Connecting Creativity and Commerce with Ben Albert

Ben: [00:00:00] So what happens when you're small at a young age and you know, your whole family played basketball, you want to be a basketball player, but you're tiny.
Ben: You get pushed around a lot, you get beaten up, you get bullied. I was a very creative type, I was a very inward and introspective but quiet type. So I was kind of weird at a young age, I didn't have a ton of friends, I wasn't the class clown. So going back to those values, I didn't realize this at the time, but that's where that growth mindset was coming from.
Ben: It was literally coming from the fact I was small. And not only was I small, I was bullied. So I would make myself smaller. I remember a specific moment we're in public. We're at like a fast food restaurant. I'm sitting at the table and no fault to them. Like. My father had a drinking problem, a little bit of drug use. [00:01:00]
Dustin: Welcome back to the seven figure leap. I'm Dustin Riechmann. And I'm super grateful today to be joined by a good friend Ben Albert. And so I always like to open with like, how do I know these people? So Ben, we actually had to talk a little bit about this and our origin story, but I believe we just connected pretty much organically through LinkedIn.
Dustin: And as like December, 2022, Ben sent me a message. looked it up and was just asking me about podcast guesting. And. Ironically, I sent him back an episode that I had just released with digital marketer. with Mark DeGrasse, and it turned out that episode was super pivotal in my entrepreneurial journey, and I'll let Ben, share, share his side of this but that podcast and that [00:02:00] relationship got me to Traffic and Conversion Summit where I spoke in Las Vegas, and so it had been in January of this year.
Dustin: And then like last week, I was in the room with Ryan dice from digital marketer at their marketing mastermind in Austin, Texas. Again, totally because I was on that podcast, that guesting opportunity, and that's the one I shared with Ben and Ben and I met in Vegas in person at that event. So, Ben, I don't want to steal all your thunder.
Dustin: introduce yourself and then maybe a little sidebar on your relationship with digital marketer. Cause you share something pretty funny with me before, before we record it.
Ben: Yeah, man. Well, First off, this is your show. So take all the time you want. Your viewers show up time and time again. The listeners come for you. So I'm honored to be here, Dustin. really is funny. And I'll go straight into a tactic here. I don't like to waste time. If I'm consuming content, I'm like, how am I going to get the most out of this experience?
Ben: So a lot of times I take notes. That's if I really feel like an overachiever, but virtually every time [00:03:00] I consume a piece of content, we're talking a YouTube video, a podcast, a book, I'm going to reach out to the creator. Now for a podcast, I don't reach out every single episode because I look like a stalker and it's too much, , I reach out to every guest, so there's a lot of podcasts in my rotation, and every time I listen to an episode, I have a guest I've never experienced before, so do this for me, a little plug to do this so we can connect, but I'll I reached out to Dustin.
Ben: I can't even remember what podcast it was, but you guessed it on a show and I did what I do. I reach out and I say, Hey, Dustin, appreciate the insight you brought. XYZ. Sometimes it's a simple connection request and I forget to even write a DM, but it leads to discussion and you sent me that digital marketer podcast.
Ben: I'm a faculty. You mentioned that I didn't even know what digital marketer was, which is crazy because they're like certifying every marketer. They're like second to HubSpot and [00:04:00] badassery. But I hadn't heard of digital marketer and it led to me listening to that show, reaching out to the host again, reach out to the guest and the host.
Ben: And then I was a guest on digital marketer with Mark DeGrasse. Led into meeting you at the summit, speaking at the summit. And again, I'm just putting an explanation point on what you just said. It was me listening to a show and just sending a quick connection request and asking you a quick question that led to friendships, speaking opportunities, and now sharing the stage on your show, which
Dustin: Yeah. And I've been on your
Ben: you were on my show. You're on my show, real business connections. So real business connections Dustin look it up and you'll find that interview as well.
Dustin: Yeah, that's awesome. It's really fun to reflect on that and just think, what's happened over 14 months or something. And what I profess very often, cause I run groups and do coaching around podcast, guesting very strategically and, leveraging. All those opportunities, which is like my side of the story, right?
Dustin: Like I purposely got on digital marketer. I was a huge fan. I knew them and [00:05:00] I wanted that relationship and it's led to really cool things. And then on your side of this equation, you were just quote unquote, just, but you were a listener or you didn't even have the, like the cadre of being like, Hey, I was on this show.
Dustin: You're a listener you hear a great episode, you proactively reach out to the host and the guests and thank them and start a conversation. And That's pretty badass. that's pretty ninja. And it doesn't probably take that much time. And you've got a sincere thing to reach out to them because you literally like in my world, you know, you have to necessarily listen to every episode, but if you're already listening to an episode, why not take five minutes and thank them compliment them on something they shared and it might create just like a super great virtuous relationship, which I know is a big part of what, It's called real business connections.
Dustin: So I think you and I relate in a big way because we're so relational and intentional about growing our network and getting to know other entrepreneurs and getting to know other interesting people. So with that set up, Ben, why don't we start like a snapshot of today? tell us about your business, who you serve, what you do your podcast, and then we'll kind of go, Back [00:06:00] and kind of maybe unpack a little bit why and how you got to this point and it will go forward and we'll talk about where you're headed with it.
Dustin: But like. just right now, what do you do? Who do you serve? What's your business like?
Ben: So I've got three segments of my business. I'll make it super simple. Everything I do is based around a simple concept. Getting the wisdom, the knowledge, the service offerings, the help from the people who have it to the people who are looking for it. I'm a bridge to get the wisdom from the people who have it to the people who need it now, how that plays in a lot of forms that plays in just conversations and making introductions and sending emails and text messages.
Ben: But real business connections podcast is a free tool to get that. I go through, I listened to a lot of shows. I meet a lot of people. It's to take the best, wisest, brilliant people and give them a platform to reach more people. Grow getters only is my community where we have free events. Open to the public and exclusive events for [00:07:00] mastermind members.
Ben: So we can share that knowledge and have that peer to peer support. And thirdly, Valverde marketing is the marketing firm itself. And that's actually what makes me the big bucks. I don't know if I'd call it big bucks, but magically, I did replace my sales executive income as an entrepreneur. In about a year through this, just sharing knowledge and connecting Valbert marketing is getting the service offerings by generally service based businesses to their new clients.
Ben: So no matter what I do is I see a good thing. I want to inject steroids into it. I want to amplify it. I came from the music industry. We quite literally would amplify musicians and it's taking a good thing and finding a way to spread it to as many people as possible.
Dustin: Love that. So you build bridges and you amplify the best things that you find basically. Right. And so
Ben: Got lots of metaphors. If you want more,
Dustin: Yeah. A lot of metaphors. I'm sure you're the king of metaphors. So really three things, the podcast, which everyone knows what the podcast is. It's similar to what I'm doing here, but [00:08:00] with, a little bit different.
Dustin: Intent behind it. And then is it grow getters? Did I get that right on the mastermind and the free community?
Ben: That's correct. Grow getters only.
Dustin: More about that, because I think most of us know what marketing agencies do. We're all very familiar with podcasts, but I'm pretty, interested to unpack a little more about grow getters.
Ben: Yeah. I like to invent words. So grow getters is a go getter, someone who's driven. They like the grind. They like the tactics, but realistically you could run really fast in the wrong direction, and then you're just going to have to turn around and run back. They're go getters, but they have a growth mentality that they want to learn from others.
Ben: They want the peer to peer support. They want growth. They don't just have grit. They have the growth mindset. So we peer to peer. We have everything from just networking to peer to peer coaching to bringing in speakers. It's an opportunity with people with the same mindset. And another thing, thinking yin and the yang There's the business.
Ben: There's the strategies. There's the [00:09:00] tips, the tricks, but it's the mindset and the habits. And what kind of person do you have to be? What does your life look like behind the scenes? That is what allows us to implement. All the strategies don't mean nothing if you don't implement them. So it's a great way to get peer support to do that.
Ben: In the mindset and skillset and the habits required to do it. Well,
Dustin: I love that. And I know when we get towards the end of this episode and we, get very practical and we talk about strategies, you're going to. Give us a very holistic strategy that kind of speaks to what you just said, that to be an abundance growth minded person, it's not just about business.
Dustin: It's not just about your mind, a person, right? And so there's a lot that goes into that to facilitate that or to possible. we'll get to that for sure. So I'm curious. I've shared in a very deep dive, I think it was episode one my history and we're obviously not going to spend an hour unpacking your history, but.
Dustin: I had someone facilitating that and coaching me through this [00:10:00] episode basically a guest host on my very first episode, and what we really uncovered was where my values came from. and she had this connection, like, Oh, your values often come from vacuums, like these things that you experienced in your younger life.
Dustin: Really inform the things you crave and you get energy from and that you look for in your adult life. And that was very true for me. And this idea that like people tell me I'm a really good connector and I'm like very relational and we talked about in that episode, the vacuums, the loneliness, isolation, abuse and things I dealt with earlier.
Dustin: So I feel like at least in the aspect. Then of being a connector and bridge builder and like seeing so much value in people and then having the insight to connect the right people at the right time. Those are very strong values. And it's really what all three of your aspects of your businesses are really built on.
Dustin: Can you take us back a little bit, like whether it's your business journey or even your childhood, but do you see The origins of why you love this whole connection game as much as you do today. Yeah.
Ben: They aren't foghorns in every scenario, but you take those people that made you feel poor.
Ben: And then you take the lighthouses, the people that made you feel great. My friend, Brendan Gansmer, when he gave me my first CD, If you tell those stories align with the values, you've got stories for a lifetime. You don't have to make anything up because you've lived [00:16:00] them.
Dustin: Man, I love that. And when you go back and listen to the episode I was referencing you're going to find a lot of commonalities. my dad was an alcoholic as well , and I was probably above average in height, but I was a weird kid in the sense that like, I lived on the country.
Dustin: Even if I had friends at school, no one could visit. I didn't play any sports cause we didn't have any access to it. I never went on vacation like at all until I was in college. I was just very isolated. And I think because of that, I felt awkward at school. Now, the thing that I always did have in my corner and the one kind of word of affirmation that everyone consistently gave me was that I was smart, right?
Dustin: So I took on this identity that like, I'm good academics. So there's something there. And so for me, like said you didn't intend to be an entrepreneur. Like, I honestly think I ever heard the word entrepreneur until I was like out of college. I, it was not even like a thing. I didn't know a single business owner personally.
Dustin: I'm sure I was like at the grocery store and the owner was there, but I didn't make that connection, but like, it was not part of my family. It was very blue collar family. but you were talking about like the fog horns, but then also like when you go back and you think about The pivotal positive influences.
Dustin: Yeah, [00:17:00] for me, like I took like the smart identity. I was like, Oh, maybe I should be an engineer. My dad was a laborer. So basically he was doing all the. Crap work. And he's talking about the engineers who just sat in khakis in the air conditioning, right? And I'm like, I want to do that.
Dustin: I applied for engineering school. I ended up getting a full scholarship. And so the reason I bring this up is they plugged me into this community. They called us chancellor scholars. There's 20 people in my class of not just engineers, but of the whole class. They got a full ride academic scholarship and we got connections with the chancellor.
Dustin: It was like a pretty cool deal. Yeah. And now in hindsight, I'm like that changed my life. Like those being in that circle of 20 and having this identity as one of the like premier students, if you will, and having access to the chancellor and like, from the background I came from was amazing.
Dustin: And when everyone on my wedding party, it was from that group of 20 or like all my roommates were from that group of 20, like such an influential community. And I think back for me, one of my values is community because I had it very little growing up. And then like, when I got immersed into that , as my first college experience, I was like, holy crap, like this, it's so cool.
Dustin: I got so much energy from it. And I [00:18:00] can think, in that episode, we talk more about it, but like. I can think about the many times that I've been put into a circle of community and it's changed my life. Like those are all my 10 X leap moments when I look back and now, the thing I love to do is give that to others.
Dustin: So I lead mastermind groups groups. So we're very kindred spirits in many ways been uh, we have a lot of differences to, guitar in the background of my office here, but I have no idea how to play it as an aspirational. I have no musical talent. I've never, had any strong ambition to even go into, that world.
Dustin: Whereas that was like a big part of your story. So anyway, I just had to share all that final fun fact I want to share to riff on what , you said growth connection and fun slash fulfillment. So unlike the about page of my website, I have six values. Those are three of them. And what's really funny is.
Dustin: This whole brand, it's now seven figure leap, The leap is a plan like quantum leaps and the fact that you can make huge, fast progress through relationships. And so I settled on that, but the finalist with that was seven figure fun. And the idea was like, marketing should be fun. Your business should be fun.
Dustin: But then I dropped that because I'm like, [00:19:00] it's really not all the time, but to your point, you gave me a much better word. It's fulfilling. Like it's not always fun. Sometimes it really sucks. But it's still fulfilling because you're going towards a bigger purpose. So that was awesome. Thank you for painting a picture of your background and why you do what you do today.
Dustin: Let's talk to us a little bit about your agency since that is the thing that butters your bread the most. So like, who who do you love to work with in that? And yeah. And what do you do for
Ben: guesting. And then now, fast forward almost four years. now I'm known as like a podcast guesting guy, which he and I would never like attach that shingle to myself, but that's how people introduce me now.
Dustin: And it's good because yeah, it definitely pays the bills , when you're known for something and you have specific result that you can help people achieve.
Ben: I want to add
Ben: One thing real quick because I was
Ben: on podcast and someone built this scenario. He's like, you're at Madison square garden. You've accomplished all your goals. You're giving your keynote. And I'm like, I don't know if I want to do a keynote at MSG. Like I like being behind the scenes, but the realization I've had over time is plat.
Ben: He said what would you talk about this? I'm like, I would talk about, whatever I had to talk Podcasting or LinkedIn or the platform of choice is not what's important. What's important is the content and the people you're helping with the content. So what I do a keynote at MSG, [00:25:00] I would be scared to death, but I would do it if I knew that it would create an impact.
Ben: So it doesn't matter if it's a podcast host or a podcast guest or a blogger or a writer or a videographer or a graphic designer. The medium is not what's important. It's really the message, which is most important, in my opinion. We just happen to find it through podcasting. Yeah.
Dustin: it's funny, people sign up for my group coaching program and it's, it's called the podcast profits accelerator and it's about podcast guesting. And like the very first slide on the very first day, I'm like, this isn't about podcast guesting. I mean, Like we do build a system, that's the vehicle.
Dustin: I mean, I'm not going to say help, me, build a six figure marketing channel with podcast guesting and then not deliver that we do. But like we immediately get into questions like what's the transformation you provide, who you really serve and we use story brand and what's your real message.
Dustin: And the thing that everyone says they get the most value out of is like clarity. It's Oh wow, I'm like so clear now on what I'm doing. And then you become a magnet for opportunity. And of course we do the, amplification and the things , [00:26:00] with the podcast, but just love what you shared.
Dustin: Like There's all these different mediums, the mediums will change over time. The core is, yeah, building those bridges, having a connections, having a clear message, having value that you can give into the world. So whether you're at Madison square garden or you're on the little seven figure elite podcast have something to share.
Dustin: I do want to talk about the future and I think this plays into it. So a clarifying question that I think know the answer, but I want to hear you describe it a little more. You've got these three circles, right? You got the podcast, you got the grow getters only community, and then you've got your agency, Albert marketing.
Dustin: How much do these function as Venn diagrams? Do they feed each other? Are they intended to be like a flywheel? Cause you mentioned like you get clients from one to the other. It seems like there's some people that would fit into at least two, if not all three camps. So I'm curious how you see the three relating to each other, if you have thought about that, and maybe that will push us towards looking at your future vision and where this is going.
Ben: Yeah, I mean, I won't bore you with all the small side things I've started and built and in some cases [00:27:00] never even launched two big words for me in 2024 were clarity and intention because I did a lot of throwing things at the wall and a lot of it didn't stick, but a lot of it did. And I couldn't get clarity or understand my intention or my purpose without you said it, get in your hands dirty going blue collar, just going to work and figuring it out as you go.
Ben: But now that I have better clarity on what I'm trying to do, bridge from knowledge from the people who have it to the people who need it. Platform doesn't matter that much, but know, I have a podcast about connection. All of it is intertwined. And the one question I've been asking myself all of 2024 is this an alignment with who I am and who I'm becoming? Is
Dustin: I'm becoming, right? Yeah.
Ben: Who I am and who I am becoming because meeting the man I could have [00:28:00] been and being not even recognizing that individual is a scary concept to me. So Yeah, I've tried a lot of things.
Ben: We didn't even touch on speaking. I don't try to speak at a ton of gigs, but I will take that opportunity because it's going to feed into who I want to become in the message that I want to spread. Yeah, they all are completely intertwined. They're all completely aligned with my values and all three of those categories.
Ben: Actually, Balbert marketing is drifting away a little bit. It's got my name in it. The
Ben: first thing that someone said to me, my friend, Jake, I said, I'm going to start a marketing company. I got an LLC.
Ben: I didn't know I didn't need an LLC to start, but I got an LLC. I'm calling it Balbert marketing. And my friend, Jake said, no one even calls you Balbert, which it doesn't matter.
Ben: It's B Albert. I just filled out the first thing that came to mind. Balbert marketing in the traditional online marketing services is actually a little bit drifting [00:29:00] away. Because one real business connections is a better brand name. It's more scalable. I can build a team that doesn't have, I don't want to be attached to the brand my whole life.
Ben: So
Ben: wow, I'm thinking out loud. Bower marketing actually might not be part of that by an diagram in the long term. It's actually been considering taking Bower marketing and calling it Bennett. Albert is marketing and having that be the personal brand. But yeah, man, it's, it's getting clarity and determining is this an alignment with what I'm trying to accomplish and grow getters only in real business connections are getting the most attention because they're in direct alignment with what I'm trying to do.
Dustin: Yeah. So again, who knows? Because three and a half years ago, it was like COVID and everything changed. But if you think three years in advance and at least in your current mindset, realizing that you're becoming someone new in the process, what would you either predict or hope for or pray for or dream about?
Dustin: Like what would be the three year [00:30:00] version of your business? You think if you could just do show up and do X that would be a dream. do you think in mouth?
Ben: Yeah, Actually, I always want to. Emphasize the word. Actually, I want to actually move the needle on a million lives, one conversation at a time. And the reason the keyword is actually is let's just use a six pack. Like I could post a picture of my body transformation and it'll get a little motivation, but it won't actually move the needle on their career.
Ben: And if you move the needle, even the slightest bit, Over a long enough time horizon, that person is in a completely different place because you move that direction just a little bit. So I want to actually move the needle on a million, but I'm even second guessing that because I can't track whether I got to a million.
Dustin: Yeah, that's the tricky part, right? Is there's, there is no tracking, especially with podcasts. How many people are listening to this or listening to your show or all the other opportunities, how many people were at TNC and maybe we're in the room and weren't in room, watch the replay. And then they start thinking like the ripples ripple [00:31:00] effects had those kinds of goals too, where it's like a number. And I was like actually I had Chandler bolt on this podcast with self publishing and he said something similar. And he's like, well, you know, an impact, however many lives. And he's like, but really that's kind of BS because we can't measure it.
Dustin: We just want to have this many books published like by this year. And I'm like you know, that you can measure is how much, cause they're in the book publishing business. but I appreciate you being open and Thinking out loud through this like, said I wanted this, but now I think about it, I'm not really sure that the right thing.
Ben: As many people as quickly as possible and let that multiply in the compound interest at the end of the day, people like hard numbers and hard goals. But the true answer that a lot of people don't like is I don't really care where I am in three years. sad answer is I could.
Ben: Die on my car ride home, who the frickin knows what God has chosen for me. So I don't care where I am in three years. I don't care where I am in 30 years. However, if I'm making decisions that are in alignment with what I value, who I am and who I am [00:32:00] becoming, it doesn't actually matter where I am in three years.
Ben: Because I know I'll be in a good place and doesn't actually matter if I get to a million or 10 million or a billion because I know that I created a better world. So I'm detached from goals. I know I'm getting kind of woo woo, but
Ben: in perfect world, I'm just blissed out helping as many people as I can.
Ben: Just sailing off into the sunset, my friend.
Dustin: And I love goals, but I'm actually very much in alignment with what you said. And I got an insight from what you shared. So it's pointless to say this is why I want to be in three years, just for the sake of stating that, because you ultimately have very little control over it, like you said, who knows, myriad of things could happen in the world or to you or whatever.
Dustin: However you also said, as long as I'm in alignment with my values and I'm becoming a better person think the trick here, the key is like most people don't have enough clarity on their values, who they want to become and what they're really all about. And tool that helps so many people get more clear on that is thinking three years in advance.
Dustin: Like If I like take this current trajectory do I [00:33:00] want to point at Realizing when I actually get there in three years, it probably won't look anything like what I might imagine, but it's a great tool. Visioning is a great tool to like come back to the present moment and be like well, if I was going to become that version of where I'm at, I need to amplify these things about myself. I need to like get help with these things. I need to meet these types of people.
Yeah, I think that's a really, it's a little meta, but I think it's a really good way to think about this is like the goal itself is kind of worthless, but thinking about the goal and getting clear on how you would ever get towards that goal is very valuable because that informs a lot about your daily habits and things we're going to talk about here in the final segment.
Dustin: So thank you very much for. Again, the history of the president, the future casting. I know I got a ton of insight and thinking through that with you. So at this point we'll transition like the last, 10 minutes or so here, Ben, and we just want to be practical, turn the mic over to you and.
Dustin: Just, something that you're currently either working through or something you teach or something you've learned that you think would be particularly valuable to entrepreneurs listening in it's basically a smart [00:34:00] strategy session that I'm going to, I'm going to let you lead. So, The floor is yours, my friend.
Ben: Cool. You know what? I have my keychain right here. I have a keychain for people listening at home. It says there is no key.
Dustin: I love
Ben: Now, there's a lot of keys, but in reality, it's a reminder that I don't think there's one keychain. Specific foolproof magic key to success, to fulfillment, to resilience.
Ben: I believe there is no key. It's a combination lock and similar to a padlock at the gym or a safe. Each and every one of us has our own unique combination. So people ask me all the time, how did you do X, Y, and Z? Or how did you do this? You touched on we're workshopping it. told you beforehand, I'm workshopping this because people ask me all the time, how do you do X, Y, and Z?
Ben: And I remind them that it's a fingerprint, like there is no key, but I can tell you what I do. And then if you apply just a little aspect of each of these, I believe you're guaranteed [00:35:00] success. So lots of B's we'll go through this cause we could do a whole presentation, whole podcast
Ben: on
Dustin: cool. And my whole framework is just a bunch of peas. So yours can be bees, but yours actually makes more sense. Cause your name has been, mine is not like Paul or
Ben: Oh, I forgot it. So I'm going to write down Ben and then we'll write down
Dustin: Ben is the first beat.
Ben: being biz. Body brain and bond. Now, another thing I believe that's another B is that success, resilience, confidence comes from memories of winning. So if you can win these five, just these five, you're going to be more successful just in the fact, and this is biz, you're going to be more successful because you see, have evidence that you hold yourself accountable and you do the non negotiables.
Ben: Now, these are my big five non negotiables being. Really quickly, something that makes you better and not better, whether that's prayer, whether that's meditation, whether that's breath work, whether that's getting into the sun early, whether that's a moment of silence, detaching. The [00:36:00] last thing you want to do is wake up and then just touch your phone.
Ben: You're going to get triggered. So something that helps your being, we're going to do biz at the end, something that helps your body. Now that is something, body's the most difficult one because we're met with Distractions and food, we have to eat two to three times a day. So, But really like. let's just say the morning to keep it simple, but it doesn't have to be in the morning.
Ben: You wake up and you just do something that gets the blood flowing. I like to joke, do what you didn't do when you were sleeping. So what didn't you do when you were sleeping? You didn't drink water. You didn't stretch. You didn't get the body moving. So get up, drink some water. Get the body moving, that's body brain is something that's again, let's say, does it make you better or does it make you better?
Ben: Does it stimulate your brain or does it make your brain depleted with garbage? I used to think brain, I got down this cycle, the self help cycle of consume, consume, consume, consume. It's not always non [00:37:00] fiction, even though I encourage it. It can be creative fiction. It could be something creative and unique.
Ben: It'd be playing guitar. It can be drawing something that stimulates either left or right side of your brain. Do that every single day. And again, there's no key. It's what stimulates you, what makes you better and not better. I think that's the key, actually, not to say there is a key. Does it make you better do that?
Ben: Does it make you bitter? Don't do that, but it's going to be different for everybody. Bond is something that is my favorite because I think people are busy and
they neglect it. And that's just like making sure at least once a day you have a bonding opportunity. And it can be everything from a coffee chat to spending time with your family.
Ben: Or if you're looking at business development, You pick up your phone. I learned this from Jordan Harbinger. You scroll down at the bottom of your emails, the bottom of your DMs, the bottom of your text messages, whatever platform you use, you're going to see people you met at a [00:38:00] conference and haven't spoken to in years, you're going to see people that you used to work with that you need to follow up with, or you're going to see that your friend from college is married and just had a child.
Ben: And not only did you not know about the marriage, you didn't know about the child and you didn't congratulate them yet. So what you're going to do when you see that is. You're going to send them that. Congratulations. You're going to send them that. Hello. You're going to make an observation. You do that one time a day.
Ben: Now more actually equals more as long as it's quality. So 10, 50 a day is even better, but one time a day is 365 a year is 3, 600, 500. Every 10 years is in the tens of thousands over your lifetime. And imagine the ripples of goodness. You can create. Just with one message a day. Now imagine if you did 10, but just one a day, hold yourself accountable to do one, reach out a day that'll strengthen your bond.
Ben: And biz, we already talked about it all episode. If you do all these other things, you tell me [00:39:00] the listener, you can tell me Dustin. If you do all those things, is your business going to be better? And people might say well, I like to take time off on the weekends. I'm not focused on business 24, 7, like you, Ben, that's insane.
Ben: That's focusing on business. Knowing when to rest is focusing on your business as well. So knowing when to take a break, knowing when to do income producing activities, if you can focus on your business and rest counts as focusing on the bigger part of your business, you do all five a day. Again, iterate.
Ben: There's no key, but that stuff works for me that unlocks success for me every single day, Dustin, and makes me a more
Ben: confident
Ben: person.
Dustin: absolutely love it. So especially since you kind of ad hoc that it's really good. what's funny and I'm, I don't know how these will get published. Probably yours will be right after, but interviewed someone this morning. Julie Lowe, who just wrote a book called a few good habits. It's, and she kind of had this core for habits and it was not dissimilar to these, right?
Dustin: Because we all know these are really the core things we should be doing to be better [00:40:00] humans. But what I like about , the order that you went through in the context is like, Hey, if you're an entrepreneur and one of the things you really value is growing your business, you have to be doing the other four things too because otherwise you like end up with a really screwed up life.
Dustin: business actually grows more slowly. was reflecting on these, as you were saying them, so being body brain bond biz and think about my own daily habits and the things I've really focused on, I'd say the last 18 months is this coaching business is, really grown.
Dustin: And I, again, had another episode about the 10 X sleep that we made in this business. yeah, like I do all these things the being in the body yeah. In the morning, like I. drink a lot of water when I wake up and I do like 60 seconds. So it might be jumping jacks, pushups, just like something to like get the blood pumping.
Dustin: And then brain, like something we picked up in COVID was wordle, lot of people played wordle for a while and they probably gave it up. I've played wordle every day since COVID and my daughter. And my wife do, and we have a group text every day. We all share our word. So it's just like a little, it's something I do in the morning.
Dustin: It's just like a little puzzle, it takes literally a few minutes unless I'm having a [00:41:00] bad day. Then it might, it might take me 10 minutes. But it's just like a little thing but it's a very consistent habit to get my brain going. And bond, I would say bond. think that my biggest takeaway from our interview.
Dustin: Was actually what you opened with, which was very simple, tactical thing that you could do. Like people are listening to this. They probably listen to podcasts in general. And so why don't every podcast you listen to for every 45 minutes that you're going to take to listen to a podcast, take.
Dustin: Two minutes and then thank the host and thank the guests and let him know what you learn and imagine how many cool relational seeds will come from that and has been shared. Like, Start with Ben. If you're listening to this send Ben to know and he's going to tell you how to do that in a minute and connect with people.
Dustin: Like, That's such a simple way to bond I have 1000 percent guarantee. If you do that, your business will grow as a result. It won't be immediate, but like the relationships that you form through that process, again, this is a version of what I've done to really grow my own business.
Dustin: I love that. And then in biz, yeah, I mean, like we're entrepreneurs, we're. Probably focusing most of our energy, if we're honest on growing our business. But as I shared on the [00:42:00] previous episode, the ironic thing
Dustin: that I've had to fight tooth and nail with my own mentality is like, to grow faster, you actually need to rest more.
Dustin: And like having a 10 X sleep actually requires way more like white space and emptiness on your calendar and days off and things that like, you think you've got to just push and push and push, but actually most of the growth. And I find that most of my best sales days are when I'm like, Playing golf with my daughter or like on a rock adventure, out by myself.
Dustin: And I show back up to reality. I'm like, Oh, I made sales. But the days I'm like pushing, pushing, pushing doesn't happen. and I think there's a lesson in that.
So yeah, I love that man being body brain bond is,
Ben: Yes,
Dustin: and to cap it all off of the overarching theme is better, not bitter.
Dustin: If you're trying to think of behaviors and habits that you want to
Ben: My name is Ben. So there's your name's Ben. This is amazing. There's so many bees.
Ben: know, I'm long winded, but just one sentence, none of that is rocket science. None of that is actually new advice. I'm just doing it and Dustin's just doing it and other people aren't. We're [00:43:00] not any more special. And honestly, I only put that together so I could have a keynote, but it's not new advice.
Ben: It's stuff we already know, but we don't take action. And it's as simple as sending that DM. When you listen to the show, taking a little bit of action each day is all it is.
Dustin: I mean, People are familiar with the Eisenhower matrix, or there's all these books, the seven habits of highly effective people somewhere in there, there's a phrase that actual most important things in life are the things that will give you the most progress are not urgent, but important, right?
Dustin: You have urgent, important, urgent, not important. You know, There's like a little quadrant, everything you listed there is really easy to do, and it's really easy not to do, and that's why the magic isn't actually doing it. Five minutes a day of exercise. One thing a day to keep, make sure your brain's activated one, reach out or connection to bond.
Dustin: The people who do that are the ones, that they're are going to win because of a true compounding interest factor with it. So I love that Ben. So.
Ben: How can people get ahold of you and what should people do next if [00:44:00] they like what they've heard? And they want to be part of Venn diagrams your three parts of your business.
Ben: Should do next is I wouldn't be here without Dustin. So the easiest thing you can do, you already have a pulled up hit subscribe, hit five stars, hit a like bonus points. If you leave a review extra bonus points, if you send them a DM, I'm easy to find real business connections was done intentionally.
Ben: You can type that in wherever you found this. Or you can just Google it and you'll find me. So love on Dustin first type in a real business connections, and then it's really easy to find me.
Dustin: you're the best. Yeah. So he's very active. I'm looking at his LinkedIn profile right now. Very active on LinkedIn. So Ben Albert on LinkedIn real business connections to go listen to his podcast. Also subscribe. can find my episode there if you want to hear more. More about what I was doing at that point in my life, which was probably what, six, eight months ago.
Dustin: But yeah, I really appreciate that. So my closing thought call to action do these things and [00:45:00] start with Ben, reach out to him, get to know Ben. He's an awesome guy. And obviously he's super well connected and that's a big part of. His values. And yeah, selfishly leave me a five star rating.
Dustin: This is a pretty new podcast. Ben knows he's the podcasting world for a long time. It really makes a huge difference. So whether you're on Spotify right now, you're on your Apple app, whatever, wherever you're listening, there's literally like right below this episode as part of the show notes, There's some stars and just hopefully it's fivehit a star rating.
Dustin: And then, yeah, if you feel really touched, leave a short written review, really moves the needle and letting people find the show. Ben, thank you again, my friend. This is cool. appreciate the amount of time you've given, but and we could talk for three times this long and probably will over the course
Ben: This is already going to be a two parter. Like I I think it's going to have to be, this is good stuff. All right, man, we'll take care. Thanks again for your time and thanks for all the value you bring to the world.
Ben: thanks, Dustin.