POST TRAUMATIC - GROWTH With Martin Watts

Howard Brown: 00:00:03

Hello, it's Howard Brown. It's the Shining Brightly

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Show. And we are shining so brightly today. I have an

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amazing guest with an amazing story. Lots of lessons learned.

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Oh my God, these are teachable moments. Martin, welcome to the

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show. How are you? I am doing amazing, Howard, how are you

Howard Brown: 00:00:21

today? I'm great. I just I'm so glad we just met. But I'm so

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happy to have met you. And I want to tell people a little bit

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more about you. So let me let me kind of read a part of your bio

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here. So Martin Watts is a seasoned entrepreneur and

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business growth expert with over 30 years of experience in

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building and scaling successful companies across various

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industries. He's the founder and CEO of rocket men business

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accelerator, we're going to learn a little bit about that.

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This is a coaching firm that helps businesses identify and

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align with three areas, culture, goal alignment, and consistent

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branding with an emphasis on the customer experience really

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important stuff. Martin is passionate about sharing his

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insights and learnings with his peers and a wider community.

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He's an insightful storyteller, and speaker. And he adds

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practical tools to add to your toolbox for creative problem

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solving, decisively helping people answer those hard

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questions. Also being empathetic, real life

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applications. Martin's vision is to empower business leaders and

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entrepreneurs to grow sustain their ventures, while creating

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positive impact in the teams and in society. And that's what this

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show is all about. You're also a bold, patented inventor, and

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you've redefined what Corporate Social Responsibility looks

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like. And you bridge the gap between management and a

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sustainable company looks like and feels like really cool.

Howard Brown: 00:01:46

Martin, You're impressive already. But tell us something

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that we may not know about yet, you want to share

Martin Watts: 00:01:53

Sometying that is a lot of people don't know about

Martin Watts: 00:01:55

me, as I mentioned, an accomplished artist. And so I

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paint I draw, I use clay to express myself. In fact, it's

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pretty healing for me, it My passion is really helping

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trauma. I don't call the victim I call you know, thrivers

Martin Watts: 00:02:12

they're not survivors, but I happen to be one of them. And so

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it's very healing to me and always has been. So it's like

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it's a it's a love for mine. It's a very passion, love for

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mine and and the healing arts people don't know something

Martin Watts: 00:02:26

about the healing it towered is that the right brain is all

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logic and language, linear thinking and thinking in words.

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So if you go to talk therapy, people will use the, the, that

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side of your brain and then the other side of the brain is

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creation and then holistic thinking. So it lacks the

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images, the sensations and the emotions associated with trauma

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and grief. So that's, that's something I just love to do. And

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it helps me It empowers me. And, and I like to be part of those

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kinds of programmes.

Howard Brown: 00:02:57

I love that because in my book, and in my,

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my speeches, I talk about finding your happy place, and

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you found your happy place, mine happens to be the basketball

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court. But I love that because, you know, talking about is one

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thing, but actually experiential, putting your hands

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into the clay, it's great. Thank you for sharing that. It's

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really amazing. I'd like to just start with share a little bit of

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background where you've come from what you've been through a

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little bit. And let's dig in there first.

Martin Watts: 00:03:23

Well, I was born in Chicago, actually. And I

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won't go through all that, you know, like when I was born, but

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I was born in a good Chicago Catholic family. I was number

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nine of 10. And so that's kind of my background, and I ended up

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ended up in Wisconsin and I and I just remember going to school

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and doing my thing. And then I guess I've always been an

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entrepreneur and I kind of laugh at people. I always ask people,

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so when When did you become an entrepreneur? You know, and they

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said, Well, when I went to college, everything I said,

Martin Watts: 00:03:51

Well, no, no look farther back. It was kind of funny, I actually

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look back and I said when I was in third grade, the bussers at

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the school, couldn't go to the couldn't go to the candy store

Martin Watts: 00:04:02

because I was a walker. So I would start collecting their

Martin Watts: 00:04:04

money and buying candy coming back and I'd make a little

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little candies on the side, you know, you know, all of us

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entrepreneurs have a some sort of, you know, story like that.

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But so I went I went to high I only went to high school I was

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accepted at one of the top art schools in, in, in the States,

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and I was just messed up in my head so I didn't really go to

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it. So when I was 23 years old, I started my first business. I

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actually was a freelance technical illustrator. So what I

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did was I taught myself how to technically illustrate you know,

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like things that would come apart, you know, like in

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manuals. And so that was my first business. And I've had

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five businesses. I've had an ad agency and my latest one was a

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manufacturing facility down in just near Nashville.

Howard Brown: 00:04:53

I want to I want to tell you that I love the

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candy story, because most people okay they, a lot of people

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started lemonade stands. That was their first entrepreneurial

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experience a lot of people lemonade stands. And because I

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have a chapter on Babson College in my book, and it's the number

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one school for entrepreneurship in the world, those are the

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stories that shape you, right? The buying, selling the exchange

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of money, learning to put it in your piggy bank. And we took it

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one step further with our daughter, because she actually

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had two piggy banks, we call them sadaqa boxes in Judaism,

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and one was actually for her that she could buy candy, or gum

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or doll, or whatever she wanted, or soccer cleats when she got

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older, or the other one was for charity. And it's a beautiful

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lesson to teach that the other one was going to someone else in

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need. So I shared that with you a little bit along with your

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candy story as well. So you started some businesses, but

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it's not always easy. You went through some tough times. So

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tell us a little bit about the tough times and what you learned

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from that?

Martin Watts: 00:05:54

Yeah, well, entrepreneurship is full of

Martin Watts: 00:05:57

tough times, right? Or at least challenges. You know, I stopped,

Martin Watts: 00:06:00

I stopped calling them problems after my fourth company. I said,

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I don't have any more problems. What I have now is challenges.

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And so I decided to take that version of it. And, you know,

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it's interesting that, you know, many entrepreneurs at many

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different levels, they start a business, and how are, they do

Martin Watts: 00:06:18

something that they love, let's say it's providing lemonade,

Martin Watts: 00:06:21

right? They love providing lemonade, and also, there's more

Martin Watts: 00:06:24

demand for the lemonade. And pretty soon you, you have now

Martin Watts: 00:06:27

you have finances, and now you're gonna get a CPA involved.

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And now you got HR issues, because you're growing, and you

Martin Watts: 00:06:32

end up with all these different, you know, challenges that are in

Martin Watts: 00:06:36

your life and things that you've never even thought of. And, you

Martin Watts: 00:06:38

know, that's where impostor syndrome comes from, you know,

Martin Watts: 00:06:41

people people talking about impostor syndrome, but it really

Martin Watts: 00:06:44

is about like, Oh, my God, I get this huge company, or the

Martin Watts: 00:06:47

electrician who started his own company, that's a great example.

Martin Watts: 00:06:50

And in five years later, he says, Well, I can make more

Martin Watts: 00:06:53

money, you know, working on my own, and five years later, he's

Martin Watts: 00:06:55

got, you know, vans, he's got employees, and he doesn't know

Martin Watts: 00:06:59

what to do, right? So I ended up with that same kind of scenario,

Martin Watts: 00:07:03

I wasn't really expecting to have 25 employees or 40,000

Martin Watts: 00:07:07

square foot facility. But the thing that's in me, you know,

Martin Watts: 00:07:11

like that really drove me is I have this I have a model and my

Martin Watts: 00:07:14

model is never yield, I just will not yield, I'm gonna figure

Martin Watts: 00:07:19

it out. Because if I don't know what, there's somebody out there

Martin Watts: 00:07:22

that knows what to do, you know. So that's those have been some

Martin Watts: 00:07:27

of the biggest challenges. You know, like, I started a

Martin Watts: 00:07:29

manufacturing business without any money. And pretty soon I was

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supplying the world with portable hot water, hand washing

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stations. And then I didn't go to school for engineering, you

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know, like, that's the beautiful thing about entrepreneurs, you

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figure it out as you go sometime. And pretty soon I'm,

Martin Watts: 00:07:45

I'm in engineering a product that is plumbing and electricity

Martin Watts: 00:07:48

and NSF certification, and, you know, you deal with them as they

Martin Watts: 00:07:51

come up, right? And I remember NSF certification changed the

Martin Watts: 00:07:56

whole product, they said, Well, you got to change this, and do

Martin Watts: 00:07:58

this and do that. And I'm like, I have no idea how to do it. And

Martin Watts: 00:08:03

you sit down and figure it out. And I think that's been, you

Martin Watts: 00:08:07

know, when people look at the problems of it, I think that's,

Martin Watts: 00:08:10

those are challenging issues, I would say the most challenging

Martin Watts: 00:08:15

issue I had were people, you know, under, you know, I can

Martin Watts: 00:08:18

deal with things and gadgets and widgets and design stuff and put

Martin Watts: 00:08:23

stuff on paper. But dealing with people as a whole a whole nother

Martin Watts: 00:08:27

area for me.

Howard Brown: 00:08:29

And that takes that takes just time and

Howard Brown: 00:08:30

experience, I will tell you, a very important class that I took

Howard Brown: 00:08:34

at Babson was called organisational behaviour, right?

Howard Brown: 00:08:37

How to put the organisation and when you're growing like that,

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you realise that sales needs to talk to marketing, marketing,

Howard Brown: 00:08:44

may actually have to talk to the engineering engineering may

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actually have to talk to finance, everyone might have to

Howard Brown: 00:08:48

talk to HR. And when you're building teams, okay, and you're

Howard Brown: 00:08:52

the head coach, or the CEO, or the executive director, you

Howard Brown: 00:08:55

know, that the people stuff not all people agree, not all people

Howard Brown: 00:08:59

get along, and that team chemistry is vital to the

Howard Brown: 00:09:02

success, you know, if you're going to score touchdowns or

Howard Brown: 00:09:04

build revenue, and that, that that is actually both something

Howard Brown: 00:09:10

that is learned and can be can be really refined. But it also

Howard Brown: 00:09:14

is sometimes it's in you from selling candy, you know, at

Howard Brown: 00:09:17

school, you know, early on as well. So, absolutely, I agree

Howard Brown: 00:09:20

with you 100% The people process and hiring the right people and

Howard Brown: 00:09:24

getting them to work in a cohesive teamwork type manner.

Howard Brown: 00:09:28

Challenging for every company I've ever worked at.

Martin Watts: 00:09:31

Yeah, and I wasn't I'd never did really blue collar

Martin Watts: 00:09:33

before I was doing the ad agencies and different things.

Martin Watts: 00:09:35

And so blue collar mentality was a completely new mentality. And

Martin Watts: 00:09:39

I think people overlook people and they don't really stand in

Martin Watts: 00:09:42

the shoes of them. So when I had people come in and was like, I

Martin Watts: 00:09:45

was dealing with people that were abused, you know, they'd

Martin Watts: 00:09:48

worked at facilities and they were getting talked down to and

Martin Watts: 00:09:51

yelled at having cups thrown at them. And it was an interesting

Martin Watts: 00:09:54

challenge to get them to trust you in to believe in you. And I

Martin Watts: 00:09:59

remember Number I was thinking, Boy, I gotta create a better

Martin Watts: 00:10:01

culture for this. And in it, I didn't know anything about it. I

Martin Watts: 00:10:04

just don't when the universe speaks to me, I tried to listen.

Martin Watts: 00:10:07

And somebody handed me a book from Tony Shea, the gentleman

Martin Watts: 00:10:11

that started examples, and he has a great culture. And I

Martin Watts: 00:10:15

remember he just came up to me says, I just believe you need

Martin Watts: 00:10:17

this. And I was like, I do. And I started studying and

Martin Watts: 00:10:21

understanding. And so yeah, I think people is, people are the

Martin Watts: 00:10:26

big challenge there. You know, I think, if I can see one more

Martin Watts: 00:10:31

thing, Howard on this is that, you know, I learned as a leader,

Martin Watts: 00:10:35

that, you know, if you grow a beard, they'll grow beard, you

Martin Watts: 00:10:39

know, like, if you if you're able to grow a beard, or, you

Martin Watts: 00:10:42

know, the way you wear your hair, and people emulate other

Martin Watts: 00:10:45

people. So you have to be careful what you're putting out.

Martin Watts: 00:10:49

And one thing I learned as a CEO, the number one thing, I'll

Martin Watts: 00:10:52

tell you the number one thing I learned, number one thing, and

Martin Watts: 00:10:57

was this number one, the CEOs role, we know is the set the

Martin Watts: 00:11:02

vision of the company. The other thing,

Howard Brown: 00:11:05

I agree, but that's leadership, leadership

Howard Brown: 00:11:08

and

Martin Watts: 00:11:08

leadership, right? We said vision, right? But we

Martin Watts: 00:11:11

can't stop there. Because we have to communicate that vision

Martin Watts: 00:11:15

to all ranks. And I think that's where people lose, if they're

Martin Watts: 00:11:18

going to tell the the core group of people, this is what we're

Martin Watts: 00:11:21

going to do, but they never tell everybody what the vision of the

Martin Watts: 00:11:24

company is. And then number two, I've I found out that the number

Martin Watts: 00:11:29

two role of the CEO is speak to the heart of the people to speak

Martin Watts: 00:11:35

to their hearts, find out where they sit, spend time with them

Martin Watts: 00:11:39

and understand that your people don't they're they're not

Martin Watts: 00:11:41

cattle. We're talking about people. And then the third thing

Martin Watts: 00:11:46

is to have nine noes to one yes. In the nine nosed one yes, is

Martin Watts: 00:11:51

that once your vision is set in your navigation is set, people

Martin Watts: 00:11:54

come up with all kinds of great ideas. But if they don't match

Martin Watts: 00:11:59

what that Northstar is, and that question I always ask is, what

Martin Watts: 00:12:03

do I want to look like on December 31? And when I asked

Martin Watts: 00:12:07

that question and answer that question, and we set the course

Martin Watts: 00:12:10

for that, people come up with great ideas. And we try, it

Martin Watts: 00:12:14

seems like like we we discount that a little bit? Because it

Martin Watts: 00:12:19

doesn't line up. But the truth of it is nine noes to one yes is

Martin Watts: 00:12:22

that literally people come up with new ideas. And instead of

Martin Watts: 00:12:25

discounting it, we put it in into a parking lot. And I've

Martin Watts: 00:12:28

learned that and then we revisit that. And I found that people

Martin Watts: 00:12:30

get empowered by that. Because it is a matter of telling people

Martin Watts: 00:12:34

that you listen to them. It's a matter of listening to them.

Howard Brown: 00:12:39

Yeah, I love that. And by listening, you are

Howard Brown: 00:12:41

empowering them. Great advice. Great advice. Now, take me into

Howard Brown: 00:12:46

your background on personal trauma a little bit there. I

Howard Brown: 00:12:49

want to I want to I want to go into that because life is not an

Howard Brown: 00:12:52

easy road to navigate sometimes and for you for sure, as well.

Howard Brown: 00:12:55

So take me into that.

Martin Watts: 00:12:57

You know, it's interesting, I wonder I was I

Martin Watts: 00:12:59

was reading something in Einstein had a profound question

Martin Watts: 00:13:03

that we needed to ask ourselves, he said, is the universe

Martin Watts: 00:13:07

friendly to you? And it made me really think there's some things

Martin Watts: 00:13:12

that just go into your soul. And that question made me really

Martin Watts: 00:13:16

think. And if you asked me at the age of four, that answer

Martin Watts: 00:13:20

would be a lot different today. Because some of the trauma that

Martin Watts: 00:13:24

I went through is that when I was four years old, I remember

Martin Watts: 00:13:28

in Chicago, I was playing with my little sister, again, I was

Martin Watts: 00:13:32

not number nine to 10. I was four years old. And I don't know

Martin Watts: 00:13:35

my father was working on a window, but she decided to climb

Martin Watts: 00:13:39

onto the ledge of the window. And I was right there. So I

Martin Watts: 00:13:42

grabbed her. I mean, four years old, I grabbed her and I pull

Martin Watts: 00:13:45

her in best I can as I'm pulling her in, my father came around

Martin Watts: 00:13:48

the corner. And when he came around the corner, he saw that

Martin Watts: 00:13:51

he grabbed her put her to safety. He took me push, you

Martin Watts: 00:13:57

know, held me out the window. Howard, by one foot 15 feet

Martin Watts: 00:14:01

about the concrete.

Howard Brown: 00:14:03

So he thought that you were pushing your little

Howard Brown: 00:14:05

your sister,

Martin Watts: 00:14:06

he that I was doing that. So to teach me a

Martin Watts: 00:14:09

lesson on how to be better caring for my sister, he hung me

Martin Watts: 00:14:13

out the window. And, you know, like, that's the home I grew up

Martin Watts: 00:14:17

in. And I remember when I was five years old, one year later,

Martin Watts: 00:14:22

actually, I woke up to the sound of crying and was told that my

Martin Watts: 00:14:26

father had died. He was he was he was shot. He suffered a

Martin Watts: 00:14:31

gunshot while on a business trip in St. Louis. So then I had no

Martin Watts: 00:14:35

father at that time. My mother never remarried. And it just it

Martin Watts: 00:14:40

was just a very problematic home. You know, and I and I

Martin Watts: 00:14:44

tried to use you know, I tried to be classy about things. I

Martin Watts: 00:14:48

don't like putting laundry out there. But I can only tell you

Martin Watts: 00:14:52

what happened to me. You don't want it you know, I remember

Martin Watts: 00:14:57

when I was 11 years old, my mom My mom came in the kitchen with

Martin Watts: 00:15:01

a gun to her head saying she was going to kill herself. And I'm

Martin Watts: 00:15:06

thankful she didn't because I wouldn't know how to process

Martin Watts: 00:15:10

that. And, you know, it was very the abuse was very violent. It

Martin Watts: 00:15:15

was very chronic. It was you know, physical, it was mental a

Martin Watts: 00:15:19

sexual it was all, all the abuse was wrapped up into that house.

Martin Watts: 00:15:24

And so when I hit like 15 I gotta tell you something, this

Martin Watts: 00:15:28

never healed in Me, says, Okay, I'm sick of this. I'm not doing

Martin Watts: 00:15:33

this anymore. And I remember when I was 15, I went in the

Martin Watts: 00:15:37

basement, my house and I grabbed a desk, and I put it in my

Martin Watts: 00:15:41

closet, I finally had my own room, you know, you have a lot

Martin Watts: 00:15:45

of kids, I found my own room, put it in the closet, put a

Martin Watts: 00:15:49

little lamp, I had like a little extension cord without a cable

Martin Watts: 00:15:54

that came out of the closet, and I plugged it in so I can have a

Martin Watts: 00:15:59

light. And I started working on my art. And I started just

Martin Watts: 00:16:03

honing my art in. And because it was healing to me, I didn't

Martin Watts: 00:16:07

realise this, but it was really healing to me. And I actually

Howard Brown: 00:16:08

So it's unfortunate. I call the those

Howard Brown: 00:16:12

became one of the top art students of that high school.

Howard Brown: 00:16:15

struggles, and the walking in darkness. As I walked in

Howard Brown: 00:16:16

And I was recognised for it. Like I said, I got to I got

Howard Brown: 00:16:20

accepted into one of the top art schools from it, but it really

Howard Brown: 00:16:24

helped me get over it. And so the the other things I did to

Howard Brown: 00:16:25

darkness, lots of little journeys, and some big journeys,

Howard Brown: 00:16:29

get over it when I was 18 years old, I started volunteering is

Howard Brown: 00:16:33

what I did. And oh, by the way, I love some of the things that

Howard Brown: 00:16:36

when I get to stage four diagnosis that you know, 26

Howard Brown: 00:16:38

you're doing for colon cancer, I love all the screening things

Howard Brown: 00:16:42

that you're doing. Because it helps you get over the things

Howard Brown: 00:16:46

years apart, and you've walked in some darkness, that's a harsh

Howard Brown: 00:16:46

that you suffer through when you can do a positive, something

Howard Brown: 00:16:51

positive. And a negative situation, it really shifts the

Howard Brown: 00:16:55

mind. It really does. And I remember when I was I was 18.

Howard Brown: 00:16:57

way to grow up. You pack it away, and then you actually you

Howard Brown: 00:16:59

And I started I went to a gentleman programme, and I

Howard Brown: 00:17:03

worked at a woman centre. And I started working with kids just

Howard Brown: 00:17:07

to show him that, you know, guys can be cool people too. And so

Howard Brown: 00:17:09

know what we're really telling to me, you created a little safe

Howard Brown: 00:17:12

it really helped me, you know, it was interesting how I shifted

Howard Brown: 00:17:17

all that and went through that.

Martin Watts: 00:17:19

Mm hmm. So when I was I think when I was 19 years

Martin Watts: 00:17:21

space for yourself with that desk in your closet and that

Martin Watts: 00:17:31

lamp. And that became kind of your hide away. And then you

Martin Watts: 00:17:33

old, I you know, I was raised Catholic, and I only knew like

Martin Watts: 00:17:36

Lutheran Catholic. I didn't know there was like a whole slew of

Martin Watts: 00:17:39

religions out there. So I sought out like Catholic Social

Martin Watts: 00:17:42

know, as a teen, you're going up and you got all this experience.

Martin Watts: 00:17:43

Services. And I said, I got to talk to somebody about this.

Martin Watts: 00:17:46

It's really bothering me. You know, I hated my family. I

Martin Watts: 00:17:49

really didn't like what was going on. I was a struggling as

Martin Watts: 00:17:53

a human being. And I remember, you know, I started talking to

Martin Watts: 00:17:55

You talk about you said you you pack it away, but then you

Martin Watts: 00:17:56

this priest, I think it was blind. And I was talking to him

Martin Watts: 00:17:59

and tell him like, yeah, my mother did this. And I did this.

Martin Watts: 00:18:02

And I'll see you next week, you know, and then Olson before

Martin Watts: 00:18:05

sessions, and he says, he says, we're done. I said, very good. I

Martin Watts: 00:18:06

unpack it.

Martin Watts: 00:18:11

feel good about this. Like, I'll see you next week. He says, no,

Martin Watts: 00:18:14

no. He said, we're done. He says sessions are over. He said,

Martin Watts: 00:18:20

You're healed. You're all good. And I thought to myself, No, I'm

Martin Watts: 00:18:24

broken, man. I'm my hearts broken. My emotions are broken.

Martin Watts: 00:18:28

Like I was aware of this. I knew that there was something wrong

Martin Watts: 00:18:31

up here. And I said, and then he said, he said, You're hunky

Martin Watts: 00:18:34

dory. And you're all hunky dory. And I says, I don't know what

Martin Watts: 00:18:39

the hell, hunky is hunky dory is that I'm not hunky nor Dory. I

Martin Watts: 00:18:43

am not. I have not solved this. And it was interesting. I walked

Martin Watts: 00:18:47

out of there, Howard and I packed all of that away. I put

Martin Watts: 00:18:52

it in a closet, I refused even acknowledge it. And I went on is

Martin Watts: 00:18:57

sort of my first business when I was 23. And I had a family and

Martin Watts: 00:19:01

I've gotten married, had a family. I have seven beautiful

Martin Watts: 00:19:03

children. They're all adults now. And I started businesses I,

Martin Watts: 00:19:07

you know, went on. And then 55 I'm 61 now and when I was 55

Martin Watts: 00:19:13

years old, I decided to unpack it, and to deal with it. And I

Martin Watts: 00:19:19

find myself a really good therapist. And it was

Martin Watts: 00:19:23

interesting, though, after a year and a half going through

Martin Watts: 00:19:25

this and in by the way, she didn't tell me anything. I said

Martin Watts: 00:19:28

everything, you know, like this didn't come like people say,

Martin Watts: 00:19:30

Well, somebody puts up in your head. This stuff was real, you

Martin Watts: 00:19:33

know, I begin to unpack and I said, Oh my God, this happened.

Martin Watts: 00:19:35

I literally could smell the carpet. I could see things that

Martin Watts: 00:19:38

moves. It was horrible to relive some of this. But it was

Martin Watts: 00:19:41

interesting. After a year and a half Howard, I asked her this

Martin Watts: 00:19:44

question. I said I have to know on a scale of one to 10, 10

Martin Watts: 00:19:51

being the worst. And like just being a baby about this, you

Martin Watts: 00:19:54

know, like I was worried like everybody says they're abused

Martin Watts: 00:19:57

and everybody says they have trauma. She says Martin, she

Martin Watts: 00:20:01

says On a scale of one to 10. She said you're a 15. She goes,

Martin Watts: 00:20:07

I have dealt with people, my, my whole adult life. As a

Martin Watts: 00:20:10

psychologist, I have rarely met anybody like you that is

Martin Watts: 00:20:15

successful after going through the things that you've been

Martin Watts: 00:20:18

describing. And it was very interesting that I was able to

Martin Watts: 00:20:22

work through it and process it. And then I realised that, you

Martin Watts: 00:20:27

know, like, all the suffering I had, and PTSD, because that's

Martin Watts: 00:20:30

all characterised by flashbacks, nightmares, anxiety, disturbing

Martin Watts: 00:20:36

thoughts. I've had some of that, but I never really had any a lot

Martin Watts: 00:20:40

of that. And I did some study and I found that I had PT G,

Martin Watts: 00:20:45

post traumatic growth, instead of it wasn't destroying me, it

Martin Watts: 00:20:49

was actually making me stronger.

Howard Brown: 00:20:51

I love that you turn PTSD into post traumatic

Howard Brown: 00:20:55

growth. And, boy, you kept that in you for a long time before

Howard Brown: 00:20:59

you know, from little child all the way up to age 55 years old,

Howard Brown: 00:21:03

it's absolutely incredible. So I want to talk about some growth,

Howard Brown: 00:21:07

because you now have an are building some amazing content,

Howard Brown: 00:21:12

called the rocket man telling me what you're doing now. Because

Howard Brown: 00:21:16

you certainly are now taking everything that makes you Martin

Howard Brown: 00:21:21

and be able to then share and to share with entrepreneurs and

Howard Brown: 00:21:25

small businesses and businesses in general and to make them

Howard Brown: 00:21:28

better and I love that. So you're helping others and I

Howard Brown: 00:21:32

always say lift yourself up first. So they'll go lift up

Howard Brown: 00:21:34

others you are walking, talking model of that. So tell us about

Howard Brown: 00:21:38

Rocket Man.

Martin Watts: 00:21:39

Well, I appreciate the compliments. And and thank

Martin Watts: 00:21:43

you for understanding where I'm at. You know, it's was something

Martin Watts: 00:21:47

new that I've been working on. And you know, after my I sold my

Martin Watts: 00:21:51

last business, I created this manufacturing business, I had it

Martin Watts: 00:21:55

for 17 years. I could keep it by my partner or whatever. I

Martin Watts: 00:21:59

literally created everything I founded it, I did all the

Martin Watts: 00:22:03

engineering. And again, I just did it. And and in after all

Martin Watts: 00:22:07

that I decided to sell. And somebody asked me I really

Martin Watts: 00:22:11

believe in a like a one word barometer. I love asking people,

Martin Watts: 00:22:15

you know, what's your one word? Bromberg. How do you feel right

Martin Watts: 00:22:19

now? So a friend of mine said, Marty, after selling, he said,

Martin Watts: 00:22:23

What's your one word barometer. And I said accomplish. It came

Martin Watts: 00:22:28

right out of me accomplished. But it wasn't probably the

Martin Watts: 00:22:31

accomplishes, most people would think it was actually

Martin Watts: 00:22:35

accomplished, I felt I had accomplished everything I needed

Martin Watts: 00:22:39

to do our, for that company, I completed my duty there. So

Martin Watts: 00:22:43

actually, when I walked away, got paid, walked away, I never

Martin Watts: 00:22:47

even looked at their website. Again, I created all of that

Martin Watts: 00:22:51

site. I never even looked at it again. Because I believe that

Martin Watts: 00:22:55

there's something new and better for me to go forward with. And

Martin Watts: 00:22:59

that became Rocket Man. And what I did was I took a year off to

Martin Watts: 00:23:04

decompress and heal and rediscover myself, you know, and

Martin Watts: 00:23:07

you get lost raising seven children and having businesses.

Martin Watts: 00:23:11

I mean, I don't even know who the heck I was after a while.

Martin Watts: 00:23:15

And so I spent the last six months developing Rocket Man,

Martin Watts: 00:23:19

it's a coaching content, as you had mentioned, to help

Martin Watts: 00:23:23

businesses scale, you know, when I say foundationally, and what

Martin Watts: 00:23:27

is what's his also his now turning into his now I'm

Martin Watts: 00:23:31

creating a talk and a workshop, helping people in teams discover

Martin Watts: 00:23:35

and define their sustainable success. So it's basically a

Martin Watts: 00:23:39

speaking element to the rocket man. And this programme is

Martin Watts: 00:23:43

called The Power of Sustainable success. Knowing my background

Martin Watts: 00:23:47

that trauma, people don't realise that 73% of all adults

Martin Watts: 00:23:51

have suffered some sort of trauma outward in their lives,

Martin Watts: 00:23:55

up to 38% of all children have suffered some sort of violent or

Martin Watts: 00:23:59

sexual attacks or abuse. Look at entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs,

Martin Watts: 00:24:03

according to an entrepreneur named Travis Luthor, I don't

Martin Watts: 00:24:07

know if you know him, but he stated 75% of high performing

Martin Watts: 00:24:11

entrepreneurs, has suffered some sort of early trauma in their

Martin Watts: 00:24:15

lives. And here's the caveat to that few have addressed it. So

Martin Watts: 00:24:19

they were like me, they're just going on. And like I said, I

Martin Watts: 00:24:23

never felt really successful. Like I did all this great stuff.

Martin Watts: 00:24:28

And yet, I couldn't define or, you know, like success, because

Martin Watts: 00:24:32

you're always into the next challenge, right? You're always

Martin Watts: 00:24:36

working on the next challenge. So many people, and successful

Martin Watts: 00:24:40

people just don't believe that they're successful. And usually,

Martin Watts: 00:24:44

it's because somebody told them not to. You're not successful,

Martin Watts: 00:24:48

so they just believe that arc or typically, they're using the

Martin Watts: 00:24:53

wrong comparables. You know, according to like a recent

Martin Watts: 00:24:56

Gallup poll, when people judge their success, the Gallup poll

Martin Watts: 00:25:00

was a personal success score and a perceived social success

Martin Watts: 00:25:04

score. So the personal success score was a high 68% win. they'd

Martin Watts: 00:25:09

created their own comparables, then perceived society's success

Martin Watts: 00:25:13

score was a measly 31%. So really, in my talk in my

Martin Watts: 00:25:17

workshop, I share my story, I mean, because I think it's

Martin Watts: 00:25:20

important to share with me the fact that 73% of people that

Martin Watts: 00:25:24

have been suffered through some sort of trauma. I mean, I got

Martin Watts: 00:25:28

seven out of 10 people in any room, I can relate to. And so in

Martin Watts: 00:25:33

my workshop, I share my story. And I let them know that they're

Martin Watts: 00:25:37

already successful. But let's find ways that we can build this

Martin Watts: 00:25:41

success story for themselves. And so the workshop really is

Martin Watts: 00:25:45

about bringing ideas and bringing really practical

Martin Watts: 00:25:49

solutions to building their success stories.

Howard Brown: 00:25:51

Yeah, I'm excited for you, I know that you're

Howard Brown: 00:25:54

going to be speaking country wide for the organisation, it's

Howard Brown: 00:25:58

really an important message to tell people used to just cover

Howard Brown: 00:26:01

it up, just like you said, pack it away. I actually on the other

Howard Brown: 00:26:05

hand, I've been very, very vocal about you know, cancer

Howard Brown: 00:26:08

screening, I don't want anyone to get it walk side by side with

Howard Brown: 00:26:12

patients and caregivers and treatment. And then obviously

Howard Brown: 00:26:15

memorialising those that the cancer burden was too great. So

Howard Brown: 00:26:18

you know, we walked very parallel paths. Were very, very

Howard Brown: 00:26:22

aligned. For those that are just listening, I want Martin hold up

Howard Brown: 00:26:25

your your forearm for a second. And this is a guy that actually

Howard Brown: 00:26:29

means never yield because he's got a tattooed on his forearm in

Howard Brown: 00:26:33

bold block print. And that's a daily reminder to never, never

Howard Brown: 00:26:36

yield. And I love that. Thank you for sharing. These are,

Howard Brown: 00:26:39

these are deep stories about you personal about you've had great

Howard Brown: 00:26:43

success, you've got kids that you're proud of. And you've just

Howard Brown: 00:26:47

got more work to do. And I'd love to hearing from you, I'm

Howard Brown: 00:26:50

gonna ask you to put on your sunglasses, because you got some

Howard Brown: 00:26:54

cool shades, take off your other glasses now. And this is the

Howard Brown: 00:26:57

part of the show we call the shining brightly spotlight, I

Howard Brown: 00:27:00

want to shine that spotlight so brightly on you. I want you to

Howard Brown: 00:27:04

first just say how you'd like people to reach out to you. And

Howard Brown: 00:27:08

then I want you to share a little bit of inspiration, a

Howard Brown: 00:27:11

quarter story, and then I'll kick it back to me and I'll

Howard Brown: 00:27:14

close out the show.

Martin Watts: 00:27:15

Well, I'd love to reach reach out on LinkedIn, I

Martin Watts: 00:27:18

think you could post that for everybody. But if you can find

Martin Watts: 00:27:22

me Martin watts on LinkedIn, it's a great way to get a hold

Martin Watts: 00:27:26

of me. If even if you just want to talk. You know, I'm all in.

Martin Watts: 00:27:31

I'm all in. I'm all in. And, but I'd love to speak to groups. And

Martin Watts: 00:27:35

I'd love to be able to be able to empower other people to think

Martin Watts: 00:27:39

differently, inspire them. Excellent, excellent. So give me

Martin Watts: 00:27:43

give me a little inspiration here to close out the show. Very

Martin Watts: 00:27:48

good. I'll say I'll stick my favourite quote out there. My

Martin Watts: 00:27:52

favourite quote out there is on the Day of Victory. No one is

Martin Watts: 00:27:56

tired. Never lose hope. Always find a way to dig through it.

Martin Watts: 00:28:00

Because it's always better on the other side.

Howard Brown: 00:28:04

Wow. Powerful. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Howard Brown: 00:28:07

So I, again, just a great show. I will definitely include your

Howard Brown: 00:28:11

LinkedIn and help people reach out to you and, and be able to

Howard Brown: 00:28:14

support each other. I just thank you again for sharing so deeply

Howard Brown: 00:28:18

today about what you've been through how you've overcome and

Howard Brown: 00:28:22

then how you're helping others as well. So this has been the

Howard Brown: 00:28:25

shining, brightly podcast show, you can reach me at shining

Howard Brown: 00:28:29

bright me.com. And obviously information about the book is

Howard Brown: 00:28:32

also on Amazon, of course. I actually can help make your

Howard Brown: 00:28:36

events shine as a speaker facilitator and to help there as

Howard Brown: 00:28:39

well. And then this podcast is on there. And as well. Very

Howard Brown: 00:28:43

important to me are my advocacy things that I do for Babson

Howard Brown: 00:28:46

College and entrepreneurship, that whole cancer world and of

Howard Brown: 00:28:50

course, interfaith getting to know those who are not like you

Howard Brown: 00:28:53

and actually welcome in into your tent, just like Abraham and

Howard Brown: 00:28:57

Sarah did. So I appreciate that. I also want to give a shout out

Howard Brown: 00:29:01

right now to some folks that always helped me publishing

Howard Brown: 00:29:04

house, front edge publishing, read the spirit.com that I blog

Howard Brown: 00:29:08

in. And also the podcast group that I'm with is called the

Howard Brown: 00:29:11

Amplify You network. They're amazing. They make me look great

Howard Brown: 00:29:15

every Wednesday, so it's awesome. And so just remember to

Howard Brown: 00:29:18

shine, shine brightly, a little bit each day for yourself. And

Howard Brown: 00:29:22

then for others go lift them up in your neighbourhoods and your

Howard Brown: 00:29:26

communities and yes, the world we become a better place. Martin

Howard Brown: 00:29:30

watts. Thank you. I really appreciate you.

Martin Watts: 00:29:32

Thank you, Howard.