Blaze Your Own Trail - Episode 1: From 1.5 Pound Miracle Baby To CEO With Brian Schulman

Episode Date: January 1, 2020

I had the pleasure of interviewing Brian Schulman, Founder & CEO of Voice Your Vibe. In this episode, Brian touches on how it was a battle just to survive after being born, dealing with a neurological condition and some insights into what he does for his company. Founder and CEO of Voice Your Vibe, Forbes featured entrepreneur, LinkedIn Local San Diego Founder and Host, 2018 Linkedin Top Voice, one of the leading experts in the world on Linkedin, having spent every day for the last 15 years on the platform and known as The Godfather of LinkedInVideo, Brian is an inspirational content creator. Brian's mission for his content on LinkedIn is to simply change the life of one person a day and it would be an understatement to say he's achieved his goal. He's a mentor to many around the world, advisor to some of the biggest brands in the US and a friend to all who know him. Brian can be reached here: linkedin.com/in/brianschulman linkedin.com/company/voiceyourvibe calendly.com/voiceyourvibe linkedinmasterclass.thinkific.com Thanks for listening!! Installing strategic sales systems & processes will stop the constant revenue rollercoaster you might be facing which is attainable through our 6 Week Blazing Business Revenue Coaching ProgramBook a discovery call with Jordan now to learn more! Are you an entrepreneur?Join my FREE Group Coaching Community where we have live calls, Q&A and more! Our Trailblazer Ecosystem also enables you to network with other entrepreneurs and creator hub eliminates multiple subscriptions and logins creating a one stop shop to take action!Use code: FOUNDING100 for 12 months access FREE and Founding pricing for life! (While Supplies Last)Join now! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this first episode, I actually interviewed Brian Shulman, who is really my mentor when it comes to LinkedIn. I had the opportunity of connecting with him back in April of 2019. And he was just so encouraging, so motivating. His content is so positive. He's been on LinkedIn every day for the last 16 years and was one of the first beta testers for video. he got nicknamed the Godfather of LinkedIn video. So I can't wait for you all to hear his inspiring story of his journey just being born and coming to this earth.

Check it out and let me know what you think. Be sure to like, share, subscribe, and rate the podcast if you like it. Thanks so much. Hey, everybody and welcome to the Blaze Your Own Trail podcast. I'm your host, Jordan Mendoza. And I've got a very special guest with me today. It's my first guest on the podcast. Some of you may know him.

His name is Brian Shulman. And I want to give you all some insights on Brian, just a little bit about him and his background. And so, you know, Brian has been on the Internet since it was a green screen and chat rooms, more than 20 years proven in the digital marketing space and e-commerce. He's worked with tons of Fortune 500 brands as well as IR 500 brands across the globe. And I could probably stop there, but I'm going to give you all a little bit more insights into him. So he is a Forbes featured entrepreneur and as well as LinkedIn Top Voice. He's a founder and CEO of Voice Your Vibe, and he's created a hashtag on LinkedIn.

You might have seen it. It's called hashtag Voice Your Vibe. Now, he's one of the pioneering top LinkedIn video creators, not just in the States, but actually across the globe. And he's a sought after international speaker. He does speaking engagements throughout the year. In July of 2019, he actually broke the LinkedIn live record of three hours being the first to broadcast live and for more than four hours. And, you know, so Brian, that's such an amazing bio and such an amazing accomplishments.

And what are you about 2530? So how did you do all this in that short of a period of time? Yeah, you were way too kind. You can call me 25 or 30 as much as you want. Yeah, I was, I started inside my mom's womb. That's pretty much how it all happened. No, Jordan, I'm just got to start by saying, I have so much love for you and I'm so, so honored to be your very first guest on this podcast.

I'm so excited for you in this show and just excited for what we're, what we're going to dig into today. So thank you for having me. No, no problem. Appreciate you being here. Yeah, absolutely. Just I'm a big, big fan of yours and everything you do. And I know this is going to be an awesome conversation.

And I can't wait to see all the incredible conversations that you have with your guests to come. So, yeah. Okay. Well, for some folks that are out there, you know, you have a pretty amazing story. And like you said, you know, it all started in your mom's womb. and your journey to life, you know, wasn't easy. So I want you to just give us a little glimpse into that. And then I've got some other follow-up questions that I want to ask.

And so the audience can get some insights into Brian Shulman a little bit better. Yeah, sure. So I've actually been doing this just the last couple podcasts I've been on because I think it, I think there's something really powerful when you hear stories from other voices that are a big part of your heart. So I want to answer that question, but I want to actually answer that question through my daughter's voice if you're okay with it. Absolutely. That'd be amazing. So let me give you some backstory here. So I was sitting in my home office and doing some work.

My daughter walks in and she hands me a couple pieces of paper, which now I have in my hand. And this was January of last year. And she just said, I want you to read something. And so I stopped what I was doing. And she sat down and this year next to me. She wanted me to read it while she was sitting there. And at the very top, it says four-way speech contest essay, which I came to find out was extra credit. Like, she didn't have to do this.

and so it's entitled like she gave me no background she just handed me these papers and so the title of it is live to inspire so i'm going to try and get through this without breaking down but i have yet to accomplish that to just bear with me this story about to be told is about an extraordinary man 42 years young who accepted all the obstacles life had to throw at him. Now, I know you may be thinking that everyone has different obstacles. They just overcome throughout their lifetime. So how is he different from you and I? What makes this particular man different from you and I is the tactic he used when faced with these obstacles. What makes him different from you and I is he took these obstacles and used them to help make a difference and inspire others to never let life get in the way of their greatness

and achievements. What makes us different from everyone else is not the obstacles that life throws at us, but what we do when faced with these obstacles. Will you choose to accept defeat or choose to persevere? On May 13, 1975, a child was born in Cedars Sunday and Medical Center in Los Angeles. This child was born three months early weighing a pound and a half, and because of that, was a premature baby. During the early 80s, he was diagnosed with Tourette's syndrome, which is a type of tick or twitch, involuntary, repetitive movements and vocalization type of neurological disorder. And one day at camp, the counselors had to take this young boy to a payphone, tears streaming down his face to call his mother because his neck was constantly snapping.

to one side over and over and over again. He went to various doctors who performed countless neurological medical exams to try and find a cure for his disorder. Every doctor said the same thing. He's fine. He'll grow out of it. One day in fifth grade, he stood up in front of his entire class and shared with him what Tourette syndrome was and what living with Tourette's syndrome was like.

A huge weight was lifted. off his shoulders once he shared his story with his classmates and it generated many supporters, whether they'd be friends, parents, were teachers. Finally, a specialist that UCLA told him, once diagnosed that he would never be able to get rid of this disorder, let alone and suggested that he'd take a special drug called clonidine to help with the ticks. Unfortunately, with this drug came horrible side effects. He made a conscious decision not to take the pill. after a few years and try to master his condition through focus and determination. After a while, the ticks started to diminish and for the most part went away.

No one knows what life has in store for them. All we can do is live until we're forced to face an obstacle in which we must make a choice to either overcome or accept defeat. The rotary forward test demonstrates how one person can make a difference in the life. lives of others. With the experiences this boy had to face came a life lesson. With determination, perseverance, and support from others, anything can happen. Now, at 42 years young, this man chose to use his story to make a difference in the lives of others by inspiring people in times of uncertainty. He implements the Rotary's motto, service before self, by finding the light in those who cannot find it in themselves, supporting them through their

tough obstacles. He helps lift people's spirits and hopes in times of hopelessness and despair. He helps people turn their ideas and dreams into realities. He helps build people from the ground up in hopes that they too will one day share their stories with others. He makes a difference in this world each and every day, which inspires others to make a difference as well. Who may you ask is this man, well, he is my father. Out of all the lives, he's made a difference in. I believe he's made the biggest difference in mine. He inspires me to never give up on what I believe in, to always do what makes me happy. But most importantly, to always live every day as if it were the last, because we are never guaranteed, but tomorrow.

As Gandhi once said, be the change you wish to see in the world. Making a difference in the lives of others is my dad's change. What will be yours? Man. Yeah, that's, I don't even know how you were able to read it out loud, you know, like, holy cow.

And that's, and so, you know, what I take away from that is like, you've not only inspired thousands of people globally, but one that you had the ability to create, you know, and that's got to be probably, you know, one of the most rewarding, uh, inspirations to, you know, to your credit. And, uh, and I understand everything that she's saying, Brian. And I know I've told you this before, but I definitely want my audience to know, but, um, back in April, I came across your what's good Wednesday videos, you know? And I remember the first Wednesday I saw it.

I was like, who the, I was like, first of all, when did video come on LinkedIn? Like, where the heck did this come from? Because I was so dormant. I wasn't using the platform. And then I came across this guy, Brian Shulman, on a Wednesday. And I was like, like, who is this guy? Like, this video is pretty cool. Like, you know, and I started reading the comments and everybody was talking about things that were good.

And I just started to, I knew that I had to start following. you was the first thing. You know, it was, it was an instant. I've got to follow this guy. This guy's got something, something going on. I had zero context into really who you are, except for a guy on video, you know, and then shout out Saturday happened, you know, and I, and I remember it coming across my feet on a Saturday, and I was like, man, this guy, like, is giving back to people. He is literally inspiring and shouting people loud and it and it was something as basic as I had a conversation with you. And when I looked around my world, I didn't have anyone else that was doing that. I didn't have anybody that was providing value and insights and love and support and

encouragement into people on a daily basis. So, you know, from the bottom of my heart, you know, thank you because you sparked in me that ability to create that first video. And as, as you know, my friend, as we've been having these conversations since, I think our first talk was, I think maybe in May when I was up in Boston. And I haven't looked back ever since. I've been, you know, creating content and talking about things that are important to me. And you really, you know, gave me that courage to say, you know, why am I worried about being judged by other people? because even though I'm super energetic, always been an optimistic guy and positive, like I still have those things in my head of like, who wants to listen to me?

Like, why do I have a message that needs to be shared and really like, you helped get that out of me? And from that story that your daughter wrote, it's you do that literally on a daily basis. And so, you know, your motto of wanting to inspire one person a day, that's a model that I want to try to live by as well, because it's, it's, uh, it's amazing. So thank you. Thank you. And you do, Jordan. You do. You inspire me. You inspire you inspire people all over the world. I don't know if you actually recognize it. And I say that because honestly, you know, yeah, my, my, my, my, my why is to inspire one person in a day. And, you know, I had people tell me all the time, you know, to your, to your, to your, to your, to your, words that I'm inspiring people all over the world. And I think, don't get me wrong, like,

that's my hopes. Like, I want to inspire millions of people, right? But one person, I mean, it's just just one person because one person can impact another person, can impact another person, becomes a ripple effect. And I think, you and I are a really good example, right, how I inspired you and you are inspiring others. and others are being inspired by you and wanting to do the same, right? And it's just, it's awesome. It really is awesome. And, you know, you talk about the courage and the bravery and finding that, you know,

and you had a voice and, you know, the confidence that kind of built in you. And that was me, Jordan. I was you. I was completely uncomfortable. I didn't have confidence. I had never, you know, put the phone in front of my face before. and done what you see me do now almost 500 times on video on LinkedIn two years ended this month I was so green I didn't even know there were apps that existed

for videos like I I didn't know anything about any of it and and it was really really uncomfortable but I think I don't know I've spent my whole life getting comfortable being uncomfortable And I mean, or what I should say is I've spent my whole life being uncomfortable. The getting comfortable part happened along the way. You know, it's like it, I think there's different things that happen to us along our journey that, that help with that. Our mindset shift, you know, I mean, I never, honestly, I literally didn't have a voice coming

into this world, you know. And then not only being the small kid, but then being the weird kid my whole life, you know, with Tourette's, which by the way, it's interesting because you know, you talk about just courage and bravery and not really feeling you have a voice. And especially in a, if you put it in a context of like a LinkedIn, right, like it's like jumping into, I don't even know what the analogy is, but you're jumping into this world that you may not fully get, right? And then because it's just so different than what you're used to being in. And then it's, it's all these business. professionals, right? Millions and millions of business professionals that are here and you're sitting here going,

oh my God, I'm going to get on video. Like, what am I going to say? How am I going to be judged? What's my boss going to think? What's that person going to think? What are my potential clients or partners or customers going to think? Like, there's all these things that can go into your head, right? And I think about the fact that I've fallen so much more and I've failed so much more than I have succeeded. And yet, I think the really important part about that statement is the fact that every time you do fall and fail, you are succeeding, you are winning, because that's when you're learning and you certainly don't know when it happens. You know, whatever diversity we go through in life, you know, those really, I was just sharing this with a friend of mine the other day that's going through a really hard time right now. And I told him that. I said, you don't have to know why this is happening to you. Because if you try and figure out the why you were going to drive yourself literally crazy trying to figure it out, all you need to know is that it's meant

to happen this way and that something good is going to come from it. It may not happen right this second, but I guarantee you from my own personal experience that everything happens for reason if it's meant to be it'll be and there's always something good that comes from having every trial and tribulation every challenge every grind that you have to go through in your life you know and a lot of times we'll look back and go why is it so hard right like why does life you know i i think we all go through this at some point you know you look up and you go why like why do you keep putting me through so much, right? Like, give me a bone, if you will.

Like, show me some light, you know, because it feels like every single, like there's just one, it's one more thing and it just keeps stacking like a cake on top of each other. You know, I was bullied growing up as a kid. I was always the small kid, so there was that. And then I had the Tourette's. I was the weird kid. And there was that. And, you know, I never knew who was really my friend.

And, you know, because there was a lot of tongue and cheek even from the people that were close to me, you know. And being the last kid picked for whatever it was. And, you know, all those things, right? And going through some pretty dark, depressiveal type moments and then coming out of them and then something flipping in my head and realizing, hey, okay, you know what? I want to be around more people. I don't ever want anyone feeling the way that I did or being treated the way that I did or I want them to walk away feeling good and uplifted and positive and better. I want them to feel better, right?

It took me up until high school to kind of get to that place. And that was fostered certainly by my parents. And then really breaking out of the show come college and then finding LinkedIn along the way. and just all of that, right? And, and I mean, really, it wasn't until my very first LinkedIn video that I realized I had a voice and a story that mattered. Because honestly, Jordan, I never, the word weird, right? I never looked at the word weird is a good thing.

I looked, and I thought of the word disability versus differently abled. You know, like, it was more of a negative connotation. I mean, I count on one hand the number of times that I'd ever really talked about the life story stuff. You know, fifth grade when I got diagnosed and I was able to finally say this is what this is. And I was terrified and believed at the same time. You know, wrote a paper about it in eighth grade, wrote a paper about it in college. One time in high school, I passed a kid in the hallway, one of my classmates, he did three different ticks at one time. And I knew in an instant he had Tourette's.

And I remember going home to my mom and telling her and I'm like, I don't know what to do, but I'm no question. I know it. And we wound up getting him and his parents to UCLA where I got diagnosed in the 80s, which by the way back then was, it was so new. Like there was no, you know, there were no thick books with all this information yet. It was just, it was really early, right? And one time in my career where I had barely any experience.

I mean, I started in retail kind of, up in that industry and then gotten to technology and I didn't have many I didn't really have much in terms of legs to stand on or any things to tout I was in I was going into sales and so I figured I'll just tell my story it's about tenacity and grit and learning and growing and give me a shot right I mean everybody everybody in their career can relate to this like somebody gave you a shot at some point. You may not have felt you deserved it or that you were worthy

or that you had, you didn't have any experience, but somebody gave you a shot to earn that experience, right? To get that opportunity. And I know it was like eight different hiring managers and a bunch of different people in between and shared the whole life story thing.

And after every single interview, they all said the same thing. Well, that's a great story, but why should we hire you? And I just kept, you know, I kept going through it and kept sharing it, same questions. And I walk out of it with my head down and tail between my legs. And I said, I'm never going to talk about this again. Because again, I looked at it as I'm weird.

I'm different. And I don't want to be, I just want to blend in, right? Like, that was always the thing. I didn't want to stand out. And there's so many stories long as long as I could share about that kind of stuff. But I think the point, though, is I never talked about it after that. I never talked about it in the workplace. you know, and fast forward to LinkedIn video,

which is now just two and a half years old. My very first video was me sharing my life story, and it was in front of 500 million people at that time, and I was terrified. I had access for five months. I sat on it. One, because I was terrified, because all I thought was what if my Tourette's come out,

which, so just for your listeners, for your audiences' sake, in the height of my Tourette's, which was in my teens, I was jumping up and down, some are assaulting for room to room, multiple facial expressions, lots of auditory noises, these intense neck twitches, wrist-flicking. A lot of times these things would commingle too.

And the kicker is that you don't know you're doing them more times than not when it's happening. So I had many, many moments where I'm sitting here going, I don't understand, I'd come home crying to my mom and say, why does everybody, you know, why does nobody like me and why does everybody keep making fun of me? And I did because I didn't I just didn't understand. I didn't know.

And she, the amazing mother of mine would, you take me in the bathroom and she had these big mirrors and and she'd say, okay, I want you to see something. And she'd do every tick and twitch I was doing. And then say, okay, let her rip, you know, whatever you've got and you let it out. Because I would try and suppress it. Problem is when you do that, it's like a bomb waiting to go off. and so I just would let it all go and then she'd put on some music

and we'd start dancing and you know it was a way to my mom was really really really good is really good about like that kind of stuff you know always giving me a place of safety

and and fun and laughter and you know at the same time right because it's important to it's important to recognize what's happening when it's happening but but also a light in the mood you know absolutely no and i appreciate you sharing those those insights and you know when you mentioned you know failure and how you know you've had to in order to be as successful as you are you have to go through

that adversity you have to go through those things and and i'm really a firm believer too that you know we're a sum total of all our failures right as long as we learn from them because i think that you can you can fail, but if you don't learn the lesson that it's there to teach you, then it's hard to get to the other side of it. But truthfully, if you think about life in general, like we are the sum total of all, everything that we've done that we failed. And if we took that lesson and we applied it to the next thing we did, hopefully not repeating it, then those are things that we can teach other people. You know, that's how we can actually help give value back to others and say, you know, listen, this is what I did. Don't do this. Let's try something. Let's try.

something different, you know, and apply this technique. No, it's so true in life and business, it doesn't matter, right? I mean, I've been building startups for 20 years and I've literally been through the lowest of lows and the highest of highs and help take companies public and acquisitions and mergers and all that. And it's so true. Like what you just said is so true. And if we, in anything, right, in anything in life and business, like if we learn from

that, you know, I didn't even realize along my journey how. how much I was learning until other founders were reaching out to me going, we would really love to work with you so that we can understand things that you've been through that we haven't gotten to yet. Maybe we can, we don't have to go down this really long road that's and grind our knees as much as we have to

if we can learn from things and kind of pivot or know when to pivot. right that those are the biggest things that I found just along the journey where it's the unknown right when you don't know what you don't know you it's it's a crazy ride right but that's what you're saying which is we don't know what we don't know a lot of times you know even just thinking about it as a parent right I mean I've got a 19 year old who's got their first year in college and a junior in high school who it's I think as parents we it's a natural parental instinct to want to grab their shirt before they step in a hole or fall off a cliff or fall on the ground or trip on something, right? We don't want them to necessarily have to go through something that we've been through and know what can happen, right? And yet, sometimes they have to fall. They have to take that step. They got a trip and we can be there to pick them up, right? That's the important part is be there to lift them up to go, okay, yeah, here, let me just ask you,

Let me patch it on the butt. You're good. Like, smile. It's okay. It's okay to fall. It's okay to feel like you just completely flopped at whatever it may be. Go do it again. Right.

Like I, and that's the thing too, right? Is I didn't know any better. I just kept getting up and going. And my mom was there. And, you know, everybody around me in my life was there to just, you know, keep going. But again, I didn't look at all that stuff as why would I want to share that? Who's going to care about that, right? Which brings me to a pivotal moment, which we talked about in terms of LinkedIn video in that first video.

Right when that happened, when LinkedIn video launched in Alpha, June of 2017, the Let's Get Honest campaign launched. And it was from a number of different folks on LinkedIn, Manu Swishkaswamy and Authentic Alex in London and Michaela Alexis was actually, it changed everything. I've been on LinkedIn every day for 16 years come December. The platform was a year old when I joined. And everyone was conforming. You know, you're fitting in this business box that they kind of put you in, this business social networking platform. and so people were showing up and talking about business. It was all business.

And you were wearing your suit. Like you would, if you will, show up at any kind of company or your job, like a same kind of thing, just digitized. And yet when the Let's Get On his campaign launched, it changed everything. More so at that time than the previous, whatever it was, 14 years for me.

Because they were talking about things that were really personal. And it wasn't even just that. Like for me, inspirationally, this was a generation, like, they could have been my kids,

like, literally. And for them to rise up and share their hearts and their voices and so I don't know. We talk about fears and failures, but speech impediments

and agoraphobia and rape. Like, I mean talking some really personal life stuff. It was really inspiring, right? Because they were using their, voices and sharing something that was really vulnerable for them. And I was inspired. But again, five months to take the leap and then finally do it. And the kicker was all the love and support and encouragement that I saw from that. It changed everything for me, especially knowing the

history now that I've shared of what I've been through, you know, just in a small portion, I wanted to give that to everybody that I saw. And there were, you know, there weren't a lot of us pioneers on LinkedIn video back when it started. but anybody I saw popping up, anybody I saw getting on a video, it was just I wanted to give them the same love support and encouragement. And because it meant the world to me,

literally, it meant everything to me. And community means everything to me because of what I've been through. And I wanted to bring people together for the good and make, you know, I wanted people to feel good going through their journey

because it was, it was hard, it wasn't easy. Certainly wasn't easy for me. I know it was tough for a lot of people. but more and more people start showing up and and you support them and and I think it's just realizing something that you said, which is everyone does have a voice in a story and a voice in a story that matters. And if you understand that and if you realize that

even in a place like LinkedIn, which most people in the majority of 655 million people look at it and go, why would I ever do something like that on a business social networking platform because it's all about being human and it's all about relatability and people do business with people they like knowing trust right

you always get to know people it's it's the human part first and when you show up and you share from your heart incredible things will happen yeah no you're absolutely right there and you know I remember you know, when I posted that first video, and I think the video I posted, I haven't gone back to look at it

probably since maybe three weeks after I posted it. But I can remember going back to it like every five minutes after I posted it. And I was like, has anyone seen this yet? You know, like I've got seven, I don't know, I think I had like 7,000 followers or connections or whatever. And I was like, three people. I was like, like yeah I was excited I was pumped that you know three views and then I was like wait a minute I think that was all me like all three times are probably actually me looking at that video and then I said I was just kept I was like talking having the self-talk moment of like what are you doing like who like who cares did you post it because you want to see how many people saw it or did you post it because you had a question to ask you know and so when I really shifted that

from like posting for the metric side of it and just went into listen if i want to talk about sales i want to share something about sales that i went through that could help somebody that's in sales like the purposes to provide value versus how many views am i going to get by saying this thing and when i did that i mean it literally changed everything like i actually got people that started engaging and i was like oh someone said something and then i remember remember like not wanting to say anything back because I felt weird, you know, it was like, like they said something. Should I respond to them? You know, it was just kind of, it was weird. You know, like you said earlier, it was weird. It was like this, I remembered LinkedIn was where I would go

when I got an alert on my phone that said, Bill just had his anniversary. Why don't you tell him congratulations? And so I'd be the guy congratulating like the 17 people on my list. And then, you know, and then it was like, happy anniversary. Happy work. anniversary, you know, like all these different things is really the only, and I thought it was like maybe if I was looking for a job, like a recruiter that could help me. And so when I came back this April of 2019 and saw your mug come across my feed, I don't even know how you came across. I mean, it was just meant to be, I guess, that all of a sudden, you know, there was a hashtag that I use that, you know, was synonymous with you. And then you showed up and I was like, what the heck? You know, it was like a world. event, you know, and then thinking about it and saying, like, could I do this too? You know, because truthfully, if we really think deep down about what video is, video is public speaking. And for me, as a facilitator, as a trainer, as a speaker, as a coach, I do public speaking all the time, you know, but I looked at it different, though, because like you said earlier, the

audiences, presidents and CEOs and coworkers and actual friends, like people that know me outside of, you know, a networking platform. And so you're worried, worried about that judgment of like, you know, what if they think asks a silly question or maybe they hit the dislike button. Maybe they'll, you know, and even though there's not a dislike button, it's like that imaginary button that you think's there. And so I think for me, it was like that shift. Like once I realize everybody that's on there is a living, breathing human, they all laugh, they all cry, they all stub their toe. They all go through these things. And so I just started doing it and saying, you know, I think I want to help people on a bunch of different levels, whether it's with sales, customer service,

whether it's personality assessments, which, you know, I specialize in. Like, I want to educate people and add that value to them. And so as long as I'm going in it like that, I remember having this very conversation with you is like, I was just like, this is what I want to do. This is, this is like what I'm passionate about and you're saying then do it because that's the right reason you know that's the right reason to share your voice to share your message and you're going to start sharing your story yeah 100% 100% I remember the conversation and I've had that conversation with so many people because again it's this conundrum you're like I don't I don't know what my what is my why like what am I passionate about what do I want to share you know and I think and you said something

really, really important, Jordan, which is, and we've all been through it. Anybody that's been on video, like, we all go through that looking at the number. Oh, gosh, how many views, how many likes? What's the, you know, what is it at? How many shares, like all those things? And I think when you, when you put that aside and go, okay, it's not about the likes. It's not about the views. It's about engagement.

It's about impact, right? Is my message, it's my message going to reach someone? Is it going to affect? somebody's life in a positive way by me sharing whatever it is that I'm sharing. You know, just one person, you know, just one person. And a lot of times, you know, it's so true. Like, you don't hear from anybody, you know. I mean, in the early days, like, I wasn't hearing from anybody.

I mean, I've been posting on LinkedIn ever since you could post. Like, I've been through that whole journey, right? Forget video for a second. But, like, there were such a long period of time where I'd never hear from anybody. And I'm sitting there going, am I really reaching anyone with this? Like I, you know, and potentially questioning my why, you know, but remembering, okay, hold on, just because you don't hear from anybody doesn't mean you're not reaching anybody. That's a really important thing for people to remember because, you know, a lot of times,

depending on whatever message you're conveying or where they were working or whatever, they feel like they can't engage your comment or, you know, and maybe they'll send you a note behind this scenes and go, hey, look, I couldn't come on on this, but I really wanted to know, like, this message has really touched me here. You know, I could really relate to what that was, or thank you so much for whatever that nugget was, whatever it is. I think it's, it's all about remembering just go with what's in your heart. If you go with what's in your heart, you're never going to go wrong. You know, whatever message you want to share and the power of video, I mean, the only thing missing from video is you can't touch the person, you can't smell them,

although the reality is you can touch someone you can touch someone with your heart and with your message and with your voice and if you realize that and just keep starting every day is day one to what you said earlier you know you're always as long as you're learning right and when you're in the moment a lot of times when you're in the moment especially those really hard moments that are really challenging you know where you're questioning everything. You're not thinking I'm growing. You're thinking this sucks. Like, how do I embrace the suck of this moment and keep going? It's when you look back and go, wow, I really grew during that moment. And that's something else I said to my friend the other day, which was, you don't realize it right now, but this incredibly hard moment for you, you're going to look back and go, wow, I kept going. And I kept growing, but not knowing it because I kept going. And that is extremely powerful for yourself, for others.

It's extremely inspirational. But again, when you're going through it, it's hard, right? It's a really vulnerable moment to realize it. and I think the more that you remember that when you're going through it like I have so many times where I'll be in just a because happens to me all the time you know just a really hard moment and like I've gotten hit like three times back to back

when I just wasn't expecting it to happen and I just was like okay right like I just had to laugh and go okay I surrender Apparently this is meant to be happening right now. I really have no idea why, but okay, I get it. It's supposed to happen. I know there's a reason for it for the good and I'll roll with it and just keep going. And that's the thing. I think it's really easy for us to give up.

It's so easy for us to just and just stay in that moment of. pain and frustration and many times you're angry at yourself or whatever just like come on you know why and and that's the other side jordan i think is if if you can if we can take those moments more times than not with that learning and remembering and going okay remember that time earlier where you never thought you'd get through it look where you are now saying that that about something else. It's one of the things that I actually recommend to people to do is because we all have, our phones are an extension.

They're another appendage, right, of ourselves. And when you're in that moment of suck, pull out your phone, hit selfie mode, hit record and just talk to yourself in that moment. Be vulnerable with yourself. Have that conversation with yourself. and then the next time, the next it happens, where you feel like the floor was dropped out from under you and you don't know how you're going to get back up,

let alone reach the top where the sun is again, play that video where you thought that the first time. Or better yet, record the video again in that moment and then go watch the other one and remember that you got out of it. And that that's what happens is we're never, This is the other thing I said to my friend is we're never given anything that we can't handle. No matter how crazy it looks, how hard it looks, we're never given anything that we can't handle. And that's kind of crazy when you think about it because we don't, again, we don't think about that in the moment.

But if you try and remember that. Yeah. No, I mean, I completely get that. And, you know, I look at, you know, my life growing up and all the things that I've been through and, you know, adversity and things like that. And you look back and you're like, I'm here. Like I face that, you know, I've experienced that. And I came through stronger by going through it, you know, and it's giving me strength that I didn't even think that I could possibly really ever have. And, you know, so I want to talk a little bit about, you know, why I name the podcast what it is. It's called The Blaze Your Own Trail Podcasts. And for me, you know, I'm, I've got a regular 9 to 5 and I love it. And it's, I'm thriving at it.

And a couple years ago, I decided to start a small consulting company with, you know, I'm the whole, I'm the whole thing, right? And it was, you know, predicated on personality assessments. And then, you know, earlier this year, I started adding some other things to the arsenal. and I know we've had conversations about this where I've started helping other people with personal branding, you know, build their brand, whether maybe they want help with building a sales training program. So I'm helping people with that. I'm also coaching people that might be in a struggle that I've actually faced before and I give them guidance on how to

and how to overcome that. So, you know, that's one of the reasons I titled that this Blaze Your Own Trail because I want to blaze my own trail in that regard. I want to. my goal is long term are to be a full-time entrepreneur. And I think this is really the start of all that. So kind of last question, but how did you start to blaze your own trail in business? Like what was it where you said, I want to be the founder and CEO of voice your vibe? Yeah.

So, I mean, there's a lot of entrepreneurs in my family. and so I grew up around that kind of element, not that I was really thinking about it, but I did. And college, I was a founder of my fraternity at San Diego State called Phi Kappa Theta. It's a nationwide fraternity. John F. Kennedy was a Phi Kappa, Gene Kelly.

I could rattle off many incredible men, but we literally built a company from the ground up. and if anybody's ever seen the original movie Revenge of the Nerds that was us like we were the mutts we were a mosh of everybody the nerds the jocks that i literally everybody and all shapes colors sizes uh creeds and and we were doing something really incredible um and it's crazy because 25 years this year is when we started to build that um So fast forward this whole video journey and such, right? I mean, I've been helping Fortune executives for years behind the scenes when it came to things like LinkedIn.

And I just wanted to help people. It wasn't about visibility or money. It wasn't about any of that. I just wanted to help people because I figured out after falling on my own feet, you know, how to do this thing. And I wanted to help people figure it out because, you know, you know, how to do this thing. because the reality is one step in the wrong direction. Literally, you're one click away from having a conversation with anyone and everyone in business from the founder of the funder to the chairman of the janitor and everybody in between.

And you are one click away from never having a conversation with them if you don't know what you're doing. And it's crazy. And through my video journey, I've just had so many incredible opportunities pop up through my whole LinkedIn journey, for that matter. builders of companies asking me if like that basically take disheveled companies and people from different places put them together to build it back up. I had a one of these builders reach out to me at one point. He didn't know me. We had,

meaning we had never had any conversations before, knew of my presence and how I was showing up and background, right, from what I had shared. Asked me if I wanted to be the CEO of one of these companies. Just from showing up, right? I have always realized that you never get to where you are alone and you have to reach down and lift people up and you have to send the ladder down. And me starting my company, Voice Your Vibe, which is all about teaching brands and leaders

within organizations and teams within companies, how to tell a story that people will fall in love with on LinkedIn. And I mean, it crosses all social medias, right? But LinkedIn is my home. It's where I said from the very beginning, I want to be all in and this is where I need to be. This, this was it. I didn't know why. I just had a gut feeling. And I wound up starting a company many, many, many years later, right? And unbeknownst to me, Jordan, building a brand that I didn't even know I was building, right? It was just me showing up helping people wherever I could and hoping to inspire one person a day. And so when I formed a company, which basically was after four years of helping build and grow another startup, I had a friend and confident and former customer of mine that said, why have you not started your company yet?

Like nobody can do, nobody does what you do the way you do it. Like, what are you waiting for? Right. And I felt fulfilled because I had like you, I had corporate job and and I was branched out in many other ways because I want a number of boards, advising founders and startups, doing speaking internationally, co-founding, you know, companies, all this stuff kind of at the same time. And it was really fulfilling me in many different ways because I wanted to help more people, right? And so shift in the tides, right? And I leave the company. And he asked me that question.

He was like, what are you waiting for? So I filed my LLC. I bought some domains and called a friend of mine and said, I finally started my company. And she said, oh, my God, are you serious? Can you come fly to Dallas? I want to throw you a launch party. Wow, wow.

I said. I'm like, what are you? Seriously? So crazy. Well, let me tell you this. For for everybody that's listening out there, that's how you blaze your own trail, right? It is, you know, you know this information. Other people are telling, and sometimes I think the signs are so big and bright, but we have this film over our eyes and we just don't, we just don't recognize them. You know, we don't recognize these things about us, these gifts and the ability. or we just we just can't see it and in one day and in that story I could tell there was a massive shift and that question is what helped you ablaze your own trail and you know I hate that we have to end this this episode because it was so amazing and I know that my audience is

going to get you know so much value so where can everybody find you Brian where can everybody find Brian Shulman yeah so LinkedIn is my home so you can find me on LinkedIn.com forward slash in forward slash Brian Shulman and I'm sure Jordan I'll have my name in the show notes so you know how to spell it if you want to schedule time to chat I always leave times open on my calendar to do so even though everything is so busy I love talking to people to your point which is how shout out Saturday began to begin with so there's a tool called Calend Lee it's access to my calendar, c-a-l-E-N-D-L-Y dot com forward slash voice your vibe.

And for anyone that wants to learn about LinkedIn, I've got a free jumpstart course that is available to you as well as a master class that is in 2.0 right now. So if either of those things are interesting to you, definitely take advantage of the free course. There's so many golden nuggets that myself and my partner in Crime, Rob Ballas, I was for sharing. And you can you can learn about that at LinkedIn masterclass.thinkific.com. So that's, those are the places I tell you to find me and look for the hashtag voice your vibe. Feel free to follow it. You'll be able to catch everything that I'm sharing on LinkedIn. But again, I mean, Jordan, thank you so much. Again, I'm so so humbled and so honored to be here to be a guest and to be your very first guest.

And I'm so excited for you in this show and where it's going to go. And I truly do believe this is the first step in a blazing of your trail of the next great chapter of the adventure and your journey, buddy. Hey, man. Hey, really, really appreciate that. And folks, for those of you're listening, I will post a little snippet of this on LinkedIn. And I'll go ahead and link all of the, link his profile. We'll go ahead and link the mastery class as well. So, Brian, I definitely appreciate your time.

Although you're my first guest, I'll tell you, you are going to be my. first repeat guest as well because I definitely want to have you back on so we can chat a little bit more and get some more insights on, you know, who you are as a kid, what type of sports you're into, foods and stuff like that that we didn't get to touch on today. But thanks so much for joining and I hope you have an amazing week, all right. Thanks, Jared. You too, buddy. Hey, thanks so much for listening to that episode with Brian Shulman. Man, every time I get to talk to the guy, it's just so impactful. He's such an inspiration to me and so many other people around the world. If it inspired you, please share the podcast with someone that you know. Send it to them,

text it to them, let them know how awesome it is, and I hope that they can get value out of it as well. Catch you on the next episode.