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Successful Life Podcast
Self-Improvement Podcast for Contractors that want to learn about how to grow their business through management and marketing. Develop business ideas to improve your business experience and be successful. Real stories from real business owners.
Successful Life Podcast
Financial Collapse to Empowerment: Brigham Dickinson's Path to Success
Corey Berrier and Brigham Dickinson on Overcoming Adversity and Finding Purpose
In this episode of the Successful Life Podcast, Corey Berrier hosts Brigham Dickinson, founder of Power Selling Pros. Here are the key takeaways:
Brigham Dickinson’s Journey
-Early Challenges: Brigham's marketing company failed after a merger, leading to financial strain.
- turning Point: His determination led to the creation of Power Selling Pros, which trains CSRs for contractors, improving their performance and job satisfaction.
Overcoming Adversity
- Emotional Struggles: Brigham relied on faith and family support to rebuild his life.
- Support System: A pivotal moment with his daughter and prayers marked his recovery and success.
Mental and Emotional Resilience
- Spartan Races: Participating in Spartan races built Brigham’s mental toughness and highlighted the value of perseverance.
- Helping Others: Supporting a friend in a Spartan race reinforced that true fulfillment comes from helping others succeed.
Business Insights
- Empowering Employees: Brigham emphasizes listening to employees, understanding their ambitions, and providing growth opportunities.
- Hiring a Coach: A coach helped Brigham apply customer service principles to employee engagement, driving business success.
Brigham's Book and Resources
- Books: Brigham’s book "Something to Give" shares his business philosophy.
- Business Services: Power Selling Pros, an after-hours call service, and Athlete Care, a recovery service, operate through empowered teams.
Personal Growth and Presence
- Corey’s Journey: Corey shares his struggles with addiction and how faith and personal growth transformed his life.
- Being Present: Both emphasize the importance of being fully engaged in the moment.
Contact Information:
- Power Selling Pros: https://powersellingpros.com
- After-Hours Call Service: https://bookedbypsp.com
- Brigham’s Books: https://brighamdickinson.com
This episode highlights resilience, mental toughness, and supporting others for success.
https://www.audible.com/pd/9-Simple-Steps-to-Sell-More-ht-Audiobook/B0D4SJYD4Q?source_code=ASSORAP0511160006&share_location=library_overflow
https://www.amazon.com/Simple-Steps-Sell-More-Stereotypes-ebook/dp/B0BRNSFYG6/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1OSB7HX6FQMHS&keywords=corey+berrier&qid=1674232549&sprefix=%2Caps%2C93&sr=8-1
https://bit.ly/4bFz4yc https://www.housecallpro.com/successullife
https://www.facebook.com/corey.berrier
https://www.linkedin.com/in/coreysalescoach/
Welcome to the Successful Life Podcast. I'm your host, corey Barrier, and I'm here with Brigham Dickerson. What's up, brother? I'm good, I'm good. Did I say that, right, dickinson? Damn it there you go. I did the same thing last time, I think.
Speaker 2:That's all right.
Speaker 1:So you got something to give us today, right?
Speaker 2:Well, of course, I always do.
Speaker 1:So those of you that may not know Brigham, just give everybody a little overview of you. And then I want to dive into something really cool that you've been working on.
Speaker 2:Okay, sounds good. So Brigham Dickinson with PowerSleep Pros started the company 15 years ago. It was right after a failed business. It's always fun to experience that, but the funny thing about challenges in life is that it propels you to do something even better than what you thought you could do, something that you didn't even think was possible beforehand. So it's a matter of just breaking everything down and then building yourself back up, and that's exactly what I did with Power Selling Pros. I had an opportunity to train CSRs for a contractor and, crazy thing, it worked really well.
Speaker 2:And then, next thing, you know, he refers me to another friend of his. So it started with Troy Nearing's. And then, of thing, you know, he refers me to another friend of his. So it started with troy nearing's and then of nearing's plummeting heating and air. And then he referred me to tom rogashod and then the two of them got together, referred me to mike agliero and next thing, you know, mike is referring me to everybody and I'm hiring all my friends and cory, I don't have a lot of friends, they're all working with me. So I I have these wonderful paid relationships, uh, in my life that I'm extremely grateful for. And uh, uh, you know, we went from training six people who answer phones to now, uh, well, over a thousand, and we train them one-on-one twice a month using their own phone calls. And our objective is for us to not only increase call conversion but get CSRs to the point where they see their job as a career where they can control the selling process and be a part of it from beginning to end. So that's PowerSlam Pros.
Speaker 1:Love it. Yeah, it's a much-ne needed service in the home services, for sure. So you said something interesting there. You mentioned, you know, we got to go through hard times. I don't know I'm going to paraphrase it, but essentially you got to go through hard times and in order to find your greatness, or something along those lines, let's talk about for just a second what you know, what was going on in your mind when things went sideways, when the when arguably the biggest failure slash now probably the biggest success happened with you. What was going on, what was happening there?
Speaker 2:Well, in 2007, I had an opportunity to merge a marketing company of mine and I was doing the marketing for a handful of contractors, and back then it was TV, radio, direct mail, newspaper. Can you imagine how easy that is Managing four different forms of media. It's fantastic. And I did that for about 10 different heating cooling companies. And I had the opportunity to merge my company into a software company that professed to do a manual J in a few minutes, and I was really excited about this tech and technology Holy cow, let's do it. And the merger occurred after moving my family to Florida. The merger occurred and within about five months, we went kaput and the whole thing went. It was a disaster, right. We went kaput and the whole thing went. It was a disaster, right.
Speaker 2:2008 came around and you can blame 2008, but really it was just a bad idea. I mean, the manual J tech didn't work very well and the strategy just wasn't going to work. The timing was off for the idea and we were paying our employees and not ourselves. And what's interesting about it is that marketing is what I got my college degree in. It's what I had always done, whether I was inside the industry or not, and when this whole thing came crashing down. The question that I kept asking myself is what do I do now? The way that I provide for my family is gone. What do I do? This is all I have, and I think to a certain extent I held on to it for longer than I should have that old company idea I mean, I'm talking white knuckle, going through crazy adversity when I probably should have let go a whole lot sooner, but it's because I was so afraid of the unknown that it was much easier for me to just hold on to the thing that I knew and the thing that was providing for me. But once, once you let go, you know you put it in God's hands. And trust me, corey, my relationship with God had never been, uh, more close. I'll tell you something.
Speaker 2:Um, I don't share this very often, but I can remember during that period of time in Florida, being in my house talking to my father-in-law and he offered me money, my father-in-law, and he offered me money. And, corey, I was in dire need Four kids, a wife. I needed money. I hadn't been able to pay myself in five months. But when he offered it, the only thing I could think of is when I sat down with him asking his blessing for his daughter's hand in marriage, and the first question he asked is Brigham, you're still going to college. How are you going to provide for her? And I said to him that's one thing you'll never have to worry about with me. So that was a very painful experience, and so I graciously thanked him for the offer and I said I got this, I'll take care of it. Call it pride, call it whatever it was. But I couldn't do it. I couldn't accept the money and I said goodbye. And he said goodbye and I can remember dropping my phone to the floor, maybe even throwing it to the floor, and my knees buckled. I couldn't carry the weight of my body anymore. I dropped to the ground and I cried like I've never cried before. I don't know how to explain that cry when I look back on that cry.
Speaker 2:What's interesting about that moment is my daughter, faye. She was eight years old at the time. She heard me crying in my room. She came in. She said why are you crying, dad? And I said well, things are a little rough at work. And then I said do you want to pray with me? She said yeah, and she got on her knees and we prayed together and then we just held each other and then I told her I was going to be okay. I prayed some more. After she left, I sent her off to go play with her sister. I prayed some more and earnestly, earnest prayer, and just asked God for help and direction and guidance.
Speaker 2:And then I started putting my life back together. I hit business books like I've never hit them before. You know, when you're in dire need, you'll do whatever it takes in business books. Boy, I was reading those things like crazy, um, putting them on a credit card. I'd go to barnes and noble and put books on my credit card, cds on my credit card. I didn't have the money. I just I didn't have a choice. I had to figure something out.
Speaker 2:And, uh, I drew the first version of this with uh, uh, just drew it on a piece of paper. Right, the thing that we teach over a thousand CSRs today, um, and technicians for that matter. Now, and um, the first time I presented this to Troy Nearing's cause, troy was like was like, hey, your calls or your leads are no good, meaning the advertised leads I was creating for him at the time because I was helping him out with his seo and he said well, they just want to ball for price and they just want to know what your charges come out. So I want to talk to a technician. We don't know how to book these calls, and so if you don't have any other ideas, bring them. We got to put this thing on hold and.
Speaker 2:And I said, well, I have an idea. And I pulled out this piece of paper with this drawing on it. Can you imagine? Yeah, I've got this wheel here, this will save the day. And he loved it. He loved it and his call conversions went up. And at the time I was just trying to save an advertising account. Right, I wanted to keep advertising. You know, marketing being the way, the only thing I knew. And, funny thing, uh, it wasn't marketing at all, it was a training and principal centered, uh, teaching and and providing accountability over time for CSR, so a department that's probably the most neglected in the contractor's business. So I guess, long story, long story, uh, uh, that I obviously couldn't make sure it is that. Uh, yeah, corey, um, this business occurred, um, out of failure. It occurred of a tremendous need for me to rebuild myself, and it's an amazing thing, when you let go and you put yourself in God's hands, what he can do with you, and he certainly has done that for me.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, I really didn't anticipate it going in this direction. I really appreciate you sharing that and that same pain that you described I felt a little over a year ago in the depths of my soul. You know I hadn't had a drink in almost 15 years but I decided to. You know, I smoked weed for like seven of those years Didn't really count, and I was under the illusion, my own self-delusion that I was. You know that wasn't the problem, obviously Right, weeds. No, ultimately, everything was destroyed in my life. Everything was destroyed and I couldn't see it.
Speaker 1:And there was an incidence and I won't go into great detail, but it was with my daughter and I tried to get, you know, I tried to get a was an allegation made, not against me but against her biological father, and I I got every Authority figure that I knew involved trying to figure out the answer to what this allegation was and what it came down to. Was allegation was and what it came down to was. I don't have control over anything and I was trying to control this situation because I needed an answer. And you know, sitting right here in this office, like I was, to the point, very similar to how you felt that day, and I had to, I had to hit my knees and I just I had to let go of the situation and fortunately for me and for you, obviously, you know, I had to turn my, you know, my will and my life over to God and I had to stop trying to control the outcome. And I've had to do that now in a lot of areas of my life. And let me tell you, you know, my last year has not been a cakewalk. But, bro, I'm going to tell you right now, the life that I live today, because of the work that I've done and because I've allowed God to work in my life, it's like night and day. You know, even from the last time I talked to you, like Even from the last time I talked to you, everything is working out better than I could have ever imagined, because I'm not trying to force it to work.
Speaker 1:And I guess the message I guess here from both of us, is that, you know, for me, I, I have to put god first. Every day I wake up and I write a grateful list, I send it out to 15 or 20 people, I read a certain thing, I do my prayer, do my prayer at night and it's the only thing that's gotten me through. I mean, I'm going through a divorce, I'm I could go on and on, but I've had to let go of so much stuff that I tried to hang on to because I thought that was what I needed. And until I let go of those things, none of these other things in my life were ever going to manifest. They were never going to come into my life because I was blocking it. Yes, yeah.
Speaker 2:We hold ourselves back. You know what's interesting? Two weeks after that moment, with my daughter Faye, I was on a morning run and if you can imagine just going through a neighborhood running in Lakeland, florida, and just thinking about how surreal that whole moment was, that period of time, just in my mind's eye, right, I was able to see in my mind's eye that God was actually putting his arms around me as I was kneeling there in prayer. I was able to see it while I was running Just came to me, if you can imagine a grown man running, sobbing, sobbing and running. That's exactly what's going on, because I realized that in my darkest moment, in my deepest despair, when I felt the most lonely, god was closer to me than ever before.
Speaker 1:I don't think that's by accident, you know. I don't think. I think that's when I know for me, man, I got to be in a lot of pain in order to change, and I think that's when God works on me the most is when I am feeling the pain of whatever it is. Yeah, yeah, that's pretty amazing. So, as you've gone through this and you know, part of your book is purpose. Right, it had to have been born somewhat out of this situation, because I know that. I know for me, I didn't feel much purpose at all. That low time in my life I felt like I had no purpose. So let's dive into some of the things that you know. You've just written a new book, something to give right, yeah, boom. Let's talk about that for a second yeah, so a great segue.
Speaker 2:The book starts out with an experience that changed my perspective on life in at the end of 2008, I was invited by my brother-in-law to participate in a Spartan race. So there's 25 obstacles and a certain amount of trail running, all right. So it's an obstacle course and you get to choose the extent of of of the run, right? There's a three mile run with an obstacle course. There's a six mile run with an obstacle course. There's a half marathon with an obstacle course. So you I mean they even do a marathon with an obstacle course and you can choose, however, whatever length you'd like, right? Whatever you want to participate in. So I did a beast, which is a half marathon. So 13 miles with 25 obstacles, and it took me four and a half hours and I feel like I almost was going to die.
Speaker 2:But, um, what's interesting about doing that at the end of 2018 is that I did it in the open heat, basically the heat where anybody could just go and participate. It wasn't necessarily competitive and and in the open heat, I took seventh. And so I thought to myself dude, if I can take seventh in the open heat, just cold Turkey, without any training, just imagine, right. Just imagine what I could accomplish if I were to really apply myself. And so me being the determined, ambitious, uh soul that I am, I started training hard. I got a nutritionist and I got a trainer and I started training truly hard. And so in 2019, um, I had a goal to get on the podium, to at least take first, second or third, and I ended up doing 10 races in 2019. All Spartan, all Spartans, and I took fourth twice. Now you would think that's amazing, but for me, it was disappointing. It was incredibly disappointing, and there's two reasons for that. Number one, I set a goal and I felt like at the time, I didn't achieve it, right. And number two, the first time I lined up against others in the competitive heat right, they do these first thing in the morning, not like the open heat. The first thing in the morning, I worked my way up to the front of the line because I felt like that's where I belonged. And all these guys knew each other, right? All the you know, picture-esque type of bro hugging, type of whatever, right? All that stuff was going on and I thought to myself dude, these guys don't know me. The only way to earn their respect is to beat them. And so my thought was is all right, I just got to beat him, he's got to win. All right, sounds good, and then they'll know me. Right, then they'll know who I am, stuff like that. So I started running these races and, yeah, I took fourth a couple of times.
Speaker 2:One of the times where I, when I took fourth, was in Hawaii, and in Hawaii funny thing I had a bunch of contractors that wanted to go with me. I can't imagine why, corey, I can't imagine why they want. Maybe it had something to do with an island, I don't know, but it was fantastic. We had a nice, cool, fantastic team that wanted to participate with me, and one of them is a heating and cooling contractor. The owner's name is Crandall. Crandall's an awesome guy. He's 6'5", 250 pounds, and when he said he wanted to do this race, I said in my head you're going to die. This is not, this is not for you. And and we had a good six months before the race and I said, look, man, you probably ought to come and just watch, watch it and experience it and just kind of cheer us on. And he's like what are you talking about? Give me, give me a training regimen. I want to participate, and so I did, and he ended up losing 40 pounds getting ready for this race. I was still concerned about him because he's just a really big guy and that much running on a set of knees, um, at that size is it's. It's a tall order, it's a big ask and and so everybody else in my group was in an open heat that started two hours after mine. So I decided that I would finish my race, go back out on the course, make sure everybody got out, and I told them as much. Now I said that to the group. I was really talking to you guessed that Crandall, I was talking to Crandall and uh, so I, I book it out of there. I, I finished my race.
Speaker 2:I get over the fact that I took fourth. I mean I didn't even see the person in front of me, right, I mean I mean I would, I didn't think anybody was around me. I I just when I was like holy crap, again, this close again and not. But I got over it real quick grab some fluids and usually cory. When I'm done with a race like this, I'm out, I'm done, I can't even walk um, but I was really concerned about my team and so I grabbed the fluids that I needed to grab and ran back out on the field.
Speaker 2:And I get to the five mile mark and I see this guy coming through the trees and sure enough, it's Crandall. And I'm like whoa Crandall, how's it going? He didn't look good, but he's like I'm fine. And I said where's the rest of the team? I'm certain they've passed by here already. It's like thanks for bringing that up. And I was like I mean it's going to be fine. I realized I shouldn't have said that. I said it's going to be fine. There's a bit of a loop. I'll meet you back here at the eight mile mark. And he said all right, sounds good.
Speaker 2:Now, remember, he starts his race at five in the evening, so I'm waiting there at the eight mile mark for hours. So he gets there. Finally. He looks absolutely exhausted. He even says Brigham, I can't believe you're still here.
Speaker 2:In my head this time I was a little bit smarter I said to myself I can't believe I'm still here either. This is ridiculous. And he says Brigham, I'm done. Where's the go-kart? And I said go-kart, what go-kart? The only way off this hill is over that hill, around that bend, and across this way over here. What he doesn't know is that about 10 minutes earlier he would have been on a go-kart, but they were already taking people off the course. So I was like, dude, what golf cart? What are you talking about? And he says I'm done. I said what do you mean? You're still upright.
Speaker 2:And I could tell he didn't like my comments. And he says bring him, I can't move any any further. And I said crandall, I'm gonna be with you the entire way, man, the entire way. We're going to do this together. It's going to be fine. So, sure enough, I'm talking to him through each hill, each obstacle, each bend.
Speaker 2:I mean, at one point he's like Brigham, stop telling me, we're almost done. I don't believe you. Right? He was just so freaking frustrated. And then he begins to hear the cheers of the other business owners, the finish line. He can hear them. He can't see them, but he knows he's close now that he can hear them. Next thing, you know, he starts picking up his pace and I'm like heck. Yes, it got to the point when he was crossing the finish line. I could hardly keep up with him myself. It was amazing, so picturesque, you know, something like out of a, out of a movie.
Speaker 2:As soon as he gets across the finish line, I'm right behind him, everybody gathers around him and he's high-fiving people and hugging others. And he turns around and he puts his hand on my shoulder and he says Brigham, I got to tell you something. I said what he says. I never planned to finish. I was like, what are you talking about? Never planned to finish? He said, well, I, I figured that if I went eight miles, my first rates, that was good. I trained for eight miles and, anyway, thanks for thanks for helping me finish, corey, the way I felt in that moment was worth a thousand podiums. Now I've been on the podium many times since, right, um, the last race I did in Las Vegas, I took third. I was on the podium, I was there with Tom Howard. I mean, I've done it, I've been on the podium.
Speaker 2:That moment, the way I felt was worth a thousand podiums and I realized, dude, winning is great but it doesn't fulfill us. It doesn't. What fulfills us are the people that we bring with us to the finish line. You know, we work among some of some of the wealthiest people in our industry, I mean, and recently becoming wealthy, right, because of all the PE groups that are coming in and wanting to invest and seeing how great our business, our industry, is finally right. It's about time. But what's interesting about that is that as soon as they achieve a financial goal, they're already making another financial goal and another financial goal. Why? Because it's never enough. It's never enough. It is money's important. Money's how we provide for our families. What is more important is the fulfillment that comes with the people that we help and support and serve. And if we can stay focused on the people, I have found, at least up to this point, that the money just comes. The more I focus on people, the more I serve people, the more the money comes.
Speaker 1:I found the same thing, actually, because it takes me out of me. If I'm helping you with whatever it is, I'm not thinking about me, and when I can take myself out of the picture, it frees up. You know, it just frees up the ability, you know, because usually I'm all I think about a lot of times. And so when I, you know, when I get a call from somebody who is going through the same stuff that I've been going through and I'm able to share with them what I did in that moment that they're in, you're right, there's nothing better. There's not a paycheck, there's not a race, there's not anything. There's nothing that's going to fill that kind of void in my life. And it's weird because most people I don't know if most people have that same experience. I hope so, and if not, you know it's an experience like you can't. You can't quantify it, you just can't. It's unreal.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think, corey, that's the reason why I do spartan races. I do spartan races to get me to, to get me there emotionally, to the point where I ask myself in my head how much longer can I go? How much further can I go? How can I continue to put myself through this pain? If you're not doing that in some way or some fashion on a regular basis, where you, where your mental toughness is forced to kick in right In a controlled environment like a Spartan race boy, you're going to get a rude wake-up call.
Speaker 2:When it happens for real, you know something that's outside your control. Say, for example, covid man, that was brutal and if you're not emotionally ready for something like that or 2008, for that matter if you're not emotionally ready, it could hurt you big time. So, finding controlled environments that'll put you in a situation where your body says you're done, at which point you can have a conversation with your body and say you're okay, this is okay, we're okay, you just got to keep going. See, that sort of mental toughness. The reason why like to do spartan race is the motivation for doing it is simply because I like, I like putting myself there and then being able to have that conversation with, with the me inside of me, and say hey, I know you, I know how you feel and we're okay.
Speaker 2:It's okay, we're gonna're going to be okay.
Speaker 1:Let's go, because really it's just your mind. It's your mind telling you I need to stop. Or, for me, it's my mind telling me you don't need to get in the ice bath this morning. And then, when I get in the ice bath, my other mind is saying you're going to stay in this bitch just a little bit longer today. Yeah there it is, it's that mental toughness yeah, and there's something about overcoming, though, you know, that uncomfortable feeling that makes the rest of my day seem not so hard day seem not so hard.
Speaker 2:Yeah, perfect example. So, guys, you don't have to do a Spartan race. You can have an ice bath. You sit in it each morning and what is the time limit that you should be in there? Like two minutes. I stay about seven, so isn't anything past seven minutes, hypothermia or whatever.
Speaker 1:I think it's nine, but you know who knows. You hear different things.
Speaker 2:You're still here and you're fine. Seven minutes is fine you guys.
Speaker 1:I suppose it depends on the temperature, right, I get down to about between 40 and 45 degrees, so it's not. I mean it's cold, it's cold, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:But it's doable's cold, yeah, yeah, but it's doable. Yeah, good for you. You see, these types of controlled environments that actually assist in your health as opposed to being detrimental to your health. Okay, and I think to a certain extent, cory, and you tell me if I'm wrong here, but you've essentially switched the use of weed, switched the use of alcohol to physical fitness, to ice bathing, so on and so forth. Crazy thing, it does the same thing. It gets you there.
Speaker 2:You know, I was talking to a good friend of mine, somebody I respect, and he was, he was. It was. He was having a drinking night and he and I were hanging out, you know, at events, events that kind of some people drink and so on and so forth, and I just kind of watched him drink and I'm like, dude, do you even know what you're drinking? He's like nope, as long as it gets me there. Nope, as long as it gets me there, so that there doesn't necessarily have to be because of alcohol or weed or what have you. There are tons of natural ways to do it and it'll get you there plenty. But it'll also strengthen you mentally, as opposed to becoming slave to it. Yes, right, we actually lose our freedom by being enslaved to controlled substances.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Or food, oh yes. Relationships. The truth of the matter is, you can get addicted I can get addicted To just about anything, but it's what I choose today to put in my path that's going to fulfill that which would be and go to the gym every day. I get in the ice bath every day. I make sure that I'm focusing on Things that are going to better my life, and I'll tell you this too, and I'm sure you'll identify with this One thing that I've realized over the past four or five months I'm 46 years old and I don't think I've been present for 45 and a half years.
Speaker 1:Wow, and let me break that down. So I'm always. I was always thinking about where I was going, or I was thinking about what I did in the past, and I missed sitting here with you right now. I miss so many opportunities, missed so many opportunities, and so I've really just tried to stay right where my two feet are, because nothing else really matters, like it doesn't matter what happens an hour from now. It surely doesn't matter what happened an hour ago.
Speaker 2:I can't do anything about either one of those, so why not just be here now? And a great way to practice being here now is sitting in an ice bath. Yeah, because it's so freaking cold that you don't have time or the wherewithal to think about the future or the past. You've got to be right here, focused on this moment and just zending out. Yeah, what a great way to practice every day to be present in the moment.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's brilliant, it's brilliant.
Speaker 1:I think it's changed my life. I mean, I don't think I know it has. I just have a different perspective these days on just relationships, business relationships. You know, like I said, I can't control anything. I can't control anything outside of you know my arm length, that's it.
Speaker 2:Well, it's interesting that you say that, because when you figure out that what fulfills you is, or are the people that you bring with you to the finish line, the question then becomes all right, who do I bring to the finish line? And the cool thing about work is is it provides a great opportunity for you to take a look at your team and see who are the ambitious ones, who are the ones that want to do something with their lives, want to grow, want to be better. Once you've identified them, those are the people you want to sit down with and say, hey, where do you see yourself with power slinging pros in the next three to five years, for example? Now, the cool thing about asking a question like that is is they might say well, I don't see myself with power slinging pros in three to five years. And if you want to keep them, boy, what a great, what a great thing to know. And so you simply say, all right, um, um, how do how? What do you see? Well, I see this, this and this. Okay, well, why can't we do that inside power slinging pros? Do you think we can do it inside power slinging pros? I think we can. Here's how we can make it work and we can make it a win-win for both of us.
Speaker 2:And that right, there is an example of how we begin to help our people come with us to the finish line. In other words, we've been through a lot, we've been through a lot of difficulties and we've come out on top with God's help and, you know, letting him take the lead, and so on and so forth, and now we have the opportunity to help others do the same, and it's a matter of identifying what their ambitions are, what their strengths are, and then, little by little, taking those responsibilities that we've been. You know that we've been doing ourselves and slowly shifting them to those individuals, to the point where, right and usually, you have a list a mile long of all the things you do day in and day out, and this is how you stay at 2 million, $3 million shop. You stay at two $3 million shop because you're doing everything right. You're Johnny in the spot, you're the hero.
Speaker 2:Well, how do you get to be an $8 million shop to the new shop? Well, you've got to go beyond arm's length, just like what you've been saying and the way that their strengths are, and you slowly shed all those responsibilities, or at least most of them, to the point where you've only got two or three things that you do better than anybody the things that you do uniquely well, and now you've got a business that's beginning to run by itself. You've got a team of individuals that say I've got this, and now you don't just have freedom over your finances, you have freedom over your time. And, in a nutshell, corey, that's what the book is all about.
Speaker 1:And my guess is yeah.
Speaker 2:I was just going to say. It's an opportunity to build off the ambitions of your team and get them doing more for you so that you can grow the business.
Speaker 1:And my guess is, none of that would have happened if you didn't actively listen to those people that were on your team. Actively listen to what their needs are, what their wants are, and that requires a special skill, and my guess is knowing you and your business, that's probably a pretty important skill that you drive home to your employees.
Speaker 2:So I didn't figure out how to do this until I hired a coach. We're a coaching company and I needed to hire a coach. He said hey, I'm going to meet with you in your house every Monday, all day on Monday, a thousand dollars a day, I mean, for me that was expensive. I was like Holy cow, and why do you want to meet at my house? I thought of that Saturday night lives skit where I'm. You know, chris Farley, I'm going to be in your house. I'm going to be in your home. We're going to be best buds, right?
Speaker 2:Oh man, I mean I was like, why do you want to be in my house? He's like I just don't want you to have any distractions. And so he came to my house every Monday. I mean, he put stickies on the wall, big oversized stickies on the wall, and by the time the day was over, they had. He had these huge stickies all over my walls in my living room. I mean, my kids would come home from school and they'd be like holy cow, it's a beautiful mind in here. Dad, what's going on? You know what I'm talking about. I don't know if you remember seeing the movie A Beautiful Mind, where the guy was going crazy and had all these things on the walls, but that's basically what it was like.
Speaker 2:And here's what he did. He had me take a second look at this same pattern that we teach CSRs and he said you know, you're teaching positive attitude and confidence and listening and caring and reassuring on here, and you're talking about asking the right questions and creating value, being valuable and being grateful, and that's how you create a wow experience for customers. Don't you realize that this is how you create a wow experience for your employees? And when you apply these same principles with your team, when you're listening to them, caring, reassuring, when you're asking the right questions, where you're being valuable to them and you're expressing your gratitude and you're super positive and upbeat. Crazy thing how that creates a wow experience for them. It makes them want to work there longer, be there longer, do more, grow inside your organization.
Speaker 2:Once he helped me realize that and Corey, it took months, we didn't even figure this out Months and once I figured it out, man, I started putting it down on paper and of course, that's also that's also, you know, in the book as well. Because it's funny. Look at this book. Okay, this is a great book. Can you see right behind me, right?
Speaker 2:there, yeah, yeah, yeah okay, so 10x is better than 2x, and this is by uh ben hardy and's a great book. But here's the crazy thing about this book he spends the majority of the book explaining why 10 X is better than two, selling us on why 10 X is better than two. So now that we're sold on it, right, we're sold on it, you guys. After the second chapter we're like okay, we are sold.
Speaker 2:Yes, focus on the two unique things that are. That just sets you apart from everybody else. And I keep reading, I keep reading and it's resell, resell, why, resell, why 10X is better than 2X, resell. I get to the end of the book and gosh, dang it. Not one how, not one freaking how. In this book he establishes very well the why, but the how is almost non-existent and so, anyway, that's the reason why I started working on this.
Speaker 2:Now I've got three different companies. I've got a company called athlete care. It's a post-workout recovery company. So as soon as you're done with the workout, you go in and there's an athletic trainer there and he works on your sore limbs and he's got scraping and cupping and compression boots and a hot tub and a cold tub and the contrast between the two, and you can ice bath as much as you want there and you can go there without an appointment. I've got two locations and that whole thing runs by itself. Do you think I have time to run that business? No, of course not. I'm running Parasite Pros. That thing runs by itself, using the same process, the same principles crazy thing. These are their core values, their foundation for everything they do and how they operate there.
Speaker 2:I also have a night answering service that runs by itself. Okay it, it's called booked and you, in fact, you can go to booked, um, booked by pspcom, and, uh, that night answering service. I think we've got over 70 contractors that we work with now just answering their phones at night and weekends. And again, barry gates runs that company. It runs by itself.
Speaker 2:Um, in fact, when barry wanted to do this, he said brigham, I want more. All right, well, I'm not, I can't afford to lose you. So, so let's create together, let's do something more. And sure enough, he and uh diane, the ops manager there, have absolutely crushed it and they're doing so well and it's very exciting to see.
Speaker 2:I would not be surprised at all if that uh company goes, grows far larger uh than than power ceiling pros, um, selling pros. But so I've I've been using the, the same skillset, the same how, step-by-step, to get out of your business and get it, get it working for itself. And and that's what this book something to give us all about. We all, as leaders, have something to give. We've learned some things right. We've had sad experiences and failures that have made us who we are, and if we can be vulnerable and learn to trust people and give them responsibilities to do, and you know what? Even the freedom to fail, like we had, you'd be amazed at what can, what can come together for you. So, anyway, that's what something to give us all about, corey.
Speaker 1:I mean it's massive growth when you know, when you can let people make mistakes, you know and you know, obviously, if they keep making mistakes it's a bit of a different story. But I think people innately want to do more, be more. Uh, the right people do, and I think that framework that you held up there is why the businesses are running the way they are, because otherwise you'd be trying, you'd be trying to, if you had your hands around it trying to, you know, control everything in it, it just wouldn't work.
Speaker 2:There are some great operators. I've met some phenomenal operators in this industry. The difficulty for them? Their strength. It's a weakness. And the reason why it's a weakness is because, as talented as they are, as great at operating as they are, they can only grow as much as they can handle. Much as they can handle. They've got to find a way to leverage their team and work with their dreams inside the organization in order for it to grow past them yeah, it's heartbreaking when you know.
Speaker 1:it's heartbreaking to see how much talent some people have if they would just get out of their own way. Yeah, they can't see it. I like to tell people you can't read the label if you're inside the bottle.
Speaker 2:Oh wow, that's good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's beautiful, it's pretty wild. So look, brigham, where can people, where can people find your book, where can they buy it? Of course, I'm going to put a link in the show notes. And then also, where can they find you if they want to reach out and hire power selling pros or go get a nice bath, or the third thing that you said, which is, oh, the call center, the after hours call.
Speaker 2:Excuse me, yeah for sure. So, uh, if you know that the nine answering service that you're working with isn't great I mean, we currently have a 93% booking ratio with that nine answering service, which is unheard of in the industry and it's because they use the pattern. And they use the pattern for excellence is what we teach all CSRs. You just go to booked at pspcom and talk to Barry Gates and he'll help you there. When it comes to Power Selling Pros, just come to Power Selling Pros powersellingproscom. You'll see a link right on the front page to click on a demo and they'll take you through and show you how you can get started coaching your CSRs to book calls and well customers. And if you would like, the Something to Give book or the other two books that I've written, which is Pattern for Excellence and Patterned After Excellence all three are obviously books that I love, partially speaking. You just go to Brigham Dickinson B-R-I-G-H-A-M-D-I-C-K-I-N-S-O-Ncom and there you will find the ability to buy all three books Wonderful.
Speaker 1:Dude, I, you know, I, you know, I absolutely enjoy this conversation, me too. You're a real, just amazing human being and I appreciate you.
Speaker 2:I appreciate that you are too. Thank you.
Speaker 1:Thank you, brother. Well, yeah, guys go get Brigham's book. I'm sure you're going to find immense value out of it. And, Brigham, thank you again for coming on.
Speaker 2:My pleasure. Good talking to you, corey, you too, brother.
