The Gentlemen Project Podcast
Podcast highlighting impactful stories of parents and what they do to be successful at home and at work. Helping you turn the time you have with your kids into time well spent helping them learn the most important lessons in life. The Gentlemen Project Podcast is hosted by Kirk Chugg and Cory Moore-friends who are passionate about fatherhood and raising the next generation of great kids.
The Gentlemen Project Podcast
"The Curriculum of Life" with Serial Entrepreneur and Philanthropist Ted Broman
If you weren't going to be around any more, what would you want your kids to know about life? What did you find important? What do you hope your kids would do with their lives? Ted Broman asked himself these questions and created what he calls the curriculum of life for his kids. Throughout this episode you'll hear inspiring advice and great takeaways from decades of experience. You won’t want to miss this one!
Ted Broman has created several multimillion-dollar businesses. He was a Managing Director of two $30-million venture capital pre-IPO funds for Red Rock Capital. He grew Financial Freedom Report, Inc., a sales and marketing company where he served as Chairman and CEO, to annual revenues of over $120 million in less than one year. He was co-founder of The Windsor Casket Company, which he sold to Mity-Lite. Ted is the founder of Health Connect, a healthcare software solutions provider, which he sold in 2006. Ted bought IntegraCore in 2006 and then grew revenues from $1M in Revenues to over $100M in 8 years, then sold in 2017 at an above-market multiple. He started Smart Staffing in 2012 and Package Runner in 2016. He is the co-founder of The Other Side Academy, a non-profit that addresses crime and addiction recovery.
Ted graduated from the University of Utah with a BA in Accounting. He also earned an MBA from the University of Utah.
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Welcome to the Gentlemen Project Podcast. I'm Cory Moore.
Kirk Chugg:And I'm Kirk Chugg.
Cory Moore:Today we have Ted Broman, with us. I've known Ted for quite a while. And I think of Ted as a serial entrepreneur, someone who everything he touches turns to gold kind of a thing. That's how I always think of Ted. Now, he may not think of himself that way. But that's how I think of him. So, Ted, thanks for being with us.
Ted Broman:Thank you for having me.
Cory Moore:Tell us a little bit just to give context, the listeners tell us a little bit about your, your career, and then we'll dive right into being a gentleman and, and, and your family.
Ted Broman:I think most people probably would think of me as an entrepreneur. I never did, I thought that the entrepreneur was more like, crazy, not crazy. But the scientist that was full of ideas and the adventure and just one idea after another, and I'm like, I don't have any ideas. And I think what happened is I probably became a hired entrepreneur, where people were hiring me to, to take their idea and their projects in their business and scale it. And I would just thought I was a business guy, you know, and just worked on processes and people systems. And along the way, I kind of probably realized that I was an entrepreneur, and that it wasn't so much about the idea, you look at most books or venture capital firms or people that really study that or invest in that, I think that they'll generally invest in the team, not the idea that the idea can come and go, it doesn't really matter. What matters is the team and their ability to build systems and processes. And really, that's what I did, and sort of over time, realize that hey, maybe I am an entrepreneur doesn't really matter whether I am or I do what I do, and but I have probably owned or started 50 to 60 businesses, most of them don't turn to gold. I wouldn't even say they go to lead they, a lot of them die. And a lot of those are slow, painful deaths. But I've had some, some good, some good exits and some good success things and mostly just enjoyed what I do along the way, and the people that I get to meet and what I get to learn, I love to learn. And so it's exciting to use business as a classroom.
Cory Moore:No, I have to say I've been recently thinking a lot about the benefit of failure. And in fact, any entrepreneur who hasn't failed isn't really probably an entrepreneur, anyone who's been a success has failed many times you think of Thomas Edison, you think of you 50-60 I had no idea. But you have at least five or six that I know of there are these huge successes. So and I feel like people are afraid to fail in life in general. And so kind of out of left field. Have you talked to your kids about failure, and that that's okay. I feel like I'm not doing that great of a job at that, like I, my kids, you know, if you don't get an A that I'm or you know, if you get a C then I'm talking to him about hey, you need to get A's and B's. But reality is failing often is a key to success. I would say what are your thoughts on that?
Ted Broman:That answer your question on my kids first, and then I'll address my thoughts on the question is, I probably haven't that much. There was a situation with my second son with his work, where I kind of did. He had job opportunity in his work to take over Oracle and Amazon for them, which is a huge channel and. And he was like, Yeah, but it might pigeonhole me and put me over here and I just said, I wouldn't you get you can't worry about that. You've got to take the biggest opportunity in front of you at the time, and just move forward. And so I kind of did, but I generally don't talk about failure itself. Other than just It doesn't matter. I mean, one of our sayings is a family as Brahmins do hard things and we try to make people stick with stuff. So if you sign up for something, you know, you stay with it. And so we really do push grit and determination and and staying power. I think that usually wins most battles in the end. I think it's the Rocky Balboa if you just keep getting up and no matter how much you hit me, I'm I'm just gonna take it. I think that has a lot to do in the win. On the on the business side. How I really talk about it is that I really say you know, the thing that kills businesses is they run out of cash. Before they have gone through their pivots. Every business has 567 10 pivots, which are basically micro failure. Well, they're their failures, but you hope That you can dial it in before the business dies. And that's where, you know, Jim Collins talks about fire bullets first and cannonballs. And I think you need to fail and fail in a way that it's contained. And you don't bring the whole ship down. But what normally does is people either go all in on a strategy and get too far into it, or they run out of money, they spend all their money on that. And you really just need this. Keep enough money that you can keep pivoting and pivoting and pivoting. And I think all businesses are five or six pivots away from being successful. I like how in Jim Collins, his new book, he talks about how the Pixar guy said every Pixar movie, I think that's the name of his book, every Pixar movie was terrible. And the point is, is that every movie started out terrible. I mean, it was just terrible. And yet they pivoted, pivoted, adjusted, tweet, pivoted, pivoted, pivoted, and then you get Toy Story. And then you get Monsters Inc. And so I think it's, it's about just sticking with something and adjusting and pivoting until you find success.
Cory Moore:Yeah, so maybe with the with kids, it's a never give up. But pivot. It's not a failure thing. It's a persistence thing. And that, it probably isn't gonna work out exactly how you have it in your mind. But if you keep going and keep pivoting, you're gonna you're gonna get to a place of success.
Ted Broman:Yeah, my oldest son was a really a kind of a star football player really top recruit. And something happened that he got sort of blacklisted became a pariah. And they just, everything went away at once. It was like, you know, it's interesting to watch, to go from goat to goat, he's the good goat to the bad goat in one moment, and but he persisted, and he talked to Hawaii and to letting him come and try out to be a walk on. And then we sent him over there, and everybody thought we were nuts for for doing that, and he was nuts. And then it turned into a preferred walk on. And then it you know, and then he ground through that and found a way to pay for it, do everything and and just fought and fought and fought and towards he ended up starting 19 games and got a full scholarship and you know, stuff doesn't generally work out almost really almost never works out. Like I thought, whether in business or in life, and you just need to get back up, and then you need to adjust. I think part of the secret to that is questions, you just got to ask good questions and and then move forward.
Kirk Chugg:As you think about experiences like your son going away to Hawaii? Can you think of other experiences where they've asked questions, and you've kind of helped them through times where they've had to pivot?
Ted Broman:I think the the magic is in good questions. And kind of the thing I tell them more on a business front I tell my teams is the answer is always in the question. And if you're not getting the results you want, you got to ask better questions and more questions. And so I think the key is to ask good questions. And so like, if it's, let's say, your body isn't what you want, you know, normally people say, Why am I so fat or I'm such a pig, or I'm, you know, and we either make statements and kind of label ourselves or we ask disempowering questions. Instead, you can say, How can I have the health and vitality that I want? How can I have the body that I want to achieve? And then our mind doesn't know the difference of the subtleties? It just goes to work on that problem. So if we tell it, hey, I'm, I'm a pig, and why am I so fat? or Why do I? Why am I so fat? Well, because you're a pig and you eat too much. Or, you know, if you want to say, how, how can I make the best of the situation? Now that all of a sudden, I don't have anywhere to go to school. And so you know, you ask a different question. If your relationship isn't where you want it to be if your business isn't where you want it to be, you just need to ask open ended empowering questions. How can I have the business that I want? And I've always dreamed about and succeed? How can I help people's lives and do things that make a meaningful difference in the world and make a really nice career and renumeration? For myself? I think those those are the type of question differences that really make a difference.
Kirk Chugg:There's a lot of wisdom in that. I really think there is the way that our brains understand how we talk to them. And, you know, I've had this conversation with my sons, as they've learned how to deal with talking with their sisters and women in their life. And what's okay to say and when it's not okay to say, and they say, you know, they say something and that I quietly correct them privately. I said, if you wouldn't say that to yourself in the mirror, don't say to somebody else. And at the same time when we're talking about how how we are how we're doing as parents how we're doing as business owners, how we're doing as employees. If you wouldn't say it to somebody else, don't say it to yourself. That's and that's really a powerful statement, especially when you're talking about self image and self worth, that is so powerful in the lives of, especially teenagers today.
Ted Broman:There's two things that that stimulated in me. One is that I always had in our family, I think called TKN. So when something came up, you know, and they're like, Well, yeah, but dad, and it's like, okay, is it true? You know, well, maybe, maybe not, you know, but let's say this true. Okay, it's true. Is it kind? You know, is that a kind thing to do? Well, yeah, maybe not. And lastly is like, Well, that wasn't unkind. Okay, is it necessary? Did you have to say that and so I ran a lot of stuff that we did through that filter of, of true kinda necessary. And actually use that at work as well. I changed the word to usually relevant on the necessary and respectful sometimes on the kind. But you know, there's nothing wrong with being kind at work. And the second thing that came to mind was that is at one of my company's smart resources, we have one of our core values is gun shy. It's an Indian word I heard about from Kevin Hall, who's an author and a speaker. And it means never treat yourself, never treat anyone in a way that would make them feel less or small, including yourself, and basically, see and respect the person and be kind. And that has been a really powerful thing inside the company. And including is we're really I'm really trying to raise the bar and accountability and pushing discipline and exactness, which normally all bring heart, you know, harsh things, but yet I've pushed, discipline, accountability, execution, follow through all with gansai. And so we always do everything to say, I can be, I can hold you, I can really hold you accountable and do it with love and do it in a way that's respectful.
Kirk Chugg:That reminds me a little bit of if you ever been a part of Rotary,
Ted Broman:I was, no, it was Kiwanis that I did for about six months.
Kirk Chugg:Yeah. So then rotary Rotary has a four way test that you recite at the beginning of every meeting. One is, is it the truth to is fair to all concerned? Three-will it build goodwill and friendships and four, will it be beneficial to all concerned, that's, that's kind of like your TKN I like yours, it's shortened down and a little bit easier for kids to understand. But, you know, if you run, whatever you're doing, whatever you're saying, towards your kids, or trying to help them understand this concept, through that filter, it filters out the stuff that's not useful. And sometimes, you know, I know, my wife sometimes catches me, and she'll, she'll kind of pull me back be like, Hey, you know, lay off the throttle a little bit. You know, there's, there's a different way to approach this. Calm down, cool your head come back and and approach this in a different way after you've got a minute to think about it. So always grateful for that, you know,
Cory Moore:For sure. So Ted, talk to us a little bit about some of the other things that you've tried to pass on to your kids or things that you've really wanted them to, to internalize in life. I love the I love your acronym. So I'm looking for a couple other nuggets!
Ted Broman:I'm out of acronyms. You know, that's a hard question. And that I actually wrote, I had a notion, maybe it could have been 15 years ago, maybe it's 10. But as my older boys. I have five kids. And so I have three adult children now and two teenagers at home. So it's been really interesting to kind of live through the whole process and see I'm starting to come out the other side have just now got our first grandchild.
Cory Moore:Oh, congrats.
Ted Broman:But, so anyway, five kids. And about 10 years ago, as my boys were probably the older boys were 14-15 something I thought, you know, what if I died? And what what I want my boys to know. And so I wrote this thing called the curriculum of life. And I actually wrote it out and did, you know, prepared and I've been working on it for 10 years since then. It has actually hasn't changed that much, which is kind of interesting. In other interesting little sidebar, and then I'll come back and answer what they are is, I've been, you know, we've done a lot of estate planning and stuff over the years and we've generally believe that giving a lot of things to your children just carte blanche is disempowering and disabling thing. And our kids are a little confused by it at times where it's like, I don't you know, I don't understand that. But I've gone back over the last six months and really been just studying like now They're older, it's like, What? What do we really want to do? And how do we do this and, and I think for him, what he really looking for is stewards, and passing on the stewardship. But the thing I really saw is that the key is, and it's a great book called beating the Midas curse that had this, but the key is to, you want to pass on your values, that's what's really valuable. And most people just pass on their valuables. And they pass on the money and it and it's pretty much gone it at most in two generations. And there's another book called the entitlement abolition. I said that, right, that also really reinforces that principle. So they're great books. And they really just teach that your family values, your way of thinking, and even the values and the beliefs and the habits and the character, things that helped you build the wealth, are the things that you really need to pass on to your kids, and then potentially the money can go, I don't know that we ever intend to do that. But we don't necessarily want to give it all to charity, or give it to the government tax, we just want to leave it in us in some sort of a vehicle that children if they prove worthy stewards can then manage and, and deal with generations, but the key to that is building character and training them and then training them on your values and your belief systems. And that's the magic and, and I think in so passing on values, not valuables. So back to the you
Cory Moore:You just described the Gentlemen Project in in in a might have nice little review,
Kirk Chugg:With a twist of financial planning in there. That was very insightful. It was I love the idea of passing on values instead of valuables, because you know, money will come when they do the right things, and for them in their own way. And something that they're passionate about. If you pass on those things that create wealth, like financial management, hardwork, grit, determination, stick to itiveness people skills, all the things that you can build a business on. I love that.
Cory Moore:Yeah. So kind of now I'm very interested in what you wrote down
Kirk Chugg:The curriculum of life by Ted Broman.
Ted Broman:I'll give you a couple a couple teasers. I won't bore you with the whole thing. I think one of the key things is to be a self directed, lifelong learner. And that means also being open and curious. I think that wins most battles. And so one thing I would really push and I do push to instill in my kids is that curiosity and that hunger, and that, really, and I always have said, another little Ted-ism that I say is don't let school get in the way of your education. And I'm a big fan of education. But I also really believe that school isn't the answer. You know, I say you go to school, to learn to think, and to learn how to learn, and to communicate. And that's, for me, really, at the technical skills aren't that valuable and applicable, I don't think. And again, I'm a huge proponent of education, but I just try to put in perspective for my kids to say, You're there to explore and to learn and to try crazy ideas on and but it's about, you got to learn how to learn, and you got to learn how to think. And you got to learn how to communicate that school is great at teaching that. And so I love the idea of being a self directed lifelong learner, and really just, then you become a student your whole life, and you don't have to have anyone else you're responsible for that you can, you can manage that. And we've become big Audible fans, which is kind of fun. And so we all crank through, you know, and they've, they've gotten into my audible library, and I have like, 900, and something titles in there and, and they'll go through and you know, and then my son will come is Hey, oh, I just read, you know, the eighth habit. And what about this? And what about that, or we'll go through them together. And we'll talk about books that we read. And so now all of my older three children, I shaved my old my older four children, my youngest one, I don't think as much but my sophomore in high school, and then my three adult children, my wife and I are just pound through the audio books
Kirk Chugg:I can say that every interaction that I've had with you, you've mentioned books that you've read, and something that you've learned from those books. So I know that you're walking the walk on this one. You're probably always reading something good. So maybe we need to publish a Ted's top 10 books list or something this week on social media.
Ted Broman:Yeah, I actually worked on that list the other day I went back and re I've done it several times where because all my companies I have everybody read books we have and we have a question. curriculum that everybody is expected to read when you come to work there. These are the books. But then in addition to that we do kind of a Book of the Month Club where we buy books for everybody in the company, and then we sit and read them, and then discuss them as a group, and
Cory Moore:I have to have that list now. Whether you tell us during the podcast or we publish it later is great, but I'm not gonna forget.
Ted Broman:What's interesting is that I've really gone back to things that were early, big impacts for me, which I would say is Jim Collins and Stephen Covey. If I had to pick a book, to give to my kids, and I didn't go into religious stuff, it would be the seven habits. But yet the eighth habit is even a better book. I think. The Third Alternative by him is amazing. There's a book that I was so determined to hate, that would also be on my list is by his son, I thought he was doing a seven habits for for teenagers, you know, by the ad and all these other little spin off books. And then Stephen M.R. Covey wrote the speed of trust. And I think that's a transformational book. So I would say that book, everything in the covey library, everything in the Jim Collins library, I thought his best book was beyond entrepreneurship that nobody knew about. He's now republished it with a bunch of updates. And he's created a map that integrates all of his previous work. And I think it's just brilliant that and says called be 2.0, by Jim Collins. But I would say the backbone of my stuff is really Covey, and Collins. And what's helpful is that it gives you a common language and a common framework within the company to discuss so even if you're like, well, I hate that, then you pick something else, that's great. But it's really helpful to have that common framework, and then you start to build off of that. So we build people principles, and all my companies have a published people principles on how we deal with that. And it's all within that framework. And we have core values and core purpose. And we do that in our strategic planning all within that framework. And, and so it helps rather than even Well, this is the right book, it's just to have the book and create the common language.
Cory Moore:Yeah, the first two, then what, let's talk about our hedgehog concept, let's all that kind of stuff, right?
Kirk Chugg:Well, and really, that's what that's what has come up many times on the podcast, is creating a family culture. So what you're talking about in business, and the culture that you've created in reading the same books having the same language, the same culture framework, the same priorities, and the same goals that you're all working towards, can be translated directly to the family situation in which you can spend the time that you have with your kids. Maybe it is just one of these books that you say, Hey, we like the language in this book, let's set our family mission and our family, our family mission statement, and the things that we do as a family what we stand for. And when you revisit it, you can use every principle that you just mentioned in a family setting, and it will do nothing but strengthen the core group of your your family members moving forward as a family unit. So it's all exactly translatable from business to family 100%.
Ted Broman:I agree. And that's really where it matters more to do your family, I would say at least for me, it's been harder to implement there. Somehow there's a either because you're dealing with more adults, or because we're stuck there all day, because we get paid to be there or something. Or just because I not put the energy into it that I did at work. But it has been harder to implement intentional values. Now, you always have a culture, whether you state it or not in a family or in a business, you always have values and norms. And whether you know it or talk about it or write it down or not. They exist. So we definitely have stuff that we do and but it I have noticed it's harder to implement that with my family. I will say one of the most powerful things I've done with my kids. And it was an exercise I did at work on defining our core values as I went through a core value exercise with them. And so we sat and just kind of blank canvas said, Tell me every what's what are values that matter to you. And I gave them examples, you know, like we're nice to each other. We we put away our dishes, we could be very sort of simple or it could be grandiose, like we have integrity. And we they wrote you know, they just I typed them out and they just spit them out. And we got about 75 of them that were all stuff that we thought that that resonated with us. And then I went through and I don't know if I got word strips down or I think I printed out a page for everybody. And then I said all right, get rid of half of them. Now it was pretty easy. We chopped out and cut down the, I probably made us get down to 30. And then we compare notes on what was the 30. And we built. And then we had to negotiate to get a combined list of 30. So we went from 75 that we all agreed on, then everybody cut it down to 30. And then we went down to a combined list of 30. And then I'm like, Okay, that's good. You guys. Oh, yeah, we love those are great. All right, all right, get it to 15. And that was like, Ah, so then we went and, and did that, but it wasn't too bad. Got your list of 15, then you had to negotiate and get everybody on the same page with and really from a seek first to understand not to be understood standpoint where we would listen and talk and tell me why that matters to you. And well, this one time, you know, and then there's stories, tats to it. And then we got down and finally got to a list of 15. And then I said, All right, cut it in half again. And that one was like, it was really painful to get rid of some of those. And I think I cut it down, we ended up at seven. But it's really meaningful and powerful for them to go through that process. And you when you, you start with a thing, and when you really identify what's the difference between you know, you get down to honesty and integrity, they both need to be there and why and what does it mean? What is what does it mean to be integris? What does it mean to you? You know, you're talking to a nine year old? What does that mean? What is? What does honesty mean? And you know, that was a little easier. But they both admit, those are kind of some of the things that they're both on the list when it's a bigger list, and you get down and, you know, what does it mean? Do we want loving versus kind? And what does what does being kind mean, and what is loving mean? And so it's a powerful exercise,
Kirk Chugg:It sounds like you've been pretty purposeful to me, at least in that exercise. So that would be a fun one, I think to do. I'm imagining my four kids arguing over what our family value should be. And I think it would get pretty heated. Like you said,
Ted Broman:The two of them are probably kindness and respect. And they're yelling at each other throwing stuff at each other while they are arguing like kindness and respect should be in the lesson.
Kirk Chugg:That's a great, that's a great exercise. And one I think I'm excited to do with my kids, I think that would be really fun to see what they come up with. A lot of times, I think when you said earlier you asked the right questions. Sometimes we ask those superficial shallow questions, you know, how was your day? What did you do? Even if you delve one layer deeper? What was the most exciting part of your day? You always will get an answer proportionate to the deepness of the question, when you start to talk about some of those things like what, what is the very most important quality that you have in your life? What do we stand for as a family? I think that you would probably learn more by just recording that conversation and listening back to it, of what's inside your kids heads. And what they think is important, what they've witnessed the people that they've seen as examples in their lives that have displayed certain qualities, and why they think that that's important. Just listening and observing that conversation, I think would be very educational.
Ted Broman:Yeah, that is interesting. That that triggered a thought in my head, about family dialogue. And I kind of I don't know that we do anything that particular there. But I realized that there is this real simple question that we ask that, I think is one of the more powerful things that we've done. Because you sit down to dinner, and you kind of say, how was your day? Fine. I mean, that's really what it is. We just ask three different questions that really seem that stimulate the dialogue, and everybody goes around the table, and we do highs and lows. And then what did you learn? So I'll be like, you know, what were your three best things today? What are your three highs? And, you know, that really gets inside someone's head and heart and what's your low, and, and we usually try to do three to one, just like on any kind of feedback you give your kids it's always three to one, I'll fit I'll go back to that story. But I'll finish by asking the other one is what did you learn today? And always try to say every day you got to learn something? And what did you learn what it mean to you? And how do you feel about that? Back to the feedback, you know, I would watch my little my kids play literally, it was painful. I mean, I could literally find 1000 things they did wrong. And you know and I'm not one I'm really quiet I don't sit and yell at them during the games and tell them play by play now dribble right now go left now shoot now past law, you know, and I just watched and but I With that in mind, you know, they'd come back and it would be like, okay, so I had to learn to really watch to find what they did well, because it's like, How was my game? And I mean, I literally on the tip of my tongue had 1000 things he did wrong. I could tell him and yet I can't tell him any of that. I have to say, you know leadership is not being a critic. It's being a light. It's not being a judge. Been a model and a mentor. And I think true leadership is helping people discover you for you to discover the greatness in them and help them discover it and believe it. And I think another book that really does a good job of that is multipliers. I read about level five leaders with Jim Collins, and I'm like, Yeah, that sounds great. But what is a level five leader, and then I read that book. And I think it does a good job of describing a level five leader. And I think covey also does a great job of describing leadership. But it is really to help people see their greatness, and you see their greatness first, and then you help them see it, and then you help them rise to that occasion. And so with my kids, what had to happen is because I didn't see anything they did, right. And a lot of times at work, I don't see, I'm like, I don't know that this guy does anything, right. And it's really easy to see all the wrong stuff. And the same thing with my spouse, you know, it's like, well, I know, there's 100 things, these things bug me, and they make me mad, but what's stuff that's great about her. And, and I'm not that great at this, but I've sort of become, I've had to become a private eye to my curiosity, and I'm trying to investigate people's greatness. So as a leader, it's like, I'm trying to look at what your greatness is. And so with my kids, I had to say, Okay, well, at one time, you really ran down the courthouse, you hustled, it was great. And then, you know, but I got better at it. But it was really an interesting turnaround where I had to go from saying, I was really I was a really good critic, I could see everything that people did wrong. And I generally didn't tell them, luckily. But I'm learning to become more to where I see their greatness and their goodness. And sometimes you have to look a little harder, and you have to dig but and then people rise to that. Yeah,
Kirk Chugg:There's a lot of truth in this statement that you find what you're looking for.
Ted Broman:Yeah, that's very true.
Cory Moore:So I don't want to I want to go back to you wrote down these things you wanted to, you know, pass on to your kids, I can't remember what you call.
Kirk Chugg:The Curriculum of Life by Ted Broman.
Cory Moore:So I just don't want to miss anything in that. Before we move on to some other con, some other content. Is there anything specific that we missed on that curriculum that you think the listeners would benefit from?
Ted Broman:I can read the list here. But yeah, I'll maybe only talk about one more, I think is just to be an actor and an agent, live an intentional life. And I think that goes with goal setting goals that deals with, you know, having a vision. I think vision boards are powerful. I'm not a mystical guy or a bar out there guy. But I really believe Well, I mean, I, but in disclosure, I read the book, The Secret, and then I saw the movie. And I thought, you know, I believe that that's true. But I've really been looking more into quantum physics. And literally, I mean, I think how they Ted Hart to my understanding of our of human understanding of how the universe works, that there's something to that, and there is a whole field of unmanifested potential reality, and it literally can, you know, if you get into quantum physics, we can make whatever we want, and we can bring the future into the present and believe it and then we will create that. And I mean, I look at I set a bunch of goals when I was probably 21-22. And they were outrageous goals. I mean, they were just obscene, ridiculous goals. And they've all come true. And so goal setting is, is just so powerful, that it's also clear to know where you're going, and why. And so to have a purpose, as a person, as an individual, we said these work for the family. And we said they work for business. And also, I run this whole process on myself as an individual, that I have a purpose, I have a vision, I have my values, I have my mission statement. And I have a plan. I have a strategic plan on how to get there. And I think so it's goal setting, if you just do that, that is just set goals and don't even write them down. That is a game changer. If you set the goals and write them down. Now you've you've tripled it. If you review them monthly or even better weekly. You've tripled it again, if you build some plans below them in some subsystems and start to build mechanisms and things to do to build those. And you've 10 times it we've already tripled it and tripled and tripled it now you've 10 times that and and it just goes on and so that's what I would say is I call it being an actor or an agent, but it's really living an intentional life. And there's a lot to that.
Cory Moore:I can't help but think of Think and Grow Rich when you say that kind of one of those foundational books for me that just said if you know what you think about you bring about and then you explained it maybe the entire book and in just a few seconds there but that was That was great.
Ted Broman:So my other list, we won't talk about him, but his love. Relationships are everything. At the end of the day, if you've got this big pile of stuff for these awards, it's it's all about relationships and accountability and personal responsibility. And on each of those has a whole bunch of stuff to talk about integrity. One thing I love, and I don't know if I made this up, or if somebody, but I'm reading speed of trust again right now, and I just read chapter eight, and seven in the eighth habit, which is on, you know, the trust and being trustworthy. And the whole book of speed of trust is about that. But I don't think for me, it's so much more powerful. And I always when I talk about it, I say worthy of trust, that really, I get it to say, versus Hey, are you trustworthy? It's like, are you worthy of my trust? If you're gonna go to a surgeon that's gonna operate on your daughter's heart? Is he worthy of that trust, or if you're going to allow someone to do whatever are they worthy of that trust, so I love in that thing of integrity to also talk about being worthy of trust. And you go on on that all day. Another one is mental skills. So developmental skills, and there's a whole bunch in there, including the law of attraction, the law of positive occupied space, managing your state, being optimistic. Having no fear, no guilt, you know, no anxiety really being in the present. Another great book is Eckhart Tolle is the power of now. And it just really focuses that the only real reality is now. And yet most people live their lives in the past, and in the future, if you know, they're anxious, and they're always bringing the future into the present in a negative way, I talked about bringing the future into the present in a positive way, through visioning. And, and that's kind of positive occupied space, but you can really do it in a negative way. And it's called anxiety, and you can live in the past through guilt and regret. And, and those don't really exist. They're things that our mind and our ego makeup to keep control of us. And power is in right now. This is the moment you have to live. I'm not giving you much chance, I'll say the last two they
Cory Moore:I'm like, I'm loving this, you just keep going because I'm soaking it is
Ted Broman:The last The other one is determination will hard work is the number one correlate with success. I mean, it's just takes work. And there's attitude, having a growth, mindset and commitment, grit, ambition, drive, all that kind of stuffs in there. And then the last one is leverage. And I think that's one that I see a lot of executives don't really utilize. And I say people this was someone said to me once you know, if you don't have an assistant, you are one. And so I really tried it. And I think stewardship delegation, I think I even used to know the page, I think it's page 175 in the Seven Habits green and clean, I think is a great thing on stewardship delegation. And that is, I think that's something I'm really good at is leverage I create a lot of leverage in my life. And that's how I've been able to run 26 businesses at once. And people say, Well, what, how do you do that? I mean, it's really not for me that hard, because I build a system of leverage. And so I think, you know, you survive, you surround yourself with wise guides, and good people, and mentors and, and assistants and team members and and then you build systems to manage those. And you can build enormous I mean, they really say give me a big enough lever, I can move the world. And leverage is probably not one people would pick to be on that list, but I think is a game changer.
Cory Moore:We might have to have a separate meeting, just you and I if we can talk about these in in even more detail than we have in the 45 minutes today. But thanks for sharing those with
Kirk Chugg:Yeah, and that's awesome. I want to switch gears just a little bit. I don't actually want to switch gears, I want to keep talking about what we're talking about. But I do want to talk a little bit about one of the projects that you're working on not everything for Ted his business. Although 26 businesses at once you would think that would be all encompassing. Ted is also really charitable minded. And he finds causes that he supports and one of them that I just think is incredible. Is the other side Academy. Would you spend just maybe a couple of minutes telling people what it is and how it incorporates with some of these things that we've talked about today?
Ted Broman:Yeah, I think the story of how it came to be is a little interesting. I read a book, everything goes back to every standard starts with I read a book. That's awesome. It's called the influencer by Joseph Grenny. But in that book, they talk about a place in San Francisco called Delancey Street. It is a place that has basically no No therapists, no guards, it doesn't take government money. It doesn't take palimony. It's self sustaining. And my my gripe with all charity is that they're basically in the business of raising money. And all their you know, so much of the money you spend doesn't go to the programs, it goes to the program of keeping the charity alive. And that may be a little unfair characterization, but that's kind of my view. I'm not saying that's true. I'm just saying that was my negative view of a lot, a lot of charities. And so here's this thing I read about in this book that they are and it has different results. So they have game changing results. They don't raise money or take money, and they don't, they're not living on a government thing. They're self sustaining. And they do it themselves. And I was one of the, I think the first donor in the Utah Community Foundation, and Fraser Nelson was really just great with me in that and so I would talk about things I wanted to do. And so I told her, she was the director of the Utah Community Foundation. And I told her, I'm gonna bring Delancey Street to Utah. And she was like, okay, but you're crazy. And why would you want to do that? And that doesn't maybe always isn't that simple and doesn't work that way. And I'm like, Yeah, I don't know, I but I get it. But I do. And I kind of just start talking about it. But I didn't do that much for a couple years. And then, one day, I got an email from her and said, Hey, Kat, I want to introduce you to Joseph, Granny, you guys have the same vision or goal, you have the same dream in mind, you should get together. And so my wife and I met and met with Joseph, and kind of just dreamed and talked about it. And we said, we're going to do this and let's, let's do it. And so we decided to go to visit Delancey Street. And a couple months, we then each went to our network and got support to come. And Shawn ray is the attorney general office supported me and john Curtis came, who is the mayor of Provo at that time. And all anybody in the criminal justice system. So what this does is it deals with alcohol and drug and crime. And so it deals with the persistent problem of recidivism that people get stuck in a start spiral, and they, you know, 90% of all programs, they have it, they have it 10% success rate, 90% failure rate. And, you know, you send someone into a thing for 30 days and send them out and say good luck and or six months or three months. And that's because that's when the government funding runs out. And so they, and they live on that. And so we thought we were gonna do Lancey street here, we went in toward them. And then at the end of that, we said, Are we really going to do this and we said, we were really going to do this, we're all and we founded the other side Academy. And then Delancey Street cut us off and just stiff arm just gave us nothing. And so but that was turned out to be a blessing that we just figured all this out, we've we've definitely replicated what was been learned before, but really what we've become as a beacon in the world in the principal therapeutic communities. And so that was five and a half years ago, we started that. And our statistics, again, you look at statistics of any other thing out there, and it's about a 90% failure rate. And if people stay with the other side Academy for two years, it really two years in a day, when you come You have to make a two year commitment to come. You can walk out at any time there's no guards, there's no therapists, there's no doctors. There's no it's a it's, it's each one teach one is one of our principles. And it's a it's a self governing group. And it's a therapeutic community, but you make it to your commitment. And our if you stay two years in a day, you stay one day beyond that two years, and you have about a 90 to about a 95% chance our data is showing after five and a half years, that even years down the road now we've only got five and a half years. So I've only got people that have been out three years that you will be crime free drug free employed and house 95% chance of that, versus the other stuff is a 90% chance you'll be right back, you'll be in you'll be being arrested, you'll be addicted to drugs, you'll be homeless, and so it's completely flipped the statistics. And it's just an amazing, amazing place and it's all self sufficient. It's a profitable enterprise that we still raise money at times to do a whole big new interior. We just announced the the other side village it's going to be a tiny home community partnership with salt lake city and And to deal with homelessness. And again, people with that are at the bottom at the bottom. And a way to give them hope, and light and when back to that leadership, that's leadership is to give people a path to do that. And so, the other side Academy is one of the most amazing things in my life. It's, it's awesome.
Kirk Chugg:You'll have to go look at it. Theothersidevillage.com is the new website if you want to learn more about that just looks incredible. It's been in the news, just within the last week. And I know that the city of Salt Lake City and the county is super excited to be partners with you, Ted, and congratulations on an all you're doing there and and bettering the lives of people, we have a question that we always ask at the end of the podcast, we like to ask everybody what they think it means to be a gentleman. Would you like to answer that question for us today?
Ted Broman:Yeah, and I think I probably already did, I think it's Genshi. I think it's to respect the individual. And I think there is a male connotation that gentleman, I don't think a woman would like to be called a gentleman. So I think it is a gentle man, that and I think a lot of men aren't gentle, or I think it's neg it's has a bad connotation to have, you know, softness. And, and I think the best leaders and the best people I see are, are very soft, and yet hard. And I think that's a level five leader like Jim Collins talked about, they're very focused on what they want. They're very unyielding thing. And yet, they're very soft, and pliable and adaptable, in kind, and really more than that, I would say it's about being kind, it's respecting individual and seeing them and I think Genshi even captures that better that. Never, ever treat anyone, or see anyone in a way that would make them feel less than including yourself. So just just be kind and see the person as a great person and their worth and get back to leadership. Your job is to see them and help them see their worth and their greatness and has nothing to do with what they do. It's not performance worth does not equal performance. It's just who they are. They're there. They're great. And they're wonderful as they are and and they need to believe that and you need to believe that.
Cory Moore:Ted, we appreciate your time so much. I feel like I could go for another hour with you easily. So thanks. Thanks for spending time with us on on the Gentlemen project. And being a gentleman means a lot.
Ted Broman:Thank you.
Kirk Chugg:And great, thanks for joining us. If you'd like to check out Ted Berman's other site Academy, or anything else that he's involved with. We'll do some links on social media this week, and and help you find those places. Thanks again, Ted. Join us next week, like and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts so that you get these downloaded automatically on Monday. We're on episode 31 this week, and we just want to thank all of our listeners for being with us and making this part of your routine. We love being a part of it and love the positive feedback and any feedback that you have for us, please email us at info@gentlemenproject.com and we will talk to you next week. Make it a great week.
