Episode 207: Continuing Thought: What I Do Matters! with Senior National Sales Director Andrea Burks

Welcome to this episode of the Million Dollar Mastermind. I'm Larry Weddell. And before we get started, if you want to know exactly how to win again and again, go to Wydell on winning.com webinar now to watch something I've put together for you. Now let's get going into this episode of Million Dollar Mastermind. I am back with Andrea Burks from Boca Raton, Florida. Million dollar earner. She's got a business that expands to six states and 20 locations. And welcome back, Andrea.

Excited to be back, Larry.

And would you talk to us? And this is a follow up. We'll take the female theme for a minute. It came up when I our first episode. What did you have or do you have? What can you tell ladies who have, like, incredible abilities for leadership and running and they have a drive and they've got a personality, they've got talent, but they've never done it before. You know, they've never run a big organization. They've never been in charge. And, you know, they might have been told things about staying in your place, don't overstep your bounds. You got other obligations. And they're afraid. You know, they're sitting on a powder keg of ability. But they hold back. They hold themselves back. In fact, let me tell you a story. It can be you just don't like the spotlight, you know, like Annika Sorenstan, one of the greatest hall of fame lady golfers, lives in Orlando. Now. When she started out, she's from Sweden. When she started out, when she was winning tournaments On Sunday, the fourth day on the 17th hole, she would be leading and she'd start worrying about the award ceremony when it was over, if she won, being in front of the crowd and they come in with a microphone and the TVs on and give her a big check and say, annika, how does it feel to win? And you know, you got your parents here. What does this mean to you? You know, some kind of stupid question like that. They always ask the same questions. But she was so afraid of being in the spotlight, she would deliberately hit a bad shot so she wouldn't win. She did that many times because she was afraid of being in the spotlight. And then she finally got over. But the thing is there's a lot of people that do that to them. A lot of ladies do that and a lot of men do that to themselves because they're afraid of the spotlight, afraid of the pressure. And it takes a certain amount. What I'm getting to is to do great Things you got, it takes a certain amount of courage to say, I'm going to stand up and face it, because I'm just not going to hold back. I'm not going to be under a rock. You know what I'm saying? I'm not going to know. I'm not going to hide. I don't know what it's going to be like, but I'm going in. You know, it's like, you know, the water is cold, but at some point you got to dive in. So what would you say about that? Did you go through those things that early on, taking over the leadership? Is she good enough? Can she do it? Who said she can do it? That's not her role. And all of a sudden it was you, and you not only did it, but you increase the business by 60% or so in three years. So what would you say? What did. What did you have to go through? Like, these battles are fought in your mind, and so you probably had. You can't stop thoughts from coming to your mind. You know, you can say, that's not logical, that's not rational, but I'm worried about it anyway. So how did you. Did you go through any of that? Or what did you do or what do you tell other people that you see going through situations like that?

Yeah, of course, I certainly went through some of those thoughts, you know, coming in and picking up the business. But the continuing thought is what I do matters. And I think too many people, men, women, sometimes don't believe what they do matters, you know, as a person, as an individual. So I never felt like I have to fill someone's shoes. I knew I could walk my own shoes. Did I have doubts? Of course. But I have a good standing saying, you doubt your doubts and you doubt your doubters. You reject rejection and you believe your beliefs. My belief is that I could accomplish anything I wanted to accomplish in life as long as I was willing to fight long enough with the right intensity. I know everybody's dealt a different deck of cards, so I was not going to think, like, oh, why this person, this person, that. No, no, no, no. I just got to do my part. And so. And then again, it's like, no game will ever be won in defense. You got to go in offense. So, yes, of course, you got to go through some stuff. At the end of the day, that made me a better leader, that made me stronger, you know, as I overcame situations in our business, in life, too many people are just fearful of really, I think, is what people think, what people Think of them. But what I got to say to them is, see, if you go left, people are going to talk about you. If you go right, people are going to talk about you. If you're in the middle and do nothing, they're really going to talk about you because you're on the side of you're lazy. You know, well, one thing they're not going to talk about, she's lazy. She's just comfortable. They're going to say, it's like, what is she doing now? So I want them to talk about how great things I'm going to do. So I challenge anybody to believe that what you do matter, make a big impact in our team, in our community, in my family. If I just did my part in that moment, which is fighting my own thoughts of maybe, could I do this? Rather, I would be thinking, how can I do this? And business is common sense. You find somebody that has what you want, you do what they did. And I think pretty much we'll be successful, right? As long as you put the same effort and the same intensity. Just like the gym. The gym is guaranteed. Now, that doesn't mean that guarantees you everybody's gonna win. But I knew that I just couldn't be just sprite time.

So here's the thing. Now, did you. You know, it's different when you have a small job or a small company. It's different when you've got hundreds and hundreds of people depending on, you know, all the families and this, that, the other. So how do you. Is that different? You know, dealing with that, getting yourself used to doing that, to where it's natural? What would you say? Did you grow into that? Basically, hey, listen, there's a lot of information online, but there aren't a lot of people who have actually done something. In my case, I've actually built a successful business, has accrued over $5 billion in assets under management, and has done well even during trying. Now, if you want to know exactly how I've done this, go to Whiteellawinning.com webinar Now, I've compressed a decade of learning into five short weeks. Just for those of you who want to give yourself an incredible advantage and are tired of waiting and watching others move up.

Well, I think what helped is I was pretty involved, you know, in every area of the business. And I think by the nature of the business, what we don't know, we find out. And we can also ask for help. I mean, I think too many people don't win because they don't ask for Help, they just don't seek counsel. And so I did create a mastermind group where like, if I needed assistance, I go to certain people that I knew had the business I wanted. What's that kind of business? And so I think we just got to manage situation. There's such thing as there's not big problems, but small people. And I might be 5 foot Colombian, but I'm big person to deal with many situations. And obviously I grew through it, you know, dealing with those situations rather than just send them out there, I would just get counsel and deal with those things. But yeah, obviously as we build a bigger team, a bigger organization, you just gotta learn how to manage situations.

Yeah, you made a great point. And that is that when you make friends with people that are in the similar situation, yet the easier it is for you to realize they are just people and they'll talk you through. And just like we're talking here. And this is why for years I wanted to do this podcast because I have these kind of conversations all the time. But I was always thinking the back of my mind all the people that would, I wish could hear some of these conversation so they could get it out of their head that it's a big, complicated, confusing thing. Mainly it comes down to common sense and just sitting there and saying, well, I got to do something. What am I going to do? You know, and if that doesn't work, I'll do something else, you know, but. And getting the other thing and getting on the phone or calling somebody up or go visit them and say, help me out. Do you know if you read the book about Sam Walton at Walmart? He started with his five and dime store in Arkansas, but as he expanded, he was constantly going in other stores and he wouldn't just go in other chains. He would go and find the manager and have a cup of coffee or a sandwich with the guy and say, explain who he was and tell him what he liked about how they were doing it and, and have the guy and they would discuss which seasonal sales or which things to promote. And he was constantly going and talking to people who had bigger stores. He would even go to Europe, by the way, and see the big department stores over there and get to know the president, call him up if he wasn't in the area or call him up and then go see him or something like that. But he was always picking the brains of the people behind you. And I see you do. That's what I was getting at in our previous episode. I see you do that all the time. You always put yourself in position where you can stay close to the leaders. What they're thinking is, what they're doing is so you can. Timing is really important. And if you're around the hottest people in whatever your industry, your business is, you pay attention to them, talk to them, watch what they do, listen to what they say. At more than your own opinion of, you know, you think it's going to be this. Well, look and see what the real world is saying. But then you can make your own decision. But it's an informed. You know, you may make a gut decision, but there's a big difference between an informed gut decision and just making something up and saying, I think I'm going to do that. You know, so you've always made a point of that. And I think that's something that either ladies or people that are possibly not outgoing men and women that they're worried about being in the leadership roles. It's like, get to know some of these people, ask some questions, get yourself educated. Plus, work like a dog. You got to work hard enough, Andrea, to where, you know you've done enough to deserve success. Do you agree with that?

Oh, certainly, certainly.

Because people will try and feel like, you know, that way when they come in and they say, well, you locked up. You were fortunate here that that fell in your lap there. And you go like, you know, they're an idiot, you know, because, you know, they have no idea what they're talking about and, you know, what you've been through. Right. So talk about the. So you didn't go. Have you gone through that in stages? I mean, when you. Was that always the way you operated or do you. How do you incorporate that into how you go about it and how do you pass that on to your team?

Well, I. Thanks. My dad, he, growing up, he always gave me books as part of, like, you know, just getting better. And so one of the books he gave me, I was not even in any business yet. It was poor dad, rich dad. Right. And so that just gives you an idea, okay, which environment are you a part of? And it is important who you rub elbows with. That could totally change the trajectory for generations to come. So reading that book, you stumble upon an amazing opportunity like this. I just forced myself into situations because I always did work hard, whether part time, full time, did my part, did my job. You deserved and earned the opportunity to be with giants in this business. Winter dinners, stuff like that. I never took it for granted. And so as we talk about this, like, even Steve Jobs early on like, young guy working out of garage, he called Hewlett packers, you know, when there was, like, white pages, you know, yellow pages, and he called and said, hey, mister, you know, like, you have any spare parts? And, you know, he laughed it off. And he's like, oh, yeah, just come by, you know, the factory and actually gave him an intern job. But see, are we willing to get uncomfortable, maybe be ridiculed? But see, the funny part is we think, oh, my God, I'm bothering these people. You know, my God there. But guess what? Successful people want to help others because we know, you know, the trajectory, the journey, and how awesome it is that obviously he did help him, you know, and look where he is. So I always tell the team, I mean, obviously, you know, if you think you know it all, I mean, you might as well, you know, be done. Because I never want to be the top of my class dealing with others. I want to be in an environment when I'm uncomfortable, where I'm always, you know, they say the rubber band theory, like, you know, when you lose tension from where you are to where you're going, you're done. I want to always be feeling comfortable. We're like, why you make that a month? Like, you know, getting me uncomfortable. What's possible. Billy Randall talked about it just like we last week is like, what is big, bigger? How much more money? More, you know, how could we get one so little week? We can have so much in life in America. So. Yeah, right. Myself in uncomfortable situations so I can grow.

Yeah. And what people don't know about a render is how many people that are in charity work that he supports. Hundreds, probably. And so it's only because he's taking advantage of his business opportunity. Somebody's got to give the money. Somebody's got to support the hospitals and all of these things, and it's the people who have money. And so your role, if you got the chance to do great things, you're supposed to do it. No, you're not supposed to take it for granted.

And crazy story. Like, I was very involved at church. I mean, I'm still Amber. Like, it's just different steps. Like, I remember I was, you know, volunteer this, this, that, and at some point I'm like, anybody can volunteer their time. And I don't mean to be, you know, but, like, event.

Right.

Not everybody can give them money, you know.

Right.

Yeah, we can give time and money. And that's where I wanted to.

Yeah.

So I remember feeling some type of way because. Oh, you know, not volunteer as much I'm like, in my head, I'm gonna volunteer to come on money very soon, right? And so sometimes you have this conversation with yourself what you're going to be able to accomplish, and obviously you go do it. It's not just talk like you got to back it up and put yourself in uncomfortable, hey, I'm going to go do this. I can have that. And when I was able to give some good charity stuff like that, that just meant the world to me because I'm like, see, it did work out. It did work out.

Yeah. And, you know, I think of so many people that have done so much in the arena of friends that, you know, we could sit. I could sit here and talk for hours, just about any. Just one of them, Shelly and Tony Narain. I mean, their outreach, their things, you know, and on and on and on and on and on. It's just, it adds richness to your life, you know, to be able to do that. But it's not going to be there. If you never work, if you never push yourself, if you never drive, you're never really going to be able to help anybody outside of yourself. You're always going to be struggling to keep yourself alive. So, anyway, thanks so much for this. We're covering things that. That's what this is all about too, is to kind of take out some time, talk some issues through to help people get more sure of these things in their own mind. Because we're always challenged, you know, everybody else, you know, world full of mediocrity. They're always going to challenge you when you're trying to do something great. So proud of you, Andrea. Thanks for sharing. Forward to having you back next time.

Okay, my pleasure, Larry. Talk soon.

If you enjoyed what you've heard and are dead serious about finding out for yourself exactly how this works in the real world, I've taken the most valuable business lessons I've learned over 40 years and put them into something for you to watch. Go to whiteellinwinning.com webinar now in order to move up as far as fast as possible. I'm Larry Widell and I run the Million Dollar Mastermind. Go, go.