Leadership Potential with Brad Sugars

0:02Hi, and welcome to this week's episode of the Epic Entrepreneurs podcast where we are all about helping business owners just like you achieve success. So we don't do fancy smancy. We don't do flashing lights. We don't do a lot of things that a lot of podcasts will do. These are just real stories about real people and their entrepreneurial and business experiences. We go into their wins, their challenges, and their learnings. So we hope you enjoy it. Hey there, welcome to this week's episode of Epic Entrepreneurs, brought to you by Action Coach Growth Partners. I'm your host, Bill Gilliland, and in this podcast, you'll find three things.

0:46You're going to hear real stories from real entrepreneurs that will help you along your entrepreneurial journey. You're also going to get business tips to help you scale up faster, and you're going to get actual coaching to help you get better real world results to be the best entrepreneur you can be. Hey, and if you like the podcast, remember to subscribe. And now, enjoy the show. So Brad, you've done a lot of things in your life. You've got a lot of things going on. What is your definition of an entrepreneur? You know, I guess the simple way to define an entrepreneur is someone who profit turns an idea into a profitable organization.

1:30That's essentially what we do. You know, I've jokingly said entrepreneurs are the biggest liars in the world because when the moment you tell someone what you're going to do, it's not true. Like if I say I'm going to create this company that goes all around the world. In 1993, I wrote a vision of world abundance through business re-education. I said to everyone, I'm going to create the biggest business coaching company in the world. I'm going to put it in a hundred countries and I'm going to have this massive organization doing this. And people looked at me like, you're not going to do that. You know, cause I think I was 21 or 22 at the time.

2:05And they're like, you can't possibly do that. And so here we sit today, 83 countries, 1100 partners and offices around the world. So yeah, I got a little ways to go, but you know, 30 years I've been pushing out of doing it. And And that's the thing that entrepreneurs turn an idea into a profitable organization. We bring together three things that we bring together an idea, people and money. That's that's really what we do. We bring those three things together. Often too many entrepreneurs think they've got to use their own money. They don't learn how to raise capital. They don't learn how to employ people.

2:38So they do all the work themselves. You know, that's the thing. And they keep thinking they're the only ones that can have a great idea, too. I like other people's ideas a lot better. So, I mean, you've done it a lot of ways. You've bought businesses, you've sold business, you've started businesses. What do you prefer? I prefer buying a company. Well, let me go through different phases of my life. In the early stage of my life, I preferred buying broken companies and fixing them. So single entities. So it might be a restaurant or a beauty salon or all the different types of things that I bought.

3:17Second phase of my life was I would buy good companies and scale them. In other words, a company that was great in one location that I could take to hundreds of locations or thousands of locations, or it was great in one country and it should have been in many countries type thing. Now I'm in my 50s. I like investing in people in their 20s because then by the time I hit 70, they're on fire type thing. They'll be in that 40s and 50s hitting their best work in their life and doing amazing things. But I'm investing in young people who have a good idea, who can scale to be a global organization. I don't get involved in anything today that I don't see the ability to write a minimum of$100 billion business plan, preferably a billion dollar business plan if we do it right.

4:06But a billion is easy, Bill. This is the craziest thing. See, Bill Billion. See, that should be your new nickname, Billions. We should make a hat that says Billions. See, there's a whole brand right there. You know, you can create that and turn it into a business. But my thing about a billion is it's just X times Y. X meaning the business. And like, remember your guys that we talked to, we taught them how to create a billion. They have a$40 million operation. And we said, okay, how many do you need to do to have a billion? and they do the math and they go, well, we need two fifths. Like if you have a$10 million operation, you need a hundred of them to do a billion.

4:44If you have a$40 million operation, you need, does that make sense? It's like how many cities, how many countries? And so literally the other day I was chatting with someone who he's got a$2 million operation. I said, well, okay, can you push that further? He said, you know, if we really push it, we could get to four. I said, well, what if you pushed it just a bit more? He said, probably two and a half. I said, great. How many of those, how many cities, how many countries do you need that in to make it a billion? That's an entrepreneur. See, that book over your shoulder there, right? Just lean a little to the side there.

5:18Is that billionaire in training or is that instant cash flow? I've got instant cash flow up here. I've got billionaire in training behind here, I think. Behind there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The whole point of that is learning that you start as a student, you become an employee. From an employee, you're an apprentice business owner. So you started self-employed. self-employed is where you do it all yourself then you employ people you become a manager then you build a business that works by itself with management running it that's where it's now an asset and then you go into investing and then an entrepreneur is where you get other people to invest their money their time their energy into something you create like in business that would be a franchise or in the stock market you'd build a company and have them uh trade like buy your shares or you would build a REIT, a real estate investment trust where people put their money in or a venture capital fund or in the real estate business, you'd develop a high rise and sell the apartments or develop a piece of land and sell off each one.

6:15That's sort of an entrepreneur is one who gets others to invest in them. I think we confuse business owner with entrepreneur too often. A business owner owns and runs a business. In fact, most people aren't even business owners. their business, I mean, what would the word be, Bill? Employee. Business employees, yeah. They're employees of their own business. Yeah, yeah. So I'm not a business owner. I'm a business employee is what a lot of people should say. Yeah, or a business manager. And eventually you get to business owner where it works without you. Yeah, so I just got a question here about those 20-somethings that you're investing in.

6:54What do you look for? um hard work loves learning uh i think that's sort of the two good values mick good values as well like if i have to write a contract to be your partner i don't want to be your partner you know if i can invest money in you and put some you know one hour a month of coaching into you and you learn and you read and like you you'll watch all my videos and read all my books yourself like a young partner that I invested in, in our catering business, he would get on every time I was doing something on social media, he'd be on there watching and listening every book, everything I recommend, he would get it and read it type thing.

7:35Like you've got to, you don't, you can't just get my money. You've got to get my wisdom too. So you combine those two things and we get power. I don't like putting money into anything that I can't add value to. It seems like that's a good mantra for any entrepreneurs out there who are looking for money is you want more than the money. You want the knowledge. You want the wisdom. You want the years of experience of what you can bring to the table as an investor. I mean, that's just good advice. So that's both ways. What you're looking for and what they're looking for should match yeah and that's that's sort of what we look for to invest in them any but you know bill any business is a good idea and this is where unfortunately a lot of young people think it's the idea that makes it work and it's not they think it's the product that makes it work and it's not you know arguably apple built better computers than and had better operating system than microsoft but it wasn't the computer or the operating system it was the strategy behind the business that made that's successful.

8:43And now Apple came back and Steve Jobs got a better strategy than Microsoft. He said, we're going to be in the music business. He doesn't make any music. He just makes 30 or 40 percent off of every piece of music. We're going to be in the app business. I don't make any apps. I'm just going to make 30 or 40 percent off of every single app and every single in-app purchase ever done. I don't make movies. That's where Jobs was a genius. I define leverage as do the work once, get paid forever. And that's the key to success in business and wealth. Do the work one time get paid long term or forever well steve jobs is smarter than me or was you know prior to his passing may he rest in peace he was like do the work never and get paid forever he never made a song never makes a movie never makes anything it just keeps getting paid and people like yeah but he was a genius he invented itunes no he didn't napster was all itunes is is a legalized version of napster well he invented the ipod no he didn't mp3 player was invented by sony you know he invented the smartphone no he did it you know invented the iPad no he didn't I mean we all had an IBM buddy what do they think pad you know it's crazy how genius they are though it taking something that's already there and twisting it with marketing and with a better strategy and a better better thing but like a long came what's it called Spotify was beating up iTunes beating him up bad Steve Jobs goes and buys beats headphones so that he can get a contract to rent music the same as spotify did you know just phenomenally intelligent uh decision making from an entrepreneurial thinking out there yeah along the way yeah along the way let me switch gears here a little bit and uh you know epic is an acronym so i i want to get your thoughts on the on the uh on the acronym so the e is education you're obviously big on education and that what What are your quick thoughts on education and the importance of that to whatever, growing a business, entrepreneurship along the way?

10:44One of my earliest and greatest mentors, Jim Rohn, at the end of his first seminar I ever went to, he gave me three things. And they really defined my theory on education. He said, never wish your life were easier, wish you were better. You know, and too many people wish that marketing was easier. No, just get better at marketing. or, you know, business. See, business is never going to get easier. You've got to get better at business. Life's never going to get easier. You've got to get better at life. Second thing he said is work harder on yourself than you do on your job. So keep studying, keep learning, mentors, you know, groups, seminars, events, podcasts, you name it.

11:24And the third thing he said very simply when I ran down to him at the end of the event and said, please sign my notes. I said, you know, he said to me, son, it's very simple. If you want to be successful, read a book a week. the rest of your life you can't out of them you're learning it's it's no more complex than that bill i love it can't out earn your learning great planning p is planning what is what are your thoughts on planning um you can't over plan but you can't over plan by much uh but you can under plan i love you know can't over plan by much yeah the most important plan though bill is the one that at least the people do the least they do this long-term planning but no one does daily planning You know that I've been a proponent of every single day at the end of the day, write a plan for what you got to do tomorrow.

12:095.30 every day. Yep. The frog sheet. What's the frog? And the most important thing got to be done first. So whatever's the most important must be done first. The daily plan is the first thing you got to get great at. Then you got to get great at the weekly plan. Then get great at the 90-day plan. Then get great at annual. Then get great at three to five year. Simple as that. I love it. I love it. The I is inspiration. So where do you find inspiration? I'd like to flip it on its head for a second there, Bill, and say, you shouldn't look for inspiration. You should be the inspiration. Who are you trying to inspire?

12:46Who are you wanting to inspire? And if you inspire others, you have to inspire yourself. You can't inspire others if you're not motivating yourself. You've got to come for that internal. But here's the thing. People try and get inspired on subjects that they don't care about. If you don't give a shit about it, don't worry about it type thing. You know, if, if remember Einstein's quote of, you know, everyone's a genius at something, but if you judge a fish on how well it climbs a tree, you're wasting your time type thing. And a lot of us think that, well, in school, I didn't do good at math. Who gives a shit if you were good at math in school, right?

13:23Maybe you're meant to be a musician type thing. Maybe you're meant to be an actor or something. You know, it's not. Yeah, I think people get too worried about that. But be an inspiration to someone or a group. That's probably the biggest and most important thing around that. And sorry for the Australian accent there on a couple of those words. That's all right. That's all right. No, that's good. That's that's great. That's a good that's a very good take on it, I think. How'd you like to learn from the best? How'd you like to network with the best? How'd you like to be the best? Well, the key to being the best is to hang around with the best and to learn from the best.

14:04And we're going to make that possible for you this August in Asheville at the Asheville Business Summit. I want you to stay tuned. We're bringing in speakers from outside. We've got a lot of good events planned. It's going to be amazing. We've got more information coming. But if you'd like more info on how you can be involved, how you can attend, or how you can be a sponsor for this event. It's going to be over 350 entrepreneurs in one place right here in Western North Carolina in Asheville. For more Info or to be a sponsor, I want you to reach out directly to Beth Limmel. That's L-E-M-M-E-L at actioncoach.com.

14:45That's Beth Limmel at actioncoach.com. We look forward to seeing you there. It's going to be amazing. And the C stands for commitment, which obviously takes in a lot of things. What, give me your thoughts on committing and lack of committing and all of that. Yeah. A great gov couplet that started with until one is committed, there is doubt. You know, there's a magic and I don't know how the universe works in this way, Bill. There's probably some scientific explanation for it. All I know is that when I truly commit to something, the world shifts in my favor. now what kills commitment in most cases is one stupid three-letter word and it's the word called how so you go on one of my podcasts i interviewed professor alan pease and he said how is the killer of most goals see someone says well i want to be a millionaire and your mom or your friend says to you well how are you going to do that how are you going to do that how are you going to do that and your brain doesn't know how if if you knew how you would have already done it But, you know, the idea of setting the goal, and this is my formula of dream, goal, learn, plan, act.

15:54Once you have a dream, you got to turn it into a goal. Then once you've got a goal, you got to do the learning. You don't set a goal to ask the question how. You set a goal to ask the question, what do I need to learn to achieve that? If I set the goal of doubling my business, Phil, then my goal is then, okay, I got to go and learn. I got to get coach Bill Gilliland teaching me or any action coach teach me how to double my business. Coach Bill has doubled hundreds of companies. He knows how to double businesses. I got to go and learn. You know, you set the goal to learn. If I set a goal to run a marathon, I don't expect to run it that day.

16:32I expect to go on the Internet and look up training programs and training schedules and maybe join a running club and work out diets and plan it. Do you know what I mean? like you got to do the study before the planning. And unfortunately, too many people think you can just achieve without doing the learning. But dream, goal, learn, then write the plan, and then you do it. So it's hard to commit, though, Bill, with a lack of knowledge. When we ask the question, how, how are you going to achieve that? People are like, I'm committed to my goal. Great. How are you going to do it? And they go, I don't know how I'm going to do it.

17:07Then you can't be committed until you've done the study. You know, you got to go on a few dates with someone and, you know, go on a couple of trips with them before you commit to marrying them. Learn, learn a little bit about it. I love that you just took commit and broke it down to the dreams, goals, learns, plans, act. I love that. I think that I have never thought about it that way. A lot of people struggle with committing and they like won't even write their goals down, bill because they're scared like if i write it down it's a commitment no if you write your goal down it's a commitment to go and learn about it all you're doing when you write a goal is committing yourself to study committing yourself to reading committing yourself to learning and that's where a lot of people go wrong they just won't do the learning you know the learning is the hardest work if i if i set a new goal i have to grow into that goal and that's what my commitment is my commitment is to growth.

18:07I remember at 16, setting a goal when I met Jim Rohn for the first time, I set a goal of retiring at 25. And I was told that it can't possibly happen. And technically, my friend's dad who told me that was correct. 16-year-old version of me could not achieve that. But what he didn't think about and what he didn't understand is I was willing to study, willing to learn, willing to grow, willing to do all those things so that I could become the person that would do that. That goes back to my other formula, be times do equals have. Decide what you want to have, work out what you need to do, and then become the person that will do that at the level that will get you those goals, your behaviors, your beliefs.

18:47These are the B words in our lives. You're a human being, not a human doing. Work on who you are. That's why the word above epic there is B. It's beliefs, behaviors. You know, that's the thing. Yeah, I love that. I love that. Shift gears once more. You're coming out to Asheville in August. And I believe we've settled on talking about management versus leadership. Yeah. Give us a little preview of your thoughts on that and why people should come out. And, I mean, there's going to be a massive learning. People should come out just because I'm coming to hang out in Asheville. That's the reality. I have a beautiful town, great food.

19:35My kids go to summer camp just up the way. Yeah. The thing about management and leadership, somewhere in the late 90s, leadership became the thing and management became a dirty word. And then in the 2000s, we saw lots of books on execution because if you get rid of management, you fail at execution type thing. management is the day-to-day, week-to-week, and it's a system. As you teach and as I teach, management is a systematic process of meetings and paperwork that keep people doing two things, okay? Management has two primary objectives. Number one is productivity. Number two is capability, okay?

20:18So can they do the job and can they do it productively? you know and unfortunately part of management is mentoring coaching teaching educating people and when you bring on a new team member a lot of the times they've got to learn how to do it or how to do it your way or how to do it the way your company does it type thing so you've got to invest that time building productive capable human beings type thing leadership on the other hand is a bit in the longer term. Leadership is more month to month, year to year type thing, quarter to quarter. And leadership is really about passion and focus. So if you break it down and say, okay, do I need productive, capable people?

21:03Yes. So I got to get good at management. Do I need passionate, focused people? Yes. So I got to get good at leadership. And if you're good at both, you build an amazing organization. If you're only good at management, you've got a lot of people doing great work, but with no passion, no heart, no massive goals, nowhere to go. If you're only good at leadership, you've got passionate, focused people, but they're incompetent and things get messed up all the time. So you're always putting out fires. So it's a balance of the two things that we're looking to help people understand how to do that every single day.

21:37And that's again why at Action Coach Bill, we have a 12-week training program for managers because it's not something you learn in a day. It's a practice. It's a habit. It's a system that you install in a company type thing. Leadership, our 12-week leadership training is the same. It's a systemic methodology of focus and passion. How do you get that happening day to day? Not just by being charismatic or not just by, you know, do you know, it's, if people see leadership as, well, they're a good speaker and stuff. No, no, no, no, no. There is systemic methodologies to achieve both things. Like I'll give you one simple leadership one.

22:14If you're not congratulating at least two people a day in your organization, then leadership just isn't happening in your organization. If they hear from you more often when they do something wrong than when they do something right, then leadership just isn't happening in your organization. Leadership has to boil down to practicalities, things you can do, not just a way of being. And that's where the formula B do have, if you want to have leadership in an organization, you got to be a great leader and do the acts of leadership. You can't just be a great leader. You're still going to do leadership acts.

22:48I think that's an important aspect of it. Yeah. Thanks for that. I think that's brilliant. I can't wait to hear the rest to that. One, well, a couple of quick questions. You got some great advice early on and started down a path of personal development. What is something that you wish someone had told you then that they did it? Go faster. Fail fast, fail forward, fail more often. And the other thing was, Bill, raise capital earlier. I really wished I'd learned to raise capital earlier in my career instead of bootstrapping it. You know, I wore it as a badge of honor that I worked 16-hour days, six and seven days a week.

23:30I would brag that I slept in my office type thing. And that was just, you know, you hear all these people say stupid things like hustle and grind. And like, hustle and grind is the new stupid. If only I knew back then, Bill, that me working that much was covering up the problems with my business model, covering up the problems with the way I did things. If I'd learned to raise capital, I could have employed great people to do that stuff. You know, I had a great business idea. I just didn't have the capital to put the people to work and the marketing to work to scale it fast. I think that's probably a big aspect of what I wished I'd done earlier.

24:15I love that. I love that. So how can people connect with Brad Sugars and the Brad Sugars brand out there? Every single social platform, you'll find me on there, my YouTube channel, bradsugars.com, you name it, do it that way. But jump on Amazon, start with the books, I think, or jump on actioncoach.com and download all the free ebooks I have up there. wherever it is that you get started it's just start and this is the biggest thing keep learning keep coming back keep reading jump on my podcast the big success podcast but ultimately bill it really just comes down to continuous learning to grow into the person that will achieve your dreams and goals when you become that person everything else falls into place you want to be an entrepreneur great study all the greatest entrepreneurs learn from them learn with them and that's how you get there.

25:09Thanks, Brad. Thanks for being on. It's been a great having you. Really appreciate your time. And until next time, all the best. Hey, thanks for listening to the Epic Entrepreneurs Podcast. Here's three things that you can do. Number one, remember to subscribe to the podcast. It takes very little effort on your part. It's gonna help you and your fellow entrepreneurs. Plus, you guys know how it works. The more subscribers we get, the more cool things we can offer to you. Second, to learn more about growing your business, just download my book, The Coach Approach. It's free for you at giftfrombill.com.

25:46That's giftfrombill.com. Hey, and if you'd like more info about growing your business and what we can do to help you grow your business, send me an email directly. Just send it to williamgilliland at actioncoach.com. That's my personal email that I read. No one else reads it first. It's not screened. It's my real email. Just send it to me. I can't wait to talk to you. Hey, and until then, all the best. Hey, thanks for listening to the Epic Entrepreneurs podcast. Here's three things that you can do. Number one, remember to subscribe to the podcast. It takes very little effort on your part. It's going to help you and your fellow entrepreneurs.

26:33Plus, you guys know how it works. the more subscribers we get, the more cool things we can offer to you. Second, to learn more about growing your business, just download my book, The Coach Approach. It's free for you at giftfrombill.com. That's giftfrombill.com. Hey, and if you'd like more info about growing your business and what we can do to help you grow your business, send me an email directly just send it to williamgilliland at actioncoach.com that's my personal email that i read no one else reads it first there's it's not screened it's my real email just send it to me i can't wait to talk to you hey and until then all the best