EntreLeadership - #224: Brian Buffini—The Emigrant Edge

Episode Date: October 2, 2017

Did you know a high percentage of small businesses are started by emigrants? How about Fortune 100 and 500 companies? Ditto. So what gives them such an advantage? Best-selling author Brian Buffini returns to the podcast to discuss the emigrant edge and how you can apply these same attributes to your small business. It’s an amazing way to embrace challenges and opportunities to build your own American dream. entreleadership.com/podcast The Ultimate EntreLeadership Reading Guide All Access Membership Discount Growing Customer Lifetime Value Worksheet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

helping business leaders grow themselves, their team, and their profits. This is Andre Leadership. Now, here's your host, Ken Coleman. From the Music City, this is the broadcast of leaders, by leaders, for leaders. Thanks so much for joining the conversation coming to you from our brand new studio. So if you can hear a difference, well, that's why. And it is deluxe. Let me tell you what else is great.

We're bringing you a great conversation from Brian Bafini. He's back with us. He's got a new book out entitled The Immigrant Edge, How to Make It Big in America. And this conversation will challenge you. We're also going to open up Ken's Electronic Mailbag, and we love to bring you real entree leaders from Main Street. Billy Hofacker is our guest that we will be featuring for this, so don't miss that. And of course, we're bringing you free resources. So let's get right to it.

It's time to open up Ken's Electronic Mail. Ken's Electronic Mail. You've got mail. All right. The first email is from Christopher. He writes, I'm a contract freelancer with a large agency. I do work that I love. I make more income with this company than I have ever made.

However, I procrastinate a lot and spend a lot of time goofing off while in the offices. The executives keep telling me how much they appreciate me, but I feel like if I were to really get a hold of my self-discipline, I can produce two times as much. Ken, do you have any tips on how to internally keep myself focused to build that self-discipline to not just produce a little bit above minimum, but always bring my A-plus game, even when it's not demanded of me? Okay, well, I love this email because I legitimately have ADHD.

I've made reference to this before on the show, and I think people think I'm joking, and I'm not. I've been diagnosed with it, not as a kid, not because of behavior problems. I did some counseling several years ago to get over a tragic experience in my life. And as a result, the counselor said, have you ever been told you might have ADHD? And I kind of scoffed. And so we went through the whole process.

So there you go. Point is, I don't need medication, but I understand your email, Christopher, because people who procrastinate sometimes are procrastinating, not because they're losers, not because they're lazy. Many times, it's you actually losing focus. and so you will delay or procrastinate or put things off because at the given moment or by the function of the task, it doesn't fire your pistons. And so you put it off. I was always the kid who studied at the last minute.

And I did better on all projects, all tests when I waited to the last minute, drove my parents bananas. But now they know, and again, I'm not going to unpack me, but I've learned later on from professionals. that I thrive and I perform better when I'm under pressure. Now, remind you, I get paid to talk in front of a lot of people. That's pressure. I do better. So I would look a little bit more internally, Christopher, and say, why is it? Find out the why.

What is it that you tend to procrastinate? Is there a pattern of things that you procrastinate on versus other things you don't? And I think you're going to find that there's a pattern. And I'm going to bet that you procrastinate on things that you don't enjoy doing or that don't challenge you. I think that's probably the issue. But look for the pattern. This is where you need to get feedback from real people who can give you some truth on this particular issue. See if your answers and their answers line up.

And then, my friend, it's just a function of mitigating this problem. So come up with the way that somebody else maybe does some of these things or you get help with some of these things. I don't know what the particular situation is, so I can't give you super specifics. But then the final thing I would say is part of the problem is you lose engagement. So get yourself out of the office, get a break, a mental break, a fun break, a snack break, and exercise break. When you find yourself procrastinating, just kind of change your scenery and then get back to it. That helps for somebody like me.

So thanks for the question, Christopher. Podcast at entreleadership.com is the email. submitted question podcast at entreleadership.com. Well, folks, I'm really excited to have Brian Bafini back with us. This guy is an inspirational machine. His story is so inspiring. The content that he delivers is so great. We wanted to have him back, of course, with the launch of his new book. I love this conversation. It's going to really make you better. So let's get right to it. Here is my conversation with Brian Bafini. Well, this is a real treat. Brian Bafini back with us. But this time in our brand new studio on video.

Of course, we're doing the audio. And you're back with a brand new book, The Immigrant Edge. Kind of almost came up with the idea while I was talking to you last time. I mean, we had such a great time and such great response. So first of all, congratulations. Thanks, but. Real quick, tell us about the book and how it is spreading out there. What's the reaction from people who are buying it?

Well, it's neat. You know, I mean, a lot of people, they write a book and then become a speaker. I was speaking and training for 22 years, and then I wrote a book. But I think we're getting a great response. It debuted on all the bestsellers, New York Times and all those things. And we're getting a lot of feedback from people who are enjoying the book. That's the thing. They're actually reading it.

And getting a lot out of it. I'm getting a lot of stuff going on social media where they're saying, here's the piece that hit me the most. My dad came from Ireland. My uncle came from Serbia. This has helped me get in touch with who I am and where I came from. and as a nation of immigrants, I think it kind of stirs people up. You know, I mean, off the subject, but for 110 years, gardening was the number one hobby in American.

Really? And now it's ancestry research. Since the World Wide Web became public, pornography was the number one search. That has just been outstripped by ancestry. Wow, that's good news. They want to know who they are, where they're from, what it's all about. I've actually done a little research on the Coleman's, believe it or not. Oh, really?

Yes, interesting stuff. I got a little gift coming to you in a week or two from me. Very nice. Very nice. But you know, you start realizing that. You know, I did a little research on the Ramsey's. Dave Ramsey, guess what his people were? Freedom fighters in Scotland. Oh, yeah. So here's a guy that does financial freedom all day long. So people are trying to do these ancestry pieces. So there's a great curiosity there. But the thing that sparked it all from me, Ken, was I saw a report from the Harvard Institute of Politics. And it said 50% of millennials don't even believe the American Dream is possible anymore. And then another report that said 50% of baby boomers don't believe that their kids will have it as good as they did. The second one I was listening to, the first one I was reading, and it's like, you know those Popeye moments?

Oh, sure. That's all I can stand. I can't stand no more. Because I look at a guy like me that came here with nothing and built a business and a fortune and his family. And not an untypical story. There's thousands and thousands and thousands of stories like mine. And I went, what if we did a little research

found the common traits of people who are the classic rags to riches and then shared with people who have this interest in their own ancestry and then give them the how-toes to do it. So it's like, okay, don't just do this as a curiosity, right? Faith without works is dead. If you're going to learn this stuff, if you want to know this stuff, how about you do something with it? How about you tap into the ancestral spirit of the comens,

the ancestral spirit of the Ramses, the ancestral spirit of the buffinis? And what would they do with your opportunity? What would they think of your problems? you know someone got on a boat someone left everyone they know everything they know maybe didn't speak the language certainly didn't know the culture i mean i spoke the language but i didn't apparently and you come here and they sacrificed everything what would they think of your opportunity now they'd be proud of you i mean you're killing it ken but what would they think of your problems and they'd go geez you know may four generations ago some coleman made a decision to go

that's my boy i'm glad i'm glad i paid a price for him to have that opportunity. I just think if people bring that to the table, boy, they'll kill us. Oh, that's so true. Right? Those are haunting questions. What would our ancestors say? I mean, that'll keep you up at night. And it should. I want to go back. You just, I've not heard this millennial data about what they believe about the American dream. Right. Why? We can't just move on because here's what we know. Millennials have now replaced Gen X as the number one demographic in the workforce. So millennials has been kind of this dirty word for a long time. That irritates me. I'm not a millennial. Right. But they are the number one demographic in the workforce today. And if a

large majority of them believe the American dream is impossible, that is awful. Why do they believe that? Well, it's complicated, right? I mean, and just so you know, I don't know any generation that's been talked about so poorly as the millennials. And here's the thing. Here's what I found. I have a young man who's 24 years of age who runs a $10 million budget and runs 25 mega events that will have 25,000 people in it. He's brilliant. We have people throughout our organization that are young people that are brilliant, that are doing a great job.

So on one hand, I'm a big fan at the generation in certain ways. One, they seem to be more purpose driven. They want to know about impact. They want to have companies that are somewhat socially or morally responsible. They have an ethic. I like that. They seem to be less materialistic. they're immune to infomercials because they grew up with that.

They're immune to the old sales pitch. So there's things that are part of that generation that are kind of cool. But they've also been grown up, you can do anything you want, honey, you're special, you just got to want it. We've seen the science on the Participation Awards. So you and I've had conversations about this before talking about our kids. The science is in. Participation Awards failed because the person who won the award who deserved it felt it was

devalued and the person who got the award who felt like they did it. and Nurnit has low self-esteem. But if I was to give you the dirty little one, the real dirty little one of this whole issue is that there is this creeping sense of entitlement that is culture-wide. And I think that slow, soft killer of entitlement, it's killing ambition, it's killing drive, it's killing hope, it's killing optimism. I think it's a subtle killer. I think it's a silent killer. I want to break down the book in a minute. Sure. Before we do that, just simply, the immigrant edge, we're going to talk about those traits. And so that's the whole edge. But isn't there something about the immigrant that

they have to make it? They leave everything they know. They leave it behind. All their eggs are in one basket. And to me, that's what we should admire. Those of us who were born and raised in America with the opportunity, we don't have that same desperation to make it. Is that something special that every immigrant has? I think that it helps. What I say in the book is that here's their natural disadvantages, and then here's their natural advantages. What you're talking about is a natural advantage. And so there's no doubt. Now, not all immigrants are successful. That's important to point out. That's right. Okay, I'm only talking about the traits of the most successful. It's just disproportion. It's 13% of the population, 26% of small business owners.

Your entree leadership, a high percentage of small business owners are first-generation Americans. A very large percentage of Forbes 400, a very large percentage of Fortune 1 and 500 companies, household name companies were started by immigrants or sometimes children of immigrants. So when you come and you've got nowhere else to go, you know, sometimes not having a plan B is a cool thing. I used to tell my kids, I had to make it enough so at least I could afford my way home if I didn't make it. So you don't have a safety net. You don't have many of the things that you can count on that will allow you to kind of tread water. So you've got to get in the game.

And so that mindset right off the bat is an all-in mindset. it. Let's put it this way. When Cortez reached the eastern shore of Mexico and his men are saying, we want to go home, it's hot, there's bugs, the natives are restless, what do you do? Greatest motivational speech in history. Burns the ships. Well, that's the ultimate emigranage. Guess what? Those guys fought really well from that point out. Oh, sure. And no plan B. Right. So sometimes, and I think, you know, for your listeners, and you guys do such a great job here, supporting business owners and so on and so forth, who's the lifeblood of all great culture. sometimes not having plan B is a really cool thing.

And I think sometimes people who've come from a job, for example, and I own a business, they're always thinking, eh, if it doesn't work out, I'll get a job. I think the immigrant edge is, if I'm going to start a business, if I'm going to put my name to this, I'm all in. All the chips are to the center, and it's I'm going to find a way to win no matter what. That's so good. All right, so for those of you that are watching can see this. And if you're listening but not watching, you need to start tuning in and watch these conversations.

But this bookmark is really cool. And I got to tell you, I can't remember the last time I paid attention to a bookmark, but I paid attention to this. And this is great. The emigrant edge, there are seven attributes. And we're not going to touch all of them, but I want to read them out loud. But here's the bookmark, really cool stuff. And the book unpacks them.

A voracious openness to learn. A do whatever it takes mindset. A willingness to outwork others. A heartfelt spirit of gratitude. A boldness to invest. A commitment to delay gratification. and number seven, an appreciation of where you come from. I want to jump in to a voracious openness to learn.

I love that you used the word, veracious. Why that word, because I know words matter to you. They matter to me. What happens when we develop a voracious openness to learn? Why is that a game changer? Yeah. Well, you can learn in a passive mode. I'll read this book.

I'll thumb through this book when I, have a little bit of time. Veracious is a dog on a porch shop. Okay? I love that. So I listen to cassette tapes. Some of your younger listeners can Google that. And I would listen to seven habits of highly effective people until the cassettes broke.

And one of the things millennials do miss out on is the chance to take a tape, fix it with scotch tape, and hear that every time. Yes. But I didn't listen to that. So if you go on a tour of a phoenix company, you'll see there's seven rooms dedicated to people. who are mentors and influences to me. We have the Ziegler conference room. We have the Covey Training Center. You know, all these different places.

These are all mentors. I read the books. I voraciously listened to stuff. And then I did one more thing. I tried stuff. Yes. And I tried a lot of stuff. And I could, you know, I do seminars that are two and three days long.

I could do 10-day seminars on all the stuff I tried and didn't work. Attempting stuff that doesn't work, that is the breakfast food of an entrepreneur. That's right. So when I came to America, you have to understand that I had never heard of personal growth and development. I'm talking to people like Brian Tracy and Les Brown that are in their mid-70s now. And they're in demand all over the world. Their schedule. They have very few booking requests in America.

But Dubai and Christchurch and Sydney and Tehran. Brian Tracy just spoke in Tehran for the love of Mary. Wow. All over the world. For 125 years, America's had this. pedigree of personal growth and development, starting with Conwell's acres of diamonds, and on to think and grow rich and how to win friends and, you know, the strangest secret with Earl Nightingale and on and on Zig Zigler and Jim Roe. It has this rich, rich tradition. And they say a

fish discovers water last. One of the things is, you come from another place and you come to American and you go, these guys are all successful and they're willing to tell you what to do and how to do it and the way to do it. Okay, I can turn on the radio and listen to Dave Ramsey and learn how to get my finances quite away. I can go buy a book and follow the program. I can turn on your podcast. I've listened to some of the people you've interviewed,

and I have sat there, and I'm a guy with a pretty significant-sized business, and I have sat there and going, well, that was a great. That's Seth Godin. That was great. You've had people on here who've shared their wisdom. And so this is not typical for the rest of the world. So the key is to be voracious, taken on board, and then go do something.

For the love of Mary, you're being. given this gift, you've got to go do something. And so that's all I can tell you is I've applied things that other people tell me. And one of the people that really impacted me was a guy named Jim Rohn, I stood in line to have me sign his book. I've only done this twice, Jim Rohn and Zig Ziglar. And Rohn asked me, said, you got an accent? I go from Ireland. Oh, I love Ireland. We get into a conversation. So, well, tell me where are you from and what are you doing? I'm telling him. I just started in real estate. And he goes, Mr. Pafin, if you will work harder on yourself, then you do on your job, you'll go from making a living to making a fortune.

Wow. Now, that was a line he had delivered in the seminar, but when he said it to me one-on-one, it was like a bolt of lightning. And I decided at that time my job was to go work on myself. That's my job then. That's my job now. I'm excited about where I'm going to go for the next 20 years, Lord Willen, because I'm still a work in progress.

I'm still taking stuff on board. I'm listening to podcasts, like your show, reading books all the time. and I'm very excited about where I can go. So I think a voracious openness to learn, and here's the great news. All of these seven traits, it doesn't matter where you were born. That's right. You can apply that. You have ambition.

You have drive. You have a goal. You want to do something for yourself, your family, your customers, your community, your church. You want to give something back. You want to find that purpose. Then dig in, learn, and go do. All right. So if you're ready to learn, and then you create this voracious appetite for learning like you

just described, now. Now it's, what are we going to do with what we learned? You touched on this, but it takes us beautifully right into the third trait, which I love. And that's a do whatever it takes mindset. You know, that, we understand that, Brian. We hear that. We go, okay, I've got what it takes to do whatever it takes. But at some point, the separation, I believe, for the great doers, the great achievers in life, is this.

They will do whatever it takes. We heard a lot of your story. The first time you were with it. But when you came to this country, you had to figure out what it took and then you had to do it. Talk about those early days. Well, you know, I came 92 bucks in my wallet, you know, not an untypical story. I came to America to, I didn't have the most godly mission at that time. I found the Lord later, right?

So it was I wanted to get a suntan and meet suntan girl. I'm still pale and I married an African American guy for the past 27 years. So, you know, God laughs when you tell them your plans. then I get into this very serious motorcycle accident. So now I'm 19 years old. I'm 7,000 miles away from home. I have gangrene. They're going to amputate my leg.

I in and out of hospital for two years, rods and screws and all that stuff. And I owe $250,000. Well, you know, the thing is, you can stay that way or you can go, man, I'm in the one place in the world where maybe I can do something about that. If that happened to me in certain countries, my life story is decided. That's true. I can give you a list of countries. I give you 100 countries where if something like that happened, that's where you are. But not here.

And so do whatever it takes. So what did I do? I had to start somewhere. I was selling T-shirts at the beach. I was a security guard, Ken. Can you imagine? I have my leg in a cast. How big were you, too?

All right. What are you like, 140 pounds? When I had all this atrophy, I probably weighed 120. I got a full leg cast. I got La Jolla Cove Motel. It's still there today. I got the two crutches. And I'm like, if I catch you, I'm going to.

to kill you, you know. So I did whatever it took. I worked in a photo match. Your younger listeners can Google that as well. And then eventually I got into real estate business. And so it was just like, and people told me it was a bad time to get in real estate. America's down. It was a recession. People were leaving the business. And I just didn't know any different. I was like, I'm going to do whatever it takes. And so here's the thing. That doesn't stop. Like years later, we're the largest business coaching company in America. We have tens of thousands of clients, all in real estate, and we run into the largest world ride recession since the Great Depression.

I had 27 competitors going into that. We came out of it. There was us and one other. And the reason being is the mindset was, we're just going to do whatever it takes. Again, no question of ethics or morals or making short-term decisions like that. But to do whatever takes means this. There's a big boulder in the road. Okay, I've got to go over it. Can't go over it, going under it.

Can't go under it, got to go around it. Can't go around it. We are going to blow it up. We're going to chip away. We're going to do whatever takes. It's just going to happen. And it's decided. I don't know if you've ever heard of Team Hoyt, the father and son team. Oh, it's one of the great inspirational stories in our time.

Right. Well, we were their sponsor. Oh, wow. So if you ever look at a lot of their pictures, you'll see, it's a good life. That's kind of our phrase. We didn't want to be a corporate sponsor, but we love the idea. Here's this father with this paraplegic son. But I interviewed him.

I did. And it was one of the hardest interviews I ever did, Ken, because you couldn't get a word out of the guy. Okay, you couldn't get a word out of him. He doesn't want to talk about himself at all? Well, because he's got a very simple philosophy. He said, I wasn't able to swim. I said, well, you do the triathlon with your son, and you have to swim 2.4 miles and pull him in a boat.

So how'd you do that? He goes, well, I went to Lake Winifasaki, and I just started swimming. I go, well, how did you learn on swim? I just made up my mind. I said, well, where did you learn to swim 2.4 miles? He goes, I just made up my mind. I go, where'd you learn to swim 2.4 miles pulling your son?

He goes, I just made up my mind. Every answer. I made up my mind. I go, how do you run 112 miles with a kid in a wheelchair? I just made it by mind. How do you run when you have bone spurs and a fracture in your right foot? I just made up my mind. And eventually I realized, you know what?

I'm looking for this big. I want my listeners to be wowed here. And I'm missing the point. He's telling me the answer. He has a made-up mind. Okay, there's nothing more to say. We entitle it. This is the power of a made-of-mind.

And this guy is, you know, you're saying, of the great stories of our time. It was simple. It was clear. And that's what gives him the edge. And so I think once people know, okay, making up my mind and having that kind of resolve and making that kind of a decision, line and set, that's it. Then it's decided. All right. This is a key point right here. This is huge. I can't wait for you to teach on this. Because I can just go off forever. He made up his mind, but there was something driving that mental resolve. That's what people miss. And here's what I want to talk. I want to talk about the underbelly of this. There's a lot of people listening right now. They go, oh, I've made it my mind

Brian to do this and it just failed miserably. There's something that was driving that dad. So he did make up his mind to do what it took to be able to run those races. I want you to talk about what was driving the mindset. It's not just in the mind. To me, it comes from here. Well, sure. I mean, you're, you know, it's a great insight, obviously. It was the love of a shot. That's it. It's love of a child. It's that deeper sense of purpose. His life changed when his son said to him one day, he went in a little charity race in an iron wheelchair. And his son typed on a computer that night. Dad, when we were running that race, I felt like I was a normal kid and I could run. And that was all he needed to hit. And it's that power and that love. You know, I have a son who's in the military.

And, you know, he's in dangerous circumstances all the time. And I gave him a quote that I put his picture in uniform in from C.K. Chesterson that says the warrior fights not because he hates what's in front of him, but because he loves what's behind him. And, you know, at the end of the day, that sense of

raison deaths, my reason for existence, or why am I doing this? What's the purpose? Just so you know, I mean, this is one of the things that paralyzes some folks. I don't know this big purpose yet. And I think you have to kind of dig it out of the dirt. You do whatever you're doing now and do it really well.

Your purpose will come in the form of a process of elimination more than a process of selection. Oh, I want to do that. There are some people who have been blessed in life. They're seven years of age, and I know I'm supposed to cure animals, do this, be an aeronautical engineer, work for nests. God bless them. There are some people who have been given that kiss. The rest of us have to grind it out. And then, oh, I didn't like that.

I didn't like this. That is not. But then eventually this tuning fork goes off. That's right. And you go, ooh, yeah, that was me. You've had it? Yeah, it's a discovery moment. Right.

And it really is that aha moment. Yeah. And you're right. It does come to so many people. I just think that's so important for people that are listening right now. Yeah. You know, I'll tell you, it's a tough road. Yeah.

This is a tough road. This journey to be who you're supposed to be, to do what you want to do, to build a business. You've done it. I want to jump ahead to the sixth trait, a commitment to delay gratification. Again, we've heard this before. Sure. But the immigrant edge. How does this come alive in the immigrant edge?

Well, this is why I'll never have a successful infomercial. Yeah. Because you can have it now and it's three easy payments in 1995 is great. And everybody knows, but we still spend tens of billions of dollars every year on quick fixes. When you're an immigrant, you already delayed gratification to start with. And that is you put your life on hold. You put your relationships on hold and here's the phrase, you pay the price. Like I would say, I'm 32 years living in American.

Okay, I was 19 when I came. I can tell you that there are times when the only place I truly belong is somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic. Like, I go home to Ireland. I love Ireland. It's my people. It's the humor. It's the culture. It's everything.

My mother and father still live in the same house. They've lived in for 60 years. 720 square feet. There was eight of us. One bathroom. You never got a cold seat. Okay. But I'm not fully at home there.

now I'm living in San Diego and San Diego is like Paradise Personified I have a house overlooking the ocean I got six great kids and whatever else but there's times I feel like I'm not quite home so there's that there's that piece that you pay as an emigrant where you already had a price that you pay to go and pursue a dream

and you wouldn't come if you didn't have a dream you were looking for something better and so an emigrant by definition and by the way I got so much flack the publisher fought me every way because Americans only understand the word immigrants In fact, if they're only listening to the show and they can't see the book, most people think we're talking about immigrant with an eye.

Because emigrant with an e is not an American word. But an emigrant is someone who permanently leaves one place to settle in under. So anybody who sets a goal, you want to permanently leave here to go to the next. Yes. Someone who wants to achieve a much bigger business or they're leaving a job to go own their own business. They're permanently leaving one place. By very definition, you're an emigrant. The dynamic of that is delayed gratification.

education means that I'm willing to pay a price. And I also understand that I have to forego the short-term payoff for the big, big game. And it's hard. And in our culture today, you put down the seeds and three days later you pick it up. You know, we live in this instant media, instant messaging, the politics, the presidency's decided in a 24-hour cycle, the Congress has decided in a 24-hour cycle. It's not life. It's not real. It's their reality. But it's not reality of how businesses work. It takes time. There's the law of the harvest.

Okay? And you reap what you sow. So let us never grow weary in doing good because we'll reap a harvest if we do not give up. And I would say this. I've had a chance like you interview a lot of people. We do a magazine. We've done this for 22 years. You name it.

We've had them. And I always ask 10 questions. And I've asked, let's say, 500 people that are hugely successful. successful. What's the one ingredient to being successful? And everyone in one shape or the other, they'll say, perseverance, not giving up. It's always the case. And so delayed gratification means I have my eyes on a big price. I'm willing to pay a price now. I'm willing to be off, off Broadway, to get off Broadway, to get near Broadway, to get a moment on Broadway, to get a part on Broadway, to be a star on Broadway, to be a producer on Broadway, to buy the whole street

to Broadway. That's right. And most people never get the big payoff because they're addicted to short-term gains. That's right. I want to ask you about something I talk about a good bit. I want your take on it. Yeah. Because you get this. There is a tension that exists between getting up every day and persisting, having the perseverance to do what you have to do so you can do what you want to do, which you just described, that patience and perseverance, these are two huge things. that we have to deal with. And there's tension there, right? I want to do, do, do, but then I have to wait, wait, wait. How have you managed that? There's an old Irish phrase when talking about the Protestant church and they say,

patience and perseverance will make a bishop of his reverence, right? I think you have to understand the truth of success. I think you need to meet people and talk to people who are really truthful about success and not the Hollywood version of it. You know, I mean, how long have you been married, Ken? 19 years. 19 years. Love of your life, right? Absolutely.

Now, there are mornings when you guys wake up looking less than GQ. Oh, yeah. I would say most. Some days that maybe the breath might be removing wallpaper in my case, you know, all these things. And it's just, honey, you just look amazing. Yeah. But Hollywood doesn't portray it that one. So you have real love.

You have something of real depth in your life. You're experiencing this real success. And there's many days you're chasing around here. and honey, this happened and this happened, this teacher, and this went on, and here's what happened at school, and here's what happened at sports, and I missed them here, and they said, yeah, we're eating out three nights this week, and pizza, it doesn't feel like success. And that is the big challenge.

And so, to me, you know, people just don't know what it's supposed to feel like. I'll give an example. Okay, so people describe my life from the outside. They describe a life I don't recognize. This guy's had his own jet for 16 years. He lived this. He has that. He has hundreds of people.

They've market share. They say, it's been a big grind. That's right. Now, here's the thing. I do what I love. I love doing it. I get paid very well for it. And it really changes people's lives.

I found what God put me on the earth to do. And I was very, very thankful to do it. And here's a little piece on this. I don't love everything about what I do. I love what I do. I found my calling. But I don't love everything about it. And I think that's a stumbling.

block to people. I think they feel like if you're in your calling, if you're in your sweet spot, you're supposed to love everything about it. Like here's the thing. I know I was put on earth to go present impact people in the way I'm supposed to do it. In order to do that, I had to go travel. Had to go do seminars. My first year did 179 seminars. That's not fun. I'm a father. I was a coach. I'm a dedicated in that regard. And I'm a home buddy. So being on the road, I lived on the road for years. Now, I worked in such a way. Today, I'll do 10. Right. So now I really enjoy the 10. Now I bring the family with me. It's a great thing. And 20 times, 30 times, 40 times the impact of those initial 179. Yeah, much bigger, televised, broadcast, live stream. I want you to destroy something.

Yeah, yeah. And I think, let me ask a question and then have you destroy something. Okay. I think people don't realize the hard work because there's this cultural colloquialism that we've heard. And a lot of good people have said this. You ready? You're going to destroy this. I can't wait. If you do what you love, Brian, you'll never work a day in your life. That's hoarse. You know what? You do work hard. The difference is you lay your head down at the end of the night and it was worth it. Well, it's that it's the sleep of exhaustion that it's like you will go to a place where you'll sleep, you'll actually submerge into your bed, unconscious, used up beautifully. Exilarated. And you get up and I'm going to go do it again. So it's all work. You know,

Thomas Edison, here's a great American, right? A thousand and ninety three patents. Think of this. Just three of them were he gave us cameras. He gave us light. And he gave us sound. Lights, camera action. Right.

From one guy. And he had a thousand and ninety more. And his phrase was, Opportunity comes dressed in overalls and looks a lot like work. In our culture today, you know, we have the, oh, this guy developed an app at 19, sold it for, 2.3 billion and he's off to the races. And there's one or two of those things.

But the truth of the matter is the people who are building sustainable businesses and sustainable lives, it's a process. You know, Chuck Knaw was a guy I had a chance to meet, Pittsburgh Steelers, legendary Hall of Fame coach. And he used to talk about your life's work. And by the way, for him, your life's work had nothing

to do a football. He was always telling us players. What's your life's work? Well, your life's work is part of that purpose. And I know this is big for you and helping people live lives and significance. but it has this sense of purpose to it because it's work. Work is part of the joy. You know, one of the Ten Commandments,

the Ten Commandment is not about the Sabbath. He says, six days you shall labor, and one day you shall rest. The first part of the commandment is you work. Right. And so I think the bottom line is, it's that myth of what is real success and what is packaged at.

And the bottom line is, when people do find something they enjoy, and they do it well, and they have confidence, and they get compensated or they get the feedback that's meaningful to them. I think they'll do a lot more of them. So much practical stuff in this book.

So I want to hit some of these because you are, if anything, you are a goal monster. You set goals. You have reached those goals. You're continually setting new goals. There's so much teaching out there in the self-help world about goal setting and then goal achieving. One big thing you say that helps is an accountability partner. I love this because I don't think enough people actually access. this tool. How do you do it right? What does it look like? If I'm listening right now,

okay, I've got my goals, Brian, I'm clear on that. I've never really accessed an accountability partner. What are they looking for? And then what is that interaction look like? Okay. Well, first tip, just one little piece there is it has to be in writing. Okay. Okay. So none of this handshake, hey, man, I want to check in with you. It's more formal. The studies are very clear. I've actually taken 3 million people through the exercise of goal writing. Zig Ziglar was near his deathbed, and he said to me, because I loved him like a father, and he loved me like a son. And he said, he goes, you've done one thing I wish I'd have done, Brian. He said, I told people about goals, but I didn't have them ride them there. And I take a part of our events and say, we're going to stop

the lights. We're going to play soft, classical, Baroque style music. That guy won the Nobel Prize for this. Chek, Chi Chi Chi Chi Chi Chi-Sik Mehi, from a book called Flow, and play the soft classical broke style music and just let it rip. Most people have goals in mind. Most people have goals in mind and they don't have written specific goals. So most people's goals are just wishes. And that is a big deal. It's got to be in writing. The second thing is you've got to interact with them frequently. You go to work on your goals. Your goals go to work on you. You should be reading your goals every day. The third thing is there should be some visual reminder of them. You know, if anyone's followed my career, massive fan of the American space program. We got Neil Armstrong to come out of retirement.

Took me years. We've had Jim Lovell, Gene Cernan, sorry, the first man in the moon, last man of the moon, and Tom Hanks. Right. Which he might as well be an astronaut. Yeah, right. But Jim Lovell was Tom Hanks, right? The bottom line is, every one of them said. So first of all, I love it because America set a goal. Kennedy said, we're going to put a man on a moon, safely to Earth by the end of the decade. That is a perfect goal. Seriously. That is a perfect. We are going to put a man on the moon. So we, team, going to put a man on the moon.

We're going to bring them safely to Earth. That's the main purpose of the mission. And we're going to do it by the end of the decade. So there was a deadline. There was accountability. America hadn't successfully launched an unman rocket without it exploding at that time and was getting beaten by the Russians at the time. It was a perfect goal.

Every day, here's what they said. You talk about accountability? I asked Armstrong, how are we able to do this? He said, Brian, can you imagine if, The President of the United States announced your goal to the world. And then every night when you went home, you looked up and your goal was staring in front of you. So that was accountability to the country, to the world. And so accountability partners, people who are like-minded, it's very, very important.

A coach, very, very important. When you have someone on the journey with you, the problems are cut in half and the joy is doubled. And so I think accountability, everybody wants accountability until they get it. But here's what I can tell you. I will be working out in San Diego tomorrow at 7.15 in the morning. Because you got somebody waiting on you? He's there. And if I text him and say, I got home.

I was in Nashville. It was late. He's not answering. You know what I mean? I'm going to work out tomorrow. And I'm a very driven, focused guy, goal-driven guy. I would not be working out tomorrow if he wasn't there. All right.

Now, you hired that guy. Yeah. But I want you to tell us a little bit, what are we looking for? What's the best type of accountability partner? Yeah. Well, you have some of these in your life, right? It's like-minded people. People who have similar interests, similar philosophies.

And then a little bit, what I feel works is for the TV audience, is a little hand-and-glove approach. So, you know, I'm real strong in this one area, and this person's real strong in this area, and we kind of complement each other. And I think that's where accountability really works. I respect this person for what they've achieved over here. They respect me for what I've done over here.

and together, we're together. And that's, you know, one of the first personal growth books was Napoleon Hill, right? Think and grow rich. And he spent 25 years studying the 500 most successful people on Earth, broke it all down to 13 principles, and one of them is the power of the mastermind. And this will cement your point. Napoleon Hill said, one and one when masterminded together equal 11. And that's the power.

Wow. And human beings are designed, I believe, were created in God's image, and God is in relationship with himself and human beings do better in relationship with one another. And so one-on-one together doesn't just make two, it makes magic. I want you to talk about outworking others. You're not espousing workaholics. So how do you outwork somebody?

And here's why I'm asking it this way. I think there are some people who really struggle with this boundary. You're somebody who's worked very, very hard for seasons, and you still work hard, but now you've gotten to a point where you can kind of balance things a little. bit differently, how do we outwork somebody but still maintain a successful balance to keep us from burning out? Well, I was in my real estate career, right? So I was this young kid, not real estate, and I started on the rocket ship. The average realtor was selling six homes a year,

and I was selling over 100. Well, I eventually started a little game with myself and seen how many homes could I sell in 30 hours a week? And the answer was 87. I love how specific that is. That's what I sell. Why not 88? No, the goal was 96, but it turns out in 30 hours a week, I could sell 87 homes. That's your max. So I increased my average sales price, reduced my expenses and increased my profits over when I was working 50 hours a week. I love that.

So here's the deal. When you're working, be working. And when you're not, don't. What most people do is this, because they have access to their phone, they have the phone on seven days a week, they feel like they're available. They're like a fireman. That's right. But because of that, their energy dips down all the time. When I'm working, the phrase I have as an Irish phrase, skin and hair flying.

I have a prioritized list. I don't mess around with the small stuff. When you do a great-to-do list and you're working really hard, your list will be larger at the end of the day than it was when you started. But you've got to get the big things done. And I am skin and hair flying. Don't get in my way. I have power hours.

I do not disturb sign on my face. Yes. And I'm in to get it done. And then if I'm out of ballgame with my kids, I'm fully present. Then if I'm coaching the kids, I'm fully present. Then when I'm on date night with my bride, and I had to learn all this by making mistakes. Sure. You know, I came.

I remember coming home. My son jumps on my foot. I'm in real estate. I'm on the phone. And my bride, a beautiful woman, says, oh, Anthony, leave daddy alone. He's not home yet. Ooh. Ouch.

True. True. I was with Mrs. Misselli's leaking roof. Oh, I got it. And my kid is hanging on my foot. You know, I'm walking around with him. I'm in the day. AJ, leave him alone. He's not home yet.

She's right. I used to be the, and again, the air's okay. I used to go to the ballgame, and I would be physically there, and I would not mentally be there. I'd be on the sidelines. But my head was on all the things I was doing. Now, over time, I kept fighting through and fighting through and fighting through to the point. I became more efficient, more effective, and I realized that the world would continue to spin if I didn't get certain things done.

And the world would get without me, but my world couldn't get by without me. My wife and kids, they needed everything I had. So I've always been the balance guy. I don't believe success is somebody working 100 hours a week. I believe I can out-compete anybody. I believe you take somebody with equal skill to me, equal talent and equal drive, and they work 100 hours a week, and I work 45, I can out-achieve them. But I would say everywhere you go, there you are, what they used to say.

And now for me, it's everywhere you go, be there. When you're working, work. And then when you're don't, shut off the phone. Yeah. That's what I admire most about you is how you have been intentional to be effective. Like, effective is not a sexy word. Right? Like nobody walks around and going, boy, I tell you that, Brian Buffini guy is effective. Well, they don't go around saying, not Brian Affini's real sexy either. So it works. It works. It works. But I think there's something that I was listening to you, and here's what I learned. If I put the pressure on myself professionally, but I take that pressure off personally, I mean, I'm totally present when I need to be present in the home. That means I may have to do a little bit more with a little bit less time, which means I have to get efficient.

Sure. That's where the pressure ought to be, and it makes us better, right? Well, there's a price, though. What you're describing is back to the price, Ken. Yeah. I was a one handicap when I got married. Yeah. Played golf.

I was a real good golf. I played competitive. Really? Great. Every time I had a kid, my handicap went out. Yeah, of course. And so I eventually went from a guy that played two to three times a week and practiced three to four more. to a guy to play two to three times a year.

And people go, well, you know, that's not, I'm not willing to do that. Now, again, I wasn't willing to go spend five and six hours on the golf course with my buddies because I was working so hard and not be there for my family. Exactly. Here's what I believe is so great about the law of harvest. Here I am all these years later. All my kids are growing up. Now my wife is starting to play golf.

And we're starting to play golf together. And that great. And it's like, and I enjoy the game more than I ever. I'm not, I'm a 10 handicap on a good day now. But I enjoy it more. I enjoy hanging out with her. And so sometimes, you know, the Lord, you give it out, give it away, and it comes back to you. But, you know, I think that. I know you're going there, but I won't be remiss because I think there's one on the list that's more powerful than all the others combined. That's great.

Of all the seven traits, the one secret fuel, I believe that fuels me and is the winning. Can I try to guess? Because I don't mind being wrong. Go for it. I'm going to say it's a heartfelt spirit of gratitude. Of course. Of course. It is the nuclear fuel. It is the nuclear fuel.

Jet A fuel is what fuels a jet engine on a Learjetjet. It's just more potent. It's cleaner. It's more powerful. Power, powerful is gratitude. And here's why. Remember I said earlier about the entitlement? You cannot have a heart full of gratitude and have entitlement at the same time.

You can't have gratitude and envy at the same time. You can't have gratitude and bitterness at the same time. You can't be whining and complaining about the market, the economy, the politicians, and be full of gratitude at the same time. I want to tell you a story that is, if I told this to Dave Ramsey, he might shoot me. But I think it's a great example. I put it in the book, and it's a fellow by the name of Peter Petrasic. During World War II, his parents are killed by the Nazis.

And what a lot of people don't know is people oftentimes are orphans of the kids that were orphaned by the Nazis, they were then enrolled in the Hitler youth. So he and a bunch of kids are being flown to an indoctrination camp for the Hitler youth. They're on a plane, plane gets shot down. Him and this other kid managed to survive. They get to Switzerland. They go around. They finally wait out the war.

Years later, he gets to Canada, ends up going over to Vancouver, gets down into Seattle, works in Bethlehem's deal his whole life. Marries an Irish girl named Joan and another immigrant. She was a seamstress. So they lived this very typical life. They had no kids. What's remarkable about these two people, and you're going to go, but I first tell you,

is that when they died, they left their entire estate of $847,000 to the IRS. They left $847,000 to the U.S. government. Now, there are people who, in the Ramsey organization right now, are reaching for some kind of a pill. Yeah. I'm starting to break out, like right here in my neck. There's, you know, obviously there's financially, there's probably other things. You could encourage somebody to do with their money and charities to give them animals.

But I want you to think about this. Can you imagine in their home how many times a day they must have said, this is the greatest country in the world? We are so blessed to live here. I can't believe I get to do this. I can't believe I get to live here. This is the greatest country in the world. They were multi-millionaires in the spirit.

Sure. and when they passed and they didn't have any descendants and they said we want to give it back to the country. Now, I won't do that with my resources, but what I can tell you is I have that same spirit. Now, this will be a little close to home for folks. Every time you complain, it's ultimately you're voicing something you think you're entitled to.

So when someone who's an entrepreneur is listening to this and they complain about their customers, how do you flip that? How do you flip that in a heartfelt spirit of gratitude? You're thankful to have a customer. Yeah. You're thankful that somebody saw enough value in you to do business with you.

It doesn't mean that everything's sunshine and roses and whatever else, but it means when you have that every day. So, again, voracious openness to learn. There's a fellow known about George Bush Sr. And I know you're a fan. So here's a fellow who was a war hero, oil magnus, that he was the congressman,

he was the head of the CIA. He was a vice president for eight years. He was a president for four years. His two sons weren't to be a good. governors are two of the largest states, and one of them was present for eight years. And no matter what somebody's politics says, that is a remarkable life. That's right. So David Dimbleby, the brilliant interviewer that you would know, ask them, what was the one,

what the one thing in your life to be successful? And he said, I've written personal notes of appreciation, 10 a day. Well, I heard that in 1987, and I was living in a very small White House. He was living in a very large White House. And I said, when the fellow in the white big house tells the little, fellow, what to do. So I set out writing 10 personal notes a day from that point on. Appreciation. Catch somebody doing something right. Thank you for your business. Thanks for another real estate agent. Agents are normally fighting. I'd say thank you for your offer.

Then thousands of people in my path that have gotten notes from me over the years. Today I teach that. Our company sells 10 million thank you notes a year. It's big business. Wow. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate you. I appreciate you. By the way, gratitude, uncommunicated, has the same effect as ingratitude. And so it changes you. So when you communicate, it comes out of your mouth, it fills your heart. And I know this sounds a little ooey-gooey. When I write notes, when I find somebody doing something right,

when I catch one of my employees doing something right, when I thank my customers for their business, who's been with me for 20 years, they're like, oh, can I get a selfie with you, Brian? Can I get a picture with you? I say, can I get a picture with you? you've been a client of mine for 20 years. I want to hang you on my wall. It is powerful.

It changes the mind. And I think it's one of the gifts that emigrants have naturally. Because they're coming from a place that's not as great as this usually. And you come here and you're going, man, this is unbelievable. Man, I called up today and I want to get my phone turned on. It happened in a day. In America, they complain about the U.S. Postal Service. There's no postal service like it in the world.

You know, we complain. I'm trying to scroll something on my internet and my phone. What's the matter? Right. It's got to go to space and come back. Exactly. It takes two seconds. When you come from a place like, I can't believe, I get all this information on my phone for free.

I get to listen to a podcast. People used to have to go to a seminar to hear what you do every week. People used to have to pay a fortune, stand in line by a hotel, to go hear some of these brilliant people you found. and to learn and they get to listen to it in our car over and over. Now they get to watch it because it wasn't enough to just let them listen to it. That's right. It's unbelievable. And so I'm convinced there will be five times the number of millionaires in America in the next 50 years than there was in the last 50 years.

I believe the access to capital, looking at basic GDP growth and where the economy is and where people are, the opportunities are unbelievable. And I just believe that I first saw that Harvard Institute of Politics report and it said people, 50% of millennials are not even believing the dream as possible. And I just want to say, man, you need to get a passport. You need to go travel. That's right. You need to go see what the rest of the world looks like. Come back. Kiss the ground.

Get yourself the immigrant edge. Get those seven things working in your life. And Bob's your uncle. That's right. So, no doubt. I love it. Well, before we let you go, tell folks, I've got the book right here, I love it. The Immigrant Edge, How to Make It Big in America.

We want folks to go by it. Brian, to our listeners, what do you want them to do after they read it? Well, the good news is it's very clear in a book. I give the principles, I give the stories, and then I give the how-toes. That's how I like to teach. So I share the principles, so people go, okay, I get that. I share stories so they can be encouraged.

Maybe they'll see themselves in a story. Maybe they'll see somebody else if they can do what I can do. it. And then lastly, I give them a series of how-toes that have been done over 21 years, not just here's Brian Buffini, but we've coached 20,000 businesses we coach now. We've coached over three million businesses. And we know what people can do and what they can do. We know what just too much and what's not. Just follow the instructions. And here's the thing. I will say this. This is one book. You need to have a steady diet. That's right. You need dozens and dozens and dozens. You need to create the appetite. This is one little ingredient. I hope you like and I hope

you enjoy. If you haven't read a book in a long time, I hope this is your first hit. But I hope to get you hooked. I hope you'll read Entree leadership. I hope you'll read the next one. I hope you read the next one. The immigrant edge, I'm very proud of it. It's gone well. It seems to be helping a lot of people. I'm glad they did it. Well, folks, he is Brian Bafini. The book is The Immigrant Edge. How to Make It Big in America. There it is right there. Love the Statue of Liberty, by the way. That's so fantastic. Such a big part of your story and so many immigrant families like yours. Congratulations on the best-selling status and what is really exciting is the untold, unknown impact that the book will have. We appreciate you here at Entree Leadership. We know you're

busy. Thanks for hanging out with us. Thank you. And I would say this, I know somewhere there's a Coleman who's very, very proud of one of their ancestors came through like you have. Yes, well, they paved the way. Don't make me cry as we close. Man, he's going to make me cry. Thank you, Brian. Appreciate you, man. Thank you. God bless. Well, folks, I hope you enjoyed that. One of the key challenges that Brian brought to you was the value of reading. Reading is learning, and learning is all about leading. You can't lead if you're not learning continuously. So our team has come together to create a tool that takes Brian's challenge, and we're going to actually help you.

So we've got the ultimate entree leadership reading guide. Oh my gosh, I love the sound of that. 50 books that every small business owner needs to read. That's 50 books. There's your own reading list. Now you have no excuses. And we broke the 50 books, this reading list into nine different categories, biographies, company culture, leadership, marketing, money, personal development,

productivity, relationships, and sales. So I'd love to hear from you. podcast at Entrateleadership.com. What books are you reading? Let's spur one another along. This is a lot of fun, and let's see how you do. How fast can you read the 50 books? Ooh, I like a challenge.

Now, I will tell you, in 2016, I read 13 biographies. That's more than one a month. Thank you very much. It was just at bedtime. Two to three chapters. Love biographies. I'm glad that the team gave you some categories. and one of the categories is biographies.

Listen, you want to be challenged to learn what made great men and women great biographies? So good, so good. So here's how you get the resource so that you can dive into the list. Text 50 books. That's one word, no space, and it's the number 50. So 5-0 books. 5-0 books. That's how you type it out.

Type that. Send it to 33-4. 444. 3344. And Brian also mentioned the power of a mastermind group in his life. I smiled broadly because I know that within All Access, we have an incredible community around our mastermind part of that program. And it really is the magic. It's the primary focus of All Access because you're getting a whole team of coaches that are sitting in on your group session. So you've got like minds, like hearts, you've got some experts who can listen in, facilitate some of the responses and make sure that you're walking away, not just with practical information, but you're fired up. We see so many breakthroughs through our masterminds in All Access. I had to mention that. If you'd like to learn more about All Access, text All Access to 3-4-4-4-4. That's 33-44-4-4-all-access is one word. I always love it when we get to show you.

an entree leader just like you folks. Today's feature is Billy Hofacker. Billy is the owner of the Total Body Boot Camp and Performance Center. This guy is winning. He's an All Access member, and we love showcasing stories of entree leaders and how they're winning so that you can be encouraged and equipped with some practical takeaways. Here is Billy. In a bad way, financially, we had well into six figures of non-credit card debt,

so confused and so didn't have a clue of what was going on with our finances, young, married couple, a couple from our church, from our small group that had mentioned that they had gone through FPU and they were talking about it. We signed up and we just really took to it. Thank God we just followed it. I mean, we didn't question it. We knew that we didn't know what we were doing. So we started following it.

We did not have a lot of income at the time. Business was just getting started. It was actually part-time at first. Man, it was just amazing the hope that we got through that course. And just fast forward, of course, there's a lot of stuff. in those six years, but fast forward now, you know, we're on the second to last baby step. It's completely out of our debt. It's paid well over six figures of non-credit card debt.

I mean, completely life-changing. The good news was business-wise, we knew what debt could do to somebody. So right around that time, I read the entrepreneurship book, which I remember, that was a big investment for me. I remember, like, it was really like a decision, like, man, you know, it's just getting started. We really have no extra money, and it's $20 or whatever it was. and I invested in the book, and I read that book, and I was following the podcast from my, I think it was the first episode. I've never missed a podcast, and just asked up alone that you get for either free or next to nothing.

It is life-changing itself, so I just kind of kept following it, and I remember hearing about the Master Series. I know we talk a lot about Vision. I just thought this was just a cool thing to share that writing down goals works, because just for kicks, I contacted the entre leadership team to find out about the Master Series, and as most people know, it's the highest ticket item in, country leadership and no way was anywhere near being able to do something like that. But I remember I pulled out an index card and I wrote down on that index card that I will be at

the Master Series. I put a date on it. But last year, I brought my wife and we signed out. We did that, you know, obviously we paid in full and no debt, of course, and we paid for the Master Series and it was awesome. And we've been since then the summit, I've been to the summit as well as some other events. And I mean, I am so passionate about all of it and it just works. I mean, there's no doubt about it.

I think if there's any strength that I have, just I know there's people listening and just if I can share, sometimes, you know, we're unsure what to do. And, of course, you have to use common sense and make sure things fit within your business, within your vision and values. But, you know, there's a business that has grown and developed and helped so many other businesses and they're giving advice. It's like my client that they're signing up and they're paying and, you know, advising them on a certain way to eat or exercise, and they question it and they don't

follow it. It's just like follow the darn plan because if you follow it and you're consistent with it, if you set that goal and you keep it in front of you and you take just those little actions every day and over time, it is absolutely amazing what you can accomplish. I know I'm appreciate to the choir. There's a lot of different levels of business growth, listening, and depending on where you're at, wherever you're at, just realize how much further you can go. And if you're just sort of getting started, there's so much hope because there's so many people that are able to do it. It's so great to stay plugged in and see that because we can get discouraged. You can be lonely if we don't have those connections, but when you have those, when you're hearing

the stories and you're learning, being surrounded by the right people is so important. You can make so much more progress and so much faster progress by doing that. And I think there's a few types of relationships that you'd want. I think it's so important to have coaches. You have coaching just in business and general, the wisdom from the experience, and they can share with you. It can cut so much time off of your journey. So speaking personally, of course, I'm in Entry leadership, and I rely heavily on my masterminds as well as the coaches, other mastermind members. I'm in a fitness-specific business group. I have a mentor Pat Rigsby, who helps me

tremendously with his wisdom. He's been there and he's done that. He knows what to look for and how to encourage it. Again, it could get lonely, and it's just from a mentality standpoint. That's for me, at least. I can speak for myself. I have that belief, and I know that we have a really helping people, and it's obvious. So when I'm around people that are doing, why not? Why not me? Why is this person doing that? But I can't. I think that the thing that can prevent us from moving forward is not surrounding ourselves with people. If we're surrounding ourselves with people that are, like, unfortunately, like most people, they're looking at how hard it is and they're looking at it from a standpoint of, and I'm not talking about people that are just going to pump you up

and not give you the truth because you need people that are going to speak truth into your life as well, and that's what the coaches do, and that's what the masterminders do. But for everything, the mentors to being around other people that are in the business, in the trenches, and they're fighting and they're working towards a worthy goal with you, and you just have yourself, the masterminds have been, obviously, growth, some more revenue so that we could do more things. So revenue has increased 25% of keeping personal. income has gone up and on the personal side, we're able to move closer to our goals.

So that's been awesome. But I think more importantly, we're able to just reach more people. The big part of it for me is just doing this with a team. I love being able to take care of my team, which I've been able to do better. We have, like, really low turnover, and it's not common in my field because we take care of our people. And I've learned how to do that through the mastermind. And it's been one of my greatest joys working with them and encouraging them and seeing them

grow in their leadership of other things that I've experienced are now just seeing the possibilities because that's what happens like you keep jumping levels in your business and you're you're realizing okay if I got to this point you know what else can we do here maybe we get to this point you're seeing other opportunities and you're filling those gaps and now I've also our book is called lose weight and total body way we're gotten masterminding we're selling a great amount of books that more importantly, we're getting our message out to more people, where successes of the people that have gone through our program, and that's helping other people. And I did want to share was this idea of creating systems in the business. And that can be really overwhelming because

there's so many areas that we probably need systems. We probably need systems with our marketing. We probably need it. We're just that we're offering. My advice is something that we've done, and I know that if we started out and we had no money, we really bootstri-stri- the business and have grown over time. And so what we've done is just little by little. And I think there's people, they try to do too much too fast, and they get overwhelmed, and they're trying to come up with all these crazy systems that they might not really follow or be consistent with anyway.

The key is just a pick-to-do tentatively over time for us, because I knew that we couldn't compete with the bigger box gyms. We had to offer a more personal service. So we really thought about, hey, what could we do? to differentiate ourselves from those other people. Because it's not cheap, our service. It's more expensive than some of the other options, but our people are willing to pay that

because they see the value in what we're offering. So we've done things, and again, they're not, don't make the mistake of hearing this. And you know what, that's such a basic thing. It's not going to help because what it is, it's all of it, and they love to be a part of it, and it's just their family as part of the culture, and it has really paid dividends for us.

Just sending out, we found that they were getting sore. It's not. right you're not you're not doing something and you challenge your muscles in a new and different way and you get sore so i had like this funny story that somebody shared with me they they came up to me uh their second week and they said hey billy uh you know it just started last week and i said yeah you know how's going they said it's going well you know after that first workout i got so sore that i could not get out of my bed the next day i mean really it was terrible my husband could not move and i just i felt uh i felt uh i felt terrible I just didn't know what to do. I didn't know how to respond. And I said, listen, we really try to ease into things. I'm so sorry that she said, and I was like, man, I was like, I was blown away. It was so funny.

So what we did was we took something like that and we turned it into something that we do with new clients now. So now when new clients come on board, we send in this email, and it just says, hey, welcome to the club. We're so excited to have you after your first workout now. You're on your way. Just keep it up. It's normal. And I share that little story. And little things like that that we do consistently.

and over time that I think adds to the fun that people have here, and it just creates a good experience for people. So I would recommend just the time it adds up, and you can do it. I know there's sometimes there's doubts that we have, but you can do it. You're in the tribe here, and there's no stopping you. You have those goals. You set those goals.

You take action each day, and there's no stopping you. I'm excited for the future of all access and everybody involved. Hey, our friends in InfusionSoft, have got a great resource. for you. It's called Growing Customer Lifetime Value. Worksheet. That's right. How many of you want to grow your customer lifetime value? Well, this worksheet is so practical because we believe, and we know, that all of you are leaving money on the table if you're not upselling your current customers. Loyal customers, not referring your products is a problem. Your current customers are your brand ambassadors.

You need to leverage that. And this growing customer lifetime value worksheet will help you. Specifically, it's going to help you recognize how to use upselling. What are those opportunities? When, how do you upsell? It's going to help you identify the ways you are currently wowing. We're not wowing your customers. And then 50 cost-effective ideas to expand or to begin the wowing process

so that you can generate repeat sales. and referrals. That's the lifeblood when it comes to growing, repeat sales and referrals. If you want to get that, infusionsoft.com slash customer wow. Infusionsoft.com slash customer wow. Or we have the link in the show notes. Well, folks, I got to tell you, I hate that I've got to leave the new studio. It is absolutely stunning, very comfortable, and it's going to allow us to do more and more to help you grow yourself, your team, and your profits. of Eric the producer, our engineer Will Rudder, and the entire Entree leadership team.

Thank you so much for listening. We'll talk with you again very soon.