Episode 87: Brandon Steiner - You Gotta Have Balls

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What's going on, everyone? Casey Adams here. Welcome to the rise of the young podcast. Today we have Brandon Steiner here with us and I just want to say thank you so much for coming on the show.

Of course. Happy to be here.

Absolutely.

So I love this. This is the first time I've used this platform. I like it.

Thank you.

Thank you. Working in my day to day.

Absolutely. We love that. We actually, we actually partner with them. I own this company called build your empire and we partnered with the modi app like four or five months ago. So it's something that we're using to document content and do podcasts on. And it's a great way to just interact with people and actually document it. So I appreciate that to start. Cool. Well, cool. So first thing, I want to, I want to just kind of jump right into something really important. And that is, number one, that I very much appreciate you taking the time. I know that you're super busy and you just came out with your previous book called living on purpose and you just sent me a copy as well as your old book known as you got to have balls. So I just want to first off and say thank you for the package that you sent out to buy the build your empire house. And one thing I do want to touch on is, is the book itself. Before we kind of get into your story and just kind of let let the people know why you wrote the book and what it means to you.

But before, I just want to mention one thing, like Casey, like, you know, I think it's important for people to know that I love gift giving. So if you. First of all, you have to love gift giving. If you're giving gift giving without love, people feel that okay. Like when I get these, like, emails with these pre. Know these emails that wish me a Happy holidays.

Yeah.

That's mass email. And it's, you know, it's this standard video. I'm like, no, no, that's not. That's not thoughtful gift giving. But, you know, thoughtful gift giving could really be a great relationship startup. It's just so hard to start relationships, but when you give something like, that's meaningful, you know, that I knew that you'd love, like, you know, I sent. I sent you something Phoenix.

Yeah.

That maybe would be relative to you, the pan. I. You know, a few things, but not something that would make you feel uncomfortable.

Totally.

If I send you a Rolls Royce, you'd be like, oh, man, what's this guy want?

You know what I mean?

And people sometimes misunderstand that, like, just because you buy something expensive for somebody doesn't mean you got a relationship.

Yeah.

But something thoughtful we love, like, and just a little thoughtfulness and a personal note really is a great relationship starter for sure. And I think my relationship starters, like, that's the first time I met you, Casey. Right. But I heard a lot about you and everything and thank you. I was like, I wanna. I wanna start the relationship of. Right. So I always said something that's thoughtful, but not something that's gonna be uncomfortable and also not look like something that I just threw out here, you know? Look, I can't give him much thought. Totally great way. Such a great way, our relationships and. But, you know, this is my third book. And I always tell people, like, God, the first book I wrote because I couldn't get a job coming out of college. And I said one day, when I get a job, I want to write a book about the importance of, you know, what you need to do when you're younger, when you're a kid, when you're in high school and college, because a lot of times you think you have your whole life ahead of you. Yeah, I worry about when I get out of school. I worry about that later. But you're building your brand, really, in my mind, you start building your brand as a young teenager. And that's the first book. The balls book was like, everywhere I went, which I'm sure you're going to ask me this question, Casey. I know you are. Like, how'd you get started? How'd you build Steiner? And it's a fair question because Steiner sports is a very unusual company. And you gotta have balls. Really gives you, like, the breakdown of, you know. Listen, I was just a Poor kid from Brooklyn. There was no sports memorabilia. Really industry, you know, how'd you get. You know. So it really gives you the breakdown of how I got started started and what I did, living on purpose is. And, and I think this at first I bought, I wrote this book for people that are a little older, that have had some success and question, you know, do you want significance? Do you want to be extraordinary? Do you want to be the best that ever was?

Yeah.

Do you want to just better than somebody who's made some money? Do you want to be somebody who went into your industry, took it and made it better than when you found it?

Yeah.

Then you want to look like. But a lot of people are cool with just making some money. The successful, the happy. First of all, I just. That intent, that would have been misery for me to go be in a business or an industry. I didn't know I was going to get in the sports business when I was younger, but I always knew that I was going to get into an industry, disrupt it, make it better than when I found it, and want to be one of the best that ever was in my industry.

That's amazing.

You know, and then as. As I move towards that, I see some of the trials and tribulations, to be honest with you, because there's some gives on it and there's some black holes and there's some. There's some tough decisions you have to make and compromises that you have to get there. And you got to be careful because there's some things that. And this is where people struggle with it because you really got to be. Make sure you got your eye on the pillars because you come home, got all this money and then your wife, you know, there's an empty closet or your kids hate you.

Yeah.

Or you're unhealthy or you haven't had fun. You can't remember the last time you had fun.

Yeah.

Trying to explain in this book, which originally was for maybe older people, but I realized a lot of successful young kids now, you know, kids that are teenagers in their 20s that are highly successful. And I don't want them to get the wrong impression that just because you have a successful company, made a lot of money doesn't mean you're successful and it doesn't mean you're going to be significant. And it was going to remember to impact, you know, So I was trying to break down how to prepare for that. How do you prepare for extraordinary. How do you prepare for significance and not just compromise and settle for success?

Yeah.

And I think, last thing I'll just say is, I think success sometimes could be a deterrent.

Okay.

You have some success and you start feeling good. Good job. Now I'm good. Yeah, yeah. Got a car. I got a nice apartment, got the clothes and sneakers I want. I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Show me somebody who's got a lot of money, whose kids hate them. Show me a lot of money. Where the guy's got to go or the person's got to go to the doctor three times a week because his blood pressure is high or his hips bothering him, whatever.

Yeah.

Not that that's full. So I think like the parameters of what you could do to avoid the trips to the doctor, the trips to having your kids go to therapy, and yet you can still go for the money grab. I love the money grab. Yeah. I love making money. You know, I race you right now, Casey, down the street for a quarter. You know, I battle right now with you to compete on a contract or whatever it is.

Okay.

On the other hand, I'm not going to ignore my family. I'm not going to wear my health.

Yeah.

And I'm going to make sure they have a little respect going on with some of the other pillars. That was the point of the book, for sure.

That's amazing. So growing up, like, when did you get into sports? Was it something at an early age you grasped onto it or what? What was that? What did that look like?

As a child, I was not one of these athletes that got hurt.

Okay.

Oh, I, I made the top 90% of the athletes in my neighborhood possible. I was a mediocre player, played hard, you know, hopefully got chosen. In a lot of kids you had to, you know, you got to work politically to make sure you got in some of these games. But I think the probably makeup, you know, I went to Syracuse, got my Syracuse and I football player and that was the first time I saw some of the business aspects of it. And his also he was a running back and his, the other running back was Joe Morris, who played for the Giant, number one. He was a first round pick for the Giants. And so I got started with that and you know, at the time I didn't see it as a business. I just happened to live with. And by the way, when I live with a, in 1978, when I live with a black football player, that was not a norm or common thing.

Okay.

You know, hung out white people, black people hung out with black people. Once in a while you cross paths. But, but you know, I have no. You know, I come from a house that, you know, that just. That just wasn't a problem for me.

Yeah.

It was a great learning experience. Little did I know, which I always say, everything happens in life for a reason.

Yep.

And believe in divine intervention. I did. I know how important that relationship was going to be. Because as much as you may like, whether it's Asian people, people of color, whatever it is, but there is fundamental difference between all of us, you know, the way we live and some of our habits. And living with a black person was just tremendous education.

Okay.

You learn a lot about. And then, sure enough, here I am getting into the sports business, dealing with a lot of players of color, dealing with a lot of different nationalities, and it really. My eyes were wide open to it. So just a little bit of the lingo and understand how to talk with them and. Yeah, being much more. Well, you know, players can feel that.

Totally.

And I think it helps. Minor sports going.

So what year did you start sports?

This is my 30th year. Yeah, it's my 30th year.

Wow. Congrats.

It makes me old. That was kind of like before you were born, probably.

I. I was born in 2000.

Yeah. So, you know, we got this going. A little bit ahead of you.

Okay. A little bit.

I didn't think I was going to be around for 30 minutes, let alone 30 years.

Okay. So. So with Steiner Sports, like, when you first started that, what was the intent for it and how has it progressed into what it is today?

It's. It's a great question. And. And what's interesting, you know, I. I started a company with about 10 or 15 other people. And those 10 or 15 people, by the way, are not in business. And the reason is, is because they all went into business with an idea, and they were really firm and strong about their idea. And I went into my idea with. I always say, it's not survival the fittest. You probably read that in school. You heard about that. It's flexible. So I went in. I started my company extremely flexible. I was in the restaurant hotel business. I've been trained. I've been in the kitchen and been working since I'm. So when I started Steiner, I was really just doing PR for restaurants and sports bars. I had started the sports bar concept, and I was doing a lot of marketing for restaurants. And then on the side, I was doing some stuff. You know, I do a little here and there for sports.

Yeah.

And I built my sports business. But you got to remember in the mid-80s, you know, it was no real sports business. It was img. There's a couple of companies. It wasn't like it is. So I think it's important to know, like it's not that I didn't love the business that I started, it's that I knew I was going to grow into something else. And I was flexible looking for what that something else was. But at the same time I was pretty committed into doing a good job for marketing restaurants and hotels. It's one of my favorite. I get to speak to when I go around the country.

I speak.

I love hotels and restaurants because it's kind of like my starting ground. That's so I think, I think after a few years I started making some good relationships with players. And believe it or not, I mean, I'm not gonna lie here, I was doing fan mail. I was opening up player male. Okay. Like doing golf outings for them.

Yeah.

Really stuff. And I was just really just trying to find any kind of work that would give me the ability to have to call a player up. And I got a little lucky. I started in the early 90s, right around 91, 92, believe it or not. The way we're going through a retail disaster blow up where nobody's going to retail anymore.

Yeah.

But in the early, all these superstores were opening up like Mall of America's, Kmarts, Walmarts. Mason was expanding. Everyone was expanding. So all these retail accounts, I had a couple of friends that sold were vendors. And every time all these stores opened up, they would make the vendors bring players. Okay. But in 91 92, I did several thousand appearances. I opened up more malls and stores around the country.

Wow.

That was probably getting of Steiner just meeting, you know, the Johnny Unitises or Bobby Halls and Gordie Howes and all these old school names that were much bigger names 25 years ago. Kind of how things kind of transferred over from the. In the retail boom. Like now the way the ad is in social media, you've got to convert the ability to market players to social media companies or through companies that use social media. And that's how you make that postal player showing up for a store and 300 people maybe come and sign an autograph for them.

Yeah.

Now you get a guy on social media doing something to get you interested in the product. That's kind of how the changeovers happen first.

So yeah, I was about to ask like, would you. How do you think the Internet and social media has like impact in the sports space since you've Been doing it for 30 years.

I mean, I think, you know, what's. What's. What's kind of the same, believe it or not, is that it's very hard for athletes to understand that just because you're popular doesn't mean that you're, you know, you can be popular, but you have to. You have to understand why you're popular and who you're popular with. Yeah, any business, you know, and athletes are a business. Everybody's their own entity, really.

Yeah.

But a lot of athletes think they're popular because they're. They're popular. But you got to understand why is attract. You respect it. So what's. What's. And it's always difficult. Like, all these athletes want to have their own brands, but yeah, it's. You know, to build a brand, you got to know who your customer is. So you got like an offensive lineman who's this lunch pale guy, and, you know, lovable big dude, 350 pounds. And yeah, you know, he's a Mercedes commercial. Like, I mean, you know, you need to do a Ford pickup truck. Like. Yeah, you know, I'm really. I'm. I'm. I'm kind of with you because you're this big guy. I'm this big guy. And so it's amazing how athletes, you know, you got to learn to say no. You got to understand how to cultivate your brand. And I think that the social media really gives the individual athlete a lot more power to work in on their own, do their own thing, where before they kind of need the league or they need the players association.

Yeah.

Now you can go create your own. Following your own business, I think a lot easier. I think where the athlete struggling a little is trying to figure out, besides getting paid to post. Yeah, I monetize that. And that takes some strategy. Who should I be hooked up with? What other social or companies have influence? Do I want to hook up with and connect with and making sure they don't connect with the wrong ones. But I think the. The celebrity now is as strong and as powerful in the 30 years I'm doing this.

Yeah.

I don't remember a time when the celebrity has been stronger.

Totally.

Yeah. So, guys, you. I mean, influencers now have now creeped into it. So, yeah, entrepreneurship is hot. Whereas, you know, those are those, you know, if you're an entrepreneur, you know, you carry a lot of weight in this life. You know, people really respect there's. And so if you're an athlete, you have to be an influencer to get the full Respect.

Totally.

You got to hours. Yeah.

So when was your. I would say transition? Because obviously we connected on Instagram. When was your transition as a business owner to, like, start putting out content on social? I saw that you recently did a interview with Susan Sly. I know. I know Susan and her daughter. They're great people. I met him down in Phoenix. But when was your transition as an individual to, like, start building your brand on social in a sense?

Well, you know, I've been playing around with, you know, the Internet and social pretty regularly, but believe it or not, I. I invited. I don't know if you ever met this kid, Connor Blakely.

Dude, he wanted me to bring it up. Great friend of mine.

Phoenix. I'm in Phoenix at the Harvey McKay Roundtable. Right. Which, you know, listen, my son is about 27. One of my favorite lines from my science is, dad, you can't go out and meet enough people, especially different types of people, you know? And. And Harvey's favorite line is, don't meet people that do exactly what you do. You got to meet different people. Yeah. So I go to the McKay roundtable, which I love. Harvey.

Yep, I know Harvey.

I run into Connor, and I had never met a 178 year old. I didn't really understand, you know, I'm dropping out of school. I got my own business, whatever. So I pulled Connor aside. I said, dude, you need to come and hang out with me for a few days. I like your game, but you will rough around some spots. Like, I think you need to come. And. And I've said that to a few different people over here, but most people don't come. But Connor came, like, two months later, spent, like four days in my house. Okay, so we're playing back. I got an indoor. I got an indoor court at my house.

Okay.

So playing hoops and kind of says, look, I'm gonna bring over a couple friends. And he brings over this one guy, Dylan, and another guy, another kid, Jesse. And Dylan runs Generation Z Summit.

Okay. Yeah, I know. Yep. I know him.

So you know a good group. I like that. And he goes, would you do me a favor? Would you come and speak at my conference? So I say, I don't speak for free. I don't think so. By the time we finished balling and everything, I was like, you know something? I'm not doing anything. I'm coming. Yeah, I was a little hesitant. This was like, all teenagers. And so I go speak at the Generation Z Summit, and I'm definitely about 40 years old than anybody in the room, so I Was nervous. I was like, I don't know if I'm going to the kids. And I got to tell you, I love these kids. And it was the beginning of something tremendous for me because there was probably about 800 kids in the audience and I definitely made friends. I mean, I met all of them because I was there for five hours signing my book.

Yeah.

But I, we made friends with about 15 of them that followed up with me, came to my house, came up to the office and they really educated me and mentored me. We got into two way mentorship.

Yeah.

Because I've always been a lot of kids, but I haven't been mentored.

Totally.

And these kids, these kids clearly mentored me, starting with Connor, Jesse, Dylan. I mean, so Elliot Robinson. So many kids and they show how to set up Swish. So many kids show me how to set up my LinkedIn, my Instagram, but not only to set it up. It's a lot of older people like me, they think just by setting it up and posting once in a while that they're active.

Yeah.

Posted. Commented once in a while. Like they really dug down deep with me. I mean, literally in my house for hours. Show me how to post, show me how to really create a relationship with my, with, you know, the people that were LinkedIn with. And that was the game changer. I did something I was uncomfortable with.

Yep.

Did some I really didn't want to do and it ended up being one of the best things I did. And then my wife was like, where are you going? It's like midnight. Said, well, you know, we're going to the diner. She's like, you're not going to sleep, so the kids are hungry. I'm like, I gotta tell you, man, it's been a tremendous education.

That's amazing.

I think a real game changer for me that, that was phenomenal. And kind of was the guy who really started it.

That's amazing. Yeah, me and Connor, we kind of go back like two years. Great friend of mine, Art.

And you know, I really have a new respect. Not that I didn't, not maybe it's not the word new respect, but I just have a really great understanding now of a lot of the way now teenagers right now are thinking, yeah, kids in their early 20s. It's unbelievable. And I got a lot of confidence in where that group is going.

That's amazing.

You know, just, oh, phenomenal grind and grit and the ability to get, get stuff done. And it's been beautiful. And that's the revelation, you know, I Went from. I think I had like 50,000 people on my Facebook. I think I had a million three. I think I had like.

Yeah, you're crushing it.

You're crushing. They turn everything around for me and the right way.

Okay, so the real question I think Connor would like this is, who won in hoops?

Well, Connor, we smacked Conor around the first time because he throws a bunch of older guys.

Okay.

But in all defense, in all honesty, like, so we did smack around the first time. We killed him.

Okay.

Then he. When he back. When he's been back, he must have got. Went to a trainer or his game is elevated.

Okay.

I love the competitiveness. And I'm like, so he came back all fiery and so he's got his game together, so that's cool for sure.

No, no, Connor, he's a great friend of mine. He was actually just down at the Bill Drum Bar House, like last week. He's always stopping by. But I want to touch on something. I think this is something that a lot of people, if they don't know exactly your story, that they would love to know more about it. I know that I picked up your book yesterday and I started reading it on my flight this morning, and obviously on the front cover it says how a kid from Brooklyn started from scratch, bought Yankee Stadium and created a sports empire. And I think the statement that I want to go over is when you go over and say, bought Yankee Stadium, I want you to kind of touch on that for the people that may not know that story and kind of explain how that happened.

Sure. I was partners with the Yankees. It's been a tremendous relationship. And that partnership took a while to develop, but the Yankees gave me an opportunity to team up with them. So we sell their game, use all the. We do experiential stuff with them. Their game, use jersey, the bases, their pitching rubber, all that stuff.

Yeah.

When I'd done that deal, I'd ask the Yankees if they ever decide to do a new stadium. The old stadium was like one of a kind. I said, I really want to really take that stadium down. I have a vision about how I want to do it. And it was a big undertaking. So when that time came, they called me and said, look, we're going to give you an opportunity to do that. Which was a huge opportunity. We had to lay out about $18 million to do it.

Okay.

It was a little bit. A little hefty, you know, for. To buy a stadium that was about to get knocked down and pull out all the remaining assets.

Yeah.

And figure out how to sell from dirt to grass. We sold more grass. Over a million dollars. Legal. Legal. We lift the last field of grass and we freeze dried it. Drums and drums of dirt made hundreds of products for the last Yankee stadium dirt. The outfield walls, the foul poles, the locker room. So I had a kind of a really vision about how I wanted to do that. And I think the real key is I. And I think people underestimate it. But it's one thing we had a great project under your belt.

Yeah.

It's another thing to have a great partner. You know, great projects only end up working out with great results when you have a great partnership. And I feel like the Yankees, they. They help me for all the right reasons, not just the money. They stay understood their brand is so important.

Yeah.

But a lot of people say that, but then they don't really back it up. The Yankees back up. They understood the brand and the importance of that stadium. The emotional connection. You think about, you know, Mantle, all the things that happen, all the world series. And they understood that taking that stadium apart delicately.

Yeah.

Because we knew what a big moneymaker, made a little money. We're not really. It was really a love and more importantly to take care of the fans.

Yeah.

And what I. That the Yankees were extremely patient with me to make sure that process went right and they supported it and helped me promote it. And a lot of other teams that I've done this with. This is not the only team I've done this with. The only. I have taken apart others. But nobody has acted like the way the Yankees did. And believing my story and believing what the path we should take and then helping and adding to it. And I'm very grateful. I mean it's a. It's a. It's. You gotta have a love affair with a project like that for sure. Sometimes, you know, so much pressure on revenue growth and reoccurring revenue. And sometimes you just got to do shit for the right reasons because it's just right and it's good for your customers. And I always say promotions are for people, not for profits.

Okay.

Objects are for people, not for profit. But it's hard, you know, when you get to your p. L. To. To live with it. But we did and there was a four year project.

Okay. Wow. That's. And what year was that?

It was 2000. It started in 2000, the end of 2008 and went to about 2012 or 13.

That's super cool. So one thing that I wanted to ask you was in, in the book you got to have balls. On one of the pages it says you said, find your passion through commitment as opposed to the other way around. And when I first read that, it didn't really stick with me. So I wanted you to explain that to not only me, but my audience, because I think that's something super powerful that I definitely wanted you to touch on and explain more in depth.

Well, you know, you hear the word passion all over the place, and I get that. I mean, passion, yeah, I'm passionate, but I think sometimes you search for passion and it's. It doesn't kind of work that way. I have to add something. Even since I've written that book, I think the most important thing, like when I walk around my office, I look for people that I talk to, a lot of the CEOs, the bosses, and they're looking for loyalty or hardworking. No, I look for people that agree with me or we have an agreement and understand what we're trying to do together.

Okay.

Show me an employee that's hard working, but they don't agree with you. Show me a girlfriend or boyfriend that maybe they like you, but they don't necessarily agree with you and you. And where's that relationship really going?

Yeah.

So the first initiator, I always think, and I talk about the Living on Purpose book, is the initiator. Everything is a purpose and a dream, not passion.

Yeah.

Dreaming something of having a purpose and then coming up with. With an understanding and agreement of what it's going to take to get it done.

Yeah.

So when you're working for someone, it's so important that you come up with an understanding with them and agree what they're telling you to do or what you're asking them to do and have an understanding and agreement. Because if you don't have that, then you're always going to be questioning the whole thing.

Yeah.

Or what are you looking at? Doing the next thing or maybe leaving, going somewhere else. When you have understanding and agreement, which. When I walk around, my company have about 75 employees.

Okay.

I'm looking at people saying, do I have an understanding and agreement with these people? Because if I do, the next thing that follows is commitment. Because once we have an understanding where. Once we have an understanding, we agree.

Yeah.

Your commitment, we're going to go anywhere else. I have an understanding with that person.

Yeah.

Then you. And when you have an understanding, agreement and commitment, you. Then passion follows and it flows.

Okay.

So it's upstanding, agreement, commitment, and then passion and everything gets initiated. The roots Underneath the tree, if the trunk is commitment.

Yeah.

Under that tree, the roots is purpose. Dreaming.

Got it.

Have a reason why you want to do something. And it could be a money grab, by the way. Could be, you know, you just. You're trying to find a prom date and you're committed. You know you're gonna do anything to do it.

Yeah.

Once you have purpose and a real vision of something you want what's getting in your way, and then, you know, getting an understanding how you're gonna go get it and. And agree that you're going to go do it. So, like, it's like you go on a diet. I'm going to go on a diet.

Yeah.

But it's going on a diet because you want to go fit into the clothes that you have. You don't fit into the suit you have, or you're fitting into the have. Now you understand. And then all of a sudden, understanding and agreement comes in. I got to eat less.

Yeah.

Working or. And then you get committed. But if you just go on the diet and you don't have an understanding agreement how it's hard to get committed because.

Yeah.

Minutes later you can be.

That makes sense. No, I love it. I love it.

So one thing, one thing real quick is like, you know, lighting up on the passion increase purpose and dreaming especially. I mean, dreaming is so powerful and so cheap. It's free.

Yeah.

And then get an understanding and agreement that leads you to commitment. And once you're there, man, you're on your way because you'll see the passion just going to start flowing.

Yeah, for sure. So what they want to ask you is, like, there's a lot of young people that are, I would say, 16 to 25. That's the average listener base. And I want to ask you, was, like, when you were first starting your business, what was that first? I would say success. That sort of, like, built that momentum internally for you, that, like, helped you keep going. Because I. I talk to a lot of young people at different events or even doing interviews, and I feel like everyone has that one little pivot point. You may or may not, but do you have that point in your life where you, like, you had that success?

I mean, I've had so many at Steiner, but for me. And that's why I'm so. When I talk with, you know, people that are younger, before even you start a lot of your success and happens before you start your business, you know, when you're trying and sampling different things, it's so important. And I'd say Well, this is not my business, so let me just see how this goes. Like, I always took everything really seriously. So even when I was starting to work at 10 and 12 years old, those projects are the things that gave me the confidence that I went. Eventually I went on my own, you know, I killed it. And when I wasn't doing it, I had the ability to pick myself up, dust myself off and keep going. So I think it's so important when you're younger is not to play off the fact that you're younger and you got time to learn. And, you know, this is not really my company. I ran everything like it was my company. Okay. I was in the room, was my company. Because if you do, if you, if you have that kind of focus, then when you're making those mistakes, you're not. You're not. It's like, it's almost like when I see kids practicing and they're just fooling around, I'm like, yeah, if you're not practicing a game, speed. What? Really? I hope if you're not practicing in game mode.

Yeah.

Or you're in a complete. I mean, how much is that practice helping you? And that's why I tell kids, it's like, even though you're not ready, maybe ready to open up your own business yet as you're practicing, which is sometimes what you do as a Teenage, early 20s.

Yeah.

Practice at home. Speed. Just because you're working in a restaurant, make believe you own the goddamn thing. Be the owner of that restaurant. Why not?

Yeah.

So, you know, the loss isn't as severe, but the experience is.

Got it.

I've had a lot of moments where I've had those. Aha. Moments that give me that confidence. And a lot of them in high school and college that, you know, I just dreamt up shit.

Yeah.

Tried sampled stuff and then boom. Like, wow, I can't believe what I put together. Boatload of money. At least back then I thought it was a boatload of money.

Yeah. Yeah, for sure. So. So where do you spend most of your time nowadays on a day to day basis? Like, are you in the office? Are you out and about? Like, where's your time being allocated nowadays?

You know, I'm a little bit of a different cat. I am a routine guy as far as, like when I go to sleep and some of my eating when I, when I get up and when I work out. Morning. But during the day, every day is different and I do a lot of media. So I'll be in the city doing some interviews.

Okay.

Sometimes I'm just focusing on my social media, calling customers up. I'm still a guy who likes calling customers up.

Okay.

Oats. The customers and customers are shocked because we have so many cut. But I still like making a sale. So, you know, my company is not big enough where I have to, you know, I still can get into the nitty gritty on things.

Yeah.

But the most important thing, which I just want to add to your question, which is what's probably one of the most important parts of my job? And I think, you know, for anyone listening, that's, that's, you know, preparing one day to open up a business. I think talent acquisition is critical. Being to find people and keep people and really understand how to get good people is probably the hardest thing I've experienced In all the 30 years I've been running a business is, you know, not only finding and getting the people, but keeping them and understanding how, you know, how employees think and trying to get do the right thing by them. And I have done a good job in that area and I've definitely screwed up and I wish I had done a bunch of junctures and, and listen, you look at a sports team, right? What's the real deal? I mean, if you're rooting for a sports team, I mean, how good is the general manager ownership? Only as good as talent acquisition. Right.

Makes sense.

Company like, you know, being a senior level manager, if you're not focused in on your employees and on finding the best employees and trying to keep the best employees and losing the worst employees, you're probably not doing what I consider the most important part of your job.

Okay, Makes sense. And you said you have 75 people full time in house now.

Yeah, we, we've had as many as a hundred.

Okay.

But you know, with, you know, so much online now, we don't need as many people. So we're down to about 75 or 80 between full time and part time. In the 70s. Full. I'm another 5 or 10 part time.

Okay, that's amazing. So you said morning routine.

You said amazing's a word. I'd say a little bit of a pain in the ass, but on certain days it's a blessing.

Yeah. So, so, so what would you say if you had to simplify it, like from when it comes to keeping people and like actually find you say talent acquisition, like obviously I heard this quote one time where it's like, find character, build talent. Or I'm not sure exactly how it goes, but what would you say is like the key to actually building a company and a culture that people want to be a part of.

Well, there's a line that I've been using since I'm a kid, which is, you know, fill your people's mind with training rather than in trouble. So training and challenging was critical. But there's another little. Like, there's this other thing out there. Like a lot of people talk about happy, you know, you want to be happy. I see. I'm not happy. I'm like, no, no. I don't even know what that means. I don't really know.

Okay.

Are you going to come to work and you're trying to find happiness at work. But what you really mean, I think where people get confused. But again, to answer your question, you have to create progress and growth for your people, personal growth. You have to create situations where they're growing as people growing as business people.

Yeah.

And challenging people. When you're challenged and growing, I would say if you're green and growing or you're ripe or rotten and you want to try to avoid people from getting ripe.

Got it.

And it doesn't matter. People like, well, I've been here 20 years, blah, blah, blah, day. I'm like, you're green or growing or you're right for ride. And you. To keep your people happy to. I think one of the core things in culture is to challenge your staff. Create great learning environment where they're not only learning about more about business and sales, but they're learning about health. They're learning about how to be better people. They're learning about how to be a better husband, better wife.

Yeah.

Other friend. You know, I try to bring a diverse amount of speakers here that teachers my staff at all aspects of life, not just selling. And I think growth is a huge part in progress. So as an. As a business, like, you know, growing your business is important because then your people can grow.

Yeah.

Wanting to be the best and then doing the things you need to do to be the best and stay the best is something that keeps your people happy.

Makes sense.

And it's hard. If you're working for a company that isn't the best in its category or close to being the best or on its way to being the best. What does that say about your company? And then what does that say about you? Like, why? Why? If you. I mean, what kind of person are you? Means that you're just in for the ride and you're in for. Matter of fact, you're on the fast track to mediocrity. And it's nothing wrong with it, but it's just a question you want to ask yourself if you're working somewhere like. And I always felt like if I was going to work for someone else, I wanted to work for a high quality company. It was growing. That was going to challenge me where I can learn the most. No reason to work for someone else unless I was going to be learning a lot. And I'm challenged and that was my goal. And I felt like I got that in my work experiences.

Okay. I was about to ask, how many jobs did you have or how many companies did you work for before you started your own?

How much time do you have? I've been working since I'm 10. But the most significant ones were, you know, I started as an original run of Hard Rock Cafe back in 84.

Okay.

That was a great opportunity right when Hard Rock was beginning. Later, they're still rocking.

Yeah.

But at the beginning, there was only two hard rocks before the hotel, everything else.

That's so cool.

Imagine what I walked away from. Imagine the therapy I'd be in right now. But, you know, so you got to be careful sometimes, you know, you may be in a better situation than you think. So don't run so quick. I may have been running from that situation quicker than I should have.

Okay.

But I kind of dream and I want to do my own thing. But I'm very grateful to the Hard Rock. And then also Hyatt Hotels at the time, in the early 80s, was a really serious hotel chain that was growing and had a great management training program, which was huge because I never really worked in a corporate environment I wanted where I had to wear like a navy suit every day and, you know, a red tie and all that crap. My hair short, you know, at the time I had really long blonde hair. My boss made a clip, you know, sent me home to get a haircut. Who clip my. So it was a good experience in getting, you know, kind of that corporate feel of how money gets made. Yeah, I thought it was important for me to work in those kind of environments. I had some other jobs and I worked full time in college and close to full time in high school, believe it or not. So I had quite a bit of job experience.

Okay, that's amazing.

I think it's important. I think a lot of young kids are so quick, they want to start their own thing. But it isn't about coming up with a good idea. It's the strategy and the experience in being able to hire fire, the financing, the accounting. There's A lot of aspects to a business.

Yeah.

And I always tell, like, listen, take five, six years, go learn from some people that know what they're doing, have been doing it, and learn how business gets done and made. Make some relationships, you'll come up with another idea. Yeah, but some people, you know, some ideas are not worth waiting for. You got to run with it. You try. But it's hard to come right out of school, right out of high school school and get your own business started and rock and roll. But I've seen some successful kids do it, so I'm not opposed to it if you feel like the time's right. I felt like when I got out of school, even with all the work experience, I still waited seven, eight years before I did it.

Okay, makes sense. That's cool.

So my mother was like, she was like, you don't even have to go to college. You've been working. You're probably ready to do your own thing now.

Okay.

But I wanted to go to want to get more well rounded. When I got out of school, she was like, I think you should just go work for some really good companies because you're going to want to do something bigger than just big. And it's true. I do want to do something that's cool. Go work for some good companies. And I think you should really learn how a bigger company works so it won't be so much of a surprise to you if you, if you build something up. And that was the best advice my mother had given me.

Wow, that's amazing. That's so, so going into, I mean, excuse me, graduating high school, it was your focus on going to Syracuse. That was your major focus. Because the main question I want to ask is a lot of people that are listening, they're either in high school. For myself, I graduated high school in June this year. So it's a lot of a younger demographic. So, like, what was your day to day life in high school? Where were you spending your time and how have you taken from your childhood when it comes to like tactics that you use today from like a personality standpoint?

Well, I mean, first of all, like other high school kids, you know, my time was on, you know, first of all, I was working about 30, 35 hours a week, so time was tight. My time management skills were really going into effect there.

Okay.

It's like everybody chasing girls, trying to party as much as I can.

Yeah.

And I was a late bloomer, so I never looked at a girl until I was like almost 17.

Okay.

And then looked At a drink or anything like I wasn't supposed to do until, like, 17. So I was like one of these, like, just played ball at school and work.

Yeah.

So things are pop when I got in high school. But working, I was very into the business. I love business. You know, Future Business Leaders of America was taking advanced accounting. But let me be clear about one thing. First of all, I went to a pass fail high school. So I had no grades. It was an experimental school. My mother didn't want me to go to a competitive school because she knew I would try to make the football team. I'd be like Rudy and you know, work, never make. I was never talented enough to make those teams, but I would have done anything just to get on them. I'm sure the coach knowing how hard I would have worked. Sorry about that. So. So, you know, it wasn't like. It wasn't, you know, I had no money and I had 760 on my boards combined.

Okay.

So I wanted to tell the kids, like, first of all, don't believe all the hype. I mean, all your friends are going here, going there. And I'd say, listen, it's not where you start, it's where you finish. I had a lot of friends that got into Harvard, got all these Ivy Leagues, and they can't bend over tighter. Shoelaces, you do your thing. Don't get caught in the hype. There's all these schools, like, I don't know. I mean, the whole process of getting into colleges and everything is way, way overblown up, and I don't even know if it's fair. Okay. I mean, but, you know, I figured how to finagle my way into Syracuse because of all the extracurricular work that I did.

Yeah.

Grades, no money. I went to the most expensive school in New York State.

Wow.

So, you know, it really, you know, listen, when you want to get what you want, you know you want to get what you want, it really comes down to you making a sale, believing in yourself, and also making sure that you don't get too down if you don't get what you want right away. Like, people get crazy because they don't get what they want right away. Doesn't mean you still can't get one. Maybe you have to take a year off and go to a prep school. You have to take a year off and go local, get your grades up. Most kids don't realize after one year you can reapply to amazing schools and get in.

Yeah.

So I was happy going to Syracuse High school for me was a lot of work, was some fun and, you know, quite a lot of different things. Like I worked in a hospital emergency room. We had a four on one program.

Okay.

So my senior year, I worked in an emergency room in a crazy hospital one day a week.

Wow.

It was kind of like Grey's Anatomy. Yeah.

Yeah.

My friends, my friends was. His father was a doctor.

Okay.

He said, listen, you gotta come, you gotta. My dad wants me to be a doctor. I said, I definitely don't want to be a doctor. I'm not going. He goes, I'll buy you every Friday we go to do this thing. Lunch is on me every week. I said, done, done.

Experience.

So, you know, I always was somebody like tried different things.

Yeah.

And I'm grateful that I did try that. I tried a lot of different things. And, and again, I was working mostly in the food business. I was in the restaurant business, working banquets, catering. I baked bagels when I was in high school. So that was another trade that I picked up at age, that kind of thing.

Totally. So I, I have like two more questions and I want to kind of touch on something that you spoke about at the beginning regarding giving gifts. And I think that's something that you talked about regarding to networking and being a gift giver and actually being passionate about that. When did that philosophy start? And what would you say is like the key to actually building lifelong relationships?

You know, it's funny, I just. I'll show you this here. It's a bag of. I mean, I used to have a card rack in my office. I've always done this. So like this is just what I bought yesterday. Car cards, pens.

Okay.

You can see that. And behind me is drawers of hundreds of greeting cards. I used to make my own cards with rub ons and send them to clients.

Okay.

And it's been like one of my little secrets. Like again, it's not the big gift, it's the thoughtful gift. And I started that literally like out of college. Always differentiating my letters, communication. So it's easy to text, it's easy to send an email. Takes a few minutes to write out a card if you have an unusual card. I keep two or three hundred greeting cards all day, depending on the situation.

Yeah.

And I keep hundreds of different kinds of pens. So all my notes and cards are creative and it stands out. And I've been doing that literally since I started Steiner.

Wow.

Even before started Steiner. And it's a great tip. Especially now if I was a young kid with so many People use the crutch of texting and social media and there's nothing wrong with it. It's, it's step. But my message is not all communication is equal.

Okay.

I don't, I used to be like, ah, texting school, email's cool, messages on it, all that's cool. But how do you differentiate yourself?

Okay.

And I still think because so few people are doing it and I get so little mail now, mailing a nice little note card or a small little token gift or a little something is cool.

Yeah.

And I've been working that gamut for a long time. I can't tell you how many, it's not going to lie, how many women clients that I would personally hand make a car with rub ons and different color stuff and then they would. Unbelievable. I remember sending and somehow, I mean that's all good in business. But you know, I remember my wife, I met when I was 17, but I hadn't seen her and we got back together again. I was, I started courting her again.

Okay.

And I enter. So we, we got together over Christmas and I sent her Valentine's Day on January 14th. She calls me up and says a handmade card, gorgeous. She says, you know, Valentine's Day is February 14th. Are you sure you didn't make a mistake here? I didn't make a mistake. I just want to make sure my car got there first, early and very clear to anybody who's thinking about sending no way the hell away. My valentine. And you know, she loved that.

That's amazing.

And like that's the kind of stuff like I remember the lady at Macy's, I was trying to get her on the phone for three months. I sent her a card, I had this commemorative plate and I sent her a Hank Aaron signed baseball. And I said, I said, look, I know you got a lot on your plate, but I'm getting a lot of home runs with you.

Oh my lord. Oh, this is the ticket.

Three months, not even a return call. I get a return call the next day with a line list of accounts and business and appearances. Really love that. If that's the kind of creativity you're going to be bringing, I love you and I'm giving you all my business. Never thought. I just sent her a commemorative plate. I found out who one of her favorite players were.

Okay.

And then I sent them the Hank Aaron bowl. I said, we're gonna be hitting a lot of home runs just like Hank Aaron did. I know you got a lot on your plate, but I going to take all that off your plate and help you.

Oh, that's amazing. That this is. That's the most valuable thing I've heard this entire time. That's amazing.

If every time I go on a sales pitch, I find out wherever city I'm going to, I find out who the decision maker's favorite player is or favorite team or the kids, I send them a ball. Okay, pitcher. I said, I hope you're looking forward to my pitch. Tom Siever, Gaylord.

Wow.

Armor. I sent him a ball in a nice case. I said, I'm really excited about meeting with you. I hope you're looking forward to my pitch.

That is amazing. That is the key. That is the key. It works. It works. That's amazing. So, last question to wrap it up. And I just want to say that I'm gonna. I'm taking notes immensely right now, and I appreciate that and I know a lot of people listening are as well. But I want to touch on the book because I know that's. That's the reason that we started this podcast and I looking forward to reading it as well. I. You sent it out and I got it yesterday and I was reading it on the flight as well, but living with purpose. I want to kind of just go to the roots of it. Like you said, there's the roots of the tree, and that's the purpose when was. And I know that you touched on this right at the beginning, but as we wrap this up, I wanted you to kind of express yourself on what was the day or the timeframe or maybe an event that you had said, aha. Let me. I want to write this book and I want to do it for a specific reason. Was there a time in your life that that happened?

It happened a few different times. I thought about it then. I was a little hesitant. There's two things. One is I read all my reviews on Amazon, so I'm reading this one you on the balls book, which we did really well. We sold a lot of those books and still sell a lot of those books.

Yeah.

And one of these. One of the people that wrote I didn't get a lot of negative reviews, but one of them was like, how convenient it is for Brandon Steiner. Everything seemed to fit right into one another. I mean, I don't know. Nice. Everything worked out. And he kind of was ripping on me that I wasn't transparent about some of the hardships and dark side of how I created Steiner.

Okay.

And I hard. I was like, I tried to be transparent, but maybe I wasn't as Transparent as I could have been. So that was the initiator.

Okay.

What really started the book was, is when I sold STEINER Back in 2000, I became wealthier than I ever thought I was going to be. I was standing in front of 437 Madison. And I'm not complaining, by the way. I'm just explaining. So blast them. So ha. I mean, really not giving back the money. But, you know, you have this moment when you're growing up so poor. And I never have to work another day the rest of my Life. I was 40 at the time. And I realized when I got. I was on top of this ladder thinking I was going to be the man, and I was bankrupt.

Okay.

You know, feeling right. I wasn't healthy. I wasn't really the parent I wanted to be part the of. Probably could have been a better friend, a better husband.

Yeah.

Feeling like something was missing. And I went on this. I just really went on a rampage the same way. And I say to people that are listening, if you spend 90% of your time just figuring out, do the money grab. And I get. I respect the money grab.

Yeah.

Don't be surprised when you wake up at 40 and all you know how to do is the money grab. You got to spend some time growing and learning about the other aspects of the. About, you know, everything socially, all that stuff. You got to go to conferences to learn how to be a better spouse. You got to put the same, not the equal time into the other stuff, into your health, fitness. So as I was going through this process, and that's how I developed my blog and brought, you know, my blog.

Yeah.

750,000 people get my blog now. Wow. And as developing that, I'm reaching out to some of the highest quality people that could teach me the most. I just felt like I wanted to share that with my friends and family and people that my customers. And before you know it, it started really spiraling.

Yeah.

That's what said, you know, put this in a book.

Okay.

So to people out there, I'll say this, like, money does not solve all problems. So I know you're out there. I know priorities to make a lot of money. So you have a big or. But there's a limit to what you could do with money, especially if your health's not right, if you have nobody. And I'd say if you're. If you're into making money, go for it, man. Make as much money as you can. I'm not here. But I am here to say, keep your eye on the other stuff though, don't ignore it. There's no such thing as work life balance. Like that's. I'm not going to tell you to sit there, go home at 5 and all that.

Yeah, yeah.

You're on a roll. Roll. Don't walk away from the table. Keep rolling. Yeah, but if you're on a roll for two or three years and you haven't really eating right or you're not exercising, that's a problem.

Yeah.

So if you go to brandonstein.com by the way, you can get the blog.

Totally.

But today if you go, I'm giving away 2222 rules of my favorite parts of negotiating. So all you have to do is go to brandonstein.com you'll get this incredible packet of my favorite 20 rules for negotiating. And then there's a special discount on the book. You get the ball book free when you buy the living on purpose. Just I set that up for you because know we were going to do this.

Totally.

So you get book and you get this book and the ball, you get the balls book free and then you get the 22 laws of negotiating, which is probably worth the $20 you're buying the book for anyway. Yeah, 22 laws of negotiates. And it's not typical negotiating tactics.

I will tell you for sure and I'll make sure everyone listening, I'll make sure that link is down below that so you can check that out. And last thing, so that that's the best place for them to find the book. Correct.

I mean you could get on Amazon, Barnes and Noble too, but if you go to, if you go on my site, you get 22 rules and you can get the free balls book too. So that's cool.

Amazing. Yeah, I'll make sure I put that down below everyone listening, make sure you take the time today to pick up the book Living with Living on Purpose. And I really, like I said before, Brandon, I really appreciate you coming on the show. I know that you're super busy and I'm gonna make sure that everyone listening to this really gets your message across. And overall, I just want to say thank you for coming on the show, man.

I'm looking forward to following you, man. I'm gonna use this app, the Time too. I love this app.

Absolutely.

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