Bacon Bits: Change Is Good

How do you make business problems disappear? Wrap em in bacon for business owners, marketing execs and anyone trying to grow your business. Pump your profits and make more while doing less. Welcome to Bacon Wrapped Business with Brad Costanzo. Sizzling hot business advice guaranteed to make you fat profits. Every week our chefs will serve you proven recipes for ramping up your revenue. Now here's your host, Brad Costanzo. Hey there bacon Nation. It's Brad and I'm back again. And this is a short episode. It's a solo cast or as I like to call it, bacon bits, bite sized chunks of bacon wrap. Business advice if this is your first time listening, no, you did not stumble across a cooking show and it is not dedicated to bacon. The show is all about business marketing, business development, sales startups, you name it. Anything that has to do with growing a business or getting into a business. And much of that also involves personal development and mindset and it's something I believe very strongly in. I'm going to touch on that today in just a second. Today is a shorter episode though and I'm all by myself and I wanted to let you know I've been thinking about making some style and format changes to the show after talking to a couple of my mentors. Now, one of the things that is liked by so many of my listeners and I get the great reviews on itunes about this and a lot of emails is the fact that I don't just cover one topic. This is not about online marketing, this is not about sales. This is about quite a few different topics. And as great as that is and as much variety as it brings, it also can lead to a, I don't really know what I'm getting. It's like a grab bag and I want to change that up a little bit and make it a somewhat more coherent on the direction we're going and more importantly, the direction I'm going in my life and in my business. So I want to talk about that some changes. I also want to share with you some resources that I'm turning to and I'll also find out what you're using. So one of the things that I've been doing is reaching out more than ever to, to my mentors and friends and people who can give me advice. You've heard the term standing on the shoulders of giants. Well, that is what I feel as though has been my number one key to success is that I seek out help whenever I can because I do believe that I don't need to know everything. I just need to know the people who do now, by the way, it took me a long time to realize that and come to that conclusion. And it was only after trying to learn everything, and I realized, hey, I know a lot of stuff, but I can never learn enough. But there are people who play at what I consider work, and I have not utilized those resources enough. And recently I started working much more formally with a business coach of my own. I have my own mastermind. I belong to other masterminds, and. And I also turn to books. So these are my three places I turn to help, you know, mentors, masterminds, and books. Well, I wish. Maybe I should call it manuals, mentors, masterminds, and manuals, because the answers are out there. Who do you turn to for help, by the way? Like, do you turn to anybody for help, or do you sit there and wish that your life would get better and there's all these people out there who could help you, and you just sit there hoping and wishing and complaining and bitching that your life isn't getting better. But this is not about that. This is about kind of what, some realizations that I've had and the things that I'm trying to get better at. So, for instance, one of the biggest problems, or I should say challenges that I've had in my life is a lack of clarity on where I'm going now. I've done a lot of cool things, and I'm really happy with the direction it's been. And it's been up and down and sideways and left and right. And one of the funny things is, throughout most of my career, which has now spanned about 20 years, I have not really had a destination in mind. I've always enjoyed the journey, probably why I'm a pretty happy guy. However, that also makes it really hard to plan out the next phase of your life and the things that you want to do. And, you know, personally, I've had a problem setting big goals. I'm working with a business coach right now, and she's more of a life and business coach. And one of the biggest things we're working on is, what do you want? What do you want? What is your big vision? What is your big dream? And then she obviously helps her clients and including myself, figure out how to get that. Well, to be really frank with you, that's one of my biggest problems, and that's what it's been, is what do I really want? I mean, I'm pretty happy with a lot of the things I have, the traditional measures of success. I mean, I live in a great, my dream city. I've got a. A fiance that I'm in love with. I've got work that I love to do and I've got friends that I love and I've got some of the trappings of success, but there's still not a whole lot of fulfillment there. And I think that that's true. In any case, in where we get, we almost never get happy. We're always on that elusive hunt for that carrot that's kind of hanging out there. But one of my biggest issues has been not dreaming big enough, not having this big goal to work towards, and not having this vision of my life as what it could be in the best case scenario. One of the things I'm working on with her is really breaking out of that and dreaming bigger. And it's actually been working and it's starting to come together. I'm feeling a lot better about it. And that's one of the things I'll tell you is if you're not out there working with somebody to pull this out of you, then maybe you need to. But maybe your dreams are there. Maybe you know exactly what you want, it's crystal clear and you just need help getting it. Well, there's people out there who can help you as well. But who do you turn to for help? Like I turn to three sources and you know, those are mentors, masterminds and books. I was going to say mentors, masterminds and manuals because it's like three M's and it sounds cooler. However, think about this. There are people out there who can help you, people who've done or are doing what you want to do. And these I call mentors, you can seek them out. I know I have. I've spent literally tens of thousands of dollars on mentors in my life. Some of them I've developed just through friendships, which has been great, and other ones I've bought my way into. And something magical happens when you buy your way into a mentorship is that they take you much more seriously and you take them much more seriously. So that's one of the first things. Who do you turn to for mentors? The other one is a group mentorship, which is a mastermind. And if you aren't familiar with masterminds, go read, think and grow rich. But basically it's a group of like minded people who are all on the same path. Maybe it's an entrepreneurial journey and we get our heads together and we help each other out and it's like A fraternity or sorority, It's a. In a good way. It's a bond of. Band of brothers, if you want to say it like that. And what's kind of really cool about Masterminds is that you kind of get multiple mentors for the price of one. So, for instance, in my mastermind, the boardroom Mastermind, you know, it's $15,000 right now for an annual membership, but we've got about 20 or 30 people in this group. And what's great about this is if, you know, you are a member of the group, you pay one time the same amount that you would typically pay a really high mentor individually. But now you get multiple mentors, people who will help you out, people you can get on the phone and call and say, man, I got a problem. Can you help me? Do you know somebody? Etc. And this is one of the cool parts about Masterminds. I'm a member, by the way. I run my own. I'm about to start another one, and I've got about two or three others that I'm involved in. Can't get enough masterminds, at least for me. And that brings me to the third place I turn to, which is books. So when the people aren't there to help you, you know, there are. There are words on paper that can help you out, or if you like audiobooks. Personally, I like reading, and I'll explain a couple of the books I just literally either reading or just finished reading and encourage you to go get them. But two of my favorite quotes about books and reading come from Mark Twain and a guy named Charlie Tremendous Jones, who both have passed away now. And Charlie, I believe, was a big motivational speaker. But first, let's go to Mark Twain. One of his quotes is, the man who won't read has no advantage over the man who can't read. Think about that again. The man who won't read or doesn't read or chooses not to has no advantage over the man who can't read. So if you think, well, man, that would really suck if I was illiterate. And yeah, it would. Your life would be at a disadvantage. But if the only things that you read are the things that you have to read, from street signs to basic work, et cetera, and you're not expanding yourself with new knowledge, new ideas, new wisdom, then you really have no real advantage over the guy who is illiterate. Right? So the other one, Charlie Tremendous Jones, said, the only difference between who you are now and who you'll be five years from now are the people you meet and the books you read. Let me repeat that. The only difference between who you are now and who you'll be five years from now are the people you meet and the books you read, the circles of influence that you surround yourself with and the knowledge you take in. Otherwise, if you stay with the same people and only them, I'm not saying leave who you've got and you don't take any new information in, you'll be a little bit older, but you'll be the exact same person. And if you're listening to this show, that's not probably the type of person you are. So these are two quotes that have meant a lot to me. I try to live my life by surrounding myself with the right people and being highly intellectually curious. And I've done a very good job, a very proactive job of doing both things, of seeking out mentors and seeking out friends and actually turning mentors into friends. It's been kind of a little specialty of mine. A lot of folks believe that, you know, there's a lot of limiting beliefs. I mean, that, you know, I could never meet so and so or I could never do this. And, man, I'll tell you, I've got a lot of limiting beliefs of my own, otherwise I'd be a billionaire right now. We all have limiting beliefs, but I also have an empowering belief. And that empowering belief just so happens to be, for me, that there's nobody out of my reach. I just have this weird belief that I can get ahold of anybody, sit down with them if I want, and actually, you know, converse or relate to them. Maybe it's a talent, maybe it's a skill I acquired. I think it's a little bit of both. And I have taught people how to do the same thing. I'm actually thinking about creating a very small apprenticeship where I'm teaching people how to do what I do and the way that I do it, because it does work pretty well. Now, this is one of the areas that I am working on in my personal development, which is what are my superpowers? And we all feel as though. Well, hopefully we all feel as though we've got some kind of a talent and something that we are good at. We love the world needs, et cetera. But maybe you have trouble finding out what it is and pinpointing it. I know I have. I've been struggling with this for a while. Like, I feel good at a lot of things, kind of that jack of all trades. But I also Feel like a master of none once more. I feel like that now you, depending on where you're at, you may look at me and say, man, Brad's a master of this. And. And compared to you, maybe I am. And then compared to you, maybe you're a master of something. I guarantee you are. That I'm terrible at. I mean, that's why I bring the guests on the show, is because they are masters at their field, and I want to know more about them and I want to find out what makes them tick and how they do it. So one of the things that. Or the two things that everybody tells me that I'm better at than most people they know is my ability to build authentic connections with really influential people and get into great situations and social circles seemingly effortlessly. But although it comes somewhat naturally, I do make a very proactive attempt to do what I do, and that's a topic for another show. But the other thing is, they say I'm almost like the Google or Wikipedia of business or marketing knowledge. I simply have a really good retention rate of the things I learn. I mean, I'm very intellectually curious, and I think that's one of the keys to my success, and it's one of the keys to a lot of high performer success is they just want to know a lot. Of course, one of the downfalls is I get caught up in learning and sometimes forgo doing so. That's just one of my little faults that I'm working on. So what are yours? Have you ever really thought about this? Have you ever really thought, what am I, you know, what do I love to do? What am I good at? And what does the world need? And where those three things intersect is usually where you find your flow, your flow state, where everything just happens to be going really, really well. And these are the things I'm working on. So if it looks like from outward appearances, that man, Brad's got it all figured out, let me tell you, I don't. I'm constantly working on myself and building it up, and I hope you are too. And I hope that's one of the reasons you listen to the show and it's not just for business advice. Now, that said, I'm looking to take this concept, this philosophy, and build it more into the entire show. A future guest and a business mentor of mine named Vinnie Fisher was challenging me to do this. He goes, man, this is what you're really good at, is building these authentic connections and building communities and getting in with the right players, but also sharing your knowledge and learning and disseminating that out. So work on that. So that's going to be my. That's going to kind of be my guiding light. My beacon for this show from now on is developing yourself, both with the people you meet, the communities you build, the social circles that you infiltrate in a good way, and the knowledge that you pick up along the way. And you're going to see that everything that I do from here on out is going to be with these in mind. How can I build my influence? How can I know new people, but also get known by new people? And along the way, if you subscribe to my newsletter and subscribe to the show, I'll share the journey that I'm going on with you. Now. Let's talk about. Let's talk about you. For instance, what has been your biggest challenges? What have been the things that you feel as though you need the most help with that you're stuck with? You can always email me@askbradakenwrappedbusiness.com and tell me. I would love to help you explore this because it also helps me explore because I firmly believe that when one person teaches two people learn. Write that one down. Speaking of learning, let me talk to you about a couple of books that I recently read, or I'm reading, that have had a big impact. One of them, which is right now, this is literally bought it on Saturday, read it on Sunday, today's Monday, and I put it into practice, is a book by Hal Elrod called the Miracle Morning. And I cannot recommend this book highly enough. It's really about setting up a daily ritual that is going to set you up for success. It's actually a morning ritual and I've thought about this for years. I have not had a morning ritual in speaking to my last podcast guest, Dan Martell, on the very last one, go check out the episode. It was great. He said that this is one of the secrets to his success. I've heard about the miracle morning. People have been talking about it. I bought it. It's amazingly well written and Hal's just an amazing guy. Been on a lot of podcasts. You can google him, but just buy the book and put it into practice. So, for instance, today I just started my first miracle morning routine where I woke up a few minutes of silence, a few minutes of affirmations, a few minutes of visualization, a few minutes of reading, writing and exercise. And this took about an extra hour. I woke up an hour early. I feel amazing today and I told a bunch of my friends about it. I said, you have to buy this book. And in fact, I even tweeted out to Hal today what I was doing. He responded and then I just challenged him. I said, look, if I let me do this for 30 days and assuming I do, I'd like to interview you on my show on day 31 to report results because you guys would love him. Let's see if he responds by the time we get this. That being said, the miracle morning. Go get that. Another book I'm reading by Nick Natton and JW Dix is called Story Selling. I'm a big fan of Story Selling and absolutely love it. About halfway through, so I'll report on more on a future episode. I'm a multitask reader. I'll read a little bit of this, a little bit of that. My Kindle. I love Kindle. My Kindle bookshelf is huge. I'm also reading the wizard of Ads by Roy H. Williams because going down to the Wizard Academy in Austin in a couple months with another mastermind of mine and picked up another book by Greg McKeown called Essentialism. I've had many people read recommend this book. It's about stripping away all the superfluous crap and working on what's really the essential parts of your life, your business, et cetera. So these are the books I'm just now reading, like just now. And there's a whole lot of them that I'm either not totally finished with or continuously reading. And I just wanted to share these with you because I know I love it when people share their reading lists with me. Now this episode, I'm wrapping it up about done. But here's my challenge to you. I want you to do a couple things is a Hold me to this what I tell you that the direction that I'm taking this show is going to be much more. It's going to be a little more introspective on the journey that I'm taking as a man, as a human, as a business owner and professional and somebody who's seeking to grow. And I want you to grow with me. So come along for the ride. Subscribe to the newsletter, subscribe to itunes and give me feedback. This is the only way that I know what you're thinking is if you email me at askbradaconwrappedbusiness.com tell me what you're working on, tell me what you love about the show and tell me what, even more importantly, what you don't like about the show. How can I improve it? Be part of this journey and share it with your friends. Tell others, because together we're going to go on some, as I said, some pretty cool journeys. I'll introduce you to some great people along the way and you'll get the benefit of my social circle and I get the benefit of your attention because, you know, you may have some problems that I can solve and I welcome those. Send me that email to ask bradaconrappedbusiness.com I'll put the book recommendations in the show notes and the other challenge is think about yourself. What is it that you really, really want? What kind of life do you want to design and what are you doing right now to get it? So a little more mindset stuff coming in future episodes. I hope you've enjoyed this episode, this Bacon Bits episode. Epicizzle of bacon wrap business. If this is your very first one, I encourage you to go back and check out a lot of the other shows. It's been, I think we're at about almost a year anniversary or we're coming really, really close. Actually, I think we're there. I'll double check and let you know. But after one year, I'm excited to take this in a new direction. All right, guys, thanks for joining me. See you next time.