Blaze Your Own Trail - How to Become 365 Driven with Tony Whatley

Episode Date: June 1, 2022

About Tony: Tony Whatley became known as “The Side Hustle Millionaire” after his book with the same title became a #1 best-seller on Amazon. But, this book title isn’t just fiction; it is based on his actual story. Tony once led a successful corporate career for over 25 years, but that is less interesting than the side-businesses that he created, which generated millions in profit. As an active entrepreneur himself, he still owns a few businesses. But, his real passion is teaching entrepreneurs how to start, scale, and sell their business, within his podcast and consulting brand 365 Driven. In this episode we discuss: Tony's upbringing Early Year's in Japan Adversity as a kid His school attendance record Lessons from his Dad His Entrepreneurial spirit  Creating 365 Driven And more! Connect with tony: Website: https://365driven.com Instagram: https://instagram.com/365driven Facebook: https://facebook.com/365driven Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/in/tonywhatley Buy Side-Hustle Millionaire: https://amzn.to/2GP20Vb Thanks for listening! Connect with Jordan: LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordanjmendoza/⁠ Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/therealjordanjmendoza/⁠ Clapper: ⁠https://clapper.vip/jordanjmendoza⁠ Join my Facebook Group: ⁠https://www.facebook.com/groups/linkedintrailblazers⁠ Website: ⁠https://www.blazeyourowntrailconsulting.com Installing strategic sales systems & processes will stop the constant revenue rollercoaster you might be facing which is attainable through our 6 Week Blazing Business Revenue Coaching ProgramBook a discovery call with Jordan now to learn more! Are you an entrepreneur?Join my FREE Group Coaching Community where we have live calls, Q&A and more! Our Trailblazer Ecosystem also enables you to network with other entrepreneurs and creator hub eliminates multiple subscriptions and logins creating a one stop shop to take action!Use code: FOUNDING100 for 12 months access FREE and Founding pricing for life! (While Supplies Last)Join now! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

I had a total 11 jobs between the ages 11 and 17, just trying to help and support my mom. When I gave away my ATS resume template, that I used to charge $3,000 for. If I were someone that wanted to work with you, I think the thing that would resonate with me the most is a fact that you have been as far as they will fall. I gave her all my videos, and today she's a message saying I got my first client, and it could not be happier for her. On my show, one thing I love to do is really get context into people's journey. eggs and I saw vegetables door to door. I saw newspapers. I do it because they truly care to help. Hello everyone and welcome to the Blaze Your Own Trail podcast. I'm your host, Jordan Mendoza. Hello, everyone and welcome to the Blaze Your Own Trail podcast. My name is Jordan Mendoza. I'm your

host and I've got a very special guest today. His name is Tony Watley. And I'm going to have him tell you who he is and what he does today. Hey, Jordan, man, thank you for having me on the show. It's been a crazy four years for me really reinventing my whole entire career. And yeah, I can't wait to get some of the story going out there today for you. Awesome, man. Looking forward to hearing about it. Well, my favorite part of the show is I like to take a rewind and really get context into my guests, really origin story. And so let's learn a little bit about you.

You know, if we can tell the audience, you know, adolescent up to high school years. What kind of kid were you? What kind of things did you get into? Yeah, that's a good one. I would say that I've always wanted to be a daredevil, a fighter pilot, or a race car driver, as long as I can remember. I've always been the adrenaline junkie. Even though I'm not really, I guess, talkative or outgoing, I'm more of an introvert, but I've always been the daredevil type person, the adrenaline junkie. And I was the kid that would put the extra bricks under the bike ramp and learn skateboard tricks by trying them over and over and over and busting my knees. and finally getting to where I was mastering the tricks. But here's the things that I always couldn't wait.

I couldn't wait to teach my friends how to do that. So I've always been the coach, the mentor type, involved into careers and all different things. But yeah, I grew up at a suburb of Houston, Texas. I was born in Japan. My mom's a Japanese immigrant. My dad's a U.S. Marine. And we moved to Texas before I was two years old. So I've only been here in the United States.

So I say like I was born in Japan but made in America. The best way to think about it. Just think of that way. So, you know, I grew up really in a strange time in a small town, about 15,000 people population at that time. And you got to understand that when I was a kid, the people of authority were typically the World War II generation. And, you know, they didn't really like Japanese people. Everybody in town knew who my mom was. And I experienced racism and people following around and saying things and negative. And I didn't understand that. As a kid growing up here, you know, you feel like this is your home. But it really doesn't

affect more people than just dark pigment skin. So I just always wanted to point that out. But I never let that bother me. My mom handled it really well. And we just knew that people had the reasons for thinking the way they do and you're not going to change their mind. But we just had to keep being positive and focus on what matters in life. And they were both really hardworking blue-collar parents. My mom worked in the public school system, cafeteria worker, her entire career, until she retired. And once my dad got out of the military, he worked in the chemical refineries here in Houston until he retired. So I got to see the value of hard work and we moved to a school system that was a little bit nicer so that my sister and I could get a good education. And we lived

in literally the crappiest houses in that town. We couldn't really afford to live there. So the first three houses I grew up and were basically flip homes was what we'd call them today, where they were the crappiest house on the crappiest street and we would buy them really cheap and we would live in them. And we would restore them over the next few years until we outgrew with them and we get a little bit nicer house around the block, right, in the same neighborhood. But that's what we did. And I just felt that was normal. I didn't understand that this was like an abnormal life. I had a very good childhood, but it was also a very disciplinarian. For example, my mom, very disciplinary when it came to education because her Japanese

immigration, they didn't get to have those kind of, I guess, perks of education at her age and her generation in Japan. Most women went through junior high and they got plucked out of the school system and then they go work in the farms. where the boys got to continue through high school. So she valued education because she didn't have access to that. So to give an example of discipline I've had, I never missed a single day of school from kindergarten through graduation. So 13 years of perfect attendance, dude.

So if I wasn't dead, I was getting on that bus. And after a while, you start to identify that because you start to see that that is actually something special and something that you can achieve with very little effort. Just get on the bus. and you start to identify yourself as someone who's got perfect attendance, that's got discipline. And even as a kid, I started to realize, like, I became proud of that, probably three or four years into the school system, like, hey, I'm going to keep going

and do this. So I just think that we start to adopt positive discipline things, that we start to identify who we are, and we can get to carry that into an adulthood. So, I mean, there's literally the reason my branding is 365 driven is because I want my listeners and my audience and my clients to show up. every damn day and put in some work to get to be the better version of themselves. I'm not talking about doing the 24-7 hustle and grind, but you need to put a little bit of effort in every single day that's moving you towards what your goals are. So my dad, Marine Sergeant, so you can

imagine I got the disciplinary end of all the other side of that side. So the leadership, the communication, the showing up, the just being polite and respectful. Those are the things that my dad taught me. And he's always been a leader and anything that he's been doing himself. So, you know, that's that's my childhood, man. That's awesome. That's awesome. It sounds like a, like you said, very discipline, very structured. It sounds like the lessons that you learn both from mom and from dad have been super impactful.

Consistency is everything. If you can't figure that out, I don't care what you're doing. If it's work, if it's play, if it's anything, you're not going to get good at something unless you continuously do it. kudos to you, 13 years with a perfect attendance record. I probably had some times when, you know, I maybe made it 13 times in a month. So you did a lot better than I did. Congrats there. So let's dive a little bit more into that childhood.

So it sounds like it's structure. It sounds like this change that was happening, moving from house to house, fixing them up, was kind of normal to you. So what other things did you get into besides the being that daredevil type of guy? Were there any other hobbies that you had back then or maybe that you still have today? I've always been fascinated with cars. Even as a kid, my mom would buy me coloring books when those were a thing. And I remember sitting at the kitchen table.

And instead of coloring in the books, I would just draw cars and trucks and airplanes and the blank spaces of the book. And soon enough, Mom started realizing that she could just give me blank sheets of paper and I could have more fun just drawing what I wanted. So I've always been artistic and creative and looked at things for visuals. and I remember even having a zip block bag of washers, like nut and bolt washers of different sizes. My dad would bring home from the chemical plants and I had a collection and I would use those to trace wheels and tires and made my car drawings a little bit more realistic. So I've always been fascinated with cars and anything mechanical, a World War II aircraft, anything that was kind of just machinery, right?

I don't know why. I think that's it. We're just born that way. I think everybody's got aptitudes and interest without even knowing how to explain why. I think that card guys is what most people would call me is we're born. I think some people can learn that, but I think some of us are just born that way. And the thing is that without having any money, I started to have to think about, what are we going to do for money? And you grow up and everybody's telling you, you're going to get that six figure income. Everybody's got to, you know, you need to be a doctor, a lawyer, or an engineer, things like that.

And I said, okay, well, I want to go make six figures. I don't want to work in the chemical refineries my entire life. I don't want to wait tables my entire life. those are things that I did while was in school. But I put myself through college and I got an engineering degree at the University of Houston. And then I started working the chemical refineries and then the offshore industry, oil and gas. And while I was on that pursuit of trying to get to the executive level and I was right there right below vice president. I was a multiple six figure earner working on 100 plus million dollar projects.

And I just realized that, you know, in my 40s that this really isn't really serving what I want. I'm not making a big enough impact. And that wasn't discovered until I had a near-death experience racing cars in 2015 where I was at a track and I felt like I was going to die in that moment. And after that, I realized that time is a lot more valuable. I had to put my fears aside and really focus on the purpose and go all in because time is never guaranteed. And so the things that I learned from a childhood is that if I didn't have money, I'd go run to the magazine racks and I would read my car magazines while my mom was shopping. and I started to see these magazines over here on the right side talking about money, you know, success, fortune, entrepreneur.

And I said, well, you know, I don't have money. So maybe if I read some of these, I can figure out how to make money. And so I was literally that 11, 12 year old kid that would read those money magazines trying to understand what they were talking about. I end up getting a subscription to those and just reading them cover to cover, just trying to figure out what the, what is this thing about and how does it even work? And I did start to get understanding for that. So I was a what people call it a kid entrepreneur, a kidpreneur.

I was mowing yards and washing cars and walking dogs and doing whatever I could earn a buck because, you know, my birthday was November. So the only time I was going to get presents was my birthday in November and then Christmas the following month. So for the 10 other months of the year, I had to figure out how to do things to make money because we weren't going to get an allowance. And my parents are highly encouraged that. They're like, hey, yeah, go take your money, go to the corner store, a mile away, fill it up.

the gas tank and then push it around and just knock on doors on the way back. And that's what I did. And I remember my other friends at that age, probably 12, 13 year old, they would see me mowing some random person's yard while they're walking by or riding their bicycles by. And they would laugh at me. Like, Tony, why are you running? Why are you mowing someone else's yard? That's stupid. You live over there. And I didn't care, dude, because this is how I got my video games, my BMX bike, my skateboard, like things that I truly wanted. I had to go figure out how to get those for myself. Yeah, I love that. And I did very similar things when you either have parents that have money and don't want to give it to you or don't have any to give you. You got to get very resourceful. It's funny. I remember I was weeding this lady's lawn and I had no clue what the heck I was doing. So what did I do, Tony? I literally grabbed the tops of the leaves off. And every week, like clockwork, she'd call me and say, hey, they've got more weeds. Come back and do it. And I didn't realize I was ripping this lady off because I wasn't getting the roots out. I didn't learn until a little bit later, you know, that you're supposed to actually dig those things out.

So, but yeah, man, you know, it's, it's about being resourceful, you know, if, if, especially if you don't have it and you want it, you got to figure out how to get it, you know. Yeah. And I don't know if, in Houston, I can't remember times of change, but in Oregon, where I grew up, that you got a deposit for every can. So I would actually go door to door and try to get people's cans and go turn those in. because each one was a nickel, I could go buy candy. You know, but, you know, however you can get the money, you know.

Yeah, resourceful. We didn't have that here, but I would have totally been doing that for sure. Yep, absolutely. So let's talk. You kind of fast forward a little bit. You talk about your career, you know, kind of following in the tracks of your dad with the chemical engineering and things like that. And then really finding yourself at this level in your 40s, you know, having a near-death

experience with the accident. So, you know, when did the shift happen where you said? said, you know what, there's got to be other things I can do or maybe let me shift in this direction. Yeah, I would say that I've always evolved in my career, but I was equally driven in the corporate side and as end, an entrepreneurship side. So here, to put it in context, when I got out of school, it took me seven years to graduate. I was working full time going to school at night, being very sleep deprived, broke, depressed, all these things. But I struggled in school. So when people tell me about they enjoy their college years, I kind of just shake my head because they didn't have

it like I had it. You know, so I get out of school and I was used to that that 24-7 hustle and grind. I lived that for seven years literally. And now I found myself with this big boy salary job. You know, I was probably making 45 grand a year at that time. It was entry-level engineering job. And I was getting home at 4.30 in the afternoon and having a lot of time on my hands. And I was like, wow, this is, this is kind of boring. You know, I'm not where I want to be right now. So what do I need to do to go get where I want to to be. I don't even know what that means right now, but I know that it's more than this. So I actually put my apron back on and started working in the restaurants that I'd managed and weighted tables and bartended at. I went back. I still had friends that were managing there. And I said,

hey, can I pick up shifts every night that I'm off? And they said, yeah, man, we'd love to have you back. So here I am with an engineering degree, an engineering salary, still going back, picking up shifts seven nights a week just to make an extra 100, 150 bucks a night. And I was willing to do that. And I remember one time I was wedding tables and eventually I knew it was going to happen, but some coworkers at the engineering job came and they were maintenance workers that came in to eat with their family and recognized me. And they said, hey, Tony, what are you doing here? You're an engineer at our company. Like you're, you know, you're almost a manager. I said, I appreciate that, but I'm not where I want to be yet. So this is one way that I'm not going to sit at the house and do things

unproductive. And I just needed me more focused on making more money, putting more money away to be able to do things I want to achieve. So I also was fighting the advancement at the corporate level where people were saying, hey, you're too young to be a manager, you're too young to do this, you've got to wait your turn, you've got to pay your dues. And guys, I've already been working in chemical plants since I was 18. So you can imagine, I had a lot of years of experience, even from my relatively young age. So I got tired of being told to wait my turn and hold myself back. And I said, okay, I'll need a creative outlet. I need to go figure out how to do something. on my own and make my own shots and take my own risks. So I started building companies in

automotive space. And that's the thing I love is cars. So I said, maybe I can build something on this internet thing that, you know, make some money. And it gives me a creative outlet. And I can dictate how the course of things are going to go. And I can get compensated based on the performance that I create. And I just wanted to go build something. So I said, okay, I'm going to teach myself how to build web pages. And I bought a book on coding HTML. And I used a notepad. And I taught myself Photoshop by reading these books. And I just wanted to build a community that guys can talk about cars and racing and things like that on the internet.

So that's what I did in 2001. I started LS1Tech.com, which later grew into the biggest General Motors performance community on the internet. And we had over 300,000 registered members. And this was always a side thing for me. It took me less than an hour a day. And when we sold that website for a couple million in 2000. We was making about 400,000 a year profit from a side business.

So we took it really seriously, making it a business, but I enjoyed it. And it was never meant to create that kind of money, but it was just, I just wanted a really cool experience in a place that everybody would keep coming back. And we made all of our money from revenue from advertising and live events and racing events around the country. So it was a worldwide experience. But here's the thing is I was also equally driven in my career. So I was climbing that corporate ladder at the same time.

And a lot of times I didn't intermingle the networks that I had. I actually literally had two different LinkedIn accounts. I had one that said Tony Watley Automotive and Tony Watley Oil and Gas because I didn't want my networks to kind of co-mingle and see what I was doing on the other side. And it's interesting that I just basically led two successful dual-purpose lives without most people knowing the difference. That is definitely interesting. and are the two brands one now at this point in your in your career and where you are and how hard was it then to keep the content separate, you know, keep the network, you know, network separate.

Because I'm sure there was definitely opportunity for them to overlap. There was definitely some, a few people that would overlap, mostly the people that were maybe the people that are having lunch with on a daily basis and things like that, just closer network. But I always felt that although those two industries, performance cars and oil and gas, didn't really have any conflict of interest. I just didn't see the advantage of having them commingle, right? Yeah. Because I knew that if I wanted to climb the corporate ladder, I knew that a lot of times you get judged by supervisors that may have some insecurities

or lack of management or leadership. And if they know that I'm earning more than them, they're going to have a little envy or spite and they may try to stunt my growth. So I felt that it was a disadvantage really on the oil and gas. side that they saw that I was doing things outside. Like, you know, I wouldn't, I would even not drive the fancy cars to my job. I had something that was more modest. I would just drive to the job because I didn't want them being nosy. And sometimes people would see a hint of a nice car. And they'd be like, oh, we're just paying you too much here, aren't we? And I'm like, man, if you only knew,

this is my part-time income. And I see why you did it that way. Hindsight's always 20-20, because I did it the opposite where I was building my personal brand while having a corporate career. And content-wise, it really wasn't a conflict. It was educating people, inspiring people. But I think exactly what you said happened. You know, certain people that maybe had a different higher position than me kept seeing my mug show up in their feed and didn't like it. You know, people started bringing things up in a negative context when I was actually out doing exactly what my boss told me to do, which was start putting content out and get people engaged on a, social media platforms. But yeah, it's interesting what happens when you start to show up and then

also when you start to build something, right, something sustainable. It's very interesting how the landscape changes and how some people can come out of the woodworks in a negative way. You asked me about the pivot. To put it in context, in 2015, I'd already started to see the writing on the wall because we were going through some layoffs in the oil and gas industry. And I was having to be the one that was making some tough decisions on who I was going to have to cut from the team. And I started to get into some things that I would say they're unethical that are against my core values, where we start to see effects of ageism, you know, that this never written in HR, because it's literally illegal to lay people up because they're age or because they earn

too much because they've been there so long. And some of these people have been in the company 20, 30 years, and they were excellent employees, right? But they're being told that, hey, you're just another number. and we're making some financial cuts and we got to cut them to have this advantage to. And I didn't like that because it was always focused on like, you know, they've been here too long and, you know, we need to cut them. And it's like, yeah, but they're the highest performers in this department.

Like, you know, what are you guys thinking? You're getting rid of your strongest part of the starting lineup. I'd already started to think about like, this is not where I want to go. If I wanted to be an executive, I was only going to become more, you know, making those emotionless cuts. And I didn't want to be a part of that. So I was already kind of mentally on the way out. And then the accident.

and occurred late in 2015. I was at the drag strip, and I used to write and shoot for automotive magazines. And I'm very well known for getting some good record times of the dragstrip or the road course. So there was a shop at the event, and they said, hey, we know that you have similar cars to this. We're trying to set a record. Would you mind driving our car to go get this record?

I was like, man, absolutely. So that car, just over 1,000 horsepower. I've got my own cars that have a little bit more horsepower than that. So I'm used to the power and the chassis that I was in. And so everything was going well, dude, until about the top of third gear, around 130 miles per hour, when something in the right rear suspension broke loose. And I tried to save the car. It felt like it was kind of pulling to the right. And I was kind of keep it straight, but it just kept going right because I didn't understand that the rear was broken out the front.

And I started grazing the wall. In that moment, you know, I had a little bit of a journal and a little bit of fear going into it. But then it started damaging the wall. And I started to feel like I was letting myself and the people that trust him. with the car. So now I was kind of disappointed with myself at that moment, but I thought that it was over and I could just basically slow down and come off the wall. But what happens when I came off the wall, that right rear wheel kicked back out again, which is like pushing a shopping cart backwards, like my steering wheel is going straight, but the car is now turning on its own. And now I'm looking

at the left wall from the right lane, 130 miles per hour, about to hit a concrete wall on a two-door sports car, Dodge Viper. And I thought in that moment, well, here I go. because you got bad odds hitting a concrete wall and a two-door sports car at that speed, especially one that's not made for racing. It didn't have a full roll cage or anything like that. It was a street car. And I just thought in that moment, well, here I go. And here's the weirdest thing about that, Jordan, is in that moment, I felt peaceful.

I just felt warm. I felt peaceful. I didn't have any fear. And of course, the impact occurs. And it's dark. It's late at night. And the lights are flashing and glass is breaking. you can hear the body just being ripped to pieces.

You can hear like all kinds of racket and the car sliding. And I didn't know if I was injured or not after the impact, but I just remember being conscious and seeing the white powdery smoke fill the cabin from the airbags deploying and hearing all the racket. I just focused in that time, just stay awake. You got to get out of the car. Stay awake. Stay awake.

Because from racing, you rarely get killed from the impact is the fire. I mean, when you're spilling all these flammable fluids out of a car, all it takes is one spark and you're in a flame. you know, fireball. So I just knew that I was awake and I had to get out of the car as soon as it came to arrest. And so it felt like an eternity dude. It was sliding and I just had my eyes closed and was waiting for it to come to stop. And when it did, I pried the door open because it got crashed in on that side. And, you know, the entire car was damaged. Every body panel of this car was crashing. There's literally wheels off of the car. The front of the car was smashed up to the windshield.

There's fluids everywhere. And I still felt really calm. And it was really weird because I just got out and took my helmet. I'm looking at it. And I could hear the ambulance coming from the far end of the track. I could hear people sprinting up the quarter mile to see what happened. And everybody started right. They put me in the back of the ambulance. They're inspecting me. They're asking me a bunch of questions to see if I have a concussion. And I'm just really clear. And at the end of the physical, she's, I'm literally saying in the back of the ambulance looking at the wreckage. And she's like, can I point out something very unusual? And I was like, oh, man, here we, here we go. Here we go. Like what's going to, what's she going to tell me, right?

And she just said, I just want to point out, you're remarkably calm. People crash out here every night when we're at the track. And you don't have the adrenaline shakes. Your heart rate's calm. You're answering the questions. You don't have any physiological signs of all that stuff. And I said, I am calm. And it was really profound to me that she pointed that out because that's just how I felt.

And it was the same peacefulness I felt approaching the wall. And what it was really going through my mind in that time was I'm looking at the car and asking self, why am I still here? I could have died looking at that car. I could have died tonight. Why am I still here? And then I started thinking about, well, how would I have been remembered had I died? And then you start to look back in your mental database for the people that have passed away and you're seeing, how were they remembered? I was kind of similar to that person. How would they remember? Well, it was always like someone so was a nice guy, gone too soon, you know, I hope he's racing upstairs with the big man. And, you know, and I get it. Being a nice, successful guy with fancy cars is

it's okay, but it's very superficial. For someone who's very disciplined, for someone who's very competitive and pushes themselves to become better over and over and over, it was really a glowing sign, kind of like you see over my shoulder, that I wasn't doing enough. Because although I have helped several of my former staff members and employees become highly successful and help people in my close proximity to become very successful, and they always told me that I should be doing what I'm doing now, I had my own reservations. I had my own fears. I had my own insecurities. I didn't like being on camera. I didn't like being on stages. I had stage fright. And I just realized that I'm making a bunch of convenient excuses and that no time is guaranteed and that I need to figure out what

my purpose is. And then so that's the thing is I left the oil and gas industry in 2015. And I didn't know what I wanted to do. I just knew that I needed to go create some impact and I didn't know what that meant how it was going to do it. And it took me two more years to figure that out. And then I launched this brand in May of 2017. Wow, man. Well, thank you for sharing that story. And so glad that you made it through that you're here. I experienced a similar accident at 19. We flipped several times going north of 70. And when I got out of the truck and looked at it, the area I was supposed to be sitting in was completely smashed in. So, you know, man, your story just resonated with me. And I remember having that same feeling of like, why did I make it out of here? You know, this was a stretch of highway I-80

in Wyoming that has the most accidents than any other stretch of highway in the country. And yeah, man, so you being able to take that introspective look and realize, you know what, I've got to make a bigger impact. Man, what a cool story. Thank you for sharing. I know it's going to impact a lot of people hearing that. So you leave, right? You leave this thing that you've known forever, right? Since you're 18 years old, this is what you've known. But you also know now that you've got to do more. So where did you start, man? Like, where was the first iteration of this new venture in 2015? I really started to think about how do I impact people? Do I start a nonprofit? Do I go on a philanthropy type campaign? Or what, you know, what does it mean? You know, because we always,

we always like kind of lean towards like help. What does help mean? How do I? I help people, but it took me a while because then I started talking to people and they're asking, you know, what are you doing now and what do you want to do? And I was like, man, I just want to help people. And I started listening to the people around me because a lot of times people that know you pretty well, I've known you for years are like, you know what you would really be good at? Like what? Like, you'd be really good at teaching people how to start scale and exit businesses. I mean, you're always talking about it. You've helped me. Look at these results. I've actually helped 12 of my former staff members become millionaires over the last 20 years. And they were always telling me,

like, dude, you should be teaching this. But the thing is, dude, I had a very private life. That was financially successful. I was pursuing executive role and career. Like you said, I was trying to keep my lives separate from the automotive and the oil and gas. And I had insecurities. I had childhood bullies and things like that. I just learned to be likable, but try to fit in. And I just didn't really want to stand out, right? I was always the MVP in the back. background of anything that I did. And so when you surround yourself with people that are saying, you should be doing this, you should be doing this for years. I said, well, maybe that's the clue. Maybe that's what I should be doing. So if I'm going to, and I used to say thousands of people,

when I'm going to go impact thousands of people, maybe I need to be teaching those thousands of people how to start, scale, exit their businesses, make them happier as business owners. And now I say millions of people because I've already impacted thousands of people. But even when I crossed that line of that number, I still wasn't comfortable saying that initially because it's a lot bigger dream than we even see for ourselves. So even someone like me who can see the potential in other people that they don't see for themselves, I couldn't see my potential and myself. So you need that external feedback, that feedback loop. And that's what I decided is like, okay, the best way I'm going to serve this world is by helping entrepreneurs.

And that's how I'm going to impact millions of people. And that's who I've always been since I was a kid, like reading those magazines through all my corporate career, 20 years of business ownership. So I arrived and I realized like, this is it. This is what I'm going to do. I love it. So you stepping outside of your comfort zone a little bit, right? And so in 2015, how long did it take you to start doing things like video?

I've got a lot of listeners of the show that, you know, they're either entrepreneurs or they might be aspiring entrepreneurs. And one of the biggest fears a lot of people have is turning that dang camera on, man, and speaking into it. When did that shift happen for you in 2015? Was it a camera shift or was it maybe more in-person stuff where you had to show up and face that fear of getting up and speaking on stages? I think that for me, coming out of corporate, I had an experience where I had a stage fright situation where I stood up in an audience of a thousand people and I had to give some answers to somebody who was staying on stage. And it put me on a spot and I just realized, like, I have a fear that I didn't know I had because I was a leader in corporate. So I'd given thousands of slideshow presentations and then kickoff meetings and things like that. And so I always thought like, man, I'm good at public speaking. I don't need to have that.

And, you know, I got this, right? And anybody that's out there that's a business owner or a manager, like I'm talking to you right now. That's ego. If you've never been formally trained in public speaking, I guarantee you're probably a one out of ten. And I hate to tell you that because I had to go realize that for myself. Because when you become formally trained in it, you learn how to do a lot more different things with your voice, your presence, your stance, your material, the way you speak. All these different things are tactics. It's not talent.

It's a skill. It's just like anything. If you want to go learn a new language, it's a skill. Public speaking is a new skill. No matter where you at, you're going to have ways to improve. And even the people that the best of the best still think that they have room to improve and they do. So it's a never-ending type thing.

So I had to make myself really uncomfortable because I realized that, hey, I need to put my purpose ahead of my fear. And for me to be able to do that, I have to go become a better effective communicator. And I keep hearing about this thing, Toastmasters, and I keep hearing about public speaking training. So I said, you know what, screw it. I'm just going to go do that. I'm just going to go sign up and I'm just going to do it.

I'm going to figure out what it is in there that people keep telling me about. So I joined a local toastmasters. And man, it was really uncomfortable. I didn't like doing that kind of stuff. And I just kept showing up every Monday. And I said, if I'm going to do that, I'm going to show up and I'm going to raise my hand and participate. I'm not just going to hang out in the back of the room because, again, time is very valuable. And I don't have guaranteed time.

So I participated. And in between those weekly meetings, I would go take what I learned from public speaking and I would do videos on social media. So that's how I would practice because I didn't have a stage. I didn't have a podcast yet. I didn't have an audience. I said, okay, I'm just going to go use my Facebook and I'm just going to post video every single day and use what I learned for that week. And that went on for a year.

So I posted basically a video every single day for a year between 2016 and 17. And then I started to grow this little audience because I realized that I sucked at the beginning. and it was something that was completely out of my comfort zone and people knew that I was trying something new and I just grew an audience by taking people on this journey. They could see the improvements over time and they were starting to become inspired because they realized like, hey, I was really relatable to you at the beginning of this and I didn't know what you're doing and I know it was kind of bad and you're pushing through it and you still showed up every single day and you didn't quit after two months like most people. And so I just kept doing that and then I said,

okay, I'm ready to write my first book. What would you guys like me to write me to write about. And they said, hey, you need to write a book on how to start businesses. It's like, cool. That's kind of where I thought about it too. And I said, okay, better yet, if I'm going to write a book on business startups, what questions would you all like answered in this book? And so I went back to the audience and I asked that and I got a bunch of questions and said, man, if I write this book and I can answer every single question at a high level of detail, give them examples, I'm going to create a product, which is the book that they want. It's not about me. It's about creating the product that they want. I think a lot of authors and show

hosts and things kind of miss that. They don't understand that we need to go validate the product offer before we create it. Most people create it, throw it out there. Nobody buys it and they wonder what happens. So me being in the industry, I realized like, I need to go build something that they want. And so I did. I launched that book in May of 2018. It became a number one bestseller on Amazon and small business category. Hit number 11 on all of personal development books. sold thousands of copies since then. Side hustle millioners the title. But even then, dude, people saw that.

And some of the people in the oil and gas, like you said, they didn't realize I was doing this other stuff from the other side. They would reach out. And some of them had some negative things to say. I remember actually getting a message on LinkedIn from a guy that I worked with for about a year and a half and oil and gas later in my career, not like 20 years ago. Like it had only been like two years ago, right? And he says like, man,

you're just nothing but a scammer. You're just an engineer that lost his job. And I can't believe you're trying to take advantage of all these people like that. Shame on you. And I was like, whoa. It's like, whoa, dude, do you even know anything about what I've done in the past 20 years? I said, why don't you go Google me? Everything I've done is very public record and then come back to me.

And he did. He actually came back and he apologized because he was just in a bad mood. And he thought that I lost my job. And I was just scamming people all of a sudden. It's like, dude, I sold companies for millions of dollars just because you and I work next to each other at the same level. And we never talked about that kind of side of my life. It doesn't mean, you know, so people, if you're listening to this, you don't know people

that you're working with. You don't know what they're doing outside of work. So don't always assume that you're equal or they're not doing as much as you. Like, you just never know. But yeah. And I've had some people that were friends in mind that we've been on vacation with. And they didn't like what I was doing because it was uncomfortable. for them. You know, who's this guy wanting to be Tony Robbins or something, you know? And, you know,

has he gone crazy? Like, he should just keep his career and, you know, trying to keep you in that categorical box that they've built for you. And they just think that, hey, you're trying to climb out of your box. Like, why are you trying to climb out of our box? We want you to in here in the box with us. Like, you have to stay here, the whole crab in the bucket mentality, right? And I've gone through that. And it's not the first time in my life. I mean, as I started to earn more and do more things, I've always been seeing examples of the crabs in the bucket mentality and it happens at every level guys yeah i agree with that it definitely happens at every level and it's it's not fun being a recipient of messages like that i'm glad that he came back and apologize

that definitely shows that he's got you know got some character at least because a lot of a lot of knuckleheads won't you know they'll just message you and be a keyboard warrior and and never come back to it it's no surprise to me getting the context of you as a kid and the way that your mom instilled that discipline of going 13 years with not missing attendance. So it's not a surprise to me. And it shouldn't be a surprise to everyone that's going to listen to this that you went every day and shot a video, even though it sucked, right? Like you said, in the beginning, because I don't care who you are the first time you get on camera, you are going to suck. I remember the early days when I started creating content on LinkedIn, I'd go back and watch those things. There was like five views.

all of them were me and they were bad, you know, and they were bad. But I kept showing up. And it's the same thing. If you want to get good at anything, you can't just show up every other day. You can't show up every other week and expect to get any type of good results. The funny thing about that is that the more comfortable you get in life, let's say financially comfortable, let's say that you start to earn $100,000 or something and you're comfortable. That's actually a warning that you're not going to push yourself to do things. that will actually enhance what you want to become. So when you're desperate or you're not making the kind of money,

you're more willing to do things that most people want to achieve the things that you will. That's me putting the apron on and going back to wait tables while I have an engineering job, right? Because I wasn't where I wanted to be. So I had that discomfort already on a daily basis. So what is more discomfort of just going to pick up a second job? Like big deal, right? What happens is what I started to see even in corporate, it. I would promote people through and around 120 to 150 a year, a lot of my people that were

higher performers before that financial level became average. They just became slackers. They kind of just freeloaded. They bought a little nicer car truck, upgraded their house. But they basically just kind of stopped at that level. They never kept climbing. And it's because I think that most of those people feel like they overshot their own potential. Maybe they grew up broke too and they get, hey, man, I'm at $150,000 a year. year now, like, holy crap, I'm richest person in my family. Everybody's telling me I'm successful, and they kind of just tap out and they kind of quit being aggressive to figure out how they got, you know, what got them there won't get them any further. It's just that's as far as they go.

And I've seen this very, very, very common. And so think about that, making videos and creating content and doing things that can be embarrassing or making people put you out there, feel like you can have, you're open for criticism, really, because you're being vulnerable. you're less likely to do those things when you're comfortable. So if you're listening to this and you're comfortable and you know that you've got to create this video and you know you got to write that book and you know you need to be doing videos or launching a podcast or whatever, things that are going to create a personal brand, right? You know that you need to do that. It's essential for your success, but most of you won't do it because you're comfortable.

I love that. I love that. And, you know, I've heard it said before that instability creates stability, not the other way around. That's right. We've got to actually be instable in order to get that sense of stability. So I love what you said there. And so I'd love for you to share, you know, the book had tremendous success. And it seems like it's continuing to impact people even today, which is phenomenal.

You built a community. So I'd love to just give context. Obviously, we know the community started at zero. Well, it started with you, right? You showing up and putting a message out there and building this tribe. So today, just so we can give some inspiration to everyone that's going to watch this or listen to this, you know, how large is your community today? Where are you from a book sales standpoint today? Because I just want people to see that these things started in 2018 and now we want to see where we are just so we can show people that's possible.

So the two major communities I built. One was the LS1 Tech. They grew to 300,000. I used that same business model and created Performance Trucks. dot net for the racing truck guys. That one grew to 280,000 people. And so I've built two massive online communities. And I said, you know what? I'm a very good community builder. So I want to build an entrepreneurship community. So 365 driven, it's an entrepreneurship community. It just happens to have a podcast and other things and coaching and things like that that that go along with that.

But here's the one thing I learned from the massive communities versus my smaller one. Right now is about 5,000 people in my group. But I'm okay with that because, I'm more focused on the quality than the quantity because yeah, it sounds really cool to say, like, you know, I have 500,000 total followers or whatever or members. It's kind of like the follower business model nowadays with Instagram and everybody's wanting followers.

Followers, followers. They think it's a vanity metric. People are literally buying fake followers. It's easy to spot those people, right? So I've already done the big numbers and that was cool, but it's not like I knew every one of those people. And it's not like I was providing value to every one of them.

And so I'm okay growing my communities more organically now and being more selective about who's in those communities. Because one thing I don't tolerate is negative and toxic and aggressive or passive aggressive people in my communities because I understand as being a member of some of the other communities I've been a part of, that when you allow negative people, whether that's your organization or your community, it's like cancer.

It kind of spreads. And what happens is you get these, like you said, keyboard warriors and assholes. and basically if they're causing problems within your community, the people that you actually want to participate, the people that actually have the knowledge and the experience are not going to participate. They're just going to watch from the sidelines and go,

man, look at this shit show. Like, why are we letting this go on in here? But they're not going to say anything because it's your community, right? So as a community leader, be really focused on making sure that your quality of your members is essential. You've got to create a safe place for people to want to participate and encourage each other that that way you get the contributors out of the shadows. I mean, I literally have 100 millionaires and billionaires inside my community,

my Facebook group, but most people don't even know about. And they actually participate. So it's kind of cool when I get to see them like answer questions. And it's like people like, you don't even know like the gold that guy just gave you. And you don't know what he's achieved. Like that's amazing. Like, and I'm not going to tell people that, right? But those people won't participate in a community that's a shit show.

So the other thing I think about the follower type thing versus a. community. A lot of people think their followers are their community. I disagree completely. It's not the same thing. A follower type business model, you sit at the top of the mountain and you got your hands up like it's all about you and all your post is all about you, you, you, like me, me, me, this is me. Here's my lifestyle. Here's the thing I'm flexing. It's my fancy car. It's all about you. It's a one-way conversation. It's always from the top of the mountain down. And it never really gets any conversation coming back up. And it definitely doesn't have conversation in between the members or the followers with each other.

So it's not a community. It's a follower. It's a fan club. No problem with that, right? A community is when the leader actually facilitates the strong bonds between each and every member of that community. So it's not about me. I'm just one of the members.

They all know who I'm the leader, but I'm the member in that community. And I want everyone in my community to become best friends. And I did that with the automotive side by having those racing events around the country that were in the hot spots. Like, you know, get people off of their keyboards, come out, meet each other in person, shake hands, get away from just using screen names. And they got to leave those events. But hey, do that person was pretty cool.

We used to argue a lot on the internet. But man, he was actually pretty cool in person. And I knew that if I could go make really strong bonds between everybody in my community and they can become lifelong friends, that's a true community. So that's what I do is. So 365 driven, it's like, I create these live events. We go do things. We have challenges.

and we want to make sure that those people get off their keyboards and get off their screens and come out and actually meet people and meet the speakers, meet the people that have been on my show as guests as speakers and hang out for two or three days. And then they leave and they have this like 40 or 50 person network that's always got their back and they had a lot of time with each other. So that's what a community is. It's all about the community, not the person leading the community. I love it.

I love it. And really what I took away from there is, you know, what you learn from, building a community of over a half million versus a community of 5,000 is relationships are important, right? You've got to build a foundation of trust. I've read a book. I don't know if you read it by Patrick Lynchione, the five disfunctions of a team. You used to do it in part of a leadership program I taught, but the first dysfunction of a team is the absence of trust. And I'll tell you this, Tony, there's no way some of these people that are in your group would be a part of it if they didn't trust you if they didn't trust that the information you were going to give them is going to actually

move the needle for them versus, you know, have them move backwards. Is that true? Absolutely. How important would you say it is to have a well-moderated group? Because there's plenty of groups out there. Like you said, it's this crap show of everyone promoting themselves and links and all this. And then there's ones that are a lot more structured where you either have a team of moderators that are helping you manage this large group 5,000. That's a lot of people. So would you say that having a moderator in a group like that, whether it's Facebook or another platform,

is highly valuable? So here's a funny thing about that. Yeah, my big communities, we had 70 to 75 moderators, like you said, because they had to watch all kinds of content, make sure things were following rules and regulating and all those kind of things. So it was very intensive, you know, And my group now, I have me and my wife.

You don't need a big moderating staff if you build it the right way. If you have quality people, they won't abuse the rules. And people that do abuse the rules, I don't show them any mercy. I just cut them out because they agreed to the terms when they joined. And if they don't respect those things when they joined, then I don't want them in my house. I mean, my groups are my house. It's my community, right? if somebody were to show up at your house and start trying to spam your other friends at your

dinner party or are getting drunk and throwing up on your floor, like you tell them to leave. You're like, get the heck out of my house. So you need to guard your communities just like your house. And if you have the right people, they won't abuse the rules, man. So you don't need that. So if you find that you have a lot of garbage posting and a lot of spamming and a lot of that, it's because you're a weak leader. Nobody likes to hear that, but you're a weak leader.

And the people that are contributors are watching your group. And why is this person allowing these people to remain in their group? And they're thinking you're an ineffective weak leader. And you have to make an example of those kind of, just get them out. Just go, hey, this is not tolerated. You don't have to be rude. You can say this is not tolerated in the group. You're no longer welcome here.

Love it. Thank you for sharing that context. And to have your wife involved, that's got to be pretty special, you know, having her involved in the community because she's part of it as well, I'm sure. Let's talk a little bit about the podcast. So share with the audience what the journey's been like from episode one to where are you at today, Tony, from a release episode standpoint? We just crossed the three year mark about a week ago and 215 episodes. Okay.

So from episode one to 215, I know that there is, we don't have enough time for all the lessons. I'm sure you've learned being a host myself that almost at 100 recorded. What would you say some lessons that you've picked up, though, from episode one to 21. Man, you just got to start. It's been a really fast three years. And I'll tell you, the very first episode is always the hardest. It's usually what we do is like the introduction. And I think my first episode is like 40 minutes. And that episode probably took me five hours to record because I didn't know what to say. And I just kind of just kept messing up. And I would record it and I would mess up. And I just had a lot of nerves. You know, it was really an uncomfortable position for me to be in. And I think if you go listen to it and listen to episode even 50, I'm not the same. same person, just even in that short amount of time. By episode 200, I'm definitely not the same host that I was from the first few episodes. I also think that a lot of newer podcasters get too focused on download counts. They're always worried how they compare. And I mean, you and I are probably members of these different podcast groups and people are like, hey, I've done 10 episodes.

Like, where should my downloads be? And guys, if you're doing it for the download counts, you're in it for the wrong reasons. Because podcasting is about creating a network, having a amazing conversations with people you would otherwise not meet. It's an authority builder because if you have that kind of a show and you've shown the consistency over time, you're building an amazing network of amazing humans. You're growing audience. They're getting value from both sides of the microphone. And now you're an authority builder. So if someone's got a product or service or their coach like me, and you're going to get compared by people that they, you know, the clients are looking to see who's doing what and who's moving up and who's moving down, who's stagnating,

who's disappeared, who's got momentum. And so these are really indirect. marketing type things, but the beautiful thing, it really is the people that you meet and the people that you get to change their lives by listening to the things that you create. So don't be focused on the downloads, guys, because here's the thing, those first 10 episodes that you're worried about your download counts, I think mine were probably like in a 15, 20 downloads. Like it was pretty low. It was like friends or just people that were curious, like what's he doing now, right? But going back and looking back, those same episodes, the same 10 episodes have thousands of

downloads now because over time, people discover your show. So two years into this thing, someone's going to discover your show that day. And they're going, you know what, I like this show. Let me go back and start at episode one and just go through them. And people do that. So your earliest episodes will continue to get listened to years later. So don't worry about what the number say today. I love it. Yeah. In a podcast, as long as it's active, it's evergreen, right? It's continuously going to be out there. And it's also going to continuously add value. you to people's lives. And I love what you said, you know, from, I wasn't the same person at episode 50 as I was episode one. And I want you to expand on that a little bit because I know what you mean

from an efficiency standpoint, from a conversational standpoint as a host, because I've been there. But do you think that you as a person also changed by having these amazing conversations with these amazing people? Absolutely. I think. that even one powerful episode can change you as a human. It can improve you. And think about this is that every episode, especially within a field of experts or whatever you want your show to be about, right? If you're going to create a show, make sure you create a show that enables you to have the conversations with the people you want to have conversations with. So think about this, I see some people really get too focused sometimes on their show. Like, oh, I'm a dentist and I want

to create podcasts to talk to dentists. I'm thinking, really, do you just want to talk to dentists or do you want to talk to successful people and bestselling authors and NFL stars. Like, who do you really want to have conversations with? That craft your show premise around people you want to actually meet and actually talk to, right? So that's one step. And having their perspectives and the experience of me, think about like an hour of wisdom from someone that's at the top of their game, you're not going to learn something from that? Are you kidding me? It's like a free education. You know, when I used to be in Lewis Howe's mastermind group and learned a lot of the podcasting and the business model from Lewis early on, his school of greatness is his show. And I was like, cool,

it's cool. I get that. It's like it's educational. It's school of greatness. He's big on greatness. But on a one-on-one conversation, what he said is I actually named it because it was his school, not his teaching, but he was learning. So the show itself was teaching him. It was his personal school of greatness. And I was like, whoa, that's a perspective shift. He's actually created a show to speak to all these experts and influencers to teach him. Like, that's amazing. And we get to go along for the ride. Like, that's the shift that you got to understand that you're going to gain new perspectives. You're going to have things that challenge your beliefs and you should. You don't always have to agree, but you should have things that challenge your beliefs.

And you're going to start to realize, like, a lot of extremism on both sides and things that we see going on out today is a bunch of static and it's a lot of noise and it's made to create some emotional distress from the people that just lap that up, like Mother's Milk. You know, they, go to the feeding trough, their news choice every day. And they get the feed and everything's just making them angry and they want to be all divisive. And it's like realizing once you have to start having these conversations with the people of different perspectives, you realize like, man, you guys are being manipulated on both sides. And it's kind of interesting to watch. 100%. 100%. Thank you for sharing that. And, you know, there's going to be a lot of people that listen

and that watch this and they're going to want to reach out to you. You know, I'm definitely been inspired by your story and journey. I can tell that you're not stopping anytime soon. I don't think you have it in you. You are 365 driven all the way. So where's the one best place you want everyone to go to connect with you? And there's going to be people that want to pick up the side hustle millionaire and that want to be a part of this community. So if you've got anything else to show, I'd love for you to share that. Yeah, we keep it really simple. So I'm very active on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, and I've got the best-selling book on Amazon. And it's all at the website, 365driven.com.

So I just want to make it real simple for people. So 365driven.com. 365driven.com. Tony, thank you so much for coming on the show. Keep blazing your own trail, my friend. Hey, Jordan. Thank you, man. And you've got some great energy, dude.

I just want to acknowledge you. And thank you for having this opportunity for me. Thanks, brother.