Makes Sense - with Dr. JC Doornick - One From The Vault - Embracing Pain to avoid suffering - with Brian Bogert

Episode Date: June 21, 2024

"Embrace Pain to Avoid Suffering" - An interview with Brian Bogert. Brian Bogert is a passionate performance coach, motivational speaker, business strategist, top sales professional and philanthropic leader who believes in helping growth-minded individuals achieve the best version of themselves: their most authentic selves. Brian teaches how to leverage radical authenticity and awareness to create the intentional life you’ve been dreaming of, but have struggled to create on your own. His revolutionary strategy—embrace pain to avoid suffering—has helped individuals, groups and entire companies break beyond their normal to achieve the success in life and business that they’ve always wanted. If you want to create a life of no limits, Brian and his team will get you there. This was one of my favorite interviews to date and you will love it. Contact Brian Bogert: Websites: https://brianbogert.com https://iamnolimits.com IG: @bogertbrian   Highlights 0:00 - Intro 1:21 - Whats it like to be Brian Bogert these Days? 4:38 - Navigating Obstacles 8:21 - Brian’s Story 13:59 - Embracing Pain in order to avoid suffering 20:31 - Pain points us towards what is important 23:21 - Whats your process for working with people that seek change?   Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Great morning world. Welcome to the Rise Up with Dragon podcast with your host, Dragon. Every time I play that intro, it just reminds me of like who I am. And it's just like 15 years of this thing. And I'm like, I'm the Dragon Man. I love that. I'm really, really excited about this guest. I say that every time.

I've never said I'm really, really pumped about this guest. But this is just another human being that somehow out of the 7 billion people out there synchronistically, we bumped into each other. We were both sharing the same stage in Colorado. I have to say, I'd never heard about him before. The first time I actually heard about him is when I found out I was doing this gig, and I kind of looked up the speakers, and I learned a little bit about him. And I'm like, oh, I can't wait to hear about that guy.

But when he took the stage, let's just say Dragon noticed him. and that's why I asked him to be on the show. So I want to welcome just quickly, Brian, just jump in. And, you know, the first question I'll ask you, and you can just briefly answer it, what's it like to be Brian Bogart this day? What's it like to be Brian Bogart? I can tell you, I've never actually been asked that question.

So you've got me right out of the gate rolling. You know, what it's like to be Brian Bogart. It's literally the middle, neutral, centered ground between crazy, polarized, different amounts of energy. And it's only recently that as my level of consciousness has gotten us to where we are, that I'm allowing wisdom to flow through me instead of having to access knowledge.

And so what it's like being Brian Bogart is, it can be overwhelming at times, it can be centering at times, it can be calming and neutral and invigorating at times. But I will tell you that I'm a very blessed man, and there isn't a single moment that goes by that I don't count my blessings and pay attention how grateful I am.

I'm a husband. I'm a father. And those are my two most important roles. And so every single morning, I get to center myself and my family. And the rest of the day, I get to go focus on how do I create impact? So I think what Brian's trying to say is he's just chilling. I'm just chilling. And one of the things I, when I did my recon and I looked into it, you know, it's one of the things I resonate with boast. I mean, we have a lot of things in common, but it's just plain to see when you dig in. You see that Brian is a very, very much blessed in a family arena and it's just a great, great dad and just does so many great things. You know, you'll learn about some of the channels, but, you know, I watched a video this morning in preparation of him making an attempt at camping out in his

backyard with his kids. And so Brian, just reading up, I mean, just you heard the intro before, but, you know, he's a professional speaker. This is the way he explains it. We're going to unpack Brian here. So he's a professional speaker, human behavior and performance coach to execs entrepreneurs and athletes. So, you know, very, very congruently connecting the word performance there. But here's what's cool. This is, and this is where we'll jump in. Brian, this is what Brian says he does. And I know he does, but this is the way he explains it. He says he teaches people how to leverage radical authenticity, just who you are. Remember who you are determines how well what you do works. Radical authenticity and awareness to

create the intentional life. Interesting to think about what that means, they've been dreaming of, but have struggled to create. So one of the things that I want to jump right into, because I know this is kind of your wheelhouse before we learn, I mean, he's got an unbelievable story. And I know everybody always says, Brian, tell them your story first. We're going to go to that. But one of the things that I believe is that most everybody, people have limitations and how big they dream, but most everybody kind of knows what they want. You could call it more, you could call it better. Most people could tell you, if given permission, that's not as much the challenge as their execution of the things that need to be done, the obstacles and such. So the way I look at you, Brian, is that I think

that Brian is an obstacle remover. That's kind of, you know, just when I'm marinated on you and I said, what is this guy? I mean, it's got an amazing story and it makes sense why he does what he does. but that's what I perceive, and I want you to speak on that a little bit, is just this concept of how you've learned about obstacles, and we'll feed into the story. But I think you're an obstacle remover. You know, it's like Brian's the guy that, like, you pull up, and there's a red cone, an orange cone that says you can't park here.

And Brian's like, yes, you can. You know, you just gave me goosebumps, brother, for more reasons than one. And I have to just pause and say thank you, because that might be one of the greatest compliments in how someone has described what I do. I would say that's pretty accurate. I would tell you that I've been described as helping giants become legend

by helping them grab what's just out of their grasp. And that's no different, right? It's like removing the obstacles. But what I recognize is that so often we believe the obstacles are external. So often it's this idea that if I get a new set of strategy and tactics, if I find a new wheelhouse, a new system to operate under,

if I go find my new seven-step system for success, that it's going to allow me to have all the things that I want. It's going to allow me to be who I want. It's going to allow me to live my life in the way that I want. Strategy and tactics are important, but that is not what keeps people stuck. That's not where the obstacles are. And truly, like, those aren't the obstacles that I remove.

What is definitive is it is clear to me through working with many, many of the world's highest performers that what keeps us stuck circling the same patterns is a combination of emotional triggers, behavioral patterns, and environmental conditioning. And so what I do, although you describe it as removing obstacles, is I really allow people to see themselves more clearly. I allow them to see where they are the ones that are actually putting that cone right in the spot they want to park.

Because the reality of it is, is the limitations that we face more often than not are not just what's been placed on us by the world, but the ones that we absorb and then choose to believe through our lens that we view the world through. And so for me, I just help people see that there are not the same limitations that we perceive. and when we really do the work and we unpack those elements of darkness and trauma and pain and pieces that really cause us to have emotional triggers

and change our actions and behaviors in any given moment, it's those things that propel us forward into who we're becoming. Yeah, you just made me think of a good question that we could ask people that claim that they're stuck and then you say, well, what's stucking you? And they say this, right? We always will identify the thing

if this wasn't here, then, and rather than removing the obstacle, because you just, Brian just reminded us that very often, it could be mental or physical. I would say more often than not we create the obstacle, but I like to say, who put that there?

You know, did somebody else put that obstacle there? Or has it always been there and you just labeled it as something? You know, maybe it gave value to it. I love that. The difficulty for most people answering that question, though, my friend,

is that sometimes whoever placed it there might have been 30 years ago, might have been 40 years ago. And so we just assume that this is how we operate, but the reality of it is when we actually can get back to that root and that source of who put it there or what put it there or what happened that maybe made us feel this way, all of a sudden we can start to see it a little bit more clearly and we can move through it with a little bit less effort.

Yeah, and so which is maybe the question is not who put it there. It's how did it get there? That's right. Is it still there? So perfect insert right there to transatlose. One thing I know, I always kind of half-heartedly talk about the fact that like Mother Teresa, because of like what we observed her do, she must have like been through some real shit in life because I find that obstacle removers are people that have somehow been through it.

Anytime I meet somebody like Brian that's like just got this massive, massive mission to help so many people, I don't look at what he's trying to do. I look at why he's doing it, right? So let's hear a little bit of that backstory because it leads into so much of what you learned about life by your own overcoming of obstacles or embracing them. This will give people a little bit of a better idea about who you are and why you do what you do. Yeah. I'm actually going to ask you, I haven't done this in a little while, but I feel the need to lean into it right now. I'm going to ask you and anybody who's listening or watching to just close their eyes for one second. And I'll tell you, I'm going to reopen them. Of course, if you're driving while you're listening to this,

please keep your eyes open. I want you to imagine going to a store, having a successful shopping trip, breezing through the checkout line. You just are going out, you walk out the doors, you have a little pep in your step, you look up, you feel the sun on your skin, you feel a little bit of breeze through your hair. You're going on with your day. As you get up to your car, you go and you start fumbling in your pocket to get keys to unlock the door, and you turn your head and you see a truck barely 40 miles an hour right at you with no time to react. Go ahead and open your eyes. That's the beginning of my story.

My mom, my brother, and I went to our Walmart to get a one-inch paintbrush. As we were headed back home, it was not a surprise to anybody that was around, and anybody who's met me for more than two minutes has seen the energy and excitement bigger for life I have. So I was the first one of the car. I wanted to get home and put that paintbrush to use. Now, this was back in the days before there was key pops. So I had to wait for my mom to literally catch up, stick the physical key in the door

or turn it so we can go on another day. And as I was standing there, there was a truck that pulls up in front of the store. And the driver in the middle passenger park and get out, and the passenger all the way to the right feels the truck moved backwards. So he did what any one of us would do, Dragon. He did what he put his foot on the brake, but he instead of the gas. Something I didn't really think about or realize

until the last maybe year is that he probably didn't just put his foot on the brake gently like we would if we're normally going to stop a car. He felt the truck moving backwards. So what did he yanked his knee way up and he slammed it down onto that pedal. Guess what all that force went into the gas pedal? And it threw him up onto the dash, up onto the steering wheel, and all of a sudden, you know, he's catapulting 40 miles an hour across the parking lot right out of so no time to react.

hits our car, knocks me over, runs over me diagonally, tearing my spleen, leaving an tire track scar on my stomach, and continuing on to completely sever my left arm from my body. So there I am laying on a parking lot on a 115 degree day in Phoenix, Arizona. Mom and brother watched the whole thing happen, and they look up and see my arm laying 10 feet away. Fortunately for me, my guardian angel was also there that. There was a nurse that walked out of the store right when this took place, and she saw the literal life and limb scenario in front of her, and I am forever indebted to this woman, for her choice to go into action

versus going on with her day. She came over and stopped the bleeding on the main wound and she instructed some innocent bystanders to run inside, grab a cooler, fill it with ice, and get my detached limb on ice within minutes.

Give me a fighting chance of not only living, but having my limb reattached. So this woman not only saved my life, but she saved my limb. And if it wasn't for her actions, it wasn't for these things. Dragon, I either wouldn't be here with you today

or I'd be here today with a cleaned up stump. And so one thing that I'll just say is I'm sure that your listeners were not expecting it to go there today. But what I have learned in all of my time of doing this is although I know I have a very unique story to your whole point. It was like, tell your story, tell your story, is that we actually all have unique stories. What's important is that we pause and become aware of the lessons we can extract from those

stories and then become intentional with how do we apply it in our lives. And so that's really what is the beginning platform for what's propelled us on our mission to impact a billion lives by 2045. A billion lives. And you know what somebody could say to Brian like, why so little? You know, But a lot of people are out there, you know, dream and small. That's a big dream. But it makes sense why you doing that. I just want to hit on something that I heard you say because what's interesting is obviously, I think you were seven.

I was seven. Yeah. So just imagine that. Put that into context, seven-year-old, you know, and moms and dads out there. Look at your kids. So first, I noticed that Brian took a lot of time to replay how and why this happened. Because he doesn't know what actually happened in the car. but he figured, you know. So that's, so it's interesting to see the work that he did there.

But I just look at that nurse that came out. Because you said that we all have a story, but we're all that nurse as well going through life. What you said is for some reason she was compelled to go into action rather than do what most people do every day, what most of us do every day and just go on with your day. What a valuable lesson there about just looking at the thin line that exists between a cleaned up stump and an arm. Well, and my life, honestly, the first ambulance that was called got into a car accident. So the couple of minutes of delay, had she not stopped the bleeding at the main wound, I would have been dead.

I mean, a detached major limb, you lose blood very quickly, right? And so her choice not only saved my life, but again, it gave me a fighting chance of having my arm. So had she not gone into action, I likely wouldn't be here with you today. So technically, shouldn't she be the CEO of your company? She's one of the primary motivators for me to continue to focus on if and how I can help and make sure that I don't turn my head when I've got the opportunity to go into action. It's amazing. So I believe that everything that we need to succeed and all the lessons,

they already exist and we've heard them in piece mail, but certain people like Brian have ways, call it a good book or a good podcast, a good YouTube video, or you meet guy like Brian and you hear him put things into perspective and it makes sense. You know, and that's so that's another thing. Brian's an obstacle remover and he's also a sensemaker. He's a sensical guy. One of the things that he speaks about and he teaches is this idea, we practice all religions in our family, but Buddhism is one we really hold close. And this sounds very Buddhist what Brian's saying, but he talked about the idea of embracing pain in order to avoid suffering. Now, to most people that have never heard,

heard anything like that. They're like, what? Speak to that a little bit, man, because it's obvious that you know pain, but you've learned something about suffering and maybe a lot of people need to hear a message that lets them know they're needlessly suffering. Yeah, so I'll give a little bit of context as to where this concept came from and then we'll talk about what it is. You know, the reality of it is at 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 years old, I was in a fog, right? I knew what was happening. I was extremely aware. I've got lots of memories around it. But I was also being guided through the process because I was a little kid, right? So although I was the one having endless surgeries, although I was the one having years of therapy, right? It was my parents

that were intimately aware of the unceasing nature of all of those things. They were the ones that had to pay attention to where Brian needed to be, what Brian needed to be doing, how Brian was going to be recovering, what sources and all these things. And so what they were able to see is that the idea of seeing their son grow up without the use of his left arm was a source of great potential suffering for them. So they willed themselves day in and day out to be what was necessary, to do what was tough to embrace the pains required to ultimately strengthen and heal me. So whether it was intentional or not,

what they did just based on their action was ingrained me a philosophy and a way of living, which was this. Now, the part that we didn't talk about with this concept is that I believe that when we embrace pain to avoid suffering, it's also the way we gain freedom if we do it properly. So let's understand this concept.

First, we need to understand what the narratives of the world are, right? Nerves of the world are literally this. Reduce, eliminate, or avoid pain at all cost. I mean, that is all we hear, right? I mean, look at all the prescription drug medication to just continue to numb. And I want to be really, very clear.

There is no vilification of prescription jugs. There is a place for many of them, for many people and the part of their journey. But when it's simply just reduced the pain instead of deal with what's causing it, we start getting into this prescriptive society where we don't pay attention to pain. Now it made sense because it was a natural evolutionary response

100 years ago, dragon, you cut your leg, you could die. But that's not the world we live in any. And so we've got to redefine what this looks like. We need to understand what pain is first. Pain is defined a short term, intermittent, and a direct cause from something, then alleviated once that direct causes removed.

Now, what we do as humans is then we screw it up even further by putting adjectives in front of that word to change the definition in meeting, like acute and chronic. Now, acute maintains the definition, but chronic inherently changes it because it implies that it's no longer short term, and it persists after that direct causes removed. So let's stop calling that chronic pain

and call it what it really is, suffering. Now, we don't want to admit that suffering exists, particularly when it's the direct result of our choices, whereas pain gets lots of attention because we feel it. It's real time, and we want to avoid it. We don't want to be in pain. Now, I want to be really, really clear here. I am in no way advocating that we put ourselves in pain sake just for pain sake.

It's about identifying the proper pains between where we are and where we want to be and recognizing that those are part of our path. So what does this concept look like in application? We can embrace the pain of hitting the gym for 30 minutes a day to avoid the suffering of aches and pains of a sedentary lifestyle. We can embrace the pain of a difficult conversation with a loved one or spouse to avoid being stuck in a loveless relationship or marriage when we actually want out or being put into a position where we actually want to remain in that marriage,

but it's going to be loveless and we've got to fix it. We can embrace the pain of the fit our kids are sure to throw by having them put down their mobile device at the dinner table to avoid the suffering of years of lost meaningful conversation and connection that will never get back. As business owners, we can embrace the pain of firing our top salesperson, who's contributing the most to top line growth, to avoid the suffering of stagnant growth and losing all our other top talent because they were the greatest cancer in our culture. The reality of this applies to every single thing in our lives.

It's a matter of really starting to understand, how do we understand and acknowledge the suffering that we should avoid, identify the pains we tend to avoid, and learn to embrace, and then establishes the habit for success in everything that we look. Because here's a thing, Dragon, I believe that we almost choose our pain or our suffering will choose us. Let's take a quick break to hear from our sponsor. The Make Sense podcast is sponsored by the Make Sense Academy, co-created by both myself, Meeker, aka the chicken, and the dragon. The Make Sense Academy is a live interactive community where like-minded, solution-focused, curious seekers of expansion, gather daily in a mastermind setting with both Chicken and Dragon, where they have access to premium content, online courses, and powerful collaboration and networking, all for $24 a month. The Make Sense Academy and its members are solely responsible for funding the Make Sense podcast. So feel free to reach out to us at www.

www.riseupwithdragon.com and check out the MakeSaints Academy, risk-free, with a money-back guarantee. Now, back to the Make-Saints podcast. Such an amazing conversation on this topic alone. You know, while you're talking, this is my show and I'm interviewing you and I'm like, I can't wait to hear this back again. Because you just dropped so much gold there. Here's an interesting question that just popped into my head. Because, I mean, we can talk for hours about what success means, but let's just say people approach Brian with some sort of goal in mind and of some sort of obstruction in front of them. And he'll explain a little bit more about his process of doing it. But what we identify, when you interview people at the top of the mountain, whatever you

perceive that means physically, mentally, financially well, and you interview them, you interview people like Brian, and you say, hey man, how did you get up here? And you're hoping that he says, oh, I just can watch. locked up the hill. That'd be awesome. There's a trail. Actually, there's a cable car. But what he does is, is he goes like this.

He's like, well, you know, sit down for a little while. Let me tell you the story. And what happens is you go, damn, another validation that the obstacle is the way. So here's my question. If I was to bake a cake and that cake was called success, just from your experience, your own experience and your clients, how many of the ingredients to bake that cake are failure and obstacles versus wins. Oh, 98% to 2?

So what do we do? Way more failure. Are you telling me, because when we talk about embracing pain, you give these great examples, but if what we're saying is true, if I wake up tomorrow and I'm experiencing anxiety,

frustration, let down, whatever, all of those things, should I get excited that I'm on track to success. So you should get excited that you have an indicator pointing you at what's important. I'm a big believer that pain points us at what's important, right? Failure also gives us feedback and hones our focus if we're paying attention.

So you could look at pain and failure as similar categories, right, depending on how you define it. But I don't view failure as a negative thing. I view failure as fuel because it truly gives us the ability to see what's happening, what's going on, how do we refine, how do we pivot? Is it an alignment? But here's the thing, like pain, right, whether it's mental, physical, emotional, or spiritual. I believe that as people, we exist in those four categories.

Right. And so if pain exists in any one of those four categories, it's going to show up in some way. When pain exists in your life, it means there's a misalignment somewhere, meaning something is not working, or something is an alignment with who you are or how it needs to be working. I won't ever say should be working because should is a shame-based word, needs to be working for you to get to where you want to go and become who you want to become. And so failure to me is huge. But we also have to understand what is failure mean, right? If we're going to go through the process of understanding what a success mean,

we need to understand what failure means as well. Now, what I would really like to advocate is that I actually have every single one of my clients define success for themselves. Don't define success based on how the dictionary is defined it. Like, what does success mean to drag it? I'll tell you what it means to me. Success in my life is joy, freedom, and fulfillment. Do I have those things?

Are they existing holistically? Right? And if they are, that to me, I'm living a successful life. So your very first question, what does it like to live in Brian's world? Well, I live a very successful life because I'm filled with joy, freedom of fulfillment. And the closer I get to who I am, who I authentically am at the core with all the layers I've shed from the world, the more I actually get to experience those three things. So failure drives us forward.

Failure can be fuel towards where we actually want to be. Pain is where we have to start to identify. But again, to your point, you're feeling angst, you're feeling anxiety. By the way, emotions are a form of pain. They're an indicator around where we need to go. So I believe that pain and perspective and failure all kind of point us at what's important. Give us feedback and hone our focus and we're paying attention. I love that word indicator.

I just wrote it down. Whenever I hear words like that, I say to myself, I'm going to probably write a lot about that now. Think about it. That's awesome. Very, very well done. I just love how smooth you are in reaction to questions. And just for my listeners, when you hear a guy like Brian Smith, speak. Obviously, he's a great speaker. He's been doing a lot of talking, but I'm asking this guy

questions that require thought. And he's very authentic and congruent. And I can just tell the way he's speaking. So, Brian, before I get into my crazy questions and then when we move to the latter half, okay, two questions. Who wakes up in the morning and needs to speak to Brian Bogart? And I don't want to say, what's your secret to success? Because I know we don't have time for that. But what's the process that somebody that wants to engage in your services? What's the process that they're going to go through step one, step two, step three to get where they're going with your system, your strategy? So it's going to look different based on where they engage, right? So I just have to say that very, very clearly because there are people who engage just to have me be a speaker. We've got

people that we work with one to one. We've got group coaching. We've got community. We've got self-led courses. So there's a spectrum. And then there's just content to consume. So I'm going to look at it through the lens of people who want to coach in some capacity, whether it's community, courses, group, or one-to-one, and we can just kind of go from there. I will tell you that most people know when they're ready for one-to-one and when they want to inquire. And so I would say that if you're in a position where you're like, I need one-to-one support, I want to go deep. I want to have this be as effective and efficient as possible. Make sure that I get really intentional time. then I would say that shooting us an email at info at brianbogart.com is a great place to get it.

There's also a coaching inquiry link on our website, Brianbogart.com. I would tell you that that often can also be a good funnel to determine whether or not group coaching is an option. And so it's really, from there, it becomes a budgetary or a time commitment standpoint for individuals or those who say, I just want to be in a pod of people that are going to all be pulling in the same direction. So people enter typically one of two ways. They either enter from the one-to-one journey first and go downward to see what actually fits, or they start at the baseline with some of our free stuff, and they start building forward. So I would say that anybody who's interested in a self-led course, interested in

learning more about what we're doing, if you go to no-limitspraylude.com, you will get access to a free course. It's over 30 minutes of video content in the first chapter of our No Limits You course. And what it's going to do is really start giving you some insights as it relates to the type of things you might unpack. You can see how we operate, how we communicate, how we're going to teach and lead in that self-led capacity. And then throughout that platform, there's multiple different ways to engage. I give one big caveat.

This isn't just a lead gen. This isn't just like an email capture. We legitimately want to walk people through their own journey. And so do we communicate with you through this path? We do. Will we be bugging you and spamming you in perpetuity forever? No, because I don't believe in that in the personal and professional development space. We're never going to convince or sell anybody on anything.

There's either alignment, there's not. See, Brian's taking a big risk here by allowing people to really make up their minds if they want to work with him. And the risk is not fooling them into doing it. And that's a good risk to take. That's awesome. I love that. So how would you define, like, are there stages? So whether people are coming in through the group or the one-on-one, what is the basic approach?

that you have to taking a human being, meeting them where they're at and helping them. So in the basic sense, we are trying to get people to really slow down and look at themselves in a way that they haven't before. It all starts with raising our level of awareness so that we can be intentioned. We know that our minds process 11 million bits of information per second, but we're only consciously aware of about 40. So we are largely led by the unconscious. And so until we go through a systematic process of moving the unconscious, the conscious, the unaware of the aware, it's going to feel like we're victims, it's going to feel like we're fate, it's fate, it's going to feel like we have no influence or control of our destinies. So our simple goal is to

allow people to lean into who they are before the world told them who to be, and then give them tools to unpack that. So we always start with awareness. If you look at our courses, we always begin with the end in mind, right? I do believe deeply in understanding like the purpose and legacy that we plan to leave and why we're here. And using that as a basis to align with who we are, and then we systematically build our lives in alignment so that it can become self-regulating our time. So the course guides people through asking themselves deep questions around who they need to be, who they need to become, what's imperative in their world to actually establish these things. We look at challenges, changes, and blind spots, and we break things down

into actions that people can take because it's our actions that demonstrate who we are to the world. In the one-to-one work, we go a little bit deeper. So in the one-to-one worker in the group capacity, we actually have the ability to start extracting information outside of self-guided prompts that get people thinking. You see, we want people to think about their thinking, think about their feeling, feel their feeling, and feel their feeling. And oh, by the way, if we can take those four things, the way that we can connect to think and feel, and we can layer that on top of the mental, emotional, emotional, spiritual, and physical realms that I talked about, and all of a sudden we have a three-dimensional world that we know how to move through. And so we teach people how to

see themselves more clearly, how to embrace the pains required to move forward in their lives. And then we spend a lot of time in our one-to-one in group work, because we have the ability do so there, really helping people understand their emotional triggers, behavioral patterns, and environmental conditioning. So we do that often by helping people unpack their life, truly understanding the high points and the low points, and then recognizing where the patterns start to develop as a result of it. And when we start to see that truly, right, so often we've circled the same patterns in our lives multiple times, always wanting to be like, well, if I just get here, then I'll, if I just get here, then I'll, well, let's stop playing that game because

nobody's coming to save you. Nobody's going to be your hero. And so we don't want to get anybody dependent on our stuff. We want to elevate and empower people to go do this themselves, free them of the shackles, if you will, of any courses or systems. Instead, allow them to go perpetuate this change into the world. Because we talk about a billion life impact. I'll be clear, though. That's not Brian Bogart impacting a billion lives. That's collective impact. It's collective impact. Rlining with thought leaders who are having similar impact in the world with, like you, like many others, who are genuinely here to try to help people experience joy, freedom, and fulfillment more holistically, to reduce the level of suffering on this planet.

And so that is the journey. We have to help people see themselves more clearly through awareness so that they can be intentional. And when we build our life in alignment, it does become self-regulating. And we can live with no limits. I love that. It's like my good friend, Jim Quick, talks about me in Limitless. So I'm always evaluating superpowers. That's why I say things like obstacle removal and all that.

But Brian is also a circuit breaker and a cycle breaker. He just brought something up really valuable that we don't know what we don't know. So sometimes we need a little bit of guidance and to get into a community of people that are all becoming more self-aware, more conscious, which is the biggest battle and just recognizing some things that you're allowing to happen that don't need to happen anymore. Okay, so awesome. Man, you're just such an exceptional human being in the way that you explain things. And, you know, my audience likes to make sense of things. And you're very good at taking potentially

things that make people make very complex and making them simple to understand. Thank you. So a couple of interesting questions. What is Brian Bogart's kryptonite? It's the only thing that's binary in this world. It's if my wife and kids are not good. It's the only thing that will cause me to walk away from everything we're chasing, everything we're building, all the impact we're having is if those three are not solid and good. I'm not good and I will not be doing the things that I do. So it also includes the relationship that I have with them. It includes the dynamic and the connection that I have with them.

And so when I say they're not good, it also means our family unit or our relationships are also not good. That's my kryptonite. That is the singular thing that will take me down. So our kryptonite is the same. You were talking before about like defining success. I like to say, what's the marker that will prove to you that you've arrived at that thing? and called success. And for me, I mean, like, that's a tough one. And I've worked with some great coaches

that always asked me this question. And I would partly answer it honestly and partly try to say what they wanted me to say. But I've come to the conclusion that I define success by the visual of one of my two sons or my daughter pointing at me and saying, that's my dad. That's how I've done it. So I know you and I are alike in that. You just gave me goosebumps, man. Of course we're aligned. Yeah. What does Brian Bogart like most about people? Wow. That's going to be a hard one to answer simply. I love how dynamic and different everybody is,

while at the same, how connected and similar we are. The divide in that concept just fascinates me. And the fact that we can be so similar yet so different simultaneously is truly the epitome of like neutrality and centeredness if we can learn to embrace all of that. I'm just deeply moved by human beings and the human experience. Yeah, they're just so fascinating. And I just said there as if I'm not one.

Yeah, outside of looking in. Well, but that's what's so interesting. And I think it's important for people that are on the receiving end of this podcast or coaching from Brian or coaching from anybody or mentoring is to recognize that you're being led and guided and mentored by another human being. there's a lot to be said about mentors and coaches serving themselves by serving others. The greatest gift that God has ever bestowed upon us is the ability to serve another human being to get what they want. I mean, there's no better call it the currency of goodwill.

I mean, and the fact that we get paid for it is awesome, but there's nothing better than that. So curiosity has me wondering what you read, because I'm sure you're a reader. Give me one, maybe two killer books that you read in 2020. 2021, sorry. Yeah. So you referenced the title of it earlier. The Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday. It was the first time I picked that up.

And I will tell you, it was phenomenal. I would tell you that that is one of the few books that I've actually read in book form, not listened to cover to, cover. And probably 75% of it is highlighted because I am so aligned with the philosophies in that book. I mean, the obstacle is the way he is embrace pain to avoid suffering. So when I stumbled on it this year, I was like, I've never heard of Ryan Holiday. This guy's blown up.

He's great. So that's one. Another one that I read this year that is a killer book, I've read a lot. So I'm trying to put my finger on the best one. I'm going to say the way of the superior man by David Dider. I have really, really enjoyed that book. I've referenced it many times.

And he breaks things down really truly into the masculine and feminine energies that exist. And they exist simultaneously within all of us. So again, with this idea of divide of differences and similarities, right, the more I kind of continue down my path, the more I see so many of those patterns developing. And he just does a phenomenal job of explaining how men can wake up to truly lean into who they are, their natural forms of energy, and be able to accomplish all the things they want in their life. That's awesome. Yeah. And I'm 12 years practicing Stoic. So I know Brian very well and Marcus Cyrillia. If you like what you read with Brian, go read the book that he learned from,

and that's meditations. I have. Yeah, I've read those. I've been reading philosophers and stoics for a number of years now. That is definitely an alignment with the way I view the world. I always read books. I call it a scavenger hunt. It's like one thing leads to another. So like when I read a book, if I read, read something you read, I would find out where you learn something and go read that book. So Ryan Holiday, one of his mentors is Robert Green. So he's just crushing it right now with books. He's an amazing author. So awesome, man. Just so much fun to share this time with you. And, you know, on behalf of our audience, we're so blessed that you exist. So on your birthday, I will wish you a happy birthday and say we are all better off for you being

born. I give a big shout out and thank you to the nurse and to everybody else. But especially you, because you've learned a lot of lessons. You've done the work. There's a very specific reason why there are so few people sitting at this table that has chairs for everybody at the top of the mountain. It's because they just need to find their way to do the work. But I believe everybody can, with the help of people like Brian, you'll have a good guide and good support. So Brian, is there anything you're promoting right now? I mean, just some things that I am enjoying with Brian. I mean, obviously, you can go to his website. He gives away a free guide called the No Limits guide. He kind of was alluding to that. But he's got a YouTube channel. You can subscribe to

Bogart's bullets, right? And what I love about that is Brian does a great way of just letting you into his real life. You know, not everybody does this. It lets you into his real life, like in his backyard, his hair's a mess. And he's telling you just awesome things. Like, I think he refers to the idea of giving you quick fixes that can have like big ramifications. But any other things that you're working on right now that people need to know about or how to connect you? So I would say if you go to I am no limits.com, that is a landing page for all of the projects. We've got four different businesses. So we only talked about the coaching stuff, but we're all about the who. And again, it's about impacting in a bunch of different ways. So if you go to I

am no limits.com, that will give you an insight. I already referenced with that free courses. So I think that's a great place. You know, the thing I want to say, though, I want to recap on one thing that you mentioned right there a second. One, I want to take a second and thank you because, you know, you have given me lot of credit and a lot of grace from what you witnessed on stage. But I will tell you that there are a few speakers that I see typically that I feel in such alignment with. And you took the stage with some very powerful lessons and did that as well. And I wouldn't be, I wouldn't have the opportunity to be here and speak to your audience today unless you had put in the work to create a platform to pour good into the world through this podcast and show. And so

thank you for that and the opportunity to be with you. The other thing I want to hit on is, is you're right. I have put in a lot of the work. but I'm still putting in the work. And I want to make sure that's a message that everybody hears because there is no final destination. It is only constant evolution of self. So whatever I think I see clearly today, whatever lessons I've learned,

all I'm doing is continuing to stockpile and compound every single day, new lessons, new experiences, new ways of viewing the world. And if we all had the ability to view that versus feeling like we've arrived, the reality of it is, is I love the second mountain. Because I wish I could remember

the name of the author of the book because the second mountain highlights, it's like you talk about this top of the mountain we get to. Guess what we get to the top? It's inevitable. We're coming back down. We've got to start climbing again. That's what life is. Even the folks up at the top. And so I just want to say that as a word of encouragement for every single person that's listening. And you use the word I love. I said earlier, nobody's coming to save you. Nobody's going to be your hero. But you can find guides. What I will say about that is 95% of people I don't believe are ready for coaching. So when I say guides, it could be your spouse. It could be your mother, father, your brother, your kids, your friend.

Find people who can help you see yourself more clearly because they have an outside perspective. Take yours, pair it with theirs, and then pick a path forward. And who you will be and who the world will receive will be exactly who you are. Amen, brother. Amen. You know, you just remind, I don't remember who this guy was. He was like the CEO of, I don't know, some big company getting a lot of attention.

And he referred to what you just said about, you know, when you get to the top of the mountain, sometimes you have to recline it. this guy said he brought up this concept of the false summit, thinking that you've summited and then looking up and saying, crap, you know, and that's just such a valuable lesson in life. Brian, you're amazing. Thank you so much. Everybody that's listening to this in video format in the description. On YouTube, you'll have all of Brian's information and some highlights from the show. And if you are on the podcast, the same thing will be there so you can connect with Brian. Brian, you're an amazing human being. One of the goals that I'm going to set for 2000

22 is to align with more people like you so that I can selfishly improve my own life and all the things that matter most. And I thank you for being with us. Man, thank you. Here's what I know about you. Anything you do to improve yourself, you're going to pass on to improve others. So you and I are very aligned and let's continue chasing this collective impact together, brother. Awesome. Well, have a great day, everybody. This has been another episode of Rise Up with Dragon and we will see you next time. Bye, bye now.