Hustle, Grit, and Screwball: From Mowing Lawns to CEO

In this episode of "When Does the F** End?"*, host Todd welcomes special guest Brian Jefferson—entrepreneur, Marine Corps veteran, and low-key business powerhouse. From getting his first business cards at age 11 to making $160K a year while still serving in the military, Brian shares his gritty, real-world journey through entrepreneurship.

You’ll hear:

• How Brian went from landscaping to launching multiple companies
• The power of persistence and simply asking
• Balancing military life with side hustles
• The sacrifices entrepreneurs make (goodbye holidays)
• The importance of staying true to your values
• Tips for navigating social media as a business owner

This raw, unfiltered conversation is filled with hilarious moments, real-life lessons, and a couple shots of Screwball whiskey to keep things interesting. Whether you’re thinking about quitting your job to go all-in or just love hearing how scrappy success stories unfold—this episode is for you.

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Twitter:    https://twitter.com/WDFKRYE
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLK1ho6AACjaEoQGWO2f_uQ

Transcript

[Music] all right everybody welcome to another

0:13

episode of When Does the [ __ ] End um you know how this all starts out we're going to do this with a shot but today

0:19

we have a guest uh last week you heard Jennifer Jefferson who was with Focus and now we have her husband who also

0:26

does some work with Focus and we'll get into all that here in a little bit but first we're going to take this shot how do you What do you think about that

0:32

sounds good to me have you ever had screw ball have you ever had screw ball i have it's amazing we're hoping to get

0:38

sponsored by him one day cool well make some calls get sponsored by him think so

0:43

just happened i know but I don't think our following is large enough yet you know i just basically say it every

0:49

episode at the beginning so that way if they do to listen to it one day they'll be like "Wow you have been advertising us and you know what here's a case of

0:55

screw ball." Well talking about that that is very smooth and delicious it is delicious it's like a peanut butter

1:01

creamy creamy treat in your mouth that's what I like it with a little bit of shampoo yeah see your wife brought some

1:08

of that over here we just haven't tried it yet i refuse to do it on the podcast cuz I want to keep it just too screwball

1:14

so I was like I didn't want to throw in that in there we might be able to convince them if they sponsor you enough to make a peanut butter and jelly i've

1:20

heard if you put grape juice in there that it's Well that is a peanut butter and jelly well I know but them screw

1:25

balls specifically making it just to promote Todd yeah like here's your peanut butter and jelly sandwich well it

1:31

already promotes Todd screw ball yeah I am a screw ball yeah I agree

1:36

well let's hear some some stuff from you yeah so we got Brian Jefferson with us and um this guy is an amazing

1:43

entrepreneur i'm going to let him run into uh kind of what he does and what he has done this man is like a lowass CEO

1:52

and when I say low class I don't mean that in a bad way i just mean the way he dresses talks and acts you would never

1:58

believe that this man has ran so many companies so I'm going to leave this to you and let you go ahead with Well I don't even know how to start from there

2:04

no you're good man so you know I I just live my life started young probably when

2:09

I was 11 my dad bought me my first set of business cards i wanted a personal computer he refused to buy it said if I

2:17

wanted something to rot my brain I'd go earn the money and buy it myself what did your business card say jefferson

2:24

landscaping okay so you started off landscaping i think every kid should so

2:30

you know it teaches a kid i I tell my daughter's boyfriends all the time you can go work for $10 an hour pay taxes on

2:39

it or go mow lawns and mow freaking four of them in an hour and make a 100 bucks

2:45

cash yep that's true yeah how old are your daughters we heard this from Jennifer I believe but I didn't realize

2:52

she had more than one he's the only guy in the house only guy in the house five girls so I got five girl she did not

2:59

mention this i got 24 i got 20

3:06

16 13 and 11 i hope you're correct because your wife is probably listening

3:12

oh she's going to listen to this you know but my question is I hope you're not telling the 24 year olds to go mow

3:17

lawns for $10 an hour hey you know some people make their life of landscaping these days you know what it's funny you

3:23

say that cuz when I when I was in the Marine Corps you know how much we got paid right that's right ladies and

3:28

gentlemen he is a veteran as well so you know how much we got paid so so we had a problem on the base and this is where

3:35

that little thing of buying business cards when you were a kid which by the way I earned enough money to buy my own

3:41

personal computer right at 11 in two weeks okay i got to ask landscape i'm

3:48

curious um how big was the personal computer and how much did it cost it was a Commodore Vick 20 oh I thought he was

3:54

going to say like Apple green screen no Commodore Vick 20 so I had to buy the little freaking black and white TV that

4:00

went with it okay so I think the computer itself was about if I I man I'm

4:05

guessing now was this floppy disc era still oh no this was cassette tape era oh I don't remember computers is better

4:12

than just sound do you remember like No oh man and I used to commercial with the

4:17

guy with the guitar i'm a '9s kid yeah I'm like a dude I'm getting a Dell guy yeah my first program I learned and

4:24

memorized was Pac-Man oh not Pac-Man um Space Invaders pac-man wasn't even out

4:29

yet that's a great game though yeah dude space Man is like you know iconic great game so so let's get past the

4:36

landscaping part here and then So tell us so your first business was probably what landscaping so at 11 when I joined

4:43

the Marine Corps which was that and so I joined the Marine Corps at 19 i programmed payoneses sold payoneses as a

4:51

subcontractor to 7-Elevens in California private payones was I actually sold them through Amway so I was one of the larger

4:59

directors in in the California area decided to join the Marine Corps didn't like it didn't like it after how many

5:04

years oh I did that for about a year my you know you're out of high school wondering what to do okay that's fine

5:11

they had oneear contracts then oh no no i was It's like a subcontractor so I go

5:16

sell a sell a pay phone to a I thought you were talking about a one-year contract in the Marine Corp yeah that's

5:22

what I was thinking you were like one year Marine i was like "No no six and a half years there." So as a sergeant I

5:28

realized they started busting people for bouncing checks marines mhm and people

5:34

who have kids and families and you know it didn't make sense to me so they don't

5:39

have enough money to support their family so in government logic what do they do they take more away right right

5:45

well exactly you know that's the best option hey you bounced the check so we're going to find you even more we're going to take away more of your pay so I

5:51

had a relationship in one of the seventh largest builder in the United States and knew that they used immigrant workers to

5:59

come in and do their landscaping went to them and said "Hey how would you let Marines who are struggling to feed their

6:04

families do it we'd have to do it on the weekends we get it done." So they signed

6:09

a contract for to do something 200 lawons a weekend dang see ladies and

6:15

gentlemen this is a man who finds a problem and solves it and not only does he solve it he makes money doing it how

6:22

many how many Marines so it'll get there but I didn't have any money to buy equipment man i'm on a sergeant salary

6:29

living in the barracks so I went to Sears asked Sears told him about the

6:34

problem told him about the contract I had so they donated the equipment really

6:40

then I went to base command and said "Hey before you bust these guys send

6:45

them out to work for me on the weekends i'll pay them freaking 15 to $20 an hour cash you know depending on how good they

6:52

are right it's one or the other." And so we went out and I drop them off and we'd mow 200 lawns in two days so myself I

7:02

profited you know cuz I did put in the effort my idea so as the start of the

7:07

Marine Corps I was making about 160 grand a year damn how did you get your foot in the door with some of these

7:12

companies like Sears and stuff like that did you just find like a business manager or did you have to go to corporate like how does how does that

7:18

how did that work for you you just ask i know but but what level like store i started with a guy in the

7:25

section got to the store manager and you can make that right they have returns

7:31

and all those things and so what people don't do is they don't ask the question okay right they want to solve the

7:36

problem they want an answer to it but but nine times out of 10 it's just as asking a question right i I feel like

7:44

you couldn't do that really i know i feel like I would walk into series and be like "Hey I want to have this business." And they'd go some kid behind

7:51

the counter be like "Okay yeah I'll let people know." And I would never hear back and most people 90% of people stop right there right but it's the next call

7:58

it's the next call it's the next call right and eventually you get that one person who says "Man we can help you out

8:04

here." Yeah really but people don't want to push past that first thing so it's being persistent and getting out of your

8:11

comfort zone yeah okay you know and I I have a inherent knack i tell my girls all the time right i I only have one

8:18

level of embarrassment so once I'm there right I'm already there so Well I'm I'm the I'm the same way like my level I

8:24

have no shame and to me that's what being an entrepreneur is right people go into it

8:31

for different things i'm not afraid to beg if I need to no ask for money you like that's a fact of life i've heard

8:38

that that that's how rich people stay rich is they use other people's money i feel like that's some for sure

8:47

so yes and no so rich people know how to capitalize on

8:53

other people's money right and other people want to benefit off what rich people are doing yeah of course right so

8:59

I if Elon you don't think he spent all of his money starting Tesla oh well that's 100% sure yeah yeah he had to go

9:07

somewhere well his his dad was a controlling stake in he used other people's money they got shares they had

9:15

opportunity profits just as much as he did but he didn't risk his whole entire Yeah fortune on He did it again with

9:21

Twitter so fun fact Kid Rock you guys know Kid Rock yeah go to all his concerts okay so this guy apparently his

9:29

dad owned a bunch of car dealerships and wanted him to come in on it and he was like "Screw you dad i'm going to make my

9:35

own way." And he went and bought his own guitar doing the same thing i don't know if it was landscaping or not but started off the same way making his own money

9:42

started a band did his own thing and ended up being a success okay yeah

9:47

that's awesome yeah and so you know being an entrepreneur people do start for different reasons right some of them

9:54

it's for security some of it's for lifestyle they want to go fishing 4 days a week they want to play golf right

10:00

whatever mhm and some of them you know have an idea they believe is going to make freaking a ton of money that they

10:07

believe in nobody else does they want to prove them wrong so I have a question for you Brian how many businesses have

10:12

you had and how many have you sold so I've had probably a total of seven

10:20

okay maybe eight what about a controlling stake or a huge oh those are pretty much those are all controlling

10:26

stakes okay um if not self-owned over the years um I've sold three not made a

10:34

ton of money right i've bankrupt couple have gone bankrupt okay yeah you went

10:40

some Yeah yeah but but what I realized was there was a gap in knowledge that I

10:46

had that being an entrepreneur allowed me to step into a role that allowed me to fill that gap in knowledge so I was

10:54

able to take those skills in and out of the corporate world and inside a corporate world building a division or a

11:00

new line of business is exactly the same as doing it as an entrepreneur but

11:06

you're doing it with somebody else's money so same principles same actors you're adventurous then so I've stepped

11:13

in and out of the corporate world all focused on technology doing different

11:18

things but in the gaps really filling the gaps of where technology was you

11:23

know transitioning into something new or I hate the word paradigm but a new

11:29

paradigm right and owning that business or researching that

11:35

technology did it owning a business so so what advice would you give someone

11:40

who's on the teetering brink of saying "Fuck this job i'm done with it i want

11:46

to start my own business i would rather be my own boss i have an idea should I

11:52

go for it?" What advice would you have for someone like that be willing to have no friends have big balls what about

11:59

time free time that's what I think that's where he's getting at with not having friends well time weekends right

12:05

yeah the issue with owning your own business is everybody will tell you you're wrong right

12:12

every step of the way everybody's going to tell you why it won't work why you won't succeed so and so does that so and

12:18

so does that right it's finding that niche you believe in so much that you're

12:24

willing to work nights weekends days you know inside the corporate world inside owning my own

12:30

business it's it's part of your life so basically you got to be a worker you

12:36

have to want to love what you're doing you have to and you got to be willing to stop everything right when So when

12:43

people are like Christmas and you're like "Nope I can't right now i got to get this accounting done i got to get paperwork done payroll everything else."

12:50

you you have to be willing to do i worked more owning my own business on Thanksgiving holiday Christmas breaks

12:58

New Year's because that's when our customers were using our product of one of the businesses that they needed the

13:04

support so the willingness to give those up is there you know you have to have a

13:11

your family and a support structure that that is 100% behind you if they're not

13:16

you're fighting the outside world you're fighting the inside world then it begins to change your values you know and I

13:22

would encourage people live their values don't change them know who you are know who you want to be know who you want to

13:28

represent yourself as because it'll change you and that is some of the best

13:35

advice that I've ever heard because I myself I'm a take me or leave me type of

13:40

guy like if you don't like me go away if you like me stick around i'm one of

13:46

those people because I don't believe that I should change because you don't like the way that I

13:51

am yeah and you know one of our last businesses was very structured we had a

13:56

ton of fun it was exactly what I wanted it was exactly what I envisioned uh the culture was where I wanted it to be our

14:03

customer base was where I wanted to be we took one large contract that changed

14:09

50% of our business grew it 50 you know

14:14

100% but it dynamically changed the way we did things our customer base we lost

14:20

control of choosing our customers right somebody else was bringing us customers

14:27

well now all of a sudden my Republican talk on Facebook is isn't popular with

14:33

my customer base yeah right well you got to watch you got to watch the social media our values aren't the same right

14:39

because we had a customer base that would freely let us in their homes yeah so work because we were veterans and

14:45

we're veteranowned business so they didn't feel like they had to have people there cuz there was a trust factor this

14:51

new set of customers that was being brought to us that wasn't there see that brings up scheding they're not home

14:57

they're That brings up a whole new question though like if you're thinking about being an entrepreneur hang on

15:02

we'll get to that everybody's a screw ball shot and then lets it makes it get warm i'm just I want to get question

15:10

it's already warm i want to get to that question so does that as an entrepreneur

15:15

should you shy away from social media as a personal basis of letting things out

15:22

or do you use it more for social networking and finding customers like

15:28

that because from the way you just made it sound like if I were to post something on Facebook I might lose a

15:34

customer because of the way that they think my values or the what I'm saying

15:39

is coming off so then as opposed to now cuz once you

15:44

have the revenue now let's take the shot no I'm kidding but once you have revenue coming in right you're giving up

15:49

something by losing mhm right so I allowed it to shift rather than hold it

15:55

mhm it so social media is unnecessary it is today's world well right here's my

16:02

social media will never have a view and it'll never be toned down think before you think before you hit send people

16:09

that's all I have to say oh absolutely do not if you get if you know you're one of those people that are on social media

16:16

once you drink put your [ __ ] phone in a lock box and forget the code when you're going drinking or if that's But

16:22

if that's your mo right that's what people see you as that's how you represent yourself don't right if that's

16:30

who you want to be that's fine but if you're saying some gnarly nasty [ __ ] I don't care you're a dick all the time so

16:36

dick you know what Brian i am not a dick i'm a pretty good guy i second that

16:41

motion all right to the shot screw screw i'm a dick

16:51

and you know what Kyle i think you're fired as my friend now oh no you can't fire me as your friend cuz I'll be your

16:56

friend even if you're not mine well you just called me a dick and most my friends do hey you're I'll say your best

17:01

friends too it took me to even Jake it took me until about 45 to realize the

17:08

more I lived my values the happier I was right if I lived them at home and I lived them at work if I lived them in my

17:14

business if I lost because of my values did I really lose no and this is where

17:20

focus I believe comes into play absolutely and focus we'll talk a little bit more about your entrepreneurship but

17:26

I want to jump into this because it reminds me of it focus doesn't ask you to change who you are it asks you to

17:33

live who you want to be and for a while when I got out of the Marine Corps I didn't really do that i wasn't living

17:39

who I wanted to be i was trying to make other people happy with my thoughts and my expressions and the way I was acting

17:45

and you know I was always trying to do what I thought other people wanted me to do and I was so unhappy it wasn't funny

17:52

but now I'm like like I said take it or leave it this is who I'm going to be this is who I want to be and that's the

17:58

way everyone should live because no one should curl or cringe at the thought of

18:05

having to act a certain way to please somebody else true now some people would hear that and say "Screw all you guys

18:11

who are giving me advice." It doesn't mean we can't learn and grow no there's no advice given i'm saying what works

18:17

for me i But but I hear that I hear people take that same message you just gave and you're absolutely correct but

18:24

but there's always room for us to grow there is and and so we have to be willing to take that advice right yeah

18:31

and I think I talk about it more from a a values perspective you you know who you are you know who you're going to

18:37

support you know what you believe and and here's something that I also learned from don't give it up here's something I

18:42

learned from AA take what you want and leave the rest in [ __ ] behind you you

18:47

know if anyone tries to give you advice take what you want from it and leave the rest you don't have to get angry because

18:52

someone's trying to give you constructive criticism you take what you want from it say "Okay I'm I'm listening

18:57

to what you're saying." You can either say "Fuck all that." Or you can say "Okay I can see some of it." And leave a

19:02

little bit behind you don't have to take it all and change who you are because they're telling you to you can grow as a

19:10

person and is as an individual as you see yourself be conscious of your

19:15

actions that's right basically how to become a better person but if you respect somebody stop and listen to

19:21

their advice they're giving you whether you put it in then hey that's good to know right or man that's something I

19:27

need to work on but but active listen to right and self-evaluate and reflect oh

19:32

always always but but that's something we've lost as a culture too oh for sure right whenever you ever heard anybody

19:39

they lost their job it's their fault well this all leads back this all leads back to social media it's like everyone

19:46

can get their their moment of fame by being an [ __ ] on social media i'll say actually that happened to me the

19:52

other day and I totally said it was my fault he did actually he he owned up to it i was like I was like "How's the

19:58

job?" But that's that's such a small percentage right yeah i straight up I

20:03

was like "Hey yeah I got laid off." And I was like "What they wanted from me I wasn't able to get because I wasn't as

20:08

experienced as they needed." And so they let me go and I don't hate them for it i I obviously know that I need to be

20:15

better at that job okay to move forward but that's only and I even find I I have

20:21

a number of of people who roll up to me in in the corporate world now so I'm an

20:27

executive the large telecom would you ever [ __ ] see this guy as a Look at his sketchers this man has the orange

20:34

he's got more Sketchers than anyone I know not Sketchers Converse converse i'm sorry i'm sorry i messed that one up man

20:40

sketchers are for old people i'm I'm sorry he's got more Converse than anyone I know this is like the

20:46

third set of Converse I've seen him in and different colors i don't like Converse oh I got flat feet so well you

20:52

know what Brian's saying right now [ __ ] you i don't think I just If I want to wear jeans on shoes I'd make jeans out

20:59

of shoes that's all right so let's get out of this serious let's do a He did in the the Marines like you didn't tell us

21:05

your drive at all oh yeah you went right past it yeah you were just like "Oh yeah i was in the Marines i was in the Marines for one year." No this is the

21:12

stuff that gets me technically freaking always in trouble right so we like that well people always I love trouble

21:18

somehow I always end up in a numbers role room but so in the Marine Corps I was actually joined to be a helicopter

21:24

mechanic awesome i was one of the few who didn't lie on my application about you know the experimentation

21:31

prior to like TQ didn't boot camp out of that and ended up being a

21:39

disperser marijuana of well no

21:45

so on payroll right and so I worked in the controllers's office in 6 and a half

21:50

years in the Marine Corps I never cut a paycheck I never worked in the the payroll office I I did TAD I volunteered

21:57

for everything so I ended up actually writing the Marine Corps tracking system for the payroll oh so nice see once

22:05

again the man is a genius he's just finds a problem and solves it so it's a area right that's the entrepreneur thing

22:12

so people here's another thing people want to work their job description mhm a

22:17

job description is a ba base minimum right every place I've gone every place

22:22

I've worked they've written a job description for me because of the work I'm doing mhm because once you find the

22:28

problem and you start fixing and addressing the real problems that's where value comes from and impact comes

22:34

from whether you own your own business whether you're inside those are the

22:39

things we need to focus on those priorities and when you start focusing on those people start writing job

22:45

descriptions landing positions for you and saying "No you will take this spot you we are moving you up." Mhm the rule

22:52

I'm in now i was gonna say because he told me this story and it made me laugh

22:58

as he started to talk and I think he knows what I'm talking about but he made up his own job descriptions at some jobs

23:04

because he was doing everything they were like "This is your job description." He was like "No this is my

23:09

job description now." So the place I'm in now we shut down our businesses we

23:14

liquidated them um we couldn't compete with Amazon it's a whole another thing

23:20

market does play a big role my wife worked there so we went to zero income

23:26

oh wonderful and a whole lot of debt you know as we're unpacking the businesses i

23:31

took a job with a place that recruited me for over 8 years so quickly stepped

23:36

on one week right into a senior director's role in a large corporation

23:42

two weeks later I was busted down to manager because they reorked and laid off everybody who' hired me oh and over

23:49

the next and they said "We don't know what thing we're going to have you do you know we got some ideas around here."

23:55

And I said "Well I'll go do this looks like you need some help here if you're losing this much money." They wrote the

24:01

job description i did that for a year they was offered two more roles next I

24:07

took over their delivery for the Americas promoted into that role back

24:12

into where I was before they demoted me almost and then the next jump I I went

24:19

and found a software platform for an organization that does billions in work and didn't have a platform to manage

24:26

those projects found it sold it to them they wrote the ROI for them implemented it in

24:34

9 months and deployed it and now we're deploying it globally it's the first software package they've deployed in 9

24:40

years and everybody told me there there's no way they'll approve this mhm so they promoted me again and created

24:45

another role and now I own three software packages and the roll out and

24:51

development of those for globally and not one was on any freaking

24:58

job description once again ladies and gentlemen that is motivation to do your

25:03

own [ __ ] and figure out how to solve a problem and turn it into something so we're going to go into another segment

25:09

which we have which is called would you rather ah yes would you rather we're we're we're getting into the fun stuff

25:15

now Brian we're getting to the fun stuff this is the only thing I'm good at and I'm not good at He's the card handler and he's not even that good at it yeah

25:21

exactly he mixed them up when Jen was here and it really pissed me off i was like "You can't just keep taking cards."

25:26

Sort them out before we No he wanted to okay so he started complaining that they

25:32

were too unequal so I grabbed a couple and was making a little bit more equal

25:38

selections and then I gave him and he's like "These suck." And I'm like "Well they weren't good they were just more

25:43

equal they were Kyle they were easier you know they weren't you guys didn't give my awesome wife a hard time did you

25:50

you'll hear on the episode if you listen we didn't give her too hard of a time i say two weeks I think is I mean trust me

25:56

I still have to go to her with focus too so okay would you rather switch lives with the the next person that asks you

26:03

for spare change or die while being burned at the stake after living a full

26:09

life die okay i would rather I would rather I would rather switch places with

26:15

the person asking me for change because you never know that guy could be driving a BMW he probably is let's be honest

26:21

those people make So I tell my girls why I always give them money right cuz I believe you got to give to receive right

26:28

right it's just part of my values so in order to instill in my girls I don't know which one's an angel sent here to

26:35

test none of them are or none of them are you know why because children are

26:41

like little friends that just want money all the time they're like "Hey give me this." And that's all they want is

26:48

things out of you oh that's why I'm glad my my stepson who is my son is now 16

26:55

man you're 16 now i gave you 6 months for insurance once that 6 month mark

27:00

kids if you don't have a job that's your fault you ain't driving you ain't got no gas you ain't got no car insurance

27:05

you're [ __ ] but you know what though it's so tough for our kids now oh are

27:10

you kidding did you just say that coming from an entrepreneur who ran and worked his ass off that is so right now you

27:18

know what i felt like I was doing I I felt like we were we protected our kids growing up right for those things i

27:25

drove around in the back of a Chevy truck with no camper shelter on it down the highway without a seat belt you know

27:30

what's awesome i'm watching my kids overachieve in every part of their life

27:36

right because a little pressure was taking off from them in certain areas

27:42

okay but how much has So they they've taken that effort and I I talk about

27:48

this in focus right we're like computers mhm and people have hated this saying

27:54

for life and I hate the way the saying goes behind every good man is a good woman mhm right that's the truth though

28:00

behind every successful person is somebody there supporting them that's true yeah i could I like that it takes

28:08

the gender out of it which is today's society but it is politically correct PC

28:14

so you know I'll speak from the marriage side it's never

28:19

50/50 or smoking crack i I advanced in my career in in in my knowledge in my

28:26

trade because my wife took care of the kids i never had to worry about what was

28:31

we have groceries and have clothes was when I came home the house was a mess right not because she's a woman because

28:38

those are the roles we chose in the house right i can agree to that is our kids started leaving we saw both of our

28:45

careers right because we have less focus on them because there's only so many cycles and so many things and decisions

28:52

you can make a day if somebody's making those a portion of them it gives you

28:58

aptitude and brain power to make different ones but then sometimes in households you find the resentment where

29:05

people make those choices but then they start resenting you for it because they feel like they have to do it all the

29:11

time and they didn't have a choice but that's where I think focus is a pro hold on i think focus is a program that not

29:18

only veterans could succeed from this program needs to be put out for

29:24

civilians and mind people alike this is a this is a program that teaches you how

29:30

to coincide and work together as one with anyone it wouldn't have the

29:35

successfulness i absolutely agree cuz I've told my wife all the time well that's cuz people in leadership courses

29:41

and to send executives and directors to all the time it's the same material it's

29:47

the same material we hear at those things the difference is we walk in we have

29:53

the we get the honor to walk into a room full of everybody started one point of

30:00

their life from the same baseline okay cuz what the Marine Corps did in one

30:06

wipe you out and build you up from the same baseline same value same teaching

30:12

and then sent you on your way so it's like now they didn't tell us how to transition all that crap so now we're in

30:17

there teaching people how to transition but we cuz we all started from the same base right so we all speak the same

30:23

[ __ ] language so it's like teaching [ __ ] something to a room full of people that you kept in a year that red

30:28

is red and then another group in a room where you showed them red but told them it was green right it's going to be hard

30:35

to explain to that room that red is red because they're like "No that's not red." They wouldn't understand they go

30:41

on to life as Christians there's Muslims there's whatever but everybody's bas

30:46

everybody understands Marine but the Marine Corps gave us all those 1enters

30:52

the same freaking baseline to communicate by now don't take this any veterans that are listening because I'm

30:58

taking this personally yeah he was in the Air Force but the Focus Marines does

31:03

take Army veteran and Air Force guys as well 10% regardless if you were a Marine or

31:10

not we all come from a baseline of discipline honor courage and commitment i I want to say commitment but you know

31:17

the army but we all come from a from an era of

31:24

being told and shown i think that anyone at 18 after high school should have to

31:30

do two years in the military regard there'd be too many no no no no no no there wouldn't be too many because you

31:35

know what it would drive up the actual amount of people you need in the military forces to train these people

31:42

you know how many guys we have lost in of the war fighting era that said [ __ ] it I'm done with it like you know how

31:48

many war fighters are actually still left in the military probably not as many between 200 we'll say five to 2013

31:56

after about that time guys started getting out they said "Fuck this i'm done with this i'm done with this war on." hard to send people to combat when

32:03

when you know somebody who's experienced something right and here's one of our challenges so if you're leader World War I everybody knew a

32:11

veteran world War II one in three right by Afghanistan and Iraq one in

32:18

eight Yeah knew a veteran a veteran not a combat veteran a veteran every day

32:26

that number gets less and less oh I agree so I want to say that I actually

32:32

agree with you about the the mandatory service i really do i don't I just don't

32:38

know if it's actually possible in my opinion i don't think it should be mandatory but young kids nowadays need

32:44

that structural discipline too because I was a [ __ ] [ __ ] when I was in high

32:49

school no I was to cops to people that I should be respecting like I had no

32:56

respect for anything or anyone i thought I knew lit and I thought I was the shittest i thought I was the person that

33:01

could run the [ __ ] world till I joined the military i didn't even know about culture so I got to tell you a

33:06

funny story here's what the Marine Corps did join graduating high school i

33:12

wouldn't talk to anybody i could sit in a room and not talk to anybody my family I talk to all the time i'd rather punch

33:18

you than talk to you same way completely introverted right extroverted by energy

33:25

building but introverted by or shy whatever you want to call it right from

33:30

speaking to people or speaking in public i joined the Marine Corps quickly realized the louder I was the less they

33:37

picked on me in boot camp got to the fleet that guys who could

33:43

speak right and were loud and boisterous and express their opinion were getting

33:49

promoted i was in a field where you wouldn't make sergeant in six years i made it three and a half wow because I

33:55

went to night school to learn impromptu speaking to get out of my shell

34:02

because being I wouldn't have been a speaker or or achieve the things in my

34:07

life without that one thing that the Marine Corps taught me and very early in the days being able to express your

34:13

opinions without coming across as a pompous [ __ ] oh I am though well well

34:19

I am too but being able to do that to someone that you've just met to be able

34:25

to be yourself and be who you are without coming across as someone who seems arrogant and snide is a very hard

34:34

skill to learn because I can be a pompous [ __ ] but you wouldn't think

34:39

that I'm being a pompous [ __ ] because of the way I come across with you like

34:44

if say I met someone on the street and I was like joking around with them like Marines do you know we're all got that

34:51

dirty mind and the way we joke most people take that the wrong way but if you can spin it and get them to laugh at

34:57

you too people like that you've you've got yourself a skill of being charismatic and being able to talk with

35:04

people and I'm not going to say his name but there was a very large banker that worked with Tunnels to Towers and Gary

35:11

Cise Foundation and this guy the first time I met him I was just being me and I was like I I said something to him and

35:18

he goes "You know what i love you because people are afraid to talk to me like that." Like they're afraid to joke

35:24

around and have a good time with me because of his his uh structure in society his Yeah his status his status

35:31

see my brain is going blank no but people like that want to mess around too

35:37

but no one does it with them because they're afraid that something might happen well you guys asked some at the beginning like who do you ask like you

35:44

know what i don't care who you are if you're a CEO of a company a CFO you

35:50

put on the pants the same way if I got a question wait wait wait i don't Brian yeah I know you mean Sorry about

35:59

that Todd but they uh Wait wait so you don't put in one leg at a time i don't even put on pants i put on gym shorts

36:05

yeah okay so but but people are afraid to ask the questions because they they

36:10

treat people differently depending on where they sit and I think that those were things the Marine Corps like

36:17

knocked out of me someplace that's because if you're if you're a PFC you're a PFC with all the other PFCs it doesn't

36:23

matter what if you're a Lance Corporal you're a Lance Corpal with all the other Lance Corpals there's no favoritism but

36:31

I can't tell you the amount of times I've been told how intimidating I am right how condescending I am how

36:38

arrogant I am what I had to do and people who know me was I had to actually

36:44

I had to grow my servant leadership style one it is my nature so it was easy

36:50

to do because it it stopped people from turning it off and listening right they

36:57

began following so starting to collaborate to build teams as opposed to

37:02

drive them and building that skill set because what the Marines taught us

37:08

absolutely don't fail keep going right push through it but that's intimidating

37:13

to people but that's to be so you have to figure out how to you connect to people and then they'll start following

37:21

and then when I step into one of those other leadership styles they know it and

37:26

there's a reaction yeah and that's that's the thing is you have to be consistent you have to be it's like

37:32

raising a child when you're a leader you have to be consistent wait we don't all get another screw ball well he's working

37:38

on it brian get you know I only have one or two hands one's got to hold the cup i have zero kyle I'm sorry for your

37:47

Anyway like with leadership there's a thin line between being a friend and being a leader and you have to know that

37:53

but you have to be both because as a leader it's not I'm in charge and it's do as I say it's do as I

38:01

do and I'm going to then you better know it better than they do oh yeah you better know better you better know two

38:07

jobs ahead of you is what we learned in the Marine Corps if you're a corporal you better know a goddamn Gunny's

38:12

[ __ ] rule because you never know what's going to happen and that's just the way it is like when

38:18

I was a leader I people would say I hazed my guys but I think that's [ __ ] because I was doing it with

38:23

them i just knew my strengths and what was going to kill them so that's what I used against them you know I had one kid

38:31

tell me he wanted to stab me when I got to Afghanistan and he was like "Now I see why you did what you did." And I

38:36

said "Yeah cuz I'm not here to coddle you i'm here to train you to get out of

38:41

Afghanistan." We were preparing them for something different than today oh yeah cheers super score

38:52

well damn we're hitting the 38 mark i think this is one of our longest episodes uh you know you said that last time but how you talk oh yeah we all

39:01

continue talking they deserve They had a couple weeks you did actually give them an episode where we said we were going

39:07

to make one longer and we didn't do it okay well then this could I listen to it how is the viewership um it's or

39:14

viewership we're not sureship cuz you can't really regulate all the platforms that people listen to

39:20

we're we're looking at I got to teach you guys some tricks okay we would love any advice any tricks all tricks all

39:29

advice anything you are willing to part on us a younger generation it's actually not things I can impart but people I

39:36

know hey networking too i love people you know yep oh by the way screw ball

39:41

was delicious it's great and smooth yeah that's the third time that we've done that yeah today we're gonna go What's

39:47

your record screw ball shots yeah well I don't know i told people I gave people my Instagram and all that stuff and told

39:53

them "Hey every time you type in the word shot screw ball we'll take them." But no one does it actually I don't

39:59

think you've ever said that well I don't see I don't have Yeah we did cuz remember you're like monitoring it

40:04

though like that's because right now we're not live i'm talking about like cuz if we go live I need the equipment

40:11

for it and I'm not there yet i don't have a fan base i don't have that that you also don't have the actual physical

40:16

equipment i never told anybody we were going to be on right now it's it's a work in progress go spread the word come

40:22

on it's a work in progress give him my hand he needs two of them like you said you got to start somewhere and we're

40:27

starting from the bottom up man like when we first started doing this what were we using like a headset we were using Well we were using my mic i was

40:35

bring borrowing his mic and then he fired me for it so I told him "I'm not bringing in." So the funnest business I

40:42

ever ran we started in my garage i talked my way into a trade show like Silicone Valley to buy stuff as a

40:49

discount okay that was it we invented a company i talked to my VP friends we

40:54

went in there like you're the CFO you're the chief operating officer you're our delivery manager kyle's everything

41:01

except for me we partied our butt off all weekend i picked the equipment I

41:07

wanted in my house i won't tell you that brand because I don't like them anymore okay no dash them beat them up on this

41:13

no so don't want to make enemies yet we I bought it for a third of the cost

41:20

people were willing to sell it for me installed it myself blogged about it and built $10 million business off of it how

41:27

How did you get it for a third of the cost did you just call them up and be like "Hey I want to buy it at a third of the cost." Or did I got a fake company

41:34

he went into Sears i got a fake company they thought we had structure they made

41:39

me a dealer i'm buying at a wholesale rates with volume discounts now now

41:44

we're getting to an economy people you need a class on economy in order to understand what this guy's talking about

41:50

it's sort of like the story about the uh the British sniper rifle how the the guys submitted it and it got put in and

41:56

then they came in to look at their workshop and they were just three guys in a shed and so they rented out an

42:01

entire like like warehouse and they put all their their parts that they had and like and the guys came in they were like

42:08

"Oh yeah this is formality we're just trying to make sure that you're not just like a couple guys in a in a in a shed." And they're like "Oh yeah no we're not

42:15

the everybody just went out to lunch let's go out to lunch." And they walked their way into becoming the wholesaler

42:20

for this sniper rifle to the British military even though they were three guys in a shed dude almost every story

42:27

is like that right people there's not those companies that go get a massive amount of funding and go huge like

42:34

Twitter and freaking Facebook mhm dude they're less than 1% you got to start

42:40

somewhere you got to start somewhere it's the guy who goes It's the guy who likes fishing and found freaking great

42:46

fishing spots who all a sudden post on Facebook hey I'll take you out fishing

42:52

right clean your gear clean your fish pack your gear and all a sudden a business guy like me goes "Man I got two

42:58

hours today let me call him hey pick up some beer meet me out there." And all a sudden he made freaking 150 bucks doing

43:04

what he already does yes what he wants to be doing anyway correct and now he didn't realize it he's a freaking

43:10

entrepreneur this is inspiring it makes me want to go money is the best money so

43:16

that's what I'm saying i want to go hustle someone right now no but hustle money right like white men can't jump i

43:21

want to pretend to be bad at basketball so this week this summer I'm trying to talk my girls into right we're going to

43:26

give it a couple shots we're going to buy a couple of freaking Don't give them ball shots some of them are too young

43:32

some of them are too young and you know in my house my rules

43:37

um but we don't condone that i've registered an LLC registered to go for

43:43

my freaking resale license okay we're going to buy a couple return pallets from Amazon clean them up liquidate them

43:50

how do you do that you see it's return what return pallet so they return them but they can't give them back to the

43:57

owners so they they just keep them on a pallet and you can like a this box is

44:02

electronics this box is buy them fix them and redistribute so sort of like how the police will you know pull over a

44:09

guy impound a car and then turn around and sell it yeah exactly yeah some of the richest You know the richest guy I

44:15

know you know what he sells what [ __ ] feathers i thought he was going to say tampons wait wait how do you sell

44:20

feathers like four pillows so he started collecting feather feathers feather nut

44:26

right then started selling them in places like Vegas then started like feathers big cockatu any kind of

44:34

feathers now they got seven private jets that they all fly all over the world and

44:39

go out and collect feathers with these safari people bring them back and they got warehouses of feathers they sell

44:45

feathers for And you know what they probably go "I got a bunch of ostrich feathers and I'm going to sell them to

44:50

you for $200 a pound." It's a deal that's 50% off but you know there's a

44:56

guy in St louis you know what he makes his money on what selling dirt you know

45:01

I believe that you know how he sells dirt a five gallon bucket no way know he sells it to who major League Baseball no

45:09

[ __ ] way you know what i'm going to start buckets i'm going to start selling tampons used or not used someone's always going

45:16

to have to have one of those but they but that's the funny thing is hustle money turns into real money because most

45:24

people live and work so when you're going to paycheck you budgeted your paycheck right every freaking dollar was

45:31

budgeted to bills groceries with a little bit of entertainment money right yeah of course you know vacation money

45:36

like But you can go out and get a side job where does that go wait wait wait

45:43

side job this this era and these kids nowadays wouldn't even know what a first job is and you're already talking about

45:48

a side job i'm gonna have to stop i I actually disagree because a lot of people that I know will have that you

45:56

know as an adult not children know no you once they get to where they're

46:01

paying bills cuz really don't know who you are till you got to pay bills you don't know who you are until you're about 25 but they're in a world where

46:07

you online have this skill and somebody will bid for them to do something right

46:13

they just got to be willing to do that i didn't find out who I was until I was like 34 when I went through focus that

46:18

really opened up my eyes and let me You know I didn't know who you really were until about 32 i didn't know who you

46:24

really were until about freaking 6 months ago yeah no one does he's still

46:29

guessing i still don't you know I'm 17 sometimes in my mind dude I still think

46:34

it's like the early 2000s half the time i want it to be [ __ ] yeah I want it so I

46:41

got to say over the last few years actually it's been probably three years i've gotten to

46:46

know Todd a little bit oh here we go sorry to tell you that no what is your favorite Todd story you don't really

46:52

have one i really don't have one well have you heard about a Todd story that you really enjoy yeah i might tell you

46:59

about my experience with Todd that's fair there we go that's a Todd experience oh I pay for that

47:06

you know someone has actually i know have you Have you taken them out yet

47:11

have you no I haven't you really should contact they're going to get a hold of me no I would try to get a hold last

47:17

year at the JCS Gala I auctioned off one of my uniforms along with the Todd

47:22

experience and they've never called me to do it yet so I've never gone out to dinner with these people well the last

47:28

JCS Gala that we just talked about they were there again and I was like "When are we going to do this?" So he's going to be getting a hold of me but it's We

47:34

called it the Todd experience i have resold it they had a year expiration on it well they had a whole another uniform

47:40

they could have done it again i was say did they do another auction cuz I was really No they didn't do the They did

47:45

the silent auction only this year so this is the first year first time in years we've missed it so that's really

47:51

that's really cuz I got really drunk and had a really good time yeah and he stole a lot of uh center placers no I I don't

47:59

care so actually he dropped a few of them and some guy was helping him put it back together and put the batteries back

48:04

in them and I looked at Kyle i was like I don't think he realizes you're stealing these i think he thinks you work here so I didn't really you know I

48:11

wanted to get something but I was like you know I don't really have the money right now to you know donate so he stole

48:16

centerpiece so I sold I sold like 12 of them they're in my car right now like I

48:21

could go out there in my car right now we might have to give some of those back you know if if Matt comes to me oh my

48:27

gosh what like I've heard about the equipment shortage i've heard about like not being able to make a donation hey

48:33

we're hustling man hey what's your what's your Vinmo tell these people what your Venmo is to make a donation no I'm

48:40

going to just start a GoFundMe page [ __ ] i don't know we We kind of want to So our Logan is when does the [ __ ] end

48:47

we kind of want to make like buttons and t-shirts with the [ __ ] the FK R Y that's why we [ __ ] FK R Y cuz you

48:54

couldn't spell [ __ ] by itself by putting it on t-shirts so by next week

49:00

by the time we get a bigger fan base you know maybe maybe an average of 200 oh my

49:05

gosh sign like freaking pay logo to get designed right hey we

49:13

can scrape together $150 right i got it we bought a sign and then Yeah we know

49:18

there's there there's freaking sites online where you can go upload your logo

49:23

they have all the merchandise yeah that's true on a private link with your freaking

49:29

thing right they buy from them they have licensed your logo so they pay you a

49:36

portion of that oh my god today's world dude

49:41

there's nothing there's a kid that wants a shirt that says "When does the [ __ ] end?" I dude there's multiple kids that

49:46

want that but they don't know it yet yeah that's just like someone made thousands of dollars off of Virginity

49:52

Rocks like come on it's the next ring master of the [ __ ] show well I always

49:57

wanted to make a bumper sticker that said my car is my bar but I didn't know how well that would go over with the police it would go over well because

50:04

they would do wellness checks on all of them yeah yeah so Todd experience let's get to that and then after that ladies

50:10

and gentlemen we might have to close this one down start running on We are We are literally This is the longest

50:16

longest the uh at at 51 minutes it will be the longest one oh all the Oh my mom

50:23

was the longest one no it was the one with your buddy that was supposed to join the Marine Corps with you yes we

50:29

didn't go 50 miles yes we did oh well we got to talk about something interesting

50:35

for us i I like to win oh then do the Todd experience go so I got to say so I met Todd at a Scat thing was the first

50:43

time I really met him outside of Focus the what say it again a scad fundraiser

50:49

poker yeah the poker game okay yeah you have to explain nobody knows what you're saying the joke set me off like that a

50:56

little uncomfortable cuz Todd's good at that can I ask do you remember the first joke he told you or one of the jokes

51:02

they told you about it might have been like your wife's hot or something yeah okay something like that something

51:07

similar no it was something about like dude yeah you want me to cheers you or

51:12

like you know I don't know i make people uncomfortable apparently but I got to say I dick I've met a lot of combat

51:19

veterans through focus okay a lot of them want to go into public speaking

51:24

want to do podcasts right or looking for avenues right to self-promote okay

51:31

talking to Todd there's a joy this podcast brings him and something he thinks he can do mhm it's far beyond

51:38

self-promotion okay that's why I'm here right and I got to say there's been very

51:45

few times I've seen somebody transition through the things Todd has

51:52

into something of wanting to give back for the right reasons right not wanting

51:57

self-promotion not wanting people promoting because of the incidents that

52:03

happened to him but because who he is mhm right and that willingness to give back right is why I would sit here today

52:12

why I respect him and that's another thing I learned through focus is don't let the um issues in your life and the

52:19

things that happened to you define you because just cuz I lost my arms and legs doesn't mean that I'm I'm useless it

52:27

just means I lost my arms and legs that's all it means it doesn't mean that I can't do anything less that someone

52:32

else can do and self-promotion's never been my thing my thing is I believe that everyone in this world

52:40

has someone to give something to someone and that's why I talk a lot about suicide prevention and stuff at Focus

52:48

because you never know who that one person that needs you is you never know you never know what if you help one

52:55

person in this world you've changed the world yes yeah if you can change one

53:02

person or tell them your story and it changes the way they think or live because they're depressed if you change

53:08

one person it's a chain effect it could change the world and that's how I

53:13

believe you know that's amazing i'll drink to that and he officially made our

53:20

longest podcast today and that will be the end i tell my teams all the time this will be a short call and guess what

53:26

it ends up being 57 minutes yeah we made it ladies and gentlemen but one more

53:32

would you rather Okay okay one more would you rather drink a gallon of breast milk that your mom has been

53:39

saving since you were an infant or run into your in-laws at a swinger

53:46

party i'm going with the breast milk i'm going to go with the breast milk too i'm going to the swingers party man no okay you

53:53

know why because it's going to be just as awkward for my wife

53:59

okay so we haven't talked about the charities would you like to do that um I

54:04

think at this point we've run through them quite a bit but I'm just going to run through their names i'm not going to tell you about them because we we've

54:10

done this enough and if you haven't go back and listen but I will again we have the Focus Marine Program which a lot of

54:17

people I've had on here already we have the Seer 5 fund we have the Joshua Chamberlain Society we have War Fighters

54:25

Engaged we have the Gary Senise Foundation and Tunnels to Towers and ladies and gentlemen there's a lot more

54:31

out there and veterans out there there is also a lot more do your research do your homework find the one that works

54:36

for you and find the one that you want to donate to but make sure you do the research on all these um organizations

54:43

because there's a lot out there now that are just willing to take your money so make sure you do your research your

54:48

homework and figure that out and after that we're going to let you guys go you all have a great night great evening

54:54

whatever it is a great weekend coming up cuz it's now Friday that this is dropping so unra see you later brian you

55:00

got anything no thank you for letting me participate uh I just want to say don't forget to like subscribe emotional

55:07

outburst you know that kind of stuff we're on uh we're on Instagram we are on

55:12

uh Twitter and we are on YouTube all of it is at when does the [ __ ] end [ __ ] is fry yes ma'am and ladies and

55:20

gentlemen and we are out

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