All right. Hello, listeners. Welcome back to The Science of Self. Thanks for joining us today. We have a guest on the podcast today, Dan Bowling, and rather than me introducing, get some of the topics wrong as I'm afraid to do, I'm gonna ask Dan to take a few minutes, introduce himself, and, uh, share some insights on, uh. Some of the things he's accomplished in his life, some of his viewpoints, and how they apply to our listeners. And then as usual, take the conversation from there. Dan,

Great. Great. Hello. Pleasure to be here. Yeah, I high level, so I own and founded, uh. Uh, a globally recognized sales and marketing firm, right? So we've got 25 people that, that work here. And our, our specialty is scaling consumer product brands. Uh, and one of the many things that makes us special is, is we do it on all channels. So whether that's brands and physical retailers like Target, where we manage, I don't know, like a hundred to, to 110 brands at Target or a Walmart. We also do business. With our clients and our partners on Amazon or direct to consumer. So, you know, when you hire us, it's, it's kind of this executive firm that understands, you know, the whole industry, if you will. And then we, we put together robust plans for all of our clients of how they can scale what we call what matters most, right? So it's the p and l. Profits, but also them as like a human and a founder. Uh, uh, and then for us as a company, we're very philanthropic. So, uh, our company has fed over a million children. We have saved 200 girls from human trafficking. Um, we've funded like domestic abuse awareness for over a hundred kids. So what we try to do, uh, high level is help brands grow and at the same time really redefine what, what success is.

So just to, uh, reassure our listeners, this is not a business podcast, although the business is extremely successful, uh, from all accounts that I've seen. Uh, a business is only successful when you put the right philosophies and principles to work within the business. And a philosophy or a principle that will work in a business relationship can also be adjusted or, or used directly. to work within your own mind with your self relationship on a certain level, to work with others, to make yourself and your relationship stronger. Make your community stronger and advance, uh, your principles and values through a wide number of areas. Um, tell us about, let, first note I have here is toying around, and I think this goes to your target, uh, uh, relationship with managing, as I understand it, some of the products within Target. but toying around is more than just a toy company or a toy placement service, or a, a retail Tell us about toying around.

Yeah, so that's our division that would focus specifically on physical retail. So we go to, we go to market under different brand names. The the parent company is the Genesis company. And to your point too, like, yeah, it's a business, but really a business is just a sum of the people. So, you know, why we've been successful and we've won, like Inc. Magazine, you know, awards multiple times is because of how. Great. Our team works together, how unified of approach we have. Um, it really is, is rooted in one thing, um, that we hold hands on and agree. And it's, it's this mantra of create a better story. And, and we have one, we have a lot of things that we believe to be true here, but one of 'em that really grounds everything that we do. Is this idea that everybody wants to be part of a larger story.

I.

And it was a phenomenon that I kind of, I noticed, um, I live in Minneapolis now, but I started my career working in the south. I was living in Atlanta and I was very surprised even though I played college sports, I love sports, but I would see people like very, uh, affected in their behavior, mood, or attitude on a Monday morning. Based on if their favorite sports team won. And down there, it's not even pro sports, it's college sports, which take place on Saturday. So I'm like 48 hours later people are showing up to work like, you know, noticeably affected. And I'm like, how can you be so affected on 'em 48 hours after your team played? Whether they won or lost, you're not even on the team. And it really started me down this path of like. What people, what, what grounds us all. And I think a core thing there is that we all want to be a part of a larger story. So that really rooted our philosophy as a company, um, with this idea of like, let's come together and create a better story. Like give people the opportunity to be part of that larger story, to make work more about a to-do list and make it more about coming together and serving, um, each other. And then our clients, uh, and then really the communities that we live in.

It's, I, I live in Atlanta. I'm, I'm coming to you from Atlanta this morning, and it's very interesting. Uh, and even more so I guess I have some roots in Alabama where the, of course, Georgia, it's, uh, tech versus University of Georgia and Alabama. Alabama versus Auburn. Those feelings run very deep and they do last a long time. Uh, and that, that's an interesting insight to take that into, uh. A place of belonging almost, that people are looking for as identifying with that team, as you say, even though they're not part of the team. And yeah, those feelings do last for, for many days or weeks. Uh, or if it's the end of the season with a bad loss, it lasts five or six months Right. Till you get to the, the next opening day. Um, you mentioned your employees, uh, did I, I believe I read correctly in there, you have a, a blurb on or a a bullet point. On 100% retention

Yeah, that's right.

or one of your divisions, that is astounding to me. What, uh, ex do you manage that? What does that mean to you? What does it mean to your employees to be involved in a, a company or a organization like that?

Yeah. Well, and it starts with, uh, setting this vision, right? Where they're all excited to come to work today, today, every day. Right. And, and making their to-do list more about the larger story that they're, they're playing and like, Hey, when you do this on a mundane Tuesday in February. If you know anything about Minnesota, like February's awful, right? Uh, the sun hasn't shined and it's, it's below zero. Um, but if, you know, if you come into work and you get that thing done, like you affected somebody's life, right? That's what we're talking about of how we can, how we can make sure that we all have this vision of when we come together, we're part of this, this larger story. So it really is rooted in that one belief. I think the other part of the, of the retention rate is understanding, um. Just how critical work is to, to who we are as humans, right? Like I also believe that we were created to, to, to grow and to build. Uh, and whether you believe like in creation itself or evolution, I think it gets you to the same, same endpoint of like. Okay, well, you evolved millions and millions and millions of years. You did so by growing and adapting and changing. So I think when we come into work every day, like work is normally tough on everybody because like there's a new problem that has to be solved, right? So everybody's all stressed out. But how we look at it is, Hey, here's an opportunity to grow. Here's an opportunity to get better. Here's an opportunity to learn. So I think that's this culture that we've put in place, we're like, this is a very safe place. This is a very exciting place. Um, I mean, I'll tell you a story really quick. Before Covid was even a thing, um, I. I, I, I put together an idea to, to, to do work from home or work from anywhere, like, uh, two days a week, because I'm always trying to think about like, what if I worked here? Like what would I want, right? So from a benefit standpoint, which I'll get in later, like, what benefits would I want if I worked here? So I announced to everybody this new policy where you can work from wherever you want two days a week on a Monday or a Friday, and everybody hated it. They're like, are you kidding me? Like, we don't, we, we want to come work, we want to come see everybody. I want to be next to my colleagues. I don't wanna work at home. So it's just funny 'cause uh, you fast forward like six, seven years if I changed that policy. 'cause we still have two days that are work from home. You know, people would, people would freak out. But originally everybody loved their coworkers, our culture, um, just even the aesthetics of the building. So we take all of that. Really into account of like how the building is designed, right? Um, the benefits that we have, like we pay a hundred percent for healthcare. Uh, I pay for everybody's gym memberships. Um, we, we, we pay for, we pay for everything that we can just to try to make all of the benefits world class, even though we're a small company with this idea. That the business exists to serve. Right? And the, the first thing it needs to serve is the people that work here, right? And if they're totally engaged, then the end result. Is obviously we're gonna be successful, which we have been. We've grown out, we've grown faster than our peers for, uh, I think the last eight years in a row. Um, so it's, it's, uh, it's one of the reasons that we've, we've been successful. It's, it's the sum of the people and, uh, let's make sure that we're engaged, uh, and taking care of, uh, the people first.

And you're talking, that's again, to be clear, you're talking about just a, a, an actual business. This is not your passion. Your vision comes across as, um. Almost a charity or a mission, but you're talking about having your employees so interested in just an actual business and that that doesn't happen very often. I worked in, uh, several different professional establishments and there was one of many, uh, that started to approach that. It was large it, uh, firm for a cement company, uh, a global company, and we had 50 to 75 people in the IT department. When we approached that. Uh, kind of a family feel, but it's amazing that you can accomplish that within an actual commercial business. Um, so the first thing you said was sharing the same vision. Is that, have you tell us what that vision is? So

Yeah, well, we wanna be the, the absolute best of the best end-to-end solution for any, any company or human we work with. And that human part's really, really important. 'cause we work with like a lot of smaller businesses and entrepreneurs, uh, and just like our company, our company is the sum of its people. Same with a smaller company. And the smaller it gets, the more important that is because the less and less people. That means the more they could affect, you know, the health of the organization. So if we're working with somebody that's just a founder, like the health of that individual is probably going to determine the long-term health of the company. So we'll talk with our, with our partners about like health and. Uh, meditation and nutrition. And so we get into everything. So we'll get into KPIs on like ad spend and return on ad spend and digital shelf and all of the metrics and all of the KPIs to be successful on making an item grow. But what we really are talking about is like, you as a human, how can you grow? Like how do you look at adversity? And uh, I think a key thing for everybody, it really starts with like what you believe. Because nine times outta 10, like if you believe in something like it, it's, it, it, it empowers you to execute on it. Or the opposite is a little bit easier for people to digest. Like if you think you're gonna fail, you probably are right. So we have this whole system called the, like a, we call it like a belief flywheel. And here's what we see over and over and over. And I've seen this happen in my own life. Uh, I've seen it happen in our business as it grows, and then we see it happen with all of our customers. Where first you have to be very concrete on like, what, what do you believe? And. Not to make this about business, but if the business is, I believe that we're gonna grow X amount because of these reasons, or if it's a personal goal, I believe I want to do, or I can do X, Y, and Z. Like, it really starts with that belief and that what happens is this flywheel, right? So if you believe something with all your heart, mind, and soul, that should give you right the raw material to consistently go after it. And what's great there is success is really one thing. The raw material of success is consistency, right? So if you believe right, that should give you the the material to consistently do that action. And you're gonna have results. I don't care what you're trying to do. If you go and you consistently do it every day or every hour or every week, depending on what your goal is, you will get better. And what we see happen there. Is that belief then goes into consistency. The consistency has one output if you do it success, and then what happens there is people start to trust the process or they start to trust the vision or they start to trust the leader or whatever it was that that put the belief together in first place. And that's when you start to see one of the most wonderful slash dangerous things out there. And that's momentum. Right. Like that's when sports teams come back from down 20 because the whole team, they just started to really believe, right? And momentum. Momentum, what that is is just the output of the belief like it happened, right? It's the sweat, if you will, of the belief. Uh, how does a company grow over and over? How does somebody lose X amount of pounds? How does somebody transform their life? It's this belief fly where they believed enough to consistently get after it and then they started seeing success. And what's beautiful is once you recognize that or go through that process, then your belief can get a little bit bigger. Then your belief can get a little bit bigger, then your belief can get a little bit bigger. So when I started this company, I had a belief of like, well, I think we can get to 50 million in sales managed. We got there. Then what? Alright, well maybe it's a hundred. So we got there, right? And now our goal is like. Uh, 750 million and we're halfway there. And it's like, of course we'll get there. Like, I know that we will get there. And I think that's the other thing when you set goals out there is just recognizing and remembering that there's no, there's no laws that will, can stop us from getting there. There's no glass ceiling that we live under. Um, there really is opportunity for everybody, right? It's a, it's an infinite economy for the most part. Um, so that's true for your business. It's also true in your personal life, right? A lot of people are like, oh, somebody else has X, Y, and z. That's great. That doesn't mean you can't, right? There's, there's not x amount of whatever, uh, out there for us to go get. So it's really a, a beautiful, exciting place. Like, we're so blessed to live in this country. I know we have a lot of problems, but for the most part, like you're free, right? To believe what you want to believe, and then go execute on that, and that's a wonderful, wonderful freedom.

Or, uh, some of our listeners who might be less mechanically inclined. Uh, explain a flywheel.

So a flywheel is anything where as soon as you add to it, it spins faster, right? So every action kind of begets the movement of the next action. Uh, and I would say in business or in your personal life, like anytime you have a goal, what you're trying to create is this flywheel where you're building and building and building. And at some level, like. That's, that's kind of the secret sauce to continue to, to, to, to hit whatever goal you might have, right? So once you have success, like then your, then your belief grows and then you just keep going and keep going. Um, but it really comes down to consistency. There's nothing, right? There's nothing that you can't figure out or learn or do if you consistently get after it. The problem is, normally you don't have the belief. To go do it right. And people are like, oh, I didn't, I'm out of energy. Or I, you know, there's a million different excuses. Um, so it really starts with how powerful that belief is. Um, from, from my experience and my background. Like, I was paralyzed as a kid, right? And I still went on to set like multiple track records that still stand today. I played division one football. Uh, I lost my father when I was a child, like statistically speaking. Like if you, I think there's a website out there called like the fatherless generation, and it's like scary when you look at the stats of like number of people, men that are in jail, like 98% didn't have a father. Like almost every crime can lead back to not having a father figure, which is amazing. And a topic maybe for a different podcast, but statistically speaking, like I should not be here. Um. But I, I, I decided at a, at a really small, at a really young age, excuse me, that I could decide that the world's either working for me or it's working against me. And I think that I. Whatever you decide to believe there is gonna radically change your whole life. So if you think the world's working against you, then absolutely it is because every single time that something negative has your flywheel's gonna keep turning, right? Your belief is negative. The world's out to get me. I'm never gonna be enough. Alright, there's your belief. Now your flywheel's gonna turn. You're gonna continue to believe that over and over and over, or you can look at the opposite way. The world's working for me, so do I wanna be paralyzed again? No, but it was, I never would've won any, any state records. I never would've played college sports, um, if I wouldn't have been paralyzed. 'cause having that taken away from me, it was the only way, and I, I believe this to be true, that I would've realized how wonderful it is to run. Like, running is great and you might be rolling your eyes and thinking, are you serious? And it's like, no, running feels amazing. And if you don't believe me. I, I guarantee you will, if you were paralyzed, right? Once you can't lose something or once you can't use something. Um, so, you know, so that's just one example. But also, let's just build on the paralysis example. Right now, as a 42-year-old man, I am, I am like, um, more, um, I guess qualified than maybe anybody else in the world to go talk to a young person that got paralyzed. Like I, I wasn't affected, I was equipped. And I think that's part of the mindset for, for us, and uh, I talk about the business, but like everybody shares the same mindset of like, we're nobody here is a victim and I. We've all had terrible things happen to us. Like I've had terrible things happen to me, and that's part of the human experience. So do I take that and do I think, okay, I was affected or was I equipped and I choose to believe I was equipped? And now it's like, okay, what do I get to do with that experience? Um, so that's a little bit of the insight into like how, how we believe and how the company believes. And one of the, the key reasons why we're successful.

So the opposite of what we see in the news or hear about on, on some news broadcast, the opposite of the victim mentality, the victimization. All this has happened to me. Now what's gonna happen to make me, I. Better or to overcome these things, but it's your approach still. Today is the opposite of that. This happened to me now. What am I gonna do? Basically, it's up to me. It's, I can't be the victim here. I have to be the, the source of whatever's gonna happen next.

And I think part of it is really protecting your inputs, right? So like I, I rarely listen to the news. I might get a couple snippets here 'cause I don't want to be clueless of what's going on, but the news doesn't exist to really inform, I. They're all for-profit companies. They exist to get you glued to the TV and freak you out, which is why like how many times have, has your heart rate gone over, go, gone over 120 or 150 for something that never happens, right? And I think psychologically this is a great stat. Uh, I know your listeners love statistics. Uh, I think it's, this won't be exact 'cause I'm a generalist, but I, I believe it's something to the effect of like 80% or 83% of the things, um, that you worry about. Happening never happen. Like never happen. We spend most of our life on a Monday worrying about, uh, worrying about Sunday or worrying about Tuesday, thinking about Sunday, or worrying about Tuesday instead of enjoying Monday. Right? And then upon that stat, what's interesting is, is there was another like multitude of percentages that the stuff that did happen you ended up being thankful for. So the net net of it, and we talk about this all the time. Is it's 93% of the stuff that you worry about either didn't happen or you're happy that it did 93%. Once again, I'm a generalist, so you know, don't, don't hold me to it, but in my mind, that's basically everything. Everything we worry about. For the most part, that doesn't happen or I'm happy that did. Yet I guarantee that most people are spending 93% of their time worried about something. So I think you have to really root yourself in like, okay, what's reality? How does it really affect you? And I think a, a good, a good lesson for us. We talk about here all the time, make your own headlines. I don't care what's going on in the news like I'm a father, I've got two children, a third on the way, a beautiful wife. I'm gonna make my own headlines today, right? I. Dad came home and hugged his children and told him how much he appreciates about 'em, right? Uh, CEO walked into office. We're struggling right now. Our company's struggling 'cause of tariffs. CEO walked in the office and made sure everybody was feeling okay about their future, right? So let's make our own headlines, uh, is another mantra of ours. Um, but it still goes back to like, what do you believe? Then how do you protect those beliefs? Which is, I think, really a, a a bit of a, a strategy that you have to try to execute on every day. And, um, cause it's, it's pretty easy to just get scroll, death, scroll on on a social media, or go out to a coffee shop and listen to people just fill you full of negative ideas and negative thoughts. And it's, uh, it seems like that's where the world wants you to go. And I, I never go there. No thank you.

Your attitude and how that impacts your business is, is pretty obvious and I, I can see why employees be there and would wanna stay there. when you hire, do you, I. Look for this specifically. Is this a something in your hiring process that you want to find in a person beyond any professional skills or, uh, personal abilities?

A hundred percent. It's the number one thing I look for. It's just their

Is it.

How do they think? How do they feel? How do they view the world? Who are they as a human? Because that's who's coming to work every day. There's no such thing as like, you know, business Dan and then home Dan, like we're one human. And what happens at home affects how I show up to work. And what happens at work affects how I show up at home. And that's another thing that I talk to. We'll have like a holiday party, so all the spouses, everybody will be there and. Um, I'll make sure I tell them like, I'm doing everything I, I can to make sure that after work I send the people back home to you. Right. In, in, in a, in a positive, excited, happy, happy way, right? It's like, who am I am a leader. If everybody comes to work and I grind them down and then send them home and say, go be a good dad or go be a great wife. So I think that's an immense responsibility that I felt from day one. It's like there's 25 people here. No one's ever left, which means by def definition, they're gonna give a majority of their life walking into these walls every day and working for me, like executing what my vision is. Uh, and, and that gets into too, like I. I said my vision, but it's our vision. Like it's our company. I own it if we get in trouble, but it's our company. I wouldn't be here without them, and they all know that. So it's like together we're creating more than a company. It's like we're creating this life experience together. Um, so we're, we're all in it together on like what the vision is and how we're gonna get there. Um, and then I, I, I have this immense, um, I don't wanna say pressure or anything negative. I think once again, it's an opportunity. It's like, how can I steward everybody's life here? That I got a chance to lead. Like what a cool, wonderful thing.

I like that. Yeah, that's, uh, I'm making so many notes because your bullet points could be entire, uh, sessions or in an entire motivational speak. That's, that's fantastic. Um, I love the raw material of success is consistency that goes from a while back, uh, in your, in your talk. But that is strong. So all of these things come together. Uh, into a, a successful company. One of the, uh, notes in your, Hmm. I'm sorry. Either I believe in your bio information might've been on the website, but I think it was in your bio information, was an approach with an acronym, BCE dash m. Is that something you'd care to talk about, expand on a little bit, because I was interested in, uh, I, I, I know what they know, what they stand for. I know a little bit about it, just what was there. But is that something,

Yeah. That gets,

uh.

yeah, sure. That's, that's the belief mindset from the standpoint of what we believe. Right. B is the belief. C is the consistency. I. Right From there, you're gonna have s which is success. And then from there you get into that, to that, um, ability to have that momentum. Right. So, um, like right now we're going through what are we gonna do with these tariffs and the, is this a, is this an attack on us? Sure feels like it from the standpoint of like, we're just a small company now. There's a new policy and our business is at risk. Or is this an opportunity? Well, if you've been listening the last whatever, 26 minutes, we all view this, view it as an opportunity. Everybody else is in the same boat, competition's in the same boat. What are we gonna do now to come together and win? And the thing about success, whether it's losing a pound that you wanted to lose or getting to 10 pushups, 'cause you, you could never do any. Or like picking up market share, right? Which is what we talk about. Everybody loves to be successful. So it's like, how are we gonna win? And then how do you celebrate that win? I think that's a huge thing too, within like all of the negativity, right? Which we just don't even allow. How do you input then, um, celebrations. And I think it's important to really celebrate, uh, as much as possible, and I'm not talking about like parties, but just like acknowledging what we've accomplished because that right, that also strengthens the belief mindset of the individual. And then therefore the entire company. So anytime that we hit a KPI like a key performance metric, and it can be something tiny like there's a bell that gets rung and we celebrate it, right? So you're sitting here all day long and the bell's ringing. I. Every 30 minutes 'cause somebody just did something awesome and you're sitting here and you're like, this is great. Like people are, people are succeeding all around me and now, now I want to do something too. Right? So, and then back to the, we are all created, uh, to be part of a larger story, the net net of every time that bell rings, we all know like, hmm, somebody just got fed, or another girl might have gotten saved from, from human trafficking. And we talk about that, right? So, uh, it's really this, once again, this flywheel. Of how do you create something that when it's done, um, it begets the next action being done and then that begets the next action being done. And the flywheel just keeps turning because if you're sitting here and you're hearing that bell ring and I announced that, Hey, we saved 57 kids today. Um, and hey, um, here's the new vision to overcome tariff. Like you're all in. Like everyone's all in. And, um, it makes it a really fun and exciting place to work. I mean. Hopefully you can just see by my demeanor, like our company right now, what is it, May 13th at 8 33. Here is an absolute turmoil. Like we're losing hundreds of thousands of dollars a day in revenue. It's a disaster over here. You would never notice it. Excuse me, if you walk through here, because this isn't an attack. This is an opportunity and I've got tons of different plans and visions and ideas that I've talked to the team about of like, we're gonna try to do this, this, this, this, this, and we're gonna come outta here, not paralyzed. We're gonna come outta here, sprinting.

Wow. Wow. Uh, I haven't spoken with anybody in the business side that deals with the tariffs in

I.

manner like this, but, uh, obviously you have a lot of import export kind of thing going on there. I love the concept of don't allow negativity. Uh. that goes, uh, that ties in directly with the victimization mindset. You just, so many places want to thrive on it. The gossip, the all the side conversations can go toward negativity. We just don't, we don't allow that here. That has to be one of the biggest pieces of keeping a, a group attitude where it should be. We just don't go, we, we don't, we won't be negative. We just won't do it.

Yeah, we just, we don't do it. And I, and I don't wanna be naive like. We all have negative thoughts and there's bad things that happen and there's a safe place to talk about it. 'cause sometimes things happen and it sucks, right? And it hits you hard and you have to talk about it. I'm not saying you bury all that, but you talk about it, then you realize what it is. It's an opportunity. It's an opportunity to get stronger. It's an opportunity to get smarter. It's an opportunity to pick up market share. It's an opportunity to, to to, to learn, right? So it's like, Hey, I wanted to lose X amount of weight, or I wanted to do A, B, and C and I didn't. Alright. Now, you know, gosh, you didn't, which by the way, failing at something is most likely the best education in the world, right? Like, if you already, if you did something successful, you probably already knew how to do it. You didn't learn anything. If you failed, you absolutely learned something. What'd you learn? All right? Don't freak out. Recognize you're a, you're a human. We all fail. What do you need to do differently? Right? So it's all, it's all rooted in that, in that belief of like, I. Um, every opportunity is an opportunity to grow. And then also realizing like we are all flawed. It's not like everything I say or everything I do works here. Uh, actually most of it doesn't work, but we all know that that's part of the process of getting to where we want to get to. Right. I also think too, like back on the watch out for listening to news and, and too many podcasts, it's like there's this, there's this belief then that comes to you that like everybody's got it together, right? That, that you're the only one with these problems. That's not true. There is not one issue. That's not uniformly experienced by all of us at all humans. Now, maybe it's manifested a little bit differently, but the core root, uh, of it is the same for all of us. We all struggle with things. We all struggle with things like, if my wife was on this podcast, she'd probably be chiming in left and right. I'm like, oh, really? How come you did this then? Or really, how come you failed at this then? Um, but the fact of the matter is I try to rise above. Everything and do the absolute best that I can. And I also find that it's very inspiring to others, right? So I think biblically even, um, it's to give us, to receive. And you can read that and shrug your shoulders, but uh, once you start actually living out that type of life, you start to realize that fruit, and it doesn't have to be a massive thing. That's another thing is everyone's like, I don't know how to feed children, or, I don't know how to save someone from human trafficking. You don't have to. Right? Um, if you wanna lose 10 pounds, just start with losing a half a pound. If you wanna do a hundred pushups, make a goal to do one tomorrow. Start super small. All you have to do is a tiny input right into this flywheel. Consistently, consistently do one pushup. Every morning, just make yourself do it. All of a sudden you're gonna do three, and then you're gonna do five, and you're gonna do seven, and you're gonna see that belief flywheel change. 'cause your new goal is not gonna be one, it's gonna be 10, and then it's gonna be 20, and then you're gonna get momentum and it's like, oh man, I bet I could do a thousand someday if I, if I went at it long enough. Um. So, but you brought up, uh, something really important of like, um, guarding those beliefs, you know, the inputs and I think, uh, let, let's touch on that 'cause it's so important because the world does just absolutely bombard you with negativity. Um, I think that the key tactic for that, that I learned a long time was actually meditation. I think meditation is unbelievably powerful, and I do it like three times a week for 20 minutes. So this isn't something where, from my point of view, we have to go sit in the woods for two hours, you know, every day. Um, but step one is you have to recognize like, what thoughts are you allowing into your brain? And that was a huge surprise to me when I first started this. It was like, oh my gosh. There's like a million things flying in my head all the time. You know, this idea, this idea, this or that. And step one for me was recognizing like, what, what am I believing? Like what am I thinking all the time? And once you learn, like to kind of quiet that down, then you can work on what you're gonna input into it. Right. Are you gonna input into it that terrible thing that happened to new when you were six? Are you gonna input into it how terrible your mom or dad or uncle were, are you gonna put into it that bully that we all know of right from, from high school? Or are you gonna put in, input it the time that you got an a on your spelling test? Right? Or, or that, uh, you had a tiny company and you, and you were successful that first six months. So for me, it's like. You can put anything you want into your, into your brain, uh, as your raw material for your belief set. Uh, I only put in positive stuff of where I've won or I've succeeded or, um, or my wife walking down the aisle, right? Like, I'll think about that. Like what a great moment. How alive have I felt? Um, so I think it's really important to, to really protect what goes in your brain. I think the saying is you can't help if a bird lands on your head. Right. But you can certainly, it's certainly your fault if it built a nest.

Exactly. Um. You've alluded many times to the, the feeding of the children and, and, uh, the trafficking. Tell us how that ties into your business. Is it, is it a direct part of your business? Is it a, how does that fit in there and how, how did you get into that?

Yeah.

expand more on that. Uh, we've got about 20 minutes left, so.

Sure. Yeah. Well, um, high level, it starts with this idea that I believe we wanna be part of a larger story. And it's my job as a leader to as much as I can allow my team members to tar to participate in that. And that larger story can be like the success of a company or, um, executing on our, on our, um, goals for the year. But even larger than that, I think is like affecting a human life. I don't think it gets any bigger than that. So for me, part of the story is like, I lost my father when I was 12. So in my mind it's like, okay, did that happen to me or did that happen for me? I don't wish it to ever happen again. But what are some takeaways from that? Well, I'll tell you what, and I'll answer your question. He wasn't the best dad in the world. I would've rather have had a great dad that was still with me, but he wasn't very, he wasn't a great father. But even still going through all of that. He taught me how to be a great father. Right. I know everything not to go do you. Right? Uh, now would I have rather have him teach me by being great? Yes. But either way, this was a learning moment for me, right. And like my goal is to be the best dad and husband in the world. Right. And who taught me that? My dad did indirectly by not doing it right. I, so there was an experience there. So then I took that and I thought, okay, how can I, you know, help as many kids as possible? Because statistically the, the kids that are in trouble or struggling, most likely don't have a father figure. So from my standpoint, it's like I didn't have a dad. How can I go be a dad to millions? Right? Or as many people as I can. So. That's an example of, to answer your question of like, how something negative in my life happened, how I'm gonna use that to do something really positive. And then you connect that together with the idea of like, we need to, we need to create a larger story. We, we need to create an impact with what we do. So how we do it is each year we find a, a, a nonprofit. That I think is doing an absolutely amazing job, right? Stewarding the donations, making an absolute great impact. And every year we partner with a new one and, um, we set our company goals and we're like, Hey, if we hit our goals, like we're able to donate this much. It'll be a million kids if we hit our goals, our 200 girls we can fund. If we hit this goal, that was a couple years ago, two years ago, it was, uh, domestic abuse, right? So it's like, hey, if we hit our goals, we can afford to, to donate enough to this nonprofit that's local, uh, to help a hundred kids. Um. Last year it was the Frazier Institute, which is like the biggest nonprofit for autism. 'cause the au, you know, autistic rates are going through the roof. So we were the, the keynote speaker and the, the, the key, um, the presenting sponsor there. And we helped them raise a record number of money that, like, they raised more money during that event than they ever have. And they've been around like, I think it was 83 years or something like that. So, um, so that's how we do it. We find a nonprofit. Every year that we're gonna partner with and we put all of our, all of our desire behind, uh, hitting the goal so we can help as many kids as possible. Uh, and it's not just a donation of money. We also do a quarterly service project. And if that nonprofit's local, we'll go and like I. Help them. Um, you know, like if it's kids we'll pack meals. Um, for the Frazier Institute it was donating like toys that, uh, with, with like sensory, uh, sensory toys. Um, so we try to find a way to not just give money. I think it's, I think it's good to drop a nickel in somebody else's dream, but I think it's better to go, uh, to really serve with your time as well. So we make sure we do that.

The Frazier Institute you mentioned specifically, uh, if you've done this. Search and found some that you've have deemed very worthy. Could you share those? Uh, we may have some listeners that want that are,

Yeah,

may

I,

to have a recommendation for a donation or a, an organization they can trust. Can you mention a few more?

yeah. No, no, no. No worries. Um, feed My Starving Children. I think is incredible organization. The stats there like are mind blowing once again, generalists. So I'm not exactly right on the stat, but it's something like 98% or 99% of the meals that they pack actually get to the children, which is incredible that we're packing them in like Minnesota and somehow they get to some, you know, child in some country I'm not, I'm not even aware of. Right. Um, so. Feed My Starving Children is very good. Um, I'm trying to remember, I might have to put it in the show notes of the, the human trafficking one. Um, it's also very underground from the standpoint of like, nobody really knows they exist because that's part of their secret sauce. Like they get embedded into these countries, um, and they, they partner with local authorities and they kind of try to fly under the radar because they don't. They have to like, get embedded into these kind of communities or into these really dark places. So, um, I think it's called Mai is the name of it, if I remember correctly. That was two or three years ago. Um, I'm sure with Google or ai, you can find the right, the right one if you Google Mai, um, they're an incredible organization as well.

When you were talking about your, uh, work environment, you talked about celebrating successes and achievements reminded me of story, that I heard of, of Pixar in the early years, uh, with Steve Jobs and the early developers there that, uh, when someone had a breakthrough, this would be with the production of Toy Story, the first movie, uh, someone had a breakthrough with their lighting simulation or. Uh, animation of some type. One of their big rewards was to allow that person to go to the toy chest and pick a toy.

Ah,

would be models of, uh, the characters in the movie perhaps, or things that they've worked on before, uh, early in the Pixar thing. Uh, and that was quite a mental image to see. you've seen pictures of the staff on Pixar in early years, they all look like Steve Jobs would've without the suit. Uh. Fresh outta college

sure.

like myself, nerds to the nth degree. Uh, not worried about anything going on outside their own little thing and just, and enjoying life and excelling at what they do. Uh, so that reminded me, and sounded like maybe your organizations have a lot to do or are very similar to some of the things that happened in Pixar and many, many other successful organizations, uh, because they are just things that work. But you said that brought up a, in your mind, a story or a quote from Steve Jobs. Tell us what you had.

Yeah, well, it's, uh, I'm in the studio, but if I, if I was in the room right, right over here, you'd see it on the wall and it, it's basically this idea that everything you see, um, was created by somebody just like you. And I think for me that was really, that was really an important moment in my life. Um, you know, I remember my first job and I got invited to a meeting and I'm working with like the executives at this massive company. And I won't say the name of the company, but it's a massive company. And I remember being like 25 or 26, and this might sound super arrogant, but I'll share the truth. I thought in there I was kind of disappointed. I thought when I get to the business world and I'm working with like. Senior executives that they were gonna be the most brilliant, smartest, well-spoken, unbelievably perfect people, right? Like business robots. And I realized they're just kind of like me, just 20 years older, a little smarter, which they should be. 'cause they've been doing this thing for 20 years. Right? And I remember being very disappointed, but then I remembered, um, the Steve Jobs quote, and it's like, well, no. That was a false belief. You know, I'm, if you're listening, like I'm nobody special. I grew up in a tiny town of like 2000 people of nowhere, Iowa, right? But, uh, the Steve Jobs quote really hits home and we talk about it all the time of like, everything that you see, look around you was created or made or thought up by somebody. Who's very much, very much, very similar to who you are. Um, so I think that's a really impactful quote just to remember because it's an absolute lie. It's an absolute lie that you're not good enough, you're not smart enough, or this had this happened to you, therefore you can't. It's like, no, this happened for you. Therefore you can, 'cause the world's not working against you. It's absolutely working for you. Um, it's just you that has to get outta the way.

Oh, fantastic. Um. We've got a few minutes left and I, I have one my zinger question that I'm kind of say for the end. I'll give you a preview of it. I, there's always a question that should have been asked and that I've missed. So while I kind of wrap up some thoughts here, I want you to be thinking about what did I miss? If it's not at the top of your head, and, uh, maybe take a few minutes to give us a, a final summary. Uh, or a final note that our listeners can, can take with them. Uh, but I, I would like to say this because this struck me several times. Uh, and I don't wanna pontificate too long because, people aren't here to hear me. They're here to hear you. being, I'm a, I'm an audiobook narrator, I'm a voice actor, and I have narrated, uh, thousands of audiobooks. The majority of those are nonfiction, and the majority of those nonfiction are self-help and self-improvement. So sometimes I, I've never actually put this in my byline, I should be, I'm not, but I should be the most self improved person in the world just based on the number of books I've read and the amount of time that I've put into the process of, of going through self-help and self-improvement. But no matter how many books you read, it'd be like finance, there's. An infinite possibly number of books, but there's only, there's a very finite number of principles from those books. if you boil down every self-help book, I think that's out there from the most fundamental, uh, Napoleon Hill, uh, Del Carnegie, all those into the modern ones that, you know, sell for 99 cents on, on Kindle or on Amazon, you boil 'em down to a handful of principles. And what I was struck by as you spoke, whether you said these explicitly or it was implied in an attitude, most of those things I see embodied in your vision and, and in your attitude and in your words. I find it fascinating monitoring your, so staying away from the negative, the meditation, which we barely touched on, but uh, uh, research is beyond. Uh, beyond question how beneficial meditation is. And it, as you say, not, uh, a lot of people do that. A lot of people don't. If it's just simply mindfulness meditation, uh, but that calmness of some type, so many things that you brought, uh, celebrating the positive building momentum, setting realistic goals, achieving them, and moving on and taking negative and making it a positive just. A fantastic collaboration of things you've put into your mind, you apply to your life, and seems to be evident in the things that you've, uh, achieved. And, and in speaking with you, it's been an honor really. I'm, I'm glad I had a chance to talk to you. I feel like you did, maybe walking into that CEO's, uh, office or the business office. I'm a, I'm a bit humbled, uh. To be able to spend some time with you and to learn some things, and I certainly have. So in the or less minutes that we have left, I'm sure I missed something that you want to impart to our, uh, listeners or a, a piece of information you could share. Something, uh, that we haven't touched on yet or something you maybe wanna reiterate. I'll leave the last few minutes to you and, uh, and then we'll sign off.

Sure. Yeah, no, I think a couple things, right? So, one, um, try when you, when you're, when you're in your car, everybody complains about the commute, right? Commute is a blessing. Here's an, here's an opportunity where you get to kind of be alone with your own thoughts. So in all things I would, I would push you to educate and not entertain, right? So I barely listen to music. I'll listen to music if I know like I'm in a poor state or I'm sad, or I'm, I'm frustrated, like, and I need to get like some energy. I'll use music as a tool, but not, not to just kind of drown out. So in all that you do try to educate. Versus entertain, um, podcast, audio books, whatever. Um, and, and, and on your favorite subject, like there's something, and if you don't know what this is, like here's it to do and it can be go on a walk and and think about it every morning till, till something inside you comes alive. Or go journal or go try to meditate and see like, what's that thing your brain keeps going back to? But there's something inside of all of us, right? That we were either. Created to do, which would be my belief, or you evolved to, to do, um, that you really love doing and whatever that topic is, like, go be an expert on that. Like, that's what you'd love. So go throw as many inputs as you can on that. Right? So that's, that would be number one. Another ask I I, I get from a lot of people or question I get is like, for, for somebody just starting their business career or you're just outta college, like, you know, whether you're into business or not, like we all have to have jobs and careers. It's like, what do you do? It's like, for me, I think try to work for the largest company that you possibly can out of high school or outta college. Um, 'cause you just get exposed to so much, so many different people the way they think the best practices. Um, and, and it's just use it as a great learning opportunity. They also have like better training, right? So if you don't know what to do. That's totally fine. I didn't know what I wanted to do until like, you know, a couple years ago. It's like, oh, this is actually what I want to do. Great. Um, so that would be number two. And then back to your point, uh, Russell on, you know, appreciate the compliments on like, hey, you've read all these books and you're like a self-help guru and genius from all that you've read, and I'm nailing on a lot of things obviously. That's great to hear. In comforting. You know, what's surprising to me is I actually haven't read. Any of those books. I'm not a self-help guru from my standpoint. Like that's not what I listen to. I listen to business and like KPI stuff and like how to grow a team. Um, how so all, all of this is like learned right through one thing and that's just taking action. And I think like all of us, not all of us, but a lot of us are like very paralyzed at even trying 'cause you don't want to fail and we call that head trash. That is just a BS belief that we call head trash. Like just go take the first step. I don't care what your goal is in your mind, make it as big as possible and then cut it down to like, what's the tiniest, tiniest action you could take. So back to the one pushup a day back to the, I'm gonna half a pound a week, like whatever it is. Start really small and then just take action and know one thing. One thing is this, the world is always changing. You are always changing. Everything is always changing. So if you have a goal to get from A to B. By definition, you're gonna have to change how you get there probably many, many times. And that's totally, totally okay. Like we, yes, we hit all of our goals. It's normally with like two or three pivots, as we call it. Uh, in the business world, they call the pivot. It sounds safer. All a pivot is, I failed the first time and now I'm changing course. Right? Like. Even planes when they fly to New York to la mid-flight will pivot. 'cause a storm will come up, pivot's totally fine. That's what you want. And you wanna learn along the way, like what's the new direction. So, um, that's a couple like, uh, shotgun, uh, answer to, to your one question of, of of three or four different things. Uh, start small, uh, educate versus entertain. Right? 'cause you always want to be growing and getting smarter. Uh, and then just go, like, just start it and don't be afraid, um, of what happens. And, and I'll say one more thing 'cause now you got me on a roll. Here's another saying, another saying of ours is like, embrace the weird. Okay? And here's what I mean by that. Like, if, if you ask me, Hey, do you want to have, uh, uh, a normal life. Or an extraordinary life. Everybody will say, I think extraordinary life. Okay, so therefore I don't wanna be like most people. It sounds bad, but I don't, like, if I don't want to be like everyone else, then I don't want to be like most people. Right. So, uh, alright, well, um, therefore what I do with my time and what I do with my thoughts are gonna be weird. It's gonna be different. Like, yes, I get up at like four 30 and yes, I do like a cold plunge. And yes, I do all these things that some people are like, that's so weird. Like you don't listen to music, you just listen to audio books. That's weird. And I'm like, that's right. And I embrace the weird, because I don't want to be normal. I want to be. Abnormal And that's weird. So that's another thing I just want to hit of like, you might have a goal and you're like, you're afraid 'cause you might feel weird or different or judged great. 'cause that's, that's, that's when you know you're on your way to being special is when you're not like anything else around you. So embrace, I'll leave you with this. Embrace the weird, it's the way to go.

It's the way to go. Fantastic. The cold plunge. Yeah, it, you might not have read any self-help books, but you need to write a self-help book. You have, you have the material, uh. That people need to hear, and I'm glad I had this opportunity. I'll, I'll certainly be looking for more of your information. I believe I saw several interviews, uh, on YouTube with you. I, I didn't watch them yet, but certainly going to, and to learn more about your attitude, your, your value system and so forth. that's the hour. Dan, I greatly appreciate your time and, um. I, I guess we're done for now. So thanks listeners for joining in, uh, Dan Bowling. Check him out on, uh, his company is@thegenesiscompany.com and you can follow links from there to, to learn more about and also check the show notes. We'll have links to all the things that we mentioned available there. Thank you, Dan.

You got it. Thanks everybody.