Speaker 1: 0:00

Think about it like this let's say you wake up in the morning and you wanna go to the bathroom, and then someone comes along and says well, why didn't you just stop in the kitchen take a pee? What kept you motivated to get all the way to the toilet? Well, I'm not gonna stop in the kitchen and take a piss just because I can, like people, say what keeps me motivated. I'm not there yet. So when you said that question to me, it's like I haven't succeeded yet. So I'll let you know once I have, and then maybe it'll seduce me.

Speaker 2: 0:34

Welcome back to another episode of the Burn. I am Ben Newman and you know, every single week we're bringing you stories of entrepreneurs, athletes, entertainers, celebrities, business owners sharing their burn. That's what many coaches and speakers miss. It's that burn, it's that fire that lies inside of them that ignites why and purpose, that causes individuals to dominate with their highest level of performance, one day at a time.

Speaker 2: 0:59

Today is a very, very special day because we are in Bradley's studios. I'm not gonna try to act like these are my studios, these are Bradley's studios. It is the best in the world. He's the best in the world at what he does. So we are in his studio.

Speaker 2: 1:13

We just got done with dropping bombs and now it's the burn time, so we're flipping these cameras on Brad. I don't know how many people have come in here to do this, but we are flipping the cameras and, brad, I couldn't be any more fired up, especially after the day that we have spent together, to hear so much more about you. But you also mentioned a couple of things when we were on dropping bombs, about your burn, what is my burn? And there are a couple of things that I remembered from you, which is really where I wanna start.

Speaker 2: 1:39

There have to be knock down moments for all of us and I remember that story I'm gonna let you tell it of when you were that six year old kid who was showing up a certain way in his life. We then realized a little bit later I gotta stop that behavior. I recognize that as a knock down moment. You said you didn't know what your burn was, you hadn't been through challenge and adversity, and I challenged you to take us there. So if you could, for those watching the burn right now, tell us a little bit about that story.

Speaker 1: 2:08

Well, when I was about six years old, my family lived in this little shit box of a house, but surrounding us were all nice houses. I had a optometrist over here and a guy owned a chain of grocery stores over here and, like everyone around us, had big, beautiful houses and for some reason you don't see it anymore. But we lived in this little shack. Matter of fact, my dad eventually built that into a big, nice house and the whole entire footprint of the home prior to us building it out became the sunken living room of the new house. So that tells you how small and shitty this little house was. And I always thought that everybody looked at us like, oh you know, there's the Lees and we were the the Lees ruining our neighborhood type of people, you know, snot nose kids. And so I just thought that I had to lie to fit in. So I would lie, even if the truth sounded better. I would show monopoly cards and deeds to properties from monopoly and try to get my friends to believe that those are real and my dad owned them. And you know, I'd make up lies for no reason. I bullshitted people and I did it to fit in. I did it so I'd be liked. And what happened? Was it backfired? Obviously, they knew I was full of shit. The parents knew I was full of shit and basically I was alienated pretty badly. We're like you know not, not, I didn't get picked last, I didn't get picked at all. Like you know they would. I would walk up and they would all walk away. So it backfired.

Speaker 1: 3:47

And when I, you know, started to realize, when I turned about 13, we had an opportunity to move about 30 miles north and so I had this reputation where it was, I just was burned. It was the burn. I got burned big, but when I moved I said I'm not doing that anymore. That's when I decided I'm just going to, you know, help people to truth, keep shit real and be who I am. And what's ironic is, within you know, three months of being in this new town, being real, telling the truth, having some fricking. You know I was confident. I would say I was popular. Everything I wanted over here didn't happen because I lied and told a bunch of bullshit and then over here, I stopped doing it and it worked. I was somewhat popular. I still hadn't earned the title of ethics. I was real, but I wasn't real ethical. I had more lessons to learn in life before I got to where I am today, but that was one of the lessons.

Speaker 2: 4:55

So I think of authenticity and vulnerability as a key indicator of a strong leader when I think of you. You mentioned a couple of these words. You said real, but I think it's raw and real. I think that's what attracts people to you raw and real. I know there's a lot of people right now that are sitting on the sideline wondering do I go all in? Do I try to make this happen? I know most of your success started through sales training 100%.

Speaker 1: 5:22

Right, so you start Well, not really. It actually started with the desire to help other people because up till 30 years old, I was just in sales and I made great living, but I could never bust five, 600 grand a year. It was always about how can I get rich? How do I get paid? How do I get mine? If I'm selling you, I'm selling you, so I got paid. I didn't give a shit about you.

Speaker 1: 5:46

When I was 30 years old, I had the knack of teaching people sales easily. I'd grab people out of Burger King's. I'd turn fricking landscapers into badasses quick. And so I did it for this guy who had a wife and a couple of kids, and he was just a good dude, good hardworking dude, minimum wage working guy, but he was so cool I said, hey, let me help you make some money. And soon as he started making money, his wife was happier, his kids were happier and I just watched his whole fricking life change just over having the ability to sell and succeed and make money ultimately. And so I thought, dude, I want to help other people make money. And so I started my training company with trying to help other people make money. I wasn't even thinking about me. So really where it kind of started was me. Stop me stopping focusing on myself and start focusing on others. It's crazy, because Zig Ziglar says that the best way to get what you want is to help others get what they want, see, and so you become a sales trainer.

Speaker 2: 6:55

then Now I look, you're a CEO.

Speaker 1: 6:59

Well, I was a sales trainer and then I went out on the road and I realized that my good content that I was so good at delivering over here wasn't working when I did it for myself and I couldn't figure out why. So I just compared what I used to do versus what I'm doing now and I discovered the four key ingredients to effective training, which is good content, repetition, practice and accountability. The good content is if you teach them effectively to do it wrong, they'll do it wrong. So you need the right way to do it. The good content then you need repetition. Most people are missing that, especially businesses. They're not sending people through a course multiple times, they're not providing repetition. And then they're also not providing practice. I mean, do you imagine if all you did with Alabama is just had them visualize practice? They probably wouldn't perform as well as actually practicing. So anyway, you got to deliver the practice. And then accountability. Most businesses have no clue what their front lines even are being taught, let alone holding them accountable to it.

Speaker 1: 8:01

So I was sales training. It didn't work. I figured that out and I said I got to do this, but I didn't want to live out of a hotel room and be away from my family. So I invented Lightspeed which is what this building is to deliver my training. And then I went out and it started working again.

Speaker 1: 8:17

And then I ran into competition and I just basically said, well, I'm better than the competition and I got a system that does this. And they said, no, we were really into this guy, or whoever they were into, and if you had him or her I'd probably do it, but we don't subscribe to you. So rather than compete, I thought, man, I'm just going to go tell them that they should be using my system because it works better and I know where their customers are, so I can even automatically get them deals, because I already knew these people wanted this trainer. So I just went and closed the trainers on using my platform and I let them go start selling all the businesses. And so I just kind of backed out of the trainer space and went into the CEO space, the CEO of a software company, see.

Speaker 2: 9:05

so now I've connected some dots here. So you go back to your passion from your in sales making a great living to identify I want to help people. You may have just found your burn here because we were talking about it earlier. I want to help people. Then you figure out some things with sales training and then now there's this business. Now I can be a CEO and I know this is big thinking.

Speaker 2: 9:26

A lot of people are scared to think big. You're not scared to think big. You get after it in life. So this opportunity to grow a billion dollar organization, I think you get there by connecting on a daily basis to the number of people you're gonna impact. How often do you think about that, see? Like so for me, I always think to myself I wanna serve a billion people. I think we gotta slow you down and say how many people are you gonna impact? How many people are you gonna help? And I think Brad Lee starts showing up in his life a little different. You get to that billion faster. How many people? Because to me you talk about Zig Ziglar. What are people gonna say about you in 20 years? I didn't plan on talking about this. This all just happened in my mind hearing you speak, but you talk about the burn. That's one hell of a burn. Right there you start waking up the number of people you'll impact because at 30 years old you said I'm going somewhere, I'm gonna make some changes. What's kinda hitting you here in this?

Speaker 1: 10:24

I see what you're talking about, but I guess I'm not connecting the. I'm doing it Because if I help you with your system and you help the company with your content, that's kinda you making that impact, even though I'm kinda related. You're the catalyst, yeah, but I'm related. I'm not necessarily directly impacting on them, but you're the catalyst.

Speaker 2: 10:49

You're the fuel to help all these other people, all these other organizations. I guess the way that I look at it is you're a CEO of an organization beyond Lightspeed VT.

Speaker 1: 10:59

Yes, well, I own RV dealerships and I own multiple companies, but this is just one. But I like where you're going with that. I have a question for you what's wrong with almost? Because when I was growing up, a lot of friends and family had no clue this was gonna happen. In fact, I was told I'm gonna end up in jail. I dropped out of school at six. You were broke on a beach too, so yeah. But I dropped out of high school at 16 years old and everyone said, oh, you're real brilliant. Now you're never gonna amount to anything. Well, in reality, they were wrong, but I think that drives me a little bit. But what when I really tell the truth and break down, well, what's driving you?

Speaker 1: 11:45

I wanna be able to frickin' look back and be like, and I think, quite frankly, a million dollars is so easy. Nowadays. There's 20 year old kids that are millionaires because they know how to market. They know how to digitally market. There's Instagram stars and TikTok stars and YouTube stars Dude, they're making a ton of money off social media. So a million isn't that big a deal and it used to be. I thought once I made a million dollars I'd be shh, but it's really not that much money and it's not that difficult. So I just raised the bar to the billion and I think my burn is. So I can look back and be like how about that?

Speaker 2: 12:29

Is that a bad burn? No, so there's an athlete that I work with and a business owner, and the two of them are driven by JWM, which is just watch me. And so if you ever see their stories on Instagram and it's things that I text this one player before every single game and then when we're on the field together, I say it to him before he runs out onto the field just watch me. Because they have similar stories. They were told you won't do this, you won't do that, you're undersized, you're this, you're that. Just watch me.

Speaker 1: 12:58

And so I think that's my burn.

Speaker 2: 12:59

I think that middle finger JWM. So I would love. Okay, here's what I want. So we told the beluga butt story, which you got to go watch the drop in bombs episode If you want to understand what the hell that means. That's our private inside joke until they go watch the drop in bombs episode. But, jwm, I want to see our listeners hashtag that to you, jwm, and I'd love to see that show up in your life more often and see what happens. That is the middle fingers. Oh, you don't think I can do that. Just watch me, because I think we do live in a world where people are telling you what you're supposed to do. You're supposed to go to college, you're supposed to do this, but you're supposed to become the person you were destined to be, and I believe I'm sitting in front of a man who has done that. He believed in it, and you've only scratched the surface of where you're going to take it. But here's what I want to know. So now we got a little more clear on the burn. Okay, so we're making some headway here with you today.

Speaker 2: 13:48

How about the seduction of success? How have you handled those moments in time where you have shown up, you have put in the work. You have had the growth To where that self-talk that we talked about earlier comes in and almost holds you back from moving forward. What have you done to keep thinking bigger, to keep growing, to come up with new ideas? Because most people get seduced by success. Well, that's enough, so I'll stop. And so now, how have you handled that in the past? That's seduction of success.

Speaker 1: 14:15

Well, from my perspective, I haven't succeeded yet, so I'm still on the way. So I like, for example, like, if you so that's actually the answer.

Speaker 2: 14:26

So the highest performers in the world? They're not seduced by success. See, that's the key.

Speaker 1: 14:32

Yeah, well, I haven't succeeded yet. I might be seduced once I get there. But to me, like, think about it like this let's say you wake up in the morning and you want to go to the bathroom. So you get up and you head to the bathroom, right, and then someone comes along and says, well, why didn't you just stop in the kitchen and then you take a pee? Why didn't you? What kept you motivated to get all the way to the toilet? I had to take a pee. Well, that's where you're heading. See what I'm saying. I'm not going to stop in the kitchen and take a piss just because I can, like people, say what keeps me motivated. I'm not there yet. So when you said that question to me, it's like I haven't succeeded yet. So I'll let you know once I have, and then maybe it'll seduce me so I'll come back and we'll do that one.

Speaker 1: 15:20

Yeah, because when I, when I get this company or any of my companies, but this one's the closest to a billion dollar evaluation, Now that's what? Okay?

Speaker 2: 15:32

Well, now it's, you don't have to. Yeah, that's right, You've already done the.

Speaker 1: 15:34

they've already done the watching that that now I'm going to look back and say say it again What'd you say? You know I wasn't going to do what, because now a billion is the million to me, a million.

Speaker 2: 15:48

It just and your second billion will come faster than the first billion, just like that second, third, fourth, 10th, 20th, Maybe success will seduce me and I'll end up below a billion.

Speaker 1: 16:00

You know what's crazy If you get $1 billion and you spend one, you don't have a billion anymore, you spend $1. You don't have a billion dollars anymore. So what you got to do is, you know, I believe, get enough, like the cup overflow with. Well, don't go get more cups, man. You know, fill up all the other cups with yours, it's overflowing. So I want to just give abundantly. That's one of the main reasons. So, again, when you were saying the burn, you know I do want to give abundantly. I like, when I give people things or do things for people and they literally cry, is that sick? It's almost like you want to see people cry.

Speaker 1: 16:41

No, dude, it means that they're moved. You moved them and what you did for them wasn't that difficult for you to do. You know, if you're a billionaire and you give someone $80,000 to save their house and, you know, rescue them from some sort of situation, and they start crying over it. Like you move them, A lot of people deserve financial help. You know a lot of people want to give advice all the time. You know, sometimes a $50,000 check is much better than a long walk with some good advice Would you agree, it absolutely can be, because sometimes it's people haven't been given a chance.

Speaker 1: 17:19

Yeah, and, by the way, I mean it's urgent. Like you know, they're in a situation where money, money, like coach me later. I need to save my freaking house, my kid needs this surgery, whatever. But I just like giving in abundance and I think a billion will allow me to do that. I'm giving now, but just I would like to give more.

Speaker 2: 17:39

So we come up with this, this new opportunity for you, this JWM, that middle finger. Jwm is the middle finger. So for you, because there's other people who are watching saying, ok, I'm on the sidelines, ok, now, maybe this spurs a little idea for them. How are you going to use that? How is that going to motivate you, jwm?

Speaker 1: 17:58

Well, I like that, JWM. I was thinking already. You know, I see a tattoo on me somewhere, JWM. But how am I going to use it?

Speaker 2: 18:09

Well, like if you had a tattoo that's using it right. So you create an environment, as now. I see it every day. Like I have a legacy bracelet. The word legacy makes me think of my mom when I wake up every morning. Like I shared with you my alarm clock on my phone, janet Fishman Newman. I write it in a little burn journal Janet Fishman Newman right, you have a tattoo of it. You put it in front of you. Every day you show up. It's a different level of because there's mornings for all of us. But this on dropping bombs, too, there's morning. You don't want to do it, but you do it because you have to do it. Now you put that right there.

Speaker 1: 18:40

That's pretty good. Well, I'm going to couple that and go read your book, and between the two I'll come back to you with a I know there are big things in the future for both of us together.

Speaker 2: 18:51

I one of the things that I want people to know, because I think sometimes they see in these platforms oh well, ben must have it all figured out, he's got a podcast, ben must have it all figured out. He does this. I want to speak directly to you guys and I'm going to let Brad finish it to give you some push for you. He helped me today. You know there's areas I haven't slowed down to work on some things that we need to do in our organization. We're going to partner with Lightspeed VT and there's some things that we're going to do so that we can be better for all of you. But it took you looking me in the eyes and going brother, you got to slow down, pick a week, I'm going to slow you down and we're going to do this right, and so we don't have it all figured out.

Speaker 2: 19:26

It's why I still have two coaches. So what do you say? Right, because you said that to me earlier. What do you say to everybody listening who? They've got that? Excuse, I'm so busy, I just don't have time to do it. What do you say to those individuals?

Speaker 1: 19:39

Well, I say it boils down to a choice and you have to make one. And then a lot of times you know we're so, we're so busy doing shit that we don't have time to do the right shit. So I would tell them what are you busy doing. Because when you start to really look at it, just like I forget if maybe it was somebody in a tree chopping they said if you had eight hours to chop down a tree, what would you do? One of them said I would use six hours to sharpen the axe and you'll chop it down much quicker. There were two people having a contest and one kept taking a break. The other one said dude, I can't believe you won with all the breaks you took. He said I wasn't taking a break, I was sharpening my axe. So sometimes you have to slow down to speed up. So what I would tell people is just to really take a look at, audit your day and tell me what are you so busy doing and would slowing down allow you to speed up? You know I got a painting I'm having commissioned and it's gonna go in my conference room and it's a king. You know I'm gonna make it look like 300 warriors and he's a king and he's addressing these legions of fricking warriors with spears and shields and they're about ready to go to war. And there's a dude over here with a bad ass machine gun with belt driven bullets and the whole bit and a price tag on it. And the king's going like this and the painting at the bottom says not right now I've got a war to fight. So it's like dude. That is what I would tell people. Like are you? Are you just pay attention? Like just you know, get feedback.

Speaker 1: 21:27

To me I got five factors for guaranteed success. Obviously, mindset's not included because I'm assuming like that's the key, but the five factors. Number one you got to take a chance or you're gonna work for someone who did Period. Number two you got to be a good problem solver. You have to solve problems, but most people wake up and avoid them. Well, how do you get good at anything Practicing? So why would you be running from the very thing that's gonna make you more valuable? So you solve problems, you become a good solving problem solver.

Speaker 1: 22:01

Step three you got to make adjustments. Listen to the feedback. You know, weigh things out, pay attention. Most people aren't paying attention. They get told you just got to laser focus. Well, if I laser focused on what I started my business at, I'd probably be out of work right now. Now, who knows, maybe I would have ended up Tony Robbins or something. But you also need to get the feedback right. The feedback was telling me, brad, there's more people that want this person than you. Do you really care that it's you? I didn't. What did I care about? I cared about helping other people make money, and if that's their content, sometimes that's their content. So that's a long way. Oh, and then let me just finish. So the fourth one is train your ass off.

Speaker 1: 22:40

Seek new information every single day, every single day. A lot of people don't understand that, dude, and this is the most simplest concept I can give people. To change what you're getting, you have to change what you're doing. To change what you're doing, you have to change what you believe. And the only way to change what you believe is to get new information. And most people aren't seeking it actively on a regular basis. So I would seek new information on a regular basis. And then, number five outdo yesterday, just outdo yesterday. Like that's not hard right? What'd you do yesterday? Well, I don't know. There's a fucking problem. You don't even know what you're doing. Okay, well, I did this. Okay, outdo it today. Can you walk one more mile? Can you make one more call? Can you knock on one more door? Can you introduce yourself to one more person? Yeah, well, then do that every day. Outdo yesterday. You do those five things consistently over time. Dude, I guarantee you you will be a successful individual. That's it.

Speaker 2: 23:39

Nothing more to say. There's just a little action that I want you all to take. So, brad, thank you so much. Thank you for allowing me to flip your studio, to be able to do this, to turn this into the burn. I've appreciated our time so much and, as I mentioned, there are big things that are gonna happen, but a couple action steps. I wanna make sure everybody hits that hashtag JWM and send it to Brad, the real Brad Lee. Make sure you send that to Brad. Okay, that's number one. Number two those five things. Make sure you don't just write those down for you, but you share this episode with somebody who also needs to hear those five things. And, brad, I just I appreciate you. Thanks for coming on the burn and make sure to continue to join us every single week. We'll see you next time.