Collective Energy Conversations

Shifting Gears: From Corporate to Content Creator with Bearded Tesla Guy

February 20, 2024 Dr. Anna Stumpf
Collective Energy Conversations
Shifting Gears: From Corporate to Content Creator with Bearded Tesla Guy
Show Notes Transcript

Justin Demaree seemed to have it all - a successful corporate career, loving family, and active social life. But when the pandemic hit, it sparked an existential crisis that led Justin and his wife to ask themselves "are we living our best lives?" The conclusion that the answer was no launched Justin on a journey to pivot careers entirely, start creating YouTube videos, move his family to Florida, and ultimately leave corporate America behind to become "Bearded Tesla Guy." Justin shares his incredible story of change, risk-taking, fearlessness, and what he learned about finding career fulfillment along the way.

"There is no passion to be found playing small - in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living". Nelson Mandela


Show Notes/Timestamps:

2:38 - Justin and Dr. Anna's memories from his MBA program
4:09 - How Justin's passion for Teslas started
8:00 - The conversation with his wife that sparked major life changes
10:38 - Taking the leap and moving from Indiana to Florida
15:14 - Learning to balance being excellent at work with not sacrificing family time
21:18 - What prompted Justin to start a YouTube channel
25:22 - When the YouTube channel began making real money
27:25 - The best parts of Justin's life now
33:13 - Tuning out the news and negativity
37:14 - The supportive community among YouTube content creators
42:19 - Examples of Justin's leadership style and mentorship
43:53 - The difficulty of an individual contributor role vs. leading teams
45:56 - Prioritizing community service
47:55 - Justin's favorite podcasts and people to learn from
55:40 - Justin's future plans and new channels
58:39 - Justin's key pieces of advice for others
1:07 - Anna's Collective Challenge

Now that we've heard from Justin, your collective challenge this week, is to set aside as much time as you possibly can, maybe 30 minutes every day, try it for a week, figure out whatever passion project, new hobby, something you've been wanting to explore, don't put any judgments and no expectations on yourself. This is just an experimentation phase, your do not have to be perfect. As we talked about multiple times in the episode, you could just be doing research online, maybe starting a mini project, maybe a tiny piece of content, whatever it is that you've been wondering, and think about like atomic habits, that great book, little small pockets of time just to build on. So just start something that's all Justin said for us to do. Let's make that our collective challenge this week. 


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Music by Music Unlimited from Pixabay


Anna Stumpf:

Welcome to collective energy conversations, your inspiration for personal and professional growth in mid career. I'm Dr. Anna stump Your Guide to inspiring stories from a variety of professionals. A collective energy, we believe in the transformative power of connections and shared experiences. Each week we delve into narratives that spark confidence and self awareness. Join us as we elevate our growth through the power of shared stories. I present today's podcast guests with quite a bit of pride. He was one of my MBA students about six years ago. And just in Tamari was the guy who just showed up in a good mood had a great job. And I look back now, and his LinkedIn commodity manager, I don't know who gets excited about that. But Justin Sure did. He got to know everybody in his class, he was relatable, always in a good mood, always working in the community on a special project. And it was a few years ago, I noticed a shift in his LinkedIn content, and then his employer, and was really fascinated how and why Justin made this transition into really a content creator, because he wasn't somebody that seemed particularly unhappy in his career, had beautiful family live close to extended family, all those things. And then the next thing I know he moves from Indiana to Florida, and he's a content creator. And I just had so many questions about this and could not be more happy with how transparent and vulnerable Justin is in this episode. And before you listen, I always want to start with a quote to kind of get us in the right mood. There is an Nelson Mandela quote, that says there is no passion to be found in playing small or settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living. So with that in mind, I proudly present to you Justin tamari, and his incredible story of career transformation. I hope you enjoyed as much as I did talking to him. I think only had you in one class. But you were the absolute most electric cohesive part of that cohort. I feel like in a room full of big personalities, I will say it was an amazing group. I still remember a the

Justin Demaree:

use of words being electric, that was very clever, wasn't

Anna Stumpf:

that good. I didn't even really plan that I just listened to the new heights podcasts, like say that word all the time. But such a good time. And part of it was the course like it was one of those really not as staunch academic, of course, but we just all very much bonded and had a really great time together in that class. And the things I remembered about you that I remember first of all, coming home the first night going back guys in like commodity like supply chain stuff like why is he not selling something like you just had a personality so different than what you were doing for work. But you came in on your motorcycle every week. And you were just like, so supportive of everyone you knew a lot about every member of your cohort and you were very much a connector, very people oriented. And the bikes, the bikes that you used to get collected through your employer to donate to the kids in the community has always just stuck in my heart. So those are the things that I remember about you. And then it seems like in the last couple of years, you've been all over my LinkedIn feed, and it's not even your name anymore. It's the bearded Tesla guy.

Justin Demaree:

I know. And it's pretty wild. I do want to clarify one thing though, the bikes, my dad gets all the credit for that that's something that he started. And it's something personal to him back when he was a child thinking about that first bike. So you know through that toy drive for Christmas time every year, that was something he really took to heart and every year he collects funds and direct bike donations and they assemble the bikes and then they give them away in the end for the toy drive for the greater or the YMCA of Greater Indianapolis, which is an awesome organization by the way. Yeah, some people

Anna Stumpf:

but I mean like a ton of bikes. I hate to say

Justin Demaree:

last year, prices have gone up So much as we all know, so the numbers are last, I think it was 85 this year, but 150 bikes is what they used to bring every year. But it's just got very, very expensive Of course. So I'm

Anna Stumpf:

for the price has gone up. But then I mean, you think about just how stretched we've been as the labor market. And they take the time to put all of those bikes together like such a great thing. Yeah,

Justin Demaree:

it's fun, too, because when they do the Bike Assembly, Santa Claus shows up. So it's a family affair. I think they call it pancakes with Santa. And then you know, they open up one of their warehouses. everybody shows up in assembles the bikes as a team, and it's a lot of fun. And then yeah, I started putting toy boxes out at my work at the time, in that first year, I got in big trouble. So I was

Anna Stumpf:

just kind of how you thrive, right. Like, I'll I'll beg for forgiveness. I'm not here to get caught in the bureaucracy of permission, right?

Justin Demaree:

Yeah, yeah, I Yeah, pretty much. I mean, I used to call it the black market toy drive because of that. And it really took off. I've become really good at classifying things in a name that clicks. And that usually helps to drum up support. Yeah, black market toy drives. Yeah.

Anna Stumpf:

Which again, like your creativity and your personality, I was like, why is this man in charge the supplies? Yeah, I know, I'm reducing your job down to like something that sounds very, like you're in charge of the janitorial closet, which is not true. But I was like, I get his job is important. But man, you had a personality that was just met for more. And it seems like you figured that out along the way. So I am excited to hear this evolution. And in all transparency, I was as a good podcast host will do stalking you on social media. And not that you're locked down by any means. But it was February 17, of 2023. So you know, like, shy of a year ago. And you started a Facebook post with today is the last day I will be in a traditional career. I have wonderful people that have taught me so much over the last decade of my life, that when the pandemic started, my wife and I asked the question, are we living our best life? And I'm one who's also had one of those existential conversations with her spouse, where we ended up both taking a giant U turn. Those are dangerous ones to have, but pivotal nonetheless. If we couldn't answer, yes, what would we do? And what would that look like? So we planned for well over a year, switch jobs move to Florida at the same time, April 2020, started a YouTube channel. And here we are a year later. I want to hear how this all happened. Because it's fast getting to me.

Justin Demaree:

It's pretty wild. And full disclosure, every risk that you can imagine was absolutely present. You cannot go risk free on anything in life. Right. But we did our best, right? You know,

Anna Stumpf:

and let's be transparent, you have two little ones.

Justin Demaree:

We have two little ones yet a wall is now seven. And Jack is five, which is hard to believe. Yeah, but we you know, when the pandemic happened it I think a lot of people in this country took a step back and said, All right, you know, what am I doing? What am I not doing? What's missing in my life? And, you know, I was close to family, like four and a half miles from my parents house. Right? Heather, my wife's parents were in Texas. So we didn't really, you know, think too much about Texas. But man, I tell you what, every time that we vacation nine times out of 10 We ended up in Florida. And it was more than just the attractions and stuff like that. Honestly, it's sunshine in Indiana, starting in October, the sun goes away and come back till March or April. And the older I get, the more that affects me and the cold certainly has a physical effect on me these days. So we said you know what, here's the things we think we want in our lives. It may not work and that's okay. But we will never question should we have done it. So we did it. You know, we sold our house at the height of the market and went into the market at the height of the market which was terrible. But you know, it was the it was the dice we rolled the risk we took. We moved down to Orlando area into a rental home and we were losing houses by $100,000. I mean it was insane. But we lucked out and got the house that we're in today, you know, waited a year or so. And here we are. I did take the leap about a year ago coming up on the one year anniversary, which was terrifying. But I think that there's a lot to that story that makes it seem exciting and special, but it's just luck of circumstance. And it's all about taking risks in life, and putting yourself out there. And I think that's really the story of Justin.

Anna Stumpf:

Well, and this big question that you asked each other, right, like, are we living our best life? When you feel like the answer is no. And you start to piece together, like what does our best life look like? I mean, you're a responsible adult, you had a great job, your wife is in health care, right? If two kids like you said, Yeah, I mean, you have a lot of safety nets around you at this time. What's the trigger? What's the like tipping point to say, we're gonna do this, because you're just thought, like, fly by the seat of your pants type people, right? Like,

Justin Demaree:

more so than she is right. It's about once she she brings me in, and I push her. So it's like, it's a good balance. But once you have a family, everything changes. I think the best way I can explain it to those listeners who don't have a family yet, I'm a very competitive person. I'm very team oriented, though. But I want everybody to succeed. I saw myself as a VP, that's where my trajectory was, I was focused on that, you know, after a few years of work, enrolled in MBA program, interesting new with you, of course. And it was an amazing experience. By the way, I highly recommend if you get the opportunity, do an in person program, you can not recreate or replace the opportunity of learning from so many professionals from so many different backgrounds. And it truly makes the MBA worth it.

Anna Stumpf:

That cohort model is always a winner. Always so good. 100%, I got my MBA in 2009 to 2011. And still in touch with the good portion of those

Justin Demaree:

people. Yeah, I, I'll try, I talk too much. But if we do get an opportunity, I think that I have a big impact moment that stayed with me from that. That's a good sharing moment. But anyways, yeah, so that was my trajectory, then we had our first kid in 2016. And everything changed. This was kind of the same time where companies were moving to a more flexible, like, you know, unlimited PTO trying to appeal to a more balanced work life. And I started to really understand that a lot better, I wanted to be present in my family's life. At the end of the day, this company that I worked for, is amazing. I was very fortunate to work for such an awesome company. But they're not going to be there. When I'm in the hospital at my deathbed, right? They'll replace me. And that's the case for every organization. So I started to change my focus, how can I continue to be excellent at what I do. But just excellent enough, you know what I mean? So still be still be number one, don't lose number one status, but don't sacrifice your family to excel. And that's where everything really started to change. And then how

Anna Stumpf:

do you do that? There's a lot of people out there want to do that? What is that process?

Justin Demaree:

That's, it's hard. It really is, especially if you're a naturally driven person to do that. It's hard to slow down basically, is what you're doing. So it really requires changing your focus. What's important to you, and understanding, laying that out. How do you achieve success? Right? So before it was how do you know, here's the path? How do I get there? I want to be a VP someday. How do I get there? Here are the steps I need to take care of the commodities I need to manage over time here are the teams that need to lead over time. Make the right choices along the way. Well change VP to have an amazing life with my family. Okay, how do I do that? Right? Live in a place where we can be more active, include the outdoors, are we living a happier, more fulfilling life together? So the it's that kind of a change and it's Easy because we're so conditioned, and especially here in America to be driven at work your career, best grow, bring profits to the organization, that is the purpose of an organization.

Anna Stumpf:

Well, and the people that raised us justify the VP role because it was for the family. Right? Which really was a mind trick, because you're sacrificing your time and your quality of life with the family for that role. But yeah, it's there was this a lot on us from how we were raised by the people that informed us and yeah, it's hard in corporate America, whatever they say, live

Justin Demaree:

to work to work to live, right. And I'm, you know, a lot of generational things and discussions happen about this, a lot of hate back and forth, right. But I think everybody can agree, even if they don't appreciate everything about a younger generation, I think that they're doing a great job pushing the envelope, and forcing organizations to at least recognize and provide those opportunities for people to have a much more balanced life. I think that's good for everybody.

Anna Stumpf:

Oh, for sure. Okay, so how did we get to be I mean, the bearded Tesla guy, I need to know that

Justin Demaree:

so this is where this is a crazy story. And this is where that luck happens every once in a while, we all get lucky. And that's truly what it is. So 2020, right, as the pandemic is happening, Tesla is finally starting to deliver their newest model, which today we know as the highest, or the largest selling car in the entire world, right? When Tesla Model y is the most popular car in the entire world. So they started deliveries in March of 2020. I had a reservation. But understand at this time, we were just now starting to shut things down. People didn't know if they were going to have a job tomorrow. So people were canceling their orders. I'm like way back in this order.

Anna Stumpf:

So let me ask what I'm gonna leapfrog one question. Why were you on the way like, what was it about the Tesla Have you always been a gadget guy? I knew like when I met you had a motorcycle, right? Like, are you a car guy? Like what was it? I'm

Justin Demaree:

a gearhead. I mean, automotive is in my blood. My dad, my uncle's my grandpa's. Like everybody in that sense, automotive. I grew up in a shop, I had dirt under my nails every day. Gotcha. So after high school, I'd go work at the shop. I did everything in a dealership, except for the body shop. So mechanic cleaning, shop parts, service, sales, all of it. You know, that was my future. But you know, the economic catastrophe of 2008 happened and changed everything in the automotive world. So anyways, I'm the first one to really step away from that and family. You know, going to college, getting my MBA and pursuing a combination of my still my passion for cars always have always will. And technology. So as you can imagine, having a Tesla in a family of legacy Automotive is not a very popular thing. Right? It's very hard to tell my parents that I placed the order I months, I didn't tell them. And I don't remember exactly the situation. But it was something like a come to Jesus moment. And then I was like, Well, this is the perfect time. I'm just gonna do it.

Anna Stumpf:

While your feathers are ruffled. Let me just go.

Justin Demaree:

We're already starting to feel better about getting whatever it was all for chest. So I ordered a Tesla just wanted to let you know. So it's taken a while. But it's, it's definitely not been easy. It's very different against the grain, right? This is anti dealership model. This is anti legacy. This is a whole new world of automotive. And my dad's career is, you know, he's had a fruitful career in automotive. So that it's kind of like where it comes from. I'm just, I love cars. And it just happens to be that Tesla's have ruined cars for me. I always thought I'd have a portion I live in my garage. But why? Why would I spend 100 And whatever$1,000 We're like, it's been 50 and get across faster and better in so many ways, right? So cars have really turned into you know, it's the art of the car if you want to have it right. You know, electric cars are ruining the spirit of VA rates and rumbling and you know what performance looks like? They're just so much different. So So I digress. So 2020 March. Deliveries are starting. I started to see Tesla Model y filling up at the Indianapolis location so I realized all of them had one option in common and it was the upgraded wheels. So I ran home change my order to You include the big wheels? Like, I don't know, let's try. And we did in the next day. And it's like, hey, oh my gosh, I see like, that's my configuration is that my car? And you know, the guy's like a digital What's your reservation number two? Oh, yeah happens be your car. So he like assigned my order to like somebody cancelled, right? So many people canceled. So we signed my order to, like, oh my god, this is crazy. It's like, you're gonna take it today. Give me two days. Get everything together, pick up the car. It's April, like right after my birthday, beginning of April of 2020. Have VIN number 2967 or something like that. Tesla is forced to shut down the planet. There are now less than but about 3000 Tesla Model wise in the entire world. And there's two people putting videos on YouTube. I happen to have one I like, I like production video. So I started putting videos up right. So until June, or I think it was July of 2020. You could not get a model Y. So I was one of like five people by that time who was posting stuff. So if you wanted to learn about the model Y which many people did, you have to watch one of five people and I just happened to be one of them? What that

Anna Stumpf:

what made you even look on YouTube? Why were you not just driving your car living your best life.

Justin Demaree:

Um, you know, I always liked I don't know if it's like a teacher instinct or whatever. I like showing people how to do things. Like I did some you know, not to do anything, but not try to make wine. I made some like motorcycle videos where like, show you how to write the instructions suck, throw those away. This is how you're going to do this electronics upgrade on your bike. Right? So I like sharing, you know, the better way or whatever a better way I should say. And so that I like making videos. I like the process of editing and production and all that. So it all kind of came together I guess, share my passion with other people. And I just happen to be in a limited edition, so to speak, you know? Yeah. Yeah, and but what that did is it allowed me to have a foundation, that's what it did, it built a foundation. To which I could grow from I learned a ton, my first videos are awful. You can see the progression over time, you know, and that's been fascinating and fun to learn and grow. And, but at the end of the day, I had a foundation, I was a household name for anybody that was looking at Tesla's at that point. So I just continued to make videos and get better at this craft. But I was consistent. And that was the key come hell or high water. Every Friday, there would be a video on a channel, period. The first video I missed on a Friday was Christmas Day, like, almost two years into doing this. And I felt so awful about it. I posted it the next day. You know, so when you're sick, the algorithm doesn't care. Right? You know, you're out of town algorithm does not care. You miss a video, right? It jumbles the algorithm and it can really you know, Hanford,

Anna Stumpf:

and I'm assuming you built a community, right? Like you have people that are waiting for their cars are also having their cars and you've got people out there counting on your content, too. So sure,

Justin Demaree:

yeah. So you know, how do we have you used this car? What are some of the special features like, this is something new for a lot of people this might be your first electric car might even not buy? It might be the first time you're considering an electric car? Is this worth it? Could I live with this experience? So I mean, May of 2020 we took this long road trip just out of the blue, we drove straight down to Fort Walton Beach, like, was the Pensacola area stayed for less than 24 hours and drove back? But that video like showed people all right, this is what it's like, when you make a trip of you know, about 1000 miles one way 1000 miles back is what's gonna be like, is that something I can live with? Right? There's pros and cons to it, the car kind of drives itself. It's really nice. It's not very hard to drive this car, it's a lot more relaxing. But it also adds time when you start to charge. So those are the types of experiences I share on the channel, you know that these tax credits have gone crazy, you know, how do we keep up on this, but electrification, enabling people to make these decisions as unbiased as possible, I think is really the big important thing. You know, we're just now starting to accelerate adoption. Are we prepared if we're not what do we need to do to be prepared as a nation? Those are the questions As I like to ask and try to figure out what is the solution look like? Who are the people who are solving these problems?

Anna Stumpf:

So knowing you, you started creating content because it was interesting to you. And you knew it would be helpful to others. At what point they're like, getting money for this. And then like, what does that shift look like?

Justin Demaree:

I got monetized in three months. And it's with the current requirements that you have to have like 4000 watch hours and 1000 subscribers, something like that. So I got monetized in three months. And I think the first month I think it was like, $700, or something, like, are you serious? Like, I was hoping to make, you know, like, maybe if we're lucky, we'll get like 100 bucks a month or something, you know, we could pay for some of the fun stuff. But I was like, completely blown away. And about that time, I got my first sponsor, too. So it just like, snowballed from there. And before you knew it, about a year, after starting, I was making more money doing this, and it was my career. But even then, it still took a year and a half or so, two and a half years, or whatever it was, you know, certainly a long time for me to take the lead even then. So for months and months and months, I'm making more money doing this, I'm way more passionate about this. It's certainly hard to feel motivated at a career for somebody else when this is going so great. So yeah, it's my a piece of advice for anybody listening, if you if there's something you're passionate about, just start doing it, like, don't worry about like, everything being perfect, like people talk about starting a channel to do whatever, just do it, do it, it can be terrible, you'll learn along the way, just do it. And then before you know it, there's a chance that it could work out. So many people don't succeed because they start and then they realize how much work it is. And then they just like, I don't have time for this. So if you're really passionate about it, do it be consistent period, and you will be successful.

Anna Stumpf:

So, best part of your life now.

Justin Demaree:

The best part of my life is having the opportunity to do and see some of the things that I get to do and see, you know, I get to go to these conventions. I get invites from all these companies, I get to try new technology, it's trading cars, it's drive a lot of cool stuff, and I get to meet a lot of cool people. And it's pretty awesome. It's you know, how many people get to live a life like this. This isn't saying, like, I still pinch myself even today, like is this real? Like, this is insane. But knowing

Anna Stumpf:

you like I saw a clip of you asking Elon Musk a question. I was like knowing you the way I remember you that I have zero shock, like zero shock that if there was anybody have a question for Elon, you are the front of the line, and you had a thoughtful, compelling, witty approach to because that's just who you are. Yeah,

Justin Demaree:

he didn't like my questions. Yeah, he doesn't like a lot of things. But yeah, it's like, the thing that can be frustrating in this particular community is, you know, somebody will take the time that's available to ask a question or question will be, Hey, I just wanted to say I love you so much. You have saved the world. Keep doing what you're doing, which is great, you know, pray, pray. But then it's like, well, but there's so many questions. Like, let's ask some real questions. Yeah.

Anna Stumpf:

And don't insult the man's intelligence. I mean, he's brilliant. Ask him a tough question. Yeah, right.

Justin Demaree:

Exactly. Yeah. The guy gets praised, you know, all the time. And if he doesn't need to be continually priceless, ask him some really good questions, and see if we can make some chips because he's actually he's actually a pretty amazing guy. In many regards. Of course, he has his downfalls. But there's this fantastic interview. It's SpaceX. It's a very informal thing the guys walking around with them and, you know, they asked him about the gassing system. You know, why do you have both? Can you just use these you just see him sit there for a minute? You know, he made like a probably a$20 million decision

Anna Stumpf:

right there on the spot questions asked. Right.

Justin Demaree:

Yeah. I mean, that's what's kind of cool about him is he just he does he's a doer, and I'm a doer. So I identify with that. Of course, you got a plan and but but like, just do it, you know? Yeah. Pretty interesting.

Anna Stumpf:

So what's what feels like work now?

Justin Demaree:

Editing videos, it feels like work.

Anna Stumpf:

If you still do your own. Yeah, I

Justin Demaree:

do. So I actually, I just recently hired a freelance editor to help is a bit and but it's just a balance because not every video is going to be, you know, a blockbuster hit. So, you know, there's real funds, it's hard to, it's hard to make those financial decisions I will say. But yeah, generally it's a I do the filming the planning, the production, the editing, posting all that stuff. But, you know, I get this question a lot, how much time does it take to edit a video and for me, and just after the production, so after all the filming, and all the planning, it's about two hours per minute of video that you watch. So, wow, 10 hour attendant videos, that's 20 hours of work, just just for that one video. And you know, so people like to think it's a glamorous life, and there are many glamorous things about it. It's a lot of work a lot of work,

Anna Stumpf:

like, what was your learning curve for that? Because I'm thinking you do in some motorcycle videos back in the day, didn't really prepare you for that level of content. And I'm looking now You've almost got 80,000 subscribers on your YouTube channel, right? Like, yeah,

Justin Demaree:

I'm hoping to have a plaque right here this year. That's my goal. And it's honestly, and it may just be because of the way that I'm wired. You just have to do it. And find out where you where you fail and learn quick, fail quick, right? Oh, whatever that term of fail, fail fast, fail very fast, right? And then that way, you can learn quicker, and you can grow faster if you're willing to recognize where you suck, right?

Anna Stumpf:

So what have you learned about yourself who this because you were very self aware, when I met you, like, I'm very self aware guy,

Justin Demaree:

we are self aware, it's a it's a pro and a con. I have learned that I'm probably still a little too critical. Or I'm still working on allowing, you know, outside negativity to seep in, that's a really hard thing to learn. I've gotten really good. But you know, just even a few months ago, I somebody did get under me and got the best of me. So I'm still working on that. That's probably my biggest weakness right now. You know, when I, I don't want to name names or date things, but I'll just say, as an example, hypothetically speaking, if I worked for somebody who was very arrogant and had to be right all the time, I finally told this person, you know, what good is it to be bright, if nobody wants to work with you. Congratulations, you're right now your team has left. What is that? Right? So it's important to be able to take a step back and understand like, if, if even if somebody's attacking in there, right? Just let it be if they're wrong, let it be you don't have to be right. Let your mental health thrive, not suffer?

Anna Stumpf:

Well, I'm assuming like, even starting with your own family, right? Like you had to have a little bit of like, their opinion is not my business. Their opinion is not an indicator of whether or not I'm going to be successful, like what's going on in the news, or in people's minds or comments on video, like, general public, they don't get a vote. Right. And that's sometimes so hard to just say, I'm gonna go spend two hours and edit this 10 Minutes video and I'm not gonna think about all of that, right? Like you have to make a choice not to respond or react. Absolutely.

Justin Demaree:

And it is an ongoing active thing. This is not passive. This isn't something you learn and then it becomes second nature. You always and you've got something out that actually just flashed in my head in 2018 or 17. I literally, I would listen to news going into work. I was pissed off before I even started working for the day is toys in it is right in the middle. It does not matter. It is all poison. It is designed to round you up. Since then. I have not watched any news. And I am so happy. I've that was probably the biggest change of my life that made me happier. Stop listening to news. There's nothing I can do about it. This is a huge problem that needs to be addressed. Yes, I will do my part where I can but I will not I refuse to allow somebody else to dictate my happiness. And well

Anna Stumpf:

and I think in this this country were very generous to call it news where I was in Europe this summer and was reminded what the news actually is. It's actual news updates about factual events. occurring around the world, not sensationalized dramatic interpretations of you know, people's opinion, it is very unhealthy. I went through a thing a while back of like, well, if it wasn't for work, or if it wasn't for this, I wouldn't even be on social media. And I thought, You know what, that's not even healthy either. Because as many great connections and many great people I'm connected with, I just need to remove the things from that, that don't support a healthy lifestyle and took a little while, right took some time and some intention, but man, you clean that algorithm up, like breathing clean air, seriously.

Justin Demaree:

So one of the things that was also very active, in the height of my career was really making moves. I made a conscious decision. Like you said, my emotional intelligence is probably a little too high. But know yourself, right. And know where you don't thrive, period, you know, I had opportunities along the way to take roles. I'm highly political environments are not my thing, I do not thrive in those environments. So you know, I made some decisions along the way to not go a certain direction, because I knew I wouldn't thrive. And the same goes for, you know, surrounding yourself with positive people, you know, these people will make you a better person, avoid the negative people be around positive people, they don't have to be the smartest people in the room, they don't have to be the best people at whatever it is they're doing all you're doing. But if you surround yourself with the right people, both professionally and personally, you will be a better person for it. And it's a tug of like,

Anna Stumpf:

talk about how, I mean, you're in a somewhat isolated role right now, right? And you're a one man show, you're the bearded Tesla guy, and you got a freelancer or maybe you've got some people on the periphery, but and you are in a community, you foster community, you're in a bigger, larger community. But like, where do you get those connections and those positive people

Justin Demaree:

is, it's actually pretty wild. And I think I'm in a unique community. But the first time I'm like, was at an event was somebody that I watched their videos before I had a channel, right? They were the big guy. It was like, We were friends, I'd never met the guy, right. And what I found out very quickly is my, this community of content creators at least, is like, so positive, so willing to do things you wouldn't believe like, hey, you know, do you need to see my books? I can I help you with contracts, like willing to do anything and everything, and it makes all of us better for it. Like, there are no trade secrets or whatever, like, Hey, I just did this recently. And this worked really well, you should try it. Oh, my God, that's a great idea. Or, you know, this, the this sponsor is very adamant about this, well, hey, I added this contract language in with somebody who was very adamant about that. And that worked well, right. Being around those people is awesome. And when something does erupt, whether it's I'm involved, or I see one of these people involved, like we have each other's phone numbers, right to text, you give them an opportunity to lend it out. And, you know, make fun of the situation. So it is an isolated place here at the house. But it's, I'm pretty, I'm pretty active. I travel a lot. Now you do this. So it's fun to get out. I love the community. And it's it's a lot of fun. There's something

Anna Stumpf:

to be said though, for people who started their platform to help others. You're going to continue to help whether they're your competition or you know, somebody in your same lane. I think that is just those intentions snowballing into everything that you do versus people who start because of the money or start to go by it. Like, I think those intentions just grow. Yeah,

Justin Demaree:

it's, it's it's learned things you know, like watching, having awesome mentors along the way. One of the things that really stuck with me, was this idea of givers, takers and matchers. I'm sure you're familiar with it. I don't know why, but I can never get that out of my head. But the idea is this, right? You have three types of people in the office, you have givers, takers, and you have matchers. So takers aren't necessarily a bad thing. They could be early in their career. They don't have a lot that they can give to other people because they don't have the excuse. reads, but that can also be somebody who's literally stepping on heads and burning people to accelerate their career, right. These are, these could be very toxic and bad people. But there's matchers, who are even more toxic. And these are people who will help you, if you have something that you can give them in return, whether that be influence in the office, at the promotion, whatever these are like the worst people because they will not go out of their way to help anybody, unless there's something in it for them. And then there's givers. And it's, the idea is, this is a good thing. But it can also lead to burnout. These are people who are willing to help anybody with anything, if they've got something to give, they're going to give it and it can be at the expense of their own productivity. And so it leads to a lot of burnout. But the idea is, if you had an entire team that was givers, like, imagine what you could achieve, and I really started to see a lot of that I was in a very awesome team at my previous career, we did a lot of awesome things. We've worked hard, we played hard, but it was just an amazing time. But we were all kind of givers like, you know, we all filled a niche where the others maybe weren't accelerating at and it just worked. So well, this idea of teams is so much more than you realize somebody wants told me in my career. Look, we don't, we don't need more managers, like, we've got plenty of those, we can hire another manager tomorrow. But what happens if you can show you can make a leader, if you can train somebody, if you can grow somebody into a leader, you know, that's what that's what gets you places in life and your career, you know, but to do that, you've got to be willing to step back and say, I want this person, my goal is for them to be better than me. That's hard for a lot of people to do. But that is how you do. That's how you develop leaders. And you lead by example, by doing that, that's what they want running the organization, not the number one sales guy, the number one, whatever they want the person who is spitting out leaders. That's hard to do.

Anna Stumpf:

This was like deja vu, I just went back to that classroom if your MBA cohort because this is how you show up, you always have like that analogy that lesson that perspective, and you make everything better. And I'm wondering, like, how do you channel that success in that, like, energy you are getting from going to work every day and doing that with a team? I mean, it's still work, right? They call it a job, I get it. But now like, how did you transfer that over? Because you thrive when you lead you thrive challenging others to be their best you thrive when you learn something new about yourself? Like I remember that about you? How do you channel that into new space? And more independent? I mean, you've answered that a little bit by I think you get the crux of what I'm asking, right? Like you were not, I don't think you were necessarily miserable. In your corporate job, you were thriving, you had managed well, in terms of good balance and being there for your family. Now granted the question that you and your wife asked, Are we living our best life? But how do you how do you take those things that worked so well for you? And then just step into a completely different space? Like, what does that look like? Was there a transition for you? Like, did you have to reset some things internally? Like, what is that process? Do you think if you had to look back?

Justin Demaree:

It's hard. I wish I had a good answer for this too. But I but the reality is I don't. And it's one of those things that we learn about our, our when somebody you look up to and you meet them for the first time realize they don't have all their stuff together. It looks so awesome from the outside. But the reality is like we're all struggling, I don't have a good answer. That is something I still very much enjoy. And really the only opportunities I get to do that are when I'm with others in the community. One of the things I've learned about myself, that I'm still trying to accelerate. I've really enjoy interviewing people like what you're doing right now. I think people have fascinating stories. And if you just ask the right questions, you can get some of the most amazing lessons in life from these people. And I've had a few opportunities to interview people and they've been pretty awesome. That's where I get my high now, I guess. That same kind of high. Community service was always fun too. At my previous career, we did Habitat for Humanity. We built these houses, I got to lead a team on site of so much fun. When I moved here, I didn't have that I don't have the YMCA of Greater Indianapolis, I don't have United Way, you know, I don't have these things here. You know, I had to find them myself. And it took a long time. But I did finally find my calling for service here. And that was Give Kids the World Village, which is, I mean, everything's 45 minutes away in this town, but, you know, it's like 15 miles and 45 minutes or so. But it's so amazing. It's a cool place, cool people. And it's a way to, you know, feed the soul. And that's something I've always I've always benefited from doing that. So it's

Anna Stumpf:

not, and you prioritize that well, too. That's the consistent you have always prioritized that. Well.

Justin Demaree:

Yeah, I think it makes you a better I really, truly believe in karma. And I think that intentional things, and will lead to good karma in life, it just makes you a better person. And really, karma isn't real. It's you being a good person and good things happen. Because right person, right? Like, yet, those are things that, you know, you have to spend your time on, like, if you're not making the world better for somebody else, like, like, who's gonna do it? Right, like, take some ownership, you know, help somebody. And that's, that's, I don't know what that's just always been, it's probably, you know, learned behavior from a child at home. You know, it's always been important. Were you

Anna Stumpf:

always very self aware?

Justin Demaree:

Probably ish. I became very self aware, in my career. When I started my professional career that's like, maybe two years into it. I started to recognize these things. And rather than suppress them, I highlighted them put a spotlight on him. Where am I struggling? Where my weak? Where am I strong? Where can my strengths also be a weakness? Where can my weaknesses also be helped? You know, how can I make this work better? So I don't care like how I look like I've posted videos where like, I almost burned the house down like it was terrible as I was died. And you know, most people would say, God, I never post I look like an idiot. Like, I don't care. Like if I if I look bad, great. But some of somebody's going to this is going to somebody else. And hopefully by sharing this, I can help prevent this from happening for somebody else. Like don't be so worried about what everybody thinks. Right? Like, right thing. Help people and good things will happen in life. I love that.

Anna Stumpf:

How about books, podcasts, things that are giving you life right now? Things that you enjoy? I'm

Justin Demaree:

really, for podcast. I really love how I built this surprise. NPR guy Ramsey's. I always enjoyed his personality. Some people think he's too optimistic. But I liked that. Oh, no,

Anna Stumpf:

I love him too.

Justin Demaree:

He does this awesome series of interviews with entrepreneurs. And it's not just small people like I would have access to I mean, these are big people like Jamie Siminoff, the founder of the most fascinating one I've listened to was Chipotle. I highly recommend it. It was really cool. You know, this guy started this company. Not as an endgame. He started that to help start a five star restaurant, right? He didn't want to sell burritos in. But when he was when he decided this is what I need to do to get to where I want to go. He wanted to do the best he could with it. Right? He wanted to be authentic. When he went to Tijuana or wherever it was in Mexico. I think it was Tijuana. You know, they always give him a burrito. But it's wrapped in foils, like we're going to do that this is going to be an authentic thing. It's going to be fresh, it's going to be the best that we can do. And then I'll get to where I want to go. But what he did is he embraced change. And that's hard for people to do they get tunnel vision. And I think, you know, listening to his story like this guy really did himself a service by being adaptable and understanding and recognizing along the way. A five star restaurant is not my that's not my my future. Turns out, this is my future. And he went all in. And I think that's a good lesson for all of us to you know, we think we want to be this. But along the way, you're going to step in the special role the special project assignment, you're going to learn like I did, that supply chain is your career. I was in operations and I learned I loved meeting with suppliers when they would come on site negotiating those contracts and, and then finally, one day I'm like, I think I should be in supply chain.

Anna Stumpf:

I took a step I think I am actually, yeah. You know, I

Justin Demaree:

would so I should be in sales. You're absolutely right. The only reason I don't like sales is it's very cutthroat competitive in every organization I've ever seen. There's no team environment, it is all me, me, me, me, me, and the right environment I thrive in. Otherwise, I would love sales. I, you know, I, for whatever, I'm just wired that way to bring, you know, customers, make them recognize why they need this, right. I don't know why I'm just that way. But I will not work in a corporate sales environment. Because of that. It's just not me, you'd have to

Anna Stumpf:

be in the right one. I'm not sure they're out there that is capable of telling somebody, we're not the best fit. Like, you need to go over here and look at this. Like, that's the only time I think you would be happy in that role. But yeah, I'm

Justin Demaree:

sure that there is some painting with a wide brush here. But generally speaking, that's not that's not the environment I do best. And so

Anna Stumpf:

on that competitive question, how much attention do you pay to your views and your analytics and different things on your content, because I know that can become a little bit of a rabbit hole.

Justin Demaree:

And it's a very important one. There's a lot on the line, which makes it you know, even more stressful or important, you know, if doing something that's bringing less people, and I'm losing viewership, that's a problem. I want to continue doing what I'm doing. And the only way I can do that is continuing to grow the channel. So I pay a lot of attention, probably too much. I did make a pact though with my wife after discussions, the last like blow up. I had, I guess. As much as it pains me, I prided myself, I responded to every single comment for three years, right? Oh, wow, three comment. Unless it was nasty or negative, like, Forget you, I'm not even gonna bother. But everybody, if you took the time to interact with my video, the least I could do is answer your question. Give you a shout out. Thank you, whatever. I did that until recently, you know, within the last few months, I stopped. So I still caught it from time to time, but I had to, I just have to, like, I have to take a step back. And that's hard for me. I don't like that. Because I really enjoyed being that. You know, everyone's wanting you to hear something. I can't believe you still respond to comments like, Yeah, it's awesome, right? But I can't for my own mental health. And it's just, it's gotten to the point where it's a lot, you know, it's a lot

Anna Stumpf:

harder to have that balance of work life when you're out there on your own and responsible for those metrics.

Justin Demaree:

100% I can tell you, I work more hours now than I ever worked working both the career and doing this. It's hard to explain I just I'm

Anna Stumpf:

it's different, though, doesn't it? Doesn't feel like the grind feel

Justin Demaree:

the same exact, yeah, it feels good, or because you know, you're doing your thing, you're doing it for you. It's your passion. So it's a lot easier to do that. But it's also a slippery slope. Right? You know, am I spending enough time with my family? And the answer is probably not. You know, I've spent a lot of time adjusting my schedule, you know, there for a while I would, I would just wait until eight or nine o'clock at night to start working. I'd worked like five o'clock in the morning. And that wasn't good either. Now, so it's trying to find about a lot easier when kids are in school so you can work during the day while they're at school and then stop and then work again a little bit at night. But but you know, if something big happens, you know, news doesn't care. It has such a short life cycle, you know, they don't care that you're sitting down for dinner.

Anna Stumpf:

So any they're counting on

Justin Demaree:

you do that. Yeah.

Anna Stumpf:

So what's what's next for you just keep this going. I mean, looking at other I feel like you always have some sort of a three to five year plan.

Justin Demaree:

Yeah, so I'm probably going to cry. If I hit 100,000 subscribers. It's like the moment I hold that plaque right. It's just validation, you know? That's my short term thing. I am like I don't know blinders are on straight for that. That is what I'm working towards you Right now, nothing else matters. Expensive many things, I'm sure. That's the short term. I have. It's funny, I've, I almost changed the channel name a couple of times. And ultimately, after over a year of messing around with this idea, I finally made the decision, I'm not going to change the channel name, I'm gonna start second channel. I've already I've already got everything set up, it's ready to go. But I just need to do it. So it's just finding the time to do it. But that's been well over a year, I needed to start this thing.

Anna Stumpf:

So is it different content? Yeah, different cones, different brands, different everything? Yeah.

Justin Demaree:

There's really two additional channels I want to do. One of them being more tech focused. So it can be everything, not just Tesla. And then the other, I travel a lot. So why wouldn't I share that I share the trip, too. I don't share what I'm doing on the trip, though. So I don't know if that would be entertaining or not. So those are kind of the things I'm working on right now. Also very concerned about this stock could end tomorrow. So that's always in the back of my mind. Am I doing enough to have a backup plan or whatever? So yeah.

Anna Stumpf:

Is that leftover from corporate America? World? Yes, yes.

Justin Demaree:

Not the, you know, ride it till the wheels fall off, right? Just you can't fail, right? It's right. Well, if I fail, you know, I can go back to, you know, this safety net. And we went a year without health care. I mean, there's so so many risks, you know, we took to do this, and I am lucky enough to have a wife that supports me enough to take on this adventure with me. So I mean, it. I thought it was going to take months to convince her we kind of had a plan. We did this a little earlier than I planned. But everything just fell together, right? And in an hour after talking, I mean, she was on board, not just like, okay, we can do this, just this just that. It was like, let's do this. Let's do it. But you better do it. Do it. All right, here we are, you know, not everybody has a support system at home like that, either. So very fortunate that she puts up with me.

Anna Stumpf:

Oh, I'm sure she gets quite a bit out of that. I can't imagine her anything other than an amazing husband. Just again, I remember you talking about her and your kids in there. It's that level of authenticity you have with everything that you do. Right makes you who you are. And I can imagine. I mean, you guys have been together for a while, right? A long time. Long time. She knows.

Justin Demaree:

We've been married for coming up on 14 years. We were together five years before that, or Siebel sweethearts. That's more these days.

Anna Stumpf:

No, I'm glad that happened to you though. Yeah. All right. So you gave one piece of advice, which I think is incredible. If you have an idea, if you have something you want to do, just start, right, just start start small, don't worry about what people think don't worry about perfection, all those things, which I feel like it's something you've probably done in every facet of your life, not just, you know, creating content for youtube,

Justin Demaree:

almost burning the house down. Right.

Anna Stumpf:

Right. Perfection seems like a stretch, why am I going for that? It's a lesson to be learned and all this other thoughts for people that maybe you know, mid career? Begin late a pivot seems very big and very scary, and that there's a lot of risk and you know, how to process all that.

Justin Demaree:

Yeah, there's two things I put I put down that I wanted to make sure. I mentioned. So the first being, you have to learn to balance perfection and efficiency. It's really hard, especially early in your career when you're trying to make a name for yourself. It does not have to be perfect. It needs to be good to a point. After that it's diminishing returns, right? You can make it better, you can always make it better. But is that going to drive any value by being better than what it is right now? And you need to really work on asking yourself that question. Learn to ask yourself that question everything that you do, and you will learn how to let go of things. And that's when you become a leader is when you're able to let go of things and let others do so the sooner you can can learn that the sooner you can start your journey of becoming a leader.

Anna Stumpf:

Always the question I have from that, too is like, who's the perfection for? Like, I've never tried to be perfect for myself, because I know I'm not perfect. And I really don't ever want to be thinking that I need to be perfect for other people because they're not perfect. Who are we trying to be perfect for? That's always been my question. Yeah. Yeah, it's

Justin Demaree:

always a pursuit, always trying to be better, absolutely. But also recognize when when you're past the finish line, you don't need to go beyond that, you know, it's okay, to stop there. That's a hard mental shift for a lot of people. Yeah, especially if you're competitive. And then the other thing, this one's really important. And I think that this one is probably the most important. Don't try to be somebody that you're not. Because everybody can tell, you know, be you be a better you. But don't copy, right, like, surround yourself with good people. But don't, don't try to be that person, take qualities from them. And from this person, you know, help improve yourself. But don't ever apologize for being you be on questionably you don't be afraid of the person that you are, you're perfect how you are. The reason you're perfect. How you are is because you have the capability of being better. And that's okay, it's okay to say I'm not perfect, it's okay to say I could be better just work on it. Everybody can tell when you're phony. So don't be

Anna Stumpf:

there. There's nothing better in this world, I would imagine a stack of money isn't even as good as self awareness. Really, truly knowing yourself and to your point earlier, like knowing where your gaps are knowing where you need to improve where you can improve, knowing what's your capabilities are and where you need to stop and let somebody else come in and take I mean, all of that is just so important. Yeah. And I feel like there's people that are always trying to copy and adopt and be chameleons just don't know themselves.

Justin Demaree:

Agreed? Yeah, recognize who you are, and be proud of who you are, you know, even with your flaws. And I think that that, that can really help a lot of people all around and not just it's

Anna Stumpf:

the one thing you could be an expert in. Nobody else knows, right? Like, you can just double down beat yourself.

Justin Demaree:

Yeah, and I only have one other thing I wanted to discuss. And then that's all I have on my list. All right. Go for it. Okay, this is one of the better moments in my education development. So during my MBA, and this is going to be a perfect example of why you should seriously consider a in person cohort for your MBA. Okay, I'm not going to mention names because I don't want to call anybody out. But this is fascinating. We're doing a class on change management, you know, these companies, how do we make the shifts? We're talking about the taxi industry and Uber? And it's all the same basic answers, right? Like, yeah, good riddance, you know, this is better, a better service, it forces blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, the same God, blah, blah, then this hand raises in the front of class. And I'm telling you right now, my jaw about dropped to the floor after I listened to this. This particular person is a black person she was in Chicago. She said, Uber wasn't all those things to her what Uber was to her meant she could get ride. Like, what do you mean? What does this mean? Like so the park town I'm from and because I'm black? A cab will not stop for me. But with Uber, I don't have to show who I am. I don't there's not like all these things, telling them why they shouldn't pick me up. They just come and pick me up. What Uber was for her was equal access to transportation.

Anna Stumpf:

I mean, think about the Uber driver. Think about the Uber driver. Think about all those minorities who couldn't get hired at the taxi company. Yeah. Started working for themselves if they had a vehicle, but yeah.

Justin Demaree:

Do you think that I as a middle class white dude with an Indiana in Indiana would ever have learned that lesson? Any other way? No. But the important thing is it helps with providing perspective. You know, we we're so caught up in our own little world we forget like there's so many things going on out there and so many different challenges people face and we spend so little time recognizing what those are. And really, wow, what a moment. And I'm, I'm eternally grateful for having had that opportunity to hear that, because I think it really helped to shape the way that I think even more. Okay,

Anna Stumpf:

so for folks listening, it is youtube.com, the bearded Tesla guy,

Justin Demaree:

just bearded Tesla guy here to Tesla guy,

Anna Stumpf:

go to YouTube bearded Tesla guy, you are bearded Tesla on Instagram X and Tiktok and subscribe to your channel today i will make sure I'm not getting a Tesla, I don't think it's not on my to do list but I'm gonna watch your content simply because I think I can learn a lot about content and I love supporting you. And who knows, I might learn enough about the Tesla that I would understand how it would fit better into my lifestyle.

Justin Demaree:

You wouldn't believe it. But there's a lot of benefits seriously consider this is a bold statement that you would have to have another hour to understand but it is as cost effective or even more cost effective to own a Tesla Model. Why not the cheapest Tesla than to own a nice trimmed out with a Camry well just lines up so well.

Anna Stumpf:

I'm so proud of you. I have zero surprise that this is the direction your life is going because you you're just one of those people that I don't ever would put a limit on. But just incredibly proud of you.

Justin Demaree:

Yeah, I It's, I wouldn't be able to do it. If I didn't have the situation I deal with a supporting wife and you know, having the foundation there. That's why I said, just start just starting until you just start. It's

Anna Stumpf:

the best advice. It's the conclusion of another great episode. And you know what that means? We believe in the power of practical wisdom. That's why at the end of every episode, we propose the collective challenge. This is a small actionable step for you to integrate these lessons learned into your daily life. Remember, we also value your voice in our listeners voices segment, we respond to your questions and comments, building a community of shared learning and support. Okay, now that we've heard from Justin, your collective challenge this week, is to set aside as much time as you possibly can, maybe 30 minutes every day, try it for a week, figure out whatever passion project, new hobby, something you've been wanting to explore, don't put any judgments and no expectations on yourself. This is just an experimentation phase, your do not have to be perfect. As we talked about multiple times in the episode, you could just be doing research online, maybe starting a mini project, maybe a tiny piece of content, whatever it is that you've been wondering, and think about like atomic habits, that great book, little small pockets of time just to build on. So just start something that's all Justin said for us to do. Let's make that our collective challenge this week. And if you want to share your experiences, do it on our social pages, send me an email from collective energy coach.com on the website there if you do want to post social content use hashtag collective challenge, and we'll talk about those in future episodes. Thank you for joining us on this episode of collective energy conversations. Today's stories and insights are just the beginning of our collective exploration into the vast landscape of personal and professional development. If today's conversation inspired you please share this episode with your friends, family or colleagues who also might find value in our collective wisdom. Your sharing helps us grow and expand our community. We will be back on Friday to share more encounters with the energy coin. If you're not sure what the energy coin is, you can take a listen to those episodes. Or check back at the website at collective energy coach.com forward slash energy coin. And don't forget to subscribe to our podcast for more enriching conversation and transformative stories. We'd love to hear your thoughts and experiences. Connect with us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and threads at collective energy coach and check out our website at WWW dot collective energy coach.com and become part of the collective. Until next time, keep growing keep connecting and keep sharing your story because ever reavoice matters in the journey of growth. I'm Dr. Anna Stumpf. And this has been collective energy conversations where we elevate growth through shared stories.