Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Bryan Berry. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Bryan, thank you so much for joining us. You are such a positive person and it’s something we really admire and so we wanted to start by asking you where you think your optimism comes from?
I’ve always been the type of person that thinks no matter the circumstances or hurdles, there’s always a way to win the day or the moment. That optimistic outlook comes from my faith in God and a certainty about my future, regardless of the current situation.
I started my own investment advisory practice when I was 27 being sure that it would be successful bu frankly not being sure how. I had only been in that industry for a few years and didn’t have a high number of professional connections in the Richmond area as we had only lived here for 3 years at that point as well. I was motivated by a strong feeling that my care for the welfare of others financial futures – especially those often overlooked by the big name firms in existence at the time, would be evident to those centers of influence that I did have close relationships with. It didn’t hurt that the group I was working with before I left, collectively smirked at me when I gave my notice to them. That was 27 years ago and I still recall that smirk as if it was yesterday. Perhaps I should send them a thank you card?
On September 17, 2018 after feeling sick to the stomach for several weeks, I went to my doctor to see what was going on and after a few tests, was admitted to a local hospital and diagnosed with end stage liver and kidney failure. My situation was dire enough. that there was better than a 75% chance I would die within 60 days. You have two choices at that point, give up, or find as much strength as you can muster to stay optimistic about surviving. 65 days later, after many ups and downs, including being in a coma for almost a week, I received a new liver and a new kidney. Not to be lost in this is that it happened on Thanksgiving day.
3 years later, on October 14, 2021, I suffered a widow-maker heart attack. As I was being wheeled to the heart cath lab (with some super serious doctor/nurse dialogue going on all around me) I met eyes with my wife and said “see you in a few minutes”.
All of these experiences allow me to face discomfort – whether my own, or that of the people I help – with confident optimism that everything is going to be fine.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I’ve always viewed myself as a liberator for others. While I created my former investment advisory practice to provide a future for my family, that wouldn’t have happened or been sustainable had I not kept the goal of creating strong financial futures for my clients as my main driver. After I had completed more than 20 years in that role, and gone through two mergers, many ups and downs in the markets, and expanded the relationship with many clients to include not just investment advice but in many cases opinions to several who shared their own business and employee issues, I felt led more and more to shift my focus to a different type of consultancy. At the same time, I was going through my ordeal with multiple organ failure and from both a physical, mental and emotional perspective, it became clear that it was time for me to exit the world of investment advisory and shift to leadership development. At first, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to focus on a particular industry or sector, but I knew that working with nonprofit organizations would be a part of it. I was aware of the global leadership development organization, GiANT Worldwide and had taken one or two of their foundational assessments and read a couple of its founders books and was drawn to being affiliated with them. In early 2022, I hopped on a phone call with Aaron Lee, now the CEO and one of the founders of Leaders Rising Network, learned even more about working with GiANT as he was a certified GiANT Guide, and later that day began my journey to become a GiANT Guide as well. Aaron and I are now colleagues with others, all bringing leadership liberation to others via Leaders Rising Network (LRN).
The work we do as LRN is really not work at all for us. We are united with a passion to free leaders to become the type of leaders that their teams and others WANT to follow. There is, of course, work that must be done to make that happen, but we focus on individuals and organizations that already envision a future worth investing in, so they are ready to do the work necessary to become “liberators” of those that make their organizations excel. I like to tell people that we are not a solution looking for a problem – there is no one size fits all approach to what we do, so although we do offer broad workshops and courses, the bulk of what we do is built on giving folks tools to lead with that can not just impact their immediate teams, but bring them a deeper sense of self-awareness so that their influence will be felt in their family, their team, their organization and their community. More of what we share with others can be found at www.leadersrisingnetwork.com
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
One of the most impactful things I learned was how to treat people. My father has always been an others-first person, almost alway sacrificing his own outcomes for others. Throughout most of my life, he has always been the person that others call when there’s an emergency because it’s in his nature to first bring calmness to the environment and then a solution. Sometimes he absolutely knew the solution, but many other times, it was the calm approach that allowed him to work through it using the tools he had at his disposal.
I’ve possessed a ‘can-do” attitude for as long as I can remember which presents itself as never being willing to give up if I have a determination to win, or get somewhere with a project or effort. One of my favorite memories involved my determination to pedal a toy firetruck up our steep driveway where I grew up. It would take sometimes hours (it seemed like) to cover the 100 or so yards straight up the road – I mean, as a 5 or 6 year old, to me this was a complete vertical climb – but I would do it, day after day until it became easy. My calves still tell the story – friends can verify this… So, I think the point here is that when you have a determination to make something happen, you are the only person who can stop you.
In our work in Leadership Development, the foundational assessment we use is called The 5 Voices. Without getting into too much detail about that, my foundational voice is “Pioneer”. Among the chracteristics of that voice are a desire to win and a nack for being very strategic. For me that often manifests as strategically deciding what things I need to learn in order to move forward to achieve new goals or get to places that I haven’t been before. I am helped by a desire to learn new things whenever possible and I believe that it is very important for anyone to never stop learning.
Who is your ideal client or what sort of characteristics would make someone an ideal client for you?
Our ideal client envisions a future worth investing in. They realize that leadership isn’t just a position but a skill, that like a muscle needs to be exercised and nourished in order to get stronger and perform better. A study was done that determiined that companies most respected for building a culture of great leadership will spend up to 2% of its revenues on people development. We want to work with companies who value creating a great culture built around its people. That happens by focusing on relationships and communication first. Too many organizations focus on alignment and execution only. For a short period of time, that can lead to good results but it will prove to be because a culture of compliant workers has been created. In today’s world, this isn’t sustainable. Companies that want to build sustainable cultures, where high-turnover is eliminated and they develop leaders that everyone else WANTS to follow are our best clients. We focus on strengthening relationships and communication, which leads to sustainable alignment, execution and capacity.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.leadersrisingnetwork.com
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryankberry/
