Brian Wright is the founder of Brian K. Wright International whose mission is to motivate and inspire others to discover their unique talents and follow their dreams in life. With extensive experience teaching and training in academics and corporate environments, he understands that many people live far beneath their potential, primarily because they don’t believe they deserve success. Through his experience and research, Brian has learnt and practiced the principles he teaches in his book Student Leadership Strategies: 21 Easy Ways to Become a Center of Influence in Your Group. Brian is also the host of the Internet Radio Talk Show Success Profile Radio on the Rock Star Radio Network. Brian holds a Degree in Communication Studies and holds a Master’s Degree in Adult Education from the University of Nebraska in London. He discovered a passion for speaking and influencing audiences by speaking competitively in High School and College and by being heavily involved on campus while in school.
Questions
- Tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey
- Can you give an overview of some of the topics in your book?
- How do you feel about customer service as a customer yourself?
- What are two (2) everyday solutions that you believe that can help improve customer experience on a global level?
- How do you stay motivated everyday?
- What is the one online resource, website, tool or app you absolutely cannot live without in your business?
- In helping to write books, do you help clients from conceptuality throughout the writing process?
- What are some of the books that have had the biggest impact on you?
- What is one thing in your life right now that you are really excited about – something that you are working on to develop yourself or your people?
- Where can our listeners find you?
- What is one quote or saying that you live by or that inspires you in times of adversity?
Highlights
- Brian Wright stated that he got his Degree in Adult Education at the University of Nebraska and taught at a Business College for almost 5 years where he taught Public Speaking, English Composition, and Business Mathematics (a really fun combination of classes). He expressed when someone is taking a class that is required – you have to make it fun. He further expressed that he taught at this college and even though it was a private college they ran it as a business. He also shared that most of the students that attended the school were non-traditional aged students. He stated that he wrote resumes to help people find jobs which was fun. Fast forward a few years later, he moved to Phoenix, Arizona and is now hosting a personal development radio show entitled “Success Profiles Radio” where he interviews world class achievers and learns how they succeeded and what they overcame and what lessons we can learned from that. A few of the persons he has interviewed includes Darren Hardy, Jack Canfield, Dr. John Demartini from “The Secret”, Laura Longmire, Sharon Lechter and James Malinchak – ABC Secret Millionaire.
- Brian stated that “Student Leadership Strategies: 21 Easy Ways to Become a Center of Influence in Your Group” is his first book and has been out for a little while. He stated that when writing the book, he wanted it to appeal to young people. Brian says that he thinks leadership is absent in a lot of arenas and the types of people that are in leadership positions maybe can do a better job or they are very self serving and that is not leadership and he wanted to write a book about that. At the beginning, he started to ask himself what makes a great leader? And his goal was to come up with 21 answers to the question. He ended up with 30 and as he started writing, he realized that some of the topics were similar and those 30 topics turned into 21, so he was thankful that he still made his goal. The number one thing that he wrote about was that excellent leaders have a vision for the future.
- Brian stated when you think of Gene Roddenberry, creator of the Star Trek series, he just created this whole entire vision for what he thought the future should be like, an opportunity for people to explore space, somewhat Utopian! Brian even gave mention to the Wright Brothers who created the first airplane and Elon Musk as a modern day example who created PayPal and changed the platform and functions of eCommerce completely and even created Tesla and SpaceX.
- When you can have people buy into your vision, you’re going to be much more successful because no great leader can accomplish anything by themselves. Just like politicians, they have to sell their vision of what they want to do in order to get elected and get enough people to believe in that vision and that’s an amazing accomplishment, which leads to another thing that is important to being a successful leader and that is the idea of networking. And going back to the political example, you have to have a huge rolodex of people you can count on in order to accomplish anything. The key is not just getting them to do what you want to do but getting them to believe that what you want them to do is something that they also want to do. He also stated that excellent leaders make people feel welcome in their presence. If you’re a leader and you don’t feel comfortable following someone or you don’t feel comfortable with way that the leader is acting, you are not going to stick around for long so helping people feel comfortable in your presence means creating a culture and that is something you help people buy into. Brian shared most people like certain companies better based on the Culture they have created. In his examples he shared if you have a company that has theme days, a vending machine or foosball table in the break room – these small components help to set your company culture apart. Creating an environment of fun and that is welcoming where people want to continue coming and that’s what excellence leaders do.
- Brian Wright shared as a customer he has had some good and bad experiences. He stated that what really gets to him is when people don’t listen which is one of his biggest pet peeves. A question is being asked and they are not answering the question being asked or they are answering the question they feel like answering. This mostly is because they have a script, they don’t really know, so they just fall back to a script that they are comfortable with. A customer may request to speak with a supervisor and sometimes people are happy to pass the call over and other people may get a little upset because they want to help but they are not being helpful, people want to speak with someone that can answer a specific question. He shares that what irritates him the most is when he would have to be calling over and over for an on-going issue and no one bothered to take notes about the first call. He mentioned a situation that happened and he had spent 45 minutes on the call with a representative, when he called back a few months later for a follow up on the issue that he spoke about before, he asked about the company fee’s for what they were doing for him and the answer he got from the first representative was great but then when he called back the second time and asked the same question, that representative stated that there are no notes about that, he was not happy that he had spoken about that issue for 30 minutes out of the 45 minutes conversation that he had with the representative. He felt annoyed the representative didn’t think to make notes. Brian also mentioned that if you say that you will follow up with a phone call or an email about a resolution, do what you can to make that happen and follow up. Making proper notes and listening are absolutely critical in customer service.
- Brian recommend that business owners should spend a day in the trenches with their team so that they can see and hear exactly what is going happening on a daily basis. You get to meet the people on your team; you get to learn what they are going through every single day. Let them train you as to what they are doing and why they are doing it and if you sit with enough people in one day where you take some calls, you will get a much better sense of what’s going on with your team and then you can make training recommendations. That will be outstanding because you be able to feel and experience what your team is feeling and experience or even better you could be a mystery shopper, call your company, call your customer service departments and see how they treat you, see how they handle things. Mystery shop your company to see the kind of experience you are receiving to see if it is aligned with your mission and use it as a training opportunity for your company to do better. Brian shared if your company is interested in doing better and performing at a world-class level – you will engage and do some mystery shopping on your business and then move into some well-needed training.
- Brian stated that staying motivated has to do with hanging around persons who have similar goals and missions. He mentioned a quote by Jim Rohn “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” If you are not experiencing financial success, look at the 5 people you are hanging around, chances are they aren’t either. If you’re 30 pounds overweight and you wish you have a better body, look at the 5 people you are hanging around, they are probably eating oreos on the couch after work too. If you want to lose weight…..find 5 people who look great, feel great, have a handle on they’re eating pattern and ask them what they are doing, ask them for advise even get a personal trainer if you need to. People who want to help you become a better sales person, people who want to help you with online marketing, so if you want to learn those things, know who you can tap into and get some help with.
Brian also mentioned that he enjoys walking and running out in nature but in Arizona it is too hot so he is a member at a gym. He says he is able to enjoy his own thoughts when he walks and runs. He further believes that if you take care of yourself and who you are; you will have much to give to others very much like when you travel and the Flight Attendant states in her safety briefing place the mask on yourself first and then help the passenger next to you – you must be able to help yourself first before you can help others.
- Brian Wright shared that the one app that he frequently uses and cannot live without in his business is Facebook. He stated that the guests that he gets for his Podcast show is mostly through Facebook and people that he admires and he also receives guest referrals. He stated that he also helps people write their books, so there is a lot of dialogue through Facebook as well. Brian said that he hasn’t done any ads via Facebook as yet; he has been talking with persons and will be starting that soon. Brian says he believes everyone has a book inside him or her; he helps them find their story within and helps them connect and find a way to connect with the world.
- Brian stated that he does help with the conceptuality of writing books, as he believes that everyone has a book inside them somewhere, somehow. He talks with them about their topic and what makes their topic unique. So if they want to write a book on customer service as an example, there are many books about that, it’s a very common topic. So he would ask, what spin would they place on that topic that would make their book interesting to read and would not be like the other books out there? And that would be an exploration of their background and what they’ve gone through. He coaches them on what topics that can be talked about in the book, create on outline together and the life stories that they would share because people relate to stories kind of how Jesus taught through his parables. He also stated that he helps with the self-publishing aspects as well, he has resources for format and layout of the book, designing the book cover and also printing of the book.
- Brian shares the books that he has read that has had the greatest impact on him are first – “The Success Principles: How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be” by Jack Canfield, Brian said he read it several times within a year (2005), it has so many exercises and suggestions for things you can do. He also mentioned that Jack Canfield was interviewed on his show in 2015. Brian also mentioned that he is now reading “The 10X Rule: The Only Difference Between Success and Failure” by Grant Cardone.” The idea of setting massive goals for yourself and taking action on it has really helped him focus on thinking really big. Brian shared the first personal development book that he read was “The Magic of Thinking Big” by David Schwartz which really had an impact on him as well. He shared that the book was written in the 50’s.
- When we asked Brian what’s the one thing that he is excited about and working on in his life to develop himself or his people right now, he happily shared that he is currently working on a book called “Conversations with High Achievers.” He has some of the interviews transcribed and he is doing some editing as well as he has some extra writing to do and hoping to release the eBook version before December 2016. Just the idea that the book could be a huge springboard for more speaking opportunities and for an opportunity to do a live event someday and having some of these great speakers come to speak at his event is exciting and also providing opportunity for people to learn and develop themselves. He says as he re-visits all of these great interviews that he has been reviewing – he has learned so much and it has been a huge blessing for him. Brian shares listening to interviews with successful people is one major thing people can do to develop themselves.
- Brian says listeners can find him on
Facebook – www.facebook.com/Success-Profiles-Radio-166132613536941/
Twitter – www.twitter.com/MrBriankwright
Radio Show Page – toginet.com/shows/successprofilesradio
Personal Website – www.briankwright.com
Email – brian@briankwright.com
- We asked Brian for one quote or saying that during times of adversity or challenge helps him to re-focus and re-engage – Brian said he had a moment earlier this week where he was feeling overwhelmed by things and he recalls a verse from the Bible Isaiah 43:19, as he frequently reads the Bible – “Behold, I will do anything for you.” He stated that it is a promise that is given and means that you are not going to stay where you are forever, something new is on the horizon for you, something wonderful, something great, something fantastic that will change your life.
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Links
- “Student Leadership Strategies: 21 Easy Ways to Become a Center of Influence in Your Group” by Brian K. Wright
- “The Success Principles: How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be” by Jack Canfield
- “The 10X Rule: The Only Difference Between Success and Failure” by Grant Cardone
- “The Magic of Thinking Big” by David Schwartz
- https://www.facebook.com/Success-Profiles-Radio-166132613536941/
- twitter.com/MrBriankwright
- com/shows/successprofilesradio
- briankwright.com
