The Mindset to 3 to 10x Growth | Bennie Fowler | 348

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Bennie Fowler

February 28, 2022

Bennie Fowler is a former NFL wide receiver, Super Bowl champion, leadership coach and consultant, and Amazon best-selling author. After playing football for Michigan State, Bennie was signed by the Denver Broncos in 2014. He played as a free agent for eight years, working alongside athletes like Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, and Drew Brees.

As a leadership coach, Bennie helps executives and entrepreneurs gain the momentum and clarity they need to run their businesses. He is currently a Partner at Portocol Business Strategies, a Denver-based business coaching firm, as well as Z3Talent, a retained executive search firm for growing businesses. With his unique coaching method, Bennie provides a framework for setting goals, driving purpose, and achieving exponential success.


Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

  • Bennie Fowler shares the key to making a successful transition in your career or business
  • How Bennie overcame adversity in his NFL career
  • The life-changing moment that helped Bennie discover his identity beyond his role as a football player
  • Bennie reveals the three key elements to 10X your business
  • Some of the lessons Bennie learned from top leaders like Jerry Jones and Peyton Manning
  • The importance of cultivating a winning culture at your organization
  • The biggest influences in Bennie’s life

In this episode…

In the past two years, many leaders have been forced to pivot in order to succeed. But, making a major transition can be challenging if you feel tied to your identity as a CEO, entrepreneur, or — in Bennie Fowler’s case — an NFL player. So, how can you overcome these obstacles to achieve more success in your business or career?

According to Bennie, you don’t have to give up your identity to make an effective transition. In fact, by embracing the wisdom he gained as a football champion and translating those skills into his next venture, Bennie was able to become a more successful business leader and coach. Now, Bennie uses the key lessons he learned from his time on the field to help executives 10X their profits, revenue, and impact.

In this episode of Growth to Freedom, Dan Kuschell sits down with Super Bowl champion and leadership coach, Bennie Fowler, to discuss his tips for multiplying business growth. Bennie talks about his transition from professional athlete to executive coach, the valuable lessons he carries from the NFL into the business world, and how he helps leaders cultivate a performance culture. He also shares the keys to 10Xing your profits and revenue. Stay tuned.

Resources Mentioned in this episode

Sponsor for this episode

Thanks for listening to this episode of growthtofreedom.com.

Are you struggling to get a steady flow of new clients every day? Or maybe hit a plateau or hit a wall in growing your business? Well, let’s help you solve this problem today. Let’s review your business and have a conversation. You can do that for free today at breakthroughstrategycall.com. That’s breakthroughstrategycall.com.

In addition, if you’re looking for a simple way to implement some of what we’ve been talking about in today’s episode, I want to encourage you to get our free small business toolkit. You can get that at activate.breakthrough3x.com. That’s activate.breakthrough3x.com.

If you’d like access to the special resources and all the show notes for this special episode, make sure to visit growthtofreedom.com.

Episode Transcript

Dan Kuschell 0:03

Welcome to growthtofreedom.com, the show that brings you inspiration, transformation and leadership. We’re helping you connect the dots, see the blind spots, and get unstuck. So you can go out and generate more leads, more sales, more profits. More importantly, so you can go out and have a bigger reach, a bigger impact, and make a bigger contribution. Welcome. Today’s Show. Today is an amazing opportunity. Why? Because, you know, have you ever been in a place in time where number one, you were like, you know, what’s it like to be able to work with some of the best leaders in the world? Right now, if you’re a football player or a football coach? Or maybe you’ve been in a sports realm? Maybe you’ve heard of names like Sean Payton or Gary Kubiak or Bill Belichick. Right. Or maybe you’ve heard of quarterbacks like Drew Brees, Peyton Manning. The other guy, what’s his name? Oh, Tom Brady, Tom Brady, like what do you think you could learn from working with these amazing coaches, these amazing organisations, working with these quarterbacks? And on top of that, what if you had the ability to succeed in an industry that is notorious for a very short shelf life? The in fact the shelf life is only about 2.2 years on average, and get this. Our special guest expert today is someone who didn’t make it 2.2 years. He wasn’t drafted. He wasn’t a high profile star coming out of college. But through the grind, he exceeded all expectations. Why he made it in the NFL for eight years. He has a Super Bowl ring. He has played with Sean Payton, Bill Belichick, Gary Kubiak. He caught Peyton Manning’s very last past in the NFL. Now all of that being said, you might be saying, Well, Dan, this is more like business stuff like what does this have to do with it? Well, what do you think you could learn about mindset today, our guest expert, his name is Bennie Fowler. By the way, Bennie is an NFL vet of over eight years. He’s one of the you know, best people you’ll ever meet. And today, he helps companies maybe like you, maybe founders, executives, entrepreneurs, business owners, maybe like you grow their business and profit three to 10 times. And today, we’re gonna talk about the mindset for growth, the mindset of a champion, the mindset of building that championship team. So Bennie, it’s awesome to have you here, my man. How are you,

Bennie Fowler 2:35

Dan, man, appreciate that, that, that great introduction, man, really appreciate that. That was awesome. So I’m great. How about yourself, man, thank you for letting me be on the show.

Dan Kuschell 2:46

Absolutely, absolutely. Why don’t I make this focus all about you today? Is that all right? I know what, age or whatever. Make it all about me, you know, and you’re used to interviews like this after games and all that sort of stuff. So this is old hat for you. But I want to talk about, you know, transition. Let’s talk about transition. Because transition is not always easy, right? We see it for people who maybe leave the corporate world, which there’s been this influx of people leaving the corporate world to go start their own business, that’s a transition. There are people who transition it as entrepreneurs, right. I was watching a Netflix documentary here, actually, this morning, and it was talking about how, you know, companies like Blockbuster basically got swept away because of the disruption of Netflix. Why? Because they didn’t, they didn’t transition, they didn’t pivot as effectively. Right? They weren’t ahead of the curve. Right. Now, you were, you know, someone who was not a draft pick out of college, you were a free agent signing. So that’s transition, right. Number one, not getting drafted, then making a team and then having to grind it out for eight years. Basically, in a world that’s the ultimate merit meritocracy. Like, you earn what you get. And it’s day to day, week to week, month to month, year to year, like that’s got to be high. That’s high it as high stakes as it gets, oh, my god, like talk about transition, then. You know, after eight years in the NFL, you are now transitioning, where you’re out helping companies grow three to 10 times and taking all the things you’ve learned from all these great organisations, coaches, quarterbacks, your own journey, and helping them get success. So so let’s talk about transition. Like what do you think is one of the big mistakes that most people make when they’re looking at transition or pivoting? Right? to kind of get ahead of the career for the you know, the things that serve them?

Bennie Fowler 4:42

I think people get away from they get away from themselves. I think the hardest thing for business owner, an athlete, a CEO, anybody in transition is that they think they have to change their identity. Now I hear people say all the time athletes I’m more than an athlete will the athlete in you that that is who you are. So you don’t want to get rid of that identity, the CEO and you, you don’t want to get rid of that identity, but how do you translate those skills into your next venture. So if I think about myself as a professional athlete, my discipline, my routine, the way I go about meeting new people in a locker room, the way I go about my process, the way I am adapting to a performance, culture, having to adapt in real time, those are all things that you can actually transfer into life. And that’s how you are, that’s how I am as an entrepreneur, there is the discipline, there is the routine, there is the still taking care of my mind and body. There are a lot of those skills that made me a professional athlete transfer, transfer over into being a business owner and being a successful entrepreneur. And that’s, you know, that’s the thing that I think that where people go wrong, I think Blockbuster if you think about, you know how Netflix took them over, they just had to simply adapt to what Netflix was doing. They didn’t have to change their whole identity, they had already built this incredible company. But I think even CEOs who get out of that position, they lose, they lose that logo, that loss of logo, that lol I think that’s one of the biggest things that we all we all identify with. Because we have this thing, we have this job title, we have this, you know, hey, this is me, this is who I am. And we attach it to a logo of a team a logo of a company, what I’ve built as an entrepreneur, you even seen it’s you’ve obviously seen this with founders that they don’t, because their name is on it. But if you really want to do something great, you have to adapt, you have to be you have to adjust. I think you know, one of the best people that I’ve ever played with the best quarterback, I think in my opinion of, of all time Peyton Manning, he was great at in real time adjustments, he was always able to adjust. And I think that’s what we have to do as business owners, as people, as parents in relationships, we have to be able to adjust and adapt to different things. And I think what that’s one of the things that I struggled with, as an entrepreneur early on is that I thought that everybody was supposed to think like me or do things like me, and actually having to adjust and adapt to people and understand I think that’s what the pandemic really taught me is that there are different perceptions or there are different perspectives in the world, and how do I adapt to those things and meet people where they are. And that’s what’s helped my business grow.

That's what we have to do as business owners, as people, as parents, in relationships: we have to be able to adjust and adapt to different things. - Bennie Fowler Click To Tweet

Dan Kuschell 7:33

Meet people where they are, and you know, what I love about what you’re sharing? Bennie is, is really, it’s going to the core of simplicity. Right? Write don’t get too hung up on, you know, it’s like that old adage is an athlete, right? Don’t let you know, don’t get too big. When the press is great. And don’t get too low when the press is not. Right. Stay in your lane stay centered, right, stay calm. And there’s all kinds of different ways that that said, but like, you know, you you’re talking about loss of logo, right? Well, what is loss of logo, like your own identity is really just tuning into your, your tribe, your customers, whatever you want to call it, your clients, and really just understanding what they want. And then being able to adapt as they may want, like, access instead of it being you know, something, they walk or drive down to a store have late fees because of returning stuff now they can simply get it online streaming, right. But you already have the base of customers to connect to, to talk to to get feedback from, to listen to, to just get into the conversation. And that’s kind of something I hear is an underlying thing. From what you’re what you’re sharing now. As you you know, have been on this journey, right? And you’ve been making the you know, the pivots that you have. Can you think back to, you know, a time, that was your personal greatest struggle? Maybe you were a free agent, right? And, you know, from team to team, right? Like it was Helter Skelter, like, what did you do? What were some of the habits, some of the rituals that you use to kind of just stay in your lane and know everything was going to be alright, I’m curious.

Bennie Fowler 9:16

Yeah, well, I’m a faith based guy. So I definitely lean on God in prayer. That’s the number one thing and if I think about, you know, there are a couple of tough times that actually stick out to me. One would be in 2017. I played four years in Denver, and then I was it’s now time to hit free agency. So the Chicago Bears came calling, they offered me some good money up front, and that’s who I signed with. And now I’m living and playing in the city that my mom is already in. So everything seemed to be aligning. We got into training camp, got to the end of training camp, and I got a call from general manager and he let me know that they were going to release me so they’re gonna cut me and right then and there. I was. I was angry. I was upset. I was sad. I was embarrassed. I had just asked my now fiance to move out to Chicago with me, and to leave her job and now I’m without a job. And, you know, right there, it’s tough. What do you do? You know, you thought everything was gonna go perfect. And that was one of the toughest moments for me. And that’s where, hey, you know, I thought to myself, like, Okay, if football doesn’t come calling back, what am I going to do. And that’s where I had the idea to write my book, Silver Spoon: The Imperfect Guide to Success, because at that point, I had had four great years in the NFL, so far won a Super Bowl played with one of the best, if not the best quarterback of all time, but I wanted to inspire and share my story with other people, but also help other people understand that there are different ways to have and achieve success. So that’s where I had that idea. And then a couple of weeks later, the Patriots come calling, I signed with the Patriots for only one week, but it was an opportunity for me to learn and play and be around Tom Brady and Bill Belichick to have the best at what they do. And then end up playing two years with New York. My second season, when New York I got cut twice in the same season, that was also another tough moment of, you know, when I got cut, after week four, I was second on a team and catches and then I got cut, maybe like week 13 or 14. And the general manager just said, Hey, it’s, you know, you’ve been in the league a long time, it’s just your turn. And I had no idea how to respond to that. And it was a tough, tough moment. But that’s when it was just like, Okay, now I have to pay attention to the signs. I’ve been in the league for six years. Like, wait two years. So now how do I take the skills? What do I really love to do? What do I love to talk about? What can I talk about all the time, and that’s leadership, that’s performance. That’s the mindset of what it takes to get to the top level in business, in life, in relationships, whatever it may be coming from the household that I come from. So those are the two moments that really stick out to me. But what do I have to do I have to learn of, okay, come back to who I am. What do I value? What’s most important to me right now, and then lean on people who was your circle. I had people who are really close to me, my fiance, soon to be wife in a couple months. My dad, my mom, stepmom, my brother, my two sisters. And then I have a four or five, what I call it 2am. Friends, if I need them, at any point in time, I can call them. And those are the people I leaned on, just to be there for me and to support me. And that’s how I kind of got through those tough times. But I also come back to that identity piece. Who am I really, and I am more than that football. I’m more than catching footballs. And then I was able to play a couple years that even after that. So understanding that in tough times and tough moments. It’s what are the possibilities were the opportunities there? And yes, that’s tough in real time. But if you have those people around there, around there with you, if you have a purpose statement, if you know who you are, you know where you want to be, you know, the impact that you want to have on the world, it makes it a little bit easier.

In tough times and tough moments, what are the possibilities? - Bennie Fowler Click To Tweet

Dan Kuschell 13:12

Now, you just said something to me that I want to I want to kind of tap into because you said I’m more than just a football player, who am I really right, which comes back to this identity, right lol loss of logo. So sometimes we can get hung up on all the exterior logos. Right? Right. But then there’s the interior logo. So speak to how critical because you and I’ve had some private off of conversations about this in our own way. Right? And, like, speak to the importance of this. Because like, you know, you’re really a young guy, right? And there’s a lot of young men, there’s a lot of athletes who transition from sports to you know, auto sports, you know, call it high school, college Pro, whatever, that deal with this identity kind of crisis because here I was this, like whatever superstar athlete, and, you know, in relative terms, and now there are nobody, where they feel like they’re a nobody, like, what am I going to do they feel lost? They feel and this happens in business. Right? You know, it happens for people who even exit companies if they don’t have really that transition plan preset prebuilt I’ve talked to so many entrepreneurs who’ve gone through that sort of thing. So speak to that for you because I really loved what you said and how simple you really made it but I want to get your take on it.

Bennie Fowler 14:30

Yeah, well I think you want me to get my get my take on knowing who you really are,

Dan Kuschell 14:35

who you really are beyond whatever that label I’m more than a foot in your case more than a football player more than a guy who catches passes. Who am I really speak to

Bennie Fowler 14:44

that. Yeah, that takes time. That takes time and I didn’t discover that on my own. So I’m not trying to make people seem or make it, you know, make people like you know, look at me like hey, you know, he just has all the answers. No, I don’t have all the answers but You know, as I was, you know, just shooting darts out in terms of like, what I was trying to figure out who I wanted to be and what I wanted to do, I ran into this guy, and we had a life changing conversation. And that was telling them all my goals and my dreams and my aspirations. And he quickly pointed out, he’s like, you know, all these things are about you. None of these things are about anyone else. And I started crying. I was like, you know, just super selfish in terms of everything that I was trying to achieve. A lot of it was external things and ego driven things. And he said, What about other people? How are you going to get back to other people? How are you going to serve other people? And that’s what led me to go into the coaching that I do now. The businesses that I’m partnered with to help people grow, to help people, their people grow their revenue, and profit three to 10 times, yes, that’s incredible. But that’s incredible to help you impact your business people, your business, the people that work in your business, your family. So you have the more time you have the the freedom that you truly desire. And what I was really valuing, and what he was able to uncover is that I really value family, I really value free time, I really value fun, but I was making it all about me. So how do I give back to other people in that way? And that was that that was the conversation that really did it for me. But no, I definitely had the help of, I didn’t know he was an executive coach at the time, but he was awesome. I mean, and that’s the one conversation I’ve had to make me build my business to where it is today. We haven’t really read, we’ve connected a little bit after that 90 minutes, it was like, Oh, I have to do this, I have to have these life changing conversations. And then obviously, you and I have talked and you know, I get super excited about this just because conversations are what drives everything. Relationships are what drive everything. I think my one of my business coaches, she says the relationships are the real work of work, like relationships, just mean everything. And every time you’re coming across somebody having a conversation with somebody, that’s a relationship, and I pride myself on building meaningful relationships. And

Conversations are what drive everything. Relationships are what drive everything. - Bennie Fowler Click To Tweet

Dan Kuschell 17:13

as you’re watching or listening right now, you know, let me ask you, like what it’d be worth for you to really get clarity around your identity. Right, beyond the, you know, human doing stuff, but really focus on you as a human being, and a great place to start Bennie just shared, you know, the ultimate secret with you? Like, What gives you joy in serving others? How can you serve others at a bigger level? Right? How can you go out and contribute to others? Right? When we take it off ourselves, a lot of times, it becomes very clear and actually very, almost effortless with what we look to do next. Right in serving others, or how we show up or what we set up to be able to do that or our business or like the next direction, the best pivot to be able to make is how do we serve others? How do we serve somebody beyond us? Right? And how do you pay forward? How do you or give back or which kind of can be the same thing? But like, what if you took the time to answer those questions to get clarity? What do you think you might find? Right? You’re not a CEO? You’re not a founder? By itself? Yeah, those fancy titles are great. At the end of the day, though, could it be that you get the ability to transcend lives transform lives to make a bigger difference to make a bigger impact? When we go beyond ourselves, which is all about our own personal significance? How we have the ability to go the highest level of contribution, right now Bennie is is, you know, we kind of widen wind this down today, you get to help companies, you know, grow three to 10 times, right? With a lot of the, you know, things you’ve learned and so on. So, like, if you were going to give, you know, a series of, I don’t know, steps or a little mini blueprint or a checklist, like what would be a couple of steps somebody could look to take to be on the path to be able to three to 10x their profit and their business.

Bennie Fowler 19:11

Yeah, they’re trying to three, three times three to 10 times their profit and revenue. It’s three things that the company and I, what we really focus on, and that’s a culture of performance, not just a culture, but a culture of performance. That’s one of the the main things that I’ve gotten from the NFL a culture of performance when you walk into an NFL locker room. You know what the standard is, right when you walked in there when I walked into the Denver Broncos facility. You see the two Super Bowl trophies that John Elway won. The standard was already there. From the owner Pat Bowlen on down. We knew what we were there to do. So you could feel the energy in there now wasn’t pressure, but it was exciting energy was championship pressure, like hey, we have the ability to do something we have the ability to live and lead into our full potential and play to our full potential. And when we do, we’re unstoppable. So a culture performance Sean Payton was really, really good at that. And one of the reasons why he’s such a great coach is that he will not sign a player just because of talent, they have to fit into the culture that he has already built there. And I think Bill Belichick the same way. There’s a reason why there are only a couple coaches in the NFL, that are always successful. You think about Mike Tomlin of the Pittsburgh Steelers never played for him. But he’s never had a losing season. There’s a culture of performance there. So how do you create that culture performance? Then you have your systems and processes all the way from marketing, sales, profit and loss, like what are the systems and processes to get you to where to that revenue goal that you want to get to? If I think about processes from an NFL standpoint, if I joined an NFL team today, right now, right before this playoff game, or even next week, Wednesday looks the same. Thursday looks the same. Friday looks the same Saturday looks the same all the way up until game day. And then game day, we have our first 15 plays to try to get out there and see what’s going on. But after that, we’ve already put in the work. But there’s a certain system, and there’s a process to getting what you want. And there’s a certain system and process to winning and losing and sports winning and losing in relationships, winning and losing in business. What are the systems and processes? Are people on the same page as the finance team? Are the other is the finance team and the marketing team? Are they on the same page? So how do you get that two sales team? Are they on the same page where your systems and processes and number three developing your emerging leaders, you have to develop your think about one of the main reasons why we won the Super Bowl. And this is hindsight 2020. But if I look back in the way Gary Kubiak did it, he would give the Marius in the manual days off Payton days off during training camp and he would say hey, Bennie, hey, Cody, hey, Brock, you guys are now the starters. And you guys are going to get started reps and know what it’s like to, you know, have the ball come at you eight or nine times in a game because you’re only going to be as good as your weakest link, you’re only going to be as good as your weakest sales member. So how do you build those emerging leaders, the people who will be running your company and the 10 to 15 to 20 years? How do you develop those people, I think about my dad, and what he was able to achieve that Ford Motor Company, my dad started as a plant manager, then started as an area manager, then became a plant manager, then went over to be a Group Vice President, CEO of Jaguar Land Rover, and then came back. But he started at the bottom and for developed him up, they saw his capability, see his skills as an emerging leader. And then he developed and put them in different roles, put them in different ways to succeed and develop him as a leader. That way you can keep it in you, you have somebody who understands what’s going on on the ground floor. Now who’s up at the top floor, but knows how things are supposed to be ran. So those are the three things that you have to take key, you have to have focus on those, a culture performance, systems and processes, and developing your emerging leaders.

Dan Kuschell 23:14

And I have a question as you’re listening or watching right now, like what would happen for you. If you put more even more energy into focus not just on a culture, not just on slogans and fancy taglines. And I’ve got three key core values. But it was a focus of let’s develop the culture and core values around performance. What would happen for you if you made your systems and processes even better? What would happen if you focused on just helping develop some of your leaders as emerging leaders? Even more? Right, there was a great book years ago by Pat Riley talked about the 1% solution. And the 1% Solution says that if you just focus on a few key core areas of your team, in this case, let’s use Bennie’s main three culture performance systems processes developing Emergent Leader 1% Each week compounded has exponential returns not just week by week or month by month but at the end of the year you get this exponential impact where the tide lifts the boat what would happen for you if you put something like that in place starting when? When would be the when would now be the best time we just have my say to my good now right right now what would now be the best time so man Bennie, this is amazing. Now if people want to, like connect with you, they want to learn more about what you’re doing your business interest etc. Where can they go to connect with you, Bennie?

Bennie Fowler 24:48

They can go to LinkedIn connect with me personally one on one but if they want to learn about more about their business and how we can help their business, it would be portocol.com.

Dan Kuschell 25:02

repeat that one more time. Yeah, it

Bennie Fowler 25:05

would be portocol.com. So portocol.com.

Dan Kuschell 25:11

So if you want to connect with Bennie, learn more about his story connect with him. Maybe you’re, you know, a publisher, maybe you’re someone who has a show, maybe you’re someone who is looking for an expert to speak in your company. It’s really Bennie makes it very simple to be able to connect with him. Right you can do that by going to LinkedIn find him on LinkedIn, Bennie Fowler will actually post the info in our show notes as we publish this here on the site at growthtofreedom.com, as well as a breakthrough3X.com You can also learn more about Bennie and his company at portocol.com if you’re looking for a way to simplify if you’re looking for a way to get three simple systems in place, three simple steps, culture performance systems processes, developing emergent leaders work with Bennie and his entire team go to portocol.com. That’s portocol.com. Now, you know, Bennie, I kind of like to shift the show a little bit, you may know this, to some, like personal stuff, you know, on the on the journey of our, our success, if you will, and again, success is all relative, like, at the end of the day, isn’t it? If you think back, like, you know, so I’m gonna I’m not gonna mention names of teams, because I don’t want to put you on the spot like that. But like if someone watches a show, like hard knocks, for example, you know, maybe its current season or through the last handful of years of hard knocks. Like you can see there’s a different focus of culture, even based on like, the locker room. Oh, yeah, right of some teams. And I’ll give it again, I won’t mention teams. But uh, you know, if you think of like Jerry Jones and what he’s done with the Cowboys, like, you look at their locker room, their facilities, like, I don’t know how it gets better. Right. But then I see some of the other locker rooms and hard knocks. And it’s, um, I almost feel like it’s not quite this way, because it’s certainly better than this. It’s not as good as a lot of the college locker rooms. Right? Yeah. So speak to even how it shows up, like, how you show up, right? Overall?

Bennie Fowler 27:19

Yeah, I think what Jerry Jones is doing is he’s not he’s leaving no stone unturned in terms of what he expects out of his player, like, hey, if I’m going to provide all these great things, I expect great performances. Now there hasn’t always led to, you know, playoff teams for him. But you know, I think he believes in, in, you know, making a first class organisation. And, you know, NFL locker rooms won’t always look like college locker rooms, because they don’t have to recruit us, they’re already paying us. So, you know, that’s kind of how they go about it. But it depends on those owners, you know, and, and how they want players to show up if I think about some of the locker rooms that I’ve been in, and it correlates to the performance that goes on the field, everything matters. So like we were talking about a culture of performance will a great culture of performance has a great environment. And I got a chance to go to Mat Ishbia, United Wholesale mortgage, it’s a company based out of Michigan Mat Ishbia a shout out to Mat Ishbia, a great Spartan, but I got a chance to go visit his 9000 square foot campus. And the type of environment that he had there, the culture that he had there, it just it bred success. And you could see his employees showing up for him the way they were going about work. But he made it he made such a beautiful campus in terms of you don’t even have you never have to leave there. They got chiropractors, doctors there, they got to Starbucks in there. They have 100 House hamburgers, which is a famous restaurant and in Michigan there, they have everything in the facility in that environment to help people be successful to keep people happy, full core gym, access to all the the weights and anything that anybody needs. But there’s a standard there. So he has a high standard, but he also has made it to where his employees have the same standard for themselves, but also he’s giving to them. So you see that in different locker rooms. And, you know, it depends on what what organization I’ve had the I’ve been fortunate enough to play with all great organizations and great owners. So I haven’t had any bad experiences. But you know, I have heard some horror stories about locker rooms and Eden stadium food and, you know, like that.

Dan Kuschell 29:44

And it’s amazing because as you’re watching or listening right now you only have Well, Dan, what does this have to do with business? You know, so let’s go to culture of performance. Right? I’m not Jerry Jones. I’m not Elon Musk, like so I’m just this small business, you know, and we could we consider some All business 10 million are under, at the same time. How you do anything, is how you do everything. And it starts with who it starts with you. And why do I bring this up? I had, you know, here’s a damaging confession, like in my early years a bit, this goes back in the early 90s. Right. I had a mentor at the time. And she had come into our office. And you know, we did presentations and all this stuff. And she kind of was just observing through throughout most of the day. And when we were done, she came in, sat at my desk and started giving some feedback. And so she saw me open a drawer to pull out because I was going to take some notes, because I’m a big note taker, and I open my drawer, and she reaches over the desk and she’s goes Hold on a minute. And she opens the drawer back up. She goes, Dan. Dan, look at that drawer. What’s wrong there? She’s really good at asking questions, not like just fire hosing answers. She goes, What’s wrong there? I said, I’m not sure like, she goes. I’m sitting here as your mentor, and I see your desk and you open a drawer. That’s just an absolute tire fire. It’s just a mess. Things scattered. They’re just a bunch of papers and pens just thrown in there. She goes, if you can’t organize you, how do you ever expect others to trust that you can help organize them? And I think that speaks at a level to what you’re describing as a culture of performance locker rooms, you know, offices, right? Not that you have to be a neat freak. But create an environment where like when someone walks in, like if if Bill Belichick walked in our office, like what would we want Bill Belichick to feel or Nick Saban? They won’t say anything. But subconsciously many times she even said that. She said, Dan, they won’t tell you this. I won’t you know someone other than me calling you out on this won’t tell you this. Right up front. But subconsciously they’ll just feel something’s off. Yeah. Right. So how can you set your business set up your locker room set up your team set up your culture to win? So Bennie, another another quick question. What do you think’s the biggest thing you learned? You know, you had multiple years with Peyton Manning? Right? What do you think is the biggest thing you learned from Peyton Manning?

Bennie Fowler 32:24

I mean, there’s that’s a, that’s a laundry list of things. To take one thing, if I had to take just one is that everybody, every everyone is important in terms of reaching the goal, everyone. And when I think about you know watching pain interact with people or knowing everybody in the building by their first name, or having lunch with the custodial staff or taking time out to give them the biggest bonuses out of his own pocket. In order to win a Super Bowl, everybody matters in order to triple or 10x your profit in revenue. Everyone matters. And I think that’s one of the things that I the biggest thing that I learned from him is that everybody matters when it’s when you’re trying to do something great. You can’t do it by yourself. Everybody’s gonna matter offence, defence, special teams, front office staff, back office staff, custodial staff, kitchen staff, PR staff, and the fans. Everybody matters.

In order to win a Super Bowl, everybody matters. In order to triple or 10x your profit and revenue, everyone matters. - Bennie Fowler Click To Tweet

Dan Kuschell 33:32

Everybody matters. Is you running your business right now? Does everybody matter? Does your janitor matter? Right? Does your VA matter? Does your team matter? And how are you letting them know that they are they matter? Right, low level high level everywhere in between what happens when you make people feel that they belong to something big to something bigger than them? And that they matter? It matters and it can transform your business now who I think I know the answer to this but I don’t want to feed you it. So who is the person that you feel has had the biggest influence on you and why?

Bennie Fowler 34:13

I would say my brother, my brother he is had the biggest influence on me. You know, my brother tore his ACL three times before he graduated high school and went on to go to a prep school for one year, then got a full ride scholarship to Central Michigan, where he was a four time Captain all time leader and assists top 10 points and led them to a match championship, gets a dealy or plays in the D league, the NBA D league for a little bit and then plays basketball overseas. That’s somebody who never stop that’s somebody who didn’t let the circumstances define him. And, you know, that’s why I’ve dedicated my book to him and that’s who my hero is in terms of just all of that right there at A young age I mean, you know, tore his ACL at 11, then 15, and then 16. And then to make it to where he’s made it to, and now coaching basketball at Northern Arizona, that’s the person who had the biggest influence on me. And that’s somebody I will always constantly continue to lean on, even though I’m the oldest of four. That is, you know, that somebody that you know, is always going to be, you know, so who influenced me the most?

Dan Kuschell 35:31

Now, that’s, I mean, and that’s amazing. As you’re listening right now, think about the importance of influence. Right? Now, maybe you don’t have a brother, like Bennie, right? But do you have a friend? Do you have someone nearby? Right? People come in, in and out of our life for reasons. It could be potentially that they are serendipitous mentors for you. There’s a reason everything happens. Right? You know, whatever you want to call it, right? But at the end of the day, what can you learn? What can you take away, Bennie being here today, maybe a serendipitous mentor for you. And I hope he is because there’s so much wisdom that he’s got at such a young age to be able to and by the way, if you want to go learn more about what Bennie’s doing, again, go to LinkedIn. You can look them up there, we’ll have the links in the show notes at growthtofreedom.com, breakthrough3x.com If you want to check out what Bennie’s company is doing and how they help companies grow three to 10x. Playing the three principles we talked about earlier, go to portocol.com, that’s portocol.com, portocol.com. Bennie. What’s the biggest or toughest thing that maybe you miss being out of the game?

Bennie Fowler 36:45

The biggest or toughest thing? And I miss it not playing now. Yeah. Just the rest of running out there on a Sunday. That’s, you know, all the preparation, all the hard work, you put in the run out there run out of the tunnel on a Sunday. I mean, that’s why you see a lot of guys just you know, playing to the sky and thanking God. There’s a lot of people you know, who get emotional before games, because all the work that it takes to get up to a Sunday is it’s a lot of behind the scenes work. You know, we’re in a building that at 6am. Don’t leave till four or five, massages, ice baths, you know, just constant things to go out there and to bring entertainment and joy to other people.

Dan Kuschell 37:27

The rush on Sunday, what are you doing to set up your rush on a Sunday? Or whatever your day of the week is? Right? Are you reflecting? Right on the the ability to be grateful for what you get to do every single week? Every single moment every single day? Right? There’s so much parallel between sports and business. So the two greatest platforms for personal development in the world. Right. And Ben, he’s just kind of giving you a glance. And I wish we had more time with Ben and again, if you want to learn more about Bennie go to LinkedIn, check out Bennie Fowler if you want to go check out his company what he does go to portocol.com. That’s portocol.com Bennie, what’s something I should have asked you that we haven’t covered yet?

Bennie Fowler 38:18

Oh, this has been a great conversation. Yeah, I would like to just give a shout out to my parents in the role that they played, you know, my mom, my dad and my stepmom as well. But you know, my mom and my dad, they really laid the foundation and it’s important in terms of who you are, you know, that what, how parents are talking to their kids, how they’re encouraging their kids when I think about my mom and dad and how they encouraged my brother, myself, my step mom with my dad, you know, encouraging my sisters but my mom and my dad and how they encouraged my brother and myself to not necessarily be professional athletes, but to be and do the best you possibly can. With what your with what you have. So yeah.

Dan Kuschell 39:06

What are 1 to 3 action steps you hope our viewers or listeners take from our time together today?

Bennie Fowler 39:12

Clarity brings power. So just get continue to get clear on what you want. What’s your Northstar? where you’re going? Where do you want what how do you want to feel at the end of 2022 for them to continue to lean and learn from you. And the third would be you know, if there’s any way that I can help, you know, reach out to me on LinkedIn and send me a message Breakthrough3X. Put that in the message. You know, knowing that I know that you that you heard me here and then we’ll have a conversation but you know, I just hope people continue to live and lead into their full potential that’s what the world needs.

Clarity brings power, so continue to get clear on what you want. - Bennie Fowler Click To Tweet

Dan Kuschell 39:49

Leave and live into your full potential. He’s Bennie Fowler. We’re growthtofreedom.com, breakthrough3X.com If you want to learn more about Bennie go to LinkedIn, look up any follow again, we’ll have all the links in our show notes. And or check out his company. And portocol.com. That’s portocol.com. That’s portocol.com, Bennie. I know I promised we get this done in a certain amount of time. Man, I’m just so grateful for our friendship, our ability to have worked together. We’ve also got to give a shout out to Keith Roberts, who was the instigator of us getting together and I hope you know, I hope it is in man ability to help each other

Bennie Fowler 40:28

Zinman Keith Roberts, that’s one of my favorite people. So yes, yeah, shout out to Keith.

Dan Kuschell 40:34

Absolutely. So there you have it, I encourage you to take action with what Bennie has shared with you today. Right? I’ve got a handful of pages of notes here. But he talked about a lot of things he talked about working with Peyton Manning and his ability to adjust. He talked about his book, The Silver Spoon, right? He talked about being cut a couple times and overcoming that adversity he talked about, you know, who’s in your circle? Right? Lean on your circle and downtimes. Right, lean on the the people that are in what you would call your 2am Emergency circle he talked about? Who am I really? Right, he gave you some tips on how to move away from a potential dangerous identity to a life changing, transformative transcending identity simply as how do I serve others more? How do I help others more? How do I pay forward? How do I give back he talks about three things. As far as looking at your business and unique ways the culture, not just of culture, but a culture of performance. He talked about the systems and processes that build your business, and developing emerging leaders. These these ideas these concepts not only work in sports, in the NFL, with billion dollar franchises they’ll work with and for you. And again, if you want to learn more about Bennie, go check out LinkedIn go check out his company A portocol.com, that’s portocol.com. I encourage you to take action with what Bennie has shared with you. clarity is power. And we are here to leave to lead and live, take action, seize the day, right if you want to come back to this episode go to growthtofreedom.com, that’s growthtofreedom.com. If you want to learn more about our company, our business you can go to breakthrough3X.com to sponsor the show. That’s it for today. Seize the day, make it a great week. We’ll see you next time on growthtofreedom.com. Bye for now. Thanks for listening to this episode of growthtofreedom.com. Are you struggling to get a steady flow of new clients every day? Or maybe hit a plateau or hit a wall and growing your business? Let’s help you solve this problem today. Let’s review your business and have a conversation. Do that for free today at breakthroughstrategycall.com, that’s breakthroughstrategycall.com. In addition, if you’re looking for a simple way to implement some of what we’ve been talking about in today’s episode, I want to encourage you to get our free Small Business toolkit. You can get that at activate.breakthrough3x.com, that’s activate.breakthrough3x.com. If you’d like access to the special resources and all the show notes for this special episode, make sure to visit growthtofreedom.com.

 

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