Breakthroughs! Life-changing Lessons from the Legends

Brian Biro is America’s Breakthrough Speaker! He has delivered nearly 1,900 presentations around the world over the last 34 years. The author of 16 books including his bestseller, BEYOND SUCCESS, and his brand-new LESSONS FROM THE LEGENDS, Brian was rated #1 from over 40 Speakers at 4 consecutive INC. Magazine International Conferences. With degrees from Stanford University and UCLA, Brian has appeared on Good Morning America and CNN. Brian was recently honored as one of the top 10 interactive keynote speakers in North America and one of the top 50 Motivational Speakers in the WORLD! Please welcome Brian Biro!

I want to help your audience members learn how to make breakthroughs not only POSSIBLE, but PLANNABLE!

More at – https://www.brianbiro.com/

The Interview Transcript

Hugh Ballou:
Hello friends, nonprofit leaders, thought leaders, and business leaders who are supporting our community charities and our religious organizations. Welcome to episode number 417 of The Nonprofit Exchange. I’m excited about the guest I have today, Brian Biro. So Brian, without me saying a whole lot more about it and just spoiling the surprise, you’re going to talk today about breakthroughs. life-changing lessons from the legends. But before we get into the topic of the day, we want to know a little bit about who you are. So please share that, sir.

Brian Biro:
Well, thank you so much, Hugh. It’s a blast to be with you. And you get an award. You did Brian Biro’s bio without messing up. Very well done. I’m called America’s Breakthrough Speaker, and I’m a professional speaker. I’ve actually had three careers, all wonderful careers. I loved each one. In my first career, I went to Stanford University a very long time ago. We won’t mention any years. It was two years after they invented the wheel. And I studied psychology and English. What a combination. And to put myself through Stanford, along with Megalones, I started coaching and teaching swimming. And that was my first career. When I graduated from Stanford, I became a United States swimming coach, which I did for about a decade. And I loved it. I had great joy, great things happen. 44 of my kids are on full college scholarships. I won the United States Swimming National Coaching Excellence Award. And I probably would still be a swim coach if I had a life. And so the first big lesson I got in my career was I want some balance in my life, some rhythm in my life. All I knew myself was as a coach. So I’m the only person you probably have ever met who went to graduate school to get an MBA, but really to get a life instead of a job. And I really did. And my second career was in my corporate career. I ended up becoming a vice president of two pretty large companies. Had a great time. My last company was in the transportation industry. I was vice president of what we call performance planning. We had an incredible turnaround. That’s where I started doing team building. But I didn’t really care a whole lot about transportation. I cared about people. And so at the peak of this transformation in our company, I said to my wife, Honey, we’re doing great. Let’s quit. I want to go do this. And that’s when I became a professional speaker, which I’ve been doing for 35 years. So I love it. I love to get people to break through from fear to freedom, from failure to faith, from ego to ego, and good to great. had the opportunity to speak to almost 2,000 different organizations all around the world over the last 35 years, and I can’t wait to do more. So that’s my background, although I always try to keep it in perspective. As you see on my signature line, it says, Brian Biro, husband, father, grandfather, speaker, and author. I always want to keep my priorities straight.

Hugh Ballou:
Oh, that is so inspirational all by itself. So let’s dig in a little deeper. You’ve got a life, but really you’ve got a life in providing a pathway for other people. So you’re empowered by sharing influencing and inspiring other people. So let’s go back to the title, Breakthroughs. Elaborate on that a little bit and why is this important for you know, we’re leading in a very difficult sector We call a non-profit or church or synagogue. Those are some of the most difficult places to lead So talk about breakthroughs and what our listeners and viewers need to know about making a breakthrough.

Brian Biro:
I love that you asked that question. I love that I’m called America’s Breakthrough Speaker because that’s really what the best thing in life is. When we break through, getting closer to our potential, break through those fears, those habits that don’t serve us. And so my career has been built around trying to understand what are the key elements, the key principles that consistently will help you not only make breakthroughs possible, most of us believe there’s a possibility, but more importantly, plannable. And there’s three key controllables. And all breakthroughs start by focusing on controlling your controllables. And it’s three key controllables that, after these 49 years in professional life, have kind of crystallized down. These three, if you focus on these three and breakthrough in these areas, you’re going to break through. The first, all breakthroughs start with vision. You got to see it before you can be it. All right. And so that’s about shaping your future. If you wait for your future, you’re going to let somebody else decide it. You’ve got to focus on what you want. And two key principles in shaping your future. Number one, that what you focus on is what you create. What you focus on is what you create. Whether you focus on what and that raises a huge question to everyone in their business, in their life. What are you focusing on? How many of us focus more on worrying about what will go wrong than creating what we want to go right? How many of us focus more often on the things that frustrate us anger us or disappoint us than the things that bring us joy and fulfillment? How many of us are focusing our life on the obstacle instead of the breakthrough? So that’s the first key and a fun little quick way of putting it. I have a grandson who’s eight years old. His name is Augie. He’s the coolest kid you ever saw. When he was, now he’s eight, but when he was three and a half, he was Evel Knievel on his little tricycle. He was so fast and so balanced that he was ahead of the game. So when he was four years old, his mom and dad said, you know, this kid is so balanced, let’s get him a two-wheeler bike. So they got him a two-wheeler bike, and we all had our kids or grandkids. The big day comes. He gets up on the bike. They’re holding that back fender. He puts his little hands on the handlebars, his little feet on the pedals, puts his little tongue out for balance, and he starts pedaling. And he’s wobbling, and Mom and Dad are pulling and pushing him and encouraging him. Finally, he gets enough momentum up that he’s riding that bike. Way to go, Augie! Unfortunately, right in front of him on the sidewalk that day is a great big rock. What does Augie do? What does he look at? The rock. What happens next? Wham, he nails that rock, he falls over, he scrapes up his little elbow, he walks by Dad and says, I’m cool, Dad, no problem, goes up to Mom and goes, Mom, I’m gonna die. All right, so now, it’s two weeks later, same little guy, same little bike, no tongue out now, though, he doesn’t need it, he’s got this bike riding thing down, whipping down the same sidewalk, boppity boppity boppity bop, bigger rock. What happens now? He goes around it. But what goes around it first? Not the bike, his eyes. He sees his way around the rock. So we’ve got a choice to stay locked on the rock or to see the rock. Yeah, there’s going to be obstacles in the way. And then move our eyes around it. What you focus on is what you create. So that’s the first key to shaping your future, the first controllable. The second is to not use your memory to see. I’ve asked almost a million people this question, Hugh. What color is a yield sign? And everybody watching, just answer that question out loud right now. 98% of the people answered the same thing, yellow. Well, guess what? Yield signs are red and white. They’re upside-down triangles with red outlines and red letters across a white background. So here’s the question, why don’t we see them? We’ve seen thousands of them. In the same way, we see our family every day, ourselves every day. And the reason we don’t see them is almost everyone I know rarely uses their vision to see. What we use instead is our memory and our conditioning. And whenever you use your memory to see, you do not see what is, you see what was. And the second you lock onto what was, guess what you block out? what is and could be. Now, as well, I’m good for yield signs, and I hope you all join me, because I am the happiest driver I know, because every time I see a yield sign, I start cracking up. I’m thinking, what else have I been missing lately? But where does it matter to no longer depend upon your memory to see one word? People. People, change the way you look at people, the people you look at change. Change the way you see yourself, the self you see will change. So the starting place for breakthroughs is to shape your future. The second is to energize and engage yourself and your team. When it comes to human performance, when it comes to teamwork, almost everything is energy. But we’ve never learned about energy. In fact, most of us think about our energy the way we think about the weather. It’s kind of like, hope the weather’s good for that family trip. Isn’t that the way we sometimes think about our energy? Hope I have enough energy to make it through this crazy week, through those four different Zoom calls I have today. But energy is not like the weather. It’s a matter of your choice. Three elements to change your energy. Number one, change the way you move. The instant you sit up a little more, you put a smile on your face, and even when you don’t feel like it, you take a rich breath in, way to go, you’re making it happen. You can feel your energy rise, like on a 10-point scale from five to seven, just by the way you move. If you wanna move your life, you gotta move yourself. All right, number two, and more important than movement, in fact, with this second key, you will change the way you move. Our energy is created by our purpose. Whenever you’re full of purpose, you’re full of energy. Have you ever noticed when you get to do what you love to do, energy is no problem? It doesn’t matter how much sleep you had. When you get to do the thing you love to do, it’s like my grandkids, get out of the way, I can’t wait. But do you ever notice what happens to your energy when you lose sight of your purpose? It’s like somebody puts a pin in that balloon. So how do you develop purpose? Well, the core of purpose comes from a starting place called gratitude. Ask yourself, what am I truly grateful about today? And as soon as you do that, you fill up with the greatest emotion of all, which is gratitude. So the first key to energy is to elevate your movement. I’ve asked people before, I’ve said, you know, if you wanna elevate your energy, you gotta move more. And they say, well, Brian, if I had more energy, I’d move more. Ah, move more and you’ll have more energy. Secondly, focus every day on your purpose. Hugh, at every event I speak, I bring a photo of my family with me. They are my purpose. I love them more than life itself. And as beautiful as those people are, I don’t bring the photo with me to show the audience. I bring it with me to show me, to remind myself that I have a purpose bigger than myself and that I dedicate everything I can to them. And it changes me. It makes me feel alive and vibrant and wanting to give the people in front of me everything I’ve got. The third key to energy is the tough one. It’s the rock like little Augie had to go around. I’ve talked about energy in my events for 35 years. Every so often, somebody says this, Brian, I have a lot of energy, except when I get around him. I have this one person who sucks the energy out of me. They are my energy vampire. Whenever I think I can, they show me all the reasons I can’t. And I always say the same thing to these folks, never say it to be harsh or cruel, say it to set them free. I borrowed the two words from Bob Newhart in a comedy sketch. If you have somebody who you think is an energy vampire, stop it. It’s not their energy. It’s not their power. No one can take your energy away from you. unless you give him permission, and anyone can take it away when you give him that permission. I learned it the hard way, learned it the easy way, because the guy I thought was my energy vampire for a lot of my life, was my hero when I was a kid, he was my dad. You know, he was a tough man. I never thought I could possibly ever, ever get this man to love me, to be proud of me. Today, at 94 years old, we’re best friends. I talk to him every single day. I’m his caregiver, even though he’s on the other side of the country. And that only changed when I let go of that energy vampire and realized it was my own creation. And as soon as I did, I found out this man I never thought loved me at all. He’d always told me he loved me the only way he could, by working two jobs. He couldn’t say, I love you or give me a hug, but he could get an old bike and for weeks and months work on it. So Christmas morning, there was my Red Racer bike. And today at 93, almost 94, my dad ends every conversation with, I love you, son. That only can happen when you release the energy vampire, which you created. So the second key to really breaking through is to energize and engage yourself. Because before you can energize and engage anybody else, who must you energize and engage? Yourself. The third key is the fun one. It’s to build people, build teams, build relationships. Whatever business you’re in, whether it’s your religious group, whether it’s a nonprofit business, whatever it is, never forget, fundamentally, it’s the people business. It’s how you grow and help others grow that will determine how far you can go. And so building people, teams, and relationships is a controllable. You control certain elements to do that. The way that you recognize, acknowledge, appreciate people, deliver kindness. being fully present for people. These are the most important keys that you focus on. Creating loyalty comes by being loyal and focus on what you put into that equation. So when you focus on those three controllables, shape your future, energize and engage yourself and your team, build people, teams, and relationships. I know we’ll talk more about that one. Then you’re gonna create breakthrough results. And breakthrough results are doing things you didn’t think you could do when you started out. And that’s the most wonderful feeling in the world.

Hugh Ballou:
All right, I want to talk to those people out there. You just had a download of 35 Years of Wisdom Plus. And don’t fret if you didn’t get it written down. There’s a full transcript of this, all those wonderful sound bites. are not just soundbites, they’re wisdom from the ages. And I guess, Brian, you and I are not spring chickens anymore, but we’ve learned a lot through our experiences. And some of the things that help us be experts are the things that didn’t work. I call them learning opportunities. Would you say that was so?

Brian Biro:
Oh, most definitely. Napoleon Hill in Think and Grow Rich, a classic book from many, many, many years ago, said this, within every adversity, is planted the seed of an equivalent or greater benefit. And truly the key to understanding what you just said, and I think it’s one of the most important lessons of all, is that we learn from our successes, we learn from our mess-ups. The most important key to really learning is to be humble. I keep with me on my desk a little pebble that says humbly on it. Now, many people have gotten the wrong impression. They think that being humble, and it’s become more so in the last few years, that being humble is somehow weak or soft. They couldn’t be farther from the truth because being humble doesn’t mean you can’t be confident. You can be very confident and very humble because being humble doesn’t mean you think less of yourself. It means you think of yourself less. But the reason why humility is so crucial to learning all your life, only those who are humble are lifelong learners, because only those who are humble always know there’s something to learn, some way to get better. They would rather be wrong and learn something from it than pretend they’re always right.

Hugh Ballou:
Well, there are things we can learn from other people if we just ask questions and Listen carefully to the answers. I mean so I find that This your control bros are great and the breakthroughs happen when we’re willing to be vulnerable when we’re willing to see to ask other people to help us find our blind spots. And so that’s a whole lot, and we read a lot of the same people, and I love Napoleon Hill’s work, and Bob Proctor, who was a champion, and Jim Rohn, none of whom are with us anymore, but they left a legacy of wisdom that we continue to interpret. So you’re a professional speaker, but do you always also have a business where you work with people individually or collectively in companies or organizations?

Brian Biro:
No, I’m essentially two things, a professional speaker and an author. And so I work with groups collectively as their main speaker, as their keynote speaker. And that’s what I’ve been doing for these last 35 years. And I love it. And I’ll tell you why I do it, which is pretty fun. I do it because of the way I feel when I’m doing it. I joke. You’ll relate to this pretty well. When I’m on stage, I’m 25. I get off stage, I’m 70. Okay, that’s true. I am 70. But on stage, I’m 25. And it’s because I’m doing what God put me on earth to do. I don’t do it for the response. I appreciate the response deeply. When you do what I do, and incidentally, Bob Proctor was my dear friend. When you do what I do, people are going to come up at the end and say, wow, that changed my life. And wow, it was wonderful. And I appreciate that. But I also know that no one changes your life except you and God. All right, for me, I’m a motivated speaker, though they call me a motivational speaker. The reason I do it is because I’m doing what I was put on earth to do, and there’s no greater feeling in this world. It’s amazing when you get up doing these things, and I believe in so much helping people break through. It’s like a transformation in me. I mean, I’m just completely, fully present. You know, one last little part about it that I also like to make sure that people understand when we hear, we tend to forget. When we see, we remember. But it’s when we do that we understand. And so the main reason I’m called America’s Breakthrough Speaker is I’ve had a million Americans break through one-inch thick boards in my events at the end of their seminars. And it’s a metaphor for breaking through. It’s real. It’s concrete. It causes you to apply those three controllables in a real way. And it’s a very meaningful experience because people write on the board something they want to break through. They get clear about what that rock is. On the other side of the board, they write down and envision what’s waiting for me when I have broken through. What am I going to do, be, feel, create, have in my life? It’s also the greatest team experience because there’s something about it that recognizes we’ll do more for others than we’ll do for ourselves. And the cheering the support and the energy are off the map. And when people have broken that board, The most amazing thing happens. They fill up with a sense of, wow, I didn’t know I could do that. What else could I do that I didn’t know I could do? The most incredible breakthrough I’ve had, as I said, I’ve had a million people. Several years ago in Atlanta, I had a 95-year-old woman as the last breaker on that event of 4,000 people. I had 4,000 people break boards that day in Atlanta. She was 95 years old. She got up on the stage, high stage. Her granddaughter had to hold her by her waist from behind so she wouldn’t teeter too much. She had already tried to break the board out in the room three times without success. And breaking the board has nothing to do, as it does in life, with your strength. It has to do with your focus. Are you focusing on the rock or way beyond it? Well, when she broke that board in front of those 4,000 people, the roar was so loud, I think I lost a little hearing that day. But the greatest realization I had was that 4,000 people broke through that day. Every one of them loved their breakthrough experience, but every one of them will remember her breakthrough experience more than any other. That’s when they understood that the greatest thing about us is that we’ll do more for others than we’ll do for ourselves.

Hugh Ballou:
I find that some people do not embrace the skills that God gave them. We have hidden potential, and I’m sensing by what you’re saying that you’ve helped people have the confidence to actually embrace that skill. You’re approaching 2,000 presentations, you’ve got 16 books, probably more. So talk a little bit about Beyond Success, one of your best sellers, and then your latest, Lessons from the Legends. Why are those important? We’re not selling books here, but I think people, I always say leaders are readers and you need to read and stay ahead of the game. Underline things or highlight them and then when you go back use a different color because you’re gonna learn something extra to talk about those two books your inspiration for those and is there another influence you’d like to share you’ve influenced somebody in all of this great stuff you’re doing

Brian Biro:
Well, thanks so much for bringing that up. And for those who are watching this podcast, behind me, you see a pyramid, a block of pyramids. And that kind of leads me into talking about an inspiration for the main inspiration for Beyond Success and one of the two legends I write about in Lessons for the Legend. And he was my mentor and my friend. His name was John Wooden. For those who don’t know, John Wooden was the greatest men’s college basketball coach of all time. From my little perspective, his teams at UCLA won 10 national championships in 12 years. Perspective, no other coach in men’s college history won more than five in their entire career. Coach K of Duke won five national championships in 42 years. Coach Wooden won 10 in 12 years, but he’d been the first to tell you he didn’t win any in the first 27 years of his coaching career. He used to say, it’s what you learn after you know everything that makes the difference. And from Coach Wooden, and the other legend I write about in my most recent book, Lessons from the Legends, was to women’s basketball in many ways what John Wooden was to men’s basketball. Her name was Pat Summitt. Pat Summitt was the University of Tennessee Lady Vols basketball coach. Eight national championships, 16 Final Fours, a true legend. And I wrote about both of them. And my first book, Beyond Success, it was all about the pyramid of success because it fits so well with those three controllables we just talked about. And I used it as a great structure for people to really understand the components of reaching your potential. And both of these books are about character. Coach Wooden used to say, be more concerned with your character than your reputation. Because your character’s who you are. Reputation is only what others think you are. And I add to that, if you focus on your character, sooner or later, it’s going to become your reputation. And though John Wooden and Pat Summitt were incredibly different in style, John Wooden, probably the harshest words he ever said were good grief. Pat Summitt could melt a computer screen with her glare. But deep down inside, the same character elements were what made them who they were. Incredibly successful. Incredible builders. Both of them wanted to win, but both of them looked at winning as not about comparison, but about focusing on being the best of which you’re capable of. Both of them spent a massive time preparing. Both of them were incredibly humble. They never blamed anybody. They were blame busters. Coach Bear Bryant at Alabama said this beautiful thing. He said I’m just an old country plow hand. But if I’ve learned one thing, if you want a team’s heart to beat as one when things go great, they did it. Things went pretty good, we did it. Things go bad, I did it. I’ve got to take responsibility and give credit. It’s amazing what’s accomplished when nobody cares who gets the credit. Credit is something you give. Responsibility is something you take. So last thing about these books, both of them explain that though these were the greatest coaches in their sport, they really coached people. And as I said, when you think about building people, teams, and relationships, It’s all about having what I call the Pygmalion spirit, which means our thoughts and our beliefs and expectations of others are magnetically drawing them in the direction of those thoughts, and beliefs. And to be a positive Pygmalion is to believe in people even more than they sometimes believe in themselves. We’ve all had somebody like that in our lives and it changed our lives. So I wrote these books about the character, about the fact that we’re all in the people business, that they apply to you, whether it’s in your work, whether it’s in your family, whether it’s in your health. and that you focus on those controllables, you will break through.

Hugh Ballou:
Controllables, you heard it right here. So, this has been a great interview. Before we end, I want to share your website. If people are listening, it’s brianbiro.com. B-R-I-A-N, that’s how he spells Brian. B-I-R-O. So, Brian, when they go there, what will they find?

Brian Biro:
Well, first of all, they’ll find on this opening page, they’ll see my kind of demo video. And right away, you see right away that energy in the room. They’ll find out about my speaking. They’ll find out about some of my books, and find some really powerful articles on some of the things we talked about today. Mostly, I want them to find that they’ll see that breakthroughs are possible in their life. When you focus on those controllables, they’ll be plannable.

Hugh Ballou:
That is outstanding. And you’ve spoken for a few small companies like Microsoft and Boeing and Staples, Starbucks, come on. So you’ve been around. And so, Brian, what do you want to leave people with? You’ve certainly inspired us. So now what? What do you want to leave people with, a challenge or a thought or what?

Brian Biro:
Well, you know, I think the most important words I’ve ever written, Hugh, say this, say the love we fail to share is the only pain we live with. And how do we live pain-free? And the most important principle I believe of all that I teach is to be fully present. Now, what does that mean? When you’re fully present, a hundred percent of your mind, body, and spirit is with the people you’re with where they are now. It’s so important because I believe that our job as parents, as leaders, as human beings comes down to one thing above all. Our job is to help the people that we lead, that we serve, and that we love to know they’re important. to know they’re significant, to know they matter. Because when people feel important, they rise to that, oh, yeah, spirit. When people feel unimportant, they give up. They quit. They act out. The only way you can truthfully deliver that message that you’re important in every precious moment is by being fully present because you can’t fake being present. People know instantly if you’re there with them or not. And when you are fully present, you go beyond words to help them know that they’re significant and they matter. So if you want, I encourage everyone to try this. Pick out two people in your life, one at work, and one at home. For the next 30 days, you commit to be more fully present. Doesn’t mean you have to spend more time with them. You have less time. But when you’re with them, put the cell phone down. Do something you so brilliantly said on this show. Ask more than tell. And then listen before you formulate your response. Most of the time, we’re not listening. We’re thinking about what we’re going to say. Take it in and then respond. You’ll still be able to respond. And you watch. After a couple of days, they’re going to look at you differently. They’re going to go, you’ve been working out? Did you change your hair? You’re looking good. As you become more present with those two, you’ll develop that muscle until it becomes who you are. Just remember, the past is history, the future a mystery, the gift is now. That’s why we call it the present.

Hugh Ballou:
The present is a gift. Unwrap it and expect just the best. Brian, you’ve inspired me. I do this podcast for other people, but I’m the biggest beneficiary. Thank you so much for being our guest today and sharing your wisdom.

Brian Biro:
It was my absolute joy. I wish you the best, Hugh. You’re doing great work. 400, 417 down and who knows how many to go.

Hugh Ballou:
Thank you.