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That Time My COO Wanted To Punch Me In The Face (And Almost Did)

If you’ve ever talked to me or participated in the Tuesday Morning Ad Clinic webinars we used to do, you know I’m a staunch believer in tough, honest love.

If I tell you that your ad sucks, I tell you why and how to make it better. If I tell you that your website looks like a 4th grader built it with Wix (sorry, Wix), I tell you why and how to fix it.

About 95% of people “get” my style. The other 5% just want to punch me in the face… like that one time MYM COO Bryan Bauman got so mad he nearly knocked out my teeth in a restaurant.

If you’re an MYM client, you’ve talked to Bryan. You know he’s a super nice guy. So what did I say that almost caused affable Bryan to commit assault and battery with two-dozen witnesses present?

Let me set the scene. The year was 1999-ish. Bryan was an IT manager making $38,000 a year. He had a wife and two young children, and he was looking for a way to earn more money to support them.

At the time, I was running a business where I coached clients on how to become expert marketing consultants. Bryan had picked up the audio version of my training and listened to it constantly while at his IT job. He eventually contacted me to enroll in the program.

One problem: He didn’t have the required $35,000 to invest in the program. Bryan was adamant about making this work though, so I agreed to meet with him and hash out his budget.

We met at a restaurant in Los Colinas, TX. On the table between two Sprites and a bowl of guacamole dip, we laid out spreadsheets detailing Bryan’s budget.

While we were strategizing, Bryan said, “To afford your program, I guess I’m going to have to get a second job, even though I don’t want to.”

I asked him why he didn’t want to get a second job. He said he wanted to have time to spend with his wife and children.

That’s when I put my hand over the spreadsheet, looked him in the eye and said, “Bryan, you haven’t earned the right to spend time with your children.”

Bryan’s face turned the same shade of red as the bottle of Heinz ketchup on the table. Have you ever watched that famous scene from the 1980s movie Scanners where the guy’s head explodes? I was positive Bryan’s head was about to do that from all the fury.

MYM Email - 21 _ 01
Ever made someone so mad their face turned Ketchup Red? I have.

 

Here’s Bryan’s perspective on the situation:

“My first thought was ‘Did this guy say what I think he said?’ After I concluded that, yes, he did actually say that, I thought, ‘I’m going to jail right now.’ My fist was clenched so tight I thought my fingernails were going to puncture the palm of my hand. I came so close to punching him in the face. But I regained an inkling of composure at the last second and simply walked out of the restaurant.”

I don’t blame Bryan for his reaction. But I said what I said for a reason: To get him to do some soul searching and think about my words.

And he did exactly that. About a week later, Bryan called me. He told me, “You know what, you’re right.”

Over the next year, Bryan created a number of excellent income-generating ideas. One was collecting homeowners’ unwanted belongings and selling them at garage sales at his house every weekend. He then split the profit with the homeowners he collected from or donated their halves to charity—whichever they preferred.

After a while, Bryan wanted to take that last step to true success. He came to me and said, “Rich I want to be a marketing consultant, and I want to work with you. But if you don’t hire me, that’s okay. I’ll do this with or without you.”

I told him I’d give him a trial run. If he was successful in that period, I’d bring him on full time. When Bryan walked into my office a week later and slapped a $500 client contract on my desk, I hired him on the spot.

Seven years later, he’s my COO, right-hand man… and best friend. (What great friendship doesn’t start with one person wanting to uppercut the other the first time they meet?)

Here’s the moral of the story…

If you truly want your life to change for the better, and you’re humble enough to take direction and listen—no matter how much you may not want to hear it—your life WILL change for the better. It’s up to YOU to take the advice you’re given and put it into action.

That’s exactly what Bryan did—and now he’s reaping the rewards. He now makes more than enough money to provide for his family and has time to spend with them. All it took was some mettle, an open mind, and almost getting arrested for cold-cocking his future boss.

You know, that old story.

In a few weeks, I’ll tell you about the time I wanted to throw Bryan out of my office window after he spent $35,000 of my money on a list of useless leads.

I’ll give you the details of how I almost bounced Bryan off the pavement in that email.

Have a great day!

-Rich

P.S. Did you know there’s an actual word for throwing someone out of a window? It’s “defenestration.” If you’re a window contractor, maybe you already knew that!

© 2016, Rich Harshaw. All rights reserved.

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