George Bryant: Cultivating Leadership and Authenticity | Ep05

Christian
What is up, beautiful people? Super excited to be here today with a very special guest. His name is George Bryant, and he is the mastermind behind the Relationships Beat Algorithms brand and model. Since then, he’s transformed some of the biggest online brands across multiple industries. And he really, what I love about George, he really just has this emphasis on power of relationships and how you’re able to scale your brand with the right customer journey and the right tools to a multimillion dollar business.

And his mission really is to help entrepreneurs ethically scale their business and shifting marketing paradigms. Through relationships. Welcome to the podcast George.

 

George Bryant
Brother. It’s an honor I feel like I’m home with my brother And so I I think you should know this by the way, just so you know, you are the first person This is the first interview in my new home studio that I finished yesterday So you are literally breaking the cherry and this is first time being interviewed recorded in this spot that I literally finished last night At like 10 p.m. 

Christian
Wow, that’s such an honor. Like I feel Oftentimes when I get into touch with people’s like brands through my agency or yeah, yeah through my work I feel like I’m always this like touch of light. It was like, yeah, you know, I like I always like brighten things up You know, so it’s such an honor to be um, you know first interview in your in your studio and Incredible, you know, I feel… 

George Bryant
I feel like I feel like though. Hold on. You gotta own that for a minute because I feel like you just gave me the easiest way to intro you because I talk about you probably like two to three times a week. You came up last night and this morning in a conversation because I have many future intros for you coming. But that is what you do so well is you put a touch of light everywhere that you go.

And it’s so beautiful too because you brought my pink to life like legitimately like next to me. I literally have our stuff and my sound panels and my pink living through because, because of you. So I just, I, I could echo back to you the same thing of like, yeah, yep. Uh, I’ve had the vision. I’ve built million dollar businesses.

I’ve taken people to billions. I’ve done all of that. And still to this day. You are the one and only first ever web designer that I trusted, fully gave my vision to, removed myself from the process, and literally, probably will never change that website. And you know the colors are staying and all that stuff staying, but like, maybe what it looks like, but like, still in my entire career, 2008 until 2024 of doing web stuff, I built everything myself and you’re still the first person and the only one I’ve ever paid.

And I was like, yep. That’s why I waited 16 years is for your little light to come touch my world So I just I got to give kudos and gracias and gratitude back to you my friend. 

Christian
Thank you. I fully received that Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. It’s it’s such an honor. I think That’s really that’s the power of your entire mission here on earth, George.

Like, you connect people and you bring people together and you really know how that impacts people’s businesses at the end of the day. And I think that’s really something I want to talk about. Maybe we can skip your story a little bit for now. Yeah, let’s just skip it. Because I’d love for us to just like, Let’s just get into the depth of like, why are we here?

What are we doing, bro? Like, come on, this is our life and we can do anything we want with it. So beautiful that you chose your mission and it’s such an honor to support you in that. Relationships be algorithms. Tell me more about that. 

George Bryant
Yeah. And you know what? I’ll tie, I’ll tie some story into what you just said, but also, um, I didn’t choose this mission.

This mission chose me. Right. And, and I will answer your question as well as give a context to why we ended up here. Right. I, as much as I love what I do, as much as I’m like humbled and honored by the accolades and the praise and like, I have a bedpost of, of Some of the most grateful wins ever that have the drastic amounts of positive impact on humanity, right?

Like it’s so easy for me to sit on this side and people hear me speak about loving your customers and customer journey and building and scaling your business and treating them the right way. So the first thing to really understand, and instead of sharing the whole story of accolades and quote unquote failures, which are just incredible moments that made me today, I think it’s more important to understand why I know this.

And it’s because I did it all wrong. It’s because I wasn’t taught the right way. I wasn’t brought up in internet marketing the right way. I was like a hack figuring it out. And back then it was upsell, downsell, transaction, marketing. And I’m blessed with the timeliness. Like I, I came on the internet when Facebook strategy.

Was post linearly every 15 minutes. So you were always at the top of the newsfeed and my first Facebook account I had to make a fake college email to get a Facebook account cuz I didn’t go to college Like that’s when I came on Facebook, right? Like I’ve been in the game for a while But my number one core belief Christian is what happened Is that when the internet was born, right?

We created this entire world outside of the real world. And I think problem number one is people think it’s a separate world. Then the real world and they started operating from that paradigm in this blue ocean of like, Oh, my God. Like, I remember when we ran Facebook ads for the first time, no joke. We’d go out of business right now, but we could put one out up with just an image of the product that said, buy this now.

And we would run it to 18 to 99 plus people everywhere in the country. And we would get a 20 X row as because nobody was running ads, right? It was just this blue ocean and yeah. In my opinion, what happened with marketing and in the state of especially digital business and doing business online is there’s two parts.

There’s people that are complacent and there’s people that are complicit, right? And the complacency comes from first us understanding that our job is not done when somebody buys our product. That’s a liability. Our job is done when they’ve moved one step closer. Towards their goal or dream state through the use of our product.

And we understand that none of us would go into the store to buy this 49 inch monitor in front of me and then come home and it not work and be like, Oh, I’m not returning it. I’m not complaining. I guess I’m just okay with it. And we would never allow that company to just sell us the monitor, not functionally, we would never hire a personal trainer and then not let them give us the workouts.

Right? So it’s this common sense piece where you’re like, wait. When did we ever start making it about just the sale rather than the result? And I think what people fail to recognize is that as of 2023, 93 percent of marketing is word of mouth and I can say it to everybody right now. And I’m like, okay, cool.

You just went to an internet marketing conference. You haven’t been in six months and we just all bumped into each other. I’m like, Oh my God, what’s been going on. And if you listen to that conversation. You will hear nothing but all the people in the industry, the programs, the courses that screwed them over, right?

And here’s the craziest part. Most of them bought them and never got into them. They never opened them. They never even logged in. They got treated in that system, right? And so we know that that’s not the game. The other side of it where people are complicit is everybody who’s like, Oh my God, they have my easy button.

I’ll just keep buying these 900 courses, these 500 courses and keep expecting a different result. But understanding that this part of the ecosystem only exists because people pay for it to keep it existing and the cycle feeds itself. But at the end of the day, what we have is human beings and every decision that a human being makes is an emotional based decision.

And I say this all the time and the ladies laugh the most, right? And I was like, yeah, ladies in the audience, right? When was the last time you were so excited to pay with your credit card and then you felt unsafe and paid faster? And they all chuckle, right? And they’re like, well, yeah, of course not, right?

I’m like, how many of you have been about to hire a coach? And literally heard one thing that made your body feel unsafe, and then was like, nope, I can’t do it. And they’re like, yep, right, so we know exactly what we’re talking about, right? And I personally, Christian, because I was brought up the wrong way, I made the millions.

I had everything on paper, I had millions of followers, and I was empty and dead on the inside, because I never realized the collateral damage I caused. But when you start having conversations with moms, Who are like, I spent my grocery money to buy your course and it didn’t work. And now I have to figure out where to feed my kids.

Now, am I saying that it’s my responsibility to make somebody do the results or do the work? No, but it sure as shit, my responsibility to look at it and be like, does this give them the chance? And the challenge was, I wasn’t willing to look because they were right. And that whole trap that was created with the go fast now, the internet’s here, make money here, make money here, people forget about the collateral damage.

Because for every five people out of the hundred that you converted, those 95 people, if I put them in a room, are not having a positive experience. They are not having something positive to say. They’re still in an open loop, they’re still in trauma and pain, and so it relegates them to only be able to speak about us in controversy.

Like, as a human, human level, before marketing, before business, before any of it. If a human being has an open loop, meaning they’re like, George, I want your help so bad with my workouts. And I’m like, I’d love to help you with your workouts. Give me your credit card. Here you go. And three months down the road, they still haven’t achieved that goal.

And you are like, Oh my God, Jackie, should I work with George? Jackie has zero evidence to say anything. So she is only allowed to do one of two things. Be like, I don’t have an opinion, which we don’t like not having those. Or you shouldn’t work with him because it doesn’t work. And everybody knows what I’m talking about right now.

We’ve seen it, right? I can think of everybody right now, if we were to walk around your house, we can look through a pantry, look through a closet and find an item of clothing, a product, a service, a book, a digital program that you’ve bought. that you’ve never opened. And if I was to ask you about it and I was like, Christian, oh my God, I’m thinking about buying that course.

Should I get it? You’re not going to look me dead in the eye and be like, oh man, you’ll never believe it. I paid a thousand dollars for it. I never opened it. And I totally think you should do it. And you’re like, shit, I’d never say that. I’m like, none of us would write. None of us would, right? We would, if we were being authentic and honest, but the inverse of that is understanding that we’re the ones that give people that evidence.

And it’s not because they don’t complete it all the way. It’s because they don’t get any closer. Because what happens typically is like, oh, you bought the product. I just spent six months courting you. Here you go. Good luck. Right? And so how we got here and how I got here was doing it all the wrong way.

And it cost me everything, like everything. Like people can look on paper Christian and they’ll see the, oh, he’s a New York Times bestselling cookbook author. He had a number one app in the world. He tied a world record, right? He had millions of social media followers. And I’m like, uh huh. And. It’s all gone, because it was built on hollow ground, and it, I’m one of those people that God’s taught me very well that I like to learn the hard way until I start to listen, right?

And so it wasn’t once, it wasn’t twice, it was over and over and over and over again, and it wasn’t until I walked away from it all. Like I literally deleted my company. I deleted my social media. And then my friends are like, how did you do what you did? And I built that business very, very good. But then I started going into all my friends companies and all of their product companies and service companies.

And I was like, all of you are making this about the product. What about the person? Like, what about the person who’s taking a journey? Like, what if it was your mother in that funnel? What if it was your wife in that funnel? Like, would you be okay if your kids read those emails? And would that get them a result?

And a lot of people don’t want to answer that question, but here’s the funny part. Your wife’s in my funnel. Your husband’s in my funnel. And if I do that to them, you’ll be the first one to come attack me. But yet, when we look in the mirror, We forget that our job is not just creating something, right? I say this to people all the time.

Your message is only as effective as the recipient’s ability. And thank you for the reframe in the room, Christian. I remember the event when you asked me about this, your recipient’s ability to hear it, understand it and implement it without you. That’s how you know your message is effective, right?

Because if we think about right now, How many people have PDFs, courses, or videos downloaded on their computer that they’ve never opened, but yet we’re making business decisions saying, oh, I need more customers, and I was like, what? To amplify the amount of future customers you’re never going to have, to amplify the amount of results they can’t tell people about, to amplify all the negative things they can say about you and your reputation, and then wondering why your ads don’t get quality engagement, why your social doesn’t get engagement and why it seems like it’s harder and harder and harder to get new customers.

You mean, because your reputation is everything and how people feel. Determines every action they take with you. And I can go back to 2020 when Litmus did a study on this, when email was the king, right? Email’s still important. It’s just not the king. It’s more of one touchpoint in a mo, in a, in a multitude of touchpoints now, but in 2020, they did this entire study and I’d have to find it, but I remember the numbers vividly.

And they surveyed thousands of people about email. And this is the one I remember the most. 51 percent of people who open your email in their inbox, their only determining factor is the name that it’s from and their relationship with that person. Not the subject line, not the copy that’s inside of it, which just, I always laugh for people.

They’re like, no one’s opening my emails, the copy’s off. I’m like, they didn’t open the email to read the copy. You’re in the wrong place, bro. Subject line or sender, right? But 51 percent of people. said that they only opened the email based on their relationship with the sender. Now here’s the other mind blowing part.

It was like 56 percent of people without opening the email took an associated action with that brand. Meaning they’d see your name in the inbox, be like, God, Christian, I love Christian. Not even read your email and then be like, God, I gotta go see if Christian’s new podcast is out. And then go over anyways based on their relationship with the sender.

Right? And we think about all these experiences in life, right? You and I, we go out to eat together, we’ll go have tea together, we’ll be hugging in a week when we see each other, right? Like, we, we will do those things, but you and I could go out to dinner and have the absolute best meal of our life with horrible service and never go back to that restaurant.

And then we can go to a restaurant with sub quality food, have the best experience ever, and then when we leave, we tell everybody to go in the hole in the wall And to ignore the pictures and ignore this because it’s just so worth it. That is all relationship based. That is all human based. It’s all belief based.

And so to give credence here, when I started going into these companies, like a supplement company that was doing a million dollars a month, everyone’s like, Oh my God, you scaled that company to a billion. I was like, yeah, we had a 2 million day 18 months later, but nobody wants to hear what I did. They want to talk about the results.

You think I emailed them about fucking collagen and yes, God, I’m saying it on purpose. Like that one gets to tickle. No, they were already buying that product. They were already getting emails about that product. It was about the person. I added five emails. I acknowledged them. I prepared them for what we were doing.

I projected them to be the hero of their own journey. I pre handled the objections and said, Hey, this is going to happen. And this is going to happen. But when it does do this, Hey, now that you have all this, your product should be there. And this is the most. Excited and prepared you’ve ever been, and we’re going to help you do this.

And it wasn’t, we’re going to trick you. We want your credit card. It was like, no, no, no. Like you came to me to buy this product and I said, I would get you a result in this product. Great. My first job is to keep my word because integrity matters. So I have to design an experience that gives you the best chance of getting that product.

I don’t know, just like if you’re a personal trainer. You don’t have a business if every time you sell a workout program, nobody can follow it and nobody gets the results. I don’t think you’d end up as an Olympic trainer or a coach in that lens. And so I think what ends up happening or what ended up happening to close the whole loop of the story is that we treat the internet differently than we do the real world and we pretend that it’s a different ecosystem and we make these isolated echo chamber.

Decisions that cause permanent damage both in the real world and in the virtual world and everyone’s like, yeah, but what do you mean? I’m like, okay, cool. Well, let’s take your digital offer right now. I love that you help people unlock their identity I love that you help them build a brand. I love that you help them make social media marketing real It’s like I love all of that, right?

Amazing. Uh, I only love it if when you give it to somebody They can actually get the result. But if you are selling me a course or you’re selling me an offering like George I’m gonna help you with your social media. I’m like amazing and then I come pay you and within 10 seconds of paying You’re like hey, I know I told you you needed that social media thing But you know what what you just said yes to isn’t enough and I’m now gonna tell you that I lied to you because if You pay me more I can get you the results faster, but less work and you’re like what?

Okay, and then you’re like, okay, and you’re like, no, and then it’s like, okay, I know you said no, and I know you bought this original thing, but do you want to add this other thing that costs even less money that you didn’t need that we didn’t talk about because I’m tricking you and damaging our entire relationship and reputation, and I don’t recognize that this is also going to be why you refund the first product, and you’re like, oh, and when I say it like that, All of a sudden people are like, Oh shit.

I’m like, yeah. So let’s imagine we go to the grocery store and me and Christian go to Whole Foods in Dallas next week. And we buy some tea, some coffee, some collagen and some eggs. And then we get to the checkout stand and we finished paying. And then we walk and at the door, they’re like, wait, gents, hold on, I saw you had a dozen eggs.

Would you like to add two dozen more for half the price? And we’d look at them and be like, well, no, if we wanted two dozen more, we would have just gotten them off the shelf, like when we were looking. And you’re like, okay, have a good day. And then we get to the trunk of the car and we’re loading up groceries and they come chasing us down with four dozen eggs.

And they’re like, I know, I know I was going to give you the two dozen for that price, but what if I gave you four dozen for the same price? And at that point we get arrested for assault. But yet we think it’s okay to do on the internet every day. And we wonder why we don’t get the results. When I say relationships beat algorithms, people most of the time don’t recognize that the relationship is the thing preventing you from getting the result.

The relationship is what’s preventing you from getting the revenue. It’s not your product. It’s not your service. I know those are incredible. I know when you know something you can help somebody get there. But if they can’t understand it, implement it, and achieve it without you, or we haven’t thought through that, we’re just creating liabilities at scale and expecting positive results.

And it can’t happen that way. And so for me, It’s really, really genuine understanding that like marketing is nothing more than relationship building at scale, publicly, one on one. Customer journey is nothing more than keeping our word and saying, yes, when you pay me for a product or service, like kind of when you pay me to come get an oil change, you would expect it when you get back in your car.

I put a new filter in, I put your drain plug in, and your car functions. And if I didn’t, you wouldn’t be too happy about it. But when we sell products and services, our job is not done the moment somebody buys them. Our job is only done the moment they get a result. Oh, and by the way, this is what’s so funny.

Everybody wants referrals. What evidence can somebody give a referral on when they haven’t made progress or gotten closer to their goal? You mean it’s not a good idea when you sell a product four days after they buy it before it’s ever come in the mail to send them an email asking for a fucking review?

Yeah, what are they gonna tell you? Nothing, right? Or, hey guys, I know you’ve been in my program for 35 days and I only emailed you on day one and you probably haven’t watched any of the videos, but will you do me a favor? Will you record a video testimonial telling all your friends how amazing I am? And then that person is in shame.

They can’t record that video and we’re making it worse because they have no evidence or results to show for it. And that’s like literally setting everybody up to fail and we don’t think through that. But there’s human beings on the other side of everything that we do and need I remind you those human beings that you ignore?

Pay your fucking bills. They keep clothes on your kids back. They put gas in your car and they give you the ability to not think through or care through what they’re going through. Well, they still pay you. looking for help and hope because they’re moving away from pain and they’re stuck in a situation or in a belief that you’ve broken through and then your job is to help them get through it.

That’s what you make that declaration is. We would never walk into a brick and mortar business and accept or tolerate the behaviors or the things that we do on the internet. But yet we wonder why the people that walk into those brick and mortar businesses aren’t our customers. Because the internet is the brick and mortar business.

It’s just instead of me seeing you once a day as you window shop, I get to see you 820 times a day on every platform you’re window shopping the world on. But the experience is the same. And that’s the part that most people mess out on and lose. And I was blessed. To have made it all and lost it all and then be able to stand in front of people who paid me money and see the results of that and have the conversations with those people to see what happens when it’s extrapolated out at scale.

And when you start to understand that game, I’ll simplify it to everybody. Human beings only share for one of five reasons. Humor, credibility, education, social status, and controversy. Well, they need evidence for all of them. And so you want somebody to send their friend your product, right? So Susie wants to send you collagen and you want to tell I want you to tell your friend Susie about collagen.

I’m like, okay, cool. I sold you a product. I emailed you once and said, Hey, it’s on the way. Good luck. Then two days later I start dropping you into my normal newsletter, selling you other products that you already probably already bought and you haven’t achieved your first one. And then 30 days later, your friend Susie comes up and it’s like, Christian, should I take collagen and it’s been shelf help in your pantry the whole time?

Well, You have nothing funny to share, you have nothing to increase your credibility, you have nothing to educate them on, you can’t elevate your social status because you’re not taking it, so what’s the one bucket that’s left? Controversy. And so the only thing I can say is it doesn’t work, or don’t take it, or don’t buy it, or the worst one is I don’t even acknowledge that I owned it.

I’m like, Oh, I don’t know. You might want to check that out because I feel shame being like, Oh yeah, there’s two canisters in my pantry I’ve never taken, even though I told you that I wanted healthier hair, skin, and nails. And so we forget that in order to even get a testimonial, to order even to get a referral, to even get a customer to become a raving fan or become our biggest referral machine, they have to be living in the product of our product.

They have to be the example. Of that product, or that belief, or that movement, or that community, to have any chance to them to even want to tell you. But the only reason I tell so many people about you, I told them before, but once I had a piece of pink evidence, that’s the most beautiful pink website I’ve ever seen in my life.

Now, it’s the first thing I show people. I don’t have to tell them how amazing you are, Christian. I just show them the diagram on my right, or the laptop. design that you put on there, or the colors that you put on there, but because I’m proud of it, because it achieved something for me. And so now, instead of you having to ask me, I do it more than you could ever ask me, because I am benefiting in the byproduct.

I’m like, it is amazing, isn’t it? Yeah, I love it. And he’s amazing. And he takes care of people. And he’d take care of you. And I trust him with my life. Like, I only win. And then when I introduce somebody to you and they get Christian’s light in their life, it only helps me. They’re like, God, you introduced me to Christian, Christian took care of me.

That means you are amazing. You kept your word. And that whole thing continues. And then we think about how many people we’ve referred or we’ve been referred to that somebody didn’t get a result and they gave that false referral or they’re like, Oh, I think you should go with them. And then you get screwed over and then you’re tarnished on both sides.

You don’t like the referral. The person who gave it to you don’t like, can trust anymore. And then we just think that’s normal behavior and it’s somehow going to magically fix itself. Nah. It’s human beings all day. And you nailed it at the beginning, we get to pick and choose and be whoever we want to be.

Well, for me, I just asked myself very simply, would I be proud of myself to stand in a room full of all the people that I’ve ever taken money from with my family and friends in the room and be open and willing to hear everything that they have to say? And if the answer to that question for you is no, you don’t belong in business.

You belong in bed. Or building somebody else’s business. Because if you think leadership is anything else, or you think business is anything else, you’ll never find a legacy company, a company that’s been around for five to 10 years, a company that’s made five, 10 million that’s built on the back of negative press or negative referrals or screwing people over.

They all share one thing in common. People get results. They feel like they’re a part of something. They feel like they belong to something. They feel supported by the company. It’s not magic and it’s not rocket science. It’s intentionality. And that’s where you win the game is understanding that they’re people.

And we were those people at some time as well, and probably still are at this point as I have my own coaches and I have my own people and it’s like for me to think like, yeah, when my tax guy and my cashflow guys, like, yeah, when you pay me, this is what we’re going to do. I have an expectation that we get there and we work together and we communicate it and we do it just like we all do.

But that doesn’t advocate us from creating the same experience for our customers. That’s what they’re paying us for in the first place. And they’re paying us not just with credit cards. They’re paying us with attention. When you decide to plant your flag and be like, I’m gonna help you, that doesn’t mean only when you give me your credit card.

Nike doesn’t say just do it, only if you wear my running shoes. Right? It’s like, just do it. We’re here to help you, right? But attention is the real monetary gain here. Because what we’re really, quote unquote, monetizing is relationships. And if people don’t feel like they’re in one, if they don’t feel like they’re a part of one, no behavior that they take can be positive on either side. And so, that’s my short answer. 

Christian
I love it. I love it. Um, I’ll let that sink in for a moment because, hey, you’ve said so much that it’s really, significant and just calls out the flaws of the internet that’s been becoming so, I feel masculine. It was, I was, uh, just last week I was in Guatemala. I was visiting some friends and digital moments.

Um, cause I’m based in Naples. I have a wife and child, you know, a little bit more, you know, established, I would say, but it was a great trip. And, um, we got to talk about the internet. What’s the internet, you know? So it’s like, it’s just a bunch of code technology, technology in itself feels very masculine and boxy.

And I feel a lot of times when I talk to women, which we have a lot of, you know, just women who come to us because of our brand is very like, Feminine, just like receptive and feels safe, even the name Love Pixel, like we have, I would say 80 percent women, uh, that are clients rather than men. And that’s, you know, we were just like talking about how this technology is so masculine.

But like, it’s, it’s less accessible for women to be able to build their apps than the men for some reason. Is it the way the internet was built or the way the technology is or because it’s cold or whatever it is, like at the end of the day, I mean, internet is a bunch of pixels and boxes, right? Yeah. Yeah.

And that’s why sometimes like people have such a hard time building something beautiful, something organic that has these like feminine qualities because it’s really hard to be organic in a box. You understand? This like feminine, curvy, round, breaking out of the box, thinking more in circles, you know? So one of the things that, uh, I really value and put a lot of emphasis on is to being able to Can I bring the feminine back online?

You know, like in many ways, not just online, but like to bring it back online. Like we’re in this like magical age where we have this shift of consciousness. And I think the divine feminine is about to, I want to, can I, can I, can I riff with you on this real quick? Cause I think it’ll be valuable for everybody listening.

George Bryant
I feel like we should define. What we mean by feminine, right? I hear these terms thrown out all the time, and I agree with you, right? The internet and business by default is masculine in nature, and by masculine and healthy masculine, what we mean is structure, right? For me, the definition of masculine is the master of time and space to create structure to allow feelings from the feminine to operate safely within the confines of that structure, right?

That’s how I define that. When you say Feminine. I 100 percent agree with you. But the internet that I see is what I would consider, and I don’t like the label, but wounded masculine. And what I mean by that is transactional and in nature lacking depth and feelings. Right? As John Wineland and David DeAda define masculine, it’s the best definition I’ve ever heard for men.

But for me, it’s really easy, Christian. It’s strong back, soft front. Meaning strong, straight back, like I stand up tall, and I’m relaxed. I trust myself, my belly’s let out, and by the way, little hack for anybody, if you ever want to watch this and test this, if you’re ever watching a group of women stand around a man, and you can see him sucking his gut in, look at their body language.

Their arms will be crossed, their body will be turned away from him, but if you ever see a woman standing face to face with a man, I promise you, his belly is relaxed. I promise you. That is the definition, right? So I agree with you, Christian, and what ended up happening, and, and COVID was a gift in all of this, because pre COVID, you remember, like, people would have like three gym memberships, they’d be in two masterminds, they’d go to four events a year, right?

Like, they’re like, oh, there’s no constraint in the world, right? Everything’s great, I can just toe tap all these places. Well, what COVID did is COVID forced compression, constraint, and filtration. And so Hermosi named it the trust economy, but really what you’re talking about. Is bringing humanity and feelings back where they belong at the forefront because there is no either or, it’s both.

You get to have structure and then you get to be in your feelings inside of that structure, but it’s so funny that even right now. We know, this has been scientifically proven, that the number one most resonant frequency for human beings, both to hear and feel, is authenticity. Authenticity is the full expression of ourselves, right?

And I posted this the other day, I said, full expression in every breath is a spiritual practice. Doesn’t mean it’s easy, doesn’t mean it’s fun, to be structured. And to even be a CEO of a company though, knowing that you’re going to have a day where the whole company is looking at you and you think you’re going to lose the whole company and you’ve got 10 employees, 20 employees, 30 employees, and you might be having a chaotic F5 hurricane happen inside of your body.

And in that moment, you get to feel those feelings as well as hold the structure and express them authentically because that’s what leadership is. And so the only thing I see Christian happening is the world is finally demanding authenticity again. Because they got so sick and tired of all the bullshit.

That’s the piece that’s missing. But we see it all the time now, like we, my whole generation grew up in the boys don’t cry, boys don’t cry, suck it up, blah blah blah. And now the whole world is screaming for men to cry. Well let’s just call it what it is. It’s not men, it’s not women. It’s authentic expression of feelings and being okay expressing them.

Not made wrong for them, not judged for them, but being like, wow, we’re having a human experience, whether you believe in God or the universe, for me, it’s God and Jesus Christ, but in that whole thing, it doesn’t advocate us from our responsibilities, both as humans and as business owners, right? And so, yeah, what we’re seeing is we’re seeing the thing that everybody’s always needed, which is the evidence required to feel safe enough.

To move forward towards their goals. Well, the only thing that gives people that evidence is being authentic people get to know and they have to know what you stand for What you believe in and why it matters and you and I both know we’ve been in rooms with plenty of people That you hear them talking about what they stand for and what they believe in.

And you’re like, that doesn’t match my experience of you at all. The only thing, the only piece that’s missing is that authenticity. Right. And so, yeah, it’s that on the receiving end, if we even look at how we consume content, I asked entrepreneurs this all the time, and I’m like, would you watch the video you posted?

And they’re like, no. And I’m like, why not? And they’re like, it’s surfacy. It’s shallow. It’s, it’s not real. It feels like it’s just how I’m like, what’s missing. And they’re like, I don’t have any feelings about it. I’m like, what’s missing. And they’re like, Oh, I’m like, yeah. Right. Like for those of us that have kids, right?

Like my son, seven, I just left his school for a meeting with the teachers for an hour and a half, because at seven, he doesn’t have a paradigm and they’re learning how to label their feelings. We forget that adults that are triggered, or in breakdown, or in loss, or my life isn’t working, or I don’t like this result, or I don’t like this, have the same exact frame of view of the world as a child when they’ll paradigm in trigger and breakdown, right?

At school, we label it the mind trap. And when it starts ruminating, it closes the door and you get stuck up in logic. And we all know the only breakthrough is in our body. But what’s in our body? Feelings. Well, how are we going to elicit those? Oh, we’d have to talk about them. We’d have to acknowledge that they’re real.

We’d have to all stop pretending that because we post that shit on Instagram with a smile on my face that there’s a smile underneath the surface. We’d have to start by, when we see our friends, and Christian and I see each other, and I will tell you this has happened a hundred times already, it happened in Montana when this beautiful man came to see me, but he did ask me how my day was.

Except he didn’t get, oh, it’s great, Oh, it’s perfect. I’m like, Oh, bro, this dumpster fire happened. This one happened. I had this happened. This one didn’t happen. And I’m choosing to be happy. And I thank you for asking. And then we cried together within what a minute, right? A minute. And then we were hugging.

We were confessing our brotherly love for each other, right? That’s real. And I think what most people fail to recognize is that even if you owned a brick and mortar store and you walked in, right? We would never speak to somebody in front of us the way that we speak to people on the internet, because it wouldn’t actually create a conversation.

It wouldn’t create a connection point because it would be missing the pieces required. And so in my opinion, Christian, everybody goes and looks for labels and breakdowns and distinctions, which just let you ruminate in this mental masturbation trap, even fucking more because the solution is still the same solution, no matter what label you put on it.

And quite frankly. It’s Maya Angelou the world. Improve upon the silence. Have people remember how you made them feel. And be proud of that feeling, not embarrassed by the one they’re getting because of your lack of care and intentionality. Because I also like to remind business owners of this all the time.

And they’re like, Oh, I can’t get a hundred more customers. Like, blah, blah, blah. I’m like, great. Name me your first ten. And without fail, Christian, they can name me each one of their first ten clients. And I’m like, I know why. Because it wasn’t easy. You had to build a relationship with them and you cared about them.

And then it just so happens, weren’t they also your best clients? And like, yeah. And I’m like, let me guess what happened. You got the 10 and you’re like, God, yeah, you did more of it. And you kept doing it. But then at some point in your business, you’re like, oh, I have to scale this. And by the time you realized it was broken, you realized that you removed the one thing that made it work in the first place, but it was too late to go back.

And so then you had to start recovering again. And that’s the cycle. It’s always going to be about the people always. And if we ever lose sight of that, or we ever get stuck in the trap or like, Oh yeah, but what’s this label or where are we going to do that? Or where are we going to do that? I’m like, you’re just getting in the way of an authentic expression right now that we create a connection point.

Because I always say this to people too. I’m like, okay, cool. Well, I know you’re afraid to post on Instagram right now. Right? And they’re like, yeah, I’m like, great. Snap my fingers. A hundred of your dream customers are standing in front of you right now. What are you going to say? Are you going to ignore them?

You’re like, wait, hold on. I’m being in my toxic masculine right now. The internet is lacking femininity. It’s lack is, are you going to say all that? Are you going to like, oh my God, everybody, it’s so good to see you. And I’m petrified that you’re standing in front of me. And the moment you do that, you’ve already won the game, but nobody wants to swing the bat.

They just wait and wait and wait and wait. But the thing that I understand about the internet Christian is on the other side of every one of those posts, there is that room of a hundred people waiting for me to speak, waiting for me to talk, waiting for me to connect. And at some point we just have to take the step because we can’t do it in reaction.

That’s not leadership. That’s you following pick a game. Cause there’s only two there’s leaders and there’s followers. And I’ll say this, if you’re not leading somebody else’s, But when you’re in doubt, when you’re in blank, when you’re in label, when you’re in blank, all you’re doing is delaying the inevitable, because you’re going to end up in the same place anyways, if this is what you said you wanted, right?

We joke for years, you still scale businesses one at a time. You still do it one person at a time, one conversation at a time, one offer at a time, one ad at a time. And to believe that in any moment where you’re not making one of those deposits or swinging that bat, you’re going to create a different result.

I think in the book, it’s called insanity. I think I think that might be the definition of it. Right. And it’s like, Oh my God, I’m so hungry. And this buffet is in front of me, but I just refuse to take a piece of that food and put it on my plate. So I’m just going to stand here and talk about how I’m fucking hungry.

And yet I have this five course buffet standing in front of me. No, at some point with all of these things, you got to recognize that the only true path to success and freedom is to be radically authentic and radically expressed, because that’s what moves the needle every single time. And the world is demanding it because that’s why it’s the trust economy.

Why do you think nobody’s webinars are working and nobody’s ads are working, but magically there’s some of us who haven’t stopped speaking how we speak. And everybody’s still around. Everybody’s still there. Is it really because you need to know how many sets and reps I prescribe or how many emails that I send you?

Or is it really a matter of how you feel in our presence? And that you recognize that you think and feel and believe the same things that we do. And because of that we’re a team and we’ll figure the rest out, right? We’re surrounded by the evidence and truth is, is I watch so many people idolize companies and brands that do it right.

But then want to go to Staples and buy the easy button to make it happen. Well, I’m sure that’s how your marriage works, right? I’m sure that’s how it works with your kids, right? Every parent knows this. You basically have the same conversation 7, 622, 000 times until they’re 18 and then 94, 000, 000 more times reminding them for the rest of their life while you reparent yourself in the process.

There’s no finish line. They’re relationships. They grow, they change, they get nurtured. Some plants get replanted, some get ripped out, some new ones get planted in, but they’re relationships and they’re in your garden. And we’re the one looking for more seeds, but yet all we want to do is grab the seed, throw it in the ground and be like, grow yourself, bitch.

Well, unfortunately that’s not how it works. Just like if all you do is plan your marriage to the four emails that you send your wife after she marries you, you’re going to end up sleeping on the couch or in a hotel. Because we all know that that is just the baseline agreement and the rest of it happens in between.

That’s what business and marketing is. That’s what it is the whole time. It’s designing a world to support your customer and making them the hero of their own journey and having their future self come walk them by the hand to get there. And then we just happen to be the catalyst in the process. That’s what leadership is.

Olympic gold medalists don’t win when they get in the middle of the race and they’re like, shit, I can’t take another step unless my coach does it for me. No, the coach empowers them to be able to take their journey, to be able to know what to do in that moment. Does it mean they’re going to win the race?

No, but it means they have a way better chance of finishing or getting to that goal because they weren’t codependent on us. That’s business and marketing, in my opinion. 

Christian
Beautiful. Yeah. Um, I love listening, you know, bro, 

George Bryant
I would you, you and me when you ask me questions though, because like, we know each other so well.

Like, I’m just straight in my heart and I’m like, no, this is it. Like, this is it. Like I’m telling you, this is it, right? Because like, to even give, even give credibility, like for everybody listening, like, oh, what do you mean? I’m like, I’ll give you a tangible example. Everyone’s like, oh my God, I want more followers on Instagram.

Amazing. How do you thank the ones that you get right now? How do you acknowledge the ones that you get right now? Isn’t the number one law of abundance that you have to be grateful for everything you have in order to get more of it? Isn’t that like at the root of the Bible brings you there, Buddhism brings you there, personal development brings you there, right?

Abundant scarcity brings you there. And I’m like, Oh, you want more people to ignore? You want more to not pay attention to? I’m like, well, what do you mean? I’m like, well, think about it. If that person walked into your store and was like, oh my God, Christian, I absolutely love your store. I’m not ready to buy anything today, but do you have an email list that I can sign up for?

What are you going to be like, no, go away or ignore them. Right. Or let them walk in the store and be like, Oh my God, Christian, your store looks so beautiful, but I’m running out of town. Do you have anything that I can take with me? And you just ignore them. Oh, well, what do you think happens when somebody follows you on Instagram?

And then they follow 45 other people that day. And then 20 of them, cold pitch them. 10 of them, ignore them. 10 of them don’t even notice. Like, what do you do? I was like, well, we send a video and we thank everybody for following us because they didn’t have to, they didn’t have to walk into my store. They didn’t have to see the billboard, come in and take the time to tell me that they paid attention.

But you’re like, Oh, I don’t understand. I’m like, we can show you screenshot after screenshot. I get at least two, three followers a day that never knew me from Sunday. And I send one video thanking them with no agenda, like literally just thanking them for following me and joining my slice of crazy. And I’m here to support.

And we get at least two responses a day when we send them out that says, I had no idea who you were. I don’t care anymore, but what do you have to offer? And where can I be a part of your world? And I’m like, oh, but yet you want to go spend six hours locked behind a door convinced you don’t have people in your world.

Well, all of them are walking in and you’re just ignoring them. They show up in your ecosystem for a reason. But not everybody shows up at the door to the restaurant knowing exactly what entree they want to order right when they sit down. Sometimes they need to look at the appetizers. Sometimes they need to come take a peek in the kitchen.

Sometimes they go walk to the bathroom to see if they feel safe or they like that table. And eventually, once they sit down and they start to get into the experience, when done correctly, they will stick around and stay. And then they’ll come back, and then they’ll come back more, and then they’ll bring their friends.

And so our job is to honor people where they are, meet them there and help them get to the next point. And before we start complaining about how I want more people to do that, let’s start taking care of the ones that are already paying attention to us because nowhere else in the world of business, do you have access to this many free people for free?

Somebody builds a platform with a billion people on it and I can go post content and connect with people and never have to pay. And 20 years ago I would have had to spend millions of dollars a month to get access to the same eyeballs. Fuck out of here. Stop bitching about the rules of the game and realize that you’re sitting on nothing but opportunity. But it doesn’t handle itself. 

Christian
Beautiful. That’s exactly it. And we’re coming towards the end of our podcast in this episode. So, um, it’s all about relationships. And I think you’ve given us incredibly tangible examples and just metaphors of how we can live that and be that and express that in our daily lives.

Life. And it’s very simple. Just do it, be you. And I think, you know, if there’s, if there’s a last thing you want to share, I would love to, you know, like one, whatever, tidbit one, you know, you want to leave with us. 

George Bryant
Yeah. It just hit my heart. Listen, um, if you’re listening to this, if you’re watching this, there is no other you and you’re surrounded by opportunity for you to lead, but you have to take it.

And I, I promise you waiting is not worth it, like even in this moment, no matter where you are in your business, no matter where you are in your life, I’m like, think of three places where you could go pour your authentic self in, and you’d only get a positive result when you choose to do that. Right. But I think there’s this point where I really, really genuinely want to say this.

I used to say for years, stop consuming content because you’re not building your vision. You’re building mine. The real reason I’m so bullish on this is every moment you’re in doubt, every moment you’re in, I’m missing every moment and you’re in lack, the light in your lighthouse isn’t coming out and it’s actually preventing you from getting the result that you want.

At some point, you just have to realize your light is already on, and you can’t turn it off. And so if you’re not intentionally shining it, you’re not gonna like the direction it’s going in. Because it’s been on the whole time, but a lot of the times we get the results we don’t like. Because we fail to acknowledge that the light is still on, and it’s currently shining out what we see about ourselves and the world.

And rather than just flex the muscle that’s difficult, that’s simple but difficult, and get rejected, And put it out there and do it. We’re never going to learn. And we’re never going to be there. And one of my dear friends says we don’t have the business we want because we haven’t become the person to run it.

But if you think that you can double your business but you’re currently complaining about what it looks like now, I will give you the solution as to why it hasn’t doubled. Because it’s only going to double the pain. It’s going to double the nuance. It’s going to double the restriction. And the only difference is your perspective.

And for me, perspective is the difference between your prison And your power, but the situation isn’t going to change. But when you change your perspective and you protect your vision and your light more than you believe all the rest of it, like the thing I’ve been saying lately, Christian is I have to seed before I weed, meaning I know the world exists.

I know the world’s in breakdown. My phone is 48 text messages from this morning. I haven’t got to, right? There’s probably 30 DMS. There’s a client that needs me, blah, blah, blah. That’s all still going to be there. But what I do every morning is I plant a new seed for my future before I go weed what the world has given me.

And all of us have that opportunity. You said it at the beginning of the day. You said it at the beginning of the podcast. But that means we also need to be intentionally planting in the garden of our future, not the one of our past. That’s last season’s garden, right? But at some point, no one can give you the permission slip.

Nobody can come through the laptop, pick up your hand, pick up that phone, and at some point you gotta realize that you’ve turned over all the same stones, and they keep bringing you to the same place, and the hammer is in your hand. But you don’t need 16 hammers, you don’t need 22, you need to pick up the one that you have, and you need to swing it.

And the faster you swing it, the faster you learn how effective it is, and you get better at doing it. But if you never swing it and you never pick it up, you will never have the results or the business or where you’d like to go, because this is a game of action and integration. That is where we win the game.

And so give this as your permission slip to go swing that bat today, but also recognize when you plant a seed, you have to water it and water it and water it and keep swinging it until it starts to sprout. And then you get to keep going until it harvests. But if you ever stop caring for that plant, By the time that harvest doesn’t come, you’re too late to recognize what prevented it and you have to wait till next season to eat again.

Just keep planting from your light and from your future, and you will be drastically shocked at how different your life is.

 

Christian
Amen. And with that being said, know that, you know, your message is your medicine and the world needs your medicine. People, you know, like there’s a reason this is called the Successful Spiritual Entrepreneur Podcast.

You know, we, we need you. That’s very simple. And, um, we do, you, you are not fully a hundred percent complete. If you block out the spiritual part of yourself, which, you know, people will listen to this are tapped into anyways. Right. But with that being said. You know, it’s, we need you to step up and we’re here to support you in whatever way you feel is appropriate and here to hold you, hold your light and, um, hand, hand on that torch.

George Bryant
And I’ll say this because I’m going to wrap, but I’ll say this, cause I am a paying client of Christian. I’m a paying client, like 100 percent a paying client, never asked about this whatsoever, but if you’re tapped in like he says and this landed for you, there’s only one person who can represent your light to the world, but also recognize that when it’s up, you get to go spread it the rest of the time anyways, because your message is your medicine, our medicine, and the world’s medicine, and there is only one of you, and so remove whatever roadblocks get in the way, and go shine that shit as bright as you can. 

Christian
Oh, thank you so much, George. It was an honor to have you on the podcast. 

George Bryant
Blessing, brother. God bless you, my friend. And everybody listening, thank you.