In episode 71 of The Kitchen Table, Ken Baden interviews Paul Daley, a successful entrepreneur, as they discuss the importance of networking, navigating the business world, and the challenges of building and scaling a business.
Tune in to hear about the entrepreneurial mindset and the value of seizing new possibilities, no matter where they may lead.
TIMESTAMPS
[00:02:29] Entrepreneurship and multiple businesses.
[00:03:42] Sales beginnings and experiences.
[00:08:01] Networking and seizing opportunities.
[00:11:30] Disappointing encounters with influencers.
[00:14:47] Putting yourself in front of a camera.
[00:16:15] Starting a Six-Figure Sales Rep.
[00:20:08] Challenging year in Midwest.
[00:23:48] Controversy around Christianity.
[00:25:32] Political beliefs and conversations.
[00:29:18] Setting and exceeding financial goals.
[00:33:38] Sales talent and training.
[00:36:02] Government Compliance and Major Companies.
[00:39:23] Success and obsessive behaviors.
[00:41:37] Seeking spiritual transformation through adversity.
[00:45:17] Finding faith through hardship.
[00:50:34] Relationship with Christ
[00:52:45] Finding faith in tough times.
[00:56:23] Surrendering control for inner peace.
[00:59:45] Overcoming arrogance and downfall.
[01:00:39] Character vs. Reputation.
[01:03:42] Business and election preparations.
[01:07:36] Focus on the election.
[01:10:37] Building a Coaching Group.
[01:15:28] Religion and belief systems.
[01:16:41] Gratitude and manifestation in life.
QUOTES
SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS
Ken Baden
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/officialkenbaden/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/officialkenbaden
Paul Daley
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pauldaley/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pauljdaley/
WEBSITES:
The Kitchen Table Podcast: https://thekitchentablepodcast.net/
Blue Collar Ballers Union: https://bluecollarballersunion.com/
Welcome to the kitchen table, a podcast about where business is done. So pull up a chair and join your host, Ken Baden.
All right. Welcome back to another episode of the kitchen table podcast. I'm your host, Ken Baden, and I've got Paul Daly here today all the way from, I mean, you're right over the bridge, so it's not super far, but where exactly are you over the bridge again?
Ken Baden
I don't actually tell people. Yeah. Okay. All right.
Paul Daley
It's top secret. We can't, you can't know exactly where he is, but he is over the bridge on the Eastern shore. I've told too much already. So it might find you, dude. I don't know. I hope you weren't hiding him from anybody. So Paul and I got hooked up through a mutual friend of ours. Andy shout out to Andy. Andy's with me at the, uh, the business here. Great guy. Major go getter, by the way.
Ken Baden
I haven't talked to Andy in quite like actually 12, 13 years.
That's what I love about that kid, man. He was just like, he just randomly feeds me like, Hey, you should have this person on the pile, like walk by when we're filming and like pop in here. I know. I wish he was, I wish he was, you know, where he's at. He's out working, dude. Yeah. And he's a go getter, man. He's out knocking doors in. I'll give him credit for that too. And that he was running a couple of companies for a buddy of his. And most folks are too ego driven to like do what they would perceive possibly as like a step back. Yeah.
But that entrepreneur to entrepreneur step.
And given to, uh, I don't know the optics, right? Like most people are like, Oh, I'm not knocking doors, but it's like, well, this is a startup and the opportunities available. It's still a startup, even in year four, like he knows we want to build scale exit. And what we were just talking about, and I'll get more in detail about like my path and what you've already done. And we have so many similarities. We were just, we just did a podcast episode off air. So we're going to try and rekindle some of that. And hopefully it's just as interesting, but. Paul, first and foremost, why don't you give, because our viewers typically are going to be in the entrepreneur or sales space, you know, the kitchen table is a play on words as far as getting to the kitchen table, that's where business is done. And a lot of the stuff that I started with was door-to-door, but really my original start was just in-home sales, like selling roof, selling windows. And we always did it at the kitchen table and that's where business gets done. So then in business, entrepreneurship, intrapreneurship, You have multiple businesses. Are you allowed to talk about like what they are? Okay. Yeah. Can you give us a little bit of a background or on, on what you do and kind of how you got into that? Not like too crazy. Cause I know you want to talk about more fun things, but at least establishing like, Hey man, I might know a thing or two about business.
So in short, right now I have a portfolio company. We work with a lot of the names that we were just talking about, guys of the same caliber. So our average client in our portfolio company, I think is doing around $700,000 a month in revenue. We have a consulting firm for businesses in the online space. I have a mentorship program. I actually stole that from the guy that I went through the mentorship program of. I have a few different types of agencies for service-based stuff online, copywriting agencies, systems business, and such. I don't operate any of these. I have operators for all of them. I'm just a pretty face at this point. So realistically, that's, you know, do stuff like this, uh, and, and create content and then bring people to the business, create awareness. My brain really started from what I did prior to, which was running a business with a guy named Iman Gadji. I was the CEO for Iman and the CEO prior to that for, for a couple of years. And before that had my own business that I sold, it was a really messy business. It's nothing I brag about. My start to sales, which is really what I'm known for was, I'll go way back for a second. It was actually when I worked at Sunglass Hut in Indianapolis. And I don't call that sales in the slightest, but I remember I was texting all day long, dead day, super slow. And I had a pair of sunglasses by the counter that I had to put to the front of the store. And so I go and I'm cleaning them, putting them up on the rack. And this guy comes in and he ended up being my sales manager at the first car dealership job I had. And I remember asking him, why did you hire me? And he said, because most people in the mall are just texting all day long and you were at the front of the store cleaning sunglasses, acting busy. which was complete happens chance. I was doing the exact thing that he said most people do all day long. It was like God's divine timing that that one second I walked up and that got me in the car dealership world, which got me into the eventually the government world and then the software sales world. And then that was a hybrid into the online space.
Would you say that that encounter and then getting into the car dealership world, like, did you have a similar experience where like through that dealership, you met somebody, maybe a client that networked you into?
Yeah, I never, I've never minus Iman's gig where I DM'd him. I've never applied for a job. I've always fell into the next thing. Right. And so, um, for that one, it was, I was the finance director and this guy came in, I had to do the paperwork with him and he emailed me the day after saying, if you ever want to see what's out, you know, outside of car sales in your future, let me know. And that got me into government contracting. which I hated, and then someone from my past had offered me a software sales position that I was in for a bit.
That was actually, I heard from, I mean, I don't, I'm sure that's a gross, what's the word I'm looking for? Oversimplification, but from what I understand, the software like sales, I only know a few guys that do it and they do really well.
It's a broad like term. You can make stupid money with no skill in software sales. Really? Genuinely. So it's true then. Yeah, everyone, it was actually, It's really almost sad how bad half that... Bro, I remember to talk about my comp plan... We have another industry we have to scope out. My OTEs were like $280,000 to $3,000 something. I had a salary of $95,000 a year plus commissions on enterprise deals. It was so simple. I don't know how to worry about that. It was people coming essentially just asking for how do they pay to an extent, and then making really boo-hoo commissions on that. So- That's what I've seen, man. I should have probably stayed in hindsight, but I've- Well, you seem to have done pretty well since then.
So, and you're only, you're not even 30 yet. Turn 30 in a month. All this stuff. And we were just talking, I'm working on 40, so I've got 10 years on you. Now I have- 10 years that I, I basically just punted, you know what I mean? So, and we talked about that and my whole audience knows all about that. I mean, it's a big part of who I am. It's made me essentially who I am, uh, and a much better person, frankly. So, but we're not going to go back into that because they've heard me talk about that once or twice, but times 10, but, um, I do want to touch on what you just said because I can't stress enough. Like, you know, I'm writing a book right now and last day I'm writing a book. I've got the chapters like listed out and that's, that's about it.
So I want to write one, but I just don't have it in me. It's a long process.
the topic of the book is on relationships, networking, and just the power of proximity. And you are a perfect example of that. And I know that casually, you're kind of like, most people weren't even gonna make that connection that like, oh, each of those jobs and that leveling up was done, not for you even seeking or putting in a resume probably, just meeting the next person. You know what I mean? Like, I think it's gonna be lost on most people that listen to this, save one or two. And that's why I really wanna say like, look, How important do you think it's been for you to either be open to, or what would you attribute that skillset to? Like just always being open, always looking to network. I mean, how valuable is that? I mean, look what it's done for you.
Dude, in a way, you know what's funny about you saying this? Everyone that's new in the business world, networking is like their thing. I actually have never focused on networking. It's never been, I guess I haven't put one and two together until now. I'll say a few things on this, if I can just riff for a sec. Number one, I was on a flight from Austin to Dallas and I was sitting down, it was like, I booked it three minutes prior to kind of thing, right? And so I'm Spirit in the middle seat, like last seat that I could get to get this. Spirit baby, that's what I'm talking about. Yeah, I had to get to Dallas by certain time to speak. And I'm putting my AirPods in as I'm sitting down, but the guy starts talking to me right before I put my AirPods in. And I'm like, oh, I talked to him for like an hour and a half. It was an amazing conversation that still sits with me. And we talked about it. He was a speaker that spoke at like TEDx conferences and such. And he said that if I ever did a TEDx talk, my speech should be on never say no, because when I look back over the last 15 years, it was really, I never said no to opportunities that just, even if they didn't make sense, they just felt right. You know, I'm a Christian, so I believe it's the spirit in me. It could be your gut feeling, following your heart, whatever you want to word it as. But I just never said no when the opportunity felt like the right thing. And I always, worked at whatever I was doing as best as I could. So you were talking about how, whatever you're doing, you're trying to chase that top percentage of what that person does. I call that mastery. So I've always, I, you know, one of my mentors told me there are three things that motivate people in life. You have money, mastery, and meeting. Money of course is nice, but once you have a certain threshold of cash coming in, it's really not the motivator anymore. You know, you get to the highs, the Maslow's hierarchy of needs, and eventually it's, you know, what do you chase at that point? Most people chase the mating side, right? I chase the mastery, it sounds like you do too, and so I've always chased being the best at whatever I do, and because of that, that's why opportunities, I think, have fell in the lap, where I think a lot of people, if they focus on, it's almost like what you chase is not what you get, right? So if you chase networking, you're never gonna find it. If you focus on being the best at what you do, opportunities just kind of arise and fall in your lap, and then discernment as to what you say yes to and no to.
I love the way you phrase that, never say no. I mean, even if you're not cognizant or don't even like really consider yourself to be a, you know, a crazy or even focusing on networking, the fact that you are open. Yeah. I mean, being open minded, perhaps, you know what I mean? Would you suggest?
It's not like I'm saying no. I think, and you've seen this, a lot of the like common social media stuff now is saying no to stuff, right? Value your time and such. But when I was, I'm just starting to get to the point where I have to say no because I have to pick which opportunities are the best spend of time now. But most people, they don't have a ton of opportunity flying on their plate, you know? And so when you do, I coach a lot of new business owners. I'm sure you did too. And they're always, you know, do I take this on? They're only wanting to pay me this much or want to pay. And it's like, what else are you going to do? And they're like nothing. So it's yeah. Take the opportunity. The reason I say that is because it's not that I'm, it's not being open. It's just not saying no to things realistically until you have to say no. Why say no. What bad can come out of, out of, you know, meeting someone.
If you have the time, I think whether I, I've made a career off of trying to, I mean, meeting the right person. I mean, you're, to me, you're one handshake away from possibly changing your life. You know, like the connections you've made. And as soon as we sit down, you know, I feel the, oh, we're kindred spirits. We can help each other. I mean, that's the immediately the vibe that I get, you know, and I guess you sometimes can and can't pick up on that because I've also been disappointed where like we have some of the same or the same coaching circles, the same business influencers or influencers. Dude, very disappointing. And it's a lot of them. Don't meet your idols. That's exactly what, actually Andy says that. And it's just like very disappointing. And I won't, of course, you know what I mean? I won't put them out there, but what they put out, well, you just talked about it. You had a guy who's, I don't know who it was, but somebody that was totally different on camera,
Got on a podcast, got to the studio. Bro, it was, I can say this, it was a real estate firm. and got to the office. I was like a couple minutes late cause I hit traffic in Vegas, which I'm punctual. I try to be on time to everything I do. And so I felt bad. And I think the guy made me wait like 15 minutes because of that. Like I saw him through his glass window pretty much doing nothing, right? But I could feel it. And then his, the people in the office, culture stems from the top. So what are the top guys like in this, you know, that's what breeds through. And bro, it was like disgusting language, like, like go fucking bend her over and get the deal. I mean, you've heard this stuff in sales. Salesforce have it. Yeah, but I understand what you're saying. Yeah, I don't vibe with it. And it was like everywhere. And I remember I had a videographer with me and I'm talking- And you're so right, the fish stinks from the head down.
He taught, that whole office is a microcosm of him.
I knew, I knew what I was expecting. And I'm texting my videographer because the receptionist is right there. We're in the lobby and I'm like, bro, I kind of want to dip. Like, I don't feel like doing this. And he was like, nah, you know, we're here. We, it was only four or five podcasts in Vegas that we were doing. And so I didn't feel like nixing half, you know, a quarter of the trip for it. And so I get in front of the camera, we're talking and he's so arrogant. And as soon as the mic turns on, different person completely. I can say this, you're a gentleman to talk to before and after camera, which is unique. And so I appreciate the good conversation.
Well, I thank you, man. I appreciate that. And I wonder, you know, I hope that I hope sincerely, man, that and same with yourself as just being authentically you, you know what I mean? I feel like that's just who you are and we don't have to necessarily work at that because I refuse. I mean, if I'm not, I guess I can't say that I haven't, because I've not really yet gotten comfortable enough to like just completely be myself on camera. You know what I mean? Like, I'm trying to find that. Cause I can be goofy. I can be like, and I think like, I'm like, oh, I'll be humor. That's my angle. Right. And like, so we'll try it. We don't stick with it. And I'm like a little bit in my wife would be like, that's really not, it's still not all you.
Exactly.
That's what she's like. It's still not all you. That's like a smidgen of you, but you're not like, And then there's like the, the rah, rah stuff where like, yeah, that's sometimes can be me if I'm like, I mean, I'm a passionate, trust me. Like when, if I'm talking about, especially my goals or I like, you know, I got a sales team that's underperforming and it's not even that I'm just like you losers. It's nothing like that. It's just like, I don't understand. Cause if you're here, I see sincerely see value in you. And I see that what you're capable of. And I just don't understand why you're not like seizing that. You know what I mean? Like you had this wonderful opportunity, but.
It's bro. It's hard to put all yourself in front of a camera. You know, it's hard to learn. I don't, you do sit down videos, correct? It's hard to just speak to a camera and then to put, you know, it's, I don't know about you. It's made, it's made it harder to speak to people speaking to the camera. My life now is either speaking to people on stage or speaking to a camera. I very rarely actually have conversations with people outside my team. It's maybe so antisocial to do this camera stuff.
Do you think that, do you like more? So you, so you now, to your point, now you're the, and honestly that's where I'd love to get to. Not because I just want to be, I'd love the, I enjoy traveling around and I really enjoy speaking on stages. Like that's, that's my thing. I've only done it, you know, a handful of times, but you know, hoping to do more and now have a coaching company that like, you know, when we were trying to break through, Ryan's like, build your own stage. That's what we did. You know, we just, he's just like create your own coaching group. Same thing as you did. I had a coach who had a huge, he still does, a huge company of, of business. It used to be a mastermind, which everybody had a mastermind. And now it's a business association. It's a mastermind. But I created a smaller, you know, outfit that was focused more on just those blue collar ballers. It's just blue collar. And he made up that name, but I didn't want to do it on that. I wanted to just do it called the gentlemen's syndicate.
I comp my portfolio, my content company, which was originally a portfolio. It was called the gentlemen's company.
See, I got made fun of for that. And they were like, nah, not by him. But I was like, but I was the gentle and then man in capital with emphasis on young people these days. But see, that's the thing. He was like, how are you going to make money?
I think it's sick. So I have a sales program in Iman's course, and I wanted the name of it to be The Gentleman's Clothes or The Honorable Clothes. And that doesn't, same thing, it doesn't stick as well. So I'm thinking of a six-figure sales rep.
There you go. Yeah, all right. That makes so much sense. He was like, look, I get it. Your heart's in the right place. What he told me was, when you get a big enough platform, then you can help people. And he was like, so. focus on getting that platform and what you know right now, but it's just the same thing we talked about with Grant. Grant started in cars, Andy started in cars, Ryan started in mortgages, Brad started in cars, right?
I don't know Brad's start.
I think it was cars.
He seems like someone with a car. It's almost insulting to say that, but he seems like someone with a car.
And I love Brad's stuff. And Brad, I have met in person. He's super cool. The muscle, I don't remember when he got his start, but like Ed, don't know where he got his start, but I know Andy with forced first form. Anyhow, they all started somewhere, but I was just so over, like I had have this company that this is not even the first roofing or remodeling. The remodeling business model is what you usually see here in our area, like roofing, siding, windows, doors, exteriors, and they sell them, sell them. What I mean by that is we do a lot of insurance work. So it's not the sale that I know it to be as far as like retail, where it's a one call close and you follow these systems and scripts and objection overcoming techniques. Like you're asking someone if they'll allow you to inspect the roof and find damage that will qualify the insurance carrier to purchase it. It's one of the easiest yeses you'll ever get. Yeah.
So you're in a very different world than I am, bro. Yeah. Yeah.
It was probably like the hardest sell ever. Huh? I said, yours is probably like the hardest sell ever.
Not in the slightest, but I just, I don't, I don't know about you, but I envy other businesses when I hear about them. You know, I'm like, I, my, uh, my CRO for my portfolio is, I told you a background of door knocking in Utah. And we joke about it all the time. We're like, one day let's make a real business, like something where we're door knocking again. And you know, not in the online space where it's like fugazi fugazi, nothing really exists. Like you have, you know, I would love example given. I actually messaged you on this on Instagram where I texted this, but I want to start hiring in person again. I've never hired in person. Really? Yeah. Everyone I have is all, all, all throughout the world, you know?
That's just so impressive. And you built and sold that way.
Yeah, but it's so much less fun. You were talking about Andy coming in and just like telling you something, you know, I, I have a beautiful office in, uh, the place that I, I'll tell you later, but it's just me right now, man. No, just me. I'm going to get a videographer soon, but I, uh, I think it'd be so cool to have.
I have a feeling you own that. So we're trying to buy our next space because, well, we were just told that's the natural progression, the fiscally responsible thing to do for tax purposes and to create our, have our portfolio be that much stronger because we're attempting to do what I believe is the true entrepreneurial, run the entrepreneurial gambit and that we're trying to build scale and exit. And private equity currently is gobbling up roofing companies. Oh dude, they started HVAC. And I mean, I know in those business circles that we run in, six, seven guys, peers of mine. And then when you meet them, you're like, well, if you can do it, I can do it. You know what I mean? And so it makes me very much like, and I mean that, and that's why I get so passionate because Andy will probably say that was a big part of the reason why he's here. It's not because he was just like, Oh yeah, I want to come and sell roofing and knock doors. But I sold him on the entire, which is the truth. Like, look, if you stand out and you're willing to work for it, the opportunity truly here is to invest on a major level. And I've been pouring into Andy but but I sincerely offer everybody the same level of like look if you're here and you're a top-level leadership piece I'll give you a change in control agreement meaning I'll give you a point, you know And and that point could be worth a mil to I mean we will determine what that what that is together, you know It's been really hard though. This year has been difficult man. It's been a I think this year for everybody, it's been difficult unless you're in the Midwest selling insurance. Well, if you're in the Midwest selling roofs that are paid for by the insurance, because the Midwest has just been pummeled. Really? Oh, it's like record breaking storms for the last two years over and over and over and over and over.
See, I don't know any of that. Yeah. Yeah. Just like you probably, you put your head down. The joke is I work in the online spaceman and people will tell me, do you know this guy, this guy, this guy? I'm like, no, no, no, no, no. I work in such a very small thing. I just try to, I don't know why I'm saying this point, but I don't keep up to modern day fact in the slightest, you know?
Well, you worry about what I suppose you have to worry about, which is so, it's such a, a unique, it's a space I'm trying to get into like the YouTube and all of that, which it sounds like you've got way more. I mean, we could probably learn a ton from you. I mean, we've really just been replicating and copying what the guys that are winning at doing it, but they all got there that same way. Mind you like Andy, Andy Elliott, he's always like, dude, post three times a day, you know, and he's just relentless. And I've watched him go from a guy that like, No one, I didn't know, mind you. And he has a wonderful sales team though, I will say that. Like as a real office, people in person, all of them, little muscle heads going to the gym together. And they're all climbing in Facebooks and going within different Facebook communities and watching on like me comment on one of Brad's, a picture of him and Brad. something, something about Bradley. And like, I get one of them guys, one of his guys are like, Hey, you like Bradley. Do you? And we're talking. And then, and I didn't even get, I didn't even pick up on it. That's they were good. Cause I would have picked up on it if they were to like push too hard. And we're just like two sales guys just talking about Brad, just like me and you. Right. And then like an hour later, he's like, so you ever heard of Andy? I'm like, Oh, here we go. Come on, man. But at the time I had, and I was like, look, I'm going to be honest, man. I haven't. And I'm working to build something like that myself. Which is kind of like an ego? Thing but I didn't know this guy was so I was kind of like tell you what, you know You tell him to join mine. I'll join his you know, and then now I see Andy is like this Massive he's arguably the fastest growing I would think in that space currently just I don't know if it's a, you know, I don't think it's a flash in the pan thing, but he's just gone like 2 million in the last like six months. And he was nowhere near that.
Yeah. Well, he does well. So the guy that, um, that I was in the mentorship program of taught me this really, really good. This is what Tate did well too.
It's that- Oh dude, that's another one we didn't mention, but yeah, I understand what you're talking about.
Andy is controversial in like the most perfect slot of controversy where Tate, I forget the name of it, but essentially if you become too controversial where you become polarizing, then governments start to come after you. And then, you know, like you get pinned for stuff, but Andy Tate with the whole, charisma toward, you know, fat loss, et cetera, that he has is just arguable enough where people in the comments go crazy. You have wars in the comments you, and that's what makes the engagement so high, which makes this stuff go so viral. And so realistically, if you think about the guys who blow up, this is same thing with Bradley and my light, et cetera. When you, when you're just controversial enough, that's what does well where most people We were joking about this beforehand. I said, I don't want to be too boring. And you were like, oh, you want to go for the controversial stuff? And it's not that I want to, I do like talking about controversial stuff, but at the same time, the boring stuff isn't what does well on social.
Andy does that really well. What would be an example of something controversial that you, that's,
I don't you can talk there's so much dude.
My thing is I talk about Christianity a lot, you know I noticed you said that and then yeah, you know I told you a little bit about my background as far as which makes me respect you and like you a little bit more even to be honest with you because My whole 12-step community is predicated around higher power. It doesn't have to be Christian. It could be anything I grew up Christian. So therefore I default to Christianity. I don't really push that and it's not because I can't it's just We are often talking about business and stuff. And you know, I never know who I'm sitting next to, but truth be told, man, like to your point, you can make the money, you can make the things, but another real reason why I want to do, you know, I feel like I'm supposed to, man. I don't know what else to say. And when I do. I have to help people. It can't be just like, I want to get there, there's cars and this is, okay. Yeah, I would agree with you on that, by the way. It's like, I don't know quite know yet, but I know I can help people that way. And I keep getting people telling me, you want to help people, get a big enough platform, big enough platform.
Yeah, Dean Graziosi, Hermosi talks about this, but that's what Dean told Hermosi. You know, Hermosi wanted to stay behind the scenes. I wanted to say, I love, bro, I love working on a computer and just being behind the scenes and building out different operational things. And Hermosi learned this from Dean. If you want to change the world, you have to have some kind of following to do it. So that's why I'm doing it. But the controversial part is not being a Christian. It's saying that I think Islam is a terrible worldly belief and saying that on camera so that Muslims, when you want to talk to me, I'll send you my calendar link. I literally have videos where if you want to talk about Muslim or Islam and Christianity for 15 minutes, I will take the time out of the day to do it. Or you can talk about Donald Trump. I was on a podcast in Scottsdale and I was talking about Donald Trump out of nowhere, you know? And so, and I'm a huge Trump supporter, that's controversy right there, you know?
And so. I mean, I'm, that's, hey, you know, I'm not, yeah.
See, but this is.
But you know what, these are the conversations that people are afraid to have and it's disappointing. My wife keeps pushing me because she'd be upset right now if I wasn't like, because I, am an adamant Trump supporter as well. And I don't know why that makes us like, I don't know. I really don't understand that. I can be honest enough to tell you that I think I voted for Obama one time. Like I, I really didn't care about politics. I just cared about who was the, who this guy seems cool. You know what I mean? I don't know. Uh, and then I got older and then things started to affect me more. And I'm like, Oh man, you know, like this stuff's kind of scary. Uh, George Bush, To me, it was an idiot. You know what I mean? Like, and that's just me personally. I don't care. Like we should be able to, we used to be able to have these conversations at the dinner table. If you sat on different sides of the fence, kitchen table, kitchen table, and not have these knockdown drag out, like not being worried about thrown, being thrown in the freaking gulag. What is that?
That's what, I mean, democracy is all about being able to speak different beliefs and such. That's why I love watching the, you know, the guys who sit down on different college campuses and such and get yelled at. And it's like the, the whole purpose of university and college used to be able to speak about different beliefs and argue about different beliefs. But anyway, so that, that kind of controversy is what Andy and Tate and such do very well, which is why they, why they grow so well.
I've got a lot of respect. I mean, you know, do you think they're going to let, do you think they're going to let them run? Donald?
Donald? I have no idea, man.
They're working real hard not to.
Scary. I actually purpose, ironically, I brought up the Trump note, but I actually purposely stopped watching any kind of politics or news because it made my blood, my blood was boiling. And I realized there's nothing I can do about it. Really at the level of business.
I'm just like me, man. I had to delete my Instagram for like, that's why my Instagram.
I unfollowed everyone, bro. And so.
I just couldn't take it. I was just like, cause to your point, you feel so helpless.
And it's just like, what is going on? But then you also realize like, yeah, taxes affect us and such. But realistically, when it comes down to it, the level of business you'd have to operate at for the president to really change your life, it's so high. I'm not there. And if I was there, then I probably could actually sway it. And so I just stopped caring. I know that come ballots, I know who I'll vote for if available and such.
You know what I landed at was that no matter what, no matter who, no matter where, I have an obligation to my family to figure the F out. You know what I mean? Like figure it out. I don't, I want, well, the truth is, is okay, well, let's say that doesn't happen and that would suck, but we got the market, no one's going to fix anything for you. You then have a responsibility to your family and those around you to like navigate this market, whatever we have. scary as it is as empty or whatever, like, okay, what what then is available? Solar is not insurance is insurance. They're changing the game here. So what do we do here? Like,
And you've seen it, bro. Once you get one, business at the end of the day is business. How you apply it is, but most people, and you have all the fundamentals here. You could start a life insurance company if you wanted to. You could start any kind of business that actually sells to people, which is an interesting business. So at the end of the day, it's just learning the fundamentals and getting the fundamentals, making a lot of F-ups. You said you have a rock bottom story. I have a rock bottom story. I genuinely think that's actually a principle you have to hit in order to have the ability to grow and such. And so, you know, navigating- You mind going into that or is that too personal? I can, yeah. I've talked about it on a podcast before, but before that, it's just the fundamentals that you have are, you know, it's the, what's in your head essentially is what's going to allow you to always navigate the game and play well.
I love that. I love that. And I could, I couldn't agree more by the way, like once you get there, that's like the new bar. Right. And then like, for me, I just keep wanting, cause I remember when I'm like, man, I just, I'm writing my goals out. Cause I read the Miracle Morning and I'm doing the Miracle Formula, Hal Elrod's thing. And you know, my goal with them was a million. Cause I thought a million, like Bradley says this probably the best, like 10 million is what somebody thinks a million is. just, it's the truth. Like, you know, all my billion makes my mid, my business makes five minutes your business that makes 5 million. Like, what do you net? What do you, you personally, then what is it? What is it net? And then what do you net? And in order for you to say like, Oh, well, I'm a multimillionaire, like for this business, an example, okay, well, so you're doing 50 million a year gross at a 2018, maybe percent net, you know, you're now you're 10 million EBITDA. How much of that are you really keeping? Right. Cause that's your business's profits. Right. And a lot of that goes back like that one to five, like that's almost all going back in to continue to get you to grow, to make more. And as you're growing, it's like, it's not making more right away. At least that's been our experience. I mean, that was like a really disappointing, like we did that through this winter, we went all in and we started a new office in a, cause I reached the point where it was like, I've been here three times now, three other companies, same industry at zero to 10 mark, but breaking that 10 ceiling, uh, and spend some money, right? We had to spend some money, had to farm, you know, do some, some tilling of the land and spend all our money on seeds. And now we're just now like the markets fickle insurance companies, aren't paying as much financing is difficult, whatever, right? Like we're in a whole new, we got all new guys. All new guys. And that alone is like.
That's the hardest thing on its own.
Dude. Dude. Like.
How many, when you say all new, what does that mean?
The office in Delaware is anywhere from eight to 10, truly new salespeople. And then here, our cap, not cap. Our goal is to keep 20. We want to, we, our goal number is based on 16, but still four are seasoned vets. Four. You know what I mean? So the overwhelming majority are new salespeople.
And it's hard because you don't have enough to like through osmosis, you know, like real, yeah.
Well, you, and you, so you set up team leads, but I've got one team lead. And even that team lead is like, as he is trained as I absolutely need him to be because ideally he's, you know, I like to train the folks, but like, I have to then pour into this guy who can train, hopefully even he's like 80% of what I know and then gives them 60%. Yeah. But you know what I mean?
That's the game dude. It's the watered down effect. And like, if you look at the best people in the space, they can, what they do really well, Tai Lopez is a genius with this. They systemize their, how they think so well that it's not 180, it's 195. And the layer down behind that is 95 to 85 and such. And so you always have a trickle down in knowledge where, you know, diminished, it's not diminishing return, but there's like every layer you lose. It's the same thing with culture buy-in. This is really where I talk about it most, but you know, the CEO will believe in the vision the most, the COO will probably believe in the vision less, directors and VPs believe it a little bit less, even though they might still believe it. and then less and then less until at Amazon, the warehouse factory workers don't care about, you know, the vision of Amazon. And so you have, no matter how good you are at trickle down. And so it's the game of like, how can you process and systemize that out so that it's as little as possible for every ring that you have. What you should, I'm not giving you any kind of advice here. But have you ever thought about doing what, so when Volkswagen started building Volkswagens in Mexico, What they did is they took all the people that were going to work in the Mexican office and take them to Germany for like three months. And they had to work alongside the German factory for three months before they could start to build Volkswagens in, in, um, Mexico. Same thing with Guinness when Guinness had the factory in Baltimore. They took all the guys over to Ireland, had them there, worked there, then came back. Have you thought about having a Delaware crew? Yeah, like a couple of weeks stints, you know, get them, get an Airbnb that they can all live in and such. Say goodbye to your families for a short time. It's going to be worth it. have them tell her, you know, shadow your, your good guys. And I guarantee you, it's probably, you know, worth, I don't guarantee it, but it's probably going to be better than training them from scratch.
It's actually not terrible. You know what I mean? It's making the best use of the few sales trained sales guys that we have here. You know, the, the, and we could certainly do that with Delaware, I suppose. The other end of that is, is there's a bunch of new guys here in Maryland too. So it's like, I'm trying to get them trained by the four guys here and then like get one guy trained enough in Delaware to like try to help the guy.
It's just talent is the hardest part of my business, man. Especially sales talent. Sales talent is one of the most, uh, unique one unique kind of personality slash just in general people to find door to door is not any easier.
We were joking about that. You know, you have your experience there, but man, I get a lot of guys that are like, they want to make the money or they see like whatever, you know, we, we did started originally when I started doing the whole online presence was to try to paint the attractive character and get better reps. And then it was, you know, I started, you know, I did a consulting gig. That was originally what I wanted to do. I wanted to, uh, I didn't want to do this again. And by this, I mean the full on company and remodeling and roofing. And I had done this four or five other times where there, I was a VP or a business partner. And, uh, that one really took a lot out of me, man. because that didn't end well. Cost me a, which I'm sure that's probably why you're laughing, but like, cost me a lifelong best friend, you know what I mean? And years of everything I had and the guy still running the company and I didn't sue him or anything like that. We didn't, we didn't fill anything out the right way. We didn't have any agreements.
It's amazing. I was, Iman and I are great friends, but people think this is crazy. I was the CEO for him and the CEO prior to that. He never had a contract in place, never had any kind of paper. And realistically, I think at the end of the day, people think when you're doing like, you know, decamillions a year or whatever, that stuff is way more organized than it is. But it's funny when you see, especially, we talked about like, don't be your idols. I'll see companies that are doing 50 million, 60 million a year, and they're, Shit shows inside like it's like everything's on fire But somehow things are still working and I know you mean 100% when you say nothing was filled out the right way You know this and that I've been there myself Learning lessons learning tax is what I call it.
You know my wife She's an attorney and she was telling me some stories about government compliance Like I guess if it gets bad enough if they make enough money and they impact them I guess if they impact the economy enough and they make enough money Government's gonna come in and say what are you guys doing? this is an absolute mess. And they'll put these major companies, but, but her point being they'll get put on a compliance plan. I was like, what would the government pay taxes? They owe, they just, they create these businesses with no structure or just completely doing things the wrong way. Nothing by the book. And then they, she's like, you would be possibly blown away. If I named a few of these like major, major, like fortune 500, like, and One of the, one of them is, I'll say a phone carrier. There's only a couple, there's only a couple. And it's probably the biggest name that you would think of when I say that. And it's like, pretty sure they were put on one. And I'm like, how do you get to that level? Massive, running like to where the government has a step in like, what, what? Yo, we're going to have to put you in a compliance plan. Make sure you got your stuff together, but you're a big enough company and we got to fix this. And it's just, you know, it makes me feel a little bit better, but. Different one, though. Different one, though.
I'll ask after.
Bigger than that. I think.
It's gotta be one of the two.
Yeah. The other one has a unique, well, anyhow. But yeah, man, it's just, it's, I think we're also two by nature, just like, I don't want to say overachievers. What I'm trying to say is I often focus more on what I'm not doing than what, before I ever even think about like anything that we're doing right. And it's like, that gets to be really overwhelming and really quick because you can always find something you're not doing right.
Especially for your new business. That's the trait that I've always seen the successful people have. I have a really close friend, he's in the area.
I got that in spades, so we're good.
No, genuinely, I think it's a prerequisite. So example given, I have a mentor and this is actually the same way with me and my partner, but I have a mentor who, I mean, this guy is, Boo-goo, boo-goo money. Probably the wealthiest guy I know. Probably one of the wealthiest guys in Maryland, genuinely. And when we'll walk around his backyard. You have never seen such beautiful, like his yard, I think has 188 landscaping lights just in the backyard. And it is everything, I mean, his outdoor lawn slash maintenance bill is probably like close to 10 grand a month. It's like groomed the T. We'll walk back and I'll be like, just asking like, do you ever look and just take a second to realize like, you know, I did probably what I wanted to do. And he's like, no, I look around and I see that that bulbs out, this bulbs out, this thing's over here is fading and needs to be stained, et cetera. And same with me, I'll be at home and nothing is ever right. It has to be just worked on and nurtured and kept. There's a line in Proverbs that essentially says, you know, that he who doesn't tend to his land is a fool, essentially. I'm mad paraphrasing that, so please don't write me in the comments if you know the line. But the reason I'm saying that to you is because realistically, if you are happy with where you're at, then there's no drive in wanting... There are people who can comfortably look back and be happy, and I do envy that to an extent, but I guarantee you they envy you in terms of success that you'll have, because that mindset that you have, even though you'll never be happy because there's always stuff to work on, is what allows you to grow. Does that make sense?
It does. And I guess I think you're right. I think, um, it's hard to talk to other people too. Yeah, it does. And people always think you're just, you're right. But that's also probably too, why those business networks do so well. Yeah. It's nice when you finally get around a bunch of other people that are like, we just speak to say it's, it's, you know, why is this a great comp when I go to my 12 step meetings? where there was the only people that can understand like, and I say that in jest, but like, we're pretty damn close. We're like right there. Most of the guys and gals that I know that are in like a high level entrepreneurs, they're either there or they're darn close. Like they have the same obsessive compulsive behaviors or like- The things you're crazy for to normal people is like, if anything, you're less crazy. Yeah, 100%. But I think you're right in that, like Joe Rogan was talking about this the other day, like that, trauma or Rock-bottom, whatever it is that like most of the successful people that I know are mosey do I blah blah blah? And and you know, he talks about that like he had his rock bottom moment Bradley I can't remember but I know like Dan Martell the guy that wrote by your time. That's awesome He's speaking at MDM. I don't know him personally, but I know he's speaking in MDM and I love his content And I love, actually I haven't fully read his book, but I love the, I love the idea of his book, but Ryan said it's fantastic. So I want to read it. And, but I love his content. He has that story. I know about the story because he talked about it on one of the podcasts I listened to, but point is they all have that like moment in time where like things seem to be completely like, that's it. Did you say you had something similar? I know you've spoken about this before, but.
So mine was, mine was purely financial, but it got so, Yeah, I'll run through it quickly and you can ask whatever questions you want on it. But in short, when I was becoming, so I grew up Catholic, this is context. I grew up Catholic, my mom's from Mexico, every Mexican that you'll ever meet is pretty much Catholic. And I remember I had a moment where I started actually looking for God and I started finding Christianity through the Bible, not through the Catholic way that people.
I know my wife's Catholic, so I know exactly what you mean.
It's hard to explain. But so I started looking for God and in the Bible, it talks about it. When you start looking for God, what he's gonna do, he's gonna burn away your idols. And my idol for the longest time was money. My pride and who I was as a human being was based on how much money I made. This is when I was probably 20, 22, 23. I was younger twenties and I was making probably a quarter million a year in the car car world. And when you, and this is before like online money was really a thing yet. So I'm doing really well by the scheme, like of the, you know, if you're comparison, comparing me to other 20 something year olds doing well. And so I was the guy who had, you know, I had two cars, S seven and uh, and I two out is essentially $160,000 of cars and the nicest department I could get in Annapolis. And I was the guy who bought dinners every single time we took friends out and such. My overhead to live was probably $8,000 to $9,000 a month, which at 22 is stupid.
You know, just at 22 that's, that's awesome.
And I was just, I was, Don't make the same mistakes. And so I remember I, as soon as I started looking for God, I was leaving the car dealership world to go into the government world. And this is, It must be right when Trump is coming into office, because Drain the Swamp, genuinely, he did it because my government contract got furloughed or paused, essentially. So I was taking a month off in Hawaii and everything like that, going to come back and be on contract. That one month ended up being over a year. It was 14 months where I couldn't get another job because we reset my security clearance check. And I was just essentially homeless, not homeless, I'm sorry, jobless. It's a big difference. I was jobless for 14 months. My savings went down. I got to the point where I had my S7 repossessed. I would come home pretty much every other couple of weeks. I was on Fiverr. Craigslist, Craigslist jobs and doing anything I could to like get a hundred bucks or 200 bucks so I could try to pay for rent or pay for food. And I remember I was like writing these one-liners for kids books at one point. I'm not a writer or anything like that, but I was writing these like little one-liners for 300 bucks. Clever way to make it. Yep. Selling furniture so that I can, I can try to pay rent. And I remember before the car got repossessed, there was a point I had my AMX platinum or AMX gold in my hand and I swiped the AMX to get gas and the AMX gets declined. And if you've ever had an AMX, you know, you, you know, they don't decline. Right. And here I am in this hundred something thousand dollar car. I can't get, I can't get to my apartment, which has an eviction notice on it. I know my car is going to get repoed soon. Like I'm sitting, I'm just waiting in that. And there, there were points this was going on for probably three or four months, but there was a point vividly. where I'm in the apartment, there's yellow eviction notices stacked up on my counter, and I have no furniture in the apartment anymore. I sold all the furniture to try to keep paying. There's a mattress in my living room, and I still had the TV because the TV was so old, no one would have bought it, right? And so that's like the only furniture in this beautiful apartment that I have. And I'm sitting down and I'm praying. And this is the kind of prayer where I'm not praying like dear Lord or father. I'm saying, dad, like dad, please like help me out here. And I think I'm praying for four or five minutes and I'm praying for like 45 minutes. And I don't even realize it. I'm so immersed. It's the happiest I've ever been in my entire life. I know it sounds crazy, but through all of this, and there's a lot of personal stuff going on and everything too. So it was not just financial, but there was a lot of really close to heart personal stuff going on. And so I'm a wreck, but I'm also the happiest I've ever been because I'm so connected to God. And that's why I'm so devout on Christianity now. If anything, I envy how happy I was back then. But I remember praying. I don't even know how I'm going to put food on the plate that day kind of thing. And over the next couple of days, that specific day, like an hour later, I'm praying about how, like, what am I going to eat essentially? And I got a friend, I got a knock at the door. It's a friend I haven't talked to for like six years. And he's like, Hey, I don't know why I just got this feeling from God that I'm supposed to give you this. And he hands me a hundred bucks in cash. I haven't talked to this guy in years. No, I'm not kidding. I remember that, I, uh, I, there's a boys that we used to do.
I just shows up and says, I don't know why it hands you a hundred bucks.
Friend of mine from, but yeah.
Right, but still.
Yeah.
Doesn't know you're down and out or anything like that?
Doesn't know I'm down. I hadn't talked to him in years, right? Wow. There was so many moments that just sound fake, bro, of like, but also so much destruction of pride. I remember a really good friend of mine, we used to have Wednesday night guys nights at Cooper's Hawk, right? And so we would go to 24 hour fitness in Annapolis, workout, do Cooper's Hawk after, and I couldn't, I told them, guys, I can't do that.
You were doing the rich guy Annapolis lifestyle. I love it.
I couldn't do the boys night. I was like, guys, I can't, I can't go out and get like a drink. I just don't have it. And I remember my buddy, the mentor I told you about just slipping something in my back pocket. And that's what fed me for, you know, for weeks. And I remember at one point I essentially was talking to my partner and I told her, um, I got to get a serving job or something like at this point. And during all of that, I turned down another car dealership job that was a quarter million dollars base plus commissions. And so here I am, I'm trying to be good in faith, trying to be loyal to God. I'm saying no to money. And I'm like, I got to just, you know, cause it felt unethical. That was in Glen Burnie and they were just raping people in like really bad ways. And, uh, and so I, I told, I told my partner, I got to get a waiting job or something, just to, you know, even if it does reset the security. And I'm not kidding when I say that within probably two seconds, as soon as like my final amount of, because I didn't want to be a server after I'd done all that stuff like that, that was final pride gone kind of thing. And as soon as I dropped that last little bit of pride, I got a call from the guy who owned the contracting company saying, I'm on contract starting on Monday. It was like a Thursday or something like that. And so it was almost like it was just months and months and months of just destroying any level of pride in who I was, what I was to the world, the amount of money I made, et cetera. And as soon as it was all finally drained, like the tub was clean, that's when God finally put me back into the realm. And I think I needed that. for a couple of reasons. And I'm sure you can attest to these two. Number one, at my rock bottom, I know that I could live through it. Like once you're there, people over inflate where rock bottom is, but once you hit your, your rock bottom, you realize you can live through it. You don't want to go back. It's not like it's comforting, but you know, you can get through it and knowing you can get through it allows you to take risks and make decisions that other people are scared of. Right. And so I think that's one of the reasons, but number two is I also have a completely different stance on money. I have a respect for money, but I also just don't find pride in the cash or the things that I have anymore. And so I still drive a almost 10 year old car because I'm scared of buying another car. I'm scared of that repossession happening again kind of thing. And so I'm very different in how I act. And I think I needed that. I still envy sometimes the relationship that I had with Christ at that time that I definitely don't have anymore. I would love to be back at that point, but that's mine.
We have so much more in common, man. It's funny you say that because I've said what you just said. probably a million times over when I was dating my, actually my half Mexican girlfriend in high school. Her family was super, super religious, went to church and my mom had just left. And so I needed, you know, I clung to her family at that time in my life, right? Like I had lost my mom. It was just me and my dad and my brother. And I was looking for that like family unit. And so I clung to hers and was going to church every Sunday. Wasn't really raised that way, And I think because I was open to it or I needed it or whatever, I don't know. I had a relationship with God that I've tried to recreate since then, because it was just so real, I believed. I don't know. I don't know if it's because I was young. I can't recreate it.
I know what it is, bro. Cause I know exactly what it is. And I just don't have the balls to live it through. But there's two things that the Bible says. Number one is that God dwells with the meek and the poor. And number two is, you know, I don't know if there's a, it's the parable of the rich man, but the rich man comes up to Christ and says, teacher, teacher, you know, how do I get into heaven? And Christ says, why do you call me teacher? Only God, I'm sorry, good teacher, good teacher or something. And Christ says, why do you call me good? Only God is good. And what he's essentially claiming there is you're calling me good because I am God, right? So that's Jesus telling this man, call me what I am. If you're going to address me kind of thing. And then he says, you know how to get into heaven, follow the commandments. The guy says, I have followed the commandments. Very first commandment is that you shall have, you shall have no other gods. And so Christ says, Essentially he just puts it back in his face and shows, no, you haven't because you're going to fail at first. He says, if you followed all the commandments, then sell all your possessions, give everything away to the poor and follow me, follow Christ, follow God. The guy walks away sorrowfully. And so at the end of the day, the reason that we aren't as close, I've never said this out loud, but the reason we're not as close to Christ is because we don't put ourselves in a place where we need him. We feel more independent. And when you feel independent, you know, and you act independent, then of course, God is not going to be there in the same way of when you realize you are dependent to God.
It's like when you go to jail and people, people you've not, I guess you've never been there, but when you do go, I have, and they make jokes about like, man, you come to jail and get locked up and you get religious or you get religion. Well, I don't know why that's so weird. Cause like, you know, it's kind of like when you find yourself in those situations, you're going to turn to one of two things, right? Like, and so like, And of course they do that, right? And I did too. And so like the times I've been closest locked up and I had a faith, I faced 15 years, bro. I had 15 years and I went to court that day. And normally you get a plea or plea bargain or you know what your sentence is before. Well, mine was no such any of that. You're gonna go ahead before the judge and she's gonna sentence you to the, you're facing 15 years. So like, I could have got 30 days. I could have got out of jail then. Cause I had been in there for six months or I could have got 15 years and like everyone else I had gotten close to, like they already knew their sentences before they went. They just, you know, they just went to sentencing, but they at least knew like, all right, we worked it out. You know, I'm going to go home today. Or I got two more weeks, whatever. I had no idea that morning I woke up.
I'm surprised you slept bro.
Dude. I, but that's what I'm saying. Like I, I was, of course I was chewed up about it at first, but I had been there for six months. I had enough time, like, and because it forced me to sit, before then I was running the streets and I was hopelessly addicted. So then I kind of cleared my head a little bit. Then I start, we start doing Bible studies in the cell. Whatever, dude, we were, we were that group. We started doing Bible studies in the cells. We're praying, you know, we're the guys that got religious, right? And there's a couple of gangsters in that Bible study group and stuff too, man. So like, don't even like, you know, it's, it wasn't like, we were all just phony. A lot of us had those relationships before.
I feel like you're like embarrassed about the fact that you were in a Bible study.
Well, I guess I'm saying that to say that to speak to the guys that have been to jail before and like kind of laugh at like, oh, you got to get religious. Like you have to understand like, well, it's not like it was a phony thing. Like, I guess that's what I'm more or less talking about. Like, cause some guys, but even then, What do you expect them to do? So what? If that's what brings them to God, dude, great.
God uses the worst things on earth sometimes to bring people to him.
A lot of guys in jail, like that's a whole negative predisposition. Like, oh, you come to jail and get religious. Like if I said that to my cousin, he'd laugh. But that's because it's this big, like, I still got to be tough when I get in jail and like, Oh, I wasn't religious outside. Why am I going to religious? And I'm like, well, cause things are, things suck. There've been consequences. We're down and out. We're in jail. We're not free. And so, yeah, we're going to go back. It's like a kid hurting themselves or being down and again, like going to their parent, like, why wouldn't you?
So anyhow, it's a great analogy that you just, yeah.
I mean, that's, you know, you come back to now you're in trouble. You need to look to your parents. Right. And so like, that's where we all were. We had a lot of faith and yeah, we're all facing time. But that night I slept, I got up the next morning. I remember praying. I still remember it. And I remember being so calm, man. I mean, you know why? is because I was resound to whatever the outcome was, it was God's will. And I don't normally talk about all this stuff on here, but like genuinely, I felt like, dude, whatever happens, it doesn't matter because whatever happens, it's what's supposed to happen. I'm not controlling it. I get all caught up in trying to control it. I do bad doing that.
There's a line that is perfect. Christ says, take my yoke for its burden is light and it is easy to carry. So at the end of the day, what he's saying is, let me steer for you kind of thing because I'll give you peace.
Well, I need them to, cause every time I try to, and that's the thing too with us AA. What happened by the way? I don't know. I got, yeah, yeah, sorry. I went and uh, I got, um, they said the words 10 years also spend about 18 months, but she said 10 years first. So my whole family was like, you know, and what's also, but you did 18 months, 18 months, but I was already done six months. And I, so I got another six months and a couple of weeks, but I mean, that was, At that point, I was like, that's nothing. But it was the 10 years. But I mean, honestly, man, the bigger thing, I suppose, is that I was resound to whatever it was. I got 18 months, but she gave me 10 years. So I had three years probation. I had eight and a half years over my head after that. I could have gotten all of that. I went back. I got worse when I got back. I was in and out, in and out. I can tell you, man, there were times where I was angry at God, hollering at the sky, you know, crying, praying like on my knees because I was so frustrated with like, why am I doing like, the addiction is such a weird thing.
You want to know what's crazy, bro? God would say when you were yelling at him like that, that you were honoring him. Did you know that?
No, I didn't. Cause I didn't feel like it.
I know it doesn't. Right. But in the book of Job, it's, you know, do you know the story of Job? Yeah. So book of Job, you know, Job is yelling at God, cursing out in the whole thing. And God says to, I forget to who, but you know, Job honored me. And it's because you, you turned to God still, even when things weren't the way that you wanted to go and such, you still went to God. You didn't go to something else or someone else, et cetera. You, you turned to your father. And so that is in a way still in God's point, honoring God.
Yeah. I mean, it was, I guess because you didn't, it wasn't, it wasn't, you wanted that thing removed and it wasn't happening in the way that you saw fit, but I had to go through everything I had to go through to get to here. And then even now, man, it's whenever I take my eye off of, whenever things get real squirrely, Focused back on the 12-step program that I'm in and it's anonymous but the whole idea in that program is Whenever we try to take control, we don't do well whenever we put God in control and we have to use again. I'm not pushing But for me, it's about life and death Like I know the whole idea behind these 12-step programs is you got to find a power higher than yourself or you're done Right. So Christian, whatever. But for me, I was raised that way. Um, but I have to have that or I'm done. I can't be me. I can't take control. So when I find myself inevitably doing that and I do it all the time, probably doing a little bit right now. And I have to like relinquish that control by focusing on someone else. So you find someone new in the program that needs help and you sponsor them, you pick them up, you do those and it gets you outside of yourself. The same can be said here where you like, you find someone new in the company and I focus on them, Andy or whatever. And I'm like, hey, you know, but I really am attracted to the guys that struggled or like Andy's just been through a whole bunch of stuff similar to myself. And that like, he trusted a friend, he did all this work for him, did all these things and kind of got burnt. And I'm like, man, this is a guy that's going to really appreciate an opportunity. And I want to pour into this guy, but it's funny. I wasn't expecting to talk about any of this stuff, but It's refreshing to see someone who's had so much success give that glory to like, Hey man, I wouldn't have any of that stuff if it wasn't for this.
You know? Dude, the other side to a two man is realistic. The way I look at it is like the money in the world is God's money. Right. And he steward, I'm a steward of, of that cash and he's not going to put like, and I'm also, how many employees do you have?
We just moved all of them to employee. 28, 30 something, 30 something.
So I'll just use you. Do you think God's going to put someone who hasn't gone through life test in charge of 30 people or the livelihoods of 30 people? He's going to make sure that a man who has experience and discipline and burned away a lot of the nature of that man's flesh essentially is, he's going to make sure that you're the right person for the job before he puts you in an opportunity that allows you to do that, right? There's in the old Testament, there's a story. I don't normally talk about the Bible this much, My apologies. I don't know if I should say my apologies, but there's a story.
It feels dirty saying that. So I get it. You know what I mean? Like whatever.
There's a story about, you know, he's creating an army and the, uh, God tells, I forget, I haven't read the Old Testament way too long. I should, but essentially God's looking for the, you know, the troops who have gone through battle before so that he can use them for his army. So he's saying, watch how they drink from the water. If they put their spear down, get rid of them. You know, you're looking for the troops that have, their spear in hand or drinking from one hand because they're ready for battle anytime. He's saying, look for this, look for this, look for this. And what he's really showing is that he puts in God's army, the people who have gone through terrible life things, because those are the people who have weathered the storm and become strong men. So at the end of the day, I really do think people have to go through that, you know, stuff they don't want to go through those rock bottoms because you're, you're not very, um, you don't really have any kind of character until you go through that. And the character you do have would just be very bad. Like, dude, if you were in this, like, take this position you're in now without having gone through all that, oh man, I would pray for your employees. You know, same thing with me. I would, I would run anything I led to the ground if I hadn't gone through what I, what I did.
You're absolutely right. I was an arrogant jerk. My wife can tell you I, she met me right before the downfall of everything. You know what I mean? I was not, I just thought things should be handed or like either your looks or who you knew. I mean, I still believe that who, you know, has a, is a great value, but I didn't want to work hard for anything. You know what I mean? Um, just figured it would be handed. Now I have had to not only work hard for everything, but I'm talking like from the bottom up, like install the roofs that I used to sell, you know, like, um, and I wouldn't change any of it for anything because to your point, it's, And I think the Bible talks about this too, it's those character defining, the lows that you find yourself in, you should actually be like rejoicing in those moments because it's defining your character, right? And like, you know, I always say your character is who you are. When people think about you as your character is who you are, your reputation is what people think about you. And most people get caught up on their reputation, you know, like what people actually think about them, but they don't give a damn about their character. That was like my old partner, you know what I mean? Like he worked so hard, even had me fooled and a lot of our friends. But then when we got to know his character, it's like, dude, you're a disgusting person, man. You know, but your reputation is all you're worried about. As long as people think you're a nice guy or a good guy, a good family person, wonderful. But your character is not any of those things. I never say his name or anything like that because it's not worth it, but just a prime example. I mean, we're coming up on it. And what I mean by that is November. And I say like, look, if you're in business right now and we've been going over all kinds of stuff and I've enjoyed the hell out of this conversation. So I hope you guys have, but I've enjoyed it. But if you're in business, it's the year 2024 rates are, are, are not great. It's harder to get people financed than it was. Um, if you're in the marketing space, it's hard to do anything with that because all the politicians take up all the marketing space. So, right now, unless you're in the Midwest or in the South and you sell insurance based products, it's difficult, right? Even for us that offer the insurance to pay for these things, it's getting way harder because of the Midwest and the South that are eating up all of their money. They're coming to us and like, you're gonna know we're not paying for anything. Cause we're getting pummeled in the Midwest. But I talked to my buddy and he's like, Oh, we did seven or 8 million last month. And just everything's getting paid for. And, but that same buddy of mine, We talk all the time and he has the same mentality that you do and myself, but like, uh, he always brings up God whenever we tell you always does. And it always reminds me, Brandon. And I'm always like, man, because I think I might actually have more time in sobriety, but it's like, he's definitely got that like connection. And it's no shocker that he's just doing so well. He always reminds me like, dude, you know what I hear? And he always puts it on himself, but he's talking about me. He's like, you know, I was telling myself if God wouldn't trust me, If I can't, if I can't be trusted with a thousand, why did he give me 10? If I can't be trusted with 10, why would he give me a hundred? Right? Like, so, you know, he's, he's got great points with that. Like, he's like, I had to tell myself and show, you know, like I gotta be smart and have money, be a servant of like, am I doing smart, a steward of money, I think is what he said, but like making sure I'm doing smart things with it. Otherwise why would God just going out, buying all this crazy stuff? Like, why is he going to keep doing that? You know? setting people up and making pathways for people within my business to like, Hey, that's the whole idea with the exit, man. It was like, look, I'm offering opportunities that we can all benefit from this. And I hopefully like, uh, and I mean it with everything in me. Um, I just need to stop trying to control so much.
It's hard, man. That's what we're programmed.
We're wired to do that. So it's like, yeah, but anyhow, we're going up on November. Do you think And again, we're getting back into the controversy, but we might as well talk about it, man, because you know what, if you're in business, I don't care what side of the fence you find yourself on, you inevitably are preparing for the eventuality of one of two. And it's like, if you're a smart business person, you kind of have to do that. Like, Hey, what are we up against? What do you see happening in November? No idea. Yeah.
Yeah. I I'll tell you one man.
Well, okay. How about this? What are you, what are you planning for? Are you just not playing? I gotta be prepared for whatever. Yeah.
Yeah. Whatever. I'll tell you in 2020 I went hard down the Q and on stuff.
Yeah, bro. Let me down in some weird places.
Dude, I was, I'm expecting the FBI to swarm the inauguration stage and everything. So I'll be honest. I, um, and I still, you know, 100% believe that the 2020 election was, Rigged. Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah. Well they use that. Don't get me started, but I understand what you're saying.
So I, I don't know what to expect.
I don't think anyone really say like, if you say that you automatically get disregarded, but there was a lot of truth to a lot of things. It's just, unfortunately there's also like a lot of loony tunes that make that all discredited.
You know what I mean?
And it's like, he's like the next Jesus or something. I'm like, well, okay. All right. Like I never saw that. I saw some wild stuff in there. Like my buddy tried to get me in that. I'm like, dude, I, I can't, you know, that's way too extreme because they were saying some wacky stuff by then. I mean, I just, I'm like, all right, but I'm also not naive enough to know that like, there's so much truth to so many of these conspiracy things.
Every conspiracy has something behind it. Right. Right. Right. No matter.
And most of them have been proven at this point to be like, well, Shot for example, right? You see guys like, uh, Anthony Cumeo or whatever, like the brothers CNN guy. He's now like on his like comeback tour, like, Hey, you know, I'm taking ivermectin and I take it every day. And, but, but we gave the information that we were supposed to, so I'm not really going to apologize.
It's like, I don't watch that. What's crazy.
Anyhow. I mean, I only see it on the Insta webs, but it still pisses me off. But anyhow, cause at the same time, those people were the same ones that were vilifying you. If you, dared to be like, I don't care what you do, but I'm not going to trust that. You know? I mean, my wife, it doesn't matter. I can't go into, I'm not going to go into the, I'm not going to go into that.
When you get into that one, people take it so personally too, because when they have it, they made a choice to go one way or the other.
And it's like,
I saw something that Jordan Peterson said, which is, you know, even calling it Jordan Peterson, and he's talking about the shot quite off quite a lot now. And he says to call it a vaccine was pretty much like crazy on its own because it's so much. Yeah. It's, it's a brand new technology, never tested on humans and such. And then anyway I have no idea what to expect in November and I am not playing anything differently. I'm just working on everything I can work on as much as I can.
Okay. So your advice to the other young entrepreneurs out there would be just keep playing, keep playing your hand.
There's only two things. If you're a brand new, like a young entrepreneur in the space, in any space, there's two things that will happen, right? Either world war three occurs and like all this changes or taxes go up or down. you know, maybe some of the market changes and such, but realistic when it comes down to it, the amount of like the market change won't impact anyone new in this, in that you have to have so much leverage and so much volume for market change to, to play with anything. I think I believe this because my first business was a real estate leads business. I got leads for real estate agents and I started during lockdowns, when all real estate shut down. And I still grew my business in that, and everyone else's was dying. And so I say that because realistically, in that, if I could still grow, that just means I could focus on what I could focus on. Zillow went down in value, right? Because it has so much leverage. And so at the end of the day, if you're brand new, I think realistically putting any focus on the election, minus doing your due diligence and researching who you have the aligned beliefs with, I think any of it else is just waste of time, waste of effort, mental bandwidth. I'm so protective now of everything that I think about. Hermosi, there's a clip like three or four years ago, I saw him talking about on a Zoom call, how he paid, I forget how much, but essentially for someone to literally just talk to you for a week, every other minute, he was essentially just talking about what he was thinking and just analyzing what your thoughts are. And you'd be amazed at how many people just brain rot their thoughts away. Like, you know, what you think about is what you speak. What you speak is what you live. That's what the Bible says, essentially. And so I'm really careful about what I think about. And if I'm thinking about the election, I just think I'm thinking about something I can't really, you know, it won't change anything I can do. I think so.
Hmm. And he, what was the reason why he paid, he being hormones, he paid somebody to do that just to see what he was thinking about or get some ideas paid.
So on, but long story short, he just wanted to see what he was thinking about and essentially have it all on paper so that they could analyze why you think about this, whereas this probably some deep rooted psychology, if anything, let's talk about some of those.
And I know we're, we're, we're, we're rocking on a long one, but you're, You're what we would consider, you know, I am striving and doing this. I don't just do contrary to when you see this content, I'm not just like, you know, some I'm not a masochist for like, like likes to sit here and do, uh, I don't know, videos and stuff for no results, 24 seven. Like I'm trying to build something here. Right. And I feel like we've had some success, but everyone started grants, France started with him and like eight people on a zoom or no, I want him to zoom. It was YouTube. And they were like, this guy's an idiot. And now look at him. Right. And so we all start somewhere. Um, and then you never know who you're going to meet because then You know, you and I might link up and now we do something together and now you have access to my network and vice versa. And the next thing you know, like just the right thing or the right time and you're, you find your right lane, your right authenticity, you speak to the right audience, whatever. Bottom line is you seem to have a good grasp on doing that. you're speaking to somebody who's wants to do that or pursuing that a young person that's trying to build in that influencer space, especially in business. You know, is there anything that, you know, you can, any advice you could give to that individual or.
Dude, there's a line that I've been thinking about a lot with this.
It's what you do now. Right? Like that's like it now pretty much. You don't have to do the day and you're not working in the business. It's on the business.
Yeah, exactly.
Um, are we talking about like content growth or content growth or even brand, you know, like any, any of those, I know there's a few different ones, but I suppose like for me it would be content growth, but even, even working on the brand, I mean, all of those things, you know, play like it's important. I know who I'm speaking to less. I just make a bunch of content aimlessly and wonder where it's all going. You know, I honestly, I probably don't do a good enough job narrowing that down because it used to be, I want to do sales. but I wanted to skip past the part of roofing sales and get to broad, broad scope sales. Cause I didn't want to just be roofing. I didn't want to just be talking to the roofers and I don't have it. I am one, but it was like, I was like, Oh, I want the gentlemen's club thing. Like we talked about that. I wanted to create a coaching group for troubled youths or maybe, I don't know. I wanted to teach them what it was in this day and age to be a man, a gentleman, like the way they dress, the way they speak, how they speak, resumes, all the things.
And I'll start with a few. Number one, I don't know why this line's been sunk. Maybe it's for me to use it here, but everyone's built off the back of someone. So everyone's built off the back. I'm built off the back of Emon. I wouldn't have a brand at all if it wasn't for Emon.
Freaking love that.
I'm not going to say he was built off the back of anyone, but he definitely came from the Tai Lopez group of people that started agencies, which is how he found his space. Tai Lopez certainly was built off the back of someone. We were talking about Andy and Grandstache. I don't know who they were built on the backs of, but most of the time someone's built on the back of somebody. That's one thing that's just been sitting with me a lot. When it comes to Brandon, like for you, you were talking about you wanted to skip the roofing stuff. I think it's a lot easier. I think it's only really possible to start in business content. not entertainment stuff, but business, with a very niched group of people. So if you look at Ozzy Monk, I mean, he's got 5 million subs on YouTube, he's a really good example. He started with the agency, right, just social media marketing agency, everything was about social media marketing, and he got to, you know, call it 100 something thousand subs, and slowly got broader and broader and broader and broader and broader, because he had that root following. If you're a generalist, you have to have a reason for people to, If you're a generalist talking about everything and no one follows you, no one has any reason to want to follow you. So you have to give people a reason to want to follow you by talking about one specific thing. You gain a following from doing that. And it's almost like starting the snowball. And then when the snowball is starting, then you can start to get more general and the traction starts to compound and the snowball gets bigger. So right now I talk about online business and only online business. And eventually it'll start to get into real business is what I call it, but like, you know, in person stuff, business, and then eventually maybe life stuff and see where it goes, but you mostly, I mean, that's also why. most people, well, like Hermosi is a prime example of this. And he just started, he switched all this stuff. But I watched Hermosi three years ago when I was a business owner. And then as he started to get broader and broader, he got so watered down and everything he talked about, I stopped watching him. And so a lot of the time what happens and he, he shows because he cares about business owners only to, to revert back when it's like your, your favorite band, I don't know what music you listen to, but there's an album and then they, they get popular. And then the music changes, right? So same thing with content. You start with something that creates a following, and then you go more general so that you can get more views, more eyes, more, et cetera. And then how you play with that is your depiction. But I would say roofing sales is way more applicable to roofers than sales is to the broad general term of sales. So start with something, go wide, it would be my.
I wish I would have stuck with that originally, but you know, we've, we've, we've dialed it back or has sent, have since brought it back and I've been making connections, but you know, I just, I wish I would have, but it's, it's lessons learned, right? So, you know, I've been doing a lot of, uh, getting back to the basics, even the content we're doing with like me on the roof and stuff like that, like making sure that they know like, Hey, I'm on the roof still, like, or I'll take the suit off and hop up here. But I, uh, I really am looking forward to, to, I don't know, man, like building this, like I said, being able to help people. Once you have a platform, like, you know, it's not all about, you know, my driving force isn't just, of course it's like, I'd love to have a cool car or whatever, but I just sold my cool car. I sold my watches. I did that to put it back in the business and I'll get another one eventually, but I'll do that when I can do that, like frivolously. And I mean, frivolously frivolously, like when my people can do it, And I can do it. And our whole out front looks like that. Like, that's when I've made it. And you know what I mean? Like you pull up to the office and all like your guys, like, they're all like, you're like, all right, dude. Yeah. I don't need it to be just mine. They're like, well, that's the owner. Like the guy's an asshole. You know what I mean? Like we don't want to be like that. So, um, I don't know, man, I've just, I've got a million thoughts going. You've taken me all the way through like my whole background internally right now. So I'm like thinking of all these things like, man, but the religious thing, I was not planning on talking about that, but I really respect the heck out of the fact that my wife would appreciate this, that you're not afraid to talk about like, this is what I, who I am, what I am, it's what I believe. I would love to pick your brain on, but I feel like that's going to be a whole another lane if we start going into religious things.
I'm close. We can always do it again. Yeah.
I would love to, because honestly, I feel like that's a whole podcast that we could talk about the differences between Christianity and why you feel the way you do. And I respect that you feel that way. And I don't know enough to argue one way or the other, but I would give you a platform to do it. And I'd love to see, You know, you sound like a very sharp young man and what's your, what's your point on all of that is, uh, I think it was when Islam, right? Yeah. So, I mean, I, I would love to hear what you have to say about that. I mean, you guys have to tune in next time, actually. So we'll have him back on and we'll ask some of the hard questions, but until then, if you're young and you think you don't have to be young, you can be 50 just to matter. If you're at a point where you feel like. You know, it's too hard. We both have been in positions where we've lost absolutely everything. And even now, you know, I'm constantly thinking about what, what's not being done versus really taking the time to appreciate like, brother, you were sleeping outside six years ago. So done pretty well. Right. Like, and, and that's all relative. Like, look at the blessings you have in your life. You know, my wife and I had that appointment this morning where we're trying to build a family. We've worked super hard on that. It's gratitude, dude. If I could leave you with anything, I think for me, the number one thing that I think is probably the most important is not trying to control everything and just having gratitude, being grateful for where I'm at. And then that opens up like the things to come. You know, and the Bible even talks about praying, like law of attraction, manifesting, but praying as if it's already happened. And that's how, I mean, and you know, you know that, but I mean, that's all stuff I could talk about for hours, man. But Paul, thank you so much for coming out. How can all of our viewers and everybody get ahold of you or find you? I know we can't, can't get ahold of him because you can't tell you where he's at, but if they could reach out to you, follow you, check out your content, where can they find you at?
Instagram, PaulDaily. That's it.
Instagram, Paul Daly. All right. Right on, man. You don't have a YouTube or anything like that.
I have a YouTube if they want. I don't know what you would look for. I just started. It's actually going really well so far. It's Paul Daly or Paul J. Daly or something like that.
Paul Daly or Paul J. Daly. Oh, you just started it. So we'll have to collab on there too, man. But look him up. He's got great content and watch what he's doing in the future, especially if you're trying to come up yourself. He's somebody that's well plugged in. So I would encourage you to watch him. Imitation is the highest form of flattery. As he said, man, we're all built off the backs of somebody else, man. So, uh, I appreciate you so much, my friend. I'll carry you. I'll carry you. I will see you the next time. And we'll carry this conversation on hopefully in the next few months.
Absolutely.
Awesome, man. Thank you. See you next time.
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