Brett Gilliland outlines the many lessons he has learned from his guests on the Circuit of Success.
With a variety of industries and professions, each guest has brought new habits, insights, and motivation to those who listen to the podcast. Brett goes over the lessons that have made an impact in his daily life and overall great advice for those wanting to achieve a future greater than their past!
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Brett Gilliland 0:00
Hello, what’s up everybody, I’m Brett Gilliland, and the host of the Circuit of Success podcast. And I just wan ted to come at you this week a little differently. Normally, we have a guest on every week and we talked about whatever the things are that we talked about that they specialize in, or that or the experiences that they’ve had in their life, the sports, they’ve played, whatever it may be. But you know, the number one thing I probably get asked the most is, who is your favorite guest?
And, you know, what do you learn every week from this. And so what I thought I would do today is just share this, I think fourteen things, fourteen guests that I want to share some of my learnings from my perspectives on those and what it’s meant for me throughout the year. And so let’s all start, you know, with one of our first guests back in January 2022, it was Daniel Descalso. Daniel, for those that don’t know, played with the St. Louis Cardinals among some other teams, but known here locally, as a 2011, world series champion for our St. Louis Cardinals, which was, which was phenomenal.
But we talked about a lot of things. And one of the things he talked about was the game will humble you, and it will humble you very quickly, you can go for it over. And I apply this a lot of things in sports to business. Because we can go through and over and over fifteen In baseball, maybe the 0-for acts in, in presentations to clients, if you’re in sales, it may be the just random stuff that you have to do as a lawyer or a police officer. And you’re just kind of what you would call in a slump. And I think what I liked the most is, he said, it’s the work you put in when no one’s watching, even when things are going well with your quote unquote, swing. That doesn’t mean you get the results and we have to stay committed.
So what I think about there is going over fifteen In baseball, but still showing up every day and doing the work. Still showing up. And being committed to your craft, being a student of the game, doing whatever it is that you got to do, even when you don’t want to do it. I know for me personally, there’s plenty of days, right where you just you don’t wake up and you’re like, oh, running through a brick wall and you want to show up and go conquer your day and do all that. I think we’re all guilty of that. Whether it’s it’s things going on in our life, it’s maybe you were up, you know, traveling crazy for work. Maybe you were up late with kids sporting events. Whatever it may be, not every day, you’re up and Adam and I think that what matters is when you show up, even when you don’t want to. And that’s what I took away from Daniel Descalso.
I remember him talking vividly about, you know, hitting line drives and hitting a ball that you think’s gonna go over the fence and they rob it, hitting line drives right at the shortstop or the centerfielder. And they’re not going the way you want them to go. But at the same time, it doesn’t mean you’ve hit a bad ball, or you could have ripped one, it just happened to be right at him.
So we don’t need to get so focused on the things that we’re not doing well, focus on that good swing. But when no one’s watching, you can work on your craft every single time and try to get a little bit better. So that was Daniel Descalso.
Next one is Trey Hardee. Now Trey was a great guest. Actually had him on along with Amy Coons, who I’ll talk about next. And they did a joint podcast with my son, Drew Gilliland and Addison Baltus. And so it’s another thing that I take away is these people, you know, are amazing. You know, I never would have imagined 5, 10, 15, 20 years ago, five years ago, the podcast was started about 10 or 15 years ago, that I would have the opportunity to meet these people. To just pick up the phone and call these people. It’s amazing to me how many people at the top of their game are willing to give back to others, to help us all get better.
And so that’s just a little sidebar note, but Trey Hardee, two time Olympian, also a silver medalist, is an amazing person. And here’s what he said is you have to play the long game with your health. And I apply that to investments. You know, what I do every day Visionary Wealth Advisors for a living is you don’t just put $1 away today, and it doubles and becomes $2 tomorrow. No different than I can’t just go out and lift weights today, and expect to be stronger tomorrow, or expect to be healthier tomorrow.
And so when you said that is you have to play the long game with your health, it made a ton of sense to me made a ton of sense with my own choices with eating habits made a ton of sense with my own choices. I’m never a you know, a five times a week guy to work out. But I can tell you is I said here in November, middle of November of 2022. And I’ve been at it four or five days a week, every week with exercise since beginning of August 2022. For me, that’s probably the longest spell I’ve gone in my life with exercise. And for me that hit home when he says you have to play the long game.
I don’t like delayed gratification. I want the gratification now. Right? And I think a lot of us do especially in the world that we live in today. But playing that long game in my health was really important for me to hear to stop expecting to feel different tomorrow. Stop expecting to get the result tomorrow. Play the long game, show up again every day even when I don’t want to. And it’s amazing the benefits that you’ll start to feel and actually how you’ll start to like it, which is where I’ve gotten. So that was my takeaway from Trey Hardee.
Amy Kuhns. Same thing, an Olympic athlete, just an amazing human being. And I was shocked, you know, again, when I asked these questions, sometimes you put your mind of things that you think you may hear, and I said to her, what’s the no miss item? Like if I followed you around the camera, Amy? What would I see that you do every single day? And her answer to me was kind of like, you know, very simple, but yet doing it every day having the discipline, and it was meditation, and gratitude.
Never did I think what I’d hear coming out of an Olympic athlete’s mouth would be my meditation, and my gratitude. What are the three things I’m thankful for every single day? And you’ve listened this podcast, you hear that quite a bit, actually, it’s a common theme that you hear is people focusing on gratitude. But for me to hear it from an Olympic athlete, that what got her to that next level, was her meditations and her gratitude. And she also said, emotions are liars. And I’ll talk a little bit more about our emotions from somebody else. But, but that’s true, right? So many times we can feel an emotion.
And it’s not true. And I overheard a conversation on an airplane ride, I was just on that I’m conquering my fear of flying again, if people listen to this, I’m over that fear, because I faced it, and I did it. And I’ve done it numerous times. Now, I digress. I apologize. But this one flight attendant said to another flight attendant, it was a male and female talking and he was in the Army for years. And he said he was scared on all these flights and all the things he had to go do. And the other flight attendant said, Why did you do that? Why did you do with that fear? And he said, You know what fears are right. And we’ve all said this, we’ve all heard this, but it’s false evidence appearing real.
And I think that so many times in our lives, we do have fears that hold us back. We have fears that tell us, hey, this voice saying I can’t do this. This voice that says, Who do you think you are? Those emotions are liars of what I have found over doing what I do for the last two decades. We got to hear him, we gotta we gotta embrace our emotions, we got to feel our emotions. But we also have to understand that those emotions can be liars, and with the trust our gut, with the trust our instincts, trust our history of what we’ve done to be successful, and go out and make things happen.
So the next one was by Brooke Weinstein. It was a simple comment she made, but a very profound comment. And she said, I am doing enough. You know, if I had to ask him to listen to this right now, raise your hand if you ever feel like you’re not doing enough. And again, I think a lot of us can feel that way.
But what she said is give yourself permission to know that you’re doing enough. On a day, even though I just said show up and when you don’t want to. But she said sometimes you just don’t show up, you know, when she went through a very hard battle you can listen to on the full podcast, and it was her way to not beat herself up over not doing enough sometimes. Just just It’s okay. Sometimes it’s gonna be okay.
And for me, what I have found is throughout the year to give myself permission to feel that way. If I wasn’t as productive as I was, sometimes I used to go home, I’d be upset, or maybe be mad at myself, whatever it may be. Just telling myself that I’m doing enough. And that’s okay. So thanks to Brooke Weinstein for that.
The next one is Matt Adams, big city, World Series champ, again with the St. Louis Cardinals, I’m sorry, with the Nationals. But on a lot of playoff runs with the St. Louis Cardinals. An amazing guy. Gotten to know him. He’s just a great person.
But he said it’s mindset and preparation. So two different things, right, your mindset and your preparation. He said, When I go up to bat, and again, I’ll apply that to the business room, I go into client meeting, I go into some presentation, whatever it may be. It’s knowing I can beat you, knowing that this is my day, right? But it all starts with preparation he talked about. So I’ve got to be watching film. So again, using air quotes, if you’re just listening, I gotta be watching film. I’ve got a practice. I got to think about what I need to say in this moment. I got to think about all the things that will come up in this client meeting. Whatever your at bat is. Your preparation has to be there, first and foremost. But then your mindset has to be there to say you know what, this is my day. This is my day and saying it’d be your day. This is my day, and I can beat you.
Next is Alex, Alex Melvin CEO Rural King. This is based out of my hometown, Mattoon, Illinois. And I remember, growing up as a kid, and he always went there and you get the popcorn, right mom and dad needed to go in the store for something. There’s the popcorn, you would run over, you would get it. It was always free. It was always phenomenal. And I asked him a question around the popcorn. He said, you know, Brett, we spend $2 million on popcorn. Like, I’m kind of blown away by that. $2 million spent on popcorn. And I asked him, you know, why would you ever do that? No CFO is ever gonna think that’s a good idea to spend $2 million of the bottom line on popcorn. And his responses were this. We don’t want our popcorn to be half. I’m sorry, we don’t want our popcorn to be halfway. We want it to be all the way. Why? Well, because others don’t. So how are we going to figure out a way to say yes to the popcorn. So what others don’t.
So go above and beyond right? That’s what I learned as running a company, whatever it may be run an organization Swing for Hope, our charity for cancer. I mean, go above and beyond figure a way out to say yes. We don’t want to be halfway, right? Nothing we do. If you’re listening to these types of podcasts, you don’t want to be halfway. You don’t want to be a second rate version of yourself. You want to be the best version of yourself. And so when we think about that, think about the popcorn, $2 million on popcorn. What are we doing for our clients to come in and remember the moment? Here I am now, 45 years old, still can remember going back as a 15 year old or a 10 year old and remembering the popcorn. But what I wasn’t thinking about as a 10 year old or a 15 year old Brett wasn’t thinking $2 million a year for popcorn. But that’s the experience t hey are creating at Rural King and that one really stuck with me. So thank you, Alex.
Now the next one is Jay Papasan. Jay is the author of “The One Thing,” one of my favorite books. And on page 162 of that book, we spend some time talking about that in the podcast, is time blocking. You know how important is that? If I grabbed my calendar right now, I’ve got most of my things I do every week, pre-booked into my calendar. And so I’ve been doing this for years. And what I found was what gets scheduled gets done, right? Even if it’s as simple as, are you playing a lot of golf? Well, if I don’t get a golf thing scheduled, it’s not going to get done. My week will get filled with other things. If I want to spend time with advisors or clients or friends on a golf course on a late Friday afternoon, if it doesn’t get scheduled it doesn’t get done.
My strategic think time. When I think about my time with my black journal right here. My time when I think about my dreams, my aspirations, my goals, especially now this time of the year, when we’re planning for 2023. If I don’t put it on my calendar, it doesn’t get done. So I’d ask yourself the same question. Are you planning the most important things in your life? Are they going on your calendar and everything else fits in around it? Jay Papasan was also talking about you put a boulder into the stream, the water figures away to go around it.
So what are those boulders, if you will, that need to go on your calendar? In my opinion, it’s your family vacations, right? It’s your time off. It’s the things that you need to do to impact your community and have an abundance mentality. An abundance of thinking when it thinks about your calendar, and don’t have a time scarce. If you have an abundance of time, you can get things done. If I gave you a project and I said here, you have 14 hours to do it. I’m also a big believer within reason. If I give you the same exact project instead of 14 hours, you have eight hours to get it done. I think you’ll hit either one of them in that timeframe.
And so again, think about time blocking. What are you doing? What are you putting on your calendar? Put the most important things on there, get them scheduled and make and make them happen?
Brian miles. Brian Miles is the mental performance coach for the Cleveland Guardians. Another great guest that I had the privilege of talking to this year. But Brian Miles talks about purpose wins against pleasure every time. And that’s so true, right? We have so many things we’ve done in our lives where it was gonna feel good in the moment. So you do it. But it doesn’t give you long term sustainable success. So what is that thing that you’re doing every day that you almost feels like time just flies by, right? You get done doing it? You’re like, oh my gosh, there went three hours. It didn’t feel like it versus there’s things that we can do that it feels like it takes forever, right? It takes all day. If we’re not working in our purpose and we’re only working in our pleasure, you’re not going to have long term sustainable success. I know for me, I know for our firm. Our mission statement is to help people achieve a future greater than your past. And when I’m getting to do that, with our clients, with our community, with our advisors, whoever it may be or I’m on a podcast and doing this right now. Time stands still. It’s just one of those things I enjoy doing. So my purpose wins against pleasure. Every time.
Dr. John Delaney is one of the few guys we’ve had on a couple times, Jay Papasan was one of those as well. But just a phenomenal guest. And in that in in this episode, we talked about a choice I had that day. I actually happened to go to a restaurant, I didn’t eat the best in so I was just asking questions on how do we do that, like, I know if I eat better, or I know if I exercise or I know if I save money, whatever it may be. I know if I do those things, but sometimes we still choose just not to do it. Right. And so when I choose that with Dr. John Maloney, he talks about let’s create a new identity.
I think so many times we focus on a new goal. But then a goal, you actually stay that same person. A new identity is a new person. So we use the food example, instead of me getting crappy food that day. How am I talking to myself? And he talks about, I’m a guy who is a good steward of his body. I’m a guy who doesn’t eat trash. I’m a guy that does this. I’m a guy that does that. And so when we think about that, for me, again, it was really an eye opener for me is to create a new identity. And that’s what I’ve done this year from, I still got my opportunities from eating. But from an exercise standpoint, at 45, I’m thinking about, again, that long road, right, that 65 year old Brett, well, I’ve got to make the changes today, for my health to get where I want to go at 65 and 75.
And people know that around me a lot. My goal is to play golf on my 100th birthday. But I can’t just wake up on my 100th birthday after having 30 or 40 or 50 years of bad stuff going on, and just wake up and play golf. Right, I have to get up do the things now that I want to do. And that was one of my learnings from John Delaney was create a new identity, and then reverse engineer into the actions on what I get to do. So for me, that’s accountability. My accountability is my future greater than your past. My mission. The workout group 6am, on Tuesdays and Thursdays. 13 guys get the text message, whoever shows up shows up. As the weather gets cold, we don’t want to work outside, it’s now send a text message at 6am with a picture of yourself in your gym, wherever you go at your home, wherever you work out, send the picture at 6am for accountability, I need it. Maybe they need it, maybe they don’t. But the end of the day, guess what? I’m working out more. I’ve reverse engineered like John Delaney said, back into my life, the things that I want to do for my own new identity, not my new goal. Okay, hopefully that was very helpful. There with John Delaney.
Brian, Brian Bradley, the Egoscue method. Some great exercises, check out their website, they do some phenomenal things as well. But I love this quote, he said your mind will quit far before your body ever will. How true. Right. And again, I keep talking about exercise and working out or going to a client meeting. But no matter what, no matter where you’re at, your mind will quit far before your body ever will. And I find myself doing that on a treadmill. I find myself doing that maybe later in the day at work. Right? That’s my mind. That’s my mind telling me that I’m going to quit. But but but I don’t need to my body will keep going. I can handle it. I can keep going. I can go to that next level. And for me, again, simple quote. But a very profound quote.
Lauren Johnson, former performance coach for the New York Yankees. I love this question. She says like, if you’re in a moment, right, you’re having something bad go on in your life, personally, professionally, whatever it may be. What typically helps in moments like this? What typically helps in moments like this. So slow down and think, slow down and think. So if you’re having a bad problem, something’s going on in your life. Grab a journal, grab a piece of paper, write it down. And ask yourself what typically helps in moments like this? Slow down, think, make it happen.
Last few. Travis Thomas, man, this was a great guest came into the office. He is the mental performance coach and culture coach for the United States men’s national team, along with the St. Louis Billikens, men’s soccer team. But Travis Thomas said your feelings aren’t an indicator of performance. Again, hah, I got an aha moment. As a guy that plays sports, love sports. Your feelings aren’t an indicator of your performance. What does that mean? Well, how are you feeling right. If the coach asks how you feeling? I feel great. You can go out so a terrible game. How you feel? And I’m nervous. I think these guys are bigger, faster, stronger, and you got to have the best game in your life, the best round of your life. Right? Your feelings are not an indicator of your performance. What you can focus on is what you can get.
So what can I focus on if I’m at a soccer game, and I just kicked one over the goal, or I made a really bad play, or you get a red card? When you shouldn’t have gotten a red card and you’re out of the game? What can we do to adapt to make a difference in our lives? A nd he talks about Travis Thomas does live Yes. And so yes, this bad thing happened. And here’s what I’m gonna do about it. Yes, I kicked that ball out of bounds. Yes, I made that bad, you know, presentation. I don’t think I’m gonna get the client. And here’s what I learned. Here’s what I’m gonna do about it. Here’s what I’m gonna do differently next time, here’s how I’m going to use my mind and prepare. So when that opportunity comes up again, I don’t make the same mistake twice. Things are going to happen, bad stuff is going to happen. It’s really how we respond to it. That matters.
Helen Appleby. She talked about this. And for me, this is so important. She said, the number one reason she is where she is, is because her dad said to her women can do anything. And I wrote that down, I thought to myself, What are you saying to others? Right, what am I saying to people at home? What am I saying to people in the hallways here at work? Right? What am I saying? Little things that you don’t know, are being heard go a long way. What am I saying to others, her dad said to her women can do anything. So I thought that was pretty amazing.
And last, and certainly not least, this was just last week. Windy Sherwin Swire she talked about our energy is as contagious as the flu. Kind of a head scratcher, right? And I think about that it’s so true. You ever walk in a room with somebody with bad energy. You’re walking with somebody don’t know what the energy is like in a room, and you brought the energy. Your energy is just as contagious as the flu. And so my challenge to everybody would be bring the energy that you know, the room needs. It takes just as much energy to be in a good mood as it does a bad mood.
And again, I’m not trying to sit around and act like we don’t have things that put us in bad moods, we do. But those things are also choices. Do we spend time and some breath work? Do we spend time going over our notes? Do we spend time going over our goals, things that are important to us, things that can bring the energy back into our body. So then we can in turn bring that energy back to others.
So anyway, this is a little bit of a different episode. You know, always happy to share. If you have more comments, questions, write them in and send us emails, talk to us on social media. These things are always very helpful helps us create more and more content. Also share this stuff. These algorithms are built these days. The more shares we get, comments, likes, all that stuff. I hate asking for that stuff. But it’s true. The bigger impact we can make, a future greater than your past right, and more content, the bigger impact that we can continue to make. So share it as much as you’d like. Let us know what you’d like to hear more of. Here’s to an awesome end to 2022 and to a great 2023.
