Latest / The Daily Writer / Discipline: What It Really Takes to Build a 7-Figure Business | Ali Hemyari

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Discipline: What It Really Takes to Build a 7-Figure Business | Ali Hemyari · The Daily Writer

0:07
SPEAKER_00: Hey friends, welcome back to the Profitable Writer Podcast.
0:10
SPEAKER_00: If you're new here, my name is Kent Sanders.
0:13
SPEAKER_00: I'm an author and a ghostwriter, and this is the show that helps you grow your impact and income as a writer.
0:20
SPEAKER_00: So let me be really upfront with you about something.
0:22
SPEAKER_00: A lot of writers who want to grow their business spend their time focusing on the craft of writing.
0:28
SPEAKER_00: And they go to conferences, they read books, they listen to podcasts, and they take courses, all focused on how to be a better writer.
0:36
SPEAKER_00: Now, of course, that's all well and good because we should want to be a better writer, correct?
0:40
SPEAKER_00: We should want to be better at our craft and improve as communicators and storytellers and so forth.
0:45
SPEAKER_00: The problem though is that there's actually a lot more to building a successful business besides just doing the work of writing.
0:53
SPEAKER_00: In fact, I would say that the other 50% of having a writing-based business is the business side, not the craft of writing and the creative side.
1:04
SPEAKER_00: And that's why I regularly have guests on this show who have all kinds of businesses.
1:08
SPEAKER_00: They're not primarily just writers, they're people who can help us as writers be better at specifically the business side.
1:14
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot we can learn from people in other industries about what it takes to be a successful business owner.
1:20
SPEAKER_00: And today that's why I'm really excited to bring you this incredible conversation with one of the most successful business leaders that I personally know.
1:28
SPEAKER_00: His name is Ali Himyari, and he is the founder and owner of Nashville Canine, which is Nashville's premier dog training facility.
1:36
SPEAKER_00: Ali is a serial entrepreneur who started various businesses ranging from advertising to becoming a pet industry expert, and much, much more.
1:45
SPEAKER_00: Ali is also a multi-event triathlet, a helicopter and airline pilot, a real estate guru, a certified SWAT operator, a sniper and firearms instructor, and a general try-hard, servant-hearted overachiever who wants to make a difference in today's world.
2:03
SPEAKER_00: He's also a husband and father, a god seeker, and an inspiring leader who hopes that his story can affect a significant change in somebody who wants to be better, to do more, to accomplish more, and to help others.
2:17
SPEAKER_00: You can visit his websites, which are NashvilleK9.com and Himyari Companies.com, to learn more and see a complete list of his companies.
2:26
SPEAKER_00: And there's a lot more than what I've just mentioned here, actually.
2:29
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, those links will be in the show notes.
2:31
SPEAKER_00: Now, about our conversation today, I've asked Ali to come and join me for this conversation because I wanted to dig into some themes from his fantastic new book, which is called Discipline, What It Really Takes to Build a Seven Figure Business.
2:45
SPEAKER_00: And the cool thing is that this is a little short book that you can read in less than an hour, but it's absolutely packed with wisdom about how you can actually build a successful business no matter what your industry is.
2:55
SPEAKER_00: And of course, that includes writers as well.
2:58
SPEAKER_00: So in this conversation, we explore some of the principles in his book, Discipline, and how those principles apply to writers who want to build their business.
3:06
SPEAKER_00: We talk about Ali's story of how he built a very successful dog training business.
3:12
SPEAKER_00: We talk about how writers doing client work can better market themselves, as well as sales principles for working with clients.
3:18
SPEAKER_00: We talk about the importance of giving back to your community and much, much more.
3:23
SPEAKER_00: This is a really, really great conversation if you feel like you're naturally wired to focus on the creative and the writing side of your business, but maybe you struggle a little bit with the business side.
3:32
SPEAKER_00: And I've got to tell you, that's how I'm wired as well.
3:35
SPEAKER_00: So I absolutely love this conversation, and I think you're gonna love it too.
3:38
SPEAKER_00: Now, one more thing before I share the conversation with you.
3:41
SPEAKER_00: I want to give a huge shout out to my good friend, business coach and mentor, Honore Corter, whom you have heard on this podcast many times before.
3:48
SPEAKER_00: I want to give her a shout-out for introducing me to Ali.
3:51
SPEAKER_00: What a cool guy, Honore.
3:52
SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for the introduction.
3:54
SPEAKER_00: All right, without further ado, here's my conversation with the amazing Ali Himyari.
4:00
SPEAKER_00: Ali, welcome to the Profitable Writer Podcast, sir.
4:03
SPEAKER_00: It's good to have you on.
4:04
SPEAKER_00: Honored to have you.
4:05
SPEAKER_01: So glad to be here.
4:06
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for having me.
4:08
SPEAKER_00: So one of the fun things that I like to do on the show is most of my guests come from a writing type of background.
4:15
SPEAKER_00: They're authors or they do freelance writing work or they do ghostwriting or graphic design or something like that.
4:21
SPEAKER_00: But I also love to have people on who don't necessarily come from a writing quote unquote background, but they have very successful businesses.
4:29
SPEAKER_00: And you definitely fall into that category because you're a very successful business leader in the Nashville area.
4:34
SPEAKER_00: And I'm excited to dive into some principles from your new book, Discipline, What It Really Takes to Build a Seven-Figure Business.
4:39
SPEAKER_00: So uh maybe let's start here.
4:42
SPEAKER_00: Can you walk us through your journey of becoming a successful business person and what that is actually required of you over all these years?
4:51
SPEAKER_00: And I know that's a really big question, but kind of give us the basic rundown of what it is that you do and how you got to where you are, if you can.
4:58
SPEAKER_01: Certainly.
4:59
SPEAKER_01: So um I own uh multiple businesses within the pet services industry, from dog training to kennel management software to online dog training and things like that.
5:10
SPEAKER_01: And so my background originally started in advertising and high finance.
5:16
SPEAKER_01: Um, when I kind of got tired of being a suit, I decided I wanted to be a dog trainer.
5:24
SPEAKER_01: So what an interesting shock to my parents at the time.
5:29
SPEAKER_01: And uh well, what what happened was I I decided, you know, I'm I'm not going to be just a dog trainer.
5:38
SPEAKER_01: I wanted to be the dog trainer, and I wanted to build a business around dog training tailored to consumer level all the way up to federal level law enforcement.
5:49
SPEAKER_01: And so that required a lot of sacrifice.
5:52
SPEAKER_01: I I ended up getting into law enforcement, becoming a police officer to benefit the business.
5:59
SPEAKER_01: And in order to benefit the business, like if you want to train police dogs, for example, um, you have to know what they're going through on the streets every day.
6:09
SPEAKER_01: You have to have an ability to access illegal narcotics like heroin or cocaine or even explosives that the general dog trainer won't be privy to because those are not legal, right?
6:24
SPEAKER_01: Right.
6:24
SPEAKER_01: And so that that was one of the sacrifices is to get into law enforcement and learn what the police get into.
6:33
SPEAKER_01: And selfishly I'll say I've really enjoyed law enforcement.
6:36
SPEAKER_01: Um, but it the original reason wasn't to enjoy it, it was to benefit the business.
6:41
SPEAKER_01: Okay, and so you know, to kind of round about your question, I think generally being an entrepreneur is probably the most difficult thing that somebody can do in their life.
6:53
SPEAKER_01: And I say that with uh a lot of intention because being an entrepreneur requires some sleepless nights, it requires a lot of sacrifice, it requires vision, execution, lots of falling on your face, and that continuum of resilience to be able to dust yourself back up, back off, and uh keep going at it until you achieve profitability.
7:21
SPEAKER_01: And that's really hard.
7:23
SPEAKER_01: So think, Kent, what what is probably one of the worst jobs you can think of in the world?
7:28
SPEAKER_00: Oh gosh.
7:29
SPEAKER_00: Um, something that comes to mind just off the top of my head would be roofing, especially if you're in the Midwest and it's really, really hot.
7:37
SPEAKER_00: It's dangerous, it's hot, it's dirty, it's backbreaking.
7:43
SPEAKER_01: 100%.
7:44
SPEAKER_01: But do you think any of those roofers that are doing the manual labor are having sleepless nights?
7:53
SPEAKER_01: Maybe the roof, the roofer that owns the company, the other that owns the business, right?
7:58
SPEAKER_01: The entrepreneur part of it.
8:00
SPEAKER_01: But his laborers are not having that issue, right?
8:03
SPEAKER_01: That they they may be exhausted, tired.
8:06
SPEAKER_01: That is really difficult work, the sun's beating on them every day, you know, they're working tirelessly from one job to another.
8:14
SPEAKER_01: There's no doubt about any of that.
8:16
SPEAKER_01: But the but they can clock out at the end of the day, go back to their families or go back to their way of life, and they can leave it all at the office.
8:25
SPEAKER_01: And guess what?
8:25
SPEAKER_01: If it's raining, an even better win for them, right?
8:28
SPEAKER_01: They get to take a day or two off.
8:30
SPEAKER_01: We just had four days straight of rain in Nashville.
8:32
SPEAKER_01: Some good, good amount of rain as well.
8:34
SPEAKER_01: So they yeah, so there's no roofers working right now.
8:37
SPEAKER_01: Um, there's tarps probably set up on those roofs uh in the interim.
8:42
SPEAKER_01: But the entrepreneur is thinking about those four days off and how that butts into the next job.
8:50
SPEAKER_01: And those people need to be compensated even while they're on their days off, because if he doesn't compensate them somehow, they may go and jump to somebody else.
9:01
SPEAKER_02: Right.
9:02
SPEAKER_01: And so there's this just constant nagging in your brain of uh I need to make sure my employees are good.
9:09
SPEAKER_01: All the meanwhile, touching base with the client.
9:12
SPEAKER_01: Hey, Mr.
9:12
SPEAKER_01: Jones, I'm sorry we couldn't make it out today.
9:14
SPEAKER_01: Obviously, you know it's raining.
9:16
SPEAKER_01: We have you set up for Friday to give it another try.
9:19
SPEAKER_01: Well, Friday may not be good for Mr.
9:21
SPEAKER_01: Jones.
9:22
SPEAKER_01: Mr.
9:22
SPEAKER_01: Jones may be out of town.
9:24
SPEAKER_01: Mr.
9:24
SPEAKER_01: Jones uh may have an event or a party at their house.
9:28
SPEAKER_01: They may not want to have all the shingles and things in their front yard.
9:31
SPEAKER_01: And so the part of the entrepreneur is very difficult.
9:36
SPEAKER_01: You're managing calendars, the intake of your uh all of your sales, the employees.
9:44
SPEAKER_01: It is a an opportunity for somebody who can weather the storm through all of that to become very successful.
9:52
SPEAKER_01: They have earned every single bit of it.
9:55
SPEAKER_01: It is not lucky, they have earned it.
9:58
SPEAKER_01: And if people want to call it luck, they have busted their tails to be that lucky, I can assure you.
10:05
SPEAKER_01: And then after all of that, to the point, Ken, you get hit with every tax in the world.
10:12
SPEAKER_01: Right.
10:13
SPEAKER_01: You got federal income tax, you got state income tax, depending on the state you live in.
10:18
SPEAKER_01: In Tennessee, we also have personality tax, we have property tax, we have state business tax, franchise excise tax, and then you're overinsured too, because what if a roofer falls off the roof?
10:29
SPEAKER_01: What if a shingle falls onto somebody's head or vehicle or you know their dog?
10:34
SPEAKER_01: And so all of that in total, so that somebody can live the American dream.
10:43
SPEAKER_01: And ultimately, the American dream of prosperity is being able to create a nice livelihood for you and your family to be able to eat and live, but you carry this burden as an entrepreneur that really doesn't go away until you get to the point where you may sell your business, if it's sellable.
11:04
SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
11:06
SPEAKER_00: So you've met a lot of different people over the years, and I know that you work with a lot of celebrities and creative types.
11:12
SPEAKER_00: In your business, you train their dogs.
11:15
SPEAKER_00: And in your interactions with people, you have met people who are very aggressive and very assertive, but I'm sure people who are very passive and chilled out and laid back, and they don't want the stress of running a business.
11:26
SPEAKER_00: For writers who are listening and they say to themselves, uh, hey, Ali, that sounds really cool.
11:33
SPEAKER_00: Maybe they've read your book.
11:34
SPEAKER_00: Um, maybe they want to be more assertive and uh or even aggressive in their business.
11:40
SPEAKER_00: But their personality is kind of chilled out and laid back.
11:43
SPEAKER_00: They're like, I just sort of want to be a writer who has a successful business.
11:46
SPEAKER_00: How can that person who is more chilled out and laid back, how can that person begin to develop some of these?
11:54
SPEAKER_00: I would almost call them like a uh warrior-like qualities, becoming more assertive, going after they want, being willing to put up with those sleepless nights and just being more aggressive.
12:03
SPEAKER_00: How can that person turn into that more assertive person over time?
12:08
SPEAKER_00: Or is it even possible?
12:12
SPEAKER_01: I definitely think it's possible.
12:14
SPEAKER_01: And all it requires is the title of my book, Ken.
12:17
SPEAKER_01: Discipline.
12:18
SPEAKER_00: They just need they just need to read the book.
12:21
SPEAKER_01: They just need to read the book.
12:22
SPEAKER_01: So you know, one of the biggest things I can give to people, start off small.
12:30
SPEAKER_01: Uh, you know, right now the current fad within like the fitness world is a cold plunge.
12:35
unknown: Right.
12:36
SPEAKER_01: How many of your friends do you do you yeah, how many of your friends do you think are doing cold plunges right now?
12:41
SPEAKER_00: Uh zero of mine, but I see a lot of it on social media, and I've thought, hey, maybe that's something cool I should try sometime.
12:47
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
12:48
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, fill up your bathtub with cold water and you know, get into it, right?
12:53
SPEAKER_01: So you've got to start off biting the apple with small bites to eventually get to the bigger bites.
12:59
SPEAKER_01: So to switch gears and become a hard charger is very, very difficult.
13:05
SPEAKER_01: But to become an early morning person versus being a night owl can can start by, okay, well, instead of waking up at 8 a.m., I'm gonna set my alarm clock for 7:30.
13:18
SPEAKER_01: And then in a week, I'm gonna move it back to 7, and then I'm gonna move back to 6:30 and a gradual process.
13:25
SPEAKER_01: The cold plunge could be a very similar thing, right?
13:28
SPEAKER_01: Instead of dunking yourself in a bathtub full of ice, maybe you start with some lukewarm tepid water, and little by little you scale it back.
13:38
SPEAKER_01: One of the big things for aspiring entrepreneurs to remember when they see somebody with great financial success is that don't compare your chapter four to that person's chapter 30.
13:51
SPEAKER_00: That's great.
13:52
SPEAKER_01: There's been a there's been a lot of development in that time, right?
13:56
SPEAKER_01: Like you, as an entrepreneur, bank your failures and your successes in your head, probably more so on your failures to learn from, but you bank all those instances in your head of what not to do again and what to do again to become successful.
14:13
SPEAKER_01: So you want to be a career writer.
14:16
SPEAKER_01: I think that's fantastic.
14:18
SPEAKER_01: But what does that mean?
14:20
SPEAKER_01: Right?
14:21
SPEAKER_01: You want to write an amazing book.
14:24
SPEAKER_01: How does it cater to the masses?
14:26
SPEAKER_01: Is the niche way better?
14:29
SPEAKER_01: Is it better to go and get a quantity of people?
14:32
SPEAKER_01: What do the quantity of people like?
14:35
SPEAKER_01: It's really up to the writer to determine how successful they want to be financially, if that's where we're going with this, right?
14:44
SPEAKER_01: Yes, you want to be a Michael Crichton or a Malcolm Gladwell, then that's going to require some studying.
14:52
SPEAKER_01: Study your demographics.
14:54
SPEAKER_01: How many people read the type of novel that you're writing, like a self-help business book in my case, across the nation?
15:01
SPEAKER_01: How many people would be reading that book?
15:04
SPEAKER_01: And and then so you you really want to ultimately write a book that targets that audience, but then in that process, you got to come up with a marketing plan.
15:15
SPEAKER_01: How much money are you comfortable investing into reaching that demographic of people?
15:20
SPEAKER_01: Because can't you and I can write a book and we can publish it, but that doesn't guarantee that it's going to be a big hit.
15:28
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
15:29
SPEAKER_01: Could be anomalous, right?
15:30
SPEAKER_01: We could have a big hit.
15:32
SPEAKER_01: Or we can make ourselves lucky by working on the direct demographic that we want to intentionally market to.
15:40
SPEAKER_01: And how do we do that?
15:42
SPEAKER_01: Could be could it be word of mouth, could it be through social media, could it be through the various mediums that go into marketing, audible, you know, and so on.
15:54
SPEAKER_01: Um for a writer to switch gears with the little by little, eventually they got to start thinking like a business person, too.
16:04
SPEAKER_01: It's not all about writing the book, right?
16:07
SPEAKER_01: It's all about how many purchases do I want to make of the book if you're gonna be a career writer.
16:14
SPEAKER_01: I'm not a career writer.
16:17
SPEAKER_01: Uh this book was very intentional to give to people that need a push and shove in their life.
16:23
SPEAKER_01: It's excellent for my children as they grow older.
16:27
SPEAKER_01: But if I were depending on a book for my livelihood, I would be exactly studying the demographic and the people that would be reading this book and think to myself, how do I multiply that by as many people as I can and hope to get a lot of traction that way?
16:48
SPEAKER_01: And so that would be the start of the rewiring process, right?
16:54
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you're not a good business person, but you're an amazing author.
16:58
SPEAKER_01: Well, guess what?
16:59
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna have to learn, or if you are, if you do have some cash stowed away, you're gonna have to go find somebody who knows how to do that kind of stuff, right?
17:09
SPEAKER_01: Hire a marketing company, social media company, whatever it may be.
17:14
SPEAKER_01: Um, I don't know if I directly hit that question, but I but I hope it helps.
17:21
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, this is very, very good.
17:23
SPEAKER_00: It's interesting hearing hearing your perspective on this because so oftentimes what we do in the writing world, you know, those of us who write our own books or we do client work is we listen to a lot of other writers.
17:36
SPEAKER_00: And so it's super helpful and I think really interesting to get your perspective on this because you don't come from the world of writers and you're not sort of stuck in that echo chamber.
17:45
SPEAKER_00: You know, nothing against writers, I'm one of them.
17:48
SPEAKER_00: But we all have the tendency to kind of get stuck in our own echo chamber and listening to people who already sort of think like we do or they do things the same way that we do.
17:56
SPEAKER_00: I'd love to circle back to something that you mentioned a few minutes ago that I thought was really interesting.
18:01
SPEAKER_00: You said earlier in your career that you decided you didn't want to become a dog trainer, you wanted to become the dog trainer.
18:09
SPEAKER_00: And I'm super curious about how that decision to become the premier or elite dog trainer in in your area.
18:18
SPEAKER_00: Uh and you didn't use those terms, but that's I guess the term I would put on it.
18:21
SPEAKER_00: If you wanted to be at the top or number one in that field, how did that decision change what you did from there on out?
18:29
SPEAKER_01: So it's funny that you bring it up because this has been a hot topic amongst family members, with my brothers and my mom, and even talking with my wife.
18:40
SPEAKER_01: What pushes people to be competitive?
18:45
SPEAKER_01: Do you think let me ask you the same question back in?
18:48
SPEAKER_01: Do you think that the involvement of a child in an extracurricular activity like a sport or even like band, um, or even academically being the number one student in class gives them that competitive edge?
19:05
SPEAKER_01: What would drive that more?
19:07
SPEAKER_01: Right.
19:07
SPEAKER_01: I I would and I'll tell you, for me, growing up as an athlete, playing sports, uh being in the martial arts, you always want to.
19:17
SPEAKER_01: I'm so competitive, Kent, that like even driving down the street, like I can't have somebody past me.
19:22
SPEAKER_01: I gotta get in front of them to my own detriment.
19:26
SPEAKER_01: Um, and so you know what drives people to be like that.
19:31
SPEAKER_01: Uh for me, in order to build a very successful brand with ultimately an exit strategy at some point in life, you have to be the best.
19:42
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, mediocre people do mediocre things.
19:46
SPEAKER_01: Nick Saban gives an excellent speech about high achievers get frustrated with mediocre achievers, and mediocre achievers get frustrated with high achievers.
19:57
SPEAKER_01: And there's resentment both ways because the high achievers are constantly pulling the mediocre ones up.
20:02
SPEAKER_01: Yes, and the mediocre ones look at the high achievers and they say you're always you know trying to overdo and overachieve, right?
20:10
SPEAKER_01: So there's that resentment when you're building a team, you can't have that.
20:15
SPEAKER_01: You got to either have the mediocre all the way or you have to have the high, but you can't have a mix of both, right?
20:20
SPEAKER_01: Which is why he's one of the winningest coaches, you know, in history of uh of football.
20:27
SPEAKER_01: So for me, it was let me bring something special to Middle Tennessee that they haven't seen before.
20:36
SPEAKER_01: Uh, dog training is an interesting industry where I would say the far majority of dog trainers are exceptionally talented with their ability to deal with dogs, but their communication to the end user is lacking because a majority of them are primarily introverted.
20:56
SPEAKER_01: And so it doesn't do yeah, it doesn't do the end user any good if you're amazing working with their dog, but you can't communicate that strategy to the end user whose dog ultimately belongs.
21:09
SPEAKER_02: Right.
21:09
SPEAKER_01: Right?
21:10
SPEAKER_01: And so the advantage I had over most other dog trainers is I came from advertising and high finance, a very sales-driven background when I could communicate very well with other people.
21:23
SPEAKER_01: And I went out of my way to take courses like Dale Carnegie uh courses or the Roy H.
21:30
SPEAKER_01: Williams Advertising Conferences or Zig Ziggler or Jim Roan and all these other sales greats, even Tony Robbins, to learn from those people to make my trade much more effective and productive.
21:46
SPEAKER_01: And that took some sacrifice to go and learn from those people, but I wanted to be the best of the best, right?
21:51
SPEAKER_01: I wanted to be able to learn to close people, to understand sales techniques.
21:57
SPEAKER_01: People want to buy, but how How do you close them?
22:01
SPEAKER_02: Right.
22:02
SPEAKER_01: And so I that I think that that is all a big part of this uh unlocking um the magic for everybody is how many people are going to take that time to sacrifice and invest into themselves and their own vocations, and how many are not?
22:21
SPEAKER_01: Well, the mediocre people aren't, but the high achievers are.
22:25
SPEAKER_01: And they're the ones who are always making the most money.
22:28
SPEAKER_01: And these guys always think it's easy, and these guys know it was difficult to get there.
22:33
unknown: Yeah.
22:33
SPEAKER_01: But they keep pushing and pushing and pushing.
22:36
SPEAKER_01: So to become the dog trainer, it required me to go to visit lots of dog trainers across the world, learn their styles, create my own style.
22:47
SPEAKER_01: It took a lot of sacrifice of traveling, um, being away from my job, investing the monies I was making with my current job out of time back into the business.
22:56
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and then I spent about four years just trying to penetrate the music industry in Middle Tennessee.
23:02
SPEAKER_01: I mean, or Music City.
23:03
SPEAKER_01: And so when I got in, I knew that I was in, but it took four years to penetrate the business.
23:10
SPEAKER_01: How did you do that?
23:11
SPEAKER_01: And that's what it takes to be deep training.
23:13
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I was walking up and down Music Row with flyers and a dog demonstrating in front of all these big buildings and hoping that artists and artist managers and things like that would see me.
23:25
SPEAKER_01: And finally I got lucky.
23:26
SPEAKER_01: Somebody saw me, they tried their hand in dog training, and became very successful.
23:32
SPEAKER_01: And from there, I did a really good job of taking care of them, where I asked for referrals at the end of the sales process.
23:39
SPEAKER_01: They then referred me to their friends, and that spiral began.
23:43
SPEAKER_01: But four years it took.
23:45
SPEAKER_01: How many people are gonna go devote themselves to two hours a day of walking up and down Music Road demonstrating a dog for four years straight?
23:55
SPEAKER_00: That's dedication.
23:57
SPEAKER_01: They see the end result now, Ken.
23:59
SPEAKER_01: They just didn't see the time that went into it.
24:02
SPEAKER_01: They didn't see the 2 a.m.
24:05
SPEAKER_01: mornings that you know I was out cleaning kennels, and it's in the book as well.
24:12
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, right.
24:12
SPEAKER_01: They they they miss those kind of things.
24:16
SPEAKER_00: So a lot of people come to me and ask about ghostwriting.
24:19
SPEAKER_00: They want to get into ghostwriting, and I'll just kind of use this as an example.
24:22
SPEAKER_00: They want to do client work, they they want to they have a W-2 job, they want to have more freedom in their life, that sort of thing.
24:29
SPEAKER_00: Um, so let's take ghostwriting as an example.
24:31
SPEAKER_00: If someone wanted to become, let's say, the premier ghostwriter or an elite ghostwriter, however, they would define that, what are some things that you would recommend that kind of a person would do?
24:43
SPEAKER_00: Let's just take your four-year example.
24:45
SPEAKER_00: If somebody was going to dedicate four years of their life, a couple hours a day, to building up their ghostwriting business, to connecting with clients, to really making a name for themselves.
24:55
SPEAKER_00: From your perspective as a successful business person, what are some things that person could do to then start to build that so that eventually they become not just a ghostwriter, but the ghostwriter?
25:09
SPEAKER_01: It's a really good question.
25:11
SPEAKER_01: I think you have to create a plan first.
25:15
SPEAKER_01: And the plan has to have these targeted goals along the way.
25:19
SPEAKER_01: So maybe for starters, you learn how to sell.
25:24
SPEAKER_01: Because how are you gonna convince the person on the other end that you're the best ghostwriter in the world?
25:28
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, right?
25:29
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
25:29
SPEAKER_01: So you gotta learn to sell because either you're gonna sell that person on why they're gonna work with you or they're gonna sell you on why they're not going to work with you.
25:37
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
25:38
SPEAKER_01: So very true.
25:39
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
25:40
SPEAKER_01: So and then part of the plan would be how do you um how do you learn to understand that person's persona, right?
25:54
SPEAKER_01: Because if you're writing it in that person's voice and their persona, you have to really identify with them, almost like being them temporarily, right?
26:07
SPEAKER_01: Because you're you're the ghostwriter.
26:09
SPEAKER_01: You're you're gonna have to write in their way of speaking, in their way of talking, in the or in their way of working, in their way of uh interaction with people.
26:19
SPEAKER_01: That's another thing that you need to identify.
26:21
SPEAKER_01: And if you're really good at being an emulator um or imitator, then that would flow right into that.
26:30
SPEAKER_01: Uh, I would say the first part when it comes back to sales, at the end of the sale, asking for referrals is really critical.
26:39
SPEAKER_01: You have to have the stomach to ask somebody for referrals.
26:44
SPEAKER_01: You know, hey Kent, I just wrote your book.
26:46
SPEAKER_01: It was fantastic.
26:48
SPEAKER_01: I think you'll agree.
26:50
SPEAKER_01: Do you have three other people that have some interest in writing a book?
26:54
SPEAKER_01: Well, yeah.
26:55
SPEAKER_01: Okay, well, can you write down their names and numbers?
26:57
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
26:58
SPEAKER_01: After they agree to that, then you go back to them and say, Kent, would you mind if I used your name?
27:02
SPEAKER_01: Or would you mind even teeing me up on an email introduction or text message introduction, or even in person?
27:08
SPEAKER_01: Let's can we go meet for coffee with that person?
27:11
SPEAKER_01: And you'd either say yes or no, right?
27:13
SPEAKER_01: So then you already know is this going to be a warm lead coming in?
27:16
SPEAKER_01: Is this going to be somewhat of a cold lead coming in?
27:18
SPEAKER_01: But it's not even that cold because you already get to use Kent as the reference.
27:24
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
27:24
SPEAKER_02: Right?
27:25
SPEAKER_01: I just wrote Ken Sanders' book, Tom.
27:27
SPEAKER_01: Kent had a really great experience with me.
27:30
SPEAKER_01: I got it done in X amount of time.
27:32
SPEAKER_01: Um, I think that Kent would attest to uh the effective use of time that we spent together and how productive it was.
27:42
SPEAKER_01: That way it doesn't bog your time down so much.
27:45
SPEAKER_00: Right.
27:46
SPEAKER_00: That's great.
27:47
SPEAKER_00: That's great.
27:48
SPEAKER_00: Right.
27:48
SPEAKER_01: Those are some of just the skill set, but ultimately you got to create a long-term plan.
27:53
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so now that I have 50 Kenth and I have and I am generating referrals from all of them, then I got to start determining what the value proposition is to the client, what you're going to charge when you have such a high demand now, because you're the person that is accelerating on this upward trajectory.
28:14
SPEAKER_01: So now it's like, okay, now my time has become increasingly valuable because I have 50 kids that want me.
28:19
unknown: Right.
28:20
SPEAKER_01: So now I'm going to charge X amount for that time, right?
28:24
SPEAKER_01: All that in the end, you still got to follow the pillars I laid out in the discipline book.
28:30
SPEAKER_01: You have to be honest with people.
28:32
SPEAKER_01: If you tell them you're going to do something, you have to do the job, you have to deliver on it, right?
28:38
SPEAKER_01: Um, there are so many times that I see this in the general contracting world outside.
28:45
SPEAKER_01: And for the viewers, we were just talking about, Ken has a uh project going on in his house.
28:51
SPEAKER_00: I do.
28:52
SPEAKER_01: But general contractors sometimes start a job at a house or a business and then they go take on another one, they go take on another one, and they ping pong ball to all these different businesses or homes until they get them all done.
29:06
SPEAKER_01: So instead of finishing house X first and then moving on to the next one, they just can't stand to be without the money.
29:13
SPEAKER_01: So they go and pick up every other opportunity, and sometimes to the point where they can't even satisfy their obligations effectively.
29:21
SPEAKER_01: That one project that should have taken a week takes six weeks.
29:25
SPEAKER_01: The homeowner's then frustrated, or the business owner's then frustrated.
29:29
SPEAKER_01: You're frustrated because they're frustrated with you and you don't know what to do because you've been off more than you can chew.
29:35
SPEAKER_02: Right.
29:36
SPEAKER_01: So that gets counterbalanced with the more popular you become, the more you can raise your price because there's more demand for you, but there's just not enough supply.
29:49
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
29:49
SPEAKER_01: And you run, you run with that for a little while.
29:52
SPEAKER_01: So you can be your W-2 for a little while, and eventually you're gonna have so much demand that you're gonna tell the W-2 job, listen, I love working here.
30:01
SPEAKER_01: You are a great boss, but I just have these other opportunities that are burning in me, and I'm gonna go run with those.
30:08
SPEAKER_01: And there's liberty in that as well.
30:13
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and that's that's a transition a lot of people would like to make.
30:16
SPEAKER_00: I made that transition a number of years ago, and it was it was really scary.
30:20
SPEAKER_00: It I had worked at a W-2 job for many years.
30:23
SPEAKER_00: I was a college teacher.
30:24
SPEAKER_00: You know, my life consisted of a certain schedule.
30:26
SPEAKER_00: I showed up at certain places, taught certain classes, and then to go out on your own is is a kind of intimidating prospect.
30:33
SPEAKER_00: Is that how you felt when you left your W-2 job to then go full-time into your dog training business?
30:40
SPEAKER_01: I was fired.
30:42
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I didn't have a choice.
30:44
SPEAKER_00: I didn't know that.
30:45
SPEAKER_01: I was fired.
30:46
SPEAKER_01: I was in banking and um and I was a pretty good producer, but I it's funny because the first red flag to the bank was the almost 100, almost 100%.
31:00
SPEAKER_01: It was like 92% of the monies that I was making, I had them contribute directly into the um the IRA account.
31:12
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so it was directly going basically from instead of into a checking account like most people do it, because I was living off my dog training money, most of the money was going into the uh it was my 401k.
31:25
SPEAKER_01: I'm sorry.
31:25
SPEAKER_01: That was 401k, and then and then they were matching up uh until a certain percentage.
31:31
SPEAKER_01: But since I was putting in more than most other people were, that was their red first red flag.
31:38
SPEAKER_01: And I knew it was dicey.
31:40
SPEAKER_01: I just wanted to see how long I could ride that ride.
31:44
SPEAKER_01: Then uh the manager came up to me and said, Listen, obviously your passion is working with animals.
31:51
SPEAKER_01: We think you're fantastic here, but why don't, in a nice way, he said, Why don't you go be successful working with animals?
32:00
SPEAKER_01: And um, one of the best things that ever happened to me, I remember getting home and being like, I think I was just fired and I wasn't let go.
32:08
SPEAKER_01: And um my wife was uh, we were newlyweds at the time, and my wife was like, That's okay.
32:15
SPEAKER_01: There's like 18 dogs downstairs that you can go get to, so you're gonna be fine.
32:20
SPEAKER_00: Um it all worked out okay.
32:23
SPEAKER_01: It all worked out, yeah.
32:24
SPEAKER_01: So that was a force majeure.
32:27
SPEAKER_01: I I think you've done it, Kent.
32:30
SPEAKER_01: It might be a value to tell your viewers how did you do it?
32:34
SPEAKER_01: How did you escape your W-2 to get into taking this leap of faith onto you on your own?
32:42
SPEAKER_00: We'll get back to the conversation in just a moment, but first I want to take a second to give a big thanks to today's sponsor, The Word Wizard.
32:49
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32:56
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33:05
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33:19
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33:26
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33:30
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33:35
SPEAKER_00: Now back to the conversation.
33:37
SPEAKER_00: Well, essentially, in in a nutshell, I had a deal with my wife uh when I was considering starting this this ghostwriting business and working with authors and running a membership and all that.
33:47
SPEAKER_00: Um the deal was that I needed to have six months of client work that I had been doing that was steady.
33:53
SPEAKER_00: I needed to match my college salary with my side hustle, which wasn't difficult because I wasn't making that much to begin with.
34:01
SPEAKER_00: I also needed to have six months of client work lined up ahead of me.
34:05
SPEAKER_00: Just and we also needed to have six months of savings in the bank.
34:08
SPEAKER_00: So we had kind of these three or four parameters in place.
34:11
SPEAKER_00: And I'm sort of a risk-averse person.
34:14
SPEAKER_00: So in my mind, okay, if we had all these parameters kind of set, then I felt like we would probably be okay.
34:20
SPEAKER_00: And it and it hasn't been okay, and the business has grown, you know, as time has gone on.
34:24
SPEAKER_00: So I I that's kind of the way I approach it.
34:28
SPEAKER_00: I know some people probably are not quite that planned out when they make transitions, but you know, in my mind, I wanted my wife to feel good about that transition, which she she did.
34:38
SPEAKER_00: She was like, Yeah, it's it's you know, when your spouse is is trying to get you out of your W-2 job, you know it's probably time.
34:44
SPEAKER_00: When you're the one that are that are that's dragging your feet.
34:46
unknown: Sure.
34:49
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, one of the other things that you could consider if you're going to be a writer and you're going to make a career out of this, is to go to different publishers and offer them maybe one or two free rights and allow them to see interesting the value that you're bringing, and then you'll have publishers funneling you business, and it would really cost you nothing but some time.
35:15
SPEAKER_01: Remember the sacrifice part of it, right?
35:17
SPEAKER_01: Passion.
35:18
SPEAKER_01: And so that would be the the give me um to them, and then when they see that you are really good, then they can then light that fire for you as well.
35:30
SPEAKER_01: Because writing is good, there's a lot of creativity with writing, right?
35:34
SPEAKER_01: And so it's it's not all the time that you can be all of those things.
35:40
SPEAKER_01: It's hard to be an exceptional writer, an exceptional business person, um, an exceptional husband, an exceptional father.
35:47
SPEAKER_01: There goes there's a lot that goes on every day.
35:50
SPEAKER_01: And so if you wanted to put together your side plan and your goals and say, let's see, what is the past path of least resistance?
36:00
SPEAKER_01: I know I can write, I don't know, one to two books every couple weeks.
36:07
SPEAKER_01: And maybe I'm wrong about saying it that way, but or whatever that timeline is, one to two a couple months.
36:12
SPEAKER_01: Um, I would go to a couple publishers and say, Listen, I'll write your first one free.
36:18
SPEAKER_01: That way you can see how good I am.
36:21
SPEAKER_01: And then I'd like you to refer me to people, and this is what I'll charge, and then let it go from there.
36:28
SPEAKER_01: It's no different than in the middle of I was walking in the middle of downtown on music row, demonstrating my dog and handing out flyers, but at the same time, there were artists walking up and down music row, giving people CDs at that time.
36:43
SPEAKER_01: Right, right.
36:44
SPEAKER_01: And that's how long ago this was.
36:46
SPEAKER_01: Uh, you know, so it's it's very same con very similar concept.
36:51
SPEAKER_01: Uh what is the what is the fastest and most effective way that you can grow your business if you feel like you can't go become an exceptional salesperson or you don't have the time to sacrifice to that magnitude.
37:05
SPEAKER_01: And one of the things I write about in the discipline book is listen, I was young, I was single, I didn't have children.
37:14
SPEAKER_01: So I had a lot of time.
37:16
SPEAKER_01: And I made the most of my time as I could, sometimes working 18 to 20 hour days, all seven days a week for seven, eight, ten years, you know?
37:26
SPEAKER_01: Wow.
37:26
SPEAKER_01: And so that's really what it took to become successful.
37:30
SPEAKER_01: What kind of writer do you want to be?
37:32
SPEAKER_01: Do you want to be a Michael Crichton or Malcolm Gladwell?
37:35
SPEAKER_01: Again, referring back to the earlier part of it, or do you want to be um just somebody who makes an okay living?
37:43
SPEAKER_01: And that's where that competitiveness comes into play, right?
37:46
SPEAKER_01: I want it to be the dog trainer, not a dog trainer.
37:50
SPEAKER_01: And so we built a business around that.
37:52
SPEAKER_01: It is the place to go to.
37:55
SPEAKER_01: And you'll see that with a lot of these other brands.
37:57
SPEAKER_01: Ferrari is a brand like that.
37:59
SPEAKER_01: It's the ultimate card.
38:01
SPEAKER_01: American Express Centurion card, the black card, that's the ultimate card.
38:06
SPEAKER_01: Right?
38:07
SPEAKER_01: There are all these uh, you know, the the Gucci's and the Louis Vuitton's, they're these are all brands that are very limited and very expensive.
38:18
SPEAKER_01: Which way do you want to go in your life?
38:21
SPEAKER_00: I find it interesting that a lot of the things that you talk about in your book, Discipline, are things that that are fairly straightforward in terms of if you just do these things that they really work.
38:31
SPEAKER_00: They're not overly complicated, they're not difficult to understand.
38:35
SPEAKER_00: In fact, um, in one of the early chapters, you talk about this.
38:37
SPEAKER_00: In fact, I think it's the so there are nine steps in the book uh that are part of your your framework.
38:44
SPEAKER_00: And chapter one is all about understanding the six pillars of business.
38:48
SPEAKER_00: And number one is you talk about the importance of simply being responsive.
38:52
SPEAKER_00: And I wanted to ask you about something because I'm really curious about this.
38:55
SPEAKER_00: So I've noticed a pattern that now I know there's exceptions to every rule, but in general, when I'm engaging with somebody just over email or communicating with them, maybe it's podcast interviews, maybe it's clients, maybe it's uh just people that I know, whatever it is.
39:10
SPEAKER_00: Generally, the more successful that somebody is, the faster they respond to emails.
39:17
SPEAKER_00: And I have noticed that a lot of people who are sort of they're maybe struggling, or I would label them as maybe not nearly as successful, sometimes they take a long time to respond to emails.
39:28
SPEAKER_00: And I'm curious, what is the dynamic going on there?
39:31
SPEAKER_00: Because that is the opposite of what people would assume.
39:34
SPEAKER_00: You would assume that the more successful somebody is, the busier they are and the more swamped they are, and all this, but I have found that that's actually the opposite.
39:42
SPEAKER_00: So I'm wondering if you have any insight about this issue of being responsive, uh, even just things like replying to emails and how important that is for building a successful business.
39:56
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, in the future, one of the books I thought about are these different laws of business.
40:02
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
40:03
SPEAKER_01: And so the law that you're talking about, that I would call it, I would call it the law of open channels.
40:10
SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's good.
40:11
SPEAKER_01: And so for people like me, I don't like open channels.
40:15
SPEAKER_01: I need to close it and move on to the next thing.
40:18
SPEAKER_01: I'm not good with something lingering open for a while.
40:22
SPEAKER_01: So I like getting it done and moving on.
40:26
SPEAKER_01: And I think what you find with super successful people is they need to check it on, check check it off and move on.
40:33
SPEAKER_01: So I would say I'm a pretty predictable person for the most part.
40:38
SPEAKER_01: My days are mostly the same, albeit different meetings with different people and uh sometimes different activities, but every day starts off the exact same way.
40:48
SPEAKER_01: I start at the gym.
40:50
SPEAKER_01: Um, right after that, I eat a bowl of fruit with yogurt and some oats.
40:55
SPEAKER_01: It's it's kind of predictable.
40:57
SPEAKER_01: But I look at those things on my day-to-day checklist as closing them off.
41:03
SPEAKER_01: And most other people may not, or maybe they have it just in their brain, and it's in my brain too.
41:08
SPEAKER_01: But it's a checklist.
41:09
SPEAKER_01: I did the gym, move it on, grab the yogurt, got sustenance, move it on.
41:14
SPEAKER_01: You know, that that's my checklist.
41:16
SPEAKER_01: And so anytime there's an outstanding phone call or email, it kind of nags at me at the back of my head.
41:22
SPEAKER_01: Like, oh man, I didn't respond to that.
41:24
SPEAKER_01: I gotta get to him, gotta get to him, I'm gonna get to him.
41:26
SPEAKER_01: And I think that that's important because when you're thinking about your opportunities as a as a writer, for example, you know, people may be wanting to use you, and you taking your sweet time to respond back to that person could be a loss of opportunity.
41:45
SPEAKER_01: Maybe that person goes and finds another writer, right?
41:48
SPEAKER_01: It happens, and so it yeah, there you have to steward that opportunity.
41:57
SPEAKER_01: If even if you think about it biblically, it's your obligation to steward that opportunity.
42:03
SPEAKER_01: And if you don't care enough to steward the opportunity that's coming out your way, it's going to vanish.
42:10
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
42:10
SPEAKER_01: And so that's on you, and that's where you fall to the mediocre side.
42:16
SPEAKER_01: And the people that are highly successful don't.
42:19
SPEAKER_01: You know, they're gonna call everybody back, they're gonna email everybody back, they're gonna text everybody back.
42:24
SPEAKER_01: Maybe, maybe it's not pronto, but within an hour or two, you're gonna get an email back, usually.
42:31
SPEAKER_01: And that happens with everybody.
42:33
SPEAKER_01: I mean, one of my biggest clients is Kelly Clarkson.
42:36
SPEAKER_01: She will call me back within three or four hours.
42:39
SPEAKER_00: That's amazing.
42:40
SPEAKER_01: She may be busy at that moment, but she will call me back.
42:42
SPEAKER_01: That's an ultra successful person right there.
42:45
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
42:45
SPEAKER_01: Because she's programmed her, she's programmed herself to be like that.
42:49
SPEAKER_01: And so you just got to rewire yourself.
42:51
SPEAKER_01: Again, you might be a night owl now, work on being a morning owl.
42:56
SPEAKER_00: Um I've always been intrigued by her journey because obviously she started off on American Idol, became very successful in the pop music field, but then made a pivot to then go into talk show hosting, which of course she still has music all the time on her on her show.
43:11
SPEAKER_00: But I think that that must require a lot of guts, uh self-confidence.
43:18
SPEAKER_00: You it you're taking a risk because you're going into a different field.
43:21
SPEAKER_00: So I I've always thought that was really cool of her to do that.
43:24
SPEAKER_00: And I admire people who take a pivot when they realize, okay, maybe I don't want to be on this track anymore, or I can be more successful over here, and they make that shift.
43:33
SPEAKER_00: That that's really intriguing to me.
43:37
SPEAKER_01: I'll tell you this.
43:38
SPEAKER_01: I've been at her house um probably as late as 10 30 at night, and I have watched her signing autographs and cards that late at night with a huge stack.
43:56
SPEAKER_01: I don't know, probably like four or five hundred.
43:58
SPEAKER_01: She's hand-signed.
44:00
SPEAKER_01: Signing them all.
44:01
SPEAKER_02: Wow.
44:01
SPEAKER_01: So she's doing all of her work during the day.
44:05
SPEAKER_01: She comes home, plays mom, and then at night she's signing things.
44:12
SPEAKER_00: That's amazing.
44:13
SPEAKER_01: That's a person that works.
44:14
SPEAKER_01: That's the person that is doing what they say they're going to do.
44:18
SPEAKER_01: That's a person that's reliable that you can count on.
44:22
SPEAKER_01: So as a writer, think about what attributes do you want to be known for?
44:27
SPEAKER_01: Honesty, reliability, dependability.
44:30
SPEAKER_01: Like those are very important attributes.
44:32
SPEAKER_01: And then the sacrifice that's going to come with it.
44:35
SPEAKER_01: If you want to be successful, there's just no way around it.
44:38
SPEAKER_01: I talk about it in the book.
44:40
SPEAKER_01: There's three ways to be successful, right?
44:42
SPEAKER_01: The first one is you inherit a bunch of money or you win the lottery, right?
44:47
SPEAKER_01: The second one is you are a corporate uh executive.
44:53
SPEAKER_01: You work your way up to C C-suite level.
44:56
SPEAKER_01: The third one is you're an entrepreneur that busts their tail to get to where you are.
45:01
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
45:02
SPEAKER_01: And I think that it is going to require the sacrifice of you getting there.
45:08
SPEAKER_01: There is no easy way around it.
45:09
SPEAKER_01: I know there's anomalies like these.
45:12
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes you see a Bitcoin person or a viral video on Instagram, but that's not consistent.
45:18
SPEAKER_01: That's not what the rest of the world can immediately go and reproduce.
45:21
SPEAKER_01: Otherwise, everybody would be living in giant mansions and driving around Bugattis.
45:26
SPEAKER_01: So it's clearly not real, right?
45:29
SPEAKER_01: But what is real is your ability to steward the gifts that God's given you and the opportunities that are coming at you, and seizing those opportunities and being able to build a really good livelihood for yourself that ultimately one day, if you work hard enough, you invest in yourself enough, and you invest in your business enough, you will be so successful as the two earlier named authors, amongst many others.
45:58
SPEAKER_00: I love that.
46:00
SPEAKER_00: Well, Lee, I want to respect your time, and uh this has been such a fun conversation.
46:03
SPEAKER_00: I do want to ask one more one more thing here that's taking a little bit of a side road to this, but it's still a big part of what you do as a business leader, which is your involvement in charitable organizations.
46:14
SPEAKER_00: I know you're a big fan of Make a Wish and you're very involved with that.
46:17
SPEAKER_00: So um, what's going on there?
46:19
SPEAKER_00: Why why should business leaders get involved in charitable organizations and in anything that you can share with us about your involvement in make a wish?
46:27
SPEAKER_00: I think this will be really inspiring.
46:30
SPEAKER_01: I think my my background is that every successful business owner or company has an obligation and duty to give back to their community.
46:42
SPEAKER_01: And it's the right thing to do because there are people that are lesser fortunate than you, and you have the means to give back, whether that's time, sweat equity, or even financing it.
46:55
SPEAKER_01: You know, that's it's your obligation, and it's more of a godly route for me to do it.
47:02
SPEAKER_01: I know the gifts that God's given me, and I've complimented those gifts through taking on extra trainings and going out and investing into my own vocation.
47:14
SPEAKER_01: But it's also important for me to set that model up, not just for myself or for my children, but for my employees as well.
47:23
SPEAKER_02: Right.
47:24
SPEAKER_01: Because ultimately I'm the role model that leads these people, and that's not limited to the businesses I run.
47:33
SPEAKER_01: That could be in the law enforcement world as well, that I command.
47:36
SPEAKER_01: And I think that that altruistic feeling is really rewarding to most people that give it.
47:47
SPEAKER_01: Um, go go be generous, and uh ultimately there's gonna be a reward of some sort back to you, whether your heart's more full or whether you accidentally develop a relationship with somebody that may in the future cross your path.
48:04
SPEAKER_01: I think there's just a lot of good that comes with it.
48:07
SPEAKER_01: So make a wish, I was a board member for six years for make a wish, Middle Tennessee.
48:12
SPEAKER_01: Um, now that I've rolled off the board because you you term terminate after six years.
48:17
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
48:18
SPEAKER_01: Uh, I started a legacy event where once a year, in collaboration with uh the Ferrari dealership here, Prancing Horse of Nashville, we put together an amazing event where I invite about 50 power couples as a fundraiser to an amazing dinner, live auction, uh things like that to create this legacy of uh now that I'm off the board, there's still this event that I throw every year to bring benefit back to that organization.
48:51
SPEAKER_01: And so we're talking about kids with life-threatening illnesses, and some will live and some won't.
48:57
SPEAKER_01: And if we can give them a week of normalcy going to Disney World or Hawaii or meeting one of the Nashville Predators or a Tennessee Titan, that right there is just so fulfilling and rewarding.
49:11
SPEAKER_01: And so that's just one of the ways I give back.
49:14
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I tell you in the in the book, too, Kent, uh, I've been a police officer for almost 15 years at this point.
49:20
SPEAKER_01: Not one time have I ever taken a paycheck.
49:22
SPEAKER_00: That's amazing.
49:23
SPEAKER_01: 15 years of being a police officer, close to it, and uh and never never taking check.
49:29
SPEAKER_01: That's just the way of giving back.
49:31
SPEAKER_01: And everybody has their own thing.
49:32
SPEAKER_01: You can go serve soup in a super kitchen, you can go build houses for habitat for humanity, whatever it may be, go do it.
49:40
SPEAKER_01: It is good for you, it is good for your soul, and it is definitely good for the people that need it.
49:47
SPEAKER_00: Wow, that's that is such a beautiful message.
49:49
SPEAKER_00: I appreciate that.
49:50
SPEAKER_00: And and what a cool way to wrap up this interview because it's not ultimately just about what we're doing for ourselves, it's about giving back and not just to the community, but setting up our families and generations after us for a better life.
50:03
SPEAKER_00: And gosh, it sure sounds like uh sounds like there's so many opportunities if we really want to apply ourselves and if we want to put the principles into practice that you can get from your brand new book, discipline, what it really takes to build a seven-figure business.
50:17
SPEAKER_00: Beautiful book, a beautiful message.
50:19
SPEAKER_00: And uh, Ali, where can people go to find out more about the book and also about Nashville Canine, which is such a cool company, and we didn't even really get into what you do as a dog trainer, but uh you've got so many cool things that you're doing.
50:31
SPEAKER_00: Work.
50:31
SPEAKER_00: Where's the best place for people to go to learn more about all that?
50:35
SPEAKER_01: So you can go to himyaricompanies.com.
50:38
SPEAKER_01: The easier way would be NashvilleK9.com, Nashville Letterk number nine.com.
50:43
SPEAKER_01: You can click on the Himyari Companies link.
50:45
SPEAKER_01: The book's available everywhere, Kent.
50:47
SPEAKER_01: It's on Amazon, it's on Barnes and Noble, Apple, it's on Audible.
50:51
SPEAKER_01: So you can go anywhere books are sold.
50:53
SPEAKER_01: Uh you guys can listen to it, you can read it.
50:56
SPEAKER_01: I always like to read it, uh, but other people like to uh listen to it too.
51:01
SPEAKER_01: It's it is available for you.
51:03
SPEAKER_01: And um I'd love I'd love your feedback, honest feedback.
51:06
SPEAKER_01: I hope it's the shove that you need to become more successful.
51:10
SPEAKER_01: Um, I am there to tell you that the work is not easy, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
51:17
SPEAKER_01: Keep going, keep going, keep going.
51:19
SPEAKER_01: You can do it.
51:19
SPEAKER_01: I promise you.
51:20
SPEAKER_01: It's the American dream that we all want.
51:23
SPEAKER_00: I love it.
51:24
SPEAKER_00: Well, thank you for the way that you are serving not just people there in Middle Tennessee and in the national area, but now you've really expanded your impact and influence on writers, business leaders, creative entrepreneurs, anybody who wants to build a business by giving us a framework for what it actually takes to build a seven-figure business.
51:42
SPEAKER_00: So, Ali, thanks again so much.
51:43
SPEAKER_00: This has been an absolute pleasure.
51:46
SPEAKER_01: By the way, the pleasure was all mine, and thank you.
51:48
SPEAKER_01: And I feel honored to have you on to be on your show, Ken.
51:51
SPEAKER_01: So thanks so much for having me.
51:53
SPEAKER_00: Thanks.
51:53
SPEAKER_00: Appreciate it.
51:54
SPEAKER_00: Well, friends, I got to tell you, first of all, I hope that you enjoyed that conversation as much as I did.
51:59
SPEAKER_00: I took a ton of notes.
52:00
SPEAKER_00: And second of all, I have to tell you that I feel like this is one of the most important podcast episodes that I've had over the last few months simply because Ali dropped so much wisdom about what it actually takes to succeed as a business person.
52:14
SPEAKER_00: You know, sometimes you get on social media and you get on email lists and you listen to podcast interviews with people and you read their books and all this stuff that influence put that influencers put out, and many times it's really, really awesome stuff.
52:26
SPEAKER_00: But sometimes they leave out the parts where they struggled for years, and they leave out the parts where it just took a lot of hard work and persistence and just deciding to make it through the obstacles and sticking with it over the long term, and that's exactly what Ali's book about.
52:42
SPEAKER_00: That's what his book is about.
52:43
SPEAKER_00: So I encourage you to grab a copy of Discipline, What It Really Takes to Build a Seven Figure Business.
52:48
SPEAKER_00: Again, it's a fun book, tons of stories, it's short, but it's, my goodness, there's more packed into this short book than I think many books that are three or four or five times its size.
52:59
SPEAKER_00: So make sure and grab a copy.
53:00
SPEAKER_00: There's a link in the show notes.
53:02
SPEAKER_00: Also, if you're curious about Ali and his story and what he does as a dog trainer, visit his website, nashvillek9.com.
53:09
SPEAKER_00: That's K9, the letter K and the number nine.
53:12
SPEAKER_00: Visit that site.
53:13
SPEAKER_00: I think you're going to be really inspired at the cool stuff that he's doing in the dog training industry.
53:18
SPEAKER_00: And then if you want to get a broader view of all the other cool stuff that Ali is doing, visit his other site, which is Himyari Companies.com, and you'll get a sense of all the awesome things that he's doing and has done.
53:30
SPEAKER_00: So as always, I hope that this conversation has inspired you just as much as it has me, and I'll see you next time.