Brant Phillips Show 4: Good is Bad. Bad is Good

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All right, everybody. Today, we’re going to talk about why good is bad and bad is good. Why good is bad and why bad is good. I recently did a webinar, a coaching webinar in regards to real estate. It was called Bad Flip Gone Good. I’m not going to get too much into the real estate stuff today. Although I will record a separate podcast all about that particular deal and how it was really, really bad and it ended up really, really good.

It related to around the time, this was many years ago. We were in a particular market where we were flipping houses like crazy because there was a first time home buyer tax credit that some of you may remember. We were turning them out right after left. As soon as we were putting them on the market, they were selling just like super, super fast. What happened was sometimes whenever things are going really good, it’s not that it’s not good, it’s that when things are going really good in our life, in our marriage, in our business, in our health, we tend to get lazy. We tend to get complacent and we lose our edge. We lose our edge just a little bit and sometimes a lot bit.

What happened to me was I lost my edge a little bit got a little bit too overconfident meaning I wasn’t looking over my shoulders. I wasn’t looking ahead of the market at some things that could potentially change and potentially change really quick. They did and I got stuck holding some property. One in particular … I’ve got my wife’s little, I’m not even going to call it a dog. It’s a little, it’s a furry-rodent that is with me. I think it’s classified as a dog. It weighs about two pounds. If you hear some whining and moaning and groaning in the background, that would be my friend Daisy, my good friend Daisy who’s here. Say hi Daisy. No luck there.

Anyways, the situation, it was a situation that I hadn’t really dealt with like that. I had a financing crisis going on. I had this property yada, yada, yada, and ultimately was able to turn that deal into $100,000 net deal. Now, it took a few years later. It took shifting. It took me becoming a … It took me having to level up and learn some new business maneuvers and techniques and just really grow my capacity because I didn’t have the capacity to pull off that deal at the time until I learned it. Ultimately, that bad flip became really, really good.

Let’s talk about this in terms of your life and in terms of your business because the fact of the matter is that we are all going to go through difficult times. We’re all going to have challenges, we’re all going to have setbacks. We’re all going to get punched in the face every now and then. The real fact of the matter is that it’s going to happen. Ultimately, the cool thing is that’s how we learn the absolute most is when we get punched in the face. That’s where we learn the most about our character.

I’ll tell you what. When our backs are against the wall, that is where we get to learn how we’re going to respond. I’ve been through so much stuff over the years in terms of in my life and in my business. My back’s been against the wall so many damn times. Now it’s almost as if I’m wired that way. I believe that I am wired that way now. In Romans 12, it talks about, “We’ve been transformed by the renewing of our mind.”

The transformation, I think that’s happened in me. I believe this has happened for most successful entrepreneurs, is that one, one thing I like to note; is that whenever our backs are against the wall, whenever there’s a challenge, there’s some type of situation that comes in, that is a trigger. Roll up your sleeves and let’s fight. It’s time to go to work. It’s time to get out of this situation. This is really nothing more than an opportunity. It’s an opportunity to learn. It’s an opportunity to grow. It’s an opportunity to expand. It’s an opportunity to increase your capacity whenever these difficult times come in.

Then the other thing that I’ve learned over the years of being an entrepreneur is that life is game. Business is certainly just a game. It’s just a game. The thing is we have to learn how to play the game to win. One of the ways for you to consider of how to play this game is whenever you’re setting goals, whenever you’re setting objectives and things that you want to achieve, the first thing is …

Let’s talk about goal setting for a minute. When you’re setting goals you have to think about the situation in terms of good is bad and bad is good. If you’re out there setting goals that are like layups that are so easy to hit and they’re not really challenging you or pushing you that much, first consider just don’t do that. Just don’t even do that because you’re going to get in that situation where you’re not really stretching yourself. If you’re hitting your goals, like these little just weak ass goals, you know what? You’re really pushing yourself as an entrepreneur. You’re really growing your business in the capacity that you really could. If you’re honest with yourself and you answer that question, likely the answer is going to be, “No, you’re not.”

Hey, this is Brant. I hope you’re enjoying today’s show. If you’re in a place in your life or your business where you just feel stuck or you just don’t know what actions to take to help you get unstuck or on to the path to creating the results you truly desire, please take a few minutes and go to my website, brantphillips.com. There are some really valuable resources and information that may be able to help you out. If you’re interested in really speeding up results with the help of a coach, a mentor and adding true accountability and guidance to your life and business, please reach out to me from my website as well at brantphillips.com or going directly to www.brantphillips.com/coaching. Now, let’s get back to the show.

When we get into goal setting, you really want to be setting goals where you have slightly more than a 50% chance of hitting that objective, slightly more than 50% chance. You don’t want to set a goal where it’s like 99.9% impulse that you’re going to achieve it because likely you’re just going to quit and give up because it’s not realistic or it’s not possible. Then if you’re setting goals where you’ve got a 10% or 15% chance of failing that’s too easy, because if you’ve got like this 90% chance that you’re going to hit it, that’s way easy.

You want to set goals that are somewhere in the 50% to 55% chance likely that you’re going to hit it. If you hit it, then that’s great but don’t be satisfied with it. Immediately shift and level up that goal and set the new objective. If you don’t hit your target then that’s good. Assuming that you played all in, you busted ass and you went after it, then that’s why it is good because you don’t allow yourself this opportunity to become complacent. You don’t allow yourself this opportunity to just pat yourself on the back. That’s a way that we can trick the system. We can trick this game of business, this game of life to set these goals where it’s okay if we fail. That is a good thing because it drives us to push harder and do more.

When things do go wrong, when things do go “Bad” and I hate even using the word bad. It should really, things are either useful or non-useful. When things are bad, what is that really? When we look at the results that have ended up being non-useful or bad or whatever you want to call it, all of that really is, is feedback. It’s just feedback. It’s there in that moment. It’s there in that exact moment whenever there’s been something that’s happened, we’ll call that the stimulus. After the stimulus becomes our response, it’s our choice of what we choose to do. There, in lies between that stimulus and your response our choice of what we’re going to do.

I just want you to consider that these negative results and these bad things that we face as entrepreneurs, they’re simply feedback. That is our choice of what we do with it. I want you to also consider that these times when we are down, when our backs are against the wall, when a deal goes bad, when a relationship is falling apart, when our health and fitness is at its worst, those are the greatest times for us to come back and learn and grow and expand. The times whenever I was the brokest in my business or when the deals that fell through and where I’ve lost the most money have been absolutely the times where I have learned the most and I’ve rebounded the biggest. The times when my marriage was like on the rocks and on the ropes and at its worst point ever is whenever my wife and I have reinvigorated our marriage and just like made the commitment to play all in and just restored in areas where it was broken.

When I was the most overweight, out of shape, fat as you know what, that’s whenever I made the biggest decisions in my life and I’ve made the most radical changes in my health and fitness. The same thing on the spiritual side of things. When I was so detached and away from God is where I had the opportunity to really open up my eyes and reconnect spiritually with God and things that I was missing in that area of my life.

My friends, today’s message is all about pushing you, motivating you, hopefully inspiring and equipping you to consider that when things may seem their darkest, when things may seem their darkest, that it is always darkest just before the dawn. It’s up to you to roll up your sleeves and do the work and push towards creating the results that you desire.

I’m going to leave you with this. Psalm 30 talks about, “Weeping may last for a night, but joy comes in the morning.” I believe that scripture and I love that scripture because whenever we go through these times, the joy is going to come in the morning. Also consider in the Bible references the morning as being the morning and the daylight when the sun comes up.

Also consider that we can do a little play on words here. We can look at that as well as the joy, our joy, our results can also come through the mourning. We’re going to spell mourning with an M-O-U-R-N-I-N-G, through our mourning, through our grieving. During this time when we’re like, “God, that hurts so bad. This deal went sideways. That partner screwed me over, whatever happened, blah, blah, blah, story, story, story, blah, blah, blah, when those times in your life and during that mourning, when you find yourself mourning, when you find yourself grieving, when you find yourself hurting in whatever area of life, consider that that my friend, let that trigger go off, flip that switch and recognize in your mind that right there in that moment is the opportunity for you to learn and grow. Extract the lesson from the feedback that you’ve received. Shift gears and go out and create the results that you truly desire in your life and in your business. That’s today’s message. I appreciate and love each and every one of you. With that, I am signing off.