Starting with a Ledger

Welcome to this episode of the Million Dollar Mastermind. I'm Larry Wydell, and before we get started, if you want to know exactly how to win again and again, go to whitelowinning.com forward/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 talking with Brian Maiman, and we're talking about winning in business and being unrestrained in what you pursue. And so, Brian, this is a lot of fun. We're just getting going, so thanks for taking the time.

Yeah, no problem. This is actually, I'm super enjoying catching up and talking about this.

And you know, one thing, the key that people need, you know, they listen to these podcasts and they're gung ho, entrepreneurial type people and they're looking for answers. You know, just like when you and I first talked the first, I was like, what do I do? And, you know, you want to be specific, to be dynamic, and you don't need to know the next 700 steps, but it's nice to know the next few steps. And when you're getting started, you need to get your concepts down. You know, you got to get it where it makes sense to you generally. And one thing that'll make that you need to understand you can win at anything by working hard. You're going to be beat most people by working hard because most people, even if they look like they're working hard, they working hard, you know, they, they know how to put a show on, maybe, but they're not going to work hard. And then if you'll take the second step of having a rhyme and a reason and a system that works, and you'll put yourself in a rhythm of doing those things over and over and over. And basically the way you find that is see who's winning in that arena and copy them to get yourself, your wheels moving in the right direction. And so if you, you're going to beat most people just by working hard, and then you're going to beat another 40% by having some kind of system. And that will, don't worry about it being perfect from the beginning. It will get better the more you use it, and you'll get better at using it. But get going, you know, make a step, you know, you're not going to be a graceful runner the first time you run. Look at babies, you know. And so the thing is that you got to have the concept, right, but you got to say, whatever I do, I'm going to do it with all my might. You know, that's what the Bible says. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might. And when you do that. We talked in the first episode about Brian. The thing that's always think about him is if he got one idea in his mind, he would do it a thousand times, you know, and so you really did that, right. Somehow you had that in your thinking from the beginning, way before we even met. I mean, that was ingrained in you. And the first business you found for yourself that I know of is that butcher business.

Yes. And.

You know, your father, you know, how's your day? Your, you know, I met your dad and you know, he was a great guy.

And.

I believe he was Larry too, wasn't he?

Yep. Yeah, that's right.

Same name. And, and so what did you feel like when you started your business? What was your main. You know, I know when I started my business, one thought I had in my mind was like, if I fail, I fail. You know, it was like in the Bible, Esther, you know, if I perish, I perish, you know, but if I had, even when I moved to North Carolina, my expansion, I said, if I fail, I'm not going to fail with a whimper. I'm going to fail. And it's going to be a belly flop heard around the world. Everybody will know that why they'll fail because I'm going to make such an effort. It is going to be such a splat that is going to get everybody's attention because I'm going for it, you know. And somehow you had that type spirit in you right from the beginning. So where do you think that came from and how did that, how did that impact you when you started and.

Your progress overcoming problems? Yeah, it's a really good question. I think that my mother would tell you, since I've been a little boy, I always had a little ledger and I always wanted to do something in business and I had all these ideas and so I think there was. I think God gave me an entrepreneurial spirit. And my mom and dad ran their own business. My mom was. And you met my mom and my dad and I, my brothers. So, you know, you know, my whole family. And I just always had that appetite to see if I could, you know, to win. I remember you telling a story that early when you moved to North Carolina, you ran training, you ran sales appointments and you ran an event and you literally fell down on the bed face first with your suit on and you woke up eight hours later. With your suit on, you never even, you know, you remember telling that story?

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah, yeah. I remember that very well.

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.

So I think when you say hard work have a system, you know, I would say for me, it was very similar. I certainly started that first meat business with the butcher business. And I didn't know what I was doing, but I knew I needed to get out there and tell people about it. So I went. I went every 15 miles from the city. I was in every direction because the railroad in the early days came through northern Wisconsin. So about every 15 miles, they. They could get 15 miles in the winter or in the summer building the railroad, and then they would stop, and then that would be where the next city was to gather wood for the big lumber company. So that's how northern Wisconsin was settled. Well, what does that have to do with my success? Well, what happened was when I moved there and I said, oh, man, no, there was no venison processing business there. And I worked for a local butcher shop that didn't do it. They made sausage, but they didn't process deer. And so I said, you know what? I'm going to start this business. And so I just been married and I went out every 15 miles in every direction. There was town and they had a little sports shop. So I went and give them a flyer and I printed out flyers, put them everywhere. Island City Processing was the name of the company. And Lindley. I said, we had just been married. I said, okay, I'm going to go hunting today. And if somebody by chance would bring their business to us, I left the address on this. Maybe we'll have a few deer today. Well, I came home from hunting that night, and our little apartment and where I had the processing business at was at the end of this street. And we turned the garage into a little processing shop. I was like, when I pulled down the street that night, Larry, I thought to myself, well, this is really weird. Who would have their funeral on a Saturday, opening day of deer season. Because the church was right across from our little home and butcher shop there or processing shop. And the closer I got, I found out that they weren't having a funeral, they weren't having church service. People were parking in the church parking lot to drop their deer off.

And.

And there was over 200 deer opening day sitting there. And here was Lindley all by herself, filling out cutting orders. What? Yes. That was the first experience I had of going all in Larry Waddell style belly flop. I was either going to win or not. And so I got that look from your wife that only you know, you get when you get that look. And because she looked at me like, you better get your in gear here. So anyway, I love my wife like I love the Lord. So I just went ahead and translated that look into I better get to work here. And so we had. We did over 400 deer our first year. I paid for my college education, and what I found out was your hard work. The hard work was exactly what I learned, that hard work could do everything. And in that first year, I paid for my college, my student loans in that first year. And Lindley and I just knew from that day that hard work was really something that we needed to do. And I loved what you said about the system. It'll change. We put a system together. And really what my thought of a system is, is it's that opportunity for you to get organized with your actions in getting results in business. So if I could share anything, I would share that. Work your butt off and commit to a system, but don't be so committed that you won't be willing to change it. Because as you add more work and you add more people to helping them get involved in your plan with you, that system can change. But it's just a matter of getting those efforts organized. The other thing I would say that we did for specifics, for people who are listening in and like you said, entrepreneurs, I studied Art Williams, Larry Waddell, Mike Tuttle, were three people that it was evident to me that if I studied their attitudes, I studied their approaches, and I studied their application to their efforts, then I could put them into my personality and, and into my business models, whatever business that was, whatever vertical I was working in. And then I. I could learn a lot about me by studying their attitude, their approach and their application. So I literally scripted your attitude, your approach, your application, arts, Larry's mics. And that helped our family and our businesses like craze. And so we also learned from your Guys, attitude, approach and application that if I involve God family into my business, I never had to separate them, I never had to excuse myself for them, and I never had to do anything but work my butt off because my God and my family were involved in everything I was doing and I never needed to worry about it. Make sense?

Yeah. It's a matter of living a unit, making a unified effort, rather than a segmented effort. It's like everything is connected. And the more you have all of these parts to your life combined in your mind, you're making an effort with your business that's going to pay off in the other areas. And so as you go in that they talk about, you always have a ledger. What does that mean when you say that you always had a ledger?

So I, so I've always had a ledger of like a to do ledger when I. So I call it a ledger. Because some people have a ledger like financially, and I think that's important too. I think you got to have that. You got to know your numbers. Obviously, financial services, you and I understand that and we've taught millions of how to manage their assets. But for me, it was a to do ledger. Since I've been a little boy, my, my, my mom would tell you I had a little notebook and I would have, okay, what was I going to do today? What in my ledger was I going to do for that business? I start even in the, the outdoor industry, the hunting world, I love to go. My favorite thing to do is these wilderness. Drop by myself or with one guide and be out there. And I ledger and take notes, field notes on every single day. And I ledger everything. So I always have my ledger with me. And I, it's, it's my activity ledger. And I think that a lot of guys lose focus. I shouldn't say guys. I use guys as a generic description. Homo sapien race. I think a lot of entrepreneurs lose track of their moments because they don't have their time block scheduled or their activities block scheduled. And when I came into financial services, I didn't know what hard work was. And then that's why I had to study your guys's attitude, your approach and application. Because once I figured out how, what hard work was here, which was immense amounts of activity, okay, then I had to figure out, okay, so now how do, how, how do I have my attitude like theirs with my personality? How do I have my approach like theirs with my personality? And then how do I master my application like Larry Waddell has? And so I ledgered everything I had notes on everything. You would be speaking at giant seminars and with advisors from all over the world. And I wasn't taking notes on what you were necessarily saying. I was taking notes on every. Every thing you were doing. Does that make sense? The small details? That's how I could do a thousand things with one thing. Is what you said? I don't know.

Fantastic.

Brian, 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 and put them into something for you to watch. Go to whiteellawinning.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.