Old Guys Still ROCK

Blair Armstrong (01:00.289)
All right, all right, all right. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, wherever you may be. When you're watching this or you're listening to this or you're doing both. If this is your first time here, you have just found the best damn podcast you've ever heard, seen, or both before in your whole life. We are known as Old Guys Still Rock, or better yet, OGSR. Today you're gonna be finding episode number 156.

It's a big milestone for us. We 155 and 154, 153, 152. And people like, why is that such a big deal? I want you to look up the history, to stop. Look up the history of podcasts and ask and find out how many people actually made it past five on a consistent basis. So for a hundred and fifty-six weeks in a row, Brenton I, who is on the other side of this, he's the guy with all the hair on the left or the right.

Anyway, he's a good friend of mine for 30 years. And then a couple of years ago, we were going through seventy-five hard and we would have our on our second workouts, we'd have conversations, and it really just came to fruition like we were sharing golden nuggets back and forth with each other and really realized that this is an opportunity that is going to not only help us, but help other people. So 155 episodes or 156 episodes now, here we are.

If you haven't done so yet, again, pause, hit that subscribe button, hit that notification bell, either on your YouTube channel, Spotify channel, Apple Music, whatever it is that you listen to podcasts or watch podcasts, and start following us. I am Blair Armstrong of Team Armstrong Co-Well Banker. I'm a global luxury specialist in the world of residential real estate in the beautiful, beautiful Coachella Valley. You don't know where Coachella Valley is, first and foremost, get a map. Second of all, it's basically Palm Springs.

Palm Desert, La Quinta, Ranch Mirage, Indio. If you've heard of Coachella Music Festival, that's in the Coachella Valley. If you've heard of Stagecoach, that's there. So many things going on here. Again, going back to Brent Wright, a good friend of mine for 30 years, man with many different hats, from body shops to detail shops to payroll companies. He is a financier for his wife's wellness center. If you're in Eugene, check out Wright Wellness Center.

Blair Armstrong (03:17.901)
It's also part of a venture capitalist group. They purchased a company about a year ago called BustedTees.com. As I said last week, it's summertime. It's kind of that time for novelty t-shirts. So if you're that novelty t-shirt person, go to bustedtees.com. Check them out. They have some really cool stuff that's already existing. If you have something that you don't see in there and you want to become existing, let them know and they can do that for you.

But most of all, about the Brent Wright guy. if you he is a very accomplished business coach and also a really good personal coach. So if you're stuck in a loop, that's the guy next to me that's we're going to be talking about today. But if if you're stuck in a loop and you're really just trying to find out how to not only get to the next level, but just get out of this rut so you can become better, I'd really go back and check out the 155 episodes, find out if he's a fit for you.

least give him a phone call and get an interview in and see if that's it that way for real. But that was an amazing long introduction. I've already talked my time today. So Brent, how are you today? What is up?

Brent Wright (04:25.825)
Good, good. yeah, feeling probably the best physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually that I've felt in my whole life. So I I just feel very blessed to be alive every day. My got my blood tests back last week and my kidney function is almost to normal levels finally. So always tweaking, always trying to grow, always trying to prosper and evaluating where I'm at so that way I can get better, stay better.

longer term for my family, my community, and do a better job at serving.

Blair Armstrong (05:01.013)
You know, it's a lot, right? It's kind of what we're going to be talking about today. It's the dedication that goes behind all that, even when you want to freaking shut it down. So that's really going to be our top topic today is dedication. It's all spurred from this guy. But our special guest today, we are very incredibly blessed to have Jackson Bray. He is going to he has just started the process of getting his real estate license and joining our team here in the valley. So we're excited to have him on. you know, he is a younger buck.

Brent Wright (05:03.018)
It is.

Blair Armstrong (05:30.935)
Just kind of up and coming. It was Brent and I about thirty years ago. Maybe not so much for Brent, but maybe for Blair. But anyway, so he just we were talking to him the other day, and I said, This is a really good opportunity to kind of like you're going through this process because we're starting this new chapter in life and how much and I said, I can want you to come up with a topic that you feel like you're having a hard time with. And this topic was dedication. So let me introduce you. So welcome, brother.

How are you? I'm fantastic. Thank you for having me on. Well, I'm glad that you're here, man. We get to dissect somebody else today instead of Blair or Brent. It'll be it'll be a good time. I'm happy to be strap in. Yes. We're gonna have fun. Yes. you know, we I think the big thing about us, which if if you watched a couple of our episodes, we are we are super raw. we are definitely not scripted. So, you know, if emotion comes out, that's great. Just kind of do your thing and let us know. But

When you came up with this word, I asked you to come up with a a topic today. Sure. What was what was the reasoning behind coming up with dedication? Yeah, definitely. So again, hi everybody. Jackson. It's great to be here. Very excited just to be in this new walk of life with these awesome gentlemen. Blair, thank you for having me. great to meet you. but what I kind of meant when I said that was I've noticed

Again, like Blair had said, I'm 27, a little bit younger, trying to find something that is a good fit for me, somebody who who loves to talk to people, who doesn't just love to tell like really genuinely cares about people, interpersonal re you know, relationships and what have you. And falling in love with the process. I think that's a big thing that I struggle with, and a lot of people struggle with, and that's why people

Aren't successful is because they fall in love with what is to be and they can't stand the road to get there. And that can be real it's it's deflating. It can be really, really hard. And I'm trying to better honestly rewire my brain for its neuroplasticity to love that. And to love the commitment and to love that grind, to love the sweat, to love the the crap, the day to day, the hard days.

Blair Armstrong (07:56.065)
So to love the hard days more than the good days is what I want to be able to do. Yeah. What do you say about that, B?

Brent Wright (08:02.712)
So couple of things that come to mind is one, I would be happy to send for you a demo for a piece of equipment called BrainTap. So it's a NLP technology, MDR therapy, light therapy, sound therapy, vibration therapy. I do it every literally every morning.

And it changes the whole there's over 2,000 sessions on it. You can do a morning session, an afternoon session, an evening session. It helps you to relax. it does all those things. So not to get gimmicky, but this thing really, really works. So I struggle with getting my heart rate down at night so that way I can relax. This drops my heart rate from like 92, 93 down to like 60 after a 10 a 10 minute session.

Blair Armstrong (08:28.652)
Yeah.

Blair Armstrong (08:52.198)
wow. Wow.

Brent Wright (08:55.488)
And so rewiring your brain, I'm glad that you said that, because that's what this is all about. It's it's it's not just being able to deal with the suck, it's enjoying it. It's knowing that the suck is going to get you somewhere.

Blair Armstrong (09:11.177)
It's good stuff, right? We we need to l know that it's good, but funny enough, you know, yeah.

Brent Wright (09:14.69)
Well, there's a there's a praise song that that I'm gonna give you as a reference, and you can look it up. It's called It's a Narrow Road. And the verse goes, It's a narrow road, but I want to be on it. So the narrow road is the tough road. Everybody wants the wide road, the easy road, the comfortable road. And and comfort is where everything goes to die. And and

I listen to that song literally every morning. It's the first song that I listen to as soon as I get in the truck. I got about a twenty minute drive. And I listen to It's a Narrow Road. And it's an amazing song from a from just a positivity standpoint, but it's also praise music. And so it changes the way that your brain looks at everything from the first minute that you start your day.

Blair Armstrong (10:07.969)
Where do I sign?

Brent Wright (10:09.966)
So you can so you can go on YouTube and and just and just hit it. It's

Blair Armstrong (10:15.253)
And and and and just for the layman out there, including myself, you had said a couple of acronyms right at the beginning. MDR, you said a few can you talk a little bit more about what those are and what those mean?

Brent Wright (10:24.928)
Yeah, so MDR therapy is just rewiring your brain. NLP is neurolinguistic programming. The king of neurolinguistic programming is Tony Robbins. Have you ever watched the movie Shallow House?

Blair Armstrong (10:32.618)
No.

Blair Armstrong (10:40.811)
I yes, sir. I have, yes. Yeah.

Brent Wright (10:42.124)
Yeah, so he reprogrammed Shallow Howl in the elevator to see everything as beautiful.

Blair Armstrong (10:50.241)
By the way, absolute classic. If anybody out there has not seen that movie, it is a wonderful movie starring Jack Black, Wynneth Peltron. Please watch it.

Brent Wright (10:52.842)
It is a it is a classic.

Brent Wright (10:58.008)
So vibration therapy is really important because we are all living in an energy field, right? We are energy. So, like for instance, we've reprogrammed our kids to seek out grounding whenever they have anxiety or stress. So instead of internalizing anxiety or stress and producing cortisol, adrenaline, all those things, we program them that when they feel a certain way to take their shoes and socks off and go stand in the grass.

Until they feel better.

Blair Armstrong (11:28.813)
That's awesome. I love that. Yeah. That's how it's awesome. Something's so simple, right, man. And I think that's what it is. It's like being dedicated to the process. And we talk about this a lot, too. So you know, he's talking about being dedication, the stuff that goes behind it. But realistically, that does the dedication. We can say like, okay, I'm dedicated to this. I'm dedicated to be learning how to do grounding. I'm dedicated to be a part of real estate. But when the shit goes bet sideways, right? It's how how dedicated are you?

Brent Wright (11:33.486)
Yeah.

Blair Armstrong (11:56.929)
And that dedication has to get more and more and more and more every day. It's just like you and I when we talk about our wives, right? We're dedicated. We may have some lower seasons in there, but we are dedicated even in the low seasons to make to figure out what is wrong and go down. There there is no other option but to win at the end of the day. And when you're getting through it, you know, it's just like you're talking about with the the the brain, say that again one more brain tap on there. It's it's it's another it's another

Brent Wright (12:21.07)
Brain tap, brain tap.

Blair Armstrong (12:25.427)
Absolutely, he's showing this to you guys. So if you're not watching this, stop and watch this. So he's showing you guys what's on in here right now. But you know, we have these different things that we try to figure out, or we were taught to internalize stuff and I'll figure it out, or I'll read a book or do a stuff. There's just so much more to this. But being dedicated or are reaching out, having conversations like we're having today, getting with other people that have gone through this stuff today, and just know that there you can't.

Saying you're dedicated and being dedicated are two different things. That's what I mean. And it's very easy to say, yeah, I'm dedicated. And three weeks later, because you had a bad week or a bad six months or a bad year, then how dedicated are you anymore? And it's not to say that everybody doesn't want to walk the walk. It's not right, but but to walk the walk and talk talk, it's that's tough. But it's hard. But you may nay sense of we've talked about this a lot is like any career that you're in, it has its ebb and flow.

But realistically, you're really not gonna see true fruits of your labor for probably two th actually, I would say more about ten, fifteen, twenty years of everything that you created. And that's that's the dedication is is staying with it. Like, my gosh, I had a big year and you may have come lucky, but then all how are you gonna handle it if two or three years is not as great as the last one? I'm going through that all the time. We're still chasing that championship of twenty five million, you and I talk about all the time. It's dedication.

But once that championship's won, how am I gonna be dedicate myself to going to fifty million, right? And it's always something else. What do you say on that B?

Brent Wright (14:02.114)
So couple of things. One, I don't know if you've shared with him, but I was homeless twenty six years ago.

Blair Armstrong (14:11.681)
I I no.

Brent Wright (14:13.176)
Homeless and bankrupt. Morally, spiritually, financially, emotionally, bankrupt. Every piece of me. It was, it was I was ripped down to my core. And I made a decision at that point that not only was I not going to ever do that, but I was going to excel at a high level, not just for me, but for others. So I do this thing where

Brent Wright (14:40.224)
It's immediate. So if something comes up, I handle it immediately. I don't put anything off. That's part of the reprogramming. Don't reprioritize it. Don't push it off to next week. It's handle it now.

Blair Armstrong (14:56.301)
There is no tomorrow. It is today. Yeah.

Brent Wright (14:58.462)
It is today. Everything is a priority, and everything is a fire drill, and everything needs to be handled right now. I used to have this habit on my calendar. So if anybody's seen my calendar, it's a chaotic. It looks like a Christmas tree because there's so many colors. but everything's segmented by my businesses. So I have each business segmented in a different color and all those things, but it's chaotic. People look at my calendar and get stressed.

I had a gentleman that I was gonna start into business with and I shared my calendar with him so he could put things on my calendar and he's like, I deleted your calendar off my phone, it was too stressful.

Blair Armstrong (15:39.501)
That's crazy, right?

Brent Wright (15:40.898)
And I decided at that moment that we shouldn't be in business together.

Blair Armstrong (15:44.649)
I I was gonna say, did that kinda tell you everything that you needed to know? Right?

Brent Wright (15:48.141)
Yep, because because if that was if the calendar was gonna stress them out, then the crap that happens is gonna stress you out even more. The other thing is that it's part of dedication. And I I talk to my wife about this all the time, and I try and lead her with this, and I try to get her to lead me with this as well, is we are fighting this fight together, but we are not fighting each other. We are fighting the world together.

And so whenever something comes up, so we had a heated discussion last night. I said, look, I'm not I'm not picking on you. I'm picking on the process. I'm not picking on you. I'm picking on the problem. Well, what if I'm the problem? Well, you're not. You're bringing up problems that we need to address together. We can solve these problems together. I, however, may not be the best person to help you solve that problem. So let's get a tool for you.

Blair Armstrong (16:29.282)
Mm-hmm. Sure.

Brent Wright (16:48.14)
Let's get a person. Let's get a situation. So always looking to the opportunity to solve the problem in a different manner.

Blair Armstrong (16:57.783)
That was a process of your dedication to her, right? So I've been going through that's why I wanna keep bringing this up over and over. I'm gonna sound like a broken record. But that was a process of learning how that is and being dedicated to understand her languages, dedicating on what makes her click, dedicating dedicating yourself to to really h find a solution instead of just like eff it, I can't fix this and walk away. That's one of my problems, right? And like I'm giving you solutions, you're not wanting to listen to me. I'm done. And no

Brent Wright (17:25.774)
So I think you guys go about it completely wrong. completely wrong in the world of real estate. If it were me, before I had somebody sign a contract, I'd give them a personality test.

Blair Armstrong (17:29.11)
Yeah.

Blair Armstrong (17:38.613)
Yeah, you know, it's just it's funny that you bring that up, brother, because w obviously with our big you know, we we had a good milestone for us. We celebrated for twenty four hours and that was a wrap. And now, you know, there's going to be different conversations in our listing appointments from now on. We're gonna we're gonna have a list of expectations of what you should expect from us, but we're also gonna have a list list of expectations of what we expect from you. So everything's yeah. Yeah. I think that there you know.

Brent Wright (18:00.832)
It's an engagement document. It's not just contracts, right? It's an engagement document. Here's our prom our promise.

Blair Armstrong (18:08.523)
I'm sorry to cut you off in there, but I'm just saying is you know, too, is we have this world of millennial and we're kind of in this boat, and this is where I kinda really started to curtail this with these guys yesterday. you watch these guys that they're making this little these little funny ha ha ha videos on Instagram, you know, for for clicks, right? And I think that I think it it defaces the

Brent Wright (18:09.816)
That's all right.

Blair Armstrong (18:36.993)
the actually professionalism and the stuff, the time that we have to go through behind the scenes. I know it's cute and you may get a a thousand likes, you may have twenty thousand followers and stuff like that. But what is that really doing in your business in the long run? you're funny, but am I gonna trust you with a with a six million, ten million, fifteen million, twenty million dollar house?

And so that's what and I I think that the the but going back to what you said is we have to have those conversations. So when we're getting down to the war that we had a couple of weeks ago, it was a it wasn't a war, but it was a battle. There was a lot of emotion involved and doing some different things. If that stuff would have been laid out better by me at the very beginning, that process would have never we would never have had questions. We here's this, here's this, here's this. So we're really going to start making some changes.

Should we have done it a long time ago? Yeah. But a lot of times when you had that big victory, even as hard as it was, it was you learn, I learned so much. And now I have to make those changes. I have to make, you know, re-recreen SOPs and doing different things and standards. So dedication to that point to get us to that spot to where we sold the most expensive piece of real estate in Ironwood history to now is like, okay, that's cool.

How are we going to take that and become better? And now we have to make more adjustments for the next championship. Well said.

Brent Wright (20:02.274)
So the reason why I say a personality test, I I would do a personality test or a disk assessment or a love language test. It make it fun, right? So you can customize those things. But ultimately, you know what it's gonna take for that person to be able to make a decision. You're gonna, you know what their love language is, you know how they need validation, you know how they need to communicate. So even so simple is what best communication style do you guys want?

you want text? Do you want email? If there's three players, each one of them should do a disk assessment or a personality test or love language test. Each person should get the the same delivery of communication and say, how do you want to be communicated to? and so dedication is a big word and it's different for everybody, right? Dedication to me is making sure that you go at

things like an actuary does in insurance, meaning that they're seeing the end before the end gets there. And they're putting checks and balances in place and check stops and shoring up or shoring up the bridge before you try and cross it.

And so I do that with life. So I try to go into every real estate transaction, every relationship, every business deal, or any of those types of things, not just with contracts, but again, I'm in business with four different people in our in our capital venturer group. And I think the one thing that we failed at is we should have done a disk assessment. So we know how to communicate with everybody.

We have one guy that does not want communication by email or text. He only wants to use Slack. We have one guy that needs validation at every turn. So meaning if he sends a message and he doesn't get a response, he's like, F you guys, you guys don't care.

Brent Wright (22:03.786)
I look at it like if I didn't respond to you, I don't need to respond.

Blair Armstrong (22:08.333)
That that is what I heard as well. That yep. That makes sense to me.

Brent Wright (22:11.5)
Right. And and then we have another guy that wants validation on only acts of service. So if he does something he wants validated on the act of service, he doesn't need communicated. Like he doesn't need validation on communication.

Blair Armstrong (22:28.501)
And this is I honestly wanna join the conversation and this is not a joke, but it is important for us to have the correct tools so we can, like you're saying, right, deal with different people on a team. Do you have a Venn diagram in your office? You know, showing who's who? Like 'cause it is important, right, on a day-to-day basis, how to properly treat people because knowing how to properly communicate is important.

Brent Wright (22:48.131)
Yeah.

Brent Wright (22:54.904)
Well, for instance, in your guys' situation, so I'm gonna be your point of contact. Here is a backup if you can't get a hold of me, and they will have as many answers as I have. Right. So in this document you send out, it would be something simple as here's three people you can communicate with. This person's gonna do this, this person's gonna do this, this person's gonna do this. And maybe even outlining your

Your underwriters at the title company or any of those types of things, right? So, and then make introductions to each person that they're going to interact with, and then letting your customer know this person is an email contact only. This person is available by text. This person is available by phone. Right. So outlining the process. This is how it's going to go. The where we fall short in everything that we do.

Blair Armstrong (23:36.491)
Sure. Okay.

Brent Wright (23:48.853)
is a lack of communication on another person's level. So being dedicated to that communication style, being dedicated to delivering the message in a way that they can hear it.

Blair Armstrong (24:01.323)
I want you to repeat that for everybody one more time. It's not communication that lacks, but what?

Brent Wright (24:07.498)
It's it's de it's communicating on their level.

Blair Armstrong (24:11.009)
Communicating on their level, something that resonates with the person, right? Because you can communicate all day, but if it doesn't resonate, we're just finding trying to find a corner in a circ circular room. Yeah. And I so this is brings up a thing too. You kind of went through some some changes over the last couple of weeks, about a two months ago, and I'm not gonna worry about it. Some big changes, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Lots lots going on. That's for another episode, everybody. No, we'll talk about it now. It's just I think that's what it is, is cave

We went through some stuff and those who's dedicated. We talked about communication and the dedication went to it. Is you you had a partnership of w in a in a business basically, and that partnership dissolved. You know, so my question was when you brought up this topic, is this kind of like, okay, even though that you felt wrong by one person, sure do you what part of that process do you feel that you were responsible for? Because we can go back.

And a lot of us do. Brent and I came from this and it's somebody else's fault. It's somebody else's fault. And but there's also another side to it as well is that there I am responsible for a certain price, how it got this way. So even though that you had this agreement, which Brent and I Brent's talking about with his venture capitalist group, you had this agreement, you're gonna do this and this and this. Were you dedicated and were did you go through the personality test, even if you knew them, how did you communicate? What didn't they communicate? Because

realistically at the end of the day, that's what it sounds like it done down to is one person works this way, one person works that way, and all of a sudden it never got talked about. And this is what happens in relationships a lot, it never got talked about. And all of a sudden you're like, Whoa, what wait what what's going on here? I don't like our way I'm being treated. And so talk to me about that process because that is that really is a

A massive building point for you. It is. it's a massive building point for us, is how that this process of like, even though I am dedicated to be a part of Team Armstrong and dedicated to a relationship, whatever it is gonna be, is that has to constantly evolve. And so, what did you take from that process that you're applying to your life moving forward? Definitely. That's a really good question, by the way. And profound. It's not a simple question, everybody. That's a very big question. and I'm gonna answer it to the best of my abilities, but

Brent Wright (26:31.18)
Mm-hmm.

Blair Armstrong (26:33.893)
I'm man enough to definitely say that I didn't do everything that I could have in in that partnership. you know, hindsight is always twenty twenty. Yeah. And you know, given the the different roles I'll I'll leave it I'm being a little ambiguous, but d given the different roles, we had different levels of power. and I do like to think that I did try my best, but we all know.

That we always fall short and we know in our bones when we didn't put our best foot forward. And I am man enough to say that in some facets of that situation, I didn't do the best that I could have. Right. which you know, we're human. Everybody, we're human. We do bad things. Listen here first, folks. and and it's not that like my heart was in the wrong place either, right? It's it just gets really it can be get really hard to stay dedicated on those hard days.

Brent Wright (27:23.266)
Mm-hmm.

Blair Armstrong (27:34.337)
When you don't see the light at the end of the tunnel and you don't want to get out of bed and you're just like, my gosh, again? Right. And you're and then he's he's like, Again, do it again. So, I think really what I did learn from that, especially given that my my my my business partner was a again, a good friend of mine as well.

Blair Armstrong (28:01.239)
Comfort kills everything. We both got a little comfortable because we were again, like I said, we're good friends. And I think we're hoping that we could it would be a little easier that we knew each other and the communication would be easier. But case in point, we still didn't know how to efficiently communicate to each other after all these years. And I've known for like over a decade, right? So like it's funny that we're talking about it this exact today, just knowing.

R having the tools to confidently, concisely being able to talk to a lot of different people and knowing how to. And and I think that's really what I'm taking away from it. taking away knowing you know, nothing many things aren't permanent and you always have to you have your head on a swivel and never stop swinging for the fences. You know, you just gotta keep your head up. Yeah. And

Keep one foot in front of the other, really. I think there's, you know, there's you said something earlier, Dona, it's embracing this suck too. And Brent, you can fill in on this, but you know, our friendship for almost thirty years, we've had some really amazingly tough conversations. some some fun, some not so fun. and just trying to figure stuff out. But there is, you know, going back to we keep bringing up this word dedication, you know, when people ask, you know,

know, how'd you guys start this podcast and how long you and I have been friends? There's a dedication there. And that's a special word. Our circ your circle, Brent, and my circle are very small. We know a lot of people, but our circle is small, right? And because we are dedicated to the people that are dedicated to us. And we will keep feeding each other. We may be on different paths once in a while and doing some different things, but there is an unspoken dedication that no matter what

Brent Wright (29:40.279)
Is it?

Blair Armstrong (29:58.497)
the the mistakes, the the the wrong words, the the hurt feelings and all that stuff, there's a dedication that there's an unbreakable relationship with that, just like you have with your wife, just like I have with my wife and stuff like that. But we've gone through battles together in so many different words. You supporting my battle, I supporting your battle. But that was to say this is this process. And it was so easy for us to walk away for a long time. And that's

No, what he's saying is when you're kind of in business to it, and I really love your analogy of really going back and is really understanding how people communicate what we didn't know 20 years ago and what we know now and how we apply that. That's it, that's that dedication part that we keep learning each other. I learn more and more about you every single week. You know, and I've known you for 30 years. but I was just, you know, going back to you, it's just like you're 26 years old. You have you are gonna get your ass.

Beat sideways, you're gonna lick the gutter. Brent and I have been there. It's not a bad thing to be in. We're we'll help you to try to prevent that. But sooner or later you're going to have that talk with Jesus in so many ways, and you're gonna lick the gutter moment. Maybe this is your lick the gutter moment. I don't know. I don't think it's that bad right now. But your bad is different from my bad. The pros and is do not let go of that dedication, this process. you have an opportunity.

to be the you know we be the one do all these different things but it's really saying okay you can say all day I'm dedicated I'm dedicated I'm dedicated what it's really gonna do is I think it gets to a point Brent you might want you to speak on this is we hear this a lot I'm dedicated I'm dedicated but the actions never follow the words and when you're when you're coaching how are you f seeing that hurdle beforehand and like okay let's stop talking about and let's start doing about this.

Brent Wright (31:58.073)
So I wrote down a bunch of things. So we are old guys that still rock, and the whole premise of this podcast was we had started listening to music while we were doing this podcast, and then we got our hands slapped by the FCC police. But it an Iron Maiden song comes to mind, The Evil That Men Do. Right? And so if you if you know that every situation.

Blair Armstrong (32:12.781)
Are they truckers?

Brent Wright (32:28.074)
is going to be problematic when you get people involved, then it's then it's easy to circumvent. Again, going back to that actuarial approach, I know it's going to be tough when I engage with people. I know it's going to be problematic. I know there's going to be communication issues. Again, that's why SOPs are important, processes important, all of those things. I wrote this down. This might be a mic drop moment, guys, but we'll see.

Dedication is being adaptable to change and circumstance.

Brent Wright (33:07.404)
Right. And so you mentioned something about the tools. Always have this premise and always coach this. Having the tools is easy. Using the tools is where magic happens.

Blair Armstrong (33:23.463)
that's really well said. You know, God man, I feel like we're going back to episode number two and three when we talk about this stuff, but

Brent Wright (33:32.14)
Well, by the way, at episode two or three we're like, Do we keep doing this or do we not?

Blair Armstrong (33:35.789)
And a hundred and fifty six episodes later, here we are. Yeah.

Brent Wright (33:40.845)
And that's the dedication, right? Because it wasn't easy. We don't do this naturally. I'm I'm not great at this. I don't I'm starting to and have started to enjoy this process, but this has been a road, guys. Like this was an uncomfortable situation for the first 50 or 60 episodes. I think at episode 64, 62, 63, 64, you and I came on.

And we spent an hour just talking about if we were going to continue doing this before we did that episode.

Blair Armstrong (34:12.619)
Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, it's it's it's it's tough, dude. 'cause you you know, w our we expand so much bandwidth in our world of and again this is dedication and some people have this and it's this I'm not asking for sympathy at all. But our bandwidth is so much of what we can expend with our knowledge, our wisdom, our talking or our and you know, inviting people in that

Brent Wright (34:43.98)
We don't peep we don't people well.

Blair Armstrong (34:46.369)
We do not people well at all. I'm like, Why are you in real estate? And I'm like, This is where God's got me. I'm good at what I do. I'm a connector. I'm a good listener. So this is where God has me and I'm good with it. But we at the end the day is we're done. Like at four o'clock realistically, if we didn't have this stuff and we do stuff behind the scenes at four o'clock, we could just tell everybody to go kick rocks and we would be totally fine. Being on an island not doing

Do stuff, but we wouldn't have to talk to anybody here. And I'm not saying that you know you guys are watching this and you're my clients and stuff like that. It's not that I don't want to talk to you. It's just like I expend so much energy making sure that everyone's taken care of. I just spent at the end of the day. Same thing with Brent, same with things and with a lot of people. Jackson's a different breed. Jackson loves to be around people. Jackson does an and that's why I'm so excited to have him and grateful to have him on that team because he's that energy I don't have, right? Thank you, Blair.

Brent Wright (35:43.938)
But but what do you do? Here's where the magic happens. At the end of the day, literally, not that catchphrase that everybody uses, but at the end of your day, I know at four o'clock, you're heading for the blue light special.

Blair Armstrong (35:58.605)
Yeah, buddy.

Brent Wright (36:01.75)
And you don't answer your phone. And but could you imagine the difference that it made in your life if you did answer your phone after four o'clock? Yes, it's tough. Yes, it doesn't feel good. Yes, you're done peopling. But could you imagine the difference that it would make? And I'm picking on you, Blair, just because it's it's an easy reference, right? And so, with with that, I found.

Blair Armstrong (36:23.778)
Yeah.

Right.

Brent Wright (36:29.632)
A bunch of things that I don't like, and I wrote them all down, and I've been working on focusing on those things over the last couple of years. I don't hug people. I don't like to touch people. I'm not, I it's it's uncomfortable for me. So two years ago, I made a decision on January 1, not a new year, new me thing, but I just decided on January 1, I'm going to start hugging everybody.

Brent Wright (37:00.694)
And do you know the difference that has made, not just with me, but with my relationships with other people? People look forward to seeing me now and hugging me.

I'm not a good I'm not a good emotional person. And it's created an emotional bridge. One of the other things that I did, I was always frustrated that people leave, and you and I have talked about this in a prior episode. people wash their hands and then leave the sink dirty or with water spots in it. And so I made a point.

Blair Armstrong (37:14.221)
Stay away from this guy.

Brent Wright (37:41.173)
And a point with my son that we're going to clean up every bathroom that we engage. So we pick up all the stuff on the floor, we wipe down the counter, we wipe out the sinks. I don't like to touch other people's dirt, and I don't like to touch other people's bacteria. I'm not quite Howie Mandel, but I'm a little bacteria averse. Right? But I made that a point that I was going to do that.

Blair Armstrong (38:03.629)
Sure, sure.

Brent Wright (38:10.562)
To try and get myself to grow.

Blair Armstrong (38:12.523)
You chose to hug the cactus.

Brent Wright (38:14.464)
I chose to hug the cactus. That is a great analogy. And what it's done, and I'm going to use another analogy from one of my coaching clients this morning, is that has put air in my balloon.

Blair Armstrong (38:29.335)
Yeah. I mean

Brent Wright (38:30.264)
That has filled my cup exponentially. And it's put me in other spots where, you know, now I'm keeping an active list every day of things that are uncomfortable. At the end of the day, I make sure that I have at least three or four or five things that I didn't like about that day that made me uncomfortable. And then I'm executing on those before the end of the day. To go.

Blair Armstrong (38:53.879)
Kinda like your five it's it's kinda like your five critical tasks, right? It's this things that is in we just he just got I just got him power list yesterday. So you know everything yeah I got a whole litany, I got a whole whole homework. I got it all guys. I'm excited about it. He got the power, one more. He got a journal and he got the the power list. So

Brent Wright (38:57.357)
Yeah.

Brent Wright (39:02.851)
Good.

Blair Armstrong (39:18.017)
But you know, I just find that those things are so important because it's exactly what you're talking about, is taking things and so for the next twenty one days or the next seventy five days or next three hundred and sixty five days until it becomes routine, right? That's the purpose behind the the power list. It becomes routine and once you're once that becomes a routine and you're doing everything, take that one off, put another one on, take that one off, put another one on. It's being dedicated to the process. And it's in the in

It's so easy if we don't have that seating in front of us. And and I do love that part about 75 Hard or the Live Hard program. It it's not a it's not about what you get done. It's about what it mentally it changes your your brain waves, right? It changes your brain thought. It changes all this stuff. It's just like when I'm going through the fire, when I'm burning it down.

I know that I still have this process to get through. And then maybe through that process, because I'm so dedicated to get through that, that fire automatically gets put out or it goes away. Sure. But as I think, you know, I kind of gave them this. I was looking at this list of books yesterday. I want, and you're like this too, and it's the same reason why you're a great business coach, Brent. We want you to be better than us. So much more than we want to succeed for ourselves.

And people like, Why are you dedicating so much time to this team? And I said, Because no one else is gonna freaking do it. And yeah.

Brent Wright (40:46.998)
I tell this to my kids every night. Do you do you know why I do what I do for you? And their first answer is, of course, what? Will you love me? Right? Right. And I say to them, Of course I love you, but why do I push you so hard? And my son always comes back, my daughter always comes back because I've coached them on this. Because you want us to be better than you.

Blair Armstrong (40:55.693)
Because you love us, Dad.

Brent Wright (41:15.712)
And better than the old version of ourselves yesterday.

Blair Armstrong (41:21.099)
Yeah, and that's you know, there's a there's a lot of dedication in that. We constantly have to be looking out for more wisdom. We have to learn from our lessons. We have how do we communicate better through that. So you just you have this. It's it's that's why I said this is such an important topic that the dedication is never over. And if you stop losing dedication of how to get better or how to help somebody or how to have a better relationship, whatever that is, is that will eventually die. And that really at the of the day is if that happens to die, all you have to do is look at your

have to go back and it's like it's all you. It's the person you're looking in the mirror. There's no one else to blame if something fails. Because there I mean, I'm getting a little probably too deep in that. There's two sides to there's two sides to relationships and different things, but realistically it is something that you probably could have helped out or created to get some stuff done. Laying on the truth, Blair.

Really bringing bringing it down. It's true though. It's true. But it's true. And I just think this one I told the guys the other day, and I've had this talk with David a couple months ago, if not a year ago, and I just kind of had it with them. It's like there will be a point in time that we're gonna have a come to Jesus talk. And it's I don't want I'm not I think I'll be better at at delivering it by that time, but there's some stuff that there's accountability and it's not so much about what are you doing for the team, it's what are you gonna look like in you know fifteen to twenty years as a man or when you're in a relationship and stuff like this.

Brent Wright (42:12.843)
Here is

Blair Armstrong (42:42.751)
Our job is to is I when I said as we're dedicated as old guys still rock on this podcast, as as Brent is an individual, as Blair is an individual. When you are going to join forces with us, our job is to make you better with us. And I really want you guys to hear that. And that's a little passionate point on Brent's side and on my side, and that's why we brought these guys on. I have massive conflicting personalities. I've got Giovanna, which you guys haven't met yet, David and Jackson and me. Completely all different promises.

I am I told these guys the other day, like, I'm gonna need a therapist just to figure y all you guys out for a second. But we're dead.

Brent Wright (43:20.824)
So here's here's where the problem comes in, and and this is a whole nother probably podcast subject, which we should do, is what happens when you want more for somebody than they want for themselves, and they're not willing to grow and they don't like the mirror that you are for them.

Blair Armstrong (43:43.905)
That's a decision that you know, and and maybe I'm gonna answer the way that I feel like that. If I want it more than them, we're just gonna have to say the talk. It's like I'm pouring into you, I'm not feeling that you're giving back enough to to to do this to make yourself get better. Maybe it's come to a spot that we're just not the best fit that we thought we were gonna be. And that is the decision that they're gonna have to make, either like, my God, I didn't really look at it that way moment.

Or I don't want to go through the process to go ahead and be better. I'm happy where I'm at. And if that's the case that you're just going to be happy with status quo and not work hard and and and not make the adjustments, yeah, we're probably not a fit. And the best of luck to you. I hope everything works out the way that you want it to.

Brent Wright (44:35.34)
Yeah, but that's a that's a tough road, though, because you you you feel like all I want for somebody is for them to be to get better, but they may not have the tools or be ready to use the tools to try and get better.

Blair Armstrong (44:35.403)
Maybe right, maybe wrong. Yeah, it's a tough road.

Blair Armstrong (44:51.789)
There has to be a massive dedication on their side and there has to be an adjustment. And you get you have the come to Jesus talks. And I'm not saying this is like a mother trucking talk. These are just talks that you sit there and like, hey, dude, you're you're going down this path and it's just not working out right. And and I I've seen it, I've been there, I've done it. is this really where you want to be? Because you keep telling me you want to be here, but you're over here. So what what are we get what do we have to do to make this?

Because I can we can only give you so much, but if you're not going to take action with it, what is the sooner or later that process just has to end? I mean, this relationship has to end. If you're not going to take the time to be dedicated to really make the changes that you talk about all the time, that's why I go back earlier. It's like you can tell me how much you want to do this. You can tell me, and you have this with clients. I want to do this, this, and this, and this, and they can't even finish the first process of that evaluation. So how dedicated.

Are they through that process? And then when you go to the point of which you talked a couple of weeks ago that okay, you need to fill out this list and do all some different things and fill this evaluation out. And they're telling you like, yeah, I'm super I'm super dedicated to get this done and ten days in, they've already failed to go somewhere else. And quite frankly, if I may just add to this point, at the end of the day, when that relationship goes from being symbiotic

Brent Wright (45:54.04)
Mm-hmm.

Blair Armstrong (46:21.623)
To then being more or less a predator host. And this is this is right, this we have to preserve this. Right. It's almost a no brainer. Because that to it is a tough decision and tough words to say, but that is what has to be done. Right. 'Cause if if you're just not operating at this level, which is fine. That's fine. You just won't be doing it here. Right. This this is what I want to preserve and this is who I am and that's that. Yeah, I I just

No, I'm at the point, and Brent's at the point of stuff that's a we I I think that's a no hard, and I can going back to what Brent said, and I think maybe he was asked the question, I really didn't hear the right way. Is we know the talents that God has given us to help people become better. and sometimes we hold on a little bit longer than we need to hold on to. But it's very frustrating for us, and when we when we spend our time, when we exert our energy, when we

take a time away from our family and spouses to help get people better and they take it for granted. That's the hard part. And we don't want to give up because we don't we don't understand failure. Failure is not really a word for it. We fail, but there's fail there's winning and a failure. And so when that when when you're dedicating that much time to somebody or even a relationship and they do not want to go to that standard, that's a hard process for Brett and I to get through. And

We get super frustrated because you just don't understand we just don't have the band we don't we have only so much bandwidth and we're asserting that we can do other things with it. And when people take advantage of that, that's what's really it's very frustrating. Hundred percent. Yes, Brent. Yeah.

Brent Wright (48:00.33)
Agreed. Yeah, so my biggest frustration is with people is again that they say they want something and then they don't dedicate even five seconds to the delivery of it.

And that's a that's something that I need to work on. And so I've been working on that lately. It's I and I just blatantly ask people, do you want this as much as I want this for you? Or where are we at with that? I and this isn't a prop myself up or an ego moment, but I'm currently mentoring a number of people.

one of them was homeless a month ago and now has a place to live and now has a business that I helped him start. And he's struggling with worthiness. He feels like he's not worthy of all this help that he's been given, not just from me, but from others. And so, guys, when you go to evaluate your dedication, don't just de evaluate your dedication.

Evaluate do you feel worthy of success?

Because if not, if you can't wrap your head around being worthy of success, then dedication isn't gonna get you anywhere.

Blair Armstrong (49:24.045)
True. So let's hold on to that for a second, dude, because I think that's such a good thing too. You can tell yourself, do you feel worthy? But do you actually feel worthy? Telling yourself, I feel worthy, I think I just do this, but do you

actually feel that in your soul. And I think that is a process that goes behind that because you can tell yourself all day because for all the self-help books that are out there, it's like, I am beautiful, I am strong, da da da da da da da but do you actually feel it? Are they actually it's going back to are these actions or the actually are these words or these actually actions to do that stuff. So that I think that was one of the processes why I gave you the other day is the journal. It's like get it out, man. Especially with dudes

They don't really get out their stuff to it. We can talk about emotions and we can say they're really cool sound bites, the different words, and make people like, God, you know, this is awesome. But do you actually really feel that? And if you do actually feel that, how are you gonna take that and then enhance that to not only make you better, but help others get better? So we can talk all day of cool things and funny little quirks and all this other stuff and make it sound like we have a bunch of wisdom, but what are you actually doing?

to be dedicated to take that and enhancing that every freaking day, even when you get your ass kicked because it goes sideways. I think that's the big thing apart this is like we can tell each other we're really good at this. I'm doing this, but are you really? Because there's someone else better than you on it, no matter what you do. So you that you can tell yourself that, but you have to constantly work, work, work.

Brent Wright (50:36.727)
Mm.

Blair Armstrong (51:00.257)
work because there's always a step better. There's always a step there's another degree. There's another degree. There's another degree over and over again. And honest to God is I'm talking about this stuff, but this is hours and hours of conversations with Brent. This is hours and hours conversations with myself, journaling, doing all those different things. So it's a constant it has it's that dedication, that fire that is constantly burning every single day. And yeah

Brent Wright (51:26.125)
Well, to summarize your thoughts, dedication is like compound interest.

Brent Wright (51:34.761)
It keeps paying you long after.

The

The shininess wears off.

Blair Armstrong (51:45.685)
Once the rose colored glasses are are done and but it's funny that you brought that up because that's exactly what I was thinking about when you were saying we're talking about all these wonderful things and all these buzzwords. That book, like the real estate business, and like our coach will know, you only get so you you get what you put in. Right? You get what you put in, and I think that's what I really like about that book, is if you choose to give the unadulterated truth, you aren't afraid of it.

Brent Wright (51:47.988)
Exactly.

Blair Armstrong (52:15.265)
Day in day out, you will be better. You will. It will happen. If you choose like sim simply just to look at that book. Even if let's say you don't write anything new for a month, but if every day you were to look at that page for five minutes, really read those words.

Good things will happen. And I will tell everybody right now. I come from the generation, I'm the last of the 90s, not technically a millennial, of instant gratification. You are. I will tell you right now, anybody that's listening, kids, anybody struggling with it, there is nobody that will come to save you. Okay? I am letting you know right now. Your daddy won't save you.

Brent Wright (52:57.153)
Yeah.

Blair Armstrong (53:03.521)
Your mama won't save you. God won't save you. He will guide you. He will show you. He will teach you. Nobody's here to save you. You gotta do it yourself. And it is hard. Only I'm learning right now. I'm I'm in the process of learning all these things. You're a little bit of a fire, but you I mean I will say this. It's hard. I will say that your your situation is a lot different from what Brett and I've gone through, but you are you are learning a situation.

Don't live in a hundred and thirty square foot box and a pistay mattress and you didn't live in a fucking truck. No, I did not. So that is a process that we're talking about. That does it make bread and eyes difference from your from your situation? Absolutely not. Absolutely. But does it say it is is just like is is this and I think the big question is, and Brent said this at the beginning, is this where you want to be at the end of the day? Is that where you is this what type of life you you want to F and live every single day?

Because if it is, you're never gonna make it. And all this is this is an honest thing, it's not true, it's to be mean. This is to start that fire is you have a special situation, you're completely great you're you're understanding, you're grateful for it, and it's awesome. But this is should not be in be where you want to be a man. And I'm not I'm calling you out, but I'm not calling you out. But but but I don't just like I don't know if

Brent Wright (54:25.601)
Well what w what happens when what happens when the shininess wears off, right? So is this

Blair Armstrong (54:29.419)
Yeah, I just don't know, dude. I just don't know if he's had that gutter moment yet. Maybe he has, but he hasn't had the gutter moment like you and I have. But in every government could be there. Maybe. And maybe. I I I did I did so just really fast. And just because everybody you would know, I have known Blair for a little bit. He he I would consider him a good friend of mine. he he's a little bit more privy to the nuances of

Brent Wright (54:37.933)
Some people some people don't need the gutter moment.

So

Yeah.

Blair Armstrong (54:57.707)
my previous situation and nowhere near you know, the severity of a lot of other people and where they have to come from to be successful. Right. But I did crawl and taste that water a little bit. But it doesn't taste very good. I didn't like it. And I like I prefer the taste of clean water. And I want to be successful. So that's where we are, folks. That's a that's a valid point, Brent. You're absolutely right. We d we've tasted it stuff that we made the suggestion. So yes, everyone doesn't have to kind of be in the spot that we were

Brent Wright (55:12.341)
Yeah.

Blair Armstrong (55:26.653)
And I hope to God that they don't have to go through that. That's right. I just it's but sadly you're it's just the truth. Although a lot of you It's just don't be comfortable in that spot. There's you guys you have so much more to offer and there's so many different things that you can do with it. And it's not that I I look at you any different. I just again as I just goes back to is the passion of man. Brett and I talk about this a lot. It's that I want so much for you guys. I want so much for our team that it it it's more

It's taking everything away from me and giving it to you and giving it to my, you know, as as much as I have to give for for my wife and for you guys and stuff like that. It's like I just wanna see you guys win. That's my quant. That's my money at the end of the day, is you know, people look at teams, a lot of people will look at teams or businesses with multiple employees, like, well, they just hire these guys so they're gonna get more money.

A good business leader or a good leader is never gonna look at into that spot is going they're gonna look at it to this part is like I wanna see that guy succeed. And those are the those are the those are the best ones. Brent's employees, he would love for every one of those guys to come out and be be millionaires. Somehow he's leading the groundwork, watch what I do, I'll charge you this and do this. And that's the same thing that we teach here not only in this podcast and and just to walk in life, is we make decisions now.

Because we have to we've we've taken that leadership role and we're dedicated regardless of what people feel about us or the life that we've left behind. Like, you're not the same person that you were before. Great. I'm glad you noticed 'cause I'm working really hard to get better. true. And so that's what it said is yes. We're supposed to say the same. We're supposed to And that's the point what Brent said about earlier. This is like we're we

We get comfortable on different things and we forget that we we lose track we lose we lose aspects or we lose traction of how to get to that if you're starting to get comfortable, figure out how to get uncomfortable with the book. But and and you have a situation, but this situation is like, Okay, I'm in this situation right now, I'm gonna give myself three months, six months, nine months, a year, whatever that is is and then I'm out. And I'm gonna go and and this this chapter is gonna be over and then

Blair Armstrong (57:49.525)
start a new chapter with the new beginning of something else, whatever that's gonna be. So anyway, kinda getting Joe Rogan ish, dude. Do you have any final thoughts?

Brent Wright (57:59.65)
Final thoughts, three parts.

Dedication outlast outlast motivation.

Number two, your dedication is a gift for every younger person watching. And number three, adversity only should and could deepen dedication if you use it correctly.

Blair Armstrong (58:27.703)
Say number three one more time.

Brent Wright (58:29.705)
Adversity only deepens dedication if you use it correctly.

Blair Armstrong (58:38.325)
All right, dude. I appreciate you having coming on here this week. Thank you for having me. just keep plugging, bro, because this is this is gonna be a journey. It is one of the most it is gonna be one of the most hardest things you've ever done just because of just how people people are. It's tough, but it's gonna be the most rewarding because you actually get to be a part of a major person's chapter or a major

portion of the chapter of their lives of one of probably one of the biggest decisions they have to make with the purchase of real estate if it's from if it for even if it's two hundred and fifty thousand or two hundred and fifty million dollars, whatever that is, is that you get to be a part of that process and you'll be a part of their lives forever. But the the stuff that you have to get to that point is the hardest, the dark days. Embrace the suck. Falling in love with the process. Fall in love with the process. Dedicated to be better every

F and K. So awesome. Thanks, brother, man. another great week. If you haven't done so yet, hit that subscribe button, hit that notification bell. until we see each other next week. Stay safe, but most of all, God bless. Take care.