May 15, 2023 • 23 mins
In this episode we explore what it means to be productive, to set healthy boundaries, and to overcome disadvantages.
My co-pilot is Martin A. Briggs from Birmingham, Alabama. He and his wife, Dr. Kayla Briggs, are business partners and they've worked together full-time as investment entrepreneurs for nearly two decades. Their investment portfolio Ulecx includes ownership shares, several companies, and real estate holdings.
Special Guest // Martin A. Briggs (Ignite Podcast): https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ignite-birmingham-by-ulecx/id1441993093
Sponsor:
Lorraine's Cafe @lorraines.cafe on IG // 10% DISCOUNT PROMO CODE: STUber
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
How you doing bro.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
I'm glad to be on the ride with you.
What kind of car are we driving?
Speaker 1 (00:04):
That's a good question.
Thank you for stopping by theStuber podcast.
I am your host, stu Briggs,slash driver.
Today we're going to take aroad trip and explore how to
jumpstart your entrepreneurialjourney, and joining me is my
co-pilot, martin A Briggs.
(00:26):
He and his wife, kayla L Briggs, have been investment partners
for the last two decades.
Their investment portfolio,ulex, consists of companies and
real estate holdings.
That being said, he's also mybrother, so you're in good hands
.
Hop in, buckle up, let's go fora ride.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Oftentimes, when we talk about business success or
organizational success orprofessional success, I think
the world believes that you haveto be really great at the
business.
And so you meet a lot of peoplereally, really good at business
and they're very, verysuccessful, maybe financially,
maybe they have a large team,but then when you look at their
(01:15):
personal life, oftentimes it'sin shambles.
My perspective of production isdifferent than most by a lot.
Something always suffers whenyou're in business.
Typically this thing calledquote unquote balance in my mind
doesn't actually exist.
One suffers because of theother.
Either your business is goingto suffer because of your
personal life or your personallife will suffer because of your
(01:39):
business.
So I choose to actually make mybusiness suffer, as my personal
life is much stronger.
I really believe that yourpersonal character and your
personal habits mean more thananything For me.
Production starts with a morningroutine.
Production starts what I havecalled the big six.
(02:01):
They all start with a W.
So worship the word, workout,Wheaties or what am I eating,
the wife, and if you havechildren, it'd be wife and the
kids.
After all of those things, Ithen begin to work, if you will,
(02:25):
but I always make sure that myworship goes first I'm praising
the Lord in the morning.
I talk to Lord first before Ido anything.
Secondly, I always make sure Iget some word in where that's
reading the scripture or I'mreading a book that has
something to do with scripture.
And then I make sure I get aworkout in try to do these
things every day and in my whatI'm eating.
(02:48):
And now, as we're getting older,we just can't eat whatever we
want and we have to beintentional to make sure that we
plan our eating schedule out,which for me that can be
difficult.
Otherwise you end up going torestaurants or eating out more
than you should.
So after that I then make surethat my wife is good.
I check in with Kayla and makesure that all of her needs are
taken care of and listen to herand talk to her.
(03:09):
We have a good conversation and, again, if I had children, I
would include wife and the kids.
That makes sure that I'mstarting my day in order.
And then I begin to work, whichalso for me, includes cleaning
up the house every single day.
That way I don't have to cleanup a whole bunch at one time,
because every day I clean up thehouse, which means it's not
(03:30):
such a big thing.
And then I begin to work.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Wow, the six W's.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
The big six.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
We talked about having a personal life that you
know is on the up and up andthen starting the day off a
certain way, which definitelyputs you in the right frame of
mind.
Then when you get to work, arethere any productivity protocols
that you have for yourself orfor others?
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Yes, for sure, and again, I think my viewpoint is
from an entrepreneur'sperspective, and so if you're an
employee, it may look a littlebit different and it's
challenging because when you'rean entrepreneur or investor, no
one is there to tell you whatyour day is going to look like.
You start the day when youbelieve you start the day.
(04:15):
You end the day when youbelieve you just end the day,
which means I have to make myown rules, encourage myself.
There's no penalties if I don'tshow up to work.
I have to set my ownperspective.
So what are some principles Iuse at work to be successful?
First is by not having a wholebunch of stuff that I have to do
.
If you want to be great, thenhave fewer things that you have
(04:36):
to do.
So I don't have a large list ofobligations and the goals that
I have.
I have very few goals.
I have very few tasks that Ihave to complete in a day.
The one amazing thing about theLord Jesus when he came to the
earth, he literally built thechurch within three years.
He never needed a whole life,he just learned.
For three years he worked, thenhe left.
(04:58):
For someone to accomplish whatJesus accomplished, they would
need an entire 80 years, 90years to make that happen, and
so production starts with havingfewer needs, fewer tasks that
have to get done and working onvery large goals.
If you look at the ministry ofJesus, arguably he built the
(05:22):
largest organization.
I look at it from the businessperspective.
There is not one person who hasmore land under ownership than
Jesus himself, because he hasall of the money stored in the
church as well as the land.
He is the wealthiest person inthe world even though he's not
here.
What's more pimp than that he'sbuilding without even being
(05:43):
here and that's the basis ofinvestors is how can I increase
without doing the work?
Speaker 1 (05:51):
That's a pimp, I'm sorry.
No, that makes a lot of sense.
How can I increase withoutactually doing the work?
Speaker 2 (05:58):
And that's what he's doing.
Yeah, I like that, and thenprobably the last thing I'll say
is you have to know what I callyour big rocks and I have to
give a lot of credit to this tomy pastor, chris Hodges, at
Church of the Highlands.
When I'm at my most productive,I always know if I can get
these three things done today, Iwill have moved all heaven and
(06:18):
earth.
If I can just do these threethings and if I get these three
things done, whatever elsehappens in the day, I was
maximally productive.
Let me say it another way Mostpeople define production by how
many hours or minutes that I putinto something.
An entrepreneur or an investorhas to define on what things
that I accomplish that move theneedle.
(06:39):
Jesus spent his time on reallyjust three things.
He spent time on healing, timeon really just three things.
He spent time on healing, hediscipled and he built
relationships, mm-hmm.
So you tell me what he didoutside of those three things.
He already knew what hisassignment was.
He knew that he had to heal, heknew that he had to build
strong relationships and hediscipled.
(07:00):
And so those are three things.
He spent most of his time everyday being productive.
Mind you, he also did his bigsix.
He started the day in prayer.
He discipled himself first andthen last he had to jump on the
cross in order to make all thisthing work.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
He did very little outside of that Deep insights,
kingdom insights, you asked.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
I wasn't planning on getting this deep.
I wasn't planning on it youasked man.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
that's why I said we're going to dive deep.
So let's look at another aspectof being a successful person
entrepreneur and that is theimportance of setting boundaries
.
What are some ways that you setup boundaries for yourself and
for others that you work with?
Speaker 2 (07:44):
I'm going to steal a page from Doc Rivers.
Oh really, oh yeah, doc Rivers.
Yeah, 76ers, 76ers.
Yeah, he's coaching the 76ersright now.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
right, I think they just let him go, but we'll still
take tips from his book DocRivers.
I think I'm going to check thatright now, but I think Wait a
minute.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
I just watched him lose the playoffs just the other
day to Boston.
Yeah, oh, okay, I didn't knowhe got fired.
Literally just watched that gamelast night or the night before,
but I will say one of thethings I love about Doc Rivers
Doc Rivers loves trust.
That's one of the things hetalks about all the time with
his players.
We have to trust each other andyou have to think about it.
(08:21):
Kayla and I my wife, your sisterwe have been working together
literally 24 hours a day.
We see each other every day,we're in each other's face all
the time, and we've been doingthat for nearly a decade.
We are 50-50 partners, not justin marriage, but literally.
She owns half the company, Irun half the company, and
oftentimes even in work, she'sdoing half of the work and I'm
(08:44):
doing half of the work.
And we also have severalemployees as well that work for
us.
And I think, if I had to reallynarrow it down is you have to
trust each other.
You have to know each other'slane, what you're gifted at,
define it really, really well,and then let that person run in
that lane, and then thatobviously means let me run in my
(09:06):
lane.
In order for that to happen,you have to have trust.
You have to trust each other,and I can go on and on about
that, but that's probably thegreatest way to create healthy
boundaries is to trust eachother and to respect those
boundaries.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
How do you communicate that without having
a fallout?
Speaker 2 (09:25):
A lot of that has to do with the level of influence
of the person you're buttingheads with, like how much
influence do they have over you?
How much influence do you haveover them over you, how much
influence you have over them?
Many entrepreneurs are soloentrepreneurs or solopreneurs,
or they may work on a small team, and the advantage of working
on a small team or working foryourself is you can get stuff
(09:47):
done the way you want it.
Get it done.
You can move, boom, get it done.
But as you start to expandwhich is kind of where my life
is going right now get it done.
But as you start to expandwhich is kind of where my life
is going right now it's verydifficult to expand and not
delegate, and so you have tolearn how to delegate.
And then, going back to yourpoint, well, what happens if you
(10:08):
can't trust each other?
You've got a person on the teamand they're not being as
productive as you like them tobe, or perhaps their behavior
isn't good for team culture.
What do you do?
First of all, god can workmiracles on a team and he can
work miracles in someone's heart.
Moreover, like you said,healthy communication you have
to set the standard ofcommunication in advance and get
(10:32):
permission.
That's why the beginning of arelationship matters.
I love a great orientation.
That's where you really win intough conversations is what were
the rules before the problemcame?
Do I already have yourpermission to get in your face?
(10:55):
Have a candid conversation?
I don't care how healthy thework office is If I don't have
permission to be candid, whetherit's to my subordinate or
someone who's above me.
It's hard to have a healthyculture without the ability to
be candid.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Wow, you really hit the hammer on the head, or
whatever they say, the nail onthe.
You really hit the hammer onthe head, or whatever they say
the nail on the.
Yeah, the work that you arespearheading to level the
playing field for folks thatfeel like they're at a
disadvantage.
No-transcript.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
That is such a deep question.
When Moses asked for God'spresence in his life, he asked
it in fourfold.
Moses asked for four things,and I'm only going to focus on
one of them.
He said I cannot go without you.
And he said will you teach me?
Will you give me favor?
Will you give me glory?
(12:01):
Will you give me glory?
And then he asked for restwhile doing it, rest from his
enemies, the ability to do it inpeace and glory.
Is that victory, glory is thatwinning.
We got this.
Whatever me, will you give mesomething I don't actually
(12:29):
deserve, nothing I've earned.
Give it to me.
No matter who you are or whatdisadvantage you have, you have
some level of favor on your lifeand at some point along your
life we have to use the favorthat's on us to help somebody
else.
It doesn't matter howdisadvantaged you are.
(12:50):
Right now, there's alwayssomebody around us, and it can
be as little as if you'resiblings and there's five
siblings in a house, for example, and the smallest one's always
being picked on, or somethinglike that, and you're the older
brother or the older sister.
You have to stop the bullyingwithin the house or even used to
it.
As a school teacher, youprobably see it all the time.
You've got 18, 20 kids gatheredtogether and there's just some
(13:13):
that are favorite with heightand stamina, and there's others
that are always overlooked.
Just what if one of the morepopular children were to take it
upon themselves and say youknow what?
I'm gonna roll with you, man.
I'm gonna roll with you, man,I'm gonna make you my friend.
I'm gonna see what's specialabout you and add you in my
in-group Now because you'rehanging, associated with me.
You're now in the in-group andnow you're the cool guy.
(13:33):
So we all have some level ofability to create an inclusive
space.
It starts with that.
First Look at what you areadvantaged with and then share
that with the world.
And then, if you aredisadvantaged and feeling that
disadvantage, god will bless you.
But stop looking at your owndisadvantages.
Start looking at what God hasfavored you with.
(13:54):
Start sharing that with othersand the world will always bring
it back to you, for sure.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Wow, sweet.
Well, I want to touch uponuncertainty.
As an entrepreneur, you've hadto deal with lots of uncertainty
, so how do you advise folks todeal with uncertainty?
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Well, I've had the privilege of being an investor
through multiple economic cycles.
By the time Kayla and I got outof college and really entered
into the workforce in KaylaFadich's graduate school, my
first real step into thebusiness scene was like 2006.
And it was a very strongeconomy.
(14:33):
Unemployment was so low,everybody was working, all the
tech was doing this thing.
And then two years later 2008,2009, maybe for some all the way
through 2013, we hit what wecall the Great Recession, for
some all the way through 2013,.
We hit what we call the GreatRecession so pretty quickly.
(14:54):
Within my first decade ofbusiness life, I'm seeing like
money is like growing on trees,to unemployment tripling, almost
double digit unemployment rates, to bankruptcies, banks folding
, people losing their houses.
That was the first time westarted seeing stimulus checks
and government literally handingout money for people to keep
their house or buy their houseand all kinds of other things.
Then we had some stability andnow who we are?
(15:15):
I don't answer the question ina bleak way first and then go to
the positives.
The uncertainty we face now isinflation.
For the first time, the economyis slowing down, but
unemployment is super low,everybody's working and
everybody can work.
If you want to work, you canwork.
(15:35):
Unlike the great recession, itwas hard to find jobs.
Here we are right now.
We have stagnant economy.
Inflation is going, things aregetting more and more expensive
which was not the problem in thegreat recession but you can
also work.
So everyone's working.
But the dollar's not going asfar.
You can't buy as much as youused to.
That problem can be attached tofood, and so food insecurity is
(15:59):
going up right now.
Inflation will probablycontinue to go up.
We have the interest ratesgoing up as well, which is going
to be harder to borrow.
Here's some hope.
Number one is to know the rulesof the game, and if you know the
rules of the game, then you canreact accordingly.
According to the Bible, therewill always be the poor among us
(16:20):
, which means the exact oppositeis also true.
There will always be thewealthy among you too.
You cannot have a poor person.
Poverty is always defined bywhat someone else has, which
means someone else has a lot,and then we compare it to that.
So the goal is how can youstand on the side of the wealthy
and be wealthy, so that you canhelp the poor and not become
the poor?
(16:40):
One thing I can guarantee you isthere will always be wealthy
people, no matter what economicconditions are.
The people who are winners arethe ones who know the rules of
the game.
With that being said, the bestadvice I can give you is the
people who are going to win inthis economy that is going to
come are the people who own acompany and, under that company,
(17:02):
have land or real estatecompany, have land or real
estate.
Real estate will always be asuccessful play if bought with
the right price and it'saffordable for the person buying
it.
Real estate's always a greatplay, especially if that real
estate is tied to a company thathas a great, competent service
(17:25):
and you're really good at hiringpeople and keeping a strong
team, mixing real estate with acompetent company with a service
that's really needed, withgreat people.
Now you're on the side ofproduction.
People who have the side ofproduction will always win and
they're going to be very, very,very wealthy.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
Wow.
So that kind of leads me to myfinal wondering.
You've given a lot to empowerus through scripture and through
just practical advice, but youjust described something that's
pretty far out of reach for alot of people.
So what tips would you givesomeone who hasn't reached CEO
status that you're at, but has adream, has an?
Speaker 2 (18:07):
idea.
This is the greatest time tostart something new because God
works in seven year schedules.
Every seven years, the Lord ison a new cycle.
We're on, basically, year oneof this new cycle.
I can tell you, right now isthe best time to start a new
business.
The energy is there for it.
So, number one no matter howbig or small your idea is, I'd
(18:29):
say start it now.
Don't wait, because your ideais only going to get more and
more expensive to actually do.
The longer you wait, the moreexpensive that idea is going to
be.
Now, to help the person who'slike man.
You know, I don't have anymoney, I don't have any
influence.
You know, I don't have anything.
Here's what I can tell you isthere's so much capital in the
(18:51):
world right now.
Banks will lend.
There's a lot of people whohave a lot of money in pocket.
So what you have to take offthe table is a lack of money.
That's not the issue.
People will invest into an ideathat's investable, so we can
(19:11):
eliminate that Flop.
Told you two things.
Number one God is for you.
He's ready to do something.
Secondly, there's more thanenough money in the world right
now between banks and betweeninvestors.
More than enough money in theworld right now between banks
and between investors.
So, really, what's missing?
Really, what's missing is whatidea you have.
What is it that's in your headand your heart?
Take your craft seriously.
(19:33):
It is not easy to be anentrepreneur and be wishy-washy
about it.
You have to be very committedand I encourage you to learn how
to be an entrepreneur.
Learn your craft, take itseriously.
And the last thing I'll say isyou and I both love sports.
We love sports figures.
Almost every person who's beensuccessful in sports by and
(19:53):
large had two things in common.
Many of them were verydisadvantaged and had nothing.
But the thing that they didwell is they were very committed
and they were focused at doingsomething great and doing that
one thing great, and they spenta lot of time on it.
Stuart here I love your StuberRoad Trip podcast.
(20:14):
I'm looking at your investmentof equipment.
You know what I'm saying.
You're taking your craftseriously and that's what it's
going to take.
Whatever you're doing, beserious about it and it will
prosper.
If you to take Whatever you'redoing, be serious about it and
it will prosper.
If you're competent, if you'regreat and you're focused, people
will buy it Nice.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
That is enough to carry us for the next 10 years
or so, and I really Play it overagain.
Yeah, exactly, man.
So many soundbites there and somany good takeaways.
Tell people where they can findyou and how to connect with you
.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
Yeah, sure, if you want to hear more of my
perspective and my company'sperspective, we also have a
podcast called Ignite Birmingham.
It is top 25% of all podcastsnationwide.
We go into economic advice, wego into business advice.
We bring other entrepreneurs on.
Stuart's actually been a gueston our show some time ago.
(21:09):
We're going to have to bringyou back on again, so I'd
probably start you there.
If you want to go to my website, you go to uxcom.
That's U-L-E-C-Xcom.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
And remember when you first started that idea, you
had that dream of it being likethe Facebook of business right.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
Yes, and here we are now.
We have over 2000 what we callcommunity partners.
We have 130 market partners.
We have several companies underinvestment.
Now We've grown quite a bit.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
So we're going to have to do another episode, and
I'm thinking it would be, niceif we can get Kayla on and try
to convince my wife, jane tocome on.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
Oh man, put all four of us on.
Oh, we love that.
I think we should probably doone focused on marriage.
If we get all four of us on,that'd be great.
Let's do it.
Let's do it.
Marriage and family.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
Sweet Well.
Thank you.
Thanks for stopping by.
Remember, keep your head up andyour eyes on the road.
Thanks for listening to theStuber podcast with your host,
(22:19):
stu Briggs, and my guest, martinA Briggs.
We hope you enjoyed our deepdive into all the tips and
tricks you can use to jumpstartyour entrepreneurial journey.
I'm interested in knowing howyou apply these ideas in the
real world.
So please follow me onInstagram at stuber underscore
podcast and, as always, checkout the links and resources in
(22:41):
the show notes.
That's all for this episode,folks.
See you next time.
Today's episode was brought toyou by Lorraine's Cafe.
Homemade fresh, not frozenfamily recipes from her kitchen
to your plate.
How you doing bro.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
I'm glad to be on the ride with you.
What kind of car are we driving?
Speaker 1 (00:04):
That's a good question.
Thank you for stopping by theStuber podcast.
I am your host, stu Briggs,slash driver.
Today we're going to take aroad trip and explore how to
jumpstart your entrepreneurialjourney, and joining me is my
co-pilot, martin A Briggs.
(00:26):
He and his wife, kayla L Briggs, have been investment partners
for the last two decades.
Their investment portfolio,ulex, consists of companies and
real estate holdings.
That being said, he's also mybrother, so you're in good hands
.
Hop in, buckle up, let's go fora ride.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Oftentimes, when we talk about business success or
organizational success orprofessional success, I think
the world believes that you haveto be really great at the
business.
And so you meet a lot of peoplereally, really good at business
and they're very, verysuccessful, maybe financially,
maybe they have a large team,but then when you look at their
(01:15):
personal life, oftentimes it'sin shambles.
My perspective of production isdifferent than most by a lot.
Something always suffers whenyou're in business.
Typically this thing calledquote unquote balance in my mind
doesn't actually exist.
One suffers because of theother.
Either your business is goingto suffer because of your
personal life or your personallife will suffer because of your
(01:39):
business.
So I choose to actually make mybusiness suffer, as my personal
life is much stronger.
I really believe that yourpersonal character and your
personal habits mean more thananything For me.
Production starts with a morningroutine.
Production starts what I havecalled the big six.
(02:01):
They all start with a W.
So worship the word, workout,Wheaties or what am I eating,
the wife, and if you havechildren, it'd be wife and the
kids.
After all of those things, Ithen begin to work, if you will,
(02:25):
but I always make sure that myworship goes first I'm praising
the Lord in the morning.
I talk to Lord first before Ido anything.
Secondly, I always make sure Iget some word in where that's
reading the scripture or I'mreading a book that has
something to do with scripture.
And then I make sure I get aworkout in try to do these
things every day and in my whatI'm eating.
(02:48):
And now, as we're getting older,we just can't eat whatever we
want and we have to beintentional to make sure that we
plan our eating schedule out,which for me that can be
difficult.
Otherwise you end up going torestaurants or eating out more
than you should.
So after that I then make surethat my wife is good.
I check in with Kayla and makesure that all of her needs are
taken care of and listen to herand talk to her.
(03:09):
We have a good conversation and, again, if I had children, I
would include wife and the kids.
That makes sure that I'mstarting my day in order.
And then I begin to work, whichalso for me, includes cleaning
up the house every single day.
That way I don't have to cleanup a whole bunch at one time,
because every day I clean up thehouse, which means it's not
(03:30):
such a big thing.
And then I begin to work.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Wow, the six W's.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
The big six.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
We talked about having a personal life that you
know is on the up and up andthen starting the day off a
certain way, which definitelyputs you in the right frame of
mind.
Then when you get to work, arethere any productivity protocols
that you have for yourself orfor others?
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Yes, for sure, and again, I think my viewpoint is
from an entrepreneur'sperspective, and so if you're an
employee, it may look a littlebit different and it's
challenging because when you'rean entrepreneur or investor, no
one is there to tell you whatyour day is going to look like.
You start the day when youbelieve you start the day.
(04:15):
You end the day when youbelieve you just end the day,
which means I have to make myown rules, encourage myself.
There's no penalties if I don'tshow up to work.
I have to set my ownperspective.
So what are some principles Iuse at work to be successful?
First is by not having a wholebunch of stuff that I have to do
.
If you want to be great, thenhave fewer things that you have
(04:36):
to do.
So I don't have a large list ofobligations and the goals that
I have.
I have very few goals.
I have very few tasks that Ihave to complete in a day.
The one amazing thing about theLord Jesus when he came to the
earth, he literally built thechurch within three years.
He never needed a whole life,he just learned.
For three years he worked, thenhe left.
(04:58):
For someone to accomplish whatJesus accomplished, they would
need an entire 80 years, 90years to make that happen, and
so production starts with havingfewer needs, fewer tasks that
have to get done and working onvery large goals.
If you look at the ministry ofJesus, arguably he built the
(05:22):
largest organization.
I look at it from the businessperspective.
There is not one person who hasmore land under ownership than
Jesus himself, because he hasall of the money stored in the
church as well as the land.
He is the wealthiest person inthe world even though he's not
here.
What's more pimp than that he'sbuilding without even being
(05:43):
here and that's the basis ofinvestors is how can I increase
without doing the work?
Speaker 1 (05:51):
That's a pimp, I'm sorry.
No, that makes a lot of sense.
How can I increase withoutactually doing the work?
Speaker 2 (05:58):
And that's what he's doing.
Yeah, I like that, and thenprobably the last thing I'll say
is you have to know what I callyour big rocks and I have to
give a lot of credit to this tomy pastor, chris Hodges, at
Church of the Highlands.
When I'm at my most productive,I always know if I can get
these three things done today, Iwill have moved all heaven and
(06:18):
earth.
If I can just do these threethings and if I get these three
things done, whatever elsehappens in the day, I was
maximally productive.
Let me say it another way Mostpeople define production by how
many hours or minutes that I putinto something.
An entrepreneur or an investorhas to define on what things
that I accomplish that move theneedle.
(06:39):
Jesus spent his time on reallyjust three things.
He spent time on healing, timeon really just three things.
He spent time on healing, hediscipled and he built
relationships, mm-hmm.
So you tell me what he didoutside of those three things.
He already knew what hisassignment was.
He knew that he had to heal, heknew that he had to build
strong relationships and hediscipled.
(07:00):
And so those are three things.
He spent most of his time everyday being productive.
Mind you, he also did his bigsix.
He started the day in prayer.
He discipled himself first andthen last he had to jump on the
cross in order to make all thisthing work.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
He did very little outside of that Deep insights,
kingdom insights, you asked.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
I wasn't planning on getting this deep.
I wasn't planning on it youasked man.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
that's why I said we're going to dive deep.
So let's look at another aspectof being a successful person
entrepreneur and that is theimportance of setting boundaries
.
What are some ways that you setup boundaries for yourself and
for others that you work with?
Speaker 2 (07:44):
I'm going to steal a page from Doc Rivers.
Oh really, oh yeah, doc Rivers.
Yeah, 76ers, 76ers.
Yeah, he's coaching the 76ersright now.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
right, I think they just let him go, but we'll still
take tips from his book DocRivers.
I think I'm going to check thatright now, but I think Wait a
minute.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
I just watched him lose the playoffs just the other
day to Boston.
Yeah, oh, okay, I didn't knowhe got fired.
Literally just watched that gamelast night or the night before,
but I will say one of thethings I love about Doc Rivers
Doc Rivers loves trust.
That's one of the things hetalks about all the time with
his players.
We have to trust each other andyou have to think about it.
(08:21):
Kayla and I my wife, your sisterwe have been working together
literally 24 hours a day.
We see each other every day,we're in each other's face all
the time, and we've been doingthat for nearly a decade.
We are 50-50 partners, not justin marriage, but literally.
She owns half the company, Irun half the company, and
oftentimes even in work, she'sdoing half of the work and I'm
(08:44):
doing half of the work.
And we also have severalemployees as well that work for
us.
And I think, if I had to reallynarrow it down is you have to
trust each other.
You have to know each other'slane, what you're gifted at,
define it really, really well,and then let that person run in
that lane, and then thatobviously means let me run in my
(09:06):
lane.
In order for that to happen,you have to have trust.
You have to trust each other,and I can go on and on about
that, but that's probably thegreatest way to create healthy
boundaries is to trust eachother and to respect those
boundaries.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
How do you communicate that without having
a fallout?
Speaker 2 (09:25):
A lot of that has to do with the level of influence
of the person you're buttingheads with, like how much
influence do they have over you?
How much influence do you haveover them over you, how much
influence you have over them?
Many entrepreneurs are soloentrepreneurs or solopreneurs,
or they may work on a small team, and the advantage of working
on a small team or working foryourself is you can get stuff
(09:47):
done the way you want it.
Get it done.
You can move, boom, get it done.
But as you start to expandwhich is kind of where my life
is going right now get it done.
But as you start to expandwhich is kind of where my life
is going right now it's verydifficult to expand and not
delegate, and so you have tolearn how to delegate.
And then, going back to yourpoint, well, what happens if you
(10:08):
can't trust each other?
You've got a person on the teamand they're not being as
productive as you like them tobe, or perhaps their behavior
isn't good for team culture.
What do you do?
First of all, god can workmiracles on a team and he can
work miracles in someone's heart.
Moreover, like you said,healthy communication you have
to set the standard ofcommunication in advance and get
(10:32):
permission.
That's why the beginning of arelationship matters.
I love a great orientation.
That's where you really win intough conversations is what were
the rules before the problemcame?
Do I already have yourpermission to get in your face?
(10:55):
Have a candid conversation?
I don't care how healthy thework office is If I don't have
permission to be candid, whetherit's to my subordinate or
someone who's above me.
It's hard to have a healthyculture without the ability to
be candid.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Wow, you really hit the hammer on the head, or
whatever they say, the nail onthe.
You really hit the hammer onthe head, or whatever they say
the nail on the.
Yeah, the work that you arespearheading to level the
playing field for folks thatfeel like they're at a
disadvantage.
No-transcript.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
That is such a deep question.
When Moses asked for God'spresence in his life, he asked
it in fourfold.
Moses asked for four things,and I'm only going to focus on
one of them.
He said I cannot go without you.
And he said will you teach me?
Will you give me favor?
Will you give me glory?
(12:01):
Will you give me glory?
And then he asked for restwhile doing it, rest from his
enemies, the ability to do it inpeace and glory.
Is that victory, glory is thatwinning.
We got this.
Whatever me, will you give mesomething I don't actually
(12:29):
deserve, nothing I've earned.
Give it to me.
No matter who you are or whatdisadvantage you have, you have
some level of favor on your lifeand at some point along your
life we have to use the favorthat's on us to help somebody
else.
It doesn't matter howdisadvantaged you are.
(12:50):
Right now, there's alwayssomebody around us, and it can
be as little as if you'resiblings and there's five
siblings in a house, for example, and the smallest one's always
being picked on, or somethinglike that, and you're the older
brother or the older sister.
You have to stop the bullyingwithin the house or even used to
it.
As a school teacher, youprobably see it all the time.
You've got 18, 20 kids gatheredtogether and there's just some
(13:13):
that are favorite with heightand stamina, and there's others
that are always overlooked.
Just what if one of the morepopular children were to take it
upon themselves and say youknow what?
I'm gonna roll with you, man.
I'm gonna roll with you, man,I'm gonna make you my friend.
I'm gonna see what's specialabout you and add you in my
in-group Now because you'rehanging, associated with me.
You're now in the in-group andnow you're the cool guy.
(13:33):
So we all have some level ofability to create an inclusive
space.
It starts with that.
First Look at what you areadvantaged with and then share
that with the world.
And then, if you aredisadvantaged and feeling that
disadvantage, god will bless you.
But stop looking at your owndisadvantages.
Start looking at what God hasfavored you with.
(13:54):
Start sharing that with othersand the world will always bring
it back to you, for sure.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Wow, sweet.
Well, I want to touch uponuncertainty.
As an entrepreneur, you've hadto deal with lots of uncertainty
, so how do you advise folks todeal with uncertainty?
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Well, I've had the privilege of being an investor
through multiple economic cycles.
By the time Kayla and I got outof college and really entered
into the workforce in KaylaFadich's graduate school, my
first real step into thebusiness scene was like 2006.
And it was a very strongeconomy.
(14:33):
Unemployment was so low,everybody was working, all the
tech was doing this thing.
And then two years later 2008,2009, maybe for some all the way
through 2013, we hit what wecall the Great Recession, for
some all the way through 2013,.
We hit what we call the GreatRecession so pretty quickly.
(14:54):
Within my first decade ofbusiness life, I'm seeing like
money is like growing on trees,to unemployment tripling, almost
double digit unemployment rates, to bankruptcies, banks folding
, people losing their houses.
That was the first time westarted seeing stimulus checks
and government literally handingout money for people to keep
their house or buy their houseand all kinds of other things.
Then we had some stability andnow who we are?
(15:15):
I don't answer the question ina bleak way first and then go to
the positives.
The uncertainty we face now isinflation.
For the first time, the economyis slowing down, but
unemployment is super low,everybody's working and
everybody can work.
If you want to work, you canwork.
(15:35):
Unlike the great recession, itwas hard to find jobs.
Here we are right now.
We have stagnant economy.
Inflation is going, things aregetting more and more expensive
which was not the problem in thegreat recession but you can
also work.
So everyone's working.
But the dollar's not going asfar.
You can't buy as much as youused to.
That problem can be attached tofood, and so food insecurity is
(15:59):
going up right now.
Inflation will probablycontinue to go up.
We have the interest ratesgoing up as well, which is going
to be harder to borrow.
Here's some hope.
Number one is to know the rulesof the game, and if you know the
rules of the game, then you canreact accordingly.
According to the Bible, therewill always be the poor among us
(16:20):
, which means the exact oppositeis also true.
There will always be thewealthy among you too.
You cannot have a poor person.
Poverty is always defined bywhat someone else has, which
means someone else has a lot,and then we compare it to that.
So the goal is how can youstand on the side of the wealthy
and be wealthy, so that you canhelp the poor and not become
the poor?
(16:40):
One thing I can guarantee you isthere will always be wealthy
people, no matter what economicconditions are.
The people who are winners arethe ones who know the rules of
the game.
With that being said, the bestadvice I can give you is the
people who are going to win inthis economy that is going to
come are the people who own acompany and, under that company,
(17:02):
have land or real estatecompany, have land or real
estate.
Real estate will always be asuccessful play if bought with
the right price and it'saffordable for the person buying
it.
Real estate's always a greatplay, especially if that real
estate is tied to a company thathas a great, competent service
(17:25):
and you're really good at hiringpeople and keeping a strong
team, mixing real estate with acompetent company with a service
that's really needed, withgreat people.
Now you're on the side ofproduction.
People who have the side ofproduction will always win and
they're going to be very, very,very wealthy.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
Wow.
So that kind of leads me to myfinal wondering.
You've given a lot to empowerus through scripture and through
just practical advice, but youjust described something that's
pretty far out of reach for alot of people.
So what tips would you givesomeone who hasn't reached CEO
status that you're at, but has adream, has an?
Speaker 2 (18:07):
idea.
This is the greatest time tostart something new because God
works in seven year schedules.
Every seven years, the Lord ison a new cycle.
We're on, basically, year oneof this new cycle.
I can tell you, right now isthe best time to start a new
business.
The energy is there for it.
So, number one no matter howbig or small your idea is, I'd
(18:29):
say start it now.
Don't wait, because your ideais only going to get more and
more expensive to actually do.
The longer you wait, the moreexpensive that idea is going to
be.
Now, to help the person who'slike man.
You know, I don't have anymoney, I don't have any
influence.
You know, I don't have anything.
Here's what I can tell you isthere's so much capital in the
(18:51):
world right now.
Banks will lend.
There's a lot of people whohave a lot of money in pocket.
So what you have to take offthe table is a lack of money.
That's not the issue.
People will invest into an ideathat's investable, so we can
(19:11):
eliminate that Flop.
Told you two things.
Number one God is for you.
He's ready to do something.
Secondly, there's more thanenough money in the world right
now between banks and betweeninvestors.
More than enough money in theworld right now between banks
and between investors.
So, really, what's missing?
Really, what's missing is whatidea you have.
What is it that's in your headand your heart?
Take your craft seriously.
(19:33):
It is not easy to be anentrepreneur and be wishy-washy
about it.
You have to be very committedand I encourage you to learn how
to be an entrepreneur.
Learn your craft, take itseriously.
And the last thing I'll say isyou and I both love sports.
We love sports figures.
Almost every person who's beensuccessful in sports by and
(19:53):
large had two things in common.
Many of them were verydisadvantaged and had nothing.
But the thing that they didwell is they were very committed
and they were focused at doingsomething great and doing that
one thing great, and they spenta lot of time on it.
Stuart here I love your StuberRoad Trip podcast.
(20:14):
I'm looking at your investmentof equipment.
You know what I'm saying.
You're taking your craftseriously and that's what it's
going to take.
Whatever you're doing, beserious about it and it will
prosper.
If you to take Whatever you'redoing, be serious about it and
it will prosper.
If you're competent, if you'regreat and you're focused, people
will buy it Nice.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
That is enough to carry us for the next 10 years
or so, and I really Play it overagain.
Yeah, exactly, man.
So many soundbites there and somany good takeaways.
Tell people where they can findyou and how to connect with you
.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
Yeah, sure, if you want to hear more of my
perspective and my company'sperspective, we also have a
podcast called Ignite Birmingham.
It is top 25% of all podcastsnationwide.
We go into economic advice, wego into business advice.
We bring other entrepreneurs on.
Stuart's actually been a gueston our show some time ago.
(21:09):
We're going to have to bringyou back on again, so I'd
probably start you there.
If you want to go to my website, you go to uxcom.
That's U-L-E-C-Xcom.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
And remember when you first started that idea, you
had that dream of it being likethe Facebook of business right.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
Yes, and here we are now.
We have over 2000 what we callcommunity partners.
We have 130 market partners.
We have several companies underinvestment.
Now We've grown quite a bit.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
So we're going to have to do another episode, and
I'm thinking it would be, niceif we can get Kayla on and try
to convince my wife, jane tocome on.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
Oh man, put all four of us on.
Oh, we love that.
I think we should probably doone focused on marriage.
If we get all four of us on,that'd be great.
Let's do it.
Let's do it.
Marriage and family.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
Sweet Well.
Thank you.
Thanks for stopping by.
Remember, keep your head up andyour eyes on the road.
Thanks for listening to theStuber podcast with your host,
(22:19):
stu Briggs, and my guest, martinA Briggs.
We hope you enjoyed our deepdive into all the tips and
tricks you can use to jumpstartyour entrepreneurial journey.
I'm interested in knowing howyou apply these ideas in the
real world.
So please follow me onInstagram at stuber underscore
podcast and, as always, checkout the links and resources in
(22:41):
the show notes.
That's all for this episode,folks.
See you next time.
Today's episode was brought toyou by Lorraine's Cafe.
Homemade fresh, not frozenfamily recipes from her kitchen
to your plate.
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