← Unemployable with Jeff Dudan
Unemployable with Jeff Dudan
"The More Hands You Shake The More Money You Make." Brad Lea On Getting A Seat At The Table #130
01:04:55
🔥 What if you could completely transform your life? In this high-energy episode of On The Homefront with Jeff Dudan, we’re bringing you the unstoppable Brad Lea, a master of sales, mindset, and helping people unlock their full potential. Brad’s journey from small-town beginnings to empowering thousands of entrepreneurs and leaders is nothing short of legendary. Known for his no-nonsense advice and unforgettable one-liners, Brad shares his blueprint for success, happiness, and making an impact. 💡 What You’ll Get: 🚀 The Million Dollar Morning: Start your day like a boss. 💪 Why self-worth is the key to massive success. 🤝 How to build unshakable relationships that fuel your goals. 🎯 Why you need to focus inward to unlock your true potential. Whether you’re just starting out or looking to break through your next ceiling, Brad delivers the kind of practical wisdom that will fire you up and get you moving. 👍 Like this video if you’re ready to dominate your industry. 🔔 Subscrib...
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- [00:00]
A
The number one thing that I learned, and I think everyone needs to learn, especially in the entrepreneurial world, is you're in sales whether you think you are or not, and you should take the time to master it.
- [00:11]
B
Many entrepreneurs are kind of screwed into existence for the first time. Like you've just got more month at the end of the money and you got to get something done.
- [00:18]
A
If you literally want to change, you have to change your behavior. And if you want to change your behavior, you have to change your beliefs. And in order to change your beliefs, there's only one way to do it, and that's get new information.
- [00:29]
B
Hey, everybody. Jeff Duden here. And welcome to on the home Front. In this episode, I'm talking with none other than Brad Lee. If you've seen him on social media, you know he's all about dropping truth bombs and changing the way people think about business and life. We're exploring his story, his sales strategies, and the mindset that's built his empire. Let's get right into it. In home service, sales, performance is everything. Meet Rilla voice your virtual ride along. Just like elite athletes thrive on feedback, your team can too. Rilla captures every conversation, delivering real time insights that drive action. Success isn't left to chance. It's measurable and repeatable. Ready to take your team to new heights. Visit rilla.com, that's r I l l a.com or click the link below to get your special homefront brands Rilla offer today. And everybody, welcome Brad Lee to the homefront. Welcome, Brad.
- [01:26]
A
Thank you for having me.
- [01:28]
B
Yeah, excited to have you on. I've consumed your book here, which is the hard way, which is. Has some really interesting things. Not one of, not one of the least things is the fact that when you number important lists, you number them. Everything's numbered number one. Why is that?
- [01:44]
A
You know, I learned that, I learned that from, from Tim Grover, but ultimately because they're all equally as important. You know, I hate when there's lists from 1 to 10. You'd think the 10th, the number 10 was less important. So I just numbered them all 1.
- [02:00]
B
Yeah, I saw that with your values. I saw it with your essential 8 inside of your book. I thought that was very cool. Brad, can you just very quickly share just a little bit about how you grew up?
- [02:11]
A
You know, I grew up in a kind of a middle class, blue collar family in the Pacific Northwest, small town called Cottage Grove, Oregon. My dad was a mill worker for the most part. Had a little entrepreneurial stint and then, and then kind of got in a situation and gave that up. But ultimately, I would say just raised in a normal, you know, low income, blue collar family.
- [02:38]
B
I read in the book that your dad had started some businesses and maybe they didn't work out. I have a similar situation where my dad was an engineer, he worked for a company and then he went off on his own with a partner. And I watched him struggle in that business for seven days a week and ultimately have to close it. And it had a pretty significant financial impact on our family. What kinds of things did you learn early about business side hustles from that experience in your family?
- [03:05]
A
You know, I didn't really pay attention at that age. I was only like 12 or so, so I didn't really pay attention in that way. One thing I did learn though is the, that I had the ability to sell. You know, when I was six years old, they sent me out to sell candy bars for the school and I went home and my brothers ate half of them. So I was already in a hole. And back in those days, man, you were allowed to just roam around the neighborhood. So I just grabbed the box and went and started knocking on doors and trying to sell candy bars. And very quickly I discovered that I needed a pitch. So I'd knock on the door, I'd hide the candy bars behind my back, and when they answered the door, I would say, do you know the phone number to a good roof repairman? And they said, what? And I said, because when you taste one of these, you're going to go through your roof. They started buying them left and right. So I sold every candy bar the other kids couldn't sell, obviously all of mine, and literally every candy bar the school received that year. So I realized early that sales was where it was at. I didn't again recognize it at that age. But I would say looking back, the number one thing that I learned, and I think everyone needs to learn, especially in the entrepreneurial world, is you're in sales whether you think you are or not, and you should take the time to master it.
- [04:30]
B
Yeah, I think if you want to talk about Alpha skills, things that are similar in highly successful people, persuasion is one. Having a personality and a little bit of magnetism always helps because at the end of the day, if people want to be around you, they're going to buy what you, what you've got. And if they, if they like and they trust you and then you learned, you, you ended up in car sales at a young age.
- [05:01]
A
Correct. Started out, started out about, you know, I was technically 17, but 18 years old. Started selling cars after I got a hard labor job because of my whole family telling me to go get a real job, which you know, equaled hard work labor. So I went and got a job fighting forest fires, got poison oak, decided I didn't want to do that. Opened the newspaper, saw a job for selling cars, walked in there, they were like open arms and I crushed it.
- [05:32]
B
You know, I had a side hustles growing up. My first, well, I worked all the trades in Chicago, but then my first real business was painting business, doing college student housing, apartments. In college I was on a football scholarship and you know, when I showed up there, I had my mom's 1972 Buick LeSabre. It was 1989. They had a rag top that had no more top on it. It was a one way trip. I had five T shirts to my name. Like it's great during the school year because you get to eat at the training table and they take care of you, but in the summers you're on your own. So, you know, many entrepreneurs are kind of screwed into existence for the first time. Like you've just got more month at the end of the money and you gotta get something done. How did you transition from selling cars to ultimately being an entrepreneur?
- [06:22]
A
Well, I think I was always entrepreneurial, even young, you know, I bought gum at the store and sold it at school. So again, not recognizing that was entrepreneurial, but looking back, I think I was always entrepreneurial. But the main shift that caused me to jump into business is I helped somebody go from minimum wage to 15, 20 grand a month income. And I basically just trained them, sales, closing and persuasion. And I got really good at doing that. And I liked the way it felt changing somebody's life because when you go from minimum wage to, you know, 10, 15 grand a month, it's, it's a big jump. You know, you go from paycheck to paycheck to having a little bit left over. You go from, you know, having your kid wear last year's school clothes one more year to being able to buy them new school clothes, which again, brightens a kid's life, you know, makes your wife more proud, you know, probably lessens the burdens of everyday life. And so I like the way that made me feel. And I said, man, I'm going to quit my job and start a training company. So I literally quit my job and opened up a training company.
- [07:33]
B
Was it high tech at the time or was it, you know, traditional? Like I'm going to come in I'm going to give you a manual or some handouts and just start working with your people.
- [07:45]
A
It was that only because it was 1999 and the Internet was just coming about. Yeah. And so when I, when I quit my job, I assumed that I could go, you know, touch people's lives very easily, just with my words. And I was a little naive to realize that training is not necessarily delivering of information. If you're going to train somebody and properly train them, you need good content, repetition, practice and accountability. So when I was working with these people for an organization and I was able to touch and change them and get them, you know, going, I didn't realize that I was giving them good content, but I was also delivering it with repetition, practice and accountability. And when I went out and started my own company, there was no way to do that. I was only hired to come in for the day, hand out my workbooks, walk through them, train everybody, and then hope they got it and took off. I didn't have any time to test them all or role play with them all. And, you know, it just didn't work. It didn't have the impact. So this was again about 99. So when it started out, it was just me thinking I was just going to go speak and train and everyone was going to, you know, be good. Well, when it didn't work out too well because I couldn't make the same impact. People weren't making, you know, those kind of leaps, I just sat there and figured, man, what is it I used to do versus what I'm doing now? Because it used to work. And then I came up with those four key ingredients. And then the more I looked around, the more it became true. Look at athletes, look at military, look at anyone who properly trains people. You know, there's repetition involved. Most of these companies, franchises, all of these entrepreneurs are out there exposing their employees rather than training their employees. There's a difference. If you just let someone watch a video, that's exposure. Okay? It's not training. Training takes good content, repetition, practice and accountability. So when I started, it was very basic. It was me delivering, handing out, just like you said. And then I very quickly realized that this isn't going to make the impact. So I. So I started to create an online interactive training software in 2000 and I put my content in there. And then I started, you know, selling it to organizations. And I was way ahead of my time. Nobody was training online and, you know, I sold a few, but I started running into competition, you know, like in the in the car space it was, you know, Joe Verde, Grant Cardone, Tom Stuker. There was a, there was a, you know, a handful of big name trainers and I had no name. I just thought I was better and I could help more people. So I went out to compete with them in the beginning. But when I started running into their, the clients that loved them, I said, wait a minute, so if I had those guys on this platform, would you buy it? And they said, yeah, if it was their training, we'd do it in a heartbeat. So I just decided to shift and quit trying to compete with them and start trying to collaborate with them. So I just closed them on using my software and then I licensed my software to all these big name trainers. And then next thing you know, we've got thousands of businesses using my software. And then the businesses started noticing that, hey, we, we love this platform but you know, we have more to train than just what this person trains on. So then we started getting calls from companies that they didn't want any content. They had content, they just wanted the system, the delivery mechanism that I had built. And so next thing you know, we're in business as a software company, even though I started as a training company.
- [11:35]
B
All right, so you created the platform. Well, it's kind of, it's not dissimilar from YouTube. I mean, it's, it's user driven content created by users that are consumed by other people, but they're basically running across your platform. And then what it looks like is that now you've, you've evolved to not only helping people deliver the training, deliver the classes, deliver the content, but some sort of monetization. Right, because you can put all the content up there you want to. Like, I've got great content, but like, we don't understand how to monetize it and you know, how to, how to get people engaged. The science of, you know, giving people, you know, a path to continue to go deeper into the content and continue to buy up, maybe even to attract different pieces of people's wallet. You know, it's funny how people will spend, you know, they won't spend 10 more dollars on a gym membership, but they'll spend $400 a month at Starbucks and then, you know, $500 a month on supplements. But if you go up $10 on a gym membership, like they're going to pitchforks. So it's really interesting, the psychology of sales and, you know, how people really buy things. So how has the platform evolved? Have you used gamification in to, for Accountability purposes. I mean, we've trained ourselves through social media to deliver little dopamine hits to ourselves. So I can imagine inside of it, like if somebody does something right, they get a cookie. How does that work inside your platform?
- [13:08]
A
Well, it just depends because it's a customizable platform. So you know, we have leaderboards and badges and point systems and things. So when you do certain achievements, you unlock certain things and you know, people compete to try and stay on top of those leaderboards, etc. But we've also, you know, have embedded AI to where you can role play. So if I teach you how to run a cash register at a franchise, I can virtually create a, you know, a line of customers making complicated orders where they have to press it in so they're not staring at the buttons on the first day. You know, sales. You can verball close people and it's listening to whether or not you understood the information enough to implement what, what it is they were talking about in your role play. So we've, we've created a true training system there. You know, it sounds like I'm just saying this, but trust me when I tell you training systems are very rare. We have one. I've never seen an actual other one unless it's like, you know, simulation with the, with, you know, the cockpit of the airplanes and simulated type things because the rest of them are just hosting solutions. A lot of these companies out there, they get these different lmss, that's the acronym they use, Learning Management System. When in reality all it really does is store learning materials. It hosts and gives access to learning materials. There's nothing in there to provide repetition practice and the accountability in most of them are nil at best. So I mean, at the end of the day, it's not a true training system, it's more of a hosting system. And Lightspeed is a training system. It's built to train people, literally train people. So when you want to actually train somebody, you know, you can't just let them watch a video. I mean, if I could watch a video and be trained, I'd be a black belt by now because I watch mixed martial arts every week.
- [15:13]
B
Yeah. So who's an ideal customer?
- [15:16]
A
Well, we have, you know, any company that wants to train their employees effectively and any subject matter expert that wants to monetize their knowledge. So like the Grant Cardones, the Tony Robbins, the, the Zig Ziglars, the John Maxwells, all the big name people that use Lightspeed to train people, they're either training individuals that buy their, their Content or they're, or they're selling their training to companies that then deploy it to their teams. So the subject matter expert looking to, you know, train and deliver to the masses and monetize their knowledge. So it's kind of a two pronged approach. Monetization, making money on your, on your intellectual property, your knowledge and then, or train your, your team like you're in the franchise space. You know, when you get a franchise as you know it's very important that all of them operate in sync and you know, there's, there's consistency. Well, that takes a lot of training and unfortunately in most of those franchises we're, we're training 16 year old kids that have never worked before and they're on, they're on their phones. They, you need to have a, you need to have a real way of training them, not just give them an, you know, a password to access a library of videos.
- [16:39]
B
The website, I was on it earlier today is@lightspeedvt.com yeah. So I encourage people that are listening. If you're in a position to do it, go to light lightspeedvt.com right now. And if for nothing else, if, if you've ever thought about having a man cave, watch the 5 minute video on the homepage and watch Brad walk through his facility out there in Vegas because it is, I mean I saw boxes of cigars, I saw beer taps, coffee. I mean that's a gorgeous facility. Now do people, do people come out there, for example, the cardones and people like that, you've got green rooms, you've got 12k cameras all over the place, multiple studios and things like that. So if somebody wants to engage with you, they just come out, visit you, build the content right there in your studio. And I know Tony Robbins has been in there to do it, all those types of people. Is that the typical way it happens or is content created elsewhere?
- [17:40]
A
Well, it can be either or A lot of our clients that come on board, we create their first courses and then they start monetizing those and growing that community and then ultimately we, we help them set up their own studios so they don't have to fly to Las Vegas. So it can be created anywhere. We just provide the facilities and the people because it's very difficult finding all of the people you need to do this. A lot of people think, oh let me make a course, put it on some platform and I'll sell a million dollars worth. Guys. It's much more difficult than that. You're going to need to find you Know, web developers, copywriters, media buyers, sales managers, you know, nurture campaigns, CRMs, all of these things go into having a successful training company. And it's very difficult to find one spot. Matter of fact, the only spot I know of like this is lightspeed, where we brought everything you need under one roof. So you don't need to trust people. That's why you come to us, because we have everyone that you need. You don't have to, you know, find a guy over here and find someone over there and find an agency over here and try to get them to all understand what it is you're trying to do. None of which have particular experience in that where we invented the space. You know, we were training online and selling, training and, and building, you know, eight, nine figure business training businesses since, since 2000. If you look back, what's crazy is someone said one day, you know, they did the research and we were training online before anybody, which made me the kind of the founder of online training. And I'm like, I'll take that title.
- [19:28]
B
Put that on a T shirt, man. Have you seen what Jordan Peterson's doing with his university?
- [19:34]
A
Yes. Okay, I tried, I tried to close them on using lightspeed, but they were already in the middle of building what they built. But yeah, I'm a member of Peterson Academy.
- [19:46]
B
Okay, so that would be an application for you. So no matter how big the project is. And then what's interesting to me is that you have everything so you can buy a package. So if I'm a subject matter expert like Jordan Peterson is, or in any field of study, I've got decades worth of intellectual property, I've got my books and all of that, but I really don't want to learn the business of creating an online university. We could come to you and you could do that with us instantly. Instantly. Okay, well, you here to HEAR Folks, any SMEs out there that are the best at what they do, you know where to go. Awesome fact.
- [20:32]
A
Thanks for the plug. Thanks for the plug.
- [20:35]
B
Well, hey, you know, I'm just, I'm just trying to work my discount when I come out. No problem, we'll work on that. But no, I'm really excited, excited to do it. You know, I've heard you talk a lot about happiness and about, you know, you gotta make you happy first because if you're not happy, then, you know, you can't worry about other people being happy. Like, how did, how did you. You know, as business builders, we go through these phases in our life when we're first starting things out, we're figuring things out. You know, we might be confident, but we probably lack the experience to know that we're right all the time. And then as we go through our career and we get the battle scars and we take some losses and we maybe go through some bad partnerships or collaborations, like we get a set of principles that we really start to operate by. And, you know, I wrote a book called Discernment, and it's called the Business Athletes Regimen for a Great Life Through Better Decisions, where I just went through 25 years of building a company before I sold it and really just went through, like, here's all the filters that I have learned over 25 years as to how to make decisions, whether it be values or these types of things. When did you really feel like you evolved into a confident alpha and you really galvanized your principles that you do business by? Today. Was there an inflection point in your life where you said, you know what? I know what this looks like. I'm going to do this the way that I'm going to do it. And it really led you down the path to the success that you're having today?
- [22:15]
A
I think it was more of a progression and a slow realization. But I would say at about 45, I'm a late bloomer. At about 45, I started to realize that, you know, the stuff I had heard and really didn't understand started to come into clarity a little bit more. And, you know, it's almost like I, I, it's a great question because, like, I think back when was the day, well, there was no pivotal day where I'm like, never again. This will never happen again. It was just a, you know, long progression. And now I look back and I'm, you know, very clear on certain things, you know, like ethics. People say people can't change, people can change. And people do change. And crazy enough, people need to change because it literally, in order to get to the next level or somewhere else, you cannot be the same person. You cannot have the same information. If you literally want to change, you have to change your behavior. And if you want to change your behavior, you have to change your beliefs. And in order to change your beliefs, there's only one way to do it, and that's get new information. So I started reading around 42, 43, and after a couple years of reading, I started to realize how much I should have been reading this whole time. A lot of people say, what would you do over. I would start reading at a very young Age. I would just consume a book. Yeah. You know, over and over. I would be so learned and well read. It would blow your mind.
- [23:52]
B
Was there ever a time where you knew that you needed to find a bigger room and you got around people that changed the way you thought?
- [23:58]
A
Yeah, I. I still think that, and I do that constantly. I believe strongly in what I call weeding the garden, which, you know, if you can imagine your mind being a fertile garden, what you plant grows. So if you. If you're planning all of these good things and they start to grow, well, these little weeds start popping up. That's the negativity. That's the wrong people, that. That's sometimes the same people, because they're not growing and you're. You're, you know, growing beyond where they want to grow or can grow, which I believe everyone can grow. It's just whether they want to or not. But ultimately, yeah, man. So you got to go out constantly and find new rooms to be in. You got to continuously be uncomfortable, introduce yourself to more people. The more hands you shake, the more money you make. I mean, it's not rocket science. If everybody realized that all the deals that you've put together, all the money that you've received in your life, if you source it back, you're going to find that that came from some sort of relationship. So if that's the case and money comes from relationships, wouldn't I just need more relationships if I want more money? So, again, I break things down and simplify them. And so to me, it's not rocket science, man. I got to get out there and meet new people. I got to get in bigger rooms, better rooms, smarter rooms, faster rooms. How do. How do you get in there? Is the question and the answer. A lot of people have asked me, Brad, how do you, you know, get around all of these influencers and all of these big people? And I said, you become one. That's what you do. You become one. You don't. You don't. You know, you can buy your way in, by the way, for people with money. Trust me, guys, go patronize these people. You'll be in them, you know, put on an event and invite your favorite speaker, and they'll show up for 50 or 100 grand. And when they do, they're your best friend. You get their phone number. If you're good at building relationships, next thing you know, you're doing business with them. So you can buy your way in or you can become one.
- [26:09]
B
Did you join any of these groups like YPO or Do you know Joe Polish Genius network? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was just, I was just out with Joe for the weekend in Phoenix and you know, we're in a room, we got 30 people, we're in there with Tucker Carlson, we're in there with Robert Kennedy, we're in there with Jordan Peterson, having conversations with these people. And you know, I, you know, I've kind of. The shine's gotten off it where I don't get nervous meeting those types of people anymore because I've had enough people on the podcast. Actually one of those people is actually coming on the podcast next month. But it's, you know, you have. Nothing good is going to happen when you're behind your desk. Like, you've got to get out there and you've got to jump on a plane and you got to go and then you got to show up and you got to be prepared for that moment when you have that conversation. It's no good to be a passenger like in, you got to be the driver. So even when you show up in a room like that, you've got to find a way, I think with humility and not being an ass about it. But you've got to find a way to get noticed, get engaged and have a conversation and just let people know who you are. And if that's good enough for it, then that's good enough for it. And if it's not, that's not, you know, I'm not gonna, I will never be somebody that I'm not gonna be authentic to who I am, my values, what we do. But generally I find that like the right kind of people are gonna resonate with that. My give a shit is so low right now. Brad, I gotta tell you, I'm 56 and I would say probably I was always a big reader, but like I would say in my, my early mid-40s, it was, you know, I was, I was, I was so extrospective, just worrying about what everybody else was thinking about what I was doing. And when I got over that, like in home service, sales, performance is everything. Meet Rilla voice your virtual ride along. Just like elite athletes thrive on feedback, your team can too. Rilla captures every conversation, delivering real time insights that drive action. Success isn't left to chance. It's measurable and repeatable. Ready to take your team to new heights? Visit rilla.com that's r I l l a.com or click the link below to get your special homefront brands Rilla offer today. That's when things started to Happen.
- [28:28]
A
Agreed. And, you know, there's a word for that. It's called allodoxaphobia, and it's the fear of other people's opinion. And, you know, I go around the world, matter of fact, I go to Dubai tomorrow to speak to a couple thousand folks. And I always bring that up because. Because what people don't understand is you can't make everyone happy. And if you can't make everyone happy, well, then who are you going to choose? Are you going to choose these people or those people? Or, you know, this group or that group? You know, but what people don't know is you are part of that equation. So when you put you in the options now, it's like, well, who do I need to make happy? Okay, I can't make everyone happy. We all agree with that. So that should make somebody like a big light bulb turn on. Well, I can't make everyone happy. That's true. Everyone knows this, okay? And if you don't know that, by the way, pay attention, folks. You can't make everyone happy. I promise you, you're not going to make everyone happy. So you have to choose now. Well, when you put you in the equation, the choice is obvious. I'm going to make me happy. I'm the only one that's going to be around forever, guaranteed. With me, I'm the. I should like me well enough to take best care of me than anybody would. And at the end of the day, that's the right choice. Make yourself happy. Again, assuming you're a. You're a kind, ethical individual. You know, if you're a, if you're a dirt ball, that's going to shine through beyond what I'm talking about. But I'm talking about real people. Real people have ethics. Real people, you know, are kind and generous. You know, there's people out there that aren't so generous and they're not so kind and they're still good people, don't get me wrong. But there's levels. So to me, I'm assuming that you're an ethical individual. If you're an ethical individual, then you need to stop worrying about what everybody thinks and go figure out what it is that you believe and who you are. Because like you said, when you walk in there, you know, you got to let them know who you are, buddy. There's people that don't know who they are. Yeah, they, they're so worried about what everybody else thinks, they don't stop and try and figure out what they think. It's like they don't know what they think. They look to someone else to say, what should I think? You know, is what I think, right? And, and when they don't get the love, you know, they're like they're questioning themselves. They have no certainty. And when you have no certainty, it's, it's hard to trust you. And when it's hard to trust you, well then people you know, aren't sure real, you know, if there's connection there. So again, to me, building trust is crucial. And the first way to do it to build relationships is to start with the relationship you have with yourself, go repair that relationship. People always ask me, you know, I get a lot of questions because I technically shouldn't be successful. So like, how'd you do it? Well, number one, you know, I would say if you want to increase your net worth, increase your self worth. Like start there, go, go, go do the works to where you do believe you're more valuable and your income will increase because you won't tolerate anything less. You, you feel like you deserve more and so you coincidentally get more. But you have to actually believe that there's a lot of people out there, they do not like themselves. They're just unaware of it. They, they know they don't deserve anymore. Matter of fact, they might be getting more than they deserve. And, and, and they're thinking that. So again, self talk is so damaging, it's unbelievable. So I would, I would just, I would just warn people that before you run out and start introducing yourself, take a moment and introduce yourself to yourself. Okay? Go figure out who you are, what you believe, what you want, what you think, and put some work into it. To where when someone asks you about you, you're not wishy washy and worried about what people think. Why? Because you've done the work, man. You don't need their validation. You validated it.
- [32:40]
B
If we've learned anything coming out of the 24 election is that there's a group for everybody. So you might as well not compromise who you are and try to keep the story straight between different people and just be who you are because you will resonate with the people that you deserve. You will get. I mean, we teach people how to treat us. And you know, and you know, there's, there's another observation too, and I know it's something you've talked about. I have become keenly aware of people that take good care of themselves, respect themselves. And more often than not, when I'm around people that are up to something and going Somewhere that are powerful that I, that I get inspired by. It's, you know, they take care of their health and it's, it's visible, it's a visible manifestation of the self care that they give and the self worth that they have.
- [33:33]
A
Yeah, well, there's two, there's two frames of mind with that one. One side of the fence says, yeah, but that's because they're rich and they, and they, and they're excited and they've got the money to take care of themselves. You don't understand. It's very expensive to take care of yourself. I wish I could afford to take care of myself. There's that and then there's. I agree. Because coincidentally, that's exactly what I was referring to. The, the more you realize how valuable you are, the more apparent it is to exercise, work out and do what you can do. And I don't really care how much money you have. You can wake up every morning. I can give a morning routine, my morning routine. It's. I call it the million dollar morning. So, so pull over your cars, you know, stop your treadmill, or make sure you hit, you know, mark this spot so you can come back and write this down and implement it. I call it the million dollar morning. Very simply. Because when I wake up in the morning, I realize that even a million dollars wouldn't be better than waking up. $10 million, $100 million. You couldn't say, Brad, I'll give you $100 million, but you're done. You can't wake up tomorrow. Your family will have it. You won't. No. There's no amount of money you can pay me not to want to wake up. So that means waking up, which is the most valuable thing on planet Earth. Way worth more than a million dollars I get every single day. People get that every single day, hopefully. And when they wake up, they don't act as if they just got a million dollars handed to them. If I just handed all the listeners a million dollars each, they'd freak out for a month. They'd be in the best mood, they'd be running around. There'd be no problems, no anxiety. They'd just be like, yes, my prayers were answered. But when we wake up, we don't act that way. Why? So I, so I conditioned my mind to remember how lucky I am and how valuable it is simply to wake up. That's why it's called the million dollar morning. It's worth more than a million dollars just to wake up. Then I focus on four key Areas. Before I go anywhere, do anything, before I check my email, before I look at social media. I don't really care. First thing I'm going to do is focus on my health. Because. Because you just said, you know, anybody successful realizes how valuable their health is, because if you lose that, you'll give up everything to get that back. So you focus on your health. 30 minutes, raise your heart rate. Quit making it dramatic. If you have no money for a gym membership, then move up and down, run in place, walk around your block. There is zero excuse that you can't raise your heart rate. It's free to raise your heart rate, okay? Hydrate, drink some water. It's free still. Okay? Then I want you to focus on your mind. This is a computer, so you need to feed it new information to make it more valuable, to make you more valuable, to make you a bigger contribution, to give you better skills, better knowledge, better awareness, better acceptance, better everything. So are you seeking information Every single day? 30 minutes of a book, okay? A podcast, an audio book. But are you feeding your. Your. Your computer new information every day? So I would focus on that. I do. 30 minutes, okay? So I'm working out, I'm reading fig, getting new information, and then I'm understanding that relationships is everything. Because if you get old and dying, man, you're not going to worry about your businesses. You're going to worry about relationships. Coincidentally, that's the same where money. That's the same place money comes from. So I'm going to worry about relationships. So what do I do? I just identify five or ten people every day that I'm going to reach out to just to see if I can help them if they need anything, to give them a compliment, some condolences, whatever the case is, I'm going to reach out to five or 10 people every single day to build and nurture those relationships. Because we all know somebody who only calls when they need something. I don't want to be that guy, okay? I want to be the guy that reaches out, touches base. How can I help you, brother? Any way I can help you. Hey, man, you're looking good. I see you online. You're losing weight, man. Keep rocking. I'm rooting for you. You know, hey, let me know if I can do anything for you that builds and nurtures relationships, and that's the most valuable thing anyway. So it's like I just make a daily habit of identifying five or 10 people. I'm gonna shoot a text or an email or, you know, dozen flowers, whatever. Then I'M going to realize I need to make money. Okay? People can say, you know, money not important and all this nonsense. No, I, I think it's very important and I need to make money. And I know that what I focus on will grow and what I ignore usually will dwindle. So I cannot ignore money. I cannot be blind to. I need money. So I write down five things every single morning on how I'm going to drive revenue that day. And then I just commit to not going to bed until I get them done. And coincidentally, revenues grow every month. My revenues grow, you know, every day. I'm measuring and, and implementing five ways to drive revenue that day. So what do you think happens over 30 days? And as entrepreneurs, we get bombarded with problems and situations and lawsuits and divorces and kids and, and, and travel requirements and stress and anxiety and aging and all this crap, you know, who's, who's going to be elected president and all this nonsense. We don't realize that we spend a lot of time worrying. We spend a lot of time trying to figure out a solution to a problem. Well, who's, who's paying attention to driving revenue now? If you have a killer team, great, you have, you have a team that's, that's happening. But make sure it's happening. So the million dollar morning is very simple. Wake up with so much gratitude. It shifts your perspective to abundance and opportunity and joy and, and hope. Okay? That, that'll shift you immediately if you do it right. So now problems are no longer problems. They're opportunities. And you need to see opportunities. Okay? So wake up with the extreme gratitude. Go work out, hydrate, read 30 minutes, reach out to five or 10 people, and then focus on five things that are going to drive revenue. And then now you're ready to go about your day.
- [40:00]
B
Yeah. On the money piece. Look, I've tried life with, and I've tried life without. I prefer with. It's better.
- [40:08]
A
Sure.
- [40:10]
B
And then on the mindset thing, I, you know, when I kick off our training with our franchise owners, I usually do the first two hours because I just want to impress upon them what I think are the very most important things. You know, doing the people piece. Well, if you can build a great team and you can enter a market with a new business and enter the market the right way with the relationships. But these guys, some of them come from corporate America. You know, they've got all of this curse of knowledge of 20 years of being in a career and, you know, I've kind of got to break that And I've got to say, you're an entrepreneur now. These are the things that matter and these are the things that don't. And I give them a football analogy of having dirty eyes. So when you're a defensive back or a linebacker, like where your eyes are reading, the right keys will take your body and your feet to the right place and you'll maintain your angles and your leverage. So if you get, if you're playing a zone defense, you're supposed to be looking in the backfield at the quarterback. If you're playing man to man, you're supposed to have your eyes on the man. And when their eyes go up, your eyes go up and their hands go up. You fight through their hands. But if you get dirty eyes, it's. You catch yourself looking in the backfield when you're playing man to man and you miss it. So, you know, our will is an exhaustible resource. We all have different size batteries, and from the time that we wake up in the morning, we start burning that battery down. So, like, if you spend two hours on TikTok and you've just burned 20% of your battery that day and you didn't read or you didn't listen to the right podcast or you didn't review the right materials, then, like, that's getting dirty eyes. If you're hanging around with the wrong people. You know, we're a franchise network and you know, 97% of the people are great, but there's always going to be three people that are going to be fighting on their way out. And like, you've got to find people that are up to something and going somewhere. We give them leaderboards. I mean, we're a Microsoft shop. We got Power Bi and other data visual visualization tools where they can see who the top performers are by every measure. And those are the people that are going to be helpful, and those are the people that you need to pay attention to. So at the end of the day, you said it. We're programable machines. We got a battery. We wake up every day and we start running it down. And the things that we do, the things that we apply ourselves to with priority and with energy and with intention, are going to be the things that happen. And, you know, and so many people. And I just, if you're, if you haven't been an entrepreneur and you've had to make payroll on a Friday, like, that prioritizes your stuff for you. Like when it's, it's, I need to collect this check by Thursday or I don't have a really good answer. I'm out of cash advance, zero interest, credit card checks to make payroll this week. So it's, you know, it's an interesting thing man. And really the, you know, a crisis, crisis is where we really build our muscle. And you know, one of the things that I teach our franchise owners is like you have to intentionally create crisis in your business so that you can break your business apart to go to the next level on a regular interval. Because if you're building a business and you think it's a straight line trajectory and you don't pay attention to the entropy, the friction, the things that aren't getting done, you're not inspecting enough, you end up with a business that just kind of bumps along and all of that. So like it all comes down to focus. And you know, a lack of focus will lead to a lack of greatness. And if you pay attention to the right things with the right intensity and you start your day with this million dollar morning, you will be so over the target like by 8:00am I don't know what time you get up. I'm an early guy but you know, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a 4:45, 5:00 guy and I'm, I got my workout done and, and you know, I'm on to it. But if you start with this million dollar morning like that is for entrepreneurs. I think it's, that is money.
- [44:08]
A
Yeah, it's for anyone, be even not entrepreneurs. Yeah, it'll, it'll, it'll change a life. I've witnessed it happen. It, it gets people into a zone where that they've never lived in and that zone creates momentum and I've seen people, you know, use it as a platform to take off, build more confidence, build more certainty, change as an individual.
- [44:33]
B
As you've grown in your career and you've had so much success, you've got freedom. You know, we have things that we need to do but like it's, it's things that, the way I look at it, it's things that I get to do. I get to show up at these places. We have a conference our second. Our business is only three years old. At Homefront Brands, we acquired six businesses and put them in a platform. We got 400 people coming to our conference in our second conference and majority of those are franchisees. And you know, I get to stand up there and do that state of the union and lead that group of people to where we need to go. As you've grown in your career. Like what are some things that you have grown to care about and want to make an impact in? Because you have an opportunity, you've got resources, you've got wisdom, you've got perspective. Like where do you choose other than your immediate business to make an impact in the world?
- [45:29]
A
Mainly children. You know, abused children, trafficked children, just children. I like helping the helpless. You know, if you're an adult and you know, making dumb choices and you're broke, well, I can help you, but you gotta swim towards me. In other words, I can save you from drowning, but you gotta swim towards me. Yeah, kids strike a nerve because they can't help themselves. You know, they're, they're defenseless. And so I try to, you know, do things to help in the, in those arenas. I just got back from a, an event out in Nashville where Jason Aldean and Brittany Aldean put together this thing with my friend who has Sentinel foundation and they basically are a bunch of ex operators busting down doors and saving traffic. Children.
- [46:26]
B
Yeah, we're so I, you know, I was, I wasn't a good student. I had to, I went through three different schools and all of that kind of stuff growing up and, and then I was building my business and we had grown. We were contracting all over the Caribbean, government contracting all over the country, out in the Caribbean, responding to disasters. I had three small kids and I realized that I was never home. And so in the middle of the night driving through Atlanta, I decided to sell all of our company stores under a franchise model and just burn the boats that way. And I sold all of our businesses and I just kept the franchise stuff and because I figured people could come to me and if it didn't work out, at least I would be home for dinner. So I, I did that and in doing that I was able to coach over 30 seasons of my kids sports. And so children is like a number one for me. And we are partnered with Ben and Candy Carson, Carson Scholars. And we build reading rooms in, in schools through Homefront Brands where we find underfunded schools that don't have resources. And we go in there and we build a room, we furnish it and we stuff it full of books and we make it a safe place for these kids to get access to the books that they need. Because reading is important. When you're reading a book, you're not going to get a pop up ad that's going to distract you. It allows you to train your mind in the right way. So I still Believe in good old fashioned books, man. I keep one, I travel with them. I don't do the Kindle, but yeah, children is a big thing for me personally and a big thing for our company. So I really, really appreciate that. What advice when speaking about that? Like, do you get young people that you get a chance to be around from an entrepreneurial perspective maybe that are, you know, in their late teens or stuff like that? And if you did, what advice would you give somebody today that's maybe in late high school or, and they're, and they say, hey, I want to, I want to be an entrepreneur or I want to make a difference or maybe they want to do what you do. What would you tell them?
- [48:37]
A
I'd say, wise choice, young man. Why wise choice? You know, in my, in my mind you must be in a position to receive commission. And if you're gonna, if you're going to be in a position to receive commission, you might as well do it for yourself as well. Now, being so young, you know, I would highly recommend go work with other entrepreneurs, learn from them, get your teeth kicked in, get your skin thickened, get some basic understanding of life and, and then start your business. But if someone said, brad, I want to just start my business, what would you say? I'd say, go for it. They'd say, well, you just gave me the opposite. Well, again, because, brother, starting is the most important thing. Okay, I started without all this mentorship. I didn't follow that last instruction, but looking back, I wish I would have.
- [49:33]
B
Yeah.
- [49:33]
A
I mean, at the end of the day, it's like, listen, there's more than one way to skin a cat. If somebody's getting out of high school looking to go to college, I would say, listen, go to college, meet people, build relationships and get everything out of that experience that you can. But focus on relationships and networking. It's not the education that's going to make you a lot of money. A little certificate, it's not even necessary anymore. Okay? Nobody cares anymore whether you have a degree unless it requires a degree. Right now is better than any time in the history of the world to go start your own business. There's, there's 16 year olds making millions of dollars a year leveraging, you know, online social media, the Internet can allow anybody to make money from a laptop from anywhere in the world. You could literally build a life that you don't need a vacation from, and that's called an entrepreneur. So again, I would, I would, I would highly recommend that they do. But the first question was, do I get to hang with some. Not really, not really. In the teens, look, early 20s. Yes. I started something where I'll hire people, I'll train people, because I, I want, I want to help people get out of the rat race. And, and the people I want to help need the help. And, and the people I'm supposed to be helping, in my mind, they don't need the help. Like, I can help someone go from, you know, a million dollars to 10 million dollars. I can help someone go from 10 million to, you know, 50 million. But I'm not going to claim, well, I'll get you from 50 to 100. I'm not even at 100 yet. My net worth, like if I liquidated everything, probably over 100, but that's if I found buyers. And if, if, if, if, like actual. I don't inflate my, my value to the world. Like, a lot of these people that are out there on the Internet, they're showing you cars and all this fancy stuff to make you think they're rich, when in reality they're not rich. They're just broke at another level. And that's quite possible. You know, there's a lot of people, you guys see driving fancy cars, living in fancy houses that are up to their eyeballs in debt. They cannot get out of it. And, and, and one problem is going to cause them a massive issue. And it's because they look rich, they're not rich, they're broke at another level. And a lot of people want to be those people. And it's like, no, no, no, guys, trust me when I tell you, you know, what you're looking for. Very simple in life is to be happy. And if happy means $60,000 a year coaching your kids, soccer league, a wife that loves you, camping on the weekends, then that is all you need to worry about. Quit worrying about what everybody else thinks you should do to be happy. Just be happy. Just be happy. If you're happy, in my mind, you're winning. Like, I would rather be a broke, happy dude fishing all day than a stressed out, rich, miserable prick. Yeah. That nobody likes, then nobody can stand. And, and, and their, their kids don't love them. And like, you know, they're just miserable. What, what's the money going to do? It's happiness you need to look for. So if college makes you happy, man, go to college. People always think, I'm going to say, don't go to college. That's a waste of time. Well, it depends on what you want, man. If you want to get rich. You don't need to go to college. But if you're going to go to college, I would say focus on relationships, because that's what matters. There's a lot of people that meet their wives and husbands in college, future business partners, connections to where if you go back and look at Bill Gates, then look at, like, Mark Zuckerberg. Who's the people that got rich with those people? Well, they met in college. Yeah. College is about relationships, not the education. And all these kids are going there so focused on the education, they miss all the relationships. Or their parents say, quit screwing around with all those friends. Start focusing on the work. Why? That work's not going to get you anything. Okay. Believe it or not, I always make jokes because I dropped out of high school in the 11th grade and now I've got two PhDs, four MBAs, and I can't even count all of the associate degrees and bachelor degrees. People are like, well, what do you mean? I'm like, well, they're working for me. So you don't, you don't need a degree when you can hire one?
- [54:08]
B
Yeah, yeah. Imagine like you're going to school and you get your dorm assignment and you're like, zuckerberg, I don't want to be. I'm going to stay with my buddy from high school. And you opt out of being a Zuckerberg's roommate, and you would have been a partner. Oh, man.
- [54:26]
A
Yep. So again, to me, man, I don't go to the, to the early teens because they're usually in high school, but early 20s. I'm, I'm hiring people, training them and putting them in basically sales positions where, where, you know, they can make two, three hundred thousand dollars a year. And so I meet a lot of youngsters that way. You know, I train them, I freaking, you know, lead them, and it's, it's beautiful. It's a beautiful thing. I'm, I'm seeing a lot of people, you know, getting prepared. There's three things I basically preach. Mindset, skill set, habits. Because if you can get those three areas down, you're unstoppable. So your mindset is important because obviously, if you don't believe you can and you're negative and you're scarce and you're pessimistic and you're negative, self talk will sabotage you. Yeah, you have to have that right. But even if you get that right, it's possible to run positively in the wrong direction. So now you need to focus on your skills. Most people don't understand it's not about mindset, it's about skill set. But without the right mindset, you won't be able to develop the skill set because you'll give up and things will be too tough and you don't think you're worth it. So there's mindset, but then there's skill set. Man, you got to get good at something. People, okay, the best in the world get paid, okay? Think about the best anything in the world. They're always successful financially. The best pool player, the best swimmers, the best track and field, the best football players, the best basketball players, the best, the best, you know, lawyers, anybody that's really good at what they do. Nine times out of ten become successful. So focus on your skill sets and then your habits. Because if you get the mind right, you become really talented. Your habits can crush you. So if you just mindset, skill set, habits, and then be able to fade in between because what happens is somebody gets the mindset going so they jump into the skills and then the skills kick their teeth in and now they, they, they need to go back to the mindset, but they don't, they quit, they give up. They're, they're blaming, they're, they're demanding a refund. You know, they're, they're, you know, their mindset screwed up. They don't understand that it's, that they're choosing to do this. So it's a bounce between mindset, skill set, mindset, skill set. And then you start getting good at something and then better things start happening and then you get momentum and you're like, wait a minute. Well, the only other one that you better focus on is your habits. Okay? What you do every day is going to determine how you live. You show me someone with a crappy life, I'm going to show you someone with crappy habits. Every time. There's nobody I know that has good habits that's in a bad situation.
- [57:20]
B
Yeah, absolutely. I wonder why some people collect and amplify their own self limiting beliefs and other people just overcome them. Negative self talk, putting ourselves, you know, just. And I tell these, I tell these people on their first day of franchise training. It's like you are exactly where you are based on the decisions that you've made in your life and the actions that you have either taken or not taken in your life that put you exactly in this chair sitting in front of me. We are 100% responsible for where we are because this is where we put ourselves. So my question to you is, you know, you're going to book a plan, but gun to your head, you know, your favorite dog hanging out the window, you know something, something you care about, at risk. If you had to do twice as much in half the time, could you do it? And the answer is always yes. People don't get aggressive enough or resourceful enough because they start thinking about the risk of failure or the risk of loss. And you know, for them it's like, it's kind of mind blowing because they got into this saying, well, I'm going to replace my income or maybe double my income, but I'm not going to risk too much. And at the end of the day, man, if you're in it and if you step across the line onto the field of battle, you should not recontract. Like, it's, that's it. You do not have a choice now. Now that you've stepped across the line, you've got a block, you've got a tackle. If the ball's on the ground, you got to dive on it and just, you know, renegotiating with yourself about your standards and about what you're willing to do. Because at the end of the day, like, none of this shit's fatal. Brad. What's fatal about what you do? We're not cops, we're not soldiers. Like, we might. You're going to go bomb this keynote or maybe you're going to say something in front of 2,000 people that doesn't land. Who cares if you forget something? They don't know what they missed. At the end of the day, man, like, I don't understand why people just don't try and do. Because, like, look at Musk. You know, my son's a big, he's an engineering student and he loves aerospace. So, you know, every time that Musk would blow up a rocket, which was. He just kept blowing these things up because he was iterating so fast. And I would just ask, I said, are there people on that thing? He'd be like, no. I'm like, okay, good. And, and you know, finally they stopped blowing up and next thing you know, they're landing in the pinchers, right? So like, why can't people take a lesson from that? Just to do it and then see what you learn. And I mean, as long as it's not fatal, then it's, it's, it's positive.
- [59:58]
A
Well, I think many of us can and do, but more of us don't. To your point, and I think it's 100% due to allodoxaphobia yeah.
- [60:11]
B
Yeah. Well, awesome, Brad, this has been great. I can't thank you enough for coming on. Super impressed with what you've been doing and I can't wait to come out and take a look at Lightspeed VT and see how it can help us grow our franchise businesses and help me in other things that I do. I've got one final question for you.
- [60:34]
A
Sure.
- [60:35]
B
If you had one sentence to make an impact in somebody's life, what would that be?
- [60:39]
A
It's just a good question because if I wanted to truly, you know, make an impact in like my kid's life or, or something, I think it's going to be based on the situation or the kid. Meaning one size doesn't fit all. And, and my one sentence may help some and not help others. So it's, it's. To me, I would say to people to just try and blanket everybody. I would say, listen, everything is your responsibility and your fault. So go really build yourself. Like in other words, focus inward, man. Go. Do not worry about everybody else, only worry about you. Now some people will think that sounds selfish. I don't care. That's my whole point. Don't worry about what everybody else thinks. Go focus on you. Being the best version of you really is the best possible option in any case. So some people say, you know, like, you know, well, don't you care about your kids more? More than who? More than me? No. Because if I let me down, I'm letting them down.
- [61:59]
B
Right.
- [61:59]
A
The best version of me is the best possible option for the world. So if I love my family so much as I claim, well, then that responsibility is the biggest responsibility to, to serve them the most. Like, in other words, focus inward. Quit worrying about everybody else. Worry about yourself. Compete with yourself and, and prepare yourself and believe in yourself. Like it would always. I don't know what the sentence would be, but it would be trying to convince people to just focus inward. Every answer you are going to want, desire or need lies within you already. So focus inward. Now again, I don't know if I could say that all in a sentence, but I'd have to think, you know, how would I make that one sentence? But that's what I would say, essentially focus on yourself, man. Go, go develop yourself. You know, reach your potential and, and focus inward. Do not let the, the, the outside world affect you. Because, man, we as human beings, Jeff, as you know, we let the world affect our lives and, and in reality, when you look back and you start to get a little bit of clarity with age and experience, you start to realize it's all you, man. It's all you people that have failed. It was you that failed. You know, you blame this person, you blame that person. You blame the president. You blame circumstances when in reality that they could be partially wise. Things have happened, but you are the responsible party. So if you're not where you want to be, don't go look for it for all these other people. Go look in the mirror and ask yourself, you know what I'm saying? Like, go talk to the responsible party. I always say, listen, you want me to introduce you to someone who can make you rich? They're like, yeah. I'm like, go into the bathroom, make sure it's empty. And then shut the door and look around. And when you see that person, be nice. Be nice to that person. Quit being so rude to that person. That that's the person that can do it. And most people start laughing, but in reality, it's the truth. You know, we talk negatively about ourselves. We limit ourselves. We literally mentally keep ourselves down just with thought. I've had people like, I'm talking, and I'm like. I can see their facial expressions. I'm like, what? Well, you can do that because of this, but I can't do that because of this. It's like, see, you just. You just limited your own abilities mentally. You just limited your own abilities. You have a limitation in that belief department. And all you have to do is change that belief, and you will no longer be limited. And they don't get how easy that actually is. And they don't get that they're limiting themselves verbally. Like, thought is a sound. If I tell all the listeners right now, hey, think of the word I am powerful. Just think that. Did you hear that? Did you hear the voice? People like, yeah, but there was no voice. So who. What did you hear? But. And you heard it. Okay, that's the. That's the voice that you need to care about. That's the voice that will make you or break you. That's the voice that will unlock your life or keep it locked. So I'm looking out here for all of this information. When the information's in here, man, you got to look inward, brother. That's what I would say.
- [65:43]
B
That's perfectly said. Wonderfully said. Brad Lee, thanks for being on.
- [65:48]
A
My pleasure, man. Thanks for having me. It's great to meet you guys.
- [65:50]
B
Yeah, it was great. This has been the incredible Brad Lee here with Jeff Duden, and we have been on the home front. Thanks for listening. Thanks again to today's sponsor, Rilla Voice. Are you in the home services industry or leading a sales team? Rilla Voice is your virtual ride along, capturing every conversation and turning insights into actions. Visit rilla.com that's r I l l a.com or click the link below to get your special Homefront Brands offer today.