Making Progress with Branch Isole

george grombacher 0:00
Hi my name is Georgie and the time is right welcome today’s guest strong and powerful branch East LA branch. Are you ready to do this?

Unknown Speaker 0:23
Good morning, George. I am ready, my brother. All right, sir.

george grombacher 0:26
Branch is back on the show. He’s the founder of five small business start ups. He’s a spiritual consciousness thought leader. He’s the author of 22 books, his newest breaking free will be out in early 2023. Branch. Welcome back, tell us a little about your personal life’s more about your work, why you do what you do.

Unknown Speaker 0:49
Thanks, George, thanks for having me back on, I’ve been looking forward to reuniting with you. I’m a writer, I write about contemporary adult life situations. My focus is on three different areas fundamentals, the link between choice and consequence, the power of truth in our lives, and establishing balance. And with those three, three general themes, I’m writing about situations that adults face and adults know either firsthand, or perhaps through a family member or an acquaintance. But the things that we relate to are things that affect each of us. So that’s my focus in the writing.

george grombacher 1:36
The things we relate to are the things that, that impact and affect all of us, we’re all going through similar things.

Unknown Speaker 1:46
Exactly. It’s exactly you know, a lot of people who are struggling a lot of times think, you know, I’m the only one in the situation, I’m the only one feeling these emotions, I’m the only one who’s battling this struggle. And the fact is, you know, that’s what life is about. And I have found that we all experience a variety, but similar lessons in life. And that’s to help us grow and continue growing. And so when we hit a rough spot or down a little bit, you know, things aren’t going the way we had planned. Instead of beating ourselves up, about, you know, the rejection or the failure that we just experienced. The idea is to take what we can learn out of every experience, and continue to grow and move forward. Every opportunity to do that gives us the chance to become a better person become a better father, a better wife, a better husband, a better employee, whatever our situation is. Life is about relationships. And our daily life is full of relationships and pressure and stress and struggle. The idea is how do we handle that momentary setback? And make it work to our advantage going forward?

george grombacher 3:13
Yes, how do we do that brands?

Unknown Speaker 3:18
Well, you know, I have found that, in my work with people, the two biggest obstacles that they encounter, and especially people who are truly struggling in that cycle, of not hitting what their goal is, you know, not accomplishing what that task requires. Two things that hold them back. Number one is insecurities. And that can be anything that’s, you know, that little voice that we have, in our mind, that kind of takes us to a place we don’t want to be. So all of those insecurities. I’m too short, I’m too fat, I’m too bald, you know, whatever it may be, whatever that internal struggle is that secure insecurity is usually grounded way back, it’s kind of part of the baggage that we carry along. So the first thing is to get over that insecurity. Realize, just like we just spoke, you’re not the only one in that struggle. You’re not the only one who has something that they’re not happy with about themselves. If you can’t change it, then you just learn to adapt and make it work for you whatever that might look like. So that’s the first one deal with the insecurity. The second one which everyone faces, but especially in business, is that rejection, you know, as a as a writer, as an author, and congratulations on your new book. So now you’re going to discover as a writer, you know, our intent is to help change lives to help our readers. Be Come better people in their life. And what you find is some people accept what you’ve written in other people’s, that it’s not for them. And so a lot of times a writer, or anybody better writer feels rejection. When sales don’t go, you know, as they had wanted, or they get some feedback that is not exactly. All inspiring. So rejection, you know, can you handle rejection and so many times, people who are being rejected for whatever reason, but especially again, in business, take it personally. And it’s generally not personal. So the idea is to separate that personal emotion, with, you know, the job that you just did. And if it doesn’t work out, and you’re rejected, then you find out why they rejected it. And again, tweak it, adjust it, go to a different place, make it better for the next presentation. So insecurity and rejection, if you can handle those two, then you’re way ahead of the curve, in terms of, you know, your mental health and going forward and that positive, reinforcing, make it better than next time kind of attitude.

george grombacher 6:19
And all of this is predicated on my me having a Northstar, some kind of a guiding light that I’m moving towards. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 6:31
Yeah, exactly. You know, we all have ambitions and goals. We grow up with that instilled in us, you know, that sort all team sports are about, that’s what all group functioning and, you know, no matter what it made, the chess club or Debate Club doesn’t have to be physical. But we all have those goals, and ambitions based on who we are, and our cumulative learning. And so we’ve got to have something that compass that Northstar, that keep us focused, you know, headed towards that goal. And that’s one of the fun things you find about great leaders, and great business leaders, is they’ve got to focus. Most importantly, they’ve got a plan. Somebody asked me the other day, can you give me one specific that will guarantee success in life. And I thought about it for a long time and the one I came up with is be prepared, right? You’ve got to be prepared for success, you’ve also got to be prepared for failure, you’ve got to be prepared for that gain, you’ve got to be prepared for that rejection. And the great example of that is from that program, madmen, the advertising agency, and that Don Draper character, you know, he was so smooth, and so effective, because he had prepared for every contingency. And I know, this is what you can see it today in the battle in Ukraine, you know, obviously, Mr. Putin wasn’t as well prepared for the combat, as he thought he was. And so preparation is the real key. If you prepare, and then you’ve got a plan to implement that preparation, whether you know, the outcome is positive or negative, you can adjust quickly readjust and tweak going forward. And that’s the idea is whether I win or lose in this particular situation, what I can learn from both the win or the loss, if I analyze and then extrapolate that I can be better prepared for the next opportunity.

george grombacher 8:54
I certainly agree. And I think that that, that makes a lot of sense. And I imagine, and I guess for me, and people that I’ve observed, frustration happens when I don’t get the results that I’m looking for quick enough, fast enough, or my expectations are too high or too low. What do you think about that?

Unknown Speaker 9:21
square peg, round hole? You know, so many times, just like you said, we have those expectations of ourselves. And, you know, even we’ve prepared, we’re ready to go we get in there and we get a curveball, right? And our first instinct is to make it work. And so we try to we try to put that square peg in that round hole. And I have found so many times when I’ve been frustrated by not accomplishing that goal that I had in mind as I go back and analyze sent reflect, I suddenly realized that I was trying to force that match. And in realizing that I was trying to force it, it gives me that opportunity to go back and look at it again and see what I could have done differently. So don’t beat yourself up, look for the better option. And don’t try to put that square peg in the round hole. If it doesn’t gel, that it doesn’t gel, try to find out why it didn’t gel, and then make the adjustment. But I find a lot of people just keep pushing ahead and trying to jam that peg in that hole and, and if it’s not gonna go, it’s not gonna go. That’s not the lesson, the lesson is to learn why it didn’t go and then tweak or readjust. So the next time, in a similar situation, you’ve got to better match.

george grombacher 10:58
Resistance is going to show up in some form or fashion. It’s whether it’s a, an absolute brick wall versus I’m trudging through snow or mud that’s slowing me down a little bit, but I’m still moving ahead.

Unknown Speaker 11:18
Well, it’s interesting, you bring up resistance, because resistance is a great indicator of growth. And when we meet resistance is not necessarily shutting us out. It may be stopping us for the moment, but it’s giving us an opportunity again, to reanalyze. And to move forward. And with that next success, you know, comes that growth. And that’s what life is all about is growing is becoming a better person becoming a better you becoming that real person that you want to be the one that’s inside, not the one that you show to the world every day with your mask. But the one that’s motivating you to be that better person, better person at work, better person with your family, better person in your community. And if you can become that better person than what you’re giving back, and your service. You know, it’s like a flower, this goes from bud to bloom, once it begins, there’s no stopping it, you know, it’s going to bloom as full as it can be. And so it’s that sort of the same thing with us growing, we’re at bud when we start. And when we get fertilizer and water and the things that we need. And we begin to grow, that growth won’t be stopped. Unless we stop and

george grombacher 12:54
I was listening to I was listening to I think it was a podcast or it was a clip of a podcast or something like that. Because sometimes it seems like all I do is consume podcasts or beyond podcasts and stuff like that branch. The the person was talking about how consistency can be a bad thing. Because if you’re just showing up and not getting results. It’s not serving you. I thought well that that’s that’s really interesting, because I guess that’s there’s a continuum of what results really are and what results I’m really looking for. So consistency in itself, I think is a really, really positive thing. But also doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is a very, very stupid thing. So what are your thoughts on that?

Unknown Speaker 13:49
Well, consistency is essential for stability, right? It gives us a benchmark, it gives us a starting point, it gives us a measurement of how we’re doing the prob what you’ve described, in my estimation is when we get comfortable, right sort of Pink Floyd comfortably numb, and then we’re on autopilot. If you’re on autopilot, you can only you know, reach that place. When you get when you’re on autopilot and you reach that elevation. Unless you change the autopilot. You’re not going to ascend or descend. So consistency is necessary. Right? It helps us focus. It helps guide our efforts. But a lot of people you know, and you see it wherever you work, there’s always somebody who’s kind of coasting, and instead of their energies, invigorating them and having helping them do a better job. They get comfortably numb in their comfort zone. And then not only do they not grow they’re not as productive as they Could be, so I’m with you on the consistency, as long as it doesn’t get into that cruising and comfort zone, there’s no growth there, you know, we are stimulated. When we grow, and it happens Emotionally, it happens psychologically, it can happen, you know, with our income. Every time we grow, we get a feeling about ourselves that that’s the only time you get that feeling is when you are making progress, and actually moving forward in your life. And so if you can balance that consistency, you know, always showing up always doing your best being the best you that you can be, then you’ve got that opportunity for growth. And again, it gets down to balance, you know, I’ve got to be the best person I can be. And in order to do that I have to be balanced. I’ve got to have consistency and stability, that not only am I comfortable with, but that it works for me. Without me getting into a comfort zone. That won’t work for me.

george grombacher 16:11
Well said, If I’m consistently gaining a pound every month, I’m going to wake up a couple of years from now and be you know, 40 pounds overweight. So consistency in that regard is, is certainly not serving me I laugh because I’ve been in that, you know, in that consistent rhythm at different stages of of life. So insurance or making shorts.

Unknown Speaker 16:33
Yeah, you balance out, you can’t, you know, we can, you can’t move forward unabated at breakneck speed indefinitely, right, you’ve got that it’s just like a ballplayer baseball player, you know, goes into a slump? Well, how do you get out of a slump, and that’s the key, you know, you know, you’re going to come back, but you’ve got to reanalyze, what’s making you keeping you in that slump, you’ve got to reanalyze. So we can’t go full bore all the time, you’ve got to have some downtime. This is one of the problems I find with you know, work today. For so many people, especially with our technology, they’re always working, you know, they’re on call literally 24/7 and always answering the demands of whomever whenever their job, their family, you know, their community, their groups. And when you are making yourself available at an instance notice to reply, and you get into that mode. You know, you’re in this breakneck, and then you’re in this slump, and you’re in this breakneck, your slump. And that’s not good for your mental or your physical health. So balance and consistency work hand in hand, you work hard, but you got to play hard or have that rest time, you’ve got to have more than just your work, you aren’t your job, you’ve got to attend to your family, you’ve got to attend to other matters. So balance, balance, balance.

george grombacher 18:13
What a great the, the example of being in a slump. If you’re a baseball player, what a what a wonderful, what a wonderful analogy. That is. Because it’s so easy to fall into that and you need to do something to break out of it. You need a slump Buster, or whatever it might be. And there’s great movies about how people have done that just fictional and I’m sure in real life, there’s there’s wonderful stories about that too.

Unknown Speaker 18:42
Well, a story about over every story about overcoming adversity is exactly what you described, right? In the big leagues. 300 or 333 means big bucks. But if you think about it, that’s just one out of every three efforts. So you know, your rationalization or whatever your metric may be. You don’t look at as a slump, you’re looking at as an opportunity to retool, to relearn, so that when you go into battle the next time, again, you’re better prepared.

george grombacher 19:25
Learn from that at bat or you struck out or grounded out or just didn’t get on base or whatever the case may be and utilize that going into the next opportunity and love it. You think that? Do you think that most people want that? I have a tendency to try to I was thinking this morning. And we can just use use whatever context if it’s been physically healthy or financially healthy or spiritually healthy or having a great relationship. There’s going to be people at one end of the spectrum that are doing I mean all the right things all the time, and they don’t need any help. And then there’s people on the other end of the spectrum that it’s, it’s sad, but probably possible that they’re never gonna get it right. And then there’s that big middle group. What do you think about that, just from a humanity standpoint, how many people are capable of, of doing the things we’ve been talking about? Or is is everybody

Unknown Speaker 20:27
I believe everybody is capable. You know, again, what the number one thing that holds us back from being successful in our lives, is our own thoughts, particularly about ourselves, you know, when you get down, it’s easy to stay there, we start to feel sorry for ourselves, we start to blame or make excuses. We don’t want to take responsibility. And as long as we won’t, or don’t take personal responsibility for our choices, and their subsequent outcomes or consequences, then it’s easy for us to not, you know, look in the mirror and see the real us, it’s too easy to make an excuse or to pass the blame. You know, this is the key to great leadership. You’re what you described as the bell curve, you know, if you remember being in school, you know, there’s always that bell curve of the grades that are given out. And those who Excel, Excel for a variety of reasons. But number one is they believe in themselves, they believe they can do it. And every story of overcoming adversity is fundamentally that I believe I can get through this, I believe I can make this work. And, you know, at the other end, humans are our basic animals. And so some Excel and some just don’t care are just they’re not interested, great leaders. Recognize and their teams, no matter how large or small the team may be, they recognize every member’s strengths and weaknesses. And they let the strong run, because they don’t need a lot of assistance or mentoring or teaching. They recognize the strengths of those who are struggling. And they work with those people to enhance or bolster those strengths, and reduce the weaknesses that they have. Are we all going to be 100% Winners all the time, no way, life doesn’t work that way. But in recognizing my strengths, then I play to those strengths every time. And in every situation that I can, you know, a great example is my wife and I, you know, there’s just the two of us. At this moment, we live as balanced life as we can, and I explain it like this, you know, when we face a situation where we need to decide something about our life, we look at what the situation is, we look at possible outcomes. And then we decide which one of us has the better skill set to lead. And so we tried to get, you can never get exactly to 5050. You know, ideally, that would be equilibrium. But what we shoot for is 5149. And so what happens is when we are going to make a decision about our life, and we’re required to make that happen, we decide which one of us has the better skill set to be the leader. And the other one will be the cheerleader. And this changes with every situation that we are in, in our life, whether it’s you know, Home Improvement, or career, or you know, my books, whatever it might be, you know, I do all the writing. She does all the hard work, because she’s skilled in doing that detail, hard work that’s necessary to get the book from idea to actual book. That’s our key to success is, you know, I don’t go well. I’m the man. So I’m the one who knows, and it’s my way or not doing it. You know, when she’s the leader, She’s the leader, and I am the cheerleader. And so she makes the ultimate decision because I have my vested interest is in her doing the best she can in that situation. So, you know, I suggest give up the macho stuff, give up the you know, I’m the leader, I’m the head of the household or I’m the leader of the group. You know, we get farther ahead, when we have more minds involved, what we’re looking for is solutions, not just temporary answers. So when you’ve got the skills be the leader, when somebody else is leading, be the cheerleader and move forward together.

george grombacher 25:18
Well, that that makes a lot of sense. And how long have you and your wife sort of known that about one another?

Unknown Speaker 25:31
A while actually, we, we’ve been together 22 years, almost 23 years now. And the interesting thing is, we have always worked together ever since we met. So we have been together 24/7 For the last 23 years, nice, except, except for about eight weeks take care of personal family, you know, business that one or more of us had one of us had to take care of. So we’ve been together, actively together, non stop. And so we learn pretty quickly. And we were mid age when we met. So we’d been through all of that previous cycle of, you know, I want the credit, I’m right, that kind of thing. You know, that’s typically a male thing. But I was blessed that when I met her, she was very successful in her own life, and in her own right. And so she was successful with herself, you know, she knew who she was. So it worked really well, it worked really easily for us. Knowing right off the bat, and learning how astute she was in business, and all of these other skill sets that she had, it was a no brainer for me, I’m just really a lucky guy in that way that I can let her do it without any qualms or thought that she’s gonna mess it up, she does much better at everything than I do, because that’s who she is. But with that confidence, you know, she came out of a previous relationship, where she wasn’t allowed that. And so she knew what she didn’t want. And when we got together very quickly, we understood what both of us wanted. So it worked really well for us. But it was a little bit harder for me to let go than her. But once we got in that cycle of making things happen, it became very obvious. You know, okay, you’ve got the skill set, I’m gonna rely on you to move us forward. And so breaking that breaking down that psychological sense that I have to be the one who decides, or I’m the one that’s always right, or it’s gonna be my way or no way, that kind of relationship will only continue to struggle. You know, it’s interesting that we get into relationships, especially personal or intimate relationships with this idea that you are the one that I choose to be with, sort of, you know, for the rest of my life kind of thing in a partnership, or a marriage relationship. And yet, those same feelings of freedom, and let’s do it together, and we’re going to talk about the world together. And that kind of thing that is indicative and often very natural and habitual in the beginning of the relationship. Sometimes, you know, has that brick wall, that stopping point. And I often say, you know, people say, well, the man says, well, that I’ve always been that way. Right? And my question is, that’s the way you were when you dated, you know, that’s how you behaved when you recording. That’s what your responses were, that first year together. And the reality was you you haven’t always been that way, right? You were totally different. For person when the relationship was new. And when it was burgeoning, and you know, everything was in your mind as you wanted it to be. What happens is, you know, we get to know each other a little bit better, just like at a work situation. In the interview stage, both parties put best foot forward. Within about six months, you know, you start to really understand that, well, they didn’t exactly tell me this in the interview. And the company realizes that, you know, you are great in the interview, but you have an alcohol problem. So, as the relationship evolves and develops, we learn more about the other party. The question is, knowing a little more about the truth now So how are we going to respond? How are we going to handle this? Well, the ultimate question then comes back to what are the goals? You know, what are we trying to accomplish together? And then how do we do that, based on this new knowledge that we have of each other. And this is where so many relationships, be it personal or work relationships, you know, start to have cracks or the fault line starts to open up. And if you don’t address those things as quickly as possible, then that can compound become real issues. And the larger the issue, the more terminal the relationship can become. So it’s identifying, you know, the way I felt originally, I want to feel that feeling so that I can be the best partner that I can be. That’s the idea. Again, if I’m consistently growing myself, then my growth spills over into my relationships. The minute I quit growing, you know, I’m no longer contributing. And that’s where the problems start.

george grombacher 31:17
Well said, well, Branch, thank you so much for coming back on where can people learn more about you? How can they engage? Where can they get where can they find your books?

Unknown Speaker 31:28
Thanks, George. I appreciate it. I’ve got a website. I’ve got a YouTube channel. You can just go to my name branchy. So Les, just Google that’ll give you all the links all my podcast links, my writing all the books, all the ebooks. Excellent.

george grombacher 31:44
Well, if you enjoyed as much as I did show branch appreciation and share today’s show with a friend who also appreciates good ideas. Enter into your favorite search engine branch, ie Solei. It’s B r a n c h, i s o l e, and all things branch will appear to you magically through the through the wonder that is the internet. Thanks again, Brad. Hey, George.

Unknown Speaker 32:05
Hey, can I say one more thing if your listeners have enjoyed our program today? Take 30 seconds, go to the lifeblood podcast. Give George a big thumbs up and a review and help him bring you more great guests with interesting topics for your life.

george grombacher 32:25
Amen. Thank you, sir.

Unknown Speaker 32:29
Hey, bud. Thank you.

george grombacher 32:31
And until next time, remember, do your part by doing your best

Transcribed by https://otter.ai