Your Circle – ft. Brian Zuzick

Count money, man.

Count money, man.

Stacked riches.

I'm trying to told him I'm a beast, but...

Hey, guys.

Welcome back to another episode of The Grindcast.

Get ready to new day.

Zuzek thought he was done.

Part B. Part 2.

Josh was over here, you know, telling us that,

hey, man, one of the things I wanted you to talk about

was actually one of the things that you guys just got done

talking, touching on somewhat, which is your circle

and how much of a difference, you know, that that could make.

And so I told you one of the exercises that I was going to have

people do is write on a piece of paper

the people you spend the most time with.

And so let's start there.

Is everybody listening?

Go ahead and hit pause.

Take a piece of paper and pen or use your iPhone, you know,

note section.

And think about over the course of a week, a month, you know,

a quarter.

Who are the top five people that I'm spending the majority of my time with

and see if you could rank those people?

Who gets the most time from you and take a peek at,

do you think that those people are rubbing off positive, you know,

on you and maybe look at it and score them on positivity and negativity?

If they're a positive, give them a 10.

If they're negative, give them a 1 and rank them 1 to 10.

And, you know, on those five people that you're spending the majority of your time with

and see what you're looking like.

And if there's somebody that we need to add to the circle,

somebody we need to maybe put them on the bench,

bring them off the bench as a 6 man, you know, or a 6 woman,

and, you know, maybe upgrade your circle.

Anything you would speak to

and give a little bit more detail about anything that has with adjusting your circle.

I think so, first thing I realize right away is when you do that list,

yeah, you have the attitude and, you know, are they a lifter, are they a leaner?

But also, when you start writing down what you think their incomes are,

you're the average of those five.

And I think that that was a little humbling for me

because I'm like, man, I don't want to make 50 grand a year.

So I might have to put somebody at slot 8 and go get, you know,

go find somebody who's making a couple hundred thousand dollars,

making a million dollars a year and really add them to the list,

which is a little uncomfortable because when, you know,

like if you're always the smartest person in the room,

you're probably not in the best rooms all the time.

Right.

You got to sometimes be, you know, humble enough to say,

hey, how can I evolve? How can I get better?

So I need to elevate who I'm spending my time with because that's what's going to take me to the next level.

Right.

You know, like when I think about the people that I speak to,

like my closest friends are Stephen Gins,

one organization of the year, last year.

Kevin holds to the superstar, Reynolds, Acha Moa, you know,

Simon Arias, like, like these people all lift.

And I had to work myself into those rooms sometimes that's a little uncomfortable.

You got to want to get...

I know it's Kevin started lifting.

Yeah, you know what I'm saying?

Yeah, just by says...

He came to the golf outing.

Just by says.

Looks like a whole new person.

Just a good job, Kevin.

But that's what I mean.

That's where it...

That's a little uncomfortable to...

You know, because it's easy to go into fall into old ways where you already...

You're known someone a long time.

This is the other thing.

But you know if they're really bringing value or not.

And doesn't mean you don't love them.

Doesn't mean you don't care for them.

It's just that maybe right now you've got to find a couple other people to put in the top five.

Yeah, how do you do that?

You know, you think of like, I...

You know, we've been at it for a while.

Yeah.

But in the beginning...

Sure.

How do you do that?

You know, you look at your circle and you're just starting...

Yeah.

And it's like, I know, you know, I got my cousins, I got my day ones, I got my router died.

Because loyalty is also a big one for you.

Yeah.

Right?

So how do people balance...

It's tough.

Right?

Yes.

How do you balance the loyalty, but also upgrading your circle, because some of the people that maybe you came up with or grew up with or you spent the most time with or that you love...

Mm-hmm.

Might not be best for this top five circle.

I think in the beginning stages, especially let's say in our business or any new business...

Or locker room or whatever.

I don't think it's the talent that's going to get it to you there.

I think it's going to be the add to the coachability, the humbleness, the going the extra mile.

Like it's always so clear to see like, man, I really want to spend time with this person because they show up early every day, they execute the game plan, they give 110%.

So they're going to earn more.

Right.

Like, you know, Laura, you always say to me, as long as you just keep doing the things that, you know, we say to do, then you're going to earn more and more my time.

More and more my time.

You know, and I think that you got it because time is, you only get 24 hours in a day.

So you gotta be really smart with that.

No doubt.

So I think that you can earn it and it's not about, in the beginning stage, it's not about talent.

You don't have enough experience to have a boatload of talent.

You can come in with something but like, you don't have a boatload yet because you just know.

Yeah, you can have talent, maybe not skill.

Yeah, there you go.

That's a good way to look at it.

Yeah.

And then in the beginning, I just think that if you can just outwork everybody else.

And you can just out execute and just ask good questions.

You know, Marcus, what are we saying?

This is something I had never done before.

You'd be like, hey, listen, just make sure you write down your questions beforehand.

Because then you really think about them versus it's just being spur of the moment.

You know, and I think those things are a big, big advantage so that you can be earning your mentors time.

Let's say you want to earn your way into somebody's circle.

Or I want to earn my way into getting more of my mentors time.

Yep.

How would I go about doing that in your opinion?

I think it's like for us, we have leaderboards.

So you get yourself on a leaderboard.

We always joke and say like, man, I want you to be like a superstar.

But my eyes don't go down this low.

Like you got to get yourself in the top.

Like I see you when you're at the top and you're delivered because in our business,

like what we do, for instance, it's not rocket science.

If you just outwork everybody, you already blow by 95% people.

Right.

Like I'm immediately, like a kid like me who comes from roofing.

It's mostly work ethic.

Yeah, I was super shy, super nervous.

There was no like charismatic part of me.

Like when I came in, I was just really nervous.

No way.

Yeah, wearing suits that look like Jay-Z, because I didn't ever wear a suit before.

So it's 10 times too big.

And you know, but either way, I just knew I'm going to get to the top just by a,

or at least get by 95% of people just by the hustle, just by a grind in everybody else.

You know, so like that immediately puts you in the conversation where it's like, man,

I want to spend a lot more time with this person because they're putting in the work.

Now, what if to make room for my, my circle?

Yep.

Let's say now I'm talking about not getting into circle, putting my circle together.

You know, we ain't saying, cut your mama off, you know, for the rest of your life.

Right.

But if your mother is negative.

Yeah.

We might have to not talk to her six times a day.

Yeah, like I love my mom to death.

Like I said before, I get best parents in the world.

The last person I'm ever calling for a business advice is my mom.

You know, like so my sister's in the business.

She's a superstar.

I think her fourth, third or fourth year made a, just under half a million dollars.

But when I approach her about working with my mom, my sister.

Oh, and then my mom says, nah, it's not a good idea.

I'm like, mom, what do you mean the business change?

So like, it's a lot of work.

This had the other thing now.

Thank God my sister knew, you know, I'll put her at number nine.

Yeah, I'm going to put her in the top five right now.

Yeah.

And I don't blame my mom for thinking like that.

She just never been an entrepreneur, never been in the business world.

You know, anything like that.

And she just, you know, loves your kids.

I think a lot of people have a hard time with that.

That, that, that distinguishing and being able to differentiate and separate

people they love with people who is going to lift them in that they need to spend the most of their time with to get to where they want to go.

That's, I think, a big challenge, you know, for people, especially with the, with the loyal heart.

Right.

So I, I think you just got to be, you know, what I've learned is in order to be selfless, you got to be selfish.

Well, one thing about, you know, if you're going to cut a big check, you know, like you did for our summer program, 15,000 to help all these kids, you know, you couldn't have made only 16,000.

You know, for the year, the way that you're able to be a giver is because you're a getter.

You know, in the main, you got to be a go getter in order to be a go giver.

In order to give the others and you want to walk around and be able to do a lot, you got to be giving a lot to yourself.

In order to leadership to pour out a lot, you got to be inhaling in my body spirit of exhale a lot onto the other people.

And I think sometimes people miss that part of it is, man, I want to do so much for these people.

Sometimes the best thing I could do for these people is to not spend as much time with them so I could go over here and get it together.

And then I can come back and help all these people over here because me going to where I want to go that's going to help all of us isn't going to be by me being trapped with the same mindset standing around all of us.

Somebody got to go make it. Somebody got to go change it. Somebody got to go up to a whole another level.

And if we already had all the answers, then we wouldn't be over here.

Right? If we already knew what we were doing and where we needed to go, then we wouldn't be right here. That's why we got to be careful about who you're taking advice from and try not to take too much advice from people.

That you wouldn't trade places with. There's always a caveat. There's always a, oh yeah, but you can learn something from everybody.

And I've heard somebody say, well yeah, but you can learn from everybody. You can learn. There might be a homeless person on the street that might have some wisdom that can share with you.

And there is some truth to that. So there's the dichotomy that you talked about.

You know, of yeah, you can learn from people's mistakes. You can learn from, you know, maybe your uncle that's not the most successful.

And he says, hey, here's what I wish I would have done. Here's what I would have learned. Here's some things. So there's always you can find, you know, you could find mugsie bogs.

You know, in a mean our hero. My guy, you know, in a mean short and dunk. You know, in a mean old people, but that's rare. You know what I'm saying? That ain't happening all the time.

That's a once every 30 years. You know what I mean? 20 years. The majority of your advice that you want to take.

If you want to leave a window of not speaking in everybody, okay, all the time. You can probably still gather some good advice and things.

But the majority of your advice that you want to be taking should be from people that you wouldn't mind trading places with or that are where you want to go.

Yeah, I try to keep things huge. I got my real simple person. Come on. Say it again for the people in the back. I just love that. You know, you're super successful when you keep it simple. You know, who else is like this with us? Spenser. Spenser. He's a simple.

But I would have told you that you get him on your side. I mean, you guys are just very simple.

I just say it says like, yeah, that's five seconds to answer this question. It's just simpler. Like what? I want more. You know, you're making millions of dollars. Like give it to me.

You know, I mean, it's like, I just keep it really simple. Like you, I just do these basic, you know, the main things. So I think everybody's looking for that nugget.

You know, of over complicating things. So what would you do to keep that simple?

I mean, I think in the beginning stage, it's just really black and white. If you wouldn't want to trade places with them, then we probably don't need to be asking them a bunch of questions.

And if you would, or taking advice, sometimes you ain't asking questions. Yeah, they're giving you unsolicited. Sometimes I'm not taking those calls. Yes.

Sometimes I'm because I also see on the flip side, like in our business, we help a lot of people, right?

And I can see some managers or leaders or newer leaders. They can get sucked down by maybe some negative new people that don't know how to think yet.

And so I always try to give them help where I'm like, Hey, I were trying to help people and serve people and be there for them. I get it.

But you still got to fill up your cup with who you're spending the most time with. And it shouldn't be somebody that you wouldn't want trade places with either.

Right.

It's got to be both ways. And then now your cup is overflowing. And now you can share with everybody else. But first you got to get, you got to fill up that cup.

So I think that that keep it real simple. If you wouldn't want trade places with them. And that's not just about money. I guess is that a part of it.

It is. It's also had people that maybe were like, yeah, man, he thinks he's better than everybody else now.

Or he don't talk to us anymore or anything. Have you ever had any of that stuff? Yeah.

How do you handle that?

You know, I think people get a big ego in our business or in life when they have some success or this or the other thing.

Or for instance, and this was not a good thing. But when I was a new leader, remember I was saying my biggest strengths sometimes my biggest weakness.

I was so loyal to the business. If someone left the business, I just cut ties.

And looking back that wasn't the right thing to do.

Yeah.

You know, like that's not that's where God helped me out a lot. And was like, hey, like let's love these people, serve these people.

You know, just because they're not in the business doesn't mean you can, you know, go above and be on help them.

But those are lessons I kind of had to learn just because I was so obsessed with winning and being competitive and having a good team.

I felt like if someone left the business, they were disloyal. And that's not always the case.

You know, people leave careers and jobs all the time family issues, personal issues, this is the other thing.

Right.

So it's just lessons that I had to learn. But I think that that's where having good people around me kind of taught me.

You know, I've seen you have phenomenal relationships with people doing all different things all over the world.

You know, no matter what.

There's like we talk about a lot even as s's I've seen you make no money like zero zero dollars,

and pour into people over and over and over and over and over. Like there's not a dollar you make off of helping me so much.

In the amount that you've poured in, it always reminds me of man, you just got to try to do the best to be a good person to everybody because the more you give, the more you'll get anyways and just serve.

And being somebody that like it's easy to love you.

You know, I'm saying so some people it's harder for me to love them. You know, I'm saying like I love you, but this is taking every ounce of me to love you.

You know, I'm saying this is taking every part of my prayer in the morning and my body spirit to love you, but I know I got to love you.

And you're an easy one to love. And so I think for people to want to break into some of these circles.

To want to be in someone where hey man, I can spend time with that person. I can get around these people. I want to be a part of that.

You know, some things that I would say that helps people get into those circles is gratitude.

You know, like if if someone gives you a moment of their time and that's where you want to be, you know, in that circle.

Are you showing it, are you showing the gratitude because most people aren't grateful?

So I think to be great, you got to be grateful. And so in order to separate yourself, you're already going to separate yourself because most people are ungrateful.

Most people are entitled and don't understand. And if you're a grateful person and you articulate that and you show that, and then the next step is that you got to execute.

Right. I want to know that I'm not giving my time to. And this is sometimes your a player, sometimes your a coach.

Right. And so being a coach or being a player, you know, I'm thinking as I'm talking through this, I'm thinking, man, how, you know, some of the people I've been blessed and fortunate to have that are willing to give me their time and mentor me that.

And so many people wish that they would have their time. What have I done? What have I tried to do is being super grateful and showing that, but being genuine of like, alright, you know, I'm making a lot of money, had a bunch of success.

You know, one of my mentors, you know, the same order that he ordered the first time I ever asked him, does he want anything from Starbucks?

I'm like, 11 years later, I still bring him the same drink if it's in the morning. You know what I mean? Every single time. You know what I mean? It's like, this is a symbol of humility.

Sure.

This is a symbol of gratitude. I don't care if he throws it in the garbage. You know what I mean? It's $6. You know what I mean? Or whatever as a way for me to show you how humbled and how grateful you know that I am.

And then being willing to go on their territory at any time for any reason to get that time. You know, in the mean of, I've met one of my mentors at seven o'clock in the morning and drove two hours to be there.

You know, or an hour and a half to be there at 7 30 leaving my house at six o'clock already had to be up dressed ready to roll to be there because that's when that person can meet with me.

You know, for an hour and a half if I got a drive, you know, for you just to have you in the car so I could get wisdom from you. Whatever it is, I'm willing to go to that person on their territory, on their clock, on their time, whether it's driving or whatever it is of time that they would otherwise not use.

You know, I'm willing to do that so I think people need to be willing to go to that extreme, which I think takes a level of humility that would cause you to, you know, like not say I'm a grown-ass man.

You know what I mean? That ego of a grown-ass man, I don't have to do this or I shouldn't have to do that is what will stop you. You know, I think. And then showing execution.

So we spend an hour and a half, we spend two hours together. Here's the things that I've taught you. What am I seeing come to fruition with my time, whether it's in the business or mentoring someone outside of the business?

What are you doing with what I'm giving you? Am I seeing things that you're doing growing? Am I seeing you executing things that I'm telling you? Are you taking notes? You know what I mean? It's like people think, oh, I don't, I don't ask people or care if people take notes for my ego.

I don't care. You know what I mean? It ain't that big of a deal to me. It's more so for them to grasp what's being taught so they can use and execute those things.

And so when I'm with my mentors, I'm 43 years old and we just had a record break in month and we've done over $300 million I think in business and the life insurance space.

Hopefully, I'll be saying a billion, you know, soon. And I'm like notes, notes, notes, like a child. You know what I mean? Like notes, planning the questions before I get there always I give tons of time of planning the questions.

And so when I get there, the person doesn't feel like they got to work. I want them to chill and just let me pool what I need to pool because these people are already giving so much energy to others I want to make it easy for you to give energy of me.

I want to try to fill you up and pull out so you could just rest and let me pool from you versus you needing to push and give, you know what I mean to me.

I think these are things that I could give to people and I could keep going of ways that you will earn your right into certain circles into certain people's time and then a lot of consistency.

Like, oh yeah, I watch you from a distance. You know, you've done good for the last three months. You know, we're waiting to see what you've done for 12 months. You know what I mean? Like me and you were talking to me. Maybe someone coming here to meet with us.

And you're like, hey, you know, Shia is really big on this person and you know, I'm like, well, that says a lot because after you've been in the business or you've been in a business, whether it's the sports business or any business, the restaurant business, you've seen a lot of people that maybe look the part you don't get all excited, you know, over a talker, over a looker as much.

As you do as someone that I've watched for a while and something stands out about this person that makes me want to coach and mentor, you know, that person. And so I think being that person sometimes takes a level of consistency, getting some form of results, right. So you were saying, my eyes don't go that far down, you know, on the leaderboard, you know, to be able to.

So I think the biggest thing is results, you know, you want relationships sometimes relationships will help get you results, but a lot of times also results with what's going to help you get relationships.

Yeah, is because of those relationships that you're building or the results that you're getting is going to earn you the right, you know, to have like, all right, this person might be the real deal.

Right.

Or being consistent and not quitting and sticking around a while like, oh, that's cool. But let me see you make it 12 months.

Right. You know, I mean, before we go over spending time with, you know, with this person, let me see you make it through the first 90 days.

Yeah. You know, no matter whatever it is, before we get all excited.

What else would you say about getting into entering into circles?

Or fine tuning other people's circles that they could struggle with of like, man, it's my brothers, my boys, my girls.

You know, my day ones. You talk about loyalty. I don't want to be a disloyal person. It's all about the money. I'm going here and I forget about my sisters. Right.

Yeah.

Yeah, I think that like, first thing I think that what you said was that like when you were speaking, the people that I can see coming up and, you know, getting closer to let's say, my inner circle, it's always the most grateful.

Like, it's so easy to work with somebody who's grateful. And it's the little things. It's not the big things. It's not like, like, this, like, these big, I don't need you to bring me. No, no, no.

Right. What the biggest thing is just you can, like, in my opinion, real recognizes real. So like, I can tell when someone's like, just big heart wants to help, you know, wants to be a good person, but just so thankful.

It's like the little things. I think just really go a long way and we'll get you into that room fashion. You think and then of course you got to ask you got to ask you, but when you're grateful, you execute at a higher level, because like I said, you can't be grateful and hateful at the same time.

Yeah.

It's to be great. You got to be grateful. So that means that the more grateful you are, I think you're going to do better and better and better, because especially in our business or whatever business you're in.

When you feel really, when you're really grateful, you have a very positive outlook on the world or the day or the situation.

Okay. So I think that you're going to perform at a very good level or a very high level, the more grateful you can be. So I think that that one's like enormous.

Like the people that I have close are just the most grateful, you know, humble people. So it makes it really easy to always want to pour in, always want to pour in, always want to pour in.

And I think that that's also where you can examine maybe the people that you have from the past or family or close friends or this and the other thing.

If they really love and support you, if they really got your back, they're going to be happy for you. They're very grateful that you're trying to change your life. They're going to be, you know, excited for you.

They may not fully understand it.

You know, like, do I think my parents fully understood what I was getting myself into and this, I don't think no.

But if they really love and you support you, they're going to understand, hey man, a couple of years of real sacrifice is going to set our family up for the rest of our lives, generations to come.

Another tip I'll give people on the circle thing is being in proximity. And so if you're, if you have the ability to, especially when you're young, when you're young, if you have the ability to.

If you have kids, maybe, you know, I mean, I understand, but like, we have to travel a ton because we have kids and, you know, we have to stay in our location.

And we still travel a lot. But I think if I go back and I was 22 or 23 or 24 and I can move down next to a Joey Crivelli or a Spencer Cozze or a Shilohn Assevato or a page.

Like, if I could get near them, like, I'm already ahead of 95% of people, right? That's why like even like, if you call me tomorrow and you're like, hey, would you come up?

I'm taking the first fight out three in the morning. You know, I mean, just because I know I will perform and do so much better off of being around you.

It's kind of like the Kobe Bryant or effect like or Michael Jordan effect. It's like, when you're around those people, it just elevate your game.

So I think that if you can get close to them one way or no, especially for the young people. I'd be a no brainer from no brainer tip. We're giving you right here. If you have the ability to get around and upgrade your circle of people and the only thing that's holding you back is moving.

If you want to make millions of dollars, all right, and I know it's not all about money. Okay. So this is can be whatever. If you want to learn how to, you know, spinning back, fist somebody's teeth out. Okay. And that's your profession. Whatever it is. Okay. If you want to be great.

And you have the ability to be next to the fire, the juice, the best. And the only thing stopping you is breaking a lease or moving your bags.

You got to ask yourself how bad do you really want it because it's going to be bigger obstacles in your journey that you're going to have to overcome than moving.

100% you know what I'm saying? Like we were just joking. You know about me. I've moved a few times here in the last you know a couple of years in the different locations. That's that's what a wife and kids and schools and sports and you know the main and this, this and that. So if you're single, you ain't got no kids.

And it's Friday. You ain't got no job. No. If you're single and you don't have kids, you need to go ask yourself how serious am I to wanting to be great.

If you have an opportunity to be around the fire of whatever it is in the coaching business, supplement business, nutrition business, whatever the business is and ain't just our business.

But if you if you have an opportunity to get around those people day to day basis where I can be in proximity with them and you're not doing it, you're making a big mistake in my opinion.

You know the main thing is your girlfriend can move, you know put the dog in the car, you know the main thing that's ain't that big of a deal.

You know you gotta look at yourself and say if I was a professional athlete, right, if I played for the Dallas Cowboys and all my families all excited.

And I said hey guys I spent two years here, I got it now, I got picked up by the Patriots. You gotta move, right? Or if you go from the Patriots and I got all of a sudden I got signed to the Eagles, you know I got a move for a lot of my friends have done this.

They've been with four or five different teams over the last eight years, you know the main of your bouncing around and ain't that big of a deal.

If you're a professional athlete, you're traveling, you're moving, you know stuff like that.

If you need to move to get close to people, I mean even if you got a family, you know the main if it's possible, you know for you.

Like if I had to move, and I'm the breadwinner, I feel like I would have the support of my wife right now if I'm like hey I got to move to Dallas.

It's gonna be better for everybody, better for our family, you know this and that. I think I would have a big chance of having you know support, not that I would want to do that.

But if that was what was stopping me, you know we asked the question on the last one if you lost everything, you know what would you do, you know I would get close to the mentor.

Remember you said I would get fine the right mentor, I would get close to that person, I would do the same thing.

I would move, I would go, whatever I have to go, we're all packing this thing up, we're gonna get close to the juice, close to the fire and then we'll be back.

You know what I mean? I think about it, so I live in Boston right near where the Patriots play.

And I always remember, you know Tom Brady was superstar and then they dropped Julian Edelman who gets drafted as a quarterback.

Now what separated him is they said you would.

Kent State Ohio shout out. They said what his big thing is he would do anything to go where ever it was Kent State.

Yeah, yeah quarterback. I'm going to wire seeker, but anyways he would do anything to go wherever Brady was all over the country to just get time with them catch balls from him over and over and over and over and over and over and over.

Wherever was that.

So he'd be in California for a weekend didn't even know if Tom was going to call him he would just tell his agent, hey I'll be here if you need somebody to throw balls to.

And then he would go, you know so that's where he just had so much.

So when you come in as a quarterback and you become a phenomenal wide receiver, you know and that's what you got to do you have to be able to.

Now you got that synergy.

Exactly. So now now he trusts him.

He wants to throw you.

So now he wants to coach him. I want to mentor him now. I want to work with him.

So now you go from being on a special teams player to now you get some you get some real time and now you become the starting slot receiver and now you become a pro baller.

All these things happen because in the beginning he better.

So I was willing to go wherever wherever Tom was at.

Yeah, we're going.

That was the mentor when I always saw that I thought to myself man if more people were willing to put themselves out there and say hey listen I need to humble myself a little bit and just go around the people that are again the results I want to get.

I'm going to get them to Amen.

So some great tips for you guys out there on the on the getting around a circle.

Mm-hmm.

Getting some people out of your circle getting people better in your circle.

Whatever you're doing we appreciate you guys coming in our circle today into the grind cast studios now listen.

If if there was any value added to you the only thing we're asking is can you share this with other people that you think we can impact their life in a positive positive manner.

That's the only thing that that's the only thing that we ask and so we appreciate as always you know you could have spent this 31 minutes anywhere and chose to spend it with me and BZ over here and we're hoping that you got some value from that so we appreciate you as always thank you for joining us on another episode of the grind cast get ready us a new day.