How He Dominated His Growth from One Business to Building Many Multi-Million Dollar Businesses

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'm here with Brian Maiman and Brian has had incredible success starting new businesses and turning them into multimillion dollar successes. And is your, you know, you've created this hydra headed monster that I don't. I'm so far behind, I have no.

Idea what in the world you are doing.

So let's, let's talk about. So you went from the butcher business into financial services. And then you started, you know, you had one office, you opened other offices, then you set that up to where it didn't matter where you lived. You know, like people have learned in Zoom now how to run their businesses and not be face to face. You learned that early on, didn't you? Talk about that, the move from Wisconsin over to South Dakota.

Yeah, well, you know what, that was with great influence and help by you because so, so I had a large branch office in financial services with about 100, about 120 advisors and maybe 130. I forget exactly what it was, but it was a fairly large branch and we were doing really good. And so I thought. And then I met you and then I realized I wasn't doing really good at all, but my life was better than it ever had been. So, so anyway, so what happened was you had helped Lindley and I really assess how to expand out of that branch and open multiple locations. So we did that. You told me two things, you know, and we, you know, in your vocabulary earlier. I did a thousand things with those two things, but it really was a heavy influence on you and from you and Larry Waddell or Mike Tuttle. And so what happened was we started growing. Okay, well, we were at a place where we wanted to raise our boys in, in a different environment. And you had introduced me to the west and skiing and, and I was a big hunter. And so I said, you know what? Spearfish, South Dakota was a perfect place.

For all of it.

It had largest vertical drops of skiing just 30 minutes away from me east of the Rockies. Largest vertical drop east of the Rockies. And it was close to Bozeman. It was close to Colorado. I could get there, I could go skiing. I could take my boys to all those places. And we wanted to raise them in A Western lifestyle. So what happened was we decided to just move out here in 2007 and end of 2006 actually, and said, you know what? We can do this. And because of the way we set up our business model with these independent advisors and branch managers running those locations, we came across technology at that time. Super. It was early on, I had set up a video broadcast that they could come into a portal, and from an office in Spearfish, South Dakota, I would have 80 to 120 people on every Monday and Wednesday, and we could just share the success.

This is what year people have learned to do that recently. But now, this was way back when.

2007.

2007.

Yes, sir.

Yes.

Everybody thinks they've reinvented this. I mean, they've invented this stuff. They've just been. You know, the doors have opened with Zoom, has expedited it, and it's also locked. Knocked down a lot of the barriers from the regulators and company rules and things like that, where you've had to do it. But, I mean, this is not. It's not like this model has not worked in the past. I mean, so anyway, keep going.

Right. So we did that in 2007, and I remember it was expensive then. What you can do on Zoom now, that was a $30,000 investment I needed to make, and we did, and I set it up. But what it did was it allowed me to run those offices. And then we had, you know, we had purchased another financial services, another network of offices in the company at the same time. So that was my first taste of buying a business and getting involved in a business that I'd never been involved in, even though it was the same industry. So what happened was that kind of. That kind of set me up. And then. And then in 2010, three years later, I was like, I want to try something. The outdoor industry that had never been done before, and that was kind of create this Edward Jones model of booking agents in the hunting world. But there was no platform to do it, so we had to develop software. Now, with my experience in the advisory business, I looked at what worked in that software and what didn't, and we had made an investment, pretty hefty one in software. Was all of a sudden, two to three years later, that software was getting recognized, and people were buying the software and using it. And then we started booking a million dollars in hunts and then $2 million in hunts and then 3 million in hunts and then 4 million in hunts. And then it just kept manifesting itself, and then we started bringing more products In. And then my son, who is, you know, he just. He's a hometown boy. He was, you know, homecoming court, prom prince. Da da da da. He got out of college, wanted to move back here, and he wanted to buy a local business. So we just took all of that, what we knew there, and helped him get that started. It was in the food service, so I had some experience with the meat science degree I had, and we took that off all of a sudden that just consequently, because of what we knew, went from half a million in sales to a million in sales. And now this year will be, you know, 2023. I mean, I would suspect he'll do two and a half to 3 million in sales there. And it just. And that's what's happened. You know, it's just. It's kind of manifested itself.

You know, you built that thing in 2007, that model, and you tell you, you explained it to me many times, and conceptually I underst. But practically I did not. You know, I just didn't have a setup to where I could adopt it. And I really appreciated the fact that you never invited me on to speak on one of those and embarrassed me by not being able to figure out how to even get on it. So I want to thank you.

Give up.

Belated thanks for not putting me on the spot like that.

Maybe I should have and I'd be twice as big as I am today. So what was I thinking?

I think you've done pretty well. But talk about, what do you mean? You got us. You know, one thing I do remember, you know, like, you were big into the mortgage business at one time and you wrote actual, you know, you wrote a book on it. I mean, and writing books, Writing book. You know, if you think you're going to make a zillion dollars for writing a book, go find out for yourself. But go, go, go, you know? Yes. Yeah.

And your book is an amazing book, and I've read it a few times. I love it.

So thank you very much. I appreciate it. But the thing is, your book, you wrote the book. And the great thing about writing a book is it forces you to get real specific and to think things through, how to say what you're trying to say. And the real benefit from that is you organize yourself.

And so 100%, that's well stated. Yeah.

And nobody else may get a whole lot out of this book, but for you, you know, it, you know, it's transforming, really, right. To write a book in terms of making you more powerful and dynamic. And so I would tell the people out there, you think, you know, if you've got a book in you, write the God blessed thing and get it out there because it'll probably organize you for another launch and expans in your career. Even if it doesn't turn into a magnificent, you know, a big bestseller, it'll turn into a life changer for yourself. Getting past that point, if you got it in your mind, don't die thinking, I should have written a book, you know, I should have written this book. Write the thing and get it behind you, you know, and because somebody can use that information and it will transform you, getting, you know, organizing together. But now you went from that. I think that process had to help you when it came to you said you, you know, designing software, writing application thing like that, that kind of, that seemed like that would have been a great advantage, having that process behind you when you came into doing that.

Well, it's funny you say that because in a million years nobody would ever thought I would have written a book or wrote a book. And, and it did exactly what you're saying. And you obviously are very fortuitous in your thinking and forward thinking and you understand because you've done a lot of this. And that's why I would say for the listeners today, also find a mentor, plug into this podcast and get all your people plugged into this podcast, your employees, your associates. Because I've picked up a half a dozen nuggets on this. And one of the things about the book, write the book. Chess Britt, a friend of ours wrote a book as well. And I was talking to him a couple months ago and what it did for him, he's like, I should have wrote this book so long ago because of what it did for me and how now it just changed his entire presence and how he sees himself. Well, to speak to the book that I wrote, it created a behavior or it released a behavior that I didn't.

Know I had in me.

And that was the ability to write curriculum and to then engage in the thought process of where that curriculum can take you and those thoughts and those efforts and those behaviors and those details. And it changed my life forever. You're exactly right. And you're the first person that's ever even uttered those words or would think that. But now I'm just like, Lindley laughs at me because I'm writing all the time. I'm writing curriculum, I'm writing things for this business and that business. And just last night I had a meeting with a couple of Our senior managers with a different business. And they said, okay, I need to know how to explain this. And I said, listen, I'm not going to explain it, but I will write the curriculum. I'll give it to you guys, you guys digest it and make it yours. And they're like, perfect. And the book did that. You're exactly right, Larry.

And the thing is that.

Brian.

But now what actually does this software do? What I really want to hear from you is the places you've gone, the companies you've met. I mean, you know, like your world now. I mean, you're at the Las Vegas hunting shows. You go here, you go there, you've hunted around the world. How is this broaden your world? Let's just talk about the adventure side of your life and you know, the business. Working with big companies and things like that, you know, that's exciting. You know, you meet new people, you meet powerful things. You know, you learn things by observing other successful people. You can incorporate it into your business. And when you have multiple businesses, you could. You got lots of places to stick these new ideas, you know, so go ahead.

So I would say the software enables. It really is. It's a port portal that enables anybody to go in there and use it. And it's. It's like a dating site in the hunting industry, which I've never used a dating site, but the guys who wrote the script said the algorithm is the same, or a job search where you put in your criteria that gives you best matches, what you might be best matched for. So we came up with this concept. It would be much similar, a financial needs analysis. It would be a hunt plan where they could go there and they could put all this information. It would give them their best matches. Well, we did that and we came up with it. And consequently it's used across the board for many applications.

And what's it called?

Yeah, it evolved and it hit a lot of boxes. It was time in the market and timing in the market. No different than you talking.

What's the name of it?

Outdoor Software Solutions is the. Is the software and then Outdoor Software Solutions. Yep. And is it.com or. Yep. Or software solutions.com and it serves. It serves a giant booking agency that has over 125 advisors in it called Rolling Bones. But that actually supports some of the other big names. The Mundt Agency. Nick Mundt from Bone Collectors. Remy Warren. Remy Warren Expeditions, Nick Mundt Agency. They are big advisors and they. They use the software and they know hunting better than anybody as they're the biggest icons in the industry. You know, they work with Under Armour and realtree and Bass Pro and Cabela's. And so all of this software has been integrated in these booking services and, and this application. So that's, that's, you know, that's where it's manifest itself to. And then the consequence, or consequently to all that we've been able to travel the world and go hunting all over the world.

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 times. 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.

But talk about now, your year. I mean, you know, where places you're going, events you're attending. Do you run a guide service, a hunting service yourself? Did you for a while, you're just doing the hunting for yourself?

Yep. So. So never owned a guide.

Good, because I know we won't have to try and fit into your bookings. You know, we can hand. We can book our own hunt and go anytime we want.

Exactly. And that's. That was the thing. So, nope, I've never owned a guide service. Never. We, you know, like I said, it's just manifested itself, you know, because it's such a big platform, it's done a lot of kickstarting and there's been equity opportunities in a lot of different camps. And that's opportunity, and that's just been an ancillary benefit of what it's done. But me personally, I don't guide. I do hunt about 100 days a year all over the world, hunting and fishing. Lindley and I have been able to fly into I just, like two years ago, Lucas senior trip. And this is all because of opportunities it created. Lucas wanted to go to Alaska. I've been to Alaska 17 times. And so I have a lot of buddies that own camps and planes. And so we. Lindley goes, I like Alaska, but I don't like these out these remote places. I like the Hilton downtown. And I said, well, that's fine. Let's stay in the Hilton downtown and we'll go to all these remote places. So we literally would fly to Lake Clark view The bears. The next day we'd fly to fish camp and she caught her and Lucas caught 20 kings over 25 pounds. Their arms were so tired. Wow. Yeah.

At six o' clock in the evening.

A float plane picked her up, picked us up, took us back. We had dinner at Sullivan's that night. And then the next morning we were up on the Russian. We caught our limit of fish there and the next day. And so it's created some opportunities that we never thought it would have ever done. But it's been. It's pretty, pretty been grandiose stuff and it's been kind of crazy. I've been able to hunt snow sheep in Siberia and Russia is one of my favorite places in the world. And so, yeah, it's crazy.

And the. Are you still hunting elk and deer?

Yep, still hunt elk and deer and have just been able to, you know, go to some of the craziest things. You can't imagine. My buddy and I, he shot the state record. He drew a tag and we were able to go shoot the State Record Elk. 393 inches in over on the corner of South Dakota. And it's just been. It's just been nuts. We've just, it's. It's been a crazy run. And I've been able to. You know, I'm not much of a golfer, but I've hunted some of the greatest places in the world.

So Adam got a 393 5, something like that down in New Mexico with his. I believe it was in New Mexico with his bow.

He's crazy shot.

No, that was in Calgary. That was in Calgary. He got it with his bow. Unbelievable.

I need to get. Adam and I need to do some stuff together and we'll get our video production stuff, so.

And by the way, longbow.

Yeah, I know it. Longbow. That's the crazy thing. I've seen you make shots at 70, 80 yards with that.

Yeah. And so lots of fun to be had out there while you pursue your passion. That's the point that I want to make. And you get to go places, but you get to meet other inspiring people. And everywhere you go, you know, there. There's a principle that Walt Disney used and he did it inside his company because he had a lot of different branches. The cartoon branch, the, you know, the park and the land development thing, the movie making department. And what he had lots of.

Larry, Larry, Larry. He had lots of verticals.

Lots of verticals. Those are verticals. Okay. But he would go and move from one department to another, pick up ideas and inspiration. And the next place he'd go, you know, he'd go over to from the cartoon guys, he'd find out all the exciting things they were doing and he'd go over and talk to the movie making guys and, and pass on some of that stuff and get them all fired up. Then he'd go over to the land development thing. And so he was constantly. He was like a honeybee fertilizing. But you can do that yourself without having all the resources Walt Disney had by exposing yourself to things you're really interested in. Because when you're really interested in it, you, you ask the kind of questions and people can tell it's worth their time. You know, people are really good at it. They can tell it's worth their time to spend time with you. You're not just a casual fan wasting their time. You know, when you ask a question, you get a real good answer. I can remember when we were coming back in one of those little tiny airports in Mexico one time that Jackie so and so who had the. At the TV show, do you remember? He was coming back from a hunting tr. Yeah.

You knew who that was.

I can't think of his name right now.

That was Jim Shockey.

Jim Shockey, that's it.

Yes. Yes.

And you know, you lit up. You knew exactly who it was. You went over there and you guys got this. He could tell right off the bat that you were a serious customer, you know, you know, you were serious about the hunting. And you know, we're just sitting over there wondering, you know, what's going on.

It's so funny you would say that because I tell that story, story in that. The hunting area all the time that, you know, we were, we were down there financial services group with that outdoor enthusiast and yeah, I mean, he was on our plane coming back. He was looking at getting a mule deer concession down there and expanding his guide service business. And I knew who he was.

Yeah. Yeah. Pretty. Pretty interesting. So, Brian, lot of fun adventures in the past. But what's really fun is the excitement it creates for the new year for you. Because when you look at the next year, I know your head is just bubbling with possibilities of things that would be exciting for you to do, but they're also going to be incredibly rewarding on multiple different levels. And that's the reason why successful people keep on going. Because their success has created the opportunity for even greater success. You know, more fun, more payoff, more adventures, more fun people to meet or to get meet back up with and everything. And so what would you, you know, we've, we've gone on for a long time, but I wanted to say what, what would you say is a final word you'd like to wrap up with, with everybody, kind of send them off with.

Well, I, I guess from, from 1. Thanks for having me on here. And you, you, like I said to begin with, before we were recording, I guess, I don't know, between, between yourself and Mike Tuttle. I don't know if anybody's been more of an influence in my life from the perspective of that. If there was an opportunity, go ahead and grab it and go lead your life on your own terms as a Christian in light of, you know, being a godly man, a family person, a good person to our businesses. You guys have been, you know, and you, Larry, have just been, you have even been just a giant rock in my world even when you weren't around me because of what you taught me. So I guess I do want the audience to hear that because, you know, I think the world needs to know that and I say that all the time. The second thing is that what I am most excited about is after 20 years of business travel, 25 years of business travel, Lindley and I are empty nesters. And to have her traveling with me in the new year is, in this past year has been just a lot of fun for me again. You know, we have just experienced so many new things. And for me personally, I'm excited about my advisory business, my financial services business, because my kids are often running in their own business. Our software company is pretty independent and there are executives that are taking over and it's gotten bigger than what I can. And I don't want to be the lid on it anymore, bigger than I can take it. And, and so I'm excited to travel the world, share the opportunity with people that there's, it's, it's just at your fingertips. If you just don't worry about fear of failure and you just get up every day and be a good godly human being and want to bring value to people's lives. And I think that, you know, this is a better. I know people are worried about our economy. They're worried about this, worry about that. Hey, listen, create your own economy by creating and renewing yourself every day. And I think that that's what I'd like to share. What I'm most excited about is that there's a great big world out there and there's a lot of opportunity and I want to share it. With everybody.

Fantastic, Brian, thanks so much.

If you enjoyed what you've heard and are dead serious about finding out for yourself exactly how this works in the real world 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 Whiteellumwinning.com webinar now in order to move up as fast as possible. I'm Larry Wydell, and I run the Million Dollar Mastermind. Go, go, go.