Latest / Founder Unfiltered - What Founders Think But Never Say / The Performance Trap: Stop Hustling for Worthiness & Start Thriving with Brian Bogert

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The Performance Trap: Stop Hustling for Worthiness & Start Thriving with Brian Bogert · Founder Unfiltered - What Founders Think But Never Say

0:00
Welcome to another episode of 6 Figure Secrets for Fractional
0:03
Experts. My name is Bradley Jacobs, I'm
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your host, the founder and CEO of my Lands.
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Today, I'm incredibly excited to be joined by Brian Bogert.
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Brian is a human behavior and performance coach, speaker, and
0:16
business strategist. He disrupts the normative
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approach on how to create sustainable growth and lasting
0:21
change personally and professionally.
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I know there's a lot more there. We'll have you dive into it, but
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welcome to the show, Brian. I'm excited to be here, brother.
0:29
Any chance I have to be able to pour some good into the world?
0:32
I, I, I, I take it up, especially when it aligns with
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people like you. So.
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Awesome. Well excited to have you.
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How would you elaborate on that intro?
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Like, tell the audience who you are and what you do.
0:45
Well, I always start by saying I'm a husband and father 1st and
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it's important to say that for me because though I've said that
0:49
for 20 years, my words, actions and behaviors were not always
0:53
congruent. They are now, but the truth of
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the matter is, is what I do is a byproduct of a whole lot of
0:59
experiences that I've had. It's really now a manifestation
1:02
of who I am. But the story that I'm most well
1:05
known for that roots a lot of everything that we have, and
1:07
I'll just hit the tops of the waves here is that when I was
1:09
seven years old, I was run over by a truck and my left arm was
1:12
completely torn from my body was reattached. 24 surgeries and a
1:15
whole bunch of shit that I'm sure we can unpack in little
1:18
moments that will be relevant. But at the end of the day, I
1:20
used to believe this was my transformation story.
1:22
And the truth of the matter is it was the story that just
1:25
created a lot of trash from my past.
1:26
But I pushed through and pushed down for years that I didn't
1:29
realize until 273035 as it was starting to explode and get
1:34
dumped into other areas of my life.
1:36
At the end of the day, I had a lot of early success because I
1:39
learned to receive love, validation, and connection
1:41
through performance because of all the things I was trying to
1:43
prove and I was really blessed. By age 27.
1:45
We had a $10 million business and growing and I had everything
1:48
I thought I ever wanted. And then it wasn't too long
1:51
afterwards that I almost lost everyone and everything in my
1:54
world as a result of me and completely unconscious behaviors
1:57
that were a result of this trash.
1:59
And so I've had lots of success. I've built businesses, exited
2:03
businesses, and I've helped a lot of both enterprises and
2:07
complete startups or solopreneurs learn to really
2:10
step more authentically into who they are and they're worth their
2:14
value, be able to garner it in the marketplace, message and
2:16
communicate it. But at the end of the day, I
2:18
like to believe that I'm helping heart centered impact makers
2:21
identify and remove the waste in their lives and businesses that
2:24
they don't even know exists so they can actually exist in the
2:26
wealth side of life. The areas that create joy,
2:29
freedom and fulfillment that we all seek and desire but might be
2:31
fleeting in those moments when we're feeling completely
2:34
isolated and alone in this journey.
2:36
So what do I do? I've been described in many ways
2:39
as breaking compartments. I don't fit in one silo. 1
2:43
singular type of description, but at the end of the day, I'm a
2:47
force multiplier. And so whether we're scaling
2:49
business, whether we're helping deepen relationships, whether
2:52
we're getting getting back time through systems intention and
2:55
awareness, whether we're ultimately helping people dial
2:59
in their health, I don't view life in just singular buckets.
3:03
And it's not like a work life balance situation.
3:06
It's about how do we do this with intention and with
3:08
integration so that we can have all things that we desire and be
3:12
able to live the lives that we're capable of living without
3:14
all the unnecessary restraints. So we're going to get into a lot
3:18
of depth in what you shared. It's going to be an emotional
3:21
conversation or talking about emotions.
3:24
And there's certain people listening that I know do the
3:26
work, right? And they've been in the coaching
3:28
containers in the programs and therapy and things like that.
3:31
And there's certain people that have it and don't necessarily
3:33
totally understand or maybe even agree with it or think it's
3:37
legitimate for both parties. I think we can make it tangible
3:40
by saying what are the behaviors that the waste is evidence of?
3:46
Meaning, what are the behaviors that would suggest that there's
3:51
waste that exists for people? Yeah, OK.
3:55
I would say any level of protection, justification, need
3:59
to defend. That's one of them.
4:01
Shame is what I call the ultimate wolf in sheep's
4:04
clothing. It shows up as about 50 other
4:06
emotions, right. Scarcity, perfectionism,
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control, blame. All of these are are emotions
4:13
that then manifest things. Anger.
4:15
Anger is a second secondary emotion.
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It's not a primary emotion. It's sole purpose is to push
4:20
everyone and everything away. So I'm giving external
4:23
descriptions, but what can it look like?
4:25
It can look like fragmented communication and lack of
4:27
clarity in communicating a vision or something that needs
4:31
to get done with a team. It could look like lack of
4:34
boundaries or accountability that leads to complete emotional
4:38
or financial extortion. It could be not knowing how to
4:41
price and set your valued time and resources in a way that
4:46
justifies what you're really worth because you're always
4:49
feeling like selling is is a is an inconvenience and a burden to
4:53
other people. It can look like reactions in a
4:55
moment with a spouse or with kids that have nothing to do
4:59
with what's right in front of you, right?
5:01
It could literally be a look your wife gives you at a moment
5:04
and it reminds you of how your mom looked at you when you
5:06
loaded the dishwasher and collected when you were eight,
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right? And in my life, it showed up in
5:12
some very specific ways, right? I said earlier, I learned to
5:15
receive love, validation, and connection through performance.
5:17
But what does that also mean? I genuinely believed that my
5:21
value was contingent upon whatever outcomes I created or
5:24
whatever I did for somebody independent of who I was, right?
5:28
Which meant that it was always about what was next, always
5:31
about that next target. It was a Doo Doo Doo hustle.
5:33
And I was always trying to outrun and perform.
5:36
But it also was a really painful journey getting there right.
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I would have moments where I had just brought in a multi 6 figure
5:44
account in my old business and we'd have 15 buyers there
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because it's a multi billion dollar company.
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I've spent 18 to 24 months curating and deepening the
5:54
relationships to even make that happen.
5:56
And we go into the first meeting with our team to start
5:58
transitioning from my sales development to actual
6:02
procurement and and delivery of services through our team.
6:04
And one of them would lean over because I'd be talking and
6:07
they'd say, Brian, you can't talk so fast, you can't talk so
6:10
loud. And even though everybody in
6:12
that fucking room is there because of me, what do I do?
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I shrink down and I bite my tongue because, well, I'm
6:16
apparently I'm not good enough in this moment.
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Even though the whole reason everyone's there is because of
6:19
me, right? Because my whole life I was told
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I talk too fast. I talk too loud.
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By the way, you've probably noticed that when you've
6:25
listened for 5 minutes so far, right?
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It also would show up in little moments like this where my wife
6:29
would say something like, hey, honey, what should we do with
6:32
the kids this weekend? Or what do you want to do with
6:33
the kids this weekend? But my shame and my anger filter
6:36
would cause me to hear it this way.
6:38
Hey honey, you've not done enough to be a good husband and
6:39
father here recently. So what do you do to make up for
6:41
it this weekend? Well, of course I'm fucking
6:43
defending that shit. I'm a great husband and father.
6:45
I've been saying that for 20 years, right?
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So what do I do? I I feel all the wave of emotion
6:50
in my chest. My chest expands.
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And then what? I rattle off the 10 things I've
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done in the last few days to show her I'm a good husband and
6:55
father. And that wasn't even what she
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asked, right? It shows up in so many ways that
7:02
people don't realize. It shows up in health and
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manifested health. I lived with daily physical pain
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for 31 years. I'm 2 1/2 years with 0 physical
7:10
pain and it has nothing to do with anything I did physically.
7:15
Right. Like this waste shows up in our
7:18
time. It shows up in our
7:19
relationships. It shows up in our health.
7:20
It shows up in our finances. It shows up in scarcity in that
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blocks us from things. Like, I could talk about this
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for days because anyone that dismisses this is probably
7:32
somebody that learned very early on to protect themselves, to
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shut off emotion, to make it not real.
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Because we were told to shut up, put a smile on and perform in
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this life. We were told, especially as men
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in many cases, you don't cry. You can't do that.
7:45
You can't feel these things. But here's the truth of the
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matter. The second you protect, the
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second you disconnect from emotion.
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Human connection without emotion is not human connection.
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And I'll tell you in a second, and I, I, I'll give you a chance
7:59
to after I pause from this, this just download that I'm giving
8:02
you. But like, there's this whole
8:04
philosophy and framework that we teach that even shows that the
8:06
second you protect yourself, you're guaranteed you're going
8:08
to disconnect yourself from who you are and what you want,
8:11
right? And so how does trash show up?
8:14
It shows up in all the negative shit that people experience on a
8:17
day-to-day basis in their lives that they wish they could
8:19
escape, but they're too afraid to go inward to find the
8:22
solution. Wow, kind of like speechless.
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Let me just digest for a SEC. So if we let's bring this to one
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example that we can maybe then take through, we'll see how long
8:34
we get. The most tangible one at least
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that stands out for me is the I feel the need to perform with my
8:42
business where it feels like part of my identity and it's
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something I've been working to unravel for years of like, I am
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not the business is not me. I'm not the business.
8:51
The business could fail and I could still be incredibly
8:53
valuable, worthy human being. But that it that certainly
8:57
resonates of this desire to perform to have a big successful
9:03
growing business that adds tons of value because.
9:06
Then. I will feel good about myself
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then I will be worthy level of the whole thing, right.
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So let's just and that's an example you mentioned.
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So let's take that one. And I would, I would guess a lot
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of people in listening can resonate to some degree from the
9:21
standpoint of I have anxiety about my business, I worry it's
9:25
not going to succeed. I have imposter thoughts about
9:28
delivering for clients or even signing new clients.
9:31
I have imposter thoughts about as you brought up the value in
9:34
pricing like charging enough, charging a lot, all of those,
9:38
any one of those things if they resonate, it's in part right
9:41
because I feel the need to perform.
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OK. So let's just say that that's
9:48
true. What is the antidote for it?
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Like what do you do? You said you haven't had the
9:53
physical pain for two years, so you've made a lot of progress in
9:56
this space. What do you do?
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Can I give you just maybe a story or a couple of examples
10:03
because it'll make it even tangible in real.
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I can answer the question just generically, but I can also just
10:08
help you see some examples. We've got a client.
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It's, it's a friend that I've worked with now for, for a
10:14
number of years. She is a very gifted creator.
10:19
And for over a decade, she's been building a rhythm in a very
10:22
specific niche, OK. And within this niche, she has
10:26
deep relationships, has established great value.
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But for Bay, about a decade, she'd never made over 50 grand
10:33
in a year. And in the midst of all of this,
10:36
right, Like she's got competitors that are charging
10:39
34510 times as much for projects that don't deliver half the
10:42
results she has amassed in that time across her own channels,
10:47
multiple of her social channels, like real, real followers over
10:51
in excess of a million on multiple platforms.
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And we're talking like real followers.
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Never has there been a paid follower and her engagements
10:59
through the freaking roof. She averages between 5 and 7
11:03
million views on her social channels weekly and she gets
11:06
about 3 to 400 DMS weekly. I'm trying to give some
11:11
perspective to the volume that she's created and in this niche
11:14
because of the relationships she's facilitated multiple 6-7
11:19
and eight figure contracts between suppliers, vendors,
11:23
developers and folks that fit within the mix.
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She's never benefited from any of it.
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In one of our very first calls, we were able to tie her deepest
11:32
shame, her deepest need to perform in her deepest draw as
11:36
it related to her lack of self worth, to a moment when she was
11:40
12 when her creativity, her creative lens, was criticized,
11:46
shut down, and blocked. She never realized that her
11:50
deepest trauma was directly connected to her creative
11:53
profession. So her entire life, she's been
11:56
living this way. Why do I tell you this?
11:58
Because there wasn't just a singular moment where we shined
12:00
the light on it. And that's the answer.
12:02
But the first piece is you have to acknowledge that you are
12:05
operating in a place that's below capacity at a frequency
12:09
and energy that you don't want to live in and be willing to
12:12
look at and stand in and find your truth.
12:15
Now, what does that mean for her?
12:18
This was a quick way that we were able to compress time
12:20
through an exercise I did with her to be able to allow her to
12:23
feel and associate all of what was showing up in her business.
12:26
And then it became a systematic process of going through raising
12:29
her level of awareness, recognizing the patterns that
12:31
took place. We have a A5 pillars that we
12:34
teach that ground all of these concepts, but it's starting to
12:37
actually pay attention to pattern recognition.
12:40
All the times that she was shutting off emotion or getting
12:43
overwhelmed and reacting, all the moments that she's starting
12:45
to protect, right, to start to unwind.
12:48
Why do I tell you all this? Within nine months, Within nine
12:51
months, after 10 years of doing the same thing, she already was
12:56
making 250 grand in a run rate At that moment, and within the
13:00
following year, she was already on track to do 7 figures,
13:03
$1,000,000 for her first time. She increased her rates.
13:07
She started protecting her time. She started supporting and
13:09
creating boundaries. She built systems and started
13:12
delegating things that she for years believed she needed to.
13:14
She restructured offers that she felt like she was needing to
13:20
deliver all these things when in reality, what was actually being
13:23
valued was something completely different and was wasting a
13:25
bunch of her time, right? But again, it was like, well, if
13:28
I give everybody all these assets, then then this, this
13:30
makes me fit inside the box. But she doesn't fit inside the
13:33
box, right? This is just one example.
13:35
There's another with a guy that his business, he had 17 months
13:39
of liquidity left. It took him seven years to get
13:43
to $2,000,000. And then all of a sudden, he
13:46
didn't see a runway forward. Within three months, we'd
13:50
unpacked that his deepest trauma was connected to the
13:52
relationship with his brother and his father and every male
13:55
that had any resemblance in his life that indicated a
13:58
relationship like those two would trigger him into this
14:01
defensive state that he didn't realize he was doing, Which
14:03
blocked him from investors, which blocked him from
14:05
partnerships, which blocked him from delegating.
14:07
He lived in this control state. Their house was too small.
14:10
They'd outgrown it. His wife wanted to make all
14:12
these changes. So we started to do the inner
14:15
work. We started again doing a lot of
14:16
this pattern work, helping him understand how this was showing
14:19
up with his communication with his operations team, with his
14:21
admin, with how he was doing these things.
14:24
Literally within 12 months, they doubled the size of the business
14:28
and they gave raises. They fixed all of the problems.
14:31
His health had started to shift around and, and it it's not like
14:34
this magic pill, but at the end of the day, we can compress a
14:38
ton of time in these areas. And I've got hundreds of these
14:40
stories because of all the people I've worked with.
14:43
And often it's people who would identify with not having had
14:47
trauma in their life, with having being raised in a good
14:49
household with loving, supportive parents.
14:51
But there's nuances to where and how these things show up that
14:55
embed deeply in our belief systems, right?
14:58
And when I say we have cellular memory, we truly do.
15:02
That's why our bodies feel something.
15:03
That's why when my wife would say something, why it's because
15:06
of all the times in my life that people didn't believe that I was
15:10
run over by a truck and my arm was torn off.
15:11
When I told them my own truth that I'd be living and
15:15
delivering in, I was challenged on for years.
15:18
People be like, no, that's two auditions of a story.
15:21
They'd literally pause and look to my parents for validation.
15:24
But the reason I'm telling you all this is I just gave you 2
15:26
stories of two individuals that were lean teams, small
15:30
companies, or solopreneurs and felt all the same things that we
15:34
described and you had talked about in the beginning.
15:36
The reality of it is everything they needed was right in front
15:39
of them. They were blocking it from
15:41
themselves and they didn't even know they were doing it, which
15:44
is 99% of the time what happens when businesses fail and leaders
15:48
can't step into that role. It's always an internal issue,
15:52
It's rarely an external. In a way I, I can hear the two
15:56
sides of like one, it rests on my shoulders, which feels maybe
15:59
scary or whatever. But the other side is I am fully
16:04
in ownership of my business succeeding.
16:06
And I frankly much rather rely on me yeah than anybody else or
16:10
anything outside of me. Like I have the power to make it
16:12
succeed or fail, but I have the power to make it succeed.
16:15
So like, lucky me, right? I get to rely on myself and know
16:19
I have the tools with it. Agree.
16:22
You know, it's like the idea of like this every time everything
16:24
goes wrong in our lives. And how often do people say,
16:26
gosh, when am I going to stop getting tested?
16:28
Right? When is the universe going to
16:29
stop testing me? When's God going to stop testing
16:31
me? When's right?
16:32
But like, that's the even the, the nuance of the flip there is
16:34
it's like, what if you're not being tested?
16:36
What if you're being protected and promoted and you just don't
16:38
know how yet, right? Like that's, it's so much about
16:42
how we decide to process things. You know, there's this famous
16:46
quote. It's like, you know, there's the
16:48
stories that there's the thing, there's the things that happened
16:50
to us and the stories that we tell ourselves about it.
16:53
There is no right or wrong. There is no good or bad.
16:55
There is no black or white, right.
16:57
And, and that's also why so much of the freedom that I'm talking
17:00
about comes to the place of learning how to be so present in
17:04
your life. Because truly, if you're living
17:07
in the past, you're living in trash.
17:09
If you're living in fear of the future, you're living in trash.
17:11
If you're living in this moment, you're free of all of it, but
17:14
you also have to do the work to free yourself from it, which
17:17
means you have to find the source or sources of these
17:19
emotions, right? The patterns and beliefs that
17:21
were created as a result of them.
17:23
You've got to be really honest with yourself and the
17:25
relationships that matter most in your life.
17:26
When you start doing some of this work, 'cause it can, it's
17:29
change, it's disruption, but what's on the other side of it
17:33
is truly exponential freedom. And it's not like you just wake
17:38
up one day and have it figured out because there is no final
17:40
destination. It's just constant evolution
17:41
itself. But the difference I tell people
17:43
is, look, when I was 27/28/20 9:30, I was spending months and
17:48
years of my life in this low frequency energy and emotion.
17:51
I was miserable all the time. I, I was, it was yucky, it was
17:55
gross, I didn't know it and from the outside everything looked
17:58
good. But as I've started doing this
18:00
work right, those years became months, then months and years
18:05
became weeks and months, then weeks and months became days and
18:10
weeks, then that became hours and days.
18:15
Now most of the time. Do I still get triggered in a
18:17
moment? Do I still get overwhelmed?
18:19
Do I still sometimes feel isolated and lonely?
18:21
In my business I did this morning, I felt overwhelmed, but
18:25
yet I didn't let it ruin my whole day.
18:28
It's not going to impact my whole week.
18:29
It was minutes and moments spent in this reality of the fact
18:32
that, yeah, I'm still human, which means I'm still going to
18:35
feel right and I'm still going to process these things and I
18:39
will never fully escape the trash from my past.
18:42
But I can shift my mindset. And this is something I want all
18:45
of you to hear. The trash from your past is not
18:47
your fault. It just becomes your
18:48
responsibility. Once you become aware of it, you
18:50
start burying others in yours. But they've even done studies
18:53
that have shown that it's generationally inherited.
18:55
Trauma passes through the DNA. And my wife and I, we've traced
18:58
our stuff back three generations to see where the patterns
19:02
developed and the behaviors and how those manifested into our
19:05
own realities. But that's also what's empowered
19:07
us to be able to not only save our marriage, reverse that
19:09
trend, but also our kids don't even remember having an angry
19:13
father. And we've already broken some of
19:14
those generational patterns. When we talk about businesses of
19:18
1 right, we, I mean our audience are fractional executives,
19:22
independent consultants. They are doing it all talk about
19:27
the challenges they face. They're, you know, the biggest
19:30
challenges that you see and maybe the top one or two or
19:33
three things that they can really be doing to set their
19:36
business up for. And I really want to focus on
19:38
long term sustainable success. Right, I want this.
19:41
To work for years. The biggest piece that many
19:45
solopreneurs, fractional consultants, those that work for
19:48
themselves, the teams of one, as you just said, what they, what
19:51
they often fail to realize is that they are the product.
19:56
And often the biggest failure point for most people in that
20:00
role is the inability to sell themselves.
20:05
And so a lot of this does route back to self worth.
20:09
But it also roots back to understanding language and
20:11
clarity and messaging and conviction and energetic
20:14
connection to the things that they care about and the reasons
20:16
they got into that business in the 1st place.
20:18
But I would tell you that like point blank, one of the biggest
20:21
and most consistent problems in any business, but I would say in
20:24
particular for the businesses of 1 is revenue generation.
20:28
If you don't have any money coming in, you can't build a
20:30
business and it cannot be sustainable, and you can't
20:33
invest in the systems or the teams or the technology so that
20:37
it's sustainable, truly, right? And So what happens for most of
20:40
these people, They believe that they are escaping the 9:00 to
20:44
5:00 the corporate world to have the freedom.
20:47
But all they've really done is they've given themselves a job
20:50
and they've defined their own value based on an hourly rate
20:54
that they're exchanging, right? And so they haven't actually
20:59
looked at this around how do I utilize these skill sets to
21:02
maximize my return and actually align it with the life that I
21:06
want with the time, the people, the freedom.
21:10
I would say that that, though, is the probably singular biggest
21:13
thing. OK, the second pieces, there's
21:17
often a confusion with many of these folks as to the, the, the
21:22
activities that actually move the needle the most as well as
21:26
the ones that really even matter.
21:28
And so a really tangible tactical piece because that
21:31
first one I didn't give a solution for because it connects
21:34
to some of the worth and there's more just than a simple way to
21:36
get clarity on it, OK. But if there's revenue
21:39
generation as your issue, again, look inward and don't just go
21:43
find some sales training to figure out better tactics and
21:46
strategies, like figure out what it is about yourself that's
21:49
blocking you from going and doing that successfully.
21:51
On the second piece, though, before you do anything in your
21:54
business and before you do everything in your business,
21:57
whether you're in a position to outsource or not, I want you to
22:02
always ask yourself three questions.
22:04
The first question is, is this something that only I can do?
22:09
Meaning in your unique area of brilliance, the things that you
22:12
can't teach, train, hand off, systematize, you have to be
22:16
involved or it won't get done. Now, one of the big issues in
22:20
this is that most solopreneurs convince themselves that that
22:23
bucket is way bigger than it really is.
22:26
Usually that's 10% or less of the activities in the business.
22:29
OK. The second question then
22:31
becomes, is this something that someone else could do or would
22:36
do better? Because whether it's Ava,
22:39
whether it's AI and a piece of technology that you build,
22:43
whether it's a one other person so that now you're a team of
22:46
two. Understand though as well, like
22:48
what are the essential activities that need to get
22:50
accomplished but maybe don't fit within your realm of genius?
22:53
Or maybe even the reason you started this business in the 1st
22:55
place? Because guess what?
22:56
There's a lot of that in the business that when you start
22:58
one, you don't always think about.
23:00
Yeah, right. There's a lot that has to be
23:02
done to keep a business moving and in line.
23:06
The last question though, is if I'm really being honest with
23:08
myself, is this even something that needs to be done?
23:13
There are often times I see people making work for
23:17
themselves and using it as pressure and like, I've got to
23:21
work. I have to do this.
23:23
But if they're really honest with themselves, like they're
23:25
spending a significant portion of time, that really doesn't
23:29
actually matter. And I mean that a little bit in
23:33
in a flippant way, but, but there's some truth to it because
23:37
there's a lot of activities get done in business that don't
23:40
really move the needle for growth, for deeper impact with
23:43
clients, for freedom of time like they're, and, and it's
23:47
because we've just always done it that way, not because it
23:50
actually serves a purpose. And so those are typically the
23:52
top 2 areas that I see is both in the inability to create
23:57
growth and revenue. And then on the second side in,
24:00
in prioritization around time, as well as what that can turn
24:05
into as it relates to inability to delegate or poor
24:08
communication or having to have control over everything or
24:12
placing more value on yourself in an area that really doesn't
24:14
matter. Those more often than anything
24:17
are are the top 2 and there's a few others that kind of follow
24:20
it. But obviously those two cover a
24:23
lot of the challenges that I'm sure many of the people
24:26
listening to this are experiencing.
24:28
The activities that just don't need to get done, those are the
24:31
easiest to cut if they genuinely do not need to get done.
24:34
What do you see are often common activities, especially in the
24:37
smaller businesses, businesses of 123 that they are doing,
24:41
spending time and energy on that can literally just, you don't
24:44
need to delegate, you can literally just get rid of.
24:46
Well, one that I would say might not seem as obvious out the
24:50
gate, but there are a lot of people that will spend a ton of
24:54
time doing research on prospects, developing a new
24:58
product, developing a new idea or strategy, constantly
25:02
retooling something, but they never launch it, right?
25:06
Like they're constantly redeveloping their systems,
25:09
their structures, but it's like it's not generating revenue and
25:12
it's not deep any impact to clients, but you're convincing
25:14
yourself it's important. Now there is some of it that
25:17
really is, but very often I find people burying themselves in
25:20
busy work versus the things that really move the needle, right?
25:24
And and so it's there's not a really clear and defined path.
25:28
There are situations where people will not understand the
25:32
importance of their e-mail, right, or where they're spending
25:36
their time. Emails a big time suck, right?
25:38
Social media can be a big time suck because they think, oh,
25:41
well, I've got a post. I have to be consistent, but
25:43
they haven't thought through how to actually batch or create a
25:46
system so that they can do more volume with less effort, right?
25:50
It's well, every time an e-mail comes in, it's a distraction.
25:52
They don't set up boundaries within their system.
25:54
And so it's like, well, I got to respond to my clients or I need
25:56
to get back to my client within 5 minutes.
25:58
And it's like, do you right? Like I have set up boundaries
26:03
and expectations with my time, my attention and my response
26:07
rate. Even my clients don't expect an
26:09
immediate response from me. They expect a response typically
26:12
within 24 to 36 hours. And that's five days a week
26:14
because I tell people I don't check messages on the weekends.
26:17
Why? Because my priority aligns with
26:18
my family. Now, if there's an emergency, do
26:20
people know how to get a hold of me?
26:21
Yes, right. But at the same time, like I
26:23
don't jump because a client message comes in, but how often
26:26
does a business owner, they're in the middle of a task, they're
26:29
getting ready to build something or they're preparing for a
26:31
meeting and an e-mail comes in from a client and it derails the
26:34
next two hours of their life. And it's like, right, Like, does
26:37
that even need to be done? And again, sometimes it's done
26:39
at all, sometimes it's done right now.
26:42
And so those are some of the like little things I e-mail
26:46
getting caught in unnecessary scrolling online or doing, you
26:50
know, oh, I'm doing research on all my clients.
26:52
And really they're, you're just scrolling the web and like
26:54
finding these things. But if you don't find a way to
26:56
take your ideas or your research or your building and and take
27:01
action to make it live, then that's unnecessary activity.
27:06
My favorite one for me was making business models.
27:10
I would make these beautiful, complex business models
27:14
projecting out growth and churn and run rates and how much cash
27:17
I needed and everything. And then I would never go look
27:21
at it. I was like so never.
27:23
Right. But that's a great example like
27:25
that, right? Even the researching for clients
27:26
or building a product, it's the same type of thing.
27:28
It's like people in their minds put a lot of value sometimes on
27:31
things that really don't move the needle for your business.
27:37
And, and, and so that's often what I'm trying to help people
27:40
sort through as well, because there's just noise that we
27:44
create for ourselves in unnecessary things that don't
27:48
deliver. Now I'm a big believer that you
27:50
have to have structured time in working on your business as well
27:53
as working in your business. And so I'm not opposed to doing
27:56
strategic planning, building new products, having a business
27:59
plan, but it's what do you do with it from there?
28:03
Because if you don't, if it's if it's just clarity and
28:05
calibration in the beginning, well then maybe that still
28:07
serves a purpose. But if it doesn't even guide
28:09
your activities from the point that you created, then why are
28:12
you doing it in the first place, right?
28:13
Like that was a great example. So thank you for bringing that
28:15
up. Well, I noticed I was actually
28:17
recreating them like I would make one, not use it, and then I
28:21
would make another one and another one and I would do it
28:23
because I was good at it and it made me feel good, confident
28:28
that the business had. To feel like you were
28:29
accomplishing something. Yeah.
28:31
And another business plan done. Yeah, exactly.
28:33
And I was like is this helping me get clients or retain
28:37
clients? Yeah.
28:38
Pretty much like my lens, if it's not doing one of those two
28:41
things, I shouldn't be doing it. So I stopped.
28:45
I was like, I don't make business models anymore.
28:47
I just don't, I just don't do it.
28:48
I just, I refuse to let myself do it.
28:51
So one of the things that I do, and I'm curious, your take is to
28:55
make sure I'm doing needle moving activities every single
28:58
day the night before actually starts the week before.
29:01
And I make like the top five things, top priorities for the
29:03
week when I'm clear, when I'm, you know, in my higher mind.
29:07
And then every night before I say what, what am I start my day
29:11
with? I'm going to start my day with
29:13
these either two or three needle moving activities and nothing
29:16
else gets done. e-mail, Slack, LinkedIn, anything until these
29:20
needle moving activities happen. That's been my strategy for
29:23
myself. I'm curious what you've seen I.
29:24
Think it's a really about strategy.
29:25
It's consistent with the strategy that I teach and that I
29:30
apply myself. Now.
29:31
I would tell you that I am less structured in it now than I was
29:35
at one point when I was creating the discipline.
29:38
Meaning I don't have to sit down every single day and write that
29:41
list for myself in the way that I once did.
29:44
However, every day is dictated by the same thing.
29:47
I know every day at the end of the day, what the priorities,
29:50
the top two or three priorities are for the next day.
29:52
And I visit those highest priority.
29:54
I call them, you know, I used to call it a fire list because it's
29:56
like, what are the things that I need to pay attention to first
29:59
before anything else? And at the same time, there are
30:02
days that I will only do that. Meaning there are sometimes that
30:08
that whole piece might take the first half of my day.
30:11
It might take a whole day, it might take an hour.
30:13
But if, if I got the most important things done for that
30:15
day, there's always shit to do on the list for my business.
30:19
But the question becomes, is any, are any of these things
30:22
going to be real needle movers for my time and attention today?
30:24
Am I being honest with myself about where my priorities are?
30:27
Do I need to go spend some time and go ride bikes with my kids
30:30
tonight? Right?
30:31
Like the the point is, is like, if you can knock those things
30:34
off out of the gate. And I believe that for personal
30:36
practices too, right? I call those lynch pins for me
30:39
and my personal. It's like, what do I need to do
30:40
in the morning, in my quiet time, in my breath work, in my
30:43
movement, in my stretching and whatever I need to do for me, if
30:47
those things don't happen, everything else falls apart.
30:50
It's the same thing in the business.
30:51
What are the 1-2 or three activities?
30:53
And sometimes they're the same activities every day for certain
30:55
people in certain businesses. Other times they're rotating.
30:58
But yes, I love that discipline. And truly I've not only used it,
31:02
but I, I teach that same concept.
31:03
Because if you're aware and you're intentional, you're going
31:07
to be directionally accurate more than you won't be.
31:09
Yeah, yeah. Love it.
31:11
So the things that have helped me the most in taking things off
31:15
my plate, because I love how you talked about there's certain
31:18
things that need to get done that are not in your zone of
31:21
genius that you just shouldn't be doing, right.
31:24
And so the two things that come to mind are AI or automation.
31:27
So just bucket AI and automations in one and then the
31:31
other is Ava or an assistant or chief of staff or just someone
31:35
else that could just get shit done for you.
31:37
I'm curious how you think about specifically the AI and
31:41
automations piece. I actually recorded a whole
31:43
podcast on VA, so we'll leave that for now.
31:46
But the AI piece, which I know you have a bunch of experience
31:49
in, how do you see? I know it's such a fast moving
31:54
space right now. It's it's absolutely incredible.
31:56
But from a practical, tangible, applicable way, how do you see
32:02
AI help take all of a bunch of shit off your plate that you
32:05
don't need to be doing, but the business does need to get done?
32:09
Yeah. Well, I mean, I have some real
32:11
time case studies within my own business and even in clients
32:13
that we're working on as as we speak.
32:15
I, I want to start with saying one quick thing though.
32:18
I was adamantly against AI for probably the first two years
32:21
that it was out, and the reasons why are still true.
32:24
But I have found a niche in a way of not only focusing on it
32:27
for myself, but teaching and using it or helping others with
32:30
it, that that is different. My biggest thing was that the
32:33
dilution to humanity and the dilution to authenticity and
32:36
voice and messaging, because so many people are not aware and
32:40
intentional in what they feed it, how they directed the
32:43
guidelines that they set with it.
32:44
And they use it to tap into aggregate information to make
32:49
themselves sound smarter versus being able to like actually
32:52
capture who they really are and what they're really doing.
32:55
And so there's a lot of like dilution in the marketplace
32:58
right now because there's a lot of people starting to blend into
33:00
that middle who are losing the clarity of their own unique
33:03
value and, and voice because they're now leveraging it too
33:06
much. I am also not a believer in
33:08
using AI simply for speed and automation.
33:12
I have a belief though that it can be a very effective tool to
33:16
compress a shit load of time. To help make things tangible in
33:21
ways that we as humans may not otherwise make them tangible.
33:24
To create consistencies where we as humans fail in consistency
33:29
and to do so in a way that has an insert human here for any
33:34
human interaction as a result of the AI meaning we have and are
33:40
now using and have built pretty very robust systems in our own
33:43
business that are heavily leveraging deep workflow builds
33:47
with AI supplementation. And you're right, automations
33:50
and AI, we're putting in the same bucket, but they're not the
33:52
same, but they can make each other more powerful, right?
33:55
And so it's important that people understand that.
33:58
Great example. In fact, we now have productized
34:00
this. We're launching it as we speak
34:02
in beta mode. Nine months ago, I wanted to
34:05
create a solution for my mastermind to deepen the impact
34:09
for the people in the room and to create more exposure for what
34:13
we're doing within the room, OK? Because there's a ton of
34:15
marketing and sales and leadership and AI development,
34:18
product building and offer structures that we do that
34:21
nobody really knows we do. And that's OK, right?
34:24
But educational marketing makes it accessible.
34:25
So I built a tool because I didn't want, I had a team that
34:28
was spending three hours a day or three hours a week on a
34:31
couple of specific tasks that were takeaways from those calls.
34:34
So I started to then play with AI and test it, taking just a
34:38
one hour transcript. And I started to develop this
34:41
theory that was a repeatable process that could be activated
34:43
just from a one hour transcript. What it's developed into now.
34:47
And I, I can show you, share you, we can even give you the
34:50
link to it because we're launching it as we speak.
34:53
But it's, you upload a transcript and from a one hour
34:56
transcript, I've built a really robust voice message methodology
35:02
that is able to extract voice message and tone, speaking
35:06
cadence, vocabulary, very accurate representation of the
35:10
key speaker that's identified within it within just a one hour
35:12
transcript to about 90 to 95% proficiency.
35:16
And from that and a 22nd upload from a form 7 minutes later you
35:21
get 7 assets pre written in your voice all set to go.
35:25
You get a very robust meeting summary that gives all the
35:27
actionable takeaways, all of the emotional takeaways, all the
35:31
breakthroughs, all written in my authentic voice.
35:34
I get a timestamp summary that gives it almost like a podcast
35:37
style so that my team can navigate those videos to recap
35:40
what happens because why I talk fast and when I give them
35:42
coaching and feedback they want to go slow it down and re listen
35:44
to it right now they can actionably do that faster.
35:47
And a recap e-mail that reminds them all where to find all these
35:50
assets within our system. Then we have a PR ready.
35:53
Almost like a Forbes style written article that can be put
35:55
out as a blog or automatically put on to any of the PR articles
35:59
and platforms already pre scrubbed for all AI indicative
36:02
writing patterns maximized for SEO and AEO, and scrubbed from
36:05
all AI metadata so that it doesn't get throttled back in
36:08
your search engines, right? Then it gets rewritten into a
36:11
LinkedIn structure again in your voice for a LinkedIn article and
36:15
writes the LinkedIn post. And then there's a promotional
36:17
e-mail for whatever it was. This applies for masterminds,
36:20
podcast, etcetera. But why?
36:22
Because I didn't want to repeat having to rebuild this.
36:25
And even though I had a custom GPT to do it, even inside that
36:27
custom GPT, my team would take 45 minutes to 90 minutes to get
36:32
all these assets produced. So what do we do?
36:34
We built a whole workflow using AI systems and bots and
36:37
literally 1 transcript upload, 7 minutes later, 7 assets are
36:40
done. We've already got 7 other assets
36:43
produced. I've got one for my podcast and
36:46
it tags into the intake form. So when someone schedules on my
36:49
show, I've got a process where I want my show notes on my
36:52
calendar. We've got a folder that we
36:54
create for our production team. We start doing all these things,
36:57
created a workflow that plugs into that.
36:59
It automatically creates all the folders.
37:00
It pulls all the information I need from the intake form.
37:03
It automatically puts it in a Google Docs.
37:04
It attaches it to the calendar. It does all these pieces.
37:07
I've got a Zoom process link because all of my Zoom sessions,
37:10
whether it's with clients, my other things, all get recorded.
37:13
For three years, I've stored all of them in my drive.
37:15
We had a VA doing this. I built a whole robust process
37:19
that stores and renames and with a subfolder and custom subfolder
37:23
and logic pathing for how these files get stored.
37:25
Every zoom session automatically puts puts in my drive and I get
37:29
an e-mail at the end with links to the folders where they are.
37:31
I have all the assets and it triggers downstream AI bots that
37:35
are doing summaries, e-mail drafts, all these different
37:38
pieces. These are ways that I used to
37:40
use a full time assistant that I now can program to even have
37:44
more scale, more reach, but I get my time back so that my my
37:49
value, which yes, I can build these tools and I do, and it's a
37:52
whole different concept, but my values in the work I do with
37:55
people. And So what do I want to do?
37:58
I want to free up as much of my time because I hate doing those
38:00
repeat tests and who likes doing them, whether they're Ava or
38:03
not, right? And so I had Ava doing a bunch
38:07
of these things. We still have VA supporting some
38:09
of our teams, but we have production teams, We have other
38:11
teams, but I'm right now on a path to show as a case study.
38:15
I'm about halfway there but by the end of July I'm going to
38:18
have 90% of the non human essential tasks, meaning they're
38:22
not interacting, they're not communicating, it's purely
38:24
transactional actions like file moving and naming and all this
38:28
noise. 90% of the in my business is going to be all automated
38:32
with AI and workflows by the end of July.
38:35
Does it take time to build it? Yes.
38:37
Do you have to be clear in what you want to build and what it
38:40
needs to do and how it needs to function?
38:41
Yes. But no matter whether you're
38:44
leading A-Team, hiring Ava or using these workflows, it's
38:47
going to require the level of awareness and intention and
38:51
communication required to be able to build and get back that
38:55
time. But I'm a believer now that
38:57
almost anything is possible. And we've built a lot of these
39:00
tools and custom systems for clients as well.
39:03
Because why if if you can live in that 10 to 15% of your area
39:08
of genius and you can do amazing things.
39:11
I have a client who launches a solo business, is over a 30 year
39:14
HR person and within her first year she's already doing a half
39:17
million dollar run rate and she's built systems and tools.
39:21
She's working 20 hours a week at a $500,000 run rate in less than
39:26
a year after leaving corporate. Like it's possible.
39:29
You just have to believe it and you have to put in the work to
39:31
get there within yourself and within your business.
39:34
Especially for businesses of one, right?
39:36
You don't have the time, you don't have the resources to just
39:39
hire people to do stuff. I mean, building these
39:42
automations, I'm curious. So I've used both Zapier and
39:45
NAN. I'm curious if you're using.
39:48
I use both, yeah, I use both. NAN is the one that I'm using
39:51
for the very like robust long form ones.
39:54
Yeah, it's got a lot of capabilities.
39:56
It's it's an amazing back end. And whether you know code, don't
40:00
know code or anywhere in between, there's options that
40:03
that work. But I mean, to the point of what
40:06
I even just told you though, like I'm going to see if I can
40:08
show you this because you'll if, if it'll work, you'll you'll get
40:12
what I'm saying. Let's see, I think it's right
40:14
here. Like this is my Zoom workflow in
40:18
N8 N. What I'm trying to give some
40:21
complexity though to is like, it's not just like a three or
40:23
four node workflow, right? So it's sometimes, if you're
40:27
really clear on what you want to accomplish, it's just a matter
40:30
of iteration and steps until you build this.
40:33
And yet all of those little minute micro steps were things
40:37
that people were doing before that they did not need to be
40:41
doing because their time and attention wasn't adding value to
40:44
it other than it needed to be done.
40:46
I love this stuff so much and it, and it's, it's incredible
40:50
when you build something that just works and it just takes
40:54
stuff off your plate. I mean, the simplest one I have
40:57
that I love so much is when I have a Zoom call, I have the
41:00
Fathom transcript be sent automatically to Claude, which
41:06
drafts a follow up e-mail in my inbox, right?
41:10
So just, it takes the two, it adds a subject line, right?
41:14
And it summarizes what we talked about and takeaways and things
41:16
like that. And I always go in and finalize
41:18
it, right? I never just send it.
41:20
That's how I am, by the way. I don't ever have emails go out
41:22
on my behalf. I they show up as a draft in my
41:24
inbox for me to review. But what does that save me time
41:27
on? I don't have to type that.
41:28
I don't have to recall. I can look at it.
41:29
I can go from memory, I can look at my notes and it's time
41:32
compression, right? Like you just gave a perfect
41:34
example of a very simple system that delivers value and moves
41:39
the needle in your business. Because whether you're meeting
41:41
with a client, whether you're meeting with a prospective
41:43
client, whether you're meeting with a business partner, whether
41:45
you're meeting with your team, that same process is meaningful.
41:49
Yeah, no, it's I I was dreading drafting these follow up emails
41:53
every single time. And I was like, there has to be
41:56
a better solution. And it was so simple it took me.
41:59
20 years as an entrepreneur. I've never done follow up or
42:02
given any follow up documents, follow up emails, follow up
42:05
summaries of anything I've done. And we're talking like crazy.
42:08
Coaching work, lots. I've never ever in 20 years done
42:11
it until the last year. But what has it done?
42:14
It's a lot because I'm dyslexic. I don't like to type right?
42:17
I'm great with my words when I speak them.
42:19
I'm great in structuring thought.
42:20
I'm intentional, I'm strategic. But I was never going to do
42:23
that. I'll do one day intensives with
42:25
people. People pay me 15 grand to come
42:27
in for a one day coaching session for clarity and
42:29
observation. All these things, I would give
42:31
them nothing on the backside of it.
42:32
Now I record it with my plot AI recorder, I put speaker labels
42:36
on it and I've built a custom GPT and tool that automatically
42:40
grabs the transcript and produces about an 8 to 10 page
42:43
summary that I review before I give it back to them.
42:45
But what is it? It's all the critical moments
42:47
and they get to see the value that was there and remember it
42:50
and revisit it because memory is fleeting and it's it'll be quick
42:54
and easy a year later to be like, Oh yeah, that was a good
42:55
fun day, but not really remember how life changing it was.
42:59
Now I can make it tangible for people, right?
43:02
It's huge. We get to wrap up, but I'm
43:05
curious, if you were to leave the audience with one piece of
43:09
advice, one anecdote, one thing that they can leave with, what
43:13
would you say? I'm going to set this up a
43:15
little bit just because I think it's important.
43:17
We've been talking about AI and if we think about what AI does
43:20
for us, AI helps us tap into aggregate information.
43:23
It helps us connect the dots faster.
43:25
It helps us see patterns faster. It helps us communicate faster.
43:27
It helps us do research and understand things better.
43:29
It helps us be more clear in who we are in in so many ways.
43:32
It can truly compress time and help leverage all variety it
43:36
and, and the list goes on. And so I do genuinely believe
43:39
that AI is probably the greatest area of opportunity and
43:42
investment for any human, any business, any solopreneur, any
43:47
person. I'm not talking about artificial
43:50
intelligence though. I'm talking about the OGAI
43:54
awareness and intentionality. If you put and double down your
43:58
energy and your efforts to raise your level of awareness in
44:01
everything you do, to raise your level of intentionality in
44:04
everything you do, right? The words that you speak, the
44:06
actions that you take, the behaviors that you have, the
44:09
strategies that you implement your in your business, the
44:10
systems that you build, the way that you delegate and offload,
44:13
the way you sell yourself. If you put awareness and
44:15
intentionality into anything, especially artificial
44:18
intelligence, you will find the leverage and scale that can
44:21
exist there. The issue is most people don't
44:23
ask enough questions to create enough options and opportunities
44:27
to be able to have choices to make the changes they want and
44:31
desire in their lives. And so I believe the greatest
44:34
investment any of us can make is an AI awareness and
44:36
intentionality, right? But here's the other side to
44:39
this. I do believe that we can all
44:41
choose the change we want or we can choose to change when we
44:44
don't want change, just like you were talking about of the shift,
44:47
the perspective that it, oh, I get the chance to build all
44:50
this. I get the chance to own all of
44:51
it and have all the freedom. You're right.
44:53
But I'd also say that means that you are the one responsible for
44:56
choosing the changes you want. So you don't have to react to
44:59
and choose to change when you don't want change.
45:01
I want to be in the driver's seat everyday and that's always
45:04
what I'm trying to do because that's where real freedom comes
45:06
from is from the inside. And how do you allow that
45:08
express externally? So double down on AI.
45:12
I'm just talking about the OG kind.
45:14
Love it. So I I see you have your website
45:17
there, so we'll add in the show links as well.
45:19
Any other place that the audience can find you.
45:22
Yeah, if you're social media, I'm at Bogart Bryan on any and
45:25
all channels, including YouTube. So we put a ton of content out
45:28
there. We've create a lot of free value
45:29
for the whole purpose of we're on a mission to impact over a
45:32
billion lives as quickly as we can by reducing the level of
45:35
suffering that exists on this planet, largely, which I believe
45:37
exists internal. So I would just say regardless
45:40
of anything, if you felt moved by anything from today's call, I
45:42
believe that moved people move people.
45:44
My only ask for you is that you move it through your world,
45:46
right? Share it with somebody,
45:47
implement it in your life, take action on something that
45:49
matters. If you want to research and go
45:52
watch my stuff and you want to stay silent there for 10 years,
45:54
do it. I don't care because if you're
45:56
moving the energy, it's still got the compound effect of the
45:59
impact that we desire. But it all comes down to your
46:01
choice, your change, and every action that you take in every
46:05
moment. Yeah, that ripple effect, that's
46:08
everything. Brian, thank you so much.
46:10
I could talk to you forever, but incredible conversation.
46:13
I appreciate you sharing your insights with us today.
46:16
Appreciate you, Bradley.