Bryan Smith in the Press.
Smith gives a lot of credit to the teams at his companies for his success and says “getting to help them build, influence and work to help them reach their goals is much more fulfilling than anything I could ever do alone.” Smith spends his time helping Tulsa nonprofits, including Tulsa Pop Kids, Soldier’s Wish and Little Lighthouse. – Oklahoma Magazine 40 Under 40 (2019)
COMMUNITY SPIRIT MAGAZINE
Arthur Greeno, Bryan Smith have penned a self-help book that’s actually fun to read while imparting some sound advice about life.
Authors Arthur Greeno and Bryan Smith have penned a new book, “Breaking Conformity,” that tells a revealing story that will shatter many common myths about life and teach you a recipe for success through effective storytelling. Sure it’s a self-help book, but it’s also a fun read.
To be successful and achieve your goals you need to know the whole story about how successful people get more done that other people, how they focus on the details and never quit learning.
Walt Disney, one of the best storytellers ever, knew this simple concept from the very beginning when he first dreamed up his first animated character. It wasn’t Micky Mouse. His first creation was Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. But he lost the rights to the character because of some unexpected legal problems.
Despite the devastating loss, Walt went on to create his second character, Mickey Mouse. He knew the secret of success is to never, never, never give up, according to the book by Yorkshire Publishing.
GreenosmithBCIn fact the most successful people never quit anything that they really want. They know that everything is hard before it is easy. They know that if they quit, they have lost for sure. The authors prove time and time again, you never lose until you give up, no matter how long it takes.
The book also makes another key point. You often can’t do it alone. You must tap the power of seeking help with your dreams; often dubbed your team! You can’t be an expert in everything. The world is just too complex. But the good news is you don’t have to know how to accomplish everything.
Successful people know the value of helping others and also seeking help at the right time. The difference between a dream and a nightmare is in your head. If you think you can, you will. If you think you can’t, you won’t. Leaders are also readers.
Reading ties book will make you re-think certain paradoxes in life and make you reflect on how you need to stop believing every myth and start believing in yourself. With chapters carrying titles like “Failure Is Not An Option” and “Name It So You Can Claim It,” the tone is light, but heavy on specifics.
Greeno and Smith are two of the most popular lecturers on the self-help talk circuit and they epitomize Middle America.
Greeno owns and operates two Chick-fil-A restaurants in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He has earned two “Guinness World Records,” the latest being a 1140 Gallon 9-ft-tall cup of sweet tea. Arthur’s mission is to “teach, inspire and serve,” according to his Web site. His wife Noell and their six children are his greatest passion. They’re constantly teaching him, stretching him, supporting him, and loving him, he says.
Smith has received numerous Business Industry Awards such as Oklahoma magazine’s “Best of the Best” and Tulsa World’s “Best in the World.” He is very involved in the local community and seeks to mentor other success seekers and young entrepreneurs. “I have found that people will try to tell you what you can and cannot accomplish based upon their talents, abilities and vision, not yours,” he says.
A self-help book? Sure. Still, I enjoyed it immensely.
The Journal Record
BREAKING CONFORMITY — Check this out: The best way to communicate and educate, while also helping people to see the truth, is through storytelling. Walt Disney was one of the best storytellers ever, and knew this simple concept from the very beginning when he dreamed up his first animated character in the 1920s, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Through some unexpected legal issues that he had not anticipated, however, Disney lost the rights to his creation. After losing the rights to Oswald, however, Walt went on to create this other character that you may recognize—Mickey Mouse. Good ol’ Walt knew the secret of success is to never, never, never give up. After featuring his beloved new creation in the 1928 animated short, Steamboat Willie, you could say that the rest truly is history.
Written by authors Arthur Greeno and Bryan Smith, Breaking Conformity (Yorkshire Publishing) is a revealing story that will teach you to understand why you should not believe or accept many common myths at face value. It also aims to teach its readers how to make simple myths come true—that is, of course, if you also do the hard work that follows many simple statements that make up some of the most popular myths in business today. The book is a surefire recipe for success through very effective storytelling. Recently released, the authors will be in NYC shortly for a launch event. Stay tuned!
BEST IN THE WORLD: BRYAN SMITH AGENCY
TulsaWorld.com: Sunday, September 27, 2015
“I think when people meet and do business with us they see and feel the difference,” said Bryan Smith of Bryan Smith Insurance and Financial Services.
Smith has a full staff that is ready to take calls, answer emails and text, and respond via social media to customers around the clock.
From operations to marketing, Smith’s staff is working every day to go above and beyond for clients.
When it comes to insurance and finances, prices and budgets play a huge factor in customer decisions.
“A lot of the time we are going to save you some money, but all of the time we are going to make you feel like the most important person alive,” Smith said.
Thank you to Home Business Magazine for the great article!
According to Entrepreneur.com, the rate at which small businesses fail has declined by 30 percent over the last 4 decades. Unfortunately, many small businesses continue to crash and burn, with an average of half surviving past the five year mark. The statistics vary depending on how researchers derive the numbers, but even the Bureau of Labor Statistics finds that less than one-third of small businesses are able to keep their door open past the ten year mark. Does this mean that entrepreneurs are failing to succeed or are they failing to recognize the ideas that often lead to failure?
The Business Myth
One of the greatest obstacles to success is the belief in an idea that turns out to be wrong. For example, many of us have heard the following tossed around casually in conversation, but rarely take the time to think about them in detail:
Failure is not an option.
I tried my best.
If I can do it, anyone can.
Tradition has lead us to believe that the above are true, but in reality – internalizing these business myths can lead to failure on a grand scale. Lets consider each myth and demonstrate why they are flawed ideas that need to be eradicated.
Failure is not an option. Really? Of course failure is an option, especially in business. Let’s imagine that an employee has recently been promoted to a position of importance, in this example – Head of Sales. In their new role, they can either succeed or fail, to believe otherwise is a case of burying one’s head in the sand. Success which is evident by continued growth of the bottom line while keeping all the costs associated with making those sales in check is easily recognized. Failure on the other hand can appear in many forms, slumping sales, upset customers, ballooning sales costs – on their own, each could lead to failure – combined – certain doom. If you consider the facts, failure is actually the easiest option. Success requires effort, skill and sometimes a little luck – failure requires no effort at all. Even those who try their best can fail, which leads us to our next myth.
I tried my best. This myth may be the most prevalent in modern society. All of us at one point in our lives hear someone say, “I tried my best”, but did they really? Take for example a simple lemonade stand. To do one’s best may require traveling around town throughout the day setting up shop in the most high traffic areas. In the morning a busy intersection, at lunch – a high traffic construction site and back to the busy intersection during rush hour traffic in the afternoon. Success may also require extensive marketing or amending your lemonade recipe to cater to customer tastes. Making lemonade in large volumes to maximize production time and use economies of scale may also be required. The simple fact is, doing ‘your best’ may be so beyond what someone is prepared to do that they don’t even begin to understand what all that may entail. If someone can honestly say at the end of the day that they exhausted all possibilities and worked until physically exhausted to the point of no longer being able to work, then and only then can they claim to have tried their best.
If I can do it, anyone can. While ‘I tried my best”, may be the most prevalent, this myth may be the most destructive. This phrase is a favorite of pyramid schemers and late-night infomercials. Imagine for a moment that a property developer shares this myth with others and points to it as the key to success for others. What they fail to share is that perhaps they were in a position to buy a choice piece of property when they first began that turned enough profit to buy two in it’s place, allowing them to grow quickly where others would fail. Perhaps they were capitalized by a friend or family member which allowed them to avoid using traditional financing. Maybe, they were already financially secure when they took the step of purchasing their first piece of land. No matter how one looks at the situation, a trend will soon develop – there is almost always more to the successful entrepreneur who claims this myth as their truth. From health to experience, personal connections to timing – success for many is not simply ‘doing’ but rather being in the right place at the right time with the right opportunity and right skill set to eventually succeed.
In the end, we must begin to recognize these business myths for what they are – not necessarily lies – but rather half-truths that can lead to failure for even the best intentioned entrepreneurs. Success is by no means guaranteed, but clinging to a flawed way of thinking is a guaranteed recipe for disaster.
In their new book, Amazon Best Selling book “Breaking Conformity” Arthur Greeno and Bryan Smith tackle not just these destructive business myths but others as well.