Few things bring me more joy than seeing someone shoot their shot, and that’s how today’s episode came about. I got an email from Brandon Fong saying he loves the show and wants to kick it with me in the Diner and I just had to say yes. Brandon is the host of the podcast 7-figure Millennials and wise beyond his years (which sounds like an old-person thing to say… but, well, he is).  He shared so many nuggets, including a favorite quote by Carl Jung that I loved: “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will control your life and you’ll call it fate.” We talked about business, personal growth, psychology, values, and more. He shared his strategy for goal setting and reflection that will have you reaching for your journal before the show is over.  

About the Guest: 

Brandon Fong is a husband to his highschool sweetheart, Leah, and is on a mission to create a more deeply connected world.

While growing up on the government-provided “free lunch program” at school, Brandon realized that his most valuable resource wasn’t money… it was his relationships. This is why, at his core, Brandon is a connector — of people, ideas, and resources.

Before age 26, Brandon leveraged his skill of connection to become a published author, run the marketing for an online education company with 250,000+ students, travel to 23 countries with his wife, get featured on TV, and launch his podcast, 7-Figure Millennials, to a top 2% global ranking in less than a year.

Every week, Brandon interviews elite performers with eclectic backgrounds to discover how he and his audience can prioritize their happiness, health, and relationships while making their entrepreneurial dreams a reality. Brandon is on his own path to build his first 7+ figure business while staying in alignment with the 7FM values and sharing what he learns along the way.

Past guests include Olympians, an illusionist, a decorated air fighter pilot, a hypnotist, former drug dealers turned (legal) millionaires, a Hollywood storytelling legend, NYT bestselling authors, main stage TED speakers, 7, 8, and 9+ figure entrepreneurs, and even a Shark from Shark Tank.

Brandon is also the creator of The Magic Connection Method™ — a system that helps Founders and CEOs to leverage a podcast to build real relationships with dream clients and strategic partners that lead to more profits and greater impact.

He loves having new and incredible experiences with Leah, enjoying a good batch of homemade kombucha, and playing Spikeball.

Connect and learn more:

Site: https://7figuremillennials.com/about

Podcast: https://link.chtbl.com/7fm

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandonsfong/

About the Host: 

Friends! Here's a somewhat stuffy bio of me:  

I am an author, professional speaker, coach, host, and entrepreneur. My first book, Leading Imperfectly: The value of being authentic for leaders, professionals, and human beings, is available wherever people buy books. I speak internationally to willing and unwilling attendees about authenticity, vulnerability, and leadership. My clients include American Express, General Electric (GE), Accenture, Yale University, The Ohio State University, and many others. As a speaker, I am doing the two things I loves the most: making people think and making people laugh! 

I host my own events multiple times a year. They are 2-day events called Living Imperfectly Live (and sometimes they are 1-day virtual events). They are a space where humans from every walk of life can come together to be part of a community on the pursuit of badassery. The goal is to help attendees start living the life we say we want to live.

Alas, you're here because of an idea I had a number of years ago and didn't think I was good enough to pull it off. I finally acted on it and alas Diner Talks with James was born! As you can see from what I do in my professional life, Diner Talks is alligned with everything I believe in and teach.  If this wasn't dry enough, and you would like to know more info about my speaking, events, or coaching feel free to check out my website: JamesTRobo.com.

Let’s Be Friends on Social Media!

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jamestrobo

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jamestrobo

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesrobilotta/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/JamesRobilottaCSP

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/JamesTRobo

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Welcome to Diner Talks with James, slide into the booth and let's have conversations we never want to end with friends. We never want to leave over food we probably shouldn't be eating

my friends what's going on? Welcome to another episode of diner talks with James. I'm James and I'm pumped to be here, kicking it with you all in the diner. Y'all hope you're having a great day hope everything is going well for you. I hope you're excited to eat a little bit of food, have a little conversation and get curious together. I'm excited because speaking of getting curious, I have never met my guest before I talked to about three minutes ago, for the first time we have emailed and I love and respect when people just shoot their shot. And this dude just bombarded into my email inbox. They just sent me one email and and said, Hey, I want to be on your show. I like what you're doing. And I say, hey, good enough. Let's go. So that's pretty much what happened. I did very little research on him on the front end. Because I'm just excited to talk to somebody new, you know, you go, you'll get to hang out with me and some good friends of mine on the show now, but I think it's also fun to just flex our curiosity and have an open mind and also applaud people who shoot their shot. So let me tell you about my guy coming out here in just a hot second. His name is Brandon Fong. He's a husband to his high school sweetheart. Insert the all sound right now. Her name is Leah and is on Brandon is on a mission to create a more deeply connected world. While growing up on government provided free lunch program at school. Brandon realized that his most valuable resource wasn't money. It was his relationships. That is why at his core Brandon is a connector of people, ideas and resources. He's got an incredible podcast. It's in the top 2% of podcasts, much like the inner talks with James. It's called seven figure millennials. And he is doing incredible work on there interviewing elite performers with eclectic backgrounds, people like Olympians and illusionist decorated air fighter pilots, hypnotist, and a whole bunch of other cool individuals on his podcast, entrepreneurs that are making seven, eight, and even nine figure salaries. Pretty impressive. So I'm really excited to get to know what he knows and what he has learned from some of these folks, and also hear about his magic connection method system. So I'm excited for you to hang out looks like based on his bio, he's gonna pull up with a come Bucha right now and later, we're gonna play a little spike ball. I'm down for it all y'all and I'm down to meet Brandon. I'm excited for you to meet him right now. Let's bring him out. Brandon Fong.

Man. What an introduction. Super excited to be here, James and yeah, we'll have to play some Spikeball with Ken Bucha it'll be a first for me as well. So I don't know if that's something that you're down for. But I'm down for trying it.

I'm sure and I'm I'll figure it out for sure. I'll figure it out. Spikeball, Spikeball, a lovely Shark Tank game that really blew the heck up.

Yeah, I found out about it just two years ago, and I played for the first time and I just fell in love. So I'm very quick to become obsessed with things. My wife made fun of me because a few days after I played it, I was literally like YouTubing Spikeball strategies and taking notes and she's like, Who the hell is this guy she like sent a Snapchat to her friend like, Look at this dude, taking notes on how to surf Spikeball and that kind of stuff. But yeah, a lot of fun. And I play once or twice a week with some good buddy. So it's a good time.

That's amazing. You're even repping the Spikeball yellow right now. T shirt on. Gotta stay on brand out here, Brandon. I like it. Brother, I'm pumped to meet you. Thank you so much for reaching out. Thank you for shooting your shot. Why not? And I know I'm not exactly some high level crazy podcast, but I still appreciate you reaching out wanting to be on the show, man. It means it means a lot to me that you took interest and wanted to be a part of it.

Dude, I am so excited because I've listened to a bunch of episodes and I love your style. Like seriously, I have a lot to learn from you. So I'm excited to go back and forth because like I love the way how you make guests so comfortable obviously comes from some of your improv background tying in some stuff. I took an improv class recently. So I'm here to have a good time and learn from you as well man.

Yeah, hell yeah. Brother. You did. You said you took an improv. You said he went to a comedy sports and took some improv stuff there. Improv is one of those things that I believe everybody needs to take a class and it makes us better communicators. Really. And by better communicators What I mean is better listeners. Tom, it also makes us more supportive. We, we celebrate the ideas we create together instead of just individual ideas. And it's just a great way to approach life. And I'm obviously wildly biased because I've been doing it since 2004. But you just took your first class, are you drinking the Kool Aid Brandon,

I am drinking the Kool Aid I had? Well, first of all, it was a great opportunity to bond with my wife, like we wanted a cool activity to do and meet some new people and completely step out of our comfort zones. It was so cool seeing Lea warm up to it, because because the show ended with a showcase at the end, obviously, you take the class and leaves like, I'm not inviting anyone, no one is ever going to find out about this. And then by the by the end of the week, like I think she invited like 25 people or some crazy shit like that. We had like, an incredible time. And it's been, it's been cool to see it apply. And I want to continue to do classes, but just the, like you said the listening it requires and the presence it requires and the the Yes, ending and not not ending anything. It's just been a really cool thing that I think is impacted me in many ways. And I'm still seeing the benefits of it. So I I'm excited to see a little bit too about how you've implemented that in other areas of your life for somebody that's been doing it for over 16 years.

Yeah. Hell yeah, dude. Hell yeah, that's first of all, by Lovely. Going from, uh, no one ever will see this, this will be buried in the catacombs. Exactly. 230 people are coming out, and we're gonna have a barbecue afterwards. Yeah. That's an amazing transition. And, yeah, and I, I agree with you, man. I think you know, the philosophy of Yes. And is a philosophy, especially as you do a lot of work with entrepreneurs, and, and entrepreneurs and really business owners, leaders. And when they adapt a yes, and mindset, it keeps the blinders off to you know, keeps the blinders that would halt innovation, halt opportunity, halt. Asking questions, as opposed to just needing to know answers now. And, and so it is it's a cool mindset for people to adapt as they're growing something right, being open to new ideas. Now, I mean, it's not to say that we need to lose focus, right? Like every scene that you came into, in an improv scene, it needs to have direction that needs to have direction, but it also needs to be fluid. Now, um, and so it's just I don't know, I think when we apply that rule of Yes. And to difficult situations, hard conversations or decision making, it kind of turns us into like, Neo from the Matrix where we're like, doing that crazy spin thing away from the bullshit and the bullets. And right it just kind of lets it slows everything down. And allows us to take it one by one each opportunity by each opportunity figure out if it's right for us. So I think yeah, I agree with you, brother.

It's good. It keeps you on your toes. i We did I don't know if you did a game like this, we played a game called Countdown, where you basically you do a scene in two minutes. And then they make you repeat the same scene in one minute. And then you have to repeat the whole scene in 30 seconds then in seconds. And that came across in our showcase. And it's like it's it's a it was such a great mindfulness presence thing because it's like you don't know where your partners are going to talk to you. So like, we ended up doing this hilarious scene about an award winning beef jerky recipe and we had to go to the we had we had to go to the top of a mountain infested with ogres to claim the beef jerky recipe and bring up a it's just like what like there's no way that that could ever come up if it weren't for just people being playful and and building off of each other. And I love the parallels to like like you just said with podcasting, I'd love to hear about how you've been able to kind of as you interview more people, I feel like it gives you more yes anding material, like like as you interview people like you can build on things in new ways. Like the deeper and more curious you are. I know you have lots of curiosity too. So I've just noticed that as a parallel is like my yes anding ability increases with every guest that I get a chance to interact with.

Yeah, brother. I love that. That's amazing. Yeah, it's cool the way it shows up in so many of these different facets. And that scene sounds like it was incredible. Improv is one of those things where it's like, you really had to be there. But I'm gonna try to describe it to you. I knew it was that absurd, right, exactly. Speaking of beef jerky brother, you know, we're in the diner. And one question I always love to say Brandon is if we were if we were able to meet. I know you're down in Wisconsin right now. I don't know if that's where you're born and raised. But we'll get to that. But you know, if we were able to meet up and have a late night conversation, those conversations that are that are with the friends we never want to leave over the food we shouldn't be eating what what is your favorite late night? guilty eating pleasure?

I don't know if I thought long and hard about this. I was like, maybe I'll pull up maybe. Let me go pull up a menu and see what I would actually order because I'm like, I don't know what my gut would be. But here's where I'm at right now. I'll tell you where I'm at right now. I would love a BLT, a BLT or a burger. I put lots of I put food on my ketchup. So so so so so I had to catch up with some fries would be great too.

Yes, yeah, for sure. BLT with that thick cut bacon, right.

Oh, crispy. That's my main. That's the main criteria. I don't like the bacon that's still got like all the little fat on it. It needs to be kinda like crunchy and all that good stuff. That's the criteria of a good BLT for me.

Yeah, got it. Got it. Yeah, for sure. You gotta have a little texture in the middle there. Yeah, I appreciate that. And I love the what say the phrase again, with about the ketchup your foods, like,

put some food on my ketchup, put some food on my ketchup.

That reminds me of my Uncle Tom. Whenever we would go and this is a practice that I now practice whenever you go to back when fast food restaurants used to give out trays and you would take the tray away? I would you know, they had those little dinky like paper. Oh, catch up cups. And I'm like, What am I supposed to do with this, so I wouldn't use that I would just literally just squirt a puddle of ketchup on the tray. On the paper. I'm

gonna say that's gross, man. That wasn't washing that was washed the day the restaurant opened

the paper on the tray. I'm still somewhat classy, Brandon. But yeah, so I also I also love some good catch up and a great burger.

The other secret I'll let me add this. So there's two ways you can do this from my as my experience as a ketchup fiend, one, you can use a lid from a cup. So instead of instead of that, that was one that I use. Or you can take those dinky little paper things and you can kind of unfold the top of it. And then instead of it becoming a little cup, it becomes more of a like a paper disc and that provides more surface surface area. So the next time you're looking if you if you don't want to put it on your tray or if they didn't give you things There you go. You have another strategy.

If y'all thought you are coming to the diner today and not getting pro tips from Brandon Fon you lost your damn mind. Okay, this

game changer right there just changed lives.

I love it, brother. So I know you live just outside of Milwaukee right now. Are you born and raised in Wisconsin?

I am. Yeah, my parents live 10 minutes away from where we're at right now my in laws are 15 minutes away. And so went to school at University of Wisconsin Whitewater about 45 minutes away and spent a full year traveling though. So we've been to 23 countries. So I've been all over the place but loved it. That family is very important to us. So it's really cool to spend some time with the people that we love.

That's a beautiful brother. That's beautiful. And if you don't mind me asking, what is your what's your background? What's your ethnic makeup?

Okay, so I took a 23 and me, so I could give you like the specific actually, I'm not I'm gonna remember the specific examples, but I'm like, like, slightly under 50% Chinese and then I got some Slovenian and German and a strange kind of mix there. So I'm a mutt, um, for sure.

That's incredible. Is the is the Chinese from one of your parents in particular?

Yeah. So my dad. And they might it's funny, because as a podcaster, I had a here's a here's a fun thing for other people to do, I would encourage people to do this is interview your grandparents or your parents, if they're still alive. I did it not to do it to publish it on my show. But I'm like, I just want to know where the hell I came from, you know, so I sat down with my grandma. So I've my grandma's still alive. on my mom's side, my grandpa passed on that side, and my grandpa, in my, my, she got my grandmother by birth, because my grandmother that that made no sense. I won't get into my family tree here. But basically, I interviewed both sides. And it was really cool. But my grandpa came from a place called Tai Shan. And they they're kind of like the hillbillies of China. So like, that was kind of interesting to learn a little bit about that background, but I it was a fun exercise. I would encourage anybody, if you want to document for future generations, I just thought it'd be super cool. If I could listen to my dad having a conversation with his My great grandpa, you know, so I decided to do that. So we encourage anybody to do that. If you have an opportunity to,

man, that's a beautiful idea. That's an absolutely beautiful idea. I've actually thought about I want to have my parents on the podcast. They just don't have the technology. So I gotta bring it I gotta fly to New York and handle it that way. I'll get it done for sure. But I think just in general, recording, recording some of those words to have is incredible. And yes, on top of that is is story building for ourselves, right? What's the what's the foundation? Where do we come from? And so, yeah, but what a cool idea, man, the good.

I was gonna say I interviewed someone recently on my show. His name is Jorge Contreras. There's usually some of my Spanish there but like he he grew up. He describes it as like a fish doesn't know what swimming in water. His water, quote, unquote, was drugs. And he started drug dealing. When he was seven years old. He helped smuggle people across the border when he was 10. You know, just didn't even know what it was going on. And he calls it ancestral karma, because it's like his dad didn't know any better. His grandpa didn't know any better. And it's like when you don't realize the water you're swimming in. Sometimes it's super valuable to unpeel that onion, but you have to feel just become consciously aware of it. One of the quotes that comes up on my show all the time is until you make the unconscious conscious, it will control your life and you will call it fate. And that's I know, I've just dropped some some philosophy as it were, boom, here we are, and now we're talking about, but but um, I think it's so true, because it's like, we all have these unconscious narratives that are hanging around in the back of our head that we don't know if we're reenacting it, and it may have been passed on to us from previous generations. And until you do that work, it's really hard to figure out what's yours, the way that Jorge described it as like, iOS on your iPhone, you know, it's like, like, some, maybe your iPhone is, you're still running on the version of iOS from when the iPhone came out, he's like, because that's the programming that you had. So you have to be conscious about making those upgrades and seeing what beliefs you want to keep what you want to get rid of. But I think that having that insight is really valuable, no matter how you look at it.

Yeah, can you can you drop that quote for me one more time, brother. Yeah, that was that was a little it was it was a little deep, so deep, I need to hear twice. You know what I mean? Once you gotta chew on for a minute,

yeah, it took me a minute to it took me a minute to digest it. And now that i It's like my favorite quote, but until you make the unconscious, conscious, it will control your life. And you we'll call it fate, let's call young. So I just think that, you know, it's just a pattern that I've seen, in interviewing the people that have come on my show, it's like, zero to seven are those formative formative years, or maybe zero to eight, it depends on who you're who you're talking to. But like, those early imprints that we have, are just so deeply grounded in what we do. And like, I don't know, if you're familiar with like, there's like a four stages of learning. But like the one of the one of the I won't go into it, I can't if you want me to you, but like one of the earliest stages of learning is like unconscious incompetence, which means you don't even realize what there is to know because you don't even know about it, right? And like, so if, unless you've taken the time to like, at least explore that or talk to your parents or figure out what some of those beliefs are, you can't step to the next stage of learning, which is conscious incompetence, where it's like you have to, it's like the kid just kind of like barely being able to tie a shoe. But like he's like, now he's aware that you can tie your shoe. So it's like it's making that that step. So yeah, anyways, you sent me off on a cool, I don't know how I ended up there.

I'm happy wherever we are. I'm happy we're here. You know, it's funny as a as a new parent, you know, I have a 1617 month year old math is hard. And month year old, ya know, for sure. Fresh, fresh out here.

The fresh out the oven. Exactly.

Is it's interesting to start to watch some of those synapses. Connext. Yeah, connect and just, you know, he's learning little words, or you're repeating these repeating just little things here and there. And is he doesn't know why he's doing it yet. Right? Or anything like that. But it's just, it's it's really cool to watch some of those connections start to happen and just watch him light up or get really frustrated. Whatever, right? Like he's the whole the whole range of emotions are happening in the world, a lot of household at any moment. Now. And yeah, it's it's interesting, and I love what you said. Also, in going back to some of those conversations that you've had, and some of the theories you've been talking about, you know that zero through eight is such a powerful time in our lives. And in you know, in your intro, we talked about how I know that you grew up in the free lunch program at school, there's something you talk very openly about on seven figure millennials.com your website and stuff like that, and but tell me I'd love to hear from your own words. Brother. Tell me about you know what, what was young Brandon? Like? What what? Tell me about your youth a little bit?

Yeah, well, zero to eight, I don't so if I were to own a restaurant, I'd be like a fifth generation restaurant owner or something. So like, that was a tiny tiny I'm gonna go all over here but I'll promise I'll get I'll get back to where we go in my interview. Like when I interviewed my dad and found out about like a little bit about my dad's history. It's like he grew up in a restaurant they forgot about his ninth birthday because they opened the restaurant when he was nine years old. And so when I was growing up my youth was I was watching my dad grow his restaurant I was a little kid behind the counter that was not supposed to be up in front of the guests and that kind of stuff so it's like put me in the back with a VHS we used to watch some some red Ninja Turtles you know like the action like the the Ninja Turtles that were in the live action ones so anyways, that's what we did in the back there but that was what I did growing up and then I guess I didn't really realize that we didn't have like financial resources until around like middle school that was kind of like when it set in. Because it's like we went to a relatively wealthy school districts. My parents opened enrolled me technically we wouldn't we wouldn't have gone there but like the school district I ended up going to was one of the wealthiest school districts one of the wealthiest zip codes around. And so we weren't like like this is not like we weren't in PA hurdy like it wasn't like, like, scrapping for food and that kind of stuff. But yeah, we were on government help and that kind of stuff. And it was I was one of the few kids in that school that that was on that free lunch program. And so the story that I tell on my site, it's like, I would go through the lunch line. And that would be my least favorite part of the entire day. Because when I would go through, at least when I went to school, there's like these little digital, like, place where you enter in your student ID, and I'd be sitting in waiting in line, and my heart would get beating faster and faster and faster, because like, one friend would go through and they type in their ID, and it would show $5. And the next one would be the he would get a few extra desserts, so it'd be $7. And then I type in my ID 156403, we'll never forget it. And up on the screen, it would show $0.00 Free Lunch Program reduced or whatever the heck it said, and my name next to it. And so I came up with all these creative ways of like, distracting my friends from seeing this seeing that screen. So there was the there was the hide in the bathroom strategy, which was like, you know, I waited for all my friends to go through the lunch line first. And then I would go through when there was no one left in the line. And then I wouldn't I wouldn't do that, or there was the, let me distract you and strike up a conversation, right when it's about my time to type in the ID number. And then you just have this really, you know, so it was embarrassing, but I'm very grateful for that. And I really am. And this comes from me doing lots of processing on my past, but I honest to God wouldn't change anything. And I have the world's most incredible parents like, like, the best parents ever. And they shouldn't be some incredible things. And I can go into all that kind of stuff. But that was a little bit about that particular instance, but I had a great childhood, I had a mom that that raised my brother and I we were always doing really fun stuff in the summertime, I got to watch my parents work on growing a business. So like, that's where I kind of got some of the earlier entrepreneurial drive is like, I feel like, as a kid, I took the responsibility to want to help my parents grow their business is like a 10 year old because it's like, I wanted to support that. And maybe that's kind of where I put some of the weight on myself. So anyways, I'll shut up for a little bit. But that's a little bit. That's a little bit about the earlier years.

Yeah, brother, thanks for sharing that story. And I love I love hearing it, just those formative you talked about those interests when you were talking about like the zero through eight years. When I think about the formative years, I guess. I don't consciously know what I learned and held on to from zero to eight. But you know, there's a lot riding but what the things that I consciously know and hold on to are the things that happened after that from like, 10 to 18. Right. As far as like those middle school years. Now, those high school years, where a lot of insecurities came up, I started to write stories about myself, and, and those and those kinds of moments. And so I appreciate you bringing it to middle school in that way. Does that being a very, very memorable moment for you?

Have you have you? Like, do you still do you happen to have like some of your grade school yearbooks, or like access to any of those things? Or no,

I don't, I might, I could talk to my mom's about it. See,

I'd be curious, like I'd like like to see because you might not remember them. But like, if you just did a little bit of digging, like if you remember the names of your your teachers, your first grade teacher second grade, like you'd be surprised, like, if you start just journaling, like this is something that happened in first grade. This is something that happened in second grade, like you like when I started doing that. It was like, Oh, here's this bundle of stuff that I didn't even realize was there. But because like what are you thinking about your second grade classroom outside of like the really random things, but I found that if I had like a focus time to examine that stuff, I found some really interesting things that, that I've seen recurring patterns in my life now. So interesting thing for you to explore. Maybe if you haven't, one

thing that did happen in relation to that is my parents moved out of the house that I grew up in, right. So they they were in that house for 3538. Somewhere in there years now. And and so that's the house that I literally moved, we moved in a month after I was born. And so is it was emotional moment of taking everything out of that house and seeing it empty and being like wow, but then knowing that another family will come in their memories blue made knob turns out, they just did. Somebody flipped it six months later, but that's fine. That happens too. But still, one thing that we found during all that one thing we found were were my old report cards from elementary school. And so reading some of the teacher feedback, you definitely do see some of those patterns for sure. I'm still dashingly witty, Brandon is,

of course. What stuck out to you. Is there something that stuck out to you that you're like, wow, that like I didn't even didn't even realize that I was like that or I had that pattern. Was there something that stuck out to you?

No, I think it was more validating than and then as far as like, Wow, that's crazy, right? Like there are things that I remember as far as like being the kid who talked a lot being the kid who's always making the jokes even when it wasn't time to make the joke. oaks. And but also, I guess some some interesting things were like he's very helpful. He's very kind, right like yes, yes, he's a he's a wise ass but he's not an ill spirited, you know pain in the ass. He just the kid just likes himself a joke and he knows he's funny now. And so. So I think some of those kinds of things have just the foundations of being because some of that, I don't want to say it surprised me but it's just kind of cool to read about you at that age of like, you could tell this kid's good a good kid, right? He's a nice young boy.

Right? Well, look, here you are, man, like you found a way to bring that back into your life. And I think that that's the greatest thing that we're all looking for is alignment, right? Like, it's like you are. I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but you doing this podcast, you doing improv you getting to speak on stages, you found a way to be in alignment with that kid that was always, you know, wanting to express himself that way. And I think that that's really where lots of happiness and fulfillment lies is like when you are misaligned with who you were. That's like where you're kind of like, man, what the heck. So like, I'm deeply introspective. It's like I always do journaling on this kind of stuff. But I just like just reflecting that back at you. I think that's really cool that you saw that early stuff. And you have been able to create a life where you're, you've leveraged some of those early seeds of genius, quote, unquote, that you had as a kid, that's awesome.

We out here, brother, certainly trying and I appreciate them. And it's a cool, it is a cool connection. And I appreciate you make them reflect making me reflect in that way. That's a beautiful thing to do. Is it's it's interesting hearing the tales of when you were younger, how you know you were working in the restaurant, you're watching your dad build this business, and mom was at home taking care of you and your brother, being a badass mom. And it is. I love I love that. Obviously, you drew that connection as an introspective man. And also the dots aren't that far apart of I watched my dad being an entrepreneur. And so entrepreneurship is fascinating to me. But growing up, you know, growing up, you weren't like I can't wait to start a podcast and talk to entrepreneurs and stuff like that, right? Like, that's not the dream of a of a 12 year old or whatnot. What did you want to be when you grew up when you were younger?

Well, it's funny you say that because like, here's my one of my memories, very specifically, I'll say third or fourth. Here. I say very specifically. And I'm like third or fourth grade. So I don't know. But the the I used to love talking to one of the lunch supervisors, her name was Mrs. Dunn. And I just like, I don't know what it was. But I always loved having adult conversations, quote, unquote, adult conversations, like they were always more interesting to me than the kid conversations. So like, all my friends would be playing kickball. And I'd be talking to Mrs. Dunn or my parents kind of had a revolving door at our house because it like they were growing a business and they had lots of other people that were around. And it's like, I love those conversations. Like I love talking to them, and having those kinds of things. So like, it's funny that you say, like, reflecting back on that. It's like, I like having cool conversations like this sitting at a diner with you like these. This is the thing that I've always lived for, you know, and so growing up like I think I always I don't I can't remember when I didn't ever want to be an entrepreneur or like start something of my own. I think it was just because it was so engrained I didn't know anything else. But my first business venture was a rock stand. Like all my all my other you know, it's like kids do lemonade stands or whatever my neighbor Jimmy and I, we had a I don't know if you remember these James or if you ever saw one, but it was like it was like a column rock tumblers. It was like you put in these like rocks and like it like there was some polish or whatever. And it kind of like went over and over and it made this terrible grinding noise and it had to go on for several hours. But at the end, you got these kind of like Polish rocks. And so we had a rock stand. And that was I think I had this picture my mom sent. Like I found it a while ago, but it's like Brandon's first. $1.25 Maybe my mom bought the rock? I don't even know. But yeah, I think I think I've always I've always wanted to create and be a creator and do cool things in the world. And so I think that is what I wanted to be was when I was when I grew up.

Yeah. Yeah, that's beautiful. That's so cool as a rock stand like it brother just out here. I'm trying to think of some geology puns right here, but the ones I'm thinking of are too nice. Now that's a rock poem case. Really, it's a deep cut for a geology show. Talking about nice g n. SS Nice. So, but either way, man that's a that's amazing. And I love that you're first and you're like STDs lemonade fools, but like what I know is differentiation sells and so I'm opening up another lemonade stand right like we got too many. Right? Exactly. That's amazing. So so at that early at that early rage when you didn't know that Had you wanted to create something that you could call your own, and you wanted to be able to stand on your own two feet, on your own ideas, not necessarily somebody else's. Now, it is. We talked about that being a really fascinating time of our lives where you're self conscious about going through the lunch stand the lunch in the cafeteria. And so there's some self consciousness there. But at the same time, you're a deeply introspective and observant, observant child at that time. You know, I'm wondering, when you started decided to go to college, like, you know, what did you What did you decide to study? And you know, what were what were some of the things that were going on in your brain in that time that were that were transformative. You know, I you met you met your high school sweetheart in that moment, you know, those kinds of things?

Yeah. So, ironically, University of Wisconsin Whitewater had a entrepreneurship program. So that is literally what I decided to major in was they had an entrepreneurship, that's incredible, which is kind of I don't know, it's kind of hilarious looking at it's like, I mean, yeah, you could study that theory and stuff like that. But like, I was not, I learned so much from Whitewater, but I was learning so much more from my laptop in the back of the classroom, if I'm being completely honest, because I was just like learning other stuff. But I think it was more about the other kinds of people that would enroll in the entrepreneurship program like that, like that was what was really valuable. But yeah, I started with entrepreneurship, I realized I had enough carryover to add on marketing. So I double majored in entrepreneurship and marketing with a minor in Spanish. Because I was able to complete lots of my Spanish degree actually, in high school, my mom was a Spanish teacher. So like, my, I actually grew up speaking Spanish. And my mom used to speak Spanish to me. And so that was that was pretty cool there. But yeah, I think what was cool about my college degree, though, was I always viewed leveraging opportunities, non traditionally, like I used to, I came up with this concept in high school, after a mentor kind of helped me out. But I call it the cute student card. Because like if you can show that you're an ambitious young student, what CEO what high level person doesn't want to help out a quote unquote, cute student, you know, like, and especially if you're being grateful, you're reaching out, and then you're showing that you're implementing what they're talking about. That's how I was able to start getting connected to really high level people starting at age 16, actually, before college when my mentor helped me out with it. And I can I can dive into that if you want. But but that was really about my college experience was figuring out ways to leverage my experience non traditionally, I ended up writing a book when I was 20 years old, using using some of the techniques. I got an endorsement from Kevin Harrington from Shark Tank, who ended up coming on my show as a podcast guest later on, which was kind of cool how that tied full circle, I also got a review from Aaron Kennedy, one of the founder of noodles and company. So like, that was kind of cool. Like, I was able to just kind of pull this stuff off. And I studied abroad twice in college. So like, like, lots of those things. Were really cool. And I had to figure out because, you know, financially, it was, it was, you know, I had to figure it out. So like I had to figure out how to pay for scholarships. So like all those like really random things in college were the most valuable for me, it was like having to figure out how to pay for scholarships, how to, you know, I paid for most of my studying abroad using scholarships, I worked on a startup company that epically failed in college, I wrote a book, so I was just experimenting with a bunch of stuff. And I think all that non traditional approach of leveraging the experience was really what made it unique for me. Yeah.

You're brand new, your, your charisma, your poise. Your your drive is wildly palpable. I mean, it's really it's it's contagious. It's really cool to listen. It's also there are also points where I'm sure I'm sure you get this a lot where a lot of people listen to you and be like, I was picking my nose, my senior year of high school, like that's, like my biggest accomplishment was like being able to like burp the alphabet. You know what I mean? Like, like this as far as like, I'm sure that you and if you don't let me know, but I'm sure that you get a lot that now that your your confidence and your drive, and your ability to cope with failure. came a lot earlier for you than many others. Is that something that you hear a lot?

Yeah, thank you so much. That really means a lot but yeah, I haven't heard that. And it's, it's a double it's kind of a weird thing. It's kind of it creates lots of loneliness. You know, it's kind of a weird thing to say, but if I reflected on this, too, that I had a coaching session with someone that I paid a relationship coach and this kind of came up as a thing. It's like I've always felt kind of like a little bit like an alien. Like seriously like I was really popular in high school. I was I was I mean I was on homecoming court or whatever the hell the main the main popularity, I was voted most likely to rule the world. That was that was that was my superlative group. Brilliant. Well, it wasn't good superlative but I mean, like, I never felt like I could actually connect with someone like because I was always He's really interested in all this, like personal growth, self development, like reading books when I was 12 years old. And so like, while I could connect with people, I still felt like nobody really fully understood me. And I still go through some of that today. And obviously, I found a way to connect with some really high level people on the on the show. But that's been kind of the the the other side to that is, but yeah, I mean, to answer your question, it's it I always have felt the people I relate to the most and still, to this day, are double or triple my age. I'm 26. Now and it's like I like I, I relate a lot more when people that are in their 40s 50s 60s or older, you know, it's just because it's like, I don't know if I'm just an old man, but it is.

Yeah, but I mean, fortunately, you're still at, you're still in your youth, you're still being youthful, you're playing spike ball, right? It's not like you're sitting around with a tweet a tweed coat with arm patches holding the bubble pipe while we have this conversation in your leatherback chair. Right, like, so. But, you know, I want to I want to go in there because there was something really powerful. You said, you mentioned a word called lonely. Nam and loneliness has come up a lot lately, especially in the media with mental health. And just just a lot of things that we are now more connected than we've ever been before. But we're also more lonely than we've ever been before as a society. And and so I don't I don't skip over strong words like that. Oh, yeah. And and so that's what I was curious about is, you know, there's always there's always a dark side of like, you know, I'm this confident, but I'm this confident, because I'm trying to maybe overcome this or I'm trying to, you know, push down this narrative, or I'm trying to, you know, whatever insecurity sometimes that we have about ourselves, you know, that's where that's why when competence becomes arrogance, that's specifically where we're like, okay, what are you overcompensating for? I do not hear arrogance at all. And so please don't hear that. Brandon here. cool, calm, collected. Bright, man, now and so. But I'm wondering, you know, what are some of those stories that you tell yourself on those days where you are a little bit stuck?

Well, here's, here's where it came from. And like, I'm an open book, and I'm like, I know, you talked about authenticity and vulnerability, but like, let me just share, and I'll restrict some details on that kind of stuff. But like, I've, I've had to let go of some friendships recently. And like, that's part of where I feel like some of the loneliness comes from is because like, I, the people that I thought I was close with, in college, like, I realized that lots of my values still weren't aligned with them. Like, like, for example, I had one friend that, that that he, I didn't, I didn't appreciate the way that he treated women, like he was he was a really, really good looking dude. And so I made some comment with him. I was like, Hey, man, like, want to have a heart to heart and just let you know, like, I just don't. My perspective. And obviously, it's you like you, you do you but like, my perspective is, I feel like, some of the way that you do this is isn't in something that I value as a friend, I just want to give you that honest feedback. So we had that conversation. And then for my bachelor party, he took me to a strip club. And I was like, Dude, I that was not where I wanted to end up. Like I literally told you, like, I'm not I don't want to go to a strip club. But I ended up at a strip club and like, so there are a few of those a few of those friendships where I had to let go of and like and like those were people that were I was close with in college and like, it was it was cool, but like, I think that's lots of where I'm rebuilding. I'm learning some of those lessons early, I realized I'm learning them early, but like I'm very clear on my value set. And so like I had to let some of those relationships go and so now it's just been a matter of filling up some of that that that that hole that was left you know, obviously once friendships are gone like that, but yeah, that's that's a little bit of where the most recent example of why it's why it's come up.

Yeah. Yeah, for sure. And it's tough but during that process, it's not just like I'm gonna hold my values y'all are out of here. That's not just a flip of a switch. That is that is a typically a journey and feel free to plug in your details in this if I if I get any of them wrong now but like typically that's a journey of like, is it me? Is it then is this like what like, you know, do I want to am I am I what matters Would I rather be respected or would I rather be liked ideally both but you know, if I had to choose which one would I choose? Now um, and and so to hear you grappling with that with some really close friends that's powerful. You know, my a few months before our wedding, my wife Tina demoted her best man to just a regular regular groomsmen and probably would have demoted him further, but I think it just felt weird, but like, you know, because he just wasn't showing up the way that a best friend should nominate was really kind of shitting the bed in a lot of ways. And it's it sucks.

Yeah, it does suck. And I had, I had to see that it was more than one that happened to be at one time because like, I had another friend that was on my party and like he she showed up late for the wedding told me the day before that he had to leave in the middle of the ceremony. And like, when it came time for dinner, he didn't even sit with us. And I'm like, dude, like, I wanted you to be I invited you to be standing next to me on one of the most important days of my life. And like, you're just gonna tell me that some business deals more important than not even sit with us on the day of my wedding. Like, I can't be treated like that, like, I'm sorry, dude. But like it like we just just, you know, so it's like, exactly what Tina went through, you know, it's just like, there are these there are these things, these lessons you have to learn? And yeah, it's rough. But the rough conversations is really where you learn more about yourself. So I'm always grateful for those opportunities to figure out a little bit more about myself and know how to how to operate in this world.

Yeah, and I think a lot of times, Brandon, I'm sorry, that you went through that just sucks. You know, we just want to believe the best and our friends. Yeah, I mean, it's it sucks when they force us to rewrite a new story now. But, you know, and as I listened to you, I am impressed by your confidence. But I wonder if it's not confidence that I'm impressed about if I go deeper, I think maybe what I'm impressed by is your alignment, your ability to be, to your best of your knowledge, from what you've seen, the individuals you've talked to, and those that have impacted you and the life decisions you've made, and the and the growth that you've experienced, the knowledge you've acquired, you've come up with this set of values, and, and to be not necessarily uncompromising, but a little definitely unwavering on those values. At at this point is really cool. It's not like you're a 14 year old, right? But, but still, like in your mid 20s, because I believe that's where you are, Greg, you're 2627 2626. Yeah. Right, to to be this solid, that teaches me a lot about the quality of upbringing you had, right? The fact that you were raised around values, that values meant something to you, right, we're going to travel and see our family, we're going to spend time we're going to connect, we're going to, you know, do what's right for the business, you know, those kinds of things. Now, but, but then also developing them yourself. To find that sort of values alignment is something that many people chase for a very long time. And it is something that is very intimidating to people who don't have alignment. Right? I often consider now, you know, we as human beings are kind of like brick pillars where every single brick is different experiences that we've had. And it is our it is our values, it is our mission, it is our that kind of chutzpah inside of us, that is the mortar that holds those bricks together. Because without that, without those values without those morals, we're just a loose pile of manipulable bricks. But when we see someone being able to stand tall and in their strength, that lets me know that that mortar has dried a little bit more. Right? It's not to say that you are not manipulative, or that you're not you're not hitting home runs every single time you're faced with a moral situation. I don't want to put you up on some crazy pedestal right now. But But yeah, it's just it's just really cool to see and be present with you as as we read each other for the first time. And I'm wondering if you could speak to that process, not necessarily exactly where you are now, but that process of developing some of those morals and some of those values?

Well, great, that's fantastic question. And this is why I was so excited about this, I knew this would be an interview that I would never I can't give it James is the only person in the world that can pull in an interview like this. So this is really cool. Because like, well, listen, the last 30 interviews that I've done, it's pretty much the same damn interview, you can listen to last one I did. And you'll listen to all 30 of them. So this is this is completely fresh here. But so there's this process I've refined over the years. So I've been journaling since I was maybe 14 or 15. Not consistently, I'd say I consistently started journaling when I was a freshman in college. So it's been it's been a few years and my process has evolved over the years. And I think part of the way that I've been able to come up with my values and refine my values is that journaling process? So like right now, the way I work is I work in two week Sprint's so like I'm very clear about the work that I want to get done in two weeks and what I'm focused on, but it's funny because it's like I'll try to make this actionable and hopefully people can I can answer your question at the same time but like, I think by having really short intervals in which you are attempting at doing something, figuring out what's worked and what hasn't worked. It creates a an opportunity every single day for you to reflect on what's been going on. And if you have a process Like the one that I've refined over the years, that works for me, like I found lots of other stuffs stuff. And like, I've kind of just picked what works for me. And I don't ever really share this. But like, for me, it's like, it's like two weeks at a time, I set something that I want to do. And then at the end of every two weeks, I review like, what works? Or what what, what are the wins? What went, well, what didn't go well, and what do I want to plan moving forward. So that's two weeks. And then on a daily basis, I journal on what happened during that day, I don't usually go as in depth. But then at the end of the month, I do a month review of kind of like a cover letter of like the main things that have happened. And then at the end of the year, I do a I can read a year summary. And the cool thing is, I know probably didn't teach that very clearly. But now that I've been doing this since 21, this particular style of doing this since 2018, at the end of the day, today, I will talk I will paste, I will write the fact that I have I was hanging out in the diner with James. And I can see on this day, five years ago, what I was working on, which is really cool when you have that perspective, because you very, you very often get lost in the fact that you're doing stuff, and you're very forget how fast time moves until you take the time to stop and figure out what the hell has been going on. So I think that that constant refining process of every single day, I'm like journaling on what's going on every single two weeks, I'm figuring out what the hell happened. And then at the end of every month at the end of every year, and then be able to see that across multiple years. It's like unless you have something like that, where you're asking yourself those kinds of questions. It's kind of hard, because like, you're just going to repeat it. But it's like, if I can see I've had the same problem a year ago that I'm still having it now then I haven't adjusted enough the way that I need to. So hopefully that answered your question, but that's how I've kind of refined my my values and what I'm figuring out over the years.

Yeah. It's so interesting, because values and morals feel like such a head heart, you know, kind of deep, a deep process that we go through to define them. But you have come up with a way to make it very tangible and right in front of you where you're writing it down. And you're right, like you're almost I'm trying to think of the word utilizing externalizing. Yeah, that's probably a good word. Yeah, let's stick with that one. But you're also almost turning into math a little bit. Right, where it's becoming a little bit more of a science as opposed to a spiritual journey. And because you're fact checking, you're going back and you're seeing and you're, you know, right. Like there's, there's there's some of that pieces. Now, some of those pieces, I should

say, yeah, there's. So I'm going to draw on two things that I've learned from two recent guests. I released this to the day we're recording this, I released an episode this past week that I I don't say this lightly, but I think it's one of the most important and best ones that I released. It was an episode with mogao dot. He's a former Chief Business Officer of Google X, he wrote the book solve for happy and and one of the things that he talks about, because he's he was an engineer at Google. And so he approached happiness from an engineering perspective. But maybe that's kind of where I was thinking about this from what you were talking about is like a heart happiness thing. But he applied it from from engineering. But one of the things that he talks about that I think is so interesting, I've drawn a parallel between another guest is that he talks to his brain, he calls his brain Becky. And like, it's like, it's like when Becky is saying something that is like kind of ridiculous. He's like, you know, like, what's going on Becky, and like he, he's externalized his brain. And so like, he has these conversations with it. And so there's a whole bunch there. But then another person I interviewed Todd Herman, and Elite Performance expert, he works with people that are Olympians, NHL, NFL, like all these kinds of people. He also has this where I like to look at patterns. He also when he talks about himself, he talks about himself from the third person. So if you listen to some of the things that he said on my interview with him, it's like he was talking about Todd, Todd, like, it'd be the same thing as be talking about Brandon, right. And so I think that when you take the time to view yourself as like someone else, as if you were kind of a little bit different, it creates an opportunity of space and distance between like it actually being you and something that you can actually kind of adjust and look at. So there's a fine line between you're right, like there's lots of heart components, there's lots of things that are that are difficult and tangible but I think that if you can have some degree of externalization and some degree of a process to handle some of those dialogues that are going on in your head, that's where lots of the magic happens.

Yeah, fascinating. In my business, I've often been knocked off and I've recently been given the feedback that I'm too close to it. And so you know, you need to hire somebody or bring in a coach or you know, someone else that can just that that is it in it with you to see what opportunities are there or what things need to change right that phrase in business of sometimes you need to kill your darlings or kill your babies and sometimes call it which is a little too harsh for me. But what still, but yeah, sometimes you You need to have some separation in order to be able to do that. I don't know when to start talking to third person. But if it's working for Todd good for Todd.

Well, well, there's another quote that I love, it's you can't read the label from inside the jar, and everybody's inside of a jar, right. So if you're sitting inside of a little pickle jar, and there's the nutrition facts are on the outside, you can't read the damn thing until someone tells you what the nutrition facts are. So it's like everybody's living in their own little jar. And it could be your business or whatever. And so that's where, like you're working on, which is really cool. So you have you have coaches, you have outside, outside feedback. So if you don't want to talk about yourself in the third person, I think it's important that you have other people that can at least read the label that's on your jar.

Yeah, I agree, as I came to this, right from counseling. So yeah, Brandon, that's, that's incredible. Thank you for sharing a little bit about that process, you know, in a lot of things that are and one thing that hurts a lot of relationships is when couples aren't necessarily aligned in their goal planning or in their ambition. And a lot of times you hear that it's, it's the way that relationships fail. But a lot of times our relationships are hampered by someone having a ton of ambition, and a ton of direction. And someone else being like, I think I'm good. I'm content right? And there's, there's beauty in the contentment. There's beauty in the ambition now, but I'm wondering, you know, for you and your wife, Leah, you know, what is? What is Leah think about all this is? Is she in there? She Are you? Do you have scheduled journaling time? Like, aren't you gonna sit down and say we're gonna journal together? Or is she like watching Friends reruns? While you're over here? journaling and masterminding? Like, you know, I'm just curious, you know, what is? What does that relationship look like from an ambition? Angle? Yeah,

that's a great, great question. So I've had multiple, I was, I mean, Lee and I have been together for nine years. So this will be our nine, nine year anniversary this year, been married for two, this will be. And we have two dates, because we got married in the middle of COVID. So it's like we have a date that has officially happened. And a year later, when we actually got to like, celebrate with everyone. But over the years, it's been cool to see our relationship develop. And obviously we started we met in middle school started dating in high school. And obviously, your brain is ridiculously different in high school that is in college and all that kind of stuff. My high school and college brain was very much the I want to date someone that super ambitious that that is going to take over the world like me, and I want to find a little, it's kind of stupid to say it, but like I wanted another brand and to date, which sounds really narcissistic and weird. But I think that's a little bit about like what my wife brain was looking for. And as I've grown up, there were some, you know, screw ups that I made in our relationship with Leah, where it's like, I wasn't valuing her for how she chooses to grow and how she likes to do things. Because I thought that it should have been like, like me, right. And so as the years have gone on, I've gotten this feedback from the people it's like your relationship with with your significant other, like, obviously, there are some power couples that make it work. But oftentimes, it's the dynamic it is the dichotomy of having two completely different personalities that actually does make it work. So Leah is the most supportive, most caring, most loving human that I know. And she listens to me talk about all this shit, where even if even if she doesn't fully understand it, which is totally fine, but she grows and she grows, she grows in different ways. And this is something going back to that that session. I had that with this with this relationship coach earlier. Are you familiar with Tony Robbins, his six human needs? Or have you heard of them?

I've heard of him. Yeah, but you could, you could share him on here though.

I don't know all that my heart I'm gonna so but but basically, my number one need and maybe people can figure this out already is growth. So it's growth followed by contribution, so and Leah's number one need is love followed by contribution and all that kind of stuff. And so the biggest thing for it literally came up on this test is that if you have a partner that doesn't share your your growth, it's like sometimes you looked at it like you don't you view them as I forgot how it phrased it specifically, it was something along the lines of like the fact that because Leah wasn't growing in the way that I want to grow, that that in sometimes that causes friction inside of a relationship, which I think is very true, because Leah does grow. She does, but she's not the one that's listening to, like a bajillion podcasts a week and reading for nonfiction books a week or I didn't read that fast. That was that was that was definitely hyperbole. Like but but but, you know, it's like she she she grows in her faith, she grows by, you know, spending time with loved ones and she does it differently than I do. And so it's it's Lea really grounds me and has that presence, but it's it's really just, it's been a journey to figure out what that that relationship is like, and I think What my biggest thing I'll shut up after I say this, the biggest thing, the biggest aha that I've had recently is that this relationship coach that I talked to the other day, she was talking about different buckets of people. Right. And like you have your like, right hand bucket, those are the people that you can talk about all your you can deepest, darkest secrets. This is stuff, I never tell anyone, you have your left hand people that like you could talk to you, but you don't really go deep with and then like the seventh power people, which are like, she didn't describe it. Generally, she described it for me. So I'll just describe it for me, because I don't know how to describe it. Otherwise, it's like, these are the people I could talk about entrepreneurship and growth and like, you know, all this other crazy deep stuff. And for a long time, I think what I was looking for was a right handed of seven power person that was my spouse. But now I realized LEA can just be my right hand person. And I don't necessarily need that growth conversation that I kept telling me like, I want to have these diner talks conversations like I'm having with James. And it's like, well, he is not wired that way. But it's it's having that separation. So long answer, but it's been quite a journey of figuring out the different components of it, and how to make sure it's we weave together really well.

Yeah, I love that Brother, you know, it's a place where you could see there potentially being tension, and a place where you just need to have conversations, right and just put everybody played in your relationships, we have to play with our cards face up. And it sounds like you all are doing that. I also love you calling yourself out around growth. And tying that to this. I love that you decided to get a relationship coach coaches, which are normally forward facing Where are we going next? Where do we want to grow to? Right, as opposed to a relationship counselor, which holds us where we are and causes us to do some internal examination? And maybe is it growth mindset, but is right? Like, it's, it's fascinating that even even in this area of life, you're like, I'm gonna get a relationship coach, not a relationship counselor now, and not to say that one is better than the other. I hope you don't hear me saying that. It's just, it's just really cool. Just just how aligned you are with like, we need, where are we going? Right? Like, we need to have measurable things for our relationship. And so yeah, that's, it's, it's a cool observation I made that, I hope it'll make you

appreciate that.

So, you know, Brandon, you have dedicated so much of your time. And now we're actually right around the same amount of podcast episodes. Now, I think I have 87, dropping this week or next week, or something like that. And you're somewhere in the 80s as well. And so but your podcast, seven figure Millennials speaks to your curiosity, your wanting to know what makes other people get up in the morning and want to start something new make a dent in the world, and create opportunity for themselves and others and, you know, let their ideas flourish. As as entrepreneurs do it. So you work with these have conversations with the 678 figure nine figure Millennials or the millennial entrepreneurs. And I'm wondering, I'm wondering, how much of that is? How much of that is sinking in for you? Like, tell me a little bit about what, you know, what's what's going on with you after you have some of these really powerful conversations with these badass humans?

Yeah, well, thank you for asking. Yeah, let me I'll just unpack this, a little bit of it, like I created the show, not because I have the answers not because I'm the guru on the mountain, not because I have a seven figure business, I'm still building my first seven figure business, but rather because I'm figuring this shit out. And I wanted to learn from really cool people. And I just happen to have this badass skill set where I can connect with really high level people and learn from them. And so I try to pull on really diverse groups of people and lots of the people on my show. And I realized there's some mistakes in that positioning. But lots of people on my show, actually, the majority are probably not Millennials or people that are way further down the path that are sharing their wisdom and knowledge. And so I'll tell a little bit of context about the show I my senior year of college, I talked about my non traditional leveraging of my college experience, I reached out to a really successful entrepreneur, his name was Jonathan Levy. And I basically pitched him free work, I don't have to go into the whole thing. But that turned into me running his marketing for three years. And by the time I left, we had about 250,000 students and his online courses. Obviously, I was not responsible for all that I was just on. I was on the team that was I was part of that. But when I started, we had about 100,000 When I left with about 250,000. And I was kind of behind the scenes of all the launches and stuff like that. But Jonathan gotten involved with this high level group called Genius Network. And for those of you that aren't familiar with Genius Network, it says you have to be a seven eight or nine figure entrepreneur. You know, these are like game changing people Jonathan spent years in entrepreneur to get qualified to be in Genius Network. He goes to his first meeting and gives me a call and he says, Hey, Brandon, you want to come to the next one, like fuck yeah, I'm coming to the eye. So I got to go and represent Jonathan's company at Genius Network at age 22. So like I left my college senior year or college at Whitewater not laugh, but like, you know, I left from whitewater to land in Arizona in a room with 789 figure entrepreneurs and contribute and be a part of the conversation at 22. And one of the things that I realized was that you can have all the external success, all the money, and you can still have a shitshow of a personal life you can like literally hate yourself. And like that was just so intriguing to me. And such a valuable lesson to learn at age 22. Is that like, lots of these people have built? I mean, obviously, there's plenty of online people. But there's some people that like have built these incredibly successful businesses. And it's been from a place of like wounded or hurt or like, like they're trying to like make up for something is like kind of you talked about. So the question for my show, when I left in May 2020, was how can we prioritize our happiness, health and relationships? While we make our entrepreneurial dreams a reality? That was kind of the question that I asked him as the theme of the show. And so I draw on all these insights from all these different entrepreneurs. And they're not necessarily entrepreneurs. But some thought leaders. Like I said, I had a former FBI hostage negotiator, negotiation trainer on a few weeks ago, I had an NFL player on a few weeks ago. And it's just really one of the one of the things that sunk in a few of the things that have come up going back to your question before I just answered all that other stuff. But you didn't ask me

was what what are some of the patterns? I think we've already talked about lots of it until you make the unconscious conscious that will control your life, you will call it fate is the probably the number one pattern that I see is like all these people have like, like lots of us end up manifesting these lives or businesses that we don't like because they haven't done the work to figure out, like what's been going on in the beginning. So like, lots of the work is foundational stuff. So like that's been really cool and psychological stuff. And so that's maybe it's just because that's where I'm looking, and I'm finding those patterns. But that's been really cool. The other huge pattern it for more of an entrepreneurial side of things is, I think it's a lot more effective. And this is where I'm focused on building my business right now. It's like, how do you build the back end of the business first, rather than the front end of the business? If you look at like the traditional model of how businesses are built, like lots of people, especially this comes from my background of like, working with Jonathan Levy, and my brain just went 30 different places. So I'll explain it this way. Have you ever heard of the analogy of the antelope versus the field mice? James? I'm not no. Okay, so a lion if it wanted to, it could hunt field mice all day. But the problem is, is that the caloric value of chasing and hunting a field mice is not worth the amount of energy that a lion has to make to capture it. So at the end of the day, if a lion kept hunting and capturing field nice, it would starve to death, and most likely, it's pride or the the other lions would die as well. Whereas if it spent its time, energy and effort chasing an antelope, even though it takes more energy to expend, the value of Antelope can feed the entire pride. And so this is kind of like this parallel that I've drawn for entrepreneurship, it's like there's so much entrepreneurship, that's chasing field mice, right? Like you're like, it's, it feels good to catch a field mouse, like, I got you, you fucker, like, I'm gonna eat you. But like, at the end of the day, you're gonna die. And so like, that's what I kind of learned from being behind the scenes of superhuman Academy, this this company I was at, and not that we were still a successful business. But I just saw the model of what it's like to have 250,000 students, and the majority of those students were, you know, anywhere from $10 courses that they were taking to maybe $1,000 course. So it wasn't really anything ultra premium, but like this, the elegance is the simplicity. Another commonality I've seen is like approaching the perspective of the antelope like, what are the antelope? What are the biggest problems you can solve? Because you can create a seven figure business by selling $10 courses, or you can sell it by by selling $25,000 or 50,000, or even $100,000 stuff, if you figure out what your value is, and it makes the business ridiculously more elegant and more simple. And so that's the way that I'm looking at designing things right now. And then I'm building things and it's, it's, it's, it's all about simplicity, it really is, at the end of the day, like being having a simple model is some of the things that I respect the most about lots of the entrepreneurs that have come on and so yeah, lots of mindset stuff, but I'll let you tell me to shut up so we can go somewhere else.

First off, you've said the word Shut up three times. I have never said it. Yeah.

I know what it's like to interview a guest that doesn't shut up. So that's

good. I appreciate you know, that's, that's incredible. I'd never heard the the antelope of the field mouse. And I appreciate that I get that. And I'm definitely going to use that now. Um, so that's exciting. And so you know, you've you've hinted at your business, what is the business you're growing or is it are we not telling people yet?

Oh, no, we can we can talk about that. So I had just going again, just being crazy, transparent and vulnerable, like I was working on a business partner business for a few years before, not a few years, but basically about Three months after I started the podcast, which was November 2020, I started working on a business with a partner. And that ended up going south. So like, I won't share any, any details on that. But that was very unfortunate. But right now, what I've realized is that or what I'm focused on right now is, I've realized that for many podcasters, it's very hard to monetize a podcast. And like, I know this from being behind the scenes of the podcasts that for Jonathan Levy, we'd over 4 million downloads, even if you're getting 30,000 downloads a month, like he was, you get on sponsorships, it's a few 100 bucks, like, you know, whatever. And like, just from talking to other people. And so this is the place that I'm playing in is b2b entrepreneurs, that either have a podcast that isn't monetizing, or want to start a podcast to monetize and the whole thing and my whole approach, and it goes back to my why is I believe that I want to create a more deeply connected world. I'm doing this in many senses of the word by just being a podcaster. Myself, but I, when I say connected, it's connected in every sense of the word, it's connecting with other people, it's connecting people with other resources, it's connecting deeper with myself, like I said before, but like, I believe that it just so happens that podcasting, I believe, is the best vehicle in which to do that. And so what I help people to do is to be laser strategic about the type of people that they wants to bring on and build relationships with as guests on the show. There's this concept called and those are, those are oftentimes the antelopes. But there are lots of other models out there where they will bring on a guest and then try to sell them something at the end of it. And it feels icky. It doesn't feel right. My approach is rather, how can I find humans that I want to love on that are doing incredible things in the world, give them a world class interview, introduce them to other people. And if there's a way we can figure out a way to work together, then, fantastic, let's do that. If not, then I contributed to an awesome human. But I found that most podcasters aren't being strategic about who they're bringing on, and intentional about creating that environment where you can bridge that gap between building a friendship and opening the door to a relationship that could turn into business and and doing it in an authentic way. So like, that's what I'm helping people to do. I'm building out both done for you service and a group coaching model that allow people to do that. So that's the focus right now.

It's exciting, brother. Hey, thank you. Yeah, that's awesome, man. I love it. I love it. It's cool to hear, you know, it's cool to put the rubber to the road, as far as you know, you can hear your drive and your ambition and your goals and your values and stuff like that. But to just see where you're pointing the ship right now is, is awesome. And I wish you all the success. Thank you. Yeah, for sure. Brendon. Right now the easiest way for people to to get into your atmosphere is through your podcast, correct? Yes, absolutely. Can you talk a little bit about seven figure millennials?

Yeah. So wherever you are listening to this wherever James and I are up in your your lobes, you can type seven figure millennials and figure out another episode. I'm trying to think maybe I'll give some specific recommendations for your listeners that cool James, instead of saying just go check out the episode. Do you mind if I share about some ones, or whatever you gotta do, brother. Okay. Because I, ironically, I did prepare for this, I have a number that you can text it to figure it out. But I don't even have it memorized. And it's even sitting here. So I'll just do it a little bit differently. But let me let me let me point you to a few that have changed my life. One is the one that just came out. And obviously when this is airing, it'll be different. But mogao dot former Chief Business Officer of Google X, he he his son passed away very unexpectedly. And that's what what created him to create this movement where his mission is create 1 billion people happy. And so that is probably one of the coolest interviews that I've done. That one is really cool. Another one I would highly recommend is Steve Sims. This is known as the guy that can make anything happen. He got someone married, he has a VIP Concierge Service where he helped his clients get married by the Pope in Rome. He sent people down to the Titanic. He closed down the academia in Florence to have a private dinner in front of David's Michelangelo and then had people serenaded by Andrea Bocelli literally can do all this crazy shit, and he kind of unpacks all that stuff. So that's Steve Sims. I did part one and part two with him. And then I'll just make one one final one. I think it would be really cool is I had on Michael Hague, Michael Hague was a Hollywood storytelling legend. So he worked with Will Smith on I Am Legend, and does all this story consulting in that kind of stuff. So we reveal in lots of this storytelling, so if you want to be more effective at telling your stories, we unpack his framework, and he also gives me coaching on my stuff. So I spent a lot of time on my show, I prepare typically about five hours for each guest that comes on and so it for me, it's my SparkNotes like I'm gonna go back and re listen to all this and I'm asking really in depth questions. So I interview horizontally rather than vertically isn't it doesn't go I mean, I do go deep but like I cover a lot on lots of my shows. So So yeah, there's there's a few episodes for your listeners that I think would be specifically relevant for them to check out.

Love it, brother. That's amazing. A shout out to your hustle brother. Shout out to you and human. Thanks for coming into my inbox and now into my world. Brandon, I really appreciate you, man. Thank you.

Thank you, James, this has been a blast. And thank you for the very unique opportunity to hang out in a diner via podcast. You're probably the only person ever to make that happen. So my BLT sandwich was fantastic. My ketchup quality was great. And hopefully you enjoyed your greasy dinner talk food as well.

You know, you already know I did my God, you already know I did. Y'all. Thank you so much, Brandon. I appreciate you one last time, y'all that was my guest, Brandon afaan. What an inspiration inspiring, inspiring, man. I it's contagious to hang out with people that have goals that they are continually working on. Right. I mean, we talked about setting. We talked about setting new year's resolutions and whatnot. But there's also theories that we should be setting three month goals quarterly goals, and following up on them. He's doing it every two weeks. Imagine sitting down thinking about what you want to accomplish for the next two weeks and then in two weeks realizing Did I do it or did I not do it? Why? How much more could you get done? It's a fascinating concept and thinking about how do we attack our goals and what we actually want to do? Are we walking the walk are we talking the talk out here my friends my guy Brandon Fung is out here walking the walk. Inspiring I'm feeling energized right now. I also now know I got to work for five hours before every podcast I have. I work for about five minutes now but either way, we all get it done. And I really appreciate you hanging out with Brandon and I today. Until next time my friends do me a favor and keep punching small talk in the face by asking better questions. Take care.