October 9, 2025 • 40 mins
What if a single wake-up call could reorder your entire life—and finally align your work with what you value most? That’s the spark behind this conversation with Peter Delatorre, who turned a prostate cancer diagnosis into a purpose-driven platform centered on authenticity, accountability, and the power of a no-excuses culture. We unpack how ruthless honesty—starting with yourself—becomes the foundation for leadership people trust and brands that actually keep their promises.
We dig into the threads that ran through Peter’s five-industry career—teaching and speaking—and how he rebuilt his platform to focus on keynote talks and corporate training that help teams grow stronger through challenge. You’ll hear practical tools for emotional resilience, from naming your non-negotiable core values to eliminating the “blaming virus” and replacing “yes, but” with “I have decided.” We break down how to think bigger without drifting into fluff: belief expands vision, ownership eliminates excuses, and small, consistent steps beat perfect plans every time. If you’ve struggled to balance transparency with authority, Peter’s approach shows how real stories, clear standards, and shared ownership strengthen credibility instead of weakening it.
This episode is for leaders and creators who want to move beyond inspiration into action: converting wishes into decisions, building a daily reset for mindset and focus, and curating a circle that matches your next chapter. You’ll leave with a simple playbook: tell the truth, choose your train, set your next stop, and invite the right people aboard. Someone is climbing the mountain you already crossed—share your map.
If this resonated, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs a push, and leave a quick review so more people can find these conversations. Want to bring Peter to your team? Visit peterdelatorre.com and reach out through the contact form.
Thanks for tuning in to this episode of Follow The Brand! We hope you enjoyed learning about the latest trends and strategies in Personal Branding, Business and Career Development, Financial Empowerment, Technology Innovation, and Executive Presence. To keep up with the latest insights and updates, visit 5starbdm.com
.
And don’t miss Grant McGaugh’s new book, First Light — a powerful guide to igniting your purpose and building a BRAVE brand that stands out in a changing world. - https://5starbdm.com/brave-masterclass/
See you next time on Follow The Brand!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:01):
Well, welcome everybody to the Follow Brand
Podcast.
This is your host, Grant McGall.
I'm gonna take it all the waydown to South Florida to one of
my favorite individuals whojoined me, I think it was two,
maybe even three years ago onthis very show when I was first
coming out with the Follow BrandTV series.
He was one of my first gueststhat came on, Pete Delator.
(00:23):
I'm telling you, if you don'tknow Pete Delator, he is
historic, alleged in his owntime.
Oh, geez, man.
I'm telling you, he might nothave been people that know Pete,
they know who I'm talking about.
We want to have a conversationbecause the last time we spoke,
you were coming out with yourbook, right?
Proof of Sonic.
(00:43):
I mean, that was right behind mehere.
There it is.
People on audio don't see that,but the people on video, you
know what we're referring to.
SPEAKER_01 (00:52):
It's there.
SPEAKER_00 (00:53):
And you've gone you're doing some newer things
now, as a couple years later.
You've got a whole platform outthere.
Tell us more about yourself andwhat you're doing.
SPEAKER_01 (01:03):
Well, uh, again, a pleasure to be on your podcast
again, my friend.
Uh um, congratulations for thegreat work that you're doing.
Congratulations on your book, uhFirst Light.
I can't wait to read it.
And uh, I think we have somesimilarities there and and in
your in your topic and yourfocus.
So congratulations, buddy.
(01:24):
Well-deserved uh feat.
I know it's not easy to write abook.
I know what that's all about.
SPEAKER_00 (01:30):
It is, and it's a it's a labor of love, but uh,
you know, once you've got itfinished, and actually you see
it, when you actually see thepublication in your hand, you're
like, here's your baby, youknow, that's something that you
made.
SPEAKER_01 (01:41):
And I know for me it was like, did I write that?
Did that come out of me?
You know, and and and uh and Istill say it when I look at it.
So uh yeah, your question is isa great one.
Um, when we last uh spoke, itwas uh two, two and a half years
ago, I had just come out with mybook, Connecting uh Connect with
Ruthless Honesty.
(02:01):
That book was inspired by anencounter that I had with
prostate cancer uh a little bitover four years ago.
Uh it was pretty aggressive, uh,but thank God we caught it on
time.
And I had surgery.
And as I am speaking to youtoday and the audience, I'm 100%
cancer free, thank God.
(02:23):
So uh absolutely.
And and I don't take that uh forgranted.
Uh every day I get up, uh, Isay, thank you, God, for another
day.
SPEAKER_00 (02:31):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (02:31):
Um, so what what happened uh it was against me,
but then it turned out to be forme.
Uh the cancer ordeal.
It woke me up.
It gave me what I like to say isthe wake-up call of wake-up
calls.
And uh when you first hear thenews, it's why me, why now?
(02:55):
And then when you get throughit, you ask that question again,
why me, why now?
How was I able to get throughthis when so many uh are not
fortunate enough to get to theother side?
So the message for me was thatGod had more plans for me, He
had a different purpose for me,and I had to pay attention to
(03:19):
what that was.
Uh so I began a process uh whichI like to call a lifelong
transformation, because yourtransformation doesn't happen in
one day.
You know, we are not one-hitwonders.
We we we want longevity and lifeis a marathon.
So it began that process where Icould I could now really be the
(03:40):
person I was meant to be and andpursue the things that meant the
most to me, uh, that connectedwith me.
I have done many thingsprofessionally through my years.
I've been in five differentindustries, financial services,
international business.
I was in media, as you know, fora long time, doing radio and um
(04:02):
uh ran an economic developmentorganization in South Florida.
So I had a lot of uh experiencethere.
One thing that was a commondenominator through the years
was the fact that I was teachingand I was speaking.
And I have been blessed with uhthe ability to be able to teach
(04:23):
and and and and help otherslearning uh something that is
important to them and theirgrowth.
And also speaking.
And it's funny because I Idiscovered speaking skills when
I was 14 years old.
When I was asked to speak infront of a group of guys that
were, you know, 30 guys in aroom were all about 14 years
old.
And I had it was a speech, Ican't remember what it was, but
(04:44):
I did a speech in sportsmanship,and I'll never forget because I
copied the whole speech word byword from the World Book
Encyclopedia.
Remember those inside those.
SPEAKER_00 (04:54):
Yeah, I remember way back, way back, yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (04:56):
So I I took that and I said and I did the speech, and
the teacher looked at me and shegoes, That was phenomenal.
I want you to do that speech atthe end of year pepper alley.
Funny story.
I freaked out.
I go, I'm gonna get in front ofmy friends here, they're gonna
mock me, and that's that.
And and I and I told her that Ilost the speech, and I never did
(05:19):
it.
So it was one of those momentsthat I discovered that skill,
but I was kind of embarrassed toshare it.
Fast forward in everything I'vedone professionally, I have been
speaking and I have beenteaching.
So as a result, I believe, ofwriting this book and what I
learned from the wholeexperience, is at this point in
(05:39):
my life, I needed to pursue whatI believe God has always
intended me to do, which is toteach, which is to uh do
corporate training and to be akeynote speaker.
So today, and I just wentthrough this uh re-uh purposing
of my platform a couple monthsago, testing a uh a keynote that
(06:05):
was well received by a smallgroup of folks, and then
accelerating, rebranding myselfwith a new website, with a new
purpose.
And so today, uh and movingforward for the rest of my life
because I really believe that Ihave arrived to what I was
always meant to do, which is tobe that speaker and to be that
teacher or that trainer uh tohelp others grow and get to that
(06:29):
next level.
SPEAKER_00 (06:31):
This is so important, what you're talking
about, especially when you gothrough pivots and transitions.
And one of the things I talkabout uh about in branding,
right, is that you've got tofirst take a good look at
yourself and understand whatwere you doing five years ago,
10 years ago, what were thepivotal moments in your origin
(06:54):
story that now define you eventoday?
And what does that look likethere?
And what you stated.
Now you've built authority overfive industries, over 36 years
of leadership that you'vealready accomplished, and and
now you're putting this intoyour personal brand and how you
(07:14):
evolve through these transitionsand how you can give back to
other individuals who may be nowtaking on lessons, they may now
be leaders on their journey andwhat they're doing.
And in your book, you know,connect with ruthless honesty.
And I remember this, youchallenge people to show up with
(07:35):
full clarity.
Full clarity.
My question for you is this howdo you see honesty as a
cornerstone of building atrusted brand in today's
marketplace?
SPEAKER_01 (07:51):
Well, part of what I believe you've written in your
book is the word authenticity.
SPEAKER_00 (07:56):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (07:57):
And today, uh I think, and if you ask most
people out there in any walk oflife, what they're looking for
in in leaders or what they'relooking for in in life and who
they want to be hanging outwith, they want authenticity.
(08:18):
They want what is real.
Okay.
And um they're tired.
They're tired of the two-faceduh society that we're living in.
They're tired of folks that aremisleading, that are saying one
thing and doing something else.
Um as a speaker, I have neverbeen trained, for instance, to
(08:42):
speak.
It's come natural to me.
And uh I have seen and I've beenpart of different presentations,
and I've dabbled a little bithere and there, the, you know,
done a course here and read thisbook and seen a lot of videos to
see styles and and approaches byby speakers and and people in in
that field.
(09:03):
And uh a lot of them are good,but I have seen that there are
way too many folks that aremechanical and they're not come
speaking from the heart.
So when I came out at this pointin my life, you know, I'm not a
youngster anymore.
And so I'm not someone who'sthat new rising star.
(09:24):
I I'm I'm out wherever I am atright now, and I have a lot of
gray hairs to prove to everybodythat I have lived a life with a
lot of ups and downs and a lotof things.
And what I wanted, I want toshare with everyone is the real
deal, the real story, my story.
I don't claim to be an expert inin different things.
(09:47):
All I can do is share my storyand and share a real story.
Yeah, and I believe that peopleare looking for authenticity.
They're looking that, you know,that that this person is
speaking from the heart, thisspeak, this person is speaking
the truth, and they'll pick upon that and they'll connect with
(10:08):
that.
So I get that up and uh up thereand talk and speak.
I want to be myself.
I don't want to be perfect whenI speak.
I don't, I don't want to get upthere and have everything
choreographed.
You know, there is a process weall follow.
But in it, and this has alwaysbeen my uh, especially now with
this, this, this outlook, Idon't want to speak to people.
(10:32):
I want to speak with people.
I love that.
And when I when I train, when Ispeak, is that you know, I'm
just like you, man.
I'm a regular guy, I'm a regularperson.
I'm not this this high-levelperson.
It's a multimillionaire orbillionaire, which everybody
aspires to be.
I'm gonna I want to talk to youon a one-to-one basis, on the
(10:54):
same level, just sharing mystory and what I've learned
through the years.
And hopefully that'll make adifference in their lives.
100%.
SPEAKER_00 (11:04):
And I want the audience to really lean in what
you just said.
It's so important to understandthat your story matters, that
what you've been through will bea benefit to someone else, but
it will only be a benefit tosomeone else if you share it.
When I talk about personalbranding, I remember one of the
(11:26):
experts that I tuned into, andthen he said this, and it was so
important in how he said it.
He said, You are an expert tothe person that you were five
years ago, even ten years ago,and what you've already
accomplished.
There's somebody about to go upthat mountain that you already
(11:48):
went across.
Say if I had just now gotdiagnosed with prostate cancer,
I'm gonna go through a plethoraof emotions and all kinds of
different things.
You've already gone through thatmountain, you've already been on
the other side of that mountain.
I would want to contact you andsay, Pete, tell me, tell me,
tell me what I'm about to gothrough.
(12:09):
And you, because you've beenthrough it, you said, Rent, it's
gonna be like this, this, this,and this.
That's what's important.
Your story matters.
So many people in this worldhave great stories, but they
never get told.
To your point, when you'retalking about as a young child,
that you had an opportunity,your your teacher was
encouraging you, but you took adifferent route.
(12:31):
But then it came back around,and then you said, you know
what?
I'm going to listen to thisinner voice that's telling me I
need to share, and you you madea career out of that over time.
I think that's about for me,it's about resilience.
And in your story, you'veovercome adversity, you've
(12:52):
resonated deeply with a lot ofdifferent audiences because of
that authentic story that youhave.
I want you to also tell us ifyou can, within your like you
were speaking to a team,training them, you know, with
technical, especially what youcall, and I like how you frame
this emotional resiliencetechniques.
(13:14):
How do you help leaders not onlyrecover from challenges but also
grow stronger through them?
SPEAKER_01 (13:21):
Well, it's it's it's it's I think it's very, very
simple is that you've you've gotthis whole idea of connect with
ruthless honesty and and to haveas the tagline says, the freedom
to succeed in life and business.
Yeah, all success in life startsby uh knowing yourself and being
(13:48):
honest with yourself and not tobe as yourself, okay?
Um, and understanding what isreally important to you.
What are those non-negotiablecore values that are ingrained
inside of you that many formany, many years you ignored
them, you you just didn't payattention to them.
(14:10):
And then it comes to a point inyour life that you're taking a
hard look at everything andyou're saying, you know, this is
who I am.
This this is who I need to beconsistently.
I I share this story when I whenI open up my keynote, is and and
and and I ask a favor of theaudience.
I go, if any of you are a memberof the most people club, I'm
(14:37):
gonna ask you to cancel thatmembership today.
And what I mean by that is, youknow, we've heard the saying for
many, many years, there are waytoo many chiefs and not enough
Indians, right?
Yeah.
In today's world, it's actuallyflipped.
Today, there are one too manyIndians and not enough chiefs.
(14:58):
We have a major void in realauthentic leadership.
Individuals that live and workand abide by their
non-negotiable core values, andthey lead themselves.
So this is a long-winded answer,uh, Grant, but it starts with
you and knowing and beingruthless honest with yourself.
(15:20):
That is a starting point toeverything and anything in life.
And in the sense of business,it's it's to be once you're
honest with yourself, then youstart to transcend that honesty
to the people that that you workwith, your colleagues, and then
your the marketplace, and thenthe clients, you know, in that
(15:41):
process, who you're going to dobusiness with and who you're not
going to do business with.
Sure.
You know, because you want tohave you want to have that that
that environment where you'reall basically on that same
level.
And and forget about all thesegreat strategies and skill sets.
If you can come from that placemoving forward, all of these
(16:04):
other things will fall intoplace.
SPEAKER_00 (16:07):
But it starts with you.
Non-negotiables.
You've got to know what yournon-negotiables are, uh, or you
you follow any type of path.
As you said, you've got tounderstand what path to go down,
what path not to go down, who isyour client, and who is not your
client.
And it's okay.
And that starts 100% what yousaid of knowing yourself.
(16:29):
And you've got to do honestself-assessment of who you are
and what you're truly about.
Now, I know in your world, youyou do a lot about claiming
ownership and leading withaccountability and purpose.
I think that's so big because inthis world, as we know this,
(16:51):
everybody comes across friction.
They have resistance.
It's not a perfect path.
You're you're gonna have ups,you're gonna have downs, but if
you don't tell the whole story,you only tell, hey, this is how
I achieved this, this, and this,is all successful and it did
this.
It's really that's not a realstory.
There's going to be a lot ofvariants along the way.
(17:14):
Any sporting event you go to,there's moments where you're
losing, there's moments thatyou're winning, there's moments
that you don't know if you'regonna win, you don't know if
you're gonna lose.
But then there's somethingthat's so you dig deep and you
find that inner part of yourselfthat finds confidence, and you
just follow through.
And I think a lot of that comesfrom fear of vulnerability.
(17:35):
I want to know from you how doyou coach executives to balance
that transparency with authoritywithout losing their
credibility?
SPEAKER_01 (17:45):
Great question.
Um, you know that five years agowe experienced the coronavirus,
COVID-19.
Remember that?
Yeah, um well, out of that,there was a lot of mutations for
the coronavirus.
One of them was the politicalvirus, the economic virus, but
(18:06):
there's one that's stilllingering today that I think is
the worst of all of them.
It's called the blaming virus.
Uh-huh.
Where we blame someone else foryou know the lack of happiness
or the or success we've had inour lives.
And this is something I tell myaudience, whether I'm speaking
or I'm doing training, I alwaysbring this to them is wherever
(18:31):
any of us is at in our livesright now, you grant, myself,
the audience watching andlistening here, wherever we're
at in our lives, we are 100%responsible.
We are accountable at whereverwe're at in our lives.
(18:52):
Really good, mediocre, not sogood, right?
So we can't blame anyone elsebecause we haven't hit the mark
that we didn't that haven't hitthe level.
Okay.
We need to, and and I say thisto everybody, our lives are not
a rental.
We own them.
God gifted us this life.
(19:13):
We got one shot at it, right?
So what do we do with it?
We have to take care of it.
We have to grab onto the ownerwho says, All right, I know my
values, I'm gonna live by them.
I'm gonna get on my train, notsomeone else's train.
Yeah, and knowing that life is amarathon, life has many stops
along the way.
(19:34):
Well, if you're on your trainand there's someone on board
your train that's not connectingwith you, they need to get off
on the next stop.
Yeah.
To allow for others that willalign with you to get on that
train.
And so I just, you know, we weneed to be ruthlessly honest and
say, you know, we areaccountable.
(19:55):
We own our lives.
And it's up to us whether wesucceed or not.
And and there's something elsethat's real important in you,
and you mentioned it there aboutfailure and people or you know,
the reason folks don't take theaction, because at the end of
the day, you're gonna have allthe greatest plans and goals and
dreams and strategies in place,and it's like, okay, this feels
(20:17):
really good right now.
There's one little step left.
It's called implement andexecute.
Right.
And the reason a lot of peopletoday, and and I catch myself
sometimes too, believe me, I'mnot I'm not perfect here.
The reason we don't do that,because we are afraid that the
outcome is not gonna be what wedesire it's going to be, right?
(20:37):
Well, we need to understand thatwe don't control the outcomes,
the results.
The only thing we control arethe steps that we take.
If we don't take any steps,guess what the results are gonna
be?
Zero.
If we take those steps, we'resetting ourselves for a higher
probability of hitting some ofthe goals that we want in our
lives.
(20:57):
So we don't take that stepsbecause we're afraid of what
might happen, but more thananything else, what may not
occur, what what what we may notattain.
SPEAKER_00 (21:08):
And what you're saying there, like if you don't
even start the journey, you'vealready got what you wanted,
which is none.
Once you start that journey, nomatter what it is, as far as the
outcome, it's gonna bedifferent.
It's going to be different, andit's going to be a journey, and
it's going to be an it's goingto be episodic, right?
The drama begins.
You know, the drum roll, no onereally knows the exact outcome.
(21:32):
But if you don't even take thejourney itself, you don't crack
open the book, you don't gothrough the process, you gain
nothing.
And what you said earlier, Ball,who needs to be on your trade
and then off the trade.
As you are progressing, and I'venoticed this as you grow, when
you're growing into your trueself, you're becoming your true
(21:55):
potential of who you are, you'regonna have a new network of
people around you.
There's nothing wrong with theold people, it's just they you
associate with them at a certainlevel.
You're no longer at that level.
You're no longer, let's say ifyou're in grade school, you're
not in fifth grade anymore,you're in tenth grade, or you're
not in 10th grade anymore,you're in an advanced learning
(22:18):
in college and in physics.
You you've moved on.
Those other people they're doingtheir thing and what they're
learning, but you have moved on.
You've got other people now inyour circle that you're
interacting with because you'regrowing and you're and you're
moving in in a way that'sdifferent.
Now, one of your five core Icall leadership principles is
the create your vision, which Ilove that how you say that
(22:41):
create your vision aboutthinking bigger and thinking
about your sacred rules.
And then for those, and I wantyou to answer this for those
leaders that are stuck inlimiting mindsets, like you can
limit yourself, kind of wetalked about earlier, limiting
yourself.
What is your go-to strategy toexpand their sense of
(23:04):
possibility?
SPEAKER_01 (23:06):
Well, my friend, it's it's a good question, and
and and I gotta answer in a verysimple way, man.
It all starts with belief.
It starts in believing inyourself, knowing who you are,
knowing who you're not.
Um, and when I talk about visionand thinking bigger, um I I by
the way, let me start by sayingthat that we're all visionaries.
(23:30):
You know, you hear talk aboutyou know, Elon Musk, Steve Jobs,
whatever the case, those aregreat visionaries.
We're all great, we're allvisionaries.
We're always thinking about thefuture.
Now, what we're thinking aboutcould be different.
You know, we can think about,you know, uh, you know, bad
things happening or or goodthings happening or whatever.
(23:50):
But we limit ourselves.
The qu the reason I say thinkbigger, if you look, you come
down to Miami, you go downBrickle Avenue in downtown
Miami, and you see theskyscrapers going up and the
buildings going up.
Someone had to think about thatat some point.
They had a vision and they madeit happen.
(24:12):
Why?
Because they believed it.
We as human beings putlimitations on ourselves from
whatever it is, childhood orwhatever.
Did I call that fake news?
That's fake news.
Don't get suckered into that.
That's not true.
If the next person can think bigand do big, why can't you?
(24:33):
I like for someone to to answerto prove me wrong and say, we we
can only think on a limitedbasis.
And give me a good uh uhexplanation of what that means
and why.
And why do you say that?
Okay, so it it's it's it'sagain, it's not magic.
It's just getting it to thepoint saying, well, wait a
(24:55):
second.
You know, I've got very strongthings about myself here that I
can bring and add to the tableto help others.
But again, you got to takeresponsibility.
Once you claim ownership, thenthat confidence grows from
there.
And and as leaders today, um,it's not about shouting out the
(25:17):
next orders or you trying tohold someone else accountable.
It's you telling the otherperson it's up to them.
They got to take ownership, theyare accountable.
You gotta tell Mazalia, I don'thold that power.
I don't have that power to holdyou accountable.
If you believe I do, then we gota problem.
SPEAKER_00 (25:37):
That is so true.
You've got to takeresponsibility, accountability.
Our conversations around that.
We've been talking about that,you've been talking about that.
I think this is why you'reyou've rebranded yourself in
this area because you pushleaders, make a decision, take
action.
You you stress creating that noexcuses culture, right?
(25:59):
Right.
You've got to take that firststep.
You've got to hardwire it inthat you can make it happen.
Yes, you you you acquire theresources around you, the assets
that you need, because you can'tall do it by yourself to get to
that next level.
You've got to have that dream,you've got to have that
understanding.
I want to know from you you hada dream, you kind of alluded to
(26:21):
it, but what made you right nowsaid, I'm rebranding, I'm
getting out in front, I'mgetting on this stage.
Is it because of what you'resaying?
It's like, I think the worldneeds my voice.
What were you thinking?
SPEAKER_01 (26:35):
Uh uh, I believe that after this encounter with
cancer, I always kind of knewit, it was there, but I wasn't
quite, didn't have that push,that um that I needed.
This did it to me and for me.
And I remember late last year,uh and and I talk about this is
a third of the the five keyelements is is make decisions.
(27:00):
Not just any decisions,intentional decisions.
Late last year I sat down and Ilooked into my 2025.
What do I want to do?
And and and and I said, uh, Iwant to do this and I'd like to
do this.
And I came over for 14, 15, 16different things here.
And and I and I caught myselfrepeating a pattern of having
(27:23):
all these, not even goals, thesewere wishes.
And I and I would tell myself,then I look at it, I go, okay,
this one's good, but eventuallyI get to that, and eventually I
get to this one.
I it just hit me.
Eventually is now.
So if now is what's important,what are the three to four most
(27:44):
important things that I believeI want to do and need to do in
2025?
So what I did was I just said, Ihave decided to do this.
I have decided.
So I made a commitment to myselfand I wrote it out.
I have decided to right andthat's been my mantra this year.
(28:07):
And there's some and I look backat the last 10 months.
10 months?
Yeah, 10 months, nine months.
And I said, you know, look atwhat I've accomplished this
year, because I was bold in thatcommitment to myself.
Um so it is up to all of us andany of us is to make decisions,
(28:32):
but with intention, that theymean something.
Eventually it's now for me.
SPEAKER_00 (28:44):
That's so important to understand and I I've seen
people do this, I've done it.
My father was big on this.
He would have these great ideas,great ideas, you know.
But then when it came to whatyou said earlier,
implementation, the execution,making it come into visibility.
He was more of a visionary guy,but he wasn't an operational
(29:05):
guy.
How do you operationalize thevision that you have so that you
can live in the reality that youare giving life to?
And it's full circle because youcan get distracted.
There's so many distractions inlife that you have the full
attention.
Everybody knows the beginning ofthe year, everybody has their
(29:26):
you know, we need New Year'srevel resolution, right?
And then by most likely eitherFebruary 1st, if you're lucky,
you you know, that's out of thewindow, and you're on to
something else because life isalways going to be pushing you
one way or another.
Because we're just in thiscollective that we have, and
there's distractions that alwaysgonna come your way.
When you can say, This is mypriority, this is my commitment,
(29:51):
you can then I use a footballanalogy, you know, just kind of
forearm those things out of theway.
Like that is not aligned with mypriority.
That is not a part of mycommitment.
I am not going to spend energyand cycles on those things.
I'm going to spend energies andcycles on these things.
But it comes with a decision anda commitment, which you just
(30:13):
said.
Sometimes you've got to put downthat phone.
Sometimes you've got to turn offthat television.
Sometimes you're like, no, I'mnot going to go out and do this
or that because I'm focused onthis.
And if it's not aligned withthat, I had to do that myself.
I have I moved from Miami,Florida, South Florida to the
Midwest.
I now dwell in Omaha, Nebraska.
(30:34):
Look at that, my friend.
I just did that about six monthsago.
My parents were getting older.
I had to start looking at my ownsituation in life.
What was the best track goingforward for me?
And it meant I needed to, andthis is where I grew up.
I grew up in Oha, Nebraska.
People did not know that.
Haven't lived here in 35 years.
(30:56):
And for me, it's like a wholenew experience because when you
haven't been somewhere in a verylong time, not I've been back
but not lived there.
It's it's different.
It feels like I'm living in thepast, the present, and the
future all at the same time.
And yet I still hate, you know,have my relationships in South
Florida, also St.
Court Virgin Islands that aregrowing.
(31:17):
And it is allowed me to bebecome the full person that I
could do.
To your point, I had to listento that voice of what is the
right path for me right now.
SPEAKER_01 (31:28):
You've went full circle.
SPEAKER_00 (31:30):
Exactly.
Exactly.
SPEAKER_01 (31:31):
You know, as you were talking, there's a couple
of different things that thatthat people say without even
noticing they're saying it.
Um and it's it's like poison tothem in their psyche and their
advancement of moving forward.
Um for instance, when they'represented with an opportunity,
(31:51):
um they'll look at it and go, itsounds interesting.
Um, but what if it doesn't work?
unknown (31:56):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (31:56):
What if it doesn't work?
I I I'll flip that and I'll say,what if it does?
What if it does work?
Because we have a tendency to goat, you know, I I don't believe.
So and there's two other andanother another phrase which
it's two words to it that's akiller.
SPEAKER_00 (32:13):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (32:14):
When when when when opportunities come up as well,
is that we say, you know, itsounds good, but you know, yes,
but yes, but yeah, yeah.
It's like it depends on someonesomeone else.
And we do these and say thesethings, and and we don't know
(32:36):
the danger that we're doing toourselves.
So we have to words are alsovery, very important there.
SPEAKER_00 (32:42):
So um and and understanding in our world, you
like when you wake, typicallywhen you wake up in the morning,
sometimes, and as you go throughlife, you're already in what I
call a your resting state isusually a negative state,
meaning you're already thinkingabout the status quo of what you
(33:03):
normally do, your habits andwhatnot.
You're thinking about certainbiases that you have, you have
certain status quo that's outthere, and then your critical
mindset.
The critical mindset is a majorthing that rests right in front
of you, right when you wake upin the morning.
It takes energy, it takesintentionality, as you said,
positivity to then get abovethat frame of mind.
(33:28):
I say some people they do prayerin the morning, some people do
contemplation in the morning,they do meditation, because
you've got to be intentionalabout like you're um uh starting
that engine in a positive mindframe.
Because if you don't, and youstay almost unconscious as you
wait awaken, you're gonna saythat negative frame.
(33:48):
And it and it's just it's justthere.
But until you get intentionalabout all right, I need to look
at and be, and I know I do itevery morning.
It's like, all right, whatpositive, what positive event
happened yesterday?
What positive event happened twodays ago?
And focus on those things.
Because if I start carryingyesterday's news into my mindset
(34:12):
and and all the, like you said,all the self-limiting beliefs,
like, oh my god, I gotta getbecause you get up kind of tired
most of the time.
I don't wake up and boom, I'mready to go, but I have to rev
up to that point.
Well, we're gonna rev up.
I've done this, rev up my mentalstate, my emotional state to get
back into my frame of mind andthen remembering my North Star
(34:32):
and the purpose that I'm settingout for this day to accomplish,
that I'm aligned with thatpurpose.
So as the distractions come andthey always will come, things
happen, but then you can getback in line, get back on course
to do what you need.
I think you've gotten back oncourse, and you're doing you're
you're talking about me comingfull circle.
That story you told in the verybeginning about you know going
(34:54):
to the encyclopedia and doingthis great, great speech, and
then you had an opportunity, andyou look at you now, you've come
completely full circle, and youknow how to I've gotten a little
bit older since then.
Yeah, just a little bit, but youyou bring all of that to the
table.
I know I find let's say I wasstarting out in radio, I want to
(35:16):
listen to you.
What is that like?
You're starting out in economicdevelopment.
Well, you know, Pete, tell meabout your experiences because
you've lived those livedexperiences, a lot of the
fundamentals and principles arestill the same.
There's there's a lot of change,and you probably heard this uh
in in life.
Nothing new under the sun.
(35:36):
It may be new to you, but it'snot new to someone else.
You just have to find that out.
And to your point, like youdon't want you say, hey, what if
I do this and it doesn't workout?
Well, for somebody did it didwork out, but are you putting
yourself in their mindset?
Are you finding out maybepotentially from them or someone
else who actually had thatsuccess and learning from them
so that you won't make themistake?
(35:58):
So when it does come up, youjust stop.
You don't have the resilience,no, you're not ready yet.
You can't can't um withstand thethe headwinds that are gonna
come toward you.
So you gotta find those thingsthat can push you forward.
I I luck how you I see youpushing forward even today.
You didn't stop, you know, yourself-pity, like, yeah, I have
cancer, stop me.
(36:19):
I'm I'm I'm done.
I just uh I'm checking out rightnow.
You are punching in your clockevery day, and you're you you've
been punching in for a long timeand you're bringing forth, and
you reached out to me and said,Grant, I want to be on your show
again.
Let's do it.
I got some things I'm doing new.
I I I've got a new website, I'verebranded, I'm a keynote
(36:39):
speaker.
I'm like, look at I'm veryimpressed with you, Pete.
SPEAKER_01 (36:43):
Thank you, man.
SPEAKER_00 (36:44):
I want to again tell our audience, number one, they
gotta know where are youspeaking next?
How can we book you?
What what how do we get in thePete Delator world?
SPEAKER_01 (36:55):
Well, it's an open book, open door anytime.
Uh reach out to me.
Uh, I think one of the best waysto do it, more efficient ways,
to go to my website, which isPeter Delatory.
I added the R as a little bit ofa rebranding uh uh thing twist
that I did there.
I've been known as Pete, andI've I added the R so I can talk
about you.
(37:16):
See, I I've rebranded.
I've added, you know, a lot ofpeople call me uh Peter as well.
So it's peterdelatory.com.
And it uh the website wasdeveloped with a lot of years of
of hits and misses, things thatI've learned, but also putting
in there what I believe um uhthe information I believe people
(37:39):
need to have in order to atleast get a taste of what I do
and who I am.
Um there is uh there's uh homepage, obviously, but there's
also a page for my speaking,just uh some uh videos that I
put there, there's differentkeynotes that I do, there's some
testimonials that I've beenblessed with on my training
page, the same thing.
(38:00):
Um and if you are interested intalking with me on either from a
speaking perspective ortraining, um, there's a contact
sheet.
You can put your information onthere and reach out to me and I
will get back to you and we cantalk it through.
SPEAKER_00 (38:15):
I love it.
Now I got one more question.
I've got to ask you this, Pete.
Now you've like I said, you'vebeen in radio a long time.
You've been you've beeninterviewed a lot a lot,
especially you know when yourbook came out.
You you talked a lot of this isthe second time you've
interviewed with me on theFollow Brand show.
How do you feel about thisexperience?
SPEAKER_01 (38:37):
It's been fantastic because my friend, you are you
are enthusiastic in terms ofengaging with your uh guest.
Uh you come from a really goodplace, uh an authentic place.
Uh you've made me uh you knowfeel at ease, comfortable at
home and our and in our talk.
You know, you're you're you'rejust you're just engaging.
(38:58):
We're just having a conversationhere.
You're not trying to drill me orput me on the spot or or have
any uh got you questions oranything like that.
And it's uh it's important andand it's uh important to your
mission in terms of engaging andtalking to the folks that uh you
believe bring value to yourplatform, and and hopefully uh
(39:20):
uh I haven't disappointed.
SPEAKER_00 (39:22):
Oh, without questioning, I would not have
had you back on if I felt anykind of disappointment, or he's
gonna embarrass myself in myshow and what I did.
There's no way because PeteDallas, I'm telling you, and I
and the courage audience toreally need their due diligence
and their research.
Man, you've done a lot for thiscommunity.
You've helped a lot of smallbusiness people to grow their
(39:42):
business.
There's probably a lot of peoplelike, wow, I know because I got
this information for Pete, I wasable to do X.
And then maybe they never toldyou we should get some
testimonies and some emails outthere.
Make sure our audience, ouraudience, and our community
wraps their arms around you andwhat you have done for us, and
that you poured into us and wewant to pour back into you.
(40:03):
I want to thank you again forbeing on the show.
I want to your audience as wellas mine to make sure that you're
going to five-star video that'sbeat for brand,
beepfordevelopment,informaster.com.
There's over 250 people thathave poured out what they feel
is important to them and whythey do it in different
categories that really willresonate with you to get you to
(40:26):
that next level.
So I want to thank you, myfriend, again for being on the
show.
SPEAKER_01 (40:31):
Thank you, my brother.
Really appreciate it.
A lot of fun.
Let's do it again.
SPEAKER_00 (40:34):
Oh, yeah, of course.
Well, welcome everybody to the Follow Brand
Podcast.
This is your host, Grant McGall.
I'm gonna take it all the waydown to South Florida to one of
my favorite individuals whojoined me, I think it was two,
maybe even three years ago onthis very show when I was first
coming out with the Follow BrandTV series.
He was one of my first gueststhat came on, Pete Delator.
(00:23):
I'm telling you, if you don'tknow Pete Delator, he is
historic, alleged in his owntime.
Oh, geez, man.
I'm telling you, he might nothave been people that know Pete,
they know who I'm talking about.
We want to have a conversationbecause the last time we spoke,
you were coming out with yourbook, right?
Proof of Sonic.
(00:43):
I mean, that was right behind mehere.
There it is.
People on audio don't see that,but the people on video, you
know what we're referring to.
SPEAKER_01 (00:52):
It's there.
SPEAKER_00 (00:53):
And you've gone you're doing some newer things
now, as a couple years later.
You've got a whole platform outthere.
Tell us more about yourself andwhat you're doing.
SPEAKER_01 (01:03):
Well, uh, again, a pleasure to be on your podcast
again, my friend.
Uh um, congratulations for thegreat work that you're doing.
Congratulations on your book, uhFirst Light.
I can't wait to read it.
And uh, I think we have somesimilarities there and and in
your in your topic and yourfocus.
So congratulations, buddy.
(01:24):
Well-deserved uh feat.
I know it's not easy to write abook.
I know what that's all about.
SPEAKER_00 (01:30):
It is, and it's a it's a labor of love, but uh,
you know, once you've got itfinished, and actually you see
it, when you actually see thepublication in your hand, you're
like, here's your baby, youknow, that's something that you
made.
SPEAKER_01 (01:41):
And I know for me it was like, did I write that?
Did that come out of me?
You know, and and and uh and Istill say it when I look at it.
So uh yeah, your question is isa great one.
Um, when we last uh spoke, itwas uh two, two and a half years
ago, I had just come out with mybook, Connecting uh Connect with
Ruthless Honesty.
(02:01):
That book was inspired by anencounter that I had with
prostate cancer uh a little bitover four years ago.
Uh it was pretty aggressive, uh,but thank God we caught it on
time.
And I had surgery.
And as I am speaking to youtoday and the audience, I'm 100%
cancer free, thank God.
(02:23):
So uh absolutely.
And and I don't take that uh forgranted.
Uh every day I get up, uh, Isay, thank you, God, for another
day.
SPEAKER_00 (02:31):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (02:31):
Um, so what what happened uh it was against me,
but then it turned out to be forme.
Uh the cancer ordeal.
It woke me up.
It gave me what I like to say isthe wake-up call of wake-up
calls.
And uh when you first hear thenews, it's why me, why now?
(02:55):
And then when you get throughit, you ask that question again,
why me, why now?
How was I able to get throughthis when so many uh are not
fortunate enough to get to theother side?
So the message for me was thatGod had more plans for me, He
had a different purpose for me,and I had to pay attention to
(03:19):
what that was.
Uh so I began a process uh whichI like to call a lifelong
transformation, because yourtransformation doesn't happen in
one day.
You know, we are not one-hitwonders.
We we we want longevity and lifeis a marathon.
So it began that process where Icould I could now really be the
(03:40):
person I was meant to be and andpursue the things that meant the
most to me, uh, that connectedwith me.
I have done many thingsprofessionally through my years.
I've been in five differentindustries, financial services,
international business.
I was in media, as you know, fora long time, doing radio and um
(04:02):
uh ran an economic developmentorganization in South Florida.
So I had a lot of uh experiencethere.
One thing that was a commondenominator through the years
was the fact that I was teachingand I was speaking.
And I have been blessed with uhthe ability to be able to teach
(04:23):
and and and and help otherslearning uh something that is
important to them and theirgrowth.
And also speaking.
And it's funny because I Idiscovered speaking skills when
I was 14 years old.
When I was asked to speak infront of a group of guys that
were, you know, 30 guys in aroom were all about 14 years
old.
And I had it was a speech, Ican't remember what it was, but
(04:44):
I did a speech in sportsmanship,and I'll never forget because I
copied the whole speech word byword from the World Book
Encyclopedia.
Remember those inside those.
SPEAKER_00 (04:54):
Yeah, I remember way back, way back, yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (04:56):
So I I took that and I said and I did the speech, and
the teacher looked at me and shegoes, That was phenomenal.
I want you to do that speech atthe end of year pepper alley.
Funny story.
I freaked out.
I go, I'm gonna get in front ofmy friends here, they're gonna
mock me, and that's that.
And and I and I told her that Ilost the speech, and I never did
(05:19):
it.
So it was one of those momentsthat I discovered that skill,
but I was kind of embarrassed toshare it.
Fast forward in everything I'vedone professionally, I have been
speaking and I have beenteaching.
So as a result, I believe, ofwriting this book and what I
learned from the wholeexperience, is at this point in
(05:39):
my life, I needed to pursue whatI believe God has always
intended me to do, which is toteach, which is to uh do
corporate training and to be akeynote speaker.
So today, and I just wentthrough this uh re-uh purposing
of my platform a couple monthsago, testing a uh a keynote that
(06:05):
was well received by a smallgroup of folks, and then
accelerating, rebranding myselfwith a new website, with a new
purpose.
And so today, uh and movingforward for the rest of my life
because I really believe that Ihave arrived to what I was
always meant to do, which is tobe that speaker and to be that
teacher or that trainer uh tohelp others grow and get to that
(06:29):
next level.
SPEAKER_00 (06:31):
This is so important, what you're talking
about, especially when you gothrough pivots and transitions.
And one of the things I talkabout uh about in branding,
right, is that you've got tofirst take a good look at
yourself and understand whatwere you doing five years ago,
10 years ago, what were thepivotal moments in your origin
(06:54):
story that now define you eventoday?
And what does that look likethere?
And what you stated.
Now you've built authority overfive industries, over 36 years
of leadership that you'vealready accomplished, and and
now you're putting this intoyour personal brand and how you
(07:14):
evolve through these transitionsand how you can give back to
other individuals who may be nowtaking on lessons, they may now
be leaders on their journey andwhat they're doing.
And in your book, you know,connect with ruthless honesty.
And I remember this, youchallenge people to show up with
(07:35):
full clarity.
Full clarity.
My question for you is this howdo you see honesty as a
cornerstone of building atrusted brand in today's
marketplace?
SPEAKER_01 (07:51):
Well, part of what I believe you've written in your
book is the word authenticity.
SPEAKER_00 (07:56):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (07:57):
And today, uh I think, and if you ask most
people out there in any walk oflife, what they're looking for
in in leaders or what they'relooking for in in life and who
they want to be hanging outwith, they want authenticity.
(08:18):
They want what is real.
Okay.
And um they're tired.
They're tired of the two-faceduh society that we're living in.
They're tired of folks that aremisleading, that are saying one
thing and doing something else.
Um as a speaker, I have neverbeen trained, for instance, to
(08:42):
speak.
It's come natural to me.
And uh I have seen and I've beenpart of different presentations,
and I've dabbled a little bithere and there, the, you know,
done a course here and read thisbook and seen a lot of videos to
see styles and and approaches byby speakers and and people in in
that field.
(09:03):
And uh a lot of them are good,but I have seen that there are
way too many folks that aremechanical and they're not come
speaking from the heart.
So when I came out at this pointin my life, you know, I'm not a
youngster anymore.
And so I'm not someone who'sthat new rising star.
(09:24):
I I'm I'm out wherever I am atright now, and I have a lot of
gray hairs to prove to everybodythat I have lived a life with a
lot of ups and downs and a lotof things.
And what I wanted, I want toshare with everyone is the real
deal, the real story, my story.
I don't claim to be an expert inin different things.
(09:47):
All I can do is share my storyand and share a real story.
Yeah, and I believe that peopleare looking for authenticity.
They're looking that, you know,that that this person is
speaking from the heart, thisspeak, this person is speaking
the truth, and they'll pick upon that and they'll connect with
(10:08):
that.
So I get that up and uh up thereand talk and speak.
I want to be myself.
I don't want to be perfect whenI speak.
I don't, I don't want to get upthere and have everything
choreographed.
You know, there is a process weall follow.
But in it, and this has alwaysbeen my uh, especially now with
this, this, this outlook, Idon't want to speak to people.
(10:32):
I want to speak with people.
I love that.
And when I when I train, when Ispeak, is that you know, I'm
just like you, man.
I'm a regular guy, I'm a regularperson.
I'm not this this high-levelperson.
It's a multimillionaire orbillionaire, which everybody
aspires to be.
I'm gonna I want to talk to youon a one-to-one basis, on the
(10:54):
same level, just sharing mystory and what I've learned
through the years.
And hopefully that'll make adifference in their lives.
100%.
SPEAKER_00 (11:04):
And I want the audience to really lean in what
you just said.
It's so important to understandthat your story matters, that
what you've been through will bea benefit to someone else, but
it will only be a benefit tosomeone else if you share it.
When I talk about personalbranding, I remember one of the
(11:26):
experts that I tuned into, andthen he said this, and it was so
important in how he said it.
He said, You are an expert tothe person that you were five
years ago, even ten years ago,and what you've already
accomplished.
There's somebody about to go upthat mountain that you already
(11:48):
went across.
Say if I had just now gotdiagnosed with prostate cancer,
I'm gonna go through a plethoraof emotions and all kinds of
different things.
You've already gone through thatmountain, you've already been on
the other side of that mountain.
I would want to contact you andsay, Pete, tell me, tell me,
tell me what I'm about to gothrough.
(12:09):
And you, because you've beenthrough it, you said, Rent, it's
gonna be like this, this, this,and this.
That's what's important.
Your story matters.
So many people in this worldhave great stories, but they
never get told.
To your point, when you'retalking about as a young child,
that you had an opportunity,your your teacher was
encouraging you, but you took adifferent route.
(12:31):
But then it came back around,and then you said, you know
what?
I'm going to listen to thisinner voice that's telling me I
need to share, and you you madea career out of that over time.
I think that's about for me,it's about resilience.
And in your story, you'veovercome adversity, you've
(12:52):
resonated deeply with a lot ofdifferent audiences because of
that authentic story that youhave.
I want you to also tell us ifyou can, within your like you
were speaking to a team,training them, you know, with
technical, especially what youcall, and I like how you frame
this emotional resiliencetechniques.
(13:14):
How do you help leaders not onlyrecover from challenges but also
grow stronger through them?
SPEAKER_01 (13:21):
Well, it's it's it's it's I think it's very, very
simple is that you've you've gotthis whole idea of connect with
ruthless honesty and and to haveas the tagline says, the freedom
to succeed in life and business.
Yeah, all success in life startsby uh knowing yourself and being
(13:48):
honest with yourself and not tobe as yourself, okay?
Um, and understanding what isreally important to you.
What are those non-negotiablecore values that are ingrained
inside of you that many formany, many years you ignored
them, you you just didn't payattention to them.
(14:10):
And then it comes to a point inyour life that you're taking a
hard look at everything andyou're saying, you know, this is
who I am.
This this is who I need to beconsistently.
I I share this story when I whenI open up my keynote, is and and
and and I ask a favor of theaudience.
I go, if any of you are a memberof the most people club, I'm
(14:37):
gonna ask you to cancel thatmembership today.
And what I mean by that is, youknow, we've heard the saying for
many, many years, there are waytoo many chiefs and not enough
Indians, right?
Yeah.
In today's world, it's actuallyflipped.
Today, there are one too manyIndians and not enough chiefs.
(14:58):
We have a major void in realauthentic leadership.
Individuals that live and workand abide by their
non-negotiable core values, andthey lead themselves.
So this is a long-winded answer,uh, Grant, but it starts with
you and knowing and beingruthless honest with yourself.
(15:20):
That is a starting point toeverything and anything in life.
And in the sense of business,it's it's to be once you're
honest with yourself, then youstart to transcend that honesty
to the people that that you workwith, your colleagues, and then
your the marketplace, and thenthe clients, you know, in that
(15:41):
process, who you're going to dobusiness with and who you're not
going to do business with.
Sure.
You know, because you want tohave you want to have that that
that environment where you'reall basically on that same
level.
And and forget about all thesegreat strategies and skill sets.
If you can come from that placemoving forward, all of these
(16:04):
other things will fall intoplace.
SPEAKER_00 (16:07):
But it starts with you.
Non-negotiables.
You've got to know what yournon-negotiables are, uh, or you
you follow any type of path.
As you said, you've got tounderstand what path to go down,
what path not to go down, who isyour client, and who is not your
client.
And it's okay.
And that starts 100% what yousaid of knowing yourself.
(16:29):
And you've got to do honestself-assessment of who you are
and what you're truly about.
Now, I know in your world, youyou do a lot about claiming
ownership and leading withaccountability and purpose.
I think that's so big because inthis world, as we know this,
(16:51):
everybody comes across friction.
They have resistance.
It's not a perfect path.
You're you're gonna have ups,you're gonna have downs, but if
you don't tell the whole story,you only tell, hey, this is how
I achieved this, this, and this,is all successful and it did
this.
It's really that's not a realstory.
There's going to be a lot ofvariants along the way.
(17:14):
Any sporting event you go to,there's moments where you're
losing, there's moments thatyou're winning, there's moments
that you don't know if you'regonna win, you don't know if
you're gonna lose.
But then there's somethingthat's so you dig deep and you
find that inner part of yourselfthat finds confidence, and you
just follow through.
And I think a lot of that comesfrom fear of vulnerability.
(17:35):
I want to know from you how doyou coach executives to balance
that transparency with authoritywithout losing their
credibility?
SPEAKER_01 (17:45):
Great question.
Um, you know that five years agowe experienced the coronavirus,
COVID-19.
Remember that?
Yeah, um well, out of that,there was a lot of mutations for
the coronavirus.
One of them was the politicalvirus, the economic virus, but
(18:06):
there's one that's stilllingering today that I think is
the worst of all of them.
It's called the blaming virus.
Uh-huh.
Where we blame someone else foryou know the lack of happiness
or the or success we've had inour lives.
And this is something I tell myaudience, whether I'm speaking
or I'm doing training, I alwaysbring this to them is wherever
(18:31):
any of us is at in our livesright now, you grant, myself,
the audience watching andlistening here, wherever we're
at in our lives, we are 100%responsible.
We are accountable at whereverwe're at in our lives.
(18:52):
Really good, mediocre, not sogood, right?
So we can't blame anyone elsebecause we haven't hit the mark
that we didn't that haven't hitthe level.
Okay.
We need to, and and I say thisto everybody, our lives are not
a rental.
We own them.
God gifted us this life.
(19:13):
We got one shot at it, right?
So what do we do with it?
We have to take care of it.
We have to grab onto the ownerwho says, All right, I know my
values, I'm gonna live by them.
I'm gonna get on my train, notsomeone else's train.
Yeah, and knowing that life is amarathon, life has many stops
along the way.
(19:34):
Well, if you're on your trainand there's someone on board
your train that's not connectingwith you, they need to get off
on the next stop.
Yeah.
To allow for others that willalign with you to get on that
train.
And so I just, you know, we weneed to be ruthlessly honest and
say, you know, we areaccountable.
(19:55):
We own our lives.
And it's up to us whether wesucceed or not.
And and there's something elsethat's real important in you,
and you mentioned it there aboutfailure and people or you know,
the reason folks don't take theaction, because at the end of
the day, you're gonna have allthe greatest plans and goals and
dreams and strategies in place,and it's like, okay, this feels
(20:17):
really good right now.
There's one little step left.
It's called implement andexecute.
Right.
And the reason a lot of peopletoday, and and I catch myself
sometimes too, believe me, I'mnot I'm not perfect here.
The reason we don't do that,because we are afraid that the
outcome is not gonna be what wedesire it's going to be, right?
(20:37):
Well, we need to understand thatwe don't control the outcomes,
the results.
The only thing we control arethe steps that we take.
If we don't take any steps,guess what the results are gonna
be?
Zero.
If we take those steps, we'resetting ourselves for a higher
probability of hitting some ofthe goals that we want in our
lives.
(20:57):
So we don't take that stepsbecause we're afraid of what
might happen, but more thananything else, what may not
occur, what what what we may notattain.
SPEAKER_00 (21:08):
And what you're saying there, like if you don't
even start the journey, you'vealready got what you wanted,
which is none.
Once you start that journey, nomatter what it is, as far as the
outcome, it's gonna bedifferent.
It's going to be different, andit's going to be a journey, and
it's going to be an it's goingto be episodic, right?
The drama begins.
You know, the drum roll, no onereally knows the exact outcome.
(21:32):
But if you don't even take thejourney itself, you don't crack
open the book, you don't gothrough the process, you gain
nothing.
And what you said earlier, Ball,who needs to be on your trade
and then off the trade.
As you are progressing, and I'venoticed this as you grow, when
you're growing into your trueself, you're becoming your true
(21:55):
potential of who you are, you'regonna have a new network of
people around you.
There's nothing wrong with theold people, it's just they you
associate with them at a certainlevel.
You're no longer at that level.
You're no longer, let's say ifyou're in grade school, you're
not in fifth grade anymore,you're in tenth grade, or you're
not in 10th grade anymore,you're in an advanced learning
(22:18):
in college and in physics.
You you've moved on.
Those other people they're doingtheir thing and what they're
learning, but you have moved on.
You've got other people now inyour circle that you're
interacting with because you'regrowing and you're and you're
moving in in a way that'sdifferent.
Now, one of your five core Icall leadership principles is
the create your vision, which Ilove that how you say that
(22:41):
create your vision aboutthinking bigger and thinking
about your sacred rules.
And then for those, and I wantyou to answer this for those
leaders that are stuck inlimiting mindsets, like you can
limit yourself, kind of wetalked about earlier, limiting
yourself.
What is your go-to strategy toexpand their sense of
(23:04):
possibility?
SPEAKER_01 (23:06):
Well, my friend, it's it's a good question, and
and and I gotta answer in a verysimple way, man.
It all starts with belief.
It starts in believing inyourself, knowing who you are,
knowing who you're not.
Um, and when I talk about visionand thinking bigger, um I I by
the way, let me start by sayingthat that we're all visionaries.
(23:30):
You know, you hear talk aboutyou know, Elon Musk, Steve Jobs,
whatever the case, those aregreat visionaries.
We're all great, we're allvisionaries.
We're always thinking about thefuture.
Now, what we're thinking aboutcould be different.
You know, we can think about,you know, uh, you know, bad
things happening or or goodthings happening or whatever.
(23:50):
But we limit ourselves.
The qu the reason I say thinkbigger, if you look, you come
down to Miami, you go downBrickle Avenue in downtown
Miami, and you see theskyscrapers going up and the
buildings going up.
Someone had to think about thatat some point.
They had a vision and they madeit happen.
(24:12):
Why?
Because they believed it.
We as human beings putlimitations on ourselves from
whatever it is, childhood orwhatever.
Did I call that fake news?
That's fake news.
Don't get suckered into that.
That's not true.
If the next person can think bigand do big, why can't you?
(24:33):
I like for someone to to answerto prove me wrong and say, we we
can only think on a limitedbasis.
And give me a good uh uhexplanation of what that means
and why.
And why do you say that?
Okay, so it it's it's it'sagain, it's not magic.
It's just getting it to thepoint saying, well, wait a
(24:55):
second.
You know, I've got very strongthings about myself here that I
can bring and add to the tableto help others.
But again, you got to takeresponsibility.
Once you claim ownership, thenthat confidence grows from
there.
And and as leaders today, um,it's not about shouting out the
(25:17):
next orders or you trying tohold someone else accountable.
It's you telling the otherperson it's up to them.
They got to take ownership, theyare accountable.
You gotta tell Mazalia, I don'thold that power.
I don't have that power to holdyou accountable.
If you believe I do, then we gota problem.
SPEAKER_00 (25:37):
That is so true.
You've got to takeresponsibility, accountability.
Our conversations around that.
We've been talking about that,you've been talking about that.
I think this is why you'reyou've rebranded yourself in
this area because you pushleaders, make a decision, take
action.
You you stress creating that noexcuses culture, right?
(25:59):
Right.
You've got to take that firststep.
You've got to hardwire it inthat you can make it happen.
Yes, you you you acquire theresources around you, the assets
that you need, because you can'tall do it by yourself to get to
that next level.
You've got to have that dream,you've got to have that
understanding.
I want to know from you you hada dream, you kind of alluded to
(26:21):
it, but what made you right nowsaid, I'm rebranding, I'm
getting out in front, I'mgetting on this stage.
Is it because of what you'resaying?
It's like, I think the worldneeds my voice.
What were you thinking?
SPEAKER_01 (26:35):
Uh uh, I believe that after this encounter with
cancer, I always kind of knewit, it was there, but I wasn't
quite, didn't have that push,that um that I needed.
This did it to me and for me.
And I remember late last year,uh and and I talk about this is
a third of the the five keyelements is is make decisions.
(27:00):
Not just any decisions,intentional decisions.
Late last year I sat down and Ilooked into my 2025.
What do I want to do?
And and and and I said, uh, Iwant to do this and I'd like to
do this.
And I came over for 14, 15, 16different things here.
And and I and I caught myselfrepeating a pattern of having
(27:23):
all these, not even goals, thesewere wishes.
And I and I would tell myself,then I look at it, I go, okay,
this one's good, but eventuallyI get to that, and eventually I
get to this one.
I it just hit me.
Eventually is now.
So if now is what's important,what are the three to four most
(27:44):
important things that I believeI want to do and need to do in
2025?
So what I did was I just said, Ihave decided to do this.
I have decided.
So I made a commitment to myselfand I wrote it out.
I have decided to right andthat's been my mantra this year.
(28:07):
And there's some and I look backat the last 10 months.
10 months?
Yeah, 10 months, nine months.
And I said, you know, look atwhat I've accomplished this
year, because I was bold in thatcommitment to myself.
Um so it is up to all of us andany of us is to make decisions,
(28:32):
but with intention, that theymean something.
Eventually it's now for me.
SPEAKER_00 (28:44):
That's so important to understand and I I've seen
people do this, I've done it.
My father was big on this.
He would have these great ideas,great ideas, you know.
But then when it came to whatyou said earlier,
implementation, the execution,making it come into visibility.
He was more of a visionary guy,but he wasn't an operational
(29:05):
guy.
How do you operationalize thevision that you have so that you
can live in the reality that youare giving life to?
And it's full circle because youcan get distracted.
There's so many distractions inlife that you have the full
attention.
Everybody knows the beginning ofthe year, everybody has their
(29:26):
you know, we need New Year'srevel resolution, right?
And then by most likely eitherFebruary 1st, if you're lucky,
you you know, that's out of thewindow, and you're on to
something else because life isalways going to be pushing you
one way or another.
Because we're just in thiscollective that we have, and
there's distractions that alwaysgonna come your way.
When you can say, This is mypriority, this is my commitment,
(29:51):
you can then I use a footballanalogy, you know, just kind of
forearm those things out of theway.
Like that is not aligned with mypriority.
That is not a part of mycommitment.
I am not going to spend energyand cycles on those things.
I'm going to spend energies andcycles on these things.
But it comes with a decision anda commitment, which you just
(30:13):
said.
Sometimes you've got to put downthat phone.
Sometimes you've got to turn offthat television.
Sometimes you're like, no, I'mnot going to go out and do this
or that because I'm focused onthis.
And if it's not aligned withthat, I had to do that myself.
I have I moved from Miami,Florida, South Florida to the
Midwest.
I now dwell in Omaha, Nebraska.
(30:34):
Look at that, my friend.
I just did that about six monthsago.
My parents were getting older.
I had to start looking at my ownsituation in life.
What was the best track goingforward for me?
And it meant I needed to, andthis is where I grew up.
I grew up in Oha, Nebraska.
People did not know that.
Haven't lived here in 35 years.
(30:56):
And for me, it's like a wholenew experience because when you
haven't been somewhere in a verylong time, not I've been back
but not lived there.
It's it's different.
It feels like I'm living in thepast, the present, and the
future all at the same time.
And yet I still hate, you know,have my relationships in South
Florida, also St.
Court Virgin Islands that aregrowing.
(31:17):
And it is allowed me to bebecome the full person that I
could do.
To your point, I had to listento that voice of what is the
right path for me right now.
SPEAKER_01 (31:28):
You've went full circle.
SPEAKER_00 (31:30):
Exactly.
Exactly.
SPEAKER_01 (31:31):
You know, as you were talking, there's a couple
of different things that thatthat people say without even
noticing they're saying it.
Um and it's it's like poison tothem in their psyche and their
advancement of moving forward.
Um for instance, when they'represented with an opportunity,
(31:51):
um they'll look at it and go, itsounds interesting.
Um, but what if it doesn't work?
unknown (31:56):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (31:56):
What if it doesn't work?
I I I'll flip that and I'll say,what if it does?
What if it does work?
Because we have a tendency to goat, you know, I I don't believe.
So and there's two other andanother another phrase which
it's two words to it that's akiller.
SPEAKER_00 (32:13):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (32:14):
When when when when opportunities come up as well,
is that we say, you know, itsounds good, but you know, yes,
but yes, but yeah, yeah.
It's like it depends on someonesomeone else.
And we do these and say thesethings, and and we don't know
(32:36):
the danger that we're doing toourselves.
So we have to words are alsovery, very important there.
SPEAKER_00 (32:42):
So um and and understanding in our world, you
like when you wake, typicallywhen you wake up in the morning,
sometimes, and as you go throughlife, you're already in what I
call a your resting state isusually a negative state,
meaning you're already thinkingabout the status quo of what you
(33:03):
normally do, your habits andwhatnot.
You're thinking about certainbiases that you have, you have
certain status quo that's outthere, and then your critical
mindset.
The critical mindset is a majorthing that rests right in front
of you, right when you wake upin the morning.
It takes energy, it takesintentionality, as you said,
positivity to then get abovethat frame of mind.
(33:28):
I say some people they do prayerin the morning, some people do
contemplation in the morning,they do meditation, because
you've got to be intentionalabout like you're um uh starting
that engine in a positive mindframe.
Because if you don't, and youstay almost unconscious as you
wait awaken, you're gonna saythat negative frame.
(33:48):
And it and it's just it's justthere.
But until you get intentionalabout all right, I need to look
at and be, and I know I do itevery morning.
It's like, all right, whatpositive, what positive event
happened yesterday?
What positive event happened twodays ago?
And focus on those things.
Because if I start carryingyesterday's news into my mindset
(34:12):
and and all the, like you said,all the self-limiting beliefs,
like, oh my god, I gotta getbecause you get up kind of tired
most of the time.
I don't wake up and boom, I'mready to go, but I have to rev
up to that point.
Well, we're gonna rev up.
I've done this, rev up my mentalstate, my emotional state to get
back into my frame of mind andthen remembering my North Star
(34:32):
and the purpose that I'm settingout for this day to accomplish,
that I'm aligned with thatpurpose.
So as the distractions come andthey always will come, things
happen, but then you can getback in line, get back on course
to do what you need.
I think you've gotten back oncourse, and you're doing you're
you're talking about me comingfull circle.
That story you told in the verybeginning about you know going
(34:54):
to the encyclopedia and doingthis great, great speech, and
then you had an opportunity, andyou look at you now, you've come
completely full circle, and youknow how to I've gotten a little
bit older since then.
Yeah, just a little bit, but youyou bring all of that to the
table.
I know I find let's say I wasstarting out in radio, I want to
(35:16):
listen to you.
What is that like?
You're starting out in economicdevelopment.
Well, you know, Pete, tell meabout your experiences because
you've lived those livedexperiences, a lot of the
fundamentals and principles arestill the same.
There's there's a lot of change,and you probably heard this uh
in in life.
Nothing new under the sun.
(35:36):
It may be new to you, but it'snot new to someone else.
You just have to find that out.
And to your point, like youdon't want you say, hey, what if
I do this and it doesn't workout?
Well, for somebody did it didwork out, but are you putting
yourself in their mindset?
Are you finding out maybepotentially from them or someone
else who actually had thatsuccess and learning from them
so that you won't make themistake?
(35:58):
So when it does come up, youjust stop.
You don't have the resilience,no, you're not ready yet.
You can't can't um withstand thethe headwinds that are gonna
come toward you.
So you gotta find those thingsthat can push you forward.
I I luck how you I see youpushing forward even today.
You didn't stop, you know, yourself-pity, like, yeah, I have
cancer, stop me.
(36:19):
I'm I'm I'm done.
I just uh I'm checking out rightnow.
You are punching in your clockevery day, and you're you you've
been punching in for a long timeand you're bringing forth, and
you reached out to me and said,Grant, I want to be on your show
again.
Let's do it.
I got some things I'm doing new.
I I I've got a new website, I'verebranded, I'm a keynote
(36:39):
speaker.
I'm like, look at I'm veryimpressed with you, Pete.
SPEAKER_01 (36:43):
Thank you, man.
SPEAKER_00 (36:44):
I want to again tell our audience, number one, they
gotta know where are youspeaking next?
How can we book you?
What what how do we get in thePete Delator world?
SPEAKER_01 (36:55):
Well, it's an open book, open door anytime.
Uh reach out to me.
Uh, I think one of the best waysto do it, more efficient ways,
to go to my website, which isPeter Delatory.
I added the R as a little bit ofa rebranding uh uh thing twist
that I did there.
I've been known as Pete, andI've I added the R so I can talk
about you.
(37:16):
See, I I've rebranded.
I've added, you know, a lot ofpeople call me uh Peter as well.
So it's peterdelatory.com.
And it uh the website wasdeveloped with a lot of years of
of hits and misses, things thatI've learned, but also putting
in there what I believe um uhthe information I believe people
(37:39):
need to have in order to atleast get a taste of what I do
and who I am.
Um there is uh there's uh homepage, obviously, but there's
also a page for my speaking,just uh some uh videos that I
put there, there's differentkeynotes that I do, there's some
testimonials that I've beenblessed with on my training
page, the same thing.
(38:00):
Um and if you are interested intalking with me on either from a
speaking perspective ortraining, um, there's a contact
sheet.
You can put your information onthere and reach out to me and I
will get back to you and we cantalk it through.
SPEAKER_00 (38:15):
I love it.
Now I got one more question.
I've got to ask you this, Pete.
Now you've like I said, you'vebeen in radio a long time.
You've been you've beeninterviewed a lot a lot,
especially you know when yourbook came out.
You you talked a lot of this isthe second time you've
interviewed with me on theFollow Brand show.
How do you feel about thisexperience?
SPEAKER_01 (38:37):
It's been fantastic because my friend, you are you
are enthusiastic in terms ofengaging with your uh guest.
Uh you come from a really goodplace, uh an authentic place.
Uh you've made me uh you knowfeel at ease, comfortable at
home and our and in our talk.
You know, you're you're you'rejust you're just engaging.
(38:58):
We're just having a conversationhere.
You're not trying to drill me orput me on the spot or or have
any uh got you questions oranything like that.
And it's uh it's important andand it's uh important to your
mission in terms of engaging andtalking to the folks that uh you
believe bring value to yourplatform, and and hopefully uh
(39:20):
uh I haven't disappointed.
SPEAKER_00 (39:22):
Oh, without questioning, I would not have
had you back on if I felt anykind of disappointment, or he's
gonna embarrass myself in myshow and what I did.
There's no way because PeteDallas, I'm telling you, and I
and the courage audience toreally need their due diligence
and their research.
Man, you've done a lot for thiscommunity.
You've helped a lot of smallbusiness people to grow their
(39:42):
business.
There's probably a lot of peoplelike, wow, I know because I got
this information for Pete, I wasable to do X.
And then maybe they never toldyou we should get some
testimonies and some emails outthere.
Make sure our audience, ouraudience, and our community
wraps their arms around you andwhat you have done for us, and
that you poured into us and wewant to pour back into you.
(40:03):
I want to thank you again forbeing on the show.
I want to your audience as wellas mine to make sure that you're
going to five-star video that'sbeat for brand,
beepfordevelopment,informaster.com.
There's over 250 people thathave poured out what they feel
is important to them and whythey do it in different
categories that really willresonate with you to get you to
(40:26):
that next level.
So I want to thank you, myfriend, again for being on the
show.
SPEAKER_01 (40:31):
Thank you, my brother.
Really appreciate it.
A lot of fun.
Let's do it again.
SPEAKER_00 (40:34):
Oh, yeah, of course.
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