Business Innovators Radio - Ep. #30 – Dustin Lynch – The Big Success Podcast with Brad Sugars

Episode Date: August 4, 2023

Dustin Lynch is an American country music singer and songwriter, signed to Broken Bow Records. Dustin has released four albums and one EP for the label: a self-titled album in 2012, Where It’s At in 2014, Current Mood in 2017, Ridin’ Roads in 2019, and Tullahoma in 2020. A fifth album, Blue in the Sky, was released in February 2022. He has also released seventeen singles, of which eight have reached number one on Country Airplay.In 2003, Dustin graduated from Tullahoma High School. In 2007, Dustin graduated from Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee with a B.S. degree in biology. He said he chose Lipscomb because it is located near the Bluebird Café where he would play and learn the craft of songwriting while attending college. Although Dustin said he was interested in going to medical school, he decided to pursue a career in music.Please click here to learn more about Dustin Lynch.About Brad SugarsInternationally known as one of the most influential entrepreneurs, Brad Sugars is a bestselling author, keynote speaker, and the #1 business coach in the world. Over the course of his 30-year career as an entrepreneur, Brad has become the CEO of 9+ companies and is the owner of the multimillion-dollar franchise ActionCOACH®. As a husband and father of five, Brad is equally as passionate about his family as he is about business. That’s why, Brad is a strong advocate for building a business that works without you – so you can spend more time doing what really matters to you. Over the years of starting, scaling and selling many businesses, Brad has earned his fair share of scars. Being an entrepreneur is not an easy road. But if you can learn from those who have gone before you, it becomes a lot easier than going at it alone. That’s why Brad has created 90 Days To Revolutionize Your Life – It’s 30 minutes a day for 90 days, teaching you his 30 years experience on investing, business and life.Please click here to learn more about Brad Sugars.Learn the Fundamentals of Success for free: The Big Success Starter: https://results.bradsugars.com/thebigsuccess-starter Join Brad’s programs here: 30X Life: https://results.bradsugars.com/30xlifechallenge 30X Business: https://results.bradsugars.com/30xbusinesschallenge 30X Wealth: https://results.bradsugars.com/30xwealthchallenge 90X – Revolutionize Your Life: https://30xbusiness.com/90daystorevolutionize Brad Sugars’ Entrepreneur University: https://results.bradsugars.com/entrepreneuruniversity For more information, visit Brad Sugars’ website: www.bradsugars.com Follow Brad on Social Media: YouTube: @bradleysugars Instagram: @bradleysugars Facebook: Bradley J Sugars LinkedIn: Brad Sugars TikTok: @bradleysugars Twitter: BradSugars The Big Success Podcasthttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/the-big-success-podcast/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/ep-30-dustin-lynch-the-big-success-podcast-with-brad-sugars

Welcome to the Big Success Podcast, cutting edge conversations on business and personal success, as well as how to level up. Here's your host, number one business coach in the world, Brad Shogers. So normally the podcast is done in studio, and normally it's not done in front of a live audience. So thank you, buddy, from doing the first one of these with me. Yeah, for sure. I want to take you back a little ways as an intro to me and Dustin. There's a great country music event that Luke Brian puts on every year down in Mexico, and he's the mayor of this event, basically.

The pool party is only legendary because Dustin makes the pool party a party. And there's thousands of people in this pool complex. Now, the first year I went down there, a buddy of mine and a friend of his that has big buses, right? The tour buses, so when they go on tour, Nick's company has all them tour buses, which if any of you follow my social media in the middle of COVID, I borrowed two of next tour buses and took them around the country with my kids in one bus and me and my wife in the other bus sort of thing. So it's like, we had drivers, we had two of these big black provos,

and we'd turn up places. Now that's his lifestyle in many ways, although now it's more private jets than buses because that's the star size. But we got to meet at a house party, which was the house he was in when he was performing at the event. and I didn't know anyone other than Nick and his girl, and we arrived, and I didn't know this, but apparently when people arrive at country music stars, parties, they don't bring anything with them. They just turn up and mooch off everybody.

Well, me and Lauren turned up with a bottle of tequila, bottle of rum, some cigars where they're ready to party. Well, I'm out having a cigar out by the ocean, and Dustin walks over, and we say, good-day, we meet each other for the first time, I'm having a cigar, and he goes, I have one with you. I'm like, you're singing tomorrow, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, but I'll have a cigar. Last night, two guys are with me going, you want to have a cigar tonight?

No, I'm speaking tomorrow. I need my voice. Suffice to say, the first line on stage the next day from Dustin after having a cigar and turning green and driving the porcelain bus for a little while, was the whole idea of, well, lost my voice screaming for, was it, Little Big Town? Little Big Town last night.

I'm like, no one ever screams for Little Big Town. You know, but welcome. Thank you for doing this. Thanks for having. We've been friends for a long time now. We actually did an album launch at my house one year. Yeah. Yeah.

So what's your version of that story just to get it started? My version is I come to and I'm holding a cigar and I go, now this is after the pool party. And part of the pool party is the rise and fall on stage of band members. because we have this thing called the wheel, and each slice of the pie is a different drink, potentially. So as the show goes, it gets a little looser, a little looser. So my version of the story is, I was loose, all right? And by the time the after party happens, the first thing I remember is, who's this guy and why am I holding a cigar? Because I don't smoke cigars, But it was tasty.

So that's the only difference. I don't think I really remember meeting you until that first set of the cigar woke me back up. And the rest is history. We had a good friend named Corbyn at that party. And all I remember that night at the concert is a photo of me with Corbyn in his overalls on my shoulders at the front of the stage cheering for dust. And it's like, how did I end up with Corbyn with no t-shirt and overalls on my shoulders?

It's safe to say y'all should crash my ply festival a try in Mexico for your So since then, we've got a lot of fun together and a lot of family time together and sorts of things. So I wanted to ask Dustin about success. You know, when he's interviewed most of the time, it's always about the music. And what most of you don't know about Dustin is that when he chose to be in music, and before I get to the success questions, I want to ask you, how did your parents react when you told them you're going to drop out of medical school and go and become a country music singer?

My back was against the wall. There's a stern finger to the nose. Are you really going to give all this up? You've worked so hard. You've worked so hard. But I just had this drive inside of the what if. And I just knew I couldn't live with myself if I didn't give it a shot. And I'm glad I did.

It wasn't an instant gratification type of decision. It took years of grinding it out, literally giving up med school to go play. I don't know if you guys have made it to lower Broadway yet. to go play in these honky talks on lower Broadway, some nights for zero dollars. Tip jar, tip bucket. Yeah, tip bucket and just two bartenders on a Tuesday. That was tough to swallow, you know, growing up just around in my small town in Tennessee.

What I thought success was was the guy with the nicest car pulling up to tee off. So let's do that. How do you today define success and how did that change over time? Well, it's evolved. I think it probably started there. You know, I learned a lot from the game of golf. And I was a competitive golfer all through my younger years through college and then pull the plug on that as well for music.

But I think it's evolved over the years of the music business, you know, initial success to a young artist, a young writer, which I preach to this as loud as I can, anybody moving to town is, everybody wants a deal. They want a record deal. They want a publishing deal. So they can brag to their small town. Kansas that they've got one. That was success for me early on. As the years evolved, though,

it's become more, I think, selfish personally as to what success is for me. There's a lot of ups and downs in all types of business. The music business is very scary because you're never promised another song. You're never promised anybody's going to like another song or another thing you do, which is exciting. It's inspiring for me. That's what probably keeps me going as hard as I go. but I've had some downs. I've had some ups. But finding that level appreciation and gratitude, I think, every day with just the ride and the journey is probably what it is for me now.

It's fallen in love for me with the magic of creating, more so than the magic of getting a paycheck every not on stage. And really, I think what drives me right now is just seeing the joy on other's faces whenever we perform. You know, it's a really neat experience to be on stage and look out and see people having fun and meeting each other and making out and dancing. It's a really cool job. We won't mention that one in Talladega. Yeah. One time my wife and I were doing a cooking class in Georgia, and so just out of Atlanta, just out of Georgia and in Atlanta, he was playing in Talladega, so we jumped on the jet, flew up, watched him, flew home that night side thing.

We had a big old party. but we arrived there not knowing he was on a mom was traveling with him so that he didn't drink the entire time. We arrived there and we were loose. And he's like, no, no, I'm not drinking right now. Seriously? But he did appreciate because we were cooking barbecue at the cooking school. We did arrive with trays of barbecue food. It was awesome.

The band did enjoy us that one. For sure. So let's go back and think about this. What age were you when you think or what happened? Where did you decide success was going to be your reality? Was it something your parents instilled in you? Did something happen? Where you said, I'm going to be successful.

That's who I am. Oh, gosh. I think my initial thought when you just asked that would be when I started seeing doors open that, that I wasn't having to open myself. It was really just following some gut decisions I had made creatively. And at this point, we were, we were. were in the fraternity sorority party circuit pretty heavily. And at the any, any frat house people like you went to a fraternity, you know what that party

circuit is. Yeah. So, so we would, it kind of started organically here in Nashville. And when away teams would come play Vanderbilt, they would see us play down at, you know, one of the college bars. And then we would catch a gig out of that. And then word would get out. So that started growing pretty quickly for me to where I started needing help.

I started needing someone to help me book. I started needing a bigger truck to pull my trailer and my speakers that I was setting up. And that's when I realized, wow, I'm addicted to growth and growing something that wasn't there three months ago. Yeah. And just I think that's really where it turned me on. Like, wow, this is fun. Yeah. So then if let's go back a little in music for you.

there was a song you wrote for Grandma and Grandpa, Cowboys and Angels, and your label said no when not releasing that song. Tell us about how you persevered and knowing that song, like you believed in it so much. How did that work? Yeah, I love that you're asking that question. So the song he's talking about is Cowboys and Angels. And I get to sing that song on the Grand Old Opry stage here next week.

And it's my grandparents. They're coming up for it. My grandmom said for her anniversary, she wants to be at the Grand Old Opry. So they're celebrating 68 years of marriage next Wednesday. Yeah. But this song is something that I just wanted to write for them. And that was my only goal, was just hoping they would like it and gifted to them. And it's gone on to change my life.

and but there were years like you said there was a couple years that my record label my first record deal that I was so excited to tell everybody about weren't believers in the song they they heard the song were like yeah that's it's too country it's too this it's too sappy whatever their excuses were and it was the first time where I felt like I was right and they were wrong you know they have a great well they had a great track record at that point, with artists and really a lot of momentum in town. And so I was really putting a lot of weight behind an older gentleman and an older lady telling me what was good.

And so you start second-guessing yourself like, man, is my gut wrong? I just feel like this is a different thing. And how I pivoted from that is just go, okay, well, I'm going to keep swinging the bat, but I'm also going to figure out how to start getting my original music out there more at these frat parties, more at these wedding receptions. And we started seeing a life of its own kind of start growing at these events. And that's when I go, okay, I still think I have something. So fast forward, I was able to switch gears and get out of that deal and into another one.

And within three months, we had Cowboys and Angels hitting the radio, and it went on to still be, one of my most impactful songs we do every night, 10 years later. Damn good song. So then let's talk about what's your formula for success or how does success happen in your mind? What's the process by which it happens? I love, I mentioned this earlier. I love the challenge of, you know, growing, but also kind of the me versus me in the music business. I'm single, so I have no excuse other than to wake up and work and try to get better every day.

And it's tough being a creative because there's no concrete, hey, I went to work and I did this. I think that's probably why I love working out on the farm and cutting grass and cutting down trees and stuff. Because at the end of the day, you can write, I mean, I'll go in and write a song today, and my average is pretty terrible on whether anybody gets to hear that song. It's still a lot of fun, but you can really be grinding at something like that and turn in a lot of songs.

And I'm the gatekeeper, not like any of them at the end of the month. Yeah. And feel like, man, I just wasted the whole month. of April, not only putting on shows, but riding on my days off here in town, and I have nothing to show for it. And, you know, that's just something I think I've learned to accept that at some point I'm going to make a free throw, and it's going to pay off greatly. And so I think what really gears me, though, is just the me versus me. I probably would equate that to just being a young golfer, you know.

There's a difference. Obviously, now I've got a great support team, but there's still that me versus me. How big can I grow this thing? How big can we grow this thing? Can I write the best song of the year? And I've got a lot of great, talented friends that are trying to do the same. So it's a fun competition. Well, last year you had song of the year.

Yeah. So I don't know if you know this, but he and McKenzie Porter re-released a song that you first did with Lauren Elena. Mar-Elena. And then when the re-off during COVID, and it didn't hit the way it should have hit. But that was COVID. And then the re-release became, it was number one at the end of last year. How many weeks at number one?

Yeah, we were seven weeks at number one and the longest running top ten in Billboard history, which is crazy. So I think that comes back to your belief in the music, too. It was. Yeah, a lot of people don't realize, you know, a song hits the radio. They think we just recorded it and put it out. But it took me two and a half years of making phone calls. and timing's everything with collaborations, just trying to get the right people involved and when we can release it. So two and a half years is the amount of work I had on the phone,

just trying to get that song out into the top of the charts. And another, I think, testament to trust in your gut and something you believe in. That was one of those that I know part of my team was like, dude, give it up. But I just, I had a really good feeling about it. And I'm glad I stuck with it because it's definitely changed our lives. And that leads to my next question, Flip it out of the. How does failure teach success in your mind? Well, for me, it doesn't feel good, you know? And I've had different types of failure.

I've had failure because it's been my fault, which I like that failure the most, because I can take it on the chin and go, all right, dude, you can do better next time. But the ones that bother me are through the years, you know, at least when it comes to music or failure because I went against what I believed. I was trusting someone else, you know? And I think that's what I've learned to not let happen anymore. And I've, over the years, I think, gained a little bit of, a little bit of respect now, you know, my circle where I feel strongly about something,

you know, I feel like I can speak up. As a young kid, man, when you're sitting with a bunch of execs, but I've been in the music business and are on top of, literally on top of the music game right now, It's tough to speak up when you feel a certain way or even articulate what that is. And I think just maturing through the years is allow me to, you know, sit at a table and have those conversations a little bit more efficiently. This is the big success podcast. We're going to take a break from the podcast and we'll be back in just a moment. Marketing is the lifeblood of a business and when done right, it's a phenomenal investment.

It's profitably buying lifetime customers. How you get prospects to identify themselves as needing you is what raise your hand marketing. by Brad Sugar's and Josh Bardsley is all about. Getting your suspects to become prospects and raise their hand to say, I'm ready to engage with you. So we're back here on the Big Success Podcast with the Dustin Lynch. So I want to break down a little bit of your area of expertise because what most people don't realize about a country music style these days

is it is a business. You have a corporation that you run and you are the CEO of the Dustin Lynch business, basically. So let's talk about branding and marketing. marketing. How do you succeed at branding and marketing yourself out there in the world? Yeah, it starts with what I was doing when we were texting last night. I'm in the studio. It starts for me. It starts with the song. And what is that song? You know, there's, there's, we're trying to find great songs. But on top of that, um, this far into my career, I have to find a great song that matches my brand, my flavor. Um, and through the years,

trying to hone in on what that is. Where's my lane in country music? what is the general population when they turn the radio on or if they're streaming, whatever, however they're consuming music, what do they want me to hear, or what do they want me to say, how do they want me to sound? It's just self-discovery. And I think we have learned. I've swing for that fence and this fence when it comes to stylistically as doing, you know, still country.

But what we've learned is kind of right down the middle, what has worked for us. And it's so obvious when you step back, you go, dude, just do that again. But I think as creatives, we always try to find those unicorn type of songs. But for me, it's just been honing in and being, at the end of the day, like I said, it's easy to see.

What are you comfortable doing on stage? There's certain songs we've had success with that are a pain in my butt every night to sing. It's me, but it's not all the way me. And it seems like the ones that come easier to me are the ones that I enjoy singing. and I've learned that I've got to be sure that I'm going to enjoy singing it. Because if it is a hit, I've got to sing the dang thing the rest of my life.

So he better. There's a couple songs. Once you've got the right product, how do you make it out there? Because I know you spend a ton of time, and like, even in Vegas, one night he played in Vegas and bought 60 record execs to my house for a party. That's a lot of work. It's a lot of work, yeah. There's a lot of promotion.

There's got to be a storyline. You know, at the end of the day, you mentioned it, I'm a product, I'm a brand. Our songs are the product too. It's just a different iteration, I guess, of it. But there's got to be a little bit of a story. We were talking about that this morning of, it's this song, and here's why,

that goes into, you know, selling a song. We're literally selling a handful of gatekeepers and tastemakers when it comes to FM radio, when it comes to YouTube music, and any of the streamers, we're selling them on, hey, this is a song that deserves you guys propping up, highlighting, and here's why. And we've lucked out through the years and had not only songs that have performed well for them,

because they're watching all their metrics on, are people tuning out? Are they leaving when the song comes on? Are they staying longer? because it came on on my station, because all they're wanting to do so ads, that's it. And that's how that world works. So luckily, we've had some songs that not only have performed well for them,

we've had, I think, half of our releases continue to be what they call recurrent golds. And that's still songs in the past 10 years that still have a positive reaction whenever they come on. Yeah, I remember texting one day driving around Vegas, and I'd been in my car like a lot the last two days. shit, dude, I hear you every 45 minutes on the radio station. He goes, thank you. That's the whole thing. So let's take a look at the other side of it, then.

Building a band, which is really building a team, because it's not just the band, it's management, it's the road crew, it's all of that stuff. How do you succeed at building that team? Well, you know, band members and crew members are an interesting challenge because everybody sees us for 60 to 90 minutes on stage, having the time of our lives. We're doing what we were born to do. That's being on stage and entertain and just literally exude as much energy as we can

and connect with as many people as we can on the good nights. But then you've got 23 more hours to live with these people on a single wide trailer on wheels, which is a tour bus. And people don't realize, you know, we're in there in these tour buses. Some tour buses have 12 people. They have 12 beds in them, you know, 12, 8 beds, whatever it is. You're on top of... Yeah, you got your two feet of life space.

It's like 8 feet by 2 feet tall, by 3 feet wide. Imagine going to work and literally being stuck in a trailer with someone for sometimes weeks at a top. It's an interesting workplace, you know, and it's one of those things where you just got to jump in there and do it and make life work. So I think through the years you find what people you like doing life with. Are they into the adventure of travel, a new city literally every day? And it's evolved because we started out in a van with single dudes. And now my band guys have wife and kids, so that the challenge of getting them home has become a real thing.

But building a team for me is just, are we having fun? Because hell, if you can't have fun doing music, or honestly, in my opinion, if you can't have fun doing what you do for work, freaking try something new, right? And I keep reminded of my guys, we're lucky enough to, most of my teammates right now on the road

have had real jobs, because what we do is not real, in my opinion. So we've all had real jobs before music became the full-time job. And it's easy to forget and complain about, you know, whatever catering we've got at whatever arena. or a cold hockey shower, which is the current challenge is everybody's bitching about, you know, cold showers. And it's like, well, this is where the Preds play. So, I mean, I don't know.

You know, it's like this is what the hockey boys go through every night. But it's easy, you know, to forget, hey, this is the dream. This is literally the top of the pyramid right here. Well, it's interesting because if I look at some of Dustin's bandmates, and, you know, I've known a lot of them for a long time. Billy just hit 10 years with you. Yeah. And he wasn't the original drama when I first met you. No.

You recruited him in, stole him from another band. Yeah. If we take a look at LaCourt, he's, Chris is killing it out there, writing songs, hitting number ones out there on his own. So they've all got side gigs. Billy just played for the, was it, how many year anniversary for the drum? Resiligent, yeah. I don't remember what the number one.

It's like 20 or 40 year anniversary or something. And so when you talk recruiting the right people, like, going and finding the right manager, going to find them those people. Is there any keys you got to recruiting people, or is it just, you know, make sure that they fit the group? What's the thing? I think it's both. I think it's fit the group for me.

I think, you know, outside of my band members, because that's kind of locked in, you mentioned, we've got three guys that have been with me for over 10 years, which is in the music industry is, I'm proud of that. Yeah. And, but as far as, let's go to the creative team, it's got to be a passion for the same vision, you know, and that's who are we making? music for if everybody can identify who that is and describe to me what that is,

we get along pretty good. And I'll go through that. Literally, I'll go, when I leave here, I'm going to the studio to write with a couple of new collaborators I've never written with. But the first,

the worst thing they can do is, is not know who we're aiming for. And that's what I will do today. My main goal will be steered. them, hey, this is who I'm aiming my music for this year on this next project that we're recording right now. What do we want to say to them? And so I think that is, you know, creatively and as you know, outside of the music, all the visuals behind everything we do. And it is a big deal, even down to the daily social media posts. I have to be very careful about what I'm

showing, when I'm showing it, who I'm showing, and make sure that that's all pointing back. to the overarching, you know, message of the brand and the music we put out. Well, that's why it sponsors, all of that sort of stuff come into play. And I want to go back, what's the key to success to breaking through? I mean, it applies to across anything, whether you're breaking into a new customer or whether you're breaking into a new industry. When you broke into this business, how do you do that? What's the key to success on breaking into an impossible industry?

Man, if I could, this, I think with the music industry, I could put my finger on how it was done, I would probably be a, I would probably have a long lot of people call it. I think for me, it was just continue to chase what others before me had done. And that was, hey, try to write and record the best songs you can get your hands on. And the person that told me that to my face was at his Hall of Fame luncheon. I got to go meet Garth Brooks for the first time. He's one of my heroes.

And I just, I think we had just released Cowboys and Angels, so he had kind of heard of me. And probably why he allowed me to come say hi to him. And I shook his hand and, you know, typical young guy, like, Gar, give me one piece of five, four, roll out of here. And that's what he said. He said, hey, whether you write him or not, keep chasing the best song you possibly can because that's what people want to hear from you.

And I just never forgot that. And so I just, that's really where my focus is. I constantly am looking for the next best song. And I'm obsessed with it. I love it. Well, that leads me then. How do you stay relevant? Is that the same answer?

Because, you know, you've had number ones out to number ones from each album that's multiple number ones. How do you stay relevant? Well, we've had to, you know, our music has had to, how when we create music today is drastically different than how we did it whenever I wrote Cowboys and Angels. So from day one of creating a song, you know, this town and the creative process has changed,

just based on the technology that's changed and how we create. So we've had to evolve. You know, I think the palette of music is constantly changing. There's always that push and pull of, that ain't country, this ain't country. It's always been there, right? And there's always that side that finds their guy or girl that brings it back to country for them.

And then you've got these other acts that go out and we'll push the envelope this way. But I think all of that movement is wonderful because as we move this way or that way, we're grabbing new fans and new ears. We're grabbing this person that maybe used to only listen to Top 40 or Hip Hop or Rock. But now, for whatever reason, they like the way we did this song or this instrumentation or, oh, that sounds cool, or I like the way he said that, or she said that. And now we have a new fan of country music. It brings them in our family, and they come to a country show and see that, you know,

as a single dude, there's a lot of options out there. And, you know, at a country show, it's like the scenery is pretty awesome every night. And just tell them the truth. And the next thing, you know, we've got a big country fan on our hands. So we've a... That could go so many ways. We like to evolve, you know, with the music. We have to, it's wild.

Think about you two and a half years. So if you guys think about, I'm writing a song today. If we write a great song today, in two years is most likely, at least a year, but most likely two years, two and a half years, is when the general public gets to finally hear it. So we're creating what is happening on the radio two years from now today. So you got to write. something today that speaks to what people are feeling two years from now. I mean, there's a rarity like

Luke Combs penned six feet away in COVID and got it out within weeks. That's a rarity, but two and a half years. I want to finish this segment off with asking a question. How do you balance professional, personal? Because how do you keep the space? Because, I mean, we've been in places and it's like, you know, like none of that. Oh, Brad! You know, no, no, not famous. Like literally my kids the other day I was walking through an airport and the guy goes, oh, you Brad Sugar's, I follow you on Instagram. It was like, my kid's like, Dad, how does that person know you? I've never seen a fan ever come up to me in my life.

You know, you get it all the time. But how do you balance that stuff? Well, I've had to learn the hard way. I've had to learn the word no. You know, early on, you're so eager to go, bring it on, bring it on. I want to get bigger. I want to, you know, I want to gain more fans. I want to take out and obviously make money, play as many shows as we can.

And I've learned the hard way. As we've talked about moving forward with how we tour, that market's completely changed with how the touring traffic is out there right now. But early on it was, yes, let's do it, let's do it. And just realizing, you mentioned personal, realizing that creatively, I have to have some time home. to be real and to live and to really tap into what I'm feeling, life that I'm doing, relationships that I'm imploding. Again, I said I wouldn't go there. But you've got to have a little time to yourself to really dive in as a songwriter and feel those emotions.

It's easy to say yes to money that's sitting right there. Go play this club and BFE, Louisiana, or sit at the house. but I think I've realized that sitting at the house pays greater dividends down the road for me whenever I'm able to have a little bit of personal space in life. It's a big success podcast. We'll be back in just a moment. You're with Dustin Lynch.

Dustin Lynch is an American country music singer and songwriter signed to Broken Bow Records. Dustin has released four albums and one EP for the label. He has also released 17 singles, of which eight have reached number of. one on country airplay. To learn more about Dustin Lynch, please visit Dustin Lynchmusic.com. Okay, so back on the Big Success podcast, we're going to talk leveling up. Moving your goals, what's your theory on how your goals go from being normal size, normal

people goals to crazy big goals, you know, because you obviously in the start of your career, you had this size goals, but now the goals are, what's the difference? How did you move. I think I started realizing what was possible as songs started to really scale. I wrote Cowboys and Angels and had no idea that the first time I would hear that song sang back to me would be in Seattle, Washington. I'd never even been there. But we get out there and this club sold out. There's lines down the block. I'm going, certainly they're not here for us. And they were. and it was deafening so much so that we were, I don't regret it. We ended up playing it twice that night.

Why not? And that's where I realized, wait a second, my music matters, at least to Seattle right now. And then we got to tour around and figure out where else. So it started right there. I was regional playing a lot of SEC schools. And then those college kids would graduate. We'd go play their wedding reception. That was kind of my world.

And then once Cowboys and Angels hit the radio waves, we felt that. It was like, oh, wait a second. And then we worked our way down the West Coast. And it's just the West Coast for me. I never got to travel there until I was touring this song. So it always felt make believe to me. California did. And California has been one of our best markets since day one.

So that's why I started realizing, wow, this is, I get to make a new set of goals. And I think I'm still making a new set of goals. You know, with think about you. We'll fast forward to that. I never even, honestly, I never had on my gold is. I did have, and I've got a screenshot from two years ago. They do like a year-end chart, hey, this song was played this many times or this album or this artist on radio. And I wasn't on any of the charts a couple three years ago.

And in big red letters, I wrote, where are you? And that gets me emotional. I love it. Last year, we're the number one played song. So it's like pretty awesome. It's more than pretty awesome. So you've met a lot of them now. Garth, you met way back when.

What's the difference between the superstars and the one-hit wonders? What do you see as a difference? Man, most of the time it's work ethic. You know, it's easy to, I was so lucky to, my first tour, was Keith Irvin. And Keith had struggled with a lot of addiction through the years. And he was on the other side of that when I went out with him in Little Big Town in 2013. And the way Keith deals with that is he's very structured down to what he eats every day.

At least this is back then. I don't know what he's doing now. But back then, he was very, very structured on, hey, I wake up, I go to the gym with my trainer here. For lunch, I'm eating this. For dinner, I'm eating this. very boring, but it worked for him. And I think seeing, seeing him go about it that way, but also talking to him about, you know,

obviously he's just raining advice on me the whole time we're out there for a year, whether it's direct or I'm just soaking it in, watching him do it. Being with him first, I think, really allowed me to go, oh, this is what it takes to be, in my opinion, one of the greatest entertainers we've got to see through the years. He's an amazing musician and an amazing entertainer. And that started, I don't know if any of you know, Keith's an Australian boy.

He played in my hometown for a lot of years with a guy by the name of Tuffy. Keith was in bars playing at age 14 or 13 or 14 playing the guitar as a back thing. He learned to be an entertainer in that environment. And he still is one of the best. But I think being on tour with him first allowed me to see, oh, this is how it's done. Obviously, he's gone through, you know, some stormy times, but this is how it works. and how, you know, I guess where you should keep it. And to answer your question, I think there's so many distractions in the entertainment industry,

as you know, living in Vegas, you can get into as much trouble as you can dream, touring full-time. It's all there. And having him as kind of that support system and guiding life first is what I think helped me really understand. Hey, take this serious and good things could happen. I remember one of your managers talking to one of your band members one time saying, we are not at the party, we are throwing the party. So not getting in trouble with that sort of thing.

So I want to go to our quickfire round, quick thoughts on success on certain things. Normally the first of the quick fire round I ask is what's the secret to success in relationships, but I'm going to skip that one for you. Fair. Fair. Secret to success with health. With health? Yeah.

Find what you enjoy. I've gone extreme. I've done stupid stuff and done it. I've worked out too hard. I've dieted too strictly for me on the road. It's impossible essentially to really stay with what you need to. But I think through the years you just find what's comfortable and what's sustainable. Over the past three years, I think I've just found what I like to do and what keeps me excited.

so I continue to stay consistent with it. And as long as I'm in there, you know, 80% of the time eating and staying active like I should be, life's been good. Cool. Key to success with wealth. Key to success with wealth is learned. So we mentioned earlier I was a pre-mem major, and my brother-in-law is an oral surgeon, and I'm watching my sister pull her hair out right now because as pre-men majors, we're science nerds.

We don't know Jack. about finance. We just don't. We're never taught it. You're not, at least not in Tennessee. You're not taught in high school. You go to college and we don't learn it either. We're learning how the human body works and how plant animals work.

And so getting out now and running a company and having employees, I'm constantly listening to the podcast. I'm constantly reading and learning, you know, how do I, how do I capture this window of success in the music business, which we don't know how long it's going to be. It's been 10 years as of now, which is a good run for anybody in this world. But at some point, no matter who you are, that window ends. It just does.

And so for me, it's figuring out, okay, I've got to stomach that. I've got to be okay with that. I'm so glad COVID happened because it allowed me to go, hey, can I do this? Can I do life without being on stage? I could. I thrived at it. But what that, the silver lining of that is I started learning about, I don't know if I was going to make another damn dollar with music. I started learning about investments and, you know, how corporate real estate worked and all these different things. And I think just continue to learn for me is proven itself. And I'm having fun doing it. It's a new game.

Well, that brings me the next one. What's the success to having fun in life? Well, a great group of friends. I keep a tight circle of friends, but they're very diverse. or a motley crew. Anywhere for Brad Sugar's to, you mentioned Corbyn riding on his shoulders with overalls. He's literally planting corn an hour north of here because all of his corn goes to Jack Daniels for whiskey. So we've got a little interesting circle of friends,

but I think make time for your friends and share the fun with them. Share the fruits of success that we've been able to have and have them around. And that's really where I find joy in life right now. So final question, what's the best quote on success or the best advice you ever got on success? Okay, so this is, let's see. All right, I'm going to go, I'll go to, I was watching, I don't know if anybody knows the Eli Young band,

but they were a band when I was in college that came to exit, what was it, there was 12th and Porter was a club at shut down now. And it was me and like three other people in there. I don't know how I came across their music, but Nashville hadn't heard of them yet. and there was this drunk at the bar. That never happens in Nashville. No, right. Like, he was like...

In fact, some of you were that person the other night. If I could draw this character, that was him. Like, are you a pirate? What are you? And he's in there, and he's got his drink. I don't think I could have afford a beer at this point. I'm hanging out, and he's like, man, these boys are good. So I assume I'm like, okay, he's got to be a songwriter or some sort or whatever.

And I'm paraphrasing. I don't remember exactly what he said. But he said, you know what this is? He says, this is opportunity and preparedness. And they're here. They got an opportunity. They're prepared. They're playing a great show.

And I don't know why that stuck with me. And I don't know if he's got that from somewhere else. But that dude in that bar said that to me. And I never forgot it because at the time I'm trying to learn how to write songs. I just started playing like a Monday night acoustic thing on the Mummeryton Street up here at this college bar and I kept, I went to the house and I'm like, DeMumbria, all of the best bars are on Demandumria. It's like, I've got to go home and I've got to be prepared because if I get a shot,

I want to have it. And I literally, that's what I kept telling myself for years to come. I was always learning how to write and learn a cover songs, getting my cover bank to where it needed to be to play these cover shows at college parties. And that's really what I've, I've continued to tell myself, you know, this couple nights ago, I'm down in Austin, Texas helping host the CMT Awards. You know, it's literally, it's all of that. Like, okay, let's be prepped for that. When the opportunity comes, it was a last minute ask.

But I was feeling good and, you know, locked up there. Opportunity preparedness. Yeah. Ladies and gentlemen, the Dustin Lynch. Thank you, brother. A lot of fun. I let you go. All right.

Sure. Thank you. And that's a big success podcast for today. Hopefully you took a lot of notes. Hopefully you'll learn the bunch and hopefully you're going to take action on it and refer people. Remember, if you haven't subscribed, click that subscribe button now. Be with us every week on the Big Success podcast. BS Brad Sugar's Big Success.

Take action. Check the show notes for all the links. I'll give you all the links for everything that your speaker had. Make sure you follow it through and keep the learning going. Remember, you've got to grow into your goals. I'll speak to you next time on the Big Success podcast. You've been listening to the Big Success podcast. with the number one business coach in the world, Brad Sugar's.

To learn more about how to achieve business and personal success, as well as how to level up or listen to past episodes, visit www.bredsorgas.com.