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Episode

Unlike our other episodes there isn’t a challenge to this one.  In this episode you will discover business lessons from Todd Bates.  He was our business partner and co-author with us on 3 books.  We tragically lost him on September 23rd, 2015.  In our small way to honor his memory we wanted to share lessons that we learned from him.  He helped 20,000+ people and in the 3.5 years of working side by side with him we witnessed 100′s of speaking events.  His mastery of an audience and ability to diagnose challenges that a business was facing was second to none.  In this first installment we do our part to share some of the key items we learned from him to share with the Bridges Brigade.

Heading East looking for a sunset - When a crowd was a particular challenge, this was a goto.  The beauty was that whether it worked (got a laugh) or not it really worked.  If they didn’t laugh, then we had to point out why it was funny which made us laugh and as Todd always said “listen guys, we gotta have fun up there”.

“How?” - When you hit a challenge in business, it isn’t “why” is it happening, the question to ask is “how”.  How can I overcome this challenge?  How can I use my resources more efficiently?  How can I use my skill-sets to achieve my bigger goals?

What is your big WHY - Your WHY has to be big.  Your WHY needs to drive your daily activities, it needs to pick you up when you are down.  He challenged us and the clients to have a really BIG WHY to make sure we could make it through the tough times.  At a real estate conference 7+ years ago “Jamey, why/what are you going to be doing in 5 years”.  I actually couldn’t answer…the only thing I could give him was “I just know I can’t be hocking homes.”.  He laughed and maybe that was why he called on Joe and I just a year or so later for a new adventure.

DFL – Drama Free Living - Whether it was charge-backs, client complaints, or any number of challenges he would remind us to embrace DFL.  It simplified how we approached problem solving.  Don’t get wrapped up in the negative, solve it and move on.