>> "Workin' It Out," a podcast show about diversity, equity and inclusion in our workplaces, our communities, and our lives.

A show where we put diversity and inclusion to work.

>> [ Singing ] ♪ Got problems on the job?

♪ ♪ We’re workin' it out ♪ ♪ Workplace got you stressin'?

♪ ♪ We're workin' it out ♪ ♪ Yeah, we’re workin' it out ♪ ♪ Workin' it out, workin' it out ♪ ♪ With Dr. V ♪ >> Hello, I’m Dr. Vanessa Weaver, your host of "Workin' It Out."

For over 30 years, I’ve been working with individuals and the companies that they work in to address workplace challenges and turning career roadblocks into career success.

And so today, we have an inspirational person I’ve known for over 25 years, Les Brown, and he’s going to talk with us about the power to be you.

Les, you know, we’ve talked about this so many times, and it’s one of the reasons we wanted to do this particular show with you, because with this whole anti-woke sentiment that’s out here, uh, book banishments, you know, anti-diversity, inclusion, uh, equity.

You know, so many people are nervous, and they’re wondering what’s going to happen to their career or are they going to get a chance to make it to college or what’s going to happen to them on the job?

And I can’t even tell you the number of calls I get and requests to talk about this.

So I’m -- and part of what concerns me is that I have a -- I sense a degree of hopelessness that people have, like they don’t have control over their lives.

And I know that you have a totally different mindset about this.

So give me your read on this whole anti-woke and how people of color, particularly black and Latino people, should be responding to it, or maybe should not be responding to it.

>> Well, first of all, I want to thank you very much for giving me this opportunity to be on your program, and thank you for the work that you’re doing in this space.

We got to, first of all, put this in perspective.

When you think about James Weldon Johnson -- “Stony the road we trod, bitter the chastening rod," "When hope unborn had died," "Yet with a steady beat, "have not our weary feet come to the place "for which our fathers sighed?

"We have come over a way "that with tears have been watered.

"We have come treading our path "through the blood of the slaughtered."

Listen, this is nothing that we’re facing now.

This -- there’s a shift in wealth that’s taking place, and we have all the tools available to us that we didn’t have years ago.

So it’s about knowing that there will always be obstacles, knowing that there will always be pushback when it comes to what we want to achieve.

Uh, it was something that Frederick Douglass said, and I agree -- that power concedes nothing without a demand, that we have to work past it.

We have to find a way to win.

And if we don’t have a way to break through -- and we will -- then we have the opportunity to create our own.

We -- we have available to us at our fingertips for free, the opportunity to, number one, not sit at the table, but to create our own table.

Number two, to use our knowledge and our skills.

We're just one skill away from creating a new life.

Just think about that.

And so what we have to do is decide to become resourceful, to become relentless and unstoppable and exploring what’s the next move that we need to make.

You remember Robert Frost -- "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and I -- "I selected the one less traveled by."

>> Mm.

You know, Les, I think your life, the pathway you developed, you created for your life pathway has been nothing short of phenomenal.

I mean, you were an American politician, a television host.

You had a top show, motivational show when none of us were thinking about us being on a motivational show.

You were -- you know, you started as a radio DJ and then you evolved.

I mean, your life, your path of your life has always been to me so phenomenally interesting and very much directed by the vision you have for yourself, and you kept moving and moving.

And in fact, if you remember, when I was at Procter & Gamble in Cincinnati, I brought you in because I thought you had the understanding of what it took to be number one, knew who you were, what was important for an individual and take a risk on oneself.

And so you came in and you motivated hundreds of African American and Asian and Latina people to be connected to themselves and not limit themselves by an absence of not dreaming.

>> Well, first of all, I want to thank you.

You gave me my first corporate job, and I appreciate that, that you saw something in me.

And I had a reputation to live up to.

I believe that all of us have the potential to do more.

It’s been said that most people die at age 25 and don’t get buried until they’re 65, that most people go through life settling to live a small life.

We have greatness in us, but through effort and through investment of time and energy and money, we have to begin to elevate our way of thinking and the way in which we’re showing up in life.

And most people don’t do that.

Most people are comfortable being fans.

You’ve decided, and the people that you know that’s a part of your circle, to be a player, to be a person who will live a life of impact.

And I believe that we were born and preserved for such a time as this, this place where we are right now.

I believe that we were chosen to do it.

Dr.

Miles Monroe, one of the students that I mentored who since made his transition, he had this saying that, "Live full and die empty."

That most people -- yeah, take their talents, abilities and skills with them to the cemetery.

And he said, "Rob the cemetery of your gifts, "of your dream, of your leadership, "of the things that you have in you "that you were sent here to do."

And most people, because they don’t take the time to get quiet and get still and listen to the still, small voice within -- as Socrates said, "The unexamined life is a life that’s not worth living."

Most people just get up and they start running on automatic.

And this is the worst time to do that, because we are in what is called the distraction economy.

The reason that most people are not achieving and pursuing their greatness is because they’re caught up in the distractions of life.

And the book that’s called "The University of Success" by Og Mandino -- he said that most people never achieve their goals and dreams and tap into their greatness because they become sidetracked by other peoples' activity.

And one of the things I talked to a group of people about the other day, I said, "If you want to make your dream become a reality, "start off the year in a season of 'no' for 90 days," because every time you say "yes" to somebody else’s agenda, you’re saying "no" to your agenda.

Say no.

And people say, "Well, I’m uncomfortable with doing that."

I say, "Well, here’s the way you can do it "and feel good about it."

Say, "Listen, I’ve got a full plate.

"Uh, if I could put something else on, I would.

"But if things lighten up for me, "I’ll get back to you."

But I guarantee you, the people that are watching us now, if they decide for the first 90 days of 2024, if they want to do more, saying no -- it was Warren Buffett, he says -- he says "no" more than anything else, over 50 times a day.

And so when people begin to do that, that now they’re focusing on their agenda, what they want to do and entertaining things that can create momentum in the direction of where they’re going.

And they develop what I call collaborative, achievement-driven, supportive relationships.

Practice OQP -- only quality people.

>> Mm-hmm.

Well, only quality people.

So let’s, you know -- when -- when I heard you say that, it struck me.

You had this -- you did a speech about the power to be you.

And in that speech, you outline these four principles, uh, that could drive personal empowerment.

And that’s what you’re about, you know, personal empowerment.

How do you step out there and take risks around yourself and act on this vision and the dream?

And you have four of those.

One was the larger vision of yourself beyond your indoctrination.

Uh, mental conditioning here.

Like, you know, that mental mindset, upgrading our skill sets and knowledge, and then the principle that you just talked about, which is to create a community of collaborative, achievement-oriented relationships.

Can you talk a little bit about what is this larger vision?

"Beyond your indoctrination."

What does that mean?

>> This program that you’re doing now -- and when you speak, what you do is distract, dispute and inspire.

How people live their lives is result of the story they believe about themselves.

So when you speak to them, when people listen to this program, what it does is it distracts them from their current story, gets them out of their history, and gets them to begin to live in their imagination.

Scripture says, "I’ll give you all your eyes can see."

Through the course of listening to the various interviews, you are able, because of the level of conversation, to dismantle their current belief system and inspire them to become, as Mother Teresa would say, a pencil in the hand of God and start writing a new chapter with their lives.

And so when we begin to think about where people are right now, this is a time where people have to be conscious... consumption people.

And what I mean by -- you have to be conscious of what you consume.

Because there’s a reason we’re taught, "Be ye not conformed to this world.

"Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind."

When you’re listening to negative information every day, day in and day out, when you’re watching the news, whatever you pay attention to, you turn into.

It begins to consume you and overwhelm you.

And so we have to begin to be conscious consumers of information that can empower us, that can give us the confidence, that can activate our faith, that can drive us in the direction of what we want to do with our lives.

Abraham Lincoln said, "My future is bright."

And they asked him, "How do you know that?"

And he said, "Because I’m going to create it."

And so we were created by the Creator to create.

And when we become conscious of what we’re watching, what we’re listening to, remember that play years ago?

"I don’t want nobody to bring me no bad news."

[ Chuckles ] >> Yeah.

"No bad news."

>> Yes, yes.

So people are listening to a lot of bad news day in and day out, and it affects and blurs the vision of how you see yourself and how you show up in life.

>> So part of beginning to get unstuck, you’ve got to decide that the behavior pattern that you have adopted doesn’t work for you.

You’ve got to change your strategies, and changing your strategy means reinventing your life.

Recreating you, and you have the power to do that.

You can decide that you’re going to change, that you’re not going to be a wimp.

You can decide that you’re going to stand up to life.

You can decide that I’m going to live each day as if it were my last.

>> So all of this fear about anti-woke and the Supreme Court’s ruling on affirmative action, or the lack of it, uh, for education and how it might play into the workplace, you’re saying we’re allowing that to kind of indoctrinate or to kind of condition our mental mindsets?

>> Stop there.

We -- you -- When something happens, you have a choice.

You can focus on what happened, or you can focus on, "what am I going to do about it?"

>> Mm-hmm.

>> That’s all.

It doesn’t matter about all of these other things.

Don’t get caught up in the distractions.

The reason we’re here, we’re standing on the shoulders of people who found a way to win.

That’s how.

It doesn’t matter about all of these other things going on with the Supreme Court.

Listen, you and I, the way we live our lives and the people that are watching this program right now, we’re going to make it.

Regardless of what the Supreme Court does or what -- who’s in the White House, we’re going to make it.

Why?

Because we’re focused.

"Keep thine eye single, "and thy whole body will be full of light."

And so when you are focused and you find a way -- Art Williams had this saying -- "All you can do is all you can do, "and all you can do is enough."

But make sure you do all you can do.

When I speak to audiences, I ask them, "How many of you know if you had your life to live over again, "you could have done more than what you’ve done thus far?"

And the majority of people raise their hands along with me.

And because most of us have been conditioned to work just hard enough to keep from being fired, working on a job that they pay us just enough to keep us from quitting.

And so in this space where we are... Something that I believe that Helen Keller said, who was deaf and who was blind and who couldn’t talk, she said, "When one door closes, many other doors open."

But most people spend so much time looking at and talking about the closed door, they don’t see the open door.

We were born with greatness.

That’s who we are.

That’s why we’re feared.

And so as a result, what we have to do is keep the main thing, the main thing -- developing ourselves continuously, elevating our thinking, upgrading our knowledge and our performance and our relationships.

Sidney Poitier said that when you go for a walk with someone, something happens without being spoken -- either you adjust to their pace or they adjust to your pace.

Harvard University did an 85-year study.

It’s called your reference group, and it said that the people who are successful have a reference group.

They have people that they surround themselves that -- that know more than them, people that’s going in the direction that they’re going, people that hold them accountable.

They have a community, a bubble of greatness.

And so when you change your reference group, you got to look at the people in your life and ask the question, what is this relationship doing to me?

Am I growing mentally and emotionally and spiritually?

Am I a better person because of this relationship?

People who earn -- I remember at the time when I said to Bob Proctor, I said, "Man," I said, "you’re earning around $25,000 a month."

And he said, "Yes, but I’m going beyond that."

And I said, "You are?"

Now at that time, I was earning around 3 to $4,000 a month.

And he said, "You have the ability to earn 25 "or $30,000 a month."

And I said, "Wow."

I just couldn’t see that at that time.

Now look at where I am right now, that no one could have told me with no college education, being labeled educable mentally retarded in the fifth grade, put back from the fifth grade to the fourth grade and failing again at the eighth grade at Booker T Washington High School in Miami, Florida, that in the United States that I could charge $70,000 an hour for a presentation, and outside of the United States, $225,000.

What’s the difference?

The difference is my vision of myself and the value.

You don’t get paid by the hour.

You get paid for the value you bring to the hour.

>> Mm.

The value you bring to the hour.

>> Yes, that’s -- a nurse and a doctor working on the same patient in an operating room, they earn differently because of the value and the impact of what they bring in that room.

>> That is -- that is so true.

You know, you know, Les, I was thinking, uh, as I was listening to you, the fact that you’ve been labeled, you know, educable mentally retarded... >> Yes.

>> ...mentally retarded and put back and had so many negative experiences that could have derailed you.

What was -- what was the moment or what happened where you didn’t allow that, or your Mama Mamie didn’t allow that?

What -- what happened?

>> Oh, I remember, you know -- My new book is called "You've Got To Be Hungry 2.0."

>> "You've Got To Be Hungry."

Hungry.

>> Yeah, 2.0.

Yeah, hungry, "You've Got To Be Hungry 2.0."

I was working on Miami Beach with my mother and helping to clean a house that she was going to on a regular basis to clean.

And to make a long story short, the lady that she’s working for, Mrs. Harris, says, "Mamie, "I want you to go down the hall and find that hat for me "that I like to wear when it’s sunny outside."

And when Mama went down in this area of this mansion, I heard Mama clapping her hands.

And I asked her -- I said, "Mama, why are you clapping your hands?

She said, "Don’t you worry, Leslie.

"You clean the spots up on that floor."

And then she came out and said, "Mrs. Harris, it's not there."

So then she said, "Go down here, this other hall, "and it’s probably in that room."

And once again, Mama started clapping her hands, and I said, "Mama, why are you clapping your hands?"

And she said -- she’s now aggravated -- "Didn't I tell you to do what you’re doing?"

And at that moment, Mrs. Harris, she came over to me and I was cleaning some spots off the floor, and she stood over me.

She said, "I can tell you why she’s clapping her hands."

And I asked her, "Why, ma’am?"

And she said, "Because when I have colored people working for me "and I can’t see them, I make them clap their hands "to make sure that they’re not stealing."

I stood up.

And now, this is the time -- I’m 79.

This is the time that black people were not allowed in the South to look white people in the eyes.

I looked her in the eyes.

I said, "My mother is not a thief.

"She would not steal from you or anyone."

And she was just startled, and she just walked away.

And I got back down on that floor, and I started scrubbing that floor, water going everywhere.

And on the way home... Mama asked me, "Leslie, what’s wrong with you?

"Why are you looking out of the window of the bus and crying?

I said, "Because I want to be a man."

She said, "What are you talking about?

"You’ll be a man soon enough."

I said, "If I was a man, "you wouldn’t have to come and clean people’s homes.

"You wouldn't have to cook for other people.

"And if I was a man, I could buy groceries for us.

"And if I was a man, nobody would make you clap your hands "because they think that you’re stealing."

And she said, "Mrs. Harris told you that, didn’t she?"

And I said, "Yes, ma’am.

"That’s why I want to be a man now."

And that ignited... a hungered me.

I said, "Mama, I promise you.

"When I turn 18, you never have to work again."

And she didn’t.

"I promise you, I’m going to buy your home."

And I always say God took me to my biological mother’s womb and placed me in the heart of my adopted mother.

I bought Mama four homes before she passed, and I just -- here I am, 79, and just saw pictures of my birth mother and father that put us up for adoption, just saw that two years ago.

And so that ignited a hunger.

I believe that people who achieve great things in their lives, they have some compelling reason.

Nietzsche said, "If you know the why for living, "you can endure almost any how."

And you don’t care what the price is, that what you have to do, you are focused on keeping the main thing, the main thing, and you’re willing to pay the price.

You’re willing to sacrifice for what it is you want.

>> Les, when I heard you share that story about your -- your adopted mother, with all the love and the passion...

I got it.

You know, that hungry -- that hungriness that you talked about, being hungry enough to drive and thrive and pursue... a vision you have for yourself, a promise that you made to your mother.

In fact, you bought her four houses, and at 79, I still feel the love and the pain of that experience that you had, but you didn’t let that pain derail you.

You let that pain push you forward.

And now you’re not only doing that, but you’re pushing other people.

You know, you’re pushing us to go beyond the comfort of taking someone else’s vision for ourselves and having our own.

I just want to thank you for that.

I want to thank you for that.

>> Oh, thank you so much.

>> I -- I knew when we started this conversation, our time today wouldn’t be enough, and you’ve been so gracious to share with us in such a significant way the power to be you.

And the next book is what?

"You Don’t Have To Be Hungry" or "You've Got To Be Hungry?"

Give me that title again.

>> Well, it’s not complete yet, but what -- at people who are interested in the work that I do, I’m encouraging them to go to lesbrownmasterclass.com.

Yes.

>> Yeah, we’re going to put that on the screen so folks can -- You can see I have the Les Brown Speaking Academy.

And people who have a book in them, they will have an opportunity.

You know, when -- when Colin Powell was endorsed, when he endorsed former President Barack Obama, that was a game-changer.

If you are unknown, it’s very important to align yourself with somebody that is known so you can inherit that audience.

So at this stage of my life, Peter Drucker said, "There’s no success without successors."

So I’m teaching people how to create an experience with their story, to transform an audience individually and collectively, and how to earn more money controlling their own future.

And we’re also co-sponsoring a book with people who want to become an author and -- and would like to partner with me to inherit my audience and -- and be able to have a global message nationally and globally because of our strategic partnerships.

So they can go to lesbrownmasterclass.com and get more information about what I’m doing now.

>> And we're going to link our website to yours so that folks can go directly to you, and I’ll probably be in that, too.

So, you know, I want to thank you so much for this time you spent with us today and all of the lessons and jewels you’ve left with us.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for this legacy that you’re -- that you’re building, that you built, and that you’re continuing to build in order for us to be our best, best selves.

So on behalf of our audience and our crew here, our working in our crew here, we just want to give you such a heartfelt thank you.

And we’re going to sign off with my favorite saying, you know, "Have a be-well week."

So thank you so well.

Thank you so much.

>> Now, buh-bye.

>> I'm just touched.

I’m just touched here.

>> [ Chuckles ] >> ♪ Got problems on the job?

♪ ♪ We're workin' it out ♪ ♪ Workplace got you stressin' ♪ ♪ We’re working it out ♪ ♪ Yeah, we’re workin' it out ♪ ♪ Workin' it out, workin' it out ♪ ♪ With Dr. V ♪