Next Level Pros - #45: Brad Lea: Founder of LightSpeed VT, Top Podcast Host, Best Selling Author.

Episode Date: October 24, 2023

Ever wonder what it takes to build a successful business from scratch, manage a large family, and still find time to pursue big dreams? Join us on a massive episode, with the founder of LightSpeed VT, Mr. Brad Lea! He opens up about his entrepreneurial journey from selling candy bars as a child to creating a thriving training platform. Hear how he leveraged the 'Rule of Seven' along with influencer marketing to expand his business empire. But that's not all, we delve into his near-death experience, and how it shifted his perspectives on gratitude and motivation. In our candid conversation, Brad isn't shy to discuss his family life, juggling a brood of seven children, and his learning curve as a family man. It's a genuine exploration of work-life integration rather than balance.  As we venture further, he offers insights into his biggest regrets, the importance of being present in family life, and the life-altering books he reads to fuel his ambition. From starting his own training company to now aspiring to become a billionaire, he shares his relentless journey and the power of thinking big. Listen in as he recounts experiences where he embraced risks and how it contributed to his success. Throughout this enlightening episode, Brad’s authenticity, resilience, and unwavering determination offer invaluable advice for aspiring entrepreneurs and established business owners alike. It's a compelling episode that'll provoke thought, inspire action, and fuel your entrepreneurial spirit! Highlights "What turned me into an entrepreneur was I helped somebody make some money and change their life. I watched a family go from minimum wage, broke, struggling, no confidence, to making money and confident." "I think everybody makes [the mistake of not thinking big enough] at a level. There’s always bigger, there's levels." "If you can sell, that’s great, but in reality, it's marketing that's more important. If you take an average salesperson and give them more opportunities through marketing, they will outperform a top-notch salesperson with fewer opportunities." Timestamps: (0:00:00) - Entrepreneurship, Gratitude, and Motivation (0:11:29) - Starting a Business With the Rule of Seven (0:19:58) - Successful Training Platform With Collaboration (0:24:20) - Journey of Fitness, Family, and Business (0:28:21) - Regrets and Thinking Big (0:33:58) - Thinking Big, Marketing Power (0:45:24) - Overcoming Fear of Failure and Opinions 🚀 Join my community - Founder Acceleration https://www.founderacceleration.com 🤯 Apply for our next Mastermind https://www.thefoundermastermind.com ⛳️ Golf with Chris https://www.golfwithchris.com 🎤 Watch my latest Podcast Apple - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-founder-podcast/id1687030281 Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/1e0cL2vI1JAtQrojSOA7D2?si=dc252f8540ee4b05 YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@thefounderspodcast

When I'm home, I don't worry about work. Put the phone away. Yeah. I mean, I don't necessarily put it away, but you text me, I see your text, but I'm not focused on work. I'm not paying attention. I'm not ignoring the family because a lot of people, they go home and they're still working. And a lot of people end up divorced that way because they don't realize that they're not present because they're physically there, but they're not. Absolutely. And eventually that will take a toll on any family or any relationship.

Yo, yo, yo, yo. Welcome to another episode of the Founder Podcast. Today, I am joined by Mr. Bradley. In fact, we're sitting in his studio. Super excited to be here in Las Vegas. Brad, as many of you guys know, is a serial entrepreneur, founder of Lightspeed, has built an incredible personal brand through internet marketing. He's got a big following on Instagram and runs an incredible podcast himself. Welcome to the show, Brad. How are you doing? Thanks, buddy. Dude, good to have you. So tell me, Brad, I don't know your whole story. Where did you grow up? Where are you from? Are you originally from Vegas here?

No, moved here in 91, so damn near. Okay. How old are you? I'm 39. How old are you? Yeah, so basically when you were a young lad, I was down here trying to make stuff happen. I'm 54. 54?

Yeah. Dude, you look good for 54. Why, thank you, sir. Dude, if I look that good at 54, I'm feeling pretty good about myself. You know, it's funny. I was saying the other day because I had a couple of young whippersnappers making fun of me because I was old. And I said, brother, we need to all pray to be old.

Yeah. I mean, think about it. You see these old people, you're like, oh, I don't want to be that old. Yes, you do be old. Yeah. I mean, think about it. You see these old people, you're like, oh, I don't want to be that old. Yes, you do, technically. Yeah. Because if you never make it that old, that's sad. That's true.

But believe it or not, when you see these really old people, you're thinking, man, I'd hate to be that old. Change your thinking. You want to be that old someday. Absolutely. No, I can 100% concur with that. I had a near death experience, uh, in, in March had a, uh, head-on collision with a drunk driver coming at me 120 miles an hour. I had two of my boys in the car and, uh, yeah, definitely got me in a point

of thinking like, man, I'm grateful to be alive, you know, grateful for any day that I can be older than right now. So, well, you know, what's crazy is I learned that a long time ago, and I wake up every morning with the same gratitude. I use it to shift my perspective. I always ask people, you know, what would you do if I just handed you a million dollars? They go, wow, man, are you kidding me? I say, think about how that would feel. They're like, oh, that'd be amazing. You know, what kind of problems would you have? None. I'd be so relieved. I'd be so excited. And I said, but you wouldn't take it if I said you couldn't wake up the next day.

They're like, well, of course not. So you agree that waking up is worth more than a million, technically worth more than probably any amount of money. So when we wake up in the morning, how come we don't act the same? Absolutely. So people can shift like that. They start to realize, man, gratitude is really, I think, the secret to living a more fulfilled life. I'm happy the second I wake up. The day is going to be great no matter what,

unless, of course, I don't make it through the day. But gratitude's huge. Did you get pissed off and want to punch some faces? Absolutely not. I would have. I do. You know, you hit me head on with my kids in the car. So bust your face. So the interesting thing is like, I expected to act that way. Cause I'm, I usually react that way, but in the moment I was just grateful to be alive especially 120 what was he doing going 120 just drunk just an idiot you know and it was a it was a two-lane road I had a semi in the other lane so I couldn't swerve that way you know and he was coming at me in my lane so I had to bail and we bailed at the same time it was it was an interesting but but yeah, I totally understand the desire to act pissed off. But, man, it was such a shock that I didn't even realize what happened.

It was crazy. So, Brad, you're 54. Obviously, you've done some things right. You've got an incredible, successful business. Several. Several, nice. And married and kids. Tell us about your family.

What's most important to you right now at age 54? Most important, relationships. You learn after a while that relationships are the thing everybody worries about when they're on their deathbed. Relationships are where all the money comes from you'll ever receive. So I always try to focus on relationships more than anything. I don't, you know, want to have to have a tragedy to realize how valuable they are. So I kind of, you know, I would say relationships. Absolutely. So like what, what relationships are absolutely key in your life? Who pushes you, motivates you?

Do you have a coach? I mean, what keeps you going every single day right now? Well, what keeps me going is the fact that I haven't arrived. I haven't reached the destination. I had a big goal for myself. And until I get there, you know, I'm, I'm just motivated to get there. So I self motivate myself, you know, things motivate me. I I'm inspired by people and, you know, achievements, et cetera, but I don't have a coach. Um, I just kind of try and figure it out myself, which is foolish

because one of my things I tell people is if you want to get anything you want in life, first thing you've got to figure out what it is, which is hard enough. Then secondly, you figure out how to get it, which is the easy part because you just find someone who's already got it, and then you basically do what they did. The politically correct way to say it is model what they did, when in reality it's copying. You know, you copy what they did,

and more than likely you'll get what they got because, you know, like action causes like result. So what are those things that you're pushing for right now? You said you've got to figure out what you want. What do you want right now? What is getting Brad out of becoming the best pushing for goals? I mean, what, what does, what does those goals look like at age 54? Well, ultimately from a financial perspective, I want to reach a billion dollar valuation, whether it's one of my companies

or a collection, you know, all of them, I don't really care as long as I exit with the B word. That's mainly because I think when I was younger, I thought a millionaire was you could do anything you want. Right. You know, you could have anything you want. And then I finally reached it, and it's like, it's not true. You can't, you can't, it's not as great as I thought. So I think the B word is my new found millionaire. Right.

And I'm not going to stop until I get there or die. So either way, you know, I'm on my way. And that's what keeps me motivated. Like I have to get there. I'm a long ways from it. But, you know, I see a clear path of how to get there. That's what I'm focused on, growing my companies, creating opportunities for other people, ultimately helping other people. Because if you think about it, Zig Ziglar said it best,

the best way to get what you want is to help others get what they want. Absolutely. And once I realized that that is the truth, you know, I spend my life now, believe it or not, sounds fake, but it's true. I try to help other people. So I've started several companies that literally help people get out of the rat race, make money. Because there's a lot of people out there, they're not even making a half a million a year. I would say very few do. And it's ridiculous. Everyone should be able to make a half

a million a year. I agree. Number one, you're going to have to sell something, period. I've never met anyone successful my whole life that isn't selling something to somebody. So you have to become a skilled salesperson, closer. A lot of people shy away from it. They claim they're not very good at it. And I argue that they're very good at it. They just don't realize it. They're like, what do you mean? Well, you've been selling yourself short your entire life. That's number one. So obviously you're selling yourself. So I teach people how to sell clothes and persuade, influence, build personal brands, gain confidence. Once that's achieved, they start going out and finding things to sell and businesses to get in. So I thought, listen, I've got all these people coming to me to learn these things.

Why not create the vehicle for which they can, you know, execute? So I started financial services company, Real Financial. The reason why is because, you know, it's insurance, you know, believe it or not, the financial industry, the financial services industry has created more millionaires than any other industry on earth. So I created real financial as a vehicle. And then I created real merchant services as a vehicle. Why these? Well, I looked around and tried to find everything that had to do with recurring revenue because I think recurring revenue is the key.

Absolutely. So I've got the software, which is the main company you mentioned, the one you're sitting in. This is Lightspeed VT. It's a web-based interactive training and communication platform. I'll tell you how I started that since this is the founder podcast. And then I started these other ones based on a personal brand. So it took me 20 years to create this into an eight-figure company,

and it took me a year and a half to two years to create those other ones, uh, into seven, almost eight figure companies in the last year and a half. And it was very amazing. Yeah. It was, it was crazy based on a personal brand. So I recommend everybody start building a personal brand because three, three to five years from now, you're going to be wherever you are with or without one. Right. So why not, why not do the work now to where five years from now you have one. And if you have one, it's incredibly powerful. So when did you make the switch into building your personal brand? Like when, when did the light bulb go off and like, all right, I'm going to start focusing on that. You know, probably about five or six years

ago. Yeah. Um, I, you know, some of my clients were, you know, big name people, Tony Robbins, you know, Grant Cardone, but Grant, I kind of found him when he was training car salespeople. Yeah. And he wasn't very big. Of course, you know, the internet wasn't around very much at all, technically. And I helped him build a platform and create a massive training company. And I helped him and watched him grow rapidly on social media. And I saw the power that it had. And, you know, obviously when you take what I said earlier, you know, see what people do and do what they did. So I just said, listen, I'm going to have to have a personal brand. I know it's going to blow up my main business, which it did and it does.

But I didn't really realize the true power that it had. You know, I can start companies relatively easily. I can partner with or acquire other companies and blow them up simply with a personal brand. Right. So that's kind of the obvious answer. I watched everybody else leverage their brands and blow up their businesses. Have you heard the rule of seven when it comes to content consumption? No.

I actually saw and read about this the other day. It's absolutely phenomenal. Basically, the subconscious cannot distinguish between hanging out with somebody and consuming their content. And so the rule of seven states, if someone consumes seven hours of your content or hangs out with you for seven hours, they consider you a friend. OK, at 50 hours, you're considered a close friend. And at 300 hours, you're considered a best friend. And so when you're putting out this personal brand, this personal content, essentially, as people consume it, whether it's on Instagram, a podcast or whatever, once they hit that seven hour, now Brad's my friend, 50 hours, man, me and Brad,

we are really close friends, you have no idea who this human being is, but they think you are, I mean, subconsciously right there. And that's the reason why you have so much influence. The power of influencer marketing is that is you have all these best friends everywhere that will consume and take your advice over anything. It's, it's pretty remarkable. Yeah. Well, it's a fact. Yeah. Yeah. It's pretty, pretty awesome. So you started, you started Lightspeed. Was that your first business that you started? Technically. I mean, I tried some other ones in the past, but shut them down. Yeah. So I mean, Lightspeed was the first big success. Lightspeed was the first one I stuck with.

Yeah. All right. Very good. Because if I would have stuck with the other ones, I probably would have made them work. It's just, you know, I don't play games that I can't win. Right. And whenever I convince myself, oh, this isn't working, you know, you might as well give up because, because that's, you know, so obviously there's, there's been a bunch of experiences that led you to that mindset, right. Uh, that, that you, you only do things that you're going to win at. So like, let's back up before light speed before all these things and tell us about like, where your career started, and how you eventually became an entrepreneur?

Or were you an entrepreneur right from the get go just trying to figure it out? Well, I was entrepreneurial from the get go, I used to, you know, go to the Little Red Store by my school and buy gum, and then go sell it for more. So I was always entrepreneurial. They gave me a box of candy bars when I was in first grade to go sell. Turned out I found out I was a great salesperson. Came out with a slick little spiel that got me people buying boxes at a time. But really what turned me into an entrepreneur, per se, was I helped somebody make some money and change their life. I watched a family go from minimum wage, broke, struggling, no confidence, to making money and confident.

And I watched that transformation and I thought, man, I've got the ability to do this for people. Why am I sitting here working at a job when I could quit and go help people transform? And so I quit my job to go start a training company. How old were you at that point? 30. 30 years old. Yeah. Up until 30, I was just selling and trying to get rich for myself. If I were helping you, it was to help me. I didn't really care about you. I just wanted get rich for myself. You know, if I were, if I were helping you, it was to help me. Uh, I didn't really care about you. You know, I just wanted to sell you something

and make a commission and get rich. Yeah. Quick money. What would you say your net worth was at that point when you decided to go and start your own business? Uh, probably negative couple hundred thousand. So you're, you're in debt for house, cars, different things. Okay. Child support. All right. Very good. Very good. And, uh, so you go and you start this first business. Um, you take, you take the leap. Tell us about that. Well, again, I was working, making about 500,000 a year thinking I was cool. Um, helped this kid liked what I felt like and, you know, did. So I'm cool, helped this kid, liked what I felt like and, you know, did. So I'm like, I'm going to do this more. So I quit my job to go start a training company.

And it was called Desert Sales Academy. Matter of fact, it still is. Lightspeed is a DBA. But so I started and I went out to start training people. So this was in 1999? Yeah. Okay. Sales people. So this was in 1999? Yeah. Okay. Salespeople. And I went out on the

road and I started, you know, knocking on doors and getting people to pay me to train their teams. And after a while, you know, I ran into competition. I got a few deals, but I had no name, no budget. And I ran into competition And I ultimately asked the people that were telling me they use this person or that person. Well, if I had this person, would you buy it? And they're like, well, yeah, if you had that person, so I just started closing the experts instead of the businesses. And then I helped the experts go get the businesses. And how that transpired is again, I was going to be the sales trainer, I was going to go compete with Grant Cardone and all the Brian Tracy, all the big name speakers that were out there, trainers that were out there,

like Brian Tracy, Tom Stuker, Grant Cardone, Joe Verde. I mean, the list goes on and on. So I went out there and ultimately when I started, I realized when I was doing it that I couldn't figure out why it wasn't working like it used to, because I used to be able to grab somebody from anywhere, Burger King, shoe store, landscaper, didn't matter. I could take them and within a couple of months have them crushing and when i went out to train people it wasn't working like that anymore and i couldn't figure out why my stuff wasn't working and i'm like this is crazy i quit my job for this and now it's not working and i couldn't i couldn't figure it out. Plus, I was out on the road, sleeping out of hotels and living out of suitcases. I had a family, a wife that wasn't happy.

And here I am thinking, I'm going to make this work. Well, at some point I said, I got to figure out why this isn't working anymore. So I went back and looked at what was I doing prior to what I'm doing now? And I found four, I call them ingredients, that are mandatory for effective training. Good content, which is how do you do it in the first place? Because if you train someone to do it wrong, they'll do it wrong. So if you're effective at training someone, you've got to train them the right way.

So good content. The next one is repetition, practice, and then accountability. And when I quit my job to go do it for other people, there was no repetition, there was no practice, and there was no accountability. All I was delivering was the good content. And a lot of companies are still doing that. They think they're training their people, but they're not training them. They're exposing them. So once I realized this, I'm like, man, I got to figure out how to deliver repetition, practice, and accountability to make this work. And the only real way to do it was to work for the company. I didn't want to work for the company.

It was all over the United States. I was running around training people. So I thought, man, there's this thing called the internet. Maybe if I could, you know, record what I say while I'm there, right. And put it online. People can access what I'm saying with repetition. I can practice with them and I can hold them accountable because I can track it and measure it and give out reports, et cetera. So I set out to build this software. And what year was that, that you finally decided to make the shift over to the internet? 2000. Wow. I mean, and that is just

when the internet is just first trying to figure it out. I mean, you got the internet bubble bursting because nobody, everybody's got a URL. Nobody actually has a real business on the internet at that point. So yeah, I started a.com and the.com bust. Yeah, crazy. So I just knew that if I could put it online and deliver the content virtually, I could deliver it with repetition, practice and accountability. So I thought, okay, so I went out and created this software, I found a couple software developers and closed them and to do it basically for no money. Yeah, I was going to pay them later. So I closed them to build my first version of it. And it worked. So now I'm out selling companies, this training system that I developed online. A lot of people didn't get it, you know, I was way ahead of my time. But it worked. That's the funny part, it worked. And so

then I ran into competition and when they started saying, well, you know, we use so-and-so and so-and-so I said, well, what if I had so-and-so on this online system? They said, oh, if you had them, we'd use it. So I just stopped trying to sell the businesses and went and started selling the experts. And I would license them my software that I built for me, put their content in it, put their name on it, and then show them where their customers were. And they started selling the customers and it was recurring revenue. And all they were doing was giving access to a platform, a web-based training system. They didn't have to travel. They loved it. I fixed all their problems without even

realizing that I did. Why? Well, because I fixed my problem. And coincidentally, it was also their problem because they were doing the same thing I was doing. And so when I fixed their problem, I started fixing the business's problem. Why? Because these people would come in, these businesses would pay big money to have a trainer come in for a couple of days, leave, and you know, it wouldn't last. Yeah. And nobody ever knew why. And that's why, because they were only exposing people. So once I discovered this, I started closing all the experts and started taking a piece of their revenues and next thing, you know, just partnering up and teaming and just, yeah. Yeah. Taking advantage of their success.

Collaborated instead of compete. Right. So that's kind of how Lightspeed was really born. And then I started getting a little, you know, what I call a sliver to deliver or a fraction of the action. Yeah. And then I started just signing them up every, all of them, you know, Grant Cardone, Joe Verde, all the ones I was going to compete with. I started, you know, just collaborating with, and then it got bigger and bigger, Tony Robbins, you know, just collaborating with. And then it got bigger and bigger, Tony Robbins, you know, Zig Ziglar, you know, Brian Tracy, John Maxwell, like all the big, big names now. Right. And so they were using my software and I was just taking a little piece from all their success and that made me money. Yeah. And then we just said, screw it. Let's not worry about me being the star or the trainer. Let's just help trainers and

subject matter experts and businesses develop world-class training systems to actually develop their people. And that's what we've been doing ever since. So we just focus on the technology and supporting our clients. Nice. So have you, throughout the time you've never brought on a partner, always been a hundred percent you? No,? No, I brought on and bought out several. Okay. Made all the mistakes you would expect. Nice. In the very beginning, I had a couple of buddies.

So I just gave them a third each to, come on, let's start a business. And so they're like, sure. And I gave them a third each. And, you know, after a while, it sounds like the Steve Jobs story where they literally formed a board and tried to vote me out. Fortunately, when I started the company, I had bylaws and there was a clause in the bylaw that basically said that I'm the boss no matter what. So they tried to get me fired and and ousted and figured out that didn't work. So I fired them and ousted them, but unfortunately I already gave them equity. So I had to buy them out. Yeah. But, uh, now the only partner that I have is, is the guy that built it originally for me. I gave him a piece so he would

never go anywhere. And fortunately I did because if he would have went somewhere a long time ago, we wouldn't probably be, I mean, we'd probably be sitting here, but with some completely other business, this was your developer, the one that actually did the building of the, of the software. That's awesome. So now it's just him and I, but man, I've went through all kinds of nonsense. Yeah. Have you ever considered like an exit, bringing on private equity, anything like that? What's the end game with, with Lightspeed? I've never considered private equity because i wasn't smart enough i didn't know anything about that so i never aggressively pursued that but i've always thought about an exit um but i'm not there yet in other words i want a major exit

and in order to get one of those you have to to have, you know, major EBITDA. Right. So I'm just growing and growing and growing. And, you know, I'm getting close to where I could probably have a pretty considerable exit, but not close of my goal. So I have to keep going. Yeah. Yeah, no, for sure. That's awesome, man. It's a great story. So along the way, tell me about, like, where was your journey your journey from like fitness and family and things outside of work?

Like, can you kind of walk us through that as you were building this business? Fitness was never a main concern because, you know, I did well being half fit. By the time my clothes were off, it was too late. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. I didn't, I didn't have to be ripped. So because I was successful with the ladies and whatnot, without being ripped, I was never forced to get ripped. I didn't understand and appreciate the value of, of health and wellbeing since, you know, I think I've learned a few, a few things. And now I believe I'm pretty healthy. healthy um i got a six pack coming in

probably another six months i'll be i'll be probably best shape of my life but you have to get older and smarter to figure that out yeah yeah but uh as far as family you know the i had seven kids with four women uh i was married to two of them. So first child was 17, you know? Wow. Yeah. So I was like, you know, stupid, but 17 and then 19 and then 23 and then 26 and then 44, let's say, and then 44 let's say and then 48 and then 52 so you're married right now yeah and you have married in three with them with her with three three three children and then two boys with my previous wife and so so tell me about like how is obviously you've learned a lot right yeah four different women seven kids right i mean there Four different women, seven kids, right? I mean, there's just tons of lessons in there, right?

Huge. Like, so tell me like, how have you grown as a family man or like what has become more of a priority or like important to you over the years? Well, the first two were with just randoms. Well, they weren't randoms, but you know, sweethearts, stuff like that. I was young. We weren't married. There was nothing about, like, family life. So those two, I was kind of immature, naive, and I didn't pay a lot of attention to them.

And, you know, I can't even say I raised them, you know, total mistakes. Learned from that. So when I got married, I had two boys spent more time in their life was a little bit better as a, as a father, but, you know, wanted to be cool and, you know, enjoy life and didn't understand the value of, of, of spending quality time with them. I was still immature. Now the third, uh, set of kids, you know, I'm a much better father. I spend way more time with them, and I think I'm getting it down. So first set, the first two I would say terrible.

Second two I would say decent. The three current are, I would say, you know, now I am qualified to say, you know, parenting advice. Nice, nice. So now you're 54, like what does a typical week look like for you as far as work, family, balancing the whole thing? Where are you dedicating most of your time? How does that look? Well, I still dedicate quite a bit of time to work.

But, you know, I believe in priorities not balance it's difficult to try and create balance i agree so i don't really balance i pay attention to what needs to be paid attention to and the you know loudest squeak gets the grease so i would say on average i wake up in the morning go work work out, do my little morning routine, spend a little time with the kids, roll into the office about 9, 30, 10, put in work till about 5 or 6, and then go home, hang out with the kids. Five days a week? Seven days a week.

Seven days a week. So you're in the office seven days a week? Yeah, pretty much. I mean, not every single day, but sometimes I take them places and go places. But yeah, I mean, if I'm here, I get up, I come to the office. I like my office. Right. You see why.

Second home. Yeah, it's a cool spot. Yeah, cool spot. Love it. It's freaking, you know, I got balconies where I can puff my cigars. It's all stacked stone and brick. It looks nice. It's inspiring.

So it kind of makes me want to work. If I stay home, I just want to hang out, play with the kids, you know, do nothing. Yeah. And that's what I do too. You know, when I'm home, I don't worry about work. Put the phone away. Yeah. I mean, I don't necessarily put it away, but you know, you text me, I see your text, but I'm not focused on work. I'm not paying attention. I'm not ignoring the family because a lot of people, they go home and they're still working. And a lot of people end up divorced that way because they don't realize that they're not present because they're physically there, but they're not. And eventually that will take a toll on any family or any relationship.

So when I go home, you know, I don't really pay attention too much to work anymore. And fortunately I've reached a level of financial security where, I mean, I don't, I don't even have to come to work if I don't want to, my checks will still appear whether I show up or not. Right. Right. What, uh, what motivates you the most right now? Like what gets you just excited? Like to be Bradley today, I know you're working towards the billion point, but like what will get you, is it speaking in front of crowds? Is it producing content, doing podcasts? Is it being with your team, your family? Like what, what motivates you the most right now i would say you know accomplishing what i started out to do so building the businesses still still motivates me what's your biggest

regret i would say you know not reading as many books as i should have. Like I didn't even start reading until about 45. And now like every day I'm in a book for a little bit. I wish I could read a lot more. I wish I would have spent less money trying to impress people. Minor regrets. I don't truly regret anything. Like, again, I regret being a dick to people. I regret not focus on my children earlier.

I regret all the past transgressions and stupidity that I had to go through to basically wake up and learn. So, I mean, I regret all of that. But it all shaped you into who you are. Yeah, that's what I mean, I regret all of that. But it all shaped you into who you are. Yeah, that's what I mean. It's like it's hard to say I regret it all because it literally has lent itself as today. But if I could go back and change all that and find out, well, I'd just be an average Joe Blow, you know, working at a Burger King. Well, then I don't regret it. But we don't have a crystal ball.

We don't know what would have happened. Absolutely. All I know is what did happen, and I'm happy with everything, and I'm excited to see where it goes. But I would say I regret little things. Yeah, for sure. Not the major. What's your biggest regret?

Man, what's my biggest regret? Not thinking bigger sooner, probably. Are you making the same mistake now? Um, I, I think, I think everybody makes it at a level, right? Like, uh, I definitely think there's always bigger. There is, there's always bigger. There's levels. You know, I, I just got back from a, uh, a Harvard program where, you know, there's, there's 160 of us that go attend this ownership program,

25% of them are billionaires, right? And it's people doing crazy, crazy crap. I had a buddy that became really close. He was part of my living group. They're doing $3.6 billion a year. And I'm just like, man, I am not thinking big enough. Yeah, I used to say that when people asked me that. I didn't think big enough.

People say, what would you do if you could start over? I'd say, think bigger. So I used to say that a lot until I realized I'm still making the same mistake. Right. Yeah, there's definitely levels to thinking bigger. And so I got to constantly remind myself. I think early on, though, that I wasn't even reminding myself to, to think bigger. I was just like, uh, I, I filed bankruptcy at the age of, uh, how old was I in 2011? So the age of 27,

I'd filed set chapter seven bankruptcy, multimillion dollar bankruptcy. And, you know, after that I was conservative for a while and, and I couldn't even remind myself to think big. You know, it was just like build things, but just enough so that they were sustainable, just enough to, they were providing a good paycheck, just enough. And so I think that's what I would have done earlier, is think a little bit bigger. Yeah, well, I think you're going to find that you're still not.

Absolutely. And you're never going to, eventually you're just probably never going to think big enough it's just a bummer like i used to think well i think a big billion dollars that's big but then i was on necker island the other day with richard branson and watching him launch his space shuttle, you know, Virgin Galactic into space on his island, you know, islands, galactic, like, come on, I'm thinking to myself, Jesus, I'm not thinking big again. Like, I was like, you're a billion dollars. Like, that's chump change. But you know, what's funny is think about yourself with, you know, let's say 20 feet of illumination in a dark world.

You know, most people think they need to see wherever they're going to get there, and they don't. You just need to see right in front of you. So that's why I think we're always going to continue to realize we're not thinking big enough because you don't really know what big is. And then when you start getting bigger, you go, oh, well, wait a minute. And then you start hanging around other people. So you, you recognize that when you're hanging around billionaires. So it's very critical to hang around people that push and challenge you, because if you hang around people that are, you know, the same or below you, there's no illumination. You start to look at people that are way ahead of you. You go,

Holy crap, there's more. I'm not thinking big enough. And then by the time you, I guarantee you when I get to a billion dollars, I'll be thinking, man, I wish I'd have thought bigger. Yeah. No, that's actually one thing I wanted to ask you. Like why a billion?

Why is that the number? Because my name's Brad and it starts with a B. Nice, nice. I like the letter B. You know, I think a billion is is phenomenal as well and definitely you know a goal that i have but to your point i think arriving at a destination that we previously set is rarely brings fulfillment right it rarely is like what we imagined it to be i remember the first time i made a hundred thousand dollars thinking that that was going to be an arrival point or the first time when I put a million

dollars in my bank account or the first time that, you know, 10 million or whatnot. And all these points, I thought like the heavens would open and like, you know, I would just feel different. But what I found was like, nothing changed, nothing changed. And really for me, the journey is just like, how do I become the best Chris Lee ever? Right. And, and, and really fulfill the capability that God put me on this earth to go and accomplish. Cause, cause I really believe that each one of us have a unique ability and a unique

mission to bring to the, this world. And, and that, uh, at least for me, like, that's what I'm trying to figure out what it is, you know? And, and, you know, I think a billion dollars is probably part of it. And, and I think being a great family man's probably a part of it. And I think, you know, being a great influencer and all these different things, but, but yeah, it's, it's really hard to define exactly what that is for me. Well, i think being a good family man is is is what you're should what you should be right like i don't think that should be something that you were called here to do that's just an expectation right you know what i mean yeah it is an expectation but

regardless i mean there are there aren't many great family men out there. I think there's more than you think, but I would agree that a lot of us aren't being what we could be. Right. And that's really what I mean is like hitting that full potential. Like what is the best father that Chris can be, right? As far as like being involved in my kids' lives, supporting them, you know know being able to leverage my time to the maximum right not being as you as you pointed out earlier not spending time on my phone or being still at work while I'm at home or those type of things so so you started work or you started uh reading at the age of 45 what are like some foundational books that just change your life the main one that I keep telling everyone they must read is The Four Agreements. Yeah, it's awesome.

Yeah, and then As a Man Thinketh, How to Win Friends, Influence People, Think and Grow Rich, Laws of Success, like all the ones you hear about. Blue Ocean Strategies, Power Versus Force. I like Patrick David's book, The Next Five Moves, Your Next Five Moves. That sounds awesome. Alex Hormozy's books on offers and leads. Yeah. Like if you're in business and you want to understand marketing,

I would pick up those. I used to think sales was everything. Like if you can sell, man, you're done. But in reality, it's marketing. Right. More than sales. I agree. Well, a lot of salespeople won't agree because, you know,

they don't really know how to market. But the way I say it is if you take a really top-notch salesperson and give them five customers to talk to, and you take an average salesperson and give them 500 customers to talk to, the average salesperson is going to outperform the good one because of the opportunities that they've had to do business. And that's marketing. Right. So I've been really diving into marketing. I've been starting to market Lightspeed, which is crazy because I pretty much built this place organically. Yeah.

Word of mouth. I mean, I've done everything to screw this place up and can't seem to do it. But now I'm actually going to try to market and grow exponentially, which, again, I mean, I should have been doing that this whole time. I could have already been a billionaire. Yeah. If I were, let's say Harvard educated or would have been smart enough to bring in the right people instead of thinking I have to do it all. Uh, if I would have been wiser, let's just say this, this was already a billion dollar company for sure i mean back in the dot-com era where they were getting tons of dough from companies that weren't making money like you know this is revolutionary technology still is by the way and it's crazy because people

are just starting to discover interactive video and i've been doing it for you know 20 some years and people are like you you weren't doing interactive back then yes i was and now interactivity still isn't at the forefront but it's about to be you're going to start going to websites watching videos watching tv going to movies and they're all going to be interactive choose your own adventure and people think you know well that's cool and it's engaging and they're doing it because it's cool and you can do this and you can do that. But in reality, it allows you to collect data. And we're in the information age like you wouldn't believe. So data is what's valuable.

That's why Facebook and all these platforms are worth so much. Their data collection is ridiculous. You know, Tesla, believe it or not, is damn near a data collection company. Oh, man, they're the top of the game. Yeah, so data collection is huge. And with interactive courses or videos, you can ask questions and make offers right in the video themselves. So you'll start to see those over the next three to five years, and then everyone's going to act like it's the latest and greatest, and I'm going to say, dude, that's old news.

What's next? AI. Yeah, data collection, marketing, AI. You just brought up three incredible topics. I mean, marketing, luckily I was able to learn it as a very young entrepreneur. I knocked doors, right? The very just guerrilla type marketing, right? Getting in front of people, just by using your own two feet, knocking on doors, overcoming initial concerns to even get people to actually spend the time of day with you, right? And then

we led the forefront of Facebook marketing in our sector, you know? And so nobody was doing Facebook marketing, nobody was doing Instagram marketing when we, in the, in the solar space, we were the pioneers that did it. And man, it was, it was like taking door knocking and putting it on steroids, right? We were knocking screens rather than doors. And, uh, you know, that, that totally, totally changed the game to your exact point. And that we didn't have like the most trained up sales force from a standpoint of we didn't have professionals that have been doing this for years we we raised 22 23 year old kids and just taught them how to close but we provided them so many leads so many opportunities that even a mediocre sales guy could could crush it right and and so it's such a that right there is probably like one

of the most powerful things for my audience to understand is just the power of marketing and getting opportunities in front of people is the most important thing and then and then to your point about data collection and ai man i mean this thing that those two things are changing the world right now with chat gbt and everything that's all the subsidiaries and everything that are coming off of it and deriving from it. It's going to be a wild next two to three years. I just created an AI avatar of myself. Yeah. So literally now I could fly on an airplane for two hours, write a script or some content, shoot it back to my team. They'll upload

it. And within 10 minutes, I've got a full motion video of me delivering that content. So now like I can create content prolifically. And again, that if it's educational based content, man, there's value to that IP. So if I say, Hey, listen, I'm going to teach you how to close. I'm going to teach you my ways to prospect. I'm going to teach you the five things I did to do this, this, and this. All I have to do is write it now. I don't have to come in these studios. I don't have to spend, because it's harder than people think.

Yeah. When I create a four-hour course, dude, you're in the studio for eight at least. Right. Standing there, your voice goes out. Your brain goes numb. It's like exhausting. so now it's like versus yeah feeding it a script and and now it's bradley you know talking better than bradley better than bradley the ai version of me is just as good looking but it's but it's it speaks any

language you know what i'm saying like it's better than me and and it doesn't complain and bitch and his voice doesn't go out like dude it's you're gonna start seeing a lot of content come out of me but people are like hey this is ai nobody cares right i don't care it's the information they're looking for right yeah it's going it will be interesting to see how that changes the sales game right because you have like some of these new tools coming out like air air ai i think still a little slow like they do actual live interactions with customers over the phone resolving concerns customer service those type of things like i said still a little glitchy but man when that stuff gets dialed in well when that stuff gets dialed in we won't need sales peoplepeople. I know. It's crazy. AI salespeople.

Right. Because they'll say everything you taught it to say perfectly, which means now you don't even have to train salespeople. Yeah. A lot of people are like, oh, this is going to, they're going to take all our jobs. Not if you leverage it. Right. Like, again, I'm not afraid of AI because I'm going to be using it. Right. But if you ignore it, I'm telling you, you're going to be in trouble. Yeah. My favorite saying is like, I'm telling you, you're going to be in trouble. Yeah. My favorite saying is like, AI won't take your job. Somebody that uses AI will.

Yeah. Right. Well, I always say, and I have for years, there's only going to be two kinds of companies that remain in the future. Those who make technology and those who use it. There will be no other, though everyone else is going out of business. You better use it or make it. Love it. Love it. Well, Brad, I appreciate your time, man. You've been dropping some incredible knowledge on us and, uh, incredible everything for, for my audience. I appreciate it. I know your time's extremely valuable. What is one last

piece of advice you give to a young entrepreneur that's looking at founding their business, or maybe somebody that's been in business for a while and just doesn't know where to take the thing or really move it to the next level? Yeah, I would just tell them to get started. What's the worst that can happen? They learn a few lessons the hard way, big deal. Get started. That's the key. Most people, they're so worried about other people's opinions. They're so worried about failing that they don't do anything or they're too careful. I would say, you know, be a little bit reckless and get going because that's the key, man. There's people out there that are so worried about failing that they don't do anything. Absolutely. And if you're going to, you know,

shoot an idea past somebody and let that person shoot it down, it'd be better to go out there and prove to yourself whether it works or not. I was told a million times this that you're sitting in will never work. It's amazing. And millions of dollars a year are now generated. And through my software, hundreds of millions of dollars are generated. So it's like, if I would have listened to people, I wouldn't be in business. So my advice to people is don't listen to people. I love it. Love it. Appreciate your time. Thanks, Brad. Until next time.