Episode 123: Winning at the Game of Life with Ralph and Bryan White – Transcript

Episode 123: Winning at the Game of Life with Ralph and Bryan White

Rennie Gabriel  00:10
Hi folks, welcome to Episode 123 of the Wealth On Any Income Podcast. This is where we talk about money tips, techniques, attitudes, information, and provide inspiration around your business and your money. I'm your host Rennie Gabriel. In past episodes, we spoke about how to understand the numbers from your business, how to measure the level of pleasure based on where you spend your money, how to track your money in 5 to 10 seconds, and what determines how close you are to Complete Financial Choice®, and how to run your business without being in your business. Last week, we had international best selling author, Dr. Lexis Johnson, and today we have as our guests, the father and son team of Possibilities Unlimited, Ralph White, and Bryan White. Ralph and I have known each other for over 30 years, and have coached each other for about that long. We were both business coaches in a program called the Entrepreneurial Edge. And anytime someone wants a referral to a business coach, I recommend Ralph, and now I can recommend his son. Ralph began his coaching and consulting business in 1993, while still operating his sheetmetal fabrication company. He shares his vast knowledge and unique approach with entrepreneurs, managers, and salespeople the world over. He supported companies to grow from a few million dollars of revenue per year to over a billion dollars. Bryan was also a participant in the Entrepreneurial Edge program, and brings 30 years of successful business experience. It was primarily in Sales and Operations Management for small to mid-sized industrial companies. And inspired and instructed by his father's example, coaching and teachings, Brian decided to pivot his life's energy to giving back by joining his dad's coaching business. From Possibilities Unlimited, I bring you Ralph and Bryan White. Welcome to the Wealth On Any Income Podcast. 

Ralph White  02:24
Thank you, Rennie. Delighted to be here. 

Bryan White  02:27
Absolutely.

Rennie Gabriel  02:29
Thank you. You guys sound so much like, we're gonna have a fun time figuring out who's actually talking. Now this is the first time by the way, that I've had two guests together on the show. So we could stumble a little bit. But let's get right to it with some questions. Bryan, tell me what you two do at Possibilities Unlimited, and why? 

Bryan White  02:56
Excellent. Rennie, thanks for having us here. We really appreciate the opportunity. So at Possibilities Unlimited, we are committed to helping clients win in the game of business life. With our years of business experience and having coached over 5000 business owners, as well as managers, and with our combined experience along with theirs, we help others reduce the learning curve in time and money in the areas of business and life. We've had the honor of working with many talented people, and we combine the experience as I'd mentioned with their experience along with ours, and then we lead them on a path to producing exponential results at a faster pace.

Rennie Gabriel  03:40
And I know from experience, that is what happens. Now I know that you had some health issues. I donate 100% of the profits from the work I do to various animal and veteran charities. Tell me about a particular charity that you support and what they do. 

Bryan White  03:59
I appreciate that. Yes, so we have significant inspiration in donating to the MD Anderson Cancer Center. It's based here in Houston, Texas, where I currently reside. And by giving to the MD Anderson Cancer Center, we have the opportunity to make a tremendous difference in the lives of cancer patients by supporting innovative cancer patient care, research, education, and prevention programs along with helping, you know, some of the patients themselves. We consider this to be a very special place, you know, for these life saving gifts. We have invested, actually we have a vested interest actually in working with that organization because I myself along with my wife are both patients there at MD Anderson. And MD Anderson is basically a world renowned organization for cancer care.

Rennie Gabriel  04:51
Well thank you for your supporting the charities that you support. Either you or Ralph can handle this one. Who are your target markets? It sounds like entrepreneurs and managers, but give me an example of like the business sizes.

Bryan White  05:07
Sure. So business owners. We target companies that have business owners and managers, high-level managers, influential managers and the organization of companies doing anywhere in the realm of $500,000 in revenue to $500 million in revenue. But what's key is they need to be committed to making a transformational difference in serving their customers and their target markets. We both know that the only way to accomplish this, and really make that transformation is by growing their profits and delivering better quality while managing for results and exceeding all of their goals. So really the right fit clients for Possibilities Unlimited are business owners, or influential managers I've mentioned, that have intentions outside, completely outside, of their current capabilities. They're willing to grow and expand what they do, what basically what they're up to in what we call their business life. We work with entrepreneurs in all types of industries, since implementing winning strategies really doesn't have any limits on, you know, how one serves their customers or where.

Rennie Gabriel  06:20
That sounds perfect. And, you know, I know that that's been accomplished. Ralph, let me address this question to you. What would you say was your biggest failure, whether it was personal or business? And what insight did you gain from that?

Ralph White  06:35
Well, Bryan, and I both share in this challenging experience in our partnership, in that I begin in a family-owned business at the age of 17, and grew that business up and then into becoming about 30 to 50 employees. And while - and Bryan was one of those employees - after working together for several years, we jointly agreed, we'd built it up, we agreed to actually sell that business. And we did it for restricted stock in a publicly traded company, which ultimately had a breakdown in sales that resulted in going out of compliance with the big business loan that they had taken. And they ended up going bankrupt. And that resulted in a complete loss with no return on my investment.

Rennie Gabriel  07:35
Yeah, well, I want to interrupt you, because what I remember was, you know, when you started back in 1962, it was like with $400. 

Ralph White  07:46
Yes.

Rennie Gabriel  07:47
And when you sold that business to the company that went bankrupt, it was for a million dollars in restricted stock.

Ralph White  07:54
Yes, yes, definitely. So which I, we were both, you know, Bryan actually brought the buyer to us. We had created an intention to sell the business. And we were both working on it. And at that point, you know, he come along with someone that was interested in buying it. And it turned out that the price we negotiated was a million dollars. So it was us achieving an intention that we were very much committed to.

Rennie Gabriel  08:21
And this was back when a million dollars was a lot of money.

Ralph White  08:25
Yes. So it was a great deal. We just didn't bank on them going bankrupt, and then us losing the investment, which resulted in both of us having to transition into different work and doing something different, a different chapter in our family business.

Rennie Gabriel  08:46
So what would the insight be?

Ralph White  08:48
Well, the insight was that, you know, after going through the eye of the needle of a double bankruptcy, because it resulted in not only the debt business go bankrupt, I ended up losing a lot of money and had to go bankrupt as a result. It forced us into the next phase of our life, which is, you know, my intention at that time was to sell the business and then transition into full-time coaching. And that actually facilitated the possibility of that happening. It was my original intention was that I would full-time coach, and Brian would run the sheetmetal business, and then we'd ultimately sell it. So, Bryan, once the bankruptcy occurred, Bryan was able to develop his own path, gathering significant amount of experience in sales, operations, and leading organizations to success. His previous 30 years of experience has now created the possibility of sharing his knowledge in our coaching business. And we're now in a new chapter, our family business, working together jointly to make a transformational difference in the lives of many business owners and managers.

Rennie Gabriel  10:04
So would you say the insight is that regardless of the failure, regardless of the bankruptcy, you can still have a new and even better chapter of life? 

Ralph White  10:14
By all means, you can turn a breakdown into a breakthrough, you know, in other words, it's, you don't, you can wallow in the breakdown, or you can find possibility and move on. And that's what we both did. And it put us in a, you know, ultimately in a much better position, for both financially and as far as, you know, creating a new future for both of us.

Rennie Gabriel  10:39
Yeah, beautiful. And so, you know, these are the kinds of things that you can bring to your clients as well. Do you have some examples of some of the outcomes, like maybe a case study of people who've followed your advice?

Ralph White  10:54
By all means, we have a large list, you know, I've worked with over 5000 business owners and managers in the last 30 years. Some of the highlights of those would be, I have a client that started in the distribution business, and he started with me 22 years ago, at $8 million a year in revenue. And we've grown that business working, you know, me coaching him and his managers up to $1.4 billion in sales. And he's now in the process of going public with that business. So it's . . . and he now has an intention of being a $10 billion company. So it's definitely exponential growth - that's one of our biggest successes.

Rennie Gabriel  11:44
And one of the things that I also want to add to what you just said is, this is a client who has been with you for 20 years. It's not like these folks show up, and they work with you for six months or a year, and then they're gone. I mean, these kinds of results happen because they stayed with you for a long period of time.

Ralph White  12:02
Yes, and I still have my very first two clients and still continue to coach them today, 30 years later. So it's . . . I do tend to create long-term relationships, because I find that people that want to grow their business are always going to have a challenge, always going to have some obstacle that we can work on and create an intention and deliver on that challenge. Another example of an accomplishment is, I met a client in the high-reliability circuit board business. And he created an intention of buying a boat and sailing around the world, taking a year off from his work, and sailing around the world with his family. And the year before COVID hit us, he did that. He bought a 51-foot catamaran sailboat, and proceeded to sail around the world. He got halfway around from New York to Australia. And then COVID hit and he parked his boat there. And it's been there for the last couple of years. And now he's taking off for the second half of his trip, and completing the journey. So that, and during the time we worked together, again, another 20 year client, you know, his business has faced every possible obstacle - hazardous waste, lawsuits, breakdowns in sales. And we actually created that his business would double in size while he was on that trip. And we hired someone else as the manager and trained them to actually make that happen. That's another major win. Would you like another one, Rennie? 

Rennie Gabriel  13:51
Oh, I think that's good enough from the standpoint of going from 8 million to 1.4 billion and soon to be public, to taking off for a year and then having the business double in size. I would imagine any business owner who has any thought of 'Gee, I'm thinking of hiring a coach.' - would want to talk to you and Bryan. What it also sounds like, you know, someone who would think about the idea of taking off a year and having the business get larger, has got to be prepared to have unlimited possibilities in their thinking.

Ralph White  14:30
By all means. And we do have a number of other clients. You don't have to be a billion dollar company to work with us by any means. You know, we have clients that have written books that have grown their businesses, that have, you know, increase their income. You know, like I said, with, you know, the number of people that I've had the pleasure of working with, there's a lot of results that I could go on for days just giving you a list of the things that got accomplished in that time period.

Rennie Gabriel  15:02
And I believe you. Bryan, let me ask you this, is there some valuable free resource that you can direct people to that will further their growth?

Bryan White  15:14
Absolutely, absolutely. At Possibilities Unlimited, we put the words, "business and life" together, to form the word BusinessLife as a single word, to acknowledge that the fact our business is no longer separate from our life, right, and they really must coexist together. So we have a tool that best represents this distinction. And it's called the WholeLife Matrix, which breaks down all critical aspects of BusinessLife in four quadrants, being financial viability, relationship, health and well-being, and personal awareness. And the WholeLife Matrix is designed to have people win in the game of life, by producing results in all four of those different quadrants. And the WholeLife Matrix is available on our website for anyone to access. So it's available, you know, as one of the primary pages, and one can go on there and they can see how they rank themselves in each of these four quadrants, and all the different categories within each of the quadrants. And the game here is really to provide a picture of where one is currently at, and then as they achieve their intentions, which again, their intentions are going to be significantly higher and daunting and bigger than any goal, right, where they're currently at. They achieve their intentions, and then they begin to progress, and then see what their ranking is in a scale of 1 to 10 on the improvement process as they continued down their path. And so along with the tool on the website, we actually have bi-weekly calls, where different business owners and managers will join us, you know, sharing, the first thing that they do is they share about their breakthroughs. And then we also go through certain topics, and we even share how our coaching can provide a powerful difference in their businesses. In essence, be considered sort of a mastermind event held every two weeks, which has an open invitation to anyone who wants to participate to get the firsthand experience of working with Ralph and I in achieving their intention.

Rennie Gabriel  17:18
Okay, I want to be sure that I heard this correctly. So a business owner can join one of or maybe more of these bi-weekly calls without being a client?

Bryan White  17:31
Absolutely, absolutely. 

Rennie Gabriel  17:32
Oh, okay. 

Bryan White  17:33
In fact, you know, that's one of the ways where someone can actually understand how Ralph and I work together in our coaching and what value we will provide for them. So it's sort of a, you know, a test drive, if you might call it that. 

Rennie Gabriel  17:48
Yeah, that's exactly what I was going to call it, is a test drive. But yeah, a very valuable test drive. And what I'll do in the show notes is I'll put the link to that WholeLife Matrix that you described, so that anybody who goes to the show notes, they can just click the link and end up getting that WholeLife Matrix. Is there a question that I should have asked you that would also give some great value to the people who are listening or watching on YouTube?

Bryan White  18:17
Absolutely. So, Rennie, what I would say is, if you were asking the question on behalf of someone that is listening, and watching our podcast here today is, you know, how quickly can we start working with you? Meaning how quickly can they start working with Possibilities Unlimited? 

Rennie Gabriel  18:35
And the answer is? 

Bryan White  18:37
Well, we invite you to go to our website and schedule a complimentary half hour coaching session today. 

Rennie Gabriel  18:44
Beautiful. Ralph, Bryan, I want to thank you both for being on the Wealth On Any Income Podcast.

Bryan White  18:53
I want to thank you. 

Ralph White  18:55
Yes, thank, you, Rennie.

Rennie Gabriel  18:57
Yeah. It's hard to take turns. This is maybe why I have one guest at a time.

Ralph White  19:02
Yeah. So it's been a pleasure. Rennie, you know, having known you for all these years and worked with you, I'm very impressed with what you're accomplishing with your podcasts and the contribution that you're making. So it's an honor to be able to contribute to your project and your love for animals and contributing to soldiers. So keep up the good work, and you know, if we can help you, you know, let us know.

Rennie Gabriel  19:30
Thank you, Ralph. And thank you, Bryan. And to my listeners, thank you for tuning in. If you'd like to know how books, movies and Society programs you to be poor, and what the cure is, then log on to wealthonanyincome.com/TEDx. You'll hear my TEDx talk and can request a free 27-Page Roadmap to Complete Financial Choice® and Philanthropy, and receive a weekly email with tips, techniques, or inspiration around your business or your money. And if you'd like to see how you can increase your wealth and donate to the causes that touch your heart, please check out our affordable program, Wealth with Purpose also on our website. You can listen to the Wealth On Any Income Podcast on your favorite platform. And please rate, review and subscribe. And next week, we will have Elaina Zucker, a seasoned business woman, educator, author and consultant who has some fortune 500 corporations as clients, such as AT & T. American Express, IBM, and Bank of America. Until next week, be prosperous. Bye bye for now.


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