Since the dawn of the industrial age, people have debated the concept of a work-life balance. Too much work can lead to burnout. Too much leisure time means necessary work won’t get done. So here’s a question: what if we could win at work and home?
Dr. James Bryant says it’s possible, but you have to take charge and plan for it to happen. He knew he was at the top of his game at work as an engineer, but he had an epiphany when he asked himself three simple questions. (1) Do I want to win at work? (2) Do I want to win at home? (3) Am I? It was that third question that hit him hard. He knew he wasn’t winning at home as a husband and dad. That’s when he decided to take action.
Today, Dr. Bryant is a podcast host, consultant, and coach who teaches people how to win at work and at home. In this episode of BEATS WORKING, he teaches listeners how to do it. At work, for example, he has brilliant advice for business owners on how to delegate some of their work to free themselves up for what’s most important. At home, we learn how Dr. Bryant created time to be the best husband and dad he could be. It’s not as hard as you might think.
The good news is Dr. Bryant says we don’t need the energy to start and finish everything we need to change in our lives. He says we just need enough energy to start. If you’ve struggled with work-life balance, get ready to be inspired and learn how you, too, can win at work and home.
Resources from the episode:
- Learn more about how Dr. Bryant helps others solve the dilemma of work-life balance through his company, Engineer Your Success, here.
- Listen to Dr. Bryant’s Engineer Your Success podcast on his website, Spotify, YouTube, or Apple Podcasts.
- Follow Engineer Your Success on LinkedIn and Instagram for tips on how to win at work and home.
- Connect with Dr. Bryant on LinkedIn.
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Transcript
The following transcript is not certified. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors. The information contained within this document is for general information purposes only.
Speakers: Dr. James Bryant and Mark Wright
DR. JAMES BRYANT 00:01
I sat down and those are the three questions that I asked myself. And it was, do you want to win at work? Yes, I do. And I was, I was winning at work. Do you want to win at home? Yeah, I do. At least I said I did. But, the third question is the shortest one but was the hardest one for me to answer. And that was, are you? And at that time. I knew I wasn’t, I knew I wasn’t winning at home. And so that was the moment where I had to change.
MARK WRIGHT 00:41
This is the BEATS WORKING show. We’re on a mission to redeem work – the word, the place, and the way. I’m your host Mark Wright. Join us at winning the game of work. Welcome to BEATS WORKING: winning the game of work. On the show today who doesn’t want to kill it at work and be a great spouse and or parent at home at the same time? There’s a lot of talk about work-life balance, but how do we know we’re doing it right? Dr. James Bryant knew he was at the top of his game at work, but he had an epiphany, as you just heard, when he asked himself, three simple questions. That’s when he knew he wasn’t winning at home as a husband and dad. So, he decided to do something about it. Dr. Bryant today is a podcast host, consultant, and coach who teaches people how to win at work and at home. In this episode, he takes us through the process of how to do it. At work, for example, he has brilliant advice for business owners on how to delegate some of their work to free themselves up for what’s most important. At home, we learn how Dr. Bryant created time to be the best husband and dad he could be. And it’s not as hard as you might think. The good news is, Dr. Bryant says we don’t need the energy to start and finish everything we need to change in our lives. He says we simply need enough energy to start. Dr. James Bryant, welcome to the BEATS WORKING podcast. It’s so good to have you here.
DR. JAMES BRYANT 02:16
Hey Mark, it is my pleasure to be here. Thank you for having me on.
MARK WRIGHT 02:22
Well, one of the reasons that I wanted to have you on the show is you are a coach, you’re a podcaster, and you are committed to helping people win at work and at home, and it’s such an important topic right now. So, you’re an engineer by training. I’d love to start by figuring out how did you get into that line of work, James?
DR. JAMES BRYANT 02:41
It’s interesting, um, I was always good at science and math in high school, you know, growing up science and math and then uh, did a lot of drama stuff, right? So, I will be in the school plays and all that stuff. So that, that’s the personable side that comes out even now. But from that, that the logical trajectory was, if you’re good in STEM, you go and you study to be an engineer. I started with a, with business, with an engineering background, and then I switched over to civil engineering, fell in love with civil engineering. Uh, got my undergraduate in civil and a master’s in PhD in civil engineering.
MARK WRIGHT 03:20
That’s, uh, that sounds like a lot of work. We’ll get to that in just a sec, but I’d love to talk about you grew up in inner-city Philadelphia, right? Tell me what that was like and how did your childhood shape you as a person.
DR. JAMES BRYANT 03:32
Ooh. That’s a great question. You know, I don’t think I’ve ever had anyone ask me that question, Mark. And the, the interesting thing is that I can look back at my childhood now understanding that it did shape who I am, and it played a major role, but during it, it was hard, right? You know, we were poor in the inner city of Philadelphia. Nobody that I knew had any, had any money sense whatsoever. You know, you, you, you hear about robbing Peter to pay Paul and all of the other, uh, ways that you can come up with thinking about how people in poverty deal with money. That was us. And, you know, it was interesting because I’m, I’m a fairly large guy and you’re growing up in the inner city. So when you are confronted with these issues with other people, they look to see who’s the biggest person in the group, and then we’re going to go pick on that person. So, I had to learn very early on how to really guard against, uh, situations and crowds and stuff. Uh, it was, so it was interesting um, path, you know, you have people that are dealing drugs, people that are doing drugs. I have friends that were kind of going that route. Alcohol was fairly prevalent, and it was easy for people to go down a negative path. For me, the fortunate part about growing up is that both my mother and father worked together and in my life. So, I did come up in a two-parent household. Uh, really dedicated to church and religion. And so even though there were those outside influences that were saying, hey, James, come on, come on. I had a deep anchor that kept me more or less closer to the straight and narrow, not, you know, not quite a hundred percent, but more or less the straight and narrow.
MARK WRIGHT 05:30
Well, it’s pretty clear that the fact that you have a PhD is pretty exceptional. What, where did you get that, that sense that education was, was super important? Did that come as a young kid?
DR. JAMES BRYANT 05:41
Yeah, that came as a young kid. So, during the era when I was growing up, you had the people that tended to make it out of the neighborhood would go the path either through some kind of sports, scholarship or something, sports-related. The people that stayed in the neighborhood and did well were the drug dealers um, and then the other segment of people were those that got college degrees. So, I was really fortunate. I went to a high school, a specialty high school that was, uh, for engineering and science. So that was good. But I tell you what, Mark, the, one of the most, transformational, um, events that happened for me, I was 14 years old. I was outside playing in the snow, and I had this, uh, Godzilla toy. So, you know, you build up the ice thing around Godzilla and you could push the lever so that his claw hand would shoot out. I don’t know if you’re familiar with that toy from back in the day, but I love that toy. So, I was outside playing and the neighbor across the street, his name was Jeff. He came and started playing with me. Now Jeff was several years older than I was, but Jeff was in college. Jeff was, uh, went on to become a pharmacist. And that interaction and the friendship that came from that moment in the snow helped to shape me in the sense of yes, I want to go to college, at one time I wanted to be a pharmacist because I wanted to be like him.
MARK WRIGHT 07:18
Hmmm. So, it showed you what’s possible, right? You could see it in that friend.
DR. JAMES BRYANT 07:22
Yeah, I could see it in my friend. I could see it in a person that was in the neighborhood, and I could see his pathway out. And actually, I was able to live that pathway out with him because not only was it there, but he would take me from that point on to go play basketball with him, to go hang out with his college buddies, to do certain things. And so, he really took me under his wing, and I will never forget that.
MARK WRIGHT 07:48
Wow. It really speaks to that adage that, you know, you’re the sum of the people you spend the most time with, right?
DR. JAMES BRYANT 07:53
Yes. Yes. This is true.
MARK WRIGHT 07:56
So, um, I do not, for the record, have a mathematical brain because I think it was in the sixth grade I kind of fell behind in math. And I never really caught up, and language skills are kind of what, um, I like to do. Um, and so for those of us who don’t have math brains, talk about what engineers do and how, how you fell into civil engineering, like on a daily basis, you know, at the beginning of your career, what was that like?
DR. JAMES BRYANT 08:22
Wooh. For me, it was all about solving problems. So, engineering in and of itself is using tools, tips, techniques, formulas to actually solve problems. So, you have real-world problems that you need a solution for whether you’re trying to design a building, you’re trying to prepare a foundation, whether you are working on a part of a bridge, you are creating something, you’re designing something to solve a problem, and that’s what engineering to me is all about. It’s just that the tools that you’re using may be mathematical in nature, but at the end of the day, it’s all about solving problems.
MARK WRIGHT 09:02
Yeah, I’ve always wondered when I drive by some highway projects and I see huge mounds of dirt, I’m thinking, um, are they just trying to pack down the ground so that the project has a firm foundation? What are those huge mounds for?
DR. JAMES BRYANT 09:16
It depends on what’s going on in the project. It could be for a potential fill, or it could be a place where they had to dig some stuff out and dig some weak material out and push stronger material in. It’s no different than what I might do with a process of going with my private clients. If there’s some issues that are going on that are causing some type of stress, right? What do we want to do? We want to rebuild that foundation. So, let’s take the thoughts that are causing that stress out. Let’s find out. Let’s remove the weekend material and then let’s replace it with something stronger.
MARK WRIGHT 09:52
In the early part of your career, James, what did work-life balance look like? Here we go.
DR. JAMES BRYANT 09:59
Listen, in the early part of my career, work-life balance looked like it does in many of our lives. It was work. That was it. It was work and the thought that, that life or personal life would take care of itself. Uh, there was a strong desire for me to grow my career and as an engineer and the person that plans, I had this career trajectory, right? So, I finished my PhD. It was okay. I want to work in the private sector for three to five years. I want to work in the public sector for three to five years. Then I want to look at things from a national level for three to five years. And then I want to go to a university and teach and or start my own engineering consulting firm. So that was my grand plan. When I finished my PhD, I was fortunate enough to get a position with a company that was managing the maintenance on roadways and bridges in several states. But the, I was assigned to one of the contracts in Virginia and that really started my journey in highway maintenance and in the engineering field, you know, as an actual practitioner and work-life balance wasn’t there because it was all about work. First, when I first started. I was single, right? So, when you’re single, you’re going to keep, you’re going to keep doing, you’re going to work and you might go hang out with your friends, but you’re all about climbing that ladder, at least I was.
MARK WRIGHT 11:30
Yeah. Yeah. So, you weren’t married yet, so you could just dive in, and you know, if you had to work late?
DR. JAMES BRYANT 11:36
Had to work late, had to travel around the country. No problem. Oh, we have a project that’s going on in Oklahoma and you need me to be there tomorrow. Alright, let’s go. It wasn’t an issue and I really, part of me loved it because I think if I think back, it’s the whole feeling of being needed and being of value. And so, when work is calling and they’re saying we need you, then part of what was inside of me was saying that’s valuable. I like that. It’s reinforcing that I’m valuable.
MARK WRIGHT 12:10
Yeah. What was the biggest lesson, James, you learned in the early part of your career? Because, you know, if we’re honest, I think most of us know that really all the learning happens on the job.
DR. JAMES BRYANT 12:21
Yeah. I think that is it. All the learning happens on the, happens on the job. I learned a lot about communication, and I continued to learn about communication, and we may talk about this, you know, but even before I got married, particularly when I look back now, through the lens that I have now, uh, as a young engineer, I want to be there in all of the meetings. I want to be there when all of the decisions are being made, but I don’t have the wisdom or the foresight to know when to talk, when to shut up, or, or, or, or when to actually just not say something to, you know, you can think it, but you can’t say it. So very early on, I didn’t have a, I didn’t have that kind of filter. It was more so, for me it was, this is how I think, this is how I am, so I’m going to show up in this way, regardless of whether it was appropriate or not, and when I say appropriate, it just could be chiming in on a conversation when there really wasn’t a time for me to chime in.
MARK WRIGHT 13:26
That is so wise, and the reason I was laughing is that I was just having flashbacks to meetings, you know, early in my career where, you know, you just want to, you want to be heard, you want to be noticed, you want people to think you have the answers and that you’re smart. And then as you get older, you, you understand the value.
DR. JAMES BRYANT 13:44
But here’s, here’s the thing, Mark, it’s not just that you want to be, you believe that you are, you believe that you should be heard. You believe that you are smart, you believe that you have the answer. So, it’s not just that you’re, that you’re, you know, that you want these things. You absolutely believe it and you look around and you’re saying, what’s wrong with these people? What is wrong with these people?
MARK WRIGHT 14:09
Yeah. Yeah. So, a turning point came in your life when you realized things were out of balance. And you asked yourself three questions and, uh, these are really profound when we first spoke a few weeks ago, it just really hit me when you asked these three questions. And the first is, do you want to win at work? The second is, do you want to win at home? And the third question is simply, are you?
DR. JAMES BRYANT 14:34
Yes.
MARK WRIGHT 14:36
So, so set, set that up. How did you get to that point? That’s what I want.
DR. JAMES BRYANT 14:39
Well, I’m glad that you asked that. I love, I love reliving the kind of the path that I had to take, and I love it because I’m able to learn from it, and I hope that others are able to learn from it too. I mentioned earlier that I had this grand plan, three years in the private sector, three years in the public sector, and then national level, then start my own firm. So, I got married and I was working in the private sector. Um, not too long after we got married, I took a position in the public sector. I was working for the Virginia Department of Transportation. Love what I was doing. It was the next thing that was on the list. Everything was going great. My wife and I, we had been married for three years. Living here in Richmond, Virginia and an opportunity came up for an opening at the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine in Washington, D. C. as part of the Transportation Resource Board. So they were looking for someone to come in and help to manage and lead uh, 70 million apply research program that was looking at the renewal of our nation’s infrastructure. And for me, it was like, oh, this is great. This is the next thing on the list. This is what I’m going to do. So again, I’m working and I’m working and I’m working. Um, so I go for the interview. Interview goes well. Uh, I find out that they want to offer me the position. And I come home, my wife comes home early that day and we both have exciting news for each other. And I’m like, ah, I can’t wait to tell her. And I’m like, well, why did you come home? You knew, you know, I wanted to say something. How did you know I wanted to talk to you? And I said, you go first. So, she tells me that we’re expecting our first child. So, this would be my 16-year-old son, James. We’re expecting him, and it’s like, great. She has a card saying you’re going to be a father. We’re really happy and excited. And I say, hey, guess what? The people in DC offered me that job. And so, I think I’m going to take that job in DC. She gets really quiet. And she says, what? So yes, you know, we’ve been talking about this, they’re offering me the job. It’s the next thing on my list. And Mark, she says something that no person ever wants to hear ever wants to hear. She looks at me and says, are you really going to take that job? Yes. And she says, you must not love me and our unborn child because if you’re gonna do that, you’re not going to be here to spend time with us, you’re not going to be, you know, like it’s, it’s not going to work. You would think that that would be enough of a turning point for me, right? And I don’t know who’s all listening or who may be able to see the video, but hey, how many of you have those things that, that, that points in life where you quote unquote should listen, you should do something, but you say, ah, but this is on the list. This is the next thing and I want to do it. And oh, now that my wife is pregnant, I need to make sure that I’m so needless to say, I took the job, right? There were other issues that were going on, but I would leave at old dark 30 in the morning and cause I had to drive up to DC or catch the train up to D. C. I was driving in the van pool at that time, and then I will come back at at o’ dark 30 at night, meaning that I was missing everything that was going on here. You know, my wife’s exhausted. Um, you know, pregnancy just, that’s part of what happens. Um, and we have our first child. So, he comes. Everything is great. My wife stops working at that time. So, she’s home. So, you would think that I would say then I should do something different, but no, no, I don’t. I say I double down, right? I say, you know what? Things are going great at work. I’m managing this program. I’m traveling all across the country. I’m helping to renew our nation’s infrastructure. I’m meeting people in different countries. This is great. It’s a dream job. And I have to keep doing this because my wife isn’t working now. And so, I need to make sure that I’m doing what I need to do. So, we, we go about this and I’m, I’m, I’m bringing it home. I’m bringing it home, bringing the story home. We go about this, and my wife goes back to work immediately. We are pregnant with our second child and the doctor says your wife has to, she has to go on bed rest. And that was a big blow. One that my wife who I care for dearly. was impacted. She had to go on bed rest. But too, to be honest, I was still selflessly thinking about my career and how I was going to grow my career. So, um, my youngest son came at 26 weeks in one day. Uh, he was 1 pound 14 ounces at 10 days old, he, he died and then they were able to resuscitate him. He had surgery where they removed over two-thirds of his intestines. Um, and so we had to go through that with a one-year-old. Uh, uh, a, I had a wife who was questioning herself for, you know, what’s wrong with her, uh, because she wasn’t able to carry the baby in full term. And so, I’m, I’m battling all of these things, Mark. And I’m trying, I’m working and I’m here with the kid and I’m there for my wife. And it, it all began to crumble. It just began to crumble because what was important to me was at home. What was important to me was my wife, my kids, but I was spending all of my time and energy on growing my career. And that was when I had the moment. And I sat down and those are the three questions that I asked myself. And it was, do you want to win at work? Yes, I do. And I was, I was winning at work. Do you want to win at home? Yeah, I do. At least I said I did. But the third question is the shortest one, but was the hardest one for me to answer. And that was, are you? And at that time. I knew I wasn’t. I knew I wasn’t winning at home. And so that was the moment where I had to change.
MARK WRIGHT 21:26
Wow. That’s, that’s really intense, James. So, when you decided to make the change, what, what did that look like in terms of, uh, did you quit your job, or did you scale back? Did you start telecommuting? What, what was the, what was the solution then?
DR. JAMES BRYANT 21:41
I was fortunate enough that the employer that I had at the time, they told me that I could begin to work off-site. I could work remotely. And so, I started working remotely. Then I also started really prioritizing my own self-care as well as time for my family. Because during this time that I just described, my health got out of control. You know, I wasn’t getting much sleep. I was eating all the wrong things. And you can just imagine with the schedule and the different things that I was doing, there was no time for exercise. Um, so, I had to prioritize making time to be present with my family, making time for self-care, and making sure that I’m continuing to perform at work.
MARK WRIGHT 22:36
So, you’re now coaching people to win at work and at home. So, I mean, your story is such a great example of how you had to live that reality. How, how you had to own the truth, right? And, and had to make those changes. So, when people come to you and I, I think all of us early in our careers feel that pressure to just say yes. And if I say no, you know, somebody’s going to get ahead of me at work, and I’m going to give up something valuable. So, talk to that person, maybe early in their career right now, James, and give them some wisdom if you would to how to handle that.
DR. JAMES BRYANT 23:14
I would say, and I cover this as part of the engineer’s blueprint, where the first thing is to focus on what really matters to you, and really determining what matters to you. And when you’re able to focus on that, that helps to be part of your North Star that guides your decisions. And is it true that your career trajectory may slow down if you are not putting in 80 hours a week or whatever is, um, you know, standard for their industry? Yes, that’s true. It’s true. Those people that are doing that, they may their, their career trajectory may go up a little quicker than yours. However, I don’t know many people that do that, that live fulfilled lives. I don’t know many people that do that, that can sustain themselves. Once they get to that level of success, because that success is always driven by the excessive work and the over-reliance on, I’m just going to push through this instead of understanding how to leverage relationships, how to delegate, and how to engage people. So, for me, what eventually wound up happening is say a year and a half past, I’m working remotely. I’m still working with that company. Um, everything’s going well. They’re, they’re getting value from me working remotely. I’m in a much better place. You know, I’m showing up when I need to show up and there’s an opportunity for a promotion. And it says, James, we would like to give you a promotion, or we would like for you to put in for this promotion, oh, okay, great. Here’s the catch. If we promote you, we’re going to want you to be up here in Washington DC every day, like you were in the beginning. And I said, thanks, but no, thanks. I’m not interested. And we had this long discussion, Mark, where you were so ambitious and what happened to that? I thought you and your wife were talking about moving up here and all of these different things. I said, all of those things are true. However, I’m not moving up to Washington D.C. I’m not going to be here every day. And I asked, you know, the one question, are you happy with the level of work that you’re getting from me right now? Their answer was yes. I’m happy with the level of effort that I’m putting in to produce that level of work. I am not going to get back to a situation where I don’t have the ability to be present with my family just to scratch some career ladder itch. I’m not going to do that. And a funny thing happened. A funny thing happened, Mark. Can you guess what happened?
MARK WRIGHT 26:00
The universe rewarded you.
DR. JAMES BRYANT 26:02
And they gave me the promotion anyway. Two months later, I got the promotion. I didn’t have to be up there, um, every day. It, everything went rather smoothly. Um, so it was stick to what matters most to you, because that is really important.
MARK WRIGHT 26:19
Yeah. Early in my career as a, as a news anchor and reporter, I was working in Spokane and, uh, my I was, uh, uh, just, uh, I was reporting and, uh, my news director came to me and said, hey, there’s gonna be a morning anchor, or a weekend anchor job open, opening up and, uh, I’d love for you to, to consider it. And I, I thought about it, and I thought, man, here’s my chance to anchor the news, which was a huge jump up. But on the weekends, I knew I wouldn’t see my wife. So, I thought about it, and I went back to her, and I said, you know, I’d love to do it, but I just, I wouldn’t see my wife. And, and that’s really important to me, so I’m gonna pass. And she looked at me, like, shocked. And, uh, I said, yeah, I’m, I’m sorry. I just, I’m going to have to pass. And she said, well, you know that that’s, that means that others are going to advance above you. And I said, I know that. And I realized that. And, uh, so somebody else got the job. And three months later, a morning anchor job came open Monday through Friday. And, and she gave me that. And, uh, the lesson that it taught me, and, you know, I go back and speak to students at Washington State University, my alma mater. And I just tell them early on, I say, you need to first decide what’s important to you. And then you draw the boundary because if you don’t draw that boundary, somebody else is going to draw the boundary. And I think both, you know, your story then, and my story then, it just, I think, I think God, the universe, call it what you want. I think when you do the right thing for the right reasons, the good stuff happens in spite of that decision, right?
DR. JAMES BRYANT 27:52
Yeah, I think it happens in support of the decision. Not, not even in spite of it, but in support of it. Yeah, because when you focus on what really matters then that it mattered to me to be able to be around for my kids when they took their first steps, when they wanted to go to different parties and different things, it matters. I remember one time I was in, I think I was in, I was in South Korea for a meeting and the meeting was scheduled to end on my son’s birthday. And I remember doing everything that I could to have that meeting in early so I could pay the difference, get home and be here to look my son in his face and say, happy birthday. I did everything and I made it and it was great. He doesn’t remember, but I remember my wife remembers, um, but it was important to me.
MARK WRIGHT 28:56
One of the contributors that we’ve interviewed on this podcast, uh, had a saying 10 years from now, the only people who will know that you worked later, your kids, you know, the bosses and the owners. And, you know, that’s, but your kids will remember.
DR. JAMES BRYANT 29:15
They will, they absolutely will. You know, the interesting thing for me, Mark, and this is why I approach the whole work-life balance discussion from the point of the three questions that changed my life, because it forces you to look at things a little bit differently because I don’t know who doesn’t want to win at work. I don’t know. People do. Who doesn’t want to win at home? We all do. So why is it that if we talk about great negotiation tactics that we’re told to create win-win situations, but we don’t think about creating a win-win situation for us at work and at home. It’s all about creating that win.
MARK WRIGHT 29:55
You talked about delegating just a few minutes ago, James, and, uh, I, I heard the story that as you teach clients how to delegate in their businesses, I’d love for you to talk to that business owner who may be listening. You helped one client go from working 70-plus hours a week to less than 20 hours a week. Um, which is just amazing. What’s the key to delegation when you own the business?
DR. JAMES BRYANT 30:17
Part of it is making sure that you are communicating in such a way that you’re pulling people in so that they can own their part of what they need to do, right? So, and if they’re in accounting, if they’re in marketing, if they’re, uh, in production, whatever it is, is being able to set it up so that they feel that they have ownership in their, of their task and what they’re doing. I think that’s number one. You have to be able to convey that ownership. Number two is you have to equip them to do what they need to do. So, encourage them and equip them, and part of that is they’re not going to do it. Like you would do it. They’re absolutely not going to do it. Like you would do it. However, if you want to free yourself up so that you could either spend more time with your family or work, work on the key relationships in the business to grow the business from a business development perspective, then you’re going to have to shed some of those other activities that you’re doing. Some of the excuses that I’ve heard is, well, I just do it and I don’t have any standard operating procedures to do it and I don’t have time to develop it. Okay. All right. Great. This is what I want you to do. This is what I want you to do. The person that you want to do that position, you sit down, have a conversation with them. You can record the conversation when you’re actually doing the task, do a screen recording. So that you can then record all of the steps that you’re taking in order to produce the result that you want. Then, as part of that person’s task, you ask them to develop standard operating procedures based off of that video and that conversation. They come back to you, you look over that, you can see the gaps, if there’s anything that was missed or anything that was there, and then you as a business owner are not spending your time actually developing those procedures, you’re confirming those procedures, but the person that needs to know it is actually doing it.
MARK WRIGHT 32:22
Wow, that’s genius on, on many levels. I love that. I love that. So, I’ve heard you say, James, that you don’t work hard. You work smart. Um and delegation I take as part of that. But what does that mean in other areas of our work lives? How do you put that? How do we put that into practice?
DR. JAMES BRYANT 32:41
I think there’s a recognition. Here’s the first thing that I would do to kind of set the context for that statement is a lot of times this is what we like to say. I work smarter, not harder, but in every entrepreneur, every entrepreneur knows this, every business owner knows this. Hard work is required for success like hard work is at some point in time, you’re going to have to put your nose to the grind at some point in time, you’re going to have to put in those additional hours. I know I’ve talked about winning at work and at home, those things at some time, you’re going to have to push through your comfort zone. So, before I start talking about working smarter, unless I want to acknowledge that the hard stuff happens and that’s okay. Working smarter is when you begin to think about what is the best use of my time? What is the best use of my time? Is it the best use of my time doing accounts receivable? Is it the best use of my time following up on past invoices? Is it the best use of, what’s the best use of your time? And when you determine the best use of your time, then you design those other things for other people to do. That is working smarter. That is being able to delegate those things. And maybe you are more of a solopreneur. Maybe you don’t have a large staff. Are there some things that you can use artificial intelligence to co-create? Are there some ways in which you can do some automation? That when a certain action happens, it goes to the box that you needed or goes to the other consultant that you needed. That’s working smarter.
MARK WRIGHT 34:29
I heard you say that the thing that excites you most right now is that you have the flexibility, the desire, and the space to spend time with your family. So, from a very intentional standpoint, you’ve created a life right now that allows you to prioritize your family. So, James, help us get from point A to point B on this one. Give us some inspiration and practical advice that will lead us to that place. Because I think we all deeply want to get to that place where we don’t feel like we’re always under the gun at work. But we do have this balance and this flexibility to do what’s important.
DR. JAMES BRYANT 35:05
Well, for me, it was a long time coming. You know, meaning that I was winning at work and at home when I still had my full-time job and I started my company and I’m still, you know, was balancing all of those things, and then it gets to a point where you again focus on what matters most to you. The thing that mattered most was the flexibility to be able to be present with my family. And that was actually, I had some of that flexibility before because I was working remotely. Um, and then when I started my company, part of it was because I was looking at the progress that I was having with some of the private clients that I had, and it was like, okay, we need to launch this to do something more. So we started the company, also started the podcast, The Engineer, Your Success podcast. Uh, and you know, it, all of that was so that I could design and live a life where I’m winning at work and at home. So, it starts with focusing on what matters most. Family matters most to me being able to impact the business owner community, engineering community, those things matter to me, right? So that’s number one. So, okay, let’s visualize what that life actually looks like. What does it look like for me to be able to take my kids to the doctor, to be here when they have a bad day at school, to see them when they do well on a test that they didn’t think that they were going to do well on, to be here, to talk to them. When something happens with one of their friends, start to visualize that because when we visualize it at some, at some level, we’re living it. Focus on what matters most. Visualize what you actually want, but focusing on it, thinking about it, and dreaming about it, isn’t going to actually help you obtain it. What helps you obtain it are the next two steps, which is designed to plan. You know where you are, you know how you’re spending your time. You know what you’re doing right now. You know where you want to go. Start building a plan that closes the gap. You don’t have to close the gap in one fell swoop. You close the gap, you get to the other side, just like you do everything else, and that is one step at a time. Build a plan that has those steps and just because you have the plan and you know what to do, and I talk about this on my podcast, many people know what to do. Fewer people know how to do it, but there’s a select group of people that actually follow through, do it, and are living the life of their dreams. If you want to get to the other side, you have to execute that plan.
MARK WRIGHT 37:41
So, let’s talk a little bit about your podcast. You decided to start, uh, the podcast Engineer Your Success after your consulting business really started getting traction, right? So, congrats on producing more than a hundred episodes over the past two years, and I thought it was so touching as you crossed that 100 Episode milestone you gave a big shout-out to your boys, and I think that’s, that’s fantastic. There’s a lot of content there. Why did you decide to use a podcast as a way to reach people? Is it, is it, is it that it’s, is it a scale issue? I mean, is it in terms of, cause you can reach a lot more people?
DR. JAMES BRYANT 38:18
It really wasn’t a scale issue. Um, it was more, so I started this journey several years ago, right? Let’s even, even before we get to The Engineer, Your Success podcast, uh, was doing a weekly radio show, uh, on the international business growth radio network, um, I had two shows. One was business excellence and brought to you by Better You For You, which was the name of a life coaching company that I had. And then it was, uh, Better You For You, and entrepreneurs journey. So that really started me on this whole, uh, journey of being on the mic and falling in love with the medium. And I can remember starting the radio show. I was horrible, Mark. It was horrible. I was horrible.
MARK WRIGHT 39:11
Probably not worse than I was in the early part of my career.
DR. JAMES BRYANT 39:14
I was horrible. There were, there was, I mean, you know, you could really hear a lot of the breathing on the microphone. A lot of, uh, um, uh, and it was bad.
MARK WRIGHT 39:25
Oh, it was, I was an overnight board operator in college. Uh, for a public radio station, Northwest Public Radio. And, uh, I was dating my, you know, my girlfriend, who’s now my wife of 30, almost 33 years. And I would call her in her, thank you, I’d call her in her dorm at like 12:59 AM. Hey, turn on the radio, I’m gonna be on for a minute doing some work. And, uh, so I’m spinning classical music overnight. And I’m like, you’re listening to Northwest Public Radio. And the time, and I was just horrible. But God bless my wife, Jamie. She said, oh, that was so good. I would call her after the break and yeah. Oh, that was so good. It was not good.
DR. JAMES BRYANT 40:07
And so, the, it wasn’t good, but in, in here, you know, you, you reach out to your friends and you say, hey, listen, I want you to listen to this. I want you to do this. And everybody’s really encouraging, right? They’re like, oh, it was great. Oh, that was a good episode. It was wonderful. But I think that they’re walking behind you and saying that really sucked, but they don’t want to tell you. And so, I knew it sucked, but since nobody else was confirming it, I didn’t want to walk around with my head in the sand. So, I started to meticulously listen to my episodes and okay I have to get better equipment. I have to learn the power of a pause. I have to learn to be able to have emotion come through my voice. And what I tell people is I had to listen to my own voice to be able to find my own voice. And it was through that listening and through that process that I got a lot more comfortable being on the microphone in front of the camera. Because those shows were live, right? So, if you mess up, you mess up but I loved it. So, I did that for about a year. And then I was like, okay, this is great, but I want to focus more on the engineering community. I want to focus on business owners. You know, I want to do something different and I was talking to one of my cousins and she was like, well, you’re an engineer and you have a business. And I was like, why don’t you focus on, uh, engineers in business? I was like, bing, genius, genius. Uh, and that kind of started me on the path of rebranding of, uh, starting the new company Engineer Your Success LLC, where we do executive coaching, consulting, and leadership development focused on helping business owners and engineering executives design and live a life where they can win at work and at home.
MARK WRIGHT 42:04
Yeah. Was that November of last year that you started full-time in the consulting?
DR. JAMES BRYANT 42:08
Full-time November of last year. I was doing it before, but full-time November of last year.
MARK WRIGHT 42:14
Yeah. Um, I want to talk a little bit about faith. I don’t, I don’t think I’ve ever talked about this publicly, but when I was flunking out of college in the business school way back in the day, I literally had to get reinstated for bad grades, two semesters in a row. And the second time, I had to meet with the provost, you know, during winter break and he’s like, probably thrilled meeting with loser students on his Christmas break, but he, he literally scared the life out of me. He said, look, I’m about ready to not let you back into this institution and you need to go home and figure it out. And so, I went home, and I prayed, soul searched, and it came to me that I was doing what I thought I should do, not what I love to do. I love to write. I love to tell stories. So, I changed my major to broadcasting and I believe it’s a God thing and the doors flew open from that day. For 35 years until the door is firmly shut a year and a half ago and now it led to what I’m doing now, but I’d love to the extent that you’re comfortable James I know that you go to church you believe in tithing. How does how does God play into, how do you, how you function as a businessperson on a daily basis?
DR. JAMES BRYANT 43:18
Oh, my goodness. Now, I don’t know if people are watching the video, but I’m quite sure that the smile and the beam on my face, as you were talking about that Mark kind of shot up. God plays a huge role in what I do as an individual and as a business owner. You know, it’s, acknowledge him in all your ways and he will direct your path. So, I start my day with quiet time. I start my day reading devotionals, seeking God through prayer, and getting some guidance as to what activities or things should I focus on today? Now I’m a hundred percent. It’s just in terms of, okay, God, I want to make sure that I have the top three things, no, but I’m always seeking. I’m always really moving forward toward what I believe God would have me to do. So, it’s a huge role, you know, I was asked the question, uh, recently what my favorite book is. And I, you know, talked about Think and Grow Rich and As a Man Think If, and I really like Gary Keller’s The One Thing. But the book that I read the most is the Bible. Because within the Bible, I get success principles for business and life. It’s right there in plain sight. And I get to actually seek God, and I believe in having a conversation with God. And I believe that He leads and directs me in the path that He would have me to go.
MARK WRIGHT 44:40
That’s amazing. That’s cool. Well, I want to start to wrap things up, James. This has been super fun. But what I’d love, I’d love for you to just give some, some just true inspiration to the, you know, to people who, you know, I think a lot of us feel overwhelmed when we want to make changes in our lives, uh, because there’s so much that we need to change. But I heard you earlier say, start with something, start with a plan. Start with digestible bites so that you can chip away. Um, give us some inspiration, uh, James, that we can, that we can really take to heart to, to take us where we are, to where we want to be.
DR. JAMES BRYANT 45:15
And I don’t know if this is so much inspiration as it is truth, and that’s this, you do not need enough motivation to finish what you want to start right now. You don’t, if you’re sitting on the, on the fence, you think you want to make a change or you know, you need to make a change and you’re like, but I don’t think I can complete it. You don’t need enough strength, energy, or motivation to complete it. What you do need is enough strength, energy, and motivation to start, just start, start making changes one step at a time, one day at a time, one moment at a time, you can do it and what, what happens once you start, you start building momentum. And I think this is key to be able to really hone in on what it is you want to accomplish and yes, you may want to go a hundred steps, but focus on that one step. And then when you complete that, do the next step. Then the next step, you will find that you have the strength, the energy, and the motivation to get you to where you want to go.
MARK WRIGHT 46:32
Wow. That is, that is wonderful advice. Um, my boss, Dan Rogers is on a mission and our team at BEATS WORKING is on a mission to redeem work. In, you know, just to make work better for everyone, to show that if done properly, work can be a beautiful thing. Um, in your mind, James, what does, what does redeeming work look like? When you work with clients, when you coach people, when you’re on your podcast, in your mind, what is, what does redeeming work mean?
DR. JAMES BRYANT 47:01
To me, it’s bringing back the beauty and joy of work. Work is beautiful and it can be joyous because you’re solving a problem for someone else. You’re creating a solution for someone. So being able to tap into the solution that you provide, the problem that you solve, and the joy or satisfaction that it brings to your customers. So, redeeming that is removing all of those other things that you’re to be dealing with being able to delegate, eliminate, and automate systems so that it frees you up to focus on those things that you like to do most. To me, that’s how you redeem work.
MARK WRIGHT 47:45
What doesn’t feel like work to you right now, James?
DR. JAMES BRYANT 47:50
What does not feel like work to me?
MARK WRIGHT 47:52
Yeah, what makes you say, yeah, BEATS WORKING?
DR. JAMES BRYANT 47:55
Uh, you know, what does it, you know, most of the things that I do now, I truly enjoy, so, and this is, this is the challenge for me talking about, you know, the, the, when at work and at home guy, it’s really easy for me to come back into my office and start working on something because I like it, right? It doesn’t, it doesn’t feel like work. And so, I have to put clear guidelines in place for myself to say, okay, after this certain time, I’m not going to do any more work. And if I am, I’m going to talk to my wife and my kids and say, hey, I’m going into the office for this amount of time. I need you to come knock on the door and get me after that time.
MARK WRIGHT 48:42
I love it. Well, the podcast is called Engineer Your Success. Um, Dr. James Bryant, it’s been such an honor, uh, talking with you, spending some time learning from you, and what’s the best way if people want to connect with you, how do they do it?
DR. JAMES BRYANT 48:56
The best way you can catch me on LinkedIn. Uh, jameswbryantjr.com, and the easiest way to find, uh, the podcast, of course, is Engineer Your Success. You type it up in Google, the first thing that comes up is going to be the Apple podcast there. And if you need to, if you want to look at the website, then you can go to winatworkandhome.com, winatworkandhome.com.
MARK WRIGHT 49:24
Well, thank you for what you’re doing to redeem work. This has been such a pleasure and hope we keep in touch.
DR. JAMES BRYANT 49:29
All right, thanks a lot Mark.
MARK WRIGHT 49:30
I’m Mark Wright. Thanks for listening to BEATS WORKING, part of the WORKP2P family. New episodes drop every Monday. And if you’ve enjoyed the conversation, subscribe, rate, and review this podcast. Special thanks to show producer and web editor Tamar Medford. In the coming weeks, you’ll hear from our Contributors Corner and Sidekick Sessions. Join us next week for another episode of BEATS WORKING, where we are winning the game of work.
