332 Transforming Home Builder Professionals - Cory Charles Aug 12 2026

Greg Bray: [00:00:00] Hello everybody, and welcome to today's episode of the Builder Marketing Podcast. I'm Greg Bray with Blue Tangerine.

Kevin Weitzel: And I'm Kevin Weitzel with OutHouse.

Greg Bray: And we are excited to have joining us today Cory Charles. Cory is the founder at The SuperHero Mindset and one of my superheroes. Welcome Cory, thanks for being with us today.

Cory Charles: Well, Kevin and Greg, I appreciate you guys. Listen, I'm always excited when I get to not only just hang out with you, but talk and talk to your audience. So, thank you for having me [00:01:00] on again.

Greg Bray: Well, Cory, for those who haven't had a chance to meet you yet, give us that quick background and introduction of yourself.

Cory Charles: Yeah, absolutely. So, I'm self-proclaimed the lifelong failure that failed at a lot of things, but also learned along the way. That's part of the journey, and that's what makes us great is we're willing to see our way through that failure and learn from it and grow from it. So, I'm your guy in the chair. I'm the founder of The SuperHero Mindset because I do believe that we all have the ability to be super in our own ways if we're not afraid of the failure and the things that happen to us because they can happen for us. So, that's me in a nutshell. I spend a lot of my time speaking and obviously sales training and leadership coaching. But at the end of the day, I just want to see everyone I encounter be great, and that's always been my goal and always will be.

Kevin Weitzel: We've had you on before, but I'm gonna ask you again. You can't use the same answer. No family, no work, no home building stuff, and not the same answer you used before. So, tell our listening audience something fantastic about yourself that they'll only learn [00:02:00] here.

Cory Charles: Oh, man. That's a good one. I don't remember what I said before. Something fantastic about myself. You know, I've learned to call this fantastic. I have ADHD. I call it super ADHD, where it is sometimes very hard for me to focus on anything other than 90 things at a time, and sometimes I go super focused on one specific thing.

So, learning how to use that as a superpower has been fun. It's been really eye-opening, especially the people that I come across that are also fellow neuro-spicies, as I call ourselves. So, that's been something that it took me a long time to own and be really proud of. It's something I used to, you know, shy away from and wear as almost a badge of shame. It is absolutely a badge of honor to be super ADHD, as I call it. But, yeah, I think that's something I talk about more often, but maybe people might not know that quite yet.

Kevin Weitzel: Love it.

Greg Bray: Oh, love that. Cory, you mentioned a little bit about some of the things you're doing, but just tell us a little bit more about your company and the services you offer.

Cory Charles: Yeah, absolutely. So, with the SuperHero Mindset, you know, I come from a sales and a sales training background. [00:03:00] So, the company was built from a simple realization that I had. Spending a lot of time with sales professionals and leaders specifically, I realized a lot of my conversations, I'd say a big chunk of my conversations, focus around mindset. That's where I was spending a lot of my energy, adjusting the people that I dealt with is was helping them figure out their own mindset, and sometimes we gotta get out of our own way.

So, that was the beginning of the company and the idea of this SuperHero Mindset, that, you know, a superhero doesn't do the thing because they're ready. They do the thing because they need to do the thing, and that's where we have to be sometimes as professionals and even just as humans. So, that's how the company started. Of course, it landed in sales training. I think that we can really do a service to our sales professionals by giving them sales training that isn't so highly scripted and structured, but it's more human and conversation centered.

And then I also work with sales leaders, making sure that they show up every day as the best version of themselves, not just for themselves, but for their team and the [00:04:00] people that they serve. And then, of course, any time I get a chance to be on stage and just talk mindset, motivation, inspiration as a keynoter, that's always where I'm going to spend a little bit of time if I can get away with it.

Kevin Weitzel: I can't believe you're still wearing your Clark Kent outfit right now. TED Talks. You've done NASCAR. You aren't just working in the home industry. Because anybody can just be like, "Hey, I'm a sales talker coach kind of guy. I'll just stand up here and talk and blab." But dude, you've been on some major, major stages.

Cory Charles: I've been incredibly blessed. It's funny you say that. I think walking around, I do walk around as a Clark Kent, but I tend to turn it on when I'm on stage. You guys have seen me on stage many times, and something clicks, something changes. You know, I grew up very shy and introverted. I was afraid to even talk to three people in a room, and now I'm on stages where, you know, I get excited when there's 1,000 people in the room. So, something clicks, something turns on when it's stage, when it's showtime.

So yeah, I don't always mention, yes, I've been very blessed to speak to NASCAR and some of the largest home builders. I've, you [00:05:00] know, been featured on CNBC, and I've done some really cool things. I've got my first book coming out. I've done a TEDx. So yes, I appreciate the love. It's something I'm still adjusting to. I'm still just a shy kid from Brooklyn that's figuring this thing out with the rest of us.

Greg Bray: Well, Cory, that's a great segue. You've been to a lot of events. You've seen people in the audience scribbling notes and all the kinds of things that we do when we go and get out of the office for a couple of days and do this. And yet, somehow we get back to the office and we just keep doing the same old, same old. You're trying to help people change that, and be something better. What is it that is so hard to take all the great ideas or the "Oh, well, now I'm going to change," and then we can't or we don't? What gets in the way of that change?

Cory Charles: Yeah, you know, such a great question.

I think a lot of things happen along the way. Number one, I think a lot of times we go to the conferences or we go to the meetings, and we hear cool stuff, things that resonate with us. But we don't often get a playbook on what to actually do with it, where [00:06:00] it just lives in a notebook and it's like, "That sounded really cool. I don't know how to apply it, but it still sounds cool."

And then I think on the flip side of that, sometimes we get overloaded with information. We hear so many good things that we're just like, "I'm going to try all of it." I'm sure you guys know, going back to your daily life and trying 57 new things that you just learned last week often doesn't work out too well. And what happens is we try to implement all these things at the same time. We get confused. It gets muddy. Things don't work out, and then it becomes really hard, and we tend to, as humans, not want to do the hard thing. So, I think that's where the focus has to be.

And for me, I want to make sure that, yeah, I want to motivate you, I want to inspire you, but also I want to make sure that you have a playbook on what to actually do with the cool little sound bites that I give you. I want them to sound great and stick in your brain. I want you to feel it in your heart, but I also want you to know, "Okay, cool, now what do I do with it?" And that's where I think the real transformation happens. For me as a speaker and as a coach, as a trainer, that's where [00:07:00] I find great success. Not if I can make you feel good in the moment, but if I can actually make you change behaviors and make you transform into the person that you want to be. That's where I think the magic really is.

Greg Bray: That's really resonating with me because a few months ago, early this year, I went to a conference. It was for agency owners, right? It wasn't about building. It was about how do I make my agency better. I filled the notebook, right?

I had all these things. I'm like, "We gotta do this now, we gotta do that." And I'm sitting there on the last day, and I'm like, "I've made this mistake too many times, where I walk in and dump this list on the team and say, 'Hey, do these 25 new things. Go.'" And I said, "I've got to pick one. I've got to pick one." And it was hard. It was really hard, but I finally was able to boil it down to just one. I was like, "You know what? I've got this whole book," and I haven't gone back to it yet, and I'm scared to because there's a lot of good stuff in there. And it was really hard to just pick one. Do you think that's one of the tricks, or I just get lucky in kind of doing that? What are your thoughts?

Cory Charles: No, I think you're spot on. I think that's the absolute right way [00:08:00] to approach it, at least in my opinion, is when I look at this big whole notebook, I'm a lot like you, I've got notebooks that are 10, 15 years old of just really cool things that I've experienced and seen over the years.

But I think that's the right strategy, is getting back to my world on Monday and saying, "Okay, what is the most impactful thing I can implement right now? What's the thing that's going to move the needle the absolute most?" And what that means to you could be totally different than what it means to me, but I think picking that one thing, mastering it, and then moving on to the next one is where you're going to see the biggest growth, especially long term.

Kevin Weitzel: From a management standpoint, especially when you're looking at results, when you implement multiple things, it's hard to isolate the ROI on that expenditure of your time or your efforts.

Cory Charles: 100%.

Kevin Weitzel: You're definitely plugging into the fact that if you're going to put something into place, figure out how it's working, why it's working, what's working with it. If it's failed.

Cory Charles: Mm-hmm.

Kevin Weitzel: Or if you're failing, and then put the plan into place to move on to step two, step three.

Cory Charles: Well, [00:09:00] you know, I borrowed that from my sports background. You know, if you're in basketball and you change the mechanics of your shot, but you change four different pieces of it, I don't know what worked and what didn't work. Same thing with any sport. A quarterback, the same thing. You know, in baseball, a batter, if you change your swing in nine different ways, I don't know what's working.

I brought that into the sales world because it's the same concept. We hear a lot of cool stuff in sales, and then we go try everything on Monday. And it's like, some of it worked, some of it didn't, but I don't know, so I gotta work on one thing and get really good at that thing, and then work on something else. So, it's the same kind of concept, it just lives in different arenas based on what we're doing.

Greg Bray: Let's dig into that word mindset, because you've mentioned it a couple times and I think it's a really interesting word in today's world. When you see people that are good at this, of taking and narrowing down the one thing, or pushing something through to completion, what is it about their mindset that's maybe different from a lot of the other folks who struggle?

Cory Charles: Such a good question. I think the [00:10:00] folks that do really well, especially implementing new information and new ideas and new concepts, I think they're okay embarrassing themselves. I think they're okay not being good at something for a while. I think so many of us want to be great at everything we do the first time we do it. I call it you gotta be like Bambi a little bit when you're trying on something new, and you gotta be okay stumbling around while you get your sea legs under you. I think the folks that do really well are okay with that awkward stage. They're okay with it not going the way they want it to go right off the bat, because they know it's a process.

To borrow a super cliche, if you trust in the process and understand that this is about repetition, this is about time and repetition, that's how you become great at anything. It's just time and repetition. You gotta get the reps up. I tell that to salespeople. I tell that to leaders that are working on their coaching skills. It's repetition. You gotta get reps. You gotta get reps. So, I think the ones that do really well, especially when we talk about mindset, they have that resilience. They have that stickativity. They [00:11:00] have a little bit of that craziness where, you know, I'm okay not being perfect at it the first time around, and I think that's what's going to give them the longest legs on getting really good at any skill, any new skill.

Greg Bray: Did we just coin stickativity?

Cory Charles: Boom. Mark it down. Trademark.

Kevin Weitzel: Stickativity.

Greg Bray: Now, Kevin, I have one quick question. Cory dropped a Bambi reference. I just want to make sure our audience is going to be able to deal with that, or are we maybe dating ourselves a little bit?

Cory Charles: I think I just aged myself on that reference.

Kevin Weitzel: Greg, it's not just the dating of the Bambi. He went from Bambi to sea legs. And he didn't go with the obvious, which was the deer legs, the doe deer legs. Say that 10 times fast.

Cory Charles: Well, listen, Kevin, you know I'm a fan of alliteration. I know myself enough that if I go Bambi and then deer legs, I'm only going to think about deer puns and references for the rest of this whole call. So, I had to pivot to sea legs for your benefit.

Greg Bray: All right. Well, Kevin, here's the exciting thing. The Builder Marketing Summit is coming up. Guess who's going to be there with us?

Kevin Weitzel: A ridiculously, deliciously dressed man named Cory [00:12:00] Charles.

Greg Bray: I am so pumped that Cory has agreed to be there, and not only just be there, but to be the guy that does the send-off. So, Cory is going to be on stage, bring all the energy, everything. So Cory, now we gotta give people just a little taste, right? We can't give it all away, but as you think about what you want to share with our audience, what are some of those things that you're going to slip in there and help us with?

Cory Charles: Yeah, absolutely. Again, like you said, I don't want to spoil it. But I love two things. I love being kind of the opening act that gets the excitement going, and I really love bringing the show home and taking all the great stuff that has happened over the past X amount of days and bringing it all together.

And again, exactly how we started this conversation, I want to make sure that I'm giving everyone in the room the tools to take all the great stuff that they've experienced and actually be able to use it. So, we're going to talk about that. How do we make the best of the time that we spend together over this week? And also, diving into some of these things that really separate good from [00:13:00] great, and great from legendary, because that's where we all want to be.

So, we talk about that combination of purpose plus mastery, and then we multiply it by identity, and really understanding who you are at your absolute best. If we can make that formula work, you are absolutely untouchable. It's worked across the board from athletes to the highest tier of professionals, is that simple formula. So, we'll talk about that a little bit of course. And then again, I want to make sure that we absolutely make the best of the time that we have together, and really use it to propel ourselves to where we want to be, going into the rest of '26 and '27 and much beyond. I'm going to resist from saying to infinity and beyond, because I think we've gone well enough on Disney references.

Greg Bray: Well, Cory, as you're out there in the building industry talking to folks, do you feel that people are excited right now about what's going on in building, or are they tentative and a little scared and hesitant? What are you seeing out there in the industry?

Cory Charles: I think there's [00:14:00] both, right? To have the easy answer, it's a little bit of both. I think the folks, especially, I call them kids if they've been in the industry, you know, only a handful of years. Even if they're older than me, I still call them kids. I think the kids that are kind of newer to the industry and kind of grew up in the COVID and post-COVID era, I think there's a little bit of unsurety there. I think there's a little bit of, "Ah, I'm not really sure what's happening. I'm not sure what this is all about."

I think the folks that have either been around a little bit longer or at least have had conversations with the folks that have been around longer understand that, you know, all the cycles in the home building industry all matter. And even when we are slower than we expect, that just means things are going to pick up real soon, and what am I doing in the meantime to get prepared for when things start to pick up?

Too often when things are slow, we don't work on our craft, so when things pick up, we're not ready for it. And when things are going really, really good, we also don't work on our craft. So, we end up in this weird juggling act where we're never really spending time working on what we do. So, I always say when times are a little bit leaner and slower, [00:15:00] number one, you're getting more energized buyers walking through the door, people that are ready to move forward. And that's also your time to get really, really good at what you do. Because when it is busy and there are 100 people walking through the doors on a Tuesday, you don't always have that time to work on your craft.

So, I always caution folks, make sure that you find time to be the absolute best at what you do, because when things start rock and rolling, as they always do, we all know that these things go up and down. Are you doing the things to be prepared for when that time happens?

The same conversation for leaders in organizations, I've talked to so many organizations that have really healthy goals for next year, which I am so excited to hear that they have these really big, lofty goals. My question is, do you have the team in place to get you there, and do they have the training, the coaching, the levers, the tools to get them there as well? And these are questions that we have to ask before we, you know, are knee-deep in '27 trying to figure out how to get to our goals.

So, that's what I always say is, you know, we gotta make sure that, we understand that this is the [00:16:00] nature of this business, and it is up and it is down. But as a salesperson, I gotta be here. Well, for the folks that can't see, I gotta be neutral. Gotta be neutral. I can't be too high, I can't be too low, I gotta be neutral.

Kevin Weitzel: I have an interesting factoid there, Greg, and this is all due credit to Mr. Charles here. In the Merriam-Webster dictionary, stick-to-itiveness.

Cory Charles: Boom.

Kevin Weitzel: Is in the dictionary. You know what's not in there? Stickativity, baby. That's all you, Cory.

Cory Charles: I told you, trademarking it.

Kevin Weitzel: You need to contact Merriam-Webster today and put in a request that stickativity gets added to it with a note with your face next to it. Boom.

Cory Charles: If you guys see me at the summit with a T-shirt that says stickativity, you know what happened. It's been trademarked, baby. It's mine.

Kevin Weitzel: You gotta roll with it, and we gotta let that organization know that word.

Cory Charles: It's one of those words that I've started using a couple years ago, but it doesn't make sense, but we all know what we're talking about. I've always rocked with it for quite a while.

Greg Bray: No, that's the [00:17:00] purpose of language, right? If we understand what you mean, then you've accomplished your goal, so.

Cory Charles: Right. It reminds me of Kevin from The Office. You know, why use many words when little words do job?

Greg Bray: Well, Cory, as you are trying to teach people to just narrow in on one thing, do you have just kind of one last piece of advice for our listeners today just to kinda help them get excited about the future and what's possible, especially making sure that they include attending the summit in that future?

Cory Charles: Yeah, I think the biggest part of massive growth and life in general is doing the scary thing. And I know you've heard it before probably, and I know sometimes coming from a speaker or trainer it sounds, yeah, sure, easy. But I would say do the scary thing. If there's something that you pick up at the summit that you know it will impact you or your business and it sounds scary, I would say start there. What I've learned in my experience, the scary thing is exactly the direction you need to go in.

You guys heard this before. I was [00:18:00] deathly afraid of public speaking. I failed speech class three times in college, and now that's what I do professionally. Sometimes you gotta lean into the thing that is scary. So, if there's something that looks like a big, audacious, insane goal, or a big shift that you need to make in your life or in your business, I would say do that. As scary as it is, lean into it because that's where you're going to see the biggest impact and the biggest return. Then the rest feels really easy.

Greg Bray: Well, and I know people are listening going, "Wow, I'm going to come to this summit just to hear Cory." But the reality is we've got two full days of great stuff, and so we'd really like to invite everybody to join us. It's buildermarketingsummit.com to find out all the details and to get registered. And Cory, if somebody wants to connect with you personally before that instead of waiting to see you in person, what's the best way for them to reach out and get in touch?

Cory Charles: Yeah, absolutely. So, I'm on all the socials. I'm super active. Of course, Cory Charles on LinkedIn. That's probably my most active social media platform. The other ones that I live on, you can find me [00:19:00] @kingcharles. And of course, you can shoot me an email. I love talking to new friends, cory@superheromindset.co.

Greg Bray: Well, thank you everybody, for listening today. Thanks again, Cory, for joining us. Thank you for listening to the Builder Marketing Podcast. I'm Greg Bray with Blue Tangerine.

Kevin Weitzel: And I'm Kevin Weitzel with OutHouse. Thank you.

Cory Charles: My pleasure, gents.