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- [00:00]
Charlamagne tha God
Listen to me. This is Charlamagne tha God talking. If you're not on prime, you're missing out. Prime's not just fast free delivery, although that is definitely a big perk. It's a collection of excellent services that help you get more out of whatever passions you're into or getting into. Like right now I am really getting into past life regression therapy and there's so many books about it on Prime. So you can order books with prime or even listen to content on Amazon Music. Whether you're binge watching the latest on prime video, listening to music on Amazon Music or getting those last minute gifts dropped at your door with prime, same day free delivery with customers get closer to what they care about. Whatever you're into, it's all on Prime. Visit Amazon.comprime now.
- [00:38]
Os Veloson
Do you want to see into the future? Do you want to understand an invisible force that's shaping your life? Do you want to experience the frontiers of what makes us human? On tech stuff we travel from the mines of Congo to the surface of Mars, from conversations with Nobel Prize winners to the depths of TikTok to ask burning questions about technology, from high tech to low culture and everywhere in between. Join us Listen to tech stuff on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [01:10]
NPR Life Kit Host
Here at Life Kit, NPR's Self Help podcast, we love the idea of helping you make meaningful lifestyle changes. Our policy is to never be too punishing on yourself or too grand in your goals, which is why we've got shows on how to make little nudges to your behavior and create habits that stick. Listen to the Life kit podcast on iHeartradio.
- [01:34]
Bobby Bones
Calling all Yellowstone fans, let's go to work. Join Bobby Bones on the official Yellowstone Podcast for exclusive cast interviews, behind the scenes insights and a deep dive into the themes that have made Yellowstone a cultural phenomenon. Our family legacy is this ranch, not.
- [01:53]
John Hope Bryant
A protector of my life.
- [01:55]
Bobby Bones
Listen to the official Yellowstone podcast Now on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [02:03]
John Hope Bryant
Welcome to Money and Wealth with John Hope Bryant, a production of the Black Effect podcast network and iHeartRadio. Yo, yo, this is John Hope Bryant. This is Money and Wealth podcast series. I am honored in 2025 to bring you another exciting episode. This is going to be a bit of a master class I give you today. I'm calling in, I'm phoning this in. I'm recording this live from Poland. That's right halfway around the world. And it's appropriate that I'M doing this from Poland. I'm actually here. Shaja and I are here commemorating with Van Jones and Robert Smith and others, the only invited delegation that includes African Americans, oddly enough, or interestingly enough, should I say, for the 80th commemorative liberation of Auschwitz, the Jews who were murdered here 80 years ago in World War II. This is commemorating the liberation from Auschwitz and God bless the souls lost here. But when I'm on travel, I've got to run my businesses while I'm doing well. I have to do good too. Or in order to do good, I have to do well first. And so I have to find a way to continue to run my operations. I've got five divisions of John O'Brien Enterprises. You know me most from my work at Operation Hope, which is the largest financial literacy coaching organization in America. 1500 offices give or take in almost every state in the United States. We have thousands of volunteers. We have collaborative partnership offices. We have 400 full time employees in all of our operations. You have Operation Hope, you've got Brian Group Ventures, you've got Brian Group Ventures Advisors, Brian Group Digital, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And then all the projects within Operation Hope. I'm going to do a masterclass at some point on how to run an effective nonprofit and how to build one from scratch. Let me know if you like that idea, by the way. How to build one from scratch. How to take an idea and turn it into an operating entity. How to take an operating entity and turn it into a successful enterprise. How to take a successful enterprise that's boutique, our small business turned into a boutique boutique successful enterprise that's with a reputation but it is, you know, basically local and how to take something local and turning it into something that is known regionally, doing business regionally and nationally, etc. And how to turn that to from a personality driven activity into some an institution that is an upcoming podcast. You tell me whether you like that by the way. I'll do the same thing for a for profit. But I wanted to start with something that is a bit of a mystery with people, which is a non profit. But the larger issues, whether it's my real estate stuff or whether it's my non profit financial literacy stuff or whether it's my, you know, whatever the we're writing books and speaking and etc. Etc. How do I do it? People like how do you do this? And then you, you know, you have a family, you have a personal life. How do you do all this stuff? Well, I'm going to unpack some of that today. Today, no pun intended, unpack. I'm gonna tell you about also how I pack. I will put a couple photos in of this, actual photos of actually my suitcase on this trip to give you some sense of literally how I pack. But I'm going to most importantly tell you about my tech tools. People tell you to be successful, they don't tell you how. So part of my master class in 2025 is breaking down the how. This series, this session is my tech tools. John Bryant's tech tools. The how of how I do all this stuff and not go crazy. It Somebody told me a couple years ago, and it's completely true that if you don't have technology at the center of your business or enterprise or non profit or government agency or whatever it is you're running, if you don't have technology at the center of that I even believe in your personal life, then you're actually not succeeding, you're falling behind. I'll say that again. If you don't have technology, if technology is not centric, centered in the center of whatever it is you're doing, and I don't mean just having a iPhone or whatever the Samsung phone, whatever it is you use. I use iPhone, I use Apple products. But I don't just mean having a smartphone and treating it like it's a dumb device. I don't mean just having a phone and sending an email to somebody or sending a text to somebody or making a phone call. That's not what I'm talking about. If you don't have technology and use it intelligently, use it smartly and center that root that in the center of your life as a growing 21st century business enterprise entrepreneur doer, you're actually not going forward, you're going backwards in real time. You've got to be organized. It could be said that half of success is showing up and having good habits. Showing up and having good habits. It's time to take out your notepad and begin to take some notes. So let's go. I'll do the packing piece as a bit of a bonus here. How I pack, how do I travel, what do I use? Let's get into the technology and how I do it. Beyond the magic soft of how I think and how I lead, which our value propositions are assets that I have in my institutions have because. Because leadership is that outlier, unique asset that defines everything. And you have leaders, you have managers, you have tacticians, you have doers. Those are different categories of executives that you will have in your organization. You give somebody a title does not mean that they're a leader, by the way. But let's assume for the moment you got the right team in place. Many of my people have been with me for 20 or 30 years. My chief of staff, Rachel Duff, has been with me for 32 years. I think she was my second employee when I founded that Brian Group Ventures and Operation Hope. Lance Triggs been with me for, I think, going on 30 years. Mary Harrison, going on close to 30 years. Janae Roscoe, over 20 years. And goes on and goes on and goes on. So most of my people, if you're a, a, a newbie with me, you've been with me for a decade. So you got to have a special Forces team. It's been said, and I agree, that 80% of important work is done by 20% of your people. 80% of important work is done BY 20% of your people. But if you're going to have by and then the other people just complain and make your life miserable. But anyway, being an employer oftentimes is a babysitter. I actually have great employees, so I'm not complaining about my people. But even if you have a special Forces team, which is different from having a general army, that special Forces team, no different than a special forces in the military who has advanced weaponry to go be dropped behind enemy lines so they can have an outsized impact being outnumbered and outgunned, they've got to have the, you know, the element of surprise and they have to have superior training and be able to outsmart their adversary. They, they're playing, you know, chess and everybody else is playing checkers. But they have to have, you know, technology in their, again, example, weaponry, which is far superior than those that they are coming up against. I have technology. I, you know, I have weaponry. It's called technology. Tools that allow my, me and my special forces team to operate with outsized effectiveness. Because even though we have 400 people, it feels like somebody told me that we have 40,000 people. I don't know if they said 4,000 or 40,000, but you get the point. It feels like 10x or 20x or 100x of what we have in human capital actually on our payroll because we've been so effective. Okay, so start writing this down. You don't have to use these tools, but I think you should use something like it. So the first thing I do, and I have this graph, and I'm going to put this graph somewhere on the video version of this podcast so people can see it. I'm going to put this graph in, but it's by JB formula for achievement. So vision, mission, strategy, plan, business plan, execution, tactics to do's to DUNs assessment, readjustment, software grade back division. Now I haven't got to the technology tools per se. This is a techno. This is how I use mind mapping, which is the first piece of technology software that I'm going to suggest that you get for yourself. I don't care which software you use. There's a simple one that you can use called Mindly. It's very easy. M I N D L Y. There's I Thoughts, that's another one I've used before. What I use at the moment is Mind Meister Mindmeister. It's German mind mapping and I like it because it's collaborative and sophisticated and all that stuff. You can put links in it and, and I do a mind map for almost everything important in my life. I start with a mind map. And what you're doing in the mind map is getting all the, the jello and all of the, the wiring. You know, the, all the wiring of thoughts and ideas is going through your head at a million miles and hours, miles an hour. You drive down the street, you got all these ideas. There's no way to organize it. You give yourself a headache. Take all that stuff, clear the cobwebs out of your head and put it on a mind map. Literally it is a mapping of your mind as relates to the idea at hand. So the first thing I do is take my vision and make it real for my team because they can't get in my head. And if they even they could, they may not be able to understand what the heck's going on there. I've been told I'm just a different kind of guy. I'm operating on different juice. I operate three, four times faster than everybody else. When they get up in the morning, Marty down the street, around the blocks, you know, I've finished when they're starting and, and I'm also just, I'm just, I'm operating a different bit rate. But I'm also maybe operating. I'm just thinking differently than everybody else. I'm at 30,000 foot and they're at, you know, 3,000ft or 300ft because they're tactical. Most people are managers. They're just trying to get stuff done on their to do list in front of them. That's very different from executing against a vision. And the Bible says where there is no vision, the people perish. So you have to have a vision. You have to be. Have to be disciplined about keeping it. So I have. Mind mappings is my first suggestion for you. It works in my business life. Here's a success hack is a cheat sheet I'm giving you now. It also works in your personal life. Your personal life needs to be organized just like your business life. Use mind maps to map out a project, an initiative, your goals for 2025, whatever it is, a new startup, business restructuring, whatever it is, you know you're going to send your kids to college. You want to map that out over the next five years. How are you going to pay for it? Start with a mind map. Okay, so here's my map again. For achievement of anything again, I'll say one more time, Vision. What am I doing? Why mission. Why am I doing that thing? Like, what's the purpose behind that strategy? Okay, so my mission, to go back to my mission. So, you know, one of my missions is to un Is to unleash untapped human potential at scale. It's one of my missions. So my vision might be to change the world in my lifetime. My mission, my way to do that is to unleash untapped human potential at scale, to create an economic infrastructure for underserved America and so on and so forth. And so you can look through my vision. See, my mission and vision might also be to extend on the third reconstruction or do the work of the third reconstruction, which was the work that maybe Dr. King and Ambassador Andrew Young would be doing if Dr. King was still alive today. Andrew Young is very much alive. Or Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln were still alive today. That was the first reconstruction. And the second one, I believe, is the third reconstruction. So my vision might be big, you know, and audacious, which is to, you know, X, Y and Z, whatever that big, bold Harry, big, bold, audacious idea is. That's your vision for yourself. My vision is crazy big. Your vision might be to become a business owner or have financial freedom or whatever. It's all. Everybody's vision is different. Your mission, okay, it's a bit more tangible. Right. And you heard just now what my mission is. Right. And the mission should align with your vision and then your strategy. Okay, how are you going to go about this? Like, what route are you going to take to get to this objective? And then you have a business plan. Okay, how does that strategy, that mission and vision get codified and run the ground? PhDs are good. PhD is a better.
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Charlamagne tha God
Peace to the planet. Charlamagne tha God here. And I just want you to know if you're not on Amazon prime, you're seriously missing out. It's not just about the fast free delivery. Although, let's be real, that's a game changer. It especially was for me this holiday season. Prime is like your personal guide to everything you're into or want to get into. Whether it's binge watching the latest hit on prime video, you know, listening to your favorite playlist on Amazon music, or getting those last minute gifts with same day free delivery, Prime's got you covered. And here's the kicker. Prime isn't just about getting you closer to your passion. It's about helping you discover new ones too. Got a hobby you're obsessed with? Prime fuels it. Trying something new. Prime helps you dive deep into whatever's next. It's like me being passionate about mental health. You can order all kinds of books on mental health on Prime. My favorite is the Unapologetic Guide to Black mental health by Dr. Rita Walker. Prime gets you closer to what really matters, making all times of the year that much more special. Whether it's screaming your favorite movie or getting that perfect gift delivered the same day, prime makes everything easy and stress free. Whatever you're into, it's on Prime. Visit Amazon.comprime now trust isn't just earned, it's demanded.
- [18:09]
Vanta Representative
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- [19:14]
NetSuite Representative
Okay, business leaders, are you playing defense or are you on the offense? Are you just. Excuse me. Hey, I'm trying to talk business here. As I was saying, are you here just to play, or are you playing to win? If you're in it to win, meet your next mvp. Netsuite by Oracle netsuite is your full business management system in one suite. With NetSuite, you're running your accounting, your financials, HR, E commerce, and more, all from your online dashboard. One source of truth means every department's working from the same numbers with no data delays. And with AI embedded throughout, you're automating manual tasks plus getting fast insights for your next move. Whether you're competing on your home turf or looking to conquer international markets, NetSuite helps you get the W. Over 40,000 businesses have already made the move to NetSuite, the number one Cloud ERP right now.
- [20:05]
Os Veloson
Get the CFO's guide to AI and machine learning at netsuite.com stereo get this free guide at netsuite.com stereo okay guys, do you want to understand an invisible force that's shaping your life? I'm Osvaloshin, one of the new hosts of the long running podcast Tech Stuff. I'm slightly skeptical, but obsessively intrigued.
- [20:26]
Cara Price
And I'm Cara Price, the other new host and I'm ready to adopt early.
- [20:29]
Os Veloson
And often on Tech Stuff. We travel all the way from the mines of Congo to the surface of Mars to the dark corners of TikTok to ask and attempt to answer burning questions about technology. One of the kind of tricks for surviving Mars is to live there long enough so that people evolve into Martians.
- [20:47]
John Hope Bryant
Like data is a very rough proxy for a complex reality.
- [20:51]
Os Veloson
How is it possible that the world world's new energy revolution can be based in this place where there's no electricity at night?
- [20:58]
Cara Price
Oz and I will cut through the noise to bring you the best conversations and deep dives that will help you understand how tech is changing our world and what you need to know to survive the singularity.
- [21:09]
Os Veloson
So join us, listen to tech stuff on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [21:20]
John Hope Bryant
Then you have execution. That is what it sounds like. You know, there's nothing better than getting stuff done. So if there's an end to the story, can we please start there? Let's get about the business of getting it done. And don't let the perfect be the death of the good. Sometimes you just need to oftentimes just get out there and do it. You can always, you know, fix it, repair it, upgrade it, change it while you're out there. But don't wait for things to be perfect before you start something. You'll never start anything. Tactics is against it. Most people are tactical in their life. Most people getting up, that's all they're doing is just tactical stuff. And the urgent is crowding out the important in their life. They can't figure out why they're not making any progress. Because busyness is different from business. To do's again, it is what it sounds. Again from tactics, tactical is okay, how do I achieve this project or this objective today that my boss, my vision has given me? Or maybe it is your boss and to dos, right? Or that's what they sound like. And then literally you want to have a software for to dos. I'll get to that in a minute. To dones again, you want to confirm you did the to DOS assessment. How are you going to evaluate whether you are effective at the pieces I just articulated? Vision, mission, strategy, business plan, execution, tactics, to do's to dones. What's your assessment of that? Be honest, did you screw up? If so, how, where, when and how it. When and why? Readjustment based on your assessment. Right. So yeah, readjustment and then give yourself a software upgrade, a mental software upgrade. Okay. How do I now take what I've learned and make myself better tomorrow? You should go to bed tonight with you should get up in the morning smarter, wiser, more refined than you were. A better person even than you were when you went to bed last night because you've got a new mindset, a refined thought process and you got some sleep and then you're going to give yourself a software upgrade and then you're going to come back to vision the next day and everything you do in that day has to align with vision or why are you doing it? I. You can waste my money occasionally, you can't waste my time. I'm ruthless about my time. I don't let anybody waste my time. I can waste my time, you can't. Okay, so now let's get into the tools to achieve the things that I just said on this graph. Okay? And I've had this, this is. I've been using this graph for two plus decades. So mind mapping software. I told you I use Mindmeister. I suggested Mindly. I suggested I thoughts as other alternatives. But use what you like. There's literally hundreds of software that are available there. Find the one that you really enjoy. Then I have, I use from there I use something called Confluence. Well, in, in truth I. I have a note taking app that's really for crazy people called Obsidian. It sounds like obsessed, but it's Obsidian and it uses a technology or approach called markdowns, which I won't get into in this video. But this is essentially your second brain, okay? This is the second brain. This is you talking to you. If you can keep a hundred things in your head, this allows you to keep a hundred thousand things in your computer. And it's just, it's, it's just you talking to you. Nobody, no one sees my Obsidian notes but me. So just look into it. I call it my second brain. But you need a note taking app. So you take this vision, this, this mind map and now you got to make some comments yourself about how you're going to strategize to get this done. And then I've got this Confluence software, right, which is document storage, cloud based document and knowledge sharing with your team, whoever's working with you on this stuff and active collaboration. You can have 20, 30, 40, 50 people collaborating, working with you on the business plan, the strategy plan, whatever it is. You're working on the project at the same time on a document that's live that came from you, you know, consolidation of your note taking, which was, which was birthed through your vision. Okay, so now I've got you from vision, right, and mind mapping. Then I've taken you to note taking with Obsidian. Okay. Or any note taking app you like. Don't you have to use just Obsidian? I'm just giving you ideas of what I use. And then I have stepped into a suite of software that I use, the first of which is Confluence. Confluence. And Confluence is this collaborative tool. You don't have to use Confluence, you're going to use whatever you like. This is just what I use. And it has not. I outgrow a lot of things, but I have not outgrown this. And that's saying a lot for this software. I have not yet outgrown it. I also use Evernote to store things that are one offs. So Evernote is cloud based. And you know, if you got your birth certificate, you know you're going to need that at some point. You're going to be flying around somewhere, you're going to need your birth certificate. You, it won't be able to get to your house, get to your safe, you're going to be in Nebraska or someplace, you need your birth certificate. You don't want to be walking around with all this stuff. I used to go to Maui on a retreat twice a year and literally have this 60, 70 pound bag that I throw on my shoulder. All these books that I wanted to read when I Was in Maui on my retreat and now I just take my iPad. All my books are loaded here. So you try to digitize as much as you can. I hate paper. There's nothing, there's not a piece of paper that I use in the course of the day anymore. I used to use nothing but paper once upon a time. Everything I use now is digital encrypted, which means it has a deep security application to it and cloud based with encryption which means it's hard for people to basically steal your stuff. Evernote again, a birth certificate. I want to be careful by telling you what to put in here. And I want to take because I want you to blame me if, if, if it doesn't work out. But it's one off. Receipts, warranties is easy stuff. Copies of important things go in Evernote. I then use from Confluence. I use Trello. And Trello is a lovely, wonderful, visually stimulating program that allows you to do project management. And the collaboration with Confluence has now moved into project management. How are you going to get this thing? You're going to run the down ground to get it down. And so I have project boards, organizational and project boards and I have cards in those projects that take this big vision and, and crunch it, crunch it, crunch it down to a manageable steps, right? And then we won't get into this today, but there's something called JIRA J I R A that is deep project management. Well, we won't get in that today. That's a bridge too far. I want to give you head, I want to give you a headache. But project management, you know, and I used to use another software before Trello called airtable. And then OneNote is on Microsoft. OneNote is note taking. And then Microsoft has a whole suite, so there's a whole Microsoft version of what I'm telling you. But there's two sides of my organization. There's the hunter side of my organization. I'm the hunt. I'm the chief hunter going and get it going to get the business going to get the, you know, the, the relationships, the joint ventures, the securing the future, closing the deal, you know, launching new projects and products. But hunting, that's what I do. There's a hunting group, this hunter, the organization. Every organization has a hunter, Skinner and a cook. Okay, the hunter, that's me call it business acquisition to keep that simple. Skinner, that's analysis and administration. Right. My chief of staff is my chief of staff and she also is the chief administrative officer for our companies. Right. So she's a very high level Executive and she's administering. And my chief financial officer is also part of the Skinner Skinner Group. Right. So there's Hunter Skinner, this cook. So the guy who is in charge of my products and my programs, he's delivering on my promises. That's the cook. So the Skinner and Cook is a known. You need particularly get an organization as big as mine is. Mine is where you have, you know, upwards of 100 standardization. You need policies and procedures. You need dependability, you need a software backbone that you know won't break. You need standardization. This is the general army stuff, right? You and this get this wrong and your whole thing freezes up. You cannot be. This cannot be based on our personality. So we use Microsoft for that. Full disclosure. But the hunter side of the house, we use iOS, Apple products for that. And these customized apps that I have decided were best in class over time because I'm really an underground tech geek. I don't know if you knew that. I'm really a techie. I, I run around with computers in my hand. If you ever see me walking through an airport or whatever, if you see me sitting down with any free time, it's a good chance I got my iPad app, I might have my iPad out and a little magnetic because magsafe allows things to stick to the, to the iPad and stick to your iPhone. Stick your iPhone there too. You might see me have my iPhone up, iPad up with a floating keyboard and a magnetic, elegant magnetic device next to the keyboard where I put my iPhone. So everything is. I've got field of view. Sometimes if you, you might see me out, I'll have my Mac, my iPad connected to my Mac and my phone connected to my Mac also. And I've got three, in that example, three screens of, of work going at the same time. Three independent screens of work. That's another video for another time dealing with efficiency. Coming back to the tool. So we're now at Trello again. I've used other products. I've explained to you now that there's a getting side of the house, the hunter side, that's me. And I've taken it from zero to, you know, $100 million a year in activity. Then there's a skitter in the cook side of the house and we have a four star charity navigator rating which I'm going to do walk through when we do the other video on how to build a non profit which essentially means we're like a 4. We're like a AAA bond rating on Wall street, which is extraordinarily good. So we have a fast running organization, fast growing organization, but also stabilized, conservatively managed, got all the ratios and numbers, what they call it. KPIs key performing indicators are in all the right places where your bankers and your financiers, your backers, your partners want to see those numbers. Your donors, if you're a non profit, want to see that your most, your money is going to helping people. You need technology to keep track of all that. You can't keep track of it in your head, it's impossible. World's moving too fast these days. So by the way, I'm not doing any notes here. I'm just talking to you from literally not even my memory. This is my, this is just my flow, my intuition. This is, I'm talking to your organically giving you my heart and my soul of how I run my enterprise. So hopefully you're finding this very valuable. Hopefully you're taking lots of notes. So we've gotten down to project management which was where a lot of stuff happens and I project manage everything right. You, you've got to Understand again the PhDs are good, but PhD's are even better or at least equally as good. Good. You, you can't just have a vision, don't have the perfect, become the death of the good. You, you get half a success of showing up and having good habits. And I'm, I show up every day and my good habits are aided by this technology that I'm trying to get you hip on. And so Trello is really big in my life and I look at it several times a day, certainly in the morning. I and I do a lot of left brain analytical work in the morning and I do right brain creative work late at night. So then I go from Trello to Slack. Right, Slack. And by the way, cheat sheet here. Slack, Trello and Confluence are owned by the same company. And you can, when you get really good at this, you can jump from one app to the other inside of the app, never having to leave. So you talk about talking about being effective. Well, Slack is used for, essentially for confidential encrypted, targeted texting. You're texting along a. A channel of activity. So you have a, a Slack channel for administration, a Slack channel. This is if you're running a company for marketing, a Slack channel for finance. I'm making this up. A Slack channel for product development, a Slack channel for customer service. You decide what's the Slack channel name is what the topic is. I used to do Slack channels even by micro projects. In fact to this Day we still have a Slack channel for every trip that I take, like the trip I'm on now. It has this dedicated Slack channel and people who are in Slack channel A may not be in Slack channel C and D and F. These are different projects that require different skills and different clearances, security clearances and all that stuff because we're dealing with confidential information and so on and so forth. So Slack is a wonderful. I know the guy who made it, brilliant guy by the way and I think he sold it to at least at, if I get the name right, Atlasian, which is a, which owns these three softwares that I just mentioned. And I'm encouraging you to, to, to. To get serious about looking at them as, as options in your life. Here at L A S S I A N is the owner. It's a Nordic area company in Europe. They own Slack, they own Trello and their own Confluence. Okay, so now we got down to texting and back and forth. And these are non urgent texts, right? Then you have regular texting on your phone for things that are like right now. But do not, please hear me, do not try to manage your business by texting. That is, I know that this generation loves texting. You cannot manage a business by texting. You got a text gets lost, you don't know where it went, you don't know. We know what you said. It may not be. Do not do that. In fact, texting is actually, there's a lot of risk these days of countries and companies trying to rob you and defraud you by going through your text messaging or grabbing your text messages before it gets to the cloud. There's all kinds of risks with just doing raw texting. You want to do texting on a platform if you can. That's again encrypted, something like WhatsApp. There are other platforms, but again for non urgent stuff, Slack and never put passcodes, all that stuff in a text message. By the way, in case you're on some unsecured network and somebody steals gets that information, they can take your whole identity.
- [38:00]
The new year is here and you want to stay locked in on whatever you're into. Amazon prime is a cheat code. See, a lot of people think Amazon prime is just about getting those packages delivered faster than you can say I forgot to order that. But really prime is not just one thing. It's all things. A place to stream movies and shows with Prime Video, Amazon Music and that free one day, same day delivery is everything you need to make the season stress free. Picture this, you're watching Thursday Night Football in Prime Video and the friends are coming through. You need the last minute snacks and drinks. Prime's got you. You want to kick back and chill after the game. Prime Video's got the movies and shows to keep your night rolling. And if you want to wind down, Amazon Music's got the playlist to keep the vibe just right. So whether you're hosting, chilling, or just trying to make it through the hustle of the week, I know I'm doing all things above. Just know Prime's got your back. It helps you explore, discover, and get more of what you love all in one place. So visit Amazon.comprime to get more of whatever you're into. Whatever you're into, it's on Prime. Visit Amazon.com prime now do you want.
- [39:07]
Os Veloson
To understand an invisible force that's shaping your life? I'm Os Veloson, one of the new hosts of the long running podcast Tech Stuff. I'm slightly skeptical but obsessively intrigued.
- [39:18]
Cara Price
And I'm Cara Price, the other new host, and I'm ready to adopt early.
- [39:22]
Os Veloson
And often on Tech Stuff. We travel all the way from the minds of Congo to the surface of Mars to the dark corners of TikTok to ask and attempt to answer burning questions about technology. One of the kind of tricks for surviving Mars is to live there long enough so that people evolve into Martians.
- [39:39]
John Hope Bryant
Like data is a very rough proxy for a complex reality. How?
- [39:43]
Os Veloson
How is it possible that the world's new energy revolution can be based in this place where there's no electricity at night?
- [39:51]
Cara Price
Oz and I will cut through the noise to bring you the best conversations and deep dives that will help you understand how tech is changing our world and what you need to know to survive the singularity.
- [40:01]
Os Veloson
So join us, listen to tech stuff on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [40:08]
NPR Life Kit Host
Here at Life Kit, NPR's Self Help podcast, we love the idea of helping you make meaningful lifestyle changes. Our policy is to never be too punishing on yourself or too grand in your goals, which is why we've got shows on how to make little nudges to your behavior and create habits that stick. Listen to the Life kit podcast on iHeartradio.
- [40:32]
John Hope Bryant
Everyone's forgotten who runs this valley. Time to remind them.
- [40:36]
Bobby Bones
Yellowstone fans, step into the Yellowstone universe. Our family legacy is this ranch.
- [40:42]
John Hope Bryant
When I protect, I live my life.
- [40:45]
Bobby Bones
Hosted by Bobby Bones, the official Yellowstone Podcast takes you deeper into the franchise that's captivated millions worldwide. Action Explore untold behind the scenes stories, exclusive cast interviews and in depth discussions about the themes and legacy of Yellowstone.
- [41:04]
John Hope Bryant
You know, the first instance to settle this valley fighting was all they knew.
- [41:09]
Bobby Bones
Whether you're a longtime fan or new to the ranch, welcome to the Yellowstone. Bobby Bones has everything you need to stay connected to the Yellowstone phenomenon.
- [41:19]
NPR Life Kit Host
I look forward to it.
- [41:21]
Bobby Bones
Listen to the official Yellowstone Podcast now on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [41:29]
John Hope Bryant
Let's go to work. So I'm now giving you a range of tools that I use. This is, this is. These are things that I use. I also use other tools and I use Salesforce for my again, this is the non special forces side of my operations and I use Podio, which is. That's not important today. But that's how I talk to my employees and team members. My general army is how I talk to them and how they talk to each other. That's tied to the Microsoft side of my house. That's another video for another time. So these are some examples of how I use these technologies. And I'll take a vision from a mind map. I'll drag it to the ground with my note taking in Obsidian. I'll then take all of my notes from Obsidian. I'll consolidate those notes into something I don't mind now the public or my team seeing. I'll then throw that into Confluence and make it a Word document. Well, I'm throwing the confluence and make it a work a document we can work on. And I encourage my team to come and help me refine that thought process to turn it from vision into a business plan. Then once I've got it into a business plan, I then convert it into a Word document and file it away in Dropbox. It's another subset app I use, similar to Evernote. It's not primary, but it's a place where I store some source documents. Then once I've done with Confluence, then I go into typically into Trello set. Trello is a whole nother thing. We can do a podcast just on Trello, but I've given you enough to whet your appetite if you're interested. And that's where I do project management. Again. Jira is a way to plug in, also owned by Atlasian to plug into to Trello to do deep projects management. We won't talk about that today. And then Slack again, targeted text messaging and communication. But do not try to manage enterprises from Slack. Don't try to get Slack to do more than it's designed to do and and then I told you you can use regular texting but I think you should do be encrypted for right now. Something's urgent, I need to talk to you right now. Sort of stuff and take big ideas and break them down into small actionable concepts that you can track. And then in Trello I use things like in Trello and a card I'll use a to do I love my favorite thing is the favorite sub app in Trello is a to do list. So every car, every card in Trello a card is where you have an activity has a to do list. So I might have you know, 50 cards on a Trello board and each one of them has its own individual to do list. And I go through there and I check those boxes. It's a very good feeling to feel like you check something and got something done. I check it myself. You also do to do lists in calendars and confluence with your team. So I hope this has been helpful as a starter set on how you can have two people and look like and feel like you got 20 to have five or 10 people. It feel like you got 50 or 100 to have in my case 400 and feel like you had 4,000, maybe even 40,000 employees. Not 40,000, 4,000 employees. Because you're just that tight. How do you. I can't. The one thing I can't manufacture is more time. Right. And I'm ruthless about my time. How do you create more time? You cheat technology. If you're very smart and using technology to make you more efficient, it allows you to be more present. That's why I call the being a present. A gift. And there's no yesterday and there's no tomorrow, right? Those are illusions. All you have is this moment make. And you want to maximize this moment. You want to be completely present in this moment. Which means you want to be organized. The bible even talks of being either to organization and being neat and clean. So you want to be organized, have your mind the clutter out your mind. Which is why you want to use mind maps. Get all that clutter and that dust and those all the main ideas and sticky notes in your brain. This clear it all out and put it in 1, 2, 10, 50 mind maps. Doesn't matter. These are your mind maps. Share the mind maps to your team as needed basis to help them understand how you are thinking. And then, and then, and then run every idea down to ground in a. You call it a fancy to do list if you want. But a project plan and then this budgeting software, like, you know, there's Excel or you can. I use Excel to do budgets, but you can use budgeting software like Quicken or QuickBooks. You should definitely have a budget and budgeting software, but that's not what this is about. I'm out of running budgets of myself for myself. I'm running, I'm now working more on the businesses than in the businesses, whereas I used to do have every task and in those cases, when I was just starting out in business, your best friend is a budget. If you, if you love what you're doing, you need a budget. You, if you love your, your wife, your wife loves you, then you should have a budget. Because a budget is a way to assure that whatever you're doing can be sustained. Because if your outflow exceeds your inflow, then your overhead will be your downfall. I can do this forever of helping to unpack how I use these technologies. Why don't you leave some comments when you, when, when you, where you hear this, if you're able to comment or even if you're listening to this on iheart or wherever you listen to your podcast, then make sure you go over to the social media platforms and leave me a note saying, john, I heard you on your podcast this week and here's my question for you. If you want me to unpack this, I'm happy to answer very specific questions. How to go from nothing to something, they just tell you to go do it. Well, you're confused and it's what you don't know that you don't know that's killing you, but you think you know and where you supposed to learn all this stuff? So I'm just giving you, I'm giving you cheat sheets and shortcuts to, and life hacks, success hacks, because I'm already, I've already succeeded at this. It's not speculation. If it's worked for me, it'll work for you. Now, if you're lazy, if you want, if you're not consistent, if you don't have good habits, if you're not going to do this every day. I work out every day, 15 minutes or more. When I get up in the morning, there's no excuses. The first thing I do, stretch and work out. And this is a version of stretching and working out. Again, showing up, being consistent and good habits. If you're not going to show up, you're not going to be consistent. If you can do a Tuesday and Friday and the next Monday and then skip a week, like you go like Going to the gym or using that treadmill that has clothes on it, then don't even bother doing this right. You can still do the mind mapping part. That will help, but you're not going to get any momentum. You build, and then again, you need to cut. You build wealth by compounding. It's not just financial wealth. It's the wealth of ideas. It's the wealth. It's, it's building an organization that is valuable. And you need momentum. You need consistency. People didn't know that they can count on you. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday will be the same as Monday was. And then the next Monday when, you know, you come back from your break, there you go again, being consistent. Then they can, they can literally bank on you and are willing to lean into you. Okay, let me give you this bonus. I could again, this technology stuff I could talk about all day. And don't get me back into how I used to roll around with computers back when it was not in vogue as a kid. And I used to have, I had a Radio Shack computer set that I had as a kid. I had a compact computer that weighed 50 pounds. That was called a portable computer back then. 50, 75 pounds. I had one computer that I would go on a plane with, with coach seats back then, cheap coach seats on airlines that don't exist anymore. And I would have, I would take the tray and God bless people who are sitting next to me. I apologize with you. You're one of those who sit next to me. And I have this, I had this beautiful carrying case that was leather. And then the front of it would flip down and that would be the keyboards on the, on the portable computer I was using that weighed 50 pounds. Maybe that one weighed 35 pounds. Okay, the keyboard. And then on the other side, the, it would flip out and that would be the printer. This is in my coach seat now. And then on the top I'd flip that up and that'd be. What was that? That was a fax machine. That was. Remember the plain paper faxes and the, and also the fax paper that curled up. If you, if you had some money, you had plain paper facts. But does anybody, does this generation realize what a fax machine is? Anyway, I had all that in a portable computer that I, that I, yeah, that feels. I took over the whole row in coach when I was flying and I would plug that into the wall to. Into the port in my seat or I had some battery power also. That was, you know, and I, I'd run my businesses and all the devices, the technology's gotten smaller. I used to have a brick, a phone, a brick that would go on my shoulder at 45 cents a minute. Back those days I had the first mobile phones ever. I've been using technology my whole life. People laughed at me back then. They're not laughing anymore. Right. So first people will ignore you, then they'll criticize you, then they'll try. Well, first they'll ignore you, then they'll criticize you, then they'll try to copy you, then you win. First they ignore you, then they'll criticize you, try to get you off the stage, your competition, then they'll try to copy you. And using this technology, being efficient, they won't be able to because. Because the devil's lazy. They just don't want to do the work. But it's only success only becomes before the word work in the dictionary because it's alphabetical. So first they, first they would ignore you, then they'll criticize you, then they'll try to copy you, then you win. And you just keep your foot on the gas and just don't give up. You just don't stop. Even if you hit a wall, if you over around it, through it, you don't get to it, you stop, right? Don't let the perfect become the death of the good. Just never ever, ever, ever stop and think about never stopping. When I'm traveling, which is a lot, I use certain products and I'm going to put a photo here, have my team put a photo here of a couple of shots of, of what some of my travel setups look like. But I use cubes with which I, which I use for different types of things. Toiletries, nightwear, workout gear, formal dress shirts, casual dress shirts. Because again, you only sitting there spending time trying to run through your bag unorganized, where is this shirt? Then you gotta iron it and all that kind of stuff. I know exactly what I'm going to. Takes me a minute, a second to find it. I grab that and I've already saved that valuable commodity. I talked about time. It also looks good. I'm a little vain, but I keep myself organized and I use Tumi luggage. T U M I They're expensive, but they have a lifetime guarantee warranty and a little heavier than normal luggage, but they don't break. And when, if something does break up, a zipper breaks, they'll fix it like you literally could just drop it off. The two me to give you a loaner. Can you believe that? They give, give you a Loaner. You give them the luggage they sent, they fix it like new. They send it to you a month or two later, and then you give them the loaner back and go on about your business. They even clean it for you. Yeah, again, these are, these are life hacks that, that I use. I'm looking at my TUMI backpack, I've got my iPad, I've got my MacBook, I've got all of my prepackaged chargers and I mean connecting devices, including International, which is where I'm now. But I also have several battery packs that are pre charged because you may be end up in another country or someplace that doesn't have the capacity to charge or have more cords than you need. These are investments that will pay dividends. But you buy this stuff once, you want to buy it ever again. And I'm very serious about my shoes. Like, I only wear Ferragamo shoes because I was tired of my feet hurting. I used to wear Louis Vuitton boots and all that stuff for years. Not because I was being bougie, because they really make good shoes and my feet never hurt. And nothing's worse than your feet hurting. Can I get an amen? Right? So my Ferragamos, they don't hurt my feet. I can go all day and all night. It look great and they're built great and it's a great investment shoot. You can even sell some of this stuff later on if the. The same bags I use for business, I've been using for decades now I've got some bags I've owned for more than 10 years. And if you're a good bag, you can clean it up, put, you know, leather cleaner on it or fabric cleaner, clean it up, put it stored away, come back to it, you know, different season you've been having work, use it for a couple of years, pull it down, you got your own inventory and use it. And people are like, oh, that's so cool. Where'd you get that from? I don't want to tell them this stuff is 8 years old, but it's just timeless. And when you buy things that are classy and timeless, they last forever. So, yeah, why don't you ask me questions? Because there's so much in my head right now. But what I want to tell you, once you ask me questions about what you would like me to share with you, and I'll answer them in the comments on the social media channels where you'll see this video posted, the video version, this podcast posted. But yeah, my suits are pre packed. I recently bought all my suits from a minority owned vendor in drove clothing in LA. I did that for 25 years. Now I use him in a local tailor in Atlanta. But my suits are predefined. Make sure you always carry black suits and some white shirts. You do other stuff but you need your fundamentals. You make sure you get your basics in place again. You buy it right? Buy it well, you'll buy it once. All right, that's enough for one podcast sending you love and light. This has been a masterclass on my tools and trips and tips, my hacks, my time hacks and ways to make you better. I hope you enjoyed this is John O'Brien, Love and Light and all. That's right. Let's go kill it in 2025. See you next week. Tell a friend to get Money and Wealth on their phone as a podcast subscription. Get Financial Literacy for All the book that's a bestseller number one since last April. In business finance. Get that book Financial Literacy for All. You already have the book. Please leave it in online review today. I want to see hundreds of reviews on Amazon and Walmart and Apple platforms and also black bookstores by the way. Also, if you buy books, books from a minority or small bookstore, small business books where that's a cool thing too. Go to Operation Hope and tell them I sent you. They'll give you a $1,000 starter scholarship for coaching and counseling at one of my 1500 locations nationwide to be your private banker. Let's go change the world. It's up to us. Money and wealth with John O'Brien is a production of the Black Effect Podcast Network. For more podcasts from the Black Effect Podcast network, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
- [59:43]
Charlamagne tha God
Listen to me. This is Charlamagne Tha God talking. If you're not on prime, you're missing out. Prime's not just fast free delivery, although that is definitely a big perk. It's a collection of excellent services that help you get more out of whatever passions you're into or getting into. Like right now I am really getting into past life regression therapy and there's so many books about it on Prime. So you can order books with prime or even listen to content on Amazon Music. Whether you're binge watching the latest on prime video, listening to music on Amazon Music, or getting those last minute gifts dropped at your door with prime, same day free delivery with prime, customers get closer to what they care about. Whatever you're into, it's all ON prime visit Amazon.com prime now.
- [60:21]
Os Veloson
Do you want to see into the future? Do you want to understand an invisible force that's shaping your life? Do you want to experience the frontiers of what makes us human? On tech stuff, we travel from the mines of Congo to the surface of Mars, from conversations with Nobel Prize winners to the depths of TikTok to ask burning questions about technology. From high tech to low culture and everywhere in between. Join Us Listen Listen to tech stuff on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [60:52]
NPR Life Kit Host
Here at Life Kit, NPR's Self Help podcast, we love the idea of helping you make meaningful lifestyle changes. Our policy is to never be too punishing on yourself or too grand in your goals, which is why we've got shows on how to make little nudges to your behavior and create habits that stick. Listen to the Life Kit podcast on iheartradio.
- [61:12]
John Hope Bryant
Go.
- [61:17]
Bobby Bones
Calling all Yellowstone fans, let's go to work. Join Bobby Bones on the Official Yellowstone Podcast for exclusive cast interviews, behind the scenes insights, and a deep dive into the themes that have made Yellowstone a cultural phenomenon.
- [61:34]
John Hope Bryant
Dark family legacy Is this ranch my protector of my life?
- [61:38]
Bobby Bones
Listen to the Official Yellowstone Podcast now on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.