Digital Social Hour - Scaling to 9 Figs, Building Out Business Systems & Taking 6 Months Off | Tanner Chidester DSH #341

Episode Date: March 9, 2024

Tanner Chidester makes his return back to the digital world and explains why he took time off. APPLY TO BE ON THE PODCAST: https://forms.gle/qXvENTeurx7Xn8Ci9 BUSINESS INQUIRIES/SPONSORS: [e-mail] SPONSORS: My First Million: https://link.chtbl.com/MFM-AD Opus Pro: https://www.opus.pro/?via=DSH 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

To be frank, if you just do cool things and big things, people automatically gravitate to you and opportunities will pop up. So I think for most people, they're so worried about networking when in reality, it's like build something that people admire and then people will want to get to know you. A hundred percent. Yeah. No, I can relate because I tried doing a podcast like five years ago. Total flop. Because no one knew me. Yeah.

But once you build some stuff built the resume a bit 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 ladies and gentlemen welcome back to the show i got tanner chidester here today how's it going man it's good man thanks good, man. Thanks for having me. We got to get this done. Yeah. Flew in from Miami, right? Flew in from Miami. What's been going down over there lately? Just working a lot. So I was out of my company for about six months. I was traveling the world, got back. And then so I've just kind of been head down. So this is actually on another long stint. I was in Europe and I just

got back from that. Flew out here, going to week so wow took six months off i took six months off so i stepped out i stepped out and i was traveling the world i had a full management team in place um we could definitely get into it did not go exactly how i hoped it would go but yeah i traveled for six months and did pretty much absolutely nothing and then i've been back and i've been probably back at it like a month and a half like hard like really in the it. Yeah. And you didn't have an urge to work? Cause when I vacation, I'm like dying to work. No. So I did, but the advice I got, cause I'm transitioning to the next thing I'm transitioning to what I would consider the bigger opportunity. And the advice I got was, Hey, travel the world, come back, you know,

don't do anything, give yourself time to think. And it was tough, but they said, before you do your next thing, I'd highly recommend you did that. And it just gives you a lot of clarity because you're not doing busy work. And I think you probably, you know, recognize that sometimes, I mean, months will go by and I look at my man, like I haven't, you know, you, you've done a lot of stuff, but you don't have a lot of time to think cause you're always doing. Right. So it was definitely difficult. I'm way happier now that I'm working again. It's not good not to work, but it definitely gave me a lot of clarity for sure. Yeah.

So those six months were all in Europe? They were not. So those were not in Europe. Those were mostly, I wanted to get all the way across the world, but I didn't. I got all the way to Europe. So I did South America. I did a lot of that, like Chile. We did Argentina.

I did Easter Island. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I did that. That was interesting. We did Brazil, kind of that, like Chile. We did Argentina. I did Easter Island. Oh, yeah? Way out there. Yeah, I did that. That was interesting. We did Brazil, kind of that stuff, kind of the normal stuff. Then we went to Africa. That was amazing.

Nice. Went to Africa, like Kenya. We saw gorillas. We built some schools out there. Wow. Did some cool stuff. And then headed to Europe. We did a little bit of Greece.

And then I wanted to do Italy, France, Spain. But I kind of ran out of time, so to speak, just because I could have stayed longer, but I didn't like what was going on inside the business. So I came back, but it was, it was fun, man. I mean, it was definitely a fun experience. I love traveling. Yeah. I lived out of a suitcase for about six months. Oh, a little nomad lifestyle. I've never done it before, but it wasn't that bad. I don't know. I think, uh, because I don't own a lot of stuff, it wasn't a big deal. Yeah. Were you solo or with the girl or anything? No. So I was with this guy, unfortunately. You can't see him on screen if you're on screen.

But yeah, so that's the nasty issues of my content. So I'm glad I wasn't alone. I think you need to go with somebody. But yeah, it was fun. It was a blast. Which places out of all those really stood out to you, left an impact? So it depends on what you like, obviously. But if you are looking for you know more relaxation or like

party i'd say brazil and greece definitely top two love that i went to brazil during carnival as well so it's a fun spot and then africa totally different experience but just seeing how people lived out there and helping to build schools and then just doing the safaris and i mean we would have a lion like from me to you just walk by us. I mean, that was an amazing experience. Yeah. So the thing is, is you're in these trucks. And they're so used to it that as long as you stay in the truck,

they pretty much don't mess with you. So they'll get, I mean, three to five feet. It's crazy. Wow. I mean, you're right next to them. So you see Simba out there. But it was a fun experience. So I'd say those are the top three.

Africa was a different experience. But if that's what you're into, like traveling, seeing those types of sites and so forth, I mean, that was an amazing experience. Yeah, that's cool. Now, what's the plan now that you're back? Because you were killing it before you left. You were doing eight figures a year. So I'm curious where your mind's at now. Well, I've been doing, because I transitioned from an online fitness company to consulting for trainers to consulting kind of for everyone. And it's done super well. I mean, we did predominantly about 70 million in four years. Damn. And moved really fast. But you start just seeing, at least in my eyes, you start seeing that there's a ceiling, right? There's ceilings of certain opportunities. And I think Warren Buffett, I'm going to misquote it, but he talks about, it's not about's not about, you know, how hard you're rowing. It's about what vehicle you're in,

something to that extent. And what I've started realizing is that's kind of where I'm at, where I feel like I've accomplished everything I wanted to do. And like internet marketing, I didn't, I got into internet marketing probably for the same reason a lot of people do just broke and shout out to my first million hosted on the HubSpot Podcast Network. It is one of my favorite shows. The hosts Sean and Sam have both sold their companies for over eight figures to Amazon and HubSpot. They have on guests like Mr. Beast, Rob Dyrdek, Alex Ramosi, and much, much more. They bring on some of the top guys in their space. They'll help you brainstorm business ideas that you can start tomorrow.

It's a very tactical podcast. A lot of advice and tips in there that you can utilize right away. I've literally seen almost every episode. It's one of my favorite shows. They do it remotely, which is super impressive. In my opinion, most podcasts need to be done in person, but these two know how to make it happen. So check them out wherever you listen to podcasts. My first million. I didn't know what to do. And that's what my mentor taught me. Yeah. And I think there's a lot to learn. A lot of the billionaires I've met, they actually have internet marketing backgrounds, a lot of them, but it's just not the biggest opportunity. So if I want to build, you know, I just want to keep pushing and growing. And I think if I want to sell a company for nine or

10 figures, like I've got to expand. I think maybe the only guy or one of the few guys who really just stays in this industry and does well is like Grant Cardone, but you know, he's, he's got a massive brand and he's put a lot of time and effort into that. And you know, I just, I think that's not the direction I want to go for the rest of my life, you know? Yeah. Someone like Grant, I'd be very curious what the breakdown is on his income because he does have that huge fund. It's like 4 billion. Yeah. Yeah. Like the real estate is obviously the biggest thing he's got. I think it says like 4 billion under management or something like that. Exactly. Yeah. So I'm wondering if he makes more off the info,

the courses than his actual real estate stuff. Don't quote me on this. I don't think so. I mean, don't quote me on this, but I think, you know, they're saying he does about one, it's one to 150 a year on the courses like that. That's what I've heard.

Don't quote me on that. It could be completely wrong. But, you know, I've talked to like his right-hand guy, like I know Jerry Glantz, people like that. And I think that's what they're saying, which I, you know, when you have a massive audience, it's easy when you're good at business. And I think Grant, you know, I've talked to like his right hand guy, like I know Jerry Glantz, people like that. And I think that's what they're saying, which I, you know, when you have a massive audience, it's easy when you're good at business. And I think Grant, you know, he's got a great team. I was at his office. He's got great energy there. He's obviously good at sales. When you get free ad spend,

essentially, I mean, it makes a massive difference. Well, I mean, just by having a huge audience, you know what I mean? So, I mean, I've spent $20 million on Facebook ads, but if I, you know, I look at a guy like Iman Gadzi. I mean, I think he did a course launch. Again, I don't go quite manning his numbers, but I know people who work behind the scenes with him. I think he did $30 million on a course launch. Holy crap.

But he's doing that because his YouTube is so big. And so when you're able to not pay for any ad spend, you just make massive amounts of profit by one post here, one post there. I think that's what Grant does mostly. I mean, he just has all these companies and then he puts his name behind the companies and they just grow because he endorses them. Right. You know, so he has a big brand. Yeah. So your goal is to go all in on a personal brand this year? I think so. I think, you know, I look up to, like we were talking about Alex. I look up to Alex a lot and I'm good friends with him. And I think he you know, I look up to, like we were talking about Alex. I look up to Alex a lot, and I'm good friends with him. And I think he hit the nail on the head.

I don't think you have to have a personal brand to build something big. I mean, there's a lot of rich people who, like, we don't know. But I think it makes sense for where I'm at. I don't mind doing it. I also, you know, I'm coming from the consultant space. So I look at it more as just like, like just helping, just helping people. Right. And I'm still, I'm still trying to find the right niche for the content or making the content better. I mean, that's, it's, it's a tough nut to crack to really consistently get people to want to listen to you. And I think

without doing something crazy, right? Like, so Mr. B is like, yeah, you could do that. But I'm like, that's, that's what he does. That's his thing. And ultimately, I like growing businesses. And so I think it's finding a balance of doing some type of content that is scalable, where it's not like tiresome, it doesn't pull you away from the company. But it's also you know, people want to watch it, because if they don't want to watch it doesn't do you any good. Yeah, dude, it's very tough on your own. I couldn't imagine it on the podcast, the guests are what bring in the views. And the way Hormozy does it is incredible because he doesn't have on any guests. I think, I think Alex gets away with it though, just because two things first,

what he's accomplished. Right. And so even, even if you look at what he's done, you know, I'm like, Hey, I've done 70 million sales. You know, Alex sold a company for, I think it was like part, like 40, 60% of it for like 46.2 or something. And then he's just super well-spoken. I mean, one of the things I actually admire about him the most is he's so well-spoken. Almost where he doesn't say anything where,

you know, oh my gosh, like why did I think of that? But it's almost the way he says it, right? Like the way he can just make something that's so simplistic, but sounds so exciting or sounds so intuitive. And I really respect that about him. I don't know if you can learn it. He's just one of those people who's really just pulls people in with how he talks.

Yeah. You have a solid circle around you, group of friends. How were you able to get in that friend group? And it's so funny. The easy answer is just doing stuff that people actually admire. I've never been a huge networker and it's not because i don't enjoy it but i think past a certain point it can be a distraction right if you're networking 24 7 and you're constantly getting these dms and texts like you gotta work at some point yeah um so i never went out of my way to do that but i think as i started building my business people wanted to talk to me in fact it's this is kind of a run-on story with with me and Alex, but Alex wanted to meet me a few years ago. And I was, in my head, I was like, oh, he's trying to sell me on his supplements. So he has Prestige Labs

and it was a supplement company. And I thought he wanted me to be like a negative affiliate. And so I actually pushed him off. And then two years later, we got in this text message thread and he reached out again privately. And I was like, oh, okay. Like I need to take the call. And he just wanted to get to know me. And that's actually how we started the friendship. But to be frank, if you just do cool things and big things, people automatically gravitate to you and opportunities will pop up. Are you interested in coming on the digital social hour podcast as a guest? We'll 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. So I think for most people, they're so

worried about networking when in reality, it's like build something that people admire and then people will want to get to know you. A hundred percent. Yeah. No, it's, I can relate. Cause I tried doing a podcast like five years ago, a total flop because no one knew me. Yeah. But once you build some stuff, built the resume a bit. Well, and anyways, I don't mean to make an Alex pray, but again, just because we're on the topic, he was relatively unknown. And then he did all the stuff with the company. His book launch went really well. And really once the book launched and it was a really good book, that's when things started to blow up for him.

But he had all the credibility. And I think a lot of people, especially maybe guys like you and me, just because someone sells a company, I'm not necessarily like, oh, he sold a company because sometimes holding the company is a better option. But I think for the average viewer or listener, when they see, oh, he sold a company, that gives a lot of credibility. Obviously, at the number he sold it. But a lot of people, even if they don't know the number, if you're like, yeah, I've sold six companies, they immediately give you kind of that admiration and credibility. And so I think that's part of it. But again, it just goes back to, I think, doing big stuff. And as you do big stuff, it's easier for people to respect you because

who's saying it, right? If a billionaire is saying something versus the kindergarten teacher, they might say the same thing, but I'm going to take heed to what the billionaire says, because he's where I want to be. No, it's night and day, especially when you exit a company because I've done a few now and I used to not get responses from investors. Now I can email any investor and get a response. Right, because you've done it and it's on your resume. And so they go, okay, this guy's not a jokester. I mean, I think it makes a massive difference. Yeah. So I know one of your goals is a nine-figure exit, right? Which company is that for? So it's under the radar right now. I haven't actually brought it up yet. And I think I've done that

because it lets me make a ton of mistakes without people knowing because it's not my face on it. So everything I do right now are done in the past. It's not Tanner's on the ads, Tanner's in the marketing. For this one,

I want to relatively make it under the table. Kind of what you saw Becker do with Hyros. And so I will announce it eventually, but I think for now it's fun because I'm making a bunch of mistakes and nobody knows, and I don't have like this pressure to like perform. And so I think it will do well. What I can tell you is it hits the check boxes of, I have a document I put on my Facebook that's, you know, 30 convos with billionaires. And it wasn't all billionaires, but it was people who sold for 40 million all the way to like couple billion. And there was really three things I saw that was very interesting across the board. The people who

had billion dollar exits almost always had internet marketing backgrounds. And it's funny because, you know, sometimes internet marketing, especially as you get more seasoned, it gets a lot of flack, but you learn a lot of stuff, how to run ads, how to build a team, how to market, how to hire. I mean, there's a lot of stuff versus, you know, sometimes I'll meet someone in a Y Combinator and great idea, but they have zero execution, right? So I saw that. And then I saw a lot of them was high ticket, right? So they can bootstrap it because it's a lot faster versus getting investors. Investors aren't bad. It's just, I mean, that's a whole process, right? And then the third thing was that typically it would also be easy to zero fulfillment. So

that's really the key I've seen is consulting is great, but the reason it has limits is you cannot guarantee the same result for every client because clients have to do work. And then if you're doing it all for them, that's an agency. And typically you have to have super high end clients. So I think like Gary V's ad agency where they have clients who are doing, you know, Apple and it's like, Hey, I spent, you know, 800 billion for us and we don't care. I mean, it's not like going to be a small business owner. And so what it does hit is it's easy, low fulfillment, tight ticket. And then obviously I have internet marketing background. So we'll see, man. I mean, it could be, it could flop, but I think I've really, especially since I've made a decent amount of money, I'm really just,

I just enjoy the journey now and I don't worry so much about the outcome and it's such a better way to live your life I think yeah because at first you're chasing money but you're at the next stage where it's more about passion and purpose right

it's about growth too I just because I really struggle with that because sometimes I think well what's the point you know you have those hard days and you're just like why am I doing this to myself

but I think I get a lot of fulfillment from just trying to be the best I can be and that's what drives me and I just I just a lot of fulfillment from just trying to be the best I can be. And that's what drives me. And I just, I just genuinely enjoy it, you know? So, um, yeah, I, you know, I wish there was something else I could say besides that, but I just want to be the best I can be when I die. You know, I just want to look back and I don't want to have regrets about what I could have done. I want to look back, excuse me, and just feel like I left

it all out on the field. That's cool. So you don't have any regrets right now? Dude, that's a great question. I don't. The only regrets I would say I have is maybe staying in something too long. So I'll look back and go, man, I wish I'd stopped that a year sooner. Or like even this transition I'm going through right now, maybe a year or two sooner. But it's all 2020. I really don't. I'm going through right now, maybe a year or two sooner, sooner, but it's all 2020. Um,

I really don't, uh, one of the, one of my actually best moments in my life was when I was playing college football and I want to play in the NFL, like, you know, every other kid in America. Yeah. And, um, I was decent, but you know, I'm like, I was bigger and stuff too, but you know, I'm a, I was like one of a couple of white guys on the team and you know, I'm not the biggest not the biggest dude. I mean, I'm decent size, but when you're talking about the NFL, I mean, these guys are, you know, running four fives or 250. They're huge. Anyways, long story short, I did all the work. I did the two-a-day. I went to every two-a-day, every summer camp. I hired, you know, NFL coaches, like NFL running backs, receivers, ex-receivers, you know, stuff like that, and I did all these things, and then I played with athletes who, I mean, they wouldn't do anything. Like if you've seen Friday Night Lights with Boobie Miles, I mean, those are the guys who go pro. Those are the guys who go pro because they're

so much better than everyone else that if you think about it, that's the easiest thing to maintain. If you're naturally very skilled and you don't have to work very hard to be that skilled, you'll win a lot because these other guys are having to perform at such a high level every day. So I remember when I walked away from football because I got hurt a lot and I just had this super I was obviously disappointed and devastated but I also just had such a I don't know like such a peace of mind that I did everything I could do and there's so many people I think who walk away from opportunities where they always go man like what if I had done that had done that? And there were a lot of athletes I played with who were super skilled, but they didn't go to, you know, they didn't do weights and take care of their grades and go to practice

on time and they don't go pro. And I'm like, man, dude, it's like, you just will never really know. And for me, I left and I, I felt fine. I was like, you know, I wasn't good enough, but I had to go through that and I had to put in all the time and effort. And if I hadn't figured that out, I would have always had regret and gone man could have I could I have played in the pros could I have been good enough I don't think I was yeah maybe I could have been a benchwarmer or something but there was a guy I played with he went fifth pick in the draft he played six games in college he was 270 his name's Iggy Ansah 270 ran a 4.5 never played football in his life he ran the 100 meter so picture picture a six, five,

I think it's maybe six, seven. It's like you've seen bolt height. I mean, bro, he, I mean, he never played football. They throw him on the field. They do a kickoff. He runs down and just knocks the guy out. And he comes over and he's like, did I do good? And we're like, yeah, you did good. You know, it's that those are the guys who go pro. So anyways, um, I don't think so. I mean, I don't, I don't think I have any regrets. I mean, I'm sure if I was raised differently or brought up in a different household, maybe I would have done different things. But I feel like with all the opportunities I've been presented, I maxed out as much as I can. That's cool to see you have that all-in mentality

because I feel like a lot of athletes do retire with regrets. I'll do it 100%. But the problem is they're just so talented they never put it in. I think I was talented, but I also grew up playing sports and being one of the only white guys. And so I just knew they automatically, when I would go in, it's not bad. They would look at me like, let's see if this white guy can play. And so I always kind of had a little bit of a chip on my shoulder,

and I wanted to prove myself. And I think it was a blessing in disguise I wasn't as talented because I was a really good player, but I had to do all the extra workouts all the extra practices I also was like that in school I was an engineer and teachers would make jokes you know hey you're in the wrong class because you know the football players they take easy stuff they do PE or history um but yeah I think I got that from my dad that's one of the probably the biggest blessings I got from my dad is he is one of the hardest working people I know. And he just, I mean, he just had no sympathy.

He just would say like, yeah, you know, the world doesn't care. You got to earn everything you get. He never gave me anything outside of, you know, just providing basic necessities. And I hated him when I was a kid, but it actually turned out to be the biggest blessing I could have had. Yeah, they're doing studies on this where people grow up in rich environments. It's actually a detriment for the most part. So it's interesting to see. I think if you have kids and you make a lot of money, you need to figure out a way not to let them have the money very easily, or you just don't give it to them at all. I mean, I'm sure that could be debated. I was listening to Patrick, but David today, and he actually sounds like he's

setting up a way for this kids to get money, but they have to do X, Y, Z and ABC. And I agree because they don't value the money because they think that's normal. And it's, I mean, you and me, I came from nothing, so I just value it so much. And you'll hear people, usually the people who don't value money, they say kind of ridiculous things like, you know, hey, I should get a thousand dollar present for Christmas. I was talking about that with one of my buddies for today. And I was like, yeah, I mean, I don't know. Should you deserve a $1,000 present for Christmas? Why?

Because you're breathing? I just think it's a very different mentality. For sure, yeah. Something to think about. I mean, do you have kids yet? I don't, man. I don't. I don't know if I want kids or not.

I'm open to it. Okay. But I grew up in a family of seven kids. I was one of seven. So I feel like I had kids. I mean, because I had two brothers. I have four sisters. I think one of seven. So I feel like I had kids, you know, because I had two brothers, I have four sisters. I think you could learn a lot. I think where my head goes, it's kind of weird, but I almost think if I had a kid, it's to learn lessons. You know, it's almost like being

in a marriage. I don't, maybe my mentality is weird on it, but I don't think of it as, well, I want to be in a marriage. Well, obviously you love the person, right? But I almost think of it as what can I, what can I learn from it? What's the type of person I'm going to become versus maybe it's convenient. Cause I think a lot of the things worthwhile in life are not actually very convenient. If you think about it, right? Like building a business, going to the gym, having a great relationship, like having a great relationship is actually very difficult. And I think that's why a lot of people don't want to do it but you're not if there's no like opposing force you're not really growing um so i'm only 31 so i'm not the wisest tool in the shed i mean i i know every i don't know about you but every three

five years i look back and i just think man what an idiot you know but it's fascinating because you see guys like elon with 10 plus kids and you're like how do you have time for that does he and is it from one woman or is it multiple? No, multiple. I don't think one would be possible these days. Yeah. So I agree, but I think, I don't know on that. I'm not, I'm open to it, but I definitely think, you know, once you have kids, like

your life is not yours anymore. I don't think you're going to come first. I know you can obviously do it. There's a lot of successful guys I know who have kids. But I don't think you should take it lightly either. I think some people make those decisions very lightly. Yeah, for sure. That's not me, for sure.

So with your all-in mentality, do you believe in like a work-life balance, health balance? That's a great question. Probably not. I mean, I think it's balanced for me. I went through that. So when I hit my first million-dollar month, this was back in like 2019, and that was the goal. You know, I was like, if I hit my first million dollar a month, this was back in like 2019.

And that was the goal. You know, I was like, if I hit a million dollars in a month, I'm going to be the man. And I remember I was in a $25,000 a month penthouse. It was thousand museum. It's like one of the best places in Miami. I had a new SVJ Lamborghini all decked out. I was dating a bunch of beautiful girls. And, um, man, the next day after I hit that goal, I had this big party and I just remember looking out and thinking, man, like, is this it? Is this all it's going to be? And also realizing that I wasn't really, you know, to me, I'm like, oh man, I hit a million in a month. And there's a lot of people who'd be happy with that. But you start thinking about Mark Zuckerberg and Elon and you go, there's probably people that don't know who they are, which is crazy to think. But I promise you there's probably someone out there who doesn't know who they are.

And so I started realizing, man, no one knows about what I did. I even remember I was feeling really good, and I was like, hey, man, I just hit a million in a month. They asked. They're like, yeah, cool. Like, turn their head. And I'm like, you know, I put years of work into this, right? And so anyways, I go on this long journey kind of trying to figure out what the mean of life is. And I think, again, I brought up Alex a few times, but he's called me a few times in very critical moments.

And he just said, hey, man, you know, like, is it okay if you like to work? And I was like, well, I guess. He's like, and does there have to be a point? I was like, well, I mean, I guess not. And so I think that that's worked better for me where I'm not saying there's not a point. I guess just what's helped me is instead of trying to delve 20 layers and trying to figure out, well, what's the point of this? And what's the point of life?

And what's the point of this job? It's just breaking it down to, I like to work hard. I like to grow. I like to build things. I like to push myself. And so I think for most people, they look at my life and think it's not very balanced. But to be honest, I have more fun at parties and dinners than anyone else

because I'm working so hard all the time. When I finally kind of take the foot off the gas, I think you enjoy it more versus the person who parties like every day or every weekend. I don't think you can, how can you enjoy doing the same thing all the time? They're running through their dopamine. And it's also, it's just,

so people will say that about work, but the thing with work is it's hard. And I think we're meant to work hard. I think humans were meant to do hard things and our lives are just so convenient now. We don't have to find food. We don't have to get water. We don't have to build shelter. So I think people have just gotten this kind of lazy mentality, but I don't think we're meant to do that. I think we're meant to work hard every day. So I enjoy it. I don't think I'm ever going to stop working hard. And that was freeing for me because you make all this money to get freedom and then you get the freedom and you go, man, it's not really that great.

And then you want to work again and kind of keep building stuff. But I think taking my focus off money has been a big blessing because all I cared about was how much revenue I was doing in a month. And yeah, it's part of the game, but it's just go so far beyond that, I think. Right. So you're not setting financial goals anymore. You're just living in the moment.

No, I mean, I do, but I think it's just, it was like at all costs, right? It was at all costs. And I think it was at the detriment of my leadership sometimes and like how I treated people and stuff like that. And I think ultimately what I've started to realize, if you really want to build something big, not, you know, even one, two million a month, whatever, but I'm talking big, you got to treat people right. And you got to give, people have to get something back in return. And so I think I was so like me, me, me, me, me, margin, margin, margin. Now my mindset is, yeah, you have to look at the numbers, but it's got to be advantageous

for the other party, right? Especially if you want a high level person. If I want someone who I think is like, quote unquote, my caliber, they're going to want a good deal. They're going to want to get paid well and compensated. And so I think sometimes, you know, when you're building a business from scratch and you're a first timer, you know, you're just like, okay, like this person is 2000, this person's 4000. Okay, I'm gonna hire the 2000 person. And that's not necessarily always the right business decision because sometimes paying more, you get more out of that person and they actually help carry your company a lot more. So, um, I mean, I think at the highest level of this game, it's all about building a team. Like a real CEO's job is to assemble the team to do the work. That's his job.

Yes. You're at that next level. You were doing one to two mil a month for two, three years. How big was the team during that? Oh, dude, man, we're doing like, we had as high as a hundred. So I still have a decent sized team. We definitely, you got a little fat. I think sometimes when you're like crushing it, you're just like, oh, we need this. We need that. And you're just throwing money left and right because you have it in abundance, but we got about 60-ish now. Okay. So definitely smaller. I think our average is about 80.

So we're a little bit smaller, but we're leaner and we're tighter. But I think sometimes the downside of getting bigger is that your managers get so far away from the action that your best players are not in the arena. And so when you downsize, really, that's usually the goal is like you're getting the top players back kind of in the kind of mix. And that's kind of where we're at right now. Yeah. So it's been a lot better. So like year one, were you just crushing it out the gate? Or how did this growth happen? So yeah, year one was trash. So I dropped out of school with a year left. I was going to be an engineer. I had 3.9. And my whole family's like, you're an idiot. And I thought I was an

idiot. But I just realized it wasn't going to get me to my goal of making millions of dollars. And I had a mentor who said dropout. So I dropped out and I started building this fitness business called the rapid muscle system. And it took me a year to build. I go to sell it. It's crickets. I can't sell it. No one's buying it. I'm selling, I think in two years I sold $2,000 worth. So what, 20 to 30 of them. And I get through the end of those two years. And during those two years though, I'm learning about funnels and emails and all this type of stuff.

And I'm doing door-to-door sales and I'm a server. And then finally, I actually see a program, probably like similar to like mine. It's like how to build an online fitness company. So I get on, they pressure me super hard. I had no idea what high ticket sales were. You gotta pay today or you can't come back. So I gave him a two grand out of my bank account and put three on a credit card. And then it just clicked. And all I really

did is I just changed my pricing from 47 to 1500 plus. And I got on a phone and I was really good at sales. And I did a million bucks that year. And I got a lot of recognition from ClickFunnels. So a lot of trainers started reaching out to me privately and said, hey, like, can you help me? And I said, okay, cool. And that business, that was my biggest year of growth with one to 10 million. I mean, it was like,

that was the craziest year of my life. I think I had no friends. I didn't see anyone. I just worked. And then we started going to kind of general. We did elite sales and then we went from 10 to 15, to 15, about 18.

Then we got over 20. And that's kind of like, that's pretty much kind of where we like peaked out, like got very close to 2 million a month, but never got past that. And, um, then, you know, I started thinking, well, what else can I do? What else can I do? And then that's where more of my mindset to the bigger opportunities came in, where, you know, I have to put in a hundred percent more effort to get 20% more growth, right. Or 10% more growth. And I started thinking, man, there's gotta be something that's easier for me to put my time and effort into. And that's when I started traveling and interviewing these

billionaires. And that's really kind of where my mindset shift happened. Yeah, man, these billionaires that you're talking to must be, you mentioned mentors a few times now. Can you name some of your mentors? Well, yeah mean obviously like um i mean i view him more as a friend but i mean i i watch kind of what he does from early alex marosi i mean i think uh like i try to keep the combos we have non-business related because i think what i'm trying to avoid is him thinking like i'm his friend for that that's not what i want but i i don't think i need to ask him a lot of stuff i think um i watch his stuff from afar and then he'll also just he just the way he talks is very interesting you know like need to ask him a lot of stuff. I think, um, I watch his stuff from afar and then he'll also just, he just, the way he talks is very interesting. You know, like I'll ask him a

question. He's like, well, what, you know, he'll, he'll say like a one liner of, yeah, that sounds about right. Or, you know, he'll say, well, what do you think? And he kind of does these stuff where it's kind of introspective and you're able to answer it on your own. Um, outside of him, I don't think there's like anyone that's super set. There's no one I really talked to on a consistent basis. I think more than anything, when I've had these discussions, I would either get, you know, intro by someone, or there's actually apps out there where you can like pay for like, you know, X amount of time. Like I think Patrick Beck David has one that's called Manect and you can pay. I mean, it's pretty petty. You got to pay him like 30 Gs,

but you can get like an hour. Yeah. Stuff like that, where I would take advantage of it. And then what I would do is I go on and just have very specific questions. And then I made a big document. And that really kind of led me in the right direction. Wow. So you paid PBD 30? Geez. I didn't. No, I didn't pay him that to talk to him. What I actually did is, that's an option. What I did is I actually sent him a couple videos. It was much cheaper. It was like, I think it was like 500 bucks a video. But I kind of asked him a similar question. And I was like, hey, so what would you do in my situation and so forth? And his advice was actually very good.

It was very similar to everyone else. He said, so what I would do is like, go talk to as many private equity guys as you can. Figure out what are the biggest opportunities. Once you figure out the biggest opportunity, find a CEO who sold that type of company who's like in the non-compete phase, so they don't care. And then he's like, then do that. Wow. And it's so simple, but it actually makes so much sense because i was like well what should i do next and what's the biggest opportunity and he's like he just basically said like it was like a one or two minute video and that was all i needed and the reason i did that is sometimes

like i will pay the 10 to 30k or like i have a coach right actually there's a coach right now that you mentioned um his name's steve hardison um He's 200,000 for a year. He's working with some very high level people. I'm not going to mention a couple of names because I don't know if he wants me to, but I mean, prominent NBA players, prominent TV hosts, you know, anyways, and he's more, it's weird for me to say, but he's more of like a mindset coach, but I don't know. I've never been big on mindset in the sense of just a lot of people in mindset coach, but I don't know. I've never been big on mindset in the sense of just a lot of people in that realm. Sometimes I find them, I've never been in the mindset space because I think there's a lot of, I don't want to say odd people, like odd people

where they kind of, they push it and it's the NLP space, right? Well, yeah. And just like some of the stuff they say, they're like, oh, well this and that. And I'm like, but you're not where I want to be. And so this, this guy, Steve, for example, he's had about 600 clients who paid him 200,000. So if you do the math, that's like, what, close to 150 million. Just from that. And he just focuses on how you think. He just, all it is, is like, how you think. And like, that's not going to do it justice, but he only does two hour sessions. I have to fly out biweekly. It's in Phoenix. He only does in person. He won't fly anywhere. People like have tried to pay him more money. He won't do it.

But yeah, between those two guys, I also got to spend time in Africa with Russell Brunson. So I probably should have paid him some money at this point. Cause like his team always hits me up to like join inner circle and stuff. But like, I got to have like an eight hour conversation with him. And he told me about all the struggles and like, he's like, yeah, we almost went bankrupt here. I was like, man, that's crazy because he's, he's super successful. And you would just never think sometimes that these people go through struggles, but I think

all the successful people I meet, the number one thing, it's just so interesting. They all have that story, but yeah. So I started this and then I wasn't sure it was going to work. And then it did. And so I would say, I'd say recently, like obviously a lot of Alex, cause I consider him a good friend, but outside of him, Steve, and then I think Russell in Africa, but there's, there's no one super consistent. I think the only reason for that is what I was looking for is to kind of figure out my next thing. And now that I've done it, as I start building it, I think that will be when I look for another mentor of like, okay, here's the type of company

I'm trying to build who's done that and then kind of align with them. But what I wanted to do initially was get a bunch of different perspectives because that's how I think you kind of, you look for the same thing that they say, if that makes sense. So when I had all these conversations,

I narrowed it down those three things. And it was internet marketing background, easy to low fulfillment, and usually it was high ticket if they bootstrapped it. And I want to bootstrap it just because I'm not against VC capital, but that's a whole nother skill to learn, right? Got to go out, do a pitch, got to talk to people. I'm not against it, but I just, you know, bootstrap is like what I've done. You would need a mentor just for that part of it. Probably, right? And so, yeah, I mean, no one, no one like super specific right now but i mean over the years i've probably spent three million bucks on coaching i mean i've hired everybody that's

awesome dude it's been a blast anything you want to close off with or promote no man uh i appreciate you having me i mean i if someone hears this and they want to connect what i probably ask them to do is uh you know like dm me on ig and like put like sean kelly or something so i know they came from here but other than that mean, that'd be it. Yeah, we'll link the IG in the video. Thanks for coming on, man. Yeah, thanks for having me. Yeah, thanks for watching, guys, as always.

And I'll see you tomorrow.