Determined Society with Shawn French | Adversity & Mindset - Everyday Means EVERYDAY with Brandon Burns

Episode Date: July 3, 2023

Brandon Burns is an elite athlete, viral influencer with over 50 million views on social media, 2x B1G Ten Championship-Winning Coach; co-creator of a 7-figure software product; and right-hand man to the world’s #1 motivational speaker - Dr. Eric Thomas. After experiencing various mental health battles, financial lack, and family trauma during his childhood, Brandon was able to overcome his victim mindset to succeed in school and walk-on to the men’s gymnastics team at the University of Michigan. However - his athletic dreams came to a screeching halt after being cut from the team 4 times in 5 years. After years of perseverance & self-discovery, Brandon’s journey eventually allowed him to go from “cut to coach” - becoming one of the industry’s top speakers and strategic performance coaches. Today, Brandon works with athletes, entrepreneurs, and students to help them reach their full potential & systematically overcome their limitations using his unique blend of inspiring, emotional storytelling mixed with strategic, principle-based teachings.   As a lifelong coach, Brandon is obsessed with helping others reach their maximum potential. He believes that every human being owes it to themselves (and to mankind!) to achieve their peak performance in every area of human endeavor: physically, mentally, spiritually, and financially. He believes that “good enough” is NEVER good enough, and is dedicated to assisting like-minded teams and individuals take their performance to the next level!   Key Conversation Points:   Being Eric Thomas's COO and how it all transpired TFCC Injury Brandon's Gymnastics journey Being cut from Univ. of Michigan Dad's diagnosis and Mom's auto immune  The Bad Break up Impact is great that being impressive Subwoofer or Eric Thomas? Micro-Thoughts and how they can impede your growth Taking the 1st step Fear based motivation What if we don't decide? Living the both lifestyle instead of either or Much more...... Connect with Brandon Burns: Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/iambburns/ Website- www.iAmBBurns.com Twitter- @iambburns TikTok- @iambburns Book Brandon NOW- http://www.iambburns.com Connect With Shawn: Instagram- @theshawnfrench Twitter- @theshawnmfrench Website- www.theshawnfrench.com   Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

I don't see a reason why you would limit yourself. You know, it's like everybody's out of here trying to make the right decision. Just make both decisions. But for whatever reason, people have such a limited perspective of what's possible that they think that it's got to be either or. But I don't know. I think that's just a limited belief that a lot of people need to break. What is up, guys? We are back.

Today I have with me, Brandon Burns, who is an elite athlete, a viral influencer with over 50 million views on social media. He is a two-time Big Ten championship winning coach, a co-creator of a seven-figure software product, and the right-hand man to the world's number one motivational speaker. You may have heard of them. You may have not. If you have not, get out from the frickin rock you're living under. But Dr. Eric Thomas, but dude, like, Brandon, welcome the show, buddy.

We're here, man. Oh, thank you so much. Thank you. I really appreciate you having me on. And I don't know how I feel about that bio, man. the pressure is high now. I like it when the expectations are low, so I got a shot. Hey, dude, I hear you on that one. I'm like all about lower expectations so I can over deliver. But look, dude, it's your story. You wrote it. You know, it is what it is.

You know, that's been your path. And I was going to sit here and make a joke and say, well, you're my first gymnast, but you're not my first gymnast. Really? Okay. But no, dude. So listen, man, again, welcome to the show. It's going to be a fun, fun conversation, but you've done so many amazing things. For my audience that doesn't know who you are, why don't you give them a brief background into your gymnastics career and so forth on after that? Oh, for sure. So my gymnastics career was one of those chance happenings.

I mean, I don't necessarily believe that it was, but on the surface level, it was one of those chance things. You know, I was born and raised in a small town called Huntsville, Alabama. And I never really was big into sports. I was always naturally a little bit athletic. I remember when I was in the Boy Scouts, when I was eight or nine years old, this is before I started gymnastics. We did those little physical fitness test, just sit-ups and push-ups and that kind of thing.

And I was always pretty good at those. So I knew I had a little bit of a knack for athletics, but I never did sports in the traditional sense until I was 10 years old. And the bug just hit me to go start trying to do gymnastics. And I have absolutely no idea why. And I've tried to trace this back throughout my life and think about it. But no family members ever did the sport of gymnastics. I never remember watching it on TV.

I never saw the Olympics or anything like that. But one day, man, I just woke up and said, Mom, I want to go try to do flips. She kind of looked at me funny. Like, are you sure? Because she wanted me to do karate and all this other stuff. I was like, nope, I hate that. Don't want to do it.

I want to do gymnastics. And so she took me to a little place called Madison Gymnastic Center out there in Huntsville and had a trial lesson, a free trial. trial and at the end of it, the coach came over and said, do you want to do the gymnastics class or the acrobatics class? The gymnastics was all six events in men's Olympic gymnastics and the acrobatics class was just tumbling, just floor exercise. And I looked my mom dead in the face knowing perfectly well that we could barely afford one class, much less more than that. And I said both. I wanted to both. Man. And that was the start of the both and life instead

of the either one. You know, those are always the best life. to live the oh man there's no other way to do it I don't see I don't see a reason why you would limit yourself you know it's like everybody's out here trying to make the right decisions make both decisions but for whatever reason people have such a limited perspective of what's possible that they think that it's got to be either or but I don't know I think that's just a limited belief that a lot of people need to break but that's like the beauty of being a kid too you're 10 years old you don't think any different you're like what do you want and you actually say

what you want instead of what you think you can get when you're an adult you say what you think you can get. When you're a kid, it's like, I want this. Yeah. Yeah. That's a great point, man. And, and, you know,

you go talk about limiting beliefs, right? It's, it's, those are the decisions, right? The limiting beliefs that you put on yourself, turn into a limiting identity after a while if you just are not careful enough, right?

You start telling yourself things you can do, things you can't do, you know, well, my man right here, you know, knowing the, maybe not knowing the full detail of the risk,

but knowing that was hard. to afford what they had anyway, much less both classes. And he's like, hey, y'all, I need you to double down on me right here. And what did you, you know, and not knowing much of anything, where'd you go, where'd you go after that, man? Like, you started doing the two classes and it's just something that you ended up loving. Yeah, absolutely fell in love with it from day one. Actually, didn't start competing until I was 16 years old.

So most competitive gymnasts, they start competing when they're five or six years old. I didn't even start the sport at all until I was 10. and then I did it recreationally from 10 to 16, 16 years old, jumped straight into level 10, which is the highest level that you can compete before going to college or the elite kind of Olympic path. Did that for two years and then walked on to the team at University of Michigan was out there for five years as well.

So there's a whole bunch that we could get into there with that. Just the reason that I didn't compete for 10 to 16 was honestly financial and fear-based, right? We didn't have the money to switch gyms. The gym that I had been at since 10 years old didn't have a competitive men's program. They had women's, but not men's. And so we were going to have to move gyms. And of course, the coach at that gym was giving me some tuition breaks because I was there five, six days a week.

We couldn't afford it. He knew that. He was letting me come in and train during the breaks in between classes. When he was eating lunch, he was like, hey, come in here, do a few reps just to help us out. So we couldn't afford to go to another gym where they were going to charge us for the actual time that I was realistically spending in the gym. When it comes to what your family eats and drinks, you know your choices matter.

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this whole extroverted on stage in front of thousands of people, that guy didn't exist yet. Yeah. I was so scared. I had the thought of having to switch gyms and go to a new coach, new teammates, people I wasn't comfortable with, and then you want me to compete in front of hundreds of people and be judged and risk falling and failing at anxiety all over the place.

Yeah. So that wasn't something that, I was necessarily prepared to do until I was at a gymnastics camp when I was about 15 years old. Met a guy named Coach Larry and came up to me and said, where do you compete at? He said, well, I don't compete. He said, what in the world are you talking about? You're really, really good. I see a lot of potential in it.

I told him the same story. I just told you about why I didn't do it, finances, anxiety, can't move gyms, all these other things. He said, why don't you come train at my gym for free out here in Chattanooga, Tennessee? It's about three hours away from me. come out here train with my competitive boys team for free. My mom confronted him. She said, what, what's in this for you? Like, are you trying to groom him?

Like, what's happening? It was just such a good deal that she was like, what's happened? You can't just be stupid, right? Yeah, you throw a candy out of the back of a van. Like, what's going on? Right, right. Did you pull up in a little white sprinter van? Like, what's this looking like?

And, man, that guy was one of the best things ever happened to me, though. I have a saying that I say a lot on stage, which is it's better to be impactful. impressive. And I got that from him because he did not have an impressive resume. He was not a world-class athlete. He was not coaching Olympic teams. And I've worked with people who have all of those qualifications. But that guy, man, he could get me through the mental blocks and the fears like nobody else ever could. I ended up not being able to compete for him just because the drive was too long. We were spending too much money on gas going back and forth. But he was the one who planted that

seat of belief in me to say, you know what? You actually are capable of. switching gyms and handling. You are capable of competing and handling the pressure. So then when I did go back to Huntsville, made the move, started competing a little bit of his belief. It stuck with me. And that was what allowed me to walk onto Michigan and everything else that followed after that was a direct result of his influence. I think it's really cool, man, because you're talking about, you know, it's better to be impactful than it is to be impressive, just like your mentor showed you. And that's his quote. But man, like that, it's better to be impactful. That's what he was. Right. Everybody,

need someone that is so impactful in their life as a youth, teenage, or even young adult, or even as a parent, right, in your 40s, you need people that can impact your life in a positive direction. I'd like to think, right? And you can tell me if I'm wrong or not. Maybe you haven't even thought of it like this yet. But the reason why he was so successful with all these athletes is because he led with that impact and that love.

I guarantee it is. Matter of fact, the part of that story that I didn't sell you, was for the vast majority of the time he was training me, he was battling stage for colon cancer. Damn. And he actually passed away a few years ago. And it was during COVID and they didn't have a funeral. And I called his widow's wife and asked about the funeral situation because obviously I really wanted to be there because this is somebody I had. Sure, of course.

That's a lot of career. And he had such a big impact on me. So I really wanted to be there. And she told me, you know, we're not having a funeral. COVID rules, large gatherings, everything else. So I kind of hung up the phone and I was like, wait a minute. It's the middle of nowhere, Tennessee. I've been there.

You don't have rules like that. And what are you talking about large gathering? I don't think that's really legit. I started to think about it. And I said, you know what? I'm not the only one. I would almost guarantee you, because Larry had a reputation. If you did gymnastics in Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, surrounding areas from

late 80s through 2020, you probably knew who coach Larry Denham was, tagged gymnastics out there in Chattanooga. And my belief is, had they had a public funeral? I think hundreds, if not thousands of former athletes would have showed up for him because he did that with everybody. He treated everybody as a unique individual and he treated them as people, not just as athletes. So exactly what you said, he led with the impact. So the impressive part came by default. you know it's it's a beautiful story man and thank you for sharing that because i didn't know that one obviously but you know it seems to me that nowadays and there could be those people out there

but like people into your mom's credit and she was sniffing it out it's like hey what's in this for you like people these days i don't see people going hey look man don't worry about it just i'll help you like i i think you have what it takes you're going to do the work but I'm going to provide the access. I'm going to provide everything like that. You don't see that now. I mean, really not in our space. Almost never.

Yeah. I mean, I can tell you if I were one of those big guys right now and someone said to me, like, I just need someone to give me a break. I'm like, what you got? Let's see what you got, you know? Like, hey, I'm here for you. I think it's a big deal, man. I think what Larry, Coach Larry Denham did for you and other kids,

it sets your life up, man. It did. I mean, you even think about just the butterfly effect of if I don't ever start competing in gymnastics, I probably never go to the University of Michigan. If I never go to the University of Michigan, I don't want to jump around or skip ahead in the story here. I probably never need T. Right. Yeah. If I don't meet ET is none of this happens without that. And I think he really informed my career path in the sense of leading with the impact. Right. So nowadays, when I have those decisions, decisions of, okay, maybe this is a more financially viable opportunity, but this one is going to lead me to a life of fulfillment and impact. I can have generational impacts, not just generational wealth, because that's another thing. I always tell people is like, especially in our space, right?

Everybody's talking about generational wealth, which is amazing. Yeah, it's great. We should be to a certain extent. But I'm more focused on generational impact because even though Larry passed away, his message didn't, his impact. Yeah. Because it's going to live on in me. And then all the clients I work with, everybody.

that watches this podcast, they're going to get that same spirit of service and impact, and that's going to continue on through generations. That, to me, is more important. And without seeing a model of that, I don't know if I would make, like, I'm not the guy that's going to sit here and say, I'm just such a blessed great person, naturally, that I would always make a decision like that and put impact over money or impact over being impressive or impact over looking good on social media without seeing the example. firsthand. I don't know if I can say that. But because I did have a leader like that in my life,

things are really different. So I don't want to go on a tangent there. But no, I love it, dude. We're getting there. So let's just, let's just jump to it. So, you know, you're at Michigan. And your career came to an end. And this guy named E.T's coming into town doing some things at what, Michigan State, right? That's right. And so for those of you listening, E.T. Not the extraterrestrial case is Dr. Eric Thomas. He's the number one. motivational speaker on the planet. This guy's incredible. And, you know, let's let Brandon, you know, tell a story about how he connected with the ET. And now how he's, you know, what is it? Pippins. What are you Pippins? Pippin to Jordan, man. Pippin to Jordan, man. It's like,

yeah. So it's a funny analogy, but it's, it's true and it's, it's well deserved. So let's hear it, man. Yeah, that was definitely a wild ride. I would say it started around 2018. What, really it started before that. So I walk onto the team 2015 as a freshman and I get cut from the team four times in five years. A lot of people think that's a rudy story where it's like I was cut for the first four years and then I miraculously made it the fifth year. There's actually completely opposite, right? So I made it the first year and then was cut every single subsequent year of my college career after that. 2018, right after I had gotten cut, I had a really nasty wrist injury, a little ligament called your TFCC, and it evolved from the bone, which means it didn't just rip in half, but it actually ripped off the bone and took a chunk of the bone with it as it tore. So relatively major surgery, had to go in there and reconstruct a few things. And even though I knew I was still going to try out for the team the next year, realistically, my career was over at that point, competitively at least. I still trained to this day, but competitively, that was pretty much it. Along that same time span, literally within about three weeks around that exact event,

that was diagnosed with cancer, really ugly breakup with a significant other at the time, mother was diagnosed with an incurable autoimmune disease. So just a bunch of stuff was going on in my life at that point, and I needed the motivation. And I didn't necessarily have people, I had a lot of people who supported me, but I didn't have people that were just pouring into me and pushing, right? Because you call your mom. She's going to say, okay, well, don't try out for the team again. It's okay to quit.

And more credit to her, she's trying to support me and focus on my mental health. I kind of needed a little bit more of that pushing motivation, right? Got it. Exactly. So I go to YouTube, type in motivational video, right? First video that comes up, Eric Thomas, when you want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe. Oh, dude, that one, bro. I have goosebumps that one.

I don't care like what rendition of it. I mean, I prefer a baseball one. But dude, like the original guy at the beach, like, dude, anyway, I'm sorry. I'm geeking out on you. OG of motivational videos. It's like the one that started at all, you know? Yeah. So I watched that thing and I just go on a binge of all of Eric Thomas's content, following

them on all social media platforms. I always tell people that I knew ET, at least I felt like I knew him. And I was getting to know him and his mindset and his personality years before I actually met him because I was just absorbing all of his content day after day for years. And a couple of, you know, months go by and I'm scrolling on Instagram and I see an ad pop up one-on-one consultation with Eric Thomas for $250. And keep in mind, gymnastics career just ended, all this stuff back home going on. I'm putting myself through school. So I've got student loans, but I'm making $100 a week working for the same team that I had been cut from. and Adam later story.

I don't think I told you this one earlier. My very first car, I had just gotten my very first car. It was a 2009 Ultima Coupe. Those were nice. It's really, really small. People made fun of me for it because I was a big dude. The car's really small. I had gotten it from my biological father who wasn't necessarily in my life when I was younger.

So I already had some mixed emotions about that. And it barely ran. Electrical issues everywhere. It was shut off midway on the road when you're driving. Absolutely terrible. But the one thing that I wanted to put in there was a subwoofer. I didn't care if it drove well. I wanted to sound good.

And I had just, the week before I saw the Instagram ad for ET, I'd taken it to the sub shop in Ann Arbor and gotten it fitted for a 12-inch subwifery, installed. It was going to cost about $250. So now I'm sitting there. Like, I got to make this decision between something that I really, really want, just personally selfishly, and this investment into my future. Right. But at the same time, I don't know if when I get on the phone with this guy, if he's going to be the same person that I see on the internet, if he's going to be totally different, if he's going to be fake, like, I just don't know. And I don't know exactly what it was that put me over the edge. I think it was almost a fomo. It was like, what if this changes my life, right? And every time I'm driving, listening that speaker, I'm going to be thinking, ah, what if I sound good, though? Right. Like, what if I screwed this up? And I ended up doing the coaching call. And we're on the phone. And he finds out that I live in Ann Arbor. He lives in Lansing, Michigan, about an hour and 20 minutes away. He says, come meet me for breakfast, 5 o'clock in the morning, a little place called Sophia's

pancake out there in Lansing. And of course, I was blown away because I was like, what does the number one motivational speaker in the world want to do, you know, meeting me for breakfast for. Yeah, exactly. Right. And of course, I took him up on that opportunity. It was an hour and a half away, wanted me to five. I got to get up at three.

I'd never woken up at three o'clock in the morning in my life on purpose before. chugged a giant, you know, thermos full of coffee, make it out there. And that one conversation was honestly incredibly transformative. But even more than what we talked about in that little breakfast meeting was it was the spark that ignited that relationship. And from there, I started volunteering. So basketball camps, he had them in Flint, Detroit, Chicago. I was driving, spending my own money to get out there just to volunteer. There was little five foot nine gymnasts running around these basketball camps in the inner city, trying to add value, trying to get in the room.

You mentioned that before he got on camera, all the conferences that he was doing, getting in the room, volunteering. Then I found out he did an event every Monday night for free, open to the public, called the Success Series at Michigan State University. So for no lie, two straight years, my senior and super senior year of college, I would get up at around six, morning training with the gymnastics team. at that point I was coaching from seven to eight class from 830 to two coaching the team for afternoon practice two to five jump in the car same beat up ultimate drive to lansing hour and a half over there listen to et speak get back in the car drive back to Ann Arbor and I would coach personal training sessions at night to pay for the gas that I was spending every week to go back and forth I did that for two years straight and I only missed one of those and it was because of a family

thing somebody was in the hospital but only missed one in two years and And right around March of 2020, I was going to the success series like I always did every single Monday night, but I knew that I was about to graduate, right? I graduated May of 2020. But remember, in March, we didn't know that the pandemic was here yet. We kept hearing about this COVID thing, but we didn't think it was serious. We joked about it in the gym with the guys. We were like, yeah, and this little virus that everybody's talking about overseas, this ain't nothing. And that night at the success series had a whole binder full of materials that I'm going to be.

I was going to give ET because I wanted to ask him for an opportunity. 60 pages worth of stuff. Again, I was an introvert, super scared of the whole world. So I couldn't speak back then, but I could write. Had a whole folder of writing samples, motivational topics, mindset stuff. I had my disc assessment in there, cover letter, resume. I was going to hand it to him at the end of the night and ask for internship opportunity of some sort. Because I knew I wanted to be around him because I knew that he was making money and he was helping people.

And those were the only two things I wanted to do. So I was like, this is a pretty good guy to learn. from and toward the end of his presentation and of course i hear absolutely none of what he's talking about some nervous out of my mind this is like god to me right yeah and at the end of his presentation he starts shuffling towards the back door and he says i'm sorry if i can't stick around to take pictures today i keep hearing about this coronavirus thing my wife has a mess i can't risk it don't worry i'll I'll be back again next week. John, three days later, the world shuts down.

Yep. I don't know what that calling was that said, don't let him walk out that door. I did let him walk out that door because he's famous. And I figured if I jump out of my seat and chase him, somebody's going to tackle me. I'm going to end up in the new trip. So I end up leaving my stuff there. My girlfriend's with me. I had a teammate with me, laptop, everything, left it right there in that seat, sprinted up two flights of stairs out the front door of that arena.

and I beat him to his car because I knew where he parked his car every year. And so he's literally here. His car is here and I'm standing right in the middle. You have to talk to me. And it's cold and it's raining because it's Michigan and March and that's, you know, what it does there. And my whole script of what I was going to say to try and convince him to give me an opportunity literally evaporated in my mind before my very eyes.

Like I was so nervous. I just handed in this binder of stuff and said, I'll do anything for an opportunity. And right there on the spot, he committed to an unpaid internship. No talk about terms, timeline, what am I going to be doing? He just said, I'll give you an internship and we'll figure the rest out. And I'll go ahead and give you a break there because I've been talking for a minute. But that was the start of a journey that's lasted about three years now and has taken me into a completely new career I never thought I was capable of.

It's taken me across the world. It's been an unbelievable journey. And a lot of it was from two things. Number one, taking that risk to actually not let that moment pass, right? To go chase him down, to go beat him to his car, to go hand him with those documents. It was that and then it was his ability to just give me a shot. And then, of course, what I did with it after that. You know, the thing is that I want to point out is there's a lot of people that will sit there, right?

And this happened to me today. And I was sitting there and thinking, I need to call this person and see if they're interested in advertising on the show. I think it's a good fit. Let me just pick up the phone. And I'm like, no, no, no, no,

because I felt it. I'm like, knew it was the right thing, but I wanted to talk myself out of it. I ended up calling that person and we're talking about a five figure deal. Like, follow up conversations later, right?

So at that point, Brandon, like walk the audience through some of the micro thoughts that you had because I'm sure at some point, you thought like, no, I'm just going to sit here in this fucking seat. I'll wait so next one. Right.

Right? So like walk the audience. and sue that because I think a lot of people, man, are stuck in that micro thought and don't take that step forward. Their life could be different, man. Man, I'm honestly, I'm so glad you asked that question. I'm a big fan of looking at, like vividly looking at what would happen to your life if you don't take the chance, if you don't take the risk. Because I think we live in a very positive psychology heavy society right now. What am I? from Michigan was in psychology. So we spent a lot of time in, you know, this, this positive

psychology mind frame. And I think it's great. I love it. It's very valuable in certain cases. But because personal development and positive psychology is so hot right now, sometimes some of that harsh reality is lost on people. And what's amazing is I'm exactly the person that you're talking about right now. I was that guy to the point where I sat in the same seat every week for two years, because I wanted him to know that I was there and for him to recognize my face. But I never would make eye contact with him during his presentations because I knew that he would do a lot of call and response with the audience. And I was so introverted and scared that I didn't want to even say yes in front of this room of two or 300 people. So I wouldn't look at him in the eyes when he spoke.

Interesting. So I'm the one that's like terrified to take the risk. I am the one that's terrified to put myself out there. A hundred percent. But those Monday nights, the risk and reward was proportional enough that I could justify. I could say, okay, I'm terrified of speaking in front of these people. What am I really going to get from? How much more value do I get from it?

I think that moment on that night in March when I chased after him, I had a really honest conversation with myself of what's my life going to look like if I do this versus what's it not? Because let's say worst case scenario, right? I go out there and he says, absolutely not. Get out of here. You're crazy. You chase me down in my car. I'm going to call cops.

Cool. Yeah. Right. I lose the opportunity. Yeah. But I know. I know what's going to happen. And then I can go coach gymnastics out in Texas like I was going to do anyway, make 60 grand a year.

Probably start a little personal training side hustle, maybe make six figures and live a happy life. But I knew that I went for it. Right. Yeah. alternatively if you sit there you have to live with that for the rest of your natural life that maybe that was the shot that was going to change your entire life that was going to change for generations to come and you let it go and for me regret is scarier than death it's scarier than failure regret is something that i i don't know what it is about my natural wiring but it's something i can't live with and so for me

the fear of the regret and the missed opportunity outweighed the fear of action. Excuse me. That's a good point, man, because I think a lot of people just get stuck in that. You know, and it's hard. I mean, see, that takes a lot of awareness too, right? To sit there and say, hey, what would it be like if I didn't? You know, let's go the negative route here. You know, Brandon, what would it look like if I didn't take this risk? Okay, Sean, what would it look like if I didn't make that call?

Well, you wouldn't monetize, bro. Like, well, what's your goal, right? You know, we want to take this thing to a point where we can impact billions of lives. You have to take risks. So people are listening. Like, I don't care if it's, you're working, you know, a blue collar, which is commendable. And you're an addicts and you've always wanted to be a teacher your whole life because you want to impact children. Take that risk.

Get away from what you know and try something new. Which brings me to my next point with you. And it's something that I admire about you. And you've said it a couple times on the show here. And then of course, just in our conversations prior to us even shooting this show is you're an introvert, man. You don't like to be the center of attention. You sure of shit don't want to talk in front of anybody. And now you're on stages.

You know, you're a co-creator of this big brand, seven-figure brand, might I add. And I would imagine there's speaking involved in that. So how did you evolve, man? Because a lot of people get stuck in their ways. What would you say to them and some tips for them to start taking that day one stride? Yeah. Take the first step. Just take the first step.

And it's not going to be easy and it's not going to be fun. But it is the thing that's going to help you grow the most. Right. I remember when I was probably 20 years old, it was right before my wrist surgery. I was the right hand man to this guy. He was an ex-g gymnast as well. He was a team USA athlete. And he had an online personal training company.

And for a while when I was in school, I thought that's kind of the route that I wanted to go down. Because I knew you could make good money with it. And it was something that I really knew how to do. Like personal training was easy for me. I thought I would enjoy it. So I kind of shadowed this guy and he was one of my mentors when I was in college. And he took me to Lewis House conference. So I'm in a greatness, Columbus, Ohio.

Yeah. And I remember sitting there in the audience and Lewis got on stage and two things happen. And this is, I love Lewis to death. I've got to interact with him a couple of times. He's an amazing person. And at that time, I don't know if he was having like a rough day, if he didn't sleep very well or what. But he came on stage in the first five minutes. I sat there and I was like, I could do better than this.

And even as a super introvert, like in my mind, I'm sitting there thinking, I feel like even if not better, I can do what he's doing. I'm capable of doing exactly what he's doing on stage right now. Right. So that was the first light bulb that kind of went off in my mind. The second light bulb was he got on stage. And right after that, he said, whatever you're afraid of the most is the exact thing that you need to run full steam ahead at because he has a very similar story to to me actually if you've ever heard it he was a super introvert as well stuttered didn't really speak well in front of people and then he went to

tostmasters and just dove like head first all into it and of course now he's on stages in front of thousands of people as well and i heard that and it really got the wheels of my mind turning to say maybe that fear is an indication that it's going to stretch me and allow me to grow, not an indication to run the other way. Because that's the constraint. Hormozzi talks about that all the time with business. You build a business up to its constraint. If your constraint is lead flow or your constraint is product, then that's going to be

your glass ceiling. And until you fix that one thing, it doesn't matter how good you get at everything else, you're not going to break through the ceiling. For me, personally, that was speaking in front of people. That was the ability to articulate my. myself, right? That was the glass ceiling. I was really good at all these other things. I was smart. I had two degrees from Michigan. I understood business really well intuitively. I was inspired. I could coach people, but I couldn't get in front of people without freaking out,

literally to the point where when I was 21, even 22, fifth year senior at Michigan on the first day of class, and these are like upper level horses because I'm a fifth year senior. So there's like 17 people in the class. I would stand up and have to do the little introduction of, hey, my name's Brandon, I'm studying economics and psychology. I would have panic attacks, like shaking, sweating, like the whole thing. But I finally realized if I can just get over that, imagine now that when that one skill set catches up to the rest of these skills sets that I've been developing, we're going. And that's on me.

Exactly. That for me was that really made a difference. And one more thing really fast. Since if I can have a little, a nerd tangent on the psychology piece because you talked about. that fear-based motivation, right? It's really undervalued and underused because there was a study that we learned about back probably one of my freshman psychology classes and it was about motivation. What they did is they took this rat and they put it in a cage and they put the smell of food

on one side of the rat. They tied a string around its tail and the other end of the string was attached to a force meter. What they did was they measured how hard the rat was pulling toward the food as a proxy for its motivation. If it pulls harder, it's more motivated to get to the food that's on the other side of the cage. So they got their number, they're reading, right? Then what they did, exact same experiment, rat, tail tied to a force plate, smell of food over here. They sprayed the smell of a cat behind it. The number didn't just double, it more than doubled, which shows if you really want to tap into that motivation, having goals and dreams is great. You've got to have goals and dreams. You've got to have

a target you got to be aiming towards something positive right you got to be pulled and called towards something bigger than you that you're inspired to grow to go get however that harsh reality of here's the regret that I'm going to die with if I don't do this and take that chance you've got to have that's you got to have something you're running to and you got to have something that you're running from and I think for me that speaking thing and the ability to articulate myself and get comfortable in public, taking that first step was, here's what I want. Here's what I don't want. Identifying those two things gave me the fuel that I needed to say, the discomfort of this

situation right here is worse than the discomfort of just taking one little step forward. Last thing. I swear, I'm done after this. Get around the right people too. Because the first public presentation I ever gave outside of a classroom in college was when ET was doing a pro bono gig in front of 200 employers. for a restaurant owner that he knew. And he called me up on stage.

And he said, he called me like two days before. He said, I want you to speak for 15 minutes. No slides. Just you in the microphone. I said, E,

I'm an introvert. I'm scared. I don't care. You got to get around people who see more in you than you see in yourself and who are willing to push you to flood at you. I'm done, Sean. I'm done talking.

I love it, man. This is, this is why I have you on, man. There's so much knowledge here. The big thing that I'm listening and that I'm hearing through these, you call them nerdy tan.

Chant tangents is this. Like, you are just making that first step, right? And as you make that first step running towards something that scares the shit out of you, your threshold gets larger and larger and larger. You had done that so many times from the point that you, you know, were trading dollars for gas in order to get to, you know, these free events on Monday night. And until a point where in that March in the rain,

asking for some type of way to work with EET to that moment sitting there and having to get on stage, you already pushed through so many barriers that this was just conditioned now. You're like, fuck, I guess this is something that I have to push through now because this guy who I look up to is telling me I have to. It's got to be the right move. And it was. That's right. It's so many people, especially these days, along those same lines of the positive psychology. and self-care and everything.

Confidence is a really hot topic right now. And I just think people look at it the complete wrong way. I like where this is going. Oh, yeah, this is going to be a fun one, right? People perceive confidence as this feeling of assuring that I know I'm going to get the outcome that I want because I'm trained, I'm prepared, and I'm just absolutely positive that this situation, whatever it may be, is going to go my way. that's dumb because I was an athlete for 15 years of my life and there's certain skills right now. I passed 10,000 hours, 10,000 hours ago. There's certain skills right now that if you ask me to do, I'm going to be like, get the camera ready.

This is either going to go really good or really bad. Like you're not always going to have that feeling. I don't care how much work you put in because there's going to be a day where you feel a little off. You've got a cold. He didn't sleep very well. Something's bothering you back home. Your girl's blowing you up. Like something's happening in your life where you're not 100% locked in.

where you have that feeling of complete 100%, I know that this is going to work the way that I want it to work. That's not confidence. That's fleeting. Confidence to me is I've built myself into this resilient machine that I don't care if it goes my way or not. I'm going to be just fine. And I've got the evidence to go prove it because I've gotten through this. I've gotten through this.

I've proven myself here. I stayed consistent every day for years on this. Like, I know who I am. And that's a level of confidence that you can't get to without doing the work to prove it. Because you're not who you say you are just because you say it. Like, oh, I'm dedicated. I'm a hard worker. Okay, where's the receipts?

I have receipts getting cut from a team four times in five years, never getting a trophy, never getting an award for it, never competing for the team that I wanted to. And I was still out working guys for four years straight. There's receipts. So when you talk about confidence, I know who I am. It doesn't matter what somebody on the internet says about me. Because I've proven who I am to myself. And until you get to that point, any inkling of confidence that you have is fake. You're tricking yourself to think is real.

I think the big thing for people to take away from that, too, is, is, man, rely on yourself for your confidence. You don't need to rely on external anchors for this shit, man. You need to do the work every single day, building up the confidence level that you know who the fuck you are. And you can get that sale tomorrow or they can reject you. It's not going to matter. because you know you're going to go and you're going to do your thing at the next call or whatever the profession is, right? Just guys, like the big point is your confidence isn't, it doesn't signify what you get from an action, right? Like, you know, well, if I get this one more sale, I'm going to be confident.

You know, if I stick this landing, I'm going to be more confident. It doesn't work like that. Yeah, you're always going to be searching for something outside of you. And the challenge is, whatever it is that you're searching for isn't going to follow you to the next thing. So if you get that one more sale and then you go and start your own business, that confidence doesn't transfer because it was situational isolated conference. When the conference comes from who you are, you follow you everywhere. So now it doesn't matter what the situation is. You're just that guy.

Yeah. And do, nothing will teach you more about how you truly feel about yourself than entrepreneurship. That's the truth. I mean, holy shit. Like, I mean, literally I, you know, sent somebody some information the other day for the show. And I'm like, oh, man, I wonder what they're going to say? Like, bro, what the fuck am I doing? Like, I'm telling myself the story.

Like, is this worth it? Like, you play and then I have to snap out of it. It's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait a second. No, stop. But when you're selling something for somebody else, whether it's your in a medical career like I am or somewhere out it's like you automatically just think okay i'm going to go sell this stuff you know but those to your point that that confidence is not transferable to being an entrepreneur it's it's not it's a completely

different set of challenges insecurities lack of confidence that you have to build on every single day and i always like to ask myself this question when i'm struggling with that what would that dude you know my myself in 10 years when i'm where i want to be right now where I see myself, how would he act right now? Or how would somebody like E.T. or Brandon Burns act in this moment, right? I think it's very important for people to understand. Yeah. That's such a great question to ask. And I think that, you know, a lot of people talk about manifesting is, again, goes along with the whole positive self-development piece that, uh, that we're in now. Which is over fucking played by the way. Like, I want to get there, but like, we can get there.

Like we can go hard on these people and hurt some feelings. But, anyway, keep going. Sometimes people need to get their feelings here. Sometimes that's the only way you change. I mean, dude, I'm sorry. The law of attraction, I get it. I'm not going to close my eyes and put a Ferrari on a cork board. It's going to be in my fucking driveway.

People, there's work involved. Okay. There is work involved. I hate to. That's the spoiler alert. Okay. That's it. God.

Jeez, man. Like the, the manifestation thing is so misunderstood, right? It is not sitting there and humming and visualizing and all sudden, like you said, a Ferrari or a Lambo ends up in your garage or gots parked outside all a sudden. That's just, that's just good marketing. Right. Exactly. Yeah. That's how we sell courses. Yeah. Hello. That's how they sold that book. Right. Eventually, when you see enough people do it over and over and enough people get rich

off of selling the same dream and vision to millions of people, you start to see a pattern. But yeah, yeah, yeah. We're not knocking social media or anything, but it's fine. Right. Not at all. Not at all. But to me, what I feel like the actual process of manifestation is is you put yourself in the mindset of that person that you want to be and you start making decisions from that frame of reference rather than the current reality that you're experiencing. And then because you are led to make those decisions and take the right actions, you eventually will get those results. But sometimes you have to put your mind there before your feet are there, if that makes sense. So I remember just a couple of months ago, we were at, I won't say the name, but it was a very, very large event, very large conference, probably six or seven thousand people there. ET wasn't even there.

It was just me. And it was a big name in the personal development industry that you would know. And we, of course, were able to go backstage. It was me and a buddy of mine. So I, of course, kind of came as E.T.'s guy. And they gave me kind of the backstage privileges to go connect with everybody. and they were just trying to help us out because we're trying to do with an E.T's company some of the things that these people had successfully done for years. So that connection was made.

They said, hey, let your guy come back here, connect with everybody, ask us whatever questions he needs. We'd love to help you out. I had a buddy of mine who is a little bit newer to the industry, and he's doing his thing. He's podcasting. He's coaching, but he's not necessarily directly affiliated with some of those giant players in the space. Right. So I say that to say I'm not like glorifying me in any circumstances. of the imagination who I'm affiliated with, right?

Right, of course. We're backstage and we're talking to these people. And I look at my guy and he just looks scared. Like he looks like he's running from the cops or something. Like he's sweaty and kind of like, he's like, he's like playing with his fingers. I'm like, bro, what are you doing? The fuck's going on. Right.

Like, do you know who you're talking to? Like, yeah, that's who we came here to talk to. He said, no, but like, it's him. He's right there. I said, hey, need to understand something. we belong back here. This is where we're supposed to be. And we don't fan out over people who are our peers.

Now, we respect them because they put in the work over time and they've accomplished more than we have yet. But they're ahead of us. They're not better than us. You understand that. You belong back here. Otherwise, you wouldn't be back here. Right. That's what I'm talking about when I say manifestation.

You put yourself in the mentality of this is who I am. This is where I belong. And then you act in accordance to that. But it's not just hoping and. wishing without the work because when you put yourself in those shoes you start to act like it you do the work and that's why you get the results not because of that's where the preparation comes from right like you you're sitting there preparing and it is one of the hardest things to do to be in a current state of a situation and then act as if right and and we're not talking about pumping our

chest out walking around we're talking about what would i do or what would he or she do in this specific scenario you know exactly i think it's important man I agree. I agree. And it's it can be tough to do it. But I think that's why you've got to start saturating your mind with that mentality that you want to have that is associated with where you eventually want to go. Right. So Tony Robbins has this old quote that I love where he says, weed grow automatically flowers take effort. Your mind is a garden. Right. So it's like, why are you following World Star and you're not following E.T or Sean Friend? or any of these other people, right? You're feeding your mind stuff that's going to keep you where you're at rather than elevating your expectations. Exposure elevates expectations. You might not be able to go to a dealership right now and go sit in a Lamborghini and feel

what it's like. You might not be able to go get on a private jet right now. You might not be able to go get those experiences, but you can borrow somebody else's experiences who have done that and you can start to put yourself there and say, okay, how do you do that? How did he think to do it? How can I start to associate mine? mentality with whatever that is. So you can get started from wherever you are now. No, I love it because a lot of people, and you talk about mentality, a lot of people,

when they get into our space, they launch a podcast, they're writing a book. You know, they want to be at that finish line like right now. And if it doesn't happen, and I've fallen into this, I'm very transparent. I'm always real. I've freaking told you that. I'm never going to hide anything from anybody. When I first starting this, I got really lost in the, you know, the vanity metrics and all that kind of stuff, what it was supposed to look like. And what I found was, man, it's never about a funnel. It's never about that next, a lot of times it is about the next mentor, if it's a really good one. But you know what I'm talking about, right?

It's like, I don't need all these shiny automation things. I don't need this funnel. I don't need this. I don't need that. What we really need is we need to change from within. like it's about us we're our biggest bottleneck and we have to be able to literally be a hundred percent unapologetic about how we filter that and how we evaluate that within ourselves without any judgment because if we don't do that like how the hell are we going to grow man yeah and it's

it's hard for people now because of social media right not to i keep bashing social media but it's hard because everybody's a fucking racket it's a rack it's a rat I mean, it puts you in a situation where it's like every single day you get up. The first thing you do is you start pock and watching other people that are in your space and you get jealous about them. And then what happens is you try and emulate them. It's so funny, man, CJ, he was Eric Thomas's original, like, right-hand man. He's still the OG right-hand man, but he's been with him for probably 20 years. And he always talks about if you're trying to be a motivational speaker and you start your videos with,

what up, what up, what up, it's your boy. you're just trying to be E.T. Walmart brand. Yeah. We don't need that, right? But that unfortunately, that's the trap that people fall into. So people have got to learn how to be inspired and how to extract best practices

without becoming copycats and being afraid. Yeah. Does that make sense? Like, you got to have your own. No, it makes perfect sense. Like, dude, it drives me crazy, man, because, you know, I can, you hear a hundred different,

people like I've interviewed a lot of people and they're all quoting the giants but not quoting them just taking what they say and infusing it into their speech just like wait a second I understand a lot of these things are universal dude like I understand it mindset's universal discipline determination whatever nothing's proprietary but how you deliver that information your speech pattern your mannerisms like even your your choice of language That's you. Like, be you.

And there's too many people, man, like the Walmart versions. Like, let me just copy that person over there. Or you see people like completely switch and go from like, I used to vibe with that person now. Like, your videos creep me out. I can't even watch them anymore. Right? Because they're clearly not being themselves. Yeah.

Yeah. You only get one life, man. You owe it to yourself to be yourself. It's like, why would you speak? your entire life trying to emulate somebody that you can never be. You were given a unique set of gifts, talents, and potential. And I don't necessarily want to take it into a super spiritual place. That is something that I believe in.

But for me, think about how disrespectful that is to either your creator or the universe or whatever you believe in, that they gave you a completely unique set of potential. And if you would fully actualize what you have, nobody, not me. not Sean, not E.T. Not anybody could do what you do because you're so unique, but you want to be so disrespectful to the gifts that you were given and you just want to go try and copy somebody else. That doesn't even make sense.

And it's not going to work. Oh, dude. That, that right there, bro. That is so good because, you know, for me, it's, you know, God, you know, Christ, I'm a Christ follower. And, like, I'll sit there sometimes and I'll beat myself up. Like, whatever talk to my kids like that? Like, no.

I've never talked to my kids like that. Would I allow anybody to talk to my kids like that? And that thought of someone saying some of the things that I can think about myself to my son or my two daughters almost puts me in tears. I'm like, wow, now you know how God feels. What are you doing? What are you doing, man? But I think it's something that a lot of people can struggle with. And, you know, mental health is important in this space because, you know, like you say, you pocket watch.

You get up, you know, and you, in a lot of this, a lot of this industry is based on vanity stuff. People say, don't worry about the vanity metrics, but like, you know, you could put something out there that you think is going to perform and it just goes a shit. Like, you're sitting there all day and like, is there crickets? Did I even post this today? What's going on? But then you collaborate with somebody and then, you know, you have 35,000 likes the moment it's published and you're like, hmm. Okay. Thanks for fucking up my algorithm.

Very nice. Right. All these box stuff. There's terrible now. Yeah. It's like I got 80,000 views and like there's mine. Bing. Just like whatever, man.

No, man. This is a good conversation. I think the overall tone of what I want the audience to really understand is like you had clarity about what you wanted and who you wanted to work with. And then you created a plan, a strategy. And then you implemented a ton of. of strategic activity to even get in between him and the car and then you had intention. Like there's there's manifestation right there one-on-one, guys.

That's a formula. That's a three-step formula. And I want to say this because I think sometimes when I tell people that story, they think that it was this super intentional plot that I came up with like in an evil layer five years ago. And I was like, okay, I'm going to become E.T's man, right? Yeah. And the truth of it. it is in reverse that makes perfect sense right intention strategy everything else and there's

truth to that that is the underlying foundation of what made that successful in the moment though i knew a few things i knew everybody that i saw get around et blew up right and these might not be names that the entire industry is familiar with but ekey johnson Alex good energy jeremy anderson um jemal king right i just kept seeing a pattern of if you get close enough to ET, you tend to have a pretty cool life. So I was like, okay, I'm not smart enough to do this on my own. Let me go. I don't know what the secret sauce is, but they seem like they have it.

So let me go figure that out. So let me get close. Okay, how can I get close? I'm a college student with no real skills or, you know, marketable assets. Let me go volunteer. Let me volunteer the only thing that I have, my time. Cool. Let me make sure that I'm consistent.

Because I'm a big believer in like people came up to the gym, to me in the gym just the other day. And they asked for my arms workout routine, right? And I thought about it for a second. And I said, my arms workout routine is I worked out every day for 15 years. Like I don't have a specific exercise you've never heard of as curls. Yeah. But I did it a lot. Yeah.

Over a period of time consistently, right? So I said, okay, maybe I shouldn't go to this event, the success series once. Maybe I should go every single week, right? Like it's not a super deliberate, okay, I'm going to chase him down in the parking lot. Then he's going to give me an internship. I'll turn down the job offer. I can finish the internship, then he'll hire me as admin, then I'll work my way up to being his agent. It wasn't like that.

It was just a series of, I hate to say it, common sense decisions to say, here's the life that I want. Here's where I am now. This seems like a reason. It might not be perfect, but this seems like a reasonable strategy to get me closer to this, not all the way there, but closer. Let's try and actually put in energy and effort to execute that. And if you just do that over it, like if you do that every day, if you say, here's something that kind of vaguely looks like it's going to lead me closer to the life that I want, let me actually take action towards that.

And you do that every single day. You will look up in five years and have no idea how you got from way over there. Yeah. Like you want to be the same person. Yeah. I think that's my exact point, right? It's like you didn't know, you didn't have any expectation of where it would lead. you. You just knew that was the next step. Yeah. And like that is something every single day,

ladies and gentlemen listening that if there is one thing you can do to get better, I don't care if it's go for a five minute walk. I don't care if it's make one phone call, send one email, start, do that. And then do it again tomorrow in the next day, in the next day, in the next day, and the next day. And I'll admit before anybody calls me on my bullshit here, like we all struggle with certain aspects, okay? It's easy for me to put in time and make phone calls and send emails and do this for my show than it is to be a 365 days straight on with the gym, just the way it is at this point, right?

But like, guys, I don't have goals of being Mr. America. I have goals of bringing Sean French as one of the biggest media brands and speakers on the planet. it like that's where we're going that's the goal so every single day i am making moves that direction are they are they leaps and bounds brandon i don't think so man you know like it's going to take some time and you know that but like i just want the audience to be super encouraged it's just the next step man you know but uh we're getting close man we got to land the plane here soon i want you to kind of just talk about what you guys are doing i know you guys

had some virtual events. You know, how can people connect with you guys, work with you guys, just kind of soak all you guys, all the knowledge that you guys have in? For sure, for sure. Of course, we're on the E.T. side, E.T. the hip-hop preacher on all social media, E.T. inspires. And EricThomas.com. We actually own both domains now, but EricThomas.com is the fancier website.

So anything in relation to E.T. You can find over there. And then my personal stuff is at I.M.B. Burns on all social media. and then same thing for the website. I and B Burns.com. And can people work with you directly? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I've actually got a, it's not live just yet,

but it probably will be by the time that this releases. My whole mantra is every day means every day, right? And the really quick backstory on that is I was doing some commentating work for the Big Ten Network for gymnastics. And somebody walked in and said, dude, how often do you work out? I told them every day. And they kind of double takes. They were like, every day?

I said, yeah, every day means every day. That's not always, you know, anything crazy. It's not always a two-hour lift session, but yeah, every day I do some sort of a workout. And that kind of just became a thing. Okay, if you want to achieve something, you got to work on it every day. And every day doesn't mean every day except weekends. It doesn't mean every day unless it's before 8 a.m. It means every day means every day, right?

So we're going to do what's called Everydayacademy. Everyday means Everyday.com. And that's where we're just going to pour into people and mind, body, and business. So everything that we talked about here from mindset to business to physical fitness, just unleashing your potential in all aspects of life, we got something for you no matter what it is that you're looking for. So I'm super excited about that too. That's awesome.

Do you have a launch date? Tentatively end of June. In the June. This will be airing. Well, I don't want to say it on air, but it's airing right now. Right, right. Hey, let me call the team. We'll get the website.

up in 24 hours. We'll have a... Come on. Get it done. Get it done. Oh, man. I appreciate it, man. Dude, dude. Thank you so much for taking the time to have a great conversation with me and pour into my audience. I truly feel that they learned a ton from you today on just how to get started and to make changes in their lives so they can self-actualize, man, and just to understand that there's a lot of work that's involved, dude. So I just appreciate you so much. Man, thank you so much for having me on here. And thank you for doing what you do, by the way, because it's not always a job that gets thanked enough. But without people like you, people like me have no platform to share a message.

And we can only help people when we team up and work together. So appreciate you. Absolutely, brother. My pleasure. And until next time, guys, see you soon.