Breaking Out of a Broken System, with Seth and Chandler Bolt – Episode 30 of The Action Catalyst Podcast

Seth Bolt, bassist of rock band NEEDTOBREATHE, and his brother Chandler, CEO of SelfPublishing.com, dive into their co-authored book, “Breaking Out of a Broken System”, talking about “forced opportunities”, the boomerang effect of giving, sharing a $624 billion secret, and explaining why not all of your friends can be Pop-Tarts.

About Seth and Chandler:

Seth Bolt is a musician, producer, recording artist & entrepreneur. His passion for music led him to build a recording studio, Plantation Studios, where he began recording and producing records at age 16.

After earning a degree in recording engineering from Full Sail University, he began touring with his band, NEEDTOBREATHE; the band signed with Atlantic Records/Lava Records in 2005.

Since then, they have recorded numerous albums, won multiple GMA Dove awards (including Group of the Year, Recorded Song of the Year, and Album of the Year), toured with Taylor Swift, and performed at Bonnaroo.

Seth has continued his work in the studio helping other young artists to achieve their dreams. He is also active in a number of charitable organizations including the Imagination Foundation and Palmetto Medical Initiative.

Much of Seth’s art and charity work revolves around encouragement through story telling; empowering others to create a life full of purpose by seeking and serving something bigger than themselves.

Chandler Bolt is an investor, advisor, the CEO of SelfPublishing.com, a Forbes 30 under 30 honoree, and the author of 7 bestselling books including his most recent book titled “Published.”. Selfpublishing.com is an INC 5000 company for 5 years as one of the 5,000 fastest-growing private companies in the US.

Chandler is also the host of the 7 Figure Principles Podcast and the Self Publishing School Podcast. Through his books, podcasts, YouTube channels, and Self-Publishing School, he’s helped thousands of people write a book that grows their income, impact, and business.

He’s currently spending his time scaling Selfpublishing.com, a company he’s built from 0 to $55M+ in 9 years.

Learn more at SelfPublishing.com, NeedtoBreathe.com, and BoltFarmTreehouse.com.

The Action Catalyst is presented by the Southwestern Family of Companies. With each episode, the podcast features some of the nation’s top thought leaders and experts, sharing meaningful tips and advice. Learn more at TheActionCatalyst.com, subscribe below or wherever you listen to podcasts, and be sure to leave a rating and review!

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(Transcribed using A.I. / May include errors):

Host
 I have two guests on and these guys are brothers. The first and his name is Seth Bolt and he is in a band which called NeedtoBreathe. And then also his younger brother, Chandler Bolt. So these two brothers have joined together and they have a book that they have written, which is called Breaking Out of a Broken System. I’ve got them here today, both Seth and Chandler. Guys, thanks for being on the show.

Bolt Brothers
So thanks for the amazing intro. It’s a pleasure to be here.

Host
So first of all, tell me why did you guys why did you go about writing this book? Where did it come from going, Hey, let’s do this. Let’s write a book. Why did you guys decide to do it? Can you just give me a little background?

Seth Bolt
Yeah, sure, it was kind of the few things coming together. That really became symbolic, I guess, of who Chandler and I are, I’m sort of like the artist in the family that has it, Colin does hair and yours and Chandler is a guy that’s killing it in the business world. So we couldn’t be more different we we grew up 10 years apart. This whole idea of like combining art, and entrepreneurship, to raise money for charity is something that really inspired us to write the book.

Chandler Bolt
Yeah. And basically, the book, what we did is we took the things that our parents taught us, he took these 15 lessons that they taught us, and in a second, I both separate accounts. So settlor, his account, as a musician, I wrote mine at the business guy basically just showed these 13 things that they taught us or things that we thought were normal, but most people don’t end up learning them, you know, their parents don’t teach them this growing up. And we just basically showed how you can apply this in music, and you can apply it in business. And it just relates to both things.

Seth Bolt
One of the things that we’re gonna be excites us the most is the opportunity that we have to inspire other people, you know, our age, or that are trying to decide maybe what they want to do with their life or what they want to do if they want to change careers. Because there’s really an amazing potential to sort of repurpose business, not just for profit, but to actually make a difference in the world. And one of the ways that we’re trying to do that is we’ve partnered with an organization called PMI, and I’m at a medical initiative, they provide medical assistance to the developing world, we decided, let’s come on our entrepreneurship, let’s write this book, because that was kind of burning, there was a lot of things there. And at the same time, let’s make sure that we kind of spread this idea that, you know, even though all of us are just selling, you know, maybe one thing or one service, but you can build into that something that can have make a big difference in the world.

Host
That’s awesome. And then, you know, simultaneously, the book for the reader, it’s like, the principles that are in here can save a person’s life. And so Seth, Can you fill us in on what the $624 billion secret is?

Seth Bolt
That number reference was for Apple. And I use Apple, because it’s a, it’s an example that a lot of people understand. And, obviously, a lot of people are studying their business model now. But simplicity is the key. One thing that that really has been resonating with me lately is that, you know, I’m a hard working person, and a lot of us are and we want to stay busy, because we want to be productive. But sometimes, in that busyness, we create extra steps to our processes and our systems and our daily life, to complicate things and call this more work. And you know, for a lot of people, that means they end up working all day. You know, for a lot of entrepreneurs that have total time freedom, they work way more than anybody else, and they don’t stop, like really enjoy life, think about, you know, how they can give back or you know, maybe serve in their community, because they’re so married to their job. So that was all about simplicity, and sort of cutting back so that you don’t miss out on it all.

Host
So $624 billion, is Apple and that’s kind of their core mantra is just simplicity, simplicity, simplicity, make it simple and easy.

Seth Bolt
Yeah, make it simple for you know, internally as you’re creating your product and then actually strive to make the experience for whoever you’re selling it to better make it easier. I mean, one of the ways that we tried to, you know, really put our money where our mouth is was and the book we reference, you know, we reference other artists and other music. I mean musics obviously a big part of my life. And I put lots of links to you know, the song I was listening to, and I started to write each chapter just in case people wanted to sort of listen along and experience it that way. So for the ebook, you know, that’s a link, you can just click on it, it’s easy. You know, if I reference the book there and like, this book changed my life, check it out. You can do it right away. It’s not like a homework assignment. It’s just to make sure your product, you know, actually served your customer in the best way that possibly can, that makes their lives simple.

Host
Absolutely. And so and then Chandler, you have this phrase that you write about called forced opportunities.

Chandler Bolt
Yeah. So when I’m what I’m talking about there with a forced opportunities is I love putting myself in positions that are going to force me to really think outside of the box, or they’re gonna force me to do stuff that I wouldn’t normally do. So the example there when I ran $100,000 business was, I kind of put myself out there and decided to take this opportunity. And then we had the training where they treat this, like the initial training with the company, basically, what I did is, I went up to the CEO, the guy who was doing the presentation or said, Hey, I have a big goal, I want to know how to run the number one business in the country, I want to be over $100,000. And I just kind of made a challenge and a bet with them. They’re like, I want to accomplish one of those things when I did that. And it’s funny, like when you start vocalizing those things, and telling, I made it a point to tell as many people as I could, because then I knew it was gonna force me to deliver on that, when you’re telling it to everyone, you see it, your mind start telling you like, Okay, I actually have to make this happen, you know, you got to put yourself out there to a point where you’re gonna figure out ways to make it work. And when you have a specific deadline, or when you have a specific number, or a challenge that you want to hit, that’s when it really becomes real. And it’s either a success or a failure. But either way, you’re moving forward, because you’re forcing yourself to be put in that situation. And it’s the forced opportunity that you give yourself.

Host
So sort of back to you one of the things that you said is you said your your friends are like a food pyramid. And the reason why all your friends can’t be pop tarts…

Seth Bolt
Yeah, I grew up some some of your listeners may be able to relate with this guy. I grew up in a in the south, and then a very conservative home. So my mom was always super picky about my friends and who I hung out with. I actually heard this tagline from from my friends, but you show me your friends, and I’ll show you your future. And I thought it was cool that my parents made it enough of a priority, that I put good people in my life to influence me that I actually heard that from one of those people that were influencing me, you know, you show me your friends, I’ll save your future was sort of a good example of how even though I love to have fun, I love the laugh. I love the cup, I’ve got sort of five poor friends. And one of those is that for me, because I need that. But it’s really important that, that I don’t have five friends that are that way. I mean, it’s balance, you need that in your life. But you know, I have my friend that I call for when I need financial advice, or when I need spiritual advice, or when I need you know, advice about maybe being a better friend, even to those five friends, you know, the people that strengthen me in different ways. I think that balance is key. So that’s what that’s about.

Host
So Chandler, there’s this whole this phrase that you talk about, or this concept of the boomerang effect of giving. And giving is such a tremendously powerful part of being successful and walk us through why you use the metaphor of a boomerang.

Chandler Bolt
Yeah. Um, so growing up was the one thing that people that grew up around us would always tell us is I can’t believe how your, your parents, they give all the time. And it’s like my mom’s like the most giving person you’ll ever meet. It’s like they make money just to give it away. We give because we want to help others. And even when we feel like we have nothing to give, or we really have to dig deep to give, we always do it. Because we know it’s gonna bless their life and we know that at some point, the gods are gonna bless us and bring it back to us. That’s the whole analogy with a boomerang is if you’re giving just so that it comes back that’s rooted in just a horrible place. That’s just not the way to do it. But if you give from the bottom of your heart and be genuine, it will come back to you like a boomerang. You just keep throwing that boomerang out there and just keep giving from a genuine place even when maybe you can’t afford to but you sacrifice yourself to give to others they’ve just amazing always comes back to you tenfold.

Host
Well guys I love it. The book is called breaking out of a broken system you got to take a look at it that pull from need to breathe his younger brother Chandler bolt, a budding entrepreneur. Really cool stuff. Thanks for being on the show. And good luck to you guys.

Bolt Brothers
Yeah, appreciate it man. Thanks so much.