Dominique Brightmon: Going North

Welcome to the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Wagner. This episode is brought to you by Authors Unite. Authors Unite makes the process of becoming a published bestselling author as simple as sipping your morning cup of coffee. You can learn more about Authors Unite at authorsunite.com. Now let's jump into the episode.

All right everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have Dominic Dom Brightman. He is a millennial author and host of the Going North podcast. His life mission is to advance himself by advancing others. So welcome to the show, man.

Oh, thanks for having me on, man. Looking forward to have a blast with you, pun intended.

I'm excited too, dude. I know this is going to be an entertaining episode at the least. So let's dive in, Dom. The first one I got for you is, what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?

Best story in my life, it was kind of hard thinking about this one, but probably the most powerful one was when I was at a personal development meeting called Toastmasters and we had this session of the John Maxwell Leadership Game and we got to the question of, What 3 people in your life have really made an impact and have helped you get the success you currently have? And of course, my parents were the first names that came to my mind. And after that, after naming them, we had to thank them. And one of them was my father at the time, and he was on the tail end of his suffering with dementia. He was going through 6 years of just brutal mental torture. And after that night of just playing that game of personal development, professional development, I made sure that I rushed over to the nursing home where he was, and I made sure that I thanked them for everything that they did for him. Because at that time, it was about a good 6 months after publishing my first book, and I was doing all these speaking engagements and was just doing all these in the early millennium and in my 20s. And I just wanted to thank him for that because without him as well as my mother, I wouldn't be where I currently am. I wouldn't be on this podcast. And after thanking him, 5 days later he passed away after all of that torture. So that was really one of the most powerful stories because it reminded me of a very important fact, and that was to never hesitate to show gratitude. So if there's someone out there in your life that has helped you to get where you currently are, and someone who may be helping you now, make sure you give them the roses while they're still alive. Always be grateful for every day you wake up because someone else out there didn't make it.

Dude, thank you for sharing that with us, man. I appreciate it. Um, so, so the next one I have for you, Dom, is what is the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?

The most valuable piece would be that libraries are filled with gold. I mean, it may be the 21st century and folks may see libraries as those places with the old card catalogs, but a lot of libraries these days want to be like your public— well, not public office, but want to be your home office because they're moving more away from the books and becoming community hubs for folks of all generations, whether it be folks little babies that come out the womb all the way to senior citizens who are looking for employment and want to learn more about computers. Libraries are filled with gold. So if you have a public library nearby, just go ahead and pay them a visit and see what's going on there because they got— most ones that I've been blessed to be in, they've actually had great staff that are very helpful and that are very very well versed in what they know, whether it be helping you to find a job or to sharpen up your resume or just to get used to just getting used to a computer. Because I've seen a lot of folks just compliment certain library workers for being so helpful and so patient, especially with those who may be part of the digital divide where they were last working, they just stopped using computers.

And what's your best piece of overall business advice, not necessarily industry-specific?

My best piece of business advice is always be willing to adjust because you got to be grateful for small beginnings because there's a classic statistic for anyone listening to this podcast where it's like most businesses fail within the first 5 years or less. Well, it could be contributed to a lot of things, whether it be finances, could be lack of capital, all that stuff. But one thing you have to always keep in mind is to be always willing to adjust. I mean, it kind of goes back to when I started my podcast about over a year ago. At the time of this recording, I mean, I didn't know what the heck an RSS feed was. I didn't have my full website up at the time, but I just went ahead and launched on SoundCloud. And then when I finally got used to what an RSS feed was, I was able to launch it on iTunes with 10 episodes at the time, and I adjusted as I went along and was able to actually be heard worldwide in over 15+ different countries. And It's all because I was willing to adjust and I just was willing to ship out what I had at the time. Be willing to just put out your product at the moment because sometimes good enough may just be good enough because you can always adjust down the road.

I love that, man. You got to be able to adapt. That is for sure. The next one I got for you is if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?

Ah, yes. I would tell my younger self to have an aggressive self-development plan, be more aggressive. So basically, in addition to reading a bunch of books and joining Toastmasters to amp up your leadership and communication skills, also be a lot more fearless in taking more intentional, massive action because if you're able to absorb as much information as possible and actually implement from it, and increase your rate of failure, you also increase your chances of success. So that would be my advice to my younger self. Have a more aggressive self-development plan, whether it be not just personal, but also professional and spiritual.

And in your opinion, what's the key to happiness?

The key to happiness would be taking care of the whole self. So mind, body, and spirit. So the mind, making sure you feed your mind with good stuff. Like listening to this podcast every day because it's a bunch of content or reading a great book. And when it comes to the health, just going out to the gym or just getting your body out there, get it moving to a point where you can at least break a sweat. And then the spiritual aspect, just to make sure you not only show gratitude every day, but also have a good idea of who— whose God you serve. I'm personally Christian. I believe in the good Lord Jesus Christ, my Savior. So basically make sure you have the spiritual aspect in mind as well. So the mental, the physical, and the spiritual, as well as the financial, because it's also good to have money too, because you can do a lot more with a lot more money than having less money.

Yeah, I agree. So leading into books, as you mentioned, what is the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from that?

Well, my original answer, I was like, man, it's too many choices to go from the Holy Bible. I mean, there's so many things in there. So I'll just leave it at that because it's a great business book because it talks about focus. So I'll go ahead and list the number 2 book behind it, which will be The 21 Indisputable Qualities of a Leader by John C. Maxwell. This one's the qualities book, which is 150 pages, not the law book that's red and black. And the best lesson I got from that book that helped me to find my extroverted side is to walk slowly through the crowd. So basically getting to know as many people as possible, in a way seeing yourself as kind of like a politician, glad-handing your way and meeting more people and just getting— putting yourself out there.

And what is your favorite quote and why?

My favorite quote of all time is by the Professional Hall of Fame wrestler Ric Flair, and it goes like this: To be the man Woo! You gotta beat the man. I love that, dude.

That's awesome.

Yep. And that is my favorite quote because it goes deeper than just being the world champion in a pro wrestling ring. That goes with life because if you're going to be in business, anything you do in life, you got to make sure you always adapt to be better than what you were before. I mean, as folks age, they may not be as spry as they were when they're 18, but you still got to find a way to keep yourself active and keep your tank full. You got to find a way to always improve. If you're great, how can you become greater? If you're already good, how can you become great? If you're bad, you definitely got to find out how to be good. So it's just basically, to be the man, you have to beat the man. To be the person that you want to be, are you better than what you were yesterday? So making sure that you find a way to get better at something every single day. Yes, man.

Dude, thank you so much for coming on. Was a lot of fun. The last one I have for you before we let you go is, where is the best place for people to find Where can people find you online?

The best place to find me online is donbrightman.com. It'll link you to all my social media pages like the Instagrams, Facebooks, LinkedIn, and all that good stuff. Feel free to slide into my DMs and buy a book.

Yeah, I love it, man. Dude, thanks again for coming on. Really appreciate it.

Thanks for having me, man. You the man, Tyler.

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