Shownotes
Motivational Quote
Business Inspiration
Brendan walked a path that started with the passion for Jiu Jitsu combined with his love for teaching. Along the way he identified a need in the industry that he wanted to fill and started a blog. He was surprised to find that his interest in overall business was even greater and that has led to his podcast supporting and training entrepreneurs. Sometimes it’s not a single moment of inspiration, it’s a journey. [6:33]A Candle Flickering Moment
Going into business with a friend and a handshake was a bad plan. The importance of getting agreements down on paper either as a legal document or an MOU is so important. [20:17]Business Building Insight
Focus on the power of taking action regardless of fear, doubt or a less than perfect product. [12:15]Success Trait
Entrepreneurial DNA – being wired to hustle and grind – learned through nurture and nature. [24:10]Productivity/Lifestyle Tool
Headspace BufferValuable Book
The War of Art by Steven Pressfield
Contact Links
Website Facebook Twitter OK! Kimonos Entrepreneurs and Coffee PodcastIf you found value in this podcast, make sure to subscribe and leave a review in Apple Podcasts or Google Podcasts. That helps us spread the word to more makers just like you. Thanks! Sue
Transcripts
Gift Biz Unwrapped.
Speaker:Episode number one.
Speaker:Hi, this is John Lee Dumas of Entrepreneur on Fire,
Speaker:and you're listening to Gift Biz Unwrapped.
Speaker:And now it's time to light it up.
Speaker:Welcome to Gift Biz Unwrapped,
Speaker:your source for industry specific insights and advice to develop and
Speaker:grow your business.
Speaker:And now here's your host,
Speaker:Sue Monheit.
Speaker:Hi, I'm Sue Monheit,
Speaker:and welcome to the Gift Biz Unwrapped podcast.
Speaker:Whether you own a brick and mortar shop,
Speaker:sell online,
Speaker:or are just getting started,
Speaker:you'll discover new insight to gain traction and grow your business.
Speaker:And today I have the honor of talking to Brendan Huffard.
Speaker:And Brendan is a man with a lot going on during
Speaker:the week.
Speaker:He's a full-time high school assistant principal,
Speaker:but that's only the beginning.
Speaker:He owns a six figure Brazilian Jiujitsu clothing brand called okay
Speaker:Kimonos, and also hosts a business podcast called Entrepreneurs and Coffee.
Speaker:He works on these businesses between three and 5:00 AM Yes,
Speaker:you heard me right.
Speaker:And some nights and also on the weekends.
Speaker:Now, given that you may think that all he does is
Speaker:work not,
Speaker:so, Brandon leaves time for other very important parts of his
Speaker:life, which include faith and family.
Speaker:He has a wonderful wife and also a son.
Speaker:Ooh, I'm exhausted just running through your bio.
Speaker:What else should we know about you and your businesses before
Speaker:we get started?
Speaker:Well, first of all,
Speaker:Suze, thank you so much for having me on.
Speaker:I'm really,
Speaker:really excited.
Speaker:In addition to all of that,
Speaker:not much.
Speaker:I have the businesses,
Speaker:my entrepreneurs and coffee podcast,
Speaker:and I work and like I,
Speaker:like you said,
Speaker:I'm really involved in my church and my faith,
Speaker:and also with my family.
Speaker:I don't like to socialize.
Speaker:I don't like to go out and go to parties.
Speaker:I like to work and I like to be with my
Speaker:family and close friends and I like to work out.
Speaker:And it's those,
Speaker:when we break it down like that,
Speaker:it sounds super simple,
Speaker:but I also like to do all of those things quite
Speaker:a bit.
Speaker:And How do you fit in working out?
Speaker:Do you get up at one to work out before you
Speaker:start the other?
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:I get up at three now because I tried getting up
Speaker:at two a bunch of times and it,
Speaker:I just got sick.
Speaker:I did,
Speaker:I wasn't getting enough sleep in my body,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:I kind of use my body like a race car.
Speaker:I just,
Speaker:I don't slow down.
Speaker:I just tend to slam into the wall at 300 miles
Speaker:an hour when I'm not getting enough sleep.
Speaker:So yeah,
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:I'll just,
Speaker:some mornings are reserved for working out during that time.
Speaker:Some aren't.
Speaker:Sometimes I'll work out at night,
Speaker:but that's usually only if my wife and son like have
Speaker:other plans.
Speaker:My wife is very independent and very strong,
Speaker:and it's probably because I was raised by a number,
Speaker:my grandmother,
Speaker:my aunt,
Speaker:and my mom by a number of very strong independent women
Speaker:that I'm attracted to a woman like that.
Speaker:So my wife will go and do stuff with my son
Speaker:at night.
Speaker:Sometimes they do like church stuff or different like vacation Bible
Speaker:school, and that'll be time that I could work out or
Speaker:work or go to Juujitsu in the evening too.
Speaker:Well, somehow you fit it all in and you know,
Speaker:having that life balance is so important to a business owner
Speaker:too, because if you don't,
Speaker:you're just gonna run yourself into a wall,
Speaker:like you said,
Speaker:and if you don't take that time for yourself,
Speaker:everything's gonna fall apart.
Speaker:I think.
Speaker:Well, you know what?
Speaker:I think when people,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:here's an example.
Speaker:Like somebody said to me one time that everybody has enough
Speaker:time in their day.
Speaker:We all have the same 24 hours.
Speaker:I don't understand how Oprah can be so successful.
Speaker:And she has the exact same 24 hours that I do.
Speaker:And I think that people,
Speaker:like in Oprah or whoever else,
Speaker:like they have no idea who got voted off the island
Speaker:in last night's episode,
Speaker:they have no idea.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:you could ask somebody,
Speaker:they're like,
Speaker:man, Brendan,
Speaker:I just don't have the time to start a business.
Speaker:I don't have time to take my business to that next
Speaker:kind of phase I wanted to go in.
Speaker:And it's like,
Speaker:oh, cool,
Speaker:well what did you think of that?
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:finale for Walking Dead the other night and they're like,
Speaker:man, it was crazy,
Speaker:blah, blah,
Speaker:blah. And then all of a sudden you see this little
Speaker:light bulb go off and they're like,
Speaker:oh yeah,
Speaker:I guess I have time.
Speaker:Yeah, it's all about prioritization.
Speaker:Absolutely. And I'm,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:I think it's very much my DNA that this is what
Speaker:I'm wired for,
Speaker:this is what I like.
Speaker:It's hard work and it's a struggle sometimes,
Speaker:but I'm very much wired for it.
Speaker:As our listeners know,
Speaker:we like to align this conversation around the life of a
Speaker:candle. Shall we light it up,
Speaker:Brendan? Let's light it up.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:I wanna talk with you about a candle and we like
Speaker:to talk about an inspirational quote,
Speaker:something that's really resonating with you right now in your life.
Speaker:If you were to choose an inspirational candle,
Speaker:what color would it be?
Speaker:My candle would be a royal blue.
Speaker:And why Royal Blue?
Speaker:I think Royal Blue is,
Speaker:it's a really cool color.
Speaker:It's my favorite Juujitsu gee color.
Speaker:But it also symbolizes to me honesty and transparency and loyalty,
Speaker:which are characteristics that I value in myself and others more
Speaker:than anything else.
Speaker:And what type of a quote would you have on this
Speaker:royal blue candle?
Speaker:I would have a quote from Tony Robbins on that candle
Speaker:where he says,
Speaker:if you can't,
Speaker:you must,
Speaker:and if you must,
Speaker:you can.
Speaker:And it's not really that whole quote,
Speaker:it sounds kind of circular and hokey,
Speaker:but the beginning of,
Speaker:if you can't,
Speaker:you must really means a lot to me because whenever I
Speaker:feel fear or I'm nervous about something in my business or
Speaker:in my life and I feel like I can't do it,
Speaker:that quote pops into my head and I feel like,
Speaker:all right,
Speaker:now I definitely have to do it.
Speaker:I have to step into that fear and be the type
Speaker:of person who does this type of thing that I'm afraid
Speaker:of. Like for instance,
Speaker:in a couple weeks I'm gonna start doing some webinars just
Speaker:to support my community of my podcast.
Speaker:And that's scary for me because it's something I've never done
Speaker:before. I have no doubt that it's gonna go awesome,
Speaker:and I'm gonna absolutely crush it.
Speaker:But when I first thought of doing it,
Speaker:I was really scared and I thought,
Speaker:all right,
Speaker:Brendan, if you can't,
Speaker:then you must,
Speaker:all right,
Speaker:well I have to do this now,
Speaker:so that's what I'm gonna do.
Speaker:I think you're right.
Speaker:I, and so many people,
Speaker:you hear this over and over again,
Speaker:Seth Godin talks about this a lot too,
Speaker:is that when you face your fear,
Speaker:that's when so many people back away and fail.
Speaker:And it's the survivors and the successful people who will look
Speaker:at it and say,
Speaker:okay, I'm trying this,
Speaker:and if it's gonna work,
Speaker:great. If it's not,
Speaker:I'm gonna learn,
Speaker:adjust, and still make it succeed.
Speaker:So let's focus for a minute on,
Speaker:okay, kimonos.
Speaker:And I just wanna talk about that a little bit because
Speaker:that's somewhat similar to a gift type business,
Speaker:but how did you get into that in the first place?
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:actually I got into it for a very different reason.
Speaker:I got,
Speaker:and when I was in college,
Speaker:I saw a couple UFC fights,
Speaker:which is the ultimate fight in championship mixed martial arts.
Speaker:And I kind of fell in love with the sport and
Speaker:I just thought it was the coolest thing in the world.
Speaker:And when I went home and I got back to Fort
Speaker:Wayne, Indiana,
Speaker:there was really no place to train and there were really
Speaker:no jobs for teachers.
Speaker:So I moved up just outside of Chicago where my wife
Speaker:lived at,
Speaker:well, she's then my girlfriend,
Speaker:now my wife,
Speaker:and there were a million teaching jobs and that was great.
Speaker:But there were also a million like mixed martial arts gyms.
Speaker:And the first day I got there,
Speaker:I started trying to train mixed martial arts,
Speaker:and I got really sick of getting punched in the face
Speaker:and not really knowing what I was doing.
Speaker:So I decided I needed to learn some juujitsu.
Speaker:I needed to learn to be able to defend myself off
Speaker:my back if I had to,
Speaker:to be able to get up.
Speaker:And it's a really cool grappling martial art.
Speaker:There is no punching or kicking in juujitsu.
Speaker:It's kind of similar to judo if people are familiar with
Speaker:that. But it's a lot of fun.
Speaker:And that's kind of how I,
Speaker:I got into it through fighting,
Speaker:not necessarily like some holistic kind of woowoo martial arts practice,
Speaker:But how did that turn into a business?
Speaker:Where did that spark come from to actually create this into
Speaker:a business?
Speaker:Well, looking back at my story and kind of studying my
Speaker:past, I,
Speaker:I've had the chance to teach psychology and sociology for the
Speaker:last seven years prior to becoming an assistant principal.
Speaker:And when you do that,
Speaker:you ask kids about themselves all the time,
Speaker:which means you typically need to lead with a story about
Speaker:yourself, about what this looks like in your life.
Speaker:So I was forced to,
Speaker:over years and years,
Speaker:think about the story of my life and how things fit
Speaker:in and developmentally where I was at at different phases and
Speaker:how birth order and multiple intelligences and all these different things
Speaker:applied to me.
Speaker:And what I kind of discovered is that throughout my life
Speaker:I've been very entrepreneurial burning CDs and selling them to my
Speaker:friends or running business competitions.
Speaker:When I was in fourth grade,
Speaker:I remember me and a couple of my buddies just crushed
Speaker:everybody in a business competition.
Speaker:It was great,
Speaker:but I was kind of nurtured away from that.
Speaker:So it's very much my nature.
Speaker:And then I was nurtured away from that over time.
Speaker:And when I started teaching,
Speaker:I, I love teaching,
Speaker:I love kids,
Speaker:I love telling stories,
Speaker:I love relationships,
Speaker:Sue, I love what you and I are doing right now,
Speaker:this is great.
Speaker:But the problem is that it's not the kids that are
Speaker:the issue,
Speaker:typically in schools,
Speaker:it's the other adults and all of the bureaucracy and the
Speaker:red tape of teaching was getting very frustrating.
Speaker:So I kind of went more in on my passion and
Speaker:I made a couple websites for Brazilian Jiujitsu and that kind
Speaker:of transformed into a review website where I would write reviews
Speaker:about various companies,
Speaker:uniforms and things like that,
Speaker:and different gear.
Speaker:Then eventually I just thought,
Speaker:I need to start my own thing.
Speaker:I have all these ideas,
Speaker:I have certain feelings about the way that things should be
Speaker:done, especially surrounding customer experience and customer service that other companies
Speaker:just were not doing,
Speaker:they weren't getting it.
Speaker:So I decided to start my own company so I could
Speaker:bring that into the market.
Speaker:So that's really interesting.
Speaker:So there wasn't really a specific point in time.
Speaker:It kind of was a path that you took yourself on,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:one thing kind of led to another,
Speaker:you started having ideas of how,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:in terms of customer service and all of that,
Speaker:you could do things different and probably better to your way
Speaker:of thinking than what was out there.
Speaker:So you didn't first go into it saying,
Speaker:oh, I'm gonna start a business.
Speaker:You started investigating and walking the path and then all of
Speaker:a sudden it occurred to you that,
Speaker:yeah, this is something maybe I should start doing my myself.
Speaker:Definitely. And like I said,
Speaker:it was very much my nature.
Speaker:So I think when that decision hit,
Speaker:then over time I,
Speaker:I kind of fell more in love with the business side
Speaker:of it than the juujitsu side of it.
Speaker:I became really fascinated by other companies and their stories.
Speaker:I was reading about branding and marketing and implementing,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:trial and error using all of those things in my business
Speaker:versus focusing on the training side.
Speaker:I don't want to be a world champion in Jiujitsu.
Speaker:I don't care about competing,
Speaker:but I do love the business side of it.
Speaker:That's what I thrive on.
Speaker:It's a good learning and especially G is unwrapped listeners.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:you don't always think,
Speaker:okay, I am going to be done with school and I'm
Speaker:gonna start a chocolate shop,
Speaker:for example.
Speaker:Sometimes the path just comes in front of you,
Speaker:you get yourself out there,
Speaker:you immerse yourself in things that you really enjoy,
Speaker:and then you start to see what comes of it.
Speaker:So part of the point is just getting out there,
Speaker:exposing yourself,
Speaker:being around people and pursuing things that you already know you
Speaker:like or perhaps will be interested in and test and try
Speaker:and you never know what's gonna come in front of you
Speaker:that is gonna make sense for you to turn into something
Speaker:big. So I'm sure right when you left school you weren't
Speaker:sure what you were gonna be doing and certainly not podcasting.
Speaker:Oh gosh,
Speaker:no. I had no idea at that point.
Speaker:And I mean,
Speaker:I think most people,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:we let 18 year olds decide what they want to do
Speaker:for the rest of their lives.
Speaker:And I think that's,
Speaker:it's horrible,
Speaker:right? Like 18 year olds aren't even allowed to drink alcohol
Speaker:in our country,
Speaker:but we're letting them pick a college major that could possibly
Speaker:determine their course of life.
Speaker:And it just really,
Speaker:I don't know the,
Speaker:the whole college experience kind of shaped me into wanting to
Speaker:teach, but then realizing over time that I was woefully unprepared
Speaker:for what the actual business,
Speaker:the actual career of teaching was.
Speaker:And I think what's really special about that is that the
Speaker:teaching part really prepared me.
Speaker:Like in retrospect I can,
Speaker:as I think Steve Jobs said,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:I can connect those dots,
Speaker:I can join up the dots of my past and see
Speaker:how they've led here.
Speaker:So it's actually perfectly prepared me for where I am.
Speaker:Now's move on and talk a little bit about your podcast.
Speaker:And the one thing that I really wanted to focus on
Speaker:with you,
Speaker:particularly for our group,
Speaker:is with entrepreneurs in Coffee,
Speaker:you talk a lot about the power of taking action.
Speaker:What does that mean specifically to you?
Speaker:So I think that ideas are worthless and action and execution
Speaker:are everything.
Speaker:I would rather somebody execute on 10 crappy ideas than have
Speaker:a great idea that they never really do anything with.
Speaker:We all have ideas.
Speaker:I think the majority of people in the world feel like
Speaker:they have a book in them,
Speaker:an amazing book that they should write,
Speaker:but they never do.
Speaker:And I think the majority of people with great business ideas
Speaker:never execute on those.
Speaker:And you really have to adopt a ready,
Speaker:fire, aim mentality.
Speaker:The idea of taking imperfect action and then making it right,
Speaker:like, I'm gonna do this,
Speaker:I'm gonna try this and I'm gonna learn as I go.
Speaker:Like for example,
Speaker:with me running webinars and stuff,
Speaker:like I'm gonna try 'em and if they ch if there's
Speaker:something wrong with it,
Speaker:I'm gonna pivot versus just thinking,
Speaker:man, I should really do that and planning it all out,
Speaker:but then never taking action on it.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:action is the name of the game.
Speaker:If you want a successful business,
Speaker:I think you're right.
Speaker:And action,
Speaker:the more you do,
Speaker:the better you get and the more perfect you are.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:we talk a lot about that in the podcast community,
Speaker:right? And you are one of my first interviews here.
Speaker:When you start initially doing podcasts,
Speaker:it's gonna be rough,
Speaker:it's gonna be a little bit,
Speaker:you're not gonna be right on your game until you get
Speaker:into it and do it for a while.
Speaker:But that's the same type of thing.
Speaker:It's okay to take imperfect action because that is the way
Speaker:to get to perfect yourself.
Speaker:Definitely. And especially with podcasting,
Speaker:you, you get this kind of thing when you start where
Speaker:you're like,
Speaker:what if I say the wrong thing?
Speaker:Or do I need to edit this?
Speaker:Or do I need to change it?
Speaker:And what's really cool over time is that you think it's
Speaker:getting easier,
Speaker:but really you're just getting better.
Speaker:You're better at telling stories,
Speaker:you're better at listening and pulling out key things.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:as a host like Sue,
Speaker:I think you're an awesome host,
Speaker:especially for,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:like you said,
Speaker:I'm one of the first people,
Speaker:first few people that you've interviewed.
Speaker:I think you're awesome because I've been interviewed by other people
Speaker:who are not confident and they're stumbling and stuff and in
Speaker:that's fine.
Speaker:But what's cool is that not everybody knows that it's okay
Speaker:to make mistakes and they end up quitting.
Speaker:I think most podcasts end by like episode seven or episode
Speaker:eight. They just don't make it past that.
Speaker:And what's cool is that you've aligned yourself with really good
Speaker:people and gotten some training ahead of time and now you're
Speaker:executing with confidence.
Speaker:And I think that's huge.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:I appreciate the compliment on that.
Speaker:Sure. You know,
Speaker:another thing about this taking action is I will see,
Speaker:especially when we're out at trade shows or I'm in some
Speaker:type of conference where we're teaching that people will just take
Speaker:in so much information and then they'll leave the conference and
Speaker:they'll have binders full of information and then it sits there,
Speaker:nothing happens.
Speaker:And that so frustrating.
Speaker:And in fact,
Speaker:I did a blog post about that just talking about,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:just take one thing,
Speaker:just one little thing and start the momentum and it can
Speaker:change your whole business cuz one thing can lead to another,
Speaker:can lead to another.
Speaker:Why do you think people put obstacles in front of themselves
Speaker:and don't take action?
Speaker:Oh Cuz it's freaking scary.
Speaker:Like it's scary to try things,
Speaker:you might fail.
Speaker:And we're so conditioned in our society,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:we don't,
Speaker:we see Michael Jordan's dunks,
Speaker:we see his three pointers,
Speaker:we don't see a highlight video,
Speaker:a seven hour highlight video of all the shots he's missed.
Speaker:He, he has a great quote,
Speaker:and I wish I could quote it directly,
Speaker:but it runs through,
Speaker:like, I've been given the ball to take the game-winning shot
Speaker:and I've missed 74 times I've done this.
Speaker:Things I've been,
Speaker:I've followed out of games like this many times.
Speaker:He lays out like the numbers for his failures and he
Speaker:says like,
Speaker:I've succeeded so many times because I've failed so many times.
Speaker:So knowing every time I fail,
Speaker:not just fail,
Speaker:but every time something doesn't go how I want it to
Speaker:or I don't get the best result that I wanted,
Speaker:well that's good because that means I'm one step closer,
Speaker:I've checked that box off and now I,
Speaker:I have less boxes to check before I hit a big
Speaker:success. And I think sue,
Speaker:most people,
Speaker:another thing is they just don't have a healthy enough ego
Speaker:to handle that.
Speaker:To know that's part of the game,
Speaker:to take the hits,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:like a rocky Balboa,
Speaker:just take the hits and just keep coming forward.
Speaker:I think that's one of my biggest advantages as an entrepreneur
Speaker:is that I can take hits and keep going and I
Speaker:don't quit.
Speaker:And I think I learned a lot of that through juujitsu
Speaker:and also kind of modeled by my mom.
Speaker:My mom was a single parent growing up and modeled that.
Speaker:A lot of that was modeled by her.
Speaker:So I saw it.
Speaker:She didn't just say it,
Speaker:I saw it,
Speaker:which means I'll do it.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:I think again,
Speaker:like I said,
Speaker:it's just,
Speaker:it's straight fear.
Speaker:It that's very debilitating sometimes.
Speaker:Do you think you need other supportive people to be able
Speaker:to overcome that?
Speaker:To have the,
Speaker:that confidence?
Speaker:Oh my god,
Speaker:yes. I think Jim Rohn said,
Speaker:you could tell,
Speaker:I'm like a quote Just quo,
Speaker:everything, keep him coming.
Speaker:I Feel,
Speaker:I just feel so sketchy if I take credit for any
Speaker:of these things.
Speaker:So I think Jim Rohn said that you're the,
Speaker:you're the average of the five people you spend the most
Speaker:time with.
Speaker:And today people sue are spending time with me and you.
Speaker:So we,
Speaker:they're the average of us and three other people.
Speaker:And that's awesome because now they've just leveled up themselves that
Speaker:much. I think when you surround yourself with really great people
Speaker:who are doing more than you or doing kind of the
Speaker:same as you,
Speaker:and they're on the same path,
Speaker:they're going the same way.
Speaker:Well, magical things start to happen.
Speaker:And we talk about mastermind groups,
Speaker:there's some really amazing Facebook and LinkedIn group communities out there
Speaker:just surrounding yourself with daily with these people.
Speaker:Even if you live in a town in the middle of
Speaker:Idaho with population 120,
Speaker:you can still surround yourself through podcasts and online and books,
Speaker:things like that with other people.
Speaker:And because you're the average of them,
Speaker:they start to pull you up with them.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:a rising tide raises all boats.
Speaker:And I,
Speaker:I firmly believe that.
Speaker:So A couple of things just to underline here is that
Speaker:it's okay to fail and most successful people have a ton
Speaker:of failures in their back pocket.
Speaker:And you see what's presented as the bright and shiny success.
Speaker:But everybody who's successful,
Speaker:every name you've heard,
Speaker:every artist you've listened to,
Speaker:anybody has had a number of failures behind them before it's
Speaker:led to success.
Speaker:So remember that and also surround yourself with strong people.
Speaker:And you're right Brendan,
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:being able to go online,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:there are LinkedIn groups,
Speaker:Facebook groups,
Speaker:webinars, you can do masterminds,
Speaker:all different types of things.
Speaker:There's support coming from everywhere and it's such an exciting time
Speaker:right now because so many people look at this whole entrepreneurial
Speaker:type thing as,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:it's, it's the new fresh,
Speaker:exciting thing to do,
Speaker:but a lot of people are out there trying to make
Speaker:it granted.
Speaker:Many are gonna fall away,
Speaker:but there's a lot of people you know,
Speaker:in the field and all types of entrepreneurialship that you can
Speaker:link up with and gain strength from and learn from and
Speaker:support each other.
Speaker:I Want to add one more thing too.
Speaker:My buddy David told me one time that he has never
Speaker:opened up a biography and it was just one page and
Speaker:it said,
Speaker:man, that was easy.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:you, there's no one page biographies that say it was just
Speaker:a super easy task and they got it done.
Speaker:Yay. No,
Speaker:like biographies are four or 500 pages of struggle,
Speaker:of setback after setback after setback.
Speaker:So I would advise anybody,
Speaker:if you're thinking of starting a gift business or you have
Speaker:one and you're inspired by anybody you know,
Speaker:Theodore or Roosevelt,
Speaker:Walt Disney,
Speaker:like anybody,
Speaker:like I just mentioned them cuz they're people who inspire me.
Speaker:Like, read their biography,
Speaker:see what they've been through,
Speaker:and you'll be like,
Speaker:holy crap,
Speaker:that was really hard for them.
Speaker:And it makes it,
Speaker:it, it kind of shows you how the sausage was made,
Speaker:so to speak.
Speaker:And you can see that they had to overcome a lot.
Speaker:So if you have to overcome a lot,
Speaker:you're on the right path.
Speaker:Okay. You know where I'm gonna go with this now since
Speaker:you brought this up.
Speaker:Where was a real struggle in your life and how did
Speaker:you overcome it?
Speaker:Probably one of the hardest things that I went through in
Speaker:my business was I brought on somebody else at one point
Speaker:and he and I were good friends and he had helped
Speaker:me a little bit with my business and I brought him
Speaker:on to help with social media and blog posts and things
Speaker:like that.
Speaker:And we made a couple products together and we split the
Speaker:profits and it was really good.
Speaker:And we had kind of built this on just like a,
Speaker:a bro like fist bump,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:we're, this is gonna be great,
Speaker:this is so fun.
Speaker:And it was really fun for a while.
Speaker:But then my son was born and I started branching out
Speaker:a little bit with my business ventures and I still felt
Speaker:like I was very much pulling my weight,
Speaker:but we didn't outline things ahead of time.
Speaker:And he began to become very kind of bitter and resentful.
Speaker:And it got to the point where one day he just
Speaker:left, he's like,
Speaker:look, I can't do this anymore.
Speaker:And I said,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:man, I could tell for a while you were kind of
Speaker:upset and kind of like not really happy and you know,
Speaker:he thought he was a co-owner of the business.
Speaker:And I,
Speaker:I thought,
Speaker:no, like I've,
Speaker:I did this for a couple years without you,
Speaker:I started all this just because you took our Facebook page
Speaker:from 6,000
Speaker:fans to 7,000
Speaker:fans does not mean you're a 50 50 co-owner.
Speaker:Not even close.
Speaker:I didn't mean any disrespect from that,
Speaker:but that's not what I saw.
Speaker:And he thought this was gonna be his thing.
Speaker:He thought he was Charlie and this was his golden ticket.
Speaker:And that wasn't really fair.
Speaker:He not only left but went on a crazy spree on
Speaker:the internet trying to contact any blogger to write like just
Speaker:defamatory statements about me contacting any news source that he could
Speaker:to spread gossip and half-truths and lies and all of these
Speaker:things on every forum on,
Speaker:on Reddit.
Speaker:Like he went everywhere to try and share what a horrible
Speaker:person I was.
Speaker:And because he got there first,
Speaker:people believed him.
Speaker:They didn't even question it.
Speaker:And then everybody's internet muscles came out and you know,
Speaker:all the keyboard warriors showed up and I'm getting memes made
Speaker:of me and they're insulting my child and they're insulting my
Speaker:profession as a teacher.
Speaker:And just like really horrible,
Speaker:screwed up things that like nobody should ever say about somebody
Speaker:else. Certainly nobody they've ever met and spoke or spoken to.
Speaker:The problem was that these people didn't see the background of
Speaker:this. Number one,
Speaker:it was about money number two,
Speaker:it was about other personal issues between he and I.
Speaker:But here's the issue,
Speaker:Sue, it's,
Speaker:it was really,
Speaker:and this is why I'm sharing it as my failure.
Speaker:This was my fault,
Speaker:this was my business.
Speaker:And because I didn't think to have a contract or even
Speaker:a simple,
Speaker:it's called an mou,
Speaker:a memorandum of understanding,
Speaker:it's not legal,
Speaker:but it lays out everything,
Speaker:both of our responsibilities because I didn't do that because I
Speaker:allowed it to be done on a handshake.
Speaker:I could have fixed that from the beginning and this was
Speaker:a hundred percent my fault and it was one of the
Speaker:hardest things I've ever had to deal with in my life.
Speaker:Wow. It's a shame because knowing you the little bit that
Speaker:I do,
Speaker:you are nothing but nice and genuine and that just had
Speaker:to hurt to the core to have someone who you had
Speaker:considered a friend turn around and spend all of that energy
Speaker:in laying down all of these untruths about you.
Speaker:But the,
Speaker:the thing I still,
Speaker:I still own it though.
Speaker:Like I really could have made this better from the start.
Speaker:And yes,
Speaker:he has to own what he did,
Speaker:but I can also own that it never would've happened,
Speaker:it never would've gotten to that point if I had done
Speaker:my due diligence when we were,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:at the outset.
Speaker:And now,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:for the future and for all of us,
Speaker:we can listen to what you've had to say and learn
Speaker:from it to hopefully protect ourselves against that ourselves.
Speaker:Right? And if everybody who listens takes that into account,
Speaker:then the My lesson was well worth it.
Speaker:Thank you for sharing that.
Speaker:We are going to move in now to the reflection section.
Speaker:These are just a couple of questions I'm gonna ask you.
Speaker:With the goal of pulling out some tools and ty types
Speaker:of special things that you do in your life,
Speaker:what is one natural trait that you have that has helped
Speaker:you succeed?
Speaker:I think I'm very much wired to hustle and grind.
Speaker:I mentioned that it was also kind of how I was
Speaker:nurtured. I saw my mom hustling and grinding and taking care
Speaker:of me and giving up pretty much all of her thirties
Speaker:and forties to take care of this kid without any parties
Speaker:or any,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:cool stuff for her.
Speaker:So I saw it exemplified,
Speaker:but I think I was very much born with entrepreneurial dna.
Speaker:I love going to bed at night because I know the
Speaker:next thing that I get to do is get up and
Speaker:work in the morning.
Speaker:And what's cool about this is soon,
Speaker:I don't just believe that I have this dna,
Speaker:but I also believe that you can be nurtured into it.
Speaker:So even if you think back into your story and you
Speaker:don't have all of these incidences of entrepreneurial tendencies throughout your
Speaker:life, you can still learn this stuff to some degree.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:the best athletes in the world are a mix of tremendously
Speaker:hard work and tremendous talent.
Speaker:But the cool thing is,
Speaker:even in professional athletics,
Speaker:the 1% of the 1% you can still not have the
Speaker:most talent,
Speaker:but you can still work incredibly hard and get there too.
Speaker:And it goes back to what we were talking about earlier,
Speaker:taking that action,
Speaker:what tool do you use regularly to keep productive or to
Speaker:help create balance in your life?
Speaker:So if I can mention just a few really fast.
Speaker:Sure. First one is that I use Headspace,
Speaker:which is a meditation app that has benefited me tremendously in
Speaker:a million different ways That is sitting on my phone.
Speaker:And I think I've been through only about three of them
Speaker:so far.
Speaker:I do it every single day.
Speaker:And there's some sections that I don't like and there's some
Speaker:that I really have,
Speaker:there's some I've really struggled through.
Speaker:But what's cool is that when you're really struggling,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:there's something going on with you and you know,
Speaker:there's some issue.
Speaker:Like for instance,
Speaker:Sue, I'm not exaggerating this for the sake of story,
Speaker:I think probably for 10 of the last 15 days I've
Speaker:really struggled to meditate in the morning.
Speaker:I can't focus,
Speaker:I can't be clear,
Speaker:I can't focus on the visualizations that go with it.
Speaker:And that tells me that something's going on.
Speaker:And I've been kind of trying to hone in and really
Speaker:dedicating a little bit of time,
Speaker:even five or 10 minutes a day to just thinking like,
Speaker:what is this?
Speaker:Why can't I focus?
Speaker:And it's really cool.
Speaker:It gives you a lot of insight into your life.
Speaker:Another one that I love is Buffer.
Speaker:I schedule all of my social media posts going out.
Speaker:What's cool is that I,
Speaker:because I schedule them going out,
Speaker:I don't have to freak out because now I can respond
Speaker:to them in real time without having to worry about posting
Speaker:at certain intervals throughout the day.
Speaker:So while the posting isn't necessarily very organic and natural and
Speaker:stuff, cause I've scheduled it,
Speaker:it also makes sure that the most people see it.
Speaker:And then I can respond to all of those things in
Speaker:real time,
Speaker:which I think if you're gonna schedule your social media,
Speaker:you really need to make sure you can respond to it
Speaker:when people comment.
Speaker:Absolutely. And with Buffer,
Speaker:you can also post in real time as well.
Speaker:So you actually have both.
Speaker:I just found that within the last year and have been
Speaker:so happy with it too.
Speaker:And it gives you super simple analytics too.
Speaker:You can look at what's been and just click and drag
Speaker:and reshare stuff that was pop.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:you can sort it by most clicks and sort it by
Speaker:this and that.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:if you were posting on Facebook and one post with one
Speaker:graphic got 700 clicks to your blog,
Speaker:and then the next one got 12,
Speaker:well share that one that got 700 again and make sure
Speaker:it wasn't just a fluke.
Speaker:And get all that,
Speaker:get more traffic.
Speaker:So it gives you cool analytics and it's just click and
Speaker:drag. I love it.
Speaker:I love their interface.
Speaker:What book have you read lately that you think our listeners
Speaker:would find value in?
Speaker:So I am,
Speaker:what am I,
Speaker:what is it called?
Speaker:Stephen Pressfield,
Speaker:the War of Art.
Speaker:I'm reading right now.
Speaker:If you are doing anything creative in your life,
Speaker:and if you are involved in the gift business,
Speaker:believe me,
Speaker:everything you do is freaking creative.
Speaker:And in this book he talks about resistance and how resistance
Speaker:is what holds us back from what,
Speaker:and I don't mean this in a woowoo kind of way,
Speaker:like we can kind of separate the spirituality of it,
Speaker:but he says we're all created to make something.
Speaker:God created us with a gift and the universe whatever,
Speaker:created us with a gift to create a certain thing.
Speaker:And the resistance is what holds us back from that.
Speaker:And he literally goes through page after page of different ways
Speaker:that resistance manifests itself.
Speaker:And you will be reading this book and you'll be like,
Speaker:holy crap,
Speaker:he is speaking into my soul.
Speaker:So the War of Art by Pressfield is definitely one that
Speaker:they would find a lot of value in.
Speaker:It's going on my reading list,
Speaker:definitely Gift Biz Unwrapped listeners,
Speaker:just as you're listening here today,
Speaker:you can also listen to audiobooks with ease.
Speaker:Get an audiobook just like this one for free.
Speaker:All you need to do is go over to gift biz
Speaker:book.com and make a selection.
Speaker:That's gift biz book.com.
Speaker:Okay, Brendan,
Speaker:we're coming to my very favorite question and it is the
Speaker:Dare to dream question.
Speaker:I would like to present you with a virtual gift.
Speaker:It's a magical box containing unlimited possibilities for your future.
Speaker:This is your dream or goal of almost unreachable heights that
Speaker:you would wish to obtain.
Speaker:Please accept this gift and open it in our presence.
Speaker:What is inside?
Speaker:So inside of this gift box is a couple things.
Speaker:First of all,
Speaker:it is keys to my home on the coast in California,
Speaker:preferably just north in North county of San Diego,
Speaker:where I can surf every single day and ju do juujitsu
Speaker:every single day.
Speaker:And there are great schools for my son to go to.
Speaker:I'm at that home.
Speaker:And in there is also kind of an outline,
Speaker:so to speak,
Speaker:of how I spend my day.
Speaker:So I get up in the morning and I surf.
Speaker:I come home and I do service work.
Speaker:Something I'm really passionate about is putting myself in the greatest
Speaker:possible place of service to others.
Speaker:And I don't know what that looks like yet,
Speaker:and I don't know what God has for me,
Speaker:but it's not in the way in,
Speaker:Sue, maybe you've heard this before,
Speaker:especially in the entrepreneurial space,
Speaker:people saying like,
Speaker:I wanna serve other entrepreneurs and help them discover their purpose,
Speaker:or something like that.
Speaker:And what that really means is you wanna sell them products
Speaker:where you know,
Speaker:that's, that's not a kind of service goal,
Speaker:that's an entrepreneurial,
Speaker:that's a business goal.
Speaker:But when I'm talking about service,
Speaker:I'm talking about feeding people who are hungry,
Speaker:especially children is something I'm passionate about.
Speaker:We don't have children starving to death in the United States,
Speaker:but we have a tremendous amount of them who are very,
Speaker:very hungry every single day.
Speaker:So that's something I'm passionate about.
Speaker:So maybe I would spend my time working on a project
Speaker:like that in schools,
Speaker:making sure that kids are fed and fed in a way
Speaker:that actually fuels their body versus just giving them junk to
Speaker:eat. So we can say we fed them for legal reasons,
Speaker:which is what a lot of schools do,
Speaker:huh? Off the soapbox.
Speaker:Then I'll go home and I'll spend time with my son
Speaker:and my wife.
Speaker:We homeschool him in my perfect day and he spends time
Speaker:with other homeschool kids in our community.
Speaker:But I get to teach him and my wife gets to
Speaker:teach him.
Speaker:And that's something I'm,
Speaker:I'm really passionate about.
Speaker:And then after I spend lunch with him and I teach
Speaker:him some things,
Speaker:I go back and I do more work serving people in
Speaker:my community,
Speaker:whether that's helping disabled veterans or like I said,
Speaker:feeding kids and people who need food and are hungry.
Speaker:After I'm done with that,
Speaker:I come back home and I spend time with my wife
Speaker:and son,
Speaker:maybe work a little bit more in the evening,
Speaker:do some of that paperwork kind of business related stuff.
Speaker:And then I go to bed and that's my day.
Speaker:That's not every day.
Speaker:Some weeks,
Speaker:some seasons of life might involve missions overseas to serve people.
Speaker:I'm really passionate about what,
Speaker:what is it Pencils of Promise is doing and what Charity
Speaker:Water is doing with making a really sincere impact and a
Speaker:very transparent impact in places around the world.
Speaker:I feel like we are stewards of what we've been given.
Speaker:I've been given time and money and a beautiful family and
Speaker:all of these things,
Speaker:but I feel like God has blessed me with these things,
Speaker:with the intention of me redistributing it in a way that
Speaker:would make him proud.
Speaker:So that's,
Speaker:that's my goal and that's my dream.
Speaker:That is a fabulous gift box,
Speaker:that's for sure.
Speaker:How can our listeners get in touch with you,
Speaker:Brendan? So the best way to get in touch with me
Speaker:is on Twitter.
Speaker:You can tweet me at Brendan and hopefully someday I'm super
Speaker:Hollywood and this becomes more difficult than it is right now.
Speaker:But I promise I'll,
Speaker:no matter when you listen to this podcast,
Speaker:I'll re respond to every single tweet that I get.
Speaker:It's just how I'm wired,
Speaker:it's just what I feel.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:if you're gonna be on social media,
Speaker:you need to be social and that's what Twitter's for.
Speaker:It's for talking.
Speaker:So you can always talk to me there.
Speaker:And then also,
Speaker:Sue, another great way for people to get in touch with
Speaker:me is just on my website,
Speaker:there's a contact form on there and there's all,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:I answer all of my emails personally,
Speaker:but if they go to my website,
Speaker:there's, you can go to brendan huffer.com/gift
Speaker:and I have a bunch of free resources that they can
Speaker:download there.
Speaker:Some of the stuff we talked about today,
Speaker:like Buffer and things like that to help them kind of
Speaker:bootstrap their business a little bit.
Speaker:If they'd rather spend more of their money on,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:important things for their business and not on social media tools
Speaker:or you know,
Speaker:creating art for their blogs or whatever,
Speaker:there's a bunch of free resources there that they can download.
Speaker:Well, Thank you for that.
Speaker:And if you didn't catch all of that in terms of
Speaker:the links and all,
Speaker:just jump over to gift biz on wrap.com
Speaker:and on the show notes page for Brendan,
Speaker:you'll find all of that information linked up.
Speaker:Thank you so much for the tremendously valuable gifts you've shared
Speaker:with us today.
Speaker:And Brendan,
Speaker:somehow I think that I will be coming to visit you
Speaker:just north of San Diego one day.
Speaker:I sure hope so.
Speaker:May your candle always burn bright.
Speaker:Take care.
Speaker:All right,
Speaker:thanks. Learn how to work smarter while developing and growing your
Speaker:business. Download our guide called 25 Free Tools to Enhance your
Speaker:business and life.
Speaker:It's our gift to you and available@giftbizunwrap.com
Speaker:slash tools.
Speaker:Thanks for listening and be sure to join us for the
