Brian Smith Intro

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today on the servant leadership podcast Brian Smith the Visionary founder of Ugg shares his remarkable Journey from

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introducing sheep skin boots to America to transforming Ugg into a global Powerhouse his story is a testament to

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resilience passion and unwavering determination but success didn't come easy before Ugg became a billion doll

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brand Brian faced the unthinkable losing ownership of the company he built yet through persistence and grit he fought

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to reclaim his vision and turn his dream into a lasting Legacy in this episode Brian shares how he navigated the

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extreme highs and lows of Entrepreneurship proving that even our greatest setbacks can pave the way for

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Extraordinary opportunities join us and learn from Brian's journey of reclaiming his vision and hear how your greatest

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disappointments can become your greatest blessings Brian it is so good to be with

Welcome Brian Smith

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you thank you for being on the servant leadership podcast hey my pleasure I'm looking forward to it your journey is unbelievable um

Brian's Unbelievable Life/Career Journey

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literally it's hard to believe C could you share with our audience some of your journey and how

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you became really a brand that's synonymous with Australia Ugg boots yeah well that

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that's a very loaded question because we go for three days on that but the short

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version is that I graduated after 10 years of studying to be a ched

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accountant like a CPA I finally graduated and I quit the same day and I

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really didn't want to be an accountant and for quite a while I was trying to figure out what to do and and I was

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meditating one morning and you know this is 45 years ago so this is way before

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yoga and meditating was popular but um I was meditating and thought you know all

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the big trends are coming out of California and I I should go to

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California and find the next big thing and bring it back to Australia and make my fortune you know and so literally

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within a couple of weeks I arrived in LA and I rented a little house in Santa Monica and I I rented a Dodge van and

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and I had my surfboard and the first thing I did was go up to Malibu because I I'd been dreaming of of you know

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looking reading Surfer magazine since I was you know 10 years old wishing I could go to Malibu so I spent several

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months surfing every day up at Malibu and looking around for the next big thing and you know looking at Billboards

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and and newspapers and you know talking to friends and and it was like four or

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five months and I hadn't found it and uh then one afternoon in like November the

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the wind had got really cold and the the water was really chilly and I got out of

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the surf at Malibu and I was pulling on my sheep skin boots that I'd brought from

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Australia and it just hit me like Goosebumps oh my god there are no sheep

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skinn boots in America and one in two Australians had some sort of sheep skinn

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Footwear so I looked at my buddy Doug next to me and said man we got to go into a business we we're got to be

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instant Millionaires and if you have a bunch of entrepreneurs watching this they're all

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gonna have all been with you AA moment where they're going to be instant Millionaires and uh

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bottom line is Doug and I went back to my house and we did some research and we ended up calling a a a manufacturer in

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Western Australia and we talked him into becoming his distributor so we ordered a

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half a dozen pairs of BS and uh and they arrived and uh you know Doug was going

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to be the salesman so he went out to every shoe store in Southern California and came back and said you know Brian

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they think we're crazy trying to sell sheep skin in California and although

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that sounds logical you know California's climate's identical to Australia so that wasn't the reason and

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so you when you're an entrepreneur and you hit a war you have to think laterally and so I thought well how come

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all my friends up at Malibu think this is the greatest idea and it struck me oh my God so many of them had been to

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Australia on their surf trips and they discovered ugs in Australia and they bought a half a dozen pairs back for all

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their buddies So within the surf Community it was well known so Doug and I switched gears and we decided to get a

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list of all the surf shops in California and he took the Inland at Valley up in San San Fernando Valley and

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I took all the coastal stores and I was terrified of sales believe me I was an

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accountant right but I remember walking into the first store with my little duffle bag a little was a little carry

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bag had three pairs of samples and and you know I open it up really sheepishly

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and he goes oh Ugg boots man they're great all my friends Rave about them I

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went w Really you know he says and I said what are you doing with him and I said well I'm thinking of importing him

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into America oh my God you're gonna make a fortune those things are the best you

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know so I walked out of the store thinking well this sales isn't so bad you know and that happened to me all the

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way down the coast you know from Malibu all the way down to Mexico and Doug got a great reception in the valley at the

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same time so it it never occurred to either of us though that we hadn't asked

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for an order you know I mean we didn't have any inventory so it sort of seemed

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pointless you know but now now we knew we needed we needed inventory and so by

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a pure fluke my roommate overheard us talking and he introduced us to some people at his work who are investors and

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we raised 20 grand which in today's money is probably about 88 80,000 and we bought 500 pairs in and uh you know we

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put the order in and and they arrived uh in the middle of December and uh we picked them up from the airport from

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customs and put them in the third bedroom in my little house and uh so now

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we packed up our our cars with really big duffel bags full of product and we

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had order pads and I remember going back to that same first store and I go okay Jim how many do you want and he he just

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looked at me and went oh my God Brian you know well done but we couldn't sell them in our store we just sell

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surfboards and Trunks and flipflops and you're G to do great in the shoe stores I oh my God you know and so went

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to the next store oh well done Brian but we just sell surf boards and bikinis and Trunks and flipflops and you're going to

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do great in the shoe stores and I I went to every single store that on my that I

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had on my first trip and Doug did the same and the first Year's sales orders

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for you know we delivered by the end of December was 28

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pairs so you can imagine what a disappointment that was you know we bought 500 pairs in anticipation and we

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sold 28 Pairs and you know the the as as

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as much of a setback as that was at the time I've learned over years and years and years of watching people watching

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entrepreneurs and and being you know starting several businesses myself there's a common theme for every

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entrepreneur and that is that you can't give birth to adults

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right every entrepreneur conceives you you know conceives of the idea and then

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they have the biggera and they and they they take the first action which is the birth like the the birth of a was me

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buying six pairs of samples and then every business just goes into this horrible infancy and it just lies there

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and it lies there and every entrepreneur will have gone through this and you know

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it's just so demoralizing but you can't give up you got to keep feeding the baby and changing diapers and stuff but

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eventually it'll start toddling and that's when you know the first True Believers are out there talking about

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your product and magazines are writing articles about you and that toddling eventually goes into the youth phase

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which is a really good phase because you have sales and marketing is working and

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production is working um the warehouse and the office staff are working and you

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know all all of the elements are working and you can run a 2030 million company

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in that youth phase but if it's a really great product or a really great service

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you know like a was a great product you're G to hit the teenage years and do

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you remember when you were a teenager you on Saturday night you wanted to be in every party in town right well it's

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exactly the same in business you you you just want to be at every major trade show and every Mass retailer and it's

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suicidal if you go too fast during that period And I almost lost the company a couple of times during that phase but

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eventually you know the the accountants put all the controls in and it becomes a mature company so that you know I'll

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hold my book up it's called the birth of a brand and uh it's a road map for

"The Birth Of A Brand" - A Roadmap For Entrepreneurs

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entrepreneurs and uh it it it starts off the day I you know had the idea all the

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way through till I sold the company which was 19 years and it it's just got so many points of philosophy and

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spirituality you know how to get up after you being knocked down you know how to work around people how to you

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know overcome Financial situations and it's just turned into being you know a really good book and and so that's the

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short version of how ug got started with the sale of 28 pairs it is such an amazing story and

Persevering Through Challenges

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and I think one of the things that that really interest me personally is what you said you thought it was a million

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dollar idea from the get-go yeah and maybe it was but that perseverance to

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get there um it's unbelievable but I don't think people realize when they

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look at you and some of the some of the things you've built and ug especially uh

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the there it was riddled with challenges and times that it might have gone under even uh oh many many many many times yes

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sh share with us what was that like because it wasn't easy and you really did almost go under a couple times yeah

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well it took nearly five years for me to figure it out and I could have given up

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so many times in that five years but you know the the uh you know I because

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December was like the end of the year that's why we had a 28 per year right but I sold January February March at

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you know swap meets and street fairs and and everything and the best deal I had going was the back of my van in the

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parking lot at Malibu so excuse me

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so um the best thing I had going was the back of my you know Dodge van in in the

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parking lot at Malibu because I would go up there at 6:30 in the morning I'd Surf and then I get a cup of coffee and and

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I'd open up the back of the van and I'd be open for BS business you know and after a few months like the word of

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mouth got out that you know hey where'd you get those ug boots oh well there's a guy in the parking lot at Malibu you

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know so so like I had a popup store 40 years before popup stores were really

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popular you know and and so I ended up selling about $5,000 worth of product

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over January February March and then the summer came I had to get a summer job and uh the next season I thought okay

Advertising Lessons

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I'm going to advertise so I got this you know good-look girl and a good-looking guy and posed them on the beach down at

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La Hoya and the perfect hair and and clothing and the Ugg boots were like you

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know this big in the in the in the photograph you know and uh I ran the ads

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October November December in Surfer and surfing magazines and the sales went to like $110,000 which should have been way

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way more so I shut it down for the next summer and and the next summer I was in working con ruction in Beverly Hills and

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Belair you know and I thought okay next season I'm I'm going to get better looking models and a more expensive

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photographer right so we did that and we posed them on the beach at Malibu the you know the boots were like main

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feature of the photo and the sales that year went to

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$20,000 and I couldn't figure it out it should have been way way more and so my

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next summer job the third summer was uh um working on a golf course in East San

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Diego as a greens keeper I really loved that job but during that summer I realized you know I'm just going to go

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out of business because Americans don't understand sheep skin you know Australians were born with sheep skin

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knowledge and you cannot rip one and you can get them wet while while you're wearing them and they they stay warm and

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you can wash them and Americans was oh it's too hot and it's too prickly and we have mud and slush where we are they'll

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never work you know and so there was a huge disconnect in in just general knowledge about sheep skin and so I

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decided okay I'm just going to quit off the inventory and and go out of business

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and so October rolls around and every every October the first storm hits the coast of California and and California's

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go oh oh it's winter you know so so I got home from the golf course what this

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October afternoon and I was soaking wet and I walked in my house and and the

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answering machine had about 25 messages from all of my surf shop retailers and

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they going Brian Brian I've I've been swamped all day Everybody's In Here Wanting Ugg boots and I've run out can I

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come down and get some more you know and I I started to realize I can't even go out of business properly you know and uh

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so I ordered a whole bunch more from Australia and I delivered everything I could and and this year I thought you

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know I got to figure out this advertising and so I was having a beer

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with one of my surf shop retailers and and I was explaining this advertising and he says shut up BR he calls out the

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back to all these 12 13 year old kids who store their boards in the surf shop you know and he said what do you guys

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think of ug birds and every one of them they just

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went oh man those Uggs they're so fake have you seen those models they can't

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Surf and I realized that I've been sending the wrong message to my target

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market for three years and not knowing I was absolutely damaging my brand by

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doing this really shitty advertising right and so this time again lateral

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thinking I I called up a buddy of mine who was in Orange County who's running a Scholastic surf team I said hey Pete do

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you have any young kids who are going to go pro soon and he gave me two guys Mike Parsons and Ted Robinson and instead of

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the expensive photographer I just took my little Canon sh shot you know we went surfing at Black's Beach down in La Hoya

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and trestles which is up in s Clemente and these are two iconic walks they are a mile to get to the water there's

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always fantastic surf there and I knew that every kid who reads Surfer magazine

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would identify with these walks and so I just took a couple of shots of them

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walking to and from the the the beach and I ran the ads in October and November December

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the sales went to $220,000 you know why because I'd

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finally figured out that marketing and advertising is about you never advertise

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your product you advertise the feeling or the benefits of it what it's going to

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do to your consumer like I knew that every little kid who saw that would be G oh my God I would die to be walking on

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that road to trestles with Mike Parsons you know so what does he do at you know Christmas so Mom Mom all the cool kids

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at school have got Ugg boots you know and so thousands and thousands of moms got inundated with this Ugg fever

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because it was it became a real movement and uh the the whole thing turned out to

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be um the turning point for me and marketing the brand and the interesting

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thing is in the early ads the the ug boots were probably half the page

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in the ads that worked with Mike and Ted you couldn't even see them they're almost invisible and so it just shows that you

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never advertise the product per se you advertise what it's going to make you feel like and the more successful you

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can draw people into the photograph or the you know the website or whether it's

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a video the more you can draw them in and get them invested in that feeling the better the ads will be and so that

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that was really the beginning of the the the the surge of ug ug is one of those brands that that

Ambassador/Influencer Groups - Boots On The Ground

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you just built such an amazing Ambassador group for maybe you didn't even know that they were becoming

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ambassadors but people just started talking about ug like wildfire just yeah

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if you didn't have a pair of Ugg boots at lagona high or Malibu high you're just not one of the cool kids as you

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think through that how easy or hard is that to replicate as people try to think

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through how how do you help a brand get ambassadors and catch on well to because

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of the internet today now keep in mind I sold the company in 95 so that's right the the year the internet started right

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um uh but today you the the equivalent would be using

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influencers right but you got to be very careful with influencers because they they've got to you know the the ads that

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I showed were so realistic that these influencers everybody knew that they were you know good um today there's so

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many influencers you don't really know what you're getting but um the bottom

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line is you can't do it overnight it t it took five years for me to figure that

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marketing piece out the advertising piece and then you know it was years

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more of with my Salesforce with boots on the ground you know doing trade shows

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going out to visit customers and stuff like that they all needed to get on the same plan and and this is where you know

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I know the title of your your show is about leadership and and I can't say

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that I had any special leadership tricks but except for one and that is and it's

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not a trick if you have the vision and the passion then other people follow so you

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don't really thrust leadership on them you just go out yourself and people

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who will believe in what you're doing will follow so that that to me is the best leader when there's no rules and

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everybody just wants to do whatever it is to help the you know the movement go forward and so you know I started

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duplicating the the surf model in uh snowboarding which had just started then

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and skiing was pretty old but there there was a crossover with snowboarding and skiing so I I I sponsored a bunch of

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young kids in the in the snowboarding market and they just took it off and it

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was like the ug surfing thing happening all over over again in the snow and I was stuck for a couple of years with the

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Midwest and back East because I you know there's no surfing and very little snowboarding and and I and I was I was

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finally in in a big Sporting Goods store and I just happen to ask the guy you know the buyer I said well what do the

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kids here do for sport in the in the wintertime and he sort of rolled his

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eyes you know and he goes well they play hockey and I'm Australian we we don't

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have hockey so I had no idea that that was a big movement and when I started to

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research it I found oh my God it's bigger than surfing you know so I started advertising in a little magazine

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in Min Minnesota called let's play hockey in Minneapolis it was a Kids magazine and I started sponsoring you

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know the mom of the week and and had all these young young hockey players you

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know wearing the product and so that did you know surfing then snowboarding and now hockey across the rest of the world

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and all the kids back East are going Mom all the cool kids have got a pair of UGGs at high school you know I want a

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pair and so mom's in the department store you know buying them and she go oh my God that my daughter would like these

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you know oh my God I have to sit in that rink for three hours at 40 degrees you know I might get a pair for myself so

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the whole thing you know it didn't just take off Nationwide IT pocket by pocket

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by pocket was discovered and that that was a secret because it wasn't a fake

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Big Marketing push it it it was a boots on the ground awareness uh thing that

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happened and each area reacted differently and uh you know the timeline

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was amazing so yeah it was a lot about understanding who the consumer is and trying to find what fits them to make

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them want to be part of your movement I I think that story line is so

How Do You Start A Billion Dollar Business?

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helpful because people really are looking for the next overnight success or how to get rich quick or whatever and

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and I just don't see it happen really um yeah I I get asked a lot you know how do

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you start a billion dollar business you know because this is a third year ugs of being two billion right and I just tell

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them you can't start a billion dollar business because it takes two things one's a you know breakthrough product or

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service you can control that you can hire a bunch of Engineers to build a website you engineer to build a product

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that's so that's doable but you need a worldwide societal shift to happen

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before a product gets picked up and goes Nationwide or International and there

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were two I looked at them as competitors they didn't know I existed but when I

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started ug there was Nike who for years five or six years have been trying to

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get into the running market and and uh they were advertising running magazines

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and trying to get into college you know athletic departments and stuff but completely outside of their control the

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spoted jogging took off right back in the in the very early 80s and everyone

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who wants to get into jogging you know picking up running magazines going what's the best shoe and here's this

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Nike being Nike's been there Nike you know year after year after year has been there so they all started buying Nikes

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and as jogging took off worldwide Nike got sucked into this Vortex of demand

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and went into the billions right the other company at the same time was

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trying to get into the dance Market they had a little white kid leather shoe which they were advertising for dance

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studios and they're trying to get into the all the cheerleading teams in the high schools and the colleges and they'd

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been nearly 10 years floundering getting nowhere nowhere nowhere and then the sport of aerobics takes off

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right and uh that obviously was Reebok and they just got sucked into this

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demand like people started going well the best you looks like Reebok been around forever you know and so Reebok

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got sucked into this millions and hundreds of millions and billions and the interesting thing which which your

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listeners will love is that I read the book called shoe dog by Phil Knight who

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started Nike and he wrote his book like I did I started Ed at chapter one and the sales

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zero right and and went year by year by year by what the the volume was would

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you believe that the first five years sales of ug was greater than the first five years sales of

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Nike right so even companies like that had to go through the birth to adult

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growth pattern it's just infallible that is so good and and just

24:54
so cool uh and by the way you are such a gifted story um yeah I love that well you talk about

Servant Leadership Perspectives

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one of your gifts as a leader was Vision casting yes when you hear the word servant leadership or that term what do

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you think of well F my first blush is that it's religious right as in Jesus

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serving you know Mankind and so we should all serve and and you know hopefully people will follow um but I

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you know the best way you can serve you know all my employees was to um have a

25:32
fun environment and they got paid every week you know with a potential for bonuses and that that was that was how I

25:40
was able to get lots of people to to see the same vision that I had and to help

25:46
work towards that yeah well one of the things that I've I've heard you say previously and I

Greatest Disappointments Become Your Greatest Blessings

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don't know how often you say it but you talk about some of your greatest disappointments becoming your greatest blessings yeah how how do you see that

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play out and has it continued to play out post ug it it'll play out for

26:08
eternity and it's been playing out for the eternity in the past that you know I

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asked the question you know from the stage a lot because I my real you know

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Forte is speaking on from the stage and I asked people I tell some stories about

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you know how I I lost control of the company and then by hanging in there I finally got it back again and you know

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there was so many times I could have given up and I asked people you know raise your hand if in the last 12 months

26:37
something happened in your personal life because I don't just talk about business I talk about personality and and

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spirituality and stuff like that something disastrous happened in the last 12 months and now you look back and

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think thank God that happened and I promise you 80% of the audience puts

26:56
their hands up you you know it's such an infallible thing and I I could tell you you know many times of of you know

27:03
problems that I had sometimes with investors who I would it was a disaster because my sales were so much greater

27:10
next year and they the old investors didn't have any more money to put in so I had to buy them out and bring in bigger ones and and each one of those

27:18
was a horrible disappointment to have to get rid of the old company and start a new one but but within six months we're

27:25
like rocketing off on a new trajectory and so every time the the new you know

27:31
the new environment became much much better so yeah there there's and especially in a personal life you know

27:37
with friends or with family and stuff like that you know something can happen that's a real disaster and it'll maybe

27:43
kick you out of the house and you look back six months later and think I love being by myself you know this is the

27:50
best thing that ever happened I got kicked out right so there's always a silver lining to you know any disaster

27:57
that can happen well so you've talked a little bit about selling UG and you've talked a little

Dealing With Investors

28:04
bit about about Investors uh from afar you've had an interesting journey of in

28:09
and out of ug um and how did you first even decide we should we should sell

28:17
some equity and then share with our audience some of the story because that in and of itself whatever you can share

28:22
is a crazy story of uh some of the partners you brought in and how that kind of shook loose throughout time sure

28:30
sure the the each time I had to buy out the smaller investor to get the bigger

28:36
one in was a personal cost to me because I had to go on the line and promise to pay these guys you know back with a

28:43
piece of profits it was all every deal was different but but finally um I I had

28:51
lost control of the company through having to sell investment put you know but by a pure fluke I ended up getting

28:59
100% of the company back it's not enough time to go into that here but uh it's it's a great two chapters in my book

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it's phenomenal chapters on how I got the company back and then I was much

29:11
more Savvy in bringing in the final investors who we could take it you know from the the uh two to three million you

29:19
know four million range up into the the you know 10 to 15 20 million range and

29:25
um it got to the point where after about five years of that group um we had an

29:33
incredibly good season and we just done about 15 million in sales and I and I

29:38
was looking at all the preseason orders for next year and I realized it's going to be around 25 million and I had no way

29:45
in hell of financing that nor did my current investors and so I started

29:52
looking around for you know ways to to try and finance it and you know that didn't look good

29:58
and you know I thought God if I don't figure out something this whole thing's going to implode and the company will

30:04
disappear and the flakiest thing happened I'm going to backtrack remember

30:10
my little spot at Malibu well two or three spaces up was another guy called Dog Doug Auto and he had these sandals

30:19
that were pink yellow and pink neoprene flip-flops and uh he built his company

30:26
and we were in and out of surf shops all the time seeing each other is 45 years ago right and uh and he eventually took

30:35
on a bunch of licenses and built his company that way and one of the licenses he took on was T sandals and you recall

30:43
when the outdoor Market took off in the early 80s that that early 90s I should say that market just went through the

30:49
roof and so he took his company from like 16 million to 66 million in one

30:57
season and then he took his company public on top of that and so he was sitting on a

31:03
war chest of about $30 million in cash right so back to my story where I'm

31:10
faced with 25 million sales next year not having to know how to finance it I

31:15
was going to a big trade show in Atlanta called the Super Show Sporting Good Show

31:21
and way at the other end of baggage claim at the airport I saw a Doug and

31:26
and I just got these good bumps you know I thought oh my God it's perfect his

31:32
company dies every every winter our company dies every summer so if you can

31:37
put them together you got a year round Salesforce year round accounting Administration year round shipping and

31:44
it was brilliant and I knew he had 30 million in cash and so I walked up to

31:49
him and we joked about buying each other out all the time you know and uh finally

31:54
I said Doug if ever we're going to do it Now's the Time you know and we we high-fived and that afternoon we had the

32:01
accountants back in California talking to each other and like eight eight or

32:06
nine months later we finally closed on the on the sale it was all for cash so it was it was equivalent to me going

32:13
public without having to go public you know so we we cashed out with a little royalty stream on the end of that so it

32:20
was just one of those fluky lucky things but the only way you can get to those

32:25
lucky things happening is if you haven't given up in the time yeah well and it seems like maybe

Lessons Learned On Structuring Investments

32:31
before even that exit happened there were a lot of trouble times getting investors on and and just the structure

32:40
of some of the deals you learned a lot along the way with how to structure Investments better it sounds like yeah

32:47
well I'll I'll try and squeeze in one more little story that one of those instances happened with getting three

32:53
new investors from Anaheim and they were already in the distribution business so I signed a new deal with them and but

33:01
there was a two provisors one I was going to be full-time on the road selling which I absolutely loved by this

33:07
stage because I was really really good at it and I loved the product the other thing though was I didn't get my 25% we

33:14
were all going to share at 25% each and I didn't get my 25% stock certificate

33:19
issued until I finished the trademark lawsuit right and so we moved all the

33:26
inventry up to Anaheim and I got them all set up there and I went on the road the first day and I the very first store

33:32
I walked into was Huntington Surf and Sport and and my buddy there the owner he goes hey Bri I heard you sold the

33:38
company and I went what he said yeah I called an ordering this morning they said you don't own the company anymore

33:45
and I just went you're kidding me they said that and I couldn't wait to go out to the Shell gas station next door

33:52
because that was before cell phones right and I called up anah what the hell are you telling people people he says

33:58
what do you mean I saidou telling them I don't own the company he says well you don't you know you don't get your stock

34:03
certificate and I go you're my three new partners we're all 25 no you

34:09
don't you know and I hung up the phone and I drove back to San Diego and I I looked at the contract and I reread the

34:15
contract and went oh I don't even own the company you know and uh I went

34:21
into this massive depression for three days and I didn't speak to anybody outside of my wife you know

34:28
I I I couldn't take a phone call I couldn't make a phone call I couldn't get my head around how I'd lost the

34:34
company and uh now three strangers you know who didn't even know about ug three

34:39
months ago when now own the C you know just just bewildered and it was about

34:44
the third night that I was uh lying on my back you know on on the floor in the

34:49
living room and my wife was sitting on the couch and the the TV show finished I clicked it off and I I rolled over onto

34:56
my stomach and got up on my hands and knees and started crawling to the

35:01
bedroom and my wife just looked at me and go and she's really quiet right she

35:06
just looked at me and goes you get up now and walk to bed like a man you know

35:12
she scared the crap out of me you know and and it sort of snapped out of me as

35:17
I'm coming up off the floor I thought oh my God there's so much more to life than this crappy little sheep skin company

35:24
and so the next day I got you know medit again and got back to being you know

35:29
Brian Mr positive and I thought well what can I sell you know what can I do

35:36
and you know finally I thought sales I've come to love sales now what can I sell and you know I got these Goosebumps

35:43
again which which to me is a very spiritual thing I go into that in my book a lot quite in depth about

35:49
Goosebumps but I got these Goosebumps and I thought oh my God I love Uggs you know so I I ate Humble Pie and I called

35:56
the guys up and at Anaheim and uh said listen I may never own the company but I

36:02
I promise you I'm going to go on the road I'm going to get every American in the country to wear a pair of ug boots

36:07
and you and so I started out you know on the road that that that month and went

36:13
out visit we promised never to tell anybody that I sold the company okay that was a big deal so nobody knew out

36:20
there in the in the marketplace and and I was just sales wasn't even a job to me

36:26
anymore sales was so much fun because I knew all the the the retailers we'd play

36:31
golf or we'd surf or we you know and I I would go into their store and organize the sheep skin section and they would

36:37
just sign a PO when I walked out they didn't even really look at it you know and so I had that amount of trust with

36:43
them all and uh you know I got back after that first month and Neil hands me

36:49
an envelope and I open up a check for $5,000 and he says well that's your commissions I went and I went back

36:56
on the road the next month was a check for 10 grand and the next month another check for 10 grand and that's when that

37:02
saying we talked about earlier you know nearly always your most disappointing disappointments will become your

37:08
greatest blessings here I was not even working making you know tons of money

37:15
and having a great time with all my friends and over the next three years that led into me traveling all across

37:23
the country I had 30 sales reps in the country and each one every time I came

37:29
to to their town they had to have their 10 best retailers lined up for an appointment to go see them and so over

37:36
the course of three years three times I got to see 300 retailers right which was

37:43
like you couldn't do that online anymore it's just you had to be there physically

37:48
and so they'd take me hunting in Idaho or playing golf in New Jersey I mean it was just like the best best time and uh

37:58
after three years the the weirdest thing happened Neil bought Joe and Paul out so

38:03
he now owned 100% of the company and he called me up and said hey

38:09
come on in you know you you finished that lawsuit come on in next Wednesday I'm GNA you know get the lawyers in

38:15
we'll issue your stock and and you know oh we bought company cars and we took

38:20
out life insurance policies on each other you know I was in heaven and at the weekend my my wife called and now I

38:27
did have a cell phone it was a big thing like a brick in the car right and she was crying and she goes oh Brian Neils

38:34
just died and everything that was so positive just crashed again and I called up his

38:42
widow and I made a promise to her the next day that I'll stick around for a year no salary I'll just try and figure

38:48
out what works and see if we can save the company and there's another two

38:54
chapters in the book about that period which was you know but the bottom line is um the life insurance came through at

39:01
the very last moment and it was enough to buy Neil's Widow out plus all the

39:07
assets plus all of the profits for the year and she was so thankful because she'd never stepped foot inside the

39:13
business she had no idea what was going on so I basically saved her retirement

39:19
and I got 100% of the company back as a consequence and yeah I mean I was

39:25
totally broke because I gave her all the money but I know I owned 100% of the company and it enabled me then to start

39:31
off getting new and better investors in with being a little bit

39:37
smarter your resilience is unbelievable because so many people would have given up along the way yeah you know I'm so

Building Resilience In Others Through Stories

39:46
impressed by that Journey but also what you're doing now you're going around the world speaking at conferences and with

39:53
teams to help build some resiliency in in people talk real quick about what

39:58
you're doing with speaking now sure it's I never intended to be a speaker but I

40:05
uh after I sold the company and and you know maybe 10 years later I'd started another concrete and steel company in

40:10
the meantime which did fantastically but got wiped out in the 2009 recession so

40:16
in 2010 I just decided to write the book and uh it published it went pretty it

40:23
was 2014 actually so was almost 15 years and I published the book and everybody

40:30
that read it just went oh my God this is so good you should be on the stage talking about

40:35
this and so I I got an opportunity to speak on a friend stage you know where

40:42
everybody was friendly and uh I I I met a girl who

40:48
used to run the floor for Tony Robbins and she said Brian you need three good

40:53
stories three bad stories a beginning and an end so I over the weekend I put that together right um and everybody

41:01
stood up and clapped and laugh they loved it and I and the what was surprising me is that all the people uh

41:08
that got gave me testimonials were so genuinely helped by hearing the stories

41:15
of the you know the desperate stories that I went through and I thought oh my God I had no idea how powerful these

41:23
stories are to help entrepreneurs who are all going through the same sort you know totally different businesses but

41:29
the same business issues and so that made me become you know a a student of

41:36
speaking and I went to a lot of seminars I bought a lot of books and I I've got now to where I'm I I've become like a

41:43
really really good Storyteller and I I roll these stories off you know and

41:49
people are on the high with the high and then they're in the dolrs with the lows and and I can I can feel myself taking

41:56
them on this journey and without a doubt every time I come off and I I sign books

42:01
you know at the end of every talk they tell me their stories and it's just like I am so blessed to have been put in a

42:09
position where I can help so many people and I just intend to keep doing that as long as they're willing to listen yeah

42:15
well I'm excited for some of our listeners to probably reach out to you and and have you come speak to their

Impact Of Societal Shifts On Zoom

42:21
teams and oh that would be fantastic yeah any anything entrepreneurial or

42:26
sales Force oriented you know like I spoke to the the sales force at Zoom

42:32
here here's another great uh example of the the the uh societal shift I spoke to

42:38
230 Zoom employees in the sales in and they were all even the the the owners

42:44
who took me out to dinner afterwards they would just be moaning the fact that oh my God it's 230 million we can't seem

42:50
to grow it there's I think we've reached every business in the country and there's no more room for growth for zoom

42:58
and this was like six months before Co happened and I think they went into the

43:04
billions faster than any other company I've ever heard of you know because the that worldwide societal shift happened

43:11
and they at the they they paid their dues yeah they were 200 million they weren't a small company but they thought

43:18
they were done and it was just the beginning of a whole new phase so yeah that that uh it's it's just a great

43:26
great story to tell people I love that I I want to close this out with 10 rapid fire questions oh

10-Rapid-Fire Questions

43:34
my God okay I'm gonna ask you something and just say the first thing that comes to your mind okay who's the first person

43:41
you think of when I say servant leadership go Jesus all right five words

43:47
that most describe yourself um easygoing pretty ordinary and never give

43:55
up author or book uh Wilbur

44:01
Smith favorite

44:07
movie there next one favorite food oh

44:12
Mexican because I live here in San Diego favorite thing to do in your free

44:17
time um meditate and read okay I'm surprised you didn't say

44:24
surf no I I stopped that about 2 years ago cuz the water here is so cold in

44:30
California I mean when I go to the gym I exercise every muscle for surfing so I could I could pick it up like that if I

44:37
go to Jamaica but I'm just done with surfing in California all right surprising fact about

44:44
you um that nobody really knows is I played rugby against the New Zealand All

44:51
Blacks and against England that was a pretty big deal for me wow all right favorite place you've been

44:58
uh without a doubt um Instanbul where's somewhere you want to

45:04
go that you have not been instan well I've been there but I I can't wait to get back to instan because I never gave

45:11
it justice it's the cradle of civilization right there and I mean

45:16
Jesus walks through there and and uh every Merchant for 2,000 3,000 years has

45:23
walked through there and or sailed through there it's just such an amazing

45:29
amazing place and final rapid fire question what's the best advice you have ever

45:37
gotten um I'm gonna finish that with a little

45:43
story I felt like a failure after about 10 years because I couldn't get into all the big box department stores and I'd

45:52
finally made an appointment with the the uh the buyer at montgom Ward which was a

45:57
really big shoe retailer in in Southern California at the time and I gave my best sales pitch of all time and he just

46:05
looked at me and said Brian why are you here and I went well because I want to

46:10
get an order for the California stores and he just sat back and crossed his arms and said Brian don't you get it

46:17
where the elephants we don't move until the mice are running around under our

46:22
feet and instantly I knew what he meant was that when all the special retailers

46:30
can't get enough of it then the department stores will look at it right but the other thing it told me was Brian

46:36
you're not a failure you just haven't got to that stage yet right so that was

46:42
probably the best advice I ever got that is so good well Brian thank you for

Closing

46:48
sharing some of your story I'm excited for people to go buy your book excited for people to even ask you to come speak

46:54
and I'm just thankful for you great well my website is ugf founder. comom you can

47:00
look up UG and go to my website the email will be at the bottom I'd love to hear from anybody who could uh benefit

47:07
from their staff or employees having a great keynote talk or a convention especially I'm really good at opening

47:13
and closing conventions we will make sure to link that in our in our video too so thank

47:19
you thank you so much thank you for listening to this episode of the servant leadership podcast if you enjoyed what

47:26
you heard please give it a thumbs up and leave a comment below don't forget to

47:31
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47:38
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