EntreLeadership - #202: EntreLeadership Summit Day 2—Coach Lou Holtz

Episode Date: May 24, 2017

We start the second day of our special EntreLeadership Summit podcast series with an excerpt from today’s talk by one of the winningest college football coaches of all time—Lou Holtz. Lou shares his simple rule to success, which works for life or business. As a bonus, podcast host Ken Coleman interviews Coach Lou on the characteristics of a championship team, plus much more. Country superstar and entrepreneur John Rich also stops by. Then, we end the day with two EntreLeaders who share their stories.   Summit Swag-Bag Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

helping business leaders grow themselves, their team, and their profits. This is the Entree Leadership Podcast. Now, here is your host, Ken Coleman. Broadcasting from Orlando, Florida. This is the podcast of leaders, by leaders, four leaders. Thank you so much for joining the conversation. It's day two at our Entree Leadership Summit and day two of our daily episodes. We are having so much fun disrupting your normal subscription service.

You're loving it, and we'd love for you to share it with other people. Now, here's what's coming up in today's episode. We're going to give you excerpts from Lou Holtz's talk on stage, and then I interviewed Coach Holtz offstage. We're going to give you two different pieces of content there, sure to inspire you. And then we had a few attendees, Rachel and Angel, members of our All Access community that will stop by. And I love what they share about the special community in All Access.

And then we'll give you a little bit more content from Countrystar John Rich. Well, folks, you heard Lou Holtz on this podcast several months ago, and now you get to hear him and his talk on the stage. And let me just say this. In all of the years that I have hosted live events, and I'm now coming up on 15 years. I have never had a speaker get a curtain call, and that's what happened. He finished his talk.

I walked out on the stage, shook his hand and clapped for him. He walked off the stage, and the crowd would not stop clapping. They began to roar, and I got to tell you, it was such an awkward moment because I knew they were cheering for Lou, but I was on the stage. So I rushed back behind the stage, called Lou back. He came out. The crowd was still going nuts, and the chance of Lou, Lou, Lou, rang throughout the room. Why? Because it was truly an amazing talk. Here's just a bit of what they heard. Thank you. Wow. I've never seen a group this big since we lost a football game and the alumni hell got together. I'm overwhelmed. This is really impressive. You know, I'm absolutely delighted to be with you today.

And he told you a little bit about who I am. Let me tell you what I know about you. I know we have approximately 757 businesses represented. 19% of the audience are owners, 18% are presidents, and 16% are managers. We have health care, construction, manufacturing, and real estate. So many areas represent. in it. But I also know I'm talking to a very, very successful group of people. Now, I know

immediately that you've had to persist, you've had to overcome problems and difficulty, that you're very intelligent, that you're goal-oriented, that you communicate with people. I understand that about you. And I'm not going to preach to your lecture to you. 10% of you won't remember 10% of what it said 10 minutes after said it. But I want to share thoughts and ideas. The things I'm going to share with you are things that happened to me. I'm not going to talk. about something I heard about or read it. These are things I truly believe. But first, understand who I'm not.

I'm not a singer. I'm not a dancer. I'm not an entertainer. I'm not an intellect. When I graduated from high school, I was in the lower third of my high school class. If it was not for people like me, there could have been no upper half the class. I was just on the bottom. But I am an expert at following instructions.

Nobody follows instructions as well as me. I've been married 56 years, so I know how to follow instructions. And I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth. I was born in Fallsby, West Virginia, during the Depression. I was loved by my parents that I was taught. The number one, I was born in this country, the greatest country in the world. And if I was willing to work and make good decisions and persevere, that I could have wonderful things happen to me in my life.

That's why I was born with a silver spoon on my mouth because of what I was taught and not because of what we had. See, ladies gentlemen, we're going to have problems and difficulties. Don't tell people about your problem. 90% don't care, and the other 10% are glad you got them, so you better off keep on yourself. But we always have problems. Father Hessberg said to me, in an hour,

we're going to go into that press conference, and I'm going to announce to the world that Lou Holtz is a head football coach at Notre Dame. He said, what I could not announce, that you're the leader of the Notre Dame football team. He said, I can give you the title because titles come from above. I can't name you the leader because the players are determined if you're a leader. I said, what makes a leader, father? He said, if you're going to be a leader of an organization, number one, you have to have a vision where you want to take that organization.

Number two, you have to have a plan how you're going to get there. Number three, you lead by example. But number four, you hold people accountable for the choices they make. And number five, make sure everybody in that organization understands your core values. Now, I know I'm talking to a very, very successful group of people. There's a real life you're either growing or you're dying. The tree's either growing or is dying. So is grass.

So is a marriage. So is a business. So is a person. It doesn't have a thing to do with age. I'm so old now my birthday candles cost more in the cake but has everything to do am I trying to get better am I trying to maintain

you know you get on top we finish second of the country at Notre Dame and everybody called me an idiot guy finishes last medical school they call him doctor it doesn't seem fair but that's the way life is if I could say anything more important to you I'd say in this beautiful environment sometime in the next 24 hours

sit down and ask yourself, where do I want to be a year from now? Where do I be a year from now professionally? Where do I want to be a year from now in my personal life? Where do I want to be a year from now financially? And then answer these questions honestly. What skills and talents do you have to acquire in order to do that? What sacrifices are you willing to make to get it done? What financial price are you willing to pay in order to get that done?

who do you have to work with the order to get done? What problems in the obstacles you're going to have to overcome in order to get it done? And what's your plan to do it? Everybody needs four things in your life. Everybody needs something to do, something you're passionate about. Everybody

needs someone to love. Everybody needs something to hope for. Everybody needs someone to believe in, but having something to hope for determines whether you're going or dying. And I say to this, the more successful you are, the more more there's a tendency, let's not risk anything, let's not change it, let's maintain.

Anytime you try to maintain any phase of your life, you never have any excitement. You have no enthusiasm, you're nothing to get excited about. See, ladies and gentlemen, and I want to give you a simple plan. See, life is nothing more than making good choices. There are approximately 422,000 words in the English language, and yet the most important word to me by far as a word choice. Wherever you are, good or bad, because of choices you make.

And how do I get my people to make good choices? How do I build a great team? How do I build a great family? How do I get my children where they can be independent, move on with their life? Hey gentlemen, my greatest accomplishment by far is not coaching,

not speaking, not TV. My greatest accomplishment's my family. I do not believe you have to sacrifice your personal life in order to be successful, professionally, or vice versa. See, ladies gentlemen, I'm not very smart and I try to simplify things.

I don't know why we complicate life. Do you realize there are only seven colors of the rainbow? Think about it. Look what Michael Angelo did with those seven colors. There's only seven musical notes, no more. Look what Beethoven did with them. There's only ten numbers. Look what Bernie Madoff did with those.

I'm not saying it has to be good. Do what's right. Do what's right and avoid what's wrong. I think it's right to be honest, right to be on time, right to be loyal. I think it's wrong to find a teammates' wallet before he lost it. That's called stealing sound. I think it's wrong to be bitter. We all have injustices done to us.

I go the University of Arkansas of their seven years, seven bull bids, four top ten finishes, graduated our athletes, read an honest program, best one lost record in the history of Arkansas, second best one lost record in the history of the Southwest Conference, only did they're a while.

And to show their appreciation for what I did, they fired me. Without a word. Out of expectantly, why? Best interest in the program. I was so mad, I was so bitter. I knew where all the bodies were, buried. Eyes going to the media.

Boy, he said, no, we know what we did. We'll move on. She talked me out of habit of press conference. I never said a negative word when we moved on. Two years later, Gene Corrigan, the AD at Notre Dame hired me, told me this story personally. He called Frank Boros. They said, we're looking at a lot of different

football coaches, but we wonder what happened with Lou Holt. Frank Burroughs said, I listened to somebody to tell me something that wasn't true. He said, dumbens decision I made was letting him go. His best football coach I've been around. I know he's always the one to coach in Notre Dame. If you can hire Lou Holtz, don't even talk to anybody else. I end up at Notre Dame because my wife would not allow me

to be better. I'm not saying you don't have a reason to a society, to a spouse. We all have injustice is done. Remember I told you life? Most important words, the word choice. You can choose to act or procrastinate, believe or doubt, prayer, curse, help her heal, succeed or fail. But you also choose whether you're going to have a proper attitude. I think attitude is more important than anything else. What's your attitude when things go wrong? See, ladies gentlemen, the same things in building a team in business or building a team of coming together is all understanding the obligations you have to other people. Embrace change. We see a lot of changes going on. Embrace them. Make any changes you need to make.

As long as you're changing to satisfy the needs of the customer and to make a profit. I want everybody in this room to envision a huge train wreck. I want you to envision two trains coming out. Wow. I'll guarantee you. Everybody in this room envision that train wreck from a safe distance away.

You're saying, wow, is that going to be a bad train wreck? Now I want you to envision a train wreck, but you're on the train. Now you're going to make whatever changes you have to make to avoid the train wreck. As long as we sit on the outside, say, well, that isn't going to affect me. We aren't going to make the changes we need to make. How you doing out there, Facebook? I'm Ken Coleman. This is Coach Lou Holtz, and we're coming to you from Summit 2017.

We have a great crowd here watching, and Coach Luholtz just walked off the stage to a raucous standing ovation. an unbelievable talk to these leaders. So we're going to give you a little bit of his wisdom. And for those of you that are watching, and you would love to ask a million questions, and I'll do my best to ask questions that you would want to ask. So I think, coach, we start out. One of the things I think would be great is, in your own words,

what are the characteristics of a championship team? I think you have to have talent. You can't win without talent. But I think that number one is deciding what you want to do as a group. I think everything starts with the goal. When I was growing up, I never had any goals, you know. And the second grade, the nuns ask everybody what do you want to be.

I want to be a lawyer. I want to be a doctor, a fireman, a pleaser. I want to be a garbage collector. It's really, why is that? I said, they only work on Tuesdays. You know, work one day a week. That's pretty good. But everything starts to get with the goal,

and getting everybody to subjectate their own personal welfare for the overall good of the group. And that's where there's a love and a feeling. I don't care whether it's business. I don't care if it's with their team. It's where you don't. want to let the other person down. I'm going to decree on June 1st to visit with the truth. The thing I learned in the military, you cannot let your fellow soldier down because it may

cost their life. And when you develop that sense of responsibility to other people, other in yourself, where you subjugate your personal welfare for the overall welfare group, you are going to have a great organization. Yeah. One of the things I've always admired about coaches, certainly in college, is that you have a different team every year, much like business people have influx and outflow. And so you've got freshmen coming in, talented freshmen that you'd recruit, and then you're losing seniors and veteran players. How did you approach that every season to kind of keep the system and the culture intact? The first meeting with the freshmen, when they came in, first thing they did, they were giving a sheet of paper and a pencil and they

wrote their parents and thanked them for the opportunity. They say, I'll call them. I'll email. No, you're going to write them. You call them, that's fine. But when you write somebody, they're going to read a 20 to 25 times. The second thing I informed them, you will become us. We didn't bring you here so we can become you. You're going to come here to become us. I don't care how you wore your socks in high school.

You're going to do it, the Notre Dame, and the South Carolina, the Arkansas, or whatever, you're going to learn to become us. Then, when somebody comes into your organization, they can have talent. They've never been criticized before. This is one of the problems with the younger people today. They don't know how to take criticism.

Well, same thing with the star athlete. He's never been criticized. He's never been forced to do little things the right way. He's never had to play a role on a team. He's always better. And they've got to learn all these things. That's why each player was assigned a big brother. And that big brother had to have dinner with him one time a week and explain to him.

Hey, I know what you're saying. You've never been to. I know. I've been to, trust me, listen to him. But they learn to make good choices. And that's what I thought about. There can be a million things. go against you. We can find a million

reason why we can't do something. But I just think it's having a faith and a belief in where you're going and how you're going to get there. Another thing that I admire about coaches, we see you make big decisions in front of millions of people. Obviously, Notre Dame, you're on NBC every week,

and you're in a clutch situation, the game's on the line, and it's your decision as the head coach. You've got a great assistant staff, right? But it's your decision. How did you prepare leading up to those moment so that you knew to trust your head or your heart when it came to a crunch time decision because leaders out in business have to make big decisions all the time as well.

How did you train yourself or prepare yourself to make a pressure decision? I think in learning to make a big decision of critical time, who can I trust and get it done? In other words, all I ask out of people is to be consistent. I'd say to Tony Ray's, if you're going to throw an interception, fine, throw it every time. If you're going to throw it in the stands every time. But don't throw an interception one time a perfect fact, because then I don't know what to expect. I got to know what to expect.

And I know what our mandate is. I know what we're trying to accomplish. What do I have to do in order to get it? You've got to evaluate an awful lot of different things. How good is our kick game? Is our defense playing well? Do we have enough points to win? Are we going to be in a shootout?

You have to take all those things. But understand it, it isn't. Let's follow this rule. What do I have to do in order to succeed? What do we need to do? and what are our players capable of doing? Give your players something they can do and demand they do it.

Do not accept anything like that. Don't ask your players to do something they can't physically do because then it does nothing but frustrating. But also you build a confidence. I had tough practices because I wanted the games to be easy for people. Same thing with my children. Put high standards on my children, not something that they couldn't do.

All I ask them do is be the best thing could possibly be. aren't you doing the best you can? That's all. Yeah. Coach, one of the most important things that business leaders have to do is getting the right people on the team and then in the right position. You have a lot of experience with this. Maybe you recruited a player for one position.

They get there in practice or training camp, and then you see maybe they need to be in another position. Talk about the wisdom that you learned on getting the right person in the right position to help the overall team. I think that not many people know. I am vice president of a company called Zotech out of Indianapolis. And my job is vice president is building a team to come together. And so when I'm talking about it, I'm not just talking about coaching,

but I'm trying to put that team together the same way I put a football team together. What talents does he have? What talents do he have? And let's utilize the talents that he has. And I said to an individual when I first went there, I said, I want you to remember something. It's your obligation to please the chairman. It's not the chairman's obligation to please you.

I said, oh, no, no, that's how screwed up it was. So all I ask people to do is I'm going to give you something you can do, and I'm going to demand you do it. And that's all. Making decisions, what can I count on? What can I expect? What am I trying to accomplish? Am I trying to keep these people happy?

Too many people in a leadership role. I want to keep Taylor happy, so I'm going to do this. point is that I'm not going to worry about pleasing an individual. I'm going to worry about the overall welfare of the group and what do we have to do for the group, not the individual for the group. Coach, we have a lot of people watching at home and here at this event that want to make the most of their lives. They're high achievers. And it strikes me that you won a national championship, but obviously there are many great coaches that never won a championship.

And I hear a lot of coaches that have won give advice to those that haven't that really they don't change as a person the night after or the morning after that championship. But it is the pinnacle. I want you to talk about striving for the highest achievement possible in your field, yet at the same time having peace that whether or not you win that championship or not, you still go down as a winner. Talk about that contrast. I think you don't win a national championship. You wake up one day and you are. You become a national champion because you take care of little things each and every day. You understand what you're trying to do, but you don't get overwhelmed that that's the only thing that matters.

What do we have to do to get it done? When people ask me to write Lou Holtz 88 national champs, I'm so tempted to write 88 national champs, screwed in 89, 90, 93. But other people to find that, you know what's really amazing. You have a lot of people here. You have Dave Ramsey who, what he's accomplished is tremendous. I'm here because of what other people did. I wasn't a very good athlete.

I had other people block, tackle, coach, etc. And I just, a simple individual that keeps sight of what I'm trying to do. I think everything starts with a goal. And then asking yourself, what sacrifice by willing to make to do it, what financial price by willing to pay, what skills and talents do I have to acquire or do this, Who do I have to work with? What's our plan? And what problems are going to have to overcome?

Don't complicate life. But I don't think that winning a national championship makes you a great coach. I think that people say, what do you want on your tombstone? I want to say I told you I was sick. Nobody believes that you're ever sick. If you are going to put that on, say he believed in people and he believed in fundamentals. I think everything starts with fundamentals. We spent a lot of time on just the basic blocking and tackling of it.

Well, sir, your coaching career, the results of former players certainly prove what you would like folks to write on your grave. And you've added tremendous value to these people at this live event and these people watching at home on Facebook live. Coach Lou Holtz. Well, I hope you enjoyed that. And I want to remind you that the Entry Leadership Facebook page, a great place for you to be hanging out if you'd like to see some of this. that was happening on the Facebook live stage here at Summit. Really, really great content, so go check that out.

Also, remember, this is another opportunity to get the Summit swag bag. This is your last call, so you don't want to miss this. The team at Entree Leadership has put together a digital swag bag, if you will. It's going to be the downloadable version of our event guide. That is what the attendees are taking notes in here at Summit. And just think about that. It is essentially the outline of our speakers. talks. Also, you're going to hear success stories from other entree leaders and some takeaways,

speaker notes, bonus articles, and so much more, including an actual e-book of Entree leadership. So that is amazing resource in and of itself. So it's for limited time, and we're going to take this offer down in July. So you've got to move on this. A couple ways to get it. You can click on the link in the show notes of this episode, or you can text the phrase, summit show. That's all word, if you will, smash Summit and Show together. Summit Show. Text that to 33444. That's 3344. Well, folks, I love when we get real people telling us real stories. I set this up at the top of the podcast. Let's get right to it. I sat down on the Facebook live stage here at Summit with Rachel and Angel, two women, very successful in their own businesses, but they met in the online community that we call

All Access, specifically in the Mastermind group. They've become great friends and great. encouragement to each other, hear their story. All right, Facebook Live, welcome back. We're here on the 2017 Live Summit Stage. You've got a great crowd here. Yes, fantastic group, and I'm really excited because I've got two attendees, two fabulous ladies that I've just met, my new friends, Rachel and Angel Ladies. Thanks for being with me.

Thank you for having us. All right, yes, and they have their own fan club as well. It's very exciting. I'm going to start traveling around with three or four people that just go, woo, every time. that I talk. So real quick, let's start with you, Angel. Tell folks that are watching at home, what do you do? What is your business? What is your role? I'm Assistant Angel. We do digital and social media marketing and we train virtual assistants. All right, what's your role? I'm the owner. You're the owner. Okay, gotcha. All right. Rachel? My name is Rachel Carroll and I own the

neuromuscular studio in Tempe, Arizona. We do medical massage therapy. We help people have less pain, more movement and better lives. All right, so how many times have you ever been to an entree leadership event or is this your first time? You both have. Yes. Okay. I was at Summit last year.

Okay. So why come back to a summit two years in a row? I actually signed up for 18 before I even arrived today. I do a lot of training, just the nature of my business. And I have to say last year's summit was probably the best training I got all year. And I used that booklet and I went back. They even did bonus material. and it was powerful all year long.

It benefits all year long. Rachel, why summit? This is my first summit. Okay. I've been to an E1D, and I'm a member of All Access. But my first summit, I really felt like I needed that community. It's one thing to be on a webinar once a month with your mastermind, talking about goals, but you develop this sense of community with people,

and it's so nice to be able to have one-on-one personal conversations and have people that you have seen on your computer screen and through Facebook and be able to give them a hug and say thank you for all of your support. And that group of women that are screaming down front here, they're from the mastermind community. So you've met online. I want you to describe for somebody who has no idea what all access is, no idea what our mastermind looks like.

How did you connect with these ladies? By sheer chance, I guess, luck of the draw or intentionality, if you will. I happen to be part of a group that the women are dynamic. And we all have separate businesses, but we all learn from each other. We all have the same challenges. We all have the same struggles, and we all have the same goals for achieving for our business, but we go about them and we have different avenues of achieving those. And so it has just been an honor and a pleasure to be a part of this group

and have them support me in everything that I'm trying to do with my business. All right, Angel, you said earlier that last year's summit was one of the best trainings that you'd ever been to. Yes. Give me a couple takeaways, things that are still bouncing around in your head or heart from today. One of the most powerful things of any day

is that you learn why you're in business. Being an entree leader is no joke. It's hard work. You're going out. You're killing things. You're bringing it back. You support other businesses, other people, your team.

You make sure they have a job. And to be able to know why you're doing it and that you're not alone. That is literally the most powerful piece is you're not alone. It's okay. We're all cry. We all ball down. We pick up. And the big thing we heard this week was all about failure. Like one thing Rachel will tell you is a lot of us will text throughout the week. Our mastermind community is literally the lifeline of our businesses. Wow, I love that. Texting throughout the week. Are you getting a little teary-eyed right up here?

Yeah, sorry. I mean, she said you guys cry and then I thought I saw you start to cry. This is so exciting. Folks, they call me the Barbara Walters of Ontario leadership. And this is why. That's really cool. Tell me, no, seriously. I'm having fun because I wanted you to get it together there, right? Yeah. But I also think that that's really cool.

Why? Why the emotion in the midst of what she was saying? Because being an entrepreneur can be a very lonely place. We work a lot of hours to get our businesses off the ground, and then we work a lot of hours trying to figure out how to maintain them, and then we work a lot of hours trying to figure out how to grow and scale. And whatever stage you are at in your business, you have to work a lot at it, you know, if you're not growing, you're dead, right? I mean, that's just how it is.

And it's very, very easy to get back into your shell, you know, and not have that community and feel isolated. And with this support, I don't feel isolated. Yeah, there's clearly a connection here. It's beyond the woo's. I mean, like, is it fair to say, ladies in the front row, you deeply care? about each other? Yes. Yeah.

I mean, you might be getting a little teary-eyed as a matter of fact. I don't know. This is unbelievable. All right, so this is really neat. I love this. Something for you today, a big takeaway. What's rattling around in your head? Well, first and foremost, that really, truly, we're not alone, right?

Another big takeaway was with Robert Hershevec talking about, I'm going to cry again. That's okay. This is all excited. I'm hoping that we all start to cry at some point. I think it would be a lot of fun. Talking about his father. father, you know? What an amazing story, you know, about like, that's the reason we work hard. I have a husband who is incredibly supportive. I have a three-year-old daughter who I'm not going

to get that time back, you know, and trying to find the time in the midst of being an entrepreneur to spend with them. And then in the back of my head, knowing that everything that I do in my business is because of them, you know, it's this give and take, right? And so his story about, providing for his father and giving back to his father really hit home for me. It was amazing. That was special. It was great. All right, Angel Rachel, look at that camera and there are people out there watching this and they're going, all right, obviously they're at the summit of it. Obviously, Entree leadership wants us to come to it and we've told them why we think it's great. But from your unique perspective, we'll start with you, Angel, why should

somebody considering coming decide to come? I think the biggest win, all access and the events, It isn't just the material that's incredible. It isn't just the content you take with you. It's the people. I have met some incredible business owners in every industry, agriculture, IT, healthcare, and you're like, oh, you struggle with that too? How you help each other.

There's actually a common ground. So the most important message is you're not alone and that we can link arms and together we really can change the world. I really believe that. That's awesome. My takeaway from Summit, this is my third conference this year in 2017. This year was the year that I wanted to be all in with my business, and I truly am putting everything into it. This is my first summit, my first summit experience, but I will say hands down, no one does a business conference like Dave Ramsey.

Absolutely. Hands down. From the moment that I arrived, the level of professionalism and the level of integrity and the level of ingenuity with everything that I have. have seen. All the pieces are together. Everything is perfect. I couldn't ask for a better experience. Oh, thank you. Angel, Rachel, thank you both. Thank you. So much for hanging out with me. We believe in this community. It's so special. These ladies are exhibit A and B of what entree leaders look like. So one more time. Thank you, ladies. Thank you to the great live crowd. All right, folks, as we finish up our second daily episode, how about some John Rich?

You know, this guy is a country music superstar, but the thing we admire most about him in Ontario leadership is his entrepreneurial spirit and his entrepreneurial track record. Our crowd loves him. Here's a little bit of John Rich from the Summit stage. Country music stars, real ones are everywhere, and wannabes are more than that, right? They're pretty prolific. And so I've gotten to meet a lot of these guys, and I've got to tell you, it's very interesting. I don't know a lot of rock stars. I know a few of them, but I know a bunch of the country names.

and there's only two types. They're almost like football players. There's only two types. There's ones that really grasp and understand business. They're a whole lot smarter and know a lot more and do a lot more that you never knew they had their hands on. From behind the scenes, their business acumen is incredible. And then there's ones that really all they should do is sing.

Because they really, anything else, they screw it up. You know what I'm saying? A few years ago, I got to be about a decade or so. I started becoming friends with John Rich, and I got to tell you, he is not only a world-class, you know, Grammy-nominated musician and all that kind of thing, but he's a brilliant entrepreneur and marketer. And I thought it kind of fit with this whole story thing to let him tell a couple of the stories and let you see behind the scenes some of the stuff that goes on in that world and some of the things he's working on, because I think they're applicable, and it's kind of interesting as well, kind of fun.

So please welcome to stage my friend John Rich. All right, man. Eddie. Dave Ramsey, everybody. Dave Rangier. Oh, yeah. Yeah, cousin Dave. There you go.

So, we'll start with this. A couple years ago, we were sitting on my deck. You were telling me you were going to commit a career suicide and go on the celebrity apprentice. And I'm like, John, your personality, because he's firing Brimstone, he gets with it. I don't know how you're going to do that. And I didn't try to talk you out of it, but I kind of rolled my eyes. at you. And I told you, I said, man, you better be careful. That's the dadgum

trap door up there. You can fall through that thing. Which is your way of talking somebody out of it? You just go, oh, boy. Dave does that. Be careful. I was completely wrong. He goes up there, and if you don't know the story, he ended up winning, a celebrity apprentice. And Sharon and I got to go

to the finale with you and Joan up there and some other friends of ours and everything. So we're behind the scenes with Donald and, I mean, the president. Who knew? Who knew? I don't know. You may be classified information now, but probably not. Talk about that. I think you can pretty much say whatever you want to.

Yeah, I guess. Talk about that experience behind the scenes and some of the fun stuff, number one, but number two, what did you get out of that? What did you learn about that? Learn through that process. Well, it was, I went to play for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, and Dave was one of my donors towards a $1.4 million earnings that we got. So I went to play for.

that. But Dave's right that that that that's like as we would say walking barefoot through a landmine field. I mean it's just there's a hundred ways to look terrible on that show and the directors and the producers are trying to put you in situations where you'll look bad because that makes good TV. So really for me it was an exercise in restraint because um they keep throwing all this stuff at you and and I just had to go normally I would probably say or do that but I'm not going to do it. I'm not taking debate. And I think it was in kind of a real-time, odd way, a lesson of, as I was moving into some other entrepreneurial things, that when you're sitting in a room with a bunch of people you don't know,

don't always take debate. You know, I think in Proverbs it says even a fool is considered wise if he keeps his mouth shut. And so kind of that was kind of my practice of, I don't really know what they're trying to pull off here, but I'm not saying anything yet. And so it was kind of against my nature to do that, but I did learn that restraint is a great way to be perceived in a way that you want to be perceived and ultimately try to win. You know, we talked about that actually when you came back and it affected actually some of the talk I did yesterday morning a little bit. And Simon will talk about in a few minutes the power of having a why in your thing. And when we came home, I don't put words in your mouth, but you said the reason you were able to do that is you weren't playing for John Rich. you were.

I plan for something bigger than yourself. I mean, I knew these kids in Memphis are going to be sitting in the big commune area there every Sunday night watching Celebrity Apprentice and the last thing I was going to do was say or do something to embarrass them. And I wanted to represent the place, well, whether

I won or not, I wanted to rep it well, you know, and be somebody they were proud of. So it definitely changed my attitude. And actually, you wouldn't think something as silly as a TV show or a reality TV show, whatever. affect you like that, but it really did teach me a lesson of don't always say what you're thinking and hold off until you know it's the right time to make that move and then make it effectively.

It turned out to be a huge brand left for you as well. So you've done a bunch of other stuff that, I mean, behind the scenes, you own a ton of publishing, a ton of writing. Talk about some of the other things you've done that they may not know this whole thing that has become what may be the biggest thing that you ever own and nobody knows you own it hardly. It is this whole Redneck Riviera thing. Talk about this. Redneck Riviera. Raise your hand if you ever heard the phrase Redneck Riviera. All right. Lots of people. It's what they call the Gulf Coast because you can't afford to go to the French Riviera, so you go where? Redneck Riviera, right?

And the beautiful sand, beautiful water. And it's like a blue-collar version of, you know, a fancy beach. You can afford to go there. There's probably 100 million Americans or more that go there every single year. And so I was down there wondering who owned the trademark to Redneck Riviera. So I called my attorney up. This is nine years ago. And I said, hey, who owns a trademark to Redneck Riviera? He calls back and says, you're not going to believe it. Nobody's ever trademarked the phrase Redneck Riviera. The attorney calls back and he goes, well, now I know why nobody's ever trademarked it. I said, why's that? He said, they say you can't trademark a geographical location. I said, well, that's the wrong answer.

He goes, well, that's the answer. And I said, well, I don't like it. And he said, well, I don't know what you want me to say. I said, well, call him back. Call that guy at the government back, I think is what I said. Ask him where he thinks it is if it's a geographical location. He goes, okay. John wants to know where you think it is.

The answer comes back. It's literally the Wikipedia version of it. It says the Redneck Riviera is the Gulf Coast of the United States. of America in between Destin, Florida and Gulf Shores, Alabama, otherwise known as the Emerald Coast. So the guy's sitting in his office looking up Wikipedia. I said, oh, perfect. Now I got this guy. I said, Redneck Revere is the same place Margaritaville is. It's a state of mine. It's a lifestyle. And I presented that to him. And sure enough, trademark office and the arm wrestling match, boom, I got them. So they started qualifying all my categories.

Check and mate. Just proving the government doesn't know everything. Shocker Blue your mind That's why we got you here The big stuff right there That's it That's it You know it's just growing

I mean the thing about Redneck Riviera And I think this goes with any entrepreneur Out there is What is the narrative of your brand You know you can have a great product And have a great phrase like Redneck Riviera But what's the narrative behind it Redneck Riviera could have easily just been

T-shirts you buy in a truck stop And it could have just been that And so I said well I know what it means to me I mean, Redneck Riviera basically is where people go that their budget allows them to go there and not somewhere that costs more than that. But they go down there and they play hard and have a great time. They are the work-hard, play-hard people of America. So we say Redneck Riviera's America's work-hard, play-hard brand. We support our veterans.

We hire veterans in our places. Yeah. So it's America's brand. Have you had with the licensing, why is it not John? Rich's Redneck Riviera? Well, I used my pictures and stuff on it, so country music fans or anybody that knows me will go, oh, that's his deal. I'm going to go check it out.

But it's not called John Rich's Redneck Revere because it's been called Redneck Revere since before I was born, and it will be called that long after I'm gone. So I never wanted my success or decline as the decades go by to ever impact the brand. I wanted to put a narrative behind that brand like Work Hard, Play Hard, and establish what it really stands for without it always hinging on my name. So we've got everything from veterinarians to Dennis, to personal trainers, to heat and air people, you name it in the place. The average size company, the vast majority of them, 70% or so, the people sitting here,

are running or in some way leading companies that have less than 25, 30 people is the average size in the room. That's the backbone of America. It's small business, yeah. Absolutely. Me too. So what would your advice be to them? I think it's like anything else. You know, every market is oversaturated.

Everybody's trying to, everybody's got a website, everybody's got everything. You've got to come up with what your, I would say the word is narrative. Why is your heating an air company, not that heating an air company? Or if you're training people, why are you different than that guy or that girl? You know, you have to, you know, everybody's got a different set of fingerprints. So we're all different if you're willing to be honest enough. I think the more you're willing to do that, identify who it is that you think will identify with you.

And you've got to put it out there clear as a bell, man. I mean, be unapologetic with your message about this is what I'm for. I mean, look at Dave. Dave's like, you need to cut them damn credit cards up, throw them in a trash can, you know. You can have a debit card, but you can't have a credit card. Okay. Well, you hear anybody else yelling that all the time for 25 years? No.

And look at the impact, David. because he's willing to put it right on you, even though everybody's, well, I want to debate that. Well, Dave's not going to debate it because that's what Dave thinks. You don't have to have everybody liking you. It's okay, matter of fact, if some people don't like you, that's how you know you're rocking pretty hard. You want certain people to be pissed off at what you're doing because they're going, I wish they'd stop doing that. Well, at least I know I'm on your radar enough that you're upset about it.

You know, you have to come at these people and define what your message is, whether it's big and rich or redneck riviera or dave rams here or whatever it is when you i think that's that's the difference between who wins and who doesn't win is they understand your message right off the bat you guys want to hear him do a couple songs want to sing a song all right right thanks dave thank you brother i'm going to get out of the way all right so uh i wrote this song a few years ago i saw a bumper sticker on the back of this big full-wheel drive and i said That's a funny bumper sticker right there. I wonder if I can make that into a song.

And it just so happens I had this crazy buddy named Big Kenny, who was crazy enough to help me write it. So congratulations to everybody that's here. If you're in this room, you're serious about your business, and you could not have a better guy than Dave Ramsey and his team to give you direction and advice. And I think America's looking strong in this room, as far as I'm concerned, man.

You guys are making it happen. Pleasure to sing for you today. Well, I walk into the room, pass a $100 bills, and it kills, and it drill, like the horns on my Silver Rino Grill. Unbelievable, day two in the books. Hey, listen, if you want to take advantage of this stuff, subscribe, subscribe, subscribe. And if you're already a subscriber first, thank you. Second, would you spread the word? Very easy to share.

We'd love for you to do that. We've got more great content coming your way from day three, and we're going to have some bonus episodes. later in the week. So, spread the word. Antri Leadership Podcast is here to help you grow yourself so you can grow your team and grow your profits. Hey folks, we are always so very grateful for your time and we thank you. But remember, we're coming back to you tomorrow. That's real soon.