Brandon Steiner – Founder & CEO of CollectibleXchange and The Steiner Agency and Creator of the Everything Bagel

Intro 0:00
I am unwilling to give up that I will start over from scratch as many times as it takes to get where I want to be, I want to just sort of make sure you will get knocked down. But just make sure you don’t get knocked out knocked out. So your only choice should be go focus on what you can control control control. Hi, everyone, and welcome to the Kara golden show. So join me each week for inspiring conversations with some of the world’s greatest leaders. We’ll talk with founders, entrepreneurs, CEOs, and really some of the most interesting people of our time. Can’t wait to get started. Let’s go Let’s go.

Kara Goldin 2:39
Hi, everyone, its Kara golden from the Kara golden show. And I’m so excited to have my next guest here Brandon Steiner on and very, very thrilled. He is a legendary entrepreneur. And and I think it’s so applicable for what’s going on in the world right now around sports memorabilia and sports marketing. And he has really, really done some incredible stuff you may know him from his current company, which is the he’s the current founder and CEO of collectible exchange and the Steiner agency, but he’s also going to talk to us and give us a little preview to something that is just launching. So we’re very, very thrilled and exciting. So welcome, Brandon.

Brandon Steiner 0:41
Hi Kara. How are you telling me formerly of Steiner sports Steiner, Brandon, binder is not with Steiner anymore, long story, but I’m a serial entrepreneur back like feel like I’m 20 years old, again, starting my new collectible exchange. And then this new company, which we’ll talk about, which I haven’t talked about yet, because we’re launching right at the beginning of April and very disruptive and just very excited to be a young entrepreneur, again, I think it always does anything I’ve learned is that your futures never fixed and that it’s never never ever aids discriminatory when it comes to dreaming. People think dreaming is for young people. And I haven’t just I’ve made a living off dreaming. I’m a quiet, busy, crazy OCD, ADHD, yes, but crazy dreamer. And I never move ahead on something unless I’ve dropped it out. And this is something I’ve been dreaming about for about four or five years. And what’s crazy is I’m putting it into play, it’s just so exciting to still be able to create that kind of process. And craziness was what you do when you’re an entrepreneur, and then putting into place and making it happen. It’s cool.

Kara Goldin 2:41
So it’s interesting. I just launched a book back in the end of October, and something I’ve been interviewed a bunch for that. And people are always asking me, were you born an entrepreneur? Or did you, you know, develop to be Do you hate working for people? I mean, I’ve heard it heard it all along the way. And I feel like you would not necessarily say that you were born this way. But like what, what made you think about I remember reading some story about your first job when you were 10 years old. I mean, what what was it that had you think I should just go do this?

Brandon Steiner 3:25
Well, I think everything comes down. And it really doesn’t matter where you are. It just matters what you willing to accept. I don’t think 10 year old should go out and work by the way I have kids and I’d be I’d be just I can’t get my kids to come down for breakfast and get dressed at 10 literally get up on their own and go onto the street, unsupervised and make a living and dealing with people. But I have a high level of unacceptance. And I think it doesn’t matter where you are. What matters is whether you have a high level of unacceptance. And then you have and I think as an entrepreneur, which is not necessarily you’re born with but you can teach yourself if you can maintain a high level of unacceptance meaning not wanting to stand for the status quo, not wanting to land or stay with the circumstances you’re in my mother was that brand and we’re not poor. Our circumstances suck. Our circumstances are very poor, your is talented, I love

Kara Goldin 4:17
that

Brandon Steiner 4:18
you have having successes anyone else out there. And I think it’s just an important thing that when I look at my different transitions in life, which I’ve been very lucky to have a lot of transitions and be aware of be awake and current for them. It’s all about me having a high level of unacceptance and doesn’t mean I’m not happy doesn’t mean that I’m never satisfied. It means that when it comes to my business, I have a high level of dissatisfaction I expect a lot and that that creates a hostility that pushes me to get a little angry it pushes me to get my back against the wall because you don’t care at the end of the day. Nothing great happens unless your backs against the wall. You come home your marriage is great. All of a sudden your wife’s like, you know, I’m not that happy your backs against the wall, you start remembering your very, very home flowers, maybe I need to take her out for dinner, maybe I need to put the cell phone down and maybe hear and listen to her pay more attention. But until your backs against the wall, you don’t always appreciate or focus on all the given things. So gratitude has a huge part of entrepreneurism is you can’t move ahead unless you’re grateful for what you have. And I’ve always had a high level of that, I think that I’m grateful for the help that I’ve gotten completely out of poverty when I was a kid. I never forget that it doesn’t matter what I have. Because I probably have more than anything I would ever bargain for, from a, you know, financial capitalistic standpoint, but I still think I can make a big impact on the world.

Kara Goldin 5:46
So I’ve heard you credit your mom a lot. And you mentioned her as well, a few minutes ago, I’d love to hear some of the things that you think about, you know, do you still think about those things as she’s, you know, her voice right, and things that she hurt. And as my kids call them, isms, right.

Brandon Steiner 6:08
isms, you know, it’s, like, you know, it’s just crazy is that I’m 61. And I’ve gone back, I’m no different than anyone else. I am literally rubbing two sticks together here. And starting my new company, I love it. All the little things that I did when I built several other companies, same principles. And that’s the mistake, I think that sometimes people make, you have to just be grateful for the beginning of something. And you know, you have to kind of be have a moment where you can just cherish the process of it all I realize, I really want a bunch of games, and I look back on those games I want. And it’s always been the process of you know, waking up in the morning, not knowing what the hell you’re doing. Waking up, not sure where you’re going, not sure if this thing’s gonna happen. I’ve been in such a high level of deferment, I have more people say, well, the virus is that when we get back to you, when I think of my mother, I think about a couple things. First of all, woman that was would never ever, ever take any crap from anybody. A woman that ran businesses in the 60s from Auto Parts travel agency, which you know, back in the 60s, early 70s, like women just weren’t doing that, you know, women may be a nurse, you an assistant, my mother was like, please, you know, and the other thing, she was a solution based salesperson. And she was constantly harping on stop selling, start serving, solve a problem, make yourself useful, create value, and value is what you could do for someone that they can’t do for themselves. So even my mother was a color specialist with our hair, I love your color your hair, by the way care. So I’ve worked in every room with my mother, and immediately she like, the roots are no good. You could do much more with your color, to anywhere I go, I never miss my wife, when she’s gonna call her hair don’t ever, because I’ve been training when my mother every room she’d walk into, she would walk up to a woman and say, I think I could add some value I can make you look more beautiful. And she would tell you what to do with her Roots, stems and all that. So my mother was a big stop selling, start solving be a solution based person, don’t just go to someone trying to sell them something that other people, same thing, differentiate yourself. And it’s a very valuable lesson to learn at 10 and 12, to be able to take that kind of thinking, because most people when they go into a situation, they think about what they could sell what they can get out of it. And I think about what I could do, I think about you know, what can I do for you? Immediately you tell me you have your new book in October. But my first thought initially is like, how can I help promote that book? It sounds like a great book. And I think yeah, I think that we’d be more of a giver than a taker.

Kara Goldin 8:39
Yeah. And that was my whole purpose, by the way for writing this book. I mean, it’s something I talk about is people are like, you were a journalism major. Did you always know that you wanted to write a book? And I’m like, No, I mean, this was my journal. Yeah. And it was more because nobody’s sort of understood when I was starting my company. Hint, nobody really understood. All of the things that I understood, because I was ahead, I was not only starting a company, but I was starting and you’ll totally appreciate this, because you’ve done this over and over again, a new category. And so when you’re ahead, I mean, that is so complicated, and frustrating. And you feel so alone on so many levels. You’re like, what, what is wrong with these people? Why don’t they understand what I mean? Right? I mean, it seems so obvious to me. And so I would share these stories, especially when people had finally caught up to where I was, I would share these stories. And then people were like, you should write a book, you should. And I said, I don’t even know the beginning of writing a book. And so that was it. But But what’s interesting about the book, and again, maybe I should have realized it, even as I was starting to write the book, but the number of people who are writing me who are saying from and by the way my book ended up becoming of the pandemic and everybody’s doing everything virtually, they flipped the switch and it went worldwide. So I’m talking to people in India and China. I’m about entrepreneurism, and about being a female entrepreneur as well. But they’re saying, why aren’t more people writing about this stuff? There is a difference between a visionary founder and entrepreneur versus somebody who tries to, you know, knock off another product, because they see that it’s making lots of money.

Brandon Steiner 10:30
Well, I do think there’s two, it’s two buckets, you’re right. And I highly recommend for those out there to start an industry or category is a very dangerous proposition. Having done that, I mean, it’s, it could bring you to tears, I mean, because the responsibility that you’re taking on and also, you got to have tremendous leadership to be able to sell that in, because nobody’s looking and no one’s thinking the way you’re thinking. But your first idea, we say is not your best idea. And there’s nothing wrong with becoming extraordinary at something, and not stopping at success. But really looking deep into the whitespace. that’s available on something that seems to be its first idea, only if you’re going to go in and make it better. What I don’t like is people that completely duplicate an idea and just try to do the same thing. But if you can go in and grab an idea, like Uber, I did, I did a speech for all the taxi cab, eliminate limousine drivers in the tri state area, and they were all packed about Uber about four or five years ago. And I’m like, panicked, they came in and created an industry out of what you guys were just winging it pushing you and me, it made us all think that it’s okay, we don’t need a car, we just grab a taxi. They quadruple the size of the business and maybe 10 fold it now true job to catch up and older, but they didn’t do anything. Right. That’s and that’s it, you have to sell it. It’s unfortunate that a lot of taxi cab drivers or limousine drivers didn’t really understand what Uber could mean to them as far as growing their business. So as being an entrepreneur, you have to understand the market you’re in and really dig into it without the emotion without your own personal opinion, but really looking at it for what it is. And only until you really understand a market for what it is, we’ll be ready to really dive in there be your true entrepreneur. And then you need the leadership skills. And then you need to be able to take the risk, you got to have the guts and the nerve to go into something even though your husband, wife, family looking at you like you’re crazy. I went home, I said, Honey, if I take 25,000 out of the bank and get Mickey Mantle and sign 1000 bosses, if you go to the bank account, touch that account, I will kill you, I’m not even going to divorce you. That’s the stupidest idea. And you know those 1000 balls for 25 gram, you know, only several years later worth a million. And obviously, we’ve done really well with people buying autographed items throughout my career as I’ve secured over 30 million autographs, and then some but so understand what entrepreneurs you know, is leadership and is a complete, complete focus. where nothing will stop you high level of dissatisfaction is are you getting to the Absolute Truth, the absolute bottom of whatever it is that exists? And only then can you be an expert, and then figure out what’s missing in a really, really simplistic, which you think about some of the greatest entrepreneur ideas is so simple, kind of staring us right in the face. And that’s kind of my logic about entrepreneurs, which is why I think it can be taught, you don’t have to be born with it. As long as you have a high level of non acceptance, and you’re not afraid to get a little hostile, and be a little angry about the situation, accept it. Because once you get hostile, you’re not accepting something. Now you want to do something about it. And when that happens, who’s gonna get in your way you become a locomotive train.

Kara Goldin 13:45
Yeah, well, and you, you talked about your mom, too, how just you watching your mom have that she wasn’t an entrepreneur, but she was. She had that attitude, right. And it and I think that all of those pieces along the way are what helped us my my story, my dad was the founder of a brand called healthy choice. And he worked for a very large company, armor, armor food company that was acquired when I was a very young girl by by conagra. And he wasn’t going to rock the boat because he had a pension, he had all of these things. And he was laid off when he was in his mid 50s. And he never in a million years thought that that was going to happen. But they laid him off because he didn’t have a master’s degree. And that was the 80s they all wanted master’s degrees and you couldn’t get to certain levels. Unless you had a Master’s today. You probably have a few lawsuits around it, but at that time, it wasn’t the situation. So here I was a kid and all I was learning about loyalty. And you know and and all of that I you know, I saw it firsthand. And I also saw that watching how large companies move And you mentioned this as well, or, or unions or whatever, those people watch what they’re doing, but it’s the little guy, it’s the hungry guy. It’s the Ubers. Right, that are going to be the ones that are going to change the world. And, and so what was that moment in your industry? I mean, obviously, you were a disrupter and you and disrupted really, what the the whole collectibles and sports collectibles industry. What What did you like? Where did you see that business? I mean, did you feel like there were a lot of followers? What? How did you think about that

Brandon Steiner 15:33
it was a mishmash, it was a mess. And I’m not gonna lie. I believe in doing things for the common good. And I believe in the big picture, and I play the long game. But this story is not going to be that sexy, but I’m on the train in Westchester, taking the train into New York. And my mom had just passed. And I was just in a high level of misery, not only because of losing my mom, which was more than enough, but because I was on this train and being a hyper, I just was not good taking the train. And in my mind, I was like, I gotta make a change. I can’t be on this train every day. But I didn’t have the balls to go home and tell my wife who was making a lot more money than I was that I want to buy a car and drive in. I mean, I could afford to do that. So I’m looking down at the guy sitting next to me and he has his paper, the New York Rangers, the hockey team had just won the Stanley Cup. And I saw this picture of Mark Messi. And his big grant and it was 54 years. I don’t know if you follow hockey, but it was a huge thing in New York and the Rangers hadn’t won the Stanley

Kara Goldin 16:31
Cup and 50 I remember

Brandon Steiner 16:33
Yeah, it was kind of like the Cubs just recently winning all the misery and everything else. And I looked down I said, you know if I could sign Mark Messi to sign 15,000 of those photos that so many people were mass Square Garden to see the championship game. I could buy a car. And that’s it. I tracked mark down like there was no tomorrow I had no really I wasn’t really sure what I was gonna do with collectibles. I was marketing a lot of players at the time, and still do. And sure enough, I did a deal with Mark, we sold a ton of those photos. And I started Steiner sports, which was the first really really big collectible company that really collected my whole thing was remember the moment and what’s crazy about that story is I really just started Steiner collectibles is I wanted to get off the train was a money grab. But what’s crazy is follow a three years later, I’m reading my kid a story and I’m talking about how his photo Mark Messier in the cup is my favorite photo. And he fell asleep. He was dead asleep in like 15 seconds. I’m like, I love this story. I’m gonna finish telling it even though he’s sleeping. And I finished telling the story to myself, I’m just kind of dreaming it out about why this photo is so important. And I was a big magazine collector. And that’s when I came up with remember the moment because memorabilia is memories. And I figured that every person other than their wife, husband, birth of their kids, they’ve got a fabulous photo that they cherish in a moment. And I figured maybe the top 10 of your moments is a sporting event. And if I could figure out what that sporting event was, I’d find the photo, have the athletes sign and sell it to you. And that was our first campaign. Remember the moment that’s really what put us on the map. So the moral of that story is read your kid a story to sleep. And even if he falls asleep, keep reading the story.

Kara Goldin 18:11
Yeah, well, but you you really, I think that the other thing that you talk about in that example, is reaching across the table, right to really understand who your consumer is. And I think that it’s a, you know, that’s a really valuable lesson, because so often, I hear entrepreneurs kind of talk to themself about kind of, here’s what people want. And I’m like, do they do they really want that? I don’t know. I mean, you know, do you want that? And sometimes people are like, well, this product isn’t for me. It’s like, it’s for someone else out there. And, and so I just think what you described just now is you have this ability to kind of sit on the other side for me, Steve Jobs. What when I moved from New York out to Silicon Valley, I had one of the first Macintosh computers. And, you know, I wasn’t a techie. I wasn’t an engineer, but for me, it was this beautiful design. And it you know, had this cute little apple on it, but also

Unknown Speaker 19:11
in the back.

Kara Goldin 19:11
Yeah. And it was a year and I didn’t want to use a typewriter anymore and white out, right. I was just like, I had to do so many papers, and I hated it. And so I, you know, gathered all my savings and bought one of the first ones and I was just like, I don’t know, who developed this, but they got it. They nailed it. It’s uh, you know, it’s, it’s definitely it’s solving problems it and I really, really believe that Steve had this ability to kind of sit across the table and understand what people wanted. They didn’t tell you what they wanted. He solve problems and that’s what you just described, which and that to me is key.

Brandon Steiner 19:49
I think what’s really important is and this is where I think the rubber hits the road and entrepreneur ism is you have to lead with a high level of empathy. You know if you can get yourself have really, every one of those tests I was tested really high, externally distracted. While I live a very high level of external distraction, and a lot of it comes from having a high level of empathy, which I got from my mom, which is understand how other people are feeling. And just put yourself in another person’s shoes, put yourself in the common person shoes, which is really the definition of empathy is really about putting yourself in a common person shoes. And I think as an entrepreneur, if you can have a high level of empathy, which will lead you to a high level of common sense, which is, what is a common person thinking? What are they going through, there’s most people spend every minute of the day consuming what they’re going through in their own little mini, action packed movie, that they’re the star, and they’re the whole movie. But if you can get outside of that, and really lead with empathy and common sense, you can actually see what it’s like to be someone else, and what they may be going through. So whenever I would call someone up on the phone and try to do business, I would always try to make believe I’m in the office. And I’m actually with that person trying to imagine like what they’re going through. And it’s a tremendous strength when you’re trying to figure out the whitespace. Or even when you’re trying to do business with someone else is trying to really get inside their head. But what’s really important to them, what’s not important to them and what they’re going through. So if you’re dealing with someone who’s going through a divorce, ask him to do something very radical and disruptive, in your relationship with them may not be the right time, because maybe they haven’t a baby, or maybe they have getting married. So you have to kind of temper and when you could put yourself in the other person’s shoes, you can get a very strong idea about their temperament, what’s needed. So when you get into a virus like we’re in now, and it’s hard, because it’s how hard is this virus for the last year. But if you can put yourself in some other people’s shoes that are less fortunate, or that things are moving a lot faster, or their industries have blown up, or their industries are doing great. That’s when you can see the whitespace. And that’s when you see the entrepreneur ism. So I say you know, if you want to have a high level of entrepreneurism have a high level of common sense and have a high level common sense is the common good getting yourself into a common person shoes other than yourself. And that will lead you to a high level understand what’s going on around you, which is 1/3 of being a high level entrepreneur.

Kara Goldin 22:16
I think that’s so true. What so do you think that that’s that, obviously, you have to have a product or service, right, and the idea that I really believe you’ve, you’ve touched on this, but solving problems. But if you think that empathy piece is, is you should consciously focus on that in order

Brandon Steiner 22:37
100%. Because if you’re it because if you’re awake, and you’re watching what’s going on around you, it’s what’s gonna give you that product or service idea. The hard part is and coming up with a product or service idea, see execution. And that’s where you have to get hostile, and not want to settle like always, you know, always always said to my kids, I don’t want to be successful. That’s that’s a waste of time. I mean, getting out of bed this morning, being able to come on the show is success. But I think that what happens is a lot of people that success get in the way of more success. I’ve always wanted to be extraordinary. And the only reason you get into a product or a service or do anything if you’re going to be the best at it. I never had any interest. Even when I was a kid, I had nothing, I might one day, I’m going to be the best at something. And they’ll never be anybody like me. And that’s how I feel about my view and my position and collectibles. But the way it comes from is again, the hostile. But when I got successful, what most people do is they kind of let their guard down, they get comfortable, where me I still have a high level of dissatisfaction. And I’m still thinking like, I know I could do better. I know there’s not my best dance, I know that it’s not my best idea. And I keep going. And when you get to the extraordinary level, the only thing that really is between you and even more success is execution. And if you can keep your stamina energy level up, which is a lot of people get tired. At least they think of it mentally, then they get bored. And when you rest you rust. When you’re writing you’re writing, we know that so what happens with older people, they start resting Oh, I got to get resting. Why? Oh, you know, I’m gonna I think I you know, I know everything. Really? I’m 61 I can’t believe how stupid I am. And I little I know, especially with the amount of change that’s going on right now in the world. How much do you really know, and I know a lot of my friends, you know, they’re, you know, they’ve succeeded a lot. They’ve done well. And they just don’t want to be learners anymore. They don’t want to grow. They think they’ve hit their peak. And I think like, the only reason we’re here is for two reasons. One, to help each other. We’re the one of the few species that will and can and help each other in many, many ways. And the only other reason we’re here is to get better. We’re the only species care on the planet that can grow and get better and elephants never get better. It’s gonna poop, eat for 17 hours and sleep for six hours, you’re never waking up in the morning to see a dog in the corner walk itself fed itself reading the paper, goldfish doing backflips and a backstroke. Now one of the species can get better except for the human species, which is why I went over into a virus like this, where I run into adversity, I don’t panic about it. Now, granted, I was in adversity when starting at 10. But I don’t panic about because we’re built for this is what humans are about, we can grow, we can get better, we can almost be anything that’s, that’s great with, but you think about any other species. They can’t, they can’t adjust, they can’t grow. And most of them can’t even help each other. So we got to take advantage of being here. And I’m going to fully do that to the day I die.

Kara Goldin 25:40
Yeah, I talked about this to my dad. So my dad had retired as sort of forced retirement for a couple of years. And then he actually was hired back after a couple of years. It’s interesting story, but for his relationships with suppliers, because the suppliers for shrimp, actually off the coast of Georgia wouldn’t sell to them anymore. And my dad didn’t like, you know, throw wouldn’t sell the armor, or wouldn’t sell the conagra anymore. And my dad didn’t suggest that. They just thought they just said they were about your fishermen. And they said, We don’t have MBAs. So do you not want to buy from us either. And there and it was the relationship with my dad. And so conagra actually hired my dad back. And then when he five years later, he retired. And he played golf every day, for six months. And then he said, retirement is for the birds. He said, I never should have done that. And he’d and that is the thing and all five of us kids. I mean, I’m not sure any of us will ever retire. Because that is like that’s imprinted. He said just go volunteer, go do something. But don’t stop like that. That’s not to your point, be a lifelong learner, and go go sit on boards go in, what do whatever, just don’t sit there and think that going to play golf every single day is going to do it for you.

Brandon Steiner 27:06
But I think, Well, I think that’s a real big problem. Because remember, the baby boomer generation is one of the biggest generations all time. And there’s a tremendous amount of confusion out there in the marketplace. But hey, I mean, the thing is that when you’re committed to be an extraordinary, you want to be the best at whatever it is you’re doing, you don’t become the best and put that kind of commitment and grind. And so one day, you don’t have to do it. Tom Brady is the point of greatest quarterbacks of all time, he doesn’t get up in the morning saying, you know, if I keep playing this, well, one day, I won’t have to do this anymore. Totally. The great surgeon who’s you know, you wait six months to go see, he’s not waking up in the morning. And you know, one day, if I do enough operations, I won’t have to do this anymore. He’s figuring out how to even get better, one more thing to save some lives. And I think that’s how you have to look at your careers you have to look at your career is how can I get better? How can I do more? And how can I be the best that ever was. And when you have that kind of mindset, whether it’s your bus driver, and you know, when you’ve had bus drivers, like man, I miss that guy driving that bus, he was the best fun, never was late pop up. So you know, what moves me is when I just see people that are extraordinary, whatever they’re doing. Yeah, and I wish more people would understand the joy.

Kara Goldin 28:17
And that’s what I was gonna add to what you said to is that they enjoy what they’re doing

Brandon Steiner 28:20
no matter what, when you’re the best, you know, the act, everything that comes with being the best is just phenomenal. And it opens up so many other doors to because people notice you, you know, not that people don’t notice you when you’re successful. But you always remember. And always notice the extraordinary people, the people that have the best ever was and it just opens up so many other doors have so many fun other things to do, once you reach or close to getting a place of extraordinary. I love and that’s what I’ve really tried to impress upon people is don’t stop at success. Don’t it’s keep going.

Kara Goldin 28:55
Yeah, it’s a label that I think is is in some ways, it is like a wall. Right? It’s like then when more people start saying, oh, Brandon, you’ve been so successful. It’s like, okay, but can I can I still go

Brandon Steiner 29:10
do stuff here. People always ask me, Why do you keep going like, why are you working still? And it’s a fair question I have done well. And believe me, it was very difficult. These last couple of years to think about what you know whether I want to get back in the grind and whether I want to go back into starting something from scratch. But you know, at the end of the day, it’s like, why not a

Kara Goldin 29:31
few more things. First of all, if you have not read Brandon’s book you’ve got to have balls is it is an excellent book that I had a chance to grab before I was interviewing you and so many great tips that you’ve mentioned a few of them on on our show today, but just Excellent. Excellent.

Brandon Steiner 29:50
Well, that book was it really should be called everything I wear my mother and I I made a ton of money when I see my mom up in heaven. First hits you’re gonna say is where’s my cut? I can’t believe you took everything what I told you, I made that much money off of it. And I want something from it. But I’m proud of you.

Kara Goldin 30:07
Well, Brandon, you and I have not talked before, but something that I have two girls and two boys and something that I always share with a couple of things that I share with people. First of all, my boys still like me, which is, they’re 18 and 15. And they still, you know, 18 year old still calls me and wants, you know, get my opinions on stuff, which I’m happy about and, and my husband as well. But I always say that the greatest guys are the ones that actually talk about their mom, or talk about their sister, or

Brandon Steiner 30:39
Well, my wife too, is

Kara Goldin 30:40
Yeah, yeah. Or their wives

Brandon Steiner 30:42
married incredible woman too. Yeah, a lot smarter than me, which is a problem when you know, your wife is right now, nine times, but every now and then I pop in, I’m right. I’m really smart woman on top of make matters worse. But, you know, for me, I think parenting is such an important thing. And in my last book, living on purpose, I’ve written three books. By the way, if you do nothing else, buy that book and read the parenting chapter. Which is like, I wake up one day, and I’m like, you know, all my life, I just wanted to be a great parent, and be a great husband. And when I reached a lot of financial success by Mike, you know, if I if my kids ranked me, I think maybe I get like a six or seven, I think I asked my daughter to rank on a scale of one to 10 as being a parent. And she was like, you know, maybe a six, maybe a seven depends on the days, when maybe you could put your phone down a little bit, whatever. And I was like, Man, that sucks. I mean, it’s just horrible. Like, I always figure I’m going to be a 10. And then I just went on a mad mad rampage to learn about how to be a better parent, learn how to be a better spouse, learn how to be a better friend. And that’s what living on purpose is about. It’s about not stopping at success, how to get to extraordinary, not feeling guilty about your success, but feeling good about it, so you can do more good. And then also like how to get the whole, all the funnels going family, friends, faith. And so I love that book. I mean, I get page, several page letters from what’s that what’s

Kara Goldin 32:10
the name of I have not read that one yet.

Brandon Steiner 32:12
On purpose, okay, if you do nothing else live, to read the one chapter on parenting,

Unknown Speaker 32:19
I love it. I’m

Brandon Steiner 32:19
a very, very unusual parent, coming from the way I was parented. But you know, there’s so many great parenting stories in there that you can definitely steal and utilize. And I think that there’s nothing more important in the world than being a good parent. And being on top of things as far as a parent, so it’s the hardest job on the planet. So I’m very proud of that book. And proud of my kids, you know, they keep me I get no extra props, and no extra credit. You know, they keep me straight, they call me on everything I love. And we have incredible battles over over thoughts and theories about success about being a good person and that kind of stuff. And it’s phenomenal. I love the adults, my kids are turned out to be, I give my wife credit, but I take a little bit of credit.

Kara Goldin 33:03
I absolutely love it. So the new business that you’re launching, can you share,

Brandon Steiner 33:10
you know, collectible exchange, a new business I started this past year is like an eBay because eBay is terrible for collectibles. And this really keeps the high level of authentication, high proprietary cool items, and you can go buy and sell from each other. The new site I’m launching and right at the beginning of April is called athlete direct. And now you can go onto this site, it’s a sister site, the collect will change but only athletes, coaches are on the site, you have to be a professional, former college player coach, and you can actually buy directly from these players. And that’s amazing products, the game worn their game issued their autographs, and then all kinds of private label. What I know you’re going to love care is this is that I’ve been dying to do a whole line of women collectibles and licensed products because I hear my my mother in my ear and certainly my daughter who’s always saying that you haven’t done enough for women, because this woman’s organization honored me a few years ago and asked my daughter Give me the award said no. You need to refuse that award. You haven’t done enough. Do not take that award. You haven’t done enough, do more. And I’ll give you the award really pissed me off but she was right. So I’m thinking I’m gonna put a whole collectable line of license autographs and all kinds of proximity all these great lovers. Breanna Stewart tuber Mega repoed Mia Hamm, it goes on and on Billie Jean King Serena. So I’m working on this website called athlete direct and is a very strong, very equal pulse of women and the greatest women that have ever played. So that young girl could put up a picture of a great woman athlete, not just a Kobe or Jordan or Derek Jeter. And I love I mean, I’m so excited about this and I’ve hooked up with some Firstly, I just hooked up with some phenomenal women that are just extraordinary at what they do extraordinary. They deserve More props, they just incredible athletes and to be able to go bring that out and share it is amazing. I’m so excited about it. But in general, it’s great for the fan to get closer to these players, which is always a dream come true. Yeah. So right now we have almost 80 players on the site. But I imagined within you know, a few months after we launch and everything that will be even growing, there’s crazy

Kara Goldin 35:23
and also allowing athletes to, to make some money, right, and especially not just existing, but retired athletes. So

Brandon Steiner 35:33
when your athletes can sell their own products, if they want to come up with a water, I could work with Maryann or they’re on a snack product. There’s actually I’m back with Mark mess. He has a water product, all kinds of different things like that. So there’ll be all that stuff where the the athletes want to be entrepreneurs on there to support them and help them be it by create these storefronts for them.

Kara Goldin 35:54
That’s amazing. Well, I absolutely love it. So one of our we have a few athletes that are investors, but one of our investors that I’m going to actually talk to this afternoon is Ronnie Lott. So yeah, Ronnie’s awesome and amazing. Yeah, he’s amazing. But you know, it’s he’s also retired and, and, you know, I think that it’s, I could imagine that there are plenty of people that view that kind of, you know, opportunity as an investment right for them. And, and so I think that’s, that’s a really, really great idea. So very exciting. I will definitely let Ronnie know about it

Brandon Steiner 36:34
know, myself. Hello, I’ve had the pleasure to work with Ronnie. And there’s nobody more committed to his craft, which gives him the opportunity to do so many things because he was a fully committed talent that not only rested on his talent, but went far above and beyond.

Kara Goldin 36:48
Yeah, he’s just a great guy.

Brandon Steiner 36:50
I went to a hockey game with Ronnie Lott, to watch a ranger game like he was about six years old. In the third quarter, I had to separate the two of them. My son was punching Ronnie in the head. I mean, with all his force. And I said, I love this guy. He just got on my son’s level and the two of them games going on. They just beat each other. Regarding It’s crazy. Well,

Kara Goldin 37:11
he is just it’s really, yeah, I mean, you know, it’s interesting. I remember, I’ll never forget, I had dinner with Ronnie and his wife, Karen, who’s also super lovely A few years ago, and we were in San Francisco in a restaurant and all these people kept walking up to them and talking to them. And he’s such a nice guy. And he didn’t want to, like say anything. And then after a while, he, he stood up and he was like, Kara is the most important person and we weren’t talking business. We were just I didn’t care at all. And I, he understands what’s across the table, right? And he understands sort of everything even that we were talking about, and he’s like this in business, too. I mean, he doesn’t pretend to know about my business, but he takes interest and he always wants to be helpful, and he’s grateful for being involved as well. And just these things about him are just, you know, super lovely. And, and anyway, he’s, he’s great. So I will definitely let him know. I will be remiss in not talking to you about the everything bagel. You have to share the story because it was when I was doing some research on you. First of all, my husband is is a New Yorker from Scarsdale. And okay, my hometown Yeah. And he is he he really he misses the bagels out in San Francisco most most of all and and he’s he’s all about the everything bagel. So

Brandon Steiner 38:47
it’s so this story goes back to what we talked about right at the beginning. Yeah, and how everything kind of circles around and how you have to create value, but I was 12 years old, I got on my mother. I said, I need a career change. He’s like, you know, you’re 12 please, I said I’ve been working with for years, I need my afternoons free. So she goes go get a paper route. You go work in the mornings, he be free in the afternoons and on the weekends instead of working all weekend and after school. So I go get the paper out. And that’s how I go back to the woman who I decided to add value by giving her milk and bagels. So there was an opportunity to win a box of candy bars wherever opens up the most accounts I’m knocking on these doors, and I run into this older woman she’s well on her 70s and she cuz I don’t want to get the paper delivered. So why she’s only got a tip yet. So I go back to the woman’s house about a week later because I’m so frustrated. My mother said stop selling start solving. Be a solution based salesperson serve people don’t expect people to buy the same thing someone else is selling. So I’m knocking on these doors and going crazy. I go back to this woman. She says Sonny I told you I don’t want to get the paper to live as a man. torrential downpour snowstorm. Tweet heatwave, a woman said just should not be out. I’ll get you milk and bagels every Wednesday and Sunday. And if you need anything else, the weather’s bad, I’ll get that you will do that for me. I said I was concerned. The woman not only gets the paper from me, but turns the entire neighborhood onto me. I went from 29 dailies to 199 dailies. So the first thing I’d say anybody listening is are you listening to your customers? And are you are really true solution based person because you are authentic about it. Your business is gonna blow up. Yeah, but anyway, so every morning I’m picking up bagels, milk, and I stopped by this bagel factory, which is a block from my house. It’s how I thought of the idea. And then those days weren’t a lot of bagel places. This is like 1972 Finally, one morning the guy this guy Lugo is the bagel says, look, would you be interested in coming in early or helping us bake with bacon for the routes for the supermarket?

Kara Goldin 40:48
This is in Brooklyn, right?

Brandon Steiner 40:49
kingshighway? ocean Parkway?

Unknown Speaker 40:51
Yeah. Okay.

Brandon Steiner 40:52
I said, Do you want me to wake up at four in the morning, bake bagels for about three, three and a half hours, then go deliver my newspapers, that’s sure, of course, I do that I was 12. I’m delivering the newspapers, I’m waking up four in the morning. And finally, I was going to quit because I was like falling asleep in school. And the guy says, Look, I have a nice Baker job open for you, I’m gonna give you $1.50. Now I’m going to give you a raise. I’m baking bagels, I’m bored out of my mind, because I was used to baking hundreds and 1000s of bagels in the morning. And I was just baking for a few of the customers that come in. And I was just trying all these different seasonings and all these different things. And then, you know, onions and salt and garlic and all kinds of different things. And finally, one day I was playing around with all these different seasons, I took all the seasons that turn on the bagel. And that’s what we came up with the everything bagel at night. I started from this, you know that newspaper route and learning how to bake and make bagels which I could still go into a bagel factory and show them how to make a real bagel. Because we were still doing by hand and everything else, which is kind of a lost art. And and really, there’s an art to really baking the bagel properly. It’s one of the most difficult breads to make, which is what people don’t realize. And it’s also one of the most difficult breads to digest, which is why I stay away from them. Because there are tons of calories. And but when you make a bagel properly, which is very difficult. Because of the humidity and dew goes to five temperature changes. It gets a little complicated to make the perfect bagel, which is why your husband gets frustrated. It takes somebody who actually cares and really think about what they’re doing.

Kara Goldin 42:16
And it’s the lie to right is it. What’s the ingredient in the water?

Brandon Steiner 42:21
Well, there’s some it’s the water, it’s some, some people bake them with molasses, which makes it really interesting. But what happens is when you bake the dough, by the time you mix the dough, it’s kind of hot. And you got to be careful about how much that dough poops. Because then you put it into a refrigerator, stop the poofing and stabilize it. Then you take it out of the refrigerator, bring it to room temperature, it’s another temperature change and then you put it in boiling water. If you let the bagel poof too much, that’s when you get the area big with holes in it. And then when you put it in the boiling water, if you let it sit in there too long. You take it out of the boiling water, you’ve thrown cold water at to stabilize it, and then you put it and here’s where you get that hard crust be on the bottom. You put him on these planks. So when you put the bagels on these planks if you’re not on top of your game, but it’s in a rotating Baker’s oven, you got to be on your game if you bake volume, because if you leave it in the Baker’s oven before you put the planks over, the bagel gets really really hard to get too crispy and too hard on the bottom. There’s a lot of stuff that goes into it. It’s handled by a few different people. Which is why most bagel places don’t have the perfect bagel because it’s a few people worrying about it.

Kara Goldin 43:29
That makes any sense. That’s so funny.

Unknown Speaker 43:30
Well, I’m really gonna bake some bagels,

Kara Goldin 43:32
my daughter wrote her senior paper, I’d be happy to send it to you was on bagels. And so and and she talked about she was actually going to school in New York and she talked about the the it was called the bagel paper. And she actually went into the kitchens of different bagel shops inside all over New York and taught and actually the net of it is is it goes back to heritage and how and all of these you know that they believe

Brandon Steiner 44:11
is the kid Montreal bagel there’s the Russian bagel.

Kara Goldin 44:14
Yeah. And so it’s in sushi really tied it to it’s it’s also it’s really about your roots, and about kind of where you know and anyway it’s really really interesting. And yeah, what’s the the my husband always says the frozen bagel? Yeah, Linda? Yeah, he thinks that it ruined the bagel.

Unknown Speaker 44:35
Like,

Kara Goldin 44:36
that’s his his theory on it. But anyway, I LOVE LOVE, LOVE this episode. How do people find first of all your new site? How do people find that? Well, you know, if you go to collect machines, you get any one of my three books for free if you just pay for the shipping. So if you don’t do anything else, if you’re not a collector, whatever, go to the site and pick up a copy of the book. I’m a big LinkedIn guy. So follow me on LinkedIn and love it can connect even smoother Limit but follow me on LinkedIn or go to Brandon Steiner calm. And there’s all information about my speaking and books and stuff like that. And first thing I do when I get off this conversation is go pick up your book can’t wait. Thank you so much. And thank you everybody for spending time with us. And please give Brandon’s Episode Five stars and come back and see us every Monday and Wednesday. And I’m truly grateful and honored to have been able to talk to you about this because you are, you’re just doing it and just every day really showing others that you show up and come up with great ideas, but also go execute and keep doing it. And I love that. Thank you. So thank you so much. Thanks, everyone. before we sign off, I want to talk to you about fear. People like to talk about fearless leaders. But achieving big goals isn’t about fearlessness. successful leaders recognize their fears and decide to deal with them head on in order to move forward. This is where my new book undaunted comes in. This book is designed for anyone who wants to succeed in the face of fear, overcome doubts and live a little undaunted. Order your copy today at undaunted, the book calm and learn how to look your doubts and doubters in the eye and achieve your dreams. For a limited time. You’ll also receive a free case of hint water. Do you have a question for me or want to nominate an innovator to spotlight send me a tweet at Kara golden and let me know. And if you liked what you heard, please leave me a review on Apple podcasts. You can also follow along with me on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn at Kara golden golden thanks for listening