¶ Focused on Burn and Sales Training
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 .
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 . 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 . 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 . 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 .
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 .
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 .
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% .
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 . 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 .
then Now I look , you're a CEO .
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 . 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 . 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 .
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 . 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 ?
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 .
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 .
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 ? 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 ?
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 .
And so I think that's my burn .
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 .
¶ Navigating the Seduction of Success
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 .
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 .
So the highest performers in the world ? They're not seduced by success . See , that's the key .
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 .
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 ?
Well , now it's , you don't have to . Yeah , that's right , You've already done the .
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 .
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 .
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 . 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 . 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 .
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 ?
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 ?
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 .
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 .
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 .
¶ Slowing Down for Success
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 . 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 ?
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 . 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 . 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 . 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
¶ 'Keys to Success
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 .
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 .