Special Guest Expert - Steven Harris: Video automatically transcribed by Sonix

Special Guest Expert - Steven Harris: this mp4 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. How do we finally break through and win? That is the question. And this podcast. Will give you the answers. My name is Brian Kelly. This. This the mind body business? Hello everyone and welcome, welcome, welcome to the Mind Body Business Show. I am really excited for this show for a lot of reasons, and you're going to find out why in moments. And it's because Mr. Stephen Harris is in the house, in fact. Yes. I see him down there. He's in the green room. He's like scratching at the monitor saying, Brian, let me in, let's go. Let's do this. Okay, he's not actually doing that, but I am just so very excited for you to meet him, to learn from him, to see what makes him tick, to see his value system, which I am complete alignment with. It doesn't mean everyone will be. And that's okay. And you're going to love learning from Mr. Harris. He is an amazing, amazing young man, and the Mind Body Business Show is a show that I had put together for you. And that is the small business medium business, even large business owner who is looking for that next level. And everyone I interview on this show, there's always a golden nugget or 2 or 4 that anyone at any level can take advantage of. Because I found, and I've learned over the decades of being in business myself, that it doesn't matter how far down the path, the journey of entrepreneurship you are, how much success you've achieved or acquired. There's always something to learn, always. And you'll find these little things like, wow, that's amazing. I'm going to implement that in my business. And that's what I've learned after interviewing hundreds of successful entrepreneurs like Stephen Harris. Uh, over the the years, my gosh, it's been almost five years, maybe over five years. Been doing this show, uh, very blessed to do what I do.

Brian Kelly:
The Mind Body Business Show is a show about what I call the three pillars of success, and those are the very namesake of the very the show itself, mind, body, business. So mind is mindset. And what I found was after studying successful people, I took it, I took a pause and I just started studying only successful people. What made them perhaps more successful than yours truly did? They put their pants on two legs at a time instead of one, did they? I mean, what was it that they had that I didn't? What were they doing that I wasn't doing? What habits did they have? What strategies did they implement? And what I learned over this course of about ten years is these three pillars kept bubbling up to the top. And those were mind. And that stands for mindset. And to a person, these very successful individuals had developed a very powerful, very positive and one that most people don't even recognize or realize. The most important one is also a very flexible mindset and then body to a person, each individual, they literally took care of themselves, their body, through exercise aAnd then nd through nutrition, what they ate and drank.business. Business is very multi multifaceted. It's what most people concentrate most of their energies on, and that is mastering the skill sets that are required to build a successful business and then to continue to scale and build it even bigger from there. And all three of these components really are necessary for very successful people. Well, to become successful, to reach their success, because that that is how they did it. And so many people leave off the mind and body part. Some don't concentrate enough on the business part. Uh, and I've seen them all and I love it. Uh, business is about skill sets. Skill sets like marketing, sales, team building, systematizing, leadership. I could go on for a while and mastering just one skill set, as you are very astute and you already know, can take a very long time mastering anything. And so with that one thing, one skill set you must learn very quickly is that of how to leverage your time, your connections, your networks.

Brian Kelly:
And to do that, what you want to do is literally focus on just one skill set first for yourself to master one skill set, and then you can use that to leverage with all the others and fill the void of all those other skill sets that you have yet to master or to be honest, may never master just due to the sheer time involved in mastery. And so that one skill set, if you were to master it, or at least put a focus on it and start mastering it, is the skill set of leadership. Yes. When you have mastered or in the on the path to mastering leadership, you can now bring in individuals and companies and resources and partners that will help you to build a juggernaut of a business. And what I'm so excited about is that is almost to a t what Stephen Harris has done, and he's done it in such a way that makes it even more, I would say easy and simple than if you were to build your own business and do all this from within. And I'm teasing you on purpose. This is pretty amazing what Stephen Harris has done, and so I can't wait to bring him on for that real quick. Another phenomenal, um, attribute of very successful people is that to a person, they are also very avid readers of books. And so with that, I want to segue very briefly. We'll get to Stephen. Don't worry. He's coming on. I'll segway very briefly into a segment I affectionately call bookmarks.

Announcer:
Bookmarks. Born to read. Bookmarks. Ready. Steady. Read. Bookmarks brought to you by Reach your Peak Library.com.

Brian Kelly:
There. You see it. Reach your peak. Library.com. A quick, quick, quick word of advice now, I've spoken from stage for years, and I remember in the very beginning when I'd be speaking and I know what I'm about to to say. It's my presentation. And when I'm getting up to the really juicy part, the part I know has impact on people's lives. It's going to give them a leg up, so to speak. There were times where I'd be speaking and I'd notice someone would get up and literally leave the room, right as I'm getting to that juicy part and, you know, they're looking at their phone, that all important text message, or they have to go to the bathroom, whatever it happens to be. I'm like, oh, no. And I felt bad for them knowing that what was what I was about to present could potentially help them in a great way. And so I realized that, you know, it's important to let people know ahead of time that the magic happens in the room. And why I bring this up now is because you're going to be given resources, you know, web addresses, book titles, things of that nature. And you're going to want to go off and do research and type and look and search on the browser as you're listening or watching the show. And I hope you're watching live. And I would really suggest against that, because even that act can take your focus away from Stephen Harris as he is presenting you with that one golden nugget that could literally change your life forever in a positive way. And I don't want that to happen to you. So what I ask of you to do this is for you, not for me. I'm I'm going to be doing the same thing. And that is, instead of of running off and typing and looking is to actually take out a piece of paper and take, you know, notes. I know, Brian, I don't want to write. That's old school. Well, you don't have to write. You can type it off to the side, but don't go looking. My suggestion, my recommendation, my advice is not to go research and look for other things.

Brian Kelly:
Write down the URL, write down the book title, write down whatever it is that you know you want to research, and then do that research after the show is over. How's that? Here's a great way to practice. Write down this. Reach your peak Library.com. We've started. There we go. Get a pencil, get a pen, get a paper, get a notepad on your computer, whatever it takes. And just take notes, because that's what's going to help you to get the most out of this show today. All right. Enough of my soapbox moment. Now on to the actual site. Uh, reach your peak library. This is a resource I have put together. I put I had my team compile and add all the books I've personally read that have had a profound impact on me, either in my professional slash business life or my personal life, or both. And as I read them, the ones that made the grade in my circle, in my world, I said, here, put this one on the site next. And they are in here in no no order, no rhyme or reason. I just say, here it is, put the next one on. I don't care where you put it. Uh, just put it back on the site, put it on the site. And so the whole purpose of this is so that you have a library of books that, you know, are at least vetted by one other successful person. That's all. And all it does is it increases the probability that it will not be a waste of your time. How's that sound? So this is giving you more of, you know, throwing a dart, and you have more chances of hitting the bull's eye by getting a book from a resource like this. And on that note, get them from wherever you get your books. Barnes and Noble, go to Amazon separately. All these books, all these buttons here, go to Amazon. This is not here for me to make money. This is here to give you something that is going to help you in your life, in my opinion, because it's helped me. And so I just wanted to share that with you as literally my gift to you.

Brian Kelly:
So that is it. Reach your peak Library.com write that down, and then go get the first book that jumps off the page wherever you want to get your books, wherever you buy them. That is fine. Enough of me yakking and yammering because you know what time it is. Oh, it's the best time of the show. It's time to bring on our guest expert, Mr. Stephen R Harris. Here we go. Hahaha!

Announcer:
It's time for the guest expert. Spotlight. Savvy. Skillful. Professional. Adept. Trained. Big league. Qualified.

Brian Kelly:
There he is, ladies and gentlemen. It is the one. It is the only Stephen Harris. Yeah. How are you doing, brother?

Steven Harris :
Oh, man. I'm excited to be here today. This is going to be so much fun.

Brian Kelly:
Already is. We got. You know, we talked for about a half hour before we started the show, and, uh, we talked an hour before that, some time ago. I finally remember, and, uh, I just remember how much I enjoyed that. And I'm, I'm excited to share you with the rest of the world because people are in for a treat. I humbly and honestly believe that. And so I can't wait to dig into your big, beautiful brain, uh, and, um, and see what's what's cooking in there. I know some of it, but I don't know all of it. And I get to learn as much as the people listening. That's what I love about this. So if you wouldn't mind, uh, Stephen, do you mind if I properly introduce you formally so that people get a kind of a a baseline of where you're coming from, and then we'll dive into the fun stuff. Does that sound good?

Steven Harris :
Let's do it.

Brian Kelly:
All right. Stephen has been a W-2 employee, a 1099 partner and sole proprietor. His experiences with Chamber of Commerce, BNI, that's Business Network International and other networking groups helped him to become a trusted advisor for business leaders across many different industries. His time in politics, Toastmasters that's a great organization, and Dale Carnegie have given him opportunities to speak on a variety of topics. He is the founder of SRH Business Resource Marketplace, a collection of essential business services to help busy business leaders streamline their success. Who here does not want to streamline their success? He loves God, family, Texas and karaoke. Often out of order. I love that last part. All right. With that, officially, formally. Welcome to the show, Stephen Harris. I am so glad to have you. And what I wanted to kick things off with Stephen is this is, you know, you've been on both sides of the fence, just as I have as a corporate employee and now as an entrepreneur. And, you know, the difference between the two is a corporate employee. You punch a clock and you're going to get paid whatever they promise to pay you every two weeks, every month, whatever your contract or, uh, right situation was. As an as an entrepreneur, it ain't that way. You don't get paid unless you kick some butt and you got to put some work in, and you got to do wear every hat, especially when you're first starting. So it's a whole different game. And, you know, as an entrepreneur, Stephen, that when you get up every morning, you know, what we do as entrepreneurs, we solve problems. That is the almost the definition of an entrepreneur is a problem solver. We help solve a problem and we in return they pay us. Right? Absolutely. But with that, the more successful you become, the bigger the problems become and the more they become. People think, oh, you just coast along and your your hammock on the beach with an umbrella drink and you just rake in the dollar. No, you work harder and harder. So knowing you have to get up and face all these arduous tasks, these solutions that you need to create, knowing that all of this is in front of you, these speed bumps that keep hitting you when you wake up in the morning, what is going on in your big, beautiful brain that is keeping you driven, that is keeping you motivated, that's you're not going to stop no matter what? What keeps you so excited to keep doing this day in and day out?

Steven Harris :
Yeah. So 18 months ago I was working at a corporation, a tech company that's here in the Austin area. I won't say which one, but I was let go. I was laid off and I was the first of continuous layoffs that have that are still going on just this past week. Uh, they continue laying people off. And I have seen in the tech industry especially, but across multiple industries, this massive wave of layoffs and workforce reductions and people's lives being disrupted. One, one story, uh, that I saw on LinkedIn, a woman was on medical leave fighting stage four breast cancer, and her company laid her off, uh, cutting off her medical care. And the HR person who was tasked with that job didn't even know she was fighting cancer. She was just a number. So what drives me right now? And I think this changes throughout our lives. But what's driving me right now is helping people prepare for those that type of situation so that they can build some extra side income. The side hustle I love the side hustle lifestyle, but also helping business owners who already have an established business succeed so that they can employ more people and help some of these folks that have been let go from their corporate jobs. And I'd love to see these small businesses snatch them up and take advantage of the enterprise level training that these people have received, and just plug them into their small business so that they can, uh, hire quality people. And in and solve those problems. Solve both problems.

Brian Kelly:
Yeah. And God bless you. Because, you know, small businesses, that's the lifeblood of America in my opinion. This is, uh, you know, there are large corporations that they employ a lot of people and think, thankfully, you know, employ a lot of people. And yeah, they also, as they hire a lot, they can also let go of a lot. I've been in those as well. I've personally experienced it. Uh, and I that's one of the reasons I jumped out of corporate. I said like, why am I doing this? There's there's no security that that there was when my dad went through all this, that was all security back then. And that's all we were taught is get a job, you know, work it till it's retirement time, then. Then die. I'm like, man, that sounds exciting. Let's go. Uh, so. And but the thing is that that truth never came for me. Uh, after what? What was it, a two and a half years? My first job. My first, like, full time. No kidding. Corporate job out of college, two and a half years. Massive layoffs came. They went through two rounds. The second round, my boss literally came to me and said, you're a new hire here. In their eyes, your your butt's hanging out the window. Literally. You're going to be next in the second wave. Let me help you update your resume. I was like, wow, what a great guy. He he definitely was. I'll never forget that. I ended up getting another job because of him. And before I got hit right before. And guess how long that one lasted? A year and a half. And then it happened again. And I'm like, that's enough. I'm done with this. It was ridiculous. And so that's the way it is. And that's, you know, a lot of people, a lot of I know businesses are complaining about how people are jumping all over the place. Well guess why? It's a volatile environment. And so it doesn't even surprise me anymore. And this is sad to say, you know, that these mass layoffs occur. And, you know, becoming an entrepreneur is not for everybody. But thank God for the small business who is there as a safety net for some people to say, here, I have a job for you, maybe you can work with me. Um, and so it's a wonderful thing. We may not be impacting as many as the large corporations that way, but at least we're here, you know, and we're helping our local communities.

Steven Harris :
Yeah. And my my heart is for the small business owner, the small to medium business. Um, I love those corporations. I have nothing bad to say about them. Well, I have a few bad things to say about them, but, you know, my heart is for the small business owner, uh, who goes out there and busts their butts and makes things happen, and they're not sitting in the office. They're they're their hands are in the grease as much as everybody.

Brian Kelly:
Yeah, that's that's very true. And, you know, given, you know, I think you and I as entrepreneurs, leaders of the business, we probably work harder than we ever did as a full time employee. More hours. Uh, I know I do, and I know that I do it because I enjoy it. It's not because I have to, uh, I do feel, uh, responsibility for the people that I pay and for my clients, for sure. But I don't work the long hours just because I have to. I could just punch the clock and do eight hours a day if I wanted to. I enjoy it, I do ten, 12 hour days quite often. And it's. I'm just, I don't know, I'm blessed. I feel it's a blessing because I love what I do. Um, exactly. And that's the thing people like, you're you're kind of weird. You're always working. Like, I don't look at it as work. I mean, this is. Yeah, it is, but okay. It's what I want to do, you know? What are you doing watching TV right now? That doesn't do it for me. I'm sorry, but that's. We have different paths, so that's okay. Oh, my goodness. Robert Silverman is in the house. Look at this. That's me. I'm out there in the trenches. You sure are. Oh, my gosh, I love this man. He was our real estate agent, uh, back in California. We just moved to here to Florida last year. And if it wasn't for Robert, we wouldn't be in the dream house we're in now. So thank you again, Robert. Every time I see you, I'm going to give you a shout out. Brother. Thank you so much for that. Oh, thank you for the invitation. I'm from Tokyo, Japan. Welcome. I cannot pronounce your name, but thanks for coming on, let alone read it. To begin with. We are worldwide already, Steven Harris and that is why. So this is phenomenal. Um, and so yeah, entrepreneurship is not for everyone. And that's okay. That's absolutely fine. There's nothing wrong with not being an entrepreneur. There's nothing wrong with being a corporate employee at all. Uh, gosh, where would we be, uh, Steven, if we didn't have corporate employees? Because what is it, 9,097% are employees and the other three are entrepreneurs. I don't know what the exact number is, but it's a massive difference. Right. And I can understand why being an entrepreneur is a lot of work, man. And it's, uh. Uh, what what has been your experience when you shifted from corporate to entrepreneurship? Were there any things that surprised you that you went, uh oh, or or hey, I love this. What what was that transition like for you?

Steven Harris :
Sure. Well, I wish I could say it was smooth sailing. It really wasn't. Um. When you are an employee, you you, you develop an employee like mindset. And you talked about mindset in the introduction. But the employee mindset is you work for a certain number of hours, you do a certain certain number of tasks, and then you're done. And then you have family time. Well, an entrepreneur mindset is you get things done. You don't know what task are going to be thrown at you, especially if you're a solopreneur like me. I do my own marketing, I do my own web design, I do everything, and a lot of solopreneurs are out there and we wear so many hats, we don't even know where the hat closet is half the time. And. That transition took me some time. Uh, even though I've had side hustles in the past, I've been, uh, a business owner in the past. It wasn't an easy transition for me, so it took me a while to switch my mindset to you know what? Um, you know, 8:00 at night. If I've got something I need to get done, let's get it done. And it's easy for me now, it's weird because once that realization, that self realization occurred, then that the switch flipped and it was it was no, no big deal. Like I, I work when I need to work, I play when I want to play. Right. Um, work hard, play hard. But once I had to make that transition and it took me several months to do.

Brian Kelly:
Yeah, yeah, it's a totally different. It's like, wow, you know what? I can do this whenever I want, which can lead to lack of discipline and getting nothing done. And that's part of the transition, I think, where it's like, wow, this is liberating. I have freedom now. And then you realize I better get busy, though. Yeah, I better get busy.

Steven Harris :
Some of us make great bosses. Some of us make great employees. Some of us don't make great bosses or employees to ourselves. Right? Yeah. If you if you're your own boss, you better be a good boss. And you also better be a good employee. Getting tasks done on time as, as a as you have to do.

Brian Kelly:
And that's why I open with this skill set of leadership being so important. Because many times people say, yeah, but Brian, I don't even have a team yet. And I say, good. So now practice the skill of leadership in leading yourself as if you were one, and now develop that culture that you would want your business to have and just start putting those together. Start documenting your processes. Systematize everything so that when you bring in people, all they have to do is follow the instructions. And if they can't follow the instructions, they're not hirable. It's really simple. Then, uh, you know, McDonald's is known very famously for this, for putting in systems where they have 18 year olds running their restaurant. I mean, that's all they are, 18 year olds. Some of them are the managers and it's got systems instructions. You put the the fries or whatever those things are made of into the, the vat of oil. That's like whatever that is. And you press a button and then you run and you do the buns and everything else is systematized. And, and so they did that on purpose. And now that's why they're one of the biggest franchises in the world. Uh, because they did it right. And, you know, we can model those things, not their food, but we can model their systems and their success in setting those up. And that's the other thing is, once you start a, you know, with a team, you get somebody to help you, you'll never look back. It will be another level of liberation that I can't explain to anyone until they've gone through it themselves. And I did that. I was like, oh my goodness, this is nice, I like it, I'm keeping it this way.

Steven Harris :
Right? You know, leadership is one of the things that is super important to me. Last year, I spent most of last year working for the Dale Carnegie training, uh, franchise here in Texas. Specifically because I love helping businesses train up their people, train up their leaders to serve their community, their employees in a better way. Um, but that's another failure of mine that catapulted me to be passionate. Um, my first stint as a leader, I was working for, uh, schwan's. The yellow food trucks and, uh, the the day I was hired, I was in the district office, and the the general manager of that location introduced me to the district manager, and he's like, you've got to meet Steven. He's awesome. He's going to be a great, great leader. And he became my champion. As I was growing in the business, I ran my own route for a while, increased sales tremendously. He, um, he promoted me to, to become a general manager myself. And I worked my way up all the way to general manager for my depot. My location. And then, you know, the company was struggling. I was a new leader. I didn't know what I was doing. And he said at a district meeting with all the other general managers that I was, I was such a disappointment. I was his biggest disappointment. Oh, and I was crushed because he had gone from my champion to calling me out in front of my peers. And I deserved it. I wasn't a great leader, but I took that moment. Instead of being bitter about it, I went and found Dale Carnegie and other courses to become and develop myself into a better leader. So now I'm 20 plus years beyond that experience. Wow. And I am a much better leader I am. I still lead with empathy, which I did even back then, but now I know how to balance that empathy with clear expectations and accountability.

Brian Kelly:
Hmm. Wow wow. And the huge lesson there for everyone. I mean. What a crushing blow that would be. And to do it in front of your peers, no less, that that's like. Never do that. Ever. I don't care who you are. I would I would go back and say, wow, you're not much of a leader yourself for doing that, kind of pulling that kind of stunt. Uh, you never do that. That's that's the thing you do behind a closed door, and you do it quietly, and then, um, and you still feel like crap, but at least it's not in front of your peers. But for you to have that kind of reaction, that is the key, everybody. If you don't, if you get nothing else from this entire show tonight. What? Stephen, just example, the example he just gave of how he responded to that, that is exactly a success blueprint right there. That is how you succeed is you don't let your ego get in the way. It's like, yeah, it stings, it hurts. It's we are human. We have emotion. But the next thing you do, the decision you make is just that. It is a decision and you get to decide, which way do I go? Do I get pissed off and never let this go? Or do I say, okay, I did get pissed off, but I'm going to now take a moment, sit back. Why did this happen? What can I learn from it? What part of it was I truly at? Cause for that I can then maybe turn around and never have that happen to me again. Uh, number one, but also to become more successful. So kudos to you, Steve. And that's a massive teaching moment for everybody here.

Steven Harris :
Yeah. You know, I try to do that in many situations. Whenever somebody comes at me, I want to I want. And if I disagree with them, especially if I disagree with them, I want to find out if there's a nugget of truth behind what they're saying. You know, if if being in politics. This happened a lot. Um, when I was in politics, I disagreed with a lot of people. I was not, uh, one side or the other. I was in the middle. So I had people on both of the other sides coming at me all the time. And. Whenever somebody disagrees with me, especially if they're passionate and angry, I want to look and hear what they're saying and try to find a nugget of truth. Because surprise, surprise, I could be wrong. And I'm not arrogant enough to think that I'm going to be right all the time. I'm humble enough to know that I could. You know you can change my mind if you have a valid argument. Um, it may be a blind spot of mine. I just don't know all the information that you know. So let me get the information. And maybe I'm wrong.

Brian Kelly:
And you are one of the rare few that I feel has mastered the art of subduing your ego. It is not easy for most of us, yours truly included. Uh, and many times I'll, you know, bring it to the surface, like. Wait. Okay, stop. It's not about you. Stop the emotion. It's. You know, you're not all that. It's. Let's go see what we can do to to right this ship and let's lick our wounds. Let's say. Yeah, I was wrong. Uh, and be okay to say that. Because we know if we open ourselves to the opportunity of correcting it, we will only get better. And that's the bottom line with the whole ego thing. Oh my goodness. I'm happy to see you, Brian. I'm Akihiro, I think you are on our, uh, master class earlier. Great to see you. And you know, we're planning a trip to good old Japan here, I think, in September, so maybe we'll cross paths. I don't know our itinerary yet. My my wife's planning all that, but that's going to be a lot of fun. And we have Lisa Harvey in 2020, I left corporate America to hang and hang my my shingle. It was a terrifying trust fall, but I'm so glad I trusted my talent and started my business. Being a solopreneur is hard, but immensely satisfying. That is. Yeah. Isn't that so true? Yeah. And Robert. Lisa, that's. Yes, I agree with you, Lisa, she says. I love how Steven approaches his business without ego. I think if there's one of the. This is one of the biggest lessons any business person can learn, the most powerful lesson and, and really integrate it into your being and your life and work on it every day and you'll get better. And the better you get at subduing or suppressing is a better word. Your ego, uh, not letting it control you, uh, the better your results are going to be, you're going to find immense and instant and inlarge results as a result of changing how you react to your ego. It's it's amazing. It's amazing. Like, Steven, I when I was learning speaking from stage, I got I got the best feedback on the planet.

Brian Kelly:
I mean, I was so blessed. I had two of the most incredible speaking coaches one could ever get. And I'll remember I'll never forget standing up on stage, and I can see one of those guys in the back of the room as I'm speaking, taking notes, and I'd say something and I can see there's a sea of, you know, 3 to 400 people. He's all the way in the back, but I can still see him clearly. It's amazing what you see on stage. And I just remember him shaking his head vigorously, raising his pen. He was left handed and then bam, he's right. And I'm like, I'm in the middle of talking. I'm like, oh crap, what did I just say that I did wrong, you know? And then he would, uh, after it was over, he would give me feedback. He would tell me what I did. Good, a feedback sandwich, and then he'd give me the actual feedback. And I got to tell you, the first time it hurt, it stung. It was like, right between the eyes. But it was done with love. He did it to make me better. And man, I, I seriously considered man, that was not fun. I don't know if I want to do this anymore. Thank God I dusted off, did it again and he said that my my, uh, improvement was immense because I took what he said into order. And then and then he had more for me. And I'm like, okay, I see how this is working. I'm getting better. It doesn't feel good, but I'm getting better. And then it got to the point where that not feeling good wasn't there anymore. I was like, I need more, give me more feedback. I want to hear what I need to improve on. I want to hear it. My ego is gone and I just everything just catapulted from there. It was amazing. So I've experienced the the ego trip, uh, of journey of really squashing that sucker. And the more I did, the greater the results were. Thank you. Oh, everybody's saying we have a thank you fest going on.

Brian Kelly:
Thank you Steven from Lisa because Steven said, uh, congrats. Thank you Brian I don't know what I did. Um. That's okay. You're welcome. I don't know what I did. Uh, I'm just having fun here with Steven. Mr. Steven Harris, he's got a phenomenal business, a phenomenal business model. And before I get too far down the rabbit hole and excited and giddy with Steven, I want to ask you directly, Steven, uh, let's get into your actual business, if that's okay. Segue into that and just, you know, if you wouldn't mind, give us kind of the lay of the land. What is it you do like who is your target market? You've kind of hinted at it already. And who do you serve? And then what is it specifically that you do for them? And then if you also have maybe a success story or two that you could tell, I'd love to hear that as well. Would that be cool?

Steven Harris :
Certainly. So I have two specific target markets. I have those people who are still working who want to start a side hustle, and I have resources to help them get started the right way so they don't get scammed and they they start off on a good footing. And then I also serve the small to medium business market, the, you know, 0 to $3 million in revenue or so. I have a ton of resources and my business model is simply this I pass referrals professionally. Um, I am a expert professional networker. I go to all different types of networking events, virtually virtual events, in-person events, and I make connections with different people and different businesses and then put different people together who want to who may want to do business. I don't know if they do or not, but if I think there's going to be synergy, I'll go to LinkedIn. I'll make a warm introduction and let them take the conversation from there. And I chose this business model. We talking about ego a little bit ago. I didn't consider myself when I decided to start another business. I didn't consider myself a subject matter expert on any one particular thing, except maybe politics. And I didn't want to. I decided I didn't want to be a political consultant, but that that verse that's right there on the screen. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interest of others. That's the driving force behind my business. I am a professional referral passer. And to to get a spot on my marketplace, the company has to have a really high value service. They have to have a really great net promoter score and retention rate. And I. I pass a lot of referrals that I don't get paid for. I just love to do that for people. But if if it's a service that has certain criteria, they they lead with Christian values. They may not be overtly Christian, but they they run their business in such a way. Um, they have those net promoter scores that are super high. They have, um, really high retention rates. If it's something that I personally would feel comfortable putting my name behind, then I'll add them to the marketplace and then the marketplace or those services that I am actively marketing on my social media and through my network. And it's, you know, it's a wide variety of services. Some I've talked to business coaches that say maybe you got too many things, and my wife says the same thing. There's probably some truth in that. Um, but right, right now I'm limiting it. I've stopped building out the marketplace. I'm not adding new services right now. I'm just sharing as often as I can.

Brian Kelly:
And this is a genius model in several respects. You have become like your own BNI Business network international in a way. And the other part is you don't have to personally fulfill on the back end services that people are looking for, you're basically handing them off to companies who are already very good at what they do to do that fulfillment. You're done, I would imagine. Exactly. Right. Yeah. And you take you take a percentage of thank you from that company for referring them. However that arrangement is made. So think about this, everyone out there as a potential business model or something to add to your business model for what you do. You know, if you're if you're if you're a painter, think of companies that support painters and maybe start something like that. Uh, what what, um, Steven has done is aligned himself with business related building activities. So you could do this in virtually any niche. And just before, uh, before I forget to do this as well, for those of you listening on audio podcasts, only the website he's referring to of his is called SRH. That's Steven R Harris, that's Ray is the R I know that one for there's a funny story behind that SRH business resource marketplace. There's more dot now dot site s I t e. So it's SRH business resource marketplace dot now dot site. If you go there you'll get a little bit more understanding what he does. You have the ability to schedule a call with them. We're going to bring that up in a little bit. He has a free 30 minute consultation he's going to be giving away here. I think that's pretty phenomenal. Anyone giving away their time is uh in an A in my book already. And yeah, this is just genius because now someone you know, you're a one stop shop where you have all these connections of, you know, these are these are companies you vet and you do it in different ways. I'm going to guess maybe you've been a client of some of them. Others you've heard of. Others have been clients. I mean, do you have any specific, uh, criteria for vetting these individual businesses that you are passing your clients off to as referrals?

Steven Harris :
Sure. Well, there's two different categories. And if is it a business that I've put on the marketplace or just someone I met that I think there might be synergy, that there's different criteria there. So for example, I use a networking platform called Lunch Club, and lunch Club pairs you with different people from all over the world, and you just have a 45 minute conversation. Sometimes it's business related, sometimes it's personal, but it's just networking. I have networked with. I've met three different people who all serve the music industry in different ways. And so whenever I meet somebody new that serves the music industry, I go to LinkedIn and I just say, hey, do you both serve the same clients? There may be some synergy on the way for you to do business together or serve, you know, share each other's resources. And I let them have that. Take that conversation from there. Um, that's that's a different thing than if I'm going to put somebody on the marketplace, if they're if I'm going to put them on the marketplace, that I'm actually doing some research and, and finding out what their interests is finding out what the industry standard for that industry is, because an NPS of. 60 is pretty high in the hospitality world, right? Um, but an NPS and other industries of 60 would be abysmal. And so I find out what the NPS should be, I find out what theirs is. And, you know, are they trustworthy? What what are their retention rates and things like that? A lot of that stuff is public. Sometimes I just get on the phone and talk to them and ask, and then I put them on the marketplace and, uh, that's that's a pretty, pretty high honor to be put on the marketplace. And I don't charge them. I don't charge my clients, uh, any more for that referral. They're not paying more to go through me to get to the service providers then they would if they went direct. I'm just making those connections easier for the business owners. Business leaders?

Brian Kelly:
Fantastic. Hey, everyone, real quick break. You are watching the mind body business show or listening to it. And for everyone that watches live until the end, we have a giveaway for you and you can win a five night stay at a five star luxury resort, compliments of Reach Your Peak. And it is not one of those you know where they take you, and they grab you and and whisk you down to the basement and strap you in and water drip torture you and sell you on a timeshare. It has nothing to do with that. It is the exact opposite. It's a bona fide, amazing vacation stay, and there are many places from all over the world that the winner can choose from. It is amazing. I have a personal friend who has done it twice, and said he was treated like any other guest that paid full amount. They don't know the people there don't know that you are there, uh gifted. And so stick around to the end. And I'm also going to announce that special gift from Steven, who is offering a 30 minute free consultation with you to see if his services have a fit for what you are looking for for your solution. So appreciate that. So stick around. You must be watching live. How do you watch live? I knew you were going to ask me that. You go to the mind body business show. Com the mind body business show. Com. Yeah, we're a fan of big long URLs here. The mind body business show.com and click any of the buttons that say where and how to watch you opt in. You also get an instant discount hotel discount card. I think it's $300. I forget uh, and you get that as well. And those are bonafide as well. I've used them myself and then you are going to get a notification every time we go live. Moments before we go live with a link, you just click the link, you join us and you can then participate and enter the win on the next show. So go ahead and do that. Uh, for those of you listening only on podcasts, or if you're watching this as a video recording, you definitely want to be here live.

Brian Kelly:
Plus, you get to engage live with people like Stephen Harris. Come on now. It doesn't get any better than that. All right, so one of the things I'm very curious about, and I'm trying to figure it out as you're talking because I love I love the puzzle of how do people in each respective business get business. How do they what are they're doing for marketing? Are they reaching out to people proactively? Are they are they going into lead databases? Are they just, uh, sifting and sorting through LinkedIn? Are they what are they are they doing word of mouth? Are they doing, um, uh, affiliate programs themselves? What is it? So I've always deeply curious, like, you know, Stephen, what used to work 20 years ago in marketing doesn't work so great anymore. Back then, you could blast an email blast and get a lot of business instantly. Uh, that doesn't happen anymore. You have to prove your worth and give a lot of free content and value up front. And equally so, 20 years in the future. What's working today probably won't work as well as it did now, but all that matters is today. And for you, if you were to think of one one marketing, um, strategy you're currently using that works the absolute best for you, what would that be for you in your business right now?

Steven Harris :
Right now I've gotten the most traction from Alignable. Wow. Alignable I don't know if you're familiar with it. It's networking, uh, social media platform, similar to LinkedIn, but what I found is that people on LinkedIn have been spammed to death, and they're kind of jaded. Or people on Alignable are still open to having an actual conversation with you. So scheduling a one on one to actually get to know someone is a lot easier on Alignable than it is on LinkedIn. I do it on LinkedIn too. I, I make a new connection. I reach out and say, hey, I'd love to make this an actual conversation and not just a LinkedIn connection. Here's my availability. Let's let's have a virtual coffee. But the response rate on LinkedIn is far lower than it is on Alignable. So I highly recommend Alignable.

Brian Kelly:
And I remember, uh alignable when it kind of came into being. It's a fairly new platform compared to all the others, and boy has it taken off. I mean, I'm. Getting. I'm seeing invitation um, emails daily now. I'm like, wow, what's going on with this alignable thing? And you can pay for it. There's a free and a and a paid for service. Do you pay for it yourself? Do you do the free version?

Steven Harris :
I'm still on the free version, right.

Brian Kelly:
Yeah. So think about that everyone that my gosh you can use something like that. And this is one of the things that I hear over and over and over again, you know, when you are trying to market your business and sell to your ideal prospects, well, you go hang out where your ideal prospects hang out. And that's exactly what Steven is doing. They are hanging out in Alignable and LinkedIn. They are business people. He wants to connect them with entities that will help them with their business to take it to the next level. So it's perfect. So, um, he's following rule number one is hang out where your prospect hangs out, you know, go visit. And in this case you can do it virtually, which is even better. You don't have to do it physically, which makes it a lot easier. Thank you for that because I've so many different so many people have different ways of marketing. The number one way that works, and you mentioned it already, uh, that has withstood the test of all time from 20 years ago to today, and it will 20 years in the future. And that is the development of personal relationships. And many people, including yours truly. I pushed away from that for years. Why? It wasn't efficient. It took time and it was one person at a time. And back when I first started, email marketing still works. So I just did that and then it started quickly dropping off and I'm like, oh, this is getting hard. I don't want to do relationships. I don't want to do relationships. I don't want to. All right, I better do a relationship. So I finally started doing that. And thankfully because of, uh, the direction of one of my mentors, I began doing strategy calls for his organization. And that's when I learned at a deep level how valuable one on one phone calls. Literally this is on a phone, not even zoom, but on a phone. Uh, but they were so valuable. And and they to this day, I have friends from those those times of doing those calls, uh, and great acquaintances. And you help each other out just like you, Steven. You reach out, you help people. Not necessarily to make a buck at every turn, but just. I know somebody. I'm not going to make money from this. But why not? Takes me five minutes to give you a link. Why not do that?

Steven Harris :
Absolutely. Being being a good human, taking care of your community and community today because of the internet is global. Um, so taking care of your community is first and foremost. The profit will come when you take care of your community, but you got to think about taking care of your community first. How can I serve you today without getting paid? And that's that's what's in my mind every time I'm talking to somebody.

Brian Kelly:
Maybe turn that to. How can I serve you every day today and get paid, even though you don't have to concentrate? That I'm just messing with.

Steven Harris :
You with future conversations.

Brian Kelly:
Yeah, yeah. And Lisa says she's on alignable. Lisa Harvey, thank you for interacting and engaging, Lisa. I love that it's a good networking platform. Yeah, it has some really high quality individuals there that I know several on there. I recognize them, you know, from speaking engagements and things like that and working with them. And it's it's impressive and I'm glad to hear that. It's refreshing. I'm going to take another look at that. Start my team working on that one. Haha I love it. So. Oh, you said something that just triggered. I was going to jump on it and oh such a good thing and I can't remember what it was, but I love this. That um, yeah, it's about helping people. This is the thing, Steven. I think to a person, every single person I have ever interviewed there are or there's God, I don't know what. We're at 200. Every single person. If money were not necessary, if we did not have to make money, every one of us would be doing what we're doing right now. Why? Because we love serving and helping others. I think this is my opinion, but I think our maker designed us this way, that our purpose on this earthly life is to help fellow man and to love one another and help each other. I don't know what do you think about that?

Steven Harris :
Love your neighbor as yourself. That's the second commandment from Jesus.

Brian Kelly:
Yeah. I mean, should we follow that? I don't know, I think so, since you know it, I, we I think you believe the same. We believe that he designed us. I mean, come on. Ah, I love it. Robert Silverman just signed up for Alignable. Right on. Yeah, it's a good place, Robert. He's a major awesome real estate guy.

Steven Harris :
So look me up, Robert. I'll send me a connection request. I'll accept.

Brian Kelly:
Steven is there are in your name and Alignable.

Steven Harris :
There is.

Brian Kelly:
Steven R Harris. That's a.

Steven Harris :
Story. There's a funny story there, too. Um, I used to go by Steven Harris or Steve Harris. Actually, I was Steve Harris for many years after high school, and I'm. I just turned 50, so that's a long time ago. Um. When I started working for that tech company, there was already a Steve Harris. And guess what? He was a VP, so I couldn't have his email address. There was already a Stephen Harris and he was a technical sales rep. I couldn't have his email address, so they gave me Stephen R Harris as my email. And so over the last ten years or so, I've rebranded as Stephen R Harris. So I'm really big about building a personal brand. So I've had to rebrand myself as Stephen R Harris over the last ten years.

Brian Kelly:
And then if you don't mind sharing the story about your siblings and their middle names as well.

Steven Harris :
Yes. Yeah. So there's three of us Stephen Stephen Harris, Alan Harris and Kevin Harris. It's Stephen Ray, Alan Ray and Kevin Ray. And my mom says when when she was pregnant with the second of us. I'm the oldest. But when she was pregnant with Alan, God told her to give us all the same middle name because that's all we'd have in common. And so she that's why she. We all have the same middle name and and actually Kevin spells his name. Kevin.

Brian Kelly:
Wow.

Steven Harris :
Alan and Stephen. Steve. Ben and Ray is the middle name. So it's.

Brian Kelly:
Ray. Ray or r e.

Steven Harris :
R a.

Brian Kelly:
Y. Yeah. Okay. I thought, man, there's a there's a pattern here, but. So if one of you became a boxer, would you have changed your name to sugar? Maybe sugar Ray Harris. That would have been awesome. Oh, man, that's awesome. And I love I. Love how your mom. She listened and she was obedient. But you know, I always like to say, but you still all have the last name in common, so you got that going. That's cool. Awesome. Oh my goodness. What time is it? Oh, we're getting late. I don't want to do this, but, um. Oh, I you've been on both sides of the fence, and I love this this, um, comparison frame, if you will, about that. What have you found to be the major difference now in your your own personal experience between a person who works for someone else, who's a corporate person who does that, uh, who's done it for a long time versus or Yeah versus an entrepreneur who now works for themselves and has the the liberty and freedom to work and play when they want, even though they've still got to work probably harder. What have you found to be? One or more major differences now that you've seen both sides between the two.

Steven Harris :
Well, speaking from my own experience, it's that. Task oriented mindset. So when you're an employee, you have a task. You finish a task whether and it doesn't matter what role you have, you have specific tasks that you're tasked with as a solopreneur. You wear all the hats and there's there's no such thing as delegating unless you until you get to the point where you start hiring Vas and then start hiring employees. Everything falls on your shoulder and it becomes overwhelming very quickly if you don't organize well. And I'll be honest. I don't organize well, so it's still a struggle for me to, um, get everything done that I need to get done in a day. And, you know. I don't mind working late to get it done, but there comes a point where my wife's like, you know, let's let's do something together, you know? Yeah.

Brian Kelly:
Yeah. So I hit a. Moment like that. I have a team, and I hit that moment just the other night where I knew I was working. I got a project that just sunk. I'm sinking my teeth into, and I'm very passionate about it, and I love it. And since about Thanksgiving, I've been working on it bearishly 10 to 12 hours a day, every day and enjoying it. But yesterday it hit me. I'm like, I need to pay attention to my wife more. Uh, to us. I mean, we would, you know, get together, eat a little bit, you know, I'd scarf it down and I'm running back down to the office and getting at it again. And last yesterday, I said, you know what? I got more to do. I will still have more to do. It's going to be there. I'd like to be done with it, but I'm cutting the cord. I'm done now. I went up and I said, what do you think? You want to go out to dinner? Let's go get some sushi or something. And we did. And it was. I was so glad that was a greatest break. You got to take breaks. Yeah, it just has to happen. No matter if you're a solopreneur, if you have a team, you know you're still going to be working very long hours if you love what you do, but you'll be working smarter and you'll have more help and you'll be able to delegate more. The thing is, with each new task, brand new task that you ever encounter for yourself, that's another system to develop. So, you know, my my philosophy is I do it first and I record what I do, I document it, and then I hand it off to my primary VA and say, tell me what needs to be fixed or just fix it. Record it yourself. I have my systems developed, my systems in that case, and then it's working very well. But those first time and this new project has a lot of first times in it. So it's like, oh, I want to build it, solve it, launch it, and also build the systems around it. So I don't have to do it because I want to scale it and it's going to scale very fast and I know it is. So I have to be ready. I don't want to just be buried with, you know, onboarding and like you don't do. And that's why it's such a genius thing. You're not doing the provisioning. You're not doing the back end, um, you know, providing the service, delivering the service. You are saying they will do it. Here you go. And I get a fee of thank you. I'm like, oh, I need that.

Steven Harris :
You know, nothing reveals the truth about our heart more than our pocketbook and our calendars. And our wives, our spouses will. We'll tell you right away if we get our priorities out of line. And, you know, for me, I've been convicted like I sometimes my business has taken priority over my Bible study and prayer time. And it's evident in my calendar because I, I will block time off for Bible study and prayer time, and then I will work through that time. Uh, and if I'm not, I have to block time for that and and stick with it. But also for my wife, you know, my relationship suffers if businesses all that I do. Yeah. I have to make her a priority with my pocketbook and my calendar.

Brian Kelly:
Happy wife, happy. Life, you know? But it's so true. Relationships. Period. Um, my gosh, I'm looking at the clock. So we have two giveaways real quick. Uh, so I promised everyone that stayed on with with us to the end live. You get the opportunity to win a five night stay at a five star luxury resort. Compliments to reach your peak. And Stephen R Harris has a great gift for you as well. And just before we do that, Stephen, I like to close every show with one very profound question. And it came kind of by accident. Um, not really accident. It just on occasion I used to ask that question back 4 or 5 years ago when I first started the show, and it started sticking like the answer, like, whoa, that was profound, I like that. And then after that happened several times, I finally said, you know, that'd probably be a really good one to end every show with. It's like, bang, right? And it's just profound. And so, um, before we do that, though, going to give everyone how they can enter to win. So remember to write this down. Like I said in the opening of the show, write it down. Go visit it. After the show is over, we will have people monitoring it, don't worry. So to enter to win the five night stay, you want to do this? I'm putting it up on the screen. You must be watching live. Go to report. I'm forward slash vacation all lowercase report. I'm forward slash vacation. Go ahead and do that after the show is over. Don't worry, you'll get it in in time because you don't want to miss out on. Stephen's incredible answer to the upcoming question. Before we jump to that, though, he has a gift of his own. If you don't mind to briefly describe what that is, Stephen, I would appreciate that very much. So would everyone else, I'm sure.

Steven Harris :
Absolutely. So go to the website and click on the Schedule Call button, and we'll just have a 30 minute conversation about your business and what's going on in your your business culture and find the resources that you need. This is what the we hit the Schedule Now button. Then it takes you to the scheduler. It's it's really simple. I just want to find out about you. And I've got a vast network of other people that I can connect you with. I'd love to connect you with people that can help you in your business, whether I get paid for it or not.

Brian Kelly:
And to do that, go to SRH Business Resource Marketplace, dot now dot site. And like you said, click on the schedule button and that will bring you straight to it. And you get a 30 minute free consultation with the one and only Steven Rae Harris. I got to say that out loud. That's just too cool. All right, here we are. We've made it to the wonderful end of the show. I gotta say, wonderful. I don't want it to end. But you know what? We got to frame it in a positive light because I thoroughly enjoyed this. Uh, Steve, and I appreciate you. And now this question, a couple of things about it. The cool thing is, there's no such thing as a wrong answer. Uh, it's not a quiz. Uh, in fact, the exact opposite is the truth. And that is the only correct answer is yours, because it will be unique to you. And no matter how long it takes you to answer it, if you have the answer like that, or if it takes you several seconds, even a minute or two, even, that is just exactly perfect because it's your answer. So now that you know all the there's no stress, there's no pressure whatsoever, now you're just going, what the heck is this question already? Because everyone always does. Are you ready?

Steven Harris :
I'm ready.

Brian Kelly:
Oh yes he is. Here we go. Stephen Harris, how do you define success?

Steven Harris :
I find success in aligning my will and my desires with my Heavenly Father's will and purpose for my life. That takes a lot of work, because first you have to learn the character of God by studying his word and studying what's been said about him. And then. Spending time in prayer to discover what his purpose is for your life, and then aligning with that, you're unstoppable when you're in alignment with God's purpose for your life, and you're just going to set yourself up for struggle as if you're out of alignment. So that's my definition of success.

Brian Kelly:
Oh my goodness. I mean, true to form. Another fantastic, incredible answer. And here's the interesting thing. Uh, Stephen is up till now and still including today, no two people have answered that the same way. And I've done a lot of these. It is truly awesome. And I will be reaching out to sometime later, uh, after I finally get my first book out there. It's done. I'm just getting final edits or the beautification of it done formatting and stuff. Uh, there'll be another book that follows it called. Well, it's going to be the very name of that of that question, and it's going to be a collaborative where I'm going to put the transcribed word of all the answers, including yours, if you just decide to be part of it into a collaborative book. And so you'll be an author or coauthor of a book at that moment instantly. So, uh, I think the answers I know they are very profound and a lot of people can benefit from them. So thank you for that. Thank you for being a godly man. And, uh, keep, keep crushing it. I hope that you, you get to touch many, many lives in the great amount of years. You still have life left on this planet because we all need it. Everyone needs a Stephen Harris in their in their, um, hip pocket. So I appreciate you. God bless you, my friend, and thank you. You have any last word of advice you'd like to give? Uh, all of our listeners, right before we say good night.

Steven Harris :
Find your purpose. Find God's purpose for your life. And seek after that with all your heart.

Brian Kelly:
Mhm. That is the way to end it. Ladies and gentlemen, Stephen R Harris on behalf of that amazing man I am Brian Kelly, the host of the Mind Body Business Show. And that is it for tonight. We will see you again on the next episode. Until the next one do two things, please. Number one, continue to go out there and crush and serve more people. Crush it in your business and serve more people. Don't crush people. Crush it in your business and serve more people. And number two, above all else, just as Stephen is saying, please everyone, be blessed. That's it for us. Take care. We'll see you again next time. Thank you for tuning in to the Mind Body Business Show podcast. At www.The Mindbody business Show.com. My name is.

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