Three Layoffs. One Decision. Bet on Yourself | with Brian Kurian

What do you do when life keeps pulling the rug out from under you?

In this episode of Braving the Brightside, I sit down with Brian Kurian, who was laid off three times in just a few years—until he hit a point where something had to change.

Four days later, he bet on himself and started his own business.

This conversation isn’t about overnight success. It’s about what happens in the moments where your identity gets shaken, your plans fall apart, and you’re forced to decide who you’re going to become next.

If you’ve ever felt stuck, uncertain, or pushed into a pivot you didn’t ask for—this one will hit home.

Book a call with Brian:

https://www.briankuriansbusinessservices.com/

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Appreciate yous.

Love,

Dan

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

All right. Well, then I'm just going to kick it off. Also, real quick, I realize I never said your last name to you out loud, so I don't even know if I've been saying it right to everybody else. But it's it's Brian, uh, is it Kurian? Kurian, yeah, let's see. Yeah. Great job, man. I was setting this up. I was like, I think I've been just saying the name to everybody else, but not him. So I don't even know if I'm saying this right.

SPEAKER_04 0:20

So I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_02 0:23

You're overthinking everything. All right. Plans change. Doors close. The path you thought you were walking suddenly disappears, and you're left standing there wondering what comes next. Those moments can be unsettling. They can make you question everything. Your direction, your choices, even yourself. But sometimes those moments are doing something deeper. Sometimes they're clearing space, stripping away what was never meant to last, forcing you to get honest about who you are, what matters to you, and the kind of life you're actually trying to build. Growth rarely happens in the comfortable seasons. It happens in the uncertain ones. In the stretches where you have to decide whether you're going to retreat into safety or step forward with courage, even if the next step isn't perfectly clear. Because the truth is none of us get through life without being tested. And the question isn't whether those moments will come. The question is what we choose to do with them when they finally arrive. Do we shrink back or do we rise into something stronger? My name's Dan Bradley, and this is Breeding the Bright Side. Hello, Brightsiders, and welcome back to the Bright Side. I miss passed out from holding that for too long. Listen, I'm glad to have you here. I'm glad to be here. And I'm really, really glad to still be doing this special thing with you. I'd like to share a story with you, if that's all right. If you'll allow me. So please allow me. Uh the other day I was walking my dog, Vigo, and it was like one of those weirdly perfect days out. It was unseasonally warm, it was gorgeous out, random 75 degrees. You know, that kind of just shows up out of nowhere. Warm, sunny, and a beautiful afternoon to be outside. I spent two days outside just soaking as much sun in as I could. Anyway, as we were walking along, Vigo suddenly locks onto this patch of grass. There's nothing special about it. It's just a patch of grass. Now, I'm not exactly sure what caught his attention. Maybe the wind hit it just right. Maybe some little insect jumped into his line of sight. Maybe Vigo just developed a newfound appreciation for the quiet beauty of mundane nature. Or maybe he was smelling some other dog's urine. So I mean it was it was probably the dog urine thing. But whatever it was, he became absolutely obsessed with the spot. Like he refused to move. Now the day was so nice, I really wasn't in any rush. After a while it started getting a little ridiculous. I mean, I'm I'm just standing there holding the leash, just watching my dog investigate this patch of grass like it contains the secret of the universe. And then in the span of about 60 seconds, the world got kind of chaotic around us. A cat suddenly bolted out of a nearby bush. A flock of birds like landed right behind us. And a kid on a scooter wiped out like pretty hard. Thank God he was wearing a helmet. To his credit, though, it was a quite a graceful fall. It was wild. Everything just happened all at once. So I looked down at Vigo to see if he was as fascinated by all this as I was. And nope. He was still completely consumed by that patch of grass. He had missed the entire show because he was so locked in on that one little thing. So eventually I picked him up, carried him a few feet down the path, set him back down, and said, Come on, Vegs. There's a whole massive world out here, more than just this patch of grass. And as soon as those words came out of my mouth, they kind of bounced right back and hit me in my sweet face. Because if I'm being honest, uh I do that all the time. We all do, right? Sometimes it's our phone, sometimes it's the news, sometimes it's a project, an old argument, a mistake we made, or something we worried about that hasn't even happened yet. We get so focused on that one small patch of grass that we forget there's an entire world unfolding around us. A massive, complicated, beautiful world full of unexpected moments, second chances, and opportunities to step forward into something bigger than the thing we are just absolutely lasered in on. Sometimes the hardest thing to do is simply take a step back, lift our head up, and just remember how much life is actually happening beyond that one spot we can't stop staring at. So, you know, maybe sometimes I get it. We zero it in on the same patch of grass for way too long, and just remind yourself every once in a while. Take a step back, look up, and kind of notice the world around you. That's it. And thanks for coming for my TED Talk. No, thanks for coming to my Vigo talk today. Uh all right. Well, that being said, let's roll into the feel-good news segment, shall we? This is where the segment where I bring you some feel-good news, uh, seeing that we uh get bludgeoned with bad news more often than not. So I scour the interwebs, the local libraries, um, MySpace, wherever I can find it, really, to find the best feel-good news stories from the past two weeks and deliver them to you. So let's kick it off. Uh, number one, dog rescued after 12 days in the wilderness. A missing golden retriever in Colorado survived nearly two weeks alone in the mountains before hikers spotted him and cut and contacted rescuers. After a long search effort, the dog was safely reunited with his emotional family. Two weeks alone. That is amazing. My god. Uh, next up, librarian pays off students' lunch debt. A school librarian in Michigan quietly paid off hundreds of dollars of student lunch debt so kids wouldn't be denied meals. When parents found out, they raised even more money to continue the effort. That is awesome. Um, you know, kindness multiplies. You'd love to see that. But also, which is a much larger conversation we don't have to get into because this is a feel good news segment, but that's kind of crazy that we need to there's a student lunch debt. But I digress. Still, really nice thing that happened. Anyway, firefighters build wheelchair ramp overnight. When firefighters in Tennessee learned that a disabled veteran couldn't leave his house because he lacked a ramp, they spent the night building one themselves. Uh volunteers plant thousands of trees in a weekend. In a weekend, my gosh. More than 1,000 volunteers came together in a community environment effort in Oregon, planting thousands of trees in one weekend to restore a wildfire damaged forest. Janitor surprised with college scholarship. Students at a Texas high school surprised their beloved janitor with a scholarship to finish the college degree he had to pause years earlier. Sanctuary saves abandoned farm animals. Um, quick shout-out to an upcoming guest on the show here. Rescuers at SOA Goat Sanctuary recently took in several neglected farm animals and began rehabilitating them with the help of volunteers and donors. Just shows you compassion changes lives, human and animal. Shout out to Olivia over there at SOA Goat Sanctuary for doing some amazing work. Uh, can't wait for you all to meet them very, very soon. Kids repair bikes for community members. A youth program in California teaches kids how to repair bicycles, then donates the restored bikes to people who need transportation for work or school. Lastly but not leastly, letters to seniors program expands. A national volunteer effort sending handwritten letters to elderly residents in nursing homes has exploded in popularity, delivering thousands upon thousands of messages each month to combat loneliness. Sometimes a few words can change someone's whole day. So there you go. There's some uh that's some good stuff in there, right? Some good news to hopefully make you smile, bring a twinkle to your eye, uh a flip to your step. I don't know if that's the right phrase I'm looking for. I hope it made you feel good. That's what we go for there. If it makes you feel good. All right, without further ado, let's uh let's turn our attention to today's guest. I had the chance to sit down with one Brian Currion, an entrepreneur and business builder whose story includes setbacks, layoffs, reinvention, and ultimately the decision to stop waiting for permission and start building something of his own. It's a conversation about resilience, purpose, and what happens when you finally decide to bet on yourself. Let's get into it. Uh, today we're talking about resilience, not the Instagram version, but the real version. Job loss, short stents, doubt, reinvention, and what it actually takes to rebuild your identity professionally. I am joined by the amazing Brian Carrion. Kerrion, Brian, how are you?

SPEAKER_03 11:24

Doing excellent, man. Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_02 11:26

Yeah, man. Thanks for being on the show. Um, you are, I mean, your resume is impressive, and I'm honored to have you on here for sure.

SPEAKER_01 11:34

Appreciate it.

SPEAKER_02 11:35

Um let's see. So you are right now, you are the CEO, the owner of Brian Carrion's Business Services LLC. Yeah. Why don't you explain real quick what that is that you're doing now?

SPEAKER_03 11:46

Yeah, we do a lot. Um, I'm really proud of the company and how how much we've grown in the two short years um that we've been official, so to speak. Um, we do a lot with premium ghostwriting. And typically, what that means for us, um, our bread and butter tends to be ghostwriting uh and editing entire books for our clients. Um, so we take it from like ideation all the way to creation, uh, and then we even get you published through my other company that I have. Um, so I have two businesses. Um, but yeah, in Brian Currents Business Services, BKBS for short, that's how a lot of us refer to the company. Um, we do the premium ghostwriting. Uh typically we work with entrepreneurs, industry experts, thought leaders. I'm even starting to get connected to a lot of athletes through my nonprofit company where I'm a vice president. Um, so we get a lot of connections from the folks in that community as well who want books done, or at least thinking about it. Um, I also do a ton with sales training and business consulting as well for some of those same clients because a lot of them own businesses. So while we're working on their book, we'll end up talking through sales strategy, marketing strategy, promos, pre-sale, you know, lead generation, account expansion. A lot of the stuff that I had to do over my career when I used to work for corporate for probably a little too long, if I'm being honest. Um, and I also work for seven different startup companies in my career as well. Um so yeah, you know, it's in my other business, we do a lot with publishing, author marketing, you know, book marketing, um, author website development, uh, sales training, marketing consulting. Um, it's a really terrific ecosystem that we've been able to build, build between both businesses that can support folks, especially authors and entrepreneurs from A to Z without passing them around from company to company, person to person. We do everything in-house and support them at the highest level. Um, I really believe that. Um, and I and we prove it, you know, and yeah, it's just a wonderful place where you you you're gonna get taken care of, you know.

SPEAKER_02 13:44

Yeah, it seems like your business model is essentially all one shop stop for building, you know, a business and building almost an empire. You know, it all feeds into itself and then you kind of help expand that in so many more ways than just I'm a ghostwriter, you know.

SPEAKER_03 13:59

Or yeah, but thank you for saying that. Um, that's something that I articul articulate to our clients because a lot of times from their experience, mine too, because I've worked with a lot of ghostwriters, obviously, you know, because of my line of work, and and editors and publishers, marketers, salespeople. I've done all of this with a lot of different people over my my career. Um, a lot of different people will come to me and say, Yeah, my god, I thought you were just gonna ghostwrite the manuscript. Because what everybody else wants to do. This person just wants to ghostwrite the manuscript. This editor just wants to edit the manuscript. This publisher over at this company just wants to publish the thing. They just want to publish my book and be done with me, you know, at that point. Um, if I wanted any help with marketing or sales or understanding the distribution and that whole engine, I had to go to this marketing agency, right? It's just nobody either wants to or has the skill sets to be able to do it all, or has the right team in place, which I think is even more important because I want to do everything, but I I can't. I'm only one person, you know? So between the two companies, is why I built them with my with my partner in my other business. Um, we have you know several different people with lots of different skill sets, you know, editors. Uh I have a full-time ghostwriter on my my team in BKBS that helps me with all the books and the anthology chapters and the manuscripts that we edit and etc. etc. Um, you need the right systems in place, you need the right people in place so that you can have this equal system. Otherwise, yeah, you would get passed from person to person to person. By the time the book is finally done, it probably won't even sound like you anymore. I hear that all the time. Sounds like somebody else wrote it. This this doesn't even this isn't even my voice. Well, yeah, because five different people touch this thing. Right? My mom's chicken curry. My mom could give my sorry, I'm hungry and I'm South Indian, so y'all had to bear with me. My mom's chicken curry is magnifique, right? Let's be honest. But if she gave the recipe verbatim, step by step, to my dad, I bet you it's gonna taste different. And and we have all never once thought about allowing my dad to make it same recipe, two different humans, and what they think is best and delicious based on their preferences, it's going to taste different. Also, my dad gives about a fraction of the crap that my mom does when it comes to making sure that, like, you my mom's words, that you taste the love and the feeling in the meal, right? He's just like, if you're hungry, eat it.

SPEAKER_04 16:37

You know what I mean? And so that shines through as well. I'm not bashing my dad. I'm just telling you that, like, different mindsets, you know? If you're hungry, eat it. It probably tastes fine, or it's it's good.

SPEAKER_03 16:51

My mom, my mom, it's like a whole different this is like a half a day deal, man. So same as tastes totally different depending on the great metaphor.

SPEAKER_01 17:02

Great metaphor. Now I'm now I'm starving.

SPEAKER_03 17:04

Um chicken curry.

SPEAKER_02 17:15

She's amazing, dude. She's amazing. So, you know, to knowing you, talking to you, um, I consider you a good friend of mine. Um, you know, the entrepreneur spirit, you know, I'm I'm I'm as I gently kind of ease my way into this world, and I think talking to you is is is knowing that spirit and being like, oh my gosh, yeah, this guy is excited. You know, he has he's excited for new ventures, he wants to help people, he wants to lift other people up. Yeah, um, it's apparent that that's not just, oh, I'm gonna try this out. Like, this is you to a core, which I really appreciate. I'm sure every one of your clients appreciates your authenticity. So, you know, let's get into where this was born. You know, you've said to me before, you've been an entrepreneur spirit for as long as you can remember. So, while you walk me through that in terms of when you really felt that.

SPEAKER_03 18:05

Yeah, yeah. Thank you. Thank you. I'd love to I'd love to talk about that just for a moment. Um, gosh, man, for me, I grew up in a so I grew up in the metro Detroit area, um, basically 30-ish minutes away from the city of Detroit. So outside the city. Um man, I I think about this a lot. I reflect on it a lot because my partner and my other business, we we grew up together. His name is Rex, and uh we're both South Indian, we both grew up in the church, you know, together. Our parents were and still are pretty good friends.

SPEAKER_04 18:39

Um we have a lot of similar experiences, you know, with with our upbringing, our culture, and everything like that. Uh but but for me.

SPEAKER_03 18:48

In my old neighborhood before we moved when I was 11. In the old neighborhood, um, I had my best friend, his name's Tony, also South Indian, used to go to our church back in the day. Lived literally right like diagonally behind our house. You could jump two fences and be in Tony's backyard in the first time.

SPEAKER_05 19:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 19:05

And we did all the time. I basically lived at that kid's house, right? Same age, you know, uh his sister was about three years younger than him. She was friends with my sister, who's about six years younger than me. Everybody's telling her parents were like best friends, you know. It was just it was the best childhood experience anybody could have. For me, it was perfect. I had a lot of neighborhood friends, you know, uh around our age, maybe a little bit younger, some a couple years older, some literally our age, siblings, you know, of friends, etc. Um, we were outside all the time. This entrepreneurial spirit really started, believe it or not, started my first lemonade stand with some of my neighborhood buddies. Um, I think I was a six, and it's hard for people to believe those, but I swear to god, it's true. It's my experience. From the moment the the first time when one of the neighbors would drive by or walk by and be like, oh my god, lemonade on a hot summer day. Yeah, I'll take one. How much? For a cub, I think we're charging like a quarter or ten cents a quarter, whatever. It doesn't matter. I just I'll never forget it. I I remember the feeling, like it was yesterday, my use is 32 years ago, of helping to make and serve something that we made, right? Serving it to someone in need. I know they were thirsty and they were just trying to support us. Lemonade probably was even not good, but did something useful for them. Money exchanged, goes into our little money jar. Now we can use the money to get on our bikes and go to the l- We would do this all the time. Um, it's basically like a feral cat during this time in my life, right? As long as you're back home by the time the street lights came on, nobody would kill you. Like it would be fine. And so most kids should be feral cats in their ways.

SPEAKER_04 21:02

It was not fast, man.

SPEAKER_03 21:04

Like, okay, okay, we're done with lemonade stand, we're out of lemonade, guys. We got five bucks between the the three of us. Cool. Let's jump on our bikes, let's go to the party store that was like a couple miles away from the house. We ride there and buy like a bag of chips, some candy, or snack, or some fried chicken, whatever. It's awesome. And I just man, being able to have a reward for your creativity and hard work that actually helped somebody, you will have never found in all of America a happier kid than me in that moment when I was on my bike going to that party store to spend my two dollars that I earned that day on some chips and candy or a drink, whatever. You would not have found a happier kid, right? Because I know didn't ask my parents for it, I did something useful for somebody. Else. They were happy. I was happy. Basketball. I'll never forget it. I still feel that way. Whenever I help a client, I still get the same feeling. Only now, not offering lemonade, right? Diff different servils, different price points, different energy, different humans, way different stressors, pressure, challenges, things I'm trying to work through with them. But it to me it's kind of the same. Yeah. You know, it it's just different. It evolved because we're older now, you know, different responsibilities. But um, and then from there it stemmed into doing chores for random neighbors. I remember one time, um, I told Jose this actually. I remember one time my neighbor across the street, she was so sweet, her and her husband. And um, I re but some of my friends were playing starting to play uh street hockey, roller hockey in the street. I didn't have a stick, I didn't have rollerblades.

SPEAKER_04 22:56

Literally the only two pieces of equipment you need to play.

SPEAKER_03 22:59

Yeah, those are two musts.

SPEAKER_04 23:01

Yes, I didn't have it, dude, so I couldn't play, right?

SPEAKER_03 23:03

I missed a few a few times of her play around the corner. I couldn't play, I didn't have the right stuff. And I remember now, lemonade stand, right? Framing like rewiring my brain. It's crazy that I'm explaining this. I remember I looked, uh I was talking to her one day, and she had just mentioned kind of in passing how cluttered and dirty her garage had gotten. And her and her husband were so busy with work that they keep putting it off. They they keep meaning to organize it, meaning to clean it. It ain't happening. And uh it's summertime, mind you. And I'm like, could you use some help? She goes, What are you talking about? I got some time right now. I can't play street hockey because I don't have a stick or roller blades. Might as well be useful. So I offered to help for zero dollars. Here's why that's important. She goes, Oh my god, honey, I would love some help because then I can stop putting this off. And so I'm moving boxes, I'm taking stuff inside, I'm helping walk stuff out to the trash, I'm moving around. Time takes, I don't know, 30 minutes, 40 minutes, whatever. Kismet, dude. Inside one of the boxes, she goes, Oh my god, you need roller blades. You're not gonna believe this, Brian. Look in here. She opens up one of the boxes, her old pair of roller blades that she hasn't worn in years.

SPEAKER_01 24:19

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 24:20

Purple roll, I won't forget it. Purple rollerblades with yellow wheels. And like a black color, not bellow colour, but you know, the thing that buckles. Oh, yeah, like the strap. Yeah. She goes, You think these would fit? Your feet? I said, Oh, let me try. And I tried them on perfect fit.

SPEAKER_02 24:36

Wow. Yeah, dude. Funny how the universe works sometimes, isn't it?

SPEAKER_03 24:40

I'm a big believer of that. Now I got one of the necessary two items to play street hockey. Now, how am I gonna get my stick? Because I don't have money for it, right? So we're doing a lemonade. I help with a few other chores for her and a couple of their neighbors on, you know, breaking leads and just anything, right? Like, I'll clean your house, like I'll move stuff around, we'll just we'll figure it out. My neighbors were super cool, by the way. I told you, like neighborhood friends, their parents like me. You know, I like them to go over there for lunch sometimes. They'd come over to my house and my mom would cook for them. It's just fast. Can't stay enough. Scrape up the 15, 20 bucks. I thought I'm like, oh my god, I hope in price is enough for a stick. And I go to my dad, I was like, hey dad, I need you to take me to the sporting goods store. I think I have enough for a hockey stick. I just need a rod. I don't need you to pay for it. I don't need you to pay for it. Just need a ride. Okay. How'd you get the money? Don't worry about it. I was helping out some of the neighbors and being useful. Okay. And they gave you the money? A few bucks here and there for that. Yeah. Okay, well, that was nice. Okay. Takes me to the store and carefully pick through the hockey six pick the perfect one for me. I was like, I gotta make sure this shit is durable, because if it breaks, I'm fucked. I don't have the money for another one. And I might not be able to earn enough before summer ends to buy another one. Right. You're not gonna not gonna play again if the stick breaks, right? Your season ends right there.

unknown 26:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 26:05

Season's down, you're on the bench, kid. That's the end. Gotta hang up the jersey until next summer, right? And so take the sticks. Now I'm able to play. And again, you will not have found a happier kid in the world when I was on those rollerblades, hitting that ball around, having the time of my damn life, because I earned it, dude. I found a way to be useful. Black person appreciated it. I earned my few pennies. I bought my thing that I really wanted by myself. Didn't have to ask my parents, didn't have to hear the guild trip about how much a dollar is worth and how hard my dad works, you know, to to earn money and take care of us and blah blah blah blah blah. So from there, dude, I just realized there's always a problem to solve. There's always a way to be useful. There's always if I don't know how to help or I'm capable of help, incapable of helping, I can learn.

SPEAKER_02 27:02

I like that.

SPEAKER_03 27:03

I can I can learn. Yeah, and somehow it's gonna work out. Um I just loved entrepreneurship ever since then, dude. I always knew I wanted to have my own business someday. Um I just didn't know what kind of business.

SPEAKER_02 27:16

Right, what that looked like.

SPEAKER_03 27:17

Yeah, or how to do it exactly. But I was one of those weirdos if you were to ask me what do you want to be when you grow up? I want to own my own business someday. Right. That's it. Same answer.

SPEAKER_02 27:29

We'll be right back.

SPEAKER_00 27:31

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SPEAKER_02 28:19

And that old cliche, they don't make them like they used to, has never felt more true. Thanks to fast fashion, clothing has become disposable. The Refrettery is a Philly-based apparel and home shop focused on slow fashion, mending quality, pre-loved garments, and repurposing recycled materials into new, functional pieces. Every upcycled item is one of a kind, made with intention and purpose. If you care about sustainability and clothes that are built to last, check them out at the re threadery.com. And for brightsiders, take 15% off your purchase with the code Brightside at checkout. Hey, it's Dan. Uh, quick question. Do you like stories that crawl under your skin, pull you in, and then still hit you with a grin you didn't see coming? Then welcome to the library of Daniel Bradley, my haunted little archive of original horror comedy tales. Every month I drop brand new stories. Eerie, emotional, weird, and occasionally unhinged. Well, let's be serious here. Always unhinged. All written by me and ready for you to read on Patreon. Think VHS Nightmares, Neon Stoke Diners, and a hallucinating Easter bunny who probably should have called out of work. If you want in, head to patreon.com backslash Daniels6669 and grab a seat. Just don't touch anything on the shelves. Some of those stories bite back. Welcome back. So you have now you have the taste, you have the idea of it, you have the spirit of it. You like this feeling. Um you go through school, you go through life, you know, you're not a barrel cat anymore. You know, you just kind of start slowly growing up.

SPEAKER_05 30:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:13

Um, so you're going through school, and you know, what is your I you went to college. What is your big drive in college? I mean, I'm sure you don't never lost that entrepreneur spirit, but it's obviously at some point you do the adult thing where like, all right, I have to graduate and I have to get a big boy job at some point, right? Like, yeah. What did that what did that do in terms of, you know, obviously you're getting you're gaining experience in the real world with what you wanted to do with your entrepreneurship. And obviously, maybe you didn't lose that, but you know, was there a part of you where it was like, all right, well, I guess I gotta for now I gotta get a job, you know.

SPEAKER_03 30:45

I so I started off going to Macomb Community College just to get my associates, get my gen ed stuff out of the way, my my pre-rex. Towards uh at the beginning of my second year of college, I was like, where can I go to learn about entrepreneurship? I gotta transfer to community college, I can't stay here forever. Um, and I did some digging out of it. Central Michigan University in Michigan, uh mid-Michigan. Um, they were the only public university that offered a entrepreneurship, like as a major.

SPEAKER_01 31:19

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 31:20

And I'm like, holy shit, this is my place.

SPEAKER_01 31:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 31:24

I have to go here. I can learn all things about entrepreneurship and get a degree in it, and then I can find a job in it. And like learn everything I can so I can have my own business, right? The the finance, the accounting, yeah, consulting, everything, everything. Oh my god, that's where I'm gonna go. Where is it? It's two and a half hours away from where my parents lived. Two and a half hours away, perfect. Um, I can grow up, live on my own, make new friends, start a new chapter. It's just terrifying yet exhilarating at the same time. I can do it. Call the call academic advisor. I am nowhere near meeting requirements. My GPA is terrible. But uh, I won't get into all the reasons why. But long story short, I'm not getting in. And so they're like, here's the requirements. This is where we need you to be. It's how many clients you need to get, GPA, etc. If you can do that by the end of the semester, call us back, apply, and you'll have a better shot of us accepting you. And so goal setting, knowing the expectations, clear communication, asking exactly what is required so that I know what I need to do. And then having the internal fortitude and the ultra-competitiveness that I've I told you I have it, and I try to display that all the time. Um, to say, okay, if that's what it's gonna take, that's what it's gonna take, that's what I need to do. So end of the semester, I do it. Turn my grades around, sharp every class. I'm like a whole new animal, you know. Um call them back, show them my updated transcript. Can I get in? Yeah. It's perfect. You did everything that we asked of you. You accepted. Much to my parents' chagrin, they hated the idea of me going there.

SPEAKER_02 33:13

That was gonna be my next question. Is obviously, you know, what was your parents' reaction to you pushing in this direction? You know, I imagine that's there's some tradition there where they are probably like, uh, this isn't exactly what we had in mind for you.

SPEAKER_04 33:26

It's not that it's it's not exactly what we had in mind. It's not what we had in mind for you at all.

SPEAKER_03 33:33

This is like the opposite of what we wanted you to grow up to be. You should go into the healthcare field, doctor, or even an engineer, lawyer, whatever. What are you doing? Healthcare, the healthcare field is so much more secure and stable, so many more jobs, less risk, steady paycheck, set schedule. All of your aunts are registered nurses, your uncle's a radiologist, all these people at our church are in the medical field. Look how well they're doing. Pharmacists, blah, blah, blah. What? And I just hate the idea. Like a deep disdain for it, right? Yeah, I can hear it the way you said hate. Hate it, hate it. I I don't even like the word hate. I don't even like saying that. Um, I got on my son the other day about it because he was saying he hates somebody. I was like, we dislike that person.

SPEAKER_02 34:20

My mom used to say the same thing. Hate's a strong word. You you strongly dislike something, sure. But hate, you don't need to throw that word around like that.

SPEAKER_03 34:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:28

That's true.

SPEAKER_03 34:29

Because if somebody ever told if somebody ever said I told him this, I was like, if somebody ever tells you that they hate you, I'd slap the mess out of them. I would slap the teeth out of their face, right? Like just so let's just take it down.

SPEAKER_02 34:43

Uh in perspective, how you feel about that path there.

SPEAKER_04 34:48

It's so I just had his deep to say I was like, A, you're not gonna tell me how to live my life.

SPEAKER_03 34:53

B, I have been telling you now for 15 something years. You're okay fine at this point, maybe 12 years, 13 years. But I wanted to have my own business someday. I worked really hard to get accepted to the school, dude. Why is nobody like accepting that, acknowledging it? I don't even need the praise. But I did exactly what I said I was gonna do. Goal achieved. I'm gonna go to that school, I'm gonna do really well. I'm not gonna stay here and go to some local college and learn business administration, a general business education. I need to learn about entrepreneurship. If I'm serious about this dream, I need to do this. And so I went once went against their wishes, applied anyways, took out the student loans, did all that stuff, made the drive up there for the orientation to make sure I liked the campus. I've never been there before. I wanted to make sure I liked the campus. I took one of my best friends with me so he could visit the school too, just accompany me because I didn't want to go by myself. Um caused some. I'm gonna be careful about assuming this. It definitely caused some issues with me and my family because I very much went against their wishes. Um this has happened to me several times in my life, where they have their own vision, their own goals, hopes, and dreams, well wishes. They mean well, of course. They're my parents, dude. These are the people that raise me. Um and I want something totally different. Nobody's gonna tell me what to do. And so same thing I coach you on and coach all my other clients on is if you believe in something, I can't guarantee that it's always gonna work out because it hasn't for me. I took a lot of chances, a lot of risks. I did a lot of things with very little support, very little resources. This is just one of those instances, right? It's just one. Um but at the very least, you'll be proud of yourself because you bet on you. You can learn from your mistakes and your setbacks, your shortcomings, all of it. And the next time a similar opportunity comes up, you will be better prepared. Maybe you'll win that time. Because I have. I've had plenty of wins too. Um and one thing I don't have, and I hope I never have, is any goddamn regret. None of everything I've done in my life I'm very proud of because it was scary. Um and I did it anyways. Because I I just wanted to see how far I could go, you know, what I was really capable of, not what somebody else was telling me I was smart enough to do, or not smart enough to do, or not qualified to do, or cut from the certain cloth that you're supposed to be caught from, or whatever. I don't have any what-ifs. You you know, um couldn't imagine having any, honestly. I don't know how I would face myself or face my clients, knowing that I'm trying to tell them to take this risk, but I was too much of a chicken shit to take the risk myself. So I'm just a fucking hypocrite, and I'm charging them money for this garbage advice that I'm not even following. I'm a fraud. How how would I operate that way? So yeah, I don't have any regrets.

SPEAKER_02 38:18

Yeah, it speaks to your authenticity, like I said earlier. Um you can tell. You can tell you've been you've been through life and seen some shit. I think you know most people appreciate.

SPEAKER_03 38:28

We all have, man. It's not just me. You know but I but I think again, there's a supreme confidence that I that I teach people and coach people because I have it. It's genuine because if I'm asking you to do something, I have done it and I've done it at a high level. I didn't just read about it in a book. Maybe initially I did, because I didn't know who to ask for help. Or I didn't I didn't know any successful entrepreneurs. I didn't. I didn't know any successful entrepreneurs growing up. Uh um that went to our church or or were family friends or relatives or any. I didn't have anybody. There weren't any entrepreneurs in our entire family ever. Yeah. Um yeah, sometimes I'd have to read about it in a book or 50. Seriously.

unknown 39:17

Right.

SPEAKER_03 39:18

Listen to it, I listen to it on podcasts, watch certain YouTube videos about Russell Brunson and Alex Ramosy and Grant Cardone and all these other people. Um, and then I I would do it. So, okay, fine, fine, I'm gonna implement this stuff. Learn it, do it, do it at the highest level I could, then teach it. That's kind of like my framework, right? For my life. Learn it, do it, teach it. When you teach it, you kind of relearn it, but now you have to learn it at a higher level. Because if you if you don't really know it at the highest level, how can you teach? Right? Um, that a lot of that stems from my MMA background too. That's how we were taught, right? Okay, you work with someone that's one level below you, you know, work with someone that's also one level above you. And then in the in-between, work with some people that are right about your level with experience and skills. So you have to learn how to teach someone who's beneath you or at a lower level, right, and meet them where they're at without coming off as a dick. Right. Because if you do, they're not gonna want to learn from you. It's pretty important. Then when you meet someone that's right at your level, you get to see kind of what you're capable of, right? Because you're the same, same, maybe roughly the same equal. Yeah, they're they're your formidable, you know, rival. Then when you go against somebody that's above you, you get to have a nice little humility check. And you get to realize that you're not the baddest, strongest, smartest, most skilled, most experienced person. This person is clearly better than you. And you get to see how they end up treating you, knowing that you're beneath them or not at their level, and you get to respond accordingly. So I really took from that uh that ideology and applied it, you know, to my career and my business. Um yeah, changed a lot of things for me getting into martial arts.

SPEAKER_02 41:04

That's cool, man. I didn't know that about you. That's that's MMA, huh? That's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_03 41:09

From the time I was 20 to about 26, I did about six years off and on while I was in college, while I'd have a full-time job, etc. Um, I was going through a lot. Um, there was some dark stuff I was trying to process and and deal with. I didn't know how to deal with it in a positive way. So I ended up kind of stumbling into it through a friend of mine. Um, he his good friend from high school was uh martial arts instructor um and was offering like free training um in classes once a week, Sunday evenings, um, to some of their other friends. And so he invited me. Like, hey you shouldn't work with Brandon, come on, it's free every Sunday night. Yeah, you should come and just hang out with the guys, make some new friends. They're really great, super nice, they're tech dudes, they're a lot of fun. I think they would love you, man. And you're obviously dealing with some nonsense. Maybe it'll be good for you to get out on some face, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 42:07

And I was like, Take it out on someone's face. I get it.

SPEAKER_04 42:10

Yeah, yeah, dude. Or they're gonna take it out on yours. And that happened plenty of times as well.

SPEAKER_03 42:14

And that was very therapeutic, apparently. Um yeah, man. It it's very much necessary during that time in my life, you know.

SPEAKER_02 42:23

That's cool. So, all right. So now you get there, you're in the entrepreneurship class. What does that look like? I mean, you obviously graduate. Yeah, I did well, I did well, yeah, yeah. I love it. Well, and then did so, did it set you up for your entrepreneurship moving forward, or did again, did you kind of tumble out of there and be like, okay, now what? Let me get a job first and then figure this out, or yes, and no.

SPEAKER_03 42:45

So um when I graduated college, man, it was 2010, right? So we're talking six uh 16 16 years ago I graduated. Ah, bless it. Um, it doesn't feel like it, but there you go. Um different world back then. Yeah, very different world for sure. Different world, different world. So the things I learned about business in the books, in the classroom, and the lectures, in the workshops, in the class projects, do projects, tests, etc. But when you get out into the world, it's a different world. Yeah. Um theory compared to reality, not the same often. So when I started out in corporate, so I got a job out of college at Enterprise, rent a car. Um, it was the only job offer I had, so naturally, I had to take it. And uh moved back in with my parents, did the job for about a year at a local branch, local office. And that was awesome in the sense I got a lot of really good actual, like real world planning. This is customer service, this is how we run our books, our fleet, this is how much this shit costs for our inventory, these cars. Look at the different price points. Here's why we charge what we charge margins. What does that mean? Here's how. We protect our margins.

SPEAKER_04 44:01

Business lingo, business lingo, real world shit.

SPEAKER_03 44:05

When someone is really pissed off at you, here are some great ways to diffuse the situation so that they don't go into their car and bring a weapon and come back in here. I dealt with some wild shit, dude. You would not believe I dealt with some wild shit throughout my career. That place was one of them. Um also work in some not great areas. Right. Yeah, I imagine. Different demographics, different humans, different mentalities, different ways to talk to people, human psychology. Uh, it can save your life, truly, or somebody else's. Um, and yeah, I I still was like, okay, I'm learning about business now in the real world. Wow, I'm learning how this shit actually works. But I'm still struggling on trying to figure out what kind of business can I launch and own for myself. I could do anything and everything, and that's overwhelming. I don't even know where to start. Right. Right. And so keep working, like I get a job at Verizon. I get it at a lot of different jobs, you know, over my the next several years, struggling to find any real joy and fulfillment. I feel like I'm just kind of paying the bills, escaping during the nights and the weekends, right? Yeah. Um, some of the jobs were terrific. I really love them, but at the same time, it's not it's not my dream. Right. I went out of my own business.

SPEAKER_02 45:24

Your passion isn't steeped in these places.

SPEAKER_03 45:26

Yeah. So I spent several years kind of trying to figure out how to make that childhood dream actually come true. And not really knowing how, you know. Yeah. But yeah, that's a big part of it.

SPEAKER_02 45:40

Yeah. So excuse me. So you were, you know, looking at your resume, like I said, you have an impressive resume. You've worked a bunch of different places, and then I know you hit like kind of a rough spot, you know, where and this is kind of coming up around like night 2019 through 2023, I guess, around there.

SPEAKER_03 45:56

Not even. It was from um, I'd probably say 2021 to I think like early 2024. I dealt with uh three straight layoffs from three different companies in like a two and a half year time frame. Wow.

SPEAKER_02 46:13

I mean, that's that's brutal. You know? Um it was horrific. What was happening internally for you at that point?

SPEAKER_03 46:19

Um, imploding. Um feelings of why me. I work so hard, I keep getting told I'm overperforming on my metrics, I'm amazing at sales, I'm good with people, I'm hitting my numbers, I'm making good money, I'm doing all the right things. Why do I keep getting shoved out the door? I barely ever take any time off. I go above and beyond, I work extra hours, I take on additional job duties that are quote unquote not in my job description. I'm that person. Right. And yet, whenever it's convenient to do so, I'm one of the people ushered onto the curb. Why?

SPEAKER_01 46:58

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 46:59

Right? Didn't make any sense. After the last layoff, four days later, Dan, like I told you, was when I launched my business. Because I had had enough, dude.

SPEAKER_02 47:10

So after that third layoff, literally four days later, you're like, alright, let's just let's launch this in the air and let's get into it and see what happens.

SPEAKER_03 47:20

Tired of making the excuses, man. And I'm tired, tired of other people telling me um what I'm capable of being able to do for myself and my family. It was enough. I told myself this shit ends today. And so um, yeah, it's very again, my just doesn't make sense sometimes to me. I I don't know how it actually happened was a few months before that I went to a men's conference at my wife's church. And this is my life. This is my life. Summed up in just the next few sentences I'm gonna tell you. At this men's conference, I happened to sit at this table where just a couple guys were sitting down, and one of the guys that ended up sitting there before the program started, uh, his name is RJ. Um, one of the the other pastors who was sitting next to me knew him, right? Because they had gone to the same church for a while. Okay, RJ, like sick. And so RJ sat. And in one of the breakouts that we had, you know, we were talking about the word and some of the things that were being discussed, um, we kind of did an introduction, right? I'm Brian, here's what I do, here's a little bit about me, here's why I came today. And then RJ, in his intro, hey, I'm RJ, I've been here for X amount of months. Uh, one of the things that my wife and I actually do together is um we have a branding company and we help build websites. A lot of our people own businesses. So, you know, just and we love the work. That's all. Just wanted to say that. And I'm like, I have a business idea. Mind you, a couple of months later was when I lost my job.

SPEAKER_01 48:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 48:57

And I, with the brass balls that I have, I said, RJ, when this thing's over, I'm gonna have to talk to you about something. And so when the event ends, I was like, hey, you mentioned you do websites for typically business owners. I have a business idea, don't have the business yet. Um, but here's what I think the name will be. I'm gonna get an LLC next month. And I did, like a couple days after Christmas, I got the LLC. I was like, Can I take you out to lunch and just kind of explain to you what I'm thinking? He's like, Yeah, man, I'd love that. And so I take him out to I think Longhorn Steakhouse. We're having a drink, having a meal. And he's and I was like, what would it cost to hire you and your wife? And so they gave me a great deal. I was like, You're hired, let's go. As they're building the website, boom, Friday, January 12th, I have my meeting with my boss telling him if you let go, here's why. Okay, cool. Later that day, my final meeting was scheduled to be with RJ and his wife to finalize my website. Wow. On the day you got let go.

unknown 49:57

Man.

SPEAKER_03 50:01

Stars either align or you make that shit align.

SPEAKER_05 50:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 50:05

And so a few hours after I lost my job, I had my Zoom meeting with them and I said, hey guys, you're not gonna believe this. I just lost my job. I'm gonna need you to finish this website like tomorrow, please. Put the finishing touches on. I've already reviewed it. I love it. Just fix these minor little things. When it's done, either Monday or Tuesday, I'm gonna make my big launch announcement. And I'm gonna start texting my people in my phone about my company. I'm gonna ask for referrals. I have to get going. I've got a family to support. This was before the baby came. I just had my my oldest at the time in my life. So I got a family to support, I have no income now. I have a feeling these people are gonna screw me over and try to get out of paying me my performance bonus that I rightfully earned, and they did. Yeah. Because they terminated me, I was no longer an active employee. So they owed me$7,500 and kept it. And I knew they were gonna do that shit. I knew it. Um, not my first rodeo.

SPEAKER_05 51:02

Fertile.

SPEAKER_03 51:03

And so they finished the website the next day on Saturday, Tuesday, launch announcement. Here we go. Um that was over two years ago, man. I haven't looked back since.

SPEAKER_02 51:14

Man, so Tuesday, you four days afterwards, you launch your business, your LLC. Um, the paperwork.

SPEAKER_03 51:22

Now I make the announcement, and now I start racking up clients. Yeah. I think I got my first client, it was like the day before I launched. She was one of my old clients when I used to work as a master coach at a uh high-ticket business coaching company. She was one of my clients there. So I happen to text her saying, hey, this weekend, I got my LLC last month. Here's some of the things I want to do in my business. Here's my business's name. If you know anybody, if you know anybody, Jennifer, send them my way. I'd love to help. She goes, You're not gonna believe this. I just launched my business last month. I'm doing marketing consulting. We should link up. I'd love to learn more about what you're doing. So we do a Zoom call and she's like, Brian, oh my god, I tell her what I'm doing. I'd love to work with you. I'd love to get this business off the ground. I want to get some more clients. Um, can you work with me? And so she became my first client. And then from there, met Jose in CLA, I think, the next week, joined on the spot with money I didn't have. Just put that bitch on the credit card because this is something, this is something I need to be a part of, man. I can't be sitting on the sidelines. I don't have time to I don't have time to watch the game be played. Exactly. And study and watch the game film and then say, ah, that's a good play. When I get in the game, I'm gonna call that play. No, dude. I gotta get in the game now. I haven't even fucking stretched yet. But it's time to go.

SPEAKER_02 52:46

You know, I learned it the hard way myself, you know, like in life, just be like, okay, good to know, good to know. I'll reserve that for when I get there. And then it got to the point where I was like, no, I think whether I think I'm there or not, I'm there, and I just need to jump in. That's yeah, that's it.

SPEAKER_03 53:02

What you'll realize is nobody gives a shit what do you think. So neither should you.

SPEAKER_01 53:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 53:07

Neither should you, bud. Because here's the thing.

SPEAKER_01 53:09

Love that.

SPEAKER_03 53:11

Nobody gives a shit what you're thinking. What they what they care about is how can you help them? And is that is that important enough and urgent enough to them to say, okay, I want the help. Right. Right. So what does it look like to have you help me with that? And then are you are you able to articulate that in a way that makes sense for them, to where they would feel stupid, saying no to you. Because you can help them with something that's really important. So to say no to them. That's absurd. That's how I feel. But people say, eh, I'm gonna go elsewhere. Best of luck. You gotta do what's best for you. I told but I told you though, like I genuinely feel bad for them. I I do for them, not for me. Because I know the depths of what I will go to to help somebody, especially one of my clients. Strangers all the time for free. It's just a nice thing to do. It makes me happy.

SPEAKER_04 54:14

So a paying client, my god, you'll never be treated better in your whole damn life.

SPEAKER_05 54:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 54:23

I really believe that.

SPEAKER_05 54:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 54:24

You know, and I and I show that.

SPEAKER_03 54:27

I believe that. So and so to say no to that, that's a you issue, man. That's not a me issue, you know? Yeah. Um that's how I feel about it.

SPEAKER_02 54:38

So I love that. I love that confidence. I love um, you know, entrepreneur the way it was explained to you too. Like you just mentioned the CLA, the community leaders. Um, you know, it was explained to me that entrepreneurship is the idea of entrepreneurship is actually steeped in helping people and lifting people up and helping the community. Yep. And, you know, fulfilling that part of your life. You know, it's not Bezos out there destroying the world and going to space and buying everything or Zuckerberg. You know, it's it's steeped in good and helping people around you. And I love that idea. And I and I think that's what's I find so much attractive about it. And and I and talking to you, that's very much a part of you. You know what I mean? I love talking to you, even outside of the podcast, our phone calls and whatnot, you know, you generally love lifting other people up and helping people. And it's funny hearing your lemonade stand story and you know, all of your upbringing and how you've been steeped in that and seeing that, you know. So I imagine when you finally got to that level and you're like, all right, four days later, I'm launching my business, and you got your first client.

unknown 55:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 55:46

Was there a moment where that feeling from the kid that had the lemonade stand came back to you because it's been a minute since you were able to kind of take that step out there like that?

SPEAKER_03 55:54

Yeah, and I felt that way when I used to um have my blog and when I was doing my freelance writing and I had my writing coaching business for a little bit. Um it just made me feel like I think about this a lot. Sorry, I'm getting emotional just thinking about it. Um 30 years in the fucking making for me, you know? Um some of my friends that they'll look at like what I'm gonna do over the last couple years, and um, I think for for people on the outside looking in, it probably one of my clients and I talk about this all the time. I'm helping her with her book too. My my team is, and um it it looks like I'm just like the shooting star, you know. Everything I touch. I told you it's all fucking King Midas. Anything anything he touches just turns to gold. My god, what a fucking wizard! So smart, so good at entrepreneurship, so charismatic, so good with people. Everybody wants to work with them and pay him all this money. You missed the 30 years before that, dude.

SPEAKER_01 56:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 56:58

You know, um, but that's the stuff that I uh maybe didn't post a lot about, you know, online and maybe uh didn't talk a lot about openly, because I in the midst of the suffering and the celebrating and everything in between, uh sometimes I didn't know how I wouldn't know how to articulate it, you know, um appropriately. Um probably didn't have the most maturity to to be able to do that. But um everything I've done over the last two years stemmed from and that I'll continue to do hopefully for the next 20, 30, 40 years, as long as I get to be alive, um, stems from the kid that helped a neighbor stop being thirsty.

SPEAKER_05 57:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 57:47

You know, I'm I'm every day I I'm I'm like on my bike, you know, going uh going to the convenience store, getting some snacks, you know, with the money that I earn that day, you know? Um that feeling that's what I have every day, you know? Um it's really special. And I I want all my clients to feel like to feel like how I used to feel and how I still feel being able to do this. I want them to have that joy for themselves, that love for life, that sense of fulfillment, um sense of purpose without any of the sense of entitlement. Um because when you're when you're living like that, to me there's there's no better way to live, you know? Um that's why that's why I'm so passionate about what I do and who I do it for. Um and I hope that when my boys are a little bit older, uh a little bit older and and uh maybe able to process what's happening um even better, that they see their dad uh being able to create and live a life that proves to them that fucking anything is possible, dude. Anything. Um whatever you want to do. I don't I don't care if you're if you're an entrepreneur or a salesperson or a ghost, I don't I don't care. Um whatever you want to do, I'm gonna support you, I'm gonna help you, as long as you're not hurting anybody and it's what you feel is right for you. And and I hope that when I share things with you and I tell things to you and I give you advice, then you'll say, Oh yeah, you know, makes sense. Because he's done that. Or he's messed that up and learned from it. And yeah, he made a better life for for mom and us be because of these things that he's learned from. And say I give you advice all the time, too. You know, like learn from me, learn from you. Don't do that, don't hang out with that person. Like, I'm telling you, uh I'm not trying to lecture you, but just I'm trying I'm trying to save you some of the pain I had to deal with. I don't want that for you. I don't want that life for you. You know, do please do this instead. You'll thank me later when it pays off for you, you know. Um, yeah, I just want to show them um, I just want to show them what's possible, you know. And unlike with me, uh, I hope that their motivation isn't gonna constantly be, well, my dad doesn't believe in me, or my dad's not supportive. Well, I'm gonna show them anyways. That's one of my biggest things, you know. Nobody believes in me, nobody wants to help, nobody's supportive, they want me to go down this path, show these motherfuckers anyways. And then I would. That gave me joy for all of 15 minutes. But I'd I'd be searching for the next thing that I could prove somebody wrong about.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:00

Right.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:01

I want my boys to prove me right, not prove me wrong, you know. I think that's a much, I hope, much healthier place to operate from, you know.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:12

I think so. Um, for someone listening who feels stuck or professionally just shaken or just kind of lost, you know, what's the first honest step that you can recommend them to start taking?

SPEAKER_03 1:01:26

Figure out exact easy, figure out exactly what makes you happy. There might be a few different things, right? What type of work lights you up? That's super important. What would you damn near do for free? If you could on top of that, what are you really good at? What are some of the skills or problems that you're excellent at doing or solving, right? What do a lot of your friends, family, coworkers end up like coming to you for, you know? Um, because they know you're the person that can help. You're you're the trusted person in the group. Right. Um, how can society use any of those one, three, ten things so that they can have that problem solved, right? This person's thirsty, cool. I have lemonade. Thirsty? Lemonade, what's that cost? What is someone willing to pay for that? A dollar a cup, ten cents a cup, fifty cents? What's too much or too little? Figure that out. Right. And then with that being said, is that enough money for you to be able to provide the type of lifestyle for yourself and your family that would make you happy? Like, do does the end justify the means? Because if it's not, then we have to do some tinkering and figure it out. I can't support my family selling cups of lemonade anymore, but I can do it with ghostwriting, consulting, sales change, things I've done over my career. But that feeling is still the same. Told you that, you know, at the beginning. Right. But but I had to morph the business, business model, business idea to be more useful to people.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:54

Good shit, man. Um, and then one more question, which I ask everybody. When you think of when you hear the phrase braving the bright side, what does that mean to you?

SPEAKER_03 1:03:03

It means life is shitty sometimes. Um, and that's okay. I I never let anybody else's feelings about me, good or bad, um determine for for the most part, I'm not perfect, but for the most part, I didn't let other people's expectations of me make me not take the chance. Um, make me not butt on myself, make me not try harder at my job, or work really hard to get that promotion, um, or bounce back after a layoff or whatever. Um, launch my business, scale the business, launch another business, do this nonprofit for zero dollars just because I love helping people. I love helping athletes. Um, the name of the nonprofit is aft fleet, like after athlete. Um we provide life skills and professional development training for athletes so they can help get the help they need to navigate the next chapter post-sports, post-athletic career. Yeah. I fucking love it.

unknown 1:04:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:03

You can do that shit for free. Yeah, I love it. Some people have told me, aren't you busy enough with the kids, the businesses? Now you want to do this? Ugh. Where are you gonna find the time, the energy?

SPEAKER_04 1:04:13

You're not even being paid? Nets. Fuck them.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:19

Yeah. I'm not if you don't want to do it, then don't, bud. Don't tell me what I can and can't do. I love that. Yeah. Hell yeah. Fuck you. For sure. So that's right in the right side.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:32

Well, Brian, listen, this has been phenomenal. I'm really finally I'm glad we finally got you on here. I know you're an amazing guy, so we gotta let you go. Um I will you want to plug anything real quick, your website, anything like that, and then in the description of the episode, too.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:45

So even if you could help me, just I gotta run, if you could put my website in the show notes, um, my website, my LinkedIn, my LinkedIn, my Facebook, um, all of that stuff would be super helpful. Uh done and done. Thank you, sir. And yeah, anything you all need when it comes to ghostwriting a book, or if you need some, if you own a business and need some consulting or coaching help there, sales strategy, marketing strategy, branding, etc., we can we can do it all um in that regard. So we'd love to work with you. And thanks for having me on the show, man. This was a real treat.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:32

Awesome conversation with Brian there. Brian, thank you so much for coming by. Um yeah, there's a lot I like about the story. Um, you know, I spoke to it in the top of the episode, but um, there is an I there's an idea that I I like to to sit with. You know, when you hear someone's story after they've built something, after they've found their footing, and you know, after things start working. It can be easy to forget that there was a long stretch of uncertainty before that. Years of it sometimes. Moments where nothing felt stable. Moments where confidence took major hits. Moments where the plan seemed so clear, but then suddenly stopped working. But that's part of the story where most of us are actually living in right now, right? The in-between. It's just sometimes hard to see. The part where you're figuring things out, trying things, you know, learning things, sometimes failing at things, more times than not, honestly. But slowly becoming the next person who can handle what comes next. And if there's something that I hope you take from conversations like this one today today, it's this the version of you that eventually builds the life that you want, it does not appear overnight. They're built very slowly. Their setbacks through lessons, through the courage to keep going when the path forward isn't really perfectly clear. And the truth is most people who eventually do something meaningful with their lives certainly didn't start with certainty. But they started with a decision. A decision to keep learning. A decision to keep trying. A decision to keep betting on themselves. Even when the results hadn't shown up yet. So wherever you are right now in your story, whether things feel clear or messy, exciting, or uncertain, just know that the process you're in might be shaping you more than you realize. And sometimes that's exactly where the real growth begins. And with that said, if you're struggling right now, please remember this. None of us are meant to do this alone, and you don't have to. If something in today's conversation stirred something in you, or if you just need someone to talk to, I'd generally love to hear from you. You can reach out anytime at bravingthebrightside at gmail.com, or find me on Instagram at braving underscore the bright side. And if you've got a story you feel called to share, well, maybe your voice is one we need to hear on this show. Thank you for spending a little time on the bright side with me today. Until next time, keep braving it. One step, one sunrise, one honest conversation, and yes, one resilient day at a time. I'll see you guys next time.