Latest / Harder Than Life / 153: Why Speed to Lead Is Your New Sales Superpower

Transcript

153: Why Speed to Lead Is Your New Sales Superpower · Harder Than Life

• 0:07
  I'm Kelly Siegel, and this is Harder Than Life, a podcast about self-love, self-awareness, business, and health. We tell outrageous stories and boil everything down to simple, practical advice you can start using today. Let's get living.
• 0:23
  Welcome back to the Harder Life Podcast. Today's guest, Devin Johnson, is a visionary entrepreneur who turned early hardships into fuel for success. Starting with sneaker flipping, at 16, he's self-educated in digital marketing and co-founded Connected, a SaaS company that now serves thousands worldwide. Devin is on the brink of launching his latest innovation, Sales AI, and continues to emphasize impact, mindset coaching, and personal growth rooted in spirituality.
• 0:52
  He believes in building meaningful relationships, fostering leadership, and making a lasting difference. What a surprise to have you in studio. After much chagrin, here you are. Thank you for showing up. Yeah, no problem, man. It was, we decided to go to ACDC in Detroit. I was like, my boy Kelly's in Detroit. We had a Zoom podcast book. So I was like, let's just do this thing in person.
• 1:16
  I don't know if I had a nickel for every time I say things, everything happens the way it's supposed to happen and everything happens for you. So I'm loving that. I wish you would have called me a little earlier so I could have joined you guys. But we're going to talk a lot about sales. A.I. I know in the intro I said that it's the latest. It's I know it's launched. Yeah, it's out there. A.I. Man, give us the definite. Everybody's all you hear right now is A.I. A.I. A.I. A.I. What is your definition of A.I. and why?
• 1:42
  Is it so crazy right now? Yeah. AI to me is the ultimate extension of a human, right? AI definitely requires a human touch and a very smart person behind it, but can achieve 10 times, 20 times more with AI on your side. And so, you know, we're in this crazy era where everything is AI and you're adapting or you're dying, yada, yada, yada.
• 2:08
  But, you know, I talk a lot about like hype versus reality right now. AI is not going to save your business. AI isn't going to replace vision. AI doesn't create culture in your businesses for your employees. AI is not going to replace every single person inside the company. Like AI is awesome and amazing and the ultimate extension of a very intelligent human. But it does not fix everything.
• 2:35
  I wrote it down here. We're going to get into sales AI because what specifically you're doing is fantastic. You gave the pitch at our IT company beforehand. We're definitely going to be partnering. I called it automated information. It's not artificial intelligence. That's where I think we go wrong in this world. There's nothing artificial about it. It's searching for what you either A program it or what information already exists.
• 2:58
  Yes, so the reason it's called artificial is because it's the first layer of technology that programmers can't say one plus one equals two. So it's a black box in the development world of how certain outcomes happen. So therefore, that's the root of why it's called artificial intelligence is because the actual sequence of actions can't be tracked by code.
• 3:23
  This is so wild man. We're writing so many things in our IT business and cybersecurity business to make things exciting. You were you were listening to it. What amazes me about you is your young man 28 years old and you started even younger as I talked about in the intro at 16. So what was the defining moment that made you realize you were built for business.
• 3:44
  Yeah. You know, there's a couple, but one that really sticks out going into freshman year of high school. I, um, yeah. Freshman year of high school. Uh, my sister got diagnosed with brain cancer and really like my family was never, my mom and dad were never married is already kind of a divided household. But when that major moment happened, I see my dad actually run from problems versus stand up and face them. And, um,
• 4:11
  We didn't see him for a year after a few weeks after my sister's diagnosis. And my sister was hospitalized for almost two and a half years. She had a medistarblastoma, which is cancer and affects your adrenaline gland in your brain. So required immediate brain surgery. She had to live in Riley Children's Hospital. It was a massive change in life.
• 4:33
  and how we knew our childhood and how everything happened. And so my mom obviously supported my sister, lived with her at the hospital and would attend to my sporting events or whatever she could juggle to make sure she was still, you know, great mom. But, you know, my dad's out of the picture for a year. So, you know,
• 4:53
  My mom has no income because she's essentially taking care of my sister. And so the fighting moment was lose everything and move to inner city schools and be a part of the route. You know, it's called the Ronald McDonald home. It's basically in suite apartments at the Children's Hospital in Indianapolis.
• 5:13
  or figure out how to make some money and help mom in the short term. And so started by flipping sneakers. You know, I had a good school, good friends, you know, good ecosystem. And, you know, didn't think I was quite built for inner city schools either. So I was in the suburbs of Indianapolis.
• 5:31
  And so my dad always bought me shoes for every birthday, every holiday. I started by just selling when I had. I got $2,000, a Craigslist ad. Actually, that's how I sold my shoes. So if you guys remember Craigslist, it's a sketchy place now, but...
• 5:47
  Yeah, so Craigslist. And then I just started buying shoes from Craigslist. Eventually, Facebook Marketplace came out, which changed the game. But, you know, Craigslist is where I started my hustle. Got a scooter and started flipping sneakers. That's kind of the defining moment. So you were making money and you were giving it to mom?
• 6:06
  Not all of it. She had some savings and was helping, but I was helping with what was short and, you know, helping out. You know, she wasn't completely dependent on me, but it was just a tough time. When did dad come back?
• 6:22
  So he came back about a year after admitting he was struggling with an opioid addiction and so on and so forth. He actually overdosed when I was 21 on heroin. So, you know, that actually killed him when I was 21. But that's...
• 6:42
  I was like 16, 17 kind of when that was happening, and it was really ramping up. So he was fighting addiction and running from problems and just kind of chaotic, you know. So seven years ago, and you say OD, was it a fentanyl? What was he? Did he? You know, we don't know exactly, but the autopsy said it was probably a speedball, which is an upper and a downer mixed.
• 7:10
  Yeah, you know, my father passed away from the same thing. And it's and I went down the same path. The more I get to know you, the more remarkable of a human. You know, everybody likes the underdog. You truly are. It's hard to see you now and know that you used to be an underdog. Yeah. Because I tell you what, in any kind of business fight, I'm grabbing you. Let's go, baby. Cody, you and let's go. Yeah. But I want to dig a little. Your sister's fine now.
• 7:37
  Yeah, so just kind of finish the childhood section. Sister beat the cancer. Damn. She's doing great now. Walking again. They said she would never walk, take care of herself. She's got side effects, but does really well for herself. My mom actually works for the family. She's our nanny, so I see her every day.
• 7:57
  good relationship there, know the outcome of my father, but you know, we're small, mighty family. And, you know, now I've got two kids of my own and married. And, you know, so we're continuing to, to grow the Johnson, Johnson lineage. So Devin, let's go back to,
• 8:15
  that time. I mean, that is, I can, oh man, the audience is feeling that right now because I've been there. We've all been there. Yeah. You know, at that one pivotal moment that you could, you could go one way or the other and you chose, I'm going to lead into this. What was your exact perspective with dealing with your sister though? That's the, that's the one I want to understand. Like, cause at that moment you could have, you could have faced everything, or you could have folded everything and dropped.
• 8:40
  Yeah. So good, good podcasting, right? Harder than life, right? That was a really harder than life moment. And what honestly drove it was fear, fear of leaving what I knew, leaving my friends, leaving, you know, what I knew was normal. And so ultimately when you boil it down, it was a fear, which I believe, you know, fear has two meanings, you know, face everything and rise or, you know, F everything and run.
• 9:09
  And so I didn't know that. I didn't have this wisdom that I carry about myself now. Obviously I was just young and scared and knew that shoes had value. Like I was completely ignorant in the business world. And so, and you look at like what family I came from, my mom worked factory jobs and kept food on the table, kept us in a good school district. And my dad sold dope, you know? So like,
• 9:35
  You know, I didn't really have this like built in business acumen or I just knew we could make money. I knew you could make money. That's the root of it. Right. And so the fear kicked in and ultimately started to figure out a way. Bro, everything works if you work it. You just nailed what Harden Life meant. It's fear.
• 10:00
  And I was just on the phone with my old therapist. I hadn't seen him in years. And I said, I'm stuck on something. And he literally brought up again that there's, I like to have control and I fear not having control. So he had to walk through like, what does it mean not having control? So that's how I came with Heart of Life. The new book's coming out. It's going to be happier than life. But it's like, it literally is fear and leaning into that fear.
• 10:25
  Yeah, you know, the buffalo runs through the storm and a cow runs away, right? So I've got the buffalo mentality when it comes to all aspects of my life. And there's some element of that that probably comes from my dad. My dad had a very looked down upon what he did for work, quote-unquote, but
• 10:46
  But he did hustle and he created a life for himself. So I do believe between my mom's discipline of doing the right things, plus my dad's hustle kind of created that, that mix of where we're at now. So the business sales, your business is in nine figures now. Yeah. So this is an incredibly humble man at 28 years old. You talk a lot about mindset. What are the core principles that shaped.
• 11:14
  your success? Yeah, there's a lot, honestly, that goes into that. One is you got to get humbled in business. And so, you know, one of my favorite books is Ego is the Enemy. I'm sure you're aware of that book. It really is the enemy. You need ego in certain situations to...
• 11:32
  back up your confidence and to back up you know discipline and decision making but carrying that with you to be oblivious to change or to learn i was using it in all aspects i wasn't wanting to hear from people because there's no justification behind this but you know here's the situation i was on 16 17 always had tens of thousands of dollars i was walking around with i had a jaguar little
• 12:02
  I was just so full of myself, man. What humbled me was when businesses have phases, right? And the sneaker market really dried up, right? Little app born out of Detroit, Michigan called StockX really rocked the world, right? Did you stop over and see it last night? I seen it, yeah. It reminded me how much they really changed the game. But, you know, that was my first big adversity. And I had roughly...
• 12:28
  100 grand saved and i just thought i was like rich man like i just thought i was balling and uh i was gone in seven months after the shoe stuff kind of dried up and there was points where i was hotel hopping my wife now we were we're high school sweethearts she was working two jobs giving me her entire paycheck try to figure out business
• 12:51
  Like had a couple of contractor employees here and there, you know, um, we would have some nights we'd sleep in a car. Like it was crazy. So things that shape you, right. Adversity and removing ego is a huge step in the right direction.
• 13:09
  So ego, I've heard an acronym edging God out. You religious? You're religious? Yeah. So that's just something I always remember. And I'm growing more and more and more, especially with Steve and our producer. It's just there's something out here protecting me and always looking out for me because things just keep happening, like having you here in person. I'm loving it. I appreciate it.
• 13:29
  When you really got rid of your ego, how did you transition from the lone wolf to the legacy driven leader to take that huge step? Because that's kind of where I'm at right now. You've done it at 28. I'm at 50. And I'm just now doing it.
• 13:45
  Well, so when I removed ego, that allowed, and again, you have spurts of ego. It's not like I have zero ego at all. I just got to go on the record. I'm not like this perfect angel that never flares up. But when you drop that guard and you can listen to other people,
• 14:04
  it allows you to gain other insights and realize you are not the man. You are in control of very little and you need an army to build what you really want to build. So, you know, my best friend and business partner, Cody, right? He's not here on the show with us, but I was the first person. I'll paint a picture real quick. A mutual friend was like, Hey, you got to meet this guy named Cody. And I'm like, you know, I'm like this little egotistical guy, like, baby, baby.
• 14:33
  Well, we go to Macalester's. Love that spot, by the way. And we're chowing down. Within five minutes, this guy just stops. First time meeting him, he's like, what's your relationship with God? And I was like, what are you talking about? He's like, you know, you're talking about how successful you've been. And, you know, I'm just talking about myself basically for the first five minutes. But he just cuts me off. Long story short, within two weeks, I'm baptized and going to his Bible study.
• 15:03
  And understanding that I had so many broken areas. It'd be a whole podcast if we just sat and talked about what was broken at that time.
• 15:11
  And so when that breakthrough happened and faith became the center, and that took time, like it didn't just happen in two weeks, but like the start of it took place, I started to realize I'm really good at a handful of things, but I need real people in my corner that we can build together. And so Cody was my first business partner, and we built and failed in a couple businesses.
• 15:39
  door coupons digital marketing i mean invents advertising business uh country music representation but sounds like cody too many stupid little businesses but we we were failing together and we were learning his skill set my skill set which was extremely valuable we're both broke at this point i mean we're
• 16:02
  We're not like broke, broke, but we're pretty broke. And we can pay to eat. That's about it. We're living for the next deal. And so the turning point was disciplines within doubling down on what you were good at and staying in your lane. So that's when we started to have a breakthrough.
• 16:21
  We realized he was the relationship guy. Like, you met Cody before you met me. That's typically how this works. So this is a real- Oh, you guys had to plan. This is a real-world situation. So he will be the relationship guy, get invited to the parties, do the events, et cetera, et cetera. Then he'll introduce me. I'll come in, and we'll figure out how we can make money together.
• 16:43
  So my blessings vision and building culture and team is relationships and the ability to bring that next level into the ecosystem when we're ready. And so that's like yin and yang, right? He serves it up. I knock it down. And so when we really doubled down on the disciplines, what we were good at, I built product, he built relationships. I sold product, he maintained the relationship.
• 17:10
  So it went hand in hand. And we had a couple. Our first successful company was connected. We did have a couple other co-founders that we knew we sucked at operations. We had Brandon. We knew we sucked at digital marketing. We had Elliot and Steven that were a part of it as well. Like it wasn't just me and Cody. But we let people stay in their lanes and understand that we didn't know everything and doubled down on our daily disciplines. That was the breakthrough. Yeah.
• 17:39
  That is so good. Follow a focus, follow one course until success. And we're gonna keep going because I wanna get into connecting and eventually sales AI and then into your philanthropy. But I wanna talk about Cody for a second. And I've never told the audience how important your best friend is to me. This gentleman, Cody Harvey, he's become very close to me. And obviously he's your best friend. He reached out to me from a direct message on Instagram.
• 18:04
  And he's like, bro, I want to talk to you. And I'm like, yeah, I get 150 of these a day. And for some reason, probably God said, talk to this guy. And for another reason, he's talking and he's like, hey, let's jump on a call. And I'm like, yeah, right. Everybody wants to jump on a call. So I just something, some voice in me said, do it.
• 18:22
  I get on a call with this guy. He's talking, I'm going to help you. I'm like, what's in it for you? He's like, nothing. I just, I like your message. I believe in you and I want to help. And I'm like, yeah, right. While we're on the phone call, he's messaging people that we all know. Now they've been podcast guests. They've been friends. And he's messaging them, putting me on them, and they're immediately responding. That's the kind of relationship he has. So, guys, I would say be open to receive messages.
• 18:52
  as well as stay in your lane, there are a lot of people in this world that wanna help you. You just left my office, my National Technology Manager, and you sat down, you flew in on your plane, went to your concert, now you're here all day to help me. For nothing for you.
• 19:07
  just to help me, to help us make the world a better place. So Cody, and then those of you who don't know, Cody also introduced me to some people that I went to an event to where I met my girlfriend now, who's been with me for a year and a half. So Cody is like the modern day Kevin Bacon. Everybody knows him. So Cody, we love you. Thank you. And just keep going. You guys found it connected. Yeah. Yeah.
• 19:32
  What was connected and how did you, because I'm trying to get us to where we are today. We're sales AI. It's like, wow. Yeah. So when we doubled down on our disciplines, I knew that small businesses sucked a lead generation. Hence us, right? It was our biggest pain point. Couldn't get the right conversations with the right people, right? Sound familiar?
• 19:52
  Yeah. Everyone's head nodding on the podcast right now. Yep. I understand. And if you don't have three to $5,000 a month, like paid ads, it really is not going to move the needle, right? Most businesses can't afford that, especially the small businesses.
• 20:09
  So we came up with a solution to streamline doing outreach on LinkedIn. And so I used it to begin with. It was a really crappy product, but it worked. We call that now that I know how to actually build software. That's the MVP, right? Minimal viable product. So I had the MVP. I took 50 meetings in person in Indianapolis from outreach.
• 20:34
  that would sit me down to do coffee or lunch with local business leaders. And at the time, I was just pitching SEO, digital marketing services. Yeah, like everybody else. Yeah, like everyone else, right? And one guy goes, hey, you know, how do you –
• 20:49
  get this meeting going oh i just used this little extension i built called connected he's like can i buy it uh it's like yeah yeah we figure that out and um so first sale thousand bucks ready to go and uh about a week later he's like dude
• 21:09
  I've had four meetings like that. That's not normal for me all off of this product that you, you know, hatch together into my, so the audience, so this is the modern day sales navigator in LinkedIn now, right? With a little bit of a nuance of how to reach out to people. So the co-pilot that bolted on to, yeah. So this would actually execute sending messages to your target audience and assist with follow-up. And since then LinkedIn's next desk, right?
• 21:36
  They didn't nix it. They have opinions about it. And so in 2023, we had an opportunity to exit the business on an asset sale for all the customers. So we just let it go and moved on. You know, that's a whole other story between LinkedIn and Google.
• 21:57
  The status quo is like under seven minutes. We like to be under five minutes with our platform. It's within 60 seconds of the lead being submitted. That'll trigger a phone call, qualify the lead and get it to the calendar. So what gap in the marketplace are we solving? Are we solving human error, human laziness, or are we, what do we, what do you solve them?
• 22:20
  Yeah, so the way I break that down, outside world, interested in business, the way you contact business to do business probably will never change in the general sense of you have to talk to each other.
• 22:33
  But what we're solving for is that in-between layer of going to your CRM and getting that lead interested and actually qualified. So right now, it's either a human does it or you're relying on emails that aren't conversational, can respond back and forth, or text messages that you can't respond back and forth within these automation systems. So we're replacing speed to lead inefficiencies. Yeah.
• 23:01
  And that has led into customer success and several other verticals. But it really started with speed to lead. So the part that you're changing is literally just, it's just going to help convert. It's going to increase sales. That's why sales AI. Yeah. Most businesses that use our product see anywhere from a 40% to 60% increase in MQL to opportunities.
• 23:25
  Now, let's go to this. This is what I, this is what immediately I hear. And we use a lot of this voice AI in our national technology management. People don't want to talk to a computer. What's your answer to that? Like, they don't want to talk to that robot voice, even if we can make it sound charming. How do you combat that? Well, so would you rather have a human that might have your answer or a guaranteed answer?
• 23:51
  So one of the things we also do is we have features like voice customization, matching voices, like put your voice in the product. Yeah. Wow. And we've gotten our latency down to normal human latency.
• 24:06
  so there's no delay so you might not even know do you go mount the thing and if it put my voice you would say this is Kelly AI we don't lie about it we promote to disclose that you're using an AI agent assistant um um
• 24:25
  It's like a loaded gun, you know, you could save the day or you could be a bad guy. So, you know, we're not monitoring every single word that's coming out of customers, AI agents. So very well, some customers could be just posing it as human. You know what converted me finally? I mean, 100% conversion. I have adopted it.
• 24:46
  My daughter wanted Taco Bell. We walked through the Taco Bell and it was complete AI order. And usually she's ordering and I interrupt her and I start messing with the AI because I want to see what it would do. I was fascinated. I started like talking really, really fast. Then I deleted it. 100% accuracy. Yeah. I was blown away. Yeah. Yeah.
• 25:07
  So who wants to go and talk to somebody? I don't know. Let me see. Oh, I forgot to give you your extra lettuce or cheese. It's 100% accurate, guys. Instead of sitting on the, I always think of Delta, and I hate to throw Delta under the bus, but I'm always flying Delta. And it's like, I don't want to talk to, I have to call and add my dog to my reservation every time. And it takes 37 minutes. Yeah. Every time.
• 25:32
  What if I could just call an AI agent and say, add this to my reservation. It says, Kelly, I've seen you do it at all the time. I got everything done in one minute. Oof, man. And that's the reality of where the world's moving and what sales AI is helping make reality. But also, you know, I talked about hype versus reality earlier in the podcast. There's a lot of hype around it, and people think it's a fix-all.
• 25:57
  And it's not. You know, it's just not. Yes, it will dial leads instantly, qualify leads, put them on the calendar.
• 26:05
  Yes, it'll stand up tier one customer support and answer your customers' questions and book the support tickets and all this amazing things. You still have to run a business. We're not to a point where you stand up one AI agent and it runs your entire business. And quite frankly, I think we're a couple years, two, three years away from that even being a talking discussion.
• 26:30
  Before we go to culture, because I love the culture of your company. I watch it. Before I met you, I'd actually called in from one of the leads and almost bought it. And then it's fortuitous that you came full circle and I get to meet you. Your culture and your company is amazing. I want to talk about that. But you said something to me when we were in the meeting at NTM about the next 18 months. Yeah. Yeah.
• 26:52
  So let's go on record. We're recording, what are we, May 1st, 2025. 18 months from now, we'll say it's the end of 2026. What has got you excited? Every major enterprise will proclaim that they're an AI-first organization. What? Yeah. AI-first over culture, over everything? AI-first meaning... Over people? No, AI-first meaning first engagement will be AI-generated.
• 27:20
  What did I just tell you? This is a matter of fact, I'm recording a video after this, that we are, we're flipping over to AI. It's not your AI, cause we hadn't talked yet, but yours is more sales, right? Cause it's sales AI. Ours is this perk form we did was customer service. It's just, we wanted the speed input. We're switching over to overflow tickets and after hour tickets to start. And then as soon as we know it can handle it, we're going to make it a hundred percent because
• 27:48
  It's a hundred percent accurate. I will take your trouble ticket in with a hundred percent accuracy over a person. And that's, and it's the speed. All it means is the time that we turn around your tickets and you're, and you're fixed, it reduces in half. Yeah. We're already fast as can be. We're averaging two hours and 30 minutes right now to fix all of our issues. Average. It's insane. It's insane in the business. Yeah.
• 28:11
  It's extremely powerful, but you're doing it right. You're doing it in phases. Yeah. I told you I did. A lot of the hype is AI everything. It's like, no. Because first off, most businesses don't even have baseline systems in place. I feel glad you said that. AI works off of structured data, not unstructured data. And a lot of people can't even comprehend the difference between structured and unstructured.
• 28:39
  Okay, structured is CRM has defined pipeline stages to find tags to find flow that data knows where it's going. And that's where AI is effective is it can assist by doing human actions inside of that structured data.
• 28:55
  If you just throw data at AI, it may give you cool answers or cool this, that, or third. It's hard to action on it because it's not defined by action layers. Today I released, by the time your episode comes out, a couple weeks later, but episode 150 of the Harder Than Life podcast, it talks about the processes and how you have to define your standard operating procedures. And guys, whether you know it or not, you have a process.
• 29:23
  You go watch something being done and 99% of the time someone's going to follow it. They just haven't documented it. So to make AI work correctly and work for you and to improve upon it, I put a podcast out there that says record your process, document your process, implement AI, and then measure it and keep tweaking. And you will get better and better and better. And it's –
• 29:48
  It's out of this world what you can do. Like I said, the average time for tickets in the IT business is eight hours. We're at two and a half. Yeah. And our goal is to get it within one.
• 29:59
  One hour and it's, and we're just now getting started. Yeah. And we did this thing. This is, I wouldn't recommend this for businesses. We fixed every, all the operations and then started selling. I sold, broke everything, all the, cause I had no standard operating procedures, no processes documented. I took four years and did all that and then implemented it and then changed the culture and implemented a strong culture which is gonna be my next question.
• 30:27
  Then we're just now starting sales. And guess who shows up on my doorstep? Sales AI. It was good. I got to meet your leadership team. They seem extremely smart. And they're going down the right path. You know, you're a good client, right, for sales AI. You have structured data. You have a backbone in the business. You have inbound lead generation. Like, we can help.
• 30:50
  Yeah, I'm excited. I can't help an entrepreneur that works off of a spreadsheet, doesn't know where his leads come from and is just winging it. I can help entrepreneurs to have a system technology and then people working in the business. So think about that as a peer. Now I will tell you that's my specialty. If you are working on a spreadsheet or you don't have these, these divine. First of all, I'm going to come in and I'm going to optimize your, your mental fitness.
• 31:15
  and your physical mastery. And then we're going to start... Once we optimize you as a human, as a leader, then I'm going to help you with your business. And then we can call in partners and friends like Devin and Cody and just...
• 31:29
  It's amazing what this good old boy network can do, especially when you got a bunch of really smart people who refuse to give up. Yeah. Talk about your culture. I guess, you know, what do they say? Some of these books, it's the culture. It's the culture. It's the culture. I was talking to somebody at your office before I knew you, and I was looking over, and I was seeing you playing Nerf basketball. And I go, is that Cody? They're like, yes. Yeah. And I'm like, how did you at such a young age realize culture was so important?
• 31:59
  Well, I've been in business for myself basically my whole life. And I always said I started with the principle of if I wouldn't want to work there, why would someone else? And so that was like the foundation of starting culture. And then you start defining your why. You start defining your mission statement. Start defining core values that isn't just...
• 32:20
  easy to come off the tongue or too complicated to even remember. You really just try to dumb down like your personality into the culture. And so, you know, our core values is a big
• 32:33
  pillar in our business to define culture and it's own it, opportunity, world class, no BS, impact and together. So we really simplify the core values of the business. And it's the stress test of, is it the right person in the right seat? And they align with core values.
• 32:53
  And so a lot of people say we have core values, but then it's just a poster. But if you live those core values and you leave from the front, you create that opportunity and you're world-class and you're no BS and you're making an impact and you do it together, people feel that.
• 33:09
  I like the together one. So I get a lot of grief from outside consultants and certain people that have interviewed at NTM. And I have family. Family is a part of my culture. And then when people meet me and they see me, they go, oh, no, you can keep family up there.
• 33:26
  Because a lot of people put it up there and it is just a plaque. Oh, we treat everybody like family. But I do. I mean, you saw me walk in the other room, take a quick upsell call, which I just looked at the guy and I said, I treat your company like it's mine. I said, I need, you know, an extra 10%. He's like, done.
• 33:41
  It's why it's called Trust NTM. Trust me and I'm going to do what's best. We also put honesty and integrity as one of our core values, and I fought that one. Because I don't think you have to tell people you're honest and you mean what you say you're going to do. But the person that asked me to put that on there was internal and said, no, it's a reminder for us. It's a reminder that we look up there and we remember we're always going to do the right thing.
• 34:05
  Yeah, always. And then we're going to always do the right thing for not only our customers, but for each other and ourselves. Yeah. I teach in my coaching program entrepreneurs to choose themselves. We're such, you know, you, you talk about Cody, you talk about your family, you talk about your girls. You haven't said one word about you.
• 34:25
  We have to, as men, you put your mask on before you have everybody, because if you pass out on the plane, you can't help anybody else. What do you do for you? Go to ACDC? Yeah, that's a small part. You know, I've got a very disciplined kind of.
• 34:41
  day to day, I like structure. So a big thing for me is starting off journaling, faith time, gym, seven days a week. I know some people say that's too much working out. I have to, I have to move my body, man. And, uh, you know, and then outside of just like day to day regimen of faith, journaling, gym, um, really big into cars. So
• 35:06
  Wife says it's a collection. I don't know if it's a collection, but I go in and out of a lot of cars and like to be a part of the car scene. I grew up racing. I had a couple of years being able to race dirt bikes professionally. Fun fact. And so just love speed and anything that kind of gets the adrenaline going. It's your end goal to be a billionaire.
• 35:29
  You know, I'm well on the path. It's not necessarily a figure. It's really the impact that can lead to.
• 35:40
  You know, I'm proudly, you know, largest donor within my church organization and there's 5,000 people in the church. So it's not like it's a small church. And I really like being able to give that level of impact back in the community. You know, I like to be able to.
• 36:01
  help people that was in my position and be a, a, a North star for them to understand that they can do it. And a by-product is you do have to make a lot of money to continue to do that really hard to help others when you're poor. I mean, it's just, it's kind of a fact starts with creating real value and taking that value and spreading it. I wouldn't bet against you, man. I can tell you that much. We,
• 36:26
  I didn't have any questions in here and I got more. I want to talk about more friendships. I was going to go into the philanthropy, but you touched on it. As such a young man, I just, I appreciate your perspective. What are you seeing is your generation's biggest holdback of success?
• 36:46
  entitlement. They don't know the first thing about consistency or discipline. We're talking about my age group like 28 and under.
• 36:57
  I'd say I'd go up to 35 and under right now. Yeah. You know, it's lack of consistency, discipline, but that's a deeper issue of understanding who that person actually is. So I believe it's a self-identification problem. So they have no drive to be disciplined or consistent. Yeah.
• 37:19
  They just think that the world owes them something. Where did it come from? Is it social media? Is it the internet? Where did that come from? Because I'm the next generation, and we were taught. But even then, my generation's got hooked on crutches and substances and avoiding and...
• 37:36
  You know, it's like that doesn't work either. Yeah. Social media does have a big part of it. You know, one of the things I did early on that helped me a lot was I basically like I had social media, but I unfollowed a bunch of people to protect my mind and remove comparison. Yeah.
• 37:53
  So a lot of people my age look at someone successful, you know, and this is a materialistic object concept. But like a lot of times kids my age, when I'm driving a Ferrari, will be like, oh, that's pretty cool. Your dad left you the business or they'll just make remarks like that. And I don't even fight it. Yeah. You know.
• 38:16
  None of my business, but people think about me and I do, I find you remarkably that you understand that already. And I am like, yeah, man, it's a blessing, you know, um, you know, why, why fight it? You know, they're already in a mindset of victim mentality or this isn't obtainable. So, and I think my age group lacks consistency, discipline and, and understanding themselves.
• 38:38
  Not everybody, but I'm seeing it a lot, and it's frustrating. My daughter is 16, and she's- 75, 80%. Oh, God. That's my perspective.
• 38:48
  It just makes it so much easier to win in this world. And I don't want to. Together we rise. You know, we're going to more and more now that after this podcast, we're going to do so much business together. It's not even funny. I'm going to tap into that brilliant mind. We're getting close. And I got a bunch more questions because I want to talk about people and I want to talk about relationships. And I want to talk about who's helped you along the way.
• 39:12
  A little bit about money. So you've spoken about the power of relationships in business. What's your approach to building high value connections?
• 39:20
  Give more than you take. Bam. If we're just keeping it into a concise format, not going through a formula, don't think about your pocket or your transaction you can do with that person. But sit down, get to know them, give the value, give the connection, see what you can make happen from just that brief conversation before you even step into the world of just transacting.
• 39:49
  So it's a mindset of how can I help this person versus how can I get dollars from this person? I speak from experience and I tell you guys one more. You give first. Yeah. You, Cody, I mean, Cody was on the call. He didn't know if I was a clown or not. Little did I know he was watching everything I was doing. Yeah. And he knew everything I was up to. And he had studied me before he reached out because it was, he wanted to make sure I was authentic.
• 40:16
  And that's what I'm proud of myself that what you see is what you get. You've talked to me. You see me. You know, I'm not secretly sneaking freaking alcohol or booze or beating my freaking girlfriend. Or I just I just nose down and almost forget sometimes to have fun. I was. Yeah. You know, it's like I love that you jumped on your plane shot to see ACDC. I just wish you would have called me because I would have joined you. But yeah, give first.
• 40:41
  Give more than you receive and it will come back in a bonus. God works in that way, people. I'm telling you. So if you lost everything today, what's the first move you'd make to rebuild?
• 40:53
  First move I would do is identify a gap that I know I personally struggle with and productize that. Some way, shape, or form, if I was completely broke, I would sell my mind, my intellectual property of, you know, at one point being successful but then broke again. One thing you don't lose is your knowledge.
• 41:16
  So I'd productize my knowledge into some sort of consulting offer and build myself back up to $40,000, $50,000, $60,000 a month and then build technology around it. Your drive. Your drive. That's what I would say. You can't – you've seen in the pros all sports. People have –
• 41:39
  Average talent that have a motor like no tomorrow, just absolutely make it. Dennis Robin, I think. That's probably before your time. I just, you guys work, work, showing up consistently every single day. So you've worked with some major players in the business. Who has influenced you the most and why?
• 41:57
  Well, if we're starting with people closest to me, wife and Cody, just to not leave them off the record, but in the business world, I would say it's probably a combination of Andy Fursella, Ed Milet, Harmosi's moved up there quite a bit. And then early, early on, I listened to a lot of Grant Cardone.
• 42:21
  Hmm. And guys don't remember. He's not. Some of these guys he does know personally, but some of these guys are all available free online. Yeah. I listened to Ed's podcast years before I met him. Andy, I had to turn...
• 42:33
  See, when we talk to him, I'm gonna laugh. He's probably never get sick of hearing that he was right. I had to stop listening to him because he was so spot on, it would irritate me. Yeah. Because I'm like, oh my God. So you listen to his earlier predictions of what was gonna happen, nails it. So anyways, you can listen to these guys for free YouTube. This stuff is free, there's no excuse. So you can't afford it, they're free. Yeah, they're free. My Thursday podcasts are free business coaching.
• 43:02
  And free mindset coaching. I love doing them because it's paying it forward. Yeah. And you're passionate about the leadership and coaching. So what's one piece of advice you'd give someone who's just starting besides the, I asked you what you would do, but what piece of advice would you, and let's talk about these 35 and unders. What's the one piece of advice you'd give somebody just starting out? Business or just life? You know, I see it in two verticals. You got to remember with me, I talk about both because I believe they're one.
• 43:30
  They are one. If you're just getting started, whether you're wanting to run a business or to work for someone else, which is totally fine. That's another thing that I think my age group is like, I got to be the boss. No, you don't. No, you don't want it. Trust me. You don't want it. Trust me. You don't want these, these problems. Cause you never, you never go off and you never, you're never off. The peaks and valleys are vicious, but anyhow, I,
• 43:56
  Isolate what you truly are passionate about and try to get in wherever you can get in so you can see different rooms, different views. You know, that requires you moving cities like you have to change your environment and what you're consuming and see the other side. Right.
• 44:18
  Well, a lot of us are pre-molded by our family, our school system, our circumstances, and we think that's just how life is. When in reality, you're one apartment lease away or one network meeting away or one conference away from understanding there's a whole new world out there.
• 44:47
  isolate something you're passionate about and figure out how to get involved with it
• 44:52
  You keep saying that. Isolate what you're passionate about. And then not only passionate, but also the opposite is finding the gap of what you're not good at and finding someone that can fill that gap. That's what I talked about in the podcast 150. The only advice that I would say that would add to that, and I agree with everything you said, is start working on your mind as soon as you can. And then, of course, I'm a workout guy. Your mind and your body are one and the same.
• 45:22
  that's what I mean by changing your environment I want to be very specific though because if I could go back I have one regret and they always say I have no regrets I wish I would have started working on my mental game a lot sooner I grew up
• 45:40
  extremely oppressed and not even oppressed, just physically and emotionally abused. And let's just call it what it is. And, you know, we all had, our parents did things to us. We were all in that boat. But somebody called me that's a massive influencer. He goes, I just read your book. And he said, I had a tough childhood.
• 45:58
  Mine was a level three. He goes, yours was a level 12. And I was like, well, thanks for acknowledging that. But I healed it and moved on. So what I would say is I drank the poison and expected my parents to die. And what I mean by that is I drank alcohol.
• 46:14
  and ran from things where I could have been doing so much better. If I would have just felt my feelings healed them, I would have, I would have peeled off light years. So it just, that was my one regret is just looking inside because here's the funny thing about it. Everything we require we have right here. Yeah.
• 46:33
  And you realize we're all energy and God created you and is, is and believes in you and is actually testing you and giving you everything, not testing you, giving you all of the things that you need to grow to the person that you need to be, to be what you want. Yeah, absolutely. It is. This is not against you. You're against you. Go look in the mirror and say,
• 46:58
  Declare war on the person you see and start right here and watch things just shoot up. You could have very easily sat back and said, woe is me, my sister's sick, my dad left, and go run amok with some bad kids, which I did, and then I eventually came around. But don't do that. Don't drink the poison. Expect the other people to die. You're not the victim, you're the victor, and you own your own destiny. So you say over and over, I've heard you say it a couple times, it's not about the money, it's about the impact.
• 47:27
  How do you measure success beyond revenue? The very small things that really get me going and measure success is watching employees buy their first house, buy that new car, comfortably be making these decisions, building up a savings, growing families, having kids. Yeah.
• 47:47
  Being able to see that you are creating a foundation for people's lives and dreams to come true is one I see every day. But also being able to put my kids in positions that I would have never dreamed of being able to be in.
• 48:05
  Not bubble wrapping them, but letting them understand that life doesn't have to be this super hard, challenging road. And then from a faith perspective, just being so invested with the church, being able to see, you know, the impact that's happening. You know, we helped open another campus, got another 800 people coming to get to know the Lord. Those are kind of the three areas I kind of measure the success in.
• 48:33
  one of the things if we're if we're just speaking honestly on the podcast a lot of people always ask me like no are you happy you know you don't you don't show a lot of emotion you know you don't smile a lot like no i'm completely happy right all my highs and lows emotionally are just like gone i think i think my childhood like sucked them out you know so you basically get me as this 24 7.
• 48:58
  You're like my baby brother, man. I can tell you right now you're happy. I can feel it. Yeah. You're at peace. Yeah. Peace is a good word. I would have said, because I ask those questions. Sometimes I just come up with them and I just ask them. And I ask them and then I start answering them in my head. And I'm like, oh, that's such a good question. How would I answer that? And how I answered it was I'd look in the mirror and I love the person I see. I don't need to improve them. And I have a peaceful heart.
• 49:26
  Yeah, and another thing is like I used to buy things to try to impress people or fit in. Now I could care less. Oh, I told you last time we talked, I'm scaling everything down. I just sold my TRX. I'm selling the Florida house. I'm going to sell one of the Harleys. It's just like I don't need any of this stuff. I'm passionate about cars.
• 49:47
  Like I truly love cars. Yeah, I got to come check it out. Love cars. So, yes, some people could say, well, you have Ferraris because that's a success icon. It's like, no, I go drive them and I love them and it makes my day. But like, you know, I wear a black T-shirt and pretty much the same pants every day. And, you know, all birds and on clouds and everything.
• 50:12
  You know, like I'm not trying to razzle and dazzle you with some persona of massive. No, no. 28 year old, humble multimillionaire. I'm proud of you. I'm glad to call it. I'm grateful to call you friend and I'm grateful that you're here to help us take that nice leap. I appreciate you coming here. Um, if the listeners were to take away one thing from this podcast, what do you want that one thing to be?
• 50:41
  Consistency and discipline trumps all. And any final thoughts? Dig deep. You have greatness within you. You just got to apply the recipe of staying consistent and being disciplined to what's down inside of your heart. You know you're meant for more. Go take the risk. Take the leap. Take the jump. And at worst case scenario, you start over. You're a beautiful human being.
• 51:08
  I, uh, I'm grateful that you're here and I love you and thank you for coming in. Thank you for flying here, taking your daughters, giving you the time out of the day. And, uh, until next time, be harder than life guys. Please rate and share this podcast. I'm active on all social platforms and love to hear from my Seagull supporters.
• 51:24
  Each and every episode is sponsored by my company, National Technology Management, the easiest and best IT company to do business with, delivering peace of mind with technology every day, even simplifying cybersecurity. Visit TrustNTM.com for more info. Until next week, be harder than life.