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POST TRAUMATIC - GROWTH With Martin Watts
Episode 8710th July 2024 • Shining Brightly • Howard Brown
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Episode Summary – NEVER YIELD! Episode 87 of the Shining Brightly Podcast Show (links in the comments) titled POST TRAUMATIC – GROWTH, meet my guest “the Rocketman” Martin Watts. We start the show about Healing Arts as Martin is an accomplished artist and it is his happy place and uses his expression with art to help trauma thrivers. He is 9th of 10 children in a Catholic family in Wisconsin. Our discussion turns to starting five companies and how entrepreneurship shaped his life as he navigated CHALLLENEGES. He shares that childhood abuse and trauma affected his ability to trust others and he has had to learn to trust others in his life and in business. #1 rule is leadership needs vision, communication and listen-speak to the heart of the people. WHAT IS THE NORTHSTAR FOR THE TEAM / COMPANY? Come join this PASSIONATE show by listening, downloading, sharing and reviewing. Keep Shining Brightly!

Mentioned Resources –

About the guest – 

Martin Watts is a seasoned entrepreneur and business growth expert with over 38 years of experience in building and scaling successful companies across various industries. He is the founder and CEO of Rocketman Business Accelerator, a coaching firm that helps businesses identify and align in three key areas: culture, goal alignment, and consistent branding with an emphasis on the customer experience. Martin is passionate about sharing his insights and learnings with his peers and the wider community. He is an insightful story telling speaker with practical tools to add to your toolbox and a creative problem-solver who decisively answers the seemingly unanswerable with empathetic, real-life applications. Martin's vision is to empower business leaders and entrepreneurs to grow and sustain their ventures while creating a positive impact on their teams and society. He is a bold, patented inventor who is redefining what corporate social responsibility looks like and has bridged the gap between solutions management and what a sustainable company looks and feels like.

About the Host:

Howard Brown is a best-selling author, award-winning international speaker, Silicon Valley entrepreneur, interfaith peacemaker, and a two-time stage IV cancer survivor. He is also a sought-after speaker and consultant for corporate businesses, nonprofits, congregations, and community groups. Howard has co-founded two social networks that were the first to connect religious communities around the world. He is a nationally known patient advocate and “cancer whisperer” to many families. Howard, his wife Lisa, and daughter Emily currently reside in Michigan, and his happy place is on the basketball court.

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Http://www.shiningbrightly.com

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Transcripts

Howard Brown:

Hello, it's Howard Brown. It's the Shining Brightly

Howard Brown:

Show. And we are shining so brightly today. I have an

Howard Brown:

amazing guest with an amazing story. Lots of lessons learned.

Howard Brown:

Oh my God, these are teachable moments. Martin, welcome to the

Howard Brown:

show. How are you? I am doing amazing, Howard, how are you

Howard Brown:

today? I'm great. I just I'm so glad we just met. But I'm so

Howard Brown:

happy to have met you. And I want to tell people a little bit

Howard Brown:

more about you. So let me let me kind of read a part of your bio

Howard Brown:

here. So Martin Watts is a seasoned entrepreneur and

Howard Brown:

business growth expert with over 30 years of experience in

Howard Brown:

building and scaling successful companies across various

Howard Brown:

industries. He's the founder and CEO of rocket men business

Howard Brown:

accelerator, we're going to learn a little bit about that.

Howard Brown:

This is a coaching firm that helps businesses identify and

Howard Brown:

align with three areas, culture, goal alignment, and consistent

Howard Brown:

branding with an emphasis on the customer experience really

Howard Brown:

important stuff. Martin is passionate about sharing his

Howard Brown:

insights and learnings with his peers and a wider community.

Howard Brown:

He's an insightful storyteller, and speaker. And he adds

Howard Brown:

practical tools to add to your toolbox for creative problem

Howard Brown:

solving, decisively helping people answer those hard

Howard Brown:

questions. Also being empathetic, real life

Howard Brown:

applications. Martin's vision is to empower business leaders and

Howard Brown:

entrepreneurs to grow sustain their ventures, while creating

Howard Brown:

positive impact in the teams and in society. And that's what this

Howard Brown:

show is all about. You're also a bold, patented inventor, and

Howard Brown:

you've redefined what Corporate Social Responsibility looks

Howard Brown:

like. And you bridge the gap between management and a

Howard Brown:

sustainable company looks like and feels like really cool.

Howard Brown:

Martin, You're impressive already. But tell us something

Howard Brown:

that we may not know about yet, you want to share

Martin Watts:

Sometying that is a lot of people don't know about

Martin Watts:

me, as I mentioned, an accomplished artist. And so I

Martin Watts:

paint I draw, I use clay to express myself. In fact, it's

Martin Watts:

pretty healing for me, it My passion is really helping

Martin Watts:

trauma. I don't call the victim I call you know, thrivers

Martin Watts:

they're not survivors, but I happen to be one of them. And so

Martin Watts:

it's very healing to me and always has been. So it's like

Martin Watts:

it's a it's a love for mine. It's a very passion, love for

Martin Watts:

mine and and the healing arts people don't know something

Martin Watts:

about the healing it towered is that the right brain is all

Martin Watts:

logic and language, linear thinking and thinking in words.

Martin Watts:

So if you go to talk therapy, people will use the, the, that

Martin Watts:

side of your brain and then the other side of the brain is

Martin Watts:

creation and then holistic thinking. So it lacks the

Martin Watts:

images, the sensations and the emotions associated with trauma

Martin Watts:

and grief. So that's, that's something I just love to do. And

Martin Watts:

it helps me It empowers me. And, and I like to be part of those

Martin Watts:

kinds of programmes.

Howard Brown:

I love that because in my book, and in my,

Howard Brown:

my speeches, I talk about finding your happy place, and

Howard Brown:

you found your happy place, mine happens to be the basketball

Howard Brown:

court. But I love that because, you know, talking about is one

Howard Brown:

thing, but actually experiential, putting your hands

Howard Brown:

into the clay, it's great. Thank you for sharing that. It's

Howard Brown:

really amazing. I'd like to just start with share a little bit of

Howard Brown:

background where you've come from what you've been through a

Howard Brown:

little bit. And let's dig in there first.

Martin Watts:

Well, I was born in Chicago, actually. And I

Martin Watts:

won't go through all that, you know, like when I was born, but

Martin Watts:

I was born in a good Chicago Catholic family. I was number

Martin Watts:

nine of 10. And so that's kind of my background, and I ended up

Martin Watts:

ended up in Wisconsin and I and I just remember going to school

Martin Watts:

and doing my thing. And then I guess I've always been an

Martin Watts:

entrepreneur and I kind of laugh at people. I always ask people,

Martin Watts:

so when When did you become an entrepreneur? You know, and they

Martin Watts:

said, Well, when I went to college, everything I said,

Martin Watts:

Well, no, no look farther back. It was kind of funny, I actually

Martin Watts:

look back and I said when I was in third grade, the bussers at

Martin Watts:

the school, couldn't go to the couldn't go to the candy store

Martin Watts:

because I was a walker. So I would start collecting their

Martin Watts:

money and buying candy coming back and I'd make a little

Martin Watts:

little candies on the side, you know, you know, all of us

Martin Watts:

entrepreneurs have a some sort of, you know, story like that.

Martin Watts:

But so I went I went to high I only went to high school I was

Martin Watts:

accepted at one of the top art schools in, in, in the States,

Martin Watts:

and I was just messed up in my head so I didn't really go to

Martin Watts:

it. So when I was 23 years old, I started my first business. I

Martin Watts:

actually was a freelance technical illustrator. So what I

Martin Watts:

did was I taught myself how to technically illustrate you know,

Martin Watts:

like things that would come apart, you know, like in

Martin Watts:

manuals. And so that was my first business. And I've had

Martin Watts:

five businesses. I've had an ad agency and my latest one was a

Martin Watts:

manufacturing facility down in just near Nashville.

Howard Brown:

I want to I want to tell you that I love the

Howard Brown:

candy story, because most people okay they, a lot of people

Howard Brown:

started lemonade stands. That was their first entrepreneurial

Howard Brown:

experience a lot of people lemonade stands. And because I

Howard Brown:

have a chapter on Babson College in my book, and it's the number

Howard Brown:

one school for entrepreneurship in the world, those are the

Howard Brown:

stories that shape you, right? The buying, selling the exchange

Howard Brown:

of money, learning to put it in your piggy bank. And we took it

Howard Brown:

one step further with our daughter, because she actually

Howard Brown:

had two piggy banks, we call them sadaqa boxes in Judaism,

Howard Brown:

and one was actually for her that she could buy candy, or gum

Howard Brown:

or doll, or whatever she wanted, or soccer cleats when she got

Howard Brown:

older, or the other one was for charity. And it's a beautiful

Howard Brown:

lesson to teach that the other one was going to someone else in

Howard Brown:

need. So I shared that with you a little bit along with your

Howard Brown:

candy story as well. So you started some businesses, but

Howard Brown:

it's not always easy. You went through some tough times. So

Howard Brown:

tell us a little bit about the tough times and what you learned

Howard Brown:

from that?

Martin Watts:

Yeah, well, entrepreneurship is full of

Martin Watts:

tough times, right? Or at least challenges. You know, I stopped,

Martin Watts:

I stopped calling them problems after my fourth company. I said,

Martin Watts:

I don't have any more problems. What I have now is challenges.

Martin Watts:

And so I decided to take that version of it. And, you know,

Martin Watts:

it's interesting that, you know, many entrepreneurs at many

Martin Watts:

different levels, they start a business, and how are, they do

Martin Watts:

something that they love, let's say it's providing lemonade,

Martin Watts:

right? They love providing lemonade, and also, there's more

Martin Watts:

demand for the lemonade. And pretty soon you, you have now

Martin Watts:

you have finances, and now you're gonna get a CPA involved.

Martin Watts:

And now you got HR issues, because you're growing, and you

Martin Watts:

end up with all these different, you know, challenges that are in

Martin Watts:

your life and things that you've never even thought of. And, you

Martin Watts:

know, that's where impostor syndrome comes from, you know,

Martin Watts:

people people talking about impostor syndrome, but it really

Martin Watts:

is about like, Oh, my God, I get this huge company, or the

Martin Watts:

electrician who started his own company, that's a great example.

Martin Watts:

And in five years later, he says, Well, I can make more

Martin Watts:

money, you know, working on my own, and five years later, he's

Martin Watts:

got, you know, vans, he's got employees, and he doesn't know

Martin Watts:

what to do, right? So I ended up with that same kind of scenario,

Martin Watts:

I wasn't really expecting to have 25 employees or 40,000

Martin Watts:

square foot facility. But the thing that's in me, you know,

Martin Watts:

like that really drove me is I have this I have a model and my

Martin Watts:

model is never yield, I just will not yield, I'm gonna figure

Martin Watts:

it out. Because if I don't know what, there's somebody out there

Martin Watts:

that knows what to do, you know. So that's those have been some

Martin Watts:

of the biggest challenges. You know, like, I started a

Martin Watts:

manufacturing business without any money. And pretty soon I was

Martin Watts:

supplying the world with portable hot water, hand washing

Martin Watts:

stations. And then I didn't go to school for engineering, you

Martin Watts:

know, like, that's the beautiful thing about entrepreneurs, you

Martin Watts:

figure it out as you go sometime. And pretty soon I'm,

Martin Watts:

I'm in engineering a product that is plumbing and electricity

Martin Watts:

and NSF certification, and, you know, you deal with them as they

Martin Watts:

come up, right? And I remember NSF certification changed the

Martin Watts:

whole product, they said, Well, you got to change this, and do

Martin Watts:

this and do that. And I'm like, I have no idea how to do it. And

Martin Watts:

you sit down and figure it out. And I think that's been, you

Martin Watts:

know, when people look at the problems of it, I think that's,

Martin Watts:

those are challenging issues, I would say the most challenging

Martin Watts:

issue I had were people, you know, under, you know, I can

Martin Watts:

deal with things and gadgets and widgets and design stuff and put

Martin Watts:

stuff on paper. But dealing with people as a whole a whole nother

Martin Watts:

area for me.

Howard Brown:

And that takes that takes just time and

Howard Brown:

experience, I will tell you, a very important class that I took

Howard Brown:

at Babson was called organisational behaviour, right?

Howard Brown:

How to put the organisation and when you're growing like that,

Howard Brown:

you realise that sales needs to talk to marketing, marketing,

Howard Brown:

may actually have to talk to the engineering engineering may

Howard Brown:

actually have to talk to finance, everyone might have to

Howard Brown:

talk to HR. And when you're building teams, okay, and you're

Howard Brown:

the head coach, or the CEO, or the executive director, you

Howard Brown:

know, that the people stuff not all people agree, not all people

Howard Brown:

get along, and that team chemistry is vital to the

Howard Brown:

success, you know, if you're going to score touchdowns or

Howard Brown:

build revenue, and that, that that is actually both something

Howard Brown:

that is learned and can be can be really refined. But it also

Howard Brown:

is sometimes it's in you from selling candy, you know, at

Howard Brown:

school, you know, early on as well. So, absolutely, I agree

Howard Brown:

with you 100% The people process and hiring the right people and

Howard Brown:

getting them to work in a cohesive teamwork type manner.

Howard Brown:

Challenging for every company I've ever worked at.

Martin Watts:

Yeah, and I wasn't I'd never did really blue collar

Martin Watts:

before I was doing the ad agencies and different things.

Martin Watts:

And so blue collar mentality was a completely new mentality. And

Martin Watts:

I think people overlook people and they don't really stand in

Martin Watts:

the shoes of them. So when I had people come in and was like, I

Martin Watts:

was dealing with people that were abused, you know, they'd

Martin Watts:

worked at facilities and they were getting talked down to and

Martin Watts:

yelled at having cups thrown at them. And it was an interesting

Martin Watts:

challenge to get them to trust you in to believe in you. And I

Martin Watts:

remember Number I was thinking, Boy, I gotta create a better

Martin Watts:

culture for this. And in it, I didn't know anything about it. I

Martin Watts:

just don't when the universe speaks to me, I tried to listen.

Martin Watts:

And somebody handed me a book from Tony Shea, the gentleman

Martin Watts:

that started examples, and he has a great culture. And I

Martin Watts:

remember he just came up to me says, I just believe you need

Martin Watts:

this. And I was like, I do. And I started studying and

Martin Watts:

understanding. And so yeah, I think people is, people are the

Martin Watts:

big challenge there. You know, I think, if I can see one more

Martin Watts:

thing, Howard on this is that, you know, I learned as a leader,

Martin Watts:

that, you know, if you grow a beard, they'll grow beard, you

Martin Watts:

know, like, if you if you're able to grow a beard, or, you

Martin Watts:

know, the way you wear your hair, and people emulate other

Martin Watts:

people. So you have to be careful what you're putting out.

Martin Watts:

And one thing I learned as a CEO, the number one thing, I'll

Martin Watts:

tell you the number one thing I learned, number one thing, and

Martin Watts:

was this number one, the CEOs role, we know is the set the

Martin Watts:

vision of the company. The other thing,

Howard Brown:

I agree, but that's leadership, leadership

Howard Brown:

and

Martin Watts:

leadership, right? We said vision, right? But we

Martin Watts:

can't stop there. Because we have to communicate that vision

Martin Watts:

to all ranks. And I think that's where people lose, if they're

Martin Watts:

going to tell the the core group of people, this is what we're

Martin Watts:

going to do, but they never tell everybody what the vision of the

Martin Watts:

company is. And then number two, I've I found out that the number

Martin Watts:

two role of the CEO is speak to the heart of the people to speak

Martin Watts:

to their hearts, find out where they sit, spend time with them

Martin Watts:

and understand that your people don't they're they're not

Martin Watts:

cattle. We're talking about people. And then the third thing

Martin Watts:

is to have nine noes to one yes. In the nine nosed one yes, is

Martin Watts:

that once your vision is set in your navigation is set, people

Martin Watts:

come up with all kinds of great ideas. But if they don't match

Martin Watts:

what that Northstar is, and that question I always ask is, what

Martin Watts:

do I want to look like on December 31? And when I asked

Martin Watts:

that question and answer that question, and we set the course

Martin Watts:

for that, people come up with great ideas. And we try, it

Martin Watts:

seems like like we we discount that a little bit? Because it

Martin Watts:

doesn't line up. But the truth of it is nine noes to one yes is

Martin Watts:

that literally people come up with new ideas. And instead of

Martin Watts:

discounting it, we put it in into a parking lot. And I've

Martin Watts:

learned that and then we revisit that. And I found that people

Martin Watts:

get empowered by that. Because it is a matter of telling people

Martin Watts:

that you listen to them. It's a matter of listening to them.

Howard Brown:

Yeah, I love that. And by listening, you are

Howard Brown:

empowering them. Great advice. Great advice. Now, take me into

Howard Brown:

your background on personal trauma a little bit there. I

Howard Brown:

want to I want to I want to go into that because life is not an

Howard Brown:

easy road to navigate sometimes and for you for sure, as well.

Howard Brown:

So take me into that.

Martin Watts:

You know, it's interesting, I wonder I was I

Martin Watts:

was reading something in Einstein had a profound question

Martin Watts:

that we needed to ask ourselves, he said, is the universe

Martin Watts:

friendly to you? And it made me really think there's some things

Martin Watts:

that just go into your soul. And that question made me really

Martin Watts:

think. And if you asked me at the age of four, that answer

Martin Watts:

would be a lot different today. Because some of the trauma that

Martin Watts:

I went through is that when I was four years old, I remember

Martin Watts:

in Chicago, I was playing with my little sister, again, I was

Martin Watts:

not number nine to 10. I was four years old. And I don't know

Martin Watts:

my father was working on a window, but she decided to climb

Martin Watts:

onto the ledge of the window. And I was right there. So I

Martin Watts:

grabbed her. I mean, four years old, I grabbed her and I pull

Martin Watts:

her in best I can as I'm pulling her in, my father came around

Martin Watts:

the corner. And when he came around the corner, he saw that

Martin Watts:

he grabbed her put her to safety. He took me push, you

Martin Watts:

know, held me out the window. Howard, by one foot 15 feet

Martin Watts:

about the concrete.

Howard Brown:

So he thought that you were pushing your little

Howard Brown:

your sister,

Martin Watts:

he that I was doing that. So to teach me a

Martin Watts:

lesson on how to be better caring for my sister, he hung me

Martin Watts:

out the window. And, you know, like, that's the home I grew up

Martin Watts:

in. And I remember when I was five years old, one year later,

Martin Watts:

actually, I woke up to the sound of crying and was told that my

Martin Watts:

father had died. He was he was he was shot. He suffered a

Martin Watts:

gunshot while on a business trip in St. Louis. So then I had no

Martin Watts:

father at that time. My mother never remarried. And it just it

Martin Watts:

was just a very problematic home. You know, and I and I

Martin Watts:

tried to use you know, I tried to be classy about things. I

Martin Watts:

don't like putting laundry out there. But I can only tell you

Martin Watts:

what happened to me. You don't want it you know, I remember

Martin Watts:

when I was 11 years old, my mom My mom came in the kitchen with

Martin Watts:

a gun to her head saying she was going to kill herself. And I'm

Martin Watts:

thankful she didn't because I wouldn't know how to process

Martin Watts:

that. And, you know, it was very the abuse was very violent. It

Martin Watts:

was very chronic. It was you know, physical, it was mental a

Martin Watts:

sexual it was all, all the abuse was wrapped up into that house.

Martin Watts:

And so when I hit like 15 I gotta tell you something, this

Martin Watts:

never healed in Me, says, Okay, I'm sick of this. I'm not doing

Martin Watts:

this anymore. And I remember when I was 15, I went in the

Martin Watts:

basement, my house and I grabbed a desk, and I put it in my

Martin Watts:

closet, I finally had my own room, you know, you have a lot

Martin Watts:

of kids, I found my own room, put it in the closet, put a

Martin Watts:

little lamp, I had like a little extension cord without a cable

Martin Watts:

that came out of the closet, and I plugged it in so I can have a

Martin Watts:

light. And I started working on my art. And I started just

Martin Watts:

honing my art in. And because it was healing to me, I didn't

Martin Watts:

realise this, but it was really healing to me. And I actually

Howard Brown:

So it's unfortunate. I call the those

Howard Brown:

became one of the top art students of that high school.

Howard Brown:

struggles, and the walking in darkness. As I walked in

Howard Brown:

And I was recognised for it. Like I said, I got to I got

Howard Brown:

accepted into one of the top art schools from it, but it really

Howard Brown:

helped me get over it. And so the the other things I did to

Howard Brown:

darkness, lots of little journeys, and some big journeys,

Howard Brown:

get over it when I was 18 years old, I started volunteering is

Howard Brown:

what I did. And oh, by the way, I love some of the things that

Howard Brown:

when I get to stage four diagnosis that you know, 26

Howard Brown:

you're doing for colon cancer, I love all the screening things

Howard Brown:

that you're doing. Because it helps you get over the things

Howard Brown:

years apart, and you've walked in some darkness, that's a harsh

Howard Brown:

that you suffer through when you can do a positive, something

Howard Brown:

positive. And a negative situation, it really shifts the

Howard Brown:

mind. It really does. And I remember when I was I was 18.

Howard Brown:

way to grow up. You pack it away, and then you actually you

Howard Brown:

And I started I went to a gentleman programme, and I

Howard Brown:

worked at a woman centre. And I started working with kids just

Howard Brown:

to show him that, you know, guys can be cool people too. And so

Howard Brown:

know what we're really telling to me, you created a little safe

Howard Brown:

it really helped me, you know, it was interesting how I shifted

Howard Brown:

all that and went through that.

Martin Watts:

Mm hmm. So when I was I think when I was 19 years

Martin Watts:

space for yourself with that desk in your closet and that

Martin Watts:

lamp. And that became kind of your hide away. And then you

Martin Watts:

old, I you know, I was raised Catholic, and I only knew like

Martin Watts:

Lutheran Catholic. I didn't know there was like a whole slew of

Martin Watts:

religions out there. So I sought out like Catholic Social

Martin Watts:

know, as a teen, you're going up and you got all this experience.

Martin Watts:

Services. And I said, I got to talk to somebody about this.

Martin Watts:

It's really bothering me. You know, I hated my family. I

Martin Watts:

really didn't like what was going on. I was a struggling as

Martin Watts:

a human being. And I remember, you know, I started talking to

Martin Watts:

You talk about you said you you pack it away, but then you

Martin Watts:

this priest, I think it was blind. And I was talking to him

Martin Watts:

and tell him like, yeah, my mother did this. And I did this.

Martin Watts:

And I'll see you next week, you know, and then Olson before

Martin Watts:

sessions, and he says, he says, we're done. I said, very good. I

Martin Watts:

unpack it.

Martin Watts:

feel good about this. Like, I'll see you next week. He says, no,

Martin Watts:

no. He said, we're done. He says sessions are over. He said,

Martin Watts:

You're healed. You're all good. And I thought to myself, No, I'm

Martin Watts:

broken, man. I'm my hearts broken. My emotions are broken.

Martin Watts:

Like I was aware of this. I knew that there was something wrong

Martin Watts:

up here. And I said, and then he said, he said, You're hunky

Martin Watts:

dory. And you're all hunky dory. And I says, I don't know what

Martin Watts:

the hell, hunky is hunky dory is that I'm not hunky nor Dory. I

Martin Watts:

am not. I have not solved this. And it was interesting. I walked

Martin Watts:

out of there, Howard and I packed all of that away. I put

Martin Watts:

it in a closet, I refused even acknowledge it. And I went on is

Martin Watts:

sort of my first business when I was 23. And I had a family and

Martin Watts:

I've gotten married, had a family. I have seven beautiful

Martin Watts:

children. They're all adults now. And I started businesses I,

Martin Watts:

you know, went on. And then 55 I'm 61 now and when I was 55

Martin Watts:

years old, I decided to unpack it, and to deal with it. And I

Martin Watts:

find myself a really good therapist. And it was

Martin Watts:

interesting, though, after a year and a half going through

Martin Watts:

this and in by the way, she didn't tell me anything. I said

Martin Watts:

everything, you know, like this didn't come like people say,

Martin Watts:

Well, somebody puts up in your head. This stuff was real, you

Martin Watts:

know, I begin to unpack and I said, Oh my God, this happened.

Martin Watts:

I literally could smell the carpet. I could see things that

Martin Watts:

moves. It was horrible to relive some of this. But it was

Martin Watts:

interesting. After a year and a half Howard, I asked her this

Martin Watts:

question. I said I have to know on a scale of one to 10, 10

Martin Watts:

being the worst. And like just being a baby about this, you

Martin Watts:

know, like I was worried like everybody says they're abused

Martin Watts:

and everybody says they have trauma. She says Martin, she

Martin Watts:

says On a scale of one to 10. She said you're a 15. She goes,

Martin Watts:

I have dealt with people, my, my whole adult life. As a

Martin Watts:

psychologist, I have rarely met anybody like you that is

Martin Watts:

successful after going through the things that you've been

Martin Watts:

describing. And it was very interesting that I was able to

Martin Watts:

work through it and process it. And then I realised that, you

Martin Watts:

know, like, all the suffering I had, and PTSD, because that's

Martin Watts:

all characterised by flashbacks, nightmares, anxiety, disturbing

Martin Watts:

thoughts. I've had some of that, but I never really had any a lot

Martin Watts:

of that. And I did some study and I found that I had PT G,

Martin Watts:

post traumatic growth, instead of it wasn't destroying me, it

Martin Watts:

was actually making me stronger.

Howard Brown:

I love that you turn PTSD into post traumatic

Howard Brown:

growth. And, boy, you kept that in you for a long time before

Howard Brown:

you know, from little child all the way up to age 55 years old,

Howard Brown:

it's absolutely incredible. So I want to talk about some growth,

Howard Brown:

because you now have an are building some amazing content,

Howard Brown:

called the rocket man telling me what you're doing now. Because

Howard Brown:

you certainly are now taking everything that makes you Martin

Howard Brown:

and be able to then share and to share with entrepreneurs and

Howard Brown:

small businesses and businesses in general and to make them

Howard Brown:

better and I love that. So you're helping others and I

Howard Brown:

always say lift yourself up first. So they'll go lift up

Howard Brown:

others you are walking, talking model of that. So tell us about

Howard Brown:

Rocket Man.

Martin Watts:

Well, I appreciate the compliments. And and thank

Martin Watts:

you for understanding where I'm at. You know, it's was something

Martin Watts:

new that I've been working on. And you know, after my I sold my

Martin Watts:

last business, I created this manufacturing business, I had it

Martin Watts:

for 17 years. I could keep it by my partner or whatever. I

Martin Watts:

literally created everything I founded it, I did all the

Martin Watts:

engineering. And again, I just did it. And and in after all

Martin Watts:

that I decided to sell. And somebody asked me I really

Martin Watts:

believe in a like a one word barometer. I love asking people,

Martin Watts:

you know, what's your one word? Bromberg. How do you feel right

Martin Watts:

now? So a friend of mine said, Marty, after selling, he said,

Martin Watts:

What's your one word barometer. And I said accomplish. It came

Martin Watts:

right out of me accomplished. But it wasn't probably the

Martin Watts:

accomplishes, most people would think it was actually

Martin Watts:

accomplished, I felt I had accomplished everything I needed

Martin Watts:

to do our, for that company, I completed my duty there. So

Martin Watts:

actually, when I walked away, got paid, walked away, I never

Martin Watts:

even looked at their website. Again, I created all of that

Martin Watts:

site. I never even looked at it again. Because I believe that

Martin Watts:

there's something new and better for me to go forward with. And

Martin Watts:

that became Rocket Man. And what I did was I took a year off to

Martin Watts:

decompress and heal and rediscover myself, you know, and

Martin Watts:

you get lost raising seven children and having businesses.

Martin Watts:

I mean, I don't even know who the heck I was after a while.

Martin Watts:

And so I spent the last six months developing Rocket Man,

Martin Watts:

it's a coaching content, as you had mentioned, to help

Martin Watts:

businesses scale, you know, when I say foundationally, and what

Martin Watts:

is what's his also his now turning into his now I'm

Martin Watts:

creating a talk and a workshop, helping people in teams discover

Martin Watts:

and define their sustainable success. So it's basically a

Martin Watts:

speaking element to the rocket man. And this programme is

Martin Watts:

called The Power of Sustainable success. Knowing my background

Martin Watts:

that trauma, people don't realise that 73% of all adults

Martin Watts:

have suffered some sort of trauma outward in their lives,

Martin Watts:

up to 38% of all children have suffered some sort of violent or

Martin Watts:

sexual attacks or abuse. Look at entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs,

Martin Watts:

according to an entrepreneur named Travis Luthor, I don't

Martin Watts:

know if you know him, but he stated 75% of high performing

Martin Watts:

entrepreneurs, has suffered some sort of early trauma in their

Martin Watts:

lives. And here's the caveat to that few have addressed it. So

Martin Watts:

they were like me, they're just going on. And like I said, I

Martin Watts:

never felt really successful. Like I did all this great stuff.

Martin Watts:

And yet, I couldn't define or, you know, like success, because

Martin Watts:

you're always into the next challenge, right? You're always

Martin Watts:

working on the next challenge. So many people, and successful

Martin Watts:

people just don't believe that they're successful. And usually,

Martin Watts:

it's because somebody told them not to. You're not successful,

Martin Watts:

so they just believe that arc or typically, they're using the

Martin Watts:

wrong comparables. You know, according to like a recent

Martin Watts:

Gallup poll, when people judge their success, the Gallup poll

Martin Watts:

was a personal success score and a perceived social success

Martin Watts:

score. So the personal success score was a high 68% win. they'd

Martin Watts:

created their own comparables, then perceived society's success

Martin Watts:

score was a measly 31%. So really, in my talk in my

Martin Watts:

workshop, I share my story, I mean, because I think it's

Martin Watts:

important to share with me the fact that 73% of people that

Martin Watts:

have been suffered through some sort of trauma. I mean, I got

Martin Watts:

seven out of 10 people in any room, I can relate to. And so in

Martin Watts:

my workshop, I share my story. And I let them know that they're

Martin Watts:

already successful. But let's find ways that we can build this

Martin Watts:

success story for themselves. And so the workshop really is

Martin Watts:

about bringing ideas and bringing really practical

Martin Watts:

solutions to building their success stories.

Howard Brown:

Yeah, I'm excited for you, I know that you're

Howard Brown:

going to be speaking country wide for the organisation, it's

Howard Brown:

really an important message to tell people used to just cover

Howard Brown:

it up, just like you said, pack it away. I actually on the other

Howard Brown:

hand, I've been very, very vocal about you know, cancer

Howard Brown:

screening, I don't want anyone to get it walk side by side with

Howard Brown:

patients and caregivers and treatment. And then obviously

Howard Brown:

memorialising those that the cancer burden was too great. So

Howard Brown:

you know, we walked very parallel paths. Were very, very

Howard Brown:

aligned. For those that are just listening, I want Martin hold up

Howard Brown:

your your forearm for a second. And this is a guy that actually

Howard Brown:

means never yield because he's got a tattooed on his forearm in

Howard Brown:

bold block print. And that's a daily reminder to never, never

Howard Brown:

yield. And I love that. Thank you for sharing. These are,

Howard Brown:

these are deep stories about you personal about you've had great

Howard Brown:

success, you've got kids that you're proud of. And you've just

Howard Brown:

got more work to do. And I'd love to hearing from you, I'm

Howard Brown:

gonna ask you to put on your sunglasses, because you got some

Howard Brown:

cool shades, take off your other glasses now. And this is the

Howard Brown:

part of the show we call the shining brightly spotlight, I

Howard Brown:

want to shine that spotlight so brightly on you. I want you to

Howard Brown:

first just say how you'd like people to reach out to you. And

Howard Brown:

then I want you to share a little bit of inspiration, a

Howard Brown:

quarter story, and then I'll kick it back to me and I'll

Howard Brown:

close out the show.

Martin Watts:

Well, I'd love to reach reach out on LinkedIn, I

Martin Watts:

think you could post that for everybody. But if you can find

Martin Watts:

me Martin watts on LinkedIn, it's a great way to get a hold

Martin Watts:

of me. If even if you just want to talk. You know, I'm all in.

Martin Watts:

I'm all in. I'm all in. And, but I'd love to speak to groups. And

Martin Watts:

I'd love to be able to be able to empower other people to think

Martin Watts:

differently, inspire them. Excellent, excellent. So give me

Martin Watts:

give me a little inspiration here to close out the show. Very

Martin Watts:

good. I'll say I'll stick my favourite quote out there. My

Martin Watts:

favourite quote out there is on the Day of Victory. No one is

Martin Watts:

tired. Never lose hope. Always find a way to dig through it.

Martin Watts:

Because it's always better on the other side.

Howard Brown:

Wow. Powerful. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Howard Brown:

So I, again, just a great show. I will definitely include your

Howard Brown:

LinkedIn and help people reach out to you and, and be able to

Howard Brown:

support each other. I just thank you again for sharing so deeply

Howard Brown:

today about what you've been through how you've overcome and

Howard Brown:

then how you're helping others as well. So this has been the

Howard Brown:

shining, brightly podcast show, you can reach me at shining

Howard Brown:

bright me.com. And obviously information about the book is

Howard Brown:

also on Amazon, of course. I actually can help make your

Howard Brown:

events shine as a speaker facilitator and to help there as

Howard Brown:

well. And then this podcast is on there. And as well. Very

Howard Brown:

important to me are my advocacy things that I do for Babson

Howard Brown:

College and entrepreneurship, that whole cancer world and of

Howard Brown:

course, interfaith getting to know those who are not like you

Howard Brown:

and actually welcome in into your tent, just like Abraham and

Howard Brown:

Sarah did. So I appreciate that. I also want to give a shout out

Howard Brown:

right now to some folks that always helped me publishing

Howard Brown:

house, front edge publishing, read the spirit.com that I blog

Howard Brown:

in. And also the podcast group that I'm with is called the

Howard Brown:

Amplify You network. They're amazing. They make me look great

Howard Brown:

every Wednesday, so it's awesome. And so just remember to

Howard Brown:

shine, shine brightly, a little bit each day for yourself. And

Howard Brown:

then for others go lift them up in your neighbourhoods and your

Howard Brown:

communities and yes, the world we become a better place. Martin

Howard Brown:

watts. Thank you. I really appreciate you.

Martin Watts:

Thank you, Howard.

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