Brian Bogert | Surviving a Freak Childhood Accident to a Thriving Coaching Business

Brian Bogert is a human behavior and performance coach who teaches clients how to leverage self-awareness and intentionality to become the most authentic version of themselves. Brian helps executives, entrepreneurs, athletes, and growth-minded individuals learn this transformative approach that cultivates perspective, motivation, and direction to help them align their life with their true purpose and defy their own expectations. He teaches people not just to accept change, but to embrace pain in order to avoid suffering.

Brian learned the wisdom of resiliency through his own early experiences with pain. When he was just seven years old, his left arm was detached in a vehicle accident. But instead of succumbing to suffering because of the injury, he fully recovered and flourished with a reattached arm thanks to his persistent and proactive focus. He learned early how to move past what happened to him by creating an intentional mindset. Before moving full time to coaching peak performers and public speaking, he and his business partners led the Phoenix location of a global insurance brokerage firm which grew from $250,000 to $15 million in revenue in just a decade. He has earned accolades as a top performer in the Southwest, and was named as one of “40 Under 40” in the Phoenix Business Journal for his innovative and dynamic leadership.

John Corcoran, host of the Smart Business Revolution Podcast, is joined by Brian Bogert, a coach and speaker, to discuss the importance of embracing one’s pain in order to avoid suffering later. They’ll also be talking about Brian’s freak accident at the age of 7, how he recovered from a supposedly traumatic experience and flourished to become a top performing coach and speaker, and how he now helps other people deal with similar situations and overcome their self-defeating mentalities.



Available_Black copy
Available_Black copy
partner-share-lg
partner-share-lg
partner-share-lg
Available_Black copy
partner-share-lg

Here’s a Glimpse of What You’ll Hear:

  • Brian Bogert shares details about the accident that left him without an arm and what he learned from the experience
  • Why Brian didn’t dwell on his accident or allow it to limit him in any way
  • How Brian helps people get past their self-defeating mentality and to instead take positive action
  • Brian talks about getting started as a speaker at 7 years old and his evolution to professional speaking and coaching
  • Brian explains his “embracing pain to avoid suffering” philosophy and why he decided to leave the insurance business to go into coaching and speaking
  • Brian shares what it’s like to move to a new industry during the COVID-19 pandemic and benefits of podcasting
  • The people Brian admires in his industry and those he acknowledges for his achievements and success

Resources Mentioned:

Sponsor: Rise25

Today’s episode is sponsored by Rise25 Media, where our mission is to connect you with your best referral partners, clients, and strategic partners. We do this through our done for you business podcast solution and content marketing. 

Along with my business partner Dr. Jeremy Weisz, we have over 18 years of experience with B2B podcasting, which is one of the best things you can do for your business and you personally. 

If you do it right, a podcast is like a “Swiss Army Knife” – it is a tool that accomplishes many things at once. It can and will lead to great ROI, great clients, referrals, strategic partnerships, and more. It is networking and business development; and it is personal and professional development which doubles as content marketing

A podcast is the highest and best use of your time and will save you time by connecting you to higher caliber people to uplevel your network. 

To learn more, go to Rise25.com or email us at [email protected]

To learn more, book a call with us here

Check out Rise25 to learn more about our done-for-you lead generation and done-for-you podcast services. 

Right Click here to download the MP3

Click here to subscribe via iTunes

Advertise on the Smart Business Revolution Podcast

Episode Transcript

Intro  0:14  

Welcome to the revolution, the Smart Business Revolution Podcast where we ask today’s most successful entrepreneurs to share the tools and strategies they use to build relationships and connections to grow their revenue. Now, your host for the revolution, John Corcoran.

John Corcoran  0:40  

Welcome everyone. John Corcoran here. I’m the host of this show. You might know my story. I’m a bit of a recovering political tack and a recovering lawyer. It’s been years working in politics, putting as a speechwriter since working the Clinton White House for a California Governor has spent years practicing law in Silicon Valley in San Francisco Bay Area. And, you know, 10 years ago, I discovered the medium of podcasting. I’ve been doing it ever since because I get to talk to amazing people with amazing stories from top CEOs, the founders, entrepreneurs, all kinds of different companies, including today’s guest, Brian Bogert, who is going to tell an amazing story about his life’s journey. I’m also the co-founder of Rise25, where we help b2b businesses with the strategy and production they need to create a podcast that produces tremendous ROI and connects them with their ideal results and referral partners. 

And Brian’s got an amazing story. We’re going to talk about it in a moment. He’s a human behavior and performance coach. He teaches clients to leverage self awareness and attention to become the most authentic version of themselves. He learned the wisdom of resiliency through his own early experiences with pain when he was just seven years old, his left arm was detached in a vehicle accident. Instead of succumbing to that suffering because of the injury, he fully recovered and flourished with a reattached arm. He’s learned early how to move beyond what happened to him by creating an intentional mindset. Before moving full time into coaching and public speaking, his business partners led the Phoenix location of a global insurance brokerage firm, where in 10 years they grew the revenue from $250,000 to $15 million. And also he was a top earner as a sales professional and has been named as one of the 40 under 40 in the Phoenix Business Journal. Now, before we get into this episode, this episode is brought to you by Rise25 Media. Rise25 helps b2b businesses to get clients referrals and strategic partnerships with done few podcasts and content marketing. We specialize in helping b2b businesses with high client lifetime value. So to learn more and get more inspirational ideas about how to get clients referrals, some of the best friendships or your life for podcasts, and content marketing go to rise25media.com. All right, Brian. So I’m excited to talk to you and take me back. So you’re seven years old, and you have this freak accident that really affects the trajectory of your life. You’re just in a parking lot with your mom, take us back to what happened.

Brian Bogert  2:56  

Yeah, so I want everybody to just close your eyes for one second. And imagine walking out of a store after a successful shopping trip, walking to your car, turning your head and seeing a truck barreling 40 miles an hour right at you with no time to react. That’s where the story begins. We went to our local Walmart to get a one inch paint brush. And I’ve always had an excitement and vigor for life. I’ve always had a lot of energy. And so of course, I was the first one in the car and waited there for my mom to catch up to unlock the door so we can get home and put that one inch paint brush to use. As we’re standing there. And I’m waiting for a truck to pull up in front of Walmart, and the driver and middle passenger get out. Passenger all the way to the right feels the truck moving backwards. So he did what any one of us would do. He moved over to put his foot on the brake, but he instead hit the gas combination of shock and forks threw him up onto the steering wheel and threw them up onto the dashboard. And before you know it, he was catapulting 40 miles an hour right at us with no time to react. We were in an end spot. So he went up and over the median went up over the tree in the media and hit our car and we think that I was holding on to the handle. And so it yanked me to the ground, ran over me diagonally, tore my spleen, left a tire track scar in my stomach and continued on to completely sever my left arm from my body. So there we are in the middle of August 115 degree day in Phoenix, Arizona, laying on the asphalt. And my guardian angel walked out of the store right when this happened. She saw the life and limb scenario right in front of her. So she went right into action. She came over to me doctor or someone who’s a nurse, yeah, nurse as well. And immediately came over and put her hands on the wound to stop the bleeding to save my life. Well, he also instructed some innocent bystanders to run in and grab it a cooler, fill it with ice and get my arm on ice within minutes. Well had she not done one or both of those things. I either wouldn’t be here today, or I’d be here today with no arm. Wow. And so I’ll expedite the rest of that story. I know a lot of people probably weren’t expecting it together even though you gave a little bit of a precursor in the beginning, right? If there’s a lot that’s connected to that and it was 24 surgeries, years of recovery and a whole lot that came after that, but what I’ve learned and all of it Time of doing this is that what’s important is that we all have unique stories. And what’s important is that we pause and become aware of the lessons we can extract from those stories, and then become intentional with how we apply them in our lives. So there’s two primary lessons that I extract from this, there’s a whole lot of other ones. But there’s two primary ones, I learned not to get stuck by what had happened to me, but get moved by what I could do with it. And the second I didn’t realize until far later, because I was in a fog really, for a lot of those post accident years. I mean, the years of unrelenting surgeries, and therapy, and all those things, I was just focused on healing and not really paying attention to all the details. But the idea of their son growing up without the use of his arm, for my parents, was a source of great suffering for them. So they willed themselves day in and day out to do what was necessary, put themselves into discomfort every single day to ultimately strengthen me and heal me. And that’s where this concept came from which I learned to embrace pain to avoid suffering in my life. And it was the same concept that not only helped me overcome this unique injury, but how my business partners and I built our company from quarter million to over 15 million within the span of a decade and how I’ve now helped hundreds of individuals and organizations just like you become more aware, more intentional, and who they already are their most authentic selves, because I believe that’s when the door begins to crack to perspective, motivation direction, and when people can start bringing joy, freedom and fulfillment back into their lives.

[continue to page 2]