Right About Now - Legendary Business Advice - Brad Lea - Sales Training Expert, Author, Podcast Host, Founder, and CEO of Lightspeed VT

Episode Date: November 23, 2021

Welcome to another episode on The Radcast! In this episode on The Radcast, host Ryan Alford talks with Brad Lea, Sales Training Expert, Author, Podcast Host, Founder, and CEO of Lightspeed VT.In this episode of The Radcast, Brad talks about what people always tend to miss or fail to do in terms of the 4 keys to effective training. The #1 skill most people overlook and the importance of asking the right questions. He also shares about the time when he realized that he has the skill to teach people and who he considers as his mentor. Brad also shares his Sacred Six to have a new perspective in life and the biggest challenge he has overcome. He talks about what makes LightSpeed VT different and so much more...Brad also has a quick take on RAD or FAD trending topics;Sales TrainingSocial SellingNFTsFireball Whiskey ‘FirekegLearn more about Brad Lea: https://bradlea.com/ . Follow Brad on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradlea/ and Instagram: @therealbradleaIf you enjoyed this episode of The Radcast, let us know by visiting our website www.theradcast.com. Like, Share and Subscribe on our YouTube account https://bit.ly/3iHGk44 or leave us a review on Apple Podcast. Be sure to keep up with all that’s radical from @ryanalford @radical_results @the.rad.cast If you enjoyed this episode and want to learn more, join Ryan’s newsletter https://ryanalford.com/newsletter/ to get Ferrari level advice daily for FREE.  Learn how to build a 7 figure business from your personal brand by signing up for a FREE introduction to personal branding https://ryanalford.com/personalbranding.  Learn more by visiting our website at www.ryanisright.comSubscribe to our YouTube channel  www.youtube.com/@RightAboutNowwithRyanAlford. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What are you hiding? What are you trying to keep private? I had a feeling we might go there. Brian Lee, the real Bradley, dude, I watch you on TV. And I said, what? You're listening to the radcast. If it's radical, we cover it. Here's your host, Ryan Alford.

Hey guys, what's up? Welcome to the latest edition of the radcast. Doing a little reciprocal behavior here. Brad was nice enough to have me on dropping bombs, but now we've got Brad Lee, founder and CEO of Lightspeed VT. What's up, Brad? What's going on, buddy? Hey, man, just living the dream here in South Kakalaki.

Nice. I don't know, we're a few hours behind you, but it's a little dreary here in South Carolina today, but we're actually finally getting out of 90 degrees, so we're definitely happy here. How's old Vegas? You're a few hours ahead. Ahead, sorry.

Yes, yes. That's all right. That's all right. You know, you can't blame South Kakalachians for not knowing the time. You guys are just over there in heaven. Oh, I know. Yeah. It is. It's nice in South Carolina, you know. I've heard. I'm going to go check it out. I know. I need a summer home. Yeah. Where are you looking? Nashville, Cordelaan, Idaho, Montana, and the Carolinas. Okay. Well, we need to get you up here to Greenville, then we're where we can shoot to the mountains or we can shoot to the beach, either one. Maybe do something together while you're here.

Hey, man, I appreciate coming on dropping bombs. I know we're going to get into all that in the new book. But let's tell everybody a little bit about Bradley that may not have already stumbled upon you. You're kind of everywhere these days, brother. I see it every mastermind. You know, you got the book coming out, so, but I'd love to give everybody a little fresh perspective on you and your background. All right. Well, again, I'm an entrepreneur, really. I started a interactive training software company about 20 years ago before anyone was doing it, which kind of led me to a lot of the big wigs and the big names and the large brands that use it. So it gave me a little spotlight.

And then people started saying, now, who's this guy? What's he saying? And then, you know, the way I say things, I guess, I try to keep things simple and real. So I started to amass a little bit of a following. And now, you know, I'm getting offered to speak everywhere. And, you know, it's just kind of blowing up a little bit. I'd say a lot bit. You know, that seemed compressed from, you know, everything I've read.

I mean, you know, but where does your charisma come from? I mean, I feel like that's, when I'm kind of doing my normal consumption of content, I come across you. There's, you know, your charisma, your confidence and all of that. I mean, that's, it's certainly part of the realness of you, but where does that stem from? I think it stems from the source, you know what I'm saying? Like a long time ago, I realized that when people put on a facade or try to act, the way they hope other people will like them or will want them to act. There's just a little bit of a filter there and there's a little bit of inauthenticity

that muffs out the real you. Well, I learned that at a young age. At six years old, I was telling everybody my dad owned Disneyland because I was kind of ashamed of being broke. We had a small house in a kind of a neighborhood where larger houses were and we were kind of the broke, you know, family. And because of that shame and guilt, I felt at a young age, I just started lying. And all throughout, you know, from six years old until about 13 years old, dude, I was just

alienated known as just full of shit. So we moved about 30 miles away, and I saw that I had a new opportunity to start over. And I said, I'm just going to be me. I'm not going to lie. And if, you know, I want people to like me, but if they don't, that's okay. And coincidentally, we moved a little bit to the north and all of a sudden I became popular. And, you know, not with everybody, obviously, but, you know, it was definitely a relief. So at a young age, I learned to be myself.

And I think the confidence comes from knowing who I am. Did you, you had to have mentors, I'm sure. I mean, like, when you look back, who's, who are those? influencers in your life? You know, I don't really say that I have a mentor or I had one. I think I was mentored by everyone. You know, things not to do, things to do.

You know, my dad, my grandpa, my freaking friends, their dads, you know, their moms, TV shows, you know, Tony Robbins, Grant Cardone, Damon John, Zig Zigler, Tom Hopkins. It's like, I've learned a lot from everybody, and I believe in learning something new every day. Because a lot of times we get in these ruts where, you know, we're just kind of feeling stuck. And mainly it's because we're doing the same things. And in order to do something different, you have to think something different.

So if you're not getting any new information, you kind of just get stuck. So I seek new information on a daily basis. And I realize everybody I meet knows something. I don't. So I believe relationships are the new currency. I believe the more hands you shake, the more money you make. And I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I'm not concerned if someone doesn't necessarily like who I am, because I like who I am. So I think that's a combination that just comes across, you know, confident to some and arrogant to some, others. You never know, but at the end of the day, I think, I think that's the key is just learning from

everyone, letting everyone be your mentor, your children, your employers, your, your, you know, your employees, your friends, your relatives, you know, everyone. I learned from everyone. I tell people a lot in my business and, you know, I own an ad agency. And I tell people, the most successful people in this business or in general are naturally curious. Because I think if you don't have a natural curiosity, either you're both uninteresting, number one, I think. And then number two, I don't think you can have, it's something that. comes what I think with driven people.

Well, I'm definitely curious, so I would be a check in the proof box. All right. If I ever need someone here in the Addy and see where, maybe you can hire us. That's what it can be. What's, I mean, how do you filter? You know, like, I've always find this fascinating. Like, I'm the same way. Like, I breathe in a lot of this stuff.

I'm looking, observing. Like you said, you've, you've got. a lot of touch points for like talking with people building relationships. What becomes, is it a natural instinct for, or do you test things? Like, how do you know how to filter what to try yourself or what you then enact or use when there's so much stuff out there? Well, again, I think if you just focus on telling the truth and being the truth, the truth resonates higher frequency. than anything else. So it's like,

I keep it real. I just tell you the truth. I don't beat around the bush. I don't use big words to try and prove that I'm smart. You know, I just talk. So like,

you know, I think with that simplicity comes, you know, better information. I think, I think like, you know,

clarity in a world of chaos is gold, right? So like, I just need the light. Like someone just brings, me the light so I can see I bring the light I bring the truth my friend I love it I know you do man what's uh you know I know you do a lot of sales training and things like that and sales and optimization and performance marketing you know is all the rage now I mean you know people can look

you up and and we'll get to the book and other things that you know like some core principles but is there like a number one skill set that maybe people overlook or as often or two or three. You know, there's a specific number here. But like things that really make people great at sales. Well, when it comes to just sales, you know, there's quite a few. I think people overlook empathy. They overlook the, you know, empathy being number one.

I mean, a lot of times if you just put yourself in your customer shoes, say to them what you would want to be told, you know, treat them like you'd want to be treated, you know, you're going to go a lot farther in sales. I think if you really want to learn to sell, learn to stop selling, right? We're learned to sell incorrectly. We're being taught to close deals and sell people

so we can get a commission or we can make a sale. When if you just stop doing that, man, instead of being a salesperson, try to be a help person. You know, stop selling and just start asking some questions. of being interested in your customer. And then lo and behold, you'll find information that totally correlates with your product or service. And all of a sudden now that enthusiasm and that passion kind of gets transferred to the other person and they buy your product and service. So the way to sell is to not sell.

Look to help people, man. It took me 30 years to learn three valuable life lessons. Number one, be real. Number two, be ethical. And number three, help other people, man. You never know there's a scripture, Hebrews 13, 2. Look it up. That's why I say, man, you just, you just, more hands you shake, the more money you make.

Go out there and introduce yourself. See, Brian, a lot of people can't introduce themselves because they don't know what to say. They feel stupid. They don't want to come across this way or that way. They're so worried about other people's opinions or their judgment. And the reason for that is because they don't value their own enough. They don't have a high enough judgment or an opinion of themselves. So they look to everybody else to validate theirs.

And you're setting yourself up for disappointment when you're trying to literally look externally to find validation. You need to find that validation internally. And if you look inside and you don't like what you see, change it, brother. Like people are like, you know, yeah, but I don't really like myself. Well, dude, no shit. A lot of people don't like themselves. What's crazy is a lot of people don't like themselves and they're not even aware of it. The reason we don't like ourselves is because we've lied, we've cheated, we've procrastinated,

we've done all these things over the last, you know, however old we are, and we've never said sorry to ourselves. We've never forgiven ourselves. We forgive others, but we don't forgive ourselves because it doesn't dawn on us to do so. So I put together these things I call the Sacred Six, which kind of turned it around for me. Number one, I forgave myself. I wiped the slate clean. I apologized to myself for doing all the shit I did to myself.

Caused all that pain and suffering. I apologized. Wipe the slate clean. The number two, I committed to do what I say I'm going to do from that day forward. And that in and of itself gives you a major boost in confidence, self-esteem, self-worth, etc. Number three, I started racking up the wins. I started to realize we always set these high goals and we're always taught to set these monster goals. goals. Well, these monster goals oftentimes are not met. So what is that? That is a loss. So we lose more than we think we do, more than we're aware of. So I decided to just lower the goals. I set five or ten small goals every single day that I know I can knock out. But guess what? It's a win, a win, a win. So I rack up the wins by lowering my goals and making sure that I do them. And then I get rid of all the idiots that are surrounding me, you know, anybody talking shit, anybody,

you know, trying to discourage me. Any, any hate or headlines, I just block it out. You know, that's step forward. Get rid of the idiots, okay? You can tell a mile away if they're an idiot. Why? Well, because if they're your friend, they want you to feel good about yourself. They want you to, you know, reach.

They want you to develop and grow and be happy. So any comment that you hear from family, from friends that's opposite of that, they're clearly identifying identifying themselves as an idiot. You just block them out. Look, look, get rid of it. Number five, you visualize exactly what you want, where you want to be, who you want to be,

and you start to visualize being that, right? We're human beings. And too many times people don't really know what success even looks like to them. So you have to visualize that on a regular basis. And then step six, man, just pick up a book, man. Start reading. start listening to podcasts, start listening to audio books, like look for new information every single day.

Because the new information allows us to change our beliefs. And our beliefs are what cause our behaviors. So if you really want to change what you're getting, you have to change what you're doing. And in order to change what you're doing, you have to change what you believe. And the only way to change what you believe is to get new information. So those six things, you know, forgive yourself, commit to do what you say you're going to do, rack up the winds, get rid of the idiots, visualize and seek new information. 90 days later, you'll have a whole new outlook on life, a whole new perspective.

You'll value yourself. You'll start to value yourself. And then you'll gain momentum and then, you know, shoot me a DM. I love it, brother. There's a mastermind right there in, what, four minutes, five minutes. That was it right there. A lot of sage advice. And you know what?

I'm going to go to number two. I feel like it is It's fucking crazy to say this Like a lost start Of doing what you say You will do It is amazing how many people do not do that 100%

Do you deal with that? Do you deal with that as much as I do? I recognize it, yeah I don't deal with it, no Well, you know But I do recognize it And when I recognize it, you know, I have empathy

I give them a little stricken hug and a high five. And I try to let them know that, you know, that's destroying their confidence, their self-worth and their value not only to me, but to themselves. And, you know, doing what you said you would do is far less costly than not. So I try to educate him a little bit and, you know, hopefully they learn from their errors. What's the biggest thing you've ever had to overcome? You know, like, you know, it's crazy because when people ask me these questions on these interviews, I can't think back and think of any, you know, major challenge. I think my perspective is in such a way that everything I see is an opportunity. Like it sounds cliche, dude, but like someone asked me the other day, you know, how do you deal with problems?

I said, um, and in my mind, I'm like, what problems do I have? And then I'm like, I don't really have any problems. And he's like, come on, dude, everyone has problems. I'm like, bro, I don't have any problems. My problems are not problems. They're opportunities. They're opportunities to get smarter, better, faster, stronger, more wise. They're opportunities to me.

They're like games and challenges. It's like, you know, if you ever prayed for strength and then your life gets tough, and then you complain that you're getting stronger. Like, I wake up every day realizing, that waking up is more valuable than any amount of cash you could have given me. So when my eyes open, I think to myself, chiching, imagine the feeling you would get if I handed you a million cash, no strings attached. We get excited. We get enthusiastic. We don't care about small issues. We're not even thinking about the dumb stuff anymore.

We're excited, dude. Someone just gave me a million cash. Well, when we wake up, it's far more valuable than a million cash. Wouldn't you agree? Oh, yeah. Okay, but how come nobody wakes up and takes the time to be thankful for just simply waking up? And when we do that, that's what I do every morning. When we do that, the problems become opportunities. You know, you can't pay your rent.

You go to bed. You're freaking out. You're trying to figure out how you're going to pay bills, how you're going to make payroll, how you're going to, you know, land the next account, make the next commission, whatever. And we look at it from that perspective. And it's like, oh, my God, look at all these problems. well if you wake up and you realize dude would you trade those problems

for not waking up your answer is well hell no well good if you if you really believe that well then when you wake up dude those are not problems you are you are fortunate to be able to go and solve those riddles solve those challenges you know jump those hurdles

and as you're doing it you're becoming stronger smarter, better, faster. Like, it's an opportunity, man. If the world had zero problems, dude, it would be boring. We'd probably die. Yeah, hopefully not. But I do think, you and I aren't exactly alike,

but we share that in common. Like, I don't carry problems either. I just, my wife kind of gets mad at me sometimes because she's like, you never, you know, you never seem phased. Like, you never like, you know. And I think it's just because I look at the world in a similar way. And I just don't think we have every problem is an opportunity and ever lessens, you know, something to build upon.

And, you know, so I love it, brother. It's, I mean, let's talk about light speed. So at its core, what is light speed VT? Well, that's my company. But we've developed a technology that's also called Lightspeed VT. And Lightspeed VT is a web-based interactive training and communication platform people use to train people. You know, so like all those big name subject matter experts, they use it to train people, their philosophies, techniques, disciplines, et cetera, skill sets. You know, companies use it to train people, you know, on how to put away the dishes or fold the sheets or whatever.

So it's a training technology that I developed over the last 20 years. by accident, really, because I was, you know, 30 years old running this car dealership. I had the ability to just take people out of Burger Kings, you know, foot lockers. It didn't matter to landscapers. I'd just snatch people, turn them into badass sales people. Next thing you know, they went from minimum wage to making money. And I noticed, like, how lives would change with a little, you go from minimum wage to 10, 20 grand a month. Dude, your life changes.

And I started realizing, man, I like changing people's life. Like they were, they were, it was just amazing to watch, you know, hardworking individuals that had no ability to make any more money. Give them the skill sets to make more money and then watch how their life changed. So that's what I realized, man, I want to do this for a living. So I quit my job. I went out on the road and I started doing it, you know, business to business, just living out of a suitcase. And I wasn't getting the results I was getting. It was crazy.

I couldn't figure it out. I'm like, damn, dude, I was working here and I was killing it. And now I'm out working for myself and I couldn't make it happen. So I said, I either got to quit and go back to work or figure it out. So I said, well, what was I doing before? And so I basically walked through what I used to do? And then I'm like, well, what am I doing now? And I realized it.

There were three things that I used to do that I didn't continue to do. When I worked for this organization, I had good content. These are the four things you need to train effectively. You need good content, repetition, practice, and accountability. When I worked at the organization, I was providing repetition because I worked there every day. We were practice, drill, rehearse. Every day we were role-playing. Every day we were repeating it over and over and over.

Repetition is the mother of learning. When I went out on the road, I was only there for a day. I said what I said, and then I left. I didn't practice. I didn't roll play. I didn't repeat. Nobody there did it either. So the reason it wasn't working is because I failed to deliver the repetition,

the practice, and the accountability required. So I had no other way to do it other than let me invent a way to where I can deliver the content, deliver the repetition, the practice and the role playing, right, hold people accountable. And at the time, the Internet. was just coming out. So I thought to myself, I wonder if there's a way we could build a technology that allows me to pop up and say what I was going to say and do it repetitiously so I didn't have to live out of a suitcase. And so I developed the first light speed VT system. And then I went out and sold it

to a bunch of companies for about a thousand a month to train their team, but with passwords, logging into my system, you know, and then over time, we just enhanced it, leaderboards, communities, all these other things. But that's what it is. It's just, a web-based training and communication platform. How does it very, you know, I see things like teachable, you know, like is it, which is probably less businessy, and I don't know, but is it similar to something like that? Well, completely fundamentally different. Is it a kiddie pool similar to a water park?

Well, you know, I had a feeling we might go there, but yeah. Well, do this. Like, Teachable is just a name. Yeah. There's nothing in there focused on teaching. It's a video hosting solution. Right. Like if you have a video and you want to host it and charge people to access it,

teachable will let you do that. Teachable does not have built in tools that allow you to create interactive lessons, interactive technology, interactive roleplay and testing. light speed does. Teachable doesn't have, you know, real-time reporting and analytics firing off and doing various different things. It doesn't have leaderboards.

It doesn't have community. It doesn't have Q&A. It doesn't have discussion. It doesn't have live stream. It's just a video hosting solution. Most of them out there are just a place to host your video. And a lot of times people think the video, which is the good content, is all you need and it's not.

That's why a lot of those fail. bought a course on Teachable? No, but I have on one of the platforms, and it was just, you know, running the mill stuff. Well, that's because that's all they are. They're not focused on teaching you anything. They're focused on letting you play a video.

And, dude, I watch mixed martial arts. It doesn't make me a black belt. That's true. Speaking of Mixed Marfaner, Michael Buffer, or Bruce Buffer, excuse me, is coming on the radcast in three weeks. All right. UFC. Oh, Bruce.

what's a family i mean i see you post about family you know like super successful you got a lot of things rolling now uh you know like family seems important to you and i i don't know that maybe people know that side of you might keep it private but how do you balance like you know i'm this isn't the work life balance thing i think that's a bullshit question i'm talking more just the importance and values of a family you know kind of in your life Well, I don't. You know, I prioritize, you know, minute by minute, day by day. Like right now, if my wife called and said she needed me, I'd end the podcast, right?

Right. So, I mean, at the end of the day, I think, you know, we go through life and we just have to get good at prioritizing. That's all. And I prioritize family fairly high because they're going to be with you for the rest of your life. So you really kind of want to make a good investment there. I spent years kind of the opposite where I was gone. I was building a business. I thought, you know, hey, I'll pay it back later.

And I missed a lot of years growing up and a lot of opportunity. So again, at the end of the day, it's just a decision that you make and a priority that you decide on. And then that really drives the balance because I don't think there is any balance. Sometimes I'll go home for, you know, three days straight and not even think about work. Sometimes I'll go to work for three days and not even think about home. Why? Because, dude, they're fine at home. Everything's good, man.

You just spent three days there. Everything's going well. Too many times these entrepreneurs are building companies and they're sitting there, you know, listening to the outside world about you need to spend time with your children. Well, dude, sometimes that's bullshit. Okay. Your kids don't want as much time with you as you might think. and if you focus on quality time when you are with them,

you can get by with a lot less of it. Now, some people, believe it or not, Ryan, they will use their family and their kids as an excuse because they can't figure out how to become wildly successful. So they go, well, I'm just a family man. Well, dude, trust me, you can do both. Okay, and not only that, but if I was in your family, I would prefer you were wildly successful

rather than home all the time spending time with me. Like go make something we can all be proud of. And I would admire you even a little bit more. Now, that doesn't mean ignore me. I'd rather, I'd rather your home. But at the end of the day, dude, you can't use family as an excuse. Like, dude, everyone can be wildly successful. They can also have an incredible family.

And yes, it takes a little bit of work. And yes, it takes a little bit of sacrifice. But guess what? It's not rocket science, man. Pay attention. Your family needs you. Go. Don't worry about work.

It's not important. If you had to give one up, which would it be? Well, it'd be your business, I'm sure. At least in my case, it would be. So obviously, that's just a priority. It means, hey, when shit hits the family's calling, you go handle it. And guess what? Every time I've ever left my business without being planned, I come back.

It was still there. Problems will wait for you if you're looking at your problems. If you're looking at them like I do, dude, there's opportunities. everywhere. Which one is your best opportunity? Well, the opportunity to see my kids comes comes kind of at a high priority. So I'd just say prioritize, man. Hey, man, you get the real Bradley, you get the real talk. That's why I love you. And I love your perspective because most people wouldn't say it that way, but it's the truth. And it's, it does become the crutch. I do see it. I have friends that will say, yeah, man, I've got the family

thing and I'm like there's no wonder you're sitting in the same house you've been at their parents' house for 30 years. What, I know you got a book coming out. Yeah. The hard way. Let's talk about it. What's,

I know it's, you, you're on the, the press now or just got pressed, right? Yeah, it's at the printer right now. Yep.

We're shipping in a couple of weeks. What are we, what are we going to get when we pick it up when I, get it ordered here. What's coming our way? Dude, you're going to be a badass. You're going to be far more confident and you're going to accelerate five times the speed as if you didn't get it. Now, I wouldn't say everybody because look, these are lessons I learned the hard way so you don't have to. But ironically, you're going to learn them one way or the other.

That's the funny part. Like, I'm not going to let you in on little secrets that nobody in the world knows. everybody that's successful, everybody that's lived a while and made some mistakes, would get that book and go, oh, yeah, absolutely. Oh, yeah, absolutely. The question is, is how long is it going to take you to learn them? Are you going to learn them the hard way? Are you going to learn them the easy way?

And the easy way, ironically, is to pick up the hard way. I like it. Is that on the back cover? No, no. But, you know, it's a book about stories from my life that taught me valuable lessons. And then I tie those lessons into kind of building the business. And at the end of the day, it's just like a collection of lessons that you're going to learn one way or the other, man. And sometimes, dude, you're going to pay a big price.

It's cheaper just to buy the book, read them, and apply them. Because if you read them and you don't apply them, the book's not going to help you at all. But if you're an 18-year-old or a 60-year-old and you're not. not where you want to be. It just means you haven't learned these lessons yet. If you learn these lessons that I've put in that book and you apply them, dude, it'll literally change your life. And I always make fun of people who says, change your life. It will change your life. How did you embrace social media? I mean, you know, like, when did that light switch, pun intended, I guess,

you know, go on for you. You know, like I think, you know, I was on your podcast, talked about personal braining, and I'm telling you and your audience about it when you've been embracing it. And, you know, it's become, you know, some, I'm sure a mechanism

for some amount of your success. Like, when did that light switch go on and how do you feel about it? It went on about four or five years ago, brightly. It went on a little bit, maybe four or five years before that. Like right when it was coming out, I was like, hey, this is interesting.

And man, there sure there's a lot of people here, but I didn't put two and two together until I saw other people leveraging social media to get quite the notoriety. And with attention comes opportunity. So I wanted more opportunity. So what better way than to get attention? And social media is the new television, man. Like, dude, literally, I was walking through the airport the other day, just getting back from a keynote. I land in Vegas. I'm walking through.

someone rolls up. They're like, dude, I listen to your podcast. I'm like, oh, thanks, man. He said, hey, can I take your picture? Boom, I take a picture. I start walking off. Someone walks up, Bradley, the real Bradley,

dude, I watch you on TV. And I said, what? He said, I watch you on TV all the time. I said, I'm not on TV, bro. He said, oh, I mean like Instagram. And I'm like, dude, that guy said TV because that is TV now it is. So once I realize that, you know, I'm glad I did what I did. But, you know, if anybody wants to build a personal brand, in my opinion, you got to think about just content flow.

I put content flow into certain categories. Number one is the source of your content. Where's the source of your content coming from? Like, for example, this podcast is a source. You know, coaching somebody is a source. Working in your office interacting with people is a source. You know, things that happen to you on a daily basis. Keynote speeches are sources.

So you just figure out what your sources are. Then the sources lead to the creative. Someone has to chop up, drop, edit, you know, hashtag, et cetera. That's your creative. Then you've got to figure out what your outlets are. Okay, well, my outlets are Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter, and used to be TikTok, but for some reason they banned my damn account when I reached a half a half a half million in a month and a half. and a half million followers

in a month and a half I was posting all kinds of good stuff man you know good helpful things especially for entrepreneurs and you know people try to succeed in life and all of a sudden I get this thing and it says dude you bet your your accounts been permanently banned

for violating our community guidelines I'm thinking how the hell is helping people get through challenges community guidelines? Did you have some anti-vaccine stuff going or what? Like or is it just purely business? No no anti-vaccine shit, dude.

Like, I was keeping it strictly to, you know, life lessons, become ethical, be a better person, learn how to close, sell and persuade, learn how to build a personal brand, just little clips, little bit of humor. Boom, it banned it. Anyway, but those are your outlets, right?

And YouTube, don't forget YouTube. And then you have frequency, right? How often are you doing that? And then you have what I call boost, which means how much money, are you investing into it? A lot of times people just post, but they're not investing any money to be seen.

Folks, that's the key is if you literally paid whatever it took to get everybody that logged into Facebook every day to see your face for a month, you'd be famous. You may not be liked by everybody, but you'd be famous and you'd have a ton of opportunity coming your way. So if you're taking notes, the source, the creative, the outlet, the frequency and the boost. You figure those out,

you're going to build yourself a big-ass personal brand. How much do you think it plays into, like, now that you've embraced it the last four to five years, like if you put a percentage on it, I'm sure you've got data on your ads and things like that, but what percentage would you put your success right now towards all of those channels? Well, whenever I do the boost part

and advertise. Right now for every dollar I put in, I end up with $9 back, according to statistics. Which is why I'm starting to put a whole lot more dollars in. So if you see me now, wait, you'll see me a lot more here pretty soon. But that's when I'm just advertising. But just the personal brand, you know, it's immeasurable. I get deals all the time because people follow me. They like me.

They trust me. They hear me talking about something that has nothing to do with light speed. and they sign up for light speed because of who I am and what I said and what I think and what I believe and who I'm connected with. And, you know, they see that on social media. They see me hanging out with the big wigs. You know, they see me on my podcast. They see me, you know, with employees. And again, it's social media, not anti-social media.

You ever see these people with the private accounts? Yeah. I don't understand. Why are you on social media with a private account? It's like, dude, that's the equivalent of flipping someone off when they say, how you doing? You know, exactly. I had that same discussion with someone two days ago. I'm like, what the fuck are they doing?

But I mean, if you want a personal private account where you're posting pictures, you don't want anybody to see. My advice would be don't put them on the internet at all because they're going to, people have those, man. So what are you hiding? What are you trying to keep private? Because guess what? It's not private if it's on the internet, even if you have a little private account.

The only thing private account is stopping is money and attention flowing your way. True, true, true. As we're closing out here, Brad, dropping bombs, you know, is a big player for you. I know you've had, is it 300 plus episodes at this point? Is that we, we're a lot? We're like over 400. Over 400. 400 plus. Is that just going to keep that going to keep that going, relationships, meeting people, sharing knowledge? I know it's, you know, I love statement, you know, when we met, like, you were meant to be in marketing and advertising. I don't know who wrote the line, but, you know, taking information from those that have it to those that need it, I've never heard it put more concise kind of around exactly what you do.

I was seeing a creative brief being written as every time I read some of your stuff. But, I mean, it's a big part of your brand, I know, and I assume we're going to continue to see you taking it even further. Yeah, I'm going to continue to do the podcast. It's getting pretty popular. We're getting several hundred thousand downloads an episode now. There's people reaching out and wanting to be on it. I got a lot of big names, Jordan B. Peterson, Charlie Kirk.

You know, the names just keep wanting to be on it now. I don't have to try to get anyone on it anymore, fortunately. And the thing you're talking about is what I consider my mission in life. So my mission is to get the knowledge from the people who have it. to the people who need it because I think the reason why so many people are failing is because they don't have the right information. That's why I do my podcast. That's why I do my company.

That's why I do my posts, right? It's to get knowledge from the people who have it to the people who need it so we can all live in a world that's more successful. Well, I'll say this. You are one of them that has it. You know, whether by osmosis, by knowledge and curiosity, or just in, intelligence, probably a combination of three. It's what I admire about you, Brad.

You got time for one quick segment. It's called rad or fad. I give you a few keywords. You tell me rad or fad. All right. Number one, sales training. I'll lay on the start. Rad.

I mean, guys, we're all in sales no matter what position we hold in life. We're selling somebody on something. The difference between good ones and bad ones or the bad ones don't know they're doing it. They haven't practiced and learned. If you want to be a multi-7, eight, nine-figure entrepreneur or an intrepaneer, you got to learn to sell clothes and persuade. You want the best-looking girl. You want the best-looking guy. You want the best family.

You want your kids to be perfect. You want everything. Sell clothes and persuade. Rad. Social selling. Well, again, I would say rad. Why? Well, because, you know, I'm sure as it develops and changes, you know, you have to adapt with it.

But social is the new television. It's the new radio station. Like, you better, you better master social media. And social selling is a way to reach more people and make more money and scale. So I would say rad. Now they're not so easy. NFTs. NFTs?

I believe they're going to be around. I think there's a lot of people making a lot of money. I do kind of though, depending on what happens, I'm right. I'm more leaning on fad, but I'd be wrong. I'd be wrong. I was offered Bitcoin when it was like 50 bucks. And I said, dude, that's dumb. So I don't know that I'm the expert.

But the NFTs are going nuts. I just can't see the value of owning a digital asset that I can't do anything with. Like, you know, I've got the only picture of a gorilla. Like, okay, and I need food and I'm hungry. do I do with that? What if nobody's having any money? You would not think alike, brother. I'm on the, I'm on the, I see what my kids do and I go, but I'm like, I get that they're putting more value in digital currency and digital things, but I'm still like holding on to some hope that somebody's going to go, what the hell is that

really worth? So I would go with a rad fad. However, the only thing that's fat about it is what's being produced as an NFT. I think the NFT is not a fad. I think the non-fungible token medium is not a fad, and I think it's going to allow artists and individuals the ability to protect and really control their intellectual property. So in that fashion, I would say rad. It's not a fad. NFTs are sticking around. The question is how will we use them is more the fad. Like, you know, purple gorillas with a golden tooth. That's kind of the fad part. But NFTs, dude, they're here to stay.

All right. Last one's sort of fun, depending on where you fall. Fire kegs. Fireball's coming out with a keg. It's a fire keg. Rad or fad? Fad and highly discouraged. It's a fad, man.

First of all, fireball nasty. Second of all, dude, no matter who you are, unless you're stone cold alcohol. eventually, dude, you get tired of drinking. And to me, anything that you get tired of is a fad. So I'm going to say fad on that one. All right. We are getting one in the office here.

I do own an ad agency. So I said it might raise productivity the first half of the day, then the last half is going to go to hell. But who knows? Well, I bet you a thousand cash that it will be gone within, unless you're just holding it to win the bet. It'll be gone and played out within a year or two. Definitely fat.

And by the way, it might turn into a, to some other type of alcoholic device, but it's not going to be fireball. Yeah, I agree. You drink it all? Are you a drinker? Do you drink it all? You have a beer?

I got Don Julio right there on my desk. But listen, you know, the reason I say that is because when I started my company, I wanted to be real cool and Googly, so I brought in a Yeager machine. I remember those. That Yeager machine was all cold and icy and cool for about three months. And then everyone was sick of freaking Yeagermeister. And it became a fad real quick. I just want to get some of the fireball.

We're trying to pitch a couple liquor companies. So I thought we might have to do some sketches. You know, everything has a second purpose here. Well, I put in a bar next to my boardroom in my lobby. It's a full bar. You can get anything you want in there. Now, that is not a fad. That's smart.

In case they say no, you've got a bar right there. Let's get it. We got that as well. So I love it, brother. man where can everybody find the book keep up with everything brad lee bradley dot com which by the way is l-e-a most people say is that lea and i say i don't know do you drink tea the book's going to be there we can find it there we can follow all the channels pretty soon it'll be on amazon and kindle and all the places you can find books but

if i got to share revenue if you buy it through one of those just go to bradley dot com Smart man. I love it. Go find Bradley at bradley.com. I appreciate you, Brad. I love keeping up with you and I hope to always stay in touch. Likewise, man. Hey, man, this is Ryan Alford. This has been the Radcast. You know where to find us. We're at the radcast.com. Search Bradley, L-E-A. All of the content from this episode will come up, all the highlight clips, all of the wisdom that Bradd dropped and go who purchased the hard way. Coming out soon at bradley.com. We'll see you next time on the radcast. Thank you.