Mind of George

This episode is a must-listen for anyone seeking inspiration and guidance on their own path to self-discovery and fulfilment.

From the battlefield to bestselling author to unmasking his truth, George shares the journey. The conversation explores:

�� The essence of entrepreneurship journey by emphasising the significance of embracing change, overcoming challenges, and maintaining authenticity.

�� The pivotal role of relationships, resilience, and self-awareness in achieving personal and professional growth

�� Practical advice on leveraging content creation tools amidst life’s fast-paced demands.

Ready to unlock your full potential? Tune in now to the full episode and gain some insights from the man behind ‘Mind of George’.

Transcript:

Embracing Fearlessness and Authenticity

0:00

we’re all humans right no matter what experience we have what job we have how much money we make probably lost more

0:06

money than anybody could ever imagine and Joseph Campbell the hero’s journey

0:11

everybody thinks you end when you slay the dragon but you missed the step welcome to bis bites brought to you by

0:17

com together helping businesses like yours build their brand through telling

0:23

Amazing Stories to engage and grow audiences on multiple platforms

0:30

there’s a lot you can say about my guest George Bryant um you know and there’s plenty that’s been said but let me just

Introducing George Bryant: Beyond the Resume

0:37

start by saying he’s just George and uh we’ve been having a little bit of a chat before we’ve kickstarted and I can say

0:43

that he is just George but the resume is vast and we’ll get to that in a second

0:49

but firstly George welcome to the program thank you for having me I’m I’m beyond honor to be here so it’s truly a

0:55

pleasure it’s truly a pleasure well I definitely can guarantee our audience the pleasure is going to be all of ours

1:02

um you know I want to start very quickly with the resume because it’s not really about the resum but I think it’s

1:08

important to PE give people that context and be rather than me rattling it off

1:14

and I know you can rattle it off what I’m intrigued about with the resumes is what’s at the top of the

1:21

list yeah well so for me the top of the list is being the best father in the world but the one that will get

1:26

everybody to listen to me and by the way everybody that’s the only reason I’m listing it so you pay attention and then

1:31

I’ll throw it in the trash in a minute um the number one uh for me personally

1:37

would be two years after teaching myself how to cook I was a 22-week New York

The Power of Relationships in Business Success

1:43

Times best-selling author of a cookbook and then six months later somebody asked

1:49

me to make an app and I was like I can do that and I ended up having the number one Health app of 2015 featured by Apple

1:57

and then on the client’s side I had a supplement company doing a million

2:02

dollar a month and 18 months after my work they had a $2 million day and so

2:08

I’ve never spent paid meeting my own brand when I did that cookbook I only had 6,000 people in my audience and when

2:16

I had the app hit number one in the world organically I only had 11,000 people on my email list and then um with

2:23

the companies I scaled I did them without paid media I did it all through customer retention customer journey and

2:29

so uh then there’s probably three more companies that have passed the billion

2:34

dollar Mark now there’s there’s probably over a hundred that are in the eight and N figures and uh I tell everybody the

2:41

true Secrets come from relationships because scale comes from retention not acquisition and so those are some of the

2:46

highlights that tend to get people’s attention and then somehow magically professional sports teams have hired me

2:53

some of the biggest companies in the world and I am just a tattooed guy with a mohawk that didn’t go to college and barely made it through high school that

3:00

served in the Marine Corps for 13 years that just pretends he belongs in the room and teaches people how to love their people and so those are the things

3:06

I’m like really proud of that tend to get people’s ears to perk up it’s it’s it’s quite a a resume I I

George’s Unconventional Path to Success

3:14

was trying to I’ve been thinking a little bit about how I was going to introduce you and you know there was the

3:20

there’s the reading of the of the list yourself there’s there’s all sorts of things and then I was trying to I was

3:26

trying to think well is there a quick summary of you and I do do I say relation business relationship Guru is that the word um you know I talked about

3:34

you know I thought about you know it’s it’s really about harnessing uh relationships um is all part of it but I

3:41

think it’s also part um in in introducing you it’s really about the fact that it’s it’s your experiences as

3:48

well that has truly made you because you’ve had the highs and the real lows

3:54

and um that’s you know that’s that allows you to be where you are today

3:59

isn’t it 100% like I I’m I’m successful because I’m stupid I said this one on the call

4:07

right like I didn’t set out to be an entrepreneur I didn’t I didn’t even know entrepreneurship existed when I became a food blogger and

4:14

then I became a consultant accidentally but I I I think my True Value comes from

The Importance of Heart and Connection in Business

4:22

growing up with a lack of everything a lack of love a lack of family a lack of support being homeless and and then

4:29

spending 13 years of my life in war and in and what I would describe as hell and it’s always kept this thing on

4:36

my heart that I always wanted to give to people what I never had but somehow in

4:42

business 30 years ago we stopped doing it for the right reasons and I was like I’m going to die on this hill and I’m

4:47

bringing it back because people are the only thing that matters like our bank account balance isn’t going to be on our

4:53

headstone how many products you sold isn’t going to make any more people show up to your funeral by squeezing out

4:58

profit and treating people like crap and like I think what’s missing in the world is heart and connection and empathy and

5:05

compassion and like true abundance like there’s enough to go around like it’s

5:11

just competition over collaboration and and I think that I had just enough life

5:17

experience of I don’t care what you think and you can’t touch me that I’m like I’ll hold this possibility what’s

5:23

the worst thing that’s going to happen you’re going to fire me and what’s the best thing that happens that we treat people like people and as a byproduct

5:30

both sides win and I was crazy enough for long enough and and trust me people have told me I’m crazy my whole career

5:36

and they’re like you’re full of crap this will never work blah blah blah and I’m like until it does until it does and

5:44

I’ve had enough life experience that like what you’re going to kick me out of a boardroom I’m like have you ever had

Navigating Life and Business with Resilience

5:50

to poop out of the side of a truck in the middle of a firefight like no great like your words don’t really matter to

5:56

me and I’m like oh great you’re not going to pay me great I’m going to go home and find somebody else like I just

6:01

don’t care at that level and so because of that it’s it’s allowed me to pursue a

6:06

lot of things but on the on the other side on the opposing end of that coin is

6:12

I’ve probably made every mistake you can make and I’ve probably lost more money than anybody could ever imagine and the

6:19

more I lost it the more unattached I became to it which allowed me to stay focused on what mattered in the first place and then magically it reappears

6:26

and so it it’s it’s been this you know this mesh poool of experience and then

6:32

because of my confidence and my confidence doesn’t come from knowing that everything I do will work

6:40

my confidence comes from knowing that I won’t stop until it does no matter how much you pay me right and so with that

6:47

it got me into some rooms and into some places I didn’t belong like you know my

6:52

like first job as a consultant was a billion dooll company who handed me a

6:58

$20 million a month dad budget and I’m like I’ll figure it out and so when I played Monopoly with their money I cared

7:05

about it more than it was my own because I didn’t want to affect anybody’s life or take money out of their pocket and

7:11

I’m was like I would convince myself the mafia was going to put a hit on me if I lost it and so I just learned and I feel

7:18

like a lot of my life in the Marine Corps just helped me stay you know we call it pup having peace under pressure

7:25

and just knowing that no matter what constraint exists around me as long as I stay aligned and levelheaded and clear

7:31

on the outcome it’s really just a matter of time until you figure it out and that’s what entrepreneurship is right

7:37

it’s it’s you only lose when you quit but for every highlight reel that you see there’s 175 failures and we just

7:45

managed to stand up one more time but every time you stand up you know not to

7:50

stand there again or step there again or turn your face when that next swing comes in and I think the more experience

7:56

you have the faster you figure out the game the game I I love that and um you made me while

8:03

you were talking suddenly had this flashback of of when I was younger and I I really wish I could remember who the

8:09

author was of this but there was a a short poem that I that uh that I leared when I was younger um don’t be jealous

8:17

of the wealthy man remember this please do in years to come the wealthy man will be just as dead as you that is such a

8:23

good poem that is such a good poem and you know what’s so funny is like the

8:29

reason I have this perspective is is I had some incredible leaders in the Marine Corps I also had some horrible leaders in the Marine Corps um but I’ll

8:37

never forget uh I met a general like that you know they’re like oh you can’t talk to him and I was like and he looked

8:43

me dead in the eye one day and he’s like bro let’s have a cup of coffee we both put our pants on the same in the morning I just been in this game a whole lot

8:50

longer and like he just installed this thing into me like at the end of the day

8:55

we’re all humans right no matter what experience we have what job we have how much money we make and I think the only

9:01

time people lose is when you believe either side of the coin that we’re any different any better or there’s a wedge

9:07

between any of us based on the labels that the world creates because you nailed it right and depending on what

9:14

you believe in like I’m I’m a man of faith I’m a man of God but depending on what you believe in you either get

9:20

cremated or buried six feet under or God forbid some wild animal eats you and you disappear but no matter what we all end

9:26

up in the same place not here anymore not here anymore and I think that perspective has lost on a lot of people

9:32

and I also think it’s a big trap in entrepreneurship because I watch hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of

9:38

entrepreneurs sacrific their time thinking that they’re going to get it back in the end when they just piss it

9:44

all away and never get to enjoy it in the first place when enjoying it is one of the secrets to success

The Value of Time Over Money

9:50

sucess I absolutely agree with you and it’s funny because um uh I think a lot

9:56

of people discovered some of that during Co and all of the lockdowns and uh I’ve

10:02

been fortunate enough uh that I’ve been you know in this business for 13 years

10:08

but I’ve probably been working from home for about 14 or 15 years and so when Co came it didn’t change anything as far as

10:14

that was concerned but the thing about working from home I mean my kids are now older um but it’s it’s wonderful to

10:21

still be able to be here uh for them you know that that I’m not in a in an office

10:27

somewhere they’re actually you know a few feet away from me uh luckily enough for them at the time we’re recording

10:32

this they’re fast asleep um cuz they like to sleep in but um but you know

10:38

that’s the it’s such an amazing thing to be able to still have that around you and to not lose sight of that and uh you

10:46

know and they keep me in my place as well there are times when you think oh just do a little bit more work and they’re going dad dinner let’s watch TV

10:53

let’s do something else the best Parkinson’s law come from our kids they they hold us accountable but you know

10:58

what’s so funny is like it it inspired a thought of me because this question comes up a lot like I I’ve I’ve coached

11:05

every range of entrepreneur you could imagine from I’m just starting to billionaires like they’re all my clients

11:10

and I don’t know why because I felt very unqualified I’m like I don’t have a billion dollars in the bank and one of

11:15

my clients looked me dead in the eye and he’s like name me an Olympic Athlete and

11:20

I could name a few and he’s like name me one without a coach and I’m like I can’t he’s like name me one of the coaches that has a gold medal and I’m like I

11:26

can’t and he’s like exactly so your qualified I’m like thank you for shifting my perspective but the number

11:33

one thing when I ask people I’m like why do you want a scale like what do you want and they’re like I want more I want more time I’m like great and I’ll be

11:40

like give me your phone and they’re like okay and I’m like great you can have it back in seven days and they don’t know

11:46

what to do with it and I’m like but you have the time now and and and I I realize that we live in a world now

11:53

where where people pick up these stories that they’re either taught or caught that aren’t theirs and it creates these

11:59

agendas and these paths that they end up following that sacrifice their soul in

12:04

the process when in actuality you could have a lot of what you wanted now but we end up working or

12:11

chasing things that even if when we have them we can’t recognize them nor do we

12:16

really want to extract them and for me I I learned that in experiencing so much

12:22

loss and death and seeing people die in front of me and and getting blown up and getting shot and and being close like I

12:28

should be dead I don’t know 17 times over by now but God decided to make me the Terry Tate for the evil in the world

12:34

and keep me here because he makes me pretty unkillable at this point and um

12:40

it’s a really big perspective but you know like I spent my 21st birthday in the middle of Sudan Africa in a

12:47

genocidal country in war and the perspective is huge and and it’s never allowed me to lose sight of like what

12:54

truly truly matters and I’m the same as you like my daughter’s 19 and my son is seven and I could probably have hundreds

13:01

of millions of dollars in the bank except I don’t want it I will never get this time back with my kids like when my

13:06

7-year-old comes running in this door in 30 minutes the computer goes off and it doesn’t go on for another three days CU

13:13

it’s his weekend and I’m sure there’s a lot of opportunity in there and I’m sure there’s a lot of business in there that

13:18

I’m not going to do and I’m sure it might be great for somebody but for me

13:23

you get this better than anybody like I’m never going to get that time back and and I don’t ever want it to be that

13:28

way and and I missed a lot of his years younger like when I was at the height of my Consulting career I was flying 150

13:35

times a year and I missed his first steps and I’m going to cry I missed his you know first words even though they

13:41

were daddy like I was on an airplane I was in a hotel and I’m like yeah those lessons were learned like it was never

13:47

worth it and I find that most people don’t have a deep enough connection to what they really want and what truly

13:54

matters and what’s so funny is I thought I would never replace the Revenue but

13:59

speaking to the kids we will fill whatever container we create which is Parkinson’s law and so my work week is 4

14:06

days now and it’s normally like six hours a day but I actually produce more in that time now than I did when I work

14:13

seven days because it forces me to think creatively and focus on outcomes instead

14:18

of thinking I have unlimited amount of time and it’s actually one of the big secrets and so I feel the same way I

14:24

just move my office back into my house like my kids is over there and I had a separate building for 3 years and I was

14:31

like nah n and I would just sit over there I’m like oh I’ll do something else I’ll do something else and I was like

14:36

now I’m here and he’s like I tell him I’m doing a podcast for an hour he whips out his stopwatch and at the hour mark

14:43

his head Peaks around the corner and he’s like hey Dad uh you know boom and I’m like oh you’re totally right and and

14:50

it changes the perspective perspective it does it it’s you know and and that’s

14:56

it’s such an important it’s such an important lesson and uh that that whole

15:01

idea of time and everything and it’s fascinating to me because I I love when you’re talking about the fact that you’re only doing 4- day weeks I’ve um

15:09

um taken off days for religious holidays and you don’t miss things you tell

Unplugging to Reconnect: A Lesson in Work-Life Balance

15:15

people and they’re fine they’re there when they come back you know it’s we we live in a world of artificial deadlines

15:21

um you know it’s it’s that is so good it’s so often that that happens isn’t it it’s like I mean the worst is the worst

15:29

is sort of Christmas time and particularly in Australia where we then hit a sort of a six week holiday so everyone shuts down and there’s this

15:35

magic you’ve got to get it done before like the 20th of December and I’m like

15:41

why what difference does it make to you if it would come out on the 1 of February would it really change the

15:47

world for you and more often than not no they’ve just put this deadline in place

15:52

and it doesn’t have a real anchor you know it’s it’s occasionally if there’s a conference that can’t be shifted okay

16:00

but even then I’ve heard of conferences that have shifted if the speaker’s not available oh people underestimate their

16:06

power but here’s the thing like we’ve taken these Concepts and the internet has destroyed them like you got to be

16:13

available and like hey you do realize that people ran hundred million doll businesses before there were cell phones

16:19

right where where they were faxing and they were doing hand mail and nothing

16:24

was an urgency and do you remember like when you had a house phone like I do and I wasn’t picking that thing up after

16:31

hours nor were you calling me in my dinner time and we didn’t even have answering machines and magically it

16:36

worked and like it’s so funny because I don’t have a voice CU I just got back from a men’s event that I went to

16:41

personally for me and they took our phones on day one and I’m like you can keep it I don’t need a back and they had

16:48

it for four days and I was like yeah I love that I do this all the time and magically no one died no buildings burnt

16:56

down like everybody was fine and everything that they thought was urgent and an emergency was handled and I was

17:02

like do you still need me they’re like no I figured it out no I figured it out I’m like great right because there’s no

17:08

chance of success if you ever sacrifice yourself for your values in the process and I think that that’s the biggest part

17:14

as you nailed it like the the artificial deadlines are the killers of people’s souls and hearts because it takes away

17:21

every ounce of life that you could live and then if you even want to go into it scientifically when a human being is

17:27

distracted it takes 22 minutes to get back on task so if you’re being present

17:33

with your family and you check your phone and you’re in the middle of a game

17:38

it takes 22 minutes for you to get back to the level of presence that you were with with your family before you checked your phone and now you do it every time

17:45

there’s a moment of silence and you wonder why you’re unhappy and they don’t feel your presence like these things are

17:51

supposed to be tools to take over the world not tools to control your entire life right like the difference is how

17:56

you use it and like I actually have two I have two numbers on my phone I have a

18:02

business line and a personal line and on Thursday I do this magical thing where the business line gets turned off until

18:09

Monday and like when I take a vacation like off and when I turn it back on you

18:14

know what’s there just an unlimited to-do list that I can choose to attack if I’d like to and most of the time I

18:21

don’t but but it really comes down to us and I dude I that is a quotable you

18:26

better clip that part out of the show the the world is like these artificial deadlines that is the best most

18:33

articulate way I’ve ever heard it put and I saw somebody do a post this morning they’re like hey do you know airplane mode isn’t just for your phone

18:40

you can do it in your whole life too and I’m like dude that is so good it’s it’s it’s amazing when you get

18:47

that that practice of switching it off I do that as well there’s Friday by 4:30

18:53

5:00 phone goes off doesn’t go on for until at least Saturday night and even

18:59

then by then I know that nobody’s hassling me or and everyone knows that I’m offline and you know what there

19:05

isn’t when you train the people that you’re not available you’re not available and they they wait they wait

19:12

till you come back if it’s really important they’ll be there if it’s not

19:17

that important well it’s not that important this is why I love Mike mallwitz too like in his book Clockwork

19:24

I love him because when you get into it and profit first he forces you to schedule a six week vacation like a no

19:32

contact get out don’t touch it because you don’t have a business if you can’t do that but that to even deepen the

19:39

undertone of this is like the whole reason we’re entrepreneurs or that we’re in business or we or we live these lives

19:45

is to create resources to be able to enjoy them but you can’t enjoy them if you never unplug from them and you

19:51

become a slave to them like you end up just becoming a byproduct of the entire ecosystem and then your identity gets

19:57

wrapped up into it and then your emotions get wrapped up into it and then all of a sudden you’re a quarterback and

20:02

you’re like oh I fumbled I’ll never play football again I’m like you’re guaranteed to Fumble but only when you

20:08

take it personally do you lose the game and so the amount of depth and wisdom that’s baked into like what you just

20:14

said is like transformational for people at a level that I don’t think most people understand people understand and

20:21

the interesting thing about it is the concept is thousands of years old right it predates phones by by some margin but

20:27

that whole idea of switching off and having family time for for um is is you

20:32

know as old as time um and uh you know but it’s so often completely ignored and

20:42

uh and it sort of leads me to something I ran a forum um a couple days ago and a

20:48

whole lot of Business Leaders in there and I asked them what is the if you

Overcoming Overwhelm with Perspective and Play

20:53

could put it into a couple of words what is the sentiment out there at the moment

20:59

and there were two phrases that came up one was cautiously

21:06

strategic and the other was overwhelm and the the interesting thing

21:12

about the overwhelm is that there’s a it’s because there’s so much going on

21:18

and this is Business Leaders who are overwhelmed by um you know movements on

21:24

interest rates cash flow problems people problems AI was a big one not knowing

21:30

where to go what to do is it new work is it is it do I need it everything that’s

21:35

changing and it’s freezing people and it’s locking them up and then you combine that with that sense of I need

21:41

to keep doing more I need to work longer and do more stuff it’s how do how do you

21:48

teach people to because it’s easy to say stop but how do you actually teach

21:53

people to stop the truth is is that most people need evidence in own life to feel

21:59

it right like we can’t change anybody but we can paint pictures but like I had to learn everything through painful

22:05

experiences until I had enough of them that it really really like landed for me but you know perspective is a big part

22:12

of this like we think about it now with AI I can go back to 2009 when the real estate crash happened in the United

22:18

States I can go back to 2000 when the social media came out I can go back to 2008 when paid ads came out you know

22:25

there’s always been a thing there’s always a thing that everybody’s afraid they’re going to fall behind and I think

22:32

the biggest mistake is is people try to build Visions over decades but they measure in days and all you end up doing

22:39

is being reactive and getting in the way of all the results and then number two is is one of my dear friends Alex Sharin

22:45

who’s such an incredible entrepreneur and he’s built a couple $500 million do businesses but one of his quotes that I

22:52

love is you don’t have the business or results you want because you haven’t become the person to get them yet

22:59

and really the key to success in life is perspective right it’s the difference

23:04

between your prison and power but the finish line is being a triage nurse not

23:10

on the field because everything around us changes but we can’t allow it to change us all we do is take in what’s

23:18

around us and make the most informed decision we can and move things bite by bite as priorities change right and so

23:25

no matter what comes down to it it it’s always about mastering self right like

23:31

if your nervous system is getting lit up in business you’ve already lost because

23:36

you’re having an emotional reaction that’s going to get in the way of any decision right and so it’s really a game

23:43

of looking in the mirror and and figuring it out and when we think about experience the only thing experience

23:48

teaches you is how to be calm Under Pressure have peace Under Pressure because you’re like oh felt that before

23:54

did that before yep seen that one before oh here’s a new one here’s another fear tactic here’s another new thing but all

24:01

too often we become a victim to that pressure and then all it does is cloud our vision right it just changes our

24:07

reticular activating system to put blinders on to only see more of that pain and you can’t get out of the pill

24:14

bottle from the inside like you have to have a perspective change but it’s always just perspective and and and the

24:21

unfortunate thing is like to even speak to what you said earlier this isn’t anything new it’s coming back into your

24:28

body it’s disconnecting from the environment that you’re in and changing your perspective it’s going to take a

24:33

breath and having a state change it’s going to do something fun to unlock a creative idea right like I’ll never

24:39

forget I was in a company last year one of our companies and we scaled the company from 8 million to 106 million in

24:45

two years and we manufactured the products but there was uh one day we had

24:51

a phone call and we needed $30 million in two days to stay afloat and so we had

24:57

all the all the people in the company were in the office there were like 45 of us and we’re sitting in the the Fishbowl

25:03

like the sea Suite office all of us you know decision makers and everybody out in the floor is having a panic attack

25:09

I’m going to lose my job I’m going to do blank I’m going to do blank and they’re all looking at us what are we going to do so we walk out of the office and

25:15

we’re like all right everybody we’re done with work for the day we’re going to play we put the boats in the water we went out to the park and we spent the

25:21

next six hours playing and everyone’s like what are we doing we’re like exactly what we’re supposed to do

25:27

nothing’s going to change in the next hour or two or five it’ll change when we decide and then magically everybody went

25:34

out to play they released their emotions while we were surfing behind the boat we were laughing about all of it and then

25:40

one of my buddies is like wait I can call my buddy I haven’t talked in a few years let me see what he says we pick up

25:46

the phone he’s like oh I’ll wire it to you tomorrow what do you need but if we stayed in that office we would have

25:52

never found that answer right because it’s the difference between convergent and Divergent thinking convergent

25:57

thinking limits you to what you already know and when we’re triggered when we’re overwhelmed when we’re in a like stress

26:04

based State our body and nervous system just looks for more overwhelm but

26:09

because we State changed and we went and released it and we cleared it all of a sudden all these magical ideas showed up

26:15

that we just couldn’t see before that were always there that we had access to right and it’s really just perspective

26:21

and so I really think it boils down and people’s success boils down to to number one being self-aware but not making it

26:28

wrong it’s okay to be upset like it’s okay to feel stress like when I lose big deals when like crazy things happen when

26:35

our cash flow gets down and I’m like and I was like but if I make a decision from that state I’m guaranteed to bring more

26:42

of that pain and so it’s really having the awareness to unplug and to not

26:47

believe the stories that everybody else tells me I want to believe and then magically when I give myself that space

26:54

when I allow myself to fully feel my feelings or take a breath or I don’t know pick up the phone and call somebody

26:59

and get it out of the Cesspool of my head and that other perspective comes in magically Solutions start appearing but

27:06

it really comes down to one’s ability to be aware of what’s happening in our body what’s happening in our thought process

27:13

and not making it wrong that’s the biggest part right because no matter what you still have to win the game you

27:20

still have to figure out the next solution and if you ever drafted a player for your soccer team or football

27:25

team and you paid him $100 million would you beat them up before they got on the field and like you’re a failure you’re

27:31

going to miss the shot you’ll never make it and expect them to win no you’d pull

27:36

them aside and be like hey let’s go get some ice cream let’s go have some chocolate chip pancakes let’s get out of

27:41

here for a minute let’s figure it out let’s reset your brain all right what are we going to do and how can we do it differently and it really just boils

27:48

down to that practice and that muscle but I feel like with the world that we live in now like especially after Co

27:55

it’s created this massive overwhelming like in gratification and I want it now and I need it

The Art of Slowing Down in a Fast-Paced World

28:01

instantly and all too often we end up missing the big picture and we create

28:06

permanent undesirable results based on temporary feelings because we just won’t give it space and so I think the

28:13

solution is to slow down to ask better questions to get different perspectives

28:18

and don’t expect everything to be fixed overnight it’s I was trying to work out

28:25

how I describe the business community at the moment when I was in that forum and

28:31

um it came to me afterwards that um it’s like the business world has ADD at the

28:37

moment that there’s it’s our attention span has become so short and we’re so

28:44

fixated on why didn’t I get enough people looking at my post um you know

28:49

how many of this and how many of that and we’re and we just don’t have that perspective anymore and you worry about

28:55

the Next Generation because they’re fixated on they’ve grown up with that we at least you know remember a time when

29:01

that wasn’t the case but it’s uh it’s a really difficult one to to combat and um

29:09

you know and I’m I’m interested in in as well what’s made you um be able to have

29:17

those clear perspectives because you’ve had a lot of things go on in your life and there’s any number of things that

29:22

you could say well you you know is it is it being in a war zone is but I’m interested in the fact that you know

29:29

when you were younger I don’t know what your what your dream was of what you wanted to become when you were when you were a young boy but what did is there a

29:36

point where you realize that you could just flip the switch on perspective and

29:42

start seeing these things because the stuff you talk about is amazing but it’s really hard to get it to for people to

29:48

understand how you actually can do that it’s a muscle I will say I actually got interviewed by a 17-year-old right

29:55

before this uh one of my very successful entreprene friends going to college and she asked me questions about

30:00

entrepreneurship and it it it challenged me because even she has a very different perspective than most of the people I

The Power of Experience and Perspective in Entrepreneurship

30:07

talk to and she’s like well how important are visions and I was like well it’s so

30:12

interesting Savannah at 40 years old I feel like for the first time in my entire career I have Clarity on what I

30:19

want my future to look like everything else has been jumping into the deep end of every pool to see if I liked it or

30:25

not liked it which is the only way to change perspective it’s experience right and you nailed this earlier when

30:33

somebody freezes it eliminates their ability to get clarity or get perspective because they take no action

30:41

and somehow people have fallen into this trap that stagnation exists but it does not it’s either growth or death like

30:48

when you pause and freeze you’re not moving forward or standing still you’re moving backwards because the time

30:54

doesn’t continue to stop it keeps going over and over and over over but the only

30:59

reason I have this perspective is like even as an entrepreneur I’ve changed my businesses

31:05

probably a 100 times in a year like I went from Marine to food blogger to cookbook author to web designer to uh

31:14

social media Market affiliate marketer paid Media made an app built a million

The Journey of Self-Discovery and Career Evolution

31:19

fans deleted them got off the internet for 3 years figured out I could be a

31:24

consultant consulted 150 different companies before I even had a model and

31:29

I was like I’ll figure it out with you I’ll figure it out with you then acquired companies built companies lost them sold some acquired more and like I

31:39

feel like right now I’m like I think I know what I want to do for the rest of my life and I’m 40 years old but I think

31:46

people have also fallen into this trap that like the first thing I choose is the thing I have to do forever and

31:52

that’s death for me because the number one secret is being aligned and passionate about what you do and

Embracing Change and Finding Your Passion

31:58

realizing that no one’s coming to change the game for you like the fork didn’t make me fat I made me fat right like

32:06

nobody forced me to eat the food and be 100 pounds heavier 50 kilos heavier two years ago I did that and then when I

32:13

decided I didn’t want to be fat anymore I also couldn’t wake up and be like I’m unfat and 50 kilos drops off my body I

32:21

had to start changing things and trying things to see what worked and what didn’t work and the more reps we get the

32:27

more experience we get the more practice and the more results we get but also the

32:33

more aware you get of everything happening and so yeah my perspective is really easy because like I don’t know

32:38

about you but I put the wrong Link in a Facebook ad at scale and I lost 43 Grand in 19 minutes because the link was

32:45

broken and I’ll never do that again but I don’t know how to teach that to somebody and I’m like but I’m trying to

32:50

save you so maybe you know like slow down your nervous system think things

32:56

through don’t react but also don’t eliminate the game like this game is a series of roadblocks

33:03

and flat tires and what I have found is that when somebody gets a flat tire instead of just changing it they slash

33:09

the other three and wonder why they’re not getting results you’re guaranteed to hit roadblocks like even the definition

33:16

of marketing when I give it to people I’m like marketing is guessing and testing until a test Works knowing you

33:23

better have three guesses cuz it’s about to break that’s marketing right and part son’s law is beautiful but when we think

33:29

about the social media thing when you start as an entrepreneur your first thousand posts

33:35

never get likes or comments but you don’t have the time to look at them because you have to go make another one and go make another one it’s only when

33:42

we fall in the Trap that we made it that we lose the game but the results we get are a trailing byproduct of the

33:49

intentionality and integrity of our inputs and all too often we stop putting the inputs in and by the time we realize

33:56

it we’re living in the pain of those inputs and so the more success you have

34:01

the more deeply committed you have to be to your practices and those inputs because delayed gratification is the

34:07

only way you get a result in the first place and so it really comes down to training your nervous system to play the

34:15

game and Entrepreneurship the rules are really really clear but you can agree to play

34:21

the game and then try to change the rules of the game once you’re playing it you agreed to these rules so you better

34:27

learn learn to love them Facebook’s not going to be here forever Instagram’s going to change a new social media

34:33

platform is going to come up but also 25 years ago we didn’t have access to get millions of people to follow us for free

34:39

and now you’re complaining they’re not showing your content to everybody great try to get the same reach with

34:44

Billboards or paid advertising and print magazines and you’re going to go out of business like it’s a gift that you even have access to it but any moment you

34:52

choose to think that you’re a victim of the rules of the game that you’re playing you’ve already lost the game because no matter what you’re still the

34:59

person who has to operate on that field and I just feel like people hold themselves back like they’re like oh I

35:05

want to be a runner so they’ll go read books on running for six months and I’m like but if you just go for a 10-minute

35:11

run every day you’re going to be a way better Runner than you would ever be by reading those books and you’re going to

35:16

know a whole lot more and I think the thing that I realize is that we’ve lost

35:22

that art of experience like there’s not pride in the process anymore it’s like I want it now I want it instantly but when

35:29

was the last time you celebrated anything in your life or remembered anything in your life that came easy never it has no perspective it has no

35:36

purpose and and I even read this quote uh to my alliance earlier because I was talking to them about grief I was

35:41

talking to them about feelings right and I was like we also think that numb is the end state in life like we’re like oh

35:47

I want it easy and my seven-year-old teaches this like he just walked in the room and I wave to him but he’s so used

35:53

to having entrepreneurs in the house he listens to everything and he’ll hear an entrepreneur at my dinner table and I’m

35:59

like yeah but I just want it easy like I just want it to be predictable and he’ll walk over he’ll grab a piece of paper

36:04

and he’ll draw a straight line on the paper and he’s like what is this and they’re like it’s flat and he’s like if

36:10

this was your heartbeat what would it mean and they’re like it would mean that I’m dead and he’s like okay and then

36:16

he’ll draw a heartbeat and he’d be like if this was your heartbeat what would it mean and he’s like they’d be like well

36:21

that I’m alive and he’s like kind of like your emotions your emotions are going to come up and come down but you

36:27

have to feel them all to be alive and that’s my seven-year-old and I’m like he nailed it right and we get into this

36:34

point where we just don’t want to feel but feeling is the greatest Human Experience like I’m a man of faith not

36:39

once does the Bible promise happiness it’s not mentioned once right our whole job is to be useful and to embrace the

36:46

suffering in this world to bring light and and love to people and I read this quote to people earlier and it said

36:53

grief is what alchemize our pain and turns it into a seed and plants that

36:59

seed into fertile ground so that we can create new life and if you go read Joseph Campbell the hero’s journey

37:06

everybody thinks you end when you slay the dragon but you miss the step once you slay the dragon the next step is to

37:13

return to the Village to teach them what you know and then the new dragon appears there is no Finish Line and Tucker Max

37:21

who’s a dear friend of mine incredible author one of only three authors have three books on the New York Times simultaneously

37:28

Drew this out on a whiteboard for me and he’s like okay so you’re going to climb this mountain I’m like yep and he’s like

37:34

and then you get to the top of that Peak and you realize there’s another one over there I’m like yep and he’s like have

37:39

you realized that you can’t jump from one to the other you missed the point where you have to come down the back side of the other one before you can

37:45

climb the next one right and so like there’s all these things where people are committed to negating the most

37:51

beautiful parts of the journey and that’s where growth happens that’s where life happens but you can’t remove

37:58

yourself from it and expect the results if you go to the gym and you lift weights every day and you don’t feel it

38:05

you’re not going to keep going back because your muscles aren’t getting stronger so somehow when it’s sore and it hurts at the gym you’re like yeah I’m

38:12

getting stronger and then all of a sudden there’s any resistance in your life or business you’re like nope I

38:17

can’t feel that and we wonder why we get weaker it’s the same muscle but it’s a muscle that has to be practiced and you

38:23

have to love the process yeah absolutely do have to love the process I mean I think that’s it

38:30

it’s a difficult Journey being an entrepreneur and um yes it’s it’s

38:36

amazing it and and and I love the idea of that the you know the the following the the passions and how they’ve changed

38:42

for you and it’s from my perspective it’s it’s actually come full circle because I started my career in in radio

38:49

and absolutely love that and then you know lots of things led me down a path

38:54

of of Entrepreneurship and I forever wanted to come back to radio but there’s limited opportunities particularly in

39:01

Australia in talk back radio and here I am doing the exactly what I want to be doing interviewing you know amazing

39:08

guests as part of you know my business um you know and and being able to

39:13

continue to do that is is just huge and I think that’s when you when you’ve got that passion it’s a game Cher and it’s

39:20

interesting about that the focus you had and I love the example of the of the runner um because the interesting thing

39:27

I see is that a lot of people that put themselves in that bracket and start going running get distracted by the fact

39:33

oh I have to learn how to make the sneakers you know and and it’s not about

39:39

it’s not about that and I think it is it’s it’s choosing your own lanway and knowing what you can do and what you

39:46

need to focus on and I and I love how you are focused on relationships and

39:52

business relationships in particular um we’ve got to wrap things up in a minute but I just wanted to ask you about that

The Importance of Authenticity and Relationships in Business

39:59

firstly what is the yeah we can do we can do round two if you want I’ll do this with you all day this is the I mean

40:05

I you know we could talk for hours and I know I know that so tell me about the

40:11

relationships with um with Business Leaders what is it what’s I know you teach about what you should be doing and

40:17

and I don’t want to take away from the fact that you know people can go and check out your stuff and they can they

40:23

can hire you they can listen to your podcast but I’m interested in what is it

40:29

that um when it comes to when it comes to that what is it that people are getting really wrong what is it that

40:37

that they’re losing that perspective I’m going to answer this interesting and so like first like the

40:43

reason I have my podcast is I give away all this for free like my job is to help people not to convince you to pay me

40:49

right I want you to want me not need me so I give away it all for free and so it’s all uncovered but I think the why

40:55

of this is really really important and I can even do it through the lens of transaction every single human decision

41:01

that’s ever made is an emotional based decision every one of them who you choose to follow who you choose to

41:07

listen to who you choose to go to dinner with who you choose to buy from and for a human being to make an emotional based

41:14

decision there’s one feeling that they have to feel which is safe and the only

41:19

way for someone to feel safe is to feel seen heard loved or respected and that

41:25

requires a relationship and to think that anything can happen without that is just delaying the

41:31

inevitable pain and it’s causing pain on both sides and the only reason I teach what I teach is because coming up in my

41:38

life growing in trauma being homeless going to war is I bled all over people

41:45

for other people who cut me and they didn’t cut me and I caused a lot of pain and and I caused a lot of irreparable

41:52

damage to people through business and through how I treated them and I was saved and and forgiven and and came home

41:59

but also realized that the biggest thing that’s missing in this world is connection that’s the thing that keeps

42:04

getting driven apart and if we go back in business 50 years the only reason it

42:10

ever worked were how people felt and relationships and we think that the internet was a different ecosystem when

42:16

it actually just speeds up the process of relationships and to think it’s anything else is is is really a mistake

42:21

in my opinion and I say this to people I’m like what is your success of a marriage working if the moment she comes

42:28

home after your wedding night that you automate your relationship to text messages and emails and expect it to work it would never work so why would

42:35

you expect it to work on my family or giving them a credit card or a business relationship like you can’t Rob people

42:43

of the things that are required for them to make a decision in the first place and ever expect it to work and so the

42:49

mistake is thinking there’s any other way but whether somebody invests a dollar $10 or even their time the only

42:57

reason they would is because they feel safe and seen and everything else is just trying to convince and manipulate

43:02

people that work so I just feel like it’s a lose lose game and it just leads to a dead end where both sides feel

43:08

soulless and unhappy and I’ve been blessed to learn that through the wrong reasons but I’ve

43:13

also been blessed to benefit from it for all the right reasons because at the end of the day my job is not to get your

43:19

credit card my job is to get you one step closer to your goals and if you decide you want more of that I’m here to

43:26

help but you didn’t didn’t need me in the first place and I think when we forget that we lose the game because we also take

43:32

agency away from both sides and so for me the biggest mistake that people make is thinking that people don’t matter

43:40

because when you think about business when we think about how people are treated how they’re closed in deals how

43:46

they’re sold things the first thing I ask people when I keynote is I’m like would you be okay if your grandmother

43:52

went through your own funnel and they’re like no and I’m like then why can mine go through it and it’s

43:58

okay if I put yours through mine you might attack me if it looked like yours

44:04

and so why do we think that’s okay and so there’s this part where we can’t ever forget what matters because here’s the other

44:09

perspective I’ve been to war I’ve seen the darkest parts of humanity and right

44:15

now if some catastrophic event happened and power went out and resources went out and the world went into a negative

44:21

State the only thing that you have is the relationships and how you treated people and without them you have nothing

44:28

and so to think that you have them now because things look great is just a lose lose game and I don’t think we can ever

44:34

lose sight of that because I’ve been around enough businesses and I’ve been in the boardrooms of all these billionaires and I will tell you there’s

44:41

two people there’s the people who built their success on the backs of others and

44:46

they’re soulless and empty and no matter what it’s never enough and there’s people who built their their businesses

44:53

with people next to them and took care of them and they feel fulfilled and happy because money’s not real this stuff’s

45:00

not real it’s just a construct and I promise you go watch interviews with people that are 80 90 on their deathbed

45:05

the one thing they’ll always say is I wish I worked less and spent more time with people I’ve just experienced enough

45:11

daming close enough to it enough that I’m not willing to lose that anymore and I got 50 more years to enjoy every ounce

45:17

of it and it just so happens to be the quote unquote best strategy and tactic that

45:23

exists I I love all of that and I I want to ask you one final question um for

45:29

this episode because we’re definitely going to do this again and um I am lucky

45:34

enough to be um being part of a couple of sessions that you’ve got coming up in the next month so I’m going to look

45:40

forward to talking to you after that because I’m going to be interested in what my perspective is after I hear all

45:46

of those things but I I I this is the one question that I don’t know whether you can answer this or not but you

45:51

you’ve got so many insights and I know in the session that I said in with you

45:57

on which was about a 90minut session and I think I you know I almost uh I think I almost ran out of Inc you know I was

46:04

writing that many things down in the in the paper and you’ve got and I’m just is there a is there a moment that you can

46:09

remember when that perspective changed in your ability to be able to flip the switch and be able to take all of these

46:16

things and really put that knowledge down and be able to share it is is that

46:22

is is there a moment when you realized when that was your that was your super power to be able to do

46:29

that um there was a very very big mement but it wasn’t for everybody else it was for me and um I do remember vividly

46:38

because I was an addict I I I had a lot of dark dark wounds in my life and um I

A Personal Story of Transformation and Authenticity

46:43

was an opian addict I was Bic for 15 years because of abuse as a child and I compensated and Entrepreneurship became

46:49

my new addiction and I remember this moment like it was yesterday and it was my ex-wife who’s still my best friend and we live together still and um um I

46:58

was on a New York Times bestselling book tour and I was about to give a keynote and uh I was going to give a

47:03

keynote on how you could use food to create breakthrough results in your life and in true wife fashioned as she should

47:09

have she looked me dead in the eyes and said are you really going to go up there and lie to them again and I knew exactly

47:15

what she meant I knew exactly what she meant because I had just purged in the bathroom because I was still buic and I’m literally on a New York Times

47:22

bestselling cookbook tour to teach you how to be healthy and love your body and I had every panic attack you could

47:28

imagine I was literally wearing a blue and white shirt and by the time I walked out on stage it was drenched and sweat

47:34

like I looked like I was having I don’t know like withdrawals from drugs and everything you can imagine and I faced

47:41

every fear I’d ever had I’m like if I’m honest with these people I’m going to commit career suicide I’m never going to

47:46

be in business again no one’s ever going to talk to me and so I walk out to this audience there’s like 500 people there’s

47:52

people on their phone there’s people standing up and I was like this is my Choice like I either get to live in

47:58

prison for the rest of my life and be soulless or I get to be honest with myself and

48:04

um I literally I remember this like it was yesterday I stood up there and I said I’m

48:09

sorry I’ve been lying to all of you and everybody that was on their phone looked up and everybody that was standing up

48:16

looked at me and I was like yep here it goes career suicide and I said the reason I did this and wrote

48:23

this book is because the easiest place to hide my addiction was in play sight and I’ve been lying to all of you

48:29

and I just purged in the bathroom and everybody that was standing up sat down

48:35

down and everybody that was on their phone put it away and I basically just divulged like a confessional for about

48:42

10 minutes and I basically said everything that I had ever hidden

48:47

from anybody like I did a radical honesty like here’s it all and every fear that I

48:55

had had zero evidence and never came true and I finished that whole 10-minute

49:04

dialogue and then I just sat there in silence and I didn’t know what to do I was like just standing on stage Frozen

49:09

and someone’s like well you’re going to give us your talk your talk and I was

49:17

like yeah and I gave the talk and after that talk every single person came up to

49:24

me and thanked me they thanked me for being honest they thanked me for being authentic they thanked me for cleaning

49:31

it up and I realized that the only prison I created was my own and the only way to win in this world is to be

49:37

radically honest and authentic with who you are and since that day my truth is my sobriety and so I

49:46

share however I feel whenever I feel it if I cry I cry if I feel nauseous I tell

49:51

people if I say something and I’m like wait I feel like that was just for my ego I clean it up and I realized that

49:58

that’s freedom freedom is radical expression of your Truth at every moment and it just so happens that they just

50:04

did a study on this called the Spain study SP NE and they figured out that authenticity was 4,000 times more

50:12

resonant as a frequency than love and that’s why because it’s truly truly you

50:18

being aligned in who you are and it was in that moment that I realized that my job wasn’t to speak my job was just to

50:24

just tell my story and answer with what comes up on my heart and from that day on I never stopped and sometimes it

50:31

feels raw sometimes it feels easy but I feel like my job is to be myself and

50:37

through a lot of practice and I’ve done over 15,000 podcasts now in 14 years and

50:43

I mean like it’s a lot and I’ve recorded over a million videos like we can tangibly see all of this but I’ve never

50:49

prepared for one I’ve never written one I just genuinely speak from my heart and

50:54

it feels like anything less is a prison to to me and so that moment was the moment where every fear I had went away

51:00

and I was no longer ashamed to be myself or to say that I Stumble and to know that I sin every day and to know that I

51:06

make mistakes and none of this is perfect I’m just figuring it out just like everybody else is but that’s what

51:12

freedom feels like and I feel like I’m being the example for my children that they get to be authentic and love

51:18

themselves for who they are and it was that moment and then I don’t think I truly believed that

51:24

my story could impact people and and I can measurably say even with my food blog alone I touched and reached over a

51:30

billion unique people it wasn’t enough it wasn’t enough it wasn’t enough and

51:35

then it was when I truly truly accepted myself and realized like wow like no I do love myself for all of this like I

51:42

made a lot of mistakes but I learned and I got better and I grew and that’s the whole point like we’re just kids trying

51:48

to figure it all out and for me the only thing I measure my day on is if I can

51:53

put my head on the pillow and be like you know what I was in Integrity today like I gave it my all whatever I had to

51:58

give and since that day I haven’t stopped and so I radically consume I put

52:03

myself in hard situations I jump into the deep end of the hardest situations and I’m like we’ll figure it out and

52:10

then the moment I learn I share it with people and I’m like if this can help you great and if not it’s just for me and that just feels like I don’t know

52:16

freedom to me I love that you know the the

52:22

authenticity of that and thank you for sharing um with me with the audience it

52:27

it really is appreciated because the realness is what separates us our own

52:33

experiences is what is our story and what makes us be able to give to other

52:39

people and that’s you have an incredible way of giving insights and um I know

52:47

audiences appreciate it I know my audience will will appreciate it I certainly do um it’s it it’s why I love

52:55

podcasting because it’s truly authentic in a world of AI um that can write books

53:02

and do all sorts of things this conversation is real and um you know I

53:07

had a gazillion notes written down here and I can tell you other than the first

53:13

line of the introduction I don’t read a single one of them because it’s really

53:18

about having a real conversation with someone and um I thank you for giving me

53:24

all of your time today the last thing I wanted to do before you go because we laughed about this before you started

53:31

but you have to get your Bubblehead in here and uh what totally what’s I love

53:36

this that’s we said before the show if you’ve got your own Bubblehead you know you’ve made it totally um

53:44

so so so tell me what’s the Bubblehead going to say to you today about what you

53:49

got to do for the for the next few days um you know what’s so funny is the bobblehead and and it reminds me to be

53:56

joyful and to play and never forget it and that was the biggest breakthrough I had last weekend when I was out of nature with men is

54:03

that I can only experience as much joy as I also experience my emotions and

54:08

authenticity but it’s something that I’ve robbed myself of and I I fall into the Trap of taking everything too

54:14

seriously and so I was like the moment work is done whatever my seven-year-old says we’re doing if he wants to go play

The Essence of Play and Joy in Life

54:20

tag with Mommy if he wants to go run outside if he wants to go jump and puddles we’re doing it and I think the more we remember to play and not take

54:27

life so seriously the bigger we all win the game because it’s really time is precious and

54:34

I don’t know when I’m not going to wake up again and I don’t ever want to be there and wonder if I gave it my all and

54:39

that means in every area play Love connection these conversations like I crave these this is this is why I do

54:46

what I do because people are all that matters and I will say I finally feel like I made it took me 40 years and

54:53

somebody gifted me this bobblehead and it is like best gift I’ve ever been sent and I keep it on my desk and I literally

54:59

just laugh at it and I was like God that really is what I look like I’ll work on that but yeah I’m proud of it I love it

55:05

and it just reminds me to not take myself so seriously because most of the time this is what I feel like when

55:11

people interview me I’m just like I hope this is valuable for you but this is really my medicine so I also want to

55:18

thank you for having me and for everybody listening like time is the one gift that I can never give back to you and so for you to choose to share it

55:24

with me and have me like it’s it’s a genuine honor like it really really is and for everybody listening like it’s an

55:30

honor and it’s something I don’t take lightly and so from the bottom of my heart like just the upmost gratitude for even listening and for you having me on

55:36

the show it’s been an absolute pleasure we will obviously include all of the

55:42

details of how to get in touch with you in the show notes but particularly mind of george.com and uh Instagram it’s

55:49

George Bryant they’re the two best places to uh to follow you and of course the podcast that all those information

55:55

is on the site so we’ll include that as well you’ll ever see just so everybody knows it is the pinkest website you will

56:01

ever see my website is pink pink and pink it’s my favorite color so just go look for the pink it’s

56:06

beautiful I love it I I just got to tell you this very quickly as we finish up that um I uh worked on a branding

56:15

exercise many years ago with an organization and we went through all of the things all the all the bits and

56:21

pieces that we do all the research and everything we came up with this really exciting brand and everyone l loved it

56:27

and it was rolled out everywhere but there was one manager who decided doesn’t matter what everything’s going to be in hot pink regardless so I said

56:35

but we’ve done all the research this is not what the research says no it’s in hot pink so there it was uh don’t matter

56:42

what so I’ve total respect for you for putting it out there it’s my favorite color like genuinely it’s my favorite

56:47

color and everybody always wants to know why the pink I’ll have to tell you on the next show and I’ll just open that Loop for everybody and that’s called the

56:53

zaric effect you can Google it so science of open Loops but I’ll leave everybody with that one because there is

56:59

a good story fantastic well George again thank you so much for being a wonderful guest

57:05

on bis bites I really appreciate it and I’m looking forward to being part of your conversations in the coming month

57:11

and we’re going to catch up again after that and uh and do this all again thanks for having meks for

57:18

[Music]