Mastering Communication with Brenden Kumarasamy

Jordan Mendoza (00:02.35) Hello everyone and welcome to the Blaze Your Own Trail podcast. My name is Jordan Mendoza and I'm your host. And I'm so excited to be joined by an incredible guest today, a guy I've actually been connected with for quite a while. And we're just now getting him on the podcast. His name is Brendan. I'll let him tell you the rest in a quick intro. Brendan, if you can, tell everyone who you are, where you're from, what you do, and welcome to the Blaze Your Own Trail podcast. Brenden From MasterTalk (00:30.0) For sure Jordan, thanks for having me. It's great to be here. And it's been a long time coming. I know me and you have known each other for many, many years and we're just down v-dick now. So grateful to finally meet you. Yeah, man. So my name is Brady Korn, so I'm the founder of MasterTalk. MasterTalk is a YouTube channel that I started to help the world master the art of communication and public speaking. And then outside of communication tips, I also train a lot of C-level executives and execs in general how to get rid of their arms and eyes. how to speak with more conviction in the boardroom, and it's been a fun journey. Jordan Mendoza (01:04.042) I love it. Love it. towards the back end of the show, we're going to definitely get some tips because there's folks out there that want to be better communicators. Maybe they just don't have someone that's given them the right advice. So I'm excited to be able to talk about that here. But my favorite part of the show, as we were kind of chatting offline, is really taking a rewind. I want to get context into your story, into your journey. And the only way to do that is to take that rewind back to the past. So we're going to focus on the adolescent year, so elementary, middle school, high school. So where were you born and raised? And what kind of kid were you, man? What did you get into? Were you more into academics? Were you into sports? Let's find out about little Brendan and dive back in time. Brenden From MasterTalk (01:49.668) You know, funny enough, Jordan, I'm probably still a little breaded, but relative to some other guests you've had on the show. But yeah, man, I would say for me, I was born and raised in a city called Montreal in Canada. For those who don't know, Montreal is a city where you need to know to speak French, which is a language I didn't know. So I remember when I was five years old, my dad came up to me and he said, you know, you got to learn French, man. You got to learn this language if you want to be successful. So my whole life I presented in a language I didn't know. That was pretty much my childhood. In terms of the type of kid I was, I would say the type of kid I was, I was pretty outgoing, especially when I got to speak in English. So when I was speaking in English, I was a pretty outgoing kid, but whenever I had to speak in French, I was super introverted because I just couldn't keep up with the language. I couldn't articulate really well. And then the other piece as well is I have a physical disability in my left arm. like crooked because of an accident I had when I was born. Basically what happened was like, I was born upside down and they had to use like a vacuum to pull me out and one in a thousand surgeries, the pull has an error in the vacuum and I just happened to be that one in one thousand. That's what caused kind of dislocation of the left arm. So I had like a cast for like most of kindergarten and first grade. And then I would say until sixth grade, I wasn't really good at anything. I wasn't really passionate about anything except like math. And I just, chose to be like an accountant when I was in sixth grade. And it was only after I got to high school that I really started focusing on academics. Jordan Mendoza (03:22.018) Okay, well, appreciate you giving that context. you know, for those of you that are listening, what I just heard is like, Brendan had to face a lot of adversity when he was younger. I mean, you talk about, I'm learning French, I've been learning French for probably the past, I don't know, six months. It is not easy. I'm actually part owner of a company that's based in La Louvier, Belgium. And guess what? They speak French. is predominant. There's French, Dutch, and German. And so Brenden From MasterTalk (03:31.344) you Brenden From MasterTalk (03:46.756) Le- l'aluvier, Jordan Mendoza (03:51.544) Man, I'm with it. French is not easy, especially as a 43 year old learning French way harder. Okay, so that's hard. That's adversity, right? Yeah, let's not do that, please. And the other thing is, mean, you having something happen to you that you had no control of when you're born and then this thing happens and you have to face that. But when you all see this podcast, he's still smiling, right? There's something that... Brenden From MasterTalk (03:58.458) Let's switch the podcast to French then. Jordan Mendoza (04:20.42) He could be upset about because it's probably not easy in some circumstances, but he's still smiling and he found a way to look at the positive side of things. And I don't know how you did that. We'll probably get into that here soon. Maybe who have been some major influential people in your world that have helped you kind of see things in a positive light. But let's talk about math because I hate it. And it's something that you were good at and you focused on. So... When say you're good at it and you became an accountant in sixth grade, which, you know, that just sounds terrible because I'm not numbers guy, but what was it about math that intrigued you? Was it that it wasn't challenging or was it more of a game? Like, I'm so curious now. Brenden From MasterTalk (05:07.096) Yeah, totally Jordan. I think the reason why I was good at math is because it was one of those subjects where what you get in is what you get out. So let's say you're learning an equation. Well, on the test, it's going to be the same equation, just spinned a little differently. So if you practice enough times, eventually you understand that two plus two equals four and you can figure it out. And the other piece, I think it just came easy to me because it wasn't... I didn't have to try, because until the seventh grade, I wasn't taking my studies seriously at all. And my parents were so upset by it. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about, the whole immigrant mindset, right? When you're a second generation immigrant like me, and you're just born in the first world country, whether it's the States or Canada, you take your life for granted. You're kind of just like, like I just live in abundance. Whereas my parents immigrated from Sri Lanka, which is a small country south of India, from a civil war in the late 80s and early 90s. So they basically came to Canada as war refugees, which ended up being a gift for us. So they got automatic citizenship. But the point is my parents were infuriated with me because I was not taking my life seriously, which is okay because you're 12 years old. you know, they always told me like the gift that you have is like a gift that not a lot of people have, which is not the gift of intelligence, the gift of just being in this country. So they always encouraged me to make something out of it. And the math, I think it just became like a forcing function for the accounting thing. I wish I had a super cool story around this, it really isn't the case. So basically what happened, Jordan, is when you're a kid who doesn't grow up with a lot of money, like my parents were factory workers. My dad was a heavy alcoholic. Like he lost his job when I was like 12 or something. So I was basically a single mom until from like 12 to 19, from my age of 12 to 19 until I kind of got a job in accounting and then life changed a little bit. But the point was... The reason I chose to become an accountant when I was in the sixth grade wasn't because I was passionate about numbers or because I cared about numbers. It's because our career counselor came up to us and said, you got to figure out what you want to do in your future. And that was the light bulb moment. And I looked at every other kid in class who was smarter than me. And there's a lot of kids who are smarter than me, probably at least 10 of them. And they all wanted to become dentists, doctors, or engineers. So I said, cool. Brenden From MasterTalk (07:25.904) Everyone who's better than me at math me there was ten people better than me at math in class wanted to become engineers doctors and Dentists none of them wanted to become accountants. So let me just be an accountant That's it. I just did it because I thought it would pay the bills Jordan Mendoza (07:39.87) I love it. Love it. That's awesome. So, you know, I find that people are either good at math and it comes easy or they really struggle with it. I think that's just kind of I mean, I see that as I'm a father of six and, know, four boys, two girls, our kids are between four months old and 19 years old is our oldest. And so Brenden From MasterTalk (07:53.636) Wow! I did not know that. Jordan Mendoza (08:03.446) We've seen a lot of math come across our dinner table. And some of the math that I see now, I'm like, Yep, no, I'm out. This is mom. Like mom's gonna do this because she was like AP Calculate, AP all the APs and all the things. I just actually checked out when the alphabet started getting integrated. was like, All right, you want me to learn numbers. Now you're putting the letters in here. I'm out. And so what do you think is the hardest thing for people not getting better at math? Is it just the reps? Or would you say that some people maybe just aren't built for the subject? Brenden From MasterTalk (08:38.126) love the questions you're asking me. This is super fun show to be on. So what I would say is it's definitely a lack of practice. And analogy applies when we talk about speaking later, which is what I do now, is if you just don't practice, you don't get better, right? Like the first podcast interview that you did, Jordan, I'm sure was a shit show. It was absolutely terrible versus like now where you're like super confident and you know how to direct the flow of conversation. Jordan Mendoza (09:01.09) Agreed. Brenden From MasterTalk (09:06.532) I think the same is true with math where, because I ended up being a math tutor temporarily, basically the long story short, I probably did like three sessions, but it just wasn't for me. I was good at tutoring it. I just didn't like it. Where like one of my mom's friends who's like a favorite auntie of mine, we call her Pushpa auntie. See, she came to my house with a bunch of rolls, which is like the Sri Lankan delicacy. It's like amazing. There's like meat and potatoes in it. And she was like, please coach my son, like teach him how to do math. And I was like. What is this? And I was like, I don't want to. And she's like, I'll make you like 20 rolls. And I was like, okay. So I sat him down and he was getting like sixties in math. And I just said like, is this a formula? practice. And he got like a 95 on the next test. So this is about practicing it and having someone who can like slowly explain the formula and how it works. That's really the key. It just really comes down to practice and frankly, just optimizing for every problem that you need to solve for. So if there's a kid who's really smart at math in your class, not that I expect anyone in the audience to be in high school still, but basically what you do is you, or maybe some of you have like kids who are in high school. So you go up to the smartest kid in math, you see how he solves the problems or she solves the problems, and then you just duplicate that and you'll get 90s in math pretty much. Jordan Mendoza (10:19.14) Yeah, I think my issue was actually now that I just kind of take my own dive back in time. It wasn't really math that I didn't enjoy. It's that I was more into break dancing and I wanted to break. So I want to, you know, I started in 1995 after I watched the movie Beat Street and I just would like practice all the moves in my room on the carpet. And then I moved to a new middle school in eighth grade and Brenden From MasterTalk (10:30.512) You do look like a breakdancer. Jordan Mendoza (10:45.728) some songs came out, I just started busting moves and that's kind how I made all my friends. And so in high school, I was more interested in breakdancing in the halls than math. So I think that's probably what it was. And when you have ADD and you're distracted, math is definitely not something I was interested in. So I didn't put in the reps either. So I think you're hitting this on the head, I think we're figuring this out here. Brenden From MasterTalk (11:08.46) Totally, you know, it's funny. We kind of live life in the opposite direction like you started Hating math but loving breakdancing at the later in your life now You're starting to learn a lot more math and accounting because now you're running like multiple businesses, Whereas me I'm the opposite to you where I started with the bath I don't do any breakdancing, but I love dancing like I don't drink at all zero because of my dad, right? So was like I'd ever wanted to get drunk I've never been drunk once in my life and I'm 28, but man do I party? I go to clubs, I go to night clubs, and I will dance until 3am like some maniacs. Jordan Mendoza (11:38.308) I love it. There you go. Yeah. Well, I'm just honored that at 43, I still teach breakdancing. And I do it in my garage, multiple 12-week semesters. And it's awesome. And it's great exercise. It keeps you healthy, which is great. And when you're doing calisthenics for an hour, mean, you're definitely going to have a full body workout. So yeah, if you ever want to learn some moves, brother, I'm to teach you. So yeah, for sure. Brenden From MasterTalk (12:06.372) Yeah, for sure. Where do you live? Where are you based in the US? Atlanta? If I'm ever in Atlanta. I'm in the states a lot. Like I was in Michigan for a month. I've never been to Georgia though. But if I'm ever there, I would love to sign up for your dance breaking class. It would be sick. Jordan Mendoza (12:08.257) I'm in Metro Atlanta. Jordan Mendoza (12:17.676) Yeah, yeah, come on. Yeah, we'll link up for sure. All right, so let's talk high school. So you became an accountant at sixth grade and then you're going into high school and now you've got people trying to push you towards these career options and choices. So what was it after high school? Is this something where your parents were like, you're going to college. I don't care what you say, you're going to go to college or was it like, hey, like... We want you to do what you want to do. Just kind of give me the route and having an immigrant parent myself and fathers from the Philippines jump ship in the eighties to get that slice of the American dream and built his business and now move back and retired. I kind of know the route that certain parents go, but I'd just love to hear it from you. Which route did yours go? Brenden From MasterTalk (13:04.4) Yeah, totally Jordan. So a couple of things. So the first thing is what created the switch from, because I chose to be an accountant when I was 12, but I no idea what an accountant was. So that's one. But the second thing, and the reason why I started focusing on grades, you would think it's because I had some epiphany moment and I just started working hard and realized that I needed to take advantage of my gift. It wasn't the case. I actually fell in love with a girl when I was 12 years old, a girl named Valerie. she was so smart. I don't talk to her anymore, but she was like this really smart girl who had like braces on and she was like the smartest kid in class and I was like man if I ever want to be dating this person I just got to be smart that's literally what happened so I actually still remember this I was in I was in class with her and the guy was named Mario our teacher and we were doing and you're gonna hate this because you're learning French right now we're doing like a French verbs and you know how complicated they are because there's pas c'est simple, pas c'est présent Jordan Mendoza (13:58.148) very very very very very very very very very very very Brenden From MasterTalk (14:01.464) Yeah, and I'm sure you have a copy of the Bechel somewhere in your house, which is basically like a French verb dictionary. The verbs are so complicated in French, you need a full dictionary to understand them. So I would always fail these exams because I sucked at French. It was my first grade, my worst grade, mean. So that way when I got to sec one, is basically grade seven in the American system. When I went to grade seven, they had to put me like in a, in an improvement program for French, because I was getting fifties. And I kept, I always get fifties in these things, but because I fell in love with this girl, I was like madly in love with her. She was like the first love of my life. So I said, okay, let me, let me like study for one of these exams. This little would happen. So I had, I had a couple of days to study and I went, I went into my verbs and I started memorizing like, j'aime, je t'aime, il aime, then tu aimes, and then I started learning all this stuff. And then Mario was kind of calling out everybody's grades, like after that exam was over. And I'm just laughing because the semester is about to end. And he goes, Brendan, and I'm just joking. He's like, dude, you know, I'm getting 50 is, and he smiled and he gave him, he's like 87. And I was like, Whoa, I got an 87 on this test. I was like, come on, dude, this is not my test. He's like, yeah, this is your test. Great job. And he was shocked too. like, how the freak did Brendan get 87 on this test? And that's what I've realized to the proxy of Valerie in my life, that if you Put more work in, not always, but most of the times you just get a better output. So by the time I got to high school, I started taking my grades really seriously. And my score average went from like, I don't know, maybe like 70%. I think I ended high school with like a 91 % class average. And I think I had the second best grade in math in the entire school. One guy beat me, but it's okay. He's a good friend of mine, so it's all good. So yeah, that's what happened. Jordan Mendoza (15:50.968) That's awesome. Very cool. Okay, so academics became important, obviously driven from a girl, but it helped kind of show and awaken some things in you, A, that you could do it, right? That was possible, but then what those reps actually meant, right? That they meant that your outcomes were gonna be better. It was almost like you want better, you want more guaranteed outcome, do more stuff, more consistently. And honestly, since June for me, I was 246 pounds this past June. In the last less than six months, I've dropped 62 pounds and I've lost, I think, six waist sizes. My skin is more clear. I'm going to be 44 in February and I feel 25 right now. I know what it took to get there and all of it is exactly what you said. was putting my head down, putting in the reps, making better choices. Brenden From MasterTalk (16:26.511) Really? Jordan Mendoza (16:53.028) knowing what I wanted the outcome to be, what the goal was. And it was one of those things where I had to shift from, me just lose some weight because I know I can, which I'd done in the past so many times, to let me make some lifestyle changes that I know I can keep up with. And man, what a difference in shift that it's made because the result of all of that is more energy, more mental clarity, obviously, in better shape. my heart rate is lower. I can move quicker. mean, it's just like all of these things happen as a result of putting in the work. And so what did that work that you put in for your high school years equate to for you? Did that turn into scholarships? Did that turn into opportunities? I'd love the audience to see what a culmination of hard work looks like on the outcome end. Brenden From MasterTalk (17:49.796) Yeah, I mean a couple of things there. Number one, congrats on your transformation. I never would have thought you weighed 240. Whenever I had the image of you over the last five years, because you're breakdance, right? I never saw you as 240 because you're always like busted moves. So really, really cool to see the transformation you went to Jordan, which is similar to what I've done and what I did in academics where, and you know this better than I do or just as well as I do, which is when you put effort on one singular thing, Regardless of whatever that thing is you did it in breakdancing in your life. You did it in health You do you did it in podcast and you're doing it with your family. Obviously now you're doing unit business and I've done it in business as well, but going back to high school academics was probably the first time in my life were actually committed to doing something and the second one was martial arts so I got forced into martial arts from like the age of like 13 to 18 because my cousin wanted somebody to go with basically and it was an awesome five years Jordan Mendoza (18:48.14) You had to get dragged along and then probably start enjoying it, I'm sure. Brenden From MasterTalk (18:50.084) Yeah. I actually didn't enjoy it, but man did I get better I got so disciplined because and I'm actually thinking of going back next year because I've had a 10 year hiatus now and my health is good It's not like I'm getting any weight or anything because I have a really fast metabolism and I have a really strict diet I do omad every day so I only eat once a day But I need to get back to that old version of myself so I might end up doing martial arts But really the lesson from all of this is when you focus on one thing just singularly, and you start to see success, you start to stack gold medals on your life. And once those gold medals start stacking, you start to believe through tangible, practical evidence that everything else you could possibly do in the future, you can ace as well, just through consistent hard work. And that's really been the case with me. Basically, my high school days were boring, Jordan. Like most of my time were focused on Studying or video games like I used to play this game called RuneScape and then I got into a game called League of Legends I played it professionally when I was a kid I just loved I loved League of Legends and I played RuneScape and anything outside of those two games I was just studying I was in the books trying to get the best possible grades so that I could land into a really good college for accounting and the last piece that you asked me about that I forgot to answer was around my parents Right? And you know this in immigrant land, you can be three things. You could be an accountant. no, you can be four things. An accountant, an engineer, a doctor, or a loser. You get to pick kind of which one you want. And it just turned out that in my case, I just ended up picking one of the paths that my Indian slash Sri Lankan family wanted me to take, but it was also the path I wanted for myself. Brenden From MasterTalk (20:40.304) Things get a little bit more interesting later in my career when I quit that job to do what I'm doing today. That created a little bit more tension, but definitely when I was a kid, I actually had no animosity or fighting with my parents because it just turned out in my specific case that the traditional path they wanted me to take was the one I wanted to take for myself anyways. I just told them straight up that I didn't want to be an engineer or a doctor. So they were a little disappointed by that, but I said, hey, I'm still going to get a boring job and make a bunch of money anyways. So they were happy with that. Jordan Mendoza (21:10.244) There we go. So let's share with the audience, you know, what did that look like after high school? What were the fruits of your labor? You got into a college and how did, how was that experience? Like, which one did you pick? Where did you go? And then where do you put college on the value scale? Because I didn't go to college, but I felt like I... having a 15-year career in corporate was they were paying me to go to school. You know, so I feel like I did go to college, but I got paid to do it versus going when I was finishing high school, knowing that I would probably party and blow my money or parents' money, you know, just kind of having that self-awareness. So would love to find out what was the route you took, where'd you end up going, and then what's your, value you see on college and is it for everybody in 2025? Brenden From MasterTalk (22:00.336) Yeah, that's a great question, Jordan. So I'll give a pretty nuanced perspective here. So after high school, how the education system works in Montreal, which is a little different than the rest of the world, is there's like an in-between from university and college called Cégep. So I went to Dawson College for two years and I did like a commerce degree for two years. And then from there, I went to Concorde University and I finished with an accounting major, essentially. And the point from all of this is you really have to do the math individually for your own circumstance. So for example, let's say I have a son one day and I'm sure I'll have kids one day over the next decade. And my son, not with Valtryta, with somebody else, because she ended up being crazy, which is a story for another day. But let's say my son is really good at hands handsmanship. Like he's just really good at like plumbing or being an electrician. Let's call this person Bob. So it does not make sense for my son Bob to go to college. Why spend $40,000 a year to when you can just go to trade school, spend a few thousand and you get a six-figure job right out of the gate. So for that person, it makes sense versus like, it doesn't make sense rather to go to college. Or if your goal is to be like in specialty trade, you want to be a doctor, you want to be an engineer, you want to be an accountant, you want to be a lawyer. You're gonna go to college, you wanna be a dentist? Go to college, like obviously. It's a specialty degree, you know you're good at it, you know you're gonna do the homework, you know you're smart because you've done the work and you know you're smarter than the other kids in school in that specific thing, in academia, right? Not general intelligence, but just academia. Then play that game. And then obviously the third one just doesn't really apply for guys like us, but if you're a nepo baby and you just have rich parents, yeah, the play is always college if you have rich parents because college gives you something. that other social situations does not give you as we know as adults now, which is relationships, real social capital. Like people that I knew in college, and if I had rich parents, I would have just went to Harvard. Because when you're friends with kids who go to Harvard when you're 19, 20, 21 years old, and they're all big and famous 10 years later, they don't want anything from you because they know you were friends with them long before that. So they'll start calling in all the favors and you'll just make a bunch of money with that network. Brenden From MasterTalk (24:18.776) So college is a really individual, it's an individual path, but you have to do the math. Whereas I will say though, which doesn't really apply in the American context, if you're Canadian, most of the times you really want to go to college because college is significantly less expensive in Canada. Like I was spending like five grand a year. That's how cheap university is in Canada. And I made, and I paid off my debt in like a month out of school. Like it wasn't like a big decision that we had to make. And we got paid internships during, so I pretty much made money off of my degree. But the key is really take it from an individual perspective. And then I got into Dawson and then I started my degree in accounting. And that's really when my life started to change. Jordan Mendoza (25:01.718) Love it. Love it. And I love the answer to it. It's got to be a case by case basis. And how do people determine whether it's for them or not? Well, I think you made a couple great points. If you notice someone's natural, God-given talents and abilities, let's invest in those. So if you see strengths in somebody, some strengths we can just see they're visible to the eye. Other strengths we need to actually extract from us. So I always tell people like, hey, if you've never like taken an introspective look at yourself, either through like a strengths finder assessment or emotional intelligence or a personality assessment, really, and just kind of learning about you, those are some great tools to help you learn about who you are, how you're wired, what your strengths are, you know, how you show up in relationships, social settings, things like that. And those are tools that I personally took in corporate that really helped show me and point me in the direction. of some areas that maybe I didn't think were strengths. And then I was able to invest and triple down in those areas and really able to capitalize off some tremendous growth. And I don't think enough people invest in themselves. So I'd love your take on that. What are your thoughts on investing in us so that we can have a better outcome of the decisions that we make, whether it's to go left or whether it's to go right? Brenden From MasterTalk (26:26.446) Yeah, totally Jordan. think for me what it comes down to is when you come to investing in yourself, A, start by, here's like my general of thumb, A, start by figuring out what is your dream? Like what is it that you want out of life? And I'm not asking for something perfect. Just a general idea is fine. Like for me, if I'd never became an accountant, I never would have went to accounting school. But if I never went to accounting school, which we haven't talked about yet, but we will in the show, I never would have done case competitions. And if I never did case competitions, I never would have built the expertise to even do master talk and do what I'm doing today. So the key is really sequencing. It's figuring out what is something that you desire right now. And the best way of doing that is to just write 50 things. We call this exercise 50 desires. So you just sit down and you just write down 50 things that you desire or a hundred things that you desire, whether it's career or even just like you want a piece of toast every morning. It doesn't matter. Just write a bunch of desires. And then from there, you kind of circle. some of the different career paths that you're interested in. So let's say, let's play this out. You wanna be a plumber. So then B, part two is to go see, what are some videos online that I can research on being a plumber? And then you start to learn the business a lot more. Okay, let's go to trade school. Let's do this. And then the third thing is let's say you go to trade school, you become a plumber, and then you go, you know what, I'm making six figures working for this guy, but I wanna start my own business. Okay, like your own plumbing business. And it's like, okay, who is teaching people how to build plumbing businesses? Who's got the best free content in the world right now on building plumbing businesses? And that's when investing in yourself becomes a good idea in whatever that program is because money speeds up time. Money speeds up time. So for me, a good example of this is in 2019. Now I spent too much money probably in programs and stuff. But when I was getting started, I was making 60 grand US. I was working as a technology consultant at IBM. Basically, I got a job at one of the big four accounting firms, PricewaterhouseCoopers. And then I just said, I don't want to be an accountant anymore. And I got a job in consulting, which I enjoyed a lot more. And then, but the thing is that I didn't tell you is my family had $35,000 in family debt that they owed other people. So even if I was making 60 grand a year, I was paying off our debt. So I don't really have that much money, but I saved. Brenden From MasterTalk (28:50.384) a thousand dollars because I really wanted to go to Summit of Greatness, which is an event hosted by a podcaster named Louis Howes. He has like a really big podcast called School Greatness that I'm sure you've heard of. And he runs this event. used to run it in Columbus, Ohio. Now he does it in LA. And I just wanted to go there because I've been listening to his podcast since I was like 19 years old or something. So I spent the thousand. The ticket was 300, the flight was 400, and I stayed in a $30 a day Airbnb on a lofa sofa and I met my business partner there and my life changed. Jordan Mendoza (29:21.89) That's awesome, man. That's awesome. Yeah. let's definitely get into it. you obviously, you go to college, you mentioned you got the degrees and now you're working. But then you actually, mentioned a competition. And so talk a little bit about what was that about? Why did it even come up? Where did this thing kind of come from? Accounting and speaking, I mean, those are... Accounts are usually pretty introverted and quiet and not ones that want to be the person with the microphone. like talk a little bit about how this transition or pivot or maybe unexpected moment happened. Brenden From MasterTalk (29:59.076) Totally Jordan. I think the long story short, and then we'll get into the nitty gritties of this all, is that we're both great examples in the world of people who weren't 100 % sure what the next step was, but because we just took imperfect action, the gates of life just opened up for us. That's basically what happened. So let me give you some context. I'm 19 years old. I'm in my first semester of business school. I'm in an oversized suit because I couldn't buy anything else because that's all I could afford. So I got a prom suit from Sears basically when I was in high school and that's what I would wear. It's like a hundred dollar suit. It wasn't fitted or anything. And I get there and I still don't know what an accountant does. Cause remember my parents are factory workers. I don't know anyone in the business world. I don't know anything. I just knew I was good at math and that's why they let me in. And I was like, okay, cool. Let's figure out what this accounting thing is. And then I stumble on the John Molson Accounting Society, which is basically the accounting association for students in that school. Like they have like little frat clubs, right? Kind of like frats, fraternities, but this is by major. So I'm like, okay, I should probably come to these events and stuff. And I would go to these events and I would meet students who are like Jesus to me, like two, three years older than me, who had internships at like really cool companies. And I was like, what do you think I should do? They all told me, should work for of the big four accounting firms. If you work for one of the big four accounting firms, Deloitte, KPMG, or Disting Young, which one am I missing? Or PWC, PricewaterhouseCoopers, that I thought was a water bottling company, because they had water in their name. I didn't get, that's how lost I was. They said, if you get a job at one of these companies, Brandon, you could easily. make $300,000 a year if you worked there and grinded out for 10, 15 years. I was like, $300,000 a year? What? Like my parents are making 20 bucks an hour. What are you talking about? Or 15 bucks an hour, 10 bucks an hour. So that basically became my salvation. So I'm not going to tell you this amazing story about how I fell in love with speaking. That was actually not how it happened at all. So I figured out this becomes my new dream. Jordan Mendoza (31:46.71) You Brenden From MasterTalk (32:03.566) And then I start asking all of these, these gods, right? These people who had internships at KPMG and PWC who are playing volleyball with all of the accounting partners. And I was like, how did I get a job at one of these companies? And what they told me, surprisingly, they didn't say get good grades. They said, Brendan, you should do case competitions. And I'm like, like everyone listening to this podcast, I'm like, what the hell is, yeah, what the hell is a case competition? They're like, you know what a case competition is? So basically what it is, Brendan, is it's like. Jordan Mendoza (32:25.284) What is the case competition? Brenden From MasterTalk (32:33.082) Think of it like professional sports for nerds. So while other guys were playing rugby or football, nothing wrong with those things. Case competitions are basically presentations competitively. So Nike gives us a problem like, hey Jordan, hey Brendan, we want to open a new store. We can either open it in Barcelona in Spain or in Atlanta, Georgia, but we only have money to open one store. Which store should we open and why? So that's an example of a case problem. And then me and you have three hours to read the entire case, look at all the data, crunch it, make slide decks. And at the end of the three hours, have to present it oftentimes to executives of that company. So now the question is, why do case competitions exist? Because they're a filter system on who's good and who isn't. So if I'm an executive at Nike, I'll drop 10, 20 K to sponsor this competition. Cause I want to see who's fresh. Like who's fresh. Jordan Mendoza (33:11.181) Love it. Jordan Mendoza (33:19.812) 100%. Brenden From MasterTalk (33:28.282) So the best students would come up and go, good afternoon to the board of Nike. My name is Brett. And they would like impress people. They would be like, wow. And they would give them jobs. So the reason I started refining my communication skills, it wasn't because I liked doing it. It wasn't because I was passionate about it, Jordan. It was because I saw it as my ticket out of poverty. So I took it. That's Jordan Mendoza (33:52.44) Yep, awesome. Yeah, I have a little different reason of why I started talking to people. It was because I grew up in Portland, Oregon. We were super poor, you food stamps, government housing, and so we didn't have any money. And so I knew that in the state of Oregon, you could get five cents deposit for every can. And so I literally went door to door starting at five years old, knocking on doors, hey, I want to see if I could have your cans. And I would collect cans until I got enough to get some candy and I'd just go about my merry day and that turned into being better at fundraising and sports than the sports. And then that turned into doing door-to-door at 14 and getting told no 100 times and not wanting to quit to fast forward five years of door-to-door 200,000 no's before I turned 22 and then a 15-year corporate career. So I looked at communication as like survival. was like, how can I? leverage this ability to talk, to get things that I knew I couldn't get otherwise. And so I kind of had a different angle and why I wanted to do it. But it's always interesting because usually it's not the thing that people think. know, usually it's not the reason that everyone that you want this like great story or something. And it usually is something different kind of how you explain. So let's now talk about master talk because you essentially in my eyes were mastering talking by doing the pitching. because you were putting in the reps and getting in front of people that were going to give you feedback. And these are people that you looked up to or in positions that you wanted to be in or companies that you wanted to work for. when did it in your mind? When did you realize, A, that you became a better communicator? Because changes aren't that noticeable to us. But once we do recognize that, that's kind of when the light bulb goes off. So when did you recognize it? And then what were some of the initial steps you took before eventually starting your YouTube channel that's now been growing and all the public speaking that you do and all the other awesome stuff you're up to. Brenden From MasterTalk (35:57.136) Yeah, absolutely Jordan. Thanks for that man. Yeah, basically what happened, and I really love what you shared around communication being about survival for you. It's really interesting because we have a very similar life. That was exactly my game as well. It's just my hustle wasn't cans when I was a kid. It was Amazon Mechanical Turk. when I was, a lot of people don't know what this is. So when I was 13, 14, 15 years old, Amazon has a website called mturk.com. And it's, and that's going to be extinct now with the rise of AI and everything. But back then, back in the day, maybe 15 years ago for tasks that could not be automated. Companies would, would create these little jobs, like five cents a job, 10 cents a job for that jobs that only human beings could do. seeing if there's adult content in a, in an image, it's just the reason I was able to get on MTurk was because I use my dad's name. So, so even if I was 15 and I was still using his dad's and I made. probably $1,500 on Emtar. I was making like three bucks an hour and even in between lunch breaks at school, I would like do these little things and I used that to buy a bunch of video games and all that stuff. we're cut from the same cloth. So going back to the story of doing competitions for survival, not really because I liked them, I did end up getting that internship. So I got scouted by Pricewaterhousecoopers and I got an internship there and it was the best day of my life, really. at the time I was like, my God, I finally got this internship. And I was like, I still remember when I was 20 and I was, was, I'm getting goosebumps saying this. was standing inside the building. It's like at the 20th floor and I was looking at the window and I was like, I can't believe I'm here. I couldn't believe it. Like none of the other interns, they hired like 30 interns that summer. None of the other interns like really cared that they worked at PwC. They're like, yeah, it's a cool company. My dad's a partner here or you know, And I was just sitting there and I was just like, man, I can't believe that I get to be here. It was so cool. And it was an amazing experience. I ended up working there for like a year and a half or something. And the work wasn't easy, but it was awesome. But the point to how this all transitioned to MasterTalk was I'm like the Michael Jordan that nobody gives a shit about. Jordan. Which is funny because I've never said that to a guy named Jordan. So I'm like the Michael Jordan of... Brenden From MasterTalk (38:19.03) of that nobody gives a shit about why is that? So when MJ was playing basketball, he was a dick to all of his employees, like to all of the other teammates and he was pushing them to be better. I became that person in case competition. So what I didn't realize what happened in my life is I started winning, no sorry, I started doing competitions for the sake of getting a job, but then I started losing them. And I was like, wait a second, Brendan doesn't lose. And then, cause I'm ultra competitive. Then I was like, I'm not losing competitions. And I started refining my speaking, getting rid of all my arms and all things like that. It wasn't even about the job anymore. I ended up getting the job, but it was more just about winning comp. I was like, frick, if I'm going to do these competitions, I better be on top. And then I started winning competitions consistently across the world. Really? Like this is, I know this sounds really weird, Jordan. Like we literally fly out people to Singapore, to Serbia, to the university of Florida, Pennsylvania, just to give presentations. It's like a whole party. It's a wild. Jordan Mendoza (39:16.802) That's awesome. Yeah. Brenden From MasterTalk (39:17.904) It's a wild thing. So little did I know by the time I was 20, I became one of the most talented communication coaches because I started running the program the year after and I just started coaching everyone at the pro how to speak. Not because I was making, I didn't make a dollar doing this. I just told my executive team, guys, we got a bunch of losers in this program. Like if they don't communicate really well, they're gonna lose all these competition. So I figured out how to become a coach. And then long story short, by the time I was 22, I coached 40 people on how to speak. got a great job at IBM and three months before I started working there, one of the 40 people I'd coached asked me a question I didn't know the answer to that started MasterTalk. And the question was simply, how did you learn how to speak? And I was like, Aziz, what are you talking about, dude? He's like, well, Brett, you coached all of us. Like, how did you learn how to speak? And I was like, well, I don't know, man. Like I just practiced a lot. I did a little bit of toast masses, not that much. And then I had three months to kill before I started working my job, Jordan. So I opened the internet. I went on youtube.com. I typed public speaking tips. I didn't even know there was YouTube videos on public speaking advice. And I was horrified by what I saw. I would watch all these videos. They were all super boring from like old guys who are like my colleagues now that I deeply respect. Right. But I was very immature back then as I should be. And I was naive. And I was like, that's not how I coached Suzy to get better at speaking. You have to do this, this, this. That's not how coached John, why are we talking about being yourself? That doesn't make any sense in speaking. Do this to... And I just started making videos in my mom's basement, I called it master shock and I the ego to think I could do better. But I didn't expect to be the person that I am today. Jordan Mendoza (40:55.33) Love it. Love it. Well, all it takes is that one first video, you know, and that's kind of what sparked it for me on LinkedIn in 2019. You know, the video I posted and got five views, all of them were me because I kept rewatching the thing, you know, but that's just how it works. You know, we have to be willing to put ourselves out there. So I just want to say kudos to you because a number of times in your life and then just kind of seeing the parallel is you've not been afraid to put yourself out there. regardless of ridicule, regardless of what someone might think. And that's not always an easy thing to do. But I think because of your environment that you grew up in, the circumstances, the trials, those all mean something. And a lot of people don't realize that adversity truly gives us strength and it enables us to see through a lens that no one else will ever be able to look through. And I know that that's helped you grow. And I want to really, what I want for the audience from you is, what are the three things that they can do today to be a better communicator? So let's share three tips. then of course, I want you to share what's the one place you want people to go after listening to this, where they can contact you if they hear these tips and say, man, those are great, but I need more. I need to invest in me. I need a coach. need somebody. that can not only help me grow, but can actually get me to the next level. Brenden From MasterTalk (42:24.154) Yeah, absolutely, Jordan, appreciate it, man. So I'll just give the plug really quick and then let's focus on the tips. So if you all wanna follow my work, the easiest way to do this is to go to my Instagram, because you're gonna have trouble finding me on LinkedIn because of how difficult my name is to spell. So what you wanna do is just go to Instagram, type master your talk, yours is Y-O-U-R, and just send me a DM on Instagram and let me know that you listen to this show and I'll send you a voice note and just say hello to you. So that would be the best way to keep in touch. So now let's get to the tips. bringing this back to the industry, right? I was probably one of the youngest guys to get into communication, Jordan, like into this field, because most people, and you know this, right? Most people in my field have PhDs in communication. They went to like Ivy league schools and speaking their faculty professors and speaking. Whereas my background was not that I'm literally an accounting guy. I have a crooked left arm. I spoke my whole life in a second language. Most of the angle I came from is like, what can we do in speaking. In the same way you lost 60 pounds, which is an amazing transformation, you did something to get that result. So what does that do in communication? So the analogy I use, and then I'll give the tips, which is simply RQV, is if you go outside with a mic, you know those TikToks where you like go and interview people? So let's say you're in Atlanta, Georgia for some random reason and we're just like interviewing people on the street. We can even ask obese people, people who are unhealthy, hey, what are the three things people should do to be healthier? They'll still give you the right answer. Eat the right foods, go to the gym more, maybe get a personal trainer. It's very simple, eat the right things, walk every day type of thing. But if we ask the same question to the general public on what are the three things people can work on on speaking, nobody knows. Talk more, speak more, nobody knows, right? So really a lot of my thought leadership is about simply telling the public what are the three things that you can do today, like right now to guarantee results in speaking. So I'll give that to you right now, which I simply call RQV. Let's start with R, the random word exercise. Pick any word you want. Headphones, Scotch, I already said headphones, mic, hoodie, renovations, as you can see I'm doing some renovations in my house. Whatever the word is, pick a word. Brenden From MasterTalk (44:42.352) and create a 60 second presentation out of thin air. No preparation in advance. The reason this exercise helps is it improves your fluidity. So if you talk about like tissue or toothpaste or like cup, when you go back to your expertise, it'll give you really easy for you to speak. And here's the best part Jordan, you got six kids, you have a whole army of people you can practice the random word exercise with. So I encourage all of you who are listening to this, do this with your kids, do this with your family, do this with your buddies. and only focus on the following. You get points for doing the exercise a lot, not doing the exercise well. That's exercise number one. Exercise number two, Q, questions roles. We get asked questions all the time in our life, At work, job interviews, Sales calls for entrepreneurs, meetings that we're running, podcast interviews that we're being interviewed on a media show like this one. And a lot of us are not ready for the questions that life has in store for us. Quick funny story on this. I mean, you could deem it to be funny or not, I guess I'll leave it up to you. So when I was getting started on podcasting, you mentioned Junet. Junet was the third person to have me on the show. And on a podcast, I've probably been on like 500 now, but like when I started, I was just taking whoever was kind of throwing leftovers at me. was kind of like, yeah, I'll just do it. And I remember I got asked this question, not by Junet, but by somebody. And he was like, so Brandon, where does the fear of communication come from? And I was like, I don't know dude, Tokyo? Maybe Dubai, maybe New York City. So I didn't know the answer. And I was really frustrated that I didn't know the answer. So how did I fix this? Every single day, Jordan, I wrote down on a piece of paper one question I thought the world would ask me about my expertise. And I answered it. That's all I did. And if you do that for a year, one question a day, you'll have answered 365 questions about your industry. Absolutely bulletproof. If you're in corporate, write down all the questions you got this week, re-answer them on your own time. You'll be amazing. And finally, V, gratitude video messages. Take out your phone, pick somebody you really love in your life. Could be a best friend, a pal, and just send them a video message. 20 seconds, hey, I'm thinking about you. I hope you have an amazing day. I just wanna say I'm really grateful for you, Jordan, for having me on the podcast. That's it. Brenden From MasterTalk (47:08.388) That's all you have to do. And there's only one rule to this exercise. Do not retake the video. Whatever you make, you have to send. That is it. And I'll encourage you to do a hundred. And the last point that I'll leave you with Jordan is the following. I have yet to meet one human being, just one who hasn't paid me a shit ton of money to work with me. I've yet to meet one human being who has texted me on Instagram with the following. Brendan. RQV is awesome. I did a hundred random word exercises. I did a hundred question drills and I did a hundred video messages. Can you tell me what to do next? There's a one person who hasn't texted me that. So what is the point in five years? I've been doing this actually, I've been doing this as a business for five, but I've been doing this for a decade almost. I would encourage you to be the first person. The goal from a communication podcast is to not listen to Jordan and Brendan speaking go, wow, this is cool. You guys can speak. No, the goal is for you to say, Can I put 15 minutes in my calendar every single day, practice the random word exercise, practice RQV, practice the question drill, the video message. If you do that 100, 100, 100, you'll 100 % see results. Jordan Mendoza (48:17.72) Love it, love it. Love the challenge. You heard it here first, guys. You know what to do. So we will put the ball back in your court. I think I posted on Facebook or they now have like, you can add a note on Facebook or on Instagram. And I said, change comes from within. You've got to want to change. So if you wanna change the way that you communicate, follow this system, DM Brandon, or better yet, Have it be one of the reps that you put in, send them a 20 second video and say, thanks so much for these tips that I heard on the Blaze Your Own Trail podcast. I'm sure that would mean the world to Brendan. Brendan, thank you so much for coming on the show. You're definitely a true trailblazer. You haven't just blazed the trail, you're still doing it, my friend. And I cannot wait to stay connected and find out about all the other stuff that you're up to. So thanks so much for coming on the show and everybody, we will see you. Next time, next episode will be a solo episode. man, what an amazing show today. Brendan, thanks so much. Brenden From MasterTalk (49:20.644) Thanks, brother.