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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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.