A Game Plan for Success: Brandon Steiner on Winning in Sports Memorabilia and Beyond

EP 41- A Game Plan for Success: Brandon Steiner on Winning in Sports Memorabilia and Beyond

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I'd like to welcome Brandon Steiner to the Ask Ralph program today. Brandon,

thanks for joining us. Well, it's a pleasure right here in the heart of New York City. People smoking weed, people getting robbed, people doing business, people making money. So um, I feel like we're right in the middle of it. So like, why not get right in the middle of it with you?

Cool. So let's jump right into it then.

So can you share a little bit about your background and how you got started in the sports memorabilia industry? Great.

I mean, you know, I'd love [00:01:00] to tell you a sexy story about how this all happened, but I think really most really important, uh, monumental things happen a lot of times by accident.

Um, just from working hard and just trying to figure out how to take something you're already doing and making it better. I was booking probably about 2000 appearances a year. I still do a lot of appearances. I'm talking about athletes and celebrities. When I first started my first company, uh, Steiner sports.

I started that with 4, 000 bucks. Um, I'm not with Steiner anymore. Sold that my new company's collectible exchange. But back then in the nineties, I was booking all these appearances. I was never home running around with all these athletes and the margin just wasn't big enough. So I figured, let me see if I can go create some collectibles around these appearances where the companies that were hiring me to maybe book a Roger Staubach or Emmett Smith or a Joe Namath.

I'd sell them helmets in order to grab photos and stuff to give away to the clients. I was making as much money on that as I did on the appearances. [00:02:00] So I decided, let me start a separate division with products. And that's really what kind of kicked in. I never thought I was going to be in a memorabilia world that I'm in now.

I just thought it was gonna be an adjunct to my sports marketing of athletes that I was doing, you know, repping players, repping companies to find players to help them grow their business. I still do that to this day. And what's crazy is the leader to maybe getting somebody to use my talent is the fact that I get them these cool photos or footballs or baseballs to give to clients or to give to different, uh, potential business people.

And it, the stuff does work. I didn't think I was going to become a household name in the collectible business, frankly, but you never know, but. My intent initially was just to make a little bit more money, expand what I was doing.

So my question for you then was, you jumped right into it, was what were the challenges you faced?

You know, what, what were you up against getting into that in a new market

for yourself? Everything. I mean, first of all, just staying in business long enough to see if it could work is always a challenge. I [00:03:00] always tell people like sometimes waking up in the morning is a challenge. It can be. So like. You know, because when you get into that business, you know, cashflow at the beginning, especially I started with very few dollars, cashflow is a big challenge.

You got money on the street and then on the, that's on the appearances because the companies would pay 30 days, 60 days, the athletes want to get paid right away. Then you now got to lay out money for inventory. You got to buy the baseballs. You got to buy the helmets and footballs. So all of a sudden I had to outweigh money.

So I took 10, 000 out of the bank. So I have a bunch of inventory to get signed when people would ask for it. Along with these appearances. I mean, there's so many challenges, particularly now when you get into the inventory, you need an inventory system. You know, you need somebody to kind of manage and ship the inventory out because it's all a bunch of widgets and, you know, I'm booking, I'm busy booking players, picking them up, taking them.

I need somebody to go ship those helmets, somebody to make sure that this stuff is authenticated and all that. So, I mean, I [00:04:00] think when you get into the entrepreneurial aspects, I don't think anything's that complicated. The brilliance is in the basics and the fundamentals. And, and, and what's most importantly is, you know, the consistency of it and really not neglecting those basics and fundamentals, which is what ultimately will help you build your brand.

But when you start juggling and is where entrepreneurs get crazy, either that they're risk or they don't have the cash flow or you're wearing a bunch of hats, one day you're shipping stuff. Next day, you're driving some big name athlete. Then you're trying to collect money. You know, you don't have the money and the setup initially to do all those things.

So it gets tricky. Great entrepreneurs, one thing that haven't come is that they don't mind the mess and they don't mind the discombobulation. Great entrepreneurs figure it out. You have that figure it out gene. So if you're not one of those people who like to figure it out and take chaos, clean your closet that's a mess and turn it into something that's like perfectly in order, then it's probably not going to be for you.

That makes sense.

So [00:05:00] how did you approach building the partnerships with these professional athletes? You know, what was your. What was your way you, uh, got into, into that, um,

connection? You know, I think that's a great question. And I think that one of the things that gets lost in today's business is the word value.

You know, value is what you could do for someone they can't do for themselves. I think when somebody runs into a big account, in my case, running into a big name athlete, the first thing you think of is, wow, what am I, what can I get from this? I can write this big order, I can make a lot of money. But the first thing that I think of is, what value can I provide this person?

I don't worry about the money. I don't worry about what I can get. I worry about what I, and the bigger the opportunity, the more bigger that my mind's thinking about. What can I give? What can I do for these people, for this person, for this account that they can't do for themselves. So they'll want to keep me around long enough.

And then if I do it, they'll probably want to use me for the expertise and service that I'm going to provide. It's not an easy tactic to take, but when you [00:06:00] think about it, if you're really trying to get into difficult accounts or deal with high profile people. It's the avenue the only avenue I could think of and it's worked really well for me And it's a much better feeling to initiate a relationship Where you're doing something for someone first before you're asking them to do something back

Absolutely, and I say to all my clients, you know It's all about building relationships and it sounds like you would agree with me 100

percent Well, I think building relationships are critical but initiating relationships are harder You know, I mean you have to have a relationship in order to build it And when I talk about the value proposition about what you can give what you can do how you can serve how you can solve That's how you initiate a relationship.

Doesn't mean you're going to have one. And then you build off of it by doing what you say, going the extra distance, caring about the little things. I mean, all those are really basic one on one tactics, but the hard part is when you initiate, there's a give before you get, most people are immediately thinking, if I give, what am I getting back here?

I'm thinking if I give, [00:07:00] what more can I give? And that's where it separates the children from the adults, in my opinion.

So you work with a lot of high profile athletes. Do you have any memorable stories or experiences that stand out that you want to share?

How much time do you have? Oh, we've got plenty of time.

No, I just imagine. I'll give you one great example, actually, that has been really relevant to me. And the name of this story is, there's no such thing as a big game. When people tell me I've got a big sale, I've got a big meeting. The first thing that comes to mind is that person has got mediocre all over them.

I'm sitting at Tampa Stadium in spring training in the middle of March. I had an appearance with Mariano Rivera, the great closer on the Yankees, after the game. In the fourth inning, completely, he comes out just next to me. Our appearance was after the game. So I turned to him, I said, what are you doing here?

I thought we were going to meet after the game. He says, I went to Joe and I asked him to pitch early so we can leave early. I [00:08:00] said, yeah, you know, you didn't pay it to you. No, I just pitched the last inning. I gone up and gotten a pretzel. So I wasn't paying attention because it's a spring training game.

Third inning. Who cares? It's Tampa spring training. I get on the mat. That was one, two, three, eight, nine pitches. I had them down. Boom, boom, boom. I said, yeah, but it's Tampa. Who cares? It's a spring training game in March. He goes, Brandon, when I get on the mound in March, April game seven, bottom of the ninth world series, I never alter anything.

The way I just pitched is the same way I pitched in the World Series game seven, bottom of the ninth. And what happens is, by thinking like this and preparing myself, which I did today, when I get into whatever situation, I have to alter nothing. I have the same mindset, the same, uh, focus, and nothing changes.

And, you know, I thought about that, and I was like, you know, something like, that's consistency over time equals credibility. That means there's no such thing as a big [00:09:00] game. You don't want to go on a surgery and the doctor says, ah, it's not a big operation. I don't really know this guy. Well, like, you know, the great doctors are the ones that no matter who you are, what you are, they're doing incredible work and it never varies.

It's not because they were out late the night before, whatever. They're prepared. They're confident in themselves. They're confident in God, their confidence in his strategy. And that's what I learned from Mariano is you slow things down. Always. Not when it's just a big game, you always slow things down and do what you prepared for.

Keep your strategy in mind and always have faith and faith is what you believe in something that you can't even see. I think that a lot of people don't realize how important faith is in your business and in your life strategies, because there's gotta be some higher power that's guiding you and helping you along to ultimately get to you, the dreams and goals you want to have.

Absolutely. And I just finished authoring a book that's getting ready to get released. It talks about that and it's, you know, it's the gospel of entrepreneurship and it's allowing Jesus to lead you in your business. So it kind of segues into my next question for [00:10:00] you. And I know that you've authored several books, living on purpose stories about faith, fortune and fitness that will lead you to an extraordinary life.

What was the inspiration to have you set the time aside? Because I know just doing it myself, the time commitment is huge. So what was your inspiration in getting into writing?

Well, I mean, I think sometimes this gets my own head straight. I'm in the middle of writing a fourth book, um, which is a completely different subject matter.

But I think sometimes writing it, and I feel like I've had a lot of amazing blessings of people that have been able to show me. I do believe that people have been placed on this planet. If your eyes are wide open, your arms are open, you know, you're going to run into people that are here to guide you and help you and do extraordinary things.

So, you know, I think the common denominator here is enthusiasm. The root word to enthusiasm is enthusios, and that means to be with God. So when you have, when you really want to be a great entrepreneur or you want to take your business to another level, one of the key ingredients you want to start is [00:11:00] with enthusiasm.

Sure. You know, that comes with curiosity that comes with faith and obviously to be with God. So the last book I wrote, living on purpose was, you know, I kind of hit 50 and I was like, I don't know, man, this is not feeling complete for me. I'm not feeling like. You know, I've done really well. I've done, I've had a lot of success on the radar.

I think pretty much the best way, what I do. I mean, I don't know, is anybody better than me? I take a lot of pride in being not good, not extraordinary, but being that guy that could do some things that no one else could do. That's what I always wanted to be. I didn't want to be successful. I didn't want to be extraordinary.

Oh, that guy was really good. Now I want to be, there's nobody who's done what that guy has done. Nobody could do what that guy does. You know, that one doctor, nobody can do what he does. The lawyer, nobody can get you out of a case. Nobody can get you that guy. And it takes a tremendous level of commitment, but it also takes a tremendous amount of curiosity, enthusiasm.

And if you underline that with a little bit of [00:12:00] common sense, which is putting yourself in a common person's shoes and understanding how other people are thinking, so you can take your experience and knowledge and apply it to what's really going on, not only what's going on in your head, that's where a lot of entrepreneurs struggle is like, they've got a good idea.

Their head's rolling, their mind's racing. They're energized, they're going for it, but you don't really, really, because we always talk about understand your customer, know your customers, but you got to get inside your customer's head. You got to feel what they're feeling, know what they know, see what they see and completely get out of your own head to do it.

So you don't get biased or get opinionated, but you can see where people are really coming from. And then. And only then can you see the white space, can you see the direction to go, and it, it's like a hole, like a, when you run, like a running back going through a hole that he could fit a truck through.

Yeah.

Like Emmett Smith, when he used to tear up the defenses, right? Exactly.

So my next question for you, and I mentioned this in my book and I, and I [00:13:00] want to talk to you about it, and it's how did you manage that personal life and work life balance? You know, what did you learn about how to handle that?

Well, that's a big part of the third book. And I tell people, look, ain't easy. First of all, stop trying to get work. Life balance doesn't exist, especially when you wanna be extraordinary and really good at something. But respect life, balance, respect the other pillars. Don't be a 10 at business and then a three or four and a dad at four or five at a husband and five or six is a friend.

That's not a successful person to me. So, you know, you got, you gotta make sure you respect, you know, we need, friendships are really important. The good ones. Your marriage, your partnership, it's important. You can't just wing it. You got to work at that, like the same way you're trying to be really successful in business.

And you can't just balance it, but you can't ignore it. So I always tell people like, wow, you've made a lot of money. You're really good at your business. When was the last time you read a book about parenting? When's the [00:14:00] last time you read a book about being a better husband or wife? Oh, well, never. Well, you've gone to trade shows to learn how to be a better business person.

Right? And then, and then most employees also, your health is so important in all of that because if you want to have the energy to be a good dad or a good spouse, you want to have the energy to go into work and kill it every day on a high level. You know, eating well and exercising is important and it's different for everyone.

The important thing is, like, some people work out every day. I try to do cardio every day. Uh, for my own mental health, sanity, because my ADHD and everything else, I'm just got to do cardio, but you know, do don't doing nothing and thinking you're going to do it down the road. Once you make a whole bunch of money is foolish.

You do more good, which leads you to doing more. Well, do more good for yourself. Do more good for the most important relationships around you. It'll lead you to doing more. Well, if you're trying to balance it out, I don't know. I don't know. I mean, I find somebody who's got great work life balance and it's like, why looking at them is [00:15:00] like watching paint dry.

I mean like, seriously. Oh, I wake up at eight. I go to work at nine. I come home at five. I feed the, like, you have to eat my cat at six. Like, you know, something like that's just, I don't know. That's just not me. And it's

not, it's not realistic for the entrepreneur either, I don't think. I just don't think that exists.

Not at all.

So one of the things you brought up while we were chatting there, I know you do a lot of work with charities. You know, what inspires you to do work with charities and what are the big ones that you work with?

Well, you know, it's funny the way you asked that question. I have to question the question.

First of all, helping people is not a burden. I don't need to be inspired. The reason why I'm on this planet, a good amount of the reason why I'm on this planet is to help others. So, you know, helping people is not a burden, it's an opportunity that will lead you to sheer joy. So, the fact that the work that I do, the good work that I try to do to help others gives me tremendous joy, besides the obvious, helping others.

I mean, there's only two reasons [00:16:00] to be on the planet, and we've been, that, I mean, one of the amazing things is that we were even born on this planet, and if we're born on the right side of this planet, think about how lucky we are. But more importantly, helping people is like 50 percent of the reasons why we are on this earth, and it's not just to fill your pocket.

And you have this incredible life, but to help other people have a good life or a safe life or a better life. And then the other reason we hear is to grow. I always say happiness. You want to be happy, grow and create your gratitude. Happiness resides right on the cross section of growth and gratitude.

That's where it lives right there. If you're not growing and you don't have a high level of consistent gratitude, you're probably freaking miserable. Yeah. I'm telling you, I'm telling you probably not that happy. I mean, I'm not saying for sure, but there's a good

chance. Yeah. And I've noticed in my own life dealing with some high level in, you know, high income people, they're some of the most miserable people you'll ever meet.

And I think you get to a point, like I got to it when I hit 50 and it's like where, you know, money's great and all, but it doesn't fill the [00:17:00] tank as much. And I think that's what I hear you saying is that there's other things that fill your tank at this point in your life.

Well, it's not that there are only other things, but you got to remember why we're here.

I mean, you know, we're not here just to make a ton of money so we can live in a great house and have cars and everything. You know, money, money, we talked about always won't buy you happiness, blah, blah, blah, but it will decrease your unhappiness. Well, that's true. Money does serve a purpose. There's a good reason why you should go and make a lot of money.

It's a capitalistic way. I'm not against it. I'm not against money grabbing. I'm not against doing something just because it made me a lot of money. But when I am, what I'm not going to do is do that full time over a long length of time without doing good, without doing community work. I would say my company is not a collectible company, collectible exchange, collectible exchange is a community company.

Everything we do, always a part of it has a community connection, something where we're helping either charity with an athlete, a charity [00:18:00] locally, using the influence of all these big name athletes do more than just make money. And it works offline. I make plenty of money, but also I do make plenty of good.

I make some people happier by, by giving them the influence and the connection that they may not have themselves.

Do you

find it more difficult to attract those athletes now? Do they seem to be more self centered, or do you still have the ability to connect those athletes to these different ventures you're working

in?

I think that the athletes have been incredibly difficult since day one for 40 years. There's a reason. We're all the hair on the top of his head went, I mean, make no mistake. You know, you get into a good amount of businesses, not just mine. I mean, if you're going in, you think you're going to avoid difficulty.

Like you got to get good at difficulty. You got to be good at dealing with people that are difficult because many industries are going to present a lot of difficulty almost regardless of the industry you're going in. But again, If you, if you are really, you know, really [00:19:00] blitzing with value, I'm not calling up athletes to say what I'm going to do this right now, how can I help you is my first line and I have value always when I call these players or what I think I could do for them.

I'm always going to go above and beyond with a value card of what I could do. What the best possible scenario of what I think I could do for them, even though sometimes what I'm offering them doesn't even necessarily help me. Right. But that's how I get relationships initiated. But when you do that, you gotta back it up.

You gotta stand tall and do the stuff you say, even though you're not filling your pockets up at the moment. But over the time, if you're playing the long game, which is not always easy, um, things come around because most people don't want a one way street relationship and you're doing a lot for them.

They want to return, they want to reciprocate and you find a way to work it out between the two. Sure, that makes sense. Now,

you've been in the industry for a while. What have you seen in, in a way of technology that you've had to [00:20:00] adapt to and what has, has that been a challenge?

Well, I mean, the one thing is, is that athletes, particularly athletes, celebrities, I mean, people are very enamored by their, uh, Instagrams and their number of likes and all that.

They feel like they don't need an athlete almost many times even to show up, as long as they were able to do a post. So, so celebrities can influence a customer base by never leaving their apartment, which has been really good for them. You know, back when I first started, you had to show up somewhere, hope that the media showed up or you did a store or something where a lot of people showed, he had to go to a whole bunch of news stations and get them interviewed.

So that part's a lot easier and you can make a lot more money in a lot shorter period of time.

But you gotta, you know, you gotta remember the athletes now also a lot smarter. Besides making a lot more money, they want inclusion. They don't want to just sign up for anything. They want ownership, or they want to know more about the company than they're messing around with.

I think that the athletes now, as opposed to back in the eighties and nineties are a lot more media trained, and they also [00:21:00] know the responsibilities and the accountabilities that come with being a celebrity. Um, I think it's critical for all of us to know that whatever business and industries we're in, it comes with responsibilities and accountabilities.

The sooner you take on that, the probably faster you'll realize you're on the road to maybe doing something extraordinary. Unfortunately for some people, it takes a long time. And every now and then with some athletes, they ignore it and it comes back to haunt them. But I think that athletes are just so much more savvy and smarter on the business end.

And it's guys like Magic Johnson, who's like one of my idols because look what he's done on the business level. It's amazing. You see some of the business owners. You see a whole bunch of different players now that are just more than just players. They put their money to work just like other businessmen and myself have done.

And, uh, and set a good example for a lot of the players now to know that while they're playing, they got to invest in some businesses and set their lives up. And I'm seeing a lot more of that, which is really very, very, really [00:22:00] cool for me to grow in this business. See so many players fail, be broke on the street.

It's really demoralizing. And it's painful, and I'm seeing less of that now, and a lot more athletes being trained and well grooved to their future.

Do you

feel like the different, um, you know, the teams and all that are doing a better job of getting these athletes some guidance when they first start out, so that they're not, you know, faced with all these things coming at them from all directions?

Is that one of the reasons why you think you're seeing less of that? No.

No? I think the teams, you know, there's such little loyalty now. With many of the teams, frankly, but I see a lot, a lot more, more parental involvement and IL will bring more parental environment. I see, um, I see a lot of players looking out for players.

You see a lot more passing down players, going to older players, getting advice, getting guidance. Um, players that have done well, making themselves available. I think it's an inside job. Um, and it's not to put anything [00:23:00] bad on the owners or anything because, you know, they've got their own set of agendas, but.

You know, look, there's nothing like being a player. It's hard. I don't know what it's like to be a player, but you know, you're on the road, you're on private planes when a player talks to a player and you've been through the same things and you've got the women in the lobby, you got people trying to cheat you, there's nothing like a player who has nothing really to gain other than to try to educate you and make sure you don't make the mistakes that he made.

But I will tell you one thing that I think teams should be thinking about is that a lot of these rosters are cut really thin. I would love to see one veteran roster spot at a certain level. So you have an elder state statesman on every team in every sport, almost as like an older mentor to show and explain and keep these younger kids from doing stupid things.

Now you see that happen with a few teams in the NBA. I'd like to see it happen with all sports because there's nothing like an older player who's been through the ringer, been around the block a few times. That experience is priceless. Now at the Fox school, which I started sports [00:24:00] management school at Syracuse, we have a couple of classes.

That media train teach these outfits by the abcs of things that as you become a professional athlete You can learn I see that happening in a bunch more colleges But remember a lot of kids are not going to college and if they do it's maybe only for a year So it's sometimes a lot of that doesn't stick right

and that makes sense, you know And that's I think what you're getting at is mentoring And I mentioned in my book that I think even as business owners We have to mentor with other business owners because we can learn from each other.

Would you tend to agree with that?

I 100 percent agree with that.

But if you really want to learn First of all, don't hang out with people to do what you do. Don't get mentorship from people that are in your industry. Go way outside. A lot of things in business are a lot more similar from a doctor to real estate, to insurance.

A lot of the same stuff is, and you can learn, you get a better perspective when you deal with people that are not in your industry. But also another thing I want to mention is that I'm really into two way mentorship. Okay. Yes. I'm an older person. I [00:25:00] mentor young kids. But I keep a lot of young kids entering me.

How the hell do I know all these apps? How do I know where all these hot restaurants are? So I share as much as I can with some of these younger kids to teach them the stuff that, you know, experience and different things that I know that they may not know, but I am wide open to making sure that they are teaching me.

Things to do on my social media. I'm a big social media guy. I love it. You know, learning all these different apps, learning all these shortcuts, you know, the generation Z, a lot of people call them lazy and they're right. They are a little lazy. And one of the problems is that they're so freaking smart.

They get stuff done so much faster than we ever did and ever going to do. So I guess they got to balance that out, but I want to take advantage of those young, young ones to show me how to do some of that. You know what I mean? I'm not afraid of it. So, I keep those kids around me close, I listen to them, I give them that respect, because they, they are really smart.

And hopefully we can go in [00:26:00] a two way mentorship program, which is, I'm a big fan of for older people out there.

Don't run yourself out of business, don't, you don't need to. Just because things are changing, this stuff's not that complicated. But if you make it complicated, if you don't get the right help, listen, you got a bad tooth, you're not going to leave it alone, you're going to go to a really good dentist.

You got a problem on your computer, you're trying to figure out how to go book a trip, sit down with some kids and let them show you how to work the app, so you need to go book stuff. And that's how I look at it. There's a, it's definitely a solution to every problem you have. And the problem is usually you go to older people to get those solutions, but now you got to go to younger people too.

Oh, absolutely.

And, and I had a client say to me the other day, it's a full time job managing social media at this point. And I know that has to be, you know, near a full time job for you.

I think it's, I have some people help me, but you know, something, you got to take the more difficult things in your life and you got to turn them into your favorite just because you're not good at something.

You got to be careful [00:27:00] because if you're not good at something, you're not going to want to do it, and it's going to be a pain in the ass. If you take your most difficult things that you're not that good at, and you must turn those into your favorite things to do. I'll give you an example, like my wife loves the theater.

Okay. Alright, the theater, and I go to musicals, uh, she loves museums. I don't love museums, and I don't love the theater, but I've made going to the theater, I've made going to museums my favorite thing to do. This way, when I do them, I'm, I'm, I've learned to enjoy it. I've learned. But we always move away from the things that we don't think we like, but if they are involving the most important people you're dealing with, you got to make them your favorite things.

Your customers are on your social media. They're talking to you. You can't ignore them. You can't be like, that's a pain in the ass. I don't believe in that. But it doesn't mean that you can't have somebody help you and it doesn't mean you shouldn't put the time in to learn how to do it because if you don't, you're going to run yourself right out of business.

You know what I mean? No, you're going to be, see yourself in a little hut [00:28:00] down in Florida and hopefully some people every now and then I'm going to mail you a letter or give you a call once in a while. Like to me, I'm in touch with my peeps. I'm in touch with people. And listen, I spend about an hour, hour and a half a day on social media.

And I have somebody that helps me with some of the different things. Like maybe it's another hour, hour and a half. And you know, I could probably do more. And by the way, I will be doing more. I'm going to be doing an eBay live show. I can be doing my own show multiple times a week. On eBay live to show you how crazy this is.

But I used to do a TV show. I used to do a radio show and I moved away from that. Who's watching that? I'm like, I'm going to do a live streaming show on a network. That's got 180 million customers that are going to push the hell out of me. Now, do I know how to do that? No, I had to hire some young kids to help me produce the show and everything else.

And I think it's going to be pretty good.

But you've got to adapt to the current times is what you're basically saying. You can't just, you can't hunker down in the basement and pretend like the world isn't changing around you. [00:29:00]

You got to have your head on a swivel, no doubt.

So you mentioned a couple of projects and initiatives that you've got going on.

Tell us more about those things you're going to be doing here in the future. You

know, what's funny is, you know, I collect will change. Is it different than when I was at Steiner and Steiner? You know, we were cranking out and I sold 50 million. I was a dirt sold over 30 million autographs. I mean, I was rocking.

Now I created a marketplace where if you have stuff in your house, I can help you authenticate and help you sell it. I have 150, 000 items on collect with shades. My old company, I never had more than 35. I bought a company called StarStock. com. If you're a guy or you're a woman, your kids have all these trading cards you don't know what to do with.

We created this, it's an amazing website. We just bought it actually. I saw it online, I saw it. It's a pretty sharp looking website. It's like a stock market for trading cards. So if you're not into trading cards but somebody has left you them, I'm the guy to help you. And again, I'm still booking, you know, I have a whole agency.

That I'm still booking athletes to help people grow their business. I don't think there's [00:30:00] a business I've gone into a meeting that I haven't been able to come up with some level of an athlete stepping in at a reasonable price to help you grow your business to change the branding look by using a celebrity.

It's not for everyone, and you have to be careful how you do it, but if you're willing to dare to do it, whether it's a trade show or a PR or that kind of announcement, it can work wonders if you know what you're doing, which is hence why I walk in because I show you how to do it. And that's what I'm doing these days.

Besides writing the fourth book, you're going to have to have me back because my fourth book is so outrageous.

Um, and I'll just give you a little tip is that I'm writing a book about urban policing. So I'm riding along in police cars for multiple hours, chasing crime, trying to understand what's going on in these cities and why our policing can't get along better.

And so just give you a little tip of what I was doing.

So you mentioned at the beginning of our talk that you're in New York City. That's really changed a lot. Hasn't it?

Yeah. This is the city is. We're in a quandary. I think a lot of cities in a quandary. I mean, for starters, you know, the whole we, uh, the whole [00:31:00] commercial real estate, you know, people, do you go to work?

Do you go back to work? I tell, I tell owners, you can put all the mandates you want about people going back to work, but you'd better get your ass into the office too. I can't believe how many offices where they're telling employees to go back and the people that are running the offices aren't back. I think it's, I think the hybrid ways to go, I think maybe, maybe we're not a five day a week in the office, uh, community anymore, but I think you probably want to be in the office a few days a week.

But only if everybody's going in, like the whole point of going in the office is, is the collaboration work together, teamwork, catch up, get face to face. If nobody, half the people aren't going in. And again, the exception is what makes it hard for big companies that a lot of high level, really smart people don't really need to go in the office.

They can work just as effectively from home. So there is a quandary, like not every, not everything's equal and you can't broad stroke and say, well, everybody's not worth coming in because there are a lot of people that need to go in. And then there are a lot of people that just [00:32:00] never need to go in. So you got to find a happy medium.

I think the average meeting is three day a week. When you mentioned New York city. Yeah, it's a little messed up. There's, there's a lot of people that are just not coming into work. So there's parts of the city that's a little bit dribby drabby. And then the second thing, which I was talking about with my book, the crime rate is high in every city, not just New York, there's more crime now going on.

Petty crime, shoplifting, uh, just, you know, and then you have a lot of people coming in from out of the country that. A lot of you C's don't know what to do with it. So things are a little chaotic and I'm nervous. You know, it's a little bit nerve wracking because things feel a little uneasy and out of control.

And I guess, what are you going to do with all these commercial spaces? So I guess

if I appointed you mayor, how would you fix the

problem? Well, first thing I do is got to make it more attractive to people who want to come into New York. I would incentivize companies to try to push the people to come back to work.

In this particular city, we got to figure out how to get rid of The congestion issue without killing people on the [00:33:00] prices, we're gonna be doing congestion prices. I'm more of a fan of really putting our eggs. And we have, I'm a huge fan of putting my eggs into mass transit. Okay. I go to London, I go to Japan, I go to these cities, Russia.

The mass transit is beautiful. New York City, it's not safe, it's disgusting. I would do a complete overhaul and expand mass transit right now in every possible way I possibly can. Yeah, we span. Any way I can get mass transit to another level, I would do it. I think there's a lot of cities that misunderstood how important mass transit is, but when you go to places like Switzerland and Amsterdam and other countries, it's amazing how they figured it out.

And we just continually don't figure it out and it creates so much problem when you have this congestion, along with the crime, along with, I mean, it's just, it's no good. And, and so the first thing I would do is I incentivize us companies more to stay and have their employees go in so that, [00:34:00] so the city becomes vibrant again and real estate comes back.

And then the second thing I would do is I would do everything I can to make it easy for people to get to work using trains and buses. Yeah,

and we spent two weeks in, uh, Germany this past summer, and you're absolutely right. In Berlin, yeah, I mean, the mass trans is beautiful. And you can walk the streets of Berlin, you're not worried about crime, you're not worrying about any of those things, and to be very candid with you, like, my wife and I, we always wanted to go to New York City to, you know, do some trips and all that.

I don't think it's a safe place to be right now. And maybe that's not the right thing to say, but it's just, when you look at it from the outside, now you live there, so you have a different perspective than I do, but to me from the outside, it's like, I don't know that that's a real good place

to be right now.

Well, I think, I think the NYPD has done an amazing job here. They've got the level, it's the number one police department in the world. Everybody comes here to get trained. The technology is amazing. You know, given the amount of people here, I would say it is, you know, prime is actually as far as the volume is down.

But yeah, this is not, I think no city, no city in the country, it shouldn't just [00:35:00] be New York. Most cities are not that safe. Most cities have have petty crimes all over the place. Most cities, retail stores are closing because all the petty crimes. So, you know, we, we got to get our cities back stronger. Uh, we need good leadership.

Um, I don't know, it's, it's complicated and, you know, we've had some strong leaders in some of our cities, not only in New York before, and I'm hoping we can go find some, you know, down the road because it's, it's huge, you know, leadership, same thing with companies. You show me a company that's wobbly. I'll tell you that the leadership and the, and the executive management suck.

You find me a team and your favorite sport that loses all the time. I know you think it's the players, the manager. I'll show you a management team that sucks. Why is the Baltimore Ravens in the playoffs all the time and the 49ers and the Dodgers, the Yankees, the Red Sox, they have great management. It's management.

It's not, it's not the players. It's not locked. You're losing 30 years in a [00:36:00] row. It's not, it's bad.

So to wrap it up today, cause I don't want to keep you too much longer.

So what would you say would be the top lessons you've learned over your lifetime of working? Um, as far as being, you know, on your entrepreneurial journey, what's the top lessons that you can say to my listeners who are mostly business people, people trying to get ahead?

What is the top lessons you would say to

them? If you're working hard to get through so you don't have to have any difficulty, you don't want to be an entrepreneur, get good at being, get good at difficulty, get good at being able to handle risk, because anytime you do something entrepreneur, you're thinking about doing something and no one else is going to see it.

So you got to be able to adhere to risk. And then you got to have leadership skills. You got to be able to sell people in and tell people in about something that they can't even see. If you can't get those three things, and that's a lot to ask for one person. And then the last thing is cashflow matters, you know, uh, dream, big sample, small fail quick, just because you got a big dream.

Doesn't mean [00:37:00] it's a good idea, but sample it. And when it sucks, you want to be a little resilient, fine. But at some point, let it go, move on to the next big dream. I've learned even with my biggest dreams, I sample, I try it. I play it out. I get a proof of concept before I just start running my gamut and putting all kinds of money behind it.

And then the last thing is raising money is a big responsibility. I know you feel good. You got a bunch of people to invest. Like it's the last thing I want to do is get other people's money involved in my stuff . Cause when you get other people's money involved in your stuff, that's even more responsible accountability.

Take what you dream about and making it work. Try to use your own money. Your own hard labor as much as often as you can and avoid raising money until you have a solid proof of concept and a really good use for the money.

No, that makes sense. And I tell entrepreneurs all the time, if you think you're going to work less hours and make more money, you're insane because you're going to work more hours, you're going to work harder and you know, and you're going to, and [00:38:00] you're not going to make as much money when you first start.

That's just the

truth. Isn't it? Yes, it is. Really is. Well, Brandon,

I really do appreciate you being on the show today and we definitely will have you back once the next book comes out. But um, how would people, how, how is the best way for people to be in touch with you? What can they, you know, what's the best way to

reach you?

It's simple. You know, I speak around the country. If you have any interest in having me speak to your sales team or whatever, brandonsnyder. com easy has all the info. I'm a big LinkedIn guy or Facebook message me, follow me on, on either one of those. I think I'm over the limit on LinkedIn, but you know, message me, follow me.

I put out content every day, multiple times a day, love sharing anything I'm experiencing. I just didn't want to be that guy who experienced something 20 years ago. Now I'm teaching you about it. I'm putting up stuff that happened like an hour ago. I'm putting up life lessons that happened a week ago.

Good, bad, ugly. Whatever it is. And I think that's hopefully helpful to people, you know, knowing what I've accomplished, knowing that I'm still sharing that [00:39:00] gets it real for people that are trying to know that we're all dealing with some of the same frustrations and some of the same, you know, wow, this may work.

No, absolutely. Well, thank you, Brandon. I do appreciate your time today and we'll, we'll send you some information you can link to our show today and put it out there to your people and maybe get some value from today as well. So thanks again. I do appreciate it.

All right. Have a great day, man. Thanks for having me.

Stay safe. [00:40:00]