Gratitude "Podcast" Interview: Brian Bushlach

Good afternoon, everybody. It's David George Brooke, that gratitude guy with another special guest on the gratitude podcast, interview, the pandemic. And today, my guest is a young man. I got to meet a few years ago, and he's just become a good resource and mentor to me. Brian Bushlag. Brian, welcome to the podcast. Not so young anymore, David

Well, you're a lot younger than me. Experienced, right? Yeah. Experience. Experience. That's true. That's true. So, well, as I'm a lot younger than me

experienced now. Experienced, right? Yeah. Experience. That's true. That's true. So, well, as I mentioned, I'm actually asking people

that are opinion on things, and I've just gotten some tremendous tidbits to extend to people

that may not have the right imagination or the amount of the proper outlook to this, if you will

So my first question is, what is your best coping mechanism to deal with this pandemic for Brian and family

It's a cliche, but I stay positive. You know, I learned a long time ago to

block out all the negatives we get. We get so many negatives. You turn on the TV, you look at any of

the news websites, and having been in the media for gosh, over 30 years now, they want your eyeballs

they want you tuned into that. So there's a lot of things that they do that I don't think

average folks realize they're getting sucked into. And before you know it, you know, an hour

online and you're really worried about what's going to happen not only in the world but in your

community and so I just try to block as much of that stuff out now it doesn't mean that I don't look at it

you know you have to stay in touch with what's going on obviously we're all monitoring this situation

but I don't let it get to me and you know you can you know take that exit ramp maybe for 15 to 30

minutes and you got to get back on the freeway and keep moving forward and looking out the

the front window, not in the rearview mirrors, right, as we're traveling along

So just try to stay positive and a lot of positive, you know, mental reinforcement

a lot of positive self-talk, just thinking positively. And, you know, you know this better than any

Be grateful and being thankful for what we have. Well said. And I think about how you're known by the company you keep

And I had a friend say this to me years ago, and I loved it. He says, I've had some great friends that have been

come acquaintances. And you don't think of it as going that other direction. You think of always

getting to be closer and closer. But sometimes if a person, you know, we can be, it's a choice

We can be positive or negative. So great, great input. So clearly these are uncertain times

And so what would you say, just right at this very moment you're most grateful for

Well, I just took a breath there. So I'm grateful that I can breathe. You know

you're thankful that you have a roof over your head, that you have food in your refrigerator. I know

lot of people don't right now. True. You've got a freezer full of frozen chicken and you're stocked up and, you know, having gone

through my own struggles, building businesses, I feel like I've already kind of been through

this or been prepared for it. You know, we have a great recession. Obviously, everybody's familiar with that 10, 12 years ago

But, you know, coming back from that was a real struggle for us and for our family and, you

continuing to build businesses and face financial struggles and not be able to do things And there a lot of things I could say about this I you know as a culture I feel like our country has become kind of soft and you know

we're used to things that even 20, 30 years ago, people never thought of like flying around

the world and travel. And those are nice luxuries, but they're not necessities

And so I wake up every day and I'm not kidding you

I'm thankful, but I woke up. I'm thankful I can take a hot shower, and that's important when you work at home a lot

I'm thankful that we have a roof over our head, that we have vehicles that we can drive

because, you know, when you're financially challenged or you're in a situation like this

as many people will be, millions of people will be, you know, that trip to Hawaii or playing golf

those are those are luxuries those are things that you know a lot of people are going to find out

we have taken way for granted and really the most important things are you know your family

um your your spouse your children and being thankful for those things so i i mean i'm a student

of your gratitude journal and that's that's where it all starts every single day and you know

you know this because you've been in business with Nordstrom and other companies you have

you have a lot of great days. You have a lot of great wins, but you also have a lot of days that

aren't so great, and you have to be able to balance all that out. So that's where the gratitude

piece comes in. No, that's excellent. And I think that just any time, the other day I came up

with 10 different things, I think I did a video on it about just 10 different positives that came out

of the COVID-19. And one of them was it helps you to realign your priorities. And we get them

out of whack. I mean, I love what you said about the hot shower and a roof over your head and food

in the refrigerator and we take it for granted oh i don't get to go to the trip to hawai so so well said

and and speaking to that segues nicely into my next question if you think about some of the people

aren't going to be as positive as you are or as creative so what are some of the thoughts ideas and

tips you might give to somebody about how to go through this is their home homebound if you will

well it's a great time to uh you know it's the cliche check up from the neck up and you if you haven't

been coached uh by uh uh career coach or a business coach or a personal coach over the years

this will be completely foreign to you. And I know a lot of people out there haven't. They thought maybe that's corny or I would never do that

But, you know, I learned 20 years ago. I know you learned this too that obviously professional athletes are coached

They don't get there on their own. And that's true for all of us. And so I was fortunate, very blessed to work with a group called building champions out

of Lake Oswego, Oregon for a number of years. And so a lot of what I learned then, I always fall back on

Not even in challenging times, but, you know, in good times too, because you got to temper the good times because you know that there's challenges on the way

So, you know, I, there's a lot of things I fall back on

There's a great book by Shad Helmstetter and talking about positive self-talk and, you know, constantly telling yourself positive things because the other side of that is, you know, when it's going negative, you got a lot of flaming arrows coming at you, right? Exactly

Your subconscious mind not only your conscious mind other people I mean a lot of stuff coming at you that going to give you negative information and you can do this or you shouldn do this so i always fall back on that you know

what to say when you talk to yourself that's the book by shadow etc and there's a lot of great

stuff in there that you know hey it might be a terrible day it might be a bad week or month you might

have lost a job might have lost a career might have lost your car maybe you're going to lose your house

but, you know, none of that's permanent. And in the moment, you know, there's one thing that nobody can take away from you

and that's your what's in your head. And you got to stay positive. So that's one of the things

And I will tell you, you know, I haven't always been that way

Been so many periods I went through where I was really pissed off and mad, upset that things weren't happening

Why aren't they happening? and you know in each one of those instances you just look yourself in the mirror there's a reason

it's not happening and in most cases it's that person staring back at you in the mirror and that's

you know that's something that I think right now you know where we're at with what's happening

a lot of people are going to have to re-evaluate not only what they do but who they are

and how they carry themselves and we all make mistakes I used to say I have no regrets

Well, that was a younger version of me who was a complete idiot. Now, you know, we all have regrets

But I think it's a great time for all this stuff. I, you know, my wife and I have talked about how our culture, you know, the book we want to write is called Overload

We are so overloaded. Everybody so busy. Everybody, how are you doing

I'm busy. I'm so busy. I'm so busy. People are running around

kids are doing three or four activities that consume all afternoon and evening and weekends

and they're flying the tournaments all around the country or dance up

but whatever it may be, right? We just, as a culture, we're on overload

And so as brutal as this will be, and I do think this will be a very brutal downturn

I do not expect things to just, you know, lickety split, bounce back in six months

It's going to be brutal. We're already seeing that. It's a great time to reevaluate everything and realize, you know, about 80% of that crap we do, it has no significance in life

It's just, you know, it's a want. It's not a need. Such a great point

And I think I used to joke about you run into people and have you been on busy. Oh, you think you're busy

That's nothing. I'm 10 times busy. It's like a status symbol. Who's the busiest, you know

And so, gosh, I mean, somebody once said the sign of a person that's well organized is a person that always has time for you

and has control of their day or what have you. So that's really good

So last question is not only through the pandemic and through where we are right now

but you have kind of maybe either a quote or a philosophy that Brian uses or thinks in the back of your head

that kind of applies to how you view your life over and above what you just said

I got a lot of them. And boy, to pick one right off the top of my head

there's that quote by Theodore Roosevelt about, you know, the man in the arena is one that you know in the game And there all the people in the you know in the bleachers the spectators that are taking shots but he the guy in the arena

He's the one that's out there fighting. And I think about that a lot. There's Bible verses I think of

One that comes to mind is enter through the narrow gate because broad is the road and wide

is the path that leads to destruction. And many people follow it

And I can't tell you right where that's at, but it talks about following the crowd

and so many people do that instead of making the correct decision

When the coronavirus first hit the Seattle area, you and I both live and work in this area

You know, it was late January, early February. I remember people at the time, obviously now

there's still some of those folks out there who didn't think it was a big deal

didn't want to believe it was a big deal or wanted to ignore it. and so this is kind of off topic from your question

but I feel like you've got to be bold enough now to make your own decisions

And so we started staying at home on March 2nd. Oh, wow. Good for you

Most people in the area, friends, family thought we were nuts, okay

And I was okay with that because I just, you know, my own values, my feelings were

I'd rather be safe than sorry or however. you want to put it. Yeah. And so not that, you know, that made us any smarter or anything in retrospect

but I'm sense that those are decisions we made. And that first week was tough because, you know, you pull kids out of dance or activities

when all their friends are still there and they're asking you a lot of hard questions and you've got to stick to your guns

And then obviously we don't have this played out. But there are so many of those quotes out there about, you know, not following the crowd

Right. Whether it's a Bible verse or whether it's the, you know. So I couldn't pick one

boy, if you had given me, if you had fed me that question early, I could have given you

about 20 of them, but that's what they're all centered on is, you know, being your, being yourself

That's good. And I'm going to, I'm going to get that. Oh, and by the way, would you be kind

enough to send you maybe a link to that book you were talking about? I'll put it in the

description below the video. So those that might be interested, you could click on it

because that sounds like that could really be helpful. And I might even, you know what I'm going to do

to, too, I'm going to put either a link or I'll just cut and paste it into below the video

the Teddy Roosevelt quote because it is so great about rather than be those cold and timid souls

that would never venture, you know, through this and just sit back in the sidelines and

throwing stones or everybody else, but they do nothing and better to be out in the arena and making

a difference. And certainly that's what I hope that I'm doing and I know you do. So I know you were

too. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. So it's excellent. Well, listen, thank you so much. I appreciate that

those tidbits. And as I say, it's the same thing with gratitude. My comments around gratitude are always

It helps you to focus on what you have versus what you don't have and gratitude turns what you have into enough

And so anytime that somebody says, gosh, I noticed what Brian Bushleck said on the interview the other day

That was really cool. This comment, that was hanging around positive people. I mean, how many times could you be reminded of not only you're known by the company you keep, but one bad apple spoils the bunch

So if you want to hang around a bunch of negative nellies, that's fine, but I would choose not to

And so that's an excellent point. So thank you so much. I really appreciate those comments

and we shall chat soon. Thanks for having me. You bet. Thanks, Brian