[00:00:06] Speaker A: Welcome to from caving in to crushing it, the podcast for those who find themselves immersed in adversity and choose to write their story instead of having others write it for them. I'm Drew Duraney, and I'm your host. Today's guest is Ben Albert. Ben is the owner of Balbert Marketing, LLC. He is also the curator of the Real Business Connections Network, where he hosts five podcasts. Once an underdog, now a successful entrepreneur, Ben is passionate about helping other underdogs achieve their dreams. Ben is on a mission to actually move the needle in 1 million lives, one conversation at a time.
Enjoy the show. Ben.
[00:00:53] Speaker B: Good to see you, Drew. I'm excited to be here, man. Good to see you, too.
[00:00:56] Speaker A: All right, so I've been following you on a lot of your LinkedIn posts, and we are, you and I are very similar in our philosophies. And, you know, I like to. I always thank the person who introduced us. And for you and me, we weren't introduced by anybody specifically except Anka Herman, who is a colleague of mine. She's out in Spain. She saw one of your posts, and she tagged me on it and said, drew, you may want to meet Ben. He might be a great guest on your podcast. And though I don't recall right now that exact post, I knew it resonated with me, and I knew I had to get to meet you. So I did comment on your post that time, and that's how we started our dialogue, and it got us to this.
And so thank you for that.
I think whatever you posted there, you got Anka's attention, and she right away thought, Drew needs to talk to Ben and vice versa.
[00:01:59] Speaker B: So, Andrew, I forgot that. So it means the world to me. It's. It's amazing how when, like, men, like minds are aligned, we just. We just end up attracting each other and collaborating at some point. So, yeah, it forgot that story. But it's great. It's a great way to start.
[00:02:17] Speaker A: Well, really, you know, it is. And it also lets people know that you never know when you're posting something on social media. If you're doing it because your intention is just to do it because people say it, it's not going to go for it. If you do it because you feel it and you mean it, someone's good, it's going to resonate with somebody. And that's how this happened. So, again, evergreen organic, all that kind of stuff, it does work when you're just being yourself. So thanks for being yourself, Ben. I appreciate that. So I have you on for a variety of reasons. But, you know, we talk about how life is linear, you know, or we're taught that when we're younger, and ultimately, you know, we're told if you do a plus, b plus, c plus, diphthere is going to happen and it's not true, and it's not told to us maliciously. People are trying to protect us, or they believe it could happen for you. Ultimately not true. And when right now, initially, we have the audience listening, and when it does go to video, you'll be able to show, and I'm going to have you show it what you consider life, really. You can show it now. It's not linear. What does it look like, Ben? You can show it, and I'll describe it to the audience who's just listening.
[00:03:28] Speaker B: Well, I'm going to draw two different things here, okay. And if someone has a pen and pencil or on them, they're taking notes, you can go ahead and draw something like a check mark or a hockey stick. And then the second time, you basically want to spin in circles 20 times, chug a bottle of wine. Don't actually do that. And then with your eyes closed, try to draw the same thing. And my point is that people think it's going to be a check mark or a hockey stick, but it really just looks like a scribble that you don't know left from right and right from up and up and down. That's what life looks like. And the beauty is in the fact that it's not linear. If you were to tell me exactly what my life would look like and create a boring life, I like that there's curveballs. I like that they're so called failures. I like that sometimes I don't know left from right because I'm a curious person and I'm learning every single day. But, yeah, it just looks like a scribble that no one's going to be able to even tell what it's going to look like from the start to the finish.
[00:04:31] Speaker A: Absolutely. And, you know, folks, that the message here is, you know, when you're raising your kids, and I did the same thing raising my kids. I told them life was linear until, you know, life hit me, and I had to, like, show them that it's not. Best advice to a kid is just prepare them for life not being linear. You're not to scare them, just to give them the tools to be proactive, that when something happens that's unexpected, they don't react, but they proact and they act in a way. So they could maybe lessen the slow, the grief cycle down or something. But the unexpected in life is what we hope to be prepared for and often are not. So I brought Ben on because he and I just talked before we hit record that I have a firm belief there's three types of men out there and three types of women. We can say three types of human, but for today, I'm going to say three types of mendez. There could be Ben. Man number one, where there's adversity right in front of Ben. And he didn't see it. He doesn't see it. He's got blind spots. He continues to live his life the way he was, which was not necessarily a fulfilled one. I'm not saying it wasn't, but I'm just saying that's what it could have been. Then there's man number two, where Ben sees the adversity in front of him, and he doesn't see it as an opportunity. He sees it as a barrier. That's life doing it to him. He's the victim. He's not touching it. He's going to stay living the way is. I have Ben on because he's man number three. He's the man who sees adversity and says, you know what? I'm sick and tired of just laying low and letting this stuff hit me. I am going to take this adversity on. It's an opportunity to improve my life. It's life doing it for me. I'm taking control. So I'm going to ask Ben now to reach back as far as he needs to and talk about that defining moment in your life, whether it was a tap on the shoulder or like, I needed the two by four upside the head to say, hey, Ben, there's a better way to live. Do something different, man.
I'd love to hear that.
[00:06:40] Speaker B: Yeah. And first off, you're describing the three kinds of men. I'm like, which one, actually, am I? Because at different parts of my life, I was all three. And even in different contexts of life, I might find myself as man one or two. And it's a constant evolution of self. Like, I'm learning in lots of different categories. I'm not here to say that I'm man number three in every single category. So I'm listening to that. I'm like, which one, actually, am I?
[00:07:08] Speaker A: You think about it. Like, even just today, in this, in whatever. Let's say you're awake for 16 hours. In that 16 hours day, depending on your level of self awareness, you could be all three of those men at different times. And that's the fascination about life and the emphasis on awareness, how important it is. So I'd love to hear when you became. Or give me an example of when men number three popped up with a defining moment.
[00:07:34] Speaker B: I will. And I want to riff on something I've never talked about on a podcast before. This is kind of green here, but there's unconscious incompetent. There's incompetence, unconscious incompetence. Then there's conscious incompetence, and then there's competence, just to simplify it. You know, in a lot of areas of my life, at one point, I was just unconsciously incompetent. And then you get to conscious incompetence, and you're like, it's easy to feel like an imposter, like you're not there yet or you're man number two, maybe in this category. And once you become competent, once you get evidence of your competence, once you have the habits and the lifestyle and the skill sets to prove you're competent, it's pretty easy to feel confident as a man. It's pretty easy to grow, but you kind of have to go through that muddy phase in some areas of life. And I had a rough past. We can go as deep into this if you want. But, you know, I didn't think I was going to amount to much. And most of my life, I didn't amount to much. And I got into personal growth, and I was doing all the stuff that I was told I should do, and they're all great.
I was following the miracle morning, you know, silence affirmations, visualization exercise, reading, scribing, or writing every single morning. I was kicking butt, and I was doing this for years, but I was still hitting walls. And I'm staring at myself in the mirror doing my daily affirmations that I had been doing for over five years. I got the thumbs up on Zoom here.
[00:09:14] Speaker A: I see that. Yeah, absolutely.
[00:09:16] Speaker B: I'm doing my daily affirmations, and I'm looking at myself in my ear, and I'm telling myself things like, today's going to be an amazing day. You're good enough now, and you're only getting better. You're an open channel for creative ideas. You act as if you already have what you want, telling myself these things. But my eyes are completely bloodshot. I think one of them was twitching from all the alcohol and the caffeine.
[00:09:40] Speaker A: There you go.
[00:09:41] Speaker B: And you're staring in the mirror, giving these affirmations. You're taught to visualize your future and affirm it. But since my habits weren't in alignment with what I was lying about to myself when I said, you're good enough now and you're only, that is actually correct. But like, when I was telling me these things through bloodshot eyes.
[00:10:03] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:10:04] Speaker B: A twitching left eye from drinking caffeine, maybe a Xanax that was self prescribed to get through my morning meetings because I was so stressed.
[00:10:13] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:10:16] Speaker B: Am I going to believe myself?
[00:10:18] Speaker A: No.
[00:10:19] Speaker B: So I was doing the right stuff, but it was actually not the doing of the right stuff that I needed, it was the subtraction of the wrong stuff.
[00:10:29] Speaker A: Let's get into that, and let's get as deep as you like, because the key to this real podcast is to be able to feel comfortable embracing vulnerability, knowing you're not going to get shamed on this or judgment or anything. And that's what the emphasis is in. My mission is to get men to be able to be vulnerable to the right people, meaning the people who are going to build you up, not knock you down, because being vulnerable is a strength. And so, feel free to get as deep as you feel, because there's somebody in the audience who needs to hear. Uh, that story is going to learn from you, Ben. So let's, let's get into that. With the eye twitching and the, the bloodshot eyes, what got you to that point? And got, and then what got you out of that point?
[00:11:13] Speaker B: Sure. And, and this isn't a blame or shame, and I'm not going to go into my whole life story. These are factual elements.
[00:11:20] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:11:20] Speaker B: Um, my dad developed a pretty bad drinking and drug problem, right. And my mom, zero fault to her own, had a neurological disorder, multiple sclerosis, that she developed when I was very young.
So my dad was very physically abusive to himself, and he was very verbally abusive to my mom and me at times. And because of my mom's disorder, she was kind of depreciating and aging at a rate that was uncommon. So at a very young age, I felt completely disconnected.
I didn't feel connected at home, and I was the shy kid at school. I actually was the best. Come when we're talking basketball.
[00:12:02] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:12:03] Speaker B: I was probably the best shooter of all time. At eleven years old, I was really, really frickin good.
[00:12:09] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:12:09] Speaker B: But I was also the shortest boy in school. I was actually the shortest person behind a little asian girl, Olivia Lee. Guess what happens? You feel disconnected at home.
[00:12:19] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:12:20] Speaker B: You're obsessed with basketball. Have a jersey for every single day of the week. But because of your stature, you're pushed around a little bit more. You're not as strong, you get bullied. And not only was I physically small, the life circumstance made me actually play small.
[00:12:37] Speaker A: Nice. I understand that. Yes.
[00:12:39] Speaker B: Another pivotal moment is I'm sitting there, and again, my dad had a little bit of an issue. My mom had a neurological and a physical issue. I'm sitting there at the dinner table, and everybody slouched.
And I'm not saying that you need to shame people, to sit up straight and act in a certain way. Like, I didn't know what posture was.
[00:13:01] Speaker A: Yeah, body language and posture. You're right.
[00:13:03] Speaker B: I didn't know what playing small was. I just knew that I was shriveled up, hiding.
And I can't even say that there was a minute or a moment that I realized all this, but there is a series of moments realizing that I didn't really like how I was showing up in the world.
[00:13:23] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:13:24] Speaker B: But I couldn't blame my circumstance, because one thing that I live by is, when you're born, you look like your parents, you look like your environment.
When you die, you look like your choices, you look like your decisions.
[00:13:40] Speaker A: What a very good point. Absolutely.
[00:13:42] Speaker B: So, I had to make these decisions, and that's where the miracle morning. That morning routine comes in. I started integrating good choices, but a lot of the bad stuff. The alcohol, the porn, the binging on Netflix, the. The not feeling big or good enough.
[00:13:58] Speaker A: Right.
[00:13:59] Speaker B: That lingered. So, it was a long evolution of integrating good habits. And then I got to a point where I was highly competent, but I was conscious of the fact that my bad habits. The alcohol, the porn, the playing small, the bad, surrounding myself with the wrong kinds of people.
It was actually realizing that it was the subtraction of the bad habits that allowed the good habits to actually come to the top.
[00:14:26] Speaker A: I love how you just mentioned that, because many of us believe that if we start doing these good habits, then some of the bad habits would just automatically fall away. And that's not the case. They don't go away. You've got to intentionally, and it really is, simultaneously build good habits while you're breaking the bad habits, and that therein lies the challenge of doing both the same time. So that's a. Thanks for bringing that up, man.
[00:14:53] Speaker B: Can we do a little bit of basic, simple kind of pseudoscience math? But I promise it makes sense. I don't call it pseudoscience math. It's just. It's not exact concept I made up. This isn't backed by neuroscience. Yet. But watch.
[00:15:07] Speaker A: It will be. It will be, folks, you're on the cutting edge right here, guys. Go ahead. Go ahead.
[00:15:12] Speaker B: So 1% of your day is 14 and a half minutes.
[00:15:15] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:15:16] Speaker B: Is 1% of your day. I like to round up to 15. That's why science is the wrong word. I'm just simplifying it. I like 15 minutes of your days. 1%.
And my let very motivational guy talks about the power of one more. One more. I love you. One more phone call, one more hug, this and that. I like to say the power of 1%. What if we take 15% of our day and integrate 15%? Not 15%. 1% of our day. Integrate 15 minutes of reading, 15 minutes of additional exercise, 15 minutes of sleep. We integrate 15 minutes, 1% change, and then people talk about the compound interest of 1% over time. What a lot of people don't talk about, which I think is more important to talk about, is not changing your entire life overnight.
[00:16:05] Speaker A: Right.
[00:16:06] Speaker B: What happens if you subtract 1% of something that's making you bitter? Doesn't make you better. Does it make you bitter if it makes you bitter? Let's subtract 1%. 15 minutes. What's beautiful about this equation is if you subtract the 15%, you've made time. Sorry, I keep saying 15%. You should track the 15 minutes.
[00:16:28] Speaker A: 15 minutes. Right.
[00:16:29] Speaker B: You subtract the 1%, you just made time.
[00:16:32] Speaker A: Mm hmm.
[00:16:33] Speaker B: For the 1%. Positive. So you add or subtract anything. It's the same exact day, but you're doing 15 minutes extra or something that made you bitter.
[00:16:43] Speaker A: Mm hmm.
[00:16:44] Speaker B: I'm doing. I don't know what's going on, but.
[00:16:46] Speaker A: I can't talk today, Drew, but I will translate.
[00:16:50] Speaker B: Why? Said God. It's extra things that make you better.
[00:16:53] Speaker A: I said, yeah, you meant better.
[00:16:55] Speaker B: It's okay about showing up, man.
[00:16:58] Speaker A: This is all right, man.
[00:17:00] Speaker B: This is a raw concept.
[00:17:01] Speaker A: This is raw. And that's what the beauty of this is, because I don't even edit anything out. People are going to love this episode because we're real. This is real, authentic stuff. How often during the course of your day do we actually sit and get deep in conversation? We don't. Life is freaking ridiculous. So people are just reading headlines and believing stuff. We are spending 20 to 25 minutes digging deep on how the brain really works and how we can really steer our own destiny by being consciously aware for 15 minutes.
So I love this, man. So do something 1% or 15 minutes of something good that's going to make you better and subtract 15 minutes of something that's going to make you bitter.
And a great example of this would be like, think of our words. Our words matter, right? I've eliminated the word never from my vocabulary and I've added something positive. Let's say it's the word faith. I use more now. I'm just giving an example that you can, if you subtract a word that makes you feel negative and add a word that makes you feel positive, you can do that in that 15 minutes and just do it for day in and day out and be conscious of it. It does change the brain chemistry, dude.
[00:18:27] Speaker B: It's infectious as hell. When I listen to people like, I have to pick up my kids and I have to do this assignment tonight. And like I get, we have stress and we have things that are struggles at times, but it's like I get to pick up my kids, get to.
[00:18:43] Speaker A: Instead of have to see that.
[00:18:46] Speaker B: I get to work on a project. I have a keynote presentation today that. I'm gonna be transparent. I finished last night.
[00:18:54] Speaker A: That's right.
[00:18:55] Speaker B: What a great problem to have. Like I do a keto presentation.
[00:19:01] Speaker A: You don't have to.
[00:19:02] Speaker B: Yeah, those minor shifts like, yeah, might sound silly and inconsequential. It's. The polar opposite is literally the most important thing.
[00:19:11] Speaker A: It is. Because when you think of when you hear the word have, that means that you're being told to do something and there's no, it's not negotiable. When you say get, that's a choice.
Right? And so the big, the big thing that Ben's really saying is like, you know, we have choices in life.
And I say change, change your vocabulary, man. It changes your mindset.
I love that. I love that.
[00:19:40] Speaker B: Let's do the quickest ever activity ever. We'll just go over this in 10 seconds. All you gotta do is take a pen and paper, do this after this podcast, you draw a line down it. You have a better category, you have a bitter category. There's no right or wrong answers. What the hell makes you better personally? What the hell makes you bitter personally? Circle one from the better. Circle one from the bitter. Now you have your assignment.
[00:20:06] Speaker A: There you go. There you go. See? Put some effort into it. Things are, things going to get better so we don't have that one specific defining moment, but you've really grabbed onto some patterns that made you want to believe that you could be better. And you're not going to sit back and wait for it to happen. You're going to do something about it. So once you started to build these good habits and detract these bad habits, and they started to then now go into your subconscious the good stuff and elimination of the bad stuff, how did you start to evolve to become the man you are now? Like, how did this give us. Give us some. Let us walk that journey with you.
[00:20:48] Speaker B: Yeah, the. The journey of how is complicated. And it's a day to day process. But I can tell you just this year I had a keynote in Las Vegas at the traffic and conversion summit. Still, I. I'm just being transparent.
[00:21:03] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:21:03] Speaker B: I'm not sure how I landed this slot. I feel like Ben is the luckiest man in the world because I landed a great slot speaking at a conference with the Richard Branson and Damon John. And I've done a lot of podcasts and I've done some virtual speaking, but I don't prescribe myself as a keynote speaker.
I don't have thousands of keynotes I've done in person. And I land this role, and I'm nervous. I'm nervous reasonably so, and I feel like I blacked out. They call it flow because I wasn't blacked out. I was vibing with it. But 45 minutes went by in four minutes, and numerous people said to me, you know, there's a lot of speakers, but, like, I like that you were raw. I like that you were real. I like that you were honest about stuff, not acting like you're this hot shot.
[00:21:55] Speaker A: Right.
[00:21:55] Speaker B: And people said it was like one of their favorite presentations, if not their favorite. And I don't even remember giving it.
[00:22:01] Speaker A: I. You know what? I've talked to people who had that flow, and, yeah, you're expecting to think that you bombed. And now the event planner is coming over, and you're like, uh oh. And they're not going to pay me. And it's like they say the opposite, that you. You killed it. You know, that's a great feeling. Good for you, man. So.
[00:22:18] Speaker B: So.
[00:22:18] Speaker A: So, yeah, so tell. So, you know, and I have to say that it's not luck, and, you know, it's not luck because, you know, work in. Right. But sometimes it feels like you're the luckiest guy, but you put the work in and many of us will see somebody at the top of their game and think they just got there. But the work that's put into getting there is what we need to hear more about. So people can't feel bad about themselves because they're not here yet, you know? So tell. Tell us about some of the work you did put into it in order to all a sudden feel that you're getting lucky finding these slots.
[00:22:55] Speaker B: Yeah. And I appreciate you going back to the work, because I give that example to show that, like, you evolve without even realizing, and you're generally far more qualified than you think you are.
Thinking you're the luckiest man in the world is not a bad problem to have. You're going to start attracting more luck. But what does it look like? It looks like starting a podcast during one of the darkest moments of your life. When I got let go from my core role that we were kind of talking about, I thought it was happy, but I was taking it as annex. Every Monday morning to get through meetings, I had a big drinking problem. Start of the pandemic. Being at home, unemployed. My drinking got worse, and I was doing two things simultaneously. I was hiking. I was, like, spending more time in nature. I started a blog. I started writing, and I also was drinking and abusing drugs worse than ever. So it's like, I'm going in the right direction, but I'm also going in the wrong direction the same time.
And I started a podcast where, for what it's worth, like, the video quality is bad. That's part of it. Like, the setups bad, but I look burnt out, tired, and, like, detached in those episodes. And I'm not saying I, like, perfect today, and I'm, like, handsome and doing everything great, but, like, I looked really crappy. But that was part of the process. I got on a podcast, started a business podcast. Rochester business connections from Rochester, New York.
[00:24:29] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:24:30] Speaker B: And I wanted Rochester business connections. One, because I didn't have a job, and two, I thought maybe I could be an entrepreneur, but I didn't have this big master plan. I just started a podcast to find mentors and start having conversations. And I had hosted a music show, so I already knew how to podcast. Started a business show. Music. Ben was a party animal and non essential business. Ben is here to learn. But it was rough. It was ugly. I was learning, but I was learning every single day. What does it look like behind the scenes? We're using a broad stroke, but it's between coasting and guesting. Hundreds of podcast episodes.
[00:25:10] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, absolutely.
[00:25:12] Speaker B: Tens of thousands of hours of work. It absolutely is tens of thousands of mistakes, which I've learned to reframe that. It's not necessarily a mistake. It's a learning experience. Yeah, but it's literally that day to day. And that's why they say it in a one day at a time. It's exactly what it is. But it's one decision at a time. It's more than just one day at a time, one moment at a time. It's. It's treating this moment with Drew and you, the listener, like it could be my last. And do I think it's gonna be my last? Hell, no, it's not. But who freaking knows? So, moment at a time, and it's easy to see. Oh, well, Ben was hungover and sloppy, and now he's doing well and doing this keynote. But what is missed is the day by day decisions. A lot of them weren't the best, but the day to day decisions. To work on myself as a man, to work on myself as a leader, to work on myself just as a human being filling my cup, that leads us to being better people. And I wish it was this beautiful hero's journey that I could tell in 45 seconds or less, but it's literally the story of my life. To get me to where I am today.
[00:26:27] Speaker A: Absolutely. Now, thanks for sharing that. And it's true that anything worthwhile takes time to develop.
I have this note on my wall that says, no excuses, no shortcuts. Because there have been times where I've been desperate, and they take a shortcut to me to make more money or shorten the amount of time. And those things don't endure. They don't last. And the work you've put in is going to and has enabled you to endure. Ben, now you're going to want me to go back to those old episodes to see the distinction, the difference between the two of you. My goodness.
So, now that the audience knows, you work your butt off to get to where you are. Let's say we're at that point where you started stopping those bad habits through iterative processes and started developing, really, the good habits.
What happened professionally after you dug out of that hole and you did that initial Rochester podcast? How did things start to progress for you professionally as they were strengthening. As you were strengthening yourself personally?
[00:27:39] Speaker B: Yeah, it's. It looks like the scribble that we look.
[00:27:42] Speaker A: Scribbles are working. Okay. All right.
[00:27:44] Speaker B: Because, I mean, I started a podcast during the pandemic. I started a business during the pandemic, and really, one thing that I didn't touch on enough, but I could do it for 10 hours.
[00:27:54] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:27:54] Speaker B: It was the daily learning from mentors that I was meeting on my show and connecting with on LinkedIn. It was the daily learning. I didn't know what a CRM was, really. I wasn't a pro at that. What CRM do I use? You know, I understood marketing and sales, but I understand operations of a business. I didn't totally understand the process of fulfillment. I didn't understand accounting. So surrounding myself with people, that would teach me something new every single day. And like any business, you know, different ones go differently. I somehow, I shouldn't use somehow. But hey, like, I feel like I'm the luckiest man in the world. I was able. I replaced my income that I had from a sales executive in the first year of business.
[00:28:39] Speaker A: Beautiful, beautiful.
[00:28:41] Speaker B: Most people don't do that. I don't want to just say that that's the way it's supposed to happen because those. What's funny is year two in business, I actually did less revenue than year one.
[00:28:51] Speaker A: Okay. Okay.
[00:28:52] Speaker B: So I don't know what it was. I think people are spending money because of stimulus checks. But year two was not as good as year one. Woe is me, because on the back end I was developing the resilience and the habits to understand that in a long enough time horizon I'm going to be good. Just during the short time horizon, for whatever reason, the business is at a plateau and we can go way into tactics. It would be a whole nother episode. But my business was plateauing for reasons that I had to discover right when I went through that part. And when I got through that plateau, year three was, I'd have to look at the numbers like a 45% increase.
[00:29:31] Speaker A: Right, right.
[00:29:32] Speaker B: And in this current year, I'm going to be like double, if not triple that first year when I replaced my income.
[00:29:40] Speaker A: Right, right. But you're evolving as you go, as you learn.
[00:29:43] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:29:44] Speaker A: You learn you do something differently and evolve. It's when we become complacent and don't try to better ourselves that we end up stagnant. So I'm glad you're explaining this to the folks out there. So tell us, what do you do for your business now? What is paying the bills?
What paying the bills, does it also lighten you up passion wise? Are you able to align what you enjoy doing and monetizing it 100%?
[00:30:12] Speaker B: It's. I struggle with the what do you do? Question because there's a million things, but I can simplify it and I'll focus on two main things because there's a lot behind the scenes. It's.
[00:30:24] Speaker A: Right.
[00:30:24] Speaker B: I'm a little ADHD, but I love it.
[00:30:26] Speaker A: I'm all about following you, so I must be there too with you.
[00:30:29] Speaker B: So it's, it's entrepreneurial spirit. You get shiny object syndrome. I've started a lot of different endeavors that I've just completely scrapped. Yeah, that's part of why, that's part of why I was struggling as I was trying to do too much.
[00:30:41] Speaker A: But sure, absolutely.
[00:30:42] Speaker B: It's all about getting the wisdom, the knowledge, the solutions, the ideas, from the folks who have it to the folks who need it. Getting the wisdom, the ideas, the services from people who got it, who. People who are looking for it. And it's really easy because I was in the looking for it category. I wasn't on some high horse. I knew what it would look like. Not have the answer plays out in a lot of different ways. But the podcast is to get mentors and brilliant ideas from people who have it to people that need those ideas. It's exactly what you do here.
My mastermind, you know, grow getters only, we put on free events and paid events, but it's about that peer to peer support where we do bring in mentors.
[00:31:29] Speaker A: Right.
[00:31:29] Speaker B: And there's peer to peer mastermind networking. That's what I love what you're doing with the man movement here, because it's that peer to peer support.
[00:31:36] Speaker A: Yes, yes.
[00:31:37] Speaker B: And then the third aspect is agency services, working with a lot of podcasters, working with small to medium sized businesses with their marketing. And it's getting the ideas that in this scenario, the services from the business that has it to the consumer that needs it. So whether it's that peer to peer support, that one too many podcasts that elevating a business owner, it's really just my job to be that bridge man.
[00:32:05] Speaker A: I love that man. Absolutely love that. So, you know, folks, I know I certainly captured the essence of Ben Albert, and I know you did too. And you're going to want to get in touch with him. And he kind of hit on some of the stuff. But his podcast, you need to listen to it. Real Business Connections podcast. And go to his website. Go to Ben's website. It's grow gettersonly. Did I get that right.com dot?
[00:32:31] Speaker B: Yes, sir.
[00:32:32] Speaker A: Grow gettersonly.com dot. He's got an awesome community. He talked about there's a paid version and the unpaid version. Can you explain very quickly the difference between the two and what you provide in that community?
[00:32:45] Speaker B: Yeah, it's all an invitation. Real business Connections is a podcast where you can listen to at any time, in any place. Then grow getters only is a monthly event we put on where we bring in a speaker every time. But then have two breakout rooms so you can actually integrate what you learned and network after the speaker. And then there is a paid, exclusive community for people that want that greater support and that greater accountability. But whether it's listening to a podcast, coming to an event completely for free, or going all in on your business and in your life, it's really just kind of a choose your own adventure. And it's an invitation to do whatever serves you at this time in your life.
[00:33:26] Speaker A: I love that. We need choices, and Ben's offering you guys choices. That's awesome. So, dude, I could talk to you, like, Forever podcast of all time and the best. So, two final questions, which I love asking my guests at the end. And here we go. Ben, I'm going to give you an opportunity to use your imagination. You're sitting down with your younger self. You're sitting down with young seven to 1010 year old Ben Albert to give him advice about life.
What are you going to tell him? Yes. Knowing that he's not going to listen to you, let's pretend he would and pretend you want him to.
What are you going to tell him?
[00:34:05] Speaker B: Yeah, you and I joked about this prior. I love the podcast, but it's like, am I going to change the whole course of life? And it's like some dystopian Sci-Fi movie. I don't want any of that. But the. The easiest thing I can say that is never going to change is literally just three words. You are enough.
[00:34:23] Speaker A: I love it.
[00:34:24] Speaker B: You are enough.
Go deep. Like, you're good enough now, and you're only getting better. This is only a fraction of your life. You need to look at a long term time horizon. You need to grow every single day. Some days you might not grow. That's okay, too. But it all comes down to you're freaking enough as you are who you are. Of that you're super qualified to help the person you used to be and become a person that can help who you are now. So you're constantly evolving. But again, I'm trying to be brief. I can't be brave. You are enough. It's.
[00:34:57] Speaker A: I love that. All right, so love that. Now you're going to put a different hat on. Now you're talking with young Ben, the young entrepreneur, young businessman, to give him advice on business.
Now this, you could be talking to the Ben ten years from now. What are you going to tell the young entrepreneur, Ben, advice on business?
[00:35:17] Speaker B: This is going to be kind of contrarian, but it's two things at once.
[00:35:21] Speaker A: That's fine.
[00:35:22] Speaker B: Look, at things at a very long time horizon because you are going to underestimate. You're going to overestimate what you can do in a week, a month, a year.
[00:35:31] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:35:31] Speaker B: And massively underestimate what you can do in ten years. So see things as flickers. Look at a long time horizon, but simultaneously understand you might not have a long time horizon.
I'm humble enough to know that both my parents passed away at a young age. I've been through struggles. Tomorrow is not guaranteed. I am grateful every moment for that. The fact that we are born is a reason to be. Gratitude. The probability of that's very low. So look at a long time horizon.
[00:36:04] Speaker A: Mm hmm.
[00:36:05] Speaker B: Which means be patient but understand you might not have a long time horizon. So go freaking get it today.
[00:36:13] Speaker A: Yes. Yes. Don't wait. But don't, don't wait and be patient.
[00:36:18] Speaker B: It's contrarian because they go against each other. But you need to do both.
[00:36:21] Speaker A: You do need to do both. And, and you may not do a great job the first time you try to do both. And that's okay because we don't win and lose. We win and learn, right? It's all about lessons. Ben, thank you so, so much for coming on, my friend. Thanks for coming into my life. Thanks for when I mentioned something on your post, you could have ignored me and you didn't.
All good stuff. There's a reason why we are talking right now. Keep doing what you're doing. You're a good man and you're helping so many people, pal.
[00:36:52] Speaker B: None of this would be possible without you. You're great and I appreciate it. Thanks.
[00:36:56] Speaker A: Absolutely. Thank you. My pleasure. Hey, take care of yourself everybody.
Thanks so much for listening. If you enjoyed the episode, please subscribe and give us a review to help others find it.
I'd like you to answer this question. Are you living the life you want to live or are you living the life others want you to live? I'd like you to think about that for a second because I strongly suggest you live the life you want to live. If you want to learn more about what I stand for and my services and how I'm able to help many men get out of their own way, please go to my website at www.prophetcompassion.com.
feel free to also email
[email protected] dot I'd love to have a conversation with you. Take care of yourself and choose to write your own story instead of letting others write it for.
