Today we’d like to introduce you to Pierce Brantley.
Pierce, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
A secret to many author’s stories are that they are written long before their books, which is the circumstance I also happen to find myself in as a writer and entrepreneur. Before I sold my first company or had published anything, I found myself as the oldest of nine kids, living out of a red pole barn in East Texas. Those dueling extremes shaped my thinking from an early age and the poverty which came along with those realities cemented my perspective of the world.
On one hand, you don’t miss what you don’t know; on the other, you also find yourself constantly fighting for escape. You’ll happily pour yourself into any opportunity to leave or find meaning — a distraction for its own sake. This tension developed two things within me from a young age: the first was a deep faith that God was going to look out for me, and the second, a strong desire to self-educate and build a new world from within the one I was confined to as a child. Together, these things worked in my life in profound ways.
The path to building tech-enabled businesses started at a young age as well. When I was nine, I received a Macintosh II and that sort-of jump started my passion for technology. Old as the computer was, it fueled the healthy escape I felt I needed. Some of my early childhood projects included a rudimentary AI that learned how to talk based on phrases it was taught, I also scared some friends with a little program inspired by the Matthew Broderick movie War Games. Good times.
All that early experience lent me leverage and I was able to build a business relatively quickly soon out of school, even without a lot of networking experience. My company did a lot of great work in internet marketing and also created some pretty cool stuff like one of the first e-commerce platforms that fully integrated into the first version of Facebook. The first brand created for another company did seven-figure in its first year as well which was humbling. Within about five years, I’d built enough value into the company to be able to sell, for which I was grateful. As much as I enjoyed building the business up, I was also pretty burned out. Some entrepreneurs will probably relate to this, but you feel in many ways like your business is your baby, and when it comes time to let it go, there are a lot of mixed emotions. Bittersweet is the best way to describe the way you feel.
From that point on, things began to move pretty quickly. I spent the next year living out of a suitcase and working with a myriad of different companies from coast to coast. I did business and technology consulting which ranged from large flooring companies to inventors who did deals with national retailers.
The best part of all of this, however, were the stories it allowed me to collect and the way in which it depended my faith. Imagine being asked how to help farmers in Africa get their produce onto the kitchen table of all the homes in the US, how to help banks transform into fintech organizations, or how to build a smart city in California. I needed good answers for all these questions; the business needs were so unique that I needed a steady heart and mind to be able to accomplish anything meaningful.
Many of those stories ended up in Creating Heroes, the first book I wrote. That first book was a learning experience, it’s a short airplane-ride read, but full of the big lessons I’d learned from attempting to answer some of those difficult questions. Short as it was, it ignited a passion for teaching faith-centered business management and personal development. I also have a particular passion for helping young men get out of poverty and find purpose since it’s so close to my own escape story.
Today, I’ve finished a large publishing deal for a new book titled Calling: Awaken to The Purpose of Your Work. I’m very proud of it. The book unpacks my exodus out of the East Texas boondocks and lays out an outline for how to find your calling in life. There are some crazy stories in it as well that I think readers will enjoy — one of which was finding myself on outside of the top of the Fountain Place skyscraper in downtown Dallas.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Learning how to grow a business is never easy. Perhaps it’s a little cheesy, but that same kind-of flight-or-fight survival you feel when things get rough will get transferred to a growing a company as well. A business has a life of its own and almost has an immune system that needs to be kept healthy if it’s going to continue to function well. My solution was to transfer that anxiety onto my faith and bet on myself. There were multiple times when I had to take a flight without a dollar to my name, while also trying to close six-figure deals. Imagine not knowing how you were going to eat while also negotiating with a CEO. Fun times!
We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
Well first and foremost, I’m an author. My books range from business tactics to faith-based strategy. My worlds collide in that sense. I’m known for great business and product strategy, and my latest book Calling: Awaken to The Purpose of Your Work, which will be released soon. I’m also known for being able to solve and consult very complex technical and business problems, such as the healthcare industry’s move to digital, practical artificial intelligence uses cases or the rise of fintech. I also believe there is a practical place for faith and business to work together. So I like helping business who want to integrate like that be successful.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
My success is deeply rooted in my faith. I’m a believer (no pun intended) that they’re meant to go together. I have countless stories of provision, insight, or deals going through that I attribute to this. In that sense, I see everything connected. I’m just try to intuit what I should do next based on a set of principles (outlined in Calling) and then step out into the unknown.
Pricing:
- Product / Business Consulting — $249/hr
- Calling: Awaken to The Purpose of Your Work — $17.99
Contact Info:
- Website: piercebrantley.co
- Email: hello@piercebrantley.co
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/piercebrantley/
- Other: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0830780734/
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