Everyday Means Everyday: Brandon Burns' Philosophy For Self-Transformation | SMFG Podcast

We sat down with motivational speaker & life coach Brandon Burns to hear his journey from a challenging childhood in Alabama to becoming a successful speaker and coach. He discusses the importance of mentorship, the power of personal stories, and the lessons learned from overcoming adversity. Brandon emphasizes the importance of embracing life's challenges as preparation for personal growth and enlightenment.

We also discuss the power of genuine connections and the transformative experiences that come from sharing and empathizing with others. We also explore the role of fitness in maintaining mental and physical health, the value of focusing on the process rather than just the results, and the intrinsic motivators that drive personal development.

This episode is proudly sponsored by Band Groupeez, a live music service connecting music lovers with independent musicians and local venues.

Access your local music scene now at https://bandgroupeez.com

About Brandon Burns:

Brandon Burns is a keynote speaker and strategic performance coach, whose career is defined by relentless resilience. Rising from a humble upbringing in Alabama, Brandon chased a dream to compete for the University of Michigan men’s gymnastics team, only to be cut from the roster for five consecutive years. Instead of giving up, he transformed this rejection into a lesson in perseverance, eventually returning to the same program to become a two-time championship-winning coach.

Today, he leverages that mentality to guide elite athletes, entrepreneurs, and organizations. At the heart of Brandon’s work is his "Everyday Means Everyday" (EME) philosophy, a high-performance framework designed to help individuals maximize their potential daily, not just occasionally. Through the EME platform, he provides world-class coaching on fitness, mindset, and habits, challenging his community to show up with their best effort regardless of weekends, holidays, or setbacks.

Brandon Burns’ Website: https://brandonleeburns.com/
Everyday Means Everyday Website: https://everydaymeanseveryday.com/
Brandon Burns on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iambburns/

Video Chapters:

00:00 Introduction to Brandon Burns

02:00 Brandon's Journey in Gymnastics and College Life

07:03 The Impact of Mentorship and Motivational Speaking

11:07 The Power of Sharing Personal Stories

15:58 Life Lessons and Overcoming Adversity

22:09 Navigating Life's Challenges and Finding Purpose

28:48 Parenting and Guiding the Next Generation

30:17 Embracing Life's Challenges

32:16 The Power of Genuine Connection

34:24 Transformative Experiences and Personal Growth

37:42 The Importance of Self-Discovery

40:03 Finding Internal Motivation

43:11 The Journey of Coaching and Mentorship

46:49 Vision for the Future

49:57 The Role of Fitness in Life

52:07 The Process Over the Result

55:20 Intrinsic Motivation and Personal Growth

#selftransformation #motivation #selfhelp #selfdevelopment #personaldevelopment

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Transcript

Brad Banyas (00:00)
Let's f***ing roll.

Alright everybody welcome back to the McBastard's Studio. I'm Brad Banyas you're listening to the SaltyMF Goat and today we're really excited to have Brandon Burns on today. Brandon is a motivational speaker. was a coach, fitness coach, business coach and just a great guy. I him through some mutual connections. Thought he had a good story and ⁓ he's a good dude. He's pretty jacked. He's in here. He's got his nicotine and fake water. So Brandon, welcome.

Brandon Burns (00:32)
Thanks, man. I'm pumped to be here. I got to say this is the most creative studio name that I've ever been in. And this is also the only podcast that I've been on where the connection came from meeting somebody at a bar on Broadway. I feel like that just sums up the environment, you know?

Brad Banyas (00:44)
Perfect

the McBastard Studio is blessed to be christened in a bar somewhere in Nashville. I mean, we've all been there, we've all done it, Jelly Roll.

Brandon Burns (00:56)
want to say it was Jelly Rolls. Yeah,

it's one newer one.

Brad Banyas (01:00)
Shout out, hey, Jelly Roll, get on Band Groupeez buddy. ⁓ yeah, Nashville's, you Nashville, you and I were talking about that, how you met someone. mean, Nashville is such a just unique place. You know, you go there and there's so many people from different areas. And I've had a ton of fun in Nashville. ⁓

Brandon Burns (01:17)
Yeah, it's a crazy

city. It's very transient now because it's grown. think ever since COVID, it just blew up. So everybody from like New York, California, they're all just flocking to Nashville. So if you're listening to this, don't move to Nashville. We don't want you there. We're full.

Brad Banyas (01:30)
It's no fun and boon socks don't go skiing up there either. But yeah, so well, you know, to me, I've just had so many good memories in Nashville and I know you lived in Nashville for a while and now you're here in Atlanta. And, you know, you have such a unique story about growing up kind of as a gymnast and then going to college at University of Michigan. And I just think you've got a great story and your energy. You've also been mentored under Eric Thomas, someone who's if you haven't heard of Eric Thomas.

Brandon Burns (01:58)
Yep.

Brad Banyas (02:00)
is pretty big deal in the motivational speaking area. So tell us about like just your story and what you're into and what excites you. And obviously fitness, the guy comes in jacked and I was gonna wear my wife beater, but I didn't wanna show him what I had.

Brandon Burns (02:17)
That

mature strength. You know what's funny about that? I was at a bodybuilding competition. I did my first bodybuilding show ever in July. And I was backstage and one of these guys walks up to me and he just kind of starts poking at my arm. And he was like, dude, how old are you? And the kid was like 19. Said, man, actually, I just turned 28 yesterday. He's like, you got that muscle maturity. So that would be you if you brought your wife beater. You just have the muscle maturity. That's okay. We'll forget.

Brad Banyas (02:41)
Little bit soft around the midsection

They love it. There's a lot that dad bod. Yeah, can't get enough of that dad. It's non-threatening They're like if I want to eat a doughnut, who cares? This guy's has a dad body. He's not gonna

Brandon Burns (02:47)
Yeah.

It

was me, they were like, he's gonna judge me. He's never gonna like me again. I thinking bad stuff about me. I promise. What's funny is I probably eat more donuts than anybody in this room combined, but. ⁓

Brad Banyas (03:07)
Schwarzenegger

swears by it man when they're Vulcan they always had the doughnuts so I don't know if that's true story or just some bullshit to sell more Dunkin Donuts.

Brandon Burns (03:16)
There's a brand deal probably somewhere behind closed doors.

Brad Banyas (03:18)
Absolutely.

Sprinkles. I like those sprinkles.

Brandon Burns (03:21)
But yeah, man, I was born and raised in Huntsville, Alabama, 900 square foot home, single mother. Never really had a whole lot. We went into bankruptcy when I was about 11 years old. Started the sport of gymnastics when I was 10. No idea why. Like it's the true definition of just a calling. Never saw it on TV. Nobody in my family ever did it. I just went to my mom one day and said, hey, I think I really want to do this. And she was really against it because she thought it was a dangerous sport. And so instead she decided to try and put me in karate.

And so how the logic works where a combat sport is safer than learning how to do a handstand. I don't really understand. But what I learned about negotiation when I was a kid was that if I just started trying to walk around on my hands, then eventually I'd force force her hand. Yeah. And she was like, OK, the kids are going to kill themselves. So I guess we'll put them in classes. So started when I was 10, didn't compete for the first time. So was 16 years old. You know, the gym that I grew up in, we didn't have a competitive program. So I actually started coaching when I was 14 so that I could pay to afford to switch gyms, go across town to the

that did have a competitive program, jumped in, level 10, which is the highest level that you can compete before college, did that for two years, and ended up as a walk-on at Michigan.

Brad Banyas (04:29)
That's awesome. That's awesome. What was the culture shock of coming from Alabama and going to Ann Arbor? mean, was it a culture shock to you? The size? for sure. Yeah.

Brandon Burns (04:42)
Well,

that's what it was. Like everybody thinks it's the weather, right? Because you grew up in Alabama. I saw snow maybe six times in 18 years. And then all of sudden I'm walking to school in a foot of snow. So that was a culture shock in itself. But the biggest thing was, man, I was homeschooled. So I started homeschooling when I was in third grade all the way through high school graduation. So I went from a school of one person to a school of 60,000 undergrad and graduate combined. Dude, I didn't know how to make friends. I didn't know how to introduce myself to people. And I was already socially anxious. I was already an introvert.

So trying to get in that environment was very intimidating, to say the least.

Brad Banyas (05:17)
It's so funny because I see people like they look at me and you know, I haven't been in business for a long time, but you know, they think, oh, were you just like an outgoing kid? Like were you? And I really wasn't. was kind of, I don't know if I was introverted, but I was shy or whatever. And it's funny to see later in life, like I never would have really, you know, motivational speaking, coaching, fitness coaching, business coaching. mean, you really can't be an introvert, right? You have to be able to communicate.

⁓ It's funny how those perceptions like I would have never pegged. I mean you're Clark Kent, dude. I know.

Brandon Burns (05:54)
I know.

Dude, it was bad though. I mean, I used to have panic attacks on the first day of class. Even as a 21, 22 year old fifth year senior at Michigan, I would walk into a room of maybe 20 other kids my age and you got that first day of class introduction that you got to do. And so I'd stand up and say, Hey, my name is Brandon. I'm studying economics and psychology. Literally panic attacks, palms, sweaty, shaking. So it took me a long time to grow out of it. I don't think I ordered off of a menu at a restaurant by myself till I was like 17. You know, was it's stranger danger.

Brad Banyas (06:23)
still have

trouble with that. I can't order a coffee or something. But if I'm with my family and they're like, are we going to get something? Hey, Dad, I want this burger and I'm like, now I'm out y'all y'all just tell the people whatever you want.

Brandon Burns (06:34)
I can't remember

all that.

Brad Banyas (06:35)
It's

a big like joke, well, so is that you know, what moved you in to I mean, obviously you're still in athletics and coaching and fitness, but what specifically moved you into kind of wanting to get into the motivational speaking or around that was it because you were trying to overcome, you know that that, you know, that kind of, you know, fear of speaking, is that why you

Brandon Burns (07:03)
Not at

all. No, I was happy to be afraid. Really? No, I was happy to never talk to people ever. I never would have put a microphone in my hand. So I usually tell the story in 45 minutes and a keynote on stage. I'll try and give it to you in like two. But when I was at Michigan, actually before Michigan, when I was in high school, I started going to this gymnastics camp, a little place called Flip Fest in Crossville, Tennessee. It's in the middle of absolutely nowhere. And I couldn't afford to go to camp because we grew up pretty poor. And one of the guys who actually coached at my gym back home worked there and he said, hey,

Brad Banyas (07:05)
Alright.

Brandon Burns (07:33)
I got you hooked up with a scholarship if you want to come. So I go to the camp, completely changes my life.

Ironically during the intro music while they introduced the owners and the coaches and everybody at the very beginning of camp Eric Thomas's voiceover is playing in the background. Oh, wow. So that was kind of a seed that would get sown later and I go to the camp and it was the first time anybody had ever truly poured into me like that. Right. Like I had gymnastics coaches. My parents did a great job. I had good people around me, but I'd never been in an environment where somebody was like, dude, you could make a bunch of money. You could go to college and compete in gymnastics. You could be something. Yeah. I'd never really heard that kind of talk before. It just changed.

And so I wrote an email to the camp owners as soon as I got back and I said, I don't care what I have to do. Let me know I got to get back here. So they write back like two days later. They say, I tell you what, if you want to come out here and clean our toilets, you stay as long as you want.

So I go back there and they gave me the role of junior counselor, JC, which we always used to joke and say it really stood for janitor child. That's what we were. We were janitor children. Yeah. You know, and there was five or six of us every week and we'd show up and we'd clean the toilets. We'd sweep the floors. We'd mop the floors. We do the dishes, do all the grunt work around camp in exchange for being able to stay for free and train.

And I got so good at cleaning their toilets that they came back the next year and said, well, if you want to be the chief janitor child, you're more than welcome. And so I started going out there and spending all summer, 12, 13 weeks per summer out there at Flip Fest. And I was in charge of my little group of five or six kids every week. And at the end of the day, every day at camp, we had this tradition called cabin checks. And that was where the coaches who were like top of the totem pole in terms of camp hierarchy and respect, right? The coaches would go into the camper cabins at the end of the day.

and they would just talk to him and they'd give him life advice, they'd try and motivate him, try and pump him up. And my guys would always miss that because we were still up late cleaning the camp.

But I remember when I was 14, 15, 16 years old and I was in those guys' shoes, I was struggling with anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation at times. Like I was really in a rough place at that time in my life. And I remembered how impactful those little sessions were at the end of every night. So now as a 17 year old, I said, you know what? I don't want these guys to miss out on the benefit that I got from it. And so I went to YouTube one day and I typed in motivational speaker, another precursor to what was to come. First guy that pops up is Eric Thomas. And so I watched one of his videos.

and one night at the end of us cleaning I said, hey guys, stick around for a minute. I want to tell you something. And I didn't know how to talk to people, didn't know how to speak. The delivery was trash. And I gave them the most Walmart brand motivational speech you've ever heard in your life. It was horrible. Like nothing about it was technically correct, right? But I gave it to them. And the next day, matter of fact, I think I got it in my wallet. The next day, the 16 year old kid walks up to me.

and he hands me this crumpled up piece of paper and he just walked away. Didn't say anything and I unfolded it as he's already out of sight and it says Brandon. This week has impacted my life so much for many reasons coming into this week. I was going through a very rough time in my life and sometimes throughout the week it hit me hard, but you taught me to keep struggling and not to find a way out. I've had suicidal thoughts for about nine months and you helped me with that a lot throughout the week and so it keeps going.

He says a couple of other things, but that was the part that hit me. And I, in that moment, just decided that my fear and my hesitation and my anxiety and everything that bothered me about interacting with other people, it suddenly meant nothing. Because as a 17 year old, I walked out of that one day because of this note and said, if I die tomorrow and get hit by a bus, I did something that was worth being here for.

And so really it had nothing to do with me. I never had any aspirations of being a speaker. I never had any drive or desire to do any of the work that I do now. It really came to me through impact and seeing that something could be bigger than I was.

Brad Banyas (11:18)
That's

awesome. That's amazing. I love the fact that you have that and you carry that with you. That's awesome. That's amazing. You know, it's it's so funny that everybody thinks of the big things that people do in life, right? I you know, whatever. I started this. You started this business. You did this or whatever. But the most impactful things are are those that moment that interaction like with that young kid, right? Because everybody thinks their life

is either so good or so bad, right? You're either victim or non-victim. And the fact that just, like my kids always say, why do you always like tell that person that? Or why do you always say that? why, you know, my wife doesn't like when I tell another woman her hair looks good, but I mean, it's, you my...

Brandon Burns (12:04)
danger

zone.

Brad Banyas (12:05)
Sorry about that. mean, it's just nature. you know, always say, hey, you're doing a good job or whatever. Because as you get older, like everybody's struggling with something. Right. You don't know what it is. could be anxiety. It could be, you know, abuse. It could be maybe they're having a shitty day. They lost their job or someone in their family is dying. There's something going on in every human's life that's that might be a big deal.

Brandon Burns (12:33)
Yeah.

Brad Banyas (12:33)
And most people don't, it's like you're telling your story. Most people don't tell their story. Hey, I was suicidal, I was this. But you, I think people knowing that or feeling like belonging that, hey, how can this guy?

have these problems. mean, he's a good looking guy, he's articulate, he's whatever, he's got to be on top of the world, right? And so I don't know why I just went off on a pontiff. Sorry about that. I don't know. went on pontification of that. But I just I think that's, that's awesome that you have that man.

Brandon Burns (13:04)
Yeah, and more people

need to be encouraged to share their story too, because I think right now we live in a day and age where because of social media, it has become glorified to try and act like you are perfect. Yeah, because you think that's what's going to get you attention. Yeah. What I always tell people, especially that are maybe new to the speaking industry, nobody would listen to Eric Thomas if he wasn't up there talking about how he was homeless. Yeah. If he's like, Hey, everybody, I'm a multimillionaire, I drive a Rolls Royce, and I'm on the biggest stages in the world.

Yeah, like be like screw you dude, like what do know about me in my life? Right, but the the the depth and the substance comes from the fact that no no No, this is where I am now go back 30 years ago when I was homeless on the streets of Detroit Now people are like, okay if you can do it I can do it too. So everybody's got a story like that But I think most of us are so scared of the judgment of man that we don't think about the bigger purpose in the bigger picture of what maybe you went through that so that you could help somebody else out like one of my favorite stories is I tell this all the time on stage and

Brad Banyas (13:45)
Absolutely.

Brandon Burns (14:00)
There's a guy walking down the street and he falls in a hole and the hole so deep and the walls are so steep that the guy can't get out and he tries and jumps and scratches and claws and climbs but whatever he does he can't get out. But he looks up at the surface and he sees people walking by and so eventually he sees a doctor walk by he's got his white lab coat on. So he shouts up, doctor, doctor I'm stuck down here can you help me out? Doctor kind of looks down there takes out a pen and pad from his lab coat writes out a prescription tears it off throws in the hole.

Guys like, what's that supposed to do for me? You want me to get out of here and go to a pharmacy? Like I'm stuck, man. Sooner or later he sees a pastor walk by up on the surface, got his priest robes on. Father, father, I'm stuck down here, can you help me out? Priest, know, he's a pastor, so he's gotta be a little bit more receptive to the guy. Stops and talks with him for a little bit. But eventually he's gotta go, takes out a pen and pad, writes out a prayer, tears it off, throws it in the hole. So the guy's down there like, dude, every single person that I thought was supposed to help me.

was not there for me right now. And I don't see a way out of this situation. That's where a lot of people are in life. I don't see a way out. Whatever you feel right now, I don't see the other side. I don't see the light at the end of the tunnel. Sooner or later, a friend walks by, one last ditch effort of desperation, he shouts up, hey man, it's me. And I'm stuck down here. Can you help me? But the friend does something different. He looks over the edge of the hole, looks at the situation. He takes a deep breath. And he jumps.

And our guy's stuck down there and he says, what the hell are you doing? Now we're both stuck down here. The friend says, yeah, but I've been down here before and I know the way out.

Brad Banyas (15:27)
Yeah.

Brandon Burns (15:28)
So the story is never about

the guy who fell on hard times and fell into the hole and didn't see a way out of a situation. It's about the guy who had been there before and then figured it out and went back, reached back to help the next guy in that similar situation. That's all of us, but we just don't recognize it. Whatever you're going through right now in life is preparation to uniquely appoint and anoint you to be able to help somebody else that nobody else could possibly do. There's people I can help that you can't help and there's people you can help that I can't help because you have a way of empathizing with people's situations that you've been in that I haven't been in.

We were just talking about it before we went live. You're a father. I can't help somebody who's going through marriage struggles. I can't help somebody that's going through parenting struggles. I can't relate. And so if we would stop looking at life as punishment and look at it as preparation, you would find a whole new meaning and purpose to whatever struggles you might be going through.

Brad Banyas (16:08)
That's the relationship. Right.

I mean, perfectly said. mean, I think today as as an older person, still pretty svelte, by the way, but an older person, ⁓ you know, my younger kids, you know, we were we were at we were at a bar having pizza or something and ⁓

two of the guys there were, you know, they're getting started. They're 20 years old, right? And they're working hard and working in jobs and deciding where they want to go to college. And, you know, they were both kind of talking about what they were doing. And I kind of felt like, like they didn't think that was good enough, you know? And there's so many...

I love younger people like you that are years beyond in wisdom because those people in your decade bracket or in your area or younger kids still look to you as, they look at me, ⁓ this is some old guy, right? Like, what the hell is this guy, right? But my point in that is, is young people always have to know just because where you're at today doesn't...

predict where you're gonna be in a year or two years or three years. we always, they always like don't ever look down like you're talking about cleaning toilets and stuff. I always, people laugh cause I can appreciate that. Cause I was a toilet cleaner as well. When I first started, you know, I got married, I had to do all kinds of jobs. I two kids I had to take care of. I wasn't a tech guy then I wouldn't whatever. didn't know what I wanted to be. do construction, whatever. But we always used to clean ⁓ offices and stuff, you know, on the weekends and whatever.

or make additional money. And a lot of people don't really know that. But it's always funny because don't ever think you're too good to do something that needs to be done.

Brandon Burns (18:05)
Yeah.

Brad Banyas (18:06)
Right? So don't ever think you're too good. You know, every day, by the way, I love animals. I have two labs. But, you know, the other day I came out after picking up dog shit, my yard in a bag and I'm thinking, God, my ancestors that were Vikings or wherever they were, this got to be looking down on me at this point thinking, Jesus, dude, what are you doing?

Brandon Burns (18:27)
What have we come

to?

Brad Banyas (18:29)
Like,

no, nobody, nobody's, know, nobody's on a pedestal, right? So for all you people out there in suburbia picking up dog shit in your yard, they're gonna rain. Let it, it's fertilizer.

Brandon Burns (18:41)
Lord's work. ⁓

Brad Banyas (18:43)
It is the Lord's work, but I love it. I love your message and I think that you have to go through. ⁓ Everyone has to go through their life circumstance no matter what it is right. Rich kids have other problems that that's real that people can't really understand if you look at ⁓ drug use or depression or whatever a lot of very wealthy, you know rich kids with everything still have problems because it's it's purpose.

Brandon Burns (19:10)
Yeah. I mean,

I'll tell you story about that actually, because when I went to Michigan, to your point, massive culture shock that you go from a 900 square foot home in East Limestone County, Alabama, to one of the biggest schools in the country is a culture shock. And a lot of the people that I met there were obviously from different backgrounds than I was. And I ended up meeting this brother and sister who the brother had this big YouTube channel. He was doing his thing. He was in the car YouTuber industry. And then their dad sold a company for like 200 million bucks, right?

were loaded, never had to worry about a thing in their life. And I ended up becoming friends with the daughter, the sister and that little family. And we were talking one time and she was like, people don't understand how hard it is. And I'm sitting here like I grew up poor. What do you mean? How hard it is like this me with that, you know, and she went on to say like, No, no, no, no matter what I do, no matter what impact I make, no matter what career success I have, no matter what happens in my life, daddy's money.

I've never felt my own sense of pride and accomplishment.

And it made me realize, would I switch places with you? Maybe, but probably, especially back then, right? I'm like, yeah, I'll take that problem. I'll give you my problems, you give me your problems, and then you give me the hundred million dollars with it. But it made me realize that to her, that was the biggest problem in her life. And it felt just like the biggest problem in my life. So just because it doesn't look like the biggest problem in your life, you can't judge it and say, well, that's less of a problem. No, that's the biggest thing that's going on for them and it's real.

Brad Banyas (20:23)
⁓

Yeah, someone once said, comparison is the is the thief of happiness. Right? Like, so when I say that, like, and you're comparing yourself to what this person did, athletics, sports, business, life, whatever it may be, but comparison is the thief of happiness. And I believe, like, that's true. I mean, it's it's it's so it's so real, I think you find what you want to do.

and you're obviously on your path to do what you want to do, it really shouldn't matter what everyone else does. Like it shouldn't matter. Who cares? This guy was a, you know, he knew cars and he was a good YouTuber. Awesome. Right. That sounds horrible to me.

Brandon Burns (21:27)
Tech sounds

horrible to me. It's horrible. I wouldn't know what to do.

Brad Banyas (21:31)
I mean

the tech space is horrible. mean, but ⁓ you know, it's just kind of what you do. Do whatever you can to get through where you're at.

Brandon Burns (21:39)
Yeah. And this is the other thing I would tell people, especially younger people, because I remember spending probably three or four years just in constant anxiety because I was trying really hard to figure my life out. Like I 100 % fell victim to that idea of by 30, you got to be at this place by 25. You got to be at this place. And I tried to put a plan together over and over and over and over again. And of course, there's that old saying when man plans, God laughs, right? Because you don't know what's going to happen. You don't even know who if you're 20 years old, listen to this. You don't even know who you're going to be at 26, 27,

28. You haven't been introduced to that version of yourself yet. So trying to plan on behalf of that guy is kind of a fool's errand and not to be like a Bible thumper about it. what scripture scripture never told you to make a 17 step plan to get where you want to go in life. What it does say is everything your hands find to do do with all your might. And so when I was cleaning those toilets I was cleaning them as best I could before I left my mom said if you're going to clean their toilets be the best damn toilet cleaner they've ever seen. And that was my goal. Yeah. And that ironically is how I ended up at Michigan by the way the owner

The camp wrote me a letter of recommendation to the head coach.

Brad Banyas (22:41)
That's awesome. Yeah, but you know, think about it. It's there. There's this task, right? I mean, I was in construction. I had a Dex business that we did pressure watching. I'm the least handy person in the world. I have 10 thumbs. I'm terrible. You didn't want me doing your deck. You didn't want me doing any of that stuff. But like I said, you know, I needed to do it at that time. And what it did is it made me realize I hope young people out there do all kinds of stuff because I did all kinds of stuff because then you kind

Brandon Burns (23:09)
Yeah.

Brad Banyas (23:11)
of fine like hey

This sucks. I know I don't want to do this. And my father always say, cause he had a construction business and we poured foundations. I don't know if you know what that's like, but you know, it's, it's, it's, it's real work. And I remember like the day I told him, like I was just doing it kind of to, know, for eight or nine months to figure out what I want to do. And the day I came and said, Hey, look, you know, I appreciate the opportunity, but this sucks. And I definitely know I do not want to do this. And he brought that up to me. ⁓

a couple months ago, goes, you know, was so glad you came to me that day and did that because I knew like I was wondering, I was like, you know, I kind of want him around. He's a good worker. But like I, you know, it's, it's just like I said, try anything, do everything you can and experience as much as you can. And then you kind of find your gift, right?

Brandon Burns (24:03)
I love that

you say that because I do think especially for young people who are interested in entrepreneurship community Because it's cool now right being a business owners cool. Yeah Yeah, yeah stressful is what it is ⁓ but it's become cool your social media made it cool and A lot of people are being told you got a niche down. You got to find one thing and stick with it You got to do one thing and pinpoint the market and blah blah blah

Brad Banyas (24:12)
That's cool.

Brandon Burns (24:27)
When you're five, 10 years in, great advice. When you're getting started, I wholeheartedly agree with you. Do everything. I think you have to go broad first before you can go narrow, because you have to understand you. Like when I speak to college students, the biggest thing I tell them is screw your grades. If you can leave here and know who you are and what you want, you're ahead of the curve.

Brad Banyas (24:45)
Yeah.

Brandon Burns (24:45)
you're ahead of the curve and most people don't know who they are and what they want. And I think the only way to find out is by dipping your toe into everything that you possibly can. Like, man, I've laid insulation in an attic at that camp and like 120 degrees in that attic. Like I did all sorts of stuff. Same conclusion as you. I don't want to do this.

Brad Banyas (25:01)
It's the worst.

Yeah, call out to my older son Connor we did that we redid our old our other basement our house and Yeah, I didn't want to pay someone to do it. So I my older kid poor Connor We insulated that whole thing and I was just like, you know, he always tells me, know dad I probably have lung damage, you know because of that I was like, yeah, we saved ten grand. But anyways, yeah, it's a Being a dad and having your kids is a is a great thing. But sorry I made sorry Connor made you do the insulation

Brandon Burns (25:33)
How do you feel like you've managed all your, cause you've had a very like diverse array of life experiences just from knowing you for the little bit that we've known each other. It sounds like you've got a ton of stories. How have you managed exposing your kids and letting them have all those different life experiences versus, okay, here's way too much that I did. I learned this. I'm gonna keep you away from that stuff. Like how have you balanced that?

Brad Banyas (25:55)
So if you know me a little bit now, I'm pretty straightforward and pretty I say shit that's inappropriate all the time and just whatever I feel. But I never I wanted my kids to know who I was when I was younger and bother my wife. God bless my wife. She's a saint. She's awesome. She's the only reason I'm probably still alive. So I give her lot of kudos to that. But I, you know, I let them know everything I did. And even if it was bad or something they shouldn't do, because I

wanted them to hear my experience and what I really have learned about what I did or why I thought it was wrong or why you probably shouldn't do it. So everything that I came from a perspective, now if I hadn't done it or whatever and I didn't know, ⁓ I tried to let them make their own decisions. But I...

Parenting is such a unique thing. I mean, I was never a real stickler. All my kids played sports. If they like sports, great. Some of them did something. Then I was a sports guy. like sports. But I never forced them to do stuff they didn't want to do. ⁓ And I think the hardest thing about a parent is letting a kid ⁓ find out on their own. Like even when I knew like, you know,

this isn't the right guy for my daughter or like this isn't the right thing for my sons or whatever. would tell them what I thought. Maybe they didn't listen to me. But ⁓ you have to go through your own struggles. You have to go through your own mistakes. You have. I mean, that's how you grow. Right. So I don't know if that answered your question specifically. But ⁓ yeah, I mean, it's been the greatest thing. I tell people, know, you're young, you guys don't do it. But I mean, the

You talk about God, I'm a God, man. So the good Lord has put me here for a reason and done really amazing things for me. I know he's real. I don't need someone to tell me he's real. But I think it's just... ⁓

that you gotta go through it, right? You gotta go through the pain and it sucks. Cause you don't want your kid to be sad. You don't want your kid to be sad over a breakup. You don't want your kid to fail a class. You don't want your kid to be ostracized. You don't want your kid to not fit in. But the reality of it is you don't dictate that.

You don't dictate that society dictates that and like we've got a lot. The thing I like about like people and motivational and you know things that give people ideas and give them hope and give them you know some guidance is we all need that. Like my wife is why I used to love like Norman Vincent Peel you know Dale Carnegie you know all the kind of class Harvey McKay from the business side Harvey's good man 93 this year he's still kicking Harvey you're the man.

I love that stuff because it gives you hope. gives you just like you said, ⁓ if he can do it, or if he believes in me, I can do it. And what the world needs is more people to believe in you. Don't shit on people. Don't criticize people. It may mean that's something you don't want to do, whatever. Hey, you want to be a gymnast? That's awesome. Your mom wanted to be a gymnast. Now you're in all kind of athletic stuff. You you want to play soccer or you want to be a mycologist and study fungi or whatever you want to do. That's awesome. ⁓

Brandon Burns (29:17)
Yeah.

Brad Banyas (29:18)
Encourage your kids to do what they want to do. That's my parenting thing. I'm out.

Brandon Burns (29:23)
You

know, here's a big idea for you. What if God feels the same way about us? Like the same way that you wish that you could give your kids absolutely everything, but you know that they have to go through their own experience. What if that's how God feels about us? And when you get pissed that God just didn't answer your prayer five seconds later and give you a million dollars and the woman of your dreams and this and this and that, maybe it's because he needs you to go through the process of development to become the person who's capable of stewarding those gifts.

Brad Banyas (29:47)
I love that it's got chills because I just, I believe this. I believe that ⁓ you have to be humbled and gracious in the presence of God. God is our father. We're brothers, we're sisters. We all ⁓ share similar same DNA. We're all loved just as much. And the reality of it is, I believe that sometimes you will be broken and lose everything.

and it's not a curse, it's preparing you for your next.

phase of what you should be or who you are or your next level of enlightenment, whatever you wanna talk about, the Nirvana crew out there, those guys, it's enlightening you to recognize and stop and see. Because we're so bombarded. I grew up in the tech space, not because I love technology, I hate technology, but I grew up in it because I had to provide for my family and all this stuff. But we're in such a technology age where stuff just like what we're doing, just sitting down.

looking each other in the eye, sharing conversation. There's no agenda. There's no like today's generation has lost that because they're getting the dopamine hits from some guy in his Ferrari on whatever or some guy. And I think ⁓ it's a sad case. wish, the only reason I like podcasting is to sit here with someone like you for an hour for.

Brandon Burns (31:21)
For however long.

Brad Banyas (31:23)
Just to

talk, like how many people could you change your lives if you sat down and someone's like, hey man, I'm having a shitty day and this is kind of what's going on. And that person goes, hey man, I've been there. I had that shitty day. This is how I got over it. Or these are a couple of things I did. Or I'm still not over it, but I've learned to manage it. Just like you saved that kid's life, right? That happened because you had a conversation. You weren't afraid. The Walmart's.

Brandon Burns (31:51)
speech.

Brad Banyas (31:53)
though maybe not polished, know, not spell checked, not grammar checked AI didn't run through it AI didn't didn't write it for chat GPT didn't write it. It was from your heart. And that kid that could realize that. And that's the difference when someone's genuine and they're truthful. How can you debate it? How can you argue with anyone that's truthful and genuine?

Brandon Burns (31:55)
on a roll.

Yeah.

Yeah, can't

know and and part of being truthful and genuine is having the life experience to be able to be truthful and genuine like that was a big mindset shift for me even just in the last couple of years because I was looking around at the speaking industry and I'm like God what it was that guy on stage instead of me and I was pissed about it and Again going back to your point. You might just be being prepared not punished Yeah, and that's the the dissonance that we always have we confuse preparation for punishment you might this is what what blew my mind I used to

to be able to impact a lot of people. Like that was my vision. Now I want to make a lot of money doing it. I wanted to reach a certain level, but career stuff aside, North Star was I want to be able to make an impact positively on as many people as I possibly could. And I sat back and thought about it I said, okay, B, if you want to be able to make an impact on people, you have to be able to connect with people. You have to connect before you can correct. So you can't teach anybody until you connect with them first. If you're going to be able to connect with a lot of people, you got to be able to empathize.

with a lot of people. So guess what? I might have to put you through a season of debt. I might have to put you through a season of addiction. I might have to put you through a season of heartbreak. You might have to lose some people in your life. You might have to go through this. You might have to go through that. Because that is necessary. It's a prerequisite. You stand up there on stage talking about stuff you've never lived, never been through, that you read in a book.

It's not going to work. Like people will be able to feel the dissonance there. So again, to your point, everything that you do in your life, you need to start looking at it through the lens of how is this experience preparing me to pass this on to somebody else and help other people. My life changed when I started viewing every interaction as I'm either helping somebody become more.

or become less and that can happen. And most people aren't ready to even think about that. Like you can treat other people in a way that will make them become less of who they were meant to be. They will never reach their full potential because you did them dirty, because you did something wrong to them, because you made them be the reason, you're the reason that they don't trust people anymore. But the opposite can also be true. We can't create humanity the way the guy can, but we can definitely help them become more. You can go pour into somebody, you can coach somebody, you can connect with somebody, you can inspire somebody, give somebody hope. And now all of sudden they become more

who they were meant to be in the first place. And every interaction's like that.

Brad Banyas (34:27)
Yeah, well, I mean, I always thought about like, why burn shit down? Like, mean, just just from a like, if somebody is doing something to you or whatever, truly not your problem, it's their problem. And people take it on like, I've got to be right or I've got to fit my you know, everyone has the right I love the saying, everyone has the right to not have an opinion.

So if you want to talk to me about some subject, first of all, I may not know about some like, hey, look, Brandon, I don't really know, but or whatever you want to push some. This is what I believe is what. ⁓ OK. You know, listen to you. like I have the right to say.

Brandon Burns (35:07)
I have to do with me.

Brad Banyas (35:11)
You know, I've had people come to me with the craziest ideas and I have crazy shit. do stupid shit, crazy shit. Sometimes you're like, why would you do like name and accompany salt DMF or having a McBastard studio? But my point in that is you, you, don't have to react to anything. And in for most people that are critics, what I've found in life, most people who are critics have never done it.

Brandon Burns (35:28)
Yeah.

Brad Banyas (35:38)
Mm-hmm have never gone through the pain Have no idea the financial impacts behind it or what it took for you to get to the place you are So you're why you know opinions like assholes everyone has one, know stop, but it's also our responsibility. It's like you say it's my responsibility

to have enough confidence in myself, believe in myself, understand where I'm at, understand that I do have the favor of God, whether it's a good situation or not, and do what I need to do and not let the outer world tell me like your dream isn't the right dream. Your vocation isn't the right dream. What you're doing isn't the right dream. And I think we'll go back to the parents. Parents make a big mistake on that. They put a lot of thing and think, hey, my kids should be an astronaut. Well, let's be honest.

She or he's not going to be an astronaut. It's OK. But you have unrealistic expectations. You're not a fucking astronaut. So why do you think they're going to be an astronaut? Right. That's not about you, buddy. I just.

Brandon Burns (36:41)
My favorite, see I learned that when I was coaching gymnastics at 14, 15, 16 years old and these parents would come in, my daughter's gonna be an Olympian.

How you know? You made it to level four. What you know about this? Genetic. Right, right, right. It's like, how did that happen? And then this kid grows up with all these expectations and pressures on him to be the next Simone Biles. And it's like, maybe just let them have fun and see if they're good at it. And if they're good at it, then they can work hard at it. And then if they work hard at it, then the dream will develop. You know, I think it's a step by step process.

Brad Banyas (36:54)
She's got the genetic.

Absolutely.

It's it's a great it's a great ⁓ point and you know, ⁓ dedication comes from within. Why do I want to get up and do this? Why am I putting myself through this so you can outward pressure people gotta be this one. You gotta be this one. You gotta get up me and some of that works because you don't want to let that person down or let your coach down or whatever. But in the end and I've been at that place where you wake up and you're like, you know,

Screw this. I really don't want to do it. I don't have a passion for it. don't like I get it. And I know people think, wow, you're really amazing at that. And you may be, but you're like, you know,

It's not in my heart. You know, I can do it. I'm good at it, but it's just not my heart. And that's the hardest thing I've seen with athletes, military people we've had on is they get to that point. Every athlete, every military, anyone that's in kind of physical type, demanding mental physical things, you come to a point in your life where you have to let it go. And what do you typically do? Well, you might become a coach.

you're still in there, right? You might, know, you might in the greatest value when I stopped playing football for a long time, this is not about me. And I'm talking on them. But we're telling life stories. Uh, it was very hard for me to watch the sport of football. I kind of fell out of love with it. I'd done it for 15 years. I love it. We're going to make a shirt. I have that I'm that I'm the poster child, but you know, then my kids started getting of age and

Brandon Burns (38:44)
PTSD, post traumatic sports disorder.

Brad Banyas (38:54)
one of the coaches was doing something and I knew like this guy isn't what he's doing. I made a comment to him like, you know, you can't do that, whatever, because I knew a little bit about it, right? He's like, look, you know, no offense, dude, but why don't you put your money in your mouth as asshole? Why don't you come? And I'm grateful for that, because it made me think, yeah, he's right. mean, you know, if I'm going to

Brandon Burns (39:07)
and

Brad Banyas (39:14)
Chris, that asshole was criticizing people as me. Yeah, sorry. I'm only human. yeah, and I did it and I got into it and I fell in love with it again. And I got more passionate watching these kids have fun and learn stuff. it's funny how life will put you in the right direction if you're listening.

Brandon Burns (39:32)
If you're listening and that's that's a key thing really quick. want to go back to what you said about discipline because a lot of people think that if there's a gap in their life and they know that they could be doing better, but they're not doing better. I can just listen to David Goggins 24 seven. That's going to fix my life. Right. But to your point that's external motivation which to be fair can get you started. Sometimes that is necessary. Like sometimes if people come up to me after an event and they're like man that speech that presentation changed my life. No it didn't. It might have sparked something. But if your life changes it's because you

changed your life. Yeah, right. Eventually, you have to get to a point where you shift from the external motivation to the internal motivation, or else you're just going to run out of gas. Like, cool, you want to be successful, so can get a house or a car or travel or this, this and that. That'll get you to a certain point, but you will burn out. Promise you you will burn out until you find something that lights you up internally first. Right. Now, the second thing to your point about just being self aware, if you're listening to life, I got this championship ring on, I won this as a coach, not as an athlete. Yeah. So when I win,

Brad Banyas (40:18)
Absolutely.

Brandon Burns (40:32)
went to Michigan, I was a walk-on. I was red-shirted my freshman year, so I couldn't compete, wasn't quite good enough then. I was cut from the team the next subsequent four years in a row, so showed up, which is quick to say, took a long time to live. Four years in a row of showing up, I feel like I'm not good enough, I'm being told I'm not good enough, my results are telling me I'm not good enough, over and over and over, injuries, stress, anxiety. And then during my fifth year, I still had eligibility left.

And I was already kind of working as a volunteer coach and we had a guy on the team get kicked off for behavioral issues, got caught doing drugs or something. So he gets kicked off the team. Head coach comes to me, he says, Brandon, I know you've been working on this for five years. Like this has been your dream was to compete for this team. You've been failing, you've been trying, you've been failing. The spot's open if you want it. He said, but I think you would add more value to us as a coach. I would like to just put you on the staff instead.

Brad Banyas (41:25)
That's all.

Brandon Burns (41:26)
And what's funny about that is I knew from day one, I could have saved myself five years of hell. I knew from day one, I was a better coach than I was a gymnast. I was good. But like you got to remember men's gymnastics is a dying sport. I think we've got 18 NCAA teams right now, maybe less. And each one of those teams has 20 roster spots. So you're the 1 % of the 1 % in this country of male gymnastics if you make an NCAA team.

I was maybe top two and a half percent. I was good, but I wasn't that good. And so I could have sat there and made excuses of why I got cut, injuries, recruiting classes, whatever. But at end of the day, I just didn't make it. I never liked competing. I hated it.

I loved training so much, like just the art of practicing and getting better. I loved it so much. You put me in freaking tights in front of a crowd of 500 people and now I gotta go do this performance. I hated it. I hated it. But the funny thing was I always knew that I loved coaching and I knew that I was good at coaching. What I should have done is said, you know what, I know there's this pressure to be the man, be the student athlete on campus, do all this stuff. I should have said, you know what?

It's honestly not what I want to do. I'd rather just work out for fun and be successful as a coach. And so I worked half as hard to get these championship rings as a coach as I did failing as an athlete.

Brad Banyas (42:41)
Yeah, but I mean, I think, you know, it's talking about, you know, ⁓ molding molding a person, right, or shaping a person into what you're about. You're going you're going to become to be you're going to be right. You're in the future. No one knows that. Like no one. No, I don't know what I'll be 10 years from now. Right. Like I'm being molded through things like this or whatever my experiences are, kids or grandkids or whatever. You were always evolving. And it's funny how you look back there.

you're like, I just should have the coach. But reality of you, you think that, but you probably wouldn't have been as good a coach if you had tried to skip that four years of struggling to make it, you know?

Brandon Burns (43:18)
Okay.

Well,

what's ironic is a lot of people ask me, how are you able to command respect with those guys that were on the team with you that knew you from back when you kept getting cut? They knew that you got cut. Did they not have an attitude of, who are you to tell me how to do this when you can't even do it yourself? And I really think the answer is they knew who I was as a person and they knew how much I cared about the team and that team success. Absolutely. Like they watched me work for four or five years straight without ever getting a reward for it. So they knew I was the type of person that whether or not

dangle a carrot in front of me, I'm still going to give you my best. And I think that was what allowed me an in for them to respect me enough to take the coaching and then eventually lead us on to the champions.

Brad Banyas (44:03)
Well, I think that's important because I think also though I think people who've worked hard and were that starting crew or team They put in just as much effort as you were putting in they know that you put the effort in right? I'll never forget we had a We had a kid and we were young we're in high school and we had a kid on football team He was he was not a good football player. I mean he just wasn't he was small He's you know, he just you know wasn't wasn't like wow, this gets fast. He's whatever he just

loved it and the kid would just get killed like all the time. Yeah, but but over time like I remember us and like he became a good friend of ours. I had the utmost respect for that kid. Like I knew I'm like this kid he'll never play it down a football, but this kid has heart guts.

Brandon Burns (44:49)
Yeah.

Brad Banyas (44:58)
He loves the team. loves the sport. He loves what's going on. That's really cool to me. Like, so he earned the respect because people realize, all right, yeah, dudes, dudes not getting on kickoff. He's not even going to hold, you know, he's not, but like everyone on the team respected the kid and that he belonged.

Brandon Burns (45:17)
Right, right.

Brad Banyas (45:18)
That's another thing about, about

people don't realize you get in a situation where you, whether you're a coach or your assistant or you're a player or you're a third string, you belong. Right. And think that belonging to me is sometimes more important than who's a star or not. It's a team, it's a group, it's a brotherhood, it's a family. And, don't know.

Brandon Burns (45:37)
Also, I think that those are transferable skills, right? Like work ethic, integrity, trying your best no matter what, researching, putting in the work to outside of the gym to see how good you can get. That's going to transfer to everything you do, either career, parenting, no matter what you do, that skill set will transfer. Talent doesn't always transfer. You might just be genetically gifted in a freaking nature. What's that going to do for you in your career? ⁓

Brad Banyas (46:02)
I hated those

guys too that were, they're like, you know, they didn't, they didn't have to work out. They didn't have to, and they come out and run a, you know, four to five or something. just feel like, Jesus, somebody running sprints as a fat guy. This guy walks on, he just came out, he, you know, had five hamburgers, smoked a joint, he's running a four to five, whatever, but good for you.

Brandon Burns (46:14)
What am I doing?

Right, right. Happy for you,

Brad Banyas (46:28)
Good for you,

man. Good for you. Well, mean, so what all the things you've done and you what you like, where do you where do you really want to go? Because you're kind of you know, you're a mix, obviously, as an athlete from like sports speaking to business kind of coaching. What like, where do you see yourself like?

really wanting to be in five years? Other than, know, hey, Brandon Burns, you know, national motivational speaker, like what, what, what, what to you? I mean, you've already said you want to help people if you're helping people that that in itself is by itself, if you do nothing, but where do you see yourself maybe in five years?

Brandon Burns (47:07)
Yeah, yeah, I really want to spread the message, man. I want to I want to grow the speaking platform. I want to write some books. You I got like six half written books, my Google Drive right now. So I need to finish a few of those ⁓ again. Bigger stages, just more impact coaching, more people. So the speaking thing is the number one, you know, North Star for me. Fitness is always going to be a part of it. Yeah, I'm never going to stop working out. I think I've worked out every day in some capacity for the better part of a decade at this point, maybe more. So that's always going to be a part of it. Like I would love to be

the old guy who's like, no offense, your age still doing backflips. Like I just, think that'd be cool, you know? Like imagine if you could just finish this podcast and bust out a backflip. You'd be the coolest guy in the world.

Brad Banyas (47:41)
⁓ you know.

I don't know. I

couldn't even do a backflip when I was really good. It's funny you say that though, because you know, I've been around fitness my whole life as well. And you know, I'm a big believer in fitness for a lot of reasons just for your sanity, obviously your health, you know, stress management. And I do things a little different now than I would have done when I was younger. But I think if you can

Give any message to anyone. Do some sort of exercise. You don't have to be balls of the wall. You don't have to have a, you know, supermodel body. It's just so good for your soul and you know, bit, you know, it do it. You'll walk.

Yeah. Walk, ride a bike, you know, do something, do pushups. You can do that, whatever. It really will change your life. And, um, you know, as you get older, you're, you're sitting across from Kent Clark Superman here. So I'm kind of slowly hunching my shoulders, but, you know, I've had several people, I, people don't realize I went, my dad died. It was really depressed for about a year after he died. He was really good dude. And I went to like two 80 and, you know, I'm probably two 25 to 20.

wait for me and I just kind of you know was fell off and you know 280 you know my kids will tell you do they send me pictures when I was 280 is like holy shit I was fat like why didn't y'all tell me I was fat and like well you were happy like you're happy

Brandon Burns (49:14)
He's your fat nap,

he had a good personality.

Brad Banyas (49:16)
You know, whatever. But it just I was like, No, you got to live, you know, and I didn't do it to look good or did it to live made it a habit. Like you said, the hardest thing about fitness, make it a habit, you know, make it a routine, do something every day or every other day, just make it a habit and then it becomes easier.

Brandon Burns (49:32)
It becomes an

identity. mean, part of my whole brand is every day means every day. That's the mantra. That's the slogan. And just real quick, I know I told you earlier when we first met about the story of that, but I was in Chicago, Big Ten Network Studios, walked out of the broadcast booth. Some guy grabs me, says, man, how often do you work out? Instinctively, I just said every day. He said, well, no, no, I know you used to be an athlete, but like, what's your actual schedule? How often do you go to the gym? I said,

I'm confused why you're confused because I just told you I work out every day. So where's the where's the ambiguity in that statement? And it made me realize that the standard is so low in society right now that even the act of articulating your dedication and commitment to something on a daily basis rather than an occasional basis is just unbelievable to people. But the reason that I do that has nothing to do with having 22 inch biceps. Like that's cool. I like it. I'm to keep doing it. But. It's on there.

Brad Banyas (50:24)
22 inch biceps, ladies.

Girlfriend's in the studio, so take it easy. Taken.

Brandon Burns (50:31)
But the reason that I do that, I like to look good. I like to feel good. The real reason is because I believe you can kid a kid. You can fool a fool. You can kind of con, but you can't lie to yourself. I think that your soul believes half of what you tell it and all of what you show it. And so I want to show myself that I love myself, that I care about myself, that I'm committed to being my best self, that I'm committed to being here for a long time, that I am actually dedicated to showing up for me. That's why I go to the gym every day. I don't want to look. I don't want to face a hard circumstance in life and hope that I'm tough, hope that I'm disciplined, hope

that I'm dedicated. That's a bad battle plan. I want to be able to look back on 15 years of receipts and be like, no, you are that guy. You proved it. So you can go into this situation knowing who you are, not hoping who you

Brad Banyas (51:12)
⁓

Absolutely. think it's great. It's great advice. mean, I think, like I said, if you just give it the problem, think people with fitness just and I'm not a fitness guru, but they don't realize like, you know, you know, my dad always say, Hey, you know, you you dug this hole for, you know, five years and dumped your stuff, dumped the shit on you, you're not going to crawl out in a day. And I think people think that, you know,

that they're just going to go work out. That's why they somebody fall off New Year's. Everyone gets going. They just think, Oh, I'm to go at it. I'm to go at it. I'm going to go at it. And then I'm going to, I'm going to be that fitness model 30 days in. You're not, if you start and you do a good job, you'll start seeing results, three, four, five, maybe six months. And then by you do it a year and you make it routine by year two, you will be that, you know, whatever you want it to be. It's a time. And just like you said, dedication. And I just don't, you know,

Nobody wants to put the word again. It's it's it's it's and it's not hard. Oh, how could you do that? Okay. Well, you've just scrolled on, you know, YouTube or Instagram for two hours. This wasted watch it on the treadmill, right? But anyway.

Brandon Burns (52:18)
You can't walk on the treadmill for 30 minutes.

Yeah, well, you know, February is like the biggest month in the entire fitness industry because everyone falls off from their resolutions. Yeah. So it's just, you know, one of my buddies, his name is Toby Nwigwe. He's a rapper out of Houston. And E.T. Eric Thomas discovered him when he hadn't even found music yet. And he was like, dude, you really got a talent for this music thing. I think you should take a shot at it. And Toby was like, man, I don't know about all that.

So he told him, tell you what, right off five years, just right off five years.

And don't look at the results. Don't look at your stream numbers. Don't look at your YouTube subscribers. Just write off five years and go all in on this. And then if it still sucks at the end of five years, quit. And in three years, he had, you know, two million followers on Instagram and was this megastar. And I think the differentiating factor in that is if you go into anything in life, just assuming, OK, this is going to take a minute. Right. And I don't care how much it sucks along the process. I'm writing off the cost and writing a blank check for this. If you can go into it with that mindset, there's almost nothing that you can't do. The problem

is people think that they're going to get the 30 day results like you just said, and then they get pissed when they don't. And like, well, screw it. I just won't do it at all. No, you haven't earned it yet. You've earned nothing in 30 days. Yeah. You know, it's

Brad Banyas (53:35)
It's

just like business too. mean, you and I talked, think before we booked this session here is, people always ask me, like, you're gonna start a business and people don't like the answer sometimes. I'm like, if you're not gonna give it five years, then don't do it. Because it's just so hard. mean, you've got to get awareness, you've got to get momentum, you've got to get, there's so many things, you got to stay in business. You got to fund this shit.

Brandon Burns (53:52)
Yeah.

Brad Banyas (54:05)
And it's always amazed me. I love this saying, I don't know if you've heard or not, but says, people always want to be a part of the result or the final product and not the process. And they look at a business or a person and they think, oh, that guy's just always been that way or that lady's always been that way.

Brandon Burns (54:19)
100%.

Brad Banyas (54:27)
Well, no, maybe they've been working on that shit for 20 years or 50 years in my case or whatever it is. You know, they just see the end product and don't really understand. Holy shit, there was a lot that went in to even this to happen.

Brandon Burns (54:43)
Yeah, yeah. think a lot of times, to be honest, that's why God doesn't show us the process because if he did, we'd quit. We wouldn't take that. You know, like one of my buddies, Inky Johnson, another big motivational speaker here in the Atlanta area. know, he was paralyzed at Tennessee playing football and it turned into a massive career for him. But if you had went to 19 year old Inky and said, hey, I'm going to take away your dreams of the NFL and taking your family out of this situation in this environment. But it's going to cost you having a paralyzed arm and you're

Brad Banyas (54:48)
Yeah. Yeah.

Brandon Burns (55:13)
never gonna get to play football again. You think he would take that deal as a 19 year old kid? I wouldn't.

Brad Banyas (55:19)
You wouldn't, I think that talking about, think as humans we can't comprehend, first of all, the universe or really what's going on here down to the molecules or atoms of our makeup. And I see people...

I think personally they misconstrue religion as like good or bad or you're going to be punished if you do this or you're going to be rewarded if you do this. And I honest to God, mean honest to God, I don't believe that. Like I don't believe that's part of, know, obviously you don't want to be derelict and do crazy stuff to people, but sometimes maybe that's part of you being break. Talk about so many stories about people being homeless or terrible things happening to them and what their life becomes.

Yeah is amazing like that moment didn't define them that moment didn't hold them it didn't cage them And I think we look at time like oh wow 57 years of that might be a long time a rally of that's a friggin

Brandon Burns (56:22)
Nothing.

Brad Banyas (56:24)
in the eternity, right? And we want, we feel like we should be rewarded. Sometimes you do a lot of good work, you do a lot of good things in the human side, you're not awarded for it. No good deed will go unpunished.

Brandon Burns (56:38)
Yeah,

but then you got to ask the question. It's like why do need a reward? Like what what why is your only motivation to do right by people or even to do right by yourself? A reward why do you need a six-pack abs and big biceps to go to the gym and show yourself that you care about yourself and love yourself Why do you need the idea or the prospect of making a million dollars in a business if the business's goal is to help and add value to the marketplace and people? Why like why do need that?

Brad Banyas (56:42)
Yeah.

Brandon Burns (57:04)
And I'm not saying that these are bad incentives, but I do think the world is set up and designed in such a way where a lot of times we chase the shallow stuff that we think we want. And that's just kind of the carrot that the universe dangles in front of us to get us to go through the process that we really should be going through intrinsically. The reward you don't get 10 years later when you finally see that check at your bank account or you finally see the version of yourself that you wanted to in the mirror, the reward is instantaneous. It's who you're becoming in that moment. I think people miss that.

Brad Banyas (57:33)
Yeah, they miss it. mean, it's just because society values things that, we used to talk growing up, you know, we take things like integrity or loyalty or trust or things like that. And those words kind of fall out of the everyday vocabulary, right? They misplace those or they don't put them there on purpose because unity.

is starts with relationships, which grows in the community, family, community, whatever. And those are important things if we want to go. ⁓ can you, ⁓ this has been amazing, dude. You're amazing. ⁓ Can you ⁓ tell everybody like how to find you, like how to follow you, how to get involved in one of your programs and yeah.

Brandon Burns (58:18)
For sure.

Yeah, it's I am B burns on all social media I am BB you are in s pretty much every social media Instagram is the main one right now. I haven't I haven't taken Gary V's advice and branched out I was just saying on the way down here. I gotta start a podcast. I gotta stop being on them and start And I'm right. I got a studio now Come at you live from the McBastard studio But yeah, man, I am B burns on social media and then Brandon Lee burns comm

Brad Banyas (58:33)
You've got a spot now, you guys.

You

Yeah, well. ⁓

you Brandon, you've been awesome. I'm so glad we connected. know, nothing is nothing is happenstance. I think everything happens for a reason. You get connected to get people and I mean, your message is awesome. You're very articulate. I mean, you kind of walk the walk. So if someone's going to you, you can talk to him about fitness and talk to him about motivation. And I think it's amazing. And I'm honored to have you on and I'm looking forward to staying with you guys as you as you climb that mountain.

Brandon Burns (59:14)
Thank you brother, I appreciate it. Let's do it again sometime.

Brad Banyas (59:15)
Let's do it, man. You're welcome anytime in the McBastard studio. So you heard it folks, Brandon Burns live from the McBastard studio, Salty Mefko podcast. check them out. go see what he's doing. He's a good guy. He's got some, some good messages out there and also young people, you know, find someone in your group or around your age that you can trust and are good people and learn from them. you're not alone out there. Don't worry about where you're at. Just try to get to the spot you want to go and keep moving. That's all.