"Unlock Your Potential: Reggie Brock Reveals 5 Hidden Roadblocks"

Hey, everybody, it is Jim Johnson, your host here with Contractor Radio, and we have a very special episode today because it's live. It's not often that we go live, but I have a guest today that deserves that kind of attention. It deserves this ability for those of you that are out there, to maybe have some engagement with our guest today. So feel free to make comments as we go throughout. We'll be paying attention as you got questions about things. Make sure you ask those questions. And I could not be more excited about what we're going to talk about today, because this guy has become one of my best friends over the last two and a half, almost three years now of getting to know him much better. We knew of each other before he took the time to come up to me and say, hey, I want to sit down and talk with you, a few years back. And it has been nothing but good since then. He is. He knows more about this industry than just about anybody I've ever met. He's been in all sides of it. Sides we love. Sides we don't. And he's going to bring a different perspective to our conversation today. I would like everybody that's watching right now to give us a little bit of thumbs up, a little bit of high fives. We're going to bring in the. The guru here, the guy that's always about, hey, I got something to say. When I'm done, I'm just going to shut up. Our man, Reggie Brock. Reggie, welcome aboard, my brother.

Hey, buddy. Thank you so much. And no higher compliment can be given than being called a friend, you know, and so I consider it likewise. I mean, over the last couple years, you and I have really gone deep together, and I'm very, very grateful for the time you've invested in me and our relationship. So, friend, it is good to be with you.

Amen to that. That's. It's funny, like, I think. I think people out there, because I'm on Facebook and, you know, Instagram and TikTok and all it thinks, think I have a lot of friends. And while I have many acquaintances that I love very much and even some friends that I care about a lot and care about me, those really true friends, those ones that you can open up to, be vulnerable with, hold you accountable. Yeah, that's a different kind of friendship, you know, we talk about all the time. It's. It's more of a fellowship. And you fall in that category. For me, yeah, there's super few. It's just not that many people like that. And so I saw your video last week and you told everybody, hey, I've left Beacon on good terms, of course, obviously, and you have something new that you're going to be doing. But before we get there, let's talk about the journey that's. That's led up to this. Really a kind of a big decision at this point in your life to maybe do something pretty cool. So the clue us into what happened.

So, yeah, I mean, it's a huge transition. I. I could not have been in a better spot. Very, very grateful for the time that not only I had a beacon, but really the last 13 years of my life. I've been in roofing since 19. I'm sorry, 2010, 9 or 10. I can't remember when you get my age, date, some kind of.

Kind of, you know, I would say problem.

Yeah. So somewhere around 2010, I got into roofing. And as you mentioned earlier, the journey that has led me to this moment is filled with varieties of different things I've done inside the industry. That for up until, like, six months ago, I thought, man, I've just been a nomad. I mean, that's what I thought. I mean, I've been here, I've been there, I've done this, I've done that. And then it dawned on me when I really started realizing that a change was coming for me is all of that experience has brought me to a place where I can speak on a lot of different areas with experience and some wisdom and some knowledge. And I noticed over the last 13 years, that's what people were calling me for. I mean, they were calling me about these different levels of experience that I've had just to get my opinion on it. And so all the journey and different places that I've been and just really, in the last year and a half, I've had opportunities to stand up in front of people and speak kind of what's in my heart and the life that flows out of me. And so you start connecting dots and I go like, you know, I think this is where I'm called to be for the fourth quarter of my life, whatever's left. And so the journey, though, it's looked confusing to my wife and me over the last couple years and probably to a bunch of others going like, dude, can you not stay anywhere more than like, three years? Or something like that. And it dawned on me that, that experiences, those experiences have given me a lot of width, right? And some depth into people being able to pull on me and go like, hey, what do you think about this, this and this. Not me making decisions for them, but being a resource for them. In some areas that had not I experienced them, I wouldn't be able to really comment on or at least hopefully be able to give them some advice.

Yeah, I found something similar. You know, it was, it was like a four or five year like lifespan at wherever I was. I would go in, I would, I would do a good job, I would usually get promoted, I continue to do a good job, very passionate, loved what I was doing. But once I would kind of like achieve what it was that I had set out to achieve with kind of got like, okay, it's just work now. It's just showing up another day that you kind of lose that passion. I talk about it quite a bit about finding that thing that fulfills who you are. And I just think so many of us get told who we are from the outside and we're trying to go after that instead of really listening on the inside. Have you seen that in others out there?

So I've, I've seen it really in my own life. Because when I've really analyzed this and look, is this a flaw in me? I mean, I've like looked at that and been like very serious about it and go like. And I'm not saying, I mean I clearly have a bunch of flaws, but I tried to look for is. Was there anything common in me throughout the journey that regardless of where I was at or who I was doing it with, it remained the same. What is that it. That constantly remained the same. And the it for me was always. I felt like my biggest obligation, desire in life. Obligation and desire in life was just to help people. I mean, how can I assist people? And I did it in a bunch of different ways. I mean from distribution to, you know, I did some, you know, I've worked in, you know, I worked at. And my work history is pretty well known, so I'm not going to bore everybody with that. But I spent 28 years before I got in roofing in the insurance world. And so I always was motivated by seeing people after encountering me in better shape, whatever that meant, you know, if it was, you know, I mean, you could just. Depending on what I was doing at the time, I walked away and felt like I had added value to their life. Listen, that caused them to be able to move forward. Right. Most of them were in a neutral gear or they had some questions about things that they really just didn't know how to handle. And I was able to kind of walk in. So the Commonality for me through all this journey change that I've had is a desire inside of me to make people better after they encountered me in whatever need they had. Somebody, my wife and I, Connie, told me. And you know, Connie, like, very direct about things. And, you know, there's not a lot of gray area in her life. And, you know, I don't remember how I brought this up. She's listening to this. So, honey, I'm paraphrasing. So she basically said somebody asked her what I do, and she said her response. And again, I'm paraphrasing, but it was like, he helps people get to a better version of themselves. And I thought, you know, that's really a good assessment of me is I really just desire, no matter what I've been doing, to be able to interact with people and help them get better at who they are so that their uniqueness can actually become a leverage point for them in life and to do things that really are in their heart. And so that's the commonality for me. And it's not. I mean, I first thought, like, well, you know, I'm just trying to justify whether I'm justifying or not. I think wherever I've been and whatever I've done, that's been the commonality in my life and all the changes.

So I don't know if. Were you anything like me? Like, yes, I 100% agree with you. You have a positive effect on anybody you come in contact with. There is no doubt about that. But did you notice over time as you were going through the different places that you were, that there was something there? Because I've reflected on this. For me, like, okay, why did I change all these different places? Was that for something, Some other reason? So I kind of look back and. And early on, I had landscaping business as a kid. My neighbor kind of encouraged it and built me up for it. And that just kind of instilled this entrepreneurial, like. And then I got into the health club world, and that gave me these sales skills that I didn't have before. And they invested heavily into me, and I kind of started my leadership journey. Then I got into some of my own businesses, a variety of different ones, and. And I learned different skills with understanding my finances and scaling a business. And then I got into the contracting world and I had to learn some leadership and things like that that I didn't have before and more business acumen that I didn't have before. And then I got into acculinx, and it was a whole different deal with software, and I had to learn how to communicate with different groups of people that I hadn't had to communicate with before. And each one of those places kind of built me into where I actually could be fulfilling and what I feel I'm called to do, which is to help contractors get control of their business so they can grow it and find freedom in their business. Did you notice kind of a track like that that you were improving as you went through each one of those places?

Yeah. And, you know, it's funny you said that I've had this positive impact on people. Honestly, I've had the exact opposite effect on as many people. Right. I mean, like, there are some people who receive you, some people who don't. There are some people who are going to see you as positive, and then you're going to have others that are sitting around, you know, wanting to argue with you or dispute you or whatever. That's just so. That never really bothered me that much. But, you know, what I felt like was that I had this distinct calling that matured everywhere that I went. And some of it, I absolutely believe, was the choices that I made regardless of the situation that I was in. And so I was very keenly aware that I probably wouldn't be where I was at at the particular time for a long period of time. So I wanted to maximize not just what I could do for people, but learn from people. So, like you, I mean, I have been exposed to some really, really smart people in each level of business that I've been much smarter than me, much more advanced than me. And so, yeah, I've been able to absorb. And then when a change came, then I was prepared for whatever that next was for me. And I'm grateful for the people that I've, that I really rubbed against, so to speak, in my past lives to help me to get to the moment that I am today.

So over this last year, what were the, like, key indicators for you that said, hey, I, I, there's something nudging at me, something pushing at me, something calling me that helped you go, I gotta do something different.

Yeah. So that's, I mean, that's the whole thing for me is, like, I think about the calls that I would get, and it's not just been the last year, but like the last 13 years. The last year has been really pressed in hard on me. And some things have happened that you're very aware of that have made me go like, you know, I've got to, I got to take a step or not. But One of the things, as I mentioned in my, my video the other day, is I would get, since I've been in roofing for 13 years, ish, my phone would ring and no one has ever called me because they've had professional failure. I mean, nobody calls me, goes like, my God, Randy, my business is, you know, in a mess, so to speak. And you know, they call people like you for stuff like that. Like, you know, and I'm not talking about just failures, but looking for business advice. Nobody was calling me about that. Everybody was calling me based in the same kind of area and that was in their personal inadequacies or failures or difficulties. And I think the reason for it is I've been very, very vulnerable and really, really open to my failures and the difficulties that I've created on my family. And I think some of the vulnerabilities that I've exhibited have sparked things in people to where they go like, you know, I, I've really kind of not dealt with this. I'm seeing it maybe now as something that's holding me back from progress, so to speak. I need to deal with it. And finally someone has started talking about it loud enough and honestly enough, meaning me, to where people are a little bit more comfortable opening up, right? And just saying, you know, hey man, I'm dealing with this. And you know, is there anything that you might suggest? And you know, you've done a lot of the same thing. I mean, this last three and a half years we've had this contractor fellowship call on Wednesday mornings. And a lot of that comes out of that, right? Just like where people are struggling with things that they get into a safe environment, right? And they're willing to talk and they've got people who not just coddle them, but will hold them accountable, right. And are willing to walk with them through whatever journey they're in. And so, yeah, that was the trigger point for me where I realized, you know what, you know, everybody's asking me about the same things. These are the things I'm interested in. These are the things I experience. It's time to step out and really get into that and do those things on a regular, full time basis.

So I've got a question because you said something there that was interesting to me that you were, you were willing to share your own vulnerabilities, which then opened up this bit of dialogue. Was there a pinnacle moment that you said, hey, I've got to start sharing this stuff, or was it gradual? Like what, what happened to say, you know, it's kind of okay to. To pull the. Pull the band aid back a little bit and share with everybody.

So when I started, I was going to. I started a podcast I was doing called Live Exposed. When John Dye and I were talking, he was help. He kind of helped me put that thing together. I would talk about titles and names of it, and he said, what about Live Exposed? Because you. And I say this very carefully around a bunch of roofers to expose yourself. That's the exposing.

Yeah, I always get a kick out of that title.

Yeah, I really need to be careful. But so I went to my wife and I said, hey, man, I'm thinking about Honey, I'm thinking about starting this podcast. And so I threw John under the bus when I said, he's given this name, where he suggested this name, thinking that she said, I hate it, then I could just blame him. And so she actually went, well, when I saw that. And again, I'm paraphrasing. She said, when I hear. I hear the word Live Exposed, she said, I hear the words that come to my mind is bacteria. And that is bacteria that lends up to the surface that nobody sees that ultimately can kill you and nobody would even know it. And the only way it goes away is if you lance it, open it up, expose it to light or oxygen. It will kill it.

Yeah, mine's living. It's not exposed right now. We're trying to be. Let it calm down a little bit first.

And so I started saying is, hey, let's just. I want to. Let's just get this out of our systems, right? And the only way you're going to do it is to be transparent about it. You're going to be vulnerable. You're going to be willing to open it up. Now you've got to find safe people and safe places to do that in. But as I just started declaring that more and more and more on my podcast and started sharing my own story, it was gradual and sudden at the same time because I was talking about things suddenly that I wasn't prepared to talk about on the podcast or speaking in front of people or talking to people on the phone. So it was gradual, but it was, like, very impactful. And it just grew to where it became something very lifestyle for me. And I'm now hearing other guys that are going talking a lot of the same way, not just about their massive successes, but the failures that they've experienced and the. The difficulties and the challenges that they've overcome. Let me tell you something. Those morsels of life that they Share out of their broken parts of their story, become life to somebody else. And so to me, it's now just a lifestyle. It's just like, let's talk about. Because I don't want anything hidden in me ever again because it has this tendency to poison me. And it has a cascading effect of affecting everything around me that's important, including my family. I don't want it. And so that's kind of the way the thing kick started for me.

So I don't know, it's probably a little over half a year ago you came to Nathan and myself and he said, hey, I'm really thinking about doing this thing. Can you help me kind of navigate this? Because you've seen us with the coaching thing and you're kind of taking a similar approach, but different. When you told us what you were going to do, I couldn't have been more excited. This, this idea of making better human beings, looking at people and looking at them as humans. What are the, what are the, the big things that, you know, I think there's five big things that you kind of notice about people. Let's talk about what those five are and then we can dig into each one.

So these are just what I call delays. These are roadblocks that are keeping people. Because the whole thing to me is about how do we straight stay in the motion of progress, you know, how do we keep moving forward? And many times the things that we. Before we can move forward, we have to deal with what I think these five issues are before we can ever experience progress that's lasting. Right? We can have moments, but I mean, I want barriers out of my way so I can stay in flow, right. I just want to keep moving and I, you know, if I have a setback, I take time for it, I deal with it and I move on. But there were over this 13 years, and really longer than that, these conversations I've had with leaders all across the country in our industry and some outside the industry. I started noticing something. The problems that they were having, these roadblocks that were holding their potential back from being unleashed, so to speak, were the same problems I was having and the same problems I would hear in other people have. So these are not the only five, but these are five that I found that are imperative in terms of having to deal with for us to maintain that lean into progress. The first one to me was this whole issue of how to conquering self doubt. You would be shocked at how many people, if you just scale, if they were going to Be honest and vulnerable with would tell you, Jim, how much they fight self doubt. Some of the most confident looking people you'd ever see, just.

I'm one of them. Who am I to go out there and, you know, help contractors build the business that they dreamed of? Yeah, I did okay. But I also have my own failures along the way. And, you know, maybe there's people out there better than me. You know, you kind of have that imposter syndrome. And aren't they talking to John Maxwell instead of me? You know, that type of thing. Or fall in the book e myth. And you're stepping into this thing, you're going, am I good enough to do this?

That's right. And there's that little voice that sits inside of us, this internal dialogue that constantly reminds us little of our future hope, possibilities and potentials. Constantly reminds us of how crappy we are, what horrible individuals, the failures that we have. And it just makes us now move to this, not just doubt, but these limiting thoughts that we have. This, like, where we go, like, there's no way in heck what I'm hoping for can ever be attained. And that doubt just holds us back. And so, like, we have to learn to crush those limiting beliefs and start rewrite, re rewriting our. In our inner narrative. You know, we can't, you can't just keep believing and see some of the stuff we believe was packed into our heads years ago by our maybe intentional or unintentional thoughts that were put into our head by people that said they loved us. Right. Things that happened to us as kids, things that happened to us in a first marriage, things that have happened to us in a failed business. And those things just stick in our head and. And they just halt our progress.

Yeah, I was going to say it's not even like, in my, in my case, it's not even directly related to whether I have the knowledge to help a contractor grow their business.

Right.

I have that. It's all this other, like, baggage back there. No, I went through. I went through a divorce. And so that was tough. I had a bookkeeper steal 585 grand from me. And so that's one of the reasons why I do that. I just don't want anybody to ever have that happen to them. But there's all that stuff from like, our parents, right? Our parents going, yeah, you know, you need to lower your expectations a little bit. You're not going to be president of the United States. You need to start at the bottom and work your way up and put in your Time and put in your hours and you just, they're doing it because they love you. They don't want to see you get dashed on the rocks by the world out there. But I think there might be a better approach than that.

Just limit ourselves. Regardless of what we've generated in our heads or what somebody else has helped us generate in our heads, we limit ourselves and we get doubtful and we live with self doubt and it just crushes our ability to move forward in any shape, form or fashion. So one of the things I want to help people to do is start sourcing different information into our heads that can rewrite, so to speak, how we feel about ourselves and, and how we think about ourselves and the strength that we actually can summons up within ourselves to go do what we are dreaming about. So the first thing to me is like, how do we conquer self doubt? It's a big issue. And so a lot of people, again, it's like that, that bacteria inside of you that nobody sees because people would look at me. I don't know how you felt, but at times in my past I've had people come up to me and go like, man, that was so good. That was it. And I would, in the back of my head, I'd be shaking my head, yeah, yeah, yeah, thank you. In the back of my head I'm like, I fooled them.

I've definitely had those thoughts before. Yeah, it took a lot for me to kind of unpack that because I was really looking at myself from back when I was 12, 13 years old and what was constantly put on me during that time in my life. Yeah, I'm not going to achieve a whole lot. And it's pretty much the theme of it. Right. And so when somebody would recognize me and it's been a very hard thing for me to deal with, somebody come up to you and say, hey, that was excellent, that was great. I'm almost like, I don't want to hear that. I, I literally go away from it because I'm not used to being complimented. That wasn't something that I had as a kid very often. And so when somebody does, it seems out of place.

Well, and you doubt like even so me and you've had this conversation before because again, I've shared with you a whole lot. We've talked about a lot of different things. And you know, I've said, dude, I feel like I'm fooling people. You've said, I feel like I'm full of people. And the fact of the matter is what I've come to believe is the only person being fooled is me.

Yeah.

What they have experienced from an encounter with me, what they've experienced from an encounter with you, Jim, is the authentic part of you that's coming out that resonates with them. But we're so beat down mentally we think, you know, I've just, you know, you've manufactured something in the reality of it. It's just outflow of who you really are. And so that can be freeing to people when they realize that dude, the only person you're really fooling is yourself because what everybody else is gaining for you. Now again, I know there's boundaries to that because sometimes we do things to manipulate people. I'm talking about in general specifically to self doubt today. How do we get that out of our life? How do we crush that? How do we eliminate? Or we can be free thinkers and start moving into a realm of, you know, with my talents, my ability, my uniqueness, I can do something to help people. Well, the first thing you got to do is you've got to start sourcing new thought and encouragement to create advantage in the way you're thinking as opposed to this deficit minded thoughts. Right. And so it takes time, man. This is not. But what I want to be able to do is go in and start speaking life into these folks. Getting rid of some of these, these cancers inside of them. Starting with self doubt and freeing them up to start seeing and rewriting their life and their narratives internally. No matter what anybody else says that they can now become, they can start living out their potential and basically live the design that they were, I mean live at the purpose they were designed for. So self doubts, number one, just stop anytime.

Number you're good, you're good. I was just about to stop you. And, and I think the key really to all of these is this narrative, this narrative that we're telling ourselves every day. And we've got to, we've got to adjust that narrative. Maybe we can talk at the end about how some of the things we can adjust that. But what's, what's number two?

Number two is what I call developing self awareness. And this to me is just us seeing our true self with what I'm calling unclouded vision. It's like, you know, and that to do that you've got to understand your own emotions, your own thoughts, your own actions and you've got to get a hold of them. You know, I talk to people a lot of time that just struggle with self control. I talk to people a lot who are always looking for an excuse for their behavior. Right. I, I talk to people regularly who, who are aware of everything around them but themselves. And so if there's a problem or there's a challenge, there's a difficulty, the first thing they're looking for is who to blame.

You know, that was actually something that was taught to me by a mentor long ago. I'm so grateful for it because it's been something I've applied to my life for, for many years. The first question you should always ask if you feel like you're going to blame somebody is why did it happen in the first place? Most of us ask the question whenever there's an issue is who, what, where, when or how. Right. Those are the five who did it wrong, what went wrong, how did it go wrong, when go wrong, that type of thing. Right. And, and nobody ever asked the question. This is something that, this is advice to all of you that are leaders out there. Listen to the problems in your business as they arise and what is being applied to it. Is it who, what, when, how, or, or is it the one that's most important? Why, why is this thing happening? And so most of the times that's a reflection like you, you're, you're looking in the mirror. Why did that bad thing happen that I got to blame everybody else? Well, you know, this decision and that decision right there. Yeah. I can start to see why, why this actually happened. It's, it's, it's really me.

Well, for me, I want to learn and understand my emotions and my thoughts and my actions because I want to live a more balanced life. And listen, this is the key that aligns with my internal standards, my convictions and my beliefs. Dude, if I'm not living what I feel, I'm going to stay out of balance. And I think that's what a lot of people do. I, they're just not self aware enough to go like the way I'm behaving, the way I'm talking, the way I'm treating people. The emotional instability that I seem to exhibit on a daily basis, that doesn't really line up with what I want to be. It doesn't really line up with my core values. It doesn't really line up with my beliefs and my boundaries that I've set on myself. How do we correct that? Listen, if, if you're seeing output in your life that you're not happy with or others around you aren't happy with, you need to be come self aware enough to realize the origination of that identify that so you can start working on that. And so to me, until we're self aware, we can never self manage.

Yeah, you're doing, you're doing your Reggie right now. You're starting to provoke people a little bit into kind of thinking. We're getting some comments out there. I want to say I love it. I think there's a bit of a mirror version of that too where we're living out a way that we're portraying that we want people to be perceived perceiving us as. But inside it doesn't feel right. Inside, I'm not doing those things.

They don't match.

Yeah. They just don't line up right. And, and sometimes that outward portrayal is this magical being. Right. Everything is wonderful and great, but behind the scenes you're a jerk to everybody that works for you and you're narcissistic and you have addictive problems and all these other things going on. That's a conflict. And as long as you have conflict in your life, you're never going to have bad balance. So you've. How, how do we fix. Because that's the other way around. Like you want to be this good person, but you're living out the bad stuff, right?

Yeah.

Or you're maybe not so hot on the inside and you're portraying this great outside. I think that's the harder one. Would you.

I think the reality of it is as you think, so are you. That's what I think. So I think it's like taking a. Trying to put toothpaste back in the tube. Once it's out, it's. I mean, what are you gonna do? It's out. And so we focus a lot of time on behavior. But the actual, to me, I think the better approach is what led me to this behavior and can I fix that? And what I know is this is what I believe. If as a man thinks, so is he. So we have to start getting back to this unclouded understanding of the way we're thinking, which is creating the producing the way we're behaving now. There's, there's, there's room, there's things that go on between the way we think and the way you act. But that's a good starting point. And until you're clear enough to where you are willing to sit down and start observing and really learning from your emotions and your thoughts and which led to your actions, you're not going to fix the behavior. And so what I try to teach people and teach myself on is what is the progression and path to action. And so how do we get that lined up? And it's your, it's your, your emotional intelligence, your willingness to understand the things that you're thinking about. That's what leads to your actions. And what are we doing? Are we really making efforts? And what I'm going to do with folks is I'm going to come into their lives and we're going to start being accountable to identify our true selves and the areas that need to be worked on. We're going to be brave enough to do it. To line up our actions with our convictions, our beliefs or our internal standards. That's developing self awareness.

Love it, love it, love it. Okay, let's. What's number three?

Yeah, number three is breaking free. I call it from self sabotage. This is identifying and eliminating these obstacles that stand in the way of success. What are the things that are going on in your life and in my life that are absolutely constant with us? Because it's generally those same obstacles that are keeping us not just from the last opportunity of success we have, but they're going to do it to the next opportunity of success we have. You see again, some of this goes back to blame and some of it goes back to this victim mentality that we have. You know, I am what I am because of the way people treated me before. And eventually I've said this many a time, but I believe it still. Today your victim card expires and ultimately you're going to have to take your life as it is and do the best with it that your dad gum can. And so we do stuff, Jim, where we're looking to blame outcome on somebody else, but the culprit is found in the mirror. I mean we've just done things that are self sabotaging. I mean we know when we do them they're going to have bad outcome. But we just are so habitual in the way we behave. Sometimes we just can't kick the bucket down the road any further and so, or the can down the road. And so what I'm saying to people is, look, you can break free from that, but you're going to have to get really rough and tough on your own self. That's the place to start for you to ever break free from some of this. You know, a lot of the problems that we have, I hate to say it, are self inflicted. And that's what this talks about is how do we break free, how do we get away, how do we develop new strategies and, and dismantle These barriers and that way clear a path for the success that we that ultimately awaits us. But you've got to uncover these hidden things, right? And you've got to start putting together a plan to get them out so that the clear path can be set in front of you. As long as these barriers sit here, you're not going anywhere. And the only person you're fooling is yourself. Breaking free from self sabotage is a way to find progress once again. Four, because I want to get through these before you cut me off out.

Of here until it's four I boot. Yeah, right.

So number four is cultivating self authenticity. There's a lot of talk about authenticity. You know, we got a great friend, Eric, does a great podcast every week on being authentic. But the fact is, the authenticity I'm talking about is the authenticity that rejects this social pressure of being accepted and being approved. We spend so much brain power, mo so much calorie in trying to be accepted. And sometimes our self off being us, being honest to ourself would require. I'm sorry, will. Will not produce great audience. Right. I mean, it's. It's going to be, you know, smaller audience, but more an impact. And so to me, there, we have to learn to forge our own path. We got to stop living to be approved by others and start living for ourselves. To me, as unto God, that's what's important. This whole social expectation and prioritization, you know, that this, you know, our peers have upon us and really has driven us to a place of stagnation. To me, we've got to be able to foster these really important connections like I have with you and Nathan and some other folks and learn from those that will support me as I grow based upon the path for me. Listen, you know what? I know there's a lot of noise out there that's driving us into the same lanes. Approval, acceptance, big audience. And for most of us, that path we don't belong on. We need to find and reverse it. Reject the social pressure of the voice and the noise of these large personalities and really settle in on who we are, our uniqueness, build our strategy around that and forge our own path, cultivating this whole self authenticity. My path is like critical to some who have fallen victim to the notion of this is the way it. You know, we're tribal. We're like, we're looking to fit in and be a part of it, and it's cost us our uniqueness. And I've got one more, but if you got any questions about that, Fire at me.

Oh, no, that's. I think you nailed it on that one. That's okay. Here's the thing that drives me insane. And. And I thought it was getting better there for a while, but it's now it's kind of seemed to be ebbing the other way because I'm. I'm broadening my scope of view and there's so much out there of this go and get and take yours type of attitude. That's really what we're being told we should do. Yeah. But it really probably doesn't feel right to most of us. And I struggle with it personally because there's, you know, you see everybody else out there on social media and you can't swing a dead cat anymore without hitting another coach. I remember when I was just us. And that's cool because everybody has somebody that they listen to that they're attracted to and drawn to, but I worry that they're being attracted and what they're listening to is something that they're aspiring to be that doesn't align with who they are.

Yeah.

And that's. That's a. That's a worry for me. I hope people, like, listen to you on that. Be authentic to who you are. Don't get caught up in the noise of what the world thinks you should be.

Because listen, I heard somebody say something the other day that was the most profound thing I've heard in years. Her name is Danielle Shoots. It's Randy Brothers sister. I heard her say this because you just said. She said, if you don't tell your story, someone will tell it for you.

That's a good one. I like that.

And I'm like, oh, my God. One will be attached to you no matter where you go. So I don't want my story told by a bunch of people. They have zero interest in my outcome. I'm a pawn or I'm a checker on a board. That's not what I'm after. I'm not. I. I wasn't born in this world to conform to the standards of what everybody else thinks Reggie should be. Whoever's hearing this needs to rise up and be comfortable in who they are, their genuine uniqueness, and run at it. Embrace your true self. Question. Quit listening to people who have no gain out of you. But for the moment, I mean, they just. They may need something out of you now, but they're trying to press and to push you to an area that you don't feel comfortable within. Just reject it. No big deal.

Yeah. You know what? It Feels good. It does.

It's like, of course it does.

I can't remember. I can remember the day where I rejected what the world was telling me I should be. Oh man, it was on the front steps of my house. So.

And that's a big step. Big step.

So let's.

Number five not but not least is learning to master this self authoritative ship or authorship. And what I mean by that is you've got to learn to craft your unique story and develop a strong sense of identity around that because that's where you're going to find your fulfillment and impact. So the less you are of you, the less you're going to impact those you need to. This self authorship is the ability to go like, this is my story and you've heard me talk a lot about this. But if we could ever get to a place where we could understand that we, we don't belong to the world and the world doesn't belong to us, but there's a certain group of the world that will hear us and will. That needs us and we need them. And when those two parties come together, our mentor, I mean our, our metron, then we will be able to find a sense of growth through the connection that propels both of us or all of us. But if you avoid your uniqueness, you, nobody will ever know you. I talked to a guy this morning, friend of mine, I'm like, dude, if. If you cannot tell your story in a way that you're compelled by that is uniquely yours, you're going to spin your wheels and trying to find audience. And that's what I think a lot of guys do. They just start spewing out information about anything that they think and like throwing stuff against the wall and it's sticking and then they're hoping that, I mean, throwing stuff against the wall. I'm hoping some of it sticks. I'm gonna shoot from my hip. I'm going to define and walk in my unique story. I'm going to identify and acknowledge that what's in me uniquely to people. And then I'm going to allow them to be drawn to me if they're. That if they're whoever's there. And so, you know, let me dig.

Into that a little bit because you said something there. I want to make sure I got it right.

Yeah.

The less you are of you, the less you will impact those who need you.

Right. Wow.

That I. People should write that down. Like that should be like go on a wall. You walk out every day and see that thing. The less you Are of you. Yeah. So trying to be somebody else, the less you will impact those who need you.

Yeah. You go ahead and try to become everything but you. You see somebody that's, like, really popular, and you start doing mannerisms like them, or you start talking like them, or you start using saving. You know, you've lost your voice that really can reach people and impact them because they can hear that from anybody.

Yeah. One of my heroes is John Maxwell.

Yeah.

He's. He's one of the most impactful folks in my life. I've never met him personally, but his books have had a big impact on me. His podcast has had a big impact on me, and. But I don't want to be like him. I want to learn from him. I want to gain knowledge from him. But I want to be Jim Johnson.

Yeah, that's okay.

I got a compliment the other day. It was the wildest thing I said earlier. I like when somebody gives me a compliment. I shy away from him, and this guy told me, he goes, you remind me of a young John Maxwell. And my first instinct was, wow, that's pretty cool.

Yeah.

And then my second instinct was, I'm so undeserving. I can't believe I'm mentioning the same breath with that guy. And then third was like, I kind of just want to be Jim Johnson. I'm okay with that. The other thing you mentioned in that. Which I think is really important, this concept of a metron. Can you explain that? Like, you and I have talked about this a bunch, but our listeners here probably haven't heard that before.

Yeah.

Nor do they know what that means and where that comes from and why that's so important.

Yeah. So it's a Latin word, and it basically means your portion, and it also means your level of impact or influence. Right. So if you.

If you just.

Dissect the word, what it means is that all of us have a unique talent and ability. That's ours. Doesn't belong to anybody else. It's mine. You can't share, can't be taken from you. It's you. The only way it can be denied is if you choose to shut it down and off. So when I speak and when I can uniquely identify my metron, my what. What it is in me that's uniquely mine. And I declare, it comes out of my mouth, I start speaking it. There are p. This is where the influence piece comes in. There are people out there who will hear you and almost stop dead in traffic. They'll go, like, what was that? And some of Them have no idea what they heard, but it was a moment in time that was required that they needed. And it was, boom, I spoke, they heard it, and it was a connection. Connection that at the moment, they couldn't explain it. Now, this has been going on to me for two and a half years, and people come up to me like, dude, what just happened? You said something, and it's, like, provoked me. And I go like, hey, I don't know, I gotta go sell shingles. I'm just like, I don't know what to do about this other than just consider it and dig in on it. Now, it. When I provoke people, I want to be there to assist them. And how do we find out why that provokes you? Because I know what it is. I resonated deep within them to an area that they've kind of avoided and, like, unresolved in their life. That's this hindrance that's keeping them from the progress. And it's awakened when I speak like that, and I can't do that to the world. I don't do that to the world. But, boy, when I do it to one, someone's in my metron, we both wake up. It's like, whoa. It's like a shot, a. A joke that goes through your system, and you go like that. I mean, I've heard a bunch of people talk, but that one got me. So can we examine it? So your metron is what's uniquely yours declared out to a unique group of audience, not the world, but your audience, that when the connection occurs, you and them, growth is produced and help has arrived, so to speak. And so it's not like, haphazard, like, hey, you know, that's why I'm comfortable with knowing I'm getting in a space that's so cluttered, right? I mean, meaning there's people who coach. And I don't consider myself coaching as much as mentoring, but it's basically, you know, we're trying to help people. But here's what I know. I can't be Jim Johnson.

I can't be somebody the world couldn't stand, another one.

I don't have. I don't. I don't have that. But I don't need to be pressured. And you've heard me say, say this before. This concept has helped me move from competitors to co laborers. Because when I speak, my voice is mine. When you speak yours. And you're going to draw your metron. I'm going to draw my metron. Others are going to draw their metron. And all I hope for is we can cooperatively work together to reach people and to help them progress in their life. And I support their. Not just what I'm doing, clearly, but what you do and others are doing as long as they're doing it the right way. And so because people have a connection and a voice and if it's not mine, I'm hoping that they'll find theirs.

Yeah, that's. That's so key to living in peace.

Yeah.

At one point in my life, I was chasing what I thought the world wanted of me. You know, I want to be Tony Robbins. I want to be one of those big time speakers up on stage and all that other stuff that happens. It happens. But that's not what I'm after. I'm after helping those who hear my voice see value in what I have. That may fill a gap they're missing.

That's right.

And I can help them get there.

Yep.

And that's not everybody. If I wanted everybody, I'd just go run a bunch of Facebook and Google Ads with a bunch of hype in it and get them all in there and suck their money out of them and see you later. But that's not what we're about. We really and genuinely want to be in relationship with each and every client that we serve. And that uniqueness in the way that we approach that really just brings those folks to us. It's not a whole lot of them, but the ones that we work with.

That's right.

It goes really well with. You don't have a lot of unhappy people, which makes me super happy.

And here's the odd part about. One of the odd parts about me is like, I know exactly how many. I mean, I'm looking for 12 people. I mean, 12 companies that see the power in dealing with these issues and the issues that I'm talking about are helping people to overcome. They're not. Look, I'm not here to polish the professional side of people's lives. These are personal challenges that people face. And I want to set them up on basically like these 12 companies where I'm pouring into their life regularly, on a regular basis and being able to help them not just to, not just to initially deal with something, but to maintain the growth on a monthly and a regular basis. So I'm going to have a very limited audience. I don't need the world. I need 12 companies and I've already got four of them. So, I mean, I'm like really in good shape right now. And I'm happy about this.

But there people like four days.

Yeah, people are going to hear this and they're going to go like, yep, that's for me. We're going to do a call and sometimes it's going to be like, yeah, I think that makes sense. Where I'm doing a monthly program with them, but it's only 12, so I mean, I'm not really worried about the world. I'm just worried about my 12 and.

And what'll happen from that. Because of what you're doing and how you're approaching it, those 12 will be impacted deeply throughout their companies, which will impact their families, which will impact their communities, which, you know, could have a reverberating effect around the world. In the end, think about the coaches.

And mentors you've had in your life. When you think back, I got a coach. His name was Al Weber. I don't know if he's even still alive, but he was the guy that coached me in baseball that was probably as mean to me as anybody had ever been in my life. But I played my best for him. I've walked on to we, you know, when it first before first pitch was thrown out, I played third base. He would bring the infield in to the pitcher's mound and he would stand there and give us kind of a little short speech about the know the game and how we need to perform. And one day he looked at me and he said, either take that hat off and put your hair under your hat or go sit on the bench. I'm like, do what? I mean, I. And so I look back on stuff like that and he taught me some things about life that were not necessarily baseball related but really affected me in a such a powerful way. And being coached hard didn't offend me. And so when I go into people's lives, they have got to be willing to absorb some body blows at times. Right? Because it's like you're dealing with their personal. I'm not. Again, I'm not worried about their professional life because here's what I believe. Your personal and your professional life are symbiotic. You know, they're going to work together. You can't have one throughout the other. The biggest question I have from people over the last 13 years is why do I seem to have tapped out professionally? And I always ask them the same question. What's going on personally? What are the commitments that you've made that you've not fulfilled? What are the things that you're battling with that nobody knows about? Nobody Sees that's where your problem lies. And for some reason I've been pretty right. So I want to be able to go in and really get into their lives and you know, not in an embarrassing way, but to help leaders understand the importance of growing and developing personally so that organically they'll see their professional life starting to get better.

Yeah, I, I couldn't be more excited about what you're doing. We have, we have clients out there and really, you know, as I, as I kind of think about it like the personal side of the leader of the business affects the overall culture and how deep that culture is built and how strong it is. And it's gonna, it's gonna ebb and flow based on, on that leader. You're the person that takes kind of what we do with helping them get clarity on what that vision is and, and what their purpose is and. Yeah, and all of those things and core values. But you help really embed it into who they are.

Yeah.

And almost look at it like, hey, our guys have been through our stuff. Like, next up, why don't you get with Reggie and let's embed that culture, make it real in your business where it becomes as much about the human as it is about the business. I'm pumped. I am.

Well, think about the five things. If one of those five things were impact, could one of those five forget about five? But if one of those five things that were imparted to a leader and they started living it, would that affect the culture inside of a company? The answer is yes. And so I mean if, and the.

Best part is you're not just helping that leader, you're going to help the whole team. Because who on my team is dealing with self doubt?

That's right.

Team isn't, isn't developing self awareness, like those things are super important to what we're going to be. And I haven't met anybody better at bringing that out of somebody than you.

Thank you.

It is your unique skill and talent. There is no doubt.

And so there's two last things I'm going to share because our time is gone. The first thing is if, if they can't get in on my 12, I'm going to do these day trips where I just go out and spend a day with the team and we're going to talk about these same issues. But if they're just, you know, if, if they're not ready for a long term commitment, I'm going to go and spend the day with people I love to come in and provoke their teams and get them to start thinking about some stuff. And then you know, I'm going to do a very, very limited schedule in terms of like events and stuff like that. And I've got my own opinions on that that I'm not really interested in talking about right now. But it's going to be a real simple life.

It's been a hot topic lately.

Yeah, it's been a real hot topic. One that I tried to avoid.

Covid, it's like I'm gonna just stay over here, do my thing. Yeah, we're not going to get out there in the, the negativity that goes on in our industry. So you said two things. So that's one, like you do a day events. What else?

Yeah. And then the other thing is I'm gonna do some events.

Okay.

Okay. I'm gonna probably, probably four or five a year and that's going to be it.

So how do people get a hold of Reggie Brock?

So I would say supposedly by the second week in April I'm gonna have my website up and it's gonna be reggiebrock.com I just the easiest thing to do until then they can email me@reggiegibrock.com pretty easy. Or that, you know, I'm all over social media. They can I get a lot of people reaching out to me about, you know, through that way. So I'm, I'm usually easy to find.

Well, we will put all of your contact information in the show notes for this. If anything during our conversation provoked you today. Said, hey, you know, that's something I really need to think about. I really need to think about like am I living in self doubt? Am I not self aware and I let my emotions kind of run away with me? Am I self sabotaging myself? Is that something that I'm struggling with that I keep getting to this point and I just can't break through and I make a bunch of excuses and it ends up putting it down. And I keep going through that cycle.

Yeah.

Then finding your authentic or genuine uniqueness. Do you know what that is? And has anybody ever talked with you about it before? And can you unpack that and figure out that. What, what that is so you can do the last piece of it which is mastering your self authorship. I think that's, I think that's really cool. I think more people could use this type of thing as something that's taken me years to get there and still working on it daily. It is not something that ever stops. It's a journey, not a Destination as far as I'm concerned. Reggie, I know you're going to find your metron. I know those 12 folks are going to benefit from you in a way that they will absolutely be raving fans about what it is that you do in their lives. Thanks for being on Contract Radio today and thanks most of all for being a friend, man.

Thank you so much for having me. And again, I appreciate your friendship. You and Michelle both more than you ever know.

Somebody on Facebook just put. I think they might have been provoked a little. Reggie, I'm sure we'll see each other soon. And all the best to you if you'll hang on for just a second. Close the show here and let you get out of here, my pal.

Thanks.

All right, everybody, that was this week's episode of Contractor Radio. It was important because not only is Reggie near and dear to my heart, but I think what he's doing is going to have a massive impact. And although he says he only is here to help a few, God works in mysterious ways. I have this feeling that one of these days and in the near future we're going to see this man on big stages. You need to get to know him now when you have the opportunity and chance to do so. He has been a big impact in my life and the lives of those that are in our contractor fellowship group on Wednesdays, and I couldn't be more thankful to have him in my life. If you're a contractor looking to get your business to the next level, go to our website, contractorcoachpro.com find the button that says take assessment. Take that Contractor assessment will take you 15, 20 minutes. It's no joke. It's a real assessment. And based on that assessment, we will offer you a free coaching call. You'll get a calendar link back to find a time that works for you, and one of our elite coaches will sit down with you for about an hour and we'll walk you through the two or three things that are sticking out the most and the next steps you could take to level up your game. If coaching seems like something that's great for you, awesome. We'd love to have you as a client and in relationship with us so that we can walk beside you as your guide to help you achieve those dreams you're looking for. But if it doesn't work for you, we hope and pray that we gave you two or three things that are going to move you closer to those goals and dreams that you're chasing as a contractor. Thanks for being with us this week. On contractor radio. And we'll be back next week with another episode.