Priscilla (2): [00:00:00] Most businesses don't fail because the founder isn't talented. They fail because they build the wrong thing. Today's guest, Bradley Hawkins, has built companies across cybersecurity, hospitality, and energy. But what makes him different and of interest to you as he's obsessed with one question?

Are you actually solving a real problem or are you just building something that sounds smart or brilliant? Bradley is the CEO of safe net. He's a strategist who helps founders build secure, sustainable businesses while protecting what matters most, your reputation, your revenue, and your family. Bradley's also a bestselling author with several books under his belt, but most recently, his new book, unshakeable Life Living, A Life of Purpose, abundance, and Eternal Impact.

So if you're a founder with a big vision. pull up to this kitchen table conversation 'cause we are gonna unpack how to spot a real problem, how to find out if you're off track and when [00:01:00] the engine starts humming. How to use your curiosity as your leadership superpower.

Priscilla (2): Welcome to the Entrepreneur's Kitchen, Bradley Hawkins, please, let's jump right in.

Tell us, what do people miss when they hear CEO of a cybersecurity company? Who is Brad Hawkins?

Bradley Hawkins (2): that is a great question. I ask myself that often. I have a cybersecurity company. I've got a couple of event venues. I've got an oil and gas company. And really my objective is to find great people that know amazing things and put a system around them and help them to become successful.

While I fund or while I put my systems around it. And so [00:02:00] that's been a project of mine for years and years. I started out I ran an investment company for 20 years. I had a medical wellness company, oxygen Delivery Company, a LED, light Manufacturing Company outta Hong Kong. And it's always around different products, but the same system, the same process.

And that's something that I just love doing is really understanding what it is , that we can build that would service and take care of the people that we're trying to service and take care of.

Priscilla (2): well you've piqued my interest there 'cause I'm like, what is the system? Brady, tell us , who were you before you got into business, , how did you see yourself? How did you end up in business? How did you come upon the system? Tell us the story of , how all of this started.

Bradley Hawkins (2): Oh, I grew up as probably one of the dumbest people in the class, and I had a severe case of dyslexia, but I didn't find out until my second degree in college. I would just I [00:03:00] need to figure this out, and I'd just plow through and it's interesting because when I was just about to graduate with my second degree, I had a professor that I forgot to turn in a paper and.

He said, you know what, if you just turn something in, I can give you 

Bradley Hawkins: something more than a zero. 

Bradley Hawkins (2): And I said, okay. So I wrote it all out by hand in the library back when we had libraries and back when we actually wrote with a pen. I turned it in and he looked at it and said, this looks like the worst thing I've ever seen.

What is wrong with you is what he said. And I said I don't know. And he said,, you've not turned in this horrible work for an entire degree. What are you doing? And I said well, I've got these systems where, I'll write something and I'll have someone to go through it. At the time my dad had his own business and he let me send my papers to his secretary to clean up my writing.

I always [00:04:00] had many different things that I had to do to clean things up because I was just not good at all the normal schoolwork. They discovered I was dyslexic and it put a name behind it, but it didn't really help me. I realized, you know what? I have spent my life so far figuring out things on my own.

I don't figure things out by reading what somebody says about it. I figure it out by observing everything around me, paying attention to what everybody is saying, keeping track of everything in my brain to be able to know where do I go and what do I do next. Seeing where holes are, seeing where excitement is, seeing what people enjoy, seeing what they don't enjoy.

And I just look at that as my. If I can put it into this weird term, my superpower of being able to observe and pay attention and do things that normal people would not try, if that makes any sense. And you know what's interesting is a lot of [00:05:00] entrepreneurs are dyslexic. They're the person , that goes at things and tries things out on their own, and they don't read about somebody's success or failures.

They just look at it and say, what do I need to do to step forward and do something that is needed in this particular situation?

Priscilla (2): Oh, that's so good. It's such a contrarian take to this idea of we're constantly reading. We're like what's the book on this? And what's the book on that? We've become so detached from that practice that you're talking about of being present enough to say what's happening in this situation and what is needed?

So thank you so much for that. Now I'm interested to know how you got into your first business. You have naturally the system's way of thinking I'm getting from the way you grew up. You figured out, okay, if I have a system in place, that's what I need to achieve a goal. How did that lead into the first business?

Bradley Hawkins (2): I had a little bit of a journey where I got a job with an organization that helped people out of debt. [00:06:00] I did that for a while and that was a non-profit, and I actually got in trouble I got promoted to like a manager or a leader's role, I took. my department, I was the department head and I put income generating processes into the department.

And for the first year, my department was profitable and I thought I was gonna get all kinds of accolades. It was just a wonderful thing. And it almost got me fired because they were a nonprofit, they didn't know what to do with all this profit. And I realized nonprofits were not what I was designed to do.

I like the journey of making money. So I moved to another position. I had a job as an investment manager to help people make money and manage investment portfolios and that kind of stuff. And that worked out pretty well for me. But in my journey there, I realized there were so many people that were dishonest .

In the money [00:07:00] management aspect of things. And I thought, I cannot do a career in this environment. I just can't do it. And I looked around and I just decided, you know what, here's the deal is , I'm gonna start my own company. And I started out of my basement I delivered packages for a delivery service called Pony Express at the time.

And I worked that from four o'clock in the morning till about 10 o'clock in the morning. And then I worked my investment company in the afternoons until it got to be big enough that I could not deliver packages. And it just took off from there. It was quite a journey. And everything was just a matter of, okay, here's where I'm having a problem.

I have to solve this problem. Where do I solve the problem? It was just bulldozing through those things and finding solutions where. Normal people would not just find solutions, if that makes sense.

Priscilla (2): tell me, so you realized in investment that okay, there's a lack of [00:08:00] integrity and you say, okay, let me start my own investment company. Let me try and do something different from what's happening here. This sort of toxic environment you experienced. You navigated problems by bulldozing through a problem.

Maybe you can give us an example. 'cause people are gonna hear that and they're gonna say in my business, I'm stuck. I can't figure out how to do this thing. How do I think through the problem?

Bradley Hawkins (2): . One of the problems that really stood out to me I've got two examples that I'll tell you, but I ended up with a lot of clients that. Didn't have a lot of money, but they certainly needed help in growing their investments. At the time I had about a thousand clients.

So I got on radio, I talked to a lot of people, a lot of people came to me. But , in the investment world, the way you make a lot of money is you get a few number of clients with a lot of money as opposed to a lot of clients with a little amount of money. 'cause [00:09:00] the more number of clients you have, the more work is involved.

And if you're making money , on what you're growing, it's just not a good money maker. I'm looking at , my portfolio that I'm managing and I'm looking at how much money I'm making and I'm like. Here's a large problem. I'm spending way too much time managing these portfolios. So I talked to a friend of mine who was a developer, and I said, you need to help me come up with a solution on how I can manage many people's portfolio in a systematic way to make it simpler so I'm not spending hours and hours and hours doing this.

And so I shared with him everything that I did, and he put together a simple little software that was able to automatically make trades for me, uh, connecting it to , some platforms. And I was able to take my thousand clients. And it didn't matter how many people I put into that system. I was able to trade for their [00:10:00] portfolios in the same way.

And everybody got treated equally. And in that process, I was able to help. Create wealth for many people that wouldn't normally have the ability to have , an investment manager help them. But then I realized these people, they've got great skills in working and making money but they didn't have very good budgeting management skills.

I'm like, well, somehow I need to help them figure out how to take advantage of the work that they're doing and use that money in a more efficient way. And I ended up sitting down with many, many different people just interviewing and talking to them and hearing what their issues were and what they were struggling with.

'cause I thought if I could just help them create budgets, those budgets would help them be able to save a lot more money. But talking to them, it wasn't a budgeting problem. I realized people were having all kinds of. [00:11:00] Issues in their life that was taking from their finances, , which actually led to my first book called Money's the Smallest Part of Your Finances, where I was discovering I could set up a budget for people and they're never gonna be able to do it because life always gets in the way.

And I've got help them solve their problem with their life skills, maybe their marriage issues or maybe, they were raised in a family that it was abusive and they spend way too much time in anger. And then when they're angry, they use their finances to try to eliminate their anger problems or whatever it is.

So we built a financial life coaching company within our company and I brought in outside counselors to help train or help these people move past some of the issues in their life. And they ended up saving an enormous amount of money. Because they weren't having to spend it solving their problems. They were now saving it.

And it just escalated the growth in the business [00:12:00] in a radical way. And the company grew to be a very substantial company on the clients that no other investment managers wanted. They didn't want 'em because they didn't have enough money to start. We just reversed the process. We brought 'em in. We created a system to be able to help them grow their finances and help them solve their life problems.

And all of a sudden we had some of the most loyal and, uh, aggressively, growing their portfolios. , It was just an absolute amazing thing where then it ended up being that other investment managers would send us clients that they couldn't work with anymore, and the company became quite substantial.

Priscilla (2): , people often want, the money that's gonna be easy. That model that seems to work because there's a real need, but you have to work a little harder to make it work and trying to figure out how to make it work.

Seems to be what, [00:13:00] you did well in that you are looking for real problems. How are you looking at it? Because in one sense it's it's a real problem, but that's not the way things are done, 

Bradley Hawkins (2): well, and that's kind of the benefit of having dyslexia is that I don't really care the way things are done because the way things are done means that that's the way somebody else figured it out. I look at things like, okay, I'm seeing a different picture. I'm understanding it a different way, so why not I figure it out for the people that I see as a problem.

For example, we do things very odd in our cybersecurity company. Now most cybersecurity people will say, well, I've got A-A-V-P-N, so I'm okay. Or, I've got virus protection on my computer, so I'm okay. Or I have, a guy in my office that tells me what I'm doing right or wrong, so I'm okay.

But nobody really even understands what [00:14:00] they're okay from. They don't do the homework to understand what exactly is a virus, what is that virus gonna do to me? Who is the one running the virus and analyzing the virus and coming up with ways to. To attack. And so what we have done , is we go through and figure out, okay, there's many different ways.

Let's create a cybersecurity tool that will cover the majority of those things in one package. Because there's so many small business owners that don't have any idea what they're supposed to do, and they either ignore it and they pretend like, well, you know, I'm not big enough. Nobody will care. Or they just talk to somebody and they say, oh, make sure that all your computers have virus protection.

You're okay. But they really don't understand it. So what we have done is we created the three most valuable parts of cybersecurity, put it together in one package, and made it as simple as possible to be able to use so [00:15:00] that any small business owner or even medium sized business owner can put this on every endpoint device that they have, every computer, laptop.

Cell phone, whatever it is and be convinced that those viruses and those ways that other people have access to will not be able to get into their network. But most people don't take the time to realize that they are not vulnerable because they have something of value. They're vulnerable because they didn't do something to protect their network.

And the reason that I say that is we did , a podcast called Digital Desperados. And what we did is we went through the history of all the famous hackers and we just analyzed all these famous hackers and how they started and what they did. And most people don't realize, most of the hackers are just kids that have a desire to break into networks and become famous in their little world in the dark web.

There [00:16:00] are very sophisticated pieces of software that they can lease and they can use these pieces of software and share revenue, if they are able to steal credit cards or do whatever. They share revenue with the big boys and they're able to create this entire ecosystem in the dark web.

And it's all around attacking small to medium sized businesses that have not figured out that enterprise level cybersecurity that the large companies have. And so what we've done is we've created an enterprise style cybersecurity that is a very simple use product that any small business can use , to defend themselves against all these little hackers that are trying to be famous.

Priscilla (2): That's brilliant. I'm seeing like a pattern. Tell me if it's a, if it's a pattern or not, Brad. It seems like you understand the people that are underserved and who have a real problem that no one is [00:17:00] addressing, but there's no clear profit path. That's why people are not serving them.

And then you figure out how to create the profit path.

Bradley Hawkins (2): that is a perfect summary of what I just said. Absolutely. Because why should I go into Competition with these massive cybersecurity companies trying to sell a product to the same people when there's an entire group of people, small business owners, medium sized business owners that have not.

, Run into a problem, yet they've not been hacked that they know of, they're sitting there completely vulnerable, but not even knowing that they're vulnerable. So my only entry point is explaining how they're vulnerable and making the cost of our product least expensive enough to make it so that they would look at that and say that's kind of a no brainer.

I'm gonna do it anyway. That sounds perfect. I'm gonna protect myself. And I've got a wide [00:18:00] open market of thousands of businesses that are in that spot, as opposed to the several hundred large businesses that I might be able to get into if I spent enough money marketing.

Priscilla (2): Yeah, with your investment company, you had a thousand clients, I was like, whoa, that's a big company, a thousand clients. Seeing that sort of market size of underserved people, and then at the same time, I'm wondering, okay, Brad, you've, identified the problem.

You've seen the market is big. You know that if you solve this problem, clients will come. How are you now figuring out how to create this thing? Or what's your thought process? You looking for experts?, How are you thinking through, how can this be profitable? Where other people are said, ah, no, that's not profitable.

Bradley Hawkins (2): really it's a matter of , creating the solution and then figuring out a way to make it profitable. The solution in our case was,, I talked to some developers that I know and I tell 'em what I'm looking to do. I wanna find a way of creating a VPN. And putting [00:19:00] virus protection inside the VPN, not just on the endpoint device, but inside the VPN, so that if one of my clients goes to a bad website, I want to be able to stop that virus before it gets into the network where the network has to chase it down.

Because a lot of times these brand new viruses they get in there and they're getting themselves into trouble. And then I want this VPN to make sure that each computer is siloed into this network, so that if someone clicks on a bad link, I don't want that bad link , in this particular case I'm thinking of it's ransomware.

I don't want that ransomware to spread throughout the network before anyone knows about it. So if we create a 24 7, always on VPN with virus protection inside of it on every device. Then if somebody accidentally clicks on that ransomware, it can't get outside of that VPN. It's not gonna spread throughout the network.[00:20:00]

The worst case scenario is that that one computer is trashed. That's the worst, if you don't have our system on it. The worst case scenario is you triggered ransomware and now your entire network is trashed. But we've created it so that this is the worst case scenario. Only one device goes under and the entire business continues to operate, but then we run everything through a dashboard so that a small business owner can see everything that's going on his entire network.

That software is thousands and thousands of dollars for large companies. And we do it all within one small little package. , That dashboard is very simple that an administrator can see everything that's going on, they can see all the vulnerabilities. We have AI that tells them when there's an anomaly that they need to pay attention to.

We have another AI that notifies each user to say, here's how you could perform better online and not get yourself into trouble. And so [00:21:00] we're working all of these pieces so that a small businessman can feel very comfortable that he's got enterprise level security for his small business. And that's something that you can ask any small business owner, they have no idea how to do without spending an enormous amount of money making that happen.

Priscilla (2): it's one of those things where you think, oh we can't think about that because that's for the big companies who earn, multiples of whatever in revenue. So that's brilliant. You talked about in the beginning you always create a system and it seems part of your system is always to leverage technology , to create something new, to make something profitable.

If I'm correct from what you're saying.

Bradley Hawkins (2): Uh, you are very correct I wrote a book called God the Devil in the Internet, and the premise of that book is that God creates everything. I mean, he is the mastermind behind everything. So he gives even those people that don't believe in who he is or doesn't believe that he exists.

It doesn't matter because he created their brains , and made them very, [00:22:00] very smart. They may not even know it, but they're fulfilling part of what God's plan is for their life. But God created the internet and there's an enemy out there. And the devil can't create anything, but he likes stealing everything that God makes.

And so what happens , is God creates this amazing tool that I think is probably the best invention of all time. Barring maybe the industrial revolution. I don't know. Somebody could argue that point. But, what has happened is that there's so much bad mixed into the good. And what our job is, in this particular case, our cybersecurity company, is that we're trying to block all of the bad that we can.

And allow the internet to be used most effectively for anyone that wants to grow a business, that wants to do work in a ministry, that wants to do anything that is positive in the internet, allow them to do it with all the tools available. But I do think [00:23:00] technology is probably one of the greatest things to multiply things at a tremendous level.

I would say that anyone's not getting involved in the ai activity. They're gonna be left behind, kinda like, you know, people using flip phones when the iPhone came out. And so our objective is to say, okay, we're coming in here with a level of technology , that is needed to keep people safe, to allow you to do the most effective ways of communicating.

Like, I'm in Denver and you're in Australia. Who in the world could imagine. Years ago that we could be talking and doing a podcast in two different locations like we're doing through the internet. I mean, you wouldn't have created that idea until its step by step gets to that level. And that's what we're trying to do, is make things as safe as we possibly can.

So that it allows people like you to use your amazing [00:24:00] talent and your amazing skills through the internet in a very safe environment. And , that's what we get very excited about.

Priscilla (2): I'm glad you talked about ai 'cause I wasn't gonna go there, but since you did talk about it, Brad people are talking about it everywhere, but it's one of those things where you don't quite understand how you fit into it. You don't quite understand how to use it or how to think about it.

And it's on this fear-based level of mass communication right now. I'm thinking for a person who, if they wanted to start a business in 2026 or going forward, and you're thinking about ai but you have no idea, like what are the real problems you can't quite grasp it.

How would you think through that?

Bradley Hawkins (2): I wouldn't even think about AI at this particular moment. What I would think about is what is the solution that you are looking to create? And then once you understand what that solution you're looking to create, then I would look at how does AI help enhance that process. I have a friend of mine who just showed me a new app that he came up with was how [00:25:00] do you train phone operators to be more efficient with their time?

So he created an app that does an automated phone call to a customer service agent and gives them a problem and then grades them on how they solve that problem. They've gotta do this training on a once a week basis to help them enhance their skills in customer service.

So he was trying to solve how do you make customer service better? And he used AI to do that as opposed to, what is AI and how can I use that to make money? Does that make sense?

Priscilla (2): Yes. Which leads to the next thing I was gonna ask you about. A lot of times we use that approach, especially new founders of this is ai. Now how can I create something around AI and make a business? And, there's no real problem. I was wondering

if there was a time that you chased something that wasn't really a problem and how someone can know, okay [00:26:00]that is not, the path is not correct the way you're thinking through it.

Bradley Hawkins (2): yeah. I invested in a company one time that was designing a piece of software for people in the multi-level marketing industry, and they wanted to come up with marketing strategies within the multi-level marketing industry I invested in there and tried to coach them along, and I realized we were in a cycle of development that was never gonna solve its problem.

And the company ended up shutting down and I ended up losing my money. But the reason that it didn't go anywhere is original founder of the company never took the time to talk to people in the multi-level marketing companies to find out what they were looking for. He thought he knew what they were looking for, and so he created this entire marketing strategy and then tried to sell it to people in the multi-level marketing industry.[00:27:00]

And in that process, he realized all of these different multi-level marketing companies had their own separate marketing strategies that they wanted them to use. And so they wouldn't use this new. Universal style marketing strategy. and that was a good lesson because when I looked at it, I thought, this is a pretty good idea.

There's a ton of people in that industry. But I never asked the question, who did you talk to, to know that they were looking for this solution? 

It was just that simple step to make sure you're making something for a specific client, for a specific customer, and not making something that you think is a good idea that they're going to want, if that makes sense. There's a spread there. There's a difference there. If he would've done his homework, he would've realized there's no way I can get all these different companies.

To choose to change their marketing strategies to what I think is important.

Priscilla (2): [00:28:00] Yeah, no, that's key. I see that and as I'm listening, I'm thinking of a lot of situations where that is the case where you come up with this idea, and it sounds really clever. It sounds like, oh yeah, that should definitely work. But because you haven't talked to people, you haven't faced, okay do they want this?

Maybe the reason that this problem is there is because there's an alternative or, or something that is marketed better and than what you're coming up with. So you jump into something without really knowing you create more hurdles

Bradley Hawkins (2): , one of the fundamental things that I think about all the time when I'm looking at a product that I'm offering is, now don't panic when I say this, but it's called the Nude Model. And yes, it does get a lot of people if I talk on that topic . At a conference, people show up because they want to know what a nude model looks like. But the idea behind the nude model is that you have four components. The product needs to be novel and it always has to be an interesting novel twist to [00:29:00] it. It's gotta be useful and you gotta know who it's useful for. You gotta identify person that it's useful for, and make sure there's enough of those people.

And it's gotta be dependable. Now, it's interesting because dependability is not a matter of, if there's a scale of one to 10, novel, there's a scale you want to be up in the higher levels of , novel and useful. You gotta be up in the higher levels of useful, but dependable. There's no scale.

It is either dependable or it's not dependable. You don't get a range. And then the last one is e economically viable for that person. So if you know that you've got all four of those pieces working properly, you've got a product that you can sell and could go into a viral role.

But if it's not useful, if it's not dependable, if there's a hole somewhere, you've gotta fix that hole. So if somebody has a product, then they're trying [00:30:00] to sell that product. They've gotta look at those four pieces and say, , where am I vulnerable on Is my product really as dependable as I say it is?

And if you're lying to yourself, you're only gonna destroy your business. So you gotta be truthful and make sure that is your product really useful. And that's where this product that I told you about, it was not useful. , It might've been useful to a few, but there was not enough people that saw it as being useful and he spent millions of dollars on that product.

Priscilla (2): It was something that some people might have liked, but it wasn't an obviously useful thing to the majority of the people that he was looking at.

Bradley Hawkins (2): You've gotta look at it and say, is there enough people that believe that it's useful to make it economically viable?

Priscilla (2): So good. Now let's jump into the book that you've created. Actually before we go there, this is the framework for knowing that the business that you've got is solving a real [00:31:00] problem and how to try a profitable way, making it economically viable. We've talked about that now when the engines are humming and you've gotta step into the role of being leader.

You talk about curiosity as your leadership power. How did you come to know that, how to create that concept for yourself and to live that as well?

Bradley Hawkins (2): I think that the most important thing there is that if you know that you never have all the answers, you can keep looking for more, if that makes sense. What I find interesting is that people will come to a very quick conclusion and believe that they've completed it. For example, , in my investment company, I could look at that and say.

I'm never gonna be profitable if I don't figure out how to get large clients. That's what I'm told. Everybody knows it, everybody knows that's the way you do it. So I need to change my marketing because all I'm doing is attracting people [00:32:00] with small amounts of money. That is the pat answer that most people would just give you.

So I look at that and say, well, I don't believe that's the only way. What are other ways that I could do this?, I wanna remain curious to see where it could go. , I just put out , a book as a matter of fact, on April 14th, it's coming out. It's called The Power of OR, and TBN is publishing that for me, which I'm happy about.

And so The Power Of, OR is that element to be able to say Maybe you're mad at me and , you make a comment , in a social setting that you and I are crossing paths in and I think, man what is that all about? What did I do? Why is she so angry? I don't understand that.

I'm just not gonna talk to her. I'm gonna avoid her 'cause I don't wanna deal with whatever she's got going on. But if I use the power of, or I can say, or she's had [00:33:00] a really bad day, I don't know what's going on with her and maybe I should go find out if she's okay. Or I just misread the whole thing.

Maybe she was occupied and thinking about something else. , And if I give myself enough ORs, I can keep neutral or I can stay curious until I find out what the truth is. , Or maybe I never find out what the truth is, but it doesn't divide you and I as a friend because I didn't come up with my definite answer to this is why she behaved that way.

And that works across the board with everything. If I just stay curious long enough to find out more information, I can always be growing. I can always be advancing, I can always be learning more about what's next. So that's what I use , in business where, if I'm struggling at something, I don't believe it's , a black and a white thing.

It's just not gonna work, or it is gonna work. It's okay. It's not working this way. What else can I do to make [00:34:00]it more efficient? Who can I talk to? How can I make this work? And I will just start talking to everybody. I'm not caught up with me being the smartest person in the room. I'm caught up with finding the people that are much smarter than me to talk to and hear what they have to say and get their input.

And I don't see that as the gospel either. I just see it as more information put into my mind so that I can be thinking about this in a much broader, in a larger way. Does that make sense?

Priscilla (2): Yes, it does make sense. A lot of the problems, even interpersonally communicating. Not even just leadership, just, that quick judgment. That oftentimes it is harsh because, we've been conditioned, that's the appropriate way , to react to something.

It's gotta be bold and harsh but it's asking , or it could have been that, or it could have been that. And it's a really measured approach. I like that one. Brad, entrepreneurs are often interested in how to manage that [00:35:00] pressure to perform, how to handle disappointments as they come in business.

I know you're a person of faith, how to maybe habits and how to handle that pressure that comes with building something.

Bradley Hawkins (2): there is a lot of pressure , on someone one time, and I won't do this again 'cause it does create pressure, but I one time countered up everybody that relied on me and the businesses that I have and run to make sure that they can feed their family. I counted all the people, including their family members, realizing I better not screw this up.

This is important. But the reverse of that is what a privilege it is that God allows me to bless hundreds of people in regards to growing their family and moving on in their life and doing great things. And so, there is a reverse side of that and that's part of that staying curious is that, you know, if you're responsible for a business, if you're responsible for making something work, [00:36:00] the key is, is that you can't think that you're the smartest person around.

If you look around and you know, you're the smartest person in the room. You have built your business completely wrong. You wanna find people that are smarter than you in certain areas and that , are talented in other things. I know that , in other cases, I find it where I'm trying to start a business on a low budget.

And , I bring in people to fill seats and I realize every time I do that, it takes a large cleanup to go through and replace people and get it to the place where it's moving forward properly. One of the interesting rules of thumbs is that when you're starting a business, you're trying to figure out who do you hire first?

Who's your first hire? People say, you should hire an assistant or you should hire a sales team, or whatever it is that is needed in that business. But I look at it and say, find somebody that has [00:37:00] talents beyond what you have. I always find it interesting in talking to people growing businesses.

They want to create partnerships and, start businesses with other people. And we're typically like-minded. We find people that have very similar interests, very similar taste to create a partnership with. I always look at that like, why did you do that? You duplicated yourself with a partner.

If you want partner, , partner with somebody that has different talents and skills. If you're really, really good at sales, you wanna find a partner that's really, really good at backend office work or whatever it is that you're not equally involved with. And so that's the part of.

Relieving some of that pressure of realizing, Hey, there's other people involved in this. Bring them in, let them participate. It's not on your shoulders. It's on everybody's shoulders. Let it all be involved, if that makes sense.

Priscilla (2): Yeah, it does make sense. Typically people gravitate to people who, [00:38:00] it's a vibe. We get along, , because you're probably a lot like each other and that's why it feels good working with that person. But in terms of creating value. On the other hand, you haven't sped up what's happening because it's just two of you now.

It's interesting that you say that, Brad I wanted to ask this because you find all these great people who can do these things way better than you can, so they're experts and you can rely on them to know what they're doing.

What then becomes your role and how are you, I don't know if optimizing is the right word, but how are you making sure that you're doing your role Well.

Bradley Hawkins (2): so what I see is my role is investing in other people that's actually my favorite thing. I have an event business, and so we, we do a few hundred weddings a year, for example.

And we have marketing teams, we have sales teams, we have set up crew. We've got wedding planners. We've got all of 'em. There's lots of people there. But there was one guy when I [00:39:00] bought the place, he was there as an event coordinator and he did that part-time while he was running a business and he was struggling in multiple areas of his life. Now I like doing this with a lot of different people, but I just started investing in him and showing him, you know what, that was absolutely amazing what you did. That is excellent. And that's something that I found works really well, is highlighting the things that they do really well.

In private conversations, pointing out things that they're not doing well. in public. I highlight everything that they do well and as I brought him up in the business, I would make sure everybody knew whenever he did something amazing.

I put him in some leadership roles. People would come to me, complain about things that he didn't do well, and I would look at that and make sure that it was true, and I would have a private conversation about that. But I wouldn't allow that conversation to go beyond that.

I would just. Keep investing in that person. Now [00:40:00] he is the general manager over all of our venues. He is probably one of the best employees I've ever had. And he has dedicated his world to making those companies profitable and equitable. Now have given him some ownership into the businesses.

And so that is one of the funnest things. And I've got another person that was struggling in some other parts of the world and just investing and seeing them as real people, realizing they are more than just being at the office all the time. If I see that they're exhausted, I'm like.

Go take a break. Go home enjoy your family whatever it is. Because when they know that I care about them as people and care about their entire world and not just the at work world they end up being much more loyal to the business than I could ever imagine. I will actually kick them outta the [00:41:00] building if they're there too much, because I want them to have just as much enjoyment with their family as they do working their job.

And so that's part of the things that I enjoy the most is investing in people, making sure that people are healthy. I have another business where I had a guy came in drunk to the office three different times. Every time he came in, I sent him home. Said, no, we're not doing this.

I got him in touch with AA. I did many different things to support him, cut his pay, because , I pay him according to what they do as opposed to or the value that they bring to the table. But he kept looking at me. He said, just fire me. And I said I'm not gonna fire you. You're part of the family here.

You're part of the team. You're struggling. You were fantastic for a while. You fell apart and we're gonna hang with you until you get back on your path. This is, I don't know, seven years later he's running an entire department. He tells me [00:42:00] all the time that I saved his life, which I don't believe is true but it's part of that real, realizing that everybody has a real life and.

If I'm gonna invest in those people, most people would just fire 'em and send 'em on down the road. And some people I might do that because they were not contributors in the beginning, but if I know that they can be contributors and they've invested in what we do and I can invest in them he ended up getting , an offer from another company that was twice what we were paying him.

And he told me he would never go anywhere else because this is family. I'm not saying that's the case for everybody, but as a leader of businesses, I have to look at people as who they are now and who they can be as opposed to what they're giving me right now, if that makes sense.

Priscilla (2): Yes. And that leads us really well into. What we wanted to talk about today, which is your book, unshakable Life, living, [00:43:00] A Life of Purpose, abundance, and Eternal Impact. A lot of times people have a hard time putting together, things of the kingdom, things of faith, and blending them with whether it's work or business with, the things we do to earn.

What is it that you want the reader to learn when they read this book?

Bradley Hawkins (2): So that book is an interesting book because it's about my life and I just sat here and told you all the good parts of it. And that has a pretty dark version of my life where I built this amazing business that grew into. Many businesses and I had a net worth far beyond what I ever imagined that I would have.

And one person in the network of businesses that I had did some very dishonest things. And it ended up being that the authorities couldn't separate what he did versus what I do because he worked in my company. It [00:44:00] wasn't part of my company. It was separate. It was a business that he had. But it took him two years of investigating to prove to themselves that I was not involved in that process.

And the gentleman that did that he ended up going to jail for 28 years but the problem was, is that they seized every penny that I had for two years. Well, if you can imagine running. Many businesses with no money. That's impossible. You can't do it. You gotta pay your employees, you gotta pay your providers, you gotta pay, for, at that particular case, I had to keep up with my patents.

I had to do all kinds of stuff, and everything fell apart. All the businesses failed. I ended up going from running multiple businesses to working in a body shop to feed my family. It was devastating and quite a disaster. And I looked at God and I said I do this business to, to please you.

I grow these [00:45:00] businesses to please you. You must hate my guts. You must hate me for everything that I am. And there was one particular circumstance where I had one asset that I was trying to sell that I could take that money and go start another business. And after working on it for several months, I thought I got it sold.

And driving back from that meeting they called me and they said, no, we're not doing it. And I just fell apart. I was in my car, banging on my steering wheel, yelling at God, saying, I am the worst person in the world. Why is it that you hate me so much that you would treat me this way? And I finally just broke down.

I made it home. And when I was in that spot a friend of mine asked me to join him to go to a marriage retreat for my wife and I, and at the time, my wife, she was just really depressed. She went from the same place where we had anything that we [00:46:00] needed to. We have nothing to do anything.

We ended up going to this retreat, and it wasn't really a marriage retreat, it was a retreat about a very successful business owner that was telling us how to abide in Jesus. And I thought, abide in Jesus. Seriously, that's what we're doing here. I'm trying to feed my family and you want me to go through John 15 saying that God says very clearly when you abide in me and I, you ask me anything in my name and I'll give it to you.

And I'm sitting in this room, in this large living room with several of the people and he's telling me these stories. And I just went through the experience of losing everything. And I'm telling you I was not happy camper. And so I told him, I said, I don't see it that way.

I don't believe that God will give me anything I ask for. Because I've been asking for things for many months now. And [00:47:00] I don't see anything. , It's a disaster. He said, you know what? God will speak to you, I promise you. And I'm like I don't believe it. I'm even struggling to believe that God exists.

One day he asked me if I would read the Bible in journal. I'm like, okay. So I'm on my patio and it was about six in the morning and I position myself where my body is blocking the sun in my Bible so I could read it. I started to read the Bible and.

Journaling I was gonna read it for about 20 minutes, and then I was gonna go mow, my yard , after I was done, I realized the sun was in my eyes and I couldn't see anything anymore. The sun went completely over my head and I was staring right at the sun. I was there the entire day and I don't remember anything about it.

And I went back to all the things that I wrote down in my journal, and he gave me answers to things that I didn't even [00:48:00] know I should be asking. It was just one of the most amazing experiences I've ever had in my life. And I realized, okay, God's answering me. He's given me a much greater example. And he was showing me that I have 80 to 90 years in this world.

Maybe I die before that. Maybe I don't. But I've got 80 to 90 years to live in this world, and that is all preparation for an eternity. And what I do in this world matters. What I do in this world makes a difference. God talks over 700 times about rewards. You do this and I'll reward you.

And that's not talking about salvation. Salvation is easy. You just believe and accept. But the rewards is a totally different thing, is that I want to live a life that blesses other people. That brings glory to my father for what it is that I do, but it also blesses other people in the way that they see [00:49:00] God.

And I live such a blessed life. And yes, God has blessed us with businesses he's blessed us with more money and not as much as I had before, but more than I've ever needed. But the more important thing is that. I'm living a life now with an eternal purpose and with an eternal purpose. I can choose to bless others in a way that is different than I've ever done it before, before I was just trying to accomplish and be successful.

Today I look at it to say, accomplishing and being successful is just what we do. And I get to choose to bring other people into that role all the time. But the beauty of it is that God can show me step by step. He says that He's the light to my feet in Psalms, he says, I'm the light to your feet, not the spotlight down the path.

He's not telling me, oh, here's what you do. Five years in advance he's saying, no, here's what you do today. [00:50:00]And if I do my day to day in a way that's pleasing to him according to what I see in my time in the Bible. And talking to him and praying and asking for blessings and whatever it is that we do that is the step by step that we're talking about.

And that's what the book is all about, is to say, how do we walk through a disaster? Forgive. 'cause man, I was, I wanted to kill people. I wanted to destroy people's lives, and he was able to help me forgive in a way that I've never imagined. And how do you forgive and then choose to bless some of the people that tried to destroy me.

And there's quite a story in that book. It just describes the greediness of people and the advantages that people took when I was down and out and the blessings that he's given me to bless those people even in disastrous times. So anyway, that's what the book's about.

It's a lot of fun to see how. God blesses me and [00:51:00] God blesses all others like you. He chooses to invest in those lives that invest in him. And that's what is a lot of fun to me.

Priscilla (2): Thank you so much for sharing your story. I can see so many people navigating the realities of being in the business world, dealing with other people's greed, dealing with being taken advantage of , so a lot of people say, oh, I don't wanna be in business because , I don't wanna, get into that world where people can be that way.

So I'm grateful that you've written a book that. Shows what happens on the other side and the focus on eternal impact. So thank you so much for doing that. Uh, the book, I'll repeat it again, is called Unshakable Life Living, A Life of Purpose, abundance, and Eternal Impact. Thank you so much for that, Brad.

To just finish off if I could just give you a rapid fire, a few questions and you just tell me what comes top of mind.

Bradley Hawkins (2): Sure.

Priscilla (2): What's the one belief that you have to delete to become a better leader? [00:52:00] To get rid of?

Bradley Hawkins (2): That I have all the answers,

Priscilla (2): What's the one boundary that you use to protect your faith, your family, your marriage as you navigate your business life?

Bradley Hawkins (2): That I will always have time to listen to somebody else. 

Oh, go ahead.

is rapid fire. 

Priscilla (2): No. I love when Rapid fire goes into long answer 'cause I know it's something good. It is too good. So let me know.

Bradley Hawkins (2): I just say that because I spend a lot of times thinking that I had all the answers and that it was my job to come up with the solutions. For example, my wife she had a lot more answers than I ever gave her credit for. And my job is to keep talking, stay curious, and listen to others.

Priscilla (2): I love that. What do you wish someone would've told you about building a great business when you started at the beginning?

Bradley Hawkins (2): there is absolutely no formula. There's no direction. You can't order a business in a box and follow the directions , and have it be successful. You gotta be nimble and quick and [00:53:00] see where your problems are and make the adjustments.

Priscilla (2): Now I'm gonna add one that wasn't here. What do you think is the ingredient for making yourself nimble and quick? 

Bradley Hawkins (2): Surrender. So in, in my mind, in my world I have to surrender myself to the wisdom that God has. And if I think I'm coming up with the wisdom, I am so wrong. God is the one with the wisdom, God's one, with the answers. And yes, he can give it to me. And yes, I get to carry the ball with it, but I'm surrendering to what he has to say.

And sometimes he uses smart people around me. Sometimes he uses people like you. Sometimes he uses some of my employees sometimes he uses the word that's just sitting right there on my desk every single day. And the journey that I have is that I've got my little abiding station right here.

I spend time in the morning, every single morning before I start. Work and I have two or three other offices that I work from, but I don't leave this office until I have finished my time with him, and then I go get in [00:54:00] my other offices and do what I have to do.

Priscilla (2): you get anchored. And you get nimble. Thank you for that. What's the one security habit that every founder can install this month in terms of cybersecurity?

Bradley Hawkins (2): I would say don't ever use any device that connects to the internet without a VPN. I think that is probably one of the most critical and most important pieces of cybersecurity that very few people use or even understand.

Priscilla (2): Brad, what do you do when you're overwhelmed?

Bradley Hawkins (2): The first thing I will do is and understand to me, there's different levels of being overwhelmed. If I am minorly overwhelmed I'll just sit and read the word and even thank God for the things that he's blessed us with. If I'm in a major level of overwhelmed where I feel like things are falling apart or whatever the case is, if I just sit one of my favorite places is going to my back patio or someplace where I'm alone.

[00:55:00] And I just sit and I just start thanking God for everything he's blessed us with. And then I just sit quiet and hear what he has to say. And there is some God energy that comes through your bible, that through your body that I don't know how to explain. But it just brings peace.

'cause in Romans, God says the kingdom of God. And we think about this all the time but the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy. And if I accept his righteousness as a gift, because I can't be righteous, if I accept his righteousness, his gift that comes along behind it is peace and joy.

And that's really the life that I believe every person on the planet is looking for. And they look for it with money. They look for relationships, they look for it all. But God says, I will give it to you. And when he gives you peace and joy, there's nothing greater. And so if I go sit at my fire pit on my back patio I'm just thanking God for everything [00:56:00]and soaking in the peace and the joy that he gives me.

Priscilla (2): That's wonderful. What's that worth? You can't quantify that. Righteousness, peace and joy. Thank you so much Bradley Hawkins. Please let me know if you're active online. If people wanted to know more, where can they go?

Bradley Hawkins (2): yeah, there's , a website called Unshakeable Life you can go to and, there's an email there if somebody wants to chat with me, and I'll try to encourage them if they would like that. But, the objective of the goal that I have is to say, how do we encourage people to live an unshakeable life?

And that's the journey in that book is spend time with the Lord, live in that peace and joy, and see where God takes us in that tiny little 90 years that we have here on this earth in preparation for eternity. That's far more than we can ever imagine.

Priscilla (2): Yeah. Wise words. Thank you so much. I've enjoyed this conversation. I think for the founders that are listening, there's so much to take away from this and I think the book [00:57:00] something that was really gonna impact a lot of people. Thank you for. Sharing that personal story, and helping other people and being faithful with the message that God has given you.

Thank you, Bradley Hawkins.

Bradley Hawkins (2): Thank you very much. I love being on your podcast, so thank you.

Priscilla (2): Thank you.