Robert Barber, Author of CEO for Life

Skills That Transcend Any Job, Career or Business

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Robert Barber is a certified high-performance business coach, best-selling author, podcaster and serial entrepreneur with over $917 million in sales. ⁣ He’s done it all; engineer, corporate executive, failed entrepreneur and of course — successful entrepreneur. He’s climbed the corporate ladder, and built his own real estate business from the ground up. We’re going to dissect his career, and more importantly, the most integral skills you need to understand, learn and implement in your life if you’re going to excel in your business, or corporate career.

Show Links

https://twitter.com/robertlbarber

https://www.royiacademy.com/

Books (Aff Link)

CEO for Life: Gain Full Control of Your Life and Your Business Forever Kindle Edition — https://amzn.to/3hhouUO

Show Sponsor

Gusto

Promo Details: gusto.com/scott (3 months free payroll / platform services)

Gusto’s people platform helps businesses like yours onboard, pay, insure, and support your hardworking team. Payroll, benefits, and more.

Talking Points

00:00 — Robert Barber, Author of CEO for Life

03:47 — Changes & chances.

07:54 — Are you feeling too comfortable in your role?

13:36 — Success takes 10 years.

17:00 — Everyone is in sales.

22:39 — The importance of time management.

27:25 — How do you run your life like a CEO?

32:30 — On accountability.

36:25 — How to find a mentor.

41:35 — What inspires you to do your best work?

SUCCESS STORY PODCAST

Stories worth telling.

Welcome to the Success Story Podcast, hosted entrepreneur, intrapreneur, investor, executive, public speaker & podcaster, Scott D. Clary.

On this podcast, you’ll find interviews, Q&A, keynote presentations & conversations on sales, marketing, business, startups and entrepreneurship.

Scott will discuss some of the lessons he’s learned over his own career, as well as have candid interviews with execs, celebrities, notable figures and politicians. All who have achieved success through both wins and losses, to learn more about their life, their ideas and insights.

He sits down with leaders and mentors and unpacks their story to help pass those lessons onto others through both experiences and tactical strategy for business professionals, entrepreneurs and everyone in between.

Website: https://www.scottdclary.com

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LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/scottdclary

Read The Transcription (Machine Generated)

Scott: [00:00:00] Thanks again for joining me on another episode of the success story podcast, we have an amazing show for you today. I got Robert Barber. He is the author of CEO for life. A little bit Coles knows of his career. She was an HR exec. I one of the largest organizations, largest companies in the world. He left that thought he could make a killing in real estate.

Almost went bankrupt and then found, found an opportunity, a real estate opportunity. I’m not gonna say. Well, a few that they’re really worked out for him. After a lot of hardships living the entrepreneurial life, he retired as a millionaire. When he finally doubled down on what was working, he retired very young.

And now he’s writing a book. He runs a podcast. He’s doing things that he enjoys. He’s, you know, he’s living, he’s living the dream. We’re going to break down his. Career, we’re going to talk about why he left a, you know, a comfort, comfortable job what went wrong when he first started to try and build his own real estate empire, and then what went right.

And then we’re gonna talk about what he’s doing now, which is he, he does some coaching. He does some consulting. A lot of people call themselves coaches. A lot of people call themselves consultants. What should you look for when you’re looking to hire a coach or a consultant? Because he recognizes a lot of bullshit in the industry.

A lot of red flags, a lot of people you should stay away from. So we’re going to, we’re going to walk through that and you’ll probably come away with quite a few great career lessons, entrepreneur lessons, but also lessons they, you should think about when you’re trying to find somebody who you want.

To learn from cause it’s important to align with people, but there’s a lot, like I said, a lot of bullshit out there. You have to be careful who you work with and who you trust and who you learned from. Also thank you for the sponsor of today’s show. Gusto. Gusto is an incredible solution. They help entrepreneurs, business owners, CFOs.

With payroll, HR, basically they get rid of all the admin stuff, the stuff that anybody who’s trying to build a business doesn’t want to have to deal with and they make it much easier for you. So like all sponsors, they always give us a special offer around halfway in the podcast. You’re going to hear this.

Special offer from Gusto. So definitely stay tuned and look out for that because it is a great software and it really does help anybody. Who’s trying to build a business or scale the operations side of a business. All right, let’s get right into it. Super excited. Another episode of success story podcast with Robert.

All right. Thanks again for joining me today, I’m sitting down with Robert Barber. He is a certified coach. He is an Amazon best selling author. He is a multimillion dollar real estate sales individual past fortune 150 C-level executive. Podcast hosts, keynote speaker, entrepreneur, as well as according to his LinkedIn bio avid hiker.

Thanks Rob, for coming on. I, you know, we did a show a while back and I’m glad to bring you on and, and unpack your story because you have a lot of accolades. So I want to understand your journey in life and how you got to doing what. What is you’re doing now?

Robert: [00:02:59] Yeah, man, I appreciate you hanging out it’s… you know, when we got a chance to jam on, on the other podcasts and stuff, it was great just to get your perspective on life and I’ve gotten a lot of good feedback about your take on and your journey. So I’m glad to be here and maybe share a little bit with your audience too. So, and thanks for having me.

Scott: [00:03:13] No, it’s my pleasure. And I’m excited to chat with you because you have a very colored background in a good way. Very similar to. You know, sort of my background, you came from big business working for large organization, then it’s entrepreneurship in real estate. And then now other types of forms of entrepreneurship.

So just. Walk me through your career path and how you came to what you’re doing now and, and all the way back to running companies, electrical engineering, I think, through to HR. And there’s a whole story there as well. So let’s go into that.

Robert: [00:03:47] Yeah, absolutely. So you know, I think the one takeaway for everyone listening is there is no straight path and you gotta be willing to take a lot of changes and chances.

So, you know, I got a degree as an electrical engineer You know, I was the first one in my family to go to college. Never really had plans going to college, ended up doing that. I picked engineering because they made good money. And I liked the math, but but it wasn’t my passion, which is, which is really interesting.

And I, and I had to learn that the hard way. So I spent three years as an engineer, man, and I was awful. There’s no way they should have gained a degree there. I mean, it just, I was not a good engineer. So so I decided after three years, my self-awareness kicked in, you know, it’s still young at that point.

And and so I said and my soon to be wife, I said, maybe I should try human resources. I like people. And recruiting’s probably pretty fun. I’ll go back to colleges. That sounds like fun. And and so I went and interviewed for recruiting position and the director of human resources told me engineers make.

Awful people, people. And so I didn’t get the job. I mean, they actually told me that. Right. And and it was funny because about three weeks later, but he had started up a, had a startup division. That was a rollout. And and they offered me a position to come on. As in HR, But they said, if the, the company folded, then I’d be out of a job.

And I was like, all right, well, cool. I’m off of what I do. So let me at least try that. And that was the rocket of my career. So I guess the takeaway with that is, you know, don’t be afraid to bet on yourself. So I jumped into human resources, fell in love with it, did it for 13 years. It was great. It was a great experience.

Got to travel. We grew the company from two States to 26 States. By the time that I left, we had a, you know, Thousands of employees across the United States and internationally. And I was in a response and I was responsible for the human resources function. So it was a lot of fun. But at the same time, what’s good and bad.

Is that being in human resources, I got to see what everybody made in terms of money. So the people in operations were making three times what, you know, I was making. But, you know, I had just as much of an impact in the bottom line, right? I mean, I was negotiating labor contracts for billion dollar power plants, and you know, it just, that’s just the way that it is, you know, back office functions are just not.

Seen as value as valuable. Right. And I don’t know, is that been your experience? I mean,

Scott: [00:06:02] you know, it’s been always my experiences, which is why I always defaulted to sales because I always knew that that’s where you can make as much as you make the most money. And to be honest, I don’t know if that the good driver for a career, but I’ve always, I’ve always loved the thought of working in marketing.

But every time I look at the potential paycheck, you default to sale and I’ve worked in both roles, like I’ve, I’ve done both over my career, but you always just think like, wow, you know, that’s shaving. You know, a hundred thousand, 150,000 off your potential paycheck in some, in some rules that it’s that serious.

And I actually don’t agree with it. I think it’s a very outdated mindset, but people that make the money for the company, you know, the revenue generating business, even if you make a lot of money, but anyways, yeah. So electrical engineering, moving to HR, I’m assuming that was already a, that was probably a pay cut in and of itself.

No.

Robert: [00:06:51] It took me, well, my career path, I went first. I went in high, but then it plateaued, right? Yeah. So my growth from that standpoint, but that was another reason, you know, going into the unregulated side of the business that I was in. I was being benchmark against other, other higher end sales and trading organizations.

So my pay grow. But, you know, if I would have stayed where I was at, it would have been stagnant, but you know, it was, it was a good gamble and it was a good, you know, one of the things I was told early on, because, you know, I worked with a lot of the sales guys and girls was, I was told that the closer you are to the dollar, the more money you make.

And so, I mean, that’s just a function of how it works. It’s

Scott: [00:07:31] a stack. So, so you, you, you grew, obviously it was successful. You didn’t lose the job. You grow the, you grew this opportunity. You grew up, you grew this business. So it was very successful. Now you’re now you’re HR executive. I’m assuming in a, in a relatively.

A relatively successful business. What made you what’s what’s the next move that you took after that?

Robert: [00:07:54] So, you know, I have this you know, and you know, real up front is like, you know, I’ve had anxiety throughout my life. And so I have this, I guess, disease for comfort, right. When I really get comfortable, I start worrying about like, okay, when are the wheels going to come off?

Right. So I, I tend to then make drastic changes and really shake things up to see what’s going to happen. It’s kind of a control thing for me. Right. And and so like I’d rather shake things up instead of being shook up. Yeah. It’s interesting. You want to get ahead of it? Yeah. It’s, it’s, you know, again, it’s not, I don’t, it’s not necessarily a good personal trait, but it’s just my trait.

Right. And I talk about it in the book. I talk specifically about you know, how, how comfort is a disease for me at the way I look at it and you know, it can just be that way, but. So 2006, I’m flying back back home. I’m, you know, I’m gone basically three weeks a month at this point, traveling all over the place.

I have a young kid and another one on the way, and you know, well, actually, so. And I’m sitting there calculating how much of my marriage I’m missing. Right. And I’m like, okay, this is not going to be good. Long-term at least not for what I wanted. And so I decided that I’m, at that point in time, I could take a chance, jump into entrepreneurship.

And so I started looking at the quickest ways to become an entrepreneur. And what I found was real estate was a really lucrative way to jump right into entrepreneurship. And there’s so many things you can do with real estate, right? You can do sales, you can do investing, you can do construction. I mean, there’s just so many things that you can do.

And so I decided to get into commercial real estate. I had a family friend who does, who offered to be a mentor to me. And so in 2006 July, I jumped out of my job. I went and turned in my resignation. You know, they tried to talk me out of it, but I really wanted to do this. I really wanted to test myself.

It’s that comfort thing. Right. So I jumped into real estate and literally, what was that? Eight months later, nine months later, the market crashes absolutely crashes, right? So this is 2007 now eight, and I’m going broke, burning through all my savings. You know, there’s no money coming in. There’s no, there’s no outlook of this ever changing very quickly.

You know, but luckily enough, I did find a partner and I think the key takeaway from this is that if you’re it’s, it’s always good to have a partner in any business that you’re in. It’s better to be two, three or a band of people. And even if you just want to have someone, not an equity person, at least have a band of advisors or mentors, That can help you.

That’s so super critical. So I found my business partner and we went into equity together and we started an auction company from scratch because that seemed to be the biggest opportunity is the market had come to a grinding halt. No one knew what value was in real estate. And so what we said is, well, auction is the truest way to find a market.

Let’s put a bunch of people together in a room, let them honestly decide what something is worth, not the realtor, not in, you know, not an appraiser. But let the market decide. And that’s what we did. We did 850 real estate auctions over the next couple of years. And we were the largest auction company in the West central Florida.

We only did real estate. We worked for every major bank in servicer on the planet. And and we really had a good run at it. And so that was a lot of fun from there. We jumped into being hired by some hedge funds to do some investing for them. And then and then right after that, a friend that we made through that process was starting a retail company and asked us if we wanted to come in as partners.

And we did. And when I decided to exit in 2019, we just closed the year with 917 million in sales that year. So it was, it was a ride, man. It wasn’t, but it wasn’t easy,

Scott: [00:11:28] but you know, a lot of, a lot of really good lessons that. I hope people take out of this, like align with mentors, align at advisors. You don’t have to do it all on your own.

It’s better to own a part of something than all or nothing. And then plus you were pretty damn good at pivoting when shit hit the fan. And that’s probably, you know, in terms of going into real estate, the time you went into real estate, You can not pick a worst, go into an entrepreneurial venture. So like, if, if you can survive that, then everything else that people struggle with.

Yeah. It’s tough sometimes, but you can do it. That’s that’s, that’s really it.

Robert: [00:12:04] Yeah. You know, that I look back at that time of, you know, looking at my family, looking at the decision that I made, because I did think about going back and trying to get my job back. I mean, there were those, those nights you know, usually at the end of the month, right.

And Yeah. And when I look back at that time, though, it really did a lot of things for me because when I left corporate and I went into real estate, man, my ego was huge. I had a big ego. You know, I felt like I could really take anything on, in that time of, of Valley Venus. I call it they really helped me check my ego, really understand what I wanted to do.

And, and I never looked back after that. I just went forward. So. You know, that was a, that was an interesting moment in time. And so anyone who’s listening to see fear in your Valley moment, you know, it’s a grow time.

Scott: [00:12:49] I think. I think that you know, you, you, you luckily came out of it. I I’m, I’m not. I don’t know the timeframe.

Exactly, but it may be like six months, a year, whatever, till things started to pick up. But I think that that’s something that all entrepreneurs, when they try and do something for the first time they’re going to hit it at some point. And it could drag on for two, three, four years. Like it’s not always so nice when you go from.

You, you leave your job, you start something, it doesn’t work. And then a year later it does work. Like that’s even as shitty as your situation was your, your Valley time. I love that it’s, it can drag on for a bit, but if you’re moving in the right direction, then that’s, that’s really where you win. You never see somebody do something for 10 years.

And at the, at the 10th year, they’re unsuccessful. It’s the people that quit after year two, year three.

Robert: [00:13:36] Yeah, that’s a beautiful, yeah. You make a beautiful point there because, you know, and, and I never believed, I didn’t believe it to begin with, but I, you know, I read all the business books and stuff and they said, Oh, it takes 10 years.

It takes 10 years. Right. That was the common theme takes 10 years take 10 years. And I’m like, okay. And then it really does. It takes that five to 10 years for you to really hit a stride with a business. And it’s just going to take you that long and you just gotta make it through just real quick story.

I just, I was just thinking about, so. I just, I wanted to communicate to people the start. Right? So when we decided to do an auction business, we’d never done an auction in our lives, right. I mean, a live auction with people, right? Paperwork, I mean, documents, selling real estate, everything else. And so we get this client to to go ahead and in, let us sell this house.

And and so we actually showed up to the house. We had no idea, you know, we thought, well, we knew we’re going to do, we went into the house and And so we took his, his portable bar from the house. We put it in the backyard, we set up chairs from the dining room in the backyard and we had this auction and we sold the house for more than he wanted.

And he was like, this, this, like, it was this crazy, the moment that, you know, what, if we wouldn’t have done that, what if we just wouldn’t have tried? You know, what that, what would that have looked like? You know, I know you have a lot of those start moments where, you know, I mean, you’re obviously a guy who, who runs a lot of businesses and so starting it probably right.

It’s key.

Scott: [00:15:01] Starting is key. Realizing that it’s never going to work. The first, the first iteration is never going to work, dealing with all the shit that comes with starting something new and the stress and the figuring it out like the constant, figuring it out at the beautiful story though. I really liked the story because if you hadn’t done that, there’s a good chance.

It wouldn’t have sold. And if you hadn’t sold that one house, Then you may have just, most people would just like, Oh, it’s not for me. I don’t know what I’m doing here. This is like, you know, it’s never going to work out, but you, you, you lucked out you, you came with a good idea, you actioned on it and it, and it, and it worked.

And now as a startup, well, I’m assuming that was the most lucrative. Portion of your career, like that was the, the, the entry level into successful entrepreneurship doing your own thing. And then eventually when you’re selling, you know, $900 million of real estate, like that’s, that’s pretty, that’s pretty damn good.

Robert: [00:15:51] So yeah, it was you know, it was you know, selling real estate can be very lucrative. But it is a hundred percent a commission business and you have to hustle. If you’re not hustling today, you’re not getting paid six months from today. And and it’s no, it’s, it’s, it’s a doggy dog. I mean, it’s tough.

It’s a tough slog, slug it out. And it, you know, venture, but at the same time, it’s. Incredibly lucrative, not only from an investment side, but also, you know, but it’s also great because it’s deal making. That’s what I, that’s what I learned about myself during that time is that I necessarily wasn’t in love with real estate.

As much as I was in love with doing the deal, doing the deal was like a drug. Right. And, and you know that because you’re in sales, anyone in singles, when you do the deal, man, there’s nothing better.

Scott: [00:16:38] Yeah. And you, how, I’m just curious, what tips going into let’s call it sales because it is sales. What did you, how did you learn how to do that with an HR and an electrical engineering background?

You hadn’t, you had no sales experience. Well, you did, I guess an HR a little bit, cause you’re brokering deals there, but. How do you, how do you manage that? How did you learn?

Robert: [00:17:00] So what I learned in the end, quite honestly, so, so my mom was 17 when she had me. Right. So, and my mom was a tremendously successful business woman and an incredible parent and everything else, but also a great teacher.

So I learned from my mom and, and, and this is really where it came from. But then with the people around me is that. It is, it’s the incremental part that comes with discipline. That is the win, right? It’s doing those little things over and over and over again that are going to make it work for you. And so what I learned quite honestly, was like, I’m a time block King.

I mean, like I am a time block guy. So I think a key to anybody in sales. If you want to go into sales, you have to just consume everything you can about the mindset around time, blocking the philosophies. What works for you get really good at time-blocking is an incredible, incredible concept and a mindset that you have to have if you’re going to do sales period.

Hmm,

Scott: [00:17:57] is that the concept is in my opinion, very important, but I’ve never heard somebody. Speak to it as the precursor to the success in sales. Is it just so there’s so much stuff happening is, and you just have to block it out so that you are just more efficient and without that. You wouldn’t get stuff done.

I’m curious.

Robert: [00:18:18] Yeah. No, the way I look at it is, so it goes back to the only thing you have as a salesperson to sell is your tie. Yeah. Forget the product, forget the service, forget anything else. Right. Really what you’re doing is you’re selling your time. And so if you’re not sacred about your time, you’ve already lost and.

Though. And so that’s the way I looked at. It was like, if someone was willing to steal my time or to try and take my time away, they’re taking food off the table for my family. And I got seriously sacred about my time and, you know, and that’s the way I looked at it. And that just caused me to, to line up everything else.

Right. Who was I going to spend my time with? What deals was I going to go after? What was I going to say? No, to. You know, at the end of the day, could I honestly measure how I did? Absolutely. Because I could look at that time. So everything fell around the time. And if you are in sales, don’t look at it.

Like you’re trying to sell the product because that’s not really what you’re selling, really what you’re selling is where are you putting your time in order to make that thing happen? Yeah,

Scott: [00:19:19] that’s a damn, it makes a ton of sense because said differently if you’re in sales and you’re not qualifying out, if you’re not saying no to people that aren’t a good fit.

If you don’t have a process for that, or you don’t even know what good looks like you’re chasing everything. Cause there’s no shortage of deals out there. But like you said, there’s a shortage of time. And actually the most effective sales reps say no more than they say yes to demos, to meetings, to calls.

And like it’s, it’s honestly even worse in a post COVID world where everything is like an hour long zoom call for no reason. Right. And that can, like, you can. You can do a deal over maybe an hour, an hour and a half zoom call or that, or a smaller deal could take you five, 10 hours. If you get the wrong customer for whatever reason.

And they’re just back and forth and having hauling and negotiating, and that happens sometimes. And you just lose like days of your life chasing the wrong customer.

Robert: [00:20:11] Oh, yeah. You know, in real estate, especially you know, and I know it’s another environments too, but you know, people will come with you and they’ll, and they’ll shake money at you.

Right. And they’ll say, Hey, listen, go find me a deal. I’ll, you know, I needed, I need a place, a million bucks. Right. And so you’re like, man, three to 6% of a million bucks, man, I need to go do that. Right. But really what they’re doing is they’re just, bird-dogging you they’ve got six or seven other people going out, looking for deals.

And if you don’t, if you don’t take care of your time, you could have only bird-dog clients. And guess what. You’re going to, you’re going to go more than broke. You’re gonna go bankrupt.

Scott: [00:20:42] It’s no joke. How do you deal with that? What’s a lesson that you learned in real estate on how to find where to spend your time.

And is it something that we could easily take into other environments so that people can figure out where to not waste time?

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Robert: [00:22:39] Yeah, that’s, that’s super good. Cause I do, you know, cause now I’m in coaching, right? So I’m doing the same, same thing. I’m selling my time, but at this, but with that being said is I got to read, like you said, qualify what those opportunities are, are like. So anyone that is in a sales role or growing a business and trying to figure out how to pick up clients and customers, those kind of things.

The first thing you have to, you have to ask, or you have to do is you have to be a really good listener. You have to listen for the cues. Of what people are telling you. If it, first thing you need to know, if it sounds too good to be true and you don’t have to really work hard to make it happen, guess what?

Let’s do. Good to be true. Yeah. And you know, that’s, that’s the first thing. That’s the first thing you qualify if it really, if it sounds too good and it’s too easy it’s not. It never had those things don’t happen. You’re going to hit singles a lot more than you’re going to hit those home runs. So, you know, look for the singles, always, you know, what are the deals that I can get done that I know that are real, that can make happen and and get rid of that swinging for the fences mentality.

Scott: [00:23:47] Yeah. No, it’s, it’s very good advice. What, now I’m curious, I’m curious what you’re working with now. So let’s, let’s keep going down the career path because that will dovetail into some great questions as to what you’re helping people with out right now after your career. So what’s next after you, after you exit real estate and you’re done that.

What are you doing now? What’s, what’s the book what’s coaching. What’s your Academy, all that stuff. And why are you doing that?

Robert: [00:24:11] Yeah, so so I was, I was in my last two years as a partner and I found myself coaching more than I was really doing the sales anymore. And I was finding my joy in there. I found a new joy, right.

The deal-making was fun, but what I was really enjoying was watching other people be successful in working through the, and I was finding my joy through that process. And and so I decided that I wanted to get coaching and I talked to my partner partners. They talked me out of it twice. But I finally actually made that happen.

And and so w so I did, so I jumped in and I created a coaching company called the return on your investment Academy because I wanted it to tie back to money because everything does come back to money in terms of, you know, a basis of. Successful measure, but really there’s another piece to it, which is how are you investing in you?

Right. If you invest in you, then the money will come. So it’s a return on your investment Academy. So I started a coaching Academy. I went and got certified. I’m a certified high performance coach. So I carry some credentials with me. And and I started this company and along those lines, I started to reflect a little bit, especially when COVID happened is.

Is this mindset that came to me about a CEO, right? I’m coaching executives, I’m coaching, you know, CEOs of entrepreneurs for their own company. And I’m really thinking about what it is that makes them successful. And what I began to realize is that there, this concept of work-life balance and all this other stuff is really flawed because what I see in the most successful people, and I also see it in my own life is that I’m no different at home than I am in my job.

I’m I’m the same person. Right? And so why do we break apart the workplace in the life place really let’s bring those two things together. And if you can bring those three things together, you will be successfully rounded. And so I started thinking about the CEO. Job description. And if you go through a CEO’s job description, you’ll see it’s a lot like how you should live your life.

You should have a vision. You should have mission. You should have goals. You should know who the people are that are around you. As your shareholders, you should be able to say, no, you should have values. You should set boundaries. You should know how to deal with, you know, a lot of shit every day because it’s going to come.

And so, you know, all of those things. And so I wrote this book CEO for life for that purpose is to try and bring the concept together for people that. You really should be the same person in the workplace in life place. So, yeah. A lot of fun. I’ve really enjoyed it. No,

Scott: [00:26:32] I appreciate the transitioning. I think actually you probably, your love for coaching probably comes from your, your love for helping people.

And that’s actually probably why you transitioned from electrical engineering to HR in the first place. I’m just reading along your career. It makes like, it makes a lot of sense that you keep defaulting to and what you sort of Excel at. But I guess, I guess my question, you know, the CEO for life, I love the, I love the.

Analogy that you have to run your life like a CEO. So how do we solve, how do we solve for that? How do we remove the work? Life and the, and the personal life, because there’s things that I’m sure like this is ingrained in people. Like they have to act one way at work and they enact differently at home.

So what are the actionable steps that you can start doing? Or it’s just a matter of finding the right organization that also recognizes that they want. A certain authenticity in who they hire. How do you fix

Robert: [00:27:25] that? Great. That’s a great conversation. It’s a super conversation. So the first thing is you have to work your roadmap to make sure that your, your life and your work, who you are maps to what a CEO is.

Right. Do you have, okay, first thing you got to know is, do you have some level of self-awareness listen, if you’re a Dick, it ain’t going to work no matter what you do, right. I mean, you know, or if you’re a bad person or, you know, whatever, whatever label you want to call it, in terms of being a jerk or working difficult with people, you have to some have some level of self-awareness.

Once you have some self-awareness from there, you can decide, okay, well, what is the vision for my life? And what I tell people is their vision is never big enough. When I sit down with clients and I talk to them. Tell me about your vision for your life. It’s never big enough. It’s never big enough. It’s always.

It’s always, well, this year I want to do this, or, you know, we’re looking to buy this house or, you know, we’re you know, one of my kids, kids to college. Well, what I talk about in the book, his dream generationally, you know, a CEO, doesn’t the CEO measures in a year or a quarter, but when they look at casting vision for the company, they’re thinking five years, 10 years, 30 years.

Where, where are we going to turn this ship and take it to, you know, Elon Musk is looking at Mars. He’s not, he’s not just thinking about trying to get this thing to go up and then come back down. Right. I mean, he’s so dreaming, generally generationally is super important, so self-awareness and making sure you have a big dream.

And then from there, you can begin to put your roadmap together. Okay. So what are the goals that are going to get you there? What values are going to keep you in line? Right? You’re not going to cross any ethical barriers. So those kinds of things. Then what are the people that you’re surrounding yourself with?

Who are your shareholders? Listen, it’s it’s cliche, but it’s truth. I guarantee if you look at the people you spend the most time with the five people you spend the most time with you eat, where they eat, you listen to the same music, they do. You dress like them. You talk like them, you drink the same beers or wine.

I mean, that’s just what we do, right. It’s fun because I have a six-year-old daughter and it’s just so apparent in in, in her boyfriend, all the boys in high school. They dress the same. They have the same Bieber haircut. They all miss that same music. They all drive the same trucks. They all eat the same things.

Right. And it’s so apparent in, in, in high schoolers that, but it never leaves us. We’re always there. So who are you leveling up in your sphere? And then from there you can then begin to say, okay, now that I have all these pieces in place, how am I, how am I. Learning to work within that. And that comes with having this firefighter mindset is I was told a long time ago, you live your life in three States.

You’re either in a storm coming out of a storm or going into a storm that is life. Period. And so you better be preparing today for that storm that you’re either in going into or coming out of in everyday, be, be a good firefighter. So those are the things that are, that are wrapped up in the book and they’ll have practical exercises around it.

And that’s, that’s what I’m trying to help people find is that direction for their CEO. And do you

Scott: [00:30:24] find those are good lessons and so the context of the books book makes sense. Excuse me. Do you find that. That’s similar to what people reach out to you for when they look for business, business advice or coaching advice.

Are those, is that the core problem that they’re trying to solve? Or what other types of coaching do you actually work with people on outside of this? CEO work-life balance.

Robert: [00:30:50] Sure. And so it’s, you know, co coaching is so interesting to me is because it I guess the easiest way to say it is everybody that I coach already knows what they need to do.

We all do. We all know, we need to lose weight or we need to exercise, or we need to do this, or I need to pick up the phone and make those phone calls, or, you know, I need to get my accounting and everybody knows what they need to do, but what they need is someone to speak that truth into them. So they can, they can then release themselves to go do it.

And that’s really what coaching does. It allows a person to release themselves into what they know they need to do. Because what happens often is we get caught up in this mental chatter, right? We talk to ourselves in our head four times more than we talked to a person verbally. So you’re having a conversation in your head four times more than you’re having a conversation with someone else.

And so we get lost in that, but sometimes you need that person to have that verbal conversation with make some accountability, go with that. So that’s what I spend a lot of time with people is we first start at what is it? That you’re not doing that, you know, you should do. And from there, everything else unravels.

We put a plan in place. We execute on that plan. And my normal coaching time is 12 weeks at the end of 12 weeks. I mean, they’ve, they’ve gone way beyond they ever thought they would have in from the beginning.

Scott: [00:32:08] And do you find, I I’m going to, I think I know the answer to this because of accountability and because of what you just said, but do you find that people have improved results when they.

Pay an individual pay somebody to actually do the coaching. Versus they find mentors. They find advisors, they go learn on their own,

Robert: [00:32:30] you know, it’s funny it, so here’s, here’s my analysis of that. It’s not, it’s not even the amount of money, what it is. Is the fact that they’re having to tell somebody else that’s close to them in their sphere that they’re spending money to do this.

So it’s not in my accountability as a coach. It’s the accountability that comes from the people that surrounding those people that they’ve invited sit in this. And so that is the actual push that makes them stay in place. It’s not even me as the accountability. It’s the fact that. The people around them, you know, they, they talk about, you know, you can read stuff about addictions and those kind of things.

Yeah. Admitting to someone that you’re going to change and that you’re going to do that that’s in your sphere is the most powerful way to make something happen. And so it’s funny, you know, you would think it’s just that fact that, Hey, listen, I paid Rob X. And so now you know what to make these happen, but it’s more that I had to have a conversation with my wife or my spouse or my partner or whoever it is that I’m doing.

This that’s really what holds somebody accountable. It’s really an interesting thing that I never thought, but it

Scott: [00:33:29] is sense and I’ve seen it. So I’ve never, I’ve never paid for professional coaching. I have mentors and whatnot, and I, and I’ve aligned to people. But then again, I think about it and I’ve bought, I bought education before, but I see it because I paid for a personal trainer and I paid for somebody that I needed to be accountable to.

And it’s just this level of. Of clarity and where you have to end up when there’s yes. Your own circle, you’re putting money into it. And then that person also, the trainer is holding you accountable. It’s just, it’s a different level. It’s like a fast tracked education. And I, and I’m saying this just because I find the concept of coaching.

Interesting, because there’s always those people that pushed back and they’re like, yeah, You can just figure it out yourself and you can just go learn it yourself. And I think that also to be quite honest, what’s unfortunate is that there’s so many people that proclaim themselves, coaches, that the industry is inundated with people just trying to teach things.

They think they are good at teaching and you have to filter through a lot of garbage to find people that are actually effective at teaching you stuff. But like, I, you know, it’s just, it’s just like, once you do find that person. It’s like, you’ll move like five years. You’ll advance five years in a business or in a career or in your mindset that would have taken you.

Much longer to, to figure out yourself, even if you weren’t motivated, right? Yeah.

Robert: [00:34:51] Yeah. It’s funny you say that too, because you know, probably probably a, realtor’s probably one step above a coach, right? Cause everybody’s got a real estate Lexus. That’s just about right. I mean, honestly, it’s a low barrier entry.

I mean, opportunity. I mean, you know, you just go, you take your class, you sit for your test and you know, and then you walk out and you’re supposedly supposed to know how to do a deal. And, you know, that’s not the case. And so, you know, so realtors, at least in Florida and in the market that I was in you know, the there was 7,000 realtors in my market.

The average number of deals they did a year was 2.5. So the average realtor did two transactions a year, two in 12 months. And the reason why is because it was somebody’s mother, father, cousin, brother, friend, coworker, boyfriend, whatever. Right. But that person may have never done a deal before. And, and. And I saw it time and time again, and being the second realtor and someone would hire, you know, I mean, our market was a huge luxury market.

So we were selling multimillion dollar properties and they would have hired someone who’s never even sold, you know, a hundred thousand dollars property to sell their property. And it’s like, there was no interview. There was no thought process. They just. They did it. So a lot of that’s coaches too, is you get wrapped up in the, in the seven funnel.

And next thing you know, you spent a thousand bucks masterclass ebook, and you’re like, what am I doing? Right. You know, but Hey, that’s, that’s what it is. So I guess the thing to say to that, if I can, is just research it and how do you,

Scott: [00:36:21] what are you? Okay, so you’re in, and so what do you look for? Are you interviewed them?

Robert: [00:36:25] Yeah. So, so here’s what I look for is the first is the first thing you got to do is you’ve got to feel a connection with somebody. So, you know, if there’s not a connection, meaning that you have to have a feeling that that person cares about you and has a real interest in you being well, not just trying to sell you something.

If you don’t have that, that gut feeling that this person cares about this process for me, then you need to walk. Then the second thing is look at a person’s background and conduct credentials in and see if it matches up to what you’re trying to accomplish. You know, so like for me a lot of people that I deal with are pivots.

So people that are making a lots of changes in their careers because I’ve gone through it and I’ve done it. A lot of people I deal with are realtors or in sales and marketing positions. And then and then also, you know, I deal with, I have some really high level executives because that’s what I did in the, and you know, it’s a fortune one 50 company.

I mean, you know, so I was dealing with Trump, you know, really highly successful executives and, you know, I was dependent. They were dependent upon me to make, help them make good decisions.

Scott: [00:37:33] Yeah, no, there’s something to be said for it because it just. It just so there’s so many, there’s so many people out there and I appreciate, I appreciate that insight because I am a believer, like, you know, I am a believer.

If you find the right person that can really, really help you Excel in your personal and professional life, but like, it’s just hard to find those people. So that’s why, you know, getting, getting that feedback is important. So, you know, That, that vibe, that, that the feeling that you trust, the person, the feeling that you have a good feeling about them, that goes a long way.

And then of course the credentials are important as well, but you’re right. That seven funnel, you know you’re getting all this, you’re getting inundated with their emails. Like that’s, it’s, it’s it, they turn it into a commodity. A lot of coaches, which I think is unfortunate because I think that when I didn’t even mean to go here, but, you know, You see a lot of people that do coaching, they’re targeting people that are not executives or are not pivots.

These are not people that are hurting financially, but it’s more of the people that are targeting people that have their last, you know, 1500 bucks in the bank. That’s those are the people that I have an issue with. Not people that are getting somebody from. $500,000 a year on their, on their, you know, net income for the year to like seven 50 or pivoting into a different industry.

Those are people that are very, very useful. And those are the people that you should be paying for.

Robert: [00:38:54] See, I think, you know, both of us share a fan base, you know, in the fact that, you know, we, you know, I happen to think a lot of Gary Vaynerchuk and what he does and, and, you know, in some of his models and stuff and, and something that he would always say early on in his speaking engagements, he’s like, He knew it from the beginning in those, in those large conferences or those workshops in those kinds of things, like only 1% of people are actually going to do something with it.

And in my mind, I just can’t accept that. Right. I just, you know, I’d much rather work with someone one-on-one or a small team or a group of people we’re actually getting some results instead of, you know, proclaiming here’s the gospel. And then hopefully somebody is going to go do something with it. Right.

You know, so yeah. Yeah. You know, but that’s where we’re at right now is, you know, a lot of people are seeking. They’re trying to find, they’re trying to do discovery and you know, I’m not saying that anyone’s trying to take advantage of anybody, but what I’m saying is at some point you got to get granule, he got to get surgical.

He have to go and really do the work,

Scott: [00:39:50] right? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. That’s important too. And that’s why I think that when you have a model that. Perhaps, perhaps it’s more like a high performance coach. You’re, you’re more, one-on-one like you’re more interacting daily versus just you learning or like one teacher to like 5,000 students, which obviously is never gonna have the same impact.

Right. So no, very good. Yeah, so I guess I always like to, I like to ask some like rapid fire stuff at the end. Just like life lessons. Is there anything else that you want it to go into? Cause we went into your career you know, your learning as a, through entrepreneurship, some of your strategies for being successful, like what you’re working on now, was there anything we didn’t touch on?

Robert: [00:40:32] No. I think, you know, if, if anything, I just want to impress upon people that you know, again, it’s just about starting, you are the CEO for your life. It’s a job that you were given the day you were born own it. You can’t delegate it. You can’t give it to anybody else. You can’t hire somebody else to do it.

It is you. And so own it because it’s the greatest job you’ll ever have is being the CEO for your life. I love it.

Scott: [00:40:53] Complete ownership, extreme ownership. What’s that? That’s a book by a, by a Jaco Willink, I think extreme ownership. That’s a good point. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Some rapid fire questions.

Biggest challenge in your career,

Robert: [00:41:07] myself, that mental chatter. You know, I mean, so like I expressed before, I’ve gone through anxiety a few times in my life, you know, I read clinically saw somebody for it because there was so much into my head. I’m a controlling, I’m a control person. And so being out of control, whether it’s good or bad, is it still has a stress on me.

So take care of yourself, your wellbeing first, you know, don’t be in your head too much.

Scott: [00:41:29] Good advice. What inspires you to do your best work?

Robert: [00:41:35] Serving others, for sure. There’s no doubt about that. I get my greatest joy in life by there’s a book called halftime and it gives us the concept of you can do this can happen when you’re 18, 1535, 55 65. There’s a point there’s points in your life where you move from success to significance. And when you move from success to significance your life takes on a whole new meaning.

And so. You know, pouring into others and investing in others, serving others. That’s the greatest thing you can do and you can make a lot of money doing it. Yeah.

Scott: [00:42:05] No. Good, good, good, good. A lesson you to tell your younger self,

Robert: [00:42:10] less than to tell the younger self it goes quick.

Scott: [00:42:17] Yeah, it does. Now that that being said, I’ve heard, yes. Life does go quick, but still, what is the saying? Like the days are long, but the years are short. So, yeah. And, and, but also realize that if you are trying to build something of yourself, I’ll contest you on that point only by saying this. If even though life does go quick five years or 10 years committed to something is not a long time.

So you put it in, put in that time.

Robert: [00:42:44] Yeah. Yeah, you got to flip it. And again, you know, going back to that sacredness time really needs to be sacred. You’ve got time behind me in a picture format and in front of you and the other, I keep it in front of me and behind me because I am fanatical about time, you know, like, you know, it’s just.

You know, I, I mean, we have a saying in our family it’s if you’re early, you’re on time. If you’re on time, you’re late. And if you’re late, it’s unacceptable. Right. And you know, that’s just, you know, that’s, you gotta have sit time is very sacred. It’s respectful. It’s sacred. It’s important. So, yeah. Yeah.

Very good.

Scott: [00:43:21] And you sort of answered this already, but favorite resource podcast book mentor, something that somebody should go check out.

Robert: [00:43:30] Yeah, I think you know, this is awful, but like right now, for some reason I’m on Barstool sports, like all that.

Scott: [00:43:40] Yeah. It’s good.

You can learn some trading advice from Dave, right?

Robert: [00:43:47] Yeah. Tell me why it’s because. It’s great to watch the story of Barstool, what it started to, what it started as, what it’s become in the loyalty that group has for each other. You know, I don’t, I don’t think it’s unauthentic what they put out into the world.

I think they truly are a family. They have their issues. You know, it’s like this dysfunctional family, but they all got each other’s back and, and I just, I thrive off of that. It gives me energy. I love it. Yeah. It’s good.

Scott: [00:44:16] It is good. They’re they’re they’re funny. I don’t think do much else like them. Yeah.

Yeah. Sorry. What’d you say? I didn’t hear what you said.

Robert: [00:44:26] Oh, and I like pizza, you know, Dave’s pizza is right.

Scott: [00:44:30] Yeah. That’s good. That is good. Okay. And last, last question, before I get some some socials and website from you what does success mean to you?

Robert: [00:44:39] Oh, I, Oh, that’s, that’s super easy. I mean, success is literally my family.

I mean, you know, it’s, it’s very cliche to say that, right. Because that’s what everybody says, but you know, that’s where things are at. And I mean, that’s why I originally left the job that I had. You know, I had a great job, but I was traveling three weeks a month and I knew it was a recipe for. That is an Aster.

And so, you know, I had to make a choice to do that. So I think investing in my family, I mean, that’s just, it’s been the best. Go ahead. And we can do it.

Scott: [00:45:13] You can do it. Yeah. And by the way, that’s, that is a good answer. It’s a great answer, but not everybody gives that answer if people it’s funny question.

Cause everybody thinks of it, interpret it differently based on where their minds are. And what’s, it what’s a priority in their life. Usually, usually freedom family. Some people say money you know, like more, more monetary drivers or, or or, or what’s the, what’s the word I’m looking for? Like, just like indications of success.

But a lot of it is like freedom family, things that are not so tied to the personal wealth. And then most importantly your socials, where can people email you connect with you website?

Robert: [00:45:45] Yes. So the best place to find me and connect with me is on LinkedIn. So Robert Lee barber on LinkedIn. So you’ll find me there.

That’s the easiest way to connect and I would love to just to talk to anybody and help them out in any way that, again, I do believe that connection is the greatest way to find opportunity. So let’s connect.