Special Guest Expert - Steve Fredlund: Video automatically transcribed by Sonix

Special Guest Expert - Steve Fredlund: this eJwdjl9vgjAUxb8KuQ97QhEE5kjMspC5LYsPxhj3Rrr2wqqlJe0tuBm_-8DX8-d3zhW40YSaKvrtEAp4gRCkdsQ0x0oKKJbLxSpO0zgE7h2Z1ju0dyPJ4zzNkhAY58aPhHt69ZTFjyHUEpWoNGsnZi0VjtjzwGzjoLiCt2qUf4g6V0TRMAzzxphGIeukm3PTRsLKHqM-iaaqi2KdlpfPrSnjD7XY_R3y96Od9eVGbE-70_dXdn5mitYtCskenPGW41qYQSvDxGGcCoEkqenJvkMumQrePDoKXi8dWgpmwZ6wx2BjUSivxZivjW0ZjYW2S-F2-wft1WKl:1nuGJJ:zvPuZjiCyhnJ-fL4SfUcTQlEqwQ video file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Brian Kelly:
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? Determined. And driven. We finally break through and win? That is the question. And this podcast will give you the. My name is Brian Kelly. And this is the mind body. Hello everyone and welcome, welcome, welcome to the Mind Body Business Show. I am your host Brian Kelly. And this is going to be one heck of an episode because Mr. Steve Fredlund is in the house. You're going to love this gentleman as much as I do when you get to know him here in just a few moments. Before we bring him on real quick, the mind body business show, that is a show that I had created with entrepreneurs in mind. So it's a show for entrepreneurs by entrepreneurs. And what I get to do is bring on very successful individuals, and then I get to extract their secrets to success for the purpose of you being able to take notes, then take action and simply model them. So literally you get to copy the things that they have utilized, the strategies that they have taken under their wing, the things that they do to become successful. You get it all right here on this show. And we don't charge a dime for it. It's like going to a seminar every week, a one hour seminar. I kid you not in a very value packed seminar because again, only successful entrepreneurs grace the stage. And I get to interview entrepreneurs from all over the world. And one of the things I found was that to a person in my study, studies of about a decade of just successful people is that they all seem to carry these three traits, and I call them the three pillars of success. And a little hint they are a part of the very name of this show mind being mindset to a person. Every successful individual I studied had a very powerful, positive and most importantly, flexible mindset and body. Body means they literally took care and take care of themselves physically by exercising and through proper nutrition.

Brian Kelly:
And then business is multi, multi, multifaceted. There are many angles and skills that one must master to build a thriving, successful business and then take it and scale it and continue to grow it. Skill sets by like sales, marketing, team building, systematizing, leadership. I could go on and on. There are a lot of skills and one must master these skill sets in order to build a thriving business. The good news is you personally don't have to master all those skill sets. If you just master one of them, the others can fall into place much easier. Because let's face it, I don't know if anyone human being on the planet has enough time to master every one of the skill sets, let alone just the ones I just said. But that one skill set, if you master it. That one skill set. If you master that one, then everything else can fall into place. And that is the skill set of leadership. That's right. Once you've mastered the skill set of leadership, you now have the ability, the tools, the skills to lead those who have mastered those skill sets that you either have yet to master or maybe you never will. And that's okay. The key is to bringing in help and getting rid of that ego and building your company and scaling it. I know we all start out by ourselves. I get it. I've been there, done their, been there, done that, bought the t shirt, as I say. And there's nothing wrong with that. Just have it in mind that you're going to grow in scale from from the very beginning. And speaking of growing and scaling, one of the things, another very common attribute of highly successful people is that to a person I found, they are also very avid readers of books. And with that, I'd like to segue very quickly. Don't worry, Steve's coming on real quick and a Segway into a little segment I affectionately call Bookmarks.

Announcer:
Bookmarks for and to read bookmarks. Ready, steady. Read bookmarks brought to you by your pique library.

Brian Kelly:
Yes. There you see, you reach your peak library. Now, a real quick word of advice before we continue. When it comes to listening, paying attention, being in the moment, this is something I love to impart on folks that are watching, even when I'm speaking from stage, is that when you see and hear about these resources, I know Steve's going to bring on quite a few. It happens every time, similar to like Reach Your Peak Library, a website. Rather than succumb to that urge to go click off and click away and go look at that resource, please. I implore of you, rather than do that is simply get out a piece of paper or whatever is your preferred method of taking notes. Write them down, keep your gaze and attention on Steve during the show, and then when the show is over, then go back to your notes and visit those resources. That way, you won't have any possibility of missing out on the one key element. It could be just that one time where your attention isn't fully on Steve and you're looking at something else where he says that one thing that could possibly change your life forever. I've seen it happen over and over, and so I'd hate for you to miss that. So off my soapbox, that's my advice to you going forward. Reach your peak library. It is a resource that I had my team build with you in mind, and that is the entrepreneur or business person or owner or even employee that's looking to get to the next level in their in their journey, so to speak, of entrepreneurship or business or their jobs. And what happened is, over the course of the years that I started reading, I didn't start till about a decade ago, and then I started reading like crazy. Every book you see in your library is a book I personally read and I vet, meaning I got I got value from each and every book you see on this on this website. And I put them there so that you could just find one that that resonates with you. Look at the title, read the quick description, look at the book, cover whatever you want to see that or whatever that jumps out to you and just take action and go get it.

Brian Kelly:
This goes straight to Amazon. This is not for the purpose of making money. It is for the purpose of giving you a quick access to a resource where you can go find a book and have some sense of assuredness that your time will not be wasted. Now, I can't promise it'll have the same impact on you as it did me any or all of these books. But the odds are increased. They're better than minimal. So reach your peak library that is there for you. I hope you enjoy that. It's literally like a gift. It's all it's. I did it just for you and for folks that watch the Mind Body Business show right here, right now. Speaking of right here, right now, you know what time it is. It's time to bring on the one and only Steve Fredlund. Here we go. Get ready.

Announcer:
It's time for the guest expert, spotlight. Savvy, skillful, professional, adept, trained. Big league qualified.

Brian Kelly:
And there he is, ladies and gentlemen. Yes, it is the one. It is the only Steve Fredlund.

Steve Fredlund:
How you doing, man?

Brian Kelly:
I'm doing fantastic. I'm so excited to have you here, Steve. Thank you for spending your precious time with me here in our audience. I appreciate that very much, and I know they will, too, once they get to know you better as well. Before we go in, I'm going to give you the proper introduction you deserve, Steve. But real quick, a little bit of housekeeping and then we'll bring you back. You're not going anywhere, but a couple of things. I want to call out that logo that's above your left shoulder, that red and white one. That is the big insider secrets. And they sponsor this very show. And to the point where for those of you that stay on this show, watching it live, you must be live until the end. You'll see an opportunity to win a five night stay at a five star luxury resort. And that is, again, all compliments of the big insider secrets. That's my buddy Jason Nast, who owns that company. Thank you so much, Jason. We get to do this every single week. It is amazing. And a couple more and we're going to come right back to Steve. So don't go anywhere. Don't go anywhere. So if you're struggling with putting a live show together and maybe it's overwhelming and you want a lot of the processes done for you while still enabling you to put on a high quality live video show and connect with great people like Steve Friedland and grow your business all at the same time. Then head on over to carpet bomb marketing, carpet bomb marketing, saturate the marketplace with your message. And one of the key components that is contained in the carpet bomb marketing system is one that you'll learn how to absolutely master. It is the very service we use to stream our live shows right here on the Mind Body Business Show over the course of the past. Oh my gosh, ten years now we've tried many of these, quote unquote, TV studio solutions for live streaming. And I have to tell you that stream art is the best of the best. It combines supreme ease of use along with unmatched functionality. So you see the URL on that screen.

Brian Kelly:
If you're watching this for those you listen on a podcast or write this down, it's our WIP. I am forward slash stream live all lowercase. No spaces are WIP. I am forward slash stream live so start streaming high quality professional looking live shows for free with streaming hard. Not right now, but after the show is over, go to that URL and get your free version so you can give it a go and see how awesome it is. Now let's bring on the man, the myth, the legend, the one you are here to see. Because let's face it, you're not here to see me. You're here to see Mr. Steve Fredlund with things going off that shouldn't be going off. That was interesting. So that was a visual. That was a tease. We'll show you what that is later. Steve Fredlund is a long time actuary, nonprofit leader, humanitarian and podcaster who recently has become an entrepreneur and small business owner. He knows the highs and lows of leadership. Do you remember? We're talking about leadership at the top of the show. For the past 15 years, he has been on a quest to understand the driving forces behind a leader's happiness and unhappiness. I like that as a professional speaker, Steve's insights are transforming the lives of leaders across the country. I love that your focus is on leaders, steve. That is powerful. He has spent his entire life in East Central Minnesota with his wife Tracy, and their three now grown children. He loves podcasting, poker, disc golf and enjoying Minnesota sports. And this is funny, he says, making fan hood far more difficult.

Steve Fredlund:
Great, great.

Brian Kelly:
With that, Steve, welcome to the show, my friend. How are you doing tonight?

Steve Fredlund:
I'm doing great, Brian. I'm excited. Yeah, man. Excited to be here.

Brian Kelly:
Yeah. So happy you're here. You're such a you're such a light and you have this great something about you. I can't put my finger on it. And there's probably a good reason for that. And I'll bet it's what's going on between those two years of yours, your mind. And that's what I like to hit on when I open the show, is kind of to peel the onion back a little bit, get the layers out and see what's going on under the hood of Steve Fredlund. So like when you get up in the morning now being an entrepreneur for some time now, knowing what it is to be an entrepreneur, that it's not just all rose petals, line paths and swinging hammocks with your umbrella drink. It's not that way hardly at all. And knowing that when you get up there are going to be some arduous tasks, are going to be some setbacks, there are going to be things that kind of knock you sideways. Knowing all that. What does Steve, what is going on in your big, beautiful brain when you get up and you know, that's about to hit you, but what is driving you to get through that every single day with absolute fervor and passion and direction?

Steve Fredlund:
Yeah, I think, you know, first of all, when I wake up, it's weird because I'm I'm like this natural born problem solver. Like, I'm trying to problem solve all the time. And every morning when I wake up, I'm. Working on some problem in my head that I don't even know about. Like the other day, I'm trying to figure out how to get rats out of my back yard and there is no rats in my back yard. But I was working through the logistics of what I would actually do. And I mean, I've worked on problems like is an octagon really the optimal stop sign shape? Like these are the weird things. When I wake up I'm doing these things and so it's kind of a curse to be me. And so I think because of these rabbit trails that my mind just goes on all the time. One of the things that I do is the night beforehand, I actually finish up some of the stuff I just need to do, but then I plan. What's the first thing I'm going to do when I wake up, you know, after I get ready? What's that first thing I'm going to do? Either look at my schedule and realize, Oh, it's a phone call or it's a project or it's a priority. And so when I wake up, as soon as I get over the shock of trying to figure out how to get rats out of my back yard, you know, I kind of know what that next thing is to do. And so that helps me. I know some people are they journal or they meditate those pieces and I've toyed with some of that. I've tried to get myself in the right mindset that way. For me, it's actually starting in on the the right next thing to do because because I'm an optimizer, what I'll do is I'll look at my to do list and I've got lists upon list like many people do, whether they're electronic or paper. And I just I can stare at it. And there are all things that have to get done. And I'm sitting there figure out what's the most optimal thing to do. And 5 minutes go by and I could have got one of the things done. And so I try to do some of that work the night before. So when I get going in the day, I know here's the task I've started or something and it just gets me started being more productive right away in the day.

Brian Kelly:
I love everything you just said because so many guests have had on this show. This has been running for over three years now. The most successful ones seem to have what I call a routine that they do most every day. Some do it without fault every single day. And I love how you said that you it sounded like you are tweaking it around until you've found that sweet spot. And that's what I wanted to tell folks that are watching. Listening is that every time someone goes through their routine and if someone watching does not yet have a routine, I always offer, look, do what Steve does. See if it works for you. See if it's a fit. But then do what Steve does and alter it and make it yours. Make it what works. Because I've tried so many. I'm like, Yeah, I'm this. I'm not into this. Drinking saltwater in the morning with lemon juice and running out and doing jumping jacks in the cold on my lawn and barefoot and just all these things. And so you want to refine it, but as long as you have a routine that gets you in the mode that gets you propelled and compelled and moving forward, it doesn't really matter as long as it's serving you nutritionally and physically and spiritually as well. So I love that you said that, that you refined it as you went over time. I mean, can you think of anything you were doing that just absolutely was like, nah, that ain't working for me?

Steve Fredlund:
Well, yeah. I mean, I've tried all of those things that you've mentioned because I think, what's wrong with me? Why can't I do that? You people that are like, okay, I'll get up every day and I journal for 30 minutes or I get up every day and I read 20 minutes or I meditate for 10 minutes or I have a smoothie while I'm doing this or I'm on the treadmill is the first thing I do. Or they they time. Block Right. So from 730 to 9:00, that's my time. I do outreach and I'm just not wired that way. I've tried it, I've tried it, and I'm just not wired that way. And so I could either keep forcing myself to do it. What I should do right we always get should on right, is what I should do. I said I didn't. So no FCC violation. But we do that versus saying, well, what what really makes me tick, what really is how I need to start my day. And so I think we were so focused on doing what other people have done that we don't actually assess for ourselves. So yeah, I've tried, I've tried a million different things and it even goes back to when I was in the corporate world, which I ended that time about four years ago. I used to do capital markets hedging, which meant my day started super early because it's a global market. And so I'd be getting up at 430 in the morning, go to the office. And I, I thought, Oh, I'm a morning person because that's what I did for 25 years. I'm not a morning person. And, you know, and so even so, something about finding my natural rhythm like, oh my gosh, I started realizing I am the most productive from about 930 and night to midnight. Like that's when I just crush life. And I never knew that before. And so just those sorts of things. And it really starts with just really looking deep inside of yourself and figuring out what, what makes me tick, what makes me productive. And if you don't know, start writing down things when you when you're, when you find yourself being really productive, write those down when you're not, write those down. And then over time you start looking for those themes. So yeah, I've tried it all, that's what worked for me. And yeah, I encourage people to find what works for you and don't be afraid for it to be different than other people.

Brian Kelly:
I got to tell you, that is definitely a bomb dropping moment right there. No kidding. I mean, smart bombs, knowledge, bombs, bombs of wisdom, because everything you just said that gave everyone permission to be okay with not being like everyone else. I had my gosh, Steve sounded like me talking when you said all that. I went through it with the same exact stuff. I get asked this when I'm a guest on on other podcast or live shows. The same question What's your routine? And I just looking at my go, my routine is that I don't have a routine.

Steve Fredlund:
Yeah.

Brian Kelly:
I don't have one. I could not just like you, I could not stick to one because of the time slot stuff is like ick you know, I've got appointments on my calendar, they're important and I show up to those that's timeslot. But as far as routines go, what I have works now is working very well and I don't need any specific routine. I probably hear the same in this regard. I don't know, Steve, but I think we're animals that like variety a little bit more than strict, rigid disciplinary approaches. I don't know.

Steve Fredlund:
Yeah. I need to have the flexibility to be able to. I mean, some days I don't have any meeting schedule, some days I have eight or nine meeting schedule. Like how do I, how can I be consistent in how I time block those days and then I try, oh, well, the Monday, Wednesday, Friday is just the Tuesday, Thursday of this and it works for not even half a week. And I already wreck it. And I think, yeah, but I think I'm wired. I need that flexibility because I'm a multi passionate person. I need for my own enjoyment, for my own satisfaction, my own happiness. I need to have the flexibility to be able to chase something for an hour, like to be able to say, you know what? You know, to not say, well, no. 1130 to 1215 is my lunch slash treadmill time. I for me and this is not for everybody, but for me I need to be able to say, oh my gosh, I just found something here. I'm going to spend 45 minutes researching that because I think it's a critical piece for my next talk or something. I just need to have that flexibility. And when it's such a rigid structure like that, it really dampens my joy.

Brian Kelly:
Yeah, man. Just right down the same path. I have it in my calendar to work out every day and I put it in there and it's for 1130 and AM and I didn't get to it till four, which is great because it gets me amped and energized right before a live show. That's something another individual that I interviewed on this show said that really rung true with me, said he he he doesn't really plan his workouts either. He does them right before he knows he's about to attack what he calls an arduous task. Or for me, it's something that would require or demand of me more energy. I want to put everything I have into this for your sake. Not so much for my sake. I want to be the best host I can be for every guest that comes on to my show. And that's one way I saw that. And so I didn't work out at my allotted time for I seem to never do.

Steve Fredlund:
This, but that's where you have the ability to you know, if you can be disciplined enough to know that, you'll get back to it. I think the beauty of structure and I have a good friend who's really highly structured because he says if I don't follow that structure, I will never do those things. And so that's knowing yourself.

Brian Kelly:
That's true and that's huge in so many ways. Steve Knowing yourself not just from a disciplinary or routine standpoint, but what you do for a business, do identify with what you do is to be passionate about it, to be truly in alignment with it. I mean, I didn't I heard all this stuff for years and I didn't. I heard it, but I didn't integrate it. I couldn't figure out what the heck they were talking about until just a few years ago when it became really apparent. What I truly love to do and the beautiful thing is I was told by other people what I love to do, and maybe it made me go back into myself and say, you know what? They're right. And I ended up I ended up completely, completely walking away from a personal trainer business that I had going on online in in two days. I made the decision and the website was down and I said, good. And I walked away and I was happy. If you can have that kind of certainty, I wish everybody on the planet could get to that point because I hadn't been there for so long. And finally, when I hit it, it was like the skies opened up and I thought, and I can be authentic now. It's natural. Everything I do is natural. I'm not a hard sell artist. I get to be myself and do it the way I want to do it and do it successfully because it's authentic. I mean, do you resonate with that at all about being yourself and seeing that you can be more successful if you're going about it that way?

Steve Fredlund:
Oh yeah, yeah, you can get that many ways. But that's, you know, we're on the same journey that way. That was me about 15 years ago. I was working in the corporate world. Phenomenal job, right? Great job. Just got promoted, happy marriage, great kids. Everything was amazing on paper, right. But somebody forgot to tell my heart that my my life was so good on paper, you know, I was I was just miserable. And I think I think the long story short out of that is that I wasn't doing what I was really wired to do. I'd been promoted out of a problem solving analytical actuarial role, which I loved into management, which, of course it's a promotion. That's what you should do, right? You should. That's the whole corporate game is you get promoted, you accept the promotion, you make more money. What what happened is that I became separated from who I really was. And so that was yeah, that was really miserable. And kind of maybe to your point before that, you know, you take personality tests and I'd always pooh pooh those things like, are you serious? You know, you're going to promote why? Why do you care if I'm an intern? You're in Enneagram five or what? What does that matter? So I really pooh poohed that. And then in that, in the middle of that crisis that I was having, it really was a crisis. I would spend every lunch hour walking across the Stone Arch Bridge in Minneapolis trying to figure out why I was miserable when I had no right to be. And I eventually I got a hold of a mentor of mine. I said, What is going on here? We had lunch and within 15 minutes he explained to me that I was no longer using my strengths and it was so obvious. But that's when I really started going down the road of realizing, okay, what makes me happy is when my actual life is lined up with who I am and what I want and where I want to go authentically. And it sounds like that's what you're saying your transition was when you started realizing who you really are. And it takes outside people sometimes to tell us that, you know, and once you realize that, then it just takes the intentionality and the guts, frankly, to go in that direction.

Brian Kelly:
Man, I'm going to wear out that button if you keep this up. That was phenomenal. Yeah. And I think almost always it takes someone else to kind of wake us up, to take to make us realize it. Then once you realize it, like, Oh yeah, I get it now. Yeah, same thing. It was obvious. And it's usually something that you're really good at, but you take for granted and think everyone else in the planet can do it just as good as you do or they do. They are doing it as well. And that was my case. And I'm like, Wait, there's a lot of people that don't do this that need the help that would pay money for help. I'm like, and I love doing it. I never thought that this would happen, but this is awesome.

Steve Fredlund:
So no, I think that's right. I think like exactly what you said, when you're good at something, you don't realize that not everybody is good at it. You know, when you're bad at something, it's a different story. But I always think about like like electrical wiring. I don't get it, like, and I'm not a dumb guy, but I don't get it. I've had to explain to me the grounds and all that stuff a million times. I don't get it and it's so frustrating to me. It's like my buddy was trying to explain craps to me. One day we were watching a twins game and he plays craps in Iowa and he's explaining craps to me. And by the end of the game, I still didn't get it. And it's so frustrating like that, but he just got it. And I think the things that we actually get, we don't realize, like you said, whatever it is that you do, you just assume everybody can do it because it's just natural to me. I just get it. That's not the case. And people will will pay to have that expertize.

Brian Kelly:
Yeah. And man, I feel it. I feel the frustration that I've been through that how come I can't get this? I'm not stupid, you know?

Steve Fredlund:
Yeah. So the the electrician or the person that plays craps says, how can you not get this? This is so obvious. And the rest of us are going, No, it's not. I don't get.

Brian Kelly:
It. Oh, man, that's so funny. It's like, I don't know. It's like when when I'm done and, you know, this is mentally very I don't want to say it in a bad way, but it can be mentally exhausting. You know, being an entrepreneur every day, you're always thinking in flexible terms and always looking for solutions to everything. Micro problems. All day long, when I'm done and we're sitting down, we're going to watch a movie or something. I don't want to think anymore. I want to shut my brain off. And then they, my wife and my son might choose something. I don't know what it is and they'll put it on. If you guys want to see it, let's watch it. So I'm not a big movie buff and we watch it and I'm like, I have no idea what's going on. They're having to explain it to me the whole frickin way because I am not. I'm shut off, I'm done. And I'm like, How do you guys follow this? So you, you know, every detail, you know, all the characters names. I never I was like, wow, I just want to I just want to relax and be entertained. I don't want to have to think right now.

Steve Fredlund:
Yeah. You're not just shutting off thinking about your job. You're thinking you're shutting off like I just off. It's just my brain is now off. It's mush.

Brian Kelly:
It is. And, yes, it's it's it's my relaxation of my mind. My gosh, you after going? Yeah, yeah. I think you understand where I'm going with all that. And a lot of people watching, listening, I'm sure have witnessed and experienced similar things as well. So that's fantastic. Now, you've been through a lot, I mean, corporate for a long time and then you've been you've walked away from corporate, which, you know, God bless you. That's not an easy decision to make for most. I've literally seen a fairly prominent entrepreneur who would fill the room with 5 to 800 people for a 4 to 5 day event from stage. Tell everyone in the crowd if you have a job. Then you need to quit. And I wanted to run up there. I knew this person personally, and I helped that person several times in several of their events. I wanted to get up, go up there and virtually smack him. Yeah, they take that back because I at that moment was one of those people. I had a job, I had kids, I have wife. I got responsibility. If I just quit. Well, we don't have a house anymore. We don't have we don't have a lot of stuff. And you're just saying go out into the middle of the lake, strap a stone around your leg, jump out there, and then just figure out how to swim. That's basically what it was, was like. No irresponsible to do what you've done, Steve, is quite a testament because it takes a lot of energy to work a full time job and develop your passion on the quote unquote side. While everyone else is taking vacations, you're still working and laboring in that thing that you're passionate about. And then you made it. You crawled out from among the sewage. You put your head up and you realized, Hey, I like doing this better, more than I'm in corporate life. And that mentor was your godsend. That was phenomenal advice.

Steve Fredlund:
Yeah. I mean, I wish it would have happened sooner, but it happened when it happened, you know? I mean, that's it. And it's it is it's a big it's a big deal. And I think to say, you know, everybody should quit their job, I think that does a lot of injustice. I think there's a lot of great things that happen from just having a job and working hard and getting benefits and certain personality types should not become entrepreneurs. I'm I'm fully convinced of that. It takes a special, maybe crazy kind of person to become an entrepreneur. And I think there's there's nothing wrong with staying in a job that you love. And that's always I think when when companies hire me to come speak, they're always worried that I'm going to encourage people to quit their jobs. And I'm not like I'm encouraging people to find happiness wherever it is. But I think I think, yeah, to take that jump. And it was, you know, I'd been thinking about it for a while and it was kind of a push and a pull. There is a pull out of it. There's also a push out of it. So the timing was right. The kids had just all graduated. I had to work with my wife on that thing to come up with a plan. Her and I both grew up really poor, and so the one thing that we really wanted was financial security. We didn't care for wealthy, but we wanted financial security and we had gotten it right. I'd gone through my programs, my college, I got an MBA. I became an actuary, like investing all that time and effort into that to finally get real, true financial stability. And so then to give that up, to chase some dream, we had to make sure that we were on the same page there. So that and we are. So I'm still married 31 years. It could have been 27 if things had gone south there. But but no, I think it is it does take a lot of courage, but you have to look at your situation. You really have to look at your personality. And I would say not everybody should just jump ship and become an entrepreneur. But there's probably more that I say should only because that's where you're going to find happiness more probably should than ah, but it takes some serious cojones to do it.

Brian Kelly:
It does. And it takes an awareness and a knowledge of what it takes to become one. I remember vividly. I knew I was unhappy in corporate world and I did all these side hustle things. I did greeting cards on consignment network marketing, and I'm like, Why am I always seeking more when I'm really making good money? Good enough? There's something not right here. And it never even occurred to me. And then finally I started getting more and more serious about it and going attending seminars. And then I found my mentor and that changed my entire life. I was like, Oh my gosh, this I like this world. I like this world because have you ever been to one of those seminars, Steve, or a networking event? It's a large number of people. It doesn't have to be large, 50 to 300 to 500 to 1000, whatever. And you go to the hotel, it's usually at a hotel and you're outside the conference room and it hasn't even started. So the doors aren't open and without even talking to anybody, just being in the presence, I felt like I was in the company of my second family. It just felt right and I never even talked. I don't have to talk to them. I just it just seems right. And then I start talking to them like now I know I'm in the right place because everyone there is so positive minded corporate was such a drag on every fiber of my being. It was like, Let's figure out all the ways we can't do it.

Steve Fredlund:
It really can be. Yeah. I worked for a lot of Fortune 500 companies and again, great people, amazing organizations making billions and billions of dollars and all that. But boy, yeah, it's hard to get things done and it's hard to find your kind of your when you have an entrepreneurial, innovative, creative spirit about you. It's hard to find those sort of people there because a lot of the folks there, they're there because they want to just go to work, do their job, and go home and have a beer. And there's nothing wrong with that. But it's hard to find your your kinship there. And and that's been part of the struggle, even becoming an entrepreneur. And then when COVID hits like My wife doesn't understand being an entrepreneur, she's a teacher, which is great. She goes to school, does her thing. My family doesn't get being an entrepreneur. So. It's a very lonely place to be. So it's really important to find those people, find your second family, as you said, find the right peeps in your jeep as I talk about my TEDx talk. Just find those people that are going to give you life and encourage you and affirm you and a little bit of a rabbit trail. I mean, that was part of one of the things that I've realized over the last couple of years. And my wife has helped me realize this, too, is that as much as I don't like to admit it, I like affirmation. I like people to say, man, good job, way to go and recognition that comes with that. I never really considered that about myself, but I realized that's one of the things that I miss the most about the corporate world, because I was a really good actuary, I was a really good hedger, I was a really good workforce analytics guy. And so every quarter, every year when you get that review, you get the bonus. It's an amicable way to go. You know, you're adding a ton of value, we love you kind of thing. And when you become an entrepreneur, at least in the realm that I've become an entrepreneur, I don't have that. I don't have people around me.

Steve Fredlund:
I don't have bosses. I don't have colleagues that are saying, man, way to go, you're adding a lot of value. It's all on me. So what I need to do is I need to find those places where I'm going to get that positive affirmation, where I'm going to get that maybe not recognition, but I'm going to get that encouragement to keep going. Some of us have that wired inside of us really deeply. I don't I need some external forces to encourage me. And so I'm sure that's resonating with some of the entrepreneurs that are out there where you're used to getting all of that encouragement and affirmation from a job and a boss, which is now gone. And you've got to find that somewhere. I have to anyway.

Brian Kelly:
And it's like a it's almost like food, you know, it's it's a need. And I think everyone has it to just varying degrees. It's always nice to get that affirmation, that affirming comment to say, you know, I like that. I think you did a great job with that. And when you say they came from a job where they used to get that, well, there are some that never got it from even their own manager and boss because they were a negative type of reinforcer. I don't want to go down that path because I.

Steve Fredlund:
Know I've had I've had plenty of those too, where I've been new boss and they just I was employee of the year one year. And the next year my, my new boss told me that I was terrible. The first meeting. First meeting, they were new to the company. They told me I was terrible. And I don't know if that was somehow supposed to motivate me, but like. Yeah, like, you're right. You get that side of it too.

Brian Kelly:
Yeah. And yeah. So it's, you know, when you're with other entrepreneurs and just collaborating with them, I mean, doing the show like this, I get to meet amazing people like you. I just got off the phone literally with a gentleman who interviewed me earlier in the day, and we were collaborating outside of the show completely helping each other. And that's that's to me, is the affirmation part of it. It's it's fulfilling. I don't I don't any more need someone to tell me. Great job. It feels great. I'll take it. Don't get me wrong. But it's not something that I need to fuel me now. It's the result. I just want to see the result happen. Then I know all the work I put into it has come to fruition. And am I making a difference in someone else's life? That is so important to me, more so than the money because it comes with the money. So if you help say not save, maybe sometimes save, but if you help to change or improve someone else's life, then everything else falls into place so much easier and there's no like straining for that next dollar. Not saying you ever are going to receive. I'm just saying in generalities here. But I just I just love the fact that you can be authentic and be successful at the same time because so many things, you have to fake it to make it and so many start off that way. I've done some of that too, for sure. When you're in a scarcity mode just starting out, you're doing everything you can to stand out and you're even to the point of acting like somebody you're not. And times and look, if you do that, it's okay. Get over it and move on and just keep going. Keep stacking those pebbles until everything starts coming together. It will. You just got to keep going. Persevere like Steve. Steve is great example if anybody ever was a great example is Steve Fredlund because he climbed out of the pit of corporate of the corporate world because now how does it feel, Steve? What is the difference to you? If you could pick one word, I got it. If you could pick one word that would describe having been through corporate now being an entrepreneur, what would be the one word that would help you to describe what it is to be an entrepreneur now?

Steve Fredlund:
Authentic. I would say it's authentic. I mean, there's a lot of words that come to mind. But honestly, if it's just one, it's I am now closer to who I actually really am than I ever was before. And I'm making less money. I'm successful, but I'm making less money because I was making a lot of money. I'm working way more hours than I was back then, but I feel like I'm closer and every day, every conversation, every every transaction, I feel like I'm getting closer and closer to authentically myself, which is which is huge for me.

Brian Kelly:
And God bless you, man. You're going down the path that so many of us, including yours truly. And I think it's I don't think it's that path ever comes to an end, a climax. I think it just continues to move on. You had Don Don Hope, which is on, and his answer to that question was freedom.

Steve Fredlund:
That was almost what I said. It's almost what I said. But for me, I think authenticity is even stronger than the freedom part of it.

Brian Kelly:
Yeah, I've been asked that too. And I use you. I usually say liberation, which is freedom. The same thing. There's no wrong answer to this. It's yours, right? Each. Each individual is what I mean by yours. And Don is wonderful to me.

Steve Fredlund:
Authenticity. Sorry. Authenticity for me is freedom. Like, because we don't all fall in that same trap. Like I felt for all those years in corporate. It was a really good job, really good people, whatever. But I never really felt like these were my people. My wife and I are fifth generation, small town Cambridge, Minnesota. People like this is where we grew up in our whole generation grew up like these are my people, 8000 people in this town. Like that's my people. And my kids are sixth generation. And so, you know, being in the corporate world was great, but I never really felt like these are my people and, you know, because I just didn't grow up in it. And I don't care about some of the things that they care about. I can't talk about the same things the the private schools and all the things that they talked about. There's nothing wrong with that. It's just they weren't my people. And so for me to now be working and helping micro-businesses in my hometown, that is a sense of authenticity, that because it's closer to who I am, which is freedom for me, because I felt like I was trapped in somebody else's life and I've been freed from somebody else's life. And now I am trapped now not trapped, not free to be who I really am and be with the people I really am. So to me, authenticity actually is a form of freedom for me, more so than working the hours I want and working on the projects I want.

Brian Kelly:
I mean trapped in someone else's life, if anything says wrong screen. Other than that, I don't know what does.

Steve Fredlund:
What doesn't hurt to remind people to enter that contest either. That's a pretty good deal.

Brian Kelly:
Yeah, that's coming up. I hope nobody watched that. Let's see if it works this time. I just curious. There we go. That's. But yeah, that was a bomb dropping moment there because, look, even if you're trapped in someone else's life as a corporate employee, there are many entrepreneurs that are that way right now. Yeah, why? Because they're probably following a lot of tutelage and advice in and nudging from maybe their parents or family who say you should be a doctor or you should be a speaker, or you should be something that you should. Yeah, but yeah, exactly. But you're you're succumbing to their wishes and desires so that you will please them. And I'm not trying to make it sound like you're a pleaser. And that's a horrible thing. I've been through it myself. I always, always want to please our parents, typically. And when they say, you know, you're really good at this, you like that, and it's like, okay, I'll go do that, right? I was a software engineer and I was good at it. I was told I was good at. So I did that for many years in the corporate environment and then I learned, I don't want to do this. I don't like the look. The last thing I wanted to do, I don't know. There are different points of view on this. But, you know, you get you work with all these coworkers all day, five days a week, and then they want to go do something, hang out on the weekend. I'm like, Heck no, I like you, but the last thing I want is a reminder of what I'm trying to get out of every single day. You just happen to remind me of that? It's not that you're a bad person. It's not that I don't like you. But invariably when they do happen, they did happen. Extracurricular visits and things, you know, dinners and things every single time without fail, job shop creeps in or job shop talk. And I'm like, Good, I'm out of here. I don't check out mentally. I look at my wife, let's talk to her and oh man. So I get it. When you say, you know, you're best, you're trapped in someone else's life because that's what happens. You just feel like trapped, like, let me out of here. I'm a caged lion. Open the cage so I can get the heck out of here and be free.

Steve Fredlund:
Yeah. And I think a lot of us don't even realize that we are trapped. I think that, like, that was probably my situation until that day on the bridge when I was so miserable, like, I never really felt trapped. I didn't feel it because life was so good. But eventually what happens, I feel like, is that as you continue to make decisions that are not aligned with who you are, you know, we make these decisions by default or because we should or because of what people expect of us. Little by little, we become misaligned, like who we really are. Our core identity becomes misaligned from our actual reality. And I use the, the, the example of it's like our backbone, right? It's the central support system for our body. And sometimes it starts to get a little bit out of whack, a little bit misaligned. Right. And it just happens more as we get older and it's uncomfortable a little bit. And then we start losing sleep. We have headaches, we become irritable, we become frustrated that we become unhappy. And then we go to the chiropractor and they maybe crack it or whatever. It snaps it back into alignment. We feel better. And I think that's what happens is it's this cumulative, cumulative effect of making decisions that are misaligned with who we really are. And I think that's what drives this trapped feeling. And it doesn't just happen overnight. It's we wake up one day like I did on the bridge and go like, this isn't even my life. And it wasn't one thing that happened. It was the cumulative effect. Like you said, I was good at math. They said I should go to college. Okay. Hey, you're good. You're doing good. You should become an actuary, okay? You know, you're doing good. You should get promoted. Oc And I think that coupled with for me, the people pleasing nature of it because I was a people pleaser and the affirmation piece of it because I, you know, I think because I grew up without a father, like I was seeking affirmation and so wherever I could find it, I would take it. So, hey, you're good at this. Oh, good. I'll do more of that. And I think I just kept feeding into that. And then but it was just each one of those decision points were misaligned from who I really was. And then one day it all comes to a head and I'm like, What just happened? Well, it's that aggregation of those little decisions along the way. And I think that's the challenge is how do we how do we start making decisions more intentionally so we're not making them by default or that we should do that or by expectations so that we start to get more aligned or stay more aligned with who we are.

Brian Kelly:
Very well stated. All of it. My gosh, so many memories come back, as you're saying, all this stuff. I remember I became a manager by osmosis because my manager had to stop due to health reasons and I was apparently next in line. I didn't even know it. And then I ended up in this position as a manager before I'm a doer. I want to get stuff done. I'm I'm a let's get my hands dirty and take care of business. And all of a sudden I'm just talking to people and having meetings and tracking stuff on spreadsheets. And I'm like, I'm not getting anything done. And I remember having a chat with my dad, who was a longtime manager at NASCAR when I was growing up. And I said, He's like, How's your job going, son? I said, You know, I don't think it's going so good. He goes, Why do you say that? I said, I don't do anything.

Steve Fredlund:
Oh, you made management.

Brian Kelly:
Well, he said, So tell me, tell me, son, what do you do? So I explain all the things I did. I did stuff, but it was just not what I deemed as productive or. Moving things forward. And here I'm dealing with corporate employees that don't have that can do attitude to begin with. And I just tell them it's not fulfilling and I don't feel like I'm doing anything. And he goes, Well, son, based on everything you just told me, you're doing exactly what your position requires, so you're doing just fine. And I thought, IC, I never want to be a manager ever.

Steve Fredlund:
Not a good fit.

Brian Kelly:
Not in that environment, in a corporate environment. Now being an owner of a business, totally different. Totally different. And if it's your business completely different, I don't mind that. I love that. I love dealing with people and managing and orchestrating. I still like doing though a little too much. But yeah, you just reminded me of all these these haunts from the past.

Steve Fredlund:
No. Yeah.

Brian Kelly:
The thing as you said something earlier, you said, I wish it would have happened earlier. And I have that thought now and then and then I think, well, you know what? I'm actually glad it happened when it did because of the experiences I learned. I now know what to do and what not to do when I run my own business. So I take a lot and plus it adds structure, more discipline. I don't know how many entrepreneurs you've met, Steve. They're like they're like cats trying to hurt them and they're all over the place. They have no structure, no discipline, and they just wing it. Some do it successfully, but rarely. And you just like going, How do you even manage your life? You're like all over the place. Yeah. So I take the good and the bad and integrate it in a way that helps with the overall business and then add a little a big dash of liberation and freedom and authenticity and. Whew, let's go, baby. That's the one thing.

Steve Fredlund:
Yeah, I know. That's it. Yeah. I mean, I wish it would have happened earlier, but it didn't. And so it's kind of the. Oh, well, what's the right time? The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The next best time is now. Let's go. So I could sit there and say, well, no, I kind of missed, you know, I was 48 years old at the time. Shoot, you know, I missed my ship. It passed me by. I'm just going to plug in here another 15 years and then retire. Or I can say, you know what? No, I don't want to do that. I want to take control of my life now and make the change. And so, you know, I mean, for me, I wish it would have happened sooner, but I'm I'm glad that I'm taking the steps now. And, you know, I mean, all of the things that I learned along that, that whole journey I can now share with your listeners and and other people that can maybe benefit from it and kind of like your heart is to help people and kind of improve the, improve the world around you. Like that's my deal too. Like if, if part of my legacy can be that a few people I'm not saying quit your job, I'm not even saying quit your job. It could just be redefine your job, figure out your source of happiness, tweak your job, whatever it is. But whatever. If I can help a few people, part of my legacy is that their life is better sooner as a result of what I learned the hard way, man, that I'll take that.

Brian Kelly:
I say this like so many times on so many shows, but I truly feel like, Steve, you and I were separated at birth. We're twins. So many.

Steve Fredlund:
You need to. You need to have a goatee. You got too much side beard there.

Brian Kelly:
Otherwise, I used to. I only did it because I could finally I could finally grow some. It took me too long. In my opinion.

Steve Fredlund:
I grow, man. Here's the story about my goatee, which people are like, Why do you have a goatee like that sort of fashion? All right, so I can grow hair like crazy. Actually, I just had my back wax, which is terrible. Terrible. Don't ever do it. It's terrible for my wife. Here's the other thing. I put this into a goatee when I was like 25 years old because I was in a play and I was playing like a young yuppie, urban professional kind of person. And my wife's like, Hey, I kind of like that. And ever since then, like, I've shaved it a couple of times. She's like, No, no, no. So I've had a goatee for 25 years because my wife likes it.

Brian Kelly:
Well, we're similar, but my wife didn't like it. It's just because I don't have a chin and it looks better that way.

Steve Fredlund:
Well, yeah, that's whatever she wants, right? Yeah.

Brian Kelly:
Don Rich, who is a dear friend, and he worked. He's he's local here to where I live. He is the head of a Chamber of Commerce series, an amazing guy, always helping businesses. He just brought in a comment. I just have to read it to everybody. He said. I retired from the job just over ten years ago, but now, even though I work more now and spend more time doing what I like to do, I wouldn't go back for anything. I get more pleasure helping the people I do now and I find I just cannot give it up. But the years I spent in corporate would. Would give me some remarkable tools. I have to look around my thing that I continue to use every day. Yes, exactly. So I think, Don, we're all in agreement here that there's nothing wrong with having a corporate experience. Yeah, I secretly wish I would have started sooner to, but I didn't. It's okay.

Steve Fredlund:
You know. But I think Don brings up a phenomenal point. That's the part that I want to make sure that isn't lost on me either, is the tools that I learned from that. So having my corporate job allowed me to get my MBA right. I got that a little bit later and they paid for most of that. I got my actuarial stuff. I learned how to start divisions inside Fortune 500 companies. I learned how to do workforce. And I learned so many things in the corporate world that now I can take all of that. Yeah, if I maybe to Don's point, if I left the corporate world 20 years earlier, I would not be able to serve my clients nearly as effectively as I can now. So the tools, even just learning how to use a lot of the actual softwares and, and some of that stuff has been huge. So that's a great a great point. Sorry I cut you off there, Brian.

Brian Kelly:
No, not at all. Not at all, brother. So now you have you have tasted both sides. And I know we kind of already stepped into this area, but I do want to know what I'm going to. Instead of doing that, I want to find out. You mentioned something about how you are helping micro businesses, and I wanted to learn more about that. And what I want to do at this point is I'm going to visually pull up your website on the screen and give you the opportunity to let the folks know exactly what it is you do for people like microbusinesses, maybe who your ideal client is in that area, an arena, and what would be a way folks could get in contact with you if they needed that kind of service as well? If that's okay with you, I want to bring that up and just let you take it away. Yeah.

Steve Fredlund:
And I'll clarify, too, because some people know that I do a lot of work in Rwanda, Africa, and so micro business over there is like microfinancing and helping people. Yeah. Oh yeah. There's, there's me doing some work in Rwanda, Africa. And so there's sort of micro-business kind of works on a couple of levels. One is the humanitarian work that I do in Africa and then micro-businesses here, which I just considered like the mom and pop shops and those sort of people solopreneur and those folks that I'm working here. So I'm not sure which direction you wanted to go. Brian, if you want to talk about what I do in Africa, if you want to talk about serving the small, small businesses here.

Brian Kelly:
Yeah, whatever your passion is and whatever you want the message to come out. I mean, if you want me to choose, I would say then the micro business side of things, just because that's the show is more for entrepreneurs and businesses. But I'm cool either way.

Steve Fredlund:
I'm my passion, so it's hard. Yeah. So this is just showing a few clips of my time in Rwanda, Africa. I've done, I've taken four trips over there and we've done a lot of work over there. And it's radically changed my life, my view of life, my view of happiness, my view of community, my view of belonging, everything. So I can talk to you about 12 hours on that deal, what's happening here in the US. So I call it micro-businesses. It's really our business is small. Small business that's intentional. It's not a typo. It's really because I believe that so many small businesses are like the lifeblood of our communities. Right? Like the the main street shops, the solopreneur, the nonprofits, all of these really small businesses that are owned or led by people who live here, work here, volunteer here, raise their kids here, shop here in the in their community like they're so important to their community, yet they don't really get the level of support that bigger businesses get. And so one of the things that I'm trying to do is how can we bring the level of support, the level of expertize to these smaller businesses so that they can thrive because that in turn will create more vibrant communities, which is one of my overarching goals in life, is to help create vibrancy in lives and in communities. And so that is what we're doing with with small. Small business is really focused on that side of it.

Brian Kelly:
I love that that term. Small, small business. That is awesome. That is really.

Steve Fredlund:
Cool. It sort of kept you right. People at first go like, Wait, what? What is that? But yeah, no, that's intentional because, you know, here in Minnesota and I'm sure it's defined similarly everywhere else. But you talk about small business, while small business can be hundreds of employees and millions and millions of dollars of revenue. And so it is a small business, but they're in a different time. Different, different tier. Right. They're not really the aspiring entrepreneur, the small partnerships, that sort of thing. That's what I'm talking about when I talk about serving small businesses. It's the small, small businesses.

Brian Kelly:
Very cool. What is the solving box?

Steve Fredlund:
It's the holding box. So, you know, I mentioned I'm sort of a serial problem solver. This is what I've done my entire life. I can't help it. I'm always solving problems. That's when I've been the most successful. That's one of the most energized to solving problems. And I was challenged a few years ago. Somebody said, Well, how do you solve problems? It's sort of like my example, like the electrician before. Like I just I don't know, I just solve problems. Well, how do you do it? Because I just think it's easy and people know I'm struggling. How do you make better? How do you make better solutions? How do you come up with more optimal strategies? And so I was challenged to try to put a framework together that actually captured how my mind solves problems. And that's what the solving box really is. And it's pretty simple. I mean, it's really it's it's about clarity, clarity, clarity. I mean, everything starts with clarifying what the problem is. I'm such a big believer in Einstein's quote about if I had 60 minutes to solve a problem, I'd spend 55 minutes on the problem and 5 minutes on the solution. And so the solving box is just a framework. It starts with just clarify the problem, get really super uber clear on what that is, and then you go a couple of different directions. One is what are what are the objectives and constraints with the problem of talking to all the stakeholders? What are they trying to accomplish? What are the goals and what are the limitations? What are the constraints kind of defining what that sandbox is that you have to play with? And the other one is looking at what's the universe of possible solutions, just brainstorming for this particular problem. What are all the solutions that we can even think of? Let's just put them down and then you start to compare those solutions, set the universe of solutions to those objectives and constraints that you have, and you start evaluating which solutions are possible, which ones seem to be the best, and maybe you come up with a solution. But the real power of I think, how I solve problems in this solving box is really now you iterate through it again.

Steve Fredlund:
This is the optimization process. It's like a stochastic iteration for all you nerds out there like me. You go through it again because what happens, it's almost like portfolio management, investment theory, figuring out what the right investment is. You know, you might have here's my different options. And as you go through, you might realize, but wait, if I combine a blue chip stock with this sort of a bond, I'm going to have an investment that's actually going to have a higher expected return than this investment, but a lower risk. So it's sort of this iterative process of going through this and trying to find that optimal solution to the problem. So it's a framework that's really been helpful. I kind of help people walk through this. All right. Let's look at a problem you're facing. Let's just walk through this. And it's amazing how people think of solutions that they otherwise wouldn't have because most of us are just looking looking for a solution to a problem. I'm more interested in the solution, you know, and I'm just convinced if this is a skill set that you can bring in your organization, if if every decision you make, every problem you solve, every strategy you develop is just incrementally, marginally better than it would have been otherwise because of intentionality. Man, your business is going to take off.

Brian Kelly:
I mean, look, don't look just for a solution, but look for the solution. You make common. That's right.

Steve Fredlund:
Incoming.

Brian Kelly:
Another massive smart bomb knowledge bomb wisdom bomb dropping there. Thank you so much. And I need to add a value bomb in there. I was told one time and we'll work on that later. Wow. I love that. The solving box. And I was looking at the arrows and waiting to see how that was going to play. And when you said the key word iterative, I was like, who? So you are a person I think is that is very kindred to me in the fact that you are made and built to to give the most quality result that is humanly possible within within means. Right, of course. But very, very few go through those five steps at all period. But then to go through them multiple times until you've got not just a solution, but the solution, man, you've got to trademark that puppy. That was a great one. We get we don't just give you a solution. We give you the solution. There's there's your tagline right there and microbusinesses, and you help coach them. And I know a lot of people that watch this show and listen in, they fit that mold. So we're not ending this just now. My gosh, I just look at the clock.

Steve Fredlund:
I know.

Brian Kelly:
But how what's the best form or way for people to connect with you to say, Steve, I just want to have a conversation to see if there's a fit between us.

Steve Fredlund:
Yeah, 100%. So either website small small business dot com or Steve for CNN.com. There's a link there for set up a 30 minute call. Let's just do that. Let's just have a call. I'll give you as much insight as I can or we'll just swap stories, that sort of thing. And then social media wise, I'm all over the place. But really, LinkedIn is where you can find me the most. I do this little, little short video every day called Steve's Daily Stool, which is intentional. People are going, you know that? That sounds like Yeah, I know exactly what that sounds like. That's exactly right. It's it's me thinking from my stool so it could connect. But, you know, I'm an open book, you know, and I'd love to have the conversation and there's no obligation or whatever. It's just me hearing your story and seeing if there's a way that I can help and we'll just take it from there either way.

Brian Kelly:
And I love that also about you, your approach to quote unquote, sales that's not selling, it's just getting to know somebody. And if there's a fit, it will present itself. Yeah, pretty naturally and organically. That's the way I've been rolling. And just. It just feels right. It just feels so good. Yeah. So I'm wondering how we got separated from.

Steve Fredlund:
I feel like I should be sitting. Like you're sitting and just to see how closely you have red hair look like you might have red hair.

Brian Kelly:
I don't know. Reddish. Yeah.

Steve Fredlund:
Ready? Okay. Yeah, yeah.

Brian Kelly:
I do have a brother that has black hair, so it's still possible we don't have to be identical clients.

Steve Fredlund:
Fair enough. We'll compare our stories of our parents as you go.

Brian Kelly:
Ancestry.com. Hey, look, it's real. We were.

Steve Fredlund:
Right. Hey.

Brian Kelly:
We're almost to the end here. I do have one more question I love to ask every person that I have on this show. It's a profound question. It's amazing. It came a lot by accident when I asked a few people over the course of time that question and I thought, Wow, that was an interesting response. I'm going to try that again. So I made it. Now my moniker. Any closing question of every show, it's pretty amazing, pretty powerful. But before we do that, I did promise, as I teased earlier, by hitting the wrong button over here, that I would provide everyone a means to win a five night stay at a five star luxury resort, compliments of the big insider secrets. So what I implore of you all to do right now is still write this down and then visit it right after we close off the show. It's coming up here real soon. Don't worry. We'll keep the lines open, as they would say in the old days. Here it is. I'll put it up on the screen for as you watching live to enter to win go to our WIP. I am for vacation all lowercase Write that down right now Put it on your piece of paper, your note pad on your computer, wherever you are taking notes. That's our WIP. I am for vacation. Go there and enter right after the show is over. You don't want to miss the response from Steve to this amazing question, so go write that down and then enter to win right after we close the door to this amazing show. Because it's amazing because of Steve Fredlund now, because of me, this guy is amazing. So I'm having a blast. So, Steve, there's there's a little bit of build up to this question and it's done on a purpose. The thing is about the question, there is no such thing as a wrong answer, just so you can kind of take a deep breath in case it was starting to build up a little bit, because some some are like, well, man, you built it up so much. I'm nervous. That's okay. But the other thing is, it's just the exact opposite. The only correct answer is yours. So there is no failure, no potential. I like this. Yeah. Now. Now, this is when people go. Okay, now I'm really trying to figure out what the heck you're going to ask and then going crazy. But just know that if it takes you a moment to think about it, that's cool. If you have it instantly, that's cool. Why? It's your answer. It comes from you. It makes it authentic and unique to you. So with all that wonderful build up and in trepidation, are you ready?

Steve Fredlund:
I think so. I might have some spontaneous Internet trouble here or something.

Brian Kelly:
All right. Here we go. Steve Fredlund. How do you define success?

Steve Fredlund:
I define success as as alignment between who you are and what your reality is in the world. So you can call that happiness, you call it success, call it contentment, call it whatever you want. But none of our success is the same, right? I mean, you might be driven by money, you might be driven by fame, by respect, by whatever that might be, peace, quiet, some of those things. So I think success is really beauty in the eye of the beholder kind of thing. So it's define what your success is, what your true authentic self wants, how your true authentic self is wired, all of those things, your core identity define where your core identity is. Make decisions that are completely in alignment with that. And if you live that way, if you keep pursuing life in that way, where you're making decisions aligned with who you are, that's going to create happiness. And to me, that's what success is.

Brian Kelly:
You know what's coming. Yes. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, the key word of today's episode is, you guessed it, alignment. And it is a good one. It's a phenomenal one. And here's the wonderful thing about that whole thing, Steve, is I've been asking that question for almost three years. I didn't start from the beginning. I have not had two people answer it identically yet. That's why I use that question. And with your permission, at some point I'm going to compile all of these questions and answers. It's the same question and put it into a book. And all of you will be coauthors with me with your answers. I'll reach out for permission officially when that time comes. But they have been that profound. It's so awesome to see.

Steve Fredlund:
I would love to hear all of them. That'd be great. Yeah. Yeah.

Brian Kelly:
And it gives you a different lens to see what it means to someone else.

Steve Fredlund:
Yeah.

Brian Kelly:
And most, very, most every time it does align with me, it's not what I would call success today. Maybe it's what I called it yesterday. Or maybe I'll call it that in five years from now. It's the definition of success. This is what I've learned. It changes with each individual as they live and as they age because of the experiences they go through. It's amazing because what's important to one's self yesterday isn't necessarily what is today. It's so awesome. I love it. So. Awesome and intriguing like Steve Fredlund. Yes. Yes, I said it. Steve, I want to say thank you so very much from the bottom of my heart for coming on this show, spending your valuable time, taking your time away from your wife there up in Minnesota. Yes, that's my feeble attempt.

Steve Fredlund:
Sounded just like me. Yep.

Brian Kelly:
Yes, but I do. I truly, sincerely appreciate your time, your value. My gosh, you were dropping bombs of wisdom throughout. I could have just wore that button out all night long. Thank you for that. Thank you for coming on. For giving our audience, which is now your audience. Wonderful lot of things to think about and to put into action and know that it's okay to be authentic. And it's not only okay, it's imperative for you to get where you want to be faster. And I think that's a message that came through very loud and clear to me from my perspective. If there was one thing, if you if you were to sit down with a budding entrepreneur, someone who's just getting ready to start out, maybe they're leaving corporate or maybe they're just starting and they just said, I want to be an entrepreneur. If there was one piece of advice, you could give that person just one to start them off. What would that be?

Steve Fredlund:
Know why you're doing it. Oh. Jack. Why? No. Why? Because it's not as easy as you think. Truly understand why you want to start a business. Not only. I'm sorry. I just wanted a quick answer, but not only. But that's going to structure everything. Like if you're starting a business because you just want to have a job and not have a boss, that's going to be a very different structure than if you're trying to create an asset to give to your children versus you're trying to have impact in your community versus all of these different things. Trying to create passive income. Like if you don't know why you're trying to start your business, you're not going to you're going to get lucky if you structure it the right way. So if you want ten years from now to say, Man, this is what I wanted to do, you've got to start with the end in mind and really know why you're doing it.

Brian Kelly:
Words of wisdom. Thank you. Steve, I couldn't agree more. Fantastic. All right. Once again. Thank you, Steve. That's it. We got to wrap it as much as I'd like to go another couple of hours. So if you're open, we'll just keep going. I'm just kidding.

Steve Fredlund:
All right. I probably could. Yeah. I know it's an honor to be on the show. Brian, I really appreciate you asking me to be here. I know you've got to you've got a great audience and they respect you and they respect the guests that you bring on. So it's an honor to be considered and to be able to share with your audience. And I seriously, I left the corporate world so that I could help small businesses like that is why I did it. If I wanted to make money, I'd still be doing that. So if you are out there going, Man, I kind of like the way the guy thinks. I'd love to have a conversation. Don't just leave it there. Let's let's talk. Let me let me serve you in that way. And let me serve Brian by serving you.

Brian Kelly:
And you can see Steve, he's one of those guys that won't bite.

Steve Fredlund:
No.

Brian Kelly:
And in fact, he can't bite if you're not in Minnesota talking to him.

Steve Fredlund:
And I'm too old. I wouldn't be very forceful anyway.

Brian Kelly:
Might leave his teeth in your hand if he did.

Steve Fredlund:
1/2. Yeah.

Brian Kelly:
All right. On that happy note. Oh, this has been fantastic. On behalf of the amazing Steve Fredlund. I'm your host of The Mind Body Business Show, Brian Kelly. We will see you again next week with another fantastic episode. Until then, so long, everyone, and be blessed. Take care for now. Thank you for tuning in to the Mind Body Business Show podcast at www.TheMindBodyBusinessShow.com My name is Brian Kelly.

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