Practical Empowerment: Danny Brown on Innovating within Your Industry

Danny Brown: Every overnight success is 10 years in the making, and it's all that little stuff compounded over time that really starts to add up. And if you could do those little things every single day consistently, it really adds up to a huge gains month-over-month, year-over-year.

Preslie Hirsch: Hi there and welcome back to Practical Empowerment, inspiring conversations with Valley leaders brought to you by After5.io. I'm your host, Presley Hirsch. On today's show, we're chatting with Danny Brown, founder of Myriad, which is an innovative real estate company based out of Phoenix. In discussing Danny's approach to leadership and creating an exceptional company atmosphere, we talk about how to hire for cultural fit, building autonomy into each employee's position, how to discover what your team members are actually motivated by and, spoiler alert, it's not always money. And we also talk about the role that his specific business coach played in his success. It's a business coach, actually for teens, not just for individuals. It's a super interesting conversation packed, a tactical advice and some really funny stories along the way, particularly in his early days of real estate, and you'll likely gain some ideas to take back to your employer or your team to help foster a space that people want to be a part of.

Danny: Well, at the time I was, I've been in real estate for 12 years, and I've been running my own real estate team now for about six, and I I went through a transition with the team I was on, and I was actually a little lost. I love doing real estate, but I didn't know if real estate was a long-term career path that I wanted to stick with. I had some personal things happen with some friendships that kind of dissolved and hit me a little hard. So, I just started looking around. I looked at nutrition as a path because food's always interested me. I applied and got into the Arizona State University's Masters of real estate development program because I thought about getting back into corporate life, and you kind of needed a Masters to do that. But then I didn't want to take on student loans and get into debt. And one of my mentors, personal mentor, she's a loan officer, she said, “You know, time out. Before you do anything, you really need to talk to my husband. He's doing real estate. He's been doing a lot of flips and buying and holding. But he's seeing a transition in the marketplace and things are changing. And so we went on a double date and he and I hit it off immediately. And he was talking about getting out of doing flips and investing and wanting to get into traditional real estate. But had no real background in doing that where I had 6 or 7 years of background and past clients. And so at that dinner, we decided to go into business together and start our own real estate team and haven't looked back since.

I owe a lot of thanks to my mentor at the time and my coach. I'm a big believer in having coaches and paying attention to what they say because they've been through a lot typically. And if you listen to them, they can typically guide you in the right direction to help you discover the answers. She talked to me at the right time, and it's been fantastic. I couldn't picture myself doing anything else.

Preslie: That's a really cool testament to just being open to trying. Applying for a school program, considering other options, talking to people, saying I'm feeling a little bit lost, and I'm not sure what to do next because that could be a really uncomfortable place to be in.

Danny: Absolutely. And I think a lot of people feel lost at times and just don't know where to go and don't know what to do. And I think you need to be open to trying new things and exploring different options, making pros and cons lists to figure out what's gonna work best for you and not be afraid to try something, because I mean, at worst, you're gonna fail and you get to just try it again.

Preslie: And how has your company grown and changed over time over the last several years that you've owned it now?

Danny: There's really only one model for running a real estate team that we knew of at the time. Ours was unique because most teams are either one individual with a bunch of people working underneath them, or it's a husband and wife team working together. Well, we were just two friends who decided to start a real estate team. So you essentially had to team leads at the top and, the model that we were trying to follow, then bringing on agents that were underneath us that we fed leads to that would close business. And then you get paid on a split. That's kind of the model that we were following. 

And we did that for maybe four years and my business partner, he's kind of a serial entrepreneur. He likes starting businesses, likes the grind and likes getting stuff to a certain point and then kind of branching out, doing something different. So we kind of hit that stride where he's like, “I feel like I've gone as far as I can or want to in real estate. The part that I enjoy the most is the marketing.” I think the first year we were working together, we did about $10 million, he took us to $20 million. He doubled our closings through his marketing efforts and learning how to do things through social media. Six years ago, that was all kind of new, running Google ads and all that kind of stuff, and so he wanted to branch out and do that on his own. We're still super close friends. In fact, I had coffee with him this morning. And he started his own digital marketing company doing that for other small businesses. 

So I was left to run a real estate company by myself, and I had really no idea what I was doing. I'm really good at real estate, but running a company is just so different. That same mentor, Lizzie, she and I sat down and she kind of gave me a road map on What do you want? Where do you see yourself? You get to do whatever you want to with this real estate team and take it and make it whatever you want to be. She and I kind of sat down. We looked at the traditional real estate model and just decided it was really broken. 

What ends up happening is you have, like I said, that single team lead and they're bringing in the business. And then they're feeding it out to people below them who are essentially running their own businesses within your business. It's very cutthroat. It's always about give me leads, gimme gimme gimme. Then you pay this commission split and there's never really a sense of culture. There's no real sense of loyalty in the real estate community on these teams because these individuals get to a certain point where now they have their database and book of business, and they're gonna go out on their own. So, your typical agent on a team might last two or three years, and then they go out and try and do it themselves, or they just fizzle out of the business altogether because they can't cut it. 

And so what I worked to create, I blew everything up and started over. I had a transaction manager, and she's amazing, and she is really good at paperwork. She's really good at running profit and loss sheets and the accounting side of things, all the stuff that I'm super deficient at. So she's kind of like the yin to my yang on the business side of things. She and I sat down together and made this road map to what our team would look like. She's still with me today and is my number two, and I couldn't imagine running this team or my business without her having my back.

What we've created is a system of everyone on our team has paid a salary, which is super unheard of in the real estate industry because you think real estate, the first thing you think of this commission's. We've got a showing agent, so she helps all of her buyers, and I pay her well above what your average Realtor makes per year. I cover all of my team's subscriptions and dues. I cover all the marketing I pay the mileage reimbursement, so I really kind of take care of everything and then pay them a salary for doing all the different jobs that a real estate team needs to do. And it gets rid of that, that cutthroatness that exists in real estate teams. It gets rid of the revolving door because I'm hiring people who have a different mentality. I think when someone is commission only, they have a very different sort of mentality. 

I hire outside of the real estate industry and focus on individuals who put other people ahead of themselves. One of our core values is being humble, hungry and smart. And I don't want individuals on my team who want to be HGTV stars or want their names up in lights. I've had those people. I was one of those people. I wouldn't want to work for me. We want people who are intelligent, but we want people also who are hungry to go after the business. So having those three principles in place has really led to creating a team that puts others needs ahead of themselves, employees, their co-workers, as well as our client's needs. So my showing agent, she's not motivated by the next commission check. She's motivated to do a good job for the client, and if they end up buying a house with us, great. If they don't, that's OK, because she's gonna get paid regardless for her time and her efforts and her energy. It's a different spin. I always say I'm not creating anything new, I’m just running a traditional business, but it's new in the real estate world.

Preslie: I'm glad you brought up your core values because I'm gonna read one of them so I don't mess it up and I want to ask you about it. It says, “Don't quit until the job is done. This is real estate. We have to work when our clients aren't, which will include nights and weekends.” And I found that really interesting because it's very clear it sets the expectation and you talk about hiring outside of the real estate industry so that, you know, you could probably teach people real estate, but you can't teach people to be humble, hungry people. Smart, intelligent, those kinds of things. So why is it so important to set those expectations before somebody comes onto your team? 

Danny: I think that it's very important when you're in the hiring process to make sure that you're setting very clear expectations, because a lot of people I think will kid themselves and there's people out there who are really good at interviewing. They know what the questions are, they know how to answer them so that they sound great and get their foot in the door and then hope that it works out. I'm very clear up front that if you don't follow these things, then you're gone. We just don't have time to mess around with you. If these things aren't something that you're in agreement with.                

We're not going to change. This is who we are. These are our core values. This is what we believe in. And if you're not on board with that, then you're not a good fit. And it's going to be obvious because everybody on our team has bought into these core values. They're the ones that came up with our core values. We did it as a team building exercise. And if you don't buy into that, it's clear and you won't want to stay. You won't want to be a part of that.

Preslie: Is there something more than just that people are more about in if they help come up with the core values? Is there any other reason that you felt doing it together was more important than doing it yourself?

Danny: You know, I don't believe in me being the end all be all. If I'm the smartest person in the room, then we're in trouble. If I'm the smartest person when it comes to marketing, we're in trouble. I've got a marketing person for that. So I believe in bringing in people who are very talented at what they do in that specific field. I want to get their buy in, and I want to get their opinions to help. Ultimately, yes, I do decide what we're gonna end up doing, and I weigh all the pros and cons, but I want their contribution. I want them to feel that they're a part of something bigger than just them and that their opinions matter and carry weight. 

So if they come to me with a suggestion, then we talk it out and we work through the motions on what that's gonna look like, what that's going to entail. And then if I'm bought in, then we present it to the team. And if the teams like, “yeah, that's fantastic” then it's something that we implement. So, I always think that it's important to get everybody's buy in and suggestions when it comes to these types of things.

Preslie: How do you look at autonomy in your culture? It seems like you give the people that are part of your company a lot of responsibility to kind of run their own little mini business within, you know, their expectations are clear responsibilities are clear. So how do you make sure that everybody's still working towards the same common mission while also allowing everybody to kind of do their own thing?

Danny: So communication is key when it comes to that, and so we've got that open floor plan concept in terms of our office. We've got an open door policy, so that anybody can come in. Of course, if you're working on, I call it “the one thing.” If you're working on your one thing, we put a sign up that says, “Do not disturb” and that means you're working on your one thing, don't come in and bother me. And then we've got a sign that says, “you're welcome to come in and talk to me about whatever you want.”

I always tell people I trust you until you give me a reason not to. I'm not the type that is going to make you punch a clock. I've got one person on my team, she leaves three times a week at 4/4:30 to go to the gym. Awesome. Like I have no problem with that. You need to get your hair done in the middle of the day, if you need to go to the doctor, if you have to let your dog out, that's life. That stuff happens. You do not have to be sitting in that chair from 9 to 5. I'm not bought into that. And I think giving people that sort of freedom to manage their life and manage their schedule, with guidance of course, and boundaries still put in place. People are adults, and if you treat them like adults, I feel that for the most part, they'll act like adults.

Preslie: Did that  thought process to run your company that way, where you don't require somebody to be there from 9 to 5 and do things maybe a little bit differently and not so conventional, did that come from a place of jobs that you've had before where you thought, “I want to do this differently?” Or have you always kind of, as you stepped into leadership thought “This is the way that it should be done?” Where does that come from that you kind of broke off from a little bit more of a traditional approach?

Danny: That's a good question. I try to continuously educate myself. I listen to a lot of podcasts, I try to read a lot, and that's actually one of the foundations of Netflix. So the people that run Netflix, that's kind of how, and that's where I got that. I think I've always had that sort of mentality and style. I don't want to micromanage people. I don't need to know where they're at every single minute of every single day. It's just not in my personality type. So when I heard that it was an interview with one of the Netflix founders, that that's kind of how they operate and they're the ones that said, if you treat people like adults, they'll act like adults. I didn't make that up. 

I really resonate with that so I implemented that into my business. And one of the reasons most people get into real estate anyway is because it gives you flexibility with your schedule. So one of our core values is: Yes, sometimes you're going to have to work nights and weekends. But I also preach work-life balance. If my expectation is that… 

If we have a client that goes under contract at five o'clock on a Friday. They don't care that it's five o'clock on a Friday. They have a boat load of questions, so we need to get them everything right away. If we have clients that want to see homes on nights and weekends, which most people do because they have to work a 9 to 5, then I have to allow them the ability to manage their schedule during the week when we might be slower. Like Wednesdays for us tend to be a much slower day, so those are good days, and we talk about that, those are good days for you to take off if you need to take a day off during the week. If you need to schedule things, that middle of the week tends to be lighter. So if my expectation is that your schedule has to be flexible to cover our clients, then I have to be flexible on when you're going to be at the office.

Preslie: Sure, that seems so logical, but I don't think a lot of people put it into practice.

Danny: Yeah, I agree with you. I think that it is changing, though. I am hearing more and more companies that are having four-day work weeks where you can work four 10-hour days so you get that required 40-hours of work time in. I do think that there are more import businesses that are are breaking the trend of working 8 to 5 or 9 to 5.

Preslie: Talk to me a little bit about what your employees are motivated by, You and I had a conversation about this off air that I thought was really interesting and I would just love for you to share your thoughts on it. Is everybody motivated by money or some people not motivated by money? Why's that so important to discover about your employees?

Danny: I don't think that everybody's money-motivated. There's gonna be a select few who are, but I think there's going to be a large portion of people that aren't. As long as their bare necessities, their needs are being met, and they've got a little bit extra for saving, I don't think that you can make people jump through hoops just solely based on money. I think for some people responsibilities and job title, and I keep talking about my number two, Morgan. She's my COO and she's 29. How many 29 year olds can say that they’re a COO of a company? Not very many. 

I think it's important to figure out what they're motivated by and knowing that it's not always money can really help you, especially when you're a small business and don't have a lot of money to figure out how you can properly encourage people to reach their potential and to push them to do particular jobs. 

Preslie: And on a very tactical level, how do you go about finding those things out? Is it like a strength finder test or an enneagram, or is it conversations with them about why are you here other than the fact that you have to pay your bills? How do you go about discovering people's motivation?

Danny: So I work with a team coach as well. I have an individual business coach and mentor, but then I work with a coach that kind of mentors our team and our team dynamic. And she meets with each of my employees individually and we do the DISc profile. Some people don't necessarily believe in the personality tests and some do. But with that aside, I do think the DISc is one of the more accurate ones. Knowing what personality type that individual is at work, you know your work personality is very different than your at-home personality. So I think it's important to know when you're doing those types of tests to do it in the environment that it's applicable to. If it's for work, do it at work. And then just getting to know people. You can learn a lot just by having conversations and getting to know your team and your employees and finding out what drives them.

Preslie: It seems like you do a lot of things to pour back into your employees, like changing up the structure of your business. I know you guys do days where you volunteer together. What are some of the other things that you do to create a culture that people want to be a part of?

Danny: My philosophy is that I'm here for them, they're there for our clients. And so I need to make sure that they're happy in order for them to make sure our clients are happy. It's a hard question to answer. I’m trying to think of what we do. We do a lot of team building. So I think everybody really enjoys when we get together with our coach and we do those team building exercises. We try to eat lunch together as a team once a month and just not talk shop. Somebody's in charge of coming up with some sort of ice breaker type game when we eat. We bring in food and have it catered from a particular place. I think what really impacts our culture the most is regardless of where they're at on the totem pole, in terms of their level, whether they’re entry level, part-time, full-time, whatever, their opinion matters, they matter. And I think that they see that. And because their opinion matters, they want to be a part of the team. 

I don't think in corporate America your opinion necessarily matters. And, you know, you can have this great idea or even if it's not a great idea. You tell it to your boss and then it just kind of goes away. You know? 

I had a part time employee and he read a book and came up with the idea that we should be throwing housewarming parties for our clients. And I was like, That's a great idea. Come to me with a plan. This is your idea, write it out. Come to me and tell me what it's gonna cost, what it's gonna look like and then pitch it. And so he did. He took a week, presented it to me, and I was like, “this is great. I really like it. Now let's present it to the team because the team needs to buy in to doing this.” Because when do you have housewarming parties? Typically on the weekend, Right? So now I'm asking the whole team to sacrifice, you know, an hour, two hours of their time to go to this thing. So he presented to the team and the team’s like, “this is great. I'm in.” 

I'm willing to sacrifice two hours on a weekend or an evening to throw our buyer clients housewarming parties. He was part-time, and he would call leads on the phone, and that was his job, relatively entry level, and he came up with it. So I think it goes back to empowering people. And if you do that, I think that they will buy into your overall mission.

Preslie: Absolutely. I love that you pointed out that you didn't just take his idea and say, “Let me think on it” or push it off to the side. But, “hey, why don't you now build upon this idea? See how realistic it is? Let's pitch it to the team.” I love that you got him that involved in it because it's one thing to come up with an idea, but it's another to say, you know, maybe he starts doing it, he's like, “Oh, this is really expensive” or “oh, this is gonna take more time than it's worth,” you know? But then now he knows that maybe it wasn't the most realistic idea, but now he's doing that research and taking ownership over it. And so I think that's a really neat way to go about it, too. 

Danny: And I've had other guys on our team that do the same thing, and it turns out to not be a great idea, but they discover like, “Oh, you know, it was a good idea in theory, but the implementation side of it just doesn't work or is gonna be way too costly,” and they discover that on their own. And it's not me, like I might already know the answer, a couple times I do, and it's like, “Okay, you know, I hear what you're saying. Do some research. I don't have time to research this for you and build off your idea. Bring it back to me a completed plan and let's see if we can make it work.” And if it's good we’ll implement it. And if it's not, they typically discover it on their own. And they’'ll come back to me like that. You know, that isn't a good idea. I’m like, “OK, why?” And usually they have come to the answer the realization on their own and I may have already known that answer, but now they feel kind of validated because they discover it for themselves.

Preslie: And they’re learning something along the way, too. Yeah, that's really cool. To switch over from your employees and your team to your customers in your clients. I know that you invest a lot of time and money and resources to put content out for your clients. It seems like from following you on social media, you're always trying to educate people and empower people with knowledge who technically aren't even your clients yet, like they haven’t paid you anything. Why is it so important to you to put time and money and energy and investment into that when those people aren't even your customers yet?

Danny: Because I think that people think real estate is super easy. I think that they relate it to buying and selling a car or, you know, a personal belonging, and it's much more complicated than snapping some photos and throwing a house in the MLS. So I feel that by putting out all this information, all these different things that you should know when purchasing a home or when selling a home and best practices and different types of inspections you should do and just everything that goes into it. If somebody wants to take that information and run with it, great, good on them. If they have the time to do it, for sure, I'm okay with that. But my thought process is that people will discover there is way more to this than I thought. I have a job or I'm running my own business. I don't have time to do everything that Danny and his team do. So I'm just gonna call and go straight to them and have them do it.

Preslie: Sure, and it establishes you as an expert in that space. 

Danny: I think that you need to put your best stuff out there and let people see that you have that knowledge and that background. And if they value it, they will come to you and they'll see that. 

I think of one client specifically, he had put a post on Facebook. He's a high school friend and he's like, “Okay, all you realtors out there convince me why I should use a buyer's agent.” And that's an agent that's gonna represent you through the purchase. And I saw all these posts that people wrote like why they should use them as his agent. And he ended up not using any of them and tried to do the transaction on his own. He was actually under contract on a property, and then he saw one of my videos about doing sewer inspections and how you should always do a sewer inspection on a home that was built prior to 1978 year. A general home Inspector is not going to do that because they have to fish a camera down your sewer lines to make sure that they're not falling apart. Because he saw that video, he ordered a sewer inspection, and it turned out that the sewer lines all needed to be replaced. It was gonna be somewhere around 15 to 20 grand and the seller wasn't willing to do anything. So he canceled [the contract]. Had he not seen my video, he could have been on the hook for 15 to $20,000. You don't know what's going on under the ground till you are literally have stuff bubbling up through your drains. 

And so he then immediately called me and he's like, “Hey, man. This is what happened. I saw your video and I canceled the deal because they wouldn't do anything. And now I want you to be my buyer's agent. I don't have time to schedule with these agents to see properties. I'm trying to work myself, and you just saved me upwards of $20,000. Help me.” And I was like, “Awesome!” And it worked out great. We helped him find a home and he purchased it and closed and it was great. It was all because just putting my stuff out there, for the world and just trying to make sure that people are protected. And I think all that stuff matters. Being authentic matters.

Preslie: Absolutely. That's such a good point. I think that we're really transitioning, as everybody can be a content creator in a matter of moments, I think we're transitioning to a place where there aren’t secrets. Everything has been in some book or some podcast or some post and to assume that you have proprietary information that if you were to give it out, would ruin your business I think it's starting to become so obsolete. Because, like you said that the chances that they're gonna take that information and do it themselves is still really low. And if anything, it just makes you look like you really care about your client's, which you do!

Danny: Yeah, I feel like you're right that everything is out there. I love coaches cause I implement what they tell me to do. But I know a lot of people that work with coaches and don't

implement a single thing they do. You're right. Everything is out there a matter of actually doing it. And for some people, a lot of people, they just don't have the time. And it's: what is your time worth, as well. Would you pay? I don't I call it my staff. I've got a landscaper, a pool guy, a housecleaner. I break it down. If I wouldn't pay myself to do that job, then I'm going to outsource it to someone else. And so I think if more people kind of thought that way, that it would allow them to spend more time doing what they enjoy and focusing on what brings in money.

Preslie: Sure, kind of a sidebar question, but you've mentioned a couple times how helpful it's been to have coaches and mentors. How do you screen for because anybody could be a content creator, which means anybody could be a business coach. Coach is a very unregulated term. So how do you screen for people that are legit, are gonna add value to your business, are who they say they are, are the real deal?

Danny: I think word of mouth is super strong in that regard, and the proof is in the pudding. If I'm gonna work with somebody that's coaching me on my business, they sure as hell better have a successful business. It's like working out with a trainer. Are you gonna work out with a trainer who's at a shape and overweight? At least I'm not. That training needs to be in better shape than me if I'm gonna work out with them and have them tell me what to do. If they're not practicing with the preaching then it should be fairly obvious.

Preslie: Yeah, that's really that's a really cool point. And it's just I've never even thought about the concept of having a team coach, so I think that's really cool and how that's different than a business coach. So is that more of like a business coach that specializes in working with groups, specifically? 

Danny: Yeah, her name's Rachel Gutowski, and she spends... We meet with her quarterly, and we come up with our team goals, our goals as a company, as a team, and she brings us all together and we talk. I really enjoy it. I think our team really enjoys it as well because it gives everybody an opportunity to, and we always do it off site and to discuss what's happening in the business. One of my favorite questions to ask, that she asks, is if you were running Myriad Real Estate Group, what would you be doing differently? And hearing that feedback is really great because then I can pivot and shift what we're doing to try and take some of that into consideration. Having my team know that I care about them and what their ultimate path to success for them is. Whether that's with my company, which I hope that it is, but if it's somewhere else, that's okay. And I want to help them get there. If I'm a launching pad for them to get to the next stage in their life and they become a huge success, that's amazing. Whether it's in real estate or something different. I want everybody to succeed. And so bringing in that coach to help them discover that and work through that process is just super valuable.

Preslie: Yeah, that's really neat. You mentioned earlier, in addition to coaches and mentors, that you read a lot, you listen to a lot of podcasts. What other resources, books, podcasts, however you want to think about it, have been really valuable for you as you've grown and scaled this company?

Danny: You probably imagine I spent a lot of time in my car. And so I love listening to podcasts, and I've listened to Joe Rogan. Not necessarily when he's interviewing comedians or talking UFC, but when he has various intellectuals or scientists, because he asks really amazing questions. 

Preslie: He’s a really good interviewer. 

Danny: He is, you know, and it's fantastic. I listen to Sam Harris is another podcast that I really enjoy. He's kind of philosophical and also a very good interviewer. Sometimes they interview the same people, and I like that because you're getting two different points of view, asking sometimes similar questions, but in different ways so that you can get different answers. 

I really enjoy Pivot with Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway. That's kind of a tech entrepreneur type podcast. And then I've really gotten into a bunch of different Bloomberg podcast because there's a ton going on in the economy. I want to be a thought leader and someone who can speak to what's happening in the economy and how that's gonna affect our clients and their pocketbook and their home values, and to be able to speak with confidence on what I think is going to happen. So, I'm listening to weigh more economic podcasts than I ever thought. Well, actually, I never thought I would listen to that type, but I'm actually really enjoying it because it allows me to speak with authority and not just guess and make it up as I go.

Preslie: Sure, my final question for you is kind of two part because I'm curious on both ends of it. If people are listening to this and they think, What can I do today? What can I do tomorrow on a very like tactical basis to feel like I have more empowerment in my life? And I'm curious is your thoughts as a business owner, so somebody that's a leader, but also as an employee. So if somebody is working for somebody else and they want to step into a place of more autonomy or empowerment their lives, and if somebody leads a team, what are the two kind of different ways that they could go about on a very practical basis to step into empowerment?

Danny: I'm really big on routines. I think that time-blocking and creating small wins is huge. And so, being consistent with what you're doing every single day is really important, at least for me. I know when I'm going to bed. I've got it set up. My success for the next day, it starts the night before. I have an alarm triggered on my phone that's okay, it's time for you to get ready for bed. It doesn’t matter what I'm doing, I go get ready for bed. I get the seven hours that I need to function the next day and then my whole next day is kind of already mapped out in terms of what I'm doing every single hour. And I think that that's really important for me to be able to get what I need to get done. I think that that's something that's very easy for somebody to implement. 

What does your perfect day look like? And map that out and then try to stick to that. Of course, fires are going to come up, but you can schedule for that because you know that they're gonna happen. So you can have these chunks of time that you can spend doing and working on those fires. And turning off notifications is huge. Turning off your phone, not getting alerts when you get an email, that really allows you to be pretty efficient, too. 

And if you're working for somebody else and you're an employee to have more empowerment, that's really hard for me I mean, I haven't been employee for a really long time.

Preslie: I'm hearing you say that the routines establishes credibility with yourself, it allows you to be more productive. You know, doing anything consistent is really applicable to a lot of things. So I actually, as you started to answer that, felt like that's really applicable to both scenarios. You work for somebody else, or you're in a position of leadership, putting in place routines that allow you to be more productive, that allow you to feel like you're a person that is committed to what they say they're gonna do and actually follows through on it. I could see as being like the small first inklings of feeling more empowered.

Danny: Yeah, I think it all just comes back to creating those small wins throughout the day. Every overnight success is 10 years in the making. And it's all that little stuff compounded over time that really starts to add up. And if you could do those little things every single day consistently, it really adds up to huge gains month over month, year over year. I think that's something that Darren Hardy, is another thing that I that I follow, that he preaches. He wrote the book, “The Compound Effect.” And that's implementing small things every single day to make you better.

It doesn't have to be this giant unattainable goal, right? If it is, break it down and if I want to be here and, you know I want to make so much money or I want to be at this stage in my career, what do you have to do today? What small little thing can you do today, tomorrow, the next day, the next day, to get you there?

Preslie: Absolutely. I love it. I think we’ll leave it there. Thanks, Danny. This was fun. 

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