The Action Catalyst
REMASTERED: Breaking Out of a Broken System, with Seth and Chandler Bolt (Music, Philanthropy, Finance, Author)
Tue, 27 Aug 2024
Seth Bolt, bassist of rock band NEEDTOBREATHE, and his brother Chandler, CEO of SelfPublishing.com, dive into their co-authored book, “Breaking Out of a Broken System”, talking about “forced opportunities”, the boomerang effect of giving, sharing a $624 billion secret, and explaining why not all of your friends can be Pop-Tarts.
okay, I actually have to make this happen. You're going to put yourself out there to a point to where you're going to figure out ways to make it work. That's when it really becomes real and it's either a success or a failure, but either way you're moving forward because you're forcing yourself to be put in that situation and it's the forced opportunity that you give yourself.
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I have two guests on, and these guys are brothers. The first, his name is Seth Bolt, and he is in a band called Need to Breathe. And then also his younger brother, Chandler Bolt. So these two brothers have joined together, and they have a book that they have written, which is called Breaking Out of a Broken System. I've got them here today, both Seth and Chandler.
Guys, thanks for being on the show. Thanks for the amazing intro. It's a pleasure to be here. So first of all, tell me, why did you guys, why did you go about writing this book? Where did it come from going, Hey, let's do this. Let's write a book. Why did you guys decide to do it? Can you just give me a little background? Yeah, sure.
It was kind of the two things coming together that really became symbolic, I guess, of who Chandler and I are. I'm sort of like the artist in the family that hasn't combed his hair in years, and Chandler's killing it in the business world. So we couldn't be more different. We grew up 10 years apart.
This whole idea of combining art and entrepreneurship to raise money for charity is something that really inspired us to write the book.
Yeah. And basically the book, what we did is we took the things that our parents taught us. We took these 15 lessons that they taught us. And Seth and I both wrote separate accounts. So Seth wrote his account as a musician. I wrote mine as a business guy.
Basically just showed that these 15 things that they taught us are things that we thought were normal, but most people don't end up learning them. You know, they're Their parents don't teach them this growing up. And we just basically showed how you can apply this in music and you can apply it in business. And it just relates to both things.
One of the things that probably excites us the most is the opportunity that we have to inspire other people our age or that are trying to decide maybe what they want to do with their life or what they want to do if they want to change careers. Because there's really an amazing potential to sort of repurpose business, not just for profit, but to actually make a difference in the world.
And one of the ways that we're trying to do that is we've partnered with an organization called PMI or Palmetto Medical Initiatives. They provide medical assistance to the developing world. We decided, let's combine art and entrepreneurship. Let's write this book because that was kind of burning. There was a lot of things there.
And at the same time, let's make sure that we kind of spread this idea that, you know, even though all of us are just selling, you know, maybe one thing or one service, but you can build into that something that can make a big difference in the world. That's awesome. And then, you know, simultaneously, the book for the reader, it's like the principles that are in here can save a person's life.
And so, Seth, can you fill us in on what the $624 billion secret is? That number reference was for Apple. And I use Apple because it's an example that a lot of people understand. And obviously, a lot of people are studying their business model now. But simplicity is the key. One thing that really has been resonating with me lately is that You know, I'm a hardworking person and a lot of us aren't.
And we want to stay busy because we want to be productive. But sometimes in that busyness, we create extra steps to our processes and our systems and our daily life to complicate things and cause us more work. And, you know, for a lot of people, that means they end up working all day. You know, for a lot of entrepreneurs that have total time freedom, they work. way more than anybody else.
And they don't stop, like really enjoy life. Think about, you know, how they can give back or, you know, maybe serve in their community because they're so married to their job. So that was all about simplicity and sort of cutting back so that you don't miss out on it all. So $624 billion is Apple.
And that's kind of their core mantra is just simplicity, simplicity, simplicity, make this simple and easy. Yeah. Make it simple for, you know, internally as you're creating your product and then actually strive to make the experience for whoever you're selling it to better. Make it easier.
I mean, one of the ways that we tried to, you know, really put our money where our mouth is was in the book we reference, you know, we reference other artists and other music. I mean, music is obviously a big part of my life and I put lots of links. to the song I was listening to when I started to write each chapter just in case people wanted to sort of listen along and experience it that way.
So for the e-book, that's a link. You can just click on it. It's easy. If I reference the book, then I'm like, this book changed my life. Check it out. You can do it right away. It's not like a homework assignment. It's just trying to make sure your product actually serves your customer in the best way that it possibly can that makes their life simple. Absolutely.
And so, and then Chandler, you have this phrase that you write about called forced opportunities.
Yeah. So what I'm talking about there with the forced opportunities is I love putting myself in positions that are going to force me to really think outside of the box or they're going to force me to do stuff that I wouldn't normally do. So the example there when I ran a $100,000 business was I kind of put myself out there and decided to take this opportunity.
And then we had the training where they trust. It's like the initial training with the company. Basically, what I did is I went up to the CEO, the guy who was doing the presentation, and I said, hey, I have a big goal. I want to run the number one business in the country. I want it to be over $100,000. And I just kind of made a challenge and a bet with him there.
Like, I want to accomplish one of those things. When I did that, it's funny, like when you start vocalizing those things and telling, I made it a point to tell as many people as I could because then I knew it was going to force me to deliver on that. When you're telling it to everyone you see, your mind starts telling you like, okay, I actually have to make this happen.
You know, you're going to put yourself out there to a point to where you're going to figure out ways to make it work. And when you have a specific deadline or when you have a specific number,
or a challenge that you want to hit, that's when it really becomes real, and it's either a success or a failure, but either way, you're moving forward because you're forcing yourself to be put in that situation, and it's the forced opportunity that you give yourself.
So, Seth, sort of back to you, one of the things that you said is you said your friends are like a food pyramid and the reason why all your friends can't be Pop-Tarts. Yeah, I grew up – some of your listeners may be able to relate with this. I grew up in the South and in a very conservative home, so my mom was always – super picky about my friends and who I hung out with.
I actually heard this tagline from a lot of friends, but you show me your friends and I'll show you your future. And I thought it was cool that my parents made it enough of a priority that I put good people in my life to influence me. But I actually heard that from one of those people that were influencing me.
You know, you show me your friends, I'll show you your future was sort of a good example of how even though I love to have fun, I love to laugh, I love to cut up. I've got sort of five core friends and one of those is that for me because I need that. But it's really important that I don't have five friends that are that way. I mean, it's balance. You need that in your life.
But, you know, I have my friend that I call for when I need financial advice or when I need spiritual advice or when I need advice about maybe being a better friend even to those five friends, you know, the people that strengthen me in different ways. I think that balance is key. So that's what that's about.
So Chandler, there's this phrase that you talk about or this concept of the boomerang effect of giving. And giving is such a tremendously powerful part of being successful. And walk us through why you use the metaphor of a boomerang.
Yeah. So growing up, the one thing that people that grew up around us would always tell us is, I can't believe how your parents, they give all the time. And it's like my mom's like the most giving person you'll ever meet. It's like they make money just to give it away. We give because we want to help others.
And even when we feel like we have nothing to give or we really have to dig deep to give, we always do it. But we know it's going to bless their life. And we know that at some point, God is going to bless us and bring it back to us. That's the whole analogy with the boomerang is if you're giving just so that it comes back, that's rooted in just a horrible place. And that's not the way to do it.
But if you give from the bottom of your heart and being genuine, it will come back to you like a boomerang. You just give. Keep throwing that boomerang out there. Just keep giving from a genuine place, even when maybe you can't afford to, but you sacrifice yourself to give to others. It's just amazing how it always comes back to you tenfold.
Well, guys, I love it. The book is called Breaking Out of a Broken System. You've got to take a look at it. Seth Fultz from Need to Breathe, his younger brother Chandler Bolt, a budding entrepreneur. Really cool stuff. Thanks for being on the show and good luck to you guys.
Yeah, I appreciate it, man. Thanks so much.
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