You don't need more hustle in your business. You need a new model.

Ange Dove (00:01.974)

Hey, welcome to You're the Boss podcast show. And I've got some amazing guests on today that I'm sure you're going to love and we're going to get some great snippets from them. So let me just introduce them. So what we are the guests we have today is Mark Bruce and Dwayne Gibbs, co-founders of Huddle for Success. They help driven professionals and entrepreneurs who feel stuck.

breakthrough barriers and become visionary leaders. With decades of experience in business coaching and personal growth, Mark and Dwayne combine mindset strategies, practical tools and accountability to help people achieve success with clarity and confidence in today's world. So let me bring them onto the stage right now. Welcome Mark and welcome Dwayne.

Angie.

How are you? Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Really good to have you on today. So, yeah. So, and it's great that you're on the other side of the world from me at the moment. So you're based in the U S I'm in Singapore. so just explain to me, first of all, how you got together and how huddle for success started. well, Mark, I'll start. So, so.

About 12 years ago, I met Mark at a event that I was at. I was educating people on how to invest in the note business, securitized by real estate. And so there was, I don't know. I actually, I think it was at a convention that was the first time. and so we were just talking and asked them where he is from. And he said my hometown. So it was kind of like

Ange Dove (01:57.026)

That's that's, you know, it's rare that you find somebody from your hometown. When we were in another, we were down in South Texas. And so, really it was, it was kind of eye opening. And so we started talking and come to find out his dad was my high school vice principal. It's a small world. Yeah, very small world. And so we just, we just.

you know, number one being from Maryland and we just kicked it off. talked about crabs, anybody that's from Baltimore, Maryland. We just love seafood. And we just talked about, know, our Orioles are our baseball and Raven's football team. And we just, we just stay connected. And so over the years, you know, he would call and say, have questions about the note business. And I would talk to him about business ideas and, and fast forwarding.

Two years ago, I came to Mark and I was in a transition state in my life to where I traveled all across the world, educating people, not only how to invest in real estate, but like I said, in the note business as well. And you know, after 30 years, anybody that's traveled that much, I was going anywhere from 40 to 45 weekends a year, grueling. was, it was tough. started flying in 1989.

traveled during flew into LA during LA riots. Um, you know, during nine 11, it was just, I mean, I've seen a lot of stuff over the years and I was just getting burned out. was getting burned out of the travel, not of what I was doing. And so my position for 30 years, I worked across the table from people that were looking to do something different in their life. So whether they were, they were investors, whether they were business owners. They worked for corporate America and they wanted to change. They wanted to invest differently. They, they were coming to a point in their life to where they didn't invest as much as they wanted to. And they were looking for different avenues. How can I invest better? How can I change my life? How can I do this? And so for 30 years, I was the guy that sat there and asked questions and, know, kind of developed a funnel for them to where.

Ange Dove (04:20.066)

They can move on to their next chapter of their life and, or build on what they have and create a legacy for their family. And so, you know, I was at a transition state, like I said, two years ago. and I, I came, I just really wanted to start helping people, but yet in my own brand, you know, create a brand for myself. And what did that look like? And so Mark and I just collaborated so much. And he said, listen, I have something that you need to say. And I said, okay. And I, my head was so full of information. I just was so scattered. I didn't, I knew that I could help somebody. just didn't have the right vehicle. And when, when Mark showed me his vehicle through Bob Proctor and thinking in the results, that was my aha moment. I mean, I could tell you so many people I was on stage with and, and you know, people that did public speaking for so long. And if I told you, would know every single person. but it was, it was always helping somebody else develop their brand, their product. And I wanted to do, to do mine. And, so Mark and I collaborated. And then at that point we decided let's join forces because Mark has so much business knowledge and has been very successful, not only in real estate, but his business.

Mark grew up with a coach, and just w we found that it was a fit for us. It was a fit for, we both aligned. It was like a happy marriage. We knew exactly what we wanted. We both felt like we can help people. had our avatar set. had all this information, but instead of having to go out and reinvent the wheel of creating a product, we already had a product that's been in existence longer than, than Mark has been alive and, and, and so it just, it worked for us. It was the platform, but us being able to instill our, our product knowledge, our success, our failures to others. So to help them get further down the road. so that being said, Mark can fill in the gaps. Yeah.

Mark Bruce and Dwayne Gibbs(06:17.431)

Almost

Mark Bruce and Dwayne Gibbs (06:40.078)

Yeah, I mean, like as Dwayne mentioned, I was born with a coach. My dad was a high school basketball coach and soccer coach and baseball coach. And so he coached me in every sport imaginable. And he coached me in life, too. We didn't always get along when he was my coach because he was pretty demanding. I appreciate I have at 65. I appreciate everything that he coached me through.

He did it. It did it for a reason. Sometimes coaches don't deliver good news. Sometimes it's like you really need to work a little harder in this area of your life. So I had a coach. I played competitive high school basketball for a national championship team that went undefeated. We I it earned me a college scholarship. It paid for my college education.

Dwayne and I have a lot of similarities in our backgrounds and yet we come at things from different angles. know, he's, he was a sales trainer. I was a business owner training staff. So we've got a lot of things that are the same and yet we do come at things that completely different angles that, that make us a really good team. We both like being members of a team. Dwayne came up with the name huddle for success because

It's nice.

Mark Bruce and Dwayne Gibbs (08:02.838)

I thought that was fantastic. I've always been a member of a mastermind group and I find that mastermind groups, they've helped me so much throughout my career. We decided we wanted to be other people's mastermind group.

Cool. know, have, there always has to be a facilitator of that. And I think with everybody that, that comes to our table, they have a lot that they bring to the table. just help facilitate and help put, get them back on track. That's all. Usually that's the best way, right? If you're a facilitator, yeah, you let them help themselves in a way. Right. So, so tell me about huddle for success. What is it about exactly?

Um, we help, help successful people that have come to a point in their life where either they, they want to make a change, they want to reinvent themselves or they've plateaued and they're trying to figure out how to get to the next level. Um, it's happened to Duane. It's happened to me. I, I can't even tell you how many times, you know, you get to a level, you, you set a goal, you get to the level and you think, yes, I've got there. And then you relax for a little bit. And then it's like,

Oh, wait a minute. There's like 10 more levels up there. So I got to go to the next one. And we teach a system that was designed, I don't even know who it was by, but I first started reading Think and Grow Rich when I was in college by Napoleon Hill. And it really helped me with my first business. Bob Proctor started reading that book in 1961. I was born in 1960.

So as Dwayne said, it was almost my entire life. He was studying this book and he boiled down everything into that book, into 12 pretty basic, simple things that if you do them, you're all but guaranteed to succeed if you do them. So we walk people through that, connect them with other like-minded people that are successful. And the mastermind group of the people that we work together with is, is golden.

Ange Dove (09:59.052)

Right.

Ange Dove (10:12.878)

I would say, you know, I I'm proud of our, of our mission, because I think that says a lot of, of who we are and what we help people do. You know, our, our, our mission is, know, at huddle for success, we help all help all driven professionals and entrepreneurs that who feel stuck are needing a new direction. And we guide them step by step to become visionary leaders and business owners, you know, our approach combined mindset, practicality strategies, accountability, and for them just to be able to achieve their goals faster and with clarity. So clarity is a very important part of that whole process. Right? Extremely, extremely important. know, before we got on and we talked about that's, I think that's the thing that, well, I believe what

Again, Mark and I have strengths and I think listening to someone's situation because every situation is different. I know that we can help so many people because we have the, the, the, the biggest key is listening to what someone's asking because you know, they're, they're, they're just, they're just stuck. They, again, they need a new playbook. They need clarity. They need a reset.

It's, know, it's like that easy button that think staples used to have it, hit the easy button to where, you know, everything automatically goes away. And so, we, we allow them to hit a reset button and we find that it becomes, it becomes more of many wins. So we have, when students come on board, we do a, a 12 step.

profile of different things of, of their life. And we measure that one through one through 10. And so they mark where they're at. then, you know, three months later, going into the second quarter, we do it again, third quarter, fourth quarter. So they can see their progress. They're able to, it's more measurable. And so if they're progressing faster in one area, great. If they're falling short in another, now we can, now it's more of a litmus test. We can.

Ange Dove (12:33.376)

We can really dig into what's what's really, let's, let's get everything all at the same pace versus lagging in one and striving ahead and others. And let's kind of keep that more uniform. And you know, it really holds everybody accountable that, that, you know, they love it. They love being held accountable for that. They're not, they're not wanting to have somebody reinvent the wheel for them because

Our avatars, people that are successful, that have done well in life, that have done well in business, they're just needing, they just need a reset. And so we're, we're not teaching anything revolutionizing. It's more of the basics again, you know, sports analogy, you know, block and tackle. We are always taught in football or ground balls, put one knee down and, and feel the ball. So a lot of people just get offline.

of, and just out alignment of, of where they really need to go as it's like kids going in school. have several friends that are teachers and they say the hardest part is after summer vacation, because now they have to go back two months to reeducate them from the previous year. And so, you know, having, having to get them caught back up and just keep them aligned. That's, that's really the biggest thing that we have to, to.

work on with our students. I think that must be so freeing to actually have a reset, right? It's got to be something that is, you know, you're giving them permission in a way to start again in a way in a different.

Yeah. Yes. I mean, I like to think of it in, again, in a sports analogy is it's halftime. know, we've reached, we've reached halftime of the game. It's time to go back into the locker room and sit down with a coach, come up with, all right, what worked? What didn't? What do we need to change? Let's go out and win the game. Let's go out and the second half. That's what we love helping people do.

Ange Dove (14:39.874)

Nice. could tell you every time that, that I had to reinvent myself, I found that I was the only person in the room and it made it really hard when you're the only person in the room trying to create a different outcome. And I found that being able to collaborate with people that are smarter and have done more than I, and being a part of a group that I call it Foxhole brother, somebody that I can

depend on somebody that I can count on somebody that can guide me into a direction that where if I'm feeling off track, they can hold me accountable for. again, that reset button to where, I got, I got to get back up. I, I'm, I'm, getting off track here and thinking differently. you know, Mark does a section that's an awesome section about paradigm shift. that's a big part of our big part of our business. Nice.

So Mike, tell me about the paradigm shift.

Well, do you know what a paradigm is? Because when I first heard about it, I had no idea what it was.

Can I

Mark Bruce and Dwayne Gibbs (15:51.918)

What what what Bob taught me a paradigm was a paradigm Your paradigm is all of the habits that you have in your subconscious mind that you don't even think about you got a lot of them Parents and your grandparents some even came genetically, you know It's like you can hear your your mom or your dad saying turn off those lights or you know, that's a paradigm so when you get to be their age you walk around and you turn off the lights because it's it's in your subconscious mind and you go ahead and you do it, right

We We have the subconscious mind with paradigms. We've got a conscious mind that can think and decide Whether something's good or bad your subconscious mind with your paradigm can't decide what's good and bad. It just Accepts everything that you feed it with your conscious mind as true. Right? that's one of the That's one of the most amazing things in the world because that means you can feed your subconscious mind if you if you take your conscious mind

Feed a thought that you believe into your subconscious mind you you will believe it and it will it will be produced through your That your paradigms produce your actions and your actions produce your results so Your your paradigm is is key. It's the key thing to change when you want to change your results

Right. We teach people how to change a paradigm by changing the thoughts that go into your subconscious and the things that you believe, because we believe all kinds of strange things. know, my my dad fell off a ladder when he was 78 years old and became paralyzed from the knees down. And it was a terrible thing because he was the most he was in better shape at 78 than I was at 52 at the time. And so but but he didn't choose to beat himself up about it.

too much, a little bit, but because he shouldn't have been in the tree and he shouldn't have fell out. But he chose, he chose to think of it as just something to deal with. He didn't dwell on the fact that it was a bad thing. He worked towards, and he got to a point to where he was, even though he was paralyzed from the knees down with, with a walker, he could, he could walk about a hundred yards. So,

Mark Bruce and Dwayne Gibbs (18:12.59)

At 70 or 80 years old, he worked hard for two years. So you can choose what to think about any situation that you run into. Choices that you make that affect your paradigm.

Right. And is that something that you can do alone or you need help to do?

It's like anything. Sure, you can do it alone. But sometimes it's easier. Sometimes someone observing what you're doing can see what your paradigm needs to change more than you can. I was working on my link when we started this, I was working on my LinkedIn profile and that banner that you put on LinkedIn that has your headline and what to say. And it's like, I could not figure out what it was.

that it needed to be. And I got in a work group with five other people and it was weird because I fixed all five of their headlines. knew exactly when they said what they did. I knew exactly what their headline should be and I couldn't do mine. Yeah. And one of them turned around and fixed mine and they said, well, why don't you just say this? God.

Yeah.

Ange Dove (19:22.35)

Yeah, it's working on your own business and your own taglines and your own marketing is one of the hardest things because you just have these blind spots where you can't.

Yes. Another reason for the mastermind.

Yes, yeah. So definitely if you're, I mean this is the thing as well when you're running a business, it can be quite lonely, right? Because you haven't really got anybody else to talk to, right? And run things by and if you decide to set a goal and you don't hit it, nobody knows except for you, right? So in order to actually hit it, you've got to be very disciplined and it can be very easy to say, tomorrow.

And tomorrow never comes as we know, right? So this idea of working in teams, just having a community there to help you, I just think is what you're doing is really valuable. Really, really valuable.

Well, if you look at individual sports, competitions, golfers, tennis players, they all compete individually. And yet every single one of them has a team. They have, you know, they've got a nutrition coach, they've got a weight training coach. They've got a, most of them have a mental attitude coach that helps them with their focus and their mindset. Not a single one of them does it on their own. They all have a team.

Mark Bruce and Dwayne Gibbs (20:48.694)

Yeah. Every business owner should have the same thing. Yeah.

one of the things I say is that this thing from Henry Ford, I think it was attributed to Henry Ford, if you believe you can or you believe you can't, you're right. It really comes down to belief, right?

I use that one. I was gonna write whatever you think you're right. Yeah. Yeah. Whatever you think you're right.

Yes. Yeah. You know, had a, have a friend of mine that, that says, you know, I read your book and, and, love, I got a lot out of it, but how can you really help me? Cause you don't know my business. I said, that's a good question, but I don't need to know your business to change the outcome of your business. And he said, what do you mean? And I said,

We need to dig into what's the issue with your business. You know, it, okay. I may not know how to put windshields in a car, but if you're, if you have an office and you have salespeople and you have, you have, you know, at the end of the month, you're, you're getting too much in the red and you have people that are calling out and you know, you're not, you're not giving product knowledge to your salespeople where you're not helping. I mean,

Ange Dove (22:09.962)

Everybody gets off track. so our program relates to anybody. It's just, it's a system of how we can analyze what someone's doing, whether it's business or personal and get them back on track. So it doesn't matter. Doesn't matter the business. doesn't matter. You could be having a relationship problem. You know, had somebody that had a relationship problem before and said, you know, I can't get my husband to do this. What's that look like? And so, you know, we break down of what's, what's really the issue. What's the, what's his thought process? How did he grow up? Was his dad like him? So, mean, you, you, you become just one that you can communicate and help, you know, it's, I call it Colombo, you know, the, the show Colombo years ago to where he would, he would ask a question and they would think.

I really can't give you an answer if you, even if you were, know, from a detective to a, someone that's a victim. Well, I didn't see anything. I don't think I can help you. You know, more than, know, just, just let me hear you talking. So Colombo was the same way, you know, he would just ask questions and ask questions and he was able to, to connect the dot and solve the case. And so that's, that's all we do. Okay.

All businesses have customers and they've got a product or service that they sell.

Yeah. Most businesses as well. They'll have the same kinds. doesn't matter what business they're in. They'll have the same, you know, that absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, so what would you say is a common, um, I'll say problem, a common challenge that people, often comes up for business owners. What's a common challenge that you usually face with them? all want more time. No, nice. Yes.

Ange Dove (24:07.892)

Everybody wants more time because our avatar, the people that we typically work with are 40 to 65. And so their career oriented, they've been in a career, they're looking for something different. They're a soccer mom that now is an empty nester. And you know, they want to, she, she, or he wants to start their own business or someone that is, you know, has a bunch of money and they are.

They have so much money that their business there that they can't step away from their business because they're so busy. Yeah. You know, we always say that's one thing you can't buy. You probably you got bad health. You could find the best doctor. you, if you didn't have a car and you had money and you can go buy a car or you could buy vacation to create happiness for the 10 days that you're gone, but you're still coming back to reality with the same issue. doesn't make it any better.

But one thing that you can't buy is you can't buy more time, but structurally, structurally you can change some things and be more aware of situations that's causing you to go off course. then that can help create more time. Yeah. Yeah. yeah. I completely agree. Yeah. You can make more money. You can't make more time. So you have to organize yourself so that you get, you make the most of the time that you have.

Absolutely. know, I'm so short. mean, older you get, no question.

Yeah, the other thing that we run into, you mentioned it when we were talking before the show is you run into a professional that, know, say they've got a career, they're an accountant and they've been an accountant forever. they, you know, the book appointment and they want to, they want to, they want help. And you reach down and you find out, what they really want to do is help somebody get through something like they're experiencing in their life. Yes. And that's what they really want to do.

Mark Bruce and Dwayne Gibbs (26:11.734)

Yeah, we we we also help people find what they really want to do. Yeah.

That's a powerful question. What do you really want to do? Not what you're doing. What do you really want? There's a lot of, there are a lot of students that, that wish they had a choice. You know, I've been doing this and I've been in it for so long and what am I going to do? I can't get out of what I'm doing. And the, and the question that we oppose is what is it that you want to do? Doesn't mean you can't do it. Let's figure out how you can do it and still maintain your, your life of what you're doing right now.

doesn't mean that's going to be forever. This is something that you may be able to gravitate towards in starting now and moving forward. Yeah. Just baby steps towards it and build it move over. Okay. All right. So, really fascinating to talk to you. This has been a really, really enlightening interview and what you're doing is obviously helping a lot of people. It's really good what you're doing.

And you came together with a common goal to actually do that, which is really good. And kind of like you're living what you teach in a way because you're not doing it by yourselves. You're doing it together to help other people, right, to do it together as well. So that's really cool. So where I put your website down at the bottom here, but is there anything you want to particularly drive people to?

Yeah. So we, uh, had, uh, written a very short book, 75 pages, but it's impactful. Um, and so w it's available, uh, to download. So if you go to huddle for success.com, they can download it for free. If they go to, if they go to Amazon, they could actually buy the book itself. Um, I 99, they can go and purchase the book if they have.

Ange Dove (28:14.19)

if they have Kindle, they can download it for free if they have unlimited, if not, want to, they want to download it. think it's $4. So, it's definitely an area of that. Listen, it's free. Go get the book, you know, and we also offer a free consultation. You know, we have people that call that just says, you know, I want to know more about your business. This is what I'm facing. Can you help me? And so, you know, it's not a shot in the arm. We can give them, but we can give them.

some hope we can give them some direction and they have to figure out, okay, do, do I want to press on forward and really do this? Am I, am I really going to commit to doing it? Because if they're not going to commit to it, I tell them all the time, if you're not going to commit, don't waste your time. Don't don't, don't waste your time. Go figure out how to do it on your own or have somebody else educate you. But if you want to commit, we can get you to that next level, get you to wherever you want to go. And so.

Being able to have a free consultation really is an eye opening to a lot of people because now they can position themselves in it. They hear progress. They hear a mini win. They believe now there's some hope that, you know, this, this was helpful and it didn't cost me anything to figure that out. So, right. So just go into your website. They'd immediately be able to see that and download it. Absolutely. And then they can just go in and make an appointment and.

with either Mark or myself and, and it's, it's that easy. Okay. So I'll put the link, wherever this happens to be where you're actually listening or seeing this and you'll be able to download it and get into the world of Mark and Dwayne and maybe move your business forward that way. So that's really, really exciting. So thank you so much for, for being on the show. It's been really enlightening.

And if anyone watching or listening, do like, follow and subscribe and do ring the bell to know when the next one comes on. Yeah.

Mark Bruce and Dwayne Gibbs (30:23.47)

Thanks for having us. This has been great.

I think it's time you

What you do is great too. Sharing information with the world.

Thank you.

Yes. Can't wait to have you on our podcast. And, you know, your, your breath of fresh air. You have been very kind, even in our pre meetup. it was, it was, it Mark and I got off and felt, you know, really connected with you and grateful that you had a song. Yeah. I think it's really nice when you, know, people meet and they just automatically find a common ground and get on. It's really,

Ange Dove (31:03.244)

Really exciting yeah, he playing the saxophone love it

I've been looking at those digital ones, by the way.

You have to get one now. Have a very Merry Christmas. Happy and safe New Year. And wishing you wish that to all your listeners as well. Yeah. And yours. Okay. Thank you so much.

the list.