Special Guest Expert Roland GIB Stewart: Video automatically transcribed by Sonix

Special Guest Expert Roland GIB Stewart: this mp4 video file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

So here's the big question. How are entrepreneurs like us who have been hustling and struggling to make it to success, who seem to make it one step forward only to fall two steps back? Who are dedicated? And driven. We finally break through and win. That is the question. And this podcast will give you the. My name is. And this is the mind body business. Hello everyone and welcome, welcome, welcome to the Mind Body Business Show. We have a fantastic show for you lined up here this evening. Because of the one and only Roland Gib Stuart is in the house. He is waiting anxiously scratching at his monitor, saying, let me in, Brian. I'm ready to give everybody all I've got with all the value and all my experience in this life, and I cannot wait for you all to meet him. And he's coming on very, very soon, I promise. Real quick, the Mind Body Business Show. It is a show that I had developed with entrepreneurs, business people in mind. You, and the whole purpose of this show is to bring on incredibly, incredibly successful entrepreneurs just like Roland Stewart, so that they can then impart upon you their wisdom, their experiences, the things that work for them, the things that didn't work for them, and anything and everything that can help you to get to that next level in your business. Now, let's face it, you're not going to skyrocket to the top overnight. It takes stacking pebbles one by one. And that is the beautiful thing about this show, is it gives you those pebbles and you will be able to stack and keep increasing and getting up higher and higher to that, that place that you want and that place that you deserve. And oh my gosh, Mr. Stewart has a phenomenal story and I cannot wait to ask him about it. Of how he left corporate at one point, took a great risk and where he then went to from that point. I cannot wait for that journey for that story. And the thing is, this show is about what I call the three pillars of success. And these are pillars that I discovered while studying only successful people for about a period of ten years or so.

And after studying all these people and these these included mentors of mine, people that I literally worked with side by side, one of which I ended up being his lead trainer and spoke from his stage teaching his students. So we were together quite some time. Others would be authors, some of whom I've met, others who I've never met, some who are not even with us anymore, who have long since passed. But what I learned through studying and really digging into what made these people so successful were these three pillars of success. And they are literally the namesake of this show. Mind is really all about mindset to a person. These successful individuals had developed very powerful, very positive. And here's the kicker. The most important asset of that was leader or not leadership of flexibility. I'm getting ahead of myself. Flexibility, a very flexible mindset and oh my gosh, Roland Stewart is the epitome of that. Well, we may go into that a little bit. He was very flexible today. We had a little issue with the scheduling of this show, and he dropped everything to come on because we had a difference of time starting, and he did a fantastic job getting ready with his wonderful assistant. I believe that's his wife. Don't even know we were we were rambling to get on real quick and it's phenomenal. I love what I get to do. And then body. Body literally is about what what these successful people had done was they took care of themselves physically and nutritionally. That's simple through exercise and through eating and drinking properly and then business. Oh my gosh, business is so multifaceted. I love, love talking about business and what these very successful people had done. What they had was they had mastered the various skill sets that are necessary to build a successful business, and then to scale it and grow it beyond that. And we're talking skill sets like like sales team building, systematizing leadership. I could go on for quite some time. There are many, many different skill sets. My gosh, systematizing. There are so many things scaling. And the cool thing is, if you were to just master one skill set, instead of worrying about mastering all of them because let's face it, mastering any one thing can take a very, very long time.

And one thing we as astute entrepreneurs, and you as astute entrepreneurs and business people, is that we are about efficiency, getting things done with as little effort as possible, but doing it all the way and thoroughly by leveraging other people's time. And that's the key, that one skill set that if you were to concentrate on just one and you have not yet mastered it, it can then help you to leverage the rest of your business and that one skill set. And anybody interested, go ahead, raise your hand, put it in the chat. I'll wait for you. I'm kidding. I'm not going to wait for you. I'm just going to tell you it is the skill set of leadership. Once you have mastered, or even if you're in the process of mastering that skill set, then you can leverage that, bring in others who have already mastered, or they are also in the process of mastering the other skill sets necessary to build a thriving business. And there you have it. Just master leadership. Concentrate on that. There are books written on it. There are many courses and things you can go devour. At least now you can focus on just one. And that's one of the things that gets us as entrepreneurs, isn't it? That shiny object syndrome where we say, ooh, what's that one? Maybe I should stop leadership and go after sales. Oh, maybe it's marketing. Oh yes, they're all important, but focus is always key. And so another fantastic attribute of the most successful people I've ever run into is that they are also, to a person, very avid readers of books. And with that, I'd like to segway real quickly into a little segment I affectionately call bookmarks. Bookmarks. Born to read. Bookmarks. Ready. Steady. Read. Bookmarks. Brought to you by reach your peak. Library.com. There. You see it. Reach your peak. Library.com. Now here, here's a quick word of advice. You are going to be getting resources tonight. I know it, it happens every single time. And I know Roland has many, including a book, several websites of businesses that he owns and operates.

So rather than succumbing to that urge to go click away and research it while you're listening to this show now, you could be watching us live. I sure hope you are. Or you could be watching the recording of a video, or you could be listening on the audio podcast. We are on 35 podcast platforms. We repurpose every show. No matter what the case is. I implore upon you to, instead of clicking away, is to do that old fashioned thing. You know, get out a pen and a paper, a piece of paper, or do it on your computer. Whatever is your your way of taking notes. And do that. Take notes, write down. So let's practice. Reach your peak Library.com write that down. Don't go to it, just write it down. When the show is over, that is the time to then go look at your notes and go visit those resources. Because here is the deal. The magic happens in the room. This was something I found to be true. Speaking from stage, you don't want anyone to leave. Get up and leave because of that all important text message. You know they're not focused. They got distracted right at the moment where you're about to give them the juicy part that could change their life forever. Now, I have no idea what Roland is about to say, but I'll guarantee you he's going to say some things that can and will change your life forever. So just stay focused. Stay in the room. I know it's a virtual room. I think you understand what I'm saying. So that's that. Reach your peak library really fast. What is that? It is a resource that I had my team put together literally, once again with you in mind, because I myself was not a voracious reader until about let's see what that would be. 12 years ago at the age of 47. I'll let you all do the math now. I began reading finally, and my gosh, what a wondrous eye opening experience it has been from that day forward. And so I started having my team throw in the books that I just finished reading, that I vetted the ones that had profound impact on either my professional life, my personal life, or both.

And so not every book I've ever read is in this, in this site. In fact, there are many that I need to add as I look at this. And this is not for the purpose of making money. Find the first book that jumps off the screen for you and go get it wherever you love to get your books. It could be a brick, a brick and mortar like Barnes and Noble. It could be on Amazon, or you can just click a buy here button. Honestly, we probably make a few pennies for each of those button clicks. That is not the purpose of this site. It is to get you the information you need to grow faster in your business and in your life. And that is enough of Brian and his soapbox moments, because I want to bring on the man, the myth, the legend, Mr. Roland Gibbs Stewart. So let's do that, shall we? Here he comes, ladies and gentlemen. It's time for the guest expert. Spotlight. Savvy. Skillful. Professional. Adept. Trained. Big league. Qualified. Yes, sir. There is, ladies and gentlemen, it is the one. It is the only Roland Stuart and his lovely assistant right behind him. I love it so. Thank you so much, Roland, for coming on last minute. My goodness, you are a rock star. How are you doing this evening? Doing really well, Brian. And you? Oh, I'm over the moon excited now that you are on, because that was like, wow, are we going to get this show to go either way? We were doing it again tomorrow. Whatever would work. But thank you, thank you, thank you. You are the epitome of flexibility, as I was talking about in the beginning, and you have an incredible story that I would love to jump right into. Right before we do that, may I give you the introduction that you deserve? Would that be okay? Sure. Thank you. So, Roland. I'm sure there's no bad stuff. Roland Gibbs Stewart believes in the future investor, entrepreneur, reasonable army officer. And thank you for your service. And something I can't even pronounce.

Septuagenarian. Is that like, because you're 70? What does that mean? I don't know what that means. That was a big word for me. And then he was born Roland Gibson. Stewart, 7070. Gotcha. Yes. And he was born Roland Gibson Stewart. And Gib or Gib Timony. He is really enjoying sharing the journey of his 76 years. There's the reason for that. That big word. He was diagnosed. Oh, this is this is a good one. He was diagnosed with lung cancer. That's a serious one and was given only six months to live in life. It has now been four years. Oh yes. Thank God. He owns a media company called Wilder Way Media and Company called A+ coding. That's near and dear to my heart. A former software engineer and he is an author. His latest book is entitled learn, Apply and Grow Rich. It's about you. It's about your family. It's about your legacy. At long last, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the stage, Mr. Roland. Gib Stewart, how you doing again, my friend?

Roland GIB Stewart:
Well, doing very well.

Brain Kelly:
So you have an amazing story that I scraped off of your website, and it wasn't part of your bio. And I thought, wow, it was a powerful story. I think it was around 1977, if I recollect correctly, that you literally left corporate and invested all your life savings and the savings of others that you could gather up, and then you did something. What was that? And how did that story end up?

Roland GIB Stewart:
We bought an apartment complex just right. We went out and did a lot of research. Don't don't think it was flippant, but we decided that we were in the right niche by buying the one we did. Okay. And. Yeah, a lot of people. It's happened a number of different times in my life that a number of people have handed their money to me. I feel very fortunate. Luckily, I've been on a long term win streak, so that was good. Um, being an apartment complex owner was an entirely new thing for me. For us. Um. And we eventually just wrote it out and paid the building off. And we use the cash flow to buy other stuff. And then eventually we get to a position where we needed enough money that we sold the very first one. Fact is, I drove by it about six weeks ago and it's still in good shape, and whoever the guy that bought it for me didn't probably put too much into it, but whoever he sold it to likes the complex. So that thing's still going, and we paid it off and then sold it and used that money to do a number of other things. One was a disaster. I bought the apartment complex from hell, and it was in Oceanside, California, and I did a lot of research. I California economy was lagging the United States economy the year I did that, and I ended up with three properties that I thought were good bets and flew down to California because my my folks were in Southern California at the time and went to the three and picked out the one I thought was the winner. I was wrong. So instead of going to California once, once a quarter or once every six months, I was going down monthly and then weekly and and then the economy kicked into high gear and I sold it for next year's price, and I got out of it. So there you go. That that was the one that didn't work.

Brain Kelly:
So yeah, that's that's great that you had you know, you're telling the full story. So first you basically dumped everything you had into this rental property. The first one. And you know, you did the research, but there's no guarantee there never is. So that must have been a bit of a nail biter for quite some time. And you are fortunate that you have a partner that went in this with you being your wife, because you need to have that support and that's phenomenal. And then, you know, the fact that you did that, now you talk about how you took that and made money then. I love the fact that you said you use the cash flow to buy other ones, other properties, and then you sold the original. So you're giving everyone right there a roadmap to success. And that roadmap to success includes setbacks. That's normal. You know.

Roland GIB Stewart:
Setbacks and a lot of a lot of persistence. And yes, going and then going with the bump, you got to take the bumps.

Brain Kelly:
And because you did all of that and you continue to go through and you were flexible, you were able to get past the bumps. You say in a, in a spot. I'm reading from your website, it said by 27. So in 1977, that's when you went all in. And then you said you you retired from state government service at age 50. So that was about 26 years ago. And then by 2017, you had assets of how much?

Roland GIB Stewart:
Okay, so.

Brain Kelly:
It says 30 million on your site. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Roland GIB Stewart:
Okay. Yeah, yeah, that's when we hit it. But. And that you're managing a few years. Yeah sure a few years. So.

Brain Kelly:
So that's another great.

Roland GIB Stewart:
Thing was patient. You know I was patient every step of the way. Um. The. The jump from 2.5 million to 30 million was over about an eight year period. Ten year period. Um, got into a partnership fight for almost two years of that. Um, one of the partners suffered a stroke playing golf, and so he was ready to get paid out. So I paid him out. And the other partner had his wife file for divorce a couple of weeks later and bought him out. So so that but that was good because then it then it allowed us to focus on the project and finish it. I woke up really, literally five years after I hit 30 million, and I still had it right because I wasn't doing much. I had pretty much cut back on everything. And I was sitting at the kitchen table and I. I tried to figure out how how how I really got to 30 million, right? I mean, a lot of things got to happen. Um, and just what happened was we went through that partnership breakup. We were in the most dangerous part of the entire project. And I told everybody, this is when we don't want to have a problem. But we did. Okay, that's the way it goes. And, and and I just put my head down and finished the project. I mean, just, I just dug in and this is going to be finished. And I know it's bigger than me, but who cares? So we got through it. And very fortunately, I have to say that, um, a lot of. A lot of looking out for the bumps that could be ahead. I left there were six building lots that we were developing for commercial, commercial use, medical, dental. And I left the last one because the economy bust went bust. I left the last one vacant until somebody came along and said, we want an entire floor and we want to own part of the building. Done deal. It gets paid off in June.

Brain Kelly:
Wow.

Roland GIB Stewart:
So and that was the last of the buildings. So see.

Brain Kelly:
That's one of the things it's interesting. You know, this show almost didn't happen today. And I was just going to go on anyway and talk about various things. And you just hit on one of them and that is, you know, don't just buy stuff, buy assets. And then you took something you bought as an asset, and then it further became an asset when you were offered to purchase part of it and have part ownership. And so that's such an intelligent approach. And it's not everybody thinks in that way. Most people that you know, we're talking about non entrepreneurial people that are just in corporate and they you know there's nothing wrong with it. But they think of things as stuff. I'm going to go buy this yacht. I'm going to go buy this boat. I'm going to go buy this car for myself to enjoy. Well, if you bought a yacht, well, how often are you going to be able to go out on it when it's not being when you're not utilizing it? Why not lease it out or or rent it out and make it an asset and pay for itself, just like you are doing with your property? And so I love that. That's a great strategy. It's a great thing that you're bringing up, and it doesn't surprise me at all with the experience you've had and the success you've had and the things you've learned along the way from those setbacks, it doesn't surprise me at all, but I'm glad that you're telling everyone it's not an overnight success thing. It takes time. It takes patience, it takes perseverance. It takes discipline. Everything that you've embodied. And now you're there. So you're in a place where you don't really, you know, don't know. Maybe, maybe you've overextended yourself. I doubt it, but you're in a place where you don't have to worry about your next paycheck. Or do you have enough money for food this week? Although it's getting harder and harder to get food today, the the price. But yeah, so you're like the perfect poster. I was going to say poster child but poster man for for entrepreneurs for people to follow. So gosh darn, I so appreciate this. If you were to say today now where you're at now, how many hours a day would you put in right now in your business on a daily average? Where are you right now with that?

Roland GIB Stewart:
I usually hit the desk about 930 and usually quit at six. Wow. And I usually work. From that schedule six days a week and then the other one I probably do slightly less a couple of hours less.

Brain Kelly:
And are you? Is it primarily in the real estate market still or are you doing? I notice you have three different businesses going at least.

Roland GIB Stewart:
Well, the last the last ten years I've bought ten.

Brain Kelly:
Okay.

Roland GIB Stewart:
So. I'm decided on my walk this morning that I'm going to liquidate one of them and I'll make out. I think everything leads me to believe that I got to talk to some of the experts to guide me in that process, but I pretty much decided that on my morning walk. But everything else seems to be going along quite well.

Brain Kelly:
Fantastic. And so I noticed you had several other things going on, like A-plus coding is one of them.

Roland GIB Stewart:
They want to dominate the dominate, dominate the world. Okay, so this is no small. A small pickens. This is this is something and we have a major conference on Saturday with the five people involved. And. This could this could be gigantic. It really coulAbout cod. So they've already done a lot of conversion to AI, which is increasing their work and making it more efficient. So we're pretty excited about that. And we're talking.ding, right. A-plus coding. Dot com coding plus is spelled out.

Brain Kelly:
Yes. Thank you I was going to do that for you. But you did my job. Yes. Thank you. Yeah. A-plus coding.com, which I love this. I mean, here's another thing that is that I'm observing. And I love this because, you know, a lot of people would tell me, Brian, when are you just going to hang it up and retire? I'm like, I don't even know what retire means. What is that exactly? That's a foreign word, you know? Yeah. And here you are at 76 years young. I mean, I don't think that's you're obviously still very vibrant, very intelligent. You have a lot of experience to me. You know, here's one thing. This is one of my pet peeves. Roland is in the corporate world when it comes time to assess who they're going to bring on as their next employee, the ones that are older than 50 or even 40 are shunned and pushed away, and the young ones are the ones they bring in. And I'm thinking that is just backwards. Number one, the young ones aren't going to stick around for a long time. The culture has changed and they just jump from job to job to job. And you know, if they're worried about the longevity, well, they've just right then and there, you know the young one is not going to be there that long. On average. Us older gents and ladies have been through it. And we know what it takes. And we're not knuckleheads. And we will stick around as long as this job provides for us and it it feeds our needs. And also we have far more experience and knowledge and and wisdom that is of much greater value to them than these young ones. Nothing against the young ones, just that they haven't spent enough time on this earth to accumulate the the wealth of knowledge and experience that we have. What are your thoughts on that?

Roland GIB Stewart:
Well, I actually had never thought about it, but I think what you're talking about has a lot of validity. Why would you, you know, especially especially when they start digging down into the 45 year olds and 47 year olds? Lots of them probably have an awful lot of talent left that's never been exploited. Well, exploited is a bad word, but had never been exercised.

Brain Kelly:
Magnified. Yeah, exactly.

Roland GIB Stewart:
Yeah, exactly. So don't don't just kick them all out.

Brain Kelly:
Yeah. And you know it's it's great because I love following. You know it's like it's funny. It's like herd of animals following a piece of meat. You know, you go to I go to seminars and an entrepreneurial based seminars all over the place and I see the same people. Oftentimes we're all following this herd. But the cool thing is I see speaker after speaker get up on stage that is definitely advanced in age compared to what you would see in a corporate life. So it'd be like, oh my gosh, I'm trying to think of the guy's name. The E-myth revisited. I met him in person. Gerber I met him in person, still going strong last I saw. There's um. Oh my gosh, I'm looking for his book over here. Um. Oh, man. He's one of the most foremost international motivational speakers in the world. And Les Brown and he's still going strong. He's I think he's about your age, 76, 77. I interviewed him on the show. And, you know, to me what that does for me, I'm a young un at 59 and it gives me hope. It gives me excitement. I get I got so much to look forward to even going forward, where so many others are trying to figure out how they're going to tap out and be done and retire. And, you know, I've seen so many people retire in my life and they go and they have nothing to do. They have no purpose. And some of them literally wither up and die because they have nothing to do. You see it in the obits all the time that they retired two, three years ago. They're gone. It's like, no, no, not for me. And you. When you're doing so, you've got multiple things going on. And look at you, you say, we're going to crush it. You've got this thing. I saw the passion, the fire. And how many people will that ultimately help outside of just the company and you? Is it designed to help and serve others as well?

Roland GIB Stewart:
Well, we would. First of all, we're expecting to grow it. So we got all the employees that we're taking in who we expect to treat very well, because if nothing else, we have to because it's a competitive market and there are a lot of people looking for good coders. So you got that to deal with. And then, um, okay, so we need to start a philanthropic arm of this whole thing. And that's been my quest for a while now. And I'm going to have a major meeting with with my kids here in, in June. And we're going to sit down and map out what we as a family want to do.

Brain Kelly:
And that's important. How many people do that? It's so rare that people just sit down and talk with their family, right? Right. I mean, goodness sakes, philanthropic. I'm trying to spell it on my I'm taking notes as we're talking. And another thing that really stood out about me was you said this about you were taking a walk this morning. You decided to liquidate a property. And but first, you're going to talk to some experts and help to get guidance. And that is another key ingredient I see missing in those that are struggling. And that is the willingness and desire to reach out for help. You know, it's the ego that's saying, I can do this all myself, but you've obviously passed that. You know, it's more valuable to seek help than it is to say, I can do it all by myself, and I'm just pulling these wonderful nuggets out of you as you talk. It's like, that's why you have reached the level of success you have. And I just, I'm saying all this so that those who are watching and listening, I just pray you are writing and taking notes and integrating this information, because we have the proof right here. His name is Roland Stewart. So yeah. Thank you for all of this. This is amazing.

Roland GIB Stewart:
And so many, so many people that have quote unquote, made it are ready to talk to you almost any time you're willing to speak up and talk to them. Okay. It's just there's a lot of knowledge out there from some pretty smart people, and a lot of them, if you just happen to talk to them for a couple of minutes, are willing to try and help you answer your questions.

Brain Kelly:
That's so true. I've been telling people that, too. It's like, you know, the the higher one gets in there, you know, making it in their level of success, the more they want to share how they did it. And it's not the other way around where they oh, I can't approach that person. They're like too important and they've made it so high. It's like, you know, it's actually the opposite if you approach it the right way. Like so as an example, Roland, you have a philanthropic heart. You want to do something for other people. What is that? What is your philanthropic idea right now? What is your what is it you want to do? I want to learn about it. And then, Roland, how can I help you? Is there a way I can help you? And would you mind? Can we sit down and have a little a cup of coffee? And I just want to. I just want to learn about how you got where you got. So, you know, appeal to their each of their what is their desire. And especially if it's philanthropic and they're helping people see if there's a way you can help. And if you can't help, I'm sure you're connected with somebody who could in some way, shape or form. Would that be something you would find attractive if somebody were to approach you, Roland, and say, hey, I want to get information from you. But first I'd like to learn about your philanthropic activities and see if there's a way I can help you. Would that be a door opener?

Roland GIB Stewart:
Yeah. That would that would that would be unusual. It would be a mind blower. And yeah, I'd sit down and I'd probably stop almost anything I'm doing to be able to sit down with someone that. Straightforward and interested.

Brain Kelly:
Yeah, and it's something I learned through one of these many seminars I've been to from an individual who had, quote unquote, made it from stage. They said, this is how you approach us. This is the key is find out what we're involved in, find out our organizations that we back and and then do some research, do a little bit of research and understand what it's about. So you have something in common to talk about. It doesn't mean going without integrity. It's like go in. And if it's a cause that you could also get behind, then offer, hey, I don't know if I can help you, Roland, I have no idea. But if there was a way, I'd be more than happy to. Can I get more information about that? And while we're doing that, would you mind if I bent your ear a little bit and chewed on it to find out how you got where you are? I would be so, like, enamored to learn that and then look at that. You're helping that person and they are at least attempting to help you. So it's a two way street. At least you're not just leeching off of the successful person. I thought that was a great strategy.

Roland GIB Stewart:
That's a great idea.

Brain Kelly:
Love it. My gosh. And you're you're an amazing guy. This is like just everything we went through just to get on this show. And you just you just made it happen. And you have a lovely assistant helping you. You are so lucky to have her. So. And that's another thing is team teamwork, they say makes the dream work, right?

Roland GIB Stewart:
Yes it does.

Brain Kelly:
So in business, you know, we do have a lot of ups and we have some downs. We learn from our downs, we get up and we try not to ever repeat those. And when it comes to those moments where you're like, yes, I, we we did it. This is awesome. What would you say if you could pick one moment from the many I'm sure you've experienced would be the most satisfying moment you can recall in your business to date? Uh.

Roland GIB Stewart:
I would say it was completion of the first office building that I actually developed on my own. Okay, so after going through many parts of residential, I decided that was taking too much of my time and started to switch to commercial, which I could have never even thought of in the beginning. Commercial is a much more expensive game to get into, but since I had all the other properties lined up, we sold one off, we bought the lot, and we put the building up and finishing that and realizing that I could do it okay, and I was really set up. A dentist friend of mine was looking for office space. We couldn't find it for him because in those days, dentists used to emit all kinds of smells that nobody remembers, right? And so nobody would rent to them, right? And so one day he came up with the idea that I saw a vacant lot. Maybe we should maybe we should develop a building there. So we went out and interviewed developers. After we interviewed the third one, we came back to his office and we were driving back and he says, hey, Gib, I want you to do this. I'm sitting here saying, me, let's talk about this. All right? We decided that I would do it, and it was just a it was what people call a home run. Nice. That was. Those are the kind of moments that. Calmed me down. I mean, really, after years of wondering whether I was doing the right thing or was it, what's this, what's that? And once I did that, that was a very calming moment.

Brain Kelly:
Was it also, would you estimate or would you think that it also provided you with a lot more confidence so that when you went. Yeah.

Roland GIB Stewart:
Very calming. The first time I got calm was I was an economist for the state of Oregon, and it was before computers and we used ten key calculators. And I find I finally decided I could do something that somebody would really pay me for. I could run, I could run a ten key calculator. So that was the first one. And of course, being a state economist was pretty fulfilling. One of the best jobs I ever had working for somebody else and kind of go from there. And then you just start feeling luckier and luckier as you go along, right? I mean, why not?

Brain Kelly:
And love it. And you mentioned earlier about your, you know, you're basically pulling up an employee base for your latest venture, the A+ coding. I don't know if it's your latest, but one of them and you said something about you bring in the team and we treat them well. That that caught my ear. So you're developing a culture? Yes. And I'm curious about the details of that behind that. So when you develop a culture for your team, it's usually you want to develop a, you know, a fun, synergistic, you know, not antagonistic atmosphere where people are actually enjoying the process, the journey of the job. What is it that you do specifically to help nurture a culture that employers would want to come to and then stay in?

Roland GIB Stewart:
Well, most of the people we have, there's two types. The people that I need to manage and push forward and encourage are the sales people, and they're all over the world. Right. That's at least that's our our short term goal. Let's get them all over the world and then have them produce as their as their there. So that's that. That's my side. The other side is the it side which is. One of my partners is is running that and he has lots of people banging on his door, so he must be doing the right thing. They want to go to work for him. So that's what we're after. And we're going to we're going to have yearly conferences. So the people from the field can come in and we'll we'll end up paying their bill to come in. Fantastic and playing their bill to stay here, and we'll help them go home and hopefully encourage. The other day it was something like. We are here to make other people successful, and by making other people successful, that happens to help us a lot, right? I just there was some I have it written down here somewhere, but that's that's the essence of it. You help these people, you encourage them, you knock down the roadblocks for them, you help them get where they want to go. And somehow that reflects back on you.

Brain Kelly:
So and you're talking also about you're talking about your employee base when you say that or your customers and clients or both.

Roland GIB Stewart:
You bet. Yeah. Oh yeah. Okay. So I have always visualized myself from way back when as the person in the middle trying to make both people happy. I. Just as far back as I can remember. That was one of the roles that I thought I would play, and I'm still doing it today. I'm knocking down this person's roadmap. I'm not that person's roadblock down and helping them make their next step.

Brain Kelly:
I so relate with this. I mean, this is this is gold. I have I have team two. And I told them when I brought them on because I learned I learned to do this, I didn't wake up and go, I'm going to be this kind of leader. But I learned to train my people and I tell them this. I said, I'm going to train you and do my best. My job is to train you so well that you literally will have what you need to leave me. Leave my company. And then and then I coyly after that, literally right at that moment, I put in a little humor script and I said, of course you realize you can never leave me, right? And they always laugh, but it's that kind of, you know, I want I want them to be empowered and to have the tools necessary to do their job without being micromanaged and to have tools that they could literally leave and do their own thing if they so chose to. I mean, it's a big decision to do that, but I love being able to help people. And if they decide to leave, well, along the way, we're building systems so that I don't have to retrain everybody that comes in. We have all of it being built as we go through video and documentation, so have that covered. And so it makes it just a wonderful environment. And I remember those people I worked for back when I was in corporate. What were the ones I liked to work for? Why? You know, start digging. Why did I like what were the ones I didn't like to work for and why? So I want to take on the traits of the ones I liked and kick the other ones to the curb. And so it made a big difference. So if you see, you see a huge difference when you have a happy base of employees, right?

Roland GIB Stewart:
You do. A lot more potential, a lot more eagerness for the next step.

Brain Kelly:
And I love how you said we are here to make other people successful. And that's another key ingredient is it's about someone else, not yourself. When when you do that, when people do that in general, the results usually are manifold compared to when you're just focused on improving your own situation by itself. Is that is that something you've learned over time?

Roland GIB Stewart:
Totally, 100%. Keep making them successful.

Brain Kelly:
Yeah. And who wouldn't want to stick around with a guy, Roland Stuart who was trying to make me successful? You know, if I'm his employee, it's like, sheesh, if you have their best interest at heart, I mean, how could it be? All right, the assistant's here. Yes.

Roland GIB Stewart:
Didn't say anything.

Brain Kelly:
So it's, you know, we go back. I've gone back myself and saying, man, I wonder, you know, don't ever look back myself personally and go, I wish I had done all these things differently. There are things I, you know, decisions I made that yeah, I wish I made different decisions. But if you were to, to go back and in time and you were to start a career all over again, so you started out, it sounds like working in a corporate type environment, working for someone else, and then later moved on to become your own boss and entrepreneur with your wife. If you were to start it all over again, is there anything you would do differently, and if so, what would that be?

Roland GIB Stewart:
Oh, yeah. Well, my very first job out of the military, I was working in a. Financial institution. On Market Street in San Francisco, and I was so intent. On being successful that I never thought about my health. And. I ended up leaving them at about age 24 to 26, and I spent I had to spend over two and a half years to recover from that experience, just to recover. And that experience stayed with me until age 74. And that's a burden to carry, man. And that handicapped me in many ways. Take care of your health. Number one. Number one. Number one. Number one. No doubt about it. I suffered for years because I didn't realize that was part of what I was supposed to do.

Brain Kelly:
That is incredible advice. As you can see, the middle word of this very show is about body and that's that embodies health. And it's so true. I've been down that path to or burning the candle at both ends. Oh my gosh, I remember. I mean, not only just physical health but also health of my relationship with my wife. My gosh, I was commuting about an hour and a half each way. So three hours a day in a car, sucking fumes, you know, in the LA area and you don't. That's in and of itself. That's not healthy. But then working and then working longer than eight hours a day and then coming home tired, you know, the old black eyes, skunk rings under my eyes. And then I would sit down and start working on what I wanted to work on, which was entrepreneurial type businesses, to the point where I'm now working all the way to 11, 12:00. And I'm got I've got four hours of sleep ahead of me. I'm not paying attention to my wife or my kids because I'm so driven. And I'm not realizing that instead of working out, I'm now drinking beer and wine to take care of that, that other feeling. And it just snowballed. And yeah, it it caused issues on my health with my relationship. Thankfully, those are both recovered, but I can totally relate. And yes, health if you don't have your health, they say it right. It means it's true. If you don't have your health, you really have nothing. Nothing else really matters at that point.

Roland GIB Stewart:
Okay? Yeah. Pretty horrible. Just that's that's the one mistake I wouldn't have made if I. Yeah. If I couldn't have made. If I'd known better, if I'd just. I don't know what would have made me know no better. That's that's the issue, right? I mean, yeah, maybe in my mind. Right.

Brain Kelly:
Someone close by noticing it. That could be your accountability partner to say, hey, you may want to right that ship, but yeah. Yeah. And then when you're younger, right, you're you're invincible. Right. Nothing can bring us down. Right? But boy, oh boy, we are still human after all.

Roland GIB Stewart:
That's right. You got it. So.

Brain Kelly:
Holy smokes.

Roland GIB Stewart:
That was a good question that haven't been asked that it's it's tough to admit it, right.

Brain Kelly:
Yeah. And I appreciate your transparency because by being transparent and this is for everybody watching and listening, not just for Roland. And he already knows this, but by being transparent, you are actually helping people. It may feel uncomfortable, possibly to answer questions that might be personal, but a lot of times they are very, very beneficial to those who are absorbing the information. So thank you for that, Roland. Truly appreciate your transparency with that. And one thing I love to ask, this is one of my favorites questions that I ask of my guests. And that's a complete different shift. We're getting away from health for just a moment now. We're going into the business realm, and that is, you know, when it comes to the lifeblood of any company, it always boils down to one and only one thing. And that is marketing. You know, it's it's about getting other people's eyeballs to your business. It's that art of getting attention and then reeling them in and then going through the process, through the sales process and closing the deal. So what used to work, say, ten, 15 years ago doesn't necessarily work today. I mean, I remember doing mass emails and like, man, I'm making sales left and right after one email. That doesn't work anymore. Now you got to give them a bunch of stuff up front, show them and prove to them that you have value. Then maybe they'll do business with you. And then and then if we go out ten, 15 years in the future, what we're doing now that's working may not work then. It's just there's no constant. So I'm curious with you, Roland, today, right now, if you were to say the number one, your go to marketing strategy, is it is it online ads, is it is it pay per click like things like that? Is it referral based marketing? Is it just kneecap to kneecap, you know, getting relationships built for you and your business and everything you're doing right now? What would you say is your number one go to marketing strategy today?

Roland GIB Stewart:
Face to face. Sit down. Hammer the thing out. Make it happen. What's going to make this work for you, sir or ma'am? More and more often it's. Ma'am.

Brain Kelly:
Yes. That's true. Yeah, yeah.

Roland GIB Stewart:
Just. It's been an incredible shift, and that's great. I mean, because because there. Okay, so for a long time, I just thought it would be nice if all the judges were female, because I've always thought. That. They they do a better job of stepping back from a situation and really studying what's happening. And then. The junk Bond King. The judge gave him a pretty good sentence, and then she paroled him way too early. So he's out living in Lake Tahoe, and he's. Short story. Sorry.

Brain Kelly:
you said sit down face to face. So that's building relationships. And that's. I love that, because if you go back 10 to 20 years to today and out into the future, that is the one common denominator. That one approach works no matter what else does or does not work. It has never failed any business and that is sitting down, making one on one relationships and building out, not just going in and saying, let's sit down and hey, come buy my crap. It's let's sit down, get to know each other. How can you help me? How can I help you? Let's make it non-transactional. Let's just see. Maybe there's nothing we can do for each other, but at least we'll know. And then down the road, they'll go. Man. Roland, I remember that conversation we had, and now I just ran into somebody. I know they can help you, but if you hadn't had that conversation, a relationship that would never have happened. And it's building, like I said in the beginning, stacking pebbles. It's not taking out a machine gun and hitting, you know, 200 rounds in a in a millisecond. It's one at a time, slowly, methodically building. That's what I hated. I did not like it when I was learning this. I'm like, I want to be efficient and blast emails to everybody. It just that didn't work or it doesn't work anymore and you have to sit down. Thankfully, I love developing relationships now it's it makes it more fun to me. It's more fulfilling because then when you do make a difference in that person's life, it's personal and it's a good thing.

Roland GIB Stewart:
You are correct. 100%.

Brain Kelly:
Awesome. All right, guys.

Roland GIB Stewart:
You're not so old. Old guy and a young guy. We're sitting here and we're agreeing. Straight down the line.

Brain Kelly:
I love it, I love it, and I want to I want to also now pivot a little bit and give credit to your latest book that you've written. If you're okay with that, I'd like to talk about your book. You also have a gift for everyone. It's a really great gift that I'll bring up on the screen here a little bit, but I'll put your. Your website is where they can go see where that book is, but don't go there now, everyone watching and listening, write this down. It's Roland Gib Stewart, author.com no spaces, no hyphens Roland Gib Stewart, author.com. And you have a new book out called learn, apply, grow, oh learn, learn, Apply and Grow Rich. And it's phenomenal sounding book. It's like Think and Grow Rich. But now it's off playing off of that title I love that. So if you wouldn't mind, can you tell us a little bit about that book and what what inspired you to write it?

Roland GIB Stewart:
Well, what inspired it was three kids harping on me for 12 years to sit down and get it done because they they kept wondering how how did how did we end up in this situation. So that's what got it done. Um, and it's just the experience. We started with the $288 and we grew it to 30 million. And so there's a good story there. I think it could be better written, but I did what I could and write in the first few pages. You'll end up with like 30 items that you might want to think about when you're becoming an entrepreneur. Do you know basic math? I've used very little past, uh, the measurements on a rectangle or a triangle. I haven't done much more than that, but I do it all the time and it's made me a lot of money. So just learn some basic math. Be able to take care of your checkbook. Um. A persistence pays. Know who your partner is. Things. Things like that that are just there. Right there. You just have to read them. And if you're short in 1 or 2 of them, figure out how to fill in the blanks and get yourself up to speed. And then you're in pretty good shape. I frankly don't know how I made it, okay, but I did. And. With this, with the last project there really pushed me over the top or over the top of what I thought I could ever do. When the project became too big, I put my head down. I asked a lot of questions of a lot of people. Every step we took after that, and we made it through and it was like, I wonder if I could have dreamed this high.

Brain Kelly:
Mhm.

Roland GIB Stewart:
And I don't know that I could have even dreamed this high. If you really want to know, Brian. Um, one of the things I found that was interesting, but, you know, they always tell you to dream bigger than you think you can. But if I dream that big, I would have walked away. I was we were just five stupid guys. We put $2,500 in a pot, had $12,500, and we were going to go out and conquer the world. Well, there are only two of us left out of the five. So that gives you some idea of what happened. The three of them dropped off along the way. Um. So the project was that big and I was left with it and I was going to make it happen. So just there's a lot of determination in this thing. And persistence is one of the keys. Learning from the other people around you or people that you can grab onto and say, hey, you've done this before. You know, what do I do now? So, all right, that's my book.

Brain Kelly:
Yeah. And thank you for writing it, because it sounds like it's the formula for success. Everything you were talking about, you know, and I did notice you said the word persistence more than any of them, as far as the words. And I'm just highlighting these so that people watching and listening to this really take heed of that word. But because my goodness, resilience, persistence, I mean, that is one of the biggest traits one must have in order to succeed because of the multitude of setbacks that we all go through on this journey to this, this thing called success that many of us can't even dream big enough and so relate with that too. It's dream about something that is tangible and reachable, and then when you reach it, dream about the next level instead of, you know, I'm going to become a 200 millionaire in the next five months, like, is that really attainable? And you won't believe it. And if you don't believe it, you'll never get there. So it was a very sound advice. Oh my gosh and love it. I wonder if I could even dream this big. Yeah, exactly. It's like you hear all this. Dream big. Dream big. Well, I would say dream bigger than your dreaming today, but let's do it step wise and make it something that you literally have some inkling. Like make it a stretch, right? Make it a little bit outside of your comfort zone of could I make it? But not too far out of it. That way you at least give yourself a chance to hit it. And so fantastic. Oh my gosh, I know we started a little late, but we are already at the witching hour that some would call it. Um, this has been just incredible. Roland, you are an amazing person. You are amazing. Wealth of information. And, um, and, you know, the partner thing that hit me that you were talking about the partners, there's only two of you left out of five that began. That happened with myself as well. We have all these. It's like, were we actually born? Like, are we twins? And we were separated at birth.

Brain Kelly:
They're rolling somehow. It's like time Warp happened because it was about five partners. And when all the dust settled, guess how many were left standing? Kind of two. And it was myself and another partner. And that business did not make it. But I learned so much from it. And we were about six years. We gave it a go. And and then I learned and I've done it since get other partners I personally learned I don't ever want an actual partial owner partner ever again, because now my decision making power is gone. There's infighting no matter how friendly you are. I did this with a friend and we ended up becoming, you know, we didn't talk to each other for several years. We're back to talking again. But why? Why? It's like life's too short. So just do joint ventures. Let them have their business. You have your business. You don't own each other's business. But you can do things to help each other. And that's my my now go to strategy. It doesn't mean people should not get partners. But that's what my ears got big when you said there's only two left, it's like, yeah, I've been down this path, I get it. And for various reasons I get that too. But so your gift, I'm going to pull that up on the screen and I hope you don't mind, but I, I came up with a shorter, shortened version of the link that gets them there, because if you go to Amazon, it was quite a lengthy. Um, here, I'll show what what it really was. That was the link it's going to be take me all night to say what that is. So I created this shortened link that goes to that same place. And what it is is it is a copy of your book, your your Kindle version for how much, how much are you charging for that ebook?

Roland GIB Stewart:
$0.99.

Brain Kelly:
Oh $0.99. I think I saw something different. Oh, if you're on Kindle Unlimited, yes. Kindle Unlimited is $0.99. Yes. Here, I'll put it up on the site so you can see. Oh, having that little fun thing happen again. That's later. All right. So the URL you want to go to and you'll see this on Amazon. But the $0.99 he is absolutely correct is right here. I've got my mouse in the wrong spot. Bring it over. Here it is. I'll highlight it. It's right here in the blue area on the far right. $0.99 for his Kindle version of learn, Apply and Grow Rich eBook. So to get that, go to report him. Write this down. Don't go there now report. Com forward slash learn apply and grow rich. All words all spelled out, all lowercase. Learn. Oops yeah. Learn. Apply and grow rich. Said it right. Report. Forward. Slash. Learn. Apply and grow rich. That will take you directly to the Amazon page where you can get his book for a whopping $0.99. Less than a dollar. We spend more than that on coffee. On a quarter cup of coffee costs that much these days, so definitely feed yourself with knowledge from this amazing man. And thank you for that incredible gift. And we do have one more gift I wanted to share with everybody. And that is for everyone that stays with us live till the end. And we're getting really close to that point. Uh, I have a special gift for everyone there as well, and that is, you can enter to win a five night stay at a five star luxury resort. Compliments. If I can get my screens working, compliments of of reach Your Peak. And this time we will get us back up on the screen. There it is. Wow. Crazy stuff happening. All right. And for that. You already saw it. If you're watching this live, if you're watching this on a recording, you kind of got a glimpse of where you're going to go. But don't go there yet.

Brain Kelly:
And don't don't write it down yet, because we have one final question to ask this amazing man named Roland, Gibbs, Stewart and Roland. It is a doozy. I love it because I've been doing this show. Gosh, it's been over five years now. Unbelievable. Uh, and I've had many amazing individuals such as yourself. And I used to ask this question in the beginning, on occasion here and there on this show, on that show, and I started taking note of the answers. I'm like, wow, these are profound. These are these are powerful. These are amazing. They are diverse. They're all over the place and I love them. And so now, well, did this I don't know how many years ago I started doing this 3 or 4 years ago. This is I asked this question to end every show. And it's an amazing, amazing question. But real quick, before we do that, I'm finally going to bring up that that image that kept flashing on the screen so folks can write down how they can enter to win that five night vacation. Stay at a five star luxury resort. You don't want to miss this. Write this down everyone. I'm going to put it up on the screen now. You must be watching live to enter. So I know we know. My team knows when those come in. That URL is ripped forward. Slash vacation guest experts who are on the show are eligible to enter as well. Hint hint wink wink. Mr. Stewart R.I.P. dot com forward slash vacation. Write that down and then enter to win after the show is over. Yes, we will still be monitoring for entries once the show is over and we've signed off, so definitely write that down and enter to win once we sign off. And now we're going to go back to the man, the myth, the legend, Mr. Roland Stewart. And we're going to ask him that profound. Awesome question. And he is going to love it. Because here's the cool thing about this question, Roland. And that is, there's no such thing as a wrong answer. It doesn't exist.

Brain Kelly:
It's not a quiz. It's not a test. In fact, the opposite is the case. And that is the only correct answer will be yours because it will be unique to you. And if once you're asked and you thought, huh? And maybe it'll take you several seconds to think over the answer, or maybe you'll have it instantly, even then, whatever that is is perfect because it's your answer. So there's no possible way of failing because again, it's not a test. So with all that wonderful buildup, are you ready?

Roland GIB Stewart:
You bet.

Brain Kelly:
All right. All right. Refuse to be.

Roland GIB Stewart:
Intimidated.

Brain Kelly:
Oh, please do not ever wish to intend to intimidate anyone. Especially not you. Never, never, never. All right, so here we go. Rolling. Stewart. How do you define. Success.

Roland GIB Stewart:
Success. Well, it's not the end of the journey, I'll tell you that, because there's more successes to be had. Um. I think success is being in a position where you can. Help other people more, maybe. I think that's when I felt. Like I was there. I really I could just take I don't care what I was doing. I could take the time and help somebody and. That was that was a big point. He was able to do that regularly and. Wow. That's where I'd like to be.

Brain Kelly:
Fantastic. And you know, the cool thing about that question and the responses is to date, I don't know how many I've asked that question. No two people have answered it the same exact way. Still.

Roland GIB Stewart:
Do you get one commonly? I mean, is there one that.

Brain Kelly:
People have asked? You know, it's similar like what you said was being able to help other people, the journey of being and then to do it consistently. And others have said things like, you know, when I see a client or they don't even say client, when I get to see someone succeed greater, at a greater level and had a little bit to do with it, it just varies. It's that's what's so wonderful about it. The one thing that I love, though, Roland, not a single person, not one yet that has been on this show, had answered anything like the focus. The primary reason was never about money.

Roland GIB Stewart:
I believe that. Oh, I believe that.

But, you know, if you if I were interviewing those that are just starting out that are in more of a scarcity mindset, I'd be willing to bet many of them would say money because they need it. And that's on the forefront of their mind. And they want to, you know, they want to. And at that moment, that's how they equate success. Well, if I made a couple hundred thousand, then I would feel free from all this debt and all this other stuff that's going on in my life. And that's the cool thing. So if I come to you ten years from now, Roland, and ask you that same question, I'll be willing to bet that your answer changes as would mine.

Roland GIB Stewart:
I'm sure you're right. Yeah. I'm sure. Yeah.

Brain Kelly:
To some degree. I mean, you'll still feel you love serving people and helping people, but, you know, we're all we're all in this great journey. That's what I love about it. You know that that one question will have multiple answers over the course of our life. And with your permission, later on, we'll come back to you and ask you if you would be open to and willing to allow me to include your answer into a collaborative book. And it's going to be the book is going to have the title of the very question. I'm going to do that with a group of people that have been on this show, if you're open to that. But I'll address that later.

Roland GIB Stewart:
You bet.

Brain Kelly:
Fantastic. Because I'm in the throes of publishing my very first book. It's going through the final editing and I can't wait. I'm excited. So I want to get that done. And then I'll go to the collaborative one and get working on that, so we'll have some fun. Well, speaking of fun, Roland, this has been an absolute blast for me personally, and I know anybody who watched and listen. It's the same same for them as well. If you have one last parting piece of advice to anyone, let's say just starting out on their entrepreneurial journey, if you could think of just one to get them going, what would that be?

Roland GIB Stewart:
This is repetitive. Persist.

Brain Kelly:
Mhm. Can't get more direct and to the point than that. And that is true.

Roland GIB Stewart:
Right on.

Brain Kelly:
All right. Well, thank you so much. On behalf of the amazing and incredibly flexible Roland Gibbs Stewart. I am your host, Brian Kelly of the Mind Body Business Show, and we will be back on again next week. Cannot wait to see you then. Until then, please everyone do two things. Number one, go out and continue to crush it. Take your business to the next level so you can serve and help more people. And number two, above all else, please everyone be blessed. That's it for us. We'll see you again next time. Take care everyone. Thank you for tuning in to the Mind Body Business Show podcast at the Mind Body Business. My name is.

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