Mastering Mindset: From Basketball Pro To Business Guru | Dre Baldwin

Discover the transformative power of mindset with Dre Baldwin, CEO of Work On Your Game, as he joins us to reveal the pivotal role it plays in driving small business success. This episode promises to dismantle the common misconceptions about the barriers to achievement, shedding light on why resources sometimes take a backseat to a resilient and growth-oriented mentality. Our conversation with Dre isn't just a deep dive—it's a journey through the mental game of top athletes and successful entrepreneurs alike, unpacking the skills and mindset shifts necessary to thrive in both arenas.

Embark on an unexpected path from the basketball court to the boardroom as I share my personal evolution from athlete to entrepreneur, spurred by the impermanence of a sports career and an early foray into YouTube. We dissect the challenges that come with this transition, emphasizing the significance of embracing change and leveraging a forward-thinking mindset to unlock new opportunities. Dre and I engage in a candid discussion about the strategic pivot points in life and business, and the crucial role of self-awareness in making those game-changing decisions.

Wrapping up, we get personal with Dre, uncovering his strategies for building trust and rapport with his audience through platforms like Instagram. Authenticity and value emerge as the cornerstones of a robust online presence, and Dre's insights serve as a guide for anyone looking to establish or enhance their personal brand. Tune in for an episode that not only equips you with the mental tools for success but also inspires you to redefine your professional game plan and chart a course toward your true business potential.

Dre Baldwin: Work On Your Game
Website - https://www.dreallday.com/
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/dreallday/
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/dreupt
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/drebaldwin
Podcast - https://www.workonyourgamepodcast.com/real-conversation-so-you-can-sharpen-your-game-avoid-sugarcoated-motivational-bullshit-that-feels-good-but-doesn-t-actually-help-you

Book Mentions:
Rich Dad Poor Dad - by Robert Kiyosaki and Sharon Lechter
Think & Grow Rich - by Napoleon Hill


#MindsetMastery #SmallBusinessSuccess #EntrepreneurMindset #AthleteEntrepreneur #SuccessStrategies #PersonalEvolution #EmbracingChange #ForwardThinking #SelfAwareness #StrategicPivot #BuildingTrust #OnlinePresence #PersonalBrand #ProfessionalDevelopment #DreAllDay #DreBaldwin #WorkOnYourGame #Mentorship #BusinessGrowth #SmallBusinessOwners #SmallBusinessPivots #SmallBusinessSuccess #Success #Podcast #SmallBusiness #SmallBusinessOwner #EntrepreneurMindset #BusinessOwnershipSimplified #BOSS #LikeaBoss #BossUp #MichaelDMorrison #BusinessWisdom #BusinessGrowth #Think&GrowRich #RichDadPoorDad

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

As a coach and I'm sure you notice also as a coach, michael is that a lot of times people come to me or us and they think that their problems are A, b and C, and perhaps they are. However, until they address D, e and F, which they were not even aware of, we're never going to solve A, B and C.

Speaker 2: 0:17

Welcome to Small Business Pivots, a podcast designed for small business owners, designed for small business owners. I'm your host, michael Morrison, a small business coach and founder of Boss, where we make business ownership simplified for success so that you can create a business that works without you. To learn more, go to businessownershipsimplifiedcom and be sure to hang out at the end of this episode for my recap and coach's corner, where I challenge you to take one action on one thing that will move the needle in your business. Our guest today is Dre Baldwin. As CEO and founder of Work On your Game, dre has given four TEDx talks on discipline, confidence, mental toughness and personal initiative initiative and has authored 33 books. He has appeared in national campaigns with Nike, finish Line, wendy's, gatorade, buick, wilson Sports, stash Investments and Dime Magazine.

Speaker 2: 1:15

Dre has published over 8,000 videos to 141,000 plus subscribers, his content being consumed over 100 million times. To date, dre's daily work on your game podcast masterclass has over 2,400 episodes and more than 5 million downloads. Dre went from the end of his high school team's bench to the first contract of a nine-year professional basketball career. He has played in eight countries, including Lithuania basketball career. He has played in eight countries, including Lithuania, germany, montenegro. Dre invented his work on your game framework to help entrepreneurs build their mindset, strategy and systems. A Philadelphia native, dre lives in Miami. Let's get to Dre now to learn the mindset, strategy and systems you need to know to build a bulletproof mindset and a seven-figure business.

Speaker 3: 2:06

All right, welcome to another Small Business, pivots. We have a special guest from around the world. How are you today, sir?

Speaker 1: 2:13

I'm doing excellent, Michael.

Speaker 3: 2:14

How are you? I'm doing fantastic. Since you can say your name better than anybody else, I'm going to let you introduce yourself and your company.

Speaker 1: 2:23

Sure, my name is Dre Baldwin. Many know me as Dre. All day, I have this company's brand and framework called Working With your Game, where essentially what we do, michael, is pretty simple we take the tools to help athletes get to the top 1% of the sports world and we translate those tools over to the business world to help professionals perform at their highest level, do so consistently and, of course, make more money.

Speaker 3: 2:49

Oh, absolutely. I think you just got everybody's ears perked there when you said more money. So let's get started. Our purpose is to help small business owners. Most of them are stuck or they want a business that runs without them and they just can't get over those, whatever that mindset hump is, and you kind of talk about the game. So well, let's just jump right in. So a lot of small business owners. We have mindset issues. So we had trials, tribulations growing up. Sometimes some athletes like you were they can overcome those and others they can't. They get stuck in their own head. So what would you share with those type of business owners.

Speaker 1: 3:24

The most important thing is. Mindset is the foundation of what we do here at work on your game and being in my background as an athlete, the first thing I was doing online was talking to mostly athletes. I was just putting out content that was related to playing basketball technical stuff, tactical stuff like dribbling and shooting. But the players started asking questions about mindset because they were realizing that, even though I was teaching them the skills, that if they didn't have the mindset, they wouldn't be able to apply the skills when it was necessary. So when they started asking about mindset, that's when I started talking about those mindset things and through doing that, people who didn't play sports Michael started finding my material, the mindset stuff, and they would tell me Dre, the stuff that you're saying about mindset, even though you are making it for the athlete, it applies to me and others who don't play sports.

Speaker 1: 4:11

So that's how I realized that the same mental tools that we need to succeed on the court or the field or the track are the same things that we need in the boardroom and in the business and in the office. So that mindset piece is the biggest piece of anything anyone does and this is why many business people, whether you join a network marketing company, you're selling insurance you go sign up to, you get a job working for someone's Fortune 500 organization every one of them who is successful. There is some piece of what they do that involves mindset, because if you don't have the right mentality, you don't have the fertile soil in which to plant the seeds of the skills, then the skills are never going to show themselves the way they need to. So that mindset piece is the foundation of, I believe, all success and all failure in any endeavor that human beings partake in.

Speaker 3: 5:02

So what would you say, as far as the mindset goes, that separates the achievers like yourself in the sports world for those that are just kind of average? Is it mindset, skill set? What would you say? The percentages of both? Just so we have an idea.

Speaker 1: 5:16

The answer to that is the difference is well, first of all, the percentages. I would say about 90% mindset, even though most people might think and if you ask most people who feel like they are stuck right now or they feel like there's something that's missing from their arsenal right now, if you ask most people, almost everyone's going to flip it around 90% of people are going to say well, I just don't have the information, I don't have the tools, I don't know the right people, I don't have the resources, I don't have the money, I don't have the tools, I don't know the right people, I don't have the resources, I don't have the money, I don't have the time. Most people default to saying that they are missing some type of tangible resource, and they may not be lying. Maybe they don't have the resource, maybe. I mean, if you don't have the money, you don't have the money. I mean you can count right.

Speaker 1: 5:58

But the mindset, when you have the right mentality, it puts you in a different energy state. In a different energy state, you can find the resourcefulness to overcome a lack of tangible resources. The challenge for a lot of people is that they don't understand that the order of operations for achieving anything in life is being first, that's the energy, then you do things, then you have the outcome. Most people only focus on the things that they do or the things that they have. They never even pay attention, they're not even aware of the mindset piece, and this is how many people end up coming up short when it comes to producing outcomes.

Speaker 3: 6:34

So I grew up as a introvert. I was kidnapped by my biological father by gunpoint, kind of grew up as an introvert. I was always the one challenged in school, things like that. I had to work a lot of years to overcome that. How does one that hasn't overcome that? Where would you say they should start with that mindset, because I know it's huge.

Speaker 1: 6:56

I studied a lot of neuroscience just to get through my situation, where someone should start is first of all just understanding foundationally that be, do and have, so that we got to break the false beliefs. We got to break the ideas that people have shown up with, especially if we're talking to adults, because that means they have 20, 30, 50 years of thinking. One way we got to break the false beliefs so that we can create a vacuum in which we can insert the new beliefs. So that's the starting point is helping you understand that the things that you have believed up to this point may be the very things getting in your way. So once we get that out of the way, then we have space to insert the new stuff. And it starts with just understanding the foundations of how mindset works and how mindset leads to actions and how actions lead to outcomes. And there I would start with helping people understand the subconscious mind, because the subconscious mind controls most of our activities, most of our behaviors, most of our habits, whereas most people are only consciously aware of our conscious level of thinking, which is people listening to us talk.

Speaker 1: 7:55

Right now You're consciously processing what you're hearing, but the subconscious controls everything. The subconscious is altered only in two possible ways. One is by emotionalization of thoughts and feelings and also by repetition. So in other words, if we were to break that down, people need to understand that just hearing something one time is not enough to change you most of the time. And let's say it is a strong emotional experience that's similar to what you just said, that you get kidnapped at gunpoint. That's a strong enough emotional experience. You don't need to have it happen once. But for other things, let's say something that someone hears on this show right here may not be emotionalized enough that it's going to change your whole life just because you heard me say it or you heard Michael say it one time. So you would need to hear this kind of stuff over and over again to where it becomes habit. Same way that an athlete practices the same move over and over again to where they do it without having to think about it.

Speaker 3: 8:44

Tell us about your career. You've had a very successful career in the sports world. Tell us a little bit about that Sure.

Speaker 1: 8:50

So my sport was basketball. I didn't start playing until I was age 14. I played all kinds of sports but didn't really get into basketball until age 14. Only one year of high school basketball Walked on to play college basketball at the Division III level. So those of you who are only casually familiar with sports, the athletes you see on TV in college are Division I and I was down at the third tier of that Division III, down in the basement. So that level doesn't really produce professional athletes and most of the players who play at that level aren't even thinking about playing professionally. They don't have the ambition to do so.

Speaker 1: 9:23

So getting out of college, even though I had had played, nobody was knocking on my door and asking me to come play pro basketball. Because I mean, again, you're coming from a d3 level and even the guys you played against, even if you did great, you're playing against people who aren't pro level caliber. So I had to basically market and sell myself to get an opportunity to play pro basketball, which is usually it's the opposite of how most pro athletes get into the game. Most pro athletes, because they've shown so much potential at the amateur level, they have a bunch of opportunities at the pro level and they get to basically pick and choose which opportunity are they going to accept, whereas me, nobody was offering me an opportunity. I had to go create an opportunity out of nothing. So I had to basically use the same marketing and sales skills that I use to this day. I had to use them just to get my chance in basketball.

Speaker 1: 10:09

So once I did get my chance, I started playing ball in 2005 professionally. That began a nine-year career where I traveled through eight different countries playing professionally and at the same time I started putting. I mentioned being online. I started putting videos on YouTube that same year, 2005. And this is how I started to build a business. It wasn't a business then, but I started to build a name for myself online about five years into that, around 2009, 2010. That's when I started to make it into a business.

Speaker 1: 10:36

And I bring that up because more people someone sees me in the mall today and they know me is usually from YouTube, not from the fact that I was a professional athlete for almost 10 years. So it's funny that it kind of works out that way. People know me more from the stuff that I did in the gym, the empty gym down the street than they know me from actually traveling the world and getting paid to play a sport. So that was my basketball career and during that time that's when I started about halfway through I started talking about the mindset pieces of sports, and that piece, that mindset piece was my segue from having an audience of just athletes to an audience of also entrepreneurs and professionals, and then I dropped the basketball part and now we're here. That's what I've been doing for the last almost 10 years since I stopped playing in 2015. So a little bit about your business.

Speaker 3: 11:21

Let's go back to the days that you kind of realized that, hey, I have something that helps people. What are some challenges that you had, some pivots that you made, I'd say shifts, iterations, things like that that you learned along the way, because I know we all have them as a business owner.

Speaker 1: 11:38

Yeah, well, the biggest one was, first of all, just coming from being an athlete to being an entrepreneur. I had to understand how does entrepreneurship actually work? So, going back in the story, just to give context here, why was I even thinking about this? Because anyone. Uh, michael, are you a big sports fan? I am Okay. So what's your sport? Your sport of choice.

Speaker 3: 11:59

All of them Because I wasn't good at any of them. So I just like I appreciate all athletes.

Speaker 1: 12:04

Okay, the Oklahoma city team. I appreciate all athletes. Okay, oklahoma city team is pretty good this year.

Speaker 3: 12:07

Thunder.

Speaker 1: 12:08

Absolutely yeah, no, I agree, okay. So in sports, a lot of times athletes, the natural progression is you play and then when you stop playing, you either become a coach or a trainer or, if you are really well-known, you may become an analyst. Not everybody can do that, but any athlete can go from being a player to being a coach because there's plenty of jobs for coaching and trainers. So most of the players who I played with these days do some form of coaching or training. So there's just a natural progression.

Speaker 1: 12:37

But I always saw myself as doing something outside of the sports world, and the reason for that is twofold. Number one, I played at the division three level, which meant there was no guarantee that there was a next level after college for me, that I had to make that happen. That wasn't something that came to me. And number two, when I was in college, I responded to this bulletin board I had on my campus that offered it dangled the opportunity of making extra money in the summertime and this is back before college. Athletes could make money off of their name, image and likeness. This is when, basically, being a collegiate athlete meant you had two jobs you were a full-time student and you played a sport and you couldn't make money. So this is a bad combination when it comes to finances. All right, so I responded to that ad and it turns out that this random person was doing network marketing.

Speaker 1: 13:21

Now, I didn't build a career in network marketing, but I did go to a few of the meetings. I dabbled in it and at those meetings the speakers on the stage were doing exactly what we just talked about a minute ago, michael. They were breaking a lot of my false beliefs and everyone else in the audience, breaking our false beliefs about money, about here's the way you figure. The only way you can make money is you go to school, get whatever. You get your degree, your diploma, you go get a job and you live happily ever after. Hopefully, you have enough money to pay the bills.

Speaker 1: 13:48

And what the speaker was doing was breaking those false beliefs and helping everyone understand like there's another way to make money. You don't have to use yourself as your only asset and, long story short, he introduced me to his personal development, which I didn't know was a thing at the time, and they explained if you're going to build a business, you have to build yourself. At the same time. It kind of ties into what we talked about a few minutes ago and he also said well, there's some books about entrepreneurship and business and money that you should read. And this was all about just laying the foundation to help these people who had these old beliefs about making money, work 40 hours a week for 40 years and then retire on 40%.

Speaker 1: 14:21

And he was helping them understand that you have to have a different mindset if you want to be an entrepreneur, because any of you have been to a network marketing meeting I'm sure you've been to at least one, michael, oh, yeah, okay. So when you go to those meetings, half the people in the room are already in the business and half of them are guests, right, and he was explaining to the people who were already in the business and those who were about to join. If you're going to build a business, you have to change your mentality. We can't you can't build this business with the same mentality that you've had for the last 20, 30, 40 years. Now I was maybe 21 years of age, but there are people in there twice my age, right, and they were just being introduced to this concept. So you have to undo that lifetime of thinking in order to do something different. So again, it ties right into what you asked me about earlier. So anyway, one of those books was Rich Dad, poor Dad, by Robert Kiyosaki.

Speaker 3: 15:07

That's a good one.

Speaker 1: 15:08

Yes, absolutely. Now I could not afford to buy the book at the table outside of the hotel room because I was a broke college student. But what I did was I remembered the book and I went on eBay. This is back before Amazon was the place to get books. I went on eBay and I bought a pirated copy of the book. It was 99 cents and it was a Word document. So I bought that, and I've also bought Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, so I basically got the mindset piece and I got the business piece.

Speaker 1: 15:35

And in Rich Dad Poor Dad, robert Kiyosaki basically expounded on what I'd heard in that network marketing meeting, which is you can't, or he didn't say you can't. He said rich people don't use themselves as their only asset. And anyone who's read the book Rich Dad Poor Dad, as I'm sure most of your listeners have if they haven't, they should go get it. He juxtaposed his real dad, his biological father and his best friend's dad. And his biological father had education degree, but his only asset was himself and he ended up not always having money More month at the end of the money, as they say. And then his best friend's dad his quote unquote rich dad was like a high school dropout and middle school dropout, but he owned businesses and his businesses were assets. And, long story short, the rich dad owned vehicles that put money in his pocket without him having to be the only one doing the work, whereas his poor dad, the only asset he had, was himself and when the job ran out, he ended up in bad situations financially. So that seed was in my head in 2002.

Speaker 1: 16:34

Now I started playing pro ball in 2005. So when I read that book, I'm like well, here's the thing I said to myself okay, I know I want to play basketball after college. I graduated college in 2004. So I said I don't want to play basketball after college. However, I know basketball doesn't last forever. Most athletes how long is an athletic career? If you play 10 years, that's amazing, right? Most athletic careers are three, four, five years long. That's it. So I said I know this doesn't last forever. So, however long I play, I know by age 40, I'm going to be doing something else with my life. I'm going to do. I don't know exactly what I'm going to do with this, but I'm going to do something like what this guy's talking about. I'm referring to Robert Kiyosaki. So I already had that in the back of my mind.

Speaker 1: 17:17

So when I found myself a free agent in sports because my career wasn't just always going perfectly I was a free agent in basketball about halfway into my career that's when I started thinking about again what Kiyosaki has said in his book and figuring out well, how can I create some assets? Because I had an audience online of people following me on YouTube, which wasn't really an asset because it wasn't putting money in my pocket by definition. But then Google bought YouTube. So then Google said well, if you have popular videos, you can monetize them through ad revenue. So it became an asset.

Speaker 1: 17:45

And then I started creating my own products and when I sold my first product, it was a $4.99 training program for basketball players, one for dribbling, one for shooting. So I had two programs, $4.99 a piece, and they started selling as soon as I put them out, because I had spent five years building up goodwill of no like and trust with my audience without offering them anything, know like and trust with my audience without offering them anything. So when I finally started selling something, they immediately were willing to buy it and when I made my first sales I said I'll do this for the rest of my life. I know I can't play basketball forever. I want to keep playing while I can, but I know I can't play forever. But what I had done was I created what I now know to be intellectual property. I had taken an idea out of my head, turned it into something tangible, put a price tag on it, offered it to the marketplace and people were willing to give me money for it. I said I could do that forever because I have more than two ideas. I had two programs.

Speaker 1: 18:33

At the time I said I got a thousand ideas. Why don't I make a thousand products and just keep putting them out? And that's how I knew what I was going to be doing moving forward, and that was part of the segue into being a business person. Because I figured, hey, even well, I didn't know this at the time, I can say it now. But let's say that that mindset stuff that I started talking about to athletes, let's say only athletes liked it. Let's say business people never liked it and we wouldn't be having this conversation today. But let's just say only athletes liked it. I still could have removed myself from the playing, coaching, training realm, not going to just been the basketball mindset guy, all right, and I could just make a bunch of products about that, but I would still be doing the same thing creating assets that put money in my pocket without me personally having to do all the work.

Speaker 1: 19:14

So when I heard, uh, robert Kiyosaki say that, I said this makes perfect sense Is one thing I said. Second thing I said was I'm going to do that. I don't know how, but I'm going to. And the third thing was I have a four-year business degree and my major was literally in business. And when I was at that network marketing meeting, michael, and when I read Robert Kiyosaki, I said why are my college professors not telling me any of this stuff? I couldn't understand it then. I understand it now, but back then I couldn't understand why this was not being taught. And I went to college four years, went to all the classes, graduated. They never talked about any of that stuff. So I don't even remember what your question was, but this is where it began.

Speaker 3: 19:55

Well, you had me so in tune. My ears were alert so you answered. You went down the path and answered a lot of that in a roundabout way. So you're listening to.

Speaker 2: 20:04

Small Business Pivots. This podcast is sponsored by Boss, where business ownership is simplified for success. Boss helps business owners create a business that runs without them, with business consulting, business loans and much, much more. Go to businessownershipsimplifiedcom to learn why small business success starts with Boss. If you're enjoying the podcast and want to stay up to date with all of our episodes, make sure to hit that subscribe button. Give us a thumbs up or leave a positive review. Let's get back to our guest.

Speaker 3: 20:35

I know for a lot of business owners and I'll give you a minute to think about it if you need. But I know a lot of business owners we hear this word persevere, resilient, especially in the sports world. Our team does this art. But there comes a point where you can be so confident in yourself, mindset wise, but it's just not going to happen. For instance, I, I, I enjoy golf, I enjoyed basketball, but I'm only five, seven, I came to the realization that's not going anywhere. I love playing it, football, all those sports but there comes a realization where this may not be the right path for you.

Speaker 3: 21:12

So that perseverance, that resilience, keep going, keep plucking, because we hear that all the time. Is there something that you can distinguish in your mind that says you know what? Maybe you need to transition, kind of like you did, for instance, like I'm not going to, for instance, like I'm not going to play basketball forever, so I'm going to go over here Some people would have heard these words and just kept going, like I'm going to be in the basketball forever and I'm going to be the next King James and all this stuff. But there comes a point where it's just not going to happen. Do you have any suggestions or thoughts on that?

Speaker 1: 21:45

If you don't, Do you have any suggestions or thoughts on that? If you don't, no, I absolutely do. And it's an important distinction because where I come from, especially when talking about young black males, a lot of us grow up thinking that we're going to become athletes or rappers, and that's an unfortunate state of the culture. But that's a real thing. And, being that I was a young black male who made it as an athlete, I would hear from a lot of males of all races and nationalities who wanted to become basketball players, because they see that on TV, you see it on the internet and it's all shiny and glossy and everyone says, well, this is going to be my vehicle, I'm going to do it. The challenge with it is, unlike entrepreneurship, there is a finite number of jobs in the sports world. Not everybody can make it, literally. Not everyone can make it. Everyone could be an entrepreneur technically. Not everyone can be an athlete because there's a limit to the number of people on the roster. So I had to tell a lot of young males listen. You all had to look at the situation in front of you and ask yourself if this actually makes sense. Do you have a chance? And you said you're 5'7". And I would say to some young men hey, if you're 5'7", there's a pretty good chance you're not going to make it as a professional athlete, playing basketball, maybe wrestling, maybe tennis, but basketball probably not, because basketball is a game of height. You got to be tall to make it in basketball and the four or five people you can name who are under six feet, who made it, are the exceptions that prove the rule, and I would tell them that and I would get a lot of negative response from people. But but for telling them that truth, but it is the truth. So, when it comes to knowing when to walk away from things because I remember watching the tv show you ever seen the show the wire? That was on hbo. Very little, but I recall it, yes, okay.

Speaker 1: 23:27

So once the guy was, these guys were basically being tracked down by the detectives in town for drug dealing and they were about to leave the country because they need to get out of there, because the detectives were hot on their tails. And these two partners and one guy says well, you want to leave all these. We got all these drugs on the street. We need to collect the money. You wanted to leave the country without collecting money. And the other partner says to him well, look, uh, sheep walk in the slaughterhouses. A wise man knows when to walk away and they got on the plane, they got out of there, right. So you have to know when to walk away. And I tell people.

Speaker 1: 23:58

Number one do you still see the vision in your mind? If you can still see the vision in your mind that you can make it in a thing because listen, my basketball career was not some yellow brick road If you can still see the vision in your mind, then maybe you should keep going. I look at it as a combination lot. You need to hit all three numbers. So, number one do you still see the vision in your mind? Number two when you have a bad day or a challenging day, are you still excited to show up the next day and keep doing the work? And number three do you have any? Are you seeing any, any positive indicators, any indicators along the way that are telling you that you're actually on the right track? Do you have something that you can tangibly and logically look at it and objectively look at it, or you could even show it to somebody else that says, hey, look at these indicators, it looks like I'm getting warmer. I'm getting closer to the outcome that I want to get to. If you have all three, then you can keep going. If you don't have all three, then you probably need to find something else to do.

Speaker 1: 24:53

And the good news about finding something else to do, especially in the world that we're in today, michael, is that there are plenty of opportunities Now. Back in my parents' days, you didn't have as many opportunities as we have today. Back then, my mother and father couldn't just start a business from their computer with no money. You couldn't do that. It was impossible. But now you can do it. You don't need any money. You can start a business, start making money, without investing a dime. You couldn't do that in 1980. So there are plenty of more opportunities now than there were back then, which means that when you walk away from one thing, you don't have to go that far away from it to find another opportunity. So you don't have to make it to the NBA.

Speaker 1: 25:32

You could be a YouTuber and make more money doing YouTube than you would have made playing pro ball, at least as far as you would have gotten right, depending on what you're doing and how you're doing it. So that's the great thing about you can be an educator, for example. You don't have to get a master's degree and work at a college. You can teach people through your YouTube channel or your webinars and make six figures a year doing webinars, teaching people a subject. You can be a tutor. You can tutor kids on math and don't have to work at a school. Right, and you couldn't do that in 1995. You couldn't just do that without putting money in and without knowing a lot of people who know a lot of technical stuff that you didn't know. So the great thing is, you do need to be wise enough to know when to walk away. The good news is you don't have to walk that far to still stay a tangential to the thing that you want to do, but finding another way to do it.

Speaker 1: 26:21

And this goes right with what I previous answer, when I was talking about how I started selling my $4.99 training programs. Mind you, at the time, michael, I was a free agent in basketball. When you're a free agent playing a sport, there's no guarantee the phone's going to ring again. I had no idea if the phone would ring again. Luckily it did, but the reason I was looking for something else was just in case it doesn't. And when I started selling those programs, I said, okay, the phone never rings again, I'm just going to go all in on this Now. Luckily, the phone rang again, but I still kept doing that thing kind of on the side, so I kind of had two jobs going at the same time.

Speaker 1: 26:53

Point being, I had the opportunity to do it. I could do that in 2010. I can make training programs selling the basketball players and make money from basketball on the internet, and I was completely in control and I didn't need to go get hired by anybody. I didn't need to be approved of by anyone. So the whole point being, anyone can do this in your particular space these days because the internet, basically, has brought down all the gates, all the uh high walls that block people from getting in. The gatekeepers are not as relevant as they used to be and anyone can pretty much do their thing and find a way to make a living from it.

Speaker 1: 27:30

Even I remember 2006, I was working at a corporate gym and there was a couple managers who worked there who were artists. Their background was in art and they would say well, the reason I'm working here is because I love art, but there's no money in art and I can't make money doing art. But nowadays you can make money doing art. You can get on Etsy, you can sell your art. There's art. There's a company called Masterworks that I've invested in some art with them, that you can just invest in art, and now artists are selling paintings for millions of dollars. I've never even heard of these people, but it's making money. So it's so many avenues to do the thing that you want to do and make money from it. You still got to have some skills, but the opportunities are there. That's the whole point.

Speaker 3: 28:09

For those that are younger than myself I'm in my mid fifties but for those that are younger, you are a hundred percent correct. The playing field was not level. Only corporate America had tools to these internet. It wasn't even really the internet, but similar to the internet. Back then, the rest of us couldn't afford it. Today, we're all using the same tools. If we use HubSpot, if we're using Hootsuite, so are the big corporations. We all have access to the same tools, and I love what you said. I hadn't thought about this either. If you love basketball, like myself, if I truly had a passion for it, there's other opportunities. I don't have to be on the court to be an entrepreneur in the basketball world. I love small business owners and that's why I'm a business coach, because I'm just passionate about small business success. I think we have more to offer than corporate does, in my opinion. But those are all great points and, yes, you did answer my questions with those students. Going back to your question to me.

Speaker 3: 29:17

So if one were to work with you, what does that look like?

Speaker 1: 29:21

Well. Over here our program is called Work On your Game University. That's where we house all our coaching consulting. Over here, our program is called Work On your Game University. That's where we house all our coaching, consulting, speaking programs, et cetera. And we have a four-part framework. Of course, mindset is the first piece of it. That's just laying the foundation, building the underneath the ground foundation. There's a lot of high-rise buildings here.

Speaker 1: 29:39

In Miami You're going to build a 60-story tower. The most important part is not the penthouse, it is the foundation. The part is underground that you can't see. That's the mindset. Second part is the strategy. Strategy is simply a plan of action. What are we going to do? Who, what, when, where, why, how, how are we going to get these things done? Usually, most people are so focused on strategy they don't notice other pieces. But this is the next piece, but the mindset part comes first. So that's the strategy. We're going to figure out what to do. We're going to deconstruct from your goal. We're going to build basically what I call a roadmap in reverse for getting to your goal from where we are today.

Speaker 1: 30:11

The third part is the system. How can we make sure that your strategy gets executed upon in a duplicatable, consistent and predictable way so we know what's going to happen. Similar to how, if you went to McDonald's over there in Oklahoma City and I went to McDonald's here in Miami, we ordered the same thing. They look exactly the same, taste exactly the same, because they have a great system, not because they have geniuses working the fry machine or good food Exactly. I'm just kidding. No, they don't have good. I used to work at McDonald's so I know. So it's the food is not the thing, it's not the systems, it's the systems. It's the system, exactly System's. So good, me and you could work there and look like veterans by the end of the day, absolutely.

Speaker 1: 30:47

And the last part is the accountability. And this is one thing I know. You as a business coach, you probably have people come to you and say, hey, well, I just need somebody to hold me accountable. I kind of know what I need to do, I'm just not doing it. So who can hold me accountable? Who can make sure that I'm doing the stuff that I'm supposed to do? And there's a certain percentage of people who are that type that when they know they're being held accountable, they get more done. And then there are other people who say accountability but they actually need a whole bunch of other things that they may not, may not even realize that they need. And we deconstruct that and figure that out too. So accountability is not just for the people make sure the person is doing their job but also we've, for example, the ad might be working last week but it's not working this week, so we got to change things up. So those are four parts mindset, strategy, systems and accountability.

Speaker 3: 31:30

And where would they go to find information on how to invest in your programs?

Speaker 1: 31:36

Just work on your game, universitycom. So what you would do is, you see, you can see that laid out, everything I talked about and more and then you would schedule a time to get on a call with me or one of our people and we feel like we can help you, we feel like you'd be a fit.

Speaker 3: 31:51

Then we tell you how it works and how it looks. Well. I appreciate you deep diving into all this because I found just from our guests that I would say more than half of the pivots successful business owners have made that's been on this show, they were not business related, it was mindset, it was overcoming something, it was changing something, it was replacing a bad vice with a good one, similar things to what you're talking about. It wasn't always the skill set. So I appreciate you sharing all this because it's it's valuable tools. If you had a room of small business owners in front of you right now, again I'll give you a minute. If you had a room of small business owners in front of you right now, again I'll give you a minute. If you need to think about it, what is the one advice or tip that you would give all of them that you have found to kind of be a general rule?

Speaker 1: 32:35

Everybody has a game, no matter what your business is. So I've worked in our space. I've worked with a lot of people who come from places that I've never even been. So the funny thing about our programs is that most of our members are not former athletes who transitioned into entrepreneurship. They are brick and mortar business owners, people who sell clothes, people who do alterations, people who work in finance. I've never been in any of these spaces. They come to our space because my superpower, michael, is my ability to break things down, simplify and basically take a complex situation and make it easy to understand. That's my number one skill. So the answer is everybody has a game, no matter what your game is. You could be a teacher, a librarian, a doctor, an athlete, a business coach we all have a game.

Speaker 1: 33:22

Your first order of business is to understand what game you're in, and a lot of business owners don't quite understand what business they're actually in. They think they're in one business but they're actually in another. It's understanding what business you're in, what game you're in. Then you have to develop your game so that you can best perform in that game. Then you create your opportunities to perform. Then you have to go out there and perform, and then you got to produce results. Because we are in a performance and results-based business. The bottom line of everything we do is about producing results, and when you're running a business, the number one result is you are mandated to generate revenue for the people who own your business. That is your mandate as a business owner, and what we do over here is, again we help people perform at their highest level, do so consistently and, as a result, you're going to make more money in your business.

Speaker 1: 34:05

And the last thing I'll say as a coach and I'm sure you notice also as a coach, michael is that a lot of times, people come to me or us and they think that their problems are A, b and C, and perhaps they are. However, until they address D, e and F, which they were not even aware of, we're never going to solve A, b and C. So our jobs as coaches is not just giving people information, because if that's all it was, then chat, gpt and Google could replace us. What coaches actually do is we provide insight, not information, and insight is often kind of the inverse of information, in that we are posing better quality questions not answers, but questions.

Speaker 1: 34:46

And when you ask someone a better quality question. What it does is it forces them to think in a different way, because, no matter how great of a coach we are, if the people who we're working with do not change their way of thinking, it doesn't matter what we say, they're not going to do anything different. So what we are doing is providing insights, helping them see things in a different way, from a different perspective that leads them to the breakthroughs, so that they can go and do what needs to be done to get the outcome. So the most important thing I do as a coach is offer insight, not just information. We give a lot of information, but the insight is where the breakthroughs come from.

Speaker 3: 35:17

I do have to piggyback on top of that because I have yet to have a business owner come to me that they say can you help me with this, this and this? And I'm like, yes, but in my head I know that's a symptom of the problem and not the root of the problem. And I want business owners to be very clear. That's where the power of a business coach like yourself can truly help you get to the root of the problem, to fix those symptoms. And it makes it so much easier when you get to the root of the problem. And the second thing I know business owners are asking this, or I know we're asked this what if I don't know what my game is? Do you help with them establish that? Oh, absolutely Okay.

Speaker 1: 35:54

Absolutely, and I've worked with a lot of. A lot of people I work with are looking to get into somewhere space to what I'm doing, the thought leadership space, coaching, speaking, writing books no, doing courses, having a podcast, things like that and a lot of them don't understand what business they're actually in. They think they're in a book writing business or giving a great speech business. That's not the business that they're in. So I help them understand that while at the same time, giving them the tools to get the book written. But you need to understand what the real business here is and is not having the best book book, because if nobody buys your book, it doesn't matter, right? So those I absolutely do help people with that. To answer your question, Fantastic.

Speaker 3: 36:29

So if somebody wants to know, like and trust you, what platforms can they go to to get to know you a little bit better?

Speaker 1: 36:36

I'd say the best one would be Instagram. Instagram is just my name at Dre Baldwin. I think if you follow my stuff for about a week, you'll have a pretty good idea if it's a yes or no. All right.

Speaker 3: 36:46

Fantastic, Dre. I appreciate you. You have helped a lot of people today and I wish you continued success.

Speaker 1: 36:52

Absolutely. I appreciate you sharing your platform. Thank you for the opportunity, Michael my pleasure.

Speaker 2: 36:56

Thank you for joining us on this enlightening journey with Dre Baldwin as we reflect on his remarkable insights for our recap. Baldwin, as we reflect on his remarkable insights for our recap, let's remember that success isn't just about the external factors or resources. It's about the mindset we cultivate, whether you're on the court or in the boardroom. Dre's story teaches us that our potential is limitless when we harness the power of our minds. Remember from Dre's professional experience the percentage of mindset versus skill set that separates the average from the elite is approximately 90% mindset related. As we step into the coach's corner, let's focus on one actionable item inspired by Dre's wisdom Commit to daily mindset exercises. Just as athletes train their bodies daily, we must train our minds daily for success. Take a few minutes each day for visualization, affirmations or mindfulness practices. Consistency is key. Make it a habit and watch as your mindset transforms to support your goals. A couple of examples could be one create your own mantra to start each day with. I'll give you an example. Every morning I start my day with. Every day is an exciting adventure, with problems to be solved and memories to be made. Or two if you're not up for creating your own mantra, use a friend of mine's phrase of what if? Vil. Instead of saying to yourself, what if I waste my time doing this one thing and it creates no money in return, you say what if I consistently take action and the action I take creates a million dollars by the end of the year. You get the idea. Now go, take the action. 99% won't, and action is what separates the 99% average from the 1% elite.

Speaker 2: 38:55

Thank you for listening to Small Business Pivots. Please don't forget to subscribe and share this podcast. If your business is stuck or you need help creating your business to run without you, go to our website, businessownershipsimplifiedcom and schedule a free consultation to learn why small business success starts with Boss. If you have a guest or topic suggestion for our podcast or just want to talk anything small business related, email me personally at michael at michaeldmorrisoncom. We'll see you next time on Small Business Pivots.