Episode 78: Using Emotional Intelligence to Create Huge Success with Chess Britt

Welcome to this episode of the Million Dollar Mastermind. I'm Larry Weidell and let's get started. We are welcoming back for this episode Chess Brit. And we're going to tap into the emotional intelligence, the source of the emotional intelligence that guided him in his role as a key playmaker behind the scenes in the administrative, running the administrative wing of a huge marketing organization. And he was chief marketing organization. And not only did this small company explode to amazing growth throughout his career, he has retired now, but the culture that he helped create is continuing to compound. Just I, I would be remiss not to point out that now they are over. They went from a nothing company and now they're over a hundred billion of insurance, life insurance in force, 100 billion of cash compensation paid out to their sales force. There's a hundred, they've just got over a hundred million dollar earners. And he can't take all the credit. He wouldn't take any of the credit. But Chess Brit was a big key of creating the culture and the mentality at the administrative back office headquarters that allowed this organization to flourish and to continue to flourish. You know, the test is not just how well things do while you're there, but how well they do after you leave. What kind of shape is that company in, that team, that organization in after you leave? Is it a house of cards or is it solid as a rock and will it continue to flourish? And those of us that are building companies, that are raising families are extremely focused on setting things in place that can go on for generations and generations. And that's why the whole idea of seeking wisdom, because wisdom drives consistency, consistency drives emotional intelligence. And Chesbrit's probably one of the greatest living examples of using those things in his career to make magic happen for himself and others. So welcome back. Chess Brit. Would you say that along the way you picked up some particular advice that, that was passed on to you that was absolutely the worst advice you, that you could possibly get?

You know, that's an interesting question.

And so you don't have to give them, you don't have to give the name.

And so you know, I work with people who at times were more interested in.

You don't work there anymore, you don't have, you don't work there anymore, you don't have to protect their feelings anymore. You're not going to, you're not going down the hall where they're gonna, they're gonna catch you for this. So kind of, you got to kind of let yourself breathe a little bit here. Chess.

Plus, if they're giving bad advice, they need to know.

Yeah, tell him at it. Yeah.

Plus if they're giving bad advice, Chess, they need to know about it.

Yeah, well, right.

I always thought bad advice when somebody was only interested in serving their self interest. Okay. And that. And that I never like to be around somebody that put their self interest above potential, you know, let you know that. That I was responsible for meetings. Okay. And that. That what you were trying to.

What we were talking about is meetings, like 50,000 people, 40,000 people. Yeah, meetings like that.

Yeah, it could be. It could be anywhere from 10 people to 50,000 people. Okay.

Yeah.

And that, you know, what you tried to accomplish at that meeting, you wanted to move the team. Okay. And then, you know, at times, you know that you had people making decisions on what was going to happen in that meeting, and it was an opportunity to showcase themselves versus, you know, motivate the team, get the team fired up. And so that's a. That. That's a small example, but you could take it through, you know, you know, all sorts of things that happen within a company. And so, you know, I grew up playing team sports. You know, I'm a team. You know, I always considered myself a team first person. And whenever anybody was taking the company resources and were using those resources to make them look better versus the team look better, you know, those kind of things always irritated me and never really learned that with how I. I thought you ought to run a company.

And when you're in the middle of these things, I mean, you got to do things. You got to have things, you know, when you show up, start a month, start a week with yourself, I imagine you had patterns of success that you settled into. Like, people want to know, what. What did you do? You know, how did you, you know, how did you get yourself that consistency, that performance, get in the position, climb the ladder and then stay in there? They're all the same things, but, like, running teams, what. What would you be doing to make that thing happen? If you had like to do list of, you know, how organized were you about all of these different aspects and all these different jobs?

I did like to make list, okay. And so I always like to have on my list the things that had to be done. I had another list. That was the things I needed to think about and decide whether or not we needed to do these things. But the most important thing that I did that I think really helped me was, you know, I knew the mornings were my best time of the day. Okay. And so I Always looked at that to do list and I looked at the thing that was, that I would try to admit, identify the thing that was the most important thing to get done and if I could get that done, it would make the biggest impact on the company. So that was one of the habits that I had and I really, I really developed it later in my career. But it was probably one of the most impactful things that, that I ever did Larry because you know, if you come in and your most, your most valuable time is the morning and you're diddling around on the computer or you're, are you doing some non productive thing even if it's something that needs to be done. You know, I never read emails in the morning whenever I was at my best, you know, I was coming in and attacking the most major problem. And you could read emails, you know, when you will slap war out in the evening and just answer them and say hey, you know, let's discuss, give me a call. And, and so, and so I think you got to be smart about how you use your time and you better attack the thing that's going to get you the biggest results and not spend all your time on that don't matter. That was one of the things that always, if you had people that you work for or you work with who were spending all of their time on things that didn't matter, you know, I just drive me crazy.

Well, you know, there's a lot of this comes, you know, of finding answers that work for you come from your title like seeking to be wise. You're not saying you're wise, you're, you're seeking wisdom. And I also at a young age when I turned 21, that story that you, we were talking earlier today about Solomon and he was given the choice of all the things in the world he could have and he, he asked for wisdom. And I actually did that. You know, I, that was my focus when I was 21 years old. That kind of came and that informed, I won't talk about it but that informed a lot of my decisions and lot at that age. And like you know, you get, you get presence and everything when you're 21 years old and people, if you got family and friends and they, that you know, some matter what, what do you do with those things? Do you run out, party and have a good time or do you, do you invest those things and thinking about your future? But right from the beginning had that same thought in my mind. So this idea of focusing on wisdom will pay off in every area of your life. And so that's what you told, that's, that's what you chose for your, your title. And you want to speak about that and tell people as we wrap this thing up, tell them about the book and why you feel like this can be a life changer for them.

Yeah. And so, and so, Larry, I really do believe that my edge wasn't that I was the smartest guy in the room. And I don't believe my edge was that I was the most talented guy in the room. And I certainly wasn't the best communicator in the room. But, but, but I always felt like, I always felt like that my edge was I could sit in a room with people who are a lot smarter than me and a whole lot taller than talented than me, but that for whatever reason I could, I could, I could go toe to toe with them on creative solutions and coming up with the ideas and things we needed to be done. And so when I reflected on my life, I didn't set out to write a book. You know, I was reflecting on why I had success in life. And when I reflected back on it, I came to the conclusion because, because I always sought wisdom and always sought to figure out what was the best decision to make and always tried to understand what my actions and how it impacted others not. And you know, I made every mistake known to man. But at the end of the day, I always learned from my mistakes and tried to get better. So, so I did, in fact began. I just sat down one morning and started putting some thoughts down in a handwritten form. And, and, and it led to a book. And I believe that if you'll, if you read the book, the books not to tell you how to live, it's not to tell you what to believe, but it's to give you things to think about. And I do believe what you said earlier, Larry. It's not. I didn't write about the things. Now I've read a thousand books plus in my life and I didn't write about the things that I've, that, that other people said you needed to go do. If it wasn't something that I tested in my life and it, and I'd reap benefits about it. I didn't write about it. And, and every one of the topics that I cover, I tell the little story that actually got me to work on whether or not I thought this was a belief I wanted to live by. And so I really do, Larry. I'm getting positive feedback on the book. I'm super Encouraged by that, people who know me are saying positive things about the book and the people from the outside who don't know me. So far, the reviews that I've read have all been positive. And so what I want to do, it's not about selling books so much is. It's, it's, you know, I do have, I do believe there's a message in the book that's a good, positive message and that it can help others leave a better life, lead a live a better life. And so I'd encourage folks to buy the book and share it with others. And hopefully the lessons that I've learned will help you learn what life's teaching you.

Yeah, I'm glad you wrote the book. I want more books to be written, you know, from people who actually know what they're talking about. It's glutted out there with people who kind of know what they're talking about. They can make it sound like they know what they're talking about, but they have no clue what they're talking about. And you got people on the way up can't tell the difference. And so that's the reason for the podcast. That's the reason I wrote my book serial winner. And I just want more and more of the books. Because, folks, it's a pain in the butt to write a book. I'll tell you, you don't make any money writing a book for.

Any of.

Y' all are stupid enough to think I'm gonna write a book and make millions. You better go out and create. You better go out and commit some kind of heinous crime before you do.

It, you know, now that is the truth.

Yeah. Yeah. You need to do something really wicked so you could be. And so people will want to read all about it. You know, bad, bad news sells. So you better get, you better let yourself go right down the toilet. Do something wicked. And then if you write your book, if you want to make money at it, and it probably won't do you any good because you'll probably be in prison, but, you know, people who know what they're talking about don't have time to write books like this. He's did. It's just not our world. And I got into it because of a health situation. Shut me down. You got into it because you retired. And by the way, I bounced back from the health problem, but it was only a 12 year delay. But you know, the thing is, you know, you take advantage. You write these, these things. But we, the, the success of our country depends on the operating principles in the heads of the people that are.

Moving up the ladder now.

And it's important that they got. Got some wisdom as their operating principles. So let's. Let's wrap this thing up. You want to. Adam, do you want to give a final word? Yeah. Chess Gl.

Great for you to be on today, man. You made some giant starting at the bottom, going to the top. It's a great book for a lot of people to read, a lot of insight. A lot of times people aren't this time of the year with everything going on, a lot of free time to. For a lot of people at home to be reading books. This is definitely a good one to get, and we appreciate you putting that down and being on, because people need to hear, like you said, from people that have actually lived a successful life to learn from their mistakes.

Thank you. Yeah, thank you, Adam. And you know, what I heard, Adam, from the book is that, you know, the thing, things you need to know that can make a difference, you don't have to have a thousand things in your head, but if you just got, you know, right off the bat, you know, seek to be a person of influence. You know, if you're a person of influence, chances are you're gonna probably be pretty successful. You're probably going to climb the ladder. You're probably going to make above average income and maybe a lot of money because you're. You're a difference maker, you know, and. And seek for that, you know, have some kind of proper ambition. Don't apologize for your ambition. You know, try, you know, put yourself out there in the right kind of way not to elbow everybody else to the back, but. But, you know, let your.

Your.

It's biblical. You're supposed to let your light shine. You know, you're here for a purpose. You got talents. Get them out there and try and make a difference with what you can offer to the world. And what you'll find is the more you go, the bigger your influence and the. The more you'll find out what's inside you and what you're capable of. So you got to get started. You got to have a good foundation, and you got to be unapologetic about wanting to make a difference and be that person of influence. And so there's just some simple things that you can get in your head that will make you, right off the bat, be stronger, be different than other people that are just trying to get through the day, just trying to shuffle their feet through to get to Friday where they can get a paycheck and spend all their money. They're not really trying to make a difference. They're not really thinking long term. You know, these are the kind of thoughts that can make you stand out. And so, Chess, I want to give you the final word here to leave people with.

It. So, Larry, I think what both you and Adam said was so well said. I'll leave you with this. Seek to be wise and see if it doesn't change your life.

There you go. Hey, thanks so much, Chess.

All right, Larry, you're the best. Appreciate you and Adam, thanks for having me.

All right. Thank you. Thank you.

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