Episode 104 – Brian Bullock: Living Your Legacy

DN104 – Brian Bullock: Living Your Legacy

Casanova Brooks
What’s up Dream Nation today. We are back again, and we’re going to have a phenomenal episode. As you guys know, I always bring the energy and I feel that on this episode, we’re going to have somebody that is going to match my energy, which a lot of the times I know is kind of hard to do, but I’ve seen this brother in action and I’m telling you when he gets the going, he gets.

The going so without further ado, please help me in welcoming mr. Pastor Brian Bullock to the show. Brian want to go ahead and say what’s up to Dream Nation.

Ryan Bullock
I made it I’ve arrived. You hear what I’m saying? Listen, I’ve traveled the world, but I’m here. I’ve made it dream nation. Thank you for welcoming me. I’m super excited, man.

I’m ready to go. I’m I’m amped about this. I’m just glad that I’m in the number, man. Now I get to be, when they scroll, you know, Instagram and or YouTube, they’re going to see all the famous faces and then they go, they’re going to see my face too. You know what I’m saying? So I’m just glad for those who don’t know who I am on a prime bullet, and I’m just excited to be able to talk to you guys today.

It’s cool.

Casanova Brooks
Man, we’re excited to learn from you. You got so much wisdom and we know that the stories are going to come out and I’m excited to hear them, but I always love to give the proper introduction and always like to think of us entrepreneurs as superheroes. Why is because we’re constantly flying around, we’re putting on our Cape and we’re trying to solve problems around the world to make this world a better place.

And so I’ll always love to give the proper introduction and before. Or we talk about all of the publication, the videos that you’ve had went viral, the people whose lives that you’ve changed. I mean, you’ve been all over the world and I seen you from a viral clip. So I know there’s someone else out there that already knows who you are, but I like to take it back before all of that.

When we can think about you being just a young boy, tell me who is Brian Bullock? Man.

Ryan Bullock
I was born and raised in the inner city of Boston and, grew up on the rough side man in a city called Dorchester and, man, typical story, you know, my mom was a single mom raising me and my two brothers on our own.

I’m the middle child. A father was struggling with drug addiction in and out of the home. you know, my, the first time I ran with my dad was me running after my dad because he had stole my mother’s pocketbook that I left on the porch. He took it and ran. I ran after my dad and it dawned on me years later that the only time I’ve ever ran what my dad was trying to wrestle my mother’s purse out of his hand, because I know he was trying to use it for drugs.

And, me and my mom was doing our best man. My mother, when I was in third grade, my mom did something no mother should do to their child. she was my cafeteria lady at my elementary school. And one day, without my permission, I walk into the cafeteria. My mother’s got on one of those hair nets, serving my friend’s mashed potatoes with gravy and, My mom was just doing man, everything she could do to keep us alive and keep us growing.

But one of the beautiful things that my mother did was she took me to church every single week. I mean, we went to church more than I went to school. I mean, we didn’t have school clothes. When we went to school, they were like, why you bring your church clothes to school? They were the same. They were one and the same church clothes and school clothes.

And, my grandfather, my grandfather was one of the youngest of 27 children. Yes, 14 children, those 14 children have about 70 grandchildren. I’ve got 70 cousins all around the city of Boston. We all sing. We all, you know, do some type of dance or something. And my grandfather was the one he used to always make me sing.

He was always waiting to go to rehearsal. Always make me come to church. He’d always say, this is who a Bullock is. This is what a Bullock does. I went to church one time and a sweater. My grandfather grabbed me up, hit me against the wall, said, what are you doing with a sweater on? I was like 12. I said, I’m just wearing a sweater.

He said, do you ever see me wear a sweater? I said, no. He said, what do you see me wear? I said a suit and tie. He said, I want to see you in a suit and tie every week. I would wear a suit and tie to church every single week. That was the type of a man my grandfather was. And so I’m thankful, man, because although he was annoying at the time, where I stand today, I recognize I wouldn’t be where I am.

If it wasn’t for my grandfather. Teaching me legacy teaching me my identity. And, and my mother still works in the same school, but she’s not a cafeteria lady. She’s a master’s degree teacher in that school. Been there now for about 20 years and she’s doing fantastic. And so all my brothers.

Casanova Brooks
Man, that’s a blessing to hear.

And it sounds to me like really from the beginning, you just learn the power of being a God fearing man, and also just serving other people. Right. And being able to pass it back down, which is something that, you know, especially in the African American community, we long for a lot of the times. Cause I heard you say like teaching me my identity.

A lot of the times we don’t know what our identity is. Right. We don’t know. There are so many things, depending on who you love, you know, the people who you respond to your, your friend groups, your church groups are not church groups. So it’s a blessing to be able to have that. At what point did you think that like, talk to me about to get right into it?

Was there ever. A trying time in your life where you felt like, cause now it looks like you have it all mapped out, right? It looks like you’re speaking your, you tell stories with the best of them, but was there ever a time where, when you were younger, you did not know your identity, even though you had your grandfather and your mother where you felt like you were maybe lost, then you had to search for it.

Ryan Bullock
Yeah, I call it the Simba Syndrome. Okay? So Simba has a syndrome where his father tells him that he’s a King. Okay. We all seen the Lion King and somebody knows that I’m I’m the throne, but what happens along the way, he makes what he makes some mistakes. Right. And he makes some mistakes in other people’s eyes.

And Scar convinces him and his uncle convinces him that he’s not good enough for this position, that he don’t really belong here. And so Simba says, forget it. I’m good. I’m I’ll just go out and Hakuna Matata. I’m going out into the jungle and I’m going to forget who I really am. I’m gonna forget that I’m royalty.

I’m going to forget that I’m a King. I’m going to forget that there’s a land waiting for me. Why? Because I don’t think I’m worthy of it. And I went through moments like that, man, where. I felt like there was a destiny for my life, but I didn’t feel like I was worthy to walk in that destiny, made some mistakes when I was younger, man.

It’s one of the beautiful things about growing up in church is you don’t smoke weed. You don’t go to clubs. You don’t. You don’t, you don’t do a lot of crazy things. You don’t swear. One of the bad things about growing up in church is you learn how to hide things from people and you learn how to perfect pretending.

And so I got to a place man, where I was struggling privately, but looking great publicly.

Talk to me

Casanova Brooks
about it. And the reason why I say that is because a lot of people, they are that same place right now. Right. But even crazier, they’re listening at this and they had that denial, not only with the public, but they start to deny even to themselves.

Right. So talk to me, if you don’t mind going into, like, what was that, that time where you were like, man, I gotta, I gotta change something up or I’m never going to get to who I’m supposed to be.

Ryan Bullock
Yeah, I think for me, man, I, it was the, it was the dichotomy of living two lives. Right? So there there’s a public me that like you said, it looks like it has it all together.

Well, then there’s a private me that has insecurities. There’s a private me that struggled with low self esteem. There’s a private me that has some character flaws. There’s a private me. The public me looks great, but the private me don’t go to work on time. You know what I’m saying? There, there are things about me that I know that needs to be worked on.

And I think for me, man, I had the privilege of physically having my job broke. Hmm. Let me say this again. I had the privilege of physically have in my job role one day I’m leaving church and I get into a fight outside the church. So I’ll do random dude rolls up on me, get into a scuffle.

When the scuffle was over, breaks my jaw. I have my jaw wired shut for six weeks. Now, mind you, my entire life. I’ve been singing. I’ve been preaching my entire life.

My voice has been my identity. My entire life, every good thing has ever happened to me, came because I sing, I was speaking, I was doing something. And now the very thing that I thought was my identity was snatched from me for six weeks because I’m sipping out of a straw because my mouth is wired shut.

I’m talking like this. And can I tell you something? It was the best season of my life, because in that moment I have to strip away. Okay. What are you or who are you without the voice, without the singing, without the preaching, without the talking. Who are you then? And I met me for the first time and when I met me for the first time, I realized that I was bigger than a voice.

I was bigger than the gift. I was bigger that all the hiding and all that stuff that I was doing, it was really me missing out on me because I was so busy, you know, it’s like, it’s funny. It’s like, everybody loves Superman, but you know, Superman likes Clark Kent. Superman is like Superman.

It’s like, I know y’all love when I’m, you know, rescuing Lois. I know y’all love what I’m fighting the. But, but what they don’t know is he really wants to just go put on those glasses. Put on a suit and be normal. And I think for me, man, I got to be Clark Kent for six weeks. And when I got to be Clark Kent I realized that who God made me to be is beyond the gift and beyond the public image and beyond what people will have to see from me publicly.

And it was a game changer. And so I tell people all the time, what’s your jaw breaking moment. Everybody’s going to have one. You’re going to have a moment. Where the real use is going to have to rise and the “facade you” is going to be broken. And in that moment, you’re going to meet you for the first time.

You’re going to meet God for the first time, and it’s going to be, be the beginning of you coming back to your kingdom. Going back to my Simba analogy, you’re going to go back to the, your kingdom. You’re going to go back to who you were destined to be, but this time you’re going to get it. You’re going to be healthy.

You’re going to be whole in the process.

Casanova Brooks
Man. I love it. It was how much of your environment contributed to you feeling like you are in who you were supposed to be? You are going to become your Mufasa. Like was it only soul searching? And the reason why I asked that is because there’s a lot of people right now that might be feeling broken right now, but they don’t necessarily know how to.

Tell visually that this is who they’re supposed to be. Right. So was it something that you read? Was it something that you talk to another pastor you talk to your grandfather? How did you come to that moment? Because when I listened at those things, I hear it and I’m sure someone else does and says, man.

That’s so great that you found who you were supposed to be, but I don’t even know, like how will I know when it hits me.

Ryan Bullock
Yeah. There’s a scripture in the Bible in Jeremiah, where God speaks to a prophet named Jeremiah. And he says, “before you were formed in your mother’s womb, I knew you”. We also see in scripture, there’s a, there’s a, there’s a character.

There are two, there are two men, two boys, one named Jacob and Esau, twin brothers inside their mother’s womb. When the Lord shows up to speak to their mom, the Lord says to the mother, there are two nations on the inside of you. Before they even say a word, their destiny had already been determined before they even said a word.

The Lord had already called them who they were supposed to be before Jeremiah was even formed. There was something in him. And I think when we are born, there is something in us that clicks there’s something in us that knows who we are. To be honest, I think that the older you get. And the more you learn, the more you forget who, you know, you’re who, you know, you’re supposed to be.

So there’s a, there was a, there was a guy who went into a, a classroom, a college room, college dorm room, you know, he’s on a campus and he holds up a towel and he says, what is this? Everybody say, that’s a towel. And then he holds up a stick. He says, what is this? They said, that’s a stick, he said, no look at it again.

What is this? Says the towel. He holds up the stick. What is this? This is a stick. Same teacher goes into a kindergarten class, holds up a towel. He says, what is this? They all said, it’s a cape. It goes up the stick. He says, what is this? They said, that’s a sword, same material, but different mindset. And I think we are born with gifts and we say, wow, this is my cape.

This is my sword. And then somebody comes along and says that ain’t no cake, that’s a towel. That ain’t no sword, that’s a stick. And so now you spend the rest of your life with this gift and this purpose and this dream that somebody talked to you out of. And I think environment is huge because I think the right environment, will bring you back to your sword and Kate days, I think the right environment will let you know, wait a minute, wait, you don’t just cook now.

When you cook, come on, whoever, I don’t know when Patty LaBelle, I don’t know when she made her first. sweet potato pie. Okay. But the first day she made a sweet potato pie somebody said, Patty, this ain’t no regular pie. This ain’t no towel. This ain’t no stick. Somebody said, Patty, this was a sword.

You better, you better sleep. These pies all over the world

Now, Patty probably been making pies her whole life. But, but, but, and I promise you when Patty makes pies, there’s a joy on the inside. There’s something that resonates. Imagine if somebody said Patty, you’re positive. Good, but you ain’t gonna make no money doing no pie.

You know, how many, you know, how many sweet potato pies are out there? Do you know, pies aren’t so good. You can only get them at Walmart. It’s the only place you can get them from. You know what I’m saying? So what I’m saying is that environment is everything because someone can talk you out. Of your purpose.

Somebody can talk you out of your dream because it doesn’t make sense to them. Hmm. And you gotta be careful giving your dreams to small minded people, because if you give big dreams to small people, they will minimize and put a chokehold on your potential. So for me, man, I was in an environment where my grandfather demanded greatness.

My grandfather always called me up to be honest, when I ended up leaving that church and going to another church, it was because I had grown so much. My grandfather had put it in my mind to constantly grow, that I always put myself in environments where I’m constantly growing. So I think the environment is important.

And when you find the right one, man, there’s no steps, man. I can’t tell you. All right. You’re going to feel this way. You’re going to, I’m just telling you hand in glove. You’re going to know. I think I found my thing. I think I found what God knew about me before everybody talked me out of it.

Casanova Brooks
Man. I love that.

And it’s so funny because I was just talking to my homeboy just yesterday. And we were talking about how you can manifest anything in your mind, but in those first moments that you talk about whatever your dream is, it depends on so much of your environment. You say, man, I’m gonna live in this neighborhood, which is something that I did.

And I didn’t even know this is about three years ago. Right. And my mom. It was just after my mom had passed away. And then my grandma and my uncle was here in town and we’re going to look at a Christmas lights and it was in a neighborhood that I said, man, I love this neighborhood. And I said, it would be so nice to live in here.

Never knowing, never even having an expectation. I wasn’t seeing like. Give me some time on the live in here. Right. I was just saying it, but not knowing that I was manifesting it, but what happened was at that time, my, my grandma and my uncle, they didn’t say anything of like, Oh, you’re definitely going to do it.

But more importantly, they didn’t be like, Oh no, like this is

really big. You know? And so that was so huge because who knows if they would have said something of the negative, right. That my subconscious mind would have been like, Oh man, they’re right. Right. And that’s what you’re saying, like you’re important.

So it’s so important to protect your energy around your environment. And I love that you brought that part up. At what point did you know that you wanted to get back into speaking and trying to travel all over the country and really trying to tap into that gift? Because there’s a lot of people out there that have a story similar to yours and mine.

Right. And they want to share it, but they don’t have the confidence and they don’t have the faith, to, to really go out there on a limb. And be able to share their story, to think that it has enough importance and relevancy. So what, at what point did you really start to feel after you know, that thing where you’re like, I can go do something else?

Cause I haven’t been speaking for six weeks anyway.

Ryan Bullock
Yep.

Casanova Brooks
What did that look like?

Ryan Bullock
I think for me after that moment, first of all, I wanted to speak and preach and travel my entire life. So from the day I was born, that’s all I ever wanted to do and sing. I think after that jaw breaking moment, I realized that.

It was, it was, it was destiny or, or die, right. It was like, okay. Since if life is going to be hard either way. Okay. Like, I was just like, alright, if life is going to be hard, either way, I might, I might as well do what I love doing. And it’d be hard doing it. You know what I’m saying? If I’m going to be getting in fights coming out of church, I might as well just go ahead and do what I love to do.

Either way. And so for me, man, it was really a moment where I had an, I had a different, a different kind of journey in the sense of one of the, one of the issues that me and my grandfather would trouble with a lot. And he’s just old school, you know, it’s nothing wrong. He just old school “don’t ever promote yourself.”

Right. It was like, Hey, don’t ever promote yourself. Really stay humble, stay. So even though I had this great grand gift. I don’t want to tell anybody about it. I don’t want to, I don’t want to over expose pride, man. Pride comes before a fall. You know what I’m saying? I don’t want to give the devil a foothold and men the scripture.

That Rocked me was the words of Jesus. He says, “let your light so shine before men, that they may see your deeds and glorify your father. Who’s in heaven”. It’s one of my life scriptures. I think for me, where I made the turn was, I said, you know what? I’m going to build a website. I never forget it. My wife, you know, I just, I got engaged.

I told my wife make me a website. I grabbed, we went and we went in like my mother’s basement and took some, took some, some head shots of me in the basement. And I, I finally decided that I wasn’t going to wait to live my dream. I finally decided that I was not going to be quiet about it, that I was going to tell people about it.

And can I tell you something from the first day? I released a website and I head shot, as terrible and as horrible as it was from that first day, I have been speaking all over the country and I haven’t, I have not looked back since. And so I would tell people, man, that you got to get to a place where you stop pretending that you’re not as gifted as you are to make people who are less gifted than you feel comfortable.

Yep. You got to get to a place where you stop being stagnant so that people who are stuck will feel good about their lives. Nope. I am going to be loud. I’m going to let my light so shine. Jesus said, let it shine. Let your gift shine. Let your dream shine. Let your, let your skills, your purpose, shine, and watch what God does in the end.

Man. I love that. And so the quote that comes to my mind, and obviously he’s not Jesus, but he’s definitely somebody who I’ve always looked up to. But Jay Z said, it was a line that he has and he says, “they’ll try to dim your light, tell you be humble. You know, I’m going to shine like a trillion Watts.”

Right.

Casanova Brooks
And I, and I love that. So I love the fact that you say it because I think a lot of people, myself included, we struggle. We want to broadcast that we have a talent, that we have a gift that we have value we can give to the world. But at the same time, we’re like, man, but if we come off too energized.

Right. If we come up to energize, it’s going to look like we’re egotistical. Like we’re arrogant. Like there we’re better than someone else. And we don’t necessarily know how to communicate that no,we’re the same as you. We’re just trying to live all in on our belief, on our purpose. And so. I love that you brought that part up.

Was there ever a time where you knew I’m made for this? Like, was there one time where you were on stage or something like that, that you caught, you caught the, for lack of a better word, the Holy ghost and then, and everybody just went crazy and you came off feeling like you were just won your Superbowl.

Was there one time like that, that you can imagine.

Ryan Bullock
Absolutely. it happened about three years ago. an event called WinnerFest. Rochester, New York, somebody invited. I had to be honest, I did a small little, small little church. It was like 15 people in this church. Okay. And it was like a youth, it was like a youth revival.

Okay. Youth revival. In Boston, I show up, there’s like 15 kids. I was like, you know, okay. But for me, 15 or 15,000, I’m going to give it my all I’m going all in. Right. So I preached to these kids. I prophesized to these kids , I prayed for these kids lives. I lay hands on these kids, kids are getting like transformed before our eyes. Afterwards, the pastor invited me, said, I’m going to, I’m going to throw your name out to this event.

We do call Winnerfest. Have you ever heard of it said no. He was like, we’re gonna, I’m gonna, you know, tell him about you and, And if we invite you, can you please come out? So yes, they invited me to Winnerfest mind you, it wasn’t a small little church, 15 kids. So they said, Hey man, you coming to Winnerfest?

I said, Oh cool. Can’t wait for Winnerfest. I get to the hotel. And one of the dudes who were with me, they said, Hey man, you might want to come downstairs. This is pretty packed. I was like, Oh, cool, good. I was thinking, Oh cool. The 15 member, little church, right.

Casanova Brooks
Maybe I got doubled, maybe I’m entirety.

Ryan Bullock
I was like, Ooh.

You know, no, they said, no, you might want to come downstairs now. You know? So I come downstairs. 3000 raging teenagers in one room. And I sat there saying, wait, wait, what in the world is going on? And here was the moment for me. I preached the power of the Lord moved. God bless those young people. But what happened was, as I’m standing on stage, when I walked out on stage, the Lord brought back to my mind.

When I was 10 when I was 12 and coming home from school, grabbing a hairbrush. And preaching to my toys. I would, I was, I used to preach to, to the air I would, in my mind, I would see thousands of people and I’d have my hairbrush. I close my eyes and I’d be preaching. I’m speaking. And that day at Winnererfest, I’m standing on the stage and I realized.

I’ve seen this room before I realized I’ve been here before, this was not the first time I’ve seen this room and this wasn’t the first time I’ve seen these people. They were living in my dream long before I ever showed up. And to realize that I finally manifested as the word you use, that the Lord showed me a vision and that I got to see the vision with my own eyes.

The moment I walked off. I cried like a baby, because I realized that everything I thought was a setback, was a set up to get me to the place that God had already intended for me to be.

Casanova Brooks
Man, there you have it. I love that now, something else that I wanted to tap into, and I think that anybody can go and see the, the video that you put on your social media.

And one of the videos that went viral, but you talked about your last name is bigger than your first name. And I think for a lot of people, especially in the people, in our culture, they struggle with. Thinking bigger than themselves. Right? It’s it’s that mindset of like nobody ever gave to me. So I’m not going to give to nobody when I get it.

Right. But when you think it’s like, yeah, you build your foundation, which is you. Right. But at the end of the day, why do we build a foundation? We build a foundation so we can put a solid home on it. And that home hopefully is big enough that we can bring our whole family in and we can create more memories.

So that’s when I think about building a legacy, the home is the legacy. Right. And that’s everything else. So talk to me about that. Like when did that become, that’s got to be my message.

well, the funny thing about it is that it started at a family reunion. Somebody, somebody randomly requested that I speak at their family reunion.

I’ve never spoken at a family reunion in my life. It wasn’t my family. It wasn’t, it was like the Johnson family just wanted me to speak. And so I was like, you know what, I’m a speaker. So let me I’ll speak at your family reunion. And I wrote a speech called Living for Legacy, and, that speech turned into a sermon that I preached at the church.

I attend at World Overcomers and North Durham, North Carolina, 10,000 people. That’s Andy Thompson, shout out to my pastor. And, man, I, that became a sermon and that we, we took a clip and I posted that clip, man. And I tell you literally within seconds, Of posting that clip and the clip was pretty much me talking about a McDonald’s how many of the products that we purchase.

We think their products, what they’re really families that McDonald’s, isn’t a product, it’s a family, that a Rolls Royce. Isn’t a product. Those are families that Welch’s as in grape juice as a family. And what the video was about was me pretty much saying here I am making every family rich while I’m making my own family broke.

And man, we dropped this video and all of a sudden, man, within seconds, within seconds, this thing just goes nuts. Celebrities, athletes, pastors, teachers, everyone starts sharing it. I’m getting called for interviews and getting flown across the country. I mean, so many things took place and I realized that this is the mantra of my life.

And I also realized that it struck a chord with the world. And, I think it was Howard Thurman who says, ask not what the world needs, what asks, what makes you come alive for what the world needs? Our men who have come alive. And I realized that this message made me come alive. And because it made me come alive, I watched it make other people come alive.

And I realized that this was the thing that the Lord wanted me to speak. And he wanted me particularly to speak it to millennials and gen Z, because I think it’s a message that’s missing. And I think it’s something that we have to start taking more seriously.

Casanova Brooks
I love that. And so is there anything that I know that you come from more of the spiritual side, but is there anything from the tactical and side that you would say, here’s the first thing that we have to start doing to better our situation for not only ourselves, but to be on the right path, to building a legacy?

Is there ever like a two or three step process that you try to at least give people nuggets on?.

Ryan Bullock
The number one thing, the know the number one thing and something that you have to do constantly is, is write a vision. you have to have a vision, but you also need to write a vision and you need to write it as detailed as you can possibly get it to be. And the reason why you gotta do that, man, is because you got to Stephen Covey says, start with the end in mind. You gotta, you gotta start with the end in mind. I think everyone, I hear people say stuff like, you know, I wake up and just. I don’t like to plan my day.

I like to see what the day leads me. I don’t let my day lead me nowhere. I I’m determining how this day is going to go, because there are a lot of people who are in depression cause they’re, the day led them into depression. They look outside and see the weather and all this gray day, I guess, I guess it’s going to be one of those sad days.

No, you have to determine your day. You have to determine your month. You have to determine your year. You have to determine the next five years. When I’m asking people, when I’m asking millennials and gen Z to do right now is. Describe 10 years for me. Describe what 15 years from now look like, just let’s think about it.

This idea of just live for the day. I get it. Enjoy the day, take the day in appreciate all this stuff that’s happening within this day. But the best way to maximize today is by declaring my tomorrow. By saying. By saying, because I know where I’m going. Let me maximize what I’m doing in this day, because I know where I’m headed.

And I think there are too many people who have no clue where they are going. They are literally one Monday. They, one way Tuesday they’re basketball players, Wednesday they’re astronaut Friday. They’re gangster. It’s like, can you, can you make up your mind? And I think yes, things changed. Did we expect a pandemic?

No. Let me ask you a question. I’m asking you a question. I know you’re interviewing me, but were you doing this before the pandemic?

Casanova Brooks
Oh, absolutely.

And when the pandemic are, you stopped doing this, or this is what you do. This is what I do. That’s what I’m saying. So we know things happen along the way, but, but I actually think that when you have a plan, you are more prepared for change and for shifts to happen quickly.

But those people who are just living life and don’t know where you want to be in 10 years, I don’t know how you can build a legacy. And this is what I believe. If you don’t take time to build your own legacy, you will spend the rest of your life building someone else’s. And I think that you need to start to determine what do I want my legacy to look like in the next five years?

Man.

I love it. And that first thing that you’ve said, I think everybody, no matter if you’re a millennial or not, there’s so many people just going through life that just, like you said, they don’t have their vision written down and they’ve never thought about it. Maybe. Cause they’re afraid to tell other people maybe it’s because they’re afraid to tell it to themselves.

Maybe it’s too small. Maybe they think that it’s too big. Right. And so they’re afraid to, to maybe even shut themselves down. But one thing I always tell my students, I tell my friends, my family, like. At the end of the day, you do not have to love the journey, but you have to be married to the destination.

Right. But if you don’t have a destination, you can’t marry anything. If you just hop in the car, you know, that’s very, very tough. so I love the fact that you said that.

Was there ever, was there ever a person besides your grandfather that has really been instrumental in your last three years in life to really, you know, let you, that you go to.

What about for you? Is there anybody like that?

Ryan Bullock
The number one influence in my life over the last maybe. Three to five years. I do not know them. I only read their book, listened to their podcast and just gravitate towards everything they touch. And that man is Dave Ramsey, the financial guru, Dave Ramsey.

And when I went to sit down and go pay my mortgage, I was short and I couldn’t understand how I just had a lavish vacation and now I’m short on my mortgage and I said, something’s wrong! And somebody had introduced a book to me, call The Total Money Makeover. I read that book in one day. It probably should take me up.

It shouldn’t take me a month to read it. I read it in one day. When my wife came home, I said, girl, we’re going to be debt free. We’re paying off this debt. At the time I had $80,000 a debt. We have $50,000 student loans, $10,000 on a credit card and two, car loans that had $10,000 on it. And in two years, we paid off all $80,000 a debt and we became debt free.

And, it had such a major impact on me. that I ended up driving down to Nashville and I ended up just going to go meet him and just want to shake his hand. And so I hope that everyone finds that person for them. because I do think that having that, even if it’s a virtual mentor, or even if it’s a mentor through a book, maybe somebody who’s gonna read “Living for legacy”.

And they’re saying, that’s the book that changed everything for me. We need that. we need those moments. And I think that it’s critical for our growth.

Man. I love it. I love it. It’s funny. We just had Anthony O’Neil on the episode. He was actually just the last one released Anthony O’Neil who’s part of the Dave Ramsey debt free talks to millennials on student loans and stuff like that.

So. That’s what’s up, man.

And he is the guy to listen to our generation without question.

Casanova Brooks
That’s what’s up, man. So, Hey, it’s been a super dope episode and always like to leave it. With one thing there’s somebody out there who’s listening right now. That’s super inspired. They love your story. They love where you come to it also, where you’re going with the messages that you’re preaching and they would love to do something similar to what you’re doing, or at least just step out on faith.

Ryan Bullock
I would just say that if, like I said earlier, if it’s going to be painful, I might as well go for it anyway.

And I think that. It’s an easy word “Believe” you know, believe, just believe we’ve been hearing it since we were kids, but the math or truth of the matter is you do have to believe. You have to actually believe that what God put in me is greater than the obstacles against me. You have to actually believe that the pain of moving forward is better than the pain of standing still.

You have to actually believe that my legacy is worth it because on the other side of that pain, on the other side of the unknown, there is so much victory. There is so much joy and there are so much life. If, if COVID-19 hasn’t taught us anything, it has taught us that we cannot keep waiting for everything to be perfect.

For us to finally make our move. One of the greatest quotes I ever heard is 80% good and shared with the world. Always changes more lives than 100% perfect and stuck in our heads. And I think that too many people have all their dreams stuck in their head at 100%. And I’ve been telling people if you got 80% good, go ahead.

Guess what? You don’t, you don’t have it all together. Perfect. Do it without having it altogether. You short. Perfect. Do it while short you, you don’t have no rhythm. Perfect. Do it with no rhythm. 80% good is always going to change the world.

One of the most inspiring people in the world is Tyler Perry. Okay.

Tyler Perry, a few a month ago released a, a movie. On Netflix. And he got so much backlash from people who said that it wasn’t edited right. And wasn’t cut. Right. And it acting wasn’t the greatest and Tyler Perry had to get on. And so y’all do realize that while you all are all criticizing my work, it was the biggest release on Netflix this year.

You, you do realize. That I was able to employ African American men and women who desperately needed it because of this thing. And what he taught me was 80% good shared with the world, man, you going to have to do it. I know it’s not the best to you, but to somebody in their heart, it’s going to change their lives.

Let it go release it and let God determine where it goes.

Casanova Brooks
I love it, man. I love it. Super dope. Super inspiring for anybody who wants to stay connected with you, where can they find you at.

Ryan Bullock
you can find me on Instagram. I’m on Instagram every day at, @brianmullock. I literally post every day. I comment on everyone who comments on my posts.

I try to say something to everybody. You got to get my book living for legacy at brianmbullock.com. That’s my website. Follow me on YouTube, Brian Bullock. You get all the information from the website. And from my Instagram, I tell people to go to my website so that they can stay tuned with all the products that are being produced.

Well, I’d tell people to go to my Instagram. Cause that’s where I’m at every day. I’m on there. That’s not a hired person. That’s not an intern. That’s me. I’m commenting. we’re building family, we’re building community. And, I love what we get to do.

I love it, man. We’ll have all of the links in the show notes for the book, for the website and also your Instagram.

But again, man, thank you for coming on. It’s been a pleasure. And remember Dream Nation
In the Dream we trust, but we must take action because otherwise it’ll only merely be a fantasy. We’ll see you on the next one.