Career and personal growth with a focus on midlife.
Guest: Bryan Wish, CEO, Arcbound
On LinkedIn | https://linkedin.com/in/bryanwish
On Twitter | https://x.com/bryanwish_
On YouTube| https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRo8VpmK_Sq7x7QL7u_XhnA
Host: Dr. Deborah Heiser
On ITSPmagazine 👉 https://www.itspmagazine.com/itspmagazine-podcast-radio-hosts/deborah-heiser-phd
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Episode Introduction
Career and personal growth with a focus on midlife. Brian envisions personal and professional success in the next 10-20 years, with a focus on content strategy and storytelling. He expresses concern about balancing passion with other aspects of life as they age.
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The 30s | A Conversation with Bryan Wish | After 40 Podcast with Dr. Deborah Heiser
Unknown Speaker 0:37
Yeah, thanks for having me. I hope I can add a little value to your listeners and speak to my early years and maybe my later years to the best of my ability,
Unknown Speaker 0:48
I think you will be I have a few questions for you, but I would really urge you to jump in if you have something that I'm not asking because I'm talking about something that I normally don't, which is pre mid life. So Brian, looking ahead, where do you see yourself in your career over the next 10 to 20 years, and what does success look like to you now, that now versus when you started arc found,
Unknown Speaker 1:17
yeah, well, thank you for sharing and asking the question, success, 10 to 20 years out in career, just career you want, like, personal. Like, how do you want?
Unknown Speaker 1:30
I, you know, I do want personal. I was going to ask that second. But you know what? Dive in. Tell us everything.
Unknown Speaker 1:37
So, yeah, I mean, look, I have always looked at my life like a series of mountains to scale. And I don't think you can really scale all the mountains at once, but definitely, maybe the last seven to 10 years made the professional mountain in the kind of health mountain, kind of the two main focal points, and haven't really brought in other as many adventures into my life, from a, let's just say, a mountains analogy, but I think from a career that's really been important to me to figure out, at least something that I cared to do in the world. I never just wanted to make a ton of money, to make a ton of money, and then wake up one day and be like, what's it all for? I was pretty set in my early 20s around figuring out something that I could I was pretty in my early 20s, I was really interested in, how do I package and take all these different parts of myself and bring that together in one roof and make that easily accessible and understandable for other people, which is ironically, is like the like the core and the truth of arcbound and how we do things today at the very front end of things. And so neat, like my own problem became like, what the where the business has shined and then continues to shine, but 10 years down the road, I mean, you know, I'm seven years into this business. What I see is, I see this business very much scaling and hitting a pretty big trajectory in 2026 that, you know, we can really ride a nice wave on for five to seven years, for sure, maybe longer. But I feel it's very much like early innings, given all we've learned in the last year and a half, and I see in 10 years, Archon being a very successful mid market business. I very much see myself investing in other companies, probably at like, a later stage I'm really interested in private equity and how to invest in companies that are off the ground already that want to be more valuable. And really interested in building relationships with those kinds of entrepreneurs who have gotten somewhere, but first I like want to get there myself. I also really want to build a major young professional part of our business, or a separate business that helps young professionals, maybe a year or two out of college, like, really figure out their arc and their life. I've worked with, you know, a lot of young professionals and mentor them. And not to get paid because I don't, but I have a pretty good program, and I think it can be very scalable. And I think it's like the class that's never taught in college that needs to be taught. And I would love to find the way to democratize it, because I think it would help a lot of ambitious people get clarity on their path and, you know, create, create the opportunities for themselves for the rest of their life. And that'd be really rewarding. I want to do something very scalable on that.
Unknown Speaker 4:42
So it sounds like they're doing a lot of building right now. Yeah, that's where you're really you know, you have the ideas, and you're doing a lot of building. What do you think it's going to look like, in terms of maybe midlife or later? Paint a picture of what you think your life will look like. You built this you're you're at the point where you've got these ideas out into the world. Are there any people or places or anything like that that you would like to be a part of, or that you can see yourself in, that you're not in now?
Unknown Speaker 5:18
Yeah, first to me, I definitely want, like, a family by the time I'm in my early to mid 40s, or at least, you know, some kids and a wife and do that part of life. Well, I've kind of put that off or not prioritized it, just because I've had focus elsewhere. And actually, I'm very I think a lot of men's get do those things too early in life, actually, and then, you know, they can't really do the things they want to do later because of certain commitments. And so for me, I really want to be able to do that part of my life well, and not that you're ever perfectly ready, but I do think there are probably better times, or times where it becomes easier to do that, when resources are a little more flowing. And I just wanted to be intentional about that, and that's a future version I'm working towards. And on the personal side, whether I get there or not, TBD, but I hope, and then,
Unknown Speaker 6:14
you know, I can still be building in your 40s, and after, you know, in your 40s and 50s, do you think that you're always going to be building and it'll just be more of the same. Do you think that that'll shift or move in any way? Yeah. I
Unknown Speaker 7:24
is there anything about aging or reaching midlife that scares you or gives you a pause that you say, Uh oh, I don't know how I'm going to navigate that. I think if I'm
Unknown Speaker 7:34
like, 45 and I'm like, lonely and then No, no person, no family, and I'm just like, worked myself to the ground. I like, that would be a failure, for sure. And I forgot about, like my parents, I I care about relationships and friendships, so I'm also like, okay to evolve from friendships. I think it's you evolve people around you evolve so, like, I'm okay to let go of certain people at certain times. So, but I think, like my family, having a family, not being, you know, isolated, I think that that's a something to just have a perception on. I also think too, like health, right? Like, I've learned a lot about my health in the last couple years. I mean, I was in the gym five, six days a week for three and a half years, and I was following a pretty rigid program with strength, and I kind of like, worked my way into getting my body stuck into the last 18 months, it's been kind of unraveling to, like, reset, and I'm like, in Pilates, and I'm learning how to walk again and breathe again. Do Pete like, it's just like a complete reset. I'm almost very grateful that I'm, like, learning this at 32 and not 50 in like, trying to figure out how to make time, but I'm, like, really resetting a lot of health foundations. So, you know, I'm not worried in my 40s I'm going to be healthy. It's just like giving myself the freedom to make time for those activities, because health is ultimately the top priority in my life, and not kind of having that taken away from me in a way that I value has been beyond challenging the last 18 months, but I'm definitely coming through the tail end of it. So, you know, I think health is going to be, you know, that's it's a worry, and the opportunity to make sure it's a focus today, and then just like, 10 years out, like, being able to travel more, like the ability, even though I'm young now, I think the having the financial freedom and just the ability to be like, Yeah, let's, let's go to the beach, or let's do this, or let's, like, just go to Europe. Like, why not? Like, that seems really interesting to me. I'd much rather do that, you know, and just kind of have the freedom around it to do. And I think life will always be nagging at you, but I am excited, you know, I think to have a bit more abundance, and as things continue to progress,
Unknown Speaker 9:59
sounds like you're really setting yourself up with thoughts about that without maybe even thinking about it. You know, you're getting your health in order. You're really focused on your business so that it can be moving in the right direction, so that you have abundance financially and have some plans for, you know, making relationships a priority down the road and on that thought, Do you ever think about legacy? Or do you have a definition of legacy? Does that play anything that you're doing?
Unknown Speaker 10:33
Yeah. I mean, it's funny. I wrote an article years ago during the pandemic, when you know, the world had time to think, or kind of go down different vices and not think. But I think I chose the thinking path, and I wrote this article about, like my tombstone and like how it would read. And I kind of broke it down into areas of my life, like with work and with family and with my health and things I wanted to learn and travel to, and like, I think those are still very much similar. It's been a bit bit more of a windier Road, maybe to to those kind of things that help I want to live. But, you know, I think as I look, look down the look, I don't know. I mean, hopefully I live to, like, 100 and, you know, I get all the longevity kind of hacks and, you know, things, you know. But I mean, look, I hope one like, if anything, I've inspired people to pursue the ideas that matter most to them, and like, do it in the face of fear and adversity and overcome the hardest and darkest moments. I think, like, that's important. It's important to me to build a business that has a ripple effect and impact beyond, you know, a tangible financial outcome. I think it's important that, you know, the movie, Dead Poets Society, by Robin Williams, really inspires me. And, you know, I think what's beautiful about that movie is not telling those people to go, like, do a bunch of real estate transactions and not there's anything wrong with that. Like, those industries are great. My parents are in them. But I think it's, it's to me, it's like, can you, like, combine like a soul calling, like something that's really inside of you with something that can make a ton of money that's really interesting to me, and to like, help other people think about how to do that for themselves is also very interesting to me. So I think that would be a fun legacy to leave. Yeah, I want to be like a great father and husband and, you know, family person, and that way, my my dad said, a phenomenal example. And my mom, like, you know, even though they're divorced, I mean, they're incredible people. And just, I think the older I get, the more I'm like, wow, what? What's special? Most people don't have two parents. They just love the more you look around. And I think I got very lucky. Hopefully I can do that for my own, you know, family one day. And, yeah, I mean, I think being one to, like, learn and travel and being super interesting conversations all the time I get really bored, like watching Netflix and like doing things that, like, Don't stimulate my mind is, like, really hard for me. So like, I'm, I'm usually, I think, just like being one who's always interesting, interested and curious and other people and how to make things better, and always trying to find problems to solve and people to help, I think, you know, I think it's a good legacy, like, you know, finding my path and really helping a lot of people find theirs. I think that's a good way to live.
Unknown Speaker 13:20
I love how you're describing all of this, because you're really highlighting how we're sort of built to go through life. You've been talking about how you are building your company. You're putting your priority onto yourself and making sure that you are healthy and that you have the stimulation that you want. You're following your passion, and you're putting real time and energy and effort into that, and that's what we're built to do, is to sort of figure out who we are when we're younger, in our 20s and 30s, and build our expertise. What you're doing, you have a podcast, you have a company, I know that hopefully you'll talk a little bit about it, how you're looking to rebrand and do a new website, and you have these plans where you are bringing in new expertise and new knowledge, and by midlife, we're built to, sort of want to give that back in some way. And you talked a little bit about that. You want to have a family, and you want to continue with your company, but move in a different direction, where you're sort of reaping the rewards of it and have an opportunity to leave a legacy like your parents have. And it's refreshing to hear this from you, because you actually put thought into a lot of this. I don't know that I did that when I was your age, in my early 30s, so it's really cool to hear you talk about that. Speaking of, you know, you building and bringing in more expertise. Tell me a little bit about your new venture that you're having that's launching.
Unknown Speaker 14:53
Yeah, it's just a it's a reincarnation or an evolution of what has been the last six years. So, you know, I've been running the company arcbound. The way it started was two things. One, I was, I was doing a book launch for a B to B marketing tech executive in Washington, DC. He was selling his business in transition. Also very young, like 32 at the time, or 31 but, I mean, worked me like a dog, and like I learned so much, and I'm so grateful, and screwed up so many times, but he he stuck with me, and we had a lot of success together. And I just saw an opportunity. I loved, bringing him to life and his ideas and his work, and I saw an opportunity to to package all these things about him together build this brand that ultimately would launch the book and let him speak and do all these pieces. And I just realized that we were feeding five or six business models for all these different contractors, and no one had packaged it all together. And I just thought there was an opportunity to really build all these different pieces where we could define a brand identity, build the identity, and then do the LinkedIn content and do the newsletters and do the podcasts and write the books. And so over the last 697, years, we finally put all those pieces together. You got to find the talent of the service paths and monetization model. And it's not come without a fight, but I think we're at a very interesting Inception point of taking off in a lot of ways. And so this new launch, it's really showing our value prop in the sense of like, where I want to be known for is finding the individuals who are trying to figure out all the things they want to say, and we're going to piece them together with the message and the visual brand and portable identity, whether that's for their company or themselves, after they sell their company, and then we can go activate the brand. We started the business just doing what everyone's figuring out now, which is the activation of let me do is LinkedIn, our newsletter, but they don't understand how all the dots connect, and it takes a lot of deep work, and that's hard work to do, because, like, you can be a you can build a LinkedIn influencer brand on the surface level BS, but like, people read right through it after time. And I think for me, it's like, I wanted to do something that had more depth and connective tissue, and so we finally built those parts, and, you know, did our own process on herself. It looks unbelievable. I'm so stoked. But also shows all the work we've done on the production side. So the new launch is, I think, a very much, a very nice way to show what we've done in the last six and a half years. And then, you know, there's a whole nother enterprise side to this business we're piloting as well, where I think this thing can really hockey stick. So I'm just really excited about the future, but it hasn't come without a lot of learning lessons as well.
Unknown Speaker 17:52
I love that you know you are evolving, your company is evolving, and I love that you're looking forward to the future and all that has to offer you. The cool thing is, you didn't have a lot of scary things that you thought were ahead of you. And I'm really excited to hear that, because more often than not, people are a little afraid of their future. So you're a trailblazer in more ways than one. Well,
Unknown Speaker 18:14
it's interesting you bring it up because I'm actually like, a pretty interesting spiritual side. I have this psychic I've seen, and an astrologist, he's a friend I met, and I just, I'm pretty open minded, right? And like, I pulled data points, if enough people are saying the same things, you know, they're probably right. And like, you know, a couple years ago I was, like, pretty dark. And like, it's very, very much verified by like, certain things that were like, on the future path, and like, both of them now are saying, like, things do look pretty good in front of you. And I'm not saying like, that's the only thing. Like, I have a coach for work who's, like, very skilled business. Have a like, a good therapist, person that I like go to for emotional support. Like, I'm well resourced with, I think the people around me, but I'm not scared, to take improve like perspectives, and I use those perspectives to help, like, tune into like, what I need, even like my health. Like, I have been going through this creed. It's like they have, like, three or four different types of like, a medical team that, like very I'm finally on the final like, piece of this, and it's like, you know, and so I think things are looking up in a lot of ways, but I think it's one of the things I learned growing up from my mother, is it's like, she always made it okay to ask for help or to get help. I never felt like I should have to solve something by myself or figure it out by myself. And so I've just learned to find the people who can help me as, like, my best skill set, and not figure out all the things they know how they do. But I think it's a faster way to, like, scale the things in my life that I want. And it might be lazy to other people and like how I do it, but to me, I think it's, it's the smartest way to do it. So, you know that's, that's how I see the future. For sure, I'm definitely more optimistic than not.
Unknown Speaker 20:07
I like that. Do you have any advice for others so that they can have an optimistic outlook about their future
Unknown Speaker 20:14
lives?
Unknown Speaker 22:13
I'd say one more thing. And I think in the last year, this has really come to life, like I surrounded myself in the business around maybe more fair minded people in the sense of, you know, Blair, who runs our, I would say she's pretty much like the GM without the title right now, even though she'll get the title at some point, but she's amazing. But she's a lawyer by trade, and she's run three post sales organizations, and she's very legitimate and skilled businesses. But, you know, she's, she's a she sees risk, and all she sees is risk, and like, when she first started, like We butted heads so much, but I've really grown to appreciate that, because I didn't realize how much I didn't see risk. And so that's been really good. And I put this other guy behind her business over the last year and a half to promote who's been God's gift to the world to me. And, you know, even just in the last couple months, I couldn't see it at the time, but he's such a good operator. And you know, he's just more in the background, doing a lot of work on the back end with me, but all he sees is risk. He's very much optimistic and open minded and very positive, but like, he wants to make sure the house is in order. And I think I just want to, like, I live in the future, and I'm, like, blinded by the future. I'm so far out so having some people around me who can kind of pull me back that I respect and we'll probably stand down to is really healthy, and I had that prior, when I was sprinting, and I think now I value walking a little slower in life and also putting people around me who can be bumper rails for me, because I definitely need that so.
Unknown Speaker 23:59
So Brian, where can people find you, and all the projects you're working on,
Unknown Speaker 24:06
you can go to arcbound.com, and there has pretty philosophical at times you
Unknown Speaker 0:00
I have here with me today. Brian. Wish he is the founder and CEO of arc, found a thought leadership and personal branding agency. He helps entrepreneurs and executives turn their ideas into impactful platforms through content strategy and storytelling. He's also the host of the one away show. It's a podcast about life changing moments. So welcome with welcome today. Brian, I'm so excited that you're here to be with me today to talk about future, the future and midlife, because you're not in midlife, you aren't in your 30s. So I'm really excited to hear from you today.
Unknown Speaker 6:28
mean, I think I'm always going to be pursuing ideas and building. I think I'm in the way I think about building is going to be different, and it's probably going to be, you know, I've learned so much in the last seven years. It's informing how I'm taking the next steps in the next five years, but also, like when I'm, you know, eight to 10 years down the road, or 15 years down the road, like the way I look at opportunities to pursue in my time, I think it's going to be a lot different. I'm probably going to have more commitments to other people in my life, so that means I'm probably going to have to look at opportunities a little differently, where I can just be I mean, I think I'll always be maniacally focused on the things I care about. I don't think that burning passion is ever going to leave me. But, yeah, I don't see it stopping. I think it's just a drug I was born with, and I've clearly found the drug. It's just balancing the drug with other parts of my life. You know,
Unknown Speaker 20:19
I mean, look like, like, this time last year, like it was a 180 like, it's a very dark period, but like, I always, I always believed in there was a light to hit. Like, I've always even, no matter how bad it gets, we all go through moments in life. Like, I have always believed, like, hey, there's, if you just keep pushing, there's always a way. And I've never been one to, like, give up or throw my hands in. Like, the only things I've had to give up other things in life where a coach or a teacher told me I kind of do something, and that's why I hate normal company hierarchy and school hierarchy and all of it. Like, I can't stand to be told, like, how high can climb. And so, like, the normal systems of fitting in, like, never fit me. And so I don't really adhere to rules very well and and so I think a positive outlook is, I think when you're one to disrupt or break rules, you do make life hard on yourself, sometimes, especially when you're not aware of the Charlie you're blazing, or how fast you're blazing it, and how that can hurt you. But I think just knowing my mom always said, growing up in every crisis, there's an opportunity, and so I've always been trying to find a silver lining, or a something positive that might be in the negative, and it doesn't mean life just always going to be sunshine and roses, but, yeah, that's not the perfect answer, but that's what I'd say. Well,
Unknown Speaker 21:50
I like that you're an optimist, and I think that basically what you're saying is that gather people around you as resources, don't go it alone, and that, you know, be open minded and look at what you have as your as your strengths. That's kind of what I'm hearing from you that I don't know if I summed that up for Yeah,
Transcribed by https://otter.ai