In this Business Blast Podcast episode, host Tyler Wagner interviews Brandon Bruce, co‑founder of Cirrus Insight, a Gmail/Outlook plugin that integrates Salesforce. Brandon shares a personal story about completing a 508‑mile Death Valley bike race, using the “No stopping anytime” road sign as a metaphor for perseverance in business and life. He explains that his expertise lies in sales communication, emphasizing that selling software to salespeople is fundamentally about talking and building personal language. He offers business advice drawn from a Cisco founder’s quote – “the first rule of playing a game is to know that you’re playing a game” – and stresses the importance of framing work as a game. Brandon highlights the most critical decision for entrepreneurs: simply starting, despite fear of mistakes. He discusses the concept of kinship as the key to happiness, citing Greg Boyle’s book Tattoos on the Heart and a story about Cesar Chavez. He also shares a favorite quote from the documentary Won’t You Be My Neighbor about the Jewish concept of Tikkun Olam – “we are the repairers of creation.” The episode concludes with Brandon’s contact information: cirrusinsight.com, his email, and LinkedIn.
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Welcome to the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Wagner. This episode is brought to you by Authors Unite. Authors Unite provides you with all the resources you need to become a successful author. You can learn more about Authors Unite and join the free community at authorsunite.com. Now let's jump into the episode.
Alright everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have Brandon Bruce with us. He is the co-founder of Cirrus Insight, a plugin for Gmail and Outlook that integrates with Salesforce to help salespeople save time. So welcome to the show, man.
Thanks so much, Tyler. Of course.
Of course. We'll dive into the first one. The first question I have for you, Brandon, is what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
You know, I think one of my favorite stories and one that's been meaningful to me is years ago, I read about a bicycle race through Death Valley. It was 508 miles long, single stage. You just start and then you go as fast as you can until you finish. It took me 35 hours and 7 minutes. And, when I was about halfway, maybe two-thirds of the way done, biking along through the desert and there happened to be a road sign there that said, "No stopping anytime." And, in part because I was relatively fatigued and starting to have some minor hallucinations, but it was meaningful to me because it was like, "Well, I'm not done yet. So, I don't want to stop just out here in the middle of the desert." And, here's this sign telling me, "No stopping anytime." Doesn't matter if you're tired, doesn't matter if you need a little bit more water or some more fuel. You just got to keep going until you hit the finish. And I think that's been a good lesson for me, not only, of course, in cycling, but also in business and most other things in life.
And what is the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?
You know, years ago, and my kids are still young, but when they were really little, they would ask, you know, well, what do you do for your job? You know, when you go to work, what do you do? And the easiest way and the most accurate way I could explain it is I talk for a living. And so I think one of the most valuable pieces of information that's within my expertise or industry is that, you know, we sell sales software to salespeople. And sales, I think, has always been, and certainly is today, an industry that's dominated by communication, meeting with people in person and connecting with them through calendars, through email, on the phone. And so it's learning and developing your own language, your own way of presenting yourself, your own way of connecting with others. And talking.
And what's your best piece of overall business advice, not necessarily industry-specific?
This came from one of the original founders of Cisco, and she gave an interview once, and she said, "The first rule of playing a game is to know that you're playing a game." And I love that one, in part because my dad always said, whether it was weeding outside or repairing fences or anything, if my brother and I got discouraged doing it, he would say, "Well, make it into a game." Compete with yourself, compete with your brother, try to make it fun and interesting, keep track of the score, have fun with it. And so, yeah.
And if you could give your—
knowing that you're playing the game.
Yeah, no, I actually, I've never heard that quote, but I really like it. And if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?
I think it's that the biggest decision is really the decision to start. Not an easy one to make. It's easy to postpone that. To procrastinate, to do more research, to really study it because you don't want to make a mistake, but it's okay to make some mistakes. And so, really, the biggest decision is the decision to start. And so, giving myself a piece of advice when I was younger, I would simply tell myself, "It's time to start." And in your opinion, what is the key to happiness? I think it's kinship. I love the books by Greg Boyle. He's the founder of Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles, the biggest gang intervention program in the world, and he's written some books. Tattoos on the Heart is his first bestseller where he talks about the meaning of kinship. And one of the stories he tells is a reporter went to Cesar Chavez in California when he was doing a lot of work on behalf of agricultural workers and said, you know, these workers really seem to love you. And his response was, it's mutual. You know, we love each other. And it's that kinship, I think, that's meaningful and that leads to not only happiness, but also kind of a sense of meaning and fulfillment.
And what is the best book that you've read? And what was the number one thing you learned from that?
Well, I guess I already kind of mentioned it, but most recently, that book has made the biggest difference in my current thought process and how I'm evaluating, you know, success and significance is this idea of kinship. I think it's a great word. It's a great concept. So I definitely recommend to everybody Tattoos on the Heart. The author is Greg Boyle.
And what is your favorite quote and why?
You know, one that I saw just the other day is I went and watched the movie Won't You Be My Neighbor about Mr. Rogers. And he in the movie has a little phrase that that comes from the Jewish tradition called Tikkun Olam, which means we are the repairers of creation. And I love that concept. As soon as I heard it, and I looked it up to see exactly what that meant, but the sense that, okay, we're in this creation, but that it needs constant repair. And that's our job, not just maintenance, but actual repair. And there's a lot of work to do there. And I think that's I don't know, in a lot of ways I think it's very inspiring.
Yeah, dude, thank you so much for coming on. The last question I have for you before we let you go is, where is the best place for people to find you online?
Our website is cirrusinsight.com, so C-I-R-R-U-S insight.com. And certainly we're largely an email company, so brandon@cirrusinsight.com or Brandon Bruce on LinkedIn, and love to be in touch.
Perfect, man. Thanks again for joining us. We really appreciate it.
You got it. Thanks, Tyler.
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