Now, when I think of that as an adult, it's it's funny, like I was just telling my wife this recently, like, you know, that experience as a kid made me very resilient. And it made me very

adaptable to change. It also made me very comfortable with a little. It was it's like this weird, weird thing where I'm yes, like that experience as a child made me want more in my life. But it's also given me like a level of contentment where

Branden Sewell (30:42.955)
I'm very grateful for the little bit that I have because I'm like, I could, I'm so, I've achieved so much coming from that. To where I am now, I'm like, wow, it just like, it blows my mind sometimes when I sit back and I think about it, I'm like, God, you've been so good to me.

And there's probably some people that look at my life and they're probably, it's just a normal guy. But to me, I'm like, I am so blessed. mean, I feel like I'm just like, I was joking. I was telling my financial advisor, was like, hey, my wife and I saved up X amount of dollars and to most people's standards, it probably wouldn't seem like much. But I'm like,

because of where I came from, this feels like I've like, I feel incredibly blessed. And I'm like, no means like a millionaire or something, but I just feel incredibly blessed. And I think going through what I went through as a kid, it just gave me such a perspective. And I just have so much gratitude. so, yeah, we, you know, going back to like the childhood story.

You know, we had we had finally moved to when I was 16, we moved from North Carolina to Florida. And so like the area where I live now is where I was until I graduated from from high school. And, you know, even once we moved down here, we moved a lot. My mom was a single mom. And we were constantly, you know, moving from rental house to rental house.

And you know, we we experienced like consistently like this wasn't just like a every once in a while thing, but we were very familiar what it was like to like have the light shut off or have the the water cut off and like when I think back to it now, I'm like, wow, it's so crazy. Like we used to run over to the neighbor's house, fill up a five gallon bucket with water.

Branden Sewell (33:03.745)
run it back to our house just so we could like, you know, heat up the water and in a like on the stove and like take a shower or like have water to flush the toilets like it's crazy to me like think back and I'm like, how like I in like to have like, I never it was kind of like an adventure to me back then it was like, wow, this is kind of this crazy. But I'm like,

now, especially as an adult, I'm like, and I have two kids, I'm like, wow, that's like, been through some pretty challenging times. And but anyway, it's, you know, those are the kind of things that I went through as a kid. And you know, that the the experience of going through that, I just, again, to emphasize, it was like, when I was going through it, I didn't realize that that wasn't like the normal

for other kids, most other kids my age. Like yes, there were probably kids that experienced the same things and you know, some that experience worse, but it was just, I didn't realize that as a kid. I was just living life and didn't really know what to expect. But anyway, fast forward after moving down to Florida, another really like pivotal moment in my life.

was I was I had just graduated from high school. You know, I didn't have a car or anything. So I used to ride my bike everywhere like crazy distances to work as like an ocean lifeguard and stuff like that or like to go to church or Bible studies. And I'd ride a bike or skateboard everywhere. But I remember my mom, I didn't really have a plan after high school, but my mom had asked me like, hey, what are your plans? And I was like, I don't know. I'm not gonna

I don't plan on going to college. just, I'm going to work as an ocean lifeguard. And, you know, to be honest with you, I was like naive back then, and I wanted to serve professionally. and I even had a, a thought of going into the Navy. I like really, I used to be an ocean lifeguard for a few years and I really had this admiration for, the Navy SEALs.

Branden Sewell (35:27.463)
and, you know, special operations. And so there was even a part of me that wanted to pursue going into the Navy to do special ops or, or SWIC, which is basically they're like the they're like Navy rescue swimmers, basically. But anyway, those were things that I was considering. And my mom's like, Well, why don't you go to college and

So she talked me out of going into the Navy and this other option of pursuing a surfing career. And so I applied to one college, and that was Florida Tech. Got into Florida Tech, I was there, I was going to school for business, and was gonna get a marketing degree. And...

I just and really the only way my mom talked me into that was because they had a they had a surf team, you know, so she was like, well, why don't you go to college and you can, you know, join the surf team and you'll still get to surf and but you'll get your get your college in. And I was like, okay, well, I'll apply. And if I get in, I'll go. And so that was

That was something that I pursued and I ended up getting in. ended up going on to the surf team. But in my, at the end of my first semester, so I had been sharing a car with my mom. I was driving her car to school because I lived in Merritt Island. My school was in Melbourne, so it was like roughly a 45 minute to an hour drive to school. So when I was, so this was like right after I turned 18, my mom,

I was living with my brother at the time and my mom and my two, my niece and my nephew. My sister had already moved out. And my mom had told me she was dating this guy from Nashville. She was like, hey, I'm gonna go visit, you know, so and so, and I'll be back in a week. And then she never came back. So I was there with my little brother and she had taken my niece and nephew, but I was there with my little brother. And that was a really like,

Branden Sewell (37:51.422)
Just like, you're gonna have to grow up fast right now because you don't have any other options. So I had no way to get to school. I tried getting rides down to school for a little while, but then I was missing too much class, my grades were suffering, and I just couldn't make it happen anymore. So I ended up dropping out of college. Now, another thing that I wanted to do, but didn't really know how to go about it, is I wanted to be a pastor.

And so I was like, okay, I'm gonna, I'm gonna drop out of college. I'm gonna go to Maryland. There's a Bible college at my dad's church up there. I'm gonna go to Bible college and I'm gonna pursue full-time ministry. So that's essentially what ended up happening, but it took a little bit of time. I was, so after my mom left, we got evicted. My brother, he went and lived with a friend and I

ended up moving in with a friend of mine. And, you know, I was working full time as an ocean lifeguard at the time, through the summer of 2011. And, you know, it was actually a conversation with my dad, my dad like asked me, like, Hey, so what's your plan? And I was talking to him over the phone. And I said, Hey, you know, I'm adding I'm just going to be an ocean lifeguard. And, you know, like,

maybe pursue trying to move up as an ocean lifeguard over time and maybe become a paramedic or something. And I told him, I was like, I don't really care. As long as I'm like working on the beach and I get to surf, I don't really care. He's like, well, do you want to like get married someday? And I was like, yeah. He's like, do you want to have kids? I said, yeah. He goes, well, like, how are you going to provide for, you know, a family and how are you going to do this and that? And I was like, those are all things I wasn't really thinking of. And so

Anyway, I was like, you know what, dad, could I just like, I move in with you up there and go to Bible college? So he's like, Yeah, yeah, sure. So I ended up going up there was supposed to go to orientation and then fly back and get all my stuff. ended up going up there and like, never coming back. So I left with a bag of clothes again, another time in my life where I was just like, hey, like, just have a bag of clothes and figure it out. So

Branden Sewell (40:16.201)
left all my other belongings in Florida. They ended up actually at a friend in a friend's shed down here for years. But I went up there. And I pursued the Bible college thing, and ended up doing that, went into ministry. And yeah, I learned a lot from that experience. I was another big like learning experience in my life of gratitude and

The interesting thing is in ministry, there's like these different movements or different emphasis that can kind of like cause you to even lose focus in your faith of like what matters most. And I felt like that really happened to me. I was super zealous, passionate about God, passionate about serving others, didn't really care about making money.

I just wanted to like live for God, serve people, that's like, and just like, you know, love people and love life, like just live and just serve. And anyway, I ended up working like seven days a week for six years, like working like crazy in ministry and just tons of hours. And, you know, when I was a single guy that like, that was fine. Like I literally just

I went nonstop. And I was, I made a commitment to stay single for three years. And like that whole process, I didn't date anybody. literally just focused on myself. That was another really like smart decision I made as a young man was not like focusing on me, focusing on becoming the man that I needed to be for a future spouse and a family.

So focused on me focused on you know growing and developing and You know, so I'm here I'm working ministry and then I get married and like I'm working insane hours like how many hours are there in a? Seven day

Branden Sewell (42:41.037)
There are 168 hours. I let's see.

Branden Sewell (43:01.293)
I'm trying to do some math here.

Branden Sewell (43:08.749)
Okay, so I, this is no stretch. I would say that I was probably working some weeks, 80 to 120 hours, literally enough to come home, sleep for a few hours, and then get back to it. Because when I worked in ministry, my whole

Like this is kind of, I'll just break down like, cause and the reason why I'm sharing this is because it, it really applies to like how I operate as a business owner. All of this is kind of like trying to come full circle to like why I operate my business the way I do. working in ministry. So, I was the full-time graphics director for the church. So my like eight to four responsibilities were to

do all of the graphics, digital and print for all of the ministries in the church. So that covered like men's ministries, women ministry, children's ministry, prison ministry, just anything that you can think within the church. And then I was also, I did everything for what were called our ministries of compassion. So those were like ministries where we did outreach outside of the church.

We had like a men's home, a women's home, a thrift store, all of those things. We had a thing where we would go down and throw block parties in the inner city and give away stuff. anyway, all of that, had, we also had a, a food warehouse. But anyway, so I was the graphics director. So I designed the graphics digital imprint for all of those.

And that was a lot. On top of that, you know, eight to four, I do that. Now, in ministry, obviously, you have like meetings that you have to be in. You know, there's things that happen throughout the week, services that you have to be at. And like being on staff, I was required to be in a lot of those. So like,

Branden Sewell (45:27.031)
But anyway, like going back so graphics director, I was on the pastoral care team. like Monday evening, so I had to be in a pastoral care meeting. Tuesdays, I don't remember what meeting it was, but I had some type of meeting. I remember Thursday evenings, we had church Friday evenings, I had youth or young adults ministry. Saturdays, I was either cleaning the church, building stage designs.

or doing something like that or some type of outreach event that the church was having. And then Sundays is church literally all day when you're on staff at a church. So seven days a week, that was like my schedule. you know, so graphics director on pastoral care, I was the youth director. I was the director of a youth conference call that we had where, I'm not going to say the name of it, but we had kids from all over the nation come and serve and.

Rebuild a house in a week and give it away to a veteran. And so I was the director of that and then I was also the stage to our design director. So I was over doing all of the stage designs for this church and a huge stage huge designs just and they change every two to four weeks basically when a sermon series changed or when there was like a new season or something we would do stage designs that were based around that.

Now, a lot of times, so that's a lot of responsibilities and limited time. Now, what I will say is I think that was a very unhealthy thing. But what it taught me is like, I learned a lot about leadership, learned a lot about delegation, I learned a lot about, you know, time management, my schedule, learning how to just get stuff done and

Those were all things that I needed to learn, but it was just, it was crazy the amount of hours I was working and the amount of time I was putting in. so fast forward, get married and I'm like, this is like, this is insane. I'm literally newly married. I'm getting home sometimes at two, three in the morning, sleeping.

Branden Sewell (47:51.884)
waking up at 5, 6 o'clock, having to be at the church by 7, that's another thing, like you were required to be at church by 7 because we had to go into the prayer room from 7 to 8, and we had like corporate prayer as like the staff at the church. And so anyway, it was just, it was crazy. And I was like, this, I don't know how I can keep up this schedule.

and have a healthy marriage. I was like, and it's not fair to my wife. I was like, and my first ministry is my marriage. It's my wife, my family. Your family is your first ministry. So anyway, I was just like, I can't do this. And so I started to like try and like, just take it upon myself to try to make that more of a priority. And

Anyway, it led to me ultimately being let go of. And, you know, I was like, I had never felt so much peace and relief in my life. Same with my wife. But then from there, I started doing door to door, because I was like, I don't really know what else to do. I just need to get a job as fast as possible. And I started working for a roofing company doing

door-to-door marketing for leads, like just door knocking. And that was a hustle. So that actually, that taught me a lot about myself, that grind. And I did that for a while until a friend of mine who I worked for at the church, he was my supervisor, he had a painting company and he recruited me. And so I worked for him and kind of the rest is history from there. But.

Now, I'm gonna bring this full circle. So I had all of that experience as a kid. I had that experience that I had in ministry. And here's what I learned is everything that I shared at the beginning of this episode.

Branden Sewell (50:06.541)
There are a lot of good things that we can do. There are a lot of good things that we can pursue as people, as business owners. But there are things that matter most. At the end of your life, where you stand with God is going to be the most important thing. So your faith should always be

the number one priority of what you do in business and as a leader. And maybe you're listening to this and you're not a person of faith. Okay, then just scrub this part off. Don't listen me. But for those of you that are, that you have interest in it, if you are a person of faith, that is your number one priority. Are you representing Christ as a business owner? Are you living a life that is...

showing the fruit of your faith. Number one priority. Second priority, if you're married or you're pursuing a marriage, whatever, your marriage is your second highest priority. If you have kids, your kids are your other highest priority, and your health. So those four things

And then I would say too, your fifth thing would be like your personal finances. if you can't achieve success and grow your business and if what you're doing is not honoring God, you're doing it wrong. If you what you're doing to grow your business and run your business, get off the ladder, whatever you're doing, if you're doing it and it's leading to your marriage falling apart or problems in your relationship, you're doing it wrong. If you're growing a business and you don't make time for your kids, they don't see their

their mom or their dad, you don't spend time with them, you you're doing it wrong. If you grow a business and you're successful and you make more money, but you're unhealthy and you're gonna die anyway because you don't take care of yourself, you're doing it wrong. And if you are doing business, but yet your personal finances are an absolute wreck and a mess causing more stress for you, you're doing it wrong.

Branden Sewell (52:34.261)
If you can't make these five things a priority and do what you do, then there's something that you're not doing right as a business owner. And I will say the money thing, the flashiness of like what some business owners show, you're comparing yourself to that without knowing what these five things look like. Maybe

They have a huge business. Maybe they're doing two, three times the revenue you're doing, but they're gonna get a divorce. Like, I love my wife. My wife, like, that's more important to me than the money or anything that the business has to offer. She comes first. So if my marriage is failing, the business is gone. You know, my kids, like I said, I grew up without my dad around. So...

You can look at these people who have tons of success and you can be like, I want to double my revenue. I want to do this. I want to do that. But if you have kids and you're not present in their lives, you're gone all the time. And the only time they see you is when you get home at the end of the day and you're grumpy and mad and you don't even want to spend time with them. You're doing it wrong. What does it matter if your kids don't want anything to do with you? If your kids end up broken?

because they didn't have their mom or their dad around. What does that matter? What is the success? What is the money? What does all of that matter? If you lose your relationship with your kids or your kids' lives aren't enriched. Your health, it's like common sense. What's the point? What's the point of the money? What's the point of fame? What's the point of any of it? If you're unhealthy and you're falling apart and you die.

Like that I know that's morbid, but what's the point? Fifth, know, personal finances. This is so like, how can you run a successful business if there's tons of strain on you with your personal finances? Like I'm not like I said, I'm not a millionaire. I'm not like but my that's not my ultimate like pursuit, right?

Branden Sewell (54:58.773)
My ultimate pursuit is like live below my means so that I don't have a ton of financial strain so that I can focus on what matters most so that can make decisions in my business and have the freedom to do that to give me what matters most, which is my time. Your time is what matters. You know, more money.

more notoriety, more whatever that looks like to you, a bigger house. What's the point of having a giant house that you can't spend any time in? What's the point of any of that? Like, what's the point of building a big business so you can buy a nice boat and then you can't spend any time on it? What's the point of building this big business and making more money because you want to be able to do

Ex-morm, like for me, I surf and I fish. We'll build a big business, make more money, but I have no time to fish, surf, or anything like that. What's the point? So again, I would say get clear on what matters most and then build your business around that. Build your business around time freedom. So maybe you need to identify what is the strain.

on your business right now. What on this foundation is causing you to struggle to build the business to get it to where it needs to be to give you time to get off the ladder, to get off the truck? Now, it sounds easier than it is. identify what's struggling.

not aligning with your why your priorities over here. Eliminate those things and then get back to what matters most. You know, I think probably one of the most common things that holds people up from being able to get off the ladder is going to be personal finances. If you've got a ton of personal debt and you're just like got debt up to your eyeballs and you can barely survive.

Branden Sewell (57:18.465)
Well, it's like, okay, well, I feel like I have to go out and hustle from six in the morning till seven, eight o'clock at night because I've got to make more money to support all of this crazy lifestyle. Whereas if you would make it a purpose to eliminate debt, live below your means, practice gratitude, be thankful for what you do have, eliminate that debt, then you free up money

and time in your business that you can give away and delegate to others. So maybe you're not making a hundred, a hundred and fifty, two hundred thousand dollars from your business. Maybe you're making sixty to eighty, but you have time. And now you have this money, these resources where you can hire this employee, you can hire this employee, you can pay to implement this software in these systems and

You can get things running where it doesn't necessarily need you in the day to day. That's the ultimate goal. And then it goes from there, it goes down to your people. The goal is to teach your people those same principles. Hey guys, listen, I know you're ambitious. I know you want to make more money. I know you want to do all this, but please don't come work for me and make work your life and forget about your family.

You know, you're the things your kids, your health. But again, like so for those employees like, hey, how can I coach you? Eliminate debt, eliminate things that are going to put strain on you to make you feel like you got to be at work all the time. Live below your means so that you can come, you can work, can, you know, and then think about like, don't try to instantly gratify every desire that you have.

I've been a business owner now for eight years. I've wanted a boat for so long. I wanted a boat really bad. You know, I could have gone out, I could have financed one, put myself in a ton of debt to have a boat, but I waited for the right time where I had some money set aside and I went out and I paid cash and I didn't buy the first boat that I looked at. I looked at tons and tons of boats, you know, just looking through, I'm trying to find the perfect boat and I had a specific budget and I went and I found this boat.

Branden Sewell (59:40.832)
It was within my budget and it's a nice little boat. It's not like a $50,000 to $70,000 flats boat that would be amazing to have, but it gets me on the water. I have fun. It gets my friends on the water with me and my family. It's great. It's reliable. It's a good boat. But anyway, all that to say is delay gratification. Don't buy...

like all these like toys and think that that's going to be the answer. Don't think that, you know, a big house, fancy cars is the answer. Like, I don't there's no problem with those things. But do it in a way that doesn't put financial strain on you that causes you to have to make decisions in your business that hinder the main things.

the most important things in your business. Those five things that we talked about, God, your marriage, your kids, your health, your personal finances. So protect those things and build your business around those things. That's what I've done. So like I'm at a point now where it's like I've got amazing guys who work for me and like

These guys have no idea probably how much I truly care about them. My hope is that they would understand some of these principles that I've applied for myself. my goal is to build a business where these guys can apply these principles so that they have strong faith, they have strong marriages, they are involved in their kids' lives and they're present, they're healthy.

and they have strong financial personal finances. And, you know, it's amazing. I sat down with my financial advisor and you know, we were talking one time and you know, he told me he goes, Hey, you know what, Brandon, he said, I have clients who are doctors and lawyers who have debt out their eyeballs haven't invested because they have so much debt. And they look

Branden Sewell (01:02:03.307)
like they're wealthy because they have a big house, fancy cars and nice things. But the reality is, is they're not wealthy. He's like, and I have clients who are, who have been like, who was a butcher for, you let's say 30 years and live below their means, invested their entire career. And then when they decided to retire, they retired a multimillionaire.

Branden Sewell (01:02:32.439)
That's it right there. But what happens to us? We compare ourselves to that doctor, that lawyer, that business owner with a eight-figure business, nine-figure business. We compare ourselves to them, but we don't know what things actually look like for them. We don't know what those five pillars look like in their life.

So don't focus on comparing yourself to anybody else. Practice gratitude, focus on those five pillars, and build your business around those five pillars. Get off the ladder, get off the truck, so you can focus on those five things more. Don't do it for money, don't do it for anything else, do it for this, those five areas. And look, like you can say like, well,

you know, grow my business and make more money so that I can do this and that for my wife. Like, look, if anybody that you love in your life is going to be, like, their thankfulness or their gratitude for you is based around the money, like, nah, that's probably not a good thing. But I hope my wife appreciates that I make time for her. That's, and like,

I'm not saying like don't have, you know, stability and like take care of your finances and stuff like yes, do that. But the goal should not be like to be some like crazy rich person. If that happens along the way, great, but don't make that your focus grow so that you can focus on this. So anyway, I'm going to bring this episode to a close and I want to say a special thanks to,

a friend of mine, in a local networking group with me, his name is Rich. And he owns a plumbing company and we just had a conversation a couple weeks ago and he was like, hey man, you need to do a podcast episode on gratitude. And so that's this podcast episode on gratitude. so Rich, if you're listening to this, thanks for the inspiration. And for those of you that have listened to this podcast episode today, I hope you get something out of it.

Branden Sewell (01:04:56.329)
I hope that my blabbering on about my story actually helped maybe communicate something, some clarity to you. And I hope that it's beneficial to you and your business and ultimately, you know, the health of your personal life and your business. If you listen today and you're watching on live, please share some feedback.

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Reach out to me on any social media platforms. would love to connect with you if you listen. Share your feedback. Let me know guests you would like to see on the show, topics you would like me to cover, maybe things that you would like me to talk about on here. Share that feedback with me. I'd love to hear from you. And again, thank you as always, and I'll see you next time on the next episode of the Off the Ladder Podcast.