Brian is the President and Managing Partner of Leadercast out of Kansas City. Brian has 20+ years of experience in executive leadership roles in multiple industries.
For 25 years, Leadercast has been recognized as the premier source for leadership development, delivering world-class speakers, actionable insights, impactful content and inspiring experiences to help companies and organizations grow. With a mission to equip leaders with the tools to create lasting impact, Leadercast has empowered millions across various industries and professions, including NASA, Toyota, The Home Depot, US Air Force and many more.
Brian and his team at Leadercast work with companies of all sizes to understand and implement programming for leadership and personal development in relation to organizational health, turnover, employee well-being and revenue generation.
Brian and his wife, Tracie, live in Olathe, KS (a suburb of Kansas City) with their six children. Outside of a busy schedule chasing six children around, Brian enjoys cheering on the Kansas City Chiefs, KC Royals and his alma mater, Kansas State University.
Join my Facebook community: The Revolutionary Leadership Collective // https://www.facebook.com/groups/revolutionaryleadershipcollective
___________________________________________________________________________________
-Transcript-
Brad Burrow (00:01):
Welcome to In a World With Real Media. I’m your host, Brad Burrow. In this podcast, we’ll dive into the lives of the most successful people in business. We’ll learn how they overcame adversity, took advantage of opportunities and learned from their experiences. Learn from our experts. Get inspired, then go live your story. It’s in a world with real media. Hello and welcome to the In A World With Real Media Podcast. I’m Brad Burrow. Today we have Brian Morris, the president of Leadercast here with us. Really exciting. It’s a big event coming up in April that we’re going to talk about today. Brian’s got a really, really interesting background sports ad, which is kind of exciting to me since I have a big sports affinity for sports and stuff, but it’s going to be a really interesting podcast and let’s just get right into it. Brian, thank you for being here with us. I appreciate it. This is pretty cool that you’re here and I really am excited about the Leadercast event coming up. So we’ll talk about that. But before we do that, give us a little bit of your history on this podcast. I like to talk about how people have grown up, what their environments were like a little bit, and what made you who you are. I don’t know if you can go back, where’d you grow up? Where’d you go to school? That kind of thing.
Brian Morris (01:32):
Yeah, well, I didn’t know signing up for a counseling session, so no,
Brad Burrow (01:37):
We’re going to learn a lot about you here.
Brian Morris (01:38):
That’s right. And then go lay down on the couch. Well, thank you for having me, Brad. And I’ve really enjoyed our relationship over the last six or seven months as we were introduced and excited to have real media as part of helping us put on the production for Leader Cast in April. So that’s going to be a lot of fun. But a little bit about me, I was born in western Kansas, Ulysses, Kansas Ulysses, massive town right on the Colorado border, for those of you that don’t know, kind of Garden City liberal ish.
(02:08):
And my dad actually went into the ministry kind of late in life. So we moved out to California for a few years for seminary and then ended up in western Oklahoma, a town called Weatherford. So I tell people I was born in western Kansas, grew up in Western Oklahoma, and then I had the chance to play a couple years of small college baseball at Tabor College in Wichita. And so I played baseball for two years, and then my dad went to Kansas State, his dad went to Kansas State. It was always something that I had a dream of doing. So I ended up just transferring to K State and going there for three years, and then got into the world of sports, collegiate athletics specifically. And I tell people I got really, really lucky, blessed, but the associate ad at the time at the University of Oklahoma was a former K state football player named Kirby Hoku, who is now the AD at Texas Tech University. But there was a big contingent of former K staters at OU at the time, Bob Stoops, Mike Stoops, Kenny Mossman, there’s a whole group, Kirby, a whole group of people that had actually K State ties. So
(03:13):
Being from Oklahoma had the chance to go back home and work for really the premier athletics department in the country. So I got very, very
(03:22):
Lucky right out of college to go work in the athletics fundraising world at the University of Oklahoma. And that really set up really the next 15, 16 years of my life, which was very strategically moving up the ladder. In that world, you have to go where the jobs are. There’s only so many division one institutions in each state, only so many positions. So unlike a banking where there might be 50 60 in one town, Oklahoma has three division one schools. So you end up moving around. So that’s kind of how I got my start, kind of the early part of my life and then ended up in my first start professionally was in collegiate athletics.
Brad Burrow (04:04):
Yeah, that’s awesome. So back to Ulysses, I used to, back in the day, I paid my way through college playing in bands, not to get on that rabbit trail, but we played in Garden City and out in that area quite a bit actually. But do you think growing up in an area like that gave you a work ethic that maybe was different than other people? I mean, if you look back on it, was that kind of part of the DNA of who you are?
Brian Morris (04:29):
I definitely think so. Now, we moved away when I was still somewhat younger, kind of elementary school. But growing up on a farm, having parents that are farmers, grandparents that are farmers,
(04:40):
I
(04:40):
Do think that small town work ethic is just ingrained in you from day one. And just being around it, seeing it, A lot of my early memories were jumping on the combine with my dad just to sit there while he was working. So I think you just absorb that and you start to see what it takes to be successful. And then you can’t shortcut the process as a farmer. And that’s probably the biggest thing I think that I’ve learned too, from observing that in the real world in business today too, is you’re going to reap what you sow. And in farming, you can’t shortcut that process. You can’t not put in the work prior when harvest comes. If you didn’t, then you’re not going to have anything to harvest. And it’s no different than business today.
Brad Burrow (05:22):
Yeah, you got to put the work in. You got to put the work in. You can’t just show up. And I think it’s a big problem in our society today, honestly, it is. That’s another podcast. But it really is. I mean, you see so many people that just expect instant results and it doesn’t work that way.
Brian Morris (05:40):
And obviously, leader, cast, we deal in leadership and we work with a lot of really high level organizations and companies, nasa, caterpillar, us, air Force, Toyota,
(05:51):
And then we also work with some of the smaller mom and pop shops, if you will, or single family businesses. And it’s all the same. I mean the principles of the work ethic and the issues that they’re dealing with, not just with employees, but generational leadership. Now, when you have these new generations of employees coming in, the Gen Zs and those types of things, they respond very, very differently than the boomers or the millennials did. And what motivates them is completely different than what motivated us or our parents. And a lot of that is tied around putting in the time to get to where you want to be. It’s now so instantaneous and people will come out of school thinking that they should be the CEO or whatever. And it’s a challenge for a lot of companies throughout the country, big and small.
Brad Burrow (06:43):
Is that a big focus on what Leadercast is trying to accomplish right now is bringing in speakers to help teach people those things or I dunno, we can jump to that probably later, but I’m really curious. We all need to learn those things. We’ve been in business since 97 and the way we do things now is completely different and the big businesses the same way. So they’re probably learning how to do this.
Brian Morris (07:11):
Absolutely. And I tell people the principles of leadership are very solid and haven’t changed, but how we communicate them has changed drastically. And how people receive them has changed. So what we do focus on and the event we will hit on that in part, but the content and the experts and the speakers that we have at Leadercast are there to really help business leaders to understand how do I get the most out of my employees? How do I become a better boss? My employees have a better standard of living. They’re more engaged, they’re more, they’re happier at work. There is a real disconnect right now in the United States between leadership and employees and employee satisfaction.
(07:55):
And
(07:55):
A lot of that comes down to communication. To your point, it’s very different than it used to be. As a leader. We are not focusing on not what we think, but how people are perceiving us. And what we’re asking them to do is a big issue right now in the United States. And so we address that within leadercast. We’ll address that at this event. And really our goal is to help people be better leaders because we believe that better leaders trickles down to the employees and then the employees, it trickles down to their families. A stat that recently came out that is just mind boggling to me is 75% of US employees say the most stressful part of their entire life is their immediate boss. So it’s not paying their mortgage, it’s not raising their children, it’s not dealing with all the other issues that we face right now, living in this time in age.
(08:49):
It
(08:49):
Is their immediate boss. And so they’re taking that home with them, they’re taking that stress home with them. And we believe if we can help that be a better leader, then it impacts not just that employee, but it impacts their home life and it impacts everything else around it.
Brad Burrow (09:01):
Yeah, isn’t that amazing?
Brian Morris (09:03):
It is.
Brad Burrow (09:04):
And that’s different from say 10 years ago, 15 years ago, that wasn’t the same, not the same. Stresses
Brian Morris (09:10):
Wasn’t even close. And then the other one that is kind of shocking to me, we all talk about the need for more money prestige and those types of things. 65% of us employees say that they would rather have a new boss than a pay raise.
(09:26):
Wow.
(09:27):
So again, it just goes into that. There’s a disconnect out there. There is a massive issue around leadership and employees and how can we help these companies engage their employees better? Because we all see that you increase engagement, you increase retention, you increase output. That employees that believe in their bosses, that believe in their company, the bottom line of that company increases drastically. So there is truly a ROI on developing better leaders within your organization. It’s no longer the cultural feel good kind of stuff that it used to be where’re like, oh, we will have some stuff for our employees and we’ll develop our leaders. And then the budget cuts come and they’re like, well, we got to get rid of that. And now they’re seeing that there’s hard data that’s stating how much a bad leader is actually costing companies right now, and it’s $126,000 on average. One bad leader is costing an organization. So that’s changed a lot in the last 10 years.
Brad Burrow (10:27):
Wow, that’s amazing. Well, I want to go back a little bit. So K State, you went to K State Taber, I didn’t know that you It is My son pitched against Taber.
Brian Morris (10:37):
Yeah, yeah, he played at Avila,
Brad Burrow (10:39):
Correct. Yeah. Yeah. So they always have a good baseball program, by the way.
Brian Morris (10:44):
They do now. When I was, I wasn’t there. We were building it towards what it is now. Well, it’s good now.
Brad Burrow (10:50):
They’re a good n AI team right now. And McPherson, which is what, 15 minutes away or 20 or something like that. That’s a big rivalry I think. But pretty cool. So you went from Tabor and then you stopped playing sports basically and went to K State.
Brian Morris (11:07):
Yep.
Brad Burrow (11:10):
Got into the sports ad world and then moved into Mammoth. Was Mammoth next thing after that or I remember Gordon looks like maybe. So why that change? I’m really curious that because sports people tend to stay sports people.
Brian Morris (11:28):
Sure. Yeah. Great question. And it’s a big part of my family’s story and kind of our life. So went to K State then to ou was at OU approximately three years or so. Then went to Arkansas State for a couple years in Wichita State for four or so, and then went back, had the chance to go back home to work for Oklahoma State through the Learfield Sports Network.
(11:56):
And my good friend Kira. And then while I was there, had the opportunity actually to help Oklahoma Baptist University start football, bring back football from scratch. The church we were going to in Oklahoma City. The pastor came up to me one day and said, Hey, they’re starting football. They don’t really know what they’re doing outside of the lines. They had hired the coaches and stuff, but just everything else that it took, would you have an interest? And I thought, how many times do you get to help bring back football after the World War ii, I think is when they had to stop it because so many the players went over and served. And so I was able to do that. And then I was that
Brad Burrow (12:32):
NAI,
Brian Morris (12:33):
It was NAI at the time, but transitioned to division two. And so I was able to be part of that transition and then missed the division one world. And so had a chance to come to UMKC as the senior Associate Athletics director for external, which is what brought us to Kansas City.
(12:49):
And
(12:49):
Again, was another very strategic move in the career path of where I wanted to be, which was an ad, had the opportunity at a couple of division two ad jobs. But for us, faith is kind of a big part of our lives and in what we do. And ended up, God had a different plan in 2017. So when you say most people stay in athletics, they do because again, every move was calculated for my plans for my life. I thought, okay, here I go, here’s my plan. And the old adage,
Brad Burrow (13:23):
God had other ideas.
Brian Morris (13:24):
If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.
Brad Burrow (13:27):
Right.
Brian Morris (13:27):
And so in 2017, our daughter, Lauren, who was in fifth grade at the time, was diagnosed with bone cancer
(13:36):
And obviously caught us all completely off guard and really kind of changed how we were starting to think about, man, there’s going to be a lot going on with that. I was traveling quite a bit, was fundraising was out at a lot of events for UMKC, and then we found out we were having unexpected unplanned twins. So it really kind of quickly pushed that timeframe forward and my wife, like a car coming to a screeching halt right there. It really did. And talk about just your world changing in, well, one instant with a cancer diagnosis and then very quickly with the twins. And in fact the after initial chemo rounds and those types of things, Lauren’s bone removal surgery. So they had to remove basically the bone in her knee, her bone in her leg, and put it interior prosthetic is probably the best way to put it.
Brad Burrow (14:34):
So to replace it with something else. Then basically,
Brian Morris (14:36):
Yeah, so metal. So basically now she has a metal, metal knee metal rod. That surgery was February 15th, the baby’s due date was February 14th. Oh my gosh. They let us induce a week early to have a week prior for the surgery. So it really was a trying time. But through that, actually, that is where we made the decision that athletics and the speed in this world is not conducive to what we’re about to go through in this stage of life. And so was actually reached out by Macal Gordon Construction. Daniel Lacey and Rameen Sheriff had been donors of UMKC, kind of involved in some events I had.
Brad Burrow (15:18):
So they knew what you were going through?
Brian Morris (15:20):
No, they didn’t know that. No, they had actually reached out, didn’t even know about that. And then so I had the chance to go over as director of business development, really focusing on the collegiate and athletic side, which is what my background. So it was a God thing, perfect timing, less stressful hours, more flexibility not being gone as much. And so that’s what got me into the construction world. And then through that, because of my collegiate athletics relationships ended up going into the sports construction space. And so that’s where I went to Mammoth for three and a half, four years and really helped grow that company through relationships in the collegiate space. And so many people want to work with people they trust and know once you have those relationships in athletics and you’ve known people for 20 years that have gone on to leadership positions in various schools, it just really, really worked out well.
(16:15):
And then I kind of came to that point of what I say, success versus significance and what was I sacrificing in my personal life for business in my family? And that’s when I had the opportunity through my mentor, Philip Sarnay here in town. Over time, he brought up Leadercast and started talking about what Leadercast was, what it did when he purchased it, and just really felt like kind of all of my experiences leading up in leadership and sports leadership and construction, working with so many great leaders from university levels and business leaders that were donors, had really prepared me to step into this leadercast position and then what we’re trying to do to impact lives throughout the world.
Brad Burrow (16:58):
Yeah, that’s awesome. How did you meet Philip?
Brian Morris (17:01):
It’s actually kind of a funny
Brad Burrow (17:03):
Story. It’s okay. I’m just curious. I know Philip pretty well, and he’s involved in so many different things. I mean from sports to films to all kinds of different things, athletes in action,
Brian Morris (17:18):
Athletes in action. And that’s how I met Phillips through my collegiate world actually. I’m on the board of directors of an organization called eighties for Christ. And there was a conference in Nashville, this would’ve been probably five years ago, maybe. There was an Athletes in Action rep that I met and got to know him and his wife. They invited my wife and I to Orlando to a donor potential donor big event that athletes in Action put
(17:51):
On.
(17:51):
And it’s kind of funny, I tell this story because my wife and I, if your wife’s like anything like mine leaving children and the preparations of travel become very stressful to where it’s almost not worth it. And the night before we were supposed to leave, I’m not going, we shouldn’t go. It is kind of that whole thing. I’m like, no, we’re supposed to go. It’s okay. We never get away from our children because we have six of them now. It is just the wild, wild west at the Morris home. So we almost didn’t go, but yet we’re like, we should go. We’re invited. It’s all planned. We have the sitter coming up.
(18:30):
So we go and somebody comes up to me and says, you really should meet this guy. He’s from Kansas City, didn’t know Philip from anybody. Find out. He actually gets up there, starts presenting that he’s the president of the Board of Athletes in Action. So we were actually in the restroom during a break washing our hands, and I said, Hey, I was told I need to meet you. And I joke that he’s the second most famous person I’ve met in the restroom. The other one was the Fawns. Oh, is that right At the Orange Bowl when OU played USC in the urinal next to each other. So I joke with Philip, I said, you’re the second most famous person that I’ve met in the restroom. And then we just kind of really briefly talked a little bit about where I was from Kansas City, Olathe, what he did, didn’t know anything else about him.
(19:21):
Got home and kind of my personality is you kind of go into Detective sleuth mode a little bit and found out more, who is this guy who is this guy? And found out more about him, had some mutual connections that spoke very, very highly of him. So I just reached out and said, Hey, would you like to go to lunch? And then through that we connected, kind really hit it off. And then I was able to see through how he acts and with his businesses and ability to grow businesses and then use that for bigger impact and more significant impact was something I was really drawn to and even told my wife one time, I said, Hey, if I ever had the chance to work with Philip, I’m going to just because I feel like he embodies so many of the characteristics of the leader that I would like to. And so then when the opportunity for leader Cast probably three years later came about, it made perfect sense.
Brad Burrow (20:14):
He’s one of those guys that you just being around him, you feel like you’re gleaning things from him. That’s the way I feel. I love meeting with him, and you get a half hour of his time or an hour of his time, but man, you learn things just being around him.
Brian Morris (20:30):
And I’m a huge fan of, you’re always learning and you’re always trying to grow, and you are sharpened by people that iron sharpens iron, and you’re just elevating yourself by the people you surround yourself with. And Philip, for me was always one of those people.
(20:46):
And
(20:47):
The spirit in which he operates, I think is a very successful businessman, which you see permeate and just kind of from interactions with him, but also a very giving and philanthropic and big picture thinker of how is what he doing making a greater impact. And so when you have somebody that’s special like that, any chance I had, I was grabbing lunch with him or making an excuse to have to call him. And so he really became a great mentor of mine and still is, even as we’re in business partnership together.
Brad Burrow (21:21):
Yeah. Yeah. That’s great. Well, let’s switch gears a little bit to Leadercast. One of the things I wanted to talk a little bit about the history of Leadercast. I mean, we’ve got it up on the monitor here, but there’s a real rich history behind it, and I’ve known a little bit about it just with Joe and before Joe, that whole thing and how it was started. Can you just give the viewers a little bit of a quick history lesson on Leader Cast, and it’s been around for a while,
Brian Morris (21:54):
And actually we’re celebrating our 25th year on April 8th,
Brad Burrow (21:59):
25. That’s
Brian Morris (21:59):
Amazing. With the leader cast event here in Kansas City, but was started by John Maxwell in Atlanta. And when people hear that, okay, that’s makes,
Brad Burrow (22:08):
That’s a recognizable name,
Brian Morris (22:09):
That’s a very recognizable name in the world of leadership and in its heyday, leader Cast was a single day event that was the cast in it was simulcast out to about six to 700 what we call host sites or presenting partner sites throughout the world. Live Live, yeah, live simulcast. So you would have the event, and Atlanta for the most part was in Atlanta. And then they would simulcast it out and we would be on university campuses, chambers of commerce, churches, those kind of things. And then those groups would use it as typically their own revenue generating event. And so we still operate that way where a chamber in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, for example, we’ll have Leader Cast Day. They’ll go sell sponsorships, they’ll go sell tickets, and then they’ll use it as a day to kind of invest in their community. But in Leader Cast, in the heyday of that, pre Covid was the big sold out, sold out convention centers, arenas, a lot of host sites being simulcast at the same time. And it went through a Chick-fil-A at one point was the title sponsor. A lot of people thought it was actually Chick-fil-A’s event because it was branded so heavily,
(23:27):
Chick-fil-A
(23:28):
And Chick-fil-A and Atlanta would on the table signs and on the menus and everything was pointing people to leader cast. So a very rich history. If people have written a book on leadership or an athlete that is well known, or even wives of presidents, we’ve had them on our leader cast stage over the last 25 years.
Brad Burrow (23:52):
Can you talk about the scale of the events? I had love for the viewers to understand. I mean, these were big deals. I mean big events. How many people would come or how many people would be watching the simulcast? Do you have any of those stats?
Brian Morris (24:06):
Yeah, so I mean, again, you’re talking about arenas sold out arenas. So 12, 13,000 live in Atlanta. And then the host sites were a little bit more difficult, but we’d have 600 post sites across the world that most of them in America, you get a few in some other countries that would have
Brad Burrow (24:26):
It, the time would be off if it’s
Brian Morris (24:27):
Time, the time would be off, but you would have them and in there they’d have anywhere from 50 to two or 300 people at those sites. So really massive of a lot of people, massive undertaking. And even today, even though coming out of covid, things have changed. I know we’ll get into this, there’s still a lot of people watching and tuning into the Leadercast event that we put on. But yeah, back again, and I kind of say kind of the pre covid, post covid, like a lot of organizations and a lot of businesses, there was a pivoting that had to take place and kind of a difference. Now, our goal and passion is to get back here in Kansas City. One of the reasons we’ve moved Leadercast to Kansas City was one, Philip is here. My wife and I are the second largest shareholder now in Leadercast as well, the third partners in Kansas City. So we’ve moved headquarters to Kansas City now here within the last year. And Kansas City’s going to be home to the live event moving forward. My goal is to get it into T-Mobile in a couple of years. So we’re going to be at the Midland Theater this year and maybe next year. Midland has been amazing. It’s a beautiful venue.
(25:35):
It is.
(25:37):
But I think T-Mobile and the more Grand impact is really my vision of getting it back to the heart of Leadercast, kind of pre covid.
Brad Burrow (25:46):
So I’d love to talk, I don’t know how much you want to share on the future vision of it, but I mean, it’d be pretty cool to hear what you see that looking like. So let’s talk about Covid a little bit. I mean, obviously every business had to change us included, and we’re still rebounding from that. I think that a lot of people have had to redefine their business models, you guys, I mean, live event to nothing. We had a company that was in here with us called Premier Sports. I don’t know if you know who they are, but I Is that Gary? Yeah, Gary. Gary. He I know Gary well. Yeah. So they were in our building for four years, probably something like that. But I remember the day when Covid was starting to come down and they were in a meeting in the conference room, and Gary came out and said, the NCAA just canceled the basketball tournament. And they did Athletes in Action. They did those events. And so their business went from here to here and instantly, and I just remember seeing the look on his face, it’s like, what are we going to do?
(26:56):
And we all felt that way. That had to happen with Cast too. I would imagine at some level. You probably weren’t with Leadercast then yet, right?
Brian Morris (27:03):
Yeah, correct. Yeah.
Brad Burrow (27:05):
But I mean, talk about that pivot because some things have changed and they haven’t come back. I mean, it’s like you look at Zoom and in the way that people communicate now, it’s like people don’t meet in person that much anymore. And so that has to have affected your business model. And I know you and I have talked about could we stream speakers and all kinds of different things. So how have you navigated that?
Brian Morris (27:35):
Sure, yeah. And so wasn’t here. I’ve lived both sides of what covid can do to a company. The construction company, when I was
Brad Burrow (27:44):
At
Brian Morris (27:44):
It exploded. It exploded because all of these projects, especially on the turf space and with high schools and colleges, they’re like, Hey, the kids are gone. Let’s go now. And you had some Covid funding coming in and
(27:58):
Savings on certain things. And so we actually saw the reverse that a lot of companies were facing on the construction side because of covid just created a whole set of new opportunities. So I live that, and then now I’m living the aftermath of what Covid did to a company. And you’re right, when you are focused on meeting in person, and a big part of what we believe, even still with leadership and team building, is you need to be together. That was one of the powerful things about CAST is people would come to Leader, cast as a team, be inspired and
Brad Burrow (28:36):
Impacted, let’s take whole team. Let’s go
Brian Morris (28:37):
Take our whole team. And then afterwards they would go to the bar or the restaurant and decompress and talk about it, and then talk about the next day, what did I learn and what speaker impacted me? What do we want to take back to our company? But then on the presenting partner or our host sites, they were obviously drastically impacted as well. So now Chambers, a lot of their events were done, we’re over with. And so what we saw coming out of that was not only was Leadercast affected, but our partners were affected into where that event director at the local chamber maybe wasn’t kept on. And so they completely went away from their business model of events in the community. So we just kind of fell in that perfect storm of everything people stopped doing is at the time
(29:31):
Is what Leader
(29:32):
Leadercast offered. So you talk about those moments in a company where you either can die or you can pivot and reinvent yourself. We, in the prior leadership, did something very, very smart and kind of reinvented our platform, which is now called Leadercast 365. And we have taken all of those previous speakers, all the great names like Jim Collins and Patrick Lencioni and Andy Stanley, Henry Cloud, ginger Harid, Seth Godin, that had been on our stage, magic Johnson, Emmett Smith, and put them on our platform. So basically capturing all those behind the scenes interviews over the years, a number of the, what we’ll call the TED Talk style stage presentations that we still have the rights to from those speakers. And we have 1300 videos on our leader cast platform. So that pivot ended up being a really, really smart move for the company. And then coming from that, now is the re-pivot back to the focus on the live event where we really fit well with a lot of companies that maybe are invested in the LinkedIn learning platform or PeopleSoft for some of the other kind of track driven leadership development or personal development.
(30:56):
But people are missing being together in person, and they’re missing that human connection. They’re missing all of the things that made leader cast special initially. So now we’re navigating a re-pivot back to being a company that is still focused on trying to get teams together, but yet having that backend platform with some great content for them to be able to use. It’s
Brad Burrow (31:21):
Kind of a hybrid now.
Brian Morris (31:22):
It’s a hybrid.
Brad Burrow (31:23):
Exactly. Went one way and now you’re coming back and now you’ve got maybe the best of both worlds.
Brian Morris (31:27):
Yes, exactly. And so Netflix, Toyota calls us the Netflix of leadership development, which I love, and we still use
Brad Burrow (31:35):
For every, you need to put that on your website
Brian Morris (31:36):
Probably. I think we would if we could legally and actually
Brad Burrow (31:40):
Netflix,
Brian Morris (31:40):
Yeah, we have that quote in all of our materials, but it really has allowed us to be kind of the best of both worlds where we fit within organizations. And then we also have a number of individuals that buy individual memberships into the platform that are driven self-learners that
(31:57):
Really
(31:57):
Want to become better communicators, better leaders themselves. And at our price point, it’s very affordable. So we have a pretty large number of individual members on our website.
Brad Burrow (32:08):
One of the things I just thought of that I’d really love to get your thoughts on is a lot of people are visual learners now reading. I think a lot less people actually read. Now, my wife reads 90 books a year. I don’t know how she does that, but would you say that that’s true and you guys kind of fit in that? I mean, if you think about how the majority of people are actually learning now, they’re not going to read books as much as they would watch a video or visually learn that fits right into your business model.
Brian Morris (32:44):
It does, and you’re correct. And then also it is the even within that, how quickly you have to be able to get them the information or you lose their attention. So even within,
Brad Burrow (32:54):
Do you have stats on that? If I don’t get something in the first 30 seconds, I’m out of here?
Brian Morris (32:59):
Well, it’s usually like three to five minute videos and then you lose people. So in a lot of our videos and the behind the scenes content that we have from the backstage interviews, we purposely have produced that down into a minute and a half quick hitting with some takeaways or a three minute video on a vision setting that has takeaways. But yes, so there’s levels of it, people not reading as much, and then people going on in video learning. But then even within that, now, everyone’s attention span and just the nature of the world is so quick hitting with TikTok reels and Instagram reels and just a quick LinkedIn. So we really have a focus on digestible, impactful content that is in that three minute space, that five minute space. So it is very interesting. The other thing too is just how people are driven. So you can have the best content in the world, but if people aren’t taking the time to go in and access
(34:04):
It,
(34:05):
Then they’re missing out on that opportunity. So a lot of organizations will have a full-time employee or team learning and development team, HR team that are going through content and trying to push that content onto their teams and say, watch this. We’re going to talk about this. And that is a great way with our platform and how we’re able to operate with these large organizations. But I do tell people all the time is like, guys, you have a resource, whatever that is, a health resource, or if it’s religious resources or leadership resources, you have to be intentional about it. It doesn’t just happen on its own. So that’s something I think just in today’s culture, we’re all battling.
Brad Burrow (34:45):
So do you find that employees are wanting to learn? I mean, is there a desire to go deeper?
Brian Morris (34:54):
Yes, there absolutely is. I think human beings, I think there is a desire to go deeper. The problem is that at this point in our history, there’s so many different things that take attention away from that.
Brad Burrow (35:10):
Oh my gosh,
Brian Morris (35:12):
You start getting into my own personal screen time of when I pull that up on my iPhone, I don’t even want to see it. Sometimes I’m like, I really spent that much time on LinkedIn or social media.
Brad Burrow (35:23):
Apple gives you that.
Brian Morris (35:24):
Yeah, it’s kind of a double-edged sword. But people do want to learn. They want to win in life. They want the skills to do so. They sometimes just don’t know even where to go, where to start. And there’s so much information that’s out there now that you can get pulled in so many different directions. But yes, I would say without a doubt, the majority of employees want to be better. They want to learn, they want to win. They want to know what the scorecard is that they’re judged by to win, and they want the resources given to them from their employer to be able to accomplish all of those things. And we’re a great asset for those companies that want to give their employees those resources to win.
Brad Burrow (36:08):
So let’s switch gears to the future. What’s the future of Leadercast look like? So you’ve got Leadercast 360 365.
Brian Morris (36:16):
Yeah.
Brad Burrow (36:16):
365. Yep. Said you missed just five days. My mom felt just a little bit.
Brian Morris (36:21):
Yeah, that’s okay. It’s national holidays. People aren’t going to be getting on.
Brad Burrow (36:25):
Yeah, yeah. So have you thought about getting into training resources, things like that? Obviously there’s an element to that, but what does the future look like?
Brian Morris (36:36):
Yeah, so I think you’ll see a continued emphasis on the event
(36:41):
Bringing that back in a grander way. Our passion is impact at the end of the day, and we want to impact as many lives as possible and to get the messaging out of hope driven people that are hopeful, leaders that are hopeful, that’s a big part of really our passion and what we want to continue to see. So the live event allows us to do that. We also believe that people getting together in person, the data continues to show how impactful that is with all the Zoom opportunities and work from home opportunities, people still miss being together. And so how can we help provide an asset that does that? And that’s the live event. So you’ll see that continued, a continued focus.
Brad Burrow (37:27):
Do you learn better being around other people as opposed to being, I mean, is there an element of, I guess, retention that’s better or depth or anything from being around people while you’re in an event like that as opposed to a Zoom call or something?
Brian Morris (37:45):
That’s a great question. And I don’t know, data, statistically speaking for me, absolutely. And I think the anecdotal evidence we have from all of these different corporations as we’re talking to them, they believe that too, that you just can’t replicate being together as a team. And I think that, I
Brad Burrow (38:06):
Bet there’s something there. I bet if you studied that, I bet there’s something about being around other people. We will look at church. I bet there’s something about that as opposed to a zoom call. I mean, so many distractions and things that I don’t know, I’m just guessing,
Brian Morris (38:23):
But I’m with you. I’m sure there is research out there. And so note to my team, we should probably start getting some of those stats
Brad Burrow (38:31):
Figured out. We can edit that out.
Brian Morris (38:33):
But that is a big part of what we believe that people need to be together, and that’s why we’re focused and committed on this event. So a big part of our business is this event is recorded and then kind of mastered, edited, and then distributed worldwide on our in May about a month later. So why this live event is so important to us is it’s not just the people in attendance while we’re recording it, but that’s where the companies will then take this and have leader cast day within their organization and their company. And so they might get 200 employees gathered in the cafeteria or in their auditorium, and we provide the facilitation materials, the step-by-step guides of how to have really what we call a conference in a box. So they are able to bring that they might be in California and be able to have their leader cast day with their teams altogether in their own facility, be able to posit and have additional dialogue or conversation around maybe a point from one of the speakers, maybe it’s Andy Stanley or
(39:40):
Jesse Cole or whoever. And so that is a big part of our business where corporations and businesses will utilize our content our day, and they can actually play it whenever they want to, which is really, really good. So when we went away from the simulcast, the other thing, the other pivot that we made was making it available for people to basically access via a premier date. So I tell people think Chris Rock Comedy special on Netflix, it was obviously recorded elsewhere earlier, but it’s only available starting a certain date. We do that exact same thing through leadercast where people, there’s a premier date, but then they actually have options to be flexible on how and when they watch it, which has been really, really positively received by our clients because even during the simulcast days, that was very difficult for them to say May 8th or April 8th works for all of our teams and we work with
Brad Burrow (40:35):
Really impossible,
Brian Morris (40:36):
And we work with so many large organizations that they might have 2000 employees and trying to coordinate all of them on one day. So that’s the other thing that’s been really good about the pivot within the digital platform.
Brad Burrow (40:46):
So you’ve just given that content way more life than just the actual event now. It can keep going forever, really.
Brian Morris (40:53):
Yeah, we got to keep going forever.
Brad Burrow (40:54):
That’s pretty cool. Well, one of the things, so I think before we wrap up here, can you tell us a little bit about the Kansas City event? So who are the speakers? I know that Savannah Banana guy, he’s going to be there. That’s going to be really interesting. I’m really excited to hear him. Is that right? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So that’ll be fun. You being a baseball guy, are you going to get up on stage and do a flip and throw a strike or something like
Brian Morris (41:22):
That? Yeah, I need to get my stilts out or something. The work on my dance that the bananas do.
(41:28):
Yeah, it’s been amazing how excited people are about Jesse. So Jesse Cole from the Savannah Bananas is obviously coming in. And the neat thing about Jesse that I like to tell people is when you’re putting together a speaker lineup, it’s very much like putting together a baseball roster. I even tell people, I kind of felt like Brad Pit and Moneyball, if you’re a baseball fan, you’ve seen Moneyball. How do you put together a roster based on speakers that will draw people versus content versus diversity of lineup, all those different things. So you start having conversations with these different speakers and you get some pretty interesting, as you could probably guess, egos involved and costs involved about Jesse for as popular as the Bananas have gotten. Some of the speakers, it’s no one that we’re bringing in, but they’re like, Hey, our cost is X with a whole lot of zeros and you got to in a private plane to come get us, and I need five hotel rooms and a five star hotel.
(42:26):
And Jesse was like, Wolf fly Southwest. It just very, but what he has built and done with the Savannah Bananas is a case study for all business. And a lot of people hear that he’s coming and they think baseball. He’s going to be talking on really the fan first mentality of customer service and how do you turn your clients into fans of your business and your organization, and then how do you do things differently? So all of these speakers, even with their different backgrounds, it’s all going to relate back to leadership and to business and to how to be better. But people are really excited about Jesse, Dominique Dawes, former Olympic gold medalist, well, Olympic gold medalist,
(43:08):
And she’s actually a part owner of the Falcons, been on the President’s Council for Fitness, and she has started her own businesses as well coming in. And she’s going to be talking on a champion mindset, as we all know, as you more and more. So right now with everything going on with mental health, how important mindset is as we approach our day and just as we work with our team and those types of things. So Dominique, people are excited. People are excited about all of our lineup, but some of the names they know more than the others. Andy Stanley is coming, Andy, every single year that Andy’s been at Leadercast, he’s been our top rated speaker. It doesn’t matter how big the name is, his content is always just people love it and is on fire and love, Andy Stanley.
Brad Burrow (43:56):
So do you have any input on what they talk about and what the speakers talk about at all?
Brian Morris (44:00):
We do. It is typically kind of theme driven for the most part. We give them obviously some kind of license. They’ll say, Hey, kind of what’s the theme? What do you want us to hit on? But a lot of it is in their sweet spot. We want them to be speaking into really kind of their expertise. We don’t want every speaker to speak on the exact same thing. So this year it’s a legacy of impact. So they’ll all probably tie in impact and kind of legacy as a leadership, but all very, very different presentations in what they talk through.
Brad Burrow (44:35):
Will Andy get into faith? I mean, obviously he’s a faith guy. I mean, is that kind of the direction?
Brian Morris (44:43):
Not really. So Andy, yeah, Andy is really more on just leadership in general and what he’ll be hitting on. He has a great ability to navigate through really the nuances from him being a pastor, but also an author. And along those lines, one of the great things about CAST is we are able to work with a lot of high level government agencies and universities and things like that. So we purposely try to keep our event where you’re seeing really high level principles in leadership, but it’s not influenced by faith discussion or along those lines. And obviously if people want to go in and research a number of these speakers, they might see that Andy comes from a faith background, but the day, so if you’re kind of out there with your company and that’s something that’s a hot topic, you can feel confident that it’s going to be amazing material and great speakers, but it’s not going to be anything that really is going to cause issues organizationally with introduction of faith elements.
Brad Burrow (45:58):
Yeah, that’s great. Who else? Who else?
Brian Morris (46:00):
Yeah, John Gordon. John Gordon wrote the Energy bus Power positive leadership. A lot of my sports friends are super excited about John. He’s huge in the athletics world.
(46:11):
He
(46:12):
Works with a number of pro teams
(46:15):
And
(46:15):
College teams. One of my favorite authors, he’s wrote in a bunch of books, Hal Elrod wrote a book called The Miracle Morning, a book that I actually read and started implementing that mindset shift kind of when you wake up. And it was phenomenal. So I was like, Hey, why don’t I bring him in? Because his book had such an impact on my life.
Brad Burrow (46:35):
So is he going to be the first speaker?
Brian Morris (46:37):
Yeah, you would think. What’s funny is Andy Stanley is going to kick it off, and Andy likes to be first, and Andy’s got really, since he’s been our long time kind of lead speaker, we’re honoring that. So our Miracle Morning guy is not the first one in the morning, but his message is really high energy and really, really powerful. And then Kansas City’s own Bob Kendrick and Bob is one of the absolute best storytellers in the entire world. And he’s going to be talking on principles of leadership from Negro League greats like Satchel Paige and Buck O’Neal and Cool Papa Bell, and what they navigated during the timeframe that they were playing baseball or lessons we can all learn from. So a lot of excitement around him. We have a group called the Afterburners, which is a man and woman pilot, fighter pilot combo.
(47:29):
Oh,
(47:29):
Wow. And they’re going to be doing our first ever dual presentation from the stage where we’ll have two people up there, but on military leadership and just different elements. And they go all over the world given a presentation. They’re really, really good. And then, let’s see, I feel like I am forgetting. So Jesse Cole, Andy Stanley, John Gordon, Dominique das, Bob Kendrick, yeah, the Afterburns and how Elrod. So we have a great lineup. People can expect to be entertained, encouraged, impacted, but really at the end of the day, be able to take away skills and information that will help them be better leaders, will help their team be better leaders, and really will be something that I think they’ll be talking about for a long time.
Brad Burrow (48:17):
So how can somebody go to the event? Where do they need to go?
Brian Morris (48:21):
Yeah, just go to leader cast.com. We actually have kind of a, you’ll hit a landing page and there’s three options and they’re up. But attend a live conference in Kansas City, how to bring it to your business. As I said, the majority of what we do is bring leader, cast to these organizations and businesses all over the world. So you can walk through how to do it and then how to bring to your nonprofit. So that is our presenting partners, our host site. So if you’re a Chamber of commerce listening and you’re like, Hey, this would be great for our community or a university or whatever that you want to bring other people in to help impact them, then they can. But all of that go to leader cast.com. And again, the live event is April 8th, starts at eight 30 in Kansas City at the Midland Theater downtown. Going to be a great event.
Brad Burrow (49:06):
Yeah, it’s exciting. So one thing, so we’re about to wrap up. Okay, great job. One thing that I want to tell the viewers that you texted me last night and you asked me what you should wear, and I’m like, you asking me why you should wears, that’s pretty ripe bespoke. I saw that on your LinkedIn profile. I mean, you dress awesome. I mean, I was like, I need to go to the store with you and have you pick out my clothes for me or something. But that’s really awesome. What is bespoke? I was meant to ask you that earlier. I mean, you’re really into fashion. You always look amazing. I appreciate that. That’s
Brian Morris (49:44):
Awesome. Yeah, so it’s another kind of random funny story, but I was at UMKC and Kareem Richardson, who was the head basketball coach at the time, had come from Louisville. And Louisville had won the national championship prior. And so one of the things that Rick Patino did was he gave all of his assistants a custom suit. And the local guy, a local custom guy, came to the UMKC offices and measured Kareem. And so Kareem sent him down to my office and I was a senior associate AD at UMKC, not like Georgia, where you’re not making that kind of money. So the guy comes in and measures me up, and I think for a jacket in a shirt, it was like $2,500. I was like, woo, that’s a little steep for me. But I thought, that guy looks just like me. The materials that he has are in these pre-made books. I say, he’s obviously not making these. I wonder who he’s working for. So I spent about six months just really diving into the entire industry of custom
(50:49):
Clothing. Did you really? Wow.
(50:50):
And then I found out that everything is made overseas. Even all these stores here locally, for the most part that you go into, they’re doing your measurements and you’re picking out fabric, but it’s still being produced elsewhere. And I just started reaching out to these production houses and they came back and said, yep, we actually, here’s how it works. So I thought, I’ll just start my own company then. And so I started bespoke by BMO probably about eight years ago. And then I started clothing Kareem, like myself and Kareem and other basketball coaches actually did. Bill sells a Naysmith Hall of Fame induction suit.
(51:27):
Did you really?
(51:27):
That’s amazing. Amazing. And then Joel Goldberg has some things here recently for Athletes in Action. We did a chiefs line jacket for Clark Hunt, but then all my ad friends and basketball coaching friends started calling me. And so over the eight years, it’s been really a fun kind of side gig of the custom suiting industry and have met some really, really neat people. And actually bespoke by BMO’s going to be a sponsor at the Leadercast event. We have a couple of ladies here locally that work with me. They’ll have a table, but it is just become something that’s been kind of fun and has really allowed me to just fund my own wardrobe.
Brad Burrow (52:05):
That is awesome.
Brian Morris (52:06):
So that’s how I bespoke by kind of BMO started. I
Brad Burrow (52:08):
Can’t believe I didn’t know that. That’s really, really cool. That’s an awesome story. So if somebody needs a custom suit, they need to give you a call, right?
Brian Morris (52:16):
They can give a call and I’ll put you in touch with Sarah and Candace and they’ll come out and measure you up and get you taken care of and pick things out. And then the real fun thing now is, and this one doesn’t have it, but I actually have one coming for this event, but it’ll have a leader cast liner, the logo of leader Cast printed throughout the liner. And you can do your family, your photos or your families. So kind of a lot of these NBA draft outfits as you see now where they’re opening them up and have all sorts of stuff. We can do that. We’re actually doing some jackets for the K State Wildcat, NIL, and their team and Avery Johnson, Bryce Brown, some jackets where they’re customizing with their logos on the inside.
Brad Burrow (52:57):
Very
Brian Morris (52:58):
Cool. It just creates a whole new element that people take a lot of fun with.
Brad Burrow (53:01):
I was just at K State Monday shooting footage for, we’re doing a documentary on the history of women’s basketball and Brenda Van Lingen was calling a game at K State. So we’re getting some footage up there and stuff. So pretty fun. And my son goes to K-State, so it’s pretty fun being up there and being around all the sports and stuff up there. Pretty cool. Alright, so last thing. Everybody that’s on the podcast to do their movie voice, now, we talked about this earlier. So the key is that you got to get really close to the mic and you got to kind of do that airy voice of in a world like that. So you have to do in a world with real media, and if you do good job, we can probably get you an agent and start getting some voiceover work.
Brian Morris (53:44):
Oh man, this would really be up my younger brother’s alley who does this kind of stuff. So what do I say? Just in a world with real media in a world with real media.
Brad Burrow (53:57):
There you go. We’ll send that out.
Brian Morris (54:00):
Send it out. Let me know. See what happens. The Disney or whoever starts needing a voiceover,
Brad Burrow (54:07):
Philip maybe needs a trailer guy for his film work.
Brian Morris (54:10):
Well, I might just send it to my team. We do have the voice of God that introduces the speaker and stuff, and maybe it’s me. No, yeah,
Brad Burrow (54:18):
There you go.
Brian Morris (54:18):
That’d be the furthest thing that
Brad Burrow (54:20):
I would ever, will your whole team be here?
Brian Morris (54:21):
They will absolutely.
Brad Burrow (54:23):
They’ll come in from, are they still a lot of ’em in Cincinnati?
Brian Morris (54:26):
We do. We have a pretty good contingent in Cincinnati. There’s probably five or so coming from Cincinnati. We’ll have New York represented a few from Atlanta, Houston obviously here in Kansas City. Yeah. So they’re all coming in and then we’ll be here. So that’ll be fun too, because I don’t get to see my team that often, which is, you talk about all the in-person things and what we do. The majority of what I do is on Zoom with my team and with our clients that, so it’s definitely interesting.
Brad Burrow (54:57):
Yeah, happy to bring them out here too, if you need a place to meet. So let me know.
Brian Morris (55:02):
I will. Yeah, we’re going to be pretty busy getting the Midland set up and we have some really amazing sponsors that we’re doing some stuff with, which will be a lot of fun for our team to be able to meet and the execution of the event and then’s a lot, wrapping it up and going home. But you have an absolutely amazing, and I know our team has done a couple of video walkthroughs of this facility because we do so much digitally and on the production and finding ways to work together. And really, Kansas City has some amazing leadership speakers too, and I’m excited to work with them and get their voice out through the leader cast stage and some of, I think the digital opportunities of what we do with our content. So we look forward to hopefully having them here and working with you more. But I know our team has always been blown away when we did the walkthroughs on our iPhones or whatever. You show me around such an amazing facility here. And the work you guys do is absolutely first class.
Brad Burrow (55:59):
Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Well, thank you so much, Brian, for being on here. This is fun. I learned some things today. That’s pretty cool. So thank you guys for joining us. This is in a world of real media in a World with Real Media Podcast. Feel free to subscribe, share this, send it out to your friends, go to the event. This is going to be a really cool event check out website. There’s a lot of really cool things that you can do on the website and that the event’s going to be amazing. So we look forward to seeing you there, hopefully, and we will see you next time. This has been in a World with Real Media. Thanks for joining us, and be sure to subscribe on iTunes and follow real media on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. So you never miss an episode. I.