Digital Social Hour - How I Turned $300 Into a 9-Figure Roofing Empire in 4 Years I Dustin Gutkowski DSH #515

Episode Date: June 24, 2024

🚀 How I Turned $300 Into a 9-Figure Roofing Empire in 4 Years 🚀 Ever wonder how you can transform a small investment into a colossal empire? 🌟 Tune in now to hear Dustin Gutkowski's incredible journey from postal office delivery man to the CEO of a near 9-figure roofing business! In just four short years, Dustin navigated the unregulated Texas roofing market, leveraged personal connections, and built a team-focused culture to skyrocket his business success. 🏡💼 Dive deep into the personal and professional challenges Dustin faced, from hiring the right people to balancing friendships and business. His unique perspective on leadership, personal growth, and overcoming adversity will leave you inspired and ready to tackle your own dreams. 🌟 Don't miss out on this episode packed with valuable insights! Join the conversation and watch now. 📺 Hit that subscribe button and stay tuned for more eye-opening stories on the Digital Social Hour with Sean Kelly! 🚀 Keywords: Digital Social Hour, Sean Kelly, Podcast, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Dustin Gutkowski, Roofing Empire, Business Success, Leadership, Overcoming Adversity, Entrepreneurship. #ZeroToMillions #SeanKellyPodcast #RoofingLicense #PodcastInterview #OvercomingAdversity APPLY TO BE ON THE PODCAST: https://www.digitalsocialhour.com/application BUSINESS INQUIRIES/SPONSORS: [e-mail] GUEST: Dustin Gutkowski https://www.instagram.com/dustingutkowskirr/?hl=en SPONSORS: Deposyt Payment Processing: https://www.deposyt.com/seankelly LISTEN ON: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/digital-social-hour/id1676846015 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Jn7LXarRlI8Hc0GtTn759 Sean Kelly Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmikekelly/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Yeah, 100%. All personal. Because some people separate the two. I don't believe in that. I think you don't mix business with pleasure. And I'm like, man, if you're my homie and you're a friend and I can't do business with you, then we shouldn't be friends. I have an issue where I get too involved. So I've had five personal assistants now because they're all guys.

Maybe I should hire a girl. But I just get so close with them. I invite them to lift. I invite them to eat food. And it just gets too close. Wherever you guys are watching this show, I would truly appreciate it if you follow or subscribe. It helps a lot with the algorithm. It helps us get bigger and better guests and it helps us grow the team. Truly means a lot. Thank you guys for supporting and here's the episode.

All right, guys from Texas, we got Dustin Gretkowski here today. We're going to talk roofing, right? Roofing, yeah. Building a roofing empire. Yeah. It's a cool business, man. My uncle owned one in PA. Oh, really?

Yeah. And he had no business acumen and he built it to a seven-figure company. So I was like, all right, there's something with roofing. Yeah, it's awesome. Yeah, I mean, no, I didn't have anything in roofing. I'd never done roofing before. Yeah, yeah.

He literally went from postal office delivery man to owning a roofing company within a couple years seven figure company that's awesome so there's there's a gap in the market there right oh there's a huge there still is wow yeah because this was 10 years ago so there still is huge gap yeah it's uh i mean i want to say that it's bridged a little bit but not really i feel like it's it's it's not at all i feel like they're still so far to go like just even in texas there's unlicensed unregulated the only roofing license in texas is uh like a fraternity of basically roofer bros that regulate it and you pay to be in it there's no texas does not require you to have a license you don't need any skills to prove you have you just get a license yeah you don't even like yeah you don't you don't have to get a license like

literally you can move to texas tomorrow start a roofing company there's zero license wow they don't regulate at all you need a license to cut hair give massage but not to be a roofer that doesn't make sense exactly because a roof is so vital i mean you need a good roof yeah to live it's crazy that is nuts so you basically saw that and we're like let me start one or did you work for someone else first uh it was i was in the fitness industry for like 16 years managed health clubs it was like running like 30 health clubs and doing sales you know managing people and roofing kept coming up it just i saw a bunch of people get into the industry what's going on and uh we had gotten ripped we had like two bad experiences with contractors me and my wife so it was like man

this is just terrible, shady contractors. And I've always lived my life, if I could find, if there's a problem, I'm going to find a solution. And so if people have problems with contractors, why not maybe be a good contractor? It seems common sense. And just saw so many people get into the industry. And I saw guys that I knew that were having a lot of success. And I was like, dude, this guy's a bum. I can do better than him.

And it was no offense to them, but I was like, and then the kind of final straw was I was in Michigan managing health clubs and the guy that I worked for, I was running all of his stuff, only answered to him. I was like, he was worth probably $100 million.

I was like, man, where'd you get your money from? He's like, oh, roofing. I'm like, come on. I did move back to Texas, started roofing, but I did work for somebody else for about 10 months before I started my own. Then started my own, and here we are, man.

It's crazy. Immediate success, or it took a bit? Yeah. I mean, we did, right? But it depends on what you're, like, people will tell us, like, oh, you guys had a ton of success. You're one of the fastest roofing companies we've ever seen. Yeah.

I still don't think we're where we should be. So I don't think we've had success, which is weird. I'm pretty hard on myself, but we've, we've had some success, right? I guess you can't argue that, but I just, I feel like we could be better. We could do more. I don't really gauge the success on the money side of it. I gauge it on the people we build and how our team feels. Like, how are we growing? How are they doing? Like, are we making future leaders? Are we, you know, growing people? Like, are we helping people be better?

Are we helping our customers? What are they saying about us? I don't really gauge it on the money aspect of it. I gauge it more on that. Like, when this person started with me to today, are they better now? Right? Are they better people? Are they better professionals?

Are they better fathers? Like, whatever it is. Like, are they better now? Yeah. Right. Are they better people? Are they better professionals? They better fathers, like whatever it is, like, are they better than when now than when they got here? That's really what I kind of base success on. And I feel like we, there's so many more people we could impact. So.

Interesting. So you take a personal approach to your employees. Yeah. A hundred percent. All personal. Cause some people separate the two. I don't believe in that. I think that you like,

don't mix business with pleasure. And I'm like, man, if you're my homie and you're a friend and i can't do business with you then we shouldn't be friends i have an issue where i get too involved so i've had five personal assistants now because i they're all guys maybe i should hire a girl but like i just get so close with them i invite them to lift i invite them to eat food and it just gets too close too quick that's the so i i i understand that aspect of it too because we do the same stuff.

So I have over a hundred employees, right? Yeah. And there's about 12 of us every morning. We work out literally in my house. My two car garage is a gym. Oh, nice. There's, we, you know, cold plunge workout, dry sauna. We do it every day and you become brothers, man.

And I'm really close with a lot of people. Like my kids call probably 10 of our employees uncle. The wives hang out together. But I think it's okay as long as you have to set expectations. Like I'm not afraid to have business conversations. Like, look, man, we're friends, but we also, this is business. And so don't get it twisted. Like this, at the end of the day, like we have to provide for our families, all of us. And I think there's that understanding of, look, we're still friends if we have a tough conversation. I think don't be a jerk about it. You don't have to provide for our families, all of us. And I think there's that understanding of, look,

we're still friends if we have a tough conversation. I think don't be a jerk about it. You don't have to be personal about the conversation. I think that's where most people go wrong is when, like, let's just say we were working together and we're friends and we're having a business conversation and I make it personal where I say something like, well, because you know how people take shots about someone's family or something they're going through.

And I'm like, come on, man. There's no need for that. Keep it the professional side of it. And you can be friends. But I believe most of our success is from the personal side. Because do we do UFC events? We've done Disney trips together. We've done so many things together.

And it's helped us grow and create a culture that's like no other because we are so close. And I think we're all pushing towards a common goal. So all of us want to head in that direction. So yeah, hey, man. Wow, that's cool to see you make it work. So maybe I can just keep doing what I'm doing. Yeah, I think he's going to find the right people, right? It's not for everybody because there are people out there

that will try to take advantage of it, right? And there are those people. We've had to let people go. And there's people that have come on and taken advantage of it. And I get close to people, man. I've had people quit my company that their car got repoed, and I let them use a personal vehicle for months. They've gotten evicted out of their house, and I paid their rent, or I paid for a new place, like a significant amount of money. Damn.

And those people quit on you. That's crazy. It's tough. Yeah, because I almost see it like an investment, right? Because you're paying their salaries, and you're kind of investing in the person a little bit too. And you want to see them succeed. 100%. So then when they quit, it kind of hurts.

It does, man. It's tough. But you do it for the ones that stay, not the ones that quit. Yeah. And you got 100 people now? About 125. Wow. Across Dallas and Houston.

And how long ago did you start this? November of 19. So November 23rd of 2019 was our first day. Damn. We're four years and what is that? Four months? Yeah, that's pretty new. And it's already almost a nine-figure company, right?

Yeah. That is insane, man. Did you see that growth that quick coming? Are you interested in coming on the Digital Social Hour podcast as a guest? Well, click the application link below in the description of this video. We are always looking for cool stories, cool entrepreneurs to talk to you about business and life. Click the application link below. And here's the episode guys. Yeah, it's weird. So yes and no. So my business partner, every prediction

I've predicted where we'll finish. And at times they're like, Dustin, there's no way. And I'm like, yes, we will. And I've kind of predicted it that where we would be i think is because i did see it it's like we can do this there's there's the ability we have the people we have the skills to do this and if we put in the work it'll happen so i've kind of seen it and i believed it and i think my wife tells me she's like hey the thing about my husband is he believes the shit that comes out of his mouth which which is almost like, I'm like, we're going to do this. So, yeah, in one hand, I never thought we'd be here. And on the other hand, I thought we would arrive, right?

So I'm the ultimate yin-yang of it. One day, I think we're the worst company on earth and we should do more. And the next day, I'm like, we're the best. It's that balance for us. So you're the visionary and you can manifest. That's cool. Some people usually have one or the other, but you can do both. Yeah.

I think just being able to picture things so crystal clear like it's already happened. And then I feel like it has happened, so then there's no pressure. I just have to do the necessary things to get there. I like to see, and then I get so focused on where I'm going that it doesn't allow distractions to enter

because I think if you know who you really are, right, first and foremost, you have to know who you are. And once you know who you are, you can figure out what you want. And then once you figure out what you want, there's no distraction that could come in because to me it's like, okay, I'm still going here, man. So this happened. It doesn't matter. I'm going here. This happened.

It doesn't matter. I'm going here. Man, this person quit. That sucks. I didn't want them to leave, but I'm going here. So I'm focused on where I'm going, that these distractions aren't distractions. And so, because I've already seen myself getting there. Now I know, hey, if I just do these necessary steps to get there, I'm going to arrive as long as I don't quit.

Right. Any year in particular that was the hardest or most stressful out of the four years? Two to three was the hardest, hands down. Was that during COVID? No. So we started a few months before so but it was we actually was i don't want to say it wasn't easy we were starting out but i think we're just so focused on you're a new company we had opened november the night 23rd of 19 so within 90 days hit so we

really didn't know any different and it was kind of you're just hustling so hard that you don't have time to focus on what's going on. You're just trying to make it and feed your family because I had a pregnant wife. I had a two-year-old son. I didn't have enough money to feed my family, so I'm just out there hustling trying to make it happen. Year two to three was we had our greatest growth in sales, but we lost the most people,

and it was because of me not being a leader. I was focused more on sales and that type of role instead of being like a CEO and leader. And I wasn't managing people like I should. I wasn't focusing on people. So it was really hard for me because I look back and go, I made some mistakes with people that I shouldn't have made had I been focusing on them. So I kind of like re-engineer what I was doing. And like, look, when I started this, it was about people and we got to always keep it about people. So it was just a growth that it was hard for me to step back from like, I'd use it playing sports. Like we talked about basketball earlier, imagine being the all-star player. And then you have to step back and be the all-star coach to manage

all. It was really a tough transition for me to step out of that. And it was just a, it was a, it was a learning experience. Yeah. A lot of people don't have that leadership skill just naturally. It's tough to just have that. Yeah, it is, man. It's the, it's missing. I think in most organizations, if you see successful organizations, usually starts at the top and with leadership, they're able to manage people. And especially the way you grew up, right? Cause I know you were homeless at 14 years old, so you probably didn't have a leader early on in your life. Zero. Yeah. None. I was sleeping on a park bench at 14, old. So you probably didn't have a leader early on in your life. Zero. Yeah, none. I was sleeping on a park bench at 14.

No leadership, no father figure. So it doesn't, you don't realize how much of an impact it has on your life. I think it really, until you have kids and then you see how much impact it has on your children. It's like, wow, man, like if I would have had that, how did things went? But then I also now realize it was almost a blessing because there were so many things in life I was able to

figure out by trial and error that I don't think I would have got here had I not gone through those things. It was a double-edged sword, right? It is, man. It's like, which one do you want? Right. Yeah. Cause I look back at my childhood and I definitely had some trauma that I just thought was normal and I didn't address it till this year i was like damn that was actually pretty bad when you talk about isn't it weird sometimes when you say it or you i think the surreal thing is when you see like a story and some people are like oh my god i can't believe that you're like that's my story like i've been through stuff like that and you're like yeah holy like it's kind of crazy no for real i mean damn homeless at 14 how long were you homeless um so i was like on and off man for a year and a half two years like stay at friend's

house here and there uh so i was about 16 uh one of my really good friends his dad figured it out rather quickly he was like you don't have anywhere to go do you and i was no no sir you know i don't he said you're not leaving here and he really took in. That's what got me through high school. It was, you know, no telling where I'd be without them. So he took me in, figured it out and let me, let me live there with him. And it was good because it kind of, I think that's when I started to blossom and really understand my personality. And I still made a ton of mistakes and it was a hard road from there, but I felt comfortable for the first time because I was living in a home I had somebody around I didn't have to bounce around because it was stressful man not knowing where you're gonna sleep trying to like yeah sell someone

to sleep at their house and can I crash on my friend's couch and you're in high school it's different right you don't have a vehicle you don't have money there's not really a whole lot you can do for real my best friend right now was homeless in uh college so i took him in hit him in my mom's basement for like a year yeah and i can relate dude i mean he was he had gray hair so like 18 years old yeah stressful super stressful i mean it sucks though and now he's a millionaire yeah there you go so similar story man i'm glad to see you beat that and shout out to that dad for taking you on man yeah he was a great man so he pretty much adopted you pretty much man. And for three years I lived there until I graduated and then moved on. But yeah, it was phenomenal. I'm blessed to

have that. I'm still friends with his son. Oh, yeah? Yeah. Unfortunately, he passed away years ago, but his son, I was literally texting him on the way here. It's crazy. We're still friends to this day. So 25, 26 years. Wow. Yeah. Still friends today. Crazy. That's a deep bond, man. There's not many of those left in my life. 100%, yeah. Only got like maybe one, one or two. Yeah, that you still talk to. Yeah.

Girl, yeah. It's weird because it's your whole life at one point, right? Yeah. And that's all you know, but then you go out in the real world. And you think about back in the day, like how much you thought those people were going to love you for the rest of your life. And now you're like, man, I don't even even know what that we're talking about this kid i used to

mess with in high school yesterday and i was like they're like what is his name and i was like i don't know i don't remember his name right and i thought that was gonna be such a huge point in my life forever yeah and he bullied you yeah i bullied him oh you were we had like a beef man we we had a beef no no not like bully we just you know how you had those kids that just you just beefed with yeah i had i had one but i never fought back honestly yeah he just bullied the no i wouldn't i wouldn't tolerate yeah i feel like i don't know without a father figure for me i just took the opposite approach so i was super shy and like reserved and i never defended myself really yeah i was the i was uh probably an extrovert hidden in an introvert's body and it was lashing out was to keep people away so i was like i was

the opposite i was like i didn't want people around so i would fight and attack back so people would leave me alone i learned if you bullied me and i punched you in the face you're gonna leave me alone which is you know it was just i was that guy like almost loud and obnoxious to stay away if they keep people at a distance because i felt like they wouldn't mess with me. Yeah, interesting. We couldn't throw hands at my school. I was from like an upper white class neighborhood. So that wasn't really a thing. That wasn't a thing.

My dad grew up with that. He said fights all the time in Pennsylvania. Yeah, there was fights all the time in our school. Yeah, you think they should bring those back? I think so. I think it's, yeah, I think with the cyberbullying, it's kind of weak. It is because you're never going to have a chance

to face the person. You're saying these stuff online right i laugh at the ufc and we're just talking about jamal hill but it's like some of the people in his comments so you know talking trash to him and i'm like bro this dude would literally murder you with his hands with one punch and you're online talking trash like if you saw him you'd probably ask for an autograph easily but you wouldn't say that to him to his face or why say it online there's no accountability zero yeah it's i think they should bring it back man yeah let them let them let them do it out especially too it's like if you're gonna say some stupid stuff like be able to back it up because what what's the purpose of it like why are you doing i i can't stand i can't stand people bullying or saying hateful things it's like yeah

well i don't understand the purpose of it Do you get a lot of hate on social media? Probably, but I don't. I laugh about it. So, like, for instance, I'm a father first. Like, I love my kids. And people have tried to, and I don't really entertain it. People have even tried to go at my kids, man. Really?

It's wild because I don't think you really get me off side with what you say because I couldn't care. I'm always like, look at the resource. So like, for instance, if somebody is a good dude and they say something bad about me, I'm probably going to call them up and find out why. Because that's a good, valid resource. Like somebody super successful or somebody that's achieved a lot of things in life and they said something about me, then there's probably some validation to it. And I want to call them up and find out why. Because if I made a mistake, I want to own it.

And I want to try to make it right. What's the resource? The guy that's not doing anything with his life, I'm like, hey, man, look at the resource. Why would I even care about that, dude? But I had some people recently, I posted a video of my kid and my 6-year-old, and I try to coach him up when we go to school. And I posted this video,

and there was some hate comments, and one guy was like, your kid looks like he's a re, and this kid's ugly. And I was just like, hey, man, Apple doesn't fall far from the tree. I'm not trying to make a joke, because I'm like, what are you doing?

That's crazy that you would go attack someone's kid. So when it happens to me, I'm like, man, make a joke about it, because that dude's probably sitting there unhappy doing nothing in his life miserable so he's got to project or project his insecurities on me and if i react to it in a negative way then i'm only playing into it making him feel better so i'm just like you know what man you need a hug like what's going on i just don't i don't play into it agreed agreed if it's a credible source i'll look into it but if not it's not even worth the time move on there's so many of them online, trolls.

I saw you just interviewed PBD. Yes. What did you take away from that one? First and foremost, I think he's a great father. I think he grounds himself in that. I think that's huge because he's more, I believe, dude, he's the real deal, man. He is hungry. You would think someone that sold their company for $250 million plus, he'd kind of be, you know, I can do whatever I want. Yeah, take a step back. Yeah, he truly wants to help people and make them better. You can see the focus, like just talking to him, the intensity and the focus.

Like it was just great. He's really out there trying to help people, and he's going on a bigger run than what he did. He keeps talking talking about this 40-year run and i believe he's going to do it he really wants to do it so i interview him it was just fun man it was great just he dropped so much knowledge and he drops so many great nuggets on you that he i think he could really help people that want to go to the next level just just even listening to his podcast, listening to his videos, you can learn so much of just the things that he's had to overcome and challenges that he had to do. You know, he didn't come from money, came from another country, had a lot of struggles and he's fought through them. So it was fun, man. He's just a, he's a good dude. I think he's

generally a good dude. I love that. I've been watching him for probably six or seven years, man. And he's taken a shift. It used to be all business and money. Now it's like politics, but he still has some really good content for sure. Yeah, yeah. So it is a lot more politics, but I think it's from a standpoint of trying to protect his kids and the people he cares about.

Because if you look at a lot of the stuff he does, he doesn't like what's going on out there and he's trying to protect his loved ones, whether you agree with him or not, right? I don't agree with what everybody says. And I try not to dabble in too much politics because I believe I want to vote on issues that I believe are right, not for a party, right? But I think he's taking a stand on what he believes is right because he doesn't want his kids to grow up in a world where they're going to be forced to do

things that he doesn't agree with. And I respect that a lot. Yeah, he's brought a lot of light to raising kids. And I like how he rewards them with books and that whole system did you see that video yeah yeah you got a lot of hate for it but i'm gonna do that my kids honestly you have to you gotta teach them we did uh so we did a vision board party for our like close friends and kids man it was really cool to see what some of the kids came up with nice and you it's so impactful like Like I use my, even my son, the other day, we take him to school. He's like, dad, it was a couple months ago. He started kindergarten. We had just moved into this neighborhood. So he didn't really know anybody. He's like, dad, I don't really know any kids at school. I'm like, well, who do you hang out with? Well,

I know this kid. And I said, Connor, just go up to him every day and just bump nubs and go up to him and just like, Hey Sean, have a great day today. Good morning. Go Joe, have a great day. Good morning. And the first day is like, how did it go, Connor? He's like, hey, Sean, have a great day today. Good morning. Go, Joe, have a great day. Good morning. And the first day, I was like, how did it go, Connor? He's like, well, Dad, they didn't really say anything. Second day, third day. I said, how'd it go third day? He goes, Dad, a couple of them said, you know, good morning back and thank you.

He goes, some didn't say anything, but I could tell what they were thinking. And now, 30 days later, he does it every morning. He goes, Dad, now they come up to me and say good morning, and they're all my friend. Right? days later he does it every morning he goes dad now they come up to me and say good morning and they're all my friend right and so it's just the impact that you can have as a father of doing those things it's huge yeah social skills are needed in kids these days because they're all on technology so it's almost like a lost art now yeah absolutely i used to play outside when i was a kid yeah remember those days yeah it's so much fun i used to leave on the bike at 3 p.m come home at like 10 yeah the, the street lights. That was it.

I don't see kids playing outside anymore, man. It's a shame. All the playgrounds are empty. Yeah. There's not even really any playgrounds, really. I mean, there's some, but yeah, you don't see the kids out. Oh, they're scarce, man. It's a shame.

Yeah, you don't see kids riding bikes anymore, anything. Technology's taking over. How old is your kid right now? I have six, three, and one. Are you giving them phones and stuff and iPads? Yeah, my six-year-old has a phone and wow that young man yeah it's dude i didn't have a phone till uh high school yeah he does but you know what's crazy about it if you monitor what he wants he's so far here i've actually caught a lot of hate for this about giving your kids ipads and phones right and i'm like but it's the way of the future you're not stopping it and so wouldn't you want your kid to have an advantage like wouldn't you want your your kids' iPads and phones, right? And I'm like, but it's the way of the future. You're not stopping

it. And so wouldn't you want your kid to have an advantage? Like, wouldn't you want your kid to be able to text and read things and understand things? My six-year-old's so smart, it's almost scary. Wow. Because he learns so many things. Now, we monitor what he watches, and we have the time that he can be on there, and we don't just free for all right but he understands so many things has a great vocabulary and he's learned it from youtube online and you know i remember but back in the day when my grandparents what did they get up and do read the whole paper front to back so reading on ipad or reading the paper you're still you're attached to something or they watch their favorite will of fortune show every night what's the difference between watching on a tv or your ipad but right it's like we've all done it in a certain way but i think if if the future is nothing but phones ai lab

laptops or ipads whatever wouldn't you want your kids to have that advantage so when they get older they're not what is this that is a good perspective of i never looked at it that way but that makes sense yeah because you're not going to deny them having technology no they're going to have to and so when your kid gets older now i do agree like six is probably a little young but it's it's you know it's fun it's fun to be able like right now i'm traveling i'm away from my family that's the hardest part of this i love being able to text my six-year-old or send him a video and say i love you and then i'll get when i'm traveling i get a text I love you dad right that's powerful to me absolutely I love that um overcoming adversity now I know we talked about how you grew up is that the main adversity you struggled with yeah that was probably the that was the hardest I think you talked about it earlier too about the trauma reliving it and facing it, I think facing all the trauma was the hardest thing.

Because you said, well, I just thought it was normal then, and so did I. And I don't think you realize the role it plays in your life. And then when you get older and, you know, I got married, I wasn't a good person. And I ran from my trauma. I ran from those called demons. And I feel like when you run from it, they just just get bigger and they get bigger and they get bigger and then eventually you can't face them because they're so big right uh facing those demons facing those was tough bringing a

child in this world and not understanding who you were not being in a situation to provide for them was tough and having to overcome all that, not knowing my real dad at all, not having my stepfather was terrible. How am I going to be a good dad? Like, what things can I do? Those were the hardest things. Like, how can I be a good husband? I have a 35-year track record of acting a certain way because of my upbringing.

I think facing that trauma and having to deal with it, it was the hardest thing to really overcome to change behaviors to look yourself in the mirror and go man i'm a loser i've been a loser my whole life damn i've been i've done this i gotta change i gotta i gotta do something different that was hard man is you don't want to have that conversation with yourself yeah admitting that at 35 i I mean, that's very tough. And a lot of guys, we have that pride, some call it ego, right? So to be able to admit that is a big step.

Yeah, that was probably the hardest thing, man, and just trying to say, look, man, I screwed up a lot, and I'm not going to fix this overnight, but I'm going to just work my ass off to try to become a better person and just focusing on being a better person every day, like trying to grow. And once you do that, it was hard though because that trauma never what i don't think what people realize about trauma is you're supposed to go talk about it and go to a therapist take medication to think it's going to go away it never goes away it's always there but it's how do you deal with it how do you

face it is i think how you start to overcome it and when you just run from it do you deal with it? How do you face it is, I think, how you start to overcome it. And when you just run from it, you never deal with it, and you try to outrun it, but it runs faster. And I think the hardest thing about trauma is you want to get to a place where it goes away, but it doesn't ever go away. It's always there. It's always in the back of your mind, right? You said you went through some traumatic stuff.

You probably think about it from time to time, right? All the time, yeah. And so how do you move on from it? You do you, you don't, but you learn to deal with it and you learn to, okay, this is a feeling right now. Just let's let this storm is going to pass. Let's not do anything stupid. And let's get through this because I'm going to feel this regardless. I might as well do something positive with it instead of a negative. And so I think like telling the story of I used to be embarrassed about being homeless. I was embarrassed about being white trash. I was embarrassed about being a loser, right?

I don't like telling the story of I had less than $300 in my checking account and I couldn't feed my wife and my son. That's not a fun story. But running from that doesn't change the story. The story is still the story. But what if I could tell the story in an aspect of it helps that person that's in the same situation I was and thinks there's not an end in sight, thinks there's no light at the end of the tunnel. He's in a dark place and letting him know, hey, man, the brightest lights always shine after the darkest moments. Just keep going. And if I can impact that one person to help get through that, that makes it worth it telling the story.

So I use that negative story and try to just turn it into a positive. Absolutely. You broke the generational cycle because who knows what trauma your biological dad had to deal with and that was passed down, right? Absolutely. My dad got physically abused. So my trauma was

he got so f***ed up, like physically abused by his dad that he was absent emotionally with me. And if I said the wrong thing, he was also bipolar, I would get yelled at. So that's why I was so shy, I think. Yeah.

Because I would just get yelled at if I said the wrong yeah you're afraid that anything you did you were there's gonna be yeah so i never spoke up in class even when the teacher called on me i wouldn't answer really yeah i was so scared of just speaking up man and now you have one of the biggest podcasts in the world how crazy is that how did it go right i know i mean you gotta face it though yes i could have kept running uh one of my brothers, unfortunately, is a huge PC gamer nerd, and he just doesn't talk. Like, he's socially awkward, and he lives in his mom's basement and plays video games all day. Really? Yeah.

So I could have ended up like that easily. Well, it's funny. So my brother, he's probably going to prison for a long time. Damn. We just found out like a month ago, two months ago, for a laundry list of felonies. We're six years apart to the day, five, six years apart, like within, and he's going for a long time. So that's the path you could go on. So there's a thin line, right? That's literally blood brother and look where he's headed. And we grew up in,

you know, we have the same mom, we have same upbringing, same trauma. And he went down that path, unfortunately. So I understand it. I had a guest yesterday. His brother is homeless, and this guy is a multimillionaire. Yeah, it's crazy. So it's crazy. It must be like a mindset thing too. It is. It's 100%. I was destined for that.

I mean, you are. You're destined for that if you don't change your mindset. It's all about the mindset and what you're capable of because he would tell, oh, you're just lucky. I'm like, what? I have no idea, man. It has nothing to do with luck. Yeah.

Was having kids that moment for you to start reflecting it was seeing my wife hold our son was the moment it was like man this woman went through so because moms are the mvps right it's crazy and seeing the what she went through to give birth to our son and i was like man i owe these i owe these to the world and i'm gonna give it to them and i'm gonna make them proud that they're like i'm their dad i'm their husband i'm gonna make these two proud of me and it was that moment of like it just we were we were talking to mirab earlier and he was like we were talking about drinking i was like yeah i don't drink anymore what happened nothing i just don't drink anymore it was the last time i drank was actually with him in san antonio for a ufc fight almost two years ago and i was just like man just don't drink anymore. The last time I drank was actually with him in San Antonio for a UFC fight almost two years ago.

And I was just like, man, I don't anymore. There's no reason. There was nothing bad happened. I just said, I just don't want my kids to wake up one day and I'm not their hero. And I just don't want to drink. There's nothing wrong with it. I just don't want to. And I want to be the best version of myself.

And if I'm drinking and partying, I don't want to be that. I want to make them proud of me. They could pick anyone in the world to be their hero. I want it to be me, and I want to be the best dad and best father I can be, try to be the best husband I can be. And it was, though, seeing my wife hold my son just felt like all the bad stuff I went through in life, it was worth it in that moment. And I was like, who cares what I've been through?

Just let me make it right from today going forward. And just try to be my best. And it was still a struggle. It wasn't just, oh, okay, I'm ready to be. But it was, man. It was definitely a point of, I'm going to make a better effort to be the best version of myself.

Love it. When I was in college, my mom dated this guy who's never been drunk before. I used to give him so much. I used to make fun of him. I was asking my mom why you're dating this loser, but looking back at it, man,

like that was a blessing. Yeah. Like I don't drink anymore. And I used to drink all the time in college daily. Yeah. Like twice a day. Yeah. You know?

And, uh, no, the guy was super accomplished and it was probably because he didn't drink. It's a big sacrifice to drink. Yeah. It does a lot to you, man. I just, man, I'd wake up.

And I started stopping after our son was born. I didn't really drink. It was probably once every couple months. But then I would go drink like every two, three, four months. And when I'd wake up, this is terrible. And I think I went a long period. I went like over a year without drinking. And then I had like two drinks one night.

And I just remember I didn't feel the same. And I'm like, I don't like this. And it just, after that night, I was like, you know what? I'm just not going to drink anymore. And how long? I don't know. And two years later, I just still just don't want to. Now, again, if we do something super special, let's go celebrate.

I'm not against it, right? Go to dinner. People drink. And I've bought drinks for people at dinner. I just don't want to right now yeah i feel that any uh other interviews that stand out to you that you've had on your show that you took a big lesson from um uh so funny story i interviewed the ceo of ufc gym his name is adam sedlak so he runs their 200 plus locations and we got to do it in the Octagon, like at their headquarters in California. That's sick.

It was so much fun. He was my first boss. So he was the first guy that promoted me when we were at 24 Hour Fitness together. Wow. So it kind of came full circle, right? Yeah, that is awesome. And just talking to him about reinventing himself as a leader, as he got older, he said, you know, when he was younger in his his leadership role he was a driver and everybody had

to work like the same hours as him and care and now he's focused more on people and it's really helped him in his leadership role and i went through that same struggle so it was it was it was really you know cool to see somebody that i looked up to and admired for a long time go through those same type of you know adversity on leadership because he was an incredible leader. He was a VP running 100-plus doors then. So 15 years ago, he was already super successful, but he went through that leadership change to go to the next level, and now he's running UFC gyms, which obviously connected

to the Petit Brothers and Dana. And that's a huge role. So he wasn't able to get to a situation like that obviously connected to the Petit brothers and Dana. And he's, see, that's, that's a huge role. So he wasn't able to get to a situation like that until he was growing as a lead leader. And so it was just a huge role that it was a reminder that we all, what got you here won't get you there. And even when you get to a high level, you still got to reinvent yourself all the time.

There's always a new problem, no matter what level of wealth. Yep. And now what are you gonna do to solve it? Absolutely. How are you going to grow? Dustin has been super fun, man. Anything you want to promote or end off with?

No, that's it, man. Um, if anybody is struggling with anything out there, just, you know, reach out to me if I can help. If you've gone through something in your life, that's the struggle, reach out. I'd love to help you. Maybe give some advice on anything. You know, that's really it. As I continue on this journey, I want to impact as many people as possible.

Amazing, man. Thanks so much for coming on. Really powerful. Appreciate it. Yeah. Thank you. Thanks for watching guys. I'll see you next time.