In this No Days Off podcast episode, host Brian Gubernick recounts a pivotal business lesson learned during a spontaneous trip to Austin with his former partner Jason Abrams and their mentor Gary Keller. Gary invited them to a Ringo Starr concert, where they observed a star-studded All‑Star Band supporting a drummer whose solo performance was underwhelming. After the show, Gary asked what they took away from the experience. He explained that surrounding yourself with talented people—being in rooms where others are smarter, more skilled, or more experienced—creates opportunities for extraordinary success, as exemplified by Ringo’s wealth and legacy despite his modest solo abilities. Brian emphasizes the importance of deliberately seeking out high‑performing networks, assembling the right team, and positioning yourself as the “dumbest” person in the room to maximize growth. The episode concludes with a call to action for listeners to assess their current circles, source better talent, and consistently place themselves in environments that challenge and elevate them.
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Thank you for joining me today. It's Brian Gubernick, and welcome to the No Days Off podcast, where we believe that every single day brings a new opportunity to get better.
Let's get into today's topic. Today, uh, I'm going to be telling a story, and I'm not going to give it away just yet. I'm not going to share the topic with you.
Just stick with me and count on me delivering a half-decent story to you.
Some of you listening have probably heard this one.
It's one of my favorite life and business lessons, and I think you'll enjoy it. About 7 or maybe 8 years ago, my business partner at the time, Jason Abrams, a friend of No Days Off, probably a friend of many of you, Jason and I were in business together and we had a big business decision to make. And at that time, and even still today, when I have a big decision to make, I reach out to my mentors. And in this particular case, Jason and I reached out to our mentor, Gary Keller. And we said, Gary, Jason and I have some big decisions to make. And Gary said, well, why don't you fly out to Austin and let's meet? And I said, when? And Gary said, tonight. And I said, of course. So Jason and I hopped on a plane and we flew out to Austin. And we met Gary and his family and some, some of his coworkers down, down in downtown Austin at the Moody Theater. And he said, we're going to a concert. And not knowing what concert, we didn't really care. Gary said, be there. So we showed up and he walks us into this concert hall, into this venue, and it's Ringo Starr and his All-Star Band. And so we walk in and Gary takes us down to his seats. You know, near the front, and we sit down. And I'll spare you the details, but Ringo comes out with that band and they start rocking. And he's got all sorts of all-stars.
Like, if you look up Ringo and his all-star band, he's leveraging all these relationships he has. He's bringing in the greatest guitarists and the greatest piano players and the greatest jazz players. He's bringing them all together because Ringo has been around for a little while. He's got a lot of connections.
And they're all going.
They're all running solos. They're all playing songs together, all different sorts of music. And I'm not a huge fan of any of these guys, but even I could tell this is pretty amazing. And now it's time in the concert, early on, for Ringo to do some solo work. Now Ringo was a drummer, for those that don't know. And Ringo, who's drumming this whole time, but he's not really doing much— I mean, Ringo's up there a little bit in years He's not doing a ton, but now Ringo goes to perform, and I hate to say this because I know we probably have some big Beatles fans out there, but Ringo was not all that good.
It was tough to listen to, to be honest with you.
His band members, the All-Star Band, they were all stars, but Ringo was a little difficult. And I'm sitting there, and Jason's sitting there, and Gary's next to us, and I'm looking at Jason like, "Hey, you better keep your mouth shut.
Let's not say, uh, anything about Ringo here. And he's looking at me like, man, this is really rough to listen to. And Ringo plays, and then he breaks out the all-time classic Yellow Submarine, or whatever it's called. And it was, you know, I'm gonna catch some flak for this, it was terrible. Now the whole band was amazing, but that song, which was already a bad song, was even worse with Ringo at the latter stages of his career. Just calling it like it is.
So this goes on for a while, and now there's intermission.
Now there's a break, and Gary says—
he leans over to Jason and I and he says, "Well, fellas, what did you learn?" And I'm like, "What did we learn?" I look at Jason, I'm like, "Are you gonna answer this one? Am I gonna answer this one?" And I don't remember which one of us said it, but we said, "You know, Gary, the band is amazing." Clearly there's some all-stars here, but man, Ringo is— Ringo's rough to listen to. Ringo's really not that good.
And Gary said, well, what do you—
what do you take from that? What did you learn? And I said, I'm not really sure.
And he goes, well, I'll tell you. If you surround yourself with talent, if you find the right relationships in your life, you surround yourself with talent, You bring a lot of talented people around you, guess what, Brian?
You too could be one of the wealthiest musicians to walk this planet.
You too could be the richest drummer or one of the richest drummers to ever play.
You might even win 9 Grammys and be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame not once but twice.
Once as a Beatle and once as a solo artist. And Gary got up and he walked out and he left. And I looked over at Jason and I said, "Wow, that's a real lesson." And it was funny, we laughed, but the truth of the matter is, if you know anything about Ringo Starr, you look him up a bit, you know he was with the Beatles, and you know, hey, he was probably pretty good in his heyday, I'll give it to him. But he was also around a guy named John, another guy named Paul, right, George, George Martin running the, running the thing. I mean, he was around a bunch of talented individuals, and because he found himself in that right environment and he accepted his role in that band, well, he became one of the wealthiest musicians ever, ever.
So the focusing question for you, on the heels of us recently having a conversation around your inner circle: are you surrounding yourself with talent? Maybe a better question to ask: are you the smartest in the room, or are you the— I guess I'd say dumbest in the room? Because guess what?
We should probably all aspire to be around a lot of people, a number of people that are smarter or better or more talented than we are. And if we assemble that room, if we're part of that room and maybe we're responsible for assembling it, and we have everybody in the right seat on the bus, well, what's possible?
Where could we go? So your focusing question today: are you in the right rooms?
Do you have the right group? Are you surrounding yourself with talent? And if you're not, well, what steps can you take today in the spirit of the No Days Off movement? What steps can you take today to go source more talent, find yourself in rooms Put yourself in rooms of people that are just better than you and watch where it might take you.
That's all we have for today, the No Days Off Podcast.
Thank you so much for listening, and remember, every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. So let's get after it.
