Best Self Magazine Interview with Brendon

Hey my friends, it's Brendon Burchard and welcome to the Brendon Show. In this episode, we're happy to include for you an interview that I recently did for the COVID of Best Self magazine. They were kind enough to fly out to Portland, Oregon to sit down with me at one of my studios and ask me some pretty wide ranging conversations about my career, about my philosophy of personal development, about what I really believe makes my heart and my soul tick and passionate. So I hope you'll enjoy this conversation as you are listening to this as releasing this. Anyway, I'm also in deep gratitude for each and every one of you for supporting me in my most recent project. As you know, we released the High Performance Planner and I'm so excited about this because you all have been asking me forever for sort of a two in one productivity journal meets Day Scheduler where I could help you start your morning with the right mindset by giving you the right journal prompts, by helping you form evening scorecards so you can measure your habits, by helping you assess your whole life and stay balanced by including some scorecards, cards, assessments and tools to help you really look at every area of your life, to stay on track, to prioritize like a pro, and frankly to get more done. So if you've really struggled to stay on your A game, just go to highperformanceplanner.com or go on Amazon, type in High Performance Planner and you can see all the different colors and available skus to you. I'm super pumped about this. This was a three year project we finally brought into fruition and I cannot wait to hear what you all think of it. So just go to highperformanceplanner.com it's available exclusively by Amazon right now. You guys have been asking a lot. We'll get a ton of inventory hopefully around the new year. For those who are not in the uk, Australia, Canada or United States, those are the sites on Amazon that currently have them. And honestly you guys just kind of surprised us. I mean I knew it was going to be a hit. I didn't know it was this big of a hit where you guys kept it in the top 20 on Amazon for whatever, the first full release, first weeks of release and I really only told you on our podcast and social media. So I thank you all for that incredible support and I just want to help you make this next year the best of your life. So make sure you get a copy of the High Performance Planner. It really gives you daily pages, weekly pages and monthly pages to help you be more strategic, be more clear, but also frankly track your progress and the habits that we know correlate with long term success. It is the best planner and productivity journal ever created and I put my money where my mouth is. Just go get it. You'll see. Then also, in case it runs out again because we've kind of blown through inventory on Amazon a couple times, I want to do this if you'll just do me a favor and leave a review on itunes of this podcast, the Brendon Show. So just go to itunes, find me on the Brendon show and just leave a review rate. Review and comment on the Brendon Show. For the next three weeks I'm going to be gathering everybody who does that. Throw in a big old Excel spreadsheet, randomly select a bunch of you and send you the full year planner pack. That's six planners and they're multicolored. We sold out of those. Those are no longer available as far as I know in most places, but I still have a little bit of inventory on those in my office. I ordered just for us and I'll be sending those out to folks who are randomly drawn from those who leave a review on the Brendon show podcast. I hope that is a long enough intro and that you'll participate in that and just recognize my gratitude, my excitement about the Planner. I promise I'll give more updates in upcoming podcasts, but for this one please enjoy my full cover interview with Best Self magazine.

Brendon Burchard is referred to as one of the most influential leaders in the field of personal growth and the top marketing trainer in the world. He is a number one New York Times best selling author of six books, High Performance Habits, the Motivation Manifesto, the Millionaire messenger and Life's Golden Ticket to name a few. He is the star and executive producer of the number one self help series on YouTube where his videos have been viewed over 250 million times. His podcast, the Charged Life now the Brendan show debuted at number one on iTunes and remained in the top 10 in its category for over a hundred weeks. Brendan's live webcasts continue to set records and as a pioneer of online education, 2 million plus graduates have gone through his online courses or video series. Brendan, what's up? Thanks for bringing the joy.

Thank you for having me here. I know it's on the shirt today.

I'm pumped.

Yeah, thank you for letting me wear.

It and thank you for sitting down with Bessie today and for welcoming us into this motivational workshop.

Yes, this Is a beautiful space. Right. Worked really hard on this space. We're really thrilled to have it.

It's like a dream manifested, right?

It is, yeah. Most of my career is like that. Yeah. Dreamt of the studios, dreamt of the books, dreamt of the workshops, Dreamt of doing these types of things and going.

To work in a T shirt.

You know, I know I never did that. I think this is the first interview I've ever done with a T shirt on, ever. I think part of it was because I feared so much. I was young, like, when I started in the industry, I was way younger than most people in the industry in terms of teaching and training. And so I was always kind of corporate, very buttoned up, very dressed, because I let my dress be a little more elegant so that I'd have a little more credibility. So I thought, now no one cares now half the time if you dress professionally, people take you less credibly in our space because they say, well, you're not being authentic.

It's actually very funny when I see somebody all dressed up, I'm like, what's up with that?

Where's it going? He's gonna sell me something. Where's the briefcase? So it's actually amazing that our videos have had success, given that most of the time I was more formal, But I also felt like, you know, the whole best self sort of industry itself needed a little bit of professionalism when I came in, because I came in in 2006, and at the time, you know, if you went to seminars, they were kind of shady. If you, you know, looked at people's businesses, they didn't really have a business. They had, like, a name or they had a book. And I saw people could be building empires and businesses in this space because this, at the end of the day, is really just very enlightened customer service. That's what we're really doing. We're trying to figure out, what does the customer really need? Where are they stuck? What are their hopes? Where their aspirations? What would really drive them to deeper motivation or help them achieve higher performance? And I felt like somebody could really build there. They approach it like a business, not like, I'm an author, which was what I did at the very beginning. And I was failing because of that, because I thought, oh, I'll just be the author, kid. I'll just write a book. And so all I could see was the book. And when the book came out and didn't do as well as I thought it would, then I was crushed. And I also had no. Option B, because I didn't have a business, I just had a book. And so a lot of what manifested over these last 10 years, just back to your point of manifesting, something happened because I kept as I chased the dreams and some of them were blessed to happen, some were blessed not to happen. Then I'd say, okay, well what's next? Well, what's next? And I just always kept was trying to go, what's next? Okay, online video, that's next. Social media, that's next. Video in this way, this format, that's next stages, this thing, that thing that's next. And it's great because I also never get bored with it because I feel like everything is always new, like this interview.

But I also think when I see you sitting here with this T shirt, it feels like you're settling into this version of yourself. Like you're actually, you know, again, like we, we dress up so people take us seriously.

Yeah.

Do you know what I mean?

Sure.

So I'm glad you brought that up because we're big fans. You, you know, your work and everything that you've accomplished and achieved has really planted seeds within our business.

Thank you.

But what I'm most interested in, aside from like these, you know, tremendous accomplishments and staggering statistics and benchmarks, the thread that runs through Best Self magazine, the golden thread, as you say, is really story. And I want to talk today, I want to have a soul chat with you about the man behind the message. And you know, who is it? I think his name is Brendan. Brendan. Something like that. You know, like I actually like refer to you now as like you're like the maestro of motivation with mission.

Thank you.

So, you know, because there are a lot of people out there, like there are a lot of people that are really driven. There are a lot of people who really want to make a lot of money, but there aren't a lot of people that get the formula of, you know, you can be driven and you can make a lot of money and you can have impact. So I'd love for you to just sort of talk to us a little bit about like, where did that all come together? Like how did that, like how did you kind of put those pieces together.

I guess from day one? For those who don't know my story, I had a car accident and I was a 19 year old kid at the time, which is, I rarely talk about in these words, but for me it was like mortality motivation. It was that moment as a young man or young woman or young person, you realize that life is precious. And I got that at 19 and I think that was my greatest blessing. Most people don't get that until they're 30, 40, 50, 60, or their parents pass away in their 80s or something and then they go, oh my gosh, yeah, something terrible, existential happens. Most people, it's later in life. Mine was very hard, very dramatic. At 19, I'd been suicidal up to that point of the car accident because the first woman and I who I'd ever dated, we fell in love, we thought we were gonna get married. She cheated, I fell apart, My life and identity fell apart. So I became suicidal and not just thinking about it, but planning it. I was in college at the time and. And it was such a horrible, visceral, like two years of misery. And then the accident. And in the accident, there was a moment when I was standing on the hood of this car. I'd like escaped the car. We rolled several times, I escaped the car and I was standing on the hood of the car and I thought I was going to pass out. And when I looked down and I saw this blood on my body, I literally had this moment as I thought energy was leaving my body. I thought, did I matter? And I hated the answer to that because a 19 year old kid, I don't think I'd ever really learned to think outside of myself. You know, just like, am I happy? Am I sad? We're fighting, she's mean. What's happening?

What's she doing for me?

Yeah, just like you're just, everything's so new. You're just going through things. And it wasn't that I didn't have people around me who were giving indications of making a difference in other people's lives. Like my mom, my dad were always helping other people. So that was a big inspiration. But I never thought like in that higher level of like service to humanity or anything like that. It was that I realized at the end of our life, we're going to ask, did I matter? And I didn't like the answer. Passed out on the hood of the car. Long story short, obviously I survived, made it through. Don't want to ruin the story for anyone, but I made it through. And just weeks and months later, reflecting on that moment, I thought, okay, is that a question I'm going to ask at the end of my life? And I realized it was. So I started asking at 19, how can I matter? What does that mean to me? What does it mean to contribute? What does it mean to live with purpose? What does it really mean? Not from Some book, and not at a philosophical level. You're standing on the hood of the car, you're going to die, and you're thinking, did I matter? How do you know? The answer is yes. Like, how would I have been happy with that moment? And I obsessed about that for years. And I think that helped so much because I didn't start in this industry at that point. I was 19. I didn't start in the industry teaching and training people at high levels. You know, for another, what, 14, 15 years.

You were planting seeds?

Yeah, I was learning.

What did you do? What was the first thing after I.

Graduated, Finished college at the University of Montana, went to University of Montana grad school, so for organizational communication, focused on leadership. Left there, got a corporate job at Accenture. At that time, it was, like, the world's largest consulting company. I think there was, like, 86,000 employees when I started there. And I'm this country bumpkin kid from Montana. Moved down to San Francisco and was terrified. I'd never been to a big city like that. No idea how to adjust to it. No. Like, all my money went to rent in a really crappy apartment because it was like, early 2000. Welcome to San Francisco. You know, burritos are $12. Welcome. It was brutal. And I had no idea. I mean, I went down there to. I wanted to be a trainer. I just love teaching. I wanted to teach people how to do stuff. And it had nothing to do with personal development. It was all organizational communication. It was consulting. That company now has over 400,000 employees. And. And what happened was, as I was there, it was getting bigger and bigger and bigger, and I felt less and less and less of an intimacy to the work. You know, it was like, create a presentation, hand it to somebody, they would deliver. It makes a difference, maybe over there, but you never hear about it.

Right?

And I knew that part of that question, did I matter? There's an intimacy to contribution. There really is. When the people figure that out in their life, that there's a real, true alignment between connection and contribution. If you don't feel connected to the work, but also if you don't feel connected to the outcome of the work, its impact on people, you won't feel the contribution. And I got that. I really got that because I was lost in this big company, and I thought, I want to make a difference in people's lives, but I want to see it. I want to see their eyes light up. I want to stand in front of that room, ask the questions, do the coaching, facilitate that process. Not have to be the expert, not be like, hey, I'm Brendan Burchard. Because I was a kid, but I'd studied enough philosophy, studied enough psychology, studied enough neuroscience. I knew the questions to ask to people. And my whole career has been I ask the right questions to people and it unlocks the doors. And a lot of breakthroughs I give with our clients, like these books, it's less about me saying, exactly, go do this. It's more like this is what research has revealed. How are you approaching it? And all my chapters usually end with questions. And I'm the guy that opens gates for people. Because I was so young when I started, I didn't know as many of the answers as I might know now. And I felt like that journey through that big corporate world made me only realize I need to be in a more intimate, connected feeling with people to know that my stuff matters.

You literally seem to me like this insatiable. You have like this insatiable appetite or this insatiable everbuddy bunny like you seem like you've got so much energy. When I was reading, I mean, you literally had me at your mantra, live, love, matter. And you know where you say the real story is that I've woken up every day for 19 years with a solid and soul driven intention to fully live, love and matter. But to add to that, you've studied psychology, leadership, neuroscience, high performance and high performance for two decades. You read a book a week for that entire period of time, 22 years now, completed a personal challenge every month, conducted hundreds of interviews, gave thousands of talks. You know, you say you travel 75 days a year and had world class clients and mentors. So are you insatiable?

I think so. I think it's a good description. I think part of it's curiosity. I'm just so curious about human behavior. And you're never going to finish the book on human behavior. You know, I'm never going to quite get, I'm never going to have that perfect coaching moment and go, oh, I know everything about people. So, you know, human behavior is so individualized and personal and emotional and contextual that it's so fun to learn about people. So I think curiosity is really where the insatiability is. And also just when I came into personal development after, you know, having been a kid who was suicidal when I started studying psychology and personal development, so much of it didn't speak to me and so much of it I wish, you know, it was like, how many books can you read that just says be grateful, be Nice to people. Be yourself.

Think happy thoughts.

Think happy thoughts. And those. And by the way, you need to.

Do all those things, but those just.

Get you in the game. I wanted the advanced stuff. I was like, wait, wait, wait. There are really happy people, and they sustain the happiness. There are really wealthy people. They sustain the wealth. There are really productive people, and they can do it time and time again from field to field to field, company to company to company. I'm like, there were high performers. And I was like, I want to know that. Because consistency and longevity should matter to people. But a lot of it was just quick little things to get people started. And I was like, I get this get started stuff. Like, what's the advanced stuff? And I think that's where the insatiability comes in my mind. I'm like, what is the advanced thing? That's why I love working with an Olympian or someone who's at their highest of high levels, because it's like, what did you do? Because they're not doing just what everyone else is doing. They've got that edge. They've got something unique to it. And part of it is I personally want to touch that rim. I think we all want to touch the rim of our greatness, you know, and we're gonna need taller ladders. It's like, we can't just get a little boost now. And it's like, it's gonna be a climb to get up there. And I just want to know what was the advanced stuff for that.

But what I love, I mean, your energy is palpable. So you've achieved so much success. How do you keep it, though? How do you keep it fresh? How do you keep it inspired? How do you keep being interested in questions? Because there comes a point, I'm sure you've seen it time and time again with successful people, with people that you've interviewed for high performance experts. Like, people get jaded. You've got this.

Thank you.

Very playful, curious, whimsy. It's like I'm sitting here with a little boy. Do you know me? Which is so fresh and so refreshing. So how do you keep that?

It's super difficult. And I agree that a lot of people get jaded, and I appreciate the compliment, but have you ever heard someone compliment you, but you're hearing another track, right? You're like, is that me? So a month ago, I did a four day seminar with 2,000 people. Then I went to two different states to speak. Then I went to Puerto Rico to set up some new companies that we started down there to support the community after the hurricane. Then I went to New York and delivered a mastermind for four days. I had five hours off in the last month and a half. That was with my nephews in New York City. I flew here last night for this. So you're saying he's so energized. I'm like, gosh, I'm so bummed. I'm so tired for your interview. I'm so sorry. Because to me, this is, like, powered down. And I think part of it is two things. One, I think most people get jaded in the industry because they're actually in the selfie industry, not the service industry. They get jaded and they get bored with themselves.

Make that distinction.

Yeah. I think what happened in what we used to call the experts industry or the thought leader industry, it became the influencer industry. And most of the influencer industry is driven by people just telling their story, just taking pictures of themselves, just writing about their thoughts. But they've never actually been in service. They haven't coached individuals over a period of years or years or years. They haven't trained people and track that person's transformation or progress. Years over years over years. So they're giving pat advice without ever having the benefit of actually being in the weeds to work with the person and be responsible for their transformation for years and years and years. And this is my 12th year in that position with the highest level people in the world where I am responsible for the results year over year over year over year. If you're in the actual game of service like that, you never get tired. What gets bored. We all get bored with ourself and we just. We're just like, how many times could you tell your story? And, you know, it's like this book, this is my favorite, one of my favorite books. Motivation manifesto. There's nothing about me in this book. There's never anything. Here. Here's my story. Here's what I've been through. Nothing. This is a book about humanity and about us, about our story as humans as we seek personal freedom. Not one story about Bren Burchard in here at all. This is fiction. Not one story about Brendon Burchard. Why people are like, why don't you write about yourself? I'm like, I'm bored with myself. This is about other people. And I think that's what's really important.

And so is this.

Yeah, it's about other people. And so this is why, like, today I'm tired physically. Like, I feel it in my voice. I can hear it in my voice as I'm even speaking to you. It's been a month and a half of like literally I had five hours off in a month and a half. That's it. But. And that's rare. And we'll talk about my balance, but every one of those days was in service to other people. And if you can connect with that in the morning and realize who needs you on your A game, like, I know that someone's going to watch this and something will switch for them. Maybe it'll be something you say, I say, the way you guys package all together, something might resonate with somebody and they'll go, you know, I need to be on my A game for my family right now. Someone's gonna watch this go, I need to be on my A game for my team right now. I need to be on my A game for my career because things aren't going well. When people realize that they need to be their best self for somebody else, they don't get jaded. When they're just trying to get their six pack abs for themselves and their selfie, that's when you can sit on the couch afterwards and be miserable. So the best self when tied to service, the jading, doesn't happen when you're just trying to make money for yourself. That's why you have these miserable millionaires, billionaires, celebrities who we see commit suicide because sometimes, often their striving was only tied to self. And if our striving isn't tied to real service, to leadership, to contribution, to want to help other people, you completely fatigue out on that.

That's like such a critical component. So let's go to like, when did that light bulb pop for you? Like when did you realize, like, oh yeah, like all this stuff I'm doing, I need to be in service. Like, how did you connect that? Like again, you were this young man.

Oh my gosh. It was after, I mean immediately after my accident. So remember I had been the miserable suicidal kid, have the accident. And now the questions that inspired of, did I live my life? Did I love openly and did I matter? Those questions now come into my life. So every day and every night I'm aiming myself with intention. So I wake up, I have the intention to live fully, I have the intention to love openly. I have the intention to make a difference. And when I go to bed for 22 years in a row, including last night, I go, did I live today? How did I love today? How did I matter today? How so became just an Intention. But what happened is, miserable kid, car accident, goes back to school. All the kids there know the miserable kid. I come back, I'm like, alive. Like, I get it. Like, motivation, mortality. I'm like, oh, my gosh.

Oh, I've been to the circus.

Yeah, I've been to the circus of life. I want. I want to change. I get inspired to read these books and listen to these tapes and do these programs. I'm like, I'm super inspired by it. And I just tell everybody. And most people think I was crazy. And then once or twice, someone's like, oh, my God, your car accident story. I know I didn't share the whole story here, but I think it's out there. So I'd share the whole story about the car accident and how vulnerable and how scared and how dramatic that was for me as a young kid facing mortality. And then I'd share my story of, you know what? You can't live purposely if you don't know the questions you're gonna ask yourself at the end of your life. You just can't. It's impossible to live a purposeful life without at least having some idea of what the purpose is, not the purpose of in terms of, like, the finality of what you contribute. But, like, at the end of your life, you have a moment of cognition. You're going to think about your life and you're gonna ask questions to evaluate whether or not you're happy with that life. So I tell people, know what the questions are so you can live. So when you answer the questions, you're happy with the answers. And so I tell people this, and they're like, oh, my God, that's inspiring. And once in a while, some kids eyes, they light up and they're like, I need to be more intentional. Thank you for that. Or, you know, I feel your fire about life right now. I like that. And people started having a reaction to me just sharing my car accident story. They'd be like, could you tell my friend this, My friend over here, therapist, suicidal? And it was literally a small one to. One to one thing. And I'd see the light come up on, and that's what gave it to me.

This is why I wanted to have this chat with you today, because I know that people are constantly picking your brains and they want strategies and they want ideas for their business, and how can I uptick in this and that and the other.

Yeah.

Not realizing, like, this is the stuff, this is the real juice that's gonna, like, really help them, like, dig into their lives and dig into their businesses in another way. And this is the stuff that I love, you know, it's where you keep it real, you know? And you said, the untold story, perhaps, is that I'm just human. I have tough days. I've written plenty of garbage, shot hundreds of bad videos. Felt terrified backstage, which is, like, so hard for me to believe. Bombed at promotions, failed and failed and joyously failed on my surprising journey coming out of nowhere. The path to mastery is forged with struggle.

Yes, that's it.

So why do you think people connect you?

I think it's because I do honor the struggle. And it's one of our statements. I mean, we put on hats. I mean, it's like, it's just something that's real. Is a lot of people in the influencer space, they just want to say, be happy, be you. Don't listen to anybody else, or, don't give up. But the reality is they don't sometimes recognize the real struggle people go through. I grew up, you know, I don't know if we were at or below the poverty line, but I know it was really tough where we grew up, an Irish mining town that had been economically depressed for a century. Mom and dad raising four kids with nothing in just the dire of circumstances, you know, I've lost friends. I've been through so much turmoil in my life. And I recognize that's true for everybody else. Everybody else is also trying to be the best self. They are. Even if they don't have the skills for it. They are. Even if they don't have the full intention every day for it, they know that it's there. Every human has a sense of their possibility. They do. They might not be there Monday through Friday, but once in a while in a dream or once in a while with the journal or the cappuccino, they come up with this. Oh, my gosh. And what I try to do, I think why people connect, is that I make the struggle, okay? I make the struggle. Like, of course it's difficult. Honor that. Because what happens is people bemoan the struggle, and that's why they never have the dream. What they do is they say, I have the dream. But then inconvenience comes up and they moan, oh, this sucks. Complain, complain, complain. They have the dream, they go for it. People reject them. They go for it. They get ruined. They financially run out of money, they go for it. They sense regret because they didn't do it right. So they have all these excuses, all these reasons, all these complaints to stop.

Or they think they go for it, and they don't really go for it. Yeah.

Yeah. Because they don't have a mentor or they don't fully give themselves permission or fully step in. And so you end up in this situation where a lot of people on the path to the dream, on the path to the potential, because they hate the struggle, they stop the journey. It happens all the time. People don't realize that they do that. It's like if you hate something, as soon as you pour hate on something, it dies. So if you start hating the process to achieving something remarkable, you stop the journey. And all of my messaging is always around these things. Live, love, matter. So have intention, honor the struggle. Like, let the struggle forge the best character in you. Like, almost take joy and anticipate that there will be struggle and let it, like, use it to make you stronger. But also it's like the shirt. It's like, bring the joy. Know that it's going to suck. Know the days are going to be long, know you'll be tired and, like, will yourself, teach yourself, trigger yourself, condition yourself to show up and bring the joy. It's like when people come into my house and like, brendan, what should I come to your house with? I'm like, bring the joy. Should we bring wine? No, bring the joy. We got the wine. You know, it's like we want people to experience that journey and be intentional about the energy. I tell people all the time, I.

Let them bring the wine.

Yeah, you can bring the joy after. That's true. That's right.

Where do you struggle?

I would struggle the most. Kind of like the story I just shared of, like, this, the busyness of it all, just like anybody else. I think for me, the last two months have been the busiest of my life and career. But also by choice, you know, I think what's made my career endure, which I still feel like I'm just starting, but 12 years at this level has been a lot, and I feel like it's very easy to burn out. And so I've protected my time. So much so even as I say, wow, it's been such a busy last two months. That's super rare for me in general. You know, I have a tremendous amount of time off, tremendous amount of free time in the mornings to get my mind together, do my morning routine.

Tremendous. What's tremendous for you?

Like, I never take a call or a meeting before 1pm okay. Ever.

That's great.

Who has that? I take, you know, 17 weeks off during the year where some people might not consider it off. But I'm kind of like a nutty professor wandering around my house, researching something or thinking about something or creating some content that's like crazy. There's no deadline, just goofing around like a nutty professor. So I have a tremendous amount, but then I have months like this where it's like, okay, we're building up towards some product launches right now where it's all hands, all in. Because what most people don't know about me, you know, we reached, you know, hundred plus million video views and 2 million subscribers and students before I ever hired a marketing person. So, like I designed these book covers, I marketed each of these books to hit New York Times. I wrote all the emails, posted all the videos, did all the blogs, created all the quote cards, shot every photo you ever saw. Like, I literally did it all by myself. And I say that not to brag. I say it because that was my art and that's what kept me fueled. So what I struggle with is right now as I'm building teams, sometimes I get further away from the art but working harder and it's not as fun. So I always have to balance. I don't try to balance life. I try to balance contribution and creativity. Like how much contribution am I giving and how much my creativity is really in it. And if I get that balance wrong, which has been the last couple months because just been so busy building teams and being in different countries and cities, it got off a little bit. So I would say balance in general. I don't expect balance in my overall life, but that particular balance between how much of my creativity goes in the contributions and not is really important to me.

I want you to just go back to this book for a second because these are the three books that I ordered. I hadn't read and they are. There's incredible diversity here.

Yeah. Total schizo has written them. Apparently.

No. Total passion, total love of what you're creating. It's really evident. It's really obvious. Keeping it real. Talk about this book and what happened when you first wrote it and you tried to get it out there.

Yeah. So I knew what I wanted to do with the motivation manifesto from the get go. A lot of personal development, self help and psychology had gotten very kind of trite. And it was all the story of the author, Mimi Me very memoir, personal development kind of things. And I was like, I don't want to write about myself. But I also felt, and this is very prescient because I felt there was a revolution. I was, you know, this was 2013, 2012, and 13, when I was writing this book and I was on the road a lot, and I was feeling what ended up becoming that 2016 election. I felt that I was like, whoa, something huge. There's an undercurrent here. There's a revolution, revolution coming. Something is not copacetic. Something's going on. People aren't vibing on. And I couldn't tell what it was, but I felt like there was just gonna be this huge revolution, and I had no idea what was gonna be. And I just. I felt like something was needed for that. So I went back and I studied all the times in history when there was major revolutions, and I studied specifically what were those leaders of those time speaking about for people. Like, when there's revolution, where are people going? Like, what's it about? And it was always about freedom. Every revolution was always about freedom, whether it was a freedom to vote or freedom to be represented or freedom from tyranny or freedom for something. Freedom to a new life or have our own. It's like freedom. And I was like, oh, the great quest of humankind is this quest for personal freedom. The ability to be fully ourselves and do what we want. To live our lives on our own terms is like, we really want to be free from hardship and pain and difficulty, though we'll always have that. But we want the liberation of mind to know that we can deal with things the best. We want what we call personal freedom. So I got that in mind. I said, I'm going to write this book, and I'm going to bring that rhetoric from those revolutionary times, and I'm going to write it like that. Because I didn't want to write a book and sound like me. I wanted to do a piece of art. So I started piecing together this rhetoric and learning how to write like revolutionists did. So the first chapter is about the Declaration of Personal Power, and it follows lockstep with the Declaration of independence in the U.S. i mean, it sounds like it reads like it has the same sort of format. So it's really weird. And then it just kind of follows a different pentameter and rhythm throughout it. So as I wrote it, I was putting personal development concepts in there, but overlaying revolutionist rhetoric. When I turned it in, my then publisher, who'd paid millions of dollars for this book, hated it. I mean, the editor hated it. He was like, what is this? Like, where's Brendan? Where's Brendan Burchard? Why are you writing like it's 1776. It's 2013, man in the font of 1776. Yes. Freaking out. He was like, what? And he was like, literally. He's like, this is Brendan. Total panic, long story, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. And they eventually said, listen, add more stories about you in this and modern up the language or it's not publishable and you need to give our money back. And I had a really long night reading back through, reading back through, reading back through. And I was like, there's something here. And I really felt it. I really felt it. And I said, so I went back. Then we went back and forth and I literally had to do a deal to get them, get all their stuff back, get my rights for the book. Book was done and I'd already promised all these people, it was already in motion. So I had to do a distribution deal. Hay House came along to do that distribution deal with me. We launched the book. And this book that literally this publisher turned down and made me pay for, who just insulted the book and insulted me. Literally asked, like in the manuscript, edges reading the book, crossing out paragraphs, crossing out pages and saying, are you on drugs? Literally in the columns, like, are you on drugs?

Wow.

You know, kind of like, wtf? Like all these. Just a lot of really mean comments about the book and about me. Had turned it down. Get the distribution deal, launch the book does 32 weeks on the New York Times bestsellers number one.

That's right.

Just crushes it. It's the best selling book title with motivation in it of this century. Now, so far, it just smashed. And people don't realize, like, I mean, I wanted to write it and make it feel like a Moleskine journal. We worked so hard on the font. The font. Speaking of the founding fathers and revolutionary. The font titles are like Benjamin Franklin's first font from his first print shop in Philadelphia. I mean, a level of geekdom went into this thing.

That's why I really wanted you to talk about it because this is such a fabulous story. But also, you know, there's that turning point where, you know, people are so excited to get something out and they want people to buy it and they want to be able to sell it. And like, you know, most people handing a body of work to a publisher would do what the publisher said. Yeah, that's a really like, that's a turning point. That's a crossroads where they have their.

Dream and they put permission and approval into other people's hands. I mean, this one, another Life's golden ticket. 19 publishers turned this book down 19, and only a couple of them would even take the time to write back and turn it down.

You are tenacious, right?

I'm just tenacious. It's like, it's. The thing is you just have to believe in your voice, right? And if you've written your voice down and you like it, you have to believe in it. You can take criticism, you can take feedback, you can take constructive feedback, but at the end of the day, it's your voice. And to me, spirit, God, universe gave you that. It's your voice, it's your name, it's your truth. And if it's your truth at that stage of your life, that's your truth at that stage of life. And you need to celebrate. If you feel it within, what happens is people, they do. They feel the fire within, but then they give permission into other people's hands. They give approval in other people's hands. And I've been rejected my entire life, and that's okay. I never expected otherwise. I never thought that I'd turn in the book and, you know, a marching band would come down the street with the lottery guy at the door. Like, that's why I say honor the struggle. I anticipate that almost everything I'm going to do that really matters will be difficult. And if what you're doing that really matters isn't a little difficult, you're not even at the edge of your potential, yet you're in such a tight comfort zone. And what you think, that's what you said. Most people, they don't even know they're not going for it. They're going through the motions. But going through the motions always happens in the comfort zone. Going through the motions is always safety and high performers and those who really achieve the highest levels, they don't go through the motions. They will at different levels of consciousness into the moment. They challenge themselves to be more present, but they also, they acknowledge that everything is going to be a little difficult. And that difficulty is going to make them sharper. I knew those rejections were going to make me look at the book a little different. Those challenging times when people said no, they were going to make me a better marketer. Those times when the promotion bombed, that next video will be a whole lot better. And so I just took the lumps learning, and a lot of people take the lumps as reasons to quit. I mean, the ultimate difference between I really believe successful people and unsuccessful people is that unsuccessful people, and I don't want to categorize a chunk of people that way. But what tends to happen is they have the same dreams as successful people. They're like, I want that, I want to feel this, I want to experience that. But what they do over and over and over again is they say I want that, but you know, I don't know how. So they stopped. Right.

Well, the bottom line is how many people wake up in the morning and say, you know, I want to have a shitty day with shitty outcomes. I mean, but something happens on the way to the morning coffee. So going to your most recent book, with high performance habits, you say that with deep motivation and high performance habits you can be extraordinary. So I want to know what does it mean to you to live an extraordinary life?

I think one is knowing that you are intentionally on your own path that you feel a truth because ordinary would be like everybody else, extraordinary. What that extra thing is, is it's yours that this path that you are shaping, it's yours that you can feel yourself in the day, you can feel a channel opening up for you, like there's something happening for you and with you and from you. And that's extraordinary. And as I got to know more and more successful people, when I asked them about what that was, it was always their depth of motivation was different than other people's, but their habits were different too. And that's why I say deeper motivation and high performance habits. I know a lot of people who are deeply motivated, have horrible habits, never get ahead. I know a lot of people have lots of great discipline and they're perfectionists, but their motivation isn't really rooted in the soul, isn't really rooted in their heart. And so they're really good with checklists, but they've never felt the day and they never achieved something. I think you have to have both a deep motivation and high performance habits. And if you don't have both, it's really hard to get ahead to be extraordinary.

How many years did you work on this book?

Yeah, three and a half year research study, the world's largest ever done data from over 190 different countries of basically the top 15% of high performers in tons of different industries all over the world. And I did it because one, I wanted to see if I was full of crap, you know, I wanted. Were you? You know what? Yes, in some ways, in some places, in some places not right? Because I think what most personal development people do or influencers or experts or thought leaders, they don't have the guts to check themselves. They won't run the analytical studies, they won't do the critique, they won't open up their stuff to criticism and they won't do the academic research to validate their suggestions. I was like, have I been training people in a way that we can academically validate moves the needle or am I just spitting? You know, And I wanted to know what that difference maker was also around the world, because we have a global community, you know, we reach so many people. I want to make sure it's like what I think works here in North America, does it work elsewhere? So I wanted data. And I think today we live in a world where you just, if you are serving people, you must have insight beyond what you just think, beyond your personal story. I think a lot of influencers, a lot of what's happening on social media is a tragedy because we have people who, they're sharing their personal story, but they're not willing to do the work, to see what else is working, what's been validated, what's true. They do no research. And I'm like, wait, you're attempting to impact people's lives but you've never done research outside of. Well, I think it's this way. I think that's irresponsible and I think that's why a lot of people got jaded with the industry because it's just a bunch of people not willing to do the work right.

So what was the juiciest nugget that came out of this book for you?

We found that there were six habits that made the greatest difference towards long term success. I would say the two juiciest pieces. One was that high performance and long term success cannot be separated from personal well being and social relationships. Meaning there's no such thing as long term success without also taking care of your well being and forming positive relationships. People say, oh, it's lonely at the top or you're gonna do this and you're gonna ruin all these relationships or you have to burn out and give up your health to become successful. They're completely wrong. It is impossible, statistically impossible to achieve multi year high levels of success without taking care of your health and wellbeing and without forming positive relationships. It's literally impossible. So that's great because it validated what a lot of the media feel is true in our heart and soul. But we feel like we have to compromise. So success doesn't have to bring compromise to your health or your relationships. It's like Brian Tracy, right, was one of my mentors and Brian Tracy said, you know what, if you're Having success with a ton of compromise, you're doing it wrong. And that was really validating. To be able to go to corporate America or to major CEOs or major influencers and say, hey, look, you're telling people to hustle and grind and push out all these people in their life and ruin relationships, or you're telling people, you know, just sleep five hours a night. So that stuff ruins people's long term odds. And so the health message in the book was important. Like high performers are 46% more likely to work out five times a week than the bottom 85%.

This is like music to my best self ears.

Is that huge?

Yeah, it's body, mind, spirit. If you can't escape, you can't.

That's it. It's all. People love this book because it's holistic. But we were kind of the first to go that highest level of success and prove the holistic stuff out with data. So that was a big like aha for me. I'd say two other ones. One was that creativity didn't make the top six habits. And that's where I was saying was, I feel like. But wait a minute, I was wrong, right? I was teaching for years, creativity is absolutely necessary to perform at the highest levels. And it wasn't true. It doesn't mean creativity and the habits of creativity aren't important to success. But high performance, it wasn't as strongly correlated as other things. Clarity, energy, necessity, productivity, influence, courage, these were more important than creativity. And that like blew my mind.

If you told me what did you do with that information, I would have.

Thought creativity would be in the top three. But that's because I'm a creative. That's why I did the study. I'm like, I gotta.

You're like, that's not on the top of my list.

Yeah, right. Cause we usually teach from our own values and our own perspective. I want to make sure I'm teaching accurately. So it's like, oh, creativity is important, but not as important as these six in the book. So that was a big aha. And the last aha was how huge necessity was that. A lot of people have a dream, but it's not necessary for them to have it. A lot of people want to deliver with excellence, but. But they don't do the mental work to raise a necessity psychologically. So when they go into that performance situation, that meeting, that sales call that day, they're not raising the necessity for themselves to do well. They're just going in and going through the motions. High Performers, man. They're really thinking, why is it necessary for me to do well? Who needs me to do well here? Why is this part of my dream? Like they're psyching themselves up psychological, psychologically their self talk is preparing them for excellence performance. It's like you have two executives, one walks in the conference, just wings it because they're good. But just being good can be really challenging to reach long term performance. Because just doing your thing and not trying to be at the edge of your real capabilities can not only bore you but allow you to be passed by a lot of people who are trying to be at the edge of their capabilities. That's why I'm, you know, in the chapter, I think the juicy thing that got a lot of people's attention, the controversy of the book was how I take on the strengths based movement, right? There's this big thing, follow your strengths, follow your strengths, follow your strengths. The way that they measured that and everyone spoke about that with all those big strengths books and strengths, you know, assessments was all what are you inherently good at and inherently drawn to? Like it's natural, right? It's you know, nature versus nurture. They were on the nature side. And what they measured in the strengths based movement is what is it kind of you're born good at. But we found in high performance that no one at the highest levels of high performance were born good at what they were doing. They had to practice and develop levels of discipline and feedback and coaching to get up there. That it wasn't always natural. It wasn't like Jordan's first sport wasn't basketball. You know, it's like you start discovering like people had to develop into that. And so I always tell people, it's like, who do you need to develop into? Just determine the five skills you need to develop and build into that. And it doesn't matter because part of the strengths thing is what makes you comfortable? What are you naturally good at? What makes you comfortable? What do you just vibe with? They're teaching people that if it doesn't feel right and natural to you, that don't focus there. No, no, no. I tell people, never ask the mission to bend down to your limited human strengths that you happen to be born with. Because what you are equipped with at 15 is not what is necessary to excel with at 50. And it's not saying that strengths aren't good and interesting and fun. But strengths were never correlated with long term high performance. These habits were. And so I think that little juicy thing really got people going and they're like, wait, why are these habits more than. Than just what might be good for me? Because these habits work whether you're working on your strength or complete weakness, and they help you get ahead regardless of that.

So I literally started talking to a random stranger in a restaurant yesterday about you, about your work. And this young man sort of, you know, felt that he was stuck in a job, but he didn't really know what he wanted to do or he didn't know how to get out of it. You know, you were fortunate enough to learn these lessons so young in your life. What would you say to somebody? I mean, there's a lot of people that feel stuck. They're working in cubicles, they're working in corporations. They feel like they're on the grind, the treadmill. They've got to pay the mortgage, they've got kids or whatever, but there's still that little fire within. It's like, you know, it's not as easy as just like, going out and starting a business, but, like, what step could they take, like, to just move in that direction, to, like, move the needle, inch towards something, like, rediscover who they are so that they can live, love, matter, you know, that they can. They can embody this passion.

Yeah, I think you kind of got it is. It's moving the needle a little bit. It's inching in. Because the pad advice out there is quit.

Right?

Right. Quit what you're doing immediately and get rid of all the negative people in your life. But what if the negative person is your spouse or your brother? Like, no. It's like, we got so flippant in our recommendations. We turned so black and white and so extremist in recommendations. And what I tell people is like, if you're really feeling that a major, significant change to a new city or to a new job isn't where to start. Because if you really get down to it, I think some of my work, I hope, shows this. What people really want is greater feeling of the day. They want to finish the day and have felt it, and people don't understand that. They really want that, and they can have that. And they think that something else, that new city will give me that feeling, that new job will give me that feeling, that new relationship will give me that feeling. And they can. And I tell people all the time, only two things change your life. Either something new comes into your life. So new city, new relationship, new lottery win, new business, new person, something new comes in that shifts you forever, or something new comes from within Which I know you teach too. And so it's first getting that young man to realize what he really wants is to finish lay his bed on the pillow and have felt the day, have felt himself imbue that day with energy. Being conscious and responsible for his energy and his reactions of the day so that it's more. More intentional and more his own to have that freedom of the day. Because listen, even when I was working in the cubicle job, I didn't love. I was in love with life. I was in love with my contributions there. Like I could create connections with people there even if I didn't like my boss or my manager. That there is a way to imbue the day with so much feeling and meaning. You don't need tricks and, you know, dancing bears, you need something different coming from within you first. So don't try to objectify the purpose, don't try to objectify the thing that's going to make you feel good. Start asking first, okay, how can I make tomorrow feel more me? How can I bring my energy in the day? Asking people to change their city or their job without first changing their thinking is just irresponsible. Asking people to change situation without first changing how they interpret situations is irresponsible. And so we gotta teach people how to manage the stuff within first so that they're actually capable of managing the new situations. Otherwise they go repeat, repeat, repeat, another bad relationship, another bad city, another bad job, and they're just hopscotching and jumping to other bad things because they haven't brought a new person to those things. And so we've got to get people. And all of my work is towards that, opening up those gates so that they can find that greater thing within. Because if you tap into that thing, the fatigue goes away, the doubt is still there, but you win over the doubt, the relationships, same person, greater zest, like that's going to come from within. And so that's where that young man always has to start versus trying to go, well, jeez, I'm 17, I'm miserable. I don't know what I should do with my life. I'm like, dude, win tomorrow. Then let's get to your life at some point.

How do you deal with doubt?

You know, it's funny, how do I deal with doubt or how does it.

Rear up for you?

I just don't deal with it. It just flows in and then it flows out. It'll come into my mind, but I don't grab it. I don't fight it. I don't argue with it. I don't try to wrestle with it. It just kind of goes in and out because I recognize it is just this thing that will always come up. Fear is always going to come up. I'm backstage and I think, oh, my God, I got to run here. It's 20,000 people in arena. I gotta run from here, 55ft over there within the next 16 seconds, because that's where the beat falls. I gotta get 55ft in 16 seconds because I know the beat's gonna drop right there in that corner. And my mind goes, oh, my God, you're gonna fall, you're gonna roll off, you're gonna die in front of 20,000 people. It comes in, but I don't stew on it. A lot of misery, of doubt is really just the rumination. It comes in, you grab it and you start validating why it's true. I just come in, I go, well, that's silly. And then I get back to, what's the intention here? So I let the doubts come in and out. I don't fight them, I don't argue with them. I don't spend a lot of time with them. I think meditation taught me to do that.

Do you meditate every day?

Every day? Yeah, every day. I never miss. And I do two types of meditation. One's a longer 20 minute meditation. It's called release meditation. It's on my YouTube channel. And 2 million people have learned to do release meditation. I go around the world and they say, your book changed my life or meditating. So I'm really proud of that.

So your book and meditating?

Yeah. A lot of people don't know we've taught that. Many people meditate. It's called the release meditation technique. Rmt. People can look it up.

How long have you been doing it?

2009.

Wow.

Nine years. And then I do, what we call our phrase for in high performance habits is to release tension and set intention. So it's a simple daily thing that happens throughout the day. And that is, let's say I'm doing a PowerPoint presentation or keynote presentation. So I'm making slides and then I go to email. I don't finish the slides and go to the email. I finish the slides, I push back from the computer, I release the tension in my body, I release the tension in my mind, I release the thoughts and I just repeat the word release to myself for about two minutes. And after I repeat it on that rhythm, release, release, release. Then I say, what's the intention for this next Activity. I clarify the intention for the next activity. I open my eyes and I start it. And that little brain break we call it is everything to high performance. Because most people think they burn out after like 90 days of work. No, you burn out because you had no transition meditations. You had no transition rest. You never gave yourself a brain break. So you went 16 hours because you can. And then you crashed at night. When you woke up, your brain was so tired, you needed, you know, hundreds of milligrams of caffeine to recharge it because you failed to recharge throughout the day. If you recharge throughout the day, you have energy and productivity throughout the week. If you do that throughout the week, you have it throughout the month. If you do that throughout the month, you have it throughout the quarter, the year, the decade. And so people are like, where does your energy come from? I go, because I'm recharging all day, right? I'm recharging all day. Our battery is super low. Like, if we're like an electric vehicle, we don't get to go 200 miles and recharge. We get to go like 20 miles and then we recharge. And that's where people mess up. They think their battery is so much bigger than it is, and they're running on spent fuel and they think you've.

Got a battery pack.

Yeah. Like, what's up with this guy? What's up with this guy? I think a huge part of his mentality, a huge part of his physiology. Then high performance. We have this program called High Performance Academy, and we teach that. There's, like, four things that you have to master. One is psychology, and that's just your mindset, your thoughts, your behaviors with others. Two is physiology, and that's where that health and wellness holistic stuff comes in. Three is productivity, like your mission, your output every single day. Like, what you're up to, where you're focusing. And four is people. Like your people skills, your persuasion skills. And I bring that up because those first two is really what we've been talking about, like psychology. Like, you have to understand how to use your mind and physiology. You have to take care of yourself, otherwise you'll be burnt out. And that's why that little activity of release, tension, set intention, and that recharging thing, that recharging thing is recharging your physiology, but it's also recharging your mind. People don't recharge their mind all day. So they refill their cup, but they're not refilling this Cup.

Yeah.

And that's why meditation, or those little brain breaks we call them, are hugely important. The world's largest study that was ever done on productivity, we didn't do it. An app did it that had millions and millions of data points of how people rate and scale their productivity, found that the most productive people in the world, all on average take a break at 52 minutes. So they work for 52 minutes and then they take a break. Sometimes that's go get water. Sometimes that's, you know, walk around the office, go to the water cooler, go to the bathroom, walk around the block, do some vinyasa flow, like whatever it is, 52 minutes, which I was pumped about because for 20 years I've been talking about 50 minute breaks and the.

Value for how long. How long are the breaks?

It just depends on the person. They might be just that two minute reset for, for me in general, it's probably like a 7 to 15 minute break every hour and it doesn't matter. So when I sit down, I have my phone and I sit down is the rule. But hits chair timer hits 50 minutes no matter what. If I'm writing a book and I'm in the zone, it's all flowing through and that thing goes at 50 minutes, stop, stand up, break. And people authors all the time. But that ruins your flow. I'm like, your flow is going to come back, but if you keep going, what's gonna happen is you're gonna be burnt out in three hours and I'm still gonna go for the next seven. Because I recharge in that 50. And so that recharges everything. Like most people's phone is a tool of distraction, Mine's a tool of intention.

So I just saw a little Star wars on your phone. So it's.

I did a little super dorky. That is true. Social media can be trouble.

I was calling you out on that.

That's true, it's true. But you would also see I have alarms set up in my phone and alarms go off several times throughout the day. And when the alarm comes up, it has a label and it's usually my intention. So what I teach people to do is discern the three words you'd love to live into. Like three words that would make you proud to be described as that. And I have them put it in their phone and schedule it as an alarm to go off several times a day. So I'm like, all of a sudden I'm going through the day, my phone buzzes, I pick it up, it says dynamic, playful, Loving. Okay, right. Because anytime your phone buzzes, you look. Anytime it rings, you look. So I use it to buzz and ring several times throughout the day. And I look, and there's my words. I'm like, I'm not being that right now. Loving. I'm arguing with my wife. Jerk. And it resets you. Because we need cues to be our best. That's why your magazine's so important. It's why personal development's so important. It's why morning routines are so important. Important. We need routines and cues to keep us at our best self. Or we'll just fall into the comfortable self or homeostasis. We'll fall into our lowest impulses. We'll fall into judgment. We'll fall into hate. We'll fall into the easy base human feelings and emotions and judgments that cause so much problems. The reason everyone wants consciousness is because they know that that requires a different level of cueing and triggering ourselves to be ourself, our best self. But what most people do is they just allow themselves to be whatever shows up. And that's hard when you have two different people in a relationship. One person's on that path of, like, conscious growth, and the other person is just like, man, that's a tough relationship to fix because that's a fundamental value conflict. Right. One person who wants to be their best self, and the other person who just wants to. To be whatever.

What are you most proud of?

I'm most proud of is I've helped build the industry. That's it. I have never spoken ill of anyone in this industry. When I came in the industry, one way people differentiated themselves. Well, most seminar instructors are snake oil salesmen. And these people will take advantage of you there. And these people are like this. And it's true. Are there some bad characters in the world? Yes. But I've always, instead celebrated the good ones. I've always given them a platform at my seminars. I've given them a platform through my courses. I've given a platform to share their voice. I've helped them launch their books, their courses, everything. I think that part of the major contributions isn't just what do you achieve or what you contribute yourself, but opening the field for other people. So I've put a ton of diversity on my. You come to my stages, you're like, wow, there's a lot of diversity here. You come into my work or study my perspectives of the people. I quote, there's a lot of diversity. The people I celebrate, there's a lot of diversity. All the different Facebook Pages we own. We've built these platforms for people to share because I feel like I'm a little ripple effect, but I'm a ripple effect of everybody came before me, and I'm trying to set the stage for everybody else. And I'm happy with what I've achieved, but I'm more happy that I've helped other people achieve a ton beyond me, who also have their own audiences and their own impact and their own messages and. And I really challenge people who are watching this. Sometimes when we're thinking of that self, it can be very internalized. But what makes you your best self is you are also in some way building that platform for other people to find that. So if you're a leader at work, how do you set the stage for more people to achieve even beyond you? Like, my dreams are when someone. Like right now, as we're filming this, one of our friends and students, Rachel Hollis, she's crushing it with girl, wash your face. When we have people on our stage, like, we had Raw Goddess on our stage, this unbelievable speaker. We had Anthony Trux, this former NFL player, you know, who's just trying to share his message, like putting other people on platforms and celebrating them. Who. Many of the people who work with us, an Eamon, a jj, a Chalene, like, who go out and they'll dwarf my business or me or my following. I'm like, yes. When our YouTube clients get millions of more followers than us, I'm like, yes, because that's building the future of the industry, because I'm gonna be gone one day. Mortality motivation. So what are people gonna talk about when I'm gone? What Brendan did? Or they're gonna say, you know what? Brendan gave me a foothold. Brendan gave me a stage. Brendan gave me that shot. Brendan made me believe in myself. So I hope that my ripple effect, because I don't think that happened a lot. I think that's one problem that did happen. When I was coming up, I didn't have a lot of people mentoring. I had a lot of people charging. I had a lot of people, like, maneuvering. But there wasn't a lot of instruction or a lot of scholarships or a lot of platforms that were being given in our industry. And I wish I had that. So I'm trying to give that to this next generation too.

I'm thinking this is a funny way to come full circle in this conversation with you sitting here in this T shirt, because I feel like it really, again, goes back to this, being comfortable in your own skin and creating this space for other people to be who they are and to not be threatened that there's a pitcher of water and it's going to run out, and that there isn't enough room for all of us. And I do. I just am so grateful that you sat down with us today to allow us to dive in and explore this side of you, because we know what you've accomplished. But this is the stuff that really excites me and I think is really going to impassion other people to do the same thing. To live, to love, to matter, and to be their best selves. I'm so grateful for the seeds you've planted in my own business and my life, and for everyone that's going to be listening to this conversation, and for bridging savvy business with sage, heartful wisdom.

Thank you so much. It's an honor to be.