Learning From Others Brian Sexton: The Power of Intentional Encouragement
What if you helped others without expecting anything in return? That's it. No sexy spin on this. But today's guest is here to tell you how doing something so simple could change your life and your business.
Please welcome Brian Sexton.
- 2:17 - Brian's Background
- 8:00 - Intentional Encouragement
- 13:29 - Encouragement
- 17:35 - Behind every Engagement.
- 21:16 - Established the Trust
Contact Info
Right. Let's go, Brian Sexton. Thanks for jumping on learning from others. How are you doing, man? I'm doing great. Damon. What's going on today? How come I have not see? And so the people that are listening to this and not catching the video, um, Brian's got rocking this green screen, but he went like the whole other level and he painted the whole wall.
Like that's what you, yeah. I'm surprised that it was my wife's idea. So she was like, so she was like, listen, um, cause where I am. So for full disclosure where I am, I'm literally about 20 feet from a Creek in West Virginia. And so she's like, you're going to draw rats and you know, my wife just thinks all this stuff, you're gonna draw rats and swamp creatures and all this stuff.
And she's like, well, let's go to home Depot and Lowe's, let's get some green paint. So I knew the kind of green paint I wanted. So behind me is painted green. And then when I need to do a virtual background for the intentional encourage podcast, I just dropped a piece of fabric. Then I went to hobby lobby and paid six bucks for it.
And that, so that's that just kind of surrounds the green, but yeah, most people think, cause I went to Marshall university, Damon in Huntington, West Virginia, and. Our school colors are green and white. So people think, well, you made you're all in on the Marshall stuff. So they think that it's just an homage to my tamale Alma mater, but no, it's the cheapest way I could find to do a green screen dude.
So wait, so wait, you dropped the cloth. So, so do you have, uh, two different purposes? So you have the clot and the greens, the green paint. Well, I didn't figure out about the cloth until after I'd already painted. And so
I, after I it into the paint, I was like, okay, this is all right, but what am I going to do about this? What I need a professional background. And so, you know, I was like, well, I'll just drop, listen to me. And I do things and then I have to go back and fix them. And then it's like, Oh, why didn't I do that in the first place?
You know, we were actually talking about that just briefly for a hit record about, you know, the things you learn when you're doing podcasts that you know, now that you wish you knew before. And all right, before we get too deep in that let's, uh, let's bring our listeners up to speed. So, Brian, what are we gonna learn from you today?
Well, Damon, hopefully that the audience gets from me the power of intentional encouragement. Um, I went all in at the beginning of this year. Um, basically starting on linked in and said, I see so much expertise out there that I'm going to focus on intentional encouragement. And so, you know, guys like you and you rocket man on LinkedIn, you, you are just constantly giving people great information.
Thanks. And, and I didn't want to play in that sandbox. I wanted to leave that to the, to the experts like you, but I knew what I could bring to the party. Was intentional encouragement and little, you know, nobody knew we were gonna have a global pandemic. Right. Nobody knew we were going to all be working from home and zooming.
Zooming would be a, a verb in 2020. Yeah. It's like Google it. Yeah. Like Google it. Yeah. So nobody, you know, nobody figured zooming would be a big thing. In fact, I hadn't heard of zoom. I had a couple people mentioned zoom about recording podcasts, but. Again, I just decided Damon. I was going to go all in on intentional encouragement.
And so hopefully today, what folks will get from me is the power of intentional encouragement, how it spreads like wildfire and, and what, what intentional encouragement can do to a whole tribe of people that buy into it. All right. Before we go deeper into that, uh, Brian, what are you not so good at? Well, apparently painting your greens.
You know what? I'm not good at. Damon is figuring out. You know, in, I'll give you a good example. So when I started my podcast, I was buying compressor mikes and I bought a mixer and I bought it all the way to the one. And yeah, and what I didn't realize was that the compressor might had to have Phantom power.
And so then I had to go buy a mixer. What I suck at is figuring out upfront what I really need to get the job done. What I really needed was a nice Yeti mic. Like you've got in a $30 webcam that I finally had that V8 moment with God, this is what, this is what I needed. So I suck it kind of figuring it out.
But once I figured it out, Then I try to, to be prepared the other way. So yeah, that's kind of what I eat now. If my wife were on the podcast with his name and she would have thing that I saw it yet. Okay. But since it's just me and you, man, that that's, that's the first thing that comes to the top of my mind.
Okay. Well, we'll get her on next week. This will be part two. All right. Going to happen. Tell her about it, man. You know, you know, what's funny about you talking about how you didn't know what to do was is, um, my, my older boy, he has, one of his friends has a little birthday get together to just slips across the street this weekend.
And it was his mom when the pandemic started. Um, so I, I was, you know, already on zoom and most, all of my team is remote. And so it's just been a way of life for me. And so when everything happened, I was hooking my kids up with their friends and saying, Hey, do you guys want to zoom each other? Like, you know, the first couple of weeks when no one, no, no one still knows what we're doing.
But like the first couple of weeks, we really didn't know what we're doing. And so it was like total isolation. And so I knew the importance of, uh, my kids having that interaction. So I said, Hey, let's, I'm gonna message your friends, parents and see if you can get on zoom. And so it was funny in our, in our neighborhood, we have Facebook group.
And so I, I. I got on there and tagged like three or four of the neighborhood's parents. And I said, Hey, my kid wants to know if you and you and you, if your kids want to get on zoom. And so then, you know, they did that zoom thing and then three or four weeks later, the one parent comes back to that post and she's like, Okay, full disclosure.
I had no idea what zoom was and I'm just barely figuring it out. And I just came, I'm coming back to this post to say, yeah, my kid now wants to get on zoom and well, here in West Virginia people thought zoom was just another word for going fast, you know? I'm to zoomed down the interstate. Yeah. So we were just kind of caught off guard to me, you know?
Yeah. So that's how West Virginia is deal with a pandemic. You, you never tell you never, you never introduced new words to a hillbilly. It'll just. It will just go over their head. They get lost in the weeds. Joking. When we were communicating, before we jumped on an email and I said, I have a friend that's in West Virginia, and you were mentioning something about your internet.
I said, yeah, my friend's internet. She says, it runs on hamsters. And you're like, well, she's not wrong. No. And, and Damon, we got to say in here, we've got a saying here in the Southern part of the state, they say that that they're hanging on like a hair in a biscuit. And I am stunned that my internet is hanging on like a heritage.
Never heard that. Yeah. So that's horrible. I had neither. I had neither, well, a few years ago I was working down in Southern West Virginia. And one of the guys I worked with, he said, uh, he said it and no joke. This is the way he talked. He said, Hey, Brian, how are you doing this morning? That's me. I'm doing good.
And he goes, I said, how are you doing? He's a man hanging on like a hair to be skew. Did you just sit there? Oh, I was still, I was dumbstruck, man. I was dumb struggle. Like how do you respond to that? Yeah. All right. So let's talk about intentional encouragement. I want to give you the opportunity to kind of differentiate because, um, in, in your intro, I don't think you, uh, segmented where you, I don't think you defined the difference between when you were saying.
You know, I didn't want to play in that sandbox, but I wanted to bring this to the table. So if you kind of differentiate between, um, you know, maybe what got you inspired to bring the intentional encouragement versus what actually is what intentional courage actually is. So what actual, so what intention virtual encouragement actually is Damon is, is being, um, specific.
About giving someone else something that will help them. Okay. And I'll use this as an example. I text people a lot and I'll say, Hey, I just, I was just thinking about you today and I'll give them something specifically like, Hey, don't be afraid to take the next step or, Hey, listen, I'm praying for you. And I feel like this is what.
You know what I want to say to you? Intentional encouragement is specifically designed for that other person to help that other person, because what happens with encouragement, Damon is it triggers something in our minds because humans run on hope. Zig Ziglar says encouragement is the fuel. That powers hope.
Hmm. And so what encouragement does is when somebody is walking through something and I may not know that somebody is dealing with something, right. And so, but if I can just share something specific and say, Hey man, you've got this, you're built to do this. Knowing that person like I do, then that person may be going, man, you know, you're right.
And all of a sudden it starts to unlock some things in the mind that can help them go. Okay. You know, maybe today, maybe they hadn't thought about taking that next step today, but maybe that piece of intentional encouragement specifically gives them the impetus to go ahead and say, okay man, today's the day.
And so that's why I wanted to be intentional about it, because again, I saw a lot of people still facing challenges and I thought I can help. I can help there because here's the thing today. And I'll say this real quick. Is that when you are walking through the midst of something unknown, when you're trying to figure things out, the last thing that you need to add to something like that is expertise, because then expertise gets lost in the process of the mind expertise kind of gets lost in all the other things you're trying to process in making that decision and stepping in that direction.
Encouragement does the other. Encouragement motivates the feelings. So encouragement speaks directly to the, to the, to the soul and the spirit and it bypasses the mind. And a lot of times, if you can get to someone's spirit and you can get into their soul, then it unlocks things that go to the mind. And then all of a sudden you've got, you've got that person's attention.
You know why I love this. So, um, I'm over here grabbing my phone because. I just met up with a friend yesterday and, um, I sent him this message. So he just started, he left. I'm not going to say his name, but he listens. Um, and so I went and met him yesterday for coffee. Cause we had, I had started this post, like, you know, two months before the pandemic happened and I said, Hey, I want to start making, um, Rounds of connecting with people like in person, because just you and I engaging before we hit record, like, I like conversation.
I genuinely like me to networking with people with, with no, ultimately, you know, no other conditions behind it. Like, you know, other people get together if there's the potential for business. And I get that, there's no hate against that. Right, but I'm totally cool with the wild card. Like some of the best things I've ever come in have come to me in life.
Or I went in there with no intentions, whatever. Yeah. Yeah. So I do this post and I say, Hey guys, I want to start meeting up like every other Friday with just like one person. So, you know, drop a comment if you want to, if you want to get on this list and I'll go meet up with somebody every other week coronavirus happens, you know?
So that falls through, but. This one friend keeps following up. When am I going to have meet up? When am I going to meet up? And so I've known him for a, and so I said, you know, I'm call me now if you want to meet up. So anyways, he tells me about all these cool things he's doing. And how he went through, um, you know, he's launching this new product and the ups and downs of business and this and that.
And at the end of it, what he talked about was, um, how he finally realized that I can't, he he's been following, you know, some influencer and through that info influencer finally realized he's in control of his life. And so he goes, you know, I finally realized that there's. All these excuses. And I went through every one, my dog died, the coronavirus hit this, this and this.
And then I finally realized, like, it doesn't matter. Like I can still have forward momentum and do my own thing. So anyways, I send them, I send them this message after we leave. And I said, super proud of you. The last topic about you realizing you're in control of your life made my day. And so that, and I'm curious if you're the same way, but one of the things that frustrates me the most about.
Trying to help other people is, is that little gap of them realizing that they can take ownership. And so in the conversation I had with my friend, Sometimes it's frustrating for me because I'm like your problems right there. Like you see it, it's like right here. Can you just do that? Yeah. Can you do that?
But the thing's right there. Can you just do the thing? Yeah. And so I like it. Yeah. Those, those little nudges and I'm actually glad you put a word to it, a phrase to it. Um, because now I feel like that will help me go. Okay. Yeah. It's in touch with encouragement and then, and then that'll help me. Proceed better with intentional encouragement.
So I rambled about a bunch of things. Take it where you want w what you said there was brilliant. And, and here's the thing. Don't discount what you've done in the process too, because a lot of people, it can be sexy to say, Oh, man, this influencer, um, showed me something and I saw the light. I had a V8 moment.
Right. But. Don't discount what you've done in the process as well to Daymond because you might've been here's it. Here's what a lot of people miss about encouragement, intentional encouragement. You're going to plant way more seeds than you take in and harvest and using the, the farming kind of thing.
And the reason I say that is. Just literally 20 feet away from where I'm sitting by walk out the door about, about 20 feet away from where the door is here. There used to be a garden there. My wife's 98 year old grandfather. He's still alive, but he planted gardens till he was about 92 or 93 years old.
And he used it a section of our property to do it. I saw him work and work and work and work every day he was doing something. When he planted his garden every day, it was doing something. He put way more work into the garden than what he got out of it. But when he got something out of it, he was satisfied.
Yeah. Because you reached something. And what I want to say is this is don't give intentional encouragement with the expectation of immediate gratification coming back. It doesn't always happen that way for sure. But when it does happen, It's incredible because you you've planted those seeds. You watered, you've done those things.
And when it finally comes back to you, man, it's powerful. And then it's tangible. You can learn, right. You can see it, right. Just like you were talking about. You can see it right in front of you. And so that's the thing that you have to keep in mind is if you decide to go all in on intentional encouragement, understand you're going to do a lot more giving than receiving and, and Damon.
That's why a lot of people don't like to do intentional encouragement because there's, our society is instant gratification, right? I mean, if we want something, we go get it. You know, Amazon has spoiled everybody because you can place an Amazon order today. And if you're a prime member, most of the time, depending on where you live, you're going to get it that day.
And so intentional encouragement takes time sometimes to get it back. But when you see it, man, it's powerful and it, and it's like, it's like fuel. Like I just talked about with Zig Ziglar quote it's it fuels you and you go, I got to do this more and do this more. And so that's what I see from you, man. You, you really saw that.
It's like, man, I got to do this more. Yeah, I don't, I don't take it as discouragement. Um, when I say that it's frustrating, um, it doesn't, it doesn't delay the process, but it is something that I, excuse me, that I observed. And that's kind of like along the lines of what I wanted to ask you next is, is I'm okay with the, for myself, I'm okay.
With delayed gratification. And then that's why I like encouraging others because as we kind of, the metaphor is. I see my friends and family and, you know, whatever associates the problem right here. And I'm like, here's the thing, do the thing. And I'm okay with them not doing the thing, because I know it has to click for them too, but it doesn't mean for me, at least it's any less frustrating.
So. I S I power through that, but I'm curious, you being somebody else that's on the same page about encouraging other people, whether you, you beat that frustration or not. Then the next thing I wanted to ask the same lines to see if you observed the same thing for me is do some people find it weird that you do this?
Because I noticed that I'll go out to people and I'll just send them a message or all this. No, I don't want to, I don't have a, I don't have an agenda. I just. Can we just talk, you know, and, and do you run into that awkwardness sometimes because people are, are so, uh, like you talked about society and we're so rewired nowadays that everyone thinks that there's an agenda behind every engagement.
So not to name drop, but, but, um, the reason I mentioned exemplary is I, I was, I I've been in sales and customer engagement for 25 years. And so Zig was a sales hero of mine about. A year ago, a little over a year ago. Um, I got the chance to talk to his son, um, and. What was cool for me. And I think I've got a video issue here.
Give me just a quick second. We use audio. Okay. Um, but, but with Tom, um, the last conversation I had was when he was on the intentional encourage your podcast. I said to him, I said, Tom, can I, do you mind giving me your cell phone number? I said, because I just figured like you're in the business of encouragement, but who's encouraging you.
Hmm. And he goes, man, no, not at all. Here you go. And that, that I try to be very sensitive Daymond because it does weird. Some people out, he can weird somebody out. If you say to them, Hey, do you mind us changing cell phone numbers? And I can reach out to you and provide you some intentional encouragement.
And, you know, you just, what I say to to people is this is just be up front and say, this is why I want to, with your permission, do this. And then it kind of removes the weird, then they understand your intention behind being intentional. So, you know, I've tried to just say, this is what I want to do with your permission.
And if somebody says, no, I'm not really comfortable with that. Okay. I'm totally cool with it because again, You don't want to try to encourage somebody that, that is weirded out by it because you're just going to, it's going to be spitting into the wind. Right. And so that's how I kind of handle that situation.
I even get that on LinkedIn, where you and I connected is a lot of times when I engage with somebody like in my communications with networking with somebody I want. I want them in my network and exposed to my content and the things that I do. I don't, I want to showcase what I do instead of just messaging by my thing, or, you know, Hey, take this action, sign up for my funnel.
And so in my messages, when I connect with somebody, I flat out say that it's totally the opposite of what most people do or are taught to do. And I say, Hey, this is, this is my, you know, I'm a father, I'm a husband. Um, here's my background. This is the company that I run. And I, I quite literally say, that's a wrap.
Like I'm not going to message you anymore. And I get so much positive reinforcement from that on a daily basis, I get at least one or two of the replies, uh, people replying back from the engagement that I send out that says that was the best intro ever, or, you know, thanks for not pitching me something.
And I, and I live by it. I don't pitch them unless they respond to me. That is the last message that I'm going to send them. But even then, so some people listening, saying, well, what's the point.
Because you build trust and relationship with them because you didn't sell them. You had the opportunity, as you said to plant seeds, they get exposed to your personality. You know, what you offer, what your expertise is. And then they come around when the time is right. And best of all. They now, you know, quote unquote know you because they've been exposed to that content.
They've built a relationship with you and whether it becomes a, the next step is some sort of personal engagement or a business engagement, like all the cells walls come down because they, they already have established that trust with you. And then I don't know. I, I just, uh, I think that there's a lot of people understand this, but given the current situation in the world, I think that there's, um, it's getting more attention as it should.
Well, I want to give you some mad props too, because you were, I noticed when, when this thing started, you did a post on LinkedIn. The you didn't have to do, but you said, Hey, if you're a podcast, connect with me, let me, let me, let me help you. Let me give you something. And I applaud you for doing that because a lot of people don't want to give something unless they can give something back.
And I'm not talking about you specifically. I'm just saying for me, that impressed the daylights out of me about you. And it showed me the kind of person that you were, because I think you're intentional about helping as many people as you can try to get better. At their business and things like that.
And it just speaks to, to your personality and your character, Damon, that you're a giver. I've never seen people that are givers by nature, that they didn't receive way more back than what they gave. And so that that's really what, and thank you for doing that, man. We probably wouldn't be having this conversation.
Had you not been bold enough to, to say, let me help some of you that, that want help. I commend you for that. And, and I think if, if we're more intentional about doing that with encouragement and other things that we have, it's going to come back to us in spades, it's really just going to come flooding back to us.
And now is the greatest time to do that. Damon, because everybody needs something through this pandemic. And it's the brotherhood of man, right? We can, we can help each other, you know, you're 2,500 miles away from me. But we can help each other and we can make each other better and lift each other up through this.
Unusual time in our country's history. Yeah. Uh, I have, um, my wife's nephew, I've been mentoring him a little bit and, and I've been really kind of busting them up lately about telling them about the opportunities that he's missing right now, because you know, you, and I understand it from an, from a business and a non-business perspective.
He's, he's young, he's 19. And so. For him, it's all all about like his starting his entrepreneurial journey. So with him, I've been focusing on like, Hey, you know, there's all this opportunity. Here's my position. You, as the young money hungry, you know, 19 year old, I'm going to satisfy that desire to the same seven turns 20 in two weeks.
I totally get it. Yeah. And I've been telling them, I'm like, dude, I, you know, I'm out here, you see these relationships I'm establishing. I'm going to play. I'm going to cater to your desire for money and, and explain it in those terms like you are missing out right now. So yes, there is understandably businesses and people that are being negatively impacted, but there is so much opportunity out there because all those people that need to stretch their dollar further.
They want to give it to somebody that they know has genuinely their best interests at heart, or at least it's going to give it their all to protect that dollar. And you there's so many options and I've talked on other podcasts about how get in now and don't discount your price, or, you know, your whatever, don't, don't theoretically discount it.
You like come to the table and say, Hey. I want to establish a relationship with you. And even, even the super, super I told the super young kids. I said, if you're mowing lawns for, if the, if the competitive rate in your neighborhood is 30 bucks, go mow lawns for 20 bucks, don't set your expectations. That it's always going to be 20 bucks.
Let them know like, Hey, I want an opportunity to, just to prove that I can mow lawns better. So for five times I'm going to do it for 20 bucks. And then after that, you can go to 30 bucks, but. You go in there and you prove your worth, that, that person's never going to go to another lawnmower again, and you can take that same concept and apply it to, you know, the listeners that are web designers, the listeners that are insurance agents, listeners that are plumbers, whatever your expertise is.
If you can come in there and say, Hey, you know, I'll I'll take it. I'll take a chance on you. You take a chance on me. You're going to establish a relationship that you couldn't create. Otherwise, man, I'm glad you said that because you're, you're tapping into my sales brain for just a minute here. So, so here's the reason why customers view compelled to look at other options.
And I love that that lesson you gave your, your 19 year old nephew, it's powerful and it's right on the money. Because when customers don't feel like that, the person they're doing business with Damon is providing the value. Then they're going to search the marketplace for somebody that will. And so sometimes you have to go, listen, I know I'm an unknown commodity to you, but I'm telling you, if you give me an opportunity and then you just do a bang up job, you do the job that, that you, you know, you under promise and you over-deliver, you're going to go so far.
Above your competition is not going to be funny and you're right. Mow. And those launch for 20 bucks, that person might say, well, crap, I was paying 35 or 40 in this kid's doing twice. The job that I was paying for now, all of a sudden, the intrinsic value. In the mind of that customer just went through the roof and now they're happy to pay 25 or 30 cause guess what?
You're, they're getting a better quality and they're saving money and they're willing to come up a little bit and they'll go, man, you're really discounting your price. I'm, I'm happy to pay more for what you do. Just be sure that when you do it, you do it well, and you do it consistently continue continuing to over deliver that value.
Yeah, consistency is huge to it. What, so what got you into this whole world? What were you doing before this? Well, it's what I'm, it's what I'm still doing. So I, you know, uh, the work from home thing. Um, so being in the pharmaceutical industry, um, obviously we can't go out in, um, call our offices and things like that.
And so it's given me time to be able to podcast. I always wanted a podcast. Amen. Um, I've done for the last 18 years. Um, part-time, I've done live radio. And so, uh, I had people in my circle that said, Hey, you should do, you should podcast. You should podcast. And I'm a guy that for me, I want to wait for the right time to do something.
And so when this hit, I was, I was already in preparation. Anyway, I kind of put a plan together, had some really good friends of mine that are doing podcasts that. That were kind of in my year that I pick their brain and then the pandemic kits is like, okay, well, I guess I'm, I'm going all in on this thing.
And so I've been able to use the time, you know, I get my work done and then I podcast and, and I, you know, that's how I balance it. Now, when I go back out, um, it's going to be a little challenging, but, but you know, so far we've recorded. Well, man, we've probably recorded 50 episodes and I've released, um, with bonus episodes.
Um, probably close to 40 episodes. And so, um, it's good. It's it, it really gets into where, what I've been doing for the last 18 years part time. Um, but it's different because instead of doing the interviews, you know, when you do live radio, my, and I do fill in work for a friend of mine has morning talk show.
When I filled in for him about three weeks ago, I did interviews. So I would do, you know, send me your talking points and I would do it. And I'm fine with that. But the intentional encourage your podcast is designed to be an organic conversation that I don't want to interview. I would rather have a conversation and I'll tell you what it's done for me, Damon.
I really been able to dive deep and really pull incredible stories out of people that they've told me afterwards. They're like, man, I didn't anticipate telling this, but it felt like the right time to tell it. Yeah. And so that's been the, that's been the aha moment for me in this. And I'll tell you this, man, I'm not really, a lot of people say, well, you can build your audience this way or that way for me, man, I'm focused on one.
If one person listens to the intentional encourage your podcast and they get something from it, I'm golden because I know that the growth will calm. As people tap into this. And that's what I say, but that's what I was telling you earlier. Damon, in the, when we started recording is, um, that's, that's my goal is to intentionally encourage as many, as many people as I can trying to bring something unique to the table.
And not trying to, to have a podcast about sports and I love sports. You can see behind me. Yeah. You and I are talking over a video autograph picture of coach K behind me, Mike Shashefski, uh, I'm a, I'm a huge reds and Bengals fan. I I'm a, I'm a big time sports fan. I can talk sports and I have. But I wanted to do something that was universe, so that could help people, um, 'cause stories, people connect to stories in fucking connect, one person to somebody else through a powerful story.
Job done. Mission accomplished. Yeah, I got, I got two comments on that and then we'll, we'll get closer to wrapping up. Um, but you're totally right there. I had, um, the last guest, uh, recently I recorded with, um, he get, he got off and he's like, dude, I saw half of those topics I never even talked about before.
And I would've never known because he was all about it and he was, you know, into it and yeah, we had a great conversation, but in that kind of leads me to my second point is I have, um, another guest that's pending and we got on the phone and they said, Well, what do you get out of this? And I said, I don't have an angle.
You know, they, they were, they were wondering like what the pitch was or what, the, whatever it was. And I'm like, is it just not having a conversation? Yeah. I'm glad you brought that up. I don't mean to rub that. I'm glad you brought that up because I have a similar process. And so, you know, I'll have people to reach out to me.
And I had somebody reach out to me the other day and said, you know, I was searching podcast, came across yours and I said, I want to have a conversation with the person you're trying to get on my podcast because. Every podcast. I want it to feel like people are in the, in the room with my guest and I, and you're, and you're coming on real soon too.
And I want to have that same feeling when somebody listens to that. I want them to think that they're in the room with the two of us as we're talking and they're observing that conversation. And so I do I get on the phone with somebody or I'll zoom. With somebody to get that feel of how they are so that I know this is how I need to bring the conversation to the audience.
And so, I mean, I commend you for doing that. That is so neat because so many people are trying to get on as many podcasts as they can. And it's like, okay, w what, what are they bringing to my audience? And, and, you know, I was intentional about praying this morning because I wanted to bring something to your audience, man, that.
That helps your, you know, your, your audience comes you Damon, because they're looking for that, that content that you uniquely provide. And so as a guest, I feel that pressure to just continue to deliver that for you and your audience. So when they listen to that episode, they go, yeah, that totally aligns with what Damon's all about.
Yeah, these are always the best conversations. The one you get, the ones you get the feedback with the ones that you and I and the guests enjoy the mouse. So I appreciate you coming on and just having a conversation. Yeah, you got to sweep the med. It keeps the voice lubricated it's hot tea. Listen, man.
It's hot tea. It's coffee. There's some honey there and there's some Stevia that, so, I mean, that's, that's my, uh, that's my go-to drink when I'm doing podcasts or what I'm, I'm talking on the radio. I got to have some hot tea next to me. Cause it, it, it keeps the, it keeps the vocal chords lubricated. I don't mean to one up you, but.
I love it, dude. You're my hero, man. So this is my hero. You can't see, my wife talked me into buying this gallon jug that's twice as big as my head. Yeah. You have to have that thing home delivered. Isn't that what she does? I mean, It's it's like one of those gallon jugs you see in an office, like the water pool?
No, it's not that big. It's got a portable water cooler right there. I just slipped a lot. I just got a little hamster tube right here to the portable water cooler. That's like a 20 gallon. I think your wife's side, you guys up for a contract. And she was just. Telling you to casual way, like this is, this is what's about to go down is not that big.
No, it's Hey, listen, when you, when you talk like you, do, you do a ton of podcast a week, so do I, you have to do something that protects your voice because you know, I will talk between podcasts and phone calls and things like that. I'll probably talk 25 hours a week easy. And so, you know, you, you have to.
Really get those things to help your voice. Um, I had voices use, I'll share this with you. So I was launching the podcast back in March and I was starting to have some voices use and I'd never had voice issues. Um, maybe one other time and I had some acid reflux issues and that was like 12 years ago. I had never really had voices use and I was seriously concerned that I wasn't going to be able to deliver what I had started out to deliver.
And, and it was, it was pretty bad. Um, thank, thank God that, that, that it recovered. But I'm very intentional about making sure that I drink that tea. Cause it, it does, it helps my boys. It stimulates it. And so, you know, you just kind of wonder, it's like, man, I'm launching this podcast now all of a sudden I've got voices used, this is not good for a podcast or, and so yeah.
You, you do those things, but again, man, we powered through it and got a better microphone. So that helped. And so, you know, and, and, and Damon's rock and such a cool mic. I've got Mike in man. He was the coolest Mick. And so I've got. So forgive me, man. I've got a little bit of Mike envy here, so, Oh my gosh.
All right. Well, I appreciate them. I can be, I feel like I missed an opportunity to make a joke about Brian, Brian being a professional lube expert, but so I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna leave. I'm gonna leave it up. Well, you need to make that on. When you come on the intentional encourager podcast, you just need to file the thing away and just save it and drop it there.
So, you know, okay. Be prepared. So.
I, I have had to, to, uh, to bleep out F bombs and things like that. So again, I'm ready for anything. So, you know, it's all good. I kinda, I try to keep the intentional encourager podcast, family friendly. Now I only, now I have room only to disappoint. I think so, man, I think you're going to bring it strong, but, uh, yeah.
But yeah, th th this is, this has been great conversation. And, uh, again, thank you for what you're doing for your community. Um, I have learned from you in watching your, your post on LinkedIn, please, man, follow this guy. If you're not following Damon burden, what are you doing? You need to be following this guy cause he's dropped and you just you're drop knowledge, man.
I learned something from every post that you do. So thank you, man. People like me are benefiting from what people like you are doing. I appreciate it. Like you said, it kind kinda comes around at random times when you get that reinforcement that makes it all worth it. So we're going to leave it at that.
Brian Sexton. I want to give you the last few moments to tell people how they can find out more about you. Yeah. So, uh, the intentional encourage your podcast is on all the podcasts platforms. iHeartMedia, Google play Spotify. I don't think we're on Pandora, but no. Oh, well we've got everything else covered.
Um, but uh, you can find me on LinkedIn at Brian Sexton MBA, and then when you. Typed in, in search bar, the, you know, comes up in my. Profile headline is the intentional encourager. Uh, I'm on Twitter at Sexton, Brian 13, the podcast at intentional ENC one is on Twitter. Uh, Facebook just type in Brian Sexton and a pop-up the intentional encouragers.
So I don't do Snapchat and I don't do Instagram because I'm not 20 I'm 48. And so I leave that to my 20 year old son to maybe me he'll help dad out and get us an Instagram or something. I say this, I say the same thing about Tik TOK. Yeah. I don't do tick. I like take tax, but I don't like, I don't do tick tock.
That was the like orange. That was the worst joke ever. That was so worst that man, it is what it is, dude. I lose it. I know my own limitations. And then I've got my son, my son came to me. I get, I get to tell you this really quick. My son came to me one day. He said, dad, I'm going to start a podcast. And his name is Bryce.
I said, Yar Bryce. And see, he said, yeah, he said, it's the unintentional discourage your podcast to have a counterbalance to what you're doing. Uh, Mike, my kid, man. I tell you what your, your boys, man, you are, you are in for it. My man is my kid, my kid. Yeah. My kid I'm like as much as I thought, like, okay, he's got his no.
He just comes up with stuff, man. And I told my wife, one day, I said, listen, looked her right in the eye, Damon. I said, listen, as long as he's alive, I'll never die. Because he looks like me and, and, and, and things like that. So, yeah, man, your day's coming and, uh, I'm going to get the grade and the beard, I already got the gray.
I already got the all zoom. Yeah. They do an outstanding job of hide my man. I got to know what your product, my mic is right here. No doubt. But listen, I want to connect with as many people as I can send me a message, you know, um, again, I just want to. Do what I can to help so many people out there professionally and personally that are kind of walking this road, like we're doing man, you know, we're all just kind of feeling our way through it, but.
Damon brother, this has been so good, man. I am so honored to be a part of your podcast and thank you for the time. And, uh, looking forward to, by the way, Daymond Burton is going to be on an intentional encourage your podcast. So you got to check that one out too. So we got Tom Ziglar, we've got Dale Dupree, we've got our Robertson from duck dynasty.
We've got a whole host of people that, you know, Christian Sherry, a lot of LinkedIn influencers, my friends that have come on the podcast and. I'd be honored if you check it out, um, intentional, encourage your podcast.podbean.com. So that's another way to get to it. But man, thank you for the time. I, my honor, and my privilege to be here today.
Yeah. Yeah. I appreciate your time, Brian, and you and I will chat soon. Thanks so much.