The 1% Journey

Brandon DeVere

Welcome to the 1% Journey. Hi my name is Brandon DeVere and I will be telling stories. My goal for this podcast it to share daily stories on my journey to become 1% better everyday over 4 main categories Mind. Body. Business. Relationships This podcast is for me to document my growth on this journey. But more importantly, it’s to share it with others. In hopes that they too will be inspired and maybe, even one day share stories of their own. Thank you for listening to The 1% journey. I appreciate you. And remember… NEVER be afraid to be a storyteller

  1. 07/01/2019

    Episode 030: "Whats' Next?

    “What’s Next?” Setting and pursuing fitness goals can be hard. But achieving them can sometimes be harder… at least, that has been my experience. I don’t mean the process or journey of the accomplishment, I mean when you have officially achieved your goal. After you're done, what’s next? This happened to me recently after being invited by James Stella to participate in a 7 week challenge at Kaizen Crossfit. I have talked about this challenge before but not much since I completed it. During these 7 weeks I was diligent about my diet, exercise and mental health. On more than one occasion I respectfully declined some amazing food that was not on “the list”. By the end of the challenge I was down 17lbs, moved 3 notches on my belt and felt better than I had in years. I was even getting compliments from my new friends at the box. James also told me that if I could stick through the 7 weeks, that I wouldn’t have to do any extra running for the Ragnar I was signed up for. Well, he was right. I set personal bests on all 3 trails while shaving over 10 minutes off my overall time. But what happened after I achieved this goal? Nothing! As in, I did nothing. After I finished, I figured I could take a day off. So I did. Then that day turned into 2, then into a week and 2 months later… here I am. You might ask yourself, “if it was working so well, why did you stop?”. That is a great question! Unfortunately, I don't have a great answer. The thing that came to mind is that I don’t have a specific goal right now, just a blanket, “I’d like to be in better shape”. For me, training without a goal is hard! I know some people that can train day in and day out no problem. That’s just not me. I need a goal. Like the great Yogi Berra said… “If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up some place else"

    3 min

  2. 06/30/2019

    Episode 029: "Save My Pictures"

    “Save My Pictures” At the house I grew up in there were a number of my relatives that lived within walking distance. This included my Aunt Barb who lived just across the alley from us. Our front doors shared a line of sight and we’d often waive to each other as we would come and go. Aunt Barb was notorious for taking photos and would capture any moment, anytime, anywhere. Even the time she spotted Tony, Chad and I cutting each others hair on the front porch when we were in high school. She yelled across the alley, “hold on, stop, I want to take a picture". If there was any chance of a photo-op… she took it. She had 1,000’s of photos in albums, scrapbooks and shoeboxes that filled an entire bedroom. On more than one occasion she's told me… “If you ever see my house on fire, the first thing I want you to do is run to the back bedroom and get all of my pictures out”. She loves her collection and taking care of them is her primary concern. My safety and well-being however… not so much. Just kidding. Thinking about this made me wonder what I would want someone to save if my house were on fire. My first thought was about material things like computers, tv’s, tablets and other electronics. Nah, they can be purchased again. Besides they are probably already outdated anyway. What about photos like Aunt Barb? Nope, not those either. The majority of our photos are safely located in “The Cloud” and can be reprinted with the click of a button. Most everything I could think of was replaceable. Maybe it wouldn’t be original but it can still be replaced. Then I thought about what I’m writing this story in. Not a fancy program, tablet, phone or even a computer. Just a plain old notebook. I have dozens of these notebooks and journals that I have been writing in for years. Mostly made up of scribbles, notes, thoughts and ideas that I have jotted down. Heck, there are even a few song lyrics in there from almost 20 years ago. The majority of their contents have never been backed up, so if they were to be lost or damaged, they would be lost forever. Just like Aunt Barb looking at her photos, when I go back and read the thoughts of my younger self I get to take a trip down memory lane and see what I was thinking “way back then”. It would be a bummer if something were to happen to them. So if you ever see my house on fire, please run in and grab my notebooks. Safety first of course!

    3 min

  3. 06/29/2019

    Episode 028: “Start With Why”

    “Start With Why” Simon Sinek, author of “Start With Why” and speaker of multiple “Ted Talks”, has a concept that has fascinated me since the first time I learned about it. He says, in order to be a leader you must be able to inspire, but in order to inspire, you must first know your “why”. This is easier said than done as most of us know exactly “what” we do but very few of us know “why” we do it. He explains that companies like Apple operate from a place of “why” as he repeats in one of his Ted Talks over and over again, “People don’t buy what you do they buy why you do it”. Stating that Apple doesn’t sell you what the product is capable of or it’s specifications, they sell you on the idea. The idea that Apple’s mission is to challenge the status quo and think differently. They don’t focus on “what” their products do but “why” they create them, causing people to wait in line for 6 hours to be one of the first to get the latest and greatest iPhone. Whether the iPhone or Android is better is irrelevant (they are probably very comparable) but they have created a culture of people that identify with their “why” who want to be a part of it and will go to great lengths to do so. When it comes to finding our own “why” it can be a bit more difficult. Typically when we look into jobs and careers, many times we choose “what” over “why”. How many times has someone offered or told you about a job and the first question you ask is “what does it pay?” or “what are the benefits?” Notice, both of these are “what” questions, not “why” questions. By focusing on “what”, we will continue to bounce around and look for the next shiny object, ultimately leaving us unfulfilled. But, focusing on “why” gives us purpose and inspiration while at the same time inspiring others. As I said, this is not an easy task and although I believe in the importance of finding my “why” as I would like to inspire others… I am still searching.

    3 min

  4. 06/28/2019

    Episode 027: “How Can I?”

    “How Can I?” I hadn’t played flag football in at least 2 years. My friend Xavier, who we call "X", had me come out and play with some guys we have played with throughout the years. It was just a friendly pickup game, weekend warrior type stuff, nothing serious. The problem wasn’t just that I hadn’t played in awhile and my skills were rusty, it was the physical shape I was in. I could barely run a 15 yard route without taking the next play play off. I was at record fatness, with little to no mobility. The next day I ran into X and his wife Tiffany at the grocery store and they start talking about this Ragnar trail thing then ask if I want to join their team. “A Rag…What?” I said. If you aren’t familiar with Ragnar trail it can be best described as a camping trip with 8 teammates who each run the 3 designated courses that add up to anywhere between 15-17 miles. Oh yeah… it’s 24 hours too, so you’ll most likely be running in the middle of the night with a head lamp. After they asked me to join the team, I thought to myself “Didn’t he see me play football yesterday? I barely made it through that. I can’t run that far”. I left the store thinking, “Yeah right, I’m not going to do that”. Later that night, after it had been bouncing around in my head, my curiosity got the best of me. I sent them a text, “what’s that Ragnar thing again?” We ended up on the phone, they explained in greater detail what it is. I tell them I’d let them know later. I sat there thinking about it for a minute, finally I looked in the mirror and say, “I can't, I’m in no shape for this”. So I send them a text. “I’m in!” After I hit send I have instant regret, what did I just do? “I don’t want to do this!”, “I am not a runner!” I tell myself. Ironically, that is exactly why I chose to do it. Because I didn’t want to. My logic was, if I could accomplish something I had no interest in doing, imagine what I could accomplish if it was a goal I believed in… that would be easy! Over the next 3 months I followed an app that told me when to run and how far, I followed it diligently. I ran in the heat, I ran in the rain, I ran at my daughter's soccer practice, I ran on vacation, I ran before the sun came up and after it went down, I just ran. I felt like Forrest Gump... I was runnin'. This training allowed me to finish my first Ragnar trail. Now, this weekend, I will run in my 3rd Ragnar Trail in less than a year. 15 months ago, I changed my words from “I can’t” to “how can I?” and accomplished something I never thought I’d do. Is there something you’d like to accomplish but have been afraid to try? Imagine what you’d be capable of if you stopped saying "I can't" and asked yourself… “How Can I?”

    3 min

  5. 06/27/2019

    Episode 026" "Get Out Of Your Head"

    “Get Out of Your Head” When attending a conference you’ll typically head to the registration table, get your lanyard, itinerary, S.W.A.G. etc. Then, you might flip through the schedule looking for classes you’d like to attend and speakers you’d like to hear. Not this one. This one, is more like MTV’s “The Real World”, so I use the term conference a bit loosely. Simply put, 30+ knowledge seekers line up at the door of a 13 bedroom mansion waiting for the starting pistol to sound signaling it’s time to make your mad dash to claim a room. If you’re lucky you’ll find a bed, otherwise it's a couch, the floor or a recliner in the theater room. In any event, everyone is happy with what they get, at least they are here. Although we we're all Real Estate agents from throughout the country and Canada, that is not why we are here, not to talk about real estate at least. We are here to learn and discuss writing styles and philosophy, storytelling, building relationships, philanthropy etc. Things we are ALL trying to get better at. We do have 4 scheduled sessions spread out over 2 days that are structured with topics that are planned ahead of time. But that isn’t the only time we learn, we learn from each other. There is non-stop brainstorming, sharing ideas and asking others for advice. However, within this group, if you ask for advice you better be ready for it, whether you like the answer or not. Responses can be uplifting or unsettling, it depends on if you are able to handle a truth you weren’t ready to accept. Just like MTV’s Real World, it’s… “When people stop being polite and start being real.” I got to experience this first hand. After the event, I was in the car with my friends Jake Edwards and Amber Flynn-Jared on our to the airport. The ride was just over an hour, plenty of time to discuss what we had learned over the past 4 days. After sharing multiple discussions on many topics I started in on a new one. While AGAIN over-explaining myself and adding qualifiers to preface what I was about to say, Amber stopped me mid-sentence and said… “Get Out of Your Head” She didn’t sugar coat it, she was straight forward. It wasn’t the first time she heard me do this during the event. She knows that I want to get better, be better. She knew by allowing me to continue this pattern I wouldn’t become better. She knew giving me praise or being nice for the sake of being nice wasn’t going to do me any good. So she gave me some truth, she didn’t care about my feelings, she cared about my growth. This can be said for the entire group, we all want to grow and we all want each other to grow. When I got home friends and family asked me, “Isn’t it weird sharing a house for 4 days with people you don’t know?”. Nope! These are my people. Some I have met once, others I met for the first time but we all “get” each other and if I need a reality check, I can go to any one of them and receive an authentic response. They have my best interest in mind as I do theirs. So when one of us asks for feedback… We get it.

    4 min

  6. 06/26/2019

    Episode 025: "Trust Your Vision"

    "Trust Your Vision” Yesterday I shared a story about taking “Imperfect Action”, a lesson I learned while installing my own flooring. The truth is, that wasn’t the only thing I learned during that time. Turns out, your mind will wander when you sitting on a floor for 8 hours. One of the things that got me to finish the project, even during the times I doubted myself, was that I needed to trust my vision. As I talked about yesterday, I wanted to quit multiple times, but I knew the final product would be worth it. I knew I could do it. Even when I looked at a half torn up floor, I could still see the finished product in my mind. It is this kind of vision that helps us achieve our goals when others doubt us and can’t see it for themselves. The same goes for business and creativity. Sometimes we have a plan that others can’t see, so it is hard for them to understand and sometimes even support you in. This happened with my floor. “You’re going to do it yourself? Good luck with that.” And it has happened in my business. As I continue to build something that the majority doesn’t understand, I get more and more people that don’t believe it, and in some cases laugh at me for it. I could be bitter and get upset, or even use the negativity as fuel to my fire. But the reality is, they don’t share my vision, it’s not theirs, it’s mine. I can’t expect them to understand. And that's not my goal. My goal isn’t to make EVERYONE understand my vision. My goal is to COMPLETE my vision. In order to do that, I need to first trust in my vision and second, execute. So, if you have a vision, maybe something that others don’t quite understand but you believe in… I encourage you to continue with it. It is likely they can’t see your vision because it’s not theirs. And if they can’t see it for themselves, they won’t believe in it. So I beg of you, Trust Yourself… “Trust Your Vision"

    3 min

  7. 06/26/2019

    Episode 024: "Imperfect Action”

    "Imperfect Action” A few weeks ago I decided to change our flooring. The original floors were tile and were likely there from when the house was originally built, so it was time for a change. I didn’t think it would be a huge deal because I would be laying down laminate wood flooring which I have done before. Plus, I had some help on the way. I figured, demo on Saturday and lay the laminate on Sunday, "should be quick and easy”… Or so I thought. There is a saying my dad has told me on occasion, “Man makes plans, God laughs”. I found that saying to be pretty accurate. My help ended up getting hurt at work and wasn’t able to make it. “No big deal”, I thought. “Get some rest and heal up”. I decided to continue… The demo started out great, the tiles were popping up without hardly any resistance, at one point there were about 8 tiles that came up at once. “This is so easy” Then I got to a spot on the floor where the tiles were just stuck to. This was just small portion of the floor, about 40 square feet, but it took me just as long here as it did to rip up the other 700 feet. So now, my Saturday project had just moved into Sunday. Causing me to not lay a single piece of flooring until 5pm Sunday night. Like I said earlier, I have laid laminate flooring before, so I was still confident I could finish it rather quickly. That was before I realized that this particular flooring was multi-width/multi-length planks. Typically they are all the same size and you can just lay them in place and cut when you get to the wall. Not this stuff. I had to layout 3+ rows prior to installation to make sure that the planks would line up correctly when I got to the point that they’d meet. I just stepped into a different realm of flooring that I had zero experience with. By Tuesday I was done with the kitchen and before you know it, that 2 day weekend project I had planned, took me 9 days to complete. It was frustrating, I wanted to quit no less than 30 times. I looked at the bare floor thinking to myself, "this will never get done”. But I still continued. I made hundreds of cuts, none of them perfect. I made plenty of mistakes, but didn’t let any of them stop me. It reminded me of what being a business owner, entrepreneur, and creator is all about. It is not about building something perfect before it is shared with others. It is about a collection of mistakes and imperfections that lead to a desired result. And, that result can become an incredible transformation. Was it easy? Nope. Was it Fun? Kinda. Did I learn something from it? 100%. Am I Craftsman now? Not even close. So how did I transform this ugly tile floor into something beautiful? I did it the same way you can transform yourself in any area of your life. By taking action. By taking… "Imperfect Action"

    3 min

  8. 06/26/2019

    Episode 023: "He Just Looked Down"

    “He Just Looked Down” Growing up we all had idols, people that we liked or wanted to be like. Whether it was an athlete, movie star, Evel Knievel or whoever, we all had somebody that we wanted to be like. I have heard through most of my life, that if I want to be successful at something I need to find someone that is already successful at it, then study and mimic them. When it came to baseball, I was told find a player that I liked and copy his swing. Naturally, growing up near Seattle I chose to copy Ken Griffey Jr. and why not? He has probably the sweetest swing in the history of the game. In basketball there was a generation of kids yelling… “Jordan” As they practiced their turn-around, fade away jumper. Although I mimicked and idolized these players, I never had the opportunity to meet them. Honestly, sometimes I think it might have been better that way. Last summer I attended a podcast workshop that had some great podcasters in the lineup, even some that I had been studying and modeling my own podcast after. "How cool would it be if I got to meet some them” In between sessions I noticed that a popular podcaster was sitting at the table just behind me. With only about 3 other people across the room I thought to myself “why not ask him a couple questions?” It would be like asking Griffey about his swing. How many chances would I get like this? After all, this is someone I’d like to be… or so I thought. I turned around and blurted out the first question, his response, “great question, we’ll get to that later”. Perfect! Now we have a conversation going and I'm going to get my question answered. As I start in with the next question he reaches for a random piece of paper then stands up slowly while I’m talking and… Just looks down. Then he starts walking away, clearly not paying attention, nodding his head “uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh”. I could imagine my voice slowly fade in his ears as the distance grew further until I finally stopped mid-sentence. I just got big-timed! By someone that, before that, I wanted to be like. What did I expect though? I get it, I was a nobody to him and he let me know it. He didn’t know me, I didn’t buy his program for $2,500/month, there just wasn’t time for me. Even as we grow older we continue to find new idols, heroes and people that inspire us to be like them. However, we must be careful when choosing those that we look up to and how much value we assign to them. We might be disappointed.

    3 min
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
2 Ratings

About

Welcome to the 1% Journey. Hi my name is Brandon DeVere and I will be telling stories. My goal for this podcast it to share daily stories on my journey to become 1% better everyday over 4 main categories Mind. Body. Business. Relationships This podcast is for me to document my growth on this journey. But more importantly, it’s to share it with others. In hopes that they too will be inspired and maybe, even one day share stories of their own. Thank you for listening to The 1% journey. I appreciate you. And remember… NEVER be afraid to be a storyteller

Information

  • Creator
    Brandon DeVere
  • Years Active
    2018 - 2019
  • Episodes
    30
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Brandon DeVere
  • Show Website
    The 1% Journey