Les Brown: Find Your Calling and Invest in Yourself

01/19/21

CM1056. LES BROWN: FIND YOUR CALLING AND INVEST IN YOURSELF

01/19/21

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:00:00] Welcome back to Always Evolving. Now you can watch Always Evolving on YouTube, so make sure you subscribe to our YouTube channel and coach Mike Baer. And this podcast is available on Apple podcast or wherever you get podcasts. Follow me on social media coach Mike Baer, also at my Free Empowerment Group every Tuesday, 5:00 pm with no upselling. I don't sell on anything which I want to talk to less about because it's part of what causes a reaction in me recently. And my special guest today is Brown, who is a legend in the speaking circuit or just being a speaker and a beacon of light. He's written a lot of books. He's been he has a tremendous story. And so I wanted to join us. So thanks for joining us.

 

LES BROWN: [00:00:55] Thank you, sir, plum pleasing pleasure, as well as a privilege to be here with you.

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:00:59] You

 

LES BROWN: [00:00:59] Thank

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:00:59] Two.

 

LES BROWN: [00:00:59] You so much for having me. And thank you for the work that you're doing, helping people to realize that we must always evolve. I mean, that is really the truth, that today, if you're not willing to learn, no one can help you. If you're willing to learn and evolve, no one can stop you. And so that's what life is about. It's about evolving and continuously expanding our vision of ourselves and what we can do and the kind of impactful life that we can live. So it's an honor to be with you.

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:01:34] Thank you. And how do you think you have been evolving in this last year?

 

LES BROWN: [00:01:41] I think growing by leaps and bounds, you know, this has been an interesting year that we just left. Twenty, twenty I'm seventy five years old. February the 17th, I will be seventy six. And this this past year, I learned a lot about myself in terms of when you think you've seen it all. I feel like Mother Teresa, she said just when I thought I got a handle on life, the handle broke

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:02:20] Right.

 

LES BROWN: [00:02:23] As though I've never seen anything like the marriage that knows the thing like this before. As they tell me, it's a dream of my oldest son. As they tell me this is a dream. This is not a dream, that it's real.

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:02:38] Right.

 

LES BROWN: [00:02:39] So it's been an adventure because it allows you to rethink your life and what is it you want to do with the rest of your life? And so during this time, I've been doing a lot of reflecting. During this time, I've I finished my book because I didn't want to die with it in me. One of the things I talk about it when I'm presenting to an audience, live full and die empty. Dr. Miles Monroe, who was a minister out of the Bahamas, he said, Rob the cemetery of your genius, of

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:03:16] Mm.

 

LES BROWN: [00:03:16] Your gifts, of your inventions, of your ideas. And I was determined that I was going to rob the cemetery of my my best work, which I feel that that that book that I wrote was my best work, but also of my potential to have a greater impact on people. I'm always studying. I'm always really I believe that you're never too old to learn and you're never too young to teach. So I learned from young guys like yourself and and I'm always listening because you can never you don't know how smart you are until you find out how much you don't know.

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:03:55] All right, well, one thing I got to say, one thing that you're really smart at is speaking, you know, like you're a sought after speaker. People watch your videos on YouTube. People want to hear you speak. They want to hear what you have to say. Now, I'm not sure if you've used speaking as genetics where some people are just more gifted. So they'll be a star basketball player and they're just living in their art. Or was that something that you really had to groom like? Did you come out of the womb being a great speaker?

 

LES BROWN: [00:04:29] Not at all. I have sneakers that would, if you saw them at first, you would never believe that they would be able to stand on a stage and hold a microphone that now they have passed me because I'm a speech coach. And if any, if you are decent as a coach, everybody that you train, if they are hungry as you are, they're going to surpass you. All of us are born the same way, dumb, naked and speechless. And I spoke today and I said to my audience, I give a motivational message on Facebook. And I said, if you're willing to put in the effort and the time to develop any skill, you're going to be exceptional. And this is a time where average is over that you have to manifest your greatness. And so when I used to see Zig Ziglar, Tony Robbins, Jim Rohn, Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, Robert Schuller, I said I want to be like them. I want to do what they do because I was inspired by a man who's a great communicator. I eulogized him doctor. I call him Dr. Leroy Washington. He was not a doctor, but he was a speech and drama instructor.

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:05:51] You gave it you gave them the doctorate degree because he was so good. This is the last brown doctorate that was given out.

 

LES BROWN: [00:05:57] Yes, because he was so powerful and I admired him, and so this man, when I saw him give a presentation to some juniors in high school, I said, I want to be like this guy.

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:06:12] Hmm.

 

LES BROWN: [00:06:12] And I had been in his classroom looking for a friend. And he told me, hey, young man, go to the front and ruman and work this problem out for us. And I said, I can't do that. So I'm just here to see BackOffice Stevens. I'm not one of his students. He said, do it anyhow. And I said cancer. And I was looking down and he said, look at me. And then the other students died laughing, saying, he's Lesli. He's got a twin brother, Wesley Wesley Smart, he's dead. And he asked, what's Dean? And they said, he's the dumb twin.

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:06:44] Mark.

 

LES BROWN: [00:06:44] And I said, I am, sir. And he came from behind his desk and he pointed at me. He said, Don't you ever say that again. Someone's opinion of you does not have to become your reality. And when he said that, that startled me. When we speak, just like your program, the way it's designed, we distract, dispute and inspire

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:07:04] Hmm.

 

LES BROWN: [00:07:04] How people live their lives as a result of the story they believe about themselves when they listen to use the. And your guest, what you do is you interrupt their current story given to them by life, given to them by the world, given to them, by their environment and their circumstances, and through the delivery of the experience that they have of your show, you dismantle their current belief system and you inspire them to make new choices with their lives. That's what we do as speakers, as life coaches, as trainers, as a host of a program about evolve. Because when I listen to you, what I know is this is about me realizing that I have not done my best stuff, that life is about evolving,

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:08:02] Mm.

 

LES BROWN: [00:08:02] That reaching higher is not about settling, that the when I think about the Lion King, Simba, you are more than that which you have become. This is what your show is saying. When you say evolve you

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:08:17] Mm

 

LES BROWN: [00:08:17] More

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:08:17] Hmm.

 

LES BROWN: [00:08:17] Than who you are right now and what you believe you are not just circumstances, you are not. The things that have happened to you can evolve above and beyond that.

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:08:32] When did you start evolving as a speaker and did you believe and I'm focused on speaker right now because.

 

LES BROWN: [00:08:40] Ok, first of all, that that's the most important title that you can have for a show, because if you're going to make it in this economy, this economy that's called the attention economy, this

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:08:52] Hmm.

 

LES BROWN: [00:08:52] Economy that you have to be able to call attention to yourself with your story, because when people see you, if you're promoting yourself, your products or your business, you are the storyteller. Steve Jobs said the storyteller is the most powerful person in the world. So

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:09:09] Hmm.

 

LES BROWN: [00:09:09] When people see you, they're asking three questions. Who are you? What do you have and why should I care?

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:09:17] Mm

 

LES BROWN: [00:09:17] And so

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:09:18] Hmm.

 

LES BROWN: [00:09:18] Your ability to convey that when you're speaking is major, your ability to call attention to yourself with your story and your ability to create an experience with your story as you deliver it. The reason that I was able to stand out from other speakers when I came into the speaking industry, it was based upon two things that I shied away from, based upon the advice of my mentor, Mike Williams, who wrote the book The Road to Your Best Stuff. Number one, the Dale Carnegie course they teach. Tell them what you're going to tell them. Tell them and then tell them what you tell them. Mike Williams taught me, Brownie, never let what you want to say get in the way of what your audience needs to hear

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:10:07] Hmm.

 

LES BROWN: [00:10:08] And duck communications intelligence, develop a working knowledge of what they do and why they brought you there. And what's the unspoken conversation that you need to deal with as No. One. The next thing is, he told me to create an experience with your story. And and when I came into the industry and then is pretty much the same now, everyone for the most part was giving information from the From Thinking Bridge by Napoleon Hill. If information could change people, everybody would be skinny, rich and happy. Napoleon Hill, he died, broke and an alcoholic.

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:10:50] And.

 

LES BROWN: [00:10:50] So the information is not what did that change people? If you're going to transform people individually and collectively, it is very important that you learn how to use a story strategically that transformed that audience to create a significant emotional event. So when I work with speakers one on one, that's what I teach them how to do so that that the people individually and collectively leave. They feeling better about themselves and talking about you because of that experience that you took them through. As they listen to you and the stories that you share, the examples that you provided, the information that you integrated into that presentation so that it becomes a significant emotional event.

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:11:43] And how much of when somebody speaks, I find for myself, I can get sick of hearing myself say the same thing, but that's where you're saying the audience may need to hear the same thing. So I never intended on speaking. I never intended on being on television. My listeners know this about me. Like it was like the universe was like, no, you're going to write our behind the scenes. I've been in mental health for over 18 years. I own a treatment center. I was a counselor. I did interventions. And in the last two years, you know, I wrote a New York Times best selling book and everything launched. And I started being asked I mean, I'm speaking today. I'm speaking next week. And I don't I feel like I have a block. And I'll tell you on my block, it's a story right now. It's a story that I'm probably saying to somehow believe I'm not good enough. This is just my guess. I have no idea. Right. I'm just riffing. I have a hard time connecting with what I see. Even though I've been coaching people for years, I've never been in this coaching industry. This is a new thing for me and I have a hard time connecting. And this is where I'm blocked. And this is our goal is to help people. Our goal is not to open people up, to get them vulnerable, to sell or to make them believe something that's not true. And I find myself getting frustrated. I'm just like struggling with this coaching world, like as a coach. I love being the coach. I love helping people. I've been helping people. And now over time, I'm like, OK, I need to connect and I need to connect with other people in relationships. I try to connect with people, inspire me. That's why I have you on here. And I'm grateful that you came on here. But I just like I don't know why my brain quickly goes to being annoyed.

 

LES BROWN: [00:13:33] Is because you and I are coming from the same place that the stinking industry has been hijacked by people who speak to sell.

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:13:42] Got

 

LES BROWN: [00:13:43] I don't

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:13:43] It.

 

LES BROWN: [00:13:43] Speak to sell.

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:13:44] I

 

LES BROWN: [00:13:44] I have

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:13:44] Know you don't.

 

LES BROWN: [00:13:44] One thing that I'm selling. You are. So here's here's what I would do with you. Ladies and gentlemen, I want to share something with you. My name is as Mike. And I want you to think about something that you love, something that's important to you, something that gives your life a sense of significance. And this place where we are, the coronavirus in this place, I want to share with you steps that I think that will be helpful to you. Number one, write this down, M. Something that you love. See, most people realize that we've been trained and groomed to go get a job. A job is what you get paid for. But when you see and find something that you love, that you're calling a calling is what you are made for. And so when you know it's your calling, it's something that you love so much. You do it for nothing, but you do it so well that people pay you to do it.

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:14:41] Right.

 

LES BROWN: [00:14:41] The next thing is invest in yourself. That's Warren Buffett. What's the most important investment that one could make today? And here's a guy that has billions of dollars in the stock market. He has billions of dollars in real estate. And he said the most important investment you can make is in yourself.

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:15:01] And.

 

LES BROWN: [00:15:01] So invest in yourself. So you increasing your worth in the marketplace. The next thing is in order to become successful, what you write this down, kindred spirits, you've got to get around the right people. If you don't do that, you earned within two to three thousand of your closest friends. You have to look at your relationship and ask the question, is this a positive relationship? Is this a relationship that's purposeful, that is going in the direction of where I'm going? Is this a relationship that I could learn from that will hold me accountable, that will challenge me and that will push me. And the next thing is expand your vision that most people fail in life not because they aim too high and miss most people do what I did four years, aim too low and hit. And I'm saying to you, if you master something you love, you invest in yourself. You create caring relationships, relationships that challenge you and stretch you. You expand your vision. We call it the magic factor. So that's all about them.

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:16:12] Right. What I'm trying to say is you've been around a long time in in this coaching world, I'm new. I'm brand new. I've been helping people entering into it. Right. I'm trying to look at what other people are doing and how does this business work. So

 

LES BROWN: [00:16:31] Don't

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:16:32] Would

 

LES BROWN: [00:16:32] Worry

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:16:32] You

 

LES BROWN: [00:16:32] About them, don't worry about

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:16:33] Who

 

LES BROWN: [00:16:33] What

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:16:33] Cares?

 

LES BROWN: [00:16:33] They're doing, yeah,

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:16:34] I got

 

LES BROWN: [00:16:35] What

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:16:35] You.

 

LES BROWN: [00:16:35] You got to focus on, as Henry David Thoreau said, do not go where the path may lead, go where there's no path and leave a trail you want to be, Mike.

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:16:44] Yeah.

 

LES BROWN: [00:16:44] All right. And so there are people that that when I looked at coming into this industry, I just could not do what the others were going to do. They have made millions of dollars far more than I have, but they have not changed as many lives about change. They have never read as many books of I've read. They don't study and know how the human mind works. They don't know the adversity and they have not lived the life that I have lived. None of them have come from where I come. They have the complexion of connection. I have the complexion of rejection. I never

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:17:20] Hmm.

 

LES BROWN: [00:17:21] Forget when, when, when, when I thought Tony Robbins infomercial and I reached out to Guthrie rancor those guys and say, hey, I've got a story too. And I sent them my material and it's there. You've got a very inspiring story, but you're black and we don't believe America is ready for black motivational speaker. So I wrote them back and said, thank you very much for reminding me that I'm black. I never would have known that if you hadn't told me. So when you come up in an environment, in a culture that is designed to marginalize you, that's designed to destroy your sense of self. I remember going on Miami Beach with my mother and I was talking to my son, John Lesley, and they used to have signs up is that Jews, dogs and colors not allowed.

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:18:11] Ms.

 

LES BROWN: [00:18:12] I remember being with my mother when she went to clean some wealthy people homes and she went to look for a in a room directed by Miss Harris. I'll never forget. People ask me, how did you come up with this? You've got to be hungry. That's the title of my book. I knew the day that hunger developed in me. I heard my mother in the other room clapping her hands. And I ask, I said, Mama, why are you clapping your hands? And I was directed to clean the spots off the floor in the kitchen. And she said, Don't you worry, Leslie. You just keep on doing what you're doing. And then she came out of the room and miscarries, said, did you find it made me? And she said, no. She said, look in that room down the hall on the left as you went down there. And sure enough, my mother started clapping her hands again and I said, Mama, why are you clapping your hands? And she said, Did not tell you pay attention to what you're doing. And Miss Harris came over to me. I was ten years old at the time. Never forget this. And she said, I can tell you why she's clapping her hands. I said, Why, man? She said, When I have colored people out of my vision, I can't see them. And they're looking for something. I'll make sure they are clap their hands so that they are not stealing anything. And I dropped that washcloth and I stood up and I looked her in the eyes. And

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:19:33] Mm.

 

LES BROWN: [00:19:34] During this time, black people were not allowed to look at white people in the eyes. We always had to look down. That was the law. That was the culture that I came up in. And I said, look at me. I said, my mother is not a thief. She would not steal from you anybody. She's a Christian. She loves you and she loves your children. And I just looked at her and she was startled because she never had a black person look her in the eyes, especially a kid or an adult.

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:20:04] Yeah.

 

LES BROWN: [00:20:04] And I started scrubbing that floor and a hunger came up. It means that this will never, ever happen to my mother again. When I become a man, when I turn 18, this will never happen again. That's my mother told me. When you turn 18, son, you'll be a man. I said when I turn 18, I'll sit you down, I will work and no one will ever make you clap your hands again. And so nobody that when I came in the industry ever had to go through that dehumanizing, marginalizing experience everywhere you turn. It was there then and it's here now. And so the process of overcoming that

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:20:53] Hmm.

 

LES BROWN: [00:20:54] Is like if you have a wax the floor, you don't just go in and put new wax on top of waxed. You have to strip it. So the message that I give is designed first to strip away the negative things that have been said about you,

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:21:11] Mm.

 

LES BROWN: [00:21:11] The negative things that you believe about yourself, what psychologists call your self explanatory

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:21:17] You

 

LES BROWN: [00:21:17] Style.

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:21:18] Know what, I think you just got me. You know what it really is and you in you inspired this in me. Sorry to interrupt that thought,

 

LES BROWN: [00:21:24] That's

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:21:24] But

 

LES BROWN: [00:21:24] Ok.

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:21:25] So I'm gay, right.

 

LES BROWN: [00:21:27] You.

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:21:27] And and I've looked around in this coachmen world. It's a guy with his wife. Look at us. We're married. We're happy. It's like a thing. Right. And I think I've always kind of felt not a part of it. Like I've never fully felt, oh, a part of something. And as you're talking to me, what resonates with me is I just want to be a part of and I think this is my way and this is the story and this is extremely helpful, actually. So it just clicked for me. I'm like I'm just feeling that same feeling that I felt before, you know what I mean? Like, it just comes back at different times.

 

LES BROWN: [00:22:04] Mike, first of all, there are certain things that people just don't get to weigh in on, who in the hell gives someone the right to say who you're sleeping with?

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:22:19] Right. I know.

 

LES BROWN: [00:22:22] Help me, you know, not mine, I have I have three people in my family that are gay. One, my son, I have never ask him who is sleeping with.

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:22:36] Mm hmm.

 

LES BROWN: [00:22:37] He told me that had he not told me, I knew, but I would not of asking because it's none of my damn business, I are people coming out. Johnny Mathis came out. I'm gay. So am I supposed to come over and you provide some cocktails and we're going to watch? I don't get that. That's private. There's certain things that you don't get to weigh in on. That's nobody's business who you're intimate with. Nobody's business. I don't understand that.

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:23:10] I think why it becomes an event is the pain you carry because you believe you're wrong. So like when

 

LES BROWN: [00:23:18] And

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:23:18] You finally.

 

LES BROWN: [00:23:18] That's the key word, what you just said. Because you believe it's wrong?

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:23:23] Right.

 

LES BROWN: [00:23:25] Because we've been taught through religion, we've been taught in our culture with taught with the conversations around us. That's why Darren Benza he wrote a book called Most People Are Living a Misplaced Life. They're not living the life that they want to live because they're allowing the opinions of others to determine how they live and how they show up. I was on a plane with a guy whose father worked with Abraham Maslow and and he's still around. Very brilliant. He was in the he was in Auschwitz. He's in his 90s and he did this study study was astounding to me. You don't hear anything about it publicly that they did this study and that over eighty seven percent of people of every day people have a propensity for being gay over eighty

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:24:29] Hmm.

 

LES BROWN: [00:24:30] Seven percent.

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:24:32] Take

 

LES BROWN: [00:24:32] And so.

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:24:33] Me take me to your promised land,

 

LES BROWN: [00:24:35] Yes,

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:24:40] Very.

 

LES BROWN: [00:24:40] Yes, yes. So so I said, you got to be kidding me. I confess that he was a little defiant. I said cover up cover as a fabric. You won't believe this is what he showed. And he had these statistics. It was that was bad to go back to see. I said, thank you for coming up, baby. Is that that of a joke you are on display? No. And so this but that was I am so glad that we are now living in a time where we were not stigmatizing people. You think of some of the brilliant people like James Baldwin, like Oscar Wilde. I mean, brilliant minds, brilliant people that were stigmatized, that some were beaten to death and tortured to death. And in Nigeria, they just about four years ago, they were killing people who were discovered and or they express their sexual preference. They kill them because them stupid evangelists from America went over there and said, this is wrong. And they hung them. So we are coming in a time of where we are evolving,

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:26:11] Right.

 

LES BROWN: [00:26:14] We are evolving to to not be judgmental, the judge, not according to appearances, because your preference is different than mine, does not make you a bad person.

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:26:24] Yeah,

 

LES BROWN: [00:26:24] Is

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:26:24] It is it

 

LES BROWN: [00:26:25] The.

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:26:25] Is so interesting how judgment is such a part of, like culture when really it's like who are you judging? Like, what is such a waste of energy time? But it also put historically I mean, I have I got to imagine when you were speaking and being black and being different and getting rejected from people because you weren't what they were looking for, but the fact that you pushed through and you built an iconic life, you know, a life that you love, you know, even talk to me now, you feel full of life. You feel like you're learning, you're excited, you're inspired, you know.

 

LES BROWN: [00:27:08] Yes, I live it is great to be me.

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:27:17] Tell us about your book, Les.

 

LES BROWN: [00:27:19] It's called You've Got to Be Hungry, The Greatness Within to Win, it's about the people who are going to make it just what you just talked about, the people that are going to live life on their terms, not survive. What it takes to live and what it takes to survive are two different things. The people that are going to make it and come through and break through all odds are people who are hungry, people that are hungry are relentless, people

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:27:50] Mm hmm.

 

LES BROWN: [00:27:51] Who are hungry. A self definition of people who are hungry don't allow their circumstances or their environment to determine who you are. You decided that I'm going to be transparent. That's risky. This guy said if you're not willing to risk, you cannot grow. And if you cannot grow, you can't become your best. And

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:28:12] Mm.

 

LES BROWN: [00:28:12] If you can't become your best, you can't be happy. And if you can't be happy, then what else is there? So you decided I'm coming out of hiding, I'm going to be my authentic self. And whoever likes it or don't like it, so be it. It's none of my spiritual business.

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:28:30] And so being hungry is this book is for people who've also lost the hunger a bit.

 

LES BROWN: [00:28:37] I don't think people lose their hunger. I don't think so if you doing the work that you are supposed to do, you will die doing it once you know what it is. You will die doing

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:28:49] What

 

LES BROWN: [00:28:50] It.

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:28:50] Was a pivot for you when you were doing it and then you went, all right, I'm pivoting that like what was like a moment for you in your career or you just pivot the hunger.

 

LES BROWN: [00:29:00] And when I said I was going to do this.

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:29:02] No, just like while you've been doing this for many years, when have you pivoted and said, OK, I'm taking a pivot this way though, in this purpose that I have, I'm not going to keep doing this.

 

LES BROWN: [00:29:14] I have an.

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:29:16] You haven't you've been consistent.

 

LES BROWN: [00:29:18] Man, I'm I've been doing this longer than you've been on the planet, I've

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:29:22] I

 

LES BROWN: [00:29:22] Been

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:29:22] Know.

 

LES BROWN: [00:29:22] Doing this for fifty two years. How old are you?

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:29:27] 41.

 

LES BROWN: [00:29:28] I've got t shirts over the new tennis shoes over the new I'm seventy six, but the job is what you get paid for. Your calling is what you're made for.

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:29:39] Mm.

 

LES BROWN: [00:29:39] And when you are living, you're making life is God's gift to us. And how we live our lives is our gift to God. And you can't live your life if you're not authentic. If you're not true to yourself and you've decided to take a stand with

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:30:01] Mm

 

LES BROWN: [00:30:01] Your life,

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:30:01] Hmm.

 

LES BROWN: [00:30:02] It could have cost you your job. It could have cost you listeners. But you decide it. So be it. This is who I am. You and you know that life is it's a fight, it's a fight for territory to live your authentic life, life

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:30:20] Mm

 

LES BROWN: [00:30:20] Is a fight

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:30:20] Hmm.

 

LES BROWN: [00:30:20] For territory. And once you stop fighting for what you want, what you don't want will automatically take over. The bigot's

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:30:30] Say that again.

 

LES BROWN: [00:30:31] Life is a fight for territory. And once you stop fighting for what you want to be your authentic self,

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:30:39] Yeah.

 

LES BROWN: [00:30:40] To be real, to be you, to live from a place of integrity, once you stop fighting for what you want, what you don't want will automatically take over living a life, being concerned about what people think.

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:30:57] And.

 

LES BROWN: [00:30:57] I don't give a Fed rat's behind what people think about me.

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:31:01] And you've been like that for the past 50 years.

 

LES BROWN: [00:31:05] Seventy six. Well, it really started in my junior year in high school because when I was in the fifth grade, I was put back when the fifth grade into the fourth grade, and I was labeled educable, mentally retarded. And then I fell in the eighth grade. And then I met this high school teacher and the 11th year of high school, my junior year. And he told me, someone's opinion of you does not have to become your reality. So he interrupted my thinking. And from that point on, I never cared what people thought about me, period.

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:31:47] You made a commitment and the decision and change the story.

 

LES BROWN: [00:31:50] Absolutely, to myself, that's the most important story, the one that what Les Brown says, as Michael Jackson would say to the man in the mirror,

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:32:02] Hmm.

 

LES BROWN: [00:32:02] What he says to himself, that's why most people are not living like you. Most people go through life, as Henry David Thoreau said. They go through life in quiet desperation,

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:32:16] Mm.

 

LES BROWN: [00:32:16] Hoping that nobody ever finds out. There's a book that I read once, and the title of it was Why I'm afraid to tell you who I Am, because you might not like me. And that's all I've got.

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:32:29] Mm.

 

LES BROWN: [00:32:30] You never had a guess like me. Come on, bring it.

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:32:34] So. No, I think that's the challenge for for a lot of people that I work with and our audience is not feeling good enough and wanting to hide out in the shadows in quiet desperation is sums up a lot of what I see and I experience with people. You know, this is helpful for me. I was I'm curious. I am curious, like, do you have a group of people that you train and mentor? What is it look like?

 

LES BROWN: [00:33:02] People call and they email me atleast around seven seven at Gmail dot com, that's my personal email. Seven is my lucky number. I'm one of seven children. I am on February the 17th. That's my birthday. Sevenzo all around me and Joshua Meisha on the walls of Jericho seven times naming dipped himself in the River Jordan seven times that. I tell you, seven is my lucky number.

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:33:32] Seven's the No.

 

LES BROWN: [00:33:33] Yes, that's

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:33:34] So

 

LES BROWN: [00:33:34] Right.

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:33:34] They just e-mail you and then what is that look like? What are you. Is it is are they like group calls? Are they one on one like.

 

LES BROWN: [00:33:41] Now, the group cause now I don't see anybody personally, they're virtual, I do group calls and I do do one on one calls. People who are interested in one on one coaching with me. They email me at around seven, seven at Gmail dot com and say, I want you to trade me how to speak. How

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:33:59] That

 

LES BROWN: [00:33:59] To.

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:34:00] Is and that's what you love to do, is train people how to speak.

 

LES BROWN: [00:34:04] Yes, because we need more voices, we need more voices outside of religion, where they teach you how to live after you die outside of politics. Give me your vote and and represent your interests. I teach people how to live right here, right now and how to be focused on your life, not focus on what goes on in the White House, focus on what going on in your house and how to live right here right now.

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:34:40] So less will you join our empowerment group until you speak out one of them?

 

LES BROWN: [00:34:45] Absolutely.

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:34:46] All right, awesome. I'll send you details, that's at 5:00 p.m. It's a great group. We've been doing it ever since covid started. And this is this is exactly what everyone's hungry for. You know, is is I your wisdom, your experience, your love, your passion. And I really appreciate you coming on always evolving and evolving with us.

 

LES BROWN: [00:35:07] Oh, yes.

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:35:08] And, you know, if everyone wants to check out more about Les Brown, he gave you his email. So that's always a great spot.

 

LES BROWN: [00:35:16] If

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:35:16] Also,

 

LES BROWN: [00:35:16] They

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:35:16] Your.

 

LES BROWN: [00:35:16] Like to see me speaking in action, tell them to go on YouTube and put in less Brown speaking in the Georgia Dome, they'll see me speaking before eighty thousand people, less Brown speaking and the Georgia Dome.

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:35:31] Was that that must have been amazing, huh?

 

LES BROWN: [00:35:33] Yes, as of amazing as of right now, I don't even remember giving the speech.

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:35:38] How many how they acted? Eighty thousand people shot. What was the event?

 

LES BROWN: [00:35:42] It was a gathering of entrepreneurs, a guy named Dexter Yagur wanted to have the largest gathering of entrepreneurs to go into the Guinness Book of Records, and he selected me to be one of the speakers.

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:35:55] Wow. And then Les Brown Dotcom is your website, right?

 

LES BROWN: [00:35:59] Yes, right.

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:36:00] Ok,

 

LES BROWN: [00:36:00] And

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:36:01] I

 

LES BROWN: [00:36:01] If they're

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:36:01] Got.

 

LES BROWN: [00:36:01] If they yes, if they and if they want to reach me, it's less brown seven seven at Gmail dot com we have groups training and one on one training. All done virtually.

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:36:15] Amazing. All right. Well, thanks for coming on, always evolving. Appreciate you being with us.

 

LES BROWN: [00:36:21] Thank you, David.

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:36:23] Thank you, miss thing.

 

LES BROWN: [00:36:24] The idea is a virtual hug,

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:36:30] So

 

LES BROWN: [00:36:30] It's a virtual yeah.

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:36:32] Virtual, virtual coming out.

 

LES BROWN: [00:36:34] It's such a pleasure.

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:36:35] Thanks very.

 

LES BROWN: [00:36:36] I for now.

 

COACH MIKE BAYER: [00:36:38] So I spoke to Last is going to be running the empowerment group, we do the empowerment group every Tuesday, five p.m. less is going to be speaking about. You got to be hungry and you got to Coach Mike Baird, ARCOM sign up. You'll get email every week. Thank you for listening and subscribing. Make sure you click to subscribe and please rate this podcast if you enjoyed it. You can do that on Apple. And please subscribe to our YouTube channel where you can watch this instead of listening to it and until next time, keep it magical. The always evolving with Coach Mike Beer podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only and is not intended as a replacement or substitution for any professional, medical, financial, legal or other advice, diagnosis or treatment. This podcast does not constitute the practice of medicine or any other professional service. The use of any information provided during this podcast is at the listeners own risk for medical or other advice appropriate to your specific situation. Please consult a physician or other trained professionals.