In episode 84 of The Kitchen Table, Ken Baden interviews Danny Seliger, also known as Coolness, as they dive into the world of entrepreneurship, personal branding, and the importance of surrounding yourself with the right people.
Tune in for insights on motivation, networking, and the drive to succeed!
TIMESTAMPS
[00:01:35] Proximity is power.
[00:06:01] Content creation journey and evolution.
[00:08:45] Authenticity in business networking.
[00:12:09] Overcoming past hardships for success.
[00:16:43] The challenge of personal branding.
[00:18:58] The reality of social media.
[00:22:58] Fame versus financial success.
[00:25:18] Life lessons from hardships.
[00:29:06] Personal brand as major leagues.
[00:32:05] Self-Reflection for Personal Growth.
[00:34:19] The importance of tough mentorship.
[00:37:03] Changing role models for youth.
[00:40:12] Niches and personal branding strategies.
[00:43:18] Exterior remodeling sales strategy.
[00:46:36] Engaging podcast content strategies.
[00:50:12] Personal branding for entrepreneurs.
QUOTES
SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS
Ken Baden
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/officialkenbaden/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/officialkenbaden
Danny Seliger
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coolness/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dan.seliger.560/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danny-seliger-3135601a6/
WEBSITES:
The Kitchen Table Podcast: https://thekitchentablepodcast.net/
Blue Collar Ballers Union: https://bluecollarballersunion.com/
Brand Sharks: https://www.brandsharks.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, where business gets done. I'm your host, Ken Baden, and I'm sitting here virtually, if you can't see, but I'm virtually sitting here with my man, Danny, AKA Coolness. Danny, what's up, brother? How are you today?
Ken Baden
You're doing great, man. Another day in paradise. A pleasure to be here, man. Thanks for having me on, dude.
Danny Seliger
I, uh, I was just, we were talking about a bunch of stuff offline and then Roger was like, save it for the podcast. Ken started cracking the whip, but, uh, it's a pleasure to have you on. First of all, second of all, uh, if you guys can't tell, cause he's got a little scruff going on now, but young man is 22, 22. How are you? 22, 22. Make you feel bad a little bit.
Ken Baden
No. Okay, the same thing he does for other people.
Okay. Well, I would imagine, you know Imagine he's making a few schmeckles, but you will get there with that attitude You will keep hanging around me. You definitely will promise you that much I don't even mean that as to say I will do anything But I feel like you'll be around folks that are serious about doing shit So you'll make sure you do shit because that's important, right?
Proximity is power, baby. 100%. It's the number one mantra of the Elliotts, dude. It's true for a reason.
And that's 99% of the reason why I joined the Elliott group. It was literally just like, because he's like, oh, coaching and this and that. I'm like, that's dope, dude. Honestly, I just want to kind of be around you, take that energy in. I can learn from him, of course. But you know that like attracts like. So if there's a bunch of dogs in there spending that kind of money, you're around a bunch of other serious Uh, go-getter type people and we can't help, but then just go and spend a weekend with folks like that. And you come back and you're like, all right, cool. Which I haven't been all year, dude. I don't know. Have you been to any of the events or anything like that?
Yeah, I went to a couple. We did the, uh, we did the PBD one and then did one back in, uh, back in March in Tampa. Cause that's on, uh, that's on my side of the coast.
And we missed the, the Pat, Pat bet David one. We wanted to go to that one so bad, dude. I mean, honestly, I tried to work it all out, but I think the weekend wouldn't have worked anyhow. My. My wife and I have been going through trying to start a family, and it's been a whole bunch of more things than we thought it was. It's not nearly as fun as it sounds, because it sounds like a lot of fun. But it's a lot more work. Not even literally.
Dude, I can't imagine what that must be like, running a business and trying to do all that, too. Dude, I understand that's one of the luxuries of being young, bro. I have nothing else to do, except sit on social media and just run up the business. So I'm just trying to take advantage of it.
Dude, you will probably be, I mean, you will definitely be at this pace completely set and whatever the hell you want to do indefinitely at 30. I mean, by the, when I was your age, 22, I was still in college for one, cause I was like a super senior. You know what I mean? I think I graduated like 23. I think I technically graduated maybe even at 24. So I was like two years past the time I would have been a senior. I transferred schools because of a girl and then the car accident took me out, which you texted and mentioned me about my past. The car accident that I got into that led to all the nasty stuff, that started my freshman year of college. It was community college. So basically I lost a year. or a good semester, and then I changed my major from criminal justice, ironically. I was a criminal justice major, and then a few years later, I was a felon. I think that is irony, right? I think it is. I think that applies here. But at any rate, dude, at 22, I was doing beer bongs and, I don't know, frat life, and you're over here killing it, making big money, doing adult things. What's that like?
I got it out of my system at 17 and 18, man. I already experienced it. I feel like you got to go through and do this stuff in order to take someone else's word that you shouldn't do it. Of course, everyone says that you shouldn't do this stuff, but I've had a good inherent ability to fuck around and find out for myself. intelligence is not the lack of making mistakes. It's just the rate of learning. So you go face first, go make the mistakes, and then just learn from them. And then the more mistakes you can force into a short period of time, the smarter you become as a byproduct. So that's how I've been going about, just trying to fail as much as I can, get all the mistakes out of the way early, and then set myself up.
Fail forward, man. That's what my buddy Dallin always says. I actually read something the other day, and it was something like, You know, the reason why I win, uh, so often is because while other people are stuck analyzing data and figuring everything out, I've already failed three times and figured out a better way. And I thought that was so like, that's spot on dude. You know what I mean? Like that's, that's kind of the plight of the entrepreneur, a true blue, let's get it going, you know, fuck around and find out, fuck it, send it. That's just like all of, all of which are applicable to. You know, are there really catalysts to being an entrepreneur? I think, you know, you got to be ready to just go.
Yeah. That's why the business professors make a hundred grand and the business owners can make that in a, in a day if they so choose.
A hundred percent, man. So tell me about like, how the hell at 17, you said you were doing this from like the time you were 12. So first of all, Danny, what do you do? I know that there is coolness kind of like your, your, your, what your mantra or your. your nickname or your tagline? Are you Coolness?
Yeah, yeah, dude. I mean, we have it pretty much on all platforms. We have it on Instagram and TikTok, and I'm trying to weasel my way in there and get it on YouTube as well. But yeah, I became Coolness in 2022. I've been making content since I was 12. It was dude perfect type trick shots in the neighborhood with the boys when we were 12, 13. Had a wiffle ball league in the neighborhood. That was just the fun. that we did. And inherently, when you're just having fun doing something, you don't really care about how many followers you're getting. And when you're having fun doing something, you're just putting it out there to put it out there. And the reps come as a byproduct. And then as a byproduct of the reps, then the followers end up coming in. You start building some traction. I mean, we had a YouTube channel with 3,000 subscribers at it when we were 13, 14 years old. We were like an official wiffle ball league. They'd send us like camera gear, wiffle balls and stuff. I've always just liked being in front of the camera. And then that developed into TikTok trends during COVID and then just social media advice, tips that I'm trying to get into the business development space. But I realized that like, it's not the best to talk about things that you're not an expert at. There's like way better people out there in the world of business than me that I'm just trying to learn from. So I hope to be as knowledgeable as some of these guys someday where I can start talking about business. But until then, man, we'll just, we'll keep rocking on social media.
Well, and that's smart, man. Stand in your lane because there's a lot of guys that don't do that. I mean, you will go there and you will do that because you've already said it. You've manifested to you. It's going to happen. Right. But I love that. You're like, I'm not going to bullshit people and just step out here. And all of a sudden I'm Mr. Like, you want to turn X your business? You want to, you want to blow your business up? I'm your guy. Like, cause I can tell you right now, I've spent money with some of those people and look, I'm just being real. Like they did a good enough job, but they, what they were really good at. was branding themselves, marketing themselves. And now it's become a formula of a sports car rented or not, muscles, dress car.
That's exactly what we got into business, bro, is to bring people that actually are the real deal in real life and give them that like branded, like you call it like mystique or presence online, where it's like, it attracts the people because you're gonna go on social media. The first $700 I ever saved from my first job, I spent all of it on a course with a guy who could barely speak English and knew nothing about dropshipping, but his page was perfect, dude. Like he had the exact correct color graded photos, the rented Lamborghini, I was like, this is the guy. And then I sent him all my money and he could barely speak English. And I learned absolutely nothing from the course, but I did get a good lesson. Think twice before you just send a bunch of money to people. But I've always been on a mission ever since then to be able to bring that like branding power to people who are actually doing the thing in real life, as opposed to people who are just trying to fake it. Because I spent the larger portion of the year just like networking with people. going to events, shaking as many hands as you could. I got almost 3,000 contacts on my phone now. I love connecting with people. If there's one thing I learned from all that, it's 80% actors, dude. Everyone just wants to see, how can I just look good in front of everybody and not actually have anything going for me? I spent all the time just trying to look good in front of people instead of actually having the substance behind the facade that you're putting up. It was one thing that took me a while to learn because I just meet everybody. And I'd be like, oh my God, this dude's awesome. This dude's awesome. This dude's awesome. This dude's awesome. And then like, you start getting to know people more and more and they're like, oh, you know, you're not really who you say you are. There's like one G that like is the real deal. And you're like, bro, all right. All right. We're boys now. And then you just start having a gang of them together. That's why, like you were talking about with the Elliott group, or like, if you're going to be a part of something like that, you've got to be like at a certain level. It's kind of like a pre vetting process. Like, okay, this dude actually, you know, you got a little something going.
Yeah. They have to, unless they just squandered everything in this one You know what I mean? Like if they have that kind of passive income to just, you know, how I had gone to the one event with him and Stuman and, you know, Roger was there with me, but I had no intentions of it, but it's like, okay, well look, man, I can work with you one-on-one and blah, blah, blah. And a few seconds later, 25 grand. And that was just the upfront. That was the, I was going to say that was the second one. Cause we had already paid initial 25 just to And it's like, well, this is more exclusive, even more like now you're going to work with me. And I'm like, so another 20, so 50. And now he's charging. I mean, I think a lot more than that. And I'm not saying that to say anything other than like, at least, you know, that the folks then that are in that group would have had to done this the same, unless they got in early or whatever, but I mean, there are guys now they're paying more. So like, Hey man, I'm, I'm with it. But to your point, it's a pre vetting process. Most of the folks I've met in this group are actually really, really solid, man. Really solid. And there's, but there's fake, there's fake ones at all levels. And, but to your point, like the higher up the club and the higher the entry, the less BS. Right. And so, but I've spent a lot of money there. I spent a half a million over the course of like a year and a half, two years ago with coaches and I, I'd love to have some of that back, dude. You know what I mean? Because if I'm being real, if I'm being real, you know, a lot of it to your, I learned a lot of lessons, but man, those are expensive lessons, dude. You know? Uh, and some of it too is actually on my part, man. You know, I wanted to do this. I wanted to, I want to do all the things at once. And I don't like being told that I can't do all the things at once. That just pisses me off. In fact, it just makes me want to do all the things at once, even harder. You know what I mean? Like, well, now I really want to do it because you're telling me that I can't do it or I'm stupid for doing it. And sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. But I've recently had a sort of a. I would love to know what your thoughts are on that, I mean, you're young, but you and I say that the only point out, you're like, hey, dude, I don't have a family. I don't have shit to do, but focus on kicking ass, you know, for myself, I'm trying to build a family. I've got a wife. I've got a team of folks counting on me, which you probably do, too. But, you know, all the while I'm like in. you know, you're 22 getting ready to just blossom into life. Now I'm in my late 30s, bro. Like I'm like, I've got to go now. I was homeless seven years ago. Like I have no savings or I had no retirement plan. I didn't plan on my retirement plan was being dead. Like I didn't plan on being alive by now. You know what I mean? So like there was no, I couldn't get a bank account. You know what I mean? So like for me coming back, I'm like, I have to go now because I want to make sure I'm okay. And in order to do that, I've got to work 50 times harder than the next guy to catch up and make up for 20 years. And, you know, I feel like I've done a good job at that and gotten a lot done in a short period of time, but I got a lot of work to do.
Oh, bro. Back against the walls where champs are made. Like anyone, anyone can run fast when there's a serial killer with a knife behind them. But yeah, sometimes you got to get forced to run or really like running to, to run without that behind you. So that back against the walls where champs are made. Yeah. I try and put myself in those kinds of situations as much as I can. Like there's been, been multiple times where I've lost all my money, whether it was like a Ponzi scheme or a bad business deal. And like the man you become after that, like what you're doing after that, when you have to like, that's, that's when the champs are made. Sometimes you got to get forced into a hand. That's a great point. I'm thankful for all the times I've gotten ripped, dude. It just only made me better. Thanks.
I mean, I guess that's a great way to look at it, man, being thankful for it. That's probably the only way to look at it that's of any real substance that you can actually use, you know what I mean, being thankful for it. But I'd love to know, man, what... Well, first of all, we were talking about what you do, right? So what I was getting ready to say is like, hey, just recently, I've kind of... This year, I adopted the mentality. Last year, I did what you were doing. I was going everywhere I could. shaking every hand, flying out, traveling every once a month, whether it was Arizona or Texas or whatever, did that for a little over a year. And I was like, all right, bro, like I got to, I felt like I had to sit down and really lock in on the business, mostly because we were scaling this year and starting a new office. And I'm not, I don't regret that by any means, but I did listen to a lot of folks that were like, you got to really just cancel all the rest of it out. No Baden consulting, no blue collar ballers, uh, no brand, no podcast, just And so I nixed everything but the podcast and I still posted some on blue collar ballers. Although I really let that just backslide because I just, I couldn't give it all my attention. Now I've caught myself like just the power of social media and branding, dude. Good for you. 1.3 million followers or whatever. 1.7 at 22. Like we spent a whole year in some change, focusing on building that because we know the power of that. And that's one thing I wasn't willing to let go. We still have Roger. We still do the podcast. We still record content. But one of those schemes that I spent money on that I was just talking about with somebody that took my money and was like, Hey, I'm willing to help you with your social media. Uh, honestly, I sought him out, dude. I got, I got to connect through somebody in another group and was like, oh, he's great. And you know, he got me some articles done and stuff and I paid for him, man. And that was cool. It was cool for like business, I suppose, for credibility and branding. But when it came to like, yeah, I'm gonna help you get this many followers, I expected probably what you do, we're going to ask and find out in a second, which is like, cool, I'm going to teach you how to get the results to get this many followers. No, it was just mass influx, thousands of followers, couple thousand followers, like in a couple of weeks. And shocker, They get flagged, they get, you know, booted off. None of our stuff goes anywhere. I just recently hired, I don't know if you know, he is a guy goes by Ross the boss. I just paid for him for a month to see what it was. Cause it was very inexpensive. And I was like, great dude, I'll let's hear what you have to say. Because it was more like, I'm just a guy kind of deal, 370,000 followers doing my own stuff from my phone in just a short time, just like kind of him following up with me and like trying to teach me what to do stuff on my phone and CapCut. I've kind of already learned some more from him than the attention I've gotten from these other guys. I spent 50 G's on or whatever. Um, so I'd love to know where your sort of process is as much as you can take us through and where you're. Cause I'd love to work with you as well, man, and just kind of see where that goes. But my whole point in all that is I've got to start over, dude, I've got to start over. Like if you have somebody and you've heard of somebody who's bought followers, they've got bots. It's a rap, right? Or no.
I mean, there's always ways to recover, but I'm a firm believer. This has become one of my core beliefs over the last four years of doing business and fucking up constantly, has been if somebody tells you it's easy, they either have a course to sell you, or they're full of it, or they haven't done it themselves. Nothing is easy. If I get on here and I'm like, all right, bro. 10K followers one month. You only have to post. I got you. Like it almost is the other person's fault for like believing that like, of course it's going to be hard. I'm able to grow so much because dude, I started when I was 12. Like I was in the neighborhood posting content every single day when there was no competition because reality is bro. Like five years ago, everyone was on social media. Everyone was on Facebook. Everyone was on Instagram. TikTok was becoming popular five years ago. There's the same amount of eyeballs now. as there was five years ago. The difference between now and five years ago is everyone's like, do you need a personal brand? Everyone's like, fuck, I need a personal brand. So now there's like 20 times the competition and the same amount of eyeballs. So like, of course it's going to be hard. Like you got to constantly stay ahead of the game, constantly stay on the trends, actually have, this is a shocker, bro. For people listening, this is a real shocker. Actually have something of substance to talk about that people care about. Like that's the big one that gets overlooked all the time where it's like, But I'm me. No, no one cares, dude. You got to think about the people who are actually watching the videos, dude. For me, if I'm watching TikTok, there's TikTok Danny, and then LinkedIn Danny's a completely different person. If I'm in LinkedIn, dude, I'm mentally in a polo, posting a job listing or scrolling through. If I'm on TikTok, dude, my legs are kicked up. I'm looking for some memes, dude. I'm looking to laugh. And so many people are just like, oh, I'm just going to repurpose on LinkedIn and TikTok. Same thing. Like, doesn't work. Like, it takes a lot of effort, a lot of brainpower, or just someone who really knows what they're doing and has done it for a bunch of people in the past to just, like, do it. But even at the same time, like, I can't snap my fingers and give you a present. Like, you got to have stuff to talk about. You got to be willing to do the work. You got to be adaptable to the trends. There's a lot of stuff that goes into it. But to answer your question, like that, that is exactly what we do is we'll just hold entrepreneurs hands through the entire process. We only really work with guys who are 35 plus because like some of the younger guys were always like, just go do it yourself. Like we, we're, we're completely high ticket done for you. We do everything. We script out all this stuff for you. We'll send someone in your area to film with you. If you need it, we'll edit all your stuff. We'll post it all for you. And then if we need to like run a couple ads at first to get off the ground, we'll do it. But I have a big passion because dude, I've gotten finessed so many times in business. And I have no one to blame but myself. But there's so many phonies that are out there. When I say there's 80% actors, bro, that's probably an understatement. There's probably way more than that percentage. And I just want to bring the real people who have actually done stuff and actually have value to provide and have good stories and just bring them out into the public where people can start to grow. So as much as no one probably cares about what I do, I just want to provide as much value as I can on the podcast too, dude. I know a lot of these social media guys will come on here.
Are you kidding me? I mean, everybody, you say that, but in reality, this is probably one of the most valuable everyone who listens to this, because we talked about my, there's a lot of entrepreneurs, a lot of sales folks. I mean, anybody who's anybody wants to build a brand on social media, but if you're a business owner or a high level VP, or somebody who is looking to build a brand, like, I mean, anybody should be looking to do that at this point, right? Because you build a brand outside of your, you build a brand that is you, then you can do anything with that I mean, you can monetize it, even if you're not literally monetized on like the channel or whatever. You could do what Ross did. Ross da boss, dude. At the end of his thing, he's like, makes a freaking right wing, I don't know, funny joke about crazy shit in politics. And at the end of it, he's like, Hey, if you want your social media to grow up, I'm like, what? You know what I mean? I had never heard him say that. So I'm like, what's he, what are you doing? You know? And, you know, he gets, a little bit. Again, it was a smaller ticket and I was very comfortable, like, all right, what's up, man? He talked to me a couple of times. But I'd love to see, man, more in the future too, kind of, if there's anything. Because when I blow up, inevitably, first of all, if you don't know anything about me, now I'm locked in and I've spent a fucking year, over a year, paid this young man to follow me around with a camera, You know what I mean? Like trying this, trying that, trying this, trying that, you a year and four months, David before that for probably six months or so. So two years now, it hasn't moved a fuck. So I can tell you, by the way, if you pay for fucking followers, you're fucked because our shit has not moved. And I've seen people like follow us. It just doesn't move. From what I understand, the reason for that, and correct me if I'm wrong, Danny, is that based on the current algorithm of Insta Anyhow, make a real, it gets dished out to your folks first. Well, if your folks are fake, nobody's, it looks like it's poop and it's never going to get ushered out into the for you page or like anywhere of what's that anybody wants to see. So like God, it's got to pass the sniff test of your own folks. First, your own folks are BS. They ain't going to get kicked out. So again, of what use are these freaking followers if they're not real? I'd rather have 5,000, like I have what I have on Facebook and be legit. And people that really want to see what I have to say versus like. 10, 20, 30, 100 million fake ass followers. No, thank you. So anyhow.
I mean, it depends on the goal a lot too, dude. That's like the first thing I always go over with people is like, what do you want out of this? Because some people are like, dude, I want to be famous. I don't care about anything but being famous. Like, OK, well, we're going to have you say different things on the camera so that you can just get viral potential and credibility and fame, regardless of if that's what you want to do or not. There's other people who are like, dude, I need 800 followers that are my exact target niche, and I'm going to sell to them. And I know people who have 800 followers on Instagram who make more off their Instagram than people who have tens or hundreds of thousands of people. The TikTokers, bro, I know TikTokers that have 10 million actual followers, and they get on there, and they do the TikTok dance and stuff, and they make no money. And then there's dudes that have 800 followers on Instagram that are just crushing high ticket. 20 people buy something off you for $10,000 a month off of 800 followers. It's a lot more money than if you got paid 10 grand one time to renegade in front of 10 million people. This is what it is. But some people want that. Some people would rather have fame and credibility. They want to be known. They want to step off the plane and get stopped in the airport rather than just be more low key and make more money. But I think that there's a happy medium between getting known and making more. Yeah, and I think that's what I'd be looking for. Attention is king, dude. Lil Wayne said, he goes, I tried to pay attention, but attention paid me.
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that was, I actually think I remember, what did he say on a CD or was just like an interview? I remember that Lil Wayne verse.
It's definitely a song. I couldn't tell you the song name, but- I believe you.
I recognize it. I recognize it.
Big Drake listening to that, though.
I couldn't agree more, man. And I mean, I think for me or I told my wife because my wife's all in on him, dude, I love that, dude. Like she's an attorney and she's been such a source of like power for me, man, because again, I come from a place where I was a shithead before this. So just keeping it real, like I was like decent enough, I guess. OK, looking guy, you know, at points in good shape. I just thought like things were just going to happen, dude. You know what I mean? Somebody wanted to pay me to fucking exist, I guess. I don't know. And life just like just said, shit, you're bitch ass down and be homeless for a bit, beg for some money. I was just kidding. But I mean, that that did happen. But but I wasn't. I had a good heart, man, I was raised by good people, but I didn't have I wasn't grateful. There you go. So gratitude is something that was really important to me when you get stripped of everything. It's your own fault. And then you come back from that and then you're a much, much better person, much more hungry. Much more driven. I mean, to your point, being thankful for being ripped off, dude. And I say this, I've said this on a million different episodes. I am so thankful that that happened because at any point in time, like right now, stuff caught 2024 has been a brutal year. It's been a lot for everybody, everybody, business owners, especially in this market, people can say what they want, but they're full of shit. I know the mentors that I have here are the biggest business owners here. And I know what they're dealing with. You know what I mean? Uh, but I can tap into, well, it'd be fucking homeless waking up wondering who I'm going to hurt today or who I'm going to steal from or who I'm going to disappoint. How my existence just is a drain on everybody. You know what I mean? Like gratitude's a superpower, dude. Um,
but I don't even know where I was going with that, I guess, because- It's really important to have those kinds of experiences like that, too, because if you have such a low point, you go all the way down here, the average day-to-day stuff is this little microscopic stuff, and stuff that used to get to you doesn't get to you anymore because it's so small compared to when you had to go this far down. Plus, if you were to put in a fight, like a tiger that was raised in the zoo and just had a zookeeper just give it food all day and people just came and look at it and took pictures of it. You put that tiger up against one that was raised in the jungle and only ate what it killed like the jungle tiger would just every time. I am thankful for all this stuff, because if you have an easy life, then what are you, just like the billionaire's son that never had any problems? Don't you become kind of like, who do you become if that's your life? It's all good in the hood.
That's what I was kind of getting at, your point. No, no, no. I was just seconding what you said was just right on, man. I get it. I'm thankful for those things. I'm thankful for that happening. So I suppose I should be thankful for those. They're all lessons, man. Getting kind of back to you providing value and really our listeners getting to hear like, why, because to his point, you know, you can go get 800 followers that are, you have a product that you're wanting to sell, or you have an idea. And I'm telling you, man, like if you've not explored it, that's what I'm trying to do. That's really what I was getting at. So look, I have this business. It's my passion. It's my thing. And in the businesses where we're building, scaling, exiting, the purpose of which is it's what I know to do. And it's my opportunity to help other folks come up and do it because it's what I know to do. Podcasts that I have, you know, that's where the kitchen table came from, right? Uh, the content that I do, I would more, I would love to get on there and just talk about crazy shit. Like even Ross was like, man, what do you really want to talk? My dude, I don't think I can, I can do that yet. Like I could, I can do whatever the hell I want. But is that really the angle? Like, is, is that really what I'm going for right now? Cause right now we spent two years building a brand on. I have a consulting company. I have a coaching company. And even if the coaching company is kind of like backseating it, the consulting companies, what I originally was like focused on solar companies or anyone for that matter, that was looking to start roofing endeavor, whether it's insurance restoration or retail. And I've got a 90 day turnkey. Here you go, dude. Here's everything on how to do this. down to templates and template contracts and, and get logos created for if you want to, man, here's scripts, here's this, here's this, here's everything. Um, and we were selling those before the social media was even a big thing. So imagine if I had access to 20 qualified. Uh, big ticket followers, man, at all times. I mean, you're a fool not to think it's just a different era, dude. Like this is, and I respect so much that you're so young and you're getting in it so early, man, because it's just such a smart play. I mean, the power of a personal brand, I don't want to parrot that again, but like, talk about that, man. I mean, to not have that, you're really limiting yourself. I mean, what is that? What would you say in speaking on just the personal brand with men like the Elliot group? That's what I was getting ready to say, by the way, was. That's where I want to be. To me, that's the major leagues, the Grant Cardone's, the Andy Elliott's, the Pat Bett David's businessmen had success in business, obvious, some more obvious than others, some more fact checkable than others. But then they kind of like graduate into this. Some of you just have to take their word for it and magically they're on stage or whatever. But then they become this That's what I want to be, man. I want to, to me, that's like reaching the majors, dude. And that's been in my head for like 10 years now, since I bought something from Bradley back when he was suiting Ty Bradley. You know what I mean? I don't think he had a tie, but he was still suit Bradley. But either way, my thing was like, that's the major leagues, dude. That's what I want to meet. That's what I want to make, because then I can teach people to do this and do courses and get on stages. And then once I'm on stages and I got a big brand, Then I can really do and start to talk about whatever I want. So it's a lot of effort to get into just to get to a point where I can be like motivational. Hey man, I did all these things. You can do it too. And now I can reach an audience and really help some people you talk about sort of, I mean, what do you think about that? First of all,
Dude, a hundred percent. I have a couple of thoughts on that. I like how you view it as the majors. I view the same thing where it's like, you're one of those well-known guys. You walk into a room full of entrepreneurs and like, there he is. Like, oh, that was the guy. I want to go take a picture with him. I want to go talk to him because that signifies impact. Like if you had that big of an impact on someone, you had people running up to you wanting to take photos with you, like that means you did something right, in my opinion. But I think to a certain extent, like you got to want to have the personal brand. Like there's so many people, like the, the, the online, the people who have big personal brands kind of almost like cram it down people's throats. Like you need a personal brand. And I don't, I don't agree with that. I mean, I know plenty of guys that are extremely successful that mentor me that have no presence whatsoever. And I'll be like, dude, what can I do to help? And they'll be like, no, I don't want that. Like, I want money. I don't want anyone to know who I am. So I think it really depends. Like if I'm trying to take someone who's successful and they do not want to be known, they will never be successful. Even if they forced, even if I forced them to have a personal brand, they're not going to be themselves on camera. They don't want to be on camera. It doesn't seem like they want to be there. I think to a certain extent, you got to want to do it. So it's good that you view that as the majors, bro, because I do as well. And then when you're talking about, you know, get into the point where you can just have motivational content, you hit on like a really key principle in content ideation and like your niche and what you're talking about. It's always puddle first, then pond, then lake, then ocean. Like what's the puddle that you can conquer and be the biggest fish inside of the puddle, like really super niche down. Then once you are the best in that puddle, you move on to a pond, a little bit smaller, but like a little bit broader. or a little bit bigger, a little broader in what you're talking about. Then you move on to the lake and then you're Hormozy and you can talk about whatever the fuck you want. People will listen because they know who you are and they see you on their page. And I was like, oh, I like that guy. Whatever he has to say, I agree with. And that's where you can talk about the ocean. But too many people are like, Man, I want to have a personal brand. I want to grow online. And then they're like, okay, video one, man, this is how you get over a breakup. Video two, man, this is how I think you make a million dollars. I haven't done it myself, but like, man, this is how I think you might do it. And then like, oh dude, like, ah, this is how you get fit. I know I'm not that jacked, but like fitness is so important. And it's like, how the? How the fuck are you going to grow? Who actually wants to watch that? The biggest frame that I've had, and it pisses some people off, and anyone that this pisses off, I don't want to work with in the first place. Can you look yourself in the mirror enough and be like, would I follow this person? Objectively from whether you know yourself or not. I just came across this page for the first time. I don't know who this guy is. Would I follow this guy? Do I care about what he's posting? Does he post valuable stuff? Or am I looking at it through a lens of bias because it's myself? And if you can look at the page, like, would I actually want to listen to this? Like, would I actually send this to one of my friends if this wasn't me? If you can get to the point where the answer to that's yes, by default, you're going to grow. And the step after that, it's like, would I go to war for this person? If someone was talking shit on this person in the comments, would I defend them? Like, not even if it wasn't me. Like, if it was some random person, would I defend them in the comments? Would I send every one of their videos to my friends? Would I post their videos on my story? Would I be messaging them? Dude, awesome stuff. And odds are, if we're being real, the answer is just no. Like, it's just, that's not the answer. So how do we work towards that goal of being someone that actually would earn our own follow if we look at it objectively? And the harder you are on yourself with this question, the faster you're going to grow. Because I could look at this and be like, man, I don't fucking like any of this stuff. But like, it's me, so I should be growing. And that was a lens I had on for the longest time, especially when you start talking about business stuff, or you talk about social media stuff, or you're doing like the talking head content. Like, really watch it. Don't just look at your face, really watch the content. Like, is this good stuff or is it just me talking? And I think it's good because it's me. And I think a lot of people, like there are people that I talk to that take big offense to that. And I don't think that we'd be a good fit to work together if someone takes offense to that stuff. Because I'm going to be very real because my goal is to help you grow, not to make you feel good. Because I could easily sit here. That was one of the mistakes I made when I first got in the business, bro. You think that the people you're consulting with and your clients, like they just want to feel good. Like, oh yeah, man, good work on that camera. Oh, you know, good job. It changed very quickly to like, no, that was fucking stupid. Redo it. Redo it. No, I don't like that. No, redo that. I'm not going to use this. This isn't going to do well. And you need those kind of coaches. Growing up playing sports, your coach that pushes you is like, no, that's not good. Redo it. No, that's not good. Run the suicides. No, that's not good. One more hour in the weight room. Those were the coaches that coached the best teams and had the best players because they bred the best players. The coaches, they were like, oh, yeah, whatever. Five minutes late to practice. It is what it is. Yeah, just keep doing that. Those teams sucked. you gotta have someone that's hard on you. And I always try and have as many people that are hard on me as possible. I had one of my mentors, his name's Tanner Chittister. He's really big in the online marketing space. I coached him on his content because he was trying to grow on Instagram naturally. And we just get on Zoom once per week. I did it completely for free for him because I had watched his content when I was growing up and he helped me a ton. And I was like, dude, whatever I can do to help you out. He was like, dude, you can jump on too. I'll mentor you. I want to help you out, dude. I see a lot of potential in you." And I told him about a business fuck up that I had recently. And everybody that I talked to is always like, dude, it's okay, bro. You're 22. You'll get over it. It'll be okay. You're way ahead of everybody. And I can respect that. And I think that I'm ahead of the game. this dude laid into me he goes yeah people probably tell you you're ahead of the game right people probably tell you you're smart i was like yeah pretty much everybody goes i completely disagree with that he goes you're fucking stupid like you you have no idea what you're doing you keep doing this you're telling me your business is your number one priority but then you're traveling all over europe and trying to do the business while you're in europe when in reality if you want to grow the business you just go back home go inside of your basement and just grow the business but you're not doing any of that bro you'd rather go around he's like it's okay if that's what you want to do but don't tell people their business is your number one priority because your actions don't correlate with your words. He goes, you're not a man of your word. I was like, I just sat there. This was one hour of this in a conversation. And I had never gotten taken to school like that before. Anytime that someone would say something, I'd be like, Oh, you know, but it's okay. And like, I didn't respect the person that much, or they would just be, Oh, it's okay. Cause you're younger. I had nothing to say. I just sat there. and just got taken to school. And that was, that was a turning point in my business career because I was like, damn, like, yeah, I am fucking stupid. And you gotta, you gotta have people like that. They'll just tell you how it is. Like if I was fat, bro, I would want my buddy to say like, yo dog, like you're fat.
Right.
Like stop drinking, stop drinking the Cokes. Like stop eating the fries, like switch it up. Do you need the double cheeseburger? Do you want to have a Dr. Pepper with the food? Or like, would you rather have, you should, you should have water, order water for him. Like that's, that's in my opinion, that's how it should be. And that's a belief that I hold pretty close to my heart. So if people don't agree with that, I don't think we're going to get along.
Yeah. I would tend to agree by the way. I mean, I think. America's gone soft in a major way with too much of, well, we can go on that.
It's who's idolized, bro. It's who's idolized. When I was growing up and I can say, dude, I, it feels weird saying when I was growing up, but either way, I was 12, 13. You watch Rocky. You watched the Rocky movie. And Rocky, get up one more time after you get knocked down. Fight the big Russian guy. Do it just one more time. Be a piece of iron. Don't get knocked out. One more time. Keep training in the cold. And now it's like, what kind of stuff's on TV, man? I turned on the TV one time. I said, what are the kids looking up to? They're looking up to all these weirdos. You got guys on the Mr. Beast show that are whatever. I don't know what I could talk about on this podcast.
Whatever you want.
These are who the guys are idolizing now. I mean, bro, I look up to Rocky. I want to put my hoodie on, go out in the snow, and like. but the kids, they look up to what now? And then you get a bunch of weak men. And then it's a question of like, how did this happen? We'll probably change the idols. Who are people looking up to? Yeah.
It's a damn shame, man. But then that's another thing I refuse to, uh, that's just, I don't know. That's a big, that's another reason why I think it's imperative that we use our voice or build our brand, especially if we hold those ideals close to, uh, close to our heart, because you're not, you're no longer like, I mean, I suppose you kind of stand out, but you go against the status quo now, right? Like, you're going to be an easy target, like Tate, right? Tate, whether you like him or not, I mean, it's just like, he's really dove into that. But I mean, like, that's why, because these guys got nothing else, nothing else. So they just get, like, the exact opposite.
When you talk to everyone, you talk to no one. Like, if you're trying to be wishy-washy and, like, cater to everyone with your content, like, who are you really talking to? Like, oh, yeah, you know, I want your friends to tell you you're fat, but, like, you're not that fat. And then, like, who's listening to that? They're like, well, if you have a side, you pick it, you stand on it. But if you don't have a side, then, you know, just, you shouldn't be talking about the topic. That's my, I don't know.
I couldn't agree more, man. I mean, honestly, like authenticity being real, like, especially if you're paying somebody, I mean, you're paying someone like, Hey, I, I need you to coach me or whatever. Like I need your, your. You're doing me a disservice as a friend, as somebody I'm paying, or whatever. If I keep you close, you gotta be real with me. Like, bro, you're fucking up, bro. You're fucking up, you're getting fat. Bro, you're fucking up, you're doing stupid shit. Bro, I thought you said this was your wife, bro, like you're doing this. You got kids? Come on, man. What are you doing? What are you fucking up? You pull your real friends, of which my father always told me you'd have on one hand by the time I got to his age, and he's right, probably less. But it's funny you say that, man, because if I was to self-critique my own content, that's the biggest issue we have. It's a multitude of issues. One, I'm not giving enough of me to it because I really did dial back. And I'm like, well, you know, I'll And it was, we were like recording and doing all this and all this effort and energy. And to your point, I wanted to jump right to the pond, dude. I wasn't really looking to be in the puddle. I was just trying to go right into the pond. I wanted to talk sales in general, period. I wanted to be the sales guy, not the roofing sales guy or the blue collar sales guy or the home service sales guy. I wanted to be just sales in general, right, broad. But I see these guys like, Uh, this Russell flips whips and this other dude that sells cars or is like a seller sales manager for cars. And like he's in cars, cars, cars, cars, cars, cars, the roof strategist. He's only got like six, 7,000, but those are dudes that are ready to drop money with them right now. Like roofs, roofs, roofs, roofs, solar, solar, solar, solar, like. I just didn't want to do that. It was just didn't interest me. I'm like, nah, nah, nah. I want to talk sales and I want to go. But as they say, the riches are niches, bitches. And that was one thing we heard from one person we spent money with. And, uh, I wasn't trying to hear it, but if you look at my content, you'd see that I'm a victim of that. So it's like gym because I'm like, well, I think it plays because whatever, dude, Jim, uh, car scene, uh, sales, business, politics. Because recently I really haven't just given that much of a shit. So I'm like, I don't care. I just want to talk about this because it pisses me off anyhow. So I'm going to say it, but. What would you say to, uh, actually you've already said it. That's a great formula. I mean, like, it's just, if you really want it and you really want to do it, you got to go through the things and like, okay, this is the transition to get to that. Or you just say a bunch of wild shit and you never get any traction. You know, you're just all over the place.
I mean, if you love it, dude, if you love it and you love getting on camera and talking about sales and the growth doesn't matter, the reach doesn't matter. And you just really love talking about sales. Like, like cool. Like at the end of the day, it's just doing what you want, but it's what you want. growing and selling off of Instagram or is what you want talking in front of the camera about sales? And there's no right or wrong answer. I mean, I love, I love doing content, but I also, I love winning and it's like, what do I have to do to win? Like, how can I, how can I marry these two together? And you, you get to a certain point and you can talk about whatever, like Iman Gadji is the biggest example for guys around my age, like 5 mil on YouTube, 2 mil on Instagram, massively well-known guy. If he posts a video about women, one about fitness, one about money, I'm probably going to watch all three because I like this guy. I know that this guy is going to have something good to say, and I associate with him to a sense. I want to know what he has to say about these topics. I think that there is really a blueprint to success on social media. And so many people are like, oh, it's this gray area, man. Joe Rogan likes to talk about dinosaurs and UFC and mushrooms, and he's Joe Rogan. But how many other people have came up like that? How many other people is like, oh, I like this one random shit, two random shit, three random shit. I'm gonna mash them together. And like, that's my personal brand. Like if that's what you like doing in front of the camera, awesome. Continue doing that. But like, if you want to grow, there's a blueprint. There's a certain way it's done. You research the people who are winning inside of your niche. You basically copy what they're doing, except make it better. Like you pick out the top 10 videos of what's been performing in your niche, make those videos even better, put your own spin on it. So people recognize you and not just a viral video. And then you just do that until infinity. And then once you reach a certain threshold, okay, I want to start talking about this stuff. Now you can brought it out a little bit more because I have a bigger audience. And then you hop to the third puddle. And all of a sudden, if you do it right for long enough, even if you do it perfectly for five years, it's not going to work for five years. You'll get it on year seven. So that's, that's what I have to say. I mean, like, it's that people be like, Oh, dude, this is kid. This is it. I've done it for 10 years.
Right.
I spent almost half of my life doing this.
Yeah. I mean, it's frustrating because I really have to kind of start over, but, uh, To your point, I mean, we're niching down at least, you know, not just suppose we can niche all the way down to just roofing again, but I'm focusing on like, because originally when I did this industry, it was remodeling and remodeling is roofing, siding, windows, doors, gutters. And that's every time, right? Like we sell remodeling exterior remodeling products. If you, if you know what I'm talking about, you know what I'm talking about? You've sold roofing, siding, windows, doors, gutters, maybe decks, something like that, but that's it. Right. And then it's roofing windows, but like, it's the same language. So I feel like, but it's home remodeling sales then. Okay. You know what I mean?
Dude, if I'm in exterior remodeling and I see a video of you talking about exterior remodeling sales, I don't care how many likes that video has, that video's for me. It could have two likes, this guy's talking to me. But if you're talking about sales and you have two likes, oh, there's 10 other sales guys that have millions of likes. I'm just gonna go listen to them. But if this guy's talking about exterior remodeling door-to-door sales and I'm in that niche, oh bro, this is for me. I don't care how many likes it has, this guy knows me. And you got to collect enough of those people at first, before you could graduate to the next level. And some people don't even want to graduate to the next level because there's a thousand exterior remodeling door-to-door guys that'll buy a 10 K program. And then boom, you do the math on that.
Yeah. Well, and that's exactly what it's like. We put all of these pieces together before they were put together. It's a poor way to say that, but we had a consulting company that I was looking at utilizing in like this ancient way, uh, in the future where it's like, we're I'm going to go to your business. I'm going to go direct to your business and help you where, you know, and then it's like, dude, that's just not the way of the world anymore. Pal social media, you can record it, you can do modules, you can do everything virtually. Like, uh, and that's really where it was like, well, let's come up with this 90 day, like turnkey white labelable. Here you go. You know? And so we did that and we need to get more attention back to it. But now that this. post this call. I mean, it's probably one of the best calls we could have had. It's on the heels of, uh, kind of reevaluating all of that and deciding to, we just started a new Instagram. It was like, I don't know, five followers, 24, 24. All right, well, hold on 24. I mean, the other one still exists, but we'll, we'll just keep moving people over. But honestly, man, watch, watch, we'll, we'll, You and I will link up and we'll do some stuff and I'll make sure you get the credit on the stuff that's doing good. I've got Ross for another few weeks here that's been really, to be fair, man, he's been trying so hard to get my attention, but life's been just, life's been lifin' these days, pal. Life's been fuckin' lifin' hard, dude. My wife, everything, five minutes. He just gave me the five minutes. He just gave me one of these, dude. How dare you, first of all? Don't you ever do that to me again. I'm just kidding.
No, man, I've read I know all I know all too well, man, it's it's it's part of the podcast vibe unless you're Unless you're Chris Williamson, Hormozy in the four hour modern wisdom podcast. Once, once per quarter, like those guys, I mean, I just, I just listened to one of them like three and a half hours. They just, they just go the whole time and it's like engaging stuff, but that's the thing. People will actually listen to it. Anyone can go on and talk for three hours on a podcast, but like, is this shit you're talking about actually good? It's like people causing, if I, if I got to bundle up one thing, just be like, actually do good stuff. It's a crazy concept.
That's kind of like the Rogan thing, by the way, where I was thinking about that, you know, like these guys can go for three hours, be engaging. Like, I feel like Rogan is like just a bro. You know what I mean? And there's other podcasts like that, but like, to your point, like, I don't know, man, I feel like it's, I think the formula thing is probably the way to go. Otherwise you got to just like, kind of just be willing to just hope people just like watching you and your bros bro down, I guess. And then like, he talks to really interesting people and his guests get more and more like, that's the other thing. Rogan was a comedian in the end. And like, so he's a funny dude that has a lot of connections with a lot of cool people. I mean, he works in the UFC. So he's got like, he's just got a great network of folks, you know, uh, I've had Tommy Mello came on and he'd actually did an, an hour, a one garage door big with Andy does, uh, uh, he sold his business for like 200 some odd million. He's a, he's a big, he wrote, um, home service millionaire, but started and focusing on a niche. Then he had the home service expert podcast. And so to be fair, man, yeah, he really, he really niched down. That was getting bigger and bigger and, uh, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists and stuff like that.
So, uh, I don't think it serves anyone to think that anyone wants to watch them and their bros bro down. Like maybe they do, maybe they do, but like, it doesn't serve you to believe that other people are going to want to watch it.
Just kind of your buddies hanging out, talking shop.
You even look at, at least for my generation, some of the top bros are like the Nelk boys. And you meet guys like that and you actually see how they work. And there's just a mastermind behind it that's setting up every little interaction of this broing down. And it gives younger guys or newer content creators the belief that like, oh, this is Dude, we can just go be boys and people are going to want to watch it. Maybe they do, but they probably don't. 99.9% chance that they don't want to watch. Who would want to watch this? You got to look at it through that lens. Even if they do want to watch it, it doesn't serve you to think that people would want to do that. It serves you to think, I just need to make the best possible shit for whoever's watching this. I'm not making this for myself. I'm making this for whoever's listening to this podcast that's going to be able to get value and be like, oh man, he had something interesting to say. How can I just talk about me for an hour and just hope people want to listen? But, but, but that's something that takes time and it takes, it takes time to actually click and learn it because you say you're starting over, bro. But it's the same fact of like, yeah, yeah. 10 years from my overnight success. Like if you start a page, like shut down the page, try again for another year, you learn all this stuff, you're accumulating knowledge the last two years. And then all of a sudden you grow really quick. It's like, yeah, it was two, three years for an overnight success.
Yeah. That's a great point. Great point. Yeah. We, we ended up hitting a stride and it's like, Oh, well you guys grew quick. Well, this is two plus years of hitting the same stuff over and over and over. YouTube will bear witness to that.
But I mean, if you've got the metal, what's that folding back the metal grunt work hand to hand combat, you learn it.
Oh yeah, man. We're doing, we're doing something. I feel like we're learning, but we're doing something. We're, we're growing, man. If anything too, if you've taking nothing from this as an entrepreneur, anybody listening to this, first of all, you need a personal brand, man. I mean, today's day and age, 2024, shit is weird. And even myself, I'm, that's why I am reinvesting time, effort, and energy into like, you know, I would really like, it's just such a powerful thing to be like, Hey, at any point in time, I can reach out to my audience. If I have something of value because I provided enough value I'm taking it seriously enough that if I have, you know, I can reach out to that and that'll be a resource for me and my family. And that is something that I'm really taking a lot more serious recently because I know I can do it. I've done it. on a small scale. And now I'm, I'm really more focused on like, let's get the consulting going back, man. Let's find some top, top, top flight, you know, uh, folks that are more applicable. Let's speak to them and let's get that going because ultimately that's the goal. I mean, the end goal is the end goal, but in route to the end goal, we can make some good money, help some people. Provide a good service, build brand awareness that way too. Like, yeah, this guy's legit, man. He helped my business. Then let's go, you know? Um, but for yourself, where can folks who are looking to grow? And I imagine you're looking for somebody specific, but if they want to reach out and see if you guys are a good fit, where can they find you at Danny?
Yeah, dude. I'm at, I'm at coolness on Instagram. Exactly. I was spelled C O O L N E S S on Instagram. And there's, there's always somebody in my DMS. That's a, that's there to, I personally have social media off my phone. I know it's like walking contradiction, but I think social media is toxic. Andy said it the best dude. I'm not the crack head and the crack dealer. I'm not on social media myself. There's someone on there that'll be there. I'm sure we'll be able to be in touch. But Ken, bro, you got my number, dude. I'm here to help you with whatever you need.
Yeah, I love that, man. Thank you so much.
If you get random questions, bro, something to keep you up at night with social media, bro, I'm here for you. I appreciate you having me on here, and I want to be as big of a resource to you and your audience as humanly possible.
I appreciate the hell out of that, man. Seriously, I appreciate you reaching out as well. And I love that, by the way, because you know what? Recently, especially with everything, there's a whole lot of crack out right now. And I can't, I damn sure cannot be around any of that. I've got way too high of an addictive gene, man. But recently, all that negativity, I'm like, I've taken breaks before, it might be time to take another one. But I like that. There's somebody in there working for you, just making sure that you just purely use it for business.
Yeah, I'm not on there, but I'm on there.
Beautiful, man. Well, guys. My man, Danny, at coolness on pretty much every social media there is because he worked and put in the work and he's been doing this since the kid was 12 years old. I really appreciate you coming on, brother. Seriously, I hope you guys got some value out of this. Build a personal brand for nothing else or for nothing else to provide options for you and your family, man. If you don't in today's day and age, man, I believe you are a fool, but that's my opinion. Danny, thank you for coming on. Love you, brother. We'll catch you guys next time.
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