Blaze Your Own Trail - S2:E20- Build Your World Class Network with Travis Chappell

Episode Date: August 4, 2020

Travis Chappell is a podcast consultant and professional connector. He is the founder of Procast Media, a full stack podcast production company specializing in helping busy entrepreneurs produce profitable podcasts, and he is the host of two top shows, Build Your Network and World Class. In addition to being featured in Entrepreneur, NASDAQ, and ReadWrite, Travis has also been featured in Forbes as a top ten podcast that will change your life alongside of Joe Rogan, Gary Vaynerchuck, Tim Ferriss, and the like. In this episode we discuss: Travis's childhood What sports he played Where he went to College His experience as a Door to Door salesman His entrepreneurial journey Podcasting & Networking What he's up to next Connect with Travis: Website: 30daypodcastlaunch.com Enjoying the show? Join our Facebook community to interact with fans and guests of the show! https://www.facebook.com/groups/blazeyourowntrailmastermind/ Follow us on Instagram for more content! https://www.instagram.com/jordanjmendoza/ 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.

Hey, everybody. I hope you enjoy this episode with Travis Chapel. He's got so many great insights and stories from his childhood and the sports that he liked to play, as well as his experience doing cold calling as a door-to-door salesman. So I think you're really going to enjoy this. He's a really, really great guy that's built an amazing podcast consulting business and now is looking into the software space. as well. So I hope you enjoy it. Let me know what you think, and I will chat with you after the episode. Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Blaze Your Own Trail podcast. I'm your host, Jordan Mendoza, and I've got a very special guest with me today. His name is Travis Chappell. And if I slaughtered that, Travis, just let me know. But I'm going to give him just a second to tell you all who he is and what he does. Yeah, thanks for having me, Jordan. And yeah, you got the name correct. So one of the few actually, everybody guesses Chappelle because of Dave Chappelle. But yeah, it's chapel.

So yeah, just a little bit about me, I guess I grew up kind of in with an entrepreneurial itch. You know, I was the kid that brought stuff to school to sell to the other kids and started my first like, you know, quote unquote company when I was in high school still as just doing landscaping and putting in lawns for like real estate flippers. And then also, you know, mowing lawns on a weekly basis and stuff. And then in college, a buddy of mine got into Doorda Door sales. And so I started into Dodo Door sales for about six, seven years, really. So I did that for, you know, in college. And then it was my career path after college as well. And I eventually got to the point where I was just looking at what the future held in

Doradoor. And I like the industry and I have a lot of respect for the industry. And I know a lot of people that make a really good income into, in that industry, but I personally just didn't see myself continuing down that path. And so I just kind of pivoted a little bit, but didn't know what I was going to do. And that was the first time that I kind of dove into personal development and trying to figure out what, you know, what I was meant to do or what I was supposed to be doing with my life or what I wanted to do with my life even.

And that's when I first started listening to podcasts. So podcasting was one of the mediums of choice for me to consume content just because I'm not like a huge reader. and I've become more of a reader since then, but back then I definitely was not one. And podcasting was just a simple platform to consume content on. And after doing that for a while, I realized this path, like this, this trajectory seems like a pretty cool path to go down. It's starting a podcast and trying to learn the online business game. And I just figured, hey, everything's going online.

I should probably figure it out, especially as like a millennial. You know what I mean? I should probably fit into some of those stereotypes. and figure out some of this online business game if I want to be a thought leader or business leader in my generation in the future. So I just kind of dove down, started down that path, and it's been almost three years now since we launched the show. Oh, that's awesome. That's awesome. I definitely want to get into some of that journey, you know, the kind of the startup phase here in a little bit. So what part of the country did you grow up in?

Southern California. Okay. What part of SoCal? Yeah, so it's kind of the armpit of California. It's a town called Lancaster, which is sister city to Palmdale. It's the Antelope Valley is what it is, and it's basically northern L.A. County. So you go L.A. and you go north and a little bit inland, and that's where Lancaster, Palmdale is. And it's basically just the high desert of Southern California. But it's one of the crappier parts of Southern California, just because basically the only reason that people live there,

is that it's like an hour, hour and a half drive to L.A. And everything's super cheap because it's crappy. So a lot of commuters will live there. A lot of people that work in L.A. will live in Lancaster or Palmdale because you just hop on the freeway and you're two-year work. There's a lot of commuters. A lot of people that work down in like San Fernando Valley and L.A. area that live in Lancaster and Palmdale just because you can, you know, the dollar goes a lot further once you get up there.

But you're still in L.A. County. So you still have all the rules and the restrictions and you still pay all the California taxes and all the crazy stuff. So now I'm in Vegas. And the reason that I moved out was exactly all of those things. It was basically like, okay, look, we're kind of have the worst of both worlds at this point. Like we're living in a crappy area. Like the people here aren't super great. You know, like it's a lot of, it's a lot of, there's a lot of criminal activity there.

A lot of people that moved into that area that couldn't afford to live in L.A. anymore and moved into that area. And there's a big prison in West Lancaster. So a lot of people that had family members in prison moved into the valley from L.A. to be close to their family members that are in prison and things like that. So it was just like, we're living in this really rough area. And we're not even enjoying the benefits of living in California, but we're still paying all of the things to have to live in California. So it was like, okay, well, let's just either move to San Diego or like Orange County

or something like that or in L.A. and actually haven't be worth paying to live here, or let's get the hell out of California. And so that's what we ended up doing is moving out to Vegas and paying 0% state income tax, still living in the desert. So one of these days I'll get out of the desert too. But yeah, that was a positive move in the right direction for us, I think. That's awesome. And so I know you had mentioned you had that entrepreneurial spirit as a kid.

So when you were a kid, were you more into athletics or were you more into the academic side, you know, thinking about the formative years, elementary through high school. Yeah, honestly, I was pretty big into both. I, like, I always got straight A's growing up until probably high school. I got straight A's. And just, it just was something that kind of came naturally to me. And, but I also played a lot of sports. I played a ton of basketball. I think, I honestly think that I, like, at the time, if you would have asked me, I'd have been like, oh, yeah, sports, like athlete all the way, right? But now as an adult in retrospect, I think, What really it was is that I was more naturally gifted, like academic wise, and sports was just

something I enjoyed really, like just enjoyed a lot. But if you look at my like physiology, I don't think that I was built to be an athlete. You know what I mean? I just think I loved basketball and I played it all the time and I worked really hard at it. And I think that's what made me, made me better at it because I was never like the fastest or, you know, I can never jump the highest. Like I wasn't, I wasn't the natural athlete, but I really enjoyed sports and I played a lot of them growing up for sure. Okay. And so who was your basketball team growing up?

Lakers. I know where you grew up. So I figured it would probably be the Lakers. Yeah, especially in that time period, man. I'd like, those were my favorite days of watching basketball was back in 2000, 2001 with the, with the, oh no, oh no. Yes, sir. Here we go. Here we go.

Now we're going to battle. Right. Yeah. So I grew up in Portland. so, you know, hated Kobe. Like, Kobe destroyed, you remember that, I don't know if you remember that series where like we, we were so close to getting into, you know,

the finals at Western Conference Championship. And then all of a sudden, freaking Kobe and Shaq just destroyed us. So I'm not a Lakers fan. I loved that team. I loved that team. That was my, that was my team growing up. That was such a great team, man.

And like when I, one of the best ever. Back then, I hated them. Like, absolutely hated them. because I'm like Portland. That's where I grew up. That's the only professional team that we have. Right.

And the Lakers, you know, were one of those teams, besides the 90, 991, 92 bowls that absolutely crushed our dreams. Yeah, right. Several times. Several times. Repeatedly. Yeah, exactly.

Yeah. So I was definitely that growing up. But I was a bigger Shaq fan than I was a Kobe fan. And so when Shaq left and they had that big beef between them, I was like, screw the Lakers. I'm done with the Lakers. So, and then I kind of stopped watching as much.

And I was really started, I really have been more of a player fan in my whole life. So like I said, I was a Laker fan. But when Shaq left, I was like, screw the Lakers. So I kind of followed Shaq around. And then I just started watching the brawn a lot. And so like that eventually took me back to the Lakers. So now I'm still, still group for the Lakers these days. So there you go.

There you go. Yeah. And, you know, it's crazy how COVID has kind of impacted sports, right? I remember getting on my phone and, getting on Bleacher Report and it's saying no games. Yeah. Oh my gosh. What do I do with my life now? Like there's no, what do you mean?

There's no, there's no nothing. And then all of a sudden it's no like release anymore, man. There's no release from all the crazy BS of business and yeah, and hustle and all that stuff. You know, sports was such a great release just to kind of like just binge watch some highlights before you go to bed or something like now. Like now there's nothing, man. It's, it's pretty rough. It's pretty rough out there. It is rough.

Like when ESPN A The Ocho is the highlight of. ESPN. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, when they're showing like watchball highlights and like that's right. Like literally there was professional tag on ESPN the other day and I was like, this is kind of dope, but also really, you know? So yeah, we're just going to have to kind of have to sit there. I think one of the interesting, most interesting ones I saw was like these slap fights, you know, where. Oh yeah, yeah, totally.

Dudes like slapping and just knocking these guys out. Like that's, it was a little entertaining for sure. So did you have any aspirations? I know you said you weren't really gifted in sports. but did you have aspirations to at the next level maybe continue that sports? Oh, yeah, sure. I mean, what kid that plays sports doesn't? You know what I mean?

Like I was very much, like if you, my parents have this little book thing that every year we would update. So it would say like favorite food, you know, how tall are you? How like how much do you weigh? Like all of those things. So it kept track every single year of my elementary school growing up. And one of the sections was, what do you want to be when you grow up? And almost on every one of them in elementary school was like NBA player, NBA player.

NBA player. Yeah, not realizing that I was a chubby white kid from, you know, nowhere. But, but I, I always wanted to be, you know, professional basketball player when I was when I was a little kid, that's for sure. Yeah. And I'd love to get your take on, you know, how, how team sports kind of, you know, shaped being able to manage teams down the road or working with, with people individually. Can you share with the audience kind of some of those, like, things that you. You know, you learned playing sports that have really translated to the rest of your life? Yeah, sure. I think one of the big things is competitiveness.

And it seems every person that I talk to that is successful is a competitor in multiple ways. And it's somebody that places a value on striving to be the best. Not even for any sort of monetary gain sometimes. A lot of times is just because that pursuit in and of itself. is enough to motivate them to go work. And that's a mentality that very much interests me, right? Somebody, somebody like a LeBron James who doesn't need to continue working

on his basketball game. He doesn't. He's in year 17 this year. You know what I mean? He does not have to continue to work on his basketball. He's already solidified himself as one of the greatest to ever play the game, regardless of who you think that the goat is, right? He's definitely top five, top three for sure, regardless of who you're talking to.

and he has made all the money he could ever hope to make. He's one of the most famous people in the world. And yet he still continues to improve year after year after year. And that is the attitude of a competitor. And that to me is different than just somebody who wants to make a quick buck because he could have stopped working hard five years ago. And probably nobody would have even faulted him. Like everybody I hear talk about him is talking about how, you know,

he's this is year 17 how is he better in year 17 that he was in year 10 but he is because he's constantly working on his game like it's not about it's it's about it's about that will that drive to win and to push and to like continue improving that to me is a is a a big a big piece of the sports world that I think translates directly into a lot of other different paths and I think that I think that if you allow if you allow this cancel culture of participation trophies to prevent you from having that type of attitude when you're growing up when you're a kid. I think that was really going to be detrimental to people when they grow up and get into the real world and realize that participation pro trophies don't exist.

That it's like you get paid for what you earn. You get dividends on the things that you work for. It's not just like, hey, you showed up. Good job. Here's a trophy here. Here's a ribbon. So I think that There's a lot of things that the team sports helped me with in number one being competitiveness, but also, you know, working with other people, winning and losing as a team, taking responsibility for other people's mistakes. Like if it's their mistake, it's also my mistake because I'm the teammate and I happen to be one of the team captains. So it was even more so that way for me to be leading a team of people together and having to lead from the front and not leading and not just shouting orders from the back.

Like, hey, guys, let's push ourselves. and then being the one at the front of the sprint pack. You know what I mean? Like always trying to help continue to push everybody. Like that whole mentality, man, I think is just nothing but good for you when you get out into the real world. I think, you know, I love individual sports too. You know, I like to play golf and I like to watch tennis.

I'm not a big tennis player, but I like to watch tennis. And I think there's a lot of lessons that you can take away in those solo sports as well. But I also think that you're missing out on a lot of things when you're only playing solo sports and not playing any team sports because I think that there's a huge advantage and lessons to be learned by learning to get along with other people who maybe you disagree with sometimes. And like working as a unit and as a team, there's so many different things to take away from that. I love it, man. And I'm glad you brought up the participation trophy thing because, I mean, it's a disservice.

You know, my wife and I have four kids, you know, our oldest is a freshman, just finished his freshman year. and he played high school football his freshman year. And I remember they didn't win a single game. And I remember after every game they lost, I said, you guys should have. You didn't play as a team. When he played safety and like the linebackers and the corners kept missing everything, so my son's literally running sideline to sideline having to,

he would average six and a half tackles. I was like, listen, because you're doing that, it's great that your stats are up, but like these other kids aren't playing as a team. They're letting people run through them. And so you're having to work extra hard. And he would always get bent out of shape when he would get beat on a play. And he would carry that with him three plays later.

And I remember just telling him like, listen, you've got to have amnesia. You've got to forget about that because if you bring that to the next play, that's not only affecting you. That's affecting the rest of your team. Oh, yeah. So true, man. There's so many attitude lessons that I had to learn for sure and that I was very slow to learn because I got down on myself really easily.

if I missed a free throw in a, you know, tight end of the game situation or, you know, like, passed the ball and didn't think about where I was passing and someone just stole it. Like there was things like that that would happen. They were just like, what did you just do? And you get so down on yourself, frustrated with yourself. But then you start realizing that that is zero productivity to that. And if you allow your mind to take over at that point, then you're done for the rest of the game. You know what I mean?

And sometimes done for the rest of the series. if you're playing multiple games or like a tournament or something like that. So yeah, man, there's so many, there's countless, countless lessons, I think, to take away, to take away from that. You get those, those feelings, those similar feelings, I think when you're, for me anyway, I get a lot of those similar feelings when I'm in business situations. And I think that if you've learned how to deal with them prior, you can handle those situations a lot better and with more confidence because it's a familiar feeling.

It's a familiar, like you have familiar, familiarity with like the fact that I just messed up and people are looking at me and everybody's like the pressure is on you know what I mean like I've felt this before so and I've learned to to manage that better so how do I now at this point of my life you know keep moving forward and take those lessons and implement them as an adult with this other situation so I think you know countless lessons there awesome and so let's talk about after high school so you went to school where did you go to school for college? Yep. Yeah, I went to West Coast Baptist College. So I grew up on a 40-acre campus, basically is where I grew up. I literally graduated kindergarten on the same campus that I graduated

college on and high school and eighth grade. So literally my entire life was lived there. And so that college on the same campus that the school was on, as well as the church that I went to was kind of like the, like in high school, we didn't really have career counselors or anything like that, telling us to, you know, hey, if you want to go to such and such school for this degree, then you're probably going to have to get these grades and get this score on the SATs. Like, we didn't have any of that. It was just basically, hey, are you going to go into ministry? You're not going to go to ministry.

If you're going to go into ministry, here's an application to West Coast. If you are not going to go to ministry, then, like, do whatever you want. And it was just like, okay, so most of my class ended up at West Coast or they ended up at the local community college. So I was one of the ones that ended up at West Coast. So the intentions were to go into the ministry at that point? Correct. And if so, was it like youth?

Like, you know, what kind of lane were you thinking that you wanted to go down? Youth ministry at first for sure. I figured maybe one day it would lead to being a pastor or something of a church. But at first it was youth ministry for sure. And then I figured, yeah, just like one day would eventually lead into some sort of pastoral role. But yeah, I ended up getting my degree there. I've double majored in Bible and church ministries. So that's awesome.

And so, you know, was it while you were going, you got that job with the door-to-door company? And, you know, and so did, you know, you obviously finished school, you double majored, but, you know, when was it, when was there a time or that realization where you said, you know what? I don't know if this is the path that I want to go down. Yeah, this is why I'm so huge on taking action in the direction that you think you want to go in, because. most of the time action will tell you whether or not you really want to go down that path. And so I say that just because that's what it did for me. I got that job knocking doors in college. And it just turned me on to the idea of growth and leadership in a capacity where I was able to make good money. And like I said, that was always something that was important to me. I think just

kind of deep down, like I said, I think it was kind of built into me. Like I was bringing little plastic bugs to sell to school to other kids when I was in fourth grade, you know what I mean, and mowing lawns on the weekends as a senior in high school instead of doing whatever else I could have been doing at the time. And so it was just always something that I think that was important to me. And so when I jumped into the door to door sales, I just started, I just kind of took off with him. And I think I had a natural inclination toward being better at it naturally than most people. and then I just really, really worked at it after I got into it and started, you know, I wasn't making great money, but in college as a 19, 20 year old, I was pulling in, you know, like 1,500 bucks a week

or something like that and 20 hours of work. And at the time, that was amazing. I didn't really have any bills. I didn't ever make any type of money like that before. And to be knocking on six figures in my first year of door to door was just like, well, wow, this is, this seems kind of cool. And when I really realized it was my junior year of college, I was interning at a church every weekend. So every weekend, a buddy of mine and I, we would drive down to Newport Beach from Lancaster and we would intern at a church every weekend for my entire junior year. And what I started to realize was happening was I, so my second semester of my junior year is when I started in door to door. And I started realizing that I, on the weekends, was doing the thing that I was supposed to be doing for the rest of

my life, but I was looking forward to getting back to school on Monday so that I could do the thing that I was supposed to be done doing within the next six months after I graduated. And so I started to have like a disconnect in my head and started to have the conversation in my head of like, okay, am I missing something here? And initially I just wrote it off because, you know, they prepare you for those things when you're growing up in a culture like that. And so I initially just told myself, oh, you know, it's Satan. It's the devil.

He's tempting you because, you know, he doesn't want you to reach your potential for God or whatever. So you just have to get closer to God and he'll make you enjoy this this ministry thing. And I just never did. I still like every single weekend was like, man, why am I here? I wish I was just back home. I wish I was running my team. I wish I was doing this. And so that was the first time that I really started thinking about the fact that this might not be the path that I'm supposed to be going down, which was a crazy feeling when you're age 21 and you're about to graduate college. and I was engaged. I got engaged that summer.

So this summer after my junior year, I got engaged. But in a serious relationship at the time. And I was just like, man, I don't think I'm going down the right path. Man, I don't think that I'm supposed to be doing this anymore. And I had committed, like quote unquote, committed to ministry when I was 12 years old. So literally since I was, you know, a teenager and a pre-adult, you know what I mean? I was thinking that that was the path that I was going to be going down. So to actually get into that path and then be like, I don't like this at all was a really

scary feeling. You know what I mean? I was just like, what am I supposed to do that? I have no idea what I'm supposed to do. Yeah, I think that that's that's key, though. I mean, that aha moment, you know, that self-awareness, right? That's, it's huge when you get that like, you know what? I don't know if this is, I don't know if this is what I'm supposed to be doing.

So I really want to have you share with the audience. and like who was your support system back then? Because, you know, I know people that have grown up in ministry and did go down that path. And I've known people like you that have kind of gone the other way. And I know how sometimes, you know, a lot of these things can be kind of pushed on you. So I would love to find out like, how were your parents in this situation or other family or friends? Were they supportive of you going in a different direction or how long did it take for them to maybe, you know, get there? So at first it was really just me. Oh, it was a pretty lonely time in my life just because I remember not feeling like I could talk to anybody about it. I've, the couple of people that I mentioned it to immediately shut it down. We're like, no, you're supposed to be in a ministry. You're supposed to be in the ministry. You know, going to ministry. And so I just kind of just kind of internalized it and bottled it up a little bit. And then I eventually got up the courage to tell my parents. And I honestly, I'm not, I don't remember 100% exactly what they're like. I don't remember the time when I told them. I don't remember like,

exact moment where I told them. But I remember that they were supportive, I think maybe a little disappointed just because that was what I was telling everybody I was going to do for the past, you know, 10 years. Everybody always asked you when you're doing by the time when you're like 14, 15, 16, 17, basically the only question that any adult asks you is what are you going to be doing when you graduate. You know what I mean? So that was always my answer. That was always what I was going to be doing. And I think that they were, you know, hopeful that that was the path that I was going to go down. But when I told them that I was thinking about not doing that, I think there's a little bit of a disappointment there, but mostly support. I don't have anything bad to say about my

parents about the way they handled that situation. They, I think, you know, mostly were just like, hey, if that's really what you feel like you should be doing, then, you know, that's the decision that you have to make. And we can't make that decision for you. It has to be, you know, whatever you decide. And but, but the really the biggest resistance came from the friends that I had in college and from the authority figures that were on the campus. And so something that's difficult for me to explain to people sometimes is how much of a hold of those authority figures had on me and on everybody that went there, especially the ones that grew up there.

Because the college was like a thousand members when I was going to the college. And probably 50 of us were kids that had grown up on the campus as well. The rest of them were out of state, out of country, just sending kids, you know, this is their first time being at this campus was when they were fully. grown adult. So the relationship that I had with all the staff and faculty at that campus was a little bit different because they had watched me, you know, a lot of them, most of them, I was there longer

than they were there. And so they had kind of watched me grow up. And so they had a big hold. I respected them a lot and that I respected their opinion a lot. And I wanted them all to be proud of me and to, you know, say good things about me. And so that was a really big hold that I feel like a lot of them had on my on my life and I think that they they really knew that and understood that as well and so that those that was really the biggest resistance for me is anytime I'd bring it up with somebody like that it was like an immediate like no no no no like you're supposed to be doing this other thing remember you know that's what you agreed to when you were 12 so you know so this is the path that you got to keep going down and so I initially was just like well this kind of sucks I've

I've been wrestling with this decision for so long and these people just it just didn't seem like anybody cared what I was feeling. It was the thing like I never got any validation for the things that I was feeling. I never got any, you know, it's okay to feel that way. I never got any of that. It was just kind of like, oh, well, you know, maybe you should just stop thinking about money and going to ministry and was just kind of like a kind of, you know, slap in the face to me at the time because I was wrestling with the decisions so much. And so during that time, it wasn't super easy to break away from that. But what ended up happening is I went to Fresno. I moved up to Fresno. I found one guy, a pastor up in Fresno who happened to be my junior high youth pastor in Lancaster.

So he had moved away from Lancaster, taken over his dad's church in Fresno and kind of offered me the ability to go up there and do whatever I wanted in whatever capacity with their church. So he was like, look, man, we would love to have you and your wife come up to Fresno and be a part of our church in whatever capacity. He was like, we have a full-time job available, we have a part-time job available, or you can just come, work wherever you want, just be a layman in the church. We just think that you guys would be an awesome fit for our culture, and we'd love to have you. It was the first time anybody in a position of that kind of authority ever gave me the option to do any of thing like that, to do, ever gave me the option to choose what I actually wanted to do.

And so, so that's what we did. We moved at Fresno. And I just started telling everybody when they would ask me where I was going because their biggest thing at that college is like, are you placed in ministry? Are you placed in ministry? Because they want to be able to have big numbers of the people that they placed in ministry. And so whenever anybody would ask me, I would just say, oh, yeah, part time up in Fresno. I'm working at a church up in Fresno.

I'm working at a church up in Fresno. And as soon as I got to Fresno, it took me like five weeks to realize that I don't want to be a ministry at all. I don't want to do anything part-time. I don't want to do anything full-time. I just want to go for this business stuff. But, yeah, once I was able to be able to break away from the campus that I had grown up on and like from the hold of the different authority figures that I had there, it became a lot easier for me to actually get to know me a little bit. And I think that's one thing that young adults don't do enough.

they take the time to get to know themselves because they just jump into whatever everybody else wants for them because that's what you're taught growing up and you never take the time to actually figure out who you are. And you can't do it when you're a teenager because you don't know who you are. You're not even a formed person yet. Like your frontal lobe isn't even finished, you know, forming in your brain. So you can't start asking yourself, who am I when you're 15 because you don't know who you are yet. But I think that, you know, every young adult should be asking themselves that question and should be evaluating if they're doing what they do because they want to be doing it. if they're doing what they're doing because their parents said it was what they're supposed to do. Or society and culture says that this is the path that you have to go down in order to be successful. And I think there's a lot of kids that are trapped, feel trapped doing what they shouldn't be doing just because of those things. And honestly, I think it's a travesty. I think that, you know, we've created this culture where we've all decided what success means,

you know, and you're not allowed to hold a different opinion. And if you hold a different opinion, you're wrong and you're not successful. You know what I mean? it's just like this totally weird, crazy cultural thing that we have that we have now. But yeah, so to answer your question, it took me a long time to move over to where I felt like I could actually make a decision that would go against what everybody else wanted for me. Oh, listen, and that makes complete sense. I mean, you're literally from diapers to college.

You're around these people, right? Like, they know, they know you better than anybody. Yeah, I mean. Monday through Friday school, Saturday, Solvending, and Sunday church. and we had Sunday morning church and Sunday night church and we had Wednesday night church. And then like five times a year we'd have conferences where it would be like Sunday morning, Sunday night, Monday night, Tuesday night and Wednesday night church. And in school we had chapel twice a week and Bible class every day.

So it was very much a big mixture of like my school authority, my church authority, like pastor, youth pastor, you know, school authority, teachers, principal, like everybody all knew knew each other and everybody was trying to push you down the same path. It was a very unique, unique experience of being, like being raised that way. And I never realized, obviously when you're a kid, you don't realize what's odd. You know what I mean? Like you just think whatever you are is normal because that's the only version of life that you know. But now as an adult looking back, I'm like, man, it's pretty weird stuff that I was raised in.

But, you know, it's all good. Awesome. Well, so I want you to give the audience some context because, you know, I don't know how many of your listeners or former door-to-door salesman like we are, right? But a lot of people don't get like how hard it actually is at the beginning, right? And then how easy it gets over time. So I would love for you to share, you know, what was that, how was it for the first 10 doors you knocked on versus the last 10?

Yeah. Yeah. So just zero confidence to a lot of confidence is really the only way to say that. When I first started, it was just kind of like, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, didn't really have the fear of talking to somebody at a door. And honestly, a lot of that is because of the way I grew up. I was, you know, we did Saturday Soloning, which is basically, which is basically door to door sales. We just go knock on doors and try to get people to come to church. So I didn't really have a fear of, of like knocking on doors and talking to strangers. But I did have the

anxiety of, man, I hope I'm good at this. You know what I mean? I had that, I had that little bit of fear there. So, and usually a lack of, a lack of confidence is just a lack of knowledge or experience because you've, you don't know what you're doing. You've never done it before. You don't have the knowledge to to take yourself from not knowing to knowing. And so you're just kind of playing the guessing game. And there's a lot of just no confidence there. So what I, what I tell people now is, is like, I don't know how many doors it would take me to get a sale back then, but probably a good amount. 50 to 75, you know, maybe even 100 doors to get one sale. But towards the end of my daughter door career, it was just driving through a neighborhood, picking a house that I thought was

probably most likely to set up an appointment or buy my product or service and then doing that for two or three hours and setting up a few appointments and then closing a deal. You know what I mean? And like it was five to ten doors before I would get a sale towards the end. And it was just simply because of that. It was it was the fact that I had knocked on enough doors to understand like what neighborhoods to go choose, what houses to knock. And then and then how to obviously pitch and close. So like you could just get so much better at each thing along the way.

And by the time that I was done, you know, I felt like I felt pretty confident that, you know, when I was, when I, when I, when I, when I, when I first started doing alarms, because alarms is really where I felt like I cut my teeth in door to door. When I, before I was doing, when I was doing, when I was doing solar, we didn't do the sale part. We did only the appointment setting part. And so I, when I, when I started in alarms, I felt like that was really where I cut my teeth. And even solar, I knew that the alarm guys were like the closers of the door to door crews, like alarm guys and pest control. I knew were just like the hardcore guys that were just knock and slam in deals. So I, I, when I started in alarms, I had this similar skepticism.

to my ability to make it happen as when I started in solar. And turns out I could. And it was just a matter of learning something new and becoming confident in that new thing, just like it was with solar. And so I just kind of started knocking on doors with alarms. And I remember just having zero confidence at first. And I remember thinking when the owner of the company was putting me in a car to go knock for the day, he was like, you guys will sell a deal today for sure.

So I got, and it's like, there's for sure going to be a deal sold. And I was like, how do you have that confidence in my mind at the time I was super skeptical of And I was like, I don't know if that's possible. Like you can't, you can't always come away with a deal, right? And by the time that I was done there, I felt a very similar confidence. Whenever I was training a new guy for my team, like somebody that I recruited and trained personally and like brought out on the doors with me, it was like, we're going to get a deal today for sure.

Like one of us will get a deal. This other guy, like this other guy in the car, he's going to get a deal. I'm going to write a deal. I'm going to write a deal. And I just felt super confident about that because I had been through and I experienced it. Like I experienced driving around in a neighborhood. and it would be like the end of the day and it was maybe like a bad day knocking and none of us sold a deal and then you know the owner of the company one of my really first one of my first mentors really he would

he would have us all jump back in the car and then if none of us had deals he'd be like all right let's do some cherry picking and for like the last hour when we were on doors we would just drive around a neighborhood find a house that seemed like it was probably a good deal and then somebody would get out and go knock it and that would usually almost always work like it was crazy that that we could that that that he was able to figure it out. And at first I was like, it's crazy. How do you like, how do you pick the house? How do you know which ones? You know? And then by the time I got to the end of my, my time there, I was doing the same exact stuff. And it's just as simple as staying consistent when it doesn't feel like you're getting results. And that consistency over a long time helps to build up

your confidence. If you can't remain consistent before you get confident, then you're never going to, they're never going to be confident because confidence only comes from being consistent and learning more and doing it again and again and getting used to that feeling of like being uncomfortable, right? And that's what that's what the consistency does. A consistency will help breed that confidence in you, whatever the task is, but especially in door to door. Absolutely, man. I love what you said about your mentor because essentially what he was doing is he was showing you what success looked like, right because success leaves clues right because you could easily just been like all right we're done for the day let's just let's bail but he's like, no, let's go and we're going to, we're going to get this done.

Yeah. And you're like, okay, let's go get it. You know, you don't know any better. And because he had done it so many times that he was like, no, this is how it works. Like we're not like hoping that we get a deal now. Like we've done this so many times. Like it's just a matter of, hey, there's a door. Like go get that deal real quick.

You know what I mean? And it was just like, it was so cool to get out of the car and be like, all right, man, whatever you say and then go knock on the door and then 30 minutes later walk out and sign contract to be like, I don't know how you did it. but you know what I mean? I mean, I know that I'm the one to close the deal or whatever, but like I don't know how you pick this house, you know, random. It seemed random at the time,

but obviously after I got to know what was what was up, I was able to start doing the same thing. And that's why I say I started closing deals within five or ten doors just because we would go through and be like, all right, that's a deal. That's a deal. That's a deal. You know what I mean?

So it was, it was just a cool, it was a cool way to like learn how to start making money to cut my teeth in sales. And at the end of that year is when I realized I didn't want to be doing it for the rest of my life because I just realized that there was only there was only so much leverage that you can get as a door to door salesperson unless you're willing to build a giant door to door organization, which wasn't really something that I like was really wanted to do. And so that's when I kind of pivoted and moved in a different direction. Okay. So let's let's talk about that pivot a little bit.

I know you had mentioned earlier that, you know, you had started consuming podcast, right? you were diving into the personal development side, right, investing into you. So can you remember, you know, maybe the first couple shows you listened to that really got the wheels turning and really shifted your perspective and into thinking, one, like, hey, maybe I could start my own show, but two, maybe I could actually make it even bigger than just a show. Yeah, sure. So the first couple of shows that I listened to were entrepreneurs on fire with John Lee Dumas. bigger pockets with Brandon Turner, Tim Ferriss show.

And I think I started listening to Lewis Howes back there as well, School of Greatness. And then Jordan Harbinger. And at the time was Art of Charm now. It's a Jordan Harbinger show. And those were kind of some of the first shows that I started listening to. And basically what happened, John Lee Dumas had a podcast course, a free podcast course, which he still does. You can go take it.

Anybody can go take it. It was totally free. And it just kind of walks you through, start to finish, how to go from not having a podcast, to having a podcast. And after I went through that course was basically when I was like, I think I could do this. I think, you know,

I wasn't, I wasn't creating along with the course. I didn't actually finish the podcast when the course was finished or whatever, but I at least looked behind, like pulled back the curtain and looked behind the scenes. It was like, I think, I think this would be cool.

I think this would be something that would be fun for me. Awesome. And so once you launched the show, like what was your strategy, right? Because I think a lot, a lot goes into, you know, as a podcast. So there's a lot goes into it, especially when you're a solo person and you're

doing the content, the editing, the marketing, the social, all those aspects. So did you have a strategy in mind when you launch? Like, did you start telling people about the show before you even published that first episode? How did that whole process look for you? Yeah. So when I started, I had one thing that I wrote up on my whiteboard in my office, which was our spare bedroom. and that one thing was a quote from Steve Martin and it said, be so good, they can't ignore you. And that quote just made a lot of sense to me.

It makes it super simple. All you have to do is get really good. And if you get really good, then people can't ignore you for much longer. And so that was kind of my goal from the beginning. But at first I was like, I'm not good at this. This is a brand new field.

I don't know how to podcast. I don't know how to talk into a microphone. I don't know how to interview people. I don't know how to share stuff. I don't know how to get people to listen. I didn't know anything about it. So I was like, I either I'm going to take 10 years to figure it out myself or one way that I know that I can create quality content right off the bat is by going and finding the best quality

guests that I can find and interviewing those guests. And if I can bring on good enough quality guests, that it will bring enough clout and credibility and authority into my show. And so that's kind of what kind of the path that I started to head down was just like, how do I continue to get better and better guests? That was a strategy for me. It wasn't. as much worried about how many people are going to listen at first, how many people are going to do this or that? It was just like, how can I make my show as quality as possible? How can I make my content as helpful as possible? And I think that that was a really big advantage for me on. Honestly, man, I think a lot of people, I think too many people start their show thinking about themselves. How do I get

listeners? How do I do this? It's all about I. It's all about me. It's all about what I can get from it. Whereas if you start your show thinking about how can I give maximum value to anybody that's willing to listen to my show. 70% of podcasts are discovered through somebody else telling somebody else about it. So if you don't have a sticky enough show where the content is actually really good, then it doesn't matter. None of the other stuff matters. You can turn on marketing dollars tomorrow and it would just be like turning on a hose and pouring water into a bucket that has a bunch of holes in the bottom. As soon as you turn off the faucet, all the water is going to drip out. And that's the same thing's going to happen with your show if you don't focus on content and quality stuff first rather than focusing

on marketing. Everybody wants to focus on marketing. Well, we'll just push the show out, push the show out. And it's just like, well, first of all, you've never done this before. So you kind of suck. You know what I mean? Like you don't sound like you know what you're talking about when you get onto a microphone. You sound stale. Your vocal inflection is weird. Everything about what your show is right now is not quality. And that's okay. That's okay. Not only is it okay. It's actually totally expected because you've never done this before. So let's start working on you. Let's start working on putting out really quality content,

which is another reason that when I started to do, that when I started my show was doing three interviews a week because I wanted to bypass, I wanted to speed up my learning process. And I knew doing one interview a week was way different than doing three interviews a week. So I started doing three interviews a week. And all of a sudden, my communication ability

started to get a little bit better. My interviewing ability started to get significantly better. When I started, I sucked, man. I was bad at interviewing. And I really started to focus on how I can make that part of my show better. And then it was about getting better quality guests. And when you start combining all of those things, when I'm a better communicator and I'm a better interviewer and I start bringing on high quality guests, the content starts to really get good.

And the people that were listening to it started sharing it with other people. And I think that if you don't have a show that's shareable, you don't have a show that's marketable. Because even if you market the show, nobody shares it. But you better have deep pockets, I guess is what I'm saying. If you're just going to pay to market the shows only, you better have deep pockets because that's going to be a long, long, you know, trip to getting enough people to pay attention to what you're doing. So I'm just a huge believer in focusing on content and what people can get from you, not what you can get from people, focusing on how I can help people in this specific area, this field. What's the maximum amount of value that I could bring to these people? That's where I think your focus should be when you're first getting started.

and on improving and improving yourself as well. Yeah, no, I love that, man, because that's, that's a reason why I created the show was for value,

right? Like, how can I add value to the masses? And it is, it's getting people on and sharing their journey, right? Because, listen, whether you want to go into door to door sales, people are going to get nuggets today.

Whether you want to start a podcast, people are going to get nuggets today, right? They're going to learn about, like, how sports have helped, right? So I think when you do it from that perspective,

and people get to be a fly on the wall and these conversations with people that have that started from here and have gotten to here. Like to me, that's a good content, right? That's what it's all about. It's those experiences and learning from people's mistakes and lessons so that you don't repeat them. Yep. So true. And you're doing a killer job, bro.

Appreciate it, man. And so what did the, you know, year one, let's talk about year one, right? You launched your show. You're doing three a week. You're getting better, right? Things are starting to move, you know, looking. back from like day one to year one, how much of that do you think kind of shifted and changed your life and really elevated you to get to where you are now? Yeah, year one was crickets for me,

man. Crickets. Like I was putting so much work into my show. I was getting really high quality guests on and I still, it was crickets. And a lot of people get discouraged at that point. And even yesterday I posted something in a couple of podcasting Facebook groups that I'm in and And I, you know, the overwhelming, there was an overwhelming response of negativity talking about like, well, getting good guests on your show doesn't necessarily mean that you're going to get downloads. And I got this person on and it never did anything and they didn't share it. And it's all these kind of excuses of why they're not where they want to be yet. And instead of just remaining consistent and staying on the course. And it was difficult to be honest with you.

Like around month 10, I was like, I'm kind of burning out on this. I thought I was going to enjoy the hell out of this. And I, you know, I'm putting out three episodes a week and just there doesn't seem to be much coming from it at this point. And that sucks. But probably around month 14 or 15, things started to pick up a lot more and just kind of kept going along that same trajectory after that. So the year one for me was just a big test. There was a big testing year for me to see, I guess, how committed I was to it. But at the very beginning, that's why whenever I coach somebody, because I'm a podcast coach and consultant now and whatever I coach people, I tell them, I tell them that you have to commit at

some point. You have to write down a commitment to yourself of how long you're willing to do this without ever having a listener or ever making a dime. What's that length of time that you're willing to do this show? And that's why I always recommend podcasting about something that matters to you because if it doesn't matter to you, when those crickets are coming in at month seven, it's probably not going to be enough to keep you around. So I tried to make it around something that I was interested in learning about, but at the very, but at the very least, I committed to two years when I started. So I committed to 24 months of releasing consistent content at three a week for two full years. So I stopped looking at my numbers. They were discouraging to me.

I stopped looking at them. And I only focused on having conversations with people because I was like, my numbers are irrelevant at this point because I already committed to two years. You know what I mean? So 24 months of three a week and then after that I was going to reevaluate. So it was like, okay, if I keep doing this and then I look at my numbers at month 24 and I still haven't made much money and I still haven't gotten a ton of downloads and I still haven't gotten where I want to be, then maybe at that point, okay, let's take a look at this and maybe make a pivot. But luckily I didn't have to get to that point because it started really taking off for me around month 15, month 16. And then in, let's see, September or October of 2018 is when I went full time as a podcaster. So like a year, a year and two months, like month 15 or so is when I went full time as a podcaster. So from month, you know, 11 to month 14, it really started to have an upward, you know, trajectory.

I love it, my friend. Yeah. And, you know, I, when I launched my, I launched mine January 1st. It was one of those things. And it's kind of funny because I actually started a podcast in May. And I think I released two episodes and nobody's heard them, you know. Yeah. Right.

And I remember like thinking about back then, like, why didn't my, why didn't I keep going with my show? Well, like the name of the show I wasn't committed to and it was just me talking. And I was like, you know, I wasn't bought in. But I set a goal in November. I said, I want to launch a show on January 1st. I know I wanted to add value. I know the type of people that I want to have on. And right.

And so when I got very clear on why I wanted to do it, like you said, like you got to commit to this, then it actually, you know, things started to happen. Like I booked my first couple guests and then I committed to a schedule. And then, you know, I've been prospecting to try to get people. And then now, like five months in, I have people that ask me to come on. You know, so it's funny how kind of the tables start to turn once you start with that action, because action is going to create momentum. And momentum creates that consistency.

And the consistency is how you get the results, right? Exactly. So it's it's so cool to really just see the ebbs and flows of the journey, but I think you said something really great. Like be committed. Set a date, set a time that you're willing to have zero results, you know, because that, that I think is huge, but you're right about the vanity metrics because, I mean, let's face it, we're all human.

We get caught up in, I remember I posted my first LinkedIn video 13 months ago. I had like three views and they were all me, you know? And I remember, like, I'm like, I'm not going to create. like no one's watching this. Why am I going to start talking? And then all of a sudden, 13 months later, went from 7,000 to 50,000 followers on the platform. And it's like, holy crap.

Like, how did that happen? But it goes back to your first point. It's about action. Like if you actually want to get things done, you've got to put in the reps, right? Like, if you're not actually working, you're not going to get the results that you want. Yeah.

And a lot of people let other people's opinion stop them, which is a real shame. because they know they know that they've been judging other people for doing the same thing. You know what I mean? And I know that there's a lot of people doing the same thing when I started doing stuff like this because at the beginning you don't have anybody. You don't have any followers. You don't have any listeners.

You don't have any people. Like, you know, my first few Facebook posts that were not about anything religious or spiritual and were about business, they would get next to no likes and zero comments, you know. And I knew that there are a bunch of people that wouldn't like them just because it was business and not a Bible verse or something. And like literally had a couple people of times. me that that's why they don't like my stuff. And it was just, it was just interesting to, to start there because I know now looking back that that's exactly the thought process that

they have going into it. And, but like, you have to start somewhere, you know, because people always, people make fun of you every step along the way and be like, you only have X amount of likes or X amount of followers. Like, you call yourself this and like, who are you to give advice? And it's just like, look, everybody started somewhere, man. Everybody started somewhere. All the big people, the Gary Vaynerchucks, like he started with 70, views on a wine library YouTube video. You know what I mean? And that's that consistent action when nobody was paying attention is what allowed is what enabled him to be Gary Vee today. And same with every single other content creator on the planet, except for maybe a few people that got

really lucky right up front because of a connection they had or something like that. But barring those, all the other ones are the same exact way. They all started somewhere. And if you're not willing to put yourself out there to to have the times where you only get three lights. on something or three views on something or three listens on something. If you're not willing to do that, then you're never going to have the big audience. You know, you can't skip that step. People want to skip that step all the time. Like skip that step and go straight. Even people that have a bunch of money, a lot of times can't even pay to get the type of exposure that they want. You know, a lot of business people will try to jump into the, you know, quote unquote, influencer space or the content

creation space after they have an exit or after they make a good amount of money and they just start dumping money into trying to build their brand. And not even that works a lot of the times because they aren't a good content creator yet because they haven't put them the reps to do like you can't skip that process. You have to be doing that process. You know what I mean? And the problem is if you start if you're if you're going through that process of I suck, I suck, I suck, I suck.

And everybody's paying attention to you because you already have fame or notoriety a different thing, then it's probably going to be more difficult for you to make it through to the other side because people have this expectation of you like, man, you've sold your company for $5 million, but your podcast sucks. You know what I mean? Like people are going to have that type of an expectation on you. So I just don't think that you can skip that process of putting in the reps and trying to get better at your craft and getting better at what you do. And it's something that you really want to accomplish in your life. And I think that the work is 100% worth it. Absolutely agree with that. And so where are you at now? Are you at year four? You're

five where we at year uh this will be three years in august okay three years in august so early congrats almost there yeah three years i mean you know you think about it that that flies by like that you know yeah it definitely 20 2017 like that was that was just around like yesterday right right um but i'm sure it's felt felt longer right yeah it's funny it's both man 15 months you know yeah it's both it feels like it's been a long time but it also like well yeah it feels like it's been a long time, but it's not a long time. You know, I guess is, you know, like three years is really not that long, but it's a long time for me. You know what I mean? Like prior to this, I had never done anything for that long. I did door door sales for a long time, but I, I hopped around to different industries

and different companies, different opportunities. I was never like doing one thing for as long as I've been this. So that's why it feels, feels like it's been a long time. But yeah, yeah, it really, It really hasn't, you know, so August will be, August will be three years and like four, we should be coming up on like 450 episodes by that point. Amazing. Just build your network. And that's my first show, my second show is world class. And we're at like 23 episodes or 20 episodes or something on that one.

So yeah, so like 450 plus episodes and three years and just, just a lot of, a lot of work and a lot of fun. Perfect. Well, I definitely want to give the audience some insights into what you're doing now, the consulting and all of that. But one more question. So at what point? Because I'm, I think I've released 30 episodes, I think, you know, in the last five months, I've had 50 recorded or so. So what point was it when you felt super confident, right? When, you know, when you got it and you were like, you know what, I think I don't need to prep as much for this interview because I feel like I've got the flow down. You know, when was that point to where you got there? Yeah, I would say

probably pretty close to where you are, like 50 to 60 episodes in, 50, 60 interviews in, you know, so if you're doing interviews and solo shows, it'd be the interviews portion of that. But yeah, probably 50 to 60 interviews in is when I started feeling a little bit more confident in that. And, but it wasn't until like a couple hundred episodes in where I felt like it was something that was a real skill set that I had worked to really craft. So now at this point, it's, it's like question asking is something that I can ask. to my skill sets on my resume, you know what I mean? And because it helps in so many other ways, not just in an interview, but networking situations when you're getting to know new people,

just the ability to be genuinely interested in somebody else and ask them insightful questions about themselves, I think is a really, really underrated skill set to have. And I'm grateful to podcasting for turning me on to that skill set and for helping me get better at it because I sucked before. We all suck at the beginning, my friend. You know, you just got to suck it up and keep pushing through. Own it.

That's exactly it. Yeah. On the suck. All right. So let's give the audience a little bit about, you know, what you're doing today. Of course, you've got two shows. You're also doing, you know, podcast coaching, podcast consulting. So can you give the audience some context into what that looks like?

And then we definitely want to make sure people know where to find you, how to find you as well. Sure. So Build Your Network is my longstanding show. It's all about networking, relationships, communication. And then my new show is called World Class, where I reverse engineer the habits and mindset and actions of people who are world-class performers in any field. So it's more in the education category than it is the business category.

There are some business people for sure. Actually, at this point, mostly business people, but not all business people. And the only reason that it's mostly business people is because COVID's prevented me from being able to get more interviews on the, the books because that one's supposed to be all in person. It's a YouTube show first. So, but yeah, so there's the two shows. And then everything else you can find out, find out about me at Travischapel, Travischapel.com. So that's C-H-A-P-P-E-L-Travyschapel.com. And if you want to work with me on a coaching basis, you can, there's an application at

at traveshaple.com slash coaching. And, and yeah, and then we do, we do done-for-you services, done-for-you podcast production. We do monthly podcast production. do coaching, consulting. I have a $99 podcast launch course. So basically anything that you need in the podcasting space, you know, go to Travischapel.com. If you don't see what you're looking for, just shoot me an email. Let me, Travis at Travischapel.com and we'll chat about it. Perfect, man. And so just one last question, you know, what are your next kind of long-term goals? You know, where do you see, you know, Travis Chapel going next in the space? Continuing to create content. And And then I'm also building out a software at the moment.

So those are my two big focuses, this content and my software company. Awesome, man. Well, hey, I appreciate. I know this is going to add a lot of value to my audience. And I'll make sure that all your info is down in the show notes. And I appreciate you sharing how you've blazed your own trail, my friend. And you definitely have blazed your own trail.

Appreciate it, man. Thanks so much for having me. Hey, everybody. I hope you enjoyed that episode with Travis Chappell. Make sure you connect with him. All of his info will be in the show notes. I'll also put some info in there of ways you can connect with us outside of the show. We've got a amazing Facebook community.

You can find us on Instagram as well as YouTube. If you haven't already, folks, make sure you subscribe to the show. We would really, really appreciate it. It'll help us rank higher, which will enable us to reach and impact more people around the world. Thank you so much for listening to the Blaz Your Own Chow podcast. and I will talk to you at the next episode.