[00:00:02] Speaker A: Ramping up your business.
[00:00:03] Speaker B: The time is near.
[00:00:05] Speaker C: You've given it hard, now get it in gear. It's Passage to Profit with Richard and Elizabeth Gearhart.
[00:00:12] Speaker B: I'm Richard Gearhart, founder of Gearhart Law, a full service intellectual property law firm specializing in patents, trademarks and copyrights.
[00:00:20] Speaker D: And I'm Elizabeth Gearhart, not an attorney, but I do marketing for Gearhart Law and I have my own startups.
[00:00:26] Speaker B: Welcome to Passage to Profit, the road to Entrepreneurship, where we talk with entrepreneurs and celebrities who tell their stories about their business journey and also share helpful insights about the successes that they've had.
[00:00:38] Speaker D: Did you know that 2 in 5Americans want to start a new business or are business owners? Well, we have lots of information to.
[00:00:45] Speaker B: Help them too, and we also talk a little about the intellectual property that helps them flourish. Now it's time for our future guest, John A. Brink. I had the good fortune of being on John's podcast a while ago. It was one of the best podcasts I'd ever been on. It got a lot of attention too. And I think it's just John had such an amazing way of conducting the whole program. Such an engaging guy. So welcome, John, so nice to see you. Maybe you could talk a little bit about your childhood. I remember you told us a story about starting out in Europe and so maybe you can enlighten our audience.
[00:01:19] Speaker C: Sure it should. Dan, Elizabeth, is that I was born in 1940, November 1, 1940. And obviously I was born in Holland, the northeastern part of Holland, just before the war. And so, you know, things were pretty tough when Hitler decided that he would take over Europe and invaded with the blitzkrieg Holland. My mom and dad were married in 1938. They had a boy and a girl fairly quickly. And then In April of 1940, my dad was called into the Dutch army. And the last time they heard from him or saw him was just before the bombing of Rotterdam. And thousands and thousands of people died. They would not know for five years if he had survived. That set the foundation for what happened next. We had my mom pregnant with me and had a little girl and a little boy. And things were tough for her, but they were tough for everybody around her as well. So he was pretty much on her own. The first thing that I remember when I was three and a half years old was bombers overhead bombing Germany and their infrastructure. And again, think northeastern Holland, the northwestern side of Germany, at Bremen, Kiel, Hamburg, and they were bombing that infrastructure that built weapons. And my mom used to take us outside because she felt safer outside than inside. In the distance we saw the sky being red from all the fires. So that's what I remember even still today. The sound of 200, 300 planes of bombers in the air. The next thing that I remember is that the winter of 1944 was called the hunger Winter and is where they had cut off all the food. And then my brother, my sister and myself. I was four years old then, four and a half years old, and they were five and a half and six. We would go every morning we would go to the railroad yards and pick up anything edible and burnable. The reason that we did as kids is the Germans wouldn't shoot us. They would boot us one, but we'd be back the following day. The next thing that I remember then, it was then the coldest winter on record. And I can still even today, feel the hunger 80 years later in the cold. And the next thing that changed my life is we were liberated by the Canadian army as part of the allied forces on April 12, 1945. And it made such an impression on me that. That I knew from that time forward, five years old, I would go to the land of my heroes, Canada. And I did that. Then I was gonna go when I was 17, was drafted into the Dutch Air Force for two years. And they said I was too young at that point. And then was in the air force for two years. And then I left Holland. And I wanted to start with nothing. And I had the other dream of I wanted to build a lumber mill. The reason that I wanted to build a lumber mill is because my dad worked in the lumber before that and so did. My grandfather was the master carpenter. That was my dream. And so I wanted to start with nothing. I had one suitcase, three books, two sets of clothes and little money. I took the plane to Montreal, took the train across Canada. Oh my God, that's a long way. Four days, five nights. And then arrived in Vancouver. Couldn't speak the language, didn't know a soul, didn't have any family. Fortunately, there was a German fella that worked there. I told him what I want to. I wanted to build a sawmill, Linda mill. He said, go to Prince George, 500 miles north. And I did that. When I came off the bus, I had my suitcase, three books, two sets of clothes. I counted my money three times. I had $25.47. But I did have lots of attitude. I always have been an optimist, no matter what. Passion, work ethic. I work harder than anybody. Even still today at 82, I get up at 5:30 in the morning. And I always think I'm late. I always make my bed.
[00:05:47] Speaker D: Can I just say something? So John held up a little plaque that he had made that's about the size of a book that had all that information on there.
[00:05:56] Speaker B: John A. Brink. He's the CEO of the Brink Group of companies. Let me ask you a question. What is it about your childhood and your upbringing that brought you to where you are today?
[00:06:09] Speaker C: PTSD is still part of me today. And then the other part, the fear of losing that family that are the parent that we had, at least during the war, is the inner child was part of me as well. And so from there on in, the other part that probably affected me, but I already was, and it will come up, is that I was not success story academically. I failed grade three and I failed grade seven three times. It would take then till I was 62 that I was diagnosed with ADHD. I wrote a book about that actually, ADHD Unlocked. And so I didn't know that then, but so I was so determined about being successful, going to Canada. I was going to build a lumber mill, but I wanted to start with nothing. And so started as a cleanup man, came to Prince George here. And obviously I have a lumber mill, several of them right now, 10 other companies of all kinds of different descriptions. So what probably drove me is probably the foundation of what happened then during the war and then having challenges because I failed grade three, failed grade seven, was kind of looked at. He must be dumb or stupid or what do we do with this guy? Send him to some people said to my parents, maybe send him to a mentally challenged school. He said, no, we're not going to do that. So we'll train him to become a craftsman. So they sent me to a furniture factory and in the evening I would become a furniture maker. But the interesting part about me was that I have an amazing memory and I was very good at writing, but not reading. I was ADHD and had dyslexia. And so I was very good at writing and I was very good at numbers. And I've always been like that. And. And then determination, staying the course. I already did that when I was young. I already was entrepreneurial, sold papers, did this. I was already then entrepreneurial. So for me, I wanted to make it really difficult because I still felt deep down is I'm different than the others. Why is that? So it obviously took me Till I was 62, when I was already diagnosed with ADHD.
[00:08:39] Speaker D: I think a lot of people have things they need to overcome. I love what you did, because some people will say, oh, pity poor me, I'm the victim because I have this. And other people will say, I have this and I'm going to live my life and conquer it anyway. I think that's the best attitude to.
[00:08:54] Speaker C: Have, and everything is possible. That's the attitude that I have. And staying the course, you know, never give up. And starting with nothing is that success probably is staying the course in most cases, and determination. Be a dreamer, dream big, and then pursue it. Never give up. And I still do that today.
[00:09:17] Speaker B: So let me ask about some of the other people that you've interviewed on your podcast. I know you've probably got something like 350, 360 episodes out there. Do most of the people that you've interviewed have early childhood challenges that sort of spurred them on to success?
[00:09:36] Speaker C: I believe it is common, Richard, but that's not what we seeking out. We are booking through a putt match, and I interview people from a variety of different areas. It's not limited to one or the other, but amazingly, there are a lot of people that have challenges and a lot of people that find inspiration, maybe in what I did in my pursuit. And so that's what is the beauty of podcasting is because as we are sitting here, you in New York, me in central British Columbia, Canada, we already know hundreds of thousands of people are watching us from around the world. It's amazing. The new media is really podcasting, and.
[00:10:22] Speaker D: Video podcasting is becoming huge, too. And so that leads me into something else, because I see there's a book behind you called Living Young, Dying Old.
[00:10:33] Speaker C: Written by you for our listeners.
[00:10:35] Speaker B: He's showing up a book where he's doing this muscle man pose, right? And his biceps are bulging out of his arms. You have quite a set of guns there, John.
[00:10:45] Speaker C: I'm the oldest competitive bodybuilder in North America.
[00:10:48] Speaker D: I think that for an entrepreneur or any business person, I think being in good health really helps a lot. Right.
[00:10:54] Speaker C: It's critical at any age. But I say my foundation is attitude, passion, work ethic, but will follow his success at any age.
[00:11:04] Speaker D: So how did you discipline yourself to stay in such good shape? And what's your diet like?
[00:11:10] Speaker C: That's an interesting question, Elizabeth, that you asked that. Because my wife is vegetarian, I didn't listen as well as I should. I could have until I got a close call when I was 68 and I had a case of diverticulitis. That is the rupture of your colon, where the toxins get through your body and you have about 48 hours to fix it or otherwise you it's going to be very bad. So they took 20cm out of my colon. I came this close. The doc said the following day, he said, hey, John, you came this close. So from that point forward, I knew I had to do before that I was just like everybody else. At the end of the year, we say we're going to do this, that, that, that and that. And then I'm going to buy a membership to the gym. And then two weeks later I can find a hundred reasons why I'm too busy to go to the gym. And so I knew I had to get serious about this and I had to get serious about diets. And so that's what I did. And so now, 15 years later, and in the meantime, I was already Starting then at 69, going to the gym, after going to the gym as a trainer for about six years, somebody came up to us and say, hey, Jonah, have you ever thought about competing? I said, me? Really? And so I did. And so I came in second, bodybuilding, third in physique, Northern bc, worked my way all the way to the nationals and to the Arnolds. I want to go to the Arnolds in 20, 25. And I'm 85. And so just the diet, obviously I started paying more attention to my wife and started listening better. So amazingly, I do all the shopping. So if I go to a grocery store, I go through the outside of the grocery store because on the inside it's all the prepared food that I don't know what is in it. So we being very conscious, very precise about diet. And I love it, I love going to the gym and I'm still very active in that. And in terms of diet is important. And I am a vegan and probably 80, 20 or 90, 10 maybe even. And I love it because once you get used to it and you start understanding it, it can be very tasty. It does not have to be, you're missing something, but it helps your fitness and obviously your, your health.
And you know, with age, it's not about the number, it's about quality of life. And a lot of people in the last decade of their life is usually when they become ill or sick and they have a whole handful of pills that are fix one thing but probably create problems in other areas and, you know, on and on and on and on. So quality of life at any stage. And for me, the reason that I wrote the book, obviously that you can do this at any age, because I started 15 years ago when I was 68 and got a case of divachiculitis and then I was lucky. I'm not suggesting that anybody should wait because quality of life is critically important and it gives me the reward. Now at my age, I have 10 different companies. I'm very, very active. I'm an author. I work on my sixth book. And then I'm a very active podcaster. You know, we top 1% globally and I think we got 650,000 subscribers on YouTube and so we very active in that area and I love that.
[00:14:46] Speaker B: John A. Brink, he's the CEO of the Brink Group of Companies. He's a best selling author, podcast host, philanthropist and educator. You're listening to Passage to Profit with Richard and Elizabeth Gerhardt. Stay tuned for Secrets of the Entrepreneurial Mind coming up later in the show. We'll be right back.
[00:15:04] Speaker A: Let me tell you a story about Bill. Bill was a normal guy in his 50s. He had back surgery about two years ago. Bill was in a lot of pain. He dealt with his pain by taking the Percocets his doctor prescribed for him. Bill took more and more and more of them to help with the pain until one day the prescriptions weren't enough to get rid of Bill's pain. Then one day, Bill found someone to help him get rid of the pain with illegal drugs he didn't need a prescription for. Fast forward to today. Bill lost his job and his family. The only thing he does have is his drug dealer. If you know Bill's story and you don't want to end up like Bill, call the Detox and Treatment helpline right now to get away and get treatment. 8009-8017-6180-0980-1761, 900-980, 1761. That's 800-980-1761. Are you running a small business with two or more employees struggling to find affordable health insurance? Well, help is just a call away. Whether you're a restaurant owner, retail store manager, or a gig worker with staff, we've got you covered. Get quality health insurance plans starting as low as $120 a month. Our custom comparison tool finds plans tailored specifically to your business. We know it can be tough to find the right coverage. That's why we're here, to make the process seamless and stress free. Our plans include health, vision and dental coverage, all at unbeatable rates. Call the Small Business Health Insurance Hotline now. We'll compare top providers to get you the best deal in one quick phone call. Don't wait. Secure the benefits you and your employees deserve today. Call now. Rates may vary based on location and coverage options. 8024-9108-4802-4912 084-8024 912084 that's 802-491-2084 now back.
[00:17:04] Speaker C: To Passage to Profit once again, Richard.
[00:17:07] Speaker D: And Elizabeth Elizabeth Gearhart and our special guest John A. Brink. We just had a fabulous discussion with him, but it's not over yet. I want to dig deep into what he's doing and find out how he is able to simultaneously run a number of different companies and how he keeps them all afloat. John, please enlighten us.
[00:17:26] Speaker C: I started obviously already you had the background of it started with nothing and then I had to find a niche in the marketplace. So I did that on my initial company, Brink Forest Products Ltd, now part of the Brank Group of Companies. I didn't have much money when I started it either, but did a good business plan and then convinced somebody to lend me $25,000 to start this company with three employees on a new product that became very, very successful through all the ups and downs that is 50 years ago and business for 50 years. But I'm one of those people now that other people a lot of times listen to because of the different approach.
[00:18:08] Speaker B: John A. Brink, CEO of the Brink Group of Companies. John, can you tell our listeners where they can reach you?
[00:18:16] Speaker C: John A as in Aaron A R E N D or Adam brink.com I.
[00:18:23] Speaker B: Really recommend subscribing to his podcast channel. Just a wealth of information, lots of great personalities and information. It's a real gold mine. And of course you get to hear more of John Brink and his views on the world. Passage to Profit is a nationally syndicated radio show appearing in 38 markets across the United States. In addition, Passage to Profit has also been recently selected by Feedspot Podcasters Database as a top 10 entrepreneur interview podcast. Thank you to the P2P team, our producer Noah Fleishman and our program coordinator Alicia Morrissey and our studio assistant Risi Cat Busari. Look for our podcast tomorrow anywhere you get your podcasts. Our podcast is ranked in the top 3% globally. You can also find us on Facebook, Instagram X and on our YouTube channel. And remember, while the information on this program is believed to be correct, never take a legal step without checking with your legal professional first. Gearhart Law is here for your patent, trademark and copyright needs. You can find
[email protected] and contact us for a free consultation. Take care, everybody. Thanks for listening. And we'll be back back next weekend.
