From Corporate Cog to Entrepreneurial Success: The Journey of Brandon Schaefer

Tim Melanson: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome to today’s episode of the work at home rockstar podcast. I’m excited for today’s guest. He is the founder and CEO of five capitals LLC. And what he does is he helps, business leaders to provide them with practical tools, coaching and resources to, help them if they’re stuck or frustrated.

So I’m excited to be rocking out today with Brandon Schaefer. Hey, Brandon, you ready to rock?

Brandon Schaefer: Tim, let’s do this. Come on. Excited to be here.

Tim Melanson: Beautiful. So we always start off here at a good note. Tell me a story of success that we can be inspired by.

Brandon Schaefer: Yeah, sure. Um, about, uh, 12 years ago, I was just a cog of the machine. I was an employee of a, of a consulting company, one of their key consultants. And, uh, a number of things happened above my pay grade. And, uh, the, uh, the founder CEO decided to retire to quit to actually moved, uh, 4 hours north. And I was left literally overnight.

I was actually in Australia and my cell phone got cut off because no one had paid the bill and, um, uh, realized, hey, I’m out. I’m out of a [00:01:00] job. Uh, I did have, it’s not all doom and gloom. I did have a book of clients, uh, that I asked to come with me and, uh, about, uh, 40% did, uh, you know, the, um, other 60% decided to go with other people.

It was a kind of a team effort. And so there I was, young, young family, um, you know, trying to figure out how, how do I kind of climb out from here? And, uh, the first thing I did is I asked for referrals. From the 40 percent a few did give some referrals and I started working the phones, decided not to have any kind of victim mentality.

It’s kind of survive, uh, survivor die mode. And out of that came five capitals, uh, coaching consulting. Now we do certification two, three times a year. We’ve got a tribe of, uh, 40 coaches all over. Mostly in the U. S. But some in other countries as well. And through a lot of grit and hard work, we dug out of that ditch, if you will.

And, um, it’s a story of success. And looking back, I’m not [00:02:00] don’t I was in the twilight zone. Not sure how I did it. It was all it’s all kind of foggy. But, uh, God, God got me through. And here we are today.

Tim Melanson: Wow. You know, it’s funny how, uh, many of the good notes follow are following a bad note too, right? Something bad happens and all of a sudden something good comes out of it, right?

Brandon Schaefer: Isn’t that right? Isn’t that the truth, right? I mean, we all learn from our failures. Uh, if we allow failure to be our teacher, we can get a ton out of it. Probably way more than our success is the reality. Um, but it takes great hard work to be that introspective and also get up every day. And when, when you find ourselves in that extended season of, of the chips being down.

Tim Melanson: Yeah, absolutely. So now that particular bad note, though, didn’t really, wasn’t really your fault. I mean, it was something that was out of your control, but I’m wondering, can you share a bad note that maybe was something that was a mistake that you’d made that we can learn from? Hmm.

Brandon Schaefer: Absolutely. Um, so I’ve got another side of my [00:03:00] world, which is in the land side of things. So we have a rentals and real estate company called hammock coast life or just north of Charleston, South Carolina. And, um, uh, we were bringing CEOs to this spot. Part of the world and I was so sick of giving all my money to Marriott.

And, uh, it’s like, wait a minute, we, we could have some, we could have some condos, we could have some rentals and we could, uh, you know, kind of pay ourselves rather than paying the big hotel chains. And, uh, and so I naively having seen a lot of success in the last decade in other areas, just kind of naively thought, oh yeah, I can, I can get into, I can get into this, this line of work.

Um, and, uh, different, very, very different industry than my background. And, uh, it was, it was a bad, it was a bad note, just a huge learning curve. Didn’t know the industry, didn’t know how the cycles went, you know, we kind of launched and, you know, with a handful of properties in March, which is the best time to launch, uh, cause you’re going into your busy season, spring break and, uh, and the labor day in the U S but [00:04:00] then we didn’t really fully embrace the off season and, um, you know, what are we going to lay off employees?

Are we going to cut back? Can we survive? You know, end up having to borrow money 1st, 2 seat off seasons and it took us a long time to kind of get our feet under us. And so, uh, we’re still clicking along. We’ve, we’ve made some progress. We’re in the black, but it has been some hard learnings. It’s been some, some bad notes.

And so that. One of the key learnings is, you know, just because you’re successful in one area, you know, don’t get, uh, you know, don’t get, um, ahead of your skis, if you will, don’t, don’t think that, you know, it’s going to be the Midas touch and success and other areas that you don’t have decades of experience in.

And so. That was definitely, uh, that definitely is an example of learning the hard way, uh, that lesson, uh, for sure.

Tim Melanson: Wow. Yeah. And that’s a part of what you just said too, is that whole, you know, up and down situation that happens [00:05:00] too. Like, you know, a lot of, a lot of people don’t really prepare for that. Cause I mean, just about every business does have good seasons and bad seasons, right? Uh, you know, it’s not always up, up, up, up, up, and, and actually it’s not always, you know, a straight line either.

You’ve got that, that bump. So, you know, what did you learn kind of coming out of that? You know, to sort of prepare for those bad seasons. Like what, what, what do you do now?

Brandon Schaefer: Yeah, uh, great question. And we had two more big bumps. COVID shut everything down. That was a terrible bump from a rental real estate perspective. And then we were in an accelerated growth season. And then. With the interest rates going up, all of a sudden, a lot of our network and contact saying, hey, it doesn’t make sense to buy a condo.

We can put our money here, put our money there. So that accelerated growth that we were seeing because of the low interest rates, uh, you know, was another bump. So, so now we pay much more attention to the broader industry, broader [00:06:00] cycle, and we work really hard at forecasting and anticipating, you know, what’s going to happen in a, in a big picture perspective and in the other places.

I’m more of an expert in been, been involved in for a long time, like coaching and consulting. You don’t think about that at all. It’s much more micro and just making sure you’re doing a great job for the company. Great job for the client. So that, that was a huge thing that we now understand is you’ve got to be looking and understanding industry wide, what’s happening from a trend standpoint.

And then the other thing that we had no idea about is that. In different industries are completely different cycles, different selling cycles, different growth cycles, uh, over here on the coaching and consulting. It’s monthly and quarterly over here on rentals and real estate. It’s annual and so if you’re not looking at things financially from an annual, even just a rolling 18 months perspective, you’re going to get caught.

It’s just a no brainer. You’re going to get caught. You’re going to get caught with too much and [00:07:00] you don’t have the team and support or you’re going to get caught with too little. And now all of a sudden you’ve got cash flow issues, you know, uh, workers, what are we going to do with all sorts of things?

And so, Um, you know, those would be 2 things that, you know, when you’re just kind of blinders on in 1 specific area of expertise moving to another, there’s just, it’s as wide as it is deep. The things you got to learn and understand, uh, and you’re not even going to know how to ask the right questions getting into it because you don’t know what you don’t know.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. Well, and, and, you know, when it comes to like, uh, workers, like having too many on board and all that stuff, like this is something that if you knew ahead of time, you, cause I know that in the tourism industry, for example, you have seasonal workers, you have. You know, things bump up in the summer.

So you hire people on for the summer, but then you’re going to let them go. Is that kind of like, uh, if you know that you’re going to only be hiring them for three months, then you’re not going to get into a trouble of like, Oh, well now I have to fire a bunch of people that I just, you know, cause they’re expecting to be [00:08:00] there for the, for the long haul.

Right. If you hire them without that expectation.

Brandon Schaefer: Exactly. And what a great example. I mean, uh, you know, looking back how embarrassing it was because, you know, some of these employees have been in the industry for a long time. They’re like, really? You’re making all these promises and you’re going to hire us for the foreseeable future. And we get a place here.

They never heard any of that language before. Right? Everyone’s like, you know what? Hey, we can guarantee the summer or see how the fall goes. Probably have to move you to hourly. You know, You know, whatnot, we, we weren’t saying any of that. And so we were sounding great, but really it’s not, we weren’t sounding great because we had it all together.

We were sounding great because of our naivety. Um, and so, you know, that was, you know, that was, you know, we had a lot of, uh, I told you so’s in that first year,

Tim Melanson: Yeah. Maybe that might’ve helped you a little bit. Cause the people were kind of expecting that. Yeah.

Brandon Schaefer: They, they, they, they knew it better than we did. We just didn’t know it.[00:09:00]

Tim Melanson: So let’s talk a little bit about, you know, honing a craft practicing, you know, what is it that you do to stay sharp in your industry?

Brandon Schaefer: Yeah, so 1st thing is, uh, I’m never too, too far longer or too big of an expert to not have clients. Right? And, you know, it’s kind of like, you know, the, the CEO of Southwest Airlines. I don’t know if he still does it, but for a long time, he would go and he would help with the bags Thanksgiving day, the biggest day of the year, just to kind of know and remember what it’s like, you know, kind of boots on the ground to not just be that kind of ivory tower CEO.

And so, uh, I always have a handful of coaching clients and always will. I try to prioritize now more locally, kind of be involved in the community or, uh, prioritize clients that are in my traditional kind of sweet spot that I know I’m a good coach to them and to their company. But, um, that’s the thing is always be a practitioner.

It keeps you sharp, helps you to keep learning. And I’ve actually coached a lot of [00:10:00] people who are overseeing something that that they used to be in. Uh, and and now they’re, they’re out of touch. They’ve gotten so high up in management or leadership. Uh, they haven’t been on the manufacturing floor or in an office or with a client in years.

And so, uh, they kind of, you know, they drink their own Kool Aid now. And what happens is, is now those people who are boots on the ground, they tell them information that doesn’t make sense or tell some information they don’t want to hear. And they kind of just always go with their own opinion. So. Always be a practitioner or always get your hands dirty on a, on a regular basis.

It’s going to help make sure you’re both substantive and relevant, uh, as a leader.

Tim Melanson: I think that’s becoming even more important because I think things like the landscape in every business is changing quickly. I mean, we’ve got a lot of things going on in the world and it’s going fast. I mean, uh, so I think that now, like you say, I mean, you might be [00:11:00] sitting in your ivory tower going like, no, no, no.

I spent 30 years in that industry, doing whatever it is. It’s not the same anymore. And, and, and they’re probably getting that from their workforce going like, but it’s not working the way you say that it’s supposed to work. And they wouldn’t know they wouldn’t be on the ground figuring that out and realizing that, you know, and, and if they were able to solve the problem 30 years ago and create a system that works, maybe they might be able to be able to do it now, if they knew what that problem was.

Brandon Schaefer: Exactly. You know, two quick examples is I’m working with a leader who for a long time over the last year just has resisted AI. It’s like, whatever, it’s a fad. It’s a trend. And, and it’s, you know, his marketing team is like, no, no week a it’s, it’s common and our competitors are using it and, and, and B could really help us actually.

Right. So could solve some of our challenges, some of our issues. Um, so that, that’s an example where, you know, you think, you know, and then something new comes along. And, uh, you got to roll up your sleeves and [00:12:00] learn right along with it, you know, so social media, AI, you just all of that for these more seasoned leaders that maybe they’re dismissive or they’re not taking the time to understand or learn, uh, had, had a similar situation with a female CEO runs a large interior design company and, uh, was really pushing back on her team with designs and trends and whatnot.

You know, it turns out she hadn’t designed an office or a home in a long time. And so it was just, you know, found herself largely out of touch, you know, hadn’t been to a conference or, you know, anything like that. And, um, you know, both of those examples, they had to eat their humble pie and roll up their sleeves and get back in the game of it.

Tim Melanson: Yeah, well, I like that you brought that up because, uh, I think that, um, I think that there’s a lot of people that are using AI improperly. And so you can see a lot of like bad examples of how AI can be used. And I think that a lot of, uh, a lot of people might be [00:13:00] kind of dismissing it because of that.

However, there are a lot of people that are using AI improperly. Very well. And actually you wouldn’t know it like that’s the thing, right? I mean, if you’re using it properly, then you wouldn’t know that it’s AI generating the things that you’re putting out there for marketing. So you might, like you say, um, you might be leaving some great opportunities on the table.

If you are one of those people that can figure out how to use AI properly. If you did that now, right. As opposed to in five years, you’re, you know, you’ll be ahead of everybody else. Right. Cause people are figuring it out.

Brandon Schaefer: Absolutely. I mean, I is a lot of things and one of the things that is, is it’s a souped up, more customized, intelligent version of Google. Right? And so, you know, the things that you’re Googling today, you should be using chat. You should be using open. You should be using, you know, Hey, what are the top top?

Top three news stories today. What are the top five trends in, in bicycling today? You know, and the biggest thing AI can [00:14:00] do is it can help intelligently save you time.

Tim Melanson: Yeah.

Brandon Schaefer: It’s market research questions you have answers you need. It’s going to give you not a list of potential responses, but a consolidated formed up one or two, three, four or five bullets of, of, uh, consolidated responses.

Tim Melanson: Yep. Yeah, I think I, I, and I think you’re hitting on it, like, basically the way I’m understanding AI and there was somebody on YouTube or whatever that talked about it. He says, it’s not, it’s not artificial intelligence. It’s, it’s not actually intelligent at all. All it is is it’s fast. And and that I get because it does what you just said.

Like, I mean, I could spend hours on on Google searching and researching and compiling all this information and it does it in the 2nd. So it’s not that it’s like. You know, you, you, if you tell it to, uh, to create something out of, from scratch, it’s not going to do it. [00:15:00] It’s literally going and scouring pages and pages on the internet and pulling out the best ideas that it can find, uh, you know, and, and then compiling that for you.

Now you can take that. And that’s basically all the research that you needed to do was in one, not one, probably several questions that you, that you wrote into chat GPT, and then it it’ll take all that information. And then now you can take that and intelligently use it. So. You know, who knows it may start to make those types of decisions in the future, but I mean, it’s got no soul.

So I don’t know if it will. I think that what it’s going to do is it’s just going to make all of your research just go away. Now you don’t have to actually spend any time on Google. It’s like you said, instead of searching it on Google, you literally go into chat GPD or whatever that open AI is type in what you want a few prompts and boom, you’re going to You’re going to have some real good information to go from.

Brandon Schaefer: It’s exactly right. Yeah. Well said. And if, if you [00:16:00] embrace it and use it, uh, in its maximized way, uh, you’re going to find it brings a lot of value and a lot of help.

Tim Melanson: Yeah, right on. So now let’s talk a little bit about, you know, the marketing side of it and keep, well, actually, maybe even the sales side of it, just keeping that hat full and making sure that there’s more, you know, money coming in than is going out.

Brandon Schaefer: Yeah. So, um, you know, from a macro kind of last 15, 20 years, um, before we had the. com boom of the early two thousands, uh, all you had was mail print. And in person and all of a sudden, the digital age exploded and over swung for a long period of time. But what’s interesting just to summarize is face to face is king again.

And so what I’m telling people from a business development standpoint is it’s about. You know, you know, thinking about how to win friends and influence people, right? That famous Dale Carnegie book, it’s about shaking hands, looking them in the [00:17:00] eye. It’s about getting to the rotary clubs and the, the chamber of commerce and the local events and having your, your stick and your spiel down from a business development standpoint.

And, um, you know, in this digital age, there’s. Um, things you need that validate your storefront, your website, uh, your social media, your consistency, your legitimacy, but outside of that, you know, uh, people, you know, with COVID are just, uh, a lot of them anyway are just oversaturated and overdone. With everything digital, um, I even find myself.

Oh, my gosh. You know, I’ve got 4 hours of zoom meetings today. You know, here we go. Microsoft teams, what have you? And 1 of the reasons why I’ve gone back to prioritizing local clients is because even though it’s maybe a little bit more. Inefficient. I got to drive to the office, drive to their coffee shop.

They got to come to mine, you know, whatever it may be. It’s as equally refreshing [00:18:00] to just sit in a room with an actual whiteboard, talk things through, uh, sometimes even pen and paper. And so when I’m talking to people about top of the funnel sales, I’m telling them don’t overdo it digitally, actually get in your car and engage it literally.

And think about the places that you can interact face to face and prioritize that because it’s going to be refreshing to you and it’s going to be traction building. Because there’s, there’s been a bit of an eroding of trust. I think maybe even a significant eroding of trust with all things digital. How many bot emails do we get that have worked so hard to make it sound like it’s real?

Right? All the LinkedIn messages. Um, one of the ways you can cut through the noise is to consider your region and actually employ a face to face strategy rather than a digital one.

Tim Melanson: Wow. I love that. Uh, and I find myself, even when I get an email wondering, [00:19:00] is this a person? What’s this about? So I think you’re probably right. And, and I mean, it’s going to get, I think, crazier. So, so I think that you’re, I think you’ve got a really good strategy there. If you start to, you know, get into the swing of getting into person, well, then you’re going to be ahead of that.

Cause I think that it is going to swing in that direction. So nice.

Brandon Schaefer: One of the things we say is, you know, what big is out boutique is in. No one trusts big anymore. No one trusts big government, big banks, big box stores. No one gets excited about going to Walmart. Right. And so all these even big companies are thinking about how can they. Come across small to you come across customized to you.

And it’s actually the biggest organizations that are doing it. The best. I mean, now, you know, Marriott is testing face recognition technology. That’ll scan your face as you walk in the lobby. All right, you’ll then get a prompt on your phone to your room number and your digital key. Uh, you know, 1st class on Delta.

Now you can pick. Uh, beforehand, 24 hours before [00:20:00] and what food you want on the flight. They’re customizing, uh, your food options, you know, uh, even Coca Cola. What, what, what did they do eight years ago? Now they put your name on a can, right? So everything is work. Everybody’s working out. And so if you’re a smaller company, uh, you actually have a competitive advantage.

You can actually be small, you can be customized and you can connect into your, into your city and your region. Uh, because that’s what everyone wants. The number 1 training Starbucks does is how to remember names, faces and drinks, right? Starbucks is trying to take this giant company and say. Hey, Tim, you want the usual, right?

It’s back to that 1980s sitcom Cheers, uh, that everyone’s wanting, right? You used to be, you know, it’s not what, you know, it’s who, you know, now it’s who can I trust, right? That’s the question everyone’s at, who can I trust? And what’s the easiest thing to trust? What you know, I trust what I know. And it’s hard to [00:21:00] trust Big because how do you get to know that?

But I can trust farm to table. I can trust regional wine. I can trust owner operated coffee shop. You know, all that kind of by local, um, trend isn’t isn’t going away for all the cycle or logical factors. I just mentioned.

Tim Melanson: yeah, I’m, I’m living proof of that because that’s exactly the direction that I’m moving into, you know, trying to buy from more local farms, trying to buy from more local businesses and, uh, and yeah, I think you’re right. And it ties right into what you said before about having face to face meetings instead of, you know, the emails and the zoom stuff.

So I love it. I think you’re ahead of the trend.

Brandon Schaefer: We’re trying, we’re trying to be, uh, trying to be for sure.

Tim Melanson: Uh, so then, so then let’s talk about the other sides. And what about these, uh, you know, tools? What, what, what do you do? What do you use in terms of tools and, you know, to get success in your business?

Brandon Schaefer: Yeah. So a couple of tools to think about what is a prioritizing [00:22:00] tool it’s called the five capitals and, uh, we use this a lot and this is a, just a real easy one to kind of think through what’s the trajectory, you know, I should be going on, you know, in my life, you know, we’re talking kind of, you know, milestone here with, uh, you know, the next quarter coming up and so, you know, We talk about there’s five things, five buckets to consider to help kind of bring about fulfillment, discernment and direction to your life.

And the first one, we call it spiritual capital, right? Every person owes it to themselves to think through, you know, who am I? What am I all about? And why was I put on this planet? And so spiritual capital is knowing your why it’s that big picture sense of I’ve got a vision for my life. I know my passions.

I know what problems I want to solve in the world. And I’ve got values, vision and values. This is, I’m going to be a person who is filling the debt, fill in the blank, who is excellent, who is serving, who is kind, who is humble. You know, what are the top three to five things you’re all about? And the reason why spiritual capital is number one, and so [00:23:00] powerful, Is that if you take the time to dig deep and know your why, right?

No one can make it up. No one can come up with it for you. Uh, no one can take that away from you. It’s the only one of the five things we’re going to talk about. That’s internal, right? You wake up one day and your company’s bankrupt. It’s Enron. It’s Goldman Sachs. You know, your job’s terminated. You still have your identity and calling.

You still know who you are and what you’re called to do. Now you’ve got to go find a different context to do it. And hopefully it’s a good context. You know, who you are, what you do and your why aligns with their kind of company brand company vision and values, but you’re not sunk, right? You’re okay. But hey, you put your identity and your stuff, your status, your job, your title right now.

When that temporary stuff goes away, when that now you are maybe depressed. Maybe now you do kind of feel screwed. But, you know, Simon Sinek talks about the power of the why. And we help a lot of leaders think about that from an internal, personal, individual perspective. Right? And then, and then you can have larger wise, you can have, you know, what, what’s our team [00:24:00] going after?

What’s our company going after, you know, goals and priorities in light of who we are, what we do, you know, that’s the kind of the 1st framework, the 1st bucket. If you know, you’re why, Then you can find your tribe and that’s the second bucket. It’s, it’s relational capital and all of us want healthy and productive relationships.

And even as individual as we are in the Western world, we were all created for a community. There is a reason why solitary confinement is the greatest form of punishment. Right. And why zoom took off and FaceTime took off during COVID is because we want to be connected to people. And so individualization is fine, but it’s in the context always, whether we realize it or not of community and we want community to be 2 things, healthy and productive.

No, 1 wakes up thinking, oh, I’m so excited to go to this toxic culture where everyone’s cynical and negative and backbiting and, you know, and so spiritual relational, they go together. Right. It’s about knowing who I am and a lot of who I am. How can I find my tribe? Right. And that tribe should be [00:25:00] hopefully one that’s healthy and productive rather than toxic and busy and we enjoy and hopefully we’re, we’re inclusive, not exclusive.

Hopefully we enjoy our tribe, but not to the judgment and detriment of other tribes. Right. We seek first to understand, then be understood that, that famous, uh, Franklin and Covey quote, but those are two, I don’t necessarily know if we want to go through all five, but those are two big buckets that if people would just think through their why and their who, right, that, that is miles down the road to finding a greater sense of joy and fulfillment.

I know what I’m doing and I enjoy who I’m with, right? We are the sum total of our, our three Colossus friends. You know, that can be scary depending on who your friends are. That can be great. But, uh, just figuring out your why and the who, man, that’s going to bring just such clarity, direction, and focus.

And you’ll know where you’re, why you’re not happy here and why you are happy there. Uh, for example,

Tim Melanson: Yeah. I think that’s really great [00:26:00] advice. And I mean, I think that. When we think about, you know, why are you going to work? I think a lot of people probably answer that question with, because I need to make money. Right. And it’s unfortunate that that’s how things are. Uh, you know, because like you say, I think that eventually.

Uh, you, you realize that that’s not why you’re here, you know, and, and I think that there’s, that’s where the disconnection is, right? You know, I don’t know if, you know, if you do believe in a soul, then there’d be a disconnection between what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. But the thing is, is that money follows value.

And so, you know, if your why is to provide value, for some reason, it’s something that you’re good at, or something that you love to do. Well, then. The money just follows that. And you just focus on the thing that makes you happy or the thing that makes you feel fulfilled rather than I just need to get that paycheck.

Right. Is that kind of, does that make sense?

Brandon Schaefer: it makes complete sense. And here’s [00:27:00] the, don’t let money be your excuse because then you’re a slave to that paycheck the rest of your life. Slavery is no way to live. We know that. And so, uh, how do you find freedom though? Then? Right. That’s the question because everyone’s going to agree that no one wants to be a slave to the man slave to the job, you know, slave to the paycheck.

So then, you know, okay, then what? Right. And we always say, you’ve got to have a crock pot mentality. You’ve got to think long term. You got to think about the future. I’m going to be different in three years. That’s what we work is a three year transition plan. If you, if you think about a six months transit transition plan, you’re going to be disappointed, right?

Everything takes longer than you think. And so I always, I always tell people, Hey, never overestimate. What you can do in 6 months never underestimate what you can do in 3 years. Most people look back and I say, where were you 3 months, 6 months ago or 1st of the year? Even like, oh, well, you know, not much has changed.

Where were you 3 years ago? Where were you? 5 years ago? A ton has [00:28:00] changed. I was still in school or we, we didn’t have our 3rd kid yet whenever it may be. So, you know. Um, if you have that long term mentality and you create a plan of incremental changes, saving money for 6 months, now I can do this. Now I can pay off that.

Now, right? It’s a march towards your desired outcomes. Your why your, your ideal life, whatever it may be, uh, through, you know, daily decisions that add up over time. So, you, if you can create that 3 year vision, that 3 year plan, if you can be consistently and stick to it, um, You know, that that’s going to get you on a trajectory change that you get excited about six months, 18 months, you know, three years in, because you’re, you’re seeing that, that path to freedom.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. You know, what excites me is that what you said earlier about the trends moving towards the smaller types of businesses, that, that to me makes me feel very good because I mean, when it comes down to it, I think that, [00:29:00] um, you know, the, the monopolies have been sort of like. Like, uh, taken over it, right?

Really? In a lot of ways. And so, you know, there’s a lot of people trying to find a job, you know, looking for these jobs and jobs are getting harder and harder to find because of the, um, these big companies are finding more efficient ways to use technology to not use people. Right? And so now you’ve got a bunch of people looking for these, you know, few and far between jobs.

However, there’s a whole other area where you can start your own business and you can start your own thing. And if people are doing what I think you’re right about, they’re, they’re looking towards, okay, well, maybe I don’t want to support these big monopolies anymore. Maybe I want to support something a little bit more local.

Well, then that means that there’s infinite opportunities for us, as long as, uh, you know, we’re willing to do something for ourselves [00:30:00] and to serve our own local population, or even, you know, can be also on the Internet, but if we can, um, all sort of start to support these smaller businesses, then there’s lots of opportunity for us to create our own path through creating our own business.

Right.

Brandon Schaefer: Can agree more, right? The future is bright from an entrepreneurial standpoint. Um, the barriers to entry are are less and less all the time. There still are some barriers, of course, always will be and they’ll change. Um, but now, more than ever, as a solopreneur, as a, as a small group of people, as a team, uh, you can get into the business and you can disrupt the market.

There are market disruptors and opportunities out there. And so, uh, 100, 100%, uh, if you’ve got an idea, a dream, a vision, don’t despise small beginnings. Uh, carve out the time for that side hustle and, uh, and just, just see what God might do.

Tim Melanson: And on top of that, it [00:31:00] is so much easier now than it was to find help and to get people that are going to actually, you know, help you along that journey. Uh, I mean, they’re, they’re a zoom call away now or a face to face meetings, right?

Brandon Schaefer: that’s right. Yeah. I mean, everyone should be thinking global and local all at the same time. Don’t dismiss 1 for the other. Uh, it’s a both end approach, not an either or and most things are both. And we just get caught in either or excuse me, either or thinking. Um, so absolutely process and think that through.

Tim Melanson: Awesome. So Brandon, it’s time for you to get solo. So tell me more about what’s exciting in your business.

Brandon Schaefer: Um, you know, a couple of things that are exciting are the investment in the next generation. Uh, you know, we are going to see the largest wealth transfer in history right now. It’s estimated at 3. 1 trillion dollars will transfer in the next 15 years from the boomer generation to the, um, to the next [00:32:00] generations.

And, uh, it was supposed to be quicker and a little bit less, but because of COVID boomers hung on and probably rightfully so. And so now, uh, time though is not their friend, just to be candid, you know, 67 is now 70, 70 is now 73. I’ve got to think through transition. Um, what I’m most excited about is helping families in those extremes.

So we work with a lot of boomers who are like, okay, I got to figure out, you know, succession planning, wealth transfer, uh, company transfer, next level of leadership. So we do a lot of work. With transition and succession planning with the older generation, but then we do a ton of work. It’s called next level leader and leader up where we help rising leaders, young leaders and, you know, 2535, you know, or they’re like, Hey, you know, I want.

I have aspirations, goals and priorities, but I don’t have the tools in my tool belt. I don’t know how to do communication, vision casting, [00:33:00] self discipline, self awareness, conflict resolution, empathy skills, you know, you name it to where either a I’m I’m a person of influence or be I’m I’m leading a team for the 1st time, or I’m leading a department for the 1st time.

And so how do you how do you level up? What does that look like? Uh, whether it’s in the context of a family owned business and we’re working with father, son, mother, daughter, what have you, or in a larger corporate environment, uh, where that longtime CEO is now, you know, hanging up the hat and no one wants a, uh, you know, an example like Disney, right?

Where that leader was not at the ready for whatever reason. Now, Bob Iger’s back in, you know, same happened with Starbucks, you know, the founder back in. And so. So much around investment, equipping, training, leadership, skills, leadership, acumen, um, on both on both extremes, right? Boomers transition it right?

Not fast and leaders ready to take it and hopefully grow it and go from there. And [00:34:00] so this, this transition is a decade transition, um, and, uh, not going away. And we are delighted to be on the forefront of helping many, many leaders. On both ends of those spectrums, um, lead and transition. Well,

Tim Melanson: So if I’m listening to this podcast and I’m, I’m one of those two, what’s the process of, of finding out more about you and about your business and about how you can help.

Brandon Schaefer: uh, yeah. Hey, Brandon Schaefer, uh, just reach out. Uh, you know, uh, it’s, uh, it’s, uh, Brandon Schaefer dot com and, um, and, uh, 5 capitals is the organization. So you can go to 5 capitals that net fill an information card. Just put my name in and I’ll get that email and follow up.

Tim Melanson: And, and so Austin, that’s great. So you can either go to the, the, the company website, five capitals, or you can go to Brandon Schaefer. com.

Brandon Schaefer: You got it.

Tim Melanson: Awesome. Great. Well, thank you so much for rocking out with me today. This has been a really cool episode.

Brandon Schaefer: Absolutely. I really [00:35:00] enjoyed it. I love what you’re doing here and honored to be a part of it.

Tim Melanson: Awesome. To the listeners, make sure you subscribe, write, and comment, and we’ll see you next time on the work at home rockstar podcast.