Latest / Founder Talk with Alex Sheridan / Why Some Founders Succeed but Still Feel Lost (And How They Find Purpose) | Brian Floriani

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Why Some Founders Succeed but Still Feel Lost (And How They Find Purpose) | Brian Floriani · Founder Talk with Alex Sheridan

• 0:00
  Brian, founder of Buku Branded and Bernie's Book Bank.
• 0:03
  Welcome to the show. We're getting right into it.
• 0:06
  We're wasting. Absolutely no time.
• 0:07
  Thanks for having me. Yeah, man, pleasure to have you
• 0:09
  here. We got a little bit of a time
• 0:10
  constraint, so we'll make sure we get you out of here at a
• 0:12
  decent time. You know, when I started my kind
• 0:15
  of entrepreneurial journey and, and social media journey, I
• 0:18
  started on LinkedIn in 2019 and Instagram and it was right
• 0:22
  before, right during kind of when COVID hit.
• 0:25
  So everything sort of went from in person was what you had.
• 0:28
  I was a sales Rep at the time, shaking hands, kissing babies,
• 0:31
  dropping off doughnuts, knocking on doors, going to events.
• 0:35
  I mean, that was just like the world we live in.
• 0:37
  Almost nobody was doing Zoom calls.
• 0:39
  That was just like unheard of for you at the time as a like,
• 0:41
  hey, let's hop on a Zoom call. You just never did it unless
• 0:43
  you're absolutely had to. At least if you had a local
• 0:46
  territory, you'd drive out there.
• 0:48
  And then I got on LinkedIn and started doing video content.
• 0:50
  It was like perfect timing because COVID hit right?
• 0:53
  And pretty much overnight people were like, we literally can't do
• 0:55
  anything in person, right? Trade shows cancels, conference
• 0:58
  cancels, right, meetings cancelled.
• 1:00
  And so it fueled my business during that time and it kind of
• 1:04
  made me relying on 100% social and video and virtual.
• 1:08
  And then like, you know, maybe about a year or two years ago,
• 1:10
  year and a half, two years ago, I had this like epiphany of just
• 1:14
  like it's, it's about in person, it's about real relationships,
• 1:17
  it's about building community. And that's what part of the
• 1:20
  reason I started this podcast, I was telling you before we hit
• 1:22
  record is that, you know, we're on a mission to make this, to
• 1:26
  make this the real estate room in entrepreneurship, just to
• 1:28
  have real conversations like we're doing now and help impact
• 1:30
  100,000 founders, help them grow their businesses and live more
• 1:33
  fulfilling lives. That that's what we're trying to
• 1:34
  do with this. And obviously it fuels other
• 1:36
  things and content that kind of stuff.
• 1:37
  But it just like I really came back to the, I'm in this
• 1:41
  community, there's a lot of great people and businesses
• 1:43
  here. Why am I not doing more business
• 1:44
  here? Why is my impact greater, not
• 1:46
  greater at a local level? Why am I not bringing people in
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  person and doing these types of things versus having everything
• 1:52
  virtual? And since we've done that, it's
• 1:54
  just, it's grown the business, it's made a bigger impact.
• 1:56
  It's, I feel more excited about doing this.
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  And you know, we were talking a little bit before we hit record,
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  just everything's kind of going AI and automated and how do we
• 2:05
  autopilot this? And we're just, we can't lose
• 2:09
  the real relationships, community aspect that I think to
• 2:12
  your point earlier, makes a human a human being.
• 2:15
  Yeah. You know.
• 2:16
  Yeah, well, I'm, I'm concerned, I, I think we're on a race to
• 2:19
  nowhere. In fact, I'd love for a leader
• 2:23
  in this world to pose the question, where do we want to be
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  in 100 and 5200 and 5500 years as a people, as a planet as and
• 2:37
  just if you want to talk local, you mean you could, you could
• 2:40
  just start to shrink that down into our country to our because
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  I don't think we've ever sat back and defined success.
• 2:49
  You know, on the Zoom front, on one hand, it it's a beautiful
• 2:53
  thing because before the choice was phone call or in person,
• 2:59
  right? And in person was always
• 3:00
  preferred, but there was a chasm between a phone call and in
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  person. Zoom is a nice, it is a nice
• 3:12
  compromise, but when it's, when it's used to replace an in
• 3:17
  person meeting it, it just does not do it.
• 3:21
  So it's, it's nice because it's way better than a than a call.
• 3:24
  But I think we've, we've kind of leaned on it too hard.
• 3:28
  But that's, that's anything. I mean, the pendulum swings and
• 3:30
  everything. And, and I and I hope, hope, my
• 3:33
  hope is that, you know, whether it's calling a business and you
• 3:38
  get somebody that answers the phone or when you go into a
• 3:42
  restaurant, you're actually greeted and.
• 3:46
  Yeah, that's lost nowadays. Right.
• 3:48
  It's, it's kind of unbelievable, but it also creates a huge
• 3:51
  opportunity for businesses or entrepreneurs where, you know,
• 3:59
  there's some things that you can do that don't take talent that
• 4:02
  can really separate you. And I can't believe how many
• 4:05
  times, you know, I sent an e-mail back to somebody within
• 4:08
  30 minutes or call them back or whatever and they're like, Oh my
• 4:11
  gosh, thank you so much. Like, you know, that's just a,
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  that's a no brainer, but it takes intention and it takes
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  time and but it's worth it because people do business with
• 4:23
  people. People give money to people.
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  They don't give money to causes. They give money to people for
• 4:28
  good causes and they do business.
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  I mean, you know, whether it's a podcast or whatever business it
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  it may be, there's a million of those, not a million, but
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  there's tons of that kind of business.
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  They could do that with anybody. They're going to do it with
• 4:41
  people they like, right? And they can't like you or know
• 4:45
  you and even your, even your weaknesses.
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  I think people knowing your weaknesses and your
• 4:50
  vulnerability is very important. Yeah, because they're going to
• 4:54
  figure it out eventually. Right, they do.
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  I'm always amazed by maybe amazed isn't the right word, but
• 5:03
  maybe it's disappointed. But when you walk into a
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  restaurant or a retail shop, let's just do the restaurant,
• 5:09
  for example, and you come in and you're not really greeted and
• 5:12
  you sit there for 5 or 10 minutes and, and Austin, they're
• 5:15
  thinking like, I'm grateful for the fact that I'm even able to
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  be in a restaurant in the 1st place.
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  So it's not coming from a place where I'm entitled to, of
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  course, aren't they serving me? But I just think about the
• 5:23
  opportunity to wow the customer. That's where I go because I'm
• 5:25
  very customer centric. And I think, man, if I was
• 5:28
  running this company, I'd go back to lead.
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  It's all leadership. It's all just culture they
• 5:31
  created. Does the leader at that
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  restaurant or company create the culture where when people come
• 5:36
  in, we're going to make them feel like they just won the game
• 5:37
  lottery? Well, and it's not complicated.
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  It's just it's about being curious, like, hey, I've never
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  seen you in here before. Where do you live?
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  What, What's even more fascinating is in towns where,
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  you know, there's a big push to, you know, like there's Main St.
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  organizations and how do we keep Main Street lively and shop
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  local? And then you walk in to a local
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  shop that's not a chain and it's crickets.
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  Like, I feel like you should be waiting at the front door.
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  Oh my gosh. Thank you know, thanks for
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  coming in. What's your name?
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  How did you how did you hear about us?
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  What are you interested in? Blah, blah, blah.
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  Like it's but you're you're I've had this experience multiple
• 6:24
  time times in the town that I live in that is very adamant
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  about people shopping local and and there's money and resources
• 6:32
  spent behind promoting it. And you walk in and it's like,
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  well, this feels no different than any other shop that I walk
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  into. So I don't you.
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  Almost feel like they don't even want you in there.
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  That's that's the truth. Like, are we, am I burdening
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  you? Like, aren't you trying to sell
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  something here? And yeah.
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  Yeah, so let's get into a little bit about your story, your
• 6:55
  mission, the things that you do. And you know, I always ask, I've
• 6:58
  been trying to recently at least ask our founder talk community.
• 7:01
  We have a group chat that are just local founders that have
• 7:03
  been on the show actually. And I welcome you to join as
• 7:04
  well. And that's going to lead to in
• 7:06
  person stuff as well. But I, I try to ask a question
• 7:10
  and build the episode with them and I say, hey, I've got this
• 7:12
  guest coming on. Here's a little bit about their
• 7:14
  background. What are some questions or
• 7:16
  thoughts or ideas that I should be bringing up on the show?
• 7:19
  Some of them which we'll get into, maybe some of them, maybe
• 7:20
  not all of them is what do great brands do that average ones
• 7:25
  don't? Branding versus marketing, the
• 7:27
  differences there and how a founder leverages both are swag
• 7:30
  bags a waste of money or a smart branding play and brand loyalty.
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  We all know that what it means for Apple or Nike consumer
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  products, but what is brand loyalty mean for maybe AB to B
• 7:39
  company? So those are some of the things
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  we'll get into. But I, I also, I, I had the
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  headline of your website which reads the only branded products
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  company reinvesting 100% of net profits back to advance literacy
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  in America. I shared this with my community
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  and one of the first questions was, well how the hell do they
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  make money? Well, we make money right now.
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  We give it away just like any other business.
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  There's profit, there's margin. You know you have expenses and
• 8:04
  you pay people and. But his question was, if you're
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  doing all of that and there's no net profit going to, I guess the
• 8:12
  company or you or whoever's running it, that seems a little
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  different. Well, yeah, it is different for
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  sure, but you know, I'm not my I'm not motivated my money.
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  My my wife is not motivated by money.
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  My, my, my wife, former social worker and is a big part of Buku
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  branded and we are not motivated by money.
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  I mean, it's not, I think we've, we've both had our own journeys
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  on in life with regards to the difference between success and
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  significance. And there's a big difference.
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  Success is about your accomplishment.
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  The significance is about the accomplishments of other people.
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  And so I think we're just aligned with what we want our
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  life to look like and what we want it to be about and how we
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  define rich. You know, rich isn't really
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  about money at all. I really think rich is about,
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  you know, having uncomfortable conversations and taking
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  uncomfortable actions. You know, that's where life
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  lives, but technically it buku you know, you, you, you grow the
• 9:17
  business and you grow the top line, bottom line grows and as
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  the bottom line grows, you can get more money away.
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  So, you know, we try to be very smart about it and diligent
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  about it. It's it's, it's a unique
• 9:32
  concept. So you have to be very strategic
• 9:35
  about how you spend the money and if, if it's a, if it's a
• 9:39
  worthy spend and then managing cash flow.
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  You know, right now BUKU branded as a $5000 a month commitment to
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  our 4 beneficiaries. And you know, that's, we look at
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  that like as an expense. We know it's there.
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  And so, but like, like, like many things, you're, you're,
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  you're flying the plane as you're building it.
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  And so, you know, you make adjustments along the way.
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  But the idea here is to, is to, you know, we've, we've given
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  back close to $120,000 just over the last two years.
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  And but we're, we're not satisfied at all.
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  We really want to be writing checks for with two commas in
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  them. And you know, this, this didn't
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  come out of the blue. I mean, starting Bernie's book
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  bank and growing it. We've been relatively successful
• 10:27
  at raising money, but few things I, you know, I think it's going
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  to get harder and harder to raise money in a traditional
• 10:34
  philanthropic setting as we move forward for many reasons I won't
• 10:37
  bore you with today, but and I think literacy is too important
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  to all of us to leave to charity alone.
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  And I believe the solutions for our literacy crisis in America.
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  I mean, there's 32,000,000 Americans can't read.
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  I saw that I had that actually written down.
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  And we wonder why we're losing. That's the seems almost unreal.
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  It's still unbelievable every time I say it.
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  I mean, it's not something that it's like, Oh yeah, that makes
• 11:04
  complete sense. But it's true.
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  And we just saw Buku Branded as an opportunity to work our way
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  up the financial food chain a bit where you're not waiting at
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  the bottom, you don't philanthropy, you're not giving
• 11:19
  me a dime until you know that you're taking care of your
• 11:21
  children are taken care of and maybe their children are taken
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  care of. With regards to Buku Branded,
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  you know, we're, we're, we're tapping into already budgeted
• 11:30
  dollars and the benefit of the business that we're working with
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  is that they can be charitable without really earning it.
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  You know, they're, they're buying this stuff anyway.
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  Trust me, I never really wanted to sell promotional products.
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  But if it's a $27 billion industry and I don't see it
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  going away, it might change, it might adjust.
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  But if people are buying it, I'll sell it on behalf of
• 12:00
  literacy. And that's kind of our our
• 12:03
  mindset around it. So do you guys, so basically
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  what you're saying is after you do you would you take a salary
• 12:08
  wife takes a salary, employees, everyone gets paid taxes,
• 12:11
  expenses, but then everything anything leftover then goes to
• 12:15
  you know, non for profits or and support literacy.
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  So. We're very thoughtful about, you
• 12:20
  know what, what we pay folks, I mean, especially ourselves.
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  We're, we, we are definitely not paying ourselves anywhere close
• 12:25
  to what our value would be. But that's startup in general.
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  But you've got the added layer of, you know, we want to give,
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  give all the money away or as much of it away.
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  And so, you know, you need to build budgets in a, in a, in a
• 12:40
  legitimate way so that you're, you're building a, a legitimate
• 12:43
  business that's going to be sustainable.
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  But at the same time you're building it with, with the
• 12:50
  mindset that you're going to give whatever's leftover away.
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  So it's. Now where does that mindset come
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  from, Brian? Because not everyone shares, I
• 12:57
  think it's very rare that someone would share that belief
• 12:59
  that, you know, most people think if I'm going to make some
• 13:01
  extra money, the net profit, I'm going to invest that or do
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  something for, you know, you're, you're basically yourself or
• 13:07
  your own inner circle, your own family 1st.
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  And then people think, well, once I'm, I've got a lot of
• 13:12
  money, 10/15/20, whatever, years later, then I'll start doing my
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  philanthropic type stuff. But you're saying we're pretty
• 13:18
  much doing this from day one. It's built into the business.
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  What is unique about you guys and where does that come from?
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  Well, I think it starts with our faith.
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  I mean, we're, we're here to serve.
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  That's, you know, that's that's what we try to maintain as a
• 13:33
  mindset on a daily basis. You think without faith you
• 13:37
  would not have this business and be giving away so much?
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  Oh, I can tell you without faith, there would be no
• 13:41
  Bernie's book bank. And then if there wasn't
• 13:44
  Bernie's book bank, there wouldn't be Buku branded.
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  I mean, you know, the the relationship between the two is,
• 13:51
  you know, the Book Bank has been relatively successful at raising
• 13:54
  money. I mean, we started the Book Bank
• 13:56
  in my garage or my credit card for $5000.
• 13:58
  You know, as we expand nationally this year across all
• 14:02
  markets, you know, I would say that we're going to raise about
• 14:04
  $10 million, which is, which is a huge success story, relatively
• 14:08
  speaking. That being said, in the
• 14:10
  nonprofit sector, you're running a business where your
• 14:13
  productivity is not directly related to your revenue, which
• 14:16
  is really way to run a business, but that's what charity is.
• 14:21
  And so, so, you know, and along my journey with Bernie's book
• 14:26
  bank and then playing in the literacy space, I believe that
• 14:30
  the, the, the cures for our literacy crisis in America
• 14:34
  already exist, but what's getting in the way of scale is
• 14:40
  revenue and reliable revenue. And so, you know, with Buku
• 14:46
  brand, it's like, OK, well, how do we, how do we really
• 14:51
  significantly increase the amount of revenue going into the
• 14:54
  literacy space so that we can solve our literacy crisis
• 14:57
  because it affects us all. It's not just an emotional
• 15:00
  conversation that every child in America deserves a chance to
• 15:02
  read their way to a better life. If you look at homelessness,
• 15:05
  poverty and hunger, those are symptoms of something else.
• 15:09
  And if you were to look at the root cause or, or a common
• 15:12
  denominator of all those folks struggling in that way, you're
• 15:15
  going to find lack of literacy slash lack of education
• 15:18
  somewhere. And so if we saw the literacy
• 15:22
  crisis in America, we all win. You know, my brother little
• 15:28
  Bernie died of ALS, of ALS five years ago.
• 15:32
  And it pains me to think that the cure for ALS is living
• 15:35
  dormant on the South side of Chicago, the north side of
• 15:37
  Milwaukee, the east side of Pittsburgh, on down the line.
• 15:41
  And if I believe we were to nurture all brains in an
• 15:44
  equitable way in our country, we could actually live up to our
• 15:47
  deals and we'd all be more successful.
• 15:51
  Now, when you started the, was it the Bernie's Book bank you
• 15:55
  started in your garage, $5000 yeah, on the credit card.
• 15:58
  It's since been paid off. Sounds like it.
• 16:02
  Were you working a full time job at the time or how did that come
• 16:05
  about? And what what made you have to
• 16:06
  put the $5000 on the credit card?
• 16:08
  Was that the only one you had? I'm that makes me curious on
• 16:10
  that story there. Seems like there's a story
• 16:11
  there. The way that began is I was
• 16:13
  running golf schools for Golf Digest, so I spent half the year
• 16:16
  in Lake Tahoe and the other half in West Palm Beach.
• 16:18
  It was horrible. Tough life.
• 16:21
  You know, I was married, I didn't have children at the
• 16:23
  time. And that when my, my, my dad,
• 16:26
  Bernie and my, and my grandmother died on the same
• 16:29
  day. And so my mom lost her husband
• 16:32
  and her mother on the same day, I really turned everything
• 16:35
  upside down. Deep spiritual dive from there.
• 16:39
  And I out of that, I just want to be a servant.
• 16:41
  And so, you know, we, we left the golf business and came back
• 16:46
  to Chicagoland. And the original iteration of
• 16:50
  being a servant was to be an elementary school teacher in an
• 16:52
  under resourced community. So I spent two years in Zion as
• 16:56
  a reading paraprofessional and, you know, to get my foot in the
• 16:59
  door and learned a lot, a lot of things I really didn't want to
• 17:04
  learn, but I'm glad I did. And I was captivated by by the
• 17:10
  fact that in a country that talks about pursuit of happiness
• 17:13
  and equality and equity, how these children I was working
• 17:18
  with just really didn't have a shot.
• 17:21
  And it was over before it started and they had nothing to
• 17:24
  do with it. So when we started the book
• 17:26
  bank, you know, there's a leap of faith.
• 17:29
  And yeah, I had three jobs when I started the book bank, and the
• 17:34
  book bank was not one of the three.
• 17:37
  But as I said to my son as he got out of the car this morning
• 17:40
  when I dropped him off at school, you do what you got to
• 17:43
  do to do what you want to do. And it's a great line.
• 17:46
  This is what I felt like I was called to do.
• 17:49
  You know, there's two really important days in your life.
• 17:52
  One, the day you're born. And two, the day you realize why
• 17:55
  you were born. And most people never get to the
• 17:58
  second. And I just feel really grateful
• 18:03
  to know or believe that This is why I was born.
• 18:09
  And, you know, it took some some tough things to tenderize me
• 18:15
  and, and put me in a position to listen to the calling.
• 18:20
  And but when he calls, you listen and you respond.
• 18:25
  And that's, and he has been faithful to me and to my family.
• 18:33
  It's been an unbelievable journey.
• 18:35
  It's, it's kind of, I feel like it's just beginning and, and I
• 18:41
  feel lucky and blessed. I mean, it's, it hasn't been
• 18:44
  without blood, sweat and tears. A lot of them, a lot of
• 18:48
  sacrifice by my children, their mother, my wife and a lot of
• 18:56
  people and I'm just really grateful to live a life of
• 19:00
  purpose. How do you find that?
• 19:02
  If you, if you haven't found your purpose, maybe you're
• 19:04
  building a business or you, you want to start a business and
• 19:07
  you're just, but you're just kind of doing it because it's
• 19:08
  like, yeah, I enjoy what I'm doing and it's making money.
• 19:11
  But I don't feel like I've found.
• 19:13
  I mean, when I, when I hear you talk, it's just like you found
• 19:16
  your calling. It's like, you know, or it found
• 19:19
  you or whatever you want to say. But it just seems like there's
• 19:21
  full alignment, There's a clear mission.
• 19:24
  And I just think a lot of founders, entrepreneurs
• 19:26
  listening right now haven't found that yet, and they want
• 19:28
  to. Well, I think they need to seek
• 19:31
  and they need to seek real hard. What does that mean though?
• 19:35
  I think that if, if you really want to live a life or purpose,
• 19:39
  you got to take actions to, to seek opportunities to do so.
• 19:43
  And that doesn't mean that you necessarily start a business
• 19:46
  where you give all your money away.
• 19:48
  But I, I do believe that the only way to serve yourself is to
• 19:51
  serve other people. And I, I've been convinced just
• 19:55
  watching the book bank grow, you know, we host 10s of thousands
• 19:58
  of volunteers at Bernie's book bank every year.
• 20:01
  And I know by talking to many people that have volunteered
• 20:07
  there, whether it's just in a whether it's in a deep way or
• 20:11
  whether it's just coming in to volunteer at the facility that,
• 20:16
  you know, that let that has made their life better and.
• 20:20
  You know, we do about 6000 volunteer hours a month there
• 20:23
  and more than half are given by people under the under the age
• 20:26
  of 18 or the only organization in Chicago and that would take a
• 20:28
  child under the age of five to volunteer.
• 20:30
  And so I really believe we're serving 2 populations.
• 20:33
  And this is important relative to your conversation because I
• 20:35
  think it needs to start early and I think it needs to start
• 20:37
  with our children that I believe we're serving 2 populations.
• 20:40
  The second one, the one first one is the children we're
• 20:43
  serving with good quality books in their home from birth through
• 20:45
  6th grade. But the second is we're
• 20:47
  providing a safe place for young people to make service a habit
• 20:50
  from a very young age and through that build lifelong
• 20:53
  perspective. Because I, you know, the mental
• 20:56
  health issues that we have in our country are very real.
• 21:01
  But I think a big contributing factor to that is who do we
• 21:04
  spend all day thinking about me? And I'm just convinced and
• 21:10
  through experience that that all changes when you start to serve
• 21:14
  other people and you get proximate to other people who
• 21:16
  have way less than you. I think it makes you a better
• 21:19
  father, brother, sister, brother, follower, employee,
• 21:23
  leader. And if all that changes, the
• 21:26
  world changes, and perspective is important.
• 21:30
  It's an interesting, this is really interesting because I
• 21:32
  feel like, you know, kind of sort of the, the journey of a
• 21:34
  founder entrepreneur in a lot of cases is, you know, you're
• 21:37
  starting to build this business, you go through some struggles,
• 21:40
  you're not wealthy right away. You start to build a business.
• 21:43
  You're just trying to survive in a lot of cases for the first few
• 21:45
  years, You know, a lot of ways just keep the business going,
• 21:48
  keep the doors open, you know, continue to grow, hopefully to a
• 21:51
  degree. And then down the line, maybe
• 21:54
  you start making more money, you start getting a little more
• 21:56
  comfortable. You can do more things for your
• 21:57
  family, your kids, yourself. Maybe you upgrade the house.
• 22:00
  You're able to go on a vacation once or twice a year.
• 22:03
  And it's like, OK, I finally went through all these struggles
• 22:05
  and these challenges to be able to now have something.
• 22:08
  Now I want to preserve that thing.
• 22:09
  I want to hold it very tight and then eventually get to a point
• 22:12
  where you're like, OK, now I've got enough, enough surplus where
• 22:16
  I want to start giving back and doing those types of things.
• 22:18
  But it's easy to give back when you have a lot of stuff.
• 22:22
  It's not easy to give when you don't seemingly have a lot to
• 22:25
  actually give. Now I would have maybe you could
• 22:27
  argue you always have a lot to give.
• 22:29
  But I think what you're speaking to here is building the
• 22:32
  discipline, the habits and the perspective early on to say it's
• 22:36
  not about what you have. You give because it's a way of
• 22:39
  life. And when you give, you get.
• 22:42
  One thing I would say to my girls on the on the way to drop
• 22:43
  them off from school is a couple different sayings I had.
• 22:45
  I kind of repeat and try to brand in their mind.
• 22:47
  One of them is ask not. It's a little bit JFK ish.
• 22:50
  Ask not what you can get from the world, but ask what you can
• 22:53
  give. Yeah.
• 22:54
  And and they'll never have a bucket big enough for what comes
• 22:57
  back. It's not why you do it.
• 22:59
  You need to do it with authenticity.
• 23:00
  But I'm here to tell you, like, I've been giving way more.
• 23:08
  Look, a gift really isn't a gift unless there's a sacrifice.
• 23:13
  And the beauty of not accumulating it and then giving
• 23:18
  it away is as opposed to giving it away as you go, is give it
• 23:24
  away as you go. You get to see the impact and
• 23:28
  you get to be a part of the impact.
• 23:31
  And it just so happens that if you're a part of it and you get
• 23:33
  to see it, it makes you want to do it more.
• 23:37
  So that's, that's really why we've chosen to do what we do
• 23:40
  and the way that we do it. And, but we just really believe
• 23:44
  in, in what we do. And it's not, we don't think
• 23:50
  about it much. We, you know, I'm, I'm just very
• 23:52
  blessed also to be in a relationship and, and with my
• 23:55
  wife where we're totally aligned.
• 23:57
  You know, she for as a former social worker, she used to work
• 24:01
  for an agency that used to get books from Bernie's book bank.
• 24:04
  And so she would see it, see it on the back end and, and she's
• 24:11
  just also a very giving person. And so anyway, all I can say is
• 24:18
  we're, we're super blessed. What would you say to the
• 24:20
  founder? That's maybe if there was a
• 24:22
  founder sitting here, entrepreneur sitting here and
• 24:24
  they're just working their ass off, grinding away.
• 24:26
  Maybe they're non-stop travelling or just busy with
• 24:29
  their business and they're just on that rabbit wheel or that
• 24:34
  wheelhouse, you know, whatever you call it.
• 24:36
  What is it the hamster wheel And and they're just non-stop going.
• 24:39
  But it doesn't seem like they're really, there's not much purpose
• 24:42
  or mission or fulfilment. Maybe it's just like I got to
• 24:45
  grow the business, I got to grow the business, I got to grow the
• 24:46
  business. What would you say to that
• 24:48
  person? So you have to really ask
• 24:50
  yourself some hard questions like what are you doing it for
• 24:53
  and why and where are you going and what do you plan to do with,
• 24:59
  you know, if you're, if you're for me, if it's, if you're
• 25:02
  solely motivated by money as a founder and entrepreneur of
• 25:06
  anything like that is a that's a rabbit hole that, that, you
• 25:12
  know, being an entrepreneur, being a founder or trying to
• 25:14
  grow something of any type is, is really, really hard.
• 25:18
  And I think where, where purpose or purpose helps is it helps you
• 25:23
  pull those through. You know, look, I have stressful
• 25:26
  days. A lot of it's stress I've caused
• 25:28
  myself, so, you know, I have to feel grateful for that.
• 25:33
  But even in the most stressful days, the hardest days, when I
• 25:36
  put my head down at night, I know I'm fighting for the right
• 25:39
  people and that's comforting. Yeah.
• 25:44
  So I, I think it's really take a hard deep dive on what you're
• 25:48
  doing it for and why. And also, you know what, what
• 25:54
  are, what are the, what is the potential, what is the
• 25:56
  collateral damage as a result of your journey and, or potential
• 26:02
  collateral damage? And is the juice worth worth the
• 26:04
  squeeze? It's interesting, you know,
• 26:06
  talking about this, thinking about this podcast is that maybe
• 26:10
  it started very entrepreneurial, founder based, that kind of
• 26:13
  stuff. But the more I do these episodes
• 26:14
  and have these deep dives and more, I realize that it's not
• 26:17
  really about business. When you break it all down, it's
• 26:20
  about life. It's about everything is it's
• 26:23
  you know, it's about, and I know it's like a very broad term, but
• 26:26
  the more I have these conversations, it's really just
• 26:28
  comes back to like the life that you want to create and are you
• 26:31
  fulfilled and are you doing something meaningful?
• 26:33
  And why are you doing what you're doing?
• 26:36
  And. Well, I think a common
• 26:37
  denominator of founders is that they've realized that they don't
• 26:41
  want life to happen to them. They want to create it and
• 26:46
  listen with all the struggles and and that come with trying to
• 26:52
  build something. There's nothing better than
• 26:58
  creating life or being the driver of what happens that you
• 27:05
  don't accept the fact that well, this is just this is just it.
• 27:09
  And I'm just on this, I'm on this treadmill.
• 27:13
  And this is just, you know, it's, it's that you've chosen to
• 27:19
  create life not just for yourself, but for others around
• 27:21
  you. There's nothing better than
• 27:24
  that. I mean, there's the analogy I've
• 27:26
  drawn on over the years is, look, climbing up a mountain is
• 27:31
  hard work. You're going to walk uphill most
• 27:34
  of the way. But the view from the top is
• 27:38
  unbelievable. And I don't mean like the top of
• 27:42
  the business. I what I mean is like the growth
• 27:46
  over the years and achieving things that maybe others didn't
• 27:48
  think you could achieve or that were hard.
• 27:52
  It always feels best when it's hard, and that's true, and
• 27:56
  there's just no way around it. That's so true because you had
• 27:58
  to work for it. You had to put in what equity
• 28:00
  you had to correct, go through the challenges.
• 28:02
  It doesn't, you know, it's like when you are given something
• 28:05
  versus when you had to buy it and you spent your last penny on
• 28:08
  something and you had to, everything was hard earned and
• 28:10
  then you had to get this thing and, and how it feels like, wow,
• 28:13
  I really want to take care of this thing or bear this
• 28:15
  responsibility because I, I know what it takes to get it.
• 28:17
  Yeah. When you're given something,
• 28:19
  it's just kind of like, yeah, all right, I can throw it out.
• 28:21
  And I didn't really not losing anything because I didn't really
• 28:24
  make it or create it or earn it. Yep, right.
• 28:26
  Yeah, 100%. What percentage of entrepreneurs
• 28:28
  have you had a guest today? Just a rough estimate.
• 28:30
  Zero to 100% are living life in a filled, purpose driven way,
• 28:37
  whether or not you know, doing it for the status or for the
• 28:40
  next milestone or the revenue. What would you guess?
• 28:44
  In other words, how many percentage of entrepreneurs are
• 28:46
  like you? Well, it depends on really what
• 28:49
  the question is. If it's entrepreneurs that are
• 28:51
  purpose driven, I'd say it's a very small amount.
• 28:56
  But if the question is, you know, I, I think, I think the
• 29:00
  major majority of them, well, the, the one thing you said was
• 29:04
  the purpose, then there was another piece of that.
• 29:06
  What would you say that again? Well, what I'm trying to say is
• 29:10
  that there are a lot of founders, entrepreneurs out
• 29:12
  there who are just kind of running the business to get to
• 29:15
  the next revenue milestone. And it's really.
• 29:18
  Kind of just about that, right? It's not a ton more than that.
• 29:21
  I don't think I, of course there's all, there's always a
• 29:24
  percentage of, you know, they, they want the status, they just
• 29:27
  want to be a founder and they just want to have.
• 29:30
  But I, I, but I think whether it's purpose driven and serving
• 29:33
  others, that's different, but purpose driven in general, I
• 29:37
  think I'd say most of them are really, that would be, that
• 29:41
  would be my because they, they kind of have to be, you know,
• 29:43
  you kind of have to be driven by something to, to, to gross to,
• 29:50
  to start something and then grow something like that.
• 29:52
  And, and, and I'd say to have the intestinal fortitude and the
• 29:55
  resilience to continue to go, you know, I think a lot of
• 29:59
  entrepreneurs and I feel this way too.
• 30:01
  You know, if the why is important enough, you'll figure
• 30:03
  out the how. And that's really what
• 30:05
  entrepreneurship is. You see a need or you see, you
• 30:08
  know, and don't get me wrong, I mean, there's opportunity in
• 30:12
  there too. And by the way, there's nothing
• 30:15
  wrong with, I want people to be as successful as they possibly
• 30:19
  can be. I don't think there should be a
• 30:20
  ceiling. I, I, I don't, I don't have any
• 30:23
  problems with people that want to make a lot of money and, and,
• 30:27
  but it is like, OK, well, what are you going to do with it?
• 30:29
  Like how are you going to leverage that?
• 30:32
  Because you can only have so many houses and, and cars and,
• 30:37
  and whatever else. But the reality is we all are
• 30:42
  going to die with nothing. Yeah.
• 30:44
  Everything gets taken away and that's why faith is really
• 30:49
  important to me because at the end of the day, that's all I got
• 30:52
  and. Is your belief, there's a common
• 30:55
  belief that as long as you have enough money to where you can go
• 30:59
  out to dinner and you could buy your family dinner and not have
• 31:03
  to worry about the bill, not have to think about it because
• 31:05
  there is enough money in the bank and things are taken care
• 31:08
  of, bills are paid. As long as you have that,
• 31:10
  anything additional is not going to make you much happier.
• 31:13
  Yeah, I think I agree with what you're saying.
• 31:17
  It is nice to get to a point where if you come home and
• 31:20
  you're like, let's just go out to eat, you don't really have to
• 31:23
  think about it. I mean, that's money is choices.
• 31:26
  Yes. I mean, I, I've had a, my, my
• 31:28
  daughter's 16 very, very, very, very driven, very academic and
• 31:33
  thinking about college now. And as you start thinking about
• 31:35
  college, you start to think about the rest of your life and
• 31:37
  career. And we've recently had a
• 31:39
  conversation where it's like, look, being passionate about
• 31:42
  what you do is very important, but this notion of find, find
• 31:45
  out what you love to do and then you'll figure out to make way to
• 31:47
  make money of it out of it is a farce.
• 31:50
  And it's not, I don't think it's sound advice.
• 31:56
  And I say that from experience. We, we got lucky.
• 32:01
  You know, I'm probably one in 5000.
• 32:03
  And but I've, I live paycheck to paycheck for a very long time,
• 32:08
  frankly, still living paycheck to paycheck, not like I did
• 32:13
  before. And I, I do want my kids to be
• 32:16
  able to have choices. I don't know if I would have
• 32:20
  said that 15 years ago. I'm actually surprised that you
• 32:23
  did say that because I would think you'd be someone that
• 32:24
  says, hey, if you find something that's you are excited about,
• 32:27
  that lights you up, that's purpose driven, you can find a
• 32:30
  way to make a little good living out of that.
• 32:31
  Yeah. Well, that takes that takes some
• 32:34
  intangibles that you know, you don't really know someone has
• 32:37
  until they're they're put in that position.
• 32:40
  Sure, And I don't want them to have to be not saying comfort.
• 32:49
  What I'm saying is is you're going to want to have choices.
• 32:52
  If you know, if you think about it, if you have a family and you
• 32:56
  want to live in a decent home and you want to be able to take
• 33:00
  a vacation from time to time, right, your household is going
• 33:04
  to have to make 200, at least $200,000.
• 33:06
  No doubt about it today in America, at least in Chicago.
• 33:09
  Correct. And so it's just reality.
• 33:15
  I think you can find a balance between the two.
• 33:17
  I don't think it's, I wouldn't want or expect everyone to do it
• 33:21
  the way that I did it in that it's the right way.
• 33:26
  It's just what I've chosen and thankfully I've had the help of
• 33:33
  a of a lot of people. I mean 10s of thousands of
• 33:36
  people. I get way too much credit for
• 33:42
  the book Bank or Buku. It's all about people and people
• 33:46
  have done it and people have adopted our mission as their
• 33:51
  own. And that's really why it's
• 33:53
  become what it's become. Of course someone has to start
• 33:58
  it. But if you ever want to watch a
• 33:59
  really cool video on, there's a video on YouTube called starting
• 34:02
  a starting a movement. And it's, it's probably 2
• 34:05
  minutes long. And if you go to it, you'll
• 34:07
  probably think that you're watching the wrong video because
• 34:10
  it's really grainy and old. But it's, it's a guy it looks
• 34:14
  like at a music festival like in Colorado or something.
• 34:17
  And he's, he's, he is dancing on his own.
• 34:20
  And, and you know, it probably somebody you'd look at me like,
• 34:23
  look at that guy like, but what you watch over time is the
• 34:28
  people that start to come dance with them and then everyone is
• 34:32
  dancing with them. And the point of the, the point
• 34:34
  of the video is that starting a movement is not about the the
• 34:38
  guy that starts it or the guy that starts it.
• 34:40
  It's about the first follower and then the follower after that
• 34:44
  and the follower after that. That's really what makes a
• 34:46
  movement, not the person that starts it.
• 34:50
  And that's the case with what I've been involved in and
• 34:55
  everything takes a knucklehead to to start it.
• 34:58
  Yeah, so they're brave enough to put themselves out there, right?
• 35:00
  I mean, it's, it's really not smart.
• 35:02
  Like what I what I did was, I mean, I had no money, three
• 35:05
  jobs, expecting father, never, never started a business, never
• 35:09
  run a business. When you had the $5000 in credit
• 35:12
  card that you put the for the Bernie's Book Bank, was there a
• 35:16
  period where you thought I'm not going to be able to pay this
• 35:18
  back? Was just blind faith, you know,
• 35:22
  Or I guess not. Blind.
• 35:23
  But you know, believing in that because to me, when you don't
• 35:26
  have money and then you got to put something, and I've been in
• 35:28
  that position before, believe me, you know, with kids and
• 35:30
  stuff where it's like we don't have enough for groceries, you
• 35:33
  know, when you got to put $5000 when you don't have any money is
• 35:38
  a lot to put on something that like, hopefully this works out.
• 35:41
  Yeah. Well, I think it's part
• 35:43
  conviction, yeah, and part like no one's going to tell you
• 35:47
  otherwise. You have to have that a little.
• 35:49
  Bit too right? Like because.
• 35:50
  You're going to go through tough times.
• 35:52
  You're going to be challenged. You got to have that like.
• 35:53
  I will figure out a way to make this work correct?
• 35:56
  Yeah, Yeah. I mean, is it a good business
• 35:58
  strategy? No, but I call it perfect
• 36:01
  niotivity. I think that it's required
• 36:05
  because, like, if you would have told me what it would take to
• 36:09
  get here and I'm, I'm pretty stubborn.
• 36:12
  I'm, you know, I, I, I think if I could put my mind to
• 36:16
  something, you know, I can get it done.
• 36:19
  It it just wasn't smart. Yeah, but you have to, you have
• 36:23
  to have that. You have to be perfectly naive
• 36:26
  in some way. Yeah, maybe it was smart.
• 36:29
  Maybe it was smart cuz you bet on yourself and your mission and
• 36:31
  well, what? You believe in It's worked out.
• 36:33
  Yeah, maybe it was just risky, is what we'd say.
• 36:36
  Yeah, it was not. Smart.
• 36:38
  Well, yeah. Yeah, Yeah.
• 36:40
  I think it's a little bit of all that.
• 36:41
  There you go. OK, So let's get into some
• 36:43
  branding stuff. I appreciate you sharing all
• 36:45
  that with that. That wasn't even part of the
• 36:47
  necessarily the planned conversation, although I'm not
• 36:49
  surprised that we got there. But I think I love having these
• 36:51
  insightful, thought evoking, bigger than the business type
• 36:55
  conversations. I appreciate you indulging.
• 36:58
  Let's get to some of the branding questions though.
• 37:00
  First one is just how do you define a brand?
• 37:02
  Like how would you define brand? I'd say what it makes you feel
• 37:07
  early on in the book banks journey, we we did something
• 37:10
  that I think a lot of people thought was not smart either,
• 37:13
  which was go through a full on branding exercise and we've done
• 37:18
  some refreshes since then. I think it's smart to continue
• 37:21
  to do that because you need to know who you are and what are
• 37:23
  your, your, your North Stars. And, and, but I'm glad we did it
• 37:28
  because when we went to go build the, the, the big facility we're
• 37:31
  in right now, which is now 60,000 square feet, it was very
• 37:36
  helpful to understand who we are and the vibe that we were trying
• 37:40
  to create for folks when they were to come into the facility.
• 37:47
  And, and the, the, the main objective was a feeling and
• 37:52
  whether that's the colors or whether that's, you know, how
• 37:57
  you, what the, how you, how you lay it out.
• 38:01
  I, I think it's about a feeling and I think it's about like, OK,
• 38:04
  that's, that's, that's my, those are my people and I belong, I
• 38:09
  belong to that. It's kind of fascinating.
• 38:14
  Honestly. I'm not a brand person.
• 38:16
  Like I like if I if there's a shirt that has a logo on it, I
• 38:20
  usually won't wear it. Yeah.
• 38:22
  Kind of the same way. But the fact that matter is
• 38:26
  whether we like it or not, there are brands and but I think it's
• 38:31
  the way that that it makes you feel.
• 38:32
  What does your hat mean, by the way?
• 38:33
  Wander out Yonder? I mean, I know I could imagine
• 38:36
  what that might mean, but this, is there a significance to that?
• 38:39
  Well, to be honest with you, I just like the way it looked and
• 38:43
  but it, it, I guess it does, you know, wandering.
• 38:48
  I think we're all wandering through life and you know,
• 38:52
  that's true. Just just get out there and
• 38:54
  wander and wonder and, and I like the color green.
• 38:59
  That's good. I like that you kind of think
• 39:01
  outdoorsy, but it's actually there's a bigger meeting even
• 39:03
  beyond that. You really take a look at it.
• 39:05
  What was the vibe that you got coming in here?
• 39:06
  I'm curious. Coming in here.
• 39:08
  Like just being here in this environment.
• 39:11
  What kind of vibe or feeling you get?
• 39:13
  And you can be as honest as you want to.
• 39:15
  He might roast me here alive on camera, but just kind of what's
• 39:18
  the vibe you get being in here on the show?
• 39:22
  Well, I, I think it's homey, you know, you feel at home.
• 39:26
  OK, that's good. And I think that's if, if that's
• 39:30
  the only vibe I have or anybody else have, I think that that's
• 39:35
  that's good enough. We all just want a home, don't
• 39:38
  we? Yeah.
• 39:40
  And we want to feel like we're at home.
• 39:41
  And that's back to the book Bank.
• 39:43
  You know, we wanted to be a place where people felt like
• 39:45
  they were at home and and that beyond that, they just, they
• 39:48
  needed to be there. They felt like they were fed
• 39:50
  there. Yeah.
• 39:52
  So yeah, I feel at home. Cool.
• 39:54
  I appreciate that. That's actually the vibe that
• 39:55
  we're going for is just very homey, little outdoorsy, maybe
• 39:59
  little outdoorsy, you know? I like plants, kind of the
• 40:01
  plants. Plants are good.
• 40:02
  Yeah, because I think to me that just feels earthy, homey.
• 40:05
  It just feels comforting, doesn't feel.
• 40:08
  There's not like crazy lights. I mean, you got to have some
• 40:10
  lights and set up. Otherwise, it's not a damn
• 40:11
  podcast. But.
• 40:13
  You know, you try to make it as minimalist maybe as possible.
• 40:16
  So another question here, what do great brands do that average
• 40:21
  ones don't? I think their actions follow the
• 40:27
  the brand that they're trying to portray.
• 40:31
  You can say one thing, you can portray another thing, but if
• 40:34
  your actions are not consistent with who you think you are, who
• 40:39
  you say you are, there's a there's a disconnect.
• 40:43
  And in terms of brand loyalty, or some people call it brand
• 40:46
  love or whatever you might use in terms of describing that, but
• 40:50
  basically getting people to wear, they just almost blindly
• 40:54
  follow you. Like if you put out some new
• 40:55
  product or service, they're going to get it, you know?
• 40:57
  And I think we look at companies like we know what brand loyalty
• 41:00
  means for Apple, for Nike, for things like that because it's
• 41:04
  physical products, their logos are famous, they've been around
• 41:08
  for many years. But what does brand loyalty mean
• 41:10
  for AB to B company that's a staffing recruiting company or a
• 41:14
  financial firm or something like that?
• 41:16
  Well, I think trust is a big deal, but I also just want to
• 41:19
  say right here, since you're asking these branding questions,
• 41:21
  you know, I'm a recovering golf professional with an entomology
• 41:24
  degree, so I'm not an illiteracy expert nor am IA brand expert.
• 41:32
  Well, I think you guys have done a really nice job building a
• 41:36
  great brand, multiple great brands.
• 41:38
  So even though you say I may not be an expert, I do think that
• 41:40
  you maybe aren't giving yourself enough credit because you built
• 41:43
  something that is extends well beyond you guys.
• 41:45
  And to me, that is brand that's yeah, community, obviously.
• 41:49
  Well, I don't think anybody would argue with this, including
• 41:51
  my wife, that I'm a, I'm a big feelings person, you know?
• 41:54
  And one of our first dates, she said you feel every emotion
• 41:58
  intensely. I was like, damn, she figured it
• 42:02
  out already. Now how did she know that from
• 42:03
  the first date? I don't think it was first, it
• 42:06
  was probably third. But still.
• 42:10
  I'll answer that question in a minute.
• 42:13
  But you know, it's important to say what I was feeling at the
• 42:17
  moment, which was, Oh no, what's coming next?
• 42:20
  And what she said next was one of the greatest things I've ever
• 42:24
  heard with my own ears. And that was, but I want to own
• 42:26
  all of them. And she, she has been true to
• 42:30
  her word beyond that in which is an amazing feeling.
• 42:38
  But I, but I think it's, it's trust.
• 42:40
  And you know, when, when you're working with someone, you know,
• 42:46
  there's always going to be challenges and there's going to
• 42:47
  be things that don't quite go as planned from time to time.
• 42:53
  But it's, it's the client knowing that you get you care
• 42:58
  and that you're going to run to a brick wall to make it right.
• 43:01
  And that's why I think relationships are really, really
• 43:04
  important. So that it's not a transaction.
• 43:07
  You know, you could say it's the difference between a client, a
• 43:09
  customer, a customer. You know, my brother was a State
• 43:11
  Farm agent and you know he would have customers from time to time
• 43:15
  call him because their monthly bill went up by $0.27.
• 43:21
  Jeez. Or, you know, whatever that
• 43:24
  might be extreme, but something to that effect.
• 43:26
  But a customer will, it's always about that.
• 43:29
  A client will say, hey, Bernie, what do you know, how's your
• 43:32
  family? And they won't, they won't worry
• 43:35
  so much about 20. I mean, I say $0.27 because it
• 43:38
  was that trivial. And you know, those are the
• 43:42
  people who are going to sue you. So, so I think, I think
• 43:46
  relations, you just never get around relationships.
• 43:50
  And if you want to run a great business, you, you have to at
• 43:53
  some level have a relationship with your clients because they
• 43:57
  have a lot of choices and they need to know you're on their
• 44:01
  team and you're going to work for them and you're going to
• 44:05
  improve what they're doing as a business and help them be
• 44:07
  successful. What?
• 44:09
  Do you think the key is to building great relationships
• 44:11
  with clients? Because, you know, there may be
• 44:13
  people listening right now to say, yeah, we've got some good
• 44:16
  clients. I don't really feel like I know
• 44:17
  them or have a great relationship with them.
• 44:18
  We do good service for them, but maybe they don't feel like they
• 44:21
  have that relationship or they want to make it better.
• 44:23
  Candidly, I think it's authenticity and vulnerability
• 44:26
  and humility. Like, yeah, you have to be
• 44:28
  confident in what you do, but also recognize that things are
• 44:32
  going to go sideways from time to time.
• 44:34
  And I think the more someone knows you, the more loyal
• 44:40
  they're going to be, You know, they're going to accept the,
• 44:44
  it's just, it's just business things.
• 44:45
  Things don't always go as planned.
• 44:47
  And they're going to stay with you because they believe in you
• 44:52
  and they, they believe it's some level that no one's going to
• 44:55
  care more about them and what they're trying to do than than
• 44:58
  you. And that takes time and effort
• 45:01
  and intention. And whether it's a client or
• 45:04
  whether it's a donor, the relationship is key.
• 45:08
  And I think authenticity, vulnerability, humility are
• 45:11
  important and any relationship, because they're gonna figure it
• 45:16
  out eventually who you are, what your strengths are, and what
• 45:19
  your weaknesses are. And we all have weaknesses and
• 45:22
  I've got a ton of them. But I think, you know, we had a
• 45:26
  donor, we had a donor at the book bank the first time we ever
• 45:31
  got a multi year commitment. It, it would mean a lot today,
• 45:33
  but it meant a ton back then. And it was like we'd ask him for
• 45:36
  25 first year, 15 the second year and 10 the 3rd.
• 45:40
  So my phone rings, I ain't pick it up.
• 45:43
  And it's the daughter of the patriarch of the, the family.
• 45:47
  And she said, oh, Brian, I just want to call and let you know
• 45:49
  that we're going to do this. And I was like, really?
• 45:52
  Are you sure? Because you know, I have no idea
• 45:55
  what I'm doing, right? And she said, yeah, Brian, we're
• 45:59
  well aware of that. But we.
• 46:03
  Still want to move? Forward.
• 46:04
  But what we do know is that you know how to get really good
• 46:07
  people to the table. And if there's anybody who's
• 46:09
  going to run through a brick wall to get this done at you and
• 46:12
  that's all we need to know. And if you think about it,
• 46:15
  anybody that's a potential donor, they they owned a
• 46:17
  business, ran a business, sold a business, whatever it may be,
• 46:20
  they know that mistakes will be made because they've made them
• 46:24
  all. What they, what they really need
• 46:28
  to know is that do you have the intestinal fortitude that when
• 46:30
  those challenges come, that you will push through them no matter
• 46:34
  what? And I think that's the same in
• 46:37
  in a for profit setting where people trust you and they know
• 46:42
  that you are going to do whatever it takes to make it
• 46:44
  right when things go wrong. Yeah.
• 46:48
  I would add on to that to build relationships is just to be
• 46:50
  genuinely curious. Yeah, you know, and ask
• 46:52
  questions and get to know them and things like that.
• 46:54
  Cuz I think that goes a long way.
• 46:56
  Yeah. And not be like, hey, how was
• 46:57
  your weekend? Good.
• 46:57
  How was yours? Good.
• 46:58
  Yeah. You know, that's kind of surface
• 47:00
  level, but just genuine in saying, hey, what's happening
• 47:02
  with this or hey, you mentioned your kids are doing this and
• 47:04
  this. How's that going?
• 47:05
  You know? Yeah.
• 47:05
  Yeah, and you gotta be, you gotta be curious without an
• 47:08
  agenda. That's right.
• 47:09
  That's right, with no strings. Genuinely curious.
• 47:11
  Yeah exactly. Yep, before we came on.
• 47:14
  I know we only got a few minutes left cuz we gotta get you out of
• 47:16
  here. But before we came on you said
• 47:18
  that you're, you're not really so much running the business or
• 47:21
  being the CEO of the company and it's not something that you want
• 47:24
  to necessarily do. I'm curious why that is because
• 47:28
  typically a founder, they, you know, they're the CEO, they run
• 47:31
  the company, they're kind of at the head.
• 47:32
  It sounds like you shield away from that.
• 47:34
  Well, I want us to succeed #1 You know, at the Book Bank, we
• 47:39
  work on behalf of hundreds of thousands of children that we
• 47:43
  serve and the ones we don't serve yet.
• 47:45
  And I wouldn't say this is always the case, but I guess
• 47:49
  over the last 10 years, you know, if you, if you really take
• 47:52
  a hard look at yourself, you realize what you're good at and
• 47:54
  what you're not. And I think the key to that is
• 47:58
  once you understand that being honest with yourself and stop
• 48:02
  trying to get good at things you're not predisposed to be
• 48:04
  good at and start trying to get great at what you're already
• 48:08
  pretty good at. And you know, I'm not ACEO and
• 48:15
  I've known that for a very long time.
• 48:17
  And and I want the Book Bank and Buku branded to be very
• 48:22
  successful. And as of right now with Buku
• 48:24
  and where we are, you know, that's the role I need to play.
• 48:28
  But you know, we we want in the next 5 years to to get somebody
• 48:32
  in there that just comes in and blows it up.
• 48:34
  And I just really want to be irrelevant.
• 48:37
  And I think, you know, especially at the book bank
• 48:39
  where we're, we're, we're literally trying to build an
• 48:41
  American institution. Institutions cannot rely on any
• 48:45
  one person. And, and I just think it beyond
• 48:51
  that, I think it puts us in the best position to succeed.
• 48:54
  I also think optically, it shows a level of maturity.
• 48:59
  And, and this has never been about me.
• 49:04
  It's about solving a problem and solving it once and for all.
• 49:07
  And, you know, I think I'm good at motivating people, inspiring
• 49:12
  them to the mission. I'm cultivating a steward in
• 49:15
  relationships, but managing people, you know, I think
• 49:20
  there's doing some being a leader and being a manager.
• 49:22
  I'm not, I'm not a manager. There's multiple people that
• 49:26
  could attest to that. And so it's just how can I be a
• 49:32
  tool in a tool belt of whether it's Bernie's book, banker, Buku
• 49:35
  brand? I think that's the way to do it.
• 49:38
  I mean, to me, I always want to try to get out of the business
• 49:42
  as much as I can because I think it's a testament to building a
• 49:44
  good business, right? You can come out of it at some
• 49:46
  point, right? It doesn't fall apart without
• 49:48
  you. And that's to me, that is good
• 49:50
  leadership too, because you put the right things in place.
• 49:51
  It takes, it takes humility, yeah.
• 49:55
  But I think if you're doing it for the right reasons and and
• 50:00
  you know what you're trying to achieve, then it's it's it's
• 50:03
  much easier. Well, Brian, I appreciate you
• 50:05
  coming on the show. Would love to continue the
• 50:06
  conversation, but I know you got to go downtown for an
• 50:08
  appointment that you have. Where can people find you,
• 50:11
  connect with you, learn more about what you guys do?
• 50:13
  Well, they can go to either Bernie's with bank.org or
• 50:16
  bukubranded.com. They can e-mail me directly at
• 50:20
  brian@bukubranded.com or Brian at berniesbookbank.com.
• 50:24
  Find us on LinkedIn. But I just appreciate your
• 50:30
  having me as a guest and what you're doing and rooting for you
• 50:35
  likewise. And if ever I can be of service
• 50:37
  to you, just reach out. Appreciate the conversation
• 50:40
  today, you guys, Brian.