Determined Society with Shawn French | Adversity & Mindset - Building companies and people with Integrity with Tony Whatley

Episode Date: November 7, 2022

Who is Tony Whatley?: Mentor | Entrepreneur | Engineer | Car Fanatic Tony Whatley is a 20+ year entrepreneur of multiple companies, business coach, best-selling author, podcast host, and speaker. He is Co-Founder of LS1Tech, an online automotive performance community which grew into the largest of its kind. This website grew to over 300,000 registered members and 150 advertising accounts, and was later sold for millions, in only 5 years. Amazingly… it was just his part-time business! Tony shares his mindset and business strategies within his Amazon #1 best-selling book, Side Hustle Millionaire, and teaches people how to startup, scale, and exit their companies. With his previous oil/gas profession, managing $100M+ international projects, he consults small businesses on how to benefit from his expertise in processes, systems, and leadership. His purpose is to help people gain the knowledge and courage to take action. He strives to help others become the best version of themselves. When not performing the work that he loves, you can usually find Tony and his wife Lisa traveling the world, or racing cars. In this episode: Tony and I sit down for one of the more raw and authentic conversations we have had on the show. You will see very quickly how he is different than a lot of other business coaches and entrepreneurs out there. He has actually done everything he mentors others to do. While working full-time in operations and spearheading multiple International projects he co-found LS1Tech which was an online automotive performance community and it quickly became the biggest of its kind. Tony later sold that company for millions. The biggest thing I enjoyed about speaking with him is his commitment to being 100% REAL. You will hear us get down to the nitty gritty on so many aspects of the coaching business and entrepreneurship. You aren’t going to want to miss this information and fun filled episode with my new friend, Tony Whatley. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/shawn-french/message Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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Stay smart, safe and protected, with a 30-day free trial at LifeLock.com slash podcast. Terms apply. If you do not invest in a mentor, you are high off your ass because you will fail in a heartbeat because you don't know what you're doing. Society is okay with you go spending $50,000 to $100,000 to go to a university and get a four-year degree from people who have never actually succeeded in the things that they're teaching. And so why is it so weird when people want to go invest money to learn from people who actually have succeeded in the things that they would like to be good at to shortcut that process? Welcome back for another episode of the podcast of Determined Society. I have with me today, guys, another amazing entrepreneur, someone who is out there doing the business, doing the work, helping professionals and entrepreneurs do the same thing as he has done in his life.

He is an author of the number one bestseller, side hustle millionaire. He's an executive and business coach. He is a host of a top 1% globally ranked podcast called 365 Driven. He is a keynote speaker, and I'm pleased to have him here. Tony Wally, what's up, buddy? Hey, Sean. Man, thank you for the opportunity to be on the show, and it's good to connect. And I can't wait to light these two microphones on fire and give the listeners what they really want to hear.

Hey, man, the gas is already on. We just need the match, right, buddy? That's it, man. Let's do this. Let's blow some myths up. Let's dispel some rumors. Let's get things going, man. Oh, dude, I love myth busting.

What do you have on tap, brother? Maybe one. Dude, if you watch my social media. especially on my Facebook page or Instagram stories. I'm always blowing up myths. And I actually own the domain name for a website called infoolensers.com. And that's like going to be a pet project. Maybe I'll build a parody website to expose like all the fraud and craziness that we see out there in the personal development industry.

Oh, I love that, bro. There's a lot of that out there, right? You know, you see all these individuals. My favorite one is the people that haven't done the actual work or any of the shit in their own. life and they're out there and they're trying to teach people. For instance, I'm a high level sales professional in the corporate environment. If I'm out there being a sales performance coach like I am, it makes sense. But if I'm not and I'm actually out there saying like, hey, let me teach you how to sell stuff.

It's just stupid, man. I love it. I love that you said that. Let's make it about that because it's everywhere. Yeah, there's a funny story. actually I know somebody I won't mention names. We'll keep this episode name free, but no feelings were hurt during the filming. Yeah, I actually know somebody that positioned himself as a sales coach, just like your profession, that mutual contacts had actually hired, two different mutual contacts had hired for this sales expertise to train their sales team.

And then within really the first two months of hiring this guy as a consultant, they realize that this guy's full of shit. And he's never even sold anything. So they started looking back in, you know, his old LinkedIn files and see what his job were. And like, you know, we can go back on Google and find out what everybody's achieved or done in their lives nowadays. Yeah. And they realize that this dude's never even worked in a sales role. So you got to watch out, guys. I just don't understand that.

And I think is that about, you know, because I've seen it a lot in the last two years once the pandemic happened and people are at home like, oh, fuck, panic button, push it. got to make money. Oh my God, social media, let me be a coach. Do you think a lot of it is that? Yeah, absolutely. I think that there's pros and cons to being a coach. I left corporate for good in 2015 and went full time into coaching. But that's also after owning businesses since 2001. I mean, I've been doing it over 21 years now and found my own success. We can get into those kind of details in a moment. But the thing is that like you said, 2020 hit. People are sitting on their hands at home. They're maybe being called non-essential by overly authoritarian governments. And basically they're trying to figure out ways to make money.

And I don't have a problem with that. But when you start to do things that are just disingenuine and you're doing things that are fake, and those are the same things that actually kept me from wanting to be a coach for several years or a speaker because I was new. That, man, as soon as I step into this arena, I'm going to get lumped in with all these other frauds and fakes. And it's going to take a couple years of proving and getting results from clients to actually start. start to get above the noise. And it did it did exactly happen exactly like that. Because even some of the people I knew were like, oh man, what do you want to be Tony Robbins now? Are you a motivational speaker? Like just making a bunch of crap. And even though they'd known I had

business, like, no, actually I want to just teach people business. If they become successful or wealthy as a result, then that's what the result is. I'm not teaching people wealth and prosperity and you can be a super mega millionaire and all these different things. So, you know, people see the book title I have, side hustle millionaire. Well, that's because that's my story. It's not because it's your story. It's here's how I did it. Maybe if you emulate these things and you use the same practices and mindset and behaviors and habits, you may arrive at the same result. I hope you actually would have a higher result than I have. That's what my intentions are. So yeah, fakery, dude, social media. There's a lot of stuff going on out there.

You know, it's funny because like, and I agree with you like, hey, you know, when 2020 happened, people are on their hands, trying to figure out what was next. And I was one of those people. But I was also still in the medical field and I still am. I'm very open about it. I'm still in corporate America. I do the job every single day. I do the work. I'm in the fucking trenches. And that way I can actually help my business to business sales clients and corporate clients, like, hey, here's what I'm doing. I'm out there doing the work. This is what's working. This is what's not. My thing is, is like, I'm all four people going like, all right, man, I'm going to go all in. And I'm going to be a coach on social media. I'm going to be an online coach and I'm going to impact the world.

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for more than 140 beverage ingredients. Visit good to know facts.org But can you stay in your fucking lane? Good Lord, good Lord, man. But dude, dude, just because you put it on a profile, does it make it real, man? Yeah, it's honorable to want to be a teacher if you actually give a shit about people

and care about the results. I think there's a lot of people that just look at it as easy money, low barrier to entry, no certifications required. And that's another thing that's a fraud, is out there all these coaching certification. because when I decided to go into coaching, I said, maybe I don't know anything about the business model itself or the industry. So I'm going to go learn as much as I can.

And I started going down that rabbit hole and searching and figuring out what is what. And you find all these coaching certifications and these gurus and their own certifications for their coaches. And I was like, okay, is that required? And you start looking in the laws of the government and your state and you realize like, there's no regulatory office that says like, these can be coaches and these cannot be coaches. So, again, low barrier to entry. But the problem is that there are these other businesses that are selling these coaching certifications and arming the little good boys and girls that go through the process and spend $10,000 to feel like they're accomplished and they can hang this certification on the wall. And they're super awesome now because they're a certified coach have never run a business, have never done anything that their certification shows that they have the air quotes credentials for. dude talk about low barrier of entry 100% but what about the flip side what's what's the

percentage of rate that people are actually successful at this let's be honest because you talked about and i heard you say it and everybody listening heard you say it is people think this is a quick buck um bullshit it's not easy it is not easy this is the hardest thing I have ever done in my entire life. And I, and I, and I, and I played baseball at LSU. That's pretty tough, man. I've been, dude, I mean, like, like, being an all my coach, dude, like, you have so much social proof that you have to go through and scrutiny at the beginning, like you said, people

you know, love and trust saying, what are you, Tony Robbins now, you're some motivational speaker, how many friendships have I lost since I've started this? It's several. Several. That's one of the hardest parts about going into doing this or really just anybody that's going through a physical or a career change, I would say. I would say anytime that you announce them, you're going to do something new, maybe you're overweight right now. And you say, I'm going to go on a fitness journey. I'm going to lose 100 pounds. I'm going to change my life. Well, the thing is that at first, everybody kind of gives you the, yeah, congrats. You got this. And then, like, you create, you go, wow, this is going to be easier than I thought.

I got all the support. Like, these people are going to make it easy for me. They're going to hold me accountable. Then, you know, two weeks later, you're kind of like, man, I just don't feel like going to the gym or taking that walk today. And I can have a cheat mail. I've been good for the last 14 days. And then the snowball hill goes downhill and you go create the post. You check in at the gym.

You show your selfie and you're showing it. And like, nobody's liking your post anymore. Nobody is saying anything anymore. And you're like, wow, where did all my supporters go? And then you actually start to, if you're, if you're good enough, if you stick with it, even though nobody's supporting you because you're doing it for the right reasons. And you start to go down that path and you realize like you're in this no man's land of nobody cares anymore. It's like it's not a new thing anymore, but they see the results coming from you.

And if you are good enough and you have the discipline to start waiting through that no man's land of nobody's really showing external support, you're going to win. And that usually takes about 12 months. Let's be real. Like you have to get to a point where you're actually showing results and consistency and dedication to whatever your mission is, whether that's starting a business, the weight. lost thing, doing anything different in your life. And then people will start to realize like, hey, this person is actually serious. They're actually getting some results. So now they start to show back up to support you. But I think that, you know, Sean, most people just unfortunately fall off after that three month mark when they feel like nobody cares anymore. And if they would just see it

through, they would actually start to see those people come back around. So people watch you, they just watch you in silence because so many people are fake again and frauds and they quit too soon. So they're not going to go all in and give you. all of their emotional support and their cheerleading until you've proven and you've earned their respect and their trust over a period of time. Well said, brother. I mean, here's the thing, right? We all go through it, right?

All those people are there like, Sean, I believe in you. Tony, I believe in you. This is great. Keep doing what you're doing. All of a sudden, once the newness wears off of your Facebook group or whatever group you got going and people realize you're serious, they fucking retract really quickly, right? as soon as it becomes about like, hey, this is what I'm going to do. I'm making a business out of this.

I'm going to monetize it. People get scared. Okay. They back up. And then they completely turn their back until it is cool to be back on your train. And here's what I'll tell everybody listening right now. If you stop at that moment, then you weren't serious enough in the first place. And those people were fucking right about you.

Damn right, dude. You got to keep moving. Tough love, man. It's tough love. And I'll tell you that here's a story that actually is really hard. to go through for most people because we hear the cliche phrases that, you know, get rid of the toxic people in your life and you're going to be the average of the five people you hang around most. Like, we hear these phrases. And if you have any common sense, you go, yeah, I get that. That makes a lot of

sense. But the problem is that we can understand that phrase, but we do nothing about it. We don't take the actions because that's hard. And it offends some people and it might make people just uncomfortable. And so I don't want to rock the boat and I just don't want to, you know, I'm known them a long time. So I just, I just don't want to say anything to them. Like, you got to be taking the action. Otherwise, all that advice that you've been hearing doesn't show any results. And example, 2018, New Year's Day, my wife and I got up. It was a tough year, man. And we had some of these people fall out of our lives. I'm like, my wife even got rid of her made of honor from our wedding. Like someone that's been her, for instance, high school. Think about that. Like,

That's how come this can cut deep, right? And so we both got up on New Year's Day. We were on vacation in Colorado at the time. And I said, hey, let's just make a list of names that we think that are people that are toxic or people that aren't really on our team anymore. Maybe we've just outgrown because they just kind of start being this passive, aggressive, negative type comments and stuff. And so she took a piece of paper.

I took a piece of paper and a pen and we both went to the opposite room, you know, sides of the hotel room. And we just made a list. And I had like 10 names and she had 12 names. or so. And we just agreed as a married couple like, hey, if anybody's on this list, we're just going to create boundaries or remove them from our lives. And man, some of those were cutting deep. Some of those people we've been on vacation with, some of the people that we had, you know, done, you know, trips or been at dinners or been to the parties or we just had these pasts that were, you know, good times, good memories. I still look fondly back on some of those memories.

But people change. People outgrow each other. And when you start to realize that I need to be around more people who think about imagine when instead of talking about remember when and not necessarily a bad thing to go back in time and think about the good old days. But if that's all they think about is remember when, remember when, remember when, those aren't the people for me. It's not that I'm better than them. It's just I'm evolving. I'm improving and I'm on a mission to go do things to impact more people in this world instead of talk about my past. And so that was one of the hardest things that we had to do is create that list and create those boundaries because for a few months, it actually feels like you're mourning a loss. It feels like you actually have people have died because

they're no longer in your life by your choice. And I tell you, if you can make it through that storm of that wave of emotions, which you will feel because it is very difficult to several relationships, even toxic ones, you're going to start to realize like it was the best thing you ever did. And by the end of 2018, we realized looking back, like this was actually the best year we've ever had. And there's a lot of reason behind what we did. You know, that really resonates with me. You know, I want to tell you a little. story. So back in the day, I had this friend. He's going to rename, he's going to remain nameless. But he watches everything I do, so you're probably going to hear it. Hey, buddy. Anyway, so we were friends.

We were close. And there was a lot of repetitive patterns with this gentleman, you know, a lot of narcissistic behavior, a lot of toxic, poor me. It's always the woman's fault, you know, yet there's, you know, two or three protective orders on this guy, but it's, you know, never him. And I And I made the decision, and I was always really kind with him. But I started drawing boundaries, meaning, you know, if he'd call me, I wouldn't answer. If he would say, hey, man, called you, call me back. I wouldn't call him back. It's not because I dislike that individual.

It's because I outgrew that relationship. And that is okay. And what I found very recently, there was a comment posted on Facebook. on a memory of the two of us in a picture. And then all of a sudden, it's just a bash session on me. Just like shitty friend, shitty person, Mr. Motivation, hypocrite, all the hate, all the everything. And, you know, I said, hey, man, I'm not surprised, you know, victim mentality. You're on account.

I shouldn't have said that. So, you know, I had to get right with myself after that. But it triggered me in that moment, right? because I know differently. I know why I distance myself. But you know, the bottom line is, is like, man, those people will come back and they will, they will hammer you. And you know what?

I thank him now, the bottom of my heart. And when I made that smart ass comment, like he watches everything I do because he does, right? Because that's what narcissists do. I thank him. Because now when that happens again, I know not to respond. I had one of those kind of trolls. Actually, this guy was a grown-ass man. He was probably in his late 40s financially successful.

I mean, the guy had exotic car and a good sea level sweet job at a company that he was working for. But he also had very, very strong insecurities. And he was like the kind of quiet guy that would hide behind his taller and bigger friends at the car meets. And then he would get on the keyboard and he would be like Rambo. And so I basically just had to, this guy would follow me around. He would create, you know, make a little snide remarks on, on Instagram and Facebook. And I just had to ban him, dude. And I told him like, next time I see you, I think I'm just going to pack a keyboard in my car and hand it to you so you can talk shit in person.

Boom. I mean, like, dude, I mean, that's Tony. It's fantastic, man. I love it. I love it. We have covered some amazing shit so far. I mean, this is real life things that I don't think people that get into online coaching really think about. Right. I think the initial, when they start thinking, like, I'm going to post all these videos on IG or Facebook, the initial resistance is, oh, my God, people are going to think I'm, I sound dumb. No one's going to care. They're going to make fun of me. But they don't realize these are the real things that someone like yourself and myself that have a bigger following on social media deal with on a day-to-day basis. I mean, I've dealt with things that I post about 9-11 and someone messaged me, cursing me out, saying, fuck your government. You,

bastards, like all this stuff is like, damn. Like, hey, man, like, sinning you love, homie. Like, what's up? But, but, you know, I find this conversation very valuable because a lot of times, you know, for me, I sit there and I think like, am I the only one thinking this? No, no. I actually have a T-shirt that I sell that says, go earn yourself some haters. And from the outside, you read that and you're like, that doesn't make sense.

But if you do what we're doing and many other people in the space that are putting themselves out there, you actually earn, the word is earned, go earn yourself some haters because it is impossible to do things and put yourself out there and not have critics and haters to show up. And nowadays when I have clients and I'm working through building their personal brand and putting themselves out there, whether it's podcasting or videos or YouTube or writing a book or I prepare them for this. And actually in our group, we have a supportive group of entrepreneurs. We celebrate the hate, man. If you get a critic that leaves you a bad review on Amazon, or Google or someone that says some nasty comment on your social media.

Like, we tell you to screenshot it, bring it back and we'll celebrate your first hater. Because those of you that are out there that are listening to this conversation that Sean and I are having and you think that you're, you're just a good person and you're patting yourself on the back because nobody hates me and I'm just a good person and I'm super swell. Like, you know what that really means? It means you're obscure. You're not doing shit. And nobody's worth noticing.

That's the hard truth. It's like you are literally not doing anything worth noticing. And that's tough to absorb. Some of you're probably hearing this or watching this, getting offended right now. Like, who the fuck is this guy telling me that? Well, you know, if I go Google you, I could probably prove that you're not doing anything worth noticing. And so once you start to own that accountability, you start to realize that I need to go do more if that's my mission. If that's my intention is to go create more impact and I need to go out there and actually earn those haters because if you don't have any, you're not doing anything.

The most successful people that we know, you know, like the Andy Fricello is the David Gagins. I mean, they'll, I mean, you want to talk about haters? I mean, those jokers have them. They're everywhere. They earned that. Yeah. In a positive way. And it's so funny you say that because it's like when I put things out there, I'm very cut and dry.

Just like you said, you know, before we got on, you're like, hey, you're spicy like me, you know? dude like I got to be honest like some of my stuff I'm trying to get to people I'm trying to be controversial like I'm trying to trigger you because if I can trigger you and I piss you off that means you agree with my statement and that also means that you need to make some changes it's a fun game man isn't it social media I am very well known for creating provocative or polarizing topics, but here's where some of the people that aren't really familiar with me may fall and understand what I'm doing. They don't realize that I'm also the type of person that will do an excruciating amount of research and understanding before I actually create a post.

So they think I'm just sharing a headline, perhaps, and then they try to counter me or want to get into a debating match. And quickly, this is a cycle that repeats itself over years now. They will get into a debating match, and they realize they're outgunned. and underprepared for the topic that I've presented. And sometimes they find out that they just embarrassed themselves with their own comments. And everybody's on the stage watching this thing to happen. And usually it results in them just deleting their post. Yeah.

Do you know why that is? I do. I'm just, you know, you know why, right? You know why they're embarrassed. They realize that they're showing their ass in front of another audience that is not theirs. And the best way to find these people is because when they start debating, you're like, oh, who's this person? because my Facebook account's public, right?

Who's this person? If you go click on their profile and you could see that they've never posted a single polarizing or controversial topic of their own in their entire timeline, but they want to go shit on people on other people's timelines, you know that they're a coward. And how come, Sean, these people all have like faces with little cat profile picks or they're not even using the real identity? They're anonymous profiles, man.

Yeah, because they, right. So they make these accounts to go shit talk people, because they don't have anything else going on in their fucking lives worth, worth, you know, promoting, you know, good or bad. I don't give a shit. Like, you don't have an opinion only on somebody else's stuff. The reason why these individuals delete their comments and get so offended is because they're leading with emotion instead of someone like yourself and myself

with actual knowledge on the topic. So when they come at us, it's already done. We've already won that battle because we did it up front. We're not reactionary. No. As soon as you start calling names or, attacking someone's character. You lost the debate. And then it just kind of spirals downhill and being all this emotional turmoil and like anger and resentment. And they start trying to trigger you and they're going to go, oh, they think they're getting to you. And actually it's funny because it's like, no, you're actually making me laugh and you're making my audience laugh along with me. Yeah. And all you're doing is telling Instagram that my, my, my content is worthy and they're just going to push it out. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you for the algorithm boost with your 20 comments. I'm like, God, dang it. They deleted it. Yeah. shit.

Yeah. So, I mean, that's, that's the thing. It's like, be careful with who you debate with because sometimes you actually do meet the people online that know a lot more than you do. Mm-hmm. Absolutely. I agree with that. I love it. And this conversation is so valuable and I'm loving it.

I do want to touch on LS1, right? You created, you're a car lover. You created this amazing online business with some ungodly amount of subscribers and then sold it for an ungodly. the amount of money. You know, talk to the audience about that because that is, that is probably, you know, I don't want to offend you, but that is one of the most impressive things about your background that I saw. Yeah, I would say the short version of that is that I'm a community builder and I've built

two online automotive performance communities because I'm a car fanatic. And so the first one was LS1Tech.com. That was the General Motors performance cars. So all your corvettes, Camaros, Firebirds, Pontiacs, all that stuff. We even have those as advertisers. That one grew over 300,000 registered members. And I took that same business model and I created Performance Trucks.net because we saw that there was a void for guys that had trucks

that wanted to actually race and go fast in trucks, not just off-roaders and show trucks, right? So we built that website and that one grew it over 270,000 registered members. And we built a lot of traffic through ad revenue and sponsorships and live racing events around the country and all the hotbeds. And, you know, that thing we sold for a few million, you know, after five years after building it. And it was always a part-time thing

and built in my passion. It was never made to create a lot of money. But it grew and it grew and it grew just from traffic alone. I mean, we had over 100,000 unique visitors to that website every single day. So if you're a small business owner, imagine having 100,000 customers in your inbox or showing up through your front door every single day.

That's what we kind of built. And when we understood that, we could build leverage. We could raise rates. We can attract bigger sponsorship deals. And so, yeah, There were seven figure businesses that we created as a side hustle. And that's why you're qualified to write the book. It's right.

It's right. So, you know, the thing that I loved about what you just said, other than the obvious things, and this is something I want the audience to really take in. You said this was never meant to make money. This was just a passion of mine. Ladies and gentlemen, let this be a big lesson that the cliché of, follow your purpose and the money will come, serve the people and you will have riches. It's there for a reason.

I'm going to add to that. I think that, yes, do things within your passion because if not, you're going to get passed by other people who are in that same niche that have passion for. So definitely get into something that you have passion for because you're going to need that energy to grow the business that way. Now, here's the other thing that I see most people fail because they hear that part and they go, okay, I got that. but then they go into something and they create a business as a hobby. If you treat something like a hobby and you half ass everything, you're going to get half-ass results and you should expect no more than that. So I always took it serious.

I'm going to go start a business. I'm going to make sure I put the processes, the systems, the people in place, do the branding properly, learn how to do the marketing, understand financials and accounting. So I actually had to add to my skill sets of just building websites at the time

that I taught myself by reading books and practicing on the internet. I had to take these skills and I had to learn all the other aspects of managing and growing a business as I went. And that's a good way to do that. You don't need to prepare and prepare and prepare for years and then go start a business. Go start that business. You can create an LLC in one day. It's pretty easy nowadays. You can go get a business checking account maybe a week later when your EIN shows back up from the IRS.

So it's very easy to create these little things to get your business in motion. But I think that a lot of times people hear side hustle or they hear like, you know, build something in your passion. and they focus on a hobby. Like, I'll just do it as a hobby. I'll make $1,000 extra a month. And that's all that they can do with that business because they treat it like a hobby. Treat it like a legit business. Yeah, man.

It's funny. Like everything turned around for me when I realize, because I did a lot of things wrong when starting my business. I mean, I'll be straight up with you. You know, I, you know, I had the logo done first. That was great. You know, I got my tax ID number. I had my LLC because I'm smart because I've been. And I was my previous before my medical industry, I was in HR and payroll.

So I know exactly how to create LLC and a tax ID number online. And I can have that EIN as a PDF within five seconds for anything that I do. Then I can go use that and go get my bank account for my business. So that part for me was easy. I think the part that I had such a hard time wrapping my mind around, and I want to shortcut this for a lot of other people. This is not self-serving. It could be me or it could be Tony.

or could be a thousand other people out there. But if you do not invest in a mentor, you are high off your ass because you will fail in a heartbeat because you don't know what you're doing. And don't be surprised when you go to a mentor like myself or Tony and they give you a five-figure investment.

Some are six figures. Yeah, nobody likes to hear that. But here's the thing about hiring a coach. It's again, hire someone that actually has done done or achieved the things that you would like to. like we talked about we started the show. Yeah. It's easy to find that kind of information.

I'll tell you, and it's not on the New York Times bestseller list because I've read some fascinating books and I started to do the due diligence on that author and realize that they hadn't accomplished shit before that book popped off because maybe Oprah shared it or something, right? So there's a lot of people that haven't done what they say they're going to do and they're trying to teach it and they actually become famous or successful for selling something they've never actually achieved.

So do your due diligence. Ask for references, for past and present clients, if possible. That's a good indicator. And the other thing is that I think about is how do we grow these businesses without advice? I mean, you're going to save the shortcut and it's an investment, not a cost. So let's compare that to the other standardized social norm, okay? If we got kids out there or maybe we've gone through college ourselves, I've got an engineering

degree, I've put myself through school. Society tells you that it's perfectly normal and actually applauded that you. you go spend $50,000 to $100,000 to go to a four-year university to get your bachelor's degree from some professors who have never really achieved at anything that they've applied or taught. So you're learning things from a figurative perspective by people who have never actually got results in a public sector teaching these things to get your degree. And it's okay that you go spend $50 to $100,000 to get this four-year degree. So when you get out, you're in debt, you have no experience.

So nobody's really hiring you for a high salary. and then you're expected to go be a successful person, which takes 15 to 20 years to get into that range. But, you know, it's shunned upon if you go spend $50,000 to go learn from someone actually has succeeded in the thing that you want to achieve, become their mentee and get the shortcut to the results that they have because they're going to save you from the mistakes. They're going to open up their network to people that, you know,

they've made some deals with that they can understand, like, hey, this is the person that's going to do this for you. This is the person that's going to do that for you. It's going to streamline that. the process. But ultimately, even if we're the best coach, Sean, and we're helping people and we can lead them to all the processes and the tasks and all this, ultimately it still requires work. There's no easy way to do this. There's no shortcut to success. Anybody selling you, that's full of shit. Society is okay with you go spending $50,000 to $100,000 to go to a university and get a

four-year degree from people who have never actually succeeded in the things that they're teaching. And so why is it so weird when people want to go invest money to learn from people who actually have succeeded in the things that they would like to be good at to shortcut that process? And, you know, despite both of those alternatives, I think society is finally going to come around because I think there's a lot of learned type business models that are becoming the norm over time. And so we're also seeing the university kind of program starting to just not be really worth much anymore. And you and I both have gone to school that. So we're speaking because we have that background. And we just know it's not the same as it was when we were young. Now, the other thing is that there's a lot of these what called gurus out there telling you that they can shortcut the process and make you successful and give you prosperity and wealth.

And, you know, there's no shortcut to success. There's always the work that you have to still do. So we could tell you all the processes of steps. We can try to hold you accountable. We can give you the best advice. But if you don't ultimately fulfill through the actions and do with the things that you're supposed to do, you're not going to get the results. So don't be expected that you're going to get some success by just buying a package.

Because there's a lot of people out there selling a dream and selling hope, but they're full of shit. Yeah, man. I think, you know, all we can do is when we are coaching others to say, hey, listen, here's the plan. Here's what I've done. Here's my story. My job is they teach you these skills, whether they're high performance habits, whether it's creating a better sales process, a prospecting tool and accountability tool. or sticking to a fucking calendar cadence.

Because let's be honest, most salespeople and entrepreneurs fail because they cannot control their own calendar. Oh, tough. That's a whole other. I mean, that's like another, it's another fucking, yes,

exactly. It's another episode. Calendar cadence is important, right? And it gets the best of all of us, right? But like if these people don't put in the work and they don't buy into it and truly believe that it is the best system for them, nothing. I don't care if,

if God is in the room. If they don't buy in, it ain't going to work. You know, I'm not giving you your money back. That's important because I think that even in my book, the first two chapters cover mindset because I still believe, and I will always believe that does the foundation to success or anything that you want

to achieve. So we have to spend more time unlearning all the fuckery that our parents and our teachers and society have taught us where we were young and impressionable and we believed everything that we were told, like, you know, like rich people are bad and like, you should never talk about money. that's impolite, like just stupid shit that we absorb and we're kids that successful people don't

believe, you know? And so we have to unlearn a lot of the habits and the beliefs and the limiting beliefs, especially in the insecurities or childhood bullying and things like that we experienced to be able to understand that, man, we could really have no limits. We really don't have any limits. We actually can rewrite our entire future knowing that we've only been accountable for everything that we've done in the past. Dude, so it's an amazing thing that you said right there you talk about people talking about money is bad about two years ago like when I started this journey I was sitting in a daycare room and it was like a father's day thing and this one gentleman says yeah I just got done selling this condo on that house for 2.5 or block for 2.5 million

and I walked out of there I'm like what a fucking asshole and I'm driving down the road I'm like I get on the my wife. I'm like, dude, this guy's a dick. And I, and she goes, why? I'm like, well, wait a second, Sean, this is your bullshit. This is what you learned as a child about, don't talk about money. People that brag about money are bad and they're probably not doing as well as they say they are. Then I had to rewire and I had to completely shift on that paradigm because what, what that really was about was like I said it was about me. I had to change my belief. So I said, okay, that guy's not a dick. I could learn something from him. We set these false limits. We set these false beliefs or limits on ourselves. It's here's the unfortunate thing about most people.

And I'll tell you from a business coach perspective when people come to me and they want to start a company always one of the questions I ask them is what is the financial goal you would like to have for the first year and I always get these really specific, absurd, weird numbers, okay? And at first I was like, why are these numbers coming up? They give us stuff like $87,500 or $135,000 or just these weird, like very specific numbers. And I started to realize like by asking, where do that number come from? And the answer was always, well, that's what I make right now at my job. So we have this self-worth issue that's stemmed based on what society has told you that you're worth and your hourly rate or your salary rate based on what your boss has told you, what LinkedIn job postings have

told you that's your worth. So we create this artificial ceiling of our self-value based on a snapshot of where we are today financially. And if you understand that that's a limiting thing that you believe because of all these people have told you these things, in entrepreneurship, there are no limits. You need to get rid of those kind of limits. You know, it's a big thing, man. It's a really big thing. I, you know, I found that as well. You know, when I've, meet with new clients and they're like, hey, I'm stuck at 80. Stuck at 80 grand. That's the people I work with, man.

You know, like, I'm not, you know, I'm not trying to be somebody I'm not. You know, I went from, you know, a broke-ass school teacher making $38,000 a year to six figures in six months in sales. That's what I teach people to do. You know, I'm not sitting there saying I'm a millionaire. I'm not sitting there saying that I'm going to help them be a millionaire in 60 days. so I'm going to give you principles. I'm going to teach you how to create a six-figure business, sales business, pace that in 90 to 120 days.

What you do beyond that as far as, now I'm talking about pacing. Yeah. I'm not saying you're going to make $100,000 in 30 days. You know, we're going to start doing. What? How much do I got to pay extra for that package, Sean? Because I don't want to wait.

I want the result. No, I know. I want 90 hours. I want to make six figure in 90 hours, Sean. Come on. rob a bank, motherfucker. Like, I don't know what to tell you. Like, it don't work like that. Right. You know, the, the, the money exchange doesn't work that way. It's, uh, you know, so my point is, like, when we're, when we're, it's just frustrating to me,

like, we're getting off on a tangent here. And my ADHD is kicking in like, like, like normal. But, you know, when you talk about what you just said, like, no, Sean, I want to know, quickest way possible. The quickest way possible is like 24 to 36 months of grinding and being consistent when you don't fucking want to. It's waking up and doing the shit you don't want to every single day. Now, I'm not talking for two days or a month. I'm talking about years. That is the key distinction between average people and successful people.

Too many people nowadays are getting out there on social media and they're looking at stuff. They're listening to a podcast like yours and ours. We love you guys. We love you listeners because you guys are actually on the right track if you're listening to Archie. The thing is is that everybody's seeking motivation. Remember, like, motivational posters were a thing and motivational quote things were blowing up on Instagram, had like millions of followers. And so you had all these people out there looking for daily motivation to rah, raw, raw. Successful people don't need motivation because they're driven by results.

They don't care about the motivation. Successful people and fitness, just like me and people that are doing in business and anything that you can imagine, like they're successful. imagine like they're successful at they don't want to do the stuff half the time i don't want to go the gym i go to the gym six days a week i don't want to go half the time but i know that i've never left the gym having regretted have been there i've never left the gym since working out since age 14 that i've never left and feeling of regret after leaving the gym so i put myself in a future state and understand that now i just need to go get off my ass and go do that kind of stuff so successful people are not motivated they're inspired by

just doing something that they know they're going to get a result in. And they're also patient for those results because nothing happens overnight. Well, I think, I think the key to what you're saying, man, is an angry is, you know, motivation is horseshit. It's garbage. It's a fleeting emotion that is here one minute. Then your dog throws up on your carpet. Now it's gone.

Yeah. Right? You got to take your dog's a vet. Now you're not, now you're not, now you're not motivated. But the drive and discipline from successful people to do it over and over and over again. when, you know, that result isn't necessarily staring them in the face, that's special. That's a gift, right? Because I do my best on an everyday basis to make the activity, the goal.

Right. And I think too many people want to make the result the goal. And then when I get in this mind, this headspace of like, man, I'm, you know, starting to feel that scarcity mentality. I go, okay, let me look at my goals right now. What am I focusing on? Am I focusing on the outcome of that call or the activity of the call? If I can focus on the activity of the call or that bit, you know, that income producing activity, then I'm good because if I do that over and over again, I'm going to have the results.

Right. Yeah. But if I focus on the result, I'm going to get my ass kicked over and over again. I agree with that. I think that that's the, maybe we're just gluttons for punishment. We just enjoy getting punched in the face and failing, you know, all over. way to the top. And it's, you know, here's a good question.

If you're listening to this and you, we haven't lost you yet, right? You're still hanging on. Ask yourself this if you're thinking about starting a new company or a new business. Would you be willing to do that thing for free for one to two years? Would you be willing to do that for one to two years? And it's funny because I'll ask this in audiences. I have thousands of people in the audience. I'll ask that.

And you'll find that overall, I would say maybe 60% in the audience are like, oh, no, I wouldn't do that for free because everybody's been told, like, you need to know your worth. You need to charge what you're worth and you need to value your time. And yeah, I get that. That's cool. Like do that too. But would you be willing to do the business that you want to create and work for free for one to two years? Because that's the reality of it because very few people profit back in their companies. The first two years are startup. And if you're not willing to do it for free to get the results year two, year three, year four and plus, then you don't deserve the results at all. bro it is actually a loss yeah you're losing money you're paying money to do that would you pay money to do that no i want to get paid yeah but i mean like i can sit here and i can you know if i if i if i put

on my objective hat right and i'm sure you've had to do this because i can tell you're a fierce competitor is if i sit there i'm saying like i'm not where i need to be right now but if i put my my hat of objectivity on, right? And I go, where was I a year ago? Where am I at now? You know, and I'll sit here, even with this show, who I have this amazing freaking guy on right now, and I'll beat myself, my show's not good enough.

I got to get better. I got to get better. Dude, a year ago, I was doing my fucking show in my car. Like perspective. It's, you know, it's growth mindset. It's going to take some time. And so then at that point, I get the, I get the, hair standing on in. Oh my God, what is it going to look like in a year? Yeah. We're always on that

journey, aren't we? We're always looking to improve. And that's another mindset thing that we could kind of add in. There's a good segue here because while we can always do more, more isn't defined by doing more work. A lot of times people, because I grew up with that blue color mentality too, where if I wanted nicer car or I wanted to have more money, I picked up overtime shifts. I got a second job. It was always trading time for dollars. So it meant literally if you wanted more, you had to go work more. So that's the mentality that we grew up with, especially middle class America. And when you start to understand money and you start to understand leverage and you understand time value versus money, you start to realize that, no, it's not about working more.

And it's not always about working smarter. It's about maybe leveraging other people to do the work that you can create money off of their labor. That's what we call employees. A lot of you're like, oh, how can anyone say that you're going to go make money off of other? people. Yeah, it's called it boys. And if you've had a job, you're one of those people. So understand that it doesn't mean more work because the most successful people I know that are actually fulfilled in life, they don't work 40 hours a week. They don't work 60 hours a week. They may work 10 hours a week. And that is completely possible nowadays. So impactful because here's the thing. I keep a regular, you know, handwritten, you know, agenda. And then I have an electronic calendar.

And there's days where I go, oh my God, my calendar is full. This is freaking amazing. How many dollars I make that day? Zero. Fucking zero. I've got three calls today. I'll make money today. Because I'm fresh.

I'm dialed in and I've pinpointed my income producing activity, my KPI, what's really going to drive me? And I've cut out the fat. You know, I think that's one of the things that people really need to do with early on in their business is, you know, pay attention to their moods, pay attention to their energy, right? how are you feeling at 2.30 p.m.? Okay, cool. So what did you do at 145?

Why are you feeling that way? Maybe you need to cut that out or delegate it. How about that? That's what I've done. I've cut it out. I've cut all these things out. And I'm focusing on the things that keep me fresh and ready for my people. Some of the questions, like these are good topics because you can ask yourself these questions.

And if you hear these questions and you want to pause the show and actually think of the answers to yourself, I would encourage that. One of the questions are, what are some of the habits that you could get rid of to help you attain your goals? And most people can think of some of the bad habits that they have that they're not doing. They're procrastinating. They're drinking alcohol. They're staying up too late.

They're just doing all these things that they know that if they were just to get rid of those bad habits, it would dramatically help the odds of success to pursue their goals. The other thing is what are the new skills that you can attain to help you pursue and attain those goals. A lot of times people only limit themselves based on what they know or what they can do today, but they don't really think about what can I actually learn to create that result. And am I willing to put in the work and the expense and the investment to go get that education or that skill set? Because that's pursuing the dream that I have. So don't limit yourself based on where you're at today and also get rid of the things that are causing you harm and the people that are causing you harm that are keeping you from those goals.

Mike drop right there. I could not agree with you more, my man. We got to land a plane here because we could probably go on a Joe Rogan style podcast, you and I and not get bored. You know, but I want people to truly listen to this episode. So we're going to ask you two more questions, man. One, I think it's one of the most important questions I can ask you is how can my audience best support you? Easiest way since you're already listening to podcasts, just go hit me up on my show.

It's called 365 Driven. It's health, wealth, mindset, and relationships. and four years in and over 270 episodes now. I've had some of the big names you guys would recognize. It's beautiful. It's a great show, by the way. Thank you. Most importantly, how can I support you?

Man, you're doing it right now. You're introducing me to your trusted audience, and I know that you're a gatekeeper, and we always have to look for the quality and the value that we're presenting to our audience, so keep doing what you're doing, and just honored to be on the show, brother. I appreciate you, man.

Listen, I'm going to sign off here, but I need you to hang tight, because I want to say a proper goodbye to you and give you a proper thank you. Guys, listen, a lot of amazing knowledge bombs, gems, whatever you want to call it, drop today about my boy, Tony Wally. I encourage you to go to his podcast 365-driven,

subscribe, listen, and give a review, right? Same thing here. If you're not already subscribed to my podcast, please hit subscribe and leave a review. And if you are subscribed, you know the fee, man. right share the show right tag me tag my boy tony we'll share it back to our socials um this thing grows from you guys uh you guys are amazing i love you guys and until next time y'all be good and be productive take care