Greg :
And so I've worked with my brother, and I know how to work with my brother. I've worked with Brittany. I know how to work with Brittany. But I didn't know if my brother and Brittany knew how to work with one another. This is Secrets for Success. All right, so for the first part of the podcast, just had you in here talking about the ins and outs of how we were able to be successful with the challenge. But there was a third wheel to this. Or maybe I'm the third wheel and you all are wheel number one and wheel number two.
Greg :
So I want to welcome Brittany Lewis to the Seizures For Success podcast. And when we did that challenge, the three of us had to work together. So just to give you all some context as you're listening, brittany and I have worked together for the past four years. And so this was the first project that myself, Mark and Brittany were really working on together. At that time, my staff wasn't a big staff. It was staff of four. Right? It's like four of us, right?
Brittany Lewis:
Yes.
Greg :
And so I've worked with my brother, and I know how to work with my brother. I've worked with Brittany. I know how to work with Brittany. But I didn't know if my brother and Brittany knew how to work with one another. So why don't you all take it from there? I want to hear your point of view and yours and how we were able to make this crapshow work.
Brittany Lewis:
Do you like to start?
Mark:
Mark, you can go.
Brittany Lewis:
So I haven't worked directly with Mark on things, but obviously I knew who Mark was because he's your brother. He's popped in here and there throughout the business of the last four years. My first big kind of thing with him was the 21 20 healthcare challenge. We were kind of working on that together, but not as in depth that we are doing now. So I already kind of knew we clash a little bit. Well, we clashed a lot, and I feel like this was going to be like the true test because we really had to work together this go around. The last time, it was just kind of like, you guys kind of took it and then I just helped out with whatever needed.
Mark:
Right.
Brittany Lewis:
But this time was a lot different because I was more involved in the business and all of that. So me and Mark are very hard headed individuals, and he has a lot of opinions and we don't agree on a lot of things. That was before our little come to baby Jesus moment that we had to have. And I think it just kind of got to a head to me. And I remember going into Greg and was like, when all this is over, I'm going to have to talk to Mark. I just know.
Greg :
And what did I say to you?
Brittany Lewis:
And he said, nope. You need to do it right now. So I messaged Mark and yeah, we just kind of I don't want to say had it out, but kind of had it out and then we just kind of came to terms and left with a very big mutual respect for each other.
Greg :
Okay. What's your take on it?
Mark:
Know, like she said in the first didn't because I didn't play as big a role in that first challenge. I think I kind of advised you and I helped out a little bit with some of the stuff I didn't play like a major role. I think that this second go round being that I've had employees for many years and I've kind of come to a place where I don't even really like working with a lot of people.
Greg :
Well, you guys have something in common. You guys like to work with people.
Mark:
That is true. And I knew that the challenge was going to be and I think I even said it to Greg, that it's going to be hard because when you bring somebody else in, the people that's already there, it's always going to be a challenge. Almost every situation that I've worked at because basically you're saying by bringing somebody else in, you're saying that we aren't enough and we need more help. So it could be like egos and all of that come into play whenever you're doing it because nobody wants to feel that they're not enough. What they're doing isn't enough. This wasn't the first time that I've experienced this and I'm the type of person that I'm not necessarily going to go out of my way for people to be welcoming to me, especially for the fact that I think I'm really great at what I do.
Mark:
Yeah. And what you realize is that you could be great, but sometimes the team needs more. You know what saying? Like to me, for instance, like with the Miami Heat, it doesn't take anything like, Jimmy is great, one of the greatest basketball players in the NBA right now, but they can't win because they need something else. So no matter how great he is and how great some of the other people are, you need a complete team. So with me, I'm just the type that I could be difficult to work with, but I know when I'm being difficult to work with and I'm purposely I could be the best person that you ever have to work with or I could be the worst. And it just depends on how I feel and really how you treat me. And that's going to make the thing I think that when I want to be the best person, you'll never find anybody else to work with. But then if I don't want to be if I feel like anytime I feel like you're pushing me like, for instance, I went into T Mobile a couple of days ago and I just was curious.
Mark:
I wanted to see their plan. And once they started so then they start prying that pressure. And once people start to apply the pressure on me, I'm going to apply ten times pressure back. And the guy's like, well, what can we do to get you? I was like, there's nothing you could do. And now I'm mad because he's pushing me, right, and he's pushing my buttons. And I have this thing where if someone pushes me in the wrong way, I'm going to push back so hard that it's going to be the worst day. So I think that it kind of started out like that a little bit. And then I remember when Brittany was like, hey, can we talk? And then I'm like, yeah, we could talk.
Mark:
I'll go and let her have it. Just straight up. I was like, yeah, all right. Yeah. You want to talk? Yeah, we going to talk. And she started saying what she was saying, and maybe if she would have been disrespectful, but she wasn't really saying her feelings. And really, at that point in time, the other side of me is like, yo, f your feelings. You know what I'm saying? We're here to do a job.
Mark:
And.
Mark:
That'S all that matters. We're here to do a job, and we're going to do it. And I probably was being maybe slightly rude or whatever, but slightly but for whatever reason, you know what I'm saying? And then, you know, like, a person could say one thing, and then it just takes me in a whole different direction, and I didn't go there. And I don't even know if that phone call ended where it was like we had the Kumbaya moment or anything, because it kind of just ended. Okay.
Brittany Lewis:
I think we both just kind of, like, said our piece.
Mark:
Yeah, maybe so.
Greg :
There's a couple of things I need to say. I need to step in here. So I knew that the both of you individually can get the best out of me. So what you are able to do that no other coach can do, and where I feel like I have gone wrong in the past is a lot of times coaches or even contract workers that are working on your behalf. I've had other people, whether it's I won't even bring names right now, but people that were either students or clients of mine or people that are yes people, and it's just because they have a respect for you, so they can't get the best out of me. And I think because of the dynamic that you are who you are to me, the relationship that you have with me as my brother, you can get the best out of me. You can hear me do a video and be like, that's just not good enough. You're better than that.
Greg :
And a lot of people don't know that there's a better version of me. Same thing with Brittany. She knows a higher level of what it is that I can do. And so I knew collectively there's very few people that are either a involved in the business on a day to day basis that can get the best out of me and also knows kind of the whole picture of how this whole thing has to work from start to finish. And then the person that has the outside eyes that is not so tied to, well, this is the way that we've always done it that could bring that in. So I knew collectively, if I could get them to work together, that'd be great. And then when you guys had your moments in the beginning, I think one of the big things that I have done in the past where I have failed is that I tried to fix. And I'm like, hey, if you can do this, but really I realized that the best thing that I can do is let you all just talk it out and not try to be the mediator.
Brittany Lewis:
Well, we had to work so closely together for what we accomplished in the challenge to happen. And there was no way that that could happen if me and Mark didn't figure out our shit. There's just no way. So I think for me, it was a big respect thing. I don't think that I felt like Mark gave me the respect at the beginning and really knowing everything that I've had to do for this business and everything that I've had to learn and overcome and just kind of just go for it every single day. Like for the past four years. I've just had to figure it out because that's just how this business is. And it was just you and me for so long with some VAS, and then we finally started hiring people, and I just kind of always had to figure it out no matter what.
Brittany Lewis:
So I felt know, Mark coming in. And it's kind of like what you just said, Mark, about the like, I'm not enough. That's kind of like, how I felt. Yeah, like, you coming in. I wasn't like, even though we've done challenges and they've gone know, not like this one, obviously, but they've gone, well, they've done fine. So he's like, okay, I think I'm going to bring Mark in. And I was like, okay, can't do it.
Greg :
But I have to tell you, this is one of the hardest things as being an entrepreneur and running a business is knowing when it's like, okay, what I currently know and what do I always say, every single challenge, every event that I do on the last day, I always tell people what is their biggest expense. And it's ignorance. It's you thinking that you only know what you know based on where you're at. And so I know for me, that at this point in my life, it's not what do I not know, it's who knows how to do the thing that I'm not currently doing. And so as someone who struggles with not thinking he's enough, I empathize with both of you, with you and with you. With that said, I have to tell you, the crazy part about it is had this not happened, I think even with bringing in all these people now, it probably wouldn't have worked out with Brittany because it's like that whole thing was a growing transition of whoa, because we just really shocked everything. And then we realized that, wow, on the end of it, it was like, wow, what we did was phenomenal with just really three of us, right? And then now I started to add all these people here at SSHC. The person that took the biggest hit of it was her.
Greg :
Because everything that she was already doing, someone else is not coming in and trying to help. And so not only is she having to relinquish things, but then also teach them how to do it. And it's been hard.
Brittany Lewis:
It's been a lot.
Greg :
It's been a lot.
Brittany Lewis:
It's still happening. I mean, even months after we've hired everybody, it's still a training, a growing, like me trying not to get fully involved. Like I want to be all the time. It is a big struggle, and I think you can kind of empathize with that of I'm having to take a big, huge step back now, and it's very difficult.
Greg :
I think that you guys working together and that actually helped allow this to be not easy, but better.
Mark:
And I think that she was probably right. Probably the way that I was looking at it in the beginning, I probably didn't have the respect because.
Mark:
A lot.
Mark:
Im at a loss for words now, but yeah, because I didn't know all that she knew. I'm just looking at it because from the first time we worked together, and she didn't know as much as she knew when I came back again. And I think that I probably took some time to kind of think about it. Like, wow, this girl taught herself how to do all the automations. She taught herself. So at first it felt like, all right, she's chiming in on everything, and she don't really get this. So I'm not the type that if I feel like somebody needs they need to be validated, I'm not validating you. You know what I'm saying? Whatever you think anytime someone expects me to do something, I'm going to do the opposite.
Mark:
And I know it, whether consciously or unconsciously. It's like if you need me to say thank you, I'm not saying thank you, you know what I'm saying? Because then it becomes now you expect that all the time. And not that I'm not going to be respectful. If anyone does anything, I'm going to say thank you or whatever, but if you need that from me, I'm not giving it. I'm purposely not giving it to you. And I think that's what it was in the beginning, and I don't even know what happened in that conversation that we had, but I left that conversation, like, not really sure where we were at. But then I also had a respect for so I really gained a lot of respect for what she knew and what she brought to the table. And I think that's what kind of changed in my eyes.
Mark:
And then once I realized that I was doing as much as I could, I couldn't do anymore. As great as I think I am, right. I knew that without the part that she brought in, you probably would have did what you did before. And I've said it to you many of times that if you take any one of us out of that equation, then you have what you had, you know, and as know as my ego wants me to think I played this humongous role in the thing, it don't matter. Like, you got some of the greatest players in the NBA that play on the team that don't ever make the playoffs, right? So no matter how great you are, if the rest of the team isn't solid and you and the rest of the team are working, you could be friggin LeBron. It is years that LeBron didn't make the know. So I was really impressed when I stopped to really look at it. I was really impressed with what all she learned.
Mark:
And I don't see a lot of people that start off as an assistant that takes it upon themselves to learn everything. And I don't necessarily feel like she had to because you all could have hired funnel builders or whatever. And then I also too, realized that she really cared about the business and cared about you. So that's what will cause me to change and be like, all right, let me be a little bit more. You know what I'm saying? If I feel like you're just a person that thinks you know what you're doing and don't really know whatever and you're just trying to, then I'm going to be the worst. You're going to hate me. I want you to hate me.
Brittany Lewis:
I think that is when everything kind of took a turn for the better after we kind of hashed that out.
Mark:
And we didn't even really hash it out. That was the whole thing. But something happened.
Greg :
Yeah, but sometimes you got to stand up for yourself, and that's it. It's like, just say, hey, this is where I stand with this. And we have to create boundaries, right? Boundaries and how we're communicating and boundaries. And that's all it was. It wasn't like, oh, I was right or you were wrong or, okay, everything's great. It's like, hey, this is how this has to work in order for us to move forward. I knew that we needed each other to move forward because I knew that I already knew what we had and what we had was good. I just wanted better, so I knew that we needed more.
Greg :
And so I have to say this. I'm with him outside of here, and he talks about the Challenge a lot. There has never been a time I've heard him talk about the Challenge where he's not mentioned you, and that's not very common. I know a lot of people great. Appreciate yeah, a lot of people, they will work with someone on a project, and they want to take all the credit. Right? And I've never heard you do that. There's a massive respect that he has for you, and I just think this is important. The reason why I wanted to do this portion of the whole event is that it does take a village.
Greg :
It takes a team. Whether the team is a team of two or a team of three or team of four, it does take people to be able to take you to the next level, you have to leverage things. So for Brittany, brittany is the she can execute on the project. Right. That's what she does a really good job of. And what your strength is, is that you're not afraid to change and to adapt, right? You might fight it, you might resist it, you might throw your little wrestling bitch face at me or whatever, but she will do that, and a lot of people won't. And that's what makes you who you are, amongst many other things. But that's a huge thing.
Greg :
What you brought to the table is you brought a 30,000 foot, an outside view. So when we're here, we're doing things. We're doing things in the way that we want to do things, the way that we know how to do things. And we're used to it, and we're going to get the same result, more or less, but you were able to bring an outside view. But what I knew that you both had in common is that you both had very high standards of, I'm going to do this. I'm not going to mishmash it and put it together, and I don't care. I knew that I knew you both had a lot of pride. And so anyways, I think that's really awesome, and I'm glad it turned out.
Brittany Lewis:
The way that it I am mean, now me and even, we just check in with each other, and it's been really good. And I'm glad because I know Mark brings a lot to the table, and I do have a lot of respect for yourself, Mark. And I just think that everything happens for a reason, and it needed to happen that way. But I think that's one of the big reasons why the challenge was able to be so successful is because after that, we just kind of collectively just meshed and worked well together. And we just literally did, no matter what it took, sleepless nights up for all hours of the night, fixing things, doing things on the back end, pushing this, recording this, changing this, updating this. I mean, the ads were amazing. And I know Mark did those and I don't know, I felt like after that conversation that we had, whatever we want to call that conversation, that it just kind of was a catapult to the next level of the challenge.
Greg :
I think the last thing I will say is as you all are listening to this, if you haven't read the book Rocket Fuel, I highly advise you to read that book. Many of you that are listening to this, you are solopreneurs and you are stuck. And the reason why you're stuck is because you haven't leveraged hardly anything. You're only going to get so far on your own. They say if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. And so you're going to need to leverage something. And you can only leverage AI and chat GPT up to a certain extent.
Greg :
I'm not saying you can't. But at some point you're going to be doing a business that you want to make money. And the only way you're going to do that is having people that have money to give you their money. So you're going to have to exchange value with people and you're going to need people to do that. So with that said, the book Rocket Fuel, there are two components of every company that is successful. There is a visionary and there is an integrator. The visionary is the one that has the strategy, that can see the big picture, comes up with a bunch of the ideas. The integrator is the one that's able to take those ideas and actually execute it out and make it happen.
Greg :
And what you are is you're a visionary. What you are is you're an integrator. And then what I am is I'm kind of a mix between the two. More of a visionary now than an integrator, but together we're able to make it work. So with that said, I want to thank you for being a part of my best challenge I've ever been a part of. And thank you for being a huge part of the best challenge we've ever done. And the fact that we did it with such a small group is something that we can always just we can always have that in our back pocket. Like, remember when we did that? It was a great product.
Greg :
It was really awesome. It's really awesome. So thank you guys. Appreciate it.
