Brad Sugars Joins Us On The Steve Jobs Inspired Join Up Dots Podcast
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Introducing Brad Sugars
Brad Sugars is todays guest joining us on the Steve Jobs inspired Join Up Dots business podcast.
This is a man who has come from humble beginnings but has built a life and a business that many would cite as the very definition of success.
Sugars, a self-made multi-millionaire, is the founder of the global business coaching franchise ActionCOACH™, an international business speaker, author, and entrepreneur.
Sugars has written 17 business books, the “Instant Success” series, which were originally self-published.
In 2006, when McGraw Hill bought the international publishing rights to the series, it was the largest multi-business book deal involving a single author.
His ActionCOACH™ team works with tens of thousands of business owners in more than 60 countries with his simple yet powerful business growth techniques every day. Professionally, nobody has created a bigger impact in Sugars’ life than Jim Rohn.
How The Dots Joined Up For Brad
As a teen, he scrimped and saved his allowance in order to afford tickets to a Rohn seminar, and despite being the youngest person in the audience, what he learned there has informed his own business practices and philosophies on life.
Sugars has a dynamic stage presence and enjoys motivating and educating other business owners through his online content (videos, podcasts), books and real-world interactions such as classes, seminars, and speaking engagements.
His straight-forward Aussie style has branded him as a leader that will tell you what you need to hear, not necessarily what you want to hear–and for more than two decades, millions of people worldwide have been listening.
Sugars is equally as passionate about his family as he is about business.
A husband and father of five, Sugars and his wife are survivors of the Route 91 tragedy which affected the lives of thousands in Las Vegas during a country music festival in 2017.
His young daughter, Riley Brown Sugars, is the youngest survivor of the attack and has been featured in multiple media stories.
Brad has a new book with co-author Monte Wyatt “Pulling Profits Out of a Hat.” which builds on from the Brad Sugars 6 steps to success.
This Best-Selling book is available for sale on Amazon or in bookstores nationwide or purchase the book now at shop.actioncoach.com.
So is this a life he loves or just a stepping stone towards a life that is totally aiming towards?
And what is it about coaching and building a coaching business, that not only excites him and delights him?
But makes him want to come back to it every single day.
Well let’s find out as we bring into the show to start joining up up dots with the one and only Mr. Brad Sugars.
Show Highlights
During the show we discussed such weight subjects with Brad Sugars such as:
The reasons most people don’t actually build a business, but actually create a job. This is a big mistake.
Brad shares the early days of his business and why its so important not to bootstrap nowadays but gain investment from the right sources.
Why the words Hustle and Grind are just another word for “Stupid” in Brad Sugars mind.
Why your first four or five jobs should be about finding the right mentor and not how much they will pay.
Why fun should be one of the key elements to your business if not the cornerstone of everything
And lastly………
Why the words “Never wish your life is easy, wish that you are better” is never far from his mind.
Brad Sugars Books
How To Connect With Brad Sugars
Return To The Top Of Brad Sugars
If you enjoyed this episode with Brad Sugars, why not check out other inspirational chat with Down In The Dumps, Jack Canfield, Johnny FD and the amazing Christopher Lochhead
You can also check our extensive podcast archive by clicking here – enjoy
Audio Transcription Of Brad Sugars Interview
Intro [0:00]
When we’re young, we have an amazing positive outlook about how great life is going to be. But somewhere along the line we forget to dream and end up settling in Join Up Dots features amazing people who refuse to give up and chose to go after their dreams. This is your blueprint for greatness. So here’s your host live from the back of his garden in the UK. David Ralph
David Ralph [0:25]
Yes, hello there listeners Good morning world and thank you so much for being here on a Join Up Dots once more, if you’re not aware of at the moment, we are bringing you Join Up Dots TV, yes, my my way we had good face is coming live to you in multiple places across Facebook. So um, if you’re not seeing me on a daily basis when you know, drop us a line and where I would allow you to connect with us. And that’s the way that we’re building this global movement that we’ve been talking about on all of our episodes. Well, today’s guest What can I tell you about today’s guest he’s come from humble beginnings but has built a life and business but many would cite as the very definition of success. He is a self made multi millionaire is the founder of the global business coaching franchise action coach, and international business speaker, author and entrepreneur. He’s also written 17 business books, the instant success series, which were originally self published now in 2006. When McGraw Hill bought international publishing rights to the series, it was the largest multi business book deal involving a single offer. Go hear me it’s like having a business john Grisham in the house. Now he’s action coach team works with 10s of thousands of business owners in more than 60 countries with his simple yet powerful business growth techniques every day. Professionally, nobody has created a bigger impact in life and ban Jim Rome. Now as a teen he scrimped and saved his allowance in order to afford tickets to a seminar. And despite being the youngest person in the audience, what he learned there has informed his own business practices and philosophies on life. He has a dynamic stage presence and enjoys motivating and educating other business owners through his online content, video, podcast books and real world interactions, such as classes, seminars and speaking engagements. He’s straightforward OC style, as branded him as a leader that will tell you what you need to hear, not necessarily what you want to hear. And for more than two decades, millions of people worldwide have been listening. Now he is a husband and a father of five. And he’s also the survivor of the route 91 tragedy, which affected the lives of thousands in Las Vegas during a country music festival in 2017. And his young daughter Bonnie brown sugars is the youngest survivor of the attack, and has been featured in multiple media storeys. So is this a life he loves or just a stepping stone towards a life that is totally aiming towards? And what is it about coaching and building a coaching business, but not only excites him and delights him? But makes him want to come back to it every single day when let’s find out as we bring into the show to start joining up? With the one and only Mr. Brad Sugars. How are you sir?
Brad Sugars [3:13]
David, I am wonderful, fantastic to be with you.
David Ralph [3:16]
It’s lovely to have you because I have been watching your videos and you are passionate, you are enthusiastic. And that always comes across well on a podcast. Are you always like that? Are you always bouncing out of bed happy with life?
Brad Sugars [3:32]
Most days most days are the days when the baby twins decide to come into bed at four in the morning, guys, it’s a little hotter than where
David Ralph [3:43]
I’ve been so with the with the youngsters. Have you made the fatal mistake of still keeping a TV in your bedroom?
Brad Sugars [3:50]
Now we got rid of the TV in the bedroom so the kids have to go watch TV somewhere else. So that’s hot.
David Ralph [3:55]
Yeah. That’s what I did. Yeah, might make it as boring as possible in your bed dream and the kids have to go somewhere else to get there. Dora the Explorer first thing in the morning. So let’s talk about yourself. Okay, you come from humble beginnings, as we said in the introduction. But how humble, humble?
Brad Sugars [4:14]
Yeah, buddy, I grew up with a great family. My mom and dad, my dad was always a manager of companies and did did wonderful for us kids. You know, I think they raised us very well and told us a good work ethic. And you know, just the typical rz growing up wanting to have a great lifestyle more than wanting to be wealthy and just happen to do good business will create the wealth as well as the lifestyle I guess.
David Ralph [4:40]
I’ve been down to Australia many times and laid back is the term
Brad Sugars [4:45]
you went, you went back you went back after going, which
David Ralph [4:49]
I did I know. It was it was bizarre, because I always say to people, if people want you to go to Australia, they wouldn’t put America close. I you know, it’s a hell of a journey. But yeah, I’ve been down there couple of times, and it is so laid back. I wonder, is that just what I see on the surface? Is there an underbelly of ambition and drive? Because certainly, I didn’t see a lot of it. It was really, as I say, relaxed at a snail’s pace.
Brad Sugars [5:16]
You know, I think the greatest thing about Ozzy’s is that we learn how to do both. We learn how to work when we’re at work, and we learn how to relax when we relax. And so there’s definitely an ambition but the ambition is to do you work in eight hours a day and then have the rest of the time to relax. So it’s not like for me building businesses. Today, I run What is it? Nine companies in 12 hours a week? So you know, people say I had it, how do you do that? So good. read the books. Yeah. But that’s, that’s the fun part of it. But the element thing is, you know, it’s it’s about building a business of work. So I don’t have to, that’s really my goal. I mean, it’s it’s, if you go back to the initial word that I use a lot in teaching is the word leverage, do the work once get paid forever. If people really understand and learn leverage, then you know, they take care of the money and money is, but it should take about 10 years in life to handle the money and then the rest should be okay. I mean, that’s, that’s really the basics of how I try and teach people.
David Ralph [6:14]
Now you have to be speaking to somebody who loves what you’re saying, loves the message. And that’s one of the reasons why I’m in podcasting, because as long as I carry on podcasting, my old episodes are still live. And I just keep on producing traffic and value into my business, is that one of the big sort of failings that you see time and time again, certainly from the newbies, but I build the business around them without themselves being closest to the door.
Brad Sugars [6:43]
They build. I mean, let’s be really blunt about it. Because I am Australian, and I live in Las Vegas, I’m allowed to be blunt. Listen, most people build a business that isn’t a business, it’s a job, and I work for a complete crazy person. That’s the reality of it, you know, because you step into it thinking, Okay, I want to replace my income, and therefore you build a job, not a business business. By definition, my definition anyway, is a commercial, profitable enterprise that works without you, you have to be there. It’s not really a business. So ultimately, that’s what I when I use the comment of build a business at work, so you don’t have to. That’s really the goal of what we do. And every single day, it’s about building that income stream to come in whether I go to work or not like, you know, just a simple one. Why have I written 17 books? Well, how many times I have to write the book once? How long will I get paid for it will? till I’m 75 years after I’m dead, my family will still get paid for it. Why do I invest in real estate? Because I bought a house once I get rent forever? Why do I build businesses? Well, I build a business once and I get paid for it. But you know, this is the basic fundamentals of it. David, if we really looking at financial success, yeah. But
David Ralph [7:56]
if you take like that the buzzword over the last few years, I started this, you know, really eight years ago, and certainly in the last few years, it’s all about personal branding, personal branding, you are the business. Now in that case, you get for example, personal branding is my thing. You know, I’m the podcast hosts, and people say to me, you know, will you let our people hosting us? I know bloody r1. You know, this, this is my show. So I’ve got to keep on doing it. So is the personal branding, sort of movement. Is that misplaced? As far as you’re concerned? Because it obviously goes totally contrary to what you’re saying.
Brad Sugars [8:35]
Yeah, there is some level of misplacement it but then again, I’m personal branding, yet I sell books that make me money while I’m in bed asleep. I sell online training courses making money while I’m in bed asleep. I build businesses that are based around my personal brand that make me money while I’m in bed asleep. So know that I don’t think it’s fully misplaced. I think that there’s a miss misunderstanding of what it really should mean and what it really should look like. Because I ultimately, like you got that 25 years when I started action college, I was the only business coach in the organisation. And so I had to do all of the coaching. I had to do all the stage work, I had to do everything. Yesterday I saw on Facebook 16 seminars running around the world, from coaches on my team doing seminars and events, helping business owners grow their business. So it was one in Pennsylvania. There’s one in Egypt, there was one I saw in the north of the UK. So, okay, let’s build a brand. But let’s understand how to leverage that brand and not just build a brand. That means if you don’t show up, you don’t get
David Ralph [9:36]
pie. But do people annoy people because, you know, if I go into a Gordon Ramsay restaurant, I would want Gordon Ramsay cooking for me. You know, I don’t like that. It’s the standard of Gordon Ramsay, it’s like he would cook, I want him. So if I come to one of your seminars, wouldn’t I expect to see Brad standing there smiling and shaking my hand.
Brad Sugars [9:59]
If you’re coming to my seminar, absolutely. But you know, my team show and they teach my material all around the world. But again, I’ve met Gordon and I don’t know if I really want Gordon cooking. For me, I think some of these shifts are actually better. But that’s just good. Ultimately, what we’re aiming to do with business is to build something that works, whether we are there or not. that give you a simple example of the personal branding. And a buddy of mine is a very famous photographic as Peter lik and Peter have when he first started that he was just taking photos for people in India, they’d sell his time for money. Now he’s built a whole artistic business around it, where the art sells and it’s paid elixxir art, but you don’t expect paid a lick to be there actually signing it and selling you the artistic piece, you actually go into the gallery and you know, you’re going to deal with someone. So, you know, there’s two sides to that equation, I think we got to make sure that we know, our goal in life is to do work one time and get paid over and over again for
David Ralph [11:00]
right. Okay, so let’s take you back in time to the young bro, who gets the domain name of action coach.com. Did that come afterwards? Or you know, in the early days, was it like business cards and, and flip charts and stuff? Was it very, very basic?
Brad Sugars [11:19]
Oh, yeah. Look, every business I think starts out as a very basic business. I don’t think any business starts at, you know, unless you go and raise 100 million bucks to go and do a business and put you know, or get a billion pounds and go and start a new business. You can’t really start with everything, most of us. And I look back and I think it was crazy. Because I always saw that bootstrapping was like a badge of honour. I bootstrapped my way through this. If I you know, I think that today I see it differently. I think that today I would raise capital and go and do that. But you know, young bread had to learn the same as every other business owner has to learn how to be a good entrepreneur, how to be a good business on my people are good at the task of the business, but not very good at being the owner of the business. And I think that’s where a lot of great success comes by doing the learning of being a great entrepreneur or being a great business person. Most businesses, if I was to really sit back and try and define what makes a business successful, it’s simple. The people in the business keep growing, you know, my latest book, if you look at that, pulling profits out of a hat, we looked at the five disciplines of what makes a business that grows at exponential rates. And one of the core things is the human beings in the organisation. If the humans don’t grow, the business can grow. So for me, young Brad had to learn a whole bunch about business. I still remember, dang, I was either 20 or 21. And I went to my dad and I said, You know what? Dead I just can’t get good people. I can’t find motivated people. And my dad’s very blood human. And he said to me, says bread, you get the people, you deserve it. Oh, you’re an average manager running an average business highest calibre of athlete, you’re going to get average, you know, you can see where I get my motivational strength from? Yeah, you know, but all they did was right. He was on the money until I was a great manager running a great business and a great leader running a great organisation, there was no chance of great people wanted to work for my company, and great people want to work for other great companies.
David Ralph [13:22]
So somebody say like Richard Branson, he’s a classic one. And I think last count, they’ve got like, 479 businesses under the virgin banner. And we just see him laying on a beach surf boarding, and it looks like he’s not doing anything at all. But he’s running this, this huge company, is he the kind of the benchmark of what you’re saying by creating something, but you can manage it multiple times by getting the right people in the right positions?
Brad Sugars [13:52]
So absolutely. Richard is a prime example of entrepreneurial success. You know, when you sit back and you take a look at it, they are so much that people miss about being in business for yourself, they think it’s all about the hard work. And in the beginning, don’t get me wrong in the beginning, you’ve got to put in the legwork. You’ve got to do that. But and you mentioned the buzzword personal branding, I tell you two buzzwords that I’ve heard the last few years that are absolutely determined to drive out and that is hustle and grind. Yeah, I did a video the other day saying hustle and grind is the new stupid. Because the reality of it is if you’re if you’re having to do 16 to 20 hour days in your business, there’s something wrong with your business. And working so hard is just covering up the mistakes. working that hard is covering up the fact there is wrong things. And the sooner you recognise that there’s things going wrong, and you need to switch it, you will get out of that whole hustle and grind mentality and start thinking, Okay, I’ve got a leverage here. And that’s really what I want people to start to understand a different way of the thinking, you know, because if we keep thinking we got to work 24 hours a day, seven days a week to make business success, then we we end up just burnt out. And that’s the exact opposite of what business is supposed to do. Being in business is supposed to give you more life, not drain the life out of you.
David Ralph [15:17]
I have made numerous mistakes. And then one of the mistakes I had was at the beginning, I bought into the hustle. And I used to say it’s the hustle muscle. And I used to listen to these people and they’d say, you know, you’ve got to get up earlier than anyone else, you got to go to bed, if you’re not doing 900 million things a day, you know. And by the time you’ve watched this video, I’ve done 16 things. And I bought into that. And I just ended up burning out a couple of times until I thought to myself, I just can’t do this. And so I agree with you totally the about having hustle and grind are the bad words. But and here’s the caveat to that. You’ve got to have a certain amount of increased ambition and drive at the beginning to separate yourself from your previous life. Otherwise, it’s not going to occur.
Brad Sugars [16:05]
If you go into business for yourself, and you don’t have self discipline, you don’t have self drive, you don’t have more goals and bigger dreams than other people, you’re not going to succeed. Because there’s a massive, distinct difference. When I wrote my book billionaire and training, it was all about how do you go from a student to employee to self employed to business owner, to investor to entrepreneur to you know, going through the levels. And when I see people move from employee to self employed, most of them fail because their mindset never shifts. They still waiting for someone to come along and tell them what to do. They’re still waiting for permission to go and do that stuff. They haven’t learned to be a business owner. I was very lucky. And I think this is an interesting thing, David it for me. One of the things that made me very lucky as a young man is I was really bad at keeping jobs. I was very good at getting fired early on. So I got to try lots of different jockey it nice
David Ralph [16:59]
Brad stomach told me to imagine this.
Brad Sugars [17:04]
Most people that made me go Yeah, I could see how a boss would fire you. Quick that that’s very cool. But the thing was it allowed me I Jobs in sales. So guess what I got paid to learn sales at Jobs in marketing. So I got paid to learn marketing, I didn’t have to learn that have been bad. And see this is where a lot of young people go wrong. They think they want to get a job where it’s all about how much you can earn know, your first four or five jobs should be where you’ve got great mentors, where you can learn things, you know, go get a job in sales, get a job in marketing, get a job in finance, get a job in all different things. Because you as an employee, you’re an apprentice business owner, and do your apprenticeship and do it well learn all the different aspects get paid to learn it, for goodness sake. In order you have to go to college to get you have to pay money to learn things will go get a job where you get paid to learn at all.
David Ralph [17:52]
Now I agree with that totally. And I’ve actually written that down because I thought that is the first time in 1500 episodes of this show. But anyway, one’s ever said that. I totally agree with it. But throwing it back at you. Isn’t employment now about looking at your experience and saying no, you can’t be in sales, because you’ve never had any sales experience. You can’t be in marketing, there’s very few people that will take a flyer on somebody who’s just in there to you know, learn the skills of that aspect of the job, surely.
Brad Sugars [18:25]
Let’s get back to the very simple basics of getting a job. Can’t you read half a dozen books on sales or listen to half a dozen sales podcast before you go and apply for the job. Catch it. If you can’t sell yourself for the job done expect the job in size. You know, this is this is one of the things that annoy the living daylights out of me. Yeah. And David, you know, it crushes me that young people think oh, well, I’m no good at sales. You know, how many sales training courses you been doing or not and how many songs books you read, none. excursion, no bloody good at it copy good at and if you’ve done no training, if you’ve never done any of it, and even all the people business people have been around the wall and you sit there and you listen to them, like on our whole you know, that’s not my thing, marketing will go and learn it then otherwise your business is going to struggle. Because if you’re not good at sales and marketing your businesses out of business fairly quick. I mean, that’s that’s just the basic reality of entrepreneurial ism and business. I remember being a coach and my kids soccer team. And when my daughters were I think they’re under nines or under 10s. And, and I was teaching all the kids on the team to do laces kicks, as I call for them, you know, you got to kick off the front of your foot off the top of the body, inside out. And I send the kids over with a ball to the fence and send it down to 100 of those and come back and tell me how you win. And so they went and did 100 except for one kid, she came over to me after five of them and said coach, I’m no good at those. I said fantastic. Alan do 95 more and told me if you got better. Yeah, this is the way the world actually works. And Armand, you mentioned in my intro there that Jim run, Jim Ron was one of the greatest mentors there is and Jim Rowan said something very interesting to me when I was 16 years of age, he said work harder on yourself than you do on your job. Now when you think about that, and he backed it up with another statement, which was never wish your life were easier wish that you were better. And And that, to me is the is the ideal point of understanding what creates success. Success is not something that you do success is something you become, you become a successful person by learning the traits, skills, habits, and knowledge base of a successful person. That’s what happens.
David Ralph [20:38]
Now I’m going to play some words now. And we’re gonna come back to Brad because there’s so many different directions we can go on. Jim Carrey,
Jim Carrey [20:45]
My father could have been a great comedian, but he didn’t believe that that was possible for him. So he made a conservative choice. Instead, he got a safe job as an accountant. And when I was 12 years old, he was let go from that safe job. And our friends, we had to do whatever we could to survive. I learned many great lessons from my father, not the least of which was that you can fail at what you don’t want. So you might as well take a chance on doing what you love.
David Ralph [21:12]
Now, I think you’ve said, Brad, I agree totally about being devil’s advocate, which I like to be on the show. I know that there’s a lot of people out there, but when they are starting building businesses, they struggle with the concept of leverage, not because they don’t think it’s important, but they can’t think of how to bring it into their life. So they do keep on working into that, that I actually have to do to work. I can’t sort of developer. Is there any tips that we can use to share clarity in this? How they can look at what they’re doing and think Yeah, absolutely. It’s not just hiring someone. It’s about doing it the right way. Yeah,
Brad Sugars [21:53]
well, let’s look at it from three different angles. First of all, let’s look at the product or service of the business is the product or service of the business something where someone buys it once and they never come back again? Or they buy it and a card? Or is the product or service of the business something that’s designed for people to buy over and over again, you know, what is your lifetime purchase product, you know, people go to the gym and they buy a membership that’s forever in a dire until they cancel. People got NC when you look at most businesses, they’re not set up that way they set up to you bake one purchase, and then you and then you go away and maybe you’ll come back and maybe you want you’ve got to look at business from the perspective of how do I get the customer once and have them keep buying forever. Like I started a dog food business many years ago sold out and a few years later, that business. We didn’t sell your dog food once we actually set you up on a subscription where we have delivered the dog food every six weeks and you bought the board from us forever. There was no buy it once and then we have to make another sound or another customer keep doing it. I had a rental business renting at fridges phrases, TVs brought Brandon Watson basically. So hey, presto, guess what? You come and you buy it and you stay with us forever. Why don’t I get into the beauty business, a hairdressing business, all these businesses over the years because they have repeat business? If there is no repeat business, you can’t I just personally think you should never be in that business. You’ve got to look at from that perspective. So that’s one way to look at leverage. Second way to look at leverage is the difference between others work and employees work. employees work is work where you do the work once in the company gets paid what’s okay? If you do the work once like like I mentioned hairdressing, if you’re a hairdresser and you do the hairdressing once you get you cut your hair once and then you get paid once Well, that’s an unlit bridged work. I’d actually afraid to give my wife a few years back and she came over and she said, You know bread I own a hairdressing business I need your advice is it was that she said, Well, you know, and I don’t know why it is but my wife’s friends always asked me for advice when I’ve been having a few cocktails. So it’s it’s kind of crazy, but that’s just the way it seems today. And she’s she says, well, it doesn’t seem fair. My staff make as much money as I do. Some weeks my staff get paid more than I do. And I’m the owner of the business being having a few cocktails and I didn’t want the advice to last month I said well hang on a second. What do you staff do all day? She said well they come here so what do you do all day? She said well I come here when you should make about the sun Of course she didn’t ask for any more advice after that but hopefully she got the point that if you’re doing employees work see owners work is things like system ization owners work is marketing where you get a customer once who stays forever owners work is hiring people training people owners work is planning owners work. Does that make sense? a different style of
David Ralph [24:40]
work. I’m hanging on every word here Yes, I understand what you’re saying.
Brad Sugars [24:45]
If you if you are doing it for others I sort of say you got to move through you start with do the work once get paid once you go move to do the work once get paid long term to eventually be do the work once and get paid forever. Now if we look at another third level of leverage, I’m going to use an example most people should understand little company called Apple Okay, Steve Jobs started Apple Corporation making computers he made a computer once and sold at once now, if we understand the difference yet the other end of Silicon Valley you got bill got shot makes a piece of software once How many times does he sell it? Well over and over and over again thousands 10s of thousands millions of times forever and Bill Gates goes on to become the richest person in the world. Steve Jobs goes on to get fired from Apple because the strategy of microcomputer once and sell it once worked well when no one had a computer but once everyone had computers, that strategy didn’t work anymore. So Steve Jobs goes off he he goes off and he buys this little company called Pixar. Do you remember the movies that my buddy so you had kids what do you remember the movies are
David Ralph [25:51]
going to see toy storey for tomorrow actually
Brad Sugars [25:53]
there you go so and now so he then so he built that company What did he learn well first he learned good management leadership but secondly leverage so you movie you make the movie once you sell it a billion times now to the point where he then sold that company for billions of dollars to Disney what is Disney still do today? Disney a genius is it leverage you were to study leverage genius the Disney Corporation What did they just brought a few years back? Well what have we seen a tonne of movies about the Avengers any Marvel comic? How come Disney bought it so they’re churning out movie after movie after movie making taking advantage of something that was invented years and years ago. And I just opened the Star Wars thing at Disneyland or Disney World open soon. So Disney are the absolute geniuses at leverage. But I want to finish off this Steve Jobs storey Steve Jobs comes back to Apple understanding leverage and says hang on the computer business isn’t where we’re going to make a lot of money, put them straight into the music business. And people think they went into the iPod business. Now. Apple didn’t invent the iPod. Sony invented the iPod David and the geniuses of marketing at Sony, because they are absolutely marketing geniuses. They call it the mp3 player 69 you want to run out and grab one dungeon. And of course, the only way to get music on it was to go and steal it through Napster. But Apple comes out goes into the music business does it legitimately everyone in the world starts loving on this thing. They’re selling the music. Now here’s the here’s the crazy part of this for Sony, Sony, someone wonder they listen to your podcast. Sony is one of the biggest music makers in the world. One of the biggest dollars of music in the world was too scared to sell music online. So now they’re paying 30 cents on the dollar that Apple to play to sell their music on a machine. They invented bloody geniuses. So Steve Jobs comes back, he’s taken 30 cents on the dollar for every piece of music sold through his system. Then they invented apps, which just magically kind of air because when he had the iPod, I don’t know if you remember playing games on the iPod. But spinning the dial and people like this is crazy. So Apple invented the touchscreen. And then I invented the phone. And then because they were selling games, people said we can’t play games on these small screens. I went to a big screen. And then I said I’m now we can sell TV shows. And then they started selling movies. And they taken 30 cents or 40 cents on the dollar for every single one of these. And now they even invented an iPad big enough for our people to see it still. It’s crazy how much money they’ve made off of one little simple concept became the biggest company in the world of a little simple concept called leverage. There you go. That explains at one point,
David Ralph [28:24]
but when it does, and what also I’m confused about bread is how do you actually manage to sleep? Yo, yo, how do you walk away from business? It seems to light you up you you love it. You’re probably one of the most passionate guests I’ve had.
Brad Sugars [28:40]
Well, I also love my kids. Also, I love my Vegas Golden Knights hockey team. I love any sport there is basically, you know, there’s a lot of things you love in life and business. Yeah, absolutely adore business. But I think I enjoy it a lot more now that I don’t have to be a part of it that I actually can step backwards. With Tuesdays and Thursdays. That’s it for me. And I’m very happy with Tuesdays and Thursdays have a long weekend, every weekend Wednesdays I hang out with my wife and have a date lunch with my wife. And you know that’s that’s the way the world works. I think if you build, you should build your life plan first and your business plan. Second, I think that’s probably the easiest way to put that one. And once you get your priorities of what’s really important to in place. Yeah, business is still very important to me. But more important to me is hanging out with my kids being able to drink if you ask my assistant, Kristen, can start work before nine Why? Because they’re going to drop the kids to school. You know, that’s that’s a simple thing and three o’clock same time. So pick the kids up for school. That’s my life. That’s what I want to
David Ralph [29:38]
do. Yeah, good on you. You’ve got it sorted. Now, what I want to do is just take you back to this this concept of leverage. Because one of the things I was thinking about your coaching business, isn’t it a case that you’re always looking for new clients? How would you keep on coaching? Because I know a lot of people start coaching businesses, and they struggle for clients because they do coaching that client goes off and does whatever they do, and then they’re looking for the next one. How to leverage leverage into that.
Brad Sugars [30:07]
Well, interestingly enough, our biggest problem is not actually getting clods. Our biggest problem is finding new coaches, people of that calibre, we would want to be coaches because we I mean, we have a simple business model. And it is this week guaranteed to get people results. So if we’re getting your results, how long are you going to stay for? That’d be forever? You know, we have clients have been with me for 20 odd years being coached. Why? Because when do you want to stop having a coach? Well, let me put it this way, when do you want your sporting team to no longer have a coach? Or do you want them to start losing, that’s when you want them to not have a coach? coaching is not something you do once and then you go away? Because there’s three main reasons coaching works. The first one is the knowledge that a coach brings to the table coaches will bring knowledge to the table that you can’t possibly go out and find why. Because you so busy doing your business, then how are you going to go and learn all that stuff. Second thing that coach brings to the table is accountability. Because you know, very simply put if you’re the owner of the end of the CEO, so if you’re the if you’re the MD of the business, and you’re the owner of the business, you’re doing a bad job at both of them, okay, because as as the MD you’re lying to the owner, and you tell him I work really hard today, and as the owner, you’re accepting the ball, I mean, he’s lies. Because the reality of that is you can’t do a good job of holding yourself accountable. So having a coach that holds you accountable as the CEO or as the MD is very important. Third reason it works is in your own business, you can’t see the forest for the trees. I talked to great business owners, and I said I’m a gun Tell me what’s wrong with that guy’s business and they all pick 10 things. And I go well tell me the top 10 things wrong with your business. I can’t really see what’s going on in my business. And that’s that’s the basics of why coaching works my friend.
David Ralph [31:51]
Yeah, it’s true because you know, every mechanic in the world he’s driving around in a crappy car every never touched her own house today they can they can do it for other people, but they can’t do it for themselves. Now, what interests me as well with that is the concept of enjoyment. Because I see a lot of people see that coaching is an expense is enjoyment part of it.
Brad Sugars [32:19]
You know, look, let’s first of all do with the coaching is an expense if you got the wrong college coaching can be an expense, you got the right coach coaching makes you a tonne of money. enjoyment, let’s let’s deal with that one, if you’re not enjoying your business, so this is what I talked to a lot of business owners about the Sunday fun order the one of the core goals of your business, if fun isn’t a core goal of your business, and you’re doing something wrong. And first and foremost, you have to understand it. If you are the owner and not enjoying your business, then imagine what it’s like the staff and enjoying it. Imagine what it’s like the customers. If you want your customers to keep coming back in this day and age, you have to be giving them an experience. It’s everybody is monetized and easily purchased somewhere else, quicker, faster, probably even cheaper. In many cases. If you want them to keep coming back, you’ve got to give them an experience. And that’s what I say the two most important things about business success today are your writings and your reviews. What are the writings that you’ve got, if you don’t know your Google writing, then you’re in big trouble. If you aren’t getting positive reviews from your customers, you got to be asking all your best to the best customers to be giving you great reviews these days, you want to be getting a video and filming them giving a testimonial In fact, because that’s what is is the world today, we’ve all gone to it. We will not go into a restaurant because of a reviews. We’ve all picked the restaurant just because of the reviews. We know that this is true. And we’ve got to make sure that we’re taking advantage of it.
David Ralph [33:46]
Now testimonials, I agree with you totally. And once again, I know I do a certain amount of coaching not too much because I don’t need to but I do a certain amount of it. And at the end of it more often than not by God thanks so much about Yes, I know exactly what I’m doing. Brilliant. Excellent. You try and get video album. It’s really really how you put
Brad Sugars [34:07]
your camera at nice. I listen, you’ve got two minutes now to tell everyone how good I am God. You gotta remember this about clients, customers, clients, whatever the business is. People do. I mean, let’s go backwards. Three steps. People are begging to be led. Let’s just remember that people are begging to be laid out there in the world, people are always looking for someone who is who will give them help, who will guide them who will put them in the right direction. Now, at the start of a relationship, we’re very clear with our customers that by the way, once we get results will expect referrals out of you. And we will expect a testimonial out of here. If you set it up from the beginning, most relationships are very easy. It’s how you position it from day one. If we don’t position it well from day one, then we’re going to struggle,
David Ralph [34:55]
right advice. Now let’s listen to some great advice from a man you’ve already reference. Here is Steve Jobs.
Steve Jobs [35:02]
Of course, it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards 10 years later. Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something your gut, destiny life karma, whatever. Because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart Even when it leaves you off the well worn path and that will make all the difference.
David Ralph [35:36]
Now a strange I’ve listened to those words thousands of times and after listening to you for the last 35 minutes they sounded strange the flat it was the way he presented them Do you still buy into those words of a key to all business decisions?
Brad Sugars [35:55]
You can I know for me if I go backwards from me, I sit down dreams and goals in motion I teach a formula dreams times goals times learning times plans transactions equals success dream goal and plan at now I agree with Steve that you can’t connect the dots like you can’t see around the corner till you get to the corner. That’s that’s just a simple fact. However, I can set my dreams, I don’t need to know how my dream is going to happen. In fact, if by definition, if I knew how it’s going to happen, it’s not a dream it’s a to do item you know so we definitely set our dreams up but I had dreams of about five years ago to be turned into goals. So what are the goals and my goal is going to be specific, measurable, achievable results I remember the time frame you know the old smart test and say that we have goals for two reasons. One is to give us direction and timing right but the other is to tell us what we’ve got to learn if you go and set a goal and say your goal is to double your business then your next job is to write down Oh what am I gonna learn to double my business she got this right the goal of or double the business and then magic it’ll show up now you’ve got to go and do the study because once you’ve done the learning about how to double your business then you can actually write the plan of how to double your business and then you go to work it’s not about all let’s let’s I’m going to write the goal down I remember reading that book and watching the video the secret which was you know setting a goal and and you think positive is gonna happen listen positive thinking with positive action loves you positively bloody nothing you got to have the formula I mean and if I had to that other formula dream goal and plan act by add to that a simple formula that I teach called be times do equals have who you are multiplied by what you do equals what you have so once you define what you want to have your dreams and goals you work backwards and you go Okay, what do I need to do? What do I need to learn and what’s and write a plan for it? And then ultimately you get the word but encompassing in all of that is Who do I need to become one of the beliefs on a the behaviours on it these are be words you know, your human being not here doing develop those being this the V words, you know, I need to be a better leader, I need to be a strongest closer I need to be once you determine who do I need to become in order to do in order to have if you be great times do great equals have great, it’s not just about working harder. It’s not just about becoming better. It’s a combination of the two.
David Ralph [38:21]
Now looking back at you then are there things that you would change? Did you look at yourself and go Yeah, I’m on here this is this is perfect, or do you go actually a bit better.
Brad Sugars [38:33]
I was to be really blunt, I was a little pain in the backside when I was a young man, you know, I have to learn I had to learn how to be a better human, I had to learn how to be a stronger leader, I had to learn all those things to you that people saw you were a born leader. absolute rubbish. I studied a tonne of books on leadership, I went through a bunch of courses on leadership, I lead people and file and made mistakes and got better. And you know, so I think that anyone that the in any way, shape or form thinks that they’ve arrived, you know, don’t let a taste of success make you think you’ve arrived, you’re still in a lot of work today. So that’s always going to be the way and I keep that mindset for me every day. You know, the number one app on my phone is audible, I listen to audiobooks all day, every damn day, I have books read out to me the books. So, you know, I don’t believe that anyone ever arrives, I think you’ve got to keep learning like in this day and age. So for me, I was a genius marketer and everything TV ads, radio ads, all that stuff. But to die on still studying Click Funnels to the nth degree, I literally have one site up here on my web page where I listened to a great guy on how to do Click Funnels and learning more and more and more about that stuff. Because I don’t care how good you get it something, something else is going to come along and change it and you better be as good at that as you were at the old thing. Otherwise, you’re out of business.
David Ralph [39:52]
Do you need to be good on that? Can you get somebody in a Click Funnels expert to do it for you?
Brad Sugars [39:57]
Yeah, how am I gonna know if they’re an expert? If I don’t know anything about it?
David Ralph [40:01]
Yeah, that’s a very good point. And I must
Brad Sugars [40:05]
go the other week, and he said, I’m gonna hire a marketing manager do all that marketing stuff you teach practice, and I really how you gonna interview or questions you can ask at the end of your hand, will you even know if they’re any good at marketing, if you don’t actually look? And this was the craziness, you can’t even do an interview for someone if you don’t know enough about it to ask the questions.
David Ralph [40:23]
It’s funny, I used to run teams up in the City of London. And one of the things that used to really bad for directors was the fact that I would spend time back on the floor doing the job answering the phone and stuff. And my argument was, I Ben know if they’re doing it well or not, you know, just be isolated, and be managing the team. But they used to argue all the time, you’re not supposed to be doing the work, you’re supposed to be managing the team. And I’d say I can manage the team better by understanding the work that they’re doing.
Brad Sugars [40:54]
Well, let’s understand that too, because you bring up the word manage to die management honour when it happens. So in the 90s, I think management became a dirty word. You know, the last best seller management was the one minute manager series back in the in the 80s. And you start to look at it, there’s a difference between management and leadership, management falls under execution. So people read pulling profits out of a hat, my latest book, I go through management and leadership and the distinction. Management is about competent, productive people. You’ve got to develop competent, productive humans in your organisation, people like all you don’t want to micromanage well hang on. Some people, you need to micromanage, because they’re not competent. And they’re not productive yet, you’ve actually got to micromanage them, coach them, mentor them, educate them, until they become strong, and then you don’t need to manage them anymore. So productivity and competency is management. Leadership, on the other hand, is about passionate, focused human beings. So if you get if you do leadership, without management, you’re going to have all these passionate people that run off in directions that can’t manage their time, and they’re not doing their job properly. If you only do management, you’re going to have all these people doing a good job, but they’re not going to be passionate going to be focused, their level of employee engagement is loud, all of these things. So we’ve got to be good at both management and leadership, we want to run a great organisation. Management is about execution. Leadership is about the human beings. If we look at the five disciplines that come from pulling profits,
David Ralph [42:19]
right, so this podcast just before we send you back in time on the Sermon on the Mount, you’ve been delivering nugget after nugget after nugget. And for the listeners out there, go you want to pick up on all of them. They’ve been coming so quickly. But it’s an entrepreneur show. It’s about getting people out of the cubicle, getting them into their own employment leave reaching their, their their time for better success. What’s the number one if we could pass up everything that you’ve said into one memorable soundbite, but they can walk around with it in their head for the rest of the day? What would it be?
Brad Sugars [42:54]
You’ll never out earn your learning.
How do you want it you want to?
Did you want to?
David Ralph [43:02]
But you went bang?
Brad Sugars [43:04]
question before
I get asked lots of questions. Let’s talk but there’s one thing I keep coming back to is the core fundamental of what taught me success. And that was Jim Rowan, I mentioned again said to me son, if you want are 16 years old, I ran down to him after a seminar in the Brisbane City Town Hall had him sign my notes because I couldn’t afford to buy the book. I bought the seminar, but I couldn’t afford the book yet. And I ran the Android and I said to him, Mr. Ron, what’s one thing that’ll guarantee me to be successful? He said, Son, it’s very simple. Read a book awake for the rest of your life. You know, this was a really interesting thing. I was 16 then I’m 48. Now, and and I’ve read at least a book a week since that die. And you sit back and you think of it people like see the hardest work in becoming successful is the learning work. The hardest work is the understanding that you’ve got to change, you’ve got to grow, you’ve got to learn, going to work 18 hours, 20 hours a day is not the hard work, spend an hour a day learning to get better at what you do. That’s the hard work an hour a day of knowledge base in our day. And that’s why anyone on this podcast today, if you haven’t subscribed to this podcast, do that right now, the learning is vital. If you want to be successful in life, that’s the key to it. As you get better
David Ralph [44:18]
life gets easier. I agree. I agree Absolutely. In that. Well, this is the part of the show, I’m sure that we could do this as a five hour Director’s Cut version of the podcast. And Brad would still be on full power by the end of it. But unfortunately, we’ve got to bring it to an end. And this is the part that we call the Sermon on the Mount where we’re going to send Brad back in time to have a one on one with his younger self. And if he could go back in time and speak to the young Brad, what advice would you give them? What age would you like to speak to where we’re going to find out because I’m going to play the music. And when it fades, he’s up. This is a sermon on the mic.
Brad Sugars [45:16]
All right, young bread, some lessons coming your way. First one is this go faster, don’t go slow down, slow down, believe in yourself and just go faster. You got to make some mistakes, but it’s not really a big deal. The mistakes won’t kill you. They’re not going to stop you. You just got to keep going faster, doubting yourself doing that doesn’t work. Second thing is don’t care about what other people think of you do not worry about what other people think my school it made sense to worry about what your friends think to worry about what the cool kids think. And just remember Bill Gates one said a very simple statement. He said Be nice to the nerds in school, you’ll probably end up working for us. You know, so go faster. Don’t worry about what anyone else thinks. You know, there’s a simple saying that you’ll learn later in life young Brad, and that is this. Don’t worry, see, worrying about what other people think of you is all about your ego, okay, and it’s about you. In fact, think of it this way. They’re not even thinking of you. They too busy worried about what you’re thinking of them. So get on with it, get going and build the thing. Next one is if you pick a goal, pick the biggest one. Don’t pick the smallest goal. Don’t pick a media goal. Pick the biggest goal possible. You know, go for world domination, not just domination, one little market, go for big. Always do it big and always do it bold. That’s a thing. Take care of the people around you. Take care of your friends, take care of your family. Make sure that you show them that you love them. Make sure you hang out with them a lot. Remember that your kids will spell love ti me probably so with your wife, to me is how love is spelt in most cases, spend time with them. enjoy time with them. It’s not about the new Xbox. It’s about playing on the car next box with him. Make sure that’s the curse. Anyway, I’m Brad you’ll do well you’ll go far. Travel lots enjoy life. Remember this one very, very simple thing. y’all get out of here live. Live the biggest life you can do as much as you can see as many things as you can meet as many people as you can and have as much fun as you can. That’s the goal. Mr. sugars. What’s
David Ralph [47:23]
the number one best way that our audience can connect with you, sir?
Brad Sugars [47:28]
all social media France, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, you’ll find me on Twitter, not on Pinterest or David I’m not really a crafty kind of guy. Oh, they can jump on Brad sugars calm or action coach calm or jump on Amazon and buy all of my books are 17 of them suckers, go get them all. We have
David Ralph [47:45]
all the links on the show notes to make it as easy as possible. But Brad, thank you so much for spending time with us today joining up those dots. And please come back again when you’ve got more dots to join up. Because I do believe that by joining up those dots and connecting our past actually the best way to build our futures Brad sugars. Thank you so much. Wow, Mr. Brad sugars straight after that I said to him, I think that’s one of my favourite podcast episodes that I’ve recorded the the amount of factual nuggets of gold that you can take into your own business, from the fact that hustle and grind isn’t the way leverage coaching everything that is one of those episodes. I felt like it was a tsunami hitting me a business advice. And so I’m actually going to listen back myself and make as many notes as possible. And I strongly recommend that you can go over to Amazon and start getting Brad’s books because they are a good read. I’ve read several of them myself. And I really are passionate information in the way that you would expect Brad to be talking really good stuff. Until next time, my young Paddy waggons, thank you so much for being here. Thank you. But so many people now starting to drop us a line saying that they want to be involved in that happiness groups where we’re linking you up across the world, to inspire you with the positivity that’s around you. You don’t have to do these things on your own. You’ve got a network of support, we’re providing it to you, all you gotta do is go over to Join Up Dots and look at the support groups that happiness club and choose the one for you. We will get it set up and when we start finding people to get in there and support you with your dream building. But until next time, thank you so much. And I will see you again soon. Cheers, bye.
Outro [49:36]
David doesn’t want you to become a faded version of the brilliant self you are wants to become so he’s put together an amazing guide for you called the eight pieces of advice that every successful entrepreneur practices, including the two that changed his life. Head over to Join Up Dots.com to download this amazing guide for free and we’ll see you tomorrow on Join Up Dots.
