Dan Martell - How to Create Self Discipline - Brad Pedersen @ Pela

00:00:00.000 He said in life, you're going to pay one of two prices, the price of discipline or the price of regret.

00:00:05.360 The price of discipline weighs ounces, right?

00:00:07.800 To be fit, going to the gym, there's a price you're going to pay.

00:00:10.540 It hurt your body, but the price of regret weighs tons and won't crush you.

00:00:27.000 Brad Pedersen, how's it going, man?

00:00:28.460 It's going good, man.

00:00:29.240 Dude, I'm so excited to have you.

00:00:32.400 For those that don't know Brad, he is one of my best buds.

00:00:36.840 He's my adventure co-partner, all things crazy,

00:00:42.300 all things risk-taking, snow biking, snowboarding,

00:00:47.280 mountain biking, wake surfing.

00:00:51.420 I mean, and we're still discovering new sports.

00:00:53.600 Kiteboarding.

00:00:54.180 Kite, oh shoot, I almost forgot about that.

00:00:55.900 kiteboarding and i am lucky and privileged to be involved in pila your current company that you

00:01:04.300 co-founded i sit on the board which is kind of bananas considering that you know jay-z was an

00:01:08.540 investor and we've got larry on the board that kind of represents his capital um and dude you're

00:01:15.020 just somebody that uh i turn to often for advice a handful of people and i've told you this in

00:01:20.620 private uh so people need to pay attention to what brad's gonna share but brad you know you've

00:01:26.580 got a pretty cool story if you took a few minutes kind of go back and kind of shared from your

00:01:32.160 perspective that journey i know it was over kind of a 20 plus year period um what did that look like

00:01:38.520 so without going into all the gory details because i think we went or you could

00:01:43.560 well we may tease some of that stuff out but first of all thank you i'm i'm flattered by

00:01:48.640 your affirmations. And yeah, I consider you one of my closest friends and really enjoy

00:01:52.620 all the adventures we've had together and really looking forward to many more.

00:01:57.280 As you know, one of my mottos in life is 3M, make more magic memories and increase them in

00:02:02.940 frequency and intensity. And I would say that in the last 30 days, we've had many.

00:02:07.240 Oh yeah, we're bringing it up.

00:02:08.620 Many mountaintop experiences. And I think your logo is actually a good epitomization of that,

00:02:12.600 right? Like striving for the top of the mountain. So yeah, just a quick background. I mean, I grew

00:02:17.320 up in a great home, uh, with great core values, uh, really salty earth people in the prairies

00:02:23.100 of Alberta. Um, and I was sort of predestined that I was going to go down this path of being

00:02:27.500 a chiropractor. Um, this was what I was supposed to do. Cause my father's a chiropractor, his

00:02:31.520 father and mother were chiropractors. And my great grandfather was actually the first

00:02:34.840 chiropractor in Denmark. So ever since I was just a toddler, people would tell me, Oh,

00:02:39.720 you're going to grow up and be a chiropractor like your dad and your grandpa one day.

00:02:42.900 And I just assumed that's what I was going to do.

00:02:46.400 But as luck would have it, I decided to sort of pursue some of my passions.

00:02:51.640 And that led me on a path of just saying yes to a bunch of things that for a period of time turned me into a carny.

00:02:59.600 And chasing entrepreneurial pursuits that ultimately led me to the toy business.

00:03:04.760 And, you know, starting a toy company coming from the prairies is like starting a fishery if you lived in Saskatchewan.

00:03:10.500 It doesn't make a lot of sense because there's really not the right resources or things in place there.

00:03:15.560 But that journey took me to Toronto, where I spent close to 20 years.

00:03:20.740 And I was the real Santa Claus.

00:03:22.840 And I'm a toymaker from the north and built things that put smiles on kids' faces.

00:03:28.040 And we've shipped billions of pieces of plastic around the planet.

00:03:32.040 It sounds like it was really awesome and aspirational.

00:03:34.520 I would say it was, but that journey also had a lot of challenges in the way, including going

00:03:40.220 bankrupt twice, including, you know, some really near death experiences, some incredible tragedy

00:03:47.500 in terms of members of my team. But all of that for a purpose of putting me where I am today,

00:03:53.780 which is really feeling empowered to be a founder of a startup that is making a difference.

00:03:59.700 And we can, we can talk more about that as this interview goes on.

00:04:03.460 Yeah, I mean, when you say the real life Santa Claus,

00:04:05.980 I was on the receiving end

00:04:07.160 because we connected previous to this moment,

00:04:10.480 but the Air Canada Lounge, random chance encounter,

00:04:14.000 kind of to really connect and chat.

00:04:15.800 And you asked me if I had kids.

00:04:18.060 I did.

00:04:18.720 And you said, give me your address.

00:04:20.020 I'll send you a gift.

00:04:21.460 I did not expect a box full of Paw Patrol.

00:04:25.040 So many toys that literally my wife and I,

00:04:26.900 when we opened it, we had to hide 90% of the toys

00:04:30.240 because it was more than we would give to our kids

00:04:31.820 on a Christmas day.

00:04:32.820 So that was really cool, man.

00:04:35.180 I always appreciated that.

00:04:36.860 And, you know, you kind of quickly talked

00:04:39.620 over the two bankruptcies.

00:04:42.560 I know when we've chatted privately,

00:04:45.040 you know, I'll be honest, man, I would have gave up.

00:04:48.100 Like I, you know, you read the Nike story,

00:04:51.280 Phil Knight's book and just the amount of crazy situation

00:04:55.840 after crazy situation that happened to him

00:04:58.420 and he persevered and I've always felt that

00:05:02.080 in your story. Talk about those moments where, you know, the two bankruptcies, what caused you

00:05:10.100 to keep going versus just giving up and starting from scratch? Because you didn't. You didn't leave

00:05:14.200 your investors high and dry, and you ended up building a nine-figure company. And, you know,

00:05:19.120 I mean, it's just a crazy story. What belief did you have during that moment that kept you

00:05:24.780 pushing forward? Yeah, that's a great question. You know, I would tell you that, first of all,

00:05:33.900 let's just wind back in terms of how I got there. You know, when I started the company and I started

00:05:39.400 my business, we were on an incredible tear. And it started off with, when I said it was a car,

00:05:43.580 and we literally had kiosks and malls. And that just snowballed from kiosks and malls. Well,

00:05:48.440 actually it was at fairs to kiosks and malls to eventually a distribution company. And that

00:05:52.560 distribution company ended up becoming the largest distribution company in Canada. We just

00:05:56.240 continued to grow. And there was this period of time where really we had the Midas touch,

00:06:00.320 like everything we touched turned to gold. We just kept growing the business and felt like we could

00:06:04.460 not, you know, not do any wrong. We were really unstoppable. And, you know, what added to that,

00:06:11.340 of course, was the accolades from the marketplace. We were winning awards. We were on the profit 100

00:06:15.360 list, which at that time, you know, was what it was called. I think it's now called the Growth 500.

00:06:19.300 And the thing I came to understand is a little bit of ego

00:06:24.740 can create unnecessary overhead.

00:06:27.240 And I found out the hard way

00:06:28.780 that you can actually grow too fast, too quickly.

00:06:31.860 And if you don't have the right capital structure,

00:06:34.100 which to this day, that PTSD of that

00:06:36.180 has got me constantly aware.

00:06:37.660 I hear you're on the board meetings.

00:06:39.120 It's always coming up and it's great.

00:06:40.860 Yeah, that we constantly have to reinvent

00:06:42.960 our capital structure.

00:06:43.800 So, you know, when we hit that wall in 2006,

00:06:47.980 where literally it was a surprise,

00:06:49.180 Like, and it's on me that it was a surprise, right?

00:06:51.680 I should have been inspecting what I was expecting

00:06:54.000 for the outcomes of the business.

00:06:55.140 I wasn't doing that properly.

00:06:56.560 I showed up from a vacation shortly after Christmas

00:06:59.120 and within 90 days we were in special loans.

00:07:01.840 And I was just like, oh God, why me?

00:07:03.840 And this is after coming off recognition,

00:07:07.080 like profit list.

00:07:08.500 Yeah, record year.

00:07:09.400 Yeah, 90 days later.

00:07:11.100 90 days later.

00:07:11.900 You don't want to be in the special loans department.

00:07:14.220 Just everybody, hopefully you never have to experience this,

00:07:16.860 but there is a special department inside the banks

00:07:18.940 that deal with these kind of situation.

00:07:21.680 How does that feel?

00:07:23.940 You know, looking back on it now,

00:07:26.900 it has less effect, you know,

00:07:29.180 because at that time we're afraid

00:07:31.420 of what we don't understand.

00:07:33.200 Like, you know, it's outside of our comfort zone.

00:07:35.400 I think every entrepreneur who starts a company,

00:07:37.780 the one thing that they fear more than anything else

00:07:40.260 is failure in terms of the final failure

00:07:42.840 being bankruptcy, right?

00:07:44.260 Like there's a difference between failing

00:07:45.980 and being a failure.

00:07:47.500 Failing is a part of succeeding.

00:07:48.680 you have to make mistakes and fail your way forward. But you're a failure when it comes to 0.78

00:07:52.600 an end, like you can't get up anymore. And literally, you know, I was sitting at the

00:07:56.780 precipice with this company after growing it, after, you know, bringing in seven figures of

00:08:00.860 friends and family money, accolades, awards, and everything. And my entire identity was wrapped up

00:08:05.840 in that company. And suddenly it was about to be lost. And I remember at the time I felt very lost.

00:08:11.400 I felt like there was no future. And how was I going to overcome this, this, this challenge?

00:08:16.200 and you know looking back now i recognize that if money can solve your problem it really isn't a

00:08:23.980 problem i mean it was a problem to me at the time but i still had my family had my health and quite

00:08:29.840 frankly those two things are what allowed me to get through the next period of years that were

00:08:34.540 very very uh tumultuous and um you know my wife who if you've met her which dan has i married way

00:08:42.000 up she's an incredible woman who stood by my side through thick and thin i'm pretty sure that 0.81

00:08:47.280 when she said for better worse she could have said but not for this crap and uh because she 0.92

00:08:53.120 went through a lot i mean when the lawyers show up at your door and serve you and let you know 0.98

00:08:56.400 that they're going to be taking possession of the house that's a really bad day um and you're not

00:08:59.840 even home that's right you're on the road doing your thing that's right yeah and she calls you

00:09:04.640 and and and there was this other incident i remember she was just telling us uh the other

00:09:09.120 day about when she was driving a car and you forgot to get the insurance and she gets pulled

00:09:13.700 over and she has, I mean, there's been some moments. Yeah. Well, that's, that's, you know,

00:09:22.340 there have been some moments for sure. But that's what makes the adventure amazing is that you go

00:09:28.180 through those moments, but yeah, to unpack that story a little bit, my wife, I was on a business

00:09:31.860 trip in California. We were bootstrapping the company. I was in my mid twenties and we decided

00:09:38.200 have kids at a fairly young age. I was 23 when I had my son and 25 when I had my daughter. So

00:09:43.360 by most people's standards, that's pretty young. So I don't recommend the life plan of bootstrapping

00:09:48.660 a company and having young kids at the same time. It is extremely challenging. And I couldn't afford

00:09:53.640 insurance because on top of that, when you're a young person, the insurance on vehicles is pretty

00:09:56.540 expensive. And so I was supposed to look after the insurance bill and I didn't have the money to do

00:10:02.640 it. I went away on this trip and while I was away, she got pulled over and this was in Calgary in

00:10:07.180 the wintertime and she's got an infant in her car. And the police officer gets the vehicle towed

00:10:12.580 and literally leaves her on the side of the road with my son. Calgary winter. Calgary winter.

00:10:20.280 You can only imagine my thoughts in terms of what I would have done if that police officer had come

00:10:24.320 within my sight. But needless to say, again, that was on me. I should have taken the necessary steps

00:10:31.960 to be able to look after my family and the resources. And quite frankly, the fact that my

00:10:35.880 wife stood by me through that, plus all the other adversities that would come, is really just an

00:10:42.380 incredible testament to who she is as a human. She's an incredible person. You know, Brad,

00:10:46.700 one thing you said a second ago was that you need to inspect what you expect. And that's like

00:10:52.920 something I love about you. You know, you've always got these kind of one-liners. And I know

00:11:00.440 it's been this like, you know, years of investing yourself

00:11:03.940 in ferociously learning, when did that all start?

00:11:07.600 Like that journey of let's call it personal development

00:11:10.880 and kind of retooling your belief systems.

00:11:14.360 Cause I'm assuming if I was talking

00:11:16.240 with the 19 year old Brad today,

00:11:19.080 that conversation will look quite different

00:11:20.960 than the Brad of today.

00:11:23.680 What, where did that come from?

00:11:26.000 Yeah, you know what, I would have to say

00:11:28.560 that one of my greatest influences and mentors

00:11:30.560 has been my father.

00:11:32.720 What's your dad's name?

00:11:33.640 Don.

00:11:34.480 Don.

00:11:35.320 Yeah, he's an amazing guy.

00:11:36.140 What's he like?

00:11:37.060 I haven't had the pleasure yet.

00:11:38.180 You haven't had the pleasure, you will.

00:11:40.680 You know, he's a larger than life human.

00:11:42.360 When he walks into the room, you notice.

00:11:44.520 He's just very stately, he's tall, he's very wise.

00:11:50.080 When he speaks, he speaks with compassion, but authority.

00:11:53.080 I had somebody, one of my cousins recently say,

00:11:55.420 he was always firm, fair, but fun.

00:11:58.420 And I thought, wow, that is a perfect description of him

00:12:01.680 because he really was all three of those things.

00:12:04.340 And he was always looking to be better,

00:12:09.140 striving for betterment.

00:12:10.560 And at an early age, I watched him read a lot of books,

00:12:14.140 listened to, at that time, cassette tapes

00:12:16.600 because of course that was how we got content information.

00:12:19.940 And then he got involved in network marketing.

00:12:23.040 And it was actually through network marketing

00:12:24.880 that I decided to kind of start one of my entrepreneurial paths.

00:12:29.060 And the minute I got exposed to that,

00:12:31.940 it was immediately a series of tapes, books, seminars, and embeddement.

00:12:36.160 And I can still remember one of the very first books I read

00:12:40.120 was Grinding It Out by Ray Kroc.

00:12:43.540 And since watching the movie Founder,

00:12:45.260 I maybe don't feel the same way about him.

00:12:46.540 But at the time, I thought this guy was such a stud,

00:12:49.540 you know, in terms of what he did to take an idea that-

00:12:52.540 McDonald's.

00:12:53.260 Yeah, McDonald's, sorry.

00:12:54.160 mcdonald's is is he's the he's not the original founder of the restaurant but he's the guy who

00:12:58.240 learned how to scale it right and there's a difference between being a founder and a scaler

00:13:00.960 right those are two different capacities so um but he talked about um you know the he said in

00:13:08.580 life you're going to pay one of two prices the price of discipline or the price of regret the

00:13:13.900 price of discipline weighs ounces right to be fit going to the gym there's a price you're going to

00:13:18.460 pay hurt your body but the price of regret weighs tons and will crush you and when i read that

00:13:24.020 it seared my conscience. And I literally, with a marker, wrote that out and put it into a frame

00:13:30.100 next to my bed stand. And every morning I woke up, I read that. And it was literally my motivator

00:13:36.260 to get out of bed early, to do the things I didn't want to do, because I understood that they were

00:13:40.560 going to be the necessary steps, the compound effect of doing these small things over time

00:13:43.680 eventually add up into a meaningful outcome. And, you know, my father was the inspiration behind

00:13:49.520 that. He's the one that started that journey for me. He's the one that pursued network marketing

00:13:53.820 and in betterment that got me involved in that.

00:13:56.040 And as soon as I saw that,

00:13:57.280 I instantly got hooked into the idea

00:14:00.580 that for me to become

00:14:03.180 who I really needed to become in the future,

00:14:05.500 I had to grow myself first, right?

00:14:07.940 You can't get ahead of your own growth.

00:14:09.520 You have to put the nutrients and the water

00:14:12.820 and the sunshine into that fertile soil

00:14:15.240 to grow something meaningful.

00:14:16.880 And for me, it was just, it's always been,

00:14:19.980 and I continue to be a lifelong learner.

00:14:21.800 That mindset of, you know, feeding yourself the right things.

00:14:25.880 You mentioned an analogy recently.

00:14:27.760 We were hanging out around the bowl of water.

00:14:30.480 Would you mind sharing that?

00:14:31.400 Because I just thought it was just such a clear example of, you know,

00:14:35.180 how we need to think of our minds.

00:14:36.960 Yeah, no, this is great.

00:14:38.040 I actually got this from my mentor, Darren Hardy, who I highly recommend as well.

00:14:42.940 I think he's just very clear in terms of how you understand human performance.

00:14:46.960 But, you know, I held up a glass and I have a glass here.

00:14:49.420 so he said you know your mind is like this glass and it is non-judgmental it'll hold whatever you

00:14:56.060 put into it so if you put arsenic in there it'll hold arsenic if you put clean water in there it'll

00:15:01.420 hold clean water and we're no different and uh he then takes the glass and he pours dirty water

00:15:08.940 into the glass and he says every day that you expose yourself to media feeds to the news to

00:15:15.020 to whatever it is that's in the outside world.

00:15:16.900 Gossip.

00:15:17.740 Gossip, you're just filling up every single day 0.64

00:15:20.900 with dirty water,

00:15:21.740 because the world tends to go that way, right?

00:15:24.520 I mean, the media knows that in order to get you to watch,

00:15:28.040 they gotta put salacious gossip on the news.

00:15:30.320 They gotta tell you-

00:15:31.160 That's human biology, psychology,

00:15:32.460 that's what we respond to.

00:15:33.580 The reptilian brain, right?

00:15:34.700 It's like fear, flight, that's what we're thinking about.

00:15:37.920 So if you pour dirty water into this,

00:15:40.600 which is what we're getting every single day just by living,

00:15:42.640 only way to clean it out is by continuing to pour clean water in. And literally, if you do this

00:15:48.660 experiment at home, put dirty water in your glass, then take a vase of clean water and start pouring

00:15:53.120 into your glass, you'll see that eventually the glass just starts to flush itself. And so this is

00:15:58.020 just a great analogy in terms of what we should be thinking about every single day, that starting

00:16:02.440 our days with gratitude, that mindset of what do I have them grateful for? I'm grateful I have both

00:16:07.660 my arms, my legs, that I live in the best country on the planet, that I have freedom, I have security,

00:16:12.800 I have food. There's just so much that we just take for granted. And if you travel around the

00:16:17.040 world, you realize that it's not something that everybody has as a luxury. And then from there,

00:16:22.300 what do I need to read? What do I need to consume that's going to help inspire me to become the best

00:16:27.000 version of myself? How do I continue to expand my possibilities? You know, one of my favorite people

00:16:31.500 is Jim Rohn. And he has this saying that I just love. He says, you know, you may not be able to

00:16:36.640 do all you find out, but make sure you find out all you can do. And that literally sticks with

00:16:41.580 me because I know that when I'm laying on my deathbed, I want to be able to recite that I

00:16:45.680 fought the good fight. I finished the race and I kept the faith and I made the most of every moment

00:16:50.680 and that there was nothing. I left it all behind on the field of life. Played full out. Played full

00:16:55.780 out. You know what I love about that analogy, Brad, is that, um, you know, it takes a second

00:17:01.420 to pollute the water, but if you're pouring water

00:17:04.320 in to cleanse it, it takes a while, right?

00:17:07.160 So it's this beautiful visual to say like,

00:17:10.820 you gotta be careful, cause it could be like reading,

00:17:13.400 going down this rabbit hole of reading the news

00:17:15.360 or engaging in a gossip conversation

00:17:17.240 or allowing stuff to happen in your business

00:17:19.900 that could take like this clear water

00:17:21.580 and pollute it so quickly and to cleanse it,

00:17:24.540 it takes time, it takes practice

00:17:26.180 and it may not show up right away.

00:17:27.920 And I think that's actually how it works.

00:17:30.980 You mentioned, Darren, you mentioned the compound effect.

00:17:33.960 Who are some other people that have had an impact

00:17:37.140 in your life along your journey

00:17:38.640 in regards to mentors, coaches, et cetera?

00:17:41.900 You know, I'm a big believer

00:17:43.400 of different people in different seasons.

00:17:45.320 And I get asked this a lot, who are your mentors?

00:17:48.400 And I would say most of my mentors I've never met.

00:17:51.140 Most of those people are people I've read their,

00:17:53.600 I've been able to get into their minds

00:17:54.860 by reading their books or listening to their podcast

00:17:58.520 or, you know, being immersed in their worldviews and ideologies. And I think it's also

00:18:06.940 prescriptive. I think that it's awareness of what it is you're looking for at this season in your

00:18:11.180 life. Like, what is it you need? You know, no different than if you felt you needed, you were

00:18:15.800 lacking, you know, vitamin D, you'd go get some sunshine. Or if you felt like maybe you're getting

00:18:20.060 sick, you'd have vitamin C. There's awareness to what are the things I need to do to supplement

00:18:24.360 myself but certainly you know some of my favorite thought leaders have been people like um dale

00:18:30.680 carnegie historically he's been a guy that i think you know he got it right a long time ago and to

00:18:36.260 this day i still read and reread uh how to win friends and influence people because i think

00:18:40.440 that's just it's the mainstay of how do we interact with people um you know all the heroes

00:18:45.600 of antiquity from the bible i mean you know obviously jesus without uh giving him credit

00:18:51.480 for ultimately who I feel I've got my faith and my future in,

00:18:55.580 but just the life he modeled beyond any of the religious stuff.

00:18:58.600 In fact, he was against the religious stuff.

00:19:00.340 His whole story is about anti-religion,

00:19:02.220 and that's a whole other story to unpack.

00:19:05.300 And, you know, I would say in terms of business,

00:19:08.000 I've really appreciated Patrick Lencioni, John Maxwell,

00:19:15.140 Jim Collins.

00:19:16.520 Man, he's probably one of my favorites of all time.

00:19:18.740 just going through the top five or six that I really have leaned into. And, you know, I've

00:19:24.580 been fortunate as well that I've had some real life mentors, that I've had people in my life

00:19:28.460 who've stepped in at certain times to help me with my financial literacy or my business acumen,

00:19:33.520 you know, stepping in a role of a chairman. Well, that was a new, you know, skin to try on. I hadn't

00:19:37.940 tried that on before. So who do I need to talk to that could help me with my chairmanship? So

00:19:42.240 Tom Kennedy, who's somebody you and I both know has been somebody who's been really

00:19:45.420 instrumental in that.

00:19:47.680 And I'd say even you, Dan, like, you know,

00:19:50.100 I look at you and I look at the way

00:19:51.400 that you live life large.

00:19:52.820 You walk into a room, the room lights up,

00:19:55.680 the energy that you exude, the way that you just love

00:19:58.720 and have a compassion for people in life.

00:20:01.520 It's a huge, huge inspiration to me.

00:20:04.160 Thanks, man.

00:20:04.800 You're gonna make me cry, dude.

00:20:05.700 I appreciate that.

00:20:08.020 You've got, I mean, and this is back to the saying

00:20:10.460 that you live by that we repeat to ourselves frequently

00:20:13.140 uh around you know creating more magical memories and increasing with intensity and frequency where

00:20:20.220 did that come from because that seems to be our first principles approach to our days which is

00:20:26.720 going to get me in trouble with my wife if we keep it up because it's it's a lot of fun but um i mean

00:20:32.240 everything from the way you create events to host people at your house to um you know huck it off

00:20:40.880 cliffs in the back country like you know jumping off the wharf after we went downhill mountain

00:20:45.900 biking it was like we could not go because it's going to take an hour or we could do it because

00:20:49.720 it's going to create this magical moment where did that when did that start you know i i that's

00:20:57.240 a great question um ever since i was a little kid i always wanted to just see how high it could go

00:21:05.180 i think it started climbing trees and you know the funny part about that is until when we lived

00:21:11.720 in ontario and toronto before i moved here uh there was a big tree in front of my house and

00:21:17.060 every year i was the only tree that was lit up right to the very top and that's because i climbed

00:21:22.520 it to hang up all the lights right to the very top and our members used to always say wow your

00:21:26.180 tree looks amazing and i just think it's a metaphor that i just wanted to see how high i could go in

00:21:32.620 everything and anything I do in life, whether it's business, whether it's adventure, whether

00:21:37.940 it's relationship with your wife. You know, I think you said you're getting in trouble with

00:21:43.860 your wife. Well, actually making more magic memories is a principle to all of life, not just

00:21:49.520 into the outdoor adventures, which we share a lot. It's about how do we do it in every area in our

00:21:53.980 life. And I don't remember who said it, but this really has continued to be a great metaphor that

00:22:02.200 I think about often and it's the idea that in life we're juggling rubber balls and crystal balls

00:22:07.600 right and we're constantly like it's hard to have awareness of what is balance but it's easier to

00:22:13.840 be aware of when you're in balance right it's like when you're driving down the road you constantly

00:22:17.280 making small corrections to keep yourself going straight and it's just awareness you got to

00:22:21.080 constantly be doing that no different you have to have awareness in your life of when you're out of

00:22:25.180 balance and when you need to apply more effort in certain areas and there are certain balls that

00:22:31.200 we're juggling, but some of them are crystal and some of them are rubber, meaning that you drop

00:22:34.920 the crystal ones, they shatter. You drop the rubber ones, they bounce. So what are the crystal balls?

00:22:40.460 Your family, your faith, your fitness, and your finances. Those four, they're crystal. You can't

00:22:46.200 afford to drop those ones. You've got to constantly keep moving those around. What are the rubber ones?

00:22:50.780 Fun, friends, freedom, which is pursuing outdoors and those kinds of pursuits, and then what I call

00:22:57.080 finishing, which is putting the final touches on you, continuing to be the best and brightest

00:23:01.900 version of yourself. Those are the ones you could drop once in a while. They'll bounce. You can pick

00:23:05.720 them up later, right? You can't, you don't necessarily have to have, you could have a

00:23:08.480 period of time where you had not a lot of fun because you were focused on really getting an

00:23:11.860 important project off the ground. But it's all coming down to that we're juggling and constantly

00:23:17.060 aware of when we need to have balance. But in all those areas in our life, I subscribe to,

00:23:23.260 I wanna make them the most magical, the most memorable.

00:23:27.100 And again, kind of that point of getting

00:23:28.920 to the end of my life where I said, I left it all behind.

00:23:31.720 Soak up all the good things and squeezed it,

00:23:33.540 drive every opportunity that it had to offer me.

00:23:36.480 Just going full out.

00:23:37.560 Full out.

00:23:38.740 It's really cool, Brad.

00:23:41.280 You know, obviously, as I think people are picking up,

00:23:43.640 you've got a lot of these principles and sayings

00:23:47.500 that are kind of like these guiding ideas

00:23:51.060 that drive your decision-making.

00:23:54.300 You know, obviously you had the blessing

00:23:57.020 of having children younger so you can, you know,

00:23:59.360 go through your entrepreneurial journey

00:24:00.660 and then kind of have them just like you were exposed to it,

00:24:04.960 be around it.

00:24:06.780 You know, talk about today.

00:24:07.920 Like I know for me having young kids

00:24:09.740 and a lot of listeners are probably dealing

00:24:11.480 with the same thing.

00:24:13.040 How did you raise your kids?

00:24:14.780 Cause they're incredible.

00:24:15.740 Your daughter and your son are amazing people.

00:24:18.760 How did you raise such well?

00:24:20.840 I mean, that's the only way I can say it.

00:24:22.380 Well adjusted, not entitled,

00:24:25.280 but even though they came around

00:24:28.260 or they were raised around somebody like you,

00:24:30.460 like what did you,

00:24:31.460 what do you feel were some of the guiding principles

00:24:33.600 from a parenting point of view as an entrepreneur?

00:24:38.700 Well, first of all, we've made lots of mistakes.

00:24:40.960 We've made every mistake.

00:24:41.920 And so I think every parent should just acknowledge

00:24:43.840 that there was no manual that came with your kids

00:24:46.120 that, hey, this is how you do it.

00:24:47.760 It's a part of a learn as you go.

00:24:49.600 And yes, there is some wisdom

00:24:50.860 from the people who've gone before you

00:24:52.180 that you can learn some things,

00:24:54.080 but it is a, every kid's different,

00:24:56.540 every situation's different.

00:24:57.880 And so it is a adaptation to the environment

00:25:00.700 and what you've been presented with.

00:25:03.540 I've got incredible kids for sure,

00:25:06.040 but we've been through

00:25:07.080 some incredible challenges together.

00:25:08.800 And on that note, you know,

00:25:10.700 I actually really firmly believe,

00:25:13.320 like we today live in a society

00:25:15.900 of helicopter parents

00:25:16.860 who really are trying to protect our kids

00:25:18.400 from adversity and challenges.

00:25:19.960 And we don't realize that we're hurting them

00:25:22.120 in the process.

00:25:23.700 If you've heard the story of the caterpillar,

00:25:26.760 you know, when a caterpillar is emerging

00:25:28.240 from the cocoon as a butterfly,

00:25:30.240 there's this incredible struggle that happens.

00:25:33.140 And it's actually through that struggle

00:25:36.400 that the fluid moves into its wings

00:25:38.480 that allows it to fly.

00:25:39.740 If you were to actually take a knife

00:25:41.160 and clip the cocoon before it actually came out-

00:25:43.540 Thinking it stuck.

00:25:44.560 Thinking you're helping it. 1.00

00:25:45.420 You actually would kill it

00:25:46.820 because the fluid wouldn't have actually gone to the wings. And I just think that's such a

00:25:50.100 brilliant metaphor for our kids and what they need to face in terms of adversity. So, you know,

00:25:57.140 Eric Gretens, one of my favorite authors, wrote a book called Resilience. And in that book,

00:26:02.780 there's this incredible quote that he talks about, you know, as human beings, there's a few things

00:26:06.740 we need to live a life of optimists. We know we need food, we need sleep, we need water, we need

00:26:11.500 love, we need sex, we need relationship. All these things are a part of our human fulfillment,

00:26:16.580 plan. He said, beyond that, I'd add struggle. In order to be fully human, we need to go through

00:26:22.460 struggles. Just like that butterfly. We need it. We need it. It's a part of who we become.

00:26:29.140 You know, gold is refined in fire. You know, a diamond is a lump of coal under a lot of heat

00:26:34.100 and pressure. So that doesn't mean you should be go seeking it for your kids, but certainly it's

00:26:38.320 about letting them learn and grow. Allow it to happen. 100%. Don't protect them. And so Kelly

00:26:44.200 and i have really i would say we are uh we certainly are a backstop from them ever hitting

00:26:49.360 you know ground bottom you know the rock bottom rock bottom thank you but at the same time we want

00:26:57.000 to let them learn through the adversities that they're facing just like we did like it's what

00:27:01.940 it made us who we are 100 so if we want to help them we really need to let them go through that

00:27:09.220 And then I think Maya Angelou said it the best.

00:27:11.800 She said, you know, people will,

00:27:13.500 they'll forget what she's saying they do,

00:27:15.240 but they'll never forget the way you make them feel.

00:27:18.180 And your kids are watching.

00:27:20.100 And we think as parenting is talking

00:27:22.000 and actually it's not.

00:27:23.660 It's about how you make them feel

00:27:25.620 and modeling out for them.

00:27:27.820 And I showed you recently, my daughter, super proud.

00:27:31.500 Talk about that, man, that was awesome.

00:27:34.540 Well, you know, my kids, they grew up around a dad

00:27:37.720 who is committed to personal development.

00:27:40.140 And so my vehicles were always like a rolling university.

00:27:42.960 I didn't have downtime.

00:27:44.140 Like the radio didn't play in my vehicle.

00:27:45.780 The thing that we were listening to all the time

00:27:47.940 were audio books, cassettes at the time,

00:27:51.400 CDs when they came out, and now it'd be podcasts.

00:27:53.960 You'd still find that in my vehicles.

00:27:55.880 And, you know, it was just a part of who I was.

00:27:59.080 And I thought, you know,

00:28:00.580 I need to get my kids to listen to some of this stuff.

00:28:02.380 And once in a while, like I'm sure you've done,

00:28:04.220 like you listen to somebody,

00:28:05.180 oh, I gotta get Renee to hear this,

00:28:06.660 or I got to get this person to hear this. And what I've learned is that, you know, it is not

00:28:11.760 about actually, you know, you lead the horse to water, but the horse has to be willing to drink.

00:28:17.520 It has to be thirsty. And, you know, when the student is ready, the teacher will appear. So

00:28:21.980 my daughter for years heard this. It was kind of like, ah, this is dad's stuff. You know,

00:28:26.300 it doesn't apply to me. It's business. It's whatever. And a year ago, she decided to become

00:28:31.780 an entrepreneur suddenly she had a need you know here was this this moment knife and i'm super

00:28:37.380 proud both my kids they both have got these career paths that they're taking and both of them have

00:28:41.760 actually reached out to me since saying hey i want to learn i want to become the person i need to

00:28:46.040 become to be worthy of a life that you've created and um so you know the amazing thing is is that

00:28:53.080 you know subconsciously she knew what what to do already because i had been living it both kelly

00:28:57.800 and i'd been living in front of her so she instantly started reading books like she bought

00:29:01.220 think and grow rich and how to win friends influence people and we did the seven habits

00:29:04.780 together and i've been through the compound effect and right now we're in a course with

00:29:09.240 darren hardy called the hero's journey and darren had actually asked me the question he said hey

00:29:14.080 would you mind coming on and me asking you some questions about your parenting style and and and

00:29:19.280 as it turns out i said you know that that would be good but even better why don't you ask my daughter

00:29:23.800 and dude i mean i was so proud of her like her getting on in front of like 5 000 6 000 people

00:29:29.600 online and talking about this journey she's gone through, where she's now come to a point in her

00:29:36.200 life where she feels, I need this in my life to be better. And quite frankly, it was her idea that

00:29:41.840 we do the hero's journey. And since then, my wife has joined and my son's joined. So we're doing as

00:29:45.740 a family. And today actually we had a session and afterwards, you know, the texting back and

00:29:49.460 forth with the family, it was awesome. So the engagement is high. Super proud. Dude, how cool

00:29:53.900 is that going, you know, full circle from, you know, doing everything you can when you're starting

00:29:58.140 off feeling like sometimes you're not as there as often trying to set the example and then full

00:30:05.080 you know in in the early 20s for them to come back and ask you i know they both ask you to mentor

00:30:09.520 them you know and have them participate in this hero's journey and be able to share that that

00:30:14.500 would be a dream and um i think for a lot of people listening it's something to aspire to

00:30:19.140 um you know one thing i want to get back on the business stuff brad because you know you are one

00:30:25.480 of those people when I have big challenges,

00:30:27.760 like C-level strategic issues that I give you a call

00:30:32.100 and I'm blessed to be able to do that.

00:30:34.340 And you've always got this sage advice.

00:30:36.820 I mean, and I know it's from real, real experience.

00:30:40.780 There's a lot of people on the internet giving around advice

00:30:42.940 and they haven't been through it, right?

00:30:45.440 What, you know, as you, even with Pila,

00:30:49.180 your new company that you're the co-founder of,

00:30:51.460 you know, being, I think it was top 10 fastest growing

00:30:53.960 companies in Canada, an incredible growth ride.

00:30:58.060 I feel really lucky to be an investor

00:30:59.660 and part of that to a very small degree on the board.

00:31:03.320 What have you learned about the people side of the business?

00:31:06.280 Like, you know, people want to talk marketing tactics,

00:31:08.580 growth hacks, et cetera, but let's talk people.

00:31:10.740 Cause I think you and I both resonate that

00:31:13.280 that's where the investment's gotta be made.

00:31:15.460 100%, yeah.

00:31:17.580 And it's really the school of hard knocks.

00:31:19.900 I got lots of battle scars on this front,

00:31:21.660 but fortunately there's been some wisdom

00:31:23.400 from my wounds um you know first of all the business of business is people right we are in

00:31:29.820 the people business whatever you're doing i've heard people say i'm in the sas business i'm in

00:31:34.140 you know the consumer products business i'm in the food business no you're in the people business

00:31:37.520 we all are in the people business and let's get clear on that because without people there is no

00:31:41.580 business and then behind that it's how do you get the right people to help fulfill your vision and

00:31:48.680 mission for a company how do you then unleash their potential and empower them to to live up

00:31:54.380 to their potential and quite frankly the potential that the company needs you know there's there's

00:31:58.820 three things that are constantly breaking when you're building a business and we've identified

00:32:03.380 them as their capital your processes and your people they continually need to be reinvented

00:32:08.580 you know growing a business actually is stressing a business like when you grow it we all want to

00:32:12.920 grow but you create stress right and so the the i the repercussions of choosing to grow a company

00:32:22.360 especially a fast growth company like we've built is that we are constantly reinventing those those

00:32:27.500 areas and so and again capital people and process correct yep those are the three and they're the

00:32:33.960 vital three and you got to be continually like you know we just finished a fundraise as you know not

00:32:38.540 that long ago and i'm in the middle of fundraising and we don't need it yet why because i know we're

00:32:43.380 going to need it at some point in the future it's a part of just any growth company you're burning

00:32:48.040 capital we are in the process of hiring continually why because we know even though for today if i

00:32:54.320 look at today i have the right staff i may even have too many staff i know that in six months

00:32:58.520 we're not going to have the right people in place to fulfill the vision at the time and our processes

00:33:02.740 are a continual working process because we're constantly breaking them there's there's constantly

00:33:06.540 going to be breakage across an organization because what worked from getting you from zero

00:33:10.180 to one won't be the same thing that gets you from one to 10. So you've got to continually upgrade

00:33:14.480 and improve them. I mean, you're the king of processes. You've got a lot of SOPs for everything.

00:33:19.360 So, but on the people side, you know, the first and most important thing is, you know, the CEO

00:33:24.880 of this company and Matt, my, my co-founder, he's a brilliant CEO. He sets the cadence, you know,

00:33:30.300 he's the person who really sets the, the vision, the mission, and then the values of the company

00:33:35.960 in terms of what it is that we want to accomplish long-term,

00:33:39.340 how we're going to get there,

00:33:40.620 and how are we going to behave

00:33:42.500 in terms of the way that we show up and interact.

00:33:45.120 And then his job, better than anyone, including myself,

00:33:49.120 is to model those out every single day.

00:33:52.120 I, as a co-founder, have to follow suit,

00:33:54.560 and I have to be involved in that as well.

00:33:56.860 And then we're collectively involved in going out

00:33:59.880 and finding the people who uphold those values.

00:34:02.680 And, you know, your values are what you hire

00:34:04.800 and what you fire by.

00:34:05.560 they're the most important part they're the constitution it's like the rules of engagement

00:34:09.380 for how we do life together uh as people and um you know if you get the right people and you get

00:34:15.560 the right talent density anything's possible you know i would put a uh an average idea with the

00:34:22.720 right people over the best idea in an average team all day long and the one thing that uh i'm

00:34:28.980 extremely um i guess vigilant about is just our process in terms of do we have the right people

00:34:34.900 are they in the right seats

00:34:36.320 and are they empowered to do the right things

00:34:38.320 that will help us fulfill the vision mission for the company.

00:34:41.160 Now, one thing you've shared with me

00:34:43.100 is that the fallacy sometimes we get into

00:34:45.620 is that we believe in the person

00:34:49.040 more than they believe in themselves.

00:34:50.960 Unpack that because it's burned me a couple of times.

00:34:54.020 Well, if you're an entrepreneur,

00:34:55.560 I think every entrepreneur has had this happen.

00:34:57.800 And I would even say for myself,

00:34:59.460 it's probably not the first or the last time

00:35:01.240 it's gonna happen to me either.

00:35:02.960 Well, it's definitely not the first, but it won't be the last.

00:35:04.900 You know, entrepreneurs are optimists by heart, right?

00:35:07.920 We see potential everywhere,

00:35:10.020 including in people who don't see it for themselves.

00:35:13.520 And the problem is you can't give what you don't have.

00:35:16.000 Like if that person hasn't identified

00:35:17.860 that they have their potential,

00:35:19.580 even though you see those seeds of greatness inside them,

00:35:22.360 I don't care what kind of coaching,

00:35:24.620 what kind of program you put them through,

00:35:26.420 the odds of them actually rising to that potential

00:35:29.000 are very low.

00:35:30.100 They have to see it in themselves first.

00:35:32.720 Yes, and there is a difference

00:35:34.480 between you know going from um like i've had examples in my company where i hired somebody who

00:35:40.980 showed the potential but didn't necessarily show their full potential and then we've been able to

00:35:46.920 pull full out right but i've never had the options where someone had potential but didn't you know

00:35:51.980 you saw it but they weren't exhibiting in any way ever get to that so you know we are constantly

00:35:57.760 looking for people who have to show some a semblance of potential in their life so that we

00:36:02.780 can see we can then cultivate the full potential out of what's possible through empowerment through

00:36:08.240 personal development through getting them surrounded by like-minded people right and

00:36:12.600 that's the one thing i would say i'm the most proud of i think the talent density in this

00:36:15.280 building is incredible like we have done an extraordinary job of people putting people

00:36:20.480 through a gauntlet that we're very proud of that flushes out as many decoys as we can

00:36:24.980 right because the only thing worse than having the right people in is having the wrong people

00:36:29.580 in your company that potentially could be sabotaging the culture hurtful and and what do

00:36:34.680 you think's different about your leadership style that first-time entrepreneurs or people that still

00:36:38.900 haven't scaled past that 10 million level what what do you do different in your interactions

00:36:43.620 or your communication style um you know we talked a little bit about this about the ceiling of

00:36:50.060 complexity right that um and it was dan sullivan who i first heard this from and i i think it makes

00:36:57.140 a lot of sense he said you know i've got and as i know you do a lot of grit i can go longer and

00:37:03.640 harder than most in fact i used to pride myself that that was a big part of how i built my first

00:37:07.720 companies is that i just would just put it all out there and leave nothing behind right um and

00:37:13.500 dan sullivan recognizes that a bunch of entrepreneurs have that and he says and what

00:37:16.820 happens is they set a two times goal and because they know that within their own efforts they can

00:37:21.920 do two times it means they have to work 80 hours a week that means they have you know don't take

00:37:25.380 vacations, they can get it done. He said, what you need to do is set a 10 times goal. Cause he

00:37:30.140 knows that you will realize if you set a 10 times goal, there is no way within your own capacity

00:37:34.540 that you can actually do that. You will have to learn to leverage others. And I would say for me,

00:37:40.220 one of the hardest things for me to learn over the years, and it's something I'm still learning

00:37:43.540 is how to let go, how to let go and to delegate, not abdicate, but delegate properly, give people

00:37:50.600 clear instructions in terms of the outcomes that they need and then trust them to be able to

00:37:55.700 deliver on those outcomes and you know my journey particularly even more so like I would say in

00:38:02.560 2012 is when I had this first aha in terms of like I need to get better people because I was

00:38:08.340 sitting around my my boardroom table and I was the smartest person in the room and that's not good

00:38:13.840 and i can honestly say that when i left the toy business in 2017 as i sat around that

00:38:20.900 that boardroom table i was not the smartest person in that room in marketing sales product

00:38:27.840 development manufacturing any of those but i was the smartest person in the room for recognizing

00:38:33.480 to hire better people in me in those areas and empower them to do it and as we've moved on to

00:38:38.020 PILA, you know, we've even just refined

00:38:41.280 the curation process even better.

00:38:42.780 So that really sitting around that table now,

00:38:45.520 I feel like, okay, I'm sitting amongst people

00:38:48.040 that are just brilliant at what they do.

00:38:49.780 But how do you, I mean, this whole idea

00:38:51.700 of like the delegating, the outcome,

00:38:54.940 like somebody comes to you with a problem,

00:38:56.680 how do you not want to give them the answer?

00:39:01.160 Like what is your process for that kind of communication?

00:39:04.320 As a leader, like how do you develop leaders?

00:39:06.140 Because at the side, you guys have grown like crazy and continue.

00:39:09.320 And I'm just fascinated by how you've built your executive leadership team and the rhythms.

00:39:13.660 How do you coach your leadership team to build leaders in the company?

00:39:18.620 Yeah.

00:39:18.920 So I think just about every entrepreneur is usually their own worst enemy because they

00:39:22.460 feel empowerment by having the answers.

00:39:24.120 They feel important.

00:39:25.100 It's good when they have a lineup at their door and people that are coming to them to

00:39:27.800 look for the direction.

00:39:29.260 I'll tell you, as you scale and as you get older, it starts to wear.

00:39:32.100 so a simple principle that we've applied and is incredibly uh productive in terms of problem

00:39:39.020 solving is called one three one and basically the idea is you cannot come to a leader not nobody in

00:39:45.400 the company right down to the very you know base level of the company line workers you can't go to

00:39:50.320 your direct report with a problem unless you present it with one problem three possible

00:39:56.160 solutions and your one recommendation after you spend some time thinking about it and it has been

00:40:01.460 the forcing function of getting everyone to feel empowered to think to problem solve because

00:40:06.760 everybody in the company has capacity to grow sales reduce costs and mitigate risk in some

00:40:11.400 level right so we want them and that's typically what problem solving is triaging those three

00:40:16.840 things and so we've given everybody that ability to do it and um i think after you implement that

00:40:23.600 i think you're going to find that within a very short period of time you're going to flesh out

00:40:27.500 the people who really are there to do the work

00:40:30.580 or those who are yes people,

00:40:32.120 because some people really,

00:40:33.520 they feel empowered by empowering you

00:40:36.480 to give them answers.

00:40:37.940 They leech off of you

00:40:39.420 and then you will realize real quickly

00:40:41.060 that they're not the right people for your organization.

00:40:42.840 Because they're not adding management bandwidth.

00:40:44.540 They're not adding capacity.

00:40:46.000 100%.

00:40:46.440 It's exponential in terms of the outcome too.

00:40:49.840 Like it's not linear.

00:40:51.700 When people start doing this,

00:40:53.020 your ability,

00:40:54.100 particularly in a fast scaling company,

00:40:55.880 becomes exponential to getting to your outcomes.

00:40:58.400 You move, you can bend time with that principle.

00:41:01.160 So much faster.

00:41:02.120 So much faster.

00:41:04.000 You've mentioned this a few times, you know, doing life,

00:41:07.280 you know, and we talk about this where you're like,

00:41:09.440 there's some really great people here

00:41:11.760 that I want to do life with that, you know,

00:41:14.280 it's lifestyle design before business plan,

00:41:16.960 life plan before business plan

00:41:18.520 is kind of something I've heard you say.

00:41:20.560 Obviously that is something that I almost feel like

00:41:23.720 you had another opportunity with Pila

00:41:25.640 and moving to Kelowna to create that.

00:41:28.740 What did it look like before?

00:41:30.580 What happened?

00:41:31.540 Why is that such a priority today?

00:41:34.640 Yeah.

00:41:36.780 You know, sometimes we need interrupts in our life

00:41:39.560 just to get aware of our shortcomings.

00:41:42.880 I was addicted to the idea

00:41:44.760 that I needed to work a certain level,

00:41:47.200 a certain number of hours,

00:41:48.520 do a certain amount of travel.

00:41:49.660 Actually, you know, being a super elite Air Canada member

00:41:52.060 was a part of my-

00:41:52.860 Status.

00:41:53.700 Yeah, it's identity, right?

00:41:55.640 Um, and, uh, you know, in 2017, when I was, uh, abruptly, uh, uh, removed, released to the

00:42:05.680 market, that's what I said. That's right. Released to the marketplace. It was the forcing function

00:42:10.280 of allowing me to get clear on, you know, sometimes in life, it's hard to know what you want,

00:42:15.260 but then get clear on what you don't want. And it's easier to figure out the things you want.

00:42:18.940 And so going away from that experience, I sat back and says, what were the things that I was

00:42:22.900 doing that i don't want anymore in my life and i landed on three three principles to this day i

00:42:27.760 live by the first was life plan before business plan in my entire life i may have paid lip service

00:42:32.860 to it i might have said oh yeah my family's my priority and you know my faith's my priority and

00:42:36.500 all this but truly look at your calendar that tells the truth like where you're investing your

00:42:41.280 time that's where you really are um as a person the second was uh only awesome people aka life's 1.00

00:42:49.200 too short to work with assholes. 0.98

00:42:51.480 And unpack the release to the market 0.99

00:42:53.460 because I think you're personally, I think it's,

00:42:56.780 I feel like you're hard on like the situation.

00:42:59.300 Like, I mean, you had, you merged with another company.

00:43:02.500 I don't know if you're comfortable disclosing some of that,

00:43:04.580 but you know, that was just one of those wrong read

00:43:08.240 of the person I'm assuming, right?

00:43:09.780 Like what happened in that scenario

00:43:11.500 that people can take some lessons from?

00:43:14.220 Sure.

00:43:15.400 Well, just to backtrack a little bit.

00:43:17.820 So bankrupted the company in 2006, fought to try and fix it.

00:43:22.460 By 2008, realized, couldn't fix it.

00:43:24.800 Bankrupted it again, finally took a sabbatical.

00:43:28.040 Corporate bankrupt, not personal.

00:43:29.900 That's right.

00:43:30.360 So everybody understands, yep.

00:43:30.900 That's right, yeah.

00:43:33.300 And similar to this situation, went away and got clear on what were the things I didn't

00:43:38.580 want anymore so I could create a new business model.

00:43:40.960 Started a new company in 2009 called Tech for Kids.

00:43:44.700 uh it it went through you know the birthing process like any startup right lots of challenges

00:43:51.000 and difficulty but we were really fortunate we were really lucky right ideas at the right time

00:43:55.040 and that business scaled very quickly um in a different capacity instead of being a distribution

00:43:59.780 company we're now a manufacturing company instead of being focused on canada we're global we

00:44:04.400 eliminated the warehouse from our model and did fob only so we had really a much more lean efficient

00:44:09.760 model and it was working really, really well. I had brought along the investors from the original

00:44:16.200 company into this new company because I was, you know, personally. You wanted to do right by them.

00:44:20.460 Do right by them. And I was personally guaranteed as well. Yeah, there's that.

00:44:24.100 So there's a few things that motivated me. You know, I talk about that. I didn't want to make

00:44:29.920 money. I just want to get back to zero. It was like, you know, we were going through the valley

00:44:33.360 of the shadow of death. But in any event, you know, when you bring investors into your company,

00:44:38.680 you've agreed to sell your company, right?

00:44:40.880 At some point, they're looking for-

00:44:42.580 They want liquidity.

00:44:43.300 They want liquidity.

00:44:44.260 And we had done a couple of dances with different people

00:44:47.700 through kind of 2012, 2016,

00:44:50.940 but nothing really formalized that was meaningful.

00:44:54.560 We got actually into due diligence with one company,

00:44:57.440 but it was just not gonna be a good culture fit.

00:44:59.880 And then this opportunity came along

00:45:01.820 for a merger with my company.

00:45:04.000 And I've come to learn

00:45:06.480 that the two most important decisions

00:45:08.000 you're going to make in life is who do you marry and who do you get in business with

00:45:11.380 because that requires a level of trust that is unique, right? I mean, you know, this is what

00:45:18.260 I love about Lencioni's five dysfunctions of a team is that he talks about if you have trust

00:45:22.800 at a high level, then you're willing to get into conflict. You're willing to not conflict for the

00:45:27.820 sake of conflict, but you're working for the best. You're willing to have hard conversations.

00:45:30.820 You're fighting for the best outcome.

00:45:32.060 A hundred percent.

00:45:32.700 Even if it's uncomfortable.

00:45:33.540 100%, even if it's uncomfortable.

00:45:35.780 And this relationship,

00:45:38.320 as we started to go down the path,

00:45:39.640 initially on paper, it looked beautiful.

00:45:41.920 We were taking our company,

00:45:43.080 which was doing about 60 million,

00:45:44.620 their company, which was doing about 60 million.

00:45:46.400 We're gonna put them together.

00:45:47.220 We acquire another company.

00:45:48.060 Big business, big, yeah.

00:45:49.840 Economies of scale.

00:45:51.100 And we did do the merger.

00:45:53.980 We acquired a company along the way,

00:45:55.400 had several in the pipeline to acquire.

00:45:57.100 We generated about 130 million in revenue,

00:45:59.300 had about 130 employees.

00:46:01.400 So it was a one-to-one ratio.

00:46:03.440 And we were supposed to be co-leaders and yada, yada, yada.

00:46:08.440 It turns out that we had very different worldviews

00:46:10.680 and philosophies for how to scale a company.

00:46:13.160 And the problem is, it's on me.

00:46:16.740 I knew early on that the cultural fit wasn't perfect,

00:46:20.680 but I also had so much-

00:46:23.880 Invested.

00:46:24.840 Right, emotionally, mentally, and quite frankly,

00:46:27.720 I owed my wife some liquidity, quite frankly, 0.99

00:46:30.560 based on all the crap she had been through. 0.97

00:46:32.720 So I was just kind of turning a blind eye to it.

00:46:35.460 So when we merged the companies in the summer of 2017,

00:46:38.820 within 90 days, I was released to the marketplace.

00:46:44.420 Fortunately, it was a sudden exit,

00:46:46.340 but I had a soft landing

00:46:48.640 that I was eventually bought out of my shares.

00:46:51.560 Yeah, I mean, some nuance in the contract

00:46:54.680 that essentially they went through a process

00:46:56.480 that triggered this liquidation

00:46:58.640 where they had to buy your shares, right?

00:47:00.760 Well, it's a little more complicated than that.

00:47:03.580 I had actually gone to the market

00:47:06.360 to sell my shares to private equity

00:47:07.800 because we had been doing dances with private equity.

00:47:10.420 And without getting into all the boring details,

00:47:13.300 there was a threat that I could sell my shares

00:47:15.620 to someone else and they didn't like the idea

00:47:18.260 of me picking their partners for them.

00:47:19.900 So they chose to buy me out

00:47:21.840 and best thing that ever happened to me quite frankly.

00:47:24.640 100%.

00:47:25.480 And getting clear that,

00:47:28.840 pick your partners very carefully,

00:47:30.360 particularly the people you're gonna be doing a lot of life with.

00:47:32.320 And that influenced this next stage.

00:47:35.160 Yeah.

00:47:35.880 And then the third principle that came out of that,

00:47:37.500 so the first one was life plan before business plan. 0.99

00:47:39.340 The second was, you know, life's too short to work with assholes, 0.99

00:47:41.980 you know, only awesome people. 0.96

00:47:43.420 And the third was do things that make impact.

00:47:46.720 So none of what I hate, less of what I tolerate,

00:47:50.080 and everything that I love.

00:47:51.300 Because I know when I'm in the zone, you know,

00:47:53.800 like I've been thinking a lot about this late.

00:47:55.820 I don't know about you, but, you know,

00:47:57.000 there's a big movement towards meditation.

00:47:58.380 and i do my own sort of practice around that but i hear this constant emptying the mind and i don't

00:48:04.060 know about you but trying to empty my mind is like like wrestling a tiger i mean it's just

00:48:08.000 it's frenetic but where i truly have harmony my mind is when i'm in the flow state like when i'm

00:48:14.260 working on stuff that's really blowing my hair back not that i have much back anymore but

00:48:18.320 things that are really important to me i don't have to worry about my mind it's really there

00:48:24.800 It's present, it's focused, it's intentional,

00:48:27.400 and I'm moving important projects forward.

00:48:30.560 And so I'm really a big believer in doing more

00:48:33.260 of what you love gets you in the flow state

00:48:35.600 where you truly can make impact

00:48:37.100 in whatever it is you're working on.

00:48:38.960 And that's where I wanna be.

00:48:40.300 And that is the life plan before business plan,

00:48:44.460 the move to Kelowna, the calendar,

00:48:47.660 which I know looking at that week

00:48:49.680 and trying to create those magical memories.

00:48:51.960 Brad, as we wrap up, I'm curious,

00:48:55.860 and I ask all my guests this,

00:48:57.240 and you've mentioned it a few times,

00:48:58.480 which I was like, oh man, he's gonna answer this

00:48:59.940 before we get to it,

00:49:00.760 but who do you feel you had to become

00:49:04.740 to achieve the level of success

00:49:06.340 that you're honestly just starting to do?

00:49:07.940 I mean, you're a young dude,

00:49:08.880 we're gonna be creating some really cool stuff

00:49:11.960 over the next 30 years together.

00:49:15.340 You know, looking back at that 20-year-old

00:49:17.480 to the person you are today,

00:49:18.860 Who did you need to become to get to this level?

00:49:27.860 You know, I'm gonna start with humility

00:49:32.160 because I think it's a part of our human condition

00:49:37.720 that we tend to, you know, the original sin,

00:49:43.700 if you will call it that,

00:49:45.600 Lucifer thought he could become God.

00:49:47.020 and you know as the story goes he's cast out and um you know jim collins when he does his

00:49:54.860 assessment of how the mighty fall he talks about the five stages of decline and the first is hubris

00:49:59.600 pride um i was very proud uh as a kid i was proud of the fact that i could be the fastest kid

00:50:07.500 the toughest kid um and then it just kind of snowballed into my business endeavors and i was

00:50:14.400 just rolling through all of that and thinking that i could basically just roll my way through

00:50:19.380 situations and i'm really grateful for the dose of humility that i was given and i'm constantly

00:50:28.280 reminded that i am human and that i have my shortcomings and that i need to be constantly

00:50:36.020 again grounded in gratitude reminder that you know i'm a speck on a speck floating in a galaxy

00:50:42.260 that's a speck in the universe like take that all in perspective and realize it's not that

00:50:47.600 meaningful but the flip side of that is according to everything we know you're the only version of

00:50:52.720 you in that entire universe so while you're infinitely small you're also infinitely incredibly

00:50:58.040 important because you're the only version of you that's ever been found anywhere in the universe

00:51:01.480 so that zooming in and out and getting grounded about who i am is a part of my becoming because

00:51:09.980 i have not arrived it's a ongoing process and i think in general most people have it wrong

00:51:15.960 you know we look at the media and the media tells us where we're where our shortcomings are right 0.98

00:51:21.520 like you look at an advertisement it basically is a talking to you suck your worth and you got 0.89

00:51:27.680 to have this car you got to do this or do that in order to have happiness right so most of society 0.61

00:51:34.240 it's that you have to have this thing to be happy or you've got to do this thing to be happy in the

00:51:41.700 end it turns out it's be do have who do you need to become that'll then get you to do the things

00:51:48.300 that will give you the outcomes that quite frankly are a byproduct right like having as you know

00:51:56.060 we've had a lot of fun a lot of adventures and those things are not that meaningful to me unless

00:52:00.440 I'm with other people sharing them because on their own, they're not meaningful. But the media

00:52:04.620 tells us, oh, you got to have it to be happy. You got to have that big house, that car, that,

00:52:08.040 that, that, that's, those should just be trappings that help enrich the relationship in your life.

00:52:13.400 Cause that's what really counts. That's amazing, Brad. Um, I know you've got a book project that

00:52:19.140 you're working on and I know everybody's going to want to follow you, but you don't really do

00:52:23.320 social media. But if somebody were to ask, where do I connect with Brad, what would be the best

00:52:27.480 answer yeah i i and again this is no criticism to people who do social media but i just found for

00:52:35.540 myself with the add uh mind um and just limited capacity that i needed to just shut off certain

00:52:42.100 things in social media you know which i was on so if you go on you'll find my names out there

00:52:46.440 if you're if you send me a message i just don't respond because i don't check it um you know the

00:52:51.040 the one exception would be linkedin that's the one area i go so if you do have a message that

00:52:55.680 you want to send, send it to me by LinkedIn. Otherwise, I'm brad at pila.earth. Send me an

00:53:00.900 email. I mean, your audience are cool people. Amazing people. Email Brad. If you have any

00:53:05.180 questions, you want to just say thank you, please email Brad. Brad, I'm crazy grateful for our

00:53:10.000 friendship and looking to do life even bigger. So I appreciate the time, man. Amen. Looking forward

00:53:16.180 to it.

Dan Martell - August 02, 2021

How to Create Self Discipline - Brad Pedersen @ Pela

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