Right About Now - Legendary Business Advice - Harder Than Life with Kelly Siegel

Episode Date: June 27, 2023

Get ready for an episode of The Radcast that you won't want to miss! We're thrilled to introduce you to Kelly Siegel, a true trailblazer in the world of technology and leadership.Kelly takes us on a journey through his life and career, sharing the highs and lows that ultimately led him to become a successful CEO of National Technology Management (NTM) and a successful author. From humble beginnings to his early days as a salesman, Kelly's story is one of perseverance and determination in the face of adversity.Plus, get the inside scoop on Kelly's areas of expertise and his pivotal role in the tech sector. You'll also learn about his involvement in notable projects that have had a lasting impact on the IT industry.So sit back, relax, and tune in to this inspiring episode!Show notes from this episode: The duo both speak about their childhood experiences and how their different upbringings molded them into who they are today. Kelly also shares his experience with therapy and the benefits it has brought. (00:34) Kelly delves fully into his success story and the trials and tribulations that came along with it.  He gives advice on how consistent discipline and mandatory routines helped shape him. (09:06) Kelly and Ryan share the parallels between work and gym life. They open up about their personal experiences and shed light on how embracing the gym lifestyle has influenced them in profound ways. The duo  discuss how incorporating regular workouts into their routines has positively affected their physical health, mental well-being, and overall quality of life. (12:09) Ryan and Kelly's discussion revolves around the notion that overcoming fear, embracing vulnerability, and being comfortable with discomfort were pivotal in shaping their business. Kelly then highlights the power of vulnerability in his business growth yet soon realized that vulnerability fosters connection and authenticity. (18:30) Kelly vividly describes the "light bulb" moment when he realized that social media could be a catalyst for agitating learning strategies. He goes on to speak about his experience with his own podcast, being present in the digital world, and the occasional online detox that comes with that. (24:28) Ryan and Kelly share their future goals and visions for the future of both of their brands, work, and personal lives. Kelly expresses his passion for helping young  vulnerable individuals and his belief in the power of charity to transform their lives. (35:20) This episode is packed with information, wisdom, and passion and we know you will get a ton of value from this.If you want to learn more about Kelly Siegel, follow him on Instagram @kelly.siegel.71 and checkout his podcast https://www.harderthanlife.com/podcasts/Learn more by visiting our website at www.theradcast.comSubscribe to our YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/c/RadicalHomeofTheRadcastIf you enjoyed this episode of The Radcast, Like, Share, and leave us a review! If you enjoyed this episode and want to learn more, join Ryan’s newsletter https://ryanalford.com/newsletter/ to get Ferrari level advice daily for FREE.  Learn how to build a 7 figure business from your personal brand by signing up for a FREE introduction to personal branding https://ryanalford.com/personalbranding.  Learn more by visiting our website at www.ryanisright.comSubscribe to our YouTube channel  www.youtube.com/@RightAboutNowwithRyanAlford. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

You're listening to The Radcast, a top 25 worldwide business podcast. If it's radical, we cover it. Here's your host, Ryan Alford. Hey guys, what's up? Welcome to the latest edition of the Radcast. They say, if it's radical, we cover it. It's definitely radical today, folks. We're in studio with my friend Kelly Siegel, CEO of National Technology Management, author of Harder Than Life.

Kelly Brothers, great to have you, man. It's been an honor enjoying every minute being here. You've got a heck of a staff, amazing operation here. You're brilliant. So thank you for, I felt very welcome. Thank you. I'm glad you here, man. It's been good.

I know we connected. I've been on your show. I didn't want you on our show. We've been collaborating. And I don't know, I think we only come up with 12 business ideas today. I'm sure dinner will come up with 30 more. I just said, I think we were opening a pizza place. now. We're going to take over AMway.

Yeah. You're a franchise social house in Detroit. Yes. I'm surprised there hasn't been any bad stuff like strippers or anything like that. No, no. Hey, it's early. It's early. It's all good. No, man. I'm really thankful that you're here. Glad that our audience can be able to hear your story.

I've got your book here. Looking forward to digging more than just into the Cliff's notes. I appreciate it. I got to get your autograph, your John Hancock on this baby before it's all said and done. Holding this up for anybody watching. So you know what you're looking for when you go to Amazon. We'll talk more about that harder than life.

Kelly, let's start where we always start at the beginning or as far back as you want to take us. But let's give everybody a little taste of Kelly Siegel. You're going to put me on a spot. But I tell you, I've been a salesman my whole life. So you're a marketing genius. I'm a sales genius. I started a paper route. I went door-to-door sales selling candy a long, long time ago.

And I was good at it. I could sell candy to people that couldn't have sweets. It's good thing of the word. Ice daiskemos, diabetes getting candy. I can remember what I did. I'd say to them, you could put these out for your guests. It's kind of like me with alcohol. I just supply everything for everybody.

And everything I've touched, I've grown. And as we're trying to build the heart and life brand for charity, we're growing leaps and bounds. And you said it best on the ride from the airport is you be your authentic and genuine self and it's going to sell and it's going to do well. And I don't know any other way. Honesty, integrity is National Technology Manager, which is paying the bills. It's the IT company that I've owned for years.

That's one of our core values. It's actually a personal core value of mine. I am going to say what I mean, if it's kind. And I'm not going to pull any punches. Just out to make a dent in the world, I've lived a very tumultuous childhood, which I was telling you about, which I got to hear about your childhood and your family being amazing and makes me very envious. My mother and my stepfather, you can read about it in the heart and life book.

We're very physically and emotionally abusive. That's why I've built this physique to protect myself and that you so quickly make me look small. But I'm going to get you in the gym tomorrow. I know. I'm already sore. I figuratively sore in my head. I'll be real sore in the morning. You know what's great about life?

There are no coincidences. And I said that too. It's I just found you on social media. We've connected. We've made it with. We've got a brotherhood. We're going to do business together. I've already sent you some business.

Yeah. And that's what the world is all about. So you make your own weather in this world. I could sit back and be a victim and say, woe is me. Why didn't my parents love me? And I'm not enough and all these things and drink and do drugs and just waste my life away. But instead, I use it as a chip on my shoulder and making something of it.

And then now I've done so much therapy, I don't have that chip anymore. And I was telling you this morning, I'm my plane right here. It's like the first time of my life, really feel like I am where I'm supposed to be. And it's, I walk in this building and I feel like family. You've been wonderful. And it's just a start of a very long, good business, friendship and relationship. Yeah, I loved it.

And I do want people, though, to read your book to really understand. We've talked about it in depth today. And obviously, we could talk for three hours on a show about it. But I don't think people, some people take for granted. things that they have. Me talking to you even today, talking about my parents, my childhood and all that. And I didn't grow up with money either. But I did grow up with loving family. And that in a way is greater than money and having that support. And so it's, we can't take for granted the loved ones and the support that they give,

whether it's, even if you don't talk to them every day, but knowing that they're there. Because that's, it's kind of, if you live in a warm area, but it gets cold sometimes, you've got a blanket in the closet. You can get out and put it on. You when it gets cold. There's comfort in that, even when you're not using it. There's comfort that I can call my dad about anything. And you didn't have that. And I think, I don't know, it's eye-opening for me while also being appreciative of what I have. But I think it's also molded you into who you are.

You wouldn't be telling you that you are today without that. You know what I'm saying? So there's a blessing behind every negative in a way. If you take it that way, yes. Everything happens for you, not to you. but most people don't realize that. And yeah, I have it in the book and it's going to be gross. I'm sorry, Grace, but one of my first jobs was I had to empty a jar of piss, literally.

My stepdad would go hide from my crazy mother because they were drunk. And he had to hide from her because she stabbed him once and tried to kill him several times, lit the house on fire. This is all in the book. So my job was to make his bed, do clean his room and make sure he had work clothes. and empty this jar of piss. And if I didn't do it, he would take it and throw it on my bed. So it had created more work for me. So what did I?

Sick and twisted mind? Didn't think that I think it was gross. But I think if I didn't do my job, right the first time, it made it harder because then I had to fix. It had to clean my bed. Disgusting. I know. But hey, to this day, I do things right the first time every time. So I want to go back to what you said about your parents.

I would trade every dollar. I have for a loving, supporting mother. I just, and I can feel how much you love your mother. And it's just, I've had thousands and thousands of dollars in therapy and hours in therapy that when, and I'm real close. I just coming out of EMDR therapy, I'm grinding at myself. And I'm harder than life. And it's not easy.

I make it look easy, but it's not. There's certain, I was in therapy this week doing it and I was crying my eyes out for 30 minutes. but afterwards it was like a good workout. So I feel good. I'm grinding through it. It just took a little later than most people. But I'm also very fortunate that I'm not like some of my high school friends that are dead are in jail. So I leveraged it.

And I've only just begun. My life may be half over, but it's just beginning. It's not halfway. I'm not halfway through with what I'm going to accomplish. That's why I'm here with you. Like you said, we. Everything happens for reason. And I think, but what fascinating.

me, the more I'm getting to know you, you're so damn successful, though. Like most people can't make that transition. Yeah, they maybe are the victim or whatever, or they're not smart enough or they're not, but there's a drive in you that got you to this point, even through some of the trials and tribulations and addictions, everything that you're transparent about in the book. What did that come from? I always joke Ryan and I haven't said it to you yet that I'm the chosen one. I'm Jewish.

Jesus was a Jew. I just think that there's certain times that I should be dead. And I've been shot at. I've been stabbed. People with, I've been run over by cars. I'm still here. There's got to be a reason for it.

So now I've figured it out that I'm going to do good and we're going to donate to charity. We're going to, I do a lot of work on my mind and I read a lot. Just constantly trying to make a bigger shadow. to help more people. So I can't really explain it. That's also why I'm probably not a good coach. I just,

I can't explain to you that desire to succeed. I wake up in the morning and my eyes pop open and I want to win. I want to win and winning is more fun than fun is fun to me. And I just, whatever I have to do, that's what that's honest integrity within moral reason, I'm going to do. So I'm an unstoppable force.

I'm going to get to where we want to get. And there's no reason why anything is going to stop me. So talk about national technology management or maybe even leading up to that, like as far as your career goes. So you've been driven. Bad childhood. Overcame your upbringing. Always driven, though. Made the most of your opportunities.

Worked hard for those opportunities. But what's been that business journey? That's a great question. And it's just perfect because it came right off of saying, man, you're so successful and you're so driven. There are no coincidences. These things just keep lining up. I put a reel up that talked about how I started the National Technology Management.

It was just dumb luck. I was on a golf course one day. And my partner, phone just kept ringing and ringing and ringing. And I, what do you do? And he said, he was a consultant in the technology business. And I was like, how much do you make? And he tells me. I was like, if you make that, I could double that.

And I was right. So I just, and I started the business on a credit card and a dream, literally. I was making six figures as a number one salesman at a company. And I quit cold turkey at 22 or 23 and started what now is called National Technology Management. At that time, it was called Kelly Communications. And the logo was a bulldog. That doesn't surprise you. And I used to go, J squared.

I used to go door to door beating on doors and selling phone systems, phone service. And just my big mantra was, I wouldn't take no for an answer. It was just the consistency in the discipline. And people like that story. And I just, no matter what, I felt like, I got up every day and I made a hundred touches of people, whether it was a phone call, whether it was knocking on doors, whether it was an email. And you got to remember, I sold it. the internet to people. I'm going to date myself. I've sold the internet to people their first

ever internet connection. So when I started selling internet, we were doing dial-up at AOL. I would tell people that you're going to need this more than air one day. And here we are. Can you hear me now, baby? Now I'll use myself. Yeah. Oh, that's right. That's the sprint. The Sprint one. Verizon. That was my first campaign that worked on. I remember Blackberries. We had to integrate Blackberries to the network. Yeah. And it was just crazy. How crazy does things just overnight gone?

So you ask me how it's just, it's consistency, discipline, doing the right thing day in and day out over and over despite how you feel what the world is against you and whatever's going on in life. And what's interesting, though, is, and again, I keep referencing the book, but you can read deeper into these stories. You did all of this and built a multimillion. dollar company through a lot of addictions and demons and everything else, right? Hard of life, baby.

So you think it's hard to do these things anyway, folks, it's a lot harder to do them when you're lining up obstacles for yourself and you still did it. Right. That's a great metaphor. We are our own worst enemies. We do things that are counterproductive that sabotage our own self. And sometimes we do it because of limiting beliefs. Sometimes we do it just because we're just because we're.

just young. That was a badge of honor for me to go out partying with my customers until we hours of the morning get up, go hit the gym, and then get to the office. And as long as I hit the gym and showed up to work every day, I rationalized and justified my own BS to party all night. And then what happened is just kept going and kept going. And it never really got out of hand or maybe it did. I don't know.

It's probably where you're standing. But it got boring. And it got old real fast. And then life began when I said, I'm just, I'm going to take, I didn't hit rock bottom. I just said, I'm done with the naughty water. And now life got really good. And again, I'm sitting here at the Radcast with you having a blast, living a dream, man. So, yeah, for young people, I got a lot of young followers, don't fight against yourself.

Don't work against yourself. It's silly. So if you just do certain disciplines day in and day out, and you can pick up any book. Nobody has any kind of a, it's work. out physically move your body, even if it's just to walk around outside in nature, do some sort of meditation, read, take some, do some journaling, just these things, winning habits day in and day out, and then go forward with something that makes you passionate, that can make you some money. You are brilliant at marketing and you went off into the car business. Who knows? That's working

against yourself. That's right. There are no freaking tricks to success. There's no tips. There's no elevator to success. There's no escalator. Work works. The harder you work, the luckier you get. You know that. Yeah, it's true. Talking with Kelly Siegel, author of Harder Than Life. Kelly, I've always said there's like these parallels with work and life and the gym. And obviously physical fitness is important to you. I'm sitting here in studio looking in jealousy at Kelly's biceps. I don't know if I need to hit those harder, I'm going,

I'm going to go to the gym later for the second time today. But it's obviously important to you. You've always obviously prioritized it. But maybe talk about how in good, bad, and now at a great point in your life, how the gym's been so important in that evolution. I just realized, you saw me, the epiphany, the smoke just came out of my ears, that I didn't prioritize it as much as I necessitized it, if that's a word. I needed it. It was protection against the beatings from my stepfather.

He was a big boy, 250, 260, 62. I was 5 foot nothing. As you just showed, we just took the picture together. I'm vertically challenged, but not horizontally challenged. I'm a tree trunk. You dwarf me. but at the end of the day, you just asked me how I did it. It was survival, man.

Everything I've done is to not die. And working out so my stepdad wouldn't kick my behind parts. Because there was a couple times, then I put that in the book where he drowned me. I almost died. I've had a couple near death experiences from my parents. Yeah, working out is just, it's a necessity like breathing for me. So I would say I prioritize it, but if I don't do it, I wouldn't be here calm and cool and collected. But you obviously transitioned from at a certain point you crossed over from he isn't going to,

he's scared to you and you weren't scared to him probably. So obviously that passed. So in your 20s, 30s, now 40s like me, like it's obviously stuck with you, the passion, the desire to look good, feel good, all those things. Don't you think that people ask me, like I'm all, I have my, I always work out. It's like you said, it's necessity as my oxygen. So I don't have to like motivate myself, but certainly some days I'm more motivated than others. But what is it all the same drive like everything else for you like?

You're driven to do good in business. You're driven to work hard. The gym once you got out of, okay, your stepdad wasn't the longer behind. behind your back. What kept the motivation there? You're just making me think today. How you do anything is how you do everything. And if you've,

in the little time that we know each other, I do everything the right way. I don't get cheated. I'm coming in with all the evil intent you can do. So when I go to the gym, you're going to see it tomorrow, bro. Just to sleep tonight, my friend.

Oh, yeah. We're going to lift some heavy weights. Yeah. And we're going to move. We're going to shake the building up. And when I, when, National Technology Management comes to assist you with your IT needs,

we'd shake the building up. When I wrote the book, we shake the building up. So if we're going to do something, we're going to do it right. And my four agreements book I just gave you was always do your best. It's my best. I'm going to bring it every single time. To give you the dad's story, I don't think it's in the book. As a matter of fact, so what finally got me thrown out of the house and I didn't realize

that this was as easy as I called my stepfather out. I started lifting heavy. To get confidence. And you're like, okay, I can help. It was like five foot nothing. And he's six foot two, two 60. And I came home five minutes late. And I had a full time job and was an A student.

I was a good kid. And they treated me like dirt. And you just see me just get angry. And I was five minutes late from my curfew. He's, I'm going to keep you up. And I had to work at 7 a.m. And he's, I'm going to keep you up and teach you a lesson. And I think I've got to about two o'clock in the morning.

I looked down. I said, okay, you got two choices. Option A, you let me go to sleep. Option B, I make you. And he goes, get out of my. my house. I go, come on, let's go outside. You and me. And he's always challenged me like that. And I called him out. And he wouldn't because he had to be, he had to be my spotter. And he was spotting me with the weight. And part of me would like to go back and pop him one,

but he's an old man now. And yeah, the filist doesn't solve anything. It sounds fun, though. What's been your biggest challenging challenge building your business? I would guess. Let me guess. And then you tell me what it is. You're going to nail it. So. It's usually a control thing. It starts there. But then it's also the expectations that everyone's like you are driven like you are going to do it. Maybe not exactly that you're worried about them doing it exactly like you, but they have that exact firecracker fire inside them.

Growing up with an abusive family, I didn't trust anybody. Didn't trust myself. I was scared. I was nervous. So you always feel like the rug's going to be pulled out from underneath you. So it was as much of a motivator as it was a detractor. How I started a full-blown IT company was the same way. I was a consultant for the telecom business, and I was sitting on my boat in the middle of the lake.

And I said, who can beat me? And I said, it's going to be somebody that can do the integration. So I set out and did that. So a lot of what I did was out of fear. And so you take those two things that you just said, and you add in fear that you don't know that exists because you think that you're tougher. Yeah. And you start thinking things are personal when they're not.

So if an employee or a customer takes a shot at you that isn't a shot at you, it feels like a shot. That was when I said to you today at lunch about vulnerability, realizing that, hey, that felt like it was a shot and they have that an uncomfortable conversation because I wasn't taught emotional intelligence. We weren't taught anything. I was taught survival. How did not get your ass kicked? This was my survival.

And sneak around so you didn't get beat. So I hope that answers your question. It was long. But those two things plus there was a lot of fear. And then when you give up that fear and you lose that chip on your foot, you think that you've lost your edge. So that. So being comfortable,

it's being comfortable being comfortable being, comfortable, Ryan. Yeah. Not being uncomfortable because my whole life has been uncomfortable. Kelly, I want to just made me think it's really interesting. I think we're both having these epiphanies that we're talking. It's just the beauty of the podcasting. But like, I hear you say that.

People like you, I am starting to be enlightened that like you've been looking behind and over your shoulder so long and having no support that like when it's actually there, you don't know how to handle it. Like, you know what I'm saying? And like the, so it's kind of like the boogeyman that's in the room that's no longer in the room, but you still think he's there, but he's not. Do you know how uncomfortable it is sitting in there with you helping me? Do you see how I kept pivoting back to going, what can I do for you?

What can I do for you? You pick that up right away. It's just, it's got to be even Steven. I'm a big win guy. It has to be a win for the customer, win for you, win for me. but it's very uncomfortable to this day. I'm always looking over my shoulder. Flew here first class.

I'm like, what I supposed to? I just told you in my neighborhood in Michigan, I walk around. I don't know if I'm not supposed to be here. Being comfortable, being comfortable. We didn't have any food in the house. When I get hungry, look out. I start looking around like survival. Even though you went to Whole Foods Day before I spent $400 probably.

You're like, who am I going to fight for these bananas? Wait, it's just me. We were pegging me good And that's why we're brothers, man And it's, you know, there's going to be times where you're going to see me get really squirmy But I'm going to sit in my shit And I'm going to freaking go right through it

Because I may be afraid But I know on the other side of that fear Is our dreams But I do think that's for like people listening I think a lot of people Have had trauma Everybody's some or some There's no comparison of trauma

It's been trauma And it's difficult, and I've had trauma, but not the level of trauma that we're talking about, but when actually it gets the way it's supposed to be, it's not being thankful, but it's not about being thankful, but it's about dropping your guard and like that vulnerability and like the things that allow you to enjoy the moment, I would imagine. And I think people listening like probably relate to that a lot. enjoying the moment. That's where I said the being comfortable, being comfortable, because I've never

enjoyed a moment. I've done some crazy things. I've done some fabulous things. I've never been present because I always feeling like the rugs are going to be pulled out from underneath you. And some of that drives you and some of that makes you who you are and it's great. But then it's, but there's this thing called, it's a Latin name, Mommento Mori. We're all going to die, Ryan. And I don't mean to be gruesome. But we got out. There's so many people that never live, never live a day in their life. I'm going to tell you right now, I'm going to live. And I'm living today.

Today's been great. And we're going to go to dinner and we're going to, we're going to open 30 more businesses. And I'm excited. And I'm glad to be. Carpe DM. Isn't it? That seized the day.

Is that what that is? Yeah. I don't know. I always say, too, you do you? What do they say? You only live once and I say, that's crazy. We only die once. We live every day.

So why I wake up and be miserable? You make your own weather. Just life is so good. if you just get out of your own way and let it happen. Now, listen, I can be mad at my parents all they want. They did the best they could. They did. And they weren't capable of doing any better.

I've forgiven them. Do I have them in my life? No. They never will be. I'll see them at their funeral. Some people say that that's harsh. This is how I cope. It's all good.

I'm not perfect. I'm just getting better and better every day. When did the social media light bulb go off for you? I like asking people this. That I now know, have it's gone off because and we'll give kelly's all his plugs on instagram and all this stuff so you can go follow him but it's obviously that light bulb went off at some point but what was the light bulb moment for you of the power of social media i have not probably right now i'm sitting on the radcast

from social media i i think some parts of social media have a 14 year old daughter are bad i think a lot of people, I think it's one of the toxins of the world with alcohol and drugs. If it's, you say everything in moderation, including moderation, it's good. There's people that scroll all day. If you can't sit alone with your thoughts and feelings, you got a problem and address that. And on the other side, that's good. So when did it, that's it, I've never been asked that question. But you embraced it at some point.

And it was before us sitting here because you've got a, unless you got 90,000 followers, 100,000, whatever you've gotten a day. I know you haven't, but at some point you went, I got to get in on that because you knew that it could help your business and we're going to talk about the podcast and all that. But at some point, the light bulb went off. Yeah, I would say in the last couple weeks, we just, we added 20,000 followers in the last few weeks from releasing good, solid, consistent content that people want to consume. It doesn't come without a lot of detractors. And that's why I'm here talking with you because this is what you guys do at Radicals. Where it went off in the last month or so.

And you know what? When I really, I had two reels go hit a million. That's when you're like, whoa, maybe I do know what I'm talking about. Now, growing up again, my, and I'm not trying to make excuses, but growing up the way that I did, it's hard to have confidence. You know, you look and he's always confident. He's cocky, he's arrogant or whatever I am. There's still some limiting beliefs. And I would have fought you up until I did the EMDR this week.

and so I think I broke loose so many things that I just went back. I was like, man, I am enough. So in the last month, Ryan. Because you got, somebody encouraged you to do it. You started doing it. Then you're like, oh shit, this actually has. You gave me. You're making me think.

You know what it happened? I started these videos, these morning videos, Segal things. Yeah. That were motivational during the pandemic. And I was getting. brutalized by my friends. They're like, that is stupid. You don't know what you're talking about.

You know, what did, that I knew I was out of something. Yeah. If you're bothering somebody, then you're doing something, right? I'm that kind of agitator. So that when I, what do you say that?

All right. You said a word. You said a buzzword. So I got to stop you. For anyone listening, agitational content breaks through. Grace, my assistant's over here nodding because that's one of my buzz words,

but agitation, you're striking a nerve, you're doing it right. I haven't even started to agitate yet. Because I will tell you, I just put a post stuff that I feel this last week I broke something loose in therapy that I'm my most,

when I'm agitating and having a smile on my face doing it, that's when you know I'm my true authentic self. So if I'm thinking, that means I'm trying to be politically correct and I'm trying to spin it nice. But when I just rip it, which is most of the reels that are coming out right now.

We're just throwing at each other and something. Oh, I'm happy and I'm really happy. And I like to stir the pot a little bit. You know what? Stir in the pot is so simple to do right now because they say 1% of the people control everything. If you're a 1% or that means you're going to upset 99% of the people and it's pretty easy by just saying what I do. I just post that I work out every day.

And that agitates people. Really? Oh, wow. You prioritize that. How dare you? Heaven forbid. Yeah. And I post every day.

And I do these videos with my shirt off and I'm stupid. And I will tell you that the more people tell you not to do something because the road less traveled is pretty lonely. If it were easy, everybody would be doing it. So if somebody starts knocking you, I call it crabs in the bucket, man. They want to pull you down to them. They don't want to see you achieve. And that's sad because I do. Together we rise.

So we're sitting on a podcast. get meta here for a moment. I had the blessing of going on the harder than life podcast. So at a certain point, the social media light came on. Someone told you, hey, Kelly, you got a great personality. You need to have your own podcast. Two checks of the boxes there. Talk about the podcast. How's that been going? What's been that evolution? The podcast, I wrote the book during the pandemic. And then when we wrote when the publisher was doing the ad, it's what else are you going to do on here? And I said, nothing. I'm just going to hand this to my customers at National Technology Management. He said, you got to do something else. This is too powerful. It's very strong. So I highly recommend it.

It starts off the first chapter, self-awareness. It's a memoir slash business book because I talk about how we built National Technology Management until a multimillion dollar company. And then how everything that you would think that was happening bad to you was happening for me. And I put it all that all of the habits and everything I do. And I bear it at all. I put some stuff in there that when I wrote it when I read it the first time after it was a real book. I had, it took hours for me to read. I had to stop and go work out because it activated, it triggered me dearly.

And the podcast is where I feel at home, right? And it works. I've gotten customers for national technology management on it. You got a customer from being on it. This works. And it's fun. I'd rather listen to a podcast than listen to music or watch TV all day long because you can learn something.

Somebody's watching this right now is going to, is going to call you up and get content from you or call you up for marketing or call us up for IT or reach out to me for supplements. They want that pill you take. They make sure it text the hard. Yeah. Or my workout routines. And you know what?

We're going to give it to them. We're just going to keep pouring back into things. So the podcast is called harder than life. I'm brilliant marketer. So everything is called hard. Bringing. Keeping it going. That's better than some people.

We've had some fun guess. It's better than softer than... A noodle. You know how to go there. Yeah. So I get behind that, Mike, and it's just fun. I love rapping with people like this and just learning. I love people.

I'm curious as can be. And I'm going to learn it all. And you can learn from everybody, especially people that aren't exactly like you. I learn more from you in this after. I feel bad because I heard you say you charged somebody for him. I'm like, oh, boy, I stole this afternoon. There I go, there's my limiting belief kicking again again. I feel bad because you're helping me out.

Karma will take care of me, baby. I'm good. It's all good. So the other podcast comes out every week on Tuesdays. We're going to double them up in July and do them on Thursdays too because we've got a heck of a demand. And we're getting bigger and bigger guests that are coming on. And it's, we're four months into this thing.

And it's, it feels like it's been forever. And I love it. I love it. It's fun. It's just like us sitting here talking, when you really get into it and you have natural conversations. It's funny, like we've done here, like when I'm having a really good one, like it opened, like I'll take notes or grace now taking them for me.

Like, I'll go back and go, I have an idea or something sparks from it because when you're having like an authentic conversation, you're really like just having a purposeful because think about how crazy this is. Now I'm going to get real meta. How now you and I have done this today because I think you can vouch for me here. how many times have I pulled my phone out in the entire day once maybe my wife texted me so like we've been in in conversation but think of how rare it is today to have unabated uninterrupted listening and talking to one another it's pretty fucking rare like it doesn't happen as much as it should

going off in my pocket I know but I'm saying like it doesn't happen that often anymore we're all distracted all doing these things and that's That's a great thing because it brings out these kind of dialogues and these conversations. And that's what I love about it. It's like it forces me, but it schedules for me those interactions. I think phones are necessary evil, but they are evil. So I've been at dinners with friends where we've taken our phones and put them in the center and the first person to grab their phone has to pay for dinner.

I like that. As a matter of fact, this is how likely I already just realized. I, when I did, I had my phone out and I was making notes. I'm making notes. Because I think that I want to be present, Ryan. You've taken the day out to spend with me. I've flown here. Why would I spend it on my phone?

Yeah. And I appreciate it. And I really, if there was a way to do what we need to do for work without having a phone, I would. I can't stand this thing sometimes. Yeah. I was walking through the airport and every single person. person's on their phone. You look over at dinner and a whole family's on their phone. I have a rule of my

daughter. No phone at the dinner table. And we do. We're old school since I didn't have food. We have breakfast together sit down. We have dinner together sit down. That's why I like to go to the lake because my kids, I don't have to tell them to put it down. They don't want it. We're fishing. We're riding the boat. We're swimming. We're daddy's having some beers. But we don't, I look at my device as long as if it's especially just the weekend and I know there's not something major going on with work. I don't even, I look at it at least there. The kids do too, because it's just getting away from it a little bit. I just said that because I'm going to start doing a device holidays more often because when I find the less I look at my phone, the happier

I am. Because you're just, where are I going to be for this email? What are I going to do for that? And I try to sometimes to shut it off for a day at a time. And it's running several companies. You can. And it enables us to do things. I don't want to make a great business out of people using their phones for marketing otherwise. But I do think there's like this balance. And I think we've long since gone over it. So it's just... Let me be a little cheesy for just a second.

And I'm going to, I'm going to throw out on you for a second. I'm going to tell you that I think it's because of our relationship already. And there's mutual respect. There was, it was an engaging, vulnerable conversation is very interesting. It was pretty easy not to grab your phone. Exactly. Thank you for having me and keep being interesting. I'm going to start opening my phone.

I thought you're going on I'm like, Ryan, you're boring me. What, where do you want to, where do you, what's, when you set your sights on two years from now with the podcast. So I know that's a big goal for you. Companies doing great. You're still growing that. But the podcast vision, like, where do you see it going?

I can see myself with by the end of the year only doing the podcast. I'll still own national technology management, but I have a. amazing team and you can read about it how we use an operating system that allows me to be away from it a lot so by 2024 i could see me doing nothing but the podcast and it being self-sufficient paying for itself and then donating its high six figures to charity that's what this is for i i do i'm going to be geeky again for a second or bro-in i hope to be half as successful as the recast and half as much time yeah i do think things, how I've built most companies and most things, I do it in record breakneck speed.

And if you ask my team, they always say he wants it done in half the time. And I think if you work twice as hard and you're half as smart, you've got to work twice as hard. I just tell people success love speed. Success love speed. I like that. And it, if you want to be successful, even because some people get long. lost the sauce of it takes iteration to be successful because it doesn't happen the first time.

So thus you're better to fail quickly so that you could pick your ass up and iterate again. Because you're not going to get it. I'm sorry, you're not going to get right the first time anyway. So this is my second one. We had it released and then we pulled it back the night before. So this is our second one. You know, it's funny because what does most people say? Slow and steady wins the race.

I think there's a few things where that still applies. but I think in general, though, it's, and don't mistake that great things come over time. Like the impact of our relationship, the greatness of those outputs and things that we could do together will only grow over time. That's a different statement than the 20 things we talked about today. Let's start them now and go fast. You know what I mean? Yeah. There's a difference.

So moving quicker. with action. What do they say? Some people can be busy at life doing nothing. Yeah. I know a lot of those people. So do I. But I have to make progress.

I just have to be moving forward. And that's part of feeling like if I, if I stand still, I'm going to die. So I'm going to move forward. And when you got great people like you and we're making great contacts, maybe that's something to do with just being authentic and genuine and just very loyal too. You've got a friend and me and you call me in the middle of night. You need me to come hide the bodies. I hope I don't have to do that one.

I don't know if Grace is going to pick up for that one. We'll keep Grace out of this. Just bring the bleach and the chloroform. Yeah, no. I'm kidding. What's the future hold for Kelly as a whole? Like, you got boats in Florida and Detroit. You're on the water all the time.

Go look. Go ahead and tell them now. Where are we going to follow Kelly Siegel on Instagram? Because that's where you're always at. What's the handle there? It's Kelly. Dot Siegel and it's spelled K-E-L-Y. dot S-I-E-G-E-L dot 71.

Some guy just reached out to me the other day and says, hey, I got the Kelly. Dot Segal one. I was like, good. Enjoy it. Do you want to sell it to you? Yeah, it was like 300 bucks. I'm like, uh-huh.

Sure. I'll just give you my login. I'm not able to give you Kelly. Oh, yeah. Yeah, how are you going to pay for it? You know what it's going to. Yeah, exactly. It's a scam.

But in all seriousness, if you go follow Kelly, you'll see the boats and everything. I thought you were in Florida last night. You're in, I guess, up in Michigan. But I was in Lake St. Clair on a boat up there, having fun. I like to have my hair blowing in the wind. That's when I'm relaxed. A lot of times when I'm at the gym now, I'm listening to a podcast and I'm growing my muscles and growing my mind. So when I'm on a boat, I've been.

a captain of a boat for years. And I just want to make sure that everyone's safe. My crew's safe. We're safe. I don't drink, so I'm always a designated driver. And I like to go fast. I go fast on my Harley. I go fast in my boat.

And it just, it relaxes me. Years and years ago when I was in therapy, the guy said, when do you ever relax? I said, when am on my boat? He said, go there. And you know it is. You crack a beer on the boat. I crack a non-alcoholic beer.

It's just the same. And it's just heaven. All the hard work that you did, you put to get that boat, it's just, it's relaxing. And I'm finally able to be present and enjoy it. Where we're headed, we're going to continue to grow. And we're going to try to, I'm going to use the Ricky Bobby quote. I want to live to 130, 140 with advanced aid, medical and him and stuff. Maybe we can, maybe we can live. No, I want to live to a hundred. And, but to do that, I'm going to be healthy. I'm going to align with some brands to keep myself healthy. Good mind and body continue to work.

And inevitably, the body is going to start to give out. So we're going to try to fight that as hard as we can, harder than life. And we're going to keep putting out vulnerable, truthful content. We're going to make an impact. Hopefully in the next several years we'll be able to say we're at the seven figures for donations per year. And hopefully we'll help some kids not go through what I went through. And then we'll just see where the universe takes us. I'm watching a lot of my daughter's 14, your kid's 14, 12.

I'm noticing a lot of the kids gravitating to me. Maybe I can catch them a little sooner and get them with real good habits of what I do. And then also I said this too of somebody that asked me about this is, I want them to know that there's people out there that care. If you're in a situation where I, like I was where it's abusive, it's not okay. And you won't get in trouble. So I want to make sure there's awareness of that. I lied to the social work.

that showed up and said everything's fine, even though it wasn't. Because I thought I would get in trouble. You're not going to get in trouble. So if there are kids listening to this, and I'm getting involved in a lot of charities, and the podcast is allowing me access to areas where I couldn't previously do. We're going to continue to take this up and go higher and higher, and the sky's the limit. So maybe, hey, maybe we'll go on Rogan's podcast. That's the big, that's the Don Mecca of the thing.

I love it, man. Working a way, keep up with everything. Where can they find the book? We give them all the plugs. We have Harder ThanLife.com is the easiest one. IT services, we keep IT simple. We make it simple and easy to do business with us. And you just gave us an idea to make it even more simple,

which I can't believe I didn't think of. But it's trust NTM as a national technology management.com. We are available anywhere in the country. And it's predictable, repeatable, simple and easy. and it comes with cybersecurity, which we're all worried about. We don't know what even that means, but NTM will show you, I will show you. And our standard package includes all of the insurance compliance that you need for cybersecurity. So this isn't someone that's doing it out of the trunk of their car or I got a guy.

We do it right. We do it the same way every single time and it's compliant all the time. So trust ntm.com, harder than life.com. Kelly. Siegel at 71 at Instagram, Kelly Siegel at Facebook. I don't even know what my, what's the one at your check? TikTok. I don't even know what my daughter follows all that stuff. But we're on that.

I'm sure it's just Kelly Siegel. Yeah. But come give us a shout. And I answer all my DMs right now. I try. It's hard. A lot of people get really deep. Yeah.

And I try. And especially, so Bridie's very important to me because it was such a big influence in my life. So if somebody reached. out to me like I need help not drinking or not drugging or I need help with some talk to behavior. I stop what I'm doing and try to help. Now I'm not a doctor and I'm not a therapist and you're probably going to get some tough love. And if you're suicidal, which happens, please go to the emergency room. But you matter. And if you're in that situation, your life means something. And I have talked a few people off the ledge via DMs.

Stop. I did one on New Year's Eve. Someone reached out to me. And I checked on him. I was walking. I was sitting in Birmingham, Michigan smoking a cigar. And the guy walked by me and stopped. And he goes, are you, Kelly Siegel?

I said, yes. I'm a little nervous. I don't know what he's coming. And while I was in Florida, I had helped him stop drinking. And he invited me to his house. And he's so. And that feels good. So that's what we're going to keep giving back to the universe and doing good things.

And I know good things will keep happening for you. Appreciate you coming on, brother. Man, I love you. Thank you. It's been fun. Hey, guys. You're going to find us to radcast.com. Search for harder than life.

You'll find all the highlight clips from today. Search for Kelly Siegel. You'll find him on Instagram. You'll see his physique on the boat looking good and giving lots of practical advice. You can find me at Ryan Alford on all the platforms. We'll see you next time. All the Radcast. To listen or watch full episodes, visit us on the web at the radcast.com or follow us on social media at our Instagram account, v.rad.org, or at Ryan Alford.

Stay radical.