Make Your Experiences in the Past Work to Achieve Your Success
How to use your personal, work experiences and challenges to work towards your success? Watch as Andy and Jerry share their work experiences and challenges and how they use them to build their businesses.
In this video, Andy tells us how he was able to earn his first million at a young age. Andy emphasizes how important it is to learn from your failures more than your successes, getting as much learning as you can in every job you take. From working at a cellphone company, fast-food chain, and retail store, Andy narrates how he used every knowledge gained in those experiences to continue producing results in every company he’s been in. He enumerates how all strategies he learned came in handy for building his own company.
Jerry also shares how similar his experiences are with how Andy started. Jerry and Andy narrated memorable experiences when they started their own business. They exchanged practices on how they deal with their employees and integrate automation in their businesses.
Jerry and Andy encourage you to take courage and live for the dreams and goals you want and be successful.
You will learn:
- How to be consistent in helping companies grow
- How to continue producing results and generate income
- How to come up with a strategy to make doing tasks simpler
- Employee management
- The importance of automation and how to train your employees to embrace it
- The importance of listening and acknowledge experiences of people ahead of you
- More entrepreneurial and business advice
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Transcriptions:
Andy Audate
I want to change lives. I want to show people how to progress and their money. I want to show people how to progress their mindset. I want to show people how to progress in their brand so that way they can take care of their family, take care of the finances and experience freedom.
Jerry Brazier
Is it a published author or a motivational speaker, a serial entrepreneur. He's widely recognized as an eminent speaker with a delivery that is high energy which you've already heard. And human potential is stimulating. Andy was raised in a city of impoverishment and a college dropout with little formal education, and he took a path of entrepreneurship forcing a course of endless self-education that has amounted to his successes.This path has not only allowed him to change his circumstances, but allowed him to effectively communicate the desire to be great to others. He helps entrepreneurs start and scale their businesses; he is currently living in Los Angeles, California. So welcome to the Jerry Brazy podcast, Andy Audate.
Andy Audate
Oh, man. Dude, thank you so much for having me,Thanks for having me in the show man.
Jerry Brazier
You bet. I, I, I'm really happy to have you here too because you and I have a lot in common. I think growing up and I want to get right into it here. Tell me about the cell phone business. So just by background here real quick, you were working at a cell phone company. selling cell phones retail and you were very good at it, at least from what I pulled off the internet. And what what you provided us and then you decided to go on your own
Andy Audate
When I was like 18 years old in high school, I was working at Wendy's? Yeah. I was working at Wendy's and I just got fired from one of my retail outlets where we sold clothes.And at that retail outlet, they allowed me to have any hour that I wanted. Like I could have any hours that I wanted if I wanted to work full time when everyone else was working four hours a day, I was working a full shift and I was working. I got time and a half on Sundays. Why? Because I produced results.With their standard and their standard was their membership card. So I was constantly producing results that narrowly learned that I can, that I can essentially choose my hours. So I understood the concept of if I make results, if I produce results, I get paid more. So I wanted to go into commission sales.I went to T-Mobile to apply and they denied me. I was probably like, you know, I'm 18 years old, they're going to hire me at 18 so I went to the next, the next thing, which was Metro PCs, learn how to sell cell phones, and Metro PCs got commissioned, and within a year. Well within three months I'm running my own store as it was as a manager, and then within a year after that, I then left and opened up my own spot by 19 and I'm now an owner operator at 19 owning my own cell phone store.
Jerry Brazier
And so you went out, where does that come from? Where, well, let me backup. So you got fired. I'm interested in that too. So there's so much to learn from from our failures, much more than our successes. So tell me about getting fired. What happened? What'd you learn from it?
Andy Audate
I snapped my manager. Oh, really? Yeah. Yeah. But, but I don't say that, I don't say that I really would like to be proud, but essentially, essentially w I, I misunderstood that. The humor in the workplace and the energy and the relationship that I thought I had. So, she started when she was making jokes like, Oh, and you don't have friends, you're going to have people in your life. And I was like, come on, like bumped her in the head. And then, then she went to go snitch to that, like to the general manager.And the next day I come to work and I see that the general manager comes to me and she says, and he can see our office and I see a bunch of money literally just like this on the desks. Let's like this. And I'm like, Ooh, money. I hope it's for me. And they're like, Hey we saw on a camera what you did and we're going to let you go on and this is your last paycheck.We want to pay you cash versus check. And I said, alright man, I'm going to Wendy's. I took the money and I left and I went back to Wendy's. I said to myself, man, Wendy's, I'm kept working at Wendy's. I'm capped. I learned about producing results and making more income. That's what I love about Wendy's and went into cell phones.
Jerry Brazier
You know, when I was 16 years old, I worked at McDonald's and I say today and really quick for your audience. I started my own business when I was 28, and I've done about $500 million in the intervening 20 plus years. and that comes from nothing to nowhere. I was working at McDonald's as 16 as a 16 year old. I've had 10,000 employees in my time and today at work, things I learned working at McDonald's. I use it in practice today and have set up in my company.
Andy Audate
And so you had 10,000 employees
Jerry Brazier
I've had, yeah, correct. I've owned car washes and gas stations and convenience stores, construction companies. I have 150 odd employees right now in a transportation company development management. So I, you know, I've had lots of employees across many different, across many different platforms doing very different jobs across the board and almost in every case, no matter what the business development, home building we own a ton of real estate to commercial real estate operations for the transportation company, gas stations.Like I said. Oh, every single business, no matter what it was in some way or another was affected by the lessons that I learned working at McDonald's for 10 months when I was 16 years old. And on top of that, at that job at McDonald's, I'm a poor kid as a street kid at 17 years old, I have eight brothers and sisters.And so as a, as that poor kid, all I knew, and when you said four hours, all I knew at McDonald's was work. And so if it, if someone was sick, I told them to call me and I would work no matter what the job was, I would work. And I would leave McDonald's ultimately in any other job I had to because somebody was willing to pay me more.So I left from, I left from McDonald's and I went to work for Safeway because Safeway pays me 25 cents or 30 cents more. But. There's so much more to these jobs. I think for, in the fast food industry in particular, in my experience, that pay off well down the line that have nothing to do with how much money you're paid at that time.You know, the, the, the lessons you get being a young kid working at Wendy's can prove valuable to you for the rest of your life.in my case specifically. So in ways that had nothing to do with, I dunno, I was probably making two 285 an hour or something. I'm 50 years old now, so I was probably making two 285, three bucks an hour. to me it was a fortune. but again, the money that I've made off of those lessons has been invaluable.
Andy Audate
What is one of the things that you, that you, that you remember that you say you took from McDonald's, that you still use an implemented deck?
Jerry Brazier
Yeah. It's a good question, specifically now you're interviewing me.Perfect.
Andy Audate
I'm a sponge and I love to learn.
Jerry Brazier
So it's a shirt. Specifically, I got an easy one. The way that, if you think about a McDonald's or any fast food, but McDonald's in particular, they've kind of been the first ones out there. They have to, they have a huge turnover, you know, a hundred 120 150% turnover every year.So that means they're turning over all of their employees. And so the systems they put together, they've got to be able to teach 16 year old kids who have never had a job before, how to turn out their product. A quality product quickly, efficiently on time. customer service needs to be, needs to be taught.A clean up needs to be taught how to work. The register needs to be taught, and you can't spend days teaching these, these things. And so what they've done is they put every system that they looked at and put together, and it's, it's greatly improved since I did it 35, 40 years ago.but when I did it, every system they had. It was simple. A button went off, a noise got made, and when that noise, all you need to know is what do I do next? And there was a laminated sheet that was hanging that all I had to do was look up or there was a sign above the stove that told me when this button goes off, do this lay down 10 patties.When it goes off, you got a serum. When it goes off again, you push it and you turn them over. If it goes off again, you salt them and you pull, it goes off again, you pull them off. Meanwhile, while that goes off, the buns are in there. Bonds go off, you pull them here. It was two and a half minutes of making a hamburger on a level that I could never have imagined, right?You're D you're making 10 hamburgers at a time, and I literally could turn them off on a turn. You're turning off 20 hamburgers every two and a half minutes, so. I, I paid attention to that. I appreciate it, and maybe I didn't appreciate it right then. You know, maybe the lesson, I'm not saying maybe, I'm sure the lesson didn't come back to me right away.but then as I started to look at entrepreneurship and look at business and look at operations once I gained a little more maturity, a little more experience, then I started to say, Hey, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I can put it on. Those same, same practices and policies that McDonald's had in place at my carwash.I can put it in place at my convenience stores. I can put it in place, working in my, in my transportation company, whatever it is, I was able to use that. Not that specific operation, obviously, cause I've never made hamburgers. I've never owned a company that made hamburgers, but the process is what was ingrained in my head. And I took that process and I probably have 20 examples just like that, that I could give you right off the top of my head.
Andy Audate
That is, that is really powerful, man. And man. No, I'm 24 years old now, so when I did the cell phone business, I had made my first million in the cell phone business. However, it was so conscious to me what I was doing because I left one company and I just duplicated what I was doing in that company.I used the same POS system, the same merchant processing, like everything that I, that was. In the first company that has brought it to the second company. I didn't have to start systems from scratch. However, in my current business and running seminars in my, my essentially my business is my name and my brand. And in my marketing, my marketing firm, I told my business partner, I said, look. We are, we got to create something like the McDonald's and we have to, we have to essentially be able to turn over someone at a higher rate. And I just found this Algeria. When I tell you this, I just discovered this recently, the, because what happened in my, and this is great for any entrepreneur who's listening to this because I was in my, my.In my earlier stages in my current business, in the, in the seminar space, every employee that I brought in, I'd spent countless hours with them, invested into them and teaching them the ropes and how to work with me. And then once they leave, then I'm like stuck. So I don't feel like reinvesting that type of energy in the people.So then I would be that, that position, I wouldn't have someone in that position. And then I learned about systems, how to create systems from scratch, just like the McDonald's methods this year. So this morning I had someone who was insubordinate in my organization and I fired him on the spot without a doubt, without a question, and my assistant put a post up. Looking for somebody else and we'll hire that person within for a new person within 48 hours because it dawned on Gary, now I've got a system, and all you gotta do is watch the videos, watch the training, watch what what your, your managers tells you to do, and it's duplicated. Within a week. That person is back on track. Man, that was the most profound thing I realized and this after recently.
Jerry Brazier
Yeah. And I think from an employee perspective, when you when you, the simpler you can make things, the better it is.you know, so part of being successful, I think is, is being able to manage those employees in the. Easier. You can make it on him.Now again businesses are technical and things can, you know, not be put pen to paper and spelled out specifically every single time, but you can make a best faith effort. Here's something I think that a lot of people don't understand about employees, and I'm going to generalize here, but this has been true more than it's not been for me.Having had tens of thousands of employees the way I have. Is that employees will listen to any employee listening. This is important. Always try to protect their job. So you might, I'll give you an example. I want to automate everything I always have. I was at my transportation company. I was paperless years and years before every other company was paperless.So technology and computers for me has been a big part of my business. And so when you use computers and technology, you're constantly looking at how do I automate that job? How do I automate that? Piece of business, not automating the job for the purposes of getting rid of the person, because I'm always busy.There's always more to do. There's always other jobs, and I encouraged people across the spectrum. If you're doing something that is, you know, if you have a pen in your hand and you're writing something out 200 times, or you're logging on the computer. Update something 200 times. Chances are we can automate that process and you can go on to verify more important things.And here's the thing, Andy, that people don't like to do. I think maybe it's just built into us that there's that resistance. I've had to fire multiple people simply because they wouldn't automate. The thing that they were spending hours a day doing because that's how they identified their job.And I would say, but, but that's hurting the company. I have all of these other things that I need for you to do that we're not getting to nearly as efficiently or as quickly as we should. Let's automate this out so that you can do a better job over here. Ultimately, I would fire them because they wouldn't want to make it.More automated or go smoother because they kind of latched onto it and that was their thing. And ultimately the only choice I had was to get rid of them. That's happened on multiple occasions as you try to automate and make the job harder. When I. Placed them. It's a whole nother world. The new person doesn't know any better, right?So she's all automated that. He's all, I can do that easily. Now I just have to do this job. So those lessons can be tough for employees to learn. And the lessons are tough for employers. To figure out how you manage that? How do you make that work? Because people are going to be reluctant to do that kind of change in automation, even though it makes it a better process for the customer.
I'm not talking about laying people off either. I'm talking about, I've never had enough people. I've never had enough employees, so I'm always hiring. I've always been hiring. And part of that hiring is to try to make it as simple as I can.
Andy Audate
So in, in, in generating hundreds of millions of dollars and having tens of thousands of employees over the, over the last. Few decades, I'm assuming 20 years, 20 years in, in your, in your businesses. Now many of these businesses sound like you started from scratch where you have to, you have to create the systems itself from scratch, and then now that supporting you in generating your half a half a billion dollar portfolio. My question for you in regards to that, what, what is the number one. Underlying challenges that you have to overcome, whether it be employees or systems or, or legal or business overall that you have to overcome, that you are most proud of.
Jerry Brazier
There's the, there is different depending on what point in the business that you asked me that question. My answer is going to be different.
Andy Audate
Let's say, let's say let's say zero to three.
Jerry Brazier
Yeah. Let's say zero to three, cause I think that's the most instructive, the zero to three. If you have no, if you knew how hard it is to open up, run an and start a business, you would never do it. So that's, that's, that's number one.That's what I tell everybody. So. The ability for me to have managed my way through it. Having no idea about, look, dude, I'm telling you, Andy, when I say I knew nothing, I have zero education.I've said this many times. I was living in a flop house for $25 a week. Hookers and heroin addicts. When I was 17 years old, I had 25 jobs in my lifetime.I didn't start my first business till I was 28 years old. So I just moved from job to job to job. I didn't know what an entrepreneur was. I didn't know what interest rates were. I didn't know what rifles were. I didn't know what a P and L was. I had no idea what anything was because nobody ever taught me.I was a tough kid from the streets that spent my life.fighting. And you know, I saw five, four murders. God knows how many suicides. I mean, that was my life growing up in the city and the part of the world that I lived in, eight brothers and sisters and dirt poor. So when I say I knew no, I knew nothing.I literally had no idea what I was doing. So that ability to come from that. Have no instruction, nobody telling me what to do and be able to work my way up to a starting my own business and then be being successful at it, which means taking all of the slings and arrows and all of the punches that it throws at you, which they are many and they keep coming and they never stop.And being able to do that for a protracted amount of time until you get up over the hump and you start to understand it a lot better. That probably in that first one to three years. Is is probably what I'm most proud of. Let me add to that. I worked for a company from 21 to 28 that I helped grow from 35 employees to a hundred employees. When I left and started my own business, I had some investors. I started my own business. And, I went from the super busy company I had built to accompany where the phone rang four times the first day, twice. It was my mother calling to see how business was. So I went from that, from those two orders that we did the first day I did $3 million.My first year I did six and a half million dollars. My second year I did a 10, $11 million my third year and $14 million my fourth year so much. It’s my transfer in my transportation business. So it was, it was a line like this. And so my lessons that I had to learn particularly in that first three years were, you know, on a rocket ship because it just kept coming at you all day long.But a combination of. Where I came from and, and the hard times that I had gone through and the self resiliency that being poor and hungry, you know, stealing food as a kid, all of those things teaches you, I think in a way, a lot of the skills that I needed to, to grow with. That size business combined with the maturity of being 28 years old, having lived that life, having a good perspective about life, not being unafraid and not being afraid of work.I worked 15, 18 hours a day for 20 years. That's an absolute promise. and all of those things combined then got me over that first three, four a year hump. Powerful that that's really
Andy Audate
powerful. So what I took away from what you wish you just said is essentially to, to role being your, your ability essentially overall, your ability to roll with the punches and get punched for, your word, protracted, a long period of time is what allowed you to be successful.
Jerry Brazier
Yeah. I mean, anybody that wants to be successful, I think I'm Superman. Right? I, that's, I, I've never missed a day of work in my life. Literally, I got my first job when I was 11 years old. I paid taxes as an 11 year old. I got it. I got a, I got my check. I was washing dishes at our local restaurant. The dude took taxes out, paid me my check.It was $17 and changed for the day. I went down to the local supermarket, cash the check., all for one. I got 17 ones because I wanted a wad like the rich people had. Yeah. You know what I saw on television. And so this goes to my, one of my questions for you that I saw in your writeup that I liked is, is, is that as a poor kid from the hood, the way that you were immigrant parents, you wanted things, and you used a word specifically unnecessary objects.But I, you know, the, the. I don't like the way that wanting things is portrayed today in popular culture. I think again, I'm you just 25 years earlier. But what drove me was the want of things, be it cars, be at a house, be it, be it, food to eat. You know, a lot of my work ethic comes from me working, or a lot of my work ethic comes from me wanting to eat.And at the earliest ages I equated food because we were so poor. I equated food with work. And even now at 50 years old, that still is true. So for me, it really. Resonated with me in your writeup that I saw that you know, during your teenage years, you wanted things, clothes, disposable money, fun electronics, other objects. and I'm a big proponent of that which drove me, that wants things drove me. I wanted to be like the rich guys that I saw driving the cars. I wanted to do the things that they were doing and have the life that they did. I didn't know how to get there, but I wanted it right. Did you feel the same way or was it much more, cause you wrote unnecessary things? Did you figure out that maybe chasing those things weren't, weren't for you?
Andy Audate
it was, it was definitely the, like, like the, I guess. People, mentors or whatever that, that, that, that were telling me that it wasn't necessary, but I was, I wasn't, I was I forgot how old I was. Maybe like 10 or 11 years old. My dad comes up to me and he, I'm laying down on my bed and he says, and I'm going to New York to go buy some clothes. Do you want anything? Because going to New York meant that you can buy clothes for like a dollar 75 cents. You know, you can buy clothes at that, that cheap rate. So my dad's going to go over there to buy that clothes.
And I said, dad, I don't, I don't, I only want one thing, man. I need the Nike air forces, the mid tops with the sewage, with the Velcro that if I go to school with that, I'm going to be the fly as dude in school. I need that. And three days later he comes back, you don't, I go through all the bags like he, well, he brought Mac clothes and I go through all the bags and I'm like, what are the Nike air forces?He didn't have enough money. So I went across the street, and grabbed a shovel and I went across the street. It was snowing that time. I said, Hey, can I shovel for you? And the person said no, and I was kind of like, okay. He said, no next person. So I went to the next door and I said, Hey, can I show up for you? But that person said, no, and I went to the next door and that person said yes, because if that person said, you know, I would've probably, I might've quit. I don't know. But the third person said, yes, I shoveled. I want across the whole entire neighborhood. Knocked on, I don't know how many doors, maybe 80 doors. And I, and I finally got my 16 doors. That I, that I closed it and the shovel for them made $10 a piece. So I grabbed my $160 and I was in my room. With the ones on the bed with the ones in the twenties and on the bed and the fives, and I was ironing the door was kind of jacked up, so, so from my point of view, my door was locked, but it was so jacked up that sometimes you can wiggle it.
You just open it up to my mom. Came into my room after not seeing me for some time and she'll, but some wiggles. The door opens the door. I see. She sees all the money. I was like, Oh shoot, like key, like a drug dealer. Cause I was like, Oh shoot. Like it was 160 bucks in there, but I'll look like a lot more laid out on the bed.
Jerry Brazier
What's that? It looked like a lot more laid out on the bed, right?
Andy Audate
Yeah. Especially with what I do with you being a man. I put wednesday, I went to the store, I said, Hey, got this, change this 10 foil for one. You know, like now I got, I got ones across the bed. I got a couple of five, maybe a 20 here and there, and I was making that flat and I'm going to hide it with a rubber band, man.There's music that I used to listen to back then. Back. Made me feel like I was a gangster. I mean, and, and even that portrayed too, when I was, when I was 19 and I was opening, I was running the cell phone stores. My employees would put the money in for my cash location. So I ran cash locations and then finance locations. So the finance, the money is transferred automatically, but the cash locations we would have to put into a safe, and sometimes the money would pile up because my cashflow was fine, my reserves were fine. So money will pile up in the safe and. I w I would,I would, I would go into the safe during the, during when the, when the store is closed. So I'm in the, I'm in the basement, listen, listen to Gucci man. And I was in a position where I had the money counter on the, on the table, and I had all this cash, like, like I'm literally like scooping up money now, putting it into the money counter and it's, it's competent and I put it into bags and then I head out. And I will do stupid stuff. I go to a casino for 18 19 20 minutes.
Jerry Brazier
I don't know that I don't think so. You know, the thing about Mo, and this goes back to my point that I started this conversation with a, from your writeup is the, the, the want of things and the want of, of like having money and you, you're doing it your way, which I love that story.Me doing a, my way, getting all one so that my wad was, you know, even bigger. And there's nothing that matters. And in my estimation, in fact, that's what I work towards. And it's always the rich fat cats. You ever notice how it's the ultra rich are always telling us that it money's not the answer to all the questions.And I'm not, I'm not saying the money's the answer to everything, but I'm saying that the want of money, the chase of money and improving yourself in doing better. Stems from, you wanted the Jordans for me. I got a Jordan, I got a Jordan, a story for me, it was a $120 pair of Jordans when I was 22 now $120 when I was 22 was fat Jack. I mean, it was big money. and I remember. Bring in the money to go. I played basketball. you know, we played basketball in those days, six, seven days a week, all day long. I had to have, you know, carried, carried my Jordan's in my bag. They never touched the concrete, you know, that program.and I bought him 120 bucks.It's the most expensive thing I bought from zero years old till probably I was 30. was that you know, for clothing was that pair of Jordans. And so I'm with you on that a hundred percent. I know. And I think that that's okay. I think that wanting to be an entrepreneur, go into business. There's gotta be some people who want to save the rainforest, which you can't do unless you make a profit.Some people want to want to help orphan kids, and that's great too, but you can't do it unless you make a profit. The profit has to be made. And then what you do with that money is completely up to you. And if you want to, if what drives you. Was having a Mercedes Benz go to work, get the money and buy yourself a goddamn Mercedes-Benz because that's what drives you. And there's nothing wrong with that, I don't think, because that's what drove me.
Andy Audate
No, a hundred percent man. You gotta you gotta stick true to your desires, man. You gotta stop, stop, stop listening to what people want to tell you to do, man. And you know, I want to make a point because a lot of people ask me, okay, because now I'm 24 years old. And a lot of people are asking me, like, Andy, how is it that you're excelling at such a rapid pace at 24 and it's because I listened. This is an interview about me, right, Jerry? And even though this is an interview about me. My ability to shut the fuck up and listen to when an elder's speaking or so on. And I say elder, but how do I respect for somebody who, who's speaking, who's, who's either done something that you want to do or in a position where you want to be or has more wisdom than you is your ability to shut up and just listen.It's going to support you in your progression. And I mean, I would, I would more, more than my ego serve. I would have gladly turn this interview around and interview you and learn from you because throughout the end of time, that's going to support my growth like forever, where maybe when I'm 30 I might remember something that you said here that's more profound than just this one, this one show.And so I want to share that with your audience, that, that, that the people who are listening. That the way to really, truly be successful is to listen and learn from other people and see the mistakes and learn from them. As far as, I mean, that's how I've done it, is hear the mistakes and learn from them and then also learn about their wins. And, and let them, let them share what I feel in their hearts and give because that can really serve you in your growth.
Jerry Brazier
And, and I'm glad you brought that up because you have a section here about mentors. And I wanted to bring that up because first let me backup. I want to commend you on being 24 years old and no one to shut the fuck up because I have a story about that.When I was 28 years old, I was running this company, this operations company that I had ran this transportation company that I had ran for the last six years. And I had people twice my age working for me and I thought I was the, the, the shit on the block. Man. I knew everything. Nobody could touch me operationally.I was an asshole. I don't know how anybody can put up with me. I was just a tough kid. So I was right in your face. You know, I'm six foot four, 260 pounds. It was a nightmare. I don't know how anybody put up with me, but I'm sitting in my office at 28 years old and I had one of those. The one of my competitors from Seattle, I live in Portland, Oregon. One of my competitors from Seattle reached out to me, said, Jerry, we want to find, we know, you know, all the customers. We know, you know what you're doing. You've trained lots of dispatchers. We want to finance you. And they sent me a proforma. They sent me a look forward set of financials on what this business might look like and Andy I had no idea what the hell I was looking at. I remember sitting at 28 years old, sitting there with these paperwork in front of me. I had no idea what I was looking at. I was hot shit. When it came to operations, I was hot shit because I survived my childhood. I was hot shit because I knew everything.And here I was sitting there staring at something that I didn't know. And so a little bit. A little light went off in my head that said, there's so much more to life than what I'm living. I'm living in a bubble. My buddies and I are all watching sports, talking sports, playing sports, talking about watching and playing sports, right?That's all we did when we weren't working, and I said, the world is so much bigger for me. I need to get out there. What do I need to do? And I swear to you, you said this a second ago, but I promise you, I've told this story. I don't know how many times Billy could tell me on the podcast. This is a hundred percent true sitting there.I've said to, I said to myself. You need to shut up and listen. That's exactly the epiphany that I had, that you need to shut up and listen instead of talk. Listen, because there's so many people that know so much more than you do, but when you know everything, which we tend to do when we're young is think we know everything. We really don't know anything right. And by listening to those that know more, you only progress that much faster. So I got rid of everybody that I had in my life. I mean, literally, dude, it was hard, but I got rid of almost everybody in my life, and I started hanging out with attorneys and accountants and people that I had always kind of snubbed my nose at more so because they were smarter than I was. As it turns out, I started listening and paying attention, and I got a mentor. and from then on. I've been on a rocket ship in the, in the intervening 20 years. But it really started with that epiphany I had that said, shut up and listen and it will take you places.
Andy Audate
Yeah, a hundred percent. That's what you gotta do is quiet, be quiet, learn from others, and progress at an accelerated rate.
Jerry Brazier
And so mentors are really important for that. Where did you find a mentor?
Andy Audate
When I, when I got the opportunity to work out a cell phone store. And I just, I just, I was just talking to him cause I'm potentially doing a deal with him right now. Well, when, when I was working at the cell phone store and I was 18, the regional manager put me into one. So there were 10 stores in that organization. It was a small dealership. It was owned by a black guy named James. And, but, but the re one of James' subordinates, the regional, his name was Rob.Rob put me in the busiest store to train me. So I'm getting trained in the busiest store and I'm building relationships. I now have like a small clientele who come and see me. Every day we kind of have, that gets a fun group of people. It's like fun, you know, like we're all having fun eating pizzas and shit.And, and Rob comes up to me, he says, Hey, you're going to go down to the slowest store down the street. And I said, I don't want to go to the slowest store. And I said, I said, I can go there for a day to like, cover a shift, but I don't want to go. And they're like, and like, Hey man, you gotta go. So I'm thinking I'm in trouble, whatever. So I go to the slower store and I'm pissed off because now my commissions are kind of tanked. And, and why when I go to the slower store, this black guy walks in, he's bald, headed with earrings in, and he's wearing a suit and he's on his phone and he just walks by me and he's on his phone.He's walked by me. I was like, yo, what the hell is this dude? Well, he's so likeable, like he looks confident as he's walking. I don't mean, Hey bro, are you robbing us, man, just let me know. Like, I don't know. But he walks to the back, and then I go to the office manager. I'm like, who is that guy?And then she says, Oh, he owns the entire company. I said, a black guy owns the entire company. Get the hell out of here. So, I realized that the store that I met, that was the soul of the store, is actually the company's headquarters, where the back is, the back office where all the 10 stores is headquartered here, and the front of it is one retail outlet.
They said, Hey, how do we make more money from this place? Let's put a retail store on the front. So, I realized that this black guy is someone I want to emulate. So every time that he's at the store. Or at the office. I go and ask him questions and I shut up and I'm like, Hey, can you tell me this? So he'll tell me about credit card.I didn't know about credit cards, secured and unsecured credit cards. I didn't know that I was 18. He's doing payroll and I'm asking him like, what are you doing? Oh, I'm doing payroll. I said, why is that? Why is there a percentage off? Every check that goes to the, that goes to the, the IRS, and then that goes to the state, and then that goes to here.That goes to there. I'm like, Oh, that's interesting. And then I see people come in. And, and leave crying. I said, why? Why didn't I leave crying? Oh, they just got fired. Why did you fire them? Oh, because of this chest challenge. Okay. Gotcha. And I said, people come in and leave smiling. I said, why? They are smiling?Oh, I just hired them. I said, teach me how to do that. Yeah, sure, man. And I want you to do, I want you to do that to this store. I want you to hire people in the store. So I start hiring people at that store, at the slow store. Then I started finding people at that store, and this is the training that I was actually getting subconsciously. That was a blessing. So I share that story because in the beginning I was very uncomfortable. I wanted to stay at my store. It was a comfortable experience, but I was far from growth. I was around people who were eating pizzas every day and laughing and joking and selling a phone. When one customer came in.But I, I had, I was moved. Uncomfortably and I wanted to stay in the comfortable, but I was moving uncomfortably so I could grow. Now I'm here getting taught by this guy who's hiring, firing, and teaching me about taxes, but teaching me about how companies grow with teaching you horizontal growth versus vertical growth.All of these different strategies that he's implementing in me within six months now, he says, Hey man, I taught you so much. I need you to go run in the slowest store now in the company, which is in a mall. I go to the mall, I'm running the store that I have people at 26 35 work in at the store and an 18 year old comes in, and that's when I took it over because I had the mentorship of someone who wanted me to succeed because I was succeeding in his organization. So he did everything he. And he could do it according to me so I could succeed. But he was also feeding my brain with knowledge that one day, maybe one day I can leave and open on my own spot.
Jerry Brazier
Yeah. And you had to be willing to hear that too. For anybody, any 18 year old out there listening, or any young guy out there listening. You have to be willing to hear that. And as I often say about mentors and, and, and people in business in general. I'm a, I am as approachable a person as you'll ever find a for somebody who wants advice or just some thoughts on almost anything. So with my background and then what I've done in business, if somebody is looking to go or to kind of follow that path.Me and every other business owner. I know. I know probably 40 business owners, I don't know a single one of them that turned down a request to just sit down and have a conversation about business. I think we get in our heads that all those business owners are too busy. You know that they're not going to talk to little old me.They're just looking for employees or they're not making any money. None of that is true. We are looking to give. To continue on what we know. We're looking to pass on what we know so that you can be successful, but you have to be willing to hear that as an 18 19 20 year old. So I give you credit for that because even though he said it, lots of people say lots of the right things and many, many more people don't hear the story. They don't hear the advice. They, you know, that's just the old guy talking.
Andy Audate
Yeah. I truly believe that those highly successful that go overcome certain challenges innately they want to share. So that way you don't go through the same pain that, yeah.
Jerry Brazier
Right. That's the other thing too, to remember about your story there, which is something that I preach all of the time, is the uncomfortable. The opportunity is not in the easy store. That's not where you make that. That's not where you build your career. When it's easy, you should be, there should be bells going off. Anybody listening, there shouldn't be bells going off in your head. If your life is easy, if you go to work every day and the job is simple and you eat pizza and everybody's playing around and it's an easy job, you're not challenging yourself.We're not in the right spot in order to find success. Now, maybe for you, your thing is to just go to work every day, put in your eight hours, eat pizza, have a good time with your friends and go home and, and, and, and more power to you. For me, that's not what I wanted. And what you have to do is you have to live in the uncomfortable. You have to search out the uncomfortable and live in it in order to learn. So while it might've been easier working in this, in the busier store. It's harder to work in the slower store. But where did you learn more? Right? And where, where'd all the benefit come from
Andy Audate
In order for me to match the amount of money and now my job was making like 400 or 500 bucks a week. But, in order for me to know where I was at rough a hundred bucks a week or with a lot of money, man. You talk, you're talking about two grand. That's two grand, man. But, being in the slow store, in order for me to make money, I have to go find customers. So that was a difference in the fast door.Customers will walk in during this little store, man, I had to go make flyers, I had to go to next door and do kind of joint venture operation opportunities and so on and so forth. And little did I know that was actually setting me up for success in the future. So all of these little. Yeah. Things that uncomfortability would set me up even to today, where, where, so then like for example, when I was, when I was doing , when I was doing the mall where I got transferred, so they transferred me from the mall, from the slow store to the slow S store, which was like store 22 now there's the company grew and now whereas 22 stores, and this one store is really small, I really slow and they put me there.And all the things that I learned to make that store number two, which I ended up doing in a few months. I mean, that's the number two in the company that was learned at the slow store. So when I came, when I opened up my business, when I opened up my business and it was, I went from zero to my first hundred grand.It was because of what I learned in the uncomfortable slow store. And I'll give you one, one of the examples, one of the examples was the whisper. Where, because in the mall, if you will, if you leave a certain, a certain, like if you leave a certain, there's, there's like a invisible invisible brigade that you can't pass to go get clientele in the mall because otherwise everybody in the mall will be going out and get clients as the, in the hallway, and that makes people uncomfortable.Then nobody's gonna come to the mall, so on and so forth. So the mall said, the security said they may see you there, they're going to find the store. So what I would do is I would stand at the invisible brigade when they say, I can't pass now. It would be like, and I would like to literally fake whispers and I ain't saying shit.Like I'll be like, I be like, but I was up there for that. I, that's what I'm saying. But, but they go over that and I'm whispering this, so someone who's maybe a hundred feet away from me will be like, what'd you say? And naturally I realized that's where we're going to psychology with sales. Naturally people were like, what'd you say?I can't hear you. And they come closer. And then once they got closer to the brigade, took to the tomorrow, to edit on my edge, I would say, Hey, question for, you know what I was asking you was what? What phone do you have? And they would say, they would say iPhone. So when I said, when I said, Oh, I phone, can I see your iPhone?They would say, they would say, Oh, no, you can't see my iPhone. But then when I would say, Oh, I phone, give me your phone, let me see it. They would give it to me naturally. So I learned about the tie down from, can I see your iPhone? Ask him, can I see it versus let me see it or give it to me. I learned the difference in the tool.When you ask a question, they're always going to say no. But when you tell them when the man, they, they, they ended up just doing it. So the phone and I would take it behind my desk. I said, Oh, the iPhone, when I see what it is now taking it with me and they come into my store now I got them. Whenever you have a business, you've got to go and get your customer a bandwidth by any means, whatever it takes. And that was one of my strategies that we have to go and get our customers so that way I can make my 525 bucks a week, because otherwise I would end up in the page with 200 bucks.
Jerry Brazier
Yeah, I love that because you got to number one, not worry about what other people are thinking about you and you're thinking outside the box to try to go get the business and that's okay.
That's it in a nutshell. The story you just told, probably as simply put in a nutshell, is the story of business. Who's willing to, okay, the rule is I don't step past this line. Okay, what can I do behind that line that's going to still affect what I'm trying to get done without breaking without. Without breaking the rule outright. Right. Maybe you're stretching the rule. Okay. Maybe you found a loophole in the rule. That's how the games played. That's, that's exactly right. What, what are you willing to just cause you heard no, doesn't mean not right. You're going to go, you're going to figure it out.
Andy Audate
It's funny how you said it's a game. So let me ask you. To you? Do you really feel in your mind that, you know, running all these businesses that it's really like a game of like monopoly or something of that nature?
Jerry Brazier
I don't think it's a game of monopoly for me. It's a, but the money and how much money you make becomes a score. And I'll put it to you this way. You can have, you know, at this point in my life. you know, I've got a big car collection and a house, and you know, I've got things that I like and want, and pretty much if you want something, if I want something, I just go buy it and what that, what that has, what has happened from doing that is that things lose their value.Right when you don't have to, when you made $2,000 a month, like, and I was there with you when I made minimum wage.and I got this junker car. I thought it was the greatest car in the world. Right? But it was a complete junker car. But that's what I could afford. Pretty soon though, as you start to be able to buy the things that you want, they start to lose value because you can just go get them.Christmas starts to lose value. Cause whatever you gave me, I could've just gone and bought myself type of a thing. And so what you find, at least for me, was that money becomes a scorekeeper. So how successful you are, how many employees you have, how much money you're making from those employees, the size, the type, the scope, how much money you're making, all of those things kind of become scorekeeping.I'm a competitive guy. Like I said, I played sports as a kid and I played basketball. I don't know for how many hundreds of thousands of hours in my lifetime, but. But you know, that competitive streak in me that, that, that quite frankly helped me in basketball, helped me survive my childhood, got me off the streets, got me working, and ultimately got me to where I am has become almost like a score for me. And one that I'm proud of. And so every day I come to work and I want that score to continue, you know, I want, I want to keep running up the score to put me as far away from everybody else as I can. You know, I, I, I don't want it to be the NBA where it's a blowout. And then of course, they come back on.You like it ha, like, like, like the NBA, so famous, you know, 20 point leading anything in the MBA.some they're going to come back on you every time. I didn't want to do that. I wanted to make it so big that nobody could cross, that could cross that divide. So for me, that's really what it is. More so than the game of monopoly. But I will say this about the game. I love the game of business. Well, you know, so, so in terms of monopoly being a game, I love the game of business that to me is what I'm passionate about.
Andy Audate
Love that. Love that man. It's, I got it. I got, I have been working out, weighing my muscles so tight, man. I can't scratch my own back, man. I gotta use my, I gotta use like some scissors to get up to the, the to the top of my shoulders.
Jerry Brazier
So tell me about your speaking engagements and the thing that you're doing there. I got, I read your Les Brown story tell us that story and kind of where you are now and what you're doing.
Andy Audate
SoI make, I mean, I'm making all this money, and they're there. I'm realizing I'm still on the East coast getting the wrong type of energy from people. I'm, I'm out of gas, I'm at a gas station and, and cause I have all this money. I'm spending it so stupidly. And where I say stupidly, like.I realized back then now I realized I was spending approximately a thousand dollars a month on a rental car and every single, every single seven days I was getting a new car and I had a relationship with the guy who owned it on the dealership and he would just like, like, like he had me on a, what do you call it?
When? When, when, when I can, I can run up a tab. So he had a tab with him and we had just that relationship where it's like, Oh yeah, just don't worry about it, man. Pay later when he come back. And so whatever the amount was, I just paid. I didn't, I never looked at the invoice that's paid and I had a car with me and I think it was an Audi, and I'm, and I'm pumping gas at the gas station and somebody from high school, which I graduated from, I graduated a year and a half prior.Somebody from high school saw I'm at the gas station. And he's like, Hey man, I see you successful man. I see you doing it. It's doing your thing. And that they talk about energy that, that, that person had. I recognize that energy was, was, was, was an MDs type of energy, but it was, how do you, how do you say the word it was? It was, it was like, it was a lie. Like it was, it wasn't genuine. It wasn't real. He was, he was faking it to try to be nice, but I knew that type of energy was something, I don't want to be a part of it. I gotta get away. So I said, I went to my friend and I said, my best friend. I said, Hey man, you want to do something crazy this year?He said, which one do I said, let's get out of here, bro. Listen, let's leave now. Not thinking that other people don't have the type of income that I do. But I moved to the West coast with him. So, we moved to the West coast. I closed down the business. I was so egotistical that I was like, Oh, now I'm making the money over there.So I closed on the business, move to the West coast. Now I'm in downtown Los Angeles, living in a luxurious apartment. Pooled skyline, right by the staple censor. I mean, I still live in downtown LA now, but, but back then, I wasn't at dinner. Right. Then I shouldn't have done that, but I did anyway. So I'm living this, this luxurious lifestyle, and I'm overweight, really overweight.So I get a personal trainer and I go out for a run and on the run I'm listening to rap music and I'm running down the street 22 minutes per mile. Like I'm running old ladies walking by. In my head, I felt like I was running man, but all of these were combined, and so I'm listening to artists, rap music, trying to get me pumped up, but it's not there yet.So I give myself a coach and my coach is pushing me, and what he would do is he would go behind my back and he would just like, if I slowed down, he just started pushing me and it'd be uncomfortable to give that, that, that, that, that ugly push that that kind of push on my back. So I would try to keep up my patients as much as I can.Then I switched from listening to batteries to listening to personal development music, and I'm, I'm not the personal development. So listening to personal development, such as Les Brown, Eric Thomas, Tony Robbins, and one day it's like six o'clock in the morning, I'm out running and I said, you know what?I'm not, I'm just going to stay focused. So I'm listening to Les Brown in my ear. This Brown is telling a story and I just focused on running. Now I don't want to get pushed on my back. I don't wanna get pushed on my back. So on the corner of my eye, Jerry, I see this a little bit. I see my trainer shadow the corner of my eyes.So I pushed, I pushed now, and I looked at the corner of my eye and I still see the shadow. So I pushed even harder. I pushed you in. The harder I go, Sue Jerry, I get to the, I get to the. The mile points, the mile points, and I turn around and I'm like, yo, the shadow still here. I turn around, yo Jerry . It wasn't me.It wasn't my fuck. It was my own shadow. My trainer's way back there. He catches up to me and he's like, yo, what the hell, bro? Where'd you get that from? I said, I don't do, I don't. I don't do eight minutes per mile for 22 minutes to eight minutes per mile because I was fighting my own shadow. I realized that it was my belief system that said, Andy, you're fat. You can only run 22 minutes a mile. Yeah. So, because of that experience and listening to personal development, I believe that it was a personal development thing. So I said, that's what I want to do. I want to do personal development. I want to, I don't want to get that feeling of accomplishment to other people. So I had a vision right then and there to become a speaker and speak with people like restaurants. And so the ultimately,
Jerry Brazier
I know you ultimately hooked up with Les Brown, right? and you were able to make something happen with him. And, and, and, and I think you work with him, if I'm not mistaken.
Andy Audate
For the audience. Write this down. Bandwidth by any means, whatever it takes by any means, whatever it takes. When I went back to my apartment, I said, man, I see that vision for me to go speak on stage with Les Brown now. So I type in how to become a motivational speaker on Google, and I type it in like, okay, let me just type Les Brown. So I typed Les Brown how to become a motivational speaker. at Facebook and continually following me now. Like it just, it just keeps following me ad marketing. So I put in my, my, my contact, my contact information. One of their sales reps calls them. They're like, Hey thank you for your interest in joining.You can purchase the program is, it's nine video modules plus a two day in person training for $5,000 I said, bro, $5,000 I never spent anything over five grand besides my car and my businessman. You talk about nine videos in a, in a two day training for five grades, and then, and then I went hard at it.And then I said, I compared it to a $197 program, and I said, there's another guy for like 200 bucks, man. And then he eventually convinced me, okay, he called me. Then the next thing you know, I said, Hey, if I'm gonna spend five grand with you, I'm going to fly down and meet you guys. So I fly down the next day to go meet up with the sales guy, just a sales guy.I want to make sure that this was a real dude. So I fly down there and meet up the sales guy as I'm walking out of the office after meeting these people. Les Brown walks in and I'm starstruck and I'm like, yo, I didn't know you were coming. Oh my God, you're here. Hello Brian, how are you? And he says, a young man touches my face.You look like me when I was younger. And I was like, well, let us see your voice. It sounds like YouTube. And he said, he laughed and he walked away. I said, I'm staying here, I'm staying right here. So I stayed in the lobby. I'm just waiting for him to come out. Like, I need a picture. I need an autograph, I need something.I need a hug. I need something. And I overheard them talking about him going on tour. So I said, I want to be part of that tour by any means. Whatever it takes, I'm going to be part of that tour. I have my mom, my mom's depending on me, because Horace has been hurting for the last one years because she's a dental hygienist.She's been working in people's mouth. So, and then right before I left California. So do I have to go to California? My dad sat me down and said, Andy, can you stay in and around with them? Because I just lost my job and I need to be the man of the house. I just thought I just got laid off. And then my brother just started college.So who's going to take care of him if my, if I'm making all this money, my dad got laid off. My mom's hands hurt. I need to be successful. So I said, I have to leave guys. You don't understand. I have to leave. So I left Rhode Island, so this is my opportunity. Let's browse right here. This is my opportunity to be successful. And you know what? I heard him talking about going on tour. I went, I went to the room after he walked out, I went to the room to talk to the president. I said, Hey, get it. Can I have an opportunity? I want to go on that tour with you. And he said, the president looked at me last. And in my heart I was like, what the fuck was that for that, but what my face, I was like, I was like, I don't, I don't understand.Like why are you laughing? And he said, look, you're 21 years old and you're naive. You don't have experienced 485 students all opted in to go through the tour. I understand you want to, but now I don't think it's going to be a right fit. I said, you don't understand. My mom, my mom, her wrists, my dad, Mike, his job, my brother, Collins Jones, I need to be successful.And he laughed and said, it looked young, man, I got work on my tape. I need you to leave. I went back to California. I had a flight, went back to California. I was still part of the training, so they had a, they had a group call with all the other students. That 485 students on this group call and after the training about two hours, they're talking about how to be, how to speak and so on and so forth.They asked if anyone has any questions, so I press so it says press star sticks to be in the queue for questions. I said, okay, I'm going to be the chief of questions. I press star six you are in the queue. My turn comes up. We have Andy audate from Los Angeles. Welcome in here. I think you have been on mute. I said, Hey man, I need more opportunities going towards you, you got to understand my mom, my brother's college, my dad, his job. I have to go on tour. I need the opportunity, Andy, not now brother 89 now we got to have a one on one conversation. I said, you have been on mute. And I was like, yo, it's taking me as a joke right now. This is not funny. They're taking me as a joke cause my mom, I go back to Florida, paid Aspen like 99 bucks. I go back on, I'm playing Florida.I walked up from the office, I go to the president. I said, give me an opportunity. And he says, look here man. I don't know why he's even here? But I can't. I got stuff from my desk. I got meetings today. I need you to get out. So I get, I get out respectfully. There's an event following the following week.I'm staying, I'm staying in Miami. Now I'm taking this opportunity. This is an event the following week at the event. I get there before everyone gets there. Now I'm sh, I'm shaking people's hands that people are walking it. The president walks in with the CEO and he says, this guy wants to go on tour with us. I said, yeah, I do. I do. I shake hands with the CEO and I say, Hey man, thanks so much for having me, and so on and so forth. Then after the event unfolds that that two day event unfolds, everyone just dissipates and I go back to the office and I go talk to the president and I say, Hey, can I have the opportunity to go on tour with you?He said, you're not going to quit. I said, no, I'm not going to quit. I said, my mom, her hands, my brother's college, my dad, his job, I have to be successful. He looked at me, he said, all right, man, you're not, you're not going to say, all right, we'll start you off in Orlando. Okay? We'll start you off with the window.Congratulations. You made the tour. By any means, whatever it took by any means, whatever it takes, but let me share something with you, right? This mindset, that mindset, it wasn't just a mindset of a, it wasn't just a mindset of like determination, right? That's imperative. However, I went through training to do that and we'll train that.I went through. It was an uncomfortable time when I, when I, when I got to California and I was so bored. That I said, I need them. I need a job and I'm going to Jerry, I'm going to be honest with you, I've never shared this story before publicly, right? I went to, I went to cricket wireless right before I, right before I left the East coast quicker. Cricket, cricket wireless, who's owned by 18 at&t offered me a six figure check. So what is it was. For womb, $135,000 to stay on the East coast in Oakland up source 135,000 I declined and I came. I can't came here. So I went to curriculum, a cricket wireless dealer here, and I said, Hey, this is what happened on the East coast.I can work with you guys, support your growth. I was so bored. Now what happened was the week prior, I havent smoked weed in a long time. The week prior, someone happened to, in California, someone happened to bring weed around and I S and I took a hit of the joint and when I went to cricket, they said, Hey, we're just going to do a routine drug test.And I said, drug, bro, let me tell you something. It was just last week, one time, never gonna do it again. Alright, so we don't got a good drug test this time. He said, nah, everybody got to go through it. So I missed the opportunity to get hired by cricket, which was a blessing. So I get a job. So I go on Craigslist and I look for a job with a millionaire.It's like millionaire on Craigslist. I see a guy who sung copiers that talking about we're going to do millionaire mentor training. I said, Oh, that's what I'm looking for, millionaire mentor. I don't need the money, but I was so damn bored. And, and so I got this job selling copiers now in sun cochlears you're walking into offices and they're trying to kick you out, and your job is to walk right through with a smile on your face and go to the business owner and pitch them a copy of who nobody wants to buy a copy of.So you're constantly getting thrown eggs, essentially mental eggs, and you gotta still walk through with a smile. So I went through that training for literally 60 days. That 60 days is what allowed me to have that persistence to go down to Les Brown's office and say, Hey, I want the opportunity. That's some copies.It was the most uncomfortable I've ever had.
Jerry Brazier
I've always, I've always said that if you can sell door to door, right, which a lot of young guys do, if you can sell door to door, you can do anything. Cause selling door to door is about the hardest goddamn job there is.
Andy Audate
Hell yeah, man. Let's, Oh my gosh. Yeah. Wouldn't be out in the field. I would have to dress up in a suit and we would have to be out in the field in the, in the hot summer, going to 50 doors in a day. Souls on my soul, my shoe soles on fire. I got to go pitch them and be like, Hey, do you want to accomplish? And be like, Nope. But I got two deals.My, I broke the company record my first month.
Jerry Brazier
Because you just kept trying?
Andy Audate
Why? Like what's the worst that's going to happen? I compare it to death. There's a story of 50 cent comparing when he's at a business meeting with, with, with people like stars or like successful people. He compares the business deal to his pain of his mother's death when he was young. So if he says that this is going to be less painful than my mom's death. Then this is something I can handle because I handled his mom's death. So I compare it to death. So when I was out on the field, I was like, bro, I think it would be worse to die. It's still to this day, I'm cold calling people.You see, when you see me with the headset, Hey, my ego was a little high for a while where I wasn't doing, I wasn't. Doing the deals that I was supposed to be doing. So when now I'm back to doing the deals that I'm supposed to be doing and working the hours I'm supposed to work in and building the team I'm supposed to be building.And when I cold call people that, that feeling of like, Oh shoot, like what are they going to say? What are they going to think? And that compared to that man and ain't nothing.
Jerry Brazier
Yeah. And that, that one of the things that I preach is perspective and introspection and that perspective is critical. I use some examples for me when I'm asked, you know, how is it that you do everything that you do and you're busy, your life is so busy. How do you juggle that? How do you juggle the loss of time? All the rest of it? I say, well, easy. I stole food to eat. Right? How hard is my life now when I was eight years old with my little brother stealing food to eat? Oh no. I got eight brothers and sisters. So my parents had six kids when they were 22 years old. And then seven years later I came along and I have a little brother and a little sister. So my lawyer, so we were like two families and my little brother and I were about 20 months apart. so we were always the ones that. Getting, getting into trouble. But again, when you have all those older brothers and sisters in your poor, they're getting all the food first.You're getting it second.and so there was never enough to eat. And so my brother and I, we knew the local Safeway, the local century store. We, man, we had it down. We had a whole program. We knew how, whatever it was. that we needed. We'd walk out with two liter bottles of Coke, you name it. We could figure out how to get it.And we got caught, you know, probably a lot more than what I remember. But we got caught quite a bit, but the people kind of knew that we were a pork, that we were poor kids. And it's a different time in those days than it is than it is today. But my point being, I never lose track of that. And the other thing I tell people who tell me, well, Jerry.You talk about 15 hours a day and you talk about putting the time in and you talk about hearing all of the nos and you talk about getting shut down and having to live in the uncomfortable. That's very hard to do. I can't wrap my head around it and I say this to them. If somebody was holding your mother hostage And she and they had a gun to her head, and I know it seems extreme, but just go through the exercise with me. If somebody's holding your mother hostage and has a gun to their head, and if you don't do the things, let's say that you want to do, or the things that I just laid out are some of the things that you're talking about. If you don't do that for the next week, so they're pulling the trigger on your mother, are you going to be able to do it? What's the answer for every single one of us? What's the answer?
Andy Audate
They're going to do it.
Jerry Brazier
They're going to do it. So saying you can't do it is not true. You won't do it. And there's a big difference between can't do it and won't do it, but can't do it. Feels better, can't do it makes us feel like, well, you know, it can't be done. Won't do it. Makes us feel bad. Won't do it, doesn't feel good to us, won't do it is us having to hold ourselves responsible for the things we won't do. So we say we can't do it. So I say gun to your mom's head. Now what can you accomplish?Fuck, I bet we could fly to the moon if somebody was holding a gun. My mother's 82 years old, I guarantee I could do anything. I. Anything that would take to help out my, my, my 82 year old mother would be exactly what I would do, including flying to the moon with my hands if I needed to. I'd fucking figure out how to do it or I'd die trying.And that is the basics basis of success. And that's what the basis of being a successful, successful businessman in prison is. I should say, man, women, it doesn't matter which one it is. Right there is, there just is no nose. Don't lose perspective and be introspective the way that you were to know that you don't know what you're talking about and you need to shut the fuck up and listen. You with me?
Andy Audate
You're funny. I like this podcast, men.
Jerry Brazier
dude. It's no bullshit. Straight away.how and where we're out of time. Unfortunately, Andy, shit, I could go all day with you, man.
Andy Audate
let's continue on for like an extra 20 minutes. Let's do a part one, part two on this woman. Yeah,
Jerry Brazier
I like it. Let's do that.
This episode of the Jerry Brazy podcast with Andy OD. That was a great conversation and went for two hours long. So we're doing something we've never done before. We are downloading it in two different pieces, so it's going to be two different hours, probably loaded in the same week. but it was a great conversation. He is a young entrepreneur out there trying to hammer it and the conversation went two hours. So look for it. In two pieces.
