What's on Your Backburner? Awakening Dormant Desires & Unlocking Entrepreneurial Growth with Albert Pellissier

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Hello and welcome to another episode of The Profitable of Christian Business.
I am so, so pleased to have my guest uh Albert Pelliché, sorry here, the author of thisamazing book, What's On Your Backburner.
uh I have honestly, Albert, I've only a quarter of the way through this book right now,but my mind is blown already.

(00:22):
But we're gonna dive into that and uh some talk about your faith journey and uh some,really.
Some of the things he's going to highlight probably some of the things that are in thisbook and it's going to blow your mind like it blew my mind.
all right.
So Albert, I ask every guest when they come on to kind of give a brief introduction aboutthemselves other than just offering this book, tell us a little bit about yourself.

(00:47):
Really, my claim to fame is uh being a lifelong entrepreneur.
I've never had a real job as you might think of it in that way.
And it's really surviving by my wits this whole time.
I'm in my early 60s now, so I was in publishing, real estate, hair salons, and theneventually ended up in the public speaking and coaching space.

(01:08):
And I still do all the other things too, but this is where I am at the moment.
Nice.
I stopped going to hair salons a long time ago.
Awesome, awesome, Albert.
That's true, that's true.
I'm starting to think of the old hair club for men.

(01:29):
I'm not just a member, I'm a client or something like that.
So what we do at the very beginning is kind of get to know you a little bit.
I ask them kind of lighthearted, sometimes they're lighthearted, but...
we end up going deep.
So we'll see where these go.
What's something most people would never guess about you?
So I really, you know, I'm just gonna drop the bombshell on you.

(01:52):
uh Back in the mid eighties, I was a fifth year junior at LSU going to college and umwasn't really a fantastic student.
And my roommate was a manager for the LSU football team and he happened to have the keysto Tiger Stadium.
So one night, uh

(02:14):
He let us in, me and another friend, the three of us went in and we went and we playedFrisbee on the 50 yard line of the moonlit empty Tiger Stadium.
And it was a beautiful night.
And then on the way out, we made a big mistake and we decided we were hungry.
So we grabbed a box of nacho chips out of the concession stand and we had one those onegallon cans of synthetic cheese.

(02:41):
And we had that under our arms.
but we had made so much noise in the stadium that the beat cop heard something going on inthere and he came in, we all got arrested and the next morning we were expelled from
college.
my goodness, wow.
I could ask a lot of questions on that, but I think we'll move on.

(03:04):
Yeah, so I'll just add to it that without that jolt, I would have never graduated,honestly.
It forced me to get serious and I had to go to mandatory counseling to get back in school.
And my counselor was this kind of an older lady, she was wise.
And she really convinced me and inspired me, honestly, to go back and finish what Istarted.

(03:29):
I was just gonna bail out and never go back again.
And I went back the following January and in 12 months, 12 calendar months, I really didover a year and a half worth of schooling and got enough credits to get my degree.
as things often are, sometimes your worst moments turn out to be the best transitions youever make.

(03:52):
Yes, I can think of times in my own life where that is true.
So that really lit a fire on you under your eyes.
Yeah, it just kind of, you know, I really felt in this strange way that every 12 years I'mgoing down the wrong path, staying on it a little too long.
And I feel like God comes and smacks me a little bit and wakes me up and gives me anawakening of some sort.

(04:16):
And then I change direction and I seem to go for another 12 years, maybe two years toofar.
And then I get another, get another little slap and.
And it's kind of a ping ponged around, you know, for the last four decades like that.
Nice, and I think we're gonna get into even more of that a little later in thisconversation.

(04:38):
But as I mentioned, sometimes I ask this lighthearted question and we end up going deep.
uh I would love your insight on, uh I'm not sure if this is even the right way to say it,but sometimes you have uh investment bias.
And what I mean by that is you spend so long doing something uh and you've put so muchwork into it, it may not be the right way to go, but you don't wanna give it up because

(05:02):
you've
put so much into it.
I love your insights into that.
You know, it's, I think just people get into a routine or a rut and you're just doing whatyou're doing and you're not even thinking about if there's an alternative.
ah And I think, you know, I know personally, I just stay, I guess I'm willing to toleratethe misery or even if it's just the uncomfortableness or the routine of it, I'm willing to

(05:31):
tolerate it too long.
And it usually,
You know, unfortunately, I wish I was more proactive and I probably am today than I was 40years ago.
But being uh really just like waiting for a crisis to force me out of it was the standard.
I think a lot of people do that is they wait for something to force their decision inanother direction instead of being more proactive about it.

(05:58):
Yeah, I don't know if you still do this, but I know you were holding retreats for men aspart of your programs.
So my question to you is, just from your perspective, where do you like to go to kind ofclear your head and refocus?
You know, I have a private office that's in a local spiritual center, just happens to bepractically around the corner from my house.

(06:22):
And I made it really um just like a nice, um soft atmosphere in there.
It's sort of dark in a certain sense, you know, where it gets the sun.
It's just really super peaceful and comfortable.
And I find that going there in the mornings, especially if I'm...
something's bothering me or I'm worrying about something or I'm losing sleep over thatnight.

(06:44):
I really go to my office.
It's real quiet in the daytime and I do my prayer there.
I do my journaling there.
And I just, it's that peace and quiet of just being in a peaceful space.
And I usually within an hour or two, I feel pretty upbeat even if I'm in a bad, you know,a bad zone for that week or day or month.

(07:07):
I love that because this is kind of timely because this morning I woke up.
You know, sometimes where the stress just starts to pile on early in the morning, likesituations happen that ah you weren't expecting.
And then I'm a big morning routine person.
And if something breaks up my morning routine, I start to get stressed.
ah But just the fact, maybe changing location for a brief time can help you getre-centered and refocused and kind of.

(07:35):
give a new perspective.
I love that.
I'm hoping a lot of the entrepreneurs that are listening are taking notes on that.
Sometimes if you're too close to the situation, sometimes there's a lot of stress.
Sometimes you have to step outside, go on a walk, possibly go to a place where you feelmore peace and then come back and readdress the situation.
So I love that you brought that up.

(07:56):
I do love a long walk too.
A friend of mine and his wife, they walk four miles together every single day, rain orshine, summer, fall, it doesn't matter.
I haven't been able to keep up that much of a routine, but I do find a good long walk is agreat clear your head method.

(08:19):
Awesome.
You describe yourself as living at the intersection of ambition and laziness.
Can you kind of talk about that a little bit?
Yeah, so somebody told me this once.
They said, you know, when you look back on your life, you're going to realize that thewhole thing was about resolving the differences in the thinking style between your mother

(08:41):
and your father.
Now I'll let you pause and think about that for a minute.
know, when he said that to me, I really thought back and my mom was, she was a hustler.
She was ambitious.
She was born in the projects of New Orleans.
She lived in the Desire Street housing projects.

(09:03):
She wanted to make something of herself.
She was very ambitious and really just never gave up, you know, just a natural uh urge toclimb.
And my father, by contrast,
He was a bartender in the French Quarter of New Orleans and he just wanted to work his joband go home.
He turned down every promotion opportunity.
He never wanted to be any kind of a food and beverage manager, restaurant, hotel manager.

(09:28):
He didn't want to take any more responsibility than just doing his job and going home.
oh So he had just a completely different idea uh of how to work life.
some people may think, yeah, they were divorced when I was three years old.
So that wasn't going to really work out of those two together.

(09:49):
But when I look back, when that guy told me that, I said, wow, you know, at that point,even I don't even remember how long ago it was.
I thought to myself, I really have been trying to kind of satisfy my own inner ambitionsand at the same time, mitigate the fact that I want to do the least amount of work as
possible.

(10:09):
And it was really true for me.
wow, so there's a lot to unpack there even with what you said.
So is it possible to be successful?
uh
trying to think of the best way to ask this question, with that dual mentality.

(10:31):
Is it possible?
Well, I have done it.
So I'll say that.
Now, you know, one thing is, you know, a lot of people think, you know, lazy is a fourletter word.
And I really see that it can be looked at differently.
So there is pathetically lazy, right?
And I'm not really talking about that.

(10:52):
If you just can't get going no matter what, there's probably no hope for you.
But there's also a way to look at laziness as efficiency or optimizing things.
And I don't know if this is true, but I saw a quote that Bill Gates said whenever hereally wanted some software, uh piece of elegant software written, he would choose his

(11:13):
laziest programmers because he knew they would just come up with shortcuts.
So when I say lazy, yeah, there is a differentiation between pathetically lazy and justwanting to
get the most for the least effort.
And if you think about it, that's nature.
Water always finds the path of least resistance.

(11:35):
As human beings, we're really no different.
And I've met a lot of successful people that I just assumed were 100 % productive when Ididn't see them.
And I would say something about having the lazy gene.
And they would say, oh yeah, me too.
And I was always.
kind of shocked.

(11:55):
was like, wow, really?
You, you know, like one of the most productive people I know sort of thing would admit tobeing lazy.
I'm pretty sure everyone is to some degree.
Yeah, I hear work smart.
There's the work hard, work smart.
I think the people that tend to lean a little bit on the lazy side uh want to worksmarter, right?

(12:19):
To get to the goals faster and find the shortcuts.
So uh let's all be a little bit lazier because sometimes we can work so hard and we'reactually using up more time uh working hard than we could by being a little bit lazy.
You know, one of my favorite quotes, it's Stephen Covey.
He said, uh there's no bigger waste than doing something well that didn't need to be doneat all.

(12:44):
Yep.
Yeah, that's Steve and Cubby.
uh Seven habits of highly effective people, right?
Yeah, I don't know if it was in that book, but I remember seeing that and thinking, man,this is so true.
Maybe it didn't even need to be done.
Right.
Yeah.
I think often we just put a to-do list together and tackle it without giving each taskconsideration.

(13:08):
We just plug ahead.
So yeah, that's awesome.
And that's just going to depend on, you my wife is a very super productive person and shegets up in the morning and she just goes until she falls in bed at night, you know, and I
don't always know if everything she's doing is really needs to be done, you know, shecomes home exhausted.

(13:31):
It's just her style.
And I put a lot of thought into it and think, okay, what's most important for me to do,you know, and prioritize.
and set like a low bar.
So I used to joke in my men's mastermind group oh that, you know, my secret to success wasjust really setting the bar so low that I could just step over it.

(13:54):
And, you know, they would laugh, but I said, really, I set my goal every day to do the twomost important things.
And then after that, everything is a bonus.
And so it means I can do two things and then just completely blow off the rest of the day.
That what actually happens in
Reality is usually once you get the two most important things, there's like a momentumthat kicks in and you can do a lot more.

(14:18):
But if I look at a list and it's kind of daunting, uh sometimes I just won't do anything.
And so I don't get started.
So a while back, I just set my daily goal.
If I get my top two things done each day, then I've succeeded regardless of what happensafter.
Yeah, you and I are very much aligned on that.

(14:39):
We have a goal-getting lab call that we do every week, and it's always focusing on wherethe two needle movers that you have and make sure to do those.
Just to use a practical example, maybe you have this long to-do list of things, and maybethe thing you need to do is hire that VA or hire that person, could be the needle mover

(15:00):
that you do, and then all those other things get done more quickly without you.
Yeah, exactly.
I know I end up quoting a lot of books because I love to read and I love to absorb otherpeople's wisdom.
um have you ever read the E-Myth?
It's been a while though, so asking me to recall anything out of it might be difficult.

(15:22):
Well, the brilliant point that I took from the book was he said, even if you had onelocation of something or just one, you know, one business, he said, run it as if you had
500, which means if you're doing something within that business that it would beimpossible for you to do, if you had 500 locations, then truly you don't need to do it

(15:46):
yourself.
And I took that to heart and really started going through
my routines.
uh One of things I used to do just anecdotally was I own that hair salon and uh twice amonth I would go get all of the supplies, the cleaning supplies and paper towels.
And, you know, even though that doesn't sound like a big deal, I would, you know, driveover there, load up my truck, drive back to the salon, unload it.

(16:11):
It took a couple hours, right?
So four hours a month.
And I thought if I had 500 salons, there's no way I'd be picking up the paper towels.
And so I set something up where they left my card on file and my janitorial service, theycould get what they needed and charge it to my card.
And then they put it up.

(16:32):
And so I essentially bought myself four hours of time a month.
I think I ended up paying like 25 bucks every time they picked up supplies.
For $50, I bought myself four hours.
Yeah, there's there's such a lesson in there and it's I think a lot of entrepreneurs Don'tproperly value their time and not even where in the stage that they're at but in the stage

(16:56):
that they're going Like I think a lot of people think I'm at this stage This is what youdon't need to just think about where you are you think about where you're going How much
your time is valuable then and start acting like that person that has the more valuabletime So because then you'll become that person, right?
So oh
important just to value your time.
I mean, you don't have to spend every hour that's available working.

(17:21):
I don't think it, it shouldn't be necessary in my mind.
If I'm working that much, then I'm doing something wrong is what I think to myself.
Yeah, I was in a mastermind meeting many, many years ago, and there was a guy in therethat basically said he was a bum, but he made millions of dollars.

(17:42):
The reason, because he was super lazy.
He woke up, wrote an email, and it made lots of money.
He's just sending new email every day, teaching people how to do exactly that, like writeemails that will make you money.
So the rest of the day, he spent doing whatever he wanted to do.
Yeah, no, you know, then I think you, that's when you really need a purpose to fill that,you know, otherwise, I think really having too much time on your hands, it can be painful

(18:11):
as well.
That's very, very true.
So I think that's a nice segue to start talking about faith a little bit.
So what does it mean for you to align your calling with your daily life?
I had an epiphany one day that really what I was put here on earth for was to take goodcare of people.

(18:34):
just came as a pure, honestly, just a download from God.
And I just knew in that moment, you know, at the time I was kind of complaining aboutpulling the wagon and all the things I had to do and my responsibilities.
And I thought to myself, you know, really, you've always been taken care of.

(18:54):
is what I thought.
know, from the time I was an infant, right, there were people there feeding me, takingcare of me.
My life hasn't really been that difficult.
People took me to school on a bus, teachers were there.
And I thought to myself, yeah, this is what I do.
Really, this is the key to my success is having this mindset of taking good care ofpeople.

(19:17):
oh You know, my main living comes from
oh apartment buildings in the hair salon, which is, uh it's a salon mall.
So I'm renting space in there.
It's really taking care of all those tenants that leads to sort of the ease that I haveand allows me the space and time to do the things that I'm more passionate about.

(19:38):
But I'm just totally dedicated to taking truly good care of these people.
And as long as I'm doing that, I'm making decisions about what's best for them instead of
ego-driven, you know, what's best for me.
And I find that it's the best long-term success strategy is to take good care of people.

(19:59):
And you know what, when people find somebody who does genuinely take good care of them,guess what?
They keep that person in their life, you know, because apparently it's more rare than I'meven thinking.
And so the longevity of my tenants, both in my other two businesses, man, people just staywith me forever.

(20:21):
And that really makes everything more profitable, more efficient, and really morerewarding.
Yes, it is.
It's a God thing.
uh God has really been weaving through uh my life this particular this through July andinto this month is the idea of stewardship.
uh I was I was working out the other day before one of our uh client calls or coachingcalls and uh he really put that on my heart.

(20:50):
uh And then I went into that call and we talked about it.
oh The more you steward and it's not just stewarding your money I think a lot of peoplejust think of the Bible talks about stewarding money It's about stewarding the
relationships that you build right and we talked about clients like Sometimes it's notjust about getting new clients though If you can steward the clients you have really well

(21:13):
They're gonna that's gonna grow your business because they're gonna talk about how wellthat you serve them, right?
I mean, people know when you genuinely care about them.
You and I met through Justin.
don't know if you've mentioned, I'm sure you have on your pod.
You can just tell Justin cares about even whoever he's selling something to.

(21:36):
He wants you to benefit.
You know when somebody wants what's best for you.
And yeah, why wouldn't you go back to that person overtaking a chance with?
someone else who may be just thinking short term and just trying to make a sale.
Yes.
uh Quick plug, anyone listening, because you're all Christian Archbrewers, if you don'tknow Justin Janikowski yet or Fates to Influence, look him up.

(22:02):
uh Friend him.
He's become a good friend to me and uh Albert as well, as you can tell.
So quick plug, check out Fates to Influence with Justin, especially if you want help withyour sales, because he is a master at helping people get better in their selling, in their
process for selling.
I agree.

(22:24):
So let's talk about kind of your journey through faith.
uh where and start wherever you want to, but kind of take us through how that's weavedinto your business life.
So it really, you know, it happened 14 years ago.
You know, if you had asked me 15 years ago, started talking to me about faith andspirituality, you know, even though I grew up as an Episcopalian, went to church, went to

(22:51):
Sunday school, my parents were the Sunday school teachers, oh the youth group leaders,pardon me.
And I can't say that I really understood it beyond just like an intellectual capacity.
I didn't really know what it meant deeply.
you know, I was, you know, the entrepreneur, was building my real estate business, youknow, building the salon business.

(23:17):
um found myself, I was around, you know, 48 years old at the time, probably coming intowhat most would think of as a midlife crisis of sorts.
And, em you know, at that point, I had been doing all that for about 12 years.
There's a 12 year thing coming up again.
And if...
If my neighbors looked over at me, they probably thought I had it made.

(23:43):
What they didn't know at the time was I was irritable.
I was grouchy most of the time.
uh know, when you're managing property, lots of things can go wrong every day, all day,all week.
And I would just take those things to heart.
I looked at every time, you know, would be close, getting close to the end of the month,maybe an odd month, and I would have some sort of a

(24:06):
financial surplus, you know, in my checking account.
And I would think, yeah, look, I'm finally making it right.
And then I'd get a call, somebody's refrigerator broke or whatever.
And I'd be like, why is this always the case?
Why can't I make it through a month?
You know, like a dollar extra.
And my wife would tell the kids, you know, stay away from dad, he's grouchy.

(24:28):
You know, that was pretty much was the story in my household.
So this is the state I'm in, you know.
material possessions, my own house, my own business, had nice, decent cars, more moneycoming in each month than I probably would have imagined 15 years before.

(24:49):
But in truth, I wasn't happy.
I wasn't enjoying myself.
was mostly miserable.
Okay, then fast forward two weeks and my salon business was just really starting tocrumble.
People were moving out.
weekly and I didn't understand what was happening and I had borrowed the money to open it.

(25:12):
I had taken out loans against my apartment building.
So it was really just highly leveraged house of cards and I didn't know what washappening.
It hadn't happened before and I just could see it all beginning to crumble, collapse.
And I thought to myself in that moment, I said, look, I have a couple of choices here.

(25:34):
I don't doubt that I can go back and put the effort in and turn this thing around and getit back to the way it was.
But the way it was, I wasn't even enjoying myself.
So it's gotta be more to it than that.
And I've been doing this long enough.
know, at that time I had been in business almost 30 years and um I thought to myself, isreally what's separating me from happiness, is it?

(26:03):
honestly just another, an extra 5,000 a month, you know, is it that growth that I'mlooking for?
Is it 10,000 a month?
I said, you know, I have more now than I had 10 years ago and it's not really paying offin any, you know, psychic sense here that there's something else missing because if I kid

(26:23):
myself from this point and I just go back and try to fix what I have and grow what I haveto sort of get through this,
and profit, right?
That I'm imagining is the solution to all my problems.
Then I'm going to wake up and I'm going to be 60 years old, 10 years older, and come tothe same conclusion that it's not about the money.

(26:50):
And so I made a decision that day that I was going to spend the next 10 years of my lifefiguring out what was it that truly made a man happy and what was I missing.
And if I look back, Doug, that was the beginning of what I would call my spiritual journeyand awakening to faith.
was when everything was falling apart is when I had my, you know, come to Jesus moment andsaid, yeah, I'm missing something important.

(27:21):
I had that hole in my, that you always hear people talk about the hole in my heart.
And I was trying to fill it from the outside.
And that's when I started turning around and realizing that inside, I had this wellspringof really love and oh wisdom all inside of me.

(27:44):
And all I needed to do was reverse that flow from trying to fill the hole from the outsideto just turning on that spigot from the inside and giving.
And the way that it manifested was,
As I went back to the salon to try to figure out how I was going to rectify the situation,I had an epiphany one day that the reason that people were leaving work, it wasn't because

(28:10):
they weren't good at what they did for work.
They were great cosmetologists or barbers.
They were great at their craft.
They were great at their skill.
What they weren't good at and no one taught them and no one teaches in beauty school isthe fundamentals of business.
you
And so I said, this is why they're leaving.
They don't know how to manage their money and plan and grow their business.

(28:33):
So I started teaching weekly classes first on just basic business skills.
And Doug, I was sharing what I thought were pretty simplistic ideas.
And they had their notepads and were furiously writing.
It's like no one had ever shared this information with them.
And so three weeks in, I started realizing, you

(28:55):
I really don't know anything about the beauty industry.
You know, I'm really their landlord.
And so I didn't feel like I could help them fully because I really didn't understand whatthey were going through.
So I went to some of the stylists who worked there that had been in the business for 20years or more and asked if they would come teach a class.

(29:17):
And they were all happy to.
And so each week I rotated the teachers as these seasoned veterans in their
And I sat along in the class and my mind was blown by what they were sharing.
And then here was the thing that really changed everything.
In 12 to 14 weeks, there were eight students, they were business owners, but they werestylists in their own little mini suite.

(29:42):
They came to the classes.
Not one of them did less than 2X their revenue in just three months, really.
Some of them did three and four X.
their previous revenue.
thought they would get a 10 or a 20 % bonus, but it was mind blowing.
And so what ended up happening was these people that's a tight knit industry, they toldtheir friends how much money they were making at my salon.

(30:10):
And I started just getting calls of people wanting to rent the empty spaces.
And about five months later or so, it was completely full and I had a waiting list and Ididn't even advertise.
And that's when I realized that my facility, which previously was a rent extractionexercise, and it was just about me and getting my money, when I changed the framing of it

(30:38):
to say, you know what this place, this is a place of personal and business development.
And it's an opportunity for me to really give of myself.
And as I started giving,
I really just started tapping into just the deeper, just a deeper part of myself andrealize that there truly was a spirit separate, you know, from my ego.

(31:02):
And it was the beginning of really everything that I do now.
That is so beautiful, Albert.
Just the pivot from being kind of the, knowing that you're looking to receive instead ofgive and then changing that direction and giving and seeing the fruit that comes with it.
And you could just go back to the whole stewardship thing.

(31:24):
Like you started to stewardship people even better than you had previously and the fruitwas starting to bear, not just for them, but for you as well.
So there's a great lesson in there for anybody listening.
you
Yeah, it was, was truly remarkable.
Um, you know, I'd have the, the privilege 12 years later, um, you know, get on the 12th,right.

(31:47):
That after sort of riding the ship there and getting it going again, uh, and then hiring amanager to just take over.
I sort of stepped out to do all, you know, my coaching work and the retreats and things.
And then over time it.
it started to deteriorate without my love and attention to it.

(32:07):
And I found myself having to go back two years ago and manage it myself and do the samething.
And it was a real interesting test to see, was it just a one-off thing or would it work?
Is what I think I discovered real, real enough that I could do it again?

(32:31):
And so here I'm sitting two years later and I still manage it myself personally.
And I really realized that there's just something about the owner infusing their spiritinto a place that's, it's not, it's not easily exchangeable for someone else who doesn't
care in the same way.

(32:51):
And one of my longest serving tenants there, he's been there for 17 years.
He said, Albert, yeah, we just like you to come around, know, we just.
oh
That's it.
You know, it's just, I don't know.
It's just, I think you bring your spirit into your business in a way that you may notrealize is being felt by your clients and the people you serve, but it's palpable to them.

(33:18):
They are coming to you.
They're buying from you.
They want to be associated with you because of who you are.
Yeah, take anything that you sell out of the equation.
Like you could say, I am in the building houses business.
I'm in the retail business.
You're in the serving people business, right?

(33:39):
If you take that motto, uh that take the material thing out of it and just put, you'rethere to serve people, your business will grow.
There's probably a lot of managerial stuff that training that could be applied there.
Like it's hard to...
oh Nobody cares as much as the owner, right?
When you put a manager in place.

(34:00):
So hiring very well.
If you want it to leave, it's not always the easiest thing to keep the same kind of statusquo.
And then look, you know, for my rental property, I do have a fantastic manager now, ah youknow, and I had to replace somebody else who wasn't that great and who worked for me for a
real long time.
uh You know, I hate to admit, sometimes we take the easy route and we keep a person in aposition that we know is not the best.

(34:28):
ah you know, I know I've been too lazy because I don't want to do the work of findingsomebody, taking a chance on them and then having to
start over and teach him everything that the other person knows.
But you know, when that salon turned around for me like that, and I really felt much morefulfilled being more of a mentor role and a teacher and a coach, that's really what

(34:53):
inspired me to realize how much I love doing that.
Prior to that experience, I never, it just didn't click for me of how much I enjoyed doingthat with my time.
But when I went back and I looked at my apartment situation and my previous manager, whoshe wasn't that great, she was letting it sort of slide and deteriorate, not treating

(35:16):
people at the level that I would.
I took that same lesson and I said, you know, the reason that people come and they staywith me or the reason they need an apartment is they're out working hard all day.
They're on the playing field of the world.
They're trying to produce, but when they come home, they want a place that's a sanctuary.

(35:39):
They want a place that they can relax and not have to worry about the hustle and bustle ofthe world.
So that means what I should do is make sure that everything looks good, is cleaned up,works.
They're not looking at trash or just anything that would bring them down and make themdepressed about where they're living.
And so then I started infusing that same

(36:02):
take good care of people and create the sanctuary for them to live in when it came to justtheir apartment.
And so here in the same way that I pivoted from, okay, this is a rental property and thesepeople better pay me my rent once a month, right?
Or they're gonna get evicted.
From that to these are people who need a place to retreat from the world, heal, sleep,recover, so they can get up the next morning and go out and do it again.

(36:30):
And it really colored all of my decision making of like where I spent money, like whichprojects, improvement projects we would go.
And I just saw everything through that same lens.
And so the same is the salon.
I have tenants that have lived with me for 20 years or more, which it's crazy to me, butthey're not going to go anywhere else because they don't feel like somebody else would

(36:56):
care or take as good of care of them as I
I will and insist on my management team taking as good of care and just infusing that samephilosophy into them so they get it and they do.
So it can be done.
I think this is a great point to talk about because what I see for you is this trajectoryof investing in people.

(37:22):
It keeps going up, right?
You keep investing in people more and more.
oh And so with the book, with your coaching, that is just further investment into people.
So I have a question about what's on your back burner.
oh You talk about dormant desire.
What does that mean and how can it be reactivated?

(37:43):
So dormant desire is that thing that you know you want to do, you have wanted to do, youmay have always wanted to do it.
It's the idea, it's that sort of the urge to create something or produce something.
And you just know it's there.
And for whatever reason that you may not be able to explain right now in the moment,you've either never taken action on it, you've left it on that back burner for...

(38:12):
years or decades maybe, or maybe you've even tried it before, or maybe you're currentlytrying to do it, but you just can't get off the ground.
So it's like that unrealized mission, project, goal that you know you've always had, andfor whatever reason, you haven't made it manifest yet.

(38:34):
That's the back burner.
That's what's on your back burner.
What I believe ultimately is
It's either A, you're calling, or it's a stepping stone to your calling and you're notgonna know you're calling until you sort of start pursuing whatever comes to mind and
realize that it's leading you somewhere to a deeper truth about something else you wantthat you may not be uh either know to admit or willing to admit that you want it.

(39:05):
A lot of times what I do find with people is
We downplay our goals to avoid disappointment or what we think of maybe, you know,outright failure.
And so we go for something way more practical, uh doable.
And then sometimes we don't even pursue that, right?

(39:28):
But at least if you pursue something that's more practical and doesn't mean as much to us.
It's so much easier to bail on it or you don't care if it fails because it's just not thatmeaningful to you.
So I think this, like you're alluding to it, and ask a secret question, I think you'reabout to answer it.

(39:49):
So I want to ask you the secret question.
So what is the secret to quitting doom scrolling, all the distractions, and actuallygetting on with your meaningful goals and ambitions?
Okay, these days doom scrolling is probably almost everyone's main problem that they don'trealize because it seems like you're just doing it when you have some time here, some

(40:12):
downtime.
It's like, I've worked hard.
I deserve to treat myself to some screen time, right?
Well, as you're scrolling, you're getting a little dopamine hit.
It's something you're interested in or something you're fascinated by.
So you're scrolling your phone.
And you're getting it.
And look, the people who run the algorithms, they know this and they're designing it togive you that dopamine hit.

(40:37):
But you know, if you were smoking a vape, right, every time at the same rate that you'redoom scrolling, it probably wouldn't, you wouldn't feel like you're making healthy
choices.
And if anybody saw you doing it, they'd say, Doug, you know, why are you vapingconstantly?
I think doom scrolling,

(40:59):
is really no different than just a mild drug addiction.
And so you're sedating yourself.
And look, I'm not saying that I don't play with my phone and look at things on my phone,but I have realized that I'm subtly sedating myself.
And what's happening is it's lulling me into a sense of comfort.

(41:20):
And then I no longer have the urge or I've wiped out that urge to...
get my satisfaction by actually taking action and creating something and doing things thatI enjoy more.
But I've kind of sabotaged myself with this little, you know, morphine drip.

(41:41):
So, you know, I'd say I have my biggest uh turnarounds when I'll go like on a news diet.
I'll call it a news diet and...
Thank you.
make a commitment, you know, I'm not going to read the news for 30 days.
And some people say, Albert, how do you know what's going on?
said, you know, it's interesting when you don't read the news.

(42:01):
Still people, people want to tell you about what's going on.
So you'll hear it through other people, you know, and I live in Louisiana.
People say, well, what if a hurricane is coming and you know, you, you know, we get threedays notice for a hurricane.
said, believe me, when a hurricane is in the Gulf of Mexico, you can tell something'sgoing on.

(42:22):
So I never worry about being out of the loop.
Yeah, sounds like fasting to me.
You know, it's mentioned many times in the Bible about fasting.
oh The analogy I think of is back in the, I don't know, maybe in the 70s and beforehand,everybody smoked, right?
Everybody smoked cigarettes on the planes everywhere.

(42:42):
Now everybody, it's become accepted that everybody's just in their phones, right?
When they're engaged with other people with, and even though it's not healthy, we...
we have learned to it's a societal norm.
Yeah, now if you tell yourself like, is not harmless, you and you see it through the samelens I'm talking about is you're getting an IV drip of sedation.

(43:09):
You know, it's true.
You are.
And then it just, I think it takes you out of the game.
Yeah, yeah, so true.
uh So what would you say is the biggest barrier to success for most people?
Okay, so this gets to the real heart of my book, right?
So I tease you with the what's on your back burner, you know, how to use this dormantdesire to relight your fire.

(43:36):
Here's the secret.
The thing that you really want to do, the reason you don't take action.
If I ask you, well, why haven't you done this?
You're going to give me what I call damn good reasons.
You're going to give me some plausible excuses.
You're going to say, I don't have the time, you know, even though we just
found two hours a day, you're probably doomed, right?
So you waste in 14 hours a week minimum.

(43:59):
You're going to tell me you don't have the resources, you don't have the down payment yetsaved up for such.
And, you know, it's not that any of those things aren't true.
There is truth to it.
It's a good reason to you.
And most people will buy it.
And you can let yourself off the hook there.
Now, here's the secret that my book reveals that no one thinks about because this is theproblem you don't know you have.

(44:23):
The reason you really don't do it is because there's a part of yourself that doesn't wantit to happen.
Okay.
Now you may say, well, why would that be?
The reason that this other part of you doesn't want it to happen is because youinadvertently learned a lesson somewhere earlier in life that you vowed in that moment.

(44:48):
never to make the same mistake.
So when anything that comes up in the future that looks like this, tastes like this,smells like this, avoid it.
Now you don't realize you made that decision, but at that moment you learn this lesson, itjust becomes embedded in your subconscious programming.

(45:09):
whoever you were at that moment, that's really the character that said, hey, Doug, we'renever gonna let you make this mistake again.
Okay.
And so on one hand, consciously you're saying, this is something I want to do.
This is something I want to pursue, but unbeknownst to you and in a voice you can't evenhear, there's an inner battle going on with this other version, usually a younger version

(45:34):
of yourself that's saying, Hey Doug, or Hey Albert.
Yeah, no, we probably shouldn't do this because it's going to lead to wasting money orremember that didn't turn out great the last time or.
You know, this is going to be uncomfortable and you know, we don't like pain or, you know,this could lead to disappointment and you're not a big fan of disappointment, you know.

(45:56):
Now again, you're not hearing this conversation at full volume.
It's just going on under the hood.
And so you're going to think to your grave that the reason you didn't do it were thoseplausible reasons that.
any normal person would agree with you.
Yeah, that's probably a good idea.

(46:16):
Maybe you should wait till you have more money or the right time or right education or youput the finishing piece, then do it.
Yeah, you're right.
And so all the people around you will support you in your decision to not pursue it.
And so you can get away with it.
uh But...
If you dig in a little bit, and it's right there under the surface.

(46:39):
So I'm not talking about something you have to go to two years of counseling for.
And Doug, you said you cracked open my book and you're into the first handful of chapters.
When you get to the first exercise, if you do the first exercise, which takes 15 minutes,uh you'll know exactly where and when that voice is coming from and what it's really

(47:02):
thinking.
Yeah, go ahead.
Now, you did that exercise with me at a conference that I presented recently, Okay, whenyou read your list, were you surprised what was on there?
Oh yeah, very surprised.
I was very surprised.
had you realized this is what you were really thinking?

(47:25):
No.
No.
No, okay.
Now that you're awakened to it, right?
So the first step is awakening to, oh, I didn't realize it.
look, just so we can catch the listeners up instead of talking, you know, theoretical, I'mgonna just give you a simple example.
When I first decided I wanted to, you know, do public speaking, I joined Toastmasters.

(47:47):
And I joined and I entered all the con twice a year, they had speaking contests.
And so I would do...
well enough, you know, without really a lot of training to if you got first or second inyour club, you went on to the next level and you would compete like in the area and then
you went on and if as long as you finished first or second, you could go on to thedistrict finals.

(48:12):
And usually it would be, uh you know, like six places available for that.
So I would make it to the district finals and I would usually end up in fifth or sixthplace.
Now I was okay with that.
I was new.
I had managed to make it all the way to the finals.
It's first year I'm doing it.
But year after year, I was always in the bottom group, you know?

(48:35):
And I didn't understand.
thought I was getting better.
And so I did something similar to this awakening exercise.
And what I realized was this, and this is the unbelievable part.
This is why people are a little bit skeptical.
What it turned out to be is this.
I would never rehearse my speeches.
Thank m

(48:55):
I went in and gave it, other than the fact that maybe I gave that same speech a couple oftimes a week or so before, it was, it was really not practiced or rehearsed.
I'm just up there winging it.
And winging it was good enough to get me as far as it got me, but it didn't get me intothe top tier of the winning bracket.
And so I traced it back to when I was a young boy, my brother and I, my parents weredivorced.

(49:21):
I think I told you that part.
My parents were divorced.
My dad would pick us up on Saturday mornings.
We would spend the weekend with him and we would get all dressed up and we were excited hewas coming because, you know, maybe it was divorced father guilt, but he would always take
us to do something fun.
You know, it was going to be go to the theme park or, you know, go jump on trampolines orgo to the park.

(49:42):
It was going to be a good time.
And as we got maybe a little older, eight, 10 years old, there were those Saturdaymornings and we're all
ramped up and ready to go, it's 10 a.m.
and the phone doesn't ring.
And then 11 comes around and it still doesn't ring.
And then noon, by this point, my brother and I knew he wasn't coming.

(50:02):
He would eventually call, maybe noon or later.
My mom would answer and he would give the same excuse, you know, that his car broke down.
My brother and I would just look at each other.
He was two years younger than me and we would just shake our heads.
It was like really disappointing.
You the whole weekend was ruined.
Now, the lesson that I inadvertently learned from that, right, at 10 years old was avoiddisappointment at all costs because it hurts.

(50:33):
Now, I'm not thinking that as a 50-something-year-old man in Toastmasters, but what I wasdoing unknowingly was if I didn't rehearse my speech or practice and I was fifth place,
I could tell myself, well, this is not disappointing.
You I know the people who beat me, they probably rehearsed 200 times and spent hours and Ididn't do all that and I was still good enough to get to fifth place.

(51:02):
And so what I was doing was putting a salve on my wound there, you know, and really just,I wasn't disappointed because I knew I didn't do my best.
And so once I was awakened,
that this is what I was doing.
And look, let me tell you another tragedy when I really discovered that I'd been avoidingdisappointment essentially my entire life.

(51:24):
I briefly started thinking about all the opportunities that I must have missed and nottaken advantage of.
And it all came from a 10 year old version of myself.
And it wasn't like anybody was torturing me or beating me or really.
being mean to me in that level, was really just my dad letting me down of not picking usup on when we were expected.

(51:50):
Which probably, maybe when I put it in that term, maybe that is, I'm sure a lot of peoplehave had parents who have disappointed them.
But you can't, in other words, if I wouldn't have uncovered the fact that there was a partof me that didn't wanna be disappointed and was gonna find a way.
to have me avoid disappointment, right?

(52:11):
If I didn't discover this, I would have just gone on the same way.
But once I realized that, you the next year, I really practiced like I had never donebefore.
And I was totally committed.
And I'll tell you, when I made it to the district finals and I did speak that day, I hadnever had the experience where I really felt like the audience was just in the palm of my

(52:36):
hand, just.
every step of the story.
It was so powerful.
It felt so good.
It was such an interchange between speaker and audience that I had never truly feltbefore.
When I walked off the stage, I had no idea what place I was going to be, but I knew forthe first time in a seven-year Toastmasters career, right, that was the first time that I

(52:59):
knew I left every ounce of myself on the field.
And it turned out I got second place, which is the highest I had ever
And the other guy went on to the first place, went on to the world's championship ofpublic speaking in Las Vegas that year.
And I wasn't even disappointed at all that I didn't get that opportunity because for thatone time when I really was willing to just face the disappointment, was the, you know, it

(53:28):
was the best feeling in the world and one I'll cherish and remember every, you forever.
And now when that little voice comes up,
I can tell if it's getting in my way.
It's like, yeah, I know what this is.
This is that part of myself that's oh worried about disappointment.
And so what I do in the book is I just offer two more simple steps to be able to do thecheat like you did and find out what you're really thinking.

(53:55):
And then the second step is to identify this personality trait, this character, like inthat case, you know,
the character within me that wants to avoid disappointment.
And then I show you how to resolve it permanently so you never have to worry about itagain.
And when people do this, their trajectory just, I've just witnessed it so many times.

(54:17):
can't, I'm never, it never ceases to just blow my mind that when people can resolve thisinner hidden conflict that they don't realize is there, it's a game changer like no other.
It's more important than
having more discipline or time management or going and taking a management class.

(54:38):
It's like, this is the number one thing holding anyone back to whatever they're doing.
And they just don't know it's there.
They don't know it's happening.
And so my mission now is to turn people on that, hey, this is what's going on, whether youbelieve it or not.
It's an inner conflict that has to be revealed.

(54:58):
Otherwise, you're never going to make the progress you're expecting.
Never, it's just not gonna happen because that inner character is such a protective force.
It knows you so well.
It knows just how to tell you the right things to get you to quit or not try at all.
To avoid whatever it is it wants you to avoid.

(55:21):
It could be criticism.
um It can even be success sometimes.
You know, one of the most popular things I see pop up on people's list of when they,
flip the sheet over and do that front burner exercise.
A lot of people say, oh, I'm afraid I won't manage all the money I'm gonna make well.
Bye.

(55:42):
I see that all the time.
Now think about that, right?
Here's somebody saying, I would rather not try and go for it because deep down, I don'tthink I'm good with money.
And essentially I might destroy myself or the pain of losing it will be worse than neverhaving it in the first place.
I mean, that's a tragedy.

(56:03):
It's very common, super common.
I'll hear that in every workshop.
Somebody's going to tell me that.
Yeah, I feel like oftentimes it's something they don't acknowledge right off the bat, butit's something, it's one of those deep things that's kind of being brought out of them,
right?
I equate what you do, like a lot of those other things you mentioned, like timemanagement, sort of stuff, it's kind of like treating the symptoms without getting to the

(56:28):
root cause of what's really keeping you from where you need to be.
So you really go at that root cause, and once they solve that problem, the other thingscome a lot more easily.
Yeah, and look, you know, here's what I say, because going back to being lazy, right?
I want the most bang for the least amount of effort.
I call it return on effort, right?

(56:48):
I want the highest return on my effort.
That's really, if I could encapsulate, you know, redefine laziness in a positive way, I'dsay that's what it is.
It's ROE, right?
How can I do the least and get the most for that?
And what I've found in my life, right, is all of the other things is just trying to be a
a better or super version of myself is impossible is what I've found.

(57:15):
I'm not saying you can't enhance a little bit, but I am who I am.
When I look back through my success journals of 30 years ago, I can see I was always stillstruggling with the same exact things.
How could I have really not changed in 30 years?
But when I've had my breakthroughs, it was always resolving an inner conflict.

(57:38):
And what happens when you do that is you take this personality that's inside and it's you,it's you as a, you know, typically as a younger version of yourself, right?
When you take a part of yourself that's actively working against you in order to keep yousafe and you're able to reason and make a deal with this aspect of yourself that you know

(58:04):
what?
It wants the same thing you want.
Thank you.
Your inner critic wants to be successful, right?
But your inner critic just has a different way about going there.
Its methodology is to don't take any chances and don't screw up.
And, you know, while that may be fine for, you know, a 16 year old version of yourself,when you're, you know, 30, 40 or 50, that's not going to play.

(58:28):
So you have to go back and you have to, and that's the third phase of the book isdialoguing with your inner character to say, okay, hey, look, what do you really want?
And what you find is they do want what you want, but their way of getting it isinefficient or doesn't work anymore.
And so you turn this former adversary into an ally when you make a deal and say, look, weboth want this or you willing to work with me and I'll be a little cautious if that's what

(58:55):
you need.
And it sounds a little schizophrenic to make a deal with yourself, but it's very healing.
It's very, you feel more integrated, you feel more whole.
And then you're no longer working against yourself.
And that's why you have the biggest breakthrough is because you're, you've always heardthe thing, you're your own worst enemy.

(59:18):
This is the breaking it down how you're your own worst enemy.
And so if you can take your own worst enemy, which is yourself, and you become your ownbest ally, can you see?
Not only do you have this extra power going in the right direction, but no one's trying topull you down.

(59:39):
It's like a, a 4X, a 10X game changer.
Uh, I want to make a side note real quick.
Remember you talked about, you know, me helping to develop and uplift people.
you know, who is my current property manager?
He was a client that was
interested in real estate, he wanted to buy rental property, he came to me for coaching.

(01:00:03):
And a couple of years in, he had, you know, five of his own rental properties.
By the way, that was his 10 year goals when I met him.
I said, this is way too slow.
I said, no one would I know of you, you could do this quick.
18 months later, he had hit his 10 year goals.
And so he wanted to go out on his own and quit his job.

(01:00:23):
worked for the local park service, park recreation.
And
I had mentioned that I needed a new manager.
He asked if he was qualified for the position.
So all of the mentoring I did with this guy, not only did he pay me as a client, but thenwhen the time was right, he became really a dream property manager.

(01:00:47):
And now he takes care of everything.
And I'll tell you, it just takes such a load off.
And again, a payback that came later.
And I wasn't even thinking of
Yeah, that's awesome.
I want to ask you, there's not really a good segue here, but I want to make sure we getthis fill in the blank question in.
oh A Christian entrepreneur who wants to stay on fire must never forget blank.

(01:01:16):
I would say if you're not enjoying, you know, every day, maybe not every day, but ifyou're not enjoying yourself and what you're doing, it doesn't necessarily mean you need
to change what you're doing, but it definitely means the way you're doing it, you're outof alignment with God, with Spirit, with Jesus.
And it's a sign that you need to change something.

(01:01:37):
Now, you can do it my way and keep being hard-headed and stay in that sort of miseryfor...
longer than you need to.
But if you recognize that as a sign that when you're aligned with the Holy Spirit and yourpurpose, you're not going to feel like that.
It's going to be energizing.
You're going to want to do it.

(01:01:57):
You're going to enjoy doing it.
You're going to look forward to it.
And again, I don't mean that you have to change careers because if you think about it,when I had my turnaround, right, I was in the salon business and in the rental property
business.
I didn't get out of those.
I looked at those from a new perspective that allowed me to pour my mission, my purpose,my passion into the same things I was doing, but in a more aligned way with spirit.

(01:02:28):
And that was what changed, not my job title, it's the way I was doing.
Yeah, that's powerful.
think there's so much to in that just to look at what you're already doing and how couldyou do it more in alignment and it's going to uh make a radical difference.
So oh I want to the audience, this book, it's not just a book.

(01:02:52):
eh It's a breakthrough possibly for you.
ah And the thing I love about it is it's a workbook, right?
You get a lot of books that are full of just filler, right?
Ra-Ra.
uh You know, it's kind of stuff.
That's not Albert's book.
Albert's book is, uh I always talk about leading with value.
And that's what Albert is doing here.

(01:03:12):
Albert uh gives you the work that you need to do in order to get to the result in thatbook.
So uh definitely pick up this book.
And I'm sure once you go through the book, you're going to want to find out how you canwork with Albert even more.
So tell people where they can go to find out more about you, Albert.
Well, thanks for saying that about that, Doug.

(01:03:33):
I do appreciate it.
And look, you've heard my philosophy.
You know, the reason that book is so small is because I wanted it to be the least amountof work for you to get the biggest bang for the buck.
So I will say there are just three exercises in there.
And if you actually do them, you're going to get the breakthrough without a doubt.
you can only make it to the first exercise, then you're going to have some, you're goingto know something about yourself that you never knew before.

(01:04:00):
So you can either go buy it on Amazon or if you go to backburnerbook.com,backburnerbook.com, it'll take you either to an Amazon link, you can get all the
worksheets there for free without signing in or being a member or anything.
And then there's also a link on there if you wanna have a, uh up for a coaching call withme, a free coaching call and I'd be happy to talk with you one-on-one and see if it makes

(01:04:25):
any sense to work privately with someone.
Nice.
So we'll put those links below.
The link to the book on Amazon, link to the book if you want to go get it straight fromAlbert.
uh I recommend doing it that way.
So you're not giving Amazon some of that money that Albert should get.
I don't mind, but they do their part.

(01:04:48):
And then the second thing I will say about that is once you get the book and you gothrough it, make sure to go on wherever you bought it from, go to Amazon and leave a
review uh of the book because oh that really helps other people know more about uh Albertand what he's doing, what's on the back burner.
Albert, I ask one last question of every entrepreneur that comes on the show because Ialways feel like Albert probably wanted to say this thing and I never asked him the

(01:05:14):
question or he just never was able to say it.
m
What parting words of wisdom do you have for the audience?
I would say this, know, most people are in what uh they call your shadow career.
It kind of looks and feels similar to what you really want to do.

(01:05:38):
But if you fail at it, it's not devastating.
And so you avoid your true calling and your true career to avoid risking the chance thatyou don't have what it takes.
And so I just want to reassure people, if whatever is on your back burner is your calling,you wouldn't have that calling if you didn't have what it takes.

(01:06:04):
And you don't have to become a better version of yourself to pull it off.
Honestly, you just have to do this inner work that's going to make all the difference inthe
Yeah.
Well, thank you for our thank you for that, Albert.
Yeah, that's my promise.
That is truth right there, Doug.
All right, thank you again, Albert.

(01:06:25):
And until next time, entrepreneurs, keep moving forward.
Thanks for having me, Doug.
It was great.
All right.

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}What's on Your Backburner? Awakening Dormant Desires & Unlocking Entrepreneurial Growth with Albert Pellissier